July 2009 Archives

So, here I am once again launched into the first week of the semester. 

The break was wonderful and a glimpse of what life could look like when this is all over...  I've held up well under the pressure of assignments and essays and my marks, while not as high as I might have hoped were nonetheless respectable in that I scored 3 credits (69, 73 and 74) and a distinction (83).
 
Satisfactory indeed.

I had a very clear idea before I started this semester of the classes I was taking and the timetable looked as though it would work well, Tuesdays from 3-7 and then Wednesdays from 5-9. Wednesday has turned into a huge day as I was offered 4 hours teaching (and not concurrent; with a 3 hour break in between) and I leapt at that before I'd actually finalised the uni timetable.  But an hour to get from one side of town after teaching to the other for the learning was workable and while a huge day in the middle of the week may not be ideal the class is for 8 weeks and I'm already 2 weeks down on that...

Clearly, my inherent inclination toward biting off more than I can chew is still intact...

In any case, the subject dealing with Flash animation which I took last term (remember the bunnies?) didn't look like it was going to work into my schedule and so I'd dropped it in favour of a Linguistics Paper, Electronic Discourse.  I was sad to lose Flash, but based on the course outline for ED thought it a good option, and as the teaching I'm doing is Flash related I decided I could continue teaching myself...

So, the week begins,  Monday with the night school singing class I've been teaching, on Tuesday I rock up to the appropriate classes and after 2 hours of 'Computers as Culture' I was excited again to be back in class.  However, after about an hour of Electronic Discourse immediately following that I think my brain short circuited... 

Discourse analysis... having had little idea of what it meant or was about prior to this fateful hour I am now  in possession of more knowledge than I ever though I'd have need.

Consequently today was a day of administration and rearrangment of timetable and classes in order to re-enroll in the multi-media class.

So, here I am, sitting once again in the library at Sydney College of Art waiting for time to pass enough to go up to class... I figure it's better used time to be here early than to be sitting in 5pm traffic to get here... and you win... you got a blog post out of it...

But the pay off is that I'm now in class 3 days a week instead of two... and once again it's the singing class that has to give.  Just as well I'm singing in church on Sunday so I can get a fix that way...

14 weeks... I love this studying lark, don't get me wrong, but today it's 14 weeks and counting till I can have my life back.

Canberra, the nation's capital seems to have a bit of a bad rep as the bottom drawer of holiday destinations.  I understand this, I mean, it ain't exactly the Gold Coast of beaches and bodies in the sub tropics.  But Canberra has its charms.  I mean it, it really does!!

My mate Coldie has come into possession of a new VW Golf. It is a sweeeeet ride, and she wanted to take it for a 'run' so we decided we'd go for a mini-break out of Sydney.  Canberra's a choice because it's far enough out of town to not feel like Sydney and close enough that you can do it for a day if you REALLY want to...  We opted for an overnighter and as we were sharing expenses we went out on a limb and booked a room here.

[image by superciliousness via flickr]


This art deco styled hotel is the premier hotel in Canberra, and didn't we feel flash rocking up in the Golf (and me, ever the classy chick.  with my Gap backpack rather than the overnight case as it had been lent out and not returned... *bangs head*).

There are so many things to see and do in Canberra, and as I'm supposed to be working right now rather than blogging, here's a brief precis of what we got up to.

The National Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery and the exhibition of Vanity Fair photos.  Loved it!
Dinner at the Hyatt, not brilliant, as restaurant/cafe was booked out and they only have one!! Bizarre.
Movies - Coco Avant Chanel.  Seems I'm getting quite a fill of French cinema lately, Coco, Hunting and Gathering, The Chorus are all recent watches and I loved them all!
Sleeping in the delicious beds. There are few pleasures I love more than clean sheets.  Bliss.
Having room service for breakfast. Cost a bomb but all part of the experience!!
The Film and Sound Archive
The National Museum of Australia


The National Museum is a day's worth of a visit. I could have spent so much longer there than we did but by the end of the weekend were were feeling a fair bit of information overload.

But for all those people who roll their eyes when you say you're going to Canberra, give them a slap from me... it may not be the ideal destination for a splashy, exotic holiday, however, it is a great place to visit and the fact that all these museums are provided by the people for the people (the only exhibit we paid to see was Vanity Fair) and as they're all done so well it really is worth the trip.

Next time I really need to get in a visit to Parliament as I've been to Canberra many times and haven't managed to get there... usually because I'm on a time budget and I want to give it full attention!

Of course it has its limitations... coffee was one, pajamas the other... As I have done when visiting Canberra before I left my sleep wear at home... So, had to do a mad late Sat PM trip to the shops to find some... and do you think we could find a thing at Myer or David Jones???  Seemed like it was mid season or something because even to find a cheap pair of flannelette pajamas for a comfortably upholstered individual was impossible.    I ended up with a delightful (and expensive) silk nightie because I couldn't find anything else before the shops closed.  Turns out it was a big 'sale day' and all the good stuff had been put out the back so the retailers didn't have to discount 'everything in store'... How rude!!  Still, a silk nightie seemed appropriate for the Hyatt Canberra so I'm not complaining!!

In the next little while I'll update my Nextstop Page with Canberra recommendations.

Have you got places you love to go that make other people raise their eyebrows??  Spill in the comments so we can all have a shot at trying them out!!

five years on this blog
the best part of the journey
are the friends I've met

And ran out of steam.

It was a great day.

I sang in church for the first time in years. In A.Lot.Of.Years.  It wasn't my usual church (see post below).

It was good.  It felt good.  I'm still not sure what to make of this change.  But I'm sure it will work itself out in the end.

I dreamed about my choir this morning, a huge choir that opened its gorgeous [collective] mouth (as it were) to sing and then my alarm woke me up. I'm still feeling ripped off they looked as though they would have sounded AMAZING.

I sang in church, did I mention that?

Yeah, still trying to figure out how I feel about that...

I watched 'Glee' on TV.  Those channel 10 bastards for teasing us with the show that doesn't kick off here until September... hey, Channel 10, haven't you heard of Ninja Video?  Pah.. take THAT.  In any case, I loved it, and would class it as High School Musical for Grown ups. And I've never actually seen HSM.  Anyway, any singing thing would be cool with me right now that I have my singing mojo back... oh, any singing thing except Idol... refusing to get caught in that trap for another season.

Anyway, I seem to have picked up steam again... it's just not about the church thing.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Originally Published at the wiblog (old blog) on June 28th.

You've likely heard that hymn, right?

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus' Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking.

I'm thinking about it today because there has been some growing upheaval in my world and I'm trying to negotiate it all. It isn't that my faith is being tested really, which is why this hymn's appropriate, my solid rock is firm, it's just that, unfortunately the sweetest frame of my church and church leaders has had my trust in it rather badly dented and, quite frankly, it has me quietly withdrawing from much that goes on there, and even occasionally going elsewhere to worship.

Can you imagine the internal conflict that goes with that? It challenges all sorts of beliefs and paradigms I've had be those before coming to Sydney or after, and while I'm not in any way dragging down the church as a whole, or even really the genuine intentions of the leadership, but it has become increasingly challenging for me to have knowledge of what goes on behind closed doors which causes me to lose my trust in that which I hear from the pulpit. (Now, as I'm aware that there are those of you who actually know the congregation of which I speak, I want to categorically state that I'm in no way making accusation of any kind of scandalous impropriety in any of the leaders etc.)

In broad strokes, the area in which I'm finding the most conflict is this. We are an apostolic church with a vision to influence the city we're in (and by extension the world) for Christ. We want for people to see the great change in their personal worlds, to give them the opportunity to meet Christ and find his plan/path/vision for their life and to see their lives radically changed with the peace, love, and hope that comes with faith in God. Sounds good, right?

They're all noble goals, to be sure, and I believe them to be good and great and possible but I'm getting increasingly wary of following a massive vision handed down by a leader and the posse of people gathered up behind him. I'm cautious about only hearing the voice of Christ through one man's vision, I'm questioning the ethos behind the vision becoming more important than the people who are passionate about bringing it about and who've given time, energy, money and in some cases their lives, to the service of God through that vision only to be discarded when the vision became about the next generation.

We're undergoing change, we're a huge ship being steered into a new course, a new younger, hipper, course and in that process a whole bunch of sterling individuals have found themselves surplus to requirement. The means for effecting this change has been, to put it baldly, pitifully managed. It seems to me that I'm seeing a culture develop where people are disposable and when I'm hearing things to cover those injustices, that sound like "it's not comfortable, but I believe that "Ps _____" hears from God so we'll go with it" I get all KINDS of itchy. Yes, I'm sure he hears from God, but I do too. So do you, but to put one's head up above the parapet to voice any contrary thought or idea is to have the leadership lose faith in you and to fall out of favour and to find yourself leaving the in-crowd for the fringe.

I love the leaders here, I have been loved by the leaders here but I fear that love to be conditional upon my wholehearted support of where we're going and how we get there and I cannot give it.

And this breaks my heart.

Original Recipe sourced here

In these days of recession, from time to time you may be invited somewhere with an instruction to 'bring a plate' (which, of course, means bring a plate with something on it to share for dinner... rather than bring a piece of crockery from which to partake of your meal...).

If you're anything like me, you may be a little bit hopeful that one of the other participants may bring that bastion of pot luck dinners... the humble scalloped potato.  It's great cheap food and a little of it goes a looong way!!! And ooh, goodness, doesn't it taste goooood!

It was my turn to take these babies to dinner last night and in order not to break the belts of everyone there with the usual cream or cream soup based dish I found a recipe that calls for a much less calorie rich ingredient list.. (and so I added the things (like bacon and cheese) you wouldn't add if you were calorie minded and were basing the whole thing in cream.

My Dad's older sister sent me these a while back and they're too good not to share.  They're pix from the family album featuring my Dad at the gorgeous Mangawhai (Mung-a-fie as in pie) Heads where my grandparents co-owned a bach with Grandma's sister and their family.

How's the first one, do you get the impression that the kid in the background is a little jealous of my father's good catch?

This is the first outing for the family boat.  I need to find out its history because, of what I know of my Grandfather I'd be very surprised if he didn't make this.  My Dad too is handy with wood-working tools, as is my brother, and Dad has made canoes and dinghys in his time.  If I'm not mistaken that's my Grandma sitting up front.  Can't tell if it's Dad in the back... if so it's a picture taken much later than the one above.

Here he is again loving the surf.  Age?  Maybe 10?  If that's the case then the year is 1955.

Happy Blogiversary to me.  Today Singular Scene turns 5. 

I shall blog more on the significance of turning 5 once you've got over the Worthless Drivel that is the previous entry re. the Kettle.

So, at the beginning of the week I blog about Blog Mojo and by the end I'm cooking up posts like it's no tomorrow. Bizarre...

The power went off at my place today.  One minute I'm typing away on the old Mac and I observe that the battery icon is lit rather than the power one.  Of course, I spend a few minutes cursing the power adapter, it's the new one, until I realise that I've actually got no internet access... I get up to check the rest of the house and sure enough, the circuit breaker is tripped and while the lights are on, the power points are all out of action.  No hot water (yeah, it's dodgy and is plugged into the normal power supply), no fridge, no Internet.  AAAARRRRRGH No Internet.

Good air in, Bad air out.

I go upstairs to the circuit board to untrip it.

It trips again.

Hmm... something's screwing with my power... I call the property manager. Leave a message, but decide I can do without a sparky and go looking for the culprit.

I unplug everything but one lamp.

Trip the switch.

Back down the stairs to my place, because you know these circuit breakers are never within easy reach, they're outside on the side of the house and would really be better managed if one had an other half to test all the appliances while I man the switch and turn it back on when necessary.

OK. the lamp's still on. Good start. I figured I'd turn everything on one, by one until the light goes off...

Hot water on. Lamp still on... WIN.
Fridge on...
Kettle on - Lamp FAIL.

Ok. Kettle is plugged into a 4point board so I unplug the board and the kettle, observing, not for the first time that both units are a little the worse for wear to the tune of a fair amount of Kitten Chewing.  Not Lulu, you understand, my well behaved princess (Ed. *snort*)  but Chino her much younger and more boisterous predecessor.

So it's clearly time to replace both the board and the kettle.  Something I've been putting off, because, well, I'm cheap.  It also seemed sensible to go get a new power board lest I have to show all my electrical arrangements to a sparky who would probably have apoplexy... I live in a small house with.. . hang on... a grand total of 4 double outlets in the kitchen/living/dining/office area and 1 single outlet in the bedroom.

To plug in the myriad of appliances I'm running I have to rock 4x6point power-boards and 1x4point boards and even then there is usually some juggling.

So I hit the store and discover that the Kettle of Choice is $75.  And this is for a teeny tiny 1litre kettle.  Yikes...

So I went looking for a kettle cord to replace the cord as the kettle I have, ugly though it is, is still functional, and guess what. Nobody stocks them.

A pox on our consumeristic society.  So, roll on Sunday when I'll have an extra shift's worth of cash with which to buy the new kettle.

Our Blootiful Pincess turned 3 in May, and so she, her mother, and I went out for a special treat this evening.

It was her mother's idea, an excursion while her bigger brothers and their Dad went to the movies, and we went to that chocolate lover's decadent paradise... Max Brenner's.  This was a production effort on the little lady's part... and it started with a pretty dress, tights and patent black shoes.  Hair up in pigtails and a little bit of make up (did I mention she's 3?? - lipgloss is makeup in her book).

Mummy was under strict instruction to dress in a 'girt' as well.  So the pair of them arrived at my place for dinner before hand looking very fetching leaving me in my jeans feeling far from festive enough (remedied before we left the house).  I wish I could remember every funny thing she says, because, as you'll imagine from the photo, this kid is chock full of personality and she is never short of a word!!

Once dinner was eaten and tidied away I was escorted to my room in search of my 'girt' (thank goodness I own one... I rarely wear it) and suitably attired we drove down to Manly to get chocolately...

On the way there the little miss entertained us with made songs... which started with "up, up, up, down, down, down" in response to the terrain we were driving and finished with a poo song of some sort which was hilarious.  You can tell she has older brothers...

We got to Max's and ordered, a Mexican hot chocolate to drink, for me and a Belgian waffle smothered in melty milk chcolate and she and her Mum feasted on a fondue for two with all sorts of goodies which was accompanied by a mint hot chocolate... All of the tasty offerings were a hit for one and all and Miss 3 was a hit with the wait staff and fellow diners, she's so cute you can't help but be amused.  Check out the pix below the fold, you'll see what I mean!

There's been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about the decline of blogging and Twitter gets the blame, I have to say, I've found this to be partly true. I twitter daily, sometimes more than once and I'm not terribly happy about the effect it's had on my blog. I'm rather fond of this forum and the record it has kept for me of my life the last 5 years (I think I'm close to that anniversary) Crumbs...

I think of the changes wrought in my world, the early blog on the Wibsite, the move to self hosted Movable Type... why did I even do that? I can scarcely tell you but I've been faithful to that platform ever since, becoming proficient enough to the point of helping other Movable Typists as well.

I've documented monument and trivia and I'd be very disappointed with myself not to continue doing the same.  I'd be kidding myself if I thought I had an audience of more than twenty, nor that there'd be much hew and cry if I did quietly wind things down (more than I have done) but I've stopped listening to those voices, as others have said before me, the blog's for me, not the audience.  Like I really have anything important to say, I mean, really... (and no I'm not fishing, merely stating the obvious).

So I've been wondering about the down turn in my blogging. I could also blame the weight of university study, I could even blog more about that but I doubt there's much that many would find interesting... eg.  "oooh, we talked about internet governance today and what sort of issues there are surrounding the management of TLDS, CCTLDS and whether ICANN can resist a push to be more democratically managed...

See? I saw you glaze over... truth is, I do too... not best practice while you're sitting in class...

I could blame the fact that I'm not working for anyone but myself and I'm not getting out much due to financial constraints or... and the list goes on.  I was thinking about the work thing, and I never blogged about that before and there's even less scandal when I'm working for myself so where did all my blog fodder go!!! 

I could get all introspective about where my life is going, the struggles I'm having with church and the quiet path I seem to be beating to a different congregation... but that's a bit personal, I could get into the internet dating scene again and try that on... but I don't see that sitting comfortably either...

So I'm wondering what to do apart from sprucing it up, I do love when the design says more about me, and I'm missing retro girl...

I'm also considering a retrospective publishing of my Epic American/British and European Journeys with my sister from the early 90's complete with scanned photos from that undertaking and scans of the badges collected along the way. I actually am keen to get some of that stuff published for my own interest and to that end I have transcribed one journal so I'm on the way.... the photo scanning thing... that's a mammoth task I think..

I'm wondering if I need to plan a programme of blogging...  Say 3 posts a week... themed...

Photo of the Week...
Recipe of the Week...
Travel story of the Week...

Over to you... any ideas?