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My wife Liz is a year 1 teacher, which is great for me because anything that I couldn’t understand, slept through or wasn’t paying attention for I can re learn from her!
This is especially great when it comes to grammar. Like many in my generation we wasn’t taught grammar. And this of course was decided by the generation above my own, they probably thought that they’re grammar-less curriculum would be fine!
Well their are unfortunately a few small grammatical issues that plague my generation. And unfortunately the ones who complain loudest about our lack of grmar knowledge are the generation who decided not to teach us!
Anyway, after such a shame shifting introduction it is time to get on to the reason I am talking about all this. I found these videos left open in youtube on Liz’s computer and checked them out.
Talk about fun and education seemlessly combined! Sure they have a New York state education department circa 1982 feel to them, there still awesome!
I finally know what pronoun is! It is not a word that begins with a capital letter like Jeremy or Australia! They are nouns! A pronoun is like ‘it’, or ‘we’ or ‘him’ and ‘her’.
Maybe if you watch these videos you will learn something too! At least you will have fun in the process.
my wife tells me that she watched this video 3 times with her class!
After the second time she asked:
“Now what is an adjective?”
Kid 1: “a bus?”
Liz: “no sweety, not really”
Kid 2: “Camping with your family?”
Liz: “no dear lets keep thinking”
Kid 3: “When you take things out of your bag?”
Liz: “no dear”
Kid 4: A bear?
Liz: “not really”
Kid 5: “Camping with your family?”
Liz: “No! How about we watch the movie again?”
And for the Simpson fans out there, you may recognise this as the inspiration for one of their finest jokes.
Today it was just one of those mornings, you know the ones, when you have two left feet and nothing goes right?
Well I had one of those mornings, but with a slight twist.
It started off well, I was on my bike at 7am, the morning was warm and the breeze was through my hair. I was riding my new bike and enjoying the speed I was getting. I rode through Rhodes, Concord, Five Dock and Drummoyne with no issues, turning onto the beautiful bay run as I cycled next to the still water. I was about 14 km into my ride at this point and so decided to have another drink of berocca that I had put in my water bottle. Swallowing the liquid I could feel the b-b-bounce surge through my body as I approached a big hill at Lilyfield road. I was putting the bottle back when disaster happened. I misjudged the location of my bottle cage and when I let go of the bottle it landed hard on the ground and started rolling away. I stopped suddenly and turned to pick it up, only to see it gently roll towards and then fall into the harbour water.
My blue bottle, gone!
Gone.
My water bottle was Gone.
Slowly floating away.
Someone on a tropical dessert island is going to pick up the bottle expecting a message in it and find berocca. The irony is that it is original flavour and not the tropical flavour.
Well ‘such is life’ as they say in France and so I clipped back in and kept riding to work.
I arrived at work around 8am, all hot and sweaty and gross. I got my clothes together and went down to the male shower in the building. After my shower I was getting changed when I noticed something wrong with my shoes. It took me a while to figure it out.
Can you figure it out?
Look at this photo and guess what is wrong.
What is wrong with this picture?
That’s right! Two right shoes! I bought them last week to keep at work, so that when I cycle I wouldn’t have to bring a pair of shoes to and from work. It took me a good 20-30 seconds of thinking to realise that I had picked up two right sided shoes that were different sizes! Not because I have poor vision, just that my thinking wasn’t broad enough to include the concept of two same sided shoes! This was about 8:20 this morning, so I went and showed the other person who comes to work at that time and we had a laugh and then I went to the shop to change it! But they weren’t open till 9. So I treated myself to a nice breakfast of pancakes and orange juice at a café!
Anyway, it was one of those mornings where I had two left feet… and two right shoes.
But we’re all good now, and I have a new found appreciation for the comfort of shoes that are specially designed to fit your right and left foot.
I still have to buy a new water bottle though, I think I’ll buy a red one to match my bike!
Alejandro Valverde
This may surprise you, but Lance Armstrong is not necessarily my favuorite rider! I also really like another rider called Alejandro Valverde. He is a Spanish rider, but unlike that other Spanish rider who shall not be named (lets just call him ‘pooh face Contador’) he isn’t a super jerk. And being a good Spanish cyclist who isn’t a super jerk is genuinely hard, he is going against a very strong history and culture of jerkism coming out of Spain!
Valverde in the 2008 Tour de France. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images Europe
Anyway if there is one thing you know about Valverde it is that he has been accused by the Italian national Olympic Committee for being a drug cheat and being involved in the infamous Operacion Puerto doping affair. Anyway the Italians over exaggerated (as they can sometimes do) and banned him from racing in Italy for 2 years, he wasn’t banned from racing anywhere else… just Italy. Unfortunately that meant he couldn’t cycle in last years tour as one of the stages passed through Italian territory. Now before you judge him or call him a cheat, just remember that pretty much every cyclist who has ever ridden professionally has been accused of being a drug cheat. The clear example is Lance Armstrong, he has never failed or refused to take a drug test, his biological passport is clean and people still persist to call him a cheat! unfortunately in professional cycling you’re usually guilty until proven innocent!
Anyway, back to Valverde, so Valverde, full of anger and wanting to prove himself went out and won the 2009 Vuelta a Espana (the Tour of Spain) showing that he isn’t going to be affected by the accusations and that he has nothing to hide.
Anyway the reason I mention Valverde is because he has just won the Tour de Med on Sunday. A decent feat. the race is of course set on the Mediterranean, but this year there was snow and rain! Quite a dangerous tour.
Although he is certainly not a clear favourite for the Tour this year he is a very capable, strong cyclist who has a good team behind him! He will also be looking for revenge after not being allwoed in the Tour last year! His Vuelta resulta nd this recent result show that he will be someone to watch
You know what Armstrong is thinking... "pooh face!"
P.s. the other reason he is better than pooh face contador?
Valverde: ”I thought about all the work that my teammates had done, throughout the week as well as today. I knew I couldn’t disappoint them. They set the rhythm for the whole climb and I finished the stage in second place, which was enough to take the overall.”
So on Thursday night I bought a new bike, it is something that I have been looking into for a while and when I came across this bike I decided that it was time to go for it! My old bike has served me well these past 12 years but it was time for an upgrade.
I purchased my old bike when I was younger and much shorter while I was in year 8. I have grown a lot since then and so to ride effectively I had to have my seat post all the way up, with only about 1-2cm in the frame. Over time this of course bent the very top of the seat post holder and so now my seat post is very loose if it goes higher than a few centimetres. It meant that I was riding in an awkward position for my knees as I was so low and so as I was heading to work I was causing lots of strain on my knees. Furthermore it would continually slide down so I would have to stop every 3 kms to pull it up – a difficult process considering the frame was bent.
Anyway all this adds up to a shiny new bike for Jeremy!
It is a racing road bike, full Shimano set, 24 gears, clip pedals and Shimano clip in shoes. Liz liked it for the colour (racing car red and white – the two fastest known colours!)
Lance Armstrong called his book: ‘it’s not about the bike’. However I am really really hoping that it is about the bike and Johan Bruyneel gives me the nod for Radioshack in this years tour! Dreams can sometimes come true. But considering that it is an entry level road bike and I haven’t raced in years it is probably more realistic to expect the nod for the 2011 tour!
But then again, it is racing car red and white! The fastest colours!
Cell S2200
My Bike!! It lives in our apartment and NOT in the our downstairs storage area where it might get dirty or feel lonely. Liz wont let me take it to bed with us! Lucky I promised to love her for better or worse and forsake all others.
Specifications
Frame: Alloy Frame, Very Rigid Replaceable Dropout.
Fork: Cr-mo fork.
Stem: AlloyHandle Bar: Alloy Handlebar
Head Set: Integrated Headset
Gear Set: Shimano 24 Speed Road Bike Groupset.
Front Derailleur: Shimano
Rear Derailleur: Shimano
Shifters: Shimano STI
Sprockets: Slick shift sprockets by DNP
Front Chain Rings: 50t-36t
Crank: TruVativ ISOflow
BB Set: Cartridge BB set.
Chain: KMC Z chain
Brakes: ProMax
Rims: Alloy deep-v rims for extra stiffness
Hubs: Joytech quick release hubs
Spokes: Stainless steel
Tires: Kenda 700Cx23C
Pedals: VP toe clip pedals
Seat Post: 27.2x300mm micro adjustable
Saddle: High quality sports seat
Weight: Approx 10kg (depending on size)
The best thing about it? reduced from $900 to $550! Bargain
I am thinking of trying out this route on Sunday, mainly because I have a work thing in St Leonards in a couple of weeks aso I want to test out the route from Meadowbank
I am also keen to check out the dedicated cycle paths next to Epping road/M2. Anyway, if anyone wants to join and don’t mind going as slow as me let me know, comment or shoot me an email at jeremy_s@hotmail.com
We can work out times later. We can have a coffee at St Leonards and then maybe ride back via the city.
In other news! I bought a new bike last night! I will get soem photos up here soon! But it is awesome.
I am completing my First Aid course tomorrow! I just have to do an all day practical demonstration component that goes with a theoretical component I have already done.
That ‘online theoretical component’ was actually a gruesome 4 hour marathon that almost made me lose my faith in humanity, not because the content was offensive, but because it was unbelievably straight-forward.
Here are some of the highlights from what I learnt from the aforementioned theoretical component:
“Fire is one of the main causes of burns!”
I know that sounds absolutely absurd and ridiculous but it is actually true! I now suddenly understand that expression: ‘if you’re playing with fire, you’re going to get burnt!’
I learnt that in an emergency, the way to get an ambulance was to call 000 and NOT as you would suspect to email hospital administration!
In fact this pearl of wisdom was so important that it was tested in the final exam, but don’t worry, it was multiple choice so it wasn’t too hard!
“If someone has been exposed to extreme cold you should try to warm them”
It even gave some helpful suggestions of how you may do this, including: use a blanket, removing cold wet clothing and replacing with warm dry clothing and of course putting them next to a fire (but obviously not too close as apparently fire is one of the main causes of burns!!)
Anyway I hope tomorrow is a bit more intellectually stimulating and engaging! I’ll let you know…
It is generally said of me that I am a lilly-livered liberal -> most often while in discussions with this guy! I believe in universal health care, the abolition of mandatory detention, increase in the foreign aid budget to 0.7% of GNI by 2015, I am pro public education and social welfare, I try to only have fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate, I have a shirt with a picture of Kevin Rudd on it, I read SMH, I regularly hang out with this guy and I think as a nation we would have grounds to invade the United States if Sarah Palin became the next US president…
Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed Malcolm Turnbull’s speech about the ETS and why he will be crossing thr floor and so I thought that I would share some of it with you (courtesy of SMH of course)
“It is our job, as MPs, to legislate with an eye to the long-term future, beyond the next election, and ensure what we do today will make Australia a better, safer place. Climate change is the ultimate long-term problem. We have to make decisions today so adverse consequences are avoided many decades in the future. It is easy to argue we should do nothing, or little, or postpone action, yet we are already experiencing the symptoms of climate change, especially with a hotter and drier climate in southern Australia.
The planet is warming because of growing greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. If this trend continues, truly catastrophic consequences are likely, from rising sea levels, to reduced water availability, to more heatwaves and fires.
In December, we had confirmation from three leading scientific organisations – Britain’s Met Office, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – that the past decade to 2009 was the hottest since recordkeeping began, hotter than the decade before (the second hottest) and the decade before that (the third hottest).
From the Copenhagen Summit. The snowman says: I'm Melting! Source: http://www.peopletree.co.uk/safia/
Both sides of politics are agreed that Australia should, regardless of whether any international agreement is reached, reduce our emissions by 2020 so they equal a 5 per cent cut from 2000 levels.
It is not enough to say you support these cuts. You must deliver a strong framework to deliver them. Australia should take action now in advance of and to promote a global agreement. While our emissions are only a small share of the global total, we are, per capita, one of the highest emitters.
How can we credibly expect China, with per capita emissions less than a quarter of ours, or India, with less than one-tenth of ours, to take our call for global action seriously if we, a wealthy, developed, nation are not prepared to take action ourselves?
The transition from a high emission economy to a low one cannot be achieved without major changes to the way we generate and use energy and use our landscape. Is an emissions trading scheme the best policy to reduce emissions? Believing that market forces deliver the most cost-effective solution to economic challenges, the answer must be yes.
At their core, these bills are as much the work of John Howard as of Kevin Rudd. We, as Liberals, believed in the superior efficiency of the free market to set a price on carbon. The Rudd government’s approach has broadly embodied the same principles, although there were problems with its initial design. But extensive modifications made in May and November made it a scheme that appropriately balances environmental effectiveness and economic responsibility.
Alternatives such as direct regulation or subsidies will be far more costly. Under a market-based mechanism, like an ETS, there is a clear, transparent and immediate incentive encouraging investment in lower emission technology.
Source: http://pavanvan.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/co2-black-not-green/
Industries and businesses, attended by an army of lobbyists, are particularly persuasive and all too effective at getting their sticky fingers into the taxpayer’s pocket. Having the government pick projects for subsidy is a recipe for fiscal recklessness on a grand scale. Having the government pay for emissions abatement, as opposed to the polluting industries themselves, is a slippery slope to higher taxes and more costly and less effective abatement of emissions.
Most large emitters have committed to substantial reductions over the next decade. Many have already acted. The EU has had an ETS since 2005. China has committed to a 45 per cent reduction in emissions per unit of output by 2020. Japan has pursued lower emissions and higher energy efficiency for three decades. Our commitment is equivalent to a 21 per cent reduction.
The notion that this ETS would put Australia in front of the world is, sadly, completely wrong. We start way behind because our per capita emissions are so large, because our sources of energy are so overwhelmingly dependent on burning coal. This legislation is the only policy on offer which can credibly enable us to meet our commitment and the flexibility to move to higher cuts when warranted.
The ETS is far more in the great traditions of modern liberalism than any other available policy response.
It allows businesses to make their own decisions as to how to reduce emissions. Schemes where bureaucrats and politicians pick technologies and winners, doling out billions of taxpayer dollars, is neither economically efficient nor environmentally effective.”
This is an edited extract from Malcolm Turnbull’s speech in Parliament yesterday in support of the emissions trading scheme legislation.
A Faith that was Assured
Verses 17-24
The author tells us that after Rahab had helped the spies and asks for mercy from the coming judgement of God the spies make an agreement with her to spare her and her family when the city finally falls. 
The spies tell Rahab that she needed to tie a scarlet cord in her window so that when the Israelites attacked the city they would know that her house was to be kept safe in the midst of judgement. The spies also tell Rahab that she needed to make sure that all her family was in the house because those outside would not be spared. Like Noah’s ark when the floods rose or like the houses with lamb’s blood smeared on the doorframes when the angel of death passed through Egypt, Rahab’s house would not suffer God’s judgement.
And Rahab’s experience of salvation is parallel to all those who come to faith in Jesus Christ today.
For we are Rahab if we truly understand the story!
We were not part of the people of God; we were not one of the faithful Israelites about to administer God’s judgement on the land. We were part of a corrupt and sinful generation that despised God; we were a citizen of Jericho, just as Rahab was.
But we were part of God’s plan; for we were chosen before the foundations of the earth were set. And God who loved us as a son or daughter enacted his sovereign will to lead us to faith – our faith was part of God’s plan. God brought his messengers into our life and through them we learnt of the great act of salvation that God has done in Christ Jesus. We ground our faith in what God has already done; we ground our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus – We have a faith grounded in what God has done. And we work this faith out in action as we reject the ways of our people and identify with God’s people – We have a faith that works itself out into action.
And as a sign of that, the blood of Jesus, like a scarlet cord, is given to us that we may hang it in our window and over our lives. The blood of Jesus shows God that we are saved and that though we still live in Jericho, we are part of his kingdom.
And now we live as part of his kingdom, although we remain in Jericho as we await the time of his coming judgement and with it our complete deliverance.
Friends if we have faith in Christ then we have a faith that is assured. Like Rahab, we who have faith in the blood of Jesus know that we have the mercy of God and that on the final day when the wicked are judged, we will be shown mercy.
I love Flash Mobs (I think this is what they’re called)
Check out the videos and you will see why!
Enjoy!
If you haven’t seen this video, please do it is fantastic!
Some more goodness!
In some other news Liz and I found some itunes gift cards! Score! So here is some music I have downloaded off itunes recently:
Out of the Blue by Julian Casablancas
The Cave by Mumford and Sons
Phrazes For The Young
Broken Leg by Bluejuice
You don’t know me by Ben Folds and Regina Spektor
Coin Laundry by Lisa Mitchell
One Way Road by John Butler Trio
The Who Greatest Hits
Green Day: Dookie
Kanye West: Late Registration
Sensational photo! Had to share it! As some of the more ‘long term readers’ of Micaiah Sells Out will know I am a big fan of Awkward family Photos
I have previously given my best 15 of all time, you can see the best 5 here
I dare to say however that the previous list is out of date! It is time for a new one! So, inspired by this photo, I will be bringing you some more Awkward family Photo goodness!
In other news, my sister ‘Bronwyn ‘the monster bronster’ Smith is coming back today! Will be good to see her! I wonder if I looked through out old photos if I could find a suitable one of our family… hmmm, now that is a thought that is gonna fester!
- raaaar
her return is also a good excuse for some cheeky awkward family photos
This one for example is the complete opposite of the photo at the start of the post!
These girls are simply scary!
And my personal favourite!
- feel the burn
