On How To Bully Children
@boyofdestiny In Australia, high school is years 7-12 in most states, up until recently was years 8-12 in Queensland, and is years 7-10 in the Australian Capital Territory. In the ACT, years 11-12 are called college.
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On Cooking Valentine's Dinner With A Kick From Champagne
@s. Yeah, here's hoping the hairpin team are on track for a singles' thread on Valentine's Day...
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On A Drynuary Diary: Week Four, The Wettening
@kamakiri Best of luck. For what it's worth, there's a distinct pattern of alcoholics and teetotallers in my family, so it's not an issue I can just turn off by not drinking; and I've observed a few other friends doing alcohol-free times in the last year or so (apart from all the new mothers, there are heaps of those). I also miss the fun aspect, but it's worth it to feel better.
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On A Drynuary Diary: Week Four, The Wettening
@kamakiri I think that these guys have got some of what you're saying, though. I just wanted to add my story: nearly 2 years ago I stopped drinking for a few months because 'just one' was affecting me really badly, and I couldn't afford to be sick for a day each weekend, because I was working full time and studying part time. I worked out that I had a food intolerance (gluten) and then a preservative intolerance, which was causing the alcohol problem. I was never a big drinker, but after a few months of no alcohol, I've never really gone back to having a lot, ever. The most interesting (and scary) thing for me has been other people's attitudes, particularly how many people think 'just one' doesn't affect them and that they can hold their liquor well. People can and do act differently after not much.
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On "The O.C." Characters, In Order
Wow, ok I don't usually agree with these, but yes, Marissa at 20, Seth at 1, brilliant.
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On My Superpower Is Being Alone Forever
@kitchenwitchin Or, you want someone smart, so all the dudes who write 'Im jus a funlovin guy loking for a funlonving easygoing girl' email you because they thought you had a nice picture. Meanwhile, you are too scared to contact almost any guy, ever, except the dudes who actually read books and wrote an interesting profile and you have so much in common with it's insane... and then all of them send you back the 'I'm flattered but I don't think it would work out.' What??? Why??? Are you looking for a leggy blonde who only reads magazines after all, smart dudes???
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On My Superpower Is Being Alone Forever
Thankyou for this post. THANKYOU. Thankyou for summarising my life. Next time someone says in that sing-song, patronising voice, 'You'll meet someone when you least expect it', I will just send them to this post.
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On My Superpower Is Being Alone Forever
@whizz_dumb Putting my hand up to be a stranger-girl who rustles a likely dude out of bed to be my boyfriend...
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On I Don't Even Know Who You Are Anymore
@johnpseudonym My best friend is studying to be a GIS analyst (geospatial information systems) and she also has a job in that now, at Geoscience Australia, and they get requests for maps all time... If you think about it, the data and technology we have now, people can request stuff they never had before - I've been looking at old flood maps for my area and it used to be so onerous to produce one every ten years, but you can do so much more now.
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On How 25 National Magazine Award Nominations Went To 25 Male Writers
I call bullshit. Could all be explained much more simply: 'The system is biased towards these outlets, and they are mostly written about for men, by men.' Whenever someone says 'well the women just aren't there' it's usually a pretty good bet that someone couldn't be bothered to look.
Also, that Kate Bolick piece? Please tell me how that was not 'big, serious, ambitious' reporting? I think that these issues facing women - women who want to get married and have kids but can't (lack of a partner, infertility); women who want to be happily single and not have people call them freaks for it; ditto for women who are partnered but don't want kids - are VERY big, serious and ambitious matters. It's the same as always: women's lives are small, trivial, invisible; the minutiae of men's lives are big, profound, worth examining.