Random thoughts

I just wrote myself into the school history.
All my predecessors are in there, mentioned on the date when they started to work here or left, so I don't see why I can't do it. But it's weird.

Anyway.
My coworker who sells computers gave me three options. I have one I favor, but I'll just give you the details and see what you say. (Without prices because they're all within my range, and I don't think it makes sense to buy something cheap and realise half a year later it'd have been better to spend a bit more.)

Here goes:
( three notebooks behind cut )
Oh my, I can't believe I typed this all up. Anyway. So that's the choice. I know there are a million notebooks out there, but if you know and work with somebody who sells the stuff it's kind of natural to ask them and then it's only fair to buy from them, too. Especially as this is a good way to get all kinds of software, and of course good service.

I watched "Anna and the King" yesterday. *sigh* I saw it in the movie theatre before, but isn't it just lovely? And it isn't a totally unrealistic romantic movie with everything falling into little Anna Leonowens' lap and a royal marriage in the end. The girl who was given to the king as a present by her parents did get killed when she ran away to her former lover. (who got killed as well, which is kinda sad for him as he was in a cloister and she had joined him dressed as a monk, so he apparently never knew who she was so it isn't as if he had any advantage out of it.) The king saves his face, despite his personal wishes.

It was interesting to see it again, and it made me think.
Back then, the Europeans were so sure about how their way of life is right and the only one.
And the foreign customs, especially polygamy, is bad and barbaric and whatnot.
But if you are king in a country where many children die, and where you always have to beware of people trying to kill you, well, having many children is a way to ensure your line will continue. And also, in Europe as well as elsewhere marriage has been considered a good way to strenghten alliances. And if your religion allows polygamy (it's the same with muslims, Muhammed had lots of wives for the same reason), people who want to get on your good side might just have an attractive daughter to marry off to you. And if you'd say no, that'd be breaking the alliance and probably gaining an enemy.
And also, if you come from a poor family and just happen to be very attractive, maybe becoming the king's 30th wife might not be the greatest fate on earth, but it provides food on a regular basis and a pretty nice place to sleep.
And if the king is a bastard, at least you don't have his full attention. And the responsibility of producing an heir is not all on your shoulders. That's an advantage the European princesses didn't have.
Also, to be considered god-like isn't all fun. If you're god-like, then you're personally responsible for any failing crop, bad weather or evil omens. And you can't make mistakes.

It's a pity some colonial empires didn't really try to work with the cultures they found. The British weren't bad, actually. Or at least not bad everywhere and all the time. If you're expanding by ways of trade, you usually get along much better if you can work with stable local governments, and as long as their ways allow what you need, there's no reason to make them change. As far as I can see, the Spanish were quite different. But then they were much more religiously motivated (or pretended to be), and didn't have the educate-to-a-modern-society-and-let-become-independed approach the British had in many colonies. (How they felt about coming to that aim is a different matter, but the British did start with the idea that their task is to make their colonies work as modern nations in their own right.)

Anyway. I'm hungry, need to go shopping.