READING: War of the Worlds

I mentioned the other week that I went and saw War of the Worlds... I was a big fan of the radioplay, but had never read the book. Well I am nearly done with it and have been reading it online href="http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/W/WellsHerbertGeorge/prose/warofworlds/index.html">here.

I have to say its fascinating as something over 100 years old struggles to describe things that we, in the modern day age of movie making and special effects, take for granted. Also, it has given me something else to do on the train... :-)

Killing An Arab

The title of my post is from the title of an old Cure song that my mate Steve in London would appreciate.  I was thinking of him this morning as he had sent an email saying he appreciated the photos I posted of Sunday’s BBQ.  All these nice thoughts were then interrupted by an absolute Tool on the radio news this morning that has sent me into a state of apoplexy.  Someone official sounding like the police chief or some government official was announcing that police and security personnel would now have the ability to politely question “men of middle eastern appearance”

He said that as a security measure all men of Middle Eastern appearance can now be expected to be politely approached and quizzed at places such as train stations and “that if they have nothing to hide, then they should not be alarmed or upset”.

What about fucking Privacy!  What about the fact that the guy may have other criminal issues (non-terrorism) and may not be too friendly about being “politely quizzed” (read interrogated) knowing he has some outstanding fines or some such…

Does anyone know of one government that decided to racially “quiz” its populace?  The fucking Third Reich of Nazi Germany, that’s who!

For those who don’t know me personally, I am not of Arabic decent or of the Muslim faith, but am I alone in thinking that this is going way too far?!?  The newsreader read this with that knowing reassuring tone that this was a good thing and nobody on the radio questioned this.  It also coincides with some poll results today that show that 40% of Australians agree with the Shoot To Kill policy adopted in the UK that cost the life of a Brazilian National… (and remember, Brazil isn’t part of the Middle East, but he was black!)

Which brings me to my next point, not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are Arab.  Did you know that one of, if not the largest Muslim nation is on our northern border in the form of Indonesia.  Last time I looked, Indonesians did not look Arabic.  They looked ASIAN!  And where was the only attack directed at Australians?  Indonesia.  And where the perpetrators of this attack Arabic?  No.

So shall we now start “politely quizzing” Asians???

Pauline Hanson may be politically dead, but her policies live and breath through a xenophobic Liberal government hell bent on destroying the fun loving, free spirited country that is (was) Australia.

Good bye freedom and multicultural harmony, hello Police State.

If we were serious about ending Terrorism, then we should pull out of the Middle East, denounce the attacks as against the laws of the UN and claim neutrality.  Who has done this already???  Fucking New Zealand!

Do you see Arabs in New Zealand being questioned?  Do you see NZ citizens being captured in Baghdad?  Do you see NZ’ers afraid to travel the world as NZ’ers because of the fear of reprisal?

No.

 

Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies

As a gamer, I always find gaming humour funny.... and hence, thanks to SWL colleague eganra, check this out: GameSpy: PlanetFargo: Dungeons & Dragons Made Simple

Tangara's - The Pride of the Fleet

Morning all!  Today I had to purchase my monthly rail ticket which costs the princely sum of $172.  This gives me 20 working days of travel on the rail plus weekends if I need it (which is never).  It is on this day as I hand over my credit card to Bill the Station Master (CityRail hasn’t heard of eftpos yet and if you are at Emu Plains it’s a cash only transaction!) that I tend to look at the past month of CityRail service and give them a serve.  I was particularly looking forward to this given yesterdays revelations that the new timetable will be slower than the timetable in place in the 1930’s.

I waited patiently as Bill processed my credit card manually with the slide machine (hey, at least its not cash only) and the automated station voice (you know the one – the lady with the voice of seduction who lulls you into a false sense of security and yet tells you you’re screwed this morning) comes on and says:

“The 7:10am service has been cancelled for today only.  CityRail apologises for any inconvenience caused”

As she says this, Bill goes “cha-ching” and slides the 1970’s style slide machine over my 2005 credit card and says “Sorry Clayton (he reads the names on the card and gets to know you by name) but don’t worry, the 7:22 Tangara will be along shortly – it’s the Pride of the Fleet!”

Bill of course wasn’t being literal and was well and truly aware that the 8 cars of Blue Mountain commuters were being well and truly done over this morning.

He probably didn’t realise the irony though given I had just paid $172 for the privilege.

So now I sit on the Tangara in the vestibule area.  The train is crowded and is stopping at such salubrious stations such as Kingswood, Werrington and Mt Druitt which is always a pleasant thing to do when you are running late and are packed in like sardines!

I had to ring my boss to tell him I was running late but he doesn’t understand given he drives a Saab and comes from Lindfield and whilst he is an OK boss, the thought probably crosses his mind that people who live in the mountains shouldn’t work in the city.

Oh well, there is always the journey home to look forward to!

Backtrack as trains run to 1930s' times

LOL! If I was working in the 1930's, I'd be still complaining of the train service we have today! Makes you wonder doesn't it...

Backtrack as trains run to 1930s' times

Red light for auto erotica - Technology - smh.com.au

Well it seems that a game that is basically an excuse to go on a violent rampage complete with pixelated gore has been banned because you can download a patch and gain access to interactive sex. This article highlights that violence and mayhem are fine but sex is a big No No. My view is that the violence is not fine, and the tool who lets his 8yr old play the game should hand in his parenting license, but the banning of this game is totally ridiculours.

Red light for auto erotica - Technology - smh.com.au

Back to the grindstone...

Well after a good weekend, it’s now Monday morning and its back to work.  To be honest, I have just had the best weekend in ages and I am totally not motivated to go to the office.  Not only yesterday’s BBQ was good, but I had a good Saturday as well in which we worked around the house and got the weeding and the lawns done and I fixed a few things around the house.  Add to that my footy team Saints beat my most hated team the Roosters on Friday night and you can see why I have a bit of Mondayitis.

It’s a Bank Holiday today too but because I don’t work for a bank, I am coming in…  The train is decidedly quieter this morning as its not just banks that get today off, but any company remotely associated with the financial services industry.  Insurance companies, brokers, fund managers all are having today off.  No such luck for me though.

Seems a strange notion to have a “Bank Holiday”.   I don’t understand why a whole industry sector needs an additional day off above Public Holidays.  I used to work for companies that had bank holidays and I never complained, but its still just a funny notion.  I guess it’s like the old “Picnic Day” for the unions (do they still have them?).

I am also a bit tired this morning because I got hooked watching some “documentary” on Hiroshima last night.  I use inverted commas because it was a touch over the top by way of dramatisation.  It was interesting to have Japanese eyewitness accounts of the explosion, but the American pilots had their roles played by actors and the real life pilots being interviewed varied from remorseful to gun-ho “they deserved it” types who quite frankly were pricks.  The captain of the Enola Gay who dropped the bomb was particularly callous and it was just downright tacky.

The documentary also seemed to focus more on the pilots and their pre-flight preparations rather than the actually people at Ground Zero and it seemed to take an age describing the bomb’s travel to the Pacific and the airfield they took off from and the fact that media were allowed access etc etc.  The story of the after effects on the ground was less than half of the documentary.

On the plus side, I find it unbelievable that some of the survivors interviewed were about 200m from the impact zone and that they weren’t vaporised in the blast or died from radiation.  Their stories were fascinating, but they were only explored piecemeal in a dramatised fashion.

I suppose, what do you expect from a show on at 10:30 on a Sunday night…