Various

Morning annoyance: Telemarketers who know they cannot legally call the housemates' cell phones, so they find out what landlines are associated with this address (the landlord's line and mine) and call us instead. It's bad enough when I get spam calls meant for me and all my dead relatives--I don't need everybody else's junk phone too.

Flashback: When I cued up the "Come Closer" mash-up this morning, Trent & the Beatles sounded like someone was playing their LPs at 16 RPM. I had no idea Windows Media Player could even do that. Freaky.

Fun link: Klingon Pumpkin Carving, via windsparrow.

Jeepers! Via musesfool: There are crazy people on my Internets. The problem isn't that someone fell in love with a fictional character. I could respect that. The problem is that if the fictional character were real, he would need a restraining order.

And via comments in that thread: Meet Mrs. Berlin Wall. I might have less trouble with this if I thought there were any chance of the relationship being consensual.

Feeling a bit better: I actually got out and did stuff today. Not sure how much the bureaucratic stuff will help, but at least I used my birthday gift card to buy underwear and socks.

Dream from last night: It seemed to be some kind of holodeck simulation. In front of me at some distance was a large, old building, red and white, stretched between stands of trees to my left and right. It could have been a mansion, but it was more likely a museum or a municipal building. I was standing in a structure like a glass-and-metal bus shelter situated in the middle of a large field, with a forest in the distance behind me. Closer to me was a mob, composed of both men and women, mostly white but with other races mixed in, all of them armed with rocks or flamethrowers or other such things you'd expect from a mob about to storm a castle. I wasn't interested in this kind of entertainment that night, but as there seemed to be nothing I could do about it, I watched in morbid fascination as they all surged forward toward that building, shouting about the heretics inside and how they all deserved to die. I thought to myself that at least this wasn't real, at least they couldn't hurt me--and then some few in the crowd noticed me and turned toward me, letting me know in no uncertain terms that because I did not join them in their destruction, they were going to burn me for a heretic too. I asked if they couldn't tell I was pregnant. They knew, and they did believe that the baby growing inside me was an innocent life, but they were quite willing to kill the child and any other guiltless parties in order to destroy heretics like me.

And now I want to set something on fire. It's cold in here.

More on Vegemite--and Marmite

Is America at war with Vegemite?

In a revelation that has horrified Australians, it is being reported that America has banned Vegemite, the noxious, dark brown gloop that's a close relative of Marmite.

And in a revelation which could horrify Britons - or at least those foolish Britons who like the terrible stuff - Marmite could potentially fall foul of the same law....

A spokewoman for Kraft, the manufacturers of Vegemite, seemed to confirm the rumours, saying: 'The Food and Drug Administration doesn't allow the import of Vegemite simply because the recipe does have the addition of folic acid.'...

Some sceptics, however, cast a measure of doubt on the Herald Sun story, noting that it seemed impossible to track down any FDA regulation specifically banning Vegemite, and suggesting that you'd think somebody would have noticed before now if an extremely popular ghastly food had been banned.

Either way, Australians planning on bringing jars of the terrible brown nonsense into the US would also do well to remember that they probably can't bring it on in hand luggage any way, as it will also be confiscated as part of the War on Liquids.

Also: THE Australian Embassy in Washington said yesterday it was looking into media reports that US customs officials were checking people for Vegemite.

And also: “It's pretty silly for the government to ban something that no native born American will eat in the first place!”

And also too: Just how serious is this story, anyway?