Sunday, February 8, 2009
Donations
You can donate to the Red Cross if you would like to help. (thanks to Pavlov's Cat for the link)
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Fires
Can't do anything to help, can't look away.
I had this feeling when the Premier and the CFA were warning people on Friday how awful Saturday that being aware would equal being prepared, and that nothing would happen.
I'd say it'll be good when it's over, except that for some people it's not going to be over for such a long time.
I had this feeling when the Premier and the CFA were warning people on Friday how awful Saturday that being aware would equal being prepared, and that nothing would happen.
I'd say it'll be good when it's over, except that for some people it's not going to be over for such a long time.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Stimulation
You know, I reckon we've all become a little distracted with this whole infrastructure thing. While some ideas are A1 - you can't argue with more public housing, for example - I think we might be forgetting other economy stimulating ideas. If I was spending $42 billion (said in a loud and surprised tone of voice) I would spend some on intellectual infrastructure (I just made this term up for myself).
Also, despite the fact that I am looking forward to my $950 (not that it sounds like much compared to $42 billion), I would vastly prefer it to be spent on providing better government services. Free universal dental care anyone?
Anyway. My intellectual infrastructure would consist of income support while people go to university to train in Useful and Worthy occupations. I include such things as teachers, doctors, nurses and ambulance officers. I also include writers, social researchers (even the ones who do statistics) and artists. Apprentices too, plumbers, electricians, builders and cheese makers. My plan will solve several problems. It'll reduce old friend skills shortage that the PM was yarning about a year or so ago, it'll keep the unemployment figures down (which governments like), it'll stimulate the economy (because there is nothing like young folk for short-term irresponsible spending) and it'll contribute to the general value and niceness of our society and culture. Of course not only young people will take advantage of this offer. It's open to people of all ages for re-training, more training and training about trains (a skill-set clearly lacking in some large urban areas of Australia).
I'm not sure about more training for economists or those people who do 'modelling' but they are welcome to learn some more about nineteenth century French literature or jazz if they wish.
Other things I would spend bucket loads of cash on are restoring that 'universal' bit to the healthcare system so that poor people can actually go to the doctor whenever they need to, restoring and improving public transport, building bike paths off roads and forcefully resuming all properties along the Brisbane river and turning the lot into parks and community centres.
That'll do for now. Any suggestions welcome, just in case I ever find myself as the Dictator of Australia.
Also, despite the fact that I am looking forward to my $950 (not that it sounds like much compared to $42 billion), I would vastly prefer it to be spent on providing better government services. Free universal dental care anyone?
Anyway. My intellectual infrastructure would consist of income support while people go to university to train in Useful and Worthy occupations. I include such things as teachers, doctors, nurses and ambulance officers. I also include writers, social researchers (even the ones who do statistics) and artists. Apprentices too, plumbers, electricians, builders and cheese makers. My plan will solve several problems. It'll reduce old friend skills shortage that the PM was yarning about a year or so ago, it'll keep the unemployment figures down (which governments like), it'll stimulate the economy (because there is nothing like young folk for short-term irresponsible spending) and it'll contribute to the general value and niceness of our society and culture. Of course not only young people will take advantage of this offer. It's open to people of all ages for re-training, more training and training about trains (a skill-set clearly lacking in some large urban areas of Australia).
I'm not sure about more training for economists or those people who do 'modelling' but they are welcome to learn some more about nineteenth century French literature or jazz if they wish.
Other things I would spend bucket loads of cash on are restoring that 'universal' bit to the healthcare system so that poor people can actually go to the doctor whenever they need to, restoring and improving public transport, building bike paths off roads and forcefully resuming all properties along the Brisbane river and turning the lot into parks and community centres.
That'll do for now. Any suggestions welcome, just in case I ever find myself as the Dictator of Australia.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
School and work, work and school
Apart from anything else, I clearly have the best deal of anyone in the family since I go to air conditioned work every day. And though I am not in favour of air conditioning as a general principle, once the degrees get above 34 or so my principles melt away.
The Noodle is back at school this week. Same bat class room. Same bat teacher. Different bat grade.
He was rather anxious in the beginning, but seems to have slipped back into the routine without issues once the hurdle of turning up on the first day was gotten over (or knocked down or whatever it is people do with hurdles these days). Of course, the fact that the weather seems determined to boil or bake everyone alive is unhelpful to the learning process. I would report on what it is he does at school but I don't know because he never tells me. I thought that this only happened in the teenage years.
I started in my new area at work two weeks ago. I have been learning lots and lots and lots. I'm not convinced I understand some of it yet, even though it is easier to learn in the air conditioning. It's not really a very new area, since I've moved about five metres from my old spot, but it's new enough to be challenging.
Next week we have a new graduate starting in our section. So I'll be the ex-graduate. I hope I can sustain my imitation of a grown up.
The Noodle is back at school this week. Same bat class room. Same bat teacher. Different bat grade.
He was rather anxious in the beginning, but seems to have slipped back into the routine without issues once the hurdle of turning up on the first day was gotten over (or knocked down or whatever it is people do with hurdles these days). Of course, the fact that the weather seems determined to boil or bake everyone alive is unhelpful to the learning process. I would report on what it is he does at school but I don't know because he never tells me. I thought that this only happened in the teenage years.
I started in my new area at work two weeks ago. I have been learning lots and lots and lots. I'm not convinced I understand some of it yet, even though it is easier to learn in the air conditioning. It's not really a very new area, since I've moved about five metres from my old spot, but it's new enough to be challenging.
Next week we have a new graduate starting in our section. So I'll be the ex-graduate. I hope I can sustain my imitation of a grown up.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
$950
I'm wondering which person came up with that number, and how they figured it out.
Did they decide how much they were going to spend all together and divide it by the amount of 'low and middle income earners' in Australia? Or did they think, it's nearly $1000, but a bit less, so we don't sound extravagant.
Or was it this:
Did they decide how much they were going to spend all together and divide it by the amount of 'low and middle income earners' in Australia? Or did they think, it's nearly $1000, but a bit less, so we don't sound extravagant.
Or was it this:
HIGGINS. I suppose we must give him a fiver.
PICKERING. He'll make a bad use of it, I'm afraid.
DOOLITTLE. Not me, Governor, so help me I wont. Dont you be afraid that I'll save it and spare it and live idle on it. There wont be a penny of it left by Monday: I'll have to go to work same as if I'd never had it. It wont pauperize me, you bet. Just one good spree for myself and the missus, giving pleasure to ourselves and employment to others, and satisfaction to you to think it's not been throwed away. You couldnt spend it better.
HIGGINS [taking out his pocket book and coming between Doolittle and the piano] This is irresistible. Lets give him ten. [He offers two notes to the dustman].
DOOLITTLE. No, Governor. She wouldnt have the heart to spend ten; and perhaps I shouldnt neither. Ten pounds is a lot of money: it makes a man feel prudent like; and then goodbye to happiness. You give me what I ask you, Governor: not a penny more, and not a penny less.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Howl's Moving Castle
So I arrive home to find that the Noodle has polished off Castle in the Air while I was at work.
Part of me thinks 'haha, my cunning plan is working' and part of me thinks 'aa-aaaw, but I wanted to read that'.
So now I am reading him Howl's Moving Castle. And life is good.
Part of me thinks 'haha, my cunning plan is working' and part of me thinks 'aa-aaaw, but I wanted to read that'.
So now I am reading him Howl's Moving Castle. And life is good.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Castle in the Air
Right now I'm reading Diana Wynne Jones's Castle in the Air as the Noodle's bed time book. I really love Diana Wynne Jones, but I had a really hard time choosing one as a read-aloud. Partly because the Noodle's taste in books is so determinedly different to mine, and partly because he is really quite young yet.
The first one I thought of was Charmed Life, but I just couldn't imagine myself reading out Gwendolyn's betrayal of Cat. Likewise The Lives of Christopher Chant and his dreadful, dreadful parents and uncle. Although the cricketing angle would certainly appeal.
The first book of Jones's I ever read was Dogsbody. I think Iwas eight or nine, so I guess it was in about 1980 or so. I loved it, but I was utterly devastated by the tragedies of the story. Not so much by the bleak treatment of the little girl, but by the fear and grief of the puppy. For many years I didn't realise that many of the books I'd really enjoyed from the library were by the same author. I read A Tale of Time City and The Homeward Bounders and both really stuck in my head. Although it never occurred to me that Homeward Bounders was started out in Britain. I assumed it was set in Sydney, which tells you alot about Australian's children's literature in the 1980s.
I don't think it was until I picked up Cart and Cwidder and Drowned Ammet that I started to figure it out, and I was well a teenager by then. I've pretty much spent the rest of my life collecting the books - some new, some secondhand and sometimes more than one edition, just because. I always felt slightly guilty that if I was honest I would surely bring The Spellcoats or Charmed Life to a desert island rather than, say, Jane Eyre.
I suspect I'm being a bit oversensitive about the Noodle. All of Jones's books contain horrendous families, with neglect and oppression being widespread. Even the nicer families in some of her books, like The Merlin Conspiracy, don't notice a lot of what is going on with the children. No doubt as the Noodle gets a bit older he'll manage more of them. If he's interested.
He's enjoying Castle in the Air very much indeed. The only reason I didn't pick Howl's Moving Castle is because I thought he might completely miss Sophie falling in love, which rather dampens a lot of the humour. It's not possible in Castle in the Air. Things are spelled out very clearly indeed, from the dishonest soldier, Abdullah's love for Flower-in-the-Night and the ridiculousness of the soldier's wishing to marry a princess who turns out to be a screaming, tantrum-throwing toddler. The Noodle has been laughing like a drain. I didn't actually read this book until I was an adult, and it's certainly not one of my favourites (what with the broad humour and even broader stereotypes), but a lot of it is damned funny. Especially as Abdullah's day dreams spiral more and more out of control as other people get in on the act.
I sometimes worry that the kid will only ever read humour. And then I remember that he's only seven, and my favourite book at that age was a biography of the Wright Brothers from the Scholastic catalogue. I guess I'll just have to let him decide for himself (sigh) because, as many of you know, the recommendation from the mother is the kiss of boredom and disengagement.
The first one I thought of was Charmed Life, but I just couldn't imagine myself reading out Gwendolyn's betrayal of Cat. Likewise The Lives of Christopher Chant and his dreadful, dreadful parents and uncle. Although the cricketing angle would certainly appeal.
The first book of Jones's I ever read was Dogsbody. I think Iwas eight or nine, so I guess it was in about 1980 or so. I loved it, but I was utterly devastated by the tragedies of the story. Not so much by the bleak treatment of the little girl, but by the fear and grief of the puppy. For many years I didn't realise that many of the books I'd really enjoyed from the library were by the same author. I read A Tale of Time City and The Homeward Bounders and both really stuck in my head. Although it never occurred to me that Homeward Bounders was started out in Britain. I assumed it was set in Sydney, which tells you alot about Australian's children's literature in the 1980s.
I don't think it was until I picked up Cart and Cwidder and Drowned Ammet that I started to figure it out, and I was well a teenager by then. I've pretty much spent the rest of my life collecting the books - some new, some secondhand and sometimes more than one edition, just because. I always felt slightly guilty that if I was honest I would surely bring The Spellcoats or Charmed Life to a desert island rather than, say, Jane Eyre.
I suspect I'm being a bit oversensitive about the Noodle. All of Jones's books contain horrendous families, with neglect and oppression being widespread. Even the nicer families in some of her books, like The Merlin Conspiracy, don't notice a lot of what is going on with the children. No doubt as the Noodle gets a bit older he'll manage more of them. If he's interested.
He's enjoying Castle in the Air very much indeed. The only reason I didn't pick Howl's Moving Castle is because I thought he might completely miss Sophie falling in love, which rather dampens a lot of the humour. It's not possible in Castle in the Air. Things are spelled out very clearly indeed, from the dishonest soldier, Abdullah's love for Flower-in-the-Night and the ridiculousness of the soldier's wishing to marry a princess who turns out to be a screaming, tantrum-throwing toddler. The Noodle has been laughing like a drain. I didn't actually read this book until I was an adult, and it's certainly not one of my favourites (what with the broad humour and even broader stereotypes), but a lot of it is damned funny. Especially as Abdullah's day dreams spiral more and more out of control as other people get in on the act.
I sometimes worry that the kid will only ever read humour. And then I remember that he's only seven, and my favourite book at that age was a biography of the Wright Brothers from the Scholastic catalogue. I guess I'll just have to let him decide for himself (sigh) because, as many of you know, the recommendation from the mother is the kiss of boredom and disengagement.
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