G'day all,

I don't know about you, but every time I use my headphones with my computer, I feel rather 'tied down,' so the idea of cordless headphones is always appealing.


Well, I've got a cheap and easy technique for converting an existing set of headphones to cordless!

Items needed:
1 Set of headphones with cords.
1 Rabbit.


Procedure:
Step 1) Put the headphones "out of bunny reach" as far as you're aware.

Step 2) Let your rabbit hop around, since the room is "bunnyproofed" and all power cords are safely behind barriers.

Step 3) Leave the room for 5 minutes.



On your return, you will discover that your precious bunbun quickly and lovingly removed those pesky cords for you. It's as easy as that!

(feel free to try different variables, such as how high you put them, what room you let the bunny run around in, etc. I used my bedroom, with the headphones placed up on the bedhead, wrapped up. Let me know if other techniques work!)

Be careful what you wish for...


Just the other day I remarked about how I haven't seen any kangaroos along the highway between Whyalla and Port Lincoln for quite some time, especially between Whyalla and Cowell, an area notorious for them.

They used to jump out in front of you on a regular basis, but in the last 5 years, I've seen only 1 or 2, and they've just idly watched as I've driven past.


Well, I've just gotten back from taking my stepson to Adelaide where he starts Uni. (Adelaide furs: It was over, unpack, sleep, drive back - so that's why I didn't meet up with anyone!)


Anyway, so my drive back. The first 400km was uneventful, but then it got dark.


From Whyalla onwards, (approx 300km) I encountered 8 foxes, 2 owls, 8 kangaroos and 37 rabbits.

I managed to avoid hitting 8 foxes, 2 owls, 7 kangaroos and 37 rabbits.


Couldn't bloody believe it. Once you get to Cowell, you're "home free," because that's the dangerous area for roos.

I rounded a corner and out of the scrub jumps a mob of 6 kangaroos. I hit the skids, swerved and ended up facing the way I'd just come. There was a loud 'bang' as the largest one jumped straight into the side of the car.


Got out and scoured the scrub to check on him (yes, it's insane to approach a wild roo, especially an injured one, but I'm insane - and have done worse). No sign of him, so I believe he probably only got a glancing blow - especially since I haven't really been able to find much damage on the car in the light that I had.


Made an otherwise boring trip rather memorable, and it seems positive that the roo will probably only have minor injuries since I was rapidly decelerating and swerving away from him.

Happy Appreciate A Dragon Day everyone!

http://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/a.....-a-dragon-day/


That is all ^.^

G'day all,

Pretty shocked about this one, given Queensland's recent support for same sex civil unions and the current Premier declaring support for same sex marriage.

Below is an email for a (legitimate!) petition to call on the Queensland's current opposition leader (who is likely to win the next election) to legislate to repeal the case law.

(Yes, before anyone thinks that a government proposed this law, it's case law, so just a precedent set by a good/sleazy defence lawyer who convinced a judge in 97)

I know a lot of online petitions are utter crap, but I have faith in these ones. I've signed a few done via the Marriage Equality people last year, and those were publicly handed to their intended targets - with footage on the news. (eg, the one to the ALP national conference)

I had a bit of a chuckle when I signed it - I was the 5,000th signature. So it's half way - they want 10,000.

I'm also extremely impressed that a Catholic Priest is behind this push! (And even links it on his church's website.)


Below is the content of the letter (I've even inserted the links from the article. It's verbatim - my name isn't Nathan) =p

---

“Yeah, I killed him, but he did worse to me.” These are the words of a man who reacted to some “gentle touching” from a gay man by ramming his victim’s head against a wall until he was unrecognisable, and then stabbing him to death (1).

This infamous 1997 case enshrined the “gay panic” defence in Queensland law -- allowing accused murderers to have charges downgraded if their victim was gay and “came onto” them. Just two years ago, a man was brutally killed in Father Paul Kelly’s church yard, and his killers used this same defence. They were subsequently acquitted of murder (2).

Father Kelly was horrified that this argument was even allowed in court, and wrote to the government along with thousands of others -- they didn’t respond. But with the Liberal National Party likely to win power in the March state election, there’s new hope. Father Kelly has started a Change.org petition calling on LNP leader Campbell Newman to abolish the law if he’s elected, and insiders say the party is already wavering.

If 10,000 people sign Father Kelly’s petition, his local member and senior LNP member Ted Sorensen has promised to take it to Parliament. Sign the petition now.

A recent study named Queensland as Australia’s most homophobic state, and anti-gay violence is reportedly on the rise (3). Laws like the “gay panic” defence are a crucial part of legitimising and reinforcing a culture which means that 73% of gay and lesbian Queenslanders are subjected to verbal abuse or physical violence for their sexuality (4)

While fierce community opposition has convinced almost all other state governments to abolish similar laws, the outcry has fallen on deaf ears in Queensland. It’s now one of the last states upholding the idea that a person can be panicked enough by gay and lesbian people to justify murder. Thousands like Father Kelly are fed up with the inaction -- it’s the perfect moment for Newman to take a stand and promise to deliver where the current government has failed.

Click here to join Father Kelly and make sure “gay panic” is never an excuse for murder.

This could be the best chance Queensland will have for years to fix what law expert Alan Berman calls a “repulsive and dangerous partial defence”. If thousands of people speak out now, it will force Newman to commit to closing the loophole -- and take meaningful steps towards reducing discrimination and violence towards gay and lesbian people in Queensland.

Stand with Father Kelly and tell Campbell Newman this outdated “gay panic” law has no place in a modern society.

Thanks for being part of this,

Nathan and the Change.org team


[1] Courier Mail, “Law says it's not murder if the victim is gay and ''comes on to you''


[2] Brisbane Times, “Men jailed over churchyard 'homosexual' bashing death”


[3] Anti-gay violence on the rise

and Queensland Australia’s most homophobic state


[4] Dr Alan Berman, legal expert and co-author of a study into homophobic violence in Queensland

---

Please sign and spread the word.

For those wanting to repost on FA, I've saved a copy of the text above with all of the url tags etc in it. Just download This text file and copy it into your journal ^.^

(There's no links back to me in it; it's the verbatim letter. This is about promoting the petition, not some glory trip)


Please note: If you're opening it in notepad or something, please turn off "Word Wrap" before you cut/copy, otherwise the formatting will get screwy and not work for you.

This is just too rich: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-.....ortage/3761750


So... 2 factories aren't producing CO2 (as byproducts!) and now Schweppes and other soft drink/soda/pop makers can't make their drinks because they can't get hold of enough...

Umm, we've just put in a new Carbon Tax because there's too much CO2 production?

We're producing CO2 as byproducts on a daily basis?

there's even fissures in teh earth, venting tonnes and tonnes of CO2.


Is the claim of a CO2 shortage laughingly ludicrous, or is it just me?

Background:
Recently I made a foolish move to remove the keys from my keyboard to try and remove some of the tonne of rabbit hair and other crud from under the keys.

Stupidly, I removed the space bar too - despite knowing better. This, of course, led to a keyboard replacement since the now-sporadic space bar was driving me nucking futs. (The old one was fairly worn anyway, the 'texture' was completely gone, the keys were all shiny and letter-less.)

($13 replacement keyboard from china, including postage, and 5 screws. simple)



The point:
Anyway, last night I replaced the keyboard.

Not even 24 hours later, there's a fine layer of bunny hair in the new keyboard already.


I have come to the conclusion that rabbits are professional shedders - they shed more hair than they contain on their bodies.

They must have some sort of inter-dimensional space that they store a surplus of hare hair, just to sprinkle everywhere when you least expect it.

G'day all,

Hope you all had a good holiday period/solstice/etc.


I went into the house today to do some more work on it (Have been a slack bastard lately - haven't really wanted to leave my ol' man on his own.)

Walked in and noticed the back door was wide open. I originally thought I must have left it open the last time I was in there, since the town is pretty low in crime. (Except for trying to put flares through faggot's windows, of course =p )

When I went to shut it, I noticed that the slide bolt was bent, however, and the catch was torn open. The boot print on the freshly painted door was also a bit of a giveaway.


Padded up to the bedrooms to find everything had been ransacked. Of major surprise was the fact that a couple of certificates and photos of my son hadn't just been smashed or thrown across the room like some of my stuffed dragons, they had been placed in a pile safely. A bit of decency in the thief?

At this stage it's hard to tell how much has been taken - I could only really get part way into the room to take a cursory inspection - I have to meet the the Crime Scene Unit there tomorrow.

A cursory glance showed some quite obvious stuff missing, the scariest of which is the 2 sais and a 5'+ longsword. Seriously, how the fuck are you going to carry that around unseen?

The longsword is a purely decorative, mass-manufactured piece of crap from china worth less than $100. It never had an edge and would probably bend if it hit someone. The sai, on the other hand, were build solid and could easily be weaponised, which concerns me.

(I note in the newspaper that a 16 year old has been arrested after an incident in which he brandished "an offensive weapon" too. I hope like hell nobody has been injured with them!)

Also on the definitely stolen list:

My netbook (no big deal, but I wish I had the data backed up. And encrypted, because now my tax returns and furry prons are out there...),
The cash tin that my ex left with me for when I do the garage sale when it's all finished (dunno how much cash was in it, I have to ask her)
 nytekingcheetah's Xbox 360, controller+games that we used when he was here for a few months
My dad's toolbox + tools (that were rusty. Why the hell take them?!)
Some new computer components that were going to go into a PC later (new mobo, cpu, ram)
An Olympus digital camera, nothing special.

I'm afraid that the guitar I left there is also gone. I can't tell yet, however, as while that cupboard is open, I can't get to it without disturbing boot prints.


All in all, it's just stuff. It sucks that I've lost data (my fault for not having it backed up) and the receipts for everything I spent on the house that I get to claim half back when it sells (they were in the cashbox for safe keeping).

But at the end of the day, it's just stuff. The way I see it, someone obviously had a bigger need for the stuff/cash than I did.

As long as it isn't for drugs. And that they don't hurt someone with those sais. Those would piss me off somewhat.


Fortunately I don't celebrate Christmas, so it doesn't put a dampener on that for me. =p

---

Also, a quick tribute to Chook, the Lyrebird at the Adelaide Zoo.

He was a fucking awesome little lyrebird that has just died, aged 32 years. (Good long life!) Nyte and I saw/heard him together earlier in the year and it was incredible to hear the sounds he was imitating.

RIP Chook, you brought a smile to a lot of faces!


Some videos of him in action:

Imitating the construction sounds when they were making a new enclosure for him (to make way for the pandas) as well as many different birds (including multiple kookaburras simultaneously)

Some of the best sounds are at the end, like drills and saws.



At the end is someone's car trouble, immortalised by Chook.

Amateur footage to show he indeed does it

The day started out pretty well. I'm currently staying at my folks' house because it's pretty impossible to live in your own house while renovating it. (Especially the kitchen and bathroom, which are my current focus!)

We had a nice skype chat with my son in the US and everything was cool. Mum went off to play "carpet bowls" which dad opted out of, because he was feeling "a bit tired." I then went to lay down and take pressure off of my back, which is so fucked ATM that my legs feel like they're on fire.

Nothing was amiss. It was all a fairly easy-going morning.


Less than 5 minutes later, I hear an odd sound followed by a sickening gurgling.

I rushed back out to find my dad on the floor in the corner of his office, fully convulsing and spasming, foaming at the mouth, his face red and contorted as he thrashes about, a wound on his head where he'd struck it against a filing cabinet on the way down.

Quickly realising I'd completely forgotten everything I'd ever learned about first aid, I rolled him into the recovery position and pried his clenched teeth apart to clear his airways out so that he could breathe. With all cordless phones having run and hidden with all of the pens and left socks, I then grabbed my mobile and dialed 000 and was reassured by a brilliant emergency operator as I tried desperately to look after him while an ambulance arrived.


The grunting, gasping, gurgling and distortions on his face... I really thought he was having a stroke and was dying. His dad was only 5 years older than my dad is now, when he had a fatal stroke. (My first time seeing a dead body, actually, as I was the only one in the room when he passed on, and I had to let the nurses know he was dead).

At that moment, he looked so much like his own dad did. And I was helpless to do anything more than what I had done.


The ambulance arrived, the paramedics worked and stabilised him (and he incoherently fought against their oxygen mask the whole time, lol) and then I had to help them carry the stretcher to the gurney that was outside, due to the stupid hallways, etc. Despite the fact that I could hardly walk beforehand, Mr Adrenaline was there to give me the strength I needed to do so - though now I'm not able to walk without a stick again.

It was a good half hour before he was able to speak incoherently, and it wasn't until he was in hospital that he really "came out of it," having no memory of it whatsoever.

As usual, I had to be the emotional rock, too. Whenever there is a trauma of this magnitude, I provide my family the strength they need. I had to go have my breakdown in private later.

(Every time I close my eyes, I can see his face distorted in pain and seizure. Thank fuck he has no memory of it!)


So a pretty normal day turned pretty-near-devastating in less than 10 minutes, with no actual warning of what laid ahead.

According to the paramedics, I saved his life. Rather than be a comfort or something I'm proud of, this fucking terrifies me! It was such a fluke that I heard him - it so easily could have ended differently.


Go give your loved ones a big hug. If you can, go hug your parents and tell them that you love them. It doesn't matter what sort of spats or complaints you might have - it can all be gone without warning.


TL;DR - My dad nearly died today without warning. I probably saved his life. Don't waste time telling your loved ones that you love them, because in 10 minutes, you might never get the chance again.

I'll admit, it brought tears to my eye. (It's allergies, damnit!) ^^;


Visit http://ido.org.au/

Anne McCaffrey has died on Monday.

She was the author of the Dragonrider of Pern series - one of the first series of books I came across as a kid that painted dragons as good creatures.

(There was still a lot of Dragon = Evil crap going on in the 80s)


RIP Anne, you made the worlds a better place for Dragons. Even with your Thread.


http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45409...../#.TsxtqGOP5nI



(And for those who have never read any of the DragonRider books... Get off of your arses and do so!)

If it wasn't bad enough that the US Congress recently passed a motion to declare Pizza Sauce a vegetable, now we've got lunacy from the EU!

The EU has banned bottled water companies from claiming that drinking WATER can prevent or reduce dehydration!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor.....hydration.html



So there you have it, folks!

Pizza Sauce = Vegetable (despite being made from tomatoes, a fruit)
Water != Rehydration.

Well, I just have to take some time out from patting all of the sea-kittens to share PETA's latest fucking insanity stunt.

Seems that PETA is targeting Nintendo & Mario for promoting the wearing of fur - due to his wearing of a Tanuki suit in an upcoming DS game. Despite the fact that he did it 20 years ago, too!


I was going to write more, but... I'm too sore from laughing and shaking my head in astonishment.

More on it (more like "Moronic," amirite?) here: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/249.....uit-tanuki.htm

Alrighty, I wasn't actually that serious when I commented on fluff science Earlier


But then, I come across this one: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencen.....your-ears.html

That said, this one has a bit more use to it. It might lay down a valid defence for eliminating someone who drags their talons down a blackboard.


This is getting amusing. Please post any more fluff science reports below, and we'll work out some sort of virtual-prize for the Biggest Fucking Waste of Time and Research Grants!™

Screw the Jedi.

Those arrogant wankers, rebelling against the majority-supported Empire (replacing the ridiculous Republic-with-a-Queen nonsense that was failing). They should be hunted down and exterminated...

Anyway, one of them got his comeuppance. That pathetic muppet has been caught and lost his license!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/83.....-yoda-at-wheel


I guess he was the drunk they were looking for.

(or "Drunk looking for they, was he")

Many of you know that once upon a time (about a decade ago) I got sucked in by PETA propaganda and, thinking they were a good (and sane) organisation, became a member...

For approximately a week. Then I learned what fucktards they really were.


Recently, I lost it when they announced they were opening a porn site. (http://gizmodo.com/5832964/animal+f.....rn-coming-soon)

Now, they're trying to enforce anti-slavery laws on Seaworld!
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/83.....-whale-slavery


I thought you all deserved a larf. Here you go! ^.^

What the hell is going on in the scientific arena at the moment? I've seen two "fluff" studies leapt on by the media within the last week.

First, there was the ridiculous study that declared Heavy metal fans are more prone to mental illness

Now today I see that a study links Soft Drink (Soda) consumption with violence.


Seriously? This is "Science" nowadays? What ever happened to "Correlation != Causation?!"

(I'm not disputing the fact that all Heavy Metal fans are mentally ill, but I think it's because they are mentally ill that they listen to Metal)


Maybe I should get a government grant to produce a study... I can prove using similar 'proven' methods how consumption of carrots is deadly to humans.

Quite simply, I've looked back at a group of subjects from 1800 and followed their eating habits.

I was shocked to discover that every single one of them that ate carrots is now dead!


There you go, you've read it here first! Beware the carrots!



(I believe there are links to why when you vomit from a night out on the booze that there is always bits of carrot in it, and that it makes you feel like you're going to die, however I need a $5 million grant to fully investigate this one.)

It's been a while since I've pissed someone off with my Australian sense of humour... Talons crossed.





Inch- (2x) House- (2x)
Shelter- (2x) Back street- (2x)


One- (2x) Go ahead- (2x) Revolution- (2x)


I have millions of people supporting me,
I am asking Sahrawian people to invest, from desert to desert,
they invest, no one stop them, Hurry up- Hurry up-
It’s time to work, it’s time to invest, it’s time to win, no return-

This all happened pretty quickly...

There was a report that the NTC had captured Sirte. An hour later, the report was updated to say that they'd captured Gaddafi, that he had wounds to both of his legs.

(Then I had a 2 hour power failure)

Just got power back, and the Same report claims his death


Don't say you don't live in interesting times... This is a huge event.

(Before anyone interprets this any differently: I'm happy to see a country liberated, but I abhor any loss of life. Yes, including of an evil man that took so many lives.)

Well, I have something I need to get off of my chest...


Jeremiah was a Bullfrog!

And he was a fairly minor acquaintance.


Ahh, that's good to let go of.

Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a pacifist, I really do.


Tonight I was pulled up in a car park at a bottle-shop while my folks were inside grabbing a bottle of plonk, since we'd just done a fucking hard day's work on painting the house.

Another car, a 4WD, pulls up and parks in the middle of the driveway there and an intoxicated gentleman (read: "pissed as a newt, fuckwit") gets out and goes to the toilet that was right across from where I was parked; swearing and waving his hands around.

A few seconds later, he's standing in the doorway to the toilets, pissing across the driveway onto my car. The person driving the 4WD started yelling at them to stop it, and I'd blasted my horn at them, when suddenly my passengers were back. So they got in and I drove off.

I wasn't off of the property before I realised that I really should have taught him a lesson and clocked him one. It's just not in my nature.


I mean, I wouldhave been a good 8-10" taller than him and probably 30kg heavier. At the best of times I would have had the upper paw in a fight. Given that he was pissed as a maggot, I could have hospitalised him without him getting a scratch on me, had I been so inclined.

(Never mind that I had a set of 36" Stillsons/Pipe-Wrench that would do more than a +1 Mace) ;-p


I know that being "a nice guy" and not even having the thought of retaliation cross my mind until far too late should be a Good Thing™, but I feel like I'm letting pathetic scumbags walk all over me. Ones I would undoubtedly best in a fight, if I was that sort of person.

Bloody pacifism.

Cats aren't as tough as they think they are... >.>

G'day all,

I left the old journal up for a while because it was important to get people to write to their MPs. (I won't go into the response I got from mine, as it'll just be a rant)


But I came across the gem of a news article:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-.....ustion/2941050


Now, I don't know if it's because I recently started watching the X-Files from episode 1 onwards again (had to do something while waiting for "Supernatural" to come back) or what, but I had to stifle a laugh.

Seriously? SHC?

Do we have to ignore the obvious fact that an Irish male's body would be 70% alcohol? =p

G'day all,

Came across a link on the "Australian Marriage Equality" site that lets you email your MP (and senators) to ask them to support Marriage Equality (ie, gender doesn't come into it at all!)


Now, I know for most people, it's usually a case of "I can't be fucked doing this," but this is deadshit simple.


Name, Address, Email Address, Postcode and a Captcha. That's it!


They have a pre-done letter (you can add to it if you like), so you don't have to mess about with that.

So really, there's no excuse not to lend your voice to the cause!

http://www.australianmarriageequali.....mpdb/email.php



Is it wrong that I want to find out the name of the priest responsible for the hate-mail-drop when I came out, and send in a letter of support on his behalf?

Now, go email!

I've noticed a lot of people linking to Youtube videos to share their discoveries. So I thought the community needed some TISM (This Is Serious, Mum!)

And whaddya know? They have one that seems to sum up a lot of fur's complaints!

Well, it's official! The rapture is coming!

at 2pm on the 21st of May, a small bushfire started about a block away from where I'm living ATM.

And then we discovered that the fridge in the shed had come unplugged - and that 2kg of Prawns (Shrimp to the US furs) has defrosted! (Fuck, does that smell bad!)


And the kicker? I've just run out of tissues!

It's the end, I tell you! Repent now!



[Update] I've just come back from the supermarket with more tissues. Hopefully this means the rapture has been averted!