We should know! .. Jan 23 '08

Australia

On the 26^th of this month it’s Australia Day, most Australians think of it as just a day off a day for BBQ’s a holiday

They forget the history behind it they for get the history full stop, never mind about Australia’s national day

History isn’t taught in schools here only as an elective subject we don’t have a Mabo day we don’t think about the slavery the persecution of the “black fella” that went on, the poisoned blankets the murders the shootings, that the Aborigines sometimes fought back that they themselves have culture and songs and community

Culture that isn’t taught, history that isn’t taught

We are taught about the white settlers, we learn about Ned Kelly we see drovers and swagmen and tall ships , convicts and Chinese on the gold fields but the history the “black” history the dreamtime and the culture isn’t taught

There is no Black History month in Australia, our most famous most talked about is Kathy Freeman, you saw the Olympics you saw her.

We don’t have a MLK day, we don’t have marches we don’t have “months” in fact we hardly have anything at all.

If you are an Aussie you should blooomin well know!

How much do you know about Australia? Take quizzes here

If you can’t be bothered with those here’s a quick one

1. Who is Prime Minister?
2. In what country was the stump jump plow invented?
3. Which states didn’t have convicts?
4. Who is Dawn Fraser and why is she famous?
5. How long have the indigenous Australians lived here (approx)?
6. What was Australia called first before it got its present name?
7. Who is William Dampier and when did he first walk on Aussie soil?
8. Which member of the royal family went to school in Australia?
9. Which town is named after the initiator of federation?
10. What is the most commonly played sport in Australia
11. How many different Aboriginal languages where there before Australia was settled?
12. What was the estimated indigenous population prior to settlement?
13. Who wrote the song “Waltzing Matilda”?

Painting: The Macquarie Leaving Sydney Heads by John Allcot

Two in one .... 31st December 07

As I had two of these they might as well go on the same post

Letter to my body

Dear body,

Where did you go?
My rings don’t fit any more they are loose on your fingers

Jeans fall down for no apparent reason

I had to tighten my bracelet because it kept falling off

The watch that I haven’t worn for ages because the battery was flat now sits halfway up your arm

Where did you go body?
Was once a time when things where tight, those jeans I couldn’t even get up your legs now they fall off

Oh and I am sorry I ran one of your feet over and squashed your toe, even thought it did go a very nice colour combination of purple and blue and the resulting operation did leave a permanent scar at least that foot is thinner than the other one now.
Then there is the hoof print on your right arm, that wasn’t my fault or my horses either and I spose you are lucky that you where wearing the riding helmet, my horse did try to avoid you, that neat tear in the cover of the helmet could have been your head

I’m sorry I splashed you with hot fat, I’m sorry I crack your knuckles, I’m sorry about all the times I’ve cut your fingers while slicing things up with sharp knives

It’s no wonder you have disappeared on me I wouldn’t hang around either

If you want to do this:
Write a letter to your body. Think about it. If you could write your body a letter, what kind of letter would it be? Angry? Happy? Sad? Hopeful? Ladies and men too can join in on this one. Write it up and then post the url here in the comments. I will be writing one too. It can be a narrative, poem, song or anything that you create. Please feel free to pass this along to your friends.

Writers Challenge 10

The dog sat stock still, it nose at the door, tensed ready to spring on command, the officer gave a quick hand command a slight twitch silently telling the dog to stay as she silently opened the door drawing her pistol she had it poised and at the ready as she quickly scanned the room

A bed, a wardrobe, a chair and an old TV covered in dust except for the hand prints on the screen, her eyes quickly focused on the pizza containers the empty cans of beer, ashtrays full. This was the room all right, he had been here question was, was he still here

She knew the dog would find him, another quick command this time to search and the waiting dog sprang into action, sniffing quickly around the room bypassing the left over pizza, a pie crust on the carpet and a tin of beans its contents spilling out, the dog noisily sniffed the room until she came to the window with the curtains drawn typical hotel curtains the ones that never quite meet in the middle

The dog swiftly sat by the curtains its muscles tensed she knew what was behind those curtains and she knew why she was finding it too, she didn’t need any imagination to know what was behind them

What was behind them was the reward, or what she would get when she found something the reward the dog knew the officer had it on her belt, behind the gun holster and the handcuffs that where now on the person behind the curtains, the dog was never concerned about that person just the reward

“It comes, it comes” she thought her eyes bright with anticipation she barked twice, the person now in the handcuffs jumped he looked scared they always did.

“Now” the officer spoke softly withdrawing a bright red rubber ball, squeaking it twice she bounced it high

The dog pounced playing grabbing the ball and running back and offering a play bow to the officer she dropped the ball at her feet

“Enough” the office uttered making the hand signal to stop “we gotta get this guy put away, good dog Janine you got another one”

The dog grinned a big doggy grin “Yep I got the ball again” and fell into the heel position at the officers left side as she led the guy away the dog heard the all too familiar “You have the right too remain silent”

If you want to do this Link here

Ice writes part 4

This is part four of "Ice writes" Ice is a stumpy tail cattle dog of medium size who's never been to dog school, so please excuse her spelling she does try though.


i talk on sizes ...June 25, 2007

somwon ask me how big i am, i not know how big i am i dog i not know about this size thing
all dog same size all dog got 4 leggs an fur an big fierce teefs efen if dey in a jar like Frostys
all dogs same size no little dog or big dog you still all dog
you want pack an food a place to sleep place too run and somethin to chase efen if it in yor dream
i not know size i try to sit on persons lap her lap shrink that wot i recon
i not haf much of tail but somtimes it knock thinks off da table da table shink too i recon one time it be high an me sit unda it now i go unda it i dots to go low so it shrink
my person she tell me she hav a dog like Buddy, like Max who lif next door he name Thunda but he die, she say he stay small like me when i was puppy, thing dey not shrink for him but he still all dog, he try to bite other boy dogs efen da girl dogs, he chace da chooks and bite dem too i say dis Thunda sound a bit naughty but he still a dog he sound like he was all dog big fierce dog but person she say he little dog that not sound right to me he big fierce brave dog i recon
but Thunda he get bit by car i recons cars are big an noisy so you gots to be carefulls with dem you watch outs for the cars i recons dey take you persons away inside of dem and dey bite you too if you not watch so you be barking and biting dem but not if dey move ok
you stay away from da movin cars they bite you dey bite you hard!!

Persons note: Dogs don't know size, Thunder (1989- 1998) was in his head a BIG dog he never tried biting a person but would try and fight any other dog no matter what size, his father was killed fighting an Alsatian, he loved chasing chickens (chooks), that's why I got into dog training to try and help me help him, never did stop him from chicken chasing but the fighting I was able to stop or he would have gone the same way as his father, sadly it was a car that never stopped that killed him I don't think the driver ever saw him.
Thunder who in his heart was as big as a horse was only a little dog, the car just went right over the top of him, he had a small mark on top of his head and that was it he just looked to be sleeping.
He was a dog that like all dogs didn't know size, he was out visiting Curly (his friend) the dog down the street at the time, wasn't supposed to but he was a big brave dog he didn't know that a dog of his size wouldn't be seen by a fast moving car at dusk.
Actually one of the things I've taught all my dogs and that's road crossing, most dogs cross at an angle mine don't they cross straight and look for cars even Thunder who used to go visit Curly all the time would cross straight (less time on the road) and look for cars but unfortunately the car was too fast, it was dusk and he was too small to be seen.

lawn mowa an stick thing .. for July 17, 2007

i not be able to get at puter person she allways on it, i put paw on her she not get off i try get on her lap she still not get off me gots to wait an wait an wait me end up go sleep me wait so long

an when me wake up dere a lawn mowa in da garden i not like lawn mowa i bark at it and you know what person do he spray me with wata from a bottle it not taste so good it taste like what dey call it lemom i think it lemom enyway it not nice wata and dey quirt me when i barks
i only barks to protect person from da lawn mowa and i gets squirted bit unfair i recons
dey gots da long stick thingy as well me think it soppossed to cut da grass like da lawn mowa but it not make da big noise da peoples dey poke it and pull it and it still not make da noise
an me not chew it eifer but me think it broke so in some part of garden da grass is taller than me
Coppa an Frosty dat WAY ova your head you get lost in da grass here me gets lost in it da person she just see my tail stick out it bit mean i recon to throw ballie into grass that bigger than my head so i loose ballie now hahaha i make person get it

Persons Note: Ice I am not getting your ball/s out of the grass you have to wait till the wipper snipper is fixed as its too high for the mower now . I know you don't like either but you will be squirted with lemon spray everytime you bark at them, besides I don't want you trying to bite the whipper snipper when its going that might be rather nasty, so spray it is.

Actually Ice is rather good at fetch, normally if the ball is in the long grass she will find and bring it back but our yard is full of these rather tall weeds they would look like trees to Copper or Frosty and they do need to be done with the "long stick" as Ice calls it only the dang thing won't start will it.
Ballie or "get the ballie" is one of Ices commands that she does know and does well

pic is a ring kneck dove --- Ice's birdy friends who live outside look like that

Yahoo launces Kickstart

New from Marketing Pilgrim

Yahoo’s hoping to fill a social networking void with its "preview" launch of Kickstart.

What’s the void?

That big gaping hole between Facebook and LinkedIn. Yahoo wants Kickstart to be a professional network that connects college students, recent graduates, and alumni for business networking and career advancement.

Realizing that Facebook might be a tad too whimsical for that purpose–sheep throwing anyone?–and LinkedIn a too vast–can you introduce me to that person you met once at a conference–Yahoo hopes Kickstart will be useful for anyone hoping to capitalize from their college association.
-- Andy Beal for Marketing Pilgrim

.. here's a link to a sample profile

Obviously I picked someone who works at Yahoo but profile is still blank and basic, the link it's self is the "gobbledegook" link same kind of links as they used for 360 .
You would think though that with Mash and this new universal profile that this Kickstart would be the last thing to come out, its been done in a rush the only schools available are of course in the US and the ONLY reason Yahoo have done this is to compete with Facebook and the decline of membership of Mash and of the Yahoo user base over to a more user friendly, feature packed (compared to Yahoo) Multiply
Someone at Yahoo has gone "quick do something, fast!" and this is their attempt
Its feeble and ill thought out
I haven't had an in depth look at it it yet and couldn't be bothered making a profile on it just to see what features it has but by the looks it has very few and obviously a picture is difficult to upload or set as avatar as quite a few that I looked at didn't have a photo at all vis a vis if you work for Yahoo and can't get photo in your profile its difficult to do.

As one person says in the comments on the MP post "Yahoo got lost in the social network boom "

Not about sport

I'm in a bitchy mood ... do you want to know nosey buggas of course ya do
My family are idiots, no sense at all they where rude and downright nasty to me made out they where some clone of my ID on Multiply made out it was my fault for being nasty to them, well if someone uses your name and picture on profile with personal info on you and not themselves wouldn't you go WTF , of course I was nasty someone does that to you it makes you feel sick to the stomach.
You know it wouldn't have worried me if they had used their own picture and their own info but noooooo they used mine and its rude disgusting and wrong to use someone else's info and harrass them with it, which is what they did.

Nasty rude comments aimed at my friends on Multiply and MySpace even getting my own daughter to post nasty rude comments aimed at my friends, TG my Multiply friends list is only viewable by my friends or everyone on my list would have been bombarded as well.

You know my nephew is on Multiply and it wouldn't have turned a hair on my head if he had tried to contact me that would have been fine but now after basically harassing me like that they all can get nicked as far as I am concerned, bad enough if some stranger does it but your own family .. its disgusting !


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14 readers here on my Blogger page
and it should be 10% that comment what's that? 5 per post?
As I'm getting none at all it ain't worth it any more
I can't work out Wordpress at all or I'd switch over there
*doh* I can transfer I'm not that stupid I do know how to transfer the posts from here to Wordpress its getting them on the right pages I want my poems/stories on there as well but not all in with the posts from here, I don't want them mixed up that's why they are on a different page here on Blogger
I want them on a different page on Wordpress as well even if its a link they have to be on a different page ... so I'm fussy that's how I want it and if I can't do it like that I won't do it at all.
My Wordpress is also putting my posts on Technorati ... like WTF how/why did it do that?
I can't fix up a theme on Wordpress like I have here .. so I want the stars and a bigger font size ..like I said fussy!

But Wordpress tells me who's looked, who's clicked to my page that's how I found out about the Technorati thing my Wordpress is at the moment more private than here ...14 subscribers poooft! and looks like most of my blog hits are from Sucka's Y Pipes .. great actually I don't want to be looked at or read but hey if you are wondering Feedburner tells me which posts get the most hits apparently "my take on soccer" is my most popular post with 86 hits ... now that IS a worry
Anyway as I am not going to post about bloomin sport and my family didn't even bother looking here even though I gave them the link .. as I said they are idiots.

I don't want anyone to read here you can all go away, if I wanted hits and comments I'd be posting on Multiply or 360 .. no scratch the 360 part no one uses it according to Yahoo

I'm not in the best of moods just want to crawl in a hole and die