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Archives for March 2005

My filthy mind

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I got an email from a colleague today. Here’s a copy:

RootKit Revealer

For those of you who haven’t come across the term ‘rootkit’ before you will want to read information at the following link.  The free utility at the link provides a current attempt at identifying if a rootkit is installed on the the target Windows system.  This powerful tool scans areas of Windows which are normally hidden from the Windows user (and Administrator) to detect these hidden processes.  A valuable addition to your SysAdmin toolbox.

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/rootkitreveal.shtml

Comeon, who thinks up these names? Someone who’s not getting lucky or someone who is. Methinks perhaps it’s someone who’s not getting any and/or they want lots of hits to their rootkit website.

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Things I love about him (3)

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The way he sits there completely absorbed when I read him a story. He loves it so much. Then he reads it back to me (keeping in mind he doesn’t read yet) and picks on me if I’ve accidentally missed a page.

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Time out for mummy

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This morning when getting ready for work I was trying to put a necklace on and while having trouble, uttered the word bugger. JJ said, that’s a naughty word. I then said, well mummy needs a timeout in her bedroom – you’ll have to leave. Leave he did and sat out in the hallway waiting for me while going over the whole conversation we’d just had, saying the word bugger at least three times.

Note to self – if I want quiet time then I need to send myself to timeout. Don’t want to have to swear all the time to do this though so will have to think of another reason for sending myself to timeout.

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A few words now saves 5 hours in emergency

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I hadn’t much planned for Good Friday apart from housework and gardening but we ended up being inviting to some friends place for dinner. Being a catholic the hostess went and bought some fish, then with salad and wine in hand we went to their place for a yummy fish feast.

I helped the female head of the household prepare some of the food and then we went and sat outside for a quiet drink and a little chat while the kids were inside. The male head of the household was in charge of giving them a pre-dinner snack to stop complaints of I’m hungry.

I didn’t think any more of this until JJ started rubbing his eyes and breaking out in a bit of a rash under his eyes. They’d just gone to pick some rosemary for the roast vegetables and I thought that might be affecting him. He started sneezing and obviously wasn’t well so we cuddled on the couch and he soon fell asleep. I just thought he was coming down with a cold and thought I’d eat and take him home.

I ate my dinner while he slept but then after dinner he woke up and was really itchy and had a full on rash all over his body. I was musing that it looked like an allergic reaction and they asked if he was allergic to anything. I told them he’s allergic to nuts and the male head of the household, said oh oh, I gave them a peanut butter sandwich earlier. Well it all clicked into place, he was having an allergic reaction.

Lesson learnt – tell all my friends and anyone around food and him that he cannot eat nuts and sesame seeds. I obviously hadn’t done it in this case. I need to tell people all the time, and keep on telling them.

I rang up the Women’s and Childrens Hospital emergency and they told me just to bring him in. Driving by myself to the hospital with JJ in the back looking very forlorn after his dose of Phenergen that I’ve been told to give him if something like this happens, I nearly lost the plot but then consoled myself by thinking that at least we were driving to the hospital and not being rushed there in an ambulance.

Paediatric emergency on Good Friday evening was very busy and I thought that we would be in for the long haul. It took a good 2-3 hours just to get his observations done and they said a doctor would see us soon. At 1am (we got there about 9pm) I asked when he would be seen and I was told that he was next.

JJ soon fell asleep on my lap and I gave them nearly an hour before I just plonked him fast asleep on a chair and went and asked what was going on. I told the same woman I’d asked an hour earlier that we’d been waiting for about five hours and that we hadn’t been seen by a doctor yet. I told her that I’d been told an hour ago that it was our turn next. She said I didn’t tell you that. I said yes you did, I remember it was you and you pointed to his folder over behind you. She then got his folder from the ‘they’ve left and gone home without waiting’ pile and showed me that we’d been called twice at 22.40pm and 22.45pm. I said we’ve been sitting down over there for five hours and heard NOBODY call us. She said I’ll get someone to see as soon as possible, which happened. I was furious and indignant that she’d lied to me.

The doctor couldn’t apologise enough. By this time I’d nearly lost it again and only just stopped myself from bursting into tears. As it turned out even if we had been seen earlier they like to keep allergic reaction cases under observation for 4-6 hours just to make sure nothing bad happens. Because we’d already been waiting for this amount of time once he was examined we were able to go.

I was so proud of JJ. Anyone with a young child knows that waiting with them anywhere can be an absolute nightmare. He was a gem. I was so proud of him for being really good when all he wanted to do was go home and sleep. He hadn’t had his dinner because he’d been asleep and I didn’t want to get up and get anything in case we missed his name being called out. As it was we missed it anyway so it didn’t matter. He’d finally fallen asleep on my lap at about 1am which is an extremely late night for him and when we finally saw the doctor I had to wake him up to walk to the examination cubicle. I put him on the examination bed and he immediately fell asleep again, so we had to roll him over to look at him while he kept on sleeping.

Once we finished I made him walk to the car as he weighs 21kg and there’s no way I can carry him. I reiterate, he did so well and I made sure I told him this the next day.

Thank goodness he’s ok after his accident, but I have to keep an eye out for it as these reactions can get worse.

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Womadelaide 2005 (part 2)

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Read the first part of Womadelaide

So that was my first day at Womadelaide – the Kidzone pretty much. I did get to see a glimpse of some music – Zap Mama and goodness knows what else. I wonder how many people go to Womad thinking I’m going to see that band, then that band, then I’ll have some dinner, then I’ll see that, and that, and that band. Maybe some world music educated people have an idea of who these musicians are but I never do before I get there.

In previous years when I’ve gone to Womad I just look at the program and think that might be a good one, or tag along with a friend who wants to see a particular group but usually it’s hit and miss. Hit and miss can be good though. My first Womad I saw Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and he was fantastic. Unfortunately he’s dead now but there was nothing like lying on the grass looking up at the sky on a really warm, still night, listenining to his fabulous voice. I’m getting shivers just remembering it. Other fond memories – Jah Wobble (1995). I liked them so much I bought the CD. Another CD I bought was for Fun-Da-Mental. A festival like the Big Day Out I’ve probably listened to, or at least heard of the acts, so there’s not much surprise, but bands at Womad I usually haven’t heard of so it’s a great treat when I really enjoy them.

Back to 2005 though. My friend who’d got me free entry into Womad stayed at my place and when she got up Sunday morning, the first thing she said was sort out your childcare, you’ve got to be there tonight. I didn’t take much persuading and on the phone I got. I was to take JJ to Womad during the day and then take him to the babysitters for the evening. Thank goodness I did this because my friend and I were swigging whiskey for breakfast (a late breakfast) cause JJ was going through a tantrum stage. We’ve decided that we both feel our anger and frustration in the gut and that’s where the whiskey hits the spot so it’s gotta be good right?

A good friend of both of ours was going to be there for the day with her eldest son who was turning 12 that day so it was a special day for those reasons also.

For me the day was hanging around the Kidzone – seeing the Amazing Drumming Monkeys again, waiting for JJ’s turn on the bouncy castle again. We did get to one of the stages to sit down and listen to some music but then JJ wandered off so I spent about 10-15 minutes looking for him and just when I really started to panic I looked over to where my friend was sitting and there he was sitting on her lap being held very tightly so he wouldn’t run away. I did have a backup plan if he got lost – apart from panicking – and that was that I’d written my mobile phone number on his arm so that if someone found him they could phone me. We’d practised him pulling up his sleeve in case he got lost but fortunately it didn’t come to that.

He isn’t afraid of going up to complete strangers and starting to chat to them and cause he’s so cute they don’t mind either. I just need to get him to start chatting up that cute eligible guy for ME.

At about 6pm I loaded JJ into the car and drove him to the babysitters and came straight back. Yay – freedom. Nothing quite like it. A good idea not to have young kids at Womad when it gets dark either because it’s really hard to see anything, let alone a lost kid.

The highlight of the evening for me was seeing Ozomatli and that’s just because of the trombone player. I was transfixed by his wiggling hips. All I could think of was if he’s so good at wiggling his hips up on stage like that, what would he be like in the bedroom? Mmmm. I was concentrating so much on his hips that I didn’t really concentrate that much on the music. Actually I think my hips were probably moving in unison with his.

The music aside though, there’s so much more to Womadelaide than the music. I started to mention this in my earlier Womadelaide post but got sidetracked. There’s load of visual stuff too. La Compagnie Carabosse is one attraction that’s been at the last two or three Womads and it’s just spectacular. At sunset they start lighting the candles on their installations and this year there was a huge sphere which was lifted high into the air by a crane once all the candles were lit. It looked spectacular from a distance. The snuff puppets get around in various guises – the seagulls (view my Flickr photos for images), the cows. The flags, the lanterns are also something to see and if you get bored of all the Womad visual stuff you can just sit there and watch all sorts of people go by. There’s a large mix of people at Womad. This year was better in a way because it wasn’t stinking hot like it has been every other time I’ve gone. Because it rained a lot on the Friday night it meant that for the rest of the festival that the multitudes of people walking around didn’t churn up dust which has happened in previous years and made me feel very sinussy.

So that’s it for Womadelaide 2005. Hopefully I’ll be there in 2006.

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