Yet Another Obsession

What is it with stationery?

Why does it suck me in?  I just lashed out and bought a packet of GORGEOUS pastel markers yesterday.  I just couldn't leave them in the shop.  I don't need them, I don't know what I am going to use them for (I am not in any way arty or crafty) but they're so beautiful I just had to have them.  They even have pretty names:

Pink Flamingo

Oceanview Blue

Peach Parfait

Cloud Nine Grey

Tranquil Teal

Lemon Bliss

Polynesian Purple

Margarita Green

DELICIOUS!!  Hang on, let me take a photo...

See what I mean?  Delicious.

Is anyone else addicted to stationery?  Do you like pens and paper and folders etc?  Do you have stacks of markers in all kinds of colours, pretty crayons and loads of coloured or patterned paper?  Do you have boxes or packets full of stickers?  Dozens of journals and diaries?

Do you actually use them?  Or are you like me, and buy them and hoard them?

How can I encourage myself to actually use all of this stationery in a creative way?  Bear in mind that I can barely draw a stick figure, and have all the craft ability of a mollusc.

Microsoft Get it VERY Wrong

I don't know about you, but this does not make me want to buy Songsmith one little bit.

All it does is make me cringe!

A Totally Girlie Blog Post

I can't let the Golden Globes slip by last night without posting a commentary on the fashion.  I just can't do it!

I'm not really interested in the awards or the movies nominated or anything, but I do love the frocks and suits and accessories of all of those big red carpet events.  The best and worst dressed of the night, the dodgy make-up jobs and the hair that looks divine.  So I've collected some pictures from various sources online to share with you.  I think I'll start with the best bits.

My favourite of the night was Anne Hathaway:

Total old school glamour, a colour that suits her milky complexion and dark hair and eyes perfectly, and she was rocking some delicious curves.

My second favorite was Drew Barrymore:

Before I saw the photos, someone described her as looking like she'd been drinking.  I will agree that she's got the whole tousled bed head thing going there, but when you look at her close up, she looks divine!

Fresh, youthful, fun and she's totally rocking that Marilyn Monroe-esque hair style.  Love it!  I also really love the lush red clutch purse she's carrying.

Melissa George got a bit of a caning for this one:

But I like it.  It's retro, very art deco, the makeup and hair is soft and glamorous, she works the black and white well and it has a lovely shape.

Another who did understated glamour really well was Kate Winslet:

But then Kate always does.  I love the detail of the bow on her waist with the jeweled piece.  Just gives it a bit of bling for a special occasion.

Then there was Salma Hayek:

Actually the dress wasn't anything special, she's just GORGEOUS and carries her curves better than any other woman does!

Another one I heard really slammed was Jennifer Lopez:

Ok, I will admit, it does look like she's just taken a length of fabric and expertly (and carefully) draped it around her body.  But you can't tell me she isn't carrying it PERFECTLY.  The lady is a true diva, she just works her thing like no other.  Look at her:

She simply carries herself like a goddess.  Her makeup is soft and fresh, she's glowing all over the place, she's let her dress and skin carry the outfit without over accessorising (look at the rock in her earlobe!) and her hair is sleek and understated.  She's gorgeous.

Now for the bad.  First cab off the rank, Lisa Rinna:

Baaaaa!!!  Mutton dressed up as lamb if I ever saw it.  Too much collagen in the lips, botox in the brows, fake tan and she needs to pull those boobs into line.  Age gracefully honey, beauty isn't about trying to look younger than you are.

Speaking of mutton dressed up as lamb, Cameron Diaz is heading rapidly into that territory too.

I couldn't get a decent close up shot, but the makeup looks like slap, it's really pasted on, heavy around the eyes and the wrong colours.  Soft makeup flatters the signs of ageing far better than a ton of slap does.  And the dress looks like a doona cover, even if it is a pretty colour.

Speaking of doona covers, what was Rachel Griffiths thinking?

She's a really beautiful woman, always regal looking and has a fantastic figure, but this looks like a cheap 70's sateen sheet.  Her hair and makeup is lovely though.  I bet she had nice shoes on too.

One of the weirdest outfits of the night goes to Marisa Tomei:

It's like she just threw on anything from her wardrobe that she could lay her hands on.  It just looks all wrong.  Yet there is a lovely shape underneath that.

But the WTF?!?!? award definitely goes to Renee Zellweger:

I mean between the fright wig hair and that BIZARRE bodice of her dress, what the... frak was she thinking?  I remember how gorgeous she looked in that yellow vintage dress at the Oscars a few years back and then I see this monstrosity... who told her this was a good idea?

Now don't think only the ladies get a mention in this post.  I wanted to post a picture of Mickey Rourke for you all, but it was too frightening to actually paste into the blog.  Go search for it yourself, but make sure you don't let any children, pregnant women or the elderly see it.

Instead, here's the prize for the most ludicrous skin tone of the evening...

I think Pierce has been bathing in carrot juice again.

Remember Press Gang?

I've been going a bit retro with my DVD watching this weekend. I joined Bigpond Movies recently and found that I could get the great English TV series from the late 80's, Press Gang. It was the launching pad for Julia Sawalha, who you'd also know from Absolutely Fabulous (Saffy) and the 1995 BBC series version of Pride and Prejudice (Lydia).

I think a lot of people wrote it off as a kids show, but DAMN it was good. Great storylines, a flawless cast of talented kids, and very believable. In particular, it had some REALLY cute boys in it, most notably the very beautiful Dexter Fletcher. God that kid was gorgeous. All huge eyes, dimples and soft lips.



It's really hard to find pictures of him back then, but he really was a good looking kid. And cheeky cute too.

For a show aimed at teenagers, it had some of the best dialogue you will ever find in television. Really quick, witty and treated it's audience as intelligent. I loved it then and I've discovered I really love it now. So glad I can watch the whole run of the show thanks to Bigpond.

I've Been Awarded!

I just found out today that I've been given an award! How special!

My friend Megan awarded me for this one over on her blog Doing What the Cool Kids Do.

Sweet!

Now what I need to do is -

Here are the rules to follow through when you receive the award:

1. Post a copy on your blog.

2. Mention who gave you the award.

3. Pass the award onto 6 others.

4. Leave a message on their blog letting them know the award has been bestowed upon them.

I'd like to nominate, in no specific order:

Katagal Kapers - my lovely friend and colleague Kerri, who is always so positive and upbeat.

Terri's Ramblings - I have only met Terri in person once for a few days, but she's like a sister that I never had!

Morphine Dreams - Jacqueline is just too cool for words.

Random Thoughts and Rambles - Jules is an open hearted lady, always around to lend an ear to her cysters.

The Bruising Adventures of Girl Clumsy - A thought provoking and often hilarious lady.

Mandie's World - Another fabulous cyster who I only met in real life for a few days, but it was an AWESOME few days.

Congratulations friends!

Game On!

Gaming in Libraries
Originally uploaded by Shanachietour

This is a photo that the Shanachies took on their recent trip to Australia, here in Brisbane. It's a sign advertising the Game On exhibition at State Library of Queensland. I think it's a fantastic quote they've used there.

Game On is an exhibition of the history of video games. I have a free ticket to go and see it, but need a buddy to go with. Anyone want to go with me? I'm happy to split the cost of the other ticket.

7 Random Things About Me! (MEME)

My friend Terri tagged me in her blog, so it's my turn. These are getting hard for me because I've done them so many times before.

1. I cannot stand the smell of lavendar. It gives me a headache and makes me want to gag.

2. If I could, I would live six months of the year here in Brisbane (from April to September) and then the other six travelling the northern hemisphere for the colder climate. I cannot bear heat.

3. I would love to find a job where I could just surf the net all day every day! My current job is close, but I need to get rid of a whole pile of crap tasks. I'm a geek, I know!

4. As I get older, I'm falling in love with my curly hair. I used to HATE it and torture it straight every day.

5. I want to write my Grandparent's stories.

6. I am completely and obscenely in lust with a guy at work. (Not one of MY colleagues though - ew!) If he knew the lewd and lascivious things I thought about him...

7. Prozac is my best friend!

I'm not going to tag anyone, cos I know not everyone digs these. But if you want to do it, go for it, and please link back to me if you do!

You'd Betta Work!

Why is it infinitely more exhausting to teach someone your job than to just do it yourself?

At the moment, 'Berto is on two week's leave. We have the lovely Luke in to help out, and instead of totally freaking him out with 'Berto's job, we've kind of mashed his job and mine together, I'll do all the complex bits that take a long time to kind of get into, and Luke is doing the bits I can just show him how to do and let him run with it.

He's great, picking things up at lightning speed, using lots of common sense and is really keen to have a go.

But I'm worn down to a nub! It's exhausting me to explain what I do and step out how I do it. Mostly because I'm not used to actually thinking about it, I just get in there and chug along and do what needs to be done.

It's good though, because it highlights just how complex the work that we do is. Plus I love the opportunity to "convert" people into understanding why we harp on about the things we harp on about. When seen from our perspective, it's understood that we're not being pedantic, or making procedures and policies just for something to do. When you're the one who has to correct hundreds of records in a database every week, you start to get a bit narky about people not entering them correctly in the first place. When you have to track down millions of dollars worth of assets, following procedural steps to receipt new stock and dispose old stock is of vital importance.

I booked some leave for March today. Three whole weeks off work, which the boss has approved. I don't plan to do a real lot, spend some time with my Grandparents but the rest shall be swanning about doing all the things I seem to never have enough time to do. Lots of reading, some socialising, some relaxing, some movies... just generally recharging the batteries.

Bring on March I say!

Best and Worst of 2008

My friend Kathryn in Chico, CA sent me this via email for herself, so I thought I would blog it. Here are my Top and Bottom 10 things about 2008. I'll start with the crap things so I end on a high note.

Worst of 2008

1. Trish being diagnosed with cancer
2. Being treated like crap by a man I trusted.
3. Dealing with a bully at work.
4. Working too much and playing too little.
5. Ali leaving BCCLS.
6. Seeing so many of my IT buddies suffering under their current conditions.
7. Summer.
8. Dealing with a weirdo on MySpace who went ballistic because Obama got elected and spamming me with hate.
9. Cysters United being ditched because the Forumsvibe service got shut down.
10. Christmas.

And the Best of 2008

1. Getting a promotion!
2. Buying a washing machine.
3. My friend LukeyB. He's adorable.
4. The tail end of my trip to the US.
5. New Years Eve.
6. Wordscraper (used to be Scrabulous on Facebook) - I'm addicted!
7. The crackwhore moving out of my building.
8. Spending a weekend on the Gold Coast with Janna.
9. The Shanachies visit.
10. Gus's coffee.

There are actually a lot more good things than bad, but I just reeled 10 off the top of my head. I had to think about the 10 bad, so that's a positive note!

Carpet or Linoleum?

I spotted this article in my web travels today. It asks what is more attractive, hairy chests or polished pecs.

I have to say I am a hairy chest gal. I find smooth chests, particularly those that have been shaved or wax highly unattractive. It just seems so... pubescent to me. Or gay. I used to know a very creepy gay guy who would wax his chest. Yuck.

But a man with a good sprinkling of hair on his chest... mmmm.... oh to run ones fingers through that lovely hair.

All my favourite men have got hairy chests. I mean, look at William McInnes:



Then there is Jamie Hyneman:

Pants Buster - Jamie Hyneman
Originally uploaded by glezgyna

And Hugh Jackman:



What about Campbell Brown:



And this guy:



No, this is not a blatant excuse to post pictures of hot guys, it's a serious debate. Shut up.

My Dice with Death - Part 2

Well I'm not dead. I had really hoped to wake up this morning as Spiderwoman, but no, I still need my glasses, am not all buff and fit, and can't shoot web from my wrists (which I am REALLY disappointed about).

However, I have a little festery wound (about 5mm long, 2mm wide) where the two puncture marks were, and it's REALLY sore. No swelling or soreness on the rest of the finger, but that little spot does really hurt far more than I think it should.

Here look:



Now it's not very big but since I took this photo it has got more... yucky and as I said, it's very sore. I'm no wuss with pain, I've been tattooed three times.

I hope it isn't one of those spider bites that rots and then you get gangrene until you have to have your finger chopped off. Yeah thanks Kerri for your Facebook comment to put THAT idea in my head.

My Dice with Death

I got bitten by a spider today. At least that's what I'm pretty sure it was. I had two small puncture wounds on my finger, and it stung like crazy.

I was actually asleep on the sofa at the time. I had put a DVD on, was mooching on the sofa and drifted off, only to be woken by my hand really stinging. I looked down to see the bites, leapt up and hunted through the sofa for the culprit, but couldn't find it. Of course then I began to worry just WHAT bit me, as with all this rain all sorts of bitey things are coming inside. So I popped down to my friend Di's (she lives in my street) for a cuppa and to have someone around to make sure I didn't pass out or anything. I don't mess around when it comes to bitey things.

A good dose of antiseptic cream, a cuppa and a couple of hours passing by has assured me that my hand isn't going to drop off and I don't think I'm going to die.

I would have been really pissed off if I'd suffered any kind of real damage. I mean, I was doing the safest thing in the world... sleeping on the sofa! For God's sake, if one can't sleep on the sofa in safety... what hope is there in this world? It's not like I'm out in the bush, braving nature at it's fiercest.

How dare anything jeopardise my sloth time?

First Words of the Day Post

I cracked my new word-of-the-day calendar today. I have two days to use of course because I wasn't at work yesterday with it being a public holiday and all.

The first word was one I am very familiar with, skylark. My Grandma uses that word a lot. "If you weren't skylarking around you wouldn't get into such trouble." She also uses the word lairising. You don't hear that word any more. "Stop lairising around and do your homework!"

The second one was ad hominem. It means attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument. A new term to me, though I know a LOT of people who do that. "He couldn't justify his behaviour, so he attacked me ad hominem."

I'm quite looking forward to expanding my vocabulary with this little datebook!

100 Things To Do Before You Die

This is a bit of a blog meme doing the rounds. I don't in any way think that you should HAVE to do anything, but these are things you could pick from to enrich your life. You could make your own hundred things you want to do or have done (or both) that is important to you. I may add a few more to the bottom:

1. Started my own blog- yes, several
2. Slept under the stars- many times.
3. Played in a band- yes, badly
4. Visited Hawaii-no
5. Watched a meteor shower- yes.
6. Given more than I can afford to charity- Yes, but also not given as much at other times.
7. Been to Disneyland/World- no
8. Climbed a mountain- yes
9. Held a praying mantis- yes and it was creepy.
10. Sung a solo- yes, and sounded like a goose farting in the fog.
11. Bungee jumped - and I never, ever, ever will
12. Visited Paris- Not yet
13. Watched lightning at sea- Yes, plenty of times.
14. Taught myself an art from scratch- yes, several
15. Adopted a child- no.
16. Had food poisoning- yes. Terrible when you don't know what end it's gonna come out of.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty- No, but I've been past her on a boat.
18. Grown my own vegetables- yes
19. Seen the Mona Lisa- no.
20. Slept on an overnight train- Several times.
21. Had a pillow fight- yes
22. Hitchhiked- yes. Used to do it quite a bit in my youth. Never on my own, I had a large, male hitch buddy.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill - who hasn't?
24. Built a snow fort- no, not enough snow when I was in the US.
25. Held a lamb- yes.
26. Gone skinny dipping- yes.
27. Run a Marathon- No way Jose.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice- nope
29. Seen a total eclipse- Yes, and several partial ones.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset- yes
31. Hit a home run - no but I have hit a six in cricket.
32. Been on a cruise- Nope.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person- not yet.
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors- yes, cos it's not far from here. Not the other side of the family though.
35. Visited an Amish community- no, I missed that on my trip. Next time.
36. Taught myself a new language- yes, Spanish.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied- I only ever wish for "enough".
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person- no.
39. Gone rock climbing- yes
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David- no
41. Sung karaoke- only once when drunk. Hate karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt- no
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant- Yes
44. Visited Africa- no
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight- yes
46. Been transported in an ambulance- yes, when I slashed open my right arm on a louvre window at school.
47. Had my portrait painted- nope.
48. Gone deep sea fishing- no
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person- no
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris- no
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling- Not sure my ears would let me.
52. Kissed in the rain- no.
53. Played in the mud- yes
54. Gone to a drive-in theater- yes
55. Been in a movie- Nope
56. Visited the Great Wall of China- no
57. Started a business- yes
58. Taken a martial arts class- no
59. Visited Russia- no
60. Served at a soup kitchen- yes
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies- no, but was a brownie and sold their biscuits.
62. Went Whale Watching- yes
63. Got flowers for no reason- only ones I've bought myself.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma- yes
65. Gone sky diving- no
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp- no, but I will one day
67. Bounced a check- yes
68. Flown in a helicopter- no
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy- yes
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial- No.
71. Eaten caviar- yes - gross
72. Pieced a quilt- no
73. Stood in Times Square- yes
74. Toured the Everglades- not yet
75. Been fired from a job- never
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London- no
77. Broken a bone- yes, toe and nose
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle- yes
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person- no
80. Published a book- not yet
81. Visited the Vatican- no
82. Bought a brand-new car- no
83. Walked in Jerusalem- no
84. Had my picture in the newspaper- Yes, for a few things.
85. Read the entire Bible- yes
86. Visited the White House- Seen it from the train
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating- Yes
88. Had chickenpox- yes
89. Saved someone’s life- several times
90. Sat on a jury- no, but probably will before long.
91. Met someone famous- yes, several.
92. Joined a book club- yes
93. Lost a loved one- yes
94. Had a baby- not yet
95. Seen the Alamo in person- no
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake- no.
97. Been involved in a law suit- no
98. Owned a cell phone- many
99. Been stung by a bee- yes, a couple of times
100. Ridden an elephant- no

So there's my replies to the list someone else created. Here's a few others I have done and think would be great experiences others could do if they haven't already:

• Swam in Lake Mackenzie on Fraser Island
• Taken a boat tour of the San Francisco Bay
• Eaten echidna
• Had a job that you love and are passionate about.
• Started a community radio station.
• Laughed some beverage out your nose.
• Eaten a hot dog from the street vendor in New York City.
• Read a whole book (a proper novel, not a little one) in one single session.
• Bought yourself a bunch of roses, just because you wanted them.
• Had a white Christmas.
• Learned a new word every day for a whole year.
• Eaten frogs legs.
• Visited at least three other states/provinces in your country.
• Taken a tram in Melbourne.
• Had a champagne at the Sydney Opera House.
• Seen a quokka at Rottnest Island.
• Owned the entire catalogue of one author and one band/singer.
• Been to a movie marathon all night.
• Asked your grandparents, or elderly parents, or some other person over 70 about their life.
• Been completely obsessed about something that you've researched and kept notes on and collected.

I have lots more, but those are a few that just pop into my mind. What are things that you want to do, or have done and have been vastly enriched by, that you could put on a list of important things to do?

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009. It's my aim to post at least 365 blog posts here this year. Every little bit of creativity helps me expand my skills and abilities, so I'm going to keep working at it. Even if it's just to share a video or photo, at least one per day. Cheer me on folks, leave comments!

I don't have my word of the day calendar here at home with me, so I will just have to use two words on some days. I took it to work so that I could share the word of the day with my colleague and friend Marlene, who is a book lover and word collector like me.

One of the great joys of New Years Day for me is cracking open all the new diaries and calendars. I love them. I've got a gorgeous purple one that looks like it's coated in purple spun sugar as my personal diary. On my desk here at home is a "Cupcake a Day" calendar that my friend Janna gave me for Christmas. I have a big calendar with lovely big squares for each day so I can write stuff on there. It's going on the wall in my room. I also have a big planner thing that came from the local MP, which I am going to cover the boring (ugly) bits with stickers and stuff. At work I have the word a day desk calendar, as well as a rather dull BCC issue diary. And a SeaWorld calendar by the desk. I love cracking open a new diary or calendar and sitting down to write birthdays and holidays and other important dates in there. Of course, I NEVER open a calendar before January 1st.

I started to watch I Am Legend today. But it got too scary so I bailed out on it. I don't do scary movies. I went back to watching Mythbusters, which is more my bag.

Hey, wanna hear something cool? Stephen Fry is following me on Twitter. I think he found me through Girl Clumsy.

It's bloody hot again today. 8.30pm at night and I'm still sweltering. I think I'm going to move to Canada.

Grumble Bum Again

I'm back at work today and have still got the grumps. But at least I am out of the 33+ degree heat.

Why have I got the grumps? Cos I'm feeling ripped off again. It's a whole bunch of things but my work situation pisses me off and I'm just about at the end of my tether. I need a holiday. I plan to take one in March when it is a little cooler and I can enjoy it more. I'd like to go visit my Grandma for her birthday, she will be 80 in March. I don't get to see her as often as I would like to, mostly because the rest of my family sucks. Well, a big proportion of them do.

But let's talk about something that isn't grumpy.

I got a calendar for Christmas that is one of those "New Word a Day" things. You know, where you get a cool word and it's meaning on each page for each day. I think I should set myself a challenge to blog every day, and use that word of the day in the blog! Do you reckon I can do it? I reckon I can have a really good go at it!

Soon I won't have to update two blogs, I will be able to just use this one. Our training programme finishes tomorrow evening and I won't have to do a constant blog for work colleagues to maintain. I think I will bring some of the posts over here cos I really like them. Or I'll just archive it until we need to use it again. If you haven't already looked at the other blog, you'll find it at http://kathx23.blogspot.com

New Years Eve tomorrow night. I'm going to a party at my friend and colleague Robert's house. Will be fun. I have a new outfit to wear. It's all black - I don't normally wear all black, I love colour but this outfit was so pretty I had to have it. I also have a bottle of strawberry champagne to crack at midnight. Yummy!

Summer Sucks

It's hot. I'm grumpy. I don't want to be here or anywhere in Australia right now. I just want to go back to the US and be somewhere cold and comfortable. This time last year I was on the last leg of my trip, just arrived back in Chicago. I had the flu really bad, but it was snowing there and I was with my friends Missy and Danny and their gorgeous three dogs Sasha, Loca and India and I was REALLY happy.

Right now, I just want the heat to go away.

This Year I Have Learnt

Christmas is almost here. Can you believe it? I am astonished when I realise that it has been a year since I was in America. This time last year I was in New York City, freezing my tail off but loving it. I was just about to go to Michigan to see my cysters Terri and Mandie and their families. It was possibly the most amazing time of my entire life.

So what has happened in my life over the past year? What have I learned about life and myself? Let me see:

• I can find friends anywhere in the world, simply by being myself.
• I really did miss the Big Canadian Dude more than words can say.
• Giving my heart to someone who is only attentive of me when he wants something is a complete waste of my beautiful heart.
• I really don't like corn syrup in my food.
• But I love KFC that is fried chicken with mashed potato, green beans and biscuits and gravy.
• America has bad coffee.
• Canada has great coffee.
• Canada has bad donuts
• America has GREAT donuts.
• Bullies will never win in the long run.
• So long as I always act with integrity, no-one can stop me from achieving my goals.
• I don't have to always be the reliable and responsible one. Sometimes I can just kick back and let other people do the work.
• A real man knows a woman's worth and is not afraid to acknowledge and appreciate it.
• Aussie chocolate really does taste better than the American stuff.
• I can learn anything I want to.
• I really want to travel more.
• I need to work less and play more.

I am sure I've learnt a LOT more than these things, but this is a good start.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all

The World's Smartest Mouse

How cool is this little guy huh?

Storms in Brisbane

I just have to share this video, which was posted by one of my colleagues on her 23 Things blog.

This is footage from the big storm last week (16th of November, 2008) here in Brisbane. I didn't really think it was that severe at the time, but then the next day heard about all the damage and then heard that it was the most severe storm Brisbane had seen in decades.

And this video footage confirmed just that!



Pretty intense hey? I just love we Australians though - who else in the world would laugh and call it a "ripper" and stay out on the back deck during that chaos?

Oh This is GOLD!

Check out the guy murdering turkeys in the background!

I Am Blogging...

Just on my other blog, because I need it for work purposes. If you want to read it (and be warned, it will have stuff about libraries in it, but there is a bunch of other stuff), go to:

http://kathx23.blogspot.com

If nothing else, go find the post called "Beached as". I love that video!

More Great SNL Videos

Tina Fey really is brilliant as Sarah Palin. Here's a couple more:

Saturday Night Live

Found a great little video from Saturday Night Live:



Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (sp?). Tina Fey is BRILLIANT as Sarah Palin!

Menstruation: According to Disney

I found this through Boing Boing:




I would say it's from the 50's. It has some wise advice, even if it does dance around the subject a bit!

TGIF!

Oh Thank God it's Friday!

It's been a crazy busy week. With this new Web 2.0 training programme at work, which I am the technical support for, I am being run off my feet. The phone never stops ringing, and my email inbox is just chockas, all the time. I answer one, three more come in.

It is good, it means people are taking up the training and that I'm getting my teeth into something that gives me lots of challenges, but Cheese Louise, does it leave me buggered! I am so ready to just crawl into a ball tonight and not surface until Monday morning.

But then, that wouldn't leave me with any social life, and I need a social life. As it is I'm opting to have tonight in, spend tomorrow just chilling and leave socialising for Sunday. I plan to see The Mummy with a friend and probably do lunch.

I do have a lot of things coming up though. The Brisbane City Romp is next weekend and I'm part of a team for that one. Hopefully we'll raise some money for the Burnet Foundation and have a lot of fun doing it.

Then I've got a big weekend the week after that. Friday night is the "Girls Night Out" being held at the old QLD Museum, that should be a big night with friends, and then on the Sunday is the Brissie Cysters meet up. Aye caramba, what have I signed myself up for with all this stuff on? Plus I have various lunches, dinners, catch up coffees and even a breakfast scheduled in over the next fortnight. All on top of the massive workload I have at the moment.

Oh by the way, a couple of weeks ago I saw Hell Boy 2. It's brilliant fun! I'm still saying "Ohhhh crap."

Everybody's Got to Eat

So it's no secret that I'm a fan of Mythbusters right? Well I'm always tootling around online looking for interesting articles and stuff about Mythbusters and Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman in particular.

Earlier this week I found this video posted on Boing Boing:



It's part of an appearance by Adam at The Last Hope convention, a convention for hackers. Now hackers don't just mean those awful people who maliciously hack into other people's computers. Hackers are people who like to pull stuff apart and see how it works, modify it to do things that it wasn't intended to do in the first place. You know those people who like to pull appliances apart just to see what's inside? That's a hacker. I'm a bit of a hacker myself.

The question of course was would Mythbusters investigate RFID (radio frequency ID) more.

And Adam tells the story of how Texas Instruments and the big credit card companies intimidated the representative from Discovery Channel and Tory Bellici and the story was shelved, it just won't be done on Mythbusters. Quite understandably, Discovery Channel is reliant on commercial corporations for it's revenue, and if they are being threatened legal action and loss of their revenue... they're going to back down.

And then a couple of days later, Boing Boing posted this article from CNET News. In simple words, it's Adam retracting what he said at the Last Hope convention regarding Texas Instruments and the credit card companies.

Can anyone say "balls in a vice"?

Adam has copped a LOT of flak for this whole saga. From people suggesting he was lying or making up the story he told at the convention, to those saying that if the story is true he was stupid to tell it to a room of about 500 people, to people suggesting he sold out by retracting the statements he made at the convention.

Now I personally believe he was telling the truth as he knew it when he told that story. He doesn't have much of a poker face Adam, and there is no artifice or falseness about his manner when he tells the story. He's relaxed, clearly relating an anecdote.

I also believe that he was pressured into retracting the story that he told. Be it from Discovery Channel, Beyond Productions (the company that produces Mythbusters) or even by legal actions from either Texas Instruments or the major credit card companies. But from what I know of Adam Savage, the statement given in the article is NOTHING at all like him, it's formal and clearly a very carefully prepared statement. Something tells me Adam has made the decision very carefully to back right away.

Now seriously, who can blame him? Ok yes, if he is being pressured he is backing down in the face of big business, but like every other one of us, he has to keep his job, has to put food on the table and pay the roof over his head. He has a name he has to keep clear. I also know that he has a wife and young family.

Not to mention that this could also affect his colleagues at Mythbusters, even Beyond Productions. If Discovery Channel has said "Retract that or else", then not only his job could be on the line, but the whole Mythbusters series, which means not only the on screen folks in himself, Jamie Hyneman, Tory Bellici, Kari Byrom and Grant Imehara, but the countless other people who work behind the scenes.

To me, Adam has done the wise and probably honourable thing to just back right away.

But that said... it was probably a very stupid thing for anyone to put pressure on him to change his story. Because it has meant that it's got a lot more people talking about it than if it had just slid by, and a lot more people asking questions about WHY the Mythbusters shouldn't be exposing just how safe and secure RFID technology is.

And as someone at the convention said... there are 5000+ people there who do not have contractual obligations preventing them from investigating the technology right there... and many more who have seen all this on the internet.

Poor Adam, he's probably feeling very much like this all over again:



That's Jamie slapping him, trying to bust the myth that a slap in the face will sober you up. For more laughs, watch this one of Adam trying to sober up by running on a treadmill:



High speed cameras rock! I love that Jamie (on the right, with hand in pocket and stop watch) doesn't move a muscle through all of that.

Oh and if you want to see the whole series from The Last Hope, I've made it into a YouTube Playlist:

Men Make Me Laugh

I've just been thinking about something I observed on the weekend I was down on the Gold Coast. And it's had me giggling a wee bit.

When we first got there on the Saturday, after Janna and I had popped our stuff away in our hotel room and parked the car, we decided to go for a walk down to Cavill Avenue in the thick of Surfers Paradise. We stopped at Baskin and Robbins, as you do, for a Saturday afternoon ice-cream cone.

While we were in there, a couple of the Gold Coast Meter Maids popped in for their Saturday afternoon ice-cream cone, still in their uniforms. Now if you haven't seen their uniforms, check this out:



They don't wear much, do they? And the back view? Let's just say it's rather... cheeky. Do a Google Image search on "Gold Coast Meter Maids" and you'll get the idea.

Anyhoo, the girls got their ice-creams, which took a few minutes for them to get so they were standing at the counter waiting and stuff, and then they went outside and sat at one of the tables to eat them.

And I have not been entertained so much in a very long time as I was just watching the guys reactions to them. Absolutely hilarious.

Inside the shop, one trio of backpacker lads were good fun. Two tried desperately not to look, the third had a broken neck, it just wouldn't swivel away from those two girls. I think the poor boy hadn't seen a girl in a skimpy bikini before.

Then there was the old bloke with his wife. I think it was a long needed tonic for the old coot, but his missus wasn't real happy with his copping a view. She gave him a tug of the arm and dragged him away, dripping ice-cream all the way.

When we got outside, I was perfectly positioned to watch guys reactions as they walked down the corridor next to the shop, got to the edge of the seating area and spotted the girls. So I saw their expressions pre-vision and post-vision.

They would walk down the corridor, with relaxed expressions, minds far away. When they saw these two girls in their little gold bikinis, a range of things would happen. For example:

One guy walking down the hall with his sunglasses on his head, spotted the girls and then as quick as lightning plopped the sunnies down over his eyes. Ummm... you think we didn't notice you going the ogle mate?

Another one sucked his gut in like he'd had a vacuum pump stuck up his bum. Schloop!

Quite common was the "double take and drool" method. Often the mouth would plop open and the saliva glands go into action. I saw that three or four times in the 20 minutes we were sitting there.

Then there was the coupled up guy who would do the double take, have a good look and the girlfriend or wife would give him a slap or demand his attention some other way, but he was still using his peripherals after that, that's for sure.

I also noticed that the whiter the guy, the more sneaky and furtive the looks. Black, Maori or olive skinned guys all just turned and had a calm, interested look. White guys tended to have the thing where the neck doesn't move but the eyes dart off to where they can see. It's kind of creepy really. White guys, take a leaf out of your darker skinned brothers, just be cool, have a look, don't suck your gut in, don't peer out of the corner of your eyes, keep your mouth closed and for God's sake don't put your hand in your pocket. That's just skin-crawlingly creepy.

But my favourite of all was the guy who spotted the girls, turned and nudged his wife as if to say "Huh? Huh?" and panted like a dog on a hot day, while his wife just rolled her eyes and kept walking.

Guys, you're so funny. You think we don't notice?

At the Movies: Wanted

I decided to take myself off to see a movie today. I really like James McAvoy, so I decided to go and see Wanted, which stars him, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman.

I really enjoyed it, purely for it's shoot-em-up/stunt-extravaganza fun and for the fact that James McAvoy is a brilliant young actor and Morgan Freeman is a brilliant old actor.

However, Angelina Jolie proved to me that she couldn't act with a gun to her head... she actually had a gun to her head repeatedly in this movie and she definitely can't act. Her role was primarily her swanning around pouting those enormous rubber lips and giving monosyllabic comebacks to any lines said in her direction. She's ALARMINGLY thin in this movie, in fact she looks like a praying mantis with rubber lips. I don't see how she can be considered beautiful at all, she's so thin and "enhanced" with those dry looking lips. In fact when she kisses James McAvoy I kept worrying that he would leave a layer of his skin behind on her dry, dry lips.

One question... in these movies, when folks are getting beat up and wounded, both men and women equal, why do the guys get blood all over them, scars, big gory wounds, bruises etc, but the women get a wee smear of blood on their cheekbone but not a hair out of place or their makeup smudged?

Anyway, it was fun, despite La Jolie and her sour pouting, and as I said, James McAvoy is a masterful young actor with a fantastic presence, and the story has plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested. Go see it if you like lots of action and some brilliant stunts. The one where Fox (Jolie) swings her car around with the door open and Wesley (McAvoy) falls in, is absolutely hilarious.

Here's the trailer...

My Gorgeous New Tatts

Ok, I just have to have a brag blog now. On Tuesday I got two new tattoos done. It was 14 years ago I got my first and only one up to this point, which was a FarSide (Gary Larson comic) cow on my back above my left shoulder blade. Now I have two more beauties to add to the collection.

Now, be aware that these two photos were taken right as each tattoo was finished, so they're a little swollen and bloody. But you have to do that, because after swollen and bloody, they go to crusty and scabby for about two weeks. Then they settle down to the beautiful artworks that they are.

This first one is on my left foot:



And this one is on the inside of my right forearm:



I just love my new ink!

Interesting Web2.0 Tools and Links

Well as promised, here are some of the interesting links I have found in my time tinkering with Web2.0 technologies. Please, if you know some other groovy ones, leave them in the comments.

Blogs

www.blogger.com
www.typepad.com
www.wordpress.com
http://technorati.com – technology blogs and articles.
http://measuremap.com/ - collect stats on your blog
www.blogniscient.com
www.tailrank.com


RSS Feed Sites

http://www.feedmarker.com (could also be considered social bookmarking)
http://www.netvibes.com
http://www.newsvine.com
www.digg.com – a blog/news feed tool
www.feedburner.com
www.bloglines.com
www.newsalloy.com
www.rssmad.com
www.newsgator.com

Wikis

www.wikipedia.com
www.wetpaint.com

Review sites

www.yelp.com
www.tripadvisor.com


Mashups

www.mashup.com
www.mapdango.com
www.programmableweb.com
www.suitemaps.com

Social Networking

www.facebook.com
www.myspace.com
www.friendster.com
www.bebo.com
www.meetwithapproval.com/
www.43things.com
www.chatsum.com – chat with people looking at the same website as you!
www.yub.com – social online shopping!
www.ning.com – create your own social networks
www.rbloc.com
www.renkoo.com
http://www.gather.com/
www.frappr.com


Social Bookmarking

http://del.icio.us/
http://ma.gnolia.com
http://www.simpy.com/
www.diigo.com
www.gravee.com
www.furl.net


Podcasts and Vodcasts

www.youtube.com - videos
www.podcast.net
www.abc.net.au – podcasts and vodcasts
www.apple.com/itunes - podcasts and vodcasts
http://www.clipshack.com – videos
www.truveo.com – vodcasts
www.gcast.com – make your own podcasts
www.ourmedia.org
www.castpost.com
www.fruitcast.com
www.vimeo.com – social vodcasting
www.getfireant.com
www.odeo.com – make your own podcasts
www.veoh.com
www.dabble.com


Image Hosting

www.photobucket.com
www.flickr.com
http://pixenate.com
http://www.picturecloud.com/
www.fotolog.com
www.smugmug.com
www.shutterfly.com
www.qoop.com
www.blish.com


Social Cataloguing and Databases

www.shelfari.com - books
www.librarything.com - books
www.playlist.com - music
www.goodreads.com - books
www.mercora.com – music
www.squidoo.com – build a social website on whatever you desire!
www.zazzle.com – social design – design t-shirts, badges, postcards and share them.
www.cafepress.com – social design
www.simplyhired.com – jobsearch socially!
www.last.fm - music


Second Life and Avatar Sites

www.secondlife.com
www.clubpenguin.com

Miscellaneous Sites

www.shozu.com (hook open source sites like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook etc to your mobile phone)
www.lexxe.com – natural language search engine
http://www.goowy.com – widgets and webtops
http://www.clipfire.com – product searches
www.quimble.com – for creating online polls
www.vizu.com – online polls
www.rollyo.com – create your own search engine
www.alexa.com – watch the internet, tailor your site lists to see traffic, get feeds.
http://www.allmydata.com/ - online storage and backup
http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html - Billy Joel Flash presentation
www.congoo.com – news portal
www.pageflakes.com – create a homepage of all your services on one.
www.trumba.com – online calendar publishing
www.eskobo.com – homepage service
www.tinfinger.com – search engine for famous people
www.favoor.com – startpage
www.lulu.com – publishing
www.meebo.com – instant messaging widgets
www.yedda.com – info and lots of it! Search engine, networking, blogs…
www.calendarhub.com – online calendars and organisers.
www.suprglu.com – homepage service
www.riya.com – search engine based on colour recognition.
www.writeboard.com – collaborative writing
www.shoutwire.com -

Digital Fun at Mt Ommaney Library

Ok, I know I promised to get this up and on my blog over the weekend, but it's been a little busy and I'm in serious holiday mode, two weeks annual leave will do that to you. Not to mention that I was quite busy on Tuesday being tattooed, but that's a subject for another blog, which I may or may not also pop up tonight.

Anyhoo, on Saturday, I had the priviledge of being part of the Mt Ommaney Library Digital Media event organised by Geoff Shera. And a smashing job Geoff did of organising it too. Geoff asked me to give a presentation on Web2.0 technology, and also to be on hand for the whole event. It's been a long time since I enjoyed a day's work as much as I did on Saturday.

Most of the attendees and other presenters asked for a centralised location for all of the links and info presented at the event, and I figured here was the easiest place to do that. So, without further ado, here are all of the links from the other presenters. I will share mine in a separate blog, as I have a BIG document of them.

Peter Cox

superuse.org - where recycling meets design
http://www.superuse.org/

cheap movie production – cellphone clips nokia are the biggest camera maker in the world….
http://downanddirtydv.blogspot.com/search/label/cell%20phone%20filmmaking


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/technology/24cell.html?ex=1366776000&en=e3e9ef963df6e44b&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

‘Cellph Portraits’ Gallery
don’t bring a camera bring a phone
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/object/article?f=/g/a/2004/05/28/rxgallery.DTL&o=4


cctv filmmaking
FACELESS by MANU LUKSH (cctv footage reclaimed by law)
now, you don’t even need a camera to make a movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLzJCeGYgbg

In a society under the reformed 'Real-Time' Calendar, without history
nor future, everybody is faceless. A woman panics when she wakes up
one day with a face. With the help of the Spectral Children she slowly
finds out more about the lost power and history of the human face and
begins the search for its future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6654971.stm

FLIPBOOK at Benettonplay.com / Animation for free
http://www.benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/popular.php?days=all

SAND ART Ferenc Cako
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtP4FjvfBFo

the stick figure has a come a long way
xiao xiao
http://www.flash8.net/flash/2459.shtml
http://www.flash8.net/user/701.shtml

and more stick stuff
http://www.stickpage.com/
http://www.stickpage.com/animatorvsanimationplay.shtml

• PERFECT ART
Yugo Nakamura = master of web/interaction
HE BELIEVES IN CRAFT / TOTAL WEB CRAFTSMANSHIP
no resources really / thought and commitment to craft
http://yugop.com/ver3/index.asp?id=3
http://www.yugop.com/
yugop design museum yugo
http://www.designmuseum.org/design/yugo-nakamura

FLASH SITE CLASSIC
http://www.philbrown.bc.ca/

and now …. yourself as the work??
http://www.lookbetteronline.com/dating_photos/beforeafter


Michael Bouwmann

A Brief History of Facebook
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia

MySpace According to Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace

Thomas' MySpace Editor
http://strikefile.com/myspace/

Titanium Beau - artist on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/titaniumbeau

Spoonbill - MySpace Page
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=43391406

MySpace Profile Support
http://www.myspace.com/profilessupport

Debra Beattie

ABC Online Specials
http://www.abc.net.au/onlinespecials/

The Sketch Book Dot Com
http://www.the-sketch-book.com/

Australian Network for Art and Technology
http://www.anat.org.au/

Capture Wales
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/audiovideo/sites/galleries/pages/capturewales.shtml

LiveWirez - Griffith University
http://live-wirez.gu.edu.au/content/digitalvideo.html

Screen Australia Digital Learning
http://www.filmaust.com.au/learning/

The Wrong Crowd - an online documentary
http://www.abc.net.au/wrongcrowd/

Stephen Grace

www.imdb.com.au - Internet Movie Database
www.imcdb.com.au - Internet Movie Cars Database

Now I've just realised I'm missing some of the links, so I'll be back later with an edit after I've annoyed Geoff enough to send them to me!

If you do pop in to read this blog, please leave me a comment so I know I've got an audience!

You May Not Know...

My friend Terri posted a blog recently on MySpace that was a clever little idea. Just to list some things that you may not know about yourself. So I'm picking it up and here's a few things you may not know about me...

1. When I was 21 years old, I started a radio station with my friend Marty, who was also 21. One day he came into the music shop that I owned at the time, and said "If you were really, really rich, what would you do?" and I said "I'd start a radio station." He was stunned because that's the same thing he wanted to do. So we started poking our noses around and getting information, and decided that since we weren't really, really rich, how about we start a community radio station. And that's how BeauFM in Beaudesert was born. It was hard work for two young people in a country town to get anyone to take them seriously, but we plugged away at it and eventually the ball started rolling, folks started helping and it all happened. BeauFM is still running today. (Oh God, I just looked at the website they have now http://beaufmnew.beaufm.org.au/ - it's SCARY!! Maybe I shouldn't tell people I'm connected with them!)

2. My first memory is of shoes. They were mine, they were shiny mary-jane style with the lacy socks, and I had my feet up on the window of my Grandparent's car. And I've never looked back when it comes to shoes, I can't get enough of 'em!

3. I nearly got married when I was very young. The young man and I kept it a very big secret at the time, because we were JUST of age, but it was our plan at the time. I'm so glad I didn't. He was a lovely guy, but messed up. And I'd have missed a lot of experiences I've had since if that had been my life.

4. I am tetrachromatic. I can see more colours than most people. It's the opposite of colour blindness. Things often don't match in colour to my eyes, that do to other people's eyes!

5. I wanted to be a librarian when I was a little girl. Then I wanted to be a lot of other things for many years, but here I am back in libraries. And I have no intention of leaving it.

6. The worst pain I have ever been in was shingles. It was worse than being tattooed, breaking small bones (I've not broken any big ones), chronic ear infections, having my nose pierced, toothache... anything else I have experienced. It was AGONY!

7. If I was really, really rich nowdays, I would buy a BMW motorbike and travel the world on it.

Did you learn something new about me? Leave a comment and tell me, or tell me something I may not know about you!

Am I The Last to Discover These Guys?

Seriously, has the whole world heard of Naturally 7 except me?

Someone sent me this video on Facebook the other day, and I can't stop playing it.




They're amazing and that main singer has got an amazing voice. I just had a look on YouTube and here's a slick video clip for it, which is almost as good as the version on the train, but I like the rawness of the train one.



I have to find me some CD's of these guys. I need this song if nothing else on my iPod!

Not to mention that they're HOT!!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I found one of my old photo albums in my clean up of the spare room. This is all the stuff from when I was a baby, through Primary School. I was so cute! I can't believe I always thought I was an ugly kid. Mind you, I was always told I was homely. "Lucky you were born with brains girl, cos you ain't much to look at." But I was cute! All shiny dark hair and cheekbones. Oh to look like that again!

These are great old photos, so I thought I'd share 'em with you, my lovely friends!



Aww look, it's me riding a bicycle. Either that or being tormented by my Uncle Greg, who would have been about 16 or 17 at the time. Would be early 1973. Uncle Greg hasn't changed much.



Here I am at 15 months. Would be about January 1974. Don't you love the tint to these photos. Apparently the fuzzy rug I was sitting on was bright blue! For the Aussies reading this, this is a Pixie photo. Yes, they were around then!



I think I was about six. Would explain the missing teeth. But I was SOOOOO cute! I had to play that organ on the right for hours and hours and hours to practice. I hated it and much preferred the piano. Or better still, I wanted to learn to play the violin, saxaphone, cello, anything!! Good to see we lashed out on the EXPENSIVE brand of ironing aid there on the left. (For non Aussies, the blue and white label is for one of the first ever generic brands available in Australia and it was really cheap and nasty.)



I think I would have been about 8 here, or at least that's what I could work out by looking at a photo of me and my brother taken in the same costume. My brother looks about 5 or 6, so that would make me 8. This was for a school costume party. The hibiscus came from a MASSIVE hibiscus tree out the front of our house that we used to play underneath, and later when they built the high school, the kids wagging school would sit under it and smoke. Looks like we had a video player (tapes on top of the telly) and it was a Beta. I still have it, and yes, it still works. To think a DVD player lasts me about a year now before it packs in, and I've got a Beta video player that is at least 27 years old and it still works.

Incidentally, that TV used to go weird in the colour, and we used to thump it to make it go right.



Poor Santa, he just wasn't as stylish as me in my red and white. I loved that outfit at the time. Would be Christmas '83.



If I remember correctly, this was a costume day at school for Book Week. I was Pippi Longstocking. Our faithful poo brown Datsun 180B there behind me.



This is around my 12th birthday. I'd not long convinced a young apprentice hairdresser friend to cut all my hair off, and my mother wasn't happy. That water was FUCKING FREEZING!



Proof that I've been hanging around in libraries all my life. I would have been 12 in this photo, just about to finish Primary School. The girl on the left was named Kelly, and she had webbed toes. And weird parents that were some strange religion. But her father did introduce me to my first curry, and I have much to thank him for that. It was so hot, I nearly died, but he started a love affair with curry that has lasted me all these years. The dog's name was Bear, and he belonged to the teacher-librarian. As you can see, he was very well acquainted with me, as I was ALWAYS in the library.



And here I am on graduation day of Primary School. Look at the legs!! God I wish my legs were still that long and brown and slender. I had a hella figure at 12. Pity from that point on it was all downhill!

Hope you enjoyed my little stroll down memory lane here. I know I have!

Girl Clumsy Rocks the Shoes

A friend and fellow blogger has just posted this video on her blog:



You know why I love this movie. The shoes right? Though the killer ones don't do anything for me. It's the red ones I love.

Enjoy, and if you'd like to read more of Girl Clumsy's blog, click here.

Today I was asked why I'm so fascinated by the American Civil War. I'm not entirely sure of why it fascinates me so much. Perhaps it's because it was the first war that was documented so thoroughly, particularly as photography was really coming into use by that time. Maybe it's because I feel a deep connection with the USA, always have, and it's an event in American history that really shaped the country and it's people. And also I think it's a war that wasn't fought by two very different peoples, it's a war that was fought by the same people against each other. Brothers, fathers, sons, cousins, friends, colleagues... all fought each other on opposing sides because they made the choice to follow what they believed in.

I have another friend who suggested that perhaps I have been reincarnated from that time. She thinks that perhaps I was a Southerner, as I'm so sympathetic to the South (while also understanding that they had some major injustices going on down there) and have a deep admiration of General Robert E Lee.

Mostly I think it's painted heavily as a "good vs bad" scenario, but it's not really that clear cut. Yes, one side had slavery and the other didn't, but there were many on the North who had no issue at all with slavery themselves, and the majority of those that fought for the South were not slaveholders, and were not fighting for the right to hold slaves, but to protect their homes, and the right to secede from the Union. Slavery was an issue of course, but it wasn't the only issue.

Abraham Lincoln himself said:

"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."

Ultimately of course the right thing won through, which was the emancipation of slaves, but the reasons behind it are far more complex than are often portrayed. And it's that complexity that fascinates me.

The photography of the time is nothing short of incredible. For the first time in history, photography was readily available (though still cumbersome with huge cameras and glass plate negatives that had to be lugged around everywhere, and long exposure times which meant subjects had to stand still for long periods to get clear photos.) But the photos produced during this time were MAGNIFICENT. Huge glass plate negatives gave resolution so sharp and amazing that the photographs of today pale in comparison, even with all our technology and colour over black and white.

If you want to see some examples of the cream of the crop of Civil War photographs, I can highly recommend the Shorpy photo blog, who has a fantastic collection of Civil War photographs in high resolution. Click here to go directly to the Civil War collection.

Also on Shorpy today, someone posted this video montage photographs of the dead at Petersburg, Virginia in 1865. I will warn you that these photographs are graphic and are of dead bodies, so if you're of a sensitive nature, you may not want to watch them. I personally find nothing offensive about them at all, I find them incredibly poignant. In fact, be warned that a lot of the photographs on Shorpy.com are equally graphic, and of high resolution.

If anyone else is interested in the American Civil War, do drop me a line and let me know. I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions and thoughts on that particular period in American history.

See this Movie. Seriously.

I saw this movie a year ago. It's amazing. It's Australian, beautifully filmed, a fantastic cast, a wonderful story.

And William McInnes is GORGEOUS.

Is "Nice" So Bad?

I had a conversation with a friend about a week ago about "nice people". In particular, how "nice guys don't get the girls." Now this fascinated me, because I consider this friend a nice guy.

The vibe I got from him, was that most people seem to equate "nice" or "good" with predictable, traditional, even boring. That people who weren't nice were more spontaneous and interesting. I'm quite sure that I don't agree with that theory. I'm thinking about the nice people I know in my life, and none of them are boring. None of them are what I would consider predictable.

I think I'm nice, and yet I doubt very much that I am predictable or staid in any way. I think I am very spontaneous. I'm not ashamed of the fact that I am nice. I am proud that I care about other people and how they feel, and that I get joy from making other people feel good. I like BEING good, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I always behave myself!

I'm thinking about the nice guys I know. The friend I had the conversation with... I believe he's a nice guy. He's not boring or predictable. My friend Dave... one of the nicest people on the planet, such a good soul that you just can't believe that any one person can have such a good heart... nope, he's not predictable. Another guy friend I have that strikes me as particularly lovely of heart... nope not in any way boring. In fact, I find all three of these guys fascinating company, funny, challenging of intellect, spontaneous. But also nice, good men. And none of 'em seem to have any problem with the ladies either, for that matter.

When did nice and good become such dirty words? When did the fun go out of being nice or good? When did being a nice person or a good person mean that you can never have any naughtiness in your life? That you become predictable or dull? Was it always perceived to be predictable and dull to be nice?

Now as for women not being attracted to nice men, I personally am HIGHLY attracted to nice men. Nothing sexier than a man who cares. About more than himself. Who cares about his family, his friends, the world, the environment, animals... anything! I personally find the whole bad boy "I don't give a shit about anything but myself." really unattractive, and yes... boring! I think someone who isn't nice, who is self centred is more predictable than someone who is nice. It bores me shitless frankly some guy that goes on and on about himself, and is so arrogant that he swaggers around as if he owns the world.

Am I in the minority? I am not entirely sure about women, but I do notice that there are a LOT of guys out there who will put up with some bitch who treats them like dirt and walks all over them, simply because she's supposed to be "interesting" in her attitude. But do women really prefer bad boys?

A female friend recently suggested that I did really love bad boys, because I have a bit of a thing for Wolverine. And Sawyer from Lost. But I thought about it, and realised that the thing I find attractive about them is that despite the fact they want the whole world to THINK they are bad guys, they're actually quite good men at their core. Wolverine fights on the side of good, not evil, and he loves and protects other people. Sawyer from Lost is a man who has done all kinds of bad things, but his natural instinct when it comes to the crunch is to protect and help people. It is more often than not him that comes to someone's rescue, not Jack, who is supposed to be the good guy.

I just know, give me a man who "gives a shit" about things in life over some self centred, arrogant arse anyday. Nice/good men are sexy. And that doesn't mean they're sloppy and simpering, it just means they can see the difference between what is right and what is wrong and always treat themselves and others with RESPECT. There is nothing sexier than a man who says things like "I thought you might like it if... (Could be anything...) I gave you a call, I washed your car, I made some time for you, I helped the kids school, I rang my mother... anything that shows that they care about people other than themselves, and that they had the thought of what might make me feel good. Mmmm.... now that's SEXY.

And correspondingly, I take great joy in doing something for the people I care about that makes them feel good. Not because it puts me in their good books, but because it gives me satisfaction to know that they walk a little taller or have a smile on their face. Where are the men that find that attractive in a woman?

How do you feel about "nice people". Do you think you are nice? Do you find niceness attractive or do you prefer bad boys/girls? Do you think if someone is nice, that they can't be spontaneous, or they must always "behave themselves"? I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on the nice/good thing.

Unread Books Meme

The 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicise the ones you started but didn’t finish and colour the ones read for school.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel T
he Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
A Tale of Two Cities
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
A Canterbury Tale
Tess of the D’urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The PrinceThe Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield