deb's dribs and drabs

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO

 slaymesoftly

AND

BELATED BIRTHDAY WISHES TO

 morgantree

BM and I are heading off today, up to Sydney tonight for a pre-Xmas barbie with some mates, and then on to my Mum's place tomorrow for Christmas.  As I won't have internet access for the next few days, just wanted to take the opportunity to wish you all the best for the festive season. 

P.S.  A big thank you to slaymesoftlyfor my stack of virtual pressies!!  It was a lovely thought, and made my morning.

J is all bad moody at the moment because the store where I pre-ordered the new Nintendo Wii (what a stupid name) is the only one in our area NOT to receive delivery of stock.  Whilst I could put it on the credit card at another store, I wanted to buy it at this place because using the store card you get an extra 12 months warranty and a Christmas offer where you don't pay interest until March.  These are not important things that register with J - he just wants the damn console!!   ::sigh::  I should never have bought that first Nintendo console for his 4th birthday, but it was the only one that had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game, and at that point in time it was very important to J.  He wasn't quite dexterous enough to play all parts of the game, so I had to dismantle the bombs in the dam for him.  Oh, those were the days when my gaming skills were equal or better than his.  We moved on to SNES, and I really enjoyed the Donkey Kong games, but by the time the N64 had arrived, I was lucky to get Mario to jump, let alone have him climb walls etc.  I never played the Nintendo Gamecube, and I expect that I will ooh and ahh with J about the advances in the Nintendo Wii but never touch a controller.  I will return to my own trusty SNES, Super Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong.

I decided to play around with Photoshop and see if I could clean up the picture of my father's RAAF squadron when they served in New Guinea during WWII.  Here's the original:



This is the photoshopped version.  It printed off really well, so I will get a nice frame for it, and give it to my Mum at Christmas.

Today is the 6th anniversary of J's friend Tarlo's disappearance.  As we know now, it is actually the anniversary of his murder. 

This morning I was reading our local weekend newspaper, and was startled by an article about our murdered friends K & G.  They bred Shire horses (great bloody big horses, similar to draughts) and they had embarked on an embryo transfer programme to continue the breed, the first time in Australia.  They were murdered in January, the foal was born this month.

Two totally random events, but today they coincided.

Time doesn't heal.

It could have been worse.  As expected a small multitude turned up for the free feed but could only stay 30 minutes or so.  I had problems with the projector connecting with my laptop, so Charlotte went first.  By the time she had finished half the audience had to leave, including the Head of English Studies (praise be for small mercies - yes, Caraway that's the strangely humoured French-Canadian).  Thankfully ClogMan (the Honours Co-ordinator - he wears clogs OK!) rushed off and got his laptop wish was happy to talk to the projector, and so I could show my PowerPoint presentation.  In appreciation of ClogMan's help I'm going to loan him my S1 Veronica Mars and S2 Deadwood boxsets - there's a man who appreciates the finer things in life.  On the other hand the lecturer who is guiding me through my first chapter thinks that VM is a little hard to believe!!!  No wonder I am finding his suggestions re my thesis direction so hard to cope with ... which leads me to my complaint of the day.  I'm finding it hard to cope with the multi-directional pulls from my supervisor and Research Methods lecturer on where I want to go with my thesis.  I already feel that I have veered severely from my initial premise, and I don't know whether I'm happy about that.  I do realise that PS (research methods lecturer) has my best interest at heart, but I don't know whether I will be happy writing the thesis that he wants me to write.  However as he said to me today if I follow his advice it could be the difference between a second class honours degree, or a first class ... I guess that is definitely something that has to be considered.

In the  meantime I now have to reflect on female icons of the second wave of feminism era (1960s-1970s), think Mrs Peel, WonderWoman, and how they differ from Buffy and Veronica in the post-feminist/third wave/GirlPower era ...  ... any thoughts, any suggestions ... Bueller, Bueller, anyone ...

Crikey! Russ wants to play Steve.

Suddenly he's an Aussie again - strewth, I wish he would make up his mind!

1. St George-Illawarra lost - I have no words ::sob::


2. J's girlfriend seems very nice - for the 10 seconds I got to speak to her.  BM amd I are dealing with this new stage in our parental life, but we have survived the first boyfriend/girlfriend overnight stay - how cool are we?.


3. I'm panicking about my first chapter.


4. I've suddenly become addicted to "Bones".  Why is it that I'm hapyy to watch DB in a non'BtVS/AtS role but I can't watch JM in any role that isn't Spike?  


5. I have nothing else to say.