How very odd.

The division between the people I know in the UK and US has never been greater. Looking through my friends page today, every single post from a US-person has to do with the Space Shuttle explosion. Not a single UK-er has even mentioned it: people are talking about their weekend plans and parties. How very, very odd.

I never hear news that happens at the weekend. The Evening Standard is my main source of news (because I object to paying money to read news from the previous night), and it only publishes on weekdays. If stuff happens between Friday night and Monday morning, I don't hear about it. This Space Shuttle explosion doesn't seem very real to me, because I've only read about it on the internet (even if it was the BBC's site). It will continue to not feel real until I see it on the front pages of tomorrow's newspapers.

It's weird. I'm confused as to what the big deal is, why so many of my American friends are upset. Of course, it's tragic for anyone who knew the people involved - any death is tragic for those left behind. But all this stuff about dreams... it must only make sense to a country that has actually been involved in space exploration. I've veered between seeing it as a valuable way to find out more about our planet and a colossal waste of money. I've always seen it that way, even when I was a student in a Space and Atmospheric Physics Group.

Edit: OK, I mis-spoke. One UK-er mentioned it. A couple more in email. But even then...

possible and impossible

I've seen this in a lot of people's journals, but thought it could do with modifying:

[Poll #97979]

Only I can see your answers, so say what you like! I'll post the highlights in a week or so.

community searching

I am oddly pleased that hairypits exists. I'm not sure if I'll join, despite not having shaved my body hair in... well over a year, because I'm not sure I really need to talk about it (especially now that I have ezcema in my armpits - ye gods, you think I'm going to shave skin that's already cracked and sore?!), but I'm glad it's there.

elynne, I have found a Professor Snape pervery community that you don't already belong to!

There is a Sims community at thesims, but it's far too busy for me to read, especially as a quick glance through the first few pages didn't show anything that's not on the TSR forums.

latin is kinda depressing. Not much traffic, and mainly people asking how to translate specific, not very complicated, phrases. latinitas is better in that its userinfo page is all in Latin, but there are only 6 members and no recent posts :(

anxietypanic may be useful for some people. chronicfear and medicalphobia would also be useful if they were busier - but you need to get more members to make them busier, and thus you run into chicken-and-egg...

I suppose people already know about craftgrrl?

Finally, I should plug rhythm_action, just because it's mine.