The Evil Empire is Dead and we have their Booze!

Gloria! Gloria! (do do-do-do-do-do-do do-do-do-do-do do-do-do) Gloria! Gloria! ect.

Well the results are in (enough of them at any rate) and Labor has well and truly won the election! Here ends John Howard’s evil reign of terror! Let Kevin Rudd’s evil reign of terror begin!

What’s more it looks like Howard may have lost his seat, which would make him only the second Prime Minister in Australian history to do so – the last being Bruce in the 1920s (by the way, isn’t it cool that one of our Prime Ministers was named ‘Bruce‘? πŸ™‚

In addition there seems to have been quite a swing to the Greens here in Western Australia (at least that’s the impression I get from Kerry O’Brian – in between his snide comments about the behaviour of the press teams from the other networks). Not enough for them to get a seat of course, but it’s a start and might make some people sit up and take notice.

The only thing that could really make the night complete would be for the minor parties to get control of the Senate. It doesn’t seem very likely since the self destruction of the Democrats a few years back, but we can live in hope.

(Hmmm, iTunes just served up Handel’s Gloria and See the Conquering Hero Comes, and the New Pornographers’ The Laws Have Changed. Coincidence? πŸ™‚

One More Day

One more day ’till revolution, if they don’t nip it in the bud, He went on Rove for all the schoolkids, so they’ll vote for Kevin Rudd

Well, tomorrow it’s the Federal Election when (with a bit of luck) we’ll finally get rid of Howard and the Coalition after ten long years. The polls are all suggesting a Labor landslide so my hopes are up, although I’m not going to tempt fate by calling it yet. Tomorrow’s going to be an interesting day for us all…

Of course I don’t expect that things will be any better under Labor – I’m not an idiot. But at least it’ll mean a new team in control of things. There was actually a very good essay on the subject of long serving governments in one of the papers yesterday. I can’t seem to find a copy of it but the basic point was that once a given party’s been in power for more than about eight years it tends to go nuts and think that it has some kind of God-given mandate to do whatever it likes – usually under the guise of “the will of the people” – and will do absolutely anything to hold onto power. So you need to make sure the government changes before that happens. Frankly that’s exactly what seems to have happened with the coalition over the last few years (Workchoices anyone?), so we desperately need to throw them out and start over.

Anyway one good thing about being this close to the election is that there’s no more political advertising on the TV or radio. Federal law or common sense or old charter or something prohibits it for two days before the actual election. Supposedly this is to allow the voters uninterrupted time to mull things over, but I suspect it’s to prevent politicians out on the hustings from being murdered by members of the public driven crazy by the incessant name-calling, shouting and propaganda flooding out of their screens. Not to mention the written and authorised by joe bloggs for the australian loonies party canberra gabbled out at breakneck speed at the end of each add. It’s been particularly bad this year – I’ve noticed that whenever the subject of the election has come up in conversation people aren’t discussing the issues, they just complain about the adds.

In any case the day is almost here and in terms of my own electorate there’s a good range of candidates standing. We’ve got Greens and Socialists, Christians and Independants, and even a contingent from the CEC, who I hoped might be the Centre for Elephant Conservation (they’d get my vote!), but turned out to be a bunch of conspiracy cranks led by Lyndon LaRouche who claim that anyone who criticises them is a tool of the Queen’s Privy Council (or at least that’s what Wikipedia implies, and why would they lie?). There’s also the usual fifty odd candidates for the Senate – I’ve got things to do tomorrow so I don’t think I’ll spend all morning numbering them individually below the line.

One more sleep and it’s all over (bar the counting, analysis and Chaser roundup). I have the strangest urge to hum One More Day πŸ˜€

A Pointless Observation

They changed the theme music! Significance!

As all should know, in the United States the theme music for television’s House is the song Teardrops by Massive Attack. Everywhere else (for copyright reasons) they use a similar piece of music – originally composed for the end theme of the show – instead.

However, last week’s episode (which I taped and have only just got around to watching) had the Massive Attack theme!

So, will this anomaly continue in tonight’s episode (which I probably won’t get around to watching until the weekend)? And what does it all mean?

In a Perfect World…

Wookiee holo-chess eat your heart out!

Chess would be a lot more interesting if you had a set that like the one in the video clip for Puscifer’s Queen B

Queen B Chess

(There’s some mild CGI animated demonic nudity, so probably NSFW or delicate minds)

In a perfect world your chess pieces would do funky co-ordinated war dances before moving, the bishops would be drunkards, and the pawns would hop like toads! πŸ™‚

Not Everyone is Named Steve

Wheat wheat wheat wheat!

From time to time at work we run tests on our client’s email forms to make sure that they’re working properly. This involves sending some test messages ourselves, and keeping an eye on actual messages going through the system for a short while.

Now today we were doing exactly this when someone sent a message through to a client (professional courtesy forbids me from saying who), asking a whole bunch of highly technical questions about one of their products. This is nothing unusual, but what caught my eye was the name of the person sending it. Emer.

Yes, Emer.

Now, naturally I would never be crazy enough to do do anything of the sort, but my head was filled with visions of replying to this email on the client’s behalf. The correspondance would go something like this…


To: info@[somecompany].com.au
Subject: Xyz123 Details

Hi,

I was wanting some information about the Xyz123. Is it compatible with the Astora PQ interface, and if so what version? I’ve been told there are some problems with version 4. Also are the EDO plugs gold standard or platinum, and does it come with Sable pre-installed? And does the interface meet ISO 2365? If you can let me know I’ll be very interested in making a purchase.

Thanks, Emer


To: emer@example.com
Subject: Re: Xyz123 Details

Hi Emer,

Did you know you’re named after wheat?

Regards
The Team at [Some Company]


Can you imagine Emer’s face when he/she opens the reply!? Can you!?! πŸ˜€

I’ve been stupidly busy at both work and home recently, hence the lack of updates. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some time for writing and emailing soon.

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