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)

Found this image by Starseige, at this link. Immature though it is, it gave me the giggles.

Anyone who has had a conversation with a teenager lately, you have got to watch the filmclip to the song ”Sort Of Dunno Nothin’.” This song is hilarious, and the filmclip just adds to the amusement. It was played on quirky Aussie music quiz show “Spicks & Specks” last night which is where I saw it.

While I was on YouTube, Lil Sis made me look up a video of Keira Knightly playing “Raindrops are Falling on my Head” on her teeth. Amazingly, all the notes are more or less accurate.

Oh, and in a fit of St Trinians love, I made an avatar.

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?

So, I’m going to a pop-culture convention in about a week. I have a costume question for you all. Bearing in mind that I am five feet nine inches tall, have brownish hair with blonde streaks I am growing out, should I go dressed as:

A) Lucy Saxon from Doctor Who, for which I have a moderately-similar costume ; or

B) a generic St Trinian’s schoolgirl from the new St Trinian’s movie, for which I can get a more or less accurate costume.

What do you guys think?

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.

My little guinea pig died today. We had to have her put down. She’s been a little listless for a couple of weeks, and suddenly she became quite skinny and stopped eating. So we took her to the vet this morning. Diabetes, the vet said. She could smell the ketones on her breath easily. Even if you could treat guieapigs for diabetes, which is almost impossible, it would have been too late with Kitt anyway. The vet asked if Kitt had always been this small, and I said yes, not so thin, but always my tiny pig, and the vet noted that she had probably had diabetes a long time and that was why she never reached normal adult size.

She was such a wonderful piggie, you know. When I first saw her, she was a tiny moving rug with an eager, friendly little face. Dad called her Ruglet because of all her fur. I named her Kitt, after a fanfiction author I adored at the time, when I was sixteen. Whenever I went past the pig cage she’d run out and look up at me, hoping for treats or pats, always so happy to see me. 

Last night I let her sit on my lap for a long time. She moved close to my arm and rested her head on my arm and just lay there peacefully as I stroked her and tried to convince her to eat. Lil Sis took photos for me.

This morning the vet said, I could have her put down or let her die naturally… she was starving herself to death. Could anyone submit their pet to such a terrible death as painful, ill starvation? So I stroked her and talked to her, holding her gently all the way home, singing to her until she died. Then I cried. We will bury her when Lil Sis gets home from school.

I will miss her, and love her very much. That’s all I can say, really.

All of yous pray for my guineapig, please. Small pig is very sick. Going to the vet tomorrow.