Archives for October 2006

My plan for NaBloPoMo

October 30, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

For some insane reason I’ve dobbed myself in to participate in National Blog Posting Month or NaBloPoMo for short. This means that for the month of November I am dedicated to one post per day for this blog. My record shows that I don’t usually do more than 5 posts per week so where are the extra posts coming from?

I racked my brains about this and thought I’d delve into my written journals – in particular my travels. I started doing this in my travel section, more specifically my first foray into international travel.As I have about 3 written journals I thought I’d post snippets of them as they are written and do an update on my memories of that particular time or event, with photos if I have them. Therefore a Then and Now type post.

This might not work at all, but it’s my plan. If this doesn’t work perhaps I’ll just take up the suggestion of writing bald faced lies.

Tomorrow while Halloween celebraters are celebrating, I’m taking a one day break from blogging and I’ll be back on the first of November.

Google the word – synonymous with search

October 27, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Now when people search for something on the web, most people use the Google search engine, so much so that they don’t just search for something, they Google something.

‘I needed to find something out so I Googled it,’ someone might say.

In fact when I spoke to mum recently she said, ‘Does it cost anything to Google?’ I had a bit of an inward chuckle at the obviousness of her not being on or having used the internet before and replied, ‘Google is free to use, but you need a computer and you need to be on the internet, and that can cost.’

She just wanted to search for some information and had obviously heard the term Google in relation to web searching being bandied about.

Over on the official Google blog they’ve posted about Google and its trademark and how their lawyers don’t like the word Google being replaced with internet searching,

"Usage: ‘Google’ as verb referring to searching for information via any conduit other than Google.

Example: "I googled him on Yahoo and he seems pretty interesting."

Our lawyers say:
Bad. Very, very bad. You can only "Google" on the Google search engine.
If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to
"search" on Yahoo or any other search engine."

I know I say that I’ve Googled something, but I have actually used Google to do it, not another search engine.

The hardest job I ever had, by far (part 2)

October 26, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

In part 1 I touched briefly on JJ being a bit of a ratbag at school and at after school care. The good news is he’s pretty much settled in at school and I’ve been getting good feedback about him getting along with other kids.

After school care is another matter though. Things are not improving there at all. It’s again at the stage where I dread walking through the door to pick him up. It’s now got to the stage where he might not be able to go there any more.

He’s being rude to his carer, answering her back, not listening to her and generally giving her a hard time. She obviously isn’t able to take the hard line I’ve had to take with him in regards to consequences, partly because she’s got other kids to consider.

I’m at my wits end internet. HELP!! I’m doing (or I’ve restarted a star chart to reward good behaviour). I’ve explained to him over and over how his behaviour is affecting me, his carer, and himself but it’s not sinking in yet.

When I do the role play with the dolls, he gets it, and understands that ‘Don’ is being a naughty boy and my hope is that this will sink in and will extend to real life. He really likes the dolls role play thing and I need to explore that more.

Last night when we got home there was a message from my parents asking
if we wanted to meet up for dinner as they are in town. I rang up and
said that I couldn’t because JJ had been so naughty that he was having
a bath, dinner and then straight to bed. He was upset about that
because he loves Nana and Pop and loves the fish and chips he eats when
we meet them for dinner. I missed out too of course and I was upset
that I couldn’t see them, especially as mum’s having an operation of
sorts today.

It’s really hard to get after school care and I don’t want to have to take that option but I may have no choice.

School lunches – or lack thereof

October 25, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Today I dropped JJ off at school and while I stood around being jumped on by him I observed the teacher from the next room come out and ask a kid what he had for lunch today. I thought this isn’t a run of the mill question – this kid must not bring lunch quite often.

Sure enough, he opened up his lunchbox and all that was in there was a bread roll with only butter or cheese to fill it. My empathy immediately flowed towards this kid. He must be around the same age as JJ and there’s no way JJ could function on only one pathetic bread roll per school day.

Just to compare, in JJ’s lunchbox today is: 1 sandwich with tuna and salad, 1 little bag with some dried fruit and soya crisps, four or five strawberries, about four little cut-up sticks of carrot, a frozen apple juice and a pear. This is also for after school snacks, and it is usually all gone when I pick him up in the evening.

I feel for the kid with the one bread roll. Perhaps his parents think that the school will provide and perhaps the school does.

Luscious strawberry

October 24, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

This year we planted two strawberry plants – two different species. This is the first of the crop. JJ picked when we got home this evening and I rinsed it, took too long trying to take a photo with my macro setting. I then cut it in half and we ate it.

It was scrumptious. Some strawberries I buy from the fruit and vegetable shop are really hard and woody and have no taste. This was nothing like that.

I look forward to eating more – hopefully before the birds get them.

The bar

October 23, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Here’s one photo of my 40th I’ll post. See, there’s plenty of drinks on the bar and a couple of people standing behind it organising new drinks.

I didn’t actually take this photo. I didn’t take any photos until quite early in the morning when nearly everyone had gone home, but a friend saw my camera sitting around all lonely and took it upon himself to take some.

Bit dry around here

October 22, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Australia is officially in the midst of a drought. Apparently it’s the worst drought since reliable records began in 1910. Even if you’re not a farmer it’s pretty obvious it’s hardly rained at all around here.

I went to visit my parents in the country a couple of weeks ago and as I was a passenger in the car for a change I was able to look out the window and see that the wheat and barley crops that are normally a lot taller and more abundant, just aren’t this year.

An awful statistic to come out of this drought is that every four days, one farmer is committing suicide in Australia. This means that every four days one Australian farming family is devastated by the loss of a family member because of the weather and the flow on effects that has on a family’s livelihood.

I think the only good thing that can come out of this drought, hopefully, is that the Australian government who won’t even sign the Kyoto Protocol will look more carefully at global warming and what we can do as a nation to help combat it. WWF-Australia’s research points out that global warming has contributed to this drought.

As a consumer the drought will personally affect me in a number of ways. The most obvious will be the higher prices I will pay both for fresh produce and for items such as bread and milk that farmers produce. Beer prices will also go up.

In addition to this South Australia has today introduced tougher water restrictions. Now there’s only three days a week that I can put the sprinkler on for my small lawn. If I didn’t have a young kid I’d probably let it go or replace it with something more tolerant to no water. I hope that the people who water their driveways and paths get fined really heavily. There’s nothing wrong with using a broom to get rid of dirt.

As I grew up on a farm and we relied on rainwater for our household needs I was brought up not to have very long showers. I remember being amazed at a guy who I sharehoused with some time ago having half hour showers. There’s no way we were every allowed to do that.

The other small thing I’ve started doing as of today is buying produce direct from the farmers at the new local farmer’s market that opened down my way a few weeks ago. I’ve paid membership and all so I’m committed to go shopping there now to get my money’s worth. The only downside is that I have to take JJ and he nags me non-stop to buy him food. He’ll eat fresh fruit but it is so much nicer to go shopping without that little voice constantly asking for food.