Calling American East-Coasters: An Aussie friend of mine is going to be visiting relatives in Virginia around Thanksgiving and was wondering if there was any chance of snow skiing at that time of year. I told her that I thought Virginia had fairly mild winters, and – while you’re not far from the Appalachians – the Rockies they are not. Any ideas? Should I just tell her to book a side trip to Canada?

Microsoft warns of three ‘critical’ security flaws. They admit that it “could allow hackers to sneak into personal computers and snoop on sensitive data”. Meanwhile, Apple cuts price on entry-level Macintosh computer. I’m just sayin’…

“I do support the right of every American to marry, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples. I believe that marriage and other civil rights protections are essential to making all families safer and more secure.” You can sign the petition too.

Our photos from the Sydney Royal Easter Show are now up! The Show is basically equivalent to the State Fair around here. There are lots of farm animals and rickety carnival rides and junk food, and everybody spends too much on souvenirs they don’t need. Snookums, Amy, and I headed out there last Saturday for some down-home Aussie country fun…

Apologies for the silence… I’ve been enjoying the holiday weekend. I’m happy to announce that I have just completed my second movie: An Easter Message from Kris and Rodd. (I’m starting to regret dropping that Film Production class!) We spent yesterday at the Royal Easter Show – photos are forthcoming – but otherwise we’ve just been enjoying ourselves. Today we had a nice quiet day of knitting and brewing, and we celebrated in the evening with a leg of lamb and a bottle of wine. Thankfully much chocolate was consumed and there was nary a Peep in sight! I hope your holiday was as nice as ours…

I just stumbled across two other American expatriates blogging from Sydney: Greg from Southern Cross and Scott from A Yank in Oz. Counting Amy, that means there are now four of us! We just need to find a few more than then we can all meet up and play softball. Or something.

Vegetarian Survey: A friend of mine is working on a project to write a business plan for a vegetarian food store. She distributed this survey around here at work and I offered to post it on the ‘Net for her. Please take a second to post your responses in the comments. It’ll only take a second and I know she’d appreciate it! It’s technically only for Australians, but you international types can play along too, I guess.Meatless Meals Eaters – Research Questionnaire

This survey is designed to explore the habits and purchasing intentions of frequent and sporadic eaters of meatless meals. Thank you for participating.

1) Which of these statements best describes your meat eating habits?
a. I do not eat meat.
b. I eat meatless meals at least 4 times per week.
c. I eat meatless meals at least 2 times per week.
d. I eat meat in every meal. (answer question 6 only)

2) What are your reasons for eating meatless meals? >> Select all that apply
a. Health and/or wellbeing reasons
b. Ethical reasons (animal rights, the environment, etc)
c. Religious reasons
d. Other: ____________________________________

3) Have you ever purchased frozen/refrigerated meatless meal or meat substitute (vegetarian nuggets, soy sausages, etc)?
a. Yes, more than once, and I plan to purchase it again in the next 6 months.
b. Yes, once, and I plan to purchase it again in the next 6 months.
c. Yes, once, but I do not plan to purchase it again anytime soon.
d. No, but I intend to purchase it in the next 6 months. >> go to question 5
e. No, and I do not intend to purchase it anytime soon. >> go to question 5

4) Where have you purchased frozen/refrigerated meatless meal or meat substitute? >> Select all that apply
a. Convenience stores (7-Eleven, petrol station stores, etc)
b. Supermarkets
c. Health food stores
d. Other: ________________________________

5. Where do you eat meatless meals? >> Select all that apply
a. At home
b. At work
c. In restaurants or cafes
d. In fast-food outlets
e. Other: ________________________________

6) In 12 months you expect to be eating meatless meals:
a. More often than today.
b. As often as today.
c. Less often than today.

7) How often do you have quick meals (pastries, pizza, sandwich, etc, with or without meat) at convenience stores?
a. At least once a fortnight
b. At least once a month
c. Once every two months
d. Rarely
e. Never

8) Have you ever purchased food from a health food stores?
a. Yes, more than once, and I plan to purchase again in the next 6 months.
b. Yes, once, and I plan to purchase again in the next 6 months.
c. Yes, once, but I do not plan to purchase again anytime soon.
d. No, but I intend to purchase in the next 6 months.
e. No, and I do not intend to purchase anytime soon.

Your gender: a. Male b. Female
Your age group: a. 18-24 b. 25-34 c. 35-44 d. 45-54 e. 55+
Your residential postcode: ______________

Attention Glitterati! As I’m sure you’ve realized, the Glitter boards have now moved. You’ve got to re-register on the new site, though, so don’t forget! If you’re a crafty person and you haven’t been there before, you should definitely check it out.

In other news, I think I broke my little toe. I clumsily whammed it into the bedroom wall. It f**king hurts. I iced it for a few hours only to have it go so numb that I couldn’t feel it, and hence I whacked it into the wall again. Then Snookums ran to comfort me and stepped on it. Seriously. I screamed.

As the money earned by my Roald Dahl site has finally reached $300 (thanks to Google Adsense), I decided to finally get the new digital camera I’d been eyeing: the Canon PowerShot A80. The Snook and I have been playing with it all night. “Take a movie of me!” I said. He obliged. We then plugged it into the Mac and copied the clip into iMovie. Neither of us had ever used it before but we quickly figured out how to add titles and transitions. It was so friggin’ cool. “Hey, put Land Down Under in there!” Snook suggested. I clicked on the music tab and my whole iTunes library appeared, complete with search box. In less than ten seconds the audio track was added. Even Linux Boy here was wowed. We finished it off and exported to QuickTime… and here‘s the finished product. We laughed our asses off. 🙂

Note: Yes, I’m using a slightly funny voice, so don’t get weirded out and think that’s how I really talk.