Hmmm.....Casey who???

A further blow dealt to Casey Donovan's failed career after being the winner of the 2004 season of Australian Idol (supposedly due to gaining the "fat vote").

In an article about The Deadlys, an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community, this years winner was Jessica Mauboy, 2006's Oz Idol runner-up.

Cathy Freeman is mentioned, Anthony Mundine,

Young leader of the year was Cape York's Tania Major, the Kokoberra woman who is also the 2007 Young Australian of the Year for her work raising political awareness of indigenous education and health issues.

Among the more familiar faces, South Sydney's retiring fullback David Peachey was honoured, as were Mundine (Sportsperson of the Year), the WBA super middleweight champion the crooners Jimmy Little and Kev Carmody, the actors Aaron Pederson and Deborah Mailman, and Freeman, for her work as a TV presenter in the SBS series Going Bush.

Its almost as if they're trying to avoid mentioning Casey Donovan (far right). I mean, it wouldn't be out of context for them to mention her at least in passing! Donovan won the same award Mauboy has won this year, back in 2004 after her Idol win. They're both Australian Idol graduates, both of aboriginal heritage, surely this warrants a small comparison? Apparently they seem as intent on keeping Donovan out of the media and out of work as Sony BMG . Not that I care overly, I don't like her music, but certainly intriguing.

Boozle- search for the best grog price

Discovered a brilliant new website today, BOOZLE allows you to search your local area by brand for the cheapest price for your product. Its amazing! I did a search on cartons of Vodka Cruisers in my local area and and found them on special! Do it!

Heavy Breathing

Had the most DISGUSTING experience on the phone at work today. I answered the phone with the customary business greeting. A laboured voice on the other end of the phone asked if I would speak to him for a moment (which is apparently where I went wrong).
He sounded a little like a regular customer of ours, who I thought may have been playing joke on me. I was confused, he said he really needed to talk to someone, I asked him where he was calling from, he told me Melbourne, I then proceeded to ask him if he realised he'd called a business. I was kind of thinking maybe there was something actually wrong with him, perhaps he was thinking of injuring himself and I said to him I didn't really think I was equipped to assist him (thinking perhaps he needs to speak to LifeLine) and as I started to look up on my computer the number, should I need it, HE STARTED JERKING HIMSELF OFF, grunting down the phone.

It was beyond REPULSIVE, I can tell you. I still feel naseous from the experience.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling

NO SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!NO SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!
Great book :)
Yes I'm a pop culture/media whore. From Nelson Mandela to Harry Potter, the irony is not lost on me I assure you. I was determined to finish Mandela before starting Harry though.

The Long Walk to Freedom- Nelson Mandela autobiography

Facsinating book, quite a heavy tome however, certainly not for the lighthearted. I was keen to finish it however, as I always felt it was something I should know more about. Sometimes I feel myself to be incredibly ignorant, regardless how much I've read. An extraordinary man.

4.5 / 5

Virgin screws Flickr

Hmm, very interesting situation mentioned in SMH tech section whereby Virgin Mobile took all these peoples photos from Flickr and used them in billboard ads without even telling them.
Kinda freaks me out.
The reason they could do it was the licence that the photos are posted under, which allows them to be shared (the point of Flickr), also allowed them to use the pictures without breaking Copyright, as long as they credited the photgrapher, which they "did" by referencing the Flickr address at the bottom of the poster.
This is the photo in question
Taken from SMH article site.

Where the girl on the Right was cropped and had the caption "Dump your Pen friend" as the ad. This girl was only 16 however and Virgin is being sued.

See this discussion which contains a reponse from Virgin, I'm not sure if you're able to view it if you're not a Flickr member, I can't tell....
If you can't access, leave a comment and I'll try copy and paste the discussion. Some pissed off people. Virgin trying to palm it off as "creative". =Read= we were able to use your photos for free, isn't that innovative of us!?

Postal Joy


Sometimes, I swear its like the postman holds onto our mail, waiting until there's "enough" to deliver.
Does this ever happen to you?
You get no mail at all for days and then suddenly, three or four letters, suddenly all of a sudden. I can imagine the postman flipping through the envelopes, "hmm number 12 hasn't had anything in a while, might drop their's off today.......ooh number six, I'll add that to the pile...."

Spoilt Princesses

I'll tell you what bugs me, stupid mothers with their princess daughters, whinging that they shouldn't be criticised for blatant exploitation.

In an article in SMH,

THE mother of a 12-year-old girl chosen to be the face of Gold Coast Fashion Week has demanded a public apology from Prime Minister John Howard over claims her daughter is too young to model.

As Maddison Gabriel spent yesterday getting pampered at a local beauty salon with seven girlfriends in preparation for her 13th birthday today, her mother, Michelle, said she was shocked Mr Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd had weighed into the debate.

"Without knowing us, how dare they make those comments," Mrs Gabriel said. "I would suggest both of them contact my family before they make any more defamatory remarks about us. We as a family deserve an apology from both of them.

Of course you do lady, no one else is allowed an opinion, and your daughter is flawless and the fact that she's being exploited seems just fine for you. Nevermind the fact that Gold Coast Fashion Week hasn't had this much press in years. And when the sleazy old guys and managers are touching your daughter up in the casting room, you'll be the first to cry foul.

"As politicians, you would expect that they would know how things would be misrepresented and maybe they should have known what our side of the story is before they made those types of comments.

As politicians they are expected to make comment on issues they know little about, radio interviews and press conferences REVEL in opportunities to catch them out. The fact that they are on the money in this instance is a happy co-incidence.

"I believe the Prime Minister is getting very doddery. He does not know exactly what 13- and 14-year-old girls are like. I used to vote for him."

Mr Howard told Melbourne radio on Friday: "Catapulting girls as young as 12 into something like that is quite outrageous and I am totally opposed to it."

His concerns were later echoed by Mr Rudd, who said: "I have real concerns about littlies that young going out there doing that sort of thing."

But Mrs Gabriel defended her daughter, saying Maddison would be 14 by the time she represented the fashion week next year.

She also denied reports that part of her daughter's duties as an ambassador would be to appear at Gold Coast nightclubs.

She said organisers told her yesterday morning that there were no plans to pull her daughter from the position despite the negative publicity.

"There's been a carry-on about Maddison wearing adult clothes," Mrs Gabriel said.

"People should know she is 5 foot 7 [1.7 metres]. All of her friends buy clothes from adult shops. Every 13-year-old I know, even if they're little, wears adult clothes.

So what, that makes it ok for them to be wearing adult clothes? Little girls have played dress ups with their mothers clothes for years! That doesn't mean we should stick them in leopard print boots just because they ask for them! This attitude gives new meaning to "13-going-on-23".

"[As a society] we're trying to get our teenage daughters to act older. I am so happy that I've got a daughter who has got a good head on her shoulders."

Since when as a society are we trying to get our girls to act OLDER? WHEN did that happen you stupid twit!? I thought we were trying to get girls to act THEIR AGE. For chrissakes lady, with an attiude like this, Pageant-Mum much?

Maddison chose to spend her birthday weekend like many teenage girls, starting with a sleepover with friends on Friday night, during which they ate pizza and watched movies.

Ok this part is normal

The celebrations continued yesterday with a visit to a Gold Coast salon, where the girls had manicures, pedicures, eyebrow waxes, eyelash tints and their make-up done, and indulged in birthday cake.

Umm, excuse me, just got very Un-normal for a thirteen year old girl. Waxing? Far out, I was barely allowed to shave when I was 13. My first eyelash tint was for my Year 10 formal.

Boys were strictly banned.

"They're not my favourite," Maddison said. "It's really more a girly day."

For her birthday, she asked for a laptop, clothes, accessories and a couch. Today, the family are throwing a big party at their Mudgeeraba home.

FAR OUT!!! No wonder this princess won this competition, her mother pushed her through it probably, and has given the little angel everything she's ever wanted by the look of this list. I'm sure I wanted a CD player at this age, a COUCH????? LAPTOP (do NOT even get me started)

But unlike most young girls, Maddison began her last day as a 12-year-old fielding a call from the BBC in London.

She said that, while all the attention had been overwhelming, she did not understand why because of the number of other young models in the industry.

"You see all these other young models that are 13 on the front of magazines," she said. "I wanted to do it since I was very young and I've been trying to get into it, going into competitions since the beginning of this year.

Yes, of course young girls WANT to be models. It doesn't mean they SHOULD be models. This statement I feel accurately reflects why this girl doesn't understand. As I heard Kristy Hinze echo on the radio, if girls this age appear on Dolly or Girlfriend that's kind of OK, their target market is girls that age. When 13 year old are modelling for adults, thats wrong.

"My friends are really proud that I won. They're excited for me.

Yeah because they're beacons of normalcy in the world. They're just excited you can give them free shit now.

She said her goal was to become an international model.

A spokesman for Mr Howard said he had nothing to add.

Get out of Town!

Last night Eca rang and left me a devastating voicemail.
"ummm, Nicole just told me Robert Jordan died..."
Holy Cow! Now we'll never know how it ends!
Robert Jordan wrote a series of books called The Wheel of Time, and was part way through the 12th when he died.
However! There is hope. Fan sites indicate that he knew he may die mid way and has instructed his friends and family in the general story line so that the book may be complete.
What though, if he realizes twenty pages into the 800 page tome that this may be the last book? Suddenly its all, ".......and Rand realises he is actually a dragon born into a man's body, and that's why he was always so weird?"
It's possible he realises all too late it will never quite end properly as he has to rush the conclusion. Is that better than not finishing the book?
I depend it all sort of lands on how the book is written, if it's written in the linear fashion that the book is published in, then it can be finished by another without going completely pear shaped. But one of Jordan's styles is that there are effectively twelve different story lines going all at once. What if he's written four or five completely, and someone needs to step in to write the other six or seven? That would end up a pretty spaz book, if you ask me.
Perhaps our resident writer can weigh into this debate......

Well of Positivity

As a side note for the day, fill your being with positivity, then share it with others by dropping a positive thought into the
Well of Positivity.

Mount Franklin is donating $1 to National Breast Cancer Foundation for every positive "donation". It really is quite satisfying, so mosey on over and try it.

And they call her Train Wreck Britney....

After so much seraching to see this, I finally found a you tube on Mia Freedman's blog.
*note the puzzled looks throughout as they cut to the audience. I think this is the most telling part of the whole video.



I actually was expecting a much larger rail disaster than occured. Sure it wasn't a great performance as she's been known to give, it actually reminded me a lot of an Idol contestant, or a So You Think You Can Dance? audition gone sour. The lip sync was very average, but I don't think she really deserved to get so caned. Admittedly I do agree that she was exploited by MTV, they would have known she wasn;t going to be in top form, yet they put her on first anyway.

HAPPY 21ST!


SENDING SOME LOVE TO MY BIARTCH BEEB.

Solariums are Evil.

Be Prepared-but for what?

Scouts world over celebrate 100 years of scouting this year. Its a big year really, 2007 is officially the year of The Lifesaver also. {nothing better to do in 1907??? Start organisations to get kids off the street and stop them using wacky tabaccy?}
There has been a tv campaign promoting Scouts this year, you know where the girl is covered in mud and says she's having time of her life?? You can watch below if you haven't seen it [ where are YOU during prime time?? ]



I myself was a Scout, well I was part of the Scouting movement in two ways.
I was a Venturer, which means you're too big for regular Scouts and you can illegally drink as long as your leader is cool, oh and you go camping and stuff too. For a longer amount of time I was a Brownie and then a Girl Guide also, which essentially means no illegal drinking and lots of serving tea for a badge and floristry. No wonder girls abandon Guides for Scouts???
Unfortunately for Scouts Australia, their big year has been besmirched by a legal battle involving a sexual deviant who was a Scout Leader for some years. The victim that took them to court has been awarded $1.2 million dollars in compensation, $500, 000 of which is to be paid by Scouts Australia.
It makes you wonder how many of them get away with it? The victim alleged that Scouts Australia had known of the problem for 11 years, doing nothing. I guess I will count myself lucky nothing untoward was happening while I was Scouting.

Love Lies Bleeding

I forgot to post this, (I've post-dated) I won Free Tickets to this performance at the Glen St Theatre Too!
Great show, very interesting subject matter of euthenasia.
By Sydney Theatre Company.
:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

To my lovely husband,
25 today! :)

Law and Order on Capitol Hill

Arrghh! Yay! A Tv Star has joined the candidacy for 2008 POTUS!
Fred Thompson appeared in Die Hard 2, but I know him better as Head Defence Attorney Arthur Branch, playing Jack McCoy's boss (the quintessential Law and Order lawyer-though I did like Angie Harmon, who incidentally has gone on the star in the TV adaptation of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series which I loved as books, well now I'm off point).



See him here in L&O context....

Farewell Pavarotti

In a terrible blow to classical opera lover everywhere, Pavarotti has died today. He sounds to have been in pain, battling pancreatic cancer among other medical problems, and in that sense it is good he no longer suffers. But as an opera lover, I mourn the loss of such a large presence in modern Opera.

SMH article here

APEC

lol Oh those Chaser boys....
In other opinions, I'm really not a fan of stupid APEC.
GO the public holiday though! :)

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