CLOSED

DUE TO GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

thanks for your time. goodnight.

Finally, Something Worth Blogging About

Many of you know how much i love Eurovision. Well, it was this weekend - and this is why:



Oh, it's a thing of strange beauty. There are few things in life so wonderfully cheesy: the staging, the silly dance numbers, the costumes (centurions!), the inane lyrics. What's not to love?

(of course, it didn't hurt that the winner, Norway's Alexander Rybak is easy on the eyes as well as a fine fiddler)

People think i'm taking the mickey when i tell them i love this. But i'm serious. Last year when i was in the states, i was seriously disappointed that i missed it. 500 odd TV channels, and not one was broadcasting the fun! One more reason i couldn't live there again!

My New Hero

Normally i despise reality tv in all its guises. But i cried when i saw this.

This Blog Is Now Closed

Why?

Two reasons: first, i never write any more and no one reads it. But more importantly, i've found god and don't need to blog any more.

Beat Poetry is not Dead

Slightly long, and a touch NSFW. But oh so worth it.

First Bushfires, Now Earthquakes?

Seriously, Melbourne is turning out to be a weird place these days.

Fortunately, the earthquake was of the "oh wow, did you feel that?" variety (4.7) rather than the "run for your life" variety.

Still, it's the first time I've been in a quake, and it was a very strange experience. The house shook for a few seconds and there was a very low pitched rumble. At first i thought - well, i don't know. It could have been a very large truck going by while the washing machine spun and the kids jumped off their beds, except it wasn't any of those things. The younglings were both in bed reading when it hit, and they both said it felt like someone was shaking the whole house. The whole thing was over pretty quickly, and i wasn't really sure that it really was a quake till good ole facebook was abuzz a few minutes later.

The USGS had a flash up on their site and one thing hit me when i read this: the epicentre was actually a fair distance from here - about 90 k. I imagine it would have been much more intense nearby!

Funny, Life

With most of my family and many friends up in old new england, I've been hearing a fair bit about the cold winter weather they've all been experiencing. As always, this strikes a contrast to the fact that it's high summer in these parts.

But this year it's even more so than usual.

Last week, we had a nasty heat wave with three days in a row all above 40C (well over that magic 100F number), which left us sweltering and the trees all dropping their leaves early in an effort to survive. (Our poor avocado tree out back which has been looking sad for some time looks like it may not have survived!). Melbourne tends to have at least a few exceedingly hot summer days, but this was extreme even for us.

That is, until yesterday.

Thankfully it was a Saturday, so most of us could bunker down and stay indoors. But just out of interest i popped outside a couple of times just to experience it. It was - and there's no other way to say this - brutal.

Before all was said and done, the mercury officially topped out at 46.4 C (115 F!) which was the hottest day in 150 years worth of records (blowing away an old record set in 1939). There were parts of the city that reported temperatures of 48, and it was even hotter inland away from the ocean. To top it all off, there was a fierce wind blowing, which, being that the air was hotter than your body, made it feel even hotter. When i opened my back door, it was like sticking your face into an oven. Seriously.

Mercifully, around dinner time we had Melbourne's other weather phenomenon kick in - 'the change'. For those who haven't experienced it, when the change happens the air temp drops dramatically, and very rapidly. In less than half an hour, it cooled from 46 to 30 C (86 F). It was bliss.

But though the city is past the worst of it, the heat (along with lightning) have set off some massive bushfires not far from here. The city itself isn't threatened (although i can smell the smoke), but a lot of country towns - including one of our favourite holiday destinations - have been devastated. We don't know what the death toll will be yet, but 'not low' seems like a safe assumption.

It's a funny old planet we have.

3 AM

It's an early start to the day - but totally worth it.

Waking up in the middle of the night to watch the inauguration is fitting in it's own way.

We're all waking up from a long and painful nightmare.

(Update) the younglings wanted to watch it too, so we snuggled up on the couch under a blanket and watched history being made.

As i post this update, the sun is just rising here. It's a beautiful new day.

In Case You Were Wondering

I'm still here.

The elbow's doing much better. in addition to the hairline fracture, it seems i might have done a bit of tendon damage, which resulted in occasional shooting pain down my forearm and a near constant pins and needles sensation which is slowly dissipating. But the good news is that i've got nearly full movement back. When i consider that a friend went in for surgery this week to have a kidney removed, i can't really complain about a sore arm that much.

It's summer here, though one of the coolest summers we've had in a while. I know you snowbound types won't find a lot of sympathy for our situation here (I'm looking at you Green), but it is what it is. Certainly didn't stop us going to the beach on xmas day and having a picnic, a swim, and a game of cricket.

Meanwhile, my dad is down for his annual visit, and i'm again reminded how well families get on when there's a bit of distance (say, like an ocean) between them. His new wife has (unintentionally, I'm sure) been pushing all my buttons. I actually wrote a long blog post about this but decided not to let it see the light of day. Just writing it was cathartic. Among other things, we just are too far apart on little things like politics and human rights and the rule of law. Let's just say that come January 20th, she's going to be firmly in disagreement about what a wonderful day it is.

Speaking of which, the noontime inauguration is actually 4 AM over these parts, but I'm definitely planning on being up and about for it. Like most of the world, I'm in countdown mode. As one of my favourite cartoonists, Tom Tomorrow put it: don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out George!

Happy Darwin Day Everyone

(and yes, my elbow is doing much better, thanks)

Posting Will Be Light For A While

I mean lighter than usual.

I came off my bike last night and seem to have broken my elbow. Thank goodness for socialised medicine. Unfortunately it was my left side, and being left handed, this makes it a bit hard to type and write (and wash dishes for that matter, but I'll survive). I'll be be right by new years.

I've never really been one for meme's

but this one really caught my attention. So I'm breaking a long standing rule and present the following:

My 'Other' Names

1. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names):

Francis Joyce

2. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother’s dad, father’s dad):

Joe Ralph

(or Giuseppe Ralph - but that sounds more grand prix than nascar)

3. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 2 letters of your last name, first 4 letters of your first name):

Barick

(oddly similar - is Obama really from Tatooine?)

4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal):

Purple Kangaroo

(no it doesn't really work, does it?)

5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you live):

Ralph Melbourne

(who I'm sure has an evil twin Sydney Raphael)

6. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite alcoholic drink, optionally add “THE” to the beginning):

The Red Vodka

(but what kind of tights should i wear?)

7. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name):

Ri-Ry

8. GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie):

Triple Chocolate Chocolate Chip

(or maybe 4C Chip?)

9. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pet’s name, current street name):

No Hope

(In as much as i don't have a pet. Kinda sounds like the front man for some Emo outfit)

10. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on):

(and this is my favourite of the list)

.
.
.

Fuzzy Pearl

Happy Birthday J-Man

11 Today

Wow

So as not to disappoint green

I should do my regular rant/screed about how we set aside days to honor murderers (known in polite society as 'veterans').

I was at a meeting today today at a fancy Collins Street law office (for non-melbournians, Collins Street is the money part of town) when 11 o'clock rolled around and the meeting stopped to observe a 'minute of silence' to honor those brave heroes blah blah blah... so i made it point to unceremoniously get up and use the time to go to the toilet.

I'm not impressed by all you old men wandering around in uniforms reminiscing about the good old days of killing people who don't look like you.

Some people say remembrance day is about recognising the tragedy of war. Here's a hint. Stop fighting them, then maybe I'll believe that's what it's about.



Up next: i might post some halloween pics (which i didn't get around to as i was too focused on the pending return of democracy to my homeland)

I Woke Up This Morning

Laid in bed for a moment or so

Then a thought came into my head:

President Elect Barack Obama

It's a good day.

My Small Contribution to the Process

Assuming that Australia Post did their bit, I've at least tried to be a good citizen.

Just kidding!

Here's hoping!

with just days to go...

Found over at Gab's Place. Who i really must link to, even if i didn't make it to her party (though i did randomly run in to her last night - another one of those Melbourne things).

A Brief Glimpse Into AG's Professional Life

can be found here.

I've been in another of my blogging funks lately

Seems to happens every few months as i slowly but inevitably reach the point where this thing will be completely mothballed one day.

But we're not there quite yet.

I've read two things recently that have really caught my interest.

The first was an excerpt from an article in Scientific American titled Never Say Die: Why We Can't Imagine Death. The article is longish, but intensely fascinating and goes on at length about why we - weather we have some concept of an afterlife or not - struggle with the concept of death. And there was one line in particular that really caught my attention:

Consider the rather startling fact that you will never know you have died. You may feel yourself slipping away, but it isn’t as though there will be a “you” around who is capable of ascertaining that, once all is said and done, it has actually happened.

Now, i've spent a fair bit of time contemplating death (had i been born 20 years later, i would have been an emo kid) and often find myself down the rabbit hole of what non-existence actually means. But this simple two sentence statement really stopped me dead (pardon the pun) in my tracks. It was one of those powerful moments where you suddenly realise that there's something big - some major mystery - that despite you thinking that you have a pretty good understanding of an issue, you've somehow missed.

I've been trying to digest this, tossing it around in my head for a couple of days now, and it's really knocking me about. But this morning, as i lay in bed, it started to coalesce into something that i can accept. I've often said that part of being an atheist is that i find the finality of death comforting in its own way - not thinking about 'what's next' but acknowledging that there is no next. And this - now that I'm starting to get a feel for it, this adds a new dimension to my thinking, but in it's own way is also rather comforting.

As for the second - and admittedly much less profound item that caught my eye?

Nicholas Kristof, writing in the New York Times, has a list of good things about an economic downturn:

A recession could save your life. Christopher Ruhm, an economist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, argues that death rates go down during economic slowdowns. Professor Ruhm’s research indicates that suicides rise but total mortality rates drop, as do deaths from heart attacks, car accidents, pneumonia and most other causes. ... Some experts are skeptical. But in downturns we drive less and so car accidents decline, while less business activity means fewer job accidents and less pollution. Moreover, in recessions people have more leisure time and seem to smoke less, exercise more and eat more healthily.

So that's my thoughts on life and death for the day.

For much of my life, people have thought that I'm Jewish.

If i were, i would SO like to get involved in this.


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

And yes, i know that i still could, but none of my relatives live in swing states anyways.