Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Gullibility and skepticism


I watched one of those 'ghost' programmes last night - you the type, several people are convinced they have a spirit in their house, a TV crew calls in a medium, a paranormal investigator and a skeptic, a whole bunch of gadgets, and they all 'investigate'. A pity no psychologist is included, becau'se with the lights off, the medium using a number of hypnotic techniques, and the combined effect of an aging house and 'group-think', everyone except the instruments and the skeptic are completely convinced that they have 'experienced' a ghostly phenomenon.


Shame on you! Even when the instruments fail to show any signs of change that are usually meant to indicate that a 'presence' is present, this is explained away by the medium who says 'the spirit is taking care not to reveal itself today'. So even lack of evidence is evidence to confirm the 'spirit realm'.


And the answer to the family's distress? A so-called 'clearing' where the medium and a bunch of candles are arranged in a decorative fashion around a table, the lights are off and both a wonderful hypnotic voice and the use of latin (why do ghosts understand latin??) are used to 'remove' the spirit and - off it goes, and off the family goes saying 'the house feels so much lighter and cleaner now'.


When there is soooooo much in the world here and now that we can wonder over, why oh why do we need to have this sort of rubbish on TV?!!!


Friday, January 12, 2007

Thank goodness for photoshop


The photo of Michelle in an earlier post was 'touched' by photoshop. Here is the original (and she'll kill me for posting it!!)

So, there was a bit of editing, but the expression was all hers from the start.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Losing weight


It's the post-Christmas bulge reality check - Yuk.


Soooo, how to? Well I still think it's a matter of less in, more out - and I'm not thinking of laxatives! So I'm working on eating more healthily, and actually going to the gym rather than thinking about it...

So this photo is a bit of inspiration - of course, the reason for wanting to lose weight is about wanting to fit into the wetsuit, and seeing as the weather has been so bad that there has been no diving for HOW long???? there really is no reason. Sigh.

And no, I'm not obsessing - I would like to stop the gain rather than actually get skinny! I like curves, I just don't like bulges! Oh for a life in the years before fitness and slimness became the ideal!

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Natural beauty and don't grow up too soon


I read an interesting article in the Sunday Star Times today, about skinny women styled by 'Zoe' (say 'Zo' to rhyme with 'No').

Then I took a look at my daughter - 13 years old, slim - and despite her attempts at sophistication, still a young girl.

Please, please - let her stay this way!

I also thought long and hard about the criticism of people like Lindsay Lohan and other young stars who have moved from the naivete (well, perhaps our belief in their innocence) in their early teens to the trash clash of their late teens and early twenties. Is it that we can't just let them grow up? Our ideal seems to be to hold onto the age at which they first hit the screens (and hence our attention) and then to leave them in a time-warp, while criticising their every move towards 'normal' defining of themselves. Of course, some court the attention of the media deliberately - but some find their privacy invaded by intrusive interference with normal activities like going shopping...

Rather than haranguing them for their lack of restraint, perhaps we could consider restraining our desire to know every detail of their growing up?

Long live the youthfulness of my daughter.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Decay in the cemetery

It seems that time, weather and louts have had their effect on the headstones in this cemetery. It's quite an old one - the old Bromley cemetery in Christchurch (well, old for New Zealand, OK?). And unfortunately, the weather and vandals have had a good go at the old headstones, smashing them up and tossing them over. Thankfully some kind people have attempted to reassemble the pieces, but it's like a giant jigsaw puzzle without a picture on the box to follow. Not only that, but once together again, what's to say the pieces won't be scattered again?
Wandering through the cemetery I am always struck by the degree of passion that is locked into the stone - lovers parted, sons gone forever, wee babies mourned, daughters dying in childbirth, whole families disrupted by car smash, boat sinking - and still many others with a rich and rewarding life who now go unremembered because their kin have slipped away...

The back of the refrigerator

Why oh why do we put left-overs in the fridge?
Yesterday I ventured into the wilds, not the great outdoors, but into the dark regions of The Back of the Fridge. There, I have been conducting a biohazardous experiment, where leftovers have been incarcerated and allowed to mutate. I think perhaps I am trying to create mutant lifeforms.
Why is it that I put anything in there anyway?
I think it's guilt. Well, perhaps partly guilt.
We can't just 'throw out' the left-overs. That would be greedy, and show our disregard for all the hungry people in the world (my mother, bless her, would always say we should think of the starving - well, perhaps the starving would have enjoyed boiled cabbage, so well-cooked that it was GREY and STRETCHY, so SEND IT TO THEM!).
So that we don't feel guilty for throwing out perfectly good food, we put it into gladwrapped bowls and place it lovingly into the Dark Regions of the Fridge. Then, conscience relieved, we forget about it.
Days, weeks, sometimes even longer, we decide there is Too Much Junk in the Fridge. With gloves (and sometimes gas masks), we reach towards the Back of the Fridge. With trepidation, we drag the bowls out, sometimes kicking and screaming, at the very least slowly writhing and twisting, and, conscience assuaged, decide that now it is Time to Throw it Out. I think it's because by now the mutant life-forms have decided that it is time to breed in the compost heap, and because no-one could possibly eat it, we can without qualm, hiff it.
Well, that's my take on it - and my NewYear's Resolution? To try to chuck the stuff out before it hits the refrigerator, so that any mutations can occur directly in the compost rather than in the Depths of the Refrigerator.
Well...one can but try.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Mornings


I don't like mornings. Even fuelled by good coffee, mornings are hard work. I prefer to lounge in bed, reading and gently getting to the point where a nice hot shower would be helpful. But this morning, for some strange reason I am somewhat energised. So energised I feel like putting something into this blog even!
I've been enjoying my time online today, listening to national radio while I skim through pictures and writings by other people - so many people who correspond online! From so many backgrounds, (although the range is limited to technologically savvy people who are both articulate and able to access internet) and from so many countries and opinions!
The time and creativity brought to bear on the postings and webpages are just incredible.
I wonder what would happen if we put some of this energy into life rather than cyberlife?

Pix


I have been spending an inordinate amount of time taking pictures, - a new camera has made the job a lot more interesting, so much so that my man is calling me 'nik', short for 'nikon', because that's all he sees nowadays!

Anyway, thought I'd add this wee one in for fun today - but there WILL be more!