Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Although it's fantastically exciting that today is a public holiday, it does bear remembering that it's there for a reason.
Firstly, an ANZAC was a soldier in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I. Over the past 91 years the term ANZAC has - for I am unable to say it any better myself - "bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy" that is a part of our national identity. The actual date of April 25th is commemorated because in 1915 it was the day of the Gallipoli landing, which quite frankly did not work out very well. There were to be 3 waves of troops (25,000 men) making the landing, securing the beach and gaining control of the high ground - which was absolutely essential for the success of the attack. They may have been able to do it too, except that they were landed more than a kilometre north of where they had planned, and the terrain was a nightmare. They landed at jagged, steep cliffs that couldn't be scaled and were ideal for concealing the Turkish snipers. The ANZAC troops lost contact with each other and never reached their objective. For eight months they stayed on in what is now known as Anzac Cove, making little progress, until both sides withdrew from the area.
The Australian War Memorial explains the ANZAC Spirit:
These days ANZAC Day honours all Australians who have died defending our country, and is a day when we should all remember to be thankful for their sacrifice.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Firstly, an ANZAC was a soldier in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I. Over the past 91 years the term ANZAC has - for I am unable to say it any better myself - "bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy" that is a part of our national identity. The actual date of April 25th is commemorated because in 1915 it was the day of the Gallipoli landing, which quite frankly did not work out very well. There were to be 3 waves of troops (25,000 men) making the landing, securing the beach and gaining control of the high ground - which was absolutely essential for the success of the attack. They may have been able to do it too, except that they were landed more than a kilometre north of where they had planned, and the terrain was a nightmare. They landed at jagged, steep cliffs that couldn't be scaled and were ideal for concealing the Turkish snipers. The ANZAC troops lost contact with each other and never reached their objective. For eight months they stayed on in what is now known as Anzac Cove, making little progress, until both sides withdrew from the area.
The Australian War Memorial explains the ANZAC Spirit:
Although there was no military victory, the Australians displayed great courage, endurance, initiative, discipline, and mateship. Such qualities came to be seen
as the ANZAC spirit.
Many saw the ANZAC spirit as having been born of egalitarianism and mutual support. According to the stereotype, the ANZAC rejected unnecessary restrictions, possessed a sardonic sense of humour, was contemptuous of danger, and proved himself the equal of anyone on the battlefield.
Australians still invoke the ANZAC spirit in times of conflict, danger and hardship.
These days ANZAC Day honours all Australians who have died defending our country, and is a day when we should all remember to be thankful for their sacrifice.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
There's this really poxy morning show on Channel 10, called "9am with David and Kim" - and it's every bit as boring as the name suggests. David Reyne is not a smart man. This conversation took place during an interview with a doctor, regarding clinical trials that go wrong:
David Reyne: Some of these guys were given a placebo.
Dr. David Ritchie: Correct
David Reyne: I don’t really understand what a placebo is, but it seems to have, to have saved them! And wouldn’t it make sense that every time a trial like this takes place, that there’s a placebo on hand?
Dr. David Ritchie: A placebo is just an inactive agent! So it’s a...
Kim Watkins: It’s a pretend drug.
Dr. David Ritchie: It’s a pretend drug – it could be sterile saline for example with no active agent in it.
David Reyne: I was thinking it was a cure of some sort.
Dr. David Ritchie: No.
Here's the video.
David Reyne: Some of these guys were given a placebo.
Dr. David Ritchie: Correct
David Reyne: I don’t really understand what a placebo is, but it seems to have, to have saved them! And wouldn’t it make sense that every time a trial like this takes place, that there’s a placebo on hand?
Dr. David Ritchie: A placebo is just an inactive agent! So it’s a...
Kim Watkins: It’s a pretend drug.
Dr. David Ritchie: It’s a pretend drug – it could be sterile saline for example with no active agent in it.
David Reyne: I was thinking it was a cure of some sort.
Dr. David Ritchie: No.
Here's the video.
Monday, April 17, 2006
If you're easily bored I suggest you turn back now. The following is a series of ramblings from my feeble brain:
I had a little epiphany this weekend, about myself and food and the unhealthy relationship between the two. The epiphany is not that I comfort eat, because I would say 9 out of 10 people do that to some degree, but the big realisation was WHY I comfort eat - where that feeling comes from. When I was younger I spent alot of time by myself, and not by choice either. Being from a golfing family I would find myself every Sunday being foisted upon my grandparents to be babysat so that everyone could go off and play golf, which is no biggie really, except that I had nothing to do there and would spend hours alone, making up stupid games and the like. When I got old enough to stay at home by myself, I was no longer sent to the grandparents, and would spend all Sunday for about 12 hours in the house alone and bored. No, this isn't when I would eat.
When my Dad lived with us, things were not so bad because he was at least vaguely aware of my existence, but once he was gone I turned see-through. It was then that my Mum started wanting to go out on Saturday afternoons as well, and my sister was old enough to be out with her friends all weekend, so that just left me. As a bribe each Saturday afternoon my Mum would buy me a CD of my choice, and a big packet of pistachio nuts. To this day I can still demolish half a kilo in one sitting. So, this is when food started to keep me company.
The worst of it was that I would ring my Mum all afternoon and all night to ask her when she would be coming home - the answer was always "soon" (which meant hours, not minutes), with a promise of McDonalds for dinner. So guess what happens next? Suddenly McDonalds is associated - in my mind - with fixing my alone and lonely feelings. Christ, it's like I'm a psychologist or something. As the years went on, I kept using all the take-away foods for this purpose, which of course ended up with me gaining weight and feeling awful. The more weight I gained, the more I isolated myself from situations where I felt self-conscious, and from the people who kept trying to get me to un-isolate myself. So what happens when you isolate yourself like that? You feel alone and lonely, and the cycle continues visciously to the point where you have to join Weight Watchers and you have less self-worth than a piece of toilet paper.
How did I come across this epiphany? Well I had a little micro-breakdown over the weekend because I felt awful and alone, and I knew that I couldn't comfort-eat the way I normally would and still stick to my Weight Watchers plan. How upsetting. Even more upsetting was my eventual realisation that not only could I not eat the food that would make me feel better, but that no food could make me feel better anyway. It's tough to be at the bottom of a hole and see your handy dandy escape ladder being pulled up and out of your reach. I think these ramblings will help me to stop using food for comfort though, so there's that.
We will now resume normal programming.
I had a little epiphany this weekend, about myself and food and the unhealthy relationship between the two. The epiphany is not that I comfort eat, because I would say 9 out of 10 people do that to some degree, but the big realisation was WHY I comfort eat - where that feeling comes from. When I was younger I spent alot of time by myself, and not by choice either. Being from a golfing family I would find myself every Sunday being foisted upon my grandparents to be babysat so that everyone could go off and play golf, which is no biggie really, except that I had nothing to do there and would spend hours alone, making up stupid games and the like. When I got old enough to stay at home by myself, I was no longer sent to the grandparents, and would spend all Sunday for about 12 hours in the house alone and bored. No, this isn't when I would eat.
When my Dad lived with us, things were not so bad because he was at least vaguely aware of my existence, but once he was gone I turned see-through. It was then that my Mum started wanting to go out on Saturday afternoons as well, and my sister was old enough to be out with her friends all weekend, so that just left me. As a bribe each Saturday afternoon my Mum would buy me a CD of my choice, and a big packet of pistachio nuts. To this day I can still demolish half a kilo in one sitting. So, this is when food started to keep me company.
The worst of it was that I would ring my Mum all afternoon and all night to ask her when she would be coming home - the answer was always "soon" (which meant hours, not minutes), with a promise of McDonalds for dinner. So guess what happens next? Suddenly McDonalds is associated - in my mind - with fixing my alone and lonely feelings. Christ, it's like I'm a psychologist or something. As the years went on, I kept using all the take-away foods for this purpose, which of course ended up with me gaining weight and feeling awful. The more weight I gained, the more I isolated myself from situations where I felt self-conscious, and from the people who kept trying to get me to un-isolate myself. So what happens when you isolate yourself like that? You feel alone and lonely, and the cycle continues visciously to the point where you have to join Weight Watchers and you have less self-worth than a piece of toilet paper.
How did I come across this epiphany? Well I had a little micro-breakdown over the weekend because I felt awful and alone, and I knew that I couldn't comfort-eat the way I normally would and still stick to my Weight Watchers plan. How upsetting. Even more upsetting was my eventual realisation that not only could I not eat the food that would make me feel better, but that no food could make me feel better anyway. It's tough to be at the bottom of a hole and see your handy dandy escape ladder being pulled up and out of your reach. I think these ramblings will help me to stop using food for comfort though, so there's that.
We will now resume normal programming.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
In honour of the 4 day Easter weekend, and my generally good mood, I have decided to present you with my new favourite thing.
Germany had David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff.
Australia has embraced 'The Ridge'.
We just love Ronn Moss - he's everything an Aussie should be. He's unpretentious, very funny and such a good sport. I think he's even Rove's most favourite guest ever. And now he's the patron saint of orange juice.
If you care to stroll over to the Vote Ronn website, and wait for the video to load, you'll see Ronn in his Berri fruit juice ad, which cracks me up everytime I see it. It's right up there with the other 2 best ads of all time - the Carlton Draught "it's a big ad, my god it's big" and the Yellow Pages "not happy Jan!".
If you get a kick out of the ad you may also care to take a look at the "Aussie Ronn Generator". I know that's where I'll be spending the rest of my day.
Germany had David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff.
Australia has embraced 'The Ridge'.
We just love Ronn Moss - he's everything an Aussie should be. He's unpretentious, very funny and such a good sport. I think he's even Rove's most favourite guest ever. And now he's the patron saint of orange juice.
If you care to stroll over to the Vote Ronn website, and wait for the video to load, you'll see Ronn in his Berri fruit juice ad, which cracks me up everytime I see it. It's right up there with the other 2 best ads of all time - the Carlton Draught "it's a big ad, my god it's big" and the Yellow Pages "not happy Jan!".
If you get a kick out of the ad you may also care to take a look at the "Aussie Ronn Generator". I know that's where I'll be spending the rest of my day.
Monday, April 10, 2006
I am quite severely sunburnt in my neck crinkles. I sat in the sun-soaked SCG for more than 4 hours without a Tom Skerritt of sunscreen on, and I am now so red I'm almost purple. Everywhere else on me is fine, but it looks like I'm wearing a big red collar, not dissimilar from the kind they put around dogs on occasion. Oh, the pain of sunburn in neck crinkles!
The Biggest Loser has taken a turn for the nasty. In short, I hate Kristie and she is just an awful, awful person. A manipulator, a liar, a cheater and scheming shithead. She'll get hers now Jo is back in the house, though I don't think there's much chance of anyone beating the fuckstick to the cash prize. Adro was a bit of a disappointment tonight when he went back on his promise to Shane not to vote him off - a very Kristie-esque moment. Fiona keeps going on about how she can't believe she has made it this far (!) but I wonder if she realises the only reason she's still there is because she keeps putting on weight and in terms of winning the money she's of no threat to anyone? Wouldn't it be cute if Jillian and Shane were in lurrrrve? Yes.
My good mood is coming and going in stages. Today, for example, I was having what is almost-affectionately known at work as one of my 'Desk Thumpers'. If I'm having a bad day you can hear me hammering away at the keyboard from 2 suburbs over. If I'm having a really shitty day you can hear me thump my desk from Switzerland. My patience has completely dried up these last couple of days - I can't tolerate stupid, whiney customers, I don't have the energy for witch-hunts, and I'm just fucking tired. I'll be using the upcoming 4 day weekend to get some serious running done, and I'm sure I'll feel a million times better. Today there was Irish Cream cheesecake for someone's birthday and because of my Weight Watchers I couldn't have any. I'm not sure if I'm angry that I couldn't try the cake or I'm angry that I let myself get so overweight that I couldn't try the cake.
All in all though, today has been the worst one yet. In general I've been practically enjoying the diet, especially since I discovered that Honey Jumbles are only half a point each. I think I get to Mondays and I am all out of motivation to keep going. My meeting is on Tuesday nights so at least on Tuesday I have something to aim for, but on Monday I just couldn't care less and it's a struggle not to eat every food in the world. I guess that's why they have meetings, so you can resume giving a shit for another 6 days. Not that life is all that hard - tonight I made a low-point Mushroom & Blue Cheese Quiche for dinner. Boo-hoo, right?
The Biggest Loser has taken a turn for the nasty. In short, I hate Kristie and she is just an awful, awful person. A manipulator, a liar, a cheater and scheming shithead. She'll get hers now Jo is back in the house, though I don't think there's much chance of anyone beating the fuckstick to the cash prize. Adro was a bit of a disappointment tonight when he went back on his promise to Shane not to vote him off - a very Kristie-esque moment. Fiona keeps going on about how she can't believe she has made it this far (!) but I wonder if she realises the only reason she's still there is because she keeps putting on weight and in terms of winning the money she's of no threat to anyone? Wouldn't it be cute if Jillian and Shane were in lurrrrve? Yes.
My good mood is coming and going in stages. Today, for example, I was having what is almost-affectionately known at work as one of my 'Desk Thumpers'. If I'm having a bad day you can hear me hammering away at the keyboard from 2 suburbs over. If I'm having a really shitty day you can hear me thump my desk from Switzerland. My patience has completely dried up these last couple of days - I can't tolerate stupid, whiney customers, I don't have the energy for witch-hunts, and I'm just fucking tired. I'll be using the upcoming 4 day weekend to get some serious running done, and I'm sure I'll feel a million times better. Today there was Irish Cream cheesecake for someone's birthday and because of my Weight Watchers I couldn't have any. I'm not sure if I'm angry that I couldn't try the cake or I'm angry that I let myself get so overweight that I couldn't try the cake.
All in all though, today has been the worst one yet. In general I've been practically enjoying the diet, especially since I discovered that Honey Jumbles are only half a point each. I think I get to Mondays and I am all out of motivation to keep going. My meeting is on Tuesday nights so at least on Tuesday I have something to aim for, but on Monday I just couldn't care less and it's a struggle not to eat every food in the world. I guess that's why they have meetings, so you can resume giving a shit for another 6 days. Not that life is all that hard - tonight I made a low-point Mushroom & Blue Cheese Quiche for dinner. Boo-hoo, right?
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Google's latest April Fool's joke - really, really funny.
Well folks, I feel great. I think maybe the exercise I've done this week has produced endorphins that are making me a happy, nice person. It's so weird. I've hardly snapped at anyone, made very few snide remarks, and have actually been generous and maybe even a little friendly. So weird. If a few endorphins are all it takes to keep me feeling this way, then hand me my running shoes!
Other good news is that I've just found out this week that I have paid up my HECS debts! For those not in the know, HECS is like an education credit card - when you want to go to uni you just charge it all to your HECS and then once you start earning over a certain amount of money they garnish your wage to pay it back. So, 6 years after dropping out of uni and not learning anything while I was there, I have paid it off! I feel like doing the Dance of Joy with Cousin Larry.
Well folks, I feel great. I think maybe the exercise I've done this week has produced endorphins that are making me a happy, nice person. It's so weird. I've hardly snapped at anyone, made very few snide remarks, and have actually been generous and maybe even a little friendly. So weird. If a few endorphins are all it takes to keep me feeling this way, then hand me my running shoes!
Other good news is that I've just found out this week that I have paid up my HECS debts! For those not in the know, HECS is like an education credit card - when you want to go to uni you just charge it all to your HECS and then once you start earning over a certain amount of money they garnish your wage to pay it back. So, 6 years after dropping out of uni and not learning anything while I was there, I have paid it off! I feel like doing the Dance of Joy with Cousin Larry.
