rah

We are often asked by friends/family/work peoples how we’re going with Litter Kwitter training… 14 months in.

It’s been fucking awful at times, but at the moment I am very proud to stay that we have finally moved to the Intermediate Stage (Orange Stage, for those of you who know the lingo). This means  there’s enough of a hole that 75% of the time the boys are offloading into the toilet proper. The hole is only about 10cm wide, so that’s some damn good aiming going on!

For us, this is technically the 3rd stage since we bought the in-between stages 1 and 2 “ring” to help out since we have 2 cats (and one very stubborn one), and moving onto the official intermediate stage last week was the easiest transition we’ve ever had. No bribing, only a few tears… YAY US!

And now, visual evidence: I don’t have the stomach to video the event, but this photo of Bear is for Harriet, Cathy, Nat, Josh and eleventy billion other people who thought we wouldn’t get beyond stage 1. I ish proud!

Just to clarify, this was before The Event took place, so your eyes have not been tainted ;o)

Found this on FunkyLoveBunny’s tumbr this morning:

“Before the internet, when we had time to do stuff, relax & think”

I miss living above shops

This photo reminds me of where we lived in until I was about 5; it was above a fruit shop along the main drag of Grafton. We would sit on the awning outside our loungeroom to watch the Jacaranda Festival parade. These were the days before dad got cancer, when we owned the local Drive-In and I spent my days running around the backyard playing with Duke the dog.

So that was 25 years ago.

Dan and I moved into our current place just over a year ago - and it’s above a shop. There aren’t any parades to watch, but living here is like reclaiming my childhood and it’s given me the chance to redeem those 25 years; the years where my childhood was lost.

Living here is actually is cheaper (and better) than my therapist.

And I’m awesome because Threadless told me so when my tshirt order arrived this morning.

I kinda bought 5 tshirts, but with the exchange rate, it worked out about $20 a tshirt. Bargain!

This is the one I’m wearing atm:

“Fail” cow not jumping over the moon

It’s going to take me 3 weekends to give all the shirts their proper induction. Never had such exciting variety in my tshirts!

So now a second Qantas plane has had to make an emergency landing this week - this time in Adelaide.

Why haven’t I heard anyone ask if these critical incidents (if I use the language we use at work) are linked to the offshoring of Qantas engineering teams? Seems a bit suss if you ask me.

(I promise to go back to pictures of cupcakes and stupid posts soon - something about this week is getting me all ranty and in the mood for heavier posts)

I have a long personal history of disliking Hillsong, partially for what I’ve read about them in newspaper articles and whatnot, but also from the few stories I hear from a family member who attends as often as possible. I put them in the same basket of nutbags as Scientologists and shudder every time I learn something new about them, because it usually isn’t good.

I was listening to AM radio (again) on the way home tonight and heard talk of the Shine Program, which is part of Hillsong. It’s taught at schools as an extra-curricular subject ( I assume, since it wouldn’t contribute to your end-of-year results… surely?) for girls only, and from what someone said when they called in on the radio this arve, it teaches girls “how to order a meal at a restaurant” and “how to get the attention of the waiter” - so stuff that your parents could probably teach you, or you just pick it up when you’re, you know, existing in the world. I sure as shit wasn’t taught this stuff. One girl who’s finished the program said that they’d taught the girls how to apply the type of makeup she wouldn’t normally want to wear anyway.

Huh? Makeup classes? How to look like a tart 101.

I think it was this same girl who said she went to these Shine classes once a fortnight during her science lesson. SCIENCE LESSON?! Bells have gone off in my head - why is this program, run and taught by an evangelical Christian organisation (I dare not call them a “church”) DURING A FREAKING SCIENCE LESSON? I couldn’t help but think how the Hillsongers would be rubbing their hands with glee, thinking they’re getting away with girls missing out on lessons about EVOLUTION and DARWIN and BIG BANG THEORY. Y’know, things that’re against Teh Bible.

And I’m sorry, but for any organisation to get its foot in the door in any educational institution, shouldn’t it be investigated why they are so interested in teaching their ideals at schools? I don’t know why it hasn’t been brought up but wouldn’t a religious organisation want to at least subliminally promote themselves during the program? While schools are paying them to deliver these programs in their school? Hey, here’s how you put on eyeshadow, by the way come to church on Sunday, it really rocks, kthnxbai.

From what I’ve read since getting home tonight, it would seem that:

• Hillsong has inappropriately used Chaplaincy Program Grants to fund Shine. Why hasn’t Hillsong been questioned about the misuse of taxpayers’ money?
  
• One student disputed on radio that it’s revealed to be a Hillsong program and that parents are required to give permission for students to attend. How is a student able to skip class/es without parental consent?
• “Most of the facilitators who deliver Shine in Sydney classrooms have no university counselling qualifications”. How can the Department of Education allow unqualified people to give lessons on school sites?
• Turns out that “the Department of Education has no role in approving the program”. Um, WTF? As in, seriously, what the fuck?!
  

Hillsong has a bit of a history of dodgy requests for government funding, amongst other things. I read an article years ago where Bobbie and Brian, the founders of Hillsong said that overweight people are frowned upon at Hillsong. Sweet jeebus.

Learning these things about what I believe is a cult just leaves me lost for words. And you know how hard it is to do that.

Anyone got any Hillsong or Shine experiences to share?