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When I started this blog I was very definite that I wasn't going to blog about politics or religion. I'd seen too many flame wars, too many blogs overrun by indignant trolls. My blog, I decided, was going to be sweetness and light and avoid incendiary topics.
But then the
John Howard regime finally fell and I couldn't contain myself. And, you know, what? I've gotten not a single troll. The discussions generated by my political musings have been thought-provoking, fun, and, most unexpectedly, my traffic is up. Who'd've thunk it? I love youse all!
I now feel free to blog about whatever the hell I want to blog about. If any trolls show up I'll just nuke 'em.
That said, I'm ...
Posted by Justine at 11:28, November 30th, 2007 under Admin, Bloggery, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
If I could have any pet at all I'd have a
quokka.
I once heard
Tim Flannery say in a radio interview that they make excellent pets and that we would be doing them a favour by bringing them into our homes. Flannery reckons that a sure fire ticket to species survival is domestication. You don't hear much about cows, horses, cats, dogs or pigs being on the verge of extinction, do you?
So there you have it. I wants a quokka.
Posted by Justine at 0:02, November 29th, 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Not really.
For all the papers are touting the enormity vastness hugeness snufflufflagusness of Labor's win back home I think it's important to remember that the gap between Labor ((For those who are wondering, no, I'm not spelling it wrong. It really is the Labor-without-a-U party. It is confusing and annoying.)) and the Coalition is not that big: 41.59% of voters gave the Coalition their first preference and 43.9% gave it to Labor. Then there's the 7.57% who voted for the Greens and the 1.97% who gave Family First the nod. In fact the only places where there was a genuine landslide for Labor was at certain polling booths in the
Northern Territory. Indigenous voters gave Labour more than 90% ...
Posted by Justine at 0:02, November 28th, 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
In Australia voting is compulsory. Everyone is expected to do it. Basically that's because everything back home is geared towards making voting as easy as possible. Over here in the US of A it often seems to me like everything is organised to make voting as difficult as possible. What's up with that?
In Australia if you don't vote you pay a fine. Some people routinely pay the fine. Others who don't want to vote register their dissatisfaction by filling out their ballot wrong or donkey voting. Often by scrawling a message across the ballot. Usually their message is a bit on the rude side. That's fine. They've done their democratic duty. They showed up. The percentage of people ...
Posted by Justine at 0:06, November 27th, 2007 under New York City/USA, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
It wasn't until I'd lived outside Australia for awhile that I realised just how
anti-intellectual my homeland is. One of the worst things you can be back home is a "wanker" which more times than not is used to refer to someone who thinks too much. Oh, the horror!
At most of the schools I attended it was far better to be good at sports than at schoolwork and no one ever admitted to studying hard. "Oh this? I only started it ten minutes before it was due. Don't know what the teacher was thinking giving me such a good mark." Roll of eyes.
I'm still not sure what we were afraid of. Well, yes, the scorn of ...
Posted by Justine at 13:24, November 26th, 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
There's a lot I don't like about the US political system, but there's one thing they have absoluately right: No head of state should be in power for more than eight years.
I think John Howard has demonstrated this truth as did Robert Menzies before him and Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair in the UK.
I agree with
George Washington that any one person staying in power for too long starts to stink of monarchy. ((I am with Winston Churchill who said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". And monarchy is amongst the worst.)) It leads to corruption and to the one ...
Posted by Justine at 16:13, November 25th, 2007 under New York City/USA, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Oh, yes, it is. If only I was home to enjoy it.
Posted by Justine at 4:52, November 24th, 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
So today is a big ole USian holiday where at some point you're all supposed to give thanks for all the stuff that's making you thankful. It's called---wait for it---
Thanksgiving. We have no equivalent in Australia. Though we do have, Australia Day, where we commemorate the successful invasion of Australia by white people. As you can imagine the indigenous population consider it to be a day of mourning. ((I'm one of those weird people who thinks there are things to mourn and celebrate about that day. As in, yes, Australia was invaded and taken over from the people who were already living there. And, yes, the early settlers of Australia were also brave and resilient making new lives for ...
Posted by Justine at 10:31, November 22nd, 2007 under Food, New York City/USA, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
This is the Brazilian version of Magic or Madness. Quite a contrast to all the other versions, eh? I likes it.
Here are the four other covers ((Apparently I'll be seeing the Thai and German versions before too long.)):
US & Oz; Italian; French; Taiwanese.
I'm not sure which ones I like best. What do youse reckon?
Posted by Justine at 13:28, November 21st, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Vainglory |
Posted by Justine at 16:18, November 20th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Publishing business, Words & Language, Writing goals & milestones, Writing process |
is because all the other writers are cool and supportive and wonderful to hang out with.
New-to-the-genre writer Sherman Alexie has been finding that out. He told
galleycat that at every bookshop he went to on his YA tour, "two or three big-name YA authors have come to the reading. That never happened on my adult book tours."
I certainly felt that way last night at the
ALAN drinks hanging out with my peeps. Way too many to name. As well as the usual suspects were people like Lauren Myracle, Pete Hautmann, Sara Zarr and Kathleen Duey (who wrote the brilliant
Skin Hunger that I raved about earlier---yes I fan girled all over her). All of them fabulous people ...
Posted by Justine at 8:45, November 19th, 2007 under Young Adult literature |
Scott Westerfeld and
David Levithan at the
National Book Awards looking way too pleased with themselves!
Posted by Justine at 0:04, November 18th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Young Adult literature |
This is couch:
Is noice couch.
Posted by Justine at 0:10, November 17th, 2007 under Frippery |
I so wish I was back home right now. I'd get to follow the cricket and the election. It would be warm. The sun wouldn't be setting just a few hours after it rose. No one would be asking me about my accent. People would know that Errol Flynn is Australian. I'm sick of being a foreignor. Back home I don't have to explain myself nearly so often. I can't tell you how tiring it gets.
If I was in Sydney right now I would go for a long walk. I'd hear
flying foxes in the trees. I'd smell all the night flowering plants. I'd watch the light sparkling on the harbour. I'd be HOME. And I'd go to Forbes ...
Posted by Justine at 7:41, November 16th, 2007 under New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 9:55, November 13th, 2007 under Basketball, Bloggery, New York City/USA, Praising, Publishing business, Ranting, Sport, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 17:08, November 12th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Writing process |
Scalzi finally went to the Creation Museum.
His report is now my favourite thing in the whole world. ((Other than daylight saving, mangosteens, sleeping in, peanut butter gelato, lentils,
Jasper Hill wines, the books of Dorothy Dunnett and Angela Carter and Raymond Chandler and Margaret Mahey and a million other geniuses, and, really if I keep this up this will be the longest footnote of all time. In short: I have many favourite things.)) Read it and weep.
Or just look at the pictures.
Posted by Justine at 11:39, November 12th, 2007 under Bloggery |
I've been thinking about
do-rags of late. Until I came to the US of A I'd never even heard the term before. I'm not even sure what I used to call them anymore.
Anyways what I've been thinking is how come when some people put on a do-rag they look like a gangsta, or a pirate, or a gangsta pirate, or just cool? Yes, I'm looking at you, Holly Black! And when other people put them on they look like a peasant or a cleaning lady?
I fall into the latter category, which I've decided is fitting as I'm definitely from peasant stock on both sides of the family, and I once worked as a cleaning lady. Twas one of my ...
Posted by Justine at 11:08, November 12th, 2007 under Fashion, New York City/USA |
I've been cooking with pumpkin a lot of late. ((Note for USian readers, Australians do not use the word "squash" to refer to anything pumpkin-like. Squash is a soft vegetable that bears no relationship to any gourd.)) Mostly butternut because I loves it. But also spaghetti cause, well, weird! And I'm starting to experiment with pumpkins I'd never seen before. The US is the land of gourds. But I'm running out of ideas.
Here's the thing though: I do not have a working oven or grill. All I have is gas burners on top of the stove. I can boil, I can steam, I can fry. I cannot bake or grill.
Thus far I've made pumpkin stir fry, pumpkin curry, ...
Posted by Justine at 12:29, November 11th, 2007 under Food, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
I'm getting reports that my blog is eating some people's comments. Could you let me know if this is happening to you and exactly what it was my blog would not let you post. Preferably by way of the comments. But if that's not working:
jlATjustinelarbalestierDOTcom
To make the address work substitute @ for AT and . for DOT
So far it seems to have something to do with posting HTML and URLS.
Thanks!
And if any wordpress users have had this happen to them and have solutions---fire away! I have nothing blacklisted.
Update: I've been trawling through the spam filters and found quite a few comments which I've now marked as non-spam. Please let me know if my spam filters eat your comments and I ...
Posted by Justine at 10:40, November 10th, 2007 under Admin |
My desk is not so small as you all think. It has two levels. Two! Look closely at this photo:
See the stuff below? It's not on the floor it's the second level of the desk.
I'm now curious about your working spaces. If you feel so inclined take a photo and link to it in the comments.
Posted by Justine at 9:44, November 9th, 2007 under Frippery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Writing goals & milestones |
A friend will be in town next week to meet her agent and some editors who are interested in her writing. She is very nervous and asked me what to expect. I directed her to agent Kristin Nelson's blog where a while back she gave the
lowdown on the shennanigans that take place at agent-editor lunches. It's shocking stuff!
They eat food and gossip! Who'd've thunk it?
I then revealed to my friend that the exact same thing happens at editor-author lunches. Food is et and (rarely) wine is drunk, and the publishing industry, family, friends, mutual acquaintances, as well as Ugly Betty, and books just read are discussed and dissected. Much fun is had.
I found this all very ...
Posted by Justine at 13:25, November 7th, 2007 under Bloggery, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 20:34, November 6th, 2007 under Writing life |
I was asked today why I say sorry so much. ((not for the first time))
It's true. I do say it a lot. I say "Sorry!" even if I am not even slightly at fault: like when, say, someone has bumped into me, or spilled something over me. I say sorry for pretty much everything. Even when I'm not at all sorry. Mostly when I'm not at all sorry.
As to the why of all those sorrys. I used to think it was just me. That I have this weird sorry-saying nervous tic. But I now know it's cultural. I say sorry all the time because I am an Australian girl.
I realised this when I was living in Spain ...
Posted by Justine at 12:15, November 5th, 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Words & Language |
It has come to this. I have the final round of edits on the Fairy book. They are in manuscript form. However, there is no room on my desk to put the manuscript. The towering piles of crap cannot stand any further weight, not even one small piece of paper, definitely not 264 manuscript pages. I know because I tried and there was much toppling of crap to the floor. It is now dumped back on the desk.
The desk must be cleaned in order for me to work.
I am afraid of it. It is now more like an archaeological dig than mere cleaning. I fear what I might find: I did clean away all uneaten food, didn't I? I fear ...
Posted by Justine at 10:44, November 4th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 22:08, November 2nd, 2007 under Bloggery, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 16:41, November 1st, 2007 under Bloggery, Writing process |
