Where you should live if you don’t want to die unnecessarily…

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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…of treatable conditions.

Answer: France, Japan or Australia.

Well, they only looked at statistics for 19 nations – but I doubt if Malaysia does as well as the last country, number 19 – which was the USA. But then, you never know. Not so long ago we did better on infant mortality than the USA did.

I reckon, though, superstition on the part of a large segment of our population would bring our statistics down. You only have to see all those good folk from all over Malaysia, lining up a couple of times a week, to have their flagons of water blessed at the shaman’s place down the road from me, in the hope of curing their ills and getting rid of their bad luck – when they should be going to the doctor instead.

According to this report, if the U.S. health care system performed as well as the three countries named above, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year. [The researchers wondered if the fact that 47 million Americans lack health insurance might have something to do with that…]

France had 64.8 deaths deemed preventable by timely and effective health care per 100,000 people in the study period of 2002 and 2003. The US had 109.7 such deaths.

After Australia (71.3) came Spain, Italy, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, Austria, Germany, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Britain, Ireland and Portugal. And the United States last.

A crab that eats coconuts

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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They grow things big in the tropics sometimes.

Like this crab.

This pix shows what looks like a hermit crab, using a sea shell for a portable house, in the forest on the dive island of Sipadan. Small enough to cup in your hand.

But this is a baby coconut crab, and he outgrows childish things like protective sea shells…

See that little bit if grey peeking out from behind the shell on the left hand top? That is the end of a 14 cm (5.5″) marker pen lying on the sand.

This fellow is almost a metre across…

And he snacks on coconuts.

So, what brought you here? Or: More Weird Stuff.

Posted on by March 13, 2021
7

Yep, this is another one of those posts where I have a look at what people have googled that has made my blog URL pop up in answer… (courtesy of sitemeter)

Honest, this is all true, every bit. I couldn’t make up this stuff if I tried…

  • Does the Aurealis Award help sales?

Nice topical question this one – 2007 awards are announced in another 3 weeks. My answer: I’ve never won one, so I don’t know. I doubt it. If I win, I’ll tell you.

  • Beating your stomach while pregnant.

My advice: Don’t! Really. Are you crazy? Pregnancy is uncomfortable enough without self-flagellation. And if someone else is doing the beating, lady, do you need out of that relationship. Now. Are you crazy?

  • No complaints book.

Huh? I doubt whether I have written any of those, honest.

  • Is it ok to drink Perrier water every day?

No, it is not. Lord, have you any idea of how much that is costing you? Not to mention the amount of the world’s precious, finite resources you are squandering, all for a brand name. If you are worried about the quality of your tap water, buy a good water filter. Believe me, at the other end of your own personal disposal system, no one can tell the difference between Perrier and reverse osmosis…

  • 16-man family camping tent.

Listen, mate, if your immediate family numbers 16, then you are overpopulating the world. And even if you are talking about 16 unrelated people, I wouldn’t advise that you try living in one tent for more than an hour or two. Truly. Especially on a rainy day.

  • How men can tell their wives are pregnant.

My advice: try asking her.

  • Palm Civet pest control.

When you find out about this one, tell me. I still have a whole darn family living in the study ceiling, and they keep on scenting around my front door. And you know what – I have never liked the smell of pandan.

  • Up temper music.

Yep, that’s what they wrote.

  • What is temper?

Probably this was the same person, after they had googled “up temper music” and were surprised by the answers they got.

  • Bird birthing tooth.

Now I do know what this is, or what they meant. It’s real name is an egg-tooth, but I am darned if I can remember ever blogging about it. And for those who don’t know, many bird species have a little horn-like appendage on their beak that helps them to break out of the egg, which later drops off.

  • The Australian back of the bus song.

There is such a thing??
I think I know how this one arrived at my blog – my musician daughter was once on the back of a Glasgow bus, and I posted her blog about it, see here.

  • Nail clippers

I know how this one arrived at my blog too- I talked about having my nail clippers taken away before boarding a plane. What I really want to know is why – oh, why – would someone google the words “nail clippers”? Why??

  • I’ve never seen a bird.

Huh? Words fail me.

  • Washing machine fantasy.

Wow. People have fantasies about their washing machines and want to share? Meet other washing machine fetish folk? Just what kind of fantasy would one have about a washing machine?

No, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.

Come to think of it, I do have a washing machine fantasy: that one day someone will invent a washing machine that automatically finds every tissue and disposes of it before it shreds into tiny barbed particles all over my black sweaters, and dark blue shirts…

Another thought: the google search was probably initiated by someone looking for Cory Doctorow’s book, “Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town”.

Thoughts on weddings and stuff.

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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When I first came to Malaysia, we went to lots of village weddings – my husband’s generation, friends, cousins etc.

Village people helped supply the food, menfolk did the cooking at the home of the bride or groom, the village youth did the waiting on tables, village women decorated and cleaned and prepared.

One of the things villagers did was to take whatever eggs they could spare to the wedding house (knowing others would do the same for them when members of their own family married). The eggs were hardboiled and then one or more was given to each of the guests. Each egg was wrapped in half a paper napkin or a twist of cellophane or something similar – nothing too fancy.

They said two things, those eggs: firstly, “Thanks for coming and here’s a token of our appreciation”; and secondly, “Hey, eggs are a symbol of fertility, and here’s hoping this young couple has a family and secures the future.” You took the egg home and ate it.

Nowadays, few people give eggs anymore. They substitute a slice of cake, or chocolates, or a tiny bag of potpourri. And the containers have become more and more elaborate, often made of china or pottery, and then placed in lovely paper bags with the name of bride and bridegroom on the outside.

My problem is – we go to a lot of weddings. Hardly a week goes by that we don’t receive an invitation, and although we turn most of them down, we still end up with dozens of things like those I have pictured – in twos, because husband and wife each get one.

I’m an environmentalist and I like things that can be recycled or used…and believe me, there’s only so many pin containers one can have in a house. So what should I do with these? As much as I appreciate the thought, and the enormous amount of trouble that the family have gone to, I want a return to something wrapped in a twist of cheap recycled paper.

That would be enough to say thanks – and it would go a little way towards saving the world’s resources. Am I wrong? And what do other people do with these things???

A Writer’s Place

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Remember this “before” pix, to the left? That was my new table that we didn’t know how to turn up the right way!

Well here are the “after” pix. As I have said elsewhere, I can write just about anywhere. But it is great to have one’s own room with all the appurtenances. Doesn’t make you a better writer, but it sure makes you a more comfortable one.
First “after” pix is the daytime view from the doorway.

Second is the view from my computer workspace.

Third is the view from the doorway at night.

Last pix is my computer work area.

I now have no excuse not to finish “Rogue Rainlord” have I?

Wild about New Year’s Day

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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When I got up this morning, there was a Spotted Gecko in my kitchen. He visits sometimes and today I finally found out how he manages to get inside – squeezing through the closed sliding kitchen windows. A veritable saurian Houdini.

Then I came into the study to switch on the computer and collect my stack of emails enticing me to buy watches, support scam con-artists, and increase the size of my penis (flogging miracles are they?). A little later, when I was vacuuming, I found a plastic glue bottle had been dragged behind the bookshelf and consumed. Most of the plastic container included. I have a glue-sniffing rat in the house who got a trifle carried away with its NewYear’s Eve partying?

I am now looking for a dead rat with glued up insides. Now that’s constipation.

I can hear the resident Crested Serpent-eagle over the house as I type. And the local cuckoos – known as the Koel after their repetitive, ringing call rather like a frenetic car alarm – are gearing up to the mating season at this time of year too. In spite of their noise, I favour their presence in our jungle-garden because they parasitize the introduced House Crow.

There was also a monkey on the roof this morning.

We are used to the urbanised and aggressive Long-tailed Macaques coming around occasionally to steal the fruit from the trees and the scraps from the rubbish bin if they can get to it, but this fellow announced himself with the explosive chek-chek-chek-chek of the Banded Leaf-Monkey, a much more elegant chap.

However, to have him crashing across our roof from back to front, thrashing through the trees in the front garden and then back again across the roof and down the other side of the house, scrambling across the bamboos to the mango trees before finally exiting up the hill to the golf course – that upset me.

Leaf monkeys are gregarious forest dwellers, and this one was highly upset and lonely. I suspect the troupe may have been broken up by the final clearing of a forest patch where a new housing development is going up nearby.

I wish people would think about what they do to the world when they have 6 kids. Trebling the world’s population has consequences.

2008

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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It is more usual on the last day of the year to look backwards, and contemplate the year past.

I am not going to do that. I want to look forward.
To all the good things ahead.

January: Another chance to win an Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel in the coming month. (Ok, I am not really expecting that one, but well, it’s nice to have a chance. And if I don’t, Jenny Fallon might, and that’s almost as good…)

February: French version of The Aware out – my first trade paperback, from J’ai Lu. It’s called La Clairvoyante.

March: Being a guest at a sff con. First time, and in my home city. Swancon/Australian Natcon, Easter. Perth. Be there. Seeing all my Oz friends/family. And a bit of down time with Karen Miller beforehand. Nice.

March-April: Wandering off with my sister around the wild southern coast of Australia, camping out under the stars … ah. That’s food for the soul.

May 1st: Song of the Shiver Barrens out in the UK.

August: Worldcon, Denver, USA. My first US con. Sharing a room with pal Donna. First time in Colarado. Yay on all counts.

August, or maybe July. Or sometime in 2008 anyway. A very special wedding of someone close to my heart. Maybe in Hawaii.

August-September: Looking after gorgeous grandson over in Virginia.

The rest of the year is still up for grabs…but I reckon it’s looking pretty good from here.

How about you all?

Anyway, Happy 2008!!!!

The Golden Compass

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I almost didn’t go and see this film. I liked the book so much, and the film seem to garner a lot of poor reviews – but today we went anyway.

And I enjoyed it, mostly. Mind you, I could fill in the back story because I had read the books and I knew what was going on, and I understood the complexities of the original tale.

Visually it was great. The ending was indeed too sweet, and I think it was a big mistake not to conclude with the real ending of the book and the ultimate betrayal that was so totally shattering. The impact of that will be lessened now, as it must come at the beginning of the next film – if there is one – when the emotional attachments to the characters now in place are diminished by time. A silly decision.

And btw, all the parents who don’t like their kids to have contact with ideas that differ from their own should relax. You can let your offspring go to this movie and they will remain totally uncontaminated by any hint of atheism. Overt religious overtones are conspicuously absent from this film.

Tell you one odd thing, though. My husband, who has not read the book, was heard to mutter several times in agreement with the anti-Magisterium sentiment that emerged in the story. He obviously found those parts very personally relevant…and he has no experience whatsoever with any Christian church. Ever.

Now I wonder whatever he could possibly have been thinking…?