Who Do You Think You Are?

I've been watching SBS's Who Do You Think You Are?

It's a show that traces one UK celebrity's family history per episode.

It's so amazing what some of these people - nearly all of whom are as British as beans on toast - Bill Oddy, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Clarkson - have in their family history.

Stephen Fry had one side of his family wiped out by the Germans.

Last night they had Gurinder Chadha, the woman who directed "Bend It Like Beckham" and she's Indian, but from Kenya. Although wealthy, her family were in refugee camps after the separation of Pakistan from India. Her brother's sister died fleeing Pakistan.

These things were happening only 50 - 60 years ago.

Over a million people were dispossessed when India and Pakistan split. A Million people who had family, friends, history, land and homes told to piss off somewhere else. And I don't need to mention the Holocaust. Even if it's exaggerated the amounts of people killed, it's still a terrible waste.

And it happens over and over and over again all over the world.

This is why I get so upset with people who are racist and blame immigrants for everything and anything - I've got a sense of home, a sense of history. Sure, my knowledge of it only goes back 3 generations, but that's 3 generations of people who've lived in the one place not having to deal with being told we had to move or be killed because we prayed to the wrong god, or had the wrong coloured skin.

Merry Christmas!

My first Christmas in Melbourne was really nice.

Spent it with my house mate and his family, all of whom are really nice people. His mum gave me a George Foreman grill, and his sister and I bonded over our love of archeology and Time Team.

His other sister has two twin boys aged 9, and they refer to themselves as the "terrible twins" which I thought was pretty funny. They loved playing the Xbox, although they weren't any good at Guitar Hero, and after lunch I went back to their house to play PS2.

One really touching moment was when one of the twins was asking Bill, a 90 year old bloke and friend of Michael's Mum, all these questions about his life growing up.

I was scared of all the old people when I was young; Mum worked in a nursing home and they all smelt funny and were a bit crazy, so I was never curious about their lives at that age. But Bill was sharp as a tack and seemed to enjoy the questioning, and I enjoyed listening to the pair talk.

I miss my friends in Adelaide terribly though, and am really looking forward to getting back there in February and March.

Raining Much

This is my first ever YouTube video.

It's the view outside my window during a torrential downpour.

It was so loud I couldn't hear the TV.

Yesterday this amount of rain caused my flat to flood.

Luckily today, because the rain was falling straight down and not at an angle so it could seep in underneath the weather board, the place didn't flood.

Spoilt little rich girl

Oh, poor Hilary Martin.

Went to Brisbane Girls Grammar School and leaves school and through mummy and daddy slipping a couple of bucks the editors way gets published in the Australian.

She sounds like a spoilt little brat to me.

I went to quite possibly the worse public school in South Australia in the late 80s / early 90s... And I wouldn't give up what I was taught there for all the world.

In my year 12, we had an English Teacher who was just stuffing around for the year, so at the halfway mark, when we still hadn't read any books, we took action.

We went to the head of English, and the head of the school, and got a new teacher.

But do you know WHY we felt we could take action?

Because, unlike miss silver spooner here, we were taught independent thought! We were underprivileged and were taught by the good teachers, the ones you would probably dismiss as "stupid lefties", to fight for what we believed in!

We were taught not to sit back and take crap. And we didn't.

I was told I would amount to nothing, and treated as such, just because of where I came from.

Yet I got through school with excellent results, got a degree and post grad diploma, I'm now doing something I absolutely love and am the envy of most of my peers.

If she didn't like her schooling she should have done something about it a long time ago.

Why is she whinging about her schooling now? Why criticise and moan like a little girl after the fact?

It can't help her now.

If she acted at the time, she might have helped not only herself, but all the other people in her school, like we did.

God, I hate people like this.

When did "Average" become "Bad"?

I went and saw Daft Punk the other night, and said online that it was pretty average.

I enjoyed their music, but thought the rest of the night was pretty average. There was a lot more they could have done with the set up to make it really outstanding, like having screens to show the Daft Punk guys pushing the buttons in the pyramid.

Now I've been flamed for saying this, and people have assumed I hated it.

I didn't hate it. I never said I hated it - in fact I'm glad I went... however, because I called it average there's all this hate being directed to me.

Its the same when I review computer games.

If I say a game is average, and give it a score of 6 or 7, people assume that means I am saying the game is bad.

It's not bad, it's just not great. In other words - Average.

So, when did "average" come to mean "bad" in most peoples mind?

I wonder how many of these are worth listening to?

Nude Album Covers

I wonder how many are actually worth listening to though?

RIP James M

A friend of mine passed away in Adelaide this weekend.

"James M" as he was very affectionately known, was a funny bastard, very entertaining and always up for some fun.

He was a risk taker and it sadly caught up with him.

Really sucks being away from everyone back in Adelaide right now.

I'm hoping to get back for the funeral, even if it's just for the day.