We're back...

My test post to Blogger worked, so I am now drafting my first email posting in about 3 weeks… hopefully the good people at Blogger will keep the email server up from now on!

However I cannot say the same for the office air con… a failure of the system overnight has seen our office steamy like a sauna today and it was ties off and sleeves rolled up at 10:00am this morning.  On top of this, our computer network is acting up and I am sure its only a matter of time until somebody here goes “postal”.

I just seem to be in a rut at the moment as everything just seems to be falling apart around me… my PC, the PC monitor, the home AirCon, the screen door is busted to the back yard, the lawn mower takes 35 pulls to start, the back pergola is leaking like a sieve, the office AirCon, Blogger… its just been a continual stream of things not working like they’re supposed to.  Sure each one in isolation is trivial, but its just everywhere I turn something is not right… its enough to make you want to turn Amish!

Well that’s it for now… better go before the coffee machine blows up….

Burial Remains of Jesus Christ Found?

This is all over the news, but I have selected to post the link to the Richard Dawkins site as it will be flavoured in the comments section the whole atheist vs theological debate.

For those who don't know Richard Dawkins has published a book called "The God Delusion" which I am reading currently (nearly done!) in which he goes about systematically disproving God and religion in general.

Of course this generates much controversy and he gets some interesting viewpoints on the subject...

But to the news at hand... if this is a true discovery, what then? Will people concede that Jesus married / had a child? DNA will also provide the proof that he was conceived with a mortal father and that he was not a miraculous conception.

Surely the bones will be able to provide evidence of crucifixion? If not, then are the remains not THE Jesus of Nazareth?

DNA? Can it trace ancestry? Can we find people today who can be linked to the DNA? Are they the descendants of Jesus (God?) and if so, what happens if they are Arabic or Jewish or Atheists?

How will this shake the fundamental beliefs of Christians? Does it matter? Is the Bible wrong? Is the whole thing a hoax?

Given I am reading Dawkins' book at the moment, this is all very timely!

Link to the Official Richard Dawkins Website

And for balance... here is the link to the pro-neo conservative FOX News in the US: Fox News - • SPEAKOUT! What Do You Think of the So-Called Find?

Publishing via Email - Publishing Trouble | Google Groups

I am continuing to have tech issues publishing and todays post was also "lost"...

A link below is to the help forum in which many bloggers are complaining about this... if it continues, I may look at other mediums.

I appreciate Blogger is free to the end user, but this is ridiculous.

Publishing via Email - Publishing Trouble | Google Groups: "Messages 1 - 25 of 26 - Expand all
"

From today's Crikey

Had to post this... sums it all up rather well.  Credit to Crickey daily email, 23/2/07:

If the current verbal confusion among the Allies in Iraq is an indicator of their military performance, you can see why this has not yet been recorded as one of the great textbook warfare successes of modern times…

"… the situation in Iraq makes it possible for Denmark and Britain to reduce their numbers of troops." -- Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"We are planning to pull out the troops because the British and the Danish are doing so." -- Lithuanian Defence Minister Juozas Olekas.

"At the present time the level of violence is totally unacceptable, and until the Iraqis are able to contain it to a reasonable level we should stay." –Australian PM John Howard

"There is no such thing as victory in Iraq." – Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson

"... I will settle for nothing less than complete victory." – US President George Bush (November 2005)

"The American public will be quite perplexed by the President adding forces while our principal ally is subtracting forces." – US Senator John Warner

The history of military incompetence is littered with reasons for failure on the battlefield, but when political leaders can't even agree on the basic objective of whether they are pursuing victory, it's clear the battlefield isn't the major problem here.

Welcome to Communist Australia

Dick Cheney is in town.  He is the #2 man in the United States government.  In many (not all) people's opinion here in Australia, the United States is in the wrong on so many issues that affect Australians.  David Hick's incarceration, the action in Iraq and Afghanistan, US Foreign Policy in general, religion and its use in the neo-conservative government in the US – which includes the attempted banning of subjects in science curriculum's in US schools such as Darwinism and Natural Selection in favour of Creationism, all the way down to US trade policies in regards to wheat.

In short, there are a lot of Australian people with an agenda of issues that they would like Mr Cheney to hear.  Of course he cannot and will not meet with individuals on this basis but instead citizens in a free democracy are allowed to protest their opposing views of the government and in this case the US government.

Or so I thought.

Protesting has been banned apparently.  People have been told they cannot protest.

I'm sorry but when did we suddenly become Communist China?  Apart from the tanks ploughing down innocent protesters what is the difference between Tiananmen Square and Pitt St Sydney yesterday?

Its about time people woke up that this conservative government of Howard has slowly turned us into a police state.  Why have we got Black Hawk helicopters patrolling the skies since Tuesday until the small hours of the morning?  Training they say… training for what??

Here we go again... America set to ask us to jump

**TODAYS MAIL POST MANUALLY COPIED INTO BLOGGER BECAUSE THE DAMN EMAIL CONTINUES NOT TO WORK!!!!**

Apologies… my access to Blogger appears to have gone on the blink. I am typing this message with no real idea if it will get through or not. In addition the Blog posting feature in Picasa2 doesn’t seem to work and the pictures I have taken of the QM2 haven’t come up… I will try to fix that!

But tech issues aside, what I want to talk about today is the British decision to withdraw 1,400 or so of its troops from Iraq. This is a major slap in the face from Blair to Bush as he is basically saying that they are concluding their required missions (training Iraq to be self sufficient in security et al) and they are looking to withdraw. To his credit, Blair said that they are not cutting and running, but this is more of an acknowledgment of what they set out to achieve is slowly being completed.

Bush on the other hand wants to ramp up with another 10,000 troops and I am sure that Dick Cheney in his Sydney visit this week will basically ask Australia to add more troops to the mix. This could be the first time that John Howard has to say NO to George Bush. He is in a tenuous political position… if he says No, he backflips on his mandate of fully supporting the US in this preposterous war and whilst I don’t agree with Iraq, a back flip now only damages his credibility. If he says yes, then he can kiss the next election good bye. With the background of a British withdrawal, and the fact that we shouldn’t have been there in the first place, Howard will be seen as a lap dog to the US and unnecessarily further implicating us in a messy war that we have no right in being in.

But watch for the double cross… already I have seen a number of media reports about Afghanistan in the last 24-48 hours. We haven’t even heard of Afghanistan for ages and yet Defence Minister Brendan Nelson was on Sunrise this morning describing the situation in Afghanistan as “hot” and that our troops are in the “thick of it”.

You can bet your bottom dollar that more Australian troops will head to Afghanistan which will enable the Americans to transfer more Afghan based troops into Iraq. Nelson this morning linked the Iraq and Afghanistan areas by stating that al-Qaeda is in both areas and yet there has been not one shred of evidence that Iraq had any al-Qaeda activities. In fact, the Sunnis which ran Iraq are polar opposites to al-Qaeda as they are not hardline Islamic followers. They were corrupt and evil and Saddam was a vicious dictator, but he was actually at war with the Islamic extremists in Iran and by proxy the Taliban / al-Qaeda.

Don’t be fooled Australia… Howard & co are getting us further in bed with the US and are using the Afghanistan card to dupe you!

Queen Mary 2 Docks In Sydney

The Queen Mary 2 and later, the QE2 docked in Sydney today... these are some shots from my office window of the Queen Mary 2. Yes, I know... I have a great view :)

Queen Mary 2 Docks In Sydney

PS: Apologies, but my daily posts via email are not getting published... I believe Blogger Mail is down again. Trust me, I am writing, its just not getting posted - which may be a good thing! LOL!!

In Pursuit of Happyness

Niki & I finally had our belated and long overdue dinner and movie night....
Had a great meal at the local noodle bar and then saw In Pursuit of
Happyness. Really good movie, highly recommend it and Will Smith is
brilliant in it!
5 stars.

You've heard of the All Blacks....

And you may have heard of the Black Caps (NZ Cricket Team)

And you may have heard of the Tall Blacks (the NZ Basketball team)

But what about the NZ Badminton team???

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/15/nz_badminton_kerfuffle/

 

Relief...

Have now got my home PC back in order… whilst the computer shop claims that the crash was caused by malicious spyware installed via LimeWire, I have my doubts.  Principally because the LCD monitor is no longer working.  Yes, spyware can cause crashes but what would cause a monitor to become a brick?  I have yet to test the monitor on the kids PC, but I suspect that it’s a goner.  All it does is sit there with its single yellow light flickering at me… all the online help manuals et al talk about the light going red or orange but not yellow and flashing.

Looks like I will need to get a new one :-(

On brighter news, we have more allegations from Jodi Power about Shappelle and clan being drug users… she has come out and said she knows Shappelle is a dope, ecstasy and cocaine user.  Why am I not surprised.  The media “buy a story” attitude is in full swing and this Jodi Power looks like getting her cash big time, but if the Corby’s are such a big drug family, I hope the cash is enough to buy her safety with a plane ticket to a remote country somewhere.

And why hasn’t Mercedes Corby ever come back to Australia? Why does she sit in Bali with her “husband” – who we have never seen – and defend herself via dodgy videophone?  Its all laughable.

Wow!

So many things to talk about…

Firstly on a banal personal note, I got my second speeding fine in the mail in the week.  The first, from Australia Day in Canberra (71 in a 60 zone) and the second, but happened earlier on Jan 6 on the M7 doing 121 in a 100 zone… wtf are freeways like the M7 being limited to 100kms for?  Anyways, I will duly pay my fines as opposed to certain NSW judges…

Now to the juicy stuff…

JOHN HOWARD!  More press, more US media debate, a censure motion from the Labor party, general condemnation from both sides of the Pacific and yet our great media machine still tries to fob it off as a minor issue.  Howard has used the same defence he lambasted Mark Latham for – it’s a free country and I can say what I like.  But he continues to deny that he breached protocols and that he made a gaff.  This is bigger than calling Rove McManus Karl Rove and yet Howard seems to think all is fine.  And spot on Obama!  Yes Johnny, why don’t you send 20,000 troops… if you feel soooo strongly about it, lets get stuck in… oh whats that? An election coming up… you’d rather win Peter Costello (or Malcolm Turnbull?) a free pass into the Lodge rather than standing up for your true beliefs??  Oh I see… its OK to be in the business of politics rather than the business of leading the people.  That’s fine John, I am sure the people at the Old Folks home will like your stories.  (Is it just me or have I just missed the fact that John Howard has now taken to wearing a hearing aid?)

Juicy Bit #2 – Shapelle Corby a drug dealer / user / trafficker!  Who’d have thunk it!  Now Mercedes is suing!  Choice!  Can’t wait for that one… I am sure the Today Tonight / ACA people covered all the legal stuff about slander…. Defamation cannot get up in court if what was said is true… now think about that statement Mercedes… is there a reason why you don’t return to Australia?  You wouldn’t be in fear of being arrested in Australia would you?

I hope Womans Day et al stop publishing the bleeding heart stories now… just because she has pretty eyes and big tits doesn’t mean anything people!

LimeWire Made My PC Die

Apparently LimeWire, the P2P program is the root cause of my PC crash. Having used it on my old machine with no problems, I have had to have my PC reformatted to fix the apparent corruption it has caused.

A poll is over on the Lime Kettle Forum where you can have your say / give me advice / condemn me for being such a n00b.

Please note, Lime Kettles and Lime Wire are not related... the fact we both use Lime is just a coincidence!

Howard Has Really Put His Foot In Now

So...

John thinks he can comment on what al-qaeda must be thinking now that Obama is running.

From this story, I point out the following:

1. Obama is spot on. 1400 troops in back of house operations guarding Japanese engineers working on plumbing. Compared to 140,000 troops in active service with 3000+ dead, I think the issue of bringing troops home is a pertinent one and the US people have a right to have a choice.

2. Obama has done well to respond to our ding-dong prime minister so quickly. When Bush was running for President in early 2001, he probably didnt even know where Australia was.

3. Al-Qaeda? They have a view?? Considering that Iraq has never been about al-Qaeda but rather the WMD's (rememeber, AFGHANISTAN was the war about al-Qaeda, not IRAQ... I know that Johnny thinks they're all the same, but they're not) why would al-Qaeda have a view on Obama's view on stance on Iraqi troops. Wouldnt the Sunni's and Shi'ites have a more interested view? Perhaps Lexie Downer should read more briefing papers whilst he sits in the Qantas lounge in Adelaide....

Remember people here in Australia and in the US. The war in Iraq is wrong and is a war for the greed of the USA. Bush doesn't give two hoots about ensuring Iraqi women get a free right to vote and make a living... he just wants the oil.

Obama fights back after PM attack | NEWS.com.au: "Mr Howard earlier attacked Senator Obama's plan to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008."

[Post Script]: US Blog "the Moderate Voice" has scathed Howard. Check it out here.

[Post Script #2}: More bloggers getting into this! An Aussie view here and an American view from The Daily Kos here.

I think I am more excited by the fact that our PM has finally put his foot in it on the world stage! Hehehe

Been a while...

Been a) very busy at work and b) with no home internet access and hence the blog has been a little out of the priority list this past week or so…  The home PC “should” be right today pending no depressing news from the friendly local computer shop.  Also today may not be as busy today as I have a rare “empty” calendar day… no meetings!  A day of sitting at my desk typing away… boring, but sometimes very cathartic.

The rain continues to pour down today and I realised this morning that I still haven’t gotten around to buying a new umbrella since I lost my last 2.  Left one in a coffee shop and the other I am guessing I left on a train… so at the moment I am without shelter so to speak and with the rain being such a rare event these days, its never really front of mind when you’re at the shops.  I might see if the marketing department has a spare one with the company logo on it :-)

The weekend was good… we won our cricket match by an innings and 20 odd runs and spent the day in the field and took 17 opposition wickets.  My sole contribution was one catch at slip… At least we did better than the Aussie cricket team that lost the final series 2-0 to England!  England!! The rabble that couldn’t get past 150 runs and struggled in all facets of the game finally gelled at the same time we tired / got complacent and we got spanked.  I am not worried about it, the World Cup is the main focus and we are playing like it.  With the game barely over, the Aussies will be on the plane to NZ for another mickey mouse 3 game series against New Zealand and then its on to the World Cup.  On the local front, I guess we can look forward to the football season – but I must admit, the A League soccer is going gangbusters and yesterdays final (which I watched in amongst the rain delays at the cricket) was a great game.  Pity penalties had to be used, but a Grand Final berth AND a place in the Asian Champions League were on the line and the intensity in the game was huge.  Great stuff and despite the Grand Final being Melbourne vs Adelaide, I will probably watch it.

Also, and I am sure I will write about this later, but Kevin Rudd is now ahead of John Howard in the polls.  “Most popular Labor leader in 35 years” is the press quote.  C’mon Australia, don’t give the Liberals another term of screwing over the common person with the USA arse kissing.

Why Are Computers So Frail?

Apologies but no post today… had left my laptop at the office and didn’t have a write up this morning and here I sit at nearly 3 in the afternoon and have a brief chance to say something… And that something is “Why are Computers So Frail?”

Last night we had an electrical storm.  The PC out of precaution was shut down, but every thing else was left as is.  The storm came, not a particularly big one, and some time later I went to restart said PC.

It fails to boot up… looping error messages telling me to “Load from the last known good configuration” yet it fails to load…

I rang my friendly local PC shop and he asked did I unplug it from the wall.  No I reply.  “Ahhh that’s the problem, the storm affected the PC.  Bring it in and we can fix it”.

Why does a powered down PC still fry and yet my TV, DVD and every other electrical device running still work?  And does anyone know how to fix the PC so I don’t have to take it into the shop??

 

David Hicks - Enough is enough

The fact that David Hicks is either guilty or innocent is no longer the issue.  The issue is he has been held without trial for 5 years.  His crime, for siding against the US Military as a mercenary.  He is not a terrorist, he is a gun nut seeking to be a soldier for money.

On our side of the fence we call them “security contractors”, for the other side they’re terrorists.

The fact that John Howard has stated that he could get Hicks out anytime but won’t is appalling.  He is condoning the containment of an Australian citizen with no trial for an indefinite period – shameful behaviour and against our own laws of Australia.  Should he not tow the country line and say as an Australian, he should be tried as an Australian given that we are technically a part of this so called Coalition of the Willing?  (How are the Polish troops faring by the way??).  He should be repatriated, charged – I don’t think they can work out what – and get it over and done with.

Howard, you are simply bending over so as to not stand up to the USA.  How about standing up for your own people.

Metrosexuals - WTF

Niki and I have noticed a worrying trend… men who are more into fashion and hogging the mirror than the traditional woman…  yes, we’ve all heard about David Beckham and his line of perfume (yes, perfume not cologne) and his clothes horse antics and yes, we’ve heard about Ian Thorpe’s pearl necklaces (and he doesn’t count as a metrosexual if you know what I mean) but what is worrying is that guys who used to go out on the town in jeans and a checked shirt now dress in ‘slacks’; have a gazillion litres of “product” in their hair and have now taken to painting nails etc – a worrying trend I credit to Wil Anderson for starting.

At the cricket last Friday, the guys in front of us were wearing stylish caps and had manicured hair under them, one guy produced a white faux alligator skin wallet and the guys (and I use this term loosely) went ga-ga over its “texture”.  The guys a few rows down kept standing up and preening themselves with no shirts on whilst wearing pristine brand named baseball caps – you know how you can wear a cap for fashion stakes vs wearing it to stop your face peeling… and for the piece d’resistance, the 15 yr old boy behind us was wearing a t-shirt “Waiting For Mr Right”.  Out of the closet in your mid teens!

Then on Saturday at the swimming pool while Kate did her laps, a married guy with kids was parading around in his budgie smugglers wearing painted toe nails!

Niki is up in arms about this and keeps going on about it, particularly when some pooncy guy (Andrew G for example) gets on tele.  And I agree with her… fathers of Australia’s sons, get your boys a blue checked “drinking shirt”, tell them that its ok to walk around in shorts and t-shirt without doing your hair and ban mirrors from their bedrooms.

The Australian Cricket Team

Picked this up last night on cricinfo.com after Australia’s big run chase victory…

"Australia isn't just a mere cricket team; it is an ever-evolving, totipotent genetically-engineered cyborg, slowly devouring all who dare to stand up to it, in an orgy of willow-encrusted destruction."

I like that… but I have no idea what “totipotent” means!

Late Post - Weekend Wrap

Have been at meetings this morning away from the office and only now have an opportunity to pen a posting…

Unfortunately it’s a bit haphazard, but here it goes:

Friday:  Went to the One Day cricket and saw Australia lose badly in their only loss of the summer.  No consolation that we turned it around on Sunday night with a nailbiting record run chase, but Friday was a day of misery for the Aussie team.  Personally, the day was great, the weather was fine and the beer was…. well, lite.  We had a bad lunch at the Bat & Ball Hotel first – the bistro was a disaster and I had to extort our meals from the kitchen… and some people were demanding their money back, but other than that the day was great.

Saturday:  Busy day!  Enrolled Kate into Netball… she is playing U8’s and the season starts in April.  She’s very keen and some of her classmates are in her team, so that’s all good.  Then it was to the pool where she had swimming lessons and stepped up into the “Dolphin” class.  She did it a bit tough, but there are 8 more weeks to go, and she’ll get better.  Then I went off to cricket were we had a great day.  Won the toss, we batted, and I opened up.  Batted from 1:30 to about 4:00pm and scored my second half century of the season with 68.  Along with Robbie who opened with me and got 33 and Crazy Dave at #3 got 60 as well, we piled on the runs and declared at 7/249.  We then had 30 minutes at the opposition and at stumps they’re 3/14 with Young Simon getting all 3 wickets.  We will be pushing on for outright next week!

Sunday:  Much more relaxing… but the kid’s blow up pool has a pin prick hole in it and patched that up.  Then Niki’s friend Julie and the kids came over for afternoon tea and I spent the major part of the day watching the cricket and painting blood bowl miniatures.  Got a lot of them done and my team is nearly ready for the new comp that has started today (must play my first game this coming fortnight).

All in all a good long weekend… today is my first 5 day week of the year!  Ouch!!

Fun With Donkey's

I think this donkey has been through this before.... Thanks to Andrew at work for the video...

Brooke's At School!

Yesterday was Brooke’s first day… all went very well and she got into the class with the teacher we preferred (same one Kate had) and she is also in a class with most if not all of her friends from pre-school including her best friend Madi.

Not too many tears from Mum, it was a very happy day and we celebrated with lunch at a local café and then dinner last night was pizza with the kids.  Both Kate and Brooke were pretty tired last night as they were busy after school yesterday helping clean out the guinea pig / rabbit cage and playing on the swings and trampoline.  So by the end of tea, they were a bit cranky!  Haha…. School’s back!

In other stuff, started painting my Blood Bowl miniatures again and am in a league that starts next week… plus watched the new show “Heroes” last night.  Was really good IMHO and I think this one will be on my regular watch list along with Lost which starts back again on Feb 15…. I think I will know what I’ll be doing at 8:30 Wednesday and Thursday nights from now on!