A new blog

I am not closing off this blog, I just felt like having a blog that doesn't necessarily deal with infertility...


http://moondancemax.blogspot.com/

Worth1000 part 2

While the following pics did not finish in the first three, they all received a "star" (Jury's pick).
I have many more but these are some of my favourites .



Big bug mess
Sucked in

Classic rock

Alien Management

Worth1000

By popular demand (one anyway..) I shall post my winning "worth1000" entries.

One gold cup in the advanced photoshop category for the following competition :

"Remember when computer hackers were the big scare? Sure they might be 15-year-olds computer nerds who t41k 2 mUc4 l1k3 7h15!!!!!!!!!!!!11 [talk too much like this]. But that doesn't mean that, with a few deft keystrokes, they couldn't take over the world. And what would everyday life be like then? Get ready for some l337 h4xx0r1ng!!!!!!111 [elite hacker language].

The rules of this game are thus: In this contest you will show us images from a world run by l337 hax0rs. Your images should ideally focus on something that already has text on it. (i.e. a shampoo bottle with instructions written in html or the Coca-Cola logo written in poorly spelled gibberish)."
One bronze medal in the beginner category for the following competition:

"Global warming. Everyone's talking about it. Everyone's speculating about it. We can go one step further: Let's show what the world might look like after global warming has descended upon us.

Will we be inundated with floods? Or will the world dry up? Will skiers coat their skis with teflon so that they can ski snow-free mountains? Will sunbathers have to coat their skin with plaster of paris? You show us.

The rules are thus: Depict a future scene that's the result of global warming. Don't be afraid to get a little silly or outrageous. That's what we do!"

Rose coloured glasses.

In the debate of fatherhood in the context of DI, I find that too much credit is being given to biological parents. On an abstract level, yes its best for a child to be biologically related to his father, but in reality being biologically related to one or both parent is not synonym of harmony. The human mind works in such way that the grass will always seem greener on the other side of the fence, hence why some people who were conceived via DI will think that their life would have significantly been better were they biologically related to their father.
The true father image is of a man sharing, teaching, guiding,loving, protecting his children, how often do you hear adult say things such as...when I was young my father used to take me fishing, or my love for cars was passed on by my father etc....
Sounds great doesn't it ? However in reality this is not always true...I think the great father image is a bit of an urban myth.
Let's take my relationship with my father as an example.

1/ We do not look like one another at all. In fact if one had to decide whether we are related just on looks, the conclusion would be that I am either adopted or I was also donor conceived.

2/ As a young kid growing up my father was rarely home, the way my father thinks is business comes first, friends second and family last . My father was the law and the executioner and being backhanded slapped across the face due to low school grades or asked to finish one's meal in the toilet for putting our elbows on the table was common practice. We had a love/fear relationship one could say.

3/ My father keeps secrets. I was never invited to the lush ceremony of his second wedding that took place only a few klms from my place of residence. He invited all his friends and colleagues but not his son, his only biological link here in Australia, my brother resides in France.
Not only was I not invited but he only told me sheepishly two weeks later.

4/ My father has a fixation with money. I have never asked him for any financial assistance in my entire life nor do I intend to. My father never seems to be giving me the impression that he is doing something because he enjoys it....everything he does seems to be a necessity or because his wife needs this , everything is a sacrifice. My father will mention to me on several occasions how he is struggling financially and then two weeks later I will find out that he spent a week at Club Med in some exotic location....and later again he will spend a good 5 minutes justifying his trip like as if he didn't really want to go there but had to !

5/ In my Father's house you will not find a picture of either my brother or I displayed anywhere. On the other hand you will find plenty of pictures of himself and his two dogs, a couple of beagles which I humourously call my "sisters".

I spent the first 30 years of my life hoping for a better dad, hoping that perhaps he would change, I was ridden with guilt in the sense that I felt that I was never good enough for him and then one day I realised that I needed to move on in order to live my life and that 's exactly what I am doing. Yes my father might be biologically related to me but our relationship is nothing but 100% artificial.

I think that sometimes we need to take off those rose coloured glasses and have a good look around us. It's easy to make conclusions based on supposedly scientifical evidence but if you take results of research at face value then you are only kidding yourself, life is neither black or white.

Crikey ! I'm rooted !

I was reading Meg's blog recently when my mind had to do a double take on the following comments.

I'm rooting for little F...
My mum is rooting for you..

I mentionned it to Vee who said that apparently Eric left a similar comment on her blog once, I vaguely remember seeing it but I thought that he was joking..

Vee tells me that it has a different meaning in the american language ....yeah I bet ! ...

root vi. 1. To cheer for a sports team. Root is an offensive Australian slang verb meaning ``have sexual intercourse with''. Announcing to an Australian that you ``are a cheerleader, so you don't see many football games because you are in the stands rooting'' will give a misleading impression about your devotion to the team.

# root – to have sex. Also a noun, as in "I'm dyin' for a root". This can inadvertently cause embarrassment for Americans visiting Australia, if they declare that they "root" for a particular sports team.
# rooted – broken or tired.

Odd

This week the following email arrived in my inbox at work.


"Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Hello everyone,

I'm organising a donut drive to raise funds for JDRF and have attached a colour brochure. I will put brochures and posters in the lifts within the building with my contact details for placing orders. Also will have brochures and ordering sheets placed around the building....
... The donuts are as nice if not better than Krispy Kremes, I'm certain everyone will enjoy them.

It's not until you start speaking to people that we find out, at least one person within our families, friends etc have to face day to day life with Diabetes.

A big thankyou to everyone for supporting this worthwhile charity and I look forward to bringing lots of donuts into the building.

Kind regards,

xxxxxxxxxx "


I don't know about you but I found this money raising promotion somewhat odd. My understanding of Diabetes is that you are more at risk if you stuff your face with fatty sugary foods such as donuts !!!!


In the same line of thought, we could:

Sell cigarettes to raise money for lung cancer ?
Sell alcohol to raise awareness about the dangers of drink driving ?
Sell guns in order to raise money so that more peaceful protest can take place ?

Full Moon

I'm afraid I didn't have as much of a successful week as the last one in regards to my weight loss but I still managed to loose 200g ..I have to admit that I went on a bit of a food rampage last Sunday, it was a family celebration with lots of great food in the form of a free for all buffet.

I was planning on being relatively good but one thing led to another and before I knew it I'd had seconds and was considering going for my third "Portuguese tart" ( type of small custard filled tart ) just to break the taste of the low fat plum cake Vee had made....

Women can usually blame their hormones when they have a bad week however for us males it is somewhat more difficult, nonetheless I shall blame the full moon for my sudden feeding frenzy.
When the full moon arrives, I grow some hair and become an overweight infertile werewolf who goes sugar crazy. My senses sharpen greatly to the point where I can hear someone taking a lolly out of its wrapping paper over a 100 metre radius !

One thing I don't really like at weight watchers are the meetings. Honestly I don't care what anyone else says but a carrot will never (NEVER) replace a chocolate bar !

They try too hard to convince me that we can replace some yummy naughty foods with healthy snacks such as raw veggies....I'd rather that they promote the goodness of veggies rather than making them sound like second best.
I love veggies and I'm happy to munch on a carrot or have a salad but it will never be replacement for anything else. Actually I made a stir fry for dinner and since I was hungry, I munched on some raw cabbage while cooking and it was quite alright, I just hope raw cabbage is not one of those primary methane producing food...

Irreverent or Irrelevant?: The United Nations and Gay Rights - Opinion

I found this very interesting essay on the dynamics of political and cultural issues surrounding gay rights and the United Nations written by Sami Zeidan a lebanese diplomat at the UN.

"...in drafting human rights instruments, it is common to avoid controversial language if it is not previously agreed upon. Sexual orientation is an excellent example of such language. For example, the draft final statement of the 1993 Vienna Conference on human rights had a paragraph on equality that condemned discrimination on listed grounds. When Canada proposed adding "sexual orientation" to the list, a heated debate ensued, resulting in a general, open-ended prohibition of discrimination, without a list. The advantage of this course of action is that consensus is achieved. However, upon implementation of such a general paragraph, several interpretations inevitably arise on the question of whether sexual orientation is implicitly included as a right protected from discrimination..."

Irreverent or Irrelevant?: The United Nations and Gay Rights - Opinion