&%$^*$! air-conditioning

It's a beautiful night, but unfortunately our new American neighbours upstairs have returned from their holiday and have put on the air conditioning (the evil, sleep-depriving air-conditioning). It's a nice night! It's not too hot, not too cold. Obviously too hot for the Americans, who like almost every other American that comes to Brisbane, seemingly bake themselves silly in the hot sun every day but can't handle an evening temperature in the low 20's!

It's not their fault the damn thing is so noisy, and the managers have had so many different technicians in to try and fix it... but every time it gets better (a bit better, but still annoyingly loud) and then a few weeks later it's back to roaring like a leaf-blower. God dammit. I'm working on a big assignment right now and the noise is incredibly distracting... and I'm dreading going to bed... the noise makes me want to tear my head off already. And this means we have to keep our own door shut and not get any fresh air just so we can get a tiny bit of sleep. I hate air-conditioning, and I especially hate our neighbours' air-conditioning. Having to put up with other peoples' noise is one of the worst things about living in high density housing :(

One Farmer, One Senator

The federal government's drought aid package to farmers is a survival mechanism not a get rich mechanism, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile said today.

The government last week announced a major drought assistance package including a $150,000 exit grants for those wanting to leave the land and a cut off $20,000 in off farm earnings before losing welfare entitlements.

The announcement has led to complaints the government is being exceptionally generous to its own constituency as an election approaches.

Mr Vaile said the government also provided support to other sectors.

"Has anybody complained about the levels of support that we as a government, that we as a nation, have provided to the automotive industry and the textiles, clothing and footwear industry since 1997. No, nobody has complained,'' he told the Ten Network.

The Govt. Gazette

Right, so every time a car plant goes out of business or a textile plant closes each worker gets $150,000 to stop being a car or textile worker? WTF, farming is a business why the hell should we pay taxes to pay Vaile's mates, the idiots too dumb to vote in their own interests or to listen to sustainable agriculture advice, to stop hitting themselves in the head? I bet small business owners would love that. I'll stop setting up takeaway burger shops 50m from McDonalds if you pay me $150,000 to stop doing it. Nevermind the fact that it would take the average Australian three years to even EARN $150,000.

I love the $20,000 a year of extra earnings too. If you're on youth allowance you can earn $6,000, no, not per year, per the course of your stint on youth allowance, before they claw back your allowance. Hell, yearly income from youth allowance is barely even $8,000 a year. If you're a young person trying to earn a living or improve your earning potential (which means more tax for the govt.) you're entitled to $8,000 a year in help. If you're a farmer and your special business has failed, despite costing the taxpayer more than you ever earned in terms of subsidies, free advice and support etc. you're entitled to yet more money to maintain your lifestyle. Also in the eyes of the media you are a rugged individualist, doing it tough and using your flinty stare and lantern jaw to plough your sun baked soil. Everyone else is a dole bludger.

Also there are plenty of farms that are doing it tough and staying successful with little govt. assistance. For instance most of NSW's vegetables come from a few farms not far from Sydney. They've gotten it right, how about rewarding them instead of prolonging the inevitable with pointless vote grubbing pork barreling?

Go Fiji!

Beat Wales to secure their first place in a Rugby World Cup quarter-final in 20 years. Of course, given the crappy free-to-air coverage of the Rugby World Cup this time, it probably wasn't broadcast. Australian broadcasters don't seem to understand that it's not really a World Cup if only Australian matches are shown. Grrrr.

3 restaurants in 3 days

Two down, one to go.

I probably won't put up a full post reviewing our experiences for a couple of days, but let's just say last night's dinner and particularly tonight's dinner are ones I'd like to forget. Great company, really poor quality food. Would have been better off staying home and eating a bowl of cereal- and in the case of Jazzy Cat Cafe tonight I pretty much need a bowl of cereal to fill me up after paying $23 for what pretty much amounted to 2 small slices of eggplant, a couple of cubes of really overcooked potato and half a carrot. Incredible. Do yourself a favour and don't go there.

At least we're guaranteed of a good feed at the Black Forest Cafe Restaurant tomorrow night- we've been there before. I paid $23 for my main meal there too, and it was not only delicious but so enormous I couldn't finish it. In that sense I suppose it's good that the Jazzy Cat has left me starving. Maybe I'll be able to polish off an entire meal at the Black Forest tomorrow!

Death Penalty For Schapelle

Australians who lost relatives and mates in the 2002 Bali bombings say they're disgusted by an Amnesty International campaign to save three of the bombers from execution.

The Australian arm of the human rights group is urging people to lobby Indonesian authorities to stop the executions as part of Amnesty's ongoing campaign against capital punishment.

SMH

I agree, kill the bombers, then kill Corby and the Bali 9. I'm disgusted by Amnesty International's attempts to stop justice being done.

Burma

	In response to calls from Burma’s democracy movement, the Burma Campaign UK and other campaign groups around the world have been pressuring companies to sever business ties with Burma. Please contact one or more of the companies on the Dirty List and ask them to cut their ties with Burma’s military government. If appropriate, tell them you will not purchase their products as long as they continue to support the regime in Burma. Letters written in your own words are most effective. If you don’t have much time, don’t worry - just one or two paragraphs will do. Please be polite! We would be grateful if you could send us a copy of any responses you receive. The Burma Campaign UK

Go here for news on what's happening in Burma. While Burmese are fighting for freedom from an oppressive government in our own back yard our media is running typically navel gazing rubbish like:

"Move over WAGS, here come the Scrummies World Cup rugby wives are shunning the WAGS tag that's given to partners of their football cousins."

Howard and cronies have been quick to fall in behind the protesters. Of course this is the same John Howard who happily shared a podium with them at APEC. To their credit, Labor and Greens MPs joined a rally outside the buffoonish Downer's office pushing for sanctions. Two days ago Rudd called for sanctions against the regime. Today the Howard government confirmed they'd be doing just that, proving the saying that whenever you wake up is your morning.

Here are the Australian businesses from the site. We'll let you know if we get any responses.

Andaman Teak Supplies Pty Ltd
Andaman is an Australia teak supplier to the marine sector, which only uses Burmese teak. The Burmese regime owns all teak plantations in Burma and teak sales earn the regime millions of pounds every year.

Andaman Teak Supplies Pty Ltd
59 Magnesium Drive
Crestmead Qld 4132
Australia
Fax: +61 (0)7 3803 1118
Email: andamanteak@bigpond.com

Gecko’s Adventures
Gecko’s describes itself as a travel company for ‘grassroots adventures’. It is a sister company of Peregrine Adventures, which has offices in Australia and the UK. Gecko’s organises tours to Burma.

Managing Director
Gecko’s Adventures
First Floor, 8 Clerewater Place,
Lower Way, Thatcham, Berkshire
RG19 3RF
Email: sales@peregrineadventures.com

Managing Director
Gecko’s Adventures
258 Lonsdale St
Melbourne VIC 3000

Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is an Australian multinational publishing company specialising in travel guides. Lonely Planet publishes a guide to Burma which encourages tourists to visit the country. Lonely Planet also vigorously defends tourism to Burma, attempting to undermine calls by Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s democracy movement for tourists to stay away.

Judy Slatyer
Chief Executive
Lonely Planet
90 Maribyrnong Street
Footscray, Victoria 3011
AUSTRALIA
Fax: 00 61 3 8379 8111
Email: talk2us@lonelyplanet.com.au

Peregrine Adventures
Peregrine Adventures is an Australian travel company with an office in London. Peregrine offers 12 day tours of Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Peregrine Tours
First Floor, 8 Clerewater Place,
Lower Way, Thatcham
Berkshire RG19 3RF
Email: sales@peregrineadventures.com

Managing Director
Peregrine Adventures
258 Lonsdale St
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia
Email: websales@peregrineadventures.com

posted by gam. accidentally logged in as sarah

Killing Australia

SECURITY agencies would be able to secretly track people via their mobile phones and monitor their internet browsing for up to three months without obtaining a warrant under new laws due to go before the Senate this week.

The powers could be used in a range of even relatively minor criminal investigations, not just terrorism cases.

They would allow ASIO and federal and state police forces to demand that phone companies and internet service providers stream information to them in "near real-time" - just a few minutes after calls are made or websites visited. The information would have to be provided for up to 90 days for ASIO investigations, and 45 days if state or federal police are involved.

Justified as a counter-terrorism measure, the legislation has already been passed by government and Labor members of the lower house. But it remains deeply unpopular with legal experts and privacy advocates.

As well as not requiring a warrant signed by a judicial officer, the powers could be used in any criminal investigation into a suspected offence that carries a jail term of three years or more.

The regime applies to all "telecommunications data", including the time and destination of phone calls made and received, the duration of the calls and the location of the callers.

For computers, security agencies would be told what website addresses and chat rooms the user has visited and what files have been downloaded. The laws would also enable authorities to track internet conversations.

Security agencies would still need a judicial warrant to listen in on phone calls, or peruse emails.

The Greens senator Kerry Nettle said the powers would allow authorities to glean huge amounts of information. Every mobile phone could potentially become a tracking device for police and ASIO.

The bill "is more like something from East Germany than a party claiming to support liberal principles", she said. "There is no judicial oversight. Police and ASIO should have to get a warrant to track and tap people's mobile phones or web browsing."

The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, was unavailable for comment yesterday. He has previously said the laws do not constitute new powers for security agencies, but a "more systematic and appropriate controls over the existing access framework".

But the legislation's own explanatory memorandum says the regime for "prospective" telecommunications data - the streaming of near real-time information for up to 90 days - is new.

The Law Council of Australia argues that technological advances mean the powers pose new dangers to privacy. Tracking someone with a mobile phone was far easier than secretly affixing a listening device without breaking and entering, it said. Therefore the proposed powers were "far more amenable to misuse or over-use by law enforcement agencies".

SMH

We've already seen what the government has done with the powers it already has. For example using information gathered under those powers to slander and libel an innocent man, selectively 'leaking' information to a compliant media to destroy an innocent person's life and career out of spite. After the government's disgusting performance with regard to Mohamed Haneef, is there anyone out there stupid enough to trust Kevin fucking Andrews with essentially unlimited, unrestrained, unaccountable powers to spy on every single Australian at will? Is there anyone dumb enough to trust this, or any government with power like that? You might note from the article that Labor, probably wetting their pants over 'security' theater becoming an election issue, supported it through the lower house. They deserve to be punished for that but I reserve my rage for the little bastard in the government who hatched this perverted piece of legislation. Clearly driven by an insane lust for power and a need to dominate the lives of the citizens who pay their salary. My money's on Ruddock, the evil bastard.

It certainly seems we've become a nation of cowards, quivering at the thought of an attack that's less likely to occur than being hit by lightning or dying in one of our nation's underfunded hospitals. Looks like the terrorists have already won. Who knows, maybe one day inside a small room, someone will be asking me what I meant by that.

posted by gam. accidentally logged in as sarah

Centrelink income reporting

Every fortnight when I report my employment income to Centrelink I am compelled to answer the question

Are you reporting these changes as a result of seeing the Support the System that Supports You advertisement?

Every week I have to answer 'no'. Fuck the government and their stupid advertisement. Do they really think that after I've reported my income X amount of times all of a sudden I'll change my mind and go "Oh this week I'm reporting because of that scary ad I saw on TV, even though it hasn't influenced me up until now!". Fuckers.

Feel the spittle when the media froths

Funny, isn't it, how people like Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Robert Mugabe 'launch a diatribe' or a 'spray' when they criticise American foreign policy (or even the practice of giving breast implants to barely-pubescent 15-year-olds, in Chavez' case), but when George Bush makes one of his afactual speeches (which we are usually forced to listen to in full, thanks to ABC Newsradio's notion that is somehow part of the US Empire's broadcasting arm), he makes 'strident criticism', or an 'attack'. The way the media reports these things is designed to make anyone who doesn't agree with the US look desperate and crazy, while anyone on the side of the US (or with their tongue firmly planted up the arse of the US, in John Howard's case) is made to look stronger and more resolute (one of GB's favourite words, no doubt spelled out phonetically on his teleprompter) simply by virtue of the language in which the media couches their actions.

Funny how you never hear about George Bush 'making a spray' or 'launching a diatribe', hmm? And this is from our free, independent and 'unbiased' media. It pays to listen critically.

We Are Too Relevant!

Our constituents are too dumb to ask us about this.

THE Nationals have unleashed a negative campaign against Kevin Rudd, with federal election candidates sent party research alleging the Opposition Leader lacks "the balls" to be honest with voters.

The candidates have been told that when Mr Rudd worked for former Queensland premier Wayne Goss in 1989, he isolated a number of senior public servants in a "gulag" because he was too weak to provide them with leadership - a claim denied by Mr Rudd last night. The attack strategy is detailed in a briefing sent to Nationals candidates, obtained yesterday by The Australian.

...

It said that after Labor took power, Mr Rudd quarantined a group of senior bureaucrats with links to the previous National Party government by putting them in a room known as "the gulag" and not giving them any work to do.

The Government Gazette

Those would be bureaucrats who worked for this man. Of course John Howard is renowned for having the balls to be honest with voters. Still I suppose they're only aiming their message at the twelve or so voters in QLD who they need to maintain their current level of representation in our hopelessly gerrymandered rural electorates.

Joe Hockey, Man Of The People

Joe Hockey, MP, Pies

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey says young people are perfectly capable of negotiating pay and conditions with their employers.

Unions have argued the federal government's Work Choices laws give the upper hand to employers, particularly when dealing with young, inexperienced workers.

But Mr Hockey said young people were more used to negotiating these days areas.

"The kids are negotiating mobile phone contracts worth literally thousands of dollars a year," Mr Hockey told ABC Radio.

"In some cases, they are borrowing money for cars, they are going and borrowing money for overseas trips - yet they can't negotiate a contract?"

He said that in any case workers under the age of 18 needed parental consent before they could sign an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA).

Mr Hockey said he would "love to be on AWA".

"But that is for other people," he said.

"I'd love to have a bonus scheme and I'd love to have arrangements that rewarded on the basis of hours of work.

"I'd happily trade off everything."

But he said politicians did not have the opportunity to do so because their pay was set by the independent Remuneration Tribunal.

SMH

Wait... So the fact that young people are the most at risk for unmanageable debt, the most likely to default on that debt and are being increasingly targeted by debt collection agencies is proof of how capable they are of negotiating with people like this?

And poor Joe! He'd just LOVE to go on an AWA, except his pay is set by an independent tribunal which ALWAYS raises his pay past the rate of inflation and ALWAYS makes sure he keeps the best super in the country, the best pension plan in the country, best medical, subsidised accommodation, 'study trips' et cetera. Joe would trade all that away in a heartbeat for an AWA. If only he could. We could have a special opinion poll just for him, from his employers, us. When it drops below 50% we vote on firing him. At which point he's terminated, effective immediately, escorted out of parliament house by security. No pension, no super etc.

Feel free to speculate on the terms of Joe Hockey's AWA in the comments. Having to keep a minimum wage job on an AWA while parliament isn't sitting comes to mind.

It's a tough one...

It sounds like fun, planning a holiday, but in this case it kind of sucks!

Gam's parents are coming out here in January for our wedding, and we have approximately 9 days after the wedding to fill with travel and sightseeing. My parents will be coming along too and said they'd pay. Only Gam and I have to decide on where to go and what to see, and come up with an itinerary. I'm totally lost. I asked Gam what sort of things his parents might like to do, and he's not all that sure (Daddy is a bit of a workaholic and never takes holidays). I sort of felt like we should take them to Kempsey- or rather stay at South West Rocks and give Kempsey a flying visit (it's not a nice place to stay), but because Kempsey has no airport it entails a whole day's travel there and a whole day's travel back in a car, which really sucks. So I've pretty much left that idea for dead.

What next? There's all sorts of parts of Australia I'd like to see. I'd love to visit the top end, but I don't think dragging our parents up there in the middle of the wet season would be their idea of fun. I'd love to visit Broome, but airfares alone are a bit prohibitive considering there'll be 8 of us if both Gam's brother and sister come too (maybe I could borrow an RAAF jet like John Howard did for his Broome holiday?). Virgin Blue has cheap flights to Hamilton Island, but I don't know if it's a tacky and overly tourist-y island or a nice one like Heron Island. And I don't know if Gam's parents would be up for spending 4 days or so on an island. Particularly if the transfers happen to be on rough seas (one of my vivid memories of the trip to Heron Island was being literally surrounded by puking people, and desperately trying not to myself). There's also tourist-y things like 'Rock and Reef' packages, where you get a couple of nights at an Uluru resort and another couple of nights at one of the island resorts. That entails a fair bit of travel in between, of course, and only Qantass flies to Alice Springs, which means I'd have to welch on my anti-Qantass policy. That's the least of my concerns, mind.

I know Gam's parents will want to see around Brisbane, because they lived here for a while in the late 70s/early 80s. We can probably handle that. There's also some nice spots not too far out of Brisbane, as we found when we tagged along with my brother and his girlfriend for their Sunshine Coast holiday in February last year. For something like that we'd not only require a car- my parents are willing to hire one for us to drive Gam's parents around in- but either Gam would have to switch over his licence (he's a competent, confident driver) or I'd have to take a few driving lessons because I haven't driven for a good 4 years or so (I'm competent but not confident, and I'd definitely need practice).

Then of course there's Tasmania, the arse end of Australia. What's their slogan again? "See the trees before they've all gone!". I know my parents are keen to visit Tassie, but unless Gam's parents are into bushwalking or something I don't know what we'd do there. Daddy owns a farm in Ghana, so maybe we could do tours of organic farms or something where he could pick up ideas... he also likes fishing, which I suppose is possible almost anywhere except Uluru. Mummy is like my Mum, happy so long as there's a drink to be had in the evening!

Has anyone got any places in Australia they'd recommend visiting at the height of an Australian summer? Has anyone ever been on holiday to the top end during the wet season? Any suggestions are most welcome... I'm totally lost!

When I said 'our' I meant 'my'

"When I referred to the 'Australian way of life' I was talking about my cushiony taxpayer-funded existence at Kirribilli, not your right not to work 14 hour days for shitty pay in an insecure job with no rights while struggling to get on top of your overpriced mortgage!"

While I can't watch the Australian Democrats' new YouTube video picking apart the Howard government's ridiculous new 'Australian values' bullshit citizenship test (currently I don't have sound because Gam has frogmarched me to Ubuntu from SUSE linux), I do agree with the points they've made. I seem to recall a fair few bloggers making the same ones (Mikey, for one, had a bit to say about it).

One sample test question asks: "Which one of these is a responsibility of every Australian citizen?"

The possible responses are (1) Renounce their citizenship of any other country; (2) Serve in Australian diplomatic missions overseas; or (3) Join with Australians to defend Australia and its way of life, should the need arise.

The correct answer is (3).

"What if I was elderly, or the mother of young children?" Senator Allison says.

"It sounds to me as if the Government wants to reintroduce compulsory military conscription.

"Or perhaps it's just designed to make us feel as though we're under attack, because we all know that when we're afraid, the Government can get away with just about anything."

She disputes the correct answer to another question - that everyone has equality of opportunity.

This was not correct when Australia locked up refugees and its indigenous people had a life expectancy 17 years younger than other Australians, she said.

Attacking another of the potential test questions, she said it was ludicrous to deny someone citizenship just because they did not know that the golden wattle was the nation's floral emblem, or that Sir Donald Bradman was a great cricketer.

What the hell does "Join with Australians to defend Australia and its way of life, should the need arise" even mean? To my mind, a great example of people who joined together to defend the 'Australian way of life' were the people who protested at APEC and the way its massively overblown (and embarrassingly ineffectual) security interfered with the lives of people who live in Sydney. Who opposed those people? John Howard and co., the very people who introduced this wankfest of a citizenship test.

I hope that another great example of Australians joining together to defend our way of life will be when we turf John Howard out on his arse at the next election for creating WorkChoices, a system that allows employers to take away rights such as penalty rates for working obscenely unsociable hours. Bring on the election.

Unemployed again...

Never mind, I still have a full-time job as Feifei's slave...

I got a phonecall while I was at work yesterday from someone from the company who employs me, telling me there wouldn't be any work for me over the entire month of October and it was uncertain as to whether there'd be any thereafter. I sort of gathered that the company (which is a start-up and has only in the last few weeks launched the part of it that's actually going to earn money, i.e. memberships to ordinary consumers for their online database of nutrition and food product information) may be having cashflow problems. Certainly their database is nowhere near complete. And I was surprised to learn last week that I was the only data collector left working for them.

Anyway, after further prodding today while I was trying to scope out whether it was worthwhile to go out of my way to find an IGA to find certain products they wanted me to collect (I usually collect at Toowong Woolworths), or just pack it in now (rather than working for the remainder of the week while trying to churn out a 40% assignment at the same time) I got confirmation that there's no more work in the pipeline until further notification, i.e. probably never, and they'll keep my resume on hand in case any ever comes up. In a way it's a bit of a relief- just getting into the part of semester where all my assignments are coming due, and me not being much of a multitasker, it's nice not to have work as a distraction so I can really knuckle down. On the other hand, I'll miss the extra hundred-odd dollars a week.

I've got to say, though, it's nothing like the time I was sacked from a job I'd been working at for a year and actually liked. I only liked my data collecting job because I could go and work whenever I felt like it rather than having to stick to a roster. It's definitely not the same feeling as when I felt I'd built up relationships with the people I worked with, only to be told with a phonecall I wasn't required any longer. Sure, the method of sacking was almost exactly the same this time, but it feels like more of a relief than anything, and having this job has actually built up my confidence in applying for another one... after I'm done with uni for the semester, that is.

Wondering

Where Larry, aka Mr Watermelon Rant, might be. He hasn't posted for ages. Don't tell me he has a real life? Hope everything's ok, Larry!

While I'm at it I want to give a shout out to Anthony, who quit blogging some months back. Hope everything's going well for you, Anthony, wherever you are :)

Sorry everyone...

I just want to apologise to our readers for the travesty in the blog header (a giant Halo 3 sign). Nerdboy is a bit excited about the midnight launch tomorrow, which we may be going to... The blog is not actually owned by microsoft- he's whoring it out for free!

Update: we're not going to the midnight launch... because even though Gam's super excited about it he doesn't want to drag me all the way to Toowong and back at midnight. He's not so much of a nerd that he would leave me alone while he went and queued up for release of a new X-box game, and for that I'm eternally grateful. Love you Gam :)

Food Review

Haven't done one of these for a while, but I've tried a few new products lately. Nothing out of the ordinary, just new versions of things I'm used to eating.


Kellogg's mini wheats 5 grain: I was so excited when I saw these that I (uncharacteristically) didn't even bother to read the ingredients panel. I just assumed they would be like my old favourite whole wheat mini wheats which disappeared off the shelves some months ago. I thought people who wanted sugary mini wheats would buy the 'honey burst' flavour on the shelves right next to them. Wrong! You get sugar whether you want it or not- they're 8% sugar. I'm not sure how much sugar the whole wheat mini wheats had, but it wasn't 8%. I hate sweet cereal- I hate the way it leaves the milk in my bowl all sickly sweet and if I have milk left and I want more cereal it's doubly sweet because of all the sugar in the milk from the last lot of cereal. Bitches. If I want sugar on my cereal I'll bloody well add it like I did to my weet-bix when I was a kid. Incidentally, I hate weetbix- they go soggy. I hate soggy cereal, which is one reason I like mini-wheats- they stay nice and crunchy for a relatively long time. But I don't like the sugar content. However, they're not so bad that I didn't buy a second box

... and I've been having them with real milk, not soy. I've given soy the flick for the time being. I feel practically dead without a couple of coffees in me, and drinking coffee with soy milk is so detestable that I have to admit my caffeine habit is a drug problem- otherwise, why would I drink something that tasted so gross? Good coffee + good, creamy organic milk, on the other hand, is pure bliss, plus I feel HUMAN all day, not like a sack of sand.

Gippsland Dairy Organic Yoghurt: Once I've given up on soy milk, why not go the whole hog and let other dairy products back into my diet too? The no-dairy diet was only effective for my acne when I stuck to it stringently, which meant that having a couple of slices of pizza on the weekend would result in me having pimples for the week no matter how 'good' i was for the other 5 or 6 days. Besides, I love yoghurt. I was wondering when I'd finally see some organic yoghurt products on the shelves of mainstream supermarkets, and this Gippsland Dairy organic peach, mango and passionfruit yoghurt was the first I'd seen. Yummy, too. Fairly sour (in a refreshing rather than a mouth-puckering way). Can I just mention how much I hate the way Jalna spell yoghurt as 'yoghourt'? Give it up, guys. I know because it's an appropriated word and not an english word that there's loads of spellings for it, but please... go with the mainstream, save the wanky spellings for the hippy stores. It's not lost on me, mind, that the Gippsland one is spelled 'yogurt'- I think that's the predominant American spelling. I don't like that either, but it doesn't bother me so much as adding unnecessary letters into the word like Jalna do!

Wrigley's Eclipse Ice Lemon Burst flavour: bought this on an impulse when I went in to Coles today to pick up some milk. It's sort of lolly-lemon flavoured, not tart at all. It has a slight initial cool, menthol-y feel in the mouth upon first chew (I think it's the sugar alcohols used as sweeteners that produce that cool feeling in the mouth), but it's not as good to chew for ages, and not as refreshing after a meal. I suppose it's good if you have a lolly craving but no lollies- it does have a nice sweet taste.






UPDATE: I forgot to add Newman's Ginger Treat to the list. These aren't 'new' because we've been buying them ever since we first spotted them (for a few years, I think, but they recently underwent a packaging makeover). These are delicious. I love the combination of chocolate and ginger, and although these don't have chunks of glace ginger like I was used to with all the other chocolate/ginger products I have tried, the 'truffle' centre is deliciously gingery- made with Buderim ginger, too, so Australians can feel patriotic while eating it! I was impressed with the straightforward ingredients list, too. It's not often you see 'junk food' that doesn't have a list of ingredients that sound like things that should never be eaten by humans. I even kept the wrapper so I could write down the ingredients:

Ginger truffle centre (70%)[ginger pulp, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, milk fat, sugar, thickened cream (cream, gelatine, vegetable gum (407)), citrus peel, sultanas, ginger powder, emulsified (soy lecithin)]. Dark chocolate (30%) [Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, milk fat, emulsifiers (soy lecithin, 476), flavour].

I must say I was surprised to learn it contained citrus peel and sultanas- the balance of flavours is so good that it's difficult to discern their flavours in the truffle even after learning of their presence. 10 out of 10 for this particular product- I think I would go so far as to say it's my favourite chocolate bar. I haven't seen it at any of the supermarkets we go to- we buy ours at the chinese convenience store on Sir Fred Schonell Drive, but ginger lovers should keep an eye out.

Feifei's weed habit

The other day on the way home from one of our walks I picked some grass for Keith Richards. Problem is, grass is Feifei's second-favourite food (the first being fresh water- you can practically make him drool by drinking a fresh, cold glass of water in front of him). So when I went to give Feifei pats before heading out to give Keith Richards his grass, Feifei decided he wanted first go...

Queensland Roar vs Sydney FC

We went to see the Roar vs Sydney match at the Suncorp stadium yesterday. I predicted that the rain forecast would hold off for the evening until we lost and were trudging out of the stadium in defeat, then it would piss down on our heads. That didn't quite happen- the rain held off apart from a sprinkle until we were about 10 minutes from home and thought we were safe... then it pissed down on our heads.

Our first mistake was walking to Toowong at 6pm and deciding to catch the 6:17pm train. 6:17pm came and went, and then at around 6:25pm a single message was broadcast, so quietly most people didn't catch it, saying that the train would be arriving on a different platform. So a few of us started walking and the herd effect caught on, and the mass of people traipsed up the stairs and down another lot of stairs onto platform 4. The train didn't arrive for another 10 minutes after that, and when it did it was so full people were almost spilling out the door. The people at the door were nice enough to invite us to squeeze on.



The train emptied at Milton, and when we arrived at the stadium, a good 20-30 minutes later than planned (and later than we would have been if we'd walked) we had to queue for quite a while to buy tickets. We'd only brought along $40 cash for the cheapo 'maroon' seats ($18 each), but Niall suggested we fork out for the $24 'orange' seats, so Sophie lent us the extra (thanks Sophie!) . The view was much, much better than the 'ant' views we normally get, and that, combined with the prowess of our new camera, really made for much better photos than usual. It's a pity the Roar couldn't reward our faith with a win. Grrrr. As usual we had some great shots on target, with nothing going in. And Sydney's lone goal was a shithouse goal that wouldn't have happened if our defensive players had been doing their job.









Some time after half-time, Sophie started trying to grab Niall's attention. Niall and Gam were sitting to my left, and Sophie to my right, and there was some random guy sitting to her right with 2 empty seats in between him and the next lot of people. Unbeknownst to the rest of us, he had started sitting with his legs spread far apart and leaning over further and further toward Sophie's seat, eventually putting his hand on her seat right next to her knee! We thought we'd fix him by letting Sophie swap seats with Gam, and although Gam was big enough to take up the entire seat so the guy couldn't put his hand there, he still kept sitting inappropriately and leaning so his shoulder was practically touching Gam's.

Gam's leg is visible in the right-hand corner of the photo...

Sophie also said he'd sworn at some kids sitting behind him and told them to shut up [Update/Correction- this was after the kids had been teasing him- Gam and Sophie mentioned he had some sort of facial tic- I hadn't noticed]... Gam thought maybe his inappropriate behaviour could be the result of a TBI (traumatic brain injury- injuries to the frontal lobe can sometimes prevent people from inhibiting inappropriate behaviour), and I suppose that could be right- if he'd been a garden-variety perve he probably would have freaked out when Gam sat down next to him. I don't blame Sophie for freaking out though, TBI or not.

On top of it all, some bratty 11 year old Sydney supporters gave us cheek on the way out after the game. And of course we arrived home soaking wet after having to sprint up the hill to our place in the pouring rain.

Queensland Roar, I blame you!


Except Seo Hyuk Su... he's always fantastic!

I Has Plan

John Howard, Global Warming Skeptic

Prime Minister John Howard has released plans for a new national clean energy target aimed at reducing energy use by a conservative 15 per cent.

The target, released today in Sydney, requires that 30,000 gigawatt hours each year come from low emission sources by the year 2020.

"What this initiative will do is gather up all of the different state schemes, many of which are contradictory or at the very least dissimilar," Mr Howard said.

"What in essence we want is to consolidate all of the states' schemes into a single national scheme.

"This will reduce costs for business, and ultimately for households."

The target plans to use renewable energy sources including solar, wind and wave generation.

Mr Howard said he hoped the targets would come into effect no later than January 2010.

SMH

Presumably we can power our nation by harnessing the sun that shines out of his arse. What bullshit. The coconut has spent nearly no money on renewables, preferring to shuttle truck loads of money to his mates in the coal industry. Meanwhile other nations are stealing a march on us, and all our knowledge capital, in solar energy.

DoucheBags

"Yes bending over and spreading your cheeks is part of the contract, why do you ask?"

A Melbourne painter who acted as a concerned father in a government-funded workplace ad is being prosecuted for underpaying two of his young employees by more than $13,000.

The Workplace Ombudsman today said it would prosecute Damien Richardson, who featured in the government's Know Where You Stand Work Choices advertisements.

Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson alleges the two "young and vulnerable" employees, Erin Gebert and Phillip Graham, were underpaid $12,238 and $1792, respectively, while working for Mr Richardson's painting business.

Mr Gebert, who worked for Mr Richardson when he was aged 17 to 19, and Mr Graham when he was 18, had complained about non-payment of wages, intimidation and other workplace problems.

Mr Richardson strenuously denied the claims, saying he had employed the young men as subcontractors and they had failed to invoice him for their work.

Mr Wilson said Mr Richardson had consistently refused to acknowledge the underpayments, accept responsibility to rectify them, or express any remorse.

"We therefore felt it important to send a clear message of deterrence to Mr Richardson and other employers," he in a statement.

"The alleged underpayments are huge amounts for most people but especially for workers of this age."

The government was embarrassed when allegations against Mr Richardson were made public in August and quickly pulled the ads.

In the campaign, Mr Richardson calls himself D O'Connor and plays a father with his son, saying: "I'm being told employers can rip off young kids." A note from the Workplace Authority beside the image reads: "No They Can't!".

SMH

The 'Workplace Ombudsman', where investigations consist of waiting till violations are printed on the front of newspapers. I'm starting to think they just can't find any real people willing to act in the ads who aren't criminals, liberal party apparatchiks or bloodsuckers trying to screw people over.

Whoops, wrong thugs.

That idiotic anti-workchoices advertisement by the Business Council of Australia has been pulled from broadcast because it turns out two of the people they hired to play 'union thugs' were in fact real-life thugs who have served jail time for serious drug and violence offences.

Piper, the man with the shaven head, pictured on the left, has served several prison sentences for drug trafficking and possession and crimes of violence and dishonesty. Mark "Porky" Lesser, pictured on the right, has served time for drug offences committed with his brother, Ian Lesser, well-known to police as a St Kilda drug dealer.

You know how you get 'ad fatigue' when an ad plays so often it starts to get annoying? Well, I had ad fatigue from this damn ad being played every single damn ad break on SBS (and I mean literally every single ad break- there must be an incredible amount of money behind those ads), and I hated the ad to begin with!

Lesson from this little episode?

Business Council of Australia: will employ serious, violent thugs to make a point.

Unions: protecting you from the people who employ serious violent thugs to scare you into voting for Howard...

Oops.

Pondering the future of Today's (apathetic) Youth

Gam asked me the other day what we're going to do about the title of this blog when we're no longer 'youf'. I've got to say, it is something I've thought of, but I haven't come up with an answer yet. "Today's Apathetic Middle-Aged" doesn't have quite the same ring, does it? Although we'll be set once we're past 60- I quite like the sound of "Today's Apathetic Old Farts".

Clearly, the sky is blue.

In other news, the Howard government's public dental coverage is shithouse.

Tony Abbott earlier this week on the Howard government's decision to finally spend money on tackling some of the shocking health problems facing Aboriginal communities:

"Clearly, there is a real problem with ear, nose and throat, chest infections, tummy bugs and dental treatment, and that's what this money is going to provide," he told ABC radio.

"Some of the work that is needed can't be done in the communities with the existing resources...

... and clearly people have haven't been telling them this for the past 11 years. It's like the Howard government have only just realised that Aboriginal people exist. Except they haven't- they came to power in part thanks to their 'The Abos will steal all your backyards' scare campaign in 1996. So fuck off, Tony. You're 11 years too late. Labor couldn't possibly do a worse job of Aboriginal health than the Howard government has.

Restaurant case leaves a sour taste

What's the point of a restaurant review if you can't criticise the establishment for its 'misses' as well as praise it for the 'hits'? Anything else is just a frigging advertorial, so it really boggles my mind that the jury have handed down a verdict that found Fairfax guilty of defamation for the publication of a pretty awful review of 'Coco Roco', an overpriced wanky restaurant owned by Aleksandra and Ljiljana Gacic and Branislav Ciric whose food didn't live up to the prices it charged.

Sure, I think a lot of restaurant reviewers (both the self-important bigwigs and the wanky wannabes) do a pretty piss-poor job. The constant inclusion of a special star rating just for an establishment's wine list and the imputation that you 'need' wine in order to enjoy good food (if you think so you're either a wanker or an alcoholic) is one of my pet hates. But they have their place, and people look to them for unbiased advice. They may not be unbiased, sure, but they're generally more honest than advertisements, which is the very reason for their existence.

I think the jury's decision in this case is stupid, and I think it's damaging to free speech (which we in Australia don't have a right to, given we don't have a bill of rights). If I visit an awful restaurant, I plan on telling people about it. Buying a meal in a restaurant is not tantamount to signing a contract saying you won't criticise it, or tell your friends if you think it's bad (or good). Any restaurant who want to muzzle critics should front up with a contract presented along with their menus. See how many customers don't run a mile then! Restaurant reviewers should be able to do their job without worrying about sucking up to the owners of the restaurant for fear of getting sued.

Eggheads: Idiots, liars, criminals

John Marinovic, the boy who copped a rock in the head for egging a party.

Speaking of wankers, this bunch of idiots have to have been frontrunners for this week's WoW award as well.

What happened: they were hooning around and throwing eggs at people from a car. Not surprisingly, this led to an altercation with someone, who threw a rock at their car, striking one of the boys on the head and leading to an injury so serious he had to have surgery. His friends lied to police and said they were victims of a random attack. Cue massive media sympathy. Then the truth came out.

I find it hard to express just how much I despise people who go 'egging' other people. These people arrange an outing for which the express purpose is assaulting someone- most often someone they've never met. I know a couple of people who've been 'egged' from cars, both girls. One was left with a nasty 5cm scar on her chest after the eggshell somehow gashed her skin (the scar looked serious and I asked what it was from- we're not talking a scratch here). Just imagine what might happen if someone was hit in the eye, or the face.

So I find myself without any sympathy for any of these boys, not even the one who was hit in the head with a rock. They're dickheads. I'm glad no-one died, but really, they had it coming. The person who retaliated by throwing a rock committed a crime, but so did they. It's practically impossible for police to track down offenders for 'egging' assaults, so when something like this comes the way of someone who engages in behaviour like that, it's best seen as karma, I think.

Wanker of the week

There's hot competition from certain people in politics, as always, but the winner of this week's WoW award is the person whose vehicle I walked past on the way to uni on Wednesday:




To think I thought that this guy (in the police compound in Kempsey over Christmas) was as stupid as a person could get. Wrong! The person whose vehicle bears the sticker pictured above is literally saying that his right to have a bullbar bears more weight than a pedestrian's right to life. That's reaching unheard of levels of fuckwittery, that one. This person should not have a licence. God knows what they were doing parked near a university. Maybe they were there as an exhibit, or got lost...

Magpie visitor

Just after Gam left for uni today, a rather gawky and innocent-looking magpie showed up on our balcony. I told it to stay put (and it did!) and hurried off to get it something to eat- there were some cheese scraps on a chopping board, so I hurriedly collected them and took them out to offer the magpie. It clearly liked the cheese, but when I offered it some multigrain bread it wasn't interested, so I got it a bit more cheese. Then, worried about its sodium intake, I thought I'd better offer it something healthier like cat biscuits, so I pinched Feifei's biscuit bowl and took it out, along with some strawberry scraps. The magpie ignored the strawberry pieces and liked the biscuits, but preferred cheese- it collected a bunch of cheese crumbs in its beak and flew off, before returning a minute later. I had my mobile phone handy (even if I had the 'real' camera handy I figured the flash would scare it) and I managed to snap a few pictures.



When it returned I remembered we'd bought some lamb mince yesterday, so I left the door open and called it inside- it hopped through the door and around the living room while I undid the bag containing the mince (I was a bit worried it might freak out at being inside, but it didn't). I offered it some mince on a teaspoon, and it collected a bunch of the mince in its beak before trotting out through the door and flying off again. It returned again and came inside (this time stalked by a couple of crows), but instead of trotting out the door it took off and flew into the glass to the right of the door! I thought for sure it would freak out, but luckily it hadn't hurt itself, only dropped some of the mince. I picked up the mince and it happily took it from me and left- through the door this time! It came back three or four times in all, but the final time I saw one of the crows following it back to wherever it was going, so I hope the crow didn't mug it!

Guess which idiot managed to put her finger over the lens?

Pauline Makes Her Mortgage Payments

Pauline Hanson's new political party has been registered in time for the federal election, boosting her chances of winning a Senate seat in Queensland.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) today confirmed the registration of Pauline's United Australia Party, said party treasurer Graham MacDonald.

As a result, the controversial former Queensland MP will be able to have the party's name printed "above the line" on ballot papers and supporters can simply to put a "1" in its box.

SMH

I hear they'll also accept drool, cigarette ash, tomato sauce or a longneck bottle cap, so long as they're in the box.

Godwin's Law

A colonel of the ADF

An SS concentration camp guard

A massive fuckwit

Special Minister of State Gary Nairn is standing by his chief of staff Peter Phelps amid controversy over comments made about the war record of Mr Nairn's political opponent.

Dr Phelps compared the Iraq service of Labor candidate Colonel Mike Kelly to those of Nazi concentration camp guards during World War II.

RSL national president Major General Bill Crews said the RSL objected to anyone denigrating those who had served in the Australian Defence Force with honour and dignity.

At a public forum in Mr Nairn's Eden-Monaro electorate, Dr Phelps took Colonel Kelly to task over his service in Iraq, suggesting it was incompatible with Labor's policy to withdraw troops from the war zone.

"You took part in it willingly because you weren't sent over there, you volunteered, didn't you?" Dr Phelps asked during the forum.

Colonel Kelly responded that he was a soldier and had done what he was ordered to do.

"Oh, like the guards at Belsen perhaps? Are you using the Nuremberg Defence?" Dr Phelps said.

SMH

Moron. Of course proving by the he who smelt it dealt it law of public life, the real Nazis are in the Liberal party.

Liberals, Still Obsessed With Porn

Pay television providers will be banned from screening R-rated shows and movies in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities under changes to the federal government's radical takeover laws.

The government last month outlawed the possession, control and supply of X-rated films and hardcore magazines in 73 remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities as part of its intervention to "normalise" Aboriginal communities.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough today said the new amendment, which he introduced into parliament today, would address concerns raised by the Northern Territory government and Aboriginal people themselves.

The amendment effectively bans the adult channel in prescribed communities.

It bypasses racial discrimination laws by labelling the move a "special measure" designed to help Aboriginal people, not harm them.

Mr Brough today signalled the government was still working towards similar laws to apply to free-to-air stations, particularly SBS.

"[Aboriginal people I spoke to] confused me, to be honest - they said 'are you going to get rid of the pornography channel?'

"And I thought they were talking about subscription television, but they were talking about SBS," Mr Brough said today.

SMH "ask me about kevin's heart, go on, ask me!"

Brough is a liar. I can't remember the last time I saw a hint of French nipple on SBS and we watch SBS all the time. SBS 'the pornography channel'? yeah right. How about the commercial channels who actually hawk porn in late night ads. As for pay TV, well Foxtel is too expensive for us and we're probably better off than most people in remote Indigenous communities. I can only imagine how much it would cost to get cable/satellite out there. Of course we aren't talking about shutting down porn to pubs and hotels, they need to make money and everyone knows child abuse is a phenomenon restricted to Indigenous Australians.

Future generations will add the government's curious reasoning that porn causes the Indigenous Australian mind to rape kids to the towering edifice of ingrained racism that some pretend doesn't exist. They should be maintaining job programs in rural areas, subsidising fruit and vegetables and making Indigenous languages the medium of instruction in some schools. Instead they send army units in to do nothing and health personnel to perform sex abuse 'tests' that were blatantly impossible to do legally. I think their obsession about restricting porn to people who don't get as much of it as other Australians and their casual throwing away of anti-discrimination legislation tells us a lot about the minds of govt. ministers.

The New York Times makes a good decision

The New York Times have scrapped their two year old 'Times Select' model that charged its net-based readers to view certain articles and opinion pieces, and have allowed readers free access to archived articles from 1987 onwards. While charging for access to opinion pieces never bothered me (mainly because I have plenty of my own opinions and can do without those of a paid pundit who is just as uninformed as I am, if not more), the archiving of NYTimes articles after only 7 days has really been a thorn in my side. It's the reason I created the separate VTAY 'Long Article Posting' blog, so readers could actually see the articles I was referring to in my posts without my having to copy and paste the whole thing here.

So, yeah. Great decision!

Spending up is hard to do

Looks like the Liberal Party have hoarded up all the money they should have been spending on the problems in aboriginal communities over the last 11 years and are spending it all at once in what just happens to be an election year. At this rate they've announced almost as much funding targeted at aboriginal health as they've spent on self-promoting, taxpayer-funded advertising over the past 11 years. Pity about the small matter of stealing back the progress won on landrights over the past decade or two...

I think the idea behind scrapping the CDEP, which was a sort of local 'work for the dole' scheme that enabled people to continue to live in their communities and do work there, the government's move to make people to look for real jobs in order to receive welfare is designed to force them out of smaller communities so the government won't have to spend money in them.

Indigenous leaders continue to doubt the money spent as part of the intervention will make any long-term positive changes.

Olga Havnen, a co-ordinator of the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory, said the group had not been consulted about the spending, despite producing its own policy paper after the intervention was announced in June.

"[The Government] is not interested in talking to us because there's a view we either know nothing or that we have a fixed agenda," Ms Havnen said.

It's hard to criticise the federal government for finally announcing spending in this area instead of stroking its huge pile of taxpayers' money and speaking of 'my precious' 'my surplus', but there's no getting away from the fact they've ignored the problems in aboriginal communities as they worsened over the past decade of neglect and they're only doing this now because it's an election year. God knows we have every right to be cynical about Howard's motives at this point in time.

Back From The Dead?

Miranda treads water as the baleful glare of hindsight falls on her decision to jump ship

THE Coalition has fought back after John Howard's dramatic undertaking to retire as prime minister during the next term and can now make a fight of the election.

The Prime Minister's personal standing is virtually unchanged after he pledged last week to hand over to Peter Costello next term if the Government was re-elected.

But the Coalition is in its best position for eight months.

The Government's primary support among voters has risen four percentage points to 41 per cent, according to the latest Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively for The Australian last weekend, with Labor's support falling four points to 47 per cent.

Labor still has a clear election-winning lead on a two-party-preferred basis of 55 per cent to the Coalition's 45, and Kevin Rudd is well clear of Mr Howard as preferred prime minister.

But an eight-point narrowing in Labor's primary vote lead during the APEC meeting, and despite the Liberal Party's devastating leadership instability, will boost Coalition morale at this morning's crucial party meeting in Canberra.

Instead of losing support because of leadership instability created by the previous poor Newspoll, calls for Mr Howard to resign and a loss of nerve among the cabinet, the Coalition's standing has risen to the same position as the Keating Labor government in 1993, only eight weeks before the Liberals' John Hewson lost the "unloseable election".

The Newspoll survey also showed that Mr Howard is still clearly preferred as the Liberal leader to take the Coalition to the election, finishing with almost three times the support of the Treasurer and more than four times the backing of Malcolm Turnbull. About 52 per cent of voters believe Mr Howard gives the Government the best chance of winning the election, compared with 18 per cent for Mr Costello and 12 per cent for Mr Turnbull.

The Cage-liner

I wonder if they'll turn the boat around to pick Miranda Devine up.

Flashy But Lacking Substance

It's a federal election, not a gorilla fight

FEDERAL Labor is demanding a series of three debates between the leaders during the election campaign - including one using YouTube and one on the ABC - as it tries to goad the Government into naming an election date.

[silly speculation and beat-ups about leadership changes removed]

Yesterday Labor continued to tease the Government with its eagerness for an election campaign. Labor's national secretary, Tim Gartrell, emailed the federal director of the Liberal Party, Brian Loughnane, outlining requests for at least three debates between the leaders during the campaign.

Mr Gartrell wants one to be on the ABC, one to involve online participation via YouTube, and one to have a live "in the round" audience - with all webcast live.

"Given the impending 2007 federal election, I have been asked to commence immediate discussions with you over the televised leaders' debates," Mr Gartrell said in a letter to Mr Loughnane.

SMH

What's the point of debates if we can't ask the questions? They'll just do what they did last time. You'll get two candidates, because there aren't any other parties or candidates, and some washed up has-been from daytime TV will ask them soft questions on ridiculous issues that have no relationship with actual peoples' lives. At the end, one of them will be declared maximum winner and the country will go and vote for someone else anyway. All completely pointless. Also, why throw in YouTube? Who wants to watch that for 2 hours?

It smacks of a US style presidential campaign with all the inherent faults. Our system isn't about a supreme leader, nor is the next election about exchanging one maximum leader for another. If someone complains about one man being an overly powerful extremist how does it follow that the solution must be to hand someone else the same corrupting total power the other bloke had? That's something that worries me and it's something that is a consequence of the past few years. It's sort of aussie style personality cult revolving around our leaders when our political system isn't designed like that. Of course the media love this silly mano a mano stuff that cheapens political discourse and gets them ratings. Personally I don't want to wind up living in a country where whoever bangs a stick on the ground loudest gets to lead.

election2007: Flashy But Lacking Substance