This is the blog of a Norwegian (Marianne, aka 'M') who moved to Australia in 2007 to be with Roger (aka R) and feels lucky to have escaped a comparatively communistic country with ridiculous weather!

This is a Red Rooster ad which is shown on tv here quite regularly. This is the long version, they usually shorten it a bit for tv. I love all ads which make fun of Usatians:)

I have realised that women think they are more 'liberated' than ever because female fashion now involves being nearly naked. It seems they think that because they are 'allowed' to walk around showing as much skin as possible, this makes them more equal to men.

I think the idea that less clothing = more equality comes from women being made to cover up in previous times, and also from knowing that muslim women are made to cover up and they are also oppressed. So I guess women are thinking that because walking around half naked is the opposite of being made to cover up, they must be the opposite of oppressed.

This is of course not true and women are only seeing what they want to see. They are so gullible that they are falling for the 'be liberated/equal and undress' rubbish that male fashion designers and other influential men have put out there, not realising that they are being manipulated into doing exactly what men want them to do.

Women are still told how to dress by men (most fashion designers are male), but now men get a free perv every time they walk out the door, and of course men are very happy with this arrangement.

Take for example most sports activities. Women usually wear much less than males playing the same sport. Beach volleyball is a good example. Who do you think decides each sport's uniforms? Mostly men of course. Female hockey players wear skirts, while the males wear shorts.

I don't remember which sport it was, but recently in Norway some sports leader guy suggested changing the female uniform to be a skirt rather than shorts, because it would be 'more comfortable for them'. Of course a lot of people found this idea ridiculous because they saw through it and knew he wanted the women to wear skirts just because they are women, and because he personally would find it more pleasing to look at. (But everyone thinks all the other sports activities where women are nearly naked or wearing skirts are ok for some reason.)

In shows like 'So you think you can dance', the girls nearly always dance half naked in tight clothing, while their male partners are fully clothed.

In this year's Australian version, during the auditions one very attractive girl danced in a normal t-shirt. And the male judge said 'you're good, but because you don't show off your body I'm not gonna let you through'. And he got away with it! The other judges didn't get upset (the female judge agreed and said 'beautiful girls should show of their bodies'), the girl didn't defend her right to cover up, there was no media coverage where they bashed the male judge for his discrimination. So this must mean everyone thinks it's ok to discriminate based on the amount of skin you show rather than on your skills. (The other judges let the girl through because she was a good dancer, thus showing that the lack of skin was not just an excuse not to let her through.)

You won't even be considered feminine unless you show cleavage. That's right, you are not considered a true woman unless you let men perv at you. (I don't know about you, but to me this doesn't sound like something women would come up with - it sounds suspiciously like something men would say to make women wear more revealing clothing.)

I wear normal fitted ladies t-shirts. They are not baggy, but they also don't show any cleavage. They show some figure without being too tight. And I was told by someone that I dress like a guy, and that I'm not feminine. My t-shirts are made for women, and yet they are not considered feminine, because there is no skin being put on display.

It pisses me off that I can't cover up and still be considered feminine. It's not like I'm trying to be masculine or unattractive, I wear nice clothes and I'm really picky about the clothes I buy. I just don't wanna display myself for every guy out there to look at. I have a right to do that, and they have no right to use my body for their pleasure. But if I use that right I'm no longer considered feminine.

I am guessing that being made to be half naked to be "respected" is kind of the opposite of what women were trying to achieve.

Men don't have to walk around half naked to be equal, so why are women accepting that they have to? They are not even considered proper women unless they show some skin, and most women just lean back and let it happen.

A while back we catproofed the fence around our backyard so that we could let the cats out without worrying about them. This was especially important for Odo, because he badly wanted to go out, but he has no clue how to behave around cars and roads (I've seen him sprint across the road with cars coming both ways), so for his own safety he had to be kept inside.

Part of the catproofing was damaged last week, but even after we repaired it Odo got out somehow. He's been out nearly every night the last week, because we still haven't been able to figure out how he's getting out, and so we can't prevent it.

Earlier today our neighbour from across the road came over, she wanted to let us know that our cat had been hit by a car. I instantly thought it was Julie and that she'd been killed, because she's always out at night (no catproofing can keep her in), but then realised I'd seen her today and she was fine. Our neighbour then proceeded to tell us that the cat hadn't been killed, but the car did hit it and hadn't stopped, and told us what car it was so we could keep an eye out for it.

I asked her which cat had been hit, and she said a black one, and that it had happened around 7 am. I had seen Julie at 11, so I knew she was ok, and I was surprised that she hadn't shown any sign of being injured or traumatised, and also shocked that it could have happened to her because she's normally very good with cars and roads.

But then we suddenly realised Odo was out last night too, and didn't come in until this morning, and he'd been asleep in the bedroom all day which was unusual for him. It's much more likely that it was Odo who got hit, seeing as he has no road/car sense. So we went and woke him up and checked him, but found no signs of any injuries, We got him up and made him walk, but not even a limp.

That is one very lucky cat...

As I wrote in my previous blog entry, Odo was hit by a car Thursday morning. He slept all day Thursday, but he seemed fine when we checked him, so we thought he'd just had a scare and was a bit bruised and that's why he slept a lot.

He slept until about 4 pm on Friday, and when he got up it was pretty clear he was in pain. He moved very slowly and stiffly, and wouldn't jump up on stuff, so we just lifted him up everywhere when we noticed he wanted to be somewhere. He ate and drank and socialised a bit, then went back to sleep and only reluctantly moved when he had to.

When he didn't show any improvement this morning we decided to take him to the vet, just in case there was something serious going on. The vet checked his eyes and gums (for signs of shock I assume) and then felt his legs and his tummy. She found a lot of bruising on his tummy, and also some damage in the muscular lining, but she wasn't sure if he'd always had that or if it was from the accident. She decided to just keep an eye on it. After feeling his pelvis she said she thought the ligaments which hold the spine and pelvis together had torn. This causes a lot of pain, but will heal fine on it's own, so that's good news. She said he might have some damage to the pelvis too and maybe even internal injuries which we can't see yet, but we're taking him back on Monday to see how he's doing then.

For now we're assuming it's just the ligaments, and she gave him an injection of anti-inflammatory painkiller, and we were also given some painkillers to give him tomorrow evening. She also gave us a laxative and instructions to only feed him wet food, because squatting and going to the toilet will be very painful with a sore pelvis.

It coulda been soooo much worse. He's lucky to be alive.

I have recently noticed another silly expression Usatians use a lot, it sounds stupid and it doesn't even make sense.

The way they say 'pick a number 1 through 10' or 'read chapters 6 through 8', instead of 'pick a number between 1 and 10' and 'read chapters 6 to 8'.

Why do they do that? What do they accomplish by saying something that doesn't make sense and also sounds silly?

The more I listen to Usatians speaking, the more I'm convinced that their language no longer classifies as English.

We just brought a lost kitty home with us. We were driving home and she crossed the road right in front of the car. A week ago she ran across the road in front of the car too, and froze when she saw us and we had to stop to let her get out of the way. Earlier today while I was going for a walk I saw her sitting in someone's garden meowing constantly, like she was upset or lost or something.

So when we saw her in the road again this evening we decided to find out what was going on. We walked back to where we'd seen her and she came running up to us and was extremely friendly and a bit skinny. We went and rang the doorbell of the house whose garden I'd seen her in earlier to ask if it was their cat and let them know about her dangerous habit of crossing the road. They said it had been hanging around their house but they didn't know whose cat it is. So we tried the house across the road, and they'd seen her around too, but didn't know where she belongs.

So there was only one thing to do - take her home and give her a safe place for tonight then try to track down her owner tomorrow.

She's very cute:)





Edit: We took her to the vet today and they were unable to find a microchip:( They gave us the option of leaving her there and they would pass her on to the pound, or take her home with us and see if anyone misses her. The pound would either put her to sleep after three days or pass her on to RSPCA for rehoming, but we didn't wanna risk her being put to sleep, so we decided to take her home and keep her a few more days, in case someone calls the vet asking for her. I've listed her on the RSPCA lost and found page with a photo, and Roger called the pound in case someone has called them to let them know they are missing a cat. The pound suggested putting up posters around the area, so that's what we'll try next.

I now suspect that Tabby was dumped in this area, her previous owner thinking 'this is a nice area, I'm sure someone will take her in'.

Because if their cat went missing and they cared about getting her back, they would have immediately listed her as missing on one of the big lost and found sites, or with RSPCA or the pound. Or they would have put up posters. They have done neither, and the cat must have been missing at least a week.

We've put up posters in the area, including near the main road where you would enter and exit this whole area (they cannot live anywhere near where we found her without going via that road), so they would have seen it both going to work and coming home, and they still haven't called.

So either they don't live in this area and the cat mysteriously found her way here, or they just don't care.

The other day I got the silly idea that we should stop at the 7-11 on the way home. What was silly about it was that it was raining at the time. Being Norwegian I'm used to rain, but I have gotten quite whimpy from living in Australia. I used to go for walks in freezing rain all the time without even thinking about it, but now if it's raining I stay in. If I do have to go out I find even warm rain annoying and unpleasant.

So we stopped at 7-11 and it was only about 2 metres from the car to the entrance, so I thought it wouldn't be so bad. Well I was wrong. I got soaking wet in about one second. And again when we got back in the car.

In Norway it rains all the time anyway, so it's more like a drizzle. Here it doesn't rain that much, so when it does rain it has to make up for it. This means a ridiculous amount of water in the form of massive drops, but it only lasts from a few minutes to an hour. In Norway I've seen it gently drizzle for about 6 weeks non-stop, but the drops are tiny. Even when it's pouring down the drops are microscopic compared to Australian rain.

I find that fascinating and mildly amusing, but I'm sure I'm the only one...

A dialogue by Terry Bisson. From a series of stories entitled "Alien/Nation" in the April [1991?] issue of _Omni_.


"They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat."

"Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?"

"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."

"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."

"No brain?"

"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!"

"So... what does the thinking?"

"You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat."

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?"

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."

"Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."

"So what does the meat have in mind."

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual."

"We're supposed to talk to meat?"

"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing."

"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"

"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"

"Officially or unofficially?"

"Both."

"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."

"I was hoping you would say that."

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"

"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say?" 'Hello, meat. How's it going?'
But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"

"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe."

"That's it."

"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You're sure they won't remember?"

"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."

"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."

"And we can marked this sector unoccupied."

"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"

"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."

"They always come around."

"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone."

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" is a very well known philosphical question.

The popular answer is 'yes, of course it does', because most people realise that just because there are no people around to see an event, it will still happen.

This is however not the correct answer. The tree falling will produce vibrations in the air, and these vibrations are what our eardrums/brains interpret as sound. If there are no eardrums around when the tree falls, the vibrations will not be interpreted as sound. They will simply be vibrations in the air.

So the correct answer is 'no, it doesn't'.

Last week I contacted Pet Rescue and had Tabby listed on their site. But on Saturday Roger informed me that he has become attached to her and can't give her up. He wouldn't trust anyone else to take care of her, so we're keeping her.

I went into it thinking that we would not be keeping her, and so I was fine with the idea of rehoming her, to the right person of course. R did too, but he can't stop himself from getting too attached to cats (awwww:)).

This means we will end up with more and more cats. I don't mind it, I always wanted a house full of animals, and cats especially, since I was about 5, but my parents would never let me have more than two cats at a time...

The only thing I'm concerned about is giving all these cats the attention they all deserve...

And now we have to think of a proper name for Tabby. I feel silly calling her Tabby...