Elizabeth September 30th, 2008

I mentioned last week that blood supplies for the Australian Red Cross are critically low. Today I spotted this article in The Age which confirms that the problem is getting serious.

If you are eligible to give blood, now is the perfect time to do so. Take a friend, spend 10 minutes in a relaxing chair and enjoy the free food and drink afterwards!

Red Cross plea for blood donors

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is urgently calling for new blood donors to come forward after supplies dropped off over winter.

Demand for blood across the country is placing extreme pressure on already low blood stocks, particularly group O negative, the service warned today.

“This demand means that hospitals urgently need more blood to continue life saving treatment for a wide range of conditions,” a statement said.

“Blood stocks have not been able to recover from the effect of winter coughs and colds on regular donors to a level that would usually be provided to hospitals, despite the generous support from existing donors and some recent new donors.”

The services said one in 30 people donate blood in Australia, and yet one in three Australians will need blood at some point in their lives.

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is also encouraging existing donors who may not have donated for sometime to come back and make another life-saving donation.

To make a donation appointment or to check your eligibility to donate, call 131495 or visit www.donateblood.com.au

• Current Affairs , Health & Fitness
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Elizabeth September 28th, 2008

I haven’t been reliable in reporting my progress here, but today I reached my first solid landmark in my challenge to do 101 Things in 1001 Days. Today, with the purchase of my new coffee table, I reached the 25% mark!

Here are the first 25 items on my list that I have completed, in chronological order. I’ll update this post with the relevent links once I have written them up.

25 THINGS
01 Rearranged my study
02 Caught up on Lost
03 Bought a BBQ
04 Bought a new set of knives
05 Went for a cruise down the Yarra
06 Slept under the stars
07 Saw a Gold Class movie
08 Went to Luna Park
09 Went to an outdoor movie
10 Walked to the city and back 8 times in one month
11 Taught myself Microsoft Excel
12 Went without chocolate for a month
13 Found permanent fulltime work
14 Made a vegetable and herb garden
15 Learned something about wine
16 Went to an AFL game
17 Renewed my Senior First Aid Certificate
18 Got a bed for the spare room
19 Blew a stack of money on a good haircut
20 Organised my filing cabinet
21 Bought a flower press
22 Sponsored a child
23 Bought a new lens
24 Gave blood
25 Bought a new coffee table

THE BAD NEWS

As I began my challenge on Jan 1st of this year, it has taken 271 days to reach this point. If I maintain this rate of completion I will actually finish 83 days too late, so I need to pick up the pace a little!

THE GOOD NEWS

With the purchase of my new computer next week, I will be well on my way to knocking four items off my list (to purchase a new computer, organise my music, improve my photography workflow and organise/back up my photos).

More importantly, I have 19 items “in progress” – which means that much of the work is already done towards completing the next 25 items.

SUMMARY

Overall, I am feeling really happy with my progress. Nearly ten months into my challenge I can say that I am exactly where I want to be. I’ve steered myself in the direction of a great job, I’m gradually converting my house into a sanctuary that I truly love, I’m a little skinnier, a lot happier, and have had some incredible experiences exploring my new city.

I’m looking forward to ticking off another 25 items as soon as I can!

• 101 in 1001
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Elizabeth September 27th, 2008

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge

I moved into this house one year (and one week) ago, and began the delicate task of arranging furniture in our skinny little living room. I love it for many reasons, but finding the right coffee table has been a huge mission.

It has been a year since I moved into this house, and a year since I began my search for this infuriating piece of furniture.

There are a lot of fantastic coffee tables out there, but the current trend seems to favour really deep pieces. I don’t have the luxury of having my two couches in a tight little L-shape, so a deep coffee table is both unnecessary and impossible in the space I have to work with. All I wanted was a coffee table with hall stand dimensions, just on shorter legs.

Yesterday I found it. The (awesome) shop assistant let me take a photo of it to send to Tim, and even stuck her head in the shot to add scale!

There were a few of these in the store, each slightly different, so Tim and I went down there this morning to choose one together. The guy at the store oiled it quickly for us, and then we dragged it home (on the tram!).

Here’s a photo of it in its new home. Also pictured are Tim’s hands- in Playstation mode- and Harry, who would love to join in but lacks opposable thumbs.

We bought this table from Ishka, which has stores all over Melbourne. Their website is very relaxing and I can forgive them the auto-playing music because it transported me to faraway lands.

The blanket box which has held our coffees, books, takeaway dinners and mail for the past year has been demoted. It now lives in our bedroom, and its primary function will be to store blankets again!

• 101 in 1001
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Elizabeth September 26th, 2008

With thanks to xkcd, and my readers for being way more awesome than the average YouTube commenter!

• Art , Funny Stuff
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Elizabeth September 25th, 2008

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge.

It’s one of those things that we just expect to be there for us, but only a very small proportion (1 in 30) of people actually give blood. Yet sooner or later, one in three of us will need it.

Today I gave blood for the first time. It is something I have wanted to do for quite a long time, but in the past I’ve always been turned away because I was asthmatic. Even though my asthma isn’t serious, they weren’t comfortable with me donating if I had taken Ventolin that day as sometimes donating blood can trigger an attack.

I know my asthma, and so today I took a firm approach in my interview. I told them that I take Ventolin every day after I brush my teeth (toothpaste tends to aggravate things for me), and that I manage my symptoms reliably. I assured her that I felt no different today than I do on any other day, and that Ventolin is now just a part of my routine.

That’s all the nurse needed to hear. She checked my blood pressure, pricked my finger to check my iron (it was super) and made sure I’d had enough to eat and drink that day. Then it was over to the chair, a quick needle prick and a relaxing six minutes while I filled the bag with 500mL of blood. Easy.

Once we were done, Tim and I sat in the refreshments area and helped ourselves to cheese & biscuits, fruitcake, drinks and lollies. How good is that?

If you have ever thought about donating blood, but have never gotten around to it, I hope you’ll consider locking in a time. The Australian Red Cross website says that their blood levels are dangerously low right now, so it’s the perfect time to make a commitment. You can find out if you’re eligible to give blood by doing their online quiz.

I found some interesting information on their site about the way blood is used. Like most people, I guess, I had assumed that the majority of donated blood went to accident victims and surgical patients (I blame TV).

HOW TO DONATE BLOOD

If you are in Australia, you can call 13 14 95 to make an appointment, or visit the Red Cross Blood Service at www.donateblood.com.au.

If you are in the USA, you can see a list of your local Red Cross regions at www.givelife.org.

If you have information about donating blood in your country, leave the details here in a comment and I’ll add them to this post. I’d also love to hear stories from anybody who has donated blood, or been a recipient!

• 101 in 1001 , Health & Fitness , Life
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Elizabeth September 23rd, 2008

Totally mathematical! Rhombus!

• Funny Stuff , Videos
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Elizabeth September 22nd, 2008

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge

Last Friday I finally replaced the lens that I broke in the US, 18 months ago! I bought a beautiful 70-300mm VR f/4.5-5.6, and have spent the past few days putting it to work.

I can’t even begin to explain how much more “me” I feel, now that I am shooting again. For a while there I had stopped framing imaginary shots in my head. As weird as that sounds, it’s something I’ve done for years – with or without a camera in my hand.

Now that I have the equipment I need to take the shots I love I am seeing the world the way it is supposed to be seen. I love my new toy, and I’m happy to cross number #85 off my list!

• 101 in 1001 , Art , Photo Posts , Photography News
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Elizabeth September 22nd, 2008

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge

I’ve sat down with the intention of updating my blog about 10 times in the past week, but it just doesn’t seem to happen. The problem is that I have so much to catch up on, and I don’t really know where to start!

So I won’t attempt to cover everything tonight. Instead, I thought I might give a brief overview of the progress I have been making on my 101 Things in 1001 Days list.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

014 Give blood
Tim and I are booked in to give blood this Thursday night. I am a little bit nervous about doing this for the first time, but ultimately looking forward to doing something that will help other people.

036 Visit 5 different Melbourne markets
I finally visited Camberwell markets last weekend, and made a KILLING. I bought a bunch of cute jewellery, some pretty coloured glass vases, and a bunch of other stuff. The interesting part was getting the furniture that I bought home on the tram…

037 Visit 50 Melbourne Suburbs
39/50, so I am flying through my list! This will be much easier when we buy a car in a few months.

040 Read 10 novels by Melbourne authors
I have just started The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll.

062 Buy a new computer (or upgrade what I’ve got)
We are buying a big, fat, shiny Mac next week! I can’t even begin to express my excitement over this. I am convinced that I am a Mac person who has been forced into a lifetime of the PC. I’ve done the research and I’m jumping ship.

063 Organise my music
This is almost done. Once I set everything up on my new computer, I’ll tick this off (and show you a screenshot of my awesome collection!)

064 Organise my photos, and back them up
I’m backing my photos up onto Tim’s external hard drive. The next step will be organising them on my new computer into a more logical system.

065 Improve my photography workflow
I intend to use Aperture or Light Room to organise my photos (reviews or recommendations are welcome!). Once I have set up my file system, I will begin an overhaul of my Photoshop actions and keyboard shortcuts.

COMPLETED

013 Renew my first aid certificate
I completed this in July this year. I am a black-belt sling maker.

029 Sponsor a child, or volunteer
Tim and I are sponsoring a little girl in Ecuador, named Domenica. She’s a beautiful little girl, and I’m looking forward to writing more as I get to know her and her situation.

061 Organise my filing cabinet
I ‘completed’ this in July, but since then I have had some new ideas for improving it further. For the purposes of my list, however, I have ticked this one off.

070 Get a bed for the spare room
I have discovered a hidden benefit of your friends getting engaged – suddenly they have twice the furniture that they need! We have a fully functioning spare room now, so that my friends don’t have to sleep on the floor.

075 Blow a stack of money on a really good hair cut and colour
I completely forgot to take a photo of my hair after this cut, but it looked great. It also met the criteria for costing “a stack of money”, but I was lucky enough to get a big fat voucher for my birthday earlier this year from somebody generous! x

085 Buy a new lens
My latest toy is a beautiful 70-300mm VR f/4.5-5.6, and it is lovely. I have been having lots of fun with it over the past few days; I’ll follow this post with some of the results.

097 Buy or make a flower press
I have bought a little flower press, just in time for all the new Spring stuff that’s shot up in the past fortnight.

This list excludes some of the more trivial items that I have been working on. For example, I have definitely made a start on learning vegetarian recipes and getting rid of 101 material items, but I haven’t been doing it in a measurable way. I don’t want to cheat, so I will be making some more detailed lists in the near future.

This brings my total number of completed items to 23 and my “in progress” items to 20. I have 735 days to go, which means that I need to complete them at a rate of 1 every 9 days.

Easy!

• 101 in 1001 , Life
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Elizabeth September 16th, 2008

Red Lovers, by Slawek Gruca.

I’m coming out of unintentional blogging retirement to post this incredible quote that I came across today:

Long looking at paintings is equivalent to being dropped into a foreign city, where gradually, out of desire and despair, a few key words, then a little syntax make a clearing in the silence. Art, all art, not just painting, is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar. No-one is surprised to find that a foreign city follows its own customs and speaks its own language. Only a boor would ignore both and blame is defaulting on the place. Every day this happens to the artist and the art.

We have to recognize that the language of art, all art, is not our mother-tongue.

- Jeanette Winterson, ‘Art Objects’

Thanks to Patrick for the inspiration, because this quote really did speak to me (and I think it applies to music equally). And thanks to you if you’re still dropping by my blog from time to time. I hope you’ll come back to see the other posts I have got lined up for the next few days.

• Art
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