The island in the Sky is almost dead.

Sorry things went a bit Sideways. (Great and appropriate film reference).
Took the family up to Bright in the Victorian Alps.
Alps is a fairly vague term which in Australias case the Mosquito bites in Victoria are the nearest we have.
We went up Mount Buffalo again and the change was unbelievable.
It was like evil super villian had sucked the life out of it.
A year ago this was a magical place.
Isolated from the main bit of the high country for millions of years it had developed it own little unique ecosystem.
Misty peat bogs and stunted snow gums.
We wandered around in the chill, damp and fog swirling around.
This winter there was no snow at all.
So there was no melt water to feed the peat bogs.
No protection from the cold for the pygmy possums
Then came the fires.
Which raced through the bone dry park.
Turning it into a dead place.
As a bitter aftertaste for some reason only the Europian wasps survived in frightening numbers.
Will it even come back?
I doubt it.
Not in my lifetime.
The incredible (Shining-like) lodge is closed.
The rangers look sad at the entry gates and no longer charge you a fee.
How could they?
The island in the sky is almost dead.
Yet I am but a climate change hysteric.
Pushing some agenda.
Reporting something you'd rather not hear.
It's getting harder and harder to cling onto that straw.
Harder to block up your ears.
As Arnold said
"You are a penguin on a little ice berg that is rapidly melting. Goodbye my little friend"

Kurt Vonegut RIP

A human has died.
Someone proudly imperfect who changed my life.
Slaughterhouse five was an amazing book.
So was Mother Night and Ice Nine.
And all the others
But the last thing you wrote was so spot on.
A man without a country.
An essay on the barbarians who control the White House and the world.
I'm sad that you wont get to see the palaces of these tyrants torn down.
And they will.
Just like Saddam and Idi Amin and Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler and Stalin and the Gang of Four you Tyrants will get your comeuppance.
Kurt you were a great human being, who always kept me laughing at the follies of man.
Hope the weather is good on the planet Tralfalgadore.
Say hello to Billy Pilgrim.
For those who havent read Slaughter house five(The movie is also good)I suggest you do.

Insomnia is ticking me off.

Apologies to the Insearch crew, I'm off to do my bit for reconciliation.
Camping out with a whole bunch of Koori kids.
Footballs future greats and maybe a couple of good songwriters too.
It's a mens camp.
There will be secret mens business.
Should I tell them I'm not circumcised?
Better keep that to myself.
Do they read blogs?
Crikey this could be dangerous.
Have worked up a couple of songs with these guys.
Really nice tunes.
Will post them up when finished.
Did I mention that Kev Carmody's record is number three on the country music charts.
I mixed and engineered a track on that.
Did i also mention that the ABC are talking to me about another story?
Did I also mention that I am covered in tick bites?
I itch!
A couple of years ago i thought I had chicken pox , I had a week off work.
I thought I was contagious but i was just covered in these tiny poisonous little bastard ticks.
They come out when it's moist.
Note to self -get industrial strength aerogard and snake repellant on way to meet up this morning.
Note to self who wakes me up every morning at 3 oclock.
Please stop.

Gentleman charge your batteries

Was drafted on the radio the other day as an expert of blogging.
I guess some one has to pretend to be one.
I was fairly nervous coz it was scheduled right in the middle of a class i was teaching.
So conflict of interest.
The call comes at the agreed time.
I excuse myself and race out into the corridor
The topic was on political blogs.
Particularly this article from the Guardian on a Swedish minister who is getting some flack for his blogs which of course I hadn't read .Normally I read everything to do with blogging and podcasting of course but lately I have been so busy.
I didn't make any sense at first coz I was a bit nervous also I didn't immediately get the tone of the piece which was giggly sarcastic.
Any way just as I was starting to make sense my mobile started to make a noise like it was running out of charge.
So I race back into my class still pontificating and scramble around for a USB charge lead.
The class are looking at me a little strange.
I plug into a computer and sit down to relax a bit.
I'm actually making sense.
I tip a nod to Andrew Bartlett who is a democrat politician who keeps a reasonable blog.
I dis Peter Debnam ( The Budgie Smuggler) who gets someone else to write his and doesn't allow comments.
I'm making sense, my mouth is responding to the signals my brain is sending.
Suddenly the line goes dead.
I'd plugged into the wrong computer.
The one that died first thing on monday morning.
That sort of ruined my week twice
So that was the end of my brief stint as a radio talking head.
Thanks to all involved.

Connect to country

A mate of mine stayed over the other night.
We are working on a number of things chiefly a project with about 25 Koori kids from a local hostel.
They are recording songs and making a little film.
They are going into the Royal to see the sacred sites, whale carvings and shark people and to gather some bush tucker.
I am going along.
They are an incredible bunch full of energy although I know most of them are missing their family and some of them have had hard lives so far.
It is hard to imagine the lack of opportunities they have outback in some of the aboriginal communities.
I'm encouraging them all to be Prime ministers when they grow up especially the girls.
Predictably they like Rap, hip hop and RnB.
Whatever speaks to you I say.
Anyway next morning after a quick cup of tea I've got this mate out in the Bush regen project planting a rain forest tree beneath the foliage.
When you go to work this morning I say look at everyone in the city and I bet not one other person out of the whole city has planted a rain forest tree this morning.
This makes him feel very special.
I like getting people to plant stuff.
It's a very rooting thing.
Grounding even.
It seem to be different planting a tree on communal land than a rose bush in your front garden.
I guess with a bit of luck the tree will out live the planter and provide shade and beauty for an unknown number of future people.
I guess that could be a wishful metaphor for teaching.
Although weeding and fertilizing could also work!

I'm a lazy sod

Couldn't post anything coz I was busy doing other stuff.
Like wandering around in the bush without a torch looking for spirit paths.
Maybe that's just a metaphor.
Just make sure you take a stick for the spider webs.
Had to post something about the stupendous waste of money that was just come to light.
Read this and weep and laugh.
This is it , the Caligula moment, the emporer who ordered the roman legions to attack the sea.
The US have lost/misplaced/whatfuckenever 363 tonnes of $100 dollar bills in Iraq.
$12 billion.
Handed out left right and centre to every Tom Dick and Alli.
Trully it doesn't get more ridiculous than that.
What we could have done with that?
What I could have done with that!
Bought Tasmania?
I am astounded at the stupidity of it all.
Life is worthless, now money is worthless.
At least it woz shrink wrapped so it wont go off.
Now if there was any one left in the whole wide world who doesn't think the US government is wackier than a naked man with one gum boot on could they please contact their doctor for immediate assesment.

Lou was almost happy.

Finally got to the sumptious State theatre on the right night.
Lou Reed was performing one of the great moments of rock angst. His album Berlin.
It was brutal and confronting when it came out but never sold much.
Ahead of it's time perhaps.
Lou had some of the best players in the world including Steve Hunter who took my head off with his feel and style.
Lou was funny in that he did that Vegas thing with his own songs a bit.
You know come in late and then rush to pick it up again.
Still he is Lou.
His voice is unforgetable, I wish he hada stuck to the tune a bit more.
The choir and orchestra were brilliant as were the backing singers.
One who was Anthony from Anthony and the Johnstons.
What a voice this man has!
An angel who is obviously not neurotypical, but then neither is Lou (but that might have been self induced.)
The concert was populated with a lot of old rockers done good as well as some of the houghty toighty Sydney Festival crowd.
Lou did a nice encore too.
Sweet Jane and some old velvets number I didn't recognise.
Rock is now officially a high culture item.
Cant be long before the Australian Opera does a Metallica album.

Right Gig Wrong Time

Very excited about seeing Lou Reeds Berlin, part of the Sydney festival.
Same price as a Big Day out ticket and I must be getting old because I could nae face all the crowds at Homebush.
Anyway last night we organised an babysitter got dressed up and went out to see Lou, only problem was he aint on till next week.
Duh!
Had a lovely Spanish Tappas fest instead.
January is such a time warp, must remember to check dates for everything.

Like a true Mac Dweeb I watched Steve Jobs strut around the stage and launch the I phone .
The man is a immaculate showman.
A wizard of techno spin.
He talks almost non stop for one and half hours.
Doesn't seem to be reading and except for a dud pointer is flawless.
All the other CEO's that trot out seem goofy and dull compared to Stevie.
Apple is everything that is good about America.(and perhaps the flaw)
Religious belief in themselves and the future.
Enlightenment through superior design.
Powerful and easy to use technology/magic.
A man with a vision.
His connection to Disney/Pixar is just perfect too.
Why isn't he running the country? Or someone like him.
I want one of those iphone things of course.
Then I'll change my Nom DePlume to Peter Iphonecast- or maybe not.
Also just finnished mixing a great track by me brother, a Grant McLennan song called the wrong road.
For a tribute compilation.
Used nashville tuned guitars for the first time.
You might think you know all the tricks and then ya see something that makes you realise how far you have to go.
Complacency is an insideous flaw.
I banish it forever and open myself to the everchanging whirling energies of the universe.
Now where was I ?
Mmmm.
Zzzzzzzzzzz.

Back to the grindstone.

Hope the holidays were good for everyone.
I went up to visit friends on the central coast.
Swam,read, ate, drank and slept.
Read The Beach which was a top read and made me want to dissapear on a Thai Island.
Now am reading a novel called American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Which is right up my alley.
This guy gets out of gaol and goes to work for Odin- the nordic god who is a con man since noone worships him anymore.
Neil Gaiman wrote the Sandman series as in the Metalica Song.
We are in to the home stretch with the blogging class.
Have some wonderful posts from the students.
Hope the stragglers catch up.
Remember you must have at least twelve posts.
Photos and movies don't count unless there is a fair amount of text with them.
Now you should work on your blog critique which should be posted up for the world to see.
Say the person who writes the blog reads it?
Quite possible....
Recently Saddam was executed and you can see the video,if you have a ghoulish streak- the photos were enough for me.
A lot of people have a short memory or are too young to know much about him so I link to this excellent obit of his life.
It was another blunder to execute him under such atrocious circumstances.
He went with a calm resignation that made him into a marytr.
I had to admire how bravely he went even though he had ordered the deaths of thousands.
That cant be a good thing.

Charity begins here

Took my daughters friends to her school carols last night.
I had to do two trips.
One for my family and the other for the four of them.
I didn't mind the running round coz it's Christmas and i know they have had a rough trot.
These girls are from war torn Sudan and are all extremely tall and quite clever.
Surviving in a war zone will do that I guess.
They've only been here for 4 years or so and are getting awards for their English.
Their father was murdered, I can't get the real story and don't really feel like prying but I know he was shot, perhaps defending the church or perhaps walking to the shop to get the milk.
So I am really proud that M has befriended them.
It must be strange to stick out in this milky white, homogenised neighbourhood.
So this morning I was a little perturbed to find the glorious city of Tamworth has rejected five refugee families from Sudan.
Seems they don't want these poor, traumatised black people drinking their water and bringing diseases.
They dont want another Cronulla riot in their town.
Merry Christmas Tamworth.
I can see you have really taken Jesus's message to heart.
The parable about the good Samaritan, remember that one.
To be fair they reckon they have had some trouble with the last bunch of Sudanese they took in.
People from different cultures in war zones can be tricky to settle down I guess.
If I'd been shot at and seen members of my family murdered or starved I 'd be tricky to settle down too.
Tamworth where is your heart?
Where is that famous country kindness?
Coz I reckon Jesus is ashamed of your mean spirited, ugly actions so close to his birthday.
Hell you don't even deserve an invite to the party.

Blogging is the new punk rock

Well isn't it?
First a little musical history ( or is it mythology) lesson.
By the mid seventies rock had become a bloated beast, at least there was a lot of progresive rock bands with arcane names like Matching Mole and a florrid and complicated aesthetic.
The rock no longer spoke for the people or so the story goes.
I guess if you were growing up on a grey council estate, unemployed then Genesis and Emerson , Lake and Palmer and top of the pops didn't really speak to you.
Along came the Ramones from Usa and Sex Pistols from England to revitalise the whole tired music scene.
It was like early Elvis, simple music full of energy and an Up Yours ATTITUDE.
But most importantly it said" Hey you can do this too".
It was a back to basics approach that screamed DIY.
Do it yourself.
And they did.
People like Blondie, The Pretenders and Talking Heads all sprung out of this scene.
Later punk came to mean something else again and god knows what it means now.
Just another marketing niche.
Anyway what attracts me to blogging is this same attitude.
You can speak your mind.
You can do it yourself.
You can say up yours to the cowering and bland main stream media.
And cover what you feel is important.
What speaks to you.
Of course just like punk or any other musical movement you have to search through a lot of swine to find the real pearls.
Go on Piggies get out there!

Mind control for the young at heart

Everyone is lazy let's face it, if they let themselves be.
The mind is incredibly good at justifying it's actions.
We usually think as a post script, most of us just use instinct and ritual to give us a semblance of a thinking person.

Effective artist/warriors/lovers have to conqueor the mind's tricks which allow one to do nothing or more likely something that adds up to nothing.
It is often said that the student house is cleanest when the essay is due and we have all noted how true that is.

This is a veiled aside at those students who aren't blogging at least once a week.
Is it that hard to find the time to post once a week?
Or are you thinking up pale excuses to justify your actions.
Can't do it coz the dog ate my computer, have sore fingers, don't like writing only like messenging my friends, blah ,blah blah.
You must lead the mind, beware of it's tricks because you will fall behind and only have yourself to blame ( although no doubt you will try to blame moi)


I only wish I had a student with an essay due at my house coz it usually looks like a natural disaster area. Having 3 rugrats and a home school going on makes it that way. Also my partner in crime is a bower bird, she hates to throw anything away. She wants to keep the strangest things, strange to me anyway.
This is usually our only source of friction.
I throw bits of crap out and she wants them back.
I have to pretend I never saw them.
Isn't that terrible?
Admittedly I have better things to do than pick up toys.
Grandparents always buy stuff that spears into your foot at 3 in the morning.
Lots of little sharp baby landmines to teach you a lesson.
My feet are bruised and pitted from these deadly toys.
Where was the warning labels for that?

"Warning contains objects that will cause severe damage as you try to pee in the night".

Have installed a pay pal donate button on my space rocker brothers blog.
It seems to be getting some subscriptions.
He has enourmous amounts of selective self discpline.
He blogs every day and it's nearly always good, funny and serious.
He has really connected with his small army of fans.
I thinks they understand him more now.
Selective self discpline because he would eat a whole block of chocalate in front of you, piece after piece.
But when it comes to writing blogs/songs/swimming laps he is the ruler of his mind and body.
I have observed that most successful artists have this ability- to be totally obsessed to the exclusion of all else with their thing.

I saw a real bower bird the other day in the Royal.
It had collected all this blue stuff for it's bower of love.
They only collect blue stuff.
Its that artistic exclusion at work again.
What did they do before whiteys came with their blue straws and cloths pegs I'm not sure but it was a sight I can't remember seeing before.
I only hope someone gets it a blue recycling bin.

The Customer is always right (unless they are doing a test)

Looking forward to 10 weeks of partial employment now that my big casual job is finished for the year.
I say that sarcastically coz of course poverty over Christmas sucks.
The family want to move back into the city too.
Which will be a joy.
Moving always is a barrel of laughs.
My big job has offered to let me apply for a permament postion and I had to fill out endless forms and waffle on.
Which I'm not very good at.
One of the criteria really got up my nose-A demonstrated commitment to quality customer service,
like I'm some fast food worker.
"Do you want fries with that diploma Miss. Have a nice day!"
It was making me ill just thinking about this.
Apparently even the CIA talks about it's customers now.
STOP IT NOW.
A customer is some one who walks into a shop and buys some thing aren't they?
A customer is someone you say what ever you think they want to hear in order to get them to buy your stuff.
"Yes you look great in that."
"Wow that really brings out your eyes which are beautiful by the way."
Is that how I should be teaching now?
I can't do it.
When my propective music students ask me for career advice I usually give them vague answers like
Put up a flag see who salutes it and
Many are called but few are chosen.
Coz making a living out of your Art is hard.
It is a rocky road.
Your car could break down.
You might get lost.
You'll be hungry.
You might be too early or too late
You might never get there at all.
But now I should tell them what they want to hear like a good sales man?
Yes Nigel stardom used to be a random event bequeathed by the gods but now if you do a Certicate 3 in Advanced Jiggery Pokery you can be a singing sensation in no time.
My beautiful ladyfriend works at the primo acting school, first lesson for this cream of the crop of applicants is "Most of you will spend most of the time looking for work".
In any creative field there is a huge amount of luck and doggered persistance that get you there .
And then your only there for a short time.
You're only as good as your last album, film, showing, whatever.
Not to even mention how likely it is that most of the money you do earn will dissapear somewhere........
Ask Les McKeown from The Bay City Rollers.
Their first two albums stayed on the album charts for a total of 99 weeks from 1974 - 1976.
"Bye Bye Baby", was the UK's biggest selling single of 1975.
Over a few years the band turned into an international supergroup, selling an estimated 300 million records all over the world.
But by the end of the 1979 Les was homeless and totally broke after quitting the band.
I once left my bass guitar strap at a gig in Balmain so I went back there to this big empty RSL the next afternoon and opened the dressing room door and who were there but The Bay City Rollers on ther 1989 reformation tour.
They looked so sad and despondent I almost asked them for an autograph to cheer them up.
I think that tour was organised by a revolting little English man called Mr Grit.
But thats another story.....
So would you like to upsize that degree?

Happy Tree Friends

Recently I showed my 8 year old son Happy tree Friends and he loved it as I knew he would.He also loves the Simpsons which contains the Tom and Jerry parody Itchy and Scatchy.
Happy Tree Friends is sold on the premise it is so full on violent that it shouldn't be watched by kids.
Of course it is not really any worse than Tom and Jerry or Roadrunner as a matter of fact it has some great lessons about life.
Basically that stuff can kill and maim ya.
Permanently.
It's sales pitch works like Parental Advisory Stickers. They are the only kind of records any self respecting teenager should buy of course. Putting a warning on something is like honey to a bee.
The forbidden fruit of consumer culture.
Most rap music works the same, selling itself as anti-establishment when it is really the opposite.
Instead of stick it to the man and march to your own drum, its message seems to be making lots of money and buying stuff will liberate you.Just like an ad for Rolex.
A matter a fact some Hip hop is an ad for Rolex.
Rappers spend an inordinate amount of lyrical space listing products coz they get paid to.

Did I mention that I'm one of those terrible people who don't have free to air TV at all?
How weird is that?
How do my children find out about the world?
Now do you mean the real world or the world of TV, you know what's going on in the OC?
Cause I can guarantee they are better informed than most kids their age.
Coz they don't have to swim through a great tide of garbage to get to the good stuff.
You find out about the good shows and get them on DVD.
We had 99 channels of cable crap for a while and it was truly horrible, over night the kids started talking with American accents and saying "You wanna piece of me".
It had to go.
So liberal with Happy Tree Friends, Fascist with TV in general
My parenting is a paradox, actually my life's one too.
One show I'll try and not expose them to is Southpark.
Yes I know your thinking this guy doesn't get it but I do.
I laugh and it's funny but it's also at it's center heartless.-
I was watching it from the beginning,but over the years come to realise there is a cold and inhumane personality streaking behind this creation.
I was drawn to Monty Python from an early age because there was a philosophy behind the humour that resonated with me and I am suspicious of Southpark for the same reason.
Of course it's only a matter of time before they are watching it but I'll try and be the gatekeeper for just a little longer.....

The Sauce of Denial

Went round to my brothers place the other day.
He boils water in a very inefficient way in a kettle on an electric stove.
I had pointed out before that a $15 electric kettle would save him time and a fair weight of greenhouse gases.
When he started to complain about how long the kettle was taking, I tried to gentle remind him a small investment would soon pay off.
He went off his brain.
"I don't need this shit."
I wasn't just thinking of you I replied.
'Well I don't need to think about that shit either"
And there is the source of denial.
Because it is the small actions that we are all taking that is making our planet less habitable for our children and their children. Unless they are good at treading water, that is.
This is a big conundrum.

Nowadays every one knows cigarettes cause cancer but it wasn't always so.
For decades tobacco companies denied there was any link between their product and ill health.
They spent millions of dollars funding bogus research, buying influence in governments and paying mouthpieces to create a climate of uncertainty about the dangers of tobacco.
Did you know more people have died since 1940 from smoking than were killed in World War 2?
And that tobacco companies knowingly made cigarettes worse for you?
You can learn more about this in the excellent film "The Insider" with Russell Crowe.

One of the most vocal climate change deniers is a Fox News columnist called Steven Milloy. He also runs a web site called
Junk Science which a brilliant use of double think of course.
He is also not suprisingly funded by none other than the biggest oil company in the world Exxon/Mobil.
He runs several "thinktanks" with names like the Free Enterprise institute which collect money for their good work muddying the waters in the minds of Joe Public about our world wide changing weather patterns.
Read all about it here.
Well guess what Steven Milloy, your boss the Big Rup Murdoch has changed his mind about global warming thanks to his son James.
James is actually a pretty cool guy (and I speak from personal experience) doubly so if he's turned his dad.
So I'd be feeling a little nervous about my Fox column if I was you Steve because you don't want to go displeasing the Big Boss now do ya?
Hopefully you'll also choke over breakfast on the corporate fat you've been hoovering for up spreading your sneaky snakey misinformation for so long.

This Time it's Personal

I know I've been a little strange in my last couple of blogs.
A bit Orwellian in fact.
So to make up for it all, here's some holiday fun.

Firstly am I brave or stupid.
Maybe a little of both?
One thing for sure I am already addicted to Youtube, what a great idea!
The whole world is up there.
To paraphraase Mr Cobain" Here we are now-Entertainment".
We are our own amusement.
Want to see the real Halo?
Check out
this.
Totally scary?
But for a real laugh you cant go past this one.

Careful at work.
Great to see the yanks having a laugh at the horrible situation they got us in.
Finally had the best bike ride native animal score yestaday.
30 kms through the Royal.
No I dont run them over, I just watch them on the trail.
Seems animals dont react to bikes the same way they do to footsteps.
So the sightings were....
Three lyre birds,
two echindas
And a goanna up a gum tree.
Beautiful animals living happily a few kms from my front door.
Steve Irwin RIP.
Next post I will give you my recipe for kangaroo curry which is absolutely delicious.
No I dont eat Lyre Birds or Echidnas but I did use goanna oil once.

See no*****, write no******

Apologies for the unpleasantness in my last blog.
After spending some time with some comrades at************ I have realized that I was an instrument of the traitor Goldstein.
From now on I will only give you fun and relaxing blogs.
I wont mention************ or **** ***** or anything else that may cause you alarm.
I was wrong to think that there was anything wrong with our glorious civilization.
Our shopping malls are second to none.
We have produced many fine actors and pop musicians and fashion designers.
There is nothing wrong with air conditioning, in fact if only we could build a really really big one we could all keep cool.
Don't listen to the fearmongers.
Our leaders have only our best interests at heart.
Put your trust in them, they know what's best for you otherwise how would they have become leaders in the first place?
There is nothing wrong with a country speaking in unison and we can thank Comrade Murdoch for helping us stamp out he unAustralian disenters and naysayers.
Ignore any feeling of emptiness.
Bow to authority.
If you haven't anything nice to say then shop until you drop.
If only the people of Sudan would spend more time in the shopping malls and less time squabbling it would be much more pleasant for all.
Remember if some one is poor or starving it is only their own fault for not trying hard enough.
We are the winners!
And to the winners go the spoiled.
Long live Big Brother and may his merchandise be consumed by all.

Where the truth lies.

Bulletin from the Ministry of Truth.
Our glorious leader welcomes the news of our victory over the insurgents in Mesopotamia.
Peace now reigns over that beautiful land.
Once the evil dictator Saddam Hitler was dethroned by the will of the people.
It was an easy victory with few casualties and much rejoicing.
As predicted the country was crawling with diabolical weapons of mass destruction.
We praise the armies of liberation.
Democracy is blossoming all over the world.
Our farmers will produce a record crop this year.
No heed should be given to alarmist elements who spread falsehood about our beautiful weather.
We are blessed, our land is bound by sea and plenty.
Our glorious leaders are without sin.
Praise be our freedom.
Praise be our wonderful shopping experiences.
Praise be or glorious celebrity magazines.

Bike riders on the storm.

Been on a cycling holiday of the Victorian Alps-well that sounds more impressive than it was but illusion is everything.
Still my thighs have grown a little from carting 20 kilos of stuff around on a bike over several hundred kilometres.
It's called the rail trail coz it is an old railway that has been converted into a bike track.
It never goes up by more than a gentle slope although the brochure makes it seem a lot easier than it is.
Scenery was magnificent though scarily dry.
We met farmers in the pub facing the grim task of selling all their stock because there is no water for them to drink.
There is nothing you can say to some one who is going broke because of the changing climate.
We promised to do a rain dance but it didn't work.
Today will be very hot and I definitly smelt smoke in the air and it's only just turned spring- we are in for a nasty summer.
I used to love summer but now after the terrible heat of Jan 1 it scares me a bit.
We only just made it out of the central coast before the fire came.
Lots of people were trapped on the side of the road in 40 degree heat.
That must have been hellish.
Wish it would scare Little Johnny Howard a bit too.
Although there are signs he is about to change his tune on climate change or climate chaos as I more accurately descibe it.
Because it's a security risk!
Yes burning and dying of thirst is a bit of a security risk.
I'm finding I prefer the cooler climates in my old age.
I grew up in Canberra after all.
Cold weather makes people snuggle up under a blanket but really hot weather makes people angry and exhausted.
This is an Australian perspective.
A sunburnt country an all that
The sun in Europe never has the bite ours has.
Today I start a new class of bloggers and podcasters on their journey.
Then off to the Enmore theatre for some Thai and some space rock.

Big in Sweden

Sweden is a wonderful country.
I would move there in a flash.
Love the food and the people and their outdoorsyness.
They are progresive and proud of their mixed economy and social welfare system.
Not sure about queing up to buy alcohol but hey no where is perfect.
Why am I so hot for Sweden?
Coz they have publish a story on me and my podcasting classes.
Podcasting is huge in education right now.
Every where you look someone is running a workshop on how to get your students into learning stuff through the magic of the pod.
I was so stoked with the publicity I bought myself a new Ipod for the family to "gift" me.
It plays videos an all.
It is semi justified by the fact it will come in handy to pacify my son with educational vodcasts.
National geographic, nature channel, one called Ecogeeks- all free too.
It is totally justified by the fact it is TAX DEDUCTABLE.
I always feel guilty buying stuff so I have to justify it to myself somehow.
Loving the new Itunes with the 3D flip through thingy.
Of course The Sydney Morning Herald is trying to beat it up as a lemon.
I feel I have to defend Apple.
I guess I'm branded and a Apple snob too.
But what other company generates such excitement about design and innovation?
Yes they arent perfect .I tried to argue with this Apple service guy the other day- it was like the scene from Dark Star where he argues with the computer.
Sorry Dave but i'm not programed for refunds or negotiation . This ship will self destruct in 5 seconds......
But I love them all the same.
That's customer loyalty for ya.
It works on gut feelings not rational thought processes.
Why do some people hate Macs so much?
I usually retort "What are you- a communist? You want the whole world on one operating system?"
Sometimes it works.
If they remember what a communist is.