| (no subject) |
[Nov. 28th, 2009|09:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
I was inspired by the Writer's Block (best three books you have ever read) to pick up my personal favourite, The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby.
In it, Bowlby relates one of the marching songs they British Army used to sing, which contains a lot of Arabic (or probably pidgin Arabic) that the British troops picked up in Egypt during the campaign against Rommel.
He calls it "The Gyppo Anthem" (Gyppo = Egyptian, and I believe where the expression "to be gypped" comes from - being ripped off by a Gyppo) but it turns out it's actually called "The Ballad of King Faruk and Queen Farida" and sung to the tune of the Egyptian national anthem. He's either misquoted it substantially or, quite possibly, his unit sang a modified version of it.
Anyway, long story short, I wanted to find out what the Arabic phrases translate as, but the spelling is all Anglicised and very difficult to translate directly. So I was thinking of finding an Arabic community and asking for a translation for phrases like "Shufti kush bardin!"
SO glad I decided to do a little more research first. The English lyrics of the full song are bad enough, but then I discovered that "Shufti kush!" roughly translates as... "Show us your cunt!"
Zero to Fatwa in one forum post. |
|
|
| Home! |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|03:03 pm] |
Came home yesterday only to have the hospital people call me about our needing to pick up these papers Woof claimed don't exist, sent W back after a particularly enjoyable "I told you so" and stayed in bed for the rest of the day. Apparently "don't lift anything heavier than your baby" doesn't just apply to other people, but also to me. Who'd a thunk? I am Officially Weak, and seem to have set back my recovery by a good bit by insisting I'm perfectly capable of carrying my own laptop backpack and handbag and going through with it -- for a few hundred metres, anyway -- before pretty much collapsing in pain. Go team me! And my haemoglobin is 90, which is freaky-scary. Trying to eat an iron rich diet and retain some semblance of bowel function (surgical incision on my lower belly means I can't even cough, remember?) ... hyaaaaargh. Good thing I have so-called belly friendly, slow-acting iron supplements.
Kid is both cute and ravenous: the milk bar is and has been open for most of the last two hours, and the only interruptions seem to be naps and superpoops. Woof gets to change her, of course, since I'm so weak. We're still climbing uphill with the cloth diapering -- the learning curve is much more substantial than with disposables -- but it's getting easier all the time. Right now we're doing prefolds with boosters and PUL wraps or woolen soakers in the daytime and will go with either disposables or fitted diapers with wool in the night: what works better remains to be seen. The fitteds are a little loose around the thigh region, but that should get better in a few weeks at most.
And for those who made it this far, here's your bonus! Have a look at something totally unrelated but funny enough to need sharing. |
|
|
| Dining Table for sale! |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|06:23 pm] |
Hi I am selling my dining suite. It is a rectangular table, and it expands to a square. It has 8 chairs and will seat 6 as a rectangle and 8 as a square.
It is in excellent condition, I am regretfully selling it as it does not fit in my new flat.
Measurements:
91cm x 136cm rectangle
136cm x 136cm square
$500 o.n.o. |
|
|
| LiveJournal Major Notes: Security, Mobile, Facebook, Writer's Block, and Notes |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|02:07 pm] |
Tweaks and enhancements
- In order to improve site security, we've temporarily suspended the ability to change passwords for old email addresses that haven't been used for over six months. For further information and support, please visit our customer care page.
- We've launched a new mobile site with an enhanced UI at m.livejournal.com. View spotlights, post to your journal, read and post to friends pages, and more, no matter where you roam! Please let us know what you think, since this will eventually replace our existing mobile interface. You can update your mobile preferences on your account page.
- We've upgraded from Beacon to Facebook Connect to improve dual posting. If you've already signed up for Facebook Beacon, you're good to go. If you wish to update your Facebook Connect setting, visit Account Privacy settings and scroll down to the option labeled: "Send information about my updates to Facebook." You can choose Always or Ask each time. Remember to save (on the bottom left corner of the page). To learn more, check out FAQ 249. While we're on the subject, if you happen to be visiting that side of town, please join our Facebook fan page for a touch of home away from home.
- You'll now receive the Writer's Block Question of the Day in the body of email notifications. To sign up for Writer's Block notifications, visit
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) writersblock and choose the Watch Community option. Next, update your Writer's Block notification settings by checking the box to the right of "Someone posts a new entry to writersblock."
- Paid and permanent users can now view, add, and edit Notes of commenters. Notes will appear beside the username of comment posters (instead of stars) on S1-themed comment pages.
Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!
Photos of the weekWe're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.
Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!
( Read more... ) CurtainsThanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you! |
|
|
| And now a word from our advertisers |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|07:10 am] |
Breastfeeding is pretty awesome, or started being so when I discovered this. And it's so easy! I'm not saying she'll always latch on perfectly (although she mostly does) or that we're rocking a variety of positions at the first try (although we mostly do) or that boob juice always calms her down (although it mostly does) or that it was totally painless at first (although it mostly is, except for the first half a minute or in pre-lansinoh times) ... but things have been smooth sailing so far. Of course this also means I'm not getting a whole load of sleep, but I'm confident this'll get better when we master the sidelying position.
ETA: the nurse just brought me my breakfast and said Blob's weight gain is supreme. Not surprised. |
|
|
| LET ME OUT OF HERE! |
[Nov. 23rd, 2009|07:42 pm] |
Was visited by some happy physiotherapy people today, got to try some rehab exercises and was given a fact sheet on such. I find the contrast between "lift your pelvis to six o'clock, now to twelve o'clock" and training to bench, squat or deadlift however many times my own body weight a little disturbing, but whatcha going to do?
I hear I am recovering well: I can walk (at first hunched, then pretty normally once I've been up for a few minutes), pick up m'Blob and carry her around, roll to my side, pull myself up with my arms only (ok, this I was told to not to do because it's not helping with the rehab, but it's what kept me mobile for the first days when my core was totally shred to pieces), blabla. Now that my much-abused womb is getting closer to its non-pregnant state of being, the only real pains I have seem to be local to the incision site and my crotch. OK, I have some aching behind my right shoulder blade, too, but I can blame my Macbook use in a less than perfectly ergonomic position for that.
They want to keep me here for at least a day or two still, so while I'm going to be a pain in the ass to anyone who'll listen about wanting to go home tomorrow, this might take until Wed. Blob has been examined, bent, poked and had her heel pricked, found perfectly normal and good to go home, so I'm the one keeping us here. |
|
|
| I'm baaaaaaaack (again) |
[Nov. 23rd, 2009|08:33 pm] |
I can never compose decent entries on travelling.
The weekend was fun, but tiring. There was lots I wanted to see, but didn't, and met people instead - which was worth it. Adelaide reminded me of Perth without the wholesale heritage destruction.
It had its quirks - CBD is bloody close to the airport, which worked in my favour with regard to taxi fares, I guess. The buses all ran late, and the trains are diesel (here in highly advanced Perth we electrified them YEARS ago, c'mon Adelaide), but the tram is cool. I didn't get much shopping done because of the shopping hours, but I'm from Perth, can't really complain about that. I DID go to the Central Markets Friday night, which was fun. Made a flying visit to the zoo, wandered by the river, but missed the museum and art gallery.
The hotel was also quirky - nice, and the bed was fantastically comfortable, but it had petty things wrong that annoyed me, like no teaspoons for the coffee (instant coffee, sugar, teabags and kettle supplied, but nothing to stir it with), and the fact that the fridge was set so cold it froze and ruined the lettuce and yummy stone fruit I bought from the market.
I'll attempt to post some photos later.
Flight back was good, we had an empty seat next to us so Evie didn't kick anyone while breastfeeding, heh. |
|
|
| OMG |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|10:48 am] |
|
Holy fuck! I can walk and hold the baby at the same time! Maybe this recovery business won't take that long after all. |
|
|
| notes from the front |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|06:25 am] |
|
Marathon nursing + c-section scar + needing to pee badly = yet another instance of "oh, shit." |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|02:47 pm] |
Clive Palmer is re-floating Waratah Coal. He bought it for about $40M not even 12 months ago, out of his own pocket.
He's floating it for $3.2B.
He hasn't even really done anything with it. We did all the geology back in 07/08 and Waratah organised the $6B project just before they listed on the ASX (which Environment Minister and ex-Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett originally rejected, before deciding a one billion ton coal mine was not such a bad thing after all).
But yeah. He's already Australia's richest man after the GFC, now he's just run up a roughly 7,900% profit on Waratah.
In less than 12 months. Good work if you can get it. |
|
|
| M'section, or "Why wait until I figure out how I feel about it" |
[Nov. 21st, 2009|11:37 pm] |
I'm typing this from my hospital room with Blob-cum-Selma resting on my chest. She's slept soundly for a few hours now, and I just know she'll wake up when I want to go to sleep, ravage my poor nipples and then realise she's gassy enough to need burping, something I found myself unable to do last night. Tonight might be better, but I'm slow on my feet and unable to do just about anything that requires more than a midgen of ab action. I've realised most things do. Major abdominal surgery and the recovery from such? NO FUN.
( M'section -- it's like three births in one, with an extra serving of crazy ) |
|
|
| Can has baby! |
[Nov. 21st, 2009|01:10 pm] |
And totally not in the way I planned. Two words: emergency c-section. ("Oh, shit" works, too.) At least this one was absolutely, totally, no-questions-asked necessary. (A priori: fetal malpresentation, a posteriori: fetal malpresentation because Blob was trying to hang itself on a four-times-around-the-throat umblical cord and couldn't get its head a proper angle to dilate my cervix the last cm and make it through, THANKFULLY. If it had, we'd probably be looking at a dead baby, not poor little Conehead.)
Update coming sometime in the future, since I need to now figure out how to put away a sleeping baby (on my arms) and a Macbook (propped against my thighs) and go pee. They took away my catheter -- totally the best bit after five months of running to the loo -- some hours ago, so I'm forced to make my way to the loo like an old lady. Old, pained lady that swears like a sailor. |
|
|
| LiveJournal Major Notes: Postcard winners, Tweaks, LJ_Cares |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|03:39 pm] |
Postcard winners!We wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude for sending so much joy our way. Frank is still blushing with excitement over the love notes, proposals, propositions, and occasional intimate photos sent from his admirers around the world (China, Norway, Japan, and Poland just this week)! At his request, we blindfolded Justin, one of Frank's BFFs, spun him around in five dozen counterclockwise circles, and asked him to point to ten random postcards/envelopes pasted to the wall. After a brief trip to the bathroom, he chose the following lucky winners, to whom we will give a six-month paid account token (for paid, basic, and plus users) or, for our permanent account holders, a $15 voucher for the LiveJournal gift shop.
So, without further ado, the winners are: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) seraphene- fotog
- boykitten
- seshat_6
- anti_aol
- lisalees
- katrinkacat
- mistyboston
- _woody_lein
- another_slender
Bugs, Tweaks, and Enhancements- We fixed a bug from the last release that was causing screened comments to become unscreened if they were edited
- If you happen to be gaming around the corner, check us out on Facebook and be sure to spread the word!
- We've added new vgifts to celebrate Thanksgiving! Check out our feathered friend, below!
Give more with charitable vgiftsIn honor of national adoption month, we're offering a charitable vgift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that provides healthcare and adoption to orphans suffering from life-threatening diseases. LiveJournal will donate 100% of gross proceeds from the sale (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries vgifts in the Virtual Gift shop. We'll keep you posted on how much we raise!
Photos of the weekWe're delighted to showcase yet more incredible photos from some of our brilliant LiveJournal photographers around the world. Keep posting (and tagging). And be sure to show some love by commenting on the awesome view at lj_photophile.
Check out this week's photos and more amazing user content after the jump!
( Read more... )CurtainsThanks, again, for joining us. See you next week! |
|
|
| Wsfgh |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|03:36 pm] |
Oaaaargh, it's like this will never be over. And I'm disappointed by Woof, who won't let me punch him in the gut or squeeze his testicles in the spirit of fun and fairness. THIS IS SO UNFAIR.
Contractions = total shit deal, but the pain is still nowhere near gastric hell or even the recent kidney trouble. Fuck this hippie shit about opening up like a flower though, I just want this damn thing over with. |
|
|
| The eternity project continues |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|08:37 am] |
Stayed up until four something ay ehm because there was no way I could've slept through my contractions, then had the presence of mind to try sleeping between them. Totally doable! Mine were nice enough to arrange themselves in a more spacious pattern from the preceding four minute nastiness: I woke up every ten minutes and went oooOOOOOaaaaaaRRRRggggHHHH THAT HURT for the delight of Woof, checked my mobile for the time and fell asleep again. The rest was much needed, too, and I got up in time to greet the sun and to expel some more bloody mucus. A bit clung onto the piece of toilet paper I wiped with, so I wobbled over to the bedroom to show it to Woof, who told me he'll take my word it's jiggly and that he doesn't need to poke it to believe me. Where's his sense of adventure and fun?!
Turns out all those birthing guides were right: the pain is incapacitating when I lie down vs pretty tolerable when I don't. Just sitting up, properly, helps to mute it to the level of a nasty period. And not my nastiest, either.
Dreamt Woof had plugged himself into some type of electric torture outlet, which was jacked to a setting called "masochistic cheerleader". He grabbed my hand and I woke up to another installation of oooOOOOaaaaaRRRRRggggHHHH.
Woof dreamt we got a fish instead of a baby. It was eyeless, because its eye sockets had to be inspected for STIs (?!). |
|
|
| WHINE |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|12:10 am] |
To continue with stupid one-word subject lines...
I just woke up to an incredibly painful... leg cramp. Seriously, wow. My contractions are approaching period level painful, which is to say I can tolerate them and sleep through them okay, but the leg cramps are a killer. I dreamt of timing my cramps: first a contraction, then two leg cramps. Woke up and found out my dreams are far too accurate. OW FUCKING OW MY LEG OW.
I think I'm just going to call it a day and try to sleep some more. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
impressed