Election Day bits and bobs

I had a fabulous time on Friday night, eating, drinking and talking into the wee small hours with good friends. Thanks to Toni for having us at her house, to Ariane for yummy pumpkin and potato and leek soups and to Cate for scrumptious apple dessert and a boyfriend who drove me home at 3:00am.

We started our day with breakfast in the sun on the front deck and then went to the kids' school to sell sausage sandwiches for 1.5 hrs to those lined up to vote and then came back to the polling place up the street from our place to do our democratic duty. I did my little bit to contribute to the 5.3% swing to the Greens in the House of Representatives in our electorate (we're in one of the safest Liberal seats in the country, it's look for the bright side or despair) and to the election of NSW's first Greens senator. We seem to be in limbo at the moment with a hung parliament the most probable result. We are therefore opening another bottle of red.

In cheerier news Adam and Tom made soft pretzels today using this recipe and they were awesome.

I found myself obliged to tackle lounge room corner the third this afternoon because I needed to move the cabinet in that corner in order to reach the TV aerial and plug it in to the wall socket behind the cabinet. We've been without broadcast TV since I accidentally unplugged the aerial when plugging in the Christmas tree lights at the beginning of December last year.

Impressive isn't it?

Now, that looks better...but wait, what's that behind the coffee table?

Ah, that'll be tomorrow's project!

Now, you'll have to excuse me, I have red wine to drink, vintage cheddar to nibble and inconclusive election results to obsess over.

Julia Gillard, Prime Minister

I really hope the timing of this doesn't prove to be a mistake. But aside from that...

Wow, how awesome is this? We have our first female Prime Minister. Congratulations Julia, now, don't stuff it up.

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"

A few words from an Ethics trial class student

My niece attends one of the schools involved in the Ethics classes trial. Yesterday her mum posted a photo on Facebook of an article appearing in their local Village Voice newspaper in which Annika is quoted on the subject of the ethics classes.

Click to embiggen

"I think the ethics classes are really fun," Leichhardt Year 5 student Annika Rees said. "The teacher gives us situations like whether we think something is fair or not, and then we discuss the topic and give our own opinions. It's important because it gives us an opportunity to see other people's point of view and perspectives on things without anyone being right or wrong. That means we feel like we won't be judged on our answers and gives us a chance to justify what our perspectives are."

So there you go, a small glimpse of the view from inside the Ethics classes trial :-)

(Also, way to go Annika!)

Thursday is Scripture day at school

This afternoon Tom came home with a 1964 pre-metric Australian penny that he'd been given by his Scripture teacher for remembering the weekly Bible verse. I asked what the verse was and he quoted - Peter said "You are the messiah, son of the living God." I asked if he thought that what the Bible claimed Peter had said was true and he looked at me like I was silly and said "No" with an undercurrent of "Duh!" So then I asked if he'd told his Scripture teacher that he didn't believe it, and he answered "HELL NO!" Which struck me as rather amusing. It also made me go and print out Penny Sharpe's petition in support of the St James Ethics Centre school ethics classes trial.

The provision by law of a period of time each week for Special Religious Education, taught by volunteer "scripture teachers" recruited by the churches, in NSW schools is a legacy of a deal made between the government and the churches back when public education was just being established. The Education Department ruling that students who opt out of SRE may not be given any useful instruction during that period is not codified in law, is unjust, and must be challenged.

My kids go to Scripture because they'd rather stay in their classrooms with their friends than go to the library and twiddle their thumbs. Approximately once a month I remind them that they have the option of not going, if the alternative was something other than thumb twiddling I'd haul them out of SRE so fast you wouldn't see them for dust. I feel a vague guilt that I'm not making a point by having them opt out, but it doesn't feel right to use my kids as pawns in a political or ideological exercise so I let the decision rest with them. No doubt if we lived in an area with a higher proportion of non-religious types there'd be a critical mass of kids opting out and my lot would be in the library watching dvds and colouring in along with half the school.

The St James Ethics Centre has developed a course designed to provide "an ethics-based complement to SRE" and which can be offered as a "meaningful secular alternative during the allocated time for SRE." This ethics course is currently being trialled in 10 Primary Schools in NSW despite frantic efforts to stop the trial, in particular by the Anglican and Catholic churches. There is also an ongoing campaign being waged against the possibility of the Ethics course being favourably reviewed at the end of the trial and subsequently being rolled out to all schools.

I really, really hope that the trial is a huge success and that the decision makers in the Education Dept and in the NSW parliament do not allow themselves to be swayed by the loud voices of a well organised religious lobby and I'm not going to simply hold my breath and hope over this, I'm going to do what I can to make my voice heard and let the government know that there are many, many voters who disagree vehemently with the things being said by people like Peter Jensen. I'll be writing emails and voting in polls and talking to people in my community and I think I'll print out a few more copies of that petition and get to collecting signatures, if you live in NSW you might consider doing the same.

Bye, bye November

It's been fun, I've written 12 times as many posts as I did last month making it through my third NaBloPoMo with relative ease and, I think, only minor irritation to my family.

We have 2 and a half weeks of school left for the kids, that's only 12 days of primary school to go for David. I got his high school orientation info pack today, so many pieces of paper, so many forms to fill in, fees to pay (I'm interested to see that these include a voluntary $100 per student donation to the P&C - wonder how many people pay that?), new systems to learn, it's all a bit overwhelming.

There's a nice vague handout about the Religious Education program at the school with references to "inter-denominational" "non-threatening" and "significance of religion" which as far as I can see equates religion with Christianity and completely disappears any other faith, or lack thereof. I'll be interested to see an outline of the lesson program (the handout offers one on request). It's a program that was introduced when I was at the school, I remember it as being monumentally tedious, and that was when I was heavily involved with one of the churches that developed and still financially supports the program. There's a notable lack of references to the optional nature of Special Religious Education and no indication of what kids who opt out would be doing during that time - I'm not surprised by this and I don't believe there are any regulations that require that information to be offered, but it's interesting.

I'm tired. My head is full of little, and not so little, things I have to do, or remember, or talk to people about, or go to, or shop for. I have speeches and reports to write for the P&C. Work is relatively busy. November was a fairly hectic month for us and I really just want to stop for a while, but December promises to be just as full-on. I'm so looking forward to the holidays, I plan on sleeping and reading and playing games and not being in a hurry to do anything.

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

More thoughts on Scripture in schools

I started to respond to comments on my previous post on the subject but it was getting kind of epic, so I thought I'd better chuck it all in a post of its own. This may be a little disjointed! (BTW, Scripture = Special Religious Education, or SRE, but no-one calls it that.)

A couple of people made reference to the thumb-twiddling in the library being not such a bad thing, I must admit I very nearly included a disclaimer in the original post to the effect that I was quite sure the kids were perfectly happy with the thumb-twiddling :-) Actually I believe my kids' school encourages reading which is something I'd have been very keen on as a kid had I been at all aware that Scripture class was optional.

My memories of Scripture are of some poor sodding volunteer coming into a classroom full of kids who saw the lesson as something they were not required to take seriously, like being a substitute teacher, only worse because you have no hope of convincing the kids that anyone cares if they don't do the work. As for the subject matter, it was pretty much exactly the same as we were getting at church in Sunday School, very much of the indoctrination of impressionable minds variety.

From what I see of the stuff my kids do in Scripture now it's also very definitely of the teaching dogma variety and not at all of the comparative religious studies style, and really why would it be anything else? These classes are largely being taught by volunteers who are doing it because they believe it's important to bring the kids into the fold not because they want to equip them to understand the various world religions. When your kindergartner comes home on a Thursday afternoon and tells you very seriously that all the houses in your street were made by God, or that Adam and Eve were the first people, or that the whole world was flooded and wasn't it a good thing that Noah was around it becomes very clear that myth is being taught as fact and that I have a problem with.

It's quite true, as Toni mentioned, that some schools positively encourage kids to visit all the different Scripture classes, my nieces have done a bit of swapping around between Protestant, Catholic and Buddhist classes at their school. Perhaps the nature of the classes is different in other schools, perhaps there are whole cohorts of enlightened Scripture teachers out there delivering lessons that invite a critical analysis of the subject matter, which incidentally is perfectly possible even with 5 year olds. Hey, my Mum has done a bit of Scripture teaching in the past, but the last time she did so (filling in for a friend) she was so disgusted with the curriculum materials and the lesson plans that she was expected to follow that she swore never to do it again.

From St James Ethics Centre on Facebook:

Those schools that have completed an expression of interest in being a pilot school are confirmed as participants in the pilot. They are Darlinghurst, Crown Street, Ferncourt, Rozelle, Hurstville, Bungendore, Neutral Bay and Baulkham Hills North Public Schools. Another school is 80% through the process. There is room for just one more.

Don't suppose there's much hope of grabbing the last spot for our school.

Ariane mentioned one of my big doubts about this whole exercise - where are the volunteers to teach ethics classes going to come from? I know the churches often have a fair bit of trouble filling the volunteer roles to teach scripture and they have a presumably highly motivated pool of people to draw on. I, of course, find myself answering the question in my own head with "perhaps I should..." at which point the other half of me jumps up with a cartoon sledgehammer yelling "don't you DARE think about volunteering for anything else" and squishes the idea flat. It's all very well saying "What a wonderful idea, we should definitely have ethics classes offered in all schools" but that's not going to be much use if there's no-one to teach them.

Mind you, even if there aren't enough teachers to go around, there'll be some no small victory in breaking the anachronistic hold of the churches on that half hour of SRE a week should the trial be deemed successful and the NSW Dept of Education and Training' policy on the matter changed to allow the classes to be offered across the board.

Interview time

I've been a little slow with this one! Back at the end of January Liz at Eternal Lizdom invited her readers to request an interview from her, which I duly did. Shortly afterwards, her questions arrived in my inbox and I opened a draft post, began to write, got stuck and it's been sitting there ever since. Today I determined to finish - and here it is.

This is one of those pass-it-on meme type things so if you want me to interview you, leave a comment and say “Interview me!” and I'll send you 5 questions to answer. Liz also invited her readers to ask their own questions of her, that seems fun too so if there's anything you want to know about me, ask away!

Now, on to the interview:

1. What's in your fridge? What do you have to always have in your kitchen? Brave enough to share a picture of your fridge or pantry?

I like having a well stocked fridge and pantry so the answer to both of the first two parts of this is usually much the same. These are things that are in my fridge pretty much all the time: milk, cheeses (low fat slices, fetta, brie, smoked cheddar, edam), ham, salami, devon, butter, margarine, eggs, bacon, pickles (dill, sweet mustard, onions), mustards (dijon, wholegrain, american), kalamata olives, capers, anchovies, juices (breakfast, lemon, lime), salad dressings (balsamic, coleslaw), sauces (soy, fish, oyster, sweet & sour, worcestershire, tartare, cocktail, tomato, BBQ) mayonnaise, spreads (jams, lemon curd, lime marmalade), minced garlic, chili paste, wasabi, carrots, tomatoes, baby spinach, cos lettuce, shallots, cucumber, broccoli, mushrooms, lemons, grapes, apples, low fat sour cream, yoghurt.

Here's a photo of my fridge post-party after yesterday's BBQ, the bottle of Coke makes me cringe, I hate the stuff, but the containers full of left-overs will make meals today nice and easy.

My pantry I hate, it's a horrible design with half the shelving tucked into the corner on the left and accessible only by people with extra long arms and x-ray vision.



The oven used to be above the bench beside the pantry, when I got a new one it wouldn't fit in the same spot so Adam built these shelves for me to sit in the now empty space. My pantry shelves go right back to the wall behind the spice rack.

2. What's your parenting philosophy? Do you wish there was something you'd done differently? What concerns do you have as you move forward in your parenting journey?

I don't know that I've ever tried to articulate what I do as a parent in terms of a philosophy. I've just done what felt right, what worked. I listen to them to find out what they need. I've always explained why when I'm asking something of them. I'm honest and open with them, if I'm grumpy and impatient I'll tell them I know I'm over-reacting to things and that I'm sorry (but that they'd better bloody well cut it out or my head will explode!) I tell them I love them all the time. I make a conscious effort to notice and say thank you when they do good things. I tell them how proud I am when they make an honest effort at something.

The one thing I wish we'd done differently was not to have bought so many gorram toys. We indulged them because we could and we paid for it. Kids who think they are entitled to stuff are not pleasant creatures. I had to do some pretty heavy-handed deprogramming on that front when David was about 6. Even now they have a habit of assuming that pretty much anything is theirs for the asking and then being terribly put out when we don't deliver. I'm often heard exclaiming "Which part of "NO" are you having trouble understanding?!" (Actually I exaggerate, they're not too bad now.)

I'm looking forward to watching them grow up (a lot!) and as we approach the teen years I'm conscious of the need to keep communication lines open and of the potential difficulties that come with negotiating the transition from authority figure to friend. I hope that I've established a strong enough foundation of trust and respect between us that when the hormones kick in it doesn't get too horrific! But mostly I just plan on taking things as they come.

3. I know you love to read. What 5 books have had the greatest impact on your life?

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - I read The Hobbit when I was 8 years old and we were living in the US for a few months. It led me to read The Lord of the Rings as soon as we got back to Australia and my Dad could dig out his old copy - a single volume paperback edition. I took 3 months to read TLOTR and it was the beginning of my love for SF&F. (As I sit in the lounge room with my laptop the kids have the Return of the King DVD on, I keep getting distracted and watching the movie instead of writing.)

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut - my first encounter with serious hard sci-fi, this was lent to me by my year 7 English teacher.

The Bible - does that seem an odd pick for an atheist? I grew up as a member of the Uniting Church (an organisation for which I stil have a great deal of respect), my understanding of human nature, my ethics and my morality have as a foundation things I learned from reading and discussing the Bible as a child and teenager. It would be dishonest of me to leave this complicated, beautiful, terrible, very human book off this list.

One day, possibly when I was still in primary school, maybe early high school, I picked up a book from my parents' shelves, the title of which I don't even remember. It was a history of and comparison of religions. Learning about the history of religions and the huge variety (and also the sameness) of religious thought across time and cultures was both fascinating and enlightening.

I'm going to have to stop at 4 because I can't pick out any other single book as having had a notably significant impact for me. Everything I read teaches me something, that's one of the things I love about it.

4. What is your Aussie impression of the US? If you could have a 5 minute, private conversation with President Obama, what would you tell him? What do you want Americans to know about Australia?

Oh my. This one's a bit tricky. See, my last in person experience of the US, back in 1985 was as a miserable 14 year old who had been dragged away from her first boyfriend to come and live in Boulder, Colorado for 5 months while her father was on sabbatical and working at NCAR and the HAO. I hated it. My favourite shows were not on TV, and we had no money to spare so we didn't have cable. I felt out of place at school because the subjects everyone else was doing didn't match up well with the Australian curriculum and I ended up with a very peculiar timetable which had me spending time with and befriending people who were up to 3 years older than me. On the up side one one of those older friends saved my sanity by turning out to be a D&D playing, sci-fi reading geek and thus a veritable soul-mate. Plus, she lent me all her Alan Dean Foster books to read - thanks Kris, I wish I'd managed to keep in touch with you back in the days of snail-mail.

Erm, I'm rambling.

I don't see the US as a monolithic entity that it would be reasonable to make any blanket statements about. I feel resentment at the ubiquitous American cultural influence on Australia but I have a passionate love of certain American TV shows. I hated the way the Howard government sucked up to the Bush government but I know that Australia does benefit in certain ways from a close diplomatic relationship with the US (there are some big disadvantages too unfortunately). I'm disturbed by the level of hatred shown by some sections of the US population to other human beings but I know there are people just as bad here in Australia (and everywhere else) and that there are many Americans who fight every day for an end to such prejudices.

If I was to be in a position to speak privately to Obama I think I'd be hard pressed to think of anything to say beyond "Good luck, watch your back and please, please, please bite the bullet and get universal health care happening for the US!"

What do I want Americans to know about Australia? Hmm, let's see...I know! You know all those stories about Australia's dangerous, deadly wildlife? They're ALL TRUE! Especially the one about drop bears. Also, Vegemite is the most delicious thing ever and you must try it one day.

5. Why do you blog? What got you started? What do you get out of it?

For me blogging is a creative outlet, a way of participating in a community and a way to record things that I don't want to forget.

Way back in my teens I was a pretty regular diarist (note to self: you really should dig those old diaries out and get rid of at least some of them - yes, I've still got them) but I hadn't done any journaling for years. I didn't keep a pregnancy diary, I never filled in those Baby Books I was given when the kids were born and I was an absolutely chronic at forgetting to bring the camera when we went out somewhere.

When I started Weight Watchers (again) back in Feb '06 I got involved with the forums. WW, in their wisdom, has very limited forums - no pics, peculiar defaults for the display and sorting of topics and threads etc - so many people were keeping a blog to document their "weight loss journey" and I hopped right on board. When I look back over the first, say, 18 months or so of my blog I'm sometimes tempted to do some pruning. There's a lot of stuff in there that irritates or saddens me now but there's also a bunch of kinda cool stuff too and my past is part of who I am today so I baulk at getting rid of it.

By now I'm thoroughly hooked on the journaling aspect of blogging, I'm now prone to responding to events by reaching for my camera and thinking "I have to blog this!" (I'm not always quick enough with the camera though.) I have visions of the kids, or indeed myself, reading this stuff years from now (to which end I may use this one day). I love being part of the blogging community. I love the laughter, learning, challenges to think, companionship, the chance to commune with like minded people, the discovery of common ground in diversity.

And I get a huge kick out of the fact that there are people out there who have never met me and actually want to read what I write.

Yeah, time to 'fess up, it's all about the ego boost folks. So leave comments dammit!

Political spectrum quiz

It's a blog quiz so it must be true.

My Political Views
I am a left moderate social libertarian
Left: 7.28, Libertarian: 2.94

Political Spectrum Quiz

My Foreign Policy Views
Score: -6.97

Political Spectrum Quiz

My Culture War Stance
Score: -8.1

Political Spectrum Quiz

Actually I'm not arguing with these results, if I go to the original Political Compass site it shows that I sit somewhere near Gandhi and the Dalai Lama on the spectrum. I'm cool with that. Not sure what the culture war result is supposed to mean though.

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

via Shakesville.

Damn, I found out about this one day too late

Following links from this post at Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony I discovered that last night I missed watching the Australian TV premiere of the documentary A Well Founded Fear.

From the film's web-site:

The Australian Government sends back asylum seekers it doesn't think are refugees. International law says people shouldn't be sent to unsafe locations. But the Australian Government never finds out what happens to the asylum seekers they don't want. So a determined Australian with a passion for justice has made it his mission.

A Well-Founded Fear is a moving documentary film about Phil Glendenning's search for the asylum seekers Australia rejected. The film follows him as he travels through Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, Iran and Canada.

I really wish I'd known it was on, I must make sure I keep an eye out for other opportunities to watch it.

Back when my kids were little some of my mum's friends, and when she could my mum too, were involved with visiting refugees who were being detained. Hearing the stories of those people and knowing how completely and horrifically wrong the Howard government's treatment of asylum seekers was, would leave me consumed with anger and sorrow for our failings as a nation. When we finally got rid of Howard, a change in Australia's treatment of refugees was very high on my list of things to be hopeful for.

Internet censorship in Senate Question Time today

Lauredhel of Hoyden About Town has posted a transcript of Greens Senator Scott Ludlum's question to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy about the government's proposed mandatory ISP level internet filtering. There are further links and discussion in the comments over there too.

Every time I think about this my head just goes all asplody with the stupid. It's so bloody OBVIOUS that it can't work the way they hope it will, that any filtering measures put in place will be bypassed by those who want to before you can say boo and that the attempt to restrict access to "unwanted" internet content is problematic at best (as Senator Ludlam asked in his supplementary "Will the Minister provide us a definition of what he means by “unwanted content” and where we might find a definition of “unwanted”?"). And then there's the issue of degraded internet performance.

Gah!

Prop 8

Yesterday the Californian people voted for change when 61% of them gave their votes to Obama. But they also voted against change when they passed Proposition 8. It seems 52% of Californian voters could not find it in their hearts to say no to a constitutional amendment that would say to some of their fellow citizens "you are not good enough to share the same rights and privileges that I have".

I had hoped.

I had hoped that logic and compassion would prevail.

I had hoped that the bigotry and hatred of the Yes on 8 campaign would be seen for what it was and rejected by the voters in California.

I had hoped because where the US leads Australia often follows and the rejection of Proposition 8 would have been a strong step in the right direction.

I had hoped but when I saw the results coming in that hope was replaced by a feeling of deep sadness.

To everyone who is affected by the passing of Prop 8, I am so sorry.

California Proposition 8:
Ban on Gay Marriage
This measure would amend the state constitution to specify that only marriages between one man and one woman would be recognized as valid in the state. If passed, the measure would trump a May 2008 ruling by the California Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage.

I always miss historic moments

But not today.

This afternoon I came home with the kids after spending pretty much the entire day at the school doing canteen duty, helping out with refreshments for the Kindy orientation and giving my intro to the P&C speech for the second time. I opened up my laptop and was greeted with the news that McCain had conceded and the USA has as President-Elect one Barak Obama.

I was just in time to jump on board the Hoyden's live blogging of the event (in mostly lurker mode) and the kids, Adam and I sat in the lounge room with the live, net-delivered streaming video of the Grant Park rally up on the big TV.

I had tears I tell you, and he's not even going to be my president. I felt the same heart-swelling relief and happiness that I felt when we here in Oz got rid of John Howard (which I barely posted about at all, I think I was too overwhelmed to be coherent!). I like that my kids got to see the moment when the US got its first black president, they probably won't remember in later years, mostly they were a bit bemused by all the fuss being made, but I'll remember. Oh yes, I'll remember.

Congratulations America.

More on the Hillsong thing

Further info on the Hillsong run "personal development course" - another article in the SMH, Hillsong accused of closet zealotry.

What on earth possessed anyone to think that letting a religious group run a class for the kids who have explicitly opted out of any religious studies was a good idea?

"The teacher's federation representative for Cheltenham Girls High, Doug Williamson, said non-scripture students at the school were being invited to join the Shine program, where they were exposed to religious content."

At least in that case the parents were apparently informed that Hillsong was running the course and had to sign permission slips for their kids to attend (not that that makes it ok). It would seem that's not always the case.

"A parent from another Sydney school said students at her child's school were automatically enrolled in the Shine program if they chose not to attend scripture."

This, however, makes me proud both to be a Greens voter and a P&C member (I'm the P&C president at my kids' school).

"The NSW Greens yesterday called for Shine to be suspended while allegations that it put an unhealthy and inappropriate emphasis on physical appearance were investigated. It joined the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens in expressing concern that the program could damage the self-esteem of the at-risk girls it purported to help."

I do hope they'll be addressing the issue of the inappropriate religious connections as well as the physical appearance stuff.

Pottery and politics

Today we voted then drove for 40 minutes to the leather supplies place where we spent more money than planned because there's no point going that far if you're not going to make it worth your while.

Then it was back home grabbing lunch on the way, we picked up some stuff and headed up to Gosford to the Huscarls meet. Today was a craft day rather than training, we had 12kg of clay to play with. People were making oil burning lamps, bowls, jugs and cups. Adam and I managed a very nice ewer (him) and 5 cups (2 him, 3 me), so if they all survive the firing process we have a full set for the family. Caitlin went crazy and made 4 pieces herself, the boys didn't get involved but I reckon they'd have fun with it if I get some clay for us to play with at home.

We got so caught up in watching the election coverage that we forgot to put the kids to bed! It was nearly 10:00pm before they were tucked in - oops! I'm sitting here watching on the ABC as Howard arrives to give his concession speech...here goes...and it's done. Hallelujah.

Fans4writers

Fellow Browncoat JenskiJen is on holidays in the US...sort of. While she was in LA, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. And Jen, being Jen, volunteered to help out the fandom support campaign. The full story is on her LJ but to save you the trouble of an extra click you can read it all here ;-)

Writers on Strike - Fans4Writers Campaign
You would think that when I travel all the way from Australia to the US to go on a holiday, I'd just relax and have fun, right? Um... well, see... while I was in LA, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. And I kinda volunteered to help out the fandom support campaign. And boy, has it steamrolled!

If you don't know about the strike, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk

In response to the strike, we have formed Fans4Writers.

Fans4Writers is a movement born from fans of Joss Whedon, at WHEDONesque.com. As supporters of the people behind the scenes, who develop and write the stories that have meant so much to so many, we wanted to do something tangible to show them that we support the Writers Guild of America strike.

Our first foray out to the picket lines was to deliver pizza to the writers at Universal Studios, to feed the bodies that have fed our minds. You can read about it at http://whedonesque.com/ws/

It quickly became clear and necessary for the effort to encompass more than a single fandom. As such, Fans4Writers is not just for Whedon fans. It is not just for "genre" fans or television fans. This effort belongs to fans of ALL striking writers.

So, what are we doing?

The fans4writers.com site is currently being fine tuned, and will have all the details of our campaign, as well as resources to educate and spread the word.

What kind of things will the campaign include?

DIRECT SUPPORT

Through our "Food for Thought" program, we will organize and facilitate the delivery of provisions to writers on the picket lines. In addition, fans will gather to join their favorite writers on the picket lines.

MORAL SUPPORT

Through a planned ad in Variety or other major outlet, we will tell the industry -- and the public -- in no uncertain terms that we support the writers' right to a fair deal.

LONG-TERM SUPPORT

Should the strike be of any significant duration, we will contribute to the Guild's strike funds to assist affected writers.

FOUNDATION SUPPORT

At the conclusion of the strike, any remaining funds will be donated to the Writers Guild Foundation to support its charitable and educational activities.

While the studios might not be prepared to value the writers highly enough to offer them a fair deal, the fans will commit themselves, their time, their energy, and their money to show just how highly WE value them. For as long as the strike lasts.

Our message is simple - "Don't write until it's right."

WHAT CAN I DO TO BE INVOLVED?

Check out fans4writers.com (currently under construction). In addition to the details of the "Food for Thought" and other campaigns, we will inclulde many ways that you can help, from boycotts to postcard campaigns, and much more. We have a Paypal link set up should you wish to donate.

Spread the word about the campaign!

We want to be able to support all writers, but we understand that some fandoms would prefer to take the lead themselves. With this in mind, we are structuring our fan support campaign in such a way that individual fandoms can use the formula and conduct their own campaigns. We would ask that each fandom who chooses to do this select a campaign head, and liaise with us. This way, all writers will be supported, and no picket line is neglected.

If you would like to volunteer to help us deliver "Food for Thought" to the picket lines in Los Angeles or New York City, please email us at fans4writers@gmail.com, and leave your contact details (including phone number and availability).

If you would like to become involved and organise an affiliate campaign, please have the campaign head contact us, so that we can support each other.

Remember, without the writers, there would be no fandoms. And without us, there would be no studios.

Yours in solidarity,

Fans4Writers.com

Email: fans4writers@gmail.com
LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/wga_supporters/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19177889752
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/fans4writers

I almost wish I still lived in Marsfield

I spent the day with my almost 97 year old grandmother today. She's kind of amazing, still in very good health for her age, mentally sharp as a tack (regularly beats the socks off my mum playing scrabble) and always has something new and unexpected to tell me when I visit.

I was telling her that my good friend Ariane popped out a baby girl this morning (welcome to the world Elissa!) and so we got to talking about names and how so many of the names from her generation are no longer being used. Among other names, she mentioned Isabelle, which is one of the few that are still in use and I said we knew a number of Isabelles. And my very proper grandmother confessed to me that she and her friends used to tease Isabelles by saying "Is a bell necessary on a bike?". Hidden depths! LOL

We went down to the dining room for lunch and sat at Grandma's usual table with Betty and Jack. Betty was full of the news that Maxine McKew was going to be coming to the retirement village to talk to the residents. They'll be a tough audience I imagine! Next was the possibility being discussed in the media that John Howard may lose his seat to Maxine. I took great glee in clasping my hands in supplication and intoning "Oh dear god - please!" to the ceiling. All three looked at me in horror. "Oh, no! It would be terrible!" said Betty. I grinned, unrepentant, and assured them that it would be wonderful. Grandma shook her head in resignation and Betty said "Never mind, we'll still talk to you." Then we switched to talking about the Melbourne Cup :)

We used to live in Bennelong, it would almost be worth still being squished into a teeny townhouse just to have the pleasure of voting for Maxine. Almost, but not quite. I shall resign myself to placing my ineffectual vote against Ruddock instead.