Interesting Things I Found On The Internet Whilst Trying To Cheer Myself Up

OK, feeling extremely low today for a few reasons, which I won't go in to, so I decided to randomly browse the internet to find interesting and weird things in an effort to cheer myself up.

I stumbled (can you actually stumble virtually?) on a website by someone called Zyra and learnt or, should I say (as I can't guarantee the accuracy in some of these claims), inwardly digested the following titbits:

? On 'Real Names': The misconception of a Real Name being what someone was unfortunate enough to have bestowed upon them when they were born has various attached problems to do with freedom and self-determination. It is a fundamental right of a person to change their name, and it is good manners for others to respect that. It is important for an individual to be in control of their own life, and one aspect of that is that they are in control of what their Real Name is. Another aspect of the rights of naming is this: The only person entitled to give a name to you is yourself. Ok, when you're just born there is a convenience for your parents to give you a temporary name until you're abilities of reasoning develop enough to think up a name for yourself, but ultimately YOU DECIDE. And then, that is your Real Name. You can change it again as many times as you like, and at any point the current answer to "What is the Real Name? is whatever you stated most recently. Another point about naming of persons. You don't have to be 'FIRST NAME' space 'LAST NAME'. You can be 'UNIQUE IDENTIFIER'. This can sometimes make form-filling a bit messy on computerised forms, but that is a result of inflexible thinking on the part of the people specifying the forms. My advice on that is, if you're called GANDALF for example and you encounter a form with first-name/last-name, put "GANDALF" in one or other of the spaces and put a single non-alphanumeric character in the other. This fools all but the most stubborn of forms. Unique identifier format is popular in adventure contexts and stage-names and has historical precedents. For example: Voltaire, Plato, Cher, Geronimo, Elvira, Hercules, Shiva, Pocahontas, Tutankhamun, Arvind.

Hmm, this actually struck a small chord inside me as I was born and named Julie by my parents. As I grew up my dad started to call me Jools and I found out a few years ago that I actually prefer this. It suits me better, I 'feel' like a Jools, I don't feel like a Julie. So during the move to Canada I made a conscious decision that this is what I would prefer to be called and introduced myself as such. This carried on when we returned to the UK but I still have to stop and think when people and friends I knew before Canada (including family) call me Julie now. It doesn't feel right. It sounds alien. It's not my Real Name any longer...

? Lightning versus Lottery Win: You are about 40-50 times more likely to win the lottery than you are to be killed by lightning, assuming such things as that you always buy one lottery ticket per week and that you are out in thunderstorms only as much as average!

Perhaps I really should buy a lottery ticket?

? A Fine Toothcomb?: You often hear it; "They searched the whole place with a fine toothcomb", or "Even after going through all the stuff with a fine toothcomb the evidence still wasn't found" etc. But, has anyone stopped to ask, "What IS a FINE TOOTH-COMB?"! Rather like "every which way but loose" it seems ok at first, but on closer inspection doesn't really make any sense. Even though there exists such a thing as a hair brush and a comb and a tooth brush, so there might be such a thing as a tooth-comb, of which the higher grade ones would be of the type "fine toothcomb", it really doesn't work, as there is no such thing as a fine tooth-comb. What the term really means is a FINE-TOOTH COMB, ie a comb on which the teeth are fine. This makes sense as it would be a comb which would have very narrow slits, thus preventing any objects of significant size from slipping through. However, you still hear people say it "fine toothcomb", when it should be "fine-tooth comb"!

? Viking Helmets: They did not have horns on them!

And so endeths the session on semi-interesting things for today. I'm off now to go and knit a scarf.

All Gone, All Going, All Coming

I've not just been a bad blogger, I've been a terrible blogger. Hopefully that will change now that my back is on the mend and the children are back at school.

I do have lots to share but just for now I'm going to give a quick bullet point update on what's been happening over the summer and what's coming up. They will not be in date order but just randomly as and when they pop in to my head. I will try and expand on some of them in the next few posts.

* Noah turned 5! Can you believe it? Although he was more excited about the fact that his birthday also marked the first of his summer football academy sessions.

* I did my back in - but after 5 or so chiropractor sessions I'm finally feeling that I'm getting on the mend.

* I got my lovely, gorgeously attractive iMac G5... and I'm still in love with it.

* Katarina started at senior school. When did that happen? When did she become old enough to go to 'big' big school?

* I've signed up to the Open University to start a degree. Not sure in what yet so have left it open but my first module is in web design so I'll see where that leads. Also considering graphic design.

* It looks as if I will be teaching scrapbooking at a local college on Thursday evenings. There has to be a minimum number of sign ups. To be honest I was almost on the point of pulling out of this one as when I was originally approached I didn't have a lot on and thought 'why not?' now I'm just thinking 'why????'. We'll see...

* I will be switching from Typepad to .mac for my blog and website but this won't be for a little while longer as I want to link it my standard domain name site but some other things need to be done before that can happen.

* We had a visit to Longleat Safari Park which Hettie in particular loved. Especially getting the opportunity to speak to the keepers and actually get to see Trevor the ostrich in real life!

* Shamefully became addicted to Big Brother 8. Why, oh, why did I allow myself to get hooked? I WILL NOT be watching next year! There are better things to do with 13 weeks...

* Actually did some scrapping for the first time in a LONG time - and I mean a LONG time. Last week I did a promo evening at the college, went to PaperArts Friday night crop (strangely on Friday night) and cropped all day the Swindon Scrapaholics 1st birthday crop on Saturday.

* And finally, as that's all I can remember at the moment, I've decided NOW is the time to return to work so I'm actively looking. It may take some time as I definitely want a term time job and those can be hard to come by.

OK, that's all for now as I have to go and pick up Noah from after school football club (he now thinks he's David Beckham...).

My Baby Off To Big 'Big' School

Katarina tells me she's not nervous, just excited. Then, in the next sentance, that she couldn't sleep last night, in fact woke up at 3am, went back to bed (where did she go???) at 4am, woke again at 6:30am and thought that she may as well get up.

But no, she's not nervous... She then spends the rest of the morning until it's time to leave talking ten to the dozen - a sure sign of nervousness (I know - this is something I do).

Now obviously I want to take some photos to commemorate the occassion (I'm a scrapbooking, it's in the blood) but she's now reached that age where it isn't cool. I managed to snap a couple of photos at home and dared to get the camera out at school and managed to get a couple of her, unawares, waiting in her tutor group line.

Love the second one where she is just chatting away to one of her best friends (there's a group of 4 of them who have been bestest friends for the last couple of years and luckily they are all in the same tutor group - they are dead excited!). The third photo shows her "I'm concentrating" face - there was a scary lady teacher banging on about the poor turnout of some in the children's school uniform, top buttons undone, ties not done up properly etc. etc. Kat was very quick to point out to me that ALL the children from her primary school were all very smartly turned out - and they were!

The last photo I can see the "oh, no, my mother is taking photos, again" look on her face. Priceless.

Oh, and as usual just click on the photos to see them bigger.

Back and Mac

Bad news first. I've done my back in. This is really the first time in a long time that I've actually been able to sit at the pc for any length of time to post.

Don't know what I did, perhaps slept awkwardly? All I do know is that a couple of weeks ago (yes, it's been going on that long now) I realised that my back left shoulder area was hurting. As per my usual way of dealing with illness/injury I just thought it would go away. How wrong can one be? Over a week later it was no better, worse in fact so I decide to have some massage therapy and see if that would work. Hmmm.... no.

I woke up the day after, last Friday, to find that it was a lot worse. This is apparently expected and wasn't too surprising. What was surprising was the fact that I couldn't even sit back against a chair or sofa - and the bruising was awful (don't worry Corinna, I have all faith in your massage talents, it was my fault for leaving it so long!). Saturday saw me a little better which was good as we were all off to see The Lion King in London (more on this in a later post). However, a long drive, just sitting in the car, followed by 3 hours sitting in a theatre do not do anything to help a bad back and by the end of Saturday I was in agony.

Things then just rapidly deteriorated over the weekend and by this Monday I was in so much pain I truly didn't know what to do with myself. To add to this on Monday I noticed a large fluid swelling at the top of my spine - I looked like one of those old fashioned humped teddy bears. Not. Good.

Corinna, bless her, popped around on Monday and urged me (read nagged) to ring the doctors for an emergency appointment. No luck. She then strongly urged me to (read strongly nagged) me to call the chiropractors and see if I could get an emergency appointment with them. Again no luck. Luckily I had already made an appointment for the doctors a week or so ago, routine checkup, so had an appointment for early Tuesday morning all set up.

Then on Monday night a weird thing happened. I was lying in bed deciding how I was actually going to get through the night, praying constantly, when after about 20 minutes or so I felt a strange ripple effect moving up my spine culminating in a weird 'popping' sensation. It really was a sort of 'puff/pop' feeling. Very odd. No pain involved. And then I just knew that whatever had been causing the additional chronic pain over the weekend had sort itself out a little. I must have really put something out of place but the lying in the correct position (and I'd like to think the prayer) must have allowed things to somehow slot back in to place.

Anyway, I've now been to the doctors and am doped up on diazepam and dichlofenic (don't kill me if the spelling is wrong!) and am feeling slightly better. I've also been referred to the Swindon Chiropractic Clinic and have, so far, had a couple of sessions with the not so lovely James - okay, he is lovely but not so after he's just spent time cracking your back!

So now (after a short break to stretch and de-kink) some good news. I'm getting better. Slowly, infuriatingly slowly for my mind, but getting there. We were supposed to go and see some good friends this weekend but I really can't face the 2 hour drive so they are coming to visit us instead. Yay! A lazy weekend, bbqs, dipping in the pool, bouncing on the trampoline (not me doing that of course!), spent with friends. What could be better?

Well, my new computer perhaps? I've got a iMac which is helping me feel better about my back! It is gorgeous. A fabulous 20" screen, fabulous graphics (looking at my old pc it just looks so old fashioned now), packed with cool gadgets (loving my little remote which works iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie etc.), it is just the coolest thing - even Richard is loving it and Kat is also looking at it very covetously! I think we could very well become an Apple convert family.

The new operating system for it, Leopard, looks like a must have too! Obviously I will need to expend a little more money on some Mac software, it's inevitable as I need some things, like Photoshop obviously, however the Apple software is great. I'm holding off for just a little while longer, until I get my student uni card (more about this at a later date too), as you get student discounts on software so it will make the wait worth it. There have been times when I've thought "oh, how do I do this?" but Apple has a great site that tells you how to get things done so no problems so far. And if I do have problems I know a lady who can (MaryAnne....?).

I'll keep you up to date with how it's going but at the moment all I can say is. It. Is. So. Cool.

I'm Not Fussy...

... it's just the way I like it!

I've been tagged by Kel to share some ways in which I'm not fussy but just like things the way I like them (sorry it's so late Kel, I blame the summer hols and the children - works for me anyhoo!):

1. Toast. It has to be thick bread to start off with. None of that healthy stuff either. No. It has to be the starchy white stuff. Then it has to be real butter, spread thickly on to the bread just as it pops out of the toaster. This is so that the butter starts to melt (but only in places, not completely melted) and it has to be eaten whilst it's still warm. Can't stand it when people let the toast go cold, then butter it (or even worse use margarine). Ugggh. Cold toast. Yuk. Hot, thick, white toast slathered in butter. Yum.



2. On the side. I'm an on the side type of gal. Don't like sauces and things on the actual plate (apart from gravy on my Sunday roast) but want them in a seperate dish, on the side, so that I can choose if I want to add it to my meal or just dip. I have a thing about the food on my plate looking 'clean'. Now I've just shown the world how weird I truly am!



3. This next one is not food related but bedtime related. Curtains should be closed at night. And by closed I mean completely closed, no chinking allowed. I will make Richard get out of bed and close up every chink I can see... I obviously can't get out of bed because by this time I have arranged myself inside the duvet in just the right position - lying on my side with one ear on the pillow and the duvet pulled up to cover my other ear - just in case those brain eating earwigs try to get me!!! I remember those stories from my early childhood and slept like that for so long afterwards that it is now just part of me. I DO NOT believe in brain eating earwigs anymore!!!

Have more to post later - Noah's 5th birthday party photos (can my baby really be 5 now?), some summer hols updates and some scrapping stuff. Later.

I'm Doubly Rockin'...

As I've been nominated not once but twice for the Rockin' Girl Bloggers award! Thanks Michelle and Nat for the nomination. And now I'm supposed to tag 5 other girls...

Kel -  Because I love her creativity and we have the 'Canuck' link so have to stick together...

Karbee -  Lots of great inspiration on her blog...

Rachel - Because my life is chaotic too...

Sam - A friend...

Laurie - Love her stuff... can't 'do' it... but love it...

OK, could actually have thought of some others too but I'll save them for another time! Mwuhahahahaha...

A Digital-Age Child

Noah is a typical boy (well as much as I can say that having only just the one son to base that surmise on). In this particular case I mean he hates to get dressed and would rather spend his time on the Wii or the PS2. So we have to find interesting ways to 'motivate' him to do as we ask. One thing that nearly always works is to time him (I'm sure other parents must use this technique) - he just loves the challenge and competition of seeing how quickly he can do it, or whether he can beat his sisters or his dad or me!

But get this. I'm 'timing' him the other day, I don't actually have to do any counting or timing whatsoever though, as long as I give him some sort of numerical answer he's as happy as can be, so I can just say whatever pops in to my head '3', '72.675', '9 3/4', you get the picture. Anyway, he's upstairs getting dressed, I'm downstairs 'counting' in my head when I hear him shout down for me to PAUSE! Pause? Pause? Apparently his t-shirt is inside out and this means that the timing should be paused until normal service can resume.

You know your children live in a digital age when they start thinking that they can pause life not just live tv!