Author: Dave

Political classics

After Tony Morris publicly criticised Queensland Health‘s 1 million dollar sponsorship of the Brisbane Broncos (saying, quite rightly, that the money would be much better spent shortening surgical waiting lists) the government today announced that the sponsorship deal had been cancelled.

What was classic was where their explanation of where the money had been redirected to:
“Funding health services for children in the bush” (ie. Rural Australia).

That combination of political interest is so blatant that I’m surprised that there isn’t an election on at present, because those kinds of vote buying absurdities don’t usually pop up at any other time of year.
Frankly, it’s almost on par with that other classic political amalgamation: Land rights for gay whales…

Head ornamentation

I appear to have developed something of a hat obsession.

I blame phil for this.

Well it’s not entirely Phil’s fault. It’s more to do with my hair falling out and reducing the amount of brain insulation I have.

Earlier this winter I began to really feel the cold on my head, and decided that I needed a hat, and after some umming and arrring (no, not the pirate kind) I decided that what I really needed was a beret. I liked the style, and from previous experience I knew that it looked good on me. The only problem lay in actually acquiring one. For weeks we looked around all the expected haunts and came up empty. Nobody in Brisbane seemed to have berets or know anywhere that did have them.

A couple of weeks after I had pretty much given up finding my beret in Brisbane Simone had to go to Melbourne for an interview and so I went along for the weekend.

While I was down there I caught up with my friend Phil, and I found a hat shop. I bought my beret, and Phil almost bought a fedora for himself, and then we spent the rest of tha day on and off talking about how cool hats were.

The unfortunate things is that having spent so much time looking in hat shops I have now found a whole world of hats that I want. I want a panama for summer. I want a fedora for my suit in winter. I want that other funky little hat in DJs for social occasions. It really does begin to seem silly, but then again I suppose most obsessions are.

Safari Ho!!!

It looks increasingly as though my elective in Africa is going to happen! Yay!!

I have revieced approval from the university in Jo’berg, and am waiting for my registration to come through from the South African Medical Professional

I’ve had my pre-trip jabs. Now I just have to sort out flights, accommodation, transport, health Insurance, indemnity insurance, travel insurance, HIV prophylaxis, malaria prophylaxis…

Feeling alive, realising you are dead

Today we had the day off, thanks to the Exhibition show day holiday.

This coincided nicely with one of my old friends from my college days being back in town from her PhD in Scotland, and so we decided to catch up for a bit of coffee.

A few of her other friends came along too, and what had started as a cup of coffee became three hours of exhuberant chin wagging.

When we finished up there Simone and I wandered up the road to a non-mainstream book store, where I browsed books about alternative history, environmentally sound house design, art history and… well you get the idea.

Upon arriving home I realised that for the first time in weeks I had not been thinking about my exams and instead was raving about the exciting things I’d read, the discussions I’d had, and the ideas that both of these had spawned in my head. In summary I was buzzing and I felt vibrant and alive.

The sad realisation that accompanied this however was that thanks to the self-imposted limitations that my studies had placed on my life this was what I was missing out on while I was stitting at home and studying, and worse than feeling depressed, simply feeling nothing at all.

I hope that once the exams are over I will find myself with more opportunities like this to feel vibrant again.

I don’t know how much I could stand travelling through life feeling nothing at all…

Cumulus in my bathroom

I as having a particularly hot and enjoyable shower this morning, and it was a little cold outside, and when I got out of the shower there were clouds in my bathroom.

It was super cool.

They were moving around on the air currents in the room. They had distinct densities and gaps. They almost had shapes (although that may have just been my brain wanting them to have shapes….).

Anyway, it was almost a bit of a pity when they finally dissapated, leaving only codensation on the walls…

God I love hypocrisy

Only a couple of weeks after the Supreme court delivered it’s ruling stating that publishers of Peer-To-Peer software could be held responsible and sued for the unintended illegal uses of their products by their customers, comes this wonderful news, illustrating the blinding hypocrisy of the White House and US Senate.

While it’s bad to steal music and you can get sued for making software which makes said activity possible, there is no problem whatsoever with manufacturing assault rifles and handguns that people can then use to commit murder…

Below is a direct quote from the article:

“The president believes that the manufacturer of a legal product should not be held liable for the criminal misuse of that product by others,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “We look at it from a standpoint of stopping lawsuit abuse.”

And yet you haven’t heard a pip from them on file sharing have you…

I dream of iTunes

I had the most vivid dream last night that the australian iTunes store had (finally) opened, and was so wierded out when I woke up that I had to get up and check that it hadn’t actually happened.

The dream included TV advertising, print promotionals and me downloading from the store.

It really was quite reminiscent of that Futurama thing where companies beamed adds directly into your dreams…

I really am such a disturbing geek (but I also really want some legit option for acquiring music, and one that doesn’t suck arse like the existing australian ones seem to).

Predictable

Turns out that mobile phones can predict your behavior. Well not the phones themselves, but a computer program tracking where your phone goes, when you go certain places, and who you regularly come into proximity with.

After tracking you for a while it can pick up patterns of movement and socialisation, and can begin to (eventually quite accurately) predict your future movements etc on the basis of your historical actions.

I wonder how long it will take for the intelligence community to start doing it….