Archives, eh
-
# behind the HTML
aloha, my name is gilmae. Well, actually, it isn’t but it is the one you’ll use. The name my parents gave me is exclusively for the use of my family and anyone who has a legal requirement to keep my identity for recording purposes – the government and banks and the like, neh?
Anyway, my name is gilmae. I live in Ingleburn, New South Wales, but I am really a Queenslander.
I’m really only telling you this, mind, because inevitably sometime in the future I will make a comment somewhere on the world wide web that will prompt someone to track me back here, trying to find out who I am. There is a not insignificant section of the online population that believe that using anything other than one’s birth certificate name delegitimises anything one has to say. That the use of pseudonyms is tantamount to intellectual dishonesty because the pseudonymous is presumed unwilling to stand by anything they say.
Pseudonymity is not anonymity, it is merely using a different label for one’s identity. So. If you have come here trying to determine if I am trying to hide from anything I have said under the names ‘gilmae’ or ‘avocadia’, I assure you I am a real person who stands by what I said. If you feel you need to verify my reality, there are about a million contact methods kept reasonably up to date at on my contact me node.
avocadia is the personal page of me. All opinions expressed within are valid in my reality.
Design – such as it is – and original content are copyright 2000-2007, and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. All other content is copyright their original owners and used under Fair Use terms.
blog.avocadia.net uses guacamonium, a weblog package written in Ruby and using the Rails framework. Use of guacamonium is free but ill-advised.
Some You Had To Be There terms are used liberally throughout this blog without any in situ explanation. To assist the understanding of anyone who reads this page – which is to say no-one, an inexhaustive list is supplied below:
- D is my wife.
- tWM is the teenager we keep around the house for…something or other. Whatever it is, it sure ain’t taking out the garbage, that’s for damn sure!
- Cino is the diety I worship, the goddess of coffee. An associated in-references is green tea, which is clearest evidence of the hand of the Evil One in the world of humans.
- avocadia: if you have to ask, you don’t want to know. In fact, most people who don’t need to ask don’t want to know either.
-
# They're still World Champions
And in the white corner, the English rugby team with
one trytwo tries to fifteen in three games against New Zealand (2) and Australia, and still World Champions. -
# about me
My name is gilmae, my star sign is Ursa Major
My phone number is 0411 233 953.
My email addresses – or at least the ones I actually check – are gilmae in_the_vicinity_of avocadia.net or avocadia@gmail.com
My MSN username is the same as the gmail address, my ICQ UIN is 16835168, I should be findable on Skype if you search for the gmail address, but I am rarely on Skype as I cannot connect to it when in the office.
If you email and wish to encrypt, my public key is:
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) mQGiBEYVCA4RBAClN8zjNmP8IALEGYWVWH9XXHs/U7hcWiPucDAhPnFCOMqc7eMP l0bVVLyqqqWadYLZn1boa5Grcg0PGY6wzWHd8YluSPQYls4r4XVkGrp8+uffi2e9 Lo5lgo/pFkG3+ckPrntwBg7xeQUfJdl2nm10gIpWXpZlm8DVsxvd9nuRSwCgsZD4 73EdEfFqWDTZd5XOeqU7QlED/24+a4doMNHWdSh/ipw6tUPencf307yi7blpNcnH 1WqNp4rFzv3v+V9Xk7XjXO4oHu71zc8PlRZjs7ZvLXR4xYOHewmD6YWFw14+3/QI VDkkTlUcSvnLi0p5sDttqDEPmBauwqFmv3prvw66JOGf8+LkHycjhTCgLhOwRfV5 KYXmA/9Im6U6pFEPa/ZTajvQtdaL516UZB6qhhvjkoUDHbc6GraiD8CsRXRd/i5v 2orYXSxK9AdCnbqkJBhr4W7S23GU6PPyr9/X/em9A4W1dRVRaeEau9o4rTns/hsJ H8NCTQoDE3UyTPEBsaqqH/roGk8+1BAc6FZ0tvEt/T6wWBhyirQaZ2lsbWFlIDxh dm9jYWRpYUBtYWlsLmNvbT6IZgQTEQIAJgUCRhUIDgIbAwUJAO1OAAYLCQgHAwIE FQIIAwQWAgMBAh4BAheAAAoJEMGxXKtmQIHntzUAn3xoCC5b+aZ5vbQbrVJUvCp4 +3mSAJoC/CwdW0uaHkwj5Zwq9FqUOWGHILkCDQRGFQgOEAgA1FLv3lTZ8RQlszve eOZtxg66HxUBFx9Z52ihMfLC2LslgY30I1VMSv9ydq4a4NpdWqwclkUCu9246lbT mEO+LZEYcfVNYkxHEF6i+nAFX3UDUKY1ROrmk38EKDOrhAX83lynqtusNTuzLbRy wpRgVS+NUJvwQ5vMUNBeiUaKrDlaQApVqxnOYJgc66ZJjYXFxVE4GY/fp0wkf706 QcXQmkk72wvKPFclhCuwE6o2RMT7zavlDir0ZIMOeQqlNq83N1/3rboxViT/WdaC 1/xCTYUZQEQv3gxzj3U55q4DIIga4pEvn+Oj8wrttgZjRT1cGiXb+UOgDDkmVm9N /wUnDwAEDQgAvgV+7sZyCwjSxWpie/m0dKURxyGIpsMD6uiJK3yk8eY9DlOpj6AM bVhpWHXajimtbPim4xVoCOc4dTfZ9xYvO7G6N3ez52Pb6dDeFOZ/04jz8YyB+KrV WFo4EPOHCyVeqP+wBlGKMW7Y3eD79FP230mLgVhJ355cE5/mHX/OuAOBkUzLtUmX KfpgXse2Z8bBW1ycO8LOeRovaWKwm2oGXpDsbBI9H2Q/IBgGQcaeBumHxPrJ55OF MK5YXwQvYid8ZP7uwFO/axlH4SKyOmUYIRLlMr7jNUTWcg5CKvz116KlopzqNeaP QvSCsylF7fTbfozZ58XvgcfxK7tXfjzEpIhPBBgRAgAPBQJGFQgOAhsMBQkA7U4A AAoJEMGxXKtmQIHnOJEAn0O2/5WZwPPGtNXqTEAdwciBy6e6AJ4mEMXE4MA3UYT9 ltp/z/3gybIdCg== =/SGe -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
To verify said key you must somehow contact me, verify that it is me and ask for the fingerprint. I leave the doing as an exercise for the reader.
-
# Googly? Everyone knows what a crumpet is, neh?
In furtherance of that grand tradition of finding new entries in the set of all x where f(x) = a list of the World’s Most/Greatest/Best/Worst x, I present the World’s Most Difficult to Translate Words.
The world’s most difficult word to translate has been identified as “ilunga” from the Tshiluba language spoken in south-eastern DR Congo.
It came top of a list drawn up in consultation with 1,000 linguists.
Ilunga means “a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time”.
Hmm, I’m not too sure of that one. Sounds to me like it is just an extension of “Fool me one, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you”. Mind you, I don’t know the actual entry requirements, so maybe “difficult to translate” means “difficult to translate into a single word”.
Although the definitions seem fairly precise, the problem is trying to convey the local references associated with such words, says Jurga Zilinskiene, head of Today Translations, which carried out the survey.
ibid
Ahh, all is made clear. <pause value=”300” metric=”seconds” /> I gave it much thought, but I’ve got nothing. I can’t think of a single Australian slang term that is difficult to translate. I disbelieve the phrase “flat out like a lizard drinking” has ever been used except by D (and at her behest, national television host Rove McManus) to confuse me, so my lack of knowledge of what it means doesn’t count.
I rather like “Naa” (“to emphasise statements or agree with someone”), I wonder if it is related to “neh” which is a word I picked up out of role playing game supplement on 21st century Japan, so is possibly not even a real word. No, I was just told by a co-worker who has lived and worked in Japan that they are the same word, just from different regions.
Personally, I’ve always found “nothing” to be the most difficult word to translate in all creation. It has such a myriad or possible meanings each applicable to a unique situation. “Wild Monkey, what are you doing?”…”Nothing”. Later, “What are you doing now?”…”Nothing”. No doubt in a few years I will be asking “What will you be doing there?”…”Nothing”…”But you do many variations of nothing here!”
-
# Just call me Al
Mongols are now required by law to have surnames after generations of customarily using only one name. I know that some Indonesians only use one name, for example General Wiranto. When I develop sites that require registration, and while I am entering "no noa" as my name in Registration Required sites, I often wonder how people from first name cultures handle the same situation, because invariably Firstname and Surname are both mandatory fields. I’ve never raised the issue in a planning process because in Australia, to the best of my knowledge, this isn’t an issue, and the sites we develop here are only relevant to Australian audiences anyway. It could be that I am wrong and that aboriginal cultures do only use one name.
I have a list of issues I like to raise with clients and "creatives" when I meet with them for planning processes. I might just add this one in, espicially since we are looking to branch into work that has an international context.
-
# You bloody ripper!
-
# Still no cure for cancer
According to the findings, couples who engage in sex at least four times a month bring themselves a measure of happiness equal to $71,500 a year compared with couples who have sex only once a month.
I am supposed to have a review today, I will be making it a pay review as well. But now I am worried. If I ask for more money, will they just arrange for me to have more sex? Not more worrying in and of itself, but knowing this company, with its Not Invented Here syndrome, they’d want to keep it in-house, which is just plain disturbing.
This interests economists because they reckon more happiness could lead to a stronger economy by reducing health-care costs and increasing productivity.
ibid
Wouldn’t that be a hell of a come on line though. “Come on baby, let’s do it. For the country.”
Update: Oh shit! I got the raise. No, Ray, no! I don’t think of you that waaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!!!
-
# Oh come on, won't someone **please** get it!
Gen Joseph P Hoar
Commander in chief of US Central Command under Bush Sr; supports John Kerr (sic)Well, someone other than Malcolm Fraser has to.
I fully understand that everyone I know is politically illiterate, or a furriner, so I appreciate that I am the only person reading this who got it. As if that ever stopped me.
-
# On the eighth day He looked down and said "Shit, I left all My pot down there"
I was even more amused when I looked closer and spotted the notion of an All Ages Service. Forget that, I’m going to the 7pm session with the hookers and the gin!
-
# Free the Refugees
Cool. Big Brother gets interesting. Just to help him out, Free the Refugees
