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Monthly Archives: July 2012
Shooting for the Moon
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| Moon 8 July 12 Sigma @ 400mm (600mm eq.) hand held |
Once in a blue moon, I realise I can change something that’s been holding me back. For years, I’ve been thinking I can’t change my car because I need a station wagon to transport Minnie. As a side issue, the car pongs of dog smell. I can’t smell it at all, but I think others can.
Yesterday, I realised that I don’t transport Minnie in the back any more. She can’t get up there, even on my ramp, and there’s no way I can lift her. She doesn’t want to leave the yard these days, content to sleep most of the time.
Therefore I’m not tied to this car any more! It’s 11 years old and in great condition, but I’ve always wanted one of these:
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| Ford Probe |
The Probe was a US version of Mazda’s MX6 (not the MX5) only sold between 1994 and 1997. It’s a fuel injected alloy V6 with all the goodies, available with auto transmission for old guys like me, and now down to a second hand price of around $4,000. They were over $50,000 new in the 90s but are unfashionable now.
Or one of these:
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| Lexus Soarer |
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| Lexus Soarer |
The Soarer was on the market in Australia from about 1991 to 2000. They were sold as Toyotas but moved into the Lexus range as the Soarer SC430. They were very expensive then, but are now down to about $7,000 used.
The thing is, they are a twin turbo V8 with all the luxury that the Lexus brand implies, and made to Lexus standards, ie extremely well and extremely reliable. That huge lazy V8 is not stressed – it’s a boulevard cruiser, not a hoon car. All leather, everything electronic, Merc quality.
My Magna should be worth around $5,000 on the second hand market, which basically covers the cost of a Probe or Soarer. People with these cars usually look after them well – they’re an enthusiast’s car and reliability is pretty good these days for Japanese made cars.
So, maybe the time is coming? Free at last to make the change.
The other thing is that most of the second hand ones come up in Brisbane or the Gold Coast dealers. Must have been the White Shoe Brigade guys who owned them.
Therefore, maybe I should do what I wanted to do about eight years ago: use Frequent Flyer points to go to Brisbane, look at the candidates and buy a good one, then drive it back to Perth. Make a trip of it. It would need to be September/October/November, I think, before the heat and flood season on the east side.
GPS makes touring around so easy these days, so navigating with a map on your knee is not required any more.
Additionally, I think it’s time I made the trip as my alter ego. This’ll see who’s reading this.
Hmmm.
Big day!
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| Sigma APO zoom at 600mm hand held! NB: those dotted power lines are not in the original photo. They are artifacts of the size reduction. |
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| Fremantle Pentax 70mm |
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| Freo Fire Station Sigma 10-20mm @ 20mm |
[I have film images of the same locations from 30 years ago. Asap, I’ll post comparisons.]
As you can see, I’ve been to Freo. It happened because, due to the non-delivery of a package by DHL yesterday, I had to go out to DHL’s office at Perth International Airport this morning. Grrrrr!
What a saga. It started out as a very pleasant drive. Warm sunny morning, smooth clear road (Reid Highway/Tonkin Highway) and a happy goal to pick up my new Sigma 120-400mm APO zoom lens.
I got lost! Even with a GPS navigator, I couldn’t find DHL at the International Airport area. I followed a new sign To International Terminal and found myself winding through bushland, overshooting the turnoff.
I tried to go back and start again, but turned left, SE, onto Tonkin Highway and couldn’t get off!
I had to drive about 5Km SE trying to find a way to turn around, seeing all the tyre tracks where others had the same problem, and eventually did a U-turn across the dirt to go back. I was fed up!
Long story, I eventually got back on Horrie Miller Drive, looking for Grogan Rd leading to Dawson Rd, and a DHL sign. NO! Could not see a way in to DHL’s office. Could not find Dawson Rd, despite a GPS navigator. Pulled in to DHL’s car park to find a sign saying This is not DHL Express! Go this way. I even considered driving over the moat dividing DHL’s buildings from H. Miller Drive.
But I still couldn’t find the open DHL office. I had to stop and ask a guy. “Oh, yes, we always have to direct people. Go up there near that tiny street sign and turn left.” Ha ha, big joke.
After finding the office I got my package and relaxed. But I was busting for a piss, so I pissed on their garden, behind a shrub. Serve ’em right.
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I’m 35Km from home on a warm sunny morning with a new lens – BUT the lens is COLD, aircraft hold cold. If I try to use it, I’ll get condensation. So I plot a route home via Fremantle. I want to check and test the lens, as Sigma’s QC reputation is not good, especially for this lens. A US firm, Lens Rentals, won’t stock this lens as it tests so variably. If they rent it out, they get customer comebacks. Phew, I took the risk.
I needn’t have worried. About an hour later I’m at Freo and you can see the shots above. More:
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| Fremantle Bridge Sigma 120-400mm @ 600mm (eq.) hand held NB: dashed power lines not in original photo |
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| ditto |
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| Looking for de-centering, different res between L&R sides. None evident, good. |
So it was a good morning. By lunchtime I was a bit fatigued so completed the circuit along W. Coast Hwy – about 70Km round trip. Smooth roads, good smooth car, warm sunny day. Nice.
Oh, btw, I took the new Olympus E-PL2 as well and tried to use it once: NO CARD. Errrr. The equivalent of forgetting to load film in the camera. What a droob.
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When I got home to Minnie, I defrosted two slices of a sourdough loaf with seeds, spread them with Tzatziki dip, then added some Tassie smoked salmon I’ve had in the fridge since April last year. Yes, Use By Date May 2011. It’s been held at near ice temperature in a sealed package all this time and I’m here now to tell you it’s fine. Delicious!
For dinner, last night and tonight I’ve made delicious curries, using two huge slabs of steak I got from IGA marked Dog Food Only at $2.99 each. They were a bit discoloured and slightly on the nose, but I stuck ’em on ice and used them for curries, ie slow cooked and cooked thoroughly.
Delicious! Melt in the mouth. From each piece I got four meals (ie I eat one serve and freeze the rest.) Good value. I’ve done this often before. We worry too much. Asian people eat off meat all the time. That’s what curries, spices and chilis are for.
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I watch ABC TV almost exclusively and Friday night’s Silent Witness is a long time favourite. But what are they doing?!
If horror is the food of ratings, rave on. They give us excess of it, that, surfeiting, we
might watch next week.
No, no, no. It used to be one of the most intelligent, subtle, medically based shows and I loved it. Now it’s a horror show. I just can’t believe the characters act that way any more.
Last night’s episode included a prison guard beating another, so horrifying that I turned away. The previous weeks’ episodes included the den of a depraved serial killer in graphic detail.
No, no, no. BBC, you have turned me away.
You scratch my back …
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| Olympus E-PL2 with Zuiko 14-150mm @ 90mm |
I visited the doctor yesterday and among other things, asked him to check my back for any mole or other nasty things. I’ve had an itch just over my right shoulder for a long time, right where I can’t reach it, and we have a cousin who’s had a near miss from a melanoma recently.
He took one look and said, “Rarely have I seen a back with fewer spots or moles. Clean, clear.” That’s a relief. The itch is just that, an itch, no more. My skin is pure, soft, sexy …
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Not so my legs. Ooowwww! Dry, raw, swollen, itching. Answer: use moisturising cream, up to four times a day if you have to. Same for my hands. They are raw and splitting.
Why now? I’ve never had this before. “Have you changed your soap recently?” Yes, actually, lots of changes, trying to find one that doesn’t rip the oils out but comes off easily too, at a reasonable price. Lots of changes. Maybe I should just go back to Radox Men that I used for years? And get much more serious about rubbing creams into my legs and hands.
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I’ve also been seduced by Dawn Fraser advertising The Circulation Booster for swollen legs and sore tendons (me!) It’s a TENS type foot massager/vibrator designed for my type of problems. $279. I asked HBF, but no, no rebate. No discount at the chemist either. RAC card, maybe? No, sorry. However, I beat ’em down by $20 by saying “web”.
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While at Medicare in the long, slow queue, I met with my old Ch7 mate Less. His name is Les, but I call him that from the early 1980s TV show WKRP Radio, Cincinnati. One of the characters was Les Nessman, pronounced Less on the show, so it stuck. Great show that, a spin off from Welcome Back Kotter, I think, but never repeated even now, to my knowledge. Anyway, I don’t see much of Less any more. Boom boom.
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| Sigma 120-400mm APO zoom |
I’m fuming at DHL. I got an email this morning that a lens I’ve ordered from HK is on its way by DHL, but no delivery date. I assumed next week.
When I went out the door at 1pm, I found an Unable to Deliver note stuck in the screen door. It said they’d tried to deliver at 1207pm.
I was here. My car was in the carport. I heard no knock. I heard nothing except a reversing beeper at some time. They hadn’t tried to raise me.
I phoned the DHL 1 800 number and after an age on hold was told they can’t come back today, but my lens will be at the Perth airport depot between 5.30 and 6pm when they close. I can pick it up then. Gee thanks, peak hour traffic to and from the airport with a half hour window on a Friday afternoon!
I said I’d try, but at 3pm it was building a thunderstorm and I thought, no, can’t do it, so I phoned again to ask for delivery Monday. “Oh, we’re open tomorrow (Saturday) morning between 0830-1200.” Well why didn’t they say so before??
NOT impressed. They didn’t try to deliver it when I was home and they won’t ask the driver to call back on a second try. It’s not my fault they didn’t deliver it!
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This Liberal Party attempt to smear Speaker Peter Slipper is the Godwin Grech case all over again! In 2009 the Libs under Malcolm Turnbull tried to make a smear campaign against Kevin Rudd/Labor. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utegate
It turned out to be a crock! The supposed email was forged and Malcolm Turnbull and the Libs were left exposed as liars and fools. I’ve never forgotten seeing Mr Turnbull and his wife Lucy live on television as they received the revelation that the Grech email was a forgery.
The embarrassed/bemused expressions on their faces came near the sneer, the loathing on the face of Sophie Mirrabella last Monday night when Simon Sheikh collapsed from exhaustion next to her on ABC-TV’s Q&A. She was exposed as uncaring and automatically assuming someone she doesn’t like was pulling a trick. She sat there doing nothing while Greg Combet jumped up and came to his aid, as he does for everyone. Fine Liberal party material, Sophie. Tough on refugees, tough on anyone with a foreign sounding name.
This smear campaign against Mr Slipper is heading in the same direction. Each day brings new evidence and allegations that the “smearer” is a Liberal Party stooge and it’s all designed to get Slipper out of Parliament so that Labor loses the balance of power.
They, the Liberals, are going to be exposed again as desperate, dishonest tricksters, relying on a false witness. Watch this space. There is more sleaze to come.
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Meanwhile, the Brumbys Bakery chain has been exposed as hosting Liberal Party advertising in their shops while telling their franchisees to raise prices and “blame it on the carbon tax”.
People know I’m a Labor voter and I’m proud to say it. We don’t stoop to this kind of bullshit and dishonesty!
Nor do we advocate pushing desperate boat people back to Indonesia and gloating if they drown. Indonesia doesn’t care if they drown, they won’t take them back nor will they tackle the corruption that causes the boats. The Liberal/National Coalition of Australia is so desperate for power that they are prepared to see mass drownings if it advances their cause as being tough on boat people. I am sickened.
Warm, isn’t it?
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| Olympus E-PL2 with Olympus 14-150mm lens |
Hey, look at that. This is an Olympus E-PL2 4/3 camera and lens. It’s obsolete but still good, and I found it at a good price, so I jumped. I had it within 72 hours of ordering from Adelaide.
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| Olympus E-PL2 with Zeiss Contax 35mm f2 Planar lens! |
But this is special. Last year I bought an adapter on eBay from HK to allow my old Contax G lenses from film days to fit a 4/3 body.
These lenses are legendary for their quality. I’ve had them for 10 years since film days. Now, at last, I can use them again. Manual focus and aperture only, but, … good stuff. More pics to come.
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I must be going senile!
I’ve been trying to arrange a breakfast or lunch with some friends and was saying tomorrow, Friday 6 August is an exciting day because at 13:31 the Mars Curiosity Lander spacecraft is due to enter the atmosphere of Mars. I was suggesting we watch it live stream over lunch.
Well, duh! Tomorrow is the 6th of July, not August. I was a month ahead of myself.
It’s lucky everyone was too busy and turned me down.
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I had a doctor’s appointment at Merriwa late today and it was quite a pleasant drive. Each way, 26Km! But it’s an 80Km/h road and not bad, so it was quite pleasant.
Except for the other drivers. It was like an Indie 500 circuit, a Formula 1 race track. All the tradies in their utes, vans and tray-tops, speeding, weaving lane to lane, pushing, overtaking in the emergency lane and the cycle lane, running orange and red lights, tailgating. It is atrocious. And there’s a sign, Report Hoons 131 444 but I can’t use the phone while driving!
Then there are the cars with either none or one out of three brake lights, cars driving after sunset with no lights, cars with trailers with no trailer lights. Speeding, weaving. No-one cares!
Deep breaths, deep breaths.
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I am having to reassess who my friends are. I suppose that explains why the sudden increase in posts here and emails.
Not happy. I have been rocked back in my chair in recent weeks by some of my “friends”. Make no bones about it, I am a person who believes in compassion and the need to help refugees. I’m not advocating open borders, but when someone is so desperate as to pay the criminals to take those dangerous boats to CI, I do not advocate, “Let ’em drown”.
But former friends are gloating! The hostility to boat people, “illegals’, is amazing. “They shouldn’t have come.”; “Where do they get the money?”; “Why don’t they join the queue?”; “Who knows what diseases they are carrying?”; “Why do they have to bring ’em to Perth?”; “Blood sucking Aussie lawyers are defending them [from taxpayer money].”
I am sickened. I can’t take any more, so I have disengaged.
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Bit heavy? I don’t apologise, I just feel things, and feel the need to do right.
Today I visited The Atlantic on-line magazine, as I often do, and saw this:
I started to write a response on their Comments forum, but gave up and didn’t post it. They are too stupid and too right wing to get it. However, I won’t waste my efforts:
I am an Australian, in Australia.
America, you have gone insane! Your answer to everything is violence. You want to kill anyone who crosses you. Australian citizen Julian Assange is right to fear extradition or “rendering” to America – you want to kill an Australian citizen who has committed no crime! All he has done is exercise your Constitutional First Amendment guarantee of Freedom of Speech. Hypocrites!
You drop Hellfire missiles on innocent civilians. You glorify guns, the Famous Right to Bear Arms. You preach violence. You preach piousness, but you practise violence and vengeance and military might. You glorify war. You kill each other, you kill your own weakest and mentally ill. You cheat, lie, defraud, suppress minorities, while at the same time telling the world how God fearing and Righteous you are, always invoking God.
You are a psychologically sick nation and you need to realise that. I pity you.
You are the world’s worst hypocrites. You tell the rest of the world, “If only you were like us, you would be happy”, while generating and exporting most of the Earth’s pornography, violence, murders, drugs, religious crackpots, dishonest bankers, financial fraudsters, …. need I go on? You are sick, mentally ill as a nation.
The news I’m just hearing about Lance Armstrong is the latest evidence of your illness. Again, an American has been shown to be a cheat. He preached one thing but practised another. Florence Johnson, Flo Jo was the same! She pleaded with us, through her tears to believe her as drug free, but she was lying all along, even through her pleading, and she knew it. This is the great American way.
What’s even worse, you’re infecting us with your sick, violent movies and TV shows and violent, bloodthirsty computer games .
In fact, America is now so FAT, UNHEALTHY and UNFIT that any invader, and I mean China, would roll over you and crush you. Good luck, fools.
What’s worse is that you have your fingers on most of the world’s nuclear triggers, and you think you are in the right, above all others.
I don’t see a solution to this except a holocaust, a cleansing fire, and I know that’s horrible thing to say. You are so sick that only some major action will stand a chance of fixing you.
I fear America more than any other nation on Earth.
Uh oh.
Hoooo boy. What did you think the Euro crisis would mean? I didn’t see this coming:
David Cameron is prepared to override Britain’s historic obligations under EU treaties and impose stringent border controls that would block Greek citizens from entering the United Kingdom, if Greece is forced out of the single currency.
The prime minister told MPs that ministers have examined legal powers that would allow Britain to deprive Greek citizens of their right to free movement across the EU, if the eurozone crisis leads to “stresses and strains”.
In an appearance before senior MPs on the cross-party House of Commons liaison committee, the prime minister confirmed that ministers have drawn up contingency plans for “all sorts of different eventualities”.
The worst-case scenario is understood to cover a Greek exit from the euro, which could trigger a near-collapse of the Greek economy and the flight of hundreds of thousands of its citizens who are currently entitled to settle in any EU country.
The prime minister said Britain is prepared to take measures to avoid a major influx of Greek citizens. “I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to keep our country safe, to keep our banking system strong, to keep our economy robust. At the end of the day, as prime minister, that is your first and foremost duty.”
The Guardian, London, today.
What a day!
It was a beautiful, warm, windless day today and this is Minnie lying asleep in the sun. She’s fine, but you can see the lump in her side and the tumour on her right cheek.
I really don’t think she’s in pain. She doesn’t show any signs of pain except occasional rubbing of her face. When I go near her in this sunny position, she immediately rises and lifts her head and paw, asking for a pat and cuddle. She’s old, but she’s OK and everything is working. She still has appetite, taste, smell, hearing, sight, all her teeth in good condition and a good digestion system. She’s healthy and she’s got a while to go yet.
However, she isn’t coming to the door for her 6.30pm dinner so much now. I give her a meaty bone at 5pm and she’s got dry food, so if she doesn’t want dinner, that’s good as she should be eating less. It’s a bit worrying, all the same.
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What a day?
- Higgs Boson confirmed. Bit esoteric but it opens up new theories in physics and stimulates scientists all over the world – they did it!
- London bank scandal widens to show even the Bank of England may be implicated in rigging interest rates.
- I finally got some wood varnishing done and can now install my new table and towel rails.
- I made a start on detailing all the jobs to be done once I get the reverse mortgage going.
- I seem to have volunteered myself to have a broadcast 1″ C-format VTR here to dub old videotape to digital for preservation. Ha! I said to the guy, “I thought I’d got away from all that, but I never thought it would chase me back to my home!” I may even have to get back into replacing heads on this VTR. Like riding a bike, you never forget.
- and more…
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About the Higgs Boson — notice how the TV journos are calling it the Higgs Bosun, as in the sailor’s term, bo’sun, short for boatswain. It doesn’t matter to them that the scientist being interviewed says bow-sonne, as in low-con. The interviewer has decided it’s bow sun and she won’t be persuaded. She regards herself as above a mere scientist.
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The word is boson, pronounced bow sonne, rhyming with low con. That’s too hard for a TV journalist! No matter what a scientist says, a TV journalist has to put his or her own spin on it, which considering this is physics, has an even deeper meaning, but they wouldn’t understand that allusion either.
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It’s the contrast I see, between those who do things, those who are getting stuck in and doing the hard science and engineering and all the rest of it, and the parasites in banking who are literally stealing from us, because they can get away with it. Huge salaries, beyond any reasonable numbers, because they can bullshit and muscle their way and get away with it.
At the same time, the SAS soldier who died in Afghanistan on his seventh tour of duty! He was regarded as a real good guy, one of the best of humankind and he’s dead, dying for the cause. His family will really struggle now, financially and in every other way, while the bank parasites get their new Mercs and laugh at the rest of us. This is WRONG!
I’m becoming convinced that there are a few groups in this world, groups of people.
- The first group is those who put in the hard work, learn the science or technology, the doctors, pharmacists, scientists, engineers, teachers, technicians, medical people, mechanics, craftsmen, artisans, workmen, builders and so on.
- The second is the carers: nurses, pathologists, hospital staff, ambos, paramedics, geriatric nurses, all the people who go through a hellish life at times at low pay but do it because they care.
- The third is the artists: those we need to support because they enrich our lives in non-financial ways.
- The fourth is the people who try to keep us safe: police, military, customs, quarantine, all those who, again, do an often thankless job for low pay but do it from a sense of duty.
- I don’t exclude politicians. People deride them, but if it’s so easy, why don’t you take a job as an MP? High pay, big super, o/s trips, chauffered car, allowances. Go on, it’s easy.
No it’s not. It’s very, very hard work, from 5am to midnight, 7 days a week. If it’s so easy, you do it, otherwise, shut up!
But there are also those who are parasites, feeding off the rest of society.
- bankers
- lawyers
- business people who rake in profits for little effort
- financial “professionals”
- casino owners
- religious professionals
- many, many journalists
- sales “professionals”
- public relations “professionals”, publicists
- big business owners in non-manufacturing fields, who don’t actually make things
- TV and radio station owners
- newspaper owners
I’ll expand this list as I go.
These are the people who didn’t put much effort into getting where they are; those who found the easy path of making money; those who learned that people are easily parted from their money; those who excel at smooth talk; those who don’t actually make anything or do anything, but who think they are providing jobs for others so it’s OK.
Years ago I got riled at Kerry Packer. He was a man who inherited his wealth and power, and believed that it was enough that he paid people wages to do his work for him. He didn’t think he should pay tax as well, because he employed so many people who paid taxes.
I got so angry that I sat down one day and compiled a list (I’m good at that) of all the ways the Australian tax base supported him. I still have that list, quite easily found, but it’s over 50 items long, too long to reproduce here. But just a few examples:
- his employees were educated at taxpayer expense to do his work
- he flew in his own aircraft, but on tax funded runways, using tax funded air navigation aids. His plane used tax funded air traffic control.
- he owned cattle stations, using tax funded quarantine and vet services and agricultural research
- he used tax funded hospitals and ambulances
- he was good at publicising his generosity to medical causes, after he found he needed them
- he was chauffered around on tax funded roads using tax funded traffic controls
- John Howard gave him a State Funeral, at tax funded expense!! For what??
Very convenient memory Kezza. Your son James is doing the same thing, enriching himself and patting himself on the back as a great Aussie icon, while sucking his wealth out of gambling addicts, those who can’t stop gambling and losing their families’ pay packets to you. You Slime-bag!
Something smells …
Holy smoke, or something.
For a couple of weeks I’ve had a mild cold and a stuffy nose, not bad, just annoying. But I’ve also had an awful chemical solvent smell in the back of my mouth and throat.
Years ago I complained to my doctor that I seemed to have a smell in my throat – like Araldite. He said, “Have you been using Araldite?” I said, “Yes, I suppose so, but that was weeks ago.”
“Well, there you are,” he said. “These things linger in your nasal passages.”
Now I’m smelling a familiar but awful chemical smell all the time (right now!). I’ve been trying to work out what it is. It seems to get worse every time I go into the loo.
Suddenly today, it dawned on me: paint thinners.
A few weeks ago I had a couple of guys doing some painting for me (paid, of course). I cleaned the brushes afterwards in thinners and turps, then used detergent many times over, but always with that smell. Then like a fool, I poured the residue down the drains.
I suspect that the thinners and turps have formed a film or a flotation layer in my drains and are vapourising up into my nose every time I go near it. Ugh!
What to do? High pressure detergent down the drains? Thinking about it.
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Today I was listening to Radio National and I heard a guy being interviewed about tribal violence somewhere. I didn’t intially know where, but I assumed it was in the NT or Qld somewhere and involved aboriginal violence.
As the interview went on, I thought, Gee this bloke speaks well. Is he a policeman? The more he spoke, the more I thought, Gee, this is Aussie police at its best. Very articulate, very level headed, very common-sensical.
More and more, I realised he was well spoken even if in the broadest of Aussie Ocker accents, pronouncing all his words correctly first time, even using Latin law words properly. It was fluent, fluid, lucid, eloquent speaking.
Gradually, I realised it was a Torres Strait Islander, talking about domestic and tribal violence in the islands between Australia and Papua New Guinea. I was impressed! This guy knew his stuff and was a guy I would want on my side if I were caught up in anything there. His name: Bob Black. How ironic.
Hats off to him. I was proud to think of him as an Aussie. I have no idea of his skin colour, but I don’t care. What a good bloke.
God moves in mysterious ways
“Suffer the children to come unto me …”
Suffer is right. Once again, the church has cost boys their lives and covered it up. Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, is in this up to his neck. This holy man! Holier than thee, Holier than me, Holier than thou.
He pontificates (top word) against abortion, contraception, gays and gay marriage, but he turns a blind eye to his priests buggering boys and driving them to suicide. I predict that some of the church leaders are going to see the inside of a jail cell. I think he should.
From the ABC’s web site:
“Now this is not the first time that allegations have been made against Julian Fox and I think that an important response to the story last night will be for the worldwide head of these Salesians, Rector Major in Rome, to order Julian Fox to return to Australia to face whatever police investigation there may be, as a condition for remaining in the Salesian order.”
But he says if the church’s past behaviour is anything to go by, this will not happen.
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Also from the ABC’s web site The Drum: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-04/kennedy-catholic-church-abuse/4107422
As Paul Kennedy says, Cardinal Pell has stated that he thinks the church has taken enough action.
Paul Kennedy also says we shouldn’t expect the Catholic church in Australia to go any further in righting these wrongs. They’ve shown, both here and worldwide that they won’t take action.
It’s clear that Catholic clergy regard young boys (and girls, at times) as their sexual playthings and they have a licence to be paedohiles. These Men of God!
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I’ve been collecting items for about a year.
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Church’s suicide victims
Confidential police reports detail the suicides of at least 40 people sexually abused by Catholic clergy in Victoria, and urge a new inquiry into these and many other deaths suspected to be linked to abuse in the church.
Kingfisher
I mentioned Kingfishers yesterday. Now here’s a Kingfisher, from Malaysia! Isn’t that beautiful? See the resemblance to the Kookaburra? Same family, different environment evolves different feather colours.
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I mentioned last week that I had donated to BlogBooker so that my images would download into the BlogBook. I paid 10 Euros, about A$13. I mentioned the little conversation we had about not wanting to list my blog because I’m having a sad session about Minnie slowly dying – maybe later. He replied, sympathising.
On Saturday I did the latest BlogBook – no images again, even though I donated!
It’s a long story but Saturday, and Sunday morning, were occupied by back and forth emails to Germany (I think that’s where he is) trying to get it to work.
Finally, about midday Sunday he says try it again. This time, I see a new process description while it works and the resulting pdf file is 3.8MB instead of 2.6MB.
This time my images are in the book. For Dog’s sake, images of 80KB to 150KB are not big.
My conclusion is that it never worked, and that I was the first to donate and the first to discover the problem and/or complain about it.
This is pretty crook. I’m happy that he fixed it, but I’m not impressed that the fault existed for so long. I first tried it more than a year ago.
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You think this is an isolated case? Nope.
I paid for a UK password program called PortableSafe over two years ago. It’s a password storage program, encrypting all your passwords into an unbreakable file. I’ll email it to you if you like, the actual password file! I actually email it to myself on a regular basis, so that I’ve got copies on the Gmail server.
However, although it works well, it’s got annoying bugs. I asked them about it more than a year ago but no response.
A week ago I used their web site to again notify of the bugs and ask when I might see a new version?
Reply: sorry, we’re a small company and we’ve had problems, there won’t be any updates. That’s it, no support.
I am annoyed! A password storage program is a database and I have more than 100 records in it. To transfer them now to some other program is going to be a major job. NOT impressed. As I said to the guy (Richard Devlin is his name), if you market a program like this, you have a responsiblity to maintain it. I paid about $30. It’s not trivial.
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I must add, people doubt me when I say Google Blogger has bugs.
I have been keeping a log of the bugs I’m finding. I’m up to nine in two days. Fully documented. Do not doubt it, there are bugs in Google Blogger. In fact, my feeling is that these guys are amateurs!
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AGAIN! AGAIN!! I’m listening to PM and yet another case of priests abusing children has been revealed! And AGAIN, the Catholic Church in Australia refused to deal with it in 1983 and simply moved the abuser, a priest, around to other parishes.
This religion stuff is evil! Cardinal Pell, you are culpable. You allowed this to go on. You refused to act while you were in charge in Victoria in the 1980s and 1990s. Evil, evil man. Is there no end to this?
Bull's Roar 