They let me at an avatar maker again...

...this time a Scott Pilgrim one! Oh happy day!

What We've Learned From Current Affairs Programs: Diversity!

(this list was compiled over coffee in bed this morno)

According to ACA and Today Tonight, you "carn't" trust the following:

• Asian shopkeepers
• Indian doctors
• Lebanese nightclub owners
• Italian smash repairers
• Greek real estate agents
• Polynesian bouncers
• Aboriginals on the dole
• Muslims, bikers, or builders of any kind*.

Whew! In this diverse and modern world, it's outstanding that we have such a well designed structure to guide us through the pitfalls of everyday life!**

Thanks youse, youse guys***!


* Tanja wanted "accountants" added to this last list.
** The sarcasm, she burns me.
*** Tanja wanted to end the post with "That's it - that excludes everyone who isn't "like us". Ah, Australia. Land of opportunity, this place." I rejected this ending on account of a) it's not true, there are many other racisms to apply, b) I enjoy sarcasm like a fine wine, and c) the last line makes her sound like Yoda.

Today.

So last week I saw in the JB Hifi flyer that they were offering a trade-in deal for Transformers War For Cybertron: bring in 3 eligible PS3 titles and you get it free. They often offer this kind of deal, and I've taken advantage of it twice before (for Bioshock 2 and God of War 3). For GOW3, I actually went and bought two cheap titles from Kmart and traded them in, along with 1 of my own, thus still saving money on the trade. I thoughht similarly this time. Armed with a trade-in exclusions list, I spent $40 on two games I could trade. Then every JB Hifi ran out of stock of that game. Argh. This resulted in my calling various stores for the past three days, asking about stock. Finally, today, I hit paydirt. The World Square store got a bunch in, and I put my name down. "By the way," said I, "is the trade-in offer still good?" "Oh, that? No, that expired on Tuesday." "Bugger!" I then outlined that I had 3 games to trade, and he worked out that the game'll only cost me $24 (that's not counting the $40 I've already spent, damn and blast). So I agreed to come in and pick it up.

Then I got a text message from Tanja telling me that she has cancer.

And it all fell away.

So yes. My wife has thyroid cancer, of the follicular sort. Her thyroid that they removed two weeks ago? That was cancerous, and now a few cells are left, which are also cancerous. She needs to go in for a scan soon, and they'll work out when and where it might spread. If it stays put, it's good, because then they give her radioiodine tablets, which make her radioactive and she stays in isolation for 48 hours (presumably to hide the glow-in-the dark-ness, and stop her rampaging throughout the city) while the tablets, Pac-man-like, seek and destroy the thyroid cells. However, she does have to stop taking her thyroid tablets, which means she's going to feel terrible for three or so weeks.

The worst thing about this is not knowing what to do. She's been calling her sister and her folks and I keep sitting down and then standing up again, then finally sitting and playing Angry Birds on my iPod because I don't want to start anything and that's my default time-waster. Tanja has told me that normal life will not change, but I'm having trouble imagining that right now.