It's nearly that time of year again ...

Yup, "Big Brother Australia" is nearly upon us again. What do you mean you "can't abide THAT show" and you "can't believe you watch or support in any way shape or form that dross" ? :)

Well, I do and have done so since the first season was inflicted upon Oz viewer all those years ago ... can you believe we are now up to season EIGHT ?

Sadly, it would appear that Gretel isn't going to mother us through this season so there is some cause for concern if not despair.

Anyway, not only am I a long time proud viewer of "Big Brother Australia", but also I am a long time proud participant of forums and websites dedicated to the topic. Actually, I'm probably moreso a fan of such sites than I am a dedicated watcher of the show, for it is much more satisfying to be actively involved in something than a mere observer, yes ?

Once upon a time I used to content myself with the official BB Oz site but soon found that to be far too restrictive, manipulated, and the forums over-flowing with young'uns spouting endless pointless SMS speak. Yuck, eh ?

Then in 2005 I discovered the excellent "Behind Big Brother Australia" site and that soon proved to me to be a far better place to both observe and participate in the Big Brother phenomena ... you can still find "derspatz" posting there to this day.

And now, just in time for the new Big Brother Oz season, there is a new web site and foruming area that has recently been made available to one and all and thus far it promises to have a far more progressive, useful, and pleasantly welcoming approach to those who love "foruming" than anything provided by the Official Big Brother Oz site, or the official site's long time nemesis "Behind Big Brother Australia".

The recently launched New Improved approach to things is called "Behind Big Brother .NET" and it can be found at http://www.behindbigbrother.net/ and the most immediate difference between "the other" Behind Big Brother site and it is the fact that it IS a ".NET" as opposed to ".COM"

IE. None Commercial. Not For Profit. Get the idea ?

It also has a novel approach to Moderation and forum policing that I hope both works well and catches on for other online discussion places. Sure, it will be nothing new to those used to the old days of FIDOnet or USEnet, but it has been a long time coming for standard Web.

Anyway, nothing like a bit of healthy competition and I for one wish BOTH the mentioned "Behind Big Brother" sites all the best for BB08 ... I can imagine it is a massive and largely thankless job to maintain such web locations during such a popular show, and it is fantastic to have such sites available for the fans to gather at to communally discuss and enjoy their favorite show and a lot more besides.

Here is to BBo8, and here is to those who continue to give of themselves in order to make it even better for everyone, and here is also to the bright and shiny new boat in the docks: http://www.behindbigbrother.net/ and all who choose to sail in her, too.

Remember BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU !

So get Behind Big Brother Australia and join in with all the forum fun here at Behind Big Brother Australia ... NET :)

regarDS

A York Dreaming ...

In addition to my "sorry day" entry (see previous), I thought I'd include the following entry which actually used to be one of my web pages near ten years ago. I thought it was an apt archive to dust off.

SOQ (which I assume everyone understands to mean "START OF QUOTE", which might indicate that I'm either quoting myself, or quoting someone else)

As I understand it, the Oz aboriginal people's history consists of a range of events recorded in "dreamtime" types of stories, which are recounted both in words song and dance. Corroboree ?

The "Dreamtime" interests me greatly because from what I can figure, it is a timeless type of place which explains both creation and the end of time - "dreamtime" seems to be a place OUTSIDE time ... a place Shamans and the like of all sort of cultures, know, and can visit.

With that in mind, I wonder if this following "dreamtime" account about the two main "mountains" (more like large hills) in York Western Australia, is from our "Past" or from our ever unfolding "Present", or from our eventual "future(s)". It has elements of all within it including a "prophecy of hope".

When I was a child, I used hunt fish with aboriginal children - they taught me how to make and use both the "kylie" and the "gidji", and we used to go for mullet and cobbler in the Swan River around Maylands and the Peninsular. It must be a good 35 years since that Perth area has seen that kind of activity - and I hope I am very wrong in saying that - it would be so sad if the ways of the kylie and gitji are no more around the Swan River.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say by all this is that in some small way, I relate to a tribe or dreamtime of sorts, and have lived a sort of tribal life and dreamtime, sometimes. However, I'm not an "Aboriginal Story-teller"and am not trying to take ANY credit here, or trying to offend anyone either. This is just a case of me being touched by the legend, and wanting to see it told to a greater audience.

So, here is "The Legend of Mount Bakewell and Mount Brown" as published in an Avon newspaper, told by Emily Winmar.

"To the Nyungar people the taller mountain was called Walwalling (place of weeping) and the lower hill was called Wongborel (sleeping woman). Koorain kwotjut (a long time ago) in the Dreamtime, the hills Nyungars used to meet the plains and valley people on the flat area at the tjenna (foot) of Walwalling for games and sport.

Wundig was a Moorditj (a good looking person) young man of the hills people who waskwobinyarn (champion) in the skills of gitjul (spear) kylie (a simple form of shuriken or shakken - essentially a flat square blade usually used to throw at fish in shallow water) and tjenna (foot) races, and a lot of young yorga's (women) had their meowl's (eyes) on him.

However, Wilura, a mooditj young yorga of the valley people was tjeruping (had to have) for him. They were not betrothed because in their tribal groupings it would have been a warrah(bad) relationship. The two decided to ignore the taboo and they woort kooliny together.

When it was discovered, the valley Nyungers demanded the return of the young yorga. The hills Nyungars said they didn't know where the young couple were. The valley Nyungars didn't believe them and declared war.

The hills Nyungars came down over the slopes outnumbering the challengers and a blood thirsty battle ensued with the valley Nyungars coming off badly. They called in their Mubarn (medicine)man and asked him to use his mubarn powers.

He was able to change all the hills fighting men into blackboy bushes and to this day you can see the wide band of grass trees where in the dreamtime the warriors from the hills were coming over the top of Walwalling and down the Eastern slope. They stand there still.

The Mubarn man then turned his mubarn powers on the young people who had caused such bloodshed and put a curse on them. Their nortch (dead) bodies were found later and his curse was that the man's kunya (spirit) would stay on Walwalling and the Yorgar's kunya was sent to Wongborel and that they would never meet again until the mountains came together."

Now for more commentry from "derspatz". These two mountains are separated by the "Avon river" and York is on (or near) an earth-quake fault line (about 30 years ago a quake leveled a place called Meckering which is not all that far away from York), so perhaps this dreamtime story is also a prophecy of a day when the two mountains will be shaken together !

Mount Bakewell, the taller of the mounts, is a place where hang-gliders and para-sailers leap off and also the location of telecommunication towers ... male type stuff, and Mount Brown is where a public look-out is, and a water supply tank, and at it's foot is a grave-yard. It is also a place where I'm told young lovers go to kanoodle (grin). A "feminine" type of place ?

Between those Mountains is not only where York township is located, but also where people who like to leap out of aeroplanes get to land ...

I would like to think that the kunya of Wundigand the kunya of Wilura, get to continue their taboo breaking love in the airspace in between those two mountains - perhaps the parachutists are like a "celebration" of an obvious selfish love that rejected the wisdom and guidance and well-being of the tribe, and brought about the ruin told in the story. Love or lust ?

I say "celebration", because I have leaped out of a perfectly good aeroplane and hung on thin air ... some would say a dangerous and selfish thing to do, ah but what an experience, not to mention privilage ... despite it flying in the face of conventional wisdom.

As a hills man I have also broken taboos with valley yorga with tragic results. Once again flying in the face of conventional wisdom. As Mr Neil Finn wrote in the song "Into Temptation", "the guilty get no sleep in the last slow hours of morning and experience is cheap; I should have listened to the warning ... ah, but the cradle is soft and warm !"

Experience is addictive too it seems and at the end of the day, how DO you separate "True Love" from "Selfish or False love" ?

Yes, I understand and probably enslaved to the emotion which was the driving force behind the relationship that Wundig and Wilura formed and that which prompts some of us to leap out into thin air protected only by cradles of silk ...

It is all the same, no ? So that mubarn curse is still in place. So pray that the mountains get to meet soon, and "True Love" may abound !

So who was that Mubarn Man ? He punished hill warriors and the "lovers", but is there a sort of mercy and grace evident in the story, where the hill warriors still "look over" the valley and that one day when "mountains collide", the selfish lovers will be reunited ?

Whoever he was I think I like his attitude ...
EOQ ("END OF QUOTE")

regarDS

A time to be Sorry and a time to say Sorry.

LOL, LOL, LOL !

An opportunity for a whole new beginning for ALL the people of Oz was made available today, this Wednesday February 13th 2008. The day Oz finally and officially said "sorry" to some past mistakes regarding certain governmental policies and general attitudes cultivated by the same in relation to the peoples who were custodians of this vast land before the European arrived.

Here is to hoping that a positive and beneficial outcome for all of us will be the result as we all consider and act upon our mutual obligations to each other and the future generations of this great country!

For those who don't already know, I am adoptee and so I think I can well understand what it is like to be separated from one's natural kith and kin even if it is put one in even a more loving and beneficial environment. I can only imagine what it might be like for a reliquishing parent mind you, although I suspect both reliquishing parents and the reliquished think the same sorts of things upon every birthday of the reliquished, mind you.

That being said, I hope that not only will this official "sorry" that has been said by the government on behalf of Oz's non-aboriginal people be received and accepted wholeheartedly by Oz's aboriginal folk, but also that the offerers of the apology may also know forgiveness in return.

I sincerely hope that a new hope has been well and truly born today and that this time to be sorry and this time to say sorry will help nurture this new hope that it may grow into a time a healing, unity, joy, and the thing that is common to all of that.

Laughter.

May we all learn to properly laugh again and laugh together both with each other and at each other.

Only then will we know that we are truly One Mob, One People !

regarDS

FEUER FREI !

For the last few hours a couple of dedicated helicopter pilots have been busy water bombing some sort of scrub fire next to a horse race course across the river from me. The strong winds have made the going hard for them and there is now so much smoke that the bottom of hill cannot even be seen, let alone the river.

Pretty glad it is happening on the OTHER side of the river from us, and to the helicopter pilots I say a resounding GOOD ON YA LADS !

Anyway, here are some photos of the ongoing event. I had to chuckle at the ID number of one of the helicopters. 668. Neighbouring chopper to The Beast ?

Oh, and here is a suitable music track to go along with the pics. Cheers Rammstein.
http://www.last.fm/music/Rammstein/_/Feuer+Frei :)


regarDS

Genesis 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

From "The Australian" January 9th 2008

Climate change cure is warm and fuzzy. by Janet Albrechtsen

CANADA: I am starting to warm to this whole climate change business. Arrived in Vancouver for a night just before 2007 drew to a close. With barely a few hours remaining before the stores closed, I raced out and bought a fur coat. A long coat cascading down to my ankles, light as a feather and as warm as a ... well ... fur.

A few days later, despite sub-zero mountain temperatures, I am still positively glowing with warmth from my new fur. Not just because animal skins protect from the cold. No, there is the unexpected, more cerebral, inner-warmth that comes from learning that by buying a fur, I have done the right green thing. According to the Fur Council of Canada's new ad campaign, fur is now eco-fashion. Thats right. Wrapping yourself in a fur is a guilt-free pleasure. More than that, it's positively good for the planet. Barely 10 days in, I am loving 2008. It holds the promise of lots more surprises from green politics as the climate change juggernaut continues to head in the most unlikely directions.

Let me explain. At the weekend, Canada's National Post reported on an advertising campaign launched at the end of last year by the Fur Council of Canada, which represents 70,000 of the nation's fur traders. These sassy new ads feature gorgeous women draped in fur, one under the heading "Environmental activist". The ads explain that buying a fur coat is the ecologically correct thing to do because fox stoles and mink coats are natural, renewable and sustainable. By contrast, synthetic furs are no more than by-products of the petro-chemical industry. Making a single faux fur coat can chew up 19 litres of petroleum, a non-renewable resource, says the council. Ergo, buying a fur coat is good for the planet. Welcome to the brave new world of climate change politics.

The Fur Council's campaign has been so successful that even comedians are sending out the "fur is green" message. Picked up by a Canadian comedy show, a camp-looking guy who resembles Borat in a fur coat gets off some great lines assuring us that a genuine fur coat creates less pollution than synthetic textiles and uses no child labour. "So say auf Wiedersehen to faux fur," he smiles into the camera. "You wouldn't wear a barrel of oil, so why would you wear a coat that is made from one?" You can find it on YouTube. And if you're worried about being sprayed with paint by those nasty PETA people, funny fur boy has some advice: "Well, you just turn around and tell them that every spray can produces enough fluorocarbons to drown three polar bears. Who's the killer now, PETA?" Fur boy's advice if you want to do something good for the environment: "Kill a small animal and slap it on your noggin."

Alan Herscovici, the council's executive vice-president, told me by phone from Montreal that the global warming issue provided the perfect opportunity for the fur industry to tackle the animal rights industry. He described these groups as the new politically correct hate groups and lamented that the media rarely exposes the intimidation they use to pillory legitimate industries such as fur.

So if you are in the business of producing and selling natural products such as furs why wouldn't you jump aboard the natural, sustainable, renewable bandwagon? Long derided as the brutish killers of innocent animals who satisfy the hedonistic vanity of callous consumers, now animal trappers and hunters are, according to the Fur Council of Canada, the new heroes of global warming. And those buying and wearing the fur coats can hold their heads high in the knowledge that they are doing the socially responsible thing.

The fur industry is fighting back using the sort of emotional blackmail that the animal rights industry mastered long ago. All these years the anti-fur brigade has assumed the high moral ground when extolling the virtues of synthetic, faux fur coats over the real thing. Now we learn that their motto can be reduced to "Save a beaver. Kill the planet."

Climate change has snatched the moral high ground. Now the inference is that the animal rights industry would rather you line the pockets of Big Oil by buying petroleum by-products such as synthetic coats, rather than support the fur-farming and hunting families of the Cree people in the James Bay area or the Dene nation north of British Columbia.

Maybe the Fur Council's campaign is just a case of green-washing, as some warn. But theirs is a more legitimate claim compared to the shonks trading on climate change. Take the booming industry of offsets. When you next jump aboard a fuel-guzzling aeroplane you can soothe your conscience by throwing a few more dollars at the airline company that promises to send your money on to some green initiative such as planting trees or investing in wind power in India.

But as Mark Jaccard, a professor at the school of resource and environmental management at Simon Fraser University, told the National Post: "Was the tree planted in Guatemala truly an additional investment in reducing greenhouses gases or would another tree have sprouted in that spot eventually? Has the Indian wind generator actually helped prevent or delay the construction of a coal-fired power station, or was it simply a wealth transfer to one region in India while the expansion of coal stations has continued at the same pace? We cannot know because future actions are unknowable."

Even for those who accept climate change is a major threat to the planet, there are plenty of reasons to remain suspicious about how companies and industries move to rebrand themselves as environmental friends. Any new industry - and make no mistake, greenwashing looks like the boom industry of the early 21st century - will attract a rich collection of snake oil salesmen, hypocrites and downright crooks in its early years. And separating the rogues from the saints can often only be done in retrospect.

For the moment, I'm prepared to back the Fur Council. Why? Because I kind of like this novel feeling. Finally, I get around to buying a full-length fur coat and it turns out to be the politically correct thing to do. There I was recently mocking a friend in the advertising industry for ending his email with a pro forma "Have a low carbon day". Now I'm looking forward to the bumper stickers that will soon start appearing on the back of the small hybrid cars driven by our green-minded friends. "Buy a fur. Save the planet."

janeta@bigpond.net.au

ROFL ! Good on ya Janet !

regarDS

notional illuminations ?

Perceptions through a Champagne Glass

by d.a.sparrow (c) 1993

-
View the true split by glass distorted
Rendered a lie by liquid contorted.
Truth in transit via reflected light
Made false in delivery by transparent might.

Is this vessel but a mote
a corrupting point of view ?
Or the lie a needful beauty to "reality" imbue ?

All around the room there is But Of Course no change
Despite the glass that holds lying liquid
which tries to rearrange.

So truth remains the same, both within and without
And "All" makes up reality, both the knowing and the doubt.
Thus false is not, but rather, everything found true
Hey, I'll drink to that sweetheart ... here's looking at you !

-

regarDS

New Years Resolutions.

Howdy all. I don't know about you, but I like to get those sorts of things (NYRs) out of the way really quick, so I set myself a simple one this year. For 2008, it was simply to be on the water from sun-down Dec 31, to sun-up Jan 1.

Yay, I did it and with a minimum of effort and fuss. We were on the water and then moored in The Lagoon at The Island (Heirisson) from around 1.30pm to 3pm or so but then got a call from a mate with a new toy that he couldn't get under the Causeway bridges so we went and tied up against their floating palace over in Matilda Bay.

Sorry if we missed any Perthites who did decide to come down to The Island. We didn't make it back there until near 9pm after the cricket had finished. We picked up Sis & her Hubby on the WACA side then went and moored in front of Gloucester park, turned the stereo up, cracked the champers, and waited for the fireworks.

Stereo was loud, champers went pop, and the fireworks were pleasingly loud, popping, and firey. So not only was a good time had by all with much silliness, laughter and noise, but also it was probably considerably safer and more comfortable than many land based locations. Just the way I like it.

After that, we dropped them off and then motored up the river to near Garrett Rd Bridge where we anchored all night in the shallows at our perennial private love-nest (tis a bird and wild-life sanctuary) and before we knew it, the sun was high and it was around 10am and my NYR was well and truly taken care of.

Excellent day, lovely evening, beautiful night, and now we're home and hosed and hoping the fact that it is a leap year means we'll have enough days to get all we want to do this year.

In the little photo mix of our last day of 2007 we have (from Left to Right, Top to Bottom): (Top) Me and LSCP hanging around at The Lagoon, then (Bottom) LSCP looking Very Pretty indeed whilst "tender"ly holding our little 6m vessel as I prepare to board mate's Floating Palace, followed by a view from the top deck past our little fun boat all the way from Matilda Bay to Perth City", and then we have (a few moments before the fireworks started) a case of "HOLY SNAPPING SPATZ SH1T !" (Hi DQ)

I knew I shoulda locked the door when Sis was onboard.

Hope everyone elses day and evening was as least as good as mine !

regarDS

Tis the season to be silly ... fa la la la (etc)

Christmas Carols for the Disturbed.

(Pinched from elsewhere)

SOQ
1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and.....

6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me

7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle, Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

EOQ

Hope it all goes well for ya'll ... may the best of your 2007 be the worst of your 2008. Cheers !

Yeah yeah, I know ... how does someone who generally comes across as smug and conceited (etc) with his (often longwinded and typically out of the ordinary - ie, "weird") online opinions turn out to be so obviously good looking and presumably and/or correspondingly easy going frood who really knows where his towel is when not stuck behind a keyboard ?

Short answer. "It's the Internet, Stupid". See, there I go again. Smug and conceited.

Outside such pages, I'm actually more amused by life and the many strange ways folk choose to live it to actually really take much seriously at all ... and especially not myself. Generally I feel like I'm merely visiting this planet anyway and for an all too short stay when one really thinks about it.

All the more reason to spend more time laughing and being amused than not, I reckon.

But I'm still not going to turn "comments" on here. Go find another blog if you want to add your own blab to something someone else feels like waffling about. I've already got enough to keep me busy as it is.

Anyway, a Merry Bah Humbug to one and all for the silly season. Laugh lots and love even moreso.

regarDS