It’s all a facade.

Posted on January 8, 2009 by borysSNORC

Why do we spend so much energy doing what others want or expect us to do?
Or are we just doing what we think others want and expect us to?
When in truth most people couldn’t give a shit!.

How come as we grow older we do less things driven by simple desire for experience?
And we seem to be ever more driven to do things out of a sense obligation?

Why do we allow ourselves to be labelled or pigeonholed?
Where do we learn this need to classify people?
Is it because we feel uncomfortable with people we can’t label?

Why is it that a person is smart and can comprehed and accept plenty?
But ‘people’ are bat shit crazy and can’t be trusted with anything.

Why are we so keen to fit people fit into traditional societal constructs?
To the point where people feel they can’t be honest with those around them.
Why do we work so hard at hiding massive parts of our true selves?
Even from the people who are supposed to be closest to us.

Is it because we don’t trust other people to accept us as we are?

Sigh… too many questions… not enough trust.

Less wine…. more sleep required.
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Zelda. We have a problem.

Posted on January 7, 2009 by borysSNORC

Orright. We seem to have made a seriously bad judgement call with the Wii and the Small Child. His favourite games were Zelda Windwalker or something about the Occarina of Time and Phantom Hourglassses or some such shit . So naturally when going shopping for the Wii we went looking for the newest Zelda game which is called Zelda and the Twilight Princess… of the Zelda and the fucking Twilight Princess shopping disaster fame.

As small children are wont to do when they have a new toy to keep them occupied, the Small Child immersed himself in his new game. It’s nearly been two weeks since Christmas and I had noticed him getting increasingly frustrated with the game and when asked to turn if off for a break was doing so but with rather poor grace. Yesterday however it became abundantly clear that the game was having a truly detrimental affect on his behaviour. Angel had picked up a bad habit of not reading the instructions in the game that told him what to do next – instead choosing to run around the different evironments smucking things about until he either stumbled onto the objectives or threw his hands up in disgust and ran up the back of the house. Where he would jump on his Dad’s PC and have a look at a game walkthrough on the internet that told him exactly what he needed to do next thereby negating most of the reading and problem solving required to succeed in the game – the very things that I’d been told these games can be good for.

Anyway, yesterday Yale tried to help the Small Child by suggesting he should read the instructions on the screen or he wouldn’t know what to do next… the Small Child basically responded with what is his version of having a tanty. Which is to say he pulled a sour face and muttered something unintelligible but blatantly belligerent and totally ignored the helpful suggestion. He doesn’t really wind it up like some kids his age do (for which I am eternally grateful) but this was basically his version of being willfully disobedient and it brought into stark reality how his behaviour has been altering since he started playing this game.

So I have a look at the game and suddenly realise that it’s got an "M" rating on it (stupid Mommy didn’t even know computer games had ratings on them) and depending on which reviews you read they state that this game is appropriate for children of either 12 and over or 15 and over. I asked Mr K if he was aware of it and he said he thought that the other Zeldas were the same yes? So I look them up – no they’re rated "G". The old Zelda was a cute little guy wandering around in cute mario-esque environments, sailing his boat and playing his occarina in a very cute cartoony fashion and the new Wii Zelda is a far more realistic guy stomping around dungeon environments in iron boots, slashing at demons and eviscerating monsters in a far darker and not even remotely cartoon fashion.

Well as you can imagine we’ve removed the offending article immediately and had a good sit down chat with the Small Child about how his behaviour has been unacceptable of late, particularly in regards to his ability to cope with frustration in his games and explained to him that unfortunately it seems this game is just a little too old for him and we should not have bought it in the first place. He was (as is to be expected) a little upset that we had decided he couldn’t play his game anymore but it was shortlived and he has been promising me all day today that he would try and show me how mature he can be so that he can have it back one day to finish even if he has to wait until he is 12….

A timely thought courtesy of Yale and GraphJam:

Tra-la-la-BOOM-de-ay! I met a boy today!

Posted on January 6, 2009 by borysSNORC

Most of the time I’m not overly keen on reading the news – it’s just so damn depressing. The Gaza strip has gone to hell in a handbasket… again. The Americans are leaving their size 10 bootprints all over Afghanistan and Iraq…. still. Pakistan is in a huge pile of shit over this Mumbai situation and should they mess with India they will lose…again. Sri Lanka is back in the headlines having temprorarily driven back the Tamil Tigers… again. Zimbabwee is a shit sandwhich all round with a nice big bowl of cholera epidemic on the side. Angola having Ebola crisis, French synagogue victim of arson. US car industry in the crapper…. it just goes on and on every single day.

Which is why I like it when you find something human or sweet that makes it onto the radar and unfortunately it happens so rarely as to make it worth remarking on….

Child elopers’ Africa plan foiled

"Witness" Anna-Bell (l), with the happy couple: Anna-Lena (c) and Mika

The three were trying to travel without passports or money

Two German children – aged five and six – have been stopped by police from eloping to Africa to tie the knot in the sun, reports say.

The budding lovebirds, identified as Mika and Anna-Lena, packed bathing costumes, sunglasses and a lilo and headed for the airport.They even had the presence of mind to invite along an official witness – Anna-Lena’s seven-year-old sister. The three got as far as Hanover railway station before police intervened. The young couple were “very much in love” and had decided to get married in Africa “where it is warm”, police spokesman Holger Jureczko told the AFP news agency.

Sun-seekersThe idea for the getaway wedding was born as the children’s families celebrated New Year’s eve together and Mika regaled the two girls with stories of a recent holiday to Italy. The following morning, as their parents slept, the intrepid trio walked 1km (0.6 miles) to the local tram station at Langenhagen, where they hopped aboard a tram for Hanover central station. But the group aroused the suspicion of a guard as they waited for a train to the airport, and police were called in.

Officers persuaded the children they would not get far without tickets and money, but consoled them with a free tour of the police station, where they were shortly picked up by relieved parents. Although any marriage plans have been put on hold for now, police did not altogether rule out the possibility of an African wedding.

“They can still put their plan into action at a later date,” AFP quoted the spokesman as saying.

God I hope it’s not permanent!

Posted on January 5, 2009 by borysSNORC

Such an exciting day today – I bet you can tell by my little user pic that I went grocery shopping…. and everyone knows how much I abhor grocery shopping especially over the holiday season. And don’t get me started on how depressing it is to find yourself in the supermarket aisle checking the damned eggs to make sure they are at least unbroken before I put them in the trolley… getting them home in that state is another matter entirely!

But now I’ve discovered a new special little grocery shopping related torture… packing the groceries into the fridge and getting them to fit in. Mr K has long been in the habit of asking me to fit stuff into the fridge when we’ve got people coming or we’re trying to squeeze in space for wine, beer or softdrinks for parties etc – because us Cross Girls (myself and my sisters) all have the Packing Gene. It a little something we picked up from a thousand family camping trips where we each had a tiny bag for personal gear and the car was packed more meticulously than an OCD sufferer’s sock drawer.

So fitting extra stuff into what appears to be an already full fridge was a no brainer…. and a non-traumatic no brainer at that. That is until Yale’s friend, Narc, was in town this week and he told me that every time he packs his fridge or freezer he ends up with the Tetris tune going through his head as he shuffles the contents… and if the packing is extra finnickity or if he only just manages to squish everything in… he says he’s sure that some day all his groceries will disappear!

So no second guesses for what was going through my head today when I was packing away the groceries and trying to fit everything into the fridge…. Thanks a bunch Narcolepsy… I really need that.. 😐
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What a drag!!!

Posted on January 4, 2009 by borysSNORC

Some friends had some free tickets to Willowbank so I went to the drags. I don’t think I’ve been to a motorsports event for maybe a decade and a half. It sure bought back some old memories. I forgot how close these communities are… I had a boyfriend years ago who raced Modified Rods and then Sprintcars at Speedway so I spent a lot of time hanging out with ‘car people’. We went to Speedway events all over the eastern seaboard and raced ever other weekend pretty much. When we took holidays it was to go to th Gold Coast Indy, Bathurst or Eastern Creek. I even went to the Monaco Grand Prix when I was in Eurpoe in ’95 (now that was a buzz). Lots of time spent in the pits, helping out, driving everyone home in the middle of the night when the guys were all shattered after working on the cars all weekend.

The wifes, daughters and girlfriends of the drivers and their pit crews were generally known back then as Pit Lizzards and walking through the pits last night with the smell of methanol and the sound of idling engines all over the place took me right back to my Pit Lizzard days. I was expecting any minute for someone to hand me a helmet and tell me to put a dozen tear offs on it or throw me a scraper or ask me to run borrow something from someone…. 🙂

I was a bit ambivalent about going to the drags last night as I knew there would be crappy seats, and the weather threatened to be crap but it was actually a fun.night I love the roar of the top fuellers and the way the sound literally pounds your body – it’s really phenomenal and quite a shock for some people when it’s their first time seeing them. They had the Nitro Funny Cars runing last night and they really are something to see…. riduclous speeds.

I’d forgotten a lot of things about motor sports having not been to any events for such a long time… the scantily clad chicks promoting this motor oil or that tyre brand… the necessity for earplugs when they start sending anything bigger than Supersedans down the strip… the trashy dress code which consists mostly of race t-shirts with designs that look like biker tattoos… the morbid curiosity that brings the crowds to their feet at the first sign of a crash… the blowing your nose and wondering how much of that was airborn rubber particles or fuel and smoke you’ve inhaled (ewww)…. the greasy horrible food… and of course the internal drama of lights not working, line ups being botched etc.

And every pairing that were lined up on the strip… in my head I’d be thinking ‘Go Speed Racer Go!’… or worse a little ‘neeewwwwnnng’ sound going through my brain of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory giving everyone a clue about his Dopler Effect Halloween costume 🙂
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