'JIB Chatter' - New Discussion Site

This is a bit of a mixed up post tonight, there are a few things going on, so here goes....

Firstly, I would like to let everyone know that there is a new blog open 'JIB Chatter'. If you have something you would like to say about the JIBs feel free to pop over and take a look - it will also be a good place to check out the opinions of others on the JIBs.

Some people may feel uncomfortable talking about what they really think of the JIB's on their own blog, so this is a great place to go and say what you think. Another great benefit of this site is that you can catch up on the latest voting results in real time and also the latest JIB articles in the Jblogosphere. Click here to go and have a say. JIB Chatter is also accessible via BagelBlogger (JIB Chatter button in top menu of Bagels home page).

Certainly worth checking out...


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The other thing is JPix. Jpix is up over at Temunot, David has done a wonderful job, it is a enormous and it is certainly a must see. So if you haven't already had a look, go over and check it out! Well done David!




Now for some more normal everyday news... Later this month Jade's class is travelling almost 3 hours away to one of the major regional centres for a poetry competition. Her year 2 class has made it to the state final with a poem they wrote. She is very excited about the whole thing so hopefully they will do really well. The poem they wrote is about a moth being caught by a Willy Wagtail - hence today's moth photos.

The photos of the moth were taken from my kitchen window, the moth was stuck on the window glass - the first photo was taken from inside the house and the second was from outside.


.... Just another day ....

Life In The Days of The Old Schoolhouse

Back around the time of the 1850's this block of land we live on was actually the site of the old local school house. Around 150 years ago, this little town of ours was a hive of activity - believe it or not. Apparently there was heaps of people that lived here, many more than the dwindling 300 people we have now. Our town was so busy and populated because it was a gold mining town.

About 50 meters from our front door is the remnants of the old school house that stood on top of this hill we now live on. Unfortunately, over the years the school house has crumbled away and today there is not much left of it at all - in fact there is only the chimney left - barely standing.

As you can see by the photos, every so often more bricks fall off of it, and soon enough it will probably be gone altogether, which I think our landlord will be happy about - then he can build there.

It is quite sad actually, to imagine that 150 years ago children ran around and happily played here and went to school in the old school house which now barley exists and will one day be completely gone.

We have two huge, very old pine trees out the front of our house which would have been here back in those days - I can imagine the children playing, chasing each other around the trees - I suppose one day they will be gone too.

I often wonder what life was like back then. I went to our little cemetery the other day and was shocked to see how many graves were there of such small children. Here I am today, complaining of how far away we live from things and how long it takes to go anywhere, but I now realise how much harder it would have been then, especially if a child became ill - there would be no 40 min drive in the car to the hospital. Help would have been much slower then, and I suppose that is why so many small children died.


.... Just another day ....

Show Some Respect Jack

I obviously need to make this crystal clear as Jack doesn't seem to be getting the message.

Jack left a comment on my post "A Piece Of My Mind - JIB Finalists" yesterday, part of which said this:

"It is the equivalent of two 14 year-old boys fighting about who has the bigger winky.

I have seen more impressive work from monkeys flinging crap at the wall. Go ahead and keep up the little circle jerk, this mutual masturbation is ever so impressive.

Better yet keep taking time out of running big impressive companies to argue on message boards about who craps bigger."

I am highly offended by this comment. In response and for the second time I politely ask him to to keep his negative talk on his own blog:

"Jack,
it is obvious we don't see eye to eye on the topic of Ploni - and that is fine.

But, to come here and talk in the manner you have on my personal blog using the language you have and the discriptors you have shows a lack of judgement you are becoming famous for.

I don't care that we disagree on points, but keep your sewer talk on your own blog.

Baleboosteh"

Instead of realising his mistake in speaking in the disgusting and disrespectful manner he did on my blog (keeping in mind I am a woman not one of the boys) and doing the right thing about it and apologising he chose to respond with this:

"Actually I suspect that the reason you are upset is because it is an entirely accurate portrayal of the immature behavior of some regarding the JIBs."

No, Jack, that is not it at all. As I said I don't like the language you have used, the attitude you have displayed or the total and utter disrespect you have shown me on my blog.

I am offended by you, your language and the fact you couldn't even bring yourself to apologise. My husband would never ever speak in the manner you have around me so why should I put up with it from you. How would you would feel Jack, if your wife had a blog and some guy who you don't even know was leaving comments like yours? I suspect you wouldn't be very happy.

The whole thing makes me feel quite ill and very uncomfortable, especially now that I know Jack is not who he says he is.

I am now asking you Jack, publicly, to stay away from me and my blog. You are not welcome here anymore, any comment you leave will be removed.

For anyone who would like to read the article and comments in full - it was quite a 'discussion', go here.

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To my regular readers, I hope to be back to normal postings tomorrow, but for now, I just don't feel in the mood for blogging, sorry. I have also had to turn comment moderation on again, I know it is annoying so I am sorry about that, but I am sick of the filth comments being left.



.... Just another day ....

Amber's Progress 5 Months On

As many of you are aware, our middle daughter Amber had rather radical open hear surgery late December last year. It has been 5 months since her surgery now, she is 5.5 years old and we have been very lucky in that she has had a very good recovery.

The photo above is of Amber eating her breakfast a couple of weeks ago. She is looking so good now, she is healthy, happy and really enjoying school. She is now able to run around just like all the other kids without getting really puffed out and tired.

The photos below are of amber in hospital. The quality of the photos aren't to great as they were taken with my film camera and then scanned, so the colour is a little bit funny, but anyway it gives an insight into what she has been through recently. Why am I posting them now? Because it has taken me 5 months to finally get the camera film processed!!

Above and below: Approx 1 hour after surgery in ICU. It is quite scary at first walking in to a room and seeing your child rigged up to so many machines.

Below: 1 day after surgery, still in ICU of course. The actual incision was not the worst part from my point of view - the four big thick drainage tubes sticking out of her chest was worse by far. It is hard to tell from the photos, but the tubes were about a centimeter thick.

Below: 2 days after surgery and slowly loosing bits and pieces of machinery! Hooray!
She was also feeling happier at this point as long as the nurse stayed away from her.

Below: approx 10 days after surgery. Only 2 drainage tubes remaining. Even after a sedative, getting those last tubes out was a nightmare. The fight she put up was incredible, she was so physically strong it took 5 of us to hold her down while the nurse removed the tubes - I have never seen her so upset before or since that day.

They say that they forget most of it as they get older, but I don't know about that....

.... Just another day ....

Happy Birthday...

Just a couple of photos I took while I was out on Sunday, they are of the dam and bridge out the front of my neighbours house.

It is my Dad's birthday today, he is 65 years old. I called him on the phone last night to wish him a happy birthday for today.

Just thinking about him makes me feel really sad. You see, we have quite a few issues - this is the shortened version. I am an only child, Dad didn't spend much time with me when I was young. Now that I am older, I don't 'blame' him in any way - he worked two jobs, one at night and one during the day so I only saw him for about an hour per day. He didn't work so much because he liked it - it was only for my Mum and I, to support us.

When I was a teenager my parents seperated and got back together numerous times. Family life over those years is quite a blur. There is one occassion though that I remember very clearly. When I was 16 years old, I remember laying in bed listening to my parents argue. It was durning that arguement I discovered my Dad was not my biological Father. I couldn't believe it - it felt like some horrible nightmare. It had been kept from me for all those years, I felt betrayed. He may not be my biological father, but to me, he is my 'real' father - he fed me, clothed me, loved me and protected me - that is a real father.

A few years later, Mum and Dad had sorted their problems out and were very happy together at last when suddenly my Mum became sick with Cancer and passed away after battling the disease for 6 months. So, then it was just Dad and I. Basically since then (9 years ago) we have not seen eye to eye. I was 21 when I moved to sydney to live with Aaron a few months after Mum died.

Dad sold our house, he wouldn't let Aaron and I buy him out (I was on the title of the house along with both my parents names) nor did he want to give me my share of the remaining money from the sale let alone any of my Mums share. He then moved in with his new girlfriend and 6 months later he was getting married again.

His wife doesn't like me and I have made no secret of the fact the feeling is mutural. She has made me feel very uncomfortable when ever I call my Dad and just recently didn't bother to pass on the message that I had rung to tell him Amber had just come home from hospital after her heart surgery. That is just the tip of the iceburg. There are lots of nasty little things that go along with her, but I won't go into them right now.

Out of the four grandparents my children should have Dad is the only one still alive and yet has no time for my kids whatsoever. He never calls, never visits, never even sends a birthday card for them - it is quite pathetic really. He has never even seen Ruby, he saw Amber when she was about 6 weeks old - that is more than 5 years ago. He just doen't care at all anymore. My Grandparents (my Mums parents) are horrified as would Mum be if she was alive. I hope my relationship with my children never ends up like the one between my father and I.

Anyway, I just want to say, I know you don't read this Dad and even though you don't care about us anymore, behind my anger, I really do care and your attitude and actions are breaking my heart.... Happy Birthday....


.... Just another day ....

Country Mail Box Photo Series - week five

Welcome to week five of my Country Mail Box Photo Series!
If you missed previous weeks, you can find them here: week one, week two, week three and week four.

This is the sort of mail box you will only see in Australia! It is a wombat mail box! Kind of quirky don't you think? This mail box actually belongs to one of our neighbours (keeping in mind our nearest neighbour is about 1 km away!).

It was such a beautiful sunny day yesterday I decided to go for a drive and take some photos. I will be posting some of them over the next few days.

Speaking of photos, JPix will be up this Thursday 10th over at Temunot. Make sure you submit your photo posts so you are included in this edition, the deadline is Tuesday the 8th May, so you had better be quick!!

Batya is also looking for any kosher food posts, including:

* halachik news
* traditions
* menus
* pictures
* restaurant and cookbook reviews
* oh, recipes, too!

So make sure if you have any kosher food posts you submit them here.

Well, that's it from me for another day. There is nothing going on around here in hell town worth blogging about at the moment :)


.... Just another day ....

Inspection! Inspection! Inspection!

We had our real estate inspection yesterday morning. It sucked. I worked my butt off for 3 days straight cleaning and tidying this house until everything was sparkling so the real estate had nothing to complain about. I mowed, weeded, swept, cleaned gutters, windows, floors, walls and so on and so on. As Aaron said, it was like Pesach cleaning, but for dust specks.

Anyway, they came in and pointed out... some cobwebs up in the vaulted ceiling in the loft that we don't use. Ok, I am not going to make excuses, there are a couple of cobwebs there, but the roof is sooo high I have nothing that reaches fully and the exposed roof beams are rough sawn wood and don't take to well to the feather duster. Oh, and just as important and damaging as the cobwebs, they also complained about our winter firewood pile. "It's a pitty you can't put it around the back somewhere." she snarled. Well, duh, we would if there was somewhere to put it undercover where it won't get wet when it rains and besides that, we are not allowed to drive across the back lawn!... Photos below of the very offensive wood pile...

There was two of them to do the inspection. One inparticular didn't take to well to the full sized Israel flag hanging in the computer room/studio downstairs and our rather large bookshelf which is full of only Jewish books in our bedroom upstairs - she didn't say anything but you should have seen the look on her face!

Ah, to just have a little bit of privacy would be nice....



.... Just another day ....

Fire In The Sky

We had the most amazing sunset here last night behind the hills just over the otherside of the river. The colours went from really pretty yellow, pink, purple and blues to such an intense red colour as it got darker - just like the colour of fire. It was the most red I have probably ever seen the sky in my whole life.

These are some of the photos I took, they have only been resized since taking them off my camera - they have not been played with in Photoshop AT ALL!!

Sorry there is so many photos, but the colours were so incredible I had to post a few to show the colours as the sun went down. After all, I nearly burnt the chicken I was cooking for dinner at the time when I noticed the sky and ran outside with my camera, so I really should make you see them all! LOL!

I will also be posting later today about our real estate inspection yesterday morning, so stay tuned!

.... Just another day ....

A Piece Of My Mind - JIB Finalists

As many will know, I have been feeling a bit annoyed over the past few days. There have been somethings I have wanted to say. The time has come to say something because it has really been eating away at me.

Batya has posted an article today, which for me is just the tip of the ice burg, you can read it here.

In the article Batya speaks of the difference between blogs with a large base of readers due to lots of friends and family and those who are 'media-based'.

She goes on to say:

"Dry Bones is great, but he has been featured in the Jerusalem Post for decades. He shouldn't be running in JIB Awards against ordinary bloggers, even the megas. The same goes for Tamar Yona of Arutz 7. She's a major radio personality there."


This is the comment I have left on Batya's blog:

"Hi Batya,
I understand where you are coming from and I agree somewhat.

Dry Bones does have a great blog and it is very popular.

Tamar Yonah however, may be a 'major radio personality', but she certainly is not a 'major' blogger.

Check her technorati ranking here
Rank: 536,218 (22 links from 9 blogs). It seems she gets hardly any traffic to her blog, yet she managed to get almost 200 votes all up in the 2 categories she was nominated in, even beating Aussie Dave in one of them!


Now, I ask, these are 'blogging' awards aren't they?


I don't remember the JIB's being radio awards?!

It was never supposed to be a popularity contest, it is supposed to be about awarding quality blogs, but now it seems its a contest who can rort the voting the most, it seems you don't really even need to have a blog."

I am sick of it. I am sick of the amount of people who have rorted these awards, and who expect other bloggers - 'real bloggers' not to say anything. It is not just this one, it has happened in other categories also. There were a few other blogs that either have basically very few readers and/or post very rarely and yet have somehow managed to get heaps more votes than some of the very well known bloggers who have large readerships.

This is certainly not a case of sour grapes - and I don't care what anyone says about that, but, I was against a similar blog in the 'Best Personal Blog' group I was in. The 90th Minute, this blogger also happens to be a journalist with articles appearing in publications including Haaretz, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Jerusalem Post and European Jewish Press. Her technorati ranking can be found here, she is ranked Rank: 1,083,235 (8 links from 4 blogs)

Considering her readership and traffic to her blog, I find it hard to believe just over 100 votes have been from legitimate readers and not from the fact she is in the media and able to pull votes that way.

Another 'blog' that is in the service industry is JobMob. JobMob is a web site which helps people find jobs in Israel. They qualified in the JIB's for Best New blog with 79 votes (placed 2nd behind Tamar Yonah) and just missed out qualifying for Best Overall Blog with 68 votes. Both nominations of which I find a joke.

It seems that some journalists/ media organisations and service industries are using these awards purely as a promotional campaign to expose themselves to traffic and further their media profiles.

It is the real bloggers who are suffering because of this. The awards have been well run by the committee, but in hind sight, there really needs to be some form of criteria for each category for blog nominations to prevent this sort of abuse - it is not what the awards are supposed to be about.



.... Just another day ....

Another Beautiful Day!

It is Autumn here now and in the part of Australia where I live it gets really cold, especially at night. As I have said many, many times, I live on the very top of a ridge over looking the valley below. I am grateful we don't live in the valley, I am positive it gets so much colder down there. We see the clouds of frost in the early mornings which fill the entire valley before the sun comes out and then they disappear.

During the recent warmer months, I complained about how little rain we had had and now for the past week it has rained everyday! Today, looks like it is going to be a beautiful sunny day. This morning it is still cold and frosty, but the sun is out and the birds are singing and insects flying around.

We have a real estate inspection in the morning - which I think everyone knows I hate. They come through the house to make sure we are not punching holes in the walls or anything like that - something they have never had to worry about, but still, they have checked every 3 months for the last 4 years. I think they should know by now that we are looking after the property.

So anyway, I have housework to do to make sure things are sparkling before they arrive!


.... Just another day ....