A peek into my mess

Changed my mind (which happens with monotonous frequency). Had not intended to follow some of the "memes" that have been around lately .. but then thought 'oh what the heck'.

There is an excellent and detailed 'discover your personality' test floating around. Have done it several times over the past few months - but this is the only one that will publicly point to .. heh.




My personalDNA Report

.. and this is my distraction from the "daily grind".


but can look like this ..on occasion


Depends on what one calls a "workplace", i guess.

[Yawn]

Go away, come back next week - there are other far more interesting spaces around on the net.

Death(s) in Venice .. oops, Afghanistan

So, How many is it now, Mr Howard .. are you counting?

I am.

Bit inconvenient to have TWO Aussie soldiers die in the same month .. almost at the same time interest rates are set to rise .. and you held off an election hoping for an "act of god" to "save" you from months/years of continuous, negative polling. So much for the Howard/Bush style democracy. Are you worried now, Mr. Howard?

You chortle about the "me too" attitude of Kevin Rudd, while ignoring - as you do - the awkward fact that by your badly considered MEE TOOO policies and attitude toward and with the peculiar policies of the Washington USA administration; have led us - and the ADF - into a very peculiar and disastrous encounter with .. what, exactly?

[always remembering that the British a LONG TIME AGO,WHO TOOK OVER India and environs, sort of had to pull out .. and the Russians (with all their 'might' at that time ) had a crack at Afghanistan .. but had to pull out ..]

Please explain.

Household gods (re-try)

There are, actually, two of these - one at the front door, and one at the back.

Are they effective? Dunno, really. Prefer to keep personal policies sort of all inclusive, so have never been "attacked" in any serious way. (but ya hafta get past the tiki*)

Um, funny, though, really - a couple of days after i took them away from my previous abode ..


[addendum: there is always, also, of course - this thing ..

Which seems to have pulled everything off the bed and made itself comfy .. will lamBast it .. one day.]

No comment

from Inkcinct

Household gods

..erk! This post has been temporarily suspended, since Giggle/Blurgie is not accepting photographs at the moment. (my tiki must have scared it)

Mentors

The base level of the understanding of words is an interesting concept.

This, (and the bloke behind it) is one of mine.

High speed carrier pigeon

Has been in the back of the sludge that I call a brain to write something intelligent about the parlous state of telecommunications in Australia .. buuuut, as usual, don't have the nous, (intelligence, wit, typing skill, ) to come up with anything really interesting.

Has also been in the back of my mind to go fer a bittuva wander around Australia again and - addicted as I am to my daily fix from the goss of the Blurgiesphere - began to make enquiries about "connectivity" in the countryside.

There ain't none.

Well, there ARE several options. Telstra seems to have the "widest" "wireless" coverage (sparse and spotty at best) .. but at $35.00/month for TEN hours of "next G network".. seems a bit beyond budget, since my current average monthly usage (Primus/Aol $25.00/month, sort of broadband) is somewhere around 300 hours.

Oh yes .. there are claims by Telstra and the Gummint about coverage for "98% of the population" .. I can't help it if 90% of the population live in the effin CITIES.

Have read somewhere that if it was up to the mindset of John Howard, we'd still be listening to the speeches by Churchill on vacuum tube radio.

So, if this is not an issue during this election spiel .. it should be .. so, some information if you haven't already come across it.

Jobs for the boys.

Just who IS Sol Trujullo?

A bittuva Wiggle

Less than Third world

Am guessing that we have a Federal minister responsible for all this .. somewhere ...

Wot - Me too .. again, Kevin?

Kevin Rudd's response to the profligate* - but effective - promise of the Howard clique was, to me, somewhat disappointing.

Here we have John Howard promising to give back $36 Billion dollars, as tax cuts - that he hasn't got yet .. or if he has, no wonder the schools, hospitals, infrastructure, social welfare programs (the list goes on) have been screaming and starved of funding for the past 11 years.

Gee, I'd love to be able to say to some of my creditors .. Not to worry fellas, I promise to pay you double what I owe you .. next year.. out of estimated income. See, Aren't I a good fella. (whaddya mean, ya don't believe me?)

It is still not clear whether these tax cuts are a "core" promise .. or a "non core" promise, as Howard has a habit and history of "revising the estimates" after the elections, or weaseling out of "promises".

So, Kevin Rudd says .. Oh, we'll match that .. and raise you by adding a few extra billion for educating the kiddies to learn the internet.

Oh, come now.

Surely it would have been more sensible to reply .. Well, that's interesting, and we would probably be able to consider some tax relief once we have full access to the Treasury staff and resources BUT - we would prefer to spend a large proportion of that ESTIMATED (suddenly, miraculously - spare) $36 Billion surplus on assisting the States with Education and Health.

But then, I probably missed something .. Ho Hum .. [yawn] ..can't be bothered paying much attention, too much crap.

Anyone fer cricket??

* Recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant

It's no longer a game

There was a time, once upon a long time ago, when heroes mounted horseback, waved their weapons. May the strongest man with the biggest weapon win the heart of the fair damsel.

Northern hemisphere fantasy hero games ..

So far, we have talked only of the Northern Hemisphere. But it now seems - unlike the case of a single nuclear weapons test -- that in a real nuclear war, the heating of the vast quantities of atmospheric dust and soot in northern midlatitudes will transport these fine particles toward and across the Equator. We see just this happening in Martian dust storms. The Southern Hemisphere would experience effects that, while less severe than in the Northern Hemisphere, are nevertheless extremely ominous. The illusion with which some people in the Northern Hemisphere reassure themselves -- catching an Air New Zealand flight in a time of serious international crisis, or the like -- is now much less tenable, even on the narrow issue of personal survival for those with the price of a ticket.

Carl Sagan.

Words fail me

Every so often while trolling around the personal journal internet Blurgie world of doggies 'n pussies 'n nappies, rabid or rational political 'n religious rants 'n what i did today - one comes across a post that, well .. leaves me speechless .. words fail me.

Marclord at ADORED BY HORDES has, from a simple "tourist" visit, yet again come up with a post that - in so few, well-chosen words - is almost breathtaking in its sweep across so many ideas, notions, imagery .

Helps, i guess, that the foundation subject - Bletchley Park - has always held a fascination for me.


Click the title.

(Knowledge, hopefully, will always defeat military hardware.)

More redirects

Yer, I know, Friday night ..

This one has been hanging around on the Firefox sidebar for a while, interesting look at "the earth" .. and since "Democracy" is a word not well understood .. perhaps those who know could go explain it to these people.

Thunderstorm

Sound asleep,
lost in land of unreal dreams.
Startled awake - Kerboom, kerrash!
Sudden, fleeting stark-white windows,
curtain cloud-like inward blows .

I lay still, in hope listen ..

Silence ..then, the slow pitt pat
on the rooftop,
pitt pitt pitter
pitter pitter, pitter pat
patter pitter .. pitt .. pitt

pat.

silence then.

At break of day look out to see
all is dry, and wonder why.
Only random craters, just
creative patterns left
in the constant, cosmic, pavement dust.

[unfinished work, apparently, always evolving]

Blue-ribbon vs. blue collar

There is/was a story on the front page of "The Australian" yesterday that have now not been able to find online - which I find very interesting.

the headline

Lib's role switch from blue-ribbon to blue-collar
by George Megalogenis.

Labor, the party of the working class, has officially become the party of choice for intellectuals.

And the Liberals, the party of big business, have switched their electoral identity to become the party for the blue-collar, TAFE-educated voters.

The political about-face is confirmed by new research which shows that Kevin Rudd cannot become Prime Minister unless Labor wins back a cluster of government held seats that are home to voters who are less educated than the national average

.....

.. Labor has been enjoying a record level of favour with the university educated, while the Liberals under John Howard owe their success to the trades-based blue-collar electorates.

.......

The Article continues, and will try to find a link to it.

I just found the concept interesting, and sort of explains why the Rodent seems much more comfortable with the likes of Alan Jones .. than Kerry O'Brien - and why the spate of TV advertisements that are patently aimed at the "more emotional - less informed" sector will be crucial factors in this election.


[Edited, Sat.13. Another thing that have noticed is that the "hard-copy" printed articles have become "online" articles. I put in a link to a newspaper article in a previous post where I mentioned "spelling errors".. those errors have been corrected in the "online" article. Dunno about the significance of that.]

Different hues, different views

There seems to be a bittuva kerfuffle about Mr. K. Andrews, the incumbent Minister supposedly "responsible" for Immigration.

Now, have to say that I don't have a great deal of experience with people from other nations who arrive on Australia's doorstep - Adelaide is very much a WASP town, founded by free settlers and oh yes, there are streets and suburbs where I wander and wonder what country am in, but by and large we tend to be peaceable and integrated.

I do have contact with people from other national origins though, some who are obviously of African ancestry that I see in the local shops - some more are my customers - and have to say that they are always neatly dressed, and always polite.

Have never had experience with, nor seen "gangs" of any sort. (and oh yes, we have them, mostly bored, disaffected unemployed youths in the bleak, ticky tacky Southern housing tracts - but don't see much point in mentioning the "colour", since it's only the same pale, wishy-washed out white of Kevin Andrews, John Howard and his group of intellectually pallid politicians.)

The mother of one of my customers is a delightful elderly lady. Whenever she sees me she comes out to the front porch of the flat; dark eyes twinkling, huge smile lighting her face. Where did she come from? At a guess, probably India, don't know - bit difficult to hold a conversation. Why, you ask? Non speaka da englis??

No - in a brief conversation that I had with her daughter, who holds an executive position somewhere - was told that there were troubles in her home village some time ago, and the mother had had her tongue cut out, her eardrums pierced.

We do, however, have a great deal of fun "conversing" by waving our hands about and prancing around the lawn practicing charades.

Could she pass the "citizenship" test, Mr. Andrews? Guess not.


Another personal incident some months ago sticks in my mind, so will try to recount it in as much detail as I can muster.

Was chatting with a regular customer near his front fence when a slim, strikingly handsome young man came along the pavement. We both looked at him, and after the hello's, found that he was selling tickets to a Cancer Council Lottery. We both bought a $2.00 ticket and the customer went inside. I stayed and chatted with the young man as he seemed interested in what I was doing, and, in accented but perfect English, asked if I knew anyone who could offer him a job. I scratched my head for a while, sizing him up - but am barely pulling in enough to pay for basic expenses, let alone trying to cope with an employee, even though I could probably wangle a "private deal" .. at least, that was what went though my mind at first.

He told me that he had been in Australia for 7 months, was applying for jobs daily, but couldn't get an interview - was willing to do anything that could feed his family. I gave him the phone number of the Franchise, explained that there may be someone looking for labour, how it all worked, and told him that it would probably cost him $25,000 if he wanted to set up something similar of his own.

Found out that there were few Government assistance programs, that his savings were almost gone, and he was also trying to find another place to live as the rents in the city were so expensive. I offered him the spare room in my house. He thanked me, gave a sad sort of smile, and told me that he also had a wife and two small children.

What I have left out of this story so far, is that this man came to Australia on a "Skilled Migrant" visa, has a Law degree, as well as a Diploma in Social work; had also held good paying positions in middle to upper level clerical and management positions in his home country. As part of his visa conditions, was also required to deposit a large amount of money in an Australian bank. His wife was a medical doctor, but was busy studying for her Australian accreditation.

So, you ask, in an economy supposedly short of "workers" - why is this man walking the streets selling lottery tickets?

Can't think of any other way to write this .. but his skin colour was as black as soot, and he came from Bangladesh.

If we treat "skilled" migrants in this way - bring them in with promises and high hopes then bleed their savings dry - I wonder what else this country, run by a caring, compassionate incumbent government has in store for anyone else.

(These anecdotes were also prompted by a recent story in The Adelaide Independent.)

(Postscript - I rang the young man the other day, he tells me he is now studying to become an "aged care" helper. It has taken me several days to write this story. I would so love to have the time to get more of the details; write more about this, as he was one of the nicest people that have met.)

Addendum, Friday Oct 12: To be fair - Another view of the "Andrews affair" by Samuel Makinda.
Call Andrews mean, not racist.

Gunning for pulp

OK, am a fence sitter of sorts - and yes, it cracks me up - but this, in today's Australian is probably the most rational story that have seen from MSM so far.

Splinter groups

Methinks am getting to be one of those old, cranky, crotchetty heretics. A gnarled Tree person trying to resist being chopped and chainsawed into the mill of Pulp fiction. No longer suitable to live in John Howard's Brave New World of super-slick Advertisements and sleek-suited, silvertongued, shark-toothed executives.

Not even a tiny thorn under the skin of "superiors" .. too easily tweezered out and discarded.


People fascinate me. Brought up as a singular child on a farm where the nearest shop was 20 minutes drive away, my only companions were a gun and a dog. Inarticulate, shy, socially inept, would spend much time sitting in the corner, watching; trying to figure out why there was a difference between what people said, and what they did. Even after a great deal of reading, social veneer, and interaction with humankind .. still haven't figured it out - which is why I get along much better with plants .. and animals.

Funny, really ..

wandering about in three dimensions - with nothing but a pair of wings, and faith in physics.

OOps, that was interesting.

Am "off duty". A couple of people (clients, customers) just turned up and rang the doorbell.

Umm, here's me puddling around dressed in 5/8ths of fuck all. ..

OOps, images.

Cleaning the cupboards (1)

Mmm, have just been looking at some of the links that have been stored in one of the folders in the Firefox sidebar -for later use.

'Bout time that i did some housecleaning, so will unload them here.

A Buddhist Timeline.
MyBlogLog.
All in the family. (even MSM has trouble with spelling .. heh)
A brilliant advertisement (Google video .. bluddy furriners).
Arthur Stace. (as always, and ever)

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (the numbers, always watch the numbers)
Australia Values. Heh heh heh.
Bill Mauldin.(and ya think i have a peculiar sense of humour .. heh)
For wannabe Librarians.
Dunno .. go look.
Classroom at sea.
Convict creations. (Jeez, who woulda thort)
Um ...
American Law.


Need a break by now? .. try this.


Another dopey God concept.
Feministe. (sheesh, had forgotten that one was there)
Funkypix2. (no comment)

OK .. enuff fer now .. that's about half of the .. errm, "Library".

POWER!!

gee, i'd like t' be an american pressidunt.

All ya need is sum family cunnexions, and a few million $ollars.

Reset an Entire global network of Effert sum 60 yers .. THAT is POWER.

Fuck orf ass ( that's the AMERICAN [nicer, sanitised]version) hole.

(ya really would not want to know what an ARSEHOLE is )

Where have all the Feminists gone?

Gone to Families, bodyclocks, every one.

the glass ceiling

Is there one?

People have been battling the concept of superiority since Australopithecus decided to peer over the grassblades.

Stand naked on my doorstep

This, of course, is a challenge that I will always make - to anyone who challenges me in cyberspace - or in REAL space..

Can I fight with wit and words .. perhaps, sometimes, am not an idiot. A farm boy with education.

And therein lies the problem. Brought up with nature, guns*.

I know how guns -- bang, bang yer dead - weapons work.

I do not understand how guns need to be used fer tribal warfare ..

buuuut, guess that am just another country boy .. trying to figure out how this government is stealing all the money that i make by blood, sweat .. and tears.

Stand naked on my doorstep, face to face, eye to eye.

THEN tell me what yer policies are.

*(Not going to show a pic of a gun that may be somewhere around the house - irrelevant concept - in Australia)

Short storyline

OK, today is a National holiday of some sort. (Holyday? dunno why they impose these things on me .. don't get paid fer holy days .. heh)

Series of pics that should make a movie, but don't have the time t' post irrelevant crap.

Pic 2 (damn, missed the precursor .. you shoulda seen it .. bleah!!

World community

Funny really, blogging has a tendency to get a bit .. well .. incestuous.

I really only read, and create links to those who I find interesting, or agree with.

Was almost going to write "nice" people, but what is "nice"?

It has come to my attention that a friend of mine (in the blogging sense) has come under attack by some very weird writers. tim blair.

Now, I don't regularly read his stuff, and only noticed when Caroline posted a "postscript". Have no idea of the credibility of Timb lair, nor who he is, nor what he stands for. It seems that Caroline "made the mistake" of being an acquaintance, perhaps friend, of Phillip Adams.

From my point of view, Phillip Adams is a far greater writer, thinker, achiever - than tim blair and his coterie of cohorts will ever be.

It seems that Australia has our pathetic, parasitic, symbiotic, vitriolic cheap shot "underclass" of idiotic "wingnuts" as well.

More re-directs ..

mm, dunno what's gone wrong, really. Boredom? Glob ennui? Lack of incentive or direction? Discovery of far more interesting writers/people than i?

So advance apologies for lazy posting (i find having to travel off on embedded links from a half-written post somewhat annoying, also).

Have just been looking at the Statcounter, is interesting to see how people arrive at this site, and clicking on some of the links takes me back into the archives.. mm, used to come up with interesting stuff, back then. Interesting commenters, also.

One came from a search for "Mother Damnable", which led back here. Sorry Sharon, haven't been over your way for quite some time (but still remember ;). Must put your link into the sidebar.

Another was a link to a post that I made about the animated "cartoons" of Mark Fiore. Had forgotten about him. This one on the War for Profit is good value, as are all of them.

While am on Animated cartoons, "Combat Wombat" is a hoot.

And this post contains a comment by Phillipines Phil* prompting a bittuva discussion about "why do people hate america" (the generic concept, not invididual people). I promised to write something in greater detail about that - but haven't got around to it, as yet. There are far too many sites and writings that could be included as part of the "argument against". Have to admit that nothing during the past five years have improved, raised, or changed my opinion in any way. Has, in fact and in my opinion, made the current american administration more of a Laughingstock (if it weren't so disastrous for so many people).

[It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Alfred Adler]

* and Phil's post about it is here.)