Disordered Thoughts and Curmudgeonly Ramblings
The West should be Ashamed
This post from the Worst of Perth,
a) Says something really important about the decline of print news
b) Says something really important about the West Australian (although frankly it’s nothing we didn’t know already…)
c) Almost sounds like Spider Jerusalem
These can only be good things.
I’ve avoided any political blogging for a bit because it’s all been up in the air since the election. To recap – we’ve ended up with a hung parliament with a bunch of Independents (and one Green) set to decide who’s going to form government. The Green and some of the Independents have already made their choices, leaving just three holdouts to decide the fate of the nation.
Well, today these three are set to reveal their choice. What’s interesting is that one of them – the, shall we say ‘somewhat eccentric’ Bob Katter – has broken ranks and announced that he’s supporting Tony Abbot and the Liberal/National Coalition a full hour before the scheduled press conference. This puts the Coalition and Labor neck and neck on 74 seats.
So, does this mean that the other two Independents are supporting Julia Gillard and Labor, and Katter’s decided he doesn’t want to be associated with them? Or that all three are supporting the Coalition and Bob Katter is just being Bob Katter and jumping the gun for his own Bob Katterish reasons?
Stay tuned…
Later: Katter has now said if the other two go for Labor, he might change his mind…
Later: Tony Windsor has come out for Labor (he likes Broadband and Renewable Energy). Labor leads 75 to 74. The Coalition cannot form government!
Later: Windsor is still talking. He’s never going to have an audience this big again and he’s milking it for all he can get…
Still Later: A work colleague is going to register “tonywindsorpleaseshutup.com”
Again Later: Finally. Now for Rob Oakshot.
Later Later Later: It’s “there can be only one”, get your pop-cultural references right!
Later Still: Oakshot’s as bad as Tony!
Later: We don’t care about your children! Tell us who’s PM!!
Laaaaaateeeeeer: C’mon!
LATER: This is worse than Who Wants to be a Millionaire
later later later later: You can equivocate later! Just give us a damn answer you fool!
Later: We want to go home tonight too!!
Later: i can has gubermint plz?
Later: Finally! Labor has 76 seats! Labor and Julia Gillard it is! Hooray! (Mind you at this point I’d be happy with a new election just to stop Oakfield talking…)
WE HAVE A GOVERNMENT!!!
Your gene pool needs a little chlorine…
No. That’s what’s known as a pre-existing condition.
Election round up (of sorts) and things I must get done
Well that was a bit of an anticlimax. A hung parliament with power in the hands of a bunch of rural independents and one Green. Both Labor and the Libs are doing their best to cosy up to them, so it’ll be interesting to see who ends up forming government. At least the Greens managed to get up in the Senate – once the change over happens they’ll pretty much have total control of disputed legislation which can only be a good thing.
Bah. Politics.
There are a number of things I really have to do.
The first four are at least feasible ;D
Regular readers (if there are any) will have noticed that I haven’t been updating on the weekends recently. There is a reason for this but I’m not yet ready to reveal it. I will however quote the Child and say “Things are going to change!”
Here we go again…
I’ve avoided blogging about tomorrow’s federal election so far, mostly since the campaigns have been pretty lacklustre and the differences between Labor and Liberal policies minimal at best. That said I’d prefer Gillard to get back in if only because Labor has made some kind of commitment to fighting climate change, whereas Abbott is on record as describing it as “a load of crap” (not that Labor’s policy is great, but it’s better than the Libs’).
There’s also something about Abbott I just don’t trust. I can’t pin it down but he comes across as sinister – as if he’s playing nice for the cameras but rubbing his hands and plotting something nefarious in the shadows. Sure, I wouldn’t trust Gillard as far as I could throw her, but being alone in a room with her wouldn’t give me the crawling heebie-jeebies the way Abbott would.
At least the blackout came in the other day, which means the TV and radio waves have been free of the endless campaign ads that’ve been driving us all mad. I tell you, if I hear one more scaremongering spiel about THE BOATS I think I’ll knock someone’s hat off with a cane (I’d have to procure a cane first of course, but I’m so sick of it all that I’d be more than willing to do so).
My ideal outcome tomorrow? Labor in the Lower House, Greens in the Senate. But honestly any outcome where the Mad Monk isn’t PM is OK with me.
Here comes the new boss…
Well, I’m near death with swine-bird-buffallo flu (by which I mean a minor cold) and so not going to write much, but I can’t let the appointment of Australia’s first female PM pass unmentioned. Shame it was done via leadership upset rather than an election, but it’s still a start.
Now let’s see some movement on asylum seekers, climate change and killing off that internet filter eh?
Well where else would you expect to find a nut?
A comment from my work colleague Daniel about the Tree Man.
“If he’d worked for those four months he could of paid to have the tree moved into his backyard”
It’s natural disaster time!
Well, yesterday afternoon Perth was hit with the biggest storm in, well certainly over a decade, and according to some people since records began. While it didn’t affect my part of Bayswater much, some parts of the city were absolutely pummeled with howling gales, pounding rain and hailstones the size of golf balls (yes that’s a cliche, but seriously, they were actually as big as golf balls). There was flash flooding, lightning strikes and even a landslide on Mount Eliza which blocked Mounts Bay road and buried a bunch of apartments chest deep in mud.
It happened to be my day off yesterday so I missed the excitement at the office when the roof of the light well shattered under the onslaught and the storm poured in, smashing windows and flooding the ground floor. Happily my colleagues took plenty of photos which they’ve given me leave to put up on my Flickr stream (which I shall do in due course).
Nedlands was absolutely pummeled. The trees have been almost completely stripped of foliage, and in some cases bark. At UWA the 80 year old stained glass windows of Winthrop Hall have been almost completely destroyed and a retaining wall at the new semi-sunken library building collapsed – filling the place with at least a foot of mud. In Subiaco the pavements along Rokeby road were solid green with leaves ripped from the plane trees and both my morning and afternoon buses had to divert around roads with downed power lines. The total estimated damage is over 100 million dollars and the city has been declared an official natural disaster zone.
Fun.
Oh, and on the way back through Subiaco I saw a man chase a rat out of his store with a broom. I don’t know if this was connected to the storm, but it is worthy of note. Apparently (according to the bus driver) when they demolished the old TAFE College a few months ago they didn’t bother to poison all the rats first, with the result that the cheery little fellows dispersed through the surrounding area. This particular rodent took cover in the next shop along (a high class clothing boutique) and the shopkeeper seemed content with this situation, leaving it to its own devices.
Some of my storm photos are up on Flickr, the rest will be up soon. Ish.
Rush Limbaugh on the other can’t devolve any further…
Well, America has finally moved into the 20th century. Well done guys!
I wonder how Glen Beck will react? I’m betting on incoherent gibbering, twitching and howling followed by devolution into some kind of lobster-like creature live on air.
Something positive for a change…
Hollis Hawthorne is back on deck!
Maybe now she can pay back that money I sent her… (joke! joke! I swear!!) 😀
On the work front I sent the boss a long email yesterday explaining why I can’t continue to do the job I find myself doing. I’m not quitting the company – I’m just divesting myself (or trying to divest myself) of some of the responsibilities I’ve been wrestling with for the last year or so.
I realised over the weekend that the reason I’ve been feeling so wrung out for months is because I’m simply not up to the task allocated to me, and the stress of trying to carry it out has been eating away at me 24/7. This is why my apartment looks like a tip, why I’m not sleeping properly and why I’ve been increasingly anti-social of late. So I’m kicking it to the curb and going back to being a simple programmer again. I hope.
I’m still waiting for a reply. Wish me luck…
