Category: Journal
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Flossing a four-year-old’s teeth
Elizabeth went to see the dental nurse recently who told us she needed a filling. I decided to take her to the dentist to have the work done because of a bad experience with my own teeth and the dental nurse when I was a child. We went today and the dentist says she needs…
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When the moderator gets moderated
Recently a new moderator starting helping out at the blog I moderate. On his very first day, he moderated me. ME!!!!!!!!! How dare he! I was so furious that I emailed the blog owner and told him I was taking a break from moderating his blog and then I turned off all comment notifications from…
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The world needs all kinds of minds
Temple Grandin is an American autistic woman who, through her work as a consultant for the meat industry, has made significant improvements to conditions for animals at abattoirs. According to PETA,”Dr. Grandin’s improvements to animal-handling systems found in slaughterhouses have decreased the amount of fear and pain that animals experience in their final hours, and…
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Hawaii
I’m going to Hawaii this week and I have to say I’m not looking forward to it at all. The reason being that I don’t want to leave my kids. I know I’m going to bawl my eyes out the whole way there so I pity the poor soul who ends up sitting next to…
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Cross-stitch porn
A Brisbane artist has merged pornography with cross-stitch in a way that has improved both things considerably more than if they were separate. The cross-stitch lends an air of respectability to the pornography while the pornography offsets the fuddy-duddy image of cross stitch. The artist’s name is Leah Emery and she explains how she got started in cross-stitch porn…
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Modern technology connecting people in uplifting ways
This is really wonderful: young Brazilians who want to learn English chat online to elderly Americans in retirement homes. There’s more about this here: Perfect Match: Brazilian Kids Learn English by Video Chatting With Lonely Elderly Americans
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On censorship
There have been some complaints about the moderation of comments in my previous post, It’s a conspiracy! This happens every time Skeptics’ comments get moderated. Moderation is not censorship. If I write a letter to the editor of my local paper it may or may not get published. If it doesn’t get published, is it…
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Monster machines, serial killers and bugs
I haven’t written anything on my blog in almost a week which is a long time for me. But I’ve been really busy this past week and this is going to continue for about another month or so. It’s a very enjoyable and challenging busy though, so I’m not complaining. This morning we overheard Elizabeth,…
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A warning to all bloggers and commenters
Joe Karam, a former New Zealand All Black, has just been awarded over half a million New Zealand dollars in a defamation case. The defendants were two individuals who posted defamatory comments about Mr Karam on Facebook and another website. A bit of background: Joe Karam is a long-time supporter of David Bain, who was…
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Volunteering at British schools
I loved everything about the state-funded school my son attended for 6 months when we were in the UK and have written about the experience here. In most respects, I preferred the English school to the New Zealand school he attends now. I say most respects because there was one thing about the English school that was…
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I’m so excited
Lots of good things happening in my life at the moment. I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it. And that’s all I’m saying!
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Opinions are great, except when I disagree with them
Opinions are great. I love listening to people’s opinions more so than the boring nothings of fence-sitters. Ok, so I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes people’s opinions rile me but there’s something challenging about that as it forces me to question what I think. For this reason, I like listening to RadioNZ’s The…
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Delayed gratification, spiders and bikinis
Elizabeth was watching a TV advertisement this morning with two children on it who were both offered a chocolate fish and told that if they waited a short while before eating it they could have another. It was the classic marshmallow experiment of delayed gratification except using chocolate fish instead of marshmallows. Ben decided to…
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Lilly: long may she rampage and ravage around the universe!
I’ve just discovered (thanks again to my lovely aunt), the Marmalade files which is a collection of early diplomatic correspondence held at the National Archives of Australia. One tale in particular is very funny so I’m going to transcribe it in its entirety here. This is a true story about an Australian woman called Lilly…
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A funny letter to DFAT
My aunt sent me this funny letter which was apparently sent to the Australian DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) office about a passport application. I have since discovered that there are British and American versions of this letter as well. I can’t comment on the process in Britain or America but I can…
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Phones calls, traffic, the bridge and beards
Daniel, who is 7 years old, got his first phone call the other day. I answered the phone and heard a young boy politely introduce himself and then ask to speak to Daniel. Completely stunned, I handed the phone to Daniel who was just as surprised as I was and then I heard them discuss…
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How many chances for a good passport photo?
I’m in the process of applying for passports. My Australian passport is soon to expire and I am now eligible for a New Zealand passport so I’m applying for that too. But I hit a bit of a hurdle with the passport photos. The first one I got was dreadful. It was not even clear…
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More on sock puppets
I have mentioned sock puppets on my blog before and am bringing them up again now because we found one recently on the AndThenTheresPhysics blog. For those who do not know what a sock puppet is, I’ll recap. It’s a fake online identity created for the purpose of making comments or reviews online to give…
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