Life in the country..

It's nearly Christmas!

2007-11-30T11:20:00.000+11:00

I can't believe there is less than 4 weeks till Christmas. I made a decision a little while ago that I was determined not to go anywhere near a shopping centre. This year I have done it all online.

My nephews absolutely adore Lego. In fact my older nephew recently told me that once he has finished school he is going to become an architect and earn enough money to open a Lego store. Both my nephews will work there. So I ordered them a few Lego things that I know they don't already have, and I got free shipping. Everybody loves free shipping. ;)

I like to try and find presents for my nephews which enable them to learn something and there's no better place than the National Geographic store for that. I got them some brilliant things from there. When it came to the checkout I could choose from free shipping or 20% off - I went with the free shipping.

You can find all the coupons you need to finish your Christmas shopping online at CouponChief.com

Roadworks Schmoadworks

2007-11-14T17:45:00.000+11:00

Today we went for a drive and on just one road there were three sections which were being worked on. It seems that over here in NSW the idea is, just throw asphalt around in the hope it might create a road all on its own. In South Australia they always built roads properly.

Sometimes here I can be driving down the road and I'll drive over a pothole they just filled with asphalt from a bag - not from a proper truck - and the noise as the stones are thrown up to the underside of your car.. it is terrifying. And the stuff sticks to your car. I don't know how they expect those potholes to get filled unless they do them properly.

Business Cards For Free!

2007-11-01T16:00:00.000+11:00

I am sure many of you know that I am in the process of starting a business. There is so much to do, everything from registering the business name to getting business cards printed. I've just ordered myself 250 free business cards from VistaPrint. You do pay for shipping but that's just over $8, and if I like the cards when I get them I intend to purchase plenty more - perhaps with my own photograph on the card next time.

You can choose from 42 different card designs for the free cards and I did not see one I didn't like. They were all beautiful. They also have more designs you can choose from if you want to pay for your cards. You can create your own cards online with or without an image. You can design a company logo for free or make a caricature.

In fact the things you can do with this website seem to be never ending - I can make my own magnets, sticky notes, note pads, thank you cards, labels, envelopes, invitations, post cards, T-shirts, rubber stamps, calendars and Christmas cards!

The website is so easy and simple to use, it takes you through the process step by step. I had fun doing it which is fantastic when it is something you could consider work. If you don't want business cards for free, you can get free sticky notes or free rubber stamps.

I am so glad I found this site - I will be making use of it a lot in the future. Next on the agenda will be letterheads. I have exactly the photograph I want to use for the letterhead already.

Still going through the photo folders

2007-11-01T15:55:00.000+11:00

I am up to 2003 in the photo folders. I'm getting really home sick for the zoo because a lot of the folders I am looking at now are pics from the zoos we have visited. But now we live about 200km from the nearest zoo. Here are some of my favourites from the last couple of days.

The Mandarin Duck

The Fruit Dove

The Squirrel Monkey

We once did a "Zoo Watch" on the Squirrel Monkey - they are the cutest animals but they eat bugs and spiders. With Zoo Watch you have a shift which lasts for two hours and you watch the animal. It might be a safety watch if they introduce a new animal into the enclosure, or a behavior watch to see what the animal is up to. It also might be a watch if they open a new enclosure and they want you to keep an eye to see if the animal manages to escape.

We did a few night watches as well - one night we stayed the whole night in the zoo, there were six of us and we took one hour shifts watching the animal. They provide you with a vehicle to sit in - or to run to if they can't park right where the enclosure is and one of the dangerous animals managed to escape. I was never too worried about that - I was more worried about spiders.

Travelling Around Australia

2007-10-27T00:20:00.000+10:00

I have been lucky enough to see a lot of Australia over the last few years. Today I'm going to talk about a few of the trips I have taken and where I want to go next.

Melbourne.

Melbourne is only a short flight from Sydney, it was also a short flight from Adelaide, so we have visited there many times especially since flights became so cheap here in Australia. My favourite place to go in Melbourne is Melbourne Zoo. It has the most land out of any zoo in Australia so be prepared for a lot of walking and wear comfortable shoes, however it is mostly flat land so not much uphill walking.

Melbourne Zoo has so much to see including elephants, reptiles, frogs, tigers, lions, jaguars and a lot of the more unusual medium size cats. They also have a butterfly house - that's where the above picture was taken. If you want to visit Melbourne and their zoo, check out Hotels in Melbourne online.

Sydney.

Sydney is just a two hour drive from here. My favourite place to go in Sydney is Taronga Zoo. Taronga is also quite large but much more hilly so it is better to start at the top and walk down the hill. Taronga is one of the most well funded zoos in Australia. You can catch the ferry to get there which means a boat trip across Sydney Harbour.

Taronga Zoo has a lot of Australian animals due to the large amounts of tourists who visit but they also have most of the big cats and primates, a fantastic reptile house and a gorgeous view of Sydney Harbor as you see in the above photo which was taken from Taronga. If you're thinking of visiting Sydney, you can find Hotels in Sydney online.

Brisbane

I have been to the Gold Coast many times, which is just 80kms drive from Brisbane. It has SeaWorld where the above photo was taken, DreamWorld, Wet'N'Wild, Movieworld and so many other tourist attractions that it is difficult to go anywhere else. I have only ever been to Brisbane once in 1988 for the Brisbane World Expo. Brisbane is the next place on our list to visit.

We would like to go and see Australia Zoo which of course was made famous by Steve Irwin. It's about a 60 minute drive from Brisbane. You can find Hotels in Brisbane online - and that's where we'll be booking our hotel when we go, perhaps early next year.

A Tiger Over There!

2007-10-26T16:17:00.000+10:00

I was clearing out a few of my photo folders today and I found this shot of a tiger at Melbourne Zoo. Thought I should share. ;)

See the motion blur on his leg which is moving, and yet the focus on his face is so clear. This is one of my better shots. ;)

Drug Addiction & Rehabilitation

2007-10-26T15:07:00.000+10:00

I've mentioned before that my ex-husband had a bit of a drug problem. When I first met him he used marijuana occasionally - on weekends and usually only when there was a party going on. As time went on I noticed he was using it more often but I really wasn't too worried about it.

Everyone told me it was a harmless drug, that it wasn't addictive, that he would stop using it, and other totally untrue things. It wasn't until I woke up around 7am one morning to hear him using the water bong in the kitchen that I realized his problem had turned into a serious habit. I was very worried and I spoke to his family - none of them thought it was a problem and they said the usual, it's not addictive, it's not harmful, it's safer than other drugs. I left him in 1999, we don't keep in touch but recently I heard he had lost his job due to his drug use. He is still using this drug now. His family still do not think he has a problem.

Back in those early days of the internet there were no websites to help find information about drugs and addiction. These days there are non-profit websites that can help you find information and get a referral to a drug rehabilitation program for free. 4rehabilitation.com is one such website. They have so much information there about drugs, addiction, intervention and even offer assessment for free. They have a toll free number in the US that families can call.

When you have a loved one who has a drug problem it can be difficult to know what to do about it. Most families and the addicts themselves tend to live in denial about their drug problem. After all, everyone has their addictions, right? For some people it is coffee, cigarettes, alcohol. But there is a difference between occasional use and real drug or alcohol addiction. Some families hold an intervention. I wish we could have done that. I almost needed to have an intervention with his family to convince them there was a problem first!

Recovery from a drug problem can be a long process and some people will relapse - as we've seen with some famous celebrities lately. Drugs can often be used to hide from a bigger problem like depression or a myriad of other personal issues. If anyone reading this has a drug problem or has a family member or friend with a drug problem, you are NOT alone. Reach out for help today.

My Garden

2007-10-26T15:01:00.000+10:00

We did a bit of work on the balcony this week. Yesterday I went out and took some photos to share with you. First, the water feature.

The plants grouped together.

Flowering Jasmine.

My Fuschia.

Hibiscus.

It's going to be a lovely summer out on the balcony with the new water feature, I'm looking forward to it!

Review Of Two Blogs..

2007-10-24T11:09:00.000+10:00

Today I am reviewing The Digipix and Broken Perfection - both of which belong to Michelle Minor. Michelle mentions in her about page that she suffers from dyslexia - my sister has this too. My sister finds that spell check makes this problem a little easier these days.

Spelling..

Michelle - I don't know what kind of browser you use. If you don't already use Mozilla Firefox with the built in spell checker option I highly recommend it. It will help you spot those errors when writing a blog post - any mis-spelt words are underlined in red automatically. The reason I mention that is I can see most of your posts are fine but some titles snuck through.

The trouble with mis-spelling on a blog is - advertisers and readers might make incorrect assumptions about you because of it. They might assume English is not your first language. They won't always read your about me page - and some of them would read it and say that's making excuses in a day and age where we have spell checkers. I don't agree with them personally - however I do think making good use of spell checkers can avoid this problem entirely.

Therefore spelling is one of the most critical things for us bloggers - I struggle with it a lot because in Australia we spell things differently to how they spell them in the USA. Words like color = colour. It annoys me when people think I spelt it wrong - that's how they taught me to spell in in school! You're in the US so lucky for you that's not an issue.

Spelling is such an easy thing to fix with the spell checker doing the work for you. The other option would be to write your posts - complete with titles - in a word processor (open office is my favourite and it is free) first and check them before pasting them into Wordpress.

The Digipix

The theme on this site is excellent, very professional looking and welcoming. I love the colors - green is my absolute favourite color to use on a website. I love the welcome at the top - it is unique. I rarely see a welcome section on a blog. I also love the date to the side of the post, and the way you have the clickable digg, stumbleupon, etc down the side of the post.

I would make the link color a slightly darker shade of green because it tends to blend in to the background currently. I would also change the color of your feedburner graphic to make it jump off the page rather than blend in with the design. You want to make that stand out so people can find it.

I took a look at your gallery and the photos were wonderful - I'm a photographer myself. There's not a huge amount of pics there at this stage but with a gallery system life will be a lot easier when it comes to organizing them..

Broken Perfection

I have to be honest with you - I'm not a fan of this theme. It is a personal blog and we all can choose how to display our personal blogs - but we all run the risk of offending potential readers with our choices.

I see a lot of blogs in my day to day internet wanderings. Many blog designers have taken into account the psychological meanings of color. I designed a scam victim support website and one of the first things we had to decide was - what color should we make it? Red was out instantly because studies show that red can have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure. We made the site green because that is calming - hospitals use green because it relaxes the patients.

I'd keep an eye on how much stuff you put in your sidebars as well. There's a lot there and it looks a little cluttered.

Things I Would Change -

The About Page -

Your name doesn't appear on your about page. I found it on the Digipix blog at the top of the site but only after a bit of searching. I'd recommend adding at least your first name to your about page.

No Contact Me -

I wanted to send you a couple of links and the next point privately however I could not find any way of contacting you privately. Shoot me an email - the link is at the top of my sidebar - and I'll send them to you.

The Alexa Redirects -

Despite what someone might have told you, Alexa redirects don't help you with your Alexa ranking. It does make people new to your site a little reluctant to click on your links, though. What is 100 times better is installing the Alexa widget. That then counts every hit to the site - on every page - because it is in your sidebar. I have two links which talk about this as I said above.

What helps you get a good Alexa ranking is to create content which is stumble-worthy, that stumblers (the majority of whom have Alexa installed) are going to love. I'd suggest putting a few of your photographs as posts, with just a small amount of text - maybe a meaningful quote that you like - and then stumbling them with photography related tags. One good photo can drive you good traffic for *months*.

Disclosure -

Your disclosure policy link should lead to *your* disclosure policy. Instead it links to the disclosure policy website. I couldn't see a disclosure policy of your own anywhere on either blog - though there was a URL on the disclosure policy image on Broken Perfection which seemed like it might have been it, the page did not load. I kept getting an error.

Calendars -

I am not sure why calendars appear on any blogs, ever. I know what date it is where I am, and it's never the same date as where your blog is because I live in Australia! It's a bit of a waste of space which you could use for something else.

Michelle, the reviews I have written might not be what you were expecting but I hope you can accept my constructive criticisms as helpful rather than hurtful. However anyone that loves Ikea is ok in my book. ;) My favourite photo - and post - was this one.

Beach Creek

2007-10-21T21:01:00.000+10:00

The Other Half got home early yesterday and we went for a beach walk. Here are some pics!

Click on the photo for a bigger image.

Surf The Wave

2007-10-21T20:44:00.000+10:00

Bloggers, there's a new kid on the block when it comes to paid posts. bloggerwave is possibly the best looking pay to post site I've seen yet anywhere on the web.

So if you are a blogger looking for something new and different, you should sign up with Bloggerwave today! There's no harm in giving new kids on the block a go. Some of the older companies are paying less and expecting more.

I signed up, and it looks good so far. ;)

Bloggers Are Helpful

2007-10-21T11:22:00.000+10:00

I have been collecting some of the best articles about blogging together to share with my readers. Here are some of the best I've found. If you are a blogger, you will find something interesting below, enjoy!

3 Reasons Why People Like List Posts More

4 Ways to Check Your Blog’s Health

5 Blog Structures To Consider For Your Blog

5 Crucial, but Invisible, Wordpress Plugins

5 things that you MUST do manage comments on your blog

5 Myths About Copyrighted Material

5 Reasons to Fear Your Readers

6 Reasons Why I DON’T Use Adsense on Most of My Sites

7 Encouraging Must-Read Articles For The Blogger Just Starting Out

7.5 Reasons I Abandoned You Today

9 Essential Tools for Bloggers

9 Ways to Beat Writers Block on a Personal Blog

10 Easy Ways To Improve Your Blog Writing

10 Simple Ways To Get Banned By Google

10 Tips for Increasing Comments on Your Blog

10 Tips to Writing a Successful Blog Post

11 Pointless Blog Posts that Waste my Time

12 Surefire Steps to Make a Big Splash in the Blogging Toilet

20 Surefire Ways To Beat Writer’s Block

25 Blog Topics to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

31 Days to Building a Better Blog - 2007

34 StumbleUpon Posts That Aren’t Crap

50 Tips to Unclutter Your Blog

51 Great Places To Find Wordpress Themes

60+ Resources for New Bloggers

75 Ways to Increase Your Site’s Traffic

101 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog

233 Social Networking Sites for Marketing Your Blog

A Better Blogroll Widget For WordPress

Add Your URL to SEO Friendly Directories FREE

All About RSS

Am I A Good Blogger?

Are readers obligated to appreciate bloggers?

Backlink Watch

Being a Good Blogosphere Citizen

Beginners Guide to StumbleUpon

Best New Features of Wordpress 2.3

Bloggers: Are You Ready For Writer’s Block?

Blog Reading: Patience Pays Off

Blog Rush or just Blog Mush?

Blogrolling and Commercial Promotion

Blog Searching

Blog Wrap Ups Made Simple And Easy

Building a Support System via Guest Blogging

But Does All That Blogging Get You CLIENTS?!?

Catch New Readers Up On The Basics of Your Blog

Check Your Site Stats Here - Xinu

Claim Your StumbleUpon Blog through Technorati

Creating An Eye Pleasing Post

Converting Visitors Into Subscribers

CyberCelt's Paid To Blog Series

Design Decisions that Annoy Readers (pt.1)

Design Decisions that Annoy Readers (pt. 2)

Display the latest posts from your favourite bloggers on your blog

Do I Need My Own Blog Domain?

Does Monetizing Your Blog
Cost You Readers?

Don’t Be Your Own Worst Blogging Critic

Find Your Blogging Voice

Five Tips for Getting Traffic From Stumble

Free for all, two new Technorati icons

Fresh Badge Generator

Google PageRank Simplified

Handy Blog Tips

How do you link to yourself? Anchor Text for Internal Links Matters

How To Create Rippin’ HTML Title Tags

How To Find Hidden Links In Your Site

How to Draw StumbleUpon Users Into Your Blog

How-to: A twofer for Blogger Blogs - Add Co.mments - Add StumbleIt

How-to: Integrate your feed with FeedBurner

How-to: Add a Google Search Box to your blog

How To Survive A WordPress 2.3 Upgrade

HTML Quick List

If Your Blog Disappeared, Who Would Miss It?

Increasing Your Stumbleupon Network

Is your blog duplicate content proof?

Make Money Online: 100+ Tools and Resources

Your Blog Can Be Whatever You Want It To Be

Improving popularity of your blog

Paid Reviews: Can You Go Too Far?

Plan When You Post Before You Publish

Playing with Plugins

Productivity Tips for Bloggers

Readers Behaving Badly

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs - SEO

Search Engine Optimization For Yahoo

Simply said...How To Blog

Six Ways Blogging Differs From Other Types of Writing

Stumble Karma

StumbleUpon Networking: How to Easily Share Content and Build Relationships

The 7 Types Of Visitors

The 20 Blogging Commandments

The Easiest Way To Kill Your Pagerank

The Great “Blog Rush” Roundup

Things to Avoid: What Makes Me Nervous When Reading Your Blog

Things To Avoid Series

Thirteen Blog Clichés

Top 7 blog mistakes to avoid

Top 10 Sins of Blog Usability

Two Ways To Hide Your Secrets from Google (and Everyone).

Web Safe Typefaces

Where Did They Go From Here

Which WordPress Plugins Do You Use?

WordPress Themes Revolution

Why does my Feedburner Subscriber Count Fluctuate?

Why I Will Not Make Money With DealDotCom

Why You Need Your Own Hosting Plan: Keep your blog from vanishing!

Why You Should Write a Pillar Post

Writing Kick-Ass Posts When You’re In A Rush

Aussie Tradition - Working Overseas

2007-10-21T09:49:00.000+10:00

Many of my friends from school took a year off after finishing high school to go and work in the UK. It's a bit of an Australian tradition. Some of them didn't return after their year was up because they were having such a great time. On weekends off they'd catch a flight to Europe - even back in the days before the cheap airlines it was so much cheaper than fares in Australia. So they got to see quite a lot of the world before starting their university studies. It used to be more difficult than it is today - now we have the internet, so you can line up your work before you go. There are literally hundreds of jobs in London listed on the net these days.

I think it is a great idea to do that because you learn a lot about yourself and more importantly you learn about earning a living, paying rent, living away from your parents and more about what kind of job you want to do. Most of my friends would do bar jobs in London, sharing a flat with other Aussie friends to make living expenses cheaper. Often this meant they could work in a bar part time when they returned home to have a bit of spending money while studying.

One of my good female friends who is a primary school teacher is about to go over for a year, visiting family and working in a primary school. She set it all up over the internet via the London jobs website before committing to going. I'd love to give it a try myself one day.. :)

Take Me To My Beach

2007-10-19T16:06:00.000+10:00

I love my beach! In just over a week Daylight Saving starts here in New South Wales, and The Other Half and I will be doing evening beach walks. There's a lot of wildlife and usually dolphins there in the evening. I'll be taking the camera, so you get to go with me.. well sort of, anyway!

We Use A New Hotel Booking Site Now.

2007-10-19T15:20:00.000+10:00

The Other Half has been going to training in Sydney lately. Unlike normal training, he's had to book all his own accommodation and keep the receipts to get reimbursed. We've been using a new website to do the bookings after we found it was a lot cheaper and a lot more organised than other sites - check it out for yourself at Cheap Sydney Hotels.

One thing I really love about Sydney is Darling Harbour. Check out their great range of Accomodation in Sydney at Darling Harbour. I have stayed in the Ibis and the Mercure there, both are excellent. There is so much to do at Darling Harbour including Sydney Aquarium which is one of my favourite hang outs and let us not mention the fabulous Lindt Cafe. ;) Lest everyone goes there and buys all the Lindt!

So if you are going to Sydney, get yourself a great deal. Cheap Hotels in Sydney are available to all who want them! And note, the Marriott which I stayed at last time? About $150 cheaper on this site than what we paid to stay there through the other site I shall not mention. We took this photo from our hotel room window at the Marriott - His training has been full on so he hasn't had any time to do the tourist stuff, but the last two times he has stayed at the Sydney Airport Stamford which is a plane spotters dream hotel. ;) I'm so jealous but I couldn't go with him. Maybe this last trip in a couple of weeks I might go but I need somewhere to hang out all day while his training is on.. ;) Though I guess I could hang out at the airport, being the plane spotter that I am..

I love this photo..

2007-10-19T15:00:00.001+10:00

I've been going through my old photo albums grabbing these pics and putting them aside for my thought of the day series. This one is so pretty, with the rainbow metallic feather effect. ;)

Got Student Debt?

2007-10-19T14:59:00.001+10:00

I was watching Oprah the other day and there were a couple of people on the show who had over $100,000 in student loans. I can't believe that any country would allow their kids to start working life with such huge debts. It's a terrible thing to have debt hanging over your head and these poor kids are stuck with it for years.

We've got a few debts here and every few years we consolidate them. I'm glad to see that some companies like NextStudent in the US offer Student Loan Consolidation - it is a way to get rid of your debt faster. Put it all together, and then focus on making bigger payments to just one loan. They also offer Private Student Loans if you're needing that kind of thing, and they have a lot of great resources on the site for students, too.

So if you have a lot of student loans weighing you down, Student Loan Consolidation might be the best way to tackle the situation. And here's hoping the next American President can sort out college funding for people, so that students don't have these huge loans in the future. It's just not a fun welcome to working for anyone.

Welcome Back To Me Again!

2007-10-19T14:45:00.000+10:00

Just another note to let you know I have moved. I'll keep posting them until you unsubscribe from this feed, and resubscribe to the new one over at my new home. There's still about 60 of you missing. And you're missing out on a lot of great posts over there, seriously!

Please join me today at my new home ~ Snoskred- Life In The Country ~ See you there!

I'm about to post some reviews here, just so you know.. ;)

Cheers!
Snoskred

Los Angeles Lawyers.

2007-10-13T10:52:00.000+10:00

As a scambaiter I have had to deal with plenty of *fake* lawyers. It's nice to be able to tell you about some real lawyers for a change. Kestenbaum Eisner & Gorin LLP have over 50 years experience between them and they are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Many of the scam victims I speak to are in the USA and many of them end up arrested for check fraud. They have to find a good lawyer fast - and the people who do not tend to end up in jail for 6 months or more.

So if you're in LA and you're in legal trouble, Kestenbaum Eisner & Gorin LLP can help you.

Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorneys | California Felony Misdemeanor DUI Lawyers

My Own Lolcat

2007-10-13T09:44:00.000+10:00

I'm not a huge fan of the LOLcats but my kitty was just begging for this one..
I was talking about "about me" pages the other day and how people on blogger would benefit from having one. If you are on Blogger and you do not have an about me page but you would like one, send me an email and I'm happy to host one for you on one of my domains. You write it, I'll format it prettily and upload it. You can link to it from your sidebar. Only because I love my blog readers and I have the spare space.

Christmas Is Coming

2007-10-11T15:04:00.000+10:00

Christmas does not get celebrated very much in our family. Frankly, I struggle with that. I want to buy nice presents and I *love* gift wrapping things when I'm in the right mood for it.

I love things that sparkle, real pine Christmas trees, Christmas lights, all that stuff. But what would I like to find under my tree?

I want the Yonka Pamplemousse. It's in my store at Amazon. It is the best smelling moisturiser I have ever used. CouponChief have several Amazon coupon codes available - there's free shipping for orders over $25 which is exactly what I need. Brilliant!

I would like some more Hemp products from The Body Shop. I have been using the Hemp Hand Protector lotion for a while now and I would love to try the Foot Protector lotion too.. There are Body Shop coupons for free shipping as well!

It's a long drive from here to the nearest Body Shop, so free shipping is always my favourite discount..

May I suggest getting your promo codes today and do your Christmas shopping in the comfort of your own home without having to worry about parking and people and noise. I love internet shopping. ;)

Tuesday 9th October - Thought For Today

2007-10-09T12:00:00.000+10:00

When you have a dream you've got to grab it and never let go.
Carol Burnett

This is absolutely the truth. So many people will try to destroy your dream. You should never let anyone take your dreams away from you. Let them mock and laugh your dream, if they like. Ignore it. You're allowed to have a dream.

Monday 8th October - Thought For Today

2007-10-08T13:08:00.000+10:00

That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.
Dorothy Parker

Sunday 7th October - Thought For Today

2007-10-07T12:20:00.000+10:00

It takes too much energy to be against something unless it's really important.
Madeleine L'Engle

Saturday 6th October - Thought For Today

2007-10-06T13:10:00.000+10:00

Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence.
Sholem Asch

Friday 5th October - Thought For Today

2007-10-05T12:00:00.000+10:00

If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor.
Sebastien-Roch Nicolas

Thursday 4th October - Thought For Today

2007-10-04T12:00:00.000+10:00

You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think.
Mortimer Adler

Wednesday 3rd October - Thought For Today

2007-10-03T14:30:00.000+10:00

Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
Confucius

Tuesday 2nd October - Thought For Today

2007-10-02T12:15:00.000+10:00

We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.
Whoopi Goldberg

Monday 1st October - Thought For Today

2007-10-01T12:00:00.000+10:00

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.
Carol Burnett

Sunday 30th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-30T14:15:00.000+10:00

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
Confucius

Saturday 29th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-29T12:02:00.000+10:00

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.
Benjamin Franklin

Friday 28th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-28T14:15:00.000+10:00

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Mahatma Gandhi

Thursday 27th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-27T12:16:00.000+10:00

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
Confucius

Wednesday 26th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-26T12:37:00.000+10:00

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.
Madeleine L'Engle

Tuesday 25th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-25T11:06:00.000+10:00

Make friends with your past so you can leave it at last.
Revolution - Robbie Williams

Monday 24th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-24T14:29:00.000+10:00

Adulthood isn't an award they'll give you for being a good child. You can waste... years, trying to get someone to give that respect to you, as though it were a sort of promotion or raise in pay. If only you do enough, if only you are good enough. No. You have to just... take it. Give it to yourself, I suppose. Say, I'm sorry you feel like that and walk away. But that's hard.
Lois McMaster Bujold

Sunday 23rd September - Thought For Today

2007-09-23T09:12:00.001+10:00

Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.
Richard M. Nixon

Saturday 22nd September - Thought For Today

2007-09-22T13:42:00.000+10:00

(Women and) Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
Aristotle
(I added in the Women And - I never know quite what to do when a quote says "men" and yet it applies to both sexes.)

Friday 21st September - Thought For Today

2007-09-21T12:53:00.001+10:00

You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.
Demosthenes

Thursday 20th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-20T20:31:00.001+10:00

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.
Margaret Thatcher

Wednesday 19th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-19T11:45:00.000+10:00

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
Edward R. Murrow

Tuesday 18th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-18T12:01:00.000+10:00

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Monday 17th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-17T15:37:00.000+10:00

Wouldn't it be a better world if all of us started our relationships with curiosity instead of assumptions?
Meno
(I asked Meno for permission to post this a little while back :) and she said yes. Today is the first day I didn't have pre-blogged before we started moving, so here it is.)

Sunday 16th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-16T11:43:00.000+10:00

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers

Saturday 15th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-15T11:55:00.000+10:00

Your fears are not walls, but hurdles. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquering of it.
–Dan Millman

Friday 14th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-14T12:00:00.000+10:00

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
Abraham Lincoln

Thursday 13th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-13T12:00:00.000+10:00

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Mother Teresa

Wednesday 12th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-12T12:30:00.000+10:00

If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.
Dale Carnegie

Tuesday 11th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-11T12:47:00.000+10:00

We can say 'Peace on Earth,' we can sing about it, preach about it or pray about it, but if we have not internalized the mythology to make it happen inside us, then it will not be.
Betty Shabazz

On September 11th 2001, terrorists did some terrible things. For some people it had little effect, but for my friend Sephy who happens to have his birthday on this day and for my friend Mark from the UK who lost his uncle in the attack and for all plane enthusiasts all over the world life changed forever. Today my thoughts are with those who lost loved ones.

Happy Birthday Sephy and thank you for everything you do for me.

Monday 10th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-10T12:00:00.000+10:00

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
Gandhi

Sunday 9th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-09T12:00:00.000+10:00

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.
Leo Buscaglia

Saturday 8th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-08T12:00:00.000+10:00

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Mahatma Gandhi

Friday 7th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-07T12:03:00.000+10:00

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
Albert Einstein
(Photo = one of the wild pods of dolphins in Jervis Bay - my new dolphin friends!)

Thursday 6th September - Thought For Today

2007-09-06T13:47:00.000+10:00

Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us; but simplicity and straight forwardness are. Write much as you would speak; speak as you think. If with your inferior, speak no coarser than usual; if with your superiors, no finer. Be what you say; and, within the rules of prudence, say what you are.
Alford

Wednesday 5th September

2007-09-05T12:48:00.000+10:00

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.
Thomas Dewar

Welcome to 2007

2007-01-03T01:04:00.000+11:00

This is going to be my year of telling people what I really think, I think. I'm sick of pretending otherwise. If people don't like it, they can feel free to fold it up and stick it where the sun does not shine. :)

A few things have occured already this year to make me think I'm not going to keep my mouth shut on things when they bother me. One was the COPS marathon. I have sent two letters already to the tv channel responsible for that absolute disgrace - it lasted less than 24 hours, and they repeated episodes, some up to 5 times in less than 14 hours. COPS has over 650 episodes. That's 19 500 minutes, or 13 days 13 hours worth of episodes - at 30 mins each including all the ads which was how they were running it. They could have played different episodes for over 13 days!

The second was a fruit purchase. Well, not exactly fruit - mandarin pieces in jelly. When I went to eat one of these tasty looking snacks, it was strangely odd looking, until I realised the use by date was the 4th of December and they were actually growing a white mould on them. I'd bought them on the 24th of December. That's bad.

I also intend not to keep my mouth shut when things are good - I have been drinking some amazing apple juice which I bought at the good fruit and veg shop on the weekend, and I am sending the manufacturers of the juice an email to let them know :) It's in these 2 litre big glass bottles which take up heaps of space in the fridge, and I loved it so much I am already plotting Tupperware purchases of jugs that fit nicely in the fridge door. I've run out of juice now and I'm sooo thirsty for it, it was icy cold and gorgeous.

The really cool thing about giving good feedback is you often get rewarded for it, so I'm all for that.

I have not heard from my sister since the visit of evilness. She has spoken to my mother and apparently feels no desire to speak to me anytime soon. That's fine, that's her choice. I wrote her an email (which was my choice of how to sanely communicate with her) but I have not sent it, mainly because I sent it to Sephy so he could edit the nastiness out of it, and he wisely seems to have pretended to forget all about it, probably hoping I will get less angry in time. But I'm not actually, and I found out she sent the kids for another visit with her ex against the good advice of *all* of us. It's more convenient for her lifestyle but it really messes the kids up and I think she needs to think about them and what is in their best interests for maybe the first time in their lifetime. So I kinda need that email rationally softened by your wiseness sometime soon, mate :)

And finally, in hilarious fashion, Karma has come back to bite Birdsnest in the ass.. You all remember birdsnest? The evil bitch at my parents work who would never speak to me? Probably not. A few days ago she was sent home from work, quite ill - they suspected she had chickenpox. She didn't actually, nobody knows what she's got, but it consists of ugly big red spots all over herself as well as what seems to be a rather unpleasant lung infection of some kind. She's not able to go anywhere. People would run screaming. In fact all the staff were terrified she would give whatever she had to them!

Apparently she and a "friend" were babysitting a house with a jacuzzi and they got in it - it must have had some evilness in there and nobody knows what. These things can actually get quite serious from what I know - you can catch some very nasty diseases if you don't keep spas in good condition.

There's a lesson for all in this - if you put nastiness and negativity out there, bad things will come to you as a surprise. Karma will come back to bite you eventually, it's just the truth.

A confession..

2006-12-16T01:07:00.000+11:00

This may turn out to be the lamest post ever on this blog but I'm going to admit it.

The last few nights, at midnight, after the other half has gone to bed, I've been secretly bawling my eyes out. And the reason why is..They've been re-running the episodes where Dr Mark Greene dies.

What is it about Anthony Edwards that makes him so capable of creating characters who, when they die, you just can't help but cry? Is there anyone reading this who did not shed a tear when Goose was killed in Top Gun? If there is, probably you didn't see the movie, right? And that was a short movie, ER was 177 episodes.It's not just about the character of Dr Greene, it was about the history of the show. I was a fan of the show from the beginning and to watch the relationships build between Dr Green and people like Carter was a thing of beauty. And I guess because I knew the show so well, I recognised a lot of the things they did during these final Dr Greene episodes, the passing of the baton from Dr Greene to Dr Carter, the scenes which were in the pilot where Dr Carter said the exact same things to a new medical student that Dr Greene had once said to him so many years before. The little things that mean a lot.

So when they played all these episodes the first time, it was on channel Nine (we call it Nein here) and really they messed it up, they played episodes out of order, they would play a new one one week, and the next week just grab any old episode to drag out the season. It didn't really have much impact on me. In fact I didn't manage to catch all the episodes. So much did I miss, that I thought the pay tv people were playing them out of order! But I have checked, and they are in order.

Anyway, I don't think any of this will make much sense to someone who wasn't a fan of the show, or to people who didn't like Dr Greene as a character. And it's not like it's making me sad when the show itself isn't on. And it's just tv, and this is just a character and not a real person, and terrible things happen to people every day, and stuff. But I figured I would mention it, try to get it out of my system or something.

What I loved most about Dr Greene as a character was his compassion, his patience, and his passion. So I'm sad that they killed him off when he decided to leave the show. And I didn't really watch much of the show after that happened. But I have some of the DVD's - seasons one and two, which are just incredible writing wise and acting wise etc - and also contain George Clooney and Julianna Margulies and all the other good cast members, and you could tell they were all enjoying what they were doing as far as making this series. They're so cheap now, I might collect the rest of the series, up until his departure anyway.

So goodbye, Dr Greene..

And goodbye, Goose..

I love that goofy smile.. :)

This one's for I'm Not Craig..

2006-12-15T16:56:00.000+11:00

I couldn't decide which was the best one but I like this one.. ;)

I'm still alive!

2006-12-14T18:17:00.000+11:00

Jaws did not eat me, and while I saw jellyfish washed up on the beach, if they stung me I didn't know it. The water was pretty wavy today, so we didn't stay too long at the beach we went to yesterday, it was impossible to snorkel there, too evil. So we went to this other place all the surf shop people told us about called Stony Creek, its a freshwater creek that meets the sea, and we were the only ones there, and it was fantastic. I saw fish in the water! That was so much fun, I wanna do it again.

I have now been fully underwater in the sea, which is something I have *never* done before. I just have always been terrified of it.

So now we're planning a trip on Monday/Tuesday next week, to Narooma and Mystery Bay. I couldn't find many decent pics of it on the net, so I'll have to take them myself.. ;)

200th Post

2006-12-14T12:55:00.000+11:00

Houston, we have wetsuits.

You have to understand, the deepest I have ever been in sea water is about calf deep. This is because I saw JAWS at an early age. I am absolutely terrified. I can't even explain it to you. But I want to give this a try.

And my wetsuit is not full length, so jellyfish could get me :(

NO FEAR!

and so be it, I guess.. :)

(jellyfish is doing a little dance in my head) (lets hope those are the only ones I see today)

Today we go out..

2006-12-13T19:31:00.000+11:00

For a little drive. We went to some beaches! YAY!First we went to Murray's Beach, where you may hike, sightsee, bicycle and fall off cliffs. You may not light fires, camp, or stick spear things with ropes attached into fish, as you can see in this picture. We walked through a little forest (300 metres, according to the sign) and the forest was quite pretty and possibly a little scary.Then we ended up here. We started walking down the beach this way but soon after the other half was surprised by a naked man venturing out of the bushes and into the ocean. He promptly suggested we go the other way. I did not even notice they were naked, I was too busy taking photos of shells. He was most disturbed as there were children on the beach and felt it was very inappropriate. I disagreed, hey, if they want to let it all hang out, and nobody's arresting them, and it doesn't say on the sign you can't take off your clothes, I don't mind them wandering around in their birthday suits. I would be much more offended by a dog on a beach than a naked person. Then he said he was worried they might think we were trying to take photos of them, as we have such a huge lens and all. I said, well as long as I am pointing it at the sand and shells, I don't think they'll be worried about that, but hey, there's rock pools over there, lets go that way. It's lucky we did go that way, because we made a new friend After a nice long beach walk, we decide to leave.
Other half was not happy because I had sandy foot (both were sandy but this is a photo of one of them and the only photo of me ever on this blog as yet so enjoy it) and no place to wash off sand. I said not to worry, I will vacuum the car. And I will, one day, probably right before we sell it. ;)

So we get back in the car and venture off to other beaches. We drive to Jervis Bay (the entire bay is named that but there is also a town named that) and I cannot show you a photo of a wallaby standing right beside the road because I apparently do not point very well. I'm yelling "Look over there, look over there!" and pointing wildly at the side of the road at this rather large brown creature, and the other half was unable to see what on earth all the fuss was about. We drove back around the block to see if we could see it again, but it must have crossed the road.

And now here is a photo of the beach that belongs to the Navy. In an interesting change of procedure, they have actually something that resembles a port nearby. *near* WATER! I have always found it hilarious that there is a Navy base in Canberra, with only a manmade lake nearby and nowhere to launch ships within a 100km drive. But they do have all those handy helicopters and jets and stuff.

All the places above are a part of Booderee National Park. All this less than 50kms from my doorstep. Wow, I's lucky. :)

Tomorrow, I may show you more pics from this lovely drive! Except we loved this place so much today, first thing in the morning we're going to check out snorkelling gear and wetsuits. Well, a wetsuit for me at least, there's jellyfish in those waters, and it's a little cool. :)

It is entirely possible

2006-12-13T11:32:00.000+11:00

that the real estate woman who is supposed to be inspecting these premises will in fact leave bundled up in a rolled up carpet in the back of her vehicle.

I don't think I blogged about this when it happened back on the 6th, but the woman turned up here to inspect my house at 11am that day. She'd sent me a letter saying the 6th originally, then soon afterwards a new letter arrived saying the 13th, so that was when I was expecting her. Not the 6th, when I was actually fast asleep when she arrived, and the house was not clean, because duh I wasn't expecting her.

She has a key to the property. I heard her insert the key into the door. For some reason, she did not turn the key, and she left. Then about 3:30pm, I got a pissy voicemail message saying she came here for the inspection and she was "Unable to access the property" - hello? What, couldn't she manage to turn the key? Was some magnetic force dragging her back to the car? WTF? And the tone of her voice, well I was ready to rip off her head and you know.. leave her running around like a chook with its head cut off.

So I did not call her right away, I calmed down first, with coffee. Then I rang, at 4:55pm, and was put on hold for about 10 minutes, then she gets on the phone, I say who I am. She has the tone, again. She says "When would be a convenient time for you" and the dripping sarcasm on *convenient* almost pushes me to start treating her like I talk to the 419 scammers. However, I have to be nice, right?

So I say "How about Wednesday the 13th of December?" "I actually am not doing any inspections that day" "Oh yes you are" "What do you mean?" "I have a letter here telling me you would be here on the 13th. That's why I was not expecting you today, on the 6th." She loses all her pissyness, crumbles into a little ball of "I don't know how that could have happened, it must be a mistake, the letters are printed automatically". So we arrange the inspection for today, between 10am and mid-day.

It's now 15 minutes left till mid-day, no sign of her, and the longer she leaves it the more pissy I get, and the other half is home here with me today and he is starting to get scared. He suggested not long ago that I go for a walk, or take the car and go *shopping*. By myself!

Ooh, the doorbell rings.. back later.

Edit to add - that was the quickest inspection in the history of man, she was here less than 5 minutes. I tried to stay in here. :) So now we can go out, yay!

Its not how big it is..

2006-12-12T16:19:00.000+11:00

Really, it's not. It's the *quality* that is important. Which is why when we last bought camera equipment, we threw money (about $7,000) to the photo people and bought this.

Yes, it's a crappy pic, I took it with my camera phone. Well, how can you take a photo of the camera with the camera? Doh! It's a Canon d10 camera body (quite old now, they're onto the d30 now I think) but the more important part is the L series lens. I can't explain why it is important, it just *is*. It enables me to take some incredible pics. It is the heaviest thing I've ever carried. You need to go into training to take this to the zoo for a day, I'm telling you. It's not easy to carry it around.

However, it is *worth* carrying it around because you get some incredible pics. I've got like 10,000 of them on this computer. I can't even dig through them to pick out the great ones, there's too many and I have chores to do.

But I'll let you in on a little secret. When I'm taking my photos of the day, I hadn't been using this lens. It was just too heavy to get started with. I wanted to get into the habit of taking them often, and plenty of them, and I knew the bigger lens would get in the way of that. So I've been using a much smaller one. And getting very nice results, even if I do say so myself.

All that changed on the 2nd of December, when I finally decided it was time. I've been using the big lens since then. You can see all my pics here.

Now I hear you guys all going "But why did you spend so much money?" - We'd had 5 digital cameras over the years, none of them worth less than $2,000, and none of them comparing even slightly with this one. We finally had learnt the lesson - If you are going to do something, do it properly. Don't mess about. Invest wisely. It's worth it. Even if you have to put it on the credit card. Life is short. Spend it while you can.

A photo a day for 30 days..

2006-12-12T05:18:00.000+11:00

results in this..

We also now have set up a page for one photo a week, if you think you could manage that head on over there and check it out, sign up, we'll send you an invite to the blog.

It's a little easier than a photo a day. With either project, the whole idea is really to get you using your camera more often, and learning from other photographers on ways you can improve your pics, and most of all to have fun with it!

I have a very nice sense of accomplishment to go with my 30 photos. Just think, you could have that too! :) NICE!

So a bit of an update..

2006-12-11T20:26:00.000+11:00

on google reader. Because if you are not using this, you should be. It's fantastic. I went into this without having a clue how to use it. The first time I created a folder I wondered what the heck I'd done, and desperately tried to find a way to delete it.

Now I have all my blogs organised into folders (Faves, Nablopomo, Scams, Updated-Often, Rare-updated, and share ok - that's where the bloggers who have said I can share their posts in my little side window thing are, makes it easier to keep on top of it, am I already sharing your blog? If not, can I share your blog? If yes leave a comment!) and I can read all the unread posts from the blogs in that folder just by clicking on it. This saves me a massive amount of time and effort.

It's really easy to set up, and once you play with it and get used to it, you'll grow to love it as much as I have. The only downside is it sometimes takes a little while for posts to turn up there, it can be up to a half hour delay. But what's half an hour between bloggers? :)

One thing I am going to do, over the next week or so, is visit all the blogs I am reading with google reader and let them know I am still reading their posts. That's the only downside to google reader - you don't visit actual blog pages as often unless you want to comment. And for the last 2 weeks, I've been all commented out. Sorry about that!

I just made a little cheesecake and a startling confession to the other half who now wants to either disown me, or buy a cheap big screen tv so his is not defiled by me watching Desperate Housewives on it..