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 100 dates.
You can read about it on the blog, or follow it on Twitter. (I'm @stokely, and you can also follow the #100dates hashtag).

It's basically a very old fashioned approach to dating - asking my friends and my online network to recommend people they think I might like. Hopefully, given the ease by which people can share information and recommendations online, I'll end up with a cool 'friend of a friend' network happening, and meet people I might not have met otherwise.

So, if you're feeling karmically generous, please check it out and think about whether you have a guy friend I should meet. :)

I've just put it all online today, so I'd also welcome ideas or feedback on how to tweak the project to make it work better.
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 It may be too wonky (or too geeky) for anyone here to be interested but just in case...
I'm giving a brief talk about the eDemocracy website OpenAustralia.org at the OpenGov Melbourne meetup on Monday night - 6pm at the Order of Melbourne on Swanston Street. Details (and RSVP) here. It's going to be a small, informal thing.

Might be nice to have dinner afterwards, if anyone's inclined. :)
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Also, I would just like to say, damn you Beatles. I have no interest in guitar hero or rock band, but I want the Beatles Rock Band.
If you haven't seen the trailer, oooh, worth watching. When it hits 1:25 (moving into the Sgt Peppers era) my mind was blown. Seriously beautiful.

Trailer: The Beatles from BLINDIFORTHEKIDS on Vimeo.

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 The home birth rally in Canberra got a whole four paragraphs in the Age. I don't think I've ever *seen* a story that short in the Age. Lame. This entry was originally posted at http://blithespirit.dreamwidth.org/785249.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

 Thank you, dalmeny, for posting about the fresh spring produce at the Central Market in Adelaide. You inspired me to get off my bum and get down to the farmers market in St Kilda for the first time in a long time.

I have mentioned to a few of you that I recently read and loved The Omnivore's Dilemma, and it really got me thinking about  sustainable, ethical farming and eating. The problem with organic food was underscored for me recently when I tried to buy organic butter at Coles the other day. The only organic butter they had came from Europe. Craziness. Before reading The Omnivore's Dilemma I didn't think too much about the conditions animals live in under large scale free range or organic farming. Now I know a bit more, and the local food movement makes even more sense to me. 

Because I've been doing some research into local farms, I recognised a few of the stallholders at the St Kilda markets this time. I bought my veges from Fiona Chambers from Fernleigh Farms, and got to thank her for having a website. It makes it a lot easier to research growers when they're online! I should also mention Michael from Mountain Creek Farm in Canberra, who was kind enough to provide me with some recommendations of local farmers when I emailed him.

If you're even slightly interested in the above, and you haven't read The Omnivore's Dilemma, I can't recommend it enough. A wonderfully written, and eye opening book. The guy managed to make the sex life of corn a fascinating read. 

I came away from the market with eggs from Green Eggs, broccoli, some kind of bizarre onion, carrots, dutch cream potatoes and grass fed Warrialda beef.  A roast dinner is on the menu I think. :)
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 Thank you, thorfinn , for pointing this out...

"LJ has quietly broken the comment exporter, which I was using to back up comments. If I can't retain an offsite backup off my journal, I'm not interested in paying for the service."

Ouch. I didn't know about this, and it sucks. I haven't been trying to get people to leave LJ for Dreamwidth, but it's something LJ users should know about.

I have spare codes, if anyone does want one.
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 If I could do my 20s over again, I think I'd like to be Beth Ditto (image is a tad NSFW due to boobies). That girl does her thing, has fun and loves her body. :) This entry was originally posted at http://blithespirit.dreamwidth.org/784064.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

OMG OMG OMG Drew Barrymore is directing a move! Starring Ellen Page! And it's about... roller derby? Well, whatever, I'm excited. Thanks to damned_colonial  for pointing out the trailer: 


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 I got home this morning from a long weekend at my parent's place. I resist calling it the farm, but it really felt like a farm this weekend. My parents have a very small herd of cows (four of 'em in total) and their first calf arrived yesterday. I got to see their friend Dale deliver the baby, who was a gorgeous grey colour. She was up and feeding within the first hour or so. Her face looked like Bambi, so cute. She has a pale grey face and looks a little like she has black eyeliner. (shame she's a meat cow... but I don't think my mother wants to think about that right now...)

It was a really great weekend. The wettest weekend they've had since moving to Tassie two years ago. We stayed indoors, read books, ate food and spoiled my dad (it was his 64th birthday). 
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Finally, a Buffy video I can like.
Nice critique of the stalkerpr0n that is Twilight.




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 Just bought myself a little treat. I haven't been a stamp collector since I was a little girl, but Neil Gaiman was pimping a collection of Dave McKean mythical creatures stamps from the UK and I decided I'd like to frame it and put it up on the wall. So I'm going to! This entry was originally posted at http://blithespirit.dreamwidth.org/781130.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Is anyone else seeing the cadaverous hand of John Howard in the public outcry against The Chaser? They're satirists. They did satire. I've only seen fragments of the skit in news grabs as I don't watch their show but... I'm a lot less comfortable with the suggestion that we should be yanking stuff off air for offending people. Sigh.

(I fail to see how this fits in with racial vilification, or Footy Show levels of sexism & harrassment.)

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 Just got home from seeing Fanboys. It was opening night here in Melbourne, I was hoping for a full house and a few people in costume. There were quite a few stormtroopers (fortunately, or maybe by design they *were* all a little short) and a Boba Fett, and a (presumably Ewan McGregor) Obi Wan. I have a feeling they were there at the invitation of the cinema (or paid by them) rather than punters who'd come to see the movie, but it was still cool.

One of the Stormtroopers got up to the (presumably) introduce the movie, but the microphone wasn't working and he gave up. But not before I yelled "Why aren't you at your post". I kill me.

Movie was fun. I laughed a lot. There was some young man grossout humour but I felt firmly in the "made for fans, not for normal people to laugh at fans" territory. Which was nice. I hate "let's laugh at the wierd folk" humour. (hello that scene in Wedding Singer, omg where did that come from in such an otherwise sweet movie). Galaxy Quest is awesome because it doesn't go for cheap gags about laughing at fans, it had real heart, and I got that from Fanboys too, but they're different because Fanboys felt like it was made by fans. Galaxy Quest felt made by movie folk, if that makes sense. 

Anyway, all this was just to leadup to the realisation I had that it is largely about tribes and having something in common (in this case, having loved Star Wars growing up). But where sci fi fans/geeks whatever are so far superior to other tribes (like sport) is that sci fi fans in particular have become active fans. Written stuff, made movies. Some stuff derivative, some stuff horrible and slashy. But at least they were creating stuff. 

One of the things I hate about sport is that there's such a huge culture of .... passive, dumb watching. The only sport I used to watch regularly was a sport I loved to play. I can't understand why you'd want to watch a sport you didn't play. One of the things that I really dislike that there are so many male dominated sports with huge slathering female fan bases. WHY do you put your time and energy into watching boys play a sport you're not allowed to play? It's horrible and I ... don't... get.... it. I don't understand non-participation cultures. I especially loathe the "male actor, female cheersquad" dynamic. 

So, for dalmeny , and the rest of you who I know I tease a lot. I throw my lot in with you. Even though I (hypocritically, given my above statement)  just consume all this sci fi and geeky culture. I do believe that to be "in fandom" you are a creator, so I'm not really that kind of fan, or that level of fan. But I throw my lot in with you. You are awesome. My people. 

*grin*
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 tyggerjai is a very bad man. i'm currently resubbing to warcrack so we can go raid scholo and party like it's 1999 2004.

zomg scholo with swedenborg. zomg. This entry was originally posted at http://blithespirit.dreamwidth.org/777504.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Courtesy of this poster.

If you read Neil Gaiman's blog you've probably already seen this but I'm currently addicted to it.
Tori Amos - Welcome to England

If you are able, please give blood to help. Call 13 14 95.

The Red Cross website for accepting $$ donations is running very slowly but it is working eventually... you can donate money online or call 1800 811 700.

Wildlife Victoria is also accepting donations to help its volunteers assist the native animals which have been affected.

What a terrible weekend.

Matt Taibi on Sarah Palin.

"The defining moment for me came shortly after Palin and her family stepped down from the stage to uproarious applause, looking happy enough to throw a whole library full of books into a sewer."

"Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power."

Good morning, welcome to the day after a worse Wall Street close than in the week post September 11! o_O