Caution: angry rant ahead

Separate court to deal with rape?

The NSW state government has been told that they should set up a separate court to deal with sexual assault cases. Sexual assault crimes have conviction rates among the lowest for any crime. As the stats say:

- 90% of reported assaults do not end up in conviction
- 17% of reported assaults do not end up in court
- 56% of defendants are found not guilty
- 30% are cleared by police within 180 days
- 8000 reported cases of sexual and indecent assault each year

It should also be noted that it's estimated that only one or two in ten people who have been sexually/indecently assaulted will ever report it to the police. The vast majority of attacks will be made by people known to their victim (approx 80-90%), and this can be something that works against the victim as it will be assumed that they consented or at least didn't mind (see below for more on this). It's crazy that there's more likely to be a conviction if some stranger has jumped on you from behind the bushes in the park than if a family friend or former boyfriend or whatever does basically the same thing.

Anyways, as the article says:

"The proposals are aimed at avoiding delays, boosting convictions and reducing the trauma for witnesses giving evidence against alleged attackers..."
"A criminal law expert at the University of NSW, Sandra Egger, said changes in the past 20 years to make trials more humane and encourage victims to report sexual assaults had not led to increased conviction rates.
"We have seen more people than ever coming forward to report crimes but at the same time we have had plummeting conviction rates," she said.
Associate Professor Egger said low conviction rates were often related to the sexist attitudes of jurors. "Sometimes jurors will assume that if a young woman is wearing provocative clothes or dancing provocatively or drinking alcohol on the dance floor it's an indication that she is sexually available and probably consented."
The co-ordinator of the Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault, Dr Melanie Heenan, said specialised courts helped prevent unnecessary discussions of a witness's sexual history."

Isn't that a comforting thought!!! o.0 It's similar with the attacker-known-to-victim situation. And it's infuriating. When the hell will people start to realise that "No" actually does mean "No" regardless of whether the person's wearing a mini-skirt or neck-to-ankle Muppet suit, has had a few drinks or has only ever come into contact with alcohol through cough medicine, etc?!?!

Insight on SBS earlier this year focused on this topic and it was distressing to hear from victims who had been brave enough to go to court with it that when they were there, they were asked about what underwear they were wearing when it happened, how low-cut their top was, how attractive they were, what their "history" was, etc, as if ANY of that is relevant. Rape is about what the perpetrator did. That is what should be the focus!

It makes me so angry that these sort of crimes seem to be put in the "Oh she was asking for it by wearing/doing/drinking/thinking that" or "No doesn't actually mean no" or "She knew her attacker... obviously she was gagging for it!" or similar baskets. Women still are getting the blame for being raped, for men abusing positions of trust, for men using a woman's fear to get their rocks off...

And as a society, we're giving the message that it's okay to do, because hey, you won't be prosecuted! And if you do get to court, it's really likely that you'll get off there again. Why not rape some puppies while you're at it? Or join a rugby league team? I hear there's always spots to play for with the Bulldogs.

ARGHHHHHH!!!

Stupid "justice" system that doesn't work, stupid beliefs that people have about things! Excuses need to be stop being made for men (and women) who assault people in these kinds of ways.

Don't call me baby??

Oh my goodness.

I just got hit on by the phone company guy who called to ask if I was interested in getting broadband!!! o.0

He started out asking if I was interested in broadband, then he kinda got into flirting, and sang to me and then asked me if he could call me later when he got home from work!!!!! Ohmilord!

But it was really, really funny. He made me laugh really hard. Then he started asking questions about what I did, whether I was blonde or brunette, etc, told me how tall he was and commented I'd be at his nipple-height or so and all of this other stuff.

Who knows, he might just have been doing the flirting thing to try to convince me to do the broadband thing... I'd say that would prolly be it *lol*

So apparently he's going to call back tomorrow (re: broadband)... Deeply weird, though, but also amusing. I guess I can never say that life has dull moments.

*teehee* Just got off the phone with my friend Darren and he said he's not surprised, because I have a cute voice that would make people want to take me home, as well as being smart... All together now... awwww!

Dr Deli's Love Advice

My friend Mr Polarbear suggested that I start a love advice column...

The idea kinda tickled the fancy.

But at the moment, I REALLY have to get back to doing my work rather than trying to think while doing other things. I hate writing editorials! They always make me feel like cleaning and reorganising my desk instead. But it's a good feeling once they're finished.

So... the advice of Dr Deli? Hmm...

Just love and be loved, baby, everything is cool... ohhh wait, that was the Cupid guy in the episode of Daria where the holidays come to Lawndale. But you get the idea. The love dr is out! :-p

We will fight them on the beaches...

Check out Downwind Media.

I knew it wouldn't be long before there would be some great spoofs of the stupid Australian Tourism ad out there. And frankly, it's well-deserved *lol* Got to love the Australian ability to take the p!ss out of all kinds of situations, including tourism and Cronulla. Laughter being the best medicine and all... (or else you'd probably scream a lot).

On a more serious note, however, or as serious as I can be for a Wednesday afternoon while I'm procrastinating and trying to not do the editorial I'm meant to be writing at the moment, isn't it a wee bit scary that Australia's becoming more blunt in its racism? Like, there's some stuff I've read recently on the Sydney Morning Herald blogs like Sam and the City that's like, "Oh, Asians are like this..." or "Greeks are like this..." and I'm sitting there thinking, "Good Lord, when did we suddenly start ethnically stereotyping people again in public? Isn't that something we were meant to get over?"

It's like racism has become more "popular" or "acceptable," which is a worry. There are way too many people out there who seem to think it's okay to discriminate against or put down people from backgrounds different to their own. All the "illegal" immigrant crud and "que-jumpers" and all of that rubbish, Cronulla riots, detention centres, media like Today/Tonight that has features on "the foreign invasion stealing Aussie jobs" (that was a couple of weeks ago and I almost died of fright when I heard the ad for the show as my racism-alert-o-meter went off the scale), etc, etc.

GRRR!

But yeah, the fake ad's funny :) And it would probably be far more appropriate than the current one by the AT... Well, in terms of honesty at least. Altho maybe not the dingo...

Also worth a lookie-lookie: SMH article on it.

Desert Island..?

My officemate just said something about a poll that was conducted somewhere that ranked Saddam Hussein above Tom Cruise with a list of people you'd rather be stuck on a desert island with.

Quite frankly, I'm not surprised.

I mean, Saddam just seems like someone who you'd enjoy spending time with so you could annoy him by laughing at him pointing and shouting at things and not having his bodyguards around to do everything for him (such as kill you for laughing at him). After a while, once he's gotten tired of the shouting and pointing and realised it doesn't get him anywhere (like a kid having a tantrum), you know you could probably get him do what you want, such as make an impressive three-story treehouse of banana leaves, sticks and chewing gum or reinvent the wheel.

Tom Cruise, on the other hand, seems far more scary. Almost like he'd wait for you to fall asleep before killing you and eating your eyeballs or something. Or calling you Hubbard and insisting that the volcano on the island is the place where you should be rescuing thetans from or whatever. He's appear creepily even though you'd thought you'd left him behind on the other side of the island so you could catch some sun in peace without hearing the name "L. Ron" again for the morning... Or he'd jump on the treehouse couch and break it.

So, out of the two, definitely not the Cruise on the island.

Because somehow, inspite of it all, he's somehow much more scary than Saddam and you really don't want to think about what he could do if he ran Iraq... o.0

For something serious on Iraq, read the Baghdad Burning blog on the side under my blog links. It's just a little bit down from the bottom of this post... Yes... you should read it. Go on, click! :)

You know, it's funny.

I'm not a relationships guru, although people often ask me for advice. Not entirely sure why, perhaps I look like I know the answers to some of the mysteries of the universe or something like that. But really, the only major thing I've learnt so far in observing my own and other's relationships is that communication is super important.

Seriously!

You wouldn't believe how many people don't talk to each other about things! They've got a problem. What do they do? They talk to someone else. You suggest that they talk to the person they're dating or whatever about the issue and they get all, "Ohh... but..."

NO BUTS! *shakes fist*

You have a problem, you suck it up and talk to the person, even though it could mean that there's some bits of life that will cause you some pain. Be honest. Grow some bollocks! Get off your high-horse with them if you're feeling superior and try some honesty (and I mean genuinely honest, not honesty to hurt or manipulate or whatever). Talk through problems with your significant other. Stay calm and be reasonable.

Oh, and realise that life isn't all sunshine lollipops rainbows and butteflies :-p

*teehee*

The Sam and the City blogs on the Sydney Morning Herald site are kinda starting to make me want to scream, were it not that the scream wouldn't last long with this 'flu thing I've got. Okay, so I don't have to read them, but they're kind of like a car crash. Or watching Iraq war commentary. You know it's really wrong and totally stupid but kind of fascinating at the same time.

But I agree with a comment made on the Why Women Cheat installation of the column by someone called "Jumbles," who says: It seems like this site was put here to get new ideas for an aging soap opera. After almost every post, you can hear, 'Like sands through the hour glass...'"

Even more amusing was the blog about whether or not women and men could be friends (see here) without wishing to mount each other at the nearest opportunity. Platonic relationships *gasp* What a concept! How silly so many people are.

Leprosy!

*lol* No, not really...

I just stepped on the paint tin lid :-p

Painting... another successful weekend! I got three walls double coated with undercoat and have gotten used to using the roller. Yay me :D Really happy with the way things are going.

It's crazy how bright the undercoat makes the room, though. Such a difference from the rather light-sucking tan suede-effects colour that it was. In a weird way, though, it kind of makes the rooms look smaller or something. Although the room is totally cluttered from moving everything around (and I'd just cleaned it all on Friday ~ argh!). Guess I'll have to work on some art for walls and whatnot to create more depth...

Mmm... I love my quilt cover :)

Really tempted to go shopping again tomorrow, rather than painting. Although I should stick with the painting. It's going really well and I'm super inspired by how gorgeous the wall looks in the main area. Definitely have to go over the other rooms again now tho... *lol*

Still, it's good to learn how to use the roller thingy before I get to doing the topcoat ;)

Guy on Parkinson referring to George Bush: "We now have another American president who makes Ronald Regan look positively Einsteinian..." Ahh, Parkinson, how I love thee...

Okies, so a number of athletes from the Sierra Leone team have gone "missing" while they're here in Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games.

Sorry, but is that just too much of an effort to become an illegal immigrant, if that's what they're trying to do? Like, get up early every morning for training, do lots of exercise, run around, work your butt off to get into the Commonwealth team, get sponsors, blah blah, just to say to yourself, "Yeah, now I'm here, I think I'll bugger off into the suburbs!"

Hmm... Oh well :)

Apparently a number of athletes from the same country did that at the last Commonwealth Games and people from communist countries used to do it with the Olympics. As good an excuse as any, and probably safer than a rickety boat anyways.

Okie...

The question that has plagued women for centuries and I was just talking about it with Clare.

But...

WHERE ARE ALL THE DECENT MEN!?

I mean, we all know where to find the relatively crummy ones. Or the really, really crummy ones. There's too many of them around, frankly.

What I mean is where are the guys who are smart, witty, articulate, socially aware, independent, motivated, considerate, nice to animals and the elderly, monogomous (rather than polyamorous), non-psycho, not posessive, enjoys a good laugh, stimulates my mind, encourages those around him to grow and enjoy challenges, etc, etc.

Okie, so I know a few guys like that. But they all seem to be into the stick-thin women! Arghh! Just because I'm not a size 6 doesn't mean I want to settle for dating some complete knobjockey guy, thank-you very much. One guy in particular I know just totally amazes me with how he's all that and a banana split. But ya... *shrugs*

Other guys I've met lately include total pervs (ewwwww *bashes them over the head with crusifix and garlic cloves*), way too possessive and jealous (which makes me run miles in the opposite direction, even if they are cute), cute but dumb, awesome but unattractive, etc, etc, or just a wee bit too old.

It's vaguely depressing.

Still, on the whole, being single is kinda fun :)

How cool is that! That's definitely serious hattage there. Although it kind of looks like a cake meets a hat meets Cyclone Larry. All in all, kind of funky. And scary. But mostly funky.

London's Alternative Fashion Week.

Mr Hell, do you know what an election even is!?

No Pokies MP hits jackpot.

I love Nick Xenophon.

No, not in like a personal kinda way, but you know. He's got a cool name. He's got integrity. He's got credibility. He's got a conscience. He's a politician with a heart AND soul (rather than a shard of flint and a contract with Satan).

I voted for him in my first election way back whenever in South Australia *misty-eyed moment, chorus of angels disguised as doves burst forth from scale replica of ark of the covenant*

Sad to not have more politicians like him around when voting in NSW during the elections there. Haven't found anyone vote-worthy here in Victoria, either. Call me idealistic, but I like to vote for politicians who stand for something decent. Sooooo... the Greens it shall be, I suppose. Unless the Democrats do something spectacular sometime between now and next year to show that they're actually going to stick to their old motto of keeping the such-and-such's honest.

Mmmm... donut...

You Are a Powdered Devil's Food Donut

A total sweetheart on the outside, you love to fool people with your innocent image. On the inside you're a little darker, richer, and more complex. You're a hedonist who demands more than one pleasure at a time. Decadent and daring, you test the limits of human indulgence.

What Donut Are You?

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Ugh, I hate being sick.

It makes my brain hurt.

But I love snuggling up on the couch with loads of blankets and pillows, watching Lano & Woodley DVDs and drinking cups of chai latte (latest addiction *lol*).

Out, damn 'flu, out!

Sunday Snaps

Sunday Snaps

Sunday Snaps

Sunday Snaps

Sunday Snaps

Late-night clips of Aussie hiphop from the early '90s on TV are kind of weird, but at the same time, really oddly kinda cool. I mean, hiphop in a flannelette shirt... Makes me laugh *lol*

Was talking about early 90s music with a friend earlier today, actually, and fashion in a round-about sort of way. Hmm. Still not entirely sure that the early 90s were any better than the 80s, but at least there weren't many leotards.

Anyhoo, Hilltop Hoods are hosting Rage, and that's why there are the hiphop clips on. Hilltop Hoods are really good live. Or they were when I saw them... *sigh* Nothing like screaming along to Nosebleed Section and having random (shouted-over-music) conversations with people near you.

Back in the day... *lol*

C'mon baby and rescue me!

Remember my Renovation Rescue... Please!? blog entry from last week?

Weeeeellllllll...

Today I went to the same hardware store at the end of lunch quickly to get another tin of undercoat and a roller. Strutted straight in, past the counter, up to the paint section, grabbed myself a tin of undercoat and a roller and headed back to the counter. Plonked the stuff down on the counter and smiled at the guy behind it.

He gives me this kinda bizarre look somewhere between being impressed and puzzled and says, "Well, you certainly knew what you wanted," in a way that sort of make me think, "for a woman," wasn't far away from being tacked on to the end of the comment *lol*

Just because I'm in a skirt and high heels and carrying a handbag doesn't mean I don't know what I want from a hardware store *lol* But yeah... it was a really good feeling to have that blokey kind of moment. Now I have the sudden urge to opperate power tools... No, only joking about that! ;)

I've been looking around for things to adequately sum up the odds and sods I saw of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, which I flicked to while thinking to myself, "I really have to give up watching The Glasshouse. It's becoming more sheeeeeite every time I watch it and I really would like to hit Wil over the head with a bag of lambchops."

Anyhoo.

The Auscultre blog has a pretty apt summary of the opening ceremony *lol*

I'm about to venture into reading some newspaper reports of the whole thing, but am not sure if I'm at all inspired by the whole thing. The Age will trumpet about it of course. Hopefully they'll have special lift-outs and a feature on the Queen's hats. Actually, I quite like the Queen. Just the rest of the family I'm not so sure about there... Charles "Tampon But For The Ears" Prince of Wales, Prince Phillip of the inappropriate and racist comments, the brother of Charles who is balding and looks like a harrassed civil servant... Andrew's kinda hot for an older bloke though.


Can't you just imagine what the Queen's thinking here? *lol*

Say one more inappropriate thing, Phillip, and I'll wallop you in the nadgers with my handbag. Don't push me on this! Remember, I'm the Queen around here."

*Brit accent* Fings I well 'ate

Oh my GAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRRRD...

There's just been so much in my life that I HATE, HATE, HAAAAAATE lately that it's insane. For a start, I hate that the weather's been colder so painting has been put on the backbrush at the moment. I hate that I haven't been motivated to do much else than think about paint, painting, gardens, house changes...

More than that, I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE the smoke detector going off its nut in the wee hours of this morning, causing me to wake up and think, "Ohmilord, I'm going to burn and it's so not funny ironic that the first thing that comes to mind is Disco Inferno!"

So I venture forth with fear and trepidation and can't find any smoke or flames or anything whatsoever. By the way, the smoke detector has a relatively new battery, put in the day after New Year's, so you'd think that with it deciding to wake me from my slumber with its cheerful screaming that it wouldn't just be alerting me to the fact that the battery was on the way out.

So I figure I'll look around (after calling my parents in a wee bit of a panic - poor things). Talk about confronting fears!!! I'm quite scared of uncontrolled fire, same with the roofspace (it's like Spider Towers in there... arrghh... those little cretins with their eight beady eyes and salivating poisonous fangs!), and outside in the dark at night. 'Specially with the peeping tom thing that's meant to be going around town.

ANYWAYS... I prod the manhole cover open with a broom, drag out my stepladder thing and clamber up, only to find that it's not quite tall enough for me to see around the roof on, although I can see into it. And there's no smoke up there. So I go back to my room, grab the highest pair of heels I have, pop them on and climb back up the ladder. Nice, no smoke. No flames.

Figure just to be on the safe side, I'll go outside and check out there. Grab the poker (a girl's best grievous bodily harm friend - lightweight enough but packs a punch and has the double gouging bits) and a torch and head outside, poker swung nonchalantly over my shoulder (mess with me buddy and I'll have no hesitation about finding out what colour your insides are). Nothing out there, either. Other than some spiders and a lot of bark, leaves and twigs.

Back inside, take the battery out of the smoke detector, get the new smoke detector out of its packet and set it up, figuring it's probably about time to go to the new-fangled fancy model. It registers nothing. Comforted, I head back to bed after an hour of being up.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH.

And then I can't sleep.

And that stupid darn Disco Inferno song is stuck in my head.

Not a fun night at all! :-p

Still, on the other hand, I now totally understand how useful it would be to have a husband or whatever. Then *he* could get up and check everything and be all brave and whatever. Ah well... guess it's a learning experience. Like everything else in life...

I only get on my knees for Jesus!

Is it just me, or is this just a tiny, itty bitty wee bit... err... wrong?

*shakes head*

Umm, time to get back to work, I suppose, and stop having brain holidays. Sometimes it's really hard to concentrate when you know you have like two jobs to be doing and only one pair of hands and one brain to somehow fit between them both. Gosh darn.

I hate to sound cynical, but when I started reading Simone Warne's home renovation column, which comes to us thanks to news.com.au or some other Fox thingy linked in to it, I though, "When you were renovating your home?? You gutted the kitchen and added a family room, garage and new kitchen single-handedly with the aid of some spackling and a nail-file???"

And then I read on.

And no, it was the workmen who did it all while Shane was away and she worked nights and tried to sleep while they were hammering and banging away. The poor lamb.

I dunno, it's probably just me, but it annoys me when people are like, "Ohh, yes, we did this, this and this as well as inventing a solar-powered banana-peeler," when it was actually all done by the workmen who are trained professionals who can probably tell a virgin paint-job like the one I'm doing on my home from 100 paces through a blindfold.

Things are always much more impressive when people actually do the renovation work *themselves.* One of my friends parents actually renovated their whole house before selling it and did it themselves. It looked fantastic and we all knew that the time and effort they put into it meant that rewards in a great selling price were really felt by them (rather than having forked out loads to get some people in to do it for them).

Of course there's stuff that you will have to hire professionals in for, like building, but there is quite a lot of renovation work that you can do yourself if you try hard and put your mind to it. It's a learning experience at least :)

Anyhoo... more interesting: www.coloureverything.com.

Julia's not got what it takes? Balls! by Kaz Cooke

It made me laugh... It made me cry (with laughter)... It made me exclaim, "Yes, yes, YES!" in a kind of strangled joy...

After me saying it for ages, and after Labor party people last week saying it and with columnists saying it now, the Labor party needs to grow some bollocks! And realise that Kim Beazley has about as much chance of becoming Prime Minister as I do. It's not that he's a bad person, it's just that he's unvotable. He doesn't make me want to get my election on, frankly!

Australia needs a viable opposition to be able to snatch political power back. As it stands, the current opposition seems to be much the same as the Liberal party and that doesn't make for very appealing voting. They're a push-over party, there's too much in-fighting, the leader doesn't come across as actually being a leader (unlike weasel-pants PM who b!tch-slaps his party into line), etc, etc...

Sadly, there are perhaps too many issues to address with the election not far off (next year). A change of leader would help a heck of a lot. Then something would need to be done about them reigning in all of the factions and getting them to work together cohesively rather than going off to whinge and sulk in their respective corners all the time. And then grow some bollocks!

Go Julia Gillard.

Argh!!!

Bad nights are... well... bad.

Last night I got a call because one of my friends was threatening suicide or something and he wanted to talk to me. So we talked. And I was really, really freaked out by it all because I know he has a handgun, so him talking about using it wouldn't just be some idle threat thing. He calmed down and I'm hoping he'll be okay and hasn't decided to do anything stupid overnight :-/

Got to bed around midnight, couldn't sleep, and when I finally drifted off, had these really terrible nightmares. One in particular stands out. It started out nicely enough with me out shopping and finding a gorgeous pair of shoes to buy. Somehow it went from that to getting a call on my phone calling me in to work. Except my work was like some police forensic kind of thing and we were going over new technology that would regenerate crime scenes in a 3D/hologram kind of way.

All of the crime scenes were of children who had been shot.

One had been shot in the back of his head by his father while he sat at his computer. Another was a little girl who was shot through the chest. There were others, but it totally freaked me out and I woke up. And then couldn't sleep again... ugh.

I think I'm in love!

Yup! Totally! Smitten! Knocked off my feet!

Yes, I'm in love. Totally in love with the way the walls I painted today look in the spare room! Okay, it's only undercoat so far. But I cleaned the walls and painted two of them with undercoat twice. So bright! So shiny! Beautiful.

It's really nice to have light colours on the walls. Much better than feeling like I was living inside a depressed plum. The pic's of one of the painted walls with the unpainted next to it. Damn that purple!

Quote of the Century

Was talking to my friend Bill today and we were both talking about meetings and work and things like that, and Bill said:

"Mmm... management's like a tree full of monkeys. They look down and see people smiling, everyone looks up and just sees assholes."

*BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*

*falls over laughing* That still cracks me up :) Classic stuff!

Why would God make us all so different if He wanted us to be the same?

In the Sun
Joseph Arthur

I picture you in the sun wondering what went wrong
And falling down on your knees asking for sympathy
And being caught in between all you wish for and all you seen
And trying to find anything you can feel that you can believe in

May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you

I know I would apologize if I could see your eyes
’cause when you showed me myself I became someone else
But I was caught in between all you wish for and all you need
I picture you fast asleep
A nightmare comes
You can’t keep awake

May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you

’cause if I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find
If I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find
You

I don’t know anymore
What it’s for
I’m not even sure
If there is anyone who is in the sun
Will you help me to understand
’cause I been caught in between all I wish for and all I need
Maybe you’re not even sure what it’s for
Any more than me

May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you

Renovation Resuce... Please?!?!

Okay, so I HATE the colours the walls are at home with a passion by now. It wasn't so bad for the first year, but now I'm into the second year, those damn colours and horrible suede effects have to go. I have voted them off of the island. Although it is said that it's a bold move to paint a room in a very strong colour, I have to say it is an insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane move. Looks like shite, makes it hard to paint over.

I want to do the place in Dulux Clotted Cream.

So today I went to the hardware shop to find out more about repainting. Thank God I'd talked to a guy I know who used to do interior paint stuff and he gave me loads of tips before I went to the store or else I would have been so stuffed.

The local hardware store is a total balls-out place. It's like you should swagger in there in stubbie shorts and Blundstones, growling out, "Gudday mate, just here to pick up me gigantic big blokey tool set and prepare to drill some holes in things before goin' down the pub in my ute with 17 aerials," and knowing everything there is to be known about ANYTHING that's in the store. The sales assistants are just there to look manly. They know you need no help...

Here comes me, knowing closer to sweet FA about what I'm meant to be doing than I probably should. Ask for help at the counter, figuring that I probably should have shown more cleavage so as to appear more helpless. Guy wanders up to the paint section with me. I ask him questions. He gives me a look that looks like a combination between gormlessness and wondering why I don't know it all already.

Following conversation ensues (me in italics):
"I have suede-effect painted walls. I want to paint over them all."
"Okay. So you want to paint all of the walls?"
"Yes... *thinking, I just told you that sunshine* All of them."
"Okay."
"Soooo... will I need to do an undercoat?"
"Umm..."
"The colours of the paints are quite dark already, so I think I will need to undercoat it all."
"Yeah, you probably would then."
"I'll need to sand it back, too, won't I?"
"I guess?"
"*thinking, You guess?!* Yeah, I'd say I would. Don't you have to do that to smooth the surface before applying coats of new paint anyways?"
"Yeah, you do. So you'll need to sand it, yeah."

Finally he shows me to the undercoat section, with me feeling like I know more about painting than he does even though I've never done it properly before in my entire life. Buy some undercoat (because I really don't want to think about paint until I manage to screw up the spare room with the undercoat, y'know) and misc painting stuff. Exit thinking, "I think my home renovations will be married to Bunnings from here on out!"

Nerdy Rant?

Okay, it's definitely nerdy, but I absolutely love The 7.30 Report.

Kerry O'Brien is a great interviewer - he doesn't let people get away from the main points, unlike so many others, and the whole show is *actually* about current events (unlike A Current Load of Twiddle or Today/To Tell The Truth Or Not Oh To Hell With It).

Tonight's show had me almost screaming at the TV about the stuff that Nick Minchin was saying about industrial relations reforms ANNNNNNNNNND about how the Government knows that the vast majority of Australians "violently oppose" them.

Did you notice that!?

HE SAID THAT THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT KNOWS THAT THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC DOESN'T LIKE WHAT IT'S DOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*screams*

*ahem*

Doesn't that just show you what the Government thinks of the Australian public? Oh Australia, PLEASE wake up and smell the manure!

*bwahahahaha*

I like getting chocolate from work :)

It's definitely needed after this morning... Morning... morning...

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGH!

NEVER, EVER, EVER, EEEEEEEEEEVER going to stay up late again. EVER! And by late I mean 3am. When I have to be up for work at 6.30am. Frig, Telstra will love me when they send their bill for this month... but I guess it's some variety of off-peak time or whatever. Still, I hate to think of what it could cost! Argh! Didn't think of that. Dammit.

Still, it's nice to talk to friends. For insane amounts of time. Til insane hours of the morning. About all kinds of insane things. And do lots of laughing. You know the kind of thing.

But...

I want bed and I want it NOW!

*slumps over desk asleep*

Wait, I promised myself I wouldn't stay up late again after Saturday night! And I did on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Oh well. There's always tonight. Mmm, early night.

*Garfield-like tantrum*

*waits for paper shreds to settle*

*ahem*

Okay, I have to say, I get annoyed by incompetence. Particularly my own when it comes to the garden, which is preparing to suffer under my nihilistic urges... but that's another matter entirely. Somehow I come to realise that I don't have the ability to do everything and must find a Russian mail-order husband or something who can do the maintainance work *lol*

Annnnnyways...

Had an insurance policy with a company that I'd asked to be cancelled in January. Then got a note this month telling me that the usual amount had been debited to the specified account. Rang them to see why, and there was no record of me calling them to ask for it to be cancelled.

In the weirdest way, I felt like they thought I was lying about it or something :-/ I guess being in insurance, you get a lot of people doing dodgy things so would naturally wonder why people said things when they didn't mean them or whatever.

*le sigh*

And last month my Telstra bill disappeared between Telstra and my mailbox. AND it wasn't thanks to some kind person seeing the bill and thinking, "Ohh, I'll pay that for her, the garden looks like it needs the money." So I had to run around to find new ways of getting my money to Telstra. But the people at Telstra on the helplines are really lovely... So that was less painful.

*thinks happy thoughts*

Much as I hate to admit it, I think my dog is actually going blind (and I've just been trying to excuse it all or say that it's just him being clumsy).

*sigh*

I left a drawer out on the little chest of drawers this morning, and this evening when he wandered into the room walked directly into the drawer, then couldn't quite figure his way around it.

ARGHH! So now for Christmas I want a seeing eye dog for my dog :) Although if I'm honest, I don't think my dog will make it that far. He's getting ancient. Don't want him to go to the big kennel in the sky tho just yet :-p

Oscar dresses bad... horrible... eye pain!


AAARRGHHHHHHHHHH! This is the worst! It's like something from a bad 1980s prom or something like that. It makes me want to scream and hide under my desk!

Whoever the stylists were for the stars, especially Michelle William's stylist for letting her out of the house in a yellow dress that makes her look like she's on the verge of shuffling off this mortal coil, should be beaten severely with a coathanger.

Tastes like Chicken

(Manny is making a roast chicken do a striptease on a wooden spoon)
Bernard: What are you doing?
Manny: Stripping the chicken.
Bernard: What for?
Manny: Well I could make chicken soup, chicken salad, chicken sandwiches...
Bernard: You could make a chicken cravat but it's just hassle. We'll get a take-away.
Manny: There's loads of things I can do with this.
Bernard: It's a chicken! Chicken is finite! You've got to move on. How are you going to cope when somebody dies?
Manny: Well I'll just use the legs. It's thrifty.
Bernard: It's disgusting, is what it is! This is how Jeffrey Dahmer and that lot get started. They can't let go. Old boxes of fried chicken lying around. And, and then a friend says "I have to leave town" and *vreoowrr!* *vreoowrr!* Out with the Black & Decker. There's bits of them lying around like nibbles. You've got to see a shrink.
Manny: (holds up the chicken wings) Have a wing! It's crunchy.
Bernard: Can't you see you're not right?

- Black Books, Hello Sun, Series 2

And if you get bored, check out this website about Dylan Moran :)

Must be love, love... err?

You ever had one of those moments where it's totally and utterly uncomfortable and there's that silence that sort of trips of for a second or two too long while your brain tries to process some kind of appropriate answer for something someone's said or asked of you?

Had that happen yesterday with a guy I know from back in Sydney. For some reason, yesterday he said when we were talking, "Tell me you love me." I was like, "Are you quoting from a movie or some song or something?" and laughed. He then said, "No, I'm not quoting anything..." I was really gobsmacked.

So my usually lightning-quick brain went into panic mode and kind of shut off while I was trying to think, "WHAT THE HELL DO I SAY TO THIS!?" Cue uncomfortable silence where you can hear crickets chirrupping in the background and the grass growing. Brain panics and decides best response is to say, "I love you."

Altough it comes out sounding far more like a deeply uncertain question, in tones akin to one asking, "And you want me to walk across this pit of molten lava on this tightrope while reciting the Dead Parrot Sketch why?" when you're already half-way across.

Argh.

A Decayed On...

No, I don't mean decade.

Just When I Thought I Couldn't Loathe You More... on the AusCulture blog

Now that's an interesting way to celebrate 10 years of John Howard as Prime Monster o.0

But it's kind of an improvement on the Festival of Wankery Over All Things Howard that has been coming from the usual suspects (thanks Packer and Murdoch for making so many special moments truly not special). I mean, even writing articles about Peter Costello with subheadings "This shallow, lazy, lucky and opportunistic Treasurer does not deserve to run the country..."

But then, hey, neither does the current Prime Monster.

After all, lying and manipulating is not a good thing. And what makes his comments about Muslims any less offensive than Costello's comments about Muslims? Or many of the other comments about Muslims that have been coming from the government since 9/11? What about his comments about refugees? People who opposed the invasion of Iraq?

NYARGHHH!

At least Alexander Downer is finally getting some form of his memory back about the AWB thing. Just a shame that the opposition isn't maximising their opportunities with this. But then they have been far too good at back-biting and turning on each other for the past ten years. Dammit!

Arghhh

Much as I love and adore all of my friends, I really don't like it when they call late at night (and by late I mean after 11.30) *lol*

Last night one of my friends called and we ended up talking for like an hour and a half (I hate to think what that would have cost seeing as he rang my mobile and stuff... yikes). So I got to bed at a time that was closer to 1am than anything else. Ugh... Bad when I have to get my carcass up and moving at 6.30 or so.

Bah humbug.

I need bed. Sleeeeeeeep. BED! *Garfield-like tantrum*

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

*pop!* *blinks*

Awake?! Why!! Oh cruel world!

At lunch today, a guy at work spotted my keyring. I could tell because of the weird look on his face *lol* Why? See the pic. I have this lil' guy on my keyring *lol* He's called Bondage Bear by those who know him (and love him *lol*).

That all led into a funny weird silly conversation about how you could use the bears to bring up whether others are into bondage or whatever. Kinda hilarious really :)

People at uni were kind of disturbed by Bondage Bear when they first saw him. But he's so cuddly and cute and an interesting conversation point (as evidenced by today *lol*). So I say, "Long live Bondage Bear!" Leather, restraints and gags are optional in relationships, though, of course... ;)

Bondage Bear is actually called "Jock" originally. Check out: Bad Taste Bears for the whole range of his "family."