buter's BABY blog

So yesterday I made myself a bloglines account and subscribed to BoingBoing (as one person puts it, to restore faith in the bizarrity of the internet) .. and today followed some links (oh, the clever intarweb) to " I shit my pants chiasmus". It's quite funny, here is the MP3 which is funny in its own right, but funnier still is the rest of the construction around the MP3.

Now for the uneducated among us, a chiasmus is a literary device which is used all over the place - yes, I only learnt it today, I never claimed to be educated!! Anyway a chiasmus is usually demonstrated by reversal of letters or words such as " a magician pulls rabbits out of hats; a psychologist pulls habits out of rats".

I like the chiasmus idea. I'm probably not going to be able to use it in a sentence, but it's one of those words that's bound to come up sometime.

And yes, for those who care, my nerd light is flashing. Brightly.

Edit 11am: My mate Steve just sent me a link to David Lee Roth's quotes page. And no kidding, about 1/2 way down is this eminent example of chiasmus:

"I have a very belligerent enthusiasm or an enthusiastic belligerence. I’m an intellectual slut."

If DLR can do it so can I. I hereby resolve to demonstrate chiasmus today, but not use it in a sentence ;)

So, I'm trying to study, read my notes, whatever. There's a question which seems to be based on the old edition of the textbook. So the notes say that we should find additional info about the old edition on the student community bulletin board.

Except it's OFFLINE today.

<growl>

Back to surfing the web for nothing much at all. Heading over to GoogleGroups for some quality time wasting <click> ...

p.s. If you follow the above link and it works, let me know. hehe.

Update 26/04/2005 - yes, I know, it's working today ..... the server must have had the public holiday as well.

This is legendary. Another gem from StumbleUpon.

"PostSecret - an ongoing community art project. People from around the world share their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard."



Haven't worked out how to submit yet, but will do so one day :)

If you, like me, have often wondered how Western philosophy evolved, how it affects everything to everyone, everyday, but just haven't had the time to read Plato, Aristotle, Socrates ("Morons." "Really?")
in the original language on the original papyrus then this is the place for you: Glyn Hughes' Squashed Philosophers.

I like to think of this as a little light reading ;)

Thanks to StumbleUpon - one of the funnest extensions to FireFox *ever*!!


As a side note - that PB link is called "literary genius". So true.

According to an email I just received,

"The following pics are used to test the level of stress a person can handle.
The slower the pictures move, the better your ability of handling stress.
Alleged criminals see them spinning around madly while seniors and kids see them still."

Yeah, right.


This one makes me think of almonds.



This one looks like a car engine ...



flowers, anyone?

It's amazing what you can find on the IntarWeb.

To start from the beginning, last night we had Dan and a few friends around for his 30th birthday. The menu was:
- nibbles: brie, wild wasabi cheese, water crackers, rice crackers, baba ghanouje, and those new cheese straw things ..
- mains: Marinated Lamb with Spicy Eggplant Salad from bill's open kitchen cookbook, served on rocket with a side of potatoes au gratin dauphinoise from Joy of Cooking
- dessert: Steve H's mum's Neutron Star Chocolate Ice Cream Cake. Kind of like a frozen chocolate mousse only with nothing fluffy about it.

Anyway the spicy eggplant salad was so yum, I wanted to post a link to a similar recipe on here, but couldn't find it anywhere. But, search google for that term and you come up with the ABC Regional Radio Recipe index... It's like Homer Simpson says, "...Arrr" And no, they didn't have an eggplant salad, but google knows best.

They list recipes which were broadcast in the last 3 months. Worth bookmarking and going back to, often. I'm going to make the gluhwein this weekend!!

Make sure you have a nice fresh cup of really hot tea before going further.

I thought I would do a little research into the whole "coffee or tea" question, like is one choice really better for you, do we drink too much or not enough, all that riveting stuff. But on searching google for "coffee +or tea" (I thought the + would get me some comparisons or something) .. I came up with a scary story of an Australian journalist, travelling to the US , who ended up getting banned from entry and being denied a cup of coffee or tea because it could be used as a weapon !! And no, not because she was a terrorist, but a journalist. Of course that was nothing compared to the highest hit, about a 7 1/2 month pregnant woman who was travelling from Portland, Oregon to Las Vegas (i.e. US domestic travel) and ... well I'll let you read that one.

Now this is worth owning. I'm going to bookmark the artist's site for more cool things. Like the pinocchio toilet brush (yes, his nose is the business end) or the space alien lamp. Neat.

Let's just hope they put a soothing alarm in it.

This might have helped me this morning. I'm grouchy, tired, and have the concentration span of a gnat. All in all, a good recipe for a Friday.

You might be thinking I have an underpants obsession, but really - superheroes all wear underpants, most of them on the outside of their tights (unless you're talking Spiderman or Catwoman, where it's a case of longjohns all the way up anyway) ... maybe I have a superhero obsession?

So, here's an interesting story. Rod Stewart designed a pair of underpants for a charity auction that had "musical notes on them". Presumably they were men's underpants as the charity was testicular cancer. They were auctioned for $5,500!! o.m.g. I would probably only want Rod Stewart's underpants if you paid me the $5,500. I wonder if he used himself as the model -eeeuuugghhhh ...

Apparell-ly, the rest (designers include Tigerlily's Jodhi Packer, Delta Goodrem and our Lley-Lley) will be auctioned on eBay for the next 10 days. Can't wait.

Still, it's always good to know how to get into a celebrity's underpants.

With overnight lows of as much as 1 degree C, things are shaping up for a nice cold winter. And we all know why I want a cold winter!! I'm really looking forward to the flight into Queenstown, the approach by air is something special, for passengers, and for the pilots!

The place to be (for weather reports at least) is the wunderground - just because it has a cool name :)

So once upon a time there was a movie called Star Wars. And it was good. Then someone one day asked themselves, "which lines in Star Wars could most be improved by substituting the word underpants?"

And lo, an idea was born.

Much much later, my mate Steve and I thought we would while away some time messing with that best of all possible movies, the Princess Bride, in the same way.

Here is the result.

I found this article today which seems to tell us that Yoda's philosophy: "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering." is complete hogwash and baloney, and in fact is messing with the minds of an entire generation. Well, who knows. What I found funny is that I got here from a google search for the famous "25 lines from Star Wars that are improved by substituting the word underpants" page. (one of the search results inspired me to look for the yoda quote, hence the anger management page)

Dont'cha just love the net, and how it helps you make links where no-one has gone before!!

So, for the last few mornings, I've been waking up at about 5.20am because of my neighbour's alarm going off. I don't know where he's gone, but it beeps about 26 times, pauses for about the length of 10 beeps, then beeps another 26 - and so on. This is very annoying because my alarm doesn't go off until 5.50am (at which point I hit snooze and get up at about 6 ..) Being the person that I am, though, anything that wakes me up after about 5am, wakes me up for good. So I lay in bed thinking, I should really be sleeping now, but can't!! eeerrggg

Anyway this morning, being Sunday, fabulously my neighbour's alarm didn't go off - but instead the lovely, awesome, joyful BIRDS started singing their little hearts out at about 7am - and it was like a convention or something, maybe about 1,000 mynas were _right_outside_my bedroom_window ... Geeeeez .... (if you follow that link and play the sound "roost", really loud, over and over, that's what I woke up to ....)

I do like living where I do, because of the bush out the back, but it's hard to love it when the kookaburras go off at 4am (at least I know it's summer when they do that) or the mynas at 7am on Sunday (which is how I know it's winter ..)

They haven't stopped yet, btw, and it's now 10.30am. *sigh* At least I'm going out today, to a heavily urbanised suburb ... no birds ;)

Well presumably we are. I have to pay today for the D&D SkiNZ'05 trip - we're going to Queenstown in July, which will be magic!! I tried skiing for the first time in QT last year and loved it, so I'm now a ski bunny officially and so keen to go this year. We have planned 8 days on the slopes, woohoooo!!! And btw - that link does not show what I wear on the slopes, but it's good for a laugh ;)

Just to show you how fabulous this can be, here's a pic from last year ..


This is the view over Queenstown valley from the beginners slope at Coronet Peak.
Nice, eh? Just makes me want to get up the higher parts this year and get even more cool photos.

We're going to stay in some nice looking apartments which are a pebble's throw from the town centre, which also means that we can participate in QT's nightlife - mmmmm -

I know many people will say that QT has mini-mountains compared to say, Canada, Japan, or Europe - but compared to Australia, it's the same price and so much better. So when I'm a millionaire I'll go ski in Switzerland or whatever, but for now - I'm dreaming of a white Christmas - in July!

This looks like a fun way to while away some minutes ...

I can smell rain coming ... love that smell!!

I also love the smell of the washing - bringing it in after it's been hanging in the sun all day ... mmmm ... and fresh cut grass ...

Surprisingly, for a non-smoker I also don't mind the smell of smokers' clothes. You know the faint tobacco smell they get. It's not awful like stale 2nd hand smoke, it's just a faint sort of smell .. weird huh. And no, I don't like smokers to puff into my face, nor do I go up to smokers and ask to sniff their clothes. It's just one of those things, I guess.

One of the things I can't stand smelling is Mascot (the suburb where I work). Qantas airline catering is around there and in the afternoons they cook something really feral. It smells like - well - it's just bad. Remind me not to eat the hot food on Qantas. But if you are travelling and wondering which airline to choose, check out this place - people actually review airline food. It's amazing what you can find out there on tha IntarWeb.

I love reading. I spend more time reading than doing pretty much anything else apart from sleeping. So what defines a favourite book? Well .. it has to be well written. Gripping, surprising (the first time anyway) and able to be read more than once.

Here's a smattering of the books I've read and enjoyed more than once ..
The complete Sherlock Holmes collection (Arthur Conan Doyle);
The Hobbit and LOTR (JRR Tolkien);
HHGTTG and the Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams;
All Neal Stephenson's works - though I haven't had time yet to read the Baroque Cycle more than once, but I am planning to do so before too long;
The Outlander series (Diana Gabaldon);
and stuff by several other sci fi / fantasy authors like Magician by Raymond E Feist, the Childe Cycle by Gordon R Dickson, and Roger Zelazny's Amber series.

I'm always on the lookout for new books to add to my collection - so recommend anything you like :)

I love hanging out at places like world wide words, and getting it to retrieve a random word. It's fun reading about their etymology. But then I've always been a bit like that. Here's one, the tabloid - you thought it meant something like a smallish newspaper format. But in fact the word was registered by Wellcome - a drug company, no less, to mean a smallish tablet. Now tell me that you knew that already!!

Anyway it came up at work the other day that nobody knew why f*** is such a rude word. Where did it come from? Is it Olde-English, Middle-English, or some other animal? So some judicious searching of tha Intarweb yielded this gem of a h2g2 entry ... informing us just *where* all those swear words come from.