It Defies Explanation

Someone wants to keep his job, so what is the last thing he would do?

Go on strike!

Would you like to explain that to the Lufthansa pilots? How does going on strike protect your jobs from being outsourced to an Asian airline? Surely it would simply speed it up. Sure! You can go on strike - we were going to replace you anyhow...


Obama never ceases to amaze me. The sheer arrogance when he stated that people just didn't understand his healthcare plan so he would have to explain it to them one more time! It just doesn't occur to someone so wrapped up in his own 'mission' to consider that perhaps the population is saying "No!"

This man has wracked up almost as much debt in his one year as Bush did in eight years! And yet he keeps blaming Bush for all his ills! He keeps claiming to have 'created' two million jobs, even though the USA has two million fewer jobs than a year ago! And now he is calling for 'bipartisanship', Democrats are blaming the Republicans for being obstructionist. The Democrats have the White House, the Upper House, the Lower House, how can anyone be obstructing the Democrats except other Democrats? Someone needs to explain to this university 'professor' about basic arithmetic.


I have been feeling very down lately, hence why the long gap in blogging. Mostly 'cos I've landed in a depressing job. The basic tasks are fun enough, I am working with Business Objects Planning and doing a lot of VBA programming, generally couldn't be happier. But as pointed out in an earlier post, I am getting exactly half the rate I have gotten for my contracts for the last nearly two years and I am reporting to someone that would have previously reported to me.

Last week two people asked me for my resumé to send on to different people in the same organisation and the rate will almost be what I am used to. So I guess I should start feeling better.

The main thing that was annoying me I reckon was that I was going to have to be working long hours just to make ends meet instead of the laid back, easy going style that usually provides me with more than I need. Life wasn't fun. But hopefully all over soon. That would officially be the end of the GFC.


We have an election coming up late next month in South Australia. We had a strange law in this state that didn't allow people here to blog about elections without signing off with their real name and post code. Then the Attorney General went off the deep end defending this law and in the process slandered some guy, and then in a quick back-track to divert attention from, or maybe to seem contrition for, his act of slander he suddenly revokes the law.

Can an Attorney General revoke a law unilaterally? I thought that it had to be revoked by another act of parliament.

But either way, now I can apparently tell you that I am seriously disappointed in both sides. Whilst I usually vote for someone interesting or fun or independent in the Upper House, compulsory voting has made our Lower House votes meaningless for most of us in Australia - the outcome of national elections is decided in just a few seats, usually be less than one percent, so in a country of ten million voters the outcome rests with just a few thousand voters. Not democratic. And I generally tend to live in what we call 'blue ribbon' seats, firmly conservative seats (this might confuse some yanks, their socialists are blue and their conservatives are red, other way around for everyone else on Earth). Therefore I draw a little box at the bottom, tick it, and write 'none of the above' next to it.

There has always been a few percent of votes that were informal for either reasons of error, or because the voter makes an otherwise legit vote but then writes a funny little poem next to it - and in this country any mark other than the approved vote informalises a ballot. But for the last couple of decades there has been a growing number of deliberate informals, and it scares the Australian Electoral Commission that people are not taking their system seriously. Last I heard five percent of votes, like mine, are deliberate statements against our political system.


A new email scam hit my inbox today; "someone I am attorney for with the same surname as you has died recently...". If I responded then I guess the next step would be to ask me for my bank details so they can send money to me. Came from a USA address, not Nigeria like the last few - they come out every year or so.


My damned niece! ARGGGHHH
I have been vegetarian for a long time, and I have been careful about the cheese that I bought - no animal rennet. But over xmas she got me feeling guilty about the entire dairy industry and so now I have to try and be full vegan. I never minded being vego, I got annoyed at the Australian - I suppose the entire Western - culture at times, and this was one reason I loved Singapore so much. But being full vegan is noticeably harder, especially eating out.