I recommend PussyBeWet.com, because there's nothing funnier than a wet cat.

Whoops. I broke it. I was mucking around with Atom and, oh, long story short, I broke it. RSS is fixed now, though, as far as I can tell.

Get your puppy fix!

Be prepared to say "Awwww" a lot when you visit CuteOverload.com. Awwww.... it's sooooo kyyyoooooooooot!

Tyra Banks marks a modeling milestone next week, and is donning a decade-old bikini to celebrate the special anniversary.
[...]
"I was about 140 pounds on that cover ... and I'm 161 now," the 5-foot-10 TV host told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I'd say I looked like a stripper when I put it on."
 
Banks, who retired from modeling in 2005, said some extra fabric was added to make the bikini a little less itsy-bitsy.
 
"They covered the sides of my chest so that it wasn't so much hangin' out. And they put some extenders on the sides of the bikini bottom so it fit," she said.
[...]
Banks said she considered going on a crash diet before the Bahamas shoot to look the same as she did 10 years ago, but then thought better of it.
 
"I think there's more power in embracing what I am now and showcasing that," she said.

Click for larger image

I showed that picture to Andrew and he said, "Wow, huge improvement." I think so, too. She looks fantastic, in my opinion. Curvy, womanly, gorgeous rounded hips and very nice cleavage (no, I'm not into women, but if I were, I'd have to put the new and improve Tyra Banks on my list, I think).

And she's definitely not fat. Only in the warped, completely unreal, and totally skewed eyes of Hollywood and the fashion industry (and those who can't think beyond anything that Hollywood or the fashion industry says) could this very sexy, curvy woman be labelled "fat".

With all the attention being paid to the Valerie Plame case, perhaps it's time we took a look at what might well be a far more brazen case of retaliation against a public servant who did nothing more than tell the truth when the Bush administration wanted to tell a lie. Jesselyn Radack was an ethics adviser for the Department of Justice. When DOJ attorneys were involved in an investigation, her job was to make sure that they complied with the law to make sure the case did not run into trouble if it went to court with improperly gathered evidence or mishandled investigations.

(This sort of thing makes my blood run cold. Constitutional? What? The Bush Administration doesn't have to abide by the Constitution! And what makes me even more angry is that so many Americans seem perfectly happy to just stand back and let Bush & Co. run roughshod over their rights as Americans. Disgusting.)

Mucked up my blog for a few days (betcha didn't even notice ;)). I actually had the Atom feed being generated as the main page. Whoops! Fixed now, though. :)

Brilliant art photography based on the drawings of children (use the green arrows to navigate and see the photograph that interprets the drawing)

There are a lot of Chinese in Box Hill (a suburb of Melbourne, and technically the geographic centre of the Melbourne metropolitan area), and we went there yesterday to go to the Asian grocery. Since 18 February is Chinese New Year (and an auspicious year, apparently, being a year of the Golden Boar), we decided to have Chinese style food for dinner.

While we there there, we enjoyed watching the traditional Lion Dance. Miranda was quite taken with it. Zoë seemed interested in the spectacle, but it's always hard to tell what's in Zoë's mind about things. Miranda, though, was trembling with excitement, quite literally.

I like Chinese New Year. It's a very happy holiday, very joyful. It was hard not to get swept up in the anticipation of the holiday.

Oh, and our Chinese style dinner was very nice. We had the traditional sweet pork buns, chicken soup, and a very nice pork and vegetable stir fry, with lychees and ice cream for dessert.

Oh, and the phrase that is the title of this entry means, more or less, "Best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year." Or so I'm told.

I like cats. I like the piano. What's not to like about a piano-playing cat?

You can read more about Nora the cat and her interest in the piano, too.

Prime Minister John Howard has refused to back down from his attack on US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, vowing to do the same again if it's in the nation's best interests.

You can read the article yourself (probably you should), but in a nutshell, Mr Howard decided to say nasty things about a potential candidate for the U.S. Presidency.

That he won't back down doesn't surprise me. John Howard never, never, ever, ever, EVER backs down on ANYTHING and he never, ever, ever apologises, NO MATTER WHAT. To quote a very funny British comedy, "He wouldn't apologise if he shot God in the foot."

Totally apart from John Howard being immovably stubborn to the point of cutting off other people's noses to spite their faces, I'm wonder what the hell he's doing.

Since when it is the place of the Prime Minister of Australia to make comments on the elections of other nations? I mean, we know John is best mates with George W. Bush, so maybe George put him up to it (hey, you never know; George might have made it into some sort of dare and told John that Tony Blair would be his best-best friend if John didn't do it, and John was so scared that George would stop being his bestest mate that he did it).

Basically, Howard has made it crystal clear that his alliance is not with the United States as he's always claimed, it's with George W. Bush. What's going to happen if someone John Howard doesn't personally approve of gets into office? All bets are off on alliances and trade deals?

I dunno, it just really kinda pisses me off. I've never liked John Howard, never voted for him, intend to vote against him in the next election, etc., but he seems to have gone right off the rails on this one. It'll be interesting to see what other forays into American politics he feels the right to make.

NOT that I think Americans give a flying farthingale what John Howard thinks. Most of them don't even have a clue who John Howard even IS...

From the article: "Dr Michael McKinley, an international relations expert from the Australian National University, described the Prime Minister's comments as stupid [...]"

Yeah. I think I'd pretty much agree with that. And it seems that most people on both sides of the Pacific do, as well.

It was more than a love of their music that was behind the Dixie Chicks' victory lap at the Grammy Awards Sunday.

"I think people are using their freedom of speech here tonight with all of these awards. We get the message," singer Natalie Maines said after winning the fifth Grammy, album of the year for "Taking the Long Way Home."

(Personal note: Hey, I said it was a fantastic album, didn't I? Way to go, Chicks!)

I've never seen anyone interpret music through juggling. My jaw quite honestly dropped while watching this!

I'm not a big fan of exercise. I do have an airwalker thingy that's pretty okay, but it's terribly boring, and I always feel like it's this big waste of time, like I could be doing something, you know, useful and interesting... (Yes, I know that regular exercise is healthy, etc., but I can't help how I feel; I'm sure I need an attitude adjustment).

Anyway, I have it, and when I remember, I step on it and do some walking that way, but I don't very often because it's boring. (My mother-in-law said I need an iPod!)

Well, last week, sort of on a whim, I went down to the local municipal pool and signed up for membership. I had my first water aerobics class on Monday morning. My mother-in-law went with me and had a swim, though she didn't do the class). It was challenging, but quite enjoyable! I didn't have that awful pounding heart I always get with regular aerobics (which I can't do because of my screwed up knee, which, by the way, I'm going to have the see the doctor over, and I fear I've developed arthritis in it). My face was getting really hot and it was probably quite red, but in the pool, it's easy to put cold water on your face, you know?

Anyway, I did my best, which was okayish. I did do some real swimming (laps) and I could do most of the exercises, but some of the time I had to slow down or alter the movement slightly to accomodate my bad knee. I did put in a really good effort, though. I wasn't slacking! And after the exercise, I had a soak in the spa. Mmmm. Hot. Bubbly. It's like being a chicken in a pot of soup, only not as nice smelling (though I confess, I totally adore the smell of a chlorine swimming pool).

I didn't even have any particular panic attacks in the changing room. When I was young and had to do physical education, I was always completely paranoid about taking off my clothes in front of other people. I was so terribly uncomfortable in my own body, I just hated it. I actually failed PE one semester because I couldn't bring myself to strip and shower in front of other people (open shower bays, yuck, and that particular school actually made changing and showering part of your grade).

So that's good. I would go and do the classes twice a week if they had them at convienient times twice a week, but they don't, really. So it'll be Monday mornings (all the other classes are in the evening, and that's pretty inconvienient for me).

I figure it'll be good enough, because I've recently started a whole new exercise, too. Every morning I have a ten minute walk, then a little rest, then another ten minute walk. Then in the afternoon, I do the same thing. I'm currently doing it four times a week, but in a few weeks, it'll be five days a week. And I can't blow it off, either, because it's taking Miranda to and from school.

The walk is already getting easier, after having done it two days, then the weekend off, then two more days. The skirt I'm wearing today, which fit perfectly well not long ago, is suddenly too big on me. I'm not making that up! Possibly it's just the fabric of the skirt stretching (I had some jeans that did that, too), but whatever it is, I'm going to have to take in the waist of the skirt if I want to wear it now.

I'm not actually expecting to lose weight. I used to get tons of exercise before I moved to Australia, because I had no car and I had to walk and take the bus everywhere I had to go. Five days a week, I was walking! And I wasn't very much lighter than I am now (maybe fifteen pounds; around 6-7 kilos). I wasn't even any smaller, sizewise. I did, however, feel a lot better, healthier, more energetic. So my purpose in exercise is to feel better, not to lose weight or size. If I do happen to lose some of that, though, it'll be okay...

The message Andrew sent to users on the server:

G'day caffeine-users.

As you may be aware, our favourite server has been on and off for a couple
of days.

What you may not be aware of is it's thanks to a spammer trying to spam
the comments on one of our blogs. They launched so many scripts that it
repeatedly ate up RAM until the operating system could no longer function,
causing a crash.

We're not sure which blog it was they were trying, but whatever it was,
we know that they didn't actually succeed in adding any comments. Even
so, if you maintain a Movable Type blog, and you have comment moderation
turned on, now may be a good time to check pending comments. If you find
a bunch of stuff in Russian, please let me know.

We have taken steps to ensure that this particular attack vector will not
occur again. And, of course, lindor's replacement is in the process of
being built. It's a more powerful machine, which will degrade more
gracefully if someone tries to hammer it.

Apologies for the downtime, and thanks for your patience.

Cheers,
Andrew Bromage

Miranda and Zoë were quite fascinated with these Photoshopped animals. I can't say I blame them. I think my favourite is the catshark, but the fishdog on the leash is amazingly well done (as are many of the others).

Dr Who AND Monty Python and the Holy Grail, all at the same time!

And then, as if it wasn't QUITE nerdy enough for you, a Python and Star Trek (the original, of course) video! (Sorry, the person who did it doesn't allow embedding, but it's well worth a quick visit to YouTube!)

If only sorting socks was this much fun for real!

Ten years ago on 3 Februrary, I landed in Melbourne on a three week holiday. It was the first time I met Andrew (and Greg, his brother, who I'd known for longer than I'd known Andrew). I went, with the help of some friends (one in particular, and to whom I'll always be grateful), after spending my lovely sojourn in the psych ward.

Anyway, we ate lunch at Fast Eddie's, which is, unfortunately, no longer there. I miss it, it was a good restaurant, and one of the few where you could get breakfast all day long. It was on Bourke Street, toward Parliament House. Andrew and I went there regularly for years when we lived in the city (well, we lived in a suburb quite near the city, anyway). We liked to sit outside and watch the weddings come to Parliament House to get their photographs taken on the steps, it was a bit of a laugh (during high wedding season, they actually have to line up to do the photogprahy there!).

Anyway, after I went back to the States I started to try to get things in order and found it was a good deal more difficult than anticipated, particularly since I was unemployed, still recovering from an excruciating illness, and I didn't have a car OR a phone...

Ah, well. Ten years, water under the bridge. I do have some really pleasant memories of that holiday, though. It was when I first saw the Southern Cross, and when I first fell in love with Melbourne and then with the Victorian countryside. It was the first time I ever felt like I'd found a true home (for a military brat, that's a hugely big deal).

Sometimes, I think it's very strange the twists and turns life can take. Particularly my life.