I'm a Perth-sonality...

For the record

2009-10-28T04:49:39Z

Sarah Murdoch backs body image code
('Embrace the beauty of ageing': Sarah Murdoch appears on untouched magazine cover)

Just for the record... If I looked as good as Sarah Murdoch, I'd also be happy to not be "air-brushed" too! (actualy cover =>)

<= Sarah Murdoch with a picture of her on the front
of the Women's Weekly. Photo: Glen McCurtayne

This U-Tube (Dove Evolution) might explain why Sarah thought it was important to do this?

(and because nothing is sacred) *chuckle*

Just maybe (absurd theories #1)

2009-06-26T01:59:58Z

Maybe, just maybe... Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett are/were the same person?

Well done on a hopeful choice... and a joyful outcome

2008-11-05T08:12:04Z

Well done to the U.S. It's just amazing ~

A hopeful choice, a joyful outcome, and steps forward from the dark days and policies of the Bush administration.

we are....

2008-10-31T12:38:29Z

So how interesting is this...
Go to: www.iftheworldcouldvote.com (if you're a non-American of course)
Alternatively, if you just want to see how most of the rest of the world would vote....
go to: www.iftheworldcouldvote.com/results

Currently, approx 606,268 people have voted from 207 different countries...
. . . . . . . and the rest of the world thinks . . . . .

Barack Obama ~ 86.9% (526,728 votes)
John McCain ~ 13.1% (79,533 votes)

Stupid risks

2008-10-08T23:42:03Z

"Stupid risks are what make life worth living"
Homer Simpson

cheney... "wanker"

2008-07-01T04:47:53Z

OMG!!! Tell me truly, was I the only person absolutely BLOWN AWAY from last night's Four-Corners??
>> Daylight Robbery (if you missed the program, you MUST watch one of the repeats)

I always knew the Dick Cheney was corrupt, but you know, he actually doesn't CARE that he's corrupt. He just does whatever the damn fuck he likes! and.... then when he gets questioned, it's like *what??... what are you talking about?* I always knew it, but for once I just can't hold back... CHENEY IS A GOD-DAMN FUCKING WANKER!!! and he treats the American people like they're STUPID!

very very sad

2008-06-22T11:50:10Z

I am greatly saddened by the news of Jane McGrath's death. This was her third time around battling cancer, and she has been instrumental in the raising of funds for research programs, and truly inspirational in her public battle against the disease. Glenn must be devastated. Never have I seen another couple who lived such a great public example of being the best "friend" of your primary relationship.

money for thought

2008-02-05T01:59:19Z

So.... what do we think? Are we happy for Micro$oft to take-over Yahoo! ?

Does the U.S. not have any "anti-competitive" laws regarding business acquisitions and buy-outs? Mind you... I suppose we could say the same thing about BhP's current plans to buy RioTinto (am I the only person who sees "riot-into" in that name?)

Happy Birthday

2008-01-26T23:48:41Z

Happy birthday to bear-bear (kim_bear_ly) today.... :o), and to zelda (tassie_gal) for tomorrow. Hope you have lots and lots more!

HOT xmas and fires in Perth

2007-12-27T02:58:57Z

According to a BBC report this morning, Perth was the hottest city in the world yesterday. At 44.2°C (111°F), apparently we sweltered through our hottest ever December day.

~ now, how's THAT for a Boxing Day to remember?? ~

Of course, hot hot hot weather equals extremely high fire danger, with fires in the northern suburbs on Xmas day (40.7°C) and fires south of the city yesterday. I've been "on call" over the holiday period, which mercifully means no alcohol for this sucker! This has its advantages you know....

Anyhoo.... Luckily, even though "The Hills" area is most *at risk* in this weather (I live in The Hills of Perth, which is why I'm a volunteer bushfire fighter), we've only had one small scrub fire late yesterday, which was contained very quickly. With the temperature expected to only reach 32°C today, some of our stand-by resources have been made available to other brigades. So at 3pm I'm off to the southern-suburbs fire (Mandogalup), and hopefully be home by midnight. Provided the weather doesn't change too much - although, winds WILL swing back around into easterlies during the evening, that much a fire-fighter can be sure of!, we should be able to consolidate containment lines and begin mopping-up the mess left behind from three days of fire.

If it has enough battery, I'll take my camera along and snap some shots.... either way, I'll report in tomorrow.

The odd political post

2007-10-14T06:47:12Z

Regardless of one's personal politics, or one's view of the man.... I am really pleased for Al Gore. ESPECIALLY if he donates the $2 million that comes with the medal back into global-warming research!

On an entirely 'nother note.... BRING IT ON!!!!

we're f******

2007-09-06T10:17:18Z

OMG! I'm sick of Bush and that silly gummy grin he walks around with. Oh well, at least Rumsfeld isn't here. He isn't is he?? *please please not!*

I look at Bush, and he's just this little cowboy figure that everyone seems to want to have a beer with.... He doesn't actually do anything right? He just makes the ultra-right-wing views of Rumsfeld and Cheney a little more palatable for the American masses??

Happy Birthday!

2007-08-09T23:49:46Z

Happy birthday murg! You're too young, you're too sexy, and you play for the other other team. But if you ever want to sow-your-seed...... I'll have your babies!!!

Think I'll go eat worms

2007-07-05T12:48:38Z

FYI!!...

My laptop has DIED!!! *sob*

All university students are potentially terrorists!

2007-06-27T01:47:28Z

The American FBI wants university students to stop travelling. *I friggen knew it!... tassie_gal is a foreign national terrorist spy!!*

no no no... being serious... excerpt from article below:

"The FBI wants the universities to impose rules that will stop US university students from working late at the campus, travelling abroad, showing an interest in their colleagues' work, or have friends outside the United States, engaging in independent research, or making extra money without the prior consent of the authorities....

....The Feds are convinced that if you are doing any of these things you are likely to be a foreign agent who is [stealing] technology for foreign powers"

Article link: FBI wants students to stop travelling
other: Boston News (MIT is one of the targeted campus')
Indian Express
Press Esc: FBI to restrict student freedoms

Why is it laughable??.... because (and quote me on this) Any hard-working university student will inevitably work late on campus, will probably travel abroad, should always show interest in their colleagues work, and will probably have friends outside of the country they study in... many will even be from another country. Oh, and in order to push the boundaries, we simply must engage in independent research ~ who discovered anything new of any worth by simply researching within their set field? . So... as described by our behaviour, we are all probably terrorists!

This is the kind of rhetoric that makes us laugh at the yanks... sorry to offend my American flist-ers... but it truly is ridiculous! I mean, this isn't some crack-pot saying this stuff, it's the FBI! (FBI = fucking bloody idiots?? ~ removing tongue from my cheek)

conveyor belt blues (or 40 hours)

2007-06-15T00:00:05Z

so I might not feel like Michael's maid..... but I sure as crap feel like his friggen conveyor belt!!

Word: "conveyor belt"
Result: synonym for aussie_annie
noun machinery.
an endless belt or chain, set of rollers, etc., for carrying ~~materials~~ lunches, or ~~objects~~ hot-chocolates short distances, as part of a churn-out process.
Pronounced: [con-vay-a-belt]
(kettle; knife on bread; draws opening etc)

<= is going back to bed for a bit!

I've made a mess of everything

2007-05-21T01:09:13Z

Word: "mess"
Result: aussie_annie
noun a state of embarrassing confusion. My affairs are in a mess.
Pronounced: [mes]
(some carping, moaning & arguing noises)

Word: "really good timing"
Result: aussie_annie
adjective sarcastic under-tones. The timing of stuffing everything up at just the wrong-est time.
Pronounced: [loo-z-a]
(wouldn't convert to Mp3)

Post NOTE:
Sorry, but I made my previous entry private. If you saw and commented, please do not take offence that you can no longer see what you wrote. I think it was all a bit much for me. I just hate being so *negative*, sarcasm and humour are a more presentable way to voice displeasure at one'self and the universe, don't you think? And self-deprivating humour is a good way to fend-off inevitable feelings of worthlessness and disappointment ~ keeps it all a bit more cognitive.

Today.... I decide. I am contemplating spending the day in our garden ~ my god the lawn needs a mow (it's so long it's probably gonna snap blades).... I decide.... whether I am even going to continue with the PhD. I don't think I've ever "quit" something before, but I am so close to my physical, intellectual, and now emotional limits.... why am I putting myself (and the people I love) through this?

Just Two (revised ~ well, the first one is)

2007-05-10T14:34:28Z

"Dennis, down by the river" (Ely, Cambridge) *cold morning*

"In Rome" (also Dennis BTW)

PS: tassie_gal, I'll give you five bucks if you can correctly tell me who this "Denis" is :o) sodyinoz don't help her!!

the light at the end of the tunnel... (or, the on-coming train)

2007-04-25T06:33:35Z

All I do is spend my hours (and hours) sitting in front of my laptop; running queries of my user-results database; downloading the results to my hard-drive; and creating tables upon tables of data to compare and contrast in word and excel documents. I'm so mentally tired, that I often catch myself half-way through a task ~ say, adding a table-row to a table ~ and wondering *what am I doing that for?... what am I adding?... what was I comparing again??* and my train-of-thought has vanished amongst a cloud of headache and fuzzy fonts on computer screens.

*groannnnnn* ~ I've got such a headache. Four panadol, and I still can't get rid of it

chillin'

2007-04-17T08:53:41Z

Why is a cup-of-tea at the end of the day, so nice......?

after a fire......

2007-03-12T08:34:48Z

I made a post in landscape (post link) showing some of the fire-scape pics from my post on Friday... but with some extra shots I took on Saturday (after the fire).

Photos taken this afternoon (Sat, March 10th)
Black-boys, truly black
The aftermath of the fire is black. The Australian bush though, recovers remarkably well ~ as is the case in many semi-arid eco-systems, fire is a *natural* phenomenon that helps spread seeds and rejuvenate the landscape. Of course, as a bush-fire fighter I would be far more comfortable with this prospect if the majority of fires we spend hours putting out were in fact caused by natural events. From experience though, most fires are the result of either deliberate acts of malice, or careless acts of stupidity! Either way, the landscape ends up look like this!

detail.....

And finally.... this might amuse! Either Masters Ice-coffee boxes are so tuff, they'd rust ~ or the *look-after-our-environment* message is simply not sinking in! Bear in mind, this fire went through 24 hours ago!

just another day at the office

2007-03-09T07:53:25Z

Mosquitoes leaving
~ at the end of the day, the helitacs leave, heading back to the airport, and leaving us to fight-on without them. They are our god-send, without a doubt. Our god's with horizontal blades buzzing ahead and long phallic's dangling below, they scoop up the escarpment and douse the flames just as they threaten to take hold.

Don't try this at home

~ one of the hardest things about taking photographs of fires at twilight is camera and/or truck movement!! I thought the effect though was outstanding!!... *hic*

From inside the truck
~ arriving at sector 4, where "running fire" is still a major issue. Four other vehicles just in front of us, and dozens of fire-fighters scrambling to assess the situation and decide the best course of action.

Hill ablaze

~ As night fell, the north east corner of the fire had gripped the valley. Unfortunately, photographs don't always show the true *scale* of an incident such as this. It was going to be a long, difficult night without the support of the helitacs (which go home at sunset)

Waiting for the fire
For the most part, bush fire fighting is a patient combination of on-going waiting and defending. In this picture (left) I stood on the back-tray of the appliance (that's firey-speak for "truck") and *spotted* if flames or embers "hopped-over" the road we were using for our fire-break. In the meantime, the team waits.... waits for the fire to approach.... and then, when the time is right (when the flames have gotten as near as we dare let them) we *go in* and fight ~ or defend, whichever is appropriate.

Going In

And that........ is an evening at the office.

To put this entry into perspective. Yesterday a fire-call came over at 2.50pm. A fire had started next to the Zig-Zag in Gooseberry Hill, and was spreading through the Gooseberry (pronounced goozeberry) Hill national park ~ which is beautiful hills and valleys. By 5pm it was massive and we had some 70 fire-fighters battling with four helitacs to get the blaze under control before the Southerly wind blew the fire into Helena Valley (which is far more densely populated ~ as far as houses go ~ than the GH national park). We fought the fire all-night and into today. Me personally, I was at the fire-ground until 11.15pm last night, and then back there at 5.30am this morning, after a surprisingly restful midnight-to-pre-dawn sleep. I was paired off with Paul (an ex-pat Canadian who's lived in Perth for a decade) today, and I really enjoyed getting to know him during what can be tedious hours of mop-up. We finished around 2pm, and I was terribly relieved to finally get home to a warm wrinkle-all-over bath and cup-of-coffee.

*phew* ~ going to put my feet up for a bit.

excuses, fighting fires, and battling exhaustion

2007-02-17T04:33:20Z

Thank you for the nudge sodyinoz, makes me feel special ~ ~ ~
I don't mean to leave it so long between drinks, but I suppose it's just been one of those ~~week's~~ ~~month's~~ . . . year's so far. If I'm not reading/writing for my PhD, I'm reading/writing a new course Dr Bode asked me to teach. Research & Writing Processes teaches new university students how to approach "academic" research and writing. It's a big area to cover in 13 weeks, and in my experience, I achieve quality in my courses by developing too much content and then culling it back. When I've not been working, I've been fire-fighting.
We've had really substantial fires over the past few weeks in Dwellingup, Toodyay, Forrestdale and Mundaring... There's been some down in the Porongorup's (near Albany) and Williams too. The back-burning we did at Mundaring was really successful (where we worked with CALM *Conservation And Land Management* workers) at containing the fire. This was the first fire I've fought where I've experienced "crowning". Crowning, is when a tree's foliage catches fire and the fire spreads quickly from the "crown" of one tree to the crown of other trees. It's amazing.... it soon creates it's own wind, and builds in ferocity, and sounds like a fucking freight-train!! Scary? . . . . well, yes.... and fucking HOT!!!
The fires at Forrestdale were really close to homes, and at one stage our crew had to stop en route to our next post and bolt-cut our way into someone's back-yard because their huge pile of bulk-rubbish (an old couch, cupboard, and other house-hold rejects) had caught fire. I remember feeling the 6 foot colour-bond fence to assess the fire behind it, and it was hot-as! Later in the evening, we literally drove into the bush a few meters from one of the fire-fronts, behind an earth-mover, and cut a containment line between the fire and houses. That was hot too... I was driving that day. Had to go $130km p/h down the Tonkin Highway, through red lights with lights'n'sirens going. And no, people do not always give-way.... what's worse, a stupid woman actually pulled out in front of me, forcing me to brake hard.... *shaking head ~ some people are just plain stupid*.
Okay... that's about it I suppose. It's been an amazing few weeks really. I feel like most of the time I'm waging a personal battle against sheer exhaustion. I think about stopping in and writing often ~ as much because life goes on and I experience new things, and I want to keep a record of my journey. I feel I continue to grow and change as a person, finding the words and documenting the voyage though, takes time and cognitive energy, both of which I seem to have so precious little left in reserve... I also miss catching up on what people on my flist are doing (or have been doing).
cheekyassmonkey I miss your words of wisdom, rubygloomrox I miss your stories and your humour, hwar I miss reading and vicariously enjoying jane growing up ~ I hope she's doing well....
I miss dragoneletra's self-focused, yet absolutely honest and incredibly articulate ramblings (that goes for quietthomas too)... and thomas, I miss your's and sodyinoz's council.... I probably shouldn't have started writing individual comments, because I don't want to offend anyone by leaving them off ~ ~ *sigh* ~ and I really must get back to Dr Bode's course, as it starts in less than a week...kim_bear_ly thank you for your little comment/reply a couple of weeks ago, I miss you too and hope teaching is going well. Oh and penelly I hope your PhD writing is making progress.
I'll try and find some time (and decent band-width) during next week to catch up on flist-journals properly ~ then you can all get sick of me again! *smirk*
One last thing ~cliff_gallup ~ mikie, it goes without saying how much I miss my cyber-beer-buddy's encouragement and kind words. *god, that was so poetic, it was pathetic* phhfffttt

Al Gore ~ le champion

2006-12-21T11:14:37Z

Last night I popped out to "Borders", a book store in the city-centre of Perth ~ complete with a Gloria Jean's coffee shop and lots of comfy chairs on which to plant your 'tush and peruse your possible purchase.

I decided to buy "An Inconvenient Truth" (Al Gore) for my niece for Xmas. This morning, when I was supposed to be leaving for work, I sat down to quickly look at the book before wrapping it. But once I started reading, I couldn't put it down! I never did make it into work (cosmos, I love being an academic sometimes).

You know..... I wonder what a different place this planet would be if Al Gore had become president of the U.S. in 2000.... *sigh*

a funny thing happened on the way to the theatre

2006-12-20T07:28:08Z

hmmm.... I think I was just offered a financial *incentive* to "revisit" a student's result for this semester. University lecturers don't really do things like that do they?

Oh, and next semester, I have no teaching load with MIS ~ seems weird really.... Any lecturing I do will be purely my choice. *whoo-hoo!!!* concentrating on research-only ~ oh it will be bliss.

And finally ~ this will mean *jack* to most, but I'm excited about the Case/Units of Analysis model I've designed for my PhD research. This is the third model to come out of the research.... maybe I just think in spacial/model ways??? cosmos knows, I am a "Space-Cadet" after all.

I got a "great aussie air-chair" from Jo for my birthday last Monday (11th Dec). It's terribly comfy!! It hangs under the patio but apparently I can tie it up anywhere!! Next time we go to Busselton, maybe I can tie it under the jetty.... *whoo hoo*

If I don't get a chance to visit again, merry Xmas.