#NoCleanFeed

LOL CONROY by danilic

We've chatted about it online. We've had meetings about it in our capital cities. We've blogged about it. The media has even lightly brushed on the subject and yet it could very well still go ahead. We need more action. If you are strongly against the internet filter, bring as much attention to this issue as you can.

Phone Conroy Mug by MikeFitzAU

Tell everyone you know. Wear a shirt. Make your own shirts. Make posters. Do something, anything that will get everyday people questioning this filter.

Currently only $2.50
Keep your hands off my internet button by MissTs

Here are a few products I have found highlighting the #nocleanfeed issue. Wear them with pride and talk to anyone who will listen.

Pervert Conroy? - Basic T-Shirt by MikeFitzAU

The government should NOT be filtering our content. It is for us to choose what we see. This filter will NOT do anything to stop the "bad guys" but it does give the government the opening to filter more and more content which they deem inappropriate.

Censored Ladies tee by MissTs

Censored Mens Tee by MissTs

Read my other #nocleanfeed posts

To find out more about the internet filter please visit http://www.stopinternetcensorship.org/
If you have any ideas please add them to the wiki.

Threading

Those who know me well know I take my beauty regime seriously.
By seriously I mean... As a general rule I SERIOUSLY don't give a crap. I'm over it. I'm overwhelmed. I don't know what I'm doing.
I wash my skin, I use an exfoliating glove. I shampoo and condition my hair on a semi-regular basis.
I paint my nails sometimes, mainly because I like pretty colours.
When I go out I'll throw on a little eyeshadow and some mascara. Occasionally I will even go as far as to smear on some lipgloss but that's about it.

I won't say it's because I don't care about my appearance. I'm as self conscious as the next person but...
1) I didn't have a big sister or anyone to teach me about these girly things.
2) I live in Queensland. (For those who have never been here it's like a sauna 90% of the year.) Make-up melts off before you've made it out the door.
3) I'm a mum. I'd rather spend the extra money on something for the family than wasting my money on myself.
4) I'm a tomboy. Putting on make-up to climb a tree is just silly.
And most importantly...
5) I'm a typical red-head. I have dry, freckled, splotchy skin. I also suffer from the affliction known commonly as monobrow. Luckily for me my facial hair is very light. (almost blonde.) So it isn't really noticed.

I've tried plucking my eyebrows but after removing a few hairs my face is bright red and so tender; Each additional hair I remove brings tears to my eyes even though I have a pretty high pain threshold.

I've tried waxing and had some hideous encounters with the process. I've been to a number of different places to have it done and each time I have the same results.
Firstly, pain. Although it is quicker than plucking it still really hurts and I know others have said the pain goes away pretty fast but it doesn't for me. Hours later my skin is still stinging and when the beautician uses any of the oils or creams meant to soothe it does the opposite; It irritates. I've had it many times where I've had my eyebrows waxed in the morning and still been bright red and swollen the following day.
Personally, I find that the hair grows back pretty quickly too. In one case I could feel little tiny spikes of hair again about 6 hours later. What a bloody waste of money. Especially when you consider some places charge over $20 for the treatment.

About 6 months ago I saw someone on twitter say they wanted to have their eyebrows threaded. This made me giggle as I got images in my mind of someone having them braided with beads hanging from them. (Don't ask. My mind works in mysterious ways.)
I did a quick google search and found some videos. All of a sudden my interest was piqued. I tried searching more locally but the searches weren't very fruitful. Those I found worked from home and there were none that close to me. (I don't drive anymore so location is a big factor.)
After awhile I gave up searching. I put it down to one of those things I would try one day if I got the opportunity.

In January opportunity came knocking. More than knocking... It was full sirens blaring, Get your Butt into gear & take the woman up on this offer.
The opportunity came in the form of Coralie (aka @ferrous) a threading angel one could say. She was looking into starting her own threading business and needed a few people in Brisbane for a trial. She would come to them.
Perfect! I fit the criteria; I live in Brisbane, I'm a people. *grins*

I retweeted her offer and was contacted by Erin (aka @RubyBlue29) who also wanted to take part.
And so it was arranged. We would all meet at my house for the trial. First thing I have to say is that the service couldn't have been better. She arrived promptly and was more than approachable. First she gave us a quick run through of the procedure and then asked who would be the first volunteer. I bravely put my hand up for the first go. Instantly she put me at ease and began shaping my eyebrows (and removing the dreaded monobrow.) The whole thing took less than 5 minutes. I had a quick look in the mirror. I had the tiniest pink hue to my eyebrow area which had vanished before Coralie had finished with Erin.
I kept rubbing my eyebrows. They were baby-bottom smooth. I think I finally stopped playing with them about a week later. I won't lie, I did feel it as the hairs were removed but it was nothing in comparison to waxing or plucking and the best part... 9 days later and I was only just getting a little bit of eyebrow regrowth. Soft regrowth at that.
As I post this, it has now been over 20 days since I had the threading done. I have minimal regrowth and other than a few odd rascally hairs there is no monobrow to speak of.

Now in addition to coming out for personal threading services Coralie has 2 other options.
If you organise a few people in the office, She can come visit you at work and get everyone in one go. Hey Boys you can be threaded too. A little manscaping to fix the monobrows wouldn't go astray.
Also, Why not organise a threading party? Invite some of your girlfriends around one night and have Coralie come out and thread for you all. There are incentives if you organise a group such as cheaper/free services for yourself. I really suggest you give this a go. Try something new.
You can contact Coralie via twitter just throw her a quick shout out.
OR

If you're not on twitter just leave a message here and I'll let her know you are interested.

Support our local small businesses. Give it a go. You may just find a new beauty solution.

Grumpy parent thinks they know what is best.

Meh! As you know it's back to school time so time for my annual whinge. I could do better with him blah, blah, blah.
I don't blame the teachers as such. They are stretched way too far; One teacher to 20+ kids and they have to spend time with those who are struggling and help them as best they can but what about the children at the other end of the spectrum?
The education department doesn't like kids to 'skip' grades early as they may miss out on some fundamental skills. This really annoys me. My child finishes things early and gets to kick back and relax. I can see him getting bored with school and I know this is a possibility because I did that exact sane thing. I lost interest and thought 'Why bother?'
He's been back at school for 3 days and already I have a bee in my bonnet.
What set me off this time I hear you ask.
Well, for starters on the first day he came home with his homework book and I had a good read through the note at the front. It sounded so promising.

"Would you sign my reading sheet in the back of my homework book when I have read for at least 10 minutes...
Teacher would like it if I also read on the weekends...
I need to try to do some homework every night to develop good homework habits."

First thing that annoyed me was there was NO homework for the first week. They've just come off their long summer holidays I don't understand why they need a further weeks break. So much for good habits. Guess it's teaching them for when they enter workforce the first week back is just a bludge. Hmmm.

Next, I had a look at the reading record sheet at the back of the book and I was less than impressed. It is already filled in with dates for the first term. Starting week 2. Each week there is a space for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So much for the reading on weekends. I guess it isn't important to write down the books for those three days; We'll just assume they've read.
Also there is no column for recording time spent reading or amount of pages read. If we're doing the recording thing shouldn't there be a section where the teacher can see if the child is improving or putting in a great effort?

So as usual I'm being a rebel and doing my own thing. I've drawn up my own reading record book for him including the extra fields for pages read, time spent reading, author and even a column for notes from teacher. If they expect my comments I expect some in return. I have also left plenty of space for him to read on weekends or perhaps more than 1 reading session per day.

Oh and I even went ahead and got him to read on those first 3 nights; More to the point I'm going to gave him read on Saturday and Sunday too. If they only expect 10 minutes a day it's not like I'm asking much of him.
What I do is set a timer when he starts and I just let him go as long as he likes. (Making sure it's over 10 minutes.) So far he has recorded 19,15 and 16 minutes. Whoops. Naughty Mummy not telling him he wasn't required to start reading until next week.

I wonder, if you were in this position would you.
1) Do exactly what is required by school.
2) Do what you know is best for your child. (Making a few modifications so it also fits the school requirements.)
3) Stop worrying. It is after all the school's responsibility to educate children.

How do I "unfollow" a real-life friend?

I've been having some issues with a friend of mine recently. It's not one isolated event but more the realization that as a whole they don't offer anything to enrich my life instead they drain me. I'm only important when they want something. Advice, a shoulder to cry on, someone to chat with. Yet it is almost impossible to ask the same in return. If I do bring up something of importance to me they either shoot it down or find some way to turn the subject back around to being all about them. What's worse is when I do share an idea with them. Something I am proud of they then wait a few weeks and then mention it as though it were their own.

Looking back at the course of our friendship I see it was built on a foundation of lies from them and only held together by the acts of kindness on my behalf. Early in the friendship they asked for my trust and I gave it. I put my faith in them only to find they were betraying my friendship and lying through their teeth. I put myself on the line and for what? It has gotten to the point where I do not like to talk with them anymore. I disagree with so many of their life choices and find them to be a very selfish person. I feel used.

It has been so long since I've had to deal with a friend like this. I don't know the protocol anymore. How do you dump a real-life friend? It's not as simple as on social networking sites. There's no 'unfollow' button to press. Do you treat them like a lover you've grown tired of and take them to a crowded restaurant to break the news to them so they can't create a big scene?
Or do you just slowly delete them from your life? Stop returning calls. Don't reply to their inane sms's. Remove them from facebook etc?

There is a nagging part of me which keeps saying. "But, if this was happening in reverse wouldn't you want an explanation?" I would love to say yes to this. I like to think that it would help me to grow into a better person but in reality I think it would just make me resentful of the other person. We've grown apart that's it. Lets move on shall we?

What would you do if you were faced with this same problem?

A new year.

Wow, that time of year has come around again.
The school holidays always go so fast. Tomorrow is the first day of grade 3. Grade 3! Man that really creeps up on you. It's really scary because I still remember things from when I was in grade 3. It was a big year for learning things and being more socially aware. I learned my first real swear words in grade 3 (And subsequently had my mouth washed out with soap.) Kids in school were starting to experiment with boyfriends & girlfriends. I don't know if I am ready for my kid to be going through these sorts of experiences.

I am really sad to be letting him go. It hits me hard every year but I think this is one of the worst yet. I guess I can put that down to the realization that he is getting older. He is so mature. Urghh I used to think people who spoke like this needed to go out and get a life but I guess it is one of those emotions you can never understand until you go through it yourself. I am so proud of my little man and all that he is becoming. I know one day he be off on his own adventures in this world and I will have to come to terms with that when the time comes but until then he is my baby and I'm going to cherish him forever.

What's the big deal with foursquare?

So you've probably seen the name Foursquare thrown around in conversation a bit lately.
But even having a quick look at the site doesn't help you get a good understanding.
What is this damn thing that everyone keeps talking about?

Basic Rundown: It is an application that you can use from your mobile phone or PC. It uses real locations to which you check-in when you actually go there.
There are a few different reasons you might want to use such an application. Fun, Social Events, Calendar/reference, Shopping.

It might pay if I go into a bit more detail here.

Game/Just-For-Fun.
Each time you check-in to a location you are given points.
1 point for your first stop of the day.
2 points for your second stop of the day and so on.
There are also bonus points. You will be awarded a bonus 5 points the first time you check-in to any location and a further 5 points if you add a new location.
With this there is a leaderboard for your local city this resets every Sunday night ready for the new week. So you don't win anything for being #1 in your city, It is a great excuse to go out and socialise.

If you check-in to a location you are able to see anyone else who is currently checked in as well as a map.
Once you check-in to a location more than anyone else you become the mayor. There can be privileges for being mayor. See the next topic "shopping"
There is also the ability to earn badges. There are many badges available for all different things: Your first check-in, being Mayor of 10 places at once, Going out on consecutive nights. etc.

Shopping.
At each location you have the ability to add tips. If you see a special why not share it for others? If anyone checks in nearby they will get a message alerting to them to that deal.
You can also keep track of all of your favorite shops.

There are also businesses who use foursquare to their advantage by offering certain deals to whomever is currently Mayor. One example of this is Greystone Bar & Cellar in Brisbane Their promo is Whoever is Mayor on the first Friday of the Month gets a cocktail on the house!
There is a full list of businesses who have promo offers. However this is still pretty new so there aren't too many places listed locally yet.
Got a shop you love? why not suggest they get on-board and run promos? It can only work to their advantage.

If you look at a venue online you are able to see more information than you can from your mobile phone. Read what other people have to say about the place before you spend your money.

Calendar/reference
If you get into the habit of checking in everywhere you go the online history can be really handy. For example imagine you borrowed some books from the library but lost the little slip they gave you with the due date. Just check out your history and you can see when you last went to the library.
I've used this service a number of times for reference. I am a member of a just-for-fun fitness group. we track our distances each week and then submit them the goal being to see which team can make the virtual trek across Australia first. I'll be honest I am shocking at remembering to write my distances down. Once a week I log in to my foursquare history and can easily work out where I walked through the week and can work out my distances from there.
Another use I found for this service came a couple of weeks ago.
I went to the fridge to grab some carrots I had bought a few days prior. They were soft and unuseable. As I shop around most of the time for bargains I'm not always sure where I have bought my individual produce. I checked my history, found I had bought them only 3 days before which is not good enough in my books. I now know not to buy my carrots from this place anymore.

Tips & hints.
Don't forget this is a social networking site so any information you post may be visible to others. If you are cautious of protecting your identity I suggest you use a username rather than your real name. I also suggest that if you plan on adding your own house or place of work it may pay to just add a general address instead of the exact whereabouts. There is also a function where you can stay "off the grid" This is when you turn off the "Tell friends" function.
You can link your foursquare account to facebook and twitter if you want. That way if you are going to a big social event you can let the world know. but that is purely up to you. I do warn however if you broadcast your every whereabouts you leave yourself open for creepy stalkers or run the risk of aggravating your friends/followers. I suggest you use the auto-post function in moderation.
One lesson I did learn... Do not grant access to twitter and then revoke the access if you want to later allow again. There is a bug in the system which triggers and you are no longer able to get in and just grant access again. You have to ask the guys from foursquare to manually fix it for you. Learn from my mistake.

If you find some other use I haven't mentioned. Drop me a comment. I'd love to hear it.

The Mosquito Experiment (Not for young eyes)

This post is not for the lighthearted nor is it for the little kids. There are no indecent photos but some of the subject matter is not appropriate for everyone. Please keep this in mind before leaving nasty comments

This past weekend I went for a hike out through the wetlands and was bitten by some mosquitoes.
Actually that is an understatement. I was mauled by swarms of mosquitoes. 68 bites at last count.
The first night was not so bad but the following morning was agony. At first I thought I only had a couple but as the day went on more and more began to appear and by the time evening fell I felt I was going to go crazy. I looked through the cupboards and found I had no real treatments for them so decided my wisest move would be to jump online and start asking for home remedies.
I had about 7 remedies thrown at me however 2 of them I was unable to try this time around as I didn't have them on hand... Deep Heat and ammonia.

Those remedies I did go with for the experiment were:
Saliva - Own.
Saliva - From partner.
Vinegar - I used white for no other reason than that was what I had most of in stock.
Cross - Using a fingernail press down onto each bite forming a cross.
Urine - I supplied this myself and waited until I was home alone to try this one.
"Other" - Another bodily fluid. I'm not going into much detail here. you can use your imagination. Lets just say... I couldn't supply my own.
(NB: These last 2 treatments are not things I would normally wipe over myself but after a bit of convincing I decided to try in the name of science. I mean, who knows?
What if you are stranded somewhere and had nothing else? They could come in handy.)

I also kept one area completely free from any of these remedies to use as my control. Something I could use as basis for comparison.

Before starting this experiment I had a quick shower using only an exfoliating glove. I did not want to taint my results with soap.
Each remedy was only applied once using a clean cotton ball.
I measured my results at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours and 12 hours just to be thorough.
Thankfully I was awake nearly all night with a toothache so could keep testing for the whole period.

To View detailed analysis of results please click here.

Conclusions:

Saliva - It took under a minute before I got the initial soothing feeling. However the relief was only short lived and mild. I found my own saliva was more soothing than that of my partner. I wonder if that is because my body knows what is best for me?

Vinegar - I had a few bites I had previously scratched and had broken the skin. The vinegar over these bites was sheer agony for a few minutes. It felt like intense burning. After 10 minutes the burning began to die down and the pain had dulled to less than before the experiment. The relief lasted about 3 hours before I would have to say I was starting to get annoyed again with the itch.

Cross - I was curious about this method. I could not see any medicinal reason for it to provide pain relief but thought maybe it might work as it provides a painful distraction to the itchiness. I made light crosses on some bites, a few deep crosses on others and a couple in-between. Within the first 5 minutes the bites were really hurting. By 10 minutes the bites had grown to what I can only describe as welts. By the half hour mark the major pain was starting to die down but was still quite intense. All through the night these bites were itchy and painful. The next morning the pain had mostly gone. however they were still quite sensitive to touch.

Urine - This was something I wasn't overly looking forward to so I decided to do a little reading first.
Urine is expelled from the body after it has filtered through the kidneys. After it has left the body the urine begins to form ammonia. Urine also contains dissolved salts but is mostly made up of water. Urine is sterile. There are myths of it being used to help ease the pain of certain stings and bites and it is believed in ancient times it was used to clean wounds.
Almost instantly there was a cool relief on my bites, sadly it only lasted about half an hour before I started getting itchy again. The itchiness is not as intense as prior to the experiment but is still present.

"Other" - This was originally only a joke suggestion. But then the conversation turned to "Medical breakthroughs have come from far worse ideas." It took a bit of convincing before I was ready to give this a go. I was quite surprised with the results.
I was ready to write this off before starting but much to my surprise there was almost instant relief. While other areas were beginning to itch again this section remained itch-free. One thing that was quite obvious was that the surrounding skin became quite tight. (As it does when covered in glue that dries.) After the first 10 minutes I found that my skin was getting warm. I think the best comparison is to when you are wearing a greasy sunscreen and can feel yourself sweating beneath. I noticed within the first half hour that the surrounding redness had started to disappear. By three hours I could feel the bites again but wouldn't exactly describe them as itchy, I just knew they were present.
The itch finally began to reappear around 5-6 hours after application.
Update: I did not use anything on my bites for the following 24 hours so I would be able to get a good look if there had been any improvements. I believe these are the only bites which have decreased in size.

Control - They're itchy and then it dies down... Really itchy again, then it dies down. Very hard to leave them alone but at times these bites weren't as bad as some of the others. All in all I think I would prefer to do something rather than nothing.

Final Verdict:
First I would have to say Urine, Saliva and the Cross method are hardly worth trying. Any relief was short-lived.
Next, Doing nothing actually has some merit. Of course you're going to have waves of itch before you get relief but on the upside you are not covered in anything smelly or what would be considered gross.
Finally...
Whilst I did get the greatest relief from the application of "other" I'm not sure this is necessarily that practical. If you were stranded on an island by all means, you have your own natural relief. however back in the real world how do you think you're going to be able to do this? Would you bottle it or just apply directly? What if you get itchy right in the middle of a family visit?
However it has made me think, perhaps there is something in the chemical composition of "other" which provides the relief and it may pay to go into further detail with research as to what it is. Considering the results of all of the methods, perhaps it has something to do with the acids?
Although it came second, I would have to say the hands down winner for this experiment was... Vinegar.
Excluding the initial sting on any bites that were broken, the relief lasted quite a few hours. The big drawback is for the first 30 minutes you really stink of vinegar and may get a craving for fish & chips.
Over subsequent days I have been using the vinegar method when the itch gets unbearable and the good thing is I basically always have a supply in my pantry. You only need a drop on a cotton ball to cover all of your bites and if you buy a generic brand you can pick up a bottle for about $1/L so this is also quite economical.

Survival weekend (Test run)

Wow this weekend was fun. For those who don't know we've been watching a lot of Man vs wild. It's an addiction. We've been saying for the past week or so that we could easily survive the wilderness.
On Saturday afternoon we went for a hike through the Boondall wetlands. We went through so many environments in those couple hours.
We left home at 4pm so we avoided the harsh sun. It was crazy within half hour we had left suburbia and had our first obstacle facing us. We had taken a wrong turn and found ourselves facing train lines behind a fence. We couldn't cross there. So I came up with the solution. Instead of walking a kilometer out of our way to cross at the railway station we went under the overpass and climbed up the side. We then had a little fence to jump and we were back on a proper footpath heading in the right direction.

Struggling to stay awake...

I don't think this is going to be much of a continuation from yesterdays post.
I had a terrible night of sleep. firstly the dog was barking at a possum from about 11pm to maybe 1:30am I can't count the amount of times I went out to tell her to just shut up. I begged, I pleaded, I growled nothing worked. To make things worse I had a killer toothache panadol and ibuprofen didn't seem to want to help budge it but I guess at some point I eventually did fall asleep.
Then I was awake again at 6:30am to start the day. I really am getting old. 10 years ago this was normal practice. getting little sleep & doing fine. now if I don't get my 8+ hours I am shocking.

We had a plumber due to arrive at 9am today and to my surprise he was here dead on 9. The bad thing is we need to have some major work done so it is going to be noisy for days. All the outdoor pipes & drains need to be replaced as they are old and useless. I say that with no exaggeration. Within minutes of a decent rain we have floods going on between the house and the granny-flat. It seeps in under the big glass windows and soaks the carpet. It is feral. I have towels which live by the window just in case it rains hard while we're out.

With the plumber being here using a jackhammer I don't see me getting a nap. Plus I still have so much to do today and before I know it... It's going to be time for the afternoon rush. Dinner will need to be prepped. Other half will come home dinner will need to be cooked.

I finished helping the little guy with his online journal (ok so it's a blog but he likes to call it a journal.) We now have all the pictures up from when he was in Melbourne. The last one (Not sequential) was the hardest. There were about 30 photos for the one day.

Whoops

I made such a point of starting this blog and swearing that I would continue it and what did I go and do? Not post a thing for about 4 months. I have a million excuses I could use. I was injured. I've been busy etc etc but really none of those excuses cut it do they? So here I am right now promising that I will continue my personal blog and update much more frequently. Starting this week.

As we're all aware it is now 2010 and what does that really mean for each of us?
Personally I am using this year to sort myself out and delete all the toxins in my life. Goodbye toxic people. Goodbye toxic thoughts and goodbye toxic habits. (Hopefully.)
Kiddo is going in to grade 3 this year which is scary for me. I still have memories from when I was in grade 3.

Already this year I've had to accept the fact that my boy is growing up and while it does fill me with a little sadness (He is my baby after all.) I am also filled with pride. He caught a plane by himself just recently to go and stay with his grandparents in Melbourne. I have never flown by myself so at the meager age of 7 he is already accomplishing things I haven't.

We spoke every night over the phone and each night he made me laugh. I don't know what I did to deserve such a wonderful child. He has the perfect mix of manners and humor along with masses of charm. I was close to tears talking with my Dad and hearing the praise he gave. I don't like to brag about things like that but dammit. I did that. I helped create this little man. (I think I'm going to have to get used to calling him a little man. He is by no means a child.)
Now here I am getting teary just thinking about when I got teary. Perhaps I should move on.

I am going to have to leave things here for the time being. I desperately need to get to the shops and pick up a few things. I wish I didn't have to considering the heat but I need a few top-up items for making the other half's lunch tomorrow.
Can't avoid life now can we?