Well you came and you gave without taking ...

Well, it wasn't her fault that she was there at the wrong time, and some silly bint or other will have a crappy week as The One Who Stuffed Up.





But did you notice the forebearance she was demonstrating, along with the tightness around the mouth, as she apologised for having to seek the indulgence of the Governor of West Australia?

Just before she described the joys of Shared Responsibility Agreements (Note Important Capitals!) which are "a new way of doing business and ... a new conversation, going direct to communities".

Followed by popping up the hill to defend her Department from Petro Georgiou's private member's bills to implement Labor party immigration policy as the Goverment's policy?

For a really shit day, try being in immigration detention.

re: meme

Mark has passed me this meme, and I am now forced to disclose my general incompetence in the field of digital music. Oh, well.

Total volume of music files on my computer

91.1 mb. That is all.

(It's a laptop, you see, and I always use it right next to the stereo, and my CD burner is crook, so why bother?)

The last cd I bought

For me was The Mars Volta "Frances the Mute"

Song playing right now

Blissful silence. Sleeping toddler. The theme from "Brum".

Five songs that I listen to a lot…

"I washed my hands in muddy water" - Elvis
Quite nuts for this at the moment, and rarely take it off.

"Dust" - Ataxia
I've only just been able to start listening to this again. I couldn't bear it for a while because O horribly overplayed it for a couple of months just after we got it.

"Lovin' in my baby's eyes" - Eric Bibb
Sadly Tilley's was sold out for both nights when he was in town last month. I will not be making that mistake again.

"Hope" - John Frusciante
I resisted making all these songs by John Frusicante, but had to put the best from his latest solo album in. (Oh, and that one by Ataxia too.)

"Baa Baa Black Sheep" - Sage
This is the first song he knows all the words to. He's very proud, and looks at me expectantly for the ridiculous praise he inevitably receives.

Passing baton to:

Mindy and DestructoMeg, Nick Crustacean and Ampersand Duck.

Bummer

Sage's language has just been going nuts lately, firing exponentially into the weirdosphere.

A lot of the time, he's telling us stuff that he's heard from our mouths. Stuff like:

I said no!
You're not allowed! and
I bery kwanky!

There are, however, some things I have never said to Sage. Such as "you've got a big fat bottom!" Even if immediately followed by the obviously untrue "I've got a big fat bottom too, mummy!", endearing as the effect might be.

Sadly, it is universally frowned upon to discipline one's toddler for saying insensitive things about one's bottom.

Cyril says: farrk!

I was talking to an old (heh) friend today, who said that he had heard Graham Kennedy go "fark" on the telly, pretending to be a crow, and cracked up with all of his mates at how rude and funny he was.

Graham Kennedy came later for me. I grew up in the generation of latchkey kids that watched "Blankety Blanks" every afternoon after school. I adored him.

Money talks

We alone can influence the price of gold
by not caring if it falls or rises
in the market place.

Wherever there is gold,
there is a chain, you know.
And if your chain is gold,
So much the worse for you.

Feathers, shells and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare.

Let this be our revolution:
to love what is plentiful
as much as what is scarce

Alice Walker




The beginning of spring. *sighs*




I think this may have been a genetically engineered strawberry.

Update: scarily, I think these are becoming more plentiful.

resting between enragements

I'm still pissed off about everything, but I don't feel like boring you with it. Not when I can drink red wine and watch Frysie and Bree. And Geneva.

Mainly Geneva.

little lie down

I appear to be having a bit of a "hiatus", don't I? That's what you call it when you don't post anything for ages, right?

I'll probably think of something to say shortly.

Better than Rex?

Go and read Rex. He is the bomb.

Memes aren't real, tell your friends*

Georg at Stack has passed me a meme. So I'll write a goddam post instead of sitting here quietly practising my Costello-esque smirk.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be saved?
The Human Stain, by Philip Roth.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Ahem. Yes. Sadly, it is tragically predictable.

The last book you bought was...?
The Shape Game by Anthony Browne, a picture book for my son. The last book I bought for me was The Crazed, by Ha Jin. He left China in 1985 and is a Professor of English at Boston University. Fantastic story of love, scholarship, politics, dying and how you can end up participating dumbly in history by following your human desires.

The last book you read was...?
The Dying Animal, by Philip Roth. Faark, he's good.

What are you currently reading?
Lone Star Rising - Robert Dallek, the first volume in a two volume biography of LBJ. The third volume of Robert Caro's biography of LBJ is waiting eagerly on the shelf. Interesting comparision of historical biography written by a historian and a journalist. Yes, I am an out and proud LBJ nerd.

Five books you would take to a desert island...
The Dispossesed - Ursula Le Guin
The Cook's Companion - Stephanie Alexander
A Path with Heart - Jack Kornfield
The Journals - John Cheever
The fattest Raymond Carver anthology I could find.

Who are you passing this stick on to and why?
Gianna of She Sells Sanctuary and Laura of Sorrow at Sill's Bend, because I want to know their answers.


* title flogged from Dean K.