Archives for 2012

I’m still here

December 22, 2012 by Jen

The world didn’t end last night. I went to an end of the world party to ‘celebrate’ the end of the world and all get sucked into the portal at 9.42pm. Bit of a non-event really.

So that means that I’m here sharing meaningfulness – ahem.

My son said to me before I went out that the world was going to end and that he’d rather spend the night with me. I felt a bit guilty about going out, but go out I did. I finished work for the year yesterday and even though I was tired I wanted to go out, catch up with friends and have a dance. I did all of those things.

I’ve got a great group of friends. I’m lucky.

While were dancing to Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust for Life’ a friend said to me that she wants that song at her funeral. Noted!

I was watching that show ‘Wedding Band’ the other evening and the band played at a funeral and everyone sang along. That’s what I want at my funeral – a singalong. It will be cathartic. I don’t know what song yet. Should I decide that or should I let my executor decide that? No, I should decide. One of my will’s executors likes Robbie Williams.

It’s been a whirlwind this last school term and I’ll be glad when Christmas Day has gone so that I can relax for a while before it starts all over again in the next school year.

JJ finished school last Friday and I had a great chat with his pastoral care worker. She said he’s showing some great leadership abilities and she doesn’t see him as much any more. Apparently he took her over to the library and showed her a book that he thought she could use with the other kids she sees. And she did use it.

I told her that JJ recently told me that he’s the alpha wolf in his group of friends at school. When I asked how he figured that out, he said he’s the leader of his pack. When I take him to school and go to his classroom with him, I see his friends come and say hi to him and they’re really happy to see him. This is something that never happened until recently. He used to be the lone wolf, but no longer.

Kids often get their school uniforms signed when it’s their last day of school and before they move onto a new school. JJ is going back to the same school next year but still got his t-shirt signed. He’ll be wearing a slightly different uniform so I guess this t-shirt is now a keepsake.

I was pretty happy with his report too. The usual suspects of improvement in spelling needed, and the occasional disruptive behaviour were there, but otherwise it was pretty good.

I love seeing these changes in him as he grows up. But the physical changes are hard to ignore too. I bought him some new shoes the other day and I could fit into them. And he’s nearly as tall as me. He’s got two more years of primary school then he’ll whiz through high school and be an adult before I know it.

He’s learning how to play The Good, The Bad and The Ugly theme on the piano. I like listening to him practise this.

I’m glad the world didn’t end last night. There’s still lots more to do before it does – or before I do.

Geocaching – a family activity

December 18, 2012 by Jen

I’m not a crafty mama, unless you count the ways I can craftily get one past my son. So finding activities we can enjoy together isn’t always easy when our interests differ so.

Afterall, I’m not interested in shooting games, continually doing knock-knock jokes, or answering trick questions all the time.

We were recently introduced to geocaching. I had heard of it before and thought in passing that it could be interesting, and that was the extent of that.

But when there’s an iphone app that directs you to geocaches near you, then it makes it quite easy. The Geocaching Intro app is the one that was recommended to us and it works quite well.

” Geocaching is a global treasure hunting game where participants locate hidden physical containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share their experience online.”

The app we’re using gives us three nearby locations. There’s usually a hint, and once you can use the compass in the app to point you in the right direction. Luckily there’s a hint with most locations as once you get close to the location the distance displayed on the compass is a bit hit and miss as the app’s reviews suggest.

My son is dead keen on doing them so he asked if we could do one on the way home from The Surfer’s the other day. It led us to a location that I’d driven past but never realised there was a heritage property nearby.

Not only did we find the geocache – see the above pictures – we got to learn a bit about the history of the area and discover a place we never would have otherwise done. I wished I’d had my good camera to take some more photos.

I think I’ll need to update the app so we can plan things a bit better for locations not nearby. Of course there’s a website to find more of these geocaches at geocaching.com.

He got me to take the photo above because it looks like he’s standing in the water. Psst, he’s not.

Oh, and he doesn’t enjoy posing for the camera. Psst, he does.

Down my street

December 5, 2012 by Jen

I love this time of year when the purple flowering plants are in full swing – the Jacarandas and the Agapanthus.

I don’t mind wading through a sea of purple.

Then the view is ruined by this, although, luckily not a common occurrence.

Good morning Wordless Wednesday. All those other words are in me waiting to come out – really.

Why you shouldn’t automatically update Twitter from Facebook

December 1, 2012 by Jen

Twitter and Facebook are two totally different social media platforms yet there’s one thing about people trying to integrate their social media updates on both these platforms that really gets up my nose.

Facebook has the ability to automatically post your status update to Twitter. That’s great right? You only have to do one update and it’s done on two of your platforms. No, it’s not great, and here’s why.

Facebook will allow longer status updates, and Twitter, as you probably know, only allows 140 characters. Therefore when you automatically send your Facebook update to Twitter, it truncates and adds a web address, like the below.

The clue that if you click on the link and you’ll be sent to Facebook is the fb.me part of the web address.

Many people do automatic posting to Twitter from Facebook for their brand page because the Facebook updates have to be public to allow Twitter users to be able to see them.

Because of the difference between how the platforms operate you’re really much better off posting separately. You have to monitor both platforms anyway right? Right? I hope you’re doing that. There’s nothing more frustrating for a follower engaging with you to be ignored.

But maybe you don’t know how to disconnect the two. It’s easy.

How to revoke access between Twitter and Facebook

Go to Twitter, select your profile’s Settings. Click on Apps and Revoke access to Facebook. It’s easy. You might want to check out what else is connected to Twitter and do a spring clean while you’re there.

Other platforms can work well when posting to Twitter, like FourSquare and Instagram, just not Facebook.

But that’s my opinion. What’s yours?

Feeding an aging dog

November 26, 2012 by Jen

Our dog is about 15 years old (the one on the right pictured above). I’m not exactly sure of her age because when I got her, her then owner was a bit vague about her age – 2-2.5 years he thought. I don’t know if I ever said on this blog before but he committed suicide a few years after giving us Monty which was awful to hear and I’m glad she was spared from losing him in that way. Although she did lose him when we got her didn’t she?

Monty has had 13 years with me, and 11 years with my son and I hate to say this, but I think she might be lucky to make it past the end of the year.

Pretty much since I got her I’ve been buying her dog food from Bucket of Beef and she’s normally devoured it in a very short amount of time. In the last few weeks she hasn’t wanted it so I’ve had to come up with other sorts of food that she’ll eat.

I tried changing our order to doggy mince but she doesn’t seem too keen on that either. At the moment she’s having cut up bits of chicken or beef from the human food section of the supermarket. I’ve even made instant gravy to pour over the top to warm it up a bit and to add that bit of extra flavour. It seems to be working but she’s still not that interested in eating. She likes eating doggy treats like Smackos and she likes me hand feeding her small pieces of cheese. I’ve even been feeding her twice a day instead of once a day.

I spoke to a vet who euthanases pets in your home. I met this vet at my local oval when she was walking her dogs. She used to work at a clinic but has since left and started her own business. She was fantastic on the phone and pretty much said that I will know when the time comes. Monty’s yearly injections are due around now and I asked if it’s worth getting them done as they’re expensive and I doubt whether she’ll get her year’s worth. The vet said not to worry about it as it will stress her out and she’s still covered from all the previous ones. That makes me doubly glad because I’ve gone off my local vet surgery.

Monty is still following us around the house absolutely everywhere. When she stops doing that and appears to have lost interest in us, or when she physically can’t move around then I’ll know the time has come.

She is very wobbly on her back legs and stumbles all over the place. It’s excruciating to watch her pace back and forth in the lounge before she finally settles down on her mat or on the shag-pile rug. I think she forgets why she came into the room, hence the pacing.

She also wanders up and down the hallway looking in the bedrooms – previously out of bounds – but the rules have been heavily relaxed. And as she’s deaf, telling her to come or go out is hopeless.

I have to lift her into the car if we go out – jumping in is a thing of the past. And walks – even short walks are out now. I do want to take her to the beach one last time but it will have to be one that has a very short walk from the carpark to the beach.

So I continue to sweep up her molting fur, pat her as much as I can and love her heaps while we’ve still got her.

My Skylanders giveaway closed and winners have been chosen.

It turns out I can cook scones

November 14, 2012 by Jen

Scones. It turns out I can make them. These weren’t for me but for the school fete.

Don’t you always have the urge to do this too?

He hasn’t learned how to update my Facebook status but I get my own private updates.

I caught it in time to take a photo. I love these.

I’m joining in for Trish’s Wordless Wednesday. At least I know I’m not alone in my contributions not being wordless.

And I’m doing a Skylanders giveaway.

Skylander Giants – Review and giveaway

I’ve been a Spyro fan for a few years now and embraced Skylanders when it was released last year. A year on, and it was another Skylander’s game release – Skylander Giants.

We were lucky enough to be sent a game to review and review it my son and I have both done.

His point of view

Very good puzzle game with being able to move things around so that you can get to the next stage.

I love the fact that they have Skystones. I’d love a real Skystones game.

I like the story and especially the end. I like having to find Kaos (the baddy) and seeing the mischief he gets up to (I’m a bit appalled that he has finished the game just because it means I let him spend a while in front of it, but it is easy to get to the end without having found all the areas and therefore only completing about 30% of the game. If he gets any new characters he will go back and play it more).

I’m not so keen on having two versions of the some characters for the first Skylanders and Skylander Giants.

The Skylander Giants are pretty darn cool! Because they’re big and can lift certain items that others can’t, and do way more damage.

I also like the cards that come with the game.

I rate it 9/10.

My take

I have actually played it and I enjoy it. I’ve found defeating the ‘bosses’ easier so far than I did the first game which I like because I get impatient when things are too hard and get my son to come and help me out. That’s a bit hard when he’s asleep.

I also like the Skystones game aspect within Skylander Giants.

I also like the puzzle aspects of the game. As well as moving things around to get to other levels, there’s finding different areas to find treasure chests and so on. There’s the hero challenges too.

I like that you can use the Skylander characters on Skylander Giants and it’s good that the money I spent on those characters is being put to use on this game without having to fork out heaps more for the new characters. The upgrades they earned in the first game are also recognised in Giants.

The new characters in Skylander Giants

The game features 16 new characters, led by eight Giant Skylanders, who are twice the size of their comrades. The Giants each have exciting new powers and abilities to match their size. Joining the Giants are eight new classic-sized Skylanders, who also feature never-before-seen powers. Additionally, Skylanders Giants introduces new LightCore Skylanders that glow when on or near the Portal of Power—no batteries required. Fan-favorites from Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure return as Series 2 characters featuring an all new “Wow Pow” upgrade power as well as the choice of more than one upgrade path.

More information about Skylander Giants

Visit the Skylanders website.

The giveaway

I’ve got three prizes for three winners that I’m giving away courtesy of Activision (images below of single characters aren’t necessarily what’s being given away).

1 x Skylander Giant single character
1 x LightCore single character
1 x Battle Pack {includes Chop Chop 2, Shroom Boom and the Dragonfire Cannon which unlocks a new combat arena}

How to enter

Comment on this post to enter by finishing this sentence: I want to add to my Skylander character arsenal because……

The rules

Open to Australian residents only.
This giveaway closes on Sunday 25 November at midnight.
My son will be my co-judge. He’s 11. He wants to enter, but can’t.
Subscribe to my blog if you haven’t already. Ok, that’s not a requirement, just a bonus. You’ll see subscribing options on my blog to the right of the screen about halfway down.

Thank you, and good luck.

The winners

My son and I chose these three winners. I will contact via email to notify them and if I don’t hear back from them by the end of Friday 30 November we’ll choose another. Rechose No 3 as they didn’t get back to me. (1 Dec)

Michelle Gray – Skylanders are going to take over the world, or at least a bedroom at my house.
Wendy D – My son and I have stopped playing Pokemon and LOVE SKYLANDER every afternoon after school we allocate an 1 hour to play and I’m getting pretty good. Anders (my son) would get a surprise if we won. I would be the BEST mum!
Jayden -Skylander Giants is the best game ever!
To stop Playing them, I WILL NEVER!All these prizes are pretty neat,
To win one would be extra sweet.

Oneday I will complete the set,
Think i will end up sending my mum into debt!