betty loves blogging

Is Oz blogging on its death bed?

(Obvs not here, as I mentioned before, this blog is seeing more action than Dean St on a Thursday night, but that's just cos I have moved somewhere new and excitingly dysfunctional).

I might be being somewhat overdramatic with that headline, but whatever.

So I was checking out some of the blogs on my link list, and you know, lots of them have shut shop in the last few months.  So, I really should remove them from my links, which is kind of sad...

It all started with the tragic departure of Marieke Hardy's Reasons You Will Hate Me from the blogging realm, which was a sad day for the Australian blogging community (using that phrase has just made me a colossal geek, rather than a moderate geek...  Oh dear).  But I guess it would have been harder to find material now that John Howard is out.

Then Much Ado About Sumthin' closed its crass window into the life of one of Australia's most blase  bloggers.  Then Bent my Wookie, one of Australia's most promising up-and-coming smartarses, shut shop.  Culture Strain went in to retirement.  Invader Stu stopped sharing his tales of falling off bicycles in Holland. Scott to be Certain also seems to have vanished from the realm.

While it wasn't technically a blog, the sad passing away of Alan Waddel, who wrote the charming Walk Sydney Streets website, was also a blow to the output of quality Australian internet content.

It looked like Tokyo Girl had pursued non-blogging interests as well, but happily she has returned with her beautiful prose.  And Cablog is still churning out delightful and disturbing tales from a Sydney Taxi.

Unfortunately, Sam in the City or whatever the hell it's called now (Ask Sam or something I think... that vacuous piece of crap on the SMH website that I refuse to link to) is still churning out questions like "should I pretend to be an absolute idiot so that I can get a man?".  It's horrible.

So, I need some new funny/good blogs for my link list, particularly Australian ones so I can keep tabs on the tomfoolery of D-grade Australian "television personalities".  Especially since I have just signed up for NaNoWriMo and will need some procrastination/inspiration when I am sitting in front of this computer trying to write. (Why do I torture myself so?)  Any suggestions?

I'm also thinking of redesigning this blog... I'll stick it on the list of things to do...

Gettin' around

I've been whoring myself out to other blogs... pop over to Om'bak to read my latest piece of self-indulgent femmo drivel, if you feel like it.

Good lord, lately this blog has been getting even more action than Fabio in his heyday.  Guess since I'm not writing all day at work anymore, I actually have the energy to tap out some junk on the keyboard.

They bez on mai screen stealin' ma timez

If you haven't seen LOLCats (see here and here to get wid da program losers) you won't get this.

To celebrate the upcoming election, the Greens have launched a LOL Pols comp to stick the most hilarious LOL Cats style caption on a photo of a politician. Some of them are pretty funny. Read about it at the Greens Blog.

Check out the entries here.

So conformist, so chic, so cheap

I don't understand why I (and a large percentage of the Western world) have such a fascination with Ikea.  But there is just something about that place... I found myself out Rhodes way this evening and convinced myself that I needed to purchase more containers to transport my lunch to and from work in.  So into Ikea I delved, fully aware that like on all other trips to the blue and yellow warehouse, I would emerge with many items that I do not actually need.

It is impossible to go to Ikea and stick solely to buying the items that you intended to buy.  The purpose of my mission this evening was to buy some plastic containers.  I was also allowed to buy a new doona cover (as long as it was cheap) because I have two doonas of different sizes, and only one cover to fit the larger one, which doesn't work with our wash cycle (either the cover would be stinky or I would have to be cold), especially since we don't have a dryer.

Anyway, so I got the containers, and I got a doona cover for $20 (which included 4 pillow cases).  It is a funny yellow and white pattern, but I was like, whatevs, it's cheap and cheerful enough.

But of course, I didn't stop there.  I also purchased;

1. Numerous small bowls, priced at 85 cents each.  I can justify this one, because I was buying them for my dad, who after reading the work of a certain influential blogger (see below) decided that he might also like to sell coffee in bowls.

2. A massive stoneware coffee cup thing.  It's huge, about the size of a small milkshake container.  I don't know why I bought it.  I think I justified it to myself by saying that because it was microwavable I could use it to heat up soup and then drink the soup straight out of the massive cup and it would be great and it would vastly improve my quality of life.  It was only $2, so no big deal.

3. A colourful scrubber that has a suction cap so it sticks to things.  Once again around the $2 mark. I bought this because our other scrubber smells funny and I think the bacteria living in it is starting a civilisation that may put up a candidate in the Federal election or something (could be a positive, who knows).  I also bought it because it is the same as the one I had when I was in London and I was all like 'awww warm fuzzy memories' or something.

4. A new powerboard with heaps of sockets.  This is useful for plugging more of my electronic things in to, because I only have one power outlet in my room.

5. Two new pillowcovers for my two European sized pillows.  Because I realised that the wash cycle thing also affected them.  And it would be a complete drama to sleep with two less pillows for a night or something.

To be honest, this was one of my better efforts at restraining myself at Ikea.  I successfully talked myself out of buying more of the patterned cardboard storage boxes that fit perfectly under my Ikea bed (they are so handy!)  I lose all powers of reason once I enter Ikea.  I have even been known to eat their shit food!  I don't understand why I feel so compelled to buy stuff there, especially when I know there is nothing unique about any of it and millions of other homes around the world are decked out with the same weirdly named furniture, budget bedding and suction capped dish scrubbers as my house.  It is soooooo unbelievably mass produced... when I was in London I bought the exact same kitchen items that I have bought here in Sydney.  But it is cheap.  And cheerful.  And useful.  And like a kid in a candy store, I just can't resist!  I really don't get it, I'm normally a reasonable person!

At least on a Thursday night it was peaceful in there.  On the weekends it is full of young power couples getting supplies to deck out their homes, pushing the thoughts of interest rate rises to the back of their minds.  The place is always full of crazy children on weekends, running around, climbing on everything, and continually getting in the way.  Or having loud tantrums where their screams reverberate through the concrete warehouse pick up zone.

Anyway, while we are on the subject of all things blue and yellow, I thought I would share this link to a cool Ikea-related blog that I stumbled upon.  Ikea Hacker shows you how to make Ikea furniture unique and funky, and how to 'hack' it so it works for you.  There are some cool hacks on there, which go against the idea that Ikea is bland conformist furniture... they show how you can use the basic structures to essentially build your own unique items of furniture.  It's a really cool DIY blog with a strong concept and design.

And it gives me many more reasons to be irrational at Ikea... maybe I should go back there soon, those boxes really are handy, I should have bought them...

Have a really awesome day, but I hope it doesn't get in the way of cleaning up and stuff...

Today I was home from work.  I had a killer headache, and felt really clammy and ick this morning, but after sleeping most of the day, and conducting a few interviews over the phone from my bed for work, I am feeling much better now.  I am supposed to go to a party tonight, but having a headache before you go to a party is never great. It's supposed to come after the party!

I found a great website though via Emma, which made me laugh a great deal. PassiveAggressiveNotes.com is a website where you can submit photos of the best passive aggressive notes left my housemates, co-workers... anyone.  What a laugh!  I have worked places where passive aggressive notes have been the main method of communication from management.  And I have written quite a few passive aggressive notes to terrible flatmates when I lived in student halls of residence.

They went something like this;

"Hey guys! Because I'm really busy working three jobs and doing full time uni and not eating or cooking at home because I'm never around, I get a bit annoyed when I go to take the rubbish out and discover the bin is full of festering mould.  If the bag breaks in the bin, giving the bin a quick rinse would be great.  Thanks!"

"Hey guys, if you are going to leave dishes on the bench, could you give them a quick rinse out first at least?  Because yoghurt smells pretty bad after a couple of days.  Thanks!"

"Hey, I know we are all really busy because it's the end of semester and stuff, but if you have mouldy stuff in the fridge, could you just bin it?  It's pretty gross.  Thanks, and good luck with the study guys! It's almost holidays, yay!"

Once another flatmate and I even penned a whole set of kitchen rules that we stuck all over the walls.  It was a completely pointless exercise.

Because I was 'working' from 'home' today (aka sleeping in bed), I spent a large part of the day distracting my collegues from working in the same way I would as if I was in actually in the office. So I sent the link to passiveaggressivenotes.com to my collegue. We both share a similar contempt for the passive aggressive way media officers (particularly in government departments) deal with our requests for information.  Here is an email that my co-worker sent back to me;

*Thanks* Ashlee, it’s really great how good you are at finding blogs, and its definitely a skill I appreciate! But maybe, it would be awesome if you used work time to address really important things like article writing, because remember, we’re all a team! And I love being in your team!

Also, I know you’re feeling really sick, as that right? If it is right, I hope you’re ok. But I’m really impressed that you’ve managed to send me these links despite your illness (even though they are kind of irrelevant and not following [company] email policy- is that because you’re feeling unwell that you forgot the rules? It must be?).

So, maybe I’ll see you at the trash party! I think it’s so great you can miss a whole day of work and still come out to party with us. It’s really interesting!

Remember- put in your bit of effort and the whole team will be great. Best ever regards!

I think she was joking.  I hope so!!  You've gotta love passive aggressiveness!

Say hello to your friends...

Last night we had a fabulous dinner party at my friend Heather's house (part birthday thing, part "I can't believe we haven't caught up in so long" thing) and among the many humorous and insightful topics of conversation, we managed to end up discussing The Babysitters Club book series.

What do kids read these days?  It seems like the Babysitters are no longer the hipsters that they were back in the early to mid 90's. Kids these days seem more interested in fantasy (thanks Harry).  Back in my day, we were more concerned with reality.  Because it's clearly a very realistic possibility that parents would actually hire 13 year olds to look after their children.

Heather informed me that there is a Babysitters Club blog, which is quite hilarious. It is definately worth a visit for anyone who grew up reading the series, and now wants to reminisce with a cynical eye.  The blog reviews the books, including the cover art, with a good dose of skepticism.

The fashions are probably one of the funniest things about it all.  Where have all the legwarmers and paisley print stirrups gone?  And who could get away with wearing a mens shirt under a tapestry vest with turquoise cords on a date these days?