| Oh Hai. |
[Jan. 7th, 2010|07:26 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | adders, diddit, graduation, housing, jacky, journal, last.fm, music, pdy, photos, sawyer, sleep, support, uni | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Ashgrove, QLD | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  muggy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Lady GaGa - LoveGame | Powered by Last.fm | ] |
So, I'm back. It's been hard for me to get into the frame of mind that isn't recounting my travels. On re-reading some of them I apologise for my horrible lack of tense; yeah, wasn't quite sure if I was writing in the past or present.
There is pretty much no way that I'm going to be going back and reading over peoples entries. Let me know what's been going on for the past 2 months! Please :) Even if you don't think it was that exciting I'd be interested in hearing what you've been up to
Since getting back on Monday night I have been doing as little as possible, but I'm slowly getting everything back into order. I had an enormous stack of paper mail which I had to go through, but I did find a nice package from Diddit in there. I feel a tiny bit bad that I've drifted away from the site and still got this stuff.
 See that white thing at the bottom, yeah, that's a Diddit pocketknife! I have a degree now! I have a Bachelor of Applied Science in Medical Radiation Technology (Radiation Therapy) with Distinction. I am actually really proud of those two words at the end. I never thought I would work hard enough to keep my GPA up to be eligible for that.
Now that I have my credentials, I'm just getting my last pieces of paper together before I start work in a week and a half (which is going to be such a long time without money). I've got my Radiation Board membership and AIR accreditation so now I just think I need my radiation use licence. I should really get around to that tomorrow because I can't start work without it. Gah, so happy I can claim all this membership stuff back on tax.
Getting things organised is proving difficult with the surprise!jetlag (which, surprisingly is not a cake where a 747 jumps out, thanks ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ohnoitsfoxdie). I've been getting up with Sawyer's me-yowls at 5.30am (crazy I know, right?) and then breezing through the day before sudden tiredness attacking me at around this time of night. I have had coffee today trying to stave it off.
This has prevented me from getting back into Support just yet. I'm working on it. I feel I'm sufficiently caught up with everything that's been going on for two months to start trying to run my Cat again =) Kind of scared that there'll be some rust, but I've got some good SHs so I'll just do some menial stuff for a while as I get reacquainted with answering things.
I have given in to Lady Gaga. I resisted for so so long but decided that the catchiness wasn't worth fighting anymore. And now I feel bad for contributing to her Last.fm play count. So... yeah. Mangoes?
 We have so many this year due to a strange lack of fruit bats. Have yet to try them to see if they're any good. Oh, I just now thought of one more thing. Adam and I were planning to move when our lease is up in April, but Jacky can't survive her commute to the Gold Coast daily since she has early classes pretty much every day. What this means is that we're now looking at moving out at the end of February and the real estate agent is cool with this. I hate house hunting. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|06:46 pm] |
i work at a grade school and monday i saw something that disturbed me. i saw a 5th grade boy walking in the lunch line wearing what i thought was a shirt about global warming. turns out it was anything but.
on this boy's shirt was the words "Global Warming" up at the top. the center of the shirt was a picture of the earth on fire. down below this was the phrase, "Don't be left here when it actually happens". and on the tail end of that was "(Rev: whatever)".
i have seen adults wearing similar things but i had never seen a child. this is just wrong. his parents obviously bought the shirt for him and thought it was ok for him to wear, a shirt that proclaims the message that one day the world will be destroyed and billions of people will be destroyed along with it by god and then spend the rest of their lives burning in hell.
what kind of parenting is this? i know he is almost certainly too young to even know the scope of what his shirt means, but for his parents, this was morally bankrupt on their part. |
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| Fwd: "Just One Tree" |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|03:52 pm] |
x-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) godlessjoy
A friend of mine, dpolicar, just posted this superb poem of his, which I reprint here in its entirety:
Just One Tree
They say without their law we come to grief,
Lose our way and lose the light,
Walk in cold and empty night,
But love shines in a subtle way that doctrine can't bequeath,
For there is just one tree, and I'm a leaf.
They fear taxonomy without belief,
See us graceless as machines
Or entangled in the green,
But we have roots that tap into the springs that run beneath,
For there is just one tree, and I'm a leaf.
They say our stay upon this world is brief,
And the treasure that we find
Is there to use and leave behind,
But each new life is built from what we leave behind the wreath,
For there is just one tree, and I'm a leaf. |
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| Eurotrip Days 48-52: London, Enfield (again!) |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|08:49 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | adders, discworld, eurotrip, food, friends, furcadia, laura, liam, london, monies, movies, music, mychael, new years, parties, shopping, travel | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Ashgrove, QLD | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  relieved | ] |
| [ | music |
| | McFly - She Falls Asleep Pt. 2 | Powered by Last.fm | ] |
Wednesday 30th of December
I literally cannot remember what I did today. It was obviously that exciting...
Oh wait, it is coming back to me. I just hung around the flat, doing washing and that sort of thing. When Laura came home from work we got a couple of things from the shops and met Mychael at the movies. Sherlock Holmes was pretty great, but I feel it was overhyped. Still, a good movie in any case.
Thursday 31st of December
Originally, I was going to be going into the city and finding something to do for NYE, but those plans kind of bombed as I now only have £15 to my name and it needs to last me through to Sunday. Instead, Laura and I went down to the shops to get supplies for our own little house-party.
I really like small, intimate house parties. We had a fun time first of all making all-together too much food for 5 people and danced around the kitchen to 80s music. We then got on to The [sic] SingStar and Lips for a while before realising it was three minutes to midnight. Cue us running around trying to find a countdown to make it "official" and doing the countdown thing.
We all were pretty knackered so we were all in bed by about 1. Yeah, we piked big time.
Friday 1st of January
Oh well, I had to be up in the morning anyway to head into central London. I was meeting up with Liam (razord who has abandoned LJ anyway). He is possibly my longest-known Internet friend. I actually don't know who is anymore, but it's between him, wyntarvox, abbi_tigger, ecstaticfoil, talishia and losersaidwhat - all of whom I met around the same time in the Furc days.
So yeah, had no trouble getting into town unlike travelling on Boxing day. Liam took me on the DLR to Canary Wharf where he had got us tickets to see Nine (as in the musical, not 9 the animated film). I still can't decide whether I liked it, I think this is because it's a different movie to what I would normally see.
We went down to the O2 to have a look around and stand on 0º longitude. From there, we took a boat up the Thames. I hadn't seen London from the river before and Liam was happy to be giving me new tourist experiences.
At dinner at Leicester Square, a picture was taken with a margarita with Jen's name on it as she wanted to be there with us (http://twitpic.com/w8fi2). It was the on to the Trocadero. Liam wanted to film me doing DDR... haha no but he ended up teaching me how to play those machines where you put in 10p or whatever and the aim is to get them in the hole or knock out other coins. We won about 200 tickets in a very short amount of time and I 'bought' some tacky prizes (including a tape measure!).
Before we parted, Liam had one last gesture. Introducing me to the magic of Cinnabon. How does such a soft and delicious thing exist?! Of course, it will be a long time before I ever experience the magic again as there is no such thing home in Aussieland.
Saturday 2nd of January
I really didn't want to do much on my last day over here. We went for a wander around the local shops and I picked up Thief of Time to read on the way home (Discworld progress: 30/45 by the way).
We had the most delicious pizza for dinner and then Laura, Mychael and I spent the remainder of the night talking about things (until about 3am when I needed to leave at 6 for my flight >.>). That's one of things I have missed while travelling, having late-night D&Ms with good friends. I am so glad that I spent so much time based in Enfield because I know love my favourite cousin (and her flatmate) so much more and hope I can return the favour should they ever come to visit me.
Sunday 3rd of January
Home time is here finally. As with these sorts of things, there's a mix of sadness and anticipation. I have loved being on holiday so much but there is that part of me that just wants to go home to Adam and return to my regular life.
Had some "fun" with the Tube. I did know in advance that Kings Cross station would be closed on the Piccadilly line, but it was still annoying. I felt very good with my money, spending my last £3 getting to the airport.
For the most part, the flight was uneventful. As usual, too long and I couldn't sleep where I wanted to but arrived safely and timely in Brisbane about 8pm. I was very thankful that Adam was there to meet me and take me home.
The End. |
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| Faith and Begorrah |
[Jan. 3rd, 2010|10:23 am] |
I wrote about Ireland’s ill-considered sop to primitive superstition and political correctness last July, but the Blasphemy Law went into effect on January 1. As I noted back then, it is a sad thing to worship a god so pitifully impotent that the legal sanctions of puny humans are required to protect him from calumny. Here’s a quick review of the law now in effect in the priest-ridden land of my forebears:
Section 36
(1) A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offense and shall be liable upon on conviction to a fine not exceeding €25,000.
(2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if (a) he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion, and (b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.
Section 37
(1) Where a person is convicted of an offence under section 36, the court may issue a warrant (a) authorizing any member of the Garda Siochana to enter (if necessary by the use of reasonable force) at all reasonable times any premises (including a dwelling) at which he or she has reasonable grounds for believing that copies of the statement to which the offence related are to be found, and to search those premises and seize and remove all copies of the statement found therein, (b) directing the seizure and removal by any member of the Garda Siochana of all copies of the statement to which the offence related that are in the possession of any person, specifying the manner in which copies so seized and removed shall be detained and stored by the Garda Siochana.
(Note: “Garda Siochana” is Irish for “police”.)
It was not until I read another New Year’s story that it dawned on me how truly dangerous this new law is. Last Friday, a Somali man armed with an ax and a knife broke into the home of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Westergaard, a seventy-four year old grandfather, had drawn a picture of a bearded, turbaned man and replaced the turban with a round black bomb. This picture, though not resembling any of the classic images of Islam’s founder, was nonetheless assumed to be an insult to Mohammed. Westergaard (and the other Jyllands-Posten cartoonists) blasphemed against the prophet!
This is the real danger of blasphemy laws: they give support to religious extremists. Saying that there even can be such a thing as the legal offense of blasphemy both criminalizes free speech and encourages outrage. Taking umbrage becomes legally protected; freedom of expression is constrained.
Will this be an internecine conflict between, say, Christianity and Islam? Will Muslims protest Gustav Doré’s woodcuts of Dante’s Inferno because they show Mohammed in hell? (Ironically, in the Inferno, Mohammed’s fate in the afterlife is to be cut in half, because he divided society.)
Perhaps there will be skirmishes, but the religious have always managed to unite against a common enemy. What’s the greatest insult anyone can utter against a deity? Death to the unbelievers! Or a €25,000 fine. Whatever it takes to shut up those damned atheists. |
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| Eurotrip Days 44-47: Aberdeen |
[Jan. 2nd, 2010|11:16 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | adders, amanda, cats, coffee, dailybooth, drinking, eurotrip, food, games, iphone, movies, scotland, skype, travel, weather, xbox, xmas | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Enfield, London | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  satisfied | ] |
Saturday 26th of December
On Xmas day we (Laura) and I had Skyped (is that even allowed to be a verb?) one half of our family and were required to chat to the others that hadn't been at gatherings yesterday. After speaking to an almost endless parade, we called Adam to say hi as well. I've never been a big fan (read: a resistor for many many years) of Skype but am beginning to appreciate its usefulness.
So, after talking with gewg it was pretty much bang on time for me to be leaving to get to the airport on time. Keep in mind that I had left extra time as it was a public holiday and bound to be service interruptions all over the place... I should have left more time.
Firstly, there were no overground services running so I needed to get a bus to the closest Tube stop. That done I headed into the city to find out that I needed to go back out to Baker St to get a bus to the aiport (this is Luton by the way, not Heathrow). Okay, so no one at Baker St knew where we had to go for the bus. I followed a likely looking candidate with a suitcase a couple of blocks and there we were.
Kirill was to become my new best friend. He also was not planning on having to take a coach out to the airport and didn't have enough cash on him. I lent him £5 and he sat next to me on the bus and we chatted. I'm getting antsy at this point as time is beginning to get close.
Cue sudden horrible traffic and some sort of something else that we had to slow down for. In the end, I was about 15 minutes too late to check in. Gah, the plane was still there but they couldn't let me on it. Of all the days for things to be running on time!
EasyJet let me transfer to a flight to Edinburgh (the closest thing since they only have one flight to Aberdeen per day) for £40, which actually still makes the outgoing travel cheaper than my return one. Kirill was there a couple of hours too early for his flight (to Warsaw for those playing at home.... wow I've used this a lot lately) so he offered to buy me a pint. And of course I had to buy him one in exchange.
Let me reiterate. Me, Hammond, who does not drink beer, had two pints. I also found out this is my limit as I had to sit still for a while afterwards. But yeah, had a nice time with my new English-schooled Polish solicitor friend.
Got into Edinburgh about 10ish, found a cheap hostel (£10!) and crashed for the night.
Sunday 27th of December
</br>I got up at stupid o'clock to see what time the first trains were heading to Aberdeen. I only had to wait 40mins or so, so I entertained myself with coffee while I waited. I was very thankful that the train had a power-point on it so I could charge my phone and let amanda know when I was getting in. Somewhere on the journey, the sun decided to make it's dull appearance; it's so weird being so far north.
After meeting her at the station, we took a trip to Sainsbury's to gather supplies for the coming days. It was an intersting experience to get the groceries inside her flat as the ground nearby was all slippery, compacted ice... but we managed.
Back at her place we had a convivial time and got attacked with love by her kitty, Snowball. She is really adorable and attention-seeking. I introduced amanda to the joys of home-ccoked fajitas and she got me hooked on Assassin's Creed 2.
Monday 28th of December
Today was a really nice and relaxing lazy day. Played a bit of the computer and Xbox and hung out on IRC with the Ponies. Made some delicious pasta for dinner and drank a surprisingly good red from Sainsbury's. Followed up by some sloe gin while watching Coyote Ugly and snacking on Minstrels, it was just a very nice sleepy end to the day.
Tuesday 29th of December
Got up earlier than normal to be in town to catch up with my friend Liammm from DailyBooth. For proof:
So yeah, we caught up over some Starbucks and he showed me round town a bit. Most of the time was spent trying not to fall over as pretty much all the footpaths were covered in compacted ice, it being -6°C and all. There's these tiny little houses down by the beach which I took some photos of (apparently everyone does!). Did I say beach?! Yes, a beach. Not that I would want to go in, mind. So that makes two international beaches I have now visited while the temperature has been below freezing. Crazy stuff.
It was fantastic to catch up with Liam. Over the past couple of months I have been delving into the community aspect of DailyBooth and it's really intriguing. Very different to other online communities that I have been a part of. Although, it's great to know that I can still meet great people there (who are not axe-murderers) in such a different community environment.
Back at Amanda's, I had the experience of de-icing a car! I was a little bit fascinated. I can hear everyone that lives in normally icy climes cursing me now... Anyway, once that was done it was off to the aiport and I well and truly made my flight. It was so nice to get up to Scotland to catch up with Amanda and she really is a truly sweet person (with a bit of an evil kick :P) |
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| Consequences of Godlessness? |
[Dec. 30th, 2009|12:56 pm] |
We’re Number Three! We’re Number Three!
According to a state-by-state analysis of a Pew survey on the importance of religion in people’s lives, only 40% of Massachusetts residents said that religion is very important in their lives. 30% attend worship services at least once per week. 41% said that they pray once per day. Regrettably, 60% of Massachusians polled said they believe in God with absolute certainty.
New England rank lowest overall in worship, prayer, importance of religion, and belief in God. The most religious state? Mississippi. 91% of Magnolia Staters are absolutely sure that God exists, 77% pray daily, 60% worship weekly, and 82% say that religion is very important in their lives.
What are we to make of these? Well, let’s add some more statistics, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Mississippi is the poorest state in the Union. In overall health care, it ranks in last place of the fifty states. It is first in the nation in obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and adult inactivity. Despite being among the most conservative states, it is the second largest recipient of federal aid, receiving over twice as much as they pay in federal taxes. Mississippi students scored the second lowest of any state in the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress in both math and science. In 2004, the voters amended their state constitution to bar same-sex marriages. The measure passed by an overwhelming 86%.
Massachusetts per-capita income is the fourth highest in the nation. We are among the best educated, with forty colleges in Greater Boston alone. We have the second lowest obesity rate, and some of the finest health care in the nation. We were the first state to mandate health insurance for all citizens. Oh, yes, and we were the first state to recognize gay marriage.
Are these simply statistical coincidences? A little post hoc ergo propter hoc and parochial pride? Or is there a correlation between belief in magical sky daddies and poverty, ignorance, and debility?
Maybe I should submit a grant request for more research. In the meantime, let's not rest on our laurels. We’re only number three. We need to try harder! Excelsior! |
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| Eurotrip days 40-43: London, Enfield |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|09:48 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | coffee, emma, eurotrip, family, food, games, iphone, journal, kelly, laura, mobile posts, movies, museums, mychael, shopping, xmas | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Somewhere between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, Scotland | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | fine | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Patrick Wolf - Accident and Emergency | ] |
Tuesday 22nd of December
I saw Kelly off at some stupid hour of the morning and headed back to bed. I had the day to myself in London but no idea what I wanted to do.
While I thought on this, at emmavescence's advice, I sought out a little café in Soho called Flat White who, funnily enough, make flat whites! So good to have a "real" coffee again. Afterwards I met the aforementioned Emma (so annoying having two that I know in London :P) for a delicious and stuffing lunch at Wagamama and a final catch up. Even if my prescence couldn't get her the lunch break time she wanted.
Since we hadn't been when we were in town last time, and because many people recommended it to me as their favourite, I spent the afternoon losing myself in the Victoria & Albert museum. The V&A was great, especially their sculpture collection which is one of my new-foud art interests.
The journey to Enfield (apparently the most northern suburb of "London proper" I'm informed) was uneventful and my cousin, Laura met me at the station. Had a peaceful evening meeting the flatmates (Mychael and Jo for this playing at home) and just catching up on things.
Her Aussie accent has been abolished and any attempts to resurect fail miserably. I need to be careful too, as I'm already unconciously uttering phrases Englishly >.>
Wednesday 23rd of December
Everyone is still working up until Xmas so I'm left home alone. My day seriously consisted of getting up, having breakfast, and plonking myself up against the radiator (it's a new flat and they don't have much furniture yet, read: any chairs) and next to the Xmas tree.
From there I wrote my "memoirs" i.e. The last journal entry. Afterwards, I was struck by a sudden need to play Bejeweled... 3 hours later, I'm trying to crack 100 000 (isn't there a rule that we're not supposed to be using commas in big numbers anymore, or did I make that up?) in Bejewled Blitz on my iPhone.
I think I should be thankful that Mychael came home when he did and prevented my brain from melting. We were under instructions from Laura to go to IKEA (Myke needed a bed, among other furniture stuff) and she would meet us at the "...surprise" later.
Baffled (well me anyway; he was in on it), we head off to said giant furniture shop. I am thanked many, many times for knowing my way around and knowing the systems to get us through the perilous pathways quickly and without unnecessary but interesting items.
After arranging (very cheap!) delivery, we wander off, trying to avoid going A over T in the direction of "...surprise" and Mychael and I bond with stories of previous housemates and the like. We arrive at a place I can only call Camel (because the name is Turkish and too hard to recall. So much fooooood.
Thursday 24th of December
For some reason, we had got to Xmas eve without doing any food shopping. I was scared for our lives at going later in the afternoon and so offered to go while the others were at work.
This was relatively pain-free (aside from the fact that I couldn't buy any pear cider from Tesco because I didn't have my passport for ID with me). Laura and I ventured out again after she got home early for some extra things like more desserts which ended up costing about 5x as much as what we already got >.>
Pretending to get food for dinner, I was kept in the dark about another "...surprise" outing. Those two are so conniving! Yay, Nandos followed by Krispy Kreme which was a failure as it closed way early.
Then, I'm afraid to say we went to the movies. The only thing on we hadn't seen was *gulp* Twilight. Mychael crashed out in the opening titles but Laura and I endured. It was hilariously bad and hideously boring where it wasn't terrible, but we got through it.
Laura was keen to go to a midnight church service and I agreed to go out of tradition. Neither of us believes, but we both have the same Bishop for a Grandad and so have grown up with this.
I always have liked the midnight Xmas services better than going in the morning on
Xmas day. We actually had a good time, especially with singing "Oh come let us etcetera!" in Oh Come All Ye Faithful as that's how it was printed in the booklet for the latter choruses.
Of course, what do we do when we get home...? Watch porn bloopers of course. Bad, I know.
Friday 25th of December
Since we stayed up until the wee hours, no one really emerged until about 11. After a round of High School Musical Mystery Date (I came second, going to the prom with Chad) we started dinner preparations.
While things were roasting, there was High School Musical Uno to be had, and also Scattegories. We tried to play Cranium but forgot that you need 4 people :(
We made a sweet-arse dinner (sweet arse-dinner?) of a chicken as there were only 3 of us and a heap of roast vegetables including parsnips (my favourite!) and swedes. As is customary, no one moved for a while afterwards to prevent stomach rupture from overfilling ;)
When it came time to start on the desserts (trifle, chocolate trifle, lemon merengue pie, ferrero rochers, Ben & Jerrys, Baileys) Mychael had an epileptic fit.
Thankfully it was one the ones he can sense coming so he lay down in the living room. After making sure he was breathing and safely fitting.... Laura and I ate our dessert while keeping an eye on him. He came out of it a bit groggy so we took him upstairs to his bed to rest, where he had another fit.
The house rule is that no ambulance is allowed to be called until he's had at least 3 fits (because the hospital trip is usually pointless) and since it was Xmas we waited as long as we could before doing so, around the start of about the 4th little one.
We had a good chat with the ambos while waiting for him to become conscious again (he's a big guy around 6" something and no one wanted to take him down two flights) after which he decided (as expected) to stay home instead of being taken to A&E.
That was the end of it however and we spent the remainder of the night playing various incarnations of SingStar :DPosted via LiveJournal.app. |
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