Taking the Plunge

Discovered at work we have a mini coffee plunger, just big enough for one cup of coffee.
Handily, looks just like this one-->
It's branded with a recruitment company's details, which leads me to believe it must be a gift from some Christmas past. I want to say here and now, AWESOME IDEA, recruitment company. If I was a decision maker, I would totally use you again after this gift. Unlike the entirely shithouse bottle of branded Red Wine from Mail Call I got at my last job to try to win our courier business. M took one sip (he's the red drinker in our house) and declared it rubbish. I then made the mistake of trying to cook with it (to use it up!), committing the cardinal cooking sin of "don't cook with wine you wouldn't drink". As such I've been too scared to try to cook with wine again.
But I digress.
I made a brew, the Coffee is nice, the reason I like plunger coffee is I can use the same blend I would make espresso with, and grind the beans fresh myself at home.
But, I've put in too much sugar! I could almost stand my spoon up in the cup. Dammit.

Less Sugar sometimes does = less taste

This is my favourite yoghurt right now. Billed as "yogurt's 'holy grail', Dairy Farmers Thick & Creamy uses a special technique that milk companies have been trying to uncover for years.

The result is a great tasting yogurt that is truly thick and creamy!" I must say, the marketing is true here IMO (in my opinion). It really is very thick compared to most low fat yoghurts, and its delicious.So being food-what-goes-in-gob-conscious I was pleased to see that this same yoghurt comes in a "60% less sugar" version also.So.Crap.
I found it entirely inedible, literally had to bin it, which was massively disappointing. Usually when food is reduced fat, the sugar increases (not with EVERY product of course) at least a little. This obviously has some sort of artificial sweetener in it, and it left this horrid after taste.
*sigh*
60% less sugar, 90% less taste.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

This guy, crystallises and distills what I've been thinking for a while now.

Road Map to Defeat

By BOB HERBERT

Published: April 19, 2008

The Democrats are doing everything they can to blow this presidential election. This is a skill that comes naturally to the party. There is no such thing as a can’t-miss year for the Democrats. They are truly gifted at finding ways to lose....
...
Now comes 2008, a can’t-lose year if there ever was one. A united Democratic Party should be able to win this election in a walk. The economy is terrible and getting worse. The Republicans are demoralized. John McCain is no J.F.K. And the country wants to elect a Democrat.

So what are the Democrats doing? The Clintons are running around with flamethrowers, gleefully trying to incinerate the prospects of the party’s leading candidate, Barack Obama. As Bill Clinton put it last month: “If a politician doesn’t want to get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office.”

Senator Obama, for his part, seems to have lost sight of the unifying message that proved so compelling early in his campaign and has stumbled into weird cultural predicaments that have caused some people to rethink his candidacy.
...
That raucous laughter you hear in the background is coming from the likes of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, President Bush and Senator McCain. They can’t believe their good fortune....

Read the full column from the NY Times here.

In other news, London is going to the polls soon to elect a new Mayor. Vegemite eating Ex-pat Non-blondie has provided a succinct, thought provoking (=hilarious) breakdown of the major contenders, for those of us who can't vote and want to just laugh at the campaigns of politicians in other countries. And by that, I mean she's Rating the Hotties.

Food glorious food.

THE soup, with "less shit vegetables" added.
Much yummier.

Of course, the addition of a cheesy-pineappley bread roll doesn't hurt either...
Final score? M - 2.5Kg, Me - 1.5kg.
Hmm....

And the Anzac biscuits of fantasticness. They were SO good. I will totally make them again.
Thanks Taste.com.au :)

Chewy biscuit goodness.

Last Day, thank goodness

Day 7 of soup diet.

I was extremely bitter yesterday, having weighed myself and found I'd put weight ON, and I was ready to chuck in the towel. I was extremely annoyed at myself for forgetting the steak I meant to take to cook for lunch, so soup only again. I was really resenting the soup yesterday, angry at it. Which is totally irrational.

Weighed myself this morning, and I was on the same weight as the previous day, but decided to jump off, and jump on again on the off chance that the scales were incorrect.

After weighing myself again twice after that, I got a different result, which showed me having lost 2 kgs. (I checked and re-checked this figure, but it didn't change after this)
So maybe they were wrong yesterday and I shouldn't have been so discouraged. And possibly eaten KFC chips.

So I had my last soup-breakfast this morning, I poked it down my (sore?!?) throat, and I will have steamed vegetables and soup for dinner {we won't talk about lunch}, while baking ANZAC biscuits for tomorrows occassion. I will be strong and not eat any mixture, though it will be tough.

Mum says not to go nuts after we're off it, because there can be flow on losses and if we're good, we can lose another few kilos next week too, even off the soup. I think we'll be eating soup for a few days more though {with the addition of some less shit vegetables and possibly mini pasta}, the second batch has gone much...slower...than..the..first...pot...
{Due to irrational hating of soup I'm sure}

I'm really looking forward to breakfast tomorrow morning though. Bring on the eggs. Mmmm.

You know what bugs me? Reading the wrong book!

So I had just decided to give The Accidental Terrorist by Steven Lang a miss. I've felt guilty since page 35, when I stopped reading, just unable to get into it. I will never know what happened to the characters, but I don't really care, and life's too short to read bad books right?

Mostly I've been annoyed at myself for not getting into a "Literary" book. A winner of the NSW Literary Awards in 2006, I felt like I should carry on. The other reason I felt I should carry on, was I've had a bookmarked review of it sitting in my browser for god knows how long, many months at least. So as I decided to abandon it, I thought I'd have another look at the review, and see how I got it so wrong. The review was the only thing that sparked my interest, I wanted to read it at some point right?
WRONG.
As easy mistake though.
I wanted to read The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan, not the Accidental. Bah.

"...The Unknown Terrorist, his literary thriller about a Sydney pole dancer mistakenly pursued for being part of a terrorist plot."

Aha.
I was slightly confused when I read the blurb of the Accidental Terrorist

"When Kevin returns to his home town on the southern cast of NSW he finds himself drawn to a community that lives in the hills..."

Errr......yeah...not usually the genre that would catch my eye.

Unfortunately, and I feel ashamed to admit this, but generally Australian stories don't really interest me. Especially if they're set in rural or regional Australia. I don't know whether its because its just SO different to what I'm used to, its so removed from my scope of life, that I just can't get interested.
But then, it could also be argued that my favourite genre of murder mysteries and crime thrillers are far removed from my own life experience also. And I will be the first to admit that.

Mum's got a sizeable collection of books (for the life of me cannot find the authors name) by a female writer, and they're kind of romance novels, but set in a historical context in outback Australia in colonial times. They just don't interest me at all. Not because they're romance, no no, I quite enjoy romance from time to time. Just never been keen on these ones, no matter how many times Mum suggested it when I was after a new book to read.

The only times I can be interested in Australian settings appears to be if they sit smack bang in the middle of the crime genre. Then I actually find it quite novel to read the same books I read nomally, but set in places I relate to, Vodka Doesn't Freeze for example, and the Tara Moss series with Makedde Vanderwall, a forensic student that models on the side for extra money (yep, write about what you know lol)
I mean its not a blanket ban or anything, just a general lack of interest.

So, I'm off to the Library to try to pick up the right book this time.

What about the rest of us?

Target underwear (original photo site), originally uploaded by dataceptionist.

Not surprisingly, the new Collette Dinnigan underwear line at Target doesn't feature anything higher than D size.
Bastards.

It really irritates me when that happens. If they do feature DD's its not until the 16's or 18s. HELLO? So I'm a freak am I? I demand the right to affordable, pretty underwear that fits me properly.

I don't think I'm really in the minority, I know lots of other big busty girls who would appreciate the market widening. Or do you think big boobs make friends with other big boobs?

In my dreams, you looked better than this...

who didn't love Vanessa Amorosi at the 2000 Olympics? She was great. She had a great voice even though she was only 13-14***, and she was managed well I think at the time, better than say, Nikki Webster.
Now?? I'm not such a fan


This is her latest single Perfect, which you may or may not have heard, and the video which you may or may not have seen.
I personally hate it. I didn't like it too much to begin with, and now, having watched it a bunch of times at the gym, I've grown to loathe how she looks in it.
I love desert scenes usually, like Delta's video for "Believe Again". But its not all encompassing, I hate "Outta my Head" by Ashlee Simpson, which has a lot of desert in it. (The tiny top hat? The stupid two looks? The ridiculous song: You tube has the names listed as "outta my head - ay ya ya ya ay". Awesomeness-blegh)

I think V.Am looks alien in this video. The wig and the beginning outfit are awful.
The chainmail LOTR dress at the end is horrid looking on her too. The close ups on her face are doing he no favours either.
*sigh*
Video aside, I think it would make a good wedding song though, being that its about partners beig perfect.

**Under dispute

I think it hurts the same, regardless if you watch

Had the first of the three cervical cancer vaccine shots yesterday, and I think its something every woman in the eligible age range should go and do.
Not neccessarily because I think its such an amazing cause^ or anything, but because my arm still ****ing hurts and why should I suffer alone?



^I do think this is a fantastic initiative by the government and I feel lucky it happened while I was young enough to have it free

"Inspirational" Posters

Struggling...struggling bad

Only Day 3 of Soup diet and its killing me. I'm over the soup already. (K-totally Fart Town in our house, you're right)
Totally caved last night. M & I worked a function (occassional work we do for cash), we knew it would be tough, the food always looks great. So we ate our soup before we left and we were allowed a big baked potato with butter.
Couldn't resist though, in the end I ate 4 salt & pepper squid pieces, 3 BBQ Meatballs, 2 mini pizzas and 1 mini samosa. No pies or quiches at least. *sigh*
Back to the soup.

The Sleeping Doll- Jeffrey Deaver ***/*

California Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Kathryn Dance is an expert in kinesics-the science of interpreting behaviour. It makes her a brilliant interrogator. But she's up against Daniel Pell, a master of control, who mesmerises, seduces and exploits people for his own murderous ends. A convicted killer who is known as "the Son of Manson" for the chilling parallels between him and the notorious ritual murderer. To track down Pell before he destroys yet more lives, Kathryn Dance must enlist the help of four people from the killers past. The three women who lived under his sadistic sway in the cult he once headed. And the young girl known as "the Sleeping Doll", the only survivor of her family's slaughter at Pell's hands.

Good read, Deaver is very good in ever book I've read.
Bit cautious about the front "Introducing Kathryn Dance". Deaver has become very popular with his series of Lincoln Rhyme books, a forensic specialist who happens to be a quadriplegic. Deaver's skillful portrayal of the crime balanced with the personal battle of a fantastic investigator that can't actually investigate any more. The "Introducing Kathryn Dance" leads me to believe he may wind down the Rhyme books, which I enjoy immensely. Hmmm.

This story is good, but I feel it kind of loses it at the end. It makes a small leap of faith that affects the ending, and I would have preferred a better explanation, or set-up for the twist it takes. BUT that said, Deaver is a master storyteller, and I'm intrigues enough in Dance's characterisation that I will read the ones to follow.

3.5 / 5

If you're a follower of Deaver and Rhyme already, check out this Trivia quiz on Deaver's website.

Balcony at Home

Balcony at Home, originally uploaded by dataceptionist.

Tonights storm rolling in

Click on the pic to go to more like this.

Computer dramas resolved.

Marvelous things computers. I was all set to get really annoyed when the outcome of yesterdays computer glitches was that my CPU was cactus. I was thinking to myself, "garrghhh, because I choose to use FireFox I've lost all my bookmarks and all my stufff. Grrr. My profile is still saved because its on the network though. *sigh* oh well if this CPU is to be the one I'm using now, I can download FireFox onto THIS one."

So I do, and as soon as it opened, I thought "hang on, thats the skin I had on the other CPU"
"Yay! There are all my bookmarks! Clever computers!"
I've also changed desks at work now, (hopefully permanently. I'm going to try to continually sneak all my gear upstairs gradually so my boss doesn't notice)
Its different, but in this case, a change is not as good as a holiday. Give me the Bahamas over a different desk location any day.

Soup Diet

The Hubs and I are doing the Sacred Heart Memorial Diet. This is one name for it anyway. Mum was given it by her cardiologist so it can't be all bad really. (this is M's idea also btw)
Made the soup last night, and how satsifying is chopping vegies! So much precision! So much fun!
Ok thats mad, I know, but I actually quite enojyed it. The knives were sharp and watching my pot of soup grow, I felt a bit like the guy that created Frankenstein, but without the human robot crazy factor.

• Day 1 - Any fruit (except bananas). Cantaloupes and watermelon are lower in calories than most other fruits. Eat only soup and fruit today.
• Day 2 -All vegetables. Eat until you are full with fresh raw, cooked or canned veggies. Try to eat green leafy veggies and stay away from dry beans, peas or corn. Eat veggies along with the soup. A baked potato and dinner time with butter. Don’t eat any fruits through today.
• Day 3- Eat all the soup, fruit and veggies you want. Do not have a baked potato.
• Day 4 -Bananas and skim milk: Eat at least 3 bananas and drink as much milk as you can today, along with the soup.
• Day 5-Beef and tomatoes: you may have 10 to 20 ounces of beef and a can of tomatoes, or as many as 6 tomatoes on this day. Eat the soup at least once today.
• Day 6 -Beef and veggies, eat to your heart’s content of the beef and veggies today. You can even have 2-3 steaks if you like with green leafy veggies but no baked potato. Be sure to eat the soup at least once today.
• Day 7 Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice and veggies, until full (and eat the soup). You can add cooked veggies to your rice if you wish.

Only Drinks Allowed

• Unsweetened juices
• Tea (also herbal)
• Coffee
• Cranberry juice
• Skim milk
• Lots of water

So its not going to be easy toward the end. M won't find it as difficult as me though as he's got a work lunch today (Day 1) and a work thing next Wednesday (Day 6). Bah
I quite like soups like this, hope I'm not too sick of it at the end.
Here's the finished product -I normally like Cranberry Juice (its an ingredient in Ponipolitans) and I bought some from the greengrocer near work, a brand I haven't had before, and its mixed with Grape Juice. Not a fan. Back to Ocean Spray methinks.
I'll let you know how we go, the paperwork says you can lose between 10-17 lbs on it, which I think is between 4-8 Kgs. *shrug*
Wish us luck. Or thinness.

Are you worthy of your name?

Way back before I got married, I googled my name to see if anyone of my new name existed. I knew Google didn't have anything on my full maiden name (not even anything on me, having not done anything terribly meaningful in my life), so I was curious to see what I was becoming. I was rather surprised then when someone DID pop up with my soon-to-be name.
She was quite successful in her chosen occupation too by the looks of it.

We actually joined a new bank not long after we married, went into the branch to sign everything etc. They typed my name into their system with a perfunctory "have you held an account with us before" (no) and there on the next screen was about 8 women with the same first and last name as me. Difference? Every other woman would have been born in or before the 1950's. Oh and that was just accounts opened at THAT branch of this large bank.


Anyway, today I read a post on Splat! , a blog I read fairly regularly on News.com.au about "the most Famous Person with Your name". As these things happen, he decided to try and guess who the most famous "Evan" would be on Google. He was wrong, but called for everyone to give it a go with your first name only.

So I tried it, top entry was my names origin in Wikipedia, and the rest were all personal websites. I actually found on the first page, other than one lawyer, all the entries were for artists! Whether with paint or photography, I suddenly feel like I'm not living the life my name should suggest.

How about you guys? Are you living up to your names potential? Should you be pursuing a life of bird watching instead of pastry cook?

Can you guess the most famous person before you do the Search?

computer dramas

Gah sorry guys, computers at work being spazz, (one z or two?) so I've been slack on a post.
Hope to be operational eiher later today or tomorrow.
Here's a depressing and inappropriate comic for your entertainment/disgust.


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Hope to have something better soon.
(Drugs are bad-See?)

Money grubbing Ebay-Update

Thankfully enough negative noise has been made regarding EBay's proposed change to Paypal only payment.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been called in to examine whether EBay is in breach of the Trade Practice Act; the act prohibits companies from imposing restrictions on people's freedom to choose whom they deal with.
Here here. Why we have to be the guinea pigs I don't know, it's only being rolled out in Oz at this stage.
If you also want to sign the petition against this change by EBay, you can find it here Over 4200 signatures to date :)

Well they're certainly provocative

And thats the intent right?

A provocative new range of T-shirts, created by Sydney-based businessmen Peter Legras and Adam Hunt, have been on sale for just a week but already they are being described as "rude and revolting" by critics.

...But Eva Cox from the Women's Electoral Lobby said the T-shirts' content spoke for itself. She said: "They're tasteless, crappy, crass and stupid and if people want to be seen as tasteless, crappy, crass and stupid, they'll wear the shirts.
"It's vulgar and nasty and encourages people to be rude and revolting. Who the hell wants to wear T-shirts like that?"

Okayyyy clearly not YOU Cox-y.

My personal favourite.

Mostly because I really wish I still worked in IT, and I hope no one would ever it directed at me!
Personally, I like slogan shirts, if they really speak to me, I consider buying them. But you know what the annoying ting about them is? They're always made for boys. I know this because even though they usually offer "Ladies Tees" this is still a T-shirt. Give me a goddam tank top!
Sigh. Fug shirts-case in point. And that website's target market is female. Bah.

Sony World Photography Awards - Some finalists

Ice cave ... Christof Pluemacher, from Germany, won a place in the abstract section finals with this image. Picture: Christof Pluemacher



Dash of colour ... Swiss photographer Terence du Fresne, won a place in the advertising finals with his shot USP Mountain. Picture: Terence du Fresne

^I love this one looks like its photoshopped.

Wallflowers ... Koray Birand, from Turkey had Widows on Set nominated as a fashion finalist. Picture: Koray Birand, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards

Get on with your knitting ... in the fashion section Dutch photographer Eunice Lievald had Don't Be So Tied and Twise. Open yourself up! shortlisted as a finalist. Picture: Eunice Lievald



In the swing ... American photographer Howard Schatz won a place in the sports section finals with RLX 003. Picture: Howard Schatz



Freeze frame ... in the science section Russian Vladimir Nefedov had his picture The Bell shortlisted. Picture: Vladimir Nefedov