Yummy Wakame Weblog

Say what you like
Do we really have a freedom to be downright offensive?

BBC NEWS: “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist,” wrote Salman Rushdie. It’s 15 years since Rushdie’s novel, the Satanic Verses, earned the Booker Prize-winning novelist death threats, but the question persists.

Soup’s up! Come and get it while it’s hot!
Hey, remember a while back when I was whining about not being able to find any vegetable stock here in Japan? Well, I just arrived home from my hols and guess what was sitting on the table waiting for me! Yes, that’s right, my prayers were answered – a big huge can of veggie stock, all the way from Brighton! Olivia went to all the trouble of tricking me into giving her my home address, just so that she could surprise me with this yummy present! Furthermore she had enclosed a looooong, lovely, very chatty handwritten letter (I didn’t know you young ‘uns knew how to write!) in the parcel … along with a fluffy little surprise for Benjamin! Thank you Livvy! Hugs and kisses back to you, too!

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days. Life at home has been upheaved due to furniture being rearranged to have new windows put in and I have only just reassembled the desk and my little office is partially up and running again. My inbox nearly burst at the seams as I powered up the laptop, opened Outlook and was notified “receiving 1 of 475 emails”. Anyway…

It’s nearly midnight and pretty soon it will be 2005. We’re having a quiet night at home this time, with good food, duvet on the couch downstairs and catching up on some films we missed. I hope that wherever you are, you are having a good new year’s eve and that 2005 will be big, in a good way, for your whole family.

In case you’re wondering where you can send your unwanted christmas gifts, old clothes, toys and anything else you dont want, those affected by the recent Tsunami could benefit from anything you want to give. Look out for charity drop offs in your area. (Thanks Angel)

In the UK there is an umbrella group for the Tsunami Appeal called the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which funds the major charities including among others, British Red Cross, Cafod, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund. Call them on +44 0870 60 60 900 or donate online at www.dec.org.uk. Donations to the DEC will help the charities to make a more co-ordinated response to this disaster.

Other bodies raising money include the Muslim groups Muslim Aid (+44 020 7377 4200) and Islamic Relief (+44 0121 622 0622) and the Hindu charities Sewa International +44 0116 261 0303 and the ISKCON Disaster Appeal on +44 01923 856848.

Tsunami death toll rises above 20,000.
Mass devastation and millions lhave been left homeless after being hit by a 10 metre wave caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. Worst hit was Sri Lanka but the waves hit India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, the Maldives, Burma, Bangladesh, even as far as Somalia on the African coast. Waves also struck Kenya, after hitting Mauritius, Reunion and the Seychelles on the way.

map: impact of the earthquake

“This may be the worst natural disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas… so many vulnerable communities,” UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland told CNN.

The only warning that its victims received was that the sea was sucked into the wave as it came closer. “The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was – a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran,” said Katri Seppanen, who was on Phuket island’s Patong beach in Thailand with her family when the wave washed over their heads and separated them.

I know Christmas has been an expensive time for you and your family, but please consider supporting the charities who are already in the affected areas with their rescue teams. Entire countries have been devastated:

Oxfam rushes aid to Sri Lankans
“Oxfam flood-response experts are already on their way to the worst affected regions and urgently needed assistance is being prepared.”

International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in south Asia have begun to mobilize staff and volunteers to affected areas to assist with the immediate needs.

Survival Guide to Homelessness:

“I spent nearly five years, from mid-1996 to the beginning of 2001, homeless, or as I liked to call it with a distributed household. I had storage, shelter, mailbox, telephone, shower, bathroom facilities, cooking equipment, and transportation, even access to television, radio, computer equipment, and ac power. I had the essence of a home. It was simply more geographically scattered than is traditional in our culture. I’m not the first to do what I did, to live homeless well. I’m not the first to find advantage in homelessness. It is a well kept secret that homele: otessness can be freedom and comfort can attend it. The secret is well kept because revealing that you are homeless in this society is dangerous. There is stigma. There are even laws prohibiting it. Imagine that. There are laws against being homeless. Let me say that one more time. There are laws against being homeless…”

(Found on Monochrom)

Banksy’s Artworks for Sale!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS (not XMAS) and/or HAPPY YULE everyone!

I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday with your friends, family or by yourselves this year. Have fun!

xxx Livvy, Pieter and Small, Medium & Large

My Paper Crane sells really cute stuffed toys, including the tampon doll! (Don’t worry, it won’t bite)

Heidi’s journal is just as creative.

Hamlet sent me this hilarous X-FACTOR outtake. (WMV 3MB)
This guy makes a living out of slaughtering battery chickens… no wonder he’s a little damaged.

Google’s Cheat Sheet
A must for google power users ;)