Mark O’Meara: the blog

Those boffins at LucasFilm have made a bunch a cartoons to go between Episode II: When Clones Attack and the upcoming Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.

These were shown on the cartoon network on pay tv which means I havn’t seen so much as a frame of them. However from what I have read it seems that they don’t suck all that much. You can already order them from the States or, if you can be a patient little poppet, they will be available here in just a couple of weeks.

Lesson for the day - the force is with merchandising.

I may never play like Coffee Bean or write like Sarah but I thought I’d post this all the same. Here is a recent recording of the most recent things I have written called, some tentatively, I Can’t Tell If You’re A Lesbian (mp3 file, just over 1 mb).

Lesson for the day - Now I really will never see Bluehouse again safely.

I think you have a pretty good idea of where you are in your life when you look outside at the sunshine and think about what a fantastic washing day this is.

However I did take a break for being excited about washing to admire Nicky’s roses which look very purdy indeed in the sun.

Lesson for the day - “consider the lillies” - Brian of Nazareth.

In various courses that I had to go to when I worked they would often offer examples from their own lives to demonstrate a particular point. But many of these trainers didn’t have appropriate stories from their own lives so would make them up on the spot.

On very special trainer explained how she had been to see Top Gun about fifteen times when she was younger and had wanted to join the Air Force just like Tom Cruise.

If she had seen Top Gun and paid any attention she would have known they were in the Navy.

This sort of thing distracted me from the point and annoyed me.

So you would think I would know better than to tell fibs. But I didn’t this morning.

I posted something for Nicky and it cost a little over $10 and I had expected it to cost around $4. So when she asked I told her $4 because I didn’t want her to be annoyed at how much it cost compared to her estimate. However, clown that I am, I didn’t know her estimate was $10 and I was quickly found out.

Now, entirely reasonably, she pointed out that she wondered what else I fib about. Now I have to get my second and third wives to accept that I will be “in Melbourne on business” a little longer and work a little hard to cover up the fact that I am secretly Amanda Vanstone. If I have to lock up so more refugees to cover this up then so be it, political life is never easy.

Lesson for the day - the only thing worse than a liar is a bad liar.

It has been a full week since Shannon left our fair shores. After all those years of her just being a voice and a bunch of text it now seems strange that she is gone from the physical world.

Still, blog entries are good to see and hopefully they’ll continue now that we are all much more real.

Lesson for the day - even lassie went home.

It turns out that those characters at Foozley’s childcare centre can’t help with any extra days while I am doing my teaching rounds. Happily we do only have three days in there without someone to look after young Finn.

Monday 18th of April
Thursday 21st of April
Thursday 28th April

We have checked with Human Services and it seems we can’t just leave him at home with a pack of Saladas and Play School on repeat.

Now I know most of you characters work or live too far away. But if anyone could come and look after him for just one of these days it would make a massive difference. It would be from 8am until 5pm but there is a couple of hours in the middle where he sleeps and you could watch a movie, play with two puppies, watch telly, play on the internet, play guitar or read a book.

If you think you might be able to help please let me know and, just to encourage you, here is a cute photo of the boy himself.

Lesson for the day - you need to be especially nice when asking for the unreasonable or unlikely.

Popular and successful musicians often say that their songs are made up of only three chords and particularly G, C and D. In some very rare cases this is true but mostly it is just utter nonsense. Most pop songs have about eight or nine chords in them.

My songs, by and large, do have three or four. This is not, I should add, a point of pride. Just a point of slackness on my part. I have learned a handful of chords and that seems to have taken me where I want to go.

Firstly we have the vanilla chords (A,C,D,E,F,G). You might notice that B is not in there. That is because it is a barre chord and, try as I might, the just don’t happen for me.

Next are four sevenths (A7, D7, E7 and G7). For good measure I’ll throw in a ninths I use (C9) and a sixth (G6). I can deal with these because they are very simple variations on the vanilla chords.

When it comes to sharp they are right out. I know better than to play with sharp things. Flat are out too, musical types will tell you they are just sharps in disguise.

And finally we have a couple of minors (Am, Em) that make the grade. I know there are others and especially others that are commonly used. But not by this little black duck.

Lesson for the day - there is nothing to be ashamed about in having a small chord list.

As I looked out the window at Indiana I realised that walking is easy when you have four legs. You just need to be upright and everything you need is there and pointing at the ground and you can’t go wrong.

Lesson for the day - perhaps I shouldn’t have had that afternoon nap.

I didn’t work out any of these, I just cut and pasted them into this document. Hopefully they should keep us singing for a little while.

Campfire songs

I can say most of them so it should be suitable for all abilities.

Lesson for the day - when it comes to group singing then simple is good.

Nicky’s sister thinks that our puppies are perhaps a little fat and perhaps she is right. Real working dogs, of course, are out working all day not sleeping under the pergola.

However I don’t think EmmyLou worries about how her body looks. After all this is the same body that allows her to;

run and run and run,
swim after a ball,
leap over a fence,
chase a pusscat,
lick and push over a small boy, and
reach up to clean the high chair

and she is quite fine with it.

Aside from all of this she is a beautiful and fluffy puppy so wouldn’t need to worry anyway.

Lesson for the day - it is helpful to concentrate on what you can do.