The Winding Track

Beating the black dog...

2009-09-18T21:28:00.005+10:00

It's been an incredibly long six weeks. I can't actually remember a time that's been quite this tough personally. Depression is a very nasty problem, and unfortunately there's no easy way of dealing with it.

I always thought that I'd be the one to become depressed. I do, after all, have a family history of it. In this case, though, it is my partner who has become depressed. For the last six weeks he's been seriously depressed. There's not always a cause for depression but in this case it was triggered by an incident at work.

We have been seeing a psychiatrist, and the antidepressant medication is starting to take effect now. Hopefully that means that the worst is behind us now and he will continue to recover.

As a partner I have found it very tough. There's very little that I can actually do to make him feel better. That's the worst part - it's just made me feel quite helpless. Depression isn't like other illnesses. There's no physical problem that we can heal, no fixed time frame. It can seem like he should be able to just snap out of it if he wants to make an effort, but I know that's not true. It is a real illness that needs professional treatment. And we're getting that treatment - I just wish it would work quicker!

Anyway, the last few weeks have been very tough. I'm just hoping that from now on things do start to improve.

Beyond Blue - the national depression initiative.

Leslie Howard at QPAC

2009-07-27T11:30:00.003+10:00

It was really very exciting. My partner and I won two tickets to see Leslie Howard play at QPAC on Friday night. He was performing as part of the Queensland Music Festival, so it was great to be able to see him in concert. Apart from the fact that we actually won something (!!!), I love the piano and piano music.

This is Leslie Howard, playing Liszt (not the selection from the QPAC performance, though).

We only just made it. I was working in Melbourne all week and only landed back in Brisbane at 6:15pm. The concert started at 8, so I rushed home, got changed and we went straight back out. We got to the Concert Hall at QPAC just as they announced that the doors would be closing in two minutes. So we went straight in, sat down, and the concert started.

Howard started with Beethoven, followed by Liszt. I hadn't heard either of these selections before, which made for a nice change. (I'm not a huge consumer of classical music, so this wasn't really a surprise given the amount of music that Beethoven and Liszt wrote.) The Six Variations in F Major, opus 34 by Beethoven didn't really catch my imagination, but that's probably because I was still trying to calm down after racing to get there in time. The Liszt selection (Annees de pelerinage - Troiseme anne, S163) made more of an impression. Starting slowly, over the course of the seven pieces it did build into something that caught my imagination.

After the interval he played Borodins Petite Suite, followed by Sonata No.1 by Glazunov. Again, these were two pieces I'd never heard before. The Glazunov I thought was very good and a great piece to finish with.

One thing that did surprise me was that most of this music was relatively quiet and simple, in minor keys. It did have a rather downbeat feeling to it in that respect. So much of Beethoven and Liszt in particular are fast paced and quite extravagant in a lot of ways and these pieces were obviously some of their simpler and sparser works. The whole performance had a low key feeling to it as a result, at least for me.

Having said that, his playing was superb. He performed for two hours completely from memory (a trick I wish I could do!) and without missing a beat. It was overall a brilliant performance and I'm very glad we went.

Heaven's Reach

2009-07-23T20:05:00.005+10:00

I've just finished Heaven's Reach, the final book in the second Uplift trilogy by David Brin. This is the second time I've read it and it's just as good as I remember. Better, even.

This final book follows the continuing adventures of the Streaker crew and the other characters that they met on Jijo. It brings the whole series to a conclusion, full of surprises and suspense right up until the end.

I have to admit that I liked it better this time around. The first time I read it I enjoyed the pace of the story but got a bit lost. Brin has introduced a lot of new ideas that expand the reach of his Uplift universe far beyond anything mentioned in the previous books. There were hints, but in this book he lets loose and takes us on an adventure well into a transcendental future, where evolution takes some very strange turns.

In the end, most of the loose ends are tied up although some of the big questions don't get answered. The big question about the Progenitors and their return is never really answered, but there's nothing wrong with that. Life doesn't always answer your questions, does it? Sometimes you have to live with the unknown, and that's made clear in this book. People are parted without warning at a moments notice, there is death and sorrow, but also joy and adventure.

It's a good book. A great read - as I said, I had to re-read it to really enjoy it. But it is a fitting conclusion to the Uplift series, and leaves room for further adventures in the future. I'd like to see more books set in this universe sometime in the future!

Missing home in Melbourne

2009-07-21T19:25:00.002+10:00

I'm in Melbourne this week. Normally I'd be really happy about that - I love Melbourne and think it's a great city to be in. But this time it's a bit different. It's the first time I've had to come down here for work while leaving my partner at home in Brisbane. That puts a whole new spin on the joy of travel.

This is a business trip, too. I've been assigned to an exciting new project and have to spend at least this week in the Melbourne office. Fortunately, after this first week or so I'll be able to do most of my work from Brisbane. That suits me perfectly.

While I'm down here though I'm going to catch up with one of my best friends. We'll be going out tomorrow night for dinner. There's a vegetarian restaurant somewhere in Fitzroy that he wants to try, so that ought to be interesting.

In the meantime, I'm stuck in my hotel room. Melbourne is having a winter heat wave at the moment, so it's not actually as cold as it could be, but it's still not all that warm either. Why can't they schedule these trips in summer!!???

Anyway, that's about it - I'm looking forward to getting home on Friday night, just in time to see the Leslie Howard concert at QPAC.

Laughing out loud: French and Saunders!

2009-07-15T15:04:00.006+10:00

We made it into South Bank on Sunday night to see the French and Saunders show at the Brisbane Convention Center. What a great show!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The evening started with dinner at Kapsalis in the South Bank parklands. The food was good, and they were more than generous with the portions. None of us went hungry, that's for sure. Just a tip - don't order the Seafood Platter for Two unless you plan on having at least two people to eat it. It was huge. I mean it - huge. My friend barely made a dent in it by himself. Anyway... I had the mezethes platter, and even that was more than enough for one person.

We wandered over to the Convention Center after dinner. There were crowds of people going in the same direction, as you'd expect for such a famous pair of comedians. But this led to the one disappointment of the night - I'll get it out of the way first, because the show was excellent.

The seating was horrible! We paid for A reserve seating, which was the mid-priced seating. The expensive seats had all sold out before we booked, so we went for what we thought would be the next best thing. But we were wrong. The cheap seats were actually the best seats in the house, so sometimes you don't get what you pay for. We were in row K, right at the back of the A reserve section. The problem was that the floor is level in the Convention Center so we couldn't really see the stage at all. We were below the stage level so had to look up to see Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, but because the floor was level we couldn't see over the people sitting in front of us. It was very poor planning on the part of the center. After a few minutes, we got up and complained to an usher. He then showed us to some free seats up in the side sections that are raised and on a slope. Even though these seats were not sold because they supposedly had an obstructed view they were much better than the seats we actually paid for. We weren't alone, too. Throughout the show people were constantly moving from the floor seats to the raised seating around the side of the venue. I would say there were a lot of unhappy people that night.

Still, once we'd moved, the show was fantastic. I love both Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Absolutely Fabulous is an amazing TV show, and I still get the dvds out to watch it now and then. The Vicar of Dibley is just as good, although I've never gone so far as to buy it. They are both very talented comedians.

They did a lot of live performance, but broke it up with some pre-recorded videos. Here's one of them from YouTube. Take a look - it's hilarious. A very funny spoof of Mamma Mia, the movie.

So apart from the debacle with the seats (which we are complaining about!) it was a lovely night. It was great to see them live after enjoying them on TV for so long now. I can't believe they've been working together for 30 years - seems like such a long time, and they've done so many fantastic things in that time. I'd love to see them again one day, but this is their last tour together (hmmm - heard that from plenty of other artists, though, so we'll see!).

A great night - 4 stars from me.

Eating Chives

2009-07-10T13:47:00.004+10:00

We went out for dinner last night to Chives, a restaurant not far from where we live. My cousin and his family are in town for a week or so and we thought it would be great to catch up over dinner.

Apart from being close to home, the other attraction of Chives was the buy one meal and get one free vouchers we had. Aren't the vouchers on the back of your grocery vouchers a great idea?

We didn't make a reservation, so we were probably quite lucky to get a table. It turned out to be a smaller restaurant than I thought. Still, we did get in and got a table.

The menu describes itself as pan-Asian, although the main emphasis seems to be on Thai food. The choices include curries, stir fries, sea food to beef and lamb as well as vegetarian options, so there was a choice for everyone.

I can personally recommend the Chilli Jam Chicken Curry with coconut cream. It was absolutely delicious, and had just the right amount of spice in it for my tastes.

The only drawback as far as we were concerned was the amount of time it took for the food to be prepared. We were there for almost an hour before our main meals arrived, although that could have been because my cousin ordered the slow-cooked lamb shanks. Anything that says slow cooked in the actual menu should be a warning, shouldn't it? As a result we were all very hungry by the time the food did actually arrive, but it was worth waiting for.

I'm glad we went there last night, although it's probably not a place I would have gone if we hadn't had the free meal vouchers. Downtown Mt Gravatt isn't the most exciting spot for night life. Still, it was local and turned out to be very good. Well worth the trip.

And it was a great way to lead into what should be an exciting weekend. A good friend arrives tonight, and we're all going out to the French and Saunders show in Brisbane on Sunday night. Can't wait for that!

Making money on the weekend!

2009-07-06T09:50:00.005+10:00

We had a garage sale on the weekend, just to clear away some of the clutter in our lives. It was pretty successful and we got rid of almost everything we wanted to sell. It's amazing what people will buy, isn't it?

We started the sale at 7am on Saturday morning. You do hear stories of people queuing up before a garage sale starts to grab a bargain but that didn't happen to us. That was a little bit disappointing - we thought that the professional bargain hunters would be out in force, but not for us. Maybe that was because we only advertised in the local paper, with a small distribution area, rather than the city wide paper.

Still, we had a few people through. The first one turned up about 7:30, looking for tools, which was the only thing we weren't trying to sell! But people started turning up after that, and we got rid of furniture, kitchen white goods, an old dvd player, the washing machine, bed linen, a lamp and other bits and pieces.

We actually sold a lot of stuff to our neighbours across the street. Their son has just moved out of home for the first time so he needed a lot of things. They took the old entertainment unit, an outdoor bar setting, cups, plates, cutlery, and some other old kitchen trays etc. Basically we were just glad to get rid of it all, so almost gave a lot of it away. It's no loss to us and if they can use it they're welcome to it. And we like them, too!

So it was a successful day, and we now have storage space in our garage again! We may even be able to put a car back in there now, which hasn't happened for a few months. There are still a few items that we'll take to Cash Converters and others that we'll donate to Lifeline and then it will all be over and organised. It turned out to be a very good weekend for us. Quite a bit of work, but we needed to do it and didn't have any other plans for the weekend anyway, so it was win/win all around.

Now we can go shopping with all the money we made! (ok ok just kidding on that one!)

Google keywords unlock sales

2009-06-30T12:46:00.003+10:00

Using Google Keywords is the way to unlock the sales potential of your business. That's the story today over at the Brisbane Times. I thought this was pretty interesting as I've been playing with keywords a bit myself, so it got my attention when I saw it in a mainstream media outlet.

I guess the article itself is basically advertising. It gives an example of a small business that worked with a Adwords reseller to build their business. They picked their niche and chose their keywords and kept optimising - all the steps in a good SEO approach (which is being taught over at Smart Online Profit Systems). Still, it was basically an ad for the two companies mentioned. More good marketing!

Anyway, I just thought this was a good example of how website optimisation is going mainstream.

Queening it up in Toowoomba!

2009-06-29T13:28:00.006+10:00

We went to Toowoomba over the weekend for a friends birthday. It was a lovely weekend away, and as part of it we went to the Empire Theatre on Saturday night and saw Queen - Its a Kinda Magic. It was so much fun!

I'm not a huge Queen fan, but I do own one of their greatest hits albums, so I did know the most of the songs they played. I used to listen to Queen quite a lot when I was a teenager but I haven't listened to them much in the time since then. Bohemian Rhapsody is a favourite of mine (well, really, who doesn't like that song??) but their other hits such as We Are the Champions and We Will Rock you always get me going too.

The show went for just over two hours, with encore. The lead singer, impersonating Freddie Mercury, had an incredible amount of energy and stamina. I don't know how he managed to keep going for so long at such a pace. His energy and performance really made the show come alive and got (a few) people out of their seats.

The other cast members seemed very young, but were very good all the same. The music just cut straight through everything else with an energy that was just a little bit irresistible.

The lighting did give me a few headaches, since they insisted on shining some very bright lights straight at the audience. They looked like car headlights, stacked in rows on the platform supporting the drum kit. Every so often they would just blind us - now I know how animals feel on the roads at night! I guess it gave an authentic '70s/80s stadium concert feel to it all, though. The rest of the lighting program certainly added drama to the show.

It was a bit of a tough crowd, though. Apart from a few people - die hard fans who danced and sang along for the whole concert - most others stayed seated. We did too, but we'll blame peer pressure for that! Even though it was a one-night-only show there were still plenty of empty seats behind us. The whole audience did get to their feet for one or two songs, but mostly just sat back and enjoyed the show. I don't know how that makes the performers feel, but they didn't let it affect their performance.

Anyway, it was an excellent show. I had a great time, and even sang along for a few songs. It's a good thing the music was so loud, that's all I can say about that.

Definitely worth seeing!

Infinity's Shore

2009-06-26T12:20:00.005+10:00

I've just finished re-reading Infinity's Shore by David Brin and I still love it. It's the second book in the Jijo/Uplift trilogy and is just as good as any of the previous books he's written. Brin is one of my favourite science fiction authors and he doesn't disappoint with this book.

This is the second book in the trilogy and it continues the story started in Brightness Reef. Streaker, the dolphin-crewed starship, is still stuck on Jijo and is being hunted now by the Jophur. In this book the familiar characters from Brightness Reef (Alvin, Huck, Sara, Lark and Dwer etc) are joined by the dolphin crews, neatly tying this book in with the previous Uplift trilogy.

Brin obviously has a knack for creating believable characters, alien species and cultures as well as settings. The Uplift universe is in my opinion one of the best fictional universes. The writing is excellent and the characters believable and interesting. This book, and this series, just drew me in and captured my whole attention.

The alien species and characters in this book seem real to me, and don't feel like dressed-up humans which unfortunately is the case with a lot of science fiction.

For a start, I think the basic idea behind the series is a great one. Uplift involves older intelligent species deliberately genetically engineering pre-sapient species so that they also become intelligent beings. In this series, humans have uplifted dolphins and chimpanzees to full intelligence, while thousands of alien species have also gone through the same process and created a galactic culture based on this idea. It's a fascinating concept and one that I would like to see happen in real life, eventually.

The other main idea is that humans are only a minor, weak and persecuted race in the wider galaxy. This seems like a pretty realistic idea to me, too, assuming that we ever do get off this planet and into space.

Overall I think this is one of my favourite science fiction series and this book is a great addition to it.

Revisiting old dramas

2009-06-22T13:51:00.003+10:00

It turned out to be a tough weekend, which was definitely not the plan. In light of the dramas that happened yesterday at home I thought I'd revisit an old post.

Self-inspection.

It should have been a great weekend. It was my partners birthday yesterday and all I had to do was make sure the day went well. I thought that a family lunch would be nice, except that I ignored all the warning signs and some very unsubtle hints in the last week that some family members were just not welcome. That led to fireworks - lots of fireworks.

It's my fault - like I said, I ignored the warnings. But that's just me, really, plan something and hope for the best. I thought a birthday should be a family occasion.

So I came across a post I did here over a year ago on self-inspection. It's still pretty accurate - my character traits really haven't changed. I still have communication issues, and lots of them. That just made things worse yesterday as I really didn't know how to handle things after it all went wrong. I couldn't say exactly what I meant, and still can't. My partner is quite fiery so I always come off second best in an argument.

I guess the two traits that stand out right now in that list are: second guessing and self-sabotage. I'm always second guessing myself and always have doubts about what's the best thing to do. Right now I'm trying not to second guess myself about this relationship. I want it to work, I really do, but I still seem to be constantly screwing it up. Self sabotage in spades. Sometimes I'm just o blind that I walk into things without really understanding the consequences and so I screw them up unwittingly.

And that's what I did this weekend. I managed to turn the focus from a happy birthday onto problem relationships. Not good, not good, not good. And I don't know how to recover from here.

Anyway, I've got to go home tonight and talk to my partner and try and work things out. That will involve talking, but I've got no idea what to say.

I hate Brisbane traffic!

2009-06-18T11:42:00.004+10:00

I have to say it - I hate Brisbane traffic! The whole city is either a road work site or grid lock. Driving around this town is a horrible experience.

Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. Outside of peak times it's not too bad, but try driving around the city in the morning or afternoon peak and you're in trouble.

My pet hate is the Inner City Bypass to Riverside Expressway link. It is totally random and can take either five minutes or 30 minutes to get through and there's no way of predicting in advance which it's going to be.

The road works don't help. The whole city is a road work site. From Ipswich to the Sunshine Coast, you can't drive anywhere without running up against road works. I know that this is a good thing, in the long run, but right now it just makes for a nightmare commute, every day.

The government has been running a trial over the last month with some government workers doing different hours or working from home. This has made a noticeable difference in my morning drive, but very little difference in the afternoon. I hope they continue this in the future because I do think it's a good idea and it is helping.

Still, the traffic in Brisbane shouldn't be as bad as it is. the city really isn't that big and other cities around the world don't have this many problems.

Anyway, that's my whinge for the day. Rant over :)

Having fun at home!

2009-06-15T14:37:00.002+10:00

We've got a new project underway - check it out at the Home Stylers website and blog.

I've just posted for the second time over there. This post is all about blinds and drapes, just giving a bit of a personal overview of my experience when I moved into my first home. Nothing spectacular, but it does just highlight the need for planning!

Anyway, check it out. I hope you like it!

New Zealand trips

2009-06-12T14:17:00.003+10:00

I've been to New Zealand twice since I last signed in here. The photos shown here are just a few of those I took, but I thought I'd share them around.

I only made it to the North Island, as it was a work trip. I would love to go back to the South Island one day.

Things change, things stay the same, life gets better!

2009-06-12T14:07:00.002+10:00

How things change...

It's been over a year now since I stopped this blogging experiment. In that time life has become very interesting, and all in a good way!

It's been a year now since I met the person who has since become my partner. After spending all of my 20's as a single man it's been quite an adventure to have someone else around so much. We are now living together and everything is great.

Having said that, relationships turn out to be a lot of work! Life may have been simpler as a single guy, but it wasn't as satisfying.

Anyway, this last year has been a adventure on a very personal level. It has involved some travel, and lots of relationship and family stuff. Now I'm thinking it's time to get this blog back on the road. Let's just see how it goes...

Signing back in - J.

Rhubarb Rhubarb

2008-03-04T10:51:00.002+10:00

I went out to local restaurant Rhubarb Rhubarb the other night. I wish I'd been there sooner, and more often. It is fantastic. It was one of the best meals I've had in a long time.

Everything about the meal was pretty much perfect. Even the portion size was nicely judged to leave us satisfied without feeling like we'd eaten too much. I had the ocean trout wrapped in pastry and the fish was tender, tasty and fresh. Highl recommended.

I'll definitely be going back.

The Apology

2008-02-21T10:09:00.002+10:00

Last week, Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Government. About time!

He'd promised that an apology would be one of the first things his new government did. I'm glad he followed through. It's well overdue, since I think it should have been offered years ago. Still, there was no way John Howard would have done this, and even if he had I don't think it would have been as full or as moving as the one offered by Rudd.

I didn't hear the speech directly, but I have read it now. There was a bit of controversy over Brendan Nelsons speech, but I haven't heard or read it so can't really say if it was justified. As the leader of the Liberal party, though, he was always going to get a rough reception on this issue, so it may have been better than reported.

Anyway, here's one link to the full text of the speech. And here's the link directly to the Prime Ministers site.

Interest rate rocket rides

2008-02-11T13:47:00.001+10:00

And the other article that got my attention this week was about rising interest rates. Again.

The Reserve Bank lifted rates by 0.25%. My bank then lifted rates by 0.29%. After an earlier rise of 0.1%. I've only had my home loan for 18 months and already rates have gone up almost 2%. It's beginning to hurt.

I've already said that this is my year for not spending money. I don't think that's going to be a choice, really, since everyone is expecting at least one more rise in the next month or so.

Can I still blame John Howard for this??

Sir John and the Jihad

2008-02-11T13:21:00.000+10:00

Two news articles got my attention this week. One was about John Howard (groan! hasnt' he disappeared yet?) and the other was about Islamic law in the UK.

First to John Howard. Apparently there are rumours going around that he's about to be knighted by the Queen. Sir John. My first reaction was "Oh God not another John Howard story!" I really am sick of hearing about this man. Now that he's lost the election I was hoping that there would be a Howard-free zone for at least a few more months. But it seems that's not to be - he's still regularly making it into the news.

I hope this rumour is false. It's far too soon to talk about giving him a knighthood. For a start, his time in office is still very recent. It's too soon for his legacy to be judged impartially, to see if he actually merits the honour. For what its worth, I think his first two terms (1996-2001) were competent to average. If he'd lost in 2001 he'd have gone down in history as unremarkable. After 2001, though, I think he and his government went from average to bad and then after 2004 to out-of-control. His legacy from this time will ensure his place in history, and not just as our second longest serving prime minister. The policies implemented during this time were controversial to say the least. In my opinion, many of them have damaged Australia - the rule of law, democracy, reputation, social cohesion, and so on. In some respects an over-reaction was natural after the September 11 attacks. But that over-reaction continued was too long and did too much damage. I think John Howards legacy will come to be seen as largely negative due to his actions since 2001.

Overall, then, I'd say he doesn't deserve a knighthood. And certainly he shouldn't get one yet, until some time has passed and we can all be a bit more impartial in judging him.

The other story was from the UK, where Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) seems to have claimed that some elements of Islamic law should be included into the laws of England.

At first I thought this was a bit of a beat-up, with the whole thing being taken out of context. But it seems that he did actually raise the idea of recognising some aspects of Sharia law into the civil law of the UK. He said this would be in the interests of social cohesion and help with community relations in integrating the large and growing Islamic community.

Personally I think its a bad idea. I don't think any specifically religious laws should be included into the law of the state, even (or especially) if they're only designed to apply to one group of people. I think that's a dangerous path to go down.

In my opinion, the state law should be as neutral as possible when it comes to religion and religious rules. It should create an area of legal space in which everyone is judged by the same rules and has equal rights before the law. It should be a space that everyone in the country can recognise as the basis of pretty much all interactions.

After that, if people choose to live to a higher standard (Islamic, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever...) that is up to them. If these people then choose to apply the standards of their religion to interactions between themselves, that's fine with me. That only applies, of course, if all the people involved choose freely to apply those standards. If there's any dispute about that, then the state law is the area to resolve these problems. It can't be used to enforce purely religious standards if a person chooses not to submit to those standards - that's a matter of conscience.

So if religious groups in the UK want to set up their own religious courts, that's fine. But they should have no legal standing in the wider civil law system. Any issue that falls under the wider civil law should still be dealt with that way. If people then choose to follow an extra religious judgement, that's their right but should not be their obligation.

So - incorporating religious law into the basic law of the land is a bad idea. I'm not surprised that the Archbishop has got a lot of criticism. At best his ideas were poorly expressed. At worst, I think they were pretty silly.

The Unconscious Civilization

2008-01-29T14:12:00.001+10:00

This is one of the books I picked up at Bookfest this January. It's been on my list of books to read for a few years now, so when I saw it on the table I grabbed it. I also grabbed "On Equilibrium" which is now on my to-be-read list. I'll get around to that book one of these days...

I find these types of books to be pretty challenging books to read. It's a book of political philosophy dealing with the history of democracy in Western countries.

John Ralston Saul, the author, seems to be saying that democracy is in trouble. He is saying that Western countries in particualar have allowed themselves to be changed from true democracies into corporatist states - run for and by the big corporations. His main idea, if I've understood this correctly, is that we've done this more or less unconsciously without actually thinking or caring about the consequences.

The evidence seems to be pretty clear. A lot of political effort over the last couple of decades (this book was released in 1996) has gone into economic reform, and the main beneficiaries of that reform seem to be the big corporations and businesses. Governments, elected and otherwise, have handed over a lot of their economic power to these businesses in the name of efficiency and free trade and globalisation.

He also argues that our education systems have been corporatised, too, with the effect that education now is mostly technical. It's aimed at turning out people with good technical skills that are useful to business rather than turning out people with a general education - the focus is on the immediate task in hand rather than the broader goals of equiping people with the skills to be able to think through the consequences of their actions.

Maybe he's being a bit alarmist, maybe I've just misunderstood him. After all, my education is puerly technical - and IT degree with basically no units from the Arts or Humanities faculties. I'm one of the people who haven't been equipped with the intellectual tools to fully assess the state of our society. In general though, I'd agree with a lot of what he said in this book.

As I said, it's the kind of book that I find hard to read and understand in one go.I will have to re-read this, maybe after I've read "On Equilibrium" so that I can get a better handle on his style of argument.

4 stars (provisional on re-reading)

Warholing

2008-01-29T13:19:00.000+10:00

"Art is what you can get away with." So said Andy Warhol, according to one of the quotes wallpapered around GOMA on Sunday. And it's very true, too - he got away with quite a lot!

I spent Sunday at the Gallery of Modern Art here in Brisbane, looking through the Andy Warhol exhibition. Like a lot of other people, I'd heard of Andy Warhol without really knowing anything about his work. He was famous for saying that everyone in the future would be famous for 15 minutes. And that, I think, is his 15 minutes summed up right there.

I spent around three hours in the exhibition. Maybe I just didn't get it, but a lot of it, the early works in particular, didn't impress me all that much. His later works, on the other hand, I thought were much better. At least, they appealed to me a bit more. Maybe that just means I'm more in touch with the spirit of the 80's than the 60's...

And I guess that's the point, isn't it? He was a pop artist, consciously so. He was speaking very much in the language and images of the day, reacting to the events immediately around him. He captured a moment in time, sometimes memorably as with his portraits, and then time moved on. The image doesn't speak as loudly any more and will probably continue to fade as we get further away from his time and the ideas that inspired him.

Overall, it's an interesting exhibition. It's more interesting for it's historical value than it's artistic value, I think, but still I'm glad I went.

I bought a fridge magnet at the Andy Warhol Supermarket on the way out. Pop art at its best!

Bookfesting! Lots and lots of bookfesting!

2008-01-22T20:37:00.000+10:00

The full list of books from bookfest...

Rushing To Paradise J.G. Ballard
The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow Thea Astley
The Great World David MALOUF
Earth (A Bantam spectra book) David Brin
The Double Tongue William Golding
The Doubleman Christopher J. Koch
Out of Ireland Christopher Koch
Oyster Janette Turner Hospital
Farewell Symphony Edmund White
Earthly Powers Anthony burgess
Brightness Reef (Uplift) David Brin
Infinity's Shore (The Second Uplift Trilogy #2) David Brin
Heaven's Reach (The Second Uplift Trilogy #3) David Brin
The Unconscious Civilization John Ralston Saul
On equilibrium John Ralston Saul
Love in a dark time Colm Toibin
Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone Kenneth; Postlewait, Heidi; Thomson, Andrew Cain
True stories Inga Clendinnen
Not for publication Chris Masters
Is Australia an Asian country? : can Australia survive in an East Asian future? Stephen FitzGerald
The Future of the Wild: Radical Conservation for a Crowded World Jonathan S. Adams
Vital signs, vibrant society : securing Australia's economic and social wellbeing Craig Emerson
At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O'Neill
The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) Mark D. Jordan
The Life and Death of Planet Earth Peter Douglas Ward
Red shoes Carmel Bird
Queensland, words and all Manfred Jurgensen
Through the Kaleidoscope J.V. Stevenson
Foreign correspondence Geraldine Brooks
Dear Australian : an anthology based on a selection of the most memorable letters to The Australian, 1964-1981 Phil Pearman
Reflections Tasmania Heather Lethborg

So that's the full list. There's a couple of photos,too, somehwere. So many books! So much goodness!

Bookfesting

2008-01-21T13:18:00.000+10:00

I only made on new years resolution this year, and that was to stop spending so much money. This year is all going to be about saving. So in the name of saving, I went shopping! Yes, it's that time of the year again - the Lifeline Bookfest.

All up I made two trips to the Bookfest. The first was on the opening day, Saturday the 12th of January. I spent about five hours wandering around the convention center halls. This time I thought ahead and took the car, even if it did mean paying for parking. Last year I caught the train in and so had to carry my single bag of books home again. This time when I had a full bag I could just run downstairs, dump it in the car and then keep shopping.

The second trip was on the final day, Saturday 19th. Half price day, which is even better than the already-bargain prices of the first trip.

They always have a great range of books, particularly in the hardback fiction, which is where I spent most of my time. There, and on the science/politics/technical tables in the high quality section. I also browsed the science fiction and paperback tables, but the condition of most of the books on those tables was a bit offputting - I like my books to be in good condition. Anyway... and finally there's the lucky dip section of unpriced books, which is mostly rubbish but occaisonally there's something worth grabbing.

Over the two trips I spent around $100 and came home with 30 books. Not bad, really, although now I need a new bookcase. Its a shame they weren't selling them, too! And that's how I'm saving money this year - I bought enough reading material here to keep me going for quite a while. I suppose I could always just use the library more, but I do like owning my books. So it was shopping to save money - i love it!

The full list of books, and photos, will be coming soon...

Apart from that, it's been a very quiet week. Why did I have to go back to work?

Hells Gates - holiday reading

2008-01-10T14:10:00.001+10:00

I picked up Hells Gates by Paul Collins while I was in Hobart. I really do love a good second hand book shop, and the Imperial Bookshop in Collins St, Hobart, is a good one. I picked up this book to add to my collection of books about Tasmania, and Tasmanian history. This one tells the fascinating story of the convict, Alexander Pearce.

The title, Hells Gates, refers to two things. First, Hells Gates is the entrance to Macquarie Harbour on Tasmanias west coast. It's a narrow channel, and the tide roars in and out through it, across a series of shallow sand bars. It's a very dangerous crossing for any ships and so early sailors christened it Hells Gates.

Inside the harbour, though, is Sarah Island. This was the site of a convict station that imprisoned the worst of the worst convicts. It was one of the harshest convict regimes in colonial Australia, and the convicts called it a hell on earth. So Hells Gates was an appropriate name for them too.

The book follows the life of Alexander Pearce, from his early life and conviction in Ireland, through his transportation to Van Diemens Land and his continuing troubles with the law, to his exile at Sarah Island and eventual escape, recapture and execution. Along the way the author shows what life was like in colonial Tasmania. For convicts like Pearce, who could not adjust to the regime and serve their time, it was a very harsh existence.

The main event in the history is Pearce's escape from Sarah Island, a place that was supposed to be completely secure and isolated. The rainforests and mountains of the west coast of Tasmania were supposed to be uncrossable, and so provided the best prison walls available. But Pearce and his companions proved this to be wrong. But to do this, we also see what it cost them - they descended into some of the worst possible human behaivour. Only Pearce survived the escape attempt, and only by turning murderer and cannibal.

That's the heart of this book. It shows us how the worst of human nature can be brought out in people. It also includes a fascinating comparison between colonial and convict attitudes to the local environment compared to contemporary attitudes. The convicts and early settlers saw the pristine rainforests and rugged mountains as hostile and imprisoning, unnatural. Today we look at the same landscape and see beauty, unspoiled wilderness that inspires us. It's still the same place, almost unchanged, and still just as harsh, but how we look at it has changed dramatically. It's an interesting conclusion to the book, making us think about how society and people do change through time.

I think this is a good book, and I will be re-reading it at some point. It's a fascinating story in itself, and it combines that with being well written. Maybe it's just because I enjoy reading about Tasmanian history that I think this is such a good book, but I do think other people would enjoy it too.

3.5 stars, I think.

Brisbane weather sucks - should have stayed in Hobart!

2008-01-08T20:12:00.000+10:00

I came back from Hobart to spend a couple of days on the beach before heading back to work this week. And guess what it does? That's right - it rains right up until Monday morning. Not happy!!! Anyway...

This is what Kedron Brook looked like on Sunday afternoon after a very heavy storm went through. It's the first time I've seen it break its banks since moving up here. It went down again pretty quickly though, but looked impressive while it lasted.

Now if it would just rain like that over Wivenhoe Dam...

Shanghai lights

2008-01-07T14:06:00.000+10:00

Some photos from my week in Shanghai...

Holiday reading

2008-01-07T11:34:00.000+10:00

On a slightly happier topic...

Over the holiday I read:

"By Hook or By Crook" by David Crystal - a book exploring the languages of Britain while driving through Wales. Not bad; well-written, even if not all that memorable in the end.

"Stars in my pocket like grains of sand" by Samuel R Delany. I've wanted to read this for a while now, but haven't been able to find a copy. Apparently the Brisbane City Library system has almost none of his books. So I picked this one up second hand at Salamanca Markets and read it. It was good. Science fiction, of course, set in a distant future with humanity spread across 6000 star systems, and explores the differences in human cultures that have evolved. I'll need to read it again to get a better idea of what its about.

I also picked up "Hells Gates" by Paul Collins, and "Pashazade"and "Effendi" by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, but haven't read them yet.

I hate QANTAS (or, Christmas holidays continued...)

2008-01-07T11:14:00.001+10:00

I haven't had a good year with QANTAS. They've now officially managed to stuff me around twice this year (out of two trips, that's a pretty impressive record).

I don't think I wrote about the first stuff-up when it happened. It was a the end of my Vietnam/Cambodia trip, trying to get home to Brisbane. Since I was travelling with friends from Melbourne, our international flight left from there. And returned there. That was fine - I didn't mind that, and it actually saved a bit of money. But from Melbourne back to Brisbane I booked a QANTAS domestic flight. I'd left around 2.5 hours between the international arrival time and the domestic departure, but our Malaysian Airlines flight got in to Melbourne quite a bit earlier than scheduled. That was great - I thought I'd be able to get home earlier than planned. When I went to check in with QANTAS, though, the woman on the checkin desk was pretty rude. I asked if I could get on an earlier flight, since I was now over 3.5 hours early for my booked flight. She checked my backpack through, said she was busy, and told me to go to the service desk. I thought that was a bit strange, especially since she checked my luggage in, but went to the service desk anyway. When I asked about earlier flights they said of course they could do that, right up until they realised that my luggage was checked in. At that point there was apparently nothing they could do. So, because the woman on the check-in desk couldn't be bothered spending 30 seconds to give me some good advice, I was stuck in Melbourne airport with nothing to do for hours. And hours. After a long international flight. I was tired, bored, and now angry. So - strike one against QANTAS.

The second problem was coming home again to Brisbane, this time from Hobart after Christmas. I booked the return trip with QANTAS, but they put me on JetStar for a flight to Melbourne, then connecting to a QANTAS flight to Brisbane. I'm never doing that again. First of all, because I was changing from JetStar to QANTAS and it was all on one booking, I couldn't use the web check-in function. Not a big deal, but a bit annoying. Then, even though I'd booked the whole trip through QANTAS, they can't transfer luggage between the airlines. So I had to get off in Melbourne, collect my suitcase, and then re-checkin with the QANTAS flight. That was very annoying - especially since JetStar was running a bit late at this point. And just to top it off, JetStar enforces its 20kg baggage limit. QANTAS lets you take up to 32kg without charge, but JetStar doesn't. I had 22.5kg in my suitcase, and so had to pay excess baggage charges for the first time ever. Not happy there, either!

I assumed, that since it was all on a QANTAS ticket and they chose to put me on JetStar (since QANTAS flights to/from Hobart are now few and far between) then QANTAS rules should apply. And that they'd take care of tranferring my luggage. Wrong on all counts. This is the last time I ever take a booking with tranfers between QANTAS and JetStar - it's really not worth the hassle. Next time if QANTAS offers me flight options with these transfers I'll fly Virgin instead. Every time!

I could have avoided all this, of course, if I'd fully read all the terms and conditions, rather than just assuming that QANTAS would do what I thought was the right thing. Silly me! It was all in the fine print, of course. Still, it is definitely the worst travel option I could have come up with, and it wont be happening again.

Thanks, QANTAS! It wasn't a good year for you, I'm afraid!

Happy New Year 2008

2008-01-07T10:56:00.000+10:00

I have had a very lazy holiday over Christmas and New Year. It's been great. But now I'm back at work, and trying to get into the swing of 2008.

I don't make new year resolutions. I really can't see the point in setting goals that I almost certainly will forget about. I've made resolutions in the past and pretty much given up on them within days. Or weeks at the most... So, no resolutions for this year. I'll just be concentrating on longer-term goals that I've already thought about.

Actually, I didn't stay awake long enough on New Years Eve to even see the new year in. How slack is that? I was in bed by 11 and fast asleep. I'll blame my friends for being too lazy to go out for the night - that's my excuse. I guess we're all a little bit over the whole party scene, dodging drunken teenagers on the waterfront or in the nightclubs. Anyway... (the new year is making me feel old, can you tell?)

The two weeks holiday itself was very good, though. I went to Tassie for 10 days, before spending a final few days at home in Brisbane before heading back to work this morning. As usual, the weather in Hobart was pretty average. A lot of it was cold and overcast, with a couple of good days over the weekend. It even broke 30 degrees on new years eve, so I jumped in the water and went swimming. The Tasmanian water is always so refreshingly cold, isn't it? But then on New Years day, for our family bbq, the temperature didn't even make it to 20. We still had a good time though - fresh salmon and sausages on the bbq, with some of mums salads and raspberry ice cream cake. Yum! It's just a shame we couldn't include a swim at the beach as part of the fun.

I love going home to Hobart for a holiday. I don't feel like a tourist there, and so there's no pressure to go off sightseeing, there's no list of attractions to see or activities to do. I spent my time catching up with family and friends, and then doing nothing. Just a few days of lazing around the house doing nothing, walking on the beach, reading or watching the cricket made for a fantastic holiday, a holiday that felt twice as long as it actually was. After what had been a pretty hectic couple of months leading up to Christmas I needed that break.

It was particularly good to see my grandfather again. He's looking quite a bit older and frailer than he did even a few months ago, unfortunately. Old age really is unfair, isn't it? It's certainly not his mind that's slowing up, but his body just can't keep up anymore. Still, he's doing pretty well, and is a lot better than many people his age. I just hope I take after him!

I also caught up with a few friends while in Tassie. If I was making new year resolutions, one would be to make more of an effort to keep in touch with these people. I really don't see them or talk to them often enough. I'm hoping that at least a few of them will come and visit me sometime this year.

So that was my Christmas. It was fun, the best holiday I've had for a while now. I just wish, really wish, I wasn't back at work this morning!

Celebrate good times!

2007-12-06T11:42:00.000+10:00

And while I was away, the election happened. It was good good news! The Liberals lost, and lost big. John Howard lost his seat!! I wasn't expecting that, but it's great news. The Labor party is in power, and Kevin Rudd is prime minister.

Already they are dismantling the Howard legacy - they're ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and talking about bringing down the disclosure limit on political donations.

I'm so relieved that John Howard lost - I thought he was going to creep back in. I'm so happy to be wrong about that. Now its' just a matter of waiting to see how the Rudd government goes - will it keep its' promises, how much of the Howard legacy will it undo, how will the economy run, will the country start to take back its values of fairness and honesty etc?

Interesting times...

Home again

2007-12-06T11:23:00.001+10:00

I'm back! Yep, made it home from China in one piece. What a trip - I'm very glad to be home.

The job was a bit of a mess. I spent most of my time in the office, unfortunately, up to 11 hours a day for 6 days of the week. I got my part of the work done, and managed to help out slightly on some other parts but its still a mess. And I'm glad to be back out of there.

I couldn't access blogger while in China - or rather, I couldn't view my blog, or any blog with the words blogspot or wordpress in the address. Oh well, I guess I didn't miss too much there, but the Great Firewall of China exists, and it doesn't like me.

Shanghai is an impressive city. Dirty, though. I couldn't believe how polluted the air is. While I was there, there were quite a few days that weren't cloudy. But even on the clearest of days with the sun shining the sky wasn't blue. All I could see was grey skies, with a faint blue tinge directly overhead. All around the horizon was grey and hazy. The buildings just faded away into the haze, and visibility was very bad. The day I went up to the viewing deck of the Oriental Pearl TV tower I could barely see across the river to the Bund. Anything beyond the Bund was invisible in the haze. Very disappointing. It does make me wonder how the olympics will go in Beijing next year, though.

The other thing I really didn't like was the aggressive approach taken by street selles. Wandering along Nanjing Road I just couldn't get away from people trying to sell me watches, dvds, t-shirts, shoes, belts, bags or in some cases, girls. As soon as I got rid of one seller, another would appear beside me and follow me down the road. If I got rid of him, then there would be another by my side in a matter of seconds. It really took all the fun out of just wandering around the city. I was always having to fend off their approaches. That happened pretty much everywhere I went in shanghai by myself - Nanjing Road, the Old Town, the French Concession, anywhere with shops and tourists.

The city does have an amazing history, though. I'd have liked to see a bit more of it, but didn't have a chance on this trip. Too much work going on for me to play the tourist. The shopping was good, but not as cheap as other parts of Asia. I did buy a few dodgy DVDs, which I haven't actually tried out yet. They work fine in the computer but whether they play on the dvd player I don't know yet. I bought a couple of items at BlueShanghaiWhite, which does a modern take on traditional Chinese pottery. I bought a vase and a couple of coffee cups that I thought were quite attractive. They had some lovely candle holders too, which I should have bought. Ah well - unfortunately it doesn't look like you can order them over the internet. But apart from that I didn't do much shopping because the aggressive approach of the sellers on the street just turned me right off. In some cases, in the Old Market area (YuYuan markets) they'd even come out of the shops and try and drag me in. I just wanted to browse and see what I could find but they kept throwing things in my face and dragging me here and there - I don't like that approach at all and so just didn't buy anything from them.

Still, I'd like to go back and take a longer look at the place. As far as Asian cities go its one of the better ones to end up in, I think.

China China China

2007-11-23T23:37:00.000+10:00

Well, I'm in Shanghai, although all I've seen of it so far is the hotel and the office. The hotel is fine, but nothing special. It's the Rainbow Hotel, out in Hongqiao. But it is just a hotel - the only advantage is that it's only 5 minutes walk to the office.

I'm still not thrilled about being here for work. I'd love to come here and explore on a holiday, but getting thrown into the project like this at the last minute is not something I wanted. Ah well... it's a new city, new job. I'll get out and explore a bit over the weekend.

As for this blog - I can log in and add posts. But I can't actually just view it as a web page. Or any blog, for that matter. Any website that has blogspot or wordpress in the address doesn't work from here. I guess that's the Great Firewall in action. There's probably a way around it but I'll just live with it for now. Got to love that firewall!

Voting done - can we just finish the election now?

2007-11-17T11:46:00.001+10:00

While I was in town getting my Chinese visa the other day I also went and voted. I'll be out of the country on election day and so will miss all the excitement (what a shame!)

I didn't realise it was so easy to vote early, but they had a polling station set up at city hall. They didn't even ask for any ID - just rocked up, filled out the form which they checked against the electoral roll and away I went. I guess I could have voted for someone else too if I had their name, address, and date of birth. Too easy.

Anyway, I voted. It's done. First preference for the Australian Democrats - vote 1 for Andrew Bartlett in the senate, and the local Democrats candidate Jennifer Cluse in the lower house.

And then I preferenced the Greens and Labor in the lower house. In the senate I voted above the line for the first time. There were 65 candidates. I could wallpapered the booth with that form, it was so big. I've always voted below the line before, but that was when I was living in Tassie. Numbering the 20-30 candidates in that form isn't too much of a strain, but numbering 65 here in Queensland is asking a bit much. Anyway... its a good thing I liked the Democrats ticket.

So good luck to the Democrats. It'd be a sad day for Australia if they lost all their seats, I think. They've done an excellent job over the years.

Still, it's not looking good. 1996 was the first election I voted in, and I voted Democrats then too. That was the year they lost their Tasmanian seat to Bob Brown. Now this is the first time I've voted in Queensland, and it looks very much like the Democrats could go down to the Greens here too. I must be a political jinx of some kind... maybe I should have voted for Howard after all!

Election pending

2007-11-17T11:40:00.000+10:00

One of the good things about going away is that I will miss the final week of the election. But here's a fun piece of election commentary that puts the entertainment back into the game.

In other news - Queer Penguin is writing a series on why he's preferencing Labor at this election. Its a pretty good list of the reasons for not voting Howard this time around. Parts 1,2 and 3 are up so far.

What a crazy week

2007-11-17T11:28:00.001+10:00

Well, it's been a bit of a crazy week around here. Sometimes work just sucks, you know?

It began on Monday, when one of our company managers rang and asked me (again) to go to China. Normally I would jump at a chance like that - company sponsored travel to somewhere I haven't been before is always a nice perk. But I'd been trying to avoid this job, because of the chaos that seems to be happening over there at the moment. I'd been asked before to look at some of this project work, and had decided I really didn't want to get involved. They're at a point in the project where they are presenting the results to our customer, and basically it doesn't work. Or so I've heard. So - results? One unhappy customer, some very stressed project staff, no time to sort it out. And that's when they ask me to go there - just in time to present it to the customer again without any real information or preparation. How fair is that? I wanted to stay as far away from this sort of mess as possible.

If they'd actually asked me a couple of months ago, when I could have made a difference by getting in early and working on it, then it would all have been ok. I could have prepared, maybe even helped them avoid some problems. Who knows? But its all a bit late now... anyway...

So I'm off to China on Wednesday. I guess I am excited about it - I do love travelling when I get the chance. I rushed into Brisbane on Thursday and applied for the visa. Fortunately they can do it overnight, instead of the normal four working days. I picked it back up on Friday morning. There were fairly long queues each day, which I wasn't expecting. Apparently China is quite the destination at the moment. But they were fast, and pretty efficient. Only complaint - they wouldn't accept my company AMEX card as payment. Just a minor pain, when it comes to reporting the expenses for the trip.

On top of all that excitement, I've been rushing around putting the finishing touches on my current project, trying to do some troubleshooting for a site in New Zealand and dealing with another strange request from a local customer. They always want to do things that are just not part of the standard system. Which is fine, because we get to charge them lots of money for making it work the way they want. Its just the timing that sucks.

So I'll be away for a few weeks. Good fun :)

Sorry means... not sorry??

2007-11-08T13:42:00.000+10:00

John Howard at his best - again! Yesterday he said he was sorry that interest rates have gone up again. But now he's saying that he's not apologising for it. So sorry no longer means sorry, in Howard-speak.

Sounds familiar, though. The last time he said sorry for anything was when petrol prices were rising. He was very quick to say sorry then. And he was very quick to say it now, too, even though he has just admitted he didn't really mean it.

It's interesting that he chose to say sorry both times for something that isn't technically his fault. There are plenty of things he could apologise for (even in the Howard-speak sense of the word!), but he's chosen to say sorry only when something has hurt voters in his marginal seats. So much for demonstrating leadership, Australian values, morality, taking responsibility...

The guy is a fraud and I really really want him gone from government.

Interest rates rises are good for you

2007-11-07T19:19:00.000+10:00

Interest rates rose today, by 0.25%. And since this is an election campaign, Peter Costello has to jump in and tell us this is a good thing. Or, ate least, that rising interest rates are a sign of good economic management.

Well, if everything is so good (as the Labor party ads keep reminding us, according to John Howard we've never had it so good) then maybe Peter Costello and John Howard can pay my mortgage for me. That'd be nice!

And anyway, if rising interest rates are a sign of good economic management, what did they mean when they promised to keep rates at record lows during the last election? Does that mean Howard and Costello were promising to give us bad economic management?

These guys really need to pick a line and stick to it. At the rate they're backflipping at the moment they'd outperform most circus acrobats!

Thanks, John Howard!

(Of course, I know the government doesn't directly control interest rates. But when they claim low rates as their responsibility but try to dodge the blame for higher rates, then they deserve everything they get! I really really hope they get voted out)

The Liberal Party tells the truth!

2007-11-05T19:42:00.000+10:00

Found on Road to Surfdom - a good laugh. And a lot of reasons not to vote for John Howard.

Tasmanian Politics

2007-10-31T19:54:00.000+10:00

I came across this site the other day. It's always interesting to keep up with whats going on back home in Tassie, and this looks like a good way of doing it.

Tasmanian politics might not rate much attention unless you live there, but I'm still concerned and interested in it. The current Tasmanian state government is a bit of a disgrace and the whole pulp mill decision process was disgusting. Anyway...

It'll be interesting to read this site as it develops.

Kondalilla Falls

2007-10-31T15:23:00.000+10:00

On Sunday I drove up to Montville and Kondalilla Falls National Park. I was planning to do the Falls circuit with a friend, but I was very disappointed to get there and find the track was closed.

Anyway, we walked out to the top of the falls and had a look at the swimming hole there. I was surprised how close it was to the car park. I'd assumed that the walk out was longer than it actually was - it was only about a 15 minute walk out to the top of the falls. It was pretty easy going. The track is well maintained and mostly level, apart from the short descent to the creek.

We thought about going swimming here, but decided against it. The pool was pretty busy, and so we decided to head for the beach at Caloundra instead.

The track to the base of the falls was closed. I was pretty disappointed about this, as that was the part of the track I was actually interested in. According to the sign, the track has been closed due to geological instability, meaning that they think there could be rockfalls. And that's fair enough, but it would have been nice if there was a notice on the website. I got my information about the park from the website and the track closure wasn't mentioned anywhere...

Still, it was a nice short walk to the top of the falls, just not very spectacular. Lunch at Montville was nice, though.

And the weather at Kings Beach, in Caloundra, was great. Not to windy, or hot, and just enough surf to make it interesting. I really don't get to the beach often enough, and Sunday was a great day for it. So a couple of hours at the beach made up for the disappointment that was Kondalilla.

I really need to find some good bushwalking areas around Brisbane...

Laugh out loud Howard moments

2007-10-27T10:25:00.000+10:00

He really is ubelievable.

After spending all of the 2004 election campaign telling us that interest rates would always be low under his government, he's now denying it. Apparently we have to forget everything he promised last time, because that's all in the past. I burst out laughing when I heard that - is this guy serious??

He might have a point though, technically. Its hard to say now, three years later, whether he personally ever made the claim that interest rates would remain at record lows under his government. He might be right when he says that all he ever said was that rates would be lower under him than under Labor.

But it really doesn't matter if it was his words or a Liberal party ad. It's basically the same thing. And he wasn't actually out there correcting peoples misunderstanding, was he? No, he was very happy for us to believe that he'd promised to keep rates at record lows, even if that's now what he technically said.

And now he wants us to forget he even said that! Apparently the past doesn't matter and we have to concentrate on the future - while at the same time we have to remember that interest rates got to 17% under the last Labor government. So which is it? Is the past important or not? If we can remember Labors interest rates, can we remember his (broken) promises? Or if we forget his lies, can we forget Labors rates?

He really is a tricky politician. He has a way of telling the truth that makes lying look honest. He has to go, and so does his government.

Say It Out Loud

2007-10-24T13:22:00.001+10:00

I finished reading "Say It Out Loud" just last night. It's a biography of Adam Sutton, described as a gay Australian cowboy.

I'm not usually a fan of biographies. My non-fiction reading is usually historical or religious. This book appealed to me, though, and when I saw it on sale at Borders I decided to pick it up. I guess my first interest came when I saw Adam interviewed for Australian Story last year.

Both the book and the tv program tell the story of Adams life so far. It's told in Adams voice, giving it very personal feel. In some ways it's an easy book to read - the language is plain spoken and straightforward. But in others it's quite hard - it's the story of his pain and confusion while growing up and coming out. In the process he's led a pretty amazing life, and it sounds like quite a rollercoaster.

Part of the reason it was so gripping for me was that I can relate to parts of the story. Mostly the parts about being gay and coming out. Apart from those struggles, his life makes a much more interesting story than mine does, that's for sure.

I think this book is worth at least 4 stars. Definitely worth reading. His life story is interesting in itself, and the courage Adam has displayed in living his life and then sharing it with everyone like this is pretty inspiring stuff.

Debating greatness

2007-10-23T11:08:00.001+10:00

I made myself sit through the great debate between John Howard and Kevin Rudd on Sunday night. Actually, it wasn't that hard in the end. I thought it was quite an impressive performance, and all the associated drama over the worm on channel 9 was even more entertaining than the debate itself.

Anyway, it was obviously Kevin Rudds night. I was quite impressed by what I saw of him in this debate. He doesn't always come across well in the 30-second soundbites used on the evening news, but this format suited him. He was able to make his points, clearly and with conviction. Before the debate I was hoping he would win the election basically because he wasn't John Howard. Now I'm much more confident that he can really run the government and be an effective leader.

John Howard, on the other hand, was pretty bad. He is not a good debater - he may be a clever politician but public speaking really isn't his strong point. He looked tired, old and angry. He almost lost his temper a couple of times. It was a really bad look. And to top it all off, even when he was speaking with conviction he wasn't convincing. On his strong points of the economy, I'd heard it all before. His attacks on unions were nothing new and just fell pretty flat. If you weren't convinced by his rhetoric before the debate, nothing he said would change your mind.

Even when he was talking about his new policies on climate change and reconciliation he was not believable. His main problem here is that after 11 years most people know that he really doesn't believe in them as issues. At one point he accused Kevin Rudd of having an election campaign conversion to economic conservatism. I almost laughed at that, since that charge is much more likely to stick to him because of his new position on Aboriginal affairs and climate change. Less than convincing stuff.

So, Kevin won the night. Convincingly. But it's still a long way to election day, and John Howard is a tricky and clever campaigner. And its a huge job for Labor to win the 16 seats it needs. Here's hoping they can do it!

Resident Evil

2007-10-21T13:13:00.000+10:00

I went to see Resident Evil: Extinction last night. I wasn't impressed.

Zombie/Horror movies have never been my thing. I don't like pointless death and destruction in my movies or books. And that's what this movie seemed to be - lots of pointless deaths, gratuitous blood and guts, and very little in the way of actual character or story to hold it all together.

I guess part of the problem is that I didn't see the first two movies, or play the computer game it's all based on. But having seen this one I have no desire to go back and see them.

The ultimate bad guy in this movie starts out as just amoral, although in pursuit of a worthy goal (saving the human race, of course!). At the end though, he mutates into the strongest and most intelligent of the zombies. And then the heroin manages to kill him off in just a few minutes. Not exactly the worlds greatest threat at that point...

Overall, it was a silly movie, and a waste of time. There were probably better things to do with my time last night. If I want to watch a zombie movie that's actually clever, I'll watch Shaun of the Dead instead.

Ok ok - can't get away from politics this week!

2007-10-20T11:17:00.000+10:00

Here's an ad just for John Howard - he'll love this one.

So what have those evil unions done for us? Lets find out...

Seen via Road to Surfdom

Turn off the phones!

2007-10-20T10:57:00.000+10:00

It's been a really busy week, in all sorts of ways.

I've been snowed under at work this week, and so I'm very glad its now Saturday morning. Still, weeks like this are the fun ones - keeps me from getting bored at work, which is an increasing problem lately.

On the downside, weeks like this at work mean that I get almost nothing done outside of work. Try getting to the bank when you're working 10+ hours a day! It just doesn't happen. I have to say that bank hours are awful, and they need to make more of an effort to be available and open when people can actually get there. Bank business hours of 9am to 4pm are just incredibly inconvenient for anyone with an actual job to do...

Still, I guess they have no motivation to change, do they? They're making huge profits and there's not a whole lot of competition. And it's so inconvenient trying to change banks, moving accounts, loans, credit cards... once they've got you sucked in you're pretty much trapped and just have to put up with the crappy service.

Ok - that rant is over now...

This week also saw the beginning of the election campaign. Finally! The J-Ho finally called it, for November 24th. All that means is we've got six weeks (five, now) of electioneering, dirty politics, awful ads, and generally getting harrassed by our so-called leaders. Up until this week I was actually interested in the election - I want John Howard gone, and was getting really frustrated that he hadn't called it. Now I've lost interest - I just want to get to polling day, cast my vote, and hopefully get to watch John Howard concede defeat. Go Kevin! There are so many reasons to want the Liberals gone - just the fact that they're not really liberal in anyway is enough, though... I'll probably write a bit more about that later.

I'm just hanging on now for the election to be over. I just don't want to watch, becauswe it'd be too painful watching Kevin Rudd self-destruct. I really really really hope that doesn't happen, though. So I'll stick my head in the sand for the next few weeks, and hold my breath. It'll all be over soon, but I'm not sure I can face another three years of Howard and Friends. I'm just scared that he'll find some dirty little rabbit in a hat somewhere and pull off another win. That's a scary thought...

Anyway, back to my relaxing recovery weekend. I'm off for lunch with friends in the city today, then the movies tonight, and tomorrow - well, we'll see. If its a nice day it might be another trip to the beach for me!

Can't wait...

Stormy weather

2007-10-11T14:06:00.000+10:00

Well, it's been a busy week so far. Lots of exciting things have been going on, including a long long bike ride on Sunday, which really wore me out. Anyway...

But the best thing about this week has been all the storms. We've had storms every day this week since Sunday. It's now Thursday and they're forecasting more storms this afternoon.

I love weather like this - as long as I'm home, that is. I love to just sit around and watch the lightning flash across the horizon, with the rain pelting on the tin roof. There's nothing quite like the sound of rain on the roof to make me glad I'm home and safe inside. And the lightning has been impressive. I was watching it on Tuesday night from the balcony and it was lighting up the street almost like daylight. I haven't seen a storm like that for quite a while now.

Maybe the Queensland drought has finally broken? Here's hoping...

Undoing Howards legacy

2007-10-03T08:57:00.000+10:00

Paul Kelly, in the Australian, has an interesting article explaining what Kevin Rudd plans to do with the public service if he gets elected. The article is here.

As he explains, John Howard has tried to intimidate and control the public service while he's been in office. He doesn't want impartial or independent advice - he just wants the public servants to do exactly what he wants without question or dissent. This makes for bad policy, and Paul Kelly identifies this as a blunder. I agree. The public service should be free to give impartial and independent advice to the government. Obviously, it should also impartially and competently implement government policies after they've been passed by Parliament, but that's not what John Howard has asked for. It looks to me like he's tried to turn the Australian public service into another arm of the Liberal Party, with the aim of keeping the Liberal Party in power. That's just an abuse of our system of government, in my opinion.

According to the article, Kevin Rudd wants to restore the independence of the public service while also lifting its standards. That's a great aim, and if he can pull it off that will be fantastic. It'll be interesting to see if he can do it, though. A compliant public service would undoubtedly make life easier for any government, even if it means public policy suffers. But I think its a good idea, and I hope he gets a chance to do it. John Howards legacy of abuse towards our system of government and democracy needs to be undone, and this is one step towards doing that.

And on that note, here's another article over at The Road to Surfdom on a similar topic - the abuses of power committed by the Howard Government.

The lost plot

2007-10-02T13:49:00.000+10:00

Here are two more stories that show how badly John Howard and his government have lost the plot on all things climate change.

The first is about solar power and the second is on the future of Australia as global warming kicks in.

The story about solar power is interesting, and frustrating, and a good example of lost opportunities. The Australian company couldn't find support for its Australian product in Australia, so does the sensible thing and moves offshore. Then it gets picked up by an American company, lands a huge contract providing clean renewable energy on a huge scale.

I've always thought that Australia is the logical place for solar power to take off. We've got a large amount of space, and lots of sunny weather. It should be an obvious combination. But we've got a government that talks about solar power being inefficient, expensive and unable to provide baseload power, and so they've not invested in it or provided any significant subsidies for research and development. And now, an Australian company is going to provide all those things to the Americans. I guess that'd be a shock to John Howard and friends, although they'll probably waffle on about how it's still not in production and there's a lot of risks etc etc. And in the meantime, our country loses out on the benefits of the project, and we waste our money on trying to develop clean coal technology that will take at least as long as solar power to provide any decent returns or environmental benefits.

The second story shows what this could cost us. While we're basically refusing to take any serious action on climate change or reducing our emmissions, our country is going to get hotter and dryer and the seas will continue to rise. That's bad news all around, and yet our government has continued to deny there's a problem. Until recently, that is, when they realised they might actually lose this election. Now we've got some token acknowledgement of the problem for them but their only action seems to be more political spin. As in dressing up already existing schemes and presenting it as something new. Anyway... bring on the election, lets get a new government!

Summer comes early?

2007-09-30T12:54:00.000+10:00

It's been a beautiful Brisbane weekend. Unbelievable, really, considering it's still September. It got to 30 degrees yesterday, and is going the same way today.

So what do you do on such a summery weekend? That's right - you head for the beach.

And that's exactly what I did yesterday. I went and sat on the beach at Bribie Island for a few hours. Of course, I got stuck in the traditional summer-weekend traffic jam on the Bruce Highway. All the way from the Narangba to Caboolture was stop/go. Very frustrating.

Still, it was worth it, I think. The beach was great. There was a fairly gentle cool breeze blowing down the beach and that felt great on my skin. The water was still pretty cool though; it is still September after all. But that just made it all the more refreshing, and it was so nice being back in the ocean again. The last time was in Vietnam, at Mui Ne, so not that long ago really, but it just felt different here. Cleaner, for a start...

Today I didn't feel like driving all that way again. I've been out on the bike instead, for an hour or so along the bike track. Not quite as relaxing as sitting on the beach, but still good. And I needed the exercise, too. I went out before it got too hot this morning. It's warmed up a lot now, though, and I think I'll be heading off to the air-conditioned shopping centre for coffee with some friends soon. That'll be nice, too.

A great weekend - shame about work tomorrow, really...

Stardust

2007-09-29T09:50:00.000+10:00

I went to see Stardust last night. I wanted to see this movie because I enjoyed the book. It's another screen adaptation - this one from a book by Neil Gaiman. I thought it was pretty good overall - a good night out.

It's been years now since I read the book, but from memory I think the movie was pretty faithful to it. The witches, with Michelle Pfeiffer leading them were evil and fun at the same time. The love story between Tristan and Yvaine was well handled. And the scenery was lovely. I think the effects owed quite a bit to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but I guess there's only so many ways to show magic onscreen.

I couldn't remember the Captain Shakespeare character from the book, though. I'm going to have to re-read the book now - maybe they inserted him into the movie to make it easier for the characters to cross Stormhold, rather than having them walk the whole way. But maybe I'm wrong; like I said I'll need to re-read it now and find out for sure.

I think I might even have to buy the DVD when it comes out. I love this kind of movie - simple story, a hint of magic and dreams that captures the imagination. It might not work so well if you're not familiar with the book, but it is worth seeing.

Telling it like it is

2007-09-28T18:00:00.000+10:00

Politics the fun way! This is the ad created by GetUp! and hopefully will be screened during the AFL grand final tomorrow. Spoofing John Howards taxpayer funded election campaign ads. Good for them.

The politics of fear

2007-09-26T10:19:00.000+10:00

Here's a new scare campaign being run against the Labor party. No prizes for guessing that the government is behind it. Bring on the election!

Personally, I don't care if Labor is in power right across the country. Maybe that will be an incentive for the Liberals to get their acts together and actually offer some quality opposition. I just can't wait to get rid of John Howard and friends from Canberra. I think they've been a very damaging government, especially over the last 5-6 years. The sooner we get rid of them the better.

As for the Labor government being run by the unions, I think that's probably a bit overstated. Yes, there are a lot of union officials in the party. Hopefully that means that they will be concerned about the rights of employees more than the current government. They will hopefully care more about fairness - I know John Howard talks a lot about a fair go and mateship, but if he has to talk it up so much I think it just means that the concept is in trouble. You don't have to talk about something that is taken for granted by everyone; you only have to keep emphasisng it and encouraging it when the idea is in trouble. So John Howard has, I think, pretty much killed off the idea of a fair go at the political level. It's still alive and well for most people in their everyday lives, but it isn't reflected in our national politics. Hopefully Labor can do something to restore that.

Anyway, enough political crap - bring on the election and get it over with!

Recovery is slow, unfortunately

2007-09-26T09:04:00.001+10:00

Well, after being all proud of myself for not getting sick while overseas, what happens? That's right - I catch a cold! Dammit!

I spent all weekend in bed with a cold, and ended up taking Monday off work since I was feeling pretty bad. I dragged myself back to work yesterday, though.

It always seems to happen when I travel these days. Once I get off the plane, I get sick. I guess I'm just lucky I didn't get sick on the way over to Vietnam, so it could be worse. But each time I've travelled this year I've ended up catching a cold. Very frustrating, especially since I've got at least two more trips this year involving planes and airports. Ah well...

So I lay around all weekend feeling miserable. Very unexciting - although it did give me a chance to finish two books. The first was "First among Sequels" by Jasper Fforde and the other was the new Terry Pratchett book "Making Money". I was a little bit disappointed with the Fforde book - it started slowly, but it did get better. Of course, the Pratchett was excellent and made me feel much better.

Ah well - here's hoping I can kick the rest of this cold soon. It's supposed to be a hot and sunny weekend. I might wander off to the beach if it looks good!

The road never ends... updated again!

2007-09-21T10:30:00.000+10:00

On a related note - the people that brought you the map of visited countries now also bring you a map showing all the important places you've visited. Apparently I've been to 17 of the top 100 destinations! Cool!

Here's the map.

visited 17 destinations out of a beenda's top 100 destinations.
create your own map

The road never ends... updated

2007-09-21T10:21:00.000+10:00

Since I've now been to another three countries on my latest trip (Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia) I thought it was time to update this map. Here's the new version.

Create your own visited countries map

Photos! and more photos! Vietnam and Cambodia

2007-09-20T12:48:00.000+10:00

So here's a few of my holiday photos. Thought I'd post them here, just to see if the slide show thing works. Enjoy!

Stamping Butterflies

2007-09-19T10:32:00.001+10:00

This book was my holiday reading on the trip through Vietnam and Cambodia. Mostly it was for reading while on planes or in airports, since I didn't plan on having a lot of downtime while over there. But a day or so by the pool in Mui Ne saw me get through it all.

The book is by Jon Grimwood - an author I hadn't heard of before. I came across him while browsing through LibraryThing and saw some good reviews. I'm glad I did, because I thought it was a pretty good book.

The story is convoluted, so may not have been the best choice for a relaxing holiday novel. On the other hand, these are the sorts of books that I find really interesting to read, so it still worked for me. The story is told in three parts. There's one stream set in Marrakech in the 1970's. Then there's one set in the current day or very near future, revolving around an assassination attempt on the most popular US president in history (that's not GW Bush, obviously enough, even though the book was written in 2004). And finally there's the story set in the far future in an empire of 2023 worlds.

I thought all three parts worked well. The first two streams became linked fairly early on in the book, sharing characters and history. It was well written and realistic in describing its events and locations. His writing style is descriptive and detailed, while not slowing down the pace of the book. The link with the third, future, stream wasn't obvious until very close to the end of the book. Hints were dropped before then, of course, but the link wasn't obvious to me until the end. The suspense was maintained very well right to the final pages.

Overall, I thought the first two story streams were the best. I couldn't relate quite as well to the future stream or characters. I think that was because they were the ones I felt the least sympathy for - particularly the Emperor. They just didn't seem as realistic as the others.

I enjoyed this book. I will be looking for other books by the same author now, as I think he's definitely one to read more of.

Stamping Butterflies, by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

All Templed Out...

2007-09-18T13:21:00.000+10:00

And the final email from Cambodia...

Well,the sunrise over Angkor Wat was a bit of a washout. It is the wet season, so there are plenty of clouds hanging around. Basically the sun rose into a cloud bank, with very few colours or spectacular effects. It just got gradually lighter, and not much else. Still, it was worth a try I guess...We wont be trying it tomorrow,though - once was enough!

For the rest of today we toured a few more temples. I've got temple fatigue now. There seems to be o end of them after a while, and they begin to look all the same. They're all beautiful in their own way, but trying to cram them into two days is way too much. We managed to see all the main temples, including the one where the movie Tomb Raider was shot. There are no signs pointing it out, but the tour guides don't let you miss any of the important movie sites !

After that, it was just a final trip around the markets looking for souvenirs, then a quick swim in the hotel pool. That part of the day was great. I can always spend time by the pool, or the beach... but after two days of solid walking around temples and jungle it was nice just to kick back for an hour or so.

It's not all relaxation and natural beauty though. At every temple entrance there were bands of musicians playing. They are all victims of land mines, and make a living selling CDs of their music to tourists. There are lots of beggars around with missing limbs too - we saw one boy about 16 working in one of the markets and he had two false feet. It was a shock to see that as he was walking quite normally, until you looked down at them. They're still working at clearing landmines from all across the country (and in Vietnam too) and wont be finished for years yet. The markets are full of books about the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot - the fighting wasn't all that long ago. It's all pretty sad - like I said earlier, this part of the world has had a very rough time over the last 50-100 years. And they're all still incredibly poor. I spent $15 tonight on dinner - the average monthly wage is $40. Anyway...

So the trip is almost over. Tomorrow morning we head for the airport and a flight to Kuala Lumpur. Then on Friday night we're on a plane home... not looking forward to getting home. Maybe I'll just take a plane and head on somewhere else...

Cambodia - Angkor Wat

2007-09-18T13:18:00.000+10:00

From the first part of our stop in Cambodia...

Just a quick one tonight, as it's late and I want to go to bed. we're off to see the
sunrise over Angkor Wat in the morning, starting from the hotel at 5am... not my idea of agood time to get out of bed while I'm on holiday! But it should be worth it, I think.

Anyway, we're in Cambodia now. We're in Siem Reap, which is the town just next to
the whole Angkor Wat area. We spent today exploring some of the temples. We'll check out a few more tomorrow before heading off on Thursday. This place is just amazing. Its hard to believe they carved this huge temple complext out of the jungle over 1000 years ago. We''ve all taken lots of photos, of course, but they just don't give you the whole picture.

They also don't give you the heat, and the humidity. I hate the humidity - it just
drains me completely after a while. And we've been walking all day today, climbing over stone temples out in the sun.

The final few days of Vietnam were great, too. The two day on the beach at Mui Ne were the best - not too hot or wet, and we just sat by the pool for most of our time there. That's more like a holiday. The Mekong Delta was hot, wet and sticky - interesting, but I'm in no hurry to go back there.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Just a few more days until we head home - wish I could extend
the trip another week or two.

Vietnam part 2 - Tunnels and Temples

2007-09-18T13:14:00.000+10:00

Part two - Cu Chi and Cao Dai.

So - part two of the trip!

Yesterday we went off to see the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple. Both were
interesting, but the tunnels were definitely the highlight. It was a full day trip, on the bus most of the time. That in itself was really nice after all the walking we'd done on the previous day. My feet are complaining about this trip already, even if the rest of me isn't :)

Anyway, we started at the Cao Dai temple. Cao Dai means High Tower, and is a religion that is unique to Vietnam. Basically you take all the religions you can think of and mix them up together. They have a pope, who is picked by conducting a seance with the ancestors. Their saints include Victor Hugo, the french poet. The temple was decorated with pink dragons for some reason, with a great eye sitting on top of a globe, symbolising the One God that rules over all. They pray and have a service in the temple four times a day, and we got to see one of the services which involved a lot of chanting, gongs and incense.

After lunch we went off to the Cu Chi tunnels. This was the main highlight of the day. THe tunnels were used during the war by the local guerillas, and stretched for around 250km all through the area. The original tunnels were 60cm, by 80cm - just enough room for a small person to crawl through on their stomach. They've also put in a few lights - definitely not an original feature. Fortunately, they've enlarged them for tourists, so this section was 120 * 160cm. I could get through these if I crouched. Still, it was pitch black in sections and went for aroudn 100m. It was all very claustrophobic. I can't imagine using them to live in and fight from. Apparetnly they tunneled into the nearby US base during the war and would pop up at night and shoot at them from inside the base. It took quite a while for the Americans to catch on, but they couldn't clear all the tunnels.

There was also a museum area, showing the different types of booby traps used by the
guerillas. They involved pits full of bamboo spikes and rusty nails in various combinations. It all looked very nasty. And there was a ruined American tank, blown up by a landmine and left where it was destroyed. The entire back half of the tank was a twisted ruin.

It was quite a sobering experience all around. Everywhere we've been so far there are
reminders of the war - from the markets with army surplus, to old planes and tanks, museums - it's just everywhere. In that respect its been a holiday that makes you think about all that's happened.

But from here on it gets lighter. Tomorrow we're off on a twoday tour of the Mekong
delta. And that's followed by two days on the beach at Mui Ne. Both should be great side trips. I think we've seen most of what Saigon ahs to offer, so it'll be a good to move on,

Hopefully I'll get another chance at the internet in a couple of days. Talk to you then

Hi from Vietnam

2007-09-18T13:07:00.001+10:00

Well, I'm back from holiday! Here's a couple of emails I sent to friends while I was away - but forgot to post them here. Oh well - better late than never, I guess.

Just a quick hello to say that we all made it safe and sound to Ho Chi Minh City. It's been a big two days, of course, with all the travelling etc. Flying from Brisbane to Vietnam via Melbourne really is the long way of doing things. Anyway...

We got to the hotel around lunch time on Sunday. After a quick lunch we went for a walk to some nearby markets, and attempted to get used to the traffic. I'd just about forgotten what it was like to have to step out into endless streams of traffic just to try and cross the road. They do avoid you though - those little scooters that everybody rides are pretty manouverable. I managed to avoid spending too much money at the markets, although I'll probably go back there at least once before we leave.

Today we toured some of the museums. The Fine Art museum was mostly modern art (post-war) so it's all about the glories of the communists and beating the Americans. Some of it is pretty good, even if the message isn't exactly subtle. The Reunification Palace was interesting - it's the old South Vietnamese presidential palace, and is pretty much exactly as it was in 1975. The final museum for the day was the War Remnants museum. Again a very one-sided story, but intense. It's full of photos and stories of abuses committed by various invaders of Vietnam (French, American, etc). Again, not exaclty subtle, but very powerful. People did awful things in this country.

Anyway, thats about it so far, apart from eating some great and cheap food! Tomorrow we're off to see the tunnels used by the VietCong and a couple of temples. Then later in the week we're off to the Mekong Delta for a couple of days, followed by an overnight trip to one of the nearby national parks. Should be good I'll let you know how it all goes, of course!

Spring Break!

2007-08-31T21:29:00.001+10:00

It's the start of spring tomorrow. I can't wait for summer to come back - I'm definitely no fan of winter. Anyway, I'm heading off overseas tomorrow. I've taken a couple of weeks off work to go traveling. I've been really looking forward to the break.

In the meantime, though, here's a few spring photos taken around my place.

Life in the alternative universe

2007-08-30T14:09:00.000+10:00

That would be politics, of course - it seems to bear little resemblance to real life, and yet people take it all so very seriously. A couple of interesting statements have been made this week. Andrew Bartlett picks up on one, made by Julia Gillard.

She made a statement saying that Labor would expect the Senate to pass their new IR laws almost immediately, if they were elected. She said that in that case Labor would have a mandate to pass its IR package, and so the Senate should just pass it - just rubber-stamp it, in effect.

This means, I guess, that Labor has learnt nothing from the example of John Howard. Over the last few years the coalition has had the numbers in the Senate, and have used them to rubber-stamp all sorts of awful legislation. WorkChoices is the one causing all the political grief at the moment, but others include the anti-terror laws, and the land-snatch currently underway in the Northern Territory. They've cut debates short, refused to consider amendments, given virtually no notice of upcoming debates or legislation and have guillotined bills through. It's been a disgraceful abuse of the Senate and Parliament.

As I said in my comment on Andrew Bartlett's blog (comment #11 in the linked post), I think this will be John Howards lasting legacy. His government will be remembered as a case study in what happens when a government has total control. (The other example would be Queensland, where there is only one house of parliament) Hopefully that will be a warning to voters, who will never let this situation happen again. Because the Senate has acted as a rubber stamp for the Howard government, lots of dodgy legislation has passed into law without proper review. That means a lot of work will have to be done in the future to undo the damage.

Unfortunately, from Julia Gillards comment, it appears that Labor doesn't see the problem. They would happily use the Senate as a rubber stamp if they had the numbers. The instinct for power would be too hard to resist. As much as I agree that WorkChoices should go, and I hope Labor wins government, they should be willing to work with the Senate rather than insisting that their version of IR laws be forced through untouched. It would show that they take our democracy seriously, and that they have respect for our style of government - a respect that has been lacking in the current Howard government. But I'm cynical, so I don't expect Labor would be any better. They'll bluster, and if they have the numbers they will use them, just like Howard has. The only way to ensure they don't is to make sure neither major party has the numbers in the Senate.

I'm hoping that the balance of power will rest with the Democrats, independents, Greens and any other minor parties elected. That sort of grouping would ensure proper debates, review and compromise - giving a much better chance at a balanced outcome. I just hope enough people have learnt the lesson from Howards abuses and vote Democrat/independent/Green in the Senate...

In other news, Malcolm Turnbull has delayed his decision on the Gunns pulp mill for thirty days. That should put it nicely into the whole election time frame - providing a wedge opportunity, maybe? Hmmm...

Cyberslacking off

2007-08-30T11:28:00.001+10:00

Yep - that's me! One of the 20% of workers who are cyberslacking. Gotta love that internet :)

Great Gunns... again!

2007-08-29T12:35:00.000+10:00

It seems like everyone is talking about the Gunns pulp mill now. There are reports in all the papers about it. The Australian has had a good run with the story, as have other media outlets such as the ABC. It's a bit late, though - the mill is virtually approved, and now the media starts talking about it... but better late than never.

I guess the main reason it's suddenly become a story is that Geoffrey Cousins is running a large publicity campaign about it in Malcom Turnbulls electorate in Sydney. The papers obviously don't think it's a story unless there's a Sydney angle, right? Anyway...

Still, the debate goes on. There is a vote due any time now in the Tasmanian upper house, giving final approval from the state. And there are reports of new environmental concerns. This latest report finds that the mill will not meet 15 environmental conditions. That has to be disturbing for anyone who's interested in the project.

There are even reports that Malcolm Turnbull might be considering telling Gunns to move the mill to another site (Hampshire, rather than the Tamar Valley) I think that would probably be a good idea, although I doubt Gunns would consider it. They'd probably just pull the plug on the whole thing rather than try and re-design the whole mill so that it could be done at the Hampshire site. It'd almost be as bad as starting from scratch again.

I can understand why Gunns is frustrated. This project was originally proposed several years ago now, and should have been resolved before this. Now it's got caught up in all the election-year politicking. Since the federal government has to sign off on the assessment before the mill can go ahead, it's become a federal issue. Neither side of politics will want to make a committment before the election because whatever they decide will annoy some voters. And those voters are in a marginal seat which might turn out to be critical to the election result...

So what's going to happen? I've got no idea. What should happen? Everyone should forget about the politics and focus on the actual effects of the mill. I still think the whole approvals process has been a sham so far - maybe the federal government process will be better, but since this is an election year I think the final decision will have more to do with electioneering than an actual assessment of the mill on its merits. Hopefully, I'm just being too cynical here, though...

And I still think the mill is dubious on all sorts of environmental grounds. I don't think the approvals process has taken these fully into consideration.

Basically, the whole thing stinks. The Lennon state government really needs to go, in my opinion. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an opposition. Anyway...

Previous entries: Gunns part 1, Gunns part 2.

Also: An interesting piece in today's Crikey about the politics of the mill and Geoffrey Cousins. Like I said, Tassie only gets national attention when there is an outsider involved...

Update 2: An article by Warwick Raverty in New Matilda lays out the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the mill. And here's a conflicting view from Jennifer Marohasy, pointing out that the mill is supposed to be built in Tasmanias largest industrial estate. It's true that Bell Bay, with the Rio Tinto aluminium smelter is in the same area, along with other industries. I think, though, that the mill will be built further upriver than Bell Bay, away from the rest of the industrial sites. And that doesn't answer the other environmental problems, either. Still, it's an interesting point, and I can't comment much more than that since it's been a long time since I've been through the area.

Self-inspection...?

2007-08-27T10:21:00.001+10:00

I don't know why I get sucked into doing these personality tests. I guess it's a good way of killing some time, and I might just learn something. Or maybe it's just a way of working out what I already know...

I came across this one while browsing around Dogfight at Bankstown. Like I said, I was killing time, so went and did the test. And surprise, surprise, it told me I'm introverted. Well, duh! I think I'd already worked that bit out.

In other news, it told me that I'm a very rare type. Apparently, only 1% of the population fit this personality type. I don't know if that's true or not, but after reading through the rest of the description, they might be right. The description they've provided does actually feel quite a bit like me.

One thing they did mention was that INFJ types are better at expressing themselves on paper than in person. I've often thought that about myself - this blog being a case in point. Writing things down like this helps clarify my thoughts, as well as lets me express them - something I definitely have trouble doing in person (all that introversion again!) That actually can be a real problem, because it makes it hard to let people know what I'm thinking and feeling when I'm around them, making that special connection just so much harder than it should be. Anyway... something to work on, maybe.

Here's the full list of character traits for an INFJ personality:

creative, smart, focus on fantasy more than reality, attracted to sad things, fears doing the wrong thing, observer, avoidant, fears drawing attention to self, anxious, cautious, somewhat easily frightened, easily offended, private, easily hurt, socially uncomfortable, emotionally moody, does not like to be looked at, fearful, perfectionist, can sabotage self, can be wounded at the core, values solitude, guarded, does not like crowds, organized, second guesses self, more likely to support marijuana legalization, focuses on peoples hidden motives, prone to crying, not competitive, prone to feelings of loneliness, not spontaneous, prone to sadness, longs for a stabilizing relationship, fears rejection in relationships, frequently worried, can feel victimized, prone to intimidation, lower energy, strict with self

I recognise a bit of that - observer, yes; fears drawing attention to self, yes; cautious, yes; does not like crowds, yes; but what's with the "more likely to support marijuana legalisation"? When did that become a character trait?? Very weird.

Ok - so that's more than enough introspection for the day. I'm still reeling from a tough weekend - I don't need to spend more time thinking about myself right now. Will write more about that later, maybe...

Rasterbator...

2007-08-24T15:09:00.000+10:00

Something to check out later - when I get a decent printer at home!

The Rasterbator.

Looks like I could have some fun with that.

Diaspora

2007-08-24T11:08:00.002+10:00

I picked up this book by Greg Egan at a second hand bookshop last weekend in Maleny. I've read books by Egan in the past and, while I can't remember them in any great detail, I do remember enjoying them. This one followed the same pattern. I enjoyed it, but I can see why I find them hard to remember.

It's a science fiction book, set in a distant future when humans have split into different species. Some have migrated into space and have created robot bodies, others have uploaded themselves into computers known as polises, and others have remained in physical bodies and are known as "fleshers". They've taken to genetic engineering in a big way and have improved their body types in many ways, so there's very few "classical" humans around anymore. The three types of humanity have very little to do with each other.

The plot follows the citizens of a polis. The earth faces a catastrophe on a galactic scale, that can't be avoided. It's the story of how they discover and cope with this catastrophe.

It's a hard science fiction book, and contains a lot of physics and computing information. Most of this went straight over my head - I found my eyes glazing and skipping ahead until the technical terms were over. In a way these details are important because they are part of the response to the catastrophe and do drive the story forward. Without them it wouldn't be the same book, and the story wouldn't work so well. I have no way of judging if the physics discussed makes any sense, though, so disregarded most of it.

But they're also irrelevant, too. The story works because I found the characters interesting. The way they coped with strange environments and challenges was fascinating. Living in a virtual world, such as a polis, would be strange in ways I can't imagine, but Egan makes the experience believable. Exciting, even. There are so many ideas included in this book - different ways of being human, post-human, what it means to be and intelligent and conscious being, identity. There's a lot of food for thought here, if that's what you're looking for.

So, overall, it's a good book but with lots of eye-glazing moments. Mostly one for the fans of hard science fiction, though.

Diaspora, by Greg Egan.

Miss Saigon

2007-08-21T09:39:00.001+10:00

It was a busy weekend. On Saturday I was climbing Mt Beerwah, then on Sunday it was off to see Miss Saigon at QPAC. It turned out to be another good day, and an excellent performance.

It's been a long time since I've been to a show like this. The last one was Stomp, about this time last year. The theatre isn't a place I spend a lot of time. I'm glad I went to see this one, though.

The story is set in Saigon, starting at the end of the Vietnam war and following the lives of Kim and Chris over the next few years. I didn't know much about the story going into the show, except that it was a love story. I didn't expect a happy ending, though.

The action starts in a Saigon bar/brothel. Chris is there, with a few other US soldiers. He's having a bit of an emotional crisis when he meets Kim, a Vietnamese girl who's fled the countryside looking for safety in the city. They fall in love, but are almost immediately separated by the fall of Saigon. This sets up all the tragedies that follow in both their lives, until we finally witness their reunion.

The desparation of the girls in Saigon is clearly shown, as well as their opinion of the US soldiers they entertain. Personally, I don't think this situation has changed much in Asia, although circumstances are not as desperate now as they were then. There are still plenty of girls working in places like that all across Asia, still getting taken advantage of by tourists and the bar owners. And they probably still despise their customers, while also looking for the one who might marry them and take them out of there. As the Engineer says repeatedly in the show, men are always the same.

One of my favourite sequences from the show was the American Dream, sung by the Engineer. It was funny, cynical, and well executed. The striptease by the animated Statue of Liberty shown on the screen above the stage drove the point home.

The show was very well done. The set changes were very smoothly done. The pace of the set changes was pretty fast, so doing it all so smoothly was very impressive. The cast were great - the singing was passionate, and high quality. And, as the Brisbane Times review pointed out, the guys looked suitably buff when they took their shirts off!

Overall it was a powerful performance. The story alone is powerful, and almost had me in tears at the end. Combine that with the excellent performances, music and sets, it becomes an experience I'll remember for a long time.

Climbing Mt Beerwah

2007-08-20T19:42:00.000+10:00

I went off on Saturday to climb Mt Beerwah, in the Glasshouse Mountains. Somebody, who shall remain nameless for now, told me that it was just a steep bushwalk. Hah! Last time I trust him...

It was actually a great day for climbing a mountain. It was overcast, not too hot or windy, not raining. Perfect weather, in fact, for this sort of thing.

The walk starts easily enough. It's an easy walk from the carpark to the base of the mountain. But then it gets... difficult. The sign by the carpark should have warned me - it says the walk is for experienced climbers only. And here's me with vertigo! I really, really should have taken the hint.

Anyway... from the base of the mountain, the track becomes a steep scramble, or rock climb. The path goes pretty much straight up a rock slope, and it is climbing. At this point it is definitely not a walk. I'm not good with heights, and this was very tough. I wanted to give up at several points, but was silly enough to force myself onwards and upwards.

The rock slope ends, eventually. You come off the slope directly underneath the overhanging cliffs, with some beautiful erosion patterns int he rock. You might even get to admire them after you've recovered from the climb up what is practically a cliff face!

From this point on, though, it's actually quite easy. Its still steep, but it's an actual walk from here. The views are spectacular. The track winds around from the western face, with views inland to the hills and across plantations and farms, to the climb to the summit. Along the way there are some great views back along the cliff face and towards the other Glasshouse Mountains.

From the summit there are views in all directions. It was hazy and smoky on Saturday, with a couple of fires burning back towards the coast. On a clear day there would be views back to Brisbane, and up the coast towards Noosa. On Saturday, though, most of this was obscured by the smoke. Still, it was very impressive.

Fortunately, it was much easier to get down than it was to get up. I've noticed this before - I struggled on the climb up, feeling dizzy, sweaty palms on the climb up the rock face, but on the way down I didn't get vertigo at all. It was still tough on my ankles and knees, but I felt fine. I felt a lot more in control on the descent.

All up, I'm glad I managed to complete the climb. It was probably pretty silly, but it's also a bit embarrassing. There were lots of other people on the mountain, too. There were young kids practically running up the slope, and teenage girls in old sneakers who had no trouble with it. To me, they seemed to be taking some insane risks, but they were all fine and made it up and back quicker than I did. Anyway... I guess that's vertigo for you.

I don't think I'll be rushing out to do it again, but I'm glad I did it at least this once.

The road never ends...

2007-08-17T12:19:00.000+10:00

This is a map of the countries I've been to over the last 10 years or so. There's a lot of red on this map, but that's because I've been to some large countries even if I haven't spent a whole lot of time in them (3 days in China - does that really count?)

Anyway - go create your own map at the link below.

Create your own visited countries map

And while you're there, they've got 7 rules for travelling!

John Howard keeps a straight face while...

2007-08-16T13:11:00.000+10:00

In other political news, John Howard announced today he'll be over-riding some parts of Peter Beatties new laws on council amalgamations. That's not particularly surprising, as Howard's been looking for a fight up here. But I can't believe he managed to keep a straight face while saying things like this:

He said the "arbitrary jackbooted fashion" in which Queensland sought to impose amalgamations was "beyond the pale".

And this, from the Australian:

Mr Howard said he was acting because the “arrogant” Beattie Government was behaving in a “dictatorial fashion’’, particularly the “outrageous’’ trampling of peoples rights.

This really is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Just a few days ago, Howard said the Beattie government was power mad. He may be right, but can John Howard really say that without looking at his own record? The federal government has spent most of the last few years grabbing more power for itself, acting arbitrarily and riding all over peoples rights. And now he complains about the Queensland governement doing the same thing...

Queensland does have an accountability problem in government, though. With only one house of state parliament, there is no effective opposition. The government of the day can do what it likes almost with impunity. That really needs to change - either with the creation of an upper house, or an electoral system of proportional representation that could create minority/coalition-style governments.

Anyway - back to reality after this weird episode in Howard's Australia...

Links (upper house for QLD): Online Opinion, Andrew Bartlett

Meanwhile, it's beginning to look like Howard shot himself in the foot of the Mersey Hospital bribe down there in Tassie. Hah! Can't make his promises stick for more than a couple of weeks now, can he?

Links : The Australian, Brisbane Times

Greens vs Democrats

2007-08-16T13:04:00.000+10:00

There's a post over at Online Opinion that's worth reading about the differences between the Greens and the Democrats. I've posted a comment there, which I'll copy here.

This is a very interesting article. I agree - the Greens haven't been asked the hard questions, and the media does need to do more work here.

To me, it seems that the Greens are very good at managing the media. If you want someone to wave a protest banner in front of a tv camera, the Greens will be there every time. They're at their best when they're instinctively saying "No!" to any proposal put forward. Beyond that, though, they find it very hard to negotiate and reach a satisfactory conclusion for both parties. They just seem to thrive on conflict.

Their record in the Tasmanian parliament shows this, I think. Even during the Labor-Green accord, when they had the balance of power, they found it very hard to reach agreement with anyone, and it didn't last very long. From memory, Bob Brown and Christine Milne (both now Senators) were in state parliament for that period.

The Democrats, on the other hand, haven't been so good at getting attention in the media - they're more willing to talk than fight. As
Malcolm says in this article, the Democrats have achieved quite a bit, but haven't been recognised for it.

I think it would be a sad day if the Democrats lost their seats to the Greens, even if it would mean more drama on the nightly news

So, that's my comment on the article. I do like the Greens, and they'll get my preference before the ALP or Liberals, but I do think the Democrats are better.

Is it gay day?

2007-08-15T11:39:00.000+10:00

It must be gay day or something... lots of gay-related stories floating around this morning. Here's a few...

First, a couple of Democrats articles, here and here.

Then, there's these stories from the Brisbane Times. An opinion article from a boy still in high school, and a blog entry from JB.

Not a bad way to start the reading day.

I enjoyed the opinion article by Daniel Swain. High school feels like a long time ago now, but I can still remember some of it. I wasn't teased of picked on at school for being gay, or if I was I didn't notice it. I did know I was gay, but went out of my way not to let it show back then. Maybe I was good at hiding, or maybe the other guys just didn't care. Or maybe, since it was a small school and there was no mention of homosexuality at all from the teachers, no-one even thought about it as a possibility. I don't know, but I'm glad I wasn't teased or abused.

I didn't discover the internet until I was at uni, but it was a huge help in terms of coming out, getting information and meeting people. There was absolutely no way I was going to walk into a gay bar or any place like that, so the relative anonymity of the net was fantastic. There was a sense of freedom online that I wouldn't allow myself back in the real world.

I'm glad things are changing for the kids in school today. That's really encouraging. And I really admire the kids who are coming out while still at school. I wish I could have done that - life would have been very different if I had. Anyway...

Back onto the politics of equal rights, marriage and adoption... this is another reason I usually support the Democrats. They actually try and do something about rights for gay and lesbian people. Their position is that there should be equal rights for all, regardless of sexual preference, and that gay couples should have equal rights with straight couples. To me, that just seems so obvious that it shouldn't need to be debated, but the current government doesn't see it. And the Labor party doesn't seem much better. I hope the Democrats will still be in a position after the next election to keep raising this issue.

But I don't expect it to be a big issue at the election, and don't expect anything much to change after it. Maybe I'm wrong, though... here's hoping...

Eucalyptus

2007-08-14T14:52:00.001+10:00

I took Eucalyptus with me to Hobart over the weekend, and managed to finish it off last night after I got home. It made good airport and plane reading.

Written by Murray Bail, it won the Miles Franklin award in 1999. I picked up this copy at the Lifeline Book Fair here in Brisbane earlier this year. I'm glad I did - it's worthy of the prize, and the $3 I paid for it.

It tells the story of Ellen and her father, and how she finds her husband-to-be. A love story, in other words. On the face of it, it doesn't sound like a story that I'd normally be interested in, but when I saw it on sale I thought I'd give it a chance.

Bail's writing style is beautiful. He never names an actual location, but just gives a general location somewhere west of the mountains in NSW. The way he describes it, the town and property could be any typical small town in the bush. The river, the town, the people, are all described briefly but at the same time he manages to catch the atmosphere of rural Australia - slow-paced, open, barren yet fertile at the same time. He hangs the whole story on the many species of Eucalyptus, which uniquely places the story as Australian.

The characters are curious - they manage to be convincing, while at the same time being little more than caricatures. Ellen is beautiful, but passive, doing almost nothing to control her destiny. Her father, Holland, only appears to have a passion for his trees. The fact the he decides to marry his daughter to the first man who can correctly name all the trees he's planted sets him out as odd. It also suggests that the story is set in an earlier time. Just as with the location, there's no actual date set, but some of the stories told suggest that it's set in recent times - definitely post-war. Anyway...

The story winds on, passing quickly over early suitors. It slows down as Mr Cave appears and starts slowly and deliberately working his way through the trees, just as Ellen meets someone who actually interests her. As it looks like Mr Cave will succeed, she starts showing some independence finally.

The conclusion left me wondering what happened next, while at the same time it was exactly the right spot to leave the story.

It's hard to say why I liked this book so much. The writing just drew me onwards into the story. It frustrated me, confused me, made me want more, and drew a picture of an Australian setting that was recognisable without being too cliched or sentimental. Overall, it was an beautiful book to read, and certainly distracted me nicely from the airport lounges and announcements. Definitely worth reading.

Reach for the - earth?

2007-08-14T14:33:00.001+10:00

This is an interesting read - how to live on earth like we're reaching for the stars...

But it's a non-core promise!

2007-08-14T13:37:00.001+10:00

John Howard and his government do it again. That is, they force a major piece of legislation through Parliament with virtually no debate. See Crikey for more info. I'm sure I remember John Howard promising to be humble when it came to using his Senate majority after the 2004 election. Guess that was a non-core promise after all...

I'm not surprised anymore. After all, they've done this many times now. WorkChoices, for example. There's no way on earth that they'd have been able to pass that legislation if they hadn't had a Senate majority in their own right. The same goes for the anti-terrorism laws, although I guess that's debatable. The Labor party doesn't seem too concerned about those ones, so those laws might have passed anyway.

But even if they had, I'm sure there would have been a much more detailed debate. At the moment, the government is just not allowing debate, let alone amendments. They don't have to, so they don't. That is not being humble, it's not respecting parliament, or democracy. In my opinion, this government has abused it's power and isn't sorry for doing so.

Between WorkChoices, anti-terror laws and now this, we've been given a perfect example of a government that's out of control and obsessed with it's own power. This should become the classic case-study of why we, as voters, should never, never, give the government of the day control of the Senate. All of these pieces of legislation should be seriously looked at again, and amended, when John Howard and the Liberals finally loses government.

Other things to look at would be: closisng the electoral rolls the day the election is called, the raised disclosure limits on political donations, and probably a review of every other piece of legislation passed since the 2004 election.

On that note, in the Senate I'll be voting for the Democrats, then Greens/Independent before either of the major parties.

Links : Andrew Bartlett, Crikey, The Age.

LibraryThing

2007-08-13T21:06:00.000+10:00

I came across this really interesting site the other day, while browsing through Ampersand Duck's blog. I've always wanted a good way of cataloging my books. And here it is - LibraryThing! Such a good idea.

Anyway, browse my library. It'll probably tell you more about me than I ever could.

South, south, south!

2007-08-13T20:13:00.001+10:00

So, I spent the weekend in Hobart. It seems like a long way to go for a weekend, I know, but it's always fun. I love going home to Tassie, even if it is just for a few days.

I flew down from Brisbane on Saturday morning. I love the fact that there are direct flights from Brisbane to Hobart. It's only been possible for a few years, really, and the direct flights just save so much time. I flew Virgin, of course - I don't know why I even bother checking the Qantas prices anymore, as they are always more expensive. There's really not much to pick between them, anyway, except that you have to pay for your own food on Virgin. Thats certainly no big deal when you're talking about saving anything up to $100 on the flight.

Anyway... I love flying. I always get a window seat if I can. On the flight down to Hobart we went right over Sydney, and I had a wonderful view of the western suburbs. Not Sydneys most attractive view, I have to say - suburbs stretching off into the mountains. Victoria was covered in cloud, but that started breaking up as we flew over Bass Strait. We took the normal flight path to Hobart, so I had a lovely view of Flinders Island and the north-east coast of Tassie. I could see the snow on Ben Lomond, just peaking out between the clouds. Everything looked wet, which surprised me. I thought it had been pretty dry in Tassie, just like pretty much everywhere else. But apparently it had been raining all week, something I probably would have known if I'd bothered to watch the news last week. There were floods all over the place, too. I think it's now rained and flooded pretty much everywhere in the country except here in Brisbane. Oh well...

I didn't actually do much over the weekend. The whole point of going down there was to spend some time with my parents, and catch up with all the family. We had a big family dinner on Saturday night, which was great. That doesn't happen often enough, at least for me now that I live so far away from everyone else. Sunday I just hung around with my parents, and grandfather. I braved the cold, briefly, and went for a walk along the beach and around the neighbourhood with dad. Things are changing, of course - more houses going up, people moving on, etc. The place is still home, though, so the good parts haven't changed. Walking along the beach, even when it's freezing cold in the middle of winter, just makes me feel at home. Lying in bed at night, all I could hear was the waves on the beach. That's the sound of home for me, and is something I do miss here in Brisbane.

Unfortunately, it was an early flight out this morning. Monday is always a bad day to fly - too many people, higher prices etc. And I couldn't get the direct flight back to Brisbane so I had to change planes in Sydney. Another window seat for me, of course. For some reason we took a different flight path than I was expecting. Flying out of Tasmania we went right over the top of Ben Lomond. I could see Jacobs Ladder, all covered in snow. Since it was so soon after sunrise, the snow on the mountains looked stunning, but Launceston was still hidden in the shadows.

I also got a fantastic view of the ranges around Mt Kosciuszko. There's an impressive amount of snow on them at the moment, and with fog curling through the surrounding valleys it looked spectacular.

Then we flew right over the top of Canberra - right over the top of Parliament House. I was looking straight down on the flagpole. Can't say I've seen it from that angle before, and wouldn't it be interesting to send John Howard a message from that angle?
Hmmm...

Sydney is always nice to fly into, and this time was no exception. We came in over the western suburbs, circled around, and got a perfect view of the city, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. All the cliches in one short flight!

But that's why I love flying, even when the planes are full of more kids than a daycare centre. I love being able to look down and put a name to places I've never been and probably wont get to see from the ground. Looking down and wondering what people do in all these little towns we fly over. Dreaming about walking on all those beaches, in all those bays, on all those islands...

But it was just one weekend. I can't wait for a real holiday. I need a proper break... soon, soon, soon :)

New Blog Formatting

2007-08-10T10:46:00.000+10:00

The internet is a wonderful thing - there's someone out there who can tell you how to do almost anything these days... I've been looking into ways of breaking up longer posts so that only a summary shows at the top and you can click through to read the rest of the post if you're interested. And of course lots of people have already done that. I've used the code developed at Hackosphere to do this - thanks guys!

And this is just a quick demonstration of how it works. Looks good to me so far.

As I get a chance, I will be looking through the rest of the blog hacks on Hackosphere. There's bound to be lots of other interesting things to do on there.

Snow Crash

2007-08-09T10:50:00.001+10:00

Neal Stephenson is one author that I've been meaning to read more of since first reading "Cryptonomicon" back in 2000. That book was entertaining, complex, well-written and thought-provoking - a combination I like in a book. But for one reason or another I've never got around to picking up any of his other books until now. Then, the last time I visited the local library, I found a copy of "Snow Crash" on the shelves and decided this was the time.

I'm glad I did. It's not the easiest book to read that I've ever come across. The writing style varies between characters, each having their own unique way of appearing on the page. The plot jumps around quite a bit between characters, locations, ideas and action - not randomly, but it does take a bit of an effort to follow what's going on with the story. All that is obviously deliberate, and it kept me interested in reading on, to find out where it was all going.

The book draws on a whole range of ideas to create it's complex story line. There's references to ancient civilizations, language, religion, computers, medicine, politics, the environment, all drawn together to create a believable alternative world. Some of the ideas are pretty weak - the way the ancient Sumerian language is supposed to work, tied in with the computer virus that affects human brains are a stretch. But that's part of reading fiction - suspending disbelief long enough for the story to catch you. The book is written well enough so that I could get caught up in it without worrying about its use of ideas that I would normally find unbelievable. It made me think, in other words. And that's always a good thing in a book.

So - like I said, it's not the easiest read I've ever had. It took me longer to read than most books do. I will have to go out and read Stephensons other books - unfortunately I've lost my copy of Cryptonomicon somewhere along the way, so I'll be looking to replace it. Or maybe just buy his later ones...

Good news of the day...?

2007-08-09T10:28:00.000+10:00

Todays headlines : We've killed the dolphins! The Yangtze river dolphin was declared extinct today. Really sad news, and I hope it's not true. But just like the Tassie tiger, I'm guessing it's gone.

Interest rates go up, again! I haven't heard from the bank yet, but it's probably only a matter of minutes before they put my mortgage rate up again. Great... But John Howard seems to have apologised for the rate rise, even though he's blaming someone else. So he's sorry for something he says he didn't do? In what world does that make sense?

The year that was....

2007-08-05T17:04:00.000+10:00

It's been a great year all around. I've got out and about the great South East, had a good time with friends and family etc.

I've been to beaches, and forests.

Spent time in the city, and the bay.

I have to say, Brisbane is a great place if you like getting outside and seeing more than just the city.

Anyway, all that is just leading up to this whole new year, starting today. Yes, it's happy birthday to me - it's been a good year, and here's hoping the next one is just as good. Now I'm off for a birthday dinner to celebrate!

Great news of the day!

2007-08-03T08:28:00.001+10:00

My sister is getting married! That definitely counts as good news. She and her fiance announced their engagement yesterday.

I'm excited, and can guarantee that my parents are more than thrilled!

Gunns, Part 2

2007-08-02T20:04:00.000+10:00

As well as the political concerns I have over the Gunns pulp mill (see previous post), I also have a few environmental concerns. As I mentioned before, the RPDC found holes in the Gunns IIS. They failed to address the environmental issues adequately.

First of all, this is a pulp mill. That means it will be using a lot of wood, turning it into pulp. At the moment, Gunns is a huge exporter of woodchips. These woodchips mostly go to Japan, and are then turned into pulp and paper. When Gunns first put this proposal up, I think they said that the wood supply for the mill would come from the woochips that are now being exported. That would be fantastic – there would be no more wood taken from the forests than is already being harvested. In that case, the mill would definitely be a good thing. After all, if the Japanese can buy our wood chips and turn them into pulp or paper then why can’t we do it? Exporting wood chips just seems silly to me – almost a criminal waste of our forest resources. Logging of old-growth forests for woodchipping just seems so wrong. But since then, I’ve heard that they are not planning to phase out wood chipping in favour of supplying the pulp mill. The latest plans, apparently, are to continue exporting wood chips as well as taking extra wood from the forests to supply the new mill. That would mean that they could potentially double the amount of wood being harvested. If that’s true, I think that would definitely be unsustainable. I’ll have to try and find a reference for that, though – I remember hearing that this was the plan, but can’t remember where I heard it.

Other issues include the treatment of effluent from the mill. The plan is to build a pipeline three kilometers out into Bass Strait. This will have the effect of dumping a lot of waste water into a fairly pristine area, and a prime fishing ground. There’s also been a study done that shows this area of Bass Strait is one of the slowest areas in the strait to be flushed clean, which means that any toxins etc in the effluent will be concentrated here for quite some time. This doesn’t sound like the best possible environmental standard to me.

I’ve been in a few pulp and paper mills over the last few years. They are smelly places. I haven’t yet seen a pulp mill that doesn’t have odour problems. Gunns says that this mill wont have an odour problem because of the technology they will be using. That seems a bit optimistic to me. The best systems can fail, and have weaknesses. This is one of the issues that the IIS given to the RPDC failed to address. There will be leaks, there will be failures, and odour will get out. In a remote area this wouldn’t be a problem, though. The gases aren’t poisonous, or anything like that. They just smell bad. If there was a large distance between the mill and anything else, that would be fine. One of the main concerns here is that the mill is going to be a few kilometers downwind of Launceston – a city that already has air quality issues due to a winter inversion layer. Adding anything else to the air in that part of the world just adds to the problems of the city. I don’t think enough attention has been paid to this – and it’s a real concern to people living in the area.

Then there are concerns about access to the mill site. Many, many log trucks will have to travel to and from the mill every day. Roads in Tassie already feel clogged by log trucks, and this can be a menace. Roads can be narrow, and winding, and adding a lot of trucks to the roads can be dangerous. The mill is being built in an area with no other way for logs to be brought in except by road. It would have made more sense, I think, to build it at a location with rail access, so that the number of log trucks on the access roads could be reduced.

Anyway, on environmental grounds, I think this is the wrong mill in the wrong place. I don’t think the technology they will be using is as good as they claim. I don’t think they’ve chosen the best possible location. And I don’t think they have any plans for a sustainable wood supply – they just plan to keep clearfelling any and all forests they can access to use for wood chips and pulp.

Overall, I think a new pulp and/or paper mill in Tasmania would be a great idea. Forest-based are great industries. If they’re done well, they are sustainable forever – after all, trees do keep growing. Well-managed forest industries would be a great part of Tasmania’s clean and green image. When I first heard of the proposal I was a supporter. But Gunns, and the government, have lost my support. I think this project will be bad for the Tasmanian environment, and will be bad for the image of the state. It’s too big, in the wrong place, doesn’t seem to use the best available technology, and I don’t trust Gunns to have any concern for environmental issues. This pulp mill will go ahead, but I don’t think that’s a good thing anymore.

Links : Wikipedia

Howards Hospitals

2007-08-02T08:44:00.000+10:00

So - John Howard announces that he'll take over a Tasmanian hospital. Why?

Well, it's an election year, it's a marginal electorate that he's trying to save, and it's an issue where the state Labor government has made an unpopular decision. The perfect opportunity for John Howard to gain some votes just where he needs them.

Good politcs, yes. Good policy? Probably not. But who cares about good policy in an election year?

Other links: John Quiggin, Blogocracy, Crikey

D.A.N.C.E

2007-07-31T21:06:00.000+10:00

More listening goodness from YouTube...

Gunns, Part 1

2007-07-31T20:47:00.000+10:00

The Four Corners program last night was a report about the proposed Gunns pulp mill. The proposal is very controversial – as any and all forestry proposals in Tasmania are. Over the last couple of decades, forestry debates have been one of the major issues of Tasmanian politics, and so any proposal like a pulp mill was always going to be controversial.

The program was aired to coincide with the final approvals for the mill, which were due to be passed through parliament today, and it documented the whole sorry saga. Apart from the fact that any proposed mill would annoy the Greens, there has been the mess that is the approvals process. That’s the main heart of the controversy. It looks like the mill has been given an easy run around the proper approvals process, and that there is a political fix in place to make sure the mill goes ahead.

That’s the main concern for me – that the approvals process has been compromised in such a way that it looks like it was fixed. The proposal was supposed to go to the RPDC (Resources Planning and Development Commission) which is an independent body. That independence is supposed to ensure impartiality, and so inspire trust in the general community. The initial Gunns IIS (integrated impact statement) that was presented to the RPDC was sent back as being flawed. The RPDC found holes in the IIS, which was around 10,000 pages long and presented late. Holes included failing to address odour emissions, for example.

Instead of re-doing the IIS and re-presenting it to the RPDC, Gunns went to the government. This is where the political fix came in. Premier Paul Lennon has always been a supporter of Gunns, and the forestry industries. He’s a Labor premier, so supporting industry and union worker is fair enough, but he is seen as being too close to John Gay (CEO of Gunns). Gunns withdrew the pulp mill proposal from the RPDC, saying that the process was too long. Gunns said that if the project wasn’t approved by August 2007, then it would not go ahead.

Paul Lennon then announced that the parliament would pass a special bill allowing the mill to go ahead anyway, despite the fact it was no longer going to go through the regular state planning procedures. The new procedure would allow parliament to approve the project, and hired outside consultants to provide a report on the impacts of the mill. The consultants were allowed six weeks to provide this report, aiming to meet the deadline announced by Gunns. The RPDC had taken over a year to reach the stage it did – partly because of Gunns delay in providing information.

The consultants report was favourable, allowing Paul Lennon to say that it would be a good project for Tasmania. But the terms of reference for the consultants report were much tighter than those given to the RPDC, and so didn’t address all the concerns raised previously. So it is pretty much certain that the mill will be built, after the state parliament allowed it to get around the normal planning approvals.

That whole saga is a disgrace, in my opinion. Now that the planning requirements have been relaxed for this project, how can we really know that it is going to meet the world-best standards? We just have to take the word of Gunns and government that it will be so? On a project the size of this one, we shouldn’t have to take it on trust. Allowing the RPDC to complete its study would have given the proposal much greater credibility.
Gunns should have answered the RPDCs’ criticisms, rather than trying to go around it. They raised valid questions, pointed out holes in Gunns arguments, and gave a voice to community concerns. All of these issues have been side-stepped, which just allows distrust and anger to grow. Personally, I think the government was really stupid to allow this to happen.

There were always going to be political issues around the pulp mill. The Greens got their first foothold in parliament due to an earlier pulp mill proposal in the early 1990s (?). They were always going to protest the new proposal – that was a given. People are used to the Greens protesting by now, since it seems to be their main way of operating and getting attention. But the government has just given the Greens much greater credibility by the way it has handled this proposal. If the government had really wanted to address the environmental concerns, this was definitely not the way to do it. It just gives more ammunition for the Greens to work with in the future. The government should have expressed its support for a pulp mill, but also for its independent planning procedures. That way it would have been pro-industry and workers, but also could have answered the critics who say it doesn’t care about environmental issues. And it would also have looked good in standing up to big industry. But that’s just my opinion…

The mill will go ahead, and will continue to be controversial. And there are still lots of environmental questions that, in my opinion, haven’t been properly answered.

Links : The Dead Roo, 4 Corners

Pulp mills and politics...

2007-07-30T21:48:00.000+10:00

4 Corners, on ABC, tonight had a good overview of the Gunns pulp mill debate. It's been going on for a couple of years now, and is coming up for final approval by the Tasmanian government in a few weeks. It's all very controversial. Too tired now, but will write a bit more about it later.

Here's the 4 Corners website, which has lots of information about it all.

Brisbane days...

2007-07-28T15:47:00.000+10:00

It's a beautiful, sunny day here in Brisbane today. It's a bit windy, but that's fine. A great day to be out and about - this the sort of weather I moved to Queensland for! It beats the freezing winters back home, that's for sure.

The Doctor is free

2007-07-28T10:31:00.000+10:00

So - the charges against Dr Haneef have been dropped. They probably shouldn't have been brought against him in the first place, since the evidence has now turned out to be slim to non-existent. But that's what happens when politics get in the way of justice - i think it's pretty obvious that there was political interference in this case. I think that's incredibly sad, though, that the government would interfere in a case like this. I'd love to be able to trust the government to do the right thing, to let the justice system work, to uphold the law. But after seeing the way John Howard and friends have operated over the last few years I just can't believe anything they say anymore.

Anyway - the case started out well enough. Dr Haneef was linked to the terrorists in the UK, so questioning and investigating him had to be done. It would have been irresponsible not to take him in for investigation.

The investigation did drag on for a while, but that's reasonable too. Sometimes it is hard to work out what's going on, and the process was overseen by a magistrate.

It all went wrong, though, when charges were brought and Kevin Andrews canceled his visa. Canceling his visa would have been fine, if he was found guilty. But to cancel his visa just because he's been charged is crazy. At that point, politics trumped justice. That's when I started to really think that this case was more about political advantage than facts and justice. Kevin Andrews was a bit of an idiot canceling Dr Haneefs visa before he was found guilty of anything.

And now Andrews and the whole government look like a bunch of idiots. The charges have been dropped. But they haven't apologised to Dr Haneef, or reinstated his visa.

I don't think the police really need to apologise over this case. They were just doing their job, although they should probably explain why the investigation seems to have been bungled. The prosecutors should explain why charges were brought on such flimsy evidence that they had to be dropped. And if they can't offer a good explanation, then they should apologise. But the government has the most explaining to do. The decision to cancel the doctors visa seems to have been purely political. They need to explain in detail why that was done, and apologise. For conducting a trial by media, if nothing else. The way this whole situation was handled by the government was just wrong. Again, politics trumps justice.

I don't actually expect them to do this, though. They'll just keep maintaining that they have "secret evidence" that justifies canceling Dr Haneefs visa. I hate the thought that we now have a system that relies on secret evidence and suspicion for making decisions; decisions that we can't check for ourselves. The government keeps asking us to trust them, on so many things, but they've proved themselves untrustworthy time after time. And in any case, I don't think they know that the word sorry even exists.

Other links - Barista, Larvatus Prodeo, Blogocracy.

Listening to... part 1

2007-07-26T13:10:00.000+10:00

This has been playing on the radio for the last few weeks and has got stuck in my head. Very catchy.

"Heavyweight Champion of the World" by Reverend and the Makers.

Harry Potter

2007-07-26T08:49:00.001+10:00

Well, I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie last night. I was impressed - this is a good movie. It's definitely the best one of the series so far.

Since I haven't actually read any of the books, I didn't know what to expect from this movie. I've managed to get all the way through the series so far without getting hold of any of the books, and that's probably not going to change. After seeing the first couple of movies, I decided that they really were just books for kids. While the movies were fun, I couldn't see any point in reading the books then. But as the series has gone on and Harry & co. are growing up, it's getting more interesting.

The story was mainly responsible for that, I think, but the acting is getting better too. The story is more complicated, darker, and more mature than the earlier ones. The kids are growing up and becoming better actors (except for the guy who plays Draco Malfoy - didn't think he was much good at all, but since he only had a few lines in this movie it wasn't a problem).

The main characters have developed quite a lot through the series, which is great. Hermione in particular has become a much more rounded character.

And Harry learnt some important lessons in this story, too. In the previous stories, it's all up to Harry to save the day. The kids are the heroes while the adults and everyone else stands around looking helpless. This time, the kids all work hard, try their best, but in the end they can't do it all on their own. They need the backup of the adults/teachers to survive and win. There's a very impressive magical battle at the climax of the movie, which shows the kids being out of their depth and lucky to survive. That's one of the things that annoyed me about the earlier stories - Harry won almost too easily. Sure, he was lucky, too, but he seemed to win just because he was Harry. This movie isn't like that. He wins not just because he's Harry, but because he has people like the Order backing him up.

He also learns more about his parents - in particular he learns that his parents aren't perfect. He's always idolised them (natural enough) but this time, when he gets to see some of Professor Snapes' memories, he learns a few things about his dad that I think shocked him a bit. That's a tough lesson for anyone to learn - that the people they idolise aren't perfect. But it does make them more human.

I think the movie was technically really good, too. All of them have been good in that respect, though. The sets, scenery, effects - I guess they've got plenty of money to spend getting it right, though, so they should be good. It certainly gives the film the right atmosphere to make the story work.

Anyway, I thought it was the best Harry Potter movie so far. Definitely worth seeing. I hope they can keep it up with the remaining movies...

Forest Fights

2007-07-25T10:18:00.000+10:00

Yesterday Kevin Rudd was in Tassie (my home state, even though I live in QLD now). He was talking about forests, of course. Tasmanian politics has largely been about forest management for a long time now. Old growth logging, plantations, pulp mills, wood chipping - all have been on the agenda. It was another pulp mill proposal, back in the early 1990s (? I think ?) that gave the Greens their first entry into the Tasmanian parliament, and set up Bob Browns political career. And now Kevin Rudd has been in Tassie announcing his forest policy for the state.

I guess that makes sense. Mark Lathams' policy at the last election cost him quite a lot, and gave John Howard some wonderful photo opportunities with union members. Labors policy (see here) seems to be exactly the same as John Howards from that election. Although - I don't think that policy was ever implemented by the government? I'll have to check that out, but I think it was another non-core promise once the election was won. Anyway...

Personally, I don't like the way that Tassies forests are being managed. Turning our old growth forests into wood chips and shipping them to Japan seems almost criminal to me. I think the forests are worth much more than what we can get for them as wood chips.

Also - if the Japanese can turn these woodchips into pulp and paper and make a profit, then why can't we do it? But the whole pulp mill story is a saga in itself... some other time.

Is it a good policy? Well, it'll probably win him some votes back in northern tassie. The Greens dont like it, but that was pretty much guaranteed, no matter what he announced. So it's probably good politics.

Is it good for the forests and Tassie in general? Probably not, in the long term. I think we should have a plan to stop clear felling old growth or native forests completely. That should be the aim. Clearfelling plantations, of course, isn't a problem since they were specifically grown for that purpose. But native forests should be managed in such a way that they are not clear felled, but selectively logged for high value timbers. I don't know how practical or economic that would be, but it should be something to look into. As always - to be really informed I need to get a lot more information... oh well...

Other links to this subject.
Blogocracy, The Mercury, Tasmanian Times

More to be added later...

Lets start with some good news

2007-07-24T20:55:00.000+10:00

This story is great. Its a real feel-good story, that makes me just smile when I read it.

Hope you like it.

Starting Out

2007-07-24T20:21:00.000+10:00

So - here goes post one. I can't say there's much to write about at this point, but hey, it's got to start somewhere. It's all a bit experimental at this point.

Why "The Winding Track"? Well, mostly because the name was still free. Like everything else in life it seems that all the good names are already taken. Every other name I thought up was unavailable. Guess it's hard to be original these days. But the winding track isn't too bad. It could go anywhere...

And it all starts here...