messages to harvestbird:
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from adelyte :
been gone... now i'm back. still love your diary and doggies. ciao for niao.
from true-diamond :
hi I rather liked your most recent entry. And I like to read more later. may I add you to my buddylist. If yes please send a d-land note. If no don't send. thanks,TD
from inacrumbling :
you're welcome ... hopefully, with the onset of spring, things will start to look up. we're nearly into fall here, but i always was a sucker for colder weather.
from inacrumbling :
sounds like you're kind of going through the same thing i am at work, although i've been at my place of employment for a much shorter period ... they're restructuring the dept. my boss and i work closest with, which means we're losing OUR boss, and a great many other sources of help. they're all staying with the school, though, just moving to a different campus/different position - so i guess they'll still be just a phone call away ... and i suppose the changes won't be as difficult/drastic for me as they will be for those who have been with the college longer. OUR boss, for example - formerly the dean of that dept - had been in his position for more than twenty years. the other day, we watched him take one item at a time from his office to his car. it was a rather grim sight. but i think in the long run, the changes will be good ones. like i said, i'm rather detached from it all having only been there for about four months. the best of luck to you as you endure the changes occuring there.
from bethany9 :
Haven't been by in awhile, thought i'd stop in an say hello.
from hissandtell :
A guy sees a sign in front of a house in Luton: "Talking Dog for Sale." He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a black mutt just sitting there. "You talk?" he asks. "Sure do," the dog replies. "So, what's your story?" The dog looks up and says, "Well, I discovered my gift of talking pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the MI5 about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running. "The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. "I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired." The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. The owner says, "Ten quid." The guy says, "This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?" The owner says, "Cause he's a fucking liar. He didn't do any of that shit."
from hissandtell :
Hmmm. Sadly, I can't get into your comments section. Now, missy, there are vegetarian principles and there are vegetarian principles. Obviously I am a failure and have sold my soul to Satan, because the compensation of having a wonderful randy grazier-husband who adores me and makes it possible for me to indulge my need for solitude (not to mention bone idleness) and give my dog (and geese, and ducks, and chooks, and pigs and sheep and horses) room to run around rather outweighs any wrestling I had/have to do with ethical issues of exploiting livestock and raping the land. Mind you, I'm still viewed as an oddity by neighbours who can't understand why I don't eat meat (and can't understand most other things about me either, to be frank). Anyway, do get yourself to the Middlemarch Ball to snare a farmer-husband or three! If it's anything like our B&Ss, you may become quite addicted - to the dancing as well as the country boys... Love, R xxx
from poolagirl :
Congratulations!
from poolagirl :
I really like your new template! Hoorah! It is very elegant.
from adelyte :
thanks! It's good to be back from the burn.
from hissandtell :
Here's a little something to pump you full of pertinent new information, and maybe even make you bark like a dog: http://www.abc.net.au/enoughrope/stories/s1193890.htm Love, R xxx
from fusco :
*hee* but they did come in via your journal, so thanks to you for boosting my stats. i always think of NZ as art and cool fshion design ...
from janthina :
huzzah for handing in the dissertation! i'm not sure i could pronounce even the syllables that are visible, let alone work out what the title is or what it means...
from janthina :
yeah, huzzah and all that. also to you for facing yr old supervisor without flinching. i have one of them too, but thankfully haven't had to face him yet. the ray gun is in the shape of a big big box with a hole they slide you into while strapped onto a stretcher sort of thing, so sadly not like a wizzo molesworth super space ray gun from grabber and grabber....
from hissandtell :
Redoubtable, ay? I had to look that one up, darling! And thank you! Now, I don't know if you get Andrew Denton's "Enough Rope" in Enzed, but he interviewed Tim and Neil on Monday night (you can read the transcript at http://www.abc.net.au/enoughrope/stories/s1183833.htm ) and, amazingly, I was hugely impressed. I rather think I'm in love with Tim; he was deliciously dry in that attractive quasi-intellectual post-drugfucked way I'm such a pushover for. I used to watch Split Enz at the old Cloudland Ballroom in Brisbane when I was a girl (before it was ignominiously torn down in the dead of night under Chairman Joh's reign, the tyrannical old bastard) but I was never really into them or Crowded House in a big way - but then I bought some old CH cds a couple of weeks ago and wondered how I could have been so deaf to their charms. And now I'm reallllly looking forward to hearing the new album...Love, R xxx
from hissandtell :
"So, where are you guys from?" I love it. It's the sort of thing I say all the time, but one that usually earns me laboured explanations. So sad.
from fusco :
i'm sure he'd be more than happy to take it up as a career at the moment, chief birthday motivator would suit him well. lucky miss perfect hair (even for a brief period thats some accolade) i was Ms Blonde Roots in highschool, when everyone else was peroxide mad i dyed my naturally blonde hair black, but when you're 15 i guess matching hair colour to skin tone isn't a big concern.
from mrs-roboto :
I have tried the one leg up on the toilet thing and it doesn't make a goddamn bit of difference. You're right. It only leaves boot prints.
from adelyte :
HAPPY JEFF BECK'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8)
from janthina :
Dr HB: thanks you hang in there and i will too
from adelyte :
Hey. Just finished reading an entry and suddenly the thought occurred to me that you are great and I really like you, so I thought I'd share. :)
from fusco :
*hee hee* from x to y and back, with speeding tickets.
from hissandtell :
Ooh, an acrostic poem. But why don't you write your own? I'm sure you could have put "Robin Hyde" in there somewhere! (Like, after one of the "R"s. Duh.) Love, R xxx
from insensatezz :
thanks for the visit/link. loving the pictures of the dogs. and the mental image of the dog caught on one side of the ten dollar bed and you on the other -- classic. thanks.
from hissandtell :
Binge-assignment marking, hmmm? Well, best of British luck, Dr Bird...
from poolagirl :
You like the name Blue Bunny! How wonderful! It's so whimsical and fun - and it's been around for more than 50 years. That is totally odd for middle America.
from piginawig :
I didn't know what "skiting" was until I looked here: <http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/8715/nzexpres.html>.
from poolagirl :
A 200-pound tumor? Good lord! How big was this woman? Once again, I love your writing.
from hissandtell :
Hmmm...I also said you were "amazing", "brilliant", "dry" and "completely fascinating"- all excellent qualities, too, yes? And it was meant to be a rooly rooly good kind of self-deprecating, darling, honestly! (But I am suitably chastened, nevertheless.) Love, R xxx
from intheory27 :
Thank you for the favorites nod. :)
from poolagirl :
I love the Arthurian legends, and I read all kinds of theories and stories. I just finished Deepak Chopra's "Return of Merlin." It has to be one of the WORST books I have ever read! Some people should just stick to medicine.
from poolagirl :
My goodness! I just finishe reading the second half of your list, and I was stricken with a laughter-induced asthma attack! And then you had to toss me into complete cardiac arrest with the sheep wearing glasses and and your other early writings. You are a total delight as I wander through the Diaryland gardens. Thank you.
from poolagirl :
I went to Ikea once to buy a cheese grater. Because the stores are designed like huge mazes that trap you and make you look at everything in the store, it took me almost an hour. I say GAAAAAAAAA to that nonsense!
from poolagirl :
Thanks so much for making me a diary of note! WOW! I am really flattered. I think you are an amazing writer. This truly means a lot to me. Thanks again!
from bethany9 :
hello and thanks for coming over. after reading your last entry, i feel very calm and at peace. and isnt that what life is all about?
from djcarly :
my arms and brain may be weak, but my ass lives on.
from adelyte :
All morning I've been wondering how many parrots I could smuggle in this jacket...probably a good half dozen... if I consider instead the number of budgies I could pack in here, I am rather astounded. Maybe I could hire myself as a sort of avian mule and make a quick million shuffling back and forth across the border... always good to have a backup plan, you know.
from hissandtell :
Warren's "The Wind" was superb, I thought. I agree with you about his creativity and lyrical imagination being energised, but I imagine that's what often happens when artists look down the barrel of a loaded gun. I had a chuckle over your comments about your jacket being well suited to parrot smuggling, too, and wondered if you were familiar with Roy Slaven and HG Nelson's "budgie smuggling" comments during the Sydney Olympics? That sort of avian thing has a whole different meaning here...
from hissandtell :
I enjoyed your 50 List very much, Dr Bird. Now that you know everything about me, and I know half of everything there is to know about you, though, I do hope we don't become too predictable and familiar and start to take each other for granted...Love, R xxx
from rivetergirl :
Not only did you leave me my first message, but you are the first one to add my diary to their favorite list. Thanks!
from hissandtell :
Oh, and please, please tell me - what were your impressions of Gretchen, since she comes across as a psychotic evil crazy bitch in so many articles I've read?
from hissandtell :
How were you able to view the Gram documentary when it hasn't been on the BBC yet, according to that link? I am so very jealous I can barely type stright. I mean straight. Oh, that photograph of him in his Nudie suit - maybe my swooning has a little something to do with my typing errors, too.
from adelyte :
I'm glad your puppy is okay. It doesn't sound like anyone was really at fault... sometimes the mix of ingredients is just right to invite some chaos. It's been a strange cosmic month for stuff like that, but it seems to work out in the end. Hang in there... I'll catch up when I get back from my trip. :)
from hissandtell :
Thank you for sharing the photographs of your gorgeous little babies. As you say, prose - as overwhelmingly excellent as yours consistently is - is all well and good, but it can't measure up to fuzzy little faces like that!
from adelyte :
Clipping the rugby pitch with nail scissors... now *that's* attention to detail. :)
from hissandtell :
I am glad to hear you're back enjoying the piano. As you say, why not entertain yourself by bashing out sonatas? I played my piano the other day for the first time in about three years. It sounded awful (my playing, not the piano, which has been well-maintained even though I haven't touched it) but it was quite liberating to me to just bash about on it and feel my fingers reconnect in some small way with the keys.
from goodsandwich :
The penultimate paragraph of your March 17 entry can also be expressed in this little couplet, which I originally saw applied to the Kennedy family of this country: "It's always tempting to impute unlikely virtues to the cute."
from hissandtell :
Your comments about the ghastly Simple Life girls are spot on. My irritation for them has no bounds, and I know it's not just because I'm old and impatient. It's because they're pathological in their lack of interest in anything outside their own narrow world. As you say, they have no concept of empathy, curiosity, courtesy and subtlety. This makes them, to me at least, so exceedingly boring and rude that I would not let them in my front gate for a minute, let alone into my house for an extended visit - for the purposes of a crap TV series or otherwise.
from hissandtell :
I'm interested in your comments about your former manager's popularity and paralysis. In my previous job, the expectations from above burgeoned from directing us to operate effectively no matter what into merely emphasising the "being liked and maintaining a positive atmosphere at all costs" - purely to obviate ministerial complaints and workplace stress litigation. In my case the reality was certainly less than positive, as I know it was for several others too - hence our mass exodus from the department. The ones who stayed are the ones who are blithely able to ignore reality.
from bethany9 :
just checking up on you... hope all is well. have a great weekend!
from adelyte :
Victor Frankl said that pain is a gas. No matter how great or small the amount, it will expand to fill the container that holds it. There's no room for comparison. One man's suffering over the prick of a finger may be as great to him as another man's suffering over the loss of a limb. Both deserve equal compassion, simply because the magnitude is the same, though the source of the pain is not. *hug*
from djcarly :
you must be livin it up with all the new zealand attention from LOTR.
from adelyte :
heya... i feel ya on the teaching anxiety. I taught college English and did my time as a tutor, too. A hell of a rewarding pain in the ass it all was, and I miss it sometimes... a lot. And the meds... I used to be adamantly against them personally, but now I've changed my tune. I sometimes wish I could stop taking them or decrease the dose, but I worry about what would happen. Right now things are good. It's such a delicate science. Best of luck with the puppy shows. I used to show my cat... totally different style, but the atmosphere is very much the same. Have a nice rest of the weekend.
from goodsandwich :
I thought Fran's hair looked lovely too; the two of them are such an example of partnership, artistry, and being themselves that I was impressed all over.
from hissandtell :
Your Av*n Lady sounds so entertaining! How amusing (for me, that is) that she is so pushy and opinionated. Coming into your home and making demands on you, being critical, determinedly trying to flood your rooms with tat - this has potential to be a film. Things certainly have changed since the good old days when those splendid women performed only good deeds, like Dianne Wiest whisking Johnny Depp away from Vincent Price's castle...
from djcarly :
they are red, plain, and very hardcore.
from hissandtell :
Please allow me to congratulate Millie on her success. She looks exactly like a furry little angel, but with a snout and a longer tail.
from hissandtell :
And what a sleepy-eyed little doll she is!
from djcarly :
thanks miss.
from lauralgood :
I thought I was the only one who feels elation at the fact that I am physically ill and not just having another mental attack. How wonderful not to be alone in the world! laural
from hissandtell :
I absolutely cannot think of a single witty thing to say, but the "Fish is Meat" entry is so damned clever it deserves recognition of sorts. So here it is, for what it's worth.
from bethany9 :
yo yo yo. thanks for stoppin in. i wouldbe more witty and glib but i have a wicked hangover and i think i am going to die.
from hissandtell :
Interesting about the Smith-Corona. The first time I ever heard that song, it was by Linda Ronstadt in the late 1970s, and she sings that she pawned her "Smith and Wesson". I've listened to Warren's version countless times since over the years and can't remember ever hearing the line differently. Poor, poor pitiful me.
from adelyte :
Congratulations on your new iPod! You're going to love it love it love it! I wish you much portable happiness.
from lauralgood :
I thought I would let you know that I come to your diary just to look at your pictures you have up. I do read as well, but the pictures are so great. and your layout is crisp and clean it is a treat for the eyes. Your writing is wonderful as well. I will continue to come around. thanks for writing. laural
from goodsandwich :
Yes, Smith-Corona is a typewriter brand, practically synonymous in my land (in the middle of the last century, anyway) with the Beats, Henry & Anais, the Lost Generation, anyone who yearned to express self in print. (Thanks for the heads up about Janet Frame's passing, by the way -- the press over here doesn't acknowledge anyone except rock stars and Americans.)
from hissandtell :
Oh, that was just beautiful. Have you read the Ben Fong-Torres and Sid Griffin and Jason Walker books about GP? I think your entry reminds me it's time to pull them out of the shelves and pore over them again. In "Hickory Wind" (which is always next to my computer) Miss Mercy from the GTOs recalls meeting him for the first time: "As he leaned over his pile of records and put on an old George Jones album, a tear fell from his eye, and he spoke. 'This is George Jones, the king of broken hearts.'" Ohhhhh...
from gypped :
red eyes, eh? what does he play? man, they really are good. there's more news to come re: my last entry, and I'll write about it sometime. I'm really tired at the moment.
from hissandtell :
Oh, sorry if I seem to be stalking you, but I had not heard about Janet Frame's death at all except through your journal. I suppose our media organisations didn't think anyone would have heard of her here. (Maybe Dame Judi Dench can play her in a film...)
from hissandtell :
Have you ever read (ahem) Pamela Des Barres' book "I'm With The Band"? Apart from chronicling her obsessions with the Burritos, she goes into some detail about the night she "nabbed" (I think that's the word she uses) Waylon Jennings one night at the Whisky in LA. Made me change my mind about that ol' Outlaw, let me tell you!
from hissandtell :
Oh my goodness! Scary! I stumbled onto you just now through goodsandwich (my favourite DiaryLand read, but don't tell the others). I see you are a GP fiend, and that kd lang's Buddy Holly incarnation grabbed your heart out in "Lost Highway" too! I just wrote about this very thing last night. I am so looking forward to reading more of your entries.
from adelyte :
Such a cute puppy! Thanks for coming by to read me. I'm flattered that you started an entry with my banner title. I came across that phrase somewhere online and it pretty much summed up my struggle. I like your diary musings, too.
from mrs-roboto :
enjoying your journal! keep on writing.
from goodsandwich :
Enjoying the read!
from plastictape :
love the last photo.

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