I’m Conflicted.
There are a lot of things I ought to be writing about. Things I feel I need to write about. Unfortunately, this need comes up against two opponents – I have a lot of things I need to do that do not involve sitting on my ass in front of my computer, and I have developed another case of ennui, where I do not particularly want to sit and write for hours, or even minutes. Thus, instead of my trademark long, rambling essays, you’ve recently been receiving Free Ice-Cream Lite in the form of Quotes of the Day, videos and cartoons.
Still, there’s half a dozen (or more) things a day that poke at me, insisting that I write something about them just to get them out of my system. For example, here’s a case of EPIC FAILURE:
Witchcraft rumor sparks riot at Congo soccer game
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, a U.N.-funded radio station reported Monday.
Most of the victims were between the ages of 11 and 16, Radio Okapi said. They were suffocated as panicked crowds ran for the exits during the mayhem Sunday in Butembo in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province.
Charming, but not Epic Fail. This is the Epic Fail:
Radio Okapi said police tried to control the violence at Matokeo stadium by firing into the air to protect their commander, who was hit in the head and wounded by fans.
Now, this is an AP story, so I expect to receive a lawsuit for having linked to it and quoted from it, but the interesting thing is that between the time I first read it (and emailed it home so I could write about it) and now, when I opened the story to do the pullquotes, the AP has revised it. The revision? The original story reported that the soldiers fired into the air “to calm the rioters” (no mention of defending the commander), which then sent them into an even greater panic.
Got a angry riot on your hands? Try full-auto fire into the air! That’ll calm ’em down!
Next up, the Nigerian scammers have apparently switched tactics. No longer has some rich dude died, leaving million$ in an account somewhere that needs to be moved. No, now apparently I have won a lottery that I didn’t even enter!
Your E-mail Address was selected online and has won you $2,000,000.00 in the lucky day lotto NL world-wide.Write to agent E-mail: [email protected]
contact the claim agent Mr.Pieter Vaart,Win no: 442/121/909, Ticket no:al-4343/132/001, our phone No:0031-6111- 464-78,Regard,Mrs,I.versloot,Award co-ordinator.
Nice, Dutch-sounding names, right? And if you can’t trust the Dutch, who can you trust? The originating email address is [email protected]. Is Idi Amin still alive and living in exile in Italy? If so, why did no one tell me?
Sorry, Mrs,I.versloot,Award co-ordinator, I think I’ll pass on your truly generous offer.
Now, I’m going to generate one more post after this, look up something for tomorrow’s Quote of the Day, and then get to work on some things I really, really need to do around the house.