People around me on the train

People around me on the train. A woman reads a chemistry paper, printed copy. A man reads from an Android phone. Two men looking at iPhones with earphones in their ears. Another man reads a Kindle book on an iPad 2. A woman scrolls through happy weekend photos on her iPhone. A man with a big pair of headphones on and cool shades bops his head while scrolling something on an Android phone. Another man two finger iPhone types descriptions of people be sees around him on the train.

Location:St Kilda Rd,Southbank,Australia

Crippleware on the iPhone

Many apps have a free and paid version. If you pay money, you get the advanced and uber-cool features, while basic features are free. Software creators have every right to set whatever price they wish for their work and the line between what features should be free or paid is wherever the software creator says it is. It is then up to users to decide whether the software is worth the cost.

Some apps claim to be free while putting very basic functions behind a pay wall, making real use of the basic version either impossible or extremely frustrating (see crippleware). The most benign form of crippleware are trial versions or apps that at least tell you in advance what you can expect. Note that benign here just means "really frustrating, but at least you know what you are getting."

Kilojoule & Calorie Counter by ShapeUp Club for the iPhone is, in my opinion, crippleware. From what I can see it is the only app that lets me use kilojoules rather than calories - I live in a metric country thank you! To find a food, you can drill down through their database or perform an in-app search that hits the internet. There is also a tab in the app for "recent" food items, so you don't have to repeat the process over and over to find the same food again.

Except that in this app, when you hit that tab it says you have to pay. And not just pay $5 or $10 for the Pro version of the app. They want you to subscribe to the ShapeUp Club for $38 per year. I don't want to subscribe to a club: I don't want to participate in anything their website has to offer. I only want to use the app. Given the nature of this app is about choosing food items several times a day, I consider the "recent" tab to be a basic function.

I would have been prepared to pay $5 or $10 for a full version. When I contacted ShapeUp Club and asked if they would provide a Pro version without the subscription, they replied:

Most part of ShapeUp Club is free to use, but we also offer a gold membership for more advanced features. I'm sorry that you think this is expensive, but you can try to buy one month subscription if you want to test the features and see if you like it.

I hope you will enjoy our service!

What a shame. So now I use MyFitnessPal on the iPhone, which I thoroughly recommend to anyone - it doesn't have kilojoules, which is a big shame. But it is free, and has the "recent" foods option available.

While I am on the topic, UNO Free! is the most blatant and repugnant version of crippleware I have ever seen on the iPhone: it lets you play one card and then quits, telling you to buy the paid version.

I have become the vessel for the mote in my eye

They did not come in an armada of outer space ships whose energy drives obliterated the horizon and global communications. Instead, they came in an onrush of colour that occluded my vision and subsumed my consciousness. I have become the vessel for the mote in my eye.

Wishlist for iPhone/iOS/iTunes

These are all things I wish I could do without jailbreaking my device. I don't want to jailbreak my device, mainly because I want to keep up with the latest updates and not worry about continually jailbreaking my device after each update.

I wish the Apple cloud would remember what I have paid for.

Having had an Android phone for a while, the most consistently annoying thing about iTunes is that your app purchases aren't remembered "by the cloud". On an Android phone, the Android Marketplace remembers what apps you have purchased and lets you download them again without paying - even if they are not currently on your device.

This is important because after a few years of owning iTunes based devices, I have around a thousand apps on my PC - only a small part of which I can even fit on my iPhone at once. When I am at work (or anywhere away from home) and see a review for an amazing iPhone game or app, I often first wonder "do I have it already?" Most times I won't get the app because I can't remember if I already paid for it; I don't want to risk paying for it again, so I usually just forget about it altogether.

iTunes can really learn a thing or five hundred from the Android Marketplace - you can see all the apps you have purchased, you can register multiple phones and install apps to a given device from the web. Amazing.

I wish there was a quick settings app.

I wish there was an app that would quickly let me change basic settings like toggle wi-fi, bluetooth, 3G etc - like My Settigns Pro on Android.

I wish I could do more with folders.

I wish iOS had a better folder model - one that lets me change how many icons it can store, nest folders, rename icons, handle scrolling within folders etc.

I wish there were better camera controls.

Perhaps this is a hardware issue, but I wish I could control ISO settings, shutter speed etc on the camera.

I wish there were alternative soft keyboards

I want to have a choice between the built in keyboard or Swype or Shapewriter. There was a small number of keyboard apps, but they have all disappeared from iTunes.

Goodbye Nebulous. I love you. I will miss you.

Update: 9th of January, 2011. Recieved a letter from the Vet we took Nebulous to.

She died today, Thursday the 6th of January 2011. I had to put her down because of a hyperthyroid condition and cardiomyopathy; she spent her last day gasping for breath, unable even to miaow, disoriented and perhaps in growing pain. Süheyla watched over her, the last day; she gave her the best care. But Nebulous was unable to walk, her left hind leg failing from a blood clot that separated from her heart; she wouldn't eat and couldn't drink at the end. She had been struggling for a week. I took her to the Glenvale Vet on Tuesday when I noticed her go into wheezing fits any time she was picked up. (And she was so skinny, her ribs poking out, too clearly delineated.) Rohan - the veterinarian - gave me two sets of tablets for her, but within two days she would not even eat.

On Tuesday, Rohan had a grave manner, soft spoken; it was the first time I had come to him, being the local vet in a new neighbourhood. He explained that he heard fluid in her lungs and her heart beat at twice the expected rate for a cat. He was 99% sure her heart was "too big" but that there was no way to be sure without performing exactly the kind of invasive tests that might kill her anyway - especially given my description of how she reacted last time we tried to deal with an ingrown claw.

Today I came home from work ready for a swim in the pool, but it soon became obvious that Nebulous was at the end. She could not walk, but lay on her side without seeming to know where she was. She was breathing through her mouth in short, sharp gasps, and Süheyla explained that she had seen Nebulous twist suddenly during the day; thereafter being unable to use her left hind leg. At first I hoped she would make it through the night at least. I petted her, and realised that it was a death watch. I rang Rohan - and he stayed open long enough for me to bring Nebulous in.

Now I can only remember you Nebulous; my companion for so long. She was with me in primary school, high school, university; she lived in my first house away from Mum and Dad and my first house with my new family, Süheyla and Talya.

Nebulous showed up in late November or early December of 1984. I met a school chum Tim, who was carrying around a box with two kittens; a beautiful white one and an ugly grey one. I wanted the white one but needed permission first. I went home and asked Mum: "ok, but Dad's the sticking point. Tell you what, bring home the kitten and we will make it Dad's birthday present!" I found Tim again, with the asking price of $5, but he only had the ugly grey one left. Oh well. I took her home and lay on Mum and Dad's bed with her nestled on my chest. I remember almost falling asleep until - what, she just piddled on me!

When I was away, studying on campus at Monash Uni, Churchill, Nebulous would fret until I returned each weekend. As if in punishment she would occasionally vomit on my keyboard at home and - when I returned each weekend - would give me the cold shoulder for an hour or so before letting me pet her again.

When I first moved into a house with Süheyla, she had a beautiful pair of dogs: a German Shepherd named Shiela who would bark whenever we kissed, and a dopey but oh so cute Terrier named Foxy (who was so unbalanced that she would fall over any time she shook herself). I brought Nebulous over after a few days to see if she was OK with the whole situation; as soon as I let her loose in the lounge room, Shiela leapt after her (in my mind all I heard was "LUNCH!") and Nebulous (who I swear heard the same thing) raced up the curtains and taught me just how well cats can ignore gravity when they need to. Nebulous went back to Mum's place after that, even though Süheyla swore "Shiela was only playing - she is good with cats!"

She broke her arm in 2009 and - despite having an unwieldy cast - would still jump up and down from my bed. Indominable; I thought... hoped... she would live forever.

Nebulous was not a playful cat. She liked to sit in odd places; drink water from plants; give and get snuggles. She would lick my arm clean when needed, and lay on my chest purring and dribbling, the perfect massage device for the soul.

Goodbye Nebulous. I love you. I will miss you.

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• Blog posts about Nebulous.
• Tumblr posts about Nebulous.
• Picasa album of photos of Nebulous.

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Update: 9th of January, 2011. Recieved this letter from the Vet we took Nebulous to. Form letter or not, the thought and effort is deeply appreciated.

Dear Robert,

On behalf of the nurses and myself we wish to convey to you, our sincere sympathy over your loss of "Nebulous".

We realise what a difficult time this must be losing a wonderful friend and we can only express to you our deepest regret that you can no longer enjoy her company.

Our thoughts are with you.

Yours sincerely,
Dr M.R. Nicholls
B.V.Sc.(Hons)

Now on Digg!

This post should now be on Digg!

Shatnerquake

This is a Bizarro novel, where the intent is to write shockingly silly stories, funny because they are so preposterous. At first I was like OMG how cool is that: Shatner battling TJ Hooker and Kirk and Denny Crane! Tell all my friends! And it brought a chuckle and silly grin a few times, like any fairly well written piece of fan fiction. But that's all this is - fan fiction that needs a lot more editing and drafting. It coulda been a contender, a grin that breaks out every time I watch Denny Crane fart inappropriately, kiss inappropriately, or sniff his friend Alan Shore because he has the lingering scent of a woman about him... inappropriately. Instead, it's a piece of gum that you enjoy only for the extraordinarily short time during which the flavor lovingly caresses your taste buds and fills your mind with the joyous sounds of a light saber singing as it decapitates versions of William Shatner left, right and centre, over and over again.  At least Shatner didn't sue: he even gave it his seal of approval at the end. :)

Check it out Jeff Burk's own Shatnerquake page or on Amazon.

Smart Playlists in iTunes

Smart Playlists are one of the main reasons I like iTunes so much. Below is just such a favoured Smart Playlist.

This controls the music I listen to day to day. It defines the following rules:

1. Give me music from my general music collection.
2. Add items from a separate Smart Playlist that contains un-played podcasts that I consider to be music e.g. ABC Radio National's In the Night Air, KEXP's Music That Matters, Mixtape Show Hip-Hop, The 20min Mixtape Show, IndieFeed: Hip Hop and Alpa Pup's sadly defunct Alternative Hip-Hop Lounge.
3. Don't include items I have rated 1 or 2 stars. 
1. I delete items rated 1 star. I never want to listen to them again!
2. Generally I want to keep items rated 2 stars, but don't want to listen to them again on my device. Usually they are part of some collection I want to keep as a whole.
4. Don't include items that I have listened to two or more times.
5. Don't include items that I have listened to in the last eight weeks.
6. Don't include items that I have skipped over previously (usually means I didn't want to listen to them and was not prepared to actually take the device out of my pocket and rate the item).
7. And lastly, out of the 30GB or so that match these conditions, choose a random 5GB to put on my device.

Some useful links for Smart Playlists:

• iTunes: How to create a Smart Playlist
• Smart Playlists, for creating, sharing, and chatting about iTunes Smart Playlists.
• Top 10 iTunes Smart Playlists by the inestimable LifeHacker.

Know when you are using WiFI vs 3G on your iPhone

I first got a data plan with my Nokia N95 8GB - just $5 for 50MB a month because frankly it isn't a good "Internet" machine. YouTube never worked over 3G and browsing the web on the N95's tiny screen and navigating with "physical" buttons was slow, clunky and painful. When I was given an iPhone 4 last week (thank you Süheyla and Talya!) I wanted to test just how much of a 3G Internet hog I could become, so I upped the plan to $15 for 1GB a month, to kick in during the next billing period (a couple of weeks or so from now).

In the mean-time, I found a couple of cool Internet radio applications and began using them at work and home - where I have access to Wi-FI. Today I checked my 3G Internet usage and found I have a bill for $256.97 for 125.48MB excess beyond my 50MB per month (excess Usage 0.20¢ per KB). I rang my supplier to explain the situation and asked to be forgiven for the debt. Politely enough I was refused and given a $20 discount instead.

It was explained to me that the iPhone has a feature: if the Wi-FI gets disconnected, it automatically switches over to 3G. I was horrified; under normal situations I would think this a cool feature, but not while I have only 50MB a month!

So here is my lesson; maybe you can learn it too.

How do i know if my iPhone is using Wi-FI or my Data Plan? On the top left of the screen, to the right of your supplier's name is an icon. This symbol means you are currently using your 3G data plan:

This symbol means you are currently using a Wi-FI network:

See page 21-22 of the iPhone User Guide to see what all of the possible icons mean - including EDGE and GPRS, which are other forms of Internet connectivity offered by certain suppliers.

Great - but it didn't save me, since obviously my Wi-FI disconnected at some point and automatically switched over to my 3G data plan. I have since found that you can stop that from happening too (iOS 4, iPhone 4): go to Settings > General Network > turn off Mobile Data. This will ensure that from now on, I will only be able to use Wi-FI for Internet - at least until my 1GB plan kicks in.

Test slideshow

Text above the slideshow.

Text below the slideshow.

Human Landscapes from My Country

For Süheyla, with love.


Haydar Pasha Station,
spring 1941,
                   3pm.
On the steps, sun
                           fatigue
                                    and confusion.


A man
         stops on the steps,
                 thinking about something.
Thin.
Scared.
His nose is long and pointed,
and his cheeks are pockmarked.
The man on the steps,
                  Master Galip,
                           is famous for thinking strange thoughts:
"If I could eat sugar wafers every day," he thought
                                                           when he was 5.
"If I could go to school," he thought
                                     at 10.
"If I could leave Father's knife shop
before the evening prayers," he thought
                                            at 11.
"If I could buy a pair of yellow shoes
so the girls will look at me," he thought
                                            at 15
"Why did Father close his knife shop?
And the factory is nothing like this shop,"
                                                                he thought
                                                                at 16.
"Will my pay go up?" he thought
                                      at 20
"Father died at fifty -
will I die early too?" he thought
                                     when he was 21.
"What if I get laid off?" he thought
                                     at 22.

"What if I get laid off?" he thought

                                     at 23.

"What if I get laid off?" he thought

                                     at 24.

And out of work from time to time,
he thought "What if I get laid off?"
                                     till he was 50.
At 51 he thought: "I'm old -
                   I've lived one year longer than my father."
Now he's 52.
He's out of work.
Stopped on the steps now,
        he' lost
                in the strangest of thoughts:
"When will I die?
Will I have a bed to die in?
                                        he thinks.
His nose is long and pointed.
His cheeks are pockmarked.


Spring comes to Haydar Pasha Station
wih the smell of fish in the sea
                           and bedbugs on the floor.

Excerpt from the very beginning of Human Landscapes from My Country, an Epic Novel in Verse, by Nazim Hikmet, translated from the Turkish by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk.


ISBN 0-89255-273-5, Published 2002, Persea Books.


Pictures from Carol Guillaume' album Railway Stations and Marco's Gallery.

iPod 2nd Gen and flip covers with magnet

It's true - Magnets MAY harm Ipod Touch. I bought myself a swish looking suede flip cover secured with magnets. My iPod started acting up like crazy: crashing twice a day or more. Sometimes I could bring it back just by powering it up again for a bit. Other times I had to hard reset, after which the iPod needed to be restored for goodness sake! Thankfully, I read this article, discarded the case last week and haven't had a single problem since.

The Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett

The Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett (ISBN:0060094931)

I listened to the audio of this trilogy on my iPod. It is a very
different style of humor from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. The
humor can almost be called quaint.

The story revolves around a group of nomes (gnomes) - whom it turns
out are highly advanced aliens who landed on Earth when we were still
Neanderthals. They got stuck on Earth without any electricity or a way
to communicate with their ship or rebuild anything technical (no
metal) and over the preceding thousands of years somewhat devolved
themselves.

Nomes are very short lived (10 years makes for an old nome) and
experience time around 10 times faster than humans. The humor in this
book mainly revolves around the idea that the nomes are so literal
that they cannot understand anything about humans (and too fast to
understand our speech). Terry Pratchett works this angle very well as
you would expect since he has such a wry wit. But their "literalness"
also annoyed me consistently throughout the whole experience: how can
they ever have become so advanced if they are so stupid? How can you
create things like spaceships without mastery over abstraction? Surely
over the thousands of years they have been here, they would have
advanced further, discovered new things or at the very least worked
out how to communicate with humans?

Having said that, the books are still very funny, filled with
Pratchett's insightful observations on humanity and some typically
heart warming relationship building.

Overall, well worth a listen or read if you get the whole trilogy
together and treat them as one book (because they really do read as
one piece in three chapters).

Mostly Fiction book review of The Bromeliad Trilogy:
http://www.mostlyfiction.com/scifi/pratchett2.htm.

The Bromeliad Trilogy on weRead: http://bit.ly/avONCm

Dr Who and Me

I have been a big fan of Dr Who ever since primary school when I could watch a couple of episodes back to back on Channel Two on a Sunday morning - before, after or instead of my chores, depending on how sneaky I was. Tom Baker was brilliant and I fondly remember Adric, Romana and K9. In high school I would devour a Dr Who book in a single night and watched Sylvester McCoy with the indomitable Ace.

Then there was a period of void, where I forgot about the Doctor.

Sometime later I rediscovered him in the new, more adult oriented books brought out by BBC and Virgin. They introduced an edge to the Doctor and his companions I had never experienced before. I was enthralled by the drama and introspection that resulted in the now common-place "super-hero" tension: the "I can't save everyone" effect (TM). Sacrifices are consciously made, if not willingly; companions die, friends are removed from the time-line.

Later, glory of glories, BBC began making the TV series again. Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith. I was over-joyed that the Doctor was back with relatively good special effects, high quality acting and even a spin-off (Torchwood). But something was wrong... the stories didn't seem to make as much sense as I remembered - and the sonic screwdriver became Harry Potter's wand. It was being used for every thing from opening mechanical locks, stunning creatures, cutting rope and being an all purpose interface to any electronic system (or biological even). The Doctor didn't have to think his way out of every scrap or scrape. The stories began to feel implausible, I began to get annoyed.

But just recently I had an epiphany. It occurred while I was watching a re-run of The Satan Pit, where the Doctor confronts "The Devil". He says something along the lines of "I don't deny your existence but I don't have to believe you are who you say you are" and it is suggested that the creature survived from an earlier time (literally): that it existed before the Big Bang and survived through it into our time, still imprisoned.

Just at that moment it occurred to me that this is what the Doctor is really about: huge ideas! Science fiction, stretching the imagination just to see what happens. It doesn't have to be internally consistent (it isn't) or eternally plausible (it ain't). The stories are just trying to be enjoyable and wild.

And so they are.

The Call of Cthulhu

H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu is available on WikiSource.

H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu horror is both powerful and inaccessible because it is visceral. Cthulhu is a monster of indescribable horror that is being described. We are used to monsters in films, books and pictures so we can conjure up images of foul beasts easily enough, but it is decidedly harder to adjust our mental image when Lovecraft writes that "The Thing cannot be described".

Thus, the essence of Cthulhu horror is emotional rather than visual. Lovecraft tries to evoke the sense that the monster and the reality it belongs to is so morbidly incomprehensible that just bearing witness to it will bring insanity and inevitable death! This notion is not friendly to intellectual inquiry: we understand "monster" as something concrete but the Cthulhu monster is imbued with a fear of something abstract.

I see this abstract horror in stories that leave things unexplained: in the movies Cloverfield and The Mist we never find out where the monsters came from, how they got here or what they wanted. What Lovecraft adds on top of that is a sense of incomprehension; like a person from a two dimensional universe trying to comprehend our three dimensional universe. In the 90's Sam Neill starred in what I think are two horror movies that are very close to Cthulhu horror: In the Mouth of Madness and Event Horizon. Both movies involve a somewhat hapless curiosity that descends into an incomprehensible, inescapable and abominable fate.

I enjoyed reading Call of Cthulhu because it was challenging to me; trying to comprehend what Lovecraft wanted to portray by writing a story about incomprehensible horror.

3.5 out of 5

Read this on my iPod Touch.

Why I am not using Facebook anymore

The reason I am not using Facebook anymore is because they have removed too many privacy settings.
- Your friends list is visible to everyone.
- Your group and page memberships are visible to everyone.
- You cannot block Facebook activity from appearing on your wall.
- You cannot prevent strangers from friending you.

These things would be ok in Twitter - because things have always been public, but not in Facebook.

This Valleywag article gives a good explanation of it.

Our Little Secret by Duncan Fairhurst

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (March 8, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0340932686
ISBN-13: 978-0340932681

This was a challenging book to read: both confronting and explicit. It is an autobiographical account of the sexual abuse the author suffered at the hands of his father and how it affected his life growing up and becoming a man. It concludes in 2005 with his father finally being given a prison sentence.

Writing this account was obviously a major catharsis for the author. Duncan goes into great detail about the ambivalence he felt for his father: hating the abuse, but loving his father. For much of his youth, the author did not even realise that it was abuse and not something loving fathers did with their sons. It is a gripping story. It felt good to witness Duncan "growing up", learning about himself and finally reaching a point where he understood that he was actually abused and felt ready to seek justice.

I wonder what his mother and sister thought about the book? Duncan's writing shows compassion for them in hindsight, but also a deep reservoir of animosity. He did not feel loved by his mother or sister, and details many spiteful moments he had with them. Every unkindness at the hands of his mother and sister exacerbated the suffering he felt from his father, because it drove him closer to his father; the only one who seemed understand and love him.

In this book, Duncan is defined by the misery of his past. As much as he is a survivor, he explains his every anguish and self pitying moment in terms of the abuse he lived through. He is a victim still in pain, trying to become a better person.

---

In his book, Duncan is very critical of the police officers who handled his case. Essentially he wrote that they were inattentive and did not show enough care towards the case, the victims and his family. The police officers sued Duncan and the publishers for libel and won an apology and an undisclosed amount of money.

Read about Duncan's disappointment with the police that handled his case in the Guardian article: Unfinished business.

Read about how Duncan was forced to apologise to the police he criticised when the same officers brought a libel case against Duncan and the publishers: Sex abuse victim's apology to police on thisislincolnshire.co.uk (Duncan is from Lincolnshire).

See this book (and my review) on amazon.com.

When Nebulous (my 25 year old cat) broke her arm

(Click to view larger image.)This happened on a very stressful weekend, Saturday August 15th 2009. It was the beginning of a fortnight full of bad news.

On that Saturday, Süheyla was out working and I was at home, trying to clean up because the owners of our house were coming on the Sunday. It was such a windy day; I was taking paper rubbish out and Nebulous tried to follow me. The wind slammed the door on her arm and she screeched.


(Click to view larger image.)When I turned around, she was twitching her arm, trying to lick it. I swore loudly and started to panic. It quickly became obvious from Neb's movement that it was serious. Talya was there and calmed me down. We rang the emergency vet and took a taxi there.

The X-rays clearly showed both bones in her foreleg snapped. The vet seemed such a hard woman. She was outlining the options (including putting her down) and kept reiterating that Neb was so old (25) and could die from the shock, pain, anaesthetic, infection.. and that her bones might not heal at all. After a while I asked her "Are you suggesting we put Nebulous down?" I was feeling pressured to make an awful decision. At this, the vet huffed up and became visibly annoyed. "I am not suggesting that - just trying to make sure you understand there are so many risks". She didn't seem so hard after that.


(Click to view larger image.)They put a heavy splint on her leg and wrapped it in a light synthetic substance that set a bit like plaster. Six weeks she would have it on before her leg was to be reviewed.

For six weeks after breaking her arm, Nebulous walked around with this heavy splint. It was so bulky and heavy that she literally dragged her arm between her back legs as she walked.


Can you just
pat me now? Please?
(Click to view larger image.)Somehow it didn't stop her from climbing up (and down) from our bed and couch. This is one tough cat! She even ventured outside a couple of times. I was horrified when I came home one day to find her peering up at me from the porch.

I could tell she was uncomfortable though - she couldn't even keep it clear when she went to the litter. Frequently we cleaned her splint as best we could. I tried out various things to wrap around it: a plastic bag fastened with rubber bands or sticky tape didn't work; glad wrap was a really terrible idea - try getting a cat to sit still while you do that! Eventually we settled on socks, changed almost every day. Süheyla's suggestion (which came too late) was to use a condom! Not sure how I was going to explain that to the vet (or chemist).

She needed lots of pats during this time..


(Click to view larger image.)After the six weeks were up, the vet removed the splint and X-rayed her leg again. The bones were still broken - no healing whatsoever! I felt so bad for her, trying to imagine what her options were.

Amputation.. putting her down.. or put a metal plate in her arm to hold the bones together. This is what we did.


(Click to view larger image.)Her leg was so tender when she first came home. She was purring a lot and I couldn't bear to touch her for fear of bumping her leg. It freaks me out that her leg is still broken, just held together.

Nebulous tried to sleep without disturbing her still broken arm, after the vet put a plate in to hold the bones together.


(Click to view larger image.)This was a very uncomfortable week for her and I was (still am) cringing each time I watch her walk on that broken leg

She seems much better now. She walks ok, no running anymore. And she still climbs up and down from the bed, but very slowly and carefully. If she sees me on the bed, she will miaow patiently until I pick her up and drape her over my chest, where she can pur and, well, dribble.

I am glad she can still do that.

Update. Friday 5th of August, 2010. This is what happened when we took Nebulous to the vet to have an ingrown nail cut on her bad arm: Paid the Cost to be the Boss.

Reach Access Flosser

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Updates.
25/05/2010 12:20:39 PM - Amazon seller charges $AUD649.10 shipping and handling? But Ritchies stock these now.

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Reach Access Flosser Refill Pack, Fresh Mint, 28 Disposable Heads

These are the indivdual Reach floss tips that are placed on the tip of the Reach Floss Holder Reach Access Flosser - there is a powered one available, but I only use the plastic "pick", a bit like a very tooth brush that these heads snap into.

I have tried and despised every flossing product my supermarket and dentist and chemist sells, until now.

Ordinary floss is terrible to use: I stretch open my mouth as wide as possible while forcing both fists down my gullet to floss the back teeth. Yuch and painful.

Toothpics? Come on! Even the plastic toothpicks with bristles and curvy bits. Come on to the power to 2!

For a while I was using a floss device my dentist sold, Xylifloss which featured floss on a wheel in a plastic dispenser that could lock the floss in place and slide quite easily in between my teeth. It had the reach right but the mechanism was bad: the lock frequently broke which meant the floss slipped (I had to go back to the dentist once when I had floss stuck between my teeth so bad it was painful). And I still had to force the thing at right angles into my mouth to get at the back teeth.

And then came Reach's Access Flosser with disposable heads. This product is brilliant; the ONLY product I have found that makes flossing every crevice between my teeth easy. Overall, it is more expensive than all other products I have seen but I do not care. Each head lasts one use, but it so easy to get in between every tooth I am amazed this product is not made compulsory in every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, doghouse and dentist in Australia. It first showed up on the shelves of Coles (a big supermarket chain in Aus) and then all the supermarket chains - and I loved it. But a few months ago it became unpopular or something (stupid) and now no supermarket sells it. I asked Coles if they could bring it back and their only response was "it is deleted!". Purely on the basis of this response, I won't shop at Coles anymore.

So, Amazon and Reach: thank you!

See this product (and my review) on Amazon.

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Update: (25/05/2010 12:20:39 PM) just tried to re-order this product from the same seller in Amazon and found that for some reason, the Shipping and Handling cost for a $AUD62.69 product comes to $649.10!

Luckily, I have now found that Ritchies IGA have began stocking these again. Yay!

Cleo by Helen Brown

ISBN-10: 1741759072. Publisher: Arena

*This review contains spoilers*

I really enjoyed this book. It grabbed me from the first moment with a picture of an ultra-cute kitteh on the front (Basement cat never looked so cute), and the blurb promising a sad tale with a thread of joy. Just what I am looking for this year for some reason. Thanks to Mum for buying it for me.

Well, it was indeed a sad tale, with a joyful thread; it is in fact is Helen Brown's true story. I shared her rendered heart when Sam, her eldest boy, was struck down. I felt the warmth grow with each new antic of Cleo. I also felt increasingly annoyed each time she let loose her inner voice whining about some aspect of the budding relationship she was developing with Phillip.

It is strange that Cleo is and is not the main character of this book. She grows up with the family, and "teaches" them how to focus on the positive. Right up until the end, when she is a 24 year old queen cat!

I will always hold this book dear to my heart because of the honesty Helen showed in this telling. The most striking moment in the whole book for me is this paragraph in the first 50 pages:

It was no easier for Steve. A few days after the accident I awoke under a waterfall of his tears. He'd never cried in front of me before. I should have reached out and embraced him then, but I was half-awake, unprepared. Distraught, momentarily confused. I simply asked him to stop. I didn't imagine the request would be taken literally and he'd never express sorrow in front of me again.

This paragraph alone describes what has become of the relationship with her first husband while they are both wallowing in sorrow. I was angry at Helen here: she *broke* her man; but on a deeper level I knew it was just the skin of a bubble bursting. It is a portentous moment of stark narrative clarity in a sea of misery that can only be told in hindsight.

A wonderful book - it makes me want to write the story of my cat, Nebulous - a grand 26 years old and still kickin (purring)!

See Helen Brown's website, upon which you can read the Cleo Launch Speech, Melbourne Australia, September 2009 and a page of letters people have written to Helen.