We're not celebrating Thanksgiving this year, although sometimes we do. I do still like to mark the day with a bit of thanks giving.

I am thankful for my happy, strong marriage and my funny, smart husband.

I am thankful for my children.

I am thankful for my friends, and particularly for Lori.

I am thankful that I'm in pretty good health, both mentally and physically.

I am thankful that I live in the wonderful city of Melbourne.

I am thankful that I have cable internet.

I am thankful that I have a number of talents and abilities that not only keep me amused and give me an outlet for creativity and personal expression, they are the foundation of my business.

I am thankful that I don't have to work outside my home.

I am thankful that I'm no longer dead broke and numbered among the "working poor".

I am thankful that I have medical and dental insurance.

I am thankful for my cat.

I had a rant here about the lawsuit against McDonald's on behalf of obese children whose parents lacked the time and education to make sure their kids ate properly (yes, that's what I heard on the news; I'm not making it up).

I moved the McDonald's rant to RantSome because I thought it was substantial enough to stand on its own there. Go read it if you want.

The Euphamism Generator is kinda fun to play with. My favorite so far is "winding the eel", although "bumping the red banana" is pretty good, too...

I've had lots of different animals as pets. Dogs, cats, birds of various sorts, fish, rats, hamsters, turtles, mice. And it is of a mouse that I write.

Spot was called Spot because she had a couple of spots, and because I thought it was a funny name for a mouse. I had her, and some other mice, before I had a cat, because it's just not nice to the rodents or to the feline to have them where they can smell each other and make each other nervous.

Mice generally are not particularly smart, but Spot was special. She liked people, and she liked to be held. When a person went past her mousy housing (which was actually a clear plastic hamster environment), she'd hop up and down to get your attention, and she'd keep making a fuss until you picked her up. She liked to curl up in shirt pockets, although she'd just as happily curl up in your hand if you didn't have a convienient pocket.

Spot figured out how to get out of her housing and did it regularly until we finally figured out how she was getting out. The opening she was using was absolutely teeny, and I was so shocked that she could get out of there, but I caught her in the act finally and we took care of it. But until then, she used to like to go out on adventures in our apartment. When she was done roaming around the place (usually after a day or so), she would come and look for someone to take her home. She normally accomplished this by climbing into our bed and getting into someone's hand or just climb around on the bedspread until she got our attention (fortunately for her, if we knew she was out, we didn't react with shock and horror the way people normally would if a mouse walked around on their bed when they were sleeping in it).

Spot lived a pretty long time for a mouse, and she died peacefully of old age. Normally, I'm pretty unsentimental about disposing of the remains of deceased pet rodents (i.e., I put them out in the trash), but Spot was such a sweet, lovely little creature that I wanted to give her a more significant sendoff. I took her body across the street to the park and quietly and privately buried her under a patch of trees and shrubbery.

I still think about that little mousie. Of all the pets I've had, she's one of the ones who really stands out in my memory, right up there with bigger, longer-lived animals like dogs and cats. Pretty good for a little spotted mouse, I think.

Mouse Fresco Challenges Mickey. Hehe.

I got an email with a question from a kindergarten student, and it was such a good question, I thought I'd share it (along with my reply). If you have other ideas or can enlighten me on the matter, feel free to share.

Q: How can unicorn mean one horn when a corn isn't the same as a horn?

Well, that's a good question. I'm not 100% sure of the answer, but I've
got a good guess.

These are the words for "unicorn" in Italian, French, and Spanish:
alicorn, licorne, and unicornio. All of those have the "corn" instead of "horn".

"Uni" is Latin (Spanish and Italian are both very close to Latin, although Latin is a language that isn't spoken any more), and it means "one" or "single" (you can see it in words like "unicycle" which means "one wheel" and "uniform" which means "one shape" or "one design").

I think probably "corn" is just the Latin form of the word that means "horn", and we still use that word. Lots of English words are really "borrowed" from other languages and I think this is probably one of them.

The word "horn" is seen in the German version of "unicorn", though, which is "einhorn". Ein means "one" and "horn" means just what you think. I think somewhere in the long ago past, English speakers started using the German word for "horn" but kept the Latin for "unicorn". This kind of thing happens a lot in the history of languages.

10 Useful Hints for Everyday Grammar

I got an email with no return address (naturally) that called me clueless and was also TYPED IN ALL CAPS. It was taking exception to a post I made in an online community some time last year or so (can't remember when I posted it).

To my anonymous flamer: First of all, next time leave your email address and I'll be happy to reply to you personally. I do have your IP address, and I know your ISP and where it's located, so you're not really "anonymous", you know. I'm not going to post the name of your ISP, but I have it, and it's in Pennsylvania.

Secondly, DMOZ most certainly IS staffed by volunteers who do not get paid for their work or the time they put in. It IS an "open source" index, just as Mozilla is an open source software project.

Perhaps you should investigate your claims slightly before sending random flames to people you don't even know. Talk about clueless.

I know how to contact you. I'm pretty clever about this sort of thing, and I can contact you if I want to, trust me. No, I'm not angry with you. Yes, I've pretty much forgiven you. Yes, I realize I was partly to blame.

But the thing is, I don't really want to talk to you. My interests are worlds away from yours, although I suppose we have a couple of things sort of in common (nothing that would sustain a conversation longer than five minutes, though).

Part of this is me and my bad attitude, though. See, I don't remain in or resume or begin relationships of any kind when I don't think it'll be worth my investment of emotion and the risk of being hurt. As a result, I have very few friends and lots of acquaintances, and that suits me fine. The people I honestly call "friend" are worthy of the name.

So, yes, I could contact you if I wanted. I just don't want to. I have nothing to say to you, and I'm not particularly interested in what you might say to me. I think we've pretty much said it all already.

Please don't bother trying to guess if I mean "you" in this post. I mean what I mean, and it may not be what you think. I write these little ambiguous entries for my own reasons, and I generally don't base them on just one person, but build in my mind a sort of amalgam of several people who share similar qualities, not unlike the way one might build a fictional character. It may be loosely based on real people, but it's a creation of the author's imagination.

Although, hey, if you really want to think I'd bother writing about you, go ahead if it makes you feel better. It's no skin off my nose either way. I still don't want to talk to you...

Read Me is a very nice, comprehensive disclaimer for bloggers. I may link to them from my own disclaimer page...

Say it with me, boys and girls. Java is not the same as JavaScript. Not even a little bit.

Java is a complete object-oriented programming language. It's used in the form of a program that can be downloaded from the server and executed. Java applets need a Java-capable browser to run. Other Java programs will run without a browser, but may require an interpreter.

JavaScript is a scripting language, implemented as an extension of HTML. It exists as text within the page (or in an external but linked page). It is not a program, and it always requires a browser, since it is just an extension of the markup language. JavaScript's "proper" and "true" name is actually ECMA Script.

This just happens to be one of my little peeves. The only things alike about JavaScript and Java is that the code looks (superficially) similar and their names are maddeningly similar.

I get really annoyed when I see people using the names interchangably. They're not even remotely the same. Yes, I really should get a life, what can I say? My lack of a life doesn't excuse the fact that people say "Java" when they mean "JavaScript".

*snicker*

Just got a spam with this charming title: Constipation is Dangerous.

Hm. Okay. I really wanna read all about THAT, thanks...

I used to get it at home all the time. Andrew was almost always happy to oblige my cravings. But lately... I ask for it, but I don't get it. It's "too much trouble" or it "takes too long" or it's "too hot today" or "I don't know where the equipment is."

So today, I had to go out to get some. I'm not too worried about it, since I've gotten it away from home for years, but it does bother me somewhat that I never seem to get any at home any more.

Café latté. Mmmm.

Yes, of course coffee. What did YOU think I was talking about?

Last call, last train, last page.

Awww, poor baby (Flash, and has a couple of impolite words).

* Which Tragic Shakespearean Heroin are You? *
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No one is surprised by this, are they?

What kind of porno would you star in?
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No comment. *ahem*

Although I do have to wonder what sort of weird search requests are going to eventually get to this page now because of this...

The name of the thread in a Photoshop group was:

Gothic/Medieval Architecture Tutorials...

My reply:

How to Make Gothic/Medieval Architecture

First, make sure you have several hundred years in which to complete the
project. Having a dynasty before you start is a good idea.

Next, make sure you have a million tons of quarried stones and lots of
peasants for labor.

Okay, now start building. It's okay if you don't finish, because your
successors will continue, possibly in a totally different style and using
a different floorplan....

It's a perfectly beautiful spring day. It's warm in the house, but since two doors are open to draw the breeze in, I can smell the summer flowers and foliage now and then when the gentle zephyr wafts past, caressing my face like a whisper of silk...

Every spring/summer, Channel Nine (yes, the Australian networks are named for their channel, totally unlike the U.S. system) takes the usual daytime soap operas off the air in favor of cricket. Needless to say, this really irritates an awful lot of soap opera fans. I also think it's not very good business.

Think about it. The advertising during soaps is primarily stuff targeted at women who are home with children. This is the reason they're called SOAP operas. They used to always be sponsored by soap companies! The soap audience is precisely the one that some companies want/need to target. It's as good as selling cars and beer during a major sporting event. During the day, you can sell nappies and cleaning products and food items to the people who are most likely to buy them. Perfect!

But here in Austalia, for several weeks, the primary audience for these marketers are forced to watch Jerry Springer or some bad telemovie on another channel because Channel Nine thinks live broadcasts of cricket in the middle of the damn day is a brilliant idea. No amount of complaining seems to make them understand that this angers people. They don't care, point blank. They know the soap fans will come back when they feel like putting the stuff back on the air (and we're currently about three years behind the U.S. for Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless). It has apparently never occurred to these geniuses that they could tape the cricket and show it at a time of day when more hardcore (and probably male) cricket fans are available to view it.

Last year, the idiots took off the soaps for the entire summer, even after the cricket was finished. They put on a bunch of re-run garbage that no one wanted to watch, so hopefully their ratings were low enough that they won't repeat that, but who knows.

The American business ethic and the Australian one are rather different at times (don't get me started on my rant about limited trading hours, because it just goes on and on and I'm still annoyed by it, even after almost four years of living here). Americans say, "Any chance to make a good profit, we'll take, and anything that will ruin our profits and alienate our customers, we'll try to avoid." Australians (at least in this case) seem to say, "Who gives a damn about housewives and the advertisers who want to target them. It's not like they do the grocery shopping or anything... Women don't have any BUYING power, for heaven's sake!"

And it's not even that I'm "addicted to soaps" (used to be, many, many years ago), but I have been watching them in one form or another since I was very young, and I appreciate the absurd storylines and high drama and, what the heck, it's nice to follow the characters and stories as I get my w*rk done. It's good "company" sometimes. (Oh, and I have absolutely nothing against cricket, either, just in case you thought that; it's a fine sport with a long tradition and it's not even too bad to watch, as sports go).

But it still pisses me off that Channel Nine doesn't give a damn about their viewers and abuses the fact that we probably WILL come back when they get around to putting the shows back on the air. Grrrr. I'll bet you any amount of money that all the execs at Channel Nine are pigheaded, middle-aged MEN.

Yesterday I got a bottle of wine for myself (well, it would be "for us" except Andrew doesn't like the taste of alcohol at all). I didn't really know what I wanted, other than "red wine" (good for your health) and "Australian" (because Australia produces some really good wine and, well, it's rather less expensive to drink domestic wine) and "fruity and not too tart".

By pure good luck, I happened to choose a bottle of grenache shiraz from Jacob's Creek vinyard, and I'm quite pleased. Next I think I'll try one of their chardonnays (even though red wine is a bit healthier for you). I had a glass of the stuff last night and today I put a splash of it in the beef stew I've got in the slow cooker (never use "cooking" wine; if you wouldn't drink it, don't put it in your food!).

Anyway, I went to the Jacob's Creek website and found that they do distribute in North America, so if you're in the market for a nice wine and want to try something imported and delicious, try some Australian vintage. (And Python fans will probably realize that by now I'm really having to fight the urge to go into that sketch about Australian table wines...).

Had occasion to recall a particular gentleman on a mailing list in which I used to participate. He was an American living in Australia (there are some 40,000 expat Americans in Victoria, alone), and on the mailing list, he mentioned "Oz", meaning, of course, "Australia."

One person (an American) replied, "There's no such place!" They were not joking.

Now I get that some people wouldn't know that Australia is also called Oz (in an Aussie dialect/accent, "Aus" sounds almost exactly like "Oz" in case you wondered), but the thing that I was thinking about today is how, instead of saying, "What do you mean, Oz?" or something like that, this person just rushed in with, "There's no such place!"

I see this sort of attitude a LOT, now that I come to think about it. Another example is from some years ago when Andrew was hanging out with me on a "talker" (sort of a cross between a chat room and a MUD). Someone who was apparently bored was just striking up random conversations with people and asked Andrew, "What state are you in?" Andrew answered, "Victoria." The first person shot back, "There's no such state!" Well, someone needs to tell the Premier and the Governer and Parliament, as well as the Australian Postal Office, because they all seem to think there is...

Point of this little reflection/rant is that for some people, it seems to be easier just to tell someone else they're wrong than to investigate just a little to find out if maybe, just MAYBE, there might be something in the big, wide world that you don't know or don't understand.

Today is Melbourne Cup Day, the Melbourne Cup being a horse race and the "crown jewel" of the Spring Racing Carnival. It's sort of a mix of the Kentucky Derby, Royal Ascot, and a bit of Mardi Gras thrown in for good measure.

Anyway, Melbourne Cup Day is a holiday in Victoria. I dunno why, actually. I mean, it's a horse race... Andrew says it was a holiday before the race became something that was televised so everyone could watch it. Today there was something on the news about how other states want the day as a holiday, too (apparently, they want to watch the race, as well). You can kinda guess why the Melbourne Cup is called "the race that stops a nation."

So we went out today and partook of leisure activities. Mostly we had lunch out and went for a nice ride down the seacoast (pictures will follow when I get them processed).

Although it's far too cold to swim (in my opinion; we did see someone on a waterski and also someone windsurfing; guess it's not so bad if you've got a thick wetsuit or something), we did have a bit of a walk on the beach. Zoë found the water coming up onto the shore to be pretty hilarious. She wanted to run into into it, but of course we didn't let her. She also thought that walking in thick, loose sand was pretty strange, but in a good way.

Next time, I think we'll actually stop at the place that has an "animal wonderland" and "entertainment for the whole family" and giant earthworms (all the time I've lived here, I've still never seen the giant earthworms!). I was wanting to go see the worms for a while now, but Andrew said he wasn't sure where it was. Well, now he knows, and next time we go for an outing, we can go there.

And now, pastas cooking. Mmmm. Pasta. All in all, I'd say it's been a really good day. Life is good. Hooray for the Melbourne Cup.

Teehee. That was fun. And strangely satisfying.

Which Sappy Love Song Are You?
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Cool. Savage Garden are even Aussies.

There's a Channel Ten news reporter named Harry Potter. I wonder if he sends stories to the office via owl...