Why, I haven't even gone to yell at my father who seems to be eating the way through all of our breakfast food for tomorrow. Because if the manlocust succeeds, why, there's a pub across the street that does breakfast and I'm gonna let that fall there.

Check it out, your dad's kosher. (Half-kosher.)

I would blame it on Australia, but he's just like this.

Whining ( or stoic tongue holding IRL) aside, Queensland is lovely and SO whacko in terms of .... Fuck. That word that means the Eco zones. (Finishing the bottle) Mountains! Rainforest! Ohio! (Seriously) Savannah! In 30 minutes or less! Fruitbats squabbling and I might have to leave the door open to survive, hope the 'Roos don't come in. Or the road trains.

Guide is a lovely gent ( notlikethat) though the other group in parallel are Germans who live up largely to every stereotype I ever formed abroad. It'd be funnier if I didn't have to snatch a basket of chicken fingers from a grown man for a hungry kid. Ok, that WAS pretty funny. Especially since my German came back for that and shocked the fuck out of him. I can't even remember the phrase now, but it was Frau luchini's equivalent of 'have you no shame?' Apparently still current.

Ok, time to test the zen and inform the manlocust he is going the fuck to bed now since my room is the central room and he has his own with deck access, the fucker.

(I love my dad. But he's really being unlikeable to family right now. Some of it is old news, some are new things that worry me .)

An article on why Orca sucked so much. Campaign Sources: The Romney Campaign was a Consultant Con Job

Fascinating. The comments are interesting too.

They say that the truth is the consultants essentially used the Romney campaign as a money making scheme, forcing employees to spin false data as truth in order to paint a rosy picture of a successful campaign as a form of job security.

...

Sources also said that arrogance played a big role, saying that the Romney campaign was a hostile battlefield of egos in which these consultants viewed any opposition to their world view as coming from an enemy. This apparently led to the ORCA program “receiving no stress test, no usage during super saturdays and no ability to have a Plan B or C when everything hit the fan.”

“The brain trust of the Romney campaign was so arrogant that they refused to change strategy. It was clear in June were SOL,” said one email.

I'm just waiting to find out how much of the ORCA programming was out-sourced to India.

So basically, the Romney campaign had done to them the exact thing that Bain does to other companies. So. much. schadenfreude. And we're only 4 days past the election. I have a feeling that there's way more to come.

Campaign Sources: The Romney Campaign was a Consultant Con Job

I worked at a company like that, where all the unit managers were husband and wife consultant teams. And it was the most astonishing circle jerk of falsity because the were all basically sales people, and the thing they were selling was their own particular brand of bullshit.

And the company survived for a while because they lucked into a product that was in demand (licensing it from Europe) and they were good at marketing and customer service. But it was the worst run place I've ever worked for. None of the managers had a fucking clue what they were doing, and if there was a problem they'd solve it by fobbing it off on somebody else with a glad hand and oily smile.

But they bought into their own bullshit.

God, I had so many bad work experiences with consultants. Particularly memorable was the team-building workflow strategist who implemented all these office protocol changes that required regular meetings. This was for a different company that specialized in putting on medical conferences with lots of publications and event planning. And the poor traffic manager was foolish enough to actually use the meetings as instructed and was ripped to shreds for telling the truth (that she was not properly staffed and supported, and that there were bottlenecks up above her).

If there is a God, why do bad things happen? This comic explains:

[link]

Oh sara, sending you hugs and wine. Sounds like this trip is a bit over the top. If you are really worried about your dad, I think it's worthwhile to bring up your concerns with your mom. (Forgive me please if the totally unsolicited advice is out of place, it's just that new concerns about parental behavior tend to set off a warning buzzer for me.)

Man, I missed all the thoughtful political discussion last night! (True story: I was at a thing with some friends last night, and we were talking about the election [because, you know, IT JUST HAPPENED], and one guy got all belligerent and yelled -- literally raised his voice and yelled -- "It's OVER! STOP FUCKING TALKING ABOUT THE ELECTION!" And we all kind of looked over at him, gave him the stinkeye, and kept talking.)

I am past the schadenfreude of Romney's campaign being SO confident they were going to win, and into the part where I feel bad for the regular people who got such a terrible shock.

I really do feel bad for people who are devastated. That's how I felt in 2004. Just gutted. It's a shitty way to feel, and I feel sorry that they feel that way.

One of my students asked whether I was anti-abortion or pro-choice and I actually snapped and said, "Every person I know is anti-abortion. No one thinks, 'Abortions are awesome! One for everyone!'" Then I went on to say that abortion is probably the most horrible choice any person can make, but it is their choice to make it.

Man, I had this conversation with Tim (who is WAY less pro-choice than I am), and it was so frustrating. I don't run around telling pregnant women to have abortions! I wish everyone got good sex ed and access to affordable (or free) contraceptives and this wasn't a sex-shaming culture, and THAT would vastly reduce the number of abortions. Win-win, damn it. (Except for the sex-shaming jackholes, I suppose, of which Tim is definitely not one.)

I just get frustrated with the people who complain that the issue of contraception and abortion isn't a "economic" issue and shouldn't be debated during the election. As if controlling reproduction doesn't directly affect a woman's economic situation. Imagine my eyes rolling forever on this one.

ALSO a conversation I had with Tim, because I'm not sure he totally got the idea that me not being pregnant means I keep working and therefore earning money, damn it.

I've voted for Republicans. They had the better positions in my estimation for the offices they were seeking.

I voted for a handful of Republicans this time around, mostly incumbents for local judgeships (is that a word? I want it to be), because they are doing an excellent job.

Hee. I have! The little penguins at Cincinnati Zoo are quite awesome. 

And adorably dumb.

I'm pro-abortion. In the real world, it's a great choice for a lot of people. Of course I wish human behavior and contraception methods were perfect, but they aren't. And people I know who have had abortions don't think they were horrible.

I don't recall the last time Australia was as ill-served by its politicians.

billytea, I assume you've seen the thing where some wacko said they were moving to Australia because their president is a man who lives his Christian values or some shit?

Stay strong and have fun, sarameg!

Guide is a lovely gent ( notlikethat)

Uh huh.