A Christmas gift suggestion...

Liberated directly from aerianya because I really love it.




Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.

~Oren Arnold~

What a great thought for the season...

Australian meme

Stolen fromgumnut.
Just because this is slanted Australian, I may end up answering a few based on the general world at large.

And believe me, I wish I could answer 'yes' to more of these. Maybe someday, if I'm lucky...

Bold the ones you've done.

1. Heard a kookaburra in person.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Seen a koala
4. Visited Melbourne
5. Watched a summer thunderstorm.
6. Worn a pair of thongs
7. Been to Uluru [I so wish]
8. Visited Cape York
9. Held a snake
10. Sang along with Khe Sahn. [Did hear it, but never had a chance to learn the words...]
11. Drank VB [Yep - and it knocked me on my butt - in the States I live in a 3.2 state. beer = 3.2%]
12. Visited Sydney
13. Have seen a shark
14. Have used Aussie slang naturally in a conversation
15. Had an actual conversation with an indigenous Australian (Aboriginal person) [A bit, but not long enough...]
16. Eaten hot chips from the bag at the beach You mean from the newspaper, don't you? [And DAMN, but they were good!]
17. Walked/climbed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge
18. Used an outside dunny, and checked under the seat before sitting down [Damn straight!]
19. Seen Chloe in Young & Jackson's.
20. Slept on an overnight train or bus
21. Been to Sydney's Mardi Gras
22. Have gone bush-bashing
23. Taken a sickie
24. Been to see a game of Aussie Rules football [only on TV, sadly]
25. Have seen wild camels
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Had a Tim Tam Slam.
28. Ridden in a tram in Melbourne
29. Been at an ANZAC day Dawn Service.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Held a wombat
32. Been on a roadtrip of 800km or more
33. Seen the Great Australian Bight in person
34. Had a really bad sunburn
35. Visited an Aboriginal community
36. Seen a redback spider
37. Have watched Paul Hogan
38. Seen Blue Poles in person And contemplated it. It's a surrealistic hurdy-girdy.
39. Wandered barefoot in the bush/outback
40. Eaten Vegemite and hated it [Actually, I kinda like the stuff on toast spread really thin
41. Thrown a boomerang
42. Seen the Kimberlies
43. Given a hitch-hiker a lift
44. Been to Perth
45. Have tried Lemon, Lime and Bitters
46. Tried playing a didgeridoo
47. Seen dinosaur footprints
48. Eaten Tim Tams [Oh YES! Heaven. Along with the dark chocolate dipped candied ginger I found at a store near one of the Sydney underground stations
49. Been to Darwin
50. Touched a kangaroo
51. Visted the Great Barrier Reef
52. Listened to Kevin Bloody Wilson
53. Killed a Cane Toad
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre
55. Have read and own books by Australian authors
56. Visited Adelaide
57. Know the story behind "Eternity" [the guy with the chalk in Sydney?]
58. Been camping
59. Visited Brisbane
60. Been in an outback pub
61. Know what the term "Waltzing Matilda" actually means
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Listened to Slim Dusty
64. Own five or more Australian movies or TV series.
65. Sang along to Down Under
66. Have stopped specifically to look at an historic marker by the side of the road.
67. Eaten a 4'n'20 pie [They're ... interesting...]
68. Surfed at Bondi
69. Watched the cricket on Boxing Day
70. Visited Hobart
71. Eaten kangaroo [yep . we had 'roo and emu the same evening. Interesting country where you can find the two national animals prepacked at the grocer. :} ]
72. Seen a quokka
73. Visited Canberra
74. Visited rainforests
75. Used a Victa lawnmower
76. Travelled on a tram in Adelaide
78. Used a Hills hoist
79. Visited the Olgas
80. Used native Australian plants in cooking
81. Visited the snow
82. Chosen a side in Holden VS Ford
83. Visited the desert
84. Been water skiing
85. Read The Phantom
86. Visited Parliament House
87. Gone spotlighting or pig-shooting
88. Crossed the Nullarbor
89. Avoided swimming in areas because of crocodiles
90. Listened to AC/DC.
91. Called someone a dag
92. Voted in a Federal Election
93. Have been swimming and stayed between the flags - what flags?
94. Had a possum in your roof
95. Visited the outback
96. Travelled over corrugated roads.
97. Hit a kangaroo while driving [nope, we both dodged at the last minute
98. Been well outside any mobile phone coverage
99. Seen an emu.
100. Have woken to the smell of bushfires
101. Said that you were bludging or called someone a bludger [Nope - I still have all my own teeth...]

And my addition...

102. Habitually shortened friends' names. [yep. And modified words too. It took about a month for me to relearn American English. :} ]


Damn, but I miss Australia. I was only there a bit over a week, but it totally stole my heart.

All I want for Christmas are my Elder Gods...

I really, REALLY think I need this.



Cthulhu Plush Christmas Wreath


[EDIT: For those who want one of these - either follow the link just above in green or simply google 'Cthulhu plush wreath'. That's how I found it.]

Woo Hoo! We got through class early! [the HIV/AIDS Instructor class, that is]

I mean, like *really* early. One whole day early. Which is okay. I feel comfortable the we have the basic material to start teaching the state specific programs with a co-teacher. Now the free-form community stuff - that will take a bit.

But it was a good class and I learned a lot from it. And came out of it fairly depressed in some ways. So many folks have this mistaken belief that they're safe - that there's no way they could be at risk from HIV and that's so far from the truth it's scary. The latency period [no noticeable symptoms] can be up to 10-12 years and you're capable of infecting others during this entire time. And you may never know unless you've decided to be tested for some reason.

If I can do nothing else that make people aware of the fact that they are the *only* one who can protect themselves; that they can't rely on their partner to do so, then I think I will have accomplished something. And not just HIV, but all the various forms of hepatitis, STDs/STI's, etc.

All the information we've spent the last two weeks learning boils down to this: "It's not who you are, but what you do that puts you at risk from infection."

It's a scary, scary world out there. Don't forget to 'take a coat' with you when you go out.