How to Blow Eggs – Clip and Save for Easter!

Our neighbour gave us some duck eggs but we didn’t get around to using them. I decided to save their shells for an art piece somewhere down the line, or in a window display.

You will need a bowl and a sharp embroidery needle. Use the needle to carefully pierce each end of the shell. Use it or a skewer to get in there and pierce the yolk.

My brother came up with a new way to blow eggs out. Traditionally you would do this with your mouth and probably burst some of your facial capillaries or feel giddy from hyper-ventilating. A better way is to get a pump with a needle attachment as you would use for a football etc. It means that you won't need to make quite so big pair of holes. Around 1.5mm to 2mm should be sufficient for your exit hole and whatever width you need for the pump's needle. If you pump it as you would for a ball you will pop the egg, which I did on the first go. Do it slowly and you can successfully empty the egg of its contents. You can then rinse them out thoroughly by forcing water into them with your mouth or if you don’t care for that, a syringe of water, or submerge them in cool to luke warm soapy water.

If the eggs you are blowing are fresh you could make an omelette with the eggs' contents and mix that into a stir fry, mix the raw egg it into some hamburger mince or even a cake. With a bit of planning it need not go to waste.

The 20Q Phenomenon

It's been a really busy week at work. We opened our new store. We were the last place in Melbourne to have this year’s 'must have' toy, 20Q / 20 Questions.* Apparently it had been favourably reviewed in various media. On Monday almost every single phoine call, every 5 minutes or less, was about this thing. IT WAS CRAZY. Yes, we must have had 200 questions about 20Q , on the phone alone.

We were kind of relieved when we finally sold out, and could tell customers that we were weren't getting any more before Christmas nor taking any further holds. Would have been good to have a prerecorded message saying
‘Your call is important to us. If you are calling in regards to 20Q or 20 Questions, we have sold out. We will not be getting any more in time for Christmas. If you would still like to talk to a member of staff press 1’

What I would have loved to say by the end of the say was
‘Sod off. We have NONE left.’
Not that things have slowed down, but enquiries about that game were interfering with the flow of work

It’s been refreshing to work in a store that allows, even encourages my goofier, childish self to play and be silly. Lots of people have remarked that they’d like to work here. While it’s not all fun and games – there is manual handling, selling skills, cash handling, lots of computers functions to remember, smiling till your cheeks hurt just a bit as door greeter, being cheerful and enthusiastic all the time - there is above average amusement to be had on the job. Like I often say in response to a customer’s comment that I ‘must be having fun’: it’s the best bubble blowing gig around :)

*Palm sized, clear coloured plastic, electronic toy, with red dot scrolling display. Goes through 20 questions to guess what you’re thinking of. Starts with Animal, Mineral, Vegetable, Other then proceeds to other questions like, ‘Is it bigger than a loaf of bread?’, ‘Is it colourful?, ‘Can you buy it in a store?’, ‘Does it bring joy to people?’ Guesses in response to your answers of Yes, No, Unknown, and Sometimes. If it doesn’t get it at 20 it will ask you another 5 questions then guess again then give up if it doesn’t get it. Your response to animal mineral etc seems to be vital to it getting it. It didn’t get sunglasses when I told it mineral but it might have gotten it if I’d said Other, same with pram/stroller. Didn’t get the chance to find out now that we have none!

More Stupid People

Further reading of NS no. 2468* on the train to work this afternoon revealed something which may have visibly disgusted me ie. Another commuter may have noticed a look on my face.

Part of the Reagan administration (Republican) in 1984 was to fully withdraw aid/funding from any foreign non-government organization that:

Provided abortions
Counseled about abortion
Advocated abortion
Or was affiliated with any other organization that did any of the above.

When the Clinton administration came to be one of the first acts was to suspend these cuts. Bush Jnr reinstated them.

As the article went on to mention, for many women and children in Africa, family clinics are the only place where they will receive healthcare. Sometimes the same clinic providing abortion counseling will help with child healthcare, parental support, vaccinations and anti-malarials. Provision of condoms and contraceptive drugs has also been affected. This would result in more unwanted pregnancies. There is usually a good reason why a pregnancy is unwanted. In the third world it is usually because it would be detrimental to the mother’s health and perhaps cost her life.

Last year Bush did allow some funding to go back into some of the blacklisted agencies, in the fight against HIV. However ‘US AID-donated condoms have been cut off to 29 of the most HIV-affected countries’**. Not happy George.

Not that he gives a stuff what anyone thinks. At least I can spread the word through my miniscule readership. I s--- you not these are the facts as read in New Scientist, a UK publication. Would Scientific American have a cover story ‘Are you Listening America?’.? Probably not.

Yes there’s always something from NS I can add to a conversation that makes me look well read ;)

*I get mine at my local public library

**Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women’s Health Coalition

Stupid People

There are too many stupid people passing their genes on to perpetuate a common stupidity. When someone gets killed when they could have avoided any mishap by using common sense, on the news they'll be all solemn and 'how tragic'. I say ‘Well, that’s one less stupid person in the gene pool’.
Examples are:
People swimming in areas where there are probably crocodiles
Drunk drivers involved in single car accidents
Train surfers and any other type of dead dare-devil

Read a pre-election edition of New Scientist – 9 October 2004, an excellent illustration on front of Uncle Sam with his fingers in his ears - in regards to the USA policies on the environment, nuclear weapons and science. While all governments tend to favour scientific research in keeping with party policy, it would appear the Bush administration does this more markedly. They have quashed the appointment of individuals to their scientific advisory committee. In 3 separate cases the candidates were considered unsuitable because of personal views regarding
abortion
contraception
and letters to newspapers critical of the government.

They censored a chapter on global warming in a report by their EPA because it was not worded loosely enough ie in conflict with the US stance on the Kyoto agreement. Another interesting factor mentioned is that most scientists are Democrats. The Clinton administration was enthusiastic about science, so American scientists must have felt particularly let down with the outcome.

I found the US election of interest this year because of the effect it has on the world. On ‘The Glasshouse’ they showed a map of the US which illustrated that the democratic vote was strongest among the educated, along the coast lines in the big cities, and that Republican voters tended to have a lower IQ. Food for thought.

My poor little Apple is fried!

Came home after work last night and my brother told that the Mac was fried. "What?! Bull shit." Yet it was true. When my sister came home her reaction was the same i.e "What?! Bull shit."

My poor little Apple is fried!*

Our safety switch got tripped twice yesterday. The second time was after my brother had unplugged then plugged in the Mac. There was a pop sound, and smell and the switch flipped. Very bad. Luckily it's only been a couple of months since we fully upgraded our system software so only most recent versions of stuff have been lost. Reinstalling shouldn't be too hard unless there are piratey locks on it (am IT ignorant - can't you tell). Am glad I hadn't really started working on my new website yet, that I've been using this PC for job stuff, and that I'd mailed my e-xmas cards to myself so I don't need to create new ones. Just lost the original Illustrator file.


*Did you know that...
... Chris Martin named their bubba after the company not the fruit.

A lovely sentiment since Apples are held dear to their owners worldwide and there is much admiration for the design and marketing savvy since the I-pod. I loved my Mac - I fear she is dead hence past tense - as much as anyone could love a machine that isn't for sexual pleasure. I've caressed her sexy curves while declaring fondness.

I reckon they should have called her Macintosh. Shorten it to Mac and you have a normal sounding name. Or even Eipodia, geddit? In ode to the I-pod if that was what they were going for :)

Correction

Read ‘New Woman’ interview with Gwyneth Paltrow and the reason she named her daughter Apple is because it sounded ‘fresh’. So one must therefore conclude that they did indeed name their child after the fruit. Daft people. No non-celebrity would contemplate giving their child such a name. Not unless they are stupid.

Changing beauty standards.

This morning before work, my mum was watching a 1950s sitcom on Channel 31. It involved a beauty contest. One woman used her father's economic clout to get herself in the final 7 and to win. All the other finalists had bodies like Marilyn Monroe in the Seven Year Itch - typical of what was considered sexy then. They were curvy and feminine with perhaps a little light tummy reducing garment for an hourglass shape. Voluptuous thighs. The thing that was supposed to be funny about this particular woman with a weird face, skinnier than the others, baring herself on stage in a swimsuit, was how unsuitable she was for a beauty contest. The irony is that today, instead of being a weird choice as a example of feminine beauty, she'd be snapped up for the fashion runway.

Soccer and Coconuts

Inspired by my ex, who also has a blog with this fine website, I decided to create my own. I thought I'd try something I haven't done before.

At the moment I'm ticked off that the weather was so crap yesterday and it's just fine today. I missed out playing soccer last week because of the bad weather. So 2 weeks in a row and I might have to work next Saturday afternoon. I hope it rains if I do, so that everyone misses out ;P

I've been playing soccer for over a year. My skills have grown and I can be quite a good striker, goal keeper and hustler. I try not to stick to one thing to keep the other team guessing. My tactics involve hustling the ball from key players, and observing play patterns to take advantage of them.

So I finished painting coconut shells instead. We've been doing this for years in my family. We hang them up in the garden. At this house we hang them on the fence outside the kitchen window. The two I did yesterday are Ludo and Astro Boy. Ludo is a cuddly, big, brown, horned, hairy creature from one of my favourite films 'Labyrinth' with David Bowie.