Hamarana

“Keeping the bastards honest” is a phrase which I think everyone is probably aware of. I know I have treasured Don Chipp’s words ever since I heard him speak in Sydney, many, many years ago. Time, and change, meant that the Dems lost their way: they fell from favour in the electorate and were seen as a nothing party. I confess that when Natasha Stott Despoja left politics, my faith in the Dems capacity to keep the bastards honest was savagely shaken.

The thing is, the Dems can only do what we, the electorate, let them do. And the electorate let them down.

So, here we are some time down the track and they have, like the proverbial Phoenix, risen from their own ashes. It seems there’s a new team (as well as some of the older members) and they have made membership much more accessible to everyone… only $25 p.a. for full membership. Its a good deal if you ever thought you might get involved.

They/we (yes, I have joined again) have forums, a facebook group, and probably a lot more I haven’t yet discovered. They have become more accessible than any other political party I am aware of, and are very keen to hear ideas and comment on policy from the membership. So the forums are a fantastic thing if you cannot get to meetings (which are mostly held in the capitals)

Seriously: if you are as totally fed up with the antics of the Aussie federal and state governments, and you wish you could make a difference… don’t just think about it: DO IT NOW!

Important Dem Links
Join the Dems on the secure webpage
Get Involved in activities
Join the New Dems website to access forums (anyone can do this, but you need to specify whether you are friend, foe or member – see, they are very inclusive)
NoInternetCensorship
Bastardwatch
Dems facebook page

Its worthwhile…

I’ve given up trying to make a photoblog with the plugins and themes that I wanted to use. For some reason best known to someone, I cannot make it work.

I’ll upload shots from time to time, I guess. I am in for another year, but this isnt going to go on forever…

The shot above is one I am quite proud of. I was out with my friend Gary in Brooklyn, and we went to an area where there were a few people picnicking, but generally there wasn’t much to disturb the local wildlife. The little mynah came down and landed in a young tree quite close to where we were standing, and placed itself conveniently close for a shot. I still had to zoom to 300mm, but it was an excellent result.

A larger version can be seen on my Redbubble site

[This post has been re-dated to twelve months from the original, since its still generating comment: I have comments set to autoclose at about a year]

You might wonder what the change of direction is about, here.. Modafinil? WTF?

Here’s the story: Some months ago, my friend Chris told me that he had been prescribed this new drug, Modafinil, and that it was making a huge difference to his life. He was able to get on and do what he must, he joined a gym and started a weightloss program which turned out very successfully, and he was trying to persuade me to give it a shot as well. I was reluctant until I thought it through.. Chris and I both suffer from OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea) and so we are unable to obtain Modafinil on the PBS, because its only prescribed for provable narcolepsy here in Australia (unlike the US where both of us would be eligible, because of OSA). Instead, we have to pay $120 or thereabouts per month, in order to stay awake long enough to do what we need to. (I’ve gone with getting it from overseas)

For various reasons I was looking at the Medicare Site today (actually contemplating getting credentialled and getting a Provider Number and going to work for a GP instead of doing what I currently do) and noticed the PBS link. So I looked in there and saw the link to Modafinil. Followed the link and found out just how hard it is to get prescribed, even if you do have Narcolepsy. I found it really hard to believe what I was reading: even if you are a narcoleptic, you can’t get Modafinil if dexamphetamine will do. Here’s a quote from the site

Authority required
Initial treatment

Initial treatment, by a qualified sleep medicine practitioner or a qualified neurologist, of patients with narcolepsy where:

1. therapy with dexamphetamine sulfate poses an unacceptable medical risk or
2. intolerance to dexamphetamine sulfate of a severity necessitating permanent treatment withdrawal develops

WHAT THE….? The Australian Government prefers that you take amphetamines than a drug which is a) not addictive, b) wont give you a high and c) can be withdrawn immediately with no side effects. You just have to wonder who runs the PBS Authority show down there in Canberra.

A friend introduced me to this game a week ago, it took me until 2 days ago to sign up and start playing and I am HOOKED!

Its very similar to the PC and Mac Caesar series: You begin your game life as a person running a small village, You have to build resources, and earn more. As you do this, you get rewards in the form of more resources. You start off with 20 gold, and can earn more by referring people to the game (or buying it via PayPal, but I don’t want to do that yet): my link follows this post. I haven’t yet spent any gold because people seem to just keep coming to my village to work. They seem happy enough. The first 20 gold though needs to be spent at some point, just havent worked out when.

If you sign up and start playing (and its something you dont have to do all day long. each task takes time, some things take way long… and the game goes on without you) here are a couple of hints.

1) Do the tutorial: You’ll find a person in full regalia on the right of your screen, he’s your guide, and he will send you on quests which get you more resources and capacities
2) Don’t try to jump ahead of him, you’ll run out of resources – I made that mistake.
3) I don’t know what 3 is, yet, I am only on day 2 of my game Smiley

Here’s my link: If you do sign up, be a Roman and in the southwest. That way we will all be within cooee (or a few hours) of each other. We might even be able to set up our own alliance to defend againts marauding Gauls and Teutons (or even greedy Romans)…

Travian

Have fun!

Oh yeah I am kyteflyer in game, and my Village is called Serenity

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

I trawl through my spam trap from time to time to see if anything worthy has been wrongly tagged, and found some spam-tagged comments which included links to what would appear to be innocent on the surface (or not quite so innocent.. ), and underneath the html is an executable which would download to a windows computer and execute code without so much as a by-your-leave.

I hope all you Windows users are well protected.

Well, not really.

Periodically, you get an email from pureprofile to tell you that there are campaigns in your account. These can be surveys, or just website visits. Surveys could be paid 20c up to about $15 (I managed to get a $10 survey and a $15 one all at one time, but that hasn’t happened for two years), the max is usually between $2 and $4. Website visits pay 10c. Some pay nothing and are there for interest, and some of those are worth a visit and a bookmark.

I joined Pureprofile when it was an Australia Post venture. Its now privately owned and has changed how it works and doesnt pay as much as it did (how could it!) but I have found in recent times, the things being promoted are worth a look, at least, and the surveys… well… I almost always get filtered out these days. But, 20c for answering two or three questions which give no real personal info… I don’t mind.

Its worth a look, and if you were to join, I get $1 for every $5 you earn, until I reach $5 (maximum per referral)… its all on the up and up… you won’t retire on the income… but for a few minutes of your time around once a month.. pffft…

Here’s the link.

A similar kind of thing, which you can earn 5c daily (and more) from (so its a bit more lucrative, but again, not a retirement income) is RewardsCentral (used to be Emailcash) which started in 1999 in the midst of the boom in paid to read advertising. It had changed its business model and survived long past the demise of most of the others, and its worth the hassle of logging in daily for your 5c. If you actually do shop online a lot, its definitely worth it because you get points for every purchase made via the site. Also associated is MyOpinions which you will have to join separately since it was separated from RewardsCentral.

As a matter of interest, I have earned over $150 from Pureprofile over the years and currently have $49 in my account, and probably around $300 from what was emailcash (the two current sites before their separation). I have currently around $180 sitting in RewardsCentral because I move my MyOpinions points over with every hundred, and it all goes into the eBank to get interest until I get to 22,000 points, at which time I will cash up for $200. Its not a lot but much better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.

Links already in the sidebar. Its worth the joining. Choose to use the referral links or not (it would be nice if you did), its still worth it to you if you can be fussed.

My day started fairly well, I was awake at a ridiculous hour, having crashed at 7pm last night, so I thought I would take myself down to the ocean as I so often do, and see what the sunrise would bring. As it happens, it wasn’t a lot, but it was quite pleasant down there, watching the ocean and the early surfers, and taking a few shots (which it turns out were a complete washout but thats for another story, maybe)…

I headed for home after an hour or so of pottering about, and this is when I began to experience extremes of irritation. I do understand that bicycle riders need to be given a chance on the road. They have barely any protection, and in collision with a car, will always come off second best, if they should happen to survive. Its only 12 years since I quit riding on the road, and I do remember how fraught it can be.

HOWEVER (here it comes!)

I get really ticked off with bike riders who refuse to take any responsibility for their own safety. There was a boy of 20 or so, racing along on his mountain bike. He was wearing a helmet and runners, shorts and a jacket. He passed me at a set of traffic lights and then I passed him further along. I had to stop at a T interesection and wait a bit before being able to make my left turn for an immediate right turn. I began the turn as soon as the road in front was clear and at this exact moment, this complete IDIOT raced past me on my left, cut across in front of my car (I had now had to brake suddenly, praying the guy behind would see what was going on) and then into the lane ahead of me where I wanted to turn. Apart from being completely illegal, the guy is dicing with death. But you know whats the pain in the ass for drivers? If perchance I had not been able to stop in time, and had knocked him off his bike, *I* would have been considered to be in breach of the law, and would have been charged at least with negligent driving. How the hell does that work???

Then I went past him again, and unluckily was unable to get through the next set of lights before they turned red again, so was sitting in a line of traffic… the bike guy caught up with the cars again, and went to the head of the queued vehicles… as the pedestrian light turned green (but not yet green for cars) this fool raced across the road on the bike and on into some bike paths, which is the last I saw of him. As far as I could tell, from when I saw him the first time, he broke at least 3 different laws, one of them twice, and still, had anything happened to him, he would not have been held to blame.

Something needs to be done about these fools, they are just as bad as any road hoon, as far as I am concerned.

You might think I am over-reacting, but I am totally amazed at the behaviour of scavengers. I put a bunch of stuff out on the street in readiness for council cleanup. You know, old broken office chair. A stereo thats elderly but not totally past it, I just dont want it anymore and its not sellable. A couple of perfectly good bedside lamps which might have served someone well. A coffee maker. Two heaters, getting on a bit but still useable, I just don’t need them now. Two water filter units, both still serviceable.

I expected people to come by and pick stuff they wanted. I expected that most of the stuff would be gone by tonight (I put it out this morning around 9am). But that is not what happened. Within an hour of my putting the stuff out, scavengers had been by.

They cut all the electrical cords from the items mentioned above. In the case of the lamps, they didnt take the plugs, they just threw them on the ground. They cut off the metal spouts from the filters, and they took the old metal kettle, and an office chair which was broken, obviously for the metal. They have left everything in a state where if someone comes by now, there is nothing retrievable. What completely selfish bastards.

I’ve been out tonight and tidied up the mess they left, because they scattered it around: as they were finished with each item, they just threw it to the ground. The council may not even pick up my stuff now, its in bits and pieces, not all neatly stacked as it was.

I am bloody furious. And there’s not a damned thing I can do about it. One thing is for certain… I wont be doing council cleanup again, anytime soon.

How long have I been busting to get a dSLR? How long have I waited? How much have I enjoyed the one I have? Short answer: long time, lots.

I’m going to have to sell it. Or put it in mothballs…. the RSI of my right wrist has become too painful.

I am thinking I am going to revert to using the Fuji for a while (since nobody wanted to buy it and now I am thinking thank goodness) and see how my wrist repairs. Last week I was thinking that it was computer use that was causing my problems, but I went all last week, and the weekend on the computer and not taking photographs and I was fine, but went Monday morning for an early shoot and I’ve had to have the wrist brace on ever since then. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that every Pentax camera session has been followed by days and days of brace and aspirin. Unfortunately, every time it happens, its longer and longer between shoots, and its really getting up my nose. I would rather be able to take photographs with a camera thats not a dslr, than have to wait for days between shoots because of the pain.

With all this typing-thinking… I think I have convinced myself that I have to go back to using a bridge camera which is much much lighter. Not as good as a dSLR, but I have managed to produce some pretty decent stuff, and the bridge cams are getting better all the time (thinks… why the hell did I not wait and get the Panasonic FZ28!!!!).

OK, Pentax K200D with Pentax 18-55mm and Tamron 70-300mm lenses and a snoot bag for the cam + 18-55, UV filters for both lenses and a circular polariser for the 18-55 (brings up the clouds beautifully!) on the market. I’ll also throw in my old camera bag. And a truckload of batteries. And for an extra $60, the rechargeables and charger too, and no, they cannot be acquired separately. Guess I will try the work intranet first and then hit the papers. And no, I will not FeeBay it. Asking $950, negotiable. Novocastrians can write to kyteflyer at gmail dot com and arrange to see/make offers. I won’t post it, the gear is too fragile to trust to Australia Post, so it will have to be sold locally or to someone willing to travel to Newcastle to collect it.

Change of mind, temporarily. I’ll use the Fuji for a while until the wrist recovers, then have a last shot at using it and keep all appendages crossed that its okay. I waited too long for this to give up now.