Amusements and oddities

The Office is bloody brilliant! I realise this is not news to anybody (with taste) who's seen it, but still it is bloody brilliant. The reason for my exclamation is that I've just watched last year's Christmas finale, some 11 months after the lucky inhabitants of Blighty got to see them. It somehow managed to keep faith with the two series and still draw everything to a satisfying conclusion.

One thing I realised whilst watching the two episodes was that I might be something of a soppy romantic under my hard cynical shell. (Well, I'm not sure I really have a hard cynical shell, but sometimes I like to pretend I know what kind of a shell I have.) The reason for the soppiness questioning is that even before I watched it I was hoping Tim and Dawn would get together and then when while I was watching I was hoping for the same. And then... well I won't say.

In other comedy news, Spaced is also very amusing. The only reason I bought Spaced was because it was from one of the creators of, the really very excellent, Shaun of the Dead. In fact I like Spaced so much that Jessica Stevenson has now been added to my wish list. 'Cause funny girls — very attractive.

Turning attentions to more serious matters, the situation in Ukraine is very interesting. I thought the change in Viktor Yushchenko's appearance (you have to scroll about half way down the page) was fascinating and now we have mass protest in the street it's all very interesting. What I find particularly interesting is how some people (something I read on, the frankly strange, Planet SuSE) equate what's happening in Ukraine to the recent American election, which I find to be an astonishing leap. I'll agree both countries have recently had an election, but that's probably where the similarity ends. For instance, despite what the Republican's may say I don't think there was overwhelming media favouritism for one particular candidate. Being here, as a (somewhat) impartial observer, I didn't notice any large scale intimidation or widespread voting irregularities. Sure there were a few isolated instances and some things which were not as well done as the could have been. But the fact of the matter is that a clear majority of Americans who voted preferred Bush. Now whilst I don't fully understand why, I'm pretty confident that that is what happened. Of course, maybe I'm just unenlightened.

Oh, it was nice to see that red-faced Mr Ferguson winning his 1000 game in charge of Man. Utd.. Although if the bastards would have scored one more I'd have won a couple of quid. Still, never mind though.