May 31, 2006
Noise Pollution
Constant noise can lead to stress disorders which could further develop into ulcers or high blood pressure. Large amounts of noise every day not only causes stress for people but can also contribute to mental illness. People of all ages who already expierience health problems are at very high risk.
Hmmm.. what with the ever present roadworks outside our unit, Lind's propensity for 24/7 TV, the roadwork here at work, and the stupid shouting saleswoman, I'm not surprised I'm feeling stressed and really just want to punch someone. PMT isn't helping.
May 24, 2006
I sent a text..
to a friend of mine who has been avoiding me. It’s her birthday today. She sent one back at least. All it says is “Ta”. I was too scared to call her.
Not sure what her problem is. I did a balance on her last year. She practically threw me out of the house after, and has avoided me ever since. We have been friends since we were 12 years old, so this really hurts.
April 27, 2006
bait ‘n switch
I have to wonder at the timing of the re-introduction of the Australia Card.
It just so happens that this issue, which has also been previously put to rest, happens to resurface at the same time as the Children in detention issue.
Does our Government really think we have such short memories???
Dear Howard,
The Australian public are not goldfish. Apart from the fact that we do not have gills, and the vast majority of us are not orange, with or without black markings, I can only assume that you have mistaken us for Goldfish for some bizarre reason only you can fathom.
Goldfish have 3 second memories. They can swim from one end of a tank to the other and back and feel like they are somewhere totally new. Not so the Austrailan puclic.
If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say that the timing is perfect. The Govt may well think the same bunch of people who will get all uptight over the Children behind the razorwire of the deftly named non-detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island are the same people that will get their knickers in a knot over the Australia Card. (Stroke of brilliance, that naming thing. Stroke of brilliance, that naming thing. Can't say kids are in detention if we don't call them detention centres can they!? Har!) It's all stuff like human rights and rabbiting on about freedom, after all. Hopefully there are not enough of them to make too big of a stink on all fronts at the same time, so maybe we can sneak something through when "they" aren't looking. We managed to slide the whole Workplace "reforms" thing through when people were more interested in the war, so it may well work this time around, too. After all, why do the masses need all these human rights and non-exploitation and freedoms and privacy anyway. Fighting "terror" is much more important. After all, we have to protect ourselves from extremists who would threaten out way of life, don't we??
April 26, 2006
We already fought this fight….
Time to dig out the Chilout t-shirt. www.chilout.org
THE prospect of children returning to detention under the Howard Government's tough new rules for dealing with boatpeople threatens to rekindle a rebellion among Coalition MPs.
The Government's decision to force all illegal arrivals, including children, who reach mainland Australia by boat into offshore immigration detention centres could sideline reforms introduced in June in response to a backbench revolt led by Liberal MP Petro Georgiou.
….
The Government announced last week it was extending its 2001 "Pacific solution" after a diplomatic stoush with Indonesia over the granting of temporary protection visas to 42 Papuans who made it to the Australian mainland by boat.
The changes require illegal entrants to Australia, whether they reach the mainland or not, to be sent to one of three immigration detention centres for processing – Nauru, Christmas Island and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.
….
The Opposition sought to capitalise on the ructions within the Government, with Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke warning that a range of reforms introduced last year in relation to children and families in detention were under threat. Mr Burke said there was no official classification of the Nauru and Manus Island facilities as detention centres, leaving open the prospect of children being locked up.
"All of that is contingent upon people being held in what is defined as a detention centre. Manus Island and Nauru are not," he told the Nine Network.
"That means under John Howard's proposal, children in detention can happen again. We can see indefinite detention back. All of the changes that were heralded last year as a quantum leap by Petro Georgiou are over – it's a quantum backflip, 10 months later and one canoe later."
If we were paralyzed instead of infertile, would people say this to us??
As soon as you buy a wheelchair, I bet you'll be able to walk again!
My cousin was paralyzed, but she started shaving her legs in the other direction and she could walk again. You should try that.
I guess God just didn't mean for you to be able to walk.
You shouldn't have waited so long to try and walk!
Oh, I know exactly how you feel, because I have an ingrown toenail.
Sorry, we don't cover your treatment for paraplegia because it's not a life-threatening illness.
Oh, I have just the opposite problem, I have to walk walk walk everywhere I go.
You're just trying to hard, relax and you'll be able to walk.
You're SO lucky…Think of the money you save on shoes!
I don't know why you are being so selfish! You should at least be happy that I can walk!!
I hope you don't try those anti-paralyzation drugs. They sometimes make people run too fast and they get hurt.
Look at those people hiking … doesn't that make you want to hike?
Do you want to rub my legs? That might help you walk and give you luck.
Take a vacation and you'll walk!
You should just be satisfied that you did walk before.
I just ran a marathon and won. Let me tell you all about it and show you my medal and tell you how everyone is doting on me!
Here is a special walking shoe pendant. If you put it under your pillow then it will help you walk. Three other people who limped because of sprains and were so worried are walking just fine now.
You are just too worried about never walking, it's all in your head! If you stop thinking about it so much, it will happen.
April 25, 2006
The 10 most unethical things you can eat or drink
* Coffee grown on land cleared of rainforest.
* Cocoa grown using child labour.
* Tea grown on plantations with unfair wage policies.
* Over-fished and endangered fish species.
* Coffee grown by large plantations paying unfair wages.
* Cocoa sprayed with dangerous pesticides.
* Force-fed animals.
* Battery-bred and -fed chickens.
* Ice-cream made with palm oil grown on cleared land.
* Food that has been flown resource-consuming kilometres.
Fair Trade, according to Amnesty International, "targets socially conscious consumers who would be willing to pay a bit extra at the supermarket in exchange for the assurance that Third World farmers received a reasonable return for their labour."
It's fair trade fortnight coming up.. so look out for more fair trade goods in the supermarket soon.
Some producers have been interviewed by SMH in an article entitled Coffee with a conscience.
Fair Trade Fortnight runs from April 29 to May 13. For a full calendar of events, go to http://www.fta.org.au/ftf06
Intimidating vs. Shy
I'm actually quite a shy person. I know that I come across as intimdating.. possibly because of (a) height – I'm taller than average (b) face – studies have shown that folks feel more at ease with people who show teeth when they smile. My teeth are set well back and don't show when I smile. (c) Intelligence. (I'm too lazy to hide it.)
And of course the introvert thing.
More and more I'm thinking that interviewer / owner guy is intimidated by me. He had trouble making eye contact with me, has mentioned "egos" a few times on the phone to me. Anybody who thinks my natural aloofness is egocentricity doesn't have much of a clue, really. They have mistaken shyness for something else. And 'sakes, it's an interview, I'm supposed to be selling myself here. He also said something like "this feels like a marriage".
Tres weird. I think I need to run, now.
Story of my life…
Someone posted this classic on another board I frequent. It always makes me smile in a DOH sort of way.
April 24, 2006
What if it is?
From the season finale of "Six Feet Under"(2004 season). The late Nathaniel
Fisher, Sr. speaks with his son David:
—————————————————–
Dad: "You're not even grateful, are you?"
David: "Grateful? For the worst fucking experience of my life?"
Dad: "You hang on to your pain like it means something. Like it's worth something.
Well let me tell you it's not worth shit. Let it go! (Rolls eyes to heaven) Infinite
possibilities and all he can do is whine."
David: "Well, what am I suppose to do?"
Dad: "What do you think? You can do anything you lucky bastard…you're alive!
What's a little pain compared to that?"
David: "It can't be so simple."
Dad: "What if it is?"
Blade
Here I sit on my blood red couch in the candle light.
On my left, two gold grapefruit and some chocolate royales.
On my right, a bottle of muscat, a box of cigars, and some 6" stilettos.
In front of me, Blade.
One, AND two.
Along with "From Dusk till Dawn", one, two and three.
In a pile on the floor, in the dark, the most heinous.
24 episodes of Buffy.
All my vices.
Arranged beautifully around me, like offerings,
like glittering artifacts to take into the afterlife.
Door opens. Door closes. Soft footsteps. My companion.
No words. No need. Familiar. Comfortable.
Some knowing looks. The mischevious smiles of a very dear friend.
Lady Death doesn't always come to dance.
Sometimes she comes to watch DVD's in my candlelight and..
to remind me that death is OK.
That sometimes, a thing
NOT dying is the only true evil.
Fragrant smoke rises like incense into the air as ashes fall.
The muscat is sickly sweet and the grapefruit wedges are bitter.
Two pairs of pretty crossed feet are languidly served up on the coffee table altar.
And a pale skeletal hand with a great French polish reaches out of the shadows..
to press "PLAY".
