Friday Weekly Wrap-Up: Labour, Leaving and Lamb

The week that was!

1) One Good Thing: Got the nice comfortingly comprehensive list of drugs they’re perfectly happy to give me in the delivery room. Feel lots lots better (and haven’t even been given any of them yet!)

2) One Bad Thing:  Said farewell to a good friend and colleague at work – ostensibly for a 12-month secondment, but I’m pretty sure nobody would be surprised if he never came back. It’s always the fun, intelligent, proactive and passionate ones that get soul-destroyed and leave you, isn’t it?

3) One Thing I Learned: Despite rumours to the contrary, if you’re an Australian who doesn’t eat lamb on Australia Day you do NOT spontaneously combust. Myth  Busted!

Despite what the Lambassador would have you believe...

Wednesday Weekly Links

Here are this week’s linky treats. Enjoy!

Movies

The 15 Worst Films of 2010 (which I proudly have seen none of!)

TV

Promising new ABC TV show – billed as “Gay Big Bang Theory”. (Of course it’s ABC so it’ll have 6 episodes and then lose funding because it’s not on commercial TV…)

Books

Five Sci-Fi Childrens Book Mashups

Music

Other

Let’s all make fun of iPhone spelling mistakes…

 

Friday Wrap-up: Courses, Collections and Constitutions

1) One Good Thing: got to sit down with the course coordinator for the course I’m lecturing in from next week, and not only did she move my class forward to 3-6pm so I can get home in time, she also gave me complete teaching notes for each week! Down to 5 minute intervals! So I pretty much just have to show up and talk! Easiest $35 an hour ever!

2) One Bad Thing: On the collection development front at my library: I’ve been behind in orders (which I maintain is not my fault because now we have to buy stupid eBooks and can’t use our own money so I never get to spend mine!) and now have to find $9000 worth of books to buy before Wednesday. And I’ve run out of publishers to check. *gulp* think I might be in trouble!

3) One Thing I’ve Learned: far more about the Australian political system, Westminster system and the Constitution than I ever thought possible. And I thought I was reasonably well-informed because I’d done Constitutional Studies at highschool. Hurry up and make your minds up, independents – we’re all sick of it now!

Blogging Month Day 2: Feet, Firefox, Foreclosures and Feral Teens

Well, I made it back for Day 2 (thought that was going to be the hard part! Though I guess just wait til the weekend!). The day is young, and I only got home from work at 9pm last night so not a whole lot’s happened, but let’s see if we can’t knock a daily rundown together…

1) One good thing: I have awesome socks today. They are making me EXTREMELY happy!

You can't see from here, but there are little ribbons at the back too

2) One bad thing: Posting the previous photo of socks? Took the better part of 30 minutes to do. It also took me an hour to upload 7 photos of my brother’s band from the weekend on Flickr. WHY won’t people write Firefox-compliant code?!

3) One thing I have learned: that the Sydney Opera House might have to close. That would be so awful! Why can the Government apparently afford to guarantee bank loans but not to save what’s probably the #1 identifiable tourist icon of the country?

4) Today’s link: (although technically there are two above… oh you want a proper link…. okay…) One word: America. Actually, two words: Bloody America. And Bloody Twilight. So that’s four. Ah, just watch the stupid clip already…

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”

Happy Easter, chickens! Hope you’ve enjoyed your Four Days of Play! (This is how a certain evil empire brown caffein-y soft drink company decided to sell the idea of drinking their drink all through the Easter long weekend. Amazingly, been browsing the blogosphere for backlash from outspoken religious types, and there doesn’t appear to be any. Don’t know if that’s perhaps the most disturbing thing of all…)

Anyways, if you’re not in insulin shock from too much sugary goodness already, here are some sweet treats for you:

1) Absolut Vodka has made Where The Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze’s 35-minute short film I’m Here available online for free in its entirety. A librarian falls in love with a robot and together they learn about sacrifice… (You’re welcome!)

2) From the blog that brought you The Aeneid on Facebook – OMG it’s World War II on Facebook! (Note: if you’re a student and you use this to write a history essay, you get everything you deserve…)

3) Finally, we’re always quick to make super-fun of ourselves here in Australia. Moreso to make fun of our government. Particularly where large sums of money are involved. Now, as a (very speedily done, mind you) parody followup to our new “there’s nothing like Australia” tourism campaign, seems this site agrees that indeed this is the case: but not for the reasons you’d think…

“This is my idea of heaven, coming home and watching the news…

Okay, so I’m back. I know I promised to check in and tell you I was alive, but for a variety of reasons (crappy wifi access being one of them) it kind of never happened. But never mind! I’m back home in Aus – thankyou Britain, you rocked! And I’m back to surfing around for the weird and wonderful of the web to dish up to my faithful friends and readers! It’s good to be home!

1) I’ve never been a terribly big fan of viral marketing, but I guess this one worked because I did go look it up… a particular insurance vendor in Britain while I was there visiting broadcast a whole bunch of TV ads stressing that they were most definitely not CompareTheMeerkat.com… what is CompareTheMeerkat.com, I hear you ask? I dare you to go find out! (Animals in clothing = the advertising industry at its best, no?)

2) This one’s kind of a New Years present to my buddy Kalafudra who I know is into at least ONE of these gentlemen – were these famous cuties seperated at birth?

3) Finally, a little taste of what I truly missed when I was away… (you know when you Brits say it it really isn’t the same!)