stuff on jimmy's blog

If you visit Jimmy's blog today you will find a couple of things other than posts:

1. You'll be able to see where I found out about the Google widget fish tank that is now on my sidebar (click to feed the fish!) I was thinking what to name my three and I've settled on Faith, Hope and Charity... No of course I'm not serious. I think I'm going for Yin (black), Yang (white) and Rhonda (red).











And speaking of fish, check these out. And people say goldfish only have short term memory. These synchronised swimmers beg to differ. I consider that myth well and truly busted.



2. You will also see the results of his recent poll on chocolate. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME, people who read Jimmy's blog?! HERSHEY'S won? Seriously, how did Hershey's win over Lindt and Godiva? Had a bunch of people never TASTED Lindt and Godiva? And where the heck is CADBURY? Creamy, delicious Cadbury chocolate is not even on the list. And don't give me that 'other' crap. Cadbury is not a nameless other, thank you very much. Hershey mumbles incoherently whenever Cadbury walks in the room, it's so overawed. Godiva shakes its head and says, 'damn, I know I'm good, but how does Cadbury do it for a fifth of the price?' CADBURY, people - try it today!

the song that's been in my head for the last three days

apocolypse not

Soooo, it turns out the world didn't end last night. The idea of a 'end of the world' dinner party was scuppered when I (a) got to Monday morning and realised that I didn't really feel like putting on a dinner party Tuesday night (granted Monday morning is a bad time to seek enthusiasm for...well, anything really), (b) I realised that the moon was rising in the East and that my balcony faces West (good for sunsets, but) and (c) Monday afternoon I was invited to Starman's house to watch the eclipse (including using the telescope!) So my plan slid from 'tentative' to 'not happening'.

I was actually a bit nervous about going, only because it was the first time I'd seen Starman outside of work. I also didn't know if I'd know anyone else there, and I'm shy enough to dread that initial stage of meeting people where you're 'making conversation' rather than just having it. I shouldn't have worried. Starman and his sister, who had also come to watch, were welcoming and easy-going and that settled a really comfortable mood over the whole gathering. Turned out to be a great night.

The eclipse was beautiful and inordinately mystical. The normally flat-looking disc seemed more 3-dimensional in the reddish glow as the eclipse happened. For those who are interested in such things: the reason the moon turns red instead of grey/black is because any light finding it from the Sun is first travelling through the Earth's atmosphere. The refracted light is red, hence the red glow on the moon. Anyway, here are some photos, this time NOT from the net, but actually taken last night (and hastily distributed by email this morning).





It begins.











The Earth's shadow moves progressively across the surface of the moon.











A reddish glow starts to spread across the moon.










Almost completely eclipsed.













The moon 'turns to blood'. Awesome, huh?

stargazing

Last night I took Keyboard Kid along to a stargazing night held by the Canberra Astronomical Society out on Black Mountain Peninsula. There were about twelve telescopes set up focused on various treats particularly nice to see in the August sky. Here's a rundown of what we saw. These photos are taken from the internet, and I have to say that in spite of the fact that some of these show more detail than we were able to see, most of what we saw was much more beautiful to see through the telescope, most likely because photo stars don't twinkle. More than that, there's something about the night sky that can't be captured in a photo. The photos are interesting, but seeing it for real is oddly moving.

Alpha Centauri is a triple star system consisting of two main stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, which form a binary system together, and a much smaller and dimmer red dwarf named Proxima Centauri. We checked out AlphaCen A&B, which to the naked eye look like one star. Last night we were able to split the binary system (view it as at right, as two seperate stars).
The Jewel Box (Kappa Crucis) is an open cluster of about 100 stars in the Southern Cross (a constellation which you North Americans may never have seen, but which is constantly in the Southern sky and so appears on the flags of Australia and New Zealand). In this photo you can see one very yellow star surrounded by bright blue stars. Last night we could see stars that looked red, yellow, blue and green. In case you were wondering, the colour of stars varies according to their temperature, which is also related to their age.



Omega Centauri is a globular cluster of stars seen in the constellation of Centaurus. It orbits the Milky Way and is the largest known globular cluster associated with our galaxy. Unlike other globular clusters, it contains several generations of stars.




Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and the fifth planet from the sun. It is a gas giant with 39 moons at last count and there are constant massive electrical storms roaming its surface (cool, huh?). Its most prominent features are bands across its latitudes and a great red spot (which is a huge storm). Last night the moon was bright, so Jupiter looked paler than in this photo. We could also see three of its four major moons.

Antares is the brightest star in Scorpius, a zodiac constellation and very easy to find in our winter sky. Antares is a red supergiant which is often mistaken for Mars because it is red even to the naked eye. Certainly I've been wondering if it was Mars for years. :) It's an old and massive star, about 230 times as big as the Sun. Through the telescope it was the prettiest reddish gold. We weren't able to split it but it was beautiful for sure.

The terminator, that line where the light hitting our moon falls away into darkness, is interesting to look at. Because the light is skimming the surface at that point, the Moon's craters are much easier to see. We also looked at the whole moon, which was lumescent and beautiful, but left you a little blind from its brightness for a few minutes after you looked at it.

It was a nice night, and it made me want again to visit the Sydney Observatory with its huge telescope. I've meant to go a couple of times when I was in Sydney, but it's always been cloudy. I think if I lived there I'd go every month, because there's always something interesting to see.

The next sky event is happening on Tuesday night...a full lunar eclipse. Because of the way the Earth's atmosphere refracts the light of the Sun, the moon will not be black, but red instead. We've made lots of comments about the moon 'turning to blood' and I'm having a little 'end of the world as we know it' dinner party out on the balcony. Hopefully it isn't actually a sign of the imminent Apocolypse, or the joke will rather be on us, no? :)

meme: bloggers who think, bloggers who make me think

Way back in June Jimmy was tagged with a meme that asks you to give a 'thinking blogger' award to five bloggers and he was kind enough to include me on his list. (Thanks!) Of course then I got busy and the meme slipped down my 'to do' list, as did posting in general for a while. But now here is my own list of 5 thinking bloggers. The button below is for them to include on their sidebar, if they want to. Either way I hope they'll take the time to pass the award on to five more thinking bloggers, but I know not everyone's into memes and such.

The fool makes me think about life and love and poetry. He tends to come at subjects from an unexpected angle and is one of several bloggers I consistently find myself wishing I knew in real life. He also connects with nature in a way that is deeply interesting to me ~ sometimes I feel I can relate and other times his experience seem alien to my own.

Lolo makes me think about food in a more creative way. I find vegetarian cooking limited, so vegan cuisine always seemed impossibly so. But everything on her blog looks so delicious that I'm starting to think that I've just lacked imagination. Of course all the herbivores out there are saying, 'well, duh. Of course you can eat well with only vegan ingredients...' but hey, I do live in the land of the backyard barbeque, so cut me some slack. :) Anyway, go salivate and here's a quick plug for her upcoming cookbook.

Soulemama and her family are lovely and a little alternative. I'm a city girl and I like that. I don't grow a garden, or knit, and my artwork is usually created on the computer. Reading about her life is like going back (or perhaps more aptly, forward) in time, or moving to another country, so different is it from the one that I'm living. When I read her blog and look at her children in beautiful homemade clothes, interacting with nature and generally tackling their world hands-on, I feel like I'm reading a wonderfully illustrated children's picture book, the kind you always keep handy because your kids want you to read it over and over. She probably doesn't realise that she pushes me to explore my own creative processes and think outside the box about my life. She has a cool book coming out next year that I'll probably buy as a gift for a couple of families I know, but her store is closed for the summer, so you'll have to check that out later.

Dave writes a blog called How to Save the World. This guy is super-prolific, so much so that I sometimes can't keep up with reading all he writes. His topics vary quite a bit, but it's all about making the world a better place and it puts me in the mood to read, talk to people, learn more and act. I have no idea where he finds the time, but I'm glad he does.

Of the eight or so 'debt reduction blogs' I read, Tricia's is my favourite. I like her particular mix of news, personal experience and creative ideas. I actually started a blog about debt reduction, but in the end I realised that I wasn't saying anything that wasn't already out there. Tricia is almost halfway to zero debt and I'm learning a lot going along for the ride.

Obviously there are a lot more people that could have made this list. It's isn't a 'top 5' list; it's just a '5' list. I also avoided bloggers that I know have been tagged previously. They already have a 'thinking blogger' button. And rightly so.

the editing room

Yesterday I stumbled across the funniest blog I've read in ages. He writes short parody scripts of major motion pictures. He pans a few that I like, but in spite of that they are all hella funny.




Will desperately ponders a polite way to ask if Barbossa took his hat from an old lady.

i'm so excited!

I started my Cafepress shop after I got a cool computer art program as a gift. I was enjoying making designs and I figured, 'why not?' because maybe someone else would like them, too. It took a while to work out how to do things properly. I didn't realise, for example, that the seller can choose which dark t-shirts to use for each design. I thought I was stuck with the whole range in every case. I also made a couple of really stupid mistakes with designs, like using white to fade something out on a design ~ it looked perfect on the white t-shirt, but I had dark t-shirts with the same design on them that looked really unprofessional and bizarre until I spotted the mistake and fixed it.

All in all, the store had few designs for a while. I also had to learn how to go about promoting the items. My efforts here have been pretty basic, like learning how to make it easier for web search spiders to find and list the item pages for various searches.

Anyway, recently I have wanted to get back to designing, which I haven't done for several weeks. This week I want to try my hand at some cute Halloween designs. I went to my shop owner's page, only to find that I've had SIX sales since I last checked the site!! I mean, I know it's only six sales, but you have to start somewhere, and that's six people who are walking around in four different US states, wearing my designs.

How cool is that?!! ^_^

for all you unique flowers out there

Yesterday I was thinking that I rarely post here on Japanese stuff that I'm into. I think it's because there are only a few friends of mine from 'the Japan era' of my life that read this blog. I've been thinking about resurrecting my old blog, which I posted on while I lived in Japan, to use for things like reviews of Japanese dramas and the like. But maybe I'll cross post some things here anyway. People can always skip the stuff that doesn't interest them.

And for today's post:

I know that SMAP are a fairly crappy group musicwise (I often like their comedy or acting) but I randomly came across SMAP singing "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake No Hana" again this morning on Youtube and it had me singing like a karaoke queen while I got ready for work.



Lyrics in romaji and translation: http://www.kiwi-musume.com/lyrics/smap/sekainihitotsudakenohana.html

The basic theme of the song is that we are sometimes so busy comparing ourselves to others and trying to be 'number 1' that we completely miss how special it is just to be a unique human being.

And can I just ask, who is this dude doing a Chinese remake of the song??? He seems to have quite a following. Maybe I'll have to ask Noddy (current Chinese boarder).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2r7PF-jgyI

comedic caper

I'm off to see the Umbilical Brothers tonight. I've included one of their skits from Youtube so you can get an idea of the kind of comedy they do. Very clever and funny.


Given how expensive concerts are nowadays, I'm starting to feel really grateful for how cheaply I can see live comedy. This show was only $35 and having seen these guys on TV several times, I have no doubt it's going to be an awesome show.

harry potter and the slightly spoilery quiz answers

###SPOILERS###

###SPOILERS###

###SPOILERS###

###SPOILERS###

### don't say you weren't warned ###



As promised, here are the answers to the happy hour Harry Potter trivia quiz that I won recently. Some of the answers refer to book 7 information, but no plot points are revealed.

What is a Squib? (1)
Someone born of magic parents but who cannot perform magic.

What is a muggle? (1)
A non-magical person.

What is splinching? (1)
When someone tries to apparate but fails to recombine at the desired location.

Name the four houses of Hogwarts. (4)
Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin

Name four of the Hogwarts House Ghosts and the houses they belong to. (8)
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (Nearly Headless Nick (Gryffindor)), The Bloody Baron (Slytherin), The Fat Friar (Hufflepuff), Helena Ravenclaw (The Grey Lady, Ravenclaw)

Name the seven defence against the dark arts teachers in the seven books. (7)
Professor Quiriness Quirell, Gilderoy Lockhart, Remus Lupin, Barty Crouch Jr ( not Mad-eye Moody or Alastair Moody), Dolores Umbridge, Severus Snape, Amycos Carrow.

What is the name of the killing curse? (1)
Avada Kedavra

Name of the curse that allows you to take control of another person? (1)
Imperius Curse

What was the brand of the first broomstick that Harry got? (1)
Nimbus 2000 (Well, this is the answer that was given by the quiz judges, but actually we don't know the brand of his first broom, which Sirius gave him for his first birthday.)

Name all seven Weasley’s children. (7)
Ginevra (Ginny), Ronald (Ron), Fred, George, Percy, Charles (Charlie), William (Bill),

(Excluding the last book) Name the teachers who are the heads of the four houses. Bonus Points: Name their House and the class they teach (12)
Professor McGonagall (Gryffindor, Transfiguration), Professor Flitwick (Ravenclaw, Charms), Professor Snape (Slytherin, Potions), Professor Sprout (Hufflepuff, Herbology)

Name the level of wizardry achievement reached in the fifth and seventh years (Bonus Points for non-abbreviated form) (4)
O.W.L–Ordinary Wizarding Level, N.E.W.T–Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test

Who where the four “Marauders”, what where their nicknames and what animals could they turn into? (12)
Peter Pettigrew, Wormtail, rat – Sirius Black, padfoot, dog – James Potter, Prongs, stag – Remus Lupin, Moony, werewolf

What do you call a wizard or witch that is capable of turning into an animal? (1)
An animagus

What was the name of Hagrid’s giant pet spider? (1)
Aragog

What is Lord Voldermort’s real name? (1)
Tom Marvolo Riddle

What is the name of the goblin bank in Harry Potter? (1)
Gringotts

What are the first names of the three Dursley’s Harry lived with? (3)
Vernon, Petunia, Dudley

What was the name of Harry’s mum? (1)
Lily (Evans)

20. Name four characters that where the head of Hogwarts for a period during the seven Harry Potter books. (4)
Albus Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Dolores Umbridge, Severus Snape

(Total 72 points)

new harry potter products at alivan's

One day when I finally visit LA (assuming all my friends who live there don't move on before I make the trip to the US) I'm going to take a pile of galleons into Alivan's and go shopoholic on their magical butts. My favourite 'things I won't be buying from overseas because the postage will cost too much' from their selection of new items are:

I'd have to be careful where I put this. I can imagine small children smacking headfirst into my wall after "taking it at a bit of a run."

The Snitch isn't a new item, but I just wanted to comment that it's much cooler than the plush one the Whimsic Alley sells.

I'm wondering if those two almost-not-there faces are Bill and Charlie, given that we haven't seen them yet in the movies. It would be cool if the clock had a spare one or two that you could put your own photos into, but I think that's just wishful thinking.







This lamp is pricey (around $60!!!) but would look tres cool with a blue light bulb inside. ^_^

permission to shine

Speaking of Akeelah, the movie most aptly used this quote, which sits near the top of my top ten favourite quotes of all time:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
(Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love, 1992)

It reminds me a little of the Bachelor Girl single, Permission to Shine. Here are some of the lyrics:

I've been crazy.
I've been holdin' myself back for so long
But I've got so much I can give
Don't wanna be afraid to be wrong

You know I'm not too good at too many things
But I've been gettin' real good at gettin' down on myself
But guess what
I'm gonna try to break free from this prison I've built

I'm gonna give myself permission to shine
I'm gonna shine so bright
Gonna make every head wanna turn
You're finally gonna see me
Give myself permission to shine
Gonna light up the night
Shine a little of my light on the world

Fabulous song! When I taught English in Japan I created a lesson based around it, because I loved the positive, uplifting message. Nice tune, too, for singing along.

chosha and the bee

I learned a few new words recently after watching Akeelah and the Bee. Today I'd like to use a couple of them in a sentence.

We have a new starter at work. She seems very nice, but suffers from non-medical logorrhea. If you ask her a question, you are likely to be listening to the answer for a very long time, as her ability to move from one story to the next without cease (or breath) borders on the Scheherazadian. I want to be the friendly, welcoming colleague type, but I'm kind of scared to start her off, lest I lose yet another half hour from my 'week of rapidly declining productivity'.




PS...I recommend Akeelah and the Bee. I've watched it three times now and am doing another screening for my Valiant class (the 9-12 year olds that I teach on Sundays) in a couple weeks. I showed them a few snippets as part of a lesson and they were keen to watch the rest, so now we're having a movie night at my house.

valley o' speculation

Paris Hilton has been creating speculation by appearing out with varying degrees of cleavage. Apparently every time she dons her wonder bra the tabloids have a rumourfest over whether or not she's finally succumbed to implant fever. However a recent small-breasted bikini shot has put paid to the rumours, you know, until next week.

In the past, Hilton has been candid about her desire for a breast augmentation at a young age.

"Years ago, I asked my dad for a boob job and he said it would cheapen my image," she has said.

Oh Sweetie, could your image really be any cheaper?

a little house for poems

Jason posted at Rag and Bone about a piece of public art he came across in a town called Stockbridge. There's a little hut in the town square made from hand-cut planks, steel beams and willow branches. Passersby can go inside and read the poems inside and write one of their own to add to the collection. Of the poems he posted, this was my favourite:

and a happy little happy hour it was too

Like Hermione Granger feeling disappointed over her one 'Exceeds Expectations' (all her other OWLs results were 'Outstanding') I am a little frustrated that I got 71 out of 72 available points in the happy hour Harry Potter trivia quiz. However I did win!! The prize is a box of chocolates which I haven't received yet.

Here are the questions. See how you go (without Google) and I'll post the answers in a few days.

1. What is a Squib? (1)
2. What is a muggle? (1)
3. What is splinching? (1)
4. Name the four houses of Hogwarts. (4)
5. Name four of the Hogwarts House Ghosts and the houses they belong to. (8)
6. Name the seven defence against the dark arts teachers in the seven books. (7)
7. What is the name of the killing curse? (1)
8. Name of the curse that allows you to take control of another person? (1)
9. What was the brand of the first broomstick that Harry got? (1)
10. Name all seven Weasley’s children. (7)
11. (Excluding the last book) Name the teachers who are the heads of the four houses. Bonus Points: Name their House and the class they teach (12)
12. Name the level of wizardry achievement reached in the fifth and seventh years (Bonus Points for non-abbreviated form) (4)
13. Who where the four “Marauders”, what where their nicknames and what animals could they turn into? (12)
14. What do you call a wizard or witch that is capable of turning into an animal?(1)
15. What was the name of Hagrid’s giant pet spider? (1)
16. What is Lord Voldermort’s real name? (1)
17. What is the name of the goblin bank in Harry Potter? (1)
18. What are the first names of the three Dursley’s Harry lived with? (3)
19. What was the name of Harry’s mum? (1)
20. Name four characters that where the head of Hogwarts for a period during the seven Harry Potter books. (4)

(total 72 points)

quote of the day #1

I won't actually be posting a quote every day. The reason the title is 'quote of the day' is because it's taken from my 'quote of the day' desk calendar.

He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.
(Horace)

Bollocks. I find it just as easy to procrastinate a task I've started as one I haven't.

it's raining...crocodiles?

Residents in the Russian nuclear research town of Sarov got a jaw-dropping surprise when a crocodile fell from the twelfth-storey apartment of its owner.
The one-metre caiman crocodile landed on a pavement after leaning too far out of the window of the apartment where it had lived for the last 15 years, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted an official with the local branch of the ministry as saying.
Frightened passers-by called the emergency services and rescuers managed to lasso the stunned animal and take it to a shelter for stray pets.
It was soon returned to its owner, unharmed apart from damage to one of its teeth, the official said.

1. What kind of person keeps a croc (boa constrictor, tarantula, etc) as a pet? Anyone had any weird pets? What made you decide to go for the non-traditional option? Did you enjoy the adventure or end up regretting the choice of pet?

2. It fell 12 floors and only damaged a tooth?! Wow, apart from it's sturdy croc hide there must be some truth to that theory that you stay more relaxed and don't get as badly injured if you don't know what's coming.

this just arrived in my email at work...

Feel like a butterbeer or some firewhiskey?

Why not come to our special Harry Potter Happy Hour?

The amenities room on level 4&3/4 will be magically transformed into "The Three Broomsticks" on Thursday 9 August. (Note Muggles will just see the amenities room on level 5 with no decorations).

Talk about the magical adventures of Harry and his friends.

Test yourself with the Harry Potter Trivia Quiz.

Come drink a few magical potions.

Too funny. ^_^

more daniel johns

What the point was of telling this news story without a photo, I do not know.

Well done, ABC News!!!

harry potter and the non-spoilery post

I've just added a comment to my post on predictions for the 7th Harry Potter book and just reposting the comment here:

I got some things right, some not. There weren't so many surprises, no, but I think that was mostly (for me at least) because so many possibilities had been thrown out there that anything that eventuated had been foretold by someone, at some point. The wandlore aspect was new and interesting (and clever). The Dumbledore backstory revelations were more distracting than interesting, though everything played it's part in the end. I pretty much loved everything else. I thought the last six or so chapters are the most fun I've had reading in a long time. And I use the word 'fun' loosely, as I wept through a lot of it.

I'd say more but I'm trying not to give spoilers.

Like many fans I was very concerned with who JKR was planning to 'kill off'. In the end it didn't matter. What I found was that while some of the deaths were upsetting (read: had me openly weeping) in the end they made the writing better. To never lose a character you love is to read with too much emotional safety. It dilutes the story and trivializes the fears of the characters because in your head there's always a voice assuring you that they are worrying about nothing.

JKR didn't allow us that kind of certainty and the book was much better for it. There was actually one point where I read something that indicated that someone had died and the way I read it had me thinking it was one particular character that I really did not want dead. I literally put the book down in my lap and just breathed for a minute, because right then I just couldn't bear to keep reading and find out that it was so. Luckily for me I returned to the book to find that I'd made a mistake. Didn't make the actual death in question any less sad though...

It's really difficult to say anything about the ending (last few chapters) without including spoilers, but I will say that:

(a) I loved it
(b) I was highly amused by it when I realised how certain hotly debated topics in the HP fan world had panned out. I can't elaborate, but there were even some points where BOTH sides of a debate ended up being right. Brilliant! :) And finally,
(c) my one beef with it was that I think it contradicted something really important in the 5th book. But that's something for me to beat out with other people who've already read the book. They may be able to persuade me otherwise. Maybe.

If anyone else has read the book I'd love to hear what you thought, but please preface any comment containing a spoiler with this heading: ###SPOILER### If you posted about the book, feel free to comment with a link to your post.

my visual dna

read my visualDNA get your own visualDNA

senega + ammonia = foul elixar of the underworld

Downside of being sick with a chest infection while on holiday in Adelaide:

- visited only my parents and one other family because I only had one day left once I was well enough to visit people
- sat in a chair for about five days straight (one break to go to lunch and see a movie)
- couldn't blog as I was avoiding using Mum & Dad's computers so as not to pass on sickness

Upside of being sick with a chest infection while on holiday in Adelaide:

- chair I lived in was a plush recliner with footstool
- having a mother willing to make hot honey and lemon drinks to soothe throat sore from coughing
- incapable of doing anything else so schedule wide open for re-reading Harry Potter book 6 & reading book 7 at a leisurely and enjoyable pace (and visiting no-one = no spoilers)

Apart from the antibiotics, I've been taking this stuff called Senega and Ammonia. It helps to open up your chest and loosen up whatever is blocking it. It is the most RANK-tasting stuff ever, but it's very effective and pretty cheap, too. I highly recommend it for any chesty cough, but here's a hint: once you've measured out your 20ml, tip it into a half glass of water. It doesn't taste quite so foul like that.

Much better tasting was the incredibly good chicken soup I made and lived on for two days after I got home...full of garlic (natural antibiotic) and parsley (vitamin C + iron) and about eight different vegetables and real chicken stock boiled up from chicken frames and extra chicken and pepper and spices and herbs and magic and goodness and phoenix tears and love. Mm-mm.

Anyway, it took me several days, but I'm totally better now and will be back at work on Monday. Not the best holiday I've ever had, but at least I saw my folks for a week or so, and didn't have to wait for a whole workday to pass each day so I could get back to Harry Potter. :)