Things that make me go "blerg".

Because all my friends are dancing the night away at the semi-formal and I am stuck here at home in my pajamas with a streaming nose and hacking cough, I am going to make a list of things that are really getting up my goat at the moment. Actually, it is pretty awesome staying at home in pajamas not going to the semi and watching American Idol instead. But I'm going to make the list anyway!

• The military junta in Myanmar/Burma who've charged pro-democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi with violating her house arrest after an American man allegedly snuck into her home last week. She now faces a prison sentence of up to five years, weeks away from the end of her house arrest. It's clearly been timed so she won't be present for the elections the junta has promised. Last election in 1991 her party won a landslide vote, but she has been in house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years. Call for her release here.


• The National government, predictably. This time they've decided to abolish the Department of Labour's Pay and Employment Equity Unit. Even though NZ women on average are paid 12% less than men in the same positions. But that seven kazillion dollar motorway way more important, eh John? (Okay, I don't really know what motorway I'm talking about. But I'm sure it exists.)


• New Zealand's Next Top Model. Arrrgh. This is surely one of the worsts programs on television at the moment, and this is coming from a huge fan of Dawson's Creek. But seriously, tonight this contestant Ruby was measured by some sleazy Hollywood model agent and was declared "too fat" to be a proper model and told she needed to slim down. She's 17 years old, and so is half the audience. I think that probably launched a thousand eating disorders. Okay, I know modelling is a harsh career and you've got to have the right stuff and they're just preparing her blah blah blah but this girl is HEALTHY sized and aren't non-skeletal models all the rage in the fashion world at the moment? They are with me anyway.


• Danny Gokey. (American Idol contestant.) Hmmmm. How can I fit this in with activism? That scream at the end of "Dream On" was a violation of my Hearing Rights. Sounds like Human? Okay, okay, sorry, moving on.


• The Producers of Avatar. Stoopid.

Happy weekend everyone!