Recently, I've been following the primaries closely. I've long had a strong interest in current events - I've been reading the New York Times daily for a decade now. (Brett thinks that I get all my opinions from the New York Times! He's wrong - I only get some of them :) And recently, I've taken to recording "The Newshour" on PBS every day, and watching it when I get home (and I'm sick to death already of that Mark Shields bloke with his folksy, hyperkinetic commentaries!)

But I have to admit that I allow my interest to be influenced sometimes by an ignoble instinct to support the underdog - I guess I love the excitement of the competition to win. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that when I was a wee slip of a lad I voted for Margaret Thatcher my first time at a ballot box, so that I could help her to a dramatic third straight victory.

So it goes without saying that a love of drama would lead me to favor John McCain in his battle over George W Bush, and I admit to the mild whoop of joy I emitted while I was on the treadmill this evening at the gym, when the news came on that McCain had won both of today's primaries! But beyond drama, Bush is clearly not half the man that McCain is. Although McCain is a politician, with the vices of all politicians, few politicians recently have shown such hipocracy as Bush. When I read an article this morning about his latest ploy, I was left with a feeling of helplessness - politics is sick and corrupt and there's nothing you or I can do about it. At least I have my little organ (I'm talking not about my anatomy, but about this journal :) where I can feel like I can vent a little and maybe have a tiny, tiny little voice.

What left me with that frustrated sinking feeling this morning was the story about Bush's cohort Pat Robertson, who is putting out smears - basically lies - about McCain. Bush says it's not his campaign that's doing it, but how can an honorable man sit back and watch someone put out lies about his opponent? This really shows you how low politics has sunken - Bush makes such strident declaration about morality, and dignity yet he's sufficiently cynical to sit back and let his allies smear his opponent. In calls to Republicans,

"Pat Robertson urged them to 'protect unborn babies and restore religious freedom' by opposing Mr. McCain. As he has on his cable television program, Mr. Robertson, a supporter of Mr. Bush, accuses Mr. McCain of having chosen as his national chairman 'a vicious bigot who wrote that conservative Christians in politics are anti-abortion zealots, homophobes and would-be censors.'

The reference is to former Senator Warren B. Rudman of New Hampshire, who used those phrases in his autobiography to describe some in the Christian right, although he also said there were 'some fine, sincere people in its ranks.'"  The New York Times, Feb 22, 00

Mind, McCain can be his own worst enemy, with his unfortunate references to his Vietnamese captors as gooks. That put me in mind of a letter I just got from my Dad where he referred to the nice "darkie" nurse who assisted my Mam recently when she had to go to the hospital for some serious checks. My Dad is basically a racist, anti-semitic, anti-Catholic, homophobe. Apart from that, he's a lovely guy!

It's been raining endlessly recently. On Sunday morning, it started coming down heavily just early enough to prevent me from going running. And today, too, the heavy rain and wind had the same effect. So I've had to run on the treadmill at the gym, which I hate. It's so much harder for me to motivate myself to go for the full forty minutes - I keep looking at the clock and the minutes seem to tick by ever so slowly. I've discovered that I can trick myself into getting through it by promising myself I'll run for twenty minutes. Once the twenty minutes are up, I slow down by 1mph every minute, and then, once I get my breath back I tell myself that, hey, I feel strong again, so I inch the speed back up again. By playing mind games like this, I get through it ... somehow. But it's not the same feeling of freedom of running on the streets in the sunshine.

Okay you figure out what else I could have photographed on a week where nothing exciting happened :)

Speaking of photography, my new digital camera arrived. It's a tiny, nifty little number - a Canon A50 - amazing technology packed into half the size of my clunky Kodak 260, and with many of the same features. What's more, it's not much over a third of the price of the Kodak, at $363! I've been wanting a camera I can put in my pocket, so hopefully this will enable my camera to boldy go where none of my digital cameras have gone before!

Ugh! I just saw out of the corner of my eye one of the infamous beasties that populate my apartment. I have no idea what they are, but they're an inch in length. And if you chase them - they hop about six inches in the air! I have a bit of a fear of most insects, so my heart is still beating after the latest tussle. Here's a before and after pic :) (Since writing this page, I've since found out that the beasties are crickets). As if I needed another reason to be unhappy with this apartment! It's not exactly the last straw, but I did formally start an intensive apartment search today, since my lease expires at the end of March. So it promises to be a very busy month ahead.

Before ... and after :)