Electioneering
It’s election time around campus at the moment. Yes, that’s right, the one time of year when you can’t walk more than 5 metres without being accosted by someone with a mind-numbly bright tee-shirt, and similarly interesting political spiels.
Like most people around campus, I aim to avoid these political candidates like the proverbial plague. For some reason I was born with very little patience for people with radical political ideals. I think it’s mainly to do with the irrational drivel they inevitably spout, especially around election time.
As I was enjoying a relaxing lunch on Monday, I spotted one of my friends coming toward me to say hi. Or at least that’s what I thought, and then I spied their luridly colourful tee-shirt. “Argh!” I thought, “A turncoat!”. But before this thought had run its course this friend was upon us.
And I must say, I was rather embarrassed. The people with whom I was lunching are a cheery bunch, and we rarely talk about politics. When we do it is with reservation and (well I’d like to think) a balanced perspective. As such I felt that it was rather at odds with our previous discussions to entertain this political sloganist. But then, on the other hand, this person was still a friend, and as such deserved a certain amount of respect, surely?
So I was in a predicament, tell them that I had voted already (a barefaced lie) and then tell them to move on - as I would to any other person pushing their political party - or sit and make polite conversation and pretend to be interested in their cause? Being the opinionated and loudmouthed person that I am, I took neither path and instead told my friend what I thought of politics, and how much the election mattered in the grand scheme of things. Not much.
I’m not sure I’ll be seeing that friend again any time soon
September 7th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Don’t worry, when I run for Prime Minister I won’t make you talk politics…
September 8th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
doesn’t have anything to do with this, haven’t even read it, but i know you’ll appreciate this… CS marking at it’s absolute best… Steven Bird wrote:
“This wasn’t applicable in project 1, but project 2 has a report component. This is to be submitted as a text file called report.txt. This must be an ASCII text file, formatted so it is easily readable in 80 columns. It must not be a Word document, PDF file, etc. It must be written in standard English, in a style appropriate to a short technical report. “Text message” or internet news group language, smiley faces, etc. is the electronic equivalent of writing your essays in a purple crayon with love hearts instead of dots over the ‘i’s and is not acceptable.”
September 9th, 2007 at 12:22 am
It’s a shame you really couldn’t pull the “me no speaka Engrish” routine we rehearsed in our lab. A shame indeed since it works so well for me ;).
September 19th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
An early gig i had back in the 90s, see if you can spot me…
October 30th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
[…] we all know what I think about elections. So it may not come as a surprise that I am well and truly sick of the hype for the upcoming […]