The Alternative Vote referendum is on Thursday. In order of priority, I have collected all the arguments in favour of the existing first-past-the-post system.

1. Creates majorities.
2. Information not used.
3. Information not used.
4. Information not used.
5. Information not used.

If anyone believes that the most important reason has changed, please let me know and I'll delete what's currently there and update it.

I find myself asking the question: "what is work?" I have narrowed it down to two definitions:

1. Raising ten kids in one house on benefits.

2. Writing an article for a tabloid newspaper about how the parents raising ten children in one house on benefits "have never worked a day in their lives".

Today I took an old cat carrier to the recycling centre. "Where does this go?", I asked one of the men, holding it up in my right hand. He looked at me slightly suspiciously before checking it was empty, then pointed me in the direction of 'Landfill'. Which I suppose is better than not looking to see if it was empty, then pointing me in the direction of 'Unwanted Animals'.

Economics is a science of relatively simple calculations, behind which we find truth. For example, sixty is larger than twenty.

Without taking an unpleasant amount of pleasure in it, The Economist's obituary for Oral Roberts is delightfully sarcastic and withering.

I was reminded tonight, pottering around YouTube for guitar songs to copy, the first time I heard my favourite REM song - from their 2001 unplugged set: Cuyahoga.

Seeing Kitson tonight at the Playhouse. First time. Glowing reviews to follow.

Booom.

Barney Frank murked that shit.

Update: Colbert adds joy to already joyous event.

I'd never want to sound crazy like Olbermann, but I think I've there's a new Worst Person in the World.

Jack Bauer rhymes with Black Power. Coincidence? I think not.

On the front of today's Times is a photograph of Uma Thurman and her fiance, hedge fund manager Arpad Busson. The caption underneath reads: "Uma Thurman with fiance Arpad Busson. The Royal Bank, HSBC and councils also face huge losses."

The Times appears to believe that the marriage of Uma Thurman to that guy is a huge loss on par with the massive fraud of banks from the Madoff scam. I agree.

I was happy to reconcile myself to black one as the world's most powerful man. But a Jew one as his chief of staff? What is next? A gay one as Secretary of State? A Chinese one as national security advisor? A woman?

I thought I was being smart. I invested all my savings in a souffle bank.

It collapsed.

Things that are stranger than, or at least as strange as, fiction would probably have to include this.

Today I saw a fight between two deaf, blind men, both of whom had no noses, tongues or hands. There's no need for that sort of completely senseless violence.

On Friday, I saw a sign outside a pub which read, "Hungry? Lunch 12-3, Dinner 6-9". It did not say, however, that they served food at that pub, so maybe it was just a helpful tip.

Couple of short thoughts. I'd say in that they are in no particular order, exept that seems unlikely for a list of items. At the very least, they are in order of 'position in list'. Onwards:

I just submitted a paper to the Journal of Public Economics. This would be my first actual attempt to get something published. I expect at best a number of revisions, and most likely a rejection, but both will be helpful and give me some useful feedback.

There is a certain programme on television. It is Huge, and I am led to believe it is Fraternal. I don't want to hear anything about it. I don't want to know the names of anybody in the show, or which manufactured controversy they've decided will interest people this year. Radio and TV will doubtlessly attempt to thwart me by dropping reports in to news bulletins, as if things that happen on TV shows are actually news. This morning, I managed to cover my ears with my hands in time. Next time, I may be holding vases. I'm either going to have to give up the mainstream media, or give up my job as human dais.

I hate it when I agree with Tories.

Happy as a pig in ...wellies?

Wait...

Damn you, Guardian Online. DAMN YOU.

Craig 1-1 Guardian

Oh, fuck it. It's my blog. You don't have to come back.

A local Oxford newspaper is reporting that the county council is drawing up plans to prevent a repeat of the death of a teenager is last week's floods. Which is ridiculous. You can't drown him again.

Yeah, whatever.

If I were to describe the extent to which I am familiar with door opening, I would probably choose the word "very". After some 24 years of opening doors - my parents rightly believed that treating me like an adult from day one was the only way to get me interested in such things as going outside and leaving my room for dinner - I feel comfortable in claiming to be very experienced in the practice.

So you can imagine my surprise yesterday when I opened the front door right over my foot, removing a good layer of skin and potentially causing several sizeable bruises. I have no idea how I did that.