I'm going to be offline for a few days. I'd like to say it's because I'm going on a holiday, but it's not. I just won't have internet service for a few days. Bleah. I hope to be back online early next week, but we're talking about Telstra, so don't hold your breath.

Anyway, that's the size of that. See y'all later.

The finished untooned Jessica Rabbit is also online (warning, it's a bit big, but it's worth it, in my opinion).

Woo, I'm really, really white and nerdy now! I have my own Wikipedia talk page! (Probably best not to ask why I was editing a page on that most unfortunate fashion trend, the "whale tail". Suffice it to say I happened upon the page in my weird wanderings on the web and thought it could use a bit of cleaning up.)

I just bought someone a pair of chickens, and bought someone else a mosquito net. There are all kinds of cool things you can buy for poverty-stricken people all around the world (Africa, India, etc.), ranging from AU$5 to AU$5000. (Note: The exchange rate is currently very close to even, with 1AUD equal to about .95USD)

I love to shop online, and I love to donate to charity, so shopping for charity was super fun and now I feel all happy to know that someone, somewhere has a supply of eggs now, and someone (possibly an entire family) is going to be that much less likely to contract malaria.

You can purchase school supplies, stoves, tree seedlings, mosquito nets, goats, toilets, HIV awareness plans, fund a literacy program or a women's self help group and other interesting things. I really recommend people check it out. It's a fun way to send tangible healing and help to people who really need it.

(Oh, and before anyone is concerned, the charity group is Christian, but they do absolutely ZERO evangelism. None. Nada. They save their evangelism for churches and other Christians, trying to get them to donate to the cause. They do this charity work because they just plain believe it's the right thing to do, and I agree. It is. And it's fun to buy chickens and goats for people, yeah?)

Today is Anzac Day. I'll let Wikipedia explain the details of this particular holiday, but it's a veterans/war memorial holiday with strong, sombre overtones. And biscuits. And by "biscuits", I mean "cookies", but you're not allowed to call them cookies. They're Anzac Biscuits.

Miranda asked first thing this morning if we had Anzac Biscuits for the holiday. (We didn't. We did go out and get some. They're pretty tasty.) Later in the evening, I pondered aloud the origin of Anzac Biscuits and whether the story I'd heard about them (something about soldiers on the battlefield making cookies with the stuff in their mess kits) was even remotely true (I didn't think it was. Turns out I was right.)

In fact, the actual origin of these tasty bickies (that's short for "biscuits") is still somewhat mysterious. Thankfully, Allyson Gofton did the research on their origin, and it's a pretty interesting read.

Oatmeal cookies, with an interesting history and a lot of popular myths surrounding them. Lest we forget.

eBay's plan to force all of its users on to PayPal faces opposition from the Reserve Bank, which is considering weighing in to the issue.
 
The Central Bank has long called for buyers and sellers to have as much choice as possible in what payment systems they use and strongly opposes any moves that reduce competition in the market.
 
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is investigating whether eBay Australia's new policy of forcing all items to be paid for using PayPal, which eBay owns, or cash on delivery/pick-up, breaches trade practice and competition laws.

(In case you don't know, a theremin is an electronic musical instrument; you can hear one in the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations and in the original Star Trek theme, and you can make your own if you're so inclined.)

A 19-year-old Saaarf London girl has been advised to use the Queen's English on the phone after her hunt for a cab to whisk her to Bristol airport ended less than satisfactorily. (But extremely humourously for those of us who actually speak English.)