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a penguin of very little brain
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| automatic population |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|08:28 pm] |
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! |
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| i cannot tell a lie i ate the whole thing |
[May. 25th, 2009|09:02 pm] |
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. |
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| thinking about (physical) accessibility |
[May. 1st, 2009|03:02 pm] |
Today is blogging about disablism day (BADD).
There was a park with a playground and some grass, and it was being considered for works to improve accessibility.
It got rejected for works, because it had a carpark right next to it, and that means it’s accessible.
This is not what accessible means. A park needs a footpath, for wheelchair access. The playground needs a not-sand surface, for access for those who cannot walk on sand. It needs a seat inside the fence, so parents/guardians who can’t stand for very long can still be close to their kids if they have to move fast (as fast as they can), as opposed to trying to jump the fence in a hurry. It probably needs a million more things of which I cannot think, because I am totally able-bodied and so I don’t even realise it. I cannot even begin to suggest things which might make it more accessible to people with disabilities that aren’t to do with legs and things, and I have no idea if the things I’m coming up with in my head are even practical, like Braille on park signs.
Accessibility is different for everyone, including those with invisible disabilities, and I sometimes struggle to think outside my able box and think about what that accessibility might mean, but I'm trying to apply these principles when I work, when I'm organising events and so on.
I’m looking forward to reading the posts for BADD, please drop by that post and check some of the linked posts out. |
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| there are owls in your gravy |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|10:07 am] |
back in perth, nomming pancakes and hanging with sheebs and dr z. z is not feeling the sass. melbourne was great, but it was cold. at least in perth it is a reasonable temperature. staying with j + db was awesome, and the rbp was awesome, and i love my melbourne peeps, but now i have been awake since 0200 perth time. actual update to follow after a nap and playing with some photos from the week.
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| asian women blog carnival |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|07:52 am] |
The Asian Women Blog Carnival is up at yennenga, with so many interesting articles and posts. I just nod along to most of them, interesting words but I've nothing new to say so I just nod. Sometimes I leave a little note, an i'm here and i'm listening, as it were. Sometimes I have stories to tell, anecdotes or whatever, and I tell them.
Sometimes I want to disagree, and I stop, unable to type the words. I can disagree with posts in the feminist blog carnivals, I have no problem with that, but something stops me here. I wonder if it's a manifestation of my fear of my own inauthenticity, or a fear of pushing discomfort in what should be a safe space.
It feels like a Saturday morning.
Time for Swancon. Today's aims: books, badges, chocolate cake, chats with some people, and an argument about steampunk. |
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| sartorial dilemma! |
[Apr. 9th, 2009|12:05 pm] |
RBP next week, and it's in Melbourne so who knows what the weather will be like! I've got cold weather formal wear worked out, but for the warm option, sartorial dilemma! Do I go for:
A: Flapper-style dress, matching the party theme of 'great gatsby meets mad hatters party'
OR
B: cheong-sam, as requested by Essie, whose party it co-is.
VOTE IN THE COMMENTS |
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| oh swancon |
[Apr. 7th, 2009|06:57 am] |
Swancon is this weekend! woo!
If you want to hang out with me, you have to do it Thurs/Fri/Sat, because I won't be around Sunday or Monday. FYI. |
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| i'd ever try to follow you home |
[Apr. 6th, 2009|06:45 pm] |
only fifteen more minutes until my meeting starts. working late is okay, but i'd rather be at home!
great things about my weekend:
- dinner on friday night at lotus with some delightful people
- char kuay teow
- paid to be at sunfair
- potato gems + satay sauce
and you? |
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| kiss the boys kiss the boys |
[Mar. 29th, 2009|01:02 am] |
Just in from seeing two of my favourite Perth bands play at Amps - New Rules for Boats, and Boys Boys Boys! It was (finally) the album launch for BBB!, and it was a return from holidays for NRFB. It was most excellent.
The album is pretty awesome, I just wish it had 'Kiss the Boys' on it!
It was also an evening of excellent timing. We had a family engagement in Huntingdale, which we left late. We managed to rock in to Amps about five minutes before Boats started playing (having missed the Voltaire Twins), which I had doubted our ability to do.
Less excellent was trying to get in whilst BBB! was playing (I'd had to pop out for a couple of minutes), only to be working against the tide as a mass of people from Capitol suddenly streamed in through the double doors and tried to get out into the courtyard. Yuck. |
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| of the day's annoyances, these |
[Mar. 19th, 2009|07:45 am] |
after getting up in the wee hours, we managed to miss our flight. this is a new experience for both of us, one i don't wish to repeat too often. we're on another flight soon, at least internets in the qantas lounge are not exorbitant. alas that we won't get any food, as special meals can't be transferred on such short notice. there goes my plan to have lord of the fries for lunch.
sadly, the book i am currently reading is not holding my attention. i fear i shall have to do my homework instead.
this would have been a good time to have twitter. |
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| i forgot to remember what i wanted to do |
[Mar. 11th, 2009|07:15 am] |
This weekend sees the first of this year's Really Big Parties. Sadly most of them are being referred to as Weddings this year, I hope that also doesn't mean most of them will be un-fun.
This weekend's festival of heteronormativity has a dress code of 'creative black tie.' I am so excited by this theme, as you might be able to guess by my previous posts on the topic of wedding dress code, by which I mean: dress big, dress bright, dress awesome.
In anticipation of this event, I have made a new hairpiece to match my outfit, because I'm also a big fan of hats and hair pieces at weddings.
I took my inspiration, as I always do in regards to fascinators, from Susan Sarandon in Children of Dune, big and kind of orbiting. This piece was kind of difficult to make because the pieces were tiny, but overall it was not too bad. There are cranes! Orbiting my head! The wire is just flexible enough to move with ease, but still enough that it stays where I put it. |
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| things that are missing |
[Mar. 1st, 2009|09:30 am] |
does anyone have my lion king dvd, or my copy of 'growing up asian in australia' ? i remember lending both of them out last year some time, i just cannot recall to whom. |
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| the agony of peak-hour traffic |
[Feb. 26th, 2009|11:31 pm] |
i drove to work this morning, and it was 35 minutes of stop-start, stop-starting, from highgate through to kings park road. i usually catch the bus, and that's 40 minutes of book-reading or notes for uni. often if i ask 'why do you drive?,' people will say all sorts of things, it's faster or more convenient or whatever, and yes of course there are situations where that is the case, but i seriously don't get it! it can't be more convenient for everyone, i watched the same cars crawl forward with me for fifteen minutes over a space of about two kilometres, and i definitely would have preferred doing that crawl on the bus. |
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| a summary of days |
[Feb. 14th, 2009|03:59 pm] |
There are some weeks when you can just cruise along, not too busy and not too stressed; and there are some weeks when you're so busy you can't wait for Friday afternoon, except you're so busy that the weekend brings no reprieve, just more obligations and things that need to be done.
Last weekend D and I went to Sydney with various parents and siblings. We theoretically went there to see Top Gear UK Live, but in reality D and I went there to eat a lot of delicious vegan food. We went to Mother Chu's Vegetarian, and Green Palace, and Bodhi in the Park for delicious vegan yum cha, and the highlight was our visit to Naked Espresso, an all-vegan breakfast bar of awesome.
We walked most of the time, up through to Newtown and over to Glebe, and across town to Bodhi and around and down to Darling Harbour, where we visited HMAS Onslow and HMAS Vampire. By the time we got on the plane back to Perth late Sunday, I was ready for a nap, and then the flight took forever, with very strong headwinds, and then I finished my book halfway through the flight.
Back to work Monday morning, and end of Chinese New Year stuff that night. Tuesday after work saw me making dumplings before heading off to our dance class, and Wednesday after an all-day workshop I sat in my German class for three hours, hungry and sleepy. Thursday I started early and finished late, running the first session of a seven-week education course that doesn't finish until 2100 so I don't get home until just before 2200. At least the train is fun that time of night.
So it's Saturday, and I was so busy I wrote this last night but haven't had time to sit down and post it until just now! Great dinner last night at Saowanee with a friend who is visiting from Singapore, and a visit to Kaneda's decommissioned church restaurant and a late night Planet Books visit (I LOVE late night visits to Planet Books). This morning I started with a three hour Chinese class, and I made tacoes for lunch and as soon as the Blondies I'm baking is ready we're off to the Swan Aid fundraising event, and the house is pretty skanky, and I just want to lie on my beanbag and veg out, catch up on blag reading, and maybe eat some cake. The problem with being vegan in Perth is that it's so difficult to just go out and buy vegan cake, you need to find time to bake it yourself.
Also I really need a haircut. Seriously, my fringe is getting ridiculous.
I love being busy: I love having things to do and seeing people and adventuring around. I don't like the idea of going home every night and sitting around and not doing anything, of doing the same things that don't challenge me. And I am privileged to be able to be this busy, that my body can support this much dashing about and so can my finances. But sometimes it's nice to have some down time. |
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| after is followed by before |
[Jan. 23rd, 2009|06:30 pm] |
I love these memes, mostly because I love seeing the questions people ask, more than I like answering them/seeing them answered. Sure, the answers tell you a lot about a person, but so do the questions.
Linstar asked:
What's your absolute favourite part of Chinese New Year?
The food, and the bright vibrancy of red every time I look up (and down, and across).
What tradition do you miss the most from your childhood? (This can be due to it no longer being performed or because you are past the age where you can take part in it, whatever reason)
New lanterns every Moon Festival, wandering around with lanterns dangling from sticks and drawing stories with sparklers in the night.
How did you get to be so fascinated with penguins?
I can't remember. It was in highschool that I first became interested, but the fascination developed over the years following until its current incarnation.
If you did the Really Big Party again, would you do it all the same or would you do some things differently? If so, what and why?
I would ask both my mum and my dad to walk with me; change the guest list; not lose 37 freaking forks; put my sister in a burgundy dress.
If you could be whatever you wanted to be, what would you be?
Better at helping the world.
I also did some answers to Stephbg's questions, but my answers were pretty boring so I'm not going to repost them here.
If you leave a comment requesting so, I might possibly ask you some questions.
In other news, Ms Clairza sent me some books, and I am pretty excited to read them! She utilised the relevant tags on my delicious, and so the present is perfect! |
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| eyes fixed upon the horizon |
[Jan. 22nd, 2009|09:22 pm] |
I feel really odd commenting on Barack Obama, because he is not my head of state, and his significance is not for me. Yet, at the same time, his significance is not lost on me.
Yesterday colleague B asked, "How long do you think until Obama stops being the 'Black' president, and is just the president?"
"Never," I replied; "Never," said G, calling from down the hall.
He's the first Black president of the USA; he's also, coincidentally, the first not-White president. I know some Asian-Americans who are pretty freaking excited that there are some Asians in the first family now, though they're only cousins and uncles and aunts and such. For so many kids, he is a 'face just like mine' in a place where previously there was none, and having lived a life of no faces like mine, I am excited for those kids (and also for the rest of us). |
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| a memo to the internet: |
[Jan. 5th, 2009|07:34 pm] |
2009 isn't the Year of the Ox until we've had the Chinese New Year! It is still currently the year of the Rat for twenty-one more days! OKAY GOOD.
In other news, I don't do New Year's resolutions. If I want to change then I'll pick today to change. But if you do them, I am intrigued to know why! And also perhaps to what you have resolved yourself.
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| down under feminist carnival - call for submissions |
[Dec. 29th, 2008|06:02 pm] |
This is a call for submissions to the eighth Down Under Feminists Carnival. Submissions are due to me by the end of the 31st, and if you're looking for a theme I'd love something on feminism and intersections, especially intersections with race and ethnicity. But any topic would be great! Which reminds me I should blog something before then.
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| going to live with myself (before i live with any of you) |
[Dec. 9th, 2008|10:14 pm] |
I'm hosting the January Down Under Feminists Carnival! You can submit your links directly to me or via the blog submission form. The December Carnival can be found here.
I don't deny that I'm a feminist. I often disagree with the feminist movement, sometimes I disagree with organisations within the movement and tactics undertaken, but just as I loathe PETA yet remain a passionate vegan, I am a feminist.
You can be feminist regardless of your gender, regardless of your career or your whatever. I know that many people have an issue with the term feminist, and sometimes I do too, but equality is not a ticky-box that we have checked. That is why I am hosting the DU Feminists Carnival, and why you should totally submit something to it.
Some Reading:
- Women of École Polytechnique we have not forgotten you - To ensure that there was no confusion as to why he felt the need to enter École Polytechnique and massacre 14 women, Marc Lépine left behind a detailed three page letter in which he blamed feminists for being “so opportunistic they neglect to profit from the knowledge accumulated by men through the ages. They always try to misrepresent them every time they can”.
- Yes, You Are - Yes. You are. You are a feminist. If you believe in, support, look fondly on, hope for, and/or work towards equality of the sexes, you are a feminist. Period. It's more complicated than that — of course it is. And yet…it's exactly that simple.
- Needed, Not Wanted - Out of all the annoying cultural narratives in the world, I find the idea that sexism is over to be the worst. The best women can hope for is “Sure we oppressed you for thousands of years. Our bad,” and what we usually get is “We gave you the vote. Whatcha complaining about?”
- Hi-C-Ya, Hold Tight! - on the Spice Girls as feminist icons.
- Project: Canadian Club - Your Mom Had Groupies - a reimaging of a Canadian Club campaign. First of all, if Canadian Club is attempting to change their image to increase sales, I find it odd that they are being so exclusionary with their re-branding. Apparently, the only people invited to the Canadian Club Club are White Males, Ages 18-30, women and people of color need not apply.
In related news, I love CJ Cregg. |
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