My father’s given me plenty of great advice over the years. I wish I’d heard this quote when I was a teenager, it would’ve saved me plenty of unneeded angst and grief -
I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn’t met me yet.**
It’s always amazing when people (I assume they’re people) post abusive messages that you’re absolutely certain they’d never say to your face in person. I received two such abusive messages in relation to some previous postings on Abbott and Costello’s recent political shenanigans.
My policy on this blog is that abusive comments will be deleted immediately. Life’s too short and I’ve gotten less tolerant of idiots as I get older.
I’ve noticed that its hard to please most gamers some of the time. Star Wars - Empire at War is one game that had plenty of hype and fanfare, but has been released to a pretty tepid response by most gamers. As for me, I’ve enjoyed it thus far - it’s a very ambitious game that achieves most of its objectives, but I still think it could’ve done with a little more fine tuning.
Firstly, I wish they’d gone turn-based with the Galactic Map. If it works for popular strategy games like Civ 4 and Total War, why shouldn’t it work here too? Unlike some reviewers, I found tracking my units not to be a problem. My only caveat is that I wish they’d put icons for the minor heroes (eg. Infantry and Fleet Commanders, Bounty Hunters and Smugglers) in the top-right hand corner too.
Land combat is my biggest gripe - it’s too much of a throwback to Command and Conquer for my taste. And the units look too large for the maps they’re on - I sometimes wish they’d made the units smaller, so when a squad of tanks climb a hill you really believe it. Space combat, on the other hand, is definitely the best part of the game. Everything looks to scale, and the directors view is really satisfying - especially when your Y-Wings are about to take out an Imperial Star Destroyer.
Another aspect I like is the voices (mostly). The guy voicing Han Solo is, to my ears, pitch perfect. The dialogue between him and Mon Mothma is the highlight of the campaign (at least for me). The voice for Obi-Wan is pretty good too. On the other hand, the voice of Darth Vader sounds a bit too rap-artist-Fifty-Cent for my taste.
I also tried out a multiplayer game with my brother last night. Fun! I tried to persuade him to attack the enemy space stations hangar bay first, but he kept on insisting on destroying Boba Fett with his Millenium Falcon Squadron. :rolleyes: What do you expect from somebody who had Boba Fett wallpaper on his PC?
So all-in-all, Empire at War was actually better than I expected.
I’m occasionally surprised by Tony Abbott. I disagree with his stance on the RU486 issue (as Jay and Silent Bob said: “A woman’s body is her own business”), as well as several other socially conservative issues. So it really surprised me when he made this speech supporting the right of immigrants to come to Australia -
Of course, every migrant community has taken some time to identify fully as Australian. People should not be expected to forsake their affections or lose interest in the culture that shaped them. It would be odd if they did. As the Prime Minister once said: “We all love Australia but we never forget where we came from.”
Even so, the act of migration signifies at least an implicit willingness on each migrant’s part to become part of a different society and to be changed by it. Native-born people have not had to make a conscious choice of Australia in the way that every migrant has. In that sense, each migrant’s arrival is another vote of confidence in our country. I’m sure this is what Ronald Reagan had in mind when he said that each migrant makes America more American.
Whoever wrote Tony Abbott’s speech, give him a payrise. It’s the best example I’ve seen of taken an American quote and applying it perfectly to Australian situations. “Making Australia more Australian” - I like it!
There was a time when I would’ve openly supported Peter Costello. I vividly remember when Pauline Hanson launched her vile racist attacks against Asians (which looks insipidly stupid in hindsight), he objected to her rantings and ravings.
“Before entering a mosque visitors are asked to take off their shoes,” Mr Costello said. “This is a sign of respect. If you have a strong objection to walking in your socks don’t enter the mosque. Before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objection to those values don’t come to Australia.”
Of course migrants should embrace Australian values - just about all the migrants I know DO accept Australian values, otherwise they wouldn’t have come here in the first place. The implication in Costello’s attacks are that no migrants will EVER be able to embrace Australian values, therefore they shouldn’t come here in the first place.
It’s interesting how a politician can career from left-wing to far-right wing bigot in only a few short years. Its even more interesting to see how the opposite is true - I thought John Howard’s comments were far more measured and constructive when compared to Costello’s. Costello’s comments were a blanket attack against all migrants, regardless of whether they had embraced Australian culture or not.
As you can tell, I’m pretty disgusted and angry with him. I might disagree with John Howard’s views, but at least I respect them for the measured and forthright way in which he expresses them. I don’t think either Peter Costello or Tony Abbott are yet ready to be Prime Minister. Not attacking all migrants would’ve been a good start.
Over the past few months I’ve been following Madhab Al-Irfy’s blog and his entries on Webdiary very closely indeed. To me, Irfan Yusuf (his other name on Webdiary) represents the often ignored voice of modern Muslim Australia that the media either don’t get to hear or don’t bother listening to.
Irfan’s credentials are unique - he comes from a Conservative background (ex-Liberal member), but he is a devout follower of the Muslim faith. But that doesn’t stop him from commenting on issues when its relevant. This piece on the Pakistani Government is a perfect example -
Pakistan is officially an Islamic state. But Islam is not being evidenced in the rhetoric and actions of some mullahs. The pronouncements of Maulana Qureshi are a far cry from the persevering spirit of the early Muslims who withstood a barrage of persecution far more painful than a dozen cartoons to defend their Prophet’s honour and the quiet practice of their faith.
One would expect religious scholars, regarded as the inheritors of Prophetic knowledge, to act in a manner more befitting of their status. Islamic theology elevates religious scholars because of their knowledge, piety and character. However, there is ample material in the sayings of the Prophet which record him warning religious scholars to set a proper example or face the flames of hell.
**APPLAUSE**
It’s a stern but comforting reminder that like Asian migrants who came here in the past, Muslims can and will make a positive contribution to our country - both now, and in the future. And over the coming years, I hope we’ll be proud to call them our fellow Australians.
Good on ya, Irfan.
God I hate cable management.
I love installing the motherboard. It’s unbelievable that the step that most intimidated me in the past is actually one of the easier parts to do. My least favourite part is tidying up all the cables that are leftover after an upgrade is finished. I look at all these pictures of neat and tidy cables, and then compare them with my own.
Ugh.
Nevermind - hopefully cable management is something I’ll get better with over time.
Reading the articles I mentioned in my last posting makes me incredibly grateful to be living in Tasmania right now. It’s wonderful to live in a place which is so far away from the trouble and strife that besets the mainland and other parts of the world. No Cronulla riots, no high-stress high-density lifestyle.
Wil Wheaton (who has my number-one favourite blog), once listed “Ten Reasons to be Grateful”, just to remind himself about what was good in his life. I might as well do the same, just to remind myself why I’m incredibly lucky to be where I am right now.
1. I’m very grateful to be living in a place as wonderful, relaxing and beautiful as Tasmania.
2. I’m very grateful to have such a kind and caring family.
3. I’m very grateful that I decided to start going to the gym and exercising. I had no idea just how good it would make me feel.
4. I’m very very grateful that I no longer have to be ashamed to call myself a Doctor Who fan. To paraphrase Russell. T. Davies, I was in the closet but I never had to be there in the first place!
5. I’m very grateful to have a challenging and fulfilling job that’s allowed me to gain experience in so many important areas of IT.
6. I’m very grateful to be working with such generous and friendly colleagues. It makes getting up to go to work something to look forward to.
7. I’m very grateful to be living in a suburb with so many amenities so close by. You’ve got no idea how lucky you are to be living in Tassie until you try living in Melbourne. It just isn’t the same.
8. I’m grateful to be living only fifteen minutes away from some of the freshest seafood in Australia.
9. I’m EXTREMELY grateful that I got front row tickets to Billy Connolly’s comedy show. And in Tassie no less!
10. I’m grateful and thankful that I finally learned how to upgrade PC’s.
My Doctor says I have pretty low blood pressure, but there are times when it can rise quite a bit. Nowadays, its the antics of politicians in Canberra that makes my blood boil - on both sides of Parliament. Sometimes their actions make absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
For instance, we have ex-Veteran Affair Minister Donna Vale’s remarks that Australia will become a Muslim Nation in fifty years if we don’t ban abortion.
LIBERAL MP Danna Vale has raised the prospect of Australia becoming a Muslim nation, warning “we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence”. As five conservative Coalition women promoted a compromise amendment to keep the fate of abortion drug RU486 in politicians’ hands, Mrs Vale said she had read that the Imam at Sydney’s Lakemba mosque had predicted Australia would be Muslim in half a century.
“I didn’t believe him at the time. But … when you actually look at the birthrate, when you look at the fact that we are … aborting ourselves almost out of existence by 100,000 a year — a guesstimate,” Mrs Vale said.
Whuh?!!?
Australia has always been (and will continue to be) a secular democracy with democratic freedoms. Australians had the same fear only five years ago in regards to Asian nations - fears that Pauline Hanson unfairly took advantage of. It turns out that fear of “the yellow peril” was completely unfounded. So just what exactly does fanning unfounded xenophobic fears against an ethnic minority have to do with abortion?!!?
And then there’s this -
With the House of Representatives due to vote on Thursday on whether to strip Health Minister Tony Abbott of his powers over the drug, Ballarat University lecturer David Stratton wrote to his local MP, Steve Gibbons, urging him to vote on the issue of medical approval, not abortion.
“I trust that you will treat the upcoming vote as one on the appropriate process for approval of medication, and not a backdoor vote about abortion,” Dr Stratton wrote in an email. Mr Gibbons, the Labor member for Bendigo, was angered by the email, and replied: “I don’t need advice from halfwits that have been educated beyond their intelligence!”
And I’m giving much thanks that Duncan Kerr is the Local Member in our area, and that this under-educated halfwit isn’t. I wouldn’t vote for that idiot in a million years.
You’ve probably all heard about the after it was discovered he had falsified his credentials on his resume. The more important issue was the attempts to from discussing global warming and climate change.
The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists. Dr. Hansen said he would ignore the restrictions. “They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public,” he said.
Much to my surprise, I found out the same thing was going on in Australia as well -
Dr Pearman says he fell out with his CSIRO superiors after joining the Australian Climate Group, an expert lobby group convened by the Insurance Australia Group and environment body WWF in late 2003. Dr Pearman, who headed the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research for 10 years until 2002, said he was admonished by his Canberra superiors for “making public expressions of what I believed were scientific views, on the basis that they were deemed to be political views”.
…
“I don’t think it is something that has been specific to (Australia). It’s a sign of the times that governments seem to want to get on with the job of making decisions based on the ideology they have presented in their elections, and they are more reluctant to seek open and fearless advice from scientists, from economists, from the judiciary, from groups … (who) might not agree with their position.”
This increasing evidence of scientific censorship worries me no end. It worries me even more when prominent scientific leaders believe that giving frank and fearless advice is an outmoded and naive practice. Its sad that some of our leaders of science have become so mired in politics, and so interested in securing their political power base, that they have forgotten what it truly means to be a scientist.
They should hang their heads in shame.
