Dear fellow Drivers,
Yes, I know that today we had (as they keep reminding us) the first rain we've had in 60 odd days.
Wet roads are slippery, most of us were driving a little slower than we normally would to allow for this.
So why did you feel the need to engage your suicidal tendencies and drive unsafely and/or speed whilst the rain was pouring down? Have you forgotten how to drive in rain? Do you always drive like an idiot?
These are not rhetorical questions, please take more care. I at least want to arrive safely at my destination.
Thanks,
Julie
Showing posts with label odd western behaviour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label odd western behaviour. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
I've given up
I've given up on watching Question Time with the Politicians. Even the bits we get to see during the news make my head hurt. Do they have to shout at each other all the time??? Can't they all at least pretend to be grown ups?
And these are the people who get to decide what we do as a country.
On the other hand, I just watched Q&A, and the way that everyone handled the conversation and behaved themselves staggered me. It's like *swoon* competent and coherent conversation about important topics.
Also, the live tweets are hilarious.
And these are the people who get to decide what we do as a country.
On the other hand, I just watched Q&A, and the way that everyone handled the conversation and behaved themselves staggered me. It's like *swoon* competent and coherent conversation about important topics.
Also, the live tweets are hilarious.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
I've noticed a worrying trend
I love ebooks. I love the convenience, I love that they are usually a little cheaper than paperbacks (being that no trees are harmed in the production of an ebook). I really love that I can have a craving for reading some fluffy romance or stuff with cowboys in it at 2am and not have to wait for the bookstores to open the next morning to get some.
However, not everyone wants me (or you, or anyone) to buy their ebooks like good citizens of the interwebs.*
I bought my first ebooks in 2009, at HarperCollins (au and us) ebook websites. Buying directly from the publisher, getting additional epilogues from the authors I wanted to read was really awesome. I also belonged to a website called CyberRead.
About eight months ago, I got an email from CyberRead. There was something strange going on in the Publishing industry, and they'd lost the ability to sell some of their titles. Then three months later, they started sending reminders to back up my ebooks. Just before Christmas, I had two emails from Harper Collins ebooks. Despite it's popularity, HarperCollins had decided to close all their ebook websites. If you wanted to redownload, you had to do it before December 19. I forgot my one ebook on the US website, but when I remembered on December 21, it was too late. The site had been removed.
More emails have been received from CyberRead in the past few months about backing up my ebooks. Last week, I got the email I had been expecting and dreading. To back up or redownload all my ebooks NOW because CyberRead was closing sometime in the next week due to "unprecendented changes in the ebook industry". A few days ago I got another email telling me I had 24 hours to finish backing up or redownloading my ebooks as after that I would no longer be able to access their website.
I worry about this happening, because the Publishing Industry seems to be moving towards only large companies selling their ebooks. What if I don't want to buy my ebooks from the companies I buy paperbacks from? Even though they save a lot on ebooks not being physical objects, sometimes it still costs the same price for me to buy it. It's really worrying to me that two websites (one an actual publisher!) have had to shut down their ebook operations so suddenly.
I just hope that in six months or a year, when I want to buy an ebook, it won't suddenly cost more than the paper copy.
* (Also, srsly, buy your ebooks. Don't download them for free over torrent. For one thing, it's like buying a stripped book - bad and it costs people money. Like the author? That person who writes it gets nothing from you downloading it for free. The other thing is people can put nasties in your stuff you get from limewire or torrent, and then whoops, your computer is infected with viruses (which macs can't get) or spyware (that everyone can get) so yeah, don't do it.)
However, not everyone wants me (or you, or anyone) to buy their ebooks like good citizens of the interwebs.*
I bought my first ebooks in 2009, at HarperCollins (au and us) ebook websites. Buying directly from the publisher, getting additional epilogues from the authors I wanted to read was really awesome. I also belonged to a website called CyberRead.
About eight months ago, I got an email from CyberRead. There was something strange going on in the Publishing industry, and they'd lost the ability to sell some of their titles. Then three months later, they started sending reminders to back up my ebooks. Just before Christmas, I had two emails from Harper Collins ebooks. Despite it's popularity, HarperCollins had decided to close all their ebook websites. If you wanted to redownload, you had to do it before December 19. I forgot my one ebook on the US website, but when I remembered on December 21, it was too late. The site had been removed.
More emails have been received from CyberRead in the past few months about backing up my ebooks. Last week, I got the email I had been expecting and dreading. To back up or redownload all my ebooks NOW because CyberRead was closing sometime in the next week due to "unprecendented changes in the ebook industry". A few days ago I got another email telling me I had 24 hours to finish backing up or redownloading my ebooks as after that I would no longer be able to access their website.
I worry about this happening, because the Publishing Industry seems to be moving towards only large companies selling their ebooks. What if I don't want to buy my ebooks from the companies I buy paperbacks from? Even though they save a lot on ebooks not being physical objects, sometimes it still costs the same price for me to buy it. It's really worrying to me that two websites (one an actual publisher!) have had to shut down their ebook operations so suddenly.
I just hope that in six months or a year, when I want to buy an ebook, it won't suddenly cost more than the paper copy.
* (Also, srsly, buy your ebooks. Don't download them for free over torrent. For one thing, it's like buying a stripped book - bad and it costs people money. Like the author? That person who writes it gets nothing from you downloading it for free. The other thing is people can put nasties in your stuff you get from limewire or torrent, and then whoops, your computer is infected with viruses (which macs can't get) or spyware (that everyone can get) so yeah, don't do it.)
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Never Be A...
Every time I have turned on a radio or tv today, I have been treated to Tony Abbott SHOUTING about how the Government has lied, said there would never be a carbon tax and now they are introducing one, oh how can the Australian Public ever trust them again, etc.
May I (and everyone else in the entirety of Australia) remind Mr Abbott that A little over ten years ago, we were promised that GST would never become part of Liberal Party policy?
Two days of childish Question Time where absolutely nothing got accomplished because you kept harping on about the carbon tax and saying everything would go up, without apparently doing any research or providing a viable alternative. I'm not saying it's all your fault for doing this, but you certainly didn't help.
What a remarkable and admired country we would be if our Politicians would actually manage to work together on important things. Yes, like Climate Change. And Asylum Seekers.
May I (and everyone else in the entirety of Australia) remind Mr Abbott that A little over ten years ago, we were promised that GST would never become part of Liberal Party policy?
Two days of childish Question Time where absolutely nothing got accomplished because you kept harping on about the carbon tax and saying everything would go up, without apparently doing any research or providing a viable alternative. I'm not saying it's all your fault for doing this, but you certainly didn't help.
What a remarkable and admired country we would be if our Politicians would actually manage to work together on important things. Yes, like Climate Change. And Asylum Seekers.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Losing your name?
If there is one thing that I don't think I'll ever understand, its why a woman would change her name when she marries.
I used to say it was a Chinese opinion. The majority of Asian women do not adopt their husbands surname, they keep their name, they don't lose it in a bid to look more like a family, or something like that. Personally, I've always thought that even though I plan to keep my name (basically forever), if I ever marry and have kids, I would still be known to other children as Mrs {insert lastname here}. Because that's what kids do. They assume their friends lastname is the name of the parent.
But I can say that it isn't a Chinese thing. Both my grandmothers, my Ah Poh and my Grandma, both kept their maiden names. I find this a little intriguing; not because my Ah Poh did, but because my Australian Grandmother did. She would have been an anomaly among her generation. If my grandmother were alive today, she would probably be in her late eighties, so for someone born at that time...
One thing my mother has regretted for years, is that when she married my dad, she changed her name. Completely changed it, looking at her on paper or talking to her on the phone, you would never guess she's Chinese. She's talking about changing it to something which is a balance of her old and new names. And in a lot of ways I'm pleased. It will be a little strange for her to have a different name than the one I've known my whole life, but at the same time, it's really quite exciting, because if feels like she is reclaiming something she willingly gave away.
One of my friends got married this year, and I was a little aghast that the first question she was asked, the day after her wedding (on facebook) was "Why haven't you changed your name yet???" And I felt like saying, why would you change your name? If it is so important that everyone have the same last name, why shouldn't the husband change his name?
Why must all the sacrifices be on one side?
(And then of course in most households the woman does more housework; even if she works long hours she is still expected to do the lions share of the domestic work, including childcare. Is this what we really want?)
*
A more extensive post on this topic can be found At BitchPHD (by bitchphd). It also discusses fair division of labour in the home and other such issues.
And Here at Hoyden About Town (by bluemilk).
I used to say it was a Chinese opinion. The majority of Asian women do not adopt their husbands surname, they keep their name, they don't lose it in a bid to look more like a family, or something like that. Personally, I've always thought that even though I plan to keep my name (basically forever), if I ever marry and have kids, I would still be known to other children as Mrs {insert lastname here}. Because that's what kids do. They assume their friends lastname is the name of the parent.
But I can say that it isn't a Chinese thing. Both my grandmothers, my Ah Poh and my Grandma, both kept their maiden names. I find this a little intriguing; not because my Ah Poh did, but because my Australian Grandmother did. She would have been an anomaly among her generation. If my grandmother were alive today, she would probably be in her late eighties, so for someone born at that time...
One thing my mother has regretted for years, is that when she married my dad, she changed her name. Completely changed it, looking at her on paper or talking to her on the phone, you would never guess she's Chinese. She's talking about changing it to something which is a balance of her old and new names. And in a lot of ways I'm pleased. It will be a little strange for her to have a different name than the one I've known my whole life, but at the same time, it's really quite exciting, because if feels like she is reclaiming something she willingly gave away.
One of my friends got married this year, and I was a little aghast that the first question she was asked, the day after her wedding (on facebook) was "Why haven't you changed your name yet???" And I felt like saying, why would you change your name? If it is so important that everyone have the same last name, why shouldn't the husband change his name?
Why must all the sacrifices be on one side?
(And then of course in most households the woman does more housework; even if she works long hours she is still expected to do the lions share of the domestic work, including childcare. Is this what we really want?)
*
A more extensive post on this topic can be found At BitchPHD (by bitchphd). It also discusses fair division of labour in the home and other such issues.
And Here at Hoyden About Town (by bluemilk).
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