天高皇企鹅远

things going

2009-07-05T04:02:02Z

i have finished packing the study! amazing! it only took several days! anyway, more things going. some of these things will require a small sum of money; some are free. even if they have $ next to the item, let me know if you want it anyway, if no one else wants it we ultimately want to get rid of it so would probably give it away anyway. comments are screened.

not pictured: tickle me elmo (in working order); a fridge (some monetary recompense to be discussed). also does anyone want the full set of roswell novels? who knew i had the whole set?!

an outdoor setting (table + four to six chairs) ($):

printer ($ maybe? let me know if you want anyway):

clothes rack (very small $):

large dining table (very small $), seats six to eight, lovely wood thing, terrible picture due to it being completely covered in stuff:

open cabinet:

set of drawers (one or both):

mid-week links

2009-07-01T13:24:05Z

Today is Mr Squiggle's Fiftieth Birthday!

At Crikey: Same Sex Marriage - Polling at odds with Parliament, is an analysis of the recent Galaxy poll that asked Do you agree or disagree that same sex couples should be able to marry in Australia?. And so, the opportunity arises for you to attend Equal Love, a National Day of Action for Same-Sex Marriage, on August 1st.

In Shanghai, an apartment building fell over. The photo is pretty cool!

I love this story: Giving up my iPod for a Walkman . A 13 year old writes about his week using a walkman instead of his iPod.

This has mostly done the rounds already, Utegate as told by LOLCATS.

An interesting article at the NY Times, Keeping News of Kidnapping Off Wikipedia . A NYT reporter was kidnapped by the Taliban, and the NYT tried to keep it quiet, which they could do with traditional news outlets, but the problem was with keeping it off Wikipedia.

A Four Corners report on something about which I've never heard before: A Totally Avoidable Tragedy, on why an unseaworthy boat was given approval and the racism behind the decision (it had no GPS and no two-way, because "We won't be needing that... these guys are two generations behind. (They) wouldn't be able to use it." CHARMING).

expectations based on your bits

2009-06-30T11:25:34Z

I am completely horrified but absolutely unsurprised to the reactions regarding Pop, the Swedish toddler whose parents have elected, for a few years at least, to not tell people the sex of their child.

Overwhelmingly the comments in general media have been along the lines of 'it's like child abuse' or 'i can't believe they're not telling their child what sex the child is!' I'm pretty confident the kid knows (or will know) what bits they have, and what that means.

I love that the parents are doing this. I think it's awesome that, for whatever value they can give, they are trying to give their child the grounding to not be attacked from before birth by our ridiculously gendered society. And before you assume I'm over-speaking, as is my hippy way, let me tell you an anecdote: a colleague's wife was due to give birth. Almost every person in our office was surprised and flabbergasted that they weren't finding out the gender of the child before birth. "How will you know what clothes to buy?" was the question asked. What, like, you think girls from birth are attracted to ponies, boys from birth are attracted to trucks?

Why do people think it's so necessary to commit these gender rules from birth? How does that make us better people?

Anyway. I wish I was surprised at the outrage. But I'm not.

More commentary at Unapologetically Female and by Holly at Feministe.

And I have been delighted, via many posts and comments mentioning it, to have read Lois Gould's awesome 1972 short fiction about parents who raise their child without naming its gender so it can grow up without internalising all of these gender stereotypes: X: A Fabulous Child's Story. There were "Boy's' Pyjamas" and "Girls' Underwear" and "Boys' Fire Engines" and "Girl's Housekeeping Sets". Mr. Jones went home without buying anything for X. That night he and Ms. Jones consulted page 2326 of the Official Instruction Manual. "Buy plenty of everything", it said firmly. <3333

(and omg: Once more, the Joneses reached for their Instruction Manual. Under "Other Children", they found the following message: "What did you Xpect? Other Children have to obey all the silly boy-girl rules, because their parents taught them to. Lucky X - you don't have to stick to the rules at all! All you have to do is be yourself. We're not saying if it be easy." <333333)

books read june 2009

2009-06-29T23:12:28Z

Going away earlier this month for a weekend of food, games and books, coupled with semester break, inspired me to read a whole lot of fiction this month. It was awesome.

Teo, Hsu-Ming - Love and Vertigo*
An exploration of family politics following the death of the protagonist's mother. Set in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, it moves back and forth, pushed by the families interactions and the protagonist's desire to learn more (and share more) about her mother, and the reason behind her mother's death. I enjoyed this, though it was a bit difficult reading.

Liu, Marjorie - A Taste of Crimson*
A supernatural romance in someone else's universe. Boring vampires versus demons oh noes we must be together love story. I've had many recommendations for this author, but so far not my thing.

Jin, Xing - Shanghai Tango*
The autobiography of the PRC's first post-operative MtF transexual. I've been looking to read this book for a while now (since about February of last year, actually), and stumbled upon it by accident in the library across from my office (yay the library!). It was an interesting read, because everyone's story is different, but her reliance on stereotypes as the signifier of gender difference was a bit something.

Wu, Fan - February Flowers*
Coming of age story set in the PRC, I was disappointed by the conflict in the story, the blurb suggested these two friends would have to deal with their dark secrets separately, but their dark secrets were that they were both lesbians and attracted to each other but didn't realise it.

Adams, John Joseph (ed) - Federations
We bought this because our friend Genevieve has a story in it, but happily it also contains many other great stories, exploring all sorts of cool themes in SF contexts. Really recommend this one for an easy collection of reading. There were a couple of boring stories, but there always are.

Feng, Jicai - The Three-Inch Golden Lotus*
A comedy, of sorts, looking at the history of foot-binding in the format of a fictional novel, set during the abolition period in the early 20th Century.

Yep, Laurence - Lady of Ch'iao Kuo - Warrior of the South*
Fictional account of the Lady, who was a princess (and later ruler) of the Hsien (in Southern China) in about 500AD.

Yep, Laurence - Dragon Cauldron*
Third book in a series. I picked up these Yep books because I've heard good things about him, but both the book above and this one were not really my thing. Perhaps because they were both a bit too JF for me.

Sun, Xuegang + Cai, Guoyun - Chinese Fairytales*
This one on the other hand was awesome. An excellent collection of Chinese fairytales, including quite a few from the not-Han groups. I mean, I've never been a huge fan of the main story-telling motifs in Chinese fairytales (being that the women often die/are helpless/get turned into things/fall in love with their kidnappers), but it was nice to read them all in one collection, rather than gleaned from years of occasional stories. I wouldn't mind owning this one! It also had some nice illustrations.

Pierce, Tamora - Beka Cooper bk2: Bloodhound
Book two in the Beka Cooper trilogy, it was a fun though problematic romp through Tortall (as they always are). I am also pretty confident I know how the third book will end, at least in terms of relationships and things.

Pon, Cindy - Silver Phoenix*
I have been eagerly awaiting this book since I heard the author was turned away by a publisher with the words, "there's no market for Asian fantasy." Silver Phoenix is the tale of Ai Ling, who sets out to find her father, and on the way encounters demons and learns a lot about herself. It is set in a world that is modeled off Ancient China, drawing off Chinese mythology and it is action-packed fantasy and it is awesome. Also Ai Ling loves eating (and I love her) (also that food).

Barrett, Grahame, Payten, Paul, and Goldsmith, Steve - Your Eco Handbook (and apparently by The Age and The SMH)
This book is a very simple, very gentle, wishy-washy introduction to the issue of sustainability. Most of the advice is well-enough, very focused on the individual, but some of it is actually mis-leading (such as 'turn the air-conditioner down a degree or two'). Emphasis on 'pass on pre-loved clothes to others' but it says nothing about *buying* pre-loved clothes. It is quite good in terms of a basic Workplace thing, including behaviour change advice, though.

Vittachi, Nury - Mr Wong Goes West and The Feng Shui Detective
Two books in a series about C.F. Wong, a Feng Shui Consultant who often ends up solving mysteries via feng shui. The humour in the book is very based on stereotypes, but based on other things the author (Sri Lankan born, living in HK) has written, I suspect it's a commentary rather than lazy/suspect writing. Wong, along with his assistant (the Australian Joyce), traipse around Singapore, Malaysia and HK and solve crimes and feng shui problems. It's light, engaging reading, it took me a little while to get into the style of it but overall I quite enjoyed.

Yap, Joey - More Stories and Lessons on Feng Shui*
A super patronising, heteronormative attempt at legitimising Feng Shui as a science.

but i don't like my chances

2009-06-27T13:14:50Z

delightful things of recent days:

rice soaking up curry sauce. scarves. singing in mandarin. new books. old books. chocolate. scarves. brightly coloured coats. cook books. sitting in beanbags. heavy rain when i'm sitting inside. my ipod. the colour red. toe socks. oolong tea. stripes. cooking food. umbrellas. penguins. cupcakes. neckties. picturebooks. dancing. noodles. postcards. walking in a bracing dampness. the beach. awesome badges. roast potatoes.

delightful things i want right now:
hawker-style char kuay teow.

please share yours.

mid-week(ish) links

2009-06-25T05:02:26Z

An awesome essay by Jha at Racialicious: The Intersection of Race and Steampunk: Colonialism's After-Effects & Other Stories, from a Steampunk of Colour's Perspective.

At Hoyden: Homebirth to become illegal in a year, thanks to new legislation.

The Invisble People, at Womanist Musings: Is it any wonder that when given the doll test children of color overwhelming select the white doll over the black doll? Even when it comes to kids books, one must purposefully look for those that contain people of color. If you are looking for a subject matter like Chinese New Year, then the child's book will contain Chinese children but otherwise most characters will be white because they are considered the universal norm. People of color are only represented when our cultures can be consumed.

A debunking of myths regarding language learning (specifically stuff like 'kids learn better') by Slit: Hard Work.

Surely that's not racist at New Matilda, on the papercuts of little jokes, and the correlation between those harmless gags and the bigger acts of violence.

A critique of the recent Princess-reimaging: Fallen Princess Jasmine raises questions about stereotypes.

Awesome article on cognition and the way language shapes our it: How Does Language Shape the Way We Think? I found this article very excellent reading, a lot of very interesting ideas about the shape and construction of our thoughts.

Another Slap in the Face for Female Gamers at Unapologetically Female: The print version of the well-known gaming magazine EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) folded earlier this year, and rather than a refund for their subscriptions, its readers have just begun receiving issues of Maxim instead.

automatic population

2009-06-24T12:35:21Z

I was applying for a job this evening, and I started the application process by uploading my CV, as a word document. The program into which I uploaded it then pulled out all the relevant data, creating fields that were automatically populated (correctly) with my job title, responsibilities, and the duration of my employment. Jobs for which I had ceased employment automatically created a field into which I filled in my reasons for leaving.

I am moderately impressed with the quality of that script! If only it was always that easy!

[book] bloodhound, tamora pierce

2009-06-23T12:58:31Z

I have long loved the Tortall books, they are like my pulp fiction, YA fantasy is always great for that. (I love Alanna the most)

If you're familiar with Tortall, you'll know, much like a lot of fantasy fiction, there are a lot of made-up words. Made-up swear words, made-up terms for man and woman and girl, and other made-up words. That's fine, that's cool.

It's just, you'd think, if you can make up random words for man and woman, you'd also make up random words for a random foreign language, spoken in the book only in single word instructions to a dog, and described as 'foreign jabber,' instead of leaving me to stumble along reading berhenti and tinggal and kawan.

If it was a language being used wholesale, whole sentences or something, I'd guess it was just easier that way, to use existing words. But these were single words, instructions for a scent hound. So I just don't get it.

I have many issues with her books, but I enjoyed the book, I always do.

things going

2009-06-21T06:34:18Z

does anybody want:

~~a pair of size nine (women's) rollerblades, with arm guards and wrist guards and stuff~~
one bright pink feather boa
one children's sesame street beanbag (I've had it for the last twenty five years, so it's definitely old school)
a bert (from sesame street) backpack
ETA a cd/stereo that takes batteries

to rummage through this bag of women's clothes (mine, so size eight to twelve, depending) before we take it to the salvos? it is all in excellent condition

those hordes from the north

2009-06-18T14:17:38Z

Do you remember reading Tomorrow, When the War Began, the crux of which is Australia is invaded by some populous nation to the North, on Australia Day, desperate to take all our land, and you thought to yourself, I wonder if he's implying that it's Indonesia or China, coming to threaten our Australian whatever whatever?

Well, watch this space, because now that they're making a movie version of it, I'm pretty sure we're about to find out!

mid week links

2009-06-17T07:09:36Z

Via Zanchey, When To Give Up Crime, Last month in Loganville, Georgia, a 40-year-old man saw two girls walk into a Wal-Mart, saw Hooters paraphernalia inside their car, and decided he would get into their car to wait for them. He later told police that he decided to do this because he had a "conservative girlfriend" and the girls "looked easy." The blogpost is all 'oh lols' but still highlights the issues here.

I thought this was great: from an accepting father of a non-conforming ten year old boy, on being trans and on acceptance. You think, if you can just beat it out of him, you can make the world the way it was in the 50s. You can bring back the golden age. (that never existed for anyone but a few white men.) Your people have been afraid of every change since the invention of the written word, which would destroy our ability memorize epic poems and turn our brains to mush. You feared anesthesia 100 years ago, you feared fertility medicine a generation ago (test tube babies!) you feared interactial marrige, you feared the gays who stopped cowering in shame at Stonewall and started fighting back, and now you are terrified, shaking in your hob nailed boots at the sight of a smiling child in a dress.

There's an awesome post at shiny new coin on political squatters, moving in to vacant properties and using them as a place from which to offer meals and materials, Making Space. I love this idea, making use of wasted space.

The greatest review of the new Star Trek movie: ...on the dance floor, a minute and a half video review. It is the best ever.

Interesting and thought-provoking analysis of the "Happily Ever After" complex as used in marketing campaigns at StilettoREVOLT: The "Happily Ever After" Complex. The pictures analysed I think are very interesting.

A discrimination survey conducted by ANU has resulted in some disturbing but unsurprising results regarding the ability of ethnic minorities to get jobs based on perception: The survey found that [t]o get the same number of interviews as an applicant with an Anglo-Saxon name, a Chinese applicant must submit 68% more applications, a Middle Eastern applicant must submit 64% more applications, an Indigenous applicant must submit 35% more applications, and an Italian applicant must submit 12% more applications.

Homeless advocate (both homeless, and an advocate for the homeless) Eric Sheptock gets his message out using technology, twitter and emails and blogging that he accesses from his local public libraries. You can read more about his use of media technology to improve awareness at the NPR story: Homeless Advocate Goes High Tech.

From a UK source, five reasons not to shop in supermarkets.

Something Perth-ish: six thousand.

Things on trafficking: Pregnant women being trafficked for their babies on Radio Australia; and Diners Club Offers Payment Plan for Vietnamese Brides, an offer now retracted by Diners Club, but the fact that it existed in the first place is horrific.

There's also a great article up at Inside Stories on The permanent shift to temporary migration in Australia, looking at migrant vulnerability under the 457 Visa, patterns of prejudice and protest against migrant workers (particularly those from developing nations), and the assumptions that are made in terms of interpreting those patters. This article is really interesting, very easy to read and very informative.

Awesomeness: Introducing the Warpship, on how warpships will work.

The 2nd Asian Women Carnival is up, hosted by Oyceter. I have only just started reading these myself, and I am a little bit sad that I was unable to write anything, but as always interested to read the words of others.

Jo Tamar talks about The Power of Language, and both that post and the post of Old Feminists to which she links are thoughtful considerations on the power of language and the threat that some people feel when they hear someone talking in another language.

my email has been disconnected

2009-06-16T04:56:32Z

Penguins ventured down South for a long weekend, with Gilli, Greg, Paul, Kandace and Rick. We hired out a private house in Eagle Bay, it cost us $1400 for the seven of us for four nights and it was totally worth it. It was warm, with excellent heating, and a fantastic kitchen fully-provisioned with implements, and it had a television and a dvd-player and was on the beach. It was very much like going to Terracon, except much more comfortable!

We were there Thursday night through to late Sunday afternoon (that is why we paid for the extra night, so we could spend all of Sunday there), and we only left the house on Friday, when we went for a walk down the beach and wandered into Dunsborough and over to Ngilgi caves.

We spent a lot of time eating, I have written a full, beautifully photographed write-up, you can read it at my food blog, but our menu ended up as follows:
Thursday evening, pizza. Gilli made the pizza base in Perth, and we left it to rise as we made the three hour drive to Eagle Bay. We ended up making four pizzas, two vegan and two not-vegan.
Friday breakfast of waffles, pancakes, and stewed some apples. We dined on the patio, and Kandace complained that there wasn’t enough ocean views.
Friday lunch D and I sat on the awesome wooden furniture at Samudra, a vegetarian café. I had a delicious lentil burger (it was amazing), and D nommed a raw wrap with lots of yumminess in it. Everyone else went for Dunsborough Bakehouse pies and other baked treats. Friday dinner was a roasted extravaganza.

Saturday morning breakfast was less of a morning thing and more of an afternoon thing. Greg and I started the day by baking treats, jam thumbprint cookies and lemon and poppy seed muffins, before even thinking about actual breakfast, it was a massive fry up of hash browns, sausages (vegan and not), toast, tomatoes, mushrooms, and sweet potato hash browns, which were awesome. Friday dinner was nachos and tacos.
Late Saturday night, whilst watching the Dune miniseries, I cooked a pumpkin saag and some dahl, specifically for breakfast noms on Saturday, at the more usual time of nine-thirty-ish. I served these with roti and rice. Before we left on Sunday afternoon, more baking was to be had, for the trip back to Perth, and I made a whole lot of sushi.

It was a fantastic weekend, penguins had a great time, and our friends are awesome A++. As they always are.

All Photos

born everywhere, raised in britain

2009-06-07T01:21:38Z

The guardian.co.uk has this interactive article online, Born everywhere, raised in Britain. It's from last year. The guardian interviewed one child from every country in the world, living in the UK (except the Central African Republic and North Korea, as they couldn't find anyone from those countries living in the UK), it features a photo and some text and the spot on the map.

I'm very interested to know the methodology behind it, did they pick each kid at random, then move on to the next one only if they said no? Or did they get several kids from each country then pick the answer they liked? Knowing the methodology would really help work out what the article is trying to say, given the answers the kids gave.

I think the most interesting thing to note is how many of the kids talk about how people are very worried in the UK, and are less worried in their previous country.

Some of the answers that really stood out for me:

Zifan, from the PRC
If I'm fat, everyone will say I'm panda. People say that to me because we're seeing a new movie, [Kung Fu] Panda. And when they see [it], they say I'm panda. If I was in China, I wouldn't mind -because it's, like, best animal of China, of the world. If they say you're panda, that means you're very good.

Nadine, from Egypt
I look stupid because I'm black - I'm -disgusting, you know? I look like a snail. I don't like myself. And my tongue is red.

Ybarak, from Eritrea
I need to be in a great country, because my country is not. They haven't got, like, astronauts.

Elsabet from Ethopia
Even if we don't speak we all know that we're Ethiopian just by looking at each other. You all say hi the same way, you'd greet people like they're your next door neighbours. We almost know that we're family because we're from the same country.

Johanna, from Germany
It's more rainy in England

Munira from Kazakhstan
When I tell people where I come from, they think of Borat, and they laugh. But I don't.

Dajane, from Latvia
People in Latvia are more kind to each other.

Khulan from Mongolia
I came here coz of racism in my country. We're Tuvas, and there's racism between Tuvan and Mongolian people. They used to beat my dad, and when we reported it, the police were Mongolian as well. I love this country because nothing like that's happening.

Mina, from Serbia
In Serbia, almost all the class was friends. Here, what I experienced was certain groups were friends, and girls and boys are separated. If you play with a girl, they will think you fancy her or something. In Serbia, everyone was playing with each other. It wasn't, 'I fancy you, you fancy her.'

Sarah from Tunisia
Wearing the veil, I do get quite a lot of discrimination. I went on this ferry to the Isle of Wight. And when they say Isle of Wight, they don't lie - all white people. I was wearing my scarf, and I asked the man on the ferry could I have a tissue and he said, ÔWhy can't you use your scarf?' We got the captain involved. I saw the man shaking and I goes to him, ÔYou're shaking because you know you're lying' and he goes, ÔNo, it's not me, it's the boat, I promise you I'm not shaking.' I really hate it when people lie. When I am older, I want to be a lawyer and work in discrimination with Muslim people. Not just Muslim people, people from different religions who feel their religion's getting discriminated. Some people commit suicide because of that. Especially bullying. I know some people, they bully this person because they're from Pakistan and they're Muslim. And they say, ÔOh, you wash in curry instead of shampoo.' When they're born, I bet every parent wants their child to grow up polite, clever, nice and kind to everyone else. Racism isn't nice. Discrimination isn't nice. I don't think anyone likes it. But some people do it for fun. Some people hurt other people because they've been hurt. So maybe that's why they do it.

books and miscellaneous we are giving away

2009-06-06T06:57:59Z

let me know if you want any of this stuff

a whole lot of glitter
one unopened set of winnie the pooh party bags
one winnie the pooh notebook
one marvin the martian notebook
one black beaded necklace, giant beads
seven or eight pots of fabric paint, plus one pot of that fabric paint fastener that you use to turn acrylics into fabric paint
a whole bunch of gift bags (like, christmas, birthday, miscellaneous)

BOOKS

cooking

'sweet food'
australian woman's weekly chinese cooking class cookbook
charmaine solomon's complete vegetarian cookbook
tupperware microwave stack cooking for two
australian women's weekly new curries <--this one is fantastic, i really recommend it in general
a whole pile of food magazines

star wars extended universe

the han solo trilogy (two and three - the hutt gambit and rebel dawn) (a.c. crispin)
slave ship (k.w. jeter)
the truce at bakura (kathy tyers)
darksaber (kevin j anderson)
shadows of the empire (steve perry)
tales of the bounty hunters (kevin j anderson)
the corellian trilogy (one two and three)
the black fleet crisis (one two three) michael p kube-mcdowell
the jedi academy trilogy (kevin j anderson)

other books

twilight (unless piecesof wants it back)
bridget jones: the edge of reason; and bridget jones' diary
the 'girls' night in' set of books

HOW EMBARRASSING

things to do

2009-06-05T11:51:47Z

things going on this weekend:

upmarket
e-waste recycling
tresillian playcentre garage sale (i have been assured this is always filled with lots of awesome pre-loved games, toys, and kids' equipment)

六四运动 / 六四屠城

2009-06-04T14:39:36Z

今天是六四运动，也叫六四屠城，也叫《春夏之交的政治風波》（政府的好吃的宣传）。

Sorry for so many posts today, but this is the last one. Today is the twentieth anniversary of the June Fourth Movement, you might know it as the Tian'anmen Square Massacre. There are no firm numbers of how many people were injured, how many people died. There are people who left and never returned. The event is censored on the Mainland to the point that last year someone published a 'we will never forget' in the classifieds, and the kid working the classifieds had no idea what the reference was about, and let it through. It was a protest against corruption in the government, and the unevenness of reform. Can you imagine being that passionate about corruption in the government? I'm glad that I don't have to be that strong.

I just wish people wouldn't use it as sole evidence as to why China is shit. Like, cast your own bloody stones, you know?

Other people's words:
Larvatus Prodeo
The Wisdom of Whores
land of meg

mid weekish links

2009-06-04T10:42:44Z

Fire Fly posts: Macklin opens Reconciliation Week by announcing takeover of Aboriginal Town Camps

This is old, but Anji at Shut Up Sit Down posted Anti-Choicers Confuse Me

So let’s imagine I gather a group of other militant vegetarians, and we all agree that it is morally wrong to consume animal products. We decide that it is so wrong that we want to ban everyone – everyone in the world – from doing so. So we form a group, and we speak to society and our spokesperson says: “We believe that it’s a sin to eat animal flesh and to wear leather! Animals are creatures capable of pain and should not be killed!” Yeah, you know what would happen. We’d be laughed off the stage. People would refuse to even entertain the idea of eschewing meat just because one group of people believed it was wrong. I would be told “You think it’s wrong, don’t do it. Don’t force your beliefs on everyone else,” So why does society even give anti-choicers a platform to speak? Why is it not saying the same to them?

Awesome spoken word by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai: Dear Lonely Heart of the Industrially Advantaged World, on sex trafficking.

Awesome project being undertaken in Canada: The Freezer Project, providing food for post-op trans people. This is such a great community thing.

I really like this poster that loobylu posted, How To Build a Community, and the comments are quite interesting, too.

Elle, phd, posts Why Your Community Ain't Like Mine. Subtitle: And How You Make Sure I Know That I'm Not Welcome. A recent look around the blogosphere and mental cataloguing of episodes of epic fail prompted me to think about community, and lack of community, and "exclusion" right now. These are some of my (incomplete, choppy, certainly not perfectly worded) reflections.

At Muslimah Media Watch, they're talking about PETA Fails at Talking about Humans, Yet Again, noting PETA's suggestion that the Middle East is the only place where the beating of women occurs.

There is an awesome post at Racialicious, Going Back Like Babies and Pacifiers; Why I Love Mariah, on mixed-race politics.

Article: Court rejects Sydney Islamic school, Another resident told the court that Islam requires its followers to seek world domination. Residents said Camden was addressing a problem that was facing many Australian communities, and that had been unfairly labelled as racist and bigoted. I CANNOT EVEN.

In You Look Nice, Wallaby discusses the ideas behind 'you look nice.' When you tell someone “you look nice!” because she is doing something that fits within the patriarchal feminine beauty standard, something which she doesn’t usually do, you are reinforcing the idea that she should normally do that thing.

Lauredhel has been making some posts about the proposed accessible parking reform, you can read more about it: CALL TO ACTIVISM - Many people with disabilities to be excluded from accessible parking under proposed scheme; Form Letter for Govt Protesting “Harmonisation of Disability Parking Permit Schemes; Open Letter to Disability Orgs re Proposed Accessible Parking Rules - Please Co-Sign.

There are some very important points being made there, about people who will no longer qualify (for example, D's grandfather, who is only held upright by his pride, and who would never make it to the doctor on his own if he didn't have a parking permit). I realised today that it will also impact other things, like services. We offer free services to people who need assistance, but for some of those services you need to have an ACROD parking permit as evidence that you need the assistance. There are other impacts, I am sure, but it got me thinking, in what other ways can we continue to punish people with disabilities just because they're not able-bodied?

TODAY THE OWLS COME

2009-06-04T09:46:48Z

Today is the birthday of the very amazing Nixwilliams! He is quite wonderful.

Penguins can not in any way compare with some of Nix's previously received presents, for example this Skyhooks fic by Piecesof, but we tried anyway!

For his birthday, both Penguins collaborated on this owl-y creation of beauty. Materials required were an IKEA shadowbox, some scrap lined paper, and some of those free avant cards which I love, as well as googly eyes, and of course scissors and glue. Stick glue is sufficient for this project. Then it was all cut and glue, cut and glue, and it was awesome.

wanted: tea-chest size boxes

2009-06-02T07:29:29Z

Does anyone (in Perth Metro) have any tea-chest sized boxes with which they wouldn't mind permanently parting ways?

make a start on this icecream

2009-06-01T03:21:01Z

A pictographic representation of my weekend:

Nix and SJ had their birthday party, and I was sad that we couldn't go.

I played some games, which was lots of fun. I'm really enjoying blokus right now, so on Saturday we went out and bought ourselves a copy!

Some friends made us some delicious food (it was made with love):

Recently, it was Zanchey's birthday!

Last year, D + I baked an argyle patterned cake for him, because we believe that, as a future doctor, Zanchey's life is destined to be filled to the brim with argyle. We coupled this cake with a delightful pair of argyle socks.

This year, we promised him a year free of argyle! That is because Sheeba has already outdone anything we could have done, short of an argyle patterned newsboy cap!

OMG AN ARGYLE PATTERNED NEWSBOY CAP!

We also made it to some social engagements, and failed to make it to others, but there are no pictures of those sorts of things.

So that was my weekend! Now it's time for some homework.

books read april and may

2009-05-31T14:32:26Z

I haven't been reading much lately, except for things that are about water and sustainability, and a whole lot of legislation. So I've combined together April and May. Fortunately for me, all of these books were really good! Except I'm a bit sleepy, so no extended reviews.

Sedia, Ekaterina - The Secret History of Moscow
This is a world-below style of story, through the puddles and windows of Moscow one steps through. Our protagonists step through in search of missing persons, who may or may not be turning into birds. This was pretty cool, I quite enjoyed it though the end had me going "oh noooo!" and was also a little predictable.

Crew, Gary and Tan, Shaun - The Viewer*
This is a slightly creepy picture book, a look through an alternative history that can be seen when one picks up a ViewMaster and pushes the handle. Kind of creepy! Illustrated by Shaun Tan (whom I looove).

From Little Things Big Things Grow (illustrated by kids of the Gurinji)
This is a storybook illustration of the song by Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly, illustrated by the kids of the Gurinji. The pictures are delightful and the story the same as always. I really like this book, I was so excited when I found it and it's great.

Chiang, Ted - The Story of Your Life and Others* A collection of awesome SF short stories, exploring lots of interesting questions. Extended review here.

Rusesabagina, Paul - An Ordinary Man The story of a Rwandan man who kept 1200 refugees safe in his hotel during the Rwandan genocide. This was a very informative book, it gave a great insight into the situation and I have an extended review here.

Beah, Ishmael - A Long Way Gone
The story of a child soldier from Sierra Leone, how the war came to his town and how he ran his way through it. Quite a sad story, but well written and engaging.

Ashton, Wayne - Under a Tin-Grey Sari*
This one started out a bit uninteresting, I took it away with me and read twenty pages in a whole week, but after a bit it became much more engaging. Set in Chittagong in 1967, it's the story of the servants of a local household, navigating the waters of the situation leading up to 1971. I found the characters alternating between great and whatever, which was what made it a bit difficult for me to get into the story. It found its pace about halfway through, but the end was still a little dissatisfying.

Butler, Octavia - Wild Seed
Spanning from the African continent across to North America, and spanning hundreds of years, Wild Seed is an exploration of self and community and a look at all sorts of things, the slave trade and it's sort of an alternate history involving the story of two immortals, and their relationship is central to the story. I really wanted to be overwhelmed by the awesomeness of this book, but I found it a bit frustrating in terms of the dynamic of Doro and Anwanyu, though their relationship was very interesting.

a note about water

2009-05-28T14:03:16Z

There's an article up at Circle of Blue that is interesting reading: Water Shortages Trigger Domestic Violence in Uganda. This article highlights some of the issues of water scarcity that we don't even think about in Australia (not that most people think about water scarcity at all in Australia).

For centuries, women in the country have been fetching water for home and field use. The water shortages, however, have forced wives to travel long distances to collect water –- a delay that many husbands ascribe to secret love affairs, Kadaga said.

Issues related to water in Australia take a different path, but they're still urgent. There's an article at Inside Story on the water issues flowing down the Murray towards Adelaide: Troubled Waters.

Water conservation and water quality are two of the most significant things in my working life right now, and they've leaked through into my daily life. At almost any mention of water I steer the conversation around to the Water Corp's projections, or the issues with the Murray-Darling, and yesterday I discovered that several people with whom I work take twenty minutes showers, some of them twice a day!

I know our water restrictions in Perth are no where near as strict as some other parts of Australia, and the conditions are not yet as bad as some other parts of the world, but they still exist. Levels of recharge in Perth are not awesome, and water use is still pretty significantly high. There's a great map demonstrating rainfall averages over at Larvatus Prodeo, check out how much of our rainfall is below average! However, even aside from technological options, such as desalination on the corporate/industrial scale, and greywater reuse on the individual scale, there are heaps of little changes that people can do to reduce their water usage. And reduction is pretty much the most important thing to be considering, at least in the cities in Australia. That doesn't ameliorate the requirement for those people to do the big things, though! It is important to think about these little things, and think about why you're doing them, what difference they make, how we're about to run out of water. You're sitting here reading my not-very-widely-read blog, I can assume you're somewhat comfortable and somewhat privileged (I mean, I'm assuming you are not destitute). You can do these things!

HERE ARE SOME THINGS:

Take shorter showers. We have a four-minute timer in our shower, and it is a nice length for a shower in the mornings, a bit short if shampooing and conditioning but good most days.
Rinse vegies in a sink or bucket of water, not with a running tap.
Defrost things by putting them in the fridge, don't leave them to soak in water. This has the added advantage of reducing the energy your fridge expends on cooling.
Use machines (dishwashers, washing machines) on a full load.
Bucket the hell out of everything, and throw that water on the garden
Don't use a hose when what you're doing is sweeping - like when you're removing the leaves from your driveway.
Plant things that use less water (ie, local natives). Exotics from England don't work here, for serious.
Do a water leak test. Last thing at night, you're ready for bed, check the water meter. Go to bed, don't use any water during the night! When you get up in the morning, first thing check the meter. If it has ticked over, congratulations, you have a leak! Now to find it! This not using water might be difficult for you, in which case pick a time when the house is empty for six or eight hours and do exactly the same.
Or you can find out if your toilet is leaking by adding a drop or three of food colouring into the cistern, and checking back in an hour to see if the water in the bowl is coloured. Again, the key here is to not flush it in that time.
If your hot water is NOT gas, instantaneous, and old, then a water efficient shower head is okay. If your hot water is gas, instantaneous and old, then the water saving shower head is sadly not for you.
DON'T BUY BOTTLED WATER. Do you live in an Australian city? Very good chance your tap water is fine.

And of course, cut your consumption of animal products! It's really annoying how much this last point gets ignored. I've linked to the good transparency water chart before, it's US based but the figures are still very easy to understand. The CSIRO has some more figures, specific to Australia, including my favourite figures,

To produce one kilogram of oven dry wheat grain, it takes 715 – 750 litres of water

For 1 kg maize, 540 – 630 litres

For 1 kg soybeans, 1650 – 2200 litres

For 1 kg paddy rice, 1550 litres

For 1 kg beef, 50,000 – 100,000 litres

For 1 kg clean wool, 170,000 litres

I talk about these figures all the time, and a couple of times I've been accused of making the figures up, and a couple of times I've been told, "I bet these studies were done by vegetarians." I'm told all the time to stop talking about these things, literally because the people I'm talking to would actually rather be ignorant and enjoy their food in peace. I'm sick of having to cite my sources when I tell people how much water we use, I'm only ever accused of lying by people who can't bear the thought of giving up meat. The silence in general is pretty overwhelming, and in Australia it's always suggested in the gentlest of terms, consider eating one meal less of meat per week sort of terms. Consider understanding the issues and making informed choices! Consider questioning your knee-jerk reaction! Consider not hiding! Consider some people can't afford to eat meat ever, and they're probably not throwing tantrums about how unfulfilling it is to eat less meat! Consider bucking tradition - you don't need your whatever whatever, your giant turkey at Christmas or your roast suckling pig, I still celebrate our Chinese festivals very well without eating meat!

mid week links

2009-05-27T09:23:31Z

you love it

There's two great sets of photos by photographer Dulce Pinzon: Superheroes, looking at some everyday migrant Mexican and Latin@ super heroes in the US, exploring the idea of the hero; and Multiracial, a series of portraits seeking to challenge the concept of race. Both of these collections are very cool.

Forthwritten hosts a discussion on some of the issues regarding steampunk, talking about questioning the ideology and whether the distinction between the superficial steampunk and the actual Victorian history is important.
In celebrating the figure of the adventurer and explorer, steampunk buys into certain assumptions. One: that there are places to explore and discover - the idea that a land can only be discovered by your culture, and has been previously unexplored even if people have been living there for centuries. Two: that, as naraht points out, "deep down, or perhaps not so deep down, there's a sense in steampunk that having an empire must after all have been rather fun".

Yeloson talks about the Ever Moving Goalposts of Legitimacy, about all the things we have to do when we're talking about race before we can be considered legitimate, otherwise, TROLLTIME. I was thinking about this idea yesterday, that we have to consider all possible issues, that we have to prove ourselves, and above all that we're supposed to be polite, before we can be considered legitimate, when the truth is our concerns are illegitimate no matter how we frame them, and no matter what 'controversial' topic we're discussing.

I am a big fan of growing your own food, or buying from farmers markets, or going for it yard-share style, and I'm a big fan of reducing the consumption of heavily processed goods, but I've never really understood the attraction to heirloom varieties of vegetables. Reading this report by the US Organic Consumers Association, Industrial Farming is Giving us Less Nutritious Food, has definitely given me something to think about in regards to all kinds of fruit and vegetable production.

There is an interesting ad campaign coming out of Portugal, with the tag "Sedentary People Can't Run Away from Diseases. Exercise." The campaign features people looking sad, with their lower bodies transformed into chair legs. Whilst I like the pictures, and I understand the sentiment, at the same time I'm not completely comfortable with it, because it seems to give the idea that all diseases are related to exercise, whereas the truth is, no matter how much you exercise, there are some diseases that just don't care.

Laura Agustin has a post up called Exotic Sex: Diversity, Ethnicity, Whiteness and Local Prices, looking at some signage in HK and the representation of ethnicity in selling for sex.

After last week, when I mentioned the PSA on web-accessibility, I was lead to Accessibility is a Harsh Mistress, a post which talks about some web-accessibility stuff and whether it actually makes a difference, particularly in regards to the work of readers (tech, not people).

and now, ba cheng time.

[book] stories of your life and others by Ted Chiang

2009-05-26T13:26:54Z

Stories of Your Life and Others is a fantastic collection of spec-fic short stories by Ted Chiang. It asks all sorts of awesome questions, like, what happens when you build a Tower of Babylon to break through to heaven, and what happens when the aliens actually arrive, and answers them in very interesting ways. My favourite was 'Seventy-Two Letters', examining the nature of humanity and creation, which was the only story I had previously read. I really enjoyed the entire set, the stories were engaging and thoughtful and thought-provoking.

I'm totally not doing this justice. It was great!

I borrowed this book from a friend. And now I want a copy for myself.

i cannot tell a lie i ate the whole thing

2009-05-25T13:15:33Z

I made a cake yesterday!

Awesome things from this weekend:

people watching in Northbridge
(vegan) lemon and passionfruit curd cake
a visit to Bunnings
a new stripey jumper
drinking tea whilst it rains
early evening walk up to planet
finding a copy of federations, featuring the awesome G, in planet
black bean tofish noms at lotus
getting on the bus and finding CGB on it, and ready to chat
pancakes for breakfast
inspiring others to cakery

I hope everyone else had good things in their weekend, even if there were also bad things.