Holiday reading that's another vampire novel (I'm still waiting for The Society of S to arrive from Amazon, that's the one you recommended, Candy). I've heard good things about this, and the subsequent two (Day Watch, Twilight Watch) although I gather the films of the first two are gorefests and so not really my sorta thing.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Reading: Nineteen Minutes
More from my holiday reading pile.
I've read other Jodi Picoult books, although I don't devour them as must-reads. This one is simultaneously interesting and repellent, given its topic of a school shooting. But she plays with such things in ways that explore them through a multitude of threads, and I'm prepared to take the journey with her.
I've read other Jodi Picoult books, although I don't devour them as must-reads. This one is simultaneously interesting and repellent, given its topic of a school shooting. But she plays with such things in ways that explore them through a multitude of threads, and I'm prepared to take the journey with her.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Reading: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Ah, the pleasure of a holiday, and some time to read. So this week I'll blog some of the books on my pile of possibilities.
This one's by the author who wrote Wicked, which became a successful Broadway musical (not yet seen here in Oz). He starts with known tales and fairy tales (Cinderella, in the case of this one, and the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz, in the case of Wicked) and reworks them in an individual style.
This paperback cost $32 Australian. I had a gift voucher for some of that, so I did buy it, but is it any wonder that I've ordered Wicked from Amazon, when even with the exchange rate and postage, it's costing under $20? For the same edition, large format paperback?
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Comment
Da planes is flying very slow from The US of A, at least from the Amazon warehouse. I note from a recent order that they will be taking up to a FORTNIGHT to pack the order, and then estimate shipping to take around 4 weeks; or more. (Note: everything was listed as being In Stock, so the packing delay isn't due to stock being unavailable). Does somebody need a better map to your warehouse?
Um, they put a parcel on a plane, and it arrives here in Oz, and the Oz postal system generally takes less than five working days to get a parcel from anywhere in this whole big big country to anywhere else in the country (which is still one big sucker of an island continent). If Australia Post can do it, in a country less populated and bigger than yours...
Sea mail from the US is no more, so why is supposed air transit (and I've flown this journey, it's a shorter one than to the UK, about 17 hours from the West Coast vs. 24 hours+ to London) taking so long? Is the US Mail, or whatever courier/logistics/mail system they're using, populated by Amazonian mules, and it only finds a plane when the mules totter into the international airport?
I ordered something from Barnes and Noble, and while their shipping is a few dollars more (per shipment and per item), they had it packed and shipped within about 48 hours tops, and estimate delivery at 7-21 working days.
This is an apples with apples comparison, by the way: standard international shipping. I know I could pay more for faster, but is this an Amazonian ploy to make us pay more?
Dear Amazon: I love that I can buy from you things that are harder to find here, (and that the exchange rate is rather nice at present) but why is your shipping so slooooow? Can you bung that biplane back in the Smithsonian, and have a chat to Boeing about their latest models? Please? And put the mules in a nice paddock, and find some biofuelled trucks? And repay the appreciation of your international customers with better service as regards shipping?
(it's been interesting to order things through Amazon marketplace sellers, and have them generally arrive pretty quickly, also by airmail. Ask them about the planes they're using. And I've had things from other US online retailers arrive by Global Priority within a week, so clearly there ARE faster planes out there than the ones you're using....)
Um, they put a parcel on a plane, and it arrives here in Oz, and the Oz postal system generally takes less than five working days to get a parcel from anywhere in this whole big big country to anywhere else in the country (which is still one big sucker of an island continent). If Australia Post can do it, in a country less populated and bigger than yours...
Sea mail from the US is no more, so why is supposed air transit (and I've flown this journey, it's a shorter one than to the UK, about 17 hours from the West Coast vs. 24 hours+ to London) taking so long? Is the US Mail, or whatever courier/logistics/mail system they're using, populated by Amazonian mules, and it only finds a plane when the mules totter into the international airport?
I ordered something from Barnes and Noble, and while their shipping is a few dollars more (per shipment and per item), they had it packed and shipped within about 48 hours tops, and estimate delivery at 7-21 working days.
This is an apples with apples comparison, by the way: standard international shipping. I know I could pay more for faster, but is this an Amazonian ploy to make us pay more?
Dear Amazon: I love that I can buy from you things that are harder to find here, (and that the exchange rate is rather nice at present) but why is your shipping so slooooow? Can you bung that biplane back in the Smithsonian, and have a chat to Boeing about their latest models? Please? And put the mules in a nice paddock, and find some biofuelled trucks? And repay the appreciation of your international customers with better service as regards shipping?
(it's been interesting to order things through Amazon marketplace sellers, and have them generally arrive pretty quickly, also by airmail. Ask them about the planes they're using. And I've had things from other US online retailers arrive by Global Priority within a week, so clearly there ARE faster planes out there than the ones you're using....)
No comment
From an eBay description:
The dolls house was made by the inmates at Berrima goal, (a working goal in the Southern Highlands of NSW, where inmates built and sold toys and wooden objects to the public) and is solid in construction, will take any punnishment kids could throw at it.
The dolls house was made by the inmates at Berrima goal, (a working goal in the Southern Highlands of NSW, where inmates built and sold toys and wooden objects to the public) and is solid in construction, will take any punnishment kids could throw at it.
Birthday
He's a breath away from blowing out the candles, although since the table (outside) which was, for a brief moment, laden with food, and subsequently looked as though a plague of locusts had descended; and the jumping castle in the backyard looked, from inside, as though a riot was taking place (and sounded like it too!) - it's a wonder he had any breath left. But of course he did.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Pink cupcakes
I didn't eat these (they were entered in a cupcake class of the Royal Easter Show baking section) but they seemed right for today's photo, since today's colour was undoubtedly pink....a friend is having a little one later this year, and knows it's a girl, so today I was shown a wardrobe of lovely pinkness. Pretty things and practical things, you forget how small 0000 and 000 are, and they grow out of these rather soon. But it's fun to share such happy dreams and preparations.
(Yup, I forgot to photograph the baby clothes...!)
(Yup, I forgot to photograph the baby clothes...!)
Friday, April 11, 2008
Green
A grass farm, early on a grey morning, with the sprinklers going full bore. I've photographed this house before - it seems to be being allowed to decay, and yet it has the TV aerial which implies a habitation. Such classic vintage lines it has - the roof, the verandah.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Date palm and stormy sky
It was a rainy start this week, and daylight saving ended last weekend, so the early evening was darker and gloomier than it has been - but this last couple of days have been autumnally golden. Lovely.
I chuckled hugely at the number of comments about the bookshelves. Such wise, reading readers you all are!
And meghs, I will get back to 100 word stories again....
I chuckled hugely at the number of comments about the bookshelves. Such wise, reading readers you all are!
And meghs, I will get back to 100 word stories again....
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Bookcase by the Stupids
Isn't this a purty, purty place? Lovely colours, that sweet turquoise, delicate embroidery on the sofa fabric, and books....
um, about the books?
WARNING: RANT FOLLOWS!
Didya notice, fellow readers, that the books are SPINE IN??? This image is from the March 2008 Country Home magazine, a magazine I've been buying for years, a magazine I normally respect and enjoy. But holy-moly! It's the second magazine in the last few months (yup, I'll name names, the other one was Elle Decor and I meant to blog that picture too, an apartment in Houston if I remember) to proudly show a collection of books displayed this way.
I hardly know where to start.
Um, why do they have books at all?
Why are their books merely decorative?
How the fangdoodle do they find a book to read, or are these books not about reading, but about having books to show they're nice reading folks, only if you're nice reading folks wouldn't you want to prioritise FINDING the nice books you want to read, not storing them so YOU CAN'T FIND ANYTHING EASILY unless you spent your entire childhood playing memory games like Pelmonism (I think that's what it's called, I spent my childhood, or substantial parts of it, READING).
Lovely room.
Bookcase by the Stupids.
I'll reproduce the description below, because multiple folks have been responsible for not pointing out that this particular Emperor is not only nekkid, but daft as well.
Oh Country Home, you make me weep. And you said it yourself: the backward facing books (backward. Do I need to labour that point? Nope. The readers who read this blog aren't daft) turn what could have been a distracting jumble (both words hugely offensive. Distracting from what? Why is distracting bad? Jumble? Cornucopia, that's what a bookshelf is, a collection of treasures. If you buy a 'jumble' of books, then that's your taste. What, you should just buy books with blue spines or beige ones, so they're decor-books-by-the-yard, irrespective of the WORDS AND STUFF INSIDE THEM?) into a neutral element (neutral. Um, neutered, maybe? simple demonstration of owner cringe? into a laughingstock, maybe....).
From memory, in the Houston apartment in Elle Decor (designed by a son for his mother, but who made the book-organising choice I don't recollect), the decision to put the books spine-in was partly influenced by the fact that they were all dirt-common bestsellery stuff - implication, in this posh noice apartment, they were ashamed of their reading tastes so preferred the calm cream of the page-ends to, omigosh, revealing the titles/authors and their common tastes in reading. Well heck, then put your bookcases in a private room in your apartment, not the living room. Surely any booklover who comes into your parlour will pull out a book or two and instantly know that you're a reader with your own tastes. If they don't share yours, tough luck. They can read what they like.
(I'm steaming, can you tell?????)
Now if only every library in the world adopted this fabulous idea for neatness and design style, wouldn't that be grand? Bit tricky to bung on the spine labels, of course, and it might drive the patrons NUTS...
...and I wonder why there are NO BOOKSHOPS with this display idea?
Incomprehensible.
I are boggled like whoa and damn.
(Just in case you wondered, the fourteen bookshelves scattered through this house all subscribe to the wonderfully old fashioned and incredibly messy idea of having the spines on display, the spines being part of the browsing wonder of the books. Retro, but, um, NOT STUPID?!)
Country Home, I have loved so many of the rooms and ideas and houses you've included over the many years I've been reading. But omigosh.... couldn't someone, at some stage in the editorial process that resulted in this page, have spoken up about this?
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Pretty
So there's an expression, The cherry on the icing on the cake. I think this example from a cake at the Royal Easter Show is a super-posh version...pretty!
Monday, April 07, 2008
Merry-go-round horses
The working week started with a gallop, with all the minutiae of the day to day, a multitude of small tasks compiling into the pattern of a working life. When there is room to be creative, imaginative, helpful to others, it is satisfying, and the day goes quickly.
Tonight, I need to work on handquilting a project. Me. Handquilting. I must be nuts. Certifiable. Well, not certifiable, but certainly not a regular handquilter. It's not a huge project, so it's doable. And this is what it wanted...Do the Quilting Rules say you can't use embroidery thread? you must have even stitches? Piffle! Be off with you, Quilt Police!
Tonight, I need to work on handquilting a project. Me. Handquilting. I must be nuts. Certifiable. Well, not certifiable, but certainly not a regular handquilter. It's not a huge project, so it's doable. And this is what it wanted...Do the Quilting Rules say you can't use embroidery thread? you must have even stitches? Piffle! Be off with you, Quilt Police!
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Kiva update
Have you made any loans through Kiva? I have two in progress at present, and the scheduled repayments are coming through. When the loan periods are complete, I'll have my money back, and will lend it again.
Here are my two loans, if you'd like to look and see how it all works. If you scroll down past the lenders you'll see the info on the microfinance organisation, and scheduled repayments etc.
Here are my two loans, if you'd like to look and see how it all works. If you scroll down past the lenders you'll see the info on the microfinance organisation, and scheduled repayments etc.
- Moriya Nabieva in Tajikistan (fabric sales)
- Shamshad Iqbal's group in Pakistan (embroidery)
Just reading the stories of people as you choose your next loan is an education in how the third world works, and how people's lives are lived there. Fascinating. Learn more about Kiva here. Minimum loan amount is $US25, which is not a lot, and you know that your loan (not donation, so the money can go around and around and be useful many times over) is helping specific people.
There are Kiva gift certificates, if you want a present for someone who has everything...
Spiderweb
I won't even tell you how many times I tried to catch this spiderweb...what with the angle of the sun, and the fall of shadows, and my camera skill limitations (she wobbles...). I think this was with the macro setting, and I stopped breathing while taking it. The leaf in the centre is rolled up into a shelter for the spider, who's kinda sitting on the verandah and hoping these pesky humans will foof off and let something edible provide a payoff for a Considerable amount of work....
If you click on the photo you can see a larger version at Flickr.
If you click on the photo you can see a larger version at Flickr.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
River morning mist
As we set off along the river path this morning, the mist was still rising after a chilly night, hadn't yet been burnt off by the sun. It's turning autumnal, cooler nights, cooler days, the return of mist and fog in the early mornings. It hasn't been a hot summer, but autumn and spring remain my favourite times of year.
I've just done a monster catchup, so if you're a regular reader, skim back through the last couple of weeks to find entries which have magically appeared for days on which they probably didn't happen, but maybe they did. Anyhoo. Back to a photo a day...
Email Australia project
The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney has lots of paper/stone/other correspondence from over the centuries, and is now embarking on an archive of email. If you're in Australia and would like to submit emails, here's the site with more info:
http://emailaustralia.ninemsn.com.au/
The Categories:
1.Life and Laughter— funny forwards and tales of hilarity from everyday life
2.Touching tales— personal e-mails that touch the soul
3.Family— the first steps to the last, and all things in between
4.Love and romance— e-mails to make you go 'oooh'
5.E-mails you regret sending— e-mails that make you go 'arrrgghh'
6.Embarrassing typos— it's amazing how easily meaning goes ashtray with a small typo
7.Current affairs— news and its effect on us, whether it's local or from overseas
8.Complaints— for those moments when only 'putting it in writing' will do
http://emailaustralia.ninemsn.com.au/
The Categories:
1.Life and Laughter— funny forwards and tales of hilarity from everyday life
2.Touching tales— personal e-mails that touch the soul
3.Family— the first steps to the last, and all things in between
4.Love and romance— e-mails to make you go 'oooh'
5.E-mails you regret sending— e-mails that make you go 'arrrgghh'
6.Embarrassing typos— it's amazing how easily meaning goes ashtray with a small typo
7.Current affairs— news and its effect on us, whether it's local or from overseas
8.Complaints— for those moments when only 'putting it in writing' will do
Friday, April 04, 2008
Vegetable preserves
I've never tried this sort of preserving, though I have tried jam/marmalade, way back when. But look at the patience and craft here, like the even, even stacks of celery, the diagonal spiral and careful shapes in the jar next to it. Wonderful. Inspiring. Glad it's still being done, glad to have a chance to see these (at the Royal Easter Show, district displays. Can you tell they're among my favourite Show exhibits?)
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Jewelled preserves
There was something jewel-like about the preserves included in the district displays at the Royal Easter Show. Wonderful colours and textures - look at the fine strips in that marmalade!
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Fruit cake
I think these days are bearing fruit. It's just sometimes, when you run from day's end to day's end at work, and see only the stuff left undone rather than the things you did instead (which made people happy, or helped, or with problems solved) that you wonder.
Photo from the Royal Easter Show. Isn't this like jewels?
Photo from the Royal Easter Show. Isn't this like jewels?
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Cupcake display
Froma cupcake seller at the Royal Easter Show. Sadly, the ones on the big tiered stand were 'for display only' (so they would last the two weeks of the show), but the ones in the right hand corner were edible, and for sale.
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