Well. Michael Jordan retired again. Isn’t this, like, the eighth time he’s done that?
Month: April 2003 (page 4 of 7)
“How Easter is Different in Australia”
- We don’t color eggs here. In fact, in Australia (and in the UK), “easter egg” refers to a giant chocolate egg usually the size of a football. These kick ass. Granted, you don’t get as many as you do of the hard-boiled ones in the US, but who really eats the hard-boiled ones anyway?
- Bunnies are used in advertising here, but no little kids actually believe a giant bunny will bring you chocolate. You can’t get your picture taken with one in a mall, either. Which is nice, because the Easter Bunny scared the crap out of me as a child.
- Actually, rabbits are a plague in Australia and some folks think they shouldn’t be glamourized at all. That’s why there’s a movement to replace the Easter Bunny with the Easter Bilby, which is a weird native marsupial that kinda looks like a rabbit. As long as it’s chocolate, I’m in favor.
- Everyone here eats hot cross buns for Easter. These are fresh-baked rolls with orange peel and raisin in them, and they have a little white cross of dough on the top. They’re glazed with yummy sugariness too. This is a tradition I think we need to revive in America.
- Though I can’t stand the eggs themselves, I used to love the Cadbury’s Cream Egg commercial in the US with the bunny that clucks like a chicken. You don’t get that here or in the UK. However, you can get the actually eggs pretty much year round outside America. They’re not so much exclusively tied to Easter here.
- About this time every year in Australia you get the “Royal Easter Show”, which is basically the state fair. Yep, Easter is in the Fall here, so that’s when everybody rolls out their prize pumpkins and sheep and stuff. I haven’t been yet, but I’m hoping to make it out this weekend. They’ve got lumberjack competitions! And high-diving pigs! How could we not?
- The very best thing about Easter Down Under: No Peeps! Praise Baby Jesus.
Australians are actually having an extra-special Easter this year, given how late it falls on the calendar. Next Friday is “Anzac Day”, which is a Memorial Day for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. (Hence, ANZAC.) It’s a big public holiday. So starting tomorrow with Good Friday, we have four days off work, then three days on, then another three-day weekend off. Hallelujah!
Sorry for the weird database errors this morning. I have no idea what happened. I’ve put in a workaround for now and I’ve raised a support request with my host. Just let me know if you notice any other problems…
Update: Turns out it wasn’t my fault. Some other user at my ISP mistakenly filled up the /tmp directory, which somehow I needed to use. So it’s all good now.
Behold, my underpants.
Okay, I’d like to start off by filling you single (and gay) guys in on a little secret: all girls have “granny pants”. These are the nice comfy cotton underpants we wear when we’re sick or out of laundry. No, they’re not sexy at all. Last Christmas my Mom sent me a nice pack of new plain white granny pants (as Moms are wont to do). They’re functional, though huge, and though I haven’t worn them yet, I’m not about to let them go to waste. They could be a little bit cuter though. That’s why I decided to try to liven them up a bit with some of this iron-on transfer paper (considering that I get a pretty nice staff discount). I wasn’t sure about a design until I came across a set of Hello Kitty brushes for Illustrator last week. With that, the plan was made.
The transfer paper was actually really easy to use. As I understand it, it’s coated in a kind of waxy stuff that melts when you iron it, thus coming off the paper and trapping the ink onto your shirt. That’s why you’ve got to trim pretty good around the image, because even where there’s no color you still get a layer of stuff. The design itself feels a little stiff right now, so I’m not sure how comfortable it’d be to wear a great big design. I don’t know how well they’ll hold up in the wash either, but quite frankly it’s not too big a worry. They’re only underpants. 🙂
(Hmm. Given that I officially got “on” the Net when I started college in 1995, it’s taken me about eight years to put my undergarments online. Geez, I’m like a porn star now or something.)
Enough of this veil of secrecy… Club EPSON is live! Of course, it still might have 50 million bugs, so explore with caution.
Woohoo! I managed to fix that bug that prevented Safari users (including myself) from saving their cookies at this site. If you’re using GoddessBlog, you need to rewrite a few lines to make it work. If anybody else notices any weirdness when leaving comments here (like if it suddenly won’t remember your name), please let me know.In addcomment.php, look at lines 34-37. I’m using the “header” command to send the cookies to the browser. Safari is kinda puking on this, so instead we’ll send them a different way. Just change those lines to look like this:
$date = date(“D, d-M-y H:i:s”, ($time));
setcookie (“userName”, $userName, $time, ‘/’,
‘www.web-goddess.org’);
setcookie (“userEmail”, $userEmail, $time, ‘/’, ‘www.web-goddess.org’);
setcookie (“userUrl”, $userUrl, $time, ‘/’, ‘www.web-goddess.org’);
That should do it! Oh, and of course, replace the www.web-goddess.org with your own domain name. 🙂
Murphy’s Law: Upon completing your first batch of Hello Kitty iron-on transfer underpants (heretofore known as the Cutest. Panties. In. The. World.), your digital camera’s batteries are sure to be dead. Pictures are forthcoming, I swear.
Well, I gave that whole “fartlek” thing a try tonight since you all recommended it. It was pretty tough. I did a quick warm up and then started alternating three minutes running with one minute walking. I was surprised that my overall pace didn’t seem to drop, considering how much I was huffing and puffing during those last sprints. I managed to finish my 2.5 km in less than 20 minutes, and I hit the 2-mile mark at 24:00 exactly. That’s pretty sweet. Even if I do the last mile at a crawl I shouldn’t have any trouble coming in under 40:00 for the 5K. (I feel I must report all this to you guys, as it’s like you’re my collective Coach.)
Matt linked to this cool Ivan Brunetti artwork the other day and now I’m obsessed with identifying all the cartoon characters. I’ve got it set as my desktop and it’s just driving me crazy. If you’d like to help, read on.Okay, here’s what I got:
Top row: Mickey Mouse; Woodstock; that guy from Blondie?; Madeline; Felix the Cat; one of the Powerpuff Girls; Porky Pig; Charlie Brown
Second row: No clue but he looks familiar; Shroeder; no idea; Heathcliff; Superman; Caspar; the little fat girl from Family Circus (Dolly?); no idea
Third row: No idea, looks like Mickey but we’ve already had him; Marvin the Martian; Homer Simpson; Mr. Peanut; Betty Rubble; the baby from that Family Guy show (Stewie?); Goofy; no clue but he looks familiar (Ally Gator? That sounds dumb)
Fourth row: Hello Kitty; no clue; no clue (kinda like Yosemite Sam); Snoopy; no clue; Olive Oyl; no clue; Batman?
Fifth row: No clue (looks kinda like Snagglepuss); Betty Boop; Linus; no frickin’ clue; Minnie Mouse?; Tweety Bird; no idea; Mr. Peabody
Last row: Spider-Man, Yogi Bear; Donald Duck? (looks more like a penguin); Andy Capp; Dennis the Menace; Lucy; Pop-Eye; can’t remember her name
So, can you fill in any of those gaps? Want to dispute one of my identifications? Let me know.
Safari Beta 2 is out… and it’s got tabs! I’m tabbing it up, baby!