Success! In a stunning reversal of blonde stereotype, I helped our trivia team to smashing victory tonight at the Marlborough Hotel. My contributions included the Polish unit of currency (the “zloty”), the mailman from Cheers (“Cliff Clavin” – I love the American TV questions), and the member of the British royal family currently appearing in court (“Princess Anne”, because her dog bit somebody). We won a case of beer. Sweeeeeet.

This article indicates that the Army’s going to start going through its records looking for people with sniper training. I was talking to my Dad about the murders the other day, though, and based on our conversation I think that’s kinda unnecessary. Dad’s a deer hunter and he knows a fair bit about guns. Given the distances and the gun this guy is using, hitting his target would be fairly easy. Anybody with a laser sight and a stand of some sort could probably do the same from 150 yards. This is not a comforting thought. We like to think that the “sniper” is some well-trained psycho that we can easily identify and catch, and therefore remove the menace from society. I think it’s much scarier to acknowledge the reality that what this guy has accomplished isn’t that difficult, and there’s not much to prevent the next nutjob from doing the same.

Bring on the blonde jokes!
Yes, your intrepid weblogger has once again gone blonde. I went blonde back in college, but I didn’t have the money to pay a salon for upkeep so I always ended up tending the roots myself (which meant I had dried out straw for hair). Then came the Red Years, which lasted throughout my stay in London. It was a bit heavy and oppressive, much like the English weather. Lately here in Oz I’ve been sitting in the sunshine and thinking that I wanted to be sunshiney myself. So today I took the plunge. My hairdresser convinced me to go with “foils”, which is where they take tiny sections of hair, coat it in the dye, and wrap it in aluminum foil to keep the heat in. I was a little skeptical how I was going to be blonde when he only seemed to be dying half my hair. But I shouldn’t have doubted; it turned out great. So bring on the blonde jokes! I can take it. 🙂

(I would’ve been shy about posting a picture except that my sister – who yesterday saw a recent pic of me – said that my face had gotten a lot thinner and that it looked good. So I’m in a feeling-pretty kinda mood.)

The apocalypse is upon us. Roger Ebert likes an Adam Sandler movie. What a weird article though. Paul Thomas Anderson sounds like a total nutbar.

Britain has re-imposed direct rule on Northern Ireland. Suddenly not living in London sounds like a very good thing. Shall we take bets on how long it’ll be before the IRA blows up Hammersmith Bridge? (They’ve tried several times before.)

web-goddess: where my navel-gazing meets your voyeurism!
It was a beautiful sunshiney day and I was filled with domestic energy. After cleaning the whole house, I was inspired to finally pull out the digital camera and document our dwelling. Thus at long last, pictures of our house are now available for your perusal. That should make the folks happy. Just try to ignore the dust bunnies in the corners… 🙂

I just came from the grocery store where I happily discovered that Vanilla Coke is finally available in Australia. I’m tasting it for the first time right now. It’s… surprisingly good! I read that some people thought it was overpowering or chemical-ish, but I think it’s just right. Of course, as sugar is a no-no on Atkins, it might just be the shock of having my first “real” Coke in three months. Do they have a Diet Vanilla Coke? They didn’t have it at my store. If they do, I’m all over that stuff.

Update: ACK! I just realized that the 600 mL bottle (of which I drank the whole thing) has 66 grams of carbs, 99% of which come from sugar! That’s three times the recommended Induction limit! No more Vanilla Coke for me til I locate Diet.

Saturday the Snook and I were strolling through Newtown when we saw this book in a local shop window: Gordon’s Got a Snookie! How cute is that? We went in and read it. It’s a picture book about the new male gorilla at the zoo, whose arrival has all the other animals excited. When they see he has a snookie (a security blanket) though, they laugh at him and make fun of him. He ends up all by himself hugging his snookie (because a snookie is something you hug when you’re all alone and you want your mommy). But then one day the baby gorilla falls in the water and Gordon uses his snookie to save him. All the animals think he’s a hero and he gives them all pieces of the snookie. Isn’t that sweet? I’m glad I have a Snookie. 🙂

The Snook and I were watching Star Wars yesterday and we started discussing the worm that lives in the Death Star trash compactor. I was telling him about the McSweeney’s article that examines the implausibility of the Empire’s waste management system. As we pondered what the worm was doing there in the first place, we both suddenly exclaimed in unison: “Worm farming!” Who knew the Empire was into vermicomposting? 🙂

“It has been our own, in a sense, 11th of September; it’s a tragedy.”

More than 180 are feared dead in the Bali nightclub bombing. Is this getting any play on foreign news outlets? Here in Australia, it’s being treated like it was domestic terrorism. Bali’s pretty close and to Australians, it’s like the Ibiza of this hemisphere. Everyone goes there for their big vacations. I read an estimate that 75% of the wounded are probably Australian. Several community football teams were there celebrating the end of their season. This will probably end up being the greatest loss of Australian life during peacetime.

I thought we were away from it all here. I thought by avoiding Europe and the U.S. we’d be free from the bombings and the anthrax and the snipers and the threats. Nope. Sometimes it just sucks to be a human.