I spent quite a bit of time poking around the pictures at friday-fun.com. I was particularly amused by the hungry baby in an art museum...

The Department of Homeland Security has named Claria, an adware maker that online publishers once dubbed a "parasite," to a federal privacy advisory board.
 
An executive from Claria, formerly called Gator, will be one of 20 members of the committee, the department said Wednesday.
 
"This committee will provide the department with important recommendations on how to further the department's mission while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and visitors of the United States," Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the department's chief privacy officer, said in a statement.
 
Claria bundles its pop-up advertising software with ad-supported networks such as Kazaa. Recently, the privately held company has been trying to seek credibility by following stricter privacy guidelines and offering behavioral profiling services to its partners.

A New York congresswoman asked the White House to explain Wednesday why a man who worked for a news Web site owned by a GOP activist was able to obtain White House press credentials under an assumed name.

Last night as I was working on the computer the electricity flashed on and off. My computer went off, and on, and then off. I was tired, so I went to bed.

Today I found that there was no power at all. Power supply was shot. I was ticked off. I also had a headache.

I took apart the other computer (which recently went belly up, probably the motherboard dying) trying to get the power supply out, but the case is compact and I couldn't get the power supply out without removing the CD drives, which I couldn't get out because the small, stupid screws holding them in place stripped right out. Argh. Broke a fingernail, and that's not a vanity thing, it's a pain thing. Headache got worse.

After lunch, the headache got very bad, and I had to lie down. Took the kids into my room and turned on the tv in there and I rested with a pillow on my head (to block the light) while they watched kid shows.

When Andrew came home, he brought both pizza and a new power supply, and after we consumed the pizza, he put the new power supply in for me, and also cleaned out the dust and stuff from inside the case.

Headache got better after eating, it's still here a bit. Computer's working fine now. Broken fingernail still hurts.

Well, I've got the major sorted out, but I also need to two two minor series and some electives. I've got one of the minors worked out (web development, as the basic courses will be super easy credits for me and the slightly more advanced courses will actually teach me stuff I've been meaning to learn). I'm having trouble figuring out what to do for the other minor.

I'm thinking of art history, but the courses on offer are pretty uninspiring. I also looked at psychology, but the higher level courses are stuff like "introduction to counselling theory" and while I could do that, I don't really want to... I also thought about philosophy (pretty useless, to counter the practical other minor), but there don't seem to be enough courses to do a minor in it.

Bleah. Perhaps I should learn Italian. It would certainly make an interesting minor...

Okay, well, I talked to a student representative today and I'm not going to be able to get the paperwork all done in time for the first term, so I'll just start next term (which begins in early June, I believe). In the meantime, they're sending me information and booklets and all that stuff. At some point, I'll need to go into the city and fill in some paperwork in person, etc., but that's okay (good excuse to go into the city, heh).

And because I'm starting in the second term, I've got somewhat limited choices as to which (required) choices I can make. Looks like I'll be doing "Australian Studies: Images of Australia 1A" in a few months. Not exactly literature, but required for a Bachelor of Arts degree, so there you go.

I'm going to finish my degree. I dunno if I'll go to the trouble of actually trying to transfer credits from the American college I went to or not, though (bit of a pain to do, frankly). Most Australian universities will give you some measure of credit toward course units if you can demonstrate that you have the experience/knowledge that the course teaches, so I'll certainly look into that.

And, cool part, I don't actually have to GO to university. There's a very cool multi-university program that allows you study from home, up to and including a full degree. The degree I want would be issued by Griffith University, which is in Queensland (and it's where my mother-in-law is getting her PhD).

You see, everyone in this family has a degree. Andrew's mum has a Master's degree and is working on a PhD. His dad has a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and then some post-graduate certification. One brother is working on his Master's, one has his (or maybe it's just a graduate certificate, I can't remember, but he's got a Bachelor of Science in any event). The one brother's wife has a Bachelor's of nursing (or some other health related degree), Andrew's late grandfather was a minister and so had a Bachelor of Divinity. Hell, probably the cat has a Graduate Certificate in Shedding or something...

So I'm going to finish my degree, and I'm going to do it at home, online. I'm thinking of Literature and Composition (which entails a lot of creative writing and things like Narrative Fiction), with a minor in some sort of art or history, or, well, art history (not thrilled with the art history courses on offer, to be honest, they're not really to my taste). And I'll fill in the electives with stuff that interests me.

And yes, I would like to be a writer. I haven't really said it in public too much, and at the moment I can't devote the sort of concentration required to write seriously, but for the past few years I've been learning about story structure and character development and such (just casually), since I can't really sit down and write much at the moment (too many interruptions!).

And, hey, even if I don't ever write, a degree in literature can't be a bad thing, and I'd be able to hold my head up in this family of high achievers.

I'm getting all excited just thinking about it.... You know, I should just hang a sign over my head that says NERD and be done with it.

Like a dark cloud obscuring the sun, the powerful odor of mendacity hung over Washington after George Bush concluded his State of the Union speech last week. Bush certainly seems to have bamboozled the press (The Boston Globe inexplicably found the speech “soothing,” the L.A. Times decided the speech was evidence of Bush’s “flexibility,” while CBS’s Bob Schieffer gushed that it was “one of the best-delivered speeches I have ever heard President Bush make”) and seduced the public (a Gallup overnighter showed 60 percent approved of the speech and 26 percent “somewhat approved,” while a new Newsweek poll out this week now shows Bush’s overall rating is the highest it’s been since right after last year’s Republican convention — 50 percent approve, just 42 percent disapprove).
 
Despite this collective mesmerization, here are a few plainspoken truths about Bush’s lies the mainstream media didn’t tell you.

Well, it's decided to be summer again. Two night ago, I was sleeping with a hot water bottle at the foot of the bed because I was cold. Today, I was so hot and sweaty my hair was completely damp except for the very topmost layers, and we've got the fan going in our room.

Like I've said about Melbourne weather, if you don't like it, just wait. It'll change soon enough...

You cannot imagine my horror, however, when my eyes met pages filled with saccharine, pastel artwork depicting cold-eyed androids that were clearly not of our realm. In a Beautiful Mind moment of schizophrenic clarity I saw the book for what it was: not a gentle introduction to life's most profound curiosity, but a primer for the parasitic offspring of an invisible invasion!

This is a really good play dough with a really nice, firm texture. It lasts for a couple of weeks if stored in an airtight container (I like a big ziplock bag). My kids just love this stuff (and so do I).

Best Play Dough Ever

2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 cups water
2 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup cream of tartar
Food coloring (totally optional)

1) Put water and salt in a saucepan, mix thoroughly until salt is dissolved. Add oil. If you're using food coloring, this is a good time to add that, generally several drops. You may find you need to use more coloring as the mixture is cooking (and you can knead in more later, though that's not as effective as putting it in from the start).

2) In a bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix well. Slowly add this mixture to the water mixture in the saucepan, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.

3) Cook and stir over low/medium heat until play dough is completely formed and no longer sticky. Cooked dough will look very like thick mashed potatoes.

4) Allow to cool somewhat. Turn dough onto a board and knead until smooth and cooled. Store in an air tight container or zip lock bag.

5) If you find that the dough is too sticky, knead a little more flour into it, and then microwave it to cook it further. You'll have to experiment as to how long to microwave, but I find that cooking for about 1.5 minutes, turning it over in the bowl, and cooking for another 1.5 minutes is generally quite helpful.

I went out today to take Zoë to preschool (where she had an extremely good day, thankyou, and by the way, I do keep a journal specifically for and about her, see sidebar). The car was misbehaving a little. Kept kind of sputtering, and not getting power, then it'd pick up again. Odd, I thought. Maybe the choke? Hmmm....

Came home, did stuff around the house, etc., then went out when it was time to pick her up. Car misbehaving even worse now. Hmmmm, what might the problem be? Oh, dear, look at that, almost out of petrol, that's not good.

I'm not generally the person who puts petrol in the car. I do it maybe three or four times a year, if that. I do know how to do it, of course, but, errr, I wasn't paying attention because I just don't normally do that bit of household keeping-track-of.

So I realized that I didn't have my mobile phone, or my wallet. D'oh. I thought about it for a while, but not long enough... I should have gone into Zoë's preschool and used their phone to call RACV roadside service and just waiting there at the school, but at that point I thought I probably would have enough petrol to get home. D'oh.

I did rather sensibly decide to go home and not try to go to a petrol station in town. I figured if the car stalled out on me, it would be better to be on a quiet residential back street than on a major one. That, at least, was a good idea...

So I headed toward home through the back roads and yes, ran out of petrol. Bleah. I got out the pram (stroller) thinking I'd just walk home from there, though it's rather a bit of a hike. At that precise moment that I was piling the kids in, a lady came out to walk her small dog (looked like a cross between a terrier and a black dachund, but that's just a guess). She figured out I was in some distress and offered to let me use her phone. I wouldn't have knocked on doors to ask, but I was happy to accept the offer.

So she took the dog in and brought out a cordless phone and I called RACV (luckily I keep the number on my keyring). RACV informed me that the account was overdue. Andrew had told me he paid it (turns out, he did; dispatch just didn't have the updated membership information). I talked to the dispatch lady a bit, she decided to go ahead and send someone out anyway (I didn't even have my credit card with me and I don't know the number by heart), telling me I had to call back later to pay the membership or be billed for a roadside call, etc.

I also wasn't able to get the usual "don't have to pay for petrol" that we have with the higher membership level we pay for, but fortunately, I did have $10 in my pocket (thankful for that!). The service truck came pretty quickly and I gave him my $10 and he put in petrol and, voila, car runs fine.

He said, "There you go. I hope you weren't too badly inconvienienced or troubled." I said, "Oh, no, it's just embarassing." He laughed and said, "There are worse things." I said, "Yeah, at least I have something to write in my journal today."

And so I have.

And if there's a moral to this story, it's "Pay attention to your fuel gauge, and ALWAYS take your mobile phone when you go out!" So there.

Here's the proof!

Find out what really pisses YOU off (you may be suprised).

Jessica Rabbit


Who 's Your Inner Sexy Cartoon Chick ?
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Lady Mac's Musings is fun. Go have a look and see for yourself.

A Texas woman has been indicted for criminally negligent homicide for causing her husband's death by giving him a sherry enema, a police detective said on Wednesday.
[...]
Warner, 58, was said to have an alcohol problem and received the wine enema because a throat ailment left him unable to drink the sherry.

Gertrude Walton was recently targeted by the recording industry in a lawsuit that accused her of illegally trading music over the Internet. But Walton died in December after a long illness, and according to her daughter, the 83-year-old hated computers.
[...]
A Recording Industry Association of America spokesman said Thursday that Walton was likely not the smittenedkitten it is searching for. (Gee, y'think?)

I've previously lamented in this very blog about the lack of Thai food places around where we live. We've got several varions of pizza, asian noodles, Chinese, Indian, fish and chips, various fast food places (including Subway), a couple of very nice bakeries where you can get fresh meat pies and such, but no Thai.

BUT... it turns out we DO have a Thai place! There's a place that I had previously thought was Chinese, and it is, but the other day we found out that they ALSO have Thai food on the menu, so yay!

So, guess what we're having for dinner tonight.... ? Hehehehe...

All we need is a website that allows some interaction.
[...]
It could be argued that a website owner is actually inviting content to their site when they allow comments.

(Personal note, this is a good part of why I don't have comments enabled here or anywhere else. You're welcome to email me, though.)

Freak summer storms lashed eastern Australia overnight, dumping record rains on Melbourne, hitting Brisbane with a towering dust storm and leaving at least two people dead, officials said.
 
Melbourne received more rain in the 24 hours to Thursday morning than during any day since records began in 1856, leaving the city's rivers and waterways swollen to bursting point.
 
Victoria state police were searching for a teenage boy reported to have been swept away in a suburban Melbourne creek while two people were killed by falling trees in neighboring New South Wales state.
 
The storms, caused by an intense low-pressure system, hit a vast area from Queensland state in the north, through New South Wales and Victoria and on to the island state of Tasmania off mainland Australia's southeastern corner.

Well, last night there were apparently terrible storms. We slept right through them, but today there were BIG tree branches down all over the place and some traffic lights were out and various other generally bad things.

According to The Age, Wild winds and the biggest downpour on record have created havoc for Melbourne's commuters this morning, with roads flooded and many trains cancelled.

Andrew managed to get to work, but he had to drive to another train station further toward the city to get a train (being the nice bloke he is, he gave a lift to a couple other commuters), because a train from farther out was unable to get in due to the tracks being flooded.

Anyway, we got 120 mm of rain, the highest level since records began being kept in 1856. That's a hell of a lot of rain! Of course, it's needed because we had a drought not so long ago and the water reservoirs are pretty low (we actually have water restrictions, though it's not too terribly restrictive).

EDIT: Just heard on the news that it was apparently quite awful in some places, and there are actually deaths attributed to the storms. Trees fell through people's roofs, someone was swept away in floodwaters, it's all pretty awful from the looks of it...

Common Australian usage is to say someone is/was "pregnant to" someone, rather than pregnant BY someone. Drives me nuts, you don't get pregnant TO someone. Maybe, I could by getting pregnant FROM someone, I mean, that kinda makes sense, but.... to?

Of course, Australians also use the phrase "fell pregnant" to mean "became pregnant". I've always found that particularly bizarre, as well, like you're just walking down the street and you trip and WHOOPS! Bun in the oven!

Then again, maybe if you trip and fall on him, you're going to get pregnant TO him or something... Hmmm.... I dunno, though, an Australian has made me pregnant more than once and I don't recall a lot of tripping or falling or other unusual prepositional usage...

It's bloody cold here! Two days ago, it was incredibly hot, and now it's bloody cold!

Melbourne weather, four seasons in one day and sometimes sudden patches of some other season in the middle of the one we're supposed to be having!

Andrew heard on the radio news that it was the coldest on record for the date and that in the past two days we've had the normal month's average rainfall, so that should give you some idea.

Bloody cold and bloody wet. Brrrr.

Although, this being Melbourne, in a few days it'll probably be back to something else again. That's the thing about Melbourne, if you don't like the weather, stick around, it's bound to change (sometimes in the same day).