Stolen quote

One of my favourite scenes from buffy the vampire slayer is just after Buffy's mum dies. As everyone desperately tries to come to terms with this death, Anya, the ex-demon (read: non-human) tries to cope with this human event.

Anya: Are they gonna cut the body open?

Willow: Oh my God! Would you just… s-stop talking? Just… shut your mouth! Please!

Anya: What am I doing?

Willow: How can you act like that?

Anya: Am I supposed to be changing my clothes a lot? I-is that the helpful thing to do?

Xander: Guys—

Willow: The way you behave—

Anya: Nobody will tell me.

Willow: Because it's not okay for you to be asking these things!

Anya: But I don't understand! I don't understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I knew her, and then she's— there's just a body, and I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead... anymore! It's stupid! It's mortal and stupid! And... and Xander's crying and not talking, and... and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever, and she'll never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why! [She begins to cry.]

[long pause]

Willow: We don't know. How it works. Why.

btw: i stole this from her.

BLAH!

I'm having a bad couple of days. Some one send me some Prozac!.. ASAP!

Belated pics: celebrating cake day

A few weeks ago, we did actually celebrate cake day. (if you need an explanation, click here for a great introduction to the concept) We celebrated with Bundaberg Peachee drink and raisin cake.

Note the venetian mask. It harkens back to the time of the French Revolution. (okay the link is tenuous at best, but it still looks cool)

Chris ate some cake.



Then Bobcat got in on the fun



I did too, but i refrained from doing a myspace pic of me eating...it just wouldn't have been pretty...trust me.

Dressing a woman

Sarah Palin has faced criticising about her political experience, her attitudes, her ethics, and now her wardrobe. The republican party paid a staggering $150,000USD for Palin’s clothes and accessories. Now, to point out right at the beginning, i have no love of Mrs. Palin. I think she's manipulative and malicious. Yet, for a brief moment i have paused to think about this wardrobe news with some amount of reflection.

How much did the republican party spend on wardrobing McCain? How much did the democratic party spend on wardrobing Obama or Biden? I have no idea. But the media isn't focused on that.

It isn't unheard of to see Hollywood stars come dressed in million dollar outfits at the Oscars. They rent jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The women wear dresses that would cost a small fortune by cutting edge designers. If they don't, the immediately land themselves on the "worst dressed" list.

With the campaigns of both camps being run more like a celebrity outing, it is no wonder that the republicans felt they needed their starlet to dress it up. No matter how "hot" she is, she must look amazing for the celebrity gossip columnists, for the bloggers, for the people. This isn't about what she knows, but how she is dressed and how well she is liked.

We can thank our media outlets for ensuring that.

Your daily dose of fear

When i was in high school a movie called, "Double Jeopardy" came out. It was where i learned that the USA has a law that says if you are tried for a crime, you can't be re-tried for the same crime. (in the movie, Ashley Judd uses this to track down her husband who has set her up for murdering...oh, never mind if want to know check it out on IMDB)

But what is interesting to me, is how this relates to Gitmo detainees. Now i realise that we aren't giving them any form of fair trial, but the lengths we seem to be willing to go to in order to ruin lives is amazing! The Pentagon has announced it is dropping charges against 5 detainees. However, they are keeping the right to reinstate the charges at any time in the future. Plus, there is apparently no talk of actually releasing these people (we might want to charge them again at some point in the future. We probably should keep 'em locked up just in case)

What if these laws for Gitmo detainees became mainstream? What if the USA decided it would get a better prosecution rate if it became flexible on the rights of its own citizens?

Now with the elections coming up all we can say is

"HELP US OBAMA KENOBI OUR OUR ONLY HOPE!"

a couple of things

My taste in shows in somewhat...unique. I pride myself in liking stuff that is genuinely well written. Sadly, the majority of my generation seems caught up the look of a production (which would explain the popularity of Lost and Prison Break). Both shows started out with some writing genius but succumbed to the regular tv politics and played for the money instead of the story. So here are a couple of gems i found that i thought would help direct others like me (there must be a few out there) who actually care what happens to the story.

1. The Guild
The story centres around a girl who is addicted to her online role playing game. In her attempt to deal with her real life, she asks her online Guild to meet in person. Halarity insues.




2. No Heroics
This is a BBC production. The discription of Heros meets Coupling is vaguely accurate for the show. The story is about some second rate heroes who meet at a pub for drinks. The characters are great, love it.

Hit count popularity: outting the organisations

Popularity is on of those things that is hard to measure. As children we suspect it has to do with the way you dress, the way you entertain others, or the teachers favourite child. As an adult we measure our popularity by our hit count.

The problem with this way of thinking is that it soon digresses into gimmicks to pull people to the site. Corporations and organisations are especially vulnerable to this form of thought. They think "If people come to our site, they'll stay for our products". So they send out reports on how popular the unique hit list is. What they don't measure, what they can't measure, is how usefully the website is to the people visiting. If a community website is constructed and the goal of the website is to help the community find resources for their schools you would expect those resources to be the most prominent hit spot. But often, in order to increase the numbers, they will add photo galleries, podcasts, and video streaming of community events to pull people to the site. While the community may not visit any other page, they have added to the hit count. Then when its time to publish how popular the site is, they give out numbers that don't reflect how they are actually benefiting the community.

Possibly the most horrific thing that i have heard is from church leaders. In an attempt to get hits on the site up, they instruct others "while in conversations with neighbours, acquaintances, and friends about Christ, direct people to our website to sign up for Bible Studies". No more talk about bringing people to Christ personally, it is now up to their Internet connection to lead them to God. The dangers of this should be clear.

Organisations, specifically not-for-profit, seem to have fallen into the trap of believing that their site should be the Paris Hilton of the virtual world. The drive to pull more visitors might begin as honourable but it soon digresses into being a hit whore. Honour among websites is pretty much unheard of but perhaps it is something that should be strived for.

Sarah Palin

So Sarah Palin acted unethically. And no this has nothing to do with her whipping up crowds in angry racial and hate-filled ways against her political opponent, Barack Obama. She let her husband use all the power of the governor's office to try to get her ex-brother in law fired. The official report claims she acted unethically. She says it proves she did nothing legally wrong.

Well, i don't know about you, but i'm so glad we finally have someone running for president...oops, i mean vice president, that only acts "unethically". Its about time we had someone who was willing to follow the rule of the law and completely ignore the spirit it is in.

Growing up my ass would have been whipped so hard for that kind of thinking. I never would have gotten away with that.

Father: You know the rule. No sex in the house

Me: I didn't have sex, i just blew my boyfriend once or twice. Didn't break the rules.

yep, that would have been fine.

I'm sure this is the kind of ethics America wants to embrace. With their global image in swirling down the loo, people want to embrace someone who is willing to just poo on it, but not flush it too.

Moments that make me smile

If you have never had the pleasure of seeing Pirates of Penzance, you're sorely missing out. As i was remembering this great play and preparing to arrange for my next viewing ( 19 Oct -East Cessnock Bowling Club) i pulled together some of my favourite quotes from the production. Here they are:

Mabel: Oh Frederic, can you not in the calm excellence of your wisdom reconcile it with your conscience to say something that will ease my father's sorrow?
Frederic: What?
Mabel: Can't you cheer him up?

Fredric: You make it a point of never attacking a weaker party than yourselves, and when you attack a stronger one you invariably get thrashed!
[Pirates approach him with great indignation]
Pirate King: [Holding up finger] There's some truth in that.

and who can forget the Very Model of a Modern Major General song

Bringing back the polls

With the US election just around the corner, i thought we'd get our voting mojo started with a silly poll (found to the right of this post).

It's all about Dr. Horrible.

True, if you haven't had the pleasure of watching it yet, you may be at a slight disadvantage in this poll. It only means you need to go watch it. If you're in the USA you still can. If your outside the USA, bittorrents are your friend.

Remember! VOTE...and get your friends to vote too. Everyone should have a voice.

DO NOT EAT FRUIT AND VEG

A new reason not to eat our fruit and vegetables have been helpfully brought to our attention, thanks to local media. At News.com (yes, i know its a crappy place for news, but it gives me something to blog about) reported there were concerns about melamine being used in pesticides and contaminating our fruit and vegetables that were imported from China.

Where these concerns were coming from was unclear (may i suggest those who distribute and profit from the massive amount of junk food sold?) but it was obviously a threat being taken very seriously by Food Standards Australia New Zealand(FSANZ).

Lydia Buchtmann from FSANZ said Australian investigators were looking into the reports.

"We are taking this seriously," she said. "At this stage, we can find no evidence that they're unsafe, but it's certainly something we're looking into,". She also said a person would have to eat large quantities of contaminated dairy or vegetable produce over some months to suffer ill effects.

It is obvious from this report that our very lives are in danger. we must stop eating all fruit and vegetables until the problem is cleared up. Bring on the potato chips and beer: the only safe stuff left to consume.

The feminist rant

I have often ranted against the new "girl power " "music". But today brings a special cringe to my delicate feminist ear. The song "When I grow Up" was played for me today. The lyrics are song by women in their twenties and thirties dressed in barely-there clothing. When they think they are going to "Grow up" is a bit beyond me, so i have to assume that the song is actually meant to be the anthem for young teen girls. Which in itself scares me.

When I grow up I wanna be famous,
wanna be a star,
wanna be in movies /
when I grow up I wanna see the world,
drive nice cars,
I wanna have groupies.


What happened to i want to be a doctor? I want to be a lawyer? I want to be a mother? I want to be a teacher? Are girls no longer encouraged to seek honourable professions? Are our entire use as females based on how many people we have flocking around us? Or how much money we have? It wasn't that long ago that the idea of being an actress was akin to being a harlot. Thankfully those days have passed, although you wouldn't know it by looking at how the Pussycat Dolls dress.

Bernard Zuel from Sdney Morning Herald agreed with me, "But even if you don't object to the lyrics it's hard to shake the image of the Pussycat Dolls (essentially lap dancers with microphones) when you're listening"

It is sad when a woman begins treating herself like she is nothing more than a play thing. Women hold a sacred role in society, or at least they should. We bare life, which even in a science age is important. We bring a unique perspective to the world. We should not have to set our mind aside to "Be famous". Where are the female role models that show real strength and real honour, that encourage girls to have integrity?

Being able to wear a miniskirt does not equal liberation from oppression. In the same way that baring a child does not equal being a real woman. Excersicing your rights think and act for yourself, making responsible choices, these are marks of a liberated woman.

Sarah Palin

When i first heard that McCain had chosen a woman i was surprised and happy. I thought perhaps that we would finally be seeing some real feminist issues come to light. Perhaps we would address the need for women to be allowed paid maternity leave or maybe we would get a glimpse a woman's right to her own body! I was thrilled, until i heard her speak. Now i'm ashamed. McCain has chosen a pretty face. She isn't interested in Women's Rights. She isn't interested in showing off attributes that are important for a female leader. She is interested in not being caught out in another lie or half truth.

Check out the youtube clip of her talking about Joe Biden. At first she mocks him for being so old. Then when called on it, she suggests that she is merely pointing out that he has all the experience and she's the "fresh face". I hit my hand against my forehead. A woman who is constantly being criticised for her lack of experience really doesn't need to point it out so forcefully to the media.