The Purple Dragon Blog

Spoiler warning for Sarah Connor Chronicles 

Is it just me, or does Sarah Connor Chronicles sound like it could have been pulled wholesale from fandom? I mean, the general plot is something like, ‘after Terminator 2 a hot girl terminator pulls Sarah and John into the future where they angst and self-torment in between near-death experiences’. Is it just me, or does that sound like a piece of fanfiction to you. Bad, Mary-Sue fanfiction. I swear, back in high school I considered writing something similar, but decided not to on the grounds that even fanfiction readers wouldn’t be interested. And yet, SCC is really enjoyable. ‘Cameron’, and her attempts at learning the subtleties of human behaviour and society, is quite amusing. The plot moves quickly and is interesting. The terminators are well done, the action interesting. The characters dilemmas pull you in. Sarah isn’t as tough as she should be, and John is a whiny, selfish emo brat (Why is this happening to me? This is unfair!  I shouldn’t have to do this. You took care of it last time, Mum. You take care of it.) Yet in the end, it doesn’t matter that much.

Some people might have wondered about the last post… No, I didn’t intentionally teach my guineapig to dance. I was dancing in front of the cage when she began copying me in hopes of food, and I took advantage of the situation. Lease note I did not actually train her to do this. Wish I’d gotten it on tape though, it was adorable.

————————–

Childcare scenario:

Teacher sings, ‘bee be bumblebee, come and sing your name to me, your name is…’ and the child indicated gives their name.

Teacher: Bee, bee, bumbebee, come and sing your name to me. Your name is -

*points at child*

Child *bellows*: JACK SPARROW!!!

Teacher: Um, okay… you can go to morning tea now…

*Purple Dragon dissolves into laughter…

Sorry it’s been so long; I was threatened with terrible fates is I went on the internet when Mum wants me, which is just about all the rare time I spend at home, and the rest of the time Dad was on here.

 Lil Sis went back to school today. She informed me that a friend of hers took her guineapig to the vet…. to find out it had menopause… which I didn’t know guineapigs got…. and I’ve had guineapigs since I was eleven…

You know the Beatles song ‘Yellow Submarine’? ‘We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine’? Three year old S. at work (whose parents listen to older music a fair bit, I gather) came in singing “We all live in a tub of margarine...” She actually thought those were the words…. Lil Sis insists on singing those lyrics now. Personally I fee that the joke is getting old after several weeks.

Have tracked several people from high school down on facebook. Interesting.

 Am thinking of doing a fictional serial on this blog as well as the usual - what do you think?

————————

*   “Let’s just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he’d be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting ‘All gods are bastards’.”

– Rincewind discussing Twoflower (Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic)

You find all kinds of photos online…

Christmas is almost here! Yay! It’s the time of year when people take photos of animals in Santa outfits and post them online! Yes! My family are relieved. My usual singing habits (that is, singing things I can’t really sing) has changed to carols, things that I more or less can sing.

One of the indomitable fish is dead. I checked on the kindy fishes this morning to find one belly-up in the fishbowl. It has been listless ever since Terrible Three #1 ran around with it in her hat last week. Fish just don’t do well in hats. There’s not enough oxygen in there.

Yuo guys remember Angus (see blog categories for Angus entries) the cat that turned up and tried to adopt us? Well, he hasn’t been around for ages, but now a new cat has turned up: el Bandito. We don’t know where he’s come from or what. He’s black and white, with mask-like markings around his eyes, like a bandit. He’s very affectionate, mostly, but goes mrowl, mrowl all day and night, attacks our cat, scratched the hell out of Lil Sis when she tried to cart him away from our house. Menace. Bandito indeed.

If I don’t get time to post: merry Christmas!

*Dragon is minding her own business when small child wanders up*

Small child: I found a bug. Want to come see?

*Dragon sees her carrying container and surmises that she is going to go trap bug*

Dragon: No, but you can bring it to show me if you want.

*small child returns later with container. Dragon looks inside*

*blinks*

Dragon: It’s dead.

Small child: *declares* I love it.

Dragon: But it’s dead.

Small child: I shall keep it for ever and ever. *wanders away*

*Dragon blinks*

———–

I bought the Veronicas second album, Hook Me Up today. From what I’ve heard so far, it’s fairly good. It doesn’t have the distinctive sound of the first album that made me fall in love with it and made 4ever my yearr 12 class’s graduation anthem, but it has a sound all its own that is equally distinctive. Do I like it? Yes. Do I like it as much as the sound of the first album? I don’t know yet. Probably not. Love it all the same.

I think at the centre where I work we must have the most indestructible fish ever. Let me explain. In one of the rooms with the older children we have a small fishbowl with two goldfish in it. They don’t do much, nor do they elicit much interest, which is probably a good thing for them because things the kids are interested in tend to either get chewed, broken, or dropped in some wet substance such as paint, milk, etc. Nonetheless they find themselves subject to a range of, erm, interesting incidents probably outside the range of experience of most goldfish. The very first week I started working, the fishbowl was full of white stuff. Some child, it had transpired, had apparently disliked their yoghurt and wondered if the fish would like it better. A few weeks back one child climbed up and somehow got into the kitchen, stole the fish food, and emptied a month’s worth into the bowl. Piles of fish food sat on every surface inside the bowl and came drifting off the fish as they moved, floated near the surface of the water and collected at the bottom of the bowl. Disintegrating fish food clogged the water. Once the bowl had been cleaned out, fish were fine. A week or so ago I walked in one morning to find the fishbowl full of… bubbles. I walked over for a closer look and watched as the fish placidly opened and shut their mouths, sending amusing little bubbles up to the surface. Wish were a bit lethargic for a bit after that, but soon recovered. Superfish, I tell you. Thank God we don’t have hamsters. We’d have gone through five Mr Fluffys by now, at least.

Have I ever mentioned skippyslist.com, otherwise known as ‘The 213 Things Skippy is No Longer Allowed to Do in the U.S. Army’? No? Gosh, what a tremendous oversight. Well, it’s a blog by a guy in the army which not only has the list that gives the blog its name, but also hilarious blog entries like this one, and this one. Yes, the list inspired the ‘50 things I am no longer allowed t odo at Hogwarts’ list - but unlike that one, Skippy’s list is true. *scared mindboggle*

I don’t know how often I’m going to be update guys, coz it’s been hard as it is, and I’m going to be working even more days a week than before, and I’ll probably be working through the Christmas holidays. (ah boo.) I’ll try to update whenever I can though, coz I loves yous all! *Loki muse hits Dragon over back of the head because of her grammar*

The kindergarten class sits in a circle with a teacher at the head of it. She holds up photographs of various Australian animals for the children to identify; a wombat, a koala, a possum.

Next she holds up a kangaroo.

“Does anyone know what this is?”

Small Vietnamese boy informs her that the animal is made into hats. For emphasis he mimes putting on a small hat.

“No, W.,” the teacher says gravely, “we do not make hats out of kangaroos.”

Purple Dragon collapses into helpless laughter despite all efforts.

Found something that set me laughing hysterically; ‘50 Things I am Not Allowed to do at Hogwarts.‘ It has *counts* 12 appendices full of additions to the original list, and includes references to lots of facets of poular culture. I like this one:

-I am not able to see the Grim Reaper, nor am I to claim that he is standing by the Headmaster, tapping an hourglass and looking at him impatiently. Or, for that matter, Harry Potter.

Also:

-Please do not refer to Dumbledore as Methuselah.

And:

-Not allowed to play poker with Tarot cards anymore, last time I did, I got a royal flush and the Dark lord returned. 

And another:

-Nor will I send magical equipment to Caltech or MIT in exchange for full tuition.
-By “I,” we actually mean you, Hermione.

And lastly:

-I will not enchant Hermione Granger’s Time turner to rotate every half hour.

I was on the train this morning when a bunch of high school girls get on, and didn’t ppay attention until someone said, “hey, why have you got a kitten?” I look over, and on this girl’s lap is a maroon school jumper made into a sort of nest, and wrapped inside is a tiny, sleeping black kitten curled into a ball. It was really cute. At one point it woke up and started squeaking, which I didn’t know kittens did;  so there was this high-pitched tiny ‘meep, meeeep,’ noise until the girl settled it back down again and it went back to sleep in the jumper. Kittens should be on trains more often, I think, even if it is against some council by-law or something.

Week before last ended horribly; one of the disabled children tried to bite my thumb off and was prised off my poor thumb with difficulty; I got slapped; someone threw a large plastic toy at the back of my head; and when I was dealing with H. (henceforth referred to as ‘that f***er’ when I am really mad) sucker-punched me in the gut and when I doubled over tried to climb the fence. So I was glad to have a fairly restful one last week. Hopefully this week will be nice too. I work the rest of the week. *droops* I hope you all feel for me. I get beat up by preschoolers.

Had a lovely quiet day yesterday; was assigned to do all the cleaning that hadn’t been done at the childcare centre yet. Wandered about quietly on my own, industriously cleaning, sometimes singing in my chorister voice… I need more days like that.

(Avatar by me)
Have been watching the Fourth Doctor story City of Death today. Bought it last week on DVd even though it is hideously expenisve, but I’m glad I did. The Doctor. Romana. In a school uniform. On location. In France.
The dialogue in this is positively sparkling. Romana makes an excellent companion; she’s intelligent, individual, and strong-minded, and she and the Doctor spend their time engaged in witty, educated banter when they’re not in the middle of a crisis.

Romana: Where are we going?

Doctor: Are you talking philosphically or geographically?

Romana: Philosophically.

Doctor: Then we’re going to lunch. *snickers*

Another example:

Romana: Well at least on Gallifrey we can capture a good likeness. Computers can draw.

Doctor: What? Computer pictures? *appalled* You sit in Paris and talk of computer pictures??

Speaking of pictures, I love the drawing of Romana the Time Lady with the face of a clock. Isn’t that a great idea? So interesting. This is a great story; intelligent, well-written, and not let-down by poor acting or effects. I love it. Duggan is amusing too, the way he’s always knocking someone unconscious when the Doctor’s talking to them and the way the Doctor and Romana are always having to restrain him.

Duggan: You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Romana: *tartly* If you wanted an omelette, I’d expect to find a pile of broken crockery, a cooker in flames and an unconscious chef.

This is also the first Fourth Doctor episode I’ve seen, and I can see why he’s so popular, he’s full of charm, isn’t he?

Doctor: *delighted* I say, what a wonderful butler. He’s so violent. Hello. I’m called the Doctor. That’s Romana. That’s Duggan. You must be the Countess Scarlioni, and this is clearly a delightful Louis Quinze chair. May I sit in it, I say haven’t they worn well? *to menacing ‘butler’* Thank you Herman that will be all.

Am very glad I got this DVD, and to LizBee; well, my avatar say it all, doesn’t it?

For those people wondering about last post’s list, I will perhaps re-type it at a later date; it included me getting bitten (ow), the aggressive boy with the gang, *ahem* relieving himself under the computer desk (were his instincts and pent-up testosterone too much for him? Was he marking his territory? God, I hope not. Once was enough), the adventures of the Terrible Three (R. the Bad, I. the Handful, L. the Naughty), and learnign lots of things I didn’t necessarily want to know. But to just continue the first point I began last time:

• When Twin 1 comes inside he is asked, “do you want to take off your hat?” He stares up, eyes wide and lip trembling, completely aghast at the prospect of being parted from his hat, before bursting into tears.
• Later on a worker is trying to change Twin 1’s pants after he spilled water all over them. Twin 1 bursts into tears. Turning to Twin 2, who is never far from his brother, she askes he he can help Twin 1 take off his pants. Twin two stares in complete horror; he bursts into tears as well, leaving both of them sobbing almost hysterically.

I saw Stardust today, based on the book by Neil Gaiman. It’s a really great movie. I’ve read bits of the book, and while the book is great, I actually think I like it better than the book.  Meanwhile on his blog I have discovered a new word: neep-neep, one who is fascinated by computers (but may or may not have more skill than is necessary to play games) and its related word, neepery. I like that. I can’t really count myself as a computer geek to the same extent that I used to, seeing as I failed IT at uni (I know, I know) so now I can be a neep-neep. It even has a silly, amusing name. How can I not like that? I like lots of strange words, actually. Maybe I should make a list. My Mum used to be an English teacher so she always encouraged me to read and bought me lots of classics as a kid, as well as corrected my grammar constantly (although to be fair, my Dad always has too) and so I’ve always used words like ‘morose’ and  in everyday conversation, and know things like the difference between ‘imply’ and ‘infer.’ (For the record, to try and give you a rough idea, if someone implies something, then you might infer it. They’re more or less opposites.)

I also discovered a specialist bookstore that sells in-print Rex Stout novels, do you know how hard to find those are? My Dad and I are major fans of the Nero Wolfe series. We love the eccentric detective and smart-arse assistant, Archie Goodwin! This has made my day.

Anyway, going now, post again soon. Bye.

Have been busy working lately. Am doing casual work while I am on trial. Have had a tiring day.

Cries of “help! help!” come from a pile of giggling children, and after taking a closer look it becomes apparent that in fact the five children are piled on top of a completely helpless casual daycare worker, barely visible under the pile of small bodies. Eventually she is rescued by other, amused daycare workers.

Note to self, never get into a position where one child can cannon into you and knock you over and other children can take the opportunity to all leap on you.

Yeah. It’s working out well, I guess, I’m hugely enjoying it.

Randome events of the past two weeks:

• When Twin 1 comes inside he is asked, “do you want to take off your hat?”

There was more to this but wordpress was playing up and lost it… I can’t be bothered to write more. :P

1.  If another child tries to take something off you, snatch it back and beam them over the head with it.

2.  If a teacher tries to take something off you, hang your full weight off it while kicking them repeatedly in the shin and continued the tug of war until the quelling older teacher comes over to talk to you as the trial teacher hands back the item to the little girl you took it off and rubs her legs aggrievedly.

3.  If you are uncomfortable, taking off your clothes is a clear option. Run around naked as a trial teacher pursues you holding a pair of underpants saying “Come back here and put some clothes on.”

4.  Decide that this is an excellent game and keep running under the table so that you’re on the opposite side of the table to the teacher.

5.  If a teacher has just mopped the floor, the appropriate action is to repeatedly run through the wet patches smiling gleefully until the teacher sends you all outside.

6.  When a teacher sends you all outside for running through wet patches on the mopped floor, go inside for a drink, decide you aren’t as thirsty as you thought you were and pour your glass of water on the floor.

7.  Collect all your friends so that you can run through it together.

8.  Complain to trial teacher that you’re thirsty like it’s not your fault no one’s allowed back inside now.

9.  Sand is only fun to play in if it’s wet.

10. If you keep getting caught carting buckets of water to the sandpit, try going to the drink fountain, taking a mouthful of water and holding it in your mouth until you can spit it out in the sandpit before the trial teacher can stop you.