I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

"Bloggers Unite is an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference; from raising awareness for cancer, to an effort to better education systems or support 3rd world countries"

15TH MAY 2008 UNITE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS!

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On 15th of May, I will be blogging about the lack of affordable health care for millions of low-income Americans. Millions of people in my country, from all races, and from all ages and all walks of life, must consistently choose between treating an illness and having food and shelter. This is no exaggeration. Millions suffer every day, needlessly, in my country, only because our government--a government which spends billions on weapons of mass destruction, but refuses to increase funding for children's health care, is more worried about the economic status quo, then the pain of the people it is supposed to represent. A government that caters to the billion dollar health-care industry, while close to 50 million Americans, who cannot afford to seek medical treatment genuinely suffer, and too often, die before their time.

On 15th May, 2008, I won't be preaching at you. I'll be telling you stories, stories of real people, who are genuinely hurting, in a country that simply doesn't care.

Oh dear. I just got a fan-girl quiz in my in-box, from someone I don't even know.
Hmmmm--is someone out there trying to tell me something?

For pity's sake girls, look at me!
I'm a flippin' old maid!

Do I look like someone who has celebrity fantasies? (Don't answer that, that was strictly a rhetorical question.)

Honestly fan-girls, I really don't...oh, what's the use. They think every female fan wants to get into the man's red ladies underpants.

Okay, "Linda C.," you win. Might as well get this over with, ey? David Tennant is apparently the cross I must bear, today.

The David Tennant Quiz, as e-mailed to me by someone named "Linda C.":

I also swore of dating for life, back in '97 (one bad date too many). But, I suppose, if I HAD to date him, the standard coffee and conversation would suffice for me....not that someone like him, would ever even look twice, at someone like me.

13. Have you ever written David?

A naf tee shirt from Wal-Marts that he's probably using to polish his car with.

Thank heaven's that's over. Can I go back to my lunch now, before I throw up?

Sometimes, to pass the time, I play card games on the computer--with computer players who sometimes seem to be bent on cheating, ha-ha.

I mostly play cribbage--which, being I'm so horrible at maths, I have to leave it to the computer to keep score. I also sometimes dabble with euchre, spades and whist, as well.

We hardly ever played cards, when I was growing up. However, when I bought a used Nintendo (Super NES), about 6 years ago--believe it or not, for my then 77 year-old mum, who used to be the shirt off of me, at super mario brothers---anyway, one day at a yard (boot) sale, I bought a casino game. Mum--who never in her life ever gambled, was watching me play slots and poker, asking questions on how I was working the game. One day, I came home from college, to find her playing the slots--"I finally figured out how to work your game. I'm up to $10,000, now!" She grinned at me, completely delighted with herself.

She mostly played the slots, as that was the easiest for her to do. But, she'd watch me play poker, and eventually, the last summer of her life--2005, we'd sit at our patio set outside the caravan, and in the shade of the umbrella, I began to teach mum five card stud. In fact, just two weeks before she died, she lay in the hospital bed, quizzing me on which winning hands were best.

But mostly, my family didn't do cards, growing up. Mostly the kids on our street were into board games, rather than cards...tho' sometimes we played "Go fish!"

So, I really didn't know many card games at all, until my mid-40's. When I was 19, my room mate taught me to play gin rummy, which I found difficult at first, but soon got the hang of--until I played with my dad, who, it turned out, played an entirely different type of rummy at the village fire house bar, with his volunteer fireman buddies, every Friday night (unlike mum, dad loved to gamble). The last thing on earth that my late father ever was, was patient. When he started playing with me, I had no idea that there were other types of rummy out there. So we sat at a table in the bar once, when I was about 20, and played-- and when I didn't play "right," dad got mad and told me to go play pool, in the next room. So, there ended my gin rummy playing.

So, recently, I began to try and teach myself gin rummy again, through the old trial and error method, on the computer. If you've never tried to teach yourself a new card game, with virtually no instructions on how to play/score, I have to tell you that it can sometimes be a bit daunting.

Right now, I do sometimes win games--against the worst "beginner" level computer player. But I have NO IDEA how the hell I'm winning. No, really. Sometimes I win the hand, and I haven't a clue how. I have no idea what the computer voice means, when it says, that I "knocked." I didn't knock anything! I'm just sittin' here, clicking my mouse! I have absolutely no idea how I'm scoring points, or even what the blazes I'm scoring points for! I mean, I get the basic priniple of what should constitute a gin rummy hand--but...I am afraid I'm a bit at sea, with the whole thing.

Still, by teaching myself, at least I don't have the bother of some impatient person getting flustered with me, because I don't "get it" right away. To be truthful--that attitude always, always makes me feel small and stupid, like I'm rubbish. I'm afraid I do sometimes have a bit of learning anxiety, especially when the instructor clearly is an ace, and expects you to just get what he or she is saying, right off. Hate that. Makes me want to just run away and hide.

It can be a bit frustrating, though, with this gin rummy, when less than 30 seconds into the game, the computer player wins. I'm like, "Hold on! I've barely even started yet! Where's the fun in that?"

I keep telling myself that it's not worth raising my blood pressure over, but deep down, (and I've never told anyone this before) I'm really very competitive. So, rather than just give up and walk away, I keep going back to it. I'm such a maroon, aren't I?

What does every David Tennant fan-girl seem to want, these days? Well, I think that's obvious, his lunchbox. Even in baggy pants, his erm--picnic basket, does seem to be rather well-packed, doesn't it?

Haven't done this in six months. Probably no one reads this, or cares, but I think you can get to know someone, in a very small way, by learning what music they listen to, in the course of the day.

Today, I'm listening to a totally random mix of my favourite custom stations, on Pandora Radio

SONGS/ ARTISTS

Sweet Dreams/ Eurythmics
Selfish/ The Other Two
Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend/ Pet shop Boys
Dreaming/ Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark
Lady/ Modjo
(I'm Gonna' Be) 500 miles/ The Proclaimers
Summer's still Alive/ The Kinks
Storms/ Fleetwood Mac
Don't Tell Me/ Madonna
Protect and Survive/ Runrig
Miss Tenn Wordpower/ The New Pornographers
Walking Back Home/ Deacon Blue
Nowhere Man/ Beatles
Sunday Train/ Cracker
Rain/ The Pretty Things
My Mind/ The scuffs
Use It/ The New Pornographers
On The Table/ A.C. Newman
All Good Things Come to An End/ Nelly Furtado
The Minstral of Dawn/ Gordon Lightfoot
Ventura Highway/ America
Before/ The Pet Shop Boys
Pillars of Time/ Jamie Vernon
It's Saturday Night/ The Proclaimers
If I Needed Someone/ The McGanns
Nightmare/ Majic Ship
Away/ The Knaves
Reunion/ Stars
Bleeker Street/ Simon & Garfunkel
Lovely to See You/ Moody Blues
Born at the Right Time/ Lindisfarne
All On A Rising Day/ Peter Rowan