Linkfest No. 17

Stuff I thought was worth sharing...

Karen Healey, at Attention Rebellious Jezebels, reviews books "in dialogue style in a spoilerific manner that often renders in-depth, wonderful works nonsensical" and is also highly amusing.

Charlotte of Charlotte's Library asks Where are the Good Mothers in Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy?

Ladysquires at Shitty First Drafts explains Why I'm Not Proud of You for Correcting Other People's Grammar.

On the subject of the Ethics Classes trial:

• Teaching Ethics as an option to non-scripture at Motherhugger.
• Practical things you can do to help - a post in the discussions section of the St James Ethics Centre Facebook page Towards an Ethics-based Complement to Scripture in NSW Primary Schools
• Deborah at In a Strange Land is tempted to say, "Diddums"

Friday fragments and Linkfest No. 15

Hosted by Mrs4444.

When you get to the bottom of this post don't forget to come back up here and click on this link to Half-Past Kissin' Time so you can go check out all the other fabulous Friday Fragments posts!

I missed fragmenting last week and I've barely blogged at all recently, I ought to have a whole bunch of stuff to offload. Let's see what's lurking in the corners of my brain...

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I spent Saturday night in a small, inadequately air-conditioned room, with a fabulous group of women from the Hoyden About Town blog community, singing loudly and hilariously for 3 hours. Karaoke is so much fun even if it does result in a sore throat the next day. We did everything from Meatloaf and Cold Chisel to Abba and Simon & Garfunkle - there was even a rickrolling courtesy of FP. I'm already looking forward to next time!

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David's first 2 days of high school at the end of last week were a great success, he came home happy and excited, telling us all about his classes. Then on Monday and Tuesday he went to the Year 7 Orientation camp at Vision Valley and came home exhausted and miserable having been separated from his friends both for the activities and for sleeping arrangements, fed pretty crappy food, and generally having a rotten time. What a massive waste of time, effort and money. I had to bully him out of bed and off to school on Wednesday morning, he was in tears and I was so close to giving in and letting him stay home. I had a good cry myself after he'd gone and spent the day in a state of anxiety over whether he was going to have an ok day. Fortunately he came home much happier again, it seems actual classes at high school are a Good Thing. Except for PE - he's not at all pleased that they're doing bush dancing.

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We've been harvesting quite a good crop of tomatoes from Tom's vegetable garden, perfect for slicing nice and thick and having with cheese on Sao biscuits.

Tom's tomatoes

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Things with my Dad have been slowly improving and we're on our way to having the money side of his life sorted out. I'm now managing his finances so if things start to go off the rail again I should know straight away. I feel somewhat weird and conflicted to be in this role especially as when Dad is well he really should be perfectly competent to look after all this stuff himself. I'm going along with him to his next psychiatrist appointment so I can have a chat to his doctor about it too. Dad's still pretty vulnerable but he's a lot better than he was 2 weeks ago and I'm fairly confident that he's not going to end up in a major depression. So that's good.

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I finally got myself a Diva cup after more than a year of intending to do so. It is awesome. That is all. (Actually, I can say plenty more so if anyone has questions - ask away!)

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I finished reading the first Sookie Stackhouse book, I enjoyed it enough that I instantly picked up the second one and started on that. Good thing I bought the box set of 7. The fact that it took me a week to get through the first book says something about my state of mind though, I'm finding I can't concentrate on a book for more than 30 minutes at a time. Stress sucks.

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And now for some links:

At Hoyden About Town Lauredhel posts on the ILCA press release "For Haiti Orphans Wet Nursing Can Save Lives"

At Upside-Down Adoption Atlasien posts about "The Dangerous Desire to Adopt Haitian Babies"

Chally of Zero at the Bone hosts the Thirteenth Carnival of Feminists

I need one of these.

Jill at Feminitse posts about "Tim Tebow and the anti-choice Superbowl ad" and also links to a YouTube ad responding to the Tim Tebow ad featuring Sean James and Al Joyner (none of whom I know anything about but apparently some people are interested in the stuff these people do and say).

Deborah's new car and new hair made me laugh :-)

Friday Fragments and Linkfest No. 14

Hosted by Mrs4444.

I've less of my own fragments and more of the linkfest stuff to share this week. Don't forget to pop on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time when you're done here and check out all the other Fragmented Friday-ers!

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After watching all three extended version Lord Of The Rings movies this week David came to me at bedtime tonight and asked "Where's The Hobbit?" Amazingly enough I actually knew where one of our copies was. A few minutes later I could hear him giggling to himself as he read. To appreciate the true significance of this it's important to understand that David, aged 12 and 3/4, could count on one hand the number of full length novels he has read. And I know for a fact that one of them he started half-way through. I'm holding my breath and hoping this might be a turning point.

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At the end of December my good friend Jen and I went out to lunch at The Buddha Belly (the website is a work in progress), a restaurant in Terry Hills. The food was fabulous, we will be going back. Lots. But what I really liked about the place was the surroundings, you sit outside on wide covered verandahs overlooking gardens and a carp pond. A carp pond with the most enormous fish in it.

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Looking to donate towards disaster relief in Haiti? Posts with info on which organisations will do the best with your money can be found at Hoyden About Town, Bitch PhD, Shakesville and Greta Christina's Blog.

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Do you visit Astronomy Picture of the Day? I have it in my feed reader but I often leave it unread for weeks on end. Which is silly, because the images are awesome in the true sense of the word. Nebulas are probably my favourite astronomy images, galaxies come in a close second. As a teen I had a poster of the Horsehead Nebula in pride of place on the wall above my bed.
Orion's Horsehead Nebula
The Flame Nebula
Spiral galaxy M94

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TED talk - Photographer James Balog shares new image sequences from the Extreme Ice Survey

Click here if you can't see the embedded video
(via my cousin at slightlyodd.com)

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There's a lovely interview with Judith Kerr, author of the Mog books and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, at the Guardian.
(via Penthe at life or books?)

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Did everyone see the coconut shell carrying octopus? If not, well, you should. Now, I could just embed the video here, but instead I'm going to send you over to Save Your Breath For Running Ponies where you can watch the clip, read a bit about the research behind it and have a good giggle at the story at the end of the post. And then you can lose yourself for several hours rummaging through the archives and following a whole bunch of links to new and exciting places and filling up your feed reader with a whole bunch of new blogs. At any rate, that's what I did.

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Squirrel ingenuity at Twin Cities Naturalist.

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Ummm...yep, that's all I've got for now, do share your cool interweb finds in the comments!

Friday Fragments and Linkfest No. 13

Hosted by Mrs4444.

I won't be around to comment on everyone else's Friday Fragments till early next week, we're off camping at the beach for the weekend - wish us good weather and kid-friendly surf!

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Monday morning's car trip to school conversation went like this - Tom: Mum, how old do you have to be to mumble mumble mumble? Me: I can't understand what you're asking. Tom: *repeats* Me: It's like you're speaking a foreign language! Tom: How old do you have to be to have sex? Me: *enlightenment dawns, he was spelling S-E-X and I just wasn't parsing it because I wasn't expecting it*

I do love these philosophical challenges pre-caffeine and with only 2 minutes to adequately answer the question. I think I said something about the age of consent in NSW and the fact that even if you're "old enough" it's not whether you're allowed to that matters, it's whether both you and the person you're with really want to and if you both feel ready for the sort of commitment that being that intimate entails - only with smaller words.

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David went to his end of Year 6 dinner on Monday night.



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From David's page in his school yearbook

• People I Most Admire: My dad because he does medieval re-enactment.
• When I Grow Up I Want To Be: A happy adult.
• Where I See Myself in 10 Years: Successful.

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Caitlin won first prize in the singing section of the school talent quest and Tom came third :-)

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We watched The Fifth Element with the kids on Wednesday night, they hadn't seen it before because David has always vociferously protested that he Does. Not. Want. and we've always given in and watched something else instead. It was the same with Star Wars way back when, we practically had to hold him in a headlock on the couch to make him watch it. Apparently if it's something Dad and Mum like it couldn't possibly be good. But on Wednesday Adam and I told him we were watching whether he liked it or not and when he said he'd go sit in the study we were even meaner and told him he had to sit in the lounge room.

When we got to the bit where the Diva is singing and Leeloo starts kicking butt Tom got very excited and said "I love it when the girl is not the damsel in distress!"

Oh, and do believe David quite enjoyed the movie after all. I apologized for making him sit through it and he said "Yes, it was a bit silly."

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Linkfest time!

Feeling like doing a virtual culinary tour of Sydney? Check out the list of Sydney food bloggers at the end of Helen's post about the Sydney Food Bloggers' Christmas Party.

I HAVE to cook this sometime: Momofuku Bo Ssäm (slow roasted pork)

Continuing the food theme and adding maths to the mix - The Mobius strip bagel. I don't usually eat bagels but I think I may need to go buy some just for this.

Tim Minchin's White Wine in the Sun is available to purchase as a single and 50% of the proceeds from December sales will be going to Autism research.

Friday Fragments and Linkfest No. 12

Hosted by Mrs4444.

A tossed salad of bits and bobs from the week just gone with a touch of things to come for extra flavour. Be sure to pop over to Mrs4444's place for other fragmentary offerings for today!

1. On Wednesday afternoon my 12 year old walked into the loungeroom , smiled at me and said "Hi Mum, you're awesome." I can live with that.

2. The second dwarf gourami is dead and we're down to one rummy nose tetra in Tom's tank. I'm not buying anymore fish till after Christmas, that should give all the tanks plenty of time to stabilise and I'll have more time to pay proper attention to them after that too.

3. On Wednesday night I had forgotten that Adam's mum was coming for dinner and I had done nothing by way of so much as deciding what we would eat. I think I was leaning towards toasted sandwiches but that wasn't really and option with a guest to feed. Emergency pasta sauce time! One diced onion, 2 heaped teaspoons of minced garlic, a bit butter and a splash olive oil - fry till onion is soft. Add 800g tin of chopped tomatoes, plenty of dried basil and oregano, and a small sprinkle of dried chili flakes and simmer. Slice 2 chorizo and cook in another pan, drain fat and add chorizo to sauce. Serve over spaghetti. YUM.

4. Tonight we went to the school's Band and Choir Christmas concert. Caitlin is in the choir, which sang beautifully and was clearly having lots of fun. They have a wonderful director, she's done such great work with them over the year. The Training and Concert Bands played a few pieces each, I usually manage to hear the bands play early in the year and am always most impressed by how far they've come by the end of the year. I particularly liked the Concert Band's rendition of "Born to be Wild" - I count it a win if I come away from one of these things with an earworm I can actually enjoy!

5. This Saturday we will be attending a rally in the city in support of same sex marriage

6. Linkfest time - a collection of stuff I think is worth sharing.

Does Twilight deserve any "feminist defense"? from tigtog at Hoyden About Town.

Hoydenizens About Town - a skills showcase and marketplace for the Hoyden About Town community.

Greta Christina on Atheism and Friendship.

Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy on Giving Thanks.

And to finish off, some light entertainment. No doubt everyone has seen these already but I'm sticking them here anyway 'cause that way I can find them again later!

Muppets Bohemain Rhapsody

Click here if you can't see the embedded video.



Five Star Wars status updates - Star Wars comes to Facebook on CollegeHumor.com

Link-fest No. 11

Tor.com is publishing Cory Doctorow's next novel in serial form.

A Friday Fluff piece by Fillyjonk on Shapely Prose had everyone answering the question "What does your soul look like?" I think mine is an old, well loved, leather bound book with gilt-edged pages and the sort of story that you re-read often - comfort food for the brain.

Pavlov's Cat is asking for people to share their first memories of reading over at Still Life With Cat.

I cannot for the life of me come up with any clear memory of reading prior to The Hobbit when I was in 2nd grade. Obviously I was reading before then, quite voraciously by all accounts, and I know intellectually that I'd read certain books (many, many books in fact) before I read the Hobbit, I just don't remember the experience. Or where I do remember reading books I know I had read earlier, it's subsequent re-reads that recall.

I certainly don't remember learning to read even though I wasn't a particularly early reader. Mum tells me she had decided not to actively teach me before I went to school but I gather I picked it up pretty darn quickly once I started school. There are books I have loved reading to my kids because they were favourites from my childhood but which my mother had never read, apparently because once I could read I preferred to read to myself.

I have very few clear memories of early childhood in general though so it doesn't really surprise me that this is the case.

Via Tigtog at Hoyden About Town, check out this fabulous wedding vid.


And last but not least, Ariane has been on a blogging roll lately, check out her posts on a review of Sydney Park, the presence of fathers at births and Charlie's Hat.

Link-fest No.10 now with DUFC!

Stuff for you to read.

A whole series of posts at Hoyden About Town on the subject of the proposed
"Harmonisation" of Disability Parking Permit Schemes in Australia - for harmonisation read narrowing of eligibility criteria - and the need to protest against the proposal. There are open letters to use in adding your voice to the protests and a Facebook group to join.

I am Dr Tiller - "This website was created as both a memorial to the lifework of Dr. George Tiller and as a living testimony to the courageous lives of abortion providers."

The Mum Files - a new project from my lovely blog-friend Lisa and her friend Ligia, click on over and say hello!

JoGeek at Unapologetically Fat has been posting a series titled Sewing At Any Size which almost makes me want to haul out my machine and start creating. But only almost. I do, however, expect these posts to come in very useful when I eventually force myself to get some more re-enactment costumes made.

The 13th Down Under Feminists Carnival is up, this month it's hosted by Demelza at SAHM Feminist.

Point me at your interesting finds in the comments people!

Link-fest No. 9

The Shapelings (that will be the commentariat for the uninitiated) are in fine form of late over at Shapely Prose. Among many recent fine posts we have a critique by Sweet Machine of the latest "fat is contagious" kerfuffle that leads to the introduction of Coconut Crabs and Fillyjonk's quick hit on the subject of the monotony of articles about fatness that has spawned an epic comment thread with some beautiful rants about the absurdities of how mothers are perceived and expected to behave.

Wil Wheaton has been having fun with Rock Band.

Alix at Casa Hice has been telling the romantic and highly amusing story of Love at First Sight and her fabulous Vegas wedding. Alix is a damn fine story-teller, check out her Tribute to Lulu series too while you're over there, the first post is here.

The 2008 Aurealis Awards have been announced.

Neil Gaiman has won the Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book.

There you have it, the stuff I'm inspired to share with you all today. What cool stuff have you been reading on the intertubes?

Link-fest No.8

Random stuff that I like and a few ways to waste time.

Stephen Fry blogs about language.

Otto the octopus wreaks havoc.

Cath at The Canberra Cook keeps posting recipes which I read and think "Must cook that" (but because I'm incredibly lazy when it comes to cooking I have yet to try any of them). Her Christmas Cake sounds fabulous, I should have started it several weeks ago....

I'm not sure just how much of the periodic table I'd have been able to fill in back in the days of university chemistry lectures but I do know that the number of elements I can recall off the top of my head now is depressingly small. Though I'm sure doing it while sitting in front of the Roman Mysteries on DVD isn't helping (the kids are pretending not to be interested while sitting with eyes glued to the screen).

My score on the geography quiz is slowly improving, I only occasionally end up on the wrong continent now.

more animals

found posted in the comments thread here

Lauredhel linked to this a while back: Test your colour IQ. I scored 20, whatever that means.

What fun/interesting stuff have you come across lately?

Link-fest No. 7

Random linkage for your amusement/edification.

Zero Punctuation - "Zero Punctuation is The Escapist's groundbreaking video review series starring Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Every Wednesday Zero Punctuation picks apart the games so you don't have to." Is funny :)

Darths and Droids - webcomic of Star Wars as a Dungeons & Dragons game.

Gagging For It - "An Australian Comedy Portal: news, reviews & performance details - where to find your comedy around Oz." Wish I could go see more live comedy.

Geek Crafts - a blog collecting links to all sorts of, well, geek crafts. Check out the crocheted Dark Mantle, click through to the original post too for more photos.

Joss on Whedonesque, with the latest on Dollhouse

Link-fest No. 6

Feel like reading something silly? There's a new post up on yogabeans!

A review of Deadwood on Heroine Content.

Train your goldfish with a training kit from ThinkGeek.



Ninja cat comes closer without moving



PhysioProf and Dr Isis are engaged in a recipe war. I find it oddly compelling.

The Vorkosigan Companion will be mine.

My lovely friend Susan has a new blog featuring cats and vegan food porn for your reading pleasure.

And lastly, The Rotund has managed to convince me that taking the kids to Disneyland/Disney World might not be a completely terrible idea. Caitlin will be ever so grateful! LOL

Link-fest No. 5

Another random collection of stuff.

The world's most bad-ass grotesques and gargoyles in a post on deputydog.

I'm insanely jealous of Kate's new favorite form of exercise.

Lois McMaster Bujold has finished chapter 5 of the new Miles book, yes, I'm tragic, I know. *is in love with a fictional character and can't wait for a new fix*

John Scalzi is evil and Wil Wheaton is a good sport.

The Guild Season 1 DVD is available. It's awesome. You should watch it and possibly buy it.

Link-fest No.4

Another random collection of stuff to read.

The August edition of the Down Under Feminists Carnival is up at Audrey and the Bad Apples.

One of the reasons I'm not watching the Olympics (or watching very little anyway): Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town posts on women athletes' uniforms.

The 2008 Hugo Awards results have been announced.

Check out Tor.com, there's short stories, news and a community to join.

There's a new Serenity comic on-line at MySpace Dark Horse Presents.

And finally, who would ever have imagined there were so many possible Zombie Rhymes? lilacsigil contributed one of my favourites:

Who are the rulers of zombie dwarves?

THAAAAAAAAAANES

Link-fest No. 3

John Scalzi has a shareware short story available for download: “How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story” You can download it for free then, if you like it, send money!

Jay's Conversations with Patients make me laugh.

Blue milk on the fact that maternity leave is not a holiday.

California Supreme court overturns gay marriage ban.

"The California Supreme Court ruled today that same-sex couples should be permitted to marry, rejecting state marriage laws as discriminatory."

Now, if only we could follow suit here in Australia.

I discovered the Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans and have been following links all over the place.

Grab Your Fork makes me hungry and also makes me realise I should try out some of the restaurants close to home.

And on that note, time for lunch - home made pea and ham soup, here I come!

Link-fest No.2

Fillyjonk at Shapely Prose has something to say about making the most of the body you're living in now instead of waiting till you're thin.

John Scalzi has finished the manuscript for Zoe's Tale shares some thoughts about the writing process.

I found my way to yogabeans! via Fussy - surreal....

I recently discovered Pioneer Woman, she writes a pretty good love story, takes gorgeous photos and cooks with a truly terrifying amount of butter!

Link-fest No.1

Not sure how often I'll post one of these, probably whenever I've collected a decent number of links and before they get too out of date.

On Alas! A blog Myca links to a series of essays titled "Christians in the Hand of an Angry God" posted by bradhicks on his LJ. (The LJ posts are 3 years old but still well worth a read.)

blue milk is asking "What does a feminist mother look like?", subsequent posts on her blog have some of the answers she's received. I may get around to posting my own response eventually.

Kate Harding has a post on Shapely Prose titled "Reality vs. relativism" about dieting and weight loss surgery.

Some of my friends had a great time at the Hub convention on the weekend, Leish has a recount on her LJ: Muhneys and Mcnabs and kangaroos, oh my!