Wildilocks Can Has Journal?

Long term forecast for NYE in Melbourne:

Forecast for Wednesday

Partly cloudy. Isolated showers. Winds westerly averaging up to 30 km/h increasing to up to 35 km/h during the afternoon.
City
Shower or two.
Min
14
Max
21

YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAYYYYYYYYYY

Looks good even if there’s a bit of change, we should be right for a NOT stinking hot NYE!!!! SQUEEE!!!!!

So Xmas has come and gone. Call me Grinchy, but really, Xmas is Really Not Very Good and we need some better options. For example, I really didn’t want to travel back to WA for 4 days for Xmas, but Jeremy’s parents insisted, even though we’d spent a whole lot of quality time with them this year, and my family really isn’t hugely fun on Xmas and I’ve missed many an Xmas in the last 20 years.

Anyone got any ideas? I tend to do Oxfam unwrapped but if I’m seeing the rellies I still am guilted into buying Stuff that is Probably Not Wanted, and get given Stuff that I Probably Don’t Need.

Augh

Well Baldrick, something of a triumph, I believe! You’ve managed to spell “Christmas” without getting any of the letters right at all!

So, this morning there came up a most thought-provoking post on MetaEfficient.

The topic? How completely unnatural the modern western toilet is. And while I’ve been well aware of composting toilets for some time [my eco-research of the last few years and even much longer ago being not insignificant] I really hadn’t thought much about the other, more health-relevant subject of the article - the squat toilet.

Did you know that two thirds of the worlds’ population does not use a seated toilet, but rather, squat, as we have been evolutionarily adapted to do? That diseases such as colon cancer, appendicitis and IBS, not to mention Chrohn’s disease, rarely occur in populations who do not use the seated toilet?

Once you actually sit [or perhaps I should say, squat] and think about it, it’s mind-bogglingly simple, and another piece to the puzzle of why Westerners are suffering so many health problems now. I was focused solely on diet for some time - now I must say I think there’s more to it: and this is something we can actually do something about, quite easily. I lived in Thailand for a year, and used squat toilets everywhere: it never really occurred to me to wonder why we didn’t have the same in the western world. I just accepted it was one of many differences: maybe there was a conceit of us being more “civilised” too. Well, I think we got it wrong, as we’ve got, well - quite a lot of things wrong, akshully.

So apparently, in Australia there is available a product called the “IN-LIEU” Toilet Converter [tee hee] which is really quite reasonable in price [under $200] and I’m seriously thinking of getting one. They are available from many different suppliers, but this seems to be the best price. , was it my crap memory of a conversation, or did you know someone who was recently diagnosed with Chrohn’s? This might be worth a mention, if so.

So yeah, poop. Get it right! *baked beans in face*

Wow my lj is turning into a total cliche, well cliche + advertising, which is perhaps even scarier - but then I am not sure anyone reads much anymore, and I can’t seem to find the energy to write about the stuff I’ve been doing other than work - it’s all a bit of a hazy blur these days. le sigh.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars - many times
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain - Mt Taranaki in New Zealand - but not to the top, it was snowy and I didn’t have alpine equipment
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo – yeah, I used to play the mandolin a million moons ago, plus I’ve done some hideous karaoke too
11. Bungee jumping
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch – the hair stuff I do, I guess is an art?
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning quite recently actually :/
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables - not too good at it but I current have yellow chard and two types of lettuce!
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train - in Thailand, was awesome :)))
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked - lots when I was young and impetuous. I don’t think I’d have the nerve now.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill - who hasn’t?
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse - Lunar and Solar
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors – some of them
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language - Thai
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - most of my life really, I don’t want for material things too much, I pay myself less than the managers of my shops, I live in a tiny apartment with my wonderful partner, I don’t own a car, don’t smoke, and only drink in moderation now, plus I get all my clothes wholesale. So err, yeah, I don’t have big needs.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted - a few times + drawn, sculpted, photographed. I used to work as an art model for a year or so
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre - not for many years
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business - seem to be reasonbly ok at this, but have my doubts regularly about whether it’s worth the increasing amount of stress
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - surely Fundraising Chocolates count? :)))
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter - in NZ when I volunteered to paint back-country huts for the dept of conservation many moons ago. It was terrifying and AWESOME
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy - it’s a tiny weird plastic dice thingy. I got it from the tuck shop in about grade 3.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar - it’s salty
72. Pieced a quilt - probably as a kid
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job - when I was 16 and wasn’t good with being a cashier in a fast food joint
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - being the driver even, though I never really went more than 5k over the speed limit, I’m such a wuss.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car - does band new scooter count? I’ll almost certainly never buy a car again
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper - many times, and my art too, and writing, when I was younger and wanted to be a journalist
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous depends how famous you mean, I’ve met people like Molly Meldrum [when I won a Boy George look alike contest at the tender age of 13 or so], Manus Lunny [from Capercaillie, an Irish neofolk band I used to be a crazy fan of], Gala Darling [well, she's sort of famous! hehe ;P] we have a few clients who are alt scene famous, but not Famous famous, yanno?
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee - too many times, I got sensitized and now I have anaphylactic reaction ;P
100. Read an entire book in one day - Not for a while though

eh, that didn’t take so long.

It’s nice being back in Melbourne, back in routine, with my things around me, and our kitty [who has been named Yuki by the way] being adorably cute allllll the time. Yes.

It also allows me time to think in the mornings, for a little bit. I am appreciating having this ability again.

So ’s last post got me to thinking about one of my favourite topics, religion, and more specifically, CS Lewis. As a staunch anti-theist, it may surprise you to find out I have a huge fondness for the Narnia series, which I grew up on. But really, it’s not such a strange thing. I am fascinated by theist stories. As long as you look at them as morality tales - and *fairy stories*, it’s all good. There’s some great moral lessons to be learned, and as children, we need to have guidelines. That’s not to say I think a religious upbringing is required to live a moral life - I’d like to think I am proof otherwise [I did not have religious parents]. But some of the most moral people I know, the kindest and the most open-hearted, did have a strongly religious upbringing, and it’s something I’ve wondered about on and off over the years.

But back to CS Lewis, and the book discussed, The Last Battle. I always thought the allegory of the dwarves in their shed an interesting one: the idea that there is no hell, but that of your own mind and lack of belief in God. Interesting - and I guess I was always kind of wistful for the ability to have faith. But I am a staunch realist, and I know that kind of ignorant bliss is completely impossible for me, though I can truly imagine how blissful it must be.

But the more I think on it, the more I despair, because most people truly don’t tend to think that way about the hardest things. It is human to believe whatever you want to believe, no matter how illogical, or how unhappy it may make you in the long run. Core beliefs and principles can become ingrained in us at a very young age as survival mechanisms, and the God meme has worked really well for a lot of humans in helping them survive [or, if you look at it another way, in helping the God meme survive]. So chances of getting people to change if they are brought up a particular way, is slim. But I would say I’d prefer to be around people brought up on the CS Lewis flavour of Christianity than many other strains. At least CS Lewis used mostly good examples, full of adventure and just deserts for people who were vain, selfish or just plain nasty!