Why everyone should join a trade union

I attended my first sub-branch AGM today and won €25 in a draw. Happy days! Who says unions aren't worth joining? You can't knock the PSEU, that's for sure!

Labor wins Australain elections

I'm very pleased that conservative shithead John Howard and his inappropriately named Liberal party have lost this year's Australian general election. The Labor Party, under Kevin Rudd, have won in a landslide victory. It will be interesting to see if Rudd keeps to pre-electoral promises that include pulling Australian troops out of Iraq and signing the Kyoto Protocol. To add insult to injury, conservative shithead Howard looks set to lose his seat, which he has held for 33 years.

I am the Master!

I got my final results for my Master's degree today. I'm not sure whether I've got an Attila or a Desmond, as I'm borderline and I don't have my first year results to hand. Fuck though, I passed and I'll never have to write a thesis again. I can now look forward to my graduation in March.

The English Class

RTÉ isn't well-known for producing great comedies and it's not bucking that trend with The English Class. However, I found that it did grow on me slightly the more I watched it. Set in a Dublin college, immigrants of various nationalities are brought together to tackle that strange the English language: their ticket to a better life in Ireland. They're thought by an inept and incompetent teacher who is very much in the mould of David Brent. Most episodes centre on the teacher's pathetic attempts to befriend the class and impart his philosophy on life rather than teach, and the students' frustration at their lack of progress.

I wouldn't call The English Class comedy gold, but it had it's moments. It also reminded me of my disastrous, yet thankfully short, career teaching English as a foreign language. Sometimes I wonder whether I was as bad as him. I suppose the show also has a good motive in that it reflects a more modern, multi-cultural Ireland, and it certainly isn't Mind Your Language. However, The English Class does, at times, fall into the trap of reinforcing national stereotypes.

This week I've been mostly listening to... Crass

This is a band whose name I'd heard bandied about for years, but had never actually heard. A few weeks ago, I bought their 1979 release Stations of the Crass. I was pleasantly surprised at how they're not quite what I expected. I always thought they were in the mould of hardcore punks Discharge (whom I also like), but Crass (on this album at least) are quite avant-garde, almost post-punk at times.

There are twenty-four tracks on the album (although some are live versions of those already present), so I haven't got to grips with it completely yet. However, two stand out: 'White Punks On Hope' where they set out their anarchist stall, and 'Walls', which is driven by a thumping bassline and has female vocals. I'll be certainly checking them out further.

For the record!

Some people I know appear to be under the misapprehension that I didn't work, or at most worked part-time, whilst doing my Master's degree. Let me set things straight: I worked full-time and studied in my spare time. Admittedly, I'm in the employ of the Civil Circus, which isn't the most taxing of places to work. That aside, it's hard to muster the energy to read when one has been pushing a pen, ordering paperclips and shirking work for 6 hours and 57 minutes (or sometimes less) a day!