Tuesday came and I had to get up early...ish, especially given the time I got to bed at the night before, because I had an appointment at the optician at 10.15am, and I had been told to have worn my contact lenses for at least half an hour before the appointment. I managed 45 minutes, and headed to D&A at Merry Hill. The optician checked my eyes with and without the lenses in, and there were no problems whatsoever. While I had been in Sweden I had received a call to say that my new glasses were ready too, so I collected these after the appointment. They're half-rimless and from having worn them a little, the lack of rim on the bottom half makes reading with these specs on a bit nicer than with the old ones.

The remainder of Tuesday and Wednesday I spent pretty much catching up with the TV I had downloaded and reading magazines and newspapers. Amongst other things I saw were a disturbing programme about some 'GOD HATES FAGS' bigots in the USA (the Westboro Baptist Church), who give an idiosyncratic response to the problem of evil by believing that evil is God's way of showing that homosexuality is wrong. Of course, these people are also the kind of people who, if asked what the problem of evil was, wouldn't have a clue. This belief is put into practice through, for instance, waving 'GOD HATES FAGS' placards at military funerals, because every solder that dies is the result of too much gay in the world. There was an instance shown where a group went to picket a shop selling electrical goods, because it sold Swedish vacuum cleaners (Electrolux?), and Sweden is gay, or something like that. The scariest part of the documentary was the way that the children of the cult church members had been indoctrinated to these views and it was quite clear that they didn't understand them.

This documentary is on YouTube, with regular comfort breaks. See here.

Another programme I caught up with was the new series of The Apprentice. I have only noticed one standout character so far, Tre, but mostly for the wrong reasons. He is headstrong and argumentative, but seems reasonably competent, so I can see him being being fired not too long after the weakest candidates have departed.

Yesterday I wasted time playing Europa Universalis II and trying as Sweden to contain French and Austrian expansionism in the German principalities. I failed to protect their independence, but did expand into northern Germany myself (places like Hanover, Bremen, Pomerania, and Brandenburg), encircling the Baltic with Swedish territory, with the exception of St Petersburg, expanding as far south as Krakow, and outcolonising the English, French, and Dutch in North America and India. I know, I should get out more, but I get bored doing it by myself.

I didn't get up too long ago - I kept waking up during the night so despite having gone to bed at a reasonable time I slept in because when I first woke up at around 8.30am I felt too tired to get up when I didn't have to. I'm not sure what I'll do with the rest of the day - probably fritter it away as usual.