Dunno.....?

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9oFX_O5J2QYSvHs2iWex7IDAlKvpXK4biiQcIcW5HievpTCQbOg184kTjs9_CpHF6qWLlpNllS_uXz9FEuGMqTn1Oaw8cQ4GSSHiWo5z7PnvDNGb5ACmo3rZlVPiiej_Lse5y5gJKN48/s400/undecided.png

My work's going to organise for us all to get the swine flu vaccine this Friday.

I told my dad this morning and at first he was cool with it, but then while I was at work he called and insisted that I hold off and get it later because it hasn't been tested enough and Australia's the first to use the vaccine.

I'll admit, I have my reservations.

I told everyone at work about my dad instilling the fear of God in me, and then I proceeded to instill the fear of God in them. Everyone was googling the vaccine like crazy and I felt a little guilty for having caused such a commotion. To be honest, I am concerned, but then there's this other part of me that says, everyone makes a big fuss about vaccines in general and so far they've been alright. Plus, I can't be bothered organising it myself if work's going to take care of it.

What should I do?

Meanwhile, speaking of medical miracles and interventions, how much does Betadine rock? I kid you not, my hands, hip and knees have scabbed over in record time and I can almost trick myself into believing that my foolish fall of Friday past never ever happened.

If only I had Red Bull Wings...

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGC/StaticFiles/Episodes/Jet-Man/Images/flying-contraptions-3.jpg

On Friday night my sister and I watched the Symphony at the Sydney Opera House. It was a treat. We ate dinner on King Street beforehand and walked in record time to make the 8pm session. When the show finished we were so knackered that we just wanted to go home. We didn't really say anything worth noting. In fact, most of the time we just looked at stuff and made random comments like "My feet rully hurt" or "My hair is crazy itchy, I need a shower" or "That person's wearing pink shoes" and then we'd laugh like we'd just said something incredibly hilarious.

Anyway, the point is, when we changed at Central from Circular Quay to make our way home we were definitely not in the mood or the mindset to hold a genuine, coherent conversation. In particular, small talk and polite chit chat was a no-go.

So when we were greeted with the sight of our old maths teacher (with her hubby in tow) standing all but 2 metres away from us, we recoiled, took a ten million giant steps back in horror. We were too tired, too smelly, too over it to want to have to deal with it. We quickly hatched the perfect plan.

You see, the problem was, that this maths teacher taught both of us in different years, lived in our suburb about 800 metres or so away from our house and didn't really like either of us, because we weren't exactly exemplary maths students. This meant that in order to avoid speaking to her, our plan would need to combine three key factors: speed, timing and super reflexes. She was in the carriage next to ours, so there was no room for error. We needed to be perfect.

As the train pulled up at our stop, my sister and I looked at each other and nodded in unison, our plan ready to be unleashed.

Vrooom! went the train doors.

We sprinted up the three flights and continued the sprint to our car.

"Where is she? Is she behind us???" I gasped lurching down the steep hill that leads to the busstop.

"I dunno, I dunno" huffed my sister from somewhere behind me.

I decided to sneak a peek over my shoulder like those Olympic athletes do when they're leading the pack in the long distance events and they're scoping out their competition. We were virtually in the clear.

But alas, that was to be my downfall. I should've known that someone as athletically challenged as me wouldn't be able to handle simultaneously looking over my shoulder while running like the wind in the dark with inappropriate shoes on.

I got disorientated, stubbed my big toe on an invisible tree root and was airborne for what seemed like an eternity.

God I wish I had wings.

I skidded face down on the concrete and skinned both my hands, my right elbow, my right hip, right knee, right foot and completely destroyed my shoes.

"Did anyone hear? Did she see that?" I hissed to my sister who by that time had caught up with me. All I could think about was old high school maths teacher peering down all school teacherish at me and warning me that running was not allowed in the playground.

"Nah she didn't! Don't worry, who cares if she heard!!" my sister hissed back, as I gripped on to her arm and hobbled across the road. And it was only then that it dawned on me.... Oh yeah, why did I really give a crap, it's been 7 years I finished high school!

And so I went home a miserable, full of regret, bruised and bleeding.

I will never ever run away from my high school maths teacher again.

My trashed shoes:

Injecting a little raunch into those handsome Disney heroes...

Today, as the work day was drawing to a close my workmate and I start talking about our favourite cartoons from Agro's Cartoon Connection.

I cited James Bond Jr, Captain Planet and Conan the Adventurer as three of my favourite cartoons, if only for the perve factor.

(http://www.geocities.com/zimlovesearth/hello.jpg- James Bond Jr is the guy with the brown spiky hair, red t-shirt, blue jeans and cool retro jacket in the background. He has biceps of steel and looks mighty fine in a white V neck chesty Bond t-shirt.)

Meanwhile, my workmate had never heard of James Bond Jr or Conan the Adventurer, but had heard of Captain Planet. She decided to google James Bond Jr and declared:

"Yeah, he's pretty hot" before launching into her own analysis of which Disney cartoon characters she found the hottest:

"Omg! Eric the Prince from the Little Mermaid is soooo hot, do you remember him?? You have to remember him"

I myself couldn't remember Eric, and could only think of Sebastian the crab. My workmate stared back at me incredulously before spinning around to launch into a feverish Google search for the perfect image of Eric the Prince.

Imagine our surprise/delight when, amongst all the images of Eric the Prince that Google could find, we were confronted with this:

That's right, a pornstar/male model version of Eric the Prince!!!

We decided to google some other Disney heros and discovered that a guy called David Kawena (davidkawena.deviantart.com) has created a sexed up version of all our favourite heros! And since I've always found Prince Adam from Beauty and the Beast to be supremely handsome, he was the next to be searched, and lo and behold out came:

http://seedinteractive.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Prince-Adam-Beauty-Beast.jpeg

Needless to say, we lost it completely- and yes, we couldn't stop staring at the size of his *ahem* either.

For more of the awesome artwork, check out his site (davidkawena.deviantart.com), or else Google has a lot of them if you search "disney heroes davidkawena."

When Mars came to Earth and went back again...

Today's weather forecast was:

"Sydney 18°C - 21°C . Very windy. Raised dust."

Raised dust, huh?

Check out these pictures and tell me if "raised dust" is anywhere near an accurate description for what went down today:



http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/environment/dust-turns-sydney-sky-red/20090923-g0tw.html?selectedImage=44

And here's what my front yard looked like this morning:

As compared to:

and:

So, anyhow, I think you get the point: There was A LOT of dust everywhere.

One of my workmates moaned that when she went outside to drive to work, her car was like camouflage and she honestly couldn't see it anywhere. She then found it and rang her mum to announce that she was too embarrassed to drive it to work. Her wise mum replied that everyone's car would be exactly the same in grubbiness and my workmate conceded that this was indeed true, and drove into work.

As with most headliners, the weather spawned some pretty funny email forwards:

1. Kanye's take on the dust storm:

Or this one forwarded from a workmate:

"Subject: FW: freaky!

And the lord swept the city in an extraordinary sandstorm.... Matthew 9:23 (look at the date today!) "

To which another cluey workmate responded:

"i googled it and I cant find that verse "

To which another one replied:

"Google tells me Matthew 9:23 is:

9:23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, "

Clearly we were all very productive at work today, but that's how big of a deal this dust storm was.

On a parting note, here's my favourite picture of the day:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/indepth/sydneysiders-tell-of-dust-experiences/story-fn44v660-1225778634363

When Grown Men Play Tetris...

Today on the train ride home from work I sat next to a man with greying hair, a stern frown and perfectly trimmed cuticles. I looked up as he sat next to me and then shoved my head back into my book as I always do when strangers sit next to me/try talk to me/ generally encroach on my personal space.

I didn't notice what he was doing for the first couple of minutes. I heard him shuffle around in his briefcase, saw him flip open his laptop out from the corner of my eye and listened to him clear his throat in that official way which suggests that there's some serious work to be done.

Next thing I know and he's huffing angrily, legs are twitching and his elbows are jerking around like crazytown. I sneak a sly peek out of the corner of my eye to see what could possibly invoke such a physical reaction.

Tetris.

And he was losing.

Badly.

I watched as the lines of blocks full of gaping holes crept higher and higher until there was nowhere else for the pieces to go.

Goner.

He tsked with contempt and slammed his laptop shut before stomping up the stairs and getting off.

I'll be honest, I could feel his pain- there's nothing more annoying than losing tetris, this deceptively simple concept of stacking blocks teases and taunts, the clown music makes us lose focus, the pieces come down faster and faster. If our reflexes are honed, we win. But a lapse in concentration and we've failed to execute the simplest task of tessellation.

This year Tetris celebrates its 25th Birthday.
(http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/06/happy-birthday-to-the-greatest-game-ever-tetris-turns-25/) and the fact remains that it's not always about the snazziest, fanciest, trickiest. It's just about addictive, easy fun.

Check out Guillaume Reymond's homage to tetris, in his creation: "The Original Human Tetris":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0LtUX_6IXY

And here's Man from Mars' tribute to this all around magnificent game: