Oh, Evan Williams, Evan Williams, Evan Williams. When reviewing a movie from an outrageously popular franchise, is it too much to ask that you either know something about your subject, or ask someone who does? I'm not one of the particularly ravening Potterfen, but this review still got right up my nose.
The Australian: "Potter's sixth sense"
"young Radcliffe surely deserves a prize for endurance. He must be the only actor in the world to have played the same character, boy and man (or boy and adolescent), in six successive blockbusters." Hello? Emma Watson? Rupert Grint? All the other recurring characters? I guess Harry is the only actual character in the series. "[...] the good guys, as usual, are outperformed and outnumbered by the villains, who also have the funniest names. Alan Rickman is once again convincing as the venomously silky Snape;" ...villains? Erm, right then. ""The intricacy of the plotting, the hyperbolic characters and the obsessive attention to detail (don't ask me what a horcrux or a pensieve is) suggest an imagination both fertile and strained." Ok, I won't ask you. Could we please have a reviewer who has watched the actual movies maybe once all the way through? ""Then there's Rowling's distinction, always clear, between good and evil. Some of her heroes may be foolish and some of her bad people enchanting, but we are in no doubt about their true natures." But you gotta love a reviewer who disproves his own thesis, and promptly disappears up his own arse. This entry was originally posted at http://lauredhel.dreamwidth.org/382543.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
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So we were reading a book tonight that involved, among other things, the plot element of a police officer giving lectures with safety tips to a group of children.
I asked the Lad, "If you were a police officer doing that job, what safety tips would you give the children?"
He thought for a while, then replied, "Always ask for help when you are slipping off the mantelpiece!"
Me: "Oh yes? When did this happen?"
Lad [mischievously amused and slightly guilty look] "Ummm..... yesterday?"
The conversation went on, and I decided to offer a prompt or two. Asked "How about safety tips for around water?", his immediate response was, "Don't get in the water with the sharks."
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The vegie garden bee is set for Sunday, from around 11 am - buzz me if you're interested in dropping in.
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Hi, Lazyweb!
I'm looking for cheap simple cotton/cotton-blend crop tops, as a bra replacement type thing, the sort of things that pre-teens sometimes wear.
I don't want anything structured or bra-like, even with "But it has no underwire!" styling. I just want the equivalent of tucking a singlet under my breasts, but with a smoother profile and better stay-in-place-ness. I don't want to redistribute the weight of my breasts to a chest band and/or shoulder bands; it's more comfortable where it is. Regular back or racer back, I don't care. I'm also not looking for a shirt with built-in shelf bra. No lace or sheer or whatever; just plain cotton (print optional). Ideally would also be latex-free, or have any latex very well covered.
****Also, plus-size. No 'ranges' that stop at 16-18 or DD. ****
I need something to fit an F. Ideally mail-order, with good measurements. Will consider local purchase in Perth Northern suburbs.
According to my googling, this makes me bizarre. Or I'm calling it the wrong thing, because "crop top" and "plus size" get me a pile of teeny naughty schoolgirl lingerie.
Can anyone help?
Edit: Apologies, I should have made this clearer - I'm not looking for a short tanktop or camisole, but for something that has a stretchy band below the breasts - preferably stretchy/snug fabric, though, not encased elastic that's likely to twist/roll/shed latex. A bra replacement that will just very gently cup them and deal with sweat, not push them up like a bra or squish them down like a tight tanktop.
ETA again: Apparently this is called a "sleep bra". Who knew? Thanks.
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[x-posted]
I found a couple of spoons today, so we baked!
Dumped a load of the usual into the bread machine on "Dough" cycle - a wholemeal poppyseed recipe, but with a shake of caster sugar and a handful or three of sultanas. I also added a couple of teaspoons of orange juice as an extra booster, as it was 80% wholemeal flour, which doesn't tend to rise quite so well.
Once the dough was done, the Lad came and helped. We punched down and kneaded the dough briefly on a floured board, then pressed the dough out into a rectangle. We spooned on melted butter (replace with Nuttelex or coconut oil for a vegan alternative), and sprinkled it generously with a mix of cinnamon and caster sugar. Then I rolled it up, cut it out, and set the spirals out into a greased baking pan.
We ladled a little excess melted butter onto the spirals, then covered with plastic wrap and placed into the oven just on the "light on" setting to rise for an hour. Then baked at 180 deg C for 25 minutes, and out!
Here they are, unglazed. I'll make a glaze of icing sugar, milk, and a little vanilla, once they're cool.
Enjoy!
( Read more... )
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 The Fourteenth Edition of the Down Under Feminists Carnival is up at Kiwi Stargazer. Many thanks to anjum, especially for putting up with my last-minute submissions!
It's a cracker of a carnival, with a focus on the body, media, victim blaming, pr0n wars, politics, disability, violence, racism, sexual violence, breastfeeding, food, literature, the colour pink, and more.
If you're a regular reader, or especially if you're featured in the carnival, please place a link to it. You're welcome to use the logo at top and to hotlink to it; please also make the logo link to the main Carnival page.
The fifteenth edition of the carnival, for June posts, is planned for the first week of July, 2009. It will be hosted by me here at Hoyden. Submissions to lauredhelhoyden at gmail dot com for those who can't access blogcarnival.
Themes for the 15th: Consider posting about NAIDOC Week and the intersection of indigenous rights and feminism; or the 26th July is National Stepfamily Awareness Day, if you have something to say about feminist step-parenting; or perhaps you could talk about the franchise in Enrol To Vote Week, the last week in July. All themes just optional prompts.
After that, we're gathering at Hexy's place, then Queen of Thorns is taking a turn, but from November, things are wide open. Who'd like to volunteer for a future carnival?
( Read more... )
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So the Lad finally has access to a newer iMac (2GHz ish), which runs Google Earth smoothly. This is good.
He's a bit past the Reader Rabbit type games. Can anyone suggest at least vaguely educational but still fun games for his age group, preferably including some that reinforce maths skills? He's also interested in online maze and puzzle type games, and anything you manipulate like those flash physics sims. He's all over Net-Electric, Marbles, and Bejeweled already.
Downloadable games preferred over boxed but will consider anything if it's terrific.
Secondly, I've enabled the Parental Controls bizzo on his account, but would like an app so that I can keep an eye on his screen, with optional extra if I can control his computer from here. We're both running 10.5.7.
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The Lad's been playing with his Mega Bloks stuff a lot over the past few days.
We were in the car yesterday, and he piped up:
"You know those Mega Bloks sets, with the plasma dragons and castles and trolls and stuff? If they made a movie of that..."
"Yes?" we said.
"...I don't think that movie would be appropriate for me."
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We're finally looking at organising a working bee, weather permitting, next weekend - the 11th or 12th of July, completely flexible from this end.
First priority on the list will be building a couple of vegetable beds. Not sure if the shed-chookshed conversion could happen; we'll see! Or we might get rained out altogether :)
We will cater. Let us know any special food/drink requirements. Drop me an email too, so I can email you the address if you don't have our new one. lauredhelhoyden, at gmail.
Anyone interested? Should I post in Grubby Nails once a time's hammered out?
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We got talking about naming, name changes, and deed polls over dinner. We told the Lad that one person changed their name to "God."
Lad: "Who does he think he is, Zeus?"
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We had a conversation about disability and assistive devices today on the way home from after-school care. The other kids checked out the scooter and thought it was kinda interesting, then on the way home the Lad and I chatted a bit more. I told him about power wheelchairs, and he had some ideas about them. Then it went something like this:
Me: "And if people can't use their arms or legs, sometimes they have a little machine with a straw, and they tell their wheelchair what to do by sipping or puffing on the straw."
Lad: "So they can go forwards and backwards! Everyone needs to move. You know? What about if they want to turn?"
Me: "They can use the straw controller to do that too."
Lad: "Cool. Your brain is still always working, you know. Even if you're not moving your body, if your brain isn't sending messages to your body. What if they need to take a breath, but they didn't want to move? Would it be going - [whoa! whoa! movements]"
Me: "Well, I think they could find a way around that. Like maybe move their head, or breathe through their nose. I don't know too many details about the technology - maybe we could look it up?"
Later on, we talked about voice synthesisers and such. He was especially interested in how Hawking taught maths and physics classes using a computerised voice, and played out a whole tableau involving him asking the students "What is one plus one?" in a computer-like voice. And so on from there.
I like how kids this age usually don't have preconceptions about the horrors of assistive devices. He thought the whole concept was just cool and useful.
I also smiled as his word choices in a later conversation, as we were trying to figure out which particular kid at school had talked with Partner this morning. They involved the Lad trying to describe a boy "with brown skin, not really dark brown, but a sort of light brown, you know?" and using the descriptor "wider" to compare kids. No racial or racist terms, no "fat" or "skinny". Not yet.
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This is probably a long shot, but does anyone here know of a _good_ ed psych to do an assessment in Perth? Experience with and interest in spirited/asychronously-developing kids would be a particular plus.
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I braved the toy sale in my scooter today. It looked like a relatively normal busy day in the toy aisles; the layby had a massive queue, but I avoided it.
I managed to get Operation, Monopoly, some Lego sets, a couple of little toys and things for the present box, Harry Potter DVDs. All put aside for birthdays and Christmas.
Note to Big W: I could do with slightly more room around corners, but overall, you're pretty good. And your customers are a nice lot; polite & helpful.
Note to craft shop: If you have boxes piled in the aisles, there is no point in you pointing me to the back of the store to find my item. Yes, you will have to serve me. Deal with it.
Note to power walking bloke in shopping centre: Don't fucking overtake me, then cut straight across my bows. I will run your arse over. At least, I will think about running your arse over. Sadly, I'm not quite that brave yet. But there was about a centimetre in it. If you'd cut in a few milliseconds earlier you'd be bruised, and no doubt cursing me out for not submitting to the priority your entitled self deserves.
Overall: On this trip, I noticed a gaping gulf between men and women. To men, I was an obstacle. To women, I was a human fellow shopper. We smiled, traded hints, chatted about the sale, one woman asked me where I found the Scooby Doo figurines, I asked another where the Millennium Falcon was.
Interesting. We shall see what the next trip holds.
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So there's a Magic Tree House book, 'Ghost Town at Sundown', in which there are wild mustangs being captured by horse-rustlers, and the protagonists, Jack and Annie, have to try to catch a mustang colt.
Jack and Annie look up in their little information book about how to train a horse. The book suggests a soft hand, a firm voice, a sunny attitude, praise, and reward.
The Lad an I stopped to examine and discuss this list a little. When we got to "reward", I asked him what sorts of rewards he thought might be useful when training a horse.
"Well, the best kind of reward you could give it would be food," he observed.
"Yes, I think so too," I said. "What sort of food do you think a horse might like?"
*beat*
"Human flesh." he said, decisively.
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Anyone who thinks that girls are cliquier than boys needs to talk to a Grade One boy about who is in whose club this week, and why.
SRSLY.
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So WHO is playing who in the Sophie (aka Dogface)/Kris showmance on Big Brother UK Season 10?
I can't for the life of me figure it out.
Plus, cute little Cybermannish camera thingy.
Video is only thirty seconds.
phillipines from veem veem on Vimeo. Transcript:
Sophie and Kris are lying outside, next to each other. There's a little silver coloured camera housing swiveling to catch them in view.
Sophie [twirling her hair]: It reminds me of them things on Doctor Who. Them - Chet - Conjestors - Conjettles.
Kris: Conjettles?
Sophie: Comasters. Philippines. What they called?
Kris: Philippines?
Sophie: Them little things, robot things. Jet - Jeti.
Kris: Jedis.
Sophie: Jedis.
Kris: How'd you say "Philippines" and "Jedis"? How'd you get muddled up?
Sophie: I was getting there! The P...
Kris: [laughs]
Sophie: Philippines... Jet-ine...
Kris: Philippines is with an F.
Sophie: Is iit?
Kris: Yeah.
Sophie: Oh.
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The Fourteenth Edition of the Down Under Feminists Carnival is fast approaching! The deadline for submissions is midnight on the 2nd of July, so get your posts in before then.
This edition will be hosted by anjum rahman at Kiwi Stargazer. Pieces short or long, textual or other, from New Zealand or Australian feminist blogs are welcome, so long as they were published in June. Please read the carnival guidelines first; and please give a thought to accessibility when publishing your posts.
Spread the word about this carnival (including the links in this post) to your feminist blogging networks. And if you're interested in hosting a future carnival, please contact Lauredhel. We're short a volunteer for the early September carnival, and from November onwards. ~~~~ Secondly, submissions for the 3rd Asian Women Blog Carnival close on August 15th. All the details are available at rebellious jezebel blogging, and the (optional) theme is Intersections between Culture and Sexism Post a URL at the link, or email jhameia.goh@gmail.com. This entry was originally posted at http://lauredhel.dreamwidth.org/377667.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
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Further to a conversation at puzzlement's place, I'm interested in anecdata and discussion on changing responses to tales during pregnancy/early parenthood. (I'm not planning to take your stories anywhere else.)
So, parents of all stripes (bio, adoptive, etc), and anyone who's been pregnant - Did your reaction to certain images or stories change when you were pregnant, and/or when you became a parent? What do you think caused the changes, and how did you respond to them?
[Might put a warning up front, without being too prompt-y, that I wouldn't be surprised if this thread includes tales of child/fetal loss, etc.]
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Panicked "heatwave" warnings have hit the UK press.
It's going to get all the way up to 29-30 degrees in most areas, and London may actually peak at 32 by the end of the week.
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