The day Sarah learns that her studies have impacted on her blog in the wrong way

If there is one thing I learned at uni it was that people who read material online are stupid and slow so you have to write in simple language. This is also true of writing for newspapers (The Age usually aims for a year 10 readability level if I recall correctly).*

So it is with shame that I learn that I my readability score is far from ideal.

Cash Advance Loans

(poo, bum, wee. Maybe some key terms from kindergarten will balance out all my super-academic language and bring my score down a little.)


*I tested The Age, and surely enough its website is a rated as 'High School'

Decision made and it was the right one

If you didn't read yesterday's post this won't make much sense. So read it now, and ask yourself why you didn't read it in the first place. Did you think it was clever to ignore chronology? Don't blame the internet's non-linear structure. You can read, so read the dates OK.

So, I went with Option B (saw a film). In the end the decision was made for me because my friend seemed to think it was a silly idea to stand in the rain. I can see where she is coming from.

Boy am I glad I saw the movie! It was a Dutch film called Polleke which I now realise is from 2003 which makes me less cutting edge than I thought. It's probably been played on SBS about four times by now.

Polleke is a film about an 11 year old girl who is in love with her Moroccan friend Mamoun and has idiot parents but lovely grandparents.

Polleke is a total winner, which is something I do not say lightly considering my racist feelings towards the people of the Netherlands.

In fact this film has forced me to look at myself in the mirror and face my prejudices towards my Dutch brothers and sisters. I feel shame.

It was one of those films that the whole audience loved and we clapped and cheered as the credits rolled. The Indonesians knew not the take the nasty Moroccan uncle too seriously and laughed at him where I might have been angry or upset, so I was able to laugh too.

We sat under the aircon so I snuggled into my blanket* and pretended it was winter! Tonight I might sneak in a cup of hot chocolate, but I will have to figure out a way to get it from my house to the venue without any spillage.

***READER PARTICIPATION TIME***

Q.Which movies should I see when I'm in Melbourne?

*if you don't take a blanket to the cinema you should start. Perfect way to combat the over-cooling common in almost every cinema on the planet.

Because I can't commit to anything let alone a blog host

It's annoying when people move their blog, but Blogger is really bringing me down. I don't have the time to create a new header, and as you can see the basic templates are simply not an option. I don't suppose anyone feels like making me a blog do they?

Moving on to the theme of today's post: decision making.

Anyone who has eaten with me in a restaurant (particularly in Malaysia which I think of as my darkest decision making period) knows that it is not one of my strengths. I can stare at a menu full of tasty food options, be quite confident that I will like it all, and still get anxious when the waiter walks over. I used to ask the waiter what I should order until one guy said "Why would I know what you want to eat?" Which is an excellent point.

So you can imagine my anxiety today when I am faced with a real challenge. Please help.

The options

a) Today is International Human Rights Day ("Hari Ham Internasional" in Indonesia) and tonight there will be a demonstration. Everyone wears white clothes and we get torches! Sounds pretty great right? But it's raining and...

b) For five days there is a European "Film Festival" At the European Commission. Last night I watched "Zozo", a Swedish film about a boy who leaves Lebanon for Sweden during the war. It was so great to watch a good film.

If I only made decisions based on what I want to do (something I am naturally quite good at), I would go for option b, but there is a fair bit of guilt associated with saying "sorry human rights day, I'd prefer to watch some bourgeois European film".

Is it the small decisions we make daily that make us who we are? If so I have to participate in Human Rights Day activities right? But what if it's more important to expand my cultural world through film than stand in the rain while my white clothes turn see-through?

I am feeling so conflicted right now that I am going to listen to music for a while in hope that the answer is hidden in the words of popular song.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

Did you know that we're in the middle of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence? It's true!

From 25 November to 10 December people all over the world are saying no to violence against women...and you can too! (I knew you'd be pleased.)

UNIFEM has just launched a "virtual" book (not my lame-o use of " ") that you can sign at:

http://www.saynotoviolence.org/

If that wasn't enough excellent news in itself, when you sign the book Nicole Kidman will send you an email! She is busily tapping away at her computer composing email after email (over 11,000 so far). The poor dear must be rather tired, but hell, she needs to learn what real work is all about for a change.

So make Nicole work a little bit harder and sign the book now!

Deck the halls...

Holy moly, I'm going to be in Melbourne for Christmas!

The Interlude that didn't end

The 'brief' interlude to my KL report lasted for over a week. So I will get back to it and show you a nifty picture from the Indonesian Embassy in KL.















The people lined up here are mostly Indonesian migrant workers who need new passports or updated documents. They get in there early in the morning (there is a queue at the front gate before the embassy opens) and stay there all day waiting to see someone. There is lots of food and drinks to keep everyone going for the day.

Fortunately the queue to get a visa to Indonesia is much shorter. You go there in the morning, hand in your papers and wads of cash and return three days later to pick up your passport that hopefully contains a shiny new visa inside. I won't talk about how this almost didn't happen for me because this dull post will become even more so. Actually, in that respect this post captures the feeling of standing in the visa queue perfectly.

The burden of fame: an important lesson in dealing with over-exposure

I am so famous at the moment it's crazy.

I get Google Alerts for anything relating to Aceh and the other day I was sent a link to this very blog!

And today I was searching for information on Violence Against Women in Aceh and the second item on Google was a page featuring a document I'd written!

Don't worry, I won't let the celebrity go to my head. I'm just a normal person you know. I like normal things like anyone else. Sure, people come up to me in the street and are all like "I love you so much" but that's cool. It doesn't really affect me.

But you might just want to go here and take a look at the Qanun & Aceh picture in the right column. You might even want to follow the link and read my fascinating document....or not.

Actually I just followed the link myself, and the website isn't great. I guess I am just a B-grade internet celebrity after all.