Musings of Nobody Important

Fresh from the triumph of her first post and the accompanying public acclaim ^_^ Moggsy is left with a dilemma…

Of course one has to follow up, or be judged a “one hit wonder”… As before I am seeking inspiration… while I wait for it ^_^ I thought I would mention a book I just read and really enjoyed.

This may be more a post for the girls in general, to start, but should turn out to have something for everyone, so don’t despair guys.

Now I am an avid reader and I do like a nice feelgood romantic novel. Life is so full of bad stuff anyway that I find gritty drama, where everyone has a horrid time, just a bit like more of the same.

So anyway, a while back I found myself browsing my local RL bookstore and came across a book called Miss Pettigrew lives for a day by Winifred Watson. (ISBN-10: 190646202X, ISBN-13: 978-1906462024).

It is a reprint, originally published in 1938, set in London, England. A world that was on the brink of war, but did not seem to realise what it was in for.

The book follows one day in the life of Miss Pettigrew, like a fly on the wall documentary. Sort of if you had described the idea of a Michael Crichton TV script to Noel Coward and asked him to write it.

A day it turns out is pivotal for many of the characters, including the heroin Miss Guinevere Pettigrew.

She is a down on her luck Governess who, having suffered a sucession of dreadful employers and short on her rent, accidentally gets sent by her agency to the wrong job interview.

As a result she turns up at the door of night-club singer Miss LaFosse, under the mistaken belief she is looking for a governess…

Well as soon as she arrives, and before she can get a word in edgeways, she is plunged into a situation that she handles brilliantly ‘by the seat of her pants’, saving Miss LaFosse from certain disaster.

The story continues at this pace as Miss Pettigrew uncharacteristically throws caution to the wind and is plunged/dragged helter-skelter into the pre-war in crowd, by Miss LaFosse and her friend Miss DuBarry, proprietoress of a beauty salon, solving seemingly impossible problems for them as she goes, using a mixture of luck and common sense.

It would not be revealing too much to say that this is a delightful feelgood read that keeps the pace and interest up throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it, I do recommend it.

It has been made into a movie, but I have not seen that so can’t comment.

The only slight jarring note in the story, from my point of view, rather rammed home the concept that the past really can be another country in some ways.

And now some ‘hard edged political’ comment that should also reward any guys still with us for their heroic persistence. Yes. I know. I am being mean stereotyping, slapped hand *Ouch!*

This pleasant little story hinted a couple of times at an underlying assumed prejudice of the time in relation to Jews, and ‘foreigners’ in general, that are quite alien to, at least my, general experience today, though it could be others might not have the same experience.

Maybe that alteration in attitudes is something positive that came out of WWII.

It worries me to think that, possibly justified by the situation in Palestine, such attitudes may be becoming acceptable again, within certain religious, political , and academic circles, even actually promoted.

OK. I am being nagged by people to try my hand at blogging. You know who you are people. *She mutters accusingly*

I even got an award for commenting from ‘Crushed’ , TY crushed. Now what is that? Except maybe a fancy way of saying I like to chat?

Not at all sure what to blog about. So I’ll just put what comes to mind. Almost cheating really, what do they call it? Stream of consciousness?

Now I suppose I am really in this pickle because of JMB and Stainless, mostly JMB.

There was I, not so innocently , going about my business in SL (Second Life). I am a Second Life Avatar really, and Stainless, who is a resident of Renaissance Island in SL, and is also a blogger introduced me to JMB.

Note: Renaissance Island is a pretty good sim (simulation) of a generic town, or part of one, as it would have been in Tudor England, complete with a replica of the Globe theatre of Shakespeare fame.

..And yes I do know theatres developed from inns and so outside of Southwark in London there would have been very few at the time, but It is a nice replica. Worth a visit if you ever get to SL.

Oh and if you don’t know, in this case an Avatar is an in world ‘body’, a virtual substitute for your body in Second Life, or other games. Your ‘character’.

Any questions ask after the lecture… ^_^

So… I digress. JMB and I became friends. We visit, gossip, go shopping, swap details of good stores and bargains and have been known to go dancing and hang out in bars together. Dublin has some good bars.

Anyway, as anyone reading this post on JMB’s blog, and at this point I would like to thank JMB for kindly hosting my Post, will know, JMB is also a blogger.

One of the things we chatted about was her blog, and blogging. I was curious, and she did invite me to look, so I visited and followed links. Naturally I was curious about her blog and others she told me about.

Of course, once you visit you read… and if you are like me, occasionally just absolutely have to comment ^_^. So I got myself a blogging identity to do that. All of this had to be as my SL avatar Moggsy, as that was who JMB knew me as. I keep SL and RL (Real Life) completely separate.

So now Moggsy sneaks out of SL to visit blogs ^_^. I still think this blogging may use up perfectly good time I could be spending having fun in SL, so I will have to see if this is a ‘one off’ or not.

I have no master plan like Crushed. I figure I will post about whatever comes into my head, maybe SL, but there are a lot of blogs about SL out there, I googled to check ^_^. Blogs other Avies have put a lot of effort into by the looks of it.

Oh and if you are curious about Second Life. It is run by Linden Labs . The program is free to download and you can join up for free, so it is totally free to go check it out.

It is very flexible. You want to race cars like in a game? You can do that. You want to be in a first person shoot ‘em up game? It can do that. Like swords and sorcery, be an elf with a silver sword? It can do that. Fancy being a Vampire? You can do that. Be a gunslinger in the old west? Yes you can go there and do that. Imperial Rome? Ancient Alexandria? Tudor England? They are all out there.

Go dancing? No problem!

Hang out in the 1880’s the 1920’s, 40s, 50s? You can do that.

Be a surfer dude/chick, hang out at the beach, catch a wave? You can do that too and a hundred other things. Fed up being human? Become a Neko (cat person) an animal or an alien, go live on another planet.

Just remember. All the Avies you meet and interact with are people, not computer controlled.

OK enough of the plugging. Here is a something that happened the other week. My friend ‘D’ called me up.

“I am looking for a costume. There is a witches and wizards ball. They are having a prize for the best costume, lots of Linden$. You must come with me.” ‘D’ has managed to net $1000L worth of vouchers in prizes in the last week to assist with recreational retail therapy.^_^

So, as soon as I could, we met up and went hunting for costumes. We found a place that did quite a few outfits. We both got one, changed and got set for the ball.

We turned up at the venue… and guess what? We found we were having a ‘Bridget Jones’ moment. No-one-else-there was dressed as a witch is what.

“You’re way to early for the contest”, we were gently advised by people at the club.

Well we figured we may as well make the best of it, stayed and enjoyed ourselves, with the occasional person admiring our outfits and helpfully telling us we had mistimed our arrival.. I couldn’t make the actual ball as it was waaay to late for me, time zones are such a nuisance.

Still I have an outfit if I need one, found a good costume store, a good club, and had some fun out with a friend ^_^I guess we came out ahead.

Imagine my delighted surprise to sign onto to my email this morning and find a message from the Museum of Anthropology. Yes, the last two pieces by Bill Reid which were stolen from the Museum have been found and returned to them by the RCMP.

Materials: Gold

Unfortunately while the gold eagle brooch was recovered intact, the carved argillite pipe below was recovered with approximately two inches of it broken off. But the search will continue for the missing piece. Those mounties never give up!

Photo from the MOA site

Photo * is from the UBC site,

Photo ** is from the RCMP in BC site.

Imagine my delighted surprise to sign onto to my email this morning and find a message from the Museum of Anthropology. Yes, the last two pieces by Bill Reid which were stolen from the Museum have been found and returned to them by the RCMP.

Materials: Gold

Unfortunately while the gold eagle brooch was recovered intact, the carved argillite pipe below was recovered with approximately two inches of it broken off. But the search will continue for the missing piece. Those mounties never give up!

Photo from the MOA site

Photo * is from the UBC site,

Photo ** is from the RCMP in BC site.

Trust me, that title is totally misleading if you think that you are going to read the last word on that question here. But that is this week’s topic for the Blogpower roundup, as posed by the American host of the same, BP member, the Fake Consultant. Being the only Canadian, well CanAussie, in the group, I feel obliged to post something but writing about politics is way out of my bailiwick and I have been mulling over the whole thing and naturally have left it to the last minute.

Despite the fact that Canada is a physically larger country than the USA we have only one tenth of the population, yes, one tenth. So it is no wonder many people think of us as being the same which of course we Canadians fiercely deny. On so many fronts we are so different, with one of our major differences being our more liberal ideas, especially on social programs. For example, despite lots of grumbling when our universal healthcare shows some cracks we fiercely defend it and have higher tax rates than the Americans do in order to fund it.

Again, not the least of our differences are our governing systems and we look on in amazement as every four years the circus of electing the President of the United States of America, the leader of the free world, as the holder of that office was once called, takes place. It goes on for literally years before the actual election, as one after another candidate rises and falls back into the pack, the whole process funded by the most incredible amounts of money and effort by so many people. It literally is a whole industry in itself, employing thousands and thousands, maybe even millions, although temporarily to be sure.

I’ve watched these hooplas take place since 1964 with great interest as do all Canadians. This one was going to be the most interesting to my mind because of a serious female candidate and one from an ethnic minority, in the race to be the same party’s candidate no less, so one barrier or the other was likely to be broken. At least one of those on the ballot in November would be an astounding first to represent one of the two major parties. I wanted so much that a woman would finally be President, but I had so many doubts about Hillary being the right one, as it turned out others did too. But Obama? Just because he has the gift for the gab, well they like to make it sound more high fallutin’ than that, does not mean that he will make a good president. It would be nice to see more experience under his belt, as well as some good ideas and innovative policies. And what the heck was all that travelling abroad about, as if he were already president? But will he be any worse than some others have been if he is elected President? A lot will depend so much on who his advisors might be and his cabinet. Arnold Schwarzenneger? she asks shaking her head. Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has endorsed McCain and is also a bit thin on experience himself, might serve as an energy and environmental adviser to Obama, according to this report. Well only time will tell and besides McCain is gaining on him lately so it is not the sure thing that many thought earlier. But then besides being a Republican, and if I were an American I would certainly be a Democrat, he is definitely past his “best by” date for that job in my opinion.

But what do other Canadians think? Earlier this year in a poll of Canadians:

Forty-six per cent of those surveyed in January by telephone said it matters a great deal to Canada who wins the November 2008 U.S. presidential election. Another 35 per cent said it mattered somewhat, while only eight per cent said it doesn’t matter at all.

Interestingly:

While 34 per cent of those surveyed said they would like to see a Democrat win the next election and five per cent said a Republican, a whopping 56 per cent surveyed said it makes no difference to them whether the next president is a Republican or a Democrat.

While this is a bit of a shocker in the same poll:

While Canadians see the United States as important, when asked what countries stand out as being a negative force in the world, 52 per cent of respondents named the U.S.

Neuman (from the polling company) said other studies have shown that people’s opinions of the U.S. are negative because they are uncomfortable with the country’s foreign policy, including the invasion of Iraq. They also cite discomfort with U.S. President George W. Bush, who took office in January 2001.

Also interesting is this conclusion which is a bit strangely worded to my mind.

“I think the fact that Canadians pay so much attention to the U.S. election is a sign that they really care about the United States, a sign that they want it to get back to where it was before,” Neuman said.

Of course we Canadians care about the US election. How could we not? We are so intertwined economically. But what do we want the US to get back to I wonder. Peace and prosperity, yes, but how about they get down to solving some of their other long standing issues: for example, the crisis in their healthcare system, which I see daily on the medblogs I read. Yes it’s time for universal health care in that country. In 2006 47 million Americans were without health insurance while 25 million were underinsured, and even those who have it, and the medical personnel who treat them, are at the mercy of the private insurance companies who decide who or what is covered. Then there’s George W with his cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Is this an overall Republican policy or a George W. initiative? Will McCain continue along those lines if he is the next president? Sorry a personal beef of mine and a worry as I have a daughter who lives with her family in the USA.

Well, FC, I am sure you had something else in mind other than this rambling post when you posed your question. I do hope that others will give you a different and more erudite, educated, knowledgeable, wise, sapient point of view.