I’m Thinking Of You
Adele Basheer from Intrinsic told me about this site. Thanks, Adele.
A website has been developed here in SA for people experiencing trauma or critical illness. It enables them to be part of a constructed “care zone” of friends, family and carers, so that their network can work in harmony to support the person in need.
The key to this site is the “critical update” tool, which enables SMS updates to be sent to members of a particular care network.
The person who can send these SMS updates is called a “Care Guide”. Basically, they are the “designated contact person”. This person could be a relative or close friend of the person in need. They should be the person who receives information from hospital staff or others (ie social workers, chaplain, police or Government agencies). A Care Guide may also be a member of a club/organisation, school, teacher, etc.
A Care Guide can invite “Carers” to a “Care Zone” and send out “Critical Updates” to keep other “Carers” informed.
There is also a task manager to help coordinate carers involved in carrying out various tasks, it can even help coordinate visiting hours, rosters, etc.
The service is free, except that recipients of SMS updates are charged $1.50 to receive and 25c to send a message back.
Apart from caring for people suffering trauma, the site is open to people wanting to build networks (eg dog walking networks in a suburb) or stage family reunions, etc.
It is very private – you can only access information about a network once you have been invited into a network by a care guide.
Amusing election commentary
A family friend in Sydney, David Mortlock, is a finance broker with a wicked sense of humour. He sends out regular Mort Updates, but during this election campaign, he has started a daily blog full of dry humour and links to hilarious resources on the net.
You would have to say a lot of his commentary leans to the left, or is it just political satire aimed at a long-serving incumbent?
He has linked to a wonderful video of our treasurer being super-imposed into a Midnight Oil song video – the former band of Shadow Environment spokesperson, Peter Garrett.
Cliche Rotation Project
The problem with cliches is that they are just so darned … you know. Cliche. The Cliche Rotation Project intends to change all that. Through it, the Defective Yeti (don’t ask) will replace current sets of cliches with new ones of equivalent meaning. Here are some examples:
“Made a mountain out of a molehill” becomes “Saw a duck and shouted “dragon!”, “Quiet as a church mouse” becomes “Silent as a shadow’s whisper”, “Ready and willing” becomes “On it like a bonnet”, and “Wore his heart on his sleeve” becomes “Flew his feelings from a flagpole”.
You are welcome to make contributions too.Let Me Count The Ways
Words may never speak louder than actions, but that doesn’t mean all words are created equal. This feature by TravLang.Com lists the universal phrase “I Love You” in more than seventy different languages. But does it carry the same romantic notions in all languages – I think not!
Here are some examples of “I love you” that I think sound ugly:
Afrikaans – Ek is lief vir jou!
Danish Jeg elsker dig!
Farsi Tora dost daram!
German Ich liebe dich!
Hungarian Szeretlek!
Swahili Nakupenda!
Yiddish Kh’hob dikh lib!
Marshallese Yokwe Yuk!
And the most romantic? My ear recommends:
English I love you!
French Je t’aime!
Italian Ti amo!
Simpsons – best of introductions
I’ll leave you tonight with an entertaining video mash-up of various introduction sequences from The Simpsons. In the video you will see bizarre behaviours on the family couch, to macabre happens, like when the couch starts eating people along with other couches doing the same all around Springfield, to the couch blasting into space. Simply simpsons!