The Ramblings of my Disorganised Mind

Way to flyyyyyyyyyyy!

The Saints took out Brisbane by 139 points.

That is all.

:-D

posted by Heather @ 7:44 am 0 comments

It's next week

and I completely missed it.

Oooooohhhhhhh....................

Pother.

posted by Heather @ 11:08 pm 0 comments

Kids update

For the momma and the papa (mine, that is). :-)

#1 - has strep throat, also, a day behind me... I got past the "acute" stage last night (can now swallow without going... whimper). So is home for this week. Otherwise, he's, well, very tall, dad. Big feet... bigger than yours now. School improving.

# 2 - very popular with the girls right now. Apparently causing no trouble at all at school. Still writing.

# 3 - is now in 2 cricket teams, club & school. School trains on Tuesday, plays on Fridays. Club trains either on Wed or Thur (don't know yet) and will play Saturdays. I am a little concerned re burnout but he tells me he could play cricket every day of his life... the school has a B team (grade 5s and less-good grade 6s) and an A team (Grade 7s and talented Grade 6s). Alex (year 6) had to go to tryouts and made it into the A team. Yay. :-)

# 4 - passed her audition for the Australian Youth Choir and is therefore in the probabtionary choir, level 1, next year. Yay. :-) Setup verrrry different from the WVYC.

# 5 - would probably be happier with a different teacher - imo, there's nothing wrong with her, but he's developed an issue. He apparently "can't" read when she's around, although he has no trouble when reading to his sister, me or the replacement teacher he had for the first 5 weeks of term. Other than that, still loud. Some of it is also confusing teaching practice, though -- eg, they teach the sounds for l, i (short sound only, as in "his") and k - then expect them to "sight read" by rote the word "like" -- and he says "lick" every time. Why on earth they don't just teach both vowels sounds at the same time and then the rule for the silent e I will never know. It's not hard to learn, or teach; all my other kids got it when I taught it to them at 5. He's having some problem accepting that because it's not the "same" as he gets at school. Bring back true phonics, look-say is an already proven-to-be-failed experiment, for pity's sake.

# 6 - poor kid came down with what I have last night, although it seems to have hit him a little more gently. I hope it stays that way. He says his throat isn't too sore today. he's still running around, so it can't be too bad. :-)

Will phone when voice doesn't hurt. :-D

posted by Heather @ 7:36 am 1 comments

Just when you thought

it was safe to say "No, I'm over all the lurgies, thanks." another one pops by.

The good news is, I can't talk because of this one. ;-)

Edit: found out I have a rather nasty case of strep throat. Hoi. I'd yell "Why me?" at the universe, but a) I'm not really that sort of person, and b) it hurts too much to whisper, let alone yell... ;-) So, I guess, I'll just roll my eyes and think, "Oh, no, not again," all petunia-like.

(Sorry, random HHGTTG reference there). :-D

posted by Heather @ 6:57 am 5 comments

Still not next week?

Damn! :-P

posted by Heather @ 7:15 pm 2 comments

It's not next week yet.

Right?

Sorry, in joke. :-D

posted by Heather @ 9:54 am 0 comments

But onto more important things

Listening to: Bachelor Girl waiting for the day.

Busy weekend.

Apart from the usual, you know: making sure the kids don't have to attend school in their underwear sans actual food on Monday, that is.

Mum drove down on Friday for the bairn's birthday, which was great. Wet and COLD though. I was going to make yet another disparaging comment about global warming but I'm sure some doomsayer will pop up a spurious bit of science that tells me this is all a part of it and we're doomed to go to desert in a handbasket, so forget I said anything. :-P The bairn is now 4 (hereafter on this blog, known as either "#6" or "Master 4", just to clear up any confusion that any random individual may have).
;-)

Saturday, I drove up to the Sunshine Coast, the old stomping ground, to drop Master 6 (or #5 hehe) off to a birthday party. He stayed up there for a sleepover. He tells me he didn't get much sleep Saturday night, go figure, huh. Then my daughter (who was with me, obviously) and I went and did a beading/jewellery making class together -- it's been a while, given the child care arrangements and the number of brothers she has, since we've had "girl time" so I thought, while we had the opportunity... anyhows, she made a necklace and I did some earrings for that evening. There was some lunch in there, too, iirc (the driving was 4 hours all up).

Trevor had a birthday party Saturday night, which was fun. I thought I'd try a drink which was a special of the house, so to speak. I misread the description, though, thinking it was like one of those vodka mudslides you can get. But no, when they said "chocolate", they meant "flavour", not the real thing, so I had a martini glass of almost pure chocolate, white chocolate and walnut-flavoured vodka. Smelled lovely. Tasted very nice. And given I'm not a heavy drinker (especially of the harder stuff, I'm a cider--or occasional Bailey's--girl, usually), it made me verrrry comfortable.

'Twas nice catching up with Trevor's mum and brother, and Grace and Lynda, as well, who I hadn't seen in a while. Food was good, although the servings were of the size that made you feel the need for McDonald's afterwards (which is saying a lot, because I mostly can't stand McYuck's even if I am forced to eat it from time to time).

I managed to squeeze in a trim somewhere there, too.

Sunday (after a morning spent with the washing and Angel episodes) I had a very leisurely lunch with a newish Vision-ary, Shaun, which was very nice (in the true sense of "nice", not that bland "nice" you use because you can't come up with any other suitable adjective). Shaun has some terrific ideas, novel-wise, look forward to seeing the result. Went home and worked on my novel(s) for a bit, been a while since I've done that, so thanks Shaun! (if you read this). :-)

Most importantly, though, well.... The Saints had their seventh consecutive win against the Roos, putting us in a niiiice position for next week's game against Freo. Mind you, that will be at Subiaco and the Saints never travel well, but we'll see. Hamill wasn't injured, so at least no one can accuse me of jinxing the boy. :-P Brisbane had more injuries this w/e, too, so it was good news all round. ;-) And, hey Grant Thomas was satisfied with the win, too: there's somethign new and different hehe.

Puts us third on the ladder, ahead of Syney Swans (who booted Brisbane down a rung, woo hoo!) on percentage. Freo's game should be interesting: they're at number 8 right now and MUST win. In our case, the best we can do is third, a good place to be if we can stay there.

In Rugby, Parramatta absolutely THRASHED Canterbury Bulldogs on Friday night too; the worst beating Canterbury has had since they joined the comp. Allow me to gloat for a second. Ha. Right, done now.

I think we narrowly avoided the follow-on in cricket, too, not that I really care though (that was 'specially for Uni :-P)

posted by Heather @ 8:33 am 0 comments

Head's Up

Since it's been happening a lot lately, I'm going to say this:

Unsigned, anonymous spam comments will be automatically deleted. I will not visit your site. I am not interested in laser eye surgery or travelling to Mauritius in a leaky boat, no matter how cheap the rates. And no, I don't really want to enlarge my male member, given that I'm female and all. And given that I've just recently cleared all debt, I'm not really keen to go into more, so no credit card offers, either.

You will not get even click-through revenue from me. Don't even bother.

However, if you're new to the site and want to remain anonymous, no issue here. Welcome to comment. Just don't try to sell me anything. I'm not in a position to buy.

If I need or want your product, I will google for it. Go peddle somewhere else.

It's nothing personal. I have a "no junk mail" sign on my snail mail box, too.

Deleted spam on this post alone so far: 7

Hoi. This post wasn't a dare, you know. Sheesh.

posted by Heather @ 11:07 pm 0 comments

What sort of novel should you write?

Got this one from Jen's blog. Thought I'd take it because I'm confused.


FANTASY! - Mystical, magical mayhem! You feel the
urge to write of fantastic worlds that never
were and the beings that might live there. Are
they Lands of Wonder or adventures of Magical
Folly? JRR Tolkien and Tanith Lee are your
guides.


What Kind of Novel Should I Write?
brought to you by Quizilla

OK, maybe not as confused as I thought.

posted by Heather @ 5:22 pm 2 comments

Happy Birthday...s

to my youngest bairn and to Trevor!!! Pressies... woohoo!

And it's cold.... half of SE Australia is snowed under and I'm considering a jumper, even up here. So much for global warming. Huh. :-)

Now I shall go and huddle around the oven while the cake is baking.

Oh, and I've signed the paperwork. Yay.

posted by Heather @ 8:35 am 0 comments

What happens if

you try to type your name with your elbows?

I get:

hdeazStrnhjerr

Post your results. :-D

posted by Heather @ 9:46 am 6 comments

It's been a while since we've done a meme

so here's one I stole from Stu.

Also because it's been a while since I've stolen anything from Stu and my whole nemesis brain is out of practice.

It's google. Basically, google "[your name] is..." and post your ten favourites.

Mostly boring.

- Heather is a short hairless undershrub
- Heather is the one with the muscles Yeah, see, ma, I'm big-boned, not fat...
- Currently, Heather is learning to communicate her feelings and direct her anger and/or jealousy to positive outlets. hehehe. Evil grin
- heather is believed to bring good luck to those who possess it define "possess"... um. Are we talking The Exorcist here?
- Heather is pregnant, read all about it. Yeah, right, so what else is new?
:-P
- Heather is the type of seductive Scottish historical that will definitely please lovers Um. Let me rephrase that.
- heather is said to be stained with the blood of clan wars
- Heather is the gateway between the inner world and the outer one. Wowsers. No wonder.
- Heather is going to be talking to you about simulations of the Simulations of the what. What? I have no idea...
- the heather is an experience for the senses.
- heather is reputedly easy to propagate from cuttings That explains a lot. See "heather is pregnant" above. Oh, I crack myself up. Not.

You can do it on googlism, too. I couldn't be bothered.

Actually, that isn't strictly true. Googlism gave me:

"Sorry, google doesn't know enough about 'heather is...' yet."

Stupid memes.







* Just so my mother doesn't panic: no, I'm not. Pregnant, I mean. :-P

posted by Heather @ 6:50 pm 0 comments

Firin' at the right end of the season

Listening to: Amici Forever Defined. Great CD, except for yet another bloody rendition of The Prayer, a song I used to really love. Not so much now. Between Celene Dion and that Anthony guy, it's been overplayed. Sigh. Nice vocal version of Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto, too (for anyone unfamiliar with the tune, think "All By Myself"). The men are stronger singers than the girls, though.

Q: How many Arians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Only one, apparently, and they won't even let you help.

I dislike being short. Actually, I'm around average height but another inch would've been nice. Then I wouldn't have had to play helpless "can't change lightbulb" housewife. Grr. And, thanks, Scott, for being, er, taller. :-)

And the Saints are third on the ladder. Hamill's played 2 matches in a row and hasn't injured anything (and if he goes down next game, well, you can all blame me, ok?). They took out Geelong this w/e, allow me to gloat (sorry, daddy, you know I love you but one must take one's victories when one can, eh). :-D

The loss of Hudghton capped off a frustrating night for Thomas, who watched his forwards squander numerous chances to bury an injury-hit Geelong side.

But there was one major positive to come out of the game and that was the form of inspirational forward Aaron Hamill, who was best afield with 11 marks and four goals in only his second game back following a three month lay-off with ankle and calf injuries.

"I thought he was terrific and it was one of the best games I have seen him play," Thomas said of his former skipper.

"He was very assertive in the way he played and he looked as though he was in complete control of the game."

They won by lots, but didn't bury Geelong. Sigh. Mr Thomas is never satisfied.

I never go clothes shopping, but I did this w/e. And I actually bought more than one item for myself *gasp* off the rack *GASP* in NOT the "happy to be chubby" section. *faints*

Will stop writing now because typing when unconscious is vsdjlaeriobCNK;A;. :-p

posted by Heather @ 1:59 pm 0 comments

Hoi.

Yesterday, I went shopping. Needed to get clothes for kids, so took a couple of them along (figured I'm not really a shopper-for-fun -- except for my book/candle weakness -- so it was time my sons learned about porter duty)there, bought a board game that required batteries, written on the outside of the box "requires 3 LR6 batteries to play -- not included". Hmmm. WTF are LR6's, I wonder. Well, so I go and look in the battery section of KMart. Full of AA's, triple A's, oh, there's an LR4, a watch battery. OK, then. Must be those little disc thingys you use for comp games. So, I wander over to a watchmaker and ask.

"Oh, yes, we have LR4's, but LR6's? We've never heard of them, sorry."

Ooookay. Over to EB, I needed to go there anyhows. Yes, #3, I know your feet hurt, but you manage to run for hours on the cricket ground without getting tired, but a little walking through the mall getting to you? Wuss. Must be imprinted into the genetic code for males. Except for one male I know, who isn't even gay but who enjoys shopping more than I do. Another story, never mind.

Pick up layby. No, we don't sell batteries at all, sorry, not even for computer games, but have you tried Tandys?

Of course. Duh. Tandy's, of course, is at the opposite side of the mall, where I just came from, right near KMart (where I bought the game). Honestly, anyone would think I'd asked the boys to climb Mt Everest. Off we go (I considered singing Heigh-ho but that would've been a bit too silly. hehe).

Tandy's. LR6's? Hmmm. Not sure about that code. Let me look it up.

They are another code for AA's. The most common battery on the planet, available at any corner store. Whimper.

Hehehehe.

Oh, passed Dusk twice without getting any candles. The third time was the charm. *grin*

posted by Heather @ 9:06 am 0 comments

And for my next trick....

Eldest son (almost 15): "Why can't we put carpet on the roof?"

Me: "Er, because every time it rained it would get too heavy and fall through the ceiling."

Eldest son: *fake sob* "Well, there's my dream spoiled then."

Honestly, I have to pay much more attention to what people are saying. hehe.

posted by Heather @ 9:25 am 0 comments

Flowers

Couplea extra things.

Chris -- get well soon. REST, dammit!

Liz -- Ditto!

Nicky & Damon -- The primulas you gave me that I put in the front garden? Flowering! Woohoo. :-)

posted by Heather @ 11:57 am 3 comments

The Island

What an amazing film. Maybe it was the company, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Interesting moral dillemma, which I liked a lot, mostly because it agreed with my own ideas of cloning and develop-your-own-market organ harvesting dangers and the concept of life in and ex utero. The science was faulty, afaik, but that didn't detract, for me. I really liked the character development, as well, and MacGregor and Johannsen, as well as Sean Bean (almost called him Mr Bean there, but that would be... wrong), gave sterling performances. Even the "bit parts" had quality actors.

Action fast-paced and it was sometimes difficult to watch, emotionally and because of the movement of the camera during the action (hint: don't sit too close to the screen, be well back or the whole feeling makes you go cross-eyed. We were back about a third of the way. We should have sat at least another 2 rows back). The other thing I found was that there was some "in the air" action that had our heroes on the side of a very tall building, and I have physical vertigo and bookshelf syndrome, so and every time the camera either moved with the action or panned to the ground far... far... far... below, I felt like I was falling myself. Hey, I have the same problem when I'm on a ladder, so that's not a criticism, but if you have physical middle ear problems that affect your balance, well... sit further back LOL.

The previews were interesting, as well, mostly because I saw, for the first time, the previews of both Narnia and Serendipity. They both look like they'll be excellent films, looking forward to seeing them. Narnia, in particular, has moved away from the puppet-based Aslan and into the CGI realm a la LOTR. Should be good.

Serendipity is the film that Joss Whedon's made to tie up the loose ends left behind by the premature axing of his series Firefly. If you haven't seen Firefly, well, why not? It was frustrating, there were so many storylines left unfinished. Almost as frustrating as the rushed and pointless ending of Season 5 of Angel due to the same network myopia. Hoi, that sucked great chunky chips.

I like the name, Serendipity. But then, I like serendipity. Hello, genealogist. *grin*

Meanwhile, it was great to catch up with my friend. We're keeping in touch (as in, actually keeping in touch, not that vague "we should make sure we keep in touch" way you often have at ten year high school reunions that you never actually do because you forget or couldn't be bothered. I known this is true, for 3 SMS's from him from the airport already this morning). Just when I thought my long distance phone calls were reduced to almost zero... oh well. Can't complain. hehe.

I'm doing a lot of tying up of loose ends myself lately, life-wise, between events and bumping into old boyfriends. One of the advantages, or disadvantages, of going through a life-changing event (like a divorce, or moving house, or, say, both) is that you (or me, at least) tend to dissect your life. I've discovered a few regrets that, surprisingly, have no bearing on the divorce or my marriage, etc, but were decisions I made way back when I was 17 (yikes. Half my life ago) that completely changed the course of my life. That's not to say I actually regret my life, because I don't. And, while fun to play "what if", that's not what I'm doing, either. I have an overwhelming need to go and apologise to people who've probably forgotten who I am. *grin* It's a lesson I've to learn. Should be fun.

Bring it on.

Hang on. I take that back. The last time I said that, the universe had some fun with me. At least, I hope it had fun. Someone should have fun, and it wasn't me. ;-)

posted by Heather @ 9:55 am 3 comments

Oooh, the end. Again.

But I'll only believe it when I have the cheque in my hot little hand. As opposed to my large cold hand, which... sheesh. Where do we get these sayings from anyhow? Like, I'm with Buffy (ie, Joss Whedon) on the "hand over fist" thing. I'm glad I ain't the only one who don't get it. Making money hand over fist. Put your hand over your fist. Does that make any sense to you? No? Nope, me neither.

Any other sayings/catchphrases? Can't think of any right now, but they can be a wee bit confusing. Comes from the oral tradition aspect, I guess. Like fairy tales. Grimm's were... grim. Disney has a lot to answer for.

Holy frijole, but I got off track there. (That saying makes sense, anyways). Er. Made another property/children agreement last week. Orally. It's now in writing and needs to be signed, then it gets lodged with the courts and it's all hunky dorey (hey. A good looking fish?????) But, I'll believe it when I see the signature.

I've been ripped off, and I know it, but I don't care. It's like, pay the man and he'll go away. My dad gets his money back, my mum gets hers and I can end cycle on this whole stupid episode. Clears the brain up a bit.

Busy social calendar this month, and not just for me. This is good. Number 1 son is grounded until mid August (go me!) but Nos 2 & 5 have birthday parties to attend and so do I. # 3 son has cricket sign ups this month; my daughter just had her choir audition. EnV lunch. A very good friend who shares his birthdate with #6 turns THIRTY this year. Good excuse for a party. Old man. Leo. Hair. Gotta love 'em. :-D

Number 1 & 2 sons have girlfriends. They're doing better than I am hehe. # 1 son's is a nice kid, although she does spend an awful lot of time on the phone with me. Which is fine, of course. Her mum's nice too (ironic coincidence there. She divorced an Aries and remarried to a Libra. I divorced a Libra and... er, never mind. Nothing to see here. Go away. I'm over that garbage now).

Had to laugh at my Aussie horoscope (news.com.au) today:

Right now, you are prone to feel vaguely dissatisfied with your personal life, especially the romantic side of it. NO. Really???? Mind you, it's difficult to be dissatisfied at a non-existent entity. Which is satisfactory, really. Too complicated. In social situations, there is an uneasiness or perhaps some sort of minor embarrassment on your part. Yeah, like I seem to have lost my ability to make any sort of conversation, let alone conversation that makes sense. If you do artistic or creative work, you may be more critical of it than usual, feel that it is not well received or appreciated, or simply feel a little dry and uninspired. HA!!! heheheeeee. Without realizing it, you are probably censoring yourself. Perhaps, but I haven't noticed. ;-)

I have noticed, lately, that it's more about what isn't said in the spaces between the noise that's bothering me. Small talk used to come easily to me (my dad was a highish-ranking public servant and I come from a family of intellectuals so I grew up knowing how to make "useless but important" conversation). Now, though, put me in a room full of strangers and I couldn't be bothered. And a room full of friends is worse. Not because I couldn't be bothered, but because I could be. Aquaintances and people I know only a wee bit--easy peasy.

I've been getting back into comp. games lately. Partly because I've been judging the "Writing For Games" competition run by Fantastic Queensland, but also because I realised I hadn't played in a while. A loooong while. And I need some fun in my life at the moment, I've gone all serious and mumsy irritable lately (see Go, me! up there). I pulled out Final Fantasy X and replayed it a few weeks back (That last scene still made me cry. Just a bit). And I went to see a film and noticed that EB was having a sale. And I had money in my purse. And made the mistake of walking into the bloody shop. Idiot. Sheesh.

Actually, not so bad. I picked up Civ III plus both expansions for a steal, and Morrowind for $9.95 (that debuted at $99.00+ when it came out). My comp (probably) won't play MW properly but that's OK, I'm due for a new one. This one's been in the family almost 8 years, with some decent upgrades, of course. It's still a decent machine. But it's getting borderline for new games (It'll do all the Sims with all expansions up to Unleashed, but hangs on Superstar and Sims 2 won't work. All the BG games with expansuions 1 & 2 work fine. No probs with MMs but MM9 has some video card issues. Handles Divine Divinity and Neverwinter Nights just fine, but MW is borderline. When the PC version of Fable comes out, I can fuggeduboudit).

Also picked up Arcanum for a very cheap price, which I'm finding much fun-ness. It's got an annoying interface but once you get used to it you can cope. (Planescape: Torment's was worse). The levelling up is a change for the better, though: it's fairly complex depending on what you want to do, and whether you're playing tech or magick or a class: a cut above the usual "fight beasties, do quests, get points and level up infinitum" crapola that is the norm. You get a maximum of 65 points to use all up, if you get to the maximum level (50), and you can easily botch up what you do with them if you're not careful. Of course, none of this makes sense out of context, but if you want some, just ask. ;-) It's good, a bit different: set in an equivalent of the mid 1800s, with people to meet such as, get this; Edward Teach the sea-captain. Duh. Or, should I say, "Arrrr." Shiver me timbers and get me Johnny Depp.

There's another one. Anyone who knows what that means "shiver me timbers" -- yeah, I get that it's probably a bastardised version of a sea terminology, but first causes, please -- feel free to point me in the right direction, please. In words of one syllable. I'm easily confused lately.

I decided to play this like I'm a D&D RPG computer geek with a problem discerning fantasy from reality (Um. Did I say "like"???). Usually, I play through a game and it's fun but I don't get over heavily into them.

This time, though, I've pointed Beth (yeah, that Beth. I always play Beth. She goes through your socks if you keep her bored for too long. Call her Mary Sue and have done with it, I say) at the game and let her go with it. And she's having fun. I must admit to a small crush on on of the NPC's, though, name o' Virgil. Yeah. I did say 1800s, right? Names like Virgil and Dr. Edmund Craig and Perrriman Smythe and Frederick T. Fitzgerald and Cynthia Wit are peppered throughout. So cool. Well, Virgil calls me Madam and apologises when he swears in front of me. Looks a little like Marcus Graham. There's also a hint of a dark past there, but he's obviously had an epiphany and turned his life around.... and he's there to protect me... er, I mean Beth, from harm's way. Not that I... er, Beth.... need...s protecting. Nice little melee ability happening there. Strong and charismatic is my Mary S..., I mean Beth. But Virgil brings the funny and the healing stuff.

I also have a nifty little dwarf fellow, Magnus, who's a tech specialist and a half Ogre, Sogg, who's perpetually drunk and very strong. And a dog. The dog is very important. His name is Dog. He used to be "Worthless Mutt" but once I stopped some half-arsed halfling kicking it to death (although given the melee skill of this dog I'm surprised the halfling was able to do that, but never let it be said that CRPGs were known for their realistic qualities), he changed it. Dog works.

Oh, and unlike some games I could mention *cough*neverwinternights*cough* you can't just nick people's stuff without being got for it. It sends your alignment through the floor, too, if you steal people's things or kill random villagers. And that is bad, if you're good. You can lose your followers, who tensd towards whatever alignment you are: and some will only join you if you're good, others if you're evil (Virgil starts out neutral: 0. He goes north or south of that depending on what you do). Magnus is good, and I accidentally cklicked on a villager during combat a while back. He throws out chiding comments (as he hacks away at the unfortunate) in a thick Scots brogue: "I don't understand why we're pickin' on such a good sort. I wonna be doin' this fer too much longer." And if we do do this fer too much longer, he gets jack of it and racks off. With whatever stuff he has on him. An' there's no a-gettin' it back, neither, missy.

There's some intelligence to the game, apart from the annoying interface and one of the quests which feature a bunch of supposedly good-aligned halflings indulging in rape, torture, and race-related enslavement, joking about it and NOT BEING ABLE TO KILL THEM FOR IT or in any way free or avenge their female victims without suffering the alignment penalty and screwing the quest. People, not funny. Really. The quest isn't the problem, but the positive alignment figure of the perpetrators is. Sheesh, even the guy in the Boil who just steals for a living and is involved in minor gang warfare gets a minus 10 to thirty-five. You'd think the miniature Ted Bundy impersonators with the genocidal tendancies would at the very least rate a chaotic neutral zero, but no. Good alignment, my Aunt Nellie. Pah.

Gave Beth the irrates too.

It can be amusing at times though. I was seriously considering setting up an Arcanum QOTD script here just for my own amusement but I couldn't be bothered.

I'm starting to get that hang of Civ III too (build cities early and often. Duh!).

I have another one on layby, for when the new comp arrives. But don't tell anyone.

Went to see Monster-in-law last night. Not that fond of Lopez, as a rule; as an actress she makes an excellent singer. Classy perfomance from Jane Fonda, as usual. The character lacked class, but that was the point. And, ohmigosh didn't that remind me a bit of my own MIL. And before anyone accuses me of unwarranted divorce-related ex's family bitchiness, without going into any detail, my MIL was a major reason why I excused the ex his behaviour for so long. She's a nightmare, in all honesty. I don't much blame her, either, but she is what she is and it affected the whole shebang, or, at least, provided a handy excuse.

The fiance feller, as written, annoyed me though. The man is supposed to be a sensitive, intelligent, very aware-of-what's-going-on-around-him doctor (he could describe Lopez's eyes down to the last jot and tittle) but he still didn't pick up on what his mother was doing icluding faking--or at least, exaggerating, her medical problems and hiring a waiter to pretend to be her therapist. Wouldn't want him as MY doctor). If he'd (the char, not the actor, who did a good job of what he was given) been written to be a little less sensitive or aware, then it would've worked, but as he was it didn't fly too well: he just came off as a wee bit doughy. Internal inconsistency, and all (even with the "I'm all she has left" lines thrown in). I kept wanting him to actually NOTICE the tension, but no. Wasn't the point of the film, I guess. They made a "mummy's boy" storyline out of a char who wasn't really a "mummy's boy" type. The character of Ruby was fabulous, best one in the film, imo.

Going to see another film sometime this week with a friend I haven't seen in years. He was in Brisbane, and somehow--I don't know--heard I had moved here and spent seventeen hours (all up, he says) on the phone trying to track me down, aware I was divorced (and therefore now "allowed" to see him) but unaware I was back to my maiden name (that he knew me as--I did say YEARS. I think the last time I saw him was my engagement dinner party I put on for the friends the ex wouldn't allow me to invite to the wedding. No, I'm not telling that one; let's just say it wasn't as obvious a pointer to his later behaviour as it now seems; there was, in fact, a very good reason at the time). Methinks he exaggerates. He could've phoned my father, for pity's sake. He's only here for the week for work so we'll see whatever's on when he can get away. The phone call was remarkably good for my ego though.

He's a Taurus. Another bloody horned animal (and in the bull's case I'm going to avoid the rude innuendo that seems to apply with them. Frequently. hehe). Caps, Arians and Taureans. The whole farmyard, right there. Get a Sagg and lets go hunting. Booyeah!

I wonder, briefly and uselessly, if there's any ancient significance to the fact that all the hoofs and horns are fire and earth signs. Probably has to do with the cooking and eating. From the earth we come and to the fire we eat. Ewk. Where the heck did THAT come from? Or, in seriousness, Orion or something. Who knows? (I'm sure someone does. Feel free to tell me if you do).

And why isn't there a chook sign? Hmm?

But enough. If you've gotten this far through my rambling.... WHY??? Surely there are better things to do. :-P

OH! Hope you had fun o/s, Liz. Email me to let me know when you're back. I got my passport application filled out today. STEP ONE. Step Two when I have a spare (haha!) $168-odd to actually pay for it. Soon. Ish. :-)

And the final word, from Arcanum:

"Who am I? WHO AM I? Lukan the Witless! Where I roam, the masses quabble in pertubisiveness and trepidunction!"

posted by Heather @ 8:28 pm 2 comments