Shiny!!!!
I just got back from seeing "Serenity". I Rawked!!!!
Even given my new non-wage earning, money saving status, I am definately going to see it again.
If you have'nt seen it- GO SEE IT! If I did not have to pick up my daughter from the babysitters, I would have walked straight back in and watched it again.
Click
here to see Joss Whedon's blog post upon completion of the filming, and
here for the Serentiy Web site.
Old, rich, self-centred and fat- that’s the city 4-wheel-driver
I was reading this article in my local newspaper today about 4W Drivers. The Husband will tell you that I have this thing about 4WDs. I hate the aggressive "better than you" ( see
HarrangueMan's Blog on this) attitude of the people who drive them, but if asked what type of car I would buy if I could have anything- it's a 4WD - in particular, a Hummer.
Left: Inkling's dream car (with jacked up suspension)So you can imagine how disheartened when I read this article. Based on a
report from The
Australian Institute, issued by Clive Hamilton and Claire Barbato which looked into city drivers of large 4-wheel drives.
It states that “
They might think of themselves as rugged individualists, but a report has found city owners of large four-wheel drives to be old, well-off, morally conservative, rich, self-centred and fat.”
This is what it has to say about the typical City 4-wheel driver:
- Typical driver is male
- 40s-50s
- Full time worker
- Higher than average income (duh, that’s how they can afford the expensive 4WD)
- Obese (2/3 of drivers were obese or overweight)
- Morally conservative
- Less community orientated
- More likely to dislike homosexuals
- Lower regard for indigenous culture
- Less sympathetic towards supporting disadvantaged people
- Drink beer- but not imported stuff
These people who I will to call ‘Rednecks’ are also less concerned about the impact of their decisions on others.
Left: A Redneck
Left: A redneck in his car
Apparently owners of ‘Luxury’ 4WDs are different- younger, wealthier, keener to look good and more likely to be women. These drivers are said to be more materialistic (one in three agreed they were ‘born to shop’), less likely to be obese- but worriede about their weight and more likely to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner.
Ahh, now this is more like me.....
Yet another Quiz
Seems our web experience is full of the "what are you?" quiz at the moment.
Well this one seems appropriate, as we are having our first child free evening this Thursday to see the
Serenity movie. Thanks to
Cass for this one.
Which Serenity Character are you?
 | You scored as Simon Tam. The Doctor. You have a gift for healing that goes beyond education. You took an oath to do no harm, even when your patients have tried to kill you. You are out of place where you are, being used to refined society. However, if you take that stick out of your arse you should be fine.
Simon Tam | | 75% | The Operative | | 63% | Kaylee Frye | | 63% | Inara Serra | | 63% | Zoe Alleyne Washburne | | 56% | Shepherd Derrial Book | | 56% | Hoban 'Wash' Washburne | | 50% | Capt. Mal Reynolds | | 50% | River Tam | | 38% | Jayne Cobb | | 19% |
Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com |
Did not pick myself as being Simon Tam (perhaps I have failed to notice the stick?).....not sure who I thought I would be.
The Little Things
When you have a newborn child your life gets turned upside down. Instead of being an independent person, your time is dictated to you by the small creature you are now responsible for. You begin to appreciate the little things in life- like the luxury of a haircut.
You see, for about 8 years now Ii have been cutting The Husband's hair. It grows rather quickly and generally needs to be cut every 4 or so weeks. The last time it was cut was before I gave birth.
Now for over a week I have been looking at The Husband's hair thinking it was time for a cut. For about the last week, we have been trying to find the time between feeding, changing and settling a baby to do so, with little success. The result is that he has become increasingly
scruffy looking.
Left: Artists impression of The Husband "scruffy looking"Well today we finally had time. Little Miss slept long enough for me to get out the clippers and make him respectable again. So he does not have to end up looking like this!
The Parents have Landed!
As I said in my earlier post (
Meet the Parents), we picked my parents up from the airport this morning after a 5 week overseas holiday.
Today they got to meet their grandaughter. Here are the piccies.
Mummy and Bub in matching gear.
Grandma and Grandpop meet her. (Grandma Hugs)
Grandpop Hugs.
Buddy Bears
A friend of mine has recently shared his experiences about being bullied as a child. Now my experiences are in no way as bad as what he has described, but I too was bullied at school, and for some of the same reasons:
- I was a bit overweight- which is to say I was not a stick figure
- I 'developed' early and had larger breasts than the rest of my stick figure school colleagues
- I was athletically challenged
- I was intelligent and did well at school- a "square"
All this lead to the 'tough' kids bullying me just a bit.
Bullying on any level is deplorable and should not be tolerated by our society. Being the mum of a newborn, I shudder to think how I would react if I discovered she was being bullied- or being a bully.
What has caught my eye is the recent campaign against bullying - the Better Buddy Program. It is an initiative of the Alannah & Madeline Foundation (AMF) to draw national attention to the issue of bullying and to bring about a social change in our community.
The initiative is being supported by Target. Who are selling the bears (yummy Cadbury chocolate) for 70c. Target is also donating 20c for every bear sold to AMF to help prevent schoolyard bullying.
I applaud the work of these dedicated individuals, and will be going to Target to purchase my buddy bear to support them.
Meet the Parents
Today is the day my darling new daughter gets to meet her grandparents (my parents). Through a series of unfortunate events, they left the country at 6am on the morning she was born (she arrived at 4.40pm).
They have seen pictures of her at least once in the 5 weeks they have been away, thanks to The Husband who posted pictures of her the night she was born.
So today we go to the airport and pick them up just after lunch. We will all be wearing matching clothes. The Husband had these polo shirts made for the birth for us and our support crew (my parents and his parents) with "Bob Racing Team" on the back and "BRT Pit Crew" on the front ("Bob" being the working title for the baby as we did not know the sex).
She has an outfit in matching colour which daddy has painted with "BRT", and her name on the back. (stay tuned for pictures).
I expect that the rest of the day will be spent with Grandma and Grandpop, as they have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little girl for 6years.
Lake-A-Cake
Since becoming a mum I have learnt many new things- what I did not realise was that I would learn more about baking.
I used to bake frequently before I discovered
live roleplaying. Then I used to make wonderful gastronomical delights without resorting to
store purchased packet cake/slice/muffin mixes. As my free time became more congested, I resorted to the pre packaged mixes to bake.
Now that I am a full time mum instead of a full time employee, finances dictate that I yet again re-learn the cook from scratch method I used to favour.
Well I have been out of practice, and so now my re-education begins:
- Cake recipes that call for a 30cm round pan don't do as well in a 30cm spring form pan.
- Make sure you icing/frosting is thick enough.
Here you now see my pathetic attempt at baking a cake for my daughter's one month birthday.
I used the incorrect size pan, so the cake was only about 30cm high at the sides, and rose like a volcano in the middle.
when I made the icing, I did not make it thick enough, so when I poured it onto the chocolate volcano it flowed like molten lava right down and over the sides, pooling on the plate (see left).
Well, I have learnt my lessons today- and will attempt to bake again. The saving grace is that even a volcano "cake on a lake" tastes damn good.
As Australian As...
This is kind of a re-joiner to a post made by a fellow blogger
HarrangueMan. He does this thing he calls Twatwatch- where he comments on something he finds particularly deplorable. Well this particular Twatwatch was about
Arnotts biscuit company- which was Australian and still promotes itself as "Part of Australian Culture", but is owned by Campbells (an American company).
Here is my beef:
Just last night I saw an ad on television. It showed beautiful people having fun entertaining outside, eating
Jatz biscuits. There is no dialogue, but music- "Waltzing Matilda" being played. Then at the end of the ad comes the kicker- "As Australian as Arnotts".
Who are they kidding? Do they think that we are do daft that we have forgotten that it is really an American Company. Sure they have a basis in Australian history, but Arnott's is just not Australian anymore.
Just my 2.2 cents (Inc GST) worth.
What Are You ? Quiz
So recently I have been sucked in by all of the "what (insert type here) are you?" quizzes. If you have read my blog you will know that I am apparently the 4th Doctor. You may not know but apparently I am also Eliott Stabler in the "What
Law and Order Character are You?" quiz (the Husband was ADA Alexandra Cabbot!).
So I am surfing friends blogs and noticed that the Husband is the Killer Rabbit from the
Holy Grail quiz. So being the lemming I am at the moment (sleep deprivation and a young baby will do that to you) I did the Grail quiz as well, and to my surprize I am:
"Which Holy Grail Character Are You?"
Tim the EnchanterWhat manner of man are you that can summon up fire without flint or tinder?
Tim the Enchanter? perhaps I am being typecast with the type of character I am.... any reflection on
D&D characters? (incidently whan searching for a link on D&D I discovered the "
What D&D character are you Quiz! Apparently I turn out to be a Chaotic Neutral Gnome Bard Ranger -Follower Of Finder Wyvernspur-go figure!)
Now you think that would satisfy my need for quizzes and validation, but no! I looked further on this quiz page and found this amusing tidbit: "What is your Terror Alert Colour?". I don't know how the 3 questions assign your colour, but ythis is what I turned out to be:
Take the quiz:
"What is YOUR terror alert color?"
OrangeHIGH! You must be aware and do your part. Keep those eyes open, just don't let the paranoia get to you. Your terror alert color is Orange.
Very amusing when your brain capacity is severely reduced, and perhaps the last one may be of interest to some of my public servant type friends?
What Being a Mum is all About- (Long)
I have not posted here for a few days. You see my life had been reduced to two things- my breasts. I have been having trouble breastfeeding my newborn (Mastitis is not very pleasant), and so my life has been revolving around that.
We are getting through now- after some help from a Lactation clinic visit on Thursday, and now I find I actually have some time again to do some 'normal stuff'.
So, while sorting through and deleting old emails, I cam across this one sent to me by my mother back in June. Re-reading it made me smile, so I thought I would share it.
What Being a Mum is All About:
We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of "starting a family."
"We're taking a survey," she says half-joking. "Do you think I should have a baby?"
"It will change your life," I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral.
"I know," she says, "no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations."
But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes.
I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.
I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, "What if that had been MY child?" That every plane crash, every house fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.
I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. That an urgent call of "Mum!" will cause her to drop a souffle or her best crystal without a moment hesitation.
I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood.
She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is all right.
I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be routine. That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room rather than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester may be lurking in that restroom.
However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother.
Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself.
That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child. That she would give herself up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs.
I want her to know that a caesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honour.
My daughter's relationship with her husband will change, and not in the way she thinks. I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child. I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic.
I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.
I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.
My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes.
"You'll never regret it," I finally say.
Then I reached across the table, squeezed my daughter's hand and offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of callings.
Transgender Barbie?
I was reading a friend's blog post about the Steve Austin- 6 Million Dollar Man doll (not action figure), and it reminded me of an incident in my past.
You see, I had the 6 million dollar man doll too- but it was my 'modifications' to a
Barbie doll that I remembered.
You see like most girls, I had not one, but several Barbie dolls. I did not, however, have a Ken doll. Now this gets a little tricky when you want to play games with your Barbie. She could have dated Steve Austin (there have been numerous articles etc about her dating
GI Joe), but that did not occur to me at the time I guess.
So I did the only thing I could think of. I turned one of my Barbie dolls into a Ken. I cut her long blond hair really short to give her a 'boys hair style'. But there was one more problem- Barbie's
enormous breasts.
So being an innovative child, I decided to remove them. Not having access to tools and such, I took my Barbie doll out to the road outside our house and rubbed her boobs off on the
ashphalt - thus making her into Transgender Ken (the doll formerly known as Barbie).
Now some people might say that this was a child's first steps towards a
feminist backlash against the unrealistic proportions of the Barbie doll, but the reality of it was, that my parents could not afford to but a Ken doll.
Of course my opinion of the Barbie doll and it's figure has changed, and I now agree with many of the people in web land that there should be more
realistic Barbie dolls out there on the market. Though I will still look fondly on my memories of playing with my Barbie's, Transgender ken in their purchased and hand made clothing.
Welcome to Holland
As I was going through all of my ante-natal information to decide what I would keep I came across this sheet of paper headed "
Welcome to Holland". When I read it, I wondered how it had skipped my notice before. It is an article written by Emily Pearl Kingsley about dealing with giving birth to a disabled child. She also wrote a television drama called
Kids Like These about a couple who have a child with downs Syndrome.
Now this may have has significance for us. You see when we had our 12 week ultrasound- the
Nuchal fold scan - it put us in a high risk category for downs Syndrome (a 1:50 chance). After much soul searching and talking to family, we decided that it didn't matter to us whether our child had this or not- she would still be ours. Reading this article at this time would have affirmed that stance.
As it happened, J is a 49:50 baby, and does not have downs syndrome.
I think that this article is not just useful for expecting parents, but could apply to many situations in life when something unexpected happens that changes your whole life.
Enjoy!
Doctor who?
I followed a link from The Husband's page and it took me to another blog. The first time I have gone blog surfing. Here was a link to a "which Doctor are you?" quiz.
Now here is where I admit to being a sci-fi nerd. You see I love Dr Who. I used to watch it when I was a child- There was one episode that gave me nightmares - (and interestingly enough it is the same one that scared The Husband silly as a child too) it was the episode where people were being turned into plants- I guess a kind of floral zombieism.
I loved the new series as well- shamelessly taping it when I would not be home to watch it on a Saturday night.
So, I ended up at this
quiz and here was my result:
You are the Fourth Doctor: A walking Bohemian
conundrum with a brooding personal magnetism
and a first-rate intellect concealed somewhere
beneath your charmingly goofy exterior. You are
perhaps the most terribly clever of all the
Doctors, though your occasional bouts of
childishness get you in trouble. You never go
looking for a fight, but when someone messes
with you... Good heavens, are they ever sorry
they did.
Which Incarnation of the Doctor Are You?brought to you by QuizillaSo, if you like Dr Who, and are a little bit bored, see which one you are.
Left: Inkling's dream car (with jacked up suspension)
Left: A Redneck
Left: A redneck in his car
Left: Artists impression of The Husband "scruffy looking"
Mummy and Bub in matching gear.
Grandma and Grandpop meet her. (Grandma Hugs)
Grandpop Hugs.
The initiative is being supported by Target. Who are selling the bears (yummy Cadbury chocolate) for 70c. Target is also donating 20c for every bear sold to AMF to help prevent schoolyard bullying.
I applaud the work of these dedicated individuals, and will be going to Target to purchase my buddy bear to support them.
Here you now see my pathetic attempt at baking a cake for my daughter's one month birthday.
