Repainting work

There you go, Kristin :D





Note: The middle pic is taken with a different filter at a different time of the day, thus the colour difference. The original colour of the walls was an insane depressed plum purple. Got some photos of that somewhere, but can't be bothered finding them at the moment... The new white colour is so nice, though! No more dark corners, the room looks much bigger, happy days.

My hands are so sore!

Painted for six and a half hours today and I'm only half-way through the job. Ran out of paint, which was a pain in the butt (although I'd probably had far more than enough fumes to keep me smiling for another 10 hours).

Bedroom's looking great, though! And I still plan on creating some kind of geometric print thing to put on the wall as a mural. All inspired by a place in Berlin where all the rooms are decorated individually in amazingly creative ways.

Sometimes I think being an interior designer would have been fun. But then you'd probably have to deal with clients who have as much taste as a velvet Elvis painting.

Holy bat attackers, Batman!

Sex attacks blamed on bat demon, story courtesy of the BBC.

Suddenly I am wondering what it is, exactly, that Batman's been up to lately... Remember, if he invites you to go and see the Batcave, Batmobile, Batetchings or any other Bat-related paraphenalia, DO NOT GO WITH HIM!

Just keep in mind what your mum always told you about talking to Batstrangers offering Batcandy.

Hmmm..!

I am utterly convinced ice-blocks shouldn't be shaped like this.

And that officemates shouldn't try to take photos while you're trying to eat said ice-block...

7.30am and already so cynical

Howard heart-attack email carries virus courtesy of the SMH.

I received a few of these emails this morning in the junkmail folder at work and my immediate thought was, "That has to be junkmail. He doesn't have a heart."

Altogether too cynical for 7.30am, but after IR laws...

In other much more cheerful thoughts, Lent starts tomorrow and although I've not done anything before for Lent, I'm thinking of doing something this year.

My thought for what I'd do for Lent was to give something away for each day of it, so that by the end of the time I'd have a lot of 40 things to give away to someone or charity or whatever. Reading the Ship of Fool's "Lent list", my idea's on there (see number 28)! Obviously there are no new ideas under the sun at all.

But it should make for an interesting Lent :)

Arrghh!

I read this morning that Channel 9 hasn't renewed it's contract to screen The Young and The Restless, which will mean it's only going to be on pay tv from April. I'm hoping that's just idle speculation rather than fact!

Although it's somewhat shameful to admit, I love The Young and The Restless. It's actually part of some of my earliest memories with watching it with my Mum in the years before I started kindy. Victor looks younger now than he did then, I swear, but is still somehow deliciously dashing (maybe he's to blame for me liking older men).

But for a soapie, it's pretty good. There aren't too many utterly ridiculous storylines, a la anything involving Stefano (or anyone, really) on Days of Our Lives, and thankfully hasn't got characters who all seem to have been married to the others at least twice and within the same family, a la The Bold and The Beautiful.

The Young and The Restless is my Friday afternoon braincandy.

What's Channel 9 going to put on instead? Lord knows, but the ads for some absolute lot of bollocks at a 1 pm slot with Libbi Gore are repulsing me already. If I want mindless trash, I want good quality mindless trash, dammit!

Don't tell my heart!

I'm meant to go to line-dancing tonight.

A friend who'd been invited by a lady here at work invited me along and I agreed - it's exercise, perhaps an interesting way to meet new people, a good time to dig out the cowboy boots, etc.

Suddenly I realise...

It might involve country and western music!!!

I know, I know, that really should have been a given, but you tend to blank out thoughts you really don't want to think about - and I don't want to think about country and western music.

I HATE country and western music with a passion! There are mullets, big gas-guzzling trucks, bad fashion, bad lyrics, the implication that whoever's singing might just be married to (or at least breeding with) their unclecousinbrothersistermumdad or whatever, rednecks, the list could go on and on and on. Until it gets to Billy Ray Cyrus.

What if they break out the Billy Ray? If that happens, the only exercise I'll be getting will involve me running from the place, screaming, arms flailing in the air.

Here's hoping that doesn't happen.

Thunder clouds viewed from the office window

Feelin' the Love

A good old random assortment of Valentine's Day thoughts that I'm going to inflict on the world of blogging. Now, isn't that fun..?

But it's been a good day so far :)

> Dave pointed out that Valentine's Day today is on "hump day" which makes me laugh outrageously.

> I looked at flowers last night. They were all gorgeous, smelled amazing and... (drum roll please, Raoul)... were twice the price (or more) than they'd been a week ago when it wasn't the night before Valentine's Day. Clearly this is because it's all about the romance and not at all about making a profit. This is to be filed under the "Because Valentine's Day Isn't At All Possibly, Nay, Even Remotely, Blatant Capitalism" category.

> My friend Mic and I were talking last night about Valentines and so on. He's a bit of a romantic, and said someone had once told him that every night there'd be someone out there in the world who falls asleep thinking about you. I'm like, "What, thinking about how they want you bound and gagged in their basement? Or how much they dislike you? Or..." And then he suggested it could be other things that shan't be repeated, but were terribly funny!

> Too many Valentine's SMSs. I feel so loved *lol* Although none are romantic... I still feel the love! :D Guess I should get replying to them. A task for lunchtime.

> Man-love with Top Gear. If you want to see how they get along with rednecks, you have to check this out. The comment about the three religions being George Bush, God and country and western music is great, as is the thing about vegetables.

> Joke from the officemate for the day: "Q; What do you call a blind dinosaur? A: Idon'tthinkhesaurs"

> Taylor mentioned Sweet Transvestite, fishnets and corsets. Truly one of the more interesting Valentine's wishes. Ever. It's still making me smile (thanks, Taylor!).

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! :D

The unsurpassed unsexiness of walk-shorts with long socks

I saw someone wearing said combo today.

It's only 9.40am, far too early for seeing such things.

Especially when it's those pastel kind of couloured walk-shorts that seem to have miraculously not deteriorated at all from 1976 'til now for the people who choose to wear them.

Said shorts are still in pristine condition with the pressed crease down the front, forcing the viewer's eyes in equally terrifying directions. Down leads you to the knee-length wedding-white socks wrapped around chunky, hairy calves. Up leads to an oddly patterned shirt that also looks like it's emerged from the same era as the shorts, but was intended to be worn with something else entirely.

All that's missing is the safari suit jacket. And maybe some sandals.

And people wonder why I hate summer.

if i should die this very moment
i wouldn't fear
for i've never known completeness
like being here
wrapped in the warmth of you
loving every breath of you
still my heart this moment
or it might burst

could we stay right here
'til the end of time, 'til the earth stops turning
wanna love you 'til the seas run dry
i've found the one i've waited for

all this time i've loved you
and never known your face
all this time i've missed you
and searched this human race
here is true peace
here my heart knows calm
safe in your soul
bathed in your sighs
wanna stay right here
'til the end of time, 'til the earth stops turning
gonna love you 'til the seas run dry
i've found the one i've waited for
the one i've waited for

all i've known
all i've done
all i've felt was leading to this
all i've known
all i've done
all i've felt was leading to this
wanna stay right here
'til the end of time, 'til the earth stops turning
gonna love you 'til the seas run dry
i've found the one i've waited for
the one i've waited for

wanna stay right here
'til the end of time, 'til the earth stops turning
gonna love you 'til the seas run dry
i've found the one i've waited for
the one i've waited for

the one i've waited for...

- Gorecki, Lamb

An oldie, but that's about all I can think of when it comes to the season of love, Valentines and Hallmarky goodness/badness/pondering the meaning of life and love/realising that there is one who you feel your soul reaching out to and hoping you can squish a lid on that quickly as nothing is ever likely to happen/wondering whether it's star-crossedness or delusional madness.

Love. Such an odd thing.

Errrmm...

Just because... well... it amused me.

Saw it on the way to the farewell do for my officemate last night (after we spent the drive honking the horn and waving at strangers, just to see if we could get them to wave back - spreading the happiness and all that).

Both S's, though, eh?

I like meetings

Thinking of doing something similar to this as a feature wall somewhere in the house, actually - although it's probably highly freudian or something and I'm missing the meaning of it, as it's just scribbles done during a meeting.

But yes, a mural-style feature wall or something. Must ponder this more, especially if I'm starting painting again on the weekend.

Everybody needs good lawyers

I'm not a lawyer - the closest I've gotten to legal studies was a semester of them as a compulsory part of my course at uni - but really, isn't Max's trial on Neighbours one of the absolute shortest in the history of TV, including the hurried Law & Order happy-conclusions-all-'round-with-attractive-young-female-DA-
having-strange-attraction-to-Jack-who-is-possibly-older-than-the-
dinosaurs stuff?

We went to the opening of a trial as part of the course, though, and it was enormously boring - choosing the jury, hours of questioning of one witness, etc. Although the case itself was amusing enough...

Anways, back to Neighbours - apparently it's meant to be wrapped up tonight with a win?! Do none of these characters go to jail? Katya gets a suspended sentance or something, Max runs over the non-psycho twin (an easy mistake to make, happens all the time, just say you're sorry and it'll all be fine, then wheel out the psycho twin, make them have a big psychotic moment and voila! The jury won't convict!) and apparently doesn't get to go to jail where he could have met a new love interest and discovered his passion for creating tattoos with Bic ink?

Wouldn't he have gotten into trouble for breaking bail conditions for oh, say six months or whatever it was, as well as that little matter of running someone over on purpose? Speaking of that, wouldn't there be expert testimony and all sorts of scene investigation elements that would have some sort of proof it wasn't just a bit of an accidental swerving? Okay, I can understand the suspended sentence with a reduced charge approach or similar, but still...

Neighbours is just brain candy, but this is annoying, especially when it makes Days of Our Lives look more realistic.

Maybe Max should have just pretended it wasn't actually him driving the car at the time, but an American friend who's actually long since dead (and was dead at the time of the accident, too, just for convenience's sake)... Oh wait, that's just for speeding tickets.

Back in the good ol' days, where Stu and Connor's struggles to adopt as a couple moved the nation and encouraged more men to breast-feed...

Odd little bugs. I have the feeling they might have had something to do with eating the birdsnest fern... To kill or not to kill? Hmm...

Caution: Rant Ahead

Apparently 81% of ninemsn poll respondants say that Jesus doesn't love Osama bin Laden, contrary to the posters some churches have had up in recent weeks.

The Rev Fred Nile has compared the posters to saying Jesus loves Hitler or Pol Pot, saying, "Certainly if you had any association with the 3000 people that were killed through bin Laden's attack on New York, I don't think you'd say how much you love him."

This isn't about how much you love him, though, Mr Nile. This is about the fact that Jesus would love him, leading me to say, "Remember, Jesus loves you too, Fred Nile. Even though I think you're a great big twit for thinking you get to tell Jesus who He gets to love or not."

Just because we personally don't like someone it doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't still love them. That's the position we have to take as Christians, as much as we'd like to think that God would be all for the smiting of those who we want to see zapped by lightning/squished by a run-away train/any other number of horrible ends.

What Osama bin Laden, Pol Pot, Hitler and others throughout the centuries have done is wrong - it's resulted in the combined deaths of millions. There mightn't be justice for it on earth, but Christians tend to believe this is something they'll ultimately be answerable for when it comes to the "meet and greet their maker" time.

I once read a comment that said something like, "You'll know you've successfully created God in your own image when He hates all the same people as you." God (and Jesus) loves everyone. That's it, the beginning and end and everything in between. Or it's meant to be for Christians. As much as it sucks to think that He still cares for people who are utter bastards (to be perfectly frank) (or at least who we think are utter such-and-suches), He still does - perhaps you could say like how parents still generally love their kids even though they grow up to be investment bankers or something.*

You read the Bible and Jesus still came to die for a whole lot of people who didn't like Him. He still loves them all, which is pretty masochistic I guess. But it's about relationships - a person's connection with the divine, etc. Although that said, a good relationship with God probably wouldn't see you rushing out to slaughter a lot of people...

What have Christians learnt about love?

Apparently not a whole hell of a lot.

*Just kidding, investment bankers! ;)

Bondage and...?

Many people who know me know Bondage Bear (that's him on the left). And now thanks to Becky and Shaz, Bondage Bear is no longer lonely (although he still looks terminally worried)!

I meant to take a pic the week before last when I caught up with Chris, Kris and Shaz but kind of forgot 'til now... So here's Bondage Bear's friend. And I have no idea what to call her. Anyone got any suggestions? :D

I *heart* You?

Kaisa was searching for toys for a boy last night and one website we were perusing reminded us that it's time to get buying 'cos Valentine's Day isn't far away and what could say you love your partner (or whoever, really, maybe even yourself) better than something from said site?

That got me thinking about Valentine's Day and how it's really not something I've ever thought was much of a relevant Australian thing. It's always seemed a bit like Halloween, where it's kinda cool in a vague overseas tradition way but totally hijacked by everyone looking to make a buck off of it. When it's cheaper to buy an entire standard rosebush than it is to buy a bouquet of roses, there's got to be some indication that this isn't all about the love.

That said, it's a nice idea to have one day set aside...

Wait...

One day.

There are more one day matches of cricket per year than the one single day set aside for the whole "Let your beloved know how much of a special schnookie-wookums they are to you" thing. Hell, we even have Test match cricket, which lasts for FIVE days, unless it's the English playing Australia. What about a five-day lovefest? That could be interpreted as dirtier than I meant it, so it's meant the clean way before your minds start wandering along that path :-p

I said the clean path!

Considering how many years and years on end of war and conflict have been going on around the world since the beginning of last century alone, I guess it just means we're perhaps a bit better at giving people a bunch of fives instead of a bunch of flowers. And I don't think that saying, "I love you," more would have made Idi Amin a friendlier chap who was nicer to the people of Uganda, so let's not pretend that love is all we need.

But still, I guess we should tell the people we care about that we do so more often. Not just in a romantic love kind of way either, but just in general. Sappy, but oh well.

I've got a little list...

Shaz's post of a list of things to do made me think of the list of things I have to do and have had to do for ages but have been letting myself get distracted by life and Christmas and holidays and work starting and generally being unispired.

Sod it.

> Finish painting. If it's going to be stinking hot this weekend, it might be a good time to get the painting done in my bedroom. At least it means the paint dries quickly. And who doesn't enjoy the paint-fumes high... gah.

> Call the aerial/antenna tv repair man. A branch hit the darn thing late last year and since then channels have slowly been disappearing. I MISS THEM! Life is not worth living if I can't watch Top Gear and Shameless of a Monday night. So I have to do that ASAP.

> Finish doing the garden cleaning out and call Jim's Mowing or something like that to take away the enormous piles of rubbish that have come from the gardens. The amount of leaf litter and general litter in the garden beds is amazing - I think whoever's lived there in the past just decided things looked so much better piled with leaves, with no actual plants. Ugh. Anyone have napalm spare?

> Clean out all the drawers and cupboards and everything else and throw out absolutely everything that I don't need or truly want. Although usually this just means I find things I'd forgotten about, fall in love with them all over again, put whatever it is back in the box or drawer or whatever and promptly forget about it all.

Hopefully a list helps me remember to do something about all of the things on it. But then again, who knows!

Although apparently this weekend's weather is meant to be disgustingly hot. So in the end, I may just end up lounging around (with no air conditioning), eating Zooper Doopers and nothing else. There might be cricket involved.