The Purple Dragon Blog

Are you sick of hearing that political catchphrase, ‘working families’, everywhere you go? Does it irritate the eejits out of you to hear how the government is helping ‘working families’ (as opposed to lazy, bludging families? working single people? pensioners? couples? what?) every time you turn on the radio or the news. Then the Purple Dragon ‘Working Families’ Drinking Game  is for you!

‘Working Families’ drinking game*

This is a good way to make watching the news much more interesting.

Rules:

1.  Grab the alcoholic beverage of your choice. It’s more fun with friends, but you can play it singly if you’re lonely and unpopular. Alcohol loves you just the same.

2.  Switch the tv onto a news channel. If you’re on free-to-air tv, the ABC news is a good pick; it’s nice and long, and it has a varied, more thoughtful look at current events than other channels, which gives you more opportunities to play the game.

3.  Every time one of Kevin Rudd’s people mentions ‘working families’, have a drink.

4.  Every time some one from another political party** mentions ‘working families,’ have another drink.

5.  If a more or less neutral group** refers to ‘working families,’ have two.

6.  If the man himself, the honorable Keven Rudd, mentions ‘working families,’ yell ”BANZAI! “*** and have three drinks in quick succession, as fast as possible!

By the time you’re finished you will be completely sloshed, and feeling much more charitable towards this annoying catchphrase. The best part is, the rules can be adjusted at a whim and new ones can be added by players to make the experience more interesting. So have a go at the Purple Dragon ‘Working Families’ drinking game today!

*This will probably make no sense whatsoever unless you are familiar with Australian PM Kevin Rudd and his political policies.

**They do this surprisingly often. I don’t think they like this phrase, either.

***The Japanese equivelent of “Bingo.” It is pronounced sort of like ‘barn-z-eye!’ and is much more fun to yell than ”bingo” is.

Written, like, a couple of weeks back now…

I was really annoyed yesterday. Ever since Ocean Girl was released on DVD I’ve been waiting for Cybergirl to come out, since it was the next moderately big tv show produced by that group.  (You know how obsessed I am with Doctor Who? Imagine a thirteen year old girl even more obsessed than that, but with Cybergirl. Imagine her googling Cybergirl images, humming the theme song, planting her butt down in front of the tv every day and squealing and watching raptly and driving her best friend bonkers…)  Anyways, I finally found a copy yesterday… for $53!?! I was so mad. Will now wait and see if it turns up cheaper anywhere else. I did, however, get hold of a book of St Trinians cartoons, which are very black and quite funny. Anyway, I did a search today and found that not only is Cybergirl available on DVD now, but so is another childhood-obsession show  (this time take a small, eight year old girl with oversized glasses and unfortunately violent tendencies…): The Secret World of Alex Mack!  I watched that show for years. So I’m going to be searching local DVD stores for those now.

(And does anyone know, why is wordpress’s editing format all different now? I says it is full of fail.)

(And did I mention, the snooty twins Emerald and Sapphire in Cybergirl are, in fact, young Veronicas?)

Ten Favorite Blog Posts

I’ve been hanging around in the blog community for a few years now, and during that time I’ve found some posts worth sharing. Here are some of them. Some of Anne Arkham’s would have made this list, but sadly, her blog is gone. *mourn* So, in no particular order:

1.  The TCA Guide to DIY Chemical Weaponry. Or: how to make your own pepper spray. By Reverend Anaglyph at ‘Tetherd Cow Ahead’.

2.  Bookish. The coolest bookstore in Sydney. One day I will visit. From ‘TCA.’

3.  The Raven.  Look! Images from an 1884 edition of Poe’s The Raven! From ‘TCA’ again.

4. Sgt Generic Part Two. Filed, by the author’s own admission, under ‘Skippy is going to hell.’ By Skippy of ‘Skippy’s List’.

5. Cephalpod Surprise. I’m sure it was. And I’m so glad I don’t work with Skippy. From ’Skippy’s List’.

6. Rocket Stumps. Originally published as a blog entry. A short story. By Cheeseburger Brown.

7. The Ladies’ Auxiliary. A short Doctor Who fic by LizBee. From ‘You’re a very beautiful woman, probably…’

8. Adventures in OldSchool: the Deadly Assassin.  A look at the Doctor Who serial The Deadly Assassin in a quirky, amusing style. A particular (somewhat disturbing) focus on Tom Baker’s semi-transparent shirt… From ‘You’re a very beautiful woman, probably…’ by LizBee.

9. Jurassic Pigeon at the Creation Museum! Exactly what an Archaeopteryx is and why that abomination model at the creation museum does not qualify as one. One for the dinosaur fans. If I were an arsonist, that model would be gone by now. Article by Duae Quartunciae, who blogs particularly intelligent pieces on ’science, mathematics and unbelief.’

10. Now at number 3 on the Gallifreyan Billboard charts! I won’t explain this. Just take a look, Doctor Who peeps. At the comments, as well. By LizBee, of course.

Could you write the story of your life in just six words? That’s what participants in SMITH magazine’s six-word memoirs project did. The result is a book filled with six-word stories by famous and obscure writers. Some of my particular favorites are:

I like girls. Girls like boys.  (Andrea Dela Cruz)

 

My life’s a bunch of almosts.  (Shari Bonnin)

 

Just in: boyfriend’s gay. Merry Christmas.  (Seshie Hargett)

 

Born bald. Grew hair. Bald again.  (A.J. Jacobs)

 

Surname rhymes with profanity. Childhood torture.  (Noah Smit)

 

But all of them are funny or poignant and some so succinct that you can see a life’s worth of events and emotions behind them. Did I contribute? Of course. And I invite everyone who reads this to have a go!

Sorted life, met world, completely lost.  (Purple Dragon)

Since I’m no longer at the childcare centre I’ve been looking for work elseware, and I have an interview with a moderately posh dept. stoe next week. So I’ve been out buying professional clothes and presentable shoes, and I’m exhausted and rather short of money. Sadly my hair is blonde again, because having grown it out a little, it was brownish to sort of just above my ears but suddenly blonde the rest of the way.  While I liked my natural, unstreaked hair color, the brown->blonde looked really ratty and unprofessional. So yesterday I got it cut and streaked again. I’m all grumpy about it, because I looked prettily pale with darkish hair, but the blonde hair next to my face gives a yellow tinge to my skin. I feel like Rose, all pink and yellow, dammit.

I’ve got my Supanova costume together, yay: it’s the St Trinians one. All I need to do now is decide, do  want to enter the cosplay singing the St Trinians song, or would that just be lame?

I’d like to thank the world for the large round of indifference regarding Kitt’s death.  Somehow  the fact that she was ‘only’ a guineapig makes people seem to think this invalidates my love for her and the deep pain I feel now she’s gone. Yes, she was a guineapig, but I loved her all the same, she was as much my family as anyone else. How can you put a value on love? Who is to say a guineapig is less deserving of love than humans? For that matter, who’s to say she wasn’t more deserving than a lot of people? My guineapig was loving and gentle and innocent and never hurt my feelings, did cruel things or behaved badly. From that perpective she’s better than a lot of people. Why shouldn’t I grieve her, she was important to me and I built part of my life around her and I loved her. Every time I walk past the pig cage it hurts to not see her little face looking up at me hoping for my attention. It’s like a gnawing hole in my chest. What I’d really like is to hit somebody, it makes me feel so angry that I couldn’t protect her from this.

Tagged by SarcasticFox

Rules of the game:
*Choose a signer/band/group.
*Answer using ONLY titles of songs.
*Tag 6 more people (don’t forget to let them know they’ve been tagged)

Choice:

1) Are you male or female?

I’m Just a Girl

2) Describe yourself:

Happy Shiny People

3) What do people feel when they’re around you?

Maniac

4) How would you describe your previous relationship?

Crash and Burn

5) Describe your current relationship:

No One

6) Where would you want to be now?

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

7) How do you feel about love?

At the Beginning With You

8) What’s your life like?

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

9) What would you ask for if you had only one wish?

Holding Out for a Hero

10) Say something wise:

 Don’t Talk to Strangers

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.

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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…

*Lil Sis walks into family room, to find Dragon standing in front of guinea pig’s cage, humming a tune*

Dragon: To the left *steps left*

*guinea pig steps sideways in same direction*

Dragon: -to the right! *steps to the right*

*guinea pig steps sidesways in same direction* 

Dragon: Left! *both step left in unison* Right! *both step right in unison* Da da da da…

Lil Sis: What the hell?!

Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention: Lil Sis spotted Lisa from the Veronicas on a date with Dean Geyer at a restaurant in the Mall. Can you believe that??? One of the Veronicas??? And I wasn’t there!????

Bah.

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?

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*   “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)