Waffle House

Sadness

2009-10-21T22:48:00.003+11:00

Today (and most of this week) was one of those times you wish never to have to see and experience in life.

Hugs again and long life to J & K and family.

New instrument scales musical heights

2009-10-10T10:36:00.003+11:00

The Eigenharp

(apologies for link only; no embed option for BBC player outside the UK!)

Made of swiss cheese...

2009-10-09T12:08:00.002+11:00

I so would have loved to be at this NASA pitch meeting:

"Come on guys, we need to prioritise this potential missions list."

"Hey.... we could always go with this one... it says they want to bomb the moon for science?"

"......."

And LCROSS? Come on, we all know the REAL covert top secret name of this mission is really R(ight)CROSS, as in the name of the swing we're taking at all those alien observation bases on the far side of the moon...

... what do you mean, those weren't real documentaries? Not even the Kubrick one?

Why no, I don't have anything better to do, why do you ask?

Ok... maybe I'll try hobbling around the house for a bit. BTW the back is getting better, slowly slowly. Though somehow I have also picked up a runny nose and sore throat, despite having not left the house in a week. I can only blame my mother. Or possibly the other patients in the doctor's waiting room. I suspected at the time they looked rather unwell.

And seriously, I do understand the point of the science behind this new moon mission. Infuriatingly, it doesn't sit right with me. Use fluffy friendly words like 'shooting', 'bombing', 'debris plume' and you don't usually get me onside. I guess it's a sentimentality thing with me that overrides my logic circuits. That feeling is possibly more connected to articles like this, latest in a long line of stories we get every year about the future potential of advertising on the moon.

If that ever actually happens, I think it would signal a good time for me to opt out of the human race. Just sayin. And I know some witches who would be pretty upset too... drawing down the moon and ending up with a can of coke? Not cool.

But I will be watching NASA TV tonight, if the site holds up. And if I hold up, for that matter.

* disclaimer: this article may have been brought to you by prescription medication.

Offence and defence...

2009-10-09T01:44:00.003+11:00

Ok, since I’m up and not allowed to take any more painkillers (stupid daily limits, I hates you) I’ll give this whole “was the Hey Hey skit racist” question a go. I really don’t want to drag myself into this, but I can’t seem to get it out of my head, and we all know the only way is to get it down on paper.

As an aside, I wonder how long it will take that term to get antiquated. Getting something “down on paper” I mean.

If my thoughts are a bit disorganised, you will just have to deal =)

Here’s my abstract: I think it's the old intent vs. context argument. And I just don’t think it’s solvable.

It made me think of the annual sexual harassment training module I recently completed at work (I know what you are all thinking you smirking wise guys, but they make everyone do it, not just me). The main point that was made throughout the training was this: something can be ok to you, and by ok I mean acceptable, funny, sensible, whatever. You might share this comment/behaviour with other people who you know, and you know they will understand it in the same way, because you are aware of and comfortable with the boundaries you have with those people. They know your intent (for example, funny and not malicious). But if someone happens to see or hear who feels offended, then the offended person is in the right.

This has always struck me as kind of unfair truth be told, but after some consideration there’s really no other way to deal with it, because it’s simple not a black and white issue. That could be seen as a really unfortunate pun in this case but I’m going with it, because my intent is not mean offence or for my comment to to be taken in that context in any way; which is kind of the point of this response. Who gets to decide what’s offensive and what’s acceptable? Who gets to decide where those boundaries are, or should be?

I would want to have the right of appeal if suddenly people around me thought it was funny and acceptable to make fun of something that upset me. I would also be ashamed if someone called me on something I said or did and they told me that offended them, and I would immediately apologise for the offence. But if it was a friend I would also feel a little upset at the disconnect between us, between my intent and their impression, particularly if they felt I was being deliberately hurtful through deliberate offence.

In the court of public opinion however, you don’t have the ability to know your audience. Therefore caution is logically the rule of the day. I guess this is one aspect of law-making I have always found fascinating. At what point does consensus reach a quorum that makes it acceptable to pass the consensus view into law? Sometimes that question is really easy for 99.9% of humans to answer. Sometimes the percentage is far lower. What makes this even more difficult to quantify is context.

Comedy is a particular type of human rule set or context that really stands alone when it comes to taboo. For example; some of my favourite comics are really offensive. I know that their material comes from a place of irony and honest humour, but they aren’t to everyone’s taste. Humour is a weird and wonderful thing that is often defined by its pushing of or lack of boundaries. For that very reason, the social climate in which it occurs will provoke different reactions in different places at different times. This is normal.

Here’s an interesting question: can I make jokes about Jews because I’m Jewish (now), where I couldn’t before? In practice, I have found the ability to make and participate in Jewish self-humour has been as much of a right of passage in converting to Judaism as learning the holidays and reading the language. Would I be comfortable with a non-Jew making the same jokes? Why is it different? There’s been a tradition in comedy that only people of a particular race are allowed to make jokes regarding that race, but that has also been tested as per the controversy surrounding the comedian Chris Rock and a certain routine he used to do (see http://tinyurl.com/jeslb)

So: where does this leave us? All I can say is this: I know the show in question has (had?) a tradition of comedy that was always was based in humour that is often puerile, and often offensive. There aren't many boundaries to that humour, as they make fun of everyone and everything including themselves. I didn’t even see the skit in question (I only caught the end of the show where they referred to it in the last 5 minutes), and I refused to read any of the articles today regarding it, because it seemed to be handled on the night correctly, with the offended person able to say on air that they were offended and why, and the offendee (or their rep) able to acknowledge that and apologise for any offence caused.

All I can say is that in the context I probably wouldn’t have been offended. I probably would have laughed at a silly skit done on a comedy show, in a comedy segment. That is, I would have laughed if I had considered it good comedy based on factors beyond the basis of the humour, such as cleverness of idea, execution or timing (once again, didn't see it, can't say). But then, if someone in my team pulled that idea out as a skit at our annual Xmas party, regardless of how well performed, I would probably be horrified.

Is that purely context? I don’t know. Is either reaction right, on the communal moral scale? I don’t know. Would I have approved that skit to go on the air? I don't know. Would I have felt differently if they were making fun of a minority I'm a part of? I don't know. But I simply can’t speak for anyone else in those situations, and, at the end of the day, no-one can. So whether you were offended or not, you’re probably right.

One thing's for sure - the media loves it!

That’s about all the typing my poor brain and back can deal with. Back to (trying to) sleep.

Hang Drum therapy

2009-09-06T05:57:00.001+10:00

Hopefully this will put me to sleep - this jetlag is killing me!

At home and thinking deep thoughts...

2009-09-04T10:45:00.007+10:00

Just letting you all know that we are finally home! We are very happy to be here, if a little sad the last holiday for a while is over. Our very sooky cats seem quite happy too =P

I will make sure the last leg of our trip gets posted when we get up the energy to write it!

While I've been away I've been thinking a bit more about my blog. I don't often see all my friends on a regular basis, though I have many people out there that I care about and think about and am privileged to call my friends. I keep myself connected to them via their online presence mostly, through blogs, email or facebook.

Luckily, I by and large have a group of friends who are geeky enough to understand that this counts as real connection. They also are understanding enough of my preference for hermiting that when I do see them it's always a comfortable and happy occasion, regardless of the time that may have gone by since last being in the same room. That I can keep up with what is happening in their lives and their thoughts and feelings on a regular basis via online networking means that no matter how busy I am, I can be connected to them.

However when I was halfway across the globe, even with the lack of importance I place on physical presence, I felt the distance between myself and my friends more keenly. I often go for 5 weeks without seeing my friends. Often much longer. However being away from my regular environment and routine, and outside my comfort zone, triggered odd forms of homesickness. Missing my friends was a part of that, even though whenever the opportunity of free wifi presented itself I was as close to them as I normally am when at home.

So my instinct was to use my blog to connect, to post up the emails of our adventures that were being sent to a select few family and close friends. This made me realise that I really would like to use my blog to connect more often, and allow others to connect to me, as this is something I feel I fail at quite often.

There are however a few snags to this impulse to connect that I have previously encountered.

When I am in my normal routine, I am often too mentally tired at the end of a work day or week to construct a post. I love to write. In fact, if I could have chosen the way in which my creatively presents itself, my first career or hobby choice in life would have been writer. As things stand, my lack of skill with the sledgehammer that is my writing instrument places me squarely in the reader category instead. I love to read. I love to soak up information on a multitude of topics at what some consider an insanity inducing rate. I particularly love to read and think about topics that are most complex and difficult for me, whether content wise or intent wise, in the moral, psychological, religious, scientific, sociological and other fields.

But thinking is normally as far as I get.

To write about the myriad of topics I have an active interest in at any one time requires more time and effort than I usually have to devote. Additionally, I am both a fence sitter, a mirror and a devil's advocate by nature. I tend to enjoy the fluidity of the exploration of ideas and the connection to other people’s thinking space more than I enjoy the forming of opinions, and I so rarely have a black and white moment that when I do it is often the result of pure gut instinct rather than rational thought. And writing, creative writing notwithstanding, so often seems to involve the formation of an opinion. I often feel that my opinions, such as they are, are too fluid and connected to too many other ideas for me to be able to pin them down long enough to write about them in that way.

My unwillingness to commit, and the changeable nature of my opinions dependant on additional information, means that anything I write down tends to fall out of date as soon as I write it. Now, intellectually I realise this is normal and natural, but to me it’s emotionally unacceptable. It makes me uncomfortable in a piercing and obscurely painful way. As with many things in my life, this particular kind of pain often stops me connecting to people, in all sorts of ways. It affects my ability to converse with others as well.

I found when no one was reading my blog that writing was an easier thing to do. Writing when not done in a vacuum is for me too painful to do properly. That’s why I stopped writing on blogs mostly. Now, when I write, it is for me alone. I don’t need to worry about content, context, offence, interest, unless that is part of what I am finding interesting to explore.

So how do I resolve the urge to connect with the pain of the imperfect conveyance of ideas?

Mostly, I get around this problem by posting other people’s things on my blog. Other people’s writings, ideas, research, discoveries, jokes, creations, etc. Because I am again more interested in my and other peoples often complex and contradictory responses to things, and potentially sharing a feeling that something has invoked in me, rather than deconstructing something imperfectly by writing about it myself.

But then another problem presents itself. So much interests me fleetingly, what to post and what not to? Fill my friends facebook updates and blog readers with posts about things they have no interest in, just because those things have touched me in some way? Will posting things make me seem to support those ideas; connect me to them inappropriately when the reason I post them may be because I disagree rather than agree, or am shocked or disgusted rather than awed and amazed? Do I trust readers to know the difference, or know that it doesn’t matter?

As usual, the swelling bulk of contradictions and questions tends to paralyse any action I want to take.

However, in the spirit of being brave and taking action, I will try to put aside some time to go ahead and post things up simply because I want to, and try not to take any other reason or doubt into account. However, the thing that concerns me is that I may post things up that someone who reads my blog doesn’t like me posting, for one of a multitude of reasons. It may be something you disagree with. Something that is painful to you in a way that I cannot or perhaps should have but didn’t predict. That is completely uninteresting to you. That is too obscure without posting the explanation. That you and I feel strongly about in completely opposing ways. That then contradicts with and undermines my need to connect with people, that I began talking about when I started writing this post.

*sigh*

Part of this thinking was inspired by my current re-reading of my favourite series of books, the Gap Sequence by Steven Donaldson.

Now, this series is not a story for the kiddies. It is bleak, disturbing and violent. I think it’s magnificent, or at least did when I first read it as a teenager and my fondness persists.

Considering the content, I have always worried somewhat about why these are my favourite books. The author's other major series (the Thomas Covenant chronicles) I cannot stand with a passion. I have tried several times to get through the first book in that series and failed… loudly. This is the opposite to a number of my friends’ experiences with his writings.

Anyway, I recently suggested to Ben that he might like to try reading the series as he has previously only read the first book, which as its title implies is not “The Real Story”, rather is the point from which the story expands and turns itself.

As I seem to have lost my copy of the first book, Ben picked up a new edition with the first and second book printed together. Sandwiched in between is an author’s afterword to the first book, which I had not previously read. Besides the interesting connection to Wagnerian themes, the explanation of the difference between drama and melodrama as he understands it (an exploration of which is the basis of the series) and the interesting way the series developed, it made me feel better about the reasons why this book connected in me, knowing the author had gone through similar feelings.

This also connected intimately in me to how I felt about blogging, writing, communicating.

I hope quoting that afterword here doesn’t constitute law breaking, but here it is in a compressed form:

“…Unlike any other character I’d ever created, Angus made me feel exposed. It was as if in imagining him I’d tapped directly into the dark side of my own nature: as if I’d found him inside myself instead of inventing him. … And that in turn shamed me. I felt irrationally sure that anyone who read The Real Story would see the ‘real’ me, recognize the truth, and be disgusted. … Time and thought brought me to the realisation that I had no reason to feel ashamed. Suppose for a moment that my worst fears were realistic: that I am in fact Angus Thermopyle thinly disguised by niceness; that this is in fact transparent in The Real Story; and that all right-thinking readers will be disgusted by the results. So what? None of that impinges on the integrity of The Real Story itself. … In any case, the crucial question for any artist is not: What are people going to think of me? It is: Have I given my best to my work? Nothing else matters.”

In that vein, realising that “my work” in this case is sometimes writing but also the sharing of written ideas, here are two loosely connected pieces I happened to read this week that I would like to share; one prior to the above foreword and one this morning. For me they are about language, taboo, context and pain, part of which this blog post is about. They both evoked some complex feelings in me; some contradictory, some uncomfortable, and are the most interesting and touching things I have read this week. I hope you find them interesting too.

The first is called “Retarded” by Pah.

The second is called “The Holocaust – no laughing!” by The Sensible Jew.

Now that I have subjected you all to what I hope is not the distorted ramblings of a girl too old to have travelled for 25 hours without a proper sleep, I might go back to my bed for a while.

Ah, but it’s good to be home!

Paris

2009-08-29T00:29:00.000+10:00

Ben & Mel's email - 29/08/09

Hi all,

This is our third and final night in Paris, and we've had a fantastic time here. Once again Mel has discovered her "new favorite place". Ben has also really enjoyed Paris which has exceeded his memories of traveling around this city last time he was here.

Our plane ride from Venice to Paris ended up being delayed 4.5 hours, which meant that we were effectively in the airport for 7 hours. This did not make us very happy or pleasant to be around as you can imagine. We were supposed to land at 5.15pm, but ended up landing about 10pm. By the time we had our luggage and had walked to the regional train network it was about 11pm.

We worked out how to get to our local train station, which required us to change trains half-way (there is a rural and a metro system here that intersects at various points). But by the time we had arrived at the first station, the trains heading towards our local station had finished for the night (it was about 11.35pm by this stage).

So, we were forced to take our first taxi ride for the entire trip (sigh)........it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, because the street containing our hotel is not on the map given to us by the airport information staff, so we had no chance of finding it... Plus, the taxi ride took us past the Eiffel tower and the Arc de Triumph in style.

The hotel is very nice (or cute as Mel puts it).

Yesterday we got up fairly early and headed off to the Palace of Versailles, which is outside Paris but easily accessible on the regional trains......it only took about 45 mins to get to from our hotel.

We wandered around the Palace with the audioguide for a couple of hours marveling at the ostentatiousness before looking out at the beautiful gardens that are there. Louis XIV who built Versailles may have been referred to as the Sun King, but there wasn't any sun at Versailles yesterday. It was spitting with rain and the temperature was in the low 20s, which was actually a welcome change from the sweltering heat in Italy and the rest of the places we have been.

Once we had finished at Versailles we went through Notre Dame, which was more beautiful than Ben had remembered, with amazing stain glass windows.

Ben then decided that we needed to see Sacre Coeur before it closed that day. His memory was that it was more beautiful than Notre Dame. He failed to remember that you need to climb 234 steep steps to reach the entrance, dodging merchants along the way. Mel had sore knees by this point and wasn't happy.

Still, we only had 15 minutes to reach the entrance before it closed, so we raced up in record time. Ben's memory of this place may have been affected by the fact that he discovered that his friend had died a few nights before when he was in Paris last time, and had lit a candle in his memory at Sacre Coeur. Mel and Ben spent some time talking about this, and then enjoying the setting sun and music on the steps outside the cathedral.

As a cathedral it was nice, but not as nice as Notre Dame, which we had seen only an hour before.

We had a late dinner at a restaurant around the corner from our hotel and had a drink French style - outside watching the people go by. The place was still kicking at 11pm on a Thursday night.....and we are by no means in the heart of the city.

Today we spend about 6 hours at the Louvre, concentrating mainly on their Egyptology Collection and the various types and periods of sculpture, but also visiting such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, before coming back to the hotel for a rest. The Louvre is amazingly huge, yet very well organised, with many ticket machines and multiple entrances and possible tours, we didn't wait in a line to get in and were only affected by crowds at the most popular pieces.

After munching on some croissants from our local bakery on the corner (we may have dropped in here a few more times than was strictly good for us) and a bit of a nap back at our hotel, we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower which has amazing views of Paris by night, and had a very late dinner back near our local station.

The last two nights we have had the best food and drink we have had in Europe, and they were both ordered at 11pm and 12pm respectively around the corner from our hotel - we love this town!! The stereotype of the arrogant French person hasn't been borne out by our experience here - from strangers in the street to people working here, everyone has been super nice and very helpful, and this is a very relaxed kind of city.

Tomorrow morning we are going to visit the Museum dedicated to Rodin's work (Mel will be in sculpture heaven again) before flying to London in the afternoon where we are staying in an actual apartment, which has it's own washing machine and kitchen (Mel is delirious with expectation).

That's all for now. Hope you're all well :)

Ben and Mel

Florence & Venice (and Venice Airport)

2009-08-27T17:17:00.000+10:00

Ben & Mel's email - 27/08/09

Hi all,

We're writing this from the airport in Venice where our flight has been delayed by 3 1/2 hours (so far), but more about that later.

In our last exciting episode we were about to leave for Florence from Rome. We got to Florence by train with no probs, and the bus dropped us right outside our hotel.

We went to Mel's favorite destination on the first day (the laundromat) and wandered around getting our bearings. The next day (Sunday) we got a late start, which we realised was going to cause us some problems, because it is not just restaurants that do not open on Mondays in Florence - it's almost every single tourist attraction too........

Consequently, once we'd got out the door and had something to eat and drink we needed to cane it around a couple of museums..........What we should have done was make a booking to see the Ufiizzi Museum one hour's hence, and gone to eat lunch while we waited.....what we actually did was race through lunch, walk up to the looong Uffizzi queue (which was not moving), realised we could book for a tour ahead an hour to skip the queue which we did, and then wandered aimlessly through the streets of Florence (which was quite pleasant) using our newly acquired Italian swear words.

Eventually, it was our turn to enter the Museum, and we were treated to probably the greatest collection of Renaissance Art in the world.......Mel was very much in her element and very happy (especially in the Botticcelli room). We were a few hours in this museum and by the time we got out it was 5.35 pm.

The other museum we really wanted to get to was the Gallery of Accademia, which houses Michaelangelo's David, and closes at 6.55pm. We got to the entry about 6pm, not really expecting to be allowed in so close to closing time, but we were admitted for a mere 20 Euros combined.

It's a very small building and we'd admired all of the artwork there in 20 minutes flat.....that's 1 Euro per minute for you mathematical types.....

Monday we were pretty buggered. We went to visit the Duomo, which is an amazing, very large cathedral and had a bit of a wander, laughing at the very tiny streets, and the tiny trucks that are built to go down those streets.

Ben really likes Florence, as it seems less spoilt than Rome in that there is less hustlel/bustle. The houses there do not seem to have been replaced by modern looking houses, giving it a very old-style appearance.

Yesterday we took the train to Venice, which is amazing. This is Mel's new favourite place so far. Venice is built on a series of canals. There are no cars, and the public transport system is a series of Ferries. Mel is in her element on the water (no pun intended).

Venice does not have many sites per se, it is just a matter of being there and experiencing it's unique canals and beauty.

However, Venice does have many, many stalls set up for tourists containing amazing Venetian masks and Ben spent much of his time following Mel from stall to stall (to stall) looking at masks, bags, jewellery, and many other interesting things (to females) and opening his wallet.

We also visited the San Marco Bascillica, which is a fantastic cathedral on the San Marco Piazza, which is pidgeon city. Mel had drunk a marguerita and 500 ml of beer at lunch just before we went in, and REALLY enjoyed her tour of the bascillica.

We wandered around Venice last night and had dinner. This morning we just had time to do some reconassaince for our plane ride today and to spend a bit more cash in tourist traps.

After a ferry and a bus ride(we haven't used a taxi yet on this trip, which makes Ben very happy) we got to the airport about 1 hour before checkin and about 3 hours before our flight was supposed to leave (at 3.40pm) only to discover that it had been delayed to 6.05pm.

It has subsequently been updated to 6.40pm and now 7.25pm. Therefore, we will probably get to our hotel at about 10pm......so much for living the Paris nightlife on our first night..........

On the upside they did give us a drink and a roll to compensate us for sitting in an airport for 7 hours..........(insert sarcasm here)

Anyhow, that brings you up to date with us........

We are both well, and enjoying the trip, but getting a little tired........

We're looking forward to Paris in London, but also looking forward to sleeping in our own beds in a about a week......

Look forward to seeing you all soon.

Love Ben and Mel

Amsterdam and Rome

2009-08-22T19:06:00.000+10:00

Ben & Mel's email - 22/08/09
(apologies if this is a little mixed in style, we have both written various parts)

Hi all,

It’s been far too long since our last email for which we apologize. Therefore, this email might get a bit long-winded!

In our previous email we discussed our trip to Amsterdam, which didn’t go quite to plan.

The following day we decided that we would spend a day recovering, as we were both feeling run down and Mel had an illness that she was having trouble throwing that was lowering her energy levels.

So, we went for a walk through Amsterdam, which is a beautiful city, but didn’t commit ourselves to walking through any of the major sights. We felt much better for the rest.

The following day we went to the Rijksmuseum, which houses a great collection of art, including many Rembrandt masterpieces. We sat outside for dinner in the main nightlife area Leidensplein and people watched, soaking up Amsterdam’s unique nightlife.

We also visited the Van Gogh Museum, which we both enjoyed, and has a very well put together audio tour. It is fascinating to watch his progression from painting in dark colours in Amsterdam to brighter colours in Paris, and then his much more experimental stuff when he was living in the south of France and then in and out of various mental asylums in the last couple of years of his life. So much vibrancy to these later works.

We visited Anne Frank’s House, which is very moving and has changed a little since the last time Ben was there. You used to be able to look through the books containing the names of all of the Jews deported out of the Netherlands to camps during the Holocaust period (and where there are several pages of Walvisch’s listed), but now it is behind glass and only open to the page listing the Frank’s. If it will preserve the evidence though, we’re all for it!! We got to read some of Anne Frank's original diaries, which Mel could read in the original Dutch.

We also wandered through the Red Light District at night, which is a bit of an eye opener. Another strange aspect to the Amsterdam culture.

We really enjoyed our stay in Amsterdam. The city is gorgeous, the people are friendly, the public transport is good (you don’t normally associate Amsterdam with trams, but the tram network is huge and fantastic), and it has this underlying current of life. It’s live and let live attitude makes enjoying the nightlife fun for a couple of tourists such as ourselves and in general this is a very livable city. Mel loved hearing Dutch everywhere, as this is the language of her childhood and she has a particular fondness for hearing it being spoken.

We stayed in a nice little room in a lovely place a 2 minute walk (to the tram) and 5 minute tram ride from the heart of the city. The only problem was that we had initially only booked two nights and had extended our stay twice the night before we were due to check out. So, two mornings in a row we had the cleaning staff try to burst in, expecting to clean up for the next guests. They were very apologetic though!

There were many other places in the Netherlands we wanted to see, but with so much else left on the list, we decided to move on. We will definitely be going back for a longer holiday there in future, and will travel to some other cities then. We left Amsterdam for Rome feeling very refreshed and ready to continue our trek across Europe.

Our plane rides were OK (we had booked them ourselves with two different airlines with only a 2 hour stopover). We waited 30 minutes for the shuttle train from the airport to the main train station in stifling heat. Then, when we got to Rome we spent some time trying to figure out how we were going to get to the Hotel.

Mel was fairly keen to catch a cab there by this stage, but Ben didn’t want to get ripped off by a Roman cab driver as soon as we had touched down in Italy. Ben was convinced that we could get a bus, which would take us to the hotel, but we couldn’t find an information desk anywhere and there were about 15 bus terminals and bus’s going every which way.

Eventually (about 3 hours after we had first touched down in Rome) a very nice man asked if he could help (yes, we looked that confused) and told us that the 92 bus touched the street on which our hotel is located. We figured out the ticketing system, got on a bus and got off at the "correct" stop – and then walked for about 3 kms uphill in the heat with our luggage until we reached our hotel.

It was now 9.30pm and we were tired. Ben is very well aware that his decision not to invest in a cab is going to follow his around for the rest of his life – my life is going to be a complete misery from now on =P

We had booked the hotel through Wotif the night before, and had taken a mystery Wotif deal, whereby you choose to pay a certain price for a certain star rated hotel without knowing exactly which hotel you are booking. We struck gold people – gold!!

This hotel is beautiful, with large rooms, a great bathroom, excellent staff, and (best of all) a huge flat screen television on the bedroom wall – luxury!!

The concierge was also very helpful, and went through a map with us showing us all the sites and which buses to take to which locations.

Our first day we took it easy, venturing out to find a Laundromat (Mel was very excited about this – personally setting the feminist movement back 20 years) and eating Pizza at a local place. At night we ventured out to the Trastevere which is the area around the Tevere (Tiber) River and ate dinner next to the river – it was very nice. They have temporary bars and cafes and stalls set up all summer along the river – it’s very funky and the ‘place to be’ for 20 and 30 something’s in the evening.

Yesterday we got up very early to head to Vatican City when it opened and just walked straight in to St Peter’s Basilica, which was most unexpected. No queuing! =)

We climbed the Cupola, which is the highest part of the dome of the Basilica, and took in the great views of Rome and the amazing mosaics on the wall up there. This involved taking an elevator up and then walking up 320 steps. I don’t think we would have made it up at the start of our holiday, but we’ve put some kilometers into the legs recently and we’re both feeling quite fit. Still, it's been high 30's to low 40's in terms of temperature here - certainly a little hotter than we would like, but still lovely.

Then we walked around the Basilica itself, which cannot be adequately described in words. The fact that it took us 2 ½ hours to walk around it (and it is one big open space) should give you an indication of its size.

Each part of the walls and pillars and domes are decorated with innumerable beautiful pieces of art. It is too much for the eye to take in let alone the camera.

We then headed over to the Vatican Museums, which is much larger than Ben remembered, and contains amazing pieces of art split into time periods. The Egyptian Collection was our favorite and we also enjoyed Raphael’s frescoes (he did 8 rooms I think), and the Sistine Chapel is amazing. By the time we got to it though we were very tired and a bit art-fatigued.

We had a nap and then got back up about 11pm to organize accommodation and travel for the rest of our holiday. We eventually got to bed about 3am, but have booked all our flights and accommodation for the remainder of our trip, now that we have a better idea of our timeline.

Today is our last day in Rome, and we had a huge one (or Colossal as the case may be). First we went to Termini (the main train station) to organize train tickets to Florence (or Firenze) tomorrow. Ben has always found it strange, and more than a little disrespectful when English speaking countries use a name for a city or country other than what the locals use. For instance, Florence is Firenze, Rome is Roma, and Venice is Venezia. Why can’t we use those names?

Anyhow, we bought our tickets from a self-serve machine, and while we were trying to compare prices for services a guy came up asking us to change two 50c coins for one Euro. We know this is usually dodgy, but we try to give people a chance just in case they genuinely need help. We went looking for a Euro and when we went to swap it with him he started to want to grab the coin without giving us the two 50c pieces.

Ben re-pocketed our coin and he walked off making upset noises and we got back to the business of purchasing our tickets and giggling at the scammer. 3 minutes later – he’s back again trying the same scam on us!! In total he tried the same scam on us 5 times in the 20 minute period that we were in the area, we kept having to tell him he’d tried us already =D. Now I don’t mind a guy trying to get ahead, but some people should be locked up for stupidity!! =P

As George W Bush once said “Fool me once……..” ah, never mind…… =D

We have just been distracted by something that Ben insists we tell you about. In Italy they overdub everything on television (up to now in Israel and the Netherlands all English programs have been subtitled). We watched Nightrider overdubbed the other day – but we just founf WWE Wrestling overdubbed in Italian – Brilliant!! The only things in English here are BBC news and National Geographic (though even that has some Italian shows).

Anyhow, next we caught the Metro train close to the Colosseum and went to stand in the huge queue to get in. We were informed that if we took a guided tour for only 4 Euros each, we could pretty much skip the queue. For some reason the guided tour cost less than the audiotour (where you get the headphones with commentary) and it was worth it.

The Colosseum is an amazing building, but would have looked a lot better if all of the marble that was once there hadn’t been melted down and used for other projects. It used to have a “roof” of sails that could be winched out providing shade or cover for the patrons. It gets its name because a Colossus (a huge statue of Nero) once sat outside the building, the Romans never called it by that name. Ben likes to think that it was once referred to as the Rome Dome =D

Following this we wandered through the ruins of the Forum, which was the political and social centre of Roman life during the eras of Kings, the Republic and the Emperors.

We went to the Pantheon, which is a 2,000 year old building, which has been converted into a Church. It’s a great feat of architecture. As Mel quipped, “this is 2,000 years old and we can’t even build a Ferris Wheel” – too true =P. It’s a two-edged sword with some of these ancient sites: it’s sad that they aren’t in their original state, however most of those still standing have only survived because they have been adopted by the church as rededicated Christian places.

We then walked to the Trevi Fountain (which is an amazing piece of work) and the Spanish Steps.

Now we are back home and very tired!!

We will be going to Florence tomorrow morning, where we’ll stay for the next 3 nights. Looking forward to it, as Florence is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We will then spend 1 night in Venice, then 3 nights in Paris, then 4 nights in London – then back home!

Hope you’re all well, and look forward to boring you all with details of this in person complete with pictures =)

Ben and Mel

Amsterdam emails - part 1

2009-08-15T16:41:00.002+10:00

Ben's email - 15/08/2009

Hi all,

Sometimes you have days where things don't go as planned.

As we mentioned last time, we were being picked up at 1.30am from our hotel for a 5.30am flight. Mel had slept for a bit of the day and I tried to go to bed about 9pm after we had finished dinner and packed to try to get some sleep. However, for some reason there was a fireworks display outside of our window, and when we say outside our window, we mean about 50m from our window! Hearing explosions in Israel is always a bit nerve racking.

We arrived at the airport OK, checked in, and got on our plane with no issues. We were both feeling pretty sick. Mel with a head cold and Ben with a stomach bug. But we knew we weren't in for too long a stretch. Well.

We noticed during check-in that our flight to London was not flying to Heathrow as we were expecting, but was flying to Luton (another airport in London). I had assumed that as we were purchasing return flight tickets that the flight on the way back would RETURN us to our original place of leaving, but no matter :)

The resulting situation was that we would land at 8.30am in Luton and would then have several hours to check-in and be ready to board our 4pm flight at Heathrow - not ideal, but do-able.

So, we are in the air coming up to London and the pilot announces that we are going to land shortly and they take our headsets and turn off the entertainment system. We are running on time.

Next we circle over London for the next 30 mins with no explanation. Eventually, they let us know that the plane will be landing in Heathrow to refuel, as Luton is currently closed due to fog.

Could this be a lucky break for the good guys perhaps ?

The flight crew announce that they will inform us of what the plan is regarding us, as soon as they have figured it out.

We sit and we wait - for 2 hours !!

We have no entertainment, no food or drink is served and we don't know what is going on.

We are both feeling ill and just want to get off the plane..........

After some time they announce that we are not allowed to disembark at Heathrow due to UK regulations, so we make the very short trip to Luton.

We arrive at Luton about 11am, some 2 and a half hours late, and we start doing some revised calculations on how comfortable our trip to Heathrow will be.

We figure that we should get there 3 hours early for an international flight, so we have 2 hours (until 1pm) to get to Heathrow.

The baggage starts coming out on the conveyor belt and people start pulling their bags off. About half way through the conveyor belt stops. Alarms start going off and lights start flashing - we start swearing.

About 20 mins later the staff figure out what is wrong and the conveyer belt starts moving - it is now 11.30 am.

After some initial panic a helpful bus driver directed us to the airport shuttle express bus, that would get us to Heathrow directly from Luton in a little over an hour - the next bus leaves about 11.50am - game on !!

So after an hour drive through the English countryside (Mel was in heaven there) we got to Heathrow with no issues and checked in - unable to get to seats together, but it's only a short flight. We look at the screen to discover which gate we are to board from and it reads 4pm flight - gate opens at 3.45pm.

This effectively means that we will not know which gate our flight leaves from until 15 mins before it is due to leave. Generally they give you the gate 60 mins before the flight and boarding begins 30 mins before the flight. We suspect some delay is going on.

We get some food and we wait for our gate, and we wait, and we wait. About 3.42pm the board changes to say that our flight is delayed until 4.35 and our gate won't be given until 3.47.

The flight (once we actually boarded and left) went without a hitch and went for less than an hour. We were very, very happy to finally arrive in Amsterdam. Between me being here before and Mel knowing the language we caught a train and a tram to our hotel with not too much trouble and checked in about 9.30pm.

The hotel is very nice. Decent sized room for Holland and big ensuite. We don't know if it is just that we have different names (Mel hasn't changed her name on her ID's yet) but everywhere we go we get 2 beds made up as singles but pushed together. Very strange!

We went out for dinner in Leidensplein, which was packed, it being a Friday night. We had a little wander and then came back for some well needed sleep.

We are both feeling better today after a good sleep in (no tour needing us to be ready to go by 8am is pretty good!). I am completely better and Mel has more energy, though she still has a head cold.

We're planning our day currently, and looking to find some lunch and see maybe one gallery today, and brave the Red Light District tonight.

Missing you all (but only a little) :)

Ben and Mel

Israel emails - part 3

2009-08-14T16:23:00.001+10:00

Ben's email - 14/08/2009

Hi all,

We are on our last day in Israel and thought that we would leave you with some thoughts on our trip here, as our last email was a bit rushed.

Mel has come down with a bad head cold this morning, and is not feeling well at all. I found some cold and flu stuff at a Pharmacy here (after searching for an hour and a half due to some dodgy directions from the concierge) and hopefully she’ll recover somewhat before our flight tonight.

We wrote an email earlier about our experiences on the first couple of days in Jerusalem before our tour started, which some of you would have received, so we won’t touch on that. However, we would like to talk some more about the rest of our trip.

Jerusalem has a strange vibe to it. Although everyone we dealt with there was very nice, you could feel that something just wasn’t right, and we wouldn’t want to live there. The Old City was cramped and more than a little dodgy, and the New City was like any other modern city.

Between 1948 and 1954 and then again from 1964 all buildings much be covered in Limestone, giving the city a stunning appearance. As it has been over 30 degrees every day the light reflects of the limestone straight into the eyes, which takes some getting used to.

Yad Vashem the Holocaust Museum was very moving. The museum is very large and has various displays in chronological order We were encouraged by our guide to skip over the historical information at each display and instead make our way to the screens at the displays on which they had holocaust survivors talking about their personal experiences – it was devastating. It is amazing that some people have the audacity to suggest that the Holocaust never happened whilst the survivors are still alive. I would suggest that they look into the eyes of these people as they tell you of the horrors they have witnessed and tell them that they’re lying. Not to mention the reams of documented evidence. As our guide said, the Germans were extremely accurate and pedantic with their records, which is one of the reasons we know exactly how many people were lost and where, when and how they died.

The Church of the Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem is a very interesting building. It is the most holy place in Orthodox and Catholic Christianity, being the purported place of the crucifixion and burial (and resurrection). Each of the denominations owns a room in this church (Armenian, Greek, Roman Catholic and Egyptian) and each has decorated their rooms differently. The end result is a hodgepodge of different styles, which gives the church a very strange appearance. I have never seen a church decorated like this anywhere else in the world.

The Western Wall was very moving for me. I said a prayer and went inside to listen to the Ultra Orthodox who were holding a service in a building which runs off the wall. Mel went to the women’s section and said a prayer also, she said you could feel the energy coming off the wall.

The Western Wall was a retaining wall used to hold up a platform on which part of the 2nd Temple stood. It was built as part of Herod’s renovations around 20 BCE to extend the area of the temple (they had to build a platform because the original temple was build on a mountain so there was only so much flat space).

We visited Masada, which was a fortress where, during the revolt around 70 CE which culminated in the destruction of the Temple, the inhabitants chose to kill themselves rather than become Roman slaves. It was very interesting. It is astonishing to think of the effort it would take to build something like that (high up on a flat top mountain) in the heat with no food, hauling water from springs kilometers away. It was 40 degrees when we were there, and we couldn’t even imagine what it would have been like to live and work there. They only get 0.7 inches of rain per annum in that area, and you can feel yourself dehydrating just breathing.

Incidentally, Herod’s Palace at Masada contained country club, including a pool and a wet sauna. Who wants a wet sauna in the desert ?!!

Mel and I went for a float in the Dead Sea, which was a great experience. As you are walking out to the level at which you can float your leg suddenly sinks knee deep in a sink hole and you are covered in mud.

Before we went in our tour guide warned us not to get the water in our eyes unless we like pain, as the water is 7 times saltier than normal sea water. Also he told us not to breathe in if we fell in by accident, because if the magnesium in the water reached our lungs we would die – comforting isn’t he ? =D

The floating was awesome fun though and we covered ourselves with mud. We stayed out there for maybe 45 mins, and the water was very warm.

We had an exhausting day where we traveled for several hours in the bus, and went wandering through various ruins that I can tell you about when we get back before arriving at Ein Gev.

Ein Gev is the name of a Kibbutz , and I was worried that we were going to be roughing it in Kibbutz style cabins, possibly working for our supper. I needn’t have worried. We stayed at the Ein Gev Holiday Resort where we were housed in little self contained rooms with excellent air con, and a balcony with a gorgeous view of the sea of Galilee – it was not too shabby….

We discovered that they had a laundry there, which made Mel exceptionally happy, we had previously been washing our clothes in the sink, and when I say we, I mean Mel.

Mel said that she felt a lot more like we were on holiday now that we were out of the city and picked up in terms of mood and energy – I stayed grumpy cos that’s what I do :)

(he really didn’t, he’s just being sheepish about his initial grumpiness =P – from Mel, who is helping write this email)

Some of the other things included going to visit Syrian Bunkers on the Golan Heights, going to Capernaum, to Tiberius, and Megiddo which was an excavation of Solomon’s stables and is actually a tell where there are 14 layers of cities atop each other, amazing layers of history.

All around Israel you can see tents where they are excavating different cities from various time periods. We kept thinking that it would be hellish trying to build a sewage system or lay a foundation anywhere, cos at every place you wanted to dig you’d need to have an archeologist check it over.

Yesterday we left Ein Gev and stopped off at Tzfat to visit the two old synagogues there. They are very interesting. Joseph Caro wrote the Shulchan Aruch (“Set Table”) there while living in one of the synagogues, which is a concise synthesis of the decisions reached in the Babylonian and Israeli Talmuds. It is still used by Orthodox Jews today as a reference guide for how to live. The other synagogue is named in honor of the man who popularized the Zohar – the main text of the Kabbalah.

Then we went to the Crypt of St John and underground crusader city in Acre (or Acco). Mel and I really liked this place for some reason. Even though it was used by the Ottoman Empire and the British as a jail over the years. We still liked the feel of it.

We stopped at Haifa to look at the Bahai Gardens. The Bahai believe that you should always respect others’ opinions and that you should not challenge their opinion (difficult for the Jews to comprehend perhaps). They believe that gardens are calming and good for the soul, so they built a beautiful symmetrical garden at Haifa. Unfortunately, the shrine is under renovation at the moment, so we couldn’t go inside.

We stopped at Caesarea to look at the Roman Statues and Theatre, where they still have performances nightly. It was a very interesting city, and very pretty, being right on the Mediterranean.

We then moved on to Tel Aviv where we are now!

We have made good friends with another Australian couple who live in Gippsland. We are having dinner with them tonight. We are then getting picked at 1.30am tonight for a 5am plane .We then have an 8 hour stopover in London before going to Amsterdam. This is one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but now looks hellish as it has come closer.

Anyhow, we’ll stop writing now, as we’ve taken up more than enough of your time! It’s almost time for me to look at my Supercoach Football team (got to keep your priorities straight =D)

By for now, we’ll write again from Amsterdam…

Ben & Mel

Israel emails - part 2

2009-08-08T04:20:00.000+10:00

Mel's email - 08/09/2009

Hi all!

We are writing this sitting in the middle of a sunny pedestrian mall in the Jerusalem new city, having found free wifi for the laptop. We've had 2 very interesting days. On the first day we went to the Israel museum and viewed the Dead Sea Scrolls, we went to Yad Vashem which is the Holocaust Museum, which was very moving. We also went to the Knesset (parliament buildings) but could only view this from the outside.

We have a small tour group of 11 people which is nice, 4 Christians and 7 Jews, and are seeing a good mix of places interesting to both groups. Our Tour Guide Yehuda is very good, he is a font of knowledge of the history of the country, and is ex Israeli Secret Service among other things and has given us an interesting perspective on the country. The country is very safe and there is a huge mix of all types of people everywhere, it's amazing.

Yesterday we saw views of the city from Mount Scopus and Mount of Olives, then we went to the Garden of Gethsemane where there is a beautiful church run by the Franciscans (original Byzantine mosaics), then through the old city where we saw Church of the Sepulca (thought to be the place of crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus) which is run jointly by multiple Christian orthodox denominations, then walked the stations of the cross (traditionally the path Jesus walked from sentencing to where the crucifixion is thought to have taken place), and went to the Western Wall (the retaining wall that is still standing from the second temple which was destroyed in 70 CE) which was very special for us. It was a very long day, lots of walking, but great.

Today we have a free day, and decided to come into the main malls in new city, lots of good shopping, and we kept up Ben's tradition of eating at McDonalds in every country!!

Tomorrow promises to be a very long day as well, as we will be traveling south to Masada, and then on to the Dead Sea (for a swim - or a float as the case may be), and to our hotel which is in a Kibbutz (a commune) in Ein Gev in the North East, hopefully we will write soon about our adventures there.

Glad to hear about the mighty Saints win (thanks for letting us know Sandy!)

Lots of love to all of you, missing home heaps!

Love,

Mel & Ben

Israel emails - part 1

2009-08-06T15:53:00.003+10:00

Hi all,

I thought I would re-post the travel emails we are sending to some family and friends on my blog, as not everyone reads my blog and not everyone wants emails all the time, so this should cover all our bases =)

We hope we don't bore you - enjoy!

06/08/2009:

Ben's email:

Hi all,

Just thought I'd write to you all to let you know how we are going so far.

The plane trips over were relatively uneventful and not particularly worth writing about. All up it was about 37 hours between when we left Melbourne and when we arrived at our hotel in Jerusalem.......a fair amount of time between beds for anyone !!

Mel and I were both exhausted by the time we reached Kuala Lumpur and managed to get a couple of hours sleep on some benches at the airport during our stopover and then again on our subsequent plane rides and stopover.

I didn't think it would be possible to get to sleep in the middle of the airport in London, but I managed.

We had a slight issue at the airport in Tel Aviv where we couldn't find the person who was to transfer us to Jerusalem. We had a look on our info book and discovered that we were supposed to meet them between the passport check and customs..........and now that we had passed customs they wouldn't let us back through.

The info desk person was very helpful and rang our contact who appeared a few minutes later. We lost maybe 30 mins, but no serious harm done.

Our hotel is very nice and we slept for most of yesterday.

It struck Mel and I last night as we were having dinner that in contrast to the news reports of religious conflict that reach our TV screens and newspapers, there were equal numbers of Jewish and Arab diners in the restaurant happily sitting at adjoining tables.

Being the bigot she is, Mel tried to have the Arabs thrown out so we could eat our meal in peace,but the restaurant owner refused........ :D

We have internet in our hotel room,but it costs 40 shekels an hour, or about $8.

This is a little expensive for my taste (how can you not be a tight-arse in the Jewish Holy City?), and so we went looking for a particular internet cafe in the New City. We walked up and down the street twice before deciding that it wasn't there anymore.

It is currently 32 degrees in Jerusalem according to Google, but it feels more like 40 degrees, so by this stage I was getting a little annoyed.

We went to find another internet cafe in the old city and walked vaguely in the direction we wanted to go. We ended up on a slightly different road and ended up turning around.

We walked the other way down the street containing our internet cafe and ended up exiting the Old City, having obviously missed it again !!

Eventually we found the place and are currently sitting in different booths on different computers.

After my antics the last hour or so, Mel's probably quite happy not to be sitting near me :(

Anyhow, we meet up with our tour group tonight, and we've been trying to avoid visiting any historical sights until then so that we don't spoil anything for the tour.

There's little air conditioning in here, and I suspect that the next time I write to you it will be from the comfort our hotel room for the exorbitant prices that they charge.

Alrighty, that's about it for tonight I'm going on a mission to find a falafel and a cool drink.

Will write again soon.....feel free to write back :)

Ben

Mel's email:

How very odd - reading Ben's email from a separate booth!

I suspect some of his email may have been a rather Machiavellian attempt to get back in my good graces- anyone who has seen Ben in the morning will know what a grump I have been dealing with! =D

Anyway, The flights over were fairly painless and boring as flights are, we certainly checked our pride at the airport door and just tried to sleep on any good benches we could find during our stopovers. I always thought I couldn't sleep on a plane... I've now realized one can sleep anywhere if one is tired enough!

But flights aside, we are here and it is beautiful. I've acclimatised quite well but the heat is getting to Ben, hopefully we get some cooler days!

Well, our hour in our dodgy internet cafe is nearly up - I will try to contribute more next time, when we have actually seen a few things =)

Miss you all!!

love,

Mel

Funniest response - Jim's email (Jim I hope you don't mind the re-posting)

Hello!

I am very jealous. I wish I were on holiday too. I am sure you too will eventually find a hotel with internet. I found it quite hard to find internet cafés in Spain. Everyone now takes their laptop with them when traveling.

Hope you enjoy(ed) the tour. I am still trying to picture Ben working at Kibbutz. I would be willing to pay money to see a photograph of Ben doing farm work. I’d pay double if it was a picture of him shoveling manure.

Jim.

P.S. Ben – stop being grumpy. You’re on holiday, get over it.

Aliens

2009-04-18T00:07:00.002+10:00

Does anyone else scream "get the F*** out of there!" at about 1 hour 40 seconds?

I forgot how rockin' this movie is. Whee!!!

Oh Deary Me...

2009-03-30T00:03:00.001+11:00

http://www.rolcats.com/

Indirectly (via a random post on a random tpoic) from http://jezebel.com/

I loves him!

2009-03-20T23:12:00.002+11:00

Check out the newest monster creature from one of my many crafty blog feed people art=life=love has made:
I am seriously considering buying him... though the cost may be slightly prohibitive at $110 USD. Darn the Australian dollar!!!

But still - I loves him so much!!

She does such awesome things.

More TED love...

2009-03-17T00:20:00.003+11:00

The 2 TED talks that I watched/listened to today:

See the MIT student who gets a standing ovation for his 'sixth sense' technology in the making:

Plus Dan Gilbert talk's about the value of happiness and how bad we are at predicting what is the 'right' thing to do:

I am doing more podcast listening of these talks rather than having to sit myself at the computer to watch - often I can fit one in on my train ride to or from work.

I challenge you to try it and see if it doesn't improve, or at least affect, the way you look at your day...

Unfortunately...

2009-03-09T16:49:00.002+11:00

A meme stolen from Pip!

You google "Unfortunately " and cut and paste your favourite quotes...

Having a common name (when shortened) gave me plenty to choose from...

Unfortunately, Mel was forced to give in when the Scottish anti-smoking NAZI's turned up and threatened to pull the theatre licence.

Unfortunately, Mel on Sunrise, as she got more pregnant became more f_cking stupid!

Unfortunately, Mel wont let me buy little goodies for it to make it go faster.

Unfortunately, Mel’s sensitivity chip still isn’t working.

Unfortunately MEL does not allow you to assign a value directly to a vector.

Unfortunately, Mel's foot got caught in one of the traps and she was taken prisoner.

Unfortunately, Mel was as wicked as the shadowrunners, and Jazz blew into a bloody mess as the bomb within exploded.

Yet my un-shortened name still yields some fun...

Unfortunately Melinda's obfuscated comment may speak volumes on the topic.

Unfortunately, Melinda was a flop, transforming Lifter into the forgotten heroes of '90s teen angst.

Unfortunately, Melinda escaped just as Security arrived.

Unfortunately, Melinda keeps to herself all the time and barely speaks.

and my favorite:

Unfortunately, Melinda expects that her admittedly fabulous body and good looks and wonderful costume changes are going to do the job for her.

Brain twister...

2009-03-07T14:42:00.002+11:00

I just read this poem through twice...

Brain tired now - going back to bed!

The Chaos

A-ha!

2009-03-06T21:50:00.001+11:00

Had to Facebook to know I wasn't imagining things - it's kind of nice to be able to get instant contact with other people when weird things happen!

Earthquake review: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009dwau.php

That the small excitement for my evening over, anyway... =P

Shake rattle and roll

2009-03-06T21:02:00.002+11:00

Did we just have an earthquake?

My desk just shook like it does when my large cat jump on it. Then I realized Ben had turned around - he felt the same thing.

Can't get on to seis.com.au, so it's probably a good bet it was one.

How bizarre....

Freaky Hello Kitty, and other Japanofile things...

2009-03-05T22:08:00.003+11:00

Someone told me at a recent party that I should update my blog more often. I don't think this is what they had in mind...

But since what has been seen cannot be unseen, I must now inflict it on you all!

The peeps over at Dark Diamond call this ad a "deliciously weird ad for Hello Kitty MAC Cosmetics featuring a goth-loli-ish model in a dream sequel, where she follows a black cat through a conceptual uterus only to be gang raped via interpretative dance by a bunch of men in black Hello Kitty S&M attire. I cant even begin to imagine how the sold Sanrio on this idea."

Meanwhile I await yet another Kawaii package to arrive from J-Box/J-List... yes, I am adding to my bento box collection. No, I do not intend to stop anytime soon.

Apologies to all who are wondering if I am still alive, I will be catching up on facecrack/emails/various other modes of communication very soon! I have been oscillating between feeling rather unwell and being in a nosedive job depression! Over it - time for a change. Baaaad time to start looking.

It's MEH box!

2009-02-08T12:10:00.001+11:00

Ouch!

2009-02-07T16:04:00.002+11:00

The weather by us, since 2:30pm (as logged at Moorabbin Airport, 5 mins down the road):

Sat 15:50 EDT	NNW	43	59	46.1	5.6	43.0	9	117 Ext	-	997.1
Sat 15:48 EDT	NNW	44	65	45.9	3.8	42.0	8	125 Ext	0.0	997.1
Sat 15:40 EDT	NW	44	69	46.1	4.0	42.0	8	126 Ext	-	997.0
Sat 15:30 EDT	NW	39	57	46.6	6.0	43.0	9	109 Ext	0.0	997.1
Sat 15:30 EDT	NW	39	57	46.6	6.0	43.0	9	109 Ext	-	997.1
Sat 15:20 EDT	NW	43	59	46.2	5.7	43.0	9	117 Ext	-	997.2
Sat 15:10 EDT	NNW	48	69	46.0	5.6	43.0	9	133 Ext	-	997.3
Sat 15:00 EDT	NNW	39	63	46.2	5.7	43.0	9	107 Ext	0.0	997.4
Sat 15:00 EDT	NNW	39	63	46.2	5.7	43.0	9	107 Ext	-	997.4
Sat 14:50 EDT	NNW	39	59	46.2	5.7	43.0	9	107 Ext	-	997.6
Sat 14:40 EDT	NNW	41	59	45.9	5.5	43.0	9	111 Ext	-	997.7
Sat 14:30 EDT	NNW	46	67	45.6	5.3	42.0	9	125 Ext	0.0	997.6

I've never experienced weather over 46 degrees before.

Popped outside for a half a minute just now: the concrete that has been out of the sun was too hot to stand on for more than 10 seconds.

But it's getting more and more overcast here, and the wind is just starting to turn, so hopefully the cool change is coming up now (hopefully it's not a false change).

We are inside with air con going (no saving energy today), I am watching My Neighbour Totoro (again) and drinking margarita's (see Teegan, I promised I would!)

Hope everyone's staying as cool as us....

You make me so hot, Make me wanna drop

2009-01-29T21:15:00.002+11:00

The closest temperature observation post near me is Moorabbin airport. It's right down the road in fact.

Top temp today was 44.8 at 2:50 pm, according to Weatherzone 24 graph, though the Recent Days section says it got to a top of 45 exactly at some point.

No wonder the catskies looked decidedly flat when we got home.

I'm not ashamed to say we are running our air con - it is not cooling, just reducing the heat to an almost tolerable level.

Adam Savage and the Art of Extreme Obsession

2008-12-28T02:52:00.003+11:00

most amusing...

MythBusters' Adam Savage - Dodos, Maltese Falcons, and the Art of Extreme Obsession

White Roofs for a Green Planet

2008-12-28T02:48:00.001+11:00

Hmm, does this work? Sounds like a good idea...

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2125/82/

They live amoung us...

2008-11-16T01:10:00.000+11:00

I hate it when he's right...

2008-10-16T21:51:00.004+11:00

In December last year, we bought our house. Though we knew that the Aus housing market seemed to be at a peak, it was the right time for us to buy, so we accepted that. We were more than happy with what we got and what we paid.

We debated at the time about whether or not to fix our rates. Me being a practical sort, thought it might be a good idea, even if it would only be for a short time (say, a year or two) until we were sure rates were on the way down, and not up. Ben assured me that the market was set to swing down within the year and he insisted we stick with the variable.

Before our 1st repayment even came up after settlement, the rate had jumped for us about 5 times.

I have to admit I gave him a little bit of grief. There might have been a little bit of "I still think we should have fixed for a year or two!" bandied about as our budget got tigher & tighter.

Ben continued to assure me that rates would drop within the year.

He additionally got me interested in the sub-prime crisis in the US way back last year encouraging me watch the 4 corners report Mortgage Meltdown, fascinated by how the sub-prime crisis might affect the markets over the next year. (note: this was screened 17 September 2007, not 2008). Watch it, it's excellent.

Now I watch the global credit crunch unfold and the subsequent global reaction, and watch our rates slashed 30 basis points, then 80, with more cuts extremely likely in both November and December.

We have no debt besides our mortgage, and no investments besides our super.

I really do have a new found respect for Ben's economic understanding that saw danger and change. I've realised he's actaully a pretty good Financial Planner =P

What's more we're both employed in 2 of the stable/growth industries in the financial sector right now. So in the next little while, we'll be counted among the lucky ones who won't be touched by this impending R word much.

That being said, I worry about those that will be. I certainly know people close to retirement who have had a number of their retirement egg's smashed. Who else do I know who will be affected by investment and job loss?

We held a recruitment "Open Day" at our work today, where people were walked through and we did meet and greet and explained our department and our teams and what we do. They expected say around 20 people to sign up. We got about 150, and then they had to close the sign up because it was getting too big. Among those were a number of people who have been made redundant recently. We have a Telstra call centre in the same building as us. A number of them signed up at the last minute after seeing the posters up, smsing and calling each other to come in. They have just had their jobs cut.

And so it begins.

A number of the assistants I work with are truly Gen Yers, wanting a lot out of an employer, bopping between jobs when more benefits call. I wonder how they will take this 'new' experience of a tight job market, remembering myself the recession in the 90's which I caught the tail end of.

The next few weeks, months and probably even couple of years will be extremely interesting to watch. I wonder what the government/financial system will look like at the end of it? And how long it will take for them to forget yet again why they are 'heavily' regulated and start freeing themselves up for a new dizzying peaks? =P

Pension Rant

2008-09-23T21:44:00.002+10:00

As I come home from another 8pm finish, have to read ore about this stupid coalition 'campaign' (in every political sense of the word) to raise Govt. Pension by $30 per week.

Not that I'm disagreeing with that notion itself. The Disability and Age Pension is ridiculously low, who can live on it? Our client's who rely on it as their main and often only source of income certainly don't manage very well.

But then why (in an election year strangely enough) did the Liberal Government at the time think it was in any way a good idea to to DOUBLE the Asset Test taper??

This effectively means that those were were previously knocked out of being eligible for a pension under the Assets Test suddenly needed double the assets they previously had needed to have before they were knocked out (to the tune of approx $515,500 for a single person, $900000 for couple, noting that does not include their home which is non-assessable). Purportedly meant to benefit those who had high asset level but low income and to encourage people to fund their own retirements, all it did as far as I can tell is make people hold on to things like property assets instead of freeing them up in a market where they are desperately needed, and allow those who had lots of assets and therefore generally enough free money to access a good financial planner to obtain a Govt. pension when they really probably didn't need it. Did nothing for those doing it tough except leave less in the coffers to be able to raise the basic rate for those who rely on pension income as their main source of income. I can't help but wince when I come across a client with $400,000 in shares and managed investments who still gets a Centrelink Pension on top.

If this decision hadn't come into effect, there would likely be no problem now raising the basic rates, we'd have the money there to do it.

It gets in my craw that they jump up and down now saying "We need to give pensioners more money!!". Yes, we definitely do. And you made it much harder to do so.

Grrrr!

/rant.

2008-08-30T11:49:00.003+10:00

I just found out one of my favorite books from childhood ("The Little White Horse") has been made into a movie called "The Secret of Moonacre" that's currently in post-production, due for release February 2009 (see the website here).

I say favorite from childhood, but you know how it is with books you loved when you were little, you still read them once every year or at the very most 2.

Ok, well I do =P

But now I really understand some of my friends terror about movies like Lion/witch/wardrobe and the Tolkien set: what are they doing with my childhood memories? Are they in safe hands? Will this irrevocably change how I feel about this book and how I picture the world in that book to be?

Hmm.

Yet the other part of me is happy that the book might now get read by a new generation of children, if the movie turns out ok.

Meanwhile, I had quite the opposite response to a movie/book combo last night. I've been re-reading Emma and was impatient to get through it (to the 'good bit') so I watched a movie version last night to get my fix. Happily, can now go back to the book and enjoy the pace.

Anyways, yes, not blogging really, working late most days so coming home is taken up with cats and relaxing. At a slight loss with the relaxing part because I just finished watching the 1st 3 seasons of The Mighty Boosh which was awesome, but now I've run out =(

I need to get the other seasons of Northern Exposure (another childhood favorite show) - that should keep me going for a while.

Okay, better run and get ready for this wedding I'm meant to be at in a couple of hours...

QFTD

2008-08-06T22:37:00.002+10:00

Have thought it, but not seen it put so eloquently before (& it made me LOL):

"If George Orwell had known that his treatise on the control of the minds of the proletariat would have its title used for something designed to tranquillize the minds of the proletariat, I’m inclined to think he would have ended it all a lot sooner."

Courtesy of Hedgewizard

Beauty of Mathematics, Symmetry of numbers...

2008-07-13T11:41:00.004+10:00

How cool is THIS!
It's like music =)

Beauty of Mathematics

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

And finally, take a look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

Brilliant, isn't it?

from here

Here is a site that gives many links to all tings symmetrical, like visuals images, origami, quilts, alphabet tricks, tessellations, etc.

Once again I find myself wondering why we have no trouble understand mathematics through visual art, or through music, yet when we try to force mathematics into the normal forms we use as per above and start mixing them around, it becomes a chore.

Why??????

Scariest thing I've seen for a while...

2008-06-27T23:40:00.003+10:00

This was recommended to me by and American friend of mine, it's on his must see list.

If you haven't seen it, you must watch

Jesus Camp.

Part 3 is the part I am watching right now. This is the most disturbing so far. If you watch nothing else watch part 3 to 2.35 minutes. The crying children. OMG!!!!

I had to stop and blog about it, and now I am almost afraid to keep watching.

FAR be it from me to critisize another persons way of finding religion. But surely this is child abuse? The sad thing is this is what Evangelical Christianity is being viewed as by many now, because of these (what I would label) extremists.

(deep breathe, going back for more).....

Free TV Online

2008-06-21T22:36:00.002+10:00

Because I didn't realise until recently that not everyone else spends all their free time watching TV shows online, or knew where to.
Because I don't want to buy or download stuff unless it's very special, and I tend to only want to watch something once and not have to them throw it out/delete it or store it forever.
Because free to air tv has a pretty dismal selection and is not on demand.
Because I don't mind watching stuff in less than ideal quality, or with random subtitles.
Because I like watching what I want, when I want.

The best site, I find, is Surf the Channel.

Lolcatting to pass the time...

2008-06-21T00:09:00.001+10:00

Quoting

2008-06-15T16:27:00.002+10:00

“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
C.S. Lewis

I've spent the entire weekend reading through my new pile of books under the blankie in the lounge & relaxing with Ben & the kitties. Bliss!!!!!! There have been some moments I did emerge from my reading cocoon: went out for dinner with Ben last night to the local, watched Incredible Hulk with him today (surprise ending!) and am now typing one handed while cradling a little girl-kitty in the other (we're almost too big too sleep with mommy this way now, so have to enjoy it while we can =) )

I'm trying to drum up some personal enthusiasm to get healthy and get into the weight loss frame of mind, pending our little event scheduled for December 14 (yes I'm finally getting the date right!). But I seem to never be able to do this without attaching myself to a fad of some kind... today I've been looking into herbs and tea diets (triggered by my trying to expand my current nursemaid regime with Ben - he's had chronic bronchitis for a while now, too long for my liking: we're now tackling this by getting the house as non-irritant as possible (no dust, incense, etc) and I'm making him inhale steamy water with my personal essential oil recipe for bronchitis - Eucalyptus, Lemon & Cypress oil - 3 times a day. Cypress oil rock for any phlegm-type lung complaints.

Hmmm... plenty more I could write, but as previously mentioned - trying one handed here (this has already taken me AGES)... I think surfing will be an easier pastime right now! =)

AnimationMentor.com Student Showcases

2008-06-15T01:50:00.005+10:00

http://www.animationmentor.com/quicktime/winterShowcase/
http://www.animationmentor.com/quicktime/fallShowcase/

2008-06-09T23:28:00.002+10:00

DE TING, DE TING!!!

2008-06-09T00:46:00.002+10:00

(The Customer is) Not Always Right is one of the most addictive sites out there for those of us who have ever had the misfortune of working in retail or call centres....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tech Support | Oregon, USA

(I worked tech support for a major software company, specifically with their digital media products. This call was about their video editing software.)

Me: “Thanks for calling ***** tech support.

(The customer gives me her info and has a thick accent I can’t place.)

Me: “Great! What can I do for you?”

Her: “Yes. I am trying to edit dees beedio, and eet’s blue and blue on de ting.”

Me: “So…it’s blue, and blue…on the thing?”

Her: “Yes.”

Me: “Where is it blue?”

Her: “On de ting.”

Me: “By ‘thing,’ do you mean the Computer screen or your camera?”

Her: “Yes…de ting.”

Me: “Ma’am, I can’t see what you are looking at so you’ll have to tell me the name of the thing that is blue.”

Her: *getting angry* “DE TING!!! Eeet’s BLUUUUE AN BLUUUEE ON DE TING!!!!”

Me: “What exactly is blue? The video on your monitor? Are you outputting to TV? The viewfinder on your camera?”

Her: “Yes.”

Me: “Yes…which one?”

Her: *yelling* “DE TING!!!!”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m sorry but I don’t understand where you are having a problem.”

Her: “THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!! I SPEAK PERFECT ENGLISH!!! MY HUSBAND TAUGHT ME HE WILL BE VERY VERY ANGRY WIT YOU!!! I DEMAND RESPECT!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!”

Me: “Ma’am, I agree. You speak english very very well. The problem I am having is you are not telling me where you are seeing blue video.”

Her: “ON DE TIIIING!!!”

(This exchange went on for a while before she got frustrated and hung up. The best part is, my call was being listened to by some higher level support guys. They created an internal troubleshooting document that appeared as follows:)
PROBLEM: VIDEO IS BLUE AND BLUE ON THE THING

SOLUTION: NONE AT THIS TIME

TROUBLESHOOTING:
>(TECH SUPPORT)IS THE THING BLUE? TRY REINSTALLING THE THING

>(TECH SUPPORT) THING REINSTALLED. STILL BLUE

>(ENGINEER) CANNOT RECREATE THING IN LAB.

>(ENGINEER) PROBLEM ALMOST RECREATED. THING RED.

(And so on and so on…)

Auditory ILLUUUUUUUSION!

2008-06-08T23:31:00.001+10:00

Because, as previously mentioned, I like saying the word "illUUUUUUUUUUsion!

http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/sine-wave-speech/

This will freak you out.

How the Editors of Scientific American celebrated April Fools Day...

2008-06-08T23:25:00.001+10:00

April 1, 2005

Okay, We Give Up

We feel so ashamed

By The Editors

There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.

In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of so-called evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it. Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.

Moreover, we shamefully mistreated the Intelligent Design (ID) theorists by lumping them in with creationists. Creationists believe that God designed all life, and that's a somewhat religious idea. But ID theorists think that at unspecified times some unnamed superpowerful entity designed life, or maybe just some species, or maybe just some of the stuff in cells. That's what makes ID a superior scientific theory: it doesn't get bogged down in details.

Good journalism values balance above all else. We owe it to our readers to present everybody's ideas equally and not to ignore or discredit theories simply because they lack scientifically credible arguments or facts. Nor should we succumb to the easy mistake of thinking that scientists understand their fields better than, say, U.S. senators or best-selling novelists do. Indeed, if politicians or special-interest groups say things that seem untrue or misleading, our duty as journalists is to quote them without comment or contradiction. To do otherwise would be elitist and therefore wrong. In that spirit, we will end the practice of expressing our own views in this space: an editorial page is no place for opinions.

Get ready for a new Scientific American. No more discussions of how science should inform policy. If the government commits blindly to building an anti-ICBM defense system that can't work as promised, that will waste tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars and imperil national security, you won't hear about it from us. If studies suggest that the administration's antipollution measures would actually increase the dangerous particulates that people breathe during the next two decades, that's not our concern. No more discussions of how policies affect science either-so what if the budget for the National Science Foundation is slashed? This magazine will be dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and not just the science that scientists say is science. And it will start on April Fools' Day.

The "let me in!" cat

2008-06-08T23:21:00.000+10:00

TokyoPlastic Drum Machine

2008-06-08T23:19:00.000+10:00

Drum Machine

Purdy =)

Message from beyond the Pond

2008-06-08T23:13:00.001+10:00

From: http://www.thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/blog/2008/05/30/the-letter-in-the-pond/

The Letter in the Pond

Recently, a friend of ours, Simon, moved to Over, just North of Cambridge, UK. He was moving to a lovely property, with a nice garden and a pond.

Simon wasn’t so keen on the pond though. It’s not very child friendly, and with two young ones running around the garden, he thought it would be safer to get rid of it.

A few buckets and hours of sweating later, Simon lifted the pond lining to discover a laminated piece of paper sitting at the bottom of the gaping hole that once was the previous owner’s pond.

10th July 2003

To whom it may concern:

If you are reading this then I can only assume that you have removed the pond under which this note was buried.

Of course, as I am not around at the moment, I am not in a position to comment on why you may have chosen to remove the pond and, it is fair to say, that there could be any number of reasons for doing so. I will not try to list those potential reasons right now but there could be quite a lot of them. One of the more bizarre reasons could be that the removal of the pond was the direct result of a bite on the ankle from a Wildebeest, but I shall not speculate.

Anyways, I would like you to be aware that the digging of this pond and it’s subsequent filling with water and stocking with fish and aquatic plants took a considerable amount of personal effort. It’s not just the digging of the hole you know (although clearly that is a major part), but also the consideration that had to be given to the sitting of the pond, its shape and size, its location close to a convenient electrical supply, etc etc etc.

I have to admit that I am a bit miffed about all this. You have just destroyed (yes, I know its a strong word to use but there are principles involved here) something that took me a long time to do. If I came along and destroyed something that it had taken a long time for you to do then I think you would be a bit miffed as well, so just think on that.

Enough of this. Just get on with what it is you think you are doing, you snivelling pond destroyer.

Oh, and by the way, I hope your head falls off.

Random Quote

2008-05-18T11:58:00.000+10:00

Some days it feels like I'm watching a house on fire. And one idiot wants to put it out with a machine gun. The other one wants to use grenades. And I'm standing there with a bucket of water and they look at me like I'm crazy.

MAH LOLCAT SPEEK IZ VRY GUD!

2008-05-10T23:41:00.000+10:00

http://speaklolcat.com/

Now - Let's go Quantum!

2008-05-09T02:06:00.003+10:00

Here's the most simple explanation of one of my favoritist things I could find, the double slit experiment, though it's a bit childlike. I always fail to explain this theory properly to people; interference patterns of peaks and troughs are so much easier to understand through a visual medium than through verbal description.

Quantum weirdness rocks. Does a conscious observer create reality?

It breaks my brain.

Because someone asked what my recent Facebook status update was about....

2008-05-09T01:49:00.002+10:00

Donnie, you have taught me so much about photoshop... and evil ex's....

More at http://www.mydamnchannel.com/

They sooo stole my idea!

2008-05-09T01:27:00.002+10:00

http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/frames.html

They just need a bigger ingredients list...

Yes, I can't sleep due to my head/sinus pain... despite the 2 Nurofen Plus's and 2 Valiums.

And DUE to same, I cannot guarantee I will post anything actually worth your time looking at, I am just StumblingUpon around as usual....

(Heh, when I try to spell check NuroFen using Firefox Dictionary extension, it gives my Ibuprofen to replace it with. I am amused.)

But I wouldn't want to fall asleep on one...

2008-05-09T01:24:00.002+10:00

http://coffincouches.com/

suspicious metal minds

2008-05-09T01:18:00.002+10:00

2008-04-10T21:11:00.001+10:00

94%

dodged the storm bullet

2008-04-03T23:10:00.003+11:00

I feel kind of bad that I had a relatively easy time of it getting home yesterday. We were told to go home at 4pm, as the weather and trains were going to get worse. So I went to Spencer street, got on a Frankston train immediately, and got to Cheltenham. There was a moment on the train when the driver announced "due to power lines and trees down, this train will be terminating at..." (I held my breathe dreading a bus from Caulfield) "...Cheltenham". I actually said "yessss!" out loud, and the people sitting opposite me and next to me laughed. "I'm getting off at Cheltenham!" I said. "So and I!" said each of them laughing. Except the woman diagonally opposite me. "I'm going to Hastings" she said mournfully. We gave her much sympathy.

At Cheltenham the scenes were reminiscent of Bowie's pics of Camberwell - hundreds of people waiting for buses, which I hope came. As I got to my car it started pelting down and turned cold, I felt very sorry for those people stuck waiting in the rain.

I got home, and we had power, and a nice warm dry house.

I feel very blessed! It's funny how these things make you thankful for things you often take a bit for granted.

In other news... Ben did his back and has been home all week. It's probably muscular says the doctor, he's fine when it's not in spasm, when it is he's in incredible pain. He's on cortisone, valium, panadine forte, plus he's still on antibiotics for the cough which caused it to go out, so he kind of rattles when he walks (hobbles) at the moment.

We also went and blew our budget on eBay this past week: we now own an eight seater wooden outdoor setting and a laptop. Yay! The setting it purdy:

But we are poor for a little while. Ah well, 2 more things off our list. Unfortunately our list has kind of moved from "things to do" to "things to buy". More fun, but more painful too.

Kira the kitten and Bendi the cat had their yearly vet visit on Monday night and got their shots, apparently that can make a kitten a bit under the weather and listless - HA! I have the scratches to prove not! I think Kira has learned her first word - PLAY!. But she seems to says it just like that and repeats over and over at high speed - PLAYPLAYPLAYPLAYPLAY!!!!!

Poor Bendi. He is the grumpy old man to her playful young thing. She follows him everywhere, and he's taken to hiding in the cupboard to get away when he needs to. But he's still in a relatively good mood - most of the time.

So Friday tomorrow, we have organised drinks with our Centreink contact, at the pub next to work. Should be good, I haven't made it to a work drinks for ages - cocktails here I come!

We probably won't make it to any parties this weekend due to Ben's evil back, so have a good one everyone.

2008-03-22T14:58:00.003+11:00

Just read about this in The Age: I don't like it, it freaks me out!!!!

I guess because I can't help anthropomorphising something that looks so much like an animal... when they guy tries to kick it over I said 'hey!' and felt sorry for it!

Meanwhile Ben was humming the dark side music from Star Wars, he thinks they look a little too much like imperial walkers for comfort...

Weirdest Robot Ever

Lame

2008-03-22T12:57:00.006+11:00

We had a lame last night! We made it to Friday Night Dinner at Ben's parent's place, where Paul's g/f from Sydney and Ben's aunt and uncle from Perth were down, and we hung out for a while after dinner, but then we totally died and didn't make to K & J's party. Ben's been sick and I've been exhausted (migraine last week did not help!) an so we ended up rattling around at home and saying "are you up to going?" to each other until it was just too late to get moving anymore. And I bought margarita ingredients especially!!

So if you guys are reading this, we're very sorry =(

In other news, we have a new kitten which is taking up all our time at the moment!

Here are a few pics as promised:

What is this curtain thing?

Rawr!

This is the best toy ever! (said about all "toys" at the moment)

This is my favorite spot to sit.

Mmmm, comfy daddy.

And not to forget the other member of our household:

Do you still love me too mummy?

Why did you bring the annoying little thing into my house?

Must...escape...kitten!

Ahhh, much better.

It's mine....alllllll mine.

Okay, now I have to fly, we have shopping to do and more things we have to try to make it to this weekend (even though what I most want to do is crawl back into bed. urrrrrgh.)

HouseyHousey House-House

2008-02-05T22:41:00.000+11:00

I'm 1/2 way through the 3rd season of Battlestar Galactica and I'm already stressed.

What will I _do_ when it's over???

Anyway, hello, yes, there has been no blogging recently. I went through a Facebook phase, but due to evil business at work and not really geeking at home it seems to have gotten out of control, I'm scared to return and delete the HUNDREDS of requests to join things. Talk about viral! So I'm taking refuge in my blog for the moment until I have a few hours up my sleeve.

Just to let you all know in a loud and capital's-yelling type voice: WE GOT OUR KEYS YESTERDAY!!

Yes, the house is now OURS! Mwahahahaha!

I don't know how many of you have seen the photos, so here are the ones from the ad: bear in mind our furniture is nowhere near as new, and the kitchen is NOT pink, it is very purple in fact! (I don't know what the heck they did to the photos, I'm thinking they were 'shopped.) It also looks quite a bit bigger than it actually is in the photos: not that it's small... it's just not as big as it seems in them.

Once again - Mwahahahahaha!!!

So, thanks to all who made it to our 30th birthday, what an awesome turnout - we had a great time, thanks guys =D. We'll have a housewarming soon...ish (there is unpacking to do y'know!)

So what have I been up to? Working. A lot. Spent 3 days at work past 8pm last week. This week, a little better, but only because I've been booked out every night and have had to leave early - I'll be paying for it next week. My sources (ok, my T/L) tells me there is an imminent pay rise on the horizon though for moi, this does tend to make things a little more bearable strangely enough!

We picked up our keys yesterday after settlement: let ourselves in to our new house for the 1st time, read the nice letter the previous owners had left us about how happy they were there and where to find all the switches for things etc, then I ran around like a madwoman into and out of every room. It's very strange. I was saying to a friend today, it's odd to think this is now our house. We can do whatever we want to it. I almost wanted to scratch the wall because it's MY wall dammit and I could!! But I didn't. I'm not totally crazy, after all.

AJ has passed down some of her awesome furniture to me to help outfit the new place (thank you so much!!) and is threatening me with a box of stuff (plus another painting - I will have one for every room! Yay!) and Josh, Kaz, Mik & Jim blessed us with a BBQ for our 30th/housewarming pressie, so we'll be moving in in style. Not to mention the mountains of extremely generous engagement pressies we got from all you lovely people, none of which I've opened or used, it's all been saved for the new house, so now I will get to enjoy it all!

Oh man. this is going to be GOOD!

We now need to return to the house with a tape measure and actually figure out where things are going. I have Thursday off work to do the final packing here, then I work Friday while Ben deals with the moving people, and I arrive at home (the real home!) Friday afternoon with all our stuff already there. I decided one thing I really didn't need was to be around while strangers come and move/touch my things, while I watch and get stressed out.

Meanwhile, I'm at the 'Gogue 4 days in a row this week: young TBI meeting this evening, meeting with Gersh tomorrow, meeting with the Purim festival team Thursday, then service Friday. It's just a bit crazy this week. For those who were interested, yes, Jew-school is over (or just beginning??!?) and no I haven't had the time to go through the tests yet, but I'm going to try to organise that this week, wish me luck and nachas =)

Ok, I've teased out my time long enough.. must... watch... Battlestar!

I was going to say must watch B S.... but you can see that doesn't really work as a catch phrase.

AJ & MC: Remind me to return the 1st season to you on Sunday! I've managed to watch 2nd season by downloading all the eps, and 3rd season is all divx quality on FreeTVOnline.com - yay for freeTVOnline!!!!

The serious kind

2007-09-14T17:03:00.000+10:00

I remember hearing on a show or a movie once when I was kid that there are 2 kinds of being sick. One is the kind of sick that gets you out of work or school, this is not seriously sick. The other kind is getting sick on the weekend or on holidays, that is seriously sick.

I have had a headache all day today. I thought it was a coffee headache. Drank coffee all day, no help. Then I though it must be a tension headache, took Neurofen plus, no help. Now I think maybe it's a dehydration headache... so those coffee's were probably not the best idea.

I wish I could just get a readout of my bodily systems on request, so I could just know what the heck's going on.

Anyways, just wrote in to say that, I might try and squeeze in a pre-dinner nap. Or catch up on my Lonelygirl/KateModerning. These shows go too darn slowly. I'm having to wait a week and then do a catch up, or I get frustrated at having only a 3 minute snippet to watch.

Oh, and Good New Year to mah Jewish peoples!! =)

2007-08-25T11:20:00.000+10:00

Yes, you can always tell when Mel has been stressed out, no blogging occurs.

Thankfully I've had a rather good week which threatens to shake me out of my work-stress-work-stress routine.

1. Team Leader quit - yes, this is a good thing. I think he realized it wasn't for him... considering he spent 5 months trying to figure out what the hell we do and failing, we'd realized this some time before. My manager was, I think, particularly at the end of her rope... so I think he got out before they could get him out. The general mood in my team has improved like mad. Much, much better.
I'm going to apply for the job. Still not sure if I really want a management role, but I know I could do it very well, and it's a bit of insurance: I want them to hire someone who will be at least as good as they and I know I would be at it. Heck, I had to do most of his work anyway, as he couldn't or wouldn't learn it. So it would be much of a change. More like taking the 70% my work 30% team management I do now and swapping it.

2. Had meeting with 'supervisor': I had a meeting wish Gersh this week which was most good. I think I gushed at him a lot about the class and how I've been feeling (which is really happy with my path but really stressed about work and overtime, which is making it hard for me to devote the kind of time I want to to this), but I can't really remember: I do tend to gush when I talk to him, most embarrassing =). He was great, and covered a lot of topics I have been thinking about, and I feel a lot more connected since. I didn't even prepare anything to say or talk about this time round (most unusual for me, the person who finds it much easier to write than talk), but because I have no real issues, I just wanted to catch up as I haven't seen him outside of class or services. He was very positive about how I'm tracking, so yay!

3. Managed to lunch with someone again! Caught up with Avril who's par-tay I slept through last weekend (once again, overtime kills my weekend)... this may be the start of actual lunches with actual people again, instead of working straight through my lunch breaks as has become the norm. We shall see.

4. Went to see John Butler Trio at Festival Hall last night, which rocked. But my feet were very, very sore after. But alcohol helped that a lot! It was a great night, but I don't normally go out on a Friday night, it feels very weird to be this tired and hungover on a Saturday morning instead of a Sunday one.

Okay, some quick updates on the other things I'm supposed to be doing, i.e. house hunting and wedding preps.

I'm kinda wishing someone else could organize all of this for me, really. It's enjoyable, but more stressful as I don't have much time these days.

Wedding: I made a decision about my brides-people. Yep, I say people, because I have asked a guy and girl. Many thanks to Gibbering and SM for giving me their resounding support: ha, now you guys will have to put up with me! Mwahahahaha! So, we have looked at a number of reception venues over the past few months, mainly to satisfy the Ben's family, who are getting antsy about the issue. I think I have decided on Red Scooter, for a couple of reasons: the guy we met with was awesome, really lovely, our kind of person and really believed in what he is trying to do with the place. The place brands itself as "new york underground" - it's dark and spot-lit and kind of more like a club than a reception place with it's black & white check floors and red curtains, a great place for a party, which is the atmosphere we want. We are _not_ formal people. Lastly, it's the only fully green venue out there: they use organic everything, carbon offset their events, all the stuff I worry about when taking responsibility for a big event like a wedding. They have done us a fully vegetarian menu package. Yeah, I'm pretty decided. I'm just wondering how long I can put off booking a date, which is something I'm hesitant to do without being able to book with Gersh as well. It wouldn't be the same if I couldn't have him as our wedding rabbi. They don't book in weddings until post-conversion, which makes sense of course, and though he offered to pencil it in I'd rather not do that until after I get through either, and I think he was happy I felt that way too. That part of my life is not really about the wedding.

We sorted out my other worry too, which it cost. I've said several times to Ben, I would rather not have a reception and donate the money than spend such an extravagant amount on a party. So we're compromising by going fully donations. I don't want any gifts at all, but if people want to give, we're going to ask they do it to charities or environmental causes. People were so, so generous to us at our engagement party anyway, we certainly don't need any more presents. (Thanks again everyone by the way, we felt so loved by your generosity in gifts and in time spent in 43 degree weather for us!!! We will never forget that =) )

We are also looking for houses, which is rather depressing task considering the market prices at the moment. I keep changing my mind about what I want, which is unusual for me and a sign that I'm probably not ready to decide yet. I usually am very clear on what I want before I go ahead and even start looking into something. I guess it's not entirely my fault, someone went and changed the rules on me.

Okay, that's about it from me, I'm going to go and potter away on this first blissful day off in a while. Probably going to the movies tonight is about all I'm up for.

Hopefully, I'll see y'all soon =)

The 213 Things Skippy Is No Longer Allowed To Do In The U.S. Army

2007-07-02T21:50:00.000+10:00

This guy could so be one of our friends.... and I'm going to have to steal some of his list items for my "Mel's work tip of the day" emails....

We all do it...

2007-06-26T09:03:00.000+10:00

Here's an article that pays tribute to a much maligned domestic chore, The Washing.

Clever Suds
Moya-Sayer Jones
June 19, 2007

There were no spin cycles or tumble dry, but doing the laundry in the good old days still yielded hours of fun and fond memories.

I remember the day Mum's first fully automatic washing machine arrived. It was so much groovier than our old round one with the mangle on the top. The Simpson was white, square and modern. It looked just like the ones we'd seen in those American TV shows - the shows on which sophisticated mums wore aprons, which never got dirty, and high heels when they served dinner to their kids.

That first night, our whole family (four kids) crammed into the laundry to watch the miracle of the spin cycle. Ahhh, ohhh. I watched Mum's face as she realised that, apart from pressing the start button, she hadn't had to lift a finger. Finally, the penny dropped. Freedom! The next morning, she was up early: in a new A-line skirt and with her golf clubs already stowed in the back of the Holden. Life was never the same again.

In all the years since, our washing rituals have undergone many changes. Australians dryclean more often and use dryers for everything. Sometimes, we choose not even to have a laundry at all. But before we totally outsource yet another area of domestic chores, let's take a moment to pay tribute to the most undervalued room in our homes. And all that happens in it. Four generations of stories - laundry stories and family stories - may remind you of life at the laundry tub, not so long ago.

Cold days at the copper
It was a big, old Edwardian house that we lived in. And we had a separate brick laundry outside. And it had a copper in it. And, in winter, it was freezing cold, sort of bone-chilling cold, and we would light the chip heater under the copper and there'd be Mum and my sisters and me and we'd be putting the clothes into the copper. Just standing around in this cosy little laundry, stirring the bubbling water with a stick and chatting. And then we'd take the washing out of the copper and put it through a hand wringer. The kids did the wringing. We could spend a whole morning out there in the warmth, doing it all together.
Kate, 46

Hair washing day
It was really very much like secret women's business. My grandmother's laundry was down the backyard and Saturday was washing day. It was always their hair-washing day as well. My grandmother would have my aunt and my mother and herself in the backyard and it'd be the day when they'd wash their hair in the laundry tub and set their hair in rollers. And I'd be a kid running around the backyard playing while they'd be hanging out the washing and drying their hair in the sun and all that sort of stuff. This is my earliest memory, the images are so clear. It was fabulous.
Alexandra, 33

Kitchen lines
We never had drying machines or anything like that. We used to have those lines in the kitchen. They were like a drying rack on a pulley that you pulled up and down from the ceiling. It was like having dinner in a Chinese laundry.
Pam, 88

Starch
Ricketts blue bags, Sunlight soap, Rinso - and don't forget starch. The Chinese in New Zealand brought starching to its peak. Everyone went round Dunedin with starched shirt collars, right up into the 1960s.
Amelia, 58

Good husband material
I was sitting with my girlfriend when my husband came home from work. She'd been telling me a story about her own husband who was always pretty useless and insensitive and she was left to do everything in the house for her and her kids. Anyway, we were sitting there and watching as my husband walked across the lawn under the clothes line. And, as he did, he raised his hand and felt the washing between his fingers. It was just one of those little gestures, you know, to see if it was dry. I looked over at my girlfriend and there were tears in her eyes.
Alicia, 42

The laundromat experience
One of the things I love about New York is the laundromats: it's such a scene. I was in the middle of Brooklyn one time and I was the only white guy and there were like 20 young African-American chicks listening to Whitney Houston, all singing and dancing. I was like, "This is great, you know" and so I went and put my stuff in the machine and they're all looking at me and then I started singing along and I was dancing and we were all just having a bit of a laugh, you know, as much as you can in that neighbourhood. When I was getting my stuff out of the dryer, my girlfriend had arrived and I'm at the folding table and there's this pair of bright pink undies among my stuff. And my friend looks at me and I look at her and look at the undies and look back, one of those moments, you know? And then one of the girls comes over and goes, "Hey honey, what you got there?" And she'd planted those panties in the dryer. So there was like this whole kind of "So honey? What you doing with my pants?" and then she walked away flinging them and all the girls were laughing and, well, that would never have happened if I'd washed at home!
Darren, 33

Living in the laundry
On Saturday, Mum washed and then, on Sunday afternoon, she'd be ironing for at least four or five hours before bed. That laundry room just consumed her for the whole weekend and, if you needed her, you'd have to take everything into there. So like, homework would be in the laundry. I'd be sitting up on the washing machine and she'd be ironing and I'd be reading stuff to her or, if I was cooking in the kitchen and I'd call out, "Oh, Mum, the gravy's a bit lumpy!" I'd have to take the whole saucepan out into the laundry to show her.
Bindi, 35

Baby on the line
We lived in the country in the Darling Downs of Queensland and apparently my mother used to put me in my father's overalls, those big overalls you know with the buttons on the side? And she'd just button me up and leave me hanging there, pegged on the big Hills Hoist so I'd sway in the wind and go to sleep.
Amanda, 30

Discreet clothes lines
Some people don't know this, but there's definitely an order for hanging things on the line. My Mum taught me and, to this day, I always do it: you always hang your smalls on the inner rungs of the Hills hoist. And basically as you move out, you go from the personal to the general. So the sheets are on the furthest wire, right on the outside and then you have your shirts and whatever. But when you get to your knickers, they have to be shielded from the view of the neighbours. No knickers for public view!
Linda, 46

Winter drying
We had several clothes horses and mum would put them in front of the fire and put all the clothes over. When we were really young, we used to hide under the clothes horse in front of the fire, peeping out from under the sheets and towels.
Meriel, 58

First clothes dryer
It was very hard to dry everything in New Zealand, with the weather. I was about five when my mum gave my older cousin one of the very first clothes dryers. It was like a big fridge. My cousin had three babies in nappies, 36 nappies a day. The dryer stood in the cowshed and it was the most luxurious thing Shirley had ever had. When it turned up on the truck and she saw it, she cried and cried and cried.
Carolyn, 56

Cool running
It was very hot where we lived and, when all the sheets were hanging on the line, all wet, I used to just love running through them. One time, I ran straight in when they were really cool and wet and I've still got the little scar on my forehead where I crashed into the handle of the hoist. I just passed straight out, blood everywhere. On all Mum's sheets.
Tania, 44

Product fever
Our mothers were better washers than we are because now we rely on the product to do the work. They relied on their elbow grease. And they took so much care. They handwashed: we dry clean. They looked for stains: we throw it in the Napisan bucket.
Marilyn, 57

No sinks
A lot of the time, people aren't even putting sinks in laundries, anymore. They think that they can get by with just a stackable washer and dryer in a cupboard. I had a client in Paddington who insisted that she wanted to use the tiny area under the stairs and she didn't need a sink. I said to her, "No sink? But what if you need to soak something?" And she said, "I take everything to the dry-cleaners or I just throw it in the washer and dryer." So I said to her, "But don't you handwash?" And that's when she got very impatient. "Look," she said. "I want the laundry hidden, that's it. I certainly don't want to see it and I certainly don't need to stand in it and I'm definitely not doing handwashing!"
Samantha, 36

Moya Sayer-Jones collects stories www.onlyhuman.com.au

Drama Prairie Dog

2007-06-25T19:14:00.000+10:00

This is so my most favourite thing ever right now...

Wade David: Cultures at the far edge of the world.

2007-06-14T16:48:00.000+10:00

Wow. This presentation is amazing.

More can be found at http://www.ted.com/

Lady of Leisure

2007-06-08T17:29:00.000+10:00

1/2 way through my 2 weeks off - yay! I have done much sleeping, reading, shopping, and general relaxing, and I cannot tell you how much better I have been feeling!!!!

I think time off work was long overdue.

So, a small summery of events while I wait for Ben to ring me to say he's left work.

Sleeping: about 16 hours a day on average. This has made me realise how little sleep I have actually been getting and how much I probably need. I normally don't go to sleep until after I have read in bed at night until my eyes are literally jumping around of their own volition... probably about 1am most of the time. I used to pride myself on being someone who could get by on 5 hours sleep... whether it's age or just current level of activity, I now know this is no longer the case! Though I hate giving up my 'freedom' hours.

Reading: I am making my way through Tad Williams "Otherland" series again. I never finished it last time, though I was enjoying it hugely, due to the sheer size of the damn thing. Those are long, long books telling about 8 related viewpoints in parallel, and by the time I made it to the end of each book I would have to wait a year or so for the next to come out. I gave up waiting for the final volume to come out. But I'm 1/2 way through book 3 now and doing well. Finally.

Opps - gotta go! Finish this later.

From the bean to me

2007-05-15T18:51:00.000+10:00

Fair Trade coffee available in Coles and Safeway

Mmm, a story about coffee, excellent =)

"Coles supermarkets now stock five varieties of Fair Trade coffee, including a house brand, Coles Finest, which was introduced late last year. The chain has trialled a range of Fair Trade products, including chocolate and rice, but according to Coles spokesman Jim Cooper coffee sales have been strongest. Safeway supermarkets introduced Scarborough Fair Fair Trade ground coffee about two years ago and will trial an organic Fair Trade chocolate."

The Age - Epicure - May 15, 2007
Lisa Mitchell

Save water and stop pointless slaughter... by going vegetarian?

2007-04-30T00:00:00.000+10:00

As if I didn't need even more reasons to push me towards vegetarianism and veganism... here are some pretty compelling arguments...one invloves the killing of animals not for food production but because they are useless to us for food production, and one invloves saving lots and lots of water...

From the Age today:

Chicken farming - urban myths and awful truths

I hate to burst the Easter bubble, but you know those fluffy yellow chicks we see images of at this time of the year? It turns out that around 13 million of them are killed annually in commercial hatcheries in one of two approved methods. One is by gassing - the other by maceration, which means they're chopped up at very high speed. While they're still alive.

The problem is that they are male chicks and therefore useless to the egg industry. They're no good for chicken meat growers either because the breed of chicken that makes a good layer isn't great for meat. So while the Easter egg industry is busy serving up cute images of baby chicks, the hatcheries supplying the real egg industry are snuffing out millions of real newborn chicks every year - either via CO2 in what's called a 'euthanasia chamber' or by grinding them up. It's not that I don't understand the problem - just what do you do with 13 million unwanted roosters- to-be? - but in an age of technological marvels when we can catapult millionaires into space and bring them back again, couldn't someone figure out a less wasteful, kinder solution?

In fairness to the industry, there have been attempts to find a way of determining the sex of the embryonic chick in the egg before it hatches into a living bird, but the hatchery spokesman I rang this week says that so far these have been unsuccessful.

For me, this issue of disposing of baby chicks arose when a reader posted a comment on an earlier blog on eggs The hen or your hip pocket? claiming that male chicks were macerated. At the time I thought it must be an urban myth in the same league as 'eggs are full of hormones'. But while the egg industry, according to the Australian Egg Corporation, has never given hormones to chickens, the mass destruction of male chicks is no myth.

This is information many of us - me included - would rather not know. Especially when you learn that regardless of the label on your egg - cage, organic, free-range or barn-laid - the hen that laid it still came from a hatchery that disposes of male chicks. But if we're going to keep on eating our poached eggs and frittatas, maybe it's dishonest not to face up to what egg production involves.

Posted by Paula Goodyer
April 10, 2007 12:47 PM
From: http://blogs.theage.com.au/lifestyle/chewonthis/archives/2007/04/chicken_farming.html

and from a Age blog commenter on a different blog topic:

When Professor Wayne Meyer, the CSIRO water expert tells us that it takes anywhere from 55,000 litres - 100,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef, and the Cannon Hill abattoir in Brisbane - and that's just ONE abattoir - uses 580 million litres of water per year, why are we talking about 4 minute showers? Surely the answer is obvious? Stop eating meat!! Inkblot says that he recognises that perhaps he should be vegetarian but doesn't have the will power. It won't be very long before he will have no choice.

It takes 500 litres to produce 1kg of potatoes or 2,000 litres for 1kg of the extremely versatile soy bean, so it is fairly obvious that if the public is serious about water and climate change, it will have to start making some pretty hard decisions NOW

Posted by: Maureen at April 27, 2007 9:28 PM

From: http://blogs.theage.com.au/lifestyle/renovationnation/archives/2007/04/grey_water_does.html

NIN ARG is freaking weird...

2007-04-09T21:36:00.000+10:00

Has anyone been following the Nine Inch Nails ARG "Year Zero"? I've just been trying to get my head around it (official site starts here).

I was looking for another ARG to join in on while I twiddle my thumbs waiting for more LG15... but the NIN one seems to me to be pretty passive... or I just came in late / don't have the patience?

Still, the sites makes for good reading. If you haven't gotten involved, start with I am trying to believe and Another version of the truth.

I am going to go look around the forums and see if I can pick up the threads a bit more...

See, Lonelygirl15 is fun AND informative

2007-04-07T00:48:00.000+10:00

I always thought there was something wrong with me. On a logical level, I understand the "fight or flight" response, and studied it in Psych, but I never thought it held the whole picture.

This could be why!

"Tend and Befriend - study that indicates that, while men often react to stress by fight or flight, women react by tend or befriend.

Fight or flight. It's the human response to stress --or is it? A group of researchers say maybe for men but not for women. New evidence suggests that women are more likely to cope with stress by "tending and befriending."

Tending involves nurturing activities to protect oneself or one's children and reduce stress. Befriending is the creation and maintenance of social networks that promote safety and reduce stress.

A team of researchers headed by Shelley Taylor, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, reviewed over 1,000 human and animal stress response studies. Flight or fight was identified as the coping response, in part, because the vast majority of animals used to investigate the phenomenon were male rats. And prior to 1995 women constituted only about 17 percent of the participants in human stress experiments.

Animal and human studies demonstrate that, like fight or flight, tend and befriend is a physiological response. It's induced by the production of oxytocin, as well as female reproductive hormones.

Oxytocin, released in high levels during stressful or painful situations such as childbirth, is calming and facilitates social contact and bonding. While both men and women secrete the hormone, estrogen tends to amplify its effect. On the other hand, testosterone diminishes oxytocin's effect and enhances men's proclivity toward becoming angry and attacking or withdrawing.

One study observed the differences between fathers' and mothers' behaviors with their children after a stressful workday. Fathers responded to stress by wanting to be left alone or by lashing out at their families. Meanwhile, mothers focused their attention on nurturing their children.

This does not mean that women never become angry or aggressive or that men never tend and befriend. However, females are more likely to show indirect aggression, such as gossip and enlisting the assistance of a third party in responding to a threat. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to form social groups for the purposes of defense, aggression, and war."

From: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0838/is_2001_March-April/ai_76587462

Ha. It really makes one wonder... how many other psychological "truths" are based on data more then 10 or 20 years old, which didn't use a balanced portfolio of subjects, or didn't draw comparisons of statistical significance between male and female response?

I'm not talking about equality here... I'm talking about physiological difference.

Very interesting stuff!

What the?!?!

2007-03-28T16:54:00.000+10:00

How did it know??

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Social Nerd You're interested in things such as politics, psychology, child care, and peace. I wouldn't go so far as to call you a hippie, but some of you may be tree-huggers. You're the type of people who are interested in bettering the world. You're possible the least nerdy of them all; unless you participate in other activies that paled your nerdiness compared to your involvement in social activities. Whatever the case, we could still use more of you around. ^_^
Musician
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Literature Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
Drama Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Courtasy of Purplexity's blog

GoodSearch - looks good!

2007-03-20T23:13:00.000+11:00

Ok ok... I haven't been blogging. I've been doing overtime on my overtime (looks like I'll be working 1 day each weekend indefinately), working while eating my lunch most days, and I was at work until 7:30pm last night. So really, I'm not just being lazy, I promise!!

But I have to blog this!

I found the coolest search engine out: http://www.goodsearch.com/

Basically, it's a search engine that donates 50% of it's profits to a charity of your choice. All you have to do is pick a charity (or add one if yours isn't there) and start using it to search for things.

UNFORTUNATELY it's currently only available to those within the USA, but they have plans to expand worldwide soon.

Also it's powered by Yahoo! and not Google (and we all know what a Google-Girl I am), yet I think I'm switching. Even if it just raises a tiny bit of revenue, it's like anything else: one vote isn't much, but when thousands of votes get put together...

As they say on their FAQ, if average revenue of major search engines is $6 billion... imagine the money that could be redistributed, just by doing what most of us do every day anyway?

I'll let y'all know when it goes global.

So: that is all. I go get some precious, precious sleep now =)

Traumatised

2007-03-13T23:43:00.000+11:00

Argh!

I thought I could do it. I thought enough time had passed. I thought I would finally be able to put those dark, PE room in primary school movie showing afternoons behind me, and watch with an adult eye in a nice, detached way.

But no.

I still can't get all the way through Storm Boy.

I have to switch off 1/2 an hour before the end. I start to cry at about that point and I know it's only going to get much, much sadder.

Darn it!

One day, I will make it all the way through that movie!

(P.S. I will post about Sydney soon! Busy busy busy...)

Some random favourite LG15 forum sig's I have seen lately...

2007-03-04T09:31:00.000+11:00

Sorry, but these just make me laff =). Or maybe I just spend wayyyy too much time on this forum and my brain has turned to mush. Mush I tell you! (But at least my back is feeling better =) )

1.
I've got A.D.D. and magic markers. Oh, the thrills I will have.

2.
Dwight,
At 8 AM today someone poisons the coffee. Do NOT drink the Coffee. More instructions to follow.
Cordially,
Future Dwight

3.
Let's play a game of foosball... TO THE DEATH!!!!!!

4.
Hey! That was my lucky assassin hat!

5.
Trust no one. Besides me. Bwhahaha!!

6.
Be warned: I wouldn't know obvious if you slapped me with it.

7.
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

8.
"The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity." - Voltaire

9.
I shall get some rest... when the profile tells me to.

10. (unfortunately in context only):
Girlfriend: What are you doing?
Me: Typing on the LG forum.
Girlfriend: Oh OK. You're so secretive sometimes.
Me: You have to be when you're working against the Order...

11.
Penguins! EVERYWHERE!!!!!

Water Wise Wheelie Bin update!!

2007-03-04T01:23:00.000+11:00

Ok, finally my favorite wheelie bin people I spoke about in an earlier post, Australian Waste Management, have come out with their new wheelie bin water savers, and boy are they purdy!

They range from a tad to quite a bit more expensive than the $100 delivered plain wheelie bin, but just look at the features below...

1. The Wheelie Tank:

(From their site) "Connect the unit to one down pipe from an obscure corner of your house. Better still get more than one for additional down pipes or daisy chain two together! This unit acts as both a water storage and as a water diverter. When the tank becomes full, provided you have a standard garden hose attached to one or both of the top hose outlets, the excess is diverted direct to your lawn or garden bed then save the rest for later! Connect your high pressure washer to the tank and wash the car with YOUR water or just do what you like with it! (Be reasonable though, don’t just waste it!) Why not connect it to a continuous drip feed system for your Garden!
You can even use it to save more than 60lt of water a DAY that an evaporative air conditioner dumps down the drain!"

Prices:

New Wheelie Tank
120 litre	$ 210*
240 litre	$ 220*

Delivery (Victoria Only) PER DELIVERY, NOT PER BIN:
Non Urgent Melbourne Metro	$15*
Urgent Melbourne Metro	$40*
*All prices quoted Exclude GST.

2. The Grey Water Gator:

(From their site) "The average Australian household generates approximately 500-600 litres of wastewater each day. This amount will vary greatly according to the number of occupants, their age and lifestyle. Roughly 60% of this water can be recycled and with a Greywater Gator you can recycle about 34% of that amount. That's roughly 135 litres EVERY day that can go towards keeping your garden alive during the harsh summer months. The Gator is specifically designed to pump the cold waste water discharged from your washing machine onto your garden."

Colours: Only purple! (Ha! Though, it is a blue-ey sort of purple)

Prices:

New Gray Water Gator
120 litre	$430*
240 litre	$440*


Delivery (Victoria Only) PER DELIVERY, NOT PER BIN:
Non Urgent Melbourne Metro	$15*
Urgent Melbourne Metro	$40*
*All prices quoted Exclude GST.

I'm still kind of inclined to buy a standard wheelie bin from them and put my own version together, though the Gator above is sort of what I'm after... I want something that will store my grey water to which I can attach a pump to pump the water back into the toilet cistern, a better use I think for my grey water than our garden, which is fairly established and luckily doesn't need much water.

But I'm still convinced I can do it myself for slightly cheaper. I'm going to do up a proposal plan and see...

Free Speech, or Political and Religious Bias?

2007-03-03T23:48:00.000+11:00

I just read an article in The Age about a site out there maligning a favourite site of mine, Wikipedia. An alternative site has sprung up using the same format and (unashamedly, I think is the correct description) calling themselves Conservapedia, to address what they describe as an increasingly "anti-Christian and anti-American bias" the creators believe has crept into the neutrally based Wikipedia.

Here is their own main page description of themselves in their own words... and it really speaks for itself. See if you think something is wrong with this picture. I've highlighted the bits I find particularly disturbing...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to Conservapedia

A conservative encyclopedia you can trust.

Conservapedia has over 3,800 educational, clean and concise entries on historical, scientific, legal, and economic topics, as well as more than 350 lectures and term lists. There have been over 857,000 page views and over 16,300 page edits. Already Conservapedia has become one of the largest user-controlled free encyclopedias on the internet. This site is growing rapidly.

Conservapedia is a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American. On Wikipedia, many of the dates are provided in the anti-Christian "C.E." instead of "A.D.", which Conservapedia uses. Christianity receives no credit for the great advances and discoveries it inspired, such as those of the Renaissance. Read a list of many Examples of Bias in Wikipedia.

Conservapedia is an online resource and meeting place where we favor Christianity and America. Conservapedia has easy-to-use indexes to facilitate review of topics. You will much prefer using Conservapedia compared to Wikipedia if you want concise answers free of "political correctness".

Contributions that comply with simple commandments are respected (and improved) to the maximum extent possible. Please improve this website as you use it, and please cite your sources. With your help, Conservapedia will continue to be an online encyclopedia you can trust. This is also a meeting place, and appropriate questions may be posted at Ask questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm all for free speech when it comes to opinion and unprovable facts, but to be proud of having a bias in a document that is supposed to, by it's very nature, present facts and history in a neutral way as an encyclopedia... disturbs me greatly.

Also: I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say Wikipedia is perfect, and like any other news/information source, you can only use 1 reference as a starting point, and must explore a topic thoroughly yourself before coming to any conclusions, but the point is that historical inaccuracies and bias's can be debated and adjusted and all facts not backed up and can be double-checked, or are otherwise normally clearly marked when citation is needed. Sections can be debated as inaccurate, and all links, influences and citations are clearly presented at the bottom of each entry. Also, there tends to be an expansion of each topic to present a rounded article that presents information from all possible points of view. Conservapedia seems to think it can make these decisions for you.

Yes, Wikipedia also expands it's sphere of influence to generally non-encyclopedic topics (eg articles about famous people), but to me this just increases the amount of information you can access in one place, and isn't a bad thing.

From the few entries I looked at in Conservapedia (my first choices to look up were "crusades", "Judaism", and "abortion", none of this seemed to be the case. Therefore, as a history or science document, it wouldn't pass muster in your most basic Uni course. It certainly doesn't with me.

But that's OK, since that's what they seem to be going for.

Thoughts? Comments?

More silliness

2007-03-03T18:19:00.000+11:00

Another cute blog thing by way of Purplexity via Peevish:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Her Most Noble Lady Melinda the Harmonious of Tempting St Mary
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

...Though the only thing I could be accused of tempting Mary's with is chocolate and coffee

(when she reads this, she will laugh, the rest of you probably won't understand =P)

Been paying attention?

2007-03-02T19:01:00.000+11:00

Stolen from Purplexity, a test of how well you know the Mel (I didn't make it too hard =) )

Take the test!

Create your own Friend Test here

"The hen or your hip pocket? Choosing the kindest egg in the supermarket"

2007-03-02T16:00:00.000+11:00

Posted by Paula Goodyer From "The Age" newpaper, February 27, 2007 12:17 PM

"I don't know where you spend most of your time in the supermarket, but for me it's usually dithering in front of the egg section, wondering what's the best choice for chicken welfare. Is free range kinder than barn laid - and if I do buy free range, can I be sure it really is free range?

But after pitching some questions to both the Australian Egg Corporation and the Melbourne-based animal rights organisation Animals Australia, I think I have some answers - and, surprisingly, eggs labelled vegetarian aren't always the chicken-friendliest choice...

Here's what the different categories really mean - for you, and the chicken.

-Vegetarian eggs. Laid - not by free range hens - but birds confined to cages or barns. These birds eat a vegetarian diet - meaning it contains no ingredients from animals or fish. Free range birds aren't vegetarians - when chickens forage outside they do what chickens naturally do: eat insects and grubs. And in case you're wondering, a vegetarian egg has the same levels of fat, cholesterol and protein as other eggs.

-Cage eggs. Although we're buying fewer cage eggs, about 73 per cent of eggs sold in supermarkets and shops come from caged hens living in sheds. From next year, cage hens will have slightly larger cages in which to spend the 70-odd weeks of their lives. The size of the new cages, housing three or four hens at a time, will give each bird at least 550 square centimetres - better than the previous minimum standard of 450 square centimetres. But it still means a caged chicken's personal space is slightly smaller than a piece of A4 paper - for it's entire life, says Glenys Oogjes of Animals Australia http://www.animalsaustralia.org

-Free range eggs. The kindest choice, according to Glenys Oogjes - chickens are free to roam on open ground every day. Free range egg sales have now increased to 22 per cent of retail sales - but how do you know eggs labelled free range really are free range? There are a number of Free Range Associations in different states offering certification to farmers producing free range eggs. Certification is voluntary, not compulsory, according to the Australian Egg Corporation at http://www.eggs.org.au and about 70 per cent of farms producing free range eggs are certified. Free range eggs from a certified farm should carry a logo with the words 'Certified Free Range Farm' with the name of the certifying organisation - check it out via this link to the NSW Department of Primary Industry http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/reader/poultry/free-range-eggs.htm

- Barn laid eggs. Hens live indoors but have room to stretch, socialise, perch and move around. Although Glenys Oogjes believes free range gives chickens a better lifestyle, she says living in a barn with nest boxes and litter to peck around in beats life in a cage and is the next best option for the chicken.

-Organic eggs. Although not all free range eggs are organic, all organic eggs must be free range, and from hens eating feed that's 95 per cent organically grown grain. Organic eggs must carry the label of one of the seven organisatations in Australia that certify organic food.

-Omega-3 eggs. Can be from cage, free range or barn-laid eggs. Fish oil goes into their feed so their eggs contain more omega-3 fats.

In terms of animal welfare, free range, organic or barn laid are the best bet at the supermarket, but if you're on a budget it's not always easy to pass up cage eggs which can be half the price of free range or barn eggs. But the next time you're trying to decide what comes first - the hen or your hip pocket - consider that even at $5.50 or $6.00 for a dozen free range or barn eggs, they're such a good source of protein and other nutrients that they're still a bargain compared to many other less nutritious foods for the same price."

2007-02-24T13:30:00.000+11:00

"The Government boasts that banning incandescents will cut Australia's emissions by "as much as" 800,000 tonnes a year by 2012.

That is a reduction of just 0.14 per cent.

And even deep green New Zealand is warning of problems ranging from the incompatibility of light fittings to the safe disposal of toxic mercury contained in fluorescent bulbs.

But there are less painful ways to reduce household gas emissions, which account for about six tonnes per household per year.

According to the Australian Greenhouse Office, lighting accounts for just 5 per cent of household greenhouse-gas emissions, clothes washing and drying accounts for 2 per cent, cooking 3 per cent, fridge/freezer 9 per cent, home heating and cooling 11 per cent, electronic and other appliances 15 per cent, water heating 16 per cent and travel a whopping 34 per cent.

The AGO points out that each household could save more than two tonnes of greenhouse gas by buying a new efficient fridge, 1.5 tonnes by using gas to heat hot water. Using cold water to wash clothes saves almost half a tonne a year. But every litre of petrol saved cuts greenhouse-gas emissions by 2.8 kilograms.

So what kind of hypocrisy is there in a government that bans incandescent light bulbs while subsidising people who drive fuel-guzzling, greenhouse gas-emitting, giant four-wheel-drives?

With a 5 per cent import tariff on four-wheel-drives, most of which are imported, compared with a 10 per cent tariff on other cars, the Government is encouraging us to drive vehicles that are the worst greenhouse offenders of all. Work that out."

- from the article "The 3 amigos of climate change" by Miranda Devine, The Age, 25/02/07

2007-02-07T20:20:00.000+11:00

Busy busy bees we are!

We had our 2nd Intro to Judaism class last night, it's really, really interesting. I'm enjoying it far too much. When I actually get some time to sit and collect my thoughts I promise I will update the other blog!! I really want to keep a record of my thoughts and learning.

I was having a great time not just learning more about the concepts I've heard about but relating my learning back to things I learned in Philosophy and Sociology and Psychology.

I already had pages of notes before the class last night...about the readings and my thoughts, and about the nature of God and the traditional "problem of evil" (which, just having peeked at the reading for next week this morning on the train we actually cover next week, so I'm already ahead, =P). It's very strange studying something with Ben, we take completely different approaches to learning.

Anyway, more on this later =)

I'm feeling a bit run down and flying on auto-pilot. I guess we have added another weeknight to our schedule, and there's homework and readings which take up a few hours per week too. I now have 1 truly free night per week, and things are already banking up that need to get done on that night. I must find a way to manage my time a little more effectively without giving up my relax time which keeps me going the rest of the week.

So, before I sign off... it's gadget time!!...

Check out the Paperless Stapler - I'm gonna order myself 2 right now!!

And what an excellent use of resources and recycling is this?

Recycled Rubber Sidewalks! (There is a strip along Spring Street on the opposite side of the road to Hudson's coffee, just long the Exhibition station entrance there, where there are rubber sidewalks. Very disconcerting the 1st time if you step on them without knowing!)

Next something I probably can never justify for number of reasons, but it's still cool:

The Travelland River Table. It's so puuuuurdy.

And this is very, very clever:

The Life Straw water filter.

Lastly, something I really want to have a good reason to get:

Flickr Minicards - you can get up to 100 different Flickr photos printed on quality business card sized cards with text of your choice on the back, and they're really cheap!

All these ideas courtesy of This Next =).

2007-02-05T09:17:00.000+11:00

You know, I think I've figured out why my blog doesn't display properly on IE. I think it happens when I post a large pic or a YouTube vid, it pushes out the sidebar and causes it to display below all the post text. Very annoying! I could fix it, but you know, I really couldn't be bothered fiddling around with HTML, I get enough of that working on websites for my sister-in-law! But then, it only seems to happen when you use IE, so if you're still silly enough to use IE as your browser instead of something FANTASTICALLY AWESOME like Firefox (link in side-bar for download!) well, you're beyond my help =)

I have been doing a lot of net-trawling lately. A lot. I worry sometimes I should get out of the virtual world for a while and back into the real one, but there's so much to keep me entertained on the net! How can my own life possibly compare? =P

A typical day for me at the moment has me frequenting (in vague order of importance):

The Lonelygirl15 site: okay, I'm addicted to this web-drama. I'm in too deep now, there's no saving me. I'll just have to stay until the bitter end. Ah, the conspiracy's! The wacky ideas! The ARG! I'm hooked. I'm such a forum lurker here.

Visiting this site usually also requires me to check my YouTube subscriptions and Revver in multiple tabs to catch the related video's that are part of the ARG but not part of the main site. On YouTube I would probably then check out the newest videos (oo! There are a couple I need to blog...at some point...okay, I will split that into another post, back OT...).

I could then start on my "domestic" sites: usually with Domain. Other tabs in this window range through the spectrum of house decorating and ideas. For example today, this included Ikea Hacker (a site dedicated to the 'other' uses for Ikea-ware), WiscombeArt (shabby chic, which I don't usually go for, but some of these pieces are sort of off the wall and cool), The Fix Chicks (a DIH ("do it herself") site for handy-girls), random mosaic listings on eBay (a fleeting inspiration while jumping sites today), Monica Moody (just cause - her art is cool!), This Next ("Real Recommendations from Real People"), and Unflatpack ( an unfortunately only UK based site, you put in your Ikea order with them, and they shop, deliver, and set up your choices. I think this business would makes a lot of money here, anyone want to start it with me? =) )

And that's just the "domestic" sites I went to today!!

After this I would probably check some of my other daily standards: Gmail, Zazz (One thingy One day, One chance), Ebay, New Scientist Magazine, The Age, Weatherzone.

Then, time permitting, I might go to sites like Neatorama (they find some very cool things to blog about).

Is it any wonder I don't have time to do anything these days?

I need to impose an "Internet free night" on myself regularly methinks =)

Click your heels 3 times...

2007-02-05T00:57:00.000+11:00

Just a quick post before I go to bed (yes, I've been practically prolific this weekend haven't I? Let's see if it can last!)

I have fallen in love with a pair of shoes. A very beautiful, very expensive pair of handmade spanish shoes.

What do you think of these?

Unfortunately the shop doesn't ship to Australia but they note that they make exceptions, so I have emailed them to see if they will ship it to me. AND if their size 10 is the same as ours (I'm assuming it is though...)

Oh do I want those boots!!!

Oh how can I justify the expense???

Oh why aren't I in bed??! =)

"When the well is dry, we know the worth of water" - Benjamin Franklin

2007-02-04T18:36:00.000+11:00

Today we went and saw "Stranger Than Fiction" at the Jam Factory with Jim. It was fantastic, I highly recommend it. It was one of those movies that left me in the post-movie trance for a while afterwards - does anyone else get that?

Then we strolled around, had a coffee, a boost Juice, and wandered through Borders where the lovely Sale Assistant helped me to find the book Matt's been recommending to me, "The Science of Happiness" by Stefan Klein. When Matt recommends something, rather like when Jim recommends something, I know it's something I need to see. We have also picked up a DVD for tonight (An Inconvenient Truth, which we missed at the cinema).

So all in all a good day. Thankfully not as hot as I thought, the 38 degrees prediction has moved to tomorrow where I will be in air-conditioned comfort at work. Our house stays pretty cool, being one of those solid double-brick rendered houses you get around our area. The only thing I failed at today (due to time constraints only!) was to organise my herbs plants, but I might do this on Thursday night when I a) have time, and b) it may not be so hot.

Speaking of planting and suchlike, I've heard on the public greenie grapevine that a people are modifying wheelie bins by adding a tap to the bottom and turning them into an ad-hoc water tank for the garden & house. I wants one! At the moment, we just use many buckets (you'll find buckets of water all over our house these days).

For a while we were using the water exclusively on the garden, then it was pointed out to us that, since we don't normally water the garden anyway, we weren't really saving the water as such. So we took a leaf from Realkosh & partner's book, and we now have a bucket in the toilet and keep the top off the cistern, and use our saved water to fill the cistern after flushing. This works really well.

I must say you really notice how much water you go through doing this little project. I can get 3 full buckets out of my 10 minute shower (if I keep the bucket under the stream and sort of shuffle my way around it). It takes 1/2 a bucket to fill a cistern after a 1/2 flush, more than a full bucket for a full flush (we don't use that one anymore!!).

Also it's helped keeping a bucket in the laundry sink where people wash their hands, lots of useful water there, and a small bucket (one of those ice cream one with the handle) in the kitchen sink, which collects rinse water and the little bits of water you get running taps from cold to hot and back again. This water ends up a bit mucky but it's fine so long as you keep grease out of there, and can go straight on the garden as a sort of liquid compost.

Anyway, back to my project. Ben & I went to Bunnings ("where lowest prices are just the beginning" as Ainsley would say), but we failed to begin as their wheelie bins were 99 dollars, which I found to be a tad exorbitant, considering I only had a half-formed idea of what I need to do to complete this little project. We wandered vaguely wondering how 2 unhandy people such as ourselves could put such a thing as a tap and a wheelie bin in harmonious relationship, and as we were leaving noticed the sign we didn't see when we went in, advertising exactly how to create the wheelie water bin and exactly what parts you need (this tap, that washer, etc).

Still thinking I could get a better deal, we came home and got online: tried a couple of places but the place that gave us the most comprehensive and quickest reply was Australian Waste Management - the bin ends up the same price but that's delivered to our house (a good thing if you've seen the size of our car!) and I can choose the colour I want. Yes! I can get a PURPLE wheelie bin!

It's the little things that get my excited, ok?

I wanted to set up a pump system too to manually switch on and pump water directly from the bin into the cistern until full, but this might be a bit ambitious, let's see if I can get the bin part organised first.

Though, one of our current house guests Aaron ran with the idea and reckons he can set up a water level detector and hook the thing up to the cistern no problem, so I might have to use his expertise in handymaness and get him onto the job!

Mmmm, watery goodness. At least everything is looking a little more green, the recent smattering of rain has definitely helped. Now if I can just organise some prudent planting, and commit to my semi-pseudo-vegetarianism a little more, I'll be feeling back on track to greenie status again!

"Music is what feelings sound like"...

2007-02-03T17:30:00.000+11:00

What a week it's been for us! I don't think we're going to be able to top this for a while.

This week we went to see 2 gigs. The 1st one was Muse at Festival Hall on Wednesday night. The only word to describe it can be awwwwwwwesome. After some consideration (3 seconds or so) I had decided that it was now number 1 on my "best concert I've been to" list. Yep, it finally knocked The Tea Party down to No. 2. The energy & their stage presence had the fans inspired, and despite being in a somewhat 'retro' venue, I think the intimacy of Festival Hall actually helped the feel. Not to mention that we are so privileged to be able to see them at a small venue: they pack Wembley Stadium out in the UK.

So that was Wednesday. Then Friday night we saw Roger Waters at Rod Lever Arena, which felt pretty much just like we went to a Pink Floyd gig. Oh. My. Goodness. His 1st set was a mixture of Pink Floyd songs, all my favorites, along with 1 original, and the 2nd was the entire Dark Side of the Moon album. I was so happy at points during this concert that I was seeing this spectacle live that I actually cried! (This disturbed Ben no end, he couldn't understand the notion of "Happy tears" =P )

That quickly tied for 1st place on the list, too.

Another thing we also managed to squeeze in this week - we started our Introduction to Judaism course on Tuesday night! It's already brilliant. We met many excellent people (there are apparently 60 doing the course this semester!) and it sounds like there is a huge mixture, from people who are there wanting to convert like me to people just wanting to learn about Judaism as part of their own religious studies, or partners of Jewish people wanting to understand their partner's religion better. The 1st class was taken by Gersh which was perfect, as he's a great speaker and very skilled at getting people to feel open and at ease.

So, as I said before, "what a week it's been for us! I don't think we're going to be able to top this for a while" =).

It has left us pretty worn out though. Couldn't manage going out after the concert on Friday like I had planned, and slept straight through the alarm Saturday morning so missed Temple this week too, which I'm a bit disappointed about as it was the New Year for Trees this Shabbat, I holiday which I'm quite interested in and wanted to celebrate. (I will blog about that on ReligioCity, I have a number of non-polished posts sitting over there in draft I need to do something about! Maybe that's a good tomorrow project...)

But anyway, I'm going to make up for missing the celebrations at Temple by getting a herb garden started this week and so doing some planting of my own, even though the drought conditions don't make for a favourable prognosis on a new planting project just now. However we're saving so much water from our household at the moment that I think I can spare a little. I think I've come up with a plan concerning water storage, too.... but as we are having people over tonight and more have just arrived, I'd better go and socialise, so more on my cunning plan later!

What to old floppy discs and Star Trek have in common?

2007-01-19T21:23:00.000+11:00

First I have to apologise for my utter lack of communication and going out and stuff. I have actually been quite ill on and off since just before New Years, so I been on hiatis from all things bloggy =)

But now I'm a true Hiatis - 1 whole week off work! So hopefully I will be able to catch up on all my half written posts a bit.

Just for now, here a little something to keep you amused - it looks awesome!

And something I know a number of you fellow trekkies out there will appreciate - Make you own Starship Enterprise out af an old floppy disk!

And one for Ainsley: Cthulhu Buns!!!!

Mixing it up...

2006-11-09T16:21:00.000+11:00

Ok, why do I start these things? It all started with thinking that I should merge my Religio City blog posts into my regular blog as I don't really blog enough there about various things, so I don't see why that shouldn't be mixed in with the normal blog (particularly now that we have this cool label system), as 3 blogs is at least 1 too many. But then I wanted to move all my Jewish blog posts over to Religio City....phew! Done, but I'm exhausted now. I'm going to go and collapse into bed I think! =P

Lack of blogging

2006-11-09T14:37:00.000+11:00

yes, yes, but this time it's not my fault!

We are signing up to ADSL2+ which has recently come to our area. Oooo, the speed, the speed!

However it means we will probably be without internet for at least another week or 2. Ooooo, the pain, the pain!

I am home sick from work today =(. Which is just great considering the pile of work I have waiting for me (yes, that's sarcasm, I would much rather be getting it off my desk!!). I was feeling quite blechy last night and this morning. Havn't been able to catch my breathe and have actually been dizzy, also a blocked nose and feeling all achy and swollen. I'm hoping it's just a cold, I do feel a bit better now that I've had a good sleep in. So I have just made my way to Ben's parents place to comfort myself with their internet connection.

So much has happened! Tournament Party, my Birthday, visiting Ainsley & Benji's new (to me) house & kittens, a new computer.... but blogging about it all will just have to wait.

Must go and You Tube now!

2006-10-31T22:19:00.000+11:00

YouTube has a lot to answer for...

CHAD VADER - DAY SHIFT MANAGER

gulp

2006-10-15T01:11:00.000+10:00

I don't know whether to be shocked and horrified...or think it looks kind of cool. Check out the trailer for Dexter Takes Life. Seriously.

On a slightly more amusing note, I like TheHill88, she be funny! She is also soon to be starring in an Australian independent horror film called The Girl in the Red Dress, which I have failed to find any info about on the Internet =(. But here is the trailer for you. Ben of course won't go with me (I'm sure I've blogged somewhere about his refusal to see horror films??) so I will need one of YOU out there to volunteer!

Also, is this not the cutest thing ever? Check out some of the other designs at the bottom of the page. I like the comments that go with them , like the Ghost "If you over use, it will cough up blood, so handle with care". Further in the Star Wars Universe, the title of this video says it all really.

And finally, I know some of you other girls out there who hate hate hate getting 'mouse hand', or just "keyboard hands", in other words getting your fingey's frozen during winter morning using the computer. Well how about these? Neeeeeeeeat!! Though I have to agree with some of the user comments...why did they go with the name "G-gloves?", particularaly when the guys version is just "Heating Gloves"??? One of them ripped of the thing that came first to mind mind too - "USB G-Gloves - guaranteed to hit the spot". Also - why do I only find out about these things coming into summer???

Now - somebody get me off the internet!
(Whoops, just found this sitting in draft form on my blog - why was it not Posted?? Oh well - it is now =P)

cough splutter urgh

2006-10-14T12:19:00.000+10:00

Surprisingly I have not been blogging even though I have actually spent 3 days at home this week. I seem to have caught something - I was fine on Monday, started to feel icky Tuesday morning which quickly turned into horrible by the end of the day. I took Wednesday off, then foolishly though that since I was feeling a bit better sitting around doing nothing and not having to think that I would also be fine at work. Made to work for a whole hour, then booked a doctor's appointment and went home again. The fact that I wore my coat into and again out of work on what ended up being a 36 degree day should have told me I was pretty sick, but you know, brain no work when feel yuk.

So, surprise surprise the doctor said I have a virus or a slight infection - do they ever say anything else? Elevated temperature, lungs sound congested (I ahve been coughing but without result, it's just been making me feel tired), glands swollen, etc. I mentioned I've been getting weird pains as well (around joints and chest area), he thinks just some inflammation, possibly an inflamed breastbone area (after he poked me in my chest and I said 'ow' a few times).

He suggested just Neurofen and rest for now and gave me a med cert for Thursday and Friday, and I have to come back if not completely better by Monday or if it gets any worse. I've been drinking lemon water by the litre which seems to be making me feel a bit better. Blech. At least I wasn't hot, because of the fever the heat felt just nice to me...

And I got to catch up on my Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon watching. I finished the series in fact. 49 episodes at 24 minutes 20 seconds each (on average) plus a 1 hour special equals just over 21 hours over watching in 6 days. Heh.

Ok, I should probably go and get ready for Kaz's Hen's Day/Night, which I will hopefully make it through, but I'm not going to push myself. I made the mistake of really getting into Simchat Torah last night at Temple, which is when we get all the Torah scrolls out and everyone dances in big circles around them, without considering my somewhat weakened state. We had to go after the 3rd round of dancing (there are 7!) as Ben's parents were waiting on us for dinner, and I was already completely stuffed and kept coughing the rest of the evening. Was fun though, I couldn't help getting into it. Good practice for J & K's wedding too! But I'm going to have Hava Nagila stuck in my head the rest of the week, I just know it!

Last very important thing to blog, just in case you haven't already seen the utter utter cuteness that has happened to Ainsley, go look now!!!!! (Ainsley, your blog had taken over from Cute Overload as my cuteness fix!)

Sailor Moon!

2006-10-08T17:05:00.000+10:00

OMG Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is the best thing ever!!!!

Yeah, the YouTube is pretty bad quality, but I don't care! Sailor Moon Live Action! I must find this subtitled on DVD!

(Going a bit mad, I've watched many many hours of it in a row now - proper blogging will resume soon!)

But seriously - Episode 15 "Ah.... a bird". "Ah...grass". Best. Lines. EVER!

...Ok, you had to be there.

Let the Sun Shine...

2006-10-04T20:59:00.000+10:00

We hereby declare today the first day of Summer!!!

Well, yes, I know it's not really. But it was the first long beer lunch after Winter, so Dave & I decided that was good enough.

Had a lovely long lunch in the incomparable company of Dave and Bowie, lounging outside at 3 degrees eating burgers and drinking Moutain Goat. Mmmmm.

Cured my stress - I still feel like I'm running to catch up at work, I just don't have enough time in my day to get my work done properly. Very frustrating.

But the weather! Nothing can be wrong in this weather =). Wandered around Camberwell market gather fruits and vegetables, came home and patted the cat, smelled the apple and orange blossoms in my garden, made a salad, have the last chapter of my Jane Austin to read... ahh, wave of pleasure!!!

So before I go, I've been tagged! (I like playing chasey!). I like this meme too: I can't stand those "What's you favorite blah"...I don't have a favorite anything. As Dave pointed out, this one is is just a "name one"... leaves you room to do it over and over. Anyway! Off the top of my head:

One book that changed your life:
Oo. Hard. Too Hard. Every book changes me in some way. Probably, and this may be the influence of the instigator of this meme, but probably The Invisibles is a good example!

One book you've read more than once:
I think the book I've read the most is Magician by Raymond Feist.

One book you would want on a desert island:
"How to survive on a Desert Island". Yes, I'm a smart ass, very observant.

One book that made you laugh:
Anything by Terry Pratchett.

One book that made you cry:
Most recently "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" by Anne Tyler. Oh h ow I love Anne Tyler!

One book you wish you had written:
The Harry Potter series - I think I would be doing pretty well out of that...

One book you wish had never been written:
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by Hubbard; or Malleus Maleficarum; or anything else written to oppress and destroy people by pretending to be fact. Words are too powerful to be used as lies.
In terms of fantasy meant to be taken as fantasy, it would have to be the Thomas Convanent Books - Oh how I hate them!!!!!!!

One book you are currently reading:
Emma by Jane Austin.

One book you have been meaning to read:
Wuthering Heights.

Andif you read this, and you haven't already been tagged - you are tagged!!

Back to our regularly scheduled program...

2006-09-28T20:01:00.000+10:00

Well life finally feels back to normal this week, yay! Had my lunch with Mat on Monday, Dave & Bowie on Wednesday, Kellie today (with Ben as a tag along), gonna see Avril & Mat & Josh & Kaz on Saturday night. Lovely =)

And I HAVE TOMORROW OFF!!! Going to one of my workmate's wedding tomorrow afternoon/evening. Then...I have MONDAY OFF!!!!! for Yom Kippur.

We're hosting a grand final watching day here during the day on Saturday...it's really Jared's thing, he's even borrowed a projecter and screen for the event, so it should be good =).

Now after that quick update I might go do a bit more surfing and then head for bed...even though we've got tomorrow off, we're going into the city for a 7:30 am breakfast with the rest of the Breakfast Club; Josh, Kaz, Jim, Mik, Barb, and possibly Sukesha, if he makes it. A good way to start the day. I might spend the interveing time tomorrow doing a bit of shopping and possibly getting my hair cut. Hmmmm...

G'night!

Spring Equnox

2006-09-21T19:56:00.000+10:00

Ostara - Eostre - Easter - Spring Equinox

Spring Equinox is a celebration of new life, as the spring is beginning and nature is about to burst forth with its bounty. This seasonal festival, like the other yearly seasonal festivals we know, was celebrated around the world by many cultures and religions in many different forms.

For me this is the time of year when I first notice the apple and orange blossoms coming out on the trees in my garden. Suddenly I know it's properly springtime. This year, it was 2 weeks ago walking home that I noticed I could smell flowers everywhere, over the past 2 weeks we have had warm days that promise summer is coming, and windy days that blow away the winter cobwebs, and also lots of spring showers soaking into the ground and turning the world green. Now the equinox is here, and the days are finally getting longer!

I've just finished reading "The Secret Garden" which is one of my favourite books this time of year, with it's strong themes of growth and coming to life and looking forward. There's a feeling of amazing happiness and hope I always get at this time of year after the long cold grey winter. We start feeling different, more awake, we start dressing differently, coming out of our winter shells.

Though religiously we're celebrating Rosh Hashanah in Temple at the time of year (occurring the same day as the Equinox this year!) which is technically an early Autumn festival looking forward to harvest, I think the spirit of what I feel this time of year is more appropriate to that as well, a feeling of hope, of a new year beginning and growing and starting, of planning what I want to grow in myself over the next year.

Most people would know Spring Equinox as Easter, however once again due to our being the upside-down part of the world, we celebrate the seasonal festivals at the opposite time of the year to the rest of the world.

So, do eggs really stand up on their base at the moment of the equinox? Why have so many cultures built structures that mark the day, such as the barrow in England and Ireland, the Mayan temples, and the Sphinx? Let's have a look at what the festival means for a couple of cultures:

Jews:
The Jewish springtime festival is Pesach or Passover, as I have written about in another post. So, to quote myself:
"According to the many books I've been reading, the 'modern' Passover is a combination of 2 more ancient Jewish festivals. In ancient times the nomadic Jewish shepherds who at that time lived in the wilderness celebrated a spring festival at the time of the spring full moon, by hastily eating a sacrificial (or paschal) goat or sheep in order to secure protection from God for a safe journey, just before they were to migrate to their winter pastures, called Hag Hapesakh (holiday of the Pascal lamb). On the original Jewish calendar this was the start of the New Year, as with many ancient eastern religions that celebrated New Year at the beginning of spring. They would also spread the sacrificial blood on the doorpost and lintels of their tents. Another distinct festival also held around this time was held at the spring grain harvest and was called Hag Hamatsot (holiday of matsas) or the festival of unleavened bread, which involves eating, of course, unleavened bread. Traditional prayers of this holiday are still spoken of today like the sacrifice of the Omer (which is just a certain measure) of barley, as the first sheaf of new barley was brought to temple as a sacrifice and the new grain of the year couldn't be consumed until after this was done, and the prayer for dew said at this time of year. Both these festivals were probably adopted by the Jews from the Canaanites. At some point in history the 2 festivals were fused together and eventually became a celebration to remember a particular important historical event for the Jewish people - the emancipation of years of slavery in Egypt. The festival is called Pesach (what we called Passover in Hebrew, pronounced "pay-saakh")."

Ancient Ireland:
In Ireland, the spring equinox was celebrated long before the arrival of the Celtic tribes. The best known of the ancient Irish equinox temples is Knowth, which is near to Newgrange (Brú na Boinne). Knowth has a 100-foot long passage that accepts the Sun on the morning of the Spring and Autumn Equinox. A second and older stone cairn equinox temple is found at Longhcrew and is given the name Cairn T. Both Knowth and Cairn T allow a sunbeam on the morning of the Spring and Autumn Equinox to enter a passageway to light upon the sacred geometry on a back stone inside the temple. This is precise timing from a period of over 6 thousands years ago and it still works today. Druidschool has also discovered two ancient temples that were used to honour the two Equinoxes…

…The timing for the celebration of the Spring Equinox as given in Irelands Druidschool is explained in depth at Celtic Druid's Calendar. In its most basic - there were no clocks, no calendars and the passage of time was measured in Ireland by the penetration of a sunbeam into designed passages in stone cairns to exactly light up a section of a stone with carvings upon it. This happens even today so the ancestral calendar is still accurate. The same solar alignment that determines the correct time for Spring Equinox is also the exact same alignment for the Autumn Equinox. This means if you were to stand outside of Cairn ‘T’ at Sliabh na Callighe or at Knowth and look 88* east of north you would see the sun rise to shine in through the passage and onto the Quartz standing stone inside on the Spring and Autumn Equinox.
(from Ireland's Druidschool site)

NeoPagans:
Easter gets its name from the Teutonic goddess of spring and the dawn, whose name is spelled Oestre or Eastre (the origin of the word "east" comes from various Germanic, Austro-Hungarian words for dawn that share the root for the word "aurora" which means " to shine"). Modern pagans have generally accepted the spelling "Ostara" which honors this goddess as our word for the Vernal Equinox… …The Vernal Equinox usually falls somewhere between March 19th and 22nd… …Eggs, bunnies, candy, Easter baskets, new clothes, all these "traditions" have their origin in practices which may have little or nothing to do with the Christian holiday. For example, the traditional colouring and giving of eggs at Easter has very pagan associations. For eggs are clearly one of the most potent symbols of fertility, and spring is the season when animals begin to mate and flowers and trees pollinate and reproduce. In England and Northern Europe, eggs were often employed in folk magic when women wanted to be blessed with children… …Many cultures have a strong tradition of egg colouring; among Greeks, eggs are traditionally dyed dark red and given as gifts…

…Traditional foods play a part in this holiday, as with so many others. Ham is the traditional main course served in many families on Easter Sunday, and the reason for this probably has to do with the agricultural way of life in old Europe. In late fall, usually in October, also known as the month of the Blood Moon, because it referred to the last time animals were slaughtered before winter, meats were salted and cured so they would last through the winter. Poorer people, who subsisted on farming and hunting, would often eat very sparingly in winter to assure their food supply would last. With the arrival of spring, there was less worry, and to celebrate the arrival of spring and of renewed abundance, they would serve the tastiest remaining cured meats, including hams. This also marked a seasonal end to eating cured foods and a return to eating fresh game (as animals emerged from hibernation looking for food), and no longer relying on stored root vegetables, but eating the young green plants so full of the vitamins and minerals that all living beings need to replenish their bodies in spring….

…clearly the association of rabbits with Easter has something to do with fertility magic… …These cute furry creatures reproduce rapidly, and often! Same with chicks, who emerge wobbly and slimy from their eggs only to become fluffy, yellow and cute within a few hours. The Easter Bunny may well have its origin in the honouring of rabbits in spring as an animal sacred to the goddess Eastre…
(from the WitchVox site)

In fact, the Easter bunny is a hare, not a rabbit. In addition to its association with fertility, the hare represents the moon in pagan tradition. Consequently, the date of Easter revolves around the first full moon following the vernal equinox.
(from the Equinox & Solstice site)

Christian:
…According to the New Testament, Christ was crucified on the eve of Passover and shortly afterward rose from the dead. In consequence, the Easter festival commemorated Christ's resurrection….

… Most Christians observe Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, the festival can occur on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. In the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the celebration of Easter may take place later because these churches use additional factors in calculating the date of the festival.
(from Annie's "Easter History" site)

There is evidence that Christians originally celebrated the resurrection of Christ every Sunday, with observances such as Scripture readings, psalms, the Eucharist, and a prohibition against kneeling in prayer. {6} At some point in the first two centuries, however, it became customary to celebrate the resurrection specially on one day each year. Many of the religious observances of this celebration were taken from the Jewish Passover.

The specific day on which the resurrection should be celebrated became a major point of contention within the church. First, should it be on Jewish Passover no matter on what day that falls, or should it always fall on a Sunday? It seems Christians in Asia took the former position, while those everywhere else insisted on the latter.
(From the Religion Facts site)

For further comments on many other cultures and religions take on the Spring Equinox, check out:

- Religious Tolerance.org

- About.com

- RiverDeep.net

The Woggle Returns!

2006-09-20T19:01:00.000+10:00

I made the mistake of letting Ben out of the house without me yesterday to go to a general meeting of 9th St Kilda scout group (if you remember, that was where he was first a scout and then a scout leader for many years). They were making the decision of what the groups future would be, so he had agreed to go and help, even though he hasn't really been involved for a couple of years now.

He came back and told me they had made a desicion to merge with another group...and that he had volunteered to be the group leader!

!!!!!!

Oh Ben, can I not leave you alone for 1 minute???

=P

So tonight he's already gone to the hall again to watch a couple of his scouts get their Green Epaulettes (I think that's what they're getting). Yes, I'm already a scouting widow.

Now nobody let him know that I'm proud of him! It's much more fun to shake my head and complain.

NRG!

2006-09-17T21:18:00.000+10:00

What an excellently relaxing weekend!!

Had beautiful dinner at Jim's last night, and tonight Ben & I went to see "Thank You for Smoking" (awwwwesome, go see it!!) and went out for dinner and had a long rambling conversation about the coming High Holidays and my research over wine, getting progressively more rambly as the wine was drunk. Lovely! Sooo what I needed.

I actually feel well rested and ready for Monday!!

Woo!

Might go work on my other blog while I watch the Robbie Wiiliams concert!

Lots of exclaimation marks!!

Meme's and me

2006-09-15T23:22:00.000+10:00

I need to send apologies to all those people whom I promised to see and didn't this week. Work kind of exploded on me when I realised I had a bunch of reporting stuff I had to do on top of the backlogged work I had. It's now under control, and I worked a full extra days worth of hours this week in 5 days (That not counting all the time I spent there after 5:30, as we don't get paid beyond that time...so more like 1 and 3/4 days extra or about 12 hours extra). Thank goodness for flex-time... I am so taking a day off next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So yeah, Sorry guys, I'm not lame, really, just buggered.

Ok, I should be sleeping, but first 2 meme’s, 1st one stolen from Modo via Emma, and 2nd one stolen from Peeve (Hope you’re feeling better Peeve-girl!!). Yes, I finally had time to read some blogs!

First Meme:

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?

Actually, for a change, I thought “Oo, nice!”. Helped that today was weigh-in day and my wieght has stayed constant (ie not gone up!)

2. How much cash do you have on you?

About $120

3. What's a word that rhymes with "DOOR?"?

Heh, hoar?

4. Favorite planet?

Mars. Reminds me of that weird book “Genesis Revisted” about Sumerian creation myths. Don’t ask.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?

Don’t know – mobile is completely stuffed!

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?

If you mean “favourite”, my Moloko song one.

7. What shirt are you wearing?

My brown velour v-neck…mmmm, op-shop buys are gooood.

8. Do you "label" yourself?

…yep. Lots of overlapping, boxy labels. Does it still count when you have hundreds of labels for yourself?

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing?

Brand? I’m wearing grey fluffy Ug boots!

10. Bright or Dark Room

Dark. Dark is a good word. Pretty, feels good to say. A bit “cellar door”-ish

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?

She rocks!

12. What does your watch look like?

Silver braclet-ey. It doesn’t work, and is set to 12. I like people asking me what the time is and saying “I don’t know”. They look at my watch, look at me…ah, confusion reins!

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?

I should have been sleeping because I was buggered. But instead I was watching the Rock Star Supernova finale and yawning lots.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?

Wobbly! (Again, don’t ask)

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?

1½ blocks away.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?

Awwwesome. Inherited from my ex-workmate.

17.Who told you he/she loved you last?

My mumsy.

18. Last furry thing you touched?

My Bendi cat.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?

Alcohol, nicotine and caffeine….LOTS of caffeine.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?

Several, they are scattered throughout my stuff.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?

“Favourite” age is right now, getting better and better.

22. Your worst enemy?

Myself.

23. What is your current desktop picture?

Bendi giving me his “You know you want to pat me” look.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?

“I’m going on the computer for a while.”

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?

With a million bucks I could fly by plane wherever I wanted.

26. Do you like someone?

Several someone’s.

27. The last song you listened to?

Deliberately? The “lala” anime website song Ben Hocking sent me by email….it has kept my stress levels down at work =P

28. What time of day were you born?

7:15 pm. In the waiting room of the hospital. Mum was serenely watering the garden until she felt her contractions were close enough together, then went to the hospital (1 minute drive up the road) and told them she was ready to give birth. They said “No no Mrs van Leeuwen, you have plenty of time” and the rest is as they say….

29. What's your favorite number?

Argh! FAVOURITE! (Stoopid Americans!) 3.

30. Where did you live in 1987?

In Karingal (We say that. It’s actually a sub-suburb of Frankston, but we try to hide that!)

31. Are you jealous of anyone?

Melbourne Football Club (that OUR finals chance, dammit!!)

32. Is anyone jealous of you?

I seriously doubt it.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?

In my living room at Macrina street with my housemates. We saw it ‘as it happened’ on the news.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?

Call the service number and complain! (When I have a working mobile!)

35. Do you consider yourself kind?

Yes, I try to make a point of it.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?

Another one?! Up my spine probably, after reading Kusheil’s Dart.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?

Japanese!

38. Would you move for the person you loved?

Yep.

39. Are you touchy feely?

Not so much. Level increases significantly with alcohol, though!

40. What's your life motto?

Sorry to be the same Modo, but it’s definitely do unto others. As opposed to “an eye for an eye”….some people don’t know the difference!!

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times?

My wits, my sense of humour, and my smile (awwwww).

42. What's your favorite town/city?

Did I have this rant already? Melbourne’s in my heart.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?

Heh. Baileys and chocolate schnaps (they’re going really well together!!)

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?

Hmmm…it probably doesn’t count, but my novated lease company to get reimbursed for some car expenses =P

45. Can you change the oil on a car?

Yep.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?

He sent me a cool Lala website email!

47. How far back do you know about your ancestry?

Not at all, I’ve been planning to get into contact my one of my relatives in halland who has done a family tree…

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?

My corset to a friends party…damn I love that thing!

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?

I have itchy feet from being stockinged all day. And sore shoulders from too much work!

50. Have you been burned by love?

Yep. Don’t remind me.

Wow, is that 50 questions already??

Second Meme:

5 unique/weird things about your pets.

Bendi:

He can only drink fresh water. Usually it has to be running water actually, but he’ll settle for watching me closely while I fill a clean bowl and put it on the ground for him. It has to be a completely clean fresh bowl, not the one his water was in before, and put straight down on the ground.

He’s taken to sleeping on our bed up our end. He thinks he’s a human, so I end up waking in the morning with Ben scooched up to me down one side and Bendi scooched up to me down the other, heads against my shoulders, me stuck in the middle. Bad if I wake up needing to go to the bathroom.

He likes to get fed for attention if he’s feeling sooky. Sometimes this means just walking him to his (full) food bowl and telling him to eat and patting him when he does (cats make the funniest sound when they purr and eat at the same time). Then 5 minutes later he’ll come find me and meow and I have to do it all over again. About 5 times.

He assumes you’re going to catch him when he gets comfy on your lap. I’ve often wondered what would happen if I didn’t bother gathering him up in my arm when he curls up on me and just sinks back, but it hasn’t happened yet (I just can’t!)

He knows how to knock on the bedroom window to be let in from outside. Usually as soon as I’ve settled in bed with my book. I hear “knock knock knock - meow”. I don’t know how he does it. Maybe he’s using his head?!?!

OK, tired now. I’m going to do that going to bed thing and wait for the knock on the window =P

unfortunately not a video post...

2006-09-12T20:47:00.000+10:00

Well here I am blogging on Ben's inferior computer =). Yep, my power source packed it in, actually the weekend before last, and I haven't as yet got up of my proverbial to fix it. At least, i think it's the power source. I tested a seperate power cable, however whichever I use when I plug it in it sparks a bit, and after this I tried the power button it kind of has drawn enough power to flick the light and fan for 1/2 a second, and then... nothing.

Sigh. How does one live without one's internet bookmarks. I'm lost I tell you!

It has though given me the opportunity to surf through a lot of YouTube... I like it. The whole LonleyGirl15 scam has actually peversely inspired me to video blog for real, and so I'm kind of inspired to buy a webcam. Or a regular video camera. What's better? Does anyone have any suggestions??

I've always been a bit wary of the video blog thing. Mainly because I'm a bit shy. I don't like talking, I find typing much more in my groove. I really have this thing about not being good at being myself and speaking my mind... I have such a rich internal life, but I can't get it to translate through to the 'real' world. But these days, I don't know, text is so limited. I'm getting into appreciating the video medium. I'm looking at TV shows and ads in a different way because of it.

Speaking of, one of the shows we're into right now is Rockstar Supernova. Rockin! Last week this week - what ever will I do?? Ah well, there's still my Wednesday night veiwing. Hey, did anyone else see Four Corners last night? I've been generally avoiding the 9/11 shows, but this was a fantastic recap of where we are now in relation to the war and terrorism. I really should be making a concerted effort to watch 4 Corners more often. Was followed by Denton's interview with Al Gore, awesome.

Highlight of this weekend was socialising. Saturday had an excellent Shabbat lunch over at Josh & Kaz's place, with another couple who are friends of theirs who are converting, and one of the Temple Rabbis and his wife and baby girl. I have to say I really love Rabbi Gersh (Dr Gersh Zylberman), he so... what we didn't expect in a Rabbi, I guess. Ben particularly, who has been to an Orthodox Shul most of his life, is so impressed with and inspired by him. He's a vegetarian, enviromentalist, and an awesome public speaker, we always get excited when he's the one giving the sermon (though that's not to detract from the other Rabbinic staff at TBI, as I've said before they're all great people, who I've developed a huge amount of respect for). It's just... less imposing I guess to meet a Rabbi who you feel like you can connect to so easily, who's so friendly. That's one of the things we both love about TBI I guess, there is always the feeling that we are so welcome there by all the staff, they really take joy in their service. I guess... all the Rabbi's I've ever come into contact before TBI have been nice, but one dimentional in a way. Focused on Torah and Israel, of course, but almost to the exclusion of all the other things there are in this world that deserve our passion.

Anyway, I must put aside some time this week to write an email to TBI and ask one of the Rabbi's for an appointment - I'm (hopefully!) going to be going to the classes next year. Apologies for the rant, but I'm really loving it there!! I look forward to Friday nights all week now.

The other social function was going to dinner with Hannah and Miles, which was excellent fun, as those two always are! Went to a Thai restaurant near their new place that was sort of a stab in the dark, but then not really, as it came from th gold section of The Book (the entertainment book) and it was excellent food and company.

Bookwise, I've read the Blue Castle (OH MY GOD I NEED A COPY OF THAT BOOK!!!) which then inspired me for some reason to go back and read some of my favorite childhood books, The Little White Horse and Ronia The Robber's Daughter. I've just moved on the The Accidental Tourist (another Anne Tyler, mmmm). In between I'm trying to read some non-fiction too, at the moment that's The Jewish People 4000 Years Of Survival.

I'm also having a blogging dilemma, besides the lure of video blogging. I'm starting to look at MySpace and similar sites with much less disdain than I used to. I'm a Google Girl all the way, but...mmmm, features. Though I've been told Blogger gone all beta, so maybe I should go and fiddle with some of the features. I guess I could actually go and setup my own, but if I want to do web stuff I have plenty to do in terms of building a better website for my brother's businesses. I'll have to get back to that soon, when my poor sick computer is well.

Hmmm.... that's enough for tonight methinks. I won't rant about work...I'll save that for another day, and I'm sure I've ranted enough about things that are boring to most other people!! =P

(oo, just a plug - Matt now has a blog, finally!! See Matthew's Head =) )

Introducing.....

2006-08-27T13:04:00.000+10:00

Ha! You're all wrong. Today it's been a month. Calander month anyway.

I'm just sort of gonna pick up where I left off. No, I'm not going to go hard into all the "yeah I've been feeling crap, sick, a bit depressed, no reason, just need a chnage, can't find one, winter's yuk etc" expansion, you know all that. Needless to say I've been hibernating and not doing a lot. No dieting (only lost about a kilo the past month), no gymming (though I have been making myself do things like take the stairs, play Volleyball when needed, etc) no socialising (not even blog reading!). What have I been doing?

Losing myself in some Really Good Books. Here are some brief comments - I can't really go into analytical depth, as I've been in a bit more of a feeling space rather than a thinking one, but I'm trying to keep track of what I've read!

Ursula Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness: started by having to let it wash over me - Ursula doesn't like to have to explain her world, she just throws you in and lets you figure it out. Amazing sense of several worlds colliding.

Joanna Trollope - A Villiage Affair: Took a twist I totally didn't see coming. Interesting. Very well written. Liek all of the ones lately.

Anne Tyler - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant: Traumatic. Not quite sure why. Loved the characters. Cried when it was over because it was over.

Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel's Dart: Sexy. Again, a twist I didn't expect, expanded on itself and became much deeper than I thought it would. Romantic.

Anne Tyler - Ladder of Years: amazing chapter in a woman's life. So odd, yet so understandable.

John Fowles - The Collecter: Argh! CREEPY!! People so hamstrung by what they are, so alike, so unable to understand the other... I kept waiting for the resolution which occurred in a way I didn't expect.

Marilynne Robinson - Houskeeping: Creepy in a different way. Bleak and beautiful

Mary Wesley - A Sensible Life: my current book, loving it so far. It gives me hope when an author gets her first novel published at 70.

So many of the books I've read lately have been by women and about women... I think I needed that, I needed to lose myself in my headspace for a while inside some beautiful writing and imagery, and the authors Modo and Peeve have put my onto above cerainly give me that.

Last night I borrowed a precious bounty of Modo's favorites as the Mary Wesley was my last in my pile... Oh happiness and joy!!!

I feel like curling up in bed for the next month and just reading my life away... in fact I'm going to do that right now =)

Dream

2006-07-25T23:05:00.000+10:00

Sorry, a footnote after reading Modo's blog reminded me of this.

I had a dream last night that I have had before which always disturbs me, however last night's development was the worst yet. We are here at North Road, it is night, and we are trapped in the house because the world has turned to vampires, very "28 Days Later"-esk. Normally not something I am afraid of, but as I said, this is not your cool gothic vamp but more your animal crazy vamp. Luckily the old law holds and they can't come in the house unless we let them. Anyway, as I said last night's was particularly disturbing because Bendi had gotten stuck out with them and though we'd managed to let him in he had a bite on him. I got him into his cat cage but as the change started in him he got strong and every now and then would trip-out and spasm and thrash around, and finally during one of these managed to break the door hinge on the cage. I tried to fix it because he still was kind of sane, but he suddenly turned on me and bit my hand - not hard enough to break the skin, he was still that much himself, but he also couldn't let go and I had to pry his jaws. I could see the conflict within him (as Luke S would say). At that point I managed to get a grip on him safely and we had to throw him outside. I was so upset I woke up in the middle of the night from this. I firmly told myself "I don't want to go back to that dream" and remember nothing else, so i don't think i did.

It still makes me feel grim though. Bendi got extra pats today from me.

Film appreciation

2006-07-25T22:43:00.000+10:00

We've had some excellent film-watching time the past few days. On Saturday we engaged in the sole outing for the weekend and made our way up to see Sash and Bridey. Went out for Japanese (they got the Big Boat of sushi which I had to restrain myself from playing with making fog horn noises...well, I wasn't that restrained, it happened, once or twice), then we saw Pirates II. Oh, the Johnny Depp-ness!!! I don't particularly like the female lead, but was there one woman (and some men) in that audience who didn't want to be her during the kissing scene? If you said "Not me" I don't believe you. You could've heard a pin drop in our cinema.

The second lot of films was last night (yes, a school night) where we went to the incomparable Astor theatre (pronounce the 'a') to see an awesome double - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (more Depp!) followed by Pulp Fiction. Ghlghlghl. And considering the content of those movies your question is fair, and no, we were totally straight thankyou, except for perhaps the caffeine that kept us going until 20 to 1 in the morning.

Considering the lateness of last night, it shouldn't be a surprise to me that we totally lost our Volleyball sets this evening. But then it could be just because I played =P. I'm not very good, but then I think it was only the 4th time I've played over this year (and ever) - it's kind of hard to get better at something when you only do it every 4 weeks or so. I must get some practice in!! I'm still in the "ARGH THE BALL IS COMING AT ME!!!" phase of my volleyball development - not cool.

I wish I were more awake but I'm just not, so this goodnight from me, and goodnight from her =P

(I will try to get back to regular posts soon, I promise!!)