Quote of the Day

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." Steve Jobs

Word of the Day: "Wordstipation"

Wordstipation: (n.) A condition suffered by writers when what they want to write is all there in the writer's head, but the words just won't come out onto the page.

As far as I know, I am the first person ever to have used this word, but I won't be so arrogant as to claim ownership of it exclusively. It's a word, and it should be used.

Bobby Andonov - Australia's Got Talent

Last night, we recorded Australia's Got Talent 1st Semi Final and watched it back over lunch today. I have got a few favourites at the moment, and 15 year old, Bobby Andanov is one of them. He's also pretty popular with the judges. Brian Macfadden (Westlife) declared himself "A fan" when Bobby finished his semi final performance.

I've posted the video of Bobby's Audition, and his Semi Final appearance. You can judge for yourselves.

Bobby Andonov Australia's Got Talent Audition (Hallelujah)

Bobby Andonov Australia's Got Talent 1st Semi Final (Heartless)

Two pics from today

Today was Labor Day and Sandra and I went to her mum's place for lunch. We had a delicious lamb roast with veges and for dessert, this...

Strawberries with custard and cream in a brandy snap bowl with chocolate flake.

On the way to lunch, I needed to stop at the supermarket to pick up some items, and we went into town to see if Woolworths was open. It wasn't, but the local IGA which is just across the road was open. So where did IGA put their specials of the week sign?

Only an Aussie could be this cheeky!

Song Meme

suggested by Testube

"If you could select one song to best describe what kind of day you are having, what would that song be?"

Well, since I only just got up, I haven't had much of a day, as yet. The coffee I had for breakfast was good, though. :) That's always a good way to start the day.

The song that is stuck in my head at present is "If" a cover that Damien Leith has done on his Album: Catch the Wind.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can't I paint you?

Why this particular song is in my head at present, I don't know, but it is in Damien's voice, so that's not a bad thing. For those who don't know Damien won Australian Idol back in 2006 and I've been following his career ever since.

He's also a writer with one book to his credit so far:One More Time.

Despite the musical sounding title, the story isn't really about the music industry. It is a very interesting tale about a young man who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I bought the book when it was released not long after Damien's leap to fame as Australian Idol.

Anyway, all of that does nothing to explain why that particular song from his album is stuck in my head this morning. Perhaps, I am just obsessed with Damo! *g*

On the writing front, the current WIP has begun to progress again after a brainstorming session with my faitful shotgun, Iris last night. I'd gotten hung up on a plot point but she helped me to work through it.

It's now officially past the 50,000 words mark with maybe another 10k needed to finish it.

I'm excited!

ANZAC Day

In Australia, April 25th "ANZAC Day" commemorates the sacrifices of the men and women who have served The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in various wars over the years. It is a public holiday and many people turn out to honor the memory of the fallen in dawn services and by attending parades. It is probably one of the busiest days of the year for our RSL (Returned Soldiers' League) Clubs as men and women get together to raise a glass in memory of bygone days and battles.

On this ANZAC Day 2010, I would like to take the opportunity to remember and to thank all those men and women who sacrificed their lives, to ensure our continued freedom.

The National Library of Australia holds many archives and articles from both the first and second World Wars, many of them 'on the scene' accounts of famous landings and battles. I thought that I would post an excerpt from one article here.

Between the first landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915 and the evacuation which began eight months later in December, some 43,750 allied soldiers lost their lives. At least 85,000 Turkish soldiers died.

The casualty figures were small compared to the later catastrophic losses in France and Belgium but nonetheless devastating for families at home as the true extent of the losses began to emerge.

The Australians had been training in Egypt, where the name Anzac, for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, was adopted. Some 18 000 of them had sailed from Albany in the south of Western Australia on 1 November 1914 expecting to disembark in England. Canadian troops had already arrived in England and the British were unable to accommodate the Australians-and New Zealanders-who were instead re-directed to Egypt. There they received their unexpected orders to go to Gallipoli-their first battle orders-following the failure of British and French naval assaults on Turkey in the Dardanelles.

Read On...

At the setting of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them. Lest we forget.

Frustrating Friday

I had one of those days, today. You know...when you just should have stayed in bed.

It started off with getting a chain email that annoyed the heck out of me and which I ranted about for about ten minutes. I mean, this thing hit me before I'd even finished my coffee!

Anyone who knows me, knows that you don't annoy the dragon before she's had her morning coffee, or if you do, it's at your own peril! So anyway, once I got that out of my system, I settled down to pay some bills. For some reason, I hesitated before logging into my internet banking account, and decided to run anti-spyware software first.

Thank you, Universe for making me think of that. The result was that I had a Banker Trojan on my system. As trojans go, this is one of the worst you want to find. It's a key stroke monitor which is cleverly designed to mine--you guessed it, internet banking details!

My partner, who is self-admittedly anal, never logs on to her banking website, without running anti-spyware...me? Notsomuch. *wince* It's just lucky that some instinct warned me to do so this morning. Still, the result sent me into a bit of a tail spin and since we were going to town to do our grocery shopping anyway, I decided to go to my bank and change my log in details, just to be on the safe-side.

This resulted in something nifty. When I told the girl that I'd had a trojan on my computer and wanted to change my internet log in info, she asked if I had a "token".

...

Seems a token is a little electronic gizmo that the bank provides (free of charge) which you can use to generate a random code anytime you make an online transfer or payment. Neat! No one can move funds from my account online without that code.

Makes me feel a little bit more secure.

So after doing the shopping we came home and I googled for how to get rid of this thing. The results of that search gave me a headache and I decided to go take a nap...yes, I know, avoidance is not the greatest way to deal with things, but that's what I did.

When I got up, I was cranky, because I knew I still had that damn thing to deal with. I also needed to cook dinner. So I got a bit...loud and got into a short, but heated discussion with Sandra. *frown*

Anyway, it ended up my eldest daughter's partner offered to step me through the removal process for the trojan--only to discover that it had obviously already been killed by my anti-spyware program as not a trace of it could be found!

So, now the computer is cleaned up, immunized, and has had a virus scan run for good measure and all is right with the world once more, thanks to a lovely (and undeserved) coffee made for me by Sandra, and a Petit Ecolier Biscuit.

These are wonderful! I hadn't seen them since I was a kid, when our English Nanny...yes, we had a Mrs. Gardiner for a little while, used to have them and offer one occasionally as a reward for beingexceptionally good! They're imports--French and I think Mrs. G. probably had them sent to her from England at great expense back in the 60's so it was generous of her to share them sometimes.

Apparently, according to this blog, they're also good for making S'mores with. I might have to try that sometime, although it would be an expensive exercise!

So that's my Friday. How's yours?