DD minus What? - The Introduction

Right, so before you all get cranky with me for having missed quite a few days on this countdown, let me explain two things:

#1: I missed Christmas Day and Boxing Day because, well, theyre Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I had people to see, presents to unwrap and a big plate of fresh prawns to eat.

#2: I've missed the other 3 days because, well....i gave birth.

Yes, ladies and gents, you ready that correctly - i would formally like to introduce the blogging world to Flynn Charlie Freshfield, born December 27th, 2009 ( or at what would have been DD minus 15) :

There he is - my very own little dude. After having known since the 20 week mark that we were having a boy it has been fantastic to finally meet him. I wont go into the gory details of the actual birth ( although i probably will at some point - its a tale every mother wants to tell ) but suffice to say after only 6 hrs from first contraction til the big arrival i was happy to see a perfectly formed little person turn up. If you cant tell from the photo Flynn has his daddys nose and my hair ( check out the hair - isnt he spunky?! ) and he weighed in at 6lbs and 9 ounces he's on the smaller side of average ( which tends to happen when you arrive 2 weeks earlier than expected ).

So far, all is going relatively well - he's had a little trouble getting the hang of the whole feeding thing and he has this funny little sqeaky noise coming from the back of his throat when he's sleeping deeply - which alternately super cute and super scary because it sounds like he's struggling for breath - but other than that both he and I - the mumma! - are doing just fine.

So there you be. I'll leave it relatively short and sweet for now. I just thought i would take advantage of the fact that Mr Gil was kind, and smart, enough to bring me my lap top to amuse me during this 3rd day in hospital and fill you loyal reader type people in on my absence. Hoping you all had a very Merry Christmas and wishing you all the best for your New Years celebrations ( i predict mine will be spent in front of the tv, watching fireworks from downtown Sydney whilst i breastfeed)......

Too Late?

A guy I know - a former soldier with several tours in the Middle East - told me he didn’t want his son to fight over there, and that surprised me. I asked if it was the military’s rules of engagement and he just smirked. “Well why then?” He was silent again, looking into space while he thought about it. Finally he said he wasn’t sure Americans wanted to win. “Hmm,” I said. It was time for me to pause. He stated what I had been thinking lately, but was afraid to say out loud.

Some of us want to win, but a lot of us don’t. “Our leaders are a reflection of our culture,” my friend said, “and our culture wants our soldiers to fight without hurting anybody.” That’s impossible, of course, but it does seem to be what too many Americans want - and our elected leaders are willing to pretend it’s possible. So we send our finest young men to fight with one arm tied behind their backs because of our asinine rules of engagement. Our soldiers cannot shoot until the bad guys shoot at them first.

Fifty-three percent of us elected a president last fall who thinks he can talk our enemies into liking us. Since his inauguration, he’s traveled the world bowing to foreign leaders and apologizing for America when there’s nothing to apologize for. He says the War on Terror is over and what we’ve got now are “Overseas Contingency Operations,” whatever the hell that means.

His interview with ABC News last July is instructive:

ABC’S TERRY MORAN: Define victory in Afghanistan, or maybe that’s not the right word.
OBAMA: I’m always worried about using the word “victory” because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.

What would be wrong with that? If you ask me, it would be wonderful to see Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashir Assad, Mullah Omar, Hassan Nasrallah, and the rest of our enemies lined up to sign unconditional surrenders. Is President Obama forgetting that he’s our Commander-in-Chief? We have a C in C who doesn’t want to even say victory? I want one who’ll settle for nothing less.

Meanwhile, all that bowing and groveling doesn’t seem to be working very well. Iran - the world’s biggest supporter of terrorism - burned Obama in effigy during their annual “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” festival. One of our own army officers shot dozens of American infidels at Fort Hood while shouting “Allahu Akbar” and our president wasn’t even sure he was a terrorist. A wealthy, British-educated, young Nigerian tried to blow up an American passenger plane with 289 people, Obama called him a “suspect” and an “isolated extremist” who “allegedly” tried to set off a device, as if the terrorist were entitled to the same rights American citizens are. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said: “the system has worked really very, very smoothly” and there was “no indication of a larger terror plot.” As if there were no connection between all the RADICAL MUSLIM terrorists who’ve been attacking Americans, Israelis, British, Spanish, Russians, and others for decades.

So many of us are so infected with political correctness, we go to astonishing lengths to avoid calling our enemy by its name. So indoctrinated with self-hating, leftist propaganda about the evils of western civilization are we that we think it’s no wonder they hate us and want to kill us.

An increasing number of Americans don’t want to do what it takes to win because they don’t believe our way of life is worth fighting for. They don’t believe America is unique. Their brains are so addled with multicultural malarkey, they think all countries and all cultures are equal - even if they enslave women, kill homosexuals, execute anyone who converts to another religion, and continually promise to kill anyone who isn’t like them - it doesn’t make them bad people. They’re just another part of the wonderfully diverse human family and should be celebrated like any other part, including ours.

And now we’ve installed an entire national government with that world view. How do you like the way they’re functioning so far America? Do you feel safe?

Just as the leaders we elect are a reflection of us, so are our children. A fellow teacher asked his writing students recently if the America was the best country in the world and most didn’t think so. I teach the same kids, and when I asked them which country was better they looked at me blankly. They couldn’t name one. They just parroted the diversity doo-doo they were raised with.

This is what America is becoming. Is it too late for us? Are we going to lose?

Just like Freud, books are not just for Christmas, they're for life!

One of the last emails I received before we broke for Christmas was from a colleague enquiring about my presentation at the last School Staff Development Day. My colleague had seen a number of book covers flash up on the screen, but had missed the point of my slide. She wondered if I could send the full reference please. Of course the details of all the books referred to will appear in the University of Salford Institutional Repository in due course. The presentation was just me stealing a cheeky moment to advertise Creative Approaches to Health and Social Care Education.

This is the latest book edited by my colleague Sue McAndrew and myself. The book further develops our work exploring the relationship between knowledge, knowing and not knowing. The final chapter, ‘Thoughts in search of a Thinker’ provides the springboard for our work in 2010. It is a book brings together some of the brightest and most creative thinkers in the world of nurse education. The aim in what is a series of works is to explore some of the opportunities to think differently about how and why we educate our students. I think I was rather tongue in cheek, suggesting that the books might make great Christmas presents. So I was amused to see that despite the Creative Approaches book only being published on the 10th December, by the 12th of December it was possible to purchase this (as a new copy) at £2 less than the publishers listed price.

In any event, I took a copy to my parents when I went to see them last Sunday. My Dad enjoys reading everything I write, including the blog. So I was surprised when between the nut roast and Christmas pudding he asked who I wrote the blog for. It was an interesting question to ponder. I said, possibly my ‘alter ego’. However, on further reflection perhaps the blog is really an example of Freud’s Psyche Theory and the relationships between the Id, Ego, and Super ego.

Freud described the id as being is responsible for our basic drives and basic impulses. The id is regarded as the reservoir of the libido or the ‘instinctive drive to create’. The id is unconscious by definition. The Latin term ego refers to ‘the I’. Contemporary meanings of the term ego include a sense of one’s self-esteem, an inflated sense of self-worth, or in philosophical terms, one’s self. According to Freud, the ego is the part of the mind that contains the consciousness. Freud revised his original meaning (a sense of self) to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality-testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory.

The Super-ego on the other hand, aims for perfection. It comprises that organised part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual’s ‘conscience’. It is this conscience that criticises and prohibits our drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. Thus the Super-ego strives to act in a socially appropriate manner, whereas the id just wants instant self-gratification. The Super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong and guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable ways. Not quite QED, but perhaps QEF (Quod erat faciendum) which appeals more to my notion of being the good enough blogger!

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas Day. I was lucky enough to be able to get out early and walk for an hour around the hills and reservoirs of Horwich. The sun shone, the snow glistened, and for a short while, all was peaceful. This is the last blog of the year. I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year. I hope it will be a year where you are able to achieve all that you aim for. All the very best wishes to everyone for 2010.

Merry Christmas (Again)

Happy Birthday Jesus! and Merry Christmas everybody!

DD minus 18: Santa Comes Tonight!

Indeed he does - and for anyone who's counting, yes i missed another day ( through circumstances i care not to discuss right now, i was unable to use my computer ).

So yes - its Christmas Eve, which in my immediate family is both an exciting and sad time, all at once. I know thats i've mentioned it before on this blog and on previous blogs, so i wont dwell on it too much but Christmas Eve is a little sombre in my family as my younger brother passed away on this day - 20 years ago this year in fact. 20 years is a long time ( so long that my mind boggled when i realised the whole anniversary this morning ) but suffice to say i'm pretty sure it hurst now less, especially for my parents. So there's the sad part.

However, now that there are little kids in our family again, its back to having that whole exciting, " Santa comes tonight!!!! " part. This of course applies to my brother and sister-in-law with both of my neices but what is exciting is that next year this part will apply to me. At least a little. My baby will be just under 1 yr old next Christmas, so its not like they will realise who Santa is or what he does, but i myself can get caught up in the whole baby's first Christmas and baby's first photo with Santa thing. Its going to be cute.

And yes, before anyone gets a little up in arms, i know that Santa is the only dude who gets a little loving at Christmas. I understand that there is another guy by the name of Jesus who was apparently born on December 25th and that quite a few ( million ) people around the world happen to have a special celebration to celebrate his birthday. So here i am acknowledging Jesus' role in this most sweet and joyous of holidays, even though i dont subscribe to his particular brand of religion.

Neither, apparently does little H - she told me earlier that Grandma had been reading her a story about Mother Mary and the Baby Cheese......

Redistribution

After passing back weekly US History quizzes on World War I, I paused a few minutes for the “whad-ja-gets” - students asking each other about their scores.

When they were done I said, “I have a good idea.”

“What?” said a girl.

“Many of you are doing well on these lately, getting hundreds and nineties, but others are still doing poorly - getting only thirties and forties.”

They all knew that after the whad-ja-gets.

“I’m thinking about redistributing grades - taking thirty points from those of you who got hundreds, and giving them to the students who got thirties. That way, the kids with hundreds would still have seventies, which is a C- and not that bad a grade, while those with thirties would then get sixties, which is D- and passing. This way, things would be more equal. How does that sound to you?”

Several looked at me blankly. Some had their mouths open. Students I knew had been studying extra hard were wincing.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said one.

“Okay,” I said. “Does anybody like the idea?”

Only four raised their hands.

“Who else doesn’t like it?”

All the rest put their hands up.

“Alright, why not?”

“We worked for those grades,” said a boy. “It’s not fair to take our points and give them to someone who didn’t study. They shouldn’t get points for not doing anything.”

“Yeah,” said a girl. “If you did that, those kids who don’t study won’t ever do anything. They won’t have any reason to.”

“Plus, other kids wouldn’t want to work so hard if the points they earned were just going to be taken away and given to someone else,” said another boy.

“Well,” I said. “It’s just an idea at this point,”

“Not one of your better ones,” said a boy.

“I haven’t made any decisions yet and I’ll let you know when I do. Meanwhile, would you open your books to page 888 please?”

They did.

“I’d like someone to read the 16th Amendment, ratified in 1913 - almost a hundred years ago. Any volunteers?”

A boy read aloud: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

“Thank you,” I said. “There had been a temporary income tax during the Civil War and a few times after, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, so passage of the 16th Amendment was necessary to resume it. The tax was only on people who earned the most money - an amount that would be equal to around $80,000 per year or above today. Soon it turned into something called a “graduated” or “progressive” income tax.”

I drew charts on the board illustrating that with a flat tax of 15%, someone making $10,000 per year would pay $1500 in taxes while someone making $100,000 per year would pay $15,000. So the wealthier would pay more, but the percentage would be the same. Then I explained how under a “graduated” or “progressive” tax structure, the percentage went up enormously for wealthier taxpayers to the point where government took most of what they made above a certain amount. In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, government took over 90% of their earnings. I passed out charts showing the top marginal tax rates since 1913.

“Wow,” said a boy. “There would be no point in working hard if the government takes it all away.”

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“This is what you were getting at with the quiz grades, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

Finally, I explained that the top half of American workers paid just about all the income taxes, while the bottom half paid almost nothing, or government gave them money under something called the “earned income tax credit.”

“That’s like what the communists did in Russia,” said a girl. We had watched “Dr. Zhivago” to learn about World War I, the Communist Revolution in Russia, and the rise of the Soviet Union.

“Similar,” I said, “but not as drastic. There are other taxes the bottom half of Americans pay so nobody escapes paying some kind of tax, but the rich pay for most of what the federal government does. And - the bottom half figured out that they can vote in congressmen and senators who will give them things somebody else has to pay for.”

Merry CHRISTmas

DD minus 20: The Day Of The Slug ( And Winning An Award )

The day of the slug - and who, or what, is the slug you may ask ? The slug, my friends, is me. Thats what i felt like today - a big fat lazy slug. I woke up as the same time as usual, got up with Mr Gil and ate my breakfast and saw him off to work and after he'd left i thought i'd watch the last 20 minutes of the morning variety program. This was at 8:40am - next thing i know, i open my eyes and its 10:30am. I'd fallen back to sleep! And even when i opend my eyes and realised what time it was and what had happened, my first instinct was " man, cant i get just five more minutes ? ". I dont know what it was - maybe i'd done too much work yesterday afternoon after another attack of the nesting instinct - but i was just overwhelmingly tired, lethargic, sluggish; and it didnt really get much better over the course of the day. I had a shower, woke myself up a bit, but all i could manage the motivation for was web-surfing, tv watching and magazine reading. Way to spend the day Amy.

And so, there is not so much to report on today. However, thank god for Chantal over at Growing Up...Townsend Style. She's very kindly bestowed the " Happiness 101 " award on me, and thus she has saved my blog post for the day from complete and utter boringness.

The award also comes with a meme of its own - i'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy and give this award to 10 other people. That being said, i dont think i want to name 10 of you - i think i'm going to go with 3. I mean, i want to keep this award somewhat exclusive.... if i share it around too much it'll lose all its glory! ( Kidding, of course. Or am I ? ) Anyhoo, 10 things that make me happy:

1. My neices , H and B. One is 4 years old, the other is having their first birthday in 8 days time, but they are both adorable little cuties that do amusing things.

2. " Ripe " by Ben Lee. Its just a really good pop album that makes me want to sing along. Singing along makes me happy.

3. Mr Gil, my gorgeous fiance. Granted sometimes he does things that make me unhappy or frusturated, buut most of the time he makes me insanely happy.

4. Mangoes. One word - yum. I am so having one after i'm done with post.

5. Finishing a crossword puzzle. I'm trying to keep my brain sharp to stave off baby brain moments and possible dementia, so being able to completely finish a crossword puzzle ( and not the type which is entirely made up of pop culture answers ) gives me a real buzz.

6. Blog post comments. Hint, hint people...

7. A really good nap. I know the napping itself is kind of a non-event but its the refreshed feeling after a really well earned nap that makes me happy.

8. " Amelie ". I've seen this movie 7 or 8 times, and i own it on DVD, but it doesnt matter how many times i watch it it never fails to give me that fuzzy, feelgood, feeling.

9. Jeans and a white tank top. I've mentioned the power of this very simple outfit, but i'll say it again - jeans and a white tank or t-shirt always make me feel sexy, and feeling sexy makes me happy. Hell, the power of this outfit has even worked for me whilst i've been pregnant, which is really saying something.

10. Macadamia icecream.....mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm.

And who am i handing my award to?

Sheena at If These Walls Could Talk

Paula at Insert My Blogname Here

Andy at WildARSChase

Go to it people!

DD minus 21: Ah Crud, I Missed A Day

I promised myself that i was going to write a post every day of this countdown and then i got busy and distracted and went and missed a day. Poo to that! It was, of course, 22 days til the due date, it was Sunday yesterday and what distracted me was H's ballet recital and then going out for dinner. Her dance recital was so cute - all the little tiny girls are all dressed in sweet little costumes and they do their little dances as best as they can. At least one girl in every group dances way-out-crazy, and usually someone freezes up and starts either crying or waving to their families in the crowd. Once all the little girls are finished their routines they're allowed to get changed and then sit in the audience to watch the older girls perform. Highlight of the night:
H to my dad, in a quite moment between dances " Hey poppy, you should do ballet instead of golf!! " Every person in the immediate vicinity burst out laughing.....

Now, to today. The majority of it was spent tidying around the house and i finally got around to making more room in our linen cupboard so that i could unpack some more boxes from the garage. Yes, i know what your thinking - i've been living in this house for almost 6 months, surely i'd already done all the unpacking ? Well not quite.... i'd kind of left all the boxes of junk stuff til last because i didnt really have anywhere much to put them. Until today. The nesting instinct strikes again!

The only other noteworthy thing i got up to was catching up with P, my best ( and also pregnant ) friend. We've both been so busy working and doing baby things that we havent had much time for a catch up, but todays weather and the fact neither of us was working made it the perfect day for an icecream break. What was really fantastic though was being able to discuss all the little pregnancy niggles and birth worries with another impending first time mum. I mean dont get me wrong, its nice to get the advice of women who have been there, done that; but it was really great to get to talk about all the worries and issues and discomforts and the handful of good things ( hallelujah for the babys head moving down - i've discovered the ability to breath again! ) with someone else who's experiencing it for the first time and is just as confused as i am. P is due 4 weeks after me, so i suppose i'm just a tiny step ahead of her in terms of growings and goings on, and i'm hoping for her sake ( aswell as my own! ) that i have a good birthing experience..... i dont want to freak her out anymore than she probably already is!

So thats my Monday in a nutshell. For the record it was one scoop of macadamia nut and one scoop of passionfruit icecream and it was scrum-diddly-umptious! Tomorrows agenda? A run to the recycling center with all my excess cardboard - you know, from all that tidying and unpacking i did today - and afternoon tea with my nan, who i wont be seeing on Christmas Day. Oh, also, i plan on fitting in a nap somewhere ......

A Tale of Five Dinners and Cello Discovers Snow

It has been another busy week and a week that has added to my already expanding waste band. One downside of my job is the numerous lunch time meetings I attend at which sandwiches and other similar convenience foods are provided. I have stopped eating these, partly out of boredom and partly as a silent protest against the institutional promotion of such unhealthiness. This week, has also seen me out every night on University related business. On Monday I was a guest at the University of Leeds annual meal to celebrate all those members of staff that had retired in the last academic year. I was there with two colleagues who had decided to put their chalk in the desk draw for the last time.

The meal was hosted by the VC, and we ate in wonderful hall at the University House. There were cabinets full of silverware, wooden paneled walls and a graceful air of elegance. Whatever happened to those days of the Senior Common Room? The meal was served by immaculately dressed waiters in a highly coordinated approach to getting all the diners fed at the same time. I had a wonderful goat’s cheese, pear and spinach starter, followed by a equally delicious leek and cheese strudel. Outside, the rain lashed down and I got soaked getting the train station. However, unlike the previous occasion I was a guest at Leeds, I did manage to stay awake on the train home and got off in Manchester and not somewhere in the wilds of Merseyside.

Tuesday I attended the first of a revised University of Salford professoriate. I have made my feelings known about this professoriate before. It was an interesting experience. I have to say that whilst the vast majority of participants were male, and over 50, there was not much danger of being overwhelmed by a testosterone fuelled debate! The meal was an evening variation of the usual lunch time offerings, so I left early and was home by 9pm.

Wednesday was hectic from 7am. Much of the day was given over to working with the School Executive – and it was good to see so much excellent work emerging from the Whole School Project work groups. As a School we are developing a robust evidence base upon which to improve our approach to enhancing the student experience. In the evening, the School Executive went out for a Christmas meal. Smiths in Eccles. The food was good, a cauliflower cheese starter, with a delightful leek and cheese strudel as the main course. The conversation around the table was a mixture of funny nostalgic stories of times past (we were just across the way from Peel House) and good humored commentaries on the changes we and our university had gone through in the last year.

Thursday was a colder day. There was sleet at lunchtime and by the time we were all making our way to the VC’s house for an informal cocktail party, it was snowing heavily. The VC had invited about 60 colleagues from the School to attend what he described as ‘our house’ for an evening of conversation, drinks and nibbles (some would say canapés). About 40 colleagues were able to make the evening. The house was quickly filled with people eating, talking and occasionally having a glass of wine. As at the Leeds event however the service was impressive and unobtrusive.

There was much speculation around ‘that painting’. Some colleagues recalled that ‘our house’ had in times past, been a nurse’s home for those nurses working in nearby Pendlbury Hospital.

Oh and George, in response to your email about missing the last train home, I don’t think the VC meant you could kip down on the sofa when he was talking about it being ‘our house’. By the time we left it was well below freezing and the roads were treacherous. I abandoned all thought of continuing the celebrations in Manchester city centre. The finger food had left me feeling full but not with the sense I had actually eaten anything substantial.

Friday morning revealed the snow that had fallen during the night. Cello who has never seen snow before, reveled in the experience as he rushed around outside.

I on the other hand, was less impressed, it was 05.30, dark and still well below freezing. The day included the judging of the best decorated office. I thought the ‘Credit Crunch Christmas’ theme was a good one, but perhaps not as well designed and executed as the ‘Black Forest’. The results are to be declared next week.

That evening many of us were at the Faculty Christmas Party at the VA Hotel in Manchester. Despite the freezing temperature outside, there was more naked flesh on display than can be seen on a Newquay beach on a hot bank holiday weekend. Perhaps I am just getting old. I should have had a goat’s cheese, pear and spinach starter, but it never arrived. The main course was what by now had become the ubiquitous leek and cheese strudel. As the DJ turned up the music even louder, and the bright young things got up to dance I knew it was time to go home.

I had baked beans on toast when I got in, and boy did they taste good!

DD minus 23: Oh Good Lord, I Think I'm Leaking

OK, i dont just think i'm leaking.... i know i'm leaking. I also know that is probably too much information for most of you ( Leaking ?! Leaking what, from where?!? ) but in the rundown to giving birth i wanted to make note of it. Although i know its completely normal, noticing that i've burst some kind of hole in my boobs is kind of a freak out.

And now - forgetting that. Its Saturday! Which you would think seeing as i'm on maternity leave and staying home everyday doesnt mean much, but it does - firstly because it means Mr Gil isnt at work either, and secondly because tonight is my work Christmas do. I'm not going to call it a " bash " because i believe a bash requires a few more than 5 office staff and their partners, and neither does it qualify as a " function " because im thinking not many functions are held on the back patio of someones house. No, i think calling it a " do " is the best way to go on this occasion. Its not a barbecue either because there wont be any actual barbecuing - its just the few us getting together for a drink, a chat and a meal of some nice cold roasted meats, some prawns, salads and dessert and the obligatory pre-meal snacks.... chips, dips and cabanossi and cheese. Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm!

I have graciously allowed Mr Gil to have a few beers tonight, seeing as its technically a " do " and all. No, i'm not some kind of beer-Nazi fiance who wont let her man drink - rather i've had to put my foot down and ask that he not have his usual beer or three after work every day just in case i go into labour. I mean the last thing i want to do if i go into labour is try and wake him up when he's sleeping off a few drinks, or have to drive myself to the hospital. To be quite honest, i dont think my head would be clear enough to operate car controls when the moment finally comes!

So, two and half hours out from the do/party thingy, i think i'm going to take a shower, fix myself up with a clean bra and possibly take a nap.... not necessarily in that order. Rundown of party happenings ( and any tantrums that may or may not be thrown over certain presents, as mentioned yesterday ) in tomorrows post!

Galatians 6:4

"Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to someone else."

Galatians 6:4

DD minus 24: Dude, Its Raining

This is highly unusual. Like i said in my post of two days ago, it was 38 degrees celsius and only due to get hotter. Today, out of nowhere, i wake up to an overcast sky, steady rain and 28 degrees celsius. Ah, weather patterns - you never cease to amaze me.

So, with the arrival of a little rain, today has been a good dayto do, well - not much. I had to go out and buy a Secret Santa gift for one of my work colleagues ( my work Christmas party is tomorrow night, and i thought i'd better not leave it til the very last minute ). Only problem is that the guy i had to buy for is not exactly my favourite person in the office. And when you only work with 5 other people, being the " not favourite " is not exactly an enviable position. Anyhoo, so i gotta go out and buy a present for this guy and the only idea i can come up with is either going to tickle his funny bone or completely offend him.

See, my main problem with this guy is that he is a mooch. That is, in an office job where the hours are 9am to 5pm ( what a way to make a living... ) he sits at his desk and actually does some work from, maybe, 11am til 12:30pm, and then from 1:30pm til about 3pm. The rest of his working hours are spent " procrastinating ". You know, for lack of a better term. For instance, we open at 9am and it takes him roughly half an hour to count the cash in his till and organise the days paperwork. Then he volunteers to go and do our banking and walk to the post office to check our mail. This, admittedly, can sometimes take a while, especially if the queues at either place are long - however, a job that takes the rest of us maybe half an hour always seems to take him in the vicinity of 45 minutes to an hour.

So this gets him back around 10:15 am.ish... at which time he'll sit back down at his desk, answer a phone call or two, help a health fund member/customer if he isnt quick enough at hiding from them and then its 10:30am which is time for a coffee break. And, of course, this means he needs to leave the office again to buy his coffee and then his 10 minute morning tea break usually takes him 20 minutes. Which is how we arrive at his 11am start time.

I wont go into the details of his working day after his one hour lunch break ( dishes that need washing, garbage that needs to be taken to the bins, pottering around in my eyewear dispensary and generally annoying J and i ... ) but suffice to say his habit of wheedling his way out of actually work AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT has really given me the proverbial shits. I cant say that i'll miss having to put up with him while i'm away on maternity leave.

So, with that all explained, what did i manage to find and buy him for his Secret Santa gift ? A book entitled " The Lazy Persons Guide To Life ". I happen to find this quite funny, as does J and one of our other colleagues - giving a lazy person a humourous guide to being lazy ..... hilarious! The problem is not only is he a master procrastinator but he also has mood swings like a teenage girl on her period.... which is to say you cant predict them and they arent always pretty. So tomorrow night we find out if he sees the humour in my joke ( even though it is an actual dig at his laziness.... ) or whether he gets offended by the " lazy " tag.

Here's to a good laugh.... and a nice long break from his annoying, whining, woe-is-me, procrastinating ways.....

DD minus 25: More Yucky Medecine?!?

I am not ashamed to admit that i am completely and totally tuckered out as i write this. Hanging out with a 4 year old day has really taken it out of me, so god only knows what i'm going to be like in the first few weeks of having a newborn....

H, my 4 year old neice, is a very cool little person. She's not the kind of little kid thats prone to tantrums ( although when they do happen they can be a doozy! ) and she's happy to sit and watch tv for a while if her very pregnant aunty is a little tired. Even better, she came up with the great idea of playing doctor with me this afternoon - she the doctor and me the lady who has just had a baby ( wow - what an imagination... ). The game involved me lying on the lounge and her checking my heartbeat, blood pressue and throat with her little toy doctors kit, and making me take about 12 doses of yucky faux medecine. I also needed a few needles as did the baby, but the good news is after a few days bedrest in hospital, my faux baby and i are doing fine. This game lasted around an hour, which was plenty of time for me to recover some energy and keep on keeping on.

What else was fine was " Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs ". I'd read some good reviews and although kids movies are usually a gamble, this one paid off. There was enough laughs for little kids but the occasional joke that only the adults would pick up on; the animation was great; and the concept was easy enough for a 4 year old to understand but no so juvenile as to leave me bored. Basically, this crazy backyard scientist invents a machine that turns water molecules into food and through a slight mishap the machine gets launched into the sky - effectively feeding off the water in the clouds and making it rain food. Thats enough for little kids - its raining food, and giant food at that ? Hilarious! H decided that if she could make it rain food she would want big hamburgers; i was voting for giant icecream cones. Either way, thats enough post-film conversation to pronounce this one a winner.

And now, i'm thinking its time for a plateful of mango and then its off to bed. Oh, and also, our muffins ending up a winner also - i'd planned on banana but H had the idea of throwing in some gorgeous juicy cherries aswell. Mr Gil has had two and plans on taking with his lunch tomorrow, and my brother ( H's dad ) told her that they were really nice so..... so, yea, go team Amy and H!

Selfishness and Harassment

My baby boom generation and the so-called generation Xers who followed us have aborted over forty million American babies since 1973. It would have required a great deal of personal and financial sacrifice to bear them and then bring them up to adulthood, and they declined. Now, we’re burdening babies we do allow to be born with crippling debt because we want things, we don’t want to pay for them, and we’re passing the bill to the next generation - and whatever children they may have. Congressional Democrats just raised our debt ceiling to $14 trillion. A baby born today inherits a $39 thousand liability and it’s going up. Meanwhile, we’re pulling stem cells from human embryos to prolong our lives.

Any other ways we can squeeze more out of future generations before we die? Christian News Wire tells us that: “Neocutis, a bio-pharmaceutical company focused on dermatology and skin care is using aborted fetal cell lines to produce several of their anti-aging skin creams. . . . Neocutis’ key ingredient known as “Processed Skin Proteins” was developed at the University of Luasanne [Switzerland] from the skin tissue of a 14-week gestation electively-aborted male baby donated by the University Hospital in Switzerland.” Support for this is, sadly, widespread, although most Americans still don’t approve of it. The Roe V Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973 claimed abortion is a woman’s constitutional right and though some of us believe the decision to be deeply flawed, it’s the law and we must accept it until it’s repealed. Nurses, doctors and other medical professionals who believe abortion is murder have, at least until recently, been exempted from performing them.

However, according to HotAir.com: “The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Catholic nurse who was forced to participate in an abortion, despite voicing her moral objections well in advance. Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, was instructed to assist in a late second-trimester abortion for a woman 22 weeks into her pregnancy. The hospital had known of the nurse’s religious objections to abortion since she was hired in 2004.”

The hospital told her if she didn’t assist in the abortion, she would be considered insubordinate and risk loss of her nursing license. Apparently, the liberal agenda will now be forced on the rest of us and no dissent will be tolerated. Don’t believe it?

Last month, a Maine social worker was threatened with loss of his license to practice because he appeared in a commercial for the recent “Yes on Question 1” [repeal homosexual “marriage”] campaign. According the Kennebec Journal: “Don Mendell, of Palmyra, is the subject of the complaint, filed Oct. 19 with the state Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. According to documents of the complaint, it was sent Oct. 19 by a person only identified as Ann’ and seeks to have Mendell's license as a social worker revoked.” The complaint states: “[Mendell] does not have the right as a licensed social worker to make public comments that can endanger or promote discrimination.”As a Maine public school teacher, I made the same commercial Mendell did on the same day, but his version was chosen over mine. Would I be facing similar harassment had my commercial been chosen? It wouldn’t be the first time. Austin R. Nimocks, Mendell’s attorney from the Alliance Defense Fund stated: “This threat to Don [Mendell], and his family and his livelihood, reveals that those who want to redefine marriage also want to punish and silence anyone who disagrees.” If there’s another profession more strongly influenced by homosexual activists than the my own, it’s Mendell’s. After receiving a letter from Maine’s Office of Licensing and Registration ordering him to “send a detailed response to the complaint within 30 days,” he got an email saying, “[B]oth executive boards of the Maine School Counseling Association and the Maine Counseling Association have labored over what appears [sic] to be ethical violations that were breached in terms of the advertisement that was aired on behalf of the Vote Yes on 1 campaign. More specifically, you were featured in an [sic] television advertisement and identified as a school counselor voting yes on this issue.”

“We certainly have absolutely nothing to do with this,” said Mark Sullivan of the “No on 1” campaign. Uh-huh. Homosexual activists claim all should be able to practice their beliefs and live according to their chosen lifestyle without harassment, right? Well, maybe not.

Larry Grard claims he was fired from his job as a reporter for the Waterville Morning Sentinel where he’d worked for eighteen years after a complaint about him from the Human Rights Campaign - the biggest homosexual activist group in the country with sixteen full-time lobbyists. CCL sign defaced by homosexual activists in 2005

According to Al Diamon of Downeast.com, “After Grard received an e-mail on Nov. 4 from the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, DC that blamed the defeat of Maine’s gay marriage law on ‘lies and hate,’ he sent the group a response that read, ‘Who are the hateful, venom-spewing ones? Hint: Not the yes on 1 crowd. You hateful people have been spreading nothing but vitriol since this campaign began. Good riddance!’”

As of this writing, Human Rights Campaign acknowledges the email exchange with Grard and emailing an objection to Grard’s editor. Grard’s union, the Portland Newspaper Guild, has filed a grievance about the matter on his behalf, and is waiting for an arbitration date.

Maine Today Media, Inc. which owns the Morning Sentinel, denies Grard’s claims.

DD minus 26: Dude, Its Hot....

Yes, of course its hot - welcome to the Australian summer. So in the part of Australia where i live, the temperature starts to heat up from around the middle of November and there isnt usually any cooling down to speak of until early March. Generally, i am in love with this part of the year:
* First of all, its the Christmas period. I know there's something to be said for a white Christmas ( you know, by people in the Northern Hemisphere ) but i'll take the heat and the sun for my Christmas celebrations.
* Its the season for all the best fruit - namely peaches, cherries and mangoes. I've said it before, i'll say it again - mangoes are the food of the gods.
* Putting your lawn sprinkler on to water the grass and letting all the little kids run through it
* Barbeques - cooking outdoors, eating inside with the air conditioner on
* And a few other things i cant quite remember right now

Dont get me wrong, i'm still much happier to have this weather than be stuck in winter, but this summer i'm really feeling the heat. Guess why? Oh yea, i'm pumping around enough blood for two people and thats keeping me extra warm as it is - and the combination of heat and being on my feet have given me ankles the size of an elephants. Sexy.

I mean it only got to 38 degrees celsius here today ( thats 100 degrees for your Fahrenheit type persons ) but its only set to get warmer and, like i said, the heat carries on for quite a while. o matter - now that i'm on maternity leave i dont have to go outside if i dont want to, or be on my feet all day, so i can indulge myself in a fabulous hourand half long nap under the airconditioning in the afternoons. Which i did, today. Naps are fabulous.

But before i took a nap? I have finished the baby's room - i am now officially a rockstar! Or at least i felt like one this morning when i had finished putting up the wall decals and vacuumed the carpet. I am loving the wall decals. Check it:

I apologise for the flash reflecting off the paint there, but how cute are my little puppies? If your in the market for wall decals, for kids rooms or otherwise, try http://www.dezignwithaz.com/ . Theyre a company based in San Fransisco and they have some really cool stuff.

And now, onto tomorrow. I can promise there will be a lack of baby updates because - tomorrow i'm babysiutting my neice all day. Yep, i'm hanging out with H while her mum and dad are at work. So far i plan to take her to the movies and to make some banana muffins for our afternoon tea so instead of baby talk you can expect a run down on the antics of a four year old, possible a movie review and a critique of my banana muffins ( made straight out of the box ). Mmm - muffins.....

DD minus 27: Look Whats Finally Coming Together

You know how when you've been wanting to do something for months, and for better or worse you've ( kind of ) been procrastinating or just not quite finding the time - and then, finally, you get your arse into gear and the project is nearing completion .... you know how that makes you feel ? That " wow, look what i've done ", personal pride kind of feeling ? Yep, thats what i've got going on because..... the baby's room is almost done!

I feel like i've achieved a lot today. Its not just the physical act of washing and drying and folding piles and piles of baby clothes and cot sheets and fleecy blankets - although seeing all those little clothes hung out on my washing line was kind of sweet. Its more than that. The near completion of this physical task - the painting, the putting together of furniture, the washing and folding, the organising and decorating - is symbolic. It means I'm READY. Or as ready as i'm going to get anyway. Sure, i still need to pack a bag for the labour ( altough i did pack my bag for the actual hospital stay today - go me! ) so i'm technically not quite ready, but i feel like i am.

I also feel excited, nervous and a little scared - but on top of all this, i feel ready. I know i'm repeating the same word over and over here but theres no other way to explain it. I feel like i'm in a place where, even though i am excited and nervous and just a little scared, i'm also at ease with whats going to be thrown at me and i'm pretty sure that i'm going to be able to handle it, no matter how bad it appears to be. It might be because i've been having all these little conversations with other mothers or other pregnant women lately - like my beauty therapist today ( by the way way, lower leg and foot massages are the bomb! ). Its nice knowing that i'm part of a group - which has literally billions of members.

She asked me if i had thought about pain relief for the birth ( which i have.... kind of ) and how i think i'll make it through labour ( which can literally last all day if not longer ).

Here's what i'm holding on to - billions of other women, since the dawn of time, have been able to do this. And if they can, i can to. Simple yes, yet motivating. If so many other women can do it - can be strong, can bear down in the face of pain, can kick and scream and fight until the " job " is done ( or, for the Zen ladies out there, bite their lips and do it all in silence ).... then so can i. I can be that Superwoman.

And seeing as i've put together a piece of furniture all by myself this afternoon, made up the cot, sorted and folded all the clothes my child owns and cleaned the bathroom, i think i'm well on my way to that superhero status....

DD minus 28 : Its The Final Countdown

So, here it is, my ambitious new blogging project.

Wondering what " DD " is ? Its Due Date. Thats right - as of today there is exactly four weeks til the due date for the birth of my first child. Bearing in mind that only around 5% of babies are actually born on their due dates, this countdown is not going to be very accurate. I mean we could get to DD - 14 and i could go into labour; or we could hit DD + 7 and nothing might be happening. Nevertheless i'm going to start an official countdown today anyways.

Now, before you all close this page out of boredom, this countdown is not going to be all " ooh, i'm having twinges in the lower abdomen today! " or " When are my stupid waters going to break already!!! ". There will, of course, be some of that ( whats a countdown to a birth without it ? ) but there'll also be a rundown of whats going on in my head and my heart, what i've been up to now that i'm on maternity leave and just general, non-baby related chit chat. And besides, there will be Christmas and New Years thrown in during the 28 day countdown and a planned " Best of 2009 " post aswell.

So - whats going on here on DD minus 28 ? Well today is officially the first day of my maternity leave so i dont really have any routine to follow or anything that i absolutely MUST do. That being said, the giant watermelon bellied bird in me is anxious to get my bags packed for the hospital. You know, like i said, just in case this countdown doesnt quite make it all the way to the end. Its amazing to me how much stuff people/doctors/magazines have recommended i need to take! Ok, pyjamas, plenty of underwear and nappies and clothes for the baby are kind of obvious, but :
* cooling spray for my face during labour
* sugary snacks for energy
* Ear plugs
* Loose change for phone calls
I mean that kind of stuff i wouldnt really have even considered. I'm sure any mums reading this are laughing their guts out at me, but seriously the last thing on my mind is some fancy moisturising spray for the labour ward. Plus, until my antenatal class, i didnt know you were allowed to eat anything during the whole event so i wouldnt have thought to pack lollies either.

So theres that - and there is also lunch with my sister coming up. I thought i may aswell get out and be social and enjoy being a lady who lunches before i become a mum who wears lunch all over the front of her shirt. I'm thinking chicken carbonara is sounding good.....

Understanding the Message and a Magic Malaysian Duck

I noted that whilst Twitter has triumphed in ensuring freedom of speech (for an up-to-date example, just Google Trafigura); Facebook has had its problems this week. It seems that in how we chose to communicate with others personal privacy and agency might become hareder to protect.

Who we intend to communicate with and to what end we engage in such communications, have all featured strongly in my experience of the last week.

For example, a colleague sent me an email this week (more of emails later). This particular email came complete with an attached copy of the latest policy statement released from the Department of Health setting out its vision for the future of the NHS: Prevention, Person Centred, Productive.

Interestingly this statement was released after the Pre-Budget Statement. Is the first message being communicated here that the NHS is safe in the Governments hands. Predictably, being a DoH document, it was rich in rhetoric:

Although this will be the most difficult challenge it has ever faced, we believe that the NHS can approach it with confidence, building on the major improvements of the past decade. Improving quality will continue to be at the heart of everything the NHS does. Improvements will be led by NHS clinicians at the local level, based on what is best for the public and patients in their area. There will be no ‘blueprint’ imposed by the Department of Health and no top-down reorganisations of the NHS.

Again it appears the message being sent out is about ensuring that the ontological security of the great British public is protected – the NHS will always be there for you whatever your needs. The rhetoric continues:

Our commitment to encourage and foster innovation in the NHS, and particularly the diffusion of innovation, is clear. We have created a £220 million Regional Innovation Fund to support quicker innovation and more universal diffusion of best practice across the NHS. We have developed NHS Evidence, a pioneering system to improve access to information, providing clarity on what good looks like. This will lead to better clinical and commissioning decisions and increase diffusion of best practice.

The message here perhaps, is that although other parts of the public sector may have to make massive cuts, Universities for example, who face £600 million cuts which are predicted to hit at the range and amount of research undertaken and the breadth of taught programmes, the NHS is different. Research, education and development will continue to be important and protected in the new NHS. Two and Two might not make four when added together.

And there are still further beguiling messages, including:

There should be early interventions for staff with musculo-skeletal and mental health conditions, to help minimise the time staff must spend suffering with these problems and to support early return to work.

A good sounding message, well at least in away that Talcott Parsons might have recognised.

Parsons will always have a special place in my heart. I drew on his work in constructing my PhD. For me, he successfully brought together sociology and psychoanalytical thinking in his exploration of our relationships with each other and with the institutions of the State. For Parsons, ‘being sick’ was not simply a condition, but something imbued with the customary rights and obligations based on social norms. His theory presented two rights of a sick person and two obligations:

Rights:

The sick person is exempt from normal social roles

The sick person is not responsible for their condition

Obligations:

The sick person should try to get well

The sick person should seek technically competent help and cooperate with the medical professional

For the individual, organisation and the wider society, clearly, these rights and obligations can give rise to problems, and there are many critics who over the years have rehearsed the problematic nature of Parsons contentions. However, it seems that some 60 years after publishing his ideas, both Parson’s theories and our privacy are still in danger of being challenged by those interested in exerting social control. The effects of social control can be experienced at an individual organisational and societal level. Perhaps it is because the many new technologies, particularly ICT, allow us unprecedented opportunities for communicating that these tensions are beginning to emerge.

This week I was confronted with the tyrannical (and perhaps cynical) nature of the way we unthinkingly use email to communicate. Emails can be both anonymous and attributable, helpful or hurtful. Hence my new year’s resolution is to break the almost Pavlovian response to email requests for information, meetings, opinions, actions and so on. In future I intend to ask people to pick up the phone and talk to me and or come and have a chat, face to face. Whilst this approach might not be as Productive, it will be Person-centred, and might better Prevent misunderstandings.

That duck, well yesterday, Bernama, the Malaysian state owned news agency reported that an Imam and his wife were rendered spellbound after one of their ducks, this week, laid three black and three brown eggs. Apparently the shells of the black eggs bore an image of a man in a white robe, a pretty woman and Chinese characters. I am afraid you will have to work out for yourself what the hidden message might be here!

I have to wear a jaket?!?!

This is a story of a girl who wanted to go outside and take pictures on a pretty day. But this wasn't just any pretty day, it was a pretty day in December and if you know anything about pretty December days you know they can be deceiving.
The girl awoke early one December morning to find beautiful golden light shining through the blinds in her bedroom and said to herself "This is going to be a beautiful day!" (Okay she didn't say that right then, it was a little early, but you know what I mean." She grabbed he camera (which of course just happened to be on the night stand next to her and snapped a picture of the sun rising. "I can't wait til I can go outside and get some more pictures."
A few hours later the girl decided it had warmed up enough to go and take some more pictures. She put on some sweat pants, shoes, a long sleeved shirt, grabbed her camera and headed out the door. "Oh what a pretty day to take some pictures!" she exclaimed before it hit her. What hit her, you ask? The coldness of coarse. She hadn't realized that it was still very close to freezing outside. Her pretty day had suddenly become a pretty cold day. "I have to wear a jacket? It's too pretty to wear a jacket!" So the girl went sadly back into the warm house to put on her jacket.

I hope you enjoyed my story. It' true. Give or take a few things. But it did happen to me yesterday.

Pictures-

1. The sunrise from my bedroom window.

2. across the front yard, the first picture I took outside before having to run back inside to get a coat

3. Me and my pretty cold day.

Opposing Forces

For decades I figured people would wake up and raise hell before things got this bad, but I’ve been wrong. Last summer, however, I noticed stirrings and wrote “Something Big is Brewing Out There.” Democrat congressmen were shocked by constituent anger when they returned to their home districts during the August recess. Citizens back home knew more than their congressmen in Washington did about the various versions of the Obamacare bill under consideration and they were ripped. Our congressional representatives became so afraid, they wouldn’t meet with people except in the most controlled environments. Now something else is brewing that could be just as troubling for big-government liberals who are running our country into the ground.

When Speaker Pelosi cracked the whip on Democrats during the late-Saturday night vote on the multi-trillion-dollar Obamacare bill, an unforeseen element presented itself: Pelosi got her arm twisted by representatives of the American Conference of Catholic Bishops. She was told that unless she took taxpayer funding for abortion out of the House bill, the Catholic Church would actively oppose it. She buckled and pushed through the Stupak Amendment. Since then, Catholics have teamed up with Orthodox Christians and evangelical Protestants to file the “Manhattan Declaration” just two weeks ago, which declares in part:

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:
1. the sanctity of human life
2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them.

Catholics are teaming up with conservative Protestant Calvinists? Who would have predicted this twenty years ago? It’s happening because they’re both “under assault from powerful forces in our culture” and in our government - like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi - two of the most pro-abortion and pro-homosexual politicians ever to hold office. When they and their ilk pushed the disingenuously-named “Freedom Of Choice Act” or FOCA that would force conservative Christian doctors, nurses and hospitals to perform abortions, that was bad. When Pelosi, a Catholic, said the Catholic Church isn’t sure when human life begins, she was not only stating a falsehood, she was throwing down the gauntlet to the bishops. They could either slink away as they have been for decades in the face of leftist “Catholic” politicians, or they could accept the challenge. I’m very pleased to see that they’ve summoned some courage at long last. Now, leftist Democrat Senators promise they won’t sign an Obamacare bill with the Stupak Amendment in it. Moderate Democrat Senators say they won’t sign a bill without it. President Obama went up to Capitol Hill last weekend to try to work out what would seem to be an impossible impasse. I hope he fails.

The downside of the Catholic bishops’ position is that they would support Obamacare absent the abortion funding, even if it’s going to cost $2 trillion we don’t have. In that, they’re not on the same page with the Tea Party protesters. Both groups are against Obamacare, but for different reasons.

As a young Boston-Irish-Catholic-Democrat I was foolish in many ways, but my opinions about what are now called “social issues” of abortion and homosexuality were the same then as they are now: Abortion killed babies and homosexuality was a perversion. Neither deserved sanction by government. Though I was liberal on other issues, I’ve never been convinced that either abortion or homosexuality warrants government protection. The Democrat Party had a strong conservative wing in the fifties and even in most of the notorious sixties. There were lots of members with views like mine, but then Democrats moved hopelessly leftward on every issue. Now it barely tolerates any members who oppose abortion or homosexual “marriage.”

Unduly influenced by homosexual priests and bishops for the past thirty or forty years, Catholic leaders in New England and elsewhere shrank away from political battles against “gay rights” legislation - even after being ripped apart by the altar boy rape scandals of 2002. I was disgusted, and like many Catholics, cut back drastically on my donations and even considered leaving the church. Recently, however, the Portland Diocese led a successful fight against homosexual “marriage” here in Maine this year, and that defeat of the “powerful forces in our culture” caused a domino effect in New York and New Jersey immediately after.

Neither Tea Party activists nor signers of the Manhattan Declaration were foreseen by the liberal Democrat machine when they swept to power late last year, but both will be formidable enemies in 2010 against Democrats and the “powerful forces in our culture” with whom they’re so closely allied. They’ve seen their enemies lately, however, and that’s why they’re trying so hard to jam through Obamacare and Climate change fixes before too many more people wise up.

The 2010 election will be very interesting.

Addendum: The Senate rejected an amendment last night that would have blocked abortion funding from its version of the Obamacare bill on a vote of 54-45. Let's see what the Catholic Church does now. Time is very short.

Guess Who's Back...

Back again! Amy's back! Tell a friend!

Okay, yes, that was a lame reference to a long forgotten Eminem song, but basically what i'm trying to say is that i'm here. No, i didnt die. Nor did i run off and join the circus, fall into a black hole or even give birth. No, the incredible truth is that my wireless internet modem up and died and of course my internet providers are incompetent and sent me the wrong part twice before i finally got what i needed.

So i missed my little old blog here. Truth be told there hasnt been anything overly exciting happening in my life ( although i'm currently reading " Eat, Pray, Love " by Elizabeth Gilbert and its been provoking all kinds of self-explorative thoughts .... ) however: this Monday the 14th of December will see a resurgence of regular posing on this blog. And by regular, i mean EVERYDAY.

Unless of course i'm abducted by aliens, lose all connection to the electrical or, God forbid, go into labour....