Remember to breathe

This morning the banksia tree decided to have a dance with the camelia bush behind my home office's roman blind. It was so lovely I sat and watched it for ages and then decided to capture it for future dreaminess.

It reminded me a bit of Laura's kitchen blind, which would probably evoke similar dreaminesses.

Blah

I've had a really crap day today, so I'm going to do some dot points about nice things that have happened recently to try and jolly myself up:

-- I saw the Lambert Retrospective the weekend before last (I can't look at his name without an earworm starting up that goes Laaaaambert, the sheepish lion...). It's pretty good; pretty, and good. He was a KILLER draughtsman.

-- I've been to two good movies in the last fortnight:
1. The Dead Girl, which was excellent. It's a very feminist, female-centred (I think they can be separate but compatible terms) film. It raises a lot of questions, which still bother me in the night after a week.

2. Black Book, or Zwartboek. This is a very fun but gruelling and action-packed film with lots of Nazis and heros and plot twists. Do see it. I'm not into violent WWII movies, but this one had lovely shades of grey in its morals.

-- I had a scrummy lunch at Zoe's on Saturday, then a few hours later...

-- ... she and I (and Jethro) met Tigtog for tea at The Front, a gallery/cafe in Lyneham which is a better venue than Tilleys because it is
(a) friendlier
(b) cheaper
(c) funkier
(d) host to a Ukelele class on late saturday afternoons
Tigtog and her family were great fun, and thank you to them for still turning up in the abysmal weather. Jethro seemed to have a fun time, which meant Zoe got out of the house and her 4-yo cabin-fevered offsprung (singular offspring?) for a while.

-- I bought a compositor's table from a mate who had been storing his clamps in it for years and was cleaning out his workshop... all metal, with spaces for holding letterpress furniture and a big separate flat cast-iron tabletop, perfect for clamping up type. Of course, it weighs a f*ck of a lot, and it took four of us (me being the smallest and weakest) to carry it in two parts off the trailer and on to my front verandah. I don't have anywhere to put it until I can find a studio, so it's going to sit out the front under a bright green tarp for a year or so. The cats love it, especially in the afternoon when the metal heats up.

-- We bought a new carrom board at our favorite Indian supply shop in Belconnen. We already have a small version, and it's like a kid's size board, but we'd promised ourselves we'd get a full-size one some day. This one was on the wall of the shop, and the price on it was $105, which was about what the small one cost us. When we asked after it, we were told it was their display model and the last one, and they offered it to us for $90, including all the little pieces! You bet. When we brought it home we realised that it was four times bigger than our old board, and in fact big enough to be a dinner table for us (we have such a small house!). I need to take a photo of the thing to show you, but it's shoved under our bed until we can find a place to set up and play! One idea is to cart it down to our local and start playing it regularly there. We might attract some competitors!

-- I said I had a shitty day, but in fact it was just the afternoon. I honestly can't tell you why, because I'll get keelhauled if I do, but suffice to say that one day I'll get to say my bit. I sobbed all the way home in the car, poured a big glass of wine and pulled out BB's Nintendo DS and thrashed lots of pirates in the new Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End game. It's very cathartic. And then I got stuck. Does anyone out there know where I'm supposed to find the Grappling Hook?

-- So here I am. Bumblebee is away with his grandparents until tomorrow, and then he goes away with his dad on Friday for a week. I'm trying to get all the work I have to do done before he gets back, so that we can chill out together for the 3 days I get to see him, but I'm not succeeding. Sigh.

Maybe I'm premenstrual. But I'm in that kind of mood where if poor old BB suggested that, I'd bite his head off. Blah.

Beware Black Friday!

I've been on the mailing list for the Tim Todd Revival Fires/Truth for Youth ministry ever since I bought a copy of their Truth for Youth bible to add to BB's collection of weird and wonderful Christian printed ephemera. Normally I would unsubscribe from such lists soon after discovering I'm on them, but I've kept this one going because it keeps me in touch with the wacky world of fundamental missionaries.

One week they're saving Africa, another week they're sending stuff to the troops in Iraq. This week they are girding their loins and dusting off their loudhailers in preparation for the release of the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:

The dangerous spiritual nature of the new Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Movie due to come out on Friday, July 13, is exposed through the comic book, Hairy Polarity and the Sinister Sorcery Satire, published by Revival Fires International located in West Monroe, LA.

This 32 page, colorful and informative comic book may be viewed and purchased online at www.thetruthforyouth.com/special/hp.htm and in “Revival Fires Crusades” across America.

“While Harry Potter is popular even among many Christians, it presents a Godless universe, one in which the most powerful wizard wins,” says Evangelist Tim Todd, President of Revival Fires International. “The hero is a wizard who shows no evidence of belief in God and does not use the power of prayer to combat evil. This is not the vision of the universe that Christian parents should want to instill in their children; nor is “white” magic an appropriate response to evil.”

The Hairy Polarity Comic is also included in the popular Truth for Youth, which has been enthusiastically endorsed by Pat Boone, the late, Bill Bright, the late, Jerry Falwell, T.D. Jakes, Actor Dean Jones, Art Linkletter, Rod Parsley, Michael Reagan and many other prominent leaders. Truth for Youth bibles may be purchased at http://www.thetruthforyouth.com/paypal.htm

The Truth for Youth, designed by Todd, is a New Testament with powerful comics that deal with “absolute truths” from a biblical perspective, addressing the moral issues that young people are confronted with. More than 1.2 million copies have been distributed to youth in an attempt to respond to the liberal agenda that is being promoted aggressively in public schools.

Todd concludes, “The Hairy Polarity comic book creatively informs the reader of the many explicit examples of appalling evil in the Harry Potter Movie, such as, blood sacrifice, animal sacrifice, demon possession, levitation, divination, shifting humans into animals, communing with the dead, bringing evil wizards back from the dead through the shedding of blood, only to mention a few.”

As we approach the release of the new and last Harry Potter Movie, Todd is encouraging concerned parents and leaders to obtain quantities of the Hairy Polarity and the Sinister Sorcery Satire comic book and distribute them as an informative resource. The Hairy Polarity comic book and the Truth for Youth Bible are both available at http://www.thetruthforyouth.com/paypal.htm

You'll notice that I'm not afraid to hand over their contact details. Go nuts. I highly recommend both publications for a really ridiculously stupid read. I've reviewed this comic before; their version of the Bible is very entertaining as well, with extra comics about converting gays and vanquishing other enemies of the free world.As far as I'm concerned, this all revolves around humourless and unimaginitive people using fear to enforce their narrow-minded views. I'm just counting the days until Tim Todd is arrested for some really juicy scandal involving transgender crack dealers in witch costumes. It's bound to happen, don't you think?

And in the meantime I shall go on reading the books, watching the movies, and counting the days.

Heh

Yesterday, Colonel Duck was just about to shake the hand of little Johnny Howard in Bega (he'd spurned the joybuzzer I'd wanted him to wear) when this happened.

I'm sorry my father missed his moment. To his credit, I don't think he was really all that keen on the idea. I would, however, like him to click this link (the rest of you feel free as well) to see what REAL parental political advice looks like.

Ms Fits (child/author) of the abovementional parental link) also covered a bit of Bega's uncovering.

Squeaky blog fun

I thought, since I need to know for the workshop mentioned below, that I'd brush up on the developments in Blogger template technology. I've fixed that annoying double comments thing that was lurking in my own template, but I'm loath to tinker further with it because I like it (for now...).

So I started a new blog, just for practice. Feel free to interact with it if you'd like, cause I probably won't spend a lot of time on it. I'm trying to write posts for about three other blogs as it is at the moment, and failing dismally. But I'm more than happy to mount other people's posts on it if you feeling like playing with the kitties. There are some fun links on it.

Knit 1 Blog 1

OK all you knitting bloggers -- if you haven't come out of the woodwork already to Craft ACT's call, now is your chance to be part of a fun event coming soon to your browser... Knit 1 Blog 1!

It's a knitting/blogging exhibition with both virtual and real qualities.

There will be large screens projecting blogs by knitters or knitters who blog, display cases of blogged knits (including, I might add, the fabulous knitted kits made for me by Kate), workshops for knitters and a workshop on blogging. And they've got their own blog about it all too.

Now, I can knit, but I can't purl. I can blog, even if it gets a bit patchy, and I can definitely talk. So I've been asked to host the blogging workshop.

No question too dumb! I put in the blurb. I hope they understand that it's a two-way street. Some of my answers may be fabulously dumb. But it's a 90 minute session, with half an hour for me to have a quick rant about blogging -- how to comment, how to set yourself up, how to find like-minded blogs (and how to be mindful that you're writing to the entire interwebs, not just your mates, or you might end up with your very own ker-boom! moment*), yada, yada, yada.

The other hour is for people to take turns on the computers (or bring their own laptops) and I will hang around showing them how to install site meters and flickr accounts and the like and probably swapping lots of jolly jape stories.

When I was asked to do this workshop I felt a bit wrong for the job -- I mean, there are huge glitches with my blog template which I've been too busy to iron out, and I'm way behind in internut advances, but I figure I'm close to the end of my 3rd year of blogging, and I love helping people with their problems, so meh to the insecurities. It'll be a hoot. And so many of you have written excellent posts on the nature of blogging that I have a swathe of links to pass on and discuss. This is just one of them. Anyone I use will be fully attributed, of course.

Knit 1 Blog 1 starts on the 14th of July at the Craft ACT galleries, located in the North Building in Civic, opposite the ACT Government headquarters, and beside the Canberra Theatre. They're on the 1st floor above CMAG, and if you go there you'll pass in the stairwell that statue of Al Grassby that has been in the news so much...






*I call ker-boom moments those times when a blog comments thread is pulling someone to bits merrily and then that person or one of their mates comes on board and protests. There is a virtual KER-BOOM! which is a huge silence that contains everyone's shock and then hours later people start tentatively posting comments again. Feel free to tell me about the favorite ker-boom moment in your blogging experience!

WTF! RLY! LOL! Cats

Zoe sent me this link today, which, for those who can't be bothered clicking the link, is an article about the rise of the LOLcat and a discussion about how LOL language has stumped linguists.

I'd like to direct Andrew Ramadge, the author of this article, and anyone else who hasn't just gone 'DUH', to this link, which addresses the roots of LOL lingo. Zoe attached it to our flickr group Text on ur cat to provide a bit of interweb cred to our motives.

Cos, u no, we don wanna seem dum or nuffing. I'm sure there are other sites outlining the gaming roots of LOLtext, so why such a mystery, Andrew?


POSTSCRIPT: the author strikes back! See comments for more details. A gripping tale of remorse, rationalisation and forgiveness. I heart the interwebs.