">My Big World Of Crap

My daughter was looking through my albums of old photos tonight, for some pictures of some of the places in Australia we’ve been.  In the course of that mission, she found this photo of our baby.

We looked at this and other puppy photos, and its no wonder we just had to buy him when we saw him.  He was just irresistable.

5 and a half years later, and he’s still cute as ever, just taller and longer.  Sometimes I have to question his cuteness though, like when he’s trying to hump a pillow, or my foot.  Thats not cute.

Is not my special subject. In fact it was an era of music that I tried to ignore when I was growing up.

However, that did me no good tonight. We went to a trivia quiz night at my wife’s church, and the quizmaster was obviously a fan of it ….one of the competitions was to name the songs from a few seconds snippet of each one, and that tragic era was over-represented (in my humble opinion). Our team did ok at this, about 50% in total … but the winning team scored about 75%. Most scored less than us.

We came 3rd … about 3 points off the winners. Pretty decent, but should have studied more. A couple of questions that could have made all the difference:

• who wrote “Gone with the Wind”? (the question was more obscure than that but we knew the book) …. also knew the author was Margaret something - Mitchell is the bit we could  not remember
• who was the first female state premier in Australia? Carmen Lawrence … we said Joan Kirner

But we did have some good gets:

• knowing all the leaders of the USSR/Russia since 1917 - you had to match names and dates with their photos
• who was the Australian test cricketer who announced his retirement on 9 December 2006? Damien Martyn
• knowing the order of release of these James Bond movies: “From Russia With Love”, “The Spy Who Loved Me”, “Moonraker” and “Tomorrow Never Dies”

A couple of funny things:

• what is the term for a castrated rooster? A capon is the correct answer …. we said KFC
• what is the 2nd most popular activity in the American Catholic Church after mass? No, the answer is not paedophilia …. its bingo.

…. you start seeing things like “Mould a Willy” kits in a gift shop in the middle of Westfield Belconnen Mall.  Not exactly hidden away either, it was on display in the front of the store, so no, I did not have to go purposefully looking for it down the back of the store.  And it wasn’t the first thing that attracted my attention as I walked past the shop.  Not really the sort of things I’d expect to see outside the porn emporiums of Fyshwick.

NSFW warning

To see what a “Mould a Willy” kit entails, go here.

Today is Australia Day, the anniversary of the day the first white settlers from England landed in Sydney in 1788.

Inspired by this post in Aussie Bloggers  …. here is a photo of what I think is one of the most amazing places in Australia, Purnululu National Park in the Kimberly region of Western Australia.  Also known as the Bungle Bungles, this area was only really discovered by non-indigenous Australians around 30 or so years ago.

I was there in 2000.  Eight years ago.  I mean to go again some time.  It is truly an amazingly beautiful and spectacular place.

Had I not been so slack in scanning some of my pre digital camera photos, I would have got my act together and submitted something like this to the Aussie Bloggers post.

…. the other day while I was working.

Doesn’t mind making himself at home in my office.

I’d be voting for Barack Obama, according to the electoral compass tool which I found via Chosha’s blog.

From the safe distance of Australia, Obama strikes me as the candidate who promises the most in the way of change.  It will be interesting to see whether a black man is too scary a thought for the US voting public - or a woman, Hilary Clinton, for that matter.  In my view, either of them would be a change for the better in America.

Spent the day underground at Jenolan Caves. Caves are something I’ve had a longtime interest in, since I was a kid. I was for a while quite an active caver, but unfortunately work, and things like meeting my wife, and moving to Canberra, led me to drift away from it. That, plus really being too tall for it, and wide (the best, most agile cavers are small and thin, not big solid guys like me).

My daughter has a new camera (she got it for her birthday a couple of months ago) so her and I were into it with the competing photos, which is fun. We are yet to compare each others’ pictures …. something for tomorrow I think.

Maybe not quite, but the closest substitute to it in our part of the world is where we spent today, doing this:

A couple of observations about my fellow water park users:

• tattoos - why?  I saw so many horrible looking tattoos and can’t recall one decent one.  What is it that motivates people to disfigure themselves with tattoos?  (and piercings … most of them look like shit, too)
• skin cancer - the message isn’t getting through with plenty of people, clearly.

Wishing you and your loved ones a merry Christmas.  Hope that you enjoy the gifts you’ve given and been given, and the food and drink that no doubt each of you will partake of today.

As for me, I’m happy with what I’ve scored from Santa.  And since last night I’ve been eating and drinking more than I should, happy in the knowledge that any kilojoules (calories) consumed on Christmas Day simply don’t count.

Just finished work for the year.   No work now until 7 January, 2008.  Yay!