web-goddess

I know she hasn’t updated her training page in a while, but my sister is less than two weeks away from her marathon and I think she’s just about ready. She’s run two half-marathons already in preparation. Recently she organized a phenomenally successful “bachelor auction” that put her within $1500 of her fundraising goal. If you haven’t donated – and you feel like doing a Christmas good deed – please consider sponsoring her. (You can donate money through her training page.) It’s all for cancer research. At the very least, please join me in being proud as hell of her. I can’t believe she’s gotten this far!

The Australian Labor Party (which is pretty much equivalent to the Democratic Party in the US) have finally chosen a new leader: Mark Latham. This is the guy who called John Howard an “arse-licker”. Awesome. Now I only wish I could vote in the next general election.

Survivor was awesome last night. Right now I’m hoping for Burton to win, simply because I believe he’s playing the game the best. (It doesn’t hurt that he’s cute either.) Thoughts on the episode:

• Sandra has plummeted on my list of favorites. Her little maneuver with the fish was really pretty low. (Not the low point of the night, of course, but down there.) I’m not against a little sabotage within the context of the game – Mick did it extremely well on the first UK series – but she dumped the fish out of pure spite. It’s not the fault of the other contestants that she never formulated a strategy beyond “coast along with Rupert”. How childish.
• I really did feel bad for Christa that she got blamed. It was harsh to see her get attacked once you knew she didn’t do it. She should’ve pointed out that Sandra had at least as much motive and opportunity that she did.
• As much as I think Jon’s a dick, I have to admit that he’s been growing on me the last few episodes. I always like an unapologetic villain. He’s playing the game the only way he can. I think his strategy is really interesting, too. He’s basically ensured that everybody left wants to take him to the final two, reckoning that he’s more repulsive than them. Juries have a way of rewarding the snakes for their ingenuity, so I don’t think it’s a bad plan. And bravo for the dead grandmother bit! The Snook and I were speechless. I was hoping Jeff would somehow reveal it, but I’m guessing that he’s not allowed to influence the game in any way. Reward challenge aside, it was a great way to ensure some sympathy with future jurors. I’ve got to hand it to the jerk.
• I didn’t notice the “liaison” mispelling either. I must be slipping in my old age.
• Nobody knows how to wear the damn cutlass but Burton. That annoys me. If pirates wore it on their front, they’d cut their throats the first time they tried to pull it out!
• Sandra and Christa screwed up badly. They turned down an alliance of four – all girls – for an alliance of five – with two boys. They failed to boot the strongest player left. They bought into Jon’s bullshit yet again. (As the Snook put it, “How many times are they gonna let him pull the football away?”) They deserve to go soon.

I can’t wait for the last episodes. It’s no Amazing Race but it’s pretty darn good. And yay! I saw a preview for the upcoming Big Brother audition special. Bring it on, Gretel.

How Lemonheads Are Made. Neat!

Netdecider-spotting! Christian Heilmann’s got an article up on A List Apart.

Wisdom for a Monday morning…

the way I see it, as hard as it is to find someone to like that also likes you back, you’d have to be fundamentally evil or ignorant to stand in the way of any kind of loving relationship. — mcsweetie

Original discussion on MetaFilter

Suddenly, blindingly, brilliantly… summer is here. It took me all of about thirty minutes to get my first sunburn of the season. (I didn’t mean to!) We finished our chores early – transplanting basil in the backyard, meeting with our tax agent, the Snook racking beer, me hitting the gym – and decided to reward ourselves with a trip to the pool at Vic Park (since it’s right around the corner from our new place). The Snook swam laps while I read in the shade. Now we’re heading into the city for birthday drinks with a friend. It’s like I can just see the summer spreading out before me in a lovely succession of sunny days and warm nights with friends… and everything is good.

Friday Five:

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?
Not really. I find it stressful. I like to buy things and get new stuff, but the act of going to stores and picking things out always puts me in a bad mood. It’s been getting better though, as the last few times I’ve tried things on I’ve been happy to discover that I can wear a smaller size than I thought.

2. What was the last thing you purchased?
A bottle of wine to take to a friend’s house last night. Prior to that it was a big bag of potting soil for transplanting our basil this weekend.

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?
If I know exactly what I want, I much prefer online. (I even had a dream the other night that Amazon.com.au was finally launching.) I wish it were practical to do our grocery shopping online. I hate the grocery store.

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?
I don’t remember it ever really being a set amount. If you did your chores and you wanted something, you could usually get it. Once I turned 14 I got a part-time job at the local grocery store so I pretty much paid my own way from then on.

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?
That box of Rice Krispies. Turns out we still had half a box from the Rice Krackles the Snook made for Halloween, so now we’ve got a whole extra box of cereal we’ll never eat. Which means I’ll make more Treats with it. And I’ll eat them. And the cycle of regret will begin again…

Remember that old commercial for Rice Krispies, where the Mom was making Rice Krispie Treats and faking how labor-intensive it was to her family? And at the end, she even threw flour on her face to get more sympathy? That’s totally how I was today. I had an evil craving for some peanut-butter treats last night so I made them and took them into the office today. Most of the Australians had never had them before. It was awesome. People were like, “Oh my gosh, these are so good! You’re so nice to go to all this trouble!” I got, like, ten million office karma points. It’s a nice way to end the week.

“Look at that screen clutter! Is that a desktop pattern, or just 70,000 icons?!” Mac Eye for the Windows Guy. I’m still giggling over this.