Elvis Who?

My next door neighbour is from a small village in India.
He came over here not so long ago to an arranged marriage to his beautiful wife.
I was talking to hima whil ago and made a joke about Elvis having left the building.
He replied Elvis who?
I said you know Elvis Presley "The King","The White Nigger",you know Heartbreak Hotel and several hundred other hits.
He said no he didn't know this man.
I was astounded, dumbfounded even.
So I asked what about the Beatles?
He looked at me blankly.
You know "I wanna hold your hand", Sergeant Peppers,Fab Four, Mop Tops....
Sorry he said.
They worked with Ravi Shanker....
Oh this man I have heard of, he replied.
We make so many cultural assumptions, not just and people from different places but from different time periods as well.
My Indian neighbour speaks english pretty well but knows no Rock n' Roll.
I have had a similer experiences with other friends who you do a Doctor Smith and the robot impersonation at (from the 1960s TV show lost in space) and they look at you blankly.They never saw it ,only the film version which was quite different.
Which just goes to prove the old saying
"Don't assume -it makes an ass out of U and me".

Bloggers use their heads, not lose their heads

Well I'm back here again.
I must admit I'd had a kind of bloggers block caused in some small part by Mr G.Reaper who seems to have been harvesting souls near by.
Must return to the saddle of my trusty blog, dust off my spurs and barbs and head up a posse of thoughts your way.
Ever read the real story of Easter Island?
The Polynesians who landed on this most isolated of islands found a fertile forested paradise and their population soon swelled. To amuse themselves or as some sort of inter tribal art competition they started to build large statues called Moai and as competition heated up they made bigger and bigger ones. We suspect they used the forest trees to transport these heads all over the island. Shortly before European contact they cut down the last tree and their population crashed perhaps due to the fact they could fish anymore coz they also used the trees to make canoes. So they spiraled down into war and canibalism.
You can pretty much see the whole Island from the top of the mountain in the middle,
which means they knew they were cutting down the last tree.
Why didn't they maybe leave a few standing? Because to paraphrase a prominent American -The Easter Island way of life was not negotiable.Their society was doomed by group think, a herachical structure where perhaps no one spoke out.
Of course they didn't have Bloggers either.
Increasingly the voices reporting events from inside some of the worlds closed societies, the people saying hey maybe we should keep a few trees on the island, are bloggers.Including the Middle East amongst other places.
Heres a nice example of Arab lady who speaks her mind.
Of course she is risking her liberty and perhaps her life to publish this.
I only hope shes read Handbook for bloggers put out by Reporters without Borders.
We can only wish her good luck and safe passage and maybe an invisiblity cloak!

Two Funerals and a Creepy Lake

Been to two funerals in a week. I like wearing black but this is ridiculous, both sad days of not knowing what to say.All the big questions and what ifs come up at funerals but Life is a mystery and even more so is death.Of the two funerals, the less religious one for my dear auntie was actually much better, no spruiking for converts, just a celebration of someones life. Both choked me up because although there is often a lot fibbing about what a great person such and such was at these things both of these human beings were truly wonderful and my world seems duller without them even though I only saw them occasionally.
Permanence is the great myth. All things will pass. Change is the only constant much as we humans try to deny this. Yet we live as if we had all the time in the world.

Recorded a podcast on the way down to Canberra yesterday in the car. Which was an excellent way to pass the time and talk about obscure music facts and future projects although I'm not sure about the background noise. Note to self buy a Prius for future podcasting- they are sposed to be almost silent.Also not sure about the impact on my driving ,searching for CDs etc wilst careering along at god knows what speed.
Must mention spooky Lake George.The lake doesn't exist at the moment, it comes and goes depending on rainfall I guess. Driving along this non lake is always a spooky creepy experience for me and my brothers. It is the last place in the world I would want to breakdown. We always told ghost stories along this stretch, they have been several dissapearances and phantom hitchhikers and the strange encounter with the girl in the red cape as well as a whole canoe of sea scouts who drown there. So I'm wondering is this just us or does everyone feel this creepy vibe along that stretch of road?
Try it and see,just don't break down and remember the urban legend -whatever you do don't look back.

An Antipodean Gentleman retires from the fray

You may have heard of the untimely death of one G.W.Mclennan of the Australian group The Go-betweens.
I was privileged to record an album Snow Job for this great lyricist and songwriter in the early nineties.
He was such a incredible gentleman of the sort that is now rare and which I can only aspire too.
A true romantic, a lover of love,music, women and books not nec. in that order.
We used to sing great harmonies together.
You were always a pleasure to spend time with.
You introduced me to some other great musicians and friends and novelists.
The candle that burns twice as bright only burns half as long I guess.
Hope you are hanging out with George Harrison and Kurt Cobain.
You left your mark on us and the world.
Be seeing you.

Bloggers are people too

Rather proud of some of the blogging that is going on in my classes.
There is some really interesting writing going on.
Some times the English is a little out there but who am I to talk.
Really I feel like I am in some sort of Sci -Fi cybernovel and feel very honored to be at the birth of a new generation of thinkers/dreamers.
Blog on you crazey Diamonds.
This is an interesting rasp on the price of petrol. Want to know how much energy is in a barrel of oil? About the same as a slave who worked for you 12 hours a day for 12 years and we get that for a measly $70. We are bloated on oil like the Maori were on moa birds before they went extinctomundo.
Yes although I like to adher to the myth of the noble savage and have several lovely Maori friends they made a few mistakes back in NZ. They ate their way through Eden and started on each other like a real life nation-wide lord of the flies.
Of course petrol is gonna get more expensive which doesn't worry me so much coz I've got a little Honda that sniffs petrol rather frugally. Also I can't wait for all those sorry mothers in their Toorak tractors who terrorized me much worse than Osama to abandon them on the side of the road.
Finally a cele-braty blogger . The man who writes Boing Boing a huge blog that would be worthy of a critique released his first book under a creative commons license. It's great read if your interested in aquiring stuff which I guess we all are.
What does blogging consume?
A little elect trickery and a lot of time.

Holiday in the Vic Alps

Look I don't want to bore you with holiday snaps but I feel it is my duty to point out this primo holiday destination with a few photos.
The Victorian Alps are an amazing place in Autumn. Lots of trees in a multitude of hues, berry farms and wineries and large (for Australia ) mountains.
I did a bit of trout fishing and manged to catch two (Alas at the trout farm).
Still delicious with fresh chestnuts and a mescal salad.
Oh and there was snow on Mt.Hotham which was totally great for the kids who managed to get soaking wet in a couple of minutes.
Theres my holiday plug-only seven hours by car from Sydney!

Modern life is a chinese puzzle

Looks like bloggers are the disproportionate makers of news and purveyors of influence acording to this article We are "influentuals" and you can ignore us at your peril. Of course the CIA being an intelligence agency have already figured this out.They trawl the blogospherelooking for clues and weapons of mass destruction. As one of the class found out the internet is a very public domain and you don't have to hold a seance to attract spooks.
The price of petrol is in the news again. It has rocketed from $10 a barrel in 1998 to over $70 a barrel today. Ask yourself why? Perhaps it is because we have picked all the easy fruit off the oil tree and now we have to clamber up the trnk amongst the thorns to get the fruit that's left.Don't believe me ? Read what "Rich Dad/Poor Dad has to say about it. He wouldn't lie to ya.
Which is why I'm taking my family on a road trip to the Victorian Alps for some walking and maybe some trout fishing.
Yes I know hypocrisy is the grease on wheels of our society.
Because I'm not just using petrol we may need to grow food and medicine, I'm also creating greenhouse gaseswhich will ruin the party for everyone.
Help me out of this morale dilema please.
Surely the rainforest I'm planting gets me off the hook?
And the worm farm that must be worth something too?
And that time I walked to the shops?

A Python Falls from the Sky

Went for a big walk in the Royal on sunday.
20 kms from Waterfall down to Lady Carrington and back to Audley then up the hill home.
We were walking through this lush rainforest when something crashed down out of the canopy.
"Look out theres a big snake fallen out of the trees" says Mike nervously from behind me.
"Yeah , sure there is" I say.
But there was and it was huge.
What are the hances of that ?Right in front of my feet .A beautiful 15 foot diamond python that had caught a flying fox and proceeded to crush it in it's coils.
We watched tranfixed.



Nature is cruel and takes no prisoners.
I take a few photos.
Don't get too close my friends say.
It's OK I know parseltounge.
It might bite they warn.
Maybe we should have lunch I say.









So we eat our lunch while the snake eats his.
Two coincidences.
My previous post was about a bat and I am currently reading a book on Monty Python.
Does this mean I am the new David Attenborough?
Or should I take up comedy?
Snakes don't fall at your feet every day you know!

Australia is a bat

In case you didn't realize Australia is the Saudi Arabia of uranium.
We have huge amounts of the stuff up north.
Soon we'll be selling the stuff to China and India or Chindia as some people have been calling these to new kids on the economic block.
Of course viewed in the long scale of human history they aren't new kids but great empires that had a couple of hundred years off.
Some supporters of Uranium mining claim it is better to risk radiation poisoning than global warming.
There is a couple of conundrums ( very tricksy puzzle) posed here.
Before WW2 we had a Primeminister called Pig Iron Bob who had no problem selling scrap iron to the Japanese who were at that time raping Nanking and soon would be bombing Darwin.
Now hopefully China and Taiwan will have a full moon party, get the love vibe and sort out their differences like sensible people but there is the chance that things will get out of hand and seeing that the US is the sworn defender of Taiwan and we are the Yanks obedient little brother it could get very scary and most unpleasant.
Especially unpleasant would be our own true blue yellow cake raining back down on us!
So how do you guarantee the stuff will only be used for peaceful purposes?
Our fearless leader is dedicated to the religionlaissez faire capitalism which means he believes the market is like a god that knows all.
The free market is great for some things and I love being able to sell stuff at whatever price to whoever but Mr Howards vision is to sell everthing the government owns to anyone who can afford it.
Witness Telstra. Why sell a profitable enterprise thats bringing in billions of revenue?Glad I never bought those shares!
NZ went further and sold all their power generation and surprise, surprise they suffered rolling blackouts because the companies generating power deemed it unprofitable to invest in more infrastructure.
So I take the middle path. Private enterprise good for somethings.State control good for others.
So selling uranium to China needs careful consideration and state control.
Will it help the cut carbon emmisions?
If you add up all the mining ,processing ,transportation, building and decommisioning of Nuclear power plants you probably didn't save much at all.
But who knows, the Chinese are clever people and have been investigating fast breeder reactors as well as pebble bed reactors so might know something we don't.
Finally an excellent article about Australias relationship to the rest of the world.
Are we a bat neither bird nor beast or something else. If this sounds obscure read it in the SMH.

So Sue Me and a post script

Whoa, look out there flamers and name callers cause youll end up in court getting your pants sued off.
It happened in England it can happen here.
So stop calling me a silly person and a son of a hampster and blowing your nose in my general direction OK?
Can blogging save the enviroment?
We can only hope so coz things are getting so awfully baaad.
Remember Bladerunner and the scene with Decker and the artificial owl, well I hope it never comes to pass coz every extinction belittles us all and makes the world seem sader and duller.I wanna be where the wild things roam....
Lastly a sad post script to our post a few days ago.
After days of deliberation the jury let the dirty slime ball off.
The law can be an ass- which is a kind of donkey- and on this occasion it was indeed.
I don't understand how that could happen but it did so we can only hope for some sort of instant karma.
Anybody know vodoo?

Almost invent a word again

Remember pog. It meant crap or rubbish,stuff lying around. My friend Ralph invented that, it's true.
Ever wondered who stared the saying "he's high maintenance" .That was mine, can't prove it but someone owes me big time.
So yesterday I was thinking about blogging and the bigots it attracts and it hit me -Bligot.
A new word .This time I wasn't gonna let it slip unauthored into the lexicon. I was gonna be lauded for being a clever chap.
Alas a quick google and the balloon of ego gratification popped with a smirk.
Here was a bloggers dictionary with bliggot and a whole lot of other words I probably would have thought of.Here is the blog of a bigot or a bligot. This guy wrote the book on smug and sneery so maybe bigot isn't totally correct.
Hey how about smigot! Now for a quick google.Yah for me! Hope the resident of the swedish town fo Smigot don't take offence.
Why dont we start an award for the worst bligot on the web? Hell, a least we'd have a lot of contenders.

Horrible Coincidence

For the last couple of years my wifes family has been involved in a terrible matter.
Seems 30 years ago a family friend used to molest her brothers.Her parents, who are the lovliest people never knew. They had kept it a terrible secret.
They have been in and out of court for a couple of years. It must be awful dredging this stuff up and I am totally grateful that I was never subjected to that kind of attention.
Anyway today is the day the court brings down it's decision which will be a relief for everyone no matter what the verdict.
Today a cyclone approachs Far North Q'land, Cyclone Larry is the strongest cyclone to hit Australia for decades.Perhaps the biggest ever.
Winds will be 230 kph, there will be a lot of destruction.Lives will be ruined.
What are the chances that both disasters would share the same name?

Pluck some fruit from the Commentry

Sooo....bloggers are to comments what fish are to scales.
Not talking about the comments section,
although I could be but the art of gleaning through current news and issues
and adding your two cents worth. What do you think? If you think at all.
Freedom to think seems to be a hard to come by commodity in my busy life.
I have to snatch time inbetween a thousand and one distractions and commitments.
The Huffington Post is one of the big blogs at the moment,Arianna Huffington compares newsbloggers to the pitbulls of media journalism.
Can you believe a media baron like Rupert M declaring mainstream news in dead and blogging is the future, see I told you this was big.
Read it here. Yes we bloggers are the New Explorers sailing to whole new worlds of endless digital prarie. Uncle Rupert should know cause he just bought My space, the friend build community. Here is my my space for a record I did. Myspace now has 62,500,000 members 54 of which are my special friends. Lets make it 55 soon!
It's not all loving friendship thoughthings can get nasty.
Bloggers of course can get into trouble at work especially if you're a memeber of the police force.
As my mother used to say if you can't say something nice make a cup of tea.....
Bit strange my mum makes a good cuppa though.
You notice I called her Mum and not Mom. Heres a nice little rasp about the Americanisation of our dear language cobbers.
See all you folks in class.

A Brand New Class

Well great to meet all the newbies.
I am excited by meeting new people so much so that I want to hide under my desk.
But I made it through the day without running out the door.
Unfortunately we are in a strange room full of archaic computers and bad lighting.
We work in an epileptic induction zone.
Screens flicker, flouros flicker beating out a random pattern on your brain.
So we will take regular breaks.
In my other classes we play hackie sack in the breaks.
It is great fun and loosens you up after crouching like a gargoyle over your computer.
I am going to ask for a new monitor or else a new set of eyes like Tom Cruise in Minority Report.
Till then.....

Ink:Handle with care

Catoon by Alen Lauzan Falcon, Santiago, Chile












I've been wanting to talk about the Satanic cartoons controversy but I have to admit I'm scared.
So is most of the free press.
It wasn't Big Bro that brought them down but Big Mo'(PBAH).
I want to support our Princess Mary.
She gave up nice quiet Tasmania for the number one holiday destination for suicide bombers.
I've been to Denmark and it's a cool place.
They have a free state called Kristiana where anything goes.
It's insane to think a whole country should be targeted because of what a few people scribbled on a piece of paper.
Heres a debate on whether an Islamic state is compatable with democracy. I think the neo cons might have read this.But then why did they think they could spread democracy though the Middle East?
Heres what the Malaysian PM thinks.
Heres another point of view
Heres a moderate Arab voice.
The cartoons arent actually funny,you can find them at Wikipedia and it was deliberately provocative to publish them.
The strange thing is these cartoons appeared in October in Cairo but nobody got upset then.
Theres a lot we in the west don't understand about Islam.
Certainly the whole thing has made being a cartoonist a more interesting profession.
Does God bless free speech?
Maybe we should keep Him/Her out of the arguement!
I'm off to play with my Lego set .....after I finish eating my falafel roll.

Dessicated like Bourke and Wills

Went bushwalking with brother J and Frankie who's over here from Ireland.
Went from Waterfall to ulaloo falls,5 kms of easy if hot walking.
We stop at the falls which have stopped due to lack of water.
Have a bite to eat and carry on.
The sun comes out from behind the clouds.
We follow the track which suddenly dissapears.
Where has it gone ?
We start to augue .
It's stupidly brainfryingly hot.
My companions don't have proper hats.
J wants to backtrack.
We bush bash around looking for the track,paranoid we'll step on a snake.
A mild panic is setting in.
We follow the ridge back to the falls.
Dive into the water.
Rest and discuss if we should try again .
We head off down the same track which dissapears again.
We bush bash down into the gully for 3 hours.
Looking for footprints or a sign of humans.
We soak in small pools totally cooked.
This is how Burke and Wills felt, two Australian explorers who died in the desert.
Eventually we find our way to Karloo Pool which is beautiful and cool.
We walk out in the twilight,burnt and sweating, desperately thirsty.
We had a map and a compass and still we got lost.
I havent been lost for a while, it is a scarey feeling.
Panic comes from the Greek God Pan who waited to confuse people in the forest.
Thank you Mr Pan. Thank you Mr Sol.
A most exhausting but hard core day.

The wests secret weapon- football

People are starting to wake up to the prospect that we may be heading down the slippery slope towards another coalition of the killing,this time all steam ahead to sunny Persia.
Sanctions may actually hurt the west more than the sanctioned.
Coz the loss of the fourth biggest producer of oil could send the price of the stuff skyrocketing.
I can actually see why Iran might want the big stick seeing as the country next door got invaded.
Anyway it seems we have a secret weapon-football or soccer as it is called here in Australia.
Read these Iranian blogs
As well as coming across as.... well normal people worried about their shonky leaders, a lot of them are worried about being excluded from the world cup because of restarting the nuclear research.
Football is bigger than anything it seems and rightly so.
It's an international language.
The language of the boot.
This time lets forget the killing an destruction and just have a bit of kick around of a the ball eh?

What hit me?

Thanks for the great night out.
Thanks for the bottle of red.
Thanks for making sure I stayed sober and an outstanding example to you all.
Enjoyed the toasts and the food and especially singing White wedding.
You gotta love Billy Idol.
Hope you all made it home OK.
Hope you find peace and happiness.
Or at least a good hangover cure.
I'm not drinking for a while.
I'm not very good at it.
That's not a very Australian thing to admit.
Went to Hustville and saw the lion dance or the dragon dance I'm not sure which.
Those guys are amazing, jumping from pole to pole dressed in an animal suit.
Very young too
Should take this op to wish a properous and faithful year of the dog to everyone.
I hope it is a good dog and doesn't chew anyones slippers or dig holes in the garden or anything else naughty dogs do.

The end of the affair

Citizens
Some of you may have noticed beneath my fastidious nature, military planning skills, attention to formalities and personal hygiene is the glimmer of a soft centre.
I may seem hard and unapproachable but deep deep down I am a quite sensitive fellow.Really.
So most times as I near the end of a relationship I start to reflect and ponder and get a little misty eyed.
I have met some lovely young people,shared some stories, had a laugh, showed them some tricks of the trade and sent them off into the world to who knows where.
Hopefully I have a positive effect.
Hopefully I am on the side of good.
Hopefully I might make a small difference to some one.
Maybe opened their eyes to some things.
Probably not for all, or even most but a few.
I know I had teachers like that who helped a little, made me entertain some possibilities, sheparded me towards........
Anyway I now have to put my service medals back on my chest and get into some serious marking.
How do you mark a blog?
Frequency is important.
Depth also.
Information?
Links, you need them.
Readability?
How about grammar and spelling?
Or creative use of the English language?
How about an original voice?
That's a lot to ask I know but there have been glimmers, little peeks of what might be.
Do you agree that the blog is king? Or at least something important?
It's certainly a great way to teach and get insights into peoples minds/lives.
I hope you got through the work load without stomach ulcers and that you get the marks you need to do what you want to do, be what what you want to be .
Occasionally pop into this blog, drop me a line, tell me you new book/film/expose/podcast is coming out and make me smile.
Untill then back to the marking.

Give me Liberty or give me shopping

Well we survived the silly season and it wasn't so bad.
Almost got caught in the bushfires on the hottest day of the year (although it's very early to make that claim).
Only a couple of weeks left to complete this pocasting /blogging module.
Heard of John Pilger? Heres an interesting read from the man who continues to be a thorn in the side of Governments and the media.Love him or loath him? He is a dedicated and persistant journo who exists on the margin.He talks of the Death of freedom.
Thought you might as well have a link to another interesting writer,George Monbiot.Here he talks aboutthe struggle against ourselves which may put you off shopping for a nano second, then again maybe not....
Still want more?
Probably not coz your all busy doing amazing podcasts but
Persons interested in democracy should check this out.
The American founding fathers should be an inspiration to us all.
Thom Hartman has a scary rasp on our rights as humans. If you are human.
Will Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin please reincarnate?
Before the next election?
Stuck on an investment decision?
Try investment blogs.
And if your still stuck for a blog to examine try the worlds bestblogs.In their opinion anyway.
And now for the fluffy animal story........
Whoops sorry got things mixed up...Here is the fluffy animal story
See you in class citizens!