Victorian Debate
No, not about Queen Victoria; this is the night of the only debate between Ted Baillieu, leader of the Liberal Opposition, and Steve Bracks, current Premier and head of Labor. They are mostly just blaming each other for issues in Victoria. Now maybe I’ve been spoiled by Bartlett (and I have no doubt that I am), but these two are just so painful! Much of the time they are just avoiding the question and slanging at each other. It is sooo depressing. I think I will just vote Green. And, given the changes to the Senate, that might actually make a difference….
Commenting
Apologies if you’ve ever tried to comment here. I have only just realised that you had to be logged in order to do so… I’ve switched that off now. There was me thinking that people didn’t like me and my blog so they weren’t saying anything.
Actually, perhaps that is the case, and I should leave it impossible to comment so that I don’t realise that it wasn’t the only reason I was getting no comments.
hmm. Friday brain. That made very little sense.
Geertz
I didn’t even know Clifford Geertz was still alive, so reading an article about him dying is a bit weird. It’s also weird to read about the death of someone I did a very short paper on during Honours (that would be Geertz). I knew nothing about anthropology and its intersections with historical writitng, so it was a good thing to research, even in a very cursory way… especially since it was for a subject called “Historians and Ritual.”
Amnesty
I had five keenie-beanies along to the second-ever Amnesty meeting at school today; they were really gung-ho, we wrote three letters, and I’ve sent them off – school’s great, they’ve agreed to pay the postae, which is nice because there were 5 to China and 4 to Iran. Plus three to Brazil. They’re all keen to make it a regular thing, and there were a couple of kids who didn’t make it today who will come next time. So that makes it worth missing my lunch.
Squiderific
I don’t know if this is of a Giant Squid, but it’s still cool… Egg sack found.
Everyone loves squid. They just have to.
Come fly with me
My friend AB gave me a gloriously politically incorrect kite for my birthday – it has an Indian chief on it. But, to help redeem it, it has the longest tail I’ve ever seen on a kite.
We decided to take it for a spin last weekend, so we kidnapped some friends’ sons and took them to a park.
It was a fun day. I haven’t flown a kite in ages!
No more Tash
Natasha Stott Despoja announces she will not run again as a Democrat senator – in June 2008, that is, when she will have become the longest standing Democrat senator ever.
I’m a bit sad that she won’t run again, although since she has a son in a pram and has just had an ectopic pregnancy (which must be terrible), I can understand her decision too. Of course, it is almost 2 years away!
I’ve been impressed by her ever since she spoke at a UN Youth Conference I attended in 1996; she came across so well, so personably, and she was pretty inspiring too. Good luck to her, I say.
The Perfect Afternoon…
Yes, that is a dressing gown, and yes it was the afternoon. That’s part of the reason why it was so perfect…
One Bad Thing about Cycling…
is that you can’t read while doing it.
I rode past a girl (woman, I guess) today, who was happily reading as she walked in the park. It made me remember primary school (I don’t think I did it on the way to high school, although it is possible): I frequently walked to school reading, but even though that was through the back streets of Darwin suburbia, I still nearly got run over a couple of times. So, amazingly, there is no way I am going to try it on the bike and through the back streets of inner Melbourne!
Randomly Yours, Alex 