Out and About in the Real World

Howdy folks ... notice how quiet I've been lately in all the usual places ? Hasn't it been wunderbar ? Heh.

Here is why. I'm currently typing this from an Internet Cafe in cold but most interesting city of Edinburgh while LSCP is out shopping for tartan ... or tartin out and about at the shops or something like that.

We've been doing the Planes, Trains and Automobiles thing for the last week, plus a bit of shipping. Started in London, then up to Newcastle on the train a few days later, then over to Cologne Germany for a couple of nights via the Channel and Holland, all just so we could slosh down litres of Glühwein and let me make an eisel of myself with my poor Deutsches language skills. Then it was back to Newcastle and a train up to where we are now.

Anyway, enough waffle, so here are some pix instead.

Business class. Only way to travel.

Cheeky fellas at Buckingham Palace. :)

LSCP "eyeing" out London ... Gettit ?

First London Pub Lunch ... which wouldn't be complete without Pints !

Spam, lovely spam ...

Here we are , from "Station to Station"

To the Tower with her !

"The whole world is a stage" ... especially at Shakespear's Globe

Glühwein mit Ameretto. That's "mulled wine with extra illcohol" ... compulsory street trinken !

My xmas present !

Something to do on the Channel Crossing ? :)

okay, I dunno when I'll get the chance to drop another line so deem Mery Bah Humbugs still included.

regarDS

Songs of the Labyrinth

"Last night" LSCP and I went to the Perth Concert hall to watch Feyd-Rautha looking like Duke Leto Atreides singing "Massage in a Brothel" whilst playing the Lute with an extremely talented Bosnian mate named Edin Karamazov.

Okay okay, it was really "Songs from the Labyrinth" of which you can read all about here: http://classicalmusic.suite101.com/a..._the_labyrinth and here for Edin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edin_Karamazov

We were in the stalls literally the back row for the support act and unfortunately for everyone around (and the poor soul it happened to) the colostomy bag for someone in a wheelchair near us broke/leaked about the same time the lights went down.

Real eye-stinging stuff. Sympathies to the poor person it happened to; sh!t happens ... but please pardon us for not being able to handle it.

Think of being trapped inside a tipped-over porta-potty towards the end of a "Big Day Out" festival, and not being able to scream out for help.

So, come interval we went down to the front desk and explained the predicament (at that stage we didn't realize it was the issue just described - we thought it was something wrong with the Concert Hall loos wafting in through the exit) and asked with eyes streaming from acid burns, to be moved anywhere else, please, for the love of Loki & Thor, anywhere !

Apologies were issued along with two new tickets to anywhere else.

The anywhere else turned out to be middle seats 5 rows back from the stage, barely 8m away from Gordon Matthew Sumner out of his comfort zone. Twas great to see his humbleness, serious efforts, and sweat upon the brow as opposed to the distant blurr we witnessed early this year at Members Equity Stadium when he was touring with "The Police".

On ya to the team on stage, but big boos to the purile young things sitting to our left and in front of us to our left who insisted on heaping giggles upon noisy giggles (much to the embarrasement of all around and probably even Sting onstage) while watching Erin doing some amazing/incredible/frantic lute playing in a quieter balladic piece (they thought he looked amusing whilst playing the instrument the way it traditionally is supposed to be played, apparently.)

The burst colostomy bag was far less offensive than that Stye of Giggle-Gutses. Such effing Ozzie audiences don't deserve to be exposed to quality ... talk about casting pearls before swine !

Anyway, cheers once again to the Perth Concert Hall Staff who looked after us and who explained the full situation when we went back to thank them after the concert.

Cheers to Sting and his crew. Great show and thanks for coming back to Western Australia again. Glad you didn't get blown up when you took a wrong turn East off the beach just North of Swanbourne* earlier that day.

Okay, rant out ... back to Lurk/Away mode. If you really miss me, I may be updating my blogs via email from time to time over the next month. See: http://derspatz.blogspot.com and http://derblatz.blogspot.com , oh, and even http://www.flickr.com/photos/derspatz/

Oh, and in case I don't pop back in before, deem "Bah Humbug" and "Happy Saturnalia" included for later this month.

regarDS
* Nudist Beach ... Sting had accidentally walked through the middle of it when on a stroll up from Cottesloe Beach, so he apparently went left to avoid coming back down through it again.

Left of the beach is the Military Firing range, with potentially unexploded ordinance a-lurking here and there.

Giant Steps is what you take, walking on a bomb !

Get Up Stand Up, GetUp! for your Lefts ...

Just when I thought I could put the circle-jerking Fanatical Religious Zealots over at Whirlpool's "ILCF" (ISP Level Content Filtering) forum thread in a blog thread all but itself (see the "derblatz" link) and leave it out of this one, they go and bring a whole new level of scary and disturbed comedy to the stage ... stuff so internutty that I can deem it worthy of a rant in here.

Hang on to your noses coz this is gonna get a little more offensive than usual. :)

As you may have realised, I've found the "waa, waa, waa"ing going on among the aforementioned quite fascinating. I mean, who couldn't help but be amused by a whole bunch of folk going "Teh Governet is out to enslave the nation and take away free speech, it is Hitler and Stalin and Mao all over again" (always funny to hear Gen-XYZers say that !) when at best the unlikely reality is that all of a sudden they may have to start paying instead of saying "Thank you for the music, the songs I'm stealing" or the movies they are "pirating", as well as face the prospect of having to get through a few more layers of conscience in order to click one handed through the kind of online material that their Grandmas, Mothers, Wives, Girlfriends, Sisters and Daughters would probably most wish did not even exist in the first place, let alone that their grandkids, dads, husbands, boyfriends and brothers were encouraging its continued development and proliferation along with all the heartache, degradation, disrespect and even slavery it brings !

Ok, I exaggerated. I realise the Gen-XYZers aren't necessarily big on "thank you"s ...

Anyway, these forever plugged in lifeless worshippers of "The Internut" who deem it to be the sacred cow of our age as well as unimaginatively consider it "the last bastion of free speech" want the likes of you and I to think that they have our best interests at heart by trying to PREVENT suitable and justifiable national rating and control of internut/online content as it is done in The Real World where all the Real Living is done.

Yeah right ... get your sticky hands off it - we all know who you really are thinking of; you're not fooling anyone other than yourselves if you really believe that.

So what are these fanatical virtual anarchists up to now ? Well it seems that there is no loathsome low to go to when it comes to the situation of maintaining the link between The Addict and The Supply/Poison. They've now reached the stage where they are haplessly handing over cash to an Oz organization that is so Radically-Extreme-Yet-Carefully-Camouflaged-Left that they make the Evil Lefty Greens look like die Hitler-Jugend !

But Of Course I am referring to "GetUp!". If you've not heard of them before, the "GetUp!" stands for "Greenie Environmentalist Terrorists Undermining Peace!" though they would never tell you it stands for that ... but Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Baum, ja?

This gaily painted sinister lobbying group casts the combined shadow of every Lefty political party you could imagine, including those yet to be spawned from whatever Bog of Eternal Stench it is that continually manages to foist such wrongness upon common humanity.

Think of every issue and controversy that divides Oz and you will find the GetUp! crowd busy lobbying in favour of those on the WRONG side of the division and working towards making things even WORSE for Oz than it already is.

This unsavoury mob not only worked hard spending conned, uh, donated coin to put Kevin747 into Government at the last Federal Election, but also had the favour gratefully returned by being allocated no less than an alleged ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN SEATS in KRudds own little circle-jerk involving the ridiculous and highly unrepresentative "Summit of 1000 Best And Brightest Brains".

HA and BAH !

With so much "Left" on the collection of 1000 chattering useless clueless noses in the publicly funded trough, nongs, it is no wonder our nation is rapidly being reduced to going around in circles ... having one leg shorter than the other tends to do that, but I digress.

So what are the ingredients of this cake half baked ?

On one hand we have a bunch of internut worshipping freeloaders worried about having to pay for supply and Do The Right Thing for a change, and on the other we have a shady organization with the typical Loony Lefty Left agendas always pragmatically happy to relieve the naive of their coin and raise their lobbying profile at the same time by associating themselves with popular faddish causes likely to get media attention.

Real "Cake and Eat it too" stuff ... and history tells us what usually happens to THOSE types.

Oh, I should mention that because they are a political lobbying group, thankfully the coin fleeced from the seduced desperate special interest groups that sustain and sponsor their true evil causes, is not tax deductible - so it isn't ALL bad.

So what is going to be the likely outcome of all this ILCF hoohaa ?

What is going to be the likely result of the GetUp! marriage to the ugly useless bride once the dowry runs out ? A dowry that could be much better spent in so many other ways and places ?

(ah, but this ain't about charity or taking care of the needy - this is about maintaining a mainline connection to The Drug !)

Oh, who cares ... fools and their money are always soon parted and there are a million and one more interesting things to be involved in out there.

Some even via the Internut here and there ...

Anyway, to paraphrase one Captain Oates, a truly noble and brave soul (as opposed to moi), "I am just going offline and may be some time".

All this online madness is prompting me for some overdue DownTime along with a Reality Check, so I'm out to explore life offline for a while.

Oh yeah, just in case I don't pop back in here before next year, deem a Merry Bah Humbug and Happy Saturnalia to you too. :)

Keep it Real and if not, don't be too internutty ...

regarDS

Blog Clog and Circumventing Filterers

I've decided to head off the blog clog that has been beginning to form in here as a result of my recent fascination with the funny fanatical folk at whirlpool forums busy worrying about their sacred cow; the internut.

How am I addressing the blog clog ? By creating a secondary blog, that's how.

Just like this one, there is no "sitemeter" nor any kind of tracking to let me know who has been visiting, and just like this one, there is no comment roll nor private messaging enabled.

What you will find at http://derblatz.blogspot.com/ are all the messages I've written at the whirlpool forums, including the ones that various questionable and amusing forms of moderating have tried to remove from public record with lazy/unrelated/slack/and even corrupt excuses such as "trolling", etc.

Click on the labels up at the right on the "derblatz" blog and see exactly what I mean.

Ah, but it is a tough and thankless job being a Mod so it isn't surprising when they favour the majority points of view over the contrary minority view ... tis much easier to keep the peace that way after all. As a pragmatist I can well understand and appreciate that, so no hard feelings, kids ...

As for this blog ... it's back to normal programming should I have anything particularly interesting or particularly banal or particularly offensive to share.

Maybe next week ...

regarDS

Let's do a time-warp again ...

"Today I ..." spent some of my day-light savings by sitting out in the sun and taking a time-warp back to my childhood by making the effort to give my beaten up old Blundies* a well over-due polish.

Earlier today I resisted the urge to cheat and take the easy way out by buying that sponge delivered "scuff stuff", and instead opted for a tin of Dark Tan Kiwi, a tin of neutral Dubbin (for waterpoofing after the polish), a $1 soft-cloth, and a $1 Brush ... all made for the job.

My after school duties (to earn my 20c a week pocket money) when I was a kid was to chop the wood, light the scary Bremair Hotwater system, and polish my Barters (with the compass in one of the heels) whether I had actually worn them that day or not ... they usually came off my feet the moment I was out of sight of the house and I spent the day at school as barefoot as possible.

I mostly hated all of those jobs - as one would when having to do them day after day, year after year. Today was different.

I popped the lid on the 38g Kiwi polish and The Smell of it began the count-down to the time-warp. Putting one of the Blundy Boots on my left hand and plunging the cloth into the polish to wipe up a big mess of it prepared the way further and by the time I had smeared the first of the boots all over with the wonderfully smelly finger staining polish, I was grinning my head off and well and truly in my past some 35 years ago and wondering why I used to hate doing this so much.

Talk about being a relaxing and an instantly satisfying task. Scuffy/chipped/faded/grotty/riff-raffy looking boots soon transformed into dark and clean and healthy looking leather. I smeared, I wiped, I brushed and brushed, and allowed the smells and sounds of it all along with the sun warming my body to remind me of simpler and slower days and ways.

Sadly, it was all over too fast, but I know that tomorrow at work, when ever I look down at my stained fingers or catch a pleasant wiff of my traditionally polished boots wafting up from under the desk, I'll remember and I'll smile and I'll look forward to when I might choose to take that particular time-warp again.

Tis but a step to the right ...

regarDS

* http://www.blundstone.com/

The "internut" by any other name ...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=internut
internut - an individual who spends at least 15 hours/day online in a leaky sub-basement. "when we severed the wifi conection, strange sounds emitted from the sub-basement which we thought was uninhabited; upon investigation, we learned that it was the domain of the internut."

**** Selah ****

Recently I happened upon a serious and snarly little collective of apparently long-regular web forum inhabitants and was quite shocked that not only were many of them somewhat ignorant of the titled ancient noun/adjective/verb (how far do you think it could reasonably be stretched without totally murdering common understanding of what constitutes the English Language ?) that soon became the more applicable word to use instead of "internet", but also seemed to be somewhat offended by both its existance and use ... well, at least in their sheltered little web world.

It was very surprising to discover a collective of vocal McWeb consumers who took things "internet" so seriously that they could barely abide the thought, let alone the presence, of anyone who didn't take it as seriously as they. Especially anyone who might happen to observe and remark that their level of interest/support/defence of it was bordering on ridiculous and somewhat unhealthy ... and even (dare I say ?) "idolatrous".

Now, anyone who has bothered to wade through my more opinionated blog pages of cynical and arrogant self-righteous waffle (interspaced with tales of motor-cycle Rattery and stuff less likely to offend too many too much in one go), would quickly recognise that I just luurv to find and expose and sometimes even ridicule examples of Fanatical Religious Zealotry that don't involve the Usual Suspects related to more traditional religions and religious behaviour.

Thus far, I've drawn attention to the likes of "Environtologists and the Church of Environtology" in relation to the FRZeds (Fanatical Religious Zealots) getting all hot and bothered about Yet Another period of ice-melts in our solar-system, and then there is the "Cult of Darwin and Dawkins" and their nonsense "evolution of species" flim-flam show that continues to fail every test of evidence possible let alone make it out of base-camp on the way to falling off the cliff-face when trying to climb "Mount Improbable."

Oh, and don't get me going on so called "Sports" and "Sports Teams" and their "Fans", nor the "Cult of Celebrity" ... yup, I'm seeing religions and religious behaviour all over the place; everyone seems to have a favorite "Sacred Cow" or two, and usually at least one they just luurv to get all Fanatically Religiously Zealous about at that.

I feel that it is now time to add the very "internet" to that list of Sacred Cows folk can get FRZ about. Warning, don't mention in a favorable manner things like "filtering" or "clean stream" or ILCF (ISP Level Content Filtering) or "Senator Conroy" in the midst of the kinds of FRZeds who hold the internut to be sacred ... not unless you've got some of the following to hand over !

They won't turn you into an "internewt"; they'll help you get better. :)

**** Selah ****

[Overly Offensive Mode]

"There is nothing more offensive than the brutal truth delivered brutally to those who don't want to hear it ... except for willfully ignorant brutes who prefer and promote a lie.". - derspatz

Yeah, I don't even mind quoting myself. :)

Continuing on the topic of "content filtering" and "clean stream" etc, you've now arrived at the reason I don't bother to have "comments" turned on for his blog. I'm not interested in providing Yet Another online space for the cowardly anonymous to try and advertise their crass banalities in and nor do I have either the energy or time to filter through all the usually resulting dross and abuse in the hope of spotting a gem worth keeping. I'm already disillusioned enough with much of the more recent generations of so called "humanity" as it is thank you and thus far from keen to have it try and crap in my little Web-Nest.

I've already got THAT angle covered, cheers.

I'm so disinterested in what folk might have to say about my twitterings here that I don't even run any kind "who has visited" type auto-magic metering/logging software ... and if I don't care about who may be visiting then how much less do you think I might care about giving a voice to any who should visit ?

Got something to say ? Go join a forum or publish your own blog and maybe I'll accidentally happen upon it one day. Or better still, DON'T ! :)

So, that's a big "No" to "comment enabling" from me. Deem yourselves pro-actively filtered and think of all the time and energy we've saved each other ... and children we have protected from yet more repetitions of the more foul and offensive forms of internuttery that can be demonstrated by internuts on this here our internut. :)

[/Overly Offensive Mode]

regarDS

anti-internut-censorship brigade at Whirlpool forums censor derspatz :)

G'day there Whirlpool Moderator.

About my sudden, inconsistent, and mysterious arrival to Whirlpool's "sin bin" in relation to my participation in the "ISP Level content filtering" discussion.

Although I disagree with and question just how the judgement of "picking fights" has been determined and strongly object to the application of the unfounded and oft misused and lazy "trolling" descriptor to my valid contrary view that not only has/is being consistently expressed in areas other than just Whirlpool but also is consistent with a view expressed online for decades, I acknowledge receipt of your notification of "sin binning" and accept the application of your filter to forbid further active participation in that thread however subjectively that decision has been arrived at despite however unjust and one sided and uneven-handed I personally feel and observe that penalty to be ... especially considering that I haven't posted the slightest thing that could be deemed "flaming" but rather have tolerated mostly without comment or report a whole load of hostility and insult that has largely been ignored by moderation.

At very least this all serves to prove (at very least to me) a number of the points I've been trying to educate the hysterical masses about anyway, including a demonstration of the hypocrisy at the heart of the topic that has now seen the very kind of attention being complained about metered out to the minority opinion rather than the misguided populist one.

I recognise that you are only doing your thankless task as per the wishes of the weak of character/reasoned thought who are more prone to push the "herring" button than realise and face up to the poverty of their choices let alone be confronted with fair and reasoned challenges to the same, and so I accept that it is probably nothing personal ... and nor should it be.

I do find it quite ironic that that the majority of a vocal minority protesting censorship and filtering should call upon for the censorship and filtering of that which challenges and inconveniences their misguided view, but I don't mind being the example that exposes their hypocrisy for the offensive and inconsistent nonsense that it is.

Thus, this "sin binning" amuses as well as serves to prove the point ... and thanks to the broadness of the internut, shall continue to long after the topic that has spawned this tiny object lesson (and handing over of pound of flesh to the Pharisees unable to handle challenge) has passed and been forgotten.

regarDS

More on bringing the internut into the 21st century and reducing the gap betweem offline law and order and online virtual anarchy. :)

This time, here is a politician's view on it, in the form of a letter response to one of the hysterical "waa, waa, waa" crowd populating the whirlpool forums on this subject.

Dear ["not thinking of the children" (name substituted to protect the guilty)]

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding the Government’s clean feed internet filtering system. I am aware that the proposal for ISP filtering has attracted some criticism from those, like yourself, who are concerned that it will lead to censorship of the internet and to a slowing of internet speed. However, the Australian Government has no plans to stop adults from viewing material that is currently legal, if they wish to view such material.

I believe that freedom of speech is very important and the Government’s cyber-safety policy is in no way designed to curtail this. The Government wants to ensure that Australian parents can access a ‘clean feed’ internet service. This will be informed by the technology adopted in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Canada where ISP filtering, predominantly of child pornography, has been successfully introduced without affecting internet performance to a noticeable level.

The proposed ISP filtering policy is being developed through an informed and considered approach, including through industry consultation and close examination of overseas models to assess their suitability for Australia. We are committed to working closely with internet industries to address any concerns, including costs and internet speeds. These concerns will be carefully considered during the pilot and will further inform the Government’s cyber‑safety policy.

The internet is an essential tool for all Australian children through which they can exchange information, be entertained, socialise and do school work and research. The ability to use online tools effectively provides both a skill for life and the means to acquire new skills. However, while the internet has created substantial benefits for children it has also exposed them to a number of dangers, including exposure to offensive content. As such, parents rightly expect the Government to play its part in the protection of children online.

The Government has committed $125.8 million over the next four years to a comprehensive range of cyber-safety measures, including education, law enforcement and filtering. These measures include:· Education activities – funding to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to implement a comprehensive range of education activities;· Australian Federal Police (AFP) Child Protection Operations Team – funding to detect and investigate online child sex exploitation;· ISP level filtering – funding to develop and implement ISP filtering, including undertaking a real world ‘live’ pilot;· Websites / Online helpline – funding to ACMA to improve current Government cyber-safety website resources and to make them easier for parents to use, and to provide up‑to‑date information.

ACMA will also develop a children’s cyber-safety website to provide information specifically for children, and improve the online helpline to provide a quick and easy way for children to report online incidents that cause them concern;· Research – funding for ongoing research into the changing digital environment to identify issues and target future policy and funding.These initiatives will tackle the issue of cyber-safety from a number of directions to help clean up the online environment and to protect Australian children from the dangers of the internet now and into the future.

This approach acknowledges the key role parents have in the online safety of children, and provides them with the necessary information to assist with this task. This initiative also recognises that there is no single solution to ensure children can access the internet safely.Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention. I hope this information is of assistance, and please don’t hesitate me with any further concerns.

Kind regards,
Melissa Parke MP
Federal Member for Fremantle

regarDS