Family First Hack Attack

Yes, they're nuts.

Family First's blog page was hacked this afternoon, allowing a whole bunch of people who apparently hold opinions similar to mine to have a bit of a rant on their site. It sounds like an immensely satisfying experience, I'm just sorry I missed out.

Still, if the media hadn't picked up on the hack it wouldn't have had much of an impact, and by the time the news got out Family First had taken down their blog. More traditional means of humiliation are still in order for FF in the lead up to the next election, I think.

Update: Peter Black managed to get hold of a screen shot from The Age.

Please Explain

Don't worry, ours will be Christian!


Would any posters that identify as Howard voting conservatives do me the courtesy of explaining how exactly using taxpayer money to fund religious counsellors at public schools is in keeping with conservative traditions? Specifically, how does it ensure the separation of church and state and the right of each individual to worship as he or she sees fit.

Given that no provision is made to spend the $22,000 on non religious counsellors and that the government gets to veto the school's choice, how does this not turn govenment schools who opt in into government run madrasas? Do you believe that the government has the right to appoint religious overseers?

Would any Labor party voters also explain how exactly supporting this policy is in keeping with the Labor party's traditions? Are they just jealous that they never thought of appointing commissars to schools?

Opinions

Big IR protest in Brisbane on Nov 30. We'll be there but this time I wanted to make some signs, can't have a decent protest without signs, and, depressingly, white people with dreadlocks. Here's a few slogans, opinions, ideas to steal will be welcomed.

RECYCLE SEWAGE,
CHANGE THE GOVT.

YOU PAY JOHN HOWARD'S SALARY

HOW'S YOUR MORTGAGE?

BALDY OVERBOARD!

RODENT OVERBOARD!

END THE DROUGHT, MOVE VANSTONE

ok, way too tired now, will think up some more tomorrow.

Family First fires at Greens

Me, on my way to vote Green at the last election. Apparently.

Stephen Fielding has labelled the Greens 'extremist', among other things for their policy of allowing gay couples to adopt children and behave like normal people instead of hiding behind the facade of the priesthood or a loveless heterosexual marriage.

Here's some great examples from the news of what Fielding has called 'the best environment' in which to raise children. Well? They're straight, aren't they?

Family First make me sick. Their friendly, innocuous-sounding name belies a simmering mess of hatred and bigotry that's just busting to boil over and coat the wider Australian community in its sticky strands. It's Labor's fault Fielding was elected to the Senate in the first place; the Greens actually received more votes, but Labor's preferences delivered the seat for Fielding.

I feel they owe us a fucking apology for inflicting this scumbag on our parliament. As if it wasn't bad enough to begin with.

Feifei vs. Gam

Rotten Onions

The 'surprise'.

Inside the onion...

Does anyone else ever cut open what looks like a perfectly good onion only to find it looks like this in the middle? I would say this happens for about 1 in 10 of the onions I buy; most of them have been from Coles, but this one was from Fruity Capers in Toowong. With onions being flogged at $3.68 per kg (loose) at Coles and $2.99 per kg (loose) at Fruity Capers, I get really annoyed at having to throw so many away. Of course I could probably return them and get my $0.60 per onion back, but they'd probably think I was a freak. Instead I'll just whinge about it here... Seriously, I've always inspected the onions I buy, but for the last few months I've been obsessively scrutinising them before I buy, and there is no indication whatsoever that the onion is a dodgy one- until you cut the top off. As Murphy's Law would have it, it's nearly always the very last onion, so we have to go for a walk to buy more just when we're about to make dinner. Grrrr.

What's for dinner?

Sweet Potato Caterpillars

These are some photographs of some caterpillars I recently noticed I've been sharing my sweet potato leaves with, plus a couple of photographs of a moth that appeared outside of our front door yesterday. Big moths are so pretty, I am hoping that the sweet potato caterpillars will result in some more!

Google okays racist blogs.

Just quickly- who wants to bet that if Blogger was hosting blogs by groups of paedophiles Google wouldn't be waiting for a court order to have them taken down?

Apparently racist blogs promoting violence and publishing the names, addresses, photographs and even the location of family tombstones of anti-racism campaigners are ok, though. Way to go, Google.

Tagged

Thanks Mikey for the tag :)

1-Do you like the look and the contents of your blog?

I like the contents, but I wish I knew enough nerd-stuff to be able to change the look of my blog. I'm happy enough with it, but it's very 'template'.


2-Does your family know about your blog?

Not a soul. Actually that's not true, Gam's sister Delali visited it once, and she's family. Other than that, no.


3-Can you tell your friends about your blog? Do you consider it a private thing?

I would be comfortable with my friends knowing about it, but I doubt it would interest most of them. I make a point of being friends with nice people who I don't feel the need to bitch about, and so I wouldn't have to worry about them seeing something nasty I've written about them. Being nasty is for people you're not friends with, like John Howard.


4-Do you just read the blogs of those who comment on your blog? or you try to discover new blogs?

I read the blogs of everyone who comments regularly, and what's more I enjoy them. I'll take a look at the blog of anyone who comments.

Sometimes when I'm stuck for something to read I'll trawl through blogs using the 'next blog' button, but most of them are spam. Good blogs are few and far between, and I usually have more success clicking on blogs in the blogroll of people whose blog I think is a good one.


5-Did your blog positively affect (sic) your mind? Give an example.

Positively affect my mind? I'm not entirely sure what that means.


6-What does the number of visitors to your blog mean? Do you use a traffic counter?

I have no idea how many people visit my blog and I don't use a traffic counter. Unless they have something interesting to say, frankly I don't care. I like to think I have quality visitors, if not quantity :)


7-Did you imagine how other bloggers look like?

That's a poorly worded question, but yes! I guess it's my inherent nosiness...


8-Do you think blogging has any real benefit?

For me, yes. I'm not exactly achieving anything for the greater good by ranting here, but it's fun for me and I'd like to think it'll be good for something one day.


9-Do you think that the blogosphere is a stand alone community separated from the real world?

Um. Only if one never leaves the house. Otherwise, no.


10-Do some political blogs scare you? Do you avoid them?

Bother me, yes. Scare me, no. I do avoid blogs whose political opinions I don't like. When I want to interact with people whose political opinions I don't like I can just phone my Dad or some other relative. At least I like them. I'm not going to waste my time arguing with random nutbags who hold no interest for me.


11-Do you think that criticizing your blog is useful?

Put it this way, I don't see peoples' criticisms of my political or other opinions as criticisms of my blog. I am also highly unlikely to change the way I think in the absence of new information. I like to be well-informed, and I am always open to new perspectives. However I find that the sort of people who disagree on a fundamental level with my opinions all tend to spout the exact same line of crap without anything to back it up. Occasionally one of the regular commenters here will disagree with something I've said, and I would say they're much better at supporting their opinions with facts or at least a valid argument, so I tend to take that on board more.


12-Have you ever thought about what would happen to your blog in case you died?

Yeah, kind of. But it wouldn't matter because I'd be dead.


13-Which blogger had the greatest impression on you?

Not applicable. I started blogging partly because I wanted a place to exercise my frustrations with certain aspects of Australian politics and society, and also with a vague idea that if we ever had kids it might be interesting to them. Kind of like a diary.


14-Which blogger do you think is the most similar to you?

I think I've found that of all the people whose blogs I enjoy, we all share different interests outside our relatively similar political opinions. And I like it that way. I'd be bored out of my mind reading blogs by people too similar to me.


15-Name a song you want to listen to?

Bessie Smith: Me and my gin.


I'm tagging Anthony.

Food Review

Gam and I have tried a few new products over the last week or so. I'll start with my least favourite first:

Freedom Foods Chick Pea Chips.

Probably a year or so ago I bought some chick pea chips and they were really nice- spicy, salty and with that great legume-y texture. I'd been eyeing off the Freedom Foods Chick Pea Chips in Coles for about a month and today decided to buy some. At over $4 they weren't cheap but I figured what the hell.

The 'low salt' sign on the packet did set off a little mental warning light but I figured I could always add salt if I wanted to. Boy did they need it. These things have a pretty awful flavour on their own, which I suspect is from the use of soy oil, which I personally think has a revolting flavour. I made up a strongly-flavoured dip of tomato paste, a teaspoon of chilli powder and a good pinch of salt and they went well with that, but on their own- not worth trying.

Strange of me not to read the nutrition label until after I got home; I probably wouldn't have bought them if I'd seen they contained soybean oil.

These babies are really high in fat. Regular potato chips are about 25% fat, but Freedom Foods Chick Pea Chips are over 35% fat. That's a lot of fat. I don't even watch my fat intake, but 35% is off-putting even for me, more so when it's a type of fat I don't like. I could handle 35% fat if it was extra-virgin olive oil (yum), but soybean?

The one plus that I could see is that they're high in fibre, close to 10%.

Verdict? Stick to regular potato chips. People who are worried about their salt intake are usually people who need to worry about their fat intake, and besides, no one should eat chips often enough for it to matter how much salt they contain. Plus regular potato and corn chips are much tastier.



Sanitarium muesli. I was about to pick up a box of our regular favourite, Carman's, when I noticed two brand new mueslis from Sanitarium positioned right next to it on the shelves. After inspecting the nutrition panel and ingredients and comparing them with Carman's I decided to give one a try, only I couldn't decide between the toasted and 'natural' varieties so Gam made me buy both.

I was glad he did- they are both delicious! Gam only likes the toasted one, but he has very narrow tastes.

The only less-than-positive comment I have to make is about the ingredient list- it's clear that quite a few of the ingredients are more about maintaining a certain texture than providing nutritients. That said, the food tech people behind these products have managed to produce a natural muesli that does not have that 'floury' texture from the oats that some natural mueslis have. The inclusion of barley flakes (which have a 'cleaner', crisper texture than oats) might have something to do with this, but I suspect there is more to it. Kudos to them for succeeding. The natural muesli includes very thin and crispy wheat (I think) flakes that also help to give the muesli a lighter texture.




Unfortunately both mueslis include sultanas and raisins, which I am not a fan of (which rather limits my breakfast cereal choices), but they're both so tasty I am willing to overlook that.

The only other note is a strange, slightly 'salty' flavour in the toasted muesli. Gam noticed it too. seeing as it is not high in salt I am not even sure that the taste was caused by the added salt- there are a few other ingredients that may have something to do with it. That said, it gets less and less noticeable the more you eat it!

I love muesli as a snack, and together Gam and I have pretty much polished off a whole packet of the toasted muesli in a couple of days, and I've worked my way through a good portion of the natural one as well. We'll definitely be purchasing these again.


Yolati was another impulse-buy. It's a hot day in Brisbane- our first decent warm weather in ages, as it's been unseasonably cold since the beginning of September. When the weather gets warm, my thoughts turn to ice-cream!

Yolati has a very pleasant tart taste, probably due to the fact it contains 17% raspberries. There is a very noticeable 'powdered milk' texture, however, so comparing it to gelati or yoghurt is a bit of a stretch. I would say that although I am really enjoying it, it probably isn't worth the premium price ($6.49 from memory, although the checkout guy charged us the same price as Gam's Connoisseur Cookies & Cream, which was on special for $5.79).

Gam joins VTAY

My blog is no longer a solo effort!

I've been missing Gam's posts as he let his blog wither and die, so I convinced him to become part of my 'team'. I've no idea how often he will be posting (he's already contributed one), but I think I've scored a coup by getting him on board, plus it makes my blog look more important now I have a listing under 'team members'. Yeah!

Seeing double

The future Prime Minister, John Howard.

Kim Beazley has just stolen another Howard Government policy.

Seriously, I'm not imagining things, am I? Hasn't the Coalition being advocating a performance-based pay system for teachers for ages?

Oh that's right, it has.

While I'm on politics, my suspicion is that the $27 per week rise in the minimum wage granted by the 'Fair Pay Commission' is a move by the government to take the wind out of Labor's sails on what promises to be the main issue at the 2007 election. They have already referred to the granting of the rise as the "final nail in the coffin" of the anti-'WorkChoices' campaign. I don't think we'll be seeing such generosity after the election; after all, that's not what big business paid for.

The rise of $27 in the weekly minimum wage is apparently just sufficient to keep pace with inflation. The Australian Industry Group had called for a rise of only $14.

Shorter Paul Sheehan

After no fewer than eight gang-rape trials involving Muslim defendants, and hundreds of incidents in which women have been insulted as "sluts" and "whores" by Muslim men, the charade is over. We have a problem.

Link to bloviating racist

Eight gang rapes is enough to condemn 446500 people and brand them as criminals. No word on what a violent mob of 5000 liquored up racists attacking cops and ambulances says about white people. In 2004 11,000 people reported rapes in NSW. 63 of them were gang rapes. Because EIGHT of them might have been Muslims, all Muslims have problems respecting women. This in a country where women still get paid less than men and fewer than 5% of reported rapes even make it to trial. Where white lawyers are allowed to state in court that because the victim was wearing a short skirt, sex must have been consensual. A country where when sportsmen gang rape a woman the first thought is how sad it is that the players have 'let themselves and their fans down' and the victim is cowed into silence. Attend to the fucking forest in your eye, Paul.

We have a big problem alright. It's called: People like Paul Sheehan.

Sheik's comments fuel bigotry

Not asking for it.

I always get really annoyed when Sheik Taj el Din al-Hilaly opens his stupid trap and says something moronic and despicable because it always turns into an exercise in Muslim-bashing.

Sheik al-Hilaly does not speak for all Muslims any more than George Pell and Peter Jensen speak for all Christians. If Muslims and Christians had to speak out and condemn every piece of bigotry that some religious leader spouted they'd never have time to eat or sleep. Christians can rest safe in the knowledge that Peter Costello will never be calling on them to condemn Pell or Jensen every time they indulge in a bit of gay hatin' because they are just expressing their opinion in a land where they are entitled to free speech, y'see? Whereas whenever some Muslim who has gone and got themselves a bit of notoriety as a religious nutbag expresses some despicable opinions, our politicians see it as their cue to stand in front of the frothy-mouthed media pack and stir up some Muzzie-bashing until Muslims who have nothing to do with the whole business essentially get up and apologise for someone who they don't even agree with.

The funniest thing is that a couple of years ago when a bunch of rugby league players (the Bulldogs?) raped a woman and got away with it, I heard all sorts of opinions expressed in the media about how the women who dress like tarts and hang off the rugby players like lamphreys on a shark are, essentially, asking to be raped. What I don't remember is whether Peter Costello took it upon himself to condemn the remarks and call upon ordinary 'strayans to do the same.

The first time I heard the 'wear a short skirt in public and you're asking for it' argument was actually from my Dad. Not that he personally thought women in a short skirt were asking to be raped, but he swore he had known people who did, and therefore for their own safety women should dress modestly. He referred to some psycho he had known who thought that if a woman was wearing a red dress she must be a prostitute. I always argued that a woman's right to wear whatever she wants in public shouldn't be curtailed by the various proclivities of random psychopaths, and anyone who thought like that should be in jail. Besides, what if there's someone who thinks women who wear- I don't know- business suits, say- is asking for it?

If anything, I think views such as Sheik al-Hilaly's denigrate men almost as much as women, implying they are mindless animals who can't control themselves. While their might be a few examples of men who fit this description I don't believe it extends to men in general any more than the beliefs of random nutbags like Sheik al-Hilali extend to Muslims in general.

So they bloody well don't have to come over all apologist for it, regardless of what Peter Costello or anyone else says.

A baby to buy

Madonna's new baby arrives in the UK... with someone else. Photo: AP.

There's been a lot of coverage of Madonna's adoption of a 13-month-old Malawian boy who was given up to an orphanage by his poverty-stricken father, who could not afford to raise him. I think that ever since Angelina Jolie went to film a movie in Cambodia and came home with a baby as souvenir, and her subsequent 'express' adoption of a baby Ethiopian girl, there's been a lot of pent-up disgust that's only now being expressed at Madonna's quickie adoption of David Banda.

Unlike some of the people pointing the bone at Madonna, I happen to think adoption is a most beautiful and worthy thing to do. It just so happens, however, that prospective adoptive parents (particularly those in Australia) are forced to undergo an exhausting and expensive process that can take many years before they are allowed to adopt their child. Even if that child is a relative.

I don't believe I can assess Madonna's suitability as a parent, and nor can I assess Angelina Jolie's. But there is more than an element of "one rule for the rich..." in the way they are allowed to bypass the procedures that are applied to people who are at least equally suitable as parents.

It looks like baby-shopping.

I was going to link to Miranda Devine's weekend commentary in defence of Madonna, but she has gone back and edited out the part where she implied that David Banda had been abandoned by his father- a claim that looks particularly silly now that Yohane Banda has said that he didn't realise the adoption papers he signed meant that he was giving David up for good.

In terms of PR damage it would have been more sensible of Madonna to adopt a child who was actually an orphan rather than just the victim of extreme poverty. Given Malawi's AIDS rate I'm sure there are plenty of orphans. Perhaps none of them were photogenic enough?

The system that allows celebrities to jet in to a country and leave with a child is a very unfair one, and that is partly the fault of governments who see the desire of prospective adoptive parents for a child as an excuse to milk them of large amounts of money. The system in Australia is long overdue for an overhaul, as this submission to the recent review of adoption legislation in Australia demonstrates.

A lot of the anger being directed at celebrities who adopt is simply frustration at the lack of a fair and equitable system, not the belief that celebrities are committing some kind of heinous crime by adopting a child.

How to Sweep 700 000 Bodies Under the Rug

That's a big rug. Fancy a roll, George?

It would be a lot easier to take George W. Bush and John Howard's dismissal of the Lancet study that found at least 655 000 Iraqis have died as a result of America's war if the Americans hadn't banned Iraqi hospitals and morgues from releasing figures of the number of bodies that go through the system.

If the report lacks credibility, as they claim, then what information are they presenting to counter it? They've got nothing, and if the truth wasn't at least as bad as the Lancet study claims, then they'd be releasing figures to disprove it. A group of Australian doctors is calling on John Howard to take the study seriously. They may as well try and shout with their heads in a bucket of sand as try and get Howard to disagree with Bush.

700 000. That's a lot of deaths to be responsible for. No wonder they don't want to own up to it.

Is UQ using Howard's IR laws?

Yesterday I had my final prac for food chemistry. While my group was being assisted with a filtration by the lab technician, Ian, he announced to us out of the blue that this would be the last time we'd be seeing him. Ian has worked in this capacity for over 30 years, and is not only incredibly good at his job but also has a great relationship with the students. He's always been there to help out anyone who needs it, whether it's with a dodgy piece of lab equipment, the best way to get bubbles out of a microburette or a particularly confusing calculation.

But he's not going out in the way you might expect for a university employee of 30 years who is so highly-regarded by the students and, I would imagine, by his colleagues. He still keeps in touch with students from decades ago, and they even have reunions from time to time.

It turns out that UQ has emailed a whole bunch of employees (23 out of around 60, I think) in the School of Land and Food Sciences, Ian among them, that they must submit resumes and reapply for their jobs. Ian told us that the position he would be compelled to apply for under this directive would involve around four times as much work, including new prac subjects that have never been under his jurisdiction, and his salary would be cut by 20%.

Rather than going through this, Ian and almost every other lab technician that the food tech and food science & nutrition students have worked with over the years have decided not to reapply. This action by the university doesn't only affect the technicians; it affects the students. Next year our pracs will probably be staffed by people who don't have the same experience and don't know their way around our labs.

The university has also decided that the lecturer who serves as course adviser to the food science and nutrition students is 'surplus to requirements' and has to go. I'm not sure if these retrenchments have anything to do with the new IR laws, but it sure sounds like it. Honestly, I thought the universities would be among the last employers to take advantage of them. I had the impression, however misguided, that such institutions still had principles that weren't first and foremost guided by ruthless profit-seeking. Was I wrong?

It took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do at uni and with life in general, and my experience in the School of Land and Food Sciences has been a good one up until now. They have some of the best lecturers in the university, and an environment where I feel more like a student and less like a number, in sharp contrast to the other schools I have studied under. Of course, like most Australian universities, UQ is progressively being run more like a business and less like a respectable education institution. It's not all their fault; it's the environment they are forced to operate under by the government of the day, and it so happens that the School of Land and Food Sciences is one of the least profitable schools.

Such cutbacks could well result in courses being less well-run, and disillusioned students deciding to go elsewhere to fulfil their ambitions. Lower student numbers will prompt more cutbacks and so the cycle continues.

I'd also be willing to bet that just as the Qant-ass and Telstra executives who are so keen to 'sacrifice' employees' jobs and salaries are never forced to endure the same cutbacks to their own source of livelihood, the people who are in charge of 'streamlining' the School of Land and Food Sciences to keep more money in the University's coffers have not been forced to reapply for jobs with an increased workload at 80% of their current salaries. I suppose there'd be nothing left of the institution if that were the case.

I don't want to graduate next year with a sense that I'm escaping the place as it crumbles around me. There are aspects of the School and the course that can be improved, but none of them involve retrenching valuable staff with decades of experience.

To say I'm disappointed would be a vast understatement.

Sweet Potato Leaves

Here goes another diet-nerd post...

Since our budget has pretty much halved since the end of last year and fruit and vegetable prices have gone up by around 10%, I've all but stopped buying veges and fruit. When mangoes are in season I'll probably make an exception, but our weekly vegetable buy these days pretty much consists of onions, garlic and a couple of capsicums. $2 or more for a bunch of bok choy seems a bit rich, and spinach and silverbeet are also quite expensive.

Gam isn't exactly a rampaging vege-beast, but I require greens in my diet, so I've made up this shortfall with my 'discovery' of a vegetable that's been thriving in our tiny balcony-garden for the past couple of years: sweet potato leaves.

I first checked up on the fact that they aren't poisonous to eat when Porkie first started eating them, but I never thought to eat them myself. People are weird when it comes to food, and I think it's natural to have very fixed ideas about what constitutes food and what doesn't. Sweet potatoes I considered acceptable, but sweet potato leaves? After reading a bit more about them, including a post on a rather interesting blog, I decided to give them a go in some Indonesian-style fried rice.

The kecap-manis and sambal I ate with the rice drowned out the natural flavour of the sweet potato leaves, and I've since given them a go in a few other dishes, including having them steamed with baked beans on toast (it was actually very good!). They have a very mild flavour and don't have the kind of astringency that is found in some green vegetables (silverbeet, for example). Around 30 seconds in the microwave is enough to steam them, and retain nearly all the nutrients; the leaves are a good source of vitamins A and K (For more information, go here and type in 'sweet potato leaves').

I haven't tried eating them raw yet, so I can't say how they'd go in a salad or on a sandwich, but I can say that any idiot can grow a sweet potato in brisbane, and these things seem unkillable- insects will eat them, but not fast enough to keep pace with the growth of the plant! Even I can't seem to eat enough to stop it from attempting to launch an invasion of the neighbour's balcony, especially since the possum hasn't come by to clip back the shoots in a while.

Dickhead of the Day

Competition was tough, with Gaultier in the running...

And the award goes to....

Me!

1. Riding to uni and running late, a niggling thought entered my head that I hadn't put the assignment I had due today in my bag. I shook off the thought, figuring that I think that every time and I'm usually just, as Gam says, 'being a panickus'. So I didn't stop and check, even though we were only at the corner of our block and it would have taken only about 2 minutes to ride home and get it.

2. I got to uni and discovered it was missing. "No problems!" I thought, "I'll just ride home and get it after my group have finished for the day". When I got out of class, it was a little cloudy, threatening rain in a few hours... perhaps.

3. Got home, found my assignment buried under yesterday's notes that I'd excavated from my bag prior to heading off to uni.

4. At some point I took off my helmet, riding glasses and gloves (probably when I went to the bathroom, come to think of it...). I put them all on and headed back to uni with my assignment.

5. As soon as I got out of the driveway it started to rain. Figured I would just be a little bit careful crossing the road, as drivers tend to go a bit nuts in the rain. I gave up riding on the main road to uni a few months ago- too many near-death experiences with car drivers breaking the law. Took the shortcut up Glasshouse road and encountered a massive truck driving down the wrong side of the road. Pulled over into the gutter and sucked in my stomach to give it room.

6. Figured I'd tie up my bike at the closest official bike-stand thingy. As with most of the stupid bike stands around uni, the little metal loop was too small to fit the bike lock through. I tied it up next to a bunch of other bikes on the handrail of the wheelchair-access ramp instead. Put my hands to my chin to take off my helmet and discovered I wasn't wearing it. I rode all the way to uni without noticing that I'd forgotten to put my helmet on! See point 4: I'd seen my helmet right in front of me, and could have sworn blind that I'd worn it out the door. I could have sworn blind I'd felt the damn thing on my head when I was riding.

7. After handing in my assignment, I tossed up whether I should:
a) do the right thing and walk my bike home... in the pouring rain
or
b) forget all the road safety lessons I learned in primary school ("if you don't need a head, you don't need a helmet!") and ride home sans helmet, hoping I wouldn't encounter any difficulties that would result in me losing my brains on the road or footpath.

I chose option b, making the small concession of taking a shortcut across the AFL oval (that had had sprinklers operating on it in the hot sun earlier in the day- what happened to stage 3 water restrictions?). I figured I'd be hard pressed to suffer head injuries on soft grass.

Sure I rode on the footpath most of the time and arrived home safely, but riding without a helmet means that I am officially Dickhead of the Day.

Liam Gallagher was runner-up by a whisker.

Now I know exactly what it means when people say they would forget their head if it wasn't screwed on... blaargh.

Escape from Soytanamo

Yesterday was my final day of dairy-free dieting. My first coffee in a week made with milk and cream instead of soy was, unexpectedly, something of an anticlimax. I figured I simply hadn't added enough cream, and added twice as much my second coffee. Still, the earth didn't exactly move.

So far today I've managed only the milk and cream in my coffee, plus a small piece of tasty 'Spicial Riserve' cheese (it's made in New Zealand) with my lunch/afternoon tea of corn tortilla, red kidney beans, hot taco sauce and green capsicum slices. No dairy-binge, at least not yet!

I still have 3/4 of a carton of So Good in the fridge that I'll have to finish off, so I'll probably have that on muesli. I'd definitely never choose to have it in coffee again.

As for improvement of my acne, I think I can safely say there has been none. Unable to tell whether it might have improved my hayfever, as I got a new bottle of Telnase (great stuff- the first nasal spray to improve my hayfever).

I held off buying the Weiss mango & macadamia icecream yesterday when we went shopping because I was sure I'd probably lose my resolve to stay dairy-free in the dying hours of my experiment. Off to Coles this evening to pick up some of that as well as take some photos and details of 'functional foods' for my Product Development homework.

What have I learned from this? Well, apart from the fact that without my milk 'habit' a single 2L bottle of milk has lasted the whole week with plenty to spare, that I can do without something I previously viewed as a necessity. I doubt I could do the same with fruit and veges, because although I'm sure I don't eat enough of them, I actually start to feel unwell if I don't have them for a while, whereas with milk, cheese, icecream etc I craved them almost relentlessly but I didn't feel the worse for giving them up. In fact, I felt fine.

Gold medals sprouting in unusual places? Get tested.

The sport of cycling is rife with doping. Who'd have guessed?

There's big money in staying a step or two ahead of the anti-doping authorities. Just look at the BALCO scandal- someone had to post them a syringe full of THG for them to even become alert to the fact it existed. But the athletes knew. While anti-doping authorities await the next envelope, the chemists and drug cheats go about their business largely unhindered.

This is Lenman

Lenny Hinn

'Lenny' made a comment in my slug post, so I decided to check out his blog. Turns out it's an utter crack-up, and if he keeps at it it's going in my blogroll. Anyone with a cat will love it :)

Update: his owner's blog isn't half entertaining either. I particularly liked this post:

Disgusting Mythbusters

Everyone knows the show 'mythbusters' - well I want to see them cracking myths that matter. Disgusting shit. What do I care if you can burn a boat with a mirror?? I want the following tested out:

PERIOD LEAKAGE - the myth they tell us girls, is that you only seep out a couple of teaspoons worth.. pffffffft.. yeah right, clearly a man came up with that theory, it feels like a litre. I think this should be tested by a chick with her rags sitting on a bucket for a week and measuring the amount exactly.

JIZZED TO THE ROOF - I have heard the phrase "jizzed to the roof" many times, is it possible though? I reckon if you had about 200 guys jizz on you, and layed really still you might stick to the ground? wheather or not you would stick there when upside down is another story... a myth that defintiely needs rectifying.

PROTEIN FACIAL - they say, that sperm is really good for the face because it is full of protein and living entities. Men just say that so they can feel like pornstars when they come all over your tits. This theory needs proof, 4 girls, all different ages, getting jizzed on everynight for a week. If this works, bye bye Olay Regenerist, I've got my own sack of nightcreme with a lifetime supply sleeping in the bed next to me.

Bias brigade flog Auntie

In the latest attempt to turn the ABC into a compliant mouthpiece for the government, the anti-Auntie brigade were demanding to have their 'test for bias' imposed upon satirical and comedy shows like The Chaser and The Glasshouse.

I was rather agape at this. The proposal is a blatant attempt not to have the shows censored, but to have them axed. They would be unworkable under the new provisions. As it is, such shows have been exempted from the new provisions, but not without an almighty fight from the pro-Howard ABC haters. It just shows how humourless these wankers are.

Personally I like our national broadcaster just as it is. I'm not such an idealogue that I see bias in everything, and in the case of opinion-based shows such as Phillip Adams' radio show, I simply choose not to listen in the same way that I choose not to read the opinion columns in the SMH. I don't want what I see as my reliable news source interfered with to ensure that 'good' news of a school being painted somewhere in Iraq gets equal time with the umpteenth suicide bombing that has killed 150 people.

The ABC provides intelligent, well-researched fare for Australians who choose to listen or view, and right-wing conservatives who misguidedly or deceitfully try and claim they have the middle ground deserve no place in dictating content. Australian governments have always whinged about the ABC. The Howard government is the first to have been given enough power to start taking it apart, and it's a sorry sight indeed.

More random photos

Some recent photos: the first flower on one of my carefully-nurtured snow pea plants. The first flower on one of my not-so-carefully nurtured bean plants -I'm not sure what kind of bean, as the seeds were given to me by my dad and I forgot what they were. It's a miracle they grew at all.

The snow peas, shortly after they started producing delicious sweet pods, came down with some horrid powdery fungus, which has all but killed them and prevented them producing more pods. Bloody fungus, stealing my vegetables... The beans were tasty and didn't get any diseases. Until I find out how to deal with that fungus I won't be growing snow peas again. I hate using pesticides and fungicides, and I thought I might be able to manage without doing so. Grrr.


I keep some grass growing for Feifei in the big pot I planted the beans and peas in. Grass is not just a condiment for Feifei, it's an important part of his diet. Never mind that he looks utterly ridiculous stretching up to eat it from the pot; the grass is evenly clipped, but with ragged edges because his canines aren't built for chomping grass.

More Feifei photos.




The parrots I spotted by accident when we stopped to have a look at all the bees on a palm flower in someone's yard while walking to Indooroopilly. The parrots were pretty much hidden inside the flower, and then out popped a little green head! I've always found palm flowers particularly striking, but I never knew they attracted parrots. Gam took the photos because he's tall and has long arms, so he could get the camera closer to the parrots. Thanks Gam :)






The lorikeets were in a tree we walked past on our way to Coles in St Lucia. It's a very pretty tree when it's in flower, and unusual in that all the flowers sprout along the branches rather than at the tips of the foliage. The lories were very wary of the camera and kept edging away, so it was difficult to obtain an in-focus photograph.

Slug photos

I like slugs. In fact, I like any kind of animal that has eyes on stalks.

Now, I've always known that our tiny back garden has been a bit of a haven for slugs. I don't directly encourage them, but I do absolutely nothing to discourage them, as they've never eaten anything important (usually Porkie would get to those first!). This evening, though, we removed Porkie's hut from her half of the garden, only to find the underside had become home to what must have been a hundred slugs. Gam wants to plant things in Porkie's part of the garden (which she, due to her never ending ravenousness, ensured remained a veritable desert), but he humoured my wish to give the slugs a proper chance to leave. We upended the cage and I thoroughly watered the garden to make it more hospitable for slugs to travel through in search of a new home, and we're leaving it there overnight. I also watered the board they were on to wake them up and wash them off, but then I decided to take some photos of the ones that were left- I've never seen this many slugs together at once. To be honest, I felt a bit like the Spencer Tunick of the slug world (yeah, that can go on my resumé!).

Enjoy: