I was thinking.....

I was thinking,
I gotta get a life.

I sent the link to here to one of my classmates earlier tonight.
Then I thought to myself....Please don't go there.
Why??????????????????????????????????????????????????
Cos there really is nothing of particular note to read here. Just some ramblings about..... Well, I don't actually know.

So I figure I gotta go out and get me one of those life thingies.
On the other hand, I just wrote 2000 words to finish off an essay.

Catch.......

Listen up Johnny! 85,000 Signatures!

85,000 signatures, and Lil Johnny is STILL not listening.

If I could just get you to cast your minds back to last Tuesday, and my post (hopefully) directing you to the "Your Rights At WorK" website and the petition to Senator Barnaby Joyce.....
Well, 85,000 signatures were collected by the website over just 5 days.
Firsly, well done to everyone who signed it and passed on their Anti-IR sentiments.
Secondly, does this still not tell the Australian Government that we, the people of Australia OPPOSE, unequivocally the Industrial Relations Reforms?
IF I saw the Rallies of a fortnight ago, attended by up to 500,000 people, then saw an online petition that had collected 85,000 signatures in 5 days, I'd be paying attention. At least a little bit. But no, not Lil Johnny.
What does this say about the state of democracy in Australia, when our elected officials are obviously not listening?
Another half-a-million people rallied against our involvement in the War in Iraq, but did our Government listen?
Again, obviously not.
So where exactly IS our democracy?

Onyx73, not sayin' Goodnight.....
Just sayin'....

Here's a Corker.

Yes. I AM doing my work.....I was doing some legitimate work when I found this little gem.
OK, I was a little bit disracted, but seriously only a little bit.
I was searching for a specific comment from Johnny "The Deputy" Howard (Sieg Heil) on an ABC news site, and I saw this link the took me in a round a bout way to

HERE

What can I say, I'm a curious little bugger, so I couldn't resist. So, here I was, in the Lab, pissing myself laughing with everyone looking at me like I was the weird one. Ha! If only you knew people....

And how do I know I'm a curious little bugger I hear you ask?
Well, let me use THIS anecdote to explain.....

I was sitting here, in the lab, working away, Kyuss on my headphones, minding my own business earlier this afternoon. A person, (J), approached, who has a presesntaion due tomorrw on the economic ramifications of Global Warming. I know he's been having trouble with it, he's got to fill 20 minutes. I don't see that as being terribly difficult, but then, you gimme a newspaper or two and tell me to spin shit about something for 20 minutes, I reckon I can do ok. In fact, you'll be tellin me to SHUT THE HELL UP, pretty soon after I start.
Anyways......
He (J), comes up to me and says, Onyx73 (of course, (J) used my blog name, not my real name, which actually is Onyx73 - which is just too long to use in conversation, so I "allow" people to use my psuedonym), anyways, he says quietly to me, (I also think he might have thought I would have thought he was being rude), so anyways, he says to me, "Onyx73, can you do me a huge favour tomorrow?"
"I won't be here", I reply, being straight up and hopefully avoiding any potential confusion (I'm actually going away for the w/end), "but if I can, sure."
He looks at me and says, "oh, ok, um, I was gonna just ask, cos you're a pretty curious guy, if you could not ask me any questions about my presentation tomorrow."

So there you go, I AM a curious fella.

Onyx73, not saying goodnight,
Just Sayin'......

The Great Australian Fight......

Johnny Howard, you can go and stick your IR “reforms” up your arse.
I know that may be difficult, with all your corpirate bosses’ hands up there, directing you on what to do etc, but seriously, you can stick the reforms up your arse.



210,000 people took to the streets in Melbourne (the biggest political demonstration in Melbourne’s history) last Tuesday (15th Nov) alone, half a million Nationwide, and still you ignore us, the people of Australia.
You and your business cronies claim that 95% of us “ignored” the protests and went to work anyway. Well, I don’t think so. I would reckon everyone I have spoken to is opposed to your Industrial Relations reforms, or “WorkChoices” as you try to sell it to us (with $55Million of OUR money), and these aren’t just “Leftie, Commie, Tree-huggin’, Hippie Trouble makers”, these are normal, mainstream voters, some of whom voted you into Government last time. I would like to know how many workplaces held Stop-work meetings to be a part of the Sky-Channel link up from Federation Square here in Melbourne. Business leaders claim $30 million in lost productivity in Victoria. Doesn’t THAT tell you something? Did I mention workers standing at the rally, WITH their bosses, who also oppose these draconian laws?

“WorkChoices”, for those that don’t know, is a plan by “our” Government and the business community to strip workers’ rights from them, including minimum wages and conditions and the right to collectively bargain and put all workers onto individual work contracts.
How, is one lone worker, with no bargaining power as an individual, going to gain a decent wage, decent working hours and conditions and a fair hearing? If you do remove the current unfair dismissal laws, as you intend, what is that person going to do when they are sacked for no good reason, or “operational reasons”? Oh, and the “Fair Pay Commission? You’ve put a card carrying Neo-Liberal who is going to leave all his decisions to God, instead of the current, independent Industrial Relations Commission to “guide” employers on what makes a fair wage….. While removing minimum wages.
Essentially this puts workers in Australia on par with workers in China or Viet Nam. NOT by improving the working conditions of developing nations to the equivalent of ours, but by bringing down our working conditions to the level of those in China or Viet Nam.
It is a part of the Neo-liberal plans of making two classes; the grotesquely rich, and the Army of Working Poor. We do NOT want this to happen, we want a fair days pay, for a fair days work. We want an equitable dividend of the riches, for ALL working people.

People, get involved. Australians, go to

You Right At Work

and sign the petition going to Senator Barnaby Joyce, the last real hope of DEMOCRACY in OUR Country. Anyone else, just keep an eye in your ‘papers, cos if this does get through here, YOUR Governments will also be trying this one out.

Not saying Goodnight, Just Saying…….

Gibberish # 5

I have no idea wht I am saying.
I just wanted to drop into the Blogosphere basically to say HI.
So here it is folks:

HI.

I've had my head down in work all day today and been in bed crook for the last two. Tuesday was an enormous success, that is the Anti Industrial Relation Reform Rally. 210,000 people braved potentially bad Melbourne weather to tell Little Johnny to stick his "reforms" where the sun don't shine. I'll speak more about this next week. Proud to be Melburnian though.

Signing out for now......

The Year 2000, missing Years and Bar-B-Ques

I could, but won't, argue in this blog (today anyway), that time is not lineal, that everything happens in an instant - just like a thought.

To answer a question posed though, concerning the year Christ "will return", evidence has been produced showing that the year 2000, was in fact the year 1997. There are disputes ongoing as to exactly what year it is in the Biblical sense, as there are conflicting ideas, as to what year the year 'Zero' actually was. Apparently, a couple years have gone astray along the way too. How does one lose a year or two I hear you ask?
Well, I have no idea. I can only use this anecdote to relay to you how this MAY or may not have happened. Here goes....
I used to work in a warehouse. A fairly big warehouse. A "Distribution Centre" to be precise. In this warehouse, we stocked Auto parts. We had a fairly comprehensive computer filing system that kept track of all the stock in the warehouse and between our warehouse and our customers and so on, so that, at any given time, a part number or order number or part description could be entered into the system and the status of every part (for example) could be found easily. Sound simple so far? Good. Well anyways, one Friday, the bosses had planned a staff BBQ for us - about 150 of us at the time. Yeah, like I said, it was a reasonable sized operation. So, the meat was bought, the drinks were bought, the time set (y'know extended lunchtime etc), everything was great, everyone was happy and exited. Everyone was in a good mood.
I noticed a couple of the bosses though, wandering around, looking lost and quite bewildered. This was in my section of the Warehouse, a section I knew pretty well. I would in fact say, very well, so I approached the bosses and asked, "Hey. What's up? What are ya looking for?", feeling confident that if I didn't know where it was, it wasn't worth knowing the whereabouts, because we probably didn't have one, it, some, them or whatever.
"Oh nothing"
"Oh, you sure?" I asked.
They looked at each other , quite guiltily, like little kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "Um, you haven't seen the BBQ have you?"
"Why no" I reply, no second thought.
They looked at me blankly....."Nowhere at all?", knowing that I actually knew the whole warehouse pretty well.
"Um, no" I replied again, as dumbly as usual.
Then a thought occurred to me. "Why are they asking me this?" Then another, "Why aren't they cookin meat? Isn't it nearly lunchtime?". Then the flood gates opened, "Why are you asking me where the BBQ is? Why are you asking me where the BBQ is this close to lunchtime? Why are you asking me this this close to lunchtime while no-one is cooking meat? WHERE IS THE BBQ?"
So you see, it IS pretty easy to lose something as simple as say, a year or two or a Bar-B-Que.
It must be noted though, that evidence has also shown that the year 2000 was also 2003, 1994, 2007, and everything in between. So make of that what you will.
Singing OUT……….

Ethiopia

Again, Ethiopia is in the news, or at least should be;

I was forwarded a worrying E-mail this morning concerning recent events in Ethiopia. I have looked into this matter a little further myself, to get some background/confirmation, and it seems to be legit. And so I have contacted you, to alert you, in case news hasn't got to you yet, of this situation.



It is about the use of force by the controversially elected Prime Minister, Mr Meles Zenawi to quash opposition supporters who have held Anti-Government demonstrations over late last week and into the weekend.
According to Reuters, State Run television is reporting 42 deaths in the clashes. As many as 4,000 people have been incarcerated, many of whom have now been released, and state television are running with claims that 300 people had been injured.

Conversely though, the e-mail I received reports that hundreds of students have been killed at an otherwise mainly peaceful rally at the Mercato Market in Addis Ababa and that as many as 13,000 students have been rounded up by the Government and taken away. Newspapers (State run) have apparently not been printed since Wednesday of last week, internal flights (State run services) have not been running and the TV news in Ethiopia has apparently shown students clashing with police, ie throwing sticks and stones, but has failed to show the local police firing into the crowds.


Zenawi closed down the country's Universities in May, after the last election was held, to disenable students to communicate the voice of dissent. Opposition leaders, most of whom are also currently behind bars awaiting trial on charges of treason, claim the election results were fraudulent and that up to 85% of the vote was against Zenawi.

The Email, written by a person who has left Ethiopia within the last day and a half or so, claims that food is drying up, taxis and buses have stopped and the streets are empty - The tension is "ever so present".


Further to this, Eritrea, the country with which Ethiopia was in a bloody war with from 1998 - 2000 over territorial boundries, which claimed 70,000 lives, is arming up its border defences again. Ethiopia has predictably replied by bolstering its border guard.
This is a situation which has the UN quite concerned. Not only for the fact that tensions are mounting between the two nations outright, but they (the UN) have 3200 peace-keepers holding down the de-militarised zone which encompasses the border, 3200 people at direct risk of being caught in the crossfire if tensions between the two rival nations reach a meltdown. This understanderably is their primary concern - the safety of the people under their command, but the ultimate fear is that another war could erupt, killing tens of thousands of people.
Eritrea has a population of 3 million.

Let's hope, that this can be sorted peacefully.

Oh, I also got onto the Website of the Ethiopian Government, and conveniently, the email link was not working. There-fore, I guess government comment will not be forthcoming.


Signing out........

Cyber Crush

Something occurred to me tonight, something scary. And I have to discuss this or I WILL go M-A-D.

I’ve begun to wonder; is it weird to have a "cyber-crush"?

Let me tell you the story;
I was going through some bookmarked blogs earlier tonight, and came across one I hadn't seen for quite a while. In fact, the last couple times I’d tried to look this particular blog up, the writer had deleted all her material. She had kept the address in her blog’s name though, so, yes, I kept trying the link out occasionally, y’know, just to see.
But, going a little further back in time, to when she was writing on it regularly. From her picture, her writing and her content, I felt myself quite drawn to the blog, and to her.
Yes, she’s cute. Well, as far as I could tell from the one, lone picture she has on her profile page, she’s cute anyway.
Her blog was full of smart and witty entries, or posts, and I just liked reading her blog; she had some really interesting stuff in it. Nothing particularly special, just rants, raves and observations from her very own perspective, the stuff oh so many blogs are made up of. Yet, she had cool things to talk about and a unique take on things, a take I could relate to. Needless to say, when I went to her blog one day and saw that she had discontinued it, I was bitterly disappointed. I hadn’t then the slightest inkling of what I now know.

Now, I should say here, something to defend myself, so that you don’t all immediately think that I am weird, but I can’t, so I won’t. I’ll let you work it out.
Apart from anything else, this un-named woman lives in LA, and I of course do not. I live about 10,000 kms away, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean and then some.

So anyways, as I was saying, I was going through some of those bookmarked blogs and came across hers.
Yay, I thought to myself. And read through excitedly. She has not only updated her blog, but, as she had made the conscious decision when she abandoned the blog in the first place to keep all her saved files, all her original posts have been re-posted.
So, as I was reading through these with my heart-light re-ignited, something horrendous dawned on me……
I was reading these posts in a way I probably shouldn’t have been.
“Why am I thinking this way?” I asked myself. “Why am I so happy this woman from LA, a total stranger has re-commenced blogging?”
I was getting a little concerned.
Then, a further realisation hit me, like a cold fish across the face on a wet, cold winter’s afternoon.

I HAVE A CRUSH.

I have a crush on this poor woman from LA. This woman who doesn’t even know I exist. A crush on this woman whom I have never, ever met, nor am I ever going to.

WHOA! I not only have a crush on a woman I don’t know, but worse still, I HAVE A CYBER CRUSH.
Yes, oh my word, it freaked me out.

So, now I sit here, not looking at her blog thinking to myself, “Am I really that weird?”
“Have I really tipped the scales of sanity and blurred the lines between real and surreal?”

Yes, I am a 32 year old single man, and she is, as far as one can tell from reading this woman’s blog (and that one, lone photo that may or may not actually even be her), this 25 year old woman from LA is damn cool and smart and interesting. But come on. This has to be wrong doesn’t it?

But then I think to myself, “Maybe I’m not so weird. Maybe this is just a reflection of the world we live in today”.

Signing Out……

Democrazy

Just picked up a copy of Margo Kingston's Not Happy John.

In it she has a critical look at how Honest John has effectively stolen OUR democracy.

She outlines (as if we didn't already know - this book was published in 04 though) how we were dragged into the war. I say dragged because I for one was NOT led. To have been led implies that I willingly followed my leader. I did NO SUCH THING.
Even through the lies I objected, as did many many of my fellow Australians, yet we were still DRAGGED, by the scruff of the neck, into a war we did not want (or need) to be involved in. The voice of opposition to the war was strong, yet he dimissed, even ignored that voice.
And that is OUR democracy? Or is ir Johnny's democrazy?

Needless to say, Not Happy John is not going to be an easy book to put down.

Signing off.......

Gibberish #4

I still have NO ideaa what is wrong with my code. Ah well.
A-Current-Affair and Today Tonight are STILL ignoring me. Ah well.

I am having trouble thinking of anything intelligent to say. Actually, anything to say.

I STILL have no life. Ah well

NO Surprises

Well firstly, neither Chanel 7's Today-Tonight nor Chanel 9's A-Current-Affair have replied to my e-mails.
I guess they must BOTH be pretty busy putting out Propaganda at the moment, y'know, with the Anti "Terror"/Anti Sedition Laws, The Terrorist raids, I.R. etc. So I'll give it a few more days before my heart breaks.

On the other hand, I did one of those online tests.....
No surprises here either.....

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Schizoid Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Schizotypal Personality Disorder:	High
Antisocial Personality Disorder:	Low
Borderline Personality Disorder:	Very High
Histrionic Personality Disorder:	Low
Narcissistic Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Avoidant Personality Disorder:	High
Dependent Personality Disorder:	Very High
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	High
-- Take the Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Info --

I have known the Borderline thing for ages.
Dependant? Hmmm.
So, plus these with Anxiety/Depression.
He he he he.
But if you know how to answer these quizzes, they can be manipulated.
I've done soooo many of these that say writer/teacher/Journo for a career though too. Which IS pretty cool. Hmmm.
I'm not actually saying anything here am I?
Hmmmm
I guess I'll sign out....

Gibberish #3

Well, I can't really think of much to write today - apart from some general Gibberish, so I'll just let some random thoughts out.
I hope you don't mind.

So, it's Monday. Hmmm.
My weekend was pretty ordinary.
I "Whipper Snipped" or "Brush-Cut" the yards on Saturday. This was an excercise in futility if ever there was one. My Dad has a perfectly good heavy duty Brush cutter hanging up in the Garage and this really cheap lightweight one he insist in me using.
Let me tell you people (or stray, singular person), that this is a dumb way of doing a good job of a big job.
Instead of me just hooking in and getting the job done effeciently and easily, I had to use this crappy lightweight machine that I had to stop every 5 minutes to repair.
Which A) probably wouldn't need to happen on a small block of flat land and B) probably wouldn't need to happen with a good, reliable, capable machine.
Let me set the scene: The block of land I live on, and have to mow, is about 2/3 of an acre and steep. By steep, I mean that from the bottom of the block to the back, it rises about 50 metres. Which I LOVE. And can't be cut with an ordinary push stle lawn mower. However, this machine was pretty much designed for a suburban block that you'd only ever brush-cut a couple times a year, around the edges, fences etc. NOT a big, steep, full block of wild native grasses.
So, the normally 2hr job (with the good machine), turned into a 5 hour epic. It was hot, and yes, I swore a lot.
So, once it actually broke down (a bearing has seized) I politely told my Papa that the job wasn't going to be finished that day.
He's half agreed to buy a new machine, one that hopefully, will be capable of doing the whole job in one hit and in less than half a day.

Anyhow, Sunday consisted mainly of a series of naps, kips and snoozes, which was ok.

Also, please let me express a sentiment my Dad did offer on the Government's current proposed Bill on Industrial Relations (IR)......
"If it's that fuckin good, why isn't it just incorporated into the EBA's?" ("It being the IR reform and EBA's being the union negotiated working conditions).
I must say, that I think he may have a point.
Or maybe employers wouldn't introduce the IR to EBA negotiations because they know how fucked they are and they know that workers would NEVER vote on a union motion to pass the IR section into their own workplace agreements.

But, who am I?
I am just a simple man, writing a blog whilst studying and because my Government is so screwed, of course my opinio means NADA. And, because the Democracy in this country is SO efective, neither do anyone elses.
*I sigh now*
Oh Well
That is enough of my ramblings for today.....
Signing out.....

PS. Iseem to have accumulated a bug somewhere in my code, which is making my blog look like this ---------------------->
with that massive gap down to my profile/links etc.
Does anyone know how I can fix this?

T-T and ACA

Well, I STILL haven't heard back from Today Tonight. They must be REEAALL busy.
So, I took it upon myself to remind them of the Emai I recently sent them.
I also took the liberty of editing it a little, and passing it on to chanel 9's

A Current Affair

Here is the Rejigged email that I sent to our beloved ACA.

*************************************************************************************
There is a Television program that I think should be investigated and brought to its knees. My most serious concerns relate to plain bad "journalism", skewed, biased and sensationalist reporting of issues it sees, or rather, topics the producers push as being “issues” (while ignoring the deeper root problems and their causes, and, it may be argued, adding to the problems our society faces), for pandering to collective fears for the sake of ratings and driving neo-liberal Government agenda, and for commercial advertising thinly disguised behind the premises’ of being investigations into whatever the service/product claims to do for us. Conversely, this program also, I feel, aims to discredit any opposition to it or its commercial allies.

The program in question blatantly disregards ethical and moral considerations when producing stories and airing them, preferring, over good journalism, profit for the company and therefore ratings and advertising revenue.

It may well be argued by the Executives of this program, and the network that this is what people WANT to see, rather than all that depressing stuff about war, the reasons behind drug abuse, crime and perhaps climate change and the potentially devastating effects this will have, so therefore, this program delivers. They would probably even cite their ratings over those of say, the 7:30 Report, Lateline, Four Corners, (ABC) or the Cutting Edge (SBS).But let’s face it, you put any easily digestible fluff in front of most of this programs’ “loyal” viewers, at 6:30 in the evening, and they’ll pretty much buy it (re: Today Tonight 7 network)

So basically, I was wondering, if you, the producers of such an influential branch of the media tree, could find it in your hearts, to send a couple of your hardest hitting reporters out to investigate and bring to their knees the perpetrators of the crime that is: A Current Affair?

Thank you.

*************************************************************************************


So hopefully, even if one IS too busy, the other might be able to help me out.
Signing Out.......

November

In the long standing tradition I have forged of posting about the new month, today I am going to post about the new month.
Ready folks?
Here it is.....

November. Oh YAY. How I love November!?!?!
Yippee
oh yippity fucken Yay.
Christmas decorations go up....Yippee.
Melbourne Cup....Yippee.
Warm weather....Yippee.
The Anniversary of Gough getting sacked...Damn Liberals. (Some of us still celebrate Gough's acheivements though).

Seriously though....when are they just going to declare this whole Melbourne Cup week a public holiday.
I hate the Cup, don't get me wrong. But, let's face it, how productive is the Monday between the weekend and Cup Day? It's not.
I know. I have worked well long enough before coming back to Uni to know, that NOTHING is done on the Monday. Every one ELSE is off from work to make the long weekend and there is NOTHING to do wherever there are people "working". People even call the Monday part of the "long weekend". So why don't they just declare the Monday a Public holiday as well.
Then there's Oaks Day on Thursday...."Ladies Day"
Women from all over Melbourne take full advantage of Ladies Day. And why shouldn't they? It is their Day.
So. Monday, Tuesday and Thursdary are all days where productivity all go downhill. So let's just declare Thursday a public Holiday, then the fella's can all go down to Flemington as well and get drunk and ogle the ladies. (I'm sure they go on the Thursday...I would if I could).
So that leaves Friday.
Well, why make people go to work on the Friday of this week? If Thursday becomes a public holiay, then will anyone go to work on the Friday? I didn't think so either.
And that leaves poor little Wednesday.
Are we so cruel that we will force people to work on Wednesday? Make people work for just one day of the week?
The Liberals might be, but come on. This is Melbourne we're talking about here. In the tradition Melbourne has of being the "Sporting Capital", and the home of AFL, we could make Wednesday the "Half Time" public Holiday. A rest day. No ponies, a bit of physio and some oranges.
Whatd' ya reckon?

Over and out.....


PS. I am SICK of Mikybe Diva, however it's spelt.