Starburst Suxors

Starburst lollies are things I buy every now and then (after I forget how much I dislike them) and then after a few think, "Ack!"

Although that said, the Starburst Sucks are really rather good - especially the blueberry one. Oh, and the apple one.

This packet had one of the Big Brother "Win a golden key for your chance to be possibly stuck in a house with a lot of bogans who make my brain hurt if viewed for only five minutes per day, not to mention that seemingly slightly psychotic one from Darwin... No, I want no golden key" things.

In some ways, I can see a correlation between Starburst lollies and Big Brother. Okay for the first few [bites/minutes] and then sickly sugar overload/bogan bonanza and it's all just wrongness from thereout.

*le sigh*

Why all this wrongness in the world?

(imagine that said in the voice of Kamahl.)

In other thoughts, officemate impersonating KISS is endlessly amusing! Just the tonic for a Monday afternoon.

Random Heart

I sat next to a gorgeous guy at the bus stop earlier yesterday who looked like he should have a thick, syrupy Polish accent, but when he spoke sounded utterly ockerish. Disappointing.

There was a little old, wisened lady who was next to him who bummed cigarettes off him and yabbered on in a voice like a traumatised rosella about the local area.

Everyone at the bus stop ended up wreathed in roll-your-own cigarette smoke, smothered with their pointless conversation. I think there was talk about horses involved somewhere.

Hmmm... Joys of public transport.

The Rough End of the Pineapple

I love this pic! Took it this afternoon after putting out some cat food, which is probably some sort of ecological disaster but the magpies, crows and other random birds have been eating it a little bit at a time (my dog used to eat cat food, I've only just managed to start throwing his stuff out. I'm a freak, I know).

It was so cute how the magpie was throwing the bits of food up in the air and then catching them in his beak. And I was quite surprised with the way in which he let me get so close to take photos. Usually magpies are little balls of needles, feathers and grumpiness at the best of times.

Ze new shoesies...

Ugg!

I suddenly realised...

Yesterday I sent pix to Drewsy that involved my ugg boots!

ARGH!

My ugg boots are usually a deep, dark secret - I'm one of those people who doesn't really like them, but owns a pair because I live in an area of the country where your toes may just snap off in Winter if you don't make sure your feet are kept snug around the house. Yes. I have ugg boot prejudice.

Domestic use of ugg boots is acceptable. It minimises the potential harm to others' eyeballs while keeping your feet cheerily warm in the most arctic evenings while you wait for the fire to warm the house (which ususally happens just in time for bed).

However, ugg boots in public = big no-no, reserved only for celebrities with no taste in attire and Big Brother contestants.

My ugg boots are not for others to see. Even though they're rather funky in their own dirty, dirty secret kinda way - somewhat like a drinking habit, your third husband and Jackson 5 album. I so should have thought of that before I took and sent those photos involving the uggs.

But that's what being ill does to my brain - it takes it away and squashes it with a hammer. Getting better really has to go on my "To Do ASAP" list.

As my friend Deb would say "BWAH!" This one's for you Deb *lol*

Anyways, in thoughts health and otherwise, I still haven't gotten anything organised with a surgeon at the moment. Still, hopefully something will happen with that sometime soon in terms of at least actually seeing him to talk about things.

I still don't like it all. It's seeming like a situation of, "Well, you're screwed if you don't have the operation, and equally screwed if you do." Those are the sort of situations I dislike. Far better if it were something like, "Well, it won't be good if you don't get it done, but things will be GREAT if you do!"

*sigh* Starting to learn that life is all box, no chocolate.

And it's not like stuff isn't crummy enough at the moment. Being sick like this is making me incredibly grumpy, which I have managed to keep a lid on, but there are some people who continually ask me stupid questions about health stuff* that I don't have answers to and it only serves to frustrate me and make me want to drop encyclopedias on their heads.

*No, it's none of you regular readers or commenters, so have no fear ;)

Random flowers

Okay, so I'm taking photos and writing grumpy blog entries, so you'd think I'm better *lol* But still haven't gotten results back from the blood tests and scans, etc. Hopefully that'll come back tomorrow (fingers crossed).

I just want to know what's wrong! Argh.

And then hopefully have whatever it is fixed so it never happens again. Ever. I hate being sick like this. Being extraordinarily tired, unable to eat much and grumpy because of a combination of those two things is no fun at all.

The Truth About Size 0 (brain capacity)

Watching a doco tonight with Louise Redknapp doing some kind of size 0 evilness/negative impacts of the whole starve-self-til-you-look-like-a-walking-collection-of-bones, where she went from an already-skinny UK size 8 to UK size 4 (which is the US size 0).

Okay, it's saying it's bad and focuses oh-so-briefly on the serious problems being caused by crash dieting. And it is to crash diet - it screws up your system. But in a weird way, it's like a "Your manual for an eating disorder! At least you'll be thin, bitch!"

But although the chick, her husband, her doctor, friends, random celebs who've had eating disorders, etc are saying it's terribly bad, she goes back to LA and everyone's like, "Oooh, look at you. Still got that extra 5kg to shift??"

These people are emaciated!

Just like their brains...

Maybe I'm just grumpy because I haven't been able to eat properly for the past nearly four weeks and I know totally why people who are doing the eating disorder thing are grouchy.

But I swear to God, I will sit on the Barry guy who's saying that Louise as an emaciated skeleton isn't looking thin at all and she could probably go a bit more off and feed him chocolate cake if I ever see him.

Ugh, I want chocolate.

Anyways, Mic and I are talking about the "doco" and both agree that it seems a bit suss. The thing ended before you could see how she'd go about getting back to her original non-anorexic-BMI weight, unlike with Super Size Me where it looks at both sides of the coin. Frankly, the whole thing seemed rather too win-win - she got to lose loads of weight, and seem like it was all done in a nice, charitable way to "warn" others about how absolutely naughty it is to starve.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she'd also had something in the doco about regaining the weight healthily, avoiding putting on way more weight following crash diets, etc.

And as Mic said: Hmmm, it's like she's watched Super Size Me, and said "Wow, wouldn't it be good to make a doco were instead of eating junk food and getting fat, you eat health and get thin? hehehe! I'm just a girl, oh you!"

Funny thing is, there's something about similar issues with BMI/uber-skinny people on Dateline on SBS and so far it's far more intelligent in just 10 minutes than an entire hour doco. Although I've done a Technorati search about the doco and it seems like we missed out on some chunks of it, compared to the version that was shown in the UK (reading other's blogs about some scenes, etc, which didn't seem to appear in the version we got here in Aus)... Hmmmm...

...I may be some time...

H'okay, item 54...

So I mightn't be posting much on here for a while, who knows when regular ramblings from me will resume. And yes, I have an excuse for it all. A medical one at that!

For the past couple weeks, I've been pretty sick. Had days off work, lots of throwing up involved, fair amounts of pain (if childbirth is half as painful as some of the pain I've experienced, I ain't doing it), doctors appointments, etc. Saw a different doctor yesterday who's pretty sure it's a gall bladder thing.

Not a good thing, really, but I guess it's good to have some sort of resolution. Will be having tests and scans on Monday and then if the results are what's expected, surgery at some point in the future. No idea when.

It's all a bit scary, especially when the doctor talks to you about the importance of getting to hosptial ASAP if things get worse because otherwise I might die. Noice. The father of a friend's friend is currently in ICU due to complications from his gall bladder not being removed and screwing up his liver and pancreas.

Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts...

o.0

The jig is up!

This morning I got an e-mail from my boss saying thank-you for the Easter eggs and bringing intrigue to the department.

Apparently he knew about Operation SneakyBunny all along.

Drat!

But it was fun. And full of chocolatey goodness. Plus the head-honcho boss at work brought around HUGE Easter eggs after lunch for everyone, which was pretty cool. I have the feeling I'll just be admiring the impressive egg, though. Since being sick I've gone right off chocolate.

All the more for everyone else I guess!

Sometimes walking home's not bad at all.

And now for something completely different: a food rant!

It started out by reading a blog review of a restaurant where the vegetarian fare involved mushrooms and spinach a lot. I fail to understand why it is that cafes and restaurants approach vegetarian as being mushrooms, spinach and eggplant. I HATE mushroom, spinach and eggplant with a passion that exceeds that of Casanova's passion for women.*

Eggplant, spinach, mushrooms = uncreative vegetarian fare in my book.

There are other veggies I admit to hating (sweet potato, taro, swedes), but they very rarely make an appearance in vegetarian cooking in restaurants, so it's not too bad. I realise it makes me sound fussy, but there are loads of foods that everyone doesn't like. Think about your own pet hates with food...

Perhaps it just seems unusual for a vegetarian to say that they don't loooooooove all vegetables. There are loads of vegetables out there that are delicious and amazing and different and sadly often not included in what seems to be de rigueur for restaurants doing vegetarian food. Funnily, I find most people who aren't vegetarians themselves but are cooking for vegetarians in non-restaurant settings tend to show far more creativity.

Anyhoodle...

Then, following links from the site I was on and poking around looking at vegetarian blogs and foodthoughts and even looking at raw foods I'm sitting here thinking, "Why is this making me feel like Fran in Black Books when her friend harasses her into doing yoga with her, tells her wheat is 'poison' and not to eat peas? Hmm... I wonder!"

Suddenly I'm understanding why some people dislike vegetarians - particularly if it's the sort of "Ohh, I only eat yellow things on Tuesdays that don't cast shadows" kind of vegetarian with holier-than-thou attitudes. The raw food movement in particular reminds me of an article I read earlier today about orthorexia (When healthy eating turns into a disease from The Guardian).

I think it's good to do a detox now and then, eat as healthily as possible, try not to over-consume meat products if you're an omnivore (and also try not to over-consume products in the upper tiers of the food pyramid if you're vegetarian), etc. Personally, I try to get my hands on as much organic produce as possible, which makes the local deli stocking fantastic fruit, vege and organic breads incredibly good.

But people also need to be sensible about things. Not go all food extremist and declare a food-jihad on wheat, dairy and soy.

*Actually, I don't mind spinach in things like spanakopida or spinach and feta triangles. It's nice to have it hidden with some other more tasty ingredients. But spinach alone? Ugh.

Missing the Point?

It's unfortunate how Christians who miss the point the most are the ones who whinge the loudest.

I'm not saying there aren't legitimate complaints out there in the world and in belief systems and religious organisations that need to be looked at seriously and addressed. Instead, I'm talking about the ones who complain about something, having totally missed the point of it.

Recently I wrote something about grace. There was a load of great feedback about it from people I know or who know my parents or are even vaguely acquainted with them. That was definitely a good thing. But then I was hit with a wall of whinge from some people who clearly didn't read what I'd written or just preferred to not pay attention to what was there, choosing to create their own version instead.

Maybe they should be given points for creativity or something, y'know, like, "Good effort, love your interpretive take on this. Very innovative. Gold star for you, young man!"

Realistically, though, it just came across as them saying they didn't want to extend grace to people they didn't think deserved it, the wrong message was being sent, or that grace wasn't something that Christians should be advertising because you never know who might accept it and you just wouldn't want that happening... Or just that we shouldn't agree with other Christian denominations.

Point taken as missed.

The thing is, I do understand the issues that some people would have had with it. Grace in itself is fantastic, but it's also very uncomfortable to think that God extends it to anyone willing to accept it - including people we personally think don't deserve it. Pretty confronting in that respect.

Oh well. Guess there are always moments of missing the point by everyone at some time or another in their life, so no-one's immune from it. But sometimes it'd just be nice if people read things properly, considered them and showed some rationality before flying off the handle.

Plus when Christians get too busy snarking at other Christians for whatever reason, the wheels kind of fall off the whole "Love one another as I have loved you" thing. And yes, I see the irony in writing about snarky Christian moments in such a manner...

But on a lighter note, I've got to say that there are many moments of fun with Christian stuff, one of which that's been making me laugh lately is the following, reportedly from an English hymnal:

St Joseph stood beside the cradle
and embraced the Holy Child
Then he knelt upon the sod...

Wrong in so many ways. But I'm pretty sure God's got a sense of humour too when it comes to odd word combinations and phrases designed to be praising Him.

The 55 Blue Tiles

It's hard rubbish day tomorrow and so I investigated under the house for things to throw out and came up with a whole load of stuff while getting covered in spider webs, finding a huge brown spider that was like a chocolatey version of a redback (and killing it) and uncovering loads of just bizarre stuff.

For example, 55 blue tiles.

Really, I wonder about the people who've owned this house in the past. The amount of stuff that's been buried in gardens that I've uncovered, some of the stuff under the house (including a door that doesn't fit ANYWHERE on the house), etc is astounding. It seems like they approached the back yard in the way you'd approach a bin.

And it's not like bins haven't been around for centuries and we're waiting in our fur loincloths in a cave for Ugg to come back with his daily kill while Nug scrapes a hollow in a rock with another rock before announcing, "I call this 'Bin!' We put it out for council collection every Monday night, put more rubbish in next day. Maybe we have recycling bin too. After I invent council!"

All that said, I'm keeping the tiles. They're just too beautiful to throw out with their midnight blue shine. Plus I keep arranging them into patterns, pushing them around into new ideas...