Jun
19
2013
theAbysmal
Today marks Jupiter at conjunction, and thus the beginning of Jupiter Cycle 1. It lasts for 400 days. Filed under: planets, Year 0
Jun
19
2013
Zen Pencils
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve partnered with John Green’s merch company DFTBA.COM to sell the MAKE GIFTS FOR PEOPLE poster! It’s been reformatted to a poster-friendly layout and is only $15 USD. You can order now and the posters will ship in mid-July.
Yes, John Green got in touch with me after he saw the comic and told me he loved it and even talked about working together on other projects in the future, which made me giddy as a school girl. It was such a thrill and I still can’t wipe the smile off my face.
If this sells well, I can hopefully sell more posters through DFTBA.COM at a cheaper price than the prints at Society6. So if you enjoyed the comic, please consider ordering it for yourself or perhaps as a gift for a friend.
As always, thanks for your support.
- Gav
Jun
19
2013
Kate Says Stuff
This is a sponsored post for NRMA Insurance and Kidsafe.
Since my first baby was born, nearly ten years ago, the laws around car safety restraints for children have changed a few times.
Even when it has cost a little extra to fall in line with current regulations, it isn't an expense that I could ever resent. The safety of my children in and around cars is of paramount importance. I don't think any parent would ever knowingly take a risk with their child's safety, but those changes mean that some parents aren't as up to date as they could be.
In Australia, the current laws state that:
- A child six months and under must travel in a rearward facing approved child restraint.
- A child aged six months to four years must travel in an approved rearward facing restraint or forward facing approved child restraint with an inbuilt harness.
- Children aged between four years and seven years must travel in an approved forward facing restraint with an inbuilt harness OR an approved booster seat.
Having the correct restraint for your child is the first step in keeping your kids safe, the second is ensuring that the restraint is correctly and safely installed.
This can be the tricky bit I think. I know I've switched out car seats many times over the past decade, and as a result consider myself a bit of an expert. But it doesn't necessarily make me one at all.
Research conducted by Kidsafe and NRMA insurance has shown that many parents still require some education about the correct use of child restraints, as evidenced by the fact that approximately 70% of restraints checked in 2011/2012 required an adjustment.
And just reading that figure makes me think that I need to have our restraints checked ASAP. I know that the seats we use are safe and correct for the ages of my children, but I've just assumed that I've fitted them correctly. That assumption would do me no good if there was an accident and one of my kids was injured or worse. It doesn't even bear thinking about.
NRMA and Kidsafe have an ongoing relationship, and in 2013 are holding free Child Restraint Checking Days in New South Wales and Queensland. Which is a little far for me, but perfect for those of you who live in those states!
You can check out the locations and register to attend an event, where an authorised restraint fitter will check and adjust your restraints (if needed) in just a matter of minutes.
Time well spent for the safety of your precious cargo.
Because child safety is so important, NRMA and Kidsafe have TWO restraints for me to give away!
One Safety First rearward/forward facing restraint for 6 months - 4 years of age, valued at $349RRP.
And one Infa-Secure forward facing restraint for 4 to 7 years of age valued at $119RRP.
And because safe restraint installation is also important, to win one of the two restraints you need to register for a Child Restraint Checking Day via this link. When you've done so, forward your confirmation email to katesaysstuff76@gmail.com along with which restraint you would like to win, and why.
This is a game of skill; chance will play no part in determining the winner. Emails must be received by 5pm Sunday June 23rd to be eligible and winners must be able to attend the event as registered.
Good luck and safe travels!
Since my first baby was born, nearly ten years ago, the laws around car safety restraints for children have changed a few times.
Even when it has cost a little extra to fall in line with current regulations, it isn't an expense that I could ever resent. The safety of my children in and around cars is of paramount importance. I don't think any parent would ever knowingly take a risk with their child's safety, but those changes mean that some parents aren't as up to date as they could be.
In Australia, the current laws state that:
- A child six months and under must travel in a rearward facing approved child restraint.
- A child aged six months to four years must travel in an approved rearward facing restraint or forward facing approved child restraint with an inbuilt harness.
- Children aged between four years and seven years must travel in an approved forward facing restraint with an inbuilt harness OR an approved booster seat.
Having the correct restraint for your child is the first step in keeping your kids safe, the second is ensuring that the restraint is correctly and safely installed.
This can be the tricky bit I think. I know I've switched out car seats many times over the past decade, and as a result consider myself a bit of an expert. But it doesn't necessarily make me one at all.
Research conducted by Kidsafe and NRMA insurance has shown that many parents still require some education about the correct use of child restraints, as evidenced by the fact that approximately 70% of restraints checked in 2011/2012 required an adjustment.
And just reading that figure makes me think that I need to have our restraints checked ASAP. I know that the seats we use are safe and correct for the ages of my children, but I've just assumed that I've fitted them correctly. That assumption would do me no good if there was an accident and one of my kids was injured or worse. It doesn't even bear thinking about.
NRMA and Kidsafe have an ongoing relationship, and in 2013 are holding free Child Restraint Checking Days in New South Wales and Queensland. Which is a little far for me, but perfect for those of you who live in those states!
You can check out the locations and register to attend an event, where an authorised restraint fitter will check and adjust your restraints (if needed) in just a matter of minutes.
Time well spent for the safety of your precious cargo.
Because child safety is so important, NRMA and Kidsafe have TWO restraints for me to give away!
One Safety First rearward/forward facing restraint for 6 months - 4 years of age, valued at $349RRP.
And one Infa-Secure forward facing restraint for 4 to 7 years of age valued at $119RRP.
And because safe restraint installation is also important, to win one of the two restraints you need to register for a Child Restraint Checking Day via this link. When you've done so, forward your confirmation email to katesaysstuff76@gmail.com along with which restraint you would like to win, and why.
This is a game of skill; chance will play no part in determining the winner. Emails must be received by 5pm Sunday June 23rd to be eligible and winners must be able to attend the event as registered.
Good luck and safe travels!
Jun
18
2013
Darqx - tumblr
None of them actually! The only one who might know, if given any reason to suspect, would be Zeke because he and Izm were both part of the HH Underground (although Izm was in much deeper than Zeke was).
For Izm, the less his friends know the better. Mainly so they have plausible deniability if he ever gets caught out :]
Jun
18
2013
Darqx - tumblr
Hurt myself laughing
oh my god
My therapist showed me this video
holy shit.
OH MY FUCKING GOD
The funniest video I’ve ever seen in my life.
Jun
18
2013
Free Range in Suburbia
I know I haven’t been around much lately. I’ll explain another time.
But for now I wanted to share this documentary that Amy Rathbone made about unschooling. Partly because it’s a positive look at unschooling and partly because we’re in it! She followed us around for a day, asked lots of questions and kept an open mind.
It’s about 17 minutes long and worth a look, if only to see me in my pjs drinking a cup of tea.
Jun
18
2013
Darqx - tumblr
15 amazing things in nature you won’t believe actually exist
This is my favorite
The world is just awesome
Jun
18
2013
picklebums
The smallest member of our family likes ‘twucks’, and cars, and pretty much anything with wheels.
Right now all he wants to do is drive vehicles over every available surface, crash them into each other, and build ‘sheds’ for them to live in.
We have a set of lovely wooden roads that combine with our wooden train set, but we just don’t have enough of them. The road stops too soon and there is not enough corners of crossroads. So I figured I had better make some more roads.
An hour or so mucking around on the computer, plus two new ink cartridges (why does ink always run out at the worst possible moment?) and now we have as many roads as we like!
These turned out even better than I had hoped. I printed out two sets to begin with them just printed out extras of each road shape as we needed them.
Adding trees and blocks and signs our roads quickly became a town with a parking lot, a tunnel and, of course, a shed!
Because we were in a hurry to use them I just printed them on plain paper, cut them out and got busy playing, but I think I’ll laminate them so they can go in the box with the cars for future use.
You can download, print and play with your own set of printable roads!
The roads come as a six page A4 pdf document. You can download the printable roads here, or click on the sample image above. Then just print, cut and play.
We’d love to see how you play with the roads, so if you download them please take a photo and share it on my facebook page.
You can find more of our fun printbales here and make sure you are following me on Pinterest for loads more fun ideas.Follow me on facebook and pinterest for lots more great ideas and shared links.
This post was written by katepickle for picklebums.com If you see this post on any other site it has been used without permission.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it with others...
Jun
18
2013
Zen Pencils
Terence McKenna (1946-2000) was a psychedelic warrior – a writer, lecturer and expert on ecology, botany, shamanism and spiritual transformation. McKenna’s books discuss the benefits and mind-altering effects of LSD, psilocybin and other hallucinogens, and the role they’ve played in human history and culture. His ‘Stoned Ape Theory’ argues that the rapid rise of homo sapiens was triggered when our ancestors started eating magic mushrooms, leading to increased brain size, creativity and language. Pretty fascinating if you ask me.
There are many great McKenna interviews and lectures on YouTube, like this one and this one. The audio version of the above quote can be heard in this video.
I can say from personal experience that there is truth in this quote. I never believed in “The Secret”, all that talk of “if you put positive energy into the universe, the universe will reward you” or “the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward”. I thought it was new age bullshit – something Dr. Phil and other ‘life coaches’ trotted out to suckers. But honestly, my experience over the past 18 months has changed my mind. I had an impossible dream (become a web cartoonist) and I made the commitment and hurled myself into the abyss (quit my job and sold my house to fund the dream) and so far, it’s worked out better than I could have imagined. As soon as I handed in my resignation letter, good things started happening to me. Tim Ferriss contacted me about contributing to his book, my house was sold after I was super stressed that it wouldn’t, and all sorts of other small, positive things encouraged me to keep going. It did kind of feel that the universe was rewarding me for making the decision to finally act on my impossible dream.
Now I don’t want to give people a false sense of hope – that all you have to do is take the leap and everything will work out peachy. For me, ‘making the commitment’ means working my ass off, drawing these comics 6-7 days a week. But the work is satisfying and meaningful to me. So I would say that hard work, planning, skill, commitment and grit make up 90% of the equation, but maybe that last 10% is just deciding to hurl yourself into the abyss.
I’m interested to hear what your experience is with this. Have you taken a risk and found that it paid off big time? Or have you taken a leap of faith only for it to end badly? Are you better off for trying, or did the experience just leave you bitter and angry?
RELATED COMICS by Timothy Leary, Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury and Bill Hicks.
Thanks to Daniel, Kent, Kaveri and Senyor for submitting this.
Jun
18
2013
Kate Says Stuff
My sister shared a little video of my gorgeous baby nephew bouncing around the other day, it was the cutest thing. His parents are both musos so really, kid better have rhythm!
It reminded me of when my Little Mate was a similar age though, long before we had any idea that autism would become something that applied to our family.
We were at my parents' house, and my Dad had some classical music. Our nine month old son, who until then hadn't noticeably reacted to any auditory cues (ohai hindsight, aren't you a fine thing?) stopped stock still and just listened to the music. He started swaying gently and cried when it ended. We played it again and again and he was utterly entranced. At the time I thought oh, maybe he has his aunty's musical genes? Of course these days I wonder if it wasn't an early indicator of different brain development, but I guess we'll never know.
I took him home and popped on my Xanadu DVD. He sat completely still gazing on the lights and becoming upset as the songs ended. Fair play, I feel a bit like that when I watch Xanadu too, give me songs and rollerskates!
Since that time he has had varied reactions to music. He likes what he likes, but if he doesn't like it he REALLY doesn't like it.
But I can relate his first noticeable verbal developments post diagnosis to music as well.
We have three CD's on repeat in my car. All. The. Time. They are the Cars 1 & 2 soundtracks (because his McQueen obsession knows no bounds) and the ReWiggled CD (because I can listen to that version of the Wiggles and not lose my mind entirely).
Not long after he was diagnosed he indicated strongly that he wanted a particular song from Cars 2 played again and again and again. The lyrics are in French, and from the back seat I heard him begin to imitate some of the phrases whilst holding the tune pretty well. He even matched the vocal emphasis within the song.
Because it was in French, I had very little idea what the lyrics meant or how close to accurate his pronounciation was. But I did know that he was deliberately repeating sounds in a non-echolalic manner. It was one of those punch-the-air moments that we have sometimes.
His little sister is now close to the age that he was at diagnosis. She is smashing through all those milestones that I only vaguely realised he'd missed at the same age, and it is bittersweet. She talks my ear off, which is even sweeter for his not having done it.
And when we are in the car, together they will sing along to the same songs over and over again. And it is wonderful to hear.
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