I Blogged Myself

Why do you always come here? I guess we'll never know. It's like a kind of torture, To read this blog, y'know.

Welcome to the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational blog since Kermit left just a little bit of the swamp in his pants.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Shout Out # 4

Today I'm returning to my Shout Outs. As most of you know, I'm calling these things 'yuyus' (which is the opposite to 'memes', because they're not about me - they're about one of yu).*

This time, the 'yu' in question is my good friend Riss.

When I was President of the student drama group during my university years (for two magnificent and glorious years -- and an unprecedented outstanding Presidency it was, too!), Riss was my always-reliable, ever-ready, intelligent, faithful Secretary. This doesn't mean she made the coffee and did the filing. I hate coffee.

*drum fill*

No, she was the Company Secretary, and was in charge of all the Minutes, Agendas, Actions, written records, paper trails, and a plethora of other things as well (in addition to usually being the Vocal Director for the annual musical). And she handled this administration nightmare with aplomb.

Considering what her current job entails, it's not so surprising.

Riss is fiercely loyal, generous to a fault, bakes a brilliant pavlova (with your choice of topping!)**, and is warm, caring and cheery.

Each post on her blog generally starts and ends with a line from a song from musical theatre (or, from memory, sometimes just from a 'normal' song). She has a unique way of looking at life, and even if you're not in to musicals, I know you will still enjoy reading her thoughts and observations (after all, not all my readers are into The Muppets, nor are all of Clokeeeey's readers into sport, etc).

Riss is very well-read (there's nothing she enjoys more than snuggling up in bed with a good book, or someone who's read one ... which is usually her husband Logan), and it shows in her strong writing style and careful, deliberate, perfect typographical skills.

None of this diminishes her ability to tell a story or make her readers smile, though (in fact, it certainly strengthens this ability), so a day spent deep in Riss' back catalogue is a day well spent. (Does that sound rude to anyone else?)

I like Riss. She leaves comments here and there, is always friendly and polite, makes strong arguments, provides wise advice, loaned me a few discs so I could fix my computer (which I did!), and helped me install my new version of MS Office (yay!).

And it also happens to be her birthday today. She's 48.




( ... In anticipation of the whack I'm going to get on my arm for saying that, she's actually 30.)

So head on over to Riss' blog and leave her a special birthday message. She doesn't post too often these days, but she's all about the comments on other people's blogs. And she's a top friend.




* Stay tuned for when I credit the person who cleverly thought up the term 'yuyu' ... but only when they're on the receiving end of one of these things. (Oooh! The suspense is killing me, etc!)

** To thank me for this lovely post, I'll have a Violet Crumble pav thanks, Riss.




.

13 Comments:

At Friday, March 17, 2006 8:02:00 am, Blogger Spankk said...

Wassup with TAR not being on last night????

 
At Friday, March 17, 2006 9:35:00 am, Blogger elaine said...

Each post on her blog generally starts and ends with a line from a song from musical theatre

I think we need to introduce her to jelly!

Happy birthday Riss.

 
At Friday, March 17, 2006 10:28:00 am, Blogger Riss said...

I laugh. Thanks love.

Glad you fixed the computer.

I promise a pav at the next Gathering. Can it be a chocolate pav as well as having the violet crumble?

*big kiss on cheek* mwah
*big hug*
*big hug and kiss for Wifey too* mwah

 
At Friday, March 17, 2006 3:11:00 pm, Blogger BEVIS said...

Spankk, yeah, most shows are either on hiatus this week (or are showing repeats), presumably due to the Commonwealth Games on Channel 9. I can't think of any other reason for 7 and 10 to run repeats or to replace regular shows with crappy American telemovies about the end of the world. House, NCIS, Medium, Lost and The Amazing Race are some of the shows I've noticed either missing or running repeats this week. My beloved TV Week let me know about this in advance, so I wasn't too surprised (just really, really disappointed). However, the same glorious magazine assures me that everything will be back to normal next week (which casts doubt on the Commonwealth Games theory, because of course the Games will still be running next week), so this means that us Australian TAR 9 fans will now be THREE weeks behind the Northern American fans. So much for promising us we were going to see each episode 30 hours after they aired in the US! American fans, please bear this in mind when discussing the previous TWO weeks' shows - we won't have seen them here yet (not until I've reviewed them on this blog). Sorry about that.

Elaine, good idea. Jelly? Meet Riss. Riss? Meet Jelly. Tea and scones, anyone?

Riss, you're very welcome. Chocolate pav? Definitely! What kind of question is that to ask me?! As long as it's not coffee-flavoured in any way, the more chocolate, the better. :)

 
At Friday, March 17, 2006 3:44:00 pm, Blogger Spankk said...

...although I heard them mention something about an extra long Lost next week which hopefully doesn't mean in place on TAR, and hopefully will mean an additional extra-long TAR also (but not holding my breath!)

 
At Friday, March 17, 2006 6:34:00 pm, Blogger BEVIS said...

Well, I can tell you that TV Week lists next week's episode of Lost as running from 8:30pm until 9:35pm (so it's "extra long" by a whopping five minutes!), and then TAR 9 from 9:35pm until 10:30pm.

This means a few things:

1) It may be that Lost only appears to be longer by five minutes, but we don't know if they'll screen fewer ads than normal, perhaps allowing for up to an additional ten minutes of extra footage (although I doubt it);

2) We will only be seeing one episode of TAR 9 next week after all; and

3) Next week's episode of TAR 9 will possibly be edited down by five minutes to allow the programming to get back on track for the rest of the night. The other option is that they include fewer ads in this show, to allow for the timing to shift back to normal without us missing out on any of the show ... but who knows which way it'll go.

We could always ring Channel 7 during office hours and ask!

 
At Saturday, March 18, 2006 3:48:00 pm, Blogger BEVIS said...

Hi ABetterJulie, I don't know what your 'March Madness' is, but every four years (every alternate two years between the Olympic Games, ie. this year), all nations of the Commonwealth (ie. nations 'ruled' or 'governed' by Queen Elizabeth II of England, meaning England [of course], Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Scotland and 65 other countries worldwide) meet up to compete in these Games, which is akin to the Olympics but naturally not as big.

It's a good 'training ground' for those of us in the Commonwealth before the next Olympics rolls around, and although many people disparagingly call them 'The Lame Games' (because it's like a try-hard, mini-Olympics in the same way that Little Athletics or the Boy Scouts is a mini version of Track & Field or the police force respectively), they're still a pretty big deal to those of us whose countries attend each year.

Australia usually romps the Commonwealth Games in (we won 207 medals last time and 'won' the Games, although that's not really the point of them), and we're performing similarly already this time, but the other countries I listed above usually do very well also, and can often give us a run for our money. :)

Melbourne (where I live) is hosting the Games this time, and if you're interested in knowing more, you can visit the Commonwealth Games site, or the Melbourne 2006 site. (Check out the green Medal Table on that second link, down the right-hand side of the page, for a reflection of what I'm talking about, re: Australia's Commonwealth Games dominance. We're currently three days in to this eleven-day event.)

If your question was more of a passing, incidental one (and you don't actually care about any of this), fair enough. Just pretend to be impressed.

Hopefully, by the time I'm able to review the TAR 9 episode after the one where the TGG are eliminated on the soccer field, it'll still be interesting enough for you to read along and make (non-spoiler) comments. It might be difficult to remember what has and hasn't happened yet, but I hope you'll stick with me. :)

 
At Saturday, March 18, 2006 3:51:00 pm, Blogger BEVIS said...

"... they're still a pretty big deal to those of us whose countries attend each year."

Sorry, that's clearly inaccurate, seeing as they're only held every four years! I meant to say "each time".

 
At Saturday, March 18, 2006 10:56:00 pm, Blogger Spankk said...

Does the Queen 'govern' countries like Canada and South Africa?

 
At Sunday, March 19, 2006 12:29:00 am, Blogger BEVIS said...

ABetterJulie, thank you. We all appreciate your restraint (on holding your tongue about TAR 9). I wish we weren't so far behind as well! Also, I wouldn't say Americans are "such bad sports about everything" ... No moreso than anyone else is, anyway. You guys definitely dominate the Olympics, and we get our turn with the Commonwealth Games. America's not part of the Commonwealth, so it's not as if the US could even consider being part of the Games. It's kind of an exclusive club in that way, I guess. If you check it out when you get home, I hope you will be suitably impressed with our gold medal tally after just three days. Meanwhile, I'm going to find out more about this 'March Madness' of yours. Call it a 'cultural exchange program' you and I are embarking upon together!

Spankk, *shrugs shoulders disinterestedly* ... I dunno. They're all part of the Commonwealth, though -- that's all I really meant. What's the correct term, then? Anyone?

 
At Sunday, March 19, 2006 6:29:00 pm, Blogger Riss said...

The countries participating in the Commonwealth Games are all part of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia* begins its definition:

"Commonwealth of Nations, voluntary association of Great Britain and its dependencies, certain former British dependencies that are now sovereign states and their dependencies, and the associated states (states with full internal government but whose external relations are governed by Britain)."

It goes on to say (after listing all the nations included in the Commonwealth and why some were temporarily excluded):

"The purpose of the Commonwealth is consultation and cooperation. The sovereign members retain full authority in all domestic and foreign affairs, although Britain generally enjoys a traditional position of leadership in certain matters of mutual interest. There are economic ties in the fields of trade, investment, and development programs for new nations."

* Because the reference is an American publication it is an Encyclopedia and not an Encyclopaedia. Personally, I love the extra letter 'a' in the word.

Lesson over.

Thanks again everyone who sent me a birthday message.

Bevis, your gentle hint that I needed to update my site has been duly noted and acted upon. Logan has been pushed away from the computer for an evening and I have managed to do some more posting and tidying.

 
At Sunday, March 19, 2006 11:22:00 pm, Blogger Pomgirl said...

South Afica has been a republic since 1961, I'm not sure when Canada stopped having The Queen as head of state but they did. It's not a political, empire thing anymore (or so they say). Apologies but after watching the opening ceremony and all those countries I had never heard of, I spent some time 'googling' for information and have no one to 'impress' it upon. Shall I stop now?

 
At Monday, March 20, 2006 3:54:00 am, Blogger BEVIS said...

Riss, ahh - there you go, then! I think we've all learned something. (Except possibly me. I wasn't listening, sorry.)

Thanks for the 'lesson'. You've cleared up any stupidity I may have allowed to permeate my own blog without thinking of the ramifications.

PS - Your link doesn't work with the final / in it. Try this one, instead.

PPS - Glad you liked all your birthday messages! :)

PPPS - It wasn't a hint - subtle or otherwise! But it's good to hear you've been working on it, anyway.



Pomgirl, another learned individual! I love it! :) Thanks to you, too, for your enlightening instruction on all that perplexes. Much appreciated.

And as a girl (formerly) of the 'motherland', "you oughta know!"

Don't feel you have to stop on my account - anyone is free to shoot the breeze here as much as anyone else, and educating people is a fine way to spend your time! (Or so everyone keeps telling me; especially those who keep trying to convince me to get back into primary teaching!)

 

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