It seems we may have reached that time of year when Christmas is really starting to make itself known. Not that it hasn't been in stores for a while - I overheard a conversation in a local supermarket about whether they could reduce the Christmas display to make room for the Halloween one this year.
However, as of this week the shops down the road from me have been putting Christmas pictures in the window, you know those kids colouring pictures that everyone makes a big deal about even though most of them look like a rainbow vomited all over the page. These are mostly like that except that some of the images are free drawings.
Mostly the drawings have been, well, pretty much what you'd expect but with more unicorns, but today I noticed a new one that made me lol right there surrounded by people who probably thought I was mentally deficient or something. The picture was dominated by a rather good drawing of a Pikachu doing some sort of electric shock attack to Sant Claus while some kid (I'm assuming it's a self portrait) who is holding a poké ball makes off with a stack of presents. Now I'm all for creativity and to be honest it was a very good picture but it was pride of place in this store's display and I couldn't help but wonder how this store thought they were portraying their view of Christmas when they chose this for the window.
Also, Santa had an expression of quite severe pain on his face, which makes me worried about this kid. I don't think I know anyone who didn't think about stealing Santa's sack with all the toys, but no one actually wants to cause him pain. That's kinda screwed up.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Thursday, 29 November 2012
20 Something Bloggers Take 1
Well I'm now part of 20SB but it's probably going to be the weekend before I actually do anything about making the most of this. This is due mainly to the weather which is the hottest recorded November day on record for much of Victoria which basically means it is too hot for my brain to work.
For now I'm just going to melt quietly in a corner somewhere.
For now I'm just going to melt quietly in a corner somewhere.
Double Standards
As someone who hasn't smoked for almost a year now, I understand how difficult it is to quit. I also like to think that I'm not one of those people who point out that because they've quit everyone else should as well - like snap your fingers and its done or something.
This is as an introduction to a rant, because I was sitting on the bus today and a woman sat down in her seat plus half of mine. So I'm now squashed against the window, trying my best not to get annoyed with her overly loud admonitions to her kid who isn't listening anyway. About two minutes after she sat down the woman announced that her kid's grubby handprints on her tracksuit pants stank so this resulted in more yelling at her kid and a squirt of perfume
Followed by another 17 squirts (yes, I counted) in quick succession, all aimed across her face so that it went practically straight into mine. After the fifth squirt I asked her to please stop and she informed me that it was a free country and if I don't like her perfume then I could get off the bus - quite ignoring the fact that as I was partially wedged under her bulk I could do no such thing. When I said something again another five or so squirts along, this time asking if she had considered that someone nearby might have an allergy to the perfume, she didn't even bother to reply and just kept squirting without pause. I would have said more but other passengers were giving ME some fairly dirty looks.
At this point I think she decided that she had a terrible taste in her mouth because she started waving her tongue about and wiping it with a tissue before putting some gum in her mouth and chewing it without closing her mouth. Really loudly. In my ear.
Now when I was smoking I had to put up with people complaining about my habit and I mostly tried to not have a problem with it, even when people would try and tell me that I was a complete asshole because having a puff over ten metres away downwind of them was going to give them cancer and it would all be my fault, even when I'd been standing there for considerable time and they'd walked up and decided to complain, even when I was in a designated smoking area. The reason I mostly tried to not have a problem with it was that as soon as I opened my mouth to point out any of these perfectly reasonable factors, every single non-smoker present would instantly have an even bigger issue with me because not only was I a filthy terrible smoker who was going to kill everyone with cancer, I was also rude about it. I put up with this because I knew that it was a bad habit that, on occassion, could have pretty serious effects on those around me.
While chewing loudly and encroaching on other people's personal space with your girth are annoying they are pretty much guaranteed to have long term implications for no one, the perfume spraying almost killed someone because when I got home I discovered that my brother's girlfriend was over and she is very seriously allergic to aerosol propellant, as in hospitalisation, so before I could go and say hi to her I had to put all the clothes I was wearing in the washing machine and have a shower. What I hadn't thought to do, though, was leave outside the bag I had been carrying and if it hadn't been for my brother going to the hallway before his girlfriend and smelling the very strong perfume smell (this was over half an hour later, which hopefully gives you an idea of how much was sprayed).
It is essentially a form of discrimination that a person could be trying to do completely the right thing and still be considered some kind of devil spawn purely because it was nicotine related, while most other people can be particularly rude and inconsiderate and it is the person who makes a fuss who is considered evil.
This is pretty rambly even for me and is unlikely to make a great deal of sense to anyone, I know, but I am just so very angry at the moment - over five hours later at this point. I needed an outlet and you're it, so thanks for that.
On a happier note, this is another first for this blog, the first time I've mentioned family members. Yay!
This is as an introduction to a rant, because I was sitting on the bus today and a woman sat down in her seat plus half of mine. So I'm now squashed against the window, trying my best not to get annoyed with her overly loud admonitions to her kid who isn't listening anyway. About two minutes after she sat down the woman announced that her kid's grubby handprints on her tracksuit pants stank so this resulted in more yelling at her kid and a squirt of perfume
Followed by another 17 squirts (yes, I counted) in quick succession, all aimed across her face so that it went practically straight into mine. After the fifth squirt I asked her to please stop and she informed me that it was a free country and if I don't like her perfume then I could get off the bus - quite ignoring the fact that as I was partially wedged under her bulk I could do no such thing. When I said something again another five or so squirts along, this time asking if she had considered that someone nearby might have an allergy to the perfume, she didn't even bother to reply and just kept squirting without pause. I would have said more but other passengers were giving ME some fairly dirty looks.
At this point I think she decided that she had a terrible taste in her mouth because she started waving her tongue about and wiping it with a tissue before putting some gum in her mouth and chewing it without closing her mouth. Really loudly. In my ear.
Now when I was smoking I had to put up with people complaining about my habit and I mostly tried to not have a problem with it, even when people would try and tell me that I was a complete asshole because having a puff over ten metres away downwind of them was going to give them cancer and it would all be my fault, even when I'd been standing there for considerable time and they'd walked up and decided to complain, even when I was in a designated smoking area. The reason I mostly tried to not have a problem with it was that as soon as I opened my mouth to point out any of these perfectly reasonable factors, every single non-smoker present would instantly have an even bigger issue with me because not only was I a filthy terrible smoker who was going to kill everyone with cancer, I was also rude about it. I put up with this because I knew that it was a bad habit that, on occassion, could have pretty serious effects on those around me.
While chewing loudly and encroaching on other people's personal space with your girth are annoying they are pretty much guaranteed to have long term implications for no one, the perfume spraying almost killed someone because when I got home I discovered that my brother's girlfriend was over and she is very seriously allergic to aerosol propellant, as in hospitalisation, so before I could go and say hi to her I had to put all the clothes I was wearing in the washing machine and have a shower. What I hadn't thought to do, though, was leave outside the bag I had been carrying and if it hadn't been for my brother going to the hallway before his girlfriend and smelling the very strong perfume smell (this was over half an hour later, which hopefully gives you an idea of how much was sprayed).
It is essentially a form of discrimination that a person could be trying to do completely the right thing and still be considered some kind of devil spawn purely because it was nicotine related, while most other people can be particularly rude and inconsiderate and it is the person who makes a fuss who is considered evil.
This is pretty rambly even for me and is unlikely to make a great deal of sense to anyone, I know, but I am just so very angry at the moment - over five hours later at this point. I needed an outlet and you're it, so thanks for that.
On a happier note, this is another first for this blog, the first time I've mentioned family members. Yay!
Monday, 26 November 2012
Currently
So in my effort to better understand internet culture I'm doing a "Currently" post because according to a couple of blogs I'm following this is a trend and is meme-ing (or possibly the other way around) on blogs everywhere.
WATCHING:
QandA, and thinking the panel is pretty good except for Barnaby Joyce. Shut up and let Jonathon Biggins, Penny Wong and Stella Young talk, hell I'd even prefer listening to Janet Albrechtson at this point although this may well change once she opens her mouth.
Janet you just proved me correct.
Also watched 48 Shades on the weekend, the film adaptation of Nick Earls's 48 Shades of Brown. This film is fantastic and I would recommend it strongly to anyone with an open mind and a love of good storytelling.
LISTENING TO:
The audience ask questions and the panel answering them. Also the music to the game my brother is playing in the other room with the volume set far too loud.
Although I'm not listening to it right at this moment, I'm getting back into The Cat Empire at the moment and, as always, listening to many musical theatre soundtracks, especially Avenue Q, JC Superstar, Little Shop of Horrors and basically anything by the Stephens - Sondheim and Schwartz.
PLANNING:
Right now I'm taking a break from planning anything, just finished sorting accommodation in America and have a lot sorted out for the rest of my placement. About the only thing I've planned all day has been my transport for tomorrow.
THINKING ABOUT:
How a great many issues raised on QandA tonight have changed very little in the almost ten years which I have been voting. And now I'm thinking that it is a very depressing thought and a worrying situation.
LOOKING FORWARD TO:
READING:
Just finished the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy and the particularly interesting The Greatest Lies in History. I am about to start a Doctor Who novel called The Silent Stars Go By, although Murakami's 1Q84 is calling me as well.
MAKING ME HAPPY:
Having reached the end of QandA, Randy and Sammy J's beautiful song is currently making me exceedingly happy.
What are you currently up to?
WATCHING:
QandA, and thinking the panel is pretty good except for Barnaby Joyce. Shut up and let Jonathon Biggins, Penny Wong and Stella Young talk, hell I'd even prefer listening to Janet Albrechtson at this point although this may well change once she opens her mouth.
Janet you just proved me correct.
Also watched 48 Shades on the weekend, the film adaptation of Nick Earls's 48 Shades of Brown. This film is fantastic and I would recommend it strongly to anyone with an open mind and a love of good storytelling.
LISTENING TO:
The audience ask questions and the panel answering them. Also the music to the game my brother is playing in the other room with the volume set far too loud.
Although I'm not listening to it right at this moment, I'm getting back into The Cat Empire at the moment and, as always, listening to many musical theatre soundtracks, especially Avenue Q, JC Superstar, Little Shop of Horrors and basically anything by the Stephens - Sondheim and Schwartz.
PLANNING:
Right now I'm taking a break from planning anything, just finished sorting accommodation in America and have a lot sorted out for the rest of my placement. About the only thing I've planned all day has been my transport for tomorrow.
THINKING ABOUT:
How a great many issues raised on QandA tonight have changed very little in the almost ten years which I have been voting. And now I'm thinking that it is a very depressing thought and a worrying situation.
LOOKING FORWARD TO:
America, as it is my first time leaving the country.
Les Misérables, Hugh Jackman meets Shönberg and Boublil? Heaven!
I know it sounds pretty naff, but the rest of my placement - I am honestly loving every minute of it,
READING:
Just finished the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy and the particularly interesting The Greatest Lies in History. I am about to start a Doctor Who novel called The Silent Stars Go By, although Murakami's 1Q84 is calling me as well.
MAKING ME HAPPY:
Having reached the end of QandA, Randy and Sammy J's beautiful song is currently making me exceedingly happy.
What are you currently up to?
Saturday, 24 November 2012
The Real World
Well, the first two days of my placement are now complete and I'm tired but loving it!
I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be a 'productive member of society' because I have had so much trouble finding work over the past few years. It's a good feeling to be doing something that people can clearly see is useful.
This isn't to say that I'm not useful the rest of the time, it just feels different when you're studying or staying home to look after sick relatives or fruitlessly pursuing a job search that has long since become a farce. Also, it is rather a lot of work to pull yourself out of emotional doldrums when you're in a holding pattern that consists of doing the same thing over and over again, sometimes in the vain hope that the results will change.
The other side of this coin, though, is the stress that comes from me being fairly sure - based on no reasoning whatsoever except social phobia - that I'm going to do something to completely stuff up and get kicked out or something similar. This, however, I will not focus on, in fact I'm hoping this is the only time I'll have to acknowledge it at all - just the once to get it off my chest.
I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be a 'productive member of society' because I have had so much trouble finding work over the past few years. It's a good feeling to be doing something that people can clearly see is useful.
This isn't to say that I'm not useful the rest of the time, it just feels different when you're studying or staying home to look after sick relatives or fruitlessly pursuing a job search that has long since become a farce. Also, it is rather a lot of work to pull yourself out of emotional doldrums when you're in a holding pattern that consists of doing the same thing over and over again, sometimes in the vain hope that the results will change.
The other side of this coin, though, is the stress that comes from me being fairly sure - based on no reasoning whatsoever except social phobia - that I'm going to do something to completely stuff up and get kicked out or something similar. This, however, I will not focus on, in fact I'm hoping this is the only time I'll have to acknowledge it at all - just the once to get it off my chest.
Thursday, 22 November 2012
More Trivia
As I said in the first post, I am going to the US of A in January and this has got me paying very close attention to my actions whenever I cross the road because I'm convinced I'm going to be in the country for about ten minutes before I get hit by a car driving on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!
For all of you out there who just went, "well we think YOU drive on the wrong side of the road, and please stop shouting at us" I have to say that I'm not basing this on personal preference but on historical fact. Let us take a trip back, back, all the way to before there were things like internal combustion engines - this meant people had to use other means of transport, such as carts, horses and peasants. Now while peasants and carts didn't mind which side you mounted and dismounted from, horses were, and apparently are, a little more finicky.
I can't say with any great certainty as to the truth of this, seeing as I live in a time well after the invention of the aforementioned internal combustion engine, so I have no need to mount and/or dismount a horse, from either side, but I am reliably informed that all horses are mounted from the left side, this is because most horses are left handed (hoofed) and they prefer this method. All equipment is apparently designed with this in mind.
So because horses are mounted from the left side, it was very quickly understood that riding on the left side of the road meant that a horse could pull up on the side of the road and the rider could get off in safety without being run down by all the other horses on the road. This theory is still applied, albeit in an altered fashion, to modern cars - in countries where cars drive on the right side of the road the driver is on the left side of the car and the passenger is on the right, making it safe for passengers who don't have the benefit of mirrors and the like when deciding whether or not to open their doors, in countries where cars drive on thecorrect left side of the road, this is reversed.
This is less of a problem with cars than horses, because cars can be designed either way, but why did this split happen in the first place?
It is all because of the French. Not all of the French, mainly just Napoleon, really. Napoleon was annoyed with the English because at the time he was Emperor of something like the entirety of Europe and the English told him, "No thanks, we're all good here with the system of monarchy that has been working for us since, you know, we've existed."
In retaliation for this snub, Napoleon decreed that overnight all roads would run in opposite directions, to distinguish the noble Europeans from the barbaric English. This caused quite a lot of confusion and probably, although I have no evidence to back this up, much injury to both horses and riders.
When America decided it didn't want to be associated with England anymore they decided that the European road system, devised by a guy who ended his days exiled and alone, was the one to go with. This apparently seemed like a good idea at the time.
So next time you're thinking about which side of the road you drive on, remember that the reason there is the divide at all is because a bully was petulant that someone stood up to him so he changed it from the left to the right side.
That's probably enough trivia for today now, thanks for reading my word vomit to the very end.
For all of you out there who just went, "well we think YOU drive on the wrong side of the road, and please stop shouting at us" I have to say that I'm not basing this on personal preference but on historical fact. Let us take a trip back, back, all the way to before there were things like internal combustion engines - this meant people had to use other means of transport, such as carts, horses and peasants. Now while peasants and carts didn't mind which side you mounted and dismounted from, horses were, and apparently are, a little more finicky.
I can't say with any great certainty as to the truth of this, seeing as I live in a time well after the invention of the aforementioned internal combustion engine, so I have no need to mount and/or dismount a horse, from either side, but I am reliably informed that all horses are mounted from the left side, this is because most horses are left handed (hoofed) and they prefer this method. All equipment is apparently designed with this in mind.
So because horses are mounted from the left side, it was very quickly understood that riding on the left side of the road meant that a horse could pull up on the side of the road and the rider could get off in safety without being run down by all the other horses on the road. This theory is still applied, albeit in an altered fashion, to modern cars - in countries where cars drive on the right side of the road the driver is on the left side of the car and the passenger is on the right, making it safe for passengers who don't have the benefit of mirrors and the like when deciding whether or not to open their doors, in countries where cars drive on the
This is less of a problem with cars than horses, because cars can be designed either way, but why did this split happen in the first place?
It is all because of the French. Not all of the French, mainly just Napoleon, really. Napoleon was annoyed with the English because at the time he was Emperor of something like the entirety of Europe and the English told him, "No thanks, we're all good here with the system of monarchy that has been working for us since, you know, we've existed."
In retaliation for this snub, Napoleon decreed that overnight all roads would run in opposite directions, to distinguish the noble Europeans from the barbaric English. This caused quite a lot of confusion and probably, although I have no evidence to back this up, much injury to both horses and riders.
When America decided it didn't want to be associated with England anymore they decided that the European road system, devised by a guy who ended his days exiled and alone, was the one to go with. This apparently seemed like a good idea at the time.
So next time you're thinking about which side of the road you drive on, remember that the reason there is the divide at all is because a bully was petulant that someone stood up to him so he changed it from the left to the right side.
That's probably enough trivia for today now, thanks for reading my word vomit to the very end.
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
A simple request
I just finished writing a ridiculously long post, which I'm not going to upload because I'm still not sure how well this whole semi-anonymous blogging is going to go and the whole once something is in your digital footprint it is there for good scares me.
What I wrote was a long rant against two companies that have been making things difficult for me recently and I found it cathartic - even if I didn't post it. This has happened a couple of times now, although this was the first time I actually got to the point of writing a post about it. I don't want to not post things but I'm fairly concerned about the whole coming back to bite me in the ass thing.
I use a different name here to the one I use in real life, partly this is because blogging under the name JR makes me feel like I have a secret identity which makes the comic book nerd in me geek out. The majority of it, though, is in case I slip up and post something that I don't want to hurt me in future - although it doesn't mean I'm not planning on at least attempting to keep myself accountable for what I say here.
The problem here is that I don't know enough about how internet anonymity (or lack thereof) works. If anyone has advice on this for me I'd love to hear from you.
What I wrote was a long rant against two companies that have been making things difficult for me recently and I found it cathartic - even if I didn't post it. This has happened a couple of times now, although this was the first time I actually got to the point of writing a post about it. I don't want to not post things but I'm fairly concerned about the whole coming back to bite me in the ass thing.
I use a different name here to the one I use in real life, partly this is because blogging under the name JR makes me feel like I have a secret identity which makes the comic book nerd in me geek out. The majority of it, though, is in case I slip up and post something that I don't want to hurt me in future - although it doesn't mean I'm not planning on at least attempting to keep myself accountable for what I say here.
The problem here is that I don't know enough about how internet anonymity (or lack thereof) works. If anyone has advice on this for me I'd love to hear from you.
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