John Laws retired today after 55 years of broadcasting.
Good.
30 November 2007
21 November 2007
Fork at the Ready
Don't follow this link if you've just eaten or are in any way feeling delicate. From The Sneeze comes Steve, Don't Eat It! Lordy, but this man deserves a medal. Gasp along as our hero eats and reviews dog snacks, tinned silkworm pupae and pickled pork rind, to name just a small picking from the man's plate. Like Jim Rose Circus with a fork. Gripping stuff.
Federal Erection
At midnight tonight political advertising for Saturday's Federal Election ceases. What a freakin' relief. Not half the relief that most of us will feel come Sunday morning, though.
What a teeth-grindingly irritating campaign it's been. Maybe I'm just becoming less tolerant of political posturing. Whatever the reason, never before has the gallery of hopefuls seemed more shallow, plastic and frankly full of shit. It really saddens me that the direction of our nation is dependent on this process and these people. Not all of them, but certainly most of the ones who will be in a position of real power.
One good thing that has come out of this election has been the final realisation that "climate change" is probably not a good thing, and perhaps we might do something about it. During the last few weeks a report was released exposing Australia as the number one per-capita emitter of greenhouse gases, so it's well past time we made a few changes about the place. The thing is, I recall reading about global warming, as it was known before the term was sanitised, back in the late Eighties, and it's only now that everyone is suddenly up in arms about it. And until very recently, the PM declared himself to be a "climate change skeptic", but has suddenly switched teams just as everyone started voicing concern. "Everyone" being a substantial proportion of voters. The man is a hack, and has had eleven years to do something positive towards reducing energy consumption, and moving us towards cleaner technology. Hopefully, come this weekend he'll just be another page in the country's history, and the new Labor government will get cracking on supporting the development and implementation of green technology, penalising polluters and encouraging those doing the right thing. Of course, in an ideal world The Greens will have the balance of power in the Senate, and can lubricate the whole process.
Anyhoo, enough of my personal political misery. Here are a couple of websites that help unravel many of the mysteries of the electoral process.
The first is the Australian Electoral Commission. Useful are the General FAQs, polling place finder, and practice voting, which is probably recommended for anyone wishing to vote below the line on the four-foot-long Senate paper. (In Queensland we have 65 candidates' names filling out the ballot paper this year, including the superbly named Merlin Manners. I also notice that there are two competing -- wait for it -- fishing parties vying for the Senate this time around: The Fishing Party and the Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party. Are there so many fishing issues? And what could have driven a wedge between the two that they couldn't unite and further fishing interests together?)
Not so useful, but quite interesting nonetheless are surveys of informal votes in past elections, how the votes are counted (I'd never been quite sure of how the Senate vote worked, to be honest), and how a political party is registered -- if only I'd shown Pauline Hanson this link a few years ago.
The other site I've been digging in to a little for electoral information is, of course, the ABC's Election site. It's a bit late in the evening so I'm not going to trawl through the site too much for you -- you can savour that pleasure yourself -- but a couple of points of interest include the overview of each electorate, the election glossary, the election calculator, and finally everything you need to know to make sure your vote counts.
So may your pencil be sharp and your after-voting beer cold come polling day. Personally I'll have my eyes closed and fingers crossed from about dinner time onwards.
What a teeth-grindingly irritating campaign it's been. Maybe I'm just becoming less tolerant of political posturing. Whatever the reason, never before has the gallery of hopefuls seemed more shallow, plastic and frankly full of shit. It really saddens me that the direction of our nation is dependent on this process and these people. Not all of them, but certainly most of the ones who will be in a position of real power.
One good thing that has come out of this election has been the final realisation that "climate change" is probably not a good thing, and perhaps we might do something about it. During the last few weeks a report was released exposing Australia as the number one per-capita emitter of greenhouse gases, so it's well past time we made a few changes about the place. The thing is, I recall reading about global warming, as it was known before the term was sanitised, back in the late Eighties, and it's only now that everyone is suddenly up in arms about it. And until very recently, the PM declared himself to be a "climate change skeptic", but has suddenly switched teams just as everyone started voicing concern. "Everyone" being a substantial proportion of voters. The man is a hack, and has had eleven years to do something positive towards reducing energy consumption, and moving us towards cleaner technology. Hopefully, come this weekend he'll just be another page in the country's history, and the new Labor government will get cracking on supporting the development and implementation of green technology, penalising polluters and encouraging those doing the right thing. Of course, in an ideal world The Greens will have the balance of power in the Senate, and can lubricate the whole process.
Anyhoo, enough of my personal political misery. Here are a couple of websites that help unravel many of the mysteries of the electoral process.
The first is the Australian Electoral Commission. Useful are the General FAQs, polling place finder, and practice voting, which is probably recommended for anyone wishing to vote below the line on the four-foot-long Senate paper. (In Queensland we have 65 candidates' names filling out the ballot paper this year, including the superbly named Merlin Manners. I also notice that there are two competing -- wait for it -- fishing parties vying for the Senate this time around: The Fishing Party and the Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party. Are there so many fishing issues? And what could have driven a wedge between the two that they couldn't unite and further fishing interests together?)
Not so useful, but quite interesting nonetheless are surveys of informal votes in past elections, how the votes are counted (I'd never been quite sure of how the Senate vote worked, to be honest), and how a political party is registered -- if only I'd shown Pauline Hanson this link a few years ago.
The other site I've been digging in to a little for electoral information is, of course, the ABC's Election site. It's a bit late in the evening so I'm not going to trawl through the site too much for you -- you can savour that pleasure yourself -- but a couple of points of interest include the overview of each electorate, the election glossary, the election calculator, and finally everything you need to know to make sure your vote counts.
So may your pencil be sharp and your after-voting beer cold come polling day. Personally I'll have my eyes closed and fingers crossed from about dinner time onwards.
Hot Hot Chocolate, Part II
Some time ago I got moderately excited, then moderately disappointed in Chilli Tim Tams. I was sure at the time that there were other chilli chocolate products out there, and recently some advertising on the local bus stop showed me that this is the case. Lindt, who haven't seen fit to make an Australian website, have slipped a chilli version of their dark chocolate on to the market. And it's pretty good. Not sensational, but considerably better than the Tim Tam version. I'm quite the fan of the earthy nearly-black Lindt products, and the after-buzz of the chilli doesn't detract from it at all. And that's all the heat you get in this product: not a taste so much as a tingling after the chocolate has melted away. I could get used to it.
Greg Mankyfoot was visiting us this week, and reckons that Green and Black's make a chilli chocolate that is even better still. I can believe it. Theirs is the best of the dark stuff I've tasted, so I'm keen to have a go. In the interests of you, the loyal reader, I'll see that I track it down and review it post haste.
Greg Mankyfoot was visiting us this week, and reckons that Green and Black's make a chilli chocolate that is even better still. I can believe it. Theirs is the best of the dark stuff I've tasted, so I'm keen to have a go. In the interests of you, the loyal reader, I'll see that I track it down and review it post haste.
6 November 2007
Daylight Saving
I received an email petition in my inbox this morning from a daylight savings enthusiast -- you know who you are. Not that I'm trying to imply that I have any influence on these matters; the email was trying to encourage me to put my name to the decades-long campaign to institute the time shift into Queensland.
For the uninitiated, Queensland, unlike the rest of the Eastern seaboard, doesn't have daylight saving, a fact that is often used as further evidence that we are mouth-breathing, inbred and otherwise faintly embarrassing.
Let me state categorically: daylight saving is stupid in a place like this. I'll spell it out for you. It's hot here in summer. The sun is what makes it hot. When the sun goes down, the land cools down. Then civilised people come to life and head out to take advantage of the lively summer night activity. With daylight saving it stays hotter for an hour later in to the evening. It's quite simple.
I hope that clears it up.
For the uninitiated, Queensland, unlike the rest of the Eastern seaboard, doesn't have daylight saving, a fact that is often used as further evidence that we are mouth-breathing, inbred and otherwise faintly embarrassing.
Let me state categorically: daylight saving is stupid in a place like this. I'll spell it out for you. It's hot here in summer. The sun is what makes it hot. When the sun goes down, the land cools down. Then civilised people come to life and head out to take advantage of the lively summer night activity. With daylight saving it stays hotter for an hour later in to the evening. It's quite simple.
I hope that clears it up.
Woolvs in the Sittee
I've been reading to the kids quite a bit recently, and to keep the selection fresh -- probably for me more than them -- I've been visiting the library. As I was trawling the kids' section last time I found Woolvs in the Sittee. Hardly the kind of thing to be reading to babies, but I picked it up anyway. It's really fantastic. The story is dark and strange and the charcoal illustrations are beautiful. I loved this kind of story as a kid.
Melbourne Cup
It's Melbourne Cup day.
So, on to topics of the remotest interest, I've been going through the incredibly arcane instructions on the Blogger help pages about how to back up this blog. Or "glob", as I tend to think of it lately. Blogger is the only blog service I've used, and I can't help but think that there could be something out there that is a little easier to use. The trouble is, I've been at it here for over three years now, and while it's certainly not going to be seen by history as up there with, say, the letters of Anton Chekov, it's my record of that time and it's currently at the mercy of the Blogger servers. And I'd like to take the whole lot with me if I were to switch to another service.
So, on to topics of the remotest interest, I've been going through the incredibly arcane instructions on the Blogger help pages about how to back up this blog. Or "glob", as I tend to think of it lately. Blogger is the only blog service I've used, and I can't help but think that there could be something out there that is a little easier to use. The trouble is, I've been at it here for over three years now, and while it's certainly not going to be seen by history as up there with, say, the letters of Anton Chekov, it's my record of that time and it's currently at the mercy of the Blogger servers. And I'd like to take the whole lot with me if I were to switch to another service.
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The kids had their halfth birthday on the 17th of last month, so that was quite a milestone. So really, it's been fifteen months since I've functioned as a normal person.
These past six months have been the hardest I've endured in my life, and in many ways the dullest. Each day is mind-grindingly the same: feed, change nappies, play a bit, down to sleep, feed, change nappy, read a book, play, feed..... and yet fascinating and fresh at the same time. It doesn't make sense to me, either. They've changed so much in that time and I suppose I have, too. As someone with an interest in language, I'm finding their "pre-language" absolutely captivating. They're a long way off speaking as such, but their garble often follows the basic structure of developed speech. In the mornings while they're still in bed, and at other quiet times through the day, they have long conversations with each other. One will garble for a while, then wait while the other has a turn. And it has variations in tone and rhythm. For all the world it sounds like a conversation, and of course it is communication in some form. It's the same when they're speaking to Lofty or I as well. It's quite a privilege to watch.
They had their first ever swim on Sunday. We went along to a friend's 4th birthday at a local pool, thankfully, as the temperature hit 31C before 10am, which is when the shindig started. I get a real kick out of seeing them experience new things for the first time. The water was a bit chilly at first, so they weren't so sure about that. They never really looked happy in the water, but didn't kick up a fuss, either. It just seemed a bit strange, but kind of interesting. Edie had a mad kick, but Oscar just kind of sat there and gave me a "what the hell do you call this?" look. By contrast, I was incredibly relieved to get in the water, even if it was only the foot deep baby pool.
The laughably mis-named solid food has become a regular part of our daily routine, too. Navigating spoonsful of yellow (it's always yellow, no matter what it is) goo successfully between eight thrashing limbs is a delicate skill, and one that goes to shit the moment you take your full concentration off the job. Once again, watching them try new things is a bit of sport. If the new flavour is on the nose it comes squeezing straight back out like yellow toothpaste. And again, and again. But if this new thing is a goer then they bite and grab at it like it's their last meal. And that's the thing I really like about these two: there's no pretense. They don't care about social graces or what your feelings on the matter might be. What you see is what you get. Such a refreshing change from the complicated world of adults. So much so that on the rare occasion I get out and about I find adults quite strange and ugly. I was in the city recently and was alarmed by faces caked in make up, ridiculous fashions, ostentatious displays of wealth, acts of discourtesy.... oh, just the whole damn lot. My kids will grow up and take part in all of that in the same way that I have, but in the meantime they're just so straightforward and lovely. I wish they could stay like that forever.
These past six months have been the hardest I've endured in my life, and in many ways the dullest. Each day is mind-grindingly the same: feed, change nappies, play a bit, down to sleep, feed, change nappy, read a book, play, feed..... and yet fascinating and fresh at the same time. It doesn't make sense to me, either. They've changed so much in that time and I suppose I have, too. As someone with an interest in language, I'm finding their "pre-language" absolutely captivating. They're a long way off speaking as such, but their garble often follows the basic structure of developed speech. In the mornings while they're still in bed, and at other quiet times through the day, they have long conversations with each other. One will garble for a while, then wait while the other has a turn. And it has variations in tone and rhythm. For all the world it sounds like a conversation, and of course it is communication in some form. It's the same when they're speaking to Lofty or I as well. It's quite a privilege to watch.
They had their first ever swim on Sunday. We went along to a friend's 4th birthday at a local pool, thankfully, as the temperature hit 31C before 10am, which is when the shindig started. I get a real kick out of seeing them experience new things for the first time. The water was a bit chilly at first, so they weren't so sure about that. They never really looked happy in the water, but didn't kick up a fuss, either. It just seemed a bit strange, but kind of interesting. Edie had a mad kick, but Oscar just kind of sat there and gave me a "what the hell do you call this?" look. By contrast, I was incredibly relieved to get in the water, even if it was only the foot deep baby pool.
The laughably mis-named solid food has become a regular part of our daily routine, too. Navigating spoonsful of yellow (it's always yellow, no matter what it is) goo successfully between eight thrashing limbs is a delicate skill, and one that goes to shit the moment you take your full concentration off the job. Once again, watching them try new things is a bit of sport. If the new flavour is on the nose it comes squeezing straight back out like yellow toothpaste. And again, and again. But if this new thing is a goer then they bite and grab at it like it's their last meal. And that's the thing I really like about these two: there's no pretense. They don't care about social graces or what your feelings on the matter might be. What you see is what you get. Such a refreshing change from the complicated world of adults. So much so that on the rare occasion I get out and about I find adults quite strange and ugly. I was in the city recently and was alarmed by faces caked in make up, ridiculous fashions, ostentatious displays of wealth, acts of discourtesy.... oh, just the whole damn lot. My kids will grow up and take part in all of that in the same way that I have, but in the meantime they're just so straightforward and lovely. I wish they could stay like that forever.
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The local ABC is a constant presence in the house here at Chez Zezette, and the highlight of the day is The Conversation Hour. Today's guest is John Cale, which I've missed writing this, but not to worry! The interviews are available to download, finally. (And I'll be able to utilise the service when the household streaks forward into the recent past by getting broadband. We haven't bothered until now due to our extremely limited time available for dicking about online.) The interviews are invariably excellent, so I'd highly recommend you head over there and check out the selection. Bruce Haigh, Chris Sarra and Tom Keneally are a few I've particularly enjoyed.
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