Just a short entry as I’ve been feeling a bit crappy today – not physically, but mentally. Possibly spiritually even? I’m just in a general funk about everything – Amy not being here mainly though. I really miss not being able to connect with her but I know she’s on the road to recovery and it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be able to again. I also know that how I’m feeling at the moment is a passing thing (for the most part anyway) and that I’ll probably be OK tomorrow or the next day. I’ll just have to make sure to keep busy wherever possible.

Needless to say I haven’t actually been that productive today, though I have been reading a lot – both online and off.

The days are getting shorter and colder as winter starts to really bite. Apparently tomorrow is the shortest day of the year so I guess from then on we’ll have started to turn the corner – Possibly that’s why I might be a little down?

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Two days ago I came across an entry in a blog which talked about cramps/Charley horses (sp). I have no idea exactly where I read it or which blog it was on but I’m truly thankful that I found it that day. Basically the writer was saying that their mother had always told them to apply pressure – and a lot of pressure – to the foot when you get a cramp in your leg. Your foot??? Apparently it’s an old wives tale or something? Anyhow I filed it away in my brain for future reference as I’m prone to get them when I’m sleeping once or twice a year.

Well I have to say it DAMN WELL WORKS!! Well it worked in my case this morning anyway! I was quite amazed at just how quickly it did work too. Of course I was much too much pain to apply pressure to my own foot but, luckily, I was staying at my parents house last night and I had just stirred because my mother had turned on the heater in the lounge room where I was sleeping. I had been sleeping on the futon couch but I’d woken up at about 5.30 am and then sat in the reclining chair and promptly fell asleep again.

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There are three calendars in this room. For some reason two of them are still stuck on April?

There’s a distinct lack of spoons in this house? As far as I know we had plenty of them, but now there’s just a few left. Where are my spoons?

How come all of the fridge magnet words are at the side of the fridge rather than the front where they should be?

What’s the logic with my rss feed subscribers? First there’s one, then none, then one, then none, then none, then TWO…….so then I realize that some people might like to use this thing so I quickly move the graphic from the BOTTOM of the blog to the top right hand side so people can find it easier……then none, then none, then two again? Are these all the same people and if so why are they torturing me like this? I don’t even know if the whole thing works or not cause I don’t use it. If there ARE real people behind it all they’ll probably disappear again cause I’ve offended them. Sorry. My bad!

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OK, now it’s getting a little weird for me around here at the moment. Strange things are happening and I’m not sure exactly why?

My neighbor has serious issues when it comes to the handling of his own dog. I’ve talked about one particular issue here in the past which was quite an event – a somewhat scary one! Since then though I don’t think Goldie, the neighbor’s dog, really goes home at all now….and once more the neighbors don’t seem too fussed by it??? I mean the little bugger DID USED to go back “home” about once a day – around dinner time – but nowadays he doesn’t seem to be too interested in doing that at all now?

The thing that puzzles me the most is if he doesn’t go home to eat, then what the heck DOES he eat? Just my table scraps and the occasional handful of uncooked pasta (henceforth known as “Crunchy Puppy Treats”). The fact that he doesn’t seem to go home at all now just kinda guilts me out a bit when it comes to feeding my own dog, Gus. For the first time in seven years of living here I’m now feeding Goldie and giving him a very small portion of dry dog food every time I feed Gus. It’s like I’ve done the EXACT OPPOSITE of what my neighbor wanted me to do.

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International Webloggers Day – June 14th, 2005.

The historical impact of weblogging.

I was asked by someone about a month or so ago if I was going to participate in this years International Webloggers Day? I replied that I’d never even heard of it – being relatively new to the world of blogging in general – let alone being in a position to participate in it? It sounded like a cool idea though so I found out more about it and signed up.

In that time since I have been wondering what the heck to write about when the day finally arrived? After about two weeks though the answer became obvious for me. I would write about the historical importance of weblogs and, indeed, the Internet itself. Believe me when I say that there’s a good chance that what you write today, tomorrow or next year could very well be the basis of study for scholars and historians in a thousand years time. I know it. I’ve seen it happen in other areas and I’ve read about it in many many more.

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OK, I’ll admit it…..I blow the crap out of eggs!

I’m a pretty reasonable cook I have to say. I should be too, seeing as I did so much of it in school. I don’t really do anything too complicated though……I mean it just takes too much time and there’s only me here at the moment anyway (dogs don’t count….though occasionally I’ll cook something up especially for them if I happen to have some meat that’s a little “iffy”). I do some nice chicken meals though – chicken tikka and sarsaparilla chicken to name but two – and I’m good with cakes, puddings and all kinds of casseroles and stews. There’s one thing though that I CONTINUALLY and CONSISTENTLY screw up! I have a propensity to blow up eggs!!

Yes eggs! Hard boiled eggs to be exact. One of the EASIEST things in the ENTIRE WORLD to cook, and I just blow the LIVING SUITCASE out of them! Any other egg based meal and I’m fine! No problems at all! Hard boiled eggs though…..THAT’S EGGS IN HOT WATER FOLKS! NOT BRAIN SURGERY HERE!…….and I’m a freaking IMBECILE!

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I found something interesting on the Not Safe For Children blog which I wanted to expand upon here. It’s about a cool project called The Monster Engine which has now been made into a book. Basically it poses the question – What would a kid’s drawing be like if it were made into a real illustration? The illustrator in this case, Dave Devries, gives lectures and demonstrations to kids and adults alike and uses the children’s own submissions of monsters, superheroes and the like and then “tarts them up” into realistic illustrations.

The results are pretty damn cool I’d have to say! Dave’s background is in comic book illustration so the pictures tend to have a “graphic novel” look to them. There’s also an interview with each kid who submitted a picture which was used in the book. I hear the interviews themselves are pretty interesting. I think I’m gonna have to order a book for myself to have a closer look.

The whole experience of going to the site reminded me of my own childhood and the first “book” I wrote and illustrated way back in grade four. The book was unimaginatively called “The Australian Bush Friends” and it was about a group of animals trying to get together for a dinner party or something? I remember that after I’d finished the book Mister Gray, my teacher at the time, took the story home and read it to his own kids while he was marking the grades. I also remember being awarded some sort of presentation at the time for doing such a good job on it. I was about 9 or 10 years old so the details are a little sketchy now? The main benefit from all of it though was that it continued to nurture my love for books and writing. which I’m very appreciative of. I can safely say that most of my teachers at school were good in this regard.

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I found these today on the Junk Feud blog as I was doing my rounds. They reminded me of something I once said many years ago – that celebrities should start fighting back using the same weapons as the paparazzi do. Cameras! I remember thinking that if I was ever in the situation of being a celebrity and I was pissed off with the paparazzi then that’s what I would do. I mean why not?

Obviously Drew Barrymore and Reese Witherspoon have had the same idea, going by these pictures.

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But first, the sites that inspired me (in no particular order)

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