Making it up as I go

nerdy_jack @ 2009-01-17T15:56:00

2009-01-17T06:20:54Z

oh em gee, it's been so long since i posted i couldn't even remember how to post. heavens! so well i suppose i'll tell you my news. blah blah blah, you know. or you could just go grab the weekend australian which would be better reading. i must grab myself a coffee and some chocolate before i begin. back in a sec.

oh em gee, that is so much better. i used to have this thing called the three C's --- coffee, chocolate, ciggie. but i don't smoke any more because i decided i didn't want to die too soon. so i suppose it's more like the CC's (as in, "just say CC", the olde farts out there will know what i am on about here).

now the reason i am writing "oh em gee" instead of "OMG" is because my brother goes around saying it and it sounds funny when someone says it out loud. (the first few times anyway). but obviously it doesn't really work quite the same when you write it down. nevermind. (as Nirvana once said).

well i have been playing git, i'll admit to that. recently i got into all these sort of guitar workouts for your left hand. building up strength, coordination, doing stretches, finger yoga (i kid you not). and it has helped. i do enjoy it and sometimes play a couple of hours in a day, other times, half an hour, sometimes not at all. but i miss it if i don't play for a day or two...

kiddies are good. they're great actually. they've been batman and robin a lot lately. and the older fella has developed a liking for 'fancy clothes'. so he'll often run off to his room to put on his good shirt, tie, and suit. he'll sit watching tv like that, or he loves to go out like that. he asks if we can go places so he can be seen. they're into juijitsu too. both have been going to classes. now when they fight they can really hurt each other...

the younger is a strong atheletic little mite. all blonde hair and cuteness.

they're biggish now and seem so grown up. i'm so proud of them both.

everything else is as-per-usual. it's all ok. good sometimes. hard sometimes. there is joy, there is pain. we all know it, we all live it.

kevvie, broadband, etc

2007-12-08T09:25:46Z

Like most people I know, I'm very happy to have kevvie et al running the country now. I'm very excited about what this means for our country. I think the nation is just now coming out of a collective state of depression. That being said, I think the reign of kevvie isn't going to be too full of thrills but not really with spills either. He wants to be a safe pair of hands for the nation and (continuing the cricket theme) keep his politics right on middle stump. it's a strategy and everybody needs a strategy and that's his.

Over the past six months or so I suddenly found myself really interested in politics, pretty much for the first time in my life. I am finding it fascinating. I like reading the political stuff in the australian and the age, and sometimes i get to the sydney morning herald. I don't like reading the Courier mail so much as it reminds me of how backward queensland is and that just makes me depressed. The australian leans right and the age leans left, so you get a balance by reading those two! Two very bold columnists i like from the age are tracee hutchison and catherine deveny. Here is an article from TH about the gals in rudd's ministry:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/exciting-defining-times-for-women/2007/11/30/1196394620994.html

There are a lot of columnists I enjoy, and I like the letters and the comments people post in the on-line edition too. The columnist I'm most into at present is "jack the insider" in the australian. Check it out in the on-line edition. Don't you love that newspapers are basically free now? And I've become such a media junkie. Or really an information-in-general junkie. I love finding stuff out. Please send all those 0's and 1's my way, nice and fast please.

Speaking of which, I'm pleased about the new government's broadband plan, broadly speaking. Unfortunately the arrangement with telstra is making things difficult *makes cranky look on face*.

Sol, if you can manage to get a decent internet connection and read this, please just be nice and let us have faster broadband will you?

That's it for now I think. Time to think about dinner.

nerdy_jack @ 2007-07-28T11:26:00

2007-07-28T01:50:45Z

Just across the road from our place is an oval, and on friday nights they have a thing for kids which is called "auskick". it is basically aussie rules for little kids (ages 3 to 7). the kids and i have been going for a while now. when we got back last night and were sitting on the sofa, nikki said there was something on sasha's shoulder. he got up and this "thing" was crawling down sasha's arm. it was light in colour and my mind was telling me it was a scorpion, though it looked like a spider too. i flicked it off and j caught it in a glass. it had 8 legs so we figured it must have been a spider, and let it go out the back.

at the time, sasha said it was a wind scorpion. i didn't really take it in at the time. but it was on my mind so i googled it this morning. and lo and behold, there is a creature, not actually a scorpion or a spider, but part of the arachnid family, called solpugids but known of as "wind scorpions" or "camel spiders"; pictures on the internet enabled us to identify our visitor of last night. they are not poisonous but rather have very nasty biters that chop its prey up and can deliver a nasty bite to a person. our visitor was barely 2cm long, but these things can be huge. indeed these babies are famous among the troups in iraq. here's a link to a pic: http://www.whatsthatbug.com/solpugids.html. Scary!!!!

Photo Album

2007-06-03T12:28:53Z

Her photo album
takes me on a journey

Across the years
across the miles, the paths she's travelled

To now. To here.
To her and I.

Her photo album
shows her to me,
evolving across the years.

I see her,
changing.
I see her,
Unchanging.

I see the centre of all the different hers
Her essence.

Her photo album
shows her to me.

Everybody loves Tommy

2007-03-06T11:58:11Z

Watch this to see why everybody loves Tommy Emmanuel. It's not just his playing --- it's him

Life is short but you're here to flower

2007-01-01T11:25:33Z

I like the message in this song so it is my little tribute to the start of 2007. It is about getting out there and living your life... now! I've just been playing it so imagine I'm singing it to you!

Opportunity by Pete Murray

Capo First Fret

Intro G Em G Em C Am C Am

G Em G
So it goes another lonely day
Em C
you’re saving time but you're miles away
Am C
Your flowers drowning in some bitter tea
Am G
Foreseeing lost opportunity
Em
Find your mirror
G
Go and look inside
Em C
See the talent you always hide
Am C
don’t go kid yourself, well not today
Am G
Satisfaction's not far away

Chorus:
D Am
Hold on now, your exit's here
C G
It's waiting just for you
D
Don't pause too long
Am
It's fading now
C G D Am C
It's ending all too soooon you'll see
G D Am C
Soooon you'll see

Verse 2:
G Em G
Your coffee's warm but your milk is sour
Em C
Life is short but you're here to flower
Am C
Dream yourself along another day
Am G
Never miss opportunity
Em G
don’t be scared of what you cannot see
Em C
Your only fear is possibility
Am C
Never wonder what the hell went wrong
Am G
Your second chance may never come along

(Chorus)

(Solo G Em G Em C Am C Am)

(Chorus)

G D Am C
Soooon you'll see ( X6 End On G )

march for mulrunji doomadgee this wednesday 20th december

2006-12-18T22:09:57Z

Mulrinji Doomadgee died in police custody on palm island. He had four broken
ribs, a ruptured spleen, and his liver was almost split in two. The
arresting officer claims Doomadgee sustained these injures when he "fell over".

So I wanted to let you know about the march TOMORROW to show public outrage:

>> BRISBANE EMERGENCY COMMUNITY RALLY AND MARCH
>> JUSTICE FOR MULRINJI, NO MORE COVER-UPS!
>> Rally 12 noon Wednesday December 20
>> Queens Park (Cnr George/Elizabeth Sts, opp casino) March on state
>> parliament

You can also sign the online petition:
www.petitiononline.com/mulrinji/petition.html

the monkey's mask

2006-12-06T12:33:10Z

this month at book club we did a book which is just so fabulous i wanted to talk about it. the book is called "the monkey's mask" and the author is dorothy porter. a rather striking thing about it is that it is written in verse. when i heard that it was written in verse i assumed it would be very painful to read. i had visions of milton's "paradise lost". everyone else thought it would suck too, except of course the woman who suggested we do it for book club. when we put it on the list, we didn't realise it was written in verse. we probably would not have, had we known.

when book club books are a bit too literature-ish (e.g. jeanette winterson), less people tend to read them and the book club gathering is smaller. i don't really mind though because then only the really hard core gals come along and you get a good discussion. plus once you get to 8 people or over there are always 2 conversation groups that form and you miss some people's comments. i like to hear everyone's comments.

but the thing about this book is that because everyone found out it was written in verse they thought it would suck and so they didn't read it. but, it sooooo doesn't suck....

the book is written as a sequence of little poems or verses or whatever you want to call them. Each one has a title. Each one goes for half a page or a page or two pages or thereabouts. And it is a brilliant way to tell a story! Why? It cuts through all the dull non core descriptive bits in books and cuts straight to the telling of the story. And the little poem things - they are damn fine.

Style

In love I've got no style

my heart is decked out
in bright pink tracksuit pants

it weaves its huge bummed way
through he tables to Diana

she's reading something
with very fine print

she doesn't need her glasses
to see me

Driving to her place

blue dusk

my car glides
tab tab like a hovercraft

the wheel plays
tab tab sweet
tab tab tab in my hands

this time

will we just talk?

Wet

Here
tab I feel it here

flutter
tab groan
tab tab grind in the belly

what jellies my legs?
what flash-floods my cunt?

This selection isn't really random as I picked short ones! I didn't want to have to type in long bits of poetry because it's hard to format properly in LJ because indenting isn't easy. (I have indented by writing the word "tab" some number of times and making the text white. You can see this "hidden text" if you highlight it with your mouse). See! Here's some hidden text! Neat huh? I got the idea for this from CSI or one of those shows like that. I can't remember which.

Well I hope you've enjoyed tonights book club/poetry reading :-)

Rudd's christian socialism

2006-12-04T12:14:48Z

Here is a link to a talk given by Kevin Rudd to a Christian college at UNSW last year; it is entitled A consideration of the relationship between Church and State : http://www.newcollege.unsw.edu.au/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfs/NCLs05Rudd.pdf. It is a little dry to read... below is what I took away from it.

Rudd's speech gives insight into something which very much drives him - his brand of christian socialism.

He has insightful comments to make on how the Christian label is exploited in politics. He astutely identifies the posturing that is used for political gain: "vote for me because I'm a Christian"; "vote for me because I'm a Christian and because I have a defined set of views on questions of private sexual morality"; vote for me because I brandish the phrase "family values" a lot.

He argues that Christianity has things to say on many current issues and in particular that the Work Choices Legislation does not respect what he calls a fundamental Christian principle: Christianity should be on the side of the marginalised, the vulnerable, and the oppressed.

I am not a Christian myself but I am pleased to see the slight change that is occurring towards using Christianity in support of social justice and fairness rather than using it to support a moral conservatism agenda.

The moral conservatism agenda exploits Christianity by 'picking and choosing' and conveniently ignores the social justice aspects.

Little Kev - I'm excited!!!

2006-12-04T01:28:19Z

As much as I like Kim Beazley, I'm really pleased that Kevin Rudd has just become the leader of the ALP!!!

I think the lead up to the next federal election will be a very interesting time. Rudd will be in battle with Howard and will challenge his political dominance. In his speech today, Beazley observed that Howard is the most formidable conservative politician of a generation. Howard is an extremely astute politician. But I think the electorate can sense the distain for real people that he has, as evidenced by his Work Choices legislation. And the AWB scandal, even though he and other conservative politicians were cleared, has further reinforced a lack of trustworthiness.

We will be seeing a lot of (little) Kevvie, and it will be very interesting....

I have to say - "I'm excited!"

Damien & Jess

2006-11-19T11:01:34Z

I think an idol final with jess and damien is just awesome! They are both lovely and I don't know who I want to win more. I think it is Jess who has my heart. But Damien who has my ears. It's a tough call - i really don't know which to vote for! so far i've just voted for both of them...

It was sad to see Dean leave last week. He was very nice and very cute. His singing didn't really do it for me though...

The whole idol thing is strange. So many of the former idols and other contestants kind of disappear after a short time. Being popular on idol doesn't seem to be enough to ensure chart success. I wonder if it is the fact that we get to see so much of the people that do well on idol that there is kind of no mystery left...

bye chris

2006-11-06T21:44:31Z

i think it is excellent that the top 3 are damien, jess, and dean. damien has been nothing short of amazing of late. i loved it when he did hallelujah! he's got to be the favourite at the moment... as much as i like dean i hope jess and damien make it to the opera house

bye ricky

2006-10-30T11:35:36Z

I think it was only fair that Ricky left tonight.

It seems that Jess is doing very well in the voting and is looking promising to be this year's idol. I'd be really happy if she won!

For the final two I hope it is Damien and Jess... I think the competition is still quite open though between the three guys Chris, Dean, and Damien.

Ultimate Zoom Zoom

2006-10-29T20:28:01Z

The car I lust for...

See the Mazda3 MPS in action!

Idol Top 5

2006-10-29T09:46:00Z

Really enjoyed tonight's performances...

Damien can really do some magic and i loved him tonight. I hope he will get to at least top 3. Jess, Chris and Ricky all gave good performances and worst for me was Dean, although I thought everyone was pretty good...

My ranking for tonight:

Damien
Jess
Chris
Ricky
Dean

I'm starting to think that Dean's voice isn't good enough for him to win, despite his great appeal.

It will be very interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks...

Idol final 7

2006-10-15T22:45:22Z

I quite enjoyed idol last night. I almost didn't put it on because I was so annoyed that Lavina got kicked off last week.

We put it on a bit late and so missed Bobby.

Damien was completely awesome. My test of "complete awesomeness" is whether I get goose bumps and my nipples go hard when I'm listening. He passed the complete awesomeness test last night. I think he was the idol of the night.

Jess was lovely as usual. I just adore that girl.

I thought Dean's performance was good but it didn't blow me*.

I liked Chris's performance, I think because I really like the song.

Ricky was a bit ordinary last night. I think Lisa was better. He may get booted off this week. I think that he is the judges preference to get booted.

My ranking of last night's performances (excluding Bobby because I didn't see him):

Damien
Jess
Dean
Chris
Lisa
Ricky

My pic for the final two remains Jess and Dean.

*Reference to Kyle's "blow me" comments.

This (Beautiful) Life

2006-10-14T01:52:58Z

I saw this in today's weekend Australian. It made me cry (once again) for some friends of mine who went through a very similar experience around 5 years ago now. And also for myself, experiencing just a glimpse of what this would feel like.

THIS (BEAUTIFUL) LIFE
MYRA JOHNSTONE

I knew throughout the pregnancy that you were not doing too well. After all, I had carried a bouncing nine-pounder full term and knew what degree of movement to expect as the months progressed. Clearly, something was not right.

It was Christmas Eve, 1976 when we got the phone call from the hospital confirming my worst fears. You needed to be born immediately.

We were a migrant family with no relatives in Australia. Your dad dropped me off then drove around looking for friends with whom to leave your sister. She was just 17 months old.

By the time he got back, you were born and I remember there being 12 staff in the delivery room trying to balance a mixture of Christmas spirit with the knowledge that you were unlikely to survive. It was a very strange experience.

Briefly, I nursed you before they put you on the scales: 6lb 9oz, a good weight for a very sick baby born four weeks premature.

You were whisked away for intervention, mainly in the form of blood transfusions. (Dr. Billy Tao saved your life. Recently, his son Terry was awarded the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Such a talented family.)

We took you home 10 days later, skinny and long but alive. Your sister shut herself in the bathroom and threw around whatever her tiny hands could lift. After she got that out of her system, she was fine and she loved you.

As the years went by you grew into a lovely middle child, quiet and clever with the driest sense of humour and gentlest disposition.

Eventually the three of you left home and you ended up only four hours away by road. In 2004 you moved back home and enrolled in a law degree. You said at 27 it was time you settled down to a proper career.

We were delighted to have you home and to see more of you.

Sadly, we only had you near us for a few months as a relatively minor accident, on October 16, saw you fall off your motorbike and die instantly, just metres from home.

We bore you, we raised you, we love you, we mourn you. When we went to the funeral parlour to pay the account, the manager said: “Oh, have you come to take Reuben home? He’s ready.” And promptly handed me a plastic box containing your ashes.

I was bound to feel something extraordinary, but as I held you I had the strangest feeling of déjà vu and just said: “6lb 9oz.” Your dad looked puzzled.

Later, much later, when I was ready, I carefully placed you on the scales in the kitchen: 6lb 10oz. I suppose I should allow for the weight of the box.

So, where to from here, old chap?

Your dad has lovingly restored your motorbike and is learning to ride it. Your little sister is about to complete her honours degree and your big sister has made you an uncle to a beautiful baby girl.

As for me, I just wait, wondering what will happen next as we push forward, enjoying life’s new beginnings; yet at the same time the grieving goes on for all of us.

Onwards and upwards Rubes, onwards and upwards. The world is full of beauty when the heart is full of love.

bye lavina!

2006-10-09T11:04:54Z

i'm sad to see her go, she was one of my personal favourites

i'm a bit baffled but hey it's a popularity contest and i guess someone like lisa for example gets through on the young cuteness factor; but really, would you buy a CD with lavina singing or a CD with lisa singing?

there's just no comparison.

but lisa wasn't even in the bottom three so she's got a damn strong personal following considering her recent performances.

chris was bottom two; that, at least, made sense to me. i'm sure he'd do a great show at a pub, but anything more than that? i personally don't think so...

lavina is just so much better!

Kindness

2006-10-04T04:26:31Z

A quote I like from Henry James... I actually heard this last night on CSI

Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.

bye mutto

2006-10-02T10:45:47Z

I never really was into mutto, and i felt that it was right that he left tonight. after last night's performances, i felt that he was out of his league compared to the others.

Now my poor little brain is wondering something, which is why they don't give us more information on the voting results each week. Such as, "how many votes did everyone get?"

I don't understand the strategy of only telling us the bottom three...

Lavina was Tonight's Idol

2006-10-01T11:07:05Z

tonight was all lavina's, i loved her!!! she seemed more herself too. i've had a soft spot for her since i heard about her lion king incident.

Mulrunji Doomadgee

2006-09-29T19:47:09Z

The horrific story of the death on Palm Island of Mulrunji Doomadgee, killed by a QLD police officer, has received lots of attention in the press. The officer involved attacked him so violently that he broke four of Doomadgee's ribs, ruptured his spleen, and split his liver almost in two.

The Qld Police Union believe the officer involved should not even be reprimanded.

An excellent story about it is here:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20498526-5006786,00.html

and hopefully there will be lots more on it in the weekend papers...

A Child's Life is Not a Commodity

2006-09-26T05:08:22Z

The $4K baby bonus thing is a little scary. There's been a bit about it in the press of late, showing problems such as drug-addicted mums having babies to get the money. The problem is basically that a lot of the women/families that are motivaged by the $4K to have another youngling are possibly ones that you wouldn't necessarily want to have more babies. The fact is that kids who grow up in shitty situations often end up having shitty lives; they are more likely to have drug & alcohol problems, mental health problems, are more likely to get involved in crime, and so on. Of course this relationship is not an absolute - there will always be people who defy the odds.

You might have heard of a book called "freakonomics" by levitt & dubner. very interesting book with a unique spin on economics. the authors argue that the dramatic and unpredicted fall in crime rates across the US which occurred around the mid-90s is due to the introduction of legalised abortion in the famous roe vs wade case in 1973. Around 20 years later, when the babies of women who wanted abortions would have come of age, crime rates fell.

Paying people money to have babies is a decidedly odd policy. If you want to make kids cheaper to raise in order to encourage higher birth rates, then subsidise the costs of parenting. The government actually already does via the "family tax benefit" scheme. Or at least pay the money out gradually, so that people don't just have babies to get a big windfall of cash.

Paying people money to have babies is a kind of social engineering; the motivation for it is unclear and the longer term consequences are really unknown. I just hope there are enough foster parents available, and enough money spent of mental health and drug and alcohol rehab services, and, ultimately places in prisons, to look after all the kids born into families where they aren't really wanted.

Dykes have more orgasms - an article from The Australian

2006-09-19T05:00:55Z

An article from The Australian today reports on a survey of 19,000 people which shows that dykes have more orgasms than straight chicks.

So let's all give ourselves a pat on the back - keep up the good work girls!

Variety increases orgasms

WOMEN who have sex with other women or do more than just have straightforward intercourse are more likely to have orgasms.

The latest findings from the nation's biggest sexuality survey, unveiled yesterday, shed new light on the relationship between what lovers do in the sack and whether they experience orgasm.

The sex snapshot, based on interviews with more than 19,000 people, shows that standard intercourse is by far the most common sexual practice.

About 95 per cent of those interviewed engaged in the act in their last sexual encounter, while 75 per cent also had some kind of "manual stimulation".

One quarter had received oral sex and only 1 per cent had anal sex.

The study, published in the latest Journal of Sex Research, shows that 31.1 per cent of women having heterosexual sex in their last encounter did not have an orgasm, compared to 24per cent of those involved in lesbian sex.

See the remainder of the article here: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20436623-29677,00.html

bye reigan

2006-09-18T11:06:25Z

she's a great gal and it's a shame to see her go!! she's a gorgeous girl

at this stage, i've gone off chris. he reminds me too much of meatloaf. not that that is necessarily a bad thing. but really, he seems too arrogant or something.

still really like ricky and he was fabulous last night.

i thought lavina really shone last night. she was so good and she did evanscence so well! who would be brave enough... her only issue is that she doesn't really show her personality... she's like really quiet and poker faced.

damien was terrific last night too...

jessica is just adorable... but she didn't really do rock at all.

bobby.... if you can sing and write magic music, it doesn't matter if you're a little unusual looking. but there's not really much magic there for me. obviously other people don't agree...