WANDERER

Today...for...galeforce winds and no thunderstorms. Those that got flooded out and have a tarpaulin roof could sure use a break and may the SES get a bit more sleep than they have of late. And even with all that, For more water in the dams.

I don't know if coffee essence has any coffee in it...I assume not. Because vanilla essence is a long way from vanilla extract. Good question. Looked up the most common version ...disclaimer on product page..contains caffeine and 4x stronger than expresso coffee. On another note...I realised why most people like milk with their coffee...as it leaches off calcium. Ugh to meditating over that nifty fact when drinking my morning cuppa.

Illegally parked cars are to be towed away I believe...hitting a parked car is not legal as PC said. A friend who lived near a railway station told me that when cars parked in their driveway and they couldn't get out they had them towed away, so I imagine that it's legal to do so, at the person who broke-the-law's cost and that they didn't have any other option in order to get to work themselves in both cases. The thing is when you hit a car, you go into shock...if it's a situation you've been in before you do the automatic things...if not..then it's not so easy to process what to do. Sometimes it's a case of knowing what to do next time.

It's just there...I'm a mutt : ) and appropriate light social small talk seems to consist of what country does your surname come from *rolls eyes*. Now this brings either of two reactions a) face checking (I'm a mutt, do I look like like where my surname hails from? Nope, didn't think so). or b) assurances from various ethnic groups that the surname is also there...therefore I must be of that particular group or related (a more educated guess based on facial structure that I hail from further origins in terms of genetic ancestry.... but quite obtuse really). So yeah I'm pretty happy about having the mutt tag legitimised..now I can put all discussion to rest on association to any one culture/ancestry in particular and just get by with citizenship and place of birth...well perhaps. Race is just another issue in a big bundle. Hey but I'm blue eyed, blonde haired and freckled and fair-skinned....with a few additionals. Yep, look nothing like my family...but a lot like my great-grandmother. All good fun : )

The concept that doing certain things for people will encourage laziness is paradoxical... committing laziness by morally justified inaction? Although the saying about stones and glass houses seems to occur to me LOL. (I'm not altogether without my own problems). I like the idea of the safe shelters to look after kids for a time...I think there are quite a few who don't have a social support system in place and may need to access it without going to the lengths of abandonment. It's a good idea.

I'm a tad confused reading through the history of it all...someone was proclaimed a king? Did I misread it?

I think it comes to issues of safety.

In Oz we have the Lions Club (a kind of community association that does lots of nice things for people) and they make a Xmas cake as a fund raiser for the various things they do. The thing is...it's a nice gift to receive because even if you're not doing so well you know that this gift is giving to others as well. If you're giving a gift to someone who is in need and doing it tough...they don't have much to share or gift others with and so when you do have it, you share it...they'll most likely package up some of it and pass it on. So...wrap something up in clear cellophane so they can see what it is, with ribbons and a blank notecard...and throw it in the parcel (we always gave some of it away...we always knew someone in more need than we were or someone we desperately wanted to thank even in a little way and because we hadn't expected it hadn't something to give in return with the budget so tight..and we recyled the ribbon and paper...). I hope that doesn't sound awful...but there's a feeling that it isn't Christmas when you can't give a bit of the Christmas spirit to others and it's always important to bless others when you are blessed...so we thought.

Probably a good idea to use a range of energy sources as all energy production has an offset e.g. solar energy offset by the materials used to produce photovoltaic cells or ethanol from corn offset by loss of food crops. Upandcoming contender in the alternate energy stakes: artificial photosynthesis.

Theobromine is better than caffeine...cocoa mmmmm. trivia of the day: Humans are also susceptible to chocolate poisoning if enough is ingested. The lethal dose is placed at around 10 kg (22lbs) due to theobromine. Death by chocolate...and you thought it was just a cutesy name.

A family friend is aspy...he got married. She's really nice and loves him heaps. They are a cute couple. They're into their third year of marriage now and apparently it's working. She isn't aspy. They're both very bright people. She's a university lecturer and he's a comp programmer. It works because whenever she uses the word no...he listens. No to her eating prawns (cause they make her throw up) ...no to playing a guitar 24 hours a day for 7 days...stuff like that. She only uses it when she's pushed to the limits....why it drives her nutty he doesn't know. It's kind of cute...he goes she said no...looks sad about it...doesn't say why...he doesn't really understand the why. Throwing up when you eat prawns cause you don't like the taste of them is seen as illogical....just try one he says LOL. The smell makes her nauseous and you can see that on her face but she's hiding it so that everyone else at the dinner can enjoy their prawns. No one at the dinner wants to see her throw up...we're all looking nervous when he peels a prawn and offers it to her and wish he'd stop insisting. Finally the arms get folded and the no word gets uttered. He looks unhappy...peeling prawns for girls is a romantic gesture ...I'm not sure what he thinks was going to happen...she would eat a prawn and go, fantastic, my aversion to prawns has been cured forever or something like that. He doesn't see stuff. He loves her...and accepting no...though he doesn't understand it...is what he does. So yeah. They're a cute couple. He's forty. She's thirty. I don't think he dated much. Surprised everyone when he came home from an overseas trip with the story of how he met a very nice girl who was coming to visit him. They married 3months later. It would all seem a bit quick if you didn't see them together...they're just great for each other. Love happens. He seems pretty happy, but I don't think he planned on it happening. It just did. I am prone to mild aspy tendencies at times.

There are two types of I.Q: measured I.Q and active I.Q. Active I.Q is sometimes reffered to as E.Q or the emotional quotient. EQ - is a measure of your emotional intelligence, or your ability to use both your emotions and cognitive skills in your life. Emotional intelligence competencies include but are not limited to empathy, intuition, creativity, flexibility, resilience, coping, stress management, leadership, integrity, authenticity, intrapersonal skills and interpersonal skills. This can be learnt. Certainly we value others in life not for being smart ..but for their ability to use this to improve their lives and those of others. Some call it the difference between Knowing how and why (emotional) vs. Knowing what (cognitive). I.Q cannot identify the best scientists, chess players or identify success. I.Q doesn't measure all forms of intelligence. Howard Gardner quote: "The tasks featured in the I.Q. test are decidedly microscopic, are often unrelated to one another, and . . . are remote, in many cases, from everyday life. They rely heavily upon language and upon a person's skill in defining words, in knowing fact about the world, in finding connections (and differences) among verbal concepts . . . . An individual can lose his entire frontal lobes, in the process becoming a radically different person, unable to display any initiative or to solve new problems -- and yet may continue to exhibit an I.Q. close to genius level. Moreover, the intelligence test reveals little about an indivdual's potential for further growth." Howard Gardener looked at other areas of intelligence: Linguistic - words and language Logical-Mathematical - logic and numbers Musical - music, rhythm and sound Bodily-Kinaesthetic - body movement and control Spatial-Visual - images and space Interpersonal - other people's feelings Intrapersonal - self awareness Gardner recognises Moral or Naturalist as other possible categories. Teaching focusses on using these other intelligences and capitalising on them. Sternberg said that practical intelligence was not measured by I.Q tests. Standard Weschler I.Q tests cannot be used with children who don't have the cultural or linguistic skills..so a better measure/indication of strengths and weaknesses can be obtained using other tests. My experience as a teacher is that I.Q tests are an indicator ....but determination and persistence often make the difference between life success and can impact on academic success in both positive and negative ways. It takes persistent children and persistent teachers. The time frame may be longer for some in skill acquisition...but it all adds up. Sometimes the ability to point out successes over long periods of time that may go unnoticed is a revelation for the child. They don't always see their efforts acknowledged or may not recognise them themselves. A favourite quote of mine is from Einstein: to paraphrase: he said that he wasn't more intelligent than other people...it was just that he persisted on tasks for longer. This is what I tell the children that I teach and I believe. Can I.Q change. YES, most definitely. It's too big an area to get into. But studies of changes in I.Q are cited here Intelligence quotient - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia You have to scroll down a bit...start with the subheading environment. It is a well-known fact that repeating I.Q tests can result in a higher performance on subsequent tests. Note that playing music has been known to influence I.Q. What can help: everything. Okay the latest research: Intelligence And Rhythmic Accuracy Go Hand In Hand (intelligence and rhythmic accuracy) Plastic Brain Outsmarts Experts: Training Can Increase Fluid Intelligence, Once Thought To Be Fixed At Birth (memory training, particularly short term memory training and increasing fluid intelligence improves cognitive intelligence: use it or lose it). Children's Under-achievement Could Be Down To Poor Working Memory (the links between short term memory or working memory and academic performance...improving it linked to better performance). As Easy As 1, 2, 3: Number Sense Correlates With Test Scores (number sense: the ability to estimate how many items in a group correlated to maths achievement...yep guessing how many items in a pile more accurately leads to mathematical success). Seems to all point to short short term working memory tasks... Working memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia scroll down to training working memory. Dual n'back games: Brain Workshop - a Dual N-Back game a free download...looks like fun...but I haven't tested it out for levels that are suitable for children.

So how long did it take for Utah to give the voting right back to women after that?

Yoghurt Recipe for milk powder 1 and 1/3 cups powdered milk (full cream) 1/3 cup sugar teaspoon vanilla 2 tablespoons of starter using the easiyo sachet (yoghurt maker product, keeps in fridge in a sealed container for ages) put all of the above into the easiyo jar, 1/2 fill with cold tap water,shake until sugar looks disolved, top up with more tap water.Put into the easiyo thermos,with boiling water over night. Turns out pretty thick. Keep in fridge. Stir back in whey if it separates or drain whey and make a kind of yoghurt cream cheese from the solids remaining using a cheese cloth to squeeze the liquid out (it's also good to use in other recipes in the place of water). A yoghurt maker is like a vaccuum flask with a sealed container inside for the yoghurt and you pour hot water in the outside container and put the outside lid on it and forget about it while it cultures. Simple to do. That's how we do it Oz style.

Men are not lesser beings. Let's look at the right to vote in the U.K. timeline... 1884 The Third Reform Act equalises voting restrictions between counties and boroughs. Over 50% of the adult male population can now vote. Most British men above the age of 21 are allowed to vote as long as they have lived in the same place for a year. 1918, February The Representation of the People Act gives the vote to women over the age of 30. It also reduces the time that voters must live in the same place from one year to six months. Wow...it took 34 years for the men who had only a 50% voting representation at the start of that, change that to a better percentage AND give it to women as well. Er...yes...men had the vote...who else was going to vote it in? Okay, men could vote at 21 and women at 30...took another ten years for it both to be the age of 21. But still an awesome timeframe for a great change nonetheless.

Thanks...googled the Mormon Four and downloaded the posted files that are linked in this thread. Great information there. My take on it is that you just need to do one months storeage (x12). I actually work on a three month goal at a time. Recently I put together a home first aid kit/car kit/72 hour kit and personal carry purse including fire blanket...it cost me about a $100 less than a really good home firstaid retail kit with a lot less contents in it *and I made four kits*. I now have a list of items, know how to restock it instead of buying the expensive refills and a greater awareness of the contents and the reasoning behind it. Greater value in my opinion. I intend to follow the same process with my 72 hour kit and I'm doing it with my one year food supply. The thing about the one year food supply is that if you sit down and work out calorie needs and balanced diet and food you use...rotation and replacement and storeage and building on it is easier. Including high calorie foods for emergency situations is something I hadn't thought about and needed to fix. My peronalised system involves rotating a quarter of the one year storeage for yearly use and thus rotating half of it every two years. It's stored in 4 lots. This means that one year storeage is turned over completely every four years and a quarter replaced yearly. That way items are not stored for longer than two years once the system is up and running/cost is spread out and can be added to the shopping list in allotments...it is a short term storeage system as the heat here means items do not store well long term). I have the milk, salt and honey covered in my yearly plan (1 years storeage of these). Wheat ...no...LOL. Though the grain quota is there via pasta, rice, flour etc. These don't have a long storeage life though. Ideally I think I would like flour,honey and salt in addition to the one years storeage. Milk powder is problematic for storeage... I believe it has a two year lifespan at best.

The rocket stove looks a little like a Kelly Kettle/storm kettle. A small 1L kelly kettle and a dreampot (thermocooker) seem to be good fuel saving ideas. Also with the hot days here a solar shower type device would give you plenty of hot water for reconstituting dried food or steam cooking using a water bath/vacuum flask type method (think yoghurt maker).

Try to find a cooking book that is used in highschool: the meals are simple and basic and it talks about cooking terms and provides information on how to cook and prepare vegetables etc. It's a great little launch pad for teaching yourself how to cook. Join aforum for new mum's...no you don't have to have a young un...but lots of SAHM working things out together...they're happy to answer your questions on the best way of cleaning a shower screen or why did my cake sink!!!! If you find a good forum you can get help within 15 seconds for what recipe can I make with only three pantry items. I really rely on these forums with problem shooting domestic stuff. They'll also alert you to sales and coupons...SAHM are home budgetting experts. Oh and there are blogs out there from mumbloggers that are amazing sources of information. If you don't know how to prepare dried beans they'll walk you through the steps. Mumbloggers are a big part of the blogging world. Try googling canning on a blog search on google with whatever it is that you want to can...there will be picture guides and tips. (I keep meaning to have a go at it...eventually) Wikihow and Videojug are dedicated internet places with videos of how to do stuff like how to change a lightbulb, wash a dog, make pikelets. They have short videos. Nothing like seeing someone do it to help you along. Canning...join a forum that is into *simple living*...you'll pick up canning/gardening tips ...they tend to do things that promote self-reliance or self-sufficiency: candlemaking etc. While they have an environmental slant to them they know their stuff. Flylady is good for getting a domestic cleaning routine going...there are a lot of books on this with varying systems.Check out amazon. I have found that what you really need is a personal system so I mix and match various strategies for tackling things. NOW is the time to join an XMAS domestic goddess website...they have ones that step you down to preparing for the XMAS holiday season with weekly tasks to do. They are amazing. This might be a whole lot more fun to do than flylady because you are working to a goal: Xmas day...training wheels so to speak. It does weeklycleaning tasks/homemade gifts/Xmas puddings etc. Martha Stewart eat your heart out.. Breaking things up helps: here's my current steps towards canning: learning how to make pre-made chocolate drinks/soups pre-made bake anything mixes/oatmeal packs (replicating convenience products like pizza bases etc). Organising the pantry and working on a rotation system, learning to date products as soon as they come into the house. Have 200 days of food storeage now *YAY* and the other 100 days is still OAMC freezer stuff LOL. Menu planning and OAMC. Learning to shop in advance. Using jam setter to make fridge jams etc. Home made sauces. Currently I'm a little side-tracked from this (doing a first-aid kit and working out a 72 hour kit. I learnt how to turn off the water main supply to the house LOL). When I was a student I had a housekeeping book I'd received as a present: it told you how to sort out washing and stuff like that. DO ONE THING. THEY DOMINO. (I started off with being annoyed at the price of buying some muffins for lunch for work from the supermarket and the idea that I would do some homebaking and make my own muffins...they turned out...bought another muffin tray...froze them...had four weeks of lunches... Muffins are entirely to blame : )

My mum was a bank teller. Three things that weren't possible in my mother's youth: (1950's/1960's) Born 1940's. to work after marriage, to go to university, to own a house (only married loans were approved). The legal majority was 25. Women were not allowed in pubs/public bars. Women had separate lunch rooms in work places in jobs where there were a greater ratio of men at the time, such as in teaching. Pay was not equal then for the same job. My Gran was a nurse. Three things that weren't possible in my gran's youth...she lived to see all of these change: (1930's, 1940's) Born 1920's. To vote, to divorce or have an area of appeal against domestic violence, to own a house (if you were wealthy enough to avoid the banks then you could when this changed). Three things that women could not do in my youth or that changed: get a loan for a house (it changed *yay*); women weren't all that represented in maths and straight science courses (my friend was one of three engineers in her year level of uni); appeal against sexual harrassment in the workplace (that changed too) or have work friendly conditions for families (maternity leave and parental leave were given..unpaid...but you'd still be able to return to a job rather than resign). Three things I hope for the future: equal representation in management and politics so that we can have family friendly laws passed (here's to the rights of stay at home mums...and dads) and equal earning opportunity (currentlyworking women on average earn $10 000 U.S less than their male counterparts (this made the news in the U.K). For over 40 years of working that's $400 000 less! For every woman in the workforce....oh my stars...we're talking a huge amount of money that women will never see for their working hours away from their families.

You have to understand this one in terms of what was going on at the time regarding marriage..."When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it comes to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemliness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house" (Deuteronomy 24:1) So they did...some arguing that it was valid to do so according to the law for *any reason whatsoever*burning the bread etc. Divorce was commonplace at the time. I think the thread of the conversation goes along the lines of Moses permitted it in Jewish law because of the hardness of hearts of the people. Women could not initiate a divorce in those days...but they were given a bride price if their husbands divorced them for not being pleasing enough...matter of leaving home, any belongings, children and that was that...could happen to any wife at any time.

World Economic Forum : Gender Equality Rankings World Economic Forum - Gender Gap Report Breaks things up into health, education, economic opportunities and political voice. If you look at the country profiles you can see that the number one ranking country for equity still has a 25% female/70% male ratio (roughly) for political decisionmaking and a 35/65 ratio for managerial/professional leadership and 40% representation in tertiary education positions...while the educational achievements have parity....income is still $10 000 per annum lower on average for women. There you have it...the gold standard of the best women's lib has achieved LOL. So....that short-changed feeling...would be.... ACCURATE.. I just wonder if something hasn't been denied us in all this liberation. Yep. Liberation.

I'm in Australia, so we don't really have the cultural practice here...I've only had it twice in 15 years where kids have knocked on the door so I'm probably more uncomfortable about it than you guys are because it's unfamiliar territory. Being a teacher I'm probably a little more extreme when it comes to children's safety than the average person *occupational hazard*. Yes, I realise millions of kids go trick or treating on Halloween and nothing bad happens.

Splitting the group into two is a smart idea. My guess is that there are some kids in the group that are *competing* for attention. It doesn't have to be completely separate...begin to together/split into small groups/finish together. Sometimes good kids in the wrong combination leads to problems...this is also stressful for them cause kids need to know that other kids will behave towards them in the right way as well and they keep losing their teachers and unhappy teachers are not the best teachers (sorry..they may be very good ones, but when in difficult circumstances performance is less than optimum and kids react to this even if it is well-hidden). They may not always need two teachers. But they shouldn't have to suffer through this if it's possible to provide a better teaching situation and you can do that. If you can get things to a level where things are humming along better and they are in a better routine behaviour-wise you can look at increasing the time together or mixing up groups...slowly and with much thought. Spend a little of the time talking about group behaviours and working on this area...and you will eventually spend much more time teaching them the stuff that needs to be taught. You can't teach when they don't know how to learn. They aren't able to pick up on much in these circumstances any more than a teacher can focus on the lesson itself.

Hi, Sorting out my preparedness and doing firstaid kits and stuff as I've been pretty slack about things like this. I was looking at 72 hour kits for ideas and I noticed that one of them had a hexi stove in it. The pluses appear that it's a light and safe in terms of carrying fuel and that we can readily get them here. The fuel can be stored a longish while. The negatives appear that chemical fires and food ...well not sure it's a smart combination. I came across a hiking trangia (methylated spirits stove) and liked the idea. A litre of methylated spirits goes a long way on one of these. I know it takes a bit longer to boil water on them. Not sure if it's safe for food or how long you can store methylated spirits (as they come in plastic bottles). The plus is that the stoves are simple and don't require a whole lot of knowledge about safety checks of gear and that the fuel is easily purchased when supermarket shopping. The negatives are for a 72 hour kit it's extra weight...but as a backup option in the home it's probably not a bad idea. I looked at gas...but I really wouldn't use it all that often and storing gas in the home etc. Being a bbq nation the first thing that you can't purchase during a blackout situation is gas cylinders...they go quickly. Another thing I wondered about is candle lanterns...do they work? And how good are the windup torches/windup radios and solar lights? I had a hand powered torch as a kid and I remember that the beam was next to useless. Thanks in advance.

Most good people here are uncomfortable with door knocking even when supervised by parents (Oz)...it's the wrong message to give children that they can approach strangers for candy. Things can go wrong...when a child has their first anaphylactic seizure to peanut products... or trips over a plant while running off to the next house...or says they have parents with them across the street and don't... I'm just not comfortable with the idea. Halloween parties seem to be catching on though even if door knocking is rare.