Friday Flip Offs Time

Good Friday to you all, and welcome to Friday Flip Offs - the time of the week to get all my stresses out into the virtual world so i can enjoy my weekend. Proudly brough to you by Gigi at KludgyMom.

To the rain - i know that we need you, that farmers you need you for their crops, that you need to fill up our dams so we have drink water blah, blah, blah... but i want a bit of sunshine. I want to take Flynn out for a walk and to let him play on a blanket on the grass. Its been raining and cold and dreary for 3 days now, and its forecast for at least another 2 days more. My Australian summer-time-girl heart just cant bear it much more. Take your grey clouds and FLIP OFF!

To the kids on " World Strictest Parents " - grow.the fork.up. Seriously. I watch this show ( you know, now that " Masterchef " is over ) mainly so i can marvel at how bad your behaviour is and so that i can yell at you via the tv. Maybe if your parents and had yelled at you a bit more, or disciplined you properly at some point, you wouldnt be such idiots. I kind of feel bad for your parents because they put up with you, but i kind of dont because clearly you are a monster of their own making. ( And yes, before anyone points it out, thats kind of judgemental. Probably also very much true in 95% of cases ). Get over yourselves and learn some respect or FLIP OFF!

To the rocky road slice i made on Tuesday - you aren't exactly a fail. I followed the recipe, you turned out fine, Mick loves you. However - I am not a fan of your biscuit base. I was so looking forward to a yummy, scrummy, marshmallowy, chocolatey, chewy slice to snack on over a few days and what i got was a marshmallowy, chocolately slice with a crunchy base. Crunchy - its just not my thing ( at least not with a rocky road topping ). Your whole crunchy biscuit thing killed it for me. I would much rather you with a brownie base. So, unless you can magically turn chewy in my fridge overnight, either disappear into Micks lunchbox or just FLIP OFF!

Thats it this week. All pretty trivial, which i suppose means i had a good week.... enjoy!

A Vote For Me Is...

...a vote for, well, me! Which is what this quick little note is all about. If you could, pretty please, head on over to Blog This! and vote for me in this weeks poll, that would be muchly appreciated. See you tomorrow for Friday Flip Offs!

I'm Building An Ark - But I'm Not Growing A Beard

I was listening to one of our local radio stations this morning and, in anticipation of the heavy rain that has been forecast for the next few days ( which, mind you, i bet doesnt eventuate.... ), the morning dj team were discussing whether they had better build themselves an ark. All that had to make it with was some newspapers, some Blutack and a pen but hey.... it got me thinking. If that Biblical flood was a-coming, what would i put on my ark?
( Please note that, like all good hypothetical things, such as deserted islands, my ark will be fully electric. Its a pimped out ark, okay? )

My family -  this one's a given. Mick, Flynn and the rest of my immediate family. Extended family i could give or take but we gotta take Poppy and Grandma and the rest of them. Also , we're going to assume that my friends have their own arks so they dont need to hitch a ride with me.
My computer -  and internet connection. We have to stay connected to the rest of the world ( well, all those people who were savvy enough to prepare for the watery Apocalypse ... ) and how else are we going to know when its safe to come out and dock?
Books - lots of them. Something for everyone to read - everyone except my dad and my brother, who are not such big fans of books. Maybe i should take some magazines aswell, just so they have something to entertain themselves with. Booby magazines are banned though!
Food - uh. Duh.I'd be getting my bake on before we set off into the great unknown - heaps of freezable pastas and casseroles and yummy, yummy cakes and slices. We wouldnt want to run out of food and have it turn into a whole plane-crash-in-the-Andes cannibal type situation, would we ? Because if it came down to that i think i'd be one of the first to go - my bootiliciousness would be delicious!
Blankets and pillows - and possibly beanbags and mattresses. We wana be comfy in our ark because Gawd knows how long we're gonna be in there.
And finally....
Deoderant - lots and lots of it. And maybe dry shampoo. I suppose we could rig up some kind of shower in this electrical ark of mine, and there would be plenty of water to go round, but failing that we gonna need some kind of BO buster.... it'd be stinky up in that house ark!

Racism and Wolves

The villagers don’t all come running anymore when the NAACP cries “Racism!” It’s getting so they don’t take that organization any more seriously than they took the boy who cried “Wolf!” There used to be lots of racism when the NAACP formed, but they still claim to see it everywhere, even when it doesn’t exist. The shepherd boy who cried “Wolf!” in Aesop’s fable was bored and wanted to generate excitement with his antics, but that’s not the case with the NAACP. They cry racism lately because they’re afraid government programs they’ve lobbied for may be curtailed due to pressured from groups like the Tea Party.

There was a time “colored people” were oppressed by Jim Crow laws and white racism, but it’s almost half a century since the Civil Rights Bill was passed, the KKK was neutered, and racism turned into the racial preferences known as “Affirmative Action” which the NAACP supports. For nearly two generations, the deck has been stacked in their favor, but too many still play victim because it’s all they know how to do. As long as some “villagers” in the form of politicians and media keep running up, wringing their hands and appeasing them when they cry racism, they’ll continue. Many like me, however, stopped responding long ago. We’re not racists, we never owned slaves or oppressed minorities, and neither did our ancestors that we know of. We realize that all people have suffered throughout history - and there comes a time when we have to stop whining and get on with it.

Americans are getting mighty tired of that growing segment of our citizenry who see themselves as victims and who habitually blame others for their situation. There are many others who carry around guilt for having been born white, or wealthy, and will come running whenever someone claims “I’m a victim!” Victimology has become a lucrative racket for people like the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and organizations like “La Raza” (translated: “The Race”) and AIM - the American Indian Movement. There many other victim groups whose grievances no longer exist, or have diminished to such an extent that they’re hardly recognizable, but they continue to sing the same old song.

As Walter Williams wrote this week: “Yesteryear, it was the Klan or White Citizens Council who showed up at polling places to intimidate black voters. During the 2008 elections, it was the New Black Panthers who showed up at a Philadelphia polling place to intimidate white voters and tell them, ‘You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker.’ What's worse is the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to not to prosecute.”

Former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams resigned over this, claiming voter intimidation charges were dropped because of racial bias and corruption on the part of President Obama’s Attorney General - Eric Holder.

Racism isn’t the cause of astronomical crime rates or high unemployment rates for black men. Their self-made subculture is a much bigger factor, but few have the courage to point that out. Who wants to hire someone who drives up blaring obscene, angry rap music with his hat on backwards, his pants sliding off his rear end, and purposely speaking in fractured English? I sure wouldn’t. Black men are not arrested and imprisoned at higher rates because of racism. They’re arrested and imprisoned more because they commit more crimes.

Young black men today are not victims of racism as much as they’re victims of race-hustlers who profit from perpetuating the myth that racism is what’s keeping them down. They’re victims of their own thinking - that if they study hard, do their homework, get straight jobs, save money, and walk the straight-and-narrow, they’re “acting white.” They’re victims of government give-away programs that have subsidized their irresponsible behavior for half a century.

It’s those continually-expanding entitlement programs - which disproportionately high percentages of black people and other minorities have come to depend on - that are threatened by the Tea Party, because they’re bankrupting local, state, and federal government. Rather than examine the efficacy or affordability of those programs, the NAACP cries “Racism!” It worked for most of a century, but it’s wearing very thin now.

Whenever I hear the incessant, deep-base cadence of rap music, I feel a visceral negative reaction. Not only does it glorify illegal drug use, exploitative and degrading attitudes toward women, nasty sexual behavior, and violence against law enforcement and rival gangs - it’s celebrated by the entertainment industry as “authentic.” That industry meets annually to bestow awards on the “artists” who produce it instead of condemning them for the malignant mindsets they spread.

When this subculture is mimicked by the rural white boys I teach, no good results that I’ve ever been able to see. We tolerate them walking around in schools and other public places with their pants down below their asses and this malignancy has infected young males from the sticks to suburbia. My least functional male students wear the outfit and imitate the behavior. They think “acting black” is cool. They revel in music and the anger it drills into them. They disdain learning. They’re rebels without a cause. They’re caught up in a contagion of anger and belligerence, and they think it must be normal because too many of the so-called adults around them seem to accept it as such.They accept it because if they criticize it, they might be accused of racism.

You Want It?

My button, i mean. I finally sat down and Googled and figured out how to make one. So for anyone who wants it, its down the page there a little. Oh, and if anyone wants to figure out how to add the HTML ( or whatever ) right below the button that would be nice. Til then i can email the code to whoever wants it. Does that make sense ? Good. Go get my button!
*NOTE* Thanks to Lori and her link in the comments section, we now have HTML!

Good Cop, Bad Cop

I think I may be the bad cop in our parenting relationship.

Not this kind of bad cop though - Mick wishes!

See, in the last day, Mick has twice "rescued" Flynn from a place he didnt want to be - in his cot, going to sleep ( a la Project SleepyTime ) and on the floor having his tummy time. Though the self settling is getting better, sometimes Mr Flynn is still trying his darndest to resist going to sleep. I, being Mummy, am happy to let him cry for 10 minutes and then go in and settle him, knowing that the whole thing is beginning to work and he will eventually fall asleep. Last night Mick says " you want me to go in this time? " and. happy that Daddy was wanting to help out with the Project, i obliged. Next thing i know Mick is back - with Flynn in tow. " He didnt want to go to sleep " he says. Well yes, i know that, but he would have if you'd given him just a few more minutes. Flynn, meanwhile, still has his dummy in but his smiling his little head off. In his mind its Flynn-1, Mummy-0.

And then there was tummy time. Flynn is not really a fan. He never has been, but i think now that he's older he's starting to get frusturated that he can lift his knees and belly off the ground but he still cant move forward. I have tried telling the poor little bloke that he wont learn to crawl unless he has his tummy time, even if he doesnt like it. I have even discussed this with Daddy. So i put Flynn on his tummy and within five minutes he's having a whingey cry. I tell him he's ok, you'll be alright and go to the kitchen to get a drink....and come back to find Flynn off his tummy and on Daddys lap. " But he was crying, he didnt want to be on his tummy " says Mick. Grrr.... Flynn-2, Mummy-0.

Then, this morning? For the first time ever Flynn has a cuddle with Daddy and then, when Mick hands him back to me....Flynn turns his little head, reaches his arms out to Daddy and starts his whingey noise. I want my Daddy! Although i'm glad that he's finally past his clinginess, and loved the look of joy on Mick's face when he realised he was the " wanted " one this morning, methinks this also means that Flynn knows Daddy is a softie - and that Mummy is the hard arse.

Zumba? No - Zumbo!

Time again for another Blog This! challenge. This weeks challenge is:
If you can think of a situation where you'd love to be a fly on the wall?

- your funeral?
- your boss' office?
- your favourite designer's drawing board?
- set of your favourite movie?
- your heart-throb's bedroom?
- perhaps it's the prime-ministers office????
What would you like to see/hear/happen?

After much thought ( and not wanting to use one of the examples ) i've decided that i would want to be a fly on the wall in Adriano Zumbo's kitchen.

There are only two possible reasons that you wouldnt know who Adriano Zumbo is: a) you are one of those weird people who dont watch " Masterchef " or b) you are one of those weird people who aren't Australian ( joking, joking... ) and therefore can't watch " Masterchef ". In any case, Adriano there is a master patissiere and has been featured on the show a handful of times, presenting his dishes as a challenge to the contestants. He's done the croquembouche and 7 layer chocolate cake from last season, and this season he caught Peter out with his macaron tower and tripped Alvin up with the V8 cake. All of which, of course, i wish i could both make and eat.

A selection of Adriano's yummiest...

So - i wish i could be a fly on the wall of Adriano's kitchen so i could be witness to his creative genius. I would love to know how he comes up with all this incredible ideas and then see how he perfects them. How many times does he attempt a 7 layer chocolate cake before he finds the perfect combination? How does he decide that its 7 layers and not 6 ? What gave him the idea to try beetroot flavoured macarons, and then combine them with a raspberry flavour - and put them on a bloody styrofoam tower? I'd love to be there ( hidden away of course - i suppose flies arent really encouraged in a commercial kitchen... ) as he had a new idea, tested his flavours, come up with a recipe and officially created something new. And, seeing that i'm a fly and they taste with their feet, i could fly down and sample everything! Although it'd have to be a small taste of each - i'm thinking with a fly-sized body i could give myself a huge sugar hangover with all that yummy, sweet, Adriano Zumbo goodness......

SLU 201: Pictures

Pictures:

1) Our group at the podium before the Press Club Dinner (when we had to dress up) L to R: Mrs. Sharon (youth pastor's wife), Tessa, Austin, Me, Mike (youth pastor), Morgan, Carly, Evan.

2) Tessa, Me, Morgan, and Austin at Christ Church (where George Washington and Robert E. Lee attended)

3) At the Press Club. Don't we just look so good?

4)Capitol Building

5)The White House. There were snipers on the roof. It was really cool. And scary.

6)Vietnam Memorial

7)Washington Monument

8) All the girls and our (not so) Business Professional pose.

SLU 201

I'm back. Well I've been back almost a week but oh well.

201 was amazing! There wasn't one subject or one speaker that made it so, it was the experience as a whole. Though just about everything was wonderful.

Here's the main things I came away with.

Political Issues-

I've never been one to like or want to be involved with politics. There's always (at least it seems to me) a black or white side to the issue and you just have to pick which one you stand for. I never felt the need to get involved or saw how doing so would change anything for myself or others. But that's where I was wrong. Everything I want to do or do now (go to college, get a job, homeschool, drive) is politics because it's politics that make it possible. This doesn't mean I or you have to storm the state capitol and become big political figure heads, it just means that we should know the issues, know our stand on them, and find out who shares our stands and vote for them or help them get votes.

Another thing they stressed about politics and life in general is to know what and why you believe.. Whether you believe it's right or wrong, good or bad, worth it or useless, you should be able to say why you believe the way you do. It's not enough to just "It's wrong," or "You shouldn't do that." You need to be able to explain why.

Striving for Excellence-

Today it's all about success. We want the best car. The best house. The best cloths. The best of everything. Or at least better than everyone else around us. Being successful is never enough though. You will always find someone you think is better than you and as long you're trying to be better than you will always find that person.

Striving to be excellent is different. When you strive for excellence you're striving to be better than yourself not others. It reminds me of a Bible verse (I can't recall the reference at the moment) but it say "Pay attention to your own work. Then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done and won't need to compare yourself to anyone else."

The Sites-

We went site seeing of course and got to see pretty much all the memorials and monuments. Washington D.C. is a BEAUTIFUL city though I don't think I'd ever want to live there. The traffic was and is terrible. I'll probably do another post with just pictures from the trip.

The Holocaust Museum-

If I had to choose the place that effected me the most I'd have to say it was the Holocaust Museum. It was a complete shock in ways to walk through the exhibits and see all the pictures and artifacts of people who lived during this awful time. I can't begin to explain or write out exactly how I felt as I walked through that museum. It's just one of those experiences that you have to go through for yourself. I'd like to share though a poem by Martin Niemoler that hung in the Holocaust museum.

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Will you be known for making a difference?-

They asked us this question over the course of the week and I find it to be a good question to ask yourself. Did you make a difference in that person's day? Did you change the way those people see that issue? Did you make a difference? Did you speak or did you stay silent because you "weren't a Jew?"

Friday Flip Offs

Happy Friday everyone! And what better way to celebrate the end of the working week ( well, for some of you ) than with another Friday Flip Offs, brough to you by Gigi at KludgyMom...

To the old bird who cut me off at the roundabout - when there are two lanes marked, that means you need to stick to the lane your in. It doesnt mean you can take off from the outside lane and just veer into the inside lane, where i happen to be driving. Even if it did mean that you would still need to use your indicator. Which you didnt. Learn the road rules and try sticking to them or FLIP OFF!

To the fat that refuses to shift off my belly - yesterday i had a positive attitude toward you, today i dont. This may have something to do with the fact that you made my favourite pair of jeans too uncomfortable to wear today. I'm trying to get out there and walk and get rid of you but its not happening quick enough for my liking. Why dont you take the hint and just melt away? Come Monday, when i've convinced Mick to move our exercise bike from the freezing cold garage to the nice, warm, loungeroom you know what i'm going to say to you belly fat? FLIP OFF!

To those foreign sales guys trying to sell miracle cream at the mall - when i'm pushing a pram that contains a small grumpy child, does it look like i have time to stop and trying your fancy hand cream? Does it look like polishing my nails to a nice silky shine is my number one priority ? Just because you're cute and have a nice foreign accent does not mean i want to stop and chat to you, or that i'm going to be convinced into buying one of your incredibly expensive products. Do me a favour - next time i'm at the mall, and you see me coming, and you see me avert my eyes so that you cant catch my attention and stop me, dont step out in front of my pram. If you do i will either be forced to mow you down and crush you beneath my baby wheels or you'll be told to FLIP OFF!

Scotland, Sunshine, and a Good Shiraz

Today I am going on holiday for two weeks, and for the first time in two years I will be completely inaccessible in terms of email, texts, phone, TV and so on. A strange place to be, especially as this week I delivered a key note paper at the International Librarian Conference held in Salford that in part looked at how we might use new technology to communicate, create and share knowledge and how to manage the emotionality of 24 hour accessibility. In part my paper also explored what it was like to work and learn at the edge of knowledge and not knowing, and how we might encourage students to inhabit this place. This is work that Sue McAndrew and I have been developing over the last 10 years. It was an interesting experience, for everyone. Thankfully I was emailed by a colleague at lunchtime to tell me that unprompted, other delegates had said how much they enjoyed the presentation and it was good to have something very different to think about. As for me, I intend not to think about anything work wise starting from now. Speak to you soon.

An Update On An Update - And, Umm, Another Update

In the past month, I've challenged myself to start, and complete, two seperate tasks - the first is known as Project SleepyTime and the second as Operation SlimDown.

As you all know, Project SleepyTime has had varying degrees of success. Okay, mostly failure - until now. This week, after having a week of good sleep until Sunday night when Mr Flynn ended up back in our bed, i decided to try something else. Something new. I thought maybe if bubba's main problem is that he wants someone in the room with him ( and usually he wants it to be me... ) perhaps some noise would be enough to convince him that although he was alone he would, in fact, be okay. So Monday i put a radio in his room. This, however, didnt quite work. The only station i could pick up on my crappy old clock radio was an AM station that was only talkback during the day. A symphony of voices wasnt exactly soothing. So, come Tuesday i bought Flynn a cheap CD player and a CD of Bach for babies. It gets around his lunchtime nap time, he's exhibiting all his usual tired signs, i wrap, cuddle quickly, pop him in his cot, give him his binky, tuck him in tight, give hima quick kiss and make my exit. And then.... nothing. Ten minutes pass without a peep so i poke my head in and there is my usually cranky, restless, always-fighting-sleep child, fast asleep. Angelic-like. The same thing happened for his afternoon nap. No crying, no kicking, no arching of the back. Just into his cot, music on and zzzzzzzzz.

Wednesday, being the second day, wasnt as good. He fell asleep on the boob having a feed so there was his lunchtime nap and the afternoon nap took two attempts and a little crying and some head-stroking from Mummy before he got to sleep. Today though? Not too bad - he had his morning nap at my brothers house ( Flynny got to have a playdate with his cousins while i went to the Target toy sale ) and lunchtime nap at home, with the music, was instantaneous sleep. A bit of a fight again in the afternoon but again we got to sleep without having to be rocked. I'm waiting to see how tomorrow goes down but methinks we are starting to have ourselves a little bit of success with the self-settling.

And Operation SlimDown? Its slow going, but its going. Its been around 5 weeks since i blogged about not being a fatter version of my old self and i've lost a grand total of 1.3kg. Not so crash hot ( definately not up to either Biggest Loser or Jenny Craig standards ) but at least its been a loss and not a gain. I reckon if i put in just a tiny bit more effort - and stop indulging in sweet, sweet doughnuts - i may be able to crack a 5 kgs loss in about 2 months. Fingers crossed!

Put Government in Reverse

I’m conservative, not Republican. Millions of Americans out there are, like me, fed up with the Democrat/Republican tandem which has been bankrupting up our country. That’s going to become very apparent when votes are counted in November. People won’t vote for someone because of party affiliation. They’ll vote for candidates who want to rein in government spending and limit government itself only to what our Constitution designed.

The newly-emerging Tea Party is not an organized political party as Democrats and Republicans are, and may never become so. But that’s all right. We didn’t have political parties at all until the early 1800s and we did just fine. The original Tea Party in colonial Massachusetts wasn’t organized either, but they knew what they didn’t want - high taxes and big government controlling their lives from far away. They knew what they did want too - to be left alone to take care of themselves. Political parties didn’t emerge until long after the Revolution, and I can’t see they’ve helped much. Citizens who consider themselves members of the Tea Party back candidates based on how they see the role of government, not party affiliation or how much pork the candidate will bring home to the district. In early America, people took care of each other because they chose to, not because government forced them to. Here in New England, citizens went to town meetings and elected local leaders called “selectmen.” We still have them, but their power and authority are diluted by county, state, and national governments which are growing at an ever-accelerating rate and bankrupting our country with entitlements. The federal government now decides which people deserve assistance and which people will be forced to pay for it. Selectmen still exist in New England, but they can only do what state government lets them do.

The official title for them is: “Selectman, Assessor, and Overseer of the Poor.” They’re municipal executives, tax assessors and welfare officials rolled together. They take an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States which is supposed to strictly what state and federal governments can and cannot do. It doesn’t anymore, of course, and that’s our biggest problem. They operate in small-town America where everybody knows each other. They know who needs help, who works hard, who is a slacker, who drinks too much, and so forth. They know who is truly needy, who is a parasite, who is dependable, and who isn’t. They don’t want to be forced to give money to anyone who comes to town thinking everyone else there owes them a living. Neither do they want to be forced to pay for anyone who comes into their state or sneaks into their country from Mexico or anywhere else and expects to be supported.Hat tip: Anissa Cuthbert

Selectmen cannot do anything unless authorized to do so directly by citizens who would be paying for it. The road commissioner couldn’t build a road or fix one unless voters approved the expenditure. People can watch the progress as they drive by and if anyone were seen leaning on a shovel too long, selectmen would hear about it at the Post Office or in the store. That’s accountability.

Here in New England, towns built, maintained, and ran elementary schools and didn’t need state or federal government to regulate them. Secondary and post-secondary schools were private and autonomous, and they were much more effective and efficient compared to today’s pubic high schools and colleges.

Government is a necessary evil and almost always wasteful. Local government keeps inefficiency to a minimum with close accountability between citizens and their elected officials. People are expected to take care of themselves. When misfortune or poor decisions make that difficult, they can rely on family or church to help out until they get back on their feet. Beyond the local overseers of the poor and county homes for the elderly and infirm with no family, nothing else in the realm of taking care of people should be the responsibility of government. That was not the intent of the Constitution.Where Lovell holds town meetings

Beginning with the New Deal, the Great Society, and now the the Obama Administration, the federal government has pretended it can provide everything for everybody womb to tomb. It cannot, of course, and anyone with a basic knowledge of math knows it. Nonetheless, states and the federal government are going bankrupt trying. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone have unfunded liabilities exceeding $100 trillion. Any one of these should have been seen as a last straw. The camel’s back is already broken, yet Congress and the President heaped Obamacare onto the prostrate animal. Unless it’s all cut back systematically and drastically, the whole system is going to collapse - and soon.

People who have been collecting unemployment checks for 79 weeks, for example, are about to be cut off. Is the federal government obligated to write more checks? How many of those people would have accepted lower-paying jobs if their benefits were cut off after 26 weeks or 52 weeks? Is collecting unemployment a disincentive to work? It certainly has been for some of my relatives and acquaintances over the years.

If government really wants to create jobs and improve people’s lives, they have to get the hell out of the way, stop trying to “fix” things, and let people do it on their own. When I hear candidates make speeches like this, I’m going to vote for them whether they’re Democrat (not likely), Republican (maybe), or Independent (we’ll see).ADDENDUM: I Just went down to the Lovell Town Office to take pictures for this post. There, Lovell’s Road Commissioner, Larry Fox, told me an OSHA official drove up while he was working in my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago. Said he was inspecting progress on rebuilding my road - Christian Hill Road - because it was designated a federal stimulus project - that $300,000 had been earmarked for it and given to the state for disbursement. “Did they ever consult you about that?” I asked him.

“Never heard a word from them,” he said, “but after talking to him that day, I called the State of Maine guy in Scarborough who is in charge of roads for this area. He said the money had already been spent.”

“Hmm,” I said.

So, someone in Washington decided that my road ought to be rebuilt without consulting Lovell’s Road Commissioner and designated $300,000 to do it. Then an OSHA guy came out here to see how it was coming along, and $300,000 in federal funds disappeared into Maine’s budget.

I swear I’m not making this up.

Lord of the (Baby) Riverdance!

A little video for anyone who needs a smile today. Flynn has just acquired himself a hand-me-down Jolly Jumper and he.is.loving.it! Watch him go ( and no, you're speakers are not broken, there is no sound. That happens when you film on a digital photo camera, not a digital video camera ). Enjoy!

Oh My Good Lady Gaga!

Holy. Guacamole. Seems i created a bit of a shitstorm and i didnt even realise. ( As an aside, this post will contain swearing so if you're adverse to that kind of thing, avert your eyes now ).

See, almost 12 months ago i wrote a post entitled " 7 Reasons Why I Hate Lady Gaga ". August 11th of 2009 i wrote this post and, today, i had reason to check back on it ( prompoted by a question posed by Kylie at A Study In Contradictions ) and...... there are 146 comments on that post. 146 FREAKING COMMENTS. I know some people found the post by Googling " i hate lady gaga " but i'm thinking someone must have linked to my post somewhere because the most recent comment was only made on July 15th of this year so - what the hell? So I decided i was going to sit and read these comments and boy oh boy did my little post cause a ruckus.

I imagine this is the look the Lady would shoot me from atop her throne after my last Gaga post...

The majority of the 146 comments are from rabid Gaga fans, baying for my blood. ( ok, not quite, but after reading some of those comments i'm suprised i didnt score any death threats ). I got called, in no particular order: a fat whore, a jealous bitch,a stupid retard, a cunt and, amusingly, a tranny ass. None of which has actually hurt me because i understand that these people are only trying to defend a woman that they fanatically love. However, i would like to give a very special shoutout to Anonymous, who was brave enough to post this in reply to my original post:

Get toxic shock syndrome and die you stupid cunt. You're ridiculous, you feign intelligence, and apparently you have something against teacups -- hopefully your uncle molested you during one of your tea parties as a kid. You're a moron.

Thank you Anonymous, well said. If i only i were intelligent as you quite obviously are, perhaps i would understand the utter brilliance of Ms Gaga. and would never have had the gall to express my quite offensive opinion in the first place. I would also like to thank those commenters who agreed with me, and understood that freedom of speech allows me to say i dislike someone ( especially when one of the primary reasons is because she carried around a teacup. Which she's stopped doing. Thank Gawd. )

So, i'm hoping that this post draws out another 140-odd comments. If you are a Lady Gaga fan please note that everything in this post and the original was intended as tongue-in-cheek. I dont " hate " Lady Gaga - sure, she annoys me for the aforementioned reasons, but truth be told " Telephone " is quite the catchy song. Oh, and before any of you tell me to get a life, or stop hiding behind my computer screen, i implore you to stop and think that you are taking the time to bite back at me ( thus taking up moments of your life, same as i have ) and you will be doing it from behind your own computer screen. That being said, try and remember not to take everything so seriously - some of us don't, and my regular readers certainly understood the " humour " behind my original post ( for further evidence of said humour, please scroll down the page and check out my campaign against jeggings... ).

Viva la Gaga!

When I Grow Up

So, welcome again to another Blog This! challenge. This week is a little special - challenge 52 is a retrospective of all the previous challenges. That is, you were allowed to go back through all the past challenges and choose which one you would like to participate in - maybe one you missed, or one you werent a member for, or one you already tried but wanted to do over. After a little thought i've gone with.... th every first challenge ever issued, which reads:
A ballerina? A vet? An astronaut? As a small child, what did you dream of becoming? Tell your story, on your own blog, in words, pictures or a combination. The choice is yours.

I remember being asked this very same question when i was in Year 6, and our answer was recorded in our annual school magazine. If i recall, my answer was - i want to be a paediatrician. Or an author. Two occupations that arent really related at all, and two professions i am not employed as now, as 26 year old. I cant say that i'm entirely disappointed, but the 11 year old me probably still wants to be an author ( just a little bit on the inside ).

I wanted to be a paediatrican because i wanted to be able to help people - children specifically. I was always a socially aware child and i'm sure on some level i though that if i could be a doctor i could probably save the world. However, once i hit Year 8 biology and we had to disect frogs and i refused because the blood and guts and grossness of it all made me want to throw up i realised that the perhaps a career in medecine wasnt for me after all.

The author part probably still rings true for me a little. I've always loved writing ( except in Year 12 when i had a horrible English teacher who nearly killed the passion for it... ) and, even now, writing in my blog is an important part of my life. Its my writing space and, even though its not a " creative " writing space, i still have this teeny, tiny, longing to sit down at some point just write a bit of prose. Maybe a kids book. Maybe a short story. One day soon i may just give it a shot. Who knows, you could all be privy to the first writings of the new J.K Rowling....

[Un]Tangled up in blue, the new Libertarians, Alligators and Umbrellas

Well Tuesday the 13th of July 2010 dawned bright and warm. The BBC promised blue skies. But I didn’t really believe it would happen as it was our Graduation Day. This was my third year presenting students and every year it has rained on Graduation Day, and usually rained hard. Hard Rain is the title of Bob Dylan’s album produced in 1990 which has those two great songs Maggie’s Farm and Lay Lady Lay on it. It is however, Bob Dylan song ‘A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall’ written in the summer of 1962 and released in 1963 for his second album ‘the Freewheeling Bob Dylan possibly resonates more with a certain generation. It was the song most associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis, which followed US President JF Kennedy’s announcement that Soviet missiles had been discovered on the island of Cuba. I was, of course only 8 years old at the time, and it wouldn’t be for another 7 years before I learnt to play the few chords that make up the melody for ‘Blowing in the Wind’, the other famous and these days a somewhat ubiquitous protest song from this album.

I don’t know if it was my state of high anxiety on Tuesday morning or just a general sense of feeling sorry for myself, but as I drove into Manchester City centre, I found myself singing over and over again the chorus line from a hard rain’s a-gonna fall. For those of you who play the guitar, it is one of those songs were you can deliver a pounding rhythm as you get to the chorus:

here black is the colour, where none is the number

And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it

And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it

Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking

But I'll know my songs well before I start singing

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

As it turned out, this year’s Graduation ceremony was a triumph for all who participated. We had a great turn out of staff on the stage to support and celebrate the students’ successes. Irene Khan our new Chancellor proved to be highly effective in ensuring that all felt included. The students gave all my colleagues a standing ovation. My worse fear – pronouncing the students names correctly, faded, as standing in my wonderfully blue and red robes, my tongue mysteriously became untangled, and out came all the names more or less as intended – and there were lots of them. Over 500 nurses and midwives graduated between the two ceremonies. I wondered what the next few years would bring these newly qualified nurses as the NHS is to be re-organised yet again, and this proposed reorganisation will also include how nurse education and training will be organised, commissioned and managed.

This week saw the White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS published. The document, which outlines the most radical reforms to the NHS for more than 10 years, puts the power to commission patient services back in the hands of GPs who will take control of around two-thirds of the NHS budget. Health secretary Andrew Lansley has pledged to give frontline nurses more control over decisions about patient care. However, the role of the nurse in these reforms is only mentioned twice in the 61-page document.

Whilst I think the lack of detail is worrying, I did hear that Anne Milton, currently parliamentary under-secretary of state for health in the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government has expressed an opinion that there is no desire to change the way in which Nurse and Medical education and training is currently commissioned (this despite the fact that SHA’s, the main commissioning body, are likely to disappear come 2012). Interestingly Anne trained as a Nurse at St Bartholmews Hospital in London, and worked for the NHS for 25 years as a District Nurse. Dr Graham Henderson, whom she married in February 2000 in Surrey, also works in the NHS in the field of community medicine, and is Director of Public Health for East Surry PCT (another body also destined to disappear). As Bob would say, a hard rain’s a-gonna fall…

…and it did on Graduation Day, and again later on in the week just as I was walking across the Lowery Piazza on way to the Honorary Graduates Dinner. My hair was of course, completely ruined. And dinner wasn’t anything to write home about, but the conversation around the table more than made up for it. The topics were fascinating and very interesting. From clinical trials looking at a chemical compound developed from the blood of Alligators that apparently prevents scarring as wounds heal – clearly good for cosmetic reasons, but if the drug works, internally as well as externally, the possibilities are endless and very exciting – to the value of CBT for those people who have a diagnosis of Bi-polar Disorder, and why the oppressed and vulnerable need a champion. As I sit and write this on Sunday morning, the rain continues to pound down, although I do have a very big strong umbrella!

Friday Flip Offs Time

Hola dear readers and welcome to this weeks addition of Friday Flip Offs, brought to you by the great mind of Gigi over at Kludgy Mom. Not much to deal with this week, but here we go:

To people who show up late - and then slightly over-stay their welcome. I had plans to do other things tonight, things that i was looking forward to, but because you gave late notice of your impending arrival, and then managed to be an hour later than you said you were going to be, and then decided to stay for over an hour when your were only dropping something off - well it means i've had to miss out on something, put my baby to bed late and have only just had my dinner. Next time, try being on time or FLIP OFF!

To small children who dont understand " no " -  or " ssh, Amy is trying to get the baby to sleep " or " no, you cant sleepover tonight ". I still love you guys but you grate on my nerves just a teensy bit. My small duplex is not the same as your house out in the sticks, and i'd appreciate it if you used your indoor voices and didnt belt through my loungeroom as if it were the same as your backyard. If you cant do as i, or your parents, or anyone else asks you'll just have to FLIP OFF!

To my shoulder - i must have slept on you funny because you have been bugging me all day. Your all tender and tight and pinchy and it hurts when i throw my head back to chug the last of my Pepsi Max. That, my friend, is a problem. Promptly fix yourself during tonights sleep or FLIP OFF!

To the weather - could you please decide what it is that you are doing ? Or better yet, could you just hurry up and be spring already? We had a glimpse of spring weather the first two days of the week, and Flynny really enjoyed playing outside in his walker, and then you had to go and get all cold and yucky again. Kindly warm yourself up, bring out the sun and take back your morning frosts or FLIP OFF!

A Quick Read

I stole this from a friends Facebook - i'm not sure how long its been doing the rounds but i thought the my fellow mummy bloggers out there might enjoy it. Click on the pic for a larger version - you know, if you dont want get all squinty to read the fine print there....

Just as an aside, i dont actually have any friends like this, it just struck a chord, ya know?

Missing My Camera

Eagle Island from the house

“I forgot my camera!” I exclaimed at the Shaw’s parking lot in Ellsworth, Maine.

“Are you sure?” my wife asked, while I bent over the steering wheel with hands over my face in grief. I could hardly believe it but I knew it was true. We were rushing around to leave for a week’s vacation at a rented house on the ocean in Addison, Maine.View from the bedroom of rental house

I had carefully loaded my wife’s car for the four-hour trip and we were almost there before I realized that I’d left my camera in my truck back in Lovell. I don’t go anywhere without it and I’d taken it with me for a trip to the dump. Don’t laugh. I’ve taken great pictures at the dump. You just never know when you’re going to see something. I got home and put the empty barrels back in the garage, but forgot to take the camera bag out and transfer it to my wife’s car. The thought of a whole week’s leisure with countless opportunities to creatively capture beauty being squandered was breaking my heart.Old House around Jonesboro

I called my daughter, Jessica, and explained my dilemma. “So you want me to ship it to you overnight,” she said, anticipating my request.

“Oh, would you please?” I begged.

“Of course,” she said, “but it’s Saturday afternoon and the Post Office is closed. I could use UPS or Fed-Ex. Let me check online how to do this and I’ll call you back. I assume you want insurance.”

“Yes. There’s about $1500 worth of equipment in that bag.”

She called back to tell me she would have to ship it out Fed-Ex on Monday morning and I’d get it Tuesday, so I’d be without it half my vacation. I thought, “Okay. I’ll read books and cook gourmet meals to distract me from the urge to take pictures and try not to think about it until Tuesday.”

After food shopping, we went by a WALMART and I bought a little Nikon Coolpix S3000 to use in the interim. I’d still miss my DSLR and 18-270 mm lens, but the Coolpix is a neat little camera capable of 12 megapixel images, and it’s small and thin enough to fit easily in my pocket. If a whale came up on the shore in front of the house, I could capture it. I’m justifying the expenditure thinking that I’ll keep the Coolpix in my pocket at all times while my camera bag is in my house or in my vehicle. I can’t frame a shot as well or zoom in as before, but it’ll have to do.

The house was fogged in when we arrived and it still is. It’s raining as I write and I’m glad of it being camera-crippled. I’m going to read books and take my mind off the pictures I can’t take. I’ve just finished “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.” It’s the third book in a series by Stieg Larsson and he’s dead, so there won’t be any more novels about Salander, the intriguing main character. Guess she’s dead now too.

I have another great book to last me into Tuesday. It’s Richard Grant’s “God’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre.” In Tombstone, Arizona three weeks ago, I met a guy who recommended it and I’m glad he did. I’d told him what I was doing down there in border country and it reminded him of Grant’s escapades. I’m not nearly as fearless or crazy as Grant, however. I was warned numerous times to stay away, but I went into the border areas of Nogales and Douglas, Arizona to explore and ask questions. I could sense the danger, but nobody robbed me or tried to kill me. Grant, however, went across the border and into the belly of the beast, alone and unarmed. He explored where the violence and lawlessness that’s transforming the southwestern United States originates and published his account two years ago. If a book can distract me from the dramatic beauty of Maine’s coast, it’s this one.

Monday the sun came out and we could see how beautiful it is facing west over Pleasant Bay from our rental house.
Tuesday we hired Maine Guide Rob Scribner to take us out into Machias Bay via sea kayak and see some petroglyphs - ancient carvings on bedrock visible between the tides.I used the little Nikon Coolpix. It’s just as well I didn’t have my DSLR for the trip. If it got wet in the kayak, I’d have been really sick. The little camera worked okay.After that we explored Jasper Beach in Machiasport. It’s not a sand beach. It’s terraced with stones piled up by wave action and there are beautiful pieces of jasper from an outcropping in the ledge nearby. Retreating waves tumble them down the terraces against each other with a unique clicking sound. It’s picked over regularly, but there are still some beautiful pieces of polished jasper to be found if you look hard enough. A woman there told us there was only one other beach like it in the world - in Ireland. By sheer coincidence, we were there two years ago. It’s on the Isle of Doagh, Donegal from where my Great Grandfather, James McLaughlin, disembarked back in 1900.

On the way back to the rental house I got a cell phone message from the Fedex carrier that something went wrong with the overnight shipment. My DSLR wouldn’t arrive until Wednesday (today) and would require an adult signature. Guess I’ll have to leave a note on the door for the Fedex guy because it’s raining again and we’re heading into Bar Harbor to check out the Abbe Museum. Our internet connection is via satellite dish and doesn’t work in the rain. I have to file this column - and to do that I’ll need to suck in a signal from somewhere on the road between here and Bar Harbor.

Hopefully the Fedex guy will find this place while we’re gone.

A Campaign Of Great Importance

Once in a blue moon there comes a campaign that, if enough people jump onboard, can change the world. This is one such campaign. This is an issue close to my heart, and i would appreciate if all my loyal followers would band with me and together we can....

Yes, thats right, together we can BAN JEGGINGS FOREVER! I care so much about this very important issue that i have even taken the time to create my very own campaign badge ( i dont know how to do the code so feel free to copy and paste that baby to your page ). Jeggings are a scourge on society and, united, we can rid ourselves of them.

Granted, the jeggings in those there photographs dont look too bad. However, bare in mind that those are professional models who are built like praying mantises and if it werent for this fact the jeggings would be horrid on them too. I do not understand the appeal of the jegging - we all know how much i hate leggings of the ordinary variety, but at least they are what they are. Jeggings are leggings dressed up as jeans - so if you want to wear tights ( that are so clearly NOT pants ) then choose leggings; if you want to wear jeans then choose yourself a nice pair of skinnies. Do not choose a hybrid ( hybrid cars on the other hand are ok by me ). It was enough seeing young women ( and more than a handful of old birds who should know better ) getting around in leggings, worn as pants, with all their imperfections and visible pantylines ( if we're lucky ) on show for all the world to see. Now i have to put up with jeggings, with their faux-denim look and painted on pockets? Ridiculous! Skinnies maybe form-fitting but at least they are a little more forgiving than jeggings.

So, people of the world unite! Pander to the jeggings market no more, and implore your pretty young friends to buy themselves a good pair of proper pants! Wear your gorgeous knee high boots over skinny jeans, and not over fake Spandex jean knock offs! And men out there, stop ogling teenage girls who run around town in their jeggings and Ugg boots - they are far too young and you are not helping the cause. If we work at it, together we can rid the planet of jeggings, and save our retinas from further damage.

BAN JEGGINGS FOREVER!!

SLU 201: Pre-Trip

So I'm getting ready to leave for Student Leadership University 201 tomorrow. I went last year with several people from my youth group to SLU 101 down in Orlando and had a blast, learned a lot about being a good, effective christian leader in this day and age( plus I got 1/2 a college credit!). SLU is such a great program and I'm so looking forward to going to the next level with it.

101 was great and it was kind of like a camp minus the music and rec. 201 is stepping up quite a few notches. At 101 you could wear cloths like you'd wear at a normal camp (jeans, t-shirts, gym shorts, regular short i.e. practically everything in my wardrobe). At 201 Business Professional and Business Casual are the staple. In other words no jeans and t-shirts for me.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm supper excited about this week, it's just I know it's going to be a stretch for me. See in a normal week I maybe wear makeup twice and when I do it's just eye makeup and maybe concealer if I'm having a bad skin day. I won't be able to do that this week. I have to gussy up (to a point). The shoes are also going to get me. I don't do heels and yet what do I have in my suit case? Two pairs of heels to go with several of the outfits I've brought. They aren't even HIGH heels. They're maybe an inch, inch and a half. And they scare me.

I'll survive though. Dressing up won't kill me. It might injure me. Or just make my feet sore.

But it won't kill me.

Okay, so maybe I don't feel that apprehensive about having to dress up (well more than I would normally, a lot more). I'm actually really excited about it. I normally don't have much to dress up for so I don't. So this is just going to be weird for me.

Anyway moving on from the clothing issue.

I'm super SUPER SUPER excited about all we get to do this week. We'll be in Washington D.C. and get to go to a lot of cool places. It's going to be so awesome to spend time and learn about leading in the Capitol of my Country. We'll get to meet and listen to some awesome speaker including some Four Star Generals and some other high up there folk. I can wait to hear what they have to say.

I hope this week will teach me and my friends that are going to better use the leadership abilities that God has given us.

Later.

"In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain gifts well...If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously."

Romans 12:6&8