Festivas

Last year's tree. This year it's up high, out of reach of little hands .

In fact, it's mounted on the wall.

Happy Festivas, dear reader. Hope it's a good day for you and yours.

We're keeping it pretty low key this year. Instead of a great haul of presents all at once, we've been giving the kids one present to open each night for the past few days, so that they get the hang of opening them, and so that they're not overwhelmed by them all in the morning. And it's been a good way to go, I think.

And the day itself it also pretty quiet. We have no extended family event to go to. Lofty's sister's lot are devout Catholics, so spend pretty much the whole day at church, and his brother lives interstate and so is unavailable. My lot are otherwise engaged, too, so we're going it solo. Hooking up with a friend in the afternoon for a bit of lazy snacking is about as energetic as it's going to get. Lucky us, and I say that with no sarcasm whatsoever. We do, however, have an obligation to be at a family do on Boxing Day.

Now that I'm a parent I feel that I should have a bit of enthusiasm for the whole shebang, but frankly I'll be grateful when it's all over and we can hit the road for our annual sojourn at Belli. I have vowed, though, to hit the post-Christmas sales to stock up on decorations for next year, and put in a big effort. It's good to suck up the chance to be slack about the whole thing while the kids are too young to know any better.

Digital Foundations

There is some good stuff online, some bad stuff, some mediocre stuff... every now and then, though, I'm lucky enough to stumble upon something really sensational. Digital Foundations is a design course that combines the foundation course taught by the Bauhaus, with the Adobe Creative Suite. And the big juicy cherry on top is that the whole thing is available online for free under a Creative Commons license.



I'm very excited about this. I've been in need of a bit of graphics skills development, a bit of a refresher, but haven't been able to find just the right way to go about it. This may turn out to be not the right thing, either, but so far it looks almost freakishly tailor-made for me. I love it when that happens.

Shoe-in

Like a love-in, but more fun and less embarrassingly clichéd. This game is not unexpected, nor is it likely to be the only one around in the wake of the rather wonderful shoe throwing incident, but it's the one I've happened across. About thirty second's hearty amusement await you.

Throw a shoe at Bush game

The Annual Event

Today was The Big Day. I had fairly high hopes for this year, but those expectations were exceeded. We did it while the kids had their morning nap, and got most of it done; we just had the odd bits left over to finish after Edie woke up.

It took me a while to open the big money box. As Little Sister will tell you, I have a really crappy can opener. I had it when we lived together, and I've still not replaced it. So the big tin money box looks as though it's been chewed open, and I dipped my hand into it very gingerly to avoid the savage edges.

I only started the big money box in April, around the time of the kids' birthday. I tried to average around $2 per day, but did slip the odd big note in. I was hoping for around $700, but conceded that it could have been considerably less.

I had started it as a holiday fund, but as the total climbed I found myself less and less inclined to fritter it away on day trips and fun park entries. I didn't want to open it, but curiosity got the better of me. I was just bursting to know how much was in there. So we cracked it, and counted it.

$863.65. What a fun summer we're going to have this year. Happy Christmas to you and yours. Thank you so much for reading along with Suburban Safari. Let's do it again in 2009. xx

Rudd Speaks China's Language

Proposed Web Filter Criticized in Australia

By MERAIAH FOLEY

Published: December 11, 2008

SYDNEY — The Australian government plans to test a nationwide Web filtering system that would force Internet service providers to block access to thousands of sites containing questionable or illegal content, prompting cries of censorship from advocacy groups.

Read on... (New York Times)

Even better, contact your local MP and tell them that you don't support internet censorship, and any party who does will not be getting your vote come next election. Here's how to contact your local federal member.

More information

Internet censorship fact sheet from GetUp!
NoCensorship.info

Pre-Christmas Clean Out

This being my second last day at work before the much-longed-for summer break, I'm having a bit of a clean out. It's surprising what you find in a computer you've been using for several years. I thought I'd share with you a bit of a selection.


I have no idea where I got this. Special though, don't you think?




I love this. From Cheryl, I believe.




I really, really don't know why I have a picture of a butternut pumpkin.


This is an action shot from my workplace, but with the patronising misogyny toned down.


I don't think this series of images is available online anymore. I really like it.




One from TackyMail, which is one of the very first websites I ever bookmarked, I think. I have this from when I made a card for my boss. He enjoyed it very much.