I saw a sex shop in the Valley the other day called “Adult Shop”, and one of their ways to lure people in was with a sign saying “Fun for Grown Ups”. I thought they clarified their target audience in the name of the shop already…
Lesson for today 19 April, 2008
Don’t assume that the other person waiting at the bus stop will hail the bus – it is likely that the bus will go past without stopping.
Conversations 15 April, 2008
Without a car, I don’t join the many conversations about how bad the traffic is.
Because I rarely watch TV, I can’t join the lengthy discussions on which character is doing what on TV programs.
I wonder what people would choose to talk about if these things didn’t concern them?
Have they ever wondered what they would do or what they could achieve if these things didn’t fill so much of their daily schedule?
Reduce, reuse, respect, recycle 8 April, 2008
I recently went to a Green Office update meeting at work. As part of the session, they brought out a box of
discarded items, and we had to say whether or not it could be put in the recycling bin. I thought it was going to be rather boring because I thought I knew it all… well, guess what, I learnt something!
You know the thin plastic trays that packets of biscuits and the like come in to stop the bikkies from breaking? Well did you know they can (generally) be recycled?? Look closely to see if there is a recycle symbol imprinted on the plastic (you know the triangle with arrows). If it has one of those triangle thingys, it can be recycled!
Yay, less going into general rubbish! (But boo for all the stuff I’ve been putting in the rubbish instead of the recycling all this time…) Don’t forget though, as well as recycling, we need to be aiming to “close the loop” (I’m yet to figure out how we can affect this one).
More info on the little numbers inside the triangle on TreeHugger.
Petition for Auslan 5 April, 2008
Australians are being asked to sign their name to a petition for more funding and support for Signing children, who currently exit the education system with poor communication and literacy skills.
As part of the education revolution the government is evaluating the funding needs of children with a disability (not that Deafness is seen as a disability by the Deaf community!). Auslan is a poorly funded area, yet so vital to so many children within Australia.
Please sign petition for Auslan. An online petition has been started, which will be presented to Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
If you support Auslan (Australian Sign Language), please support the petition and sign your name at http://www.bilby.net/Sign/AuslanPetition.asp
Minister Gillard,
We the undersigned wish to voice our support for the following :
1. The recognition of Auslan as an Australian National Language.
2. Funding and support for Auslan as a priority LOTE (Language Other Than English) subject within Australian Schools. Auslan is important as a LOTE as it provides access to the language to the peers of children who need the language, and in the longer term, help raise awareness of the language throughout the broader community and thus overall quality of life for those who need the language.
3. Funding and support for parents and extended family members of Australian children who use Auslan to communicate, whether at a key sign or fluent basis. We believe that it is important to increase the support for these members of our community whose rate of adoption of Auslan influences the longer term communication and eventually linguistic capabilities of the children who rely on them. When the
adoption of Auslan, by family members and carers is limited and laborious, so too is the adoption of communicative capabilities and access to overall communication for children who need this language to communicate, especially within the formative years, so vital in a child’s linguistic development.
4. The funding of services, such as that of SignPlanet.net, which provide free and easy access to Auslan, as a starting point for those learning Auslan. We support “The development of web portals which will enable parents to participate in their child’s education” (http://www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au ). We wish to voice our support of the enhancement of web-base information, and courses that will support those, especially within rural and remote areas, learning Auslan to communicate with their children.
I saw a belt with something written on it 4 April, 2008
Do you think Levis came up with their name by swapping the first two letters of the Elvis’ name..?
Queensland Unplugged 2 April, 2008
Thursday, 3 April 2008 is ‘Queensland Unplugged Day’.“Every appliance that uses standby power is wasting energy, generating greenhouse gas emissions and costing you money. Standby power may not seem like a big deal but it all adds up. If every Queensland household turned off unnecessary standby power, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be the same as taking over 130,000 cars off the road! If every household in Queensland turned off just one TV when not in use rather than leaving it them on standby, it would save enough energy to power 4,300 homes!”
Makes you think heh? Go to the Qld EPA ClimateSmart website for more info on this (and other stuff):
The language of… 2 April, 2008
Guess what! I met a Deaf Japanese woman last night!! How exciting!!! My head is spinning with the mix of Auslan, English, JSL (Japanese Sign Language) and spoken Japanese. So far I know how to sign “arigato” (thank you) and “wakarimasu” (know/understand) in JSL. It must be equally confusing for her to watch me fingerspell a Japanese word in Auslan (because JSL has different finger spelling).
