Box Studios Inc.

I just have to do a plug for a great website I found recently: Toybox tales. The creator of these hilarious but meaningful film clips for kids has done an excellent job: the movies are made using items from his toy box filmed close-up on miniature sets!



My favourite is The Lion, The Really Bad Lady, and the Wardrobe, the highlight of which is when Aslan dies and comes back to life as a hamster!

On Monday I caught up with some friends at a local cafe, as sort of an unofficial celebration of me slipping further over the hill.

It was quite nice - I have a liking for this particular cafe, especially when we sit upstairs in the soft booths with fluffy cushions. It's not over-bright and has a nice relaxed mood. Heck, it even has a water-feature!

I don't normally like to spend up big, but it was my birthday so I indulged in a very nice piece of cake which cost me $A7.90. That was beside the usual hot-chocolate-with-marshmallows (my favourite, I don't get anything else unless I'm feeling very adventurous).

I found out yesterday I got that job I applied for ages ago! I'm no longer unemployed, thanks be to God!

A jolly good fellow

Yesterday was my birthday... happy birthday to me. I'm another year older... feeling older every day (hehe, no not really, every year perhaps...), but did you know that I do not yet have a fully developed brain? Because apparantly one's brain isn't fully developed until the age of 23. So there you go - at least if I make mistakes I can blame them on my underdeveloped brain.

You might be interested to know what has happened throughout history on my birthday, the 18th of March. According to Wikipedia,

In 1928, Fidel V. Ramos, a Philippines president, was born.

In 1965 Aleksei Leonov became the first person to walk in space, after leaving his spacecraft "Voskhod II" for 12 minutes.

In 1985 the first episode of "Neighbours" was shown on Aussie TV.

And finally, March 18, 1990 was the largest art theft in the history of the United States, when $100 million worth of paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

Did you know: every day on March 18, Americans celebrate National Biodiesel Day!

Sibling exhibition

My eleven-year-old brother is becoming quite an artist! I'll show you some of his masterpieces.

His reaction to my posting his pics:

"I guess I'm gonna be famous... but I don't want to be. Grrr..."



Charizard



Disco Monkey - The new disco king



Haunted nothing



Marill



Bantex Warrior



Ooh... what's this? Yummy!



Cave man Sam

Nano-tech Warrior

Snoopnat

Moltres

War Punk

If you would like his autograph, just let me know! ;)

Betrayal... *gulp*

This is NOT me. No. Don't look at me like that...

Hello world!

Just letting you know I'm still alive... sorry I haven't posted for a while. I've been betraying Blogger to another site I found (!): Christianforums.com. I know it sounds boring, but it's actually not - there's some nice people on there. I like it because there's sections where you can discuss theology... my favourite topic!

Hmmm what else has been happening? I went to a job interview on Tuesday but I don't think they want me because they haven't called me back... Oh well, if at first we don't succeed, try try again... Apart from that I've been running on the neverending treadmill of meetings, assignments and meals, with not much sleep in between!

Such is life! Although I truly wish it wasn't... a world without so many meetings seems very attractive indeed!

Hey... can anyone guess what's on Saturday???

An early start

I went 'garage sale-ing' today, something which has recently become a bit of a hobby for me. If any of you readers aren't from Australia, I'll explain: we have a bit of a tradition going here where people have what Americans call 'yard sales' to get rid of their junk. They'll usually advertise in a local newspaper, as well as putting a garbage bin out on the street with a sign and/or balloons. In the early hours of the morning, the die-hard garage salers like me drive around (often following each other) to try to be among the first shoppers. Some really dedicated people drive around at 6am, to see if the family has got any of their stuff out yet.

Sometimes family members will accompany me, other times I battle it out myself. I've got the routine down pat - I get up early (usually 7 or 7:30am - that's early for me!), grab the newspaper, plan out a route that will give the best fuel economy, and go! I usually roll back into my house around 9:30 - 10:00am, tired but pleased with whatever bargains I managed to find.

Today was a long session: for some reason, the number of garage sales in our city had doubled, and I got home with my family about 11:10am. It was worth it though; I managed to pick up a pair of Sega Lock-On X2 laser tag guns, a Nintendo 64, a Playstation, and a Sega MegaDrive II with games for AU$30. I don't think the MegaDrive works, but the games are good.

I'm actually becoming a bit of a retro games collector. Last week I picked up a Commodore 64 (remember those from the 80s?) with over 20 games for AU$7. I enjoyed playing the primitive games on that (they come as cassettes!), but I'll probably resell it (hopefully at a profit).

One final note: it's amazing, the things people try to sell; and the prices they try to sell them at. I hate paying what people ask, so I always try to bargain them down, usually being about 80% successful. But what I really can't stand is when someone's selling something I want, at a really overinflated price, and they won't be bargained down! But you've just gotta walk away. Never take it at full price, that's what I always say.

Ding-a-ling

My cat Susie's latest nickname is 'ding-a-ling'. I bought her a collar yesterday which has a cute blue bell on it, and every time she licks herself or shakes her head the bell rings. I hope it doesn't send her crazy...

Susie's had lots of nicknames in the past - in fact the only time we call her by her real name is when we call her for dinner - because it's the only name she recognizes. We also call her 'Louie', 'Fatty', 'Puddy', 'Pudgy', 'Sweetie', 'Snookems', 'Woowie', 'Fuddy', 'Sooky', and a dozen other miscellaneous names that I can't remember.

Right now, as I type this, Susie is sleeping on the end of my bed with her head upside down and meowing in her sleep between snores. I wonder what she's dreaming about?

Non-sense

I went job hunting today (I decided I should eventually make use of my nursing registration). It was fun going round dropping my resume into places and smiling with all my might... so hopefully a job will come of it :)

It's funny, even though the government doesn't want people to be on the dole, they still make it very hard for people to get their head above water financially.

For example: If I want to work as well as study, I will lose part of my payment once my income goes above a certain amount. If I want to save money and invest it, the government will cut my payment until I've spent the money I've saved. If my mum wants to buy another house as an investment property, they'll consider it an asset and dock her payments.

Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

Meet... Pinya

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while, I've been SO busy! And this is one of the things I've been up to... tending my new friend Pinya. No, he's not a dog, he's a pineapple! Well, he will be, and in two years I'll have a scrumptious pineapple-fest! That's right... it takes a full two years for a pineapple top to grow a full-size fruit. But it'll be worth it!

I was so pleased the other day to discover that after sitting in a glass of water for about a week, the stump has sprouted roots. This is supposed to be the hardest bit of the whole process, and it worked, so things are looking good so far!

If you want to give it a try, simply buy a healthy-looking pineapple, and check out the instructions I found. Think of the money you'll save - you'll get two pineapples for the price of one!

I'll update you on how Pinya is going from time to time. Oh, and by the way, 'Pinya' is the Cebuano word for pineapple.