We had an election on Saturday, by midnight on Saturday we had a projected result of Socialists 73, Conservatives 73, Independents 4. However 4 seats were still in doubt. They had all Sunday to keep counting, but it hasn't changed. What have they been doing? Concentrating on counting the safe seats?
One of the independents is a 'Green', which in this country means a 'Red'; there is nothing pro-environment about them, they are just a cover for the Socialist Alliance (Socialist Workers Party (full of students, not workers) and the Socialist Party of Australia). There is no CPA (Communist Party of Australia) anymore, they disbanded; but they were pure Maoist - they all moved into the left wing of the Labor Party, you can recognise the Maoists in the Labor Party because they learn to speak Mandarin, like our recent ex-Prime Minister.
Given that the other three independents are all ex-Nationals (the minor party in the conservative coalition) then we would normally expect them to make a pact with the Coalition. But remember that here in South Australia the National Party member joined with the Labor Party. Yes, at the next election her voters turned on her ferociously. Those three ex-Nationals have said that they will move as a bloc, whilst the 'Green' has said that he will support the left.
But right now no one has a majority, and one major party will have to get three of four independents to form government.
We probably have a week or two of negotiations before we get any outcome.
I did not say last post, but I am back on Spellforce 1. I realised what I had to do to get past that point and went back to it. You see I had been following a strategy suggested in a walk through, rather than my usual play style. He had said that if you build up the Orcs on the left and then go kill the boss monster the little monsters will pour out of the Rift in a flood to the west and destroy your Orc base and that there was nothing you could do about it. You would be left to build a Troll base in the east to take the map with. His suggestion was to run through the Rift, kill the boss on your own, the horde have nothing to destroy so you can then build both bases.
Well, my strategy, which worked, was to build the Orc base, use an Orc army to fight through the Rift and kill the boss, and then build the Troll base. The demon horde flooded out of the Rift to my Orc base alright, but apparently this walk through author is not too good on his defensive strategies because the horde never got through my tower line. Well, more of a tower field.
Turned out to be a pretty boring map really.
I am now two or three maps beyond that point.
I am still unemployed, by Thursday last week I was suspecting that I might spend this week not working. I have two assignments (both nearly finished) and a test this week, so will be busy. But I would like some positive cashflow.
I have been back in Australia for a six month contract, two months off over xmas new year, a three month contract, and then a four month contract, so a year. A year that I could have been in Singapore and working if only I had accepted that last offer. I regret that so much now. Hubris; it has definitely been my downfall.
Monday, August 23
Friday, August 20
Cuddly
I have just rescued a baby brush-tailed possum, well, six months so maybe 'child' not 'baby'. Found her under a tree in the sparse parkland at the corner of Grenfell and East Terrace. Just at that moment, as I was bending down to pick her up, a man walked passed that is a member of Fauna Australia and he gave me a ride to a 'participating' vet. Although by law all vets have to take in native animals and pass them on to a carer organisation.
It had heaps of fleas mind you, I got four of them either off her or off my shirt. Curled up she just fills a double handful. Her main need for the next day is warmth, she was on the way to dying from exposure, but by tomorrow she will be able to take milk (special marsupial milk, not cow milk). (And also banana, rolled oats, stuff like that.) I have raised a few ring-tails in my time, but I have never held a brush-tail before. Fed wild ones a few times.
I am still unemployed. One contract, the better one, is in government and as usual for our wonderful Australian public service, they are not organised and need to delay for a few months. The other I just haven't heard back from the agency about. I have tried calling the consultant, but he hasn't answered yet.
We have to vote tomorrow. I must try not to forget. And I must remind Radar, 'cos he used to forget a lot. The polls are close, the last two that I have seen both said about fifty-fifty, but polls and 'town halls' in the marginal seats show a dissatisfaction with Labor. All the people in the world could vote Labor and I wouldn't care, so long as they live in safe left-wing seats. The way the Australian democracy works it is only a few thousand voters in the dozen marginal seats that matter, the other ten million voters are effectively marginalised.
Still, it is not as bad as the USA where Clinton got elected on forty percent of the vote.
I live in a close seat, the city of Adelaide, i.e. the CBD seat. It has swung a few times, currently red, was blue not long ago and may go blue again this time.
The Democrats, this is a laugh, have discovered that one of their South Australian candidates is a convicted paedophile. By law it is too late to remove him from the ticket. This late revelation should hurt them in the polls; they won't get any lower house seats anyhow, but I wonder if it will cost them an upper house seat or two. SA has always been their stronghold, they only need to lose a couple of seats to lose the balance of power in the Senate.
And just to close off; I regret having left Singapore, I should have taken one of the jobs offered to me there and stuck it out, risen the ranks, studied part time, and above all, not come back to Australia. I so regret this. I miss it so much. I miss my friends there, I miss the culture, it was just a totally better place to be. But if I was there I would still be expected to vote in this election tomorrow. How does that work? I would not reside in any lower house electorate, so how do they do that? I do know that one senator wanted Australia to have a seat for the diaspora, like Italy has two seats for them. I'm going to google how this works.
No, the electoral commission says that it is not compulsory to vote if you are living overseas. Further, if you have been overseas for less than three years and intend to return to Australia within six years then you may register to vote. That makes nine years, and yet if you have been living overseas for more than six years, or you intend to be doing so, then you are meant to be removed from the electoral roll and cannot vote. This would mean that if I moved back to Singapore, as I intend to do, and it is my intention to stay there, as it is, then I will lose the right to vote in Australian elections. I would not gain the right to vote in Singaporean elections until I obtained Singaporean citizenship (of course). This means that Australia disenfranchises its citizens.
Kind of similar to the health care situation if you live overseas. If you ever return to Australia you will be 'fined' every year for not having been paying for private medical coverage in Australia during that period that you were not in Australia. How stupid is that?
What the electoral commission doesn't elucidate upon is who are you voting for? If I am living overseas and still get to vote, then for what lower house seat am I voting? Quick google! According to the Southern Cross Group (advocacy for Australians abroad) you either stay registered where you were last registered or where you have near kin (as a lot are children that turn eighteen whilst living with their parents overseas, so have no previous enrolment in Australia).
There are about two thirds of a million Australians living overseas and old enough to vote; this would be enough for a few electorates on their own. Like Italy or Portugal, Australia could have two or three 'virtual' electorates. I don't see it happening though, principally because most Australians are hostile to anyone that leaves the country for anything more than 'a trip to Bali'. But as it stands it seems that less than two percent of Australian citizens living overseas are allowed to vote. Whilst the government states that ten percent of Australians overseas vote, that is mostly tourists only out of Australia for a short time.
Further more, whilst changes have been made in the last ten years, many long term OS residents have, under both the previous laws and the current laws, permanently lost the right to vote for the country of which they are a citizen. And that kind of sums up the way the Australian government and public service thinks about issues like this.
When Australia does so little for Australians living overseas, why should they do anything for Australia? The Senate enquiry in the Australian Diaspora looked at using Australian residents in other nations as 'ambasadors', but in reality these nearly one million Australians overseas are treated like shit by their own government (both bureaucrats and politicians), so why should they think nice thoughts about their nation?
It had heaps of fleas mind you, I got four of them either off her or off my shirt. Curled up she just fills a double handful. Her main need for the next day is warmth, she was on the way to dying from exposure, but by tomorrow she will be able to take milk (special marsupial milk, not cow milk). (And also banana, rolled oats, stuff like that.) I have raised a few ring-tails in my time, but I have never held a brush-tail before. Fed wild ones a few times.
I am still unemployed. One contract, the better one, is in government and as usual for our wonderful Australian public service, they are not organised and need to delay for a few months. The other I just haven't heard back from the agency about. I have tried calling the consultant, but he hasn't answered yet.
We have to vote tomorrow. I must try not to forget. And I must remind Radar, 'cos he used to forget a lot. The polls are close, the last two that I have seen both said about fifty-fifty, but polls and 'town halls' in the marginal seats show a dissatisfaction with Labor. All the people in the world could vote Labor and I wouldn't care, so long as they live in safe left-wing seats. The way the Australian democracy works it is only a few thousand voters in the dozen marginal seats that matter, the other ten million voters are effectively marginalised.
Still, it is not as bad as the USA where Clinton got elected on forty percent of the vote.
I live in a close seat, the city of Adelaide, i.e. the CBD seat. It has swung a few times, currently red, was blue not long ago and may go blue again this time.
The Democrats, this is a laugh, have discovered that one of their South Australian candidates is a convicted paedophile. By law it is too late to remove him from the ticket. This late revelation should hurt them in the polls; they won't get any lower house seats anyhow, but I wonder if it will cost them an upper house seat or two. SA has always been their stronghold, they only need to lose a couple of seats to lose the balance of power in the Senate.
And just to close off; I regret having left Singapore, I should have taken one of the jobs offered to me there and stuck it out, risen the ranks, studied part time, and above all, not come back to Australia. I so regret this. I miss it so much. I miss my friends there, I miss the culture, it was just a totally better place to be. But if I was there I would still be expected to vote in this election tomorrow. How does that work? I would not reside in any lower house electorate, so how do they do that? I do know that one senator wanted Australia to have a seat for the diaspora, like Italy has two seats for them. I'm going to google how this works.
No, the electoral commission says that it is not compulsory to vote if you are living overseas. Further, if you have been overseas for less than three years and intend to return to Australia within six years then you may register to vote. That makes nine years, and yet if you have been living overseas for more than six years, or you intend to be doing so, then you are meant to be removed from the electoral roll and cannot vote. This would mean that if I moved back to Singapore, as I intend to do, and it is my intention to stay there, as it is, then I will lose the right to vote in Australian elections. I would not gain the right to vote in Singaporean elections until I obtained Singaporean citizenship (of course). This means that Australia disenfranchises its citizens.
Kind of similar to the health care situation if you live overseas. If you ever return to Australia you will be 'fined' every year for not having been paying for private medical coverage in Australia during that period that you were not in Australia. How stupid is that?
What the electoral commission doesn't elucidate upon is who are you voting for? If I am living overseas and still get to vote, then for what lower house seat am I voting? Quick google! According to the Southern Cross Group (advocacy for Australians abroad) you either stay registered where you were last registered or where you have near kin (as a lot are children that turn eighteen whilst living with their parents overseas, so have no previous enrolment in Australia).
There are about two thirds of a million Australians living overseas and old enough to vote; this would be enough for a few electorates on their own. Like Italy or Portugal, Australia could have two or three 'virtual' electorates. I don't see it happening though, principally because most Australians are hostile to anyone that leaves the country for anything more than 'a trip to Bali'. But as it stands it seems that less than two percent of Australian citizens living overseas are allowed to vote. Whilst the government states that ten percent of Australians overseas vote, that is mostly tourists only out of Australia for a short time.
Further more, whilst changes have been made in the last ten years, many long term OS residents have, under both the previous laws and the current laws, permanently lost the right to vote for the country of which they are a citizen. And that kind of sums up the way the Australian government and public service thinks about issues like this.
When Australia does so little for Australians living overseas, why should they do anything for Australia? The Senate enquiry in the Australian Diaspora looked at using Australian residents in other nations as 'ambasadors', but in reality these nearly one million Australians overseas are treated like shit by their own government (both bureaucrats and politicians), so why should they think nice thoughts about their nation?
Tuesday, August 17
Post and Non
So, the mid semester exam turned out to be this and that.
Okay, firstly it was pretty easy, I took it slow and read everything twice, and took my time on the answers, and still left ten minutes passed half-way.
But it was interesting that after the lecturer told us it was in room 102 on the first floor, and wrote it on the whiteboard, and said again very slowly that it was not in our normal room but on a lower floor, and it was listed as 102 on the calendar, I was the only person to show up at 102; everyone else, including the guy that set up the room, showed up at our normal third floor room.
Obviously, on this occasion, the rhetorical question "is it just me? or..." has the rhetorical answer, "yes, it was just me".
I am unemployed. You knew that was coming from last post, but the contract promised to me has not come through and, I have been told, may not for a few months. Public sector. But I was asked about another one on Friday. Today is Tuesday and I haven't heard anything about that yet. But it is a previous client and I am reasonably confident. It won't pay as much as the other, and these are the people that last time paid me half my normal rate. I am trying to split the dif between that and what I was paid on the one just finished, that will do a bit better than cover my rent and will allow me to live a bit. Although in my case 'live' means dine out a couple of times, buy a game or two, and pay off my cards.
I am pretty sure that next weekend is the election, wait, let me just Google that, yep, next Saturday. The two major parties have yo-yoed a bit, which is a good sign in that it means the communists are not a shoe-in. Maybe even might lose, wouldn't that be nice. Methinks that Tweedledee is not quite as odorous as Tweedledum. Funny watching the Liberals try to compare themselves with "the desire for change that elected Obama". Funny that "Obama" passes the spell check but Tweedledee and Tweedledum don't.
I am playing Spellforce 2. Yeah, quick change of subject, but be honest, the last one wasn't exactly riveting, was it? This is crashing more often than Spellforce 1, and on its own as well, not when I make it think two things at once. It must only be the Spellforce Universe pack, because I don't remember either of them doing that before. Anyhow, I found out why I never played the two Spellforce 1 expansions - there is a monster that I can't get passed. We are the same level, but my hits do little to him whilst his severely hurt my character. Shame that. Good game kind of ruined. Neither of them crashes cleanly, they kill Windows on the way, but without causing a reboot, just lock it up, so I have to hard reset the machine. Which is very annoying.
Other than that, life in general sucks and I am starting to severely question why I bother.
Okay, firstly it was pretty easy, I took it slow and read everything twice, and took my time on the answers, and still left ten minutes passed half-way.
But it was interesting that after the lecturer told us it was in room 102 on the first floor, and wrote it on the whiteboard, and said again very slowly that it was not in our normal room but on a lower floor, and it was listed as 102 on the calendar, I was the only person to show up at 102; everyone else, including the guy that set up the room, showed up at our normal third floor room.
Obviously, on this occasion, the rhetorical question "is it just me? or..." has the rhetorical answer, "yes, it was just me".
I am unemployed. You knew that was coming from last post, but the contract promised to me has not come through and, I have been told, may not for a few months. Public sector. But I was asked about another one on Friday. Today is Tuesday and I haven't heard anything about that yet. But it is a previous client and I am reasonably confident. It won't pay as much as the other, and these are the people that last time paid me half my normal rate. I am trying to split the dif between that and what I was paid on the one just finished, that will do a bit better than cover my rent and will allow me to live a bit. Although in my case 'live' means dine out a couple of times, buy a game or two, and pay off my cards.
I am pretty sure that next weekend is the election, wait, let me just Google that, yep, next Saturday. The two major parties have yo-yoed a bit, which is a good sign in that it means the communists are not a shoe-in. Maybe even might lose, wouldn't that be nice. Methinks that Tweedledee is not quite as odorous as Tweedledum. Funny watching the Liberals try to compare themselves with "the desire for change that elected Obama". Funny that "Obama" passes the spell check but Tweedledee and Tweedledum don't.
I am playing Spellforce 2. Yeah, quick change of subject, but be honest, the last one wasn't exactly riveting, was it? This is crashing more often than Spellforce 1, and on its own as well, not when I make it think two things at once. It must only be the Spellforce Universe pack, because I don't remember either of them doing that before. Anyhow, I found out why I never played the two Spellforce 1 expansions - there is a monster that I can't get passed. We are the same level, but my hits do little to him whilst his severely hurt my character. Shame that. Good game kind of ruined. Neither of them crashes cleanly, they kill Windows on the way, but without causing a reboot, just lock it up, so I have to hard reset the machine. Which is very annoying.
Other than that, life in general sucks and I am starting to severely question why I bother.
Friday, August 6
Whoa!
Sometime things happen so quickly.
Last week was the end of my contract, and I was asked to extend to the end of September.
Today I am told that due to some fundamental mismanagement the project has run out of money and can I please leave.
Or put another way:
Yesterday I was asked to start a job.
Today I was asked to leave a job.
Yeah, I got asked if I had 'capacity' to undertake some other work if it did not threaten the project that I was on. And now I find out that I won't be staying on that project, so I can focus just on the other one.
And now begins the game.
The contract comes to me, and I take it to the agency, not the other way around. So the agency is meant to only add a payroll handling fee on top, but of course they try to get as much gravy as they can.
So I start with the client, and I introduce them to the going rate for BAs (Business Analysts), currently in this town about $135 an hour. From that the BA will be getting about $80 an hour. The rest goes: as it is a government contract then the department of admin services takes a twenty or thirty percent cut depending on whether it is a financial or an IT contract, there is nine percent superannuation which in my opinion is dead money, there are work cover and payroll taxes, then there is the agency cut, and what is left over goes to the worker.
Of course, most contracts the employer goes to the agency who then goes to the contractor. In my case almost always the employer comes to me and I take the contract to the agency. This means that I get a better deal because the agency takes a much smaller cut, just a payroll handling fee in theory. Admin services still take their huge slice for doing nothing, but that is the Australian public sector for you.
Which means that I can give a little ground on that $135.
Conversely if I under value myself too much then other people just get paid more than me for not being any better. So I need to toughen up. After all, the reason contractors and consultants get paid a higher rate is because we don't get paid holidays, we don't get paid sick leave, we don't have secure jobs - I had spend most of this damned GFC living off my reserves! There was just no work around. And when I got some I had to take some hefty rate cuts to get anything to pay the rent.
Anyhow, the whole point to this was how quickly things can change on you.
One day being told that you have a job and being asked to extend it.
The next being told that you don't and being asked to leave.
Last week was the end of my contract, and I was asked to extend to the end of September.
Today I am told that due to some fundamental mismanagement the project has run out of money and can I please leave.
Or put another way:
Yesterday I was asked to start a job.
Today I was asked to leave a job.
Yeah, I got asked if I had 'capacity' to undertake some other work if it did not threaten the project that I was on. And now I find out that I won't be staying on that project, so I can focus just on the other one.
And now begins the game.
The contract comes to me, and I take it to the agency, not the other way around. So the agency is meant to only add a payroll handling fee on top, but of course they try to get as much gravy as they can.
So I start with the client, and I introduce them to the going rate for BAs (Business Analysts), currently in this town about $135 an hour. From that the BA will be getting about $80 an hour. The rest goes: as it is a government contract then the department of admin services takes a twenty or thirty percent cut depending on whether it is a financial or an IT contract, there is nine percent superannuation which in my opinion is dead money, there are work cover and payroll taxes, then there is the agency cut, and what is left over goes to the worker.
Of course, most contracts the employer goes to the agency who then goes to the contractor. In my case almost always the employer comes to me and I take the contract to the agency. This means that I get a better deal because the agency takes a much smaller cut, just a payroll handling fee in theory. Admin services still take their huge slice for doing nothing, but that is the Australian public sector for you.
Which means that I can give a little ground on that $135.
Conversely if I under value myself too much then other people just get paid more than me for not being any better. So I need to toughen up. After all, the reason contractors and consultants get paid a higher rate is because we don't get paid holidays, we don't get paid sick leave, we don't have secure jobs - I had spend most of this damned GFC living off my reserves! There was just no work around. And when I got some I had to take some hefty rate cuts to get anything to pay the rent.
Anyhow, the whole point to this was how quickly things can change on you.
One day being told that you have a job and being asked to extend it.
The next being told that you don't and being asked to leave.
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