Gas Dot

Olympic fever

2008-08-11T19:07:00.003+10:00

Its time again for the olympics and all I can think of was the good 'ol days that was sydney Olympics. A lot has changed since then, we have a new government, I work on films now. Instead of laying down kilometres of cable through conduit in the main stadium.

The begining of 2008 has been a good one, 28 weeks came through the building, and that was pretty fun passing around hungarian teak passes. I also worked on fools gold, oh what a film it was. I think this article by SMH sums it up the best.

The best part is:

Well, I'll tell you: it's so bad that I would sentence the producers to three months' cleaning up road kill if I could; I'd make the stars pay back their fees by standing outside theatres to refund the tickets of people who trusted them to do something decent.

Oh yes, as such a bad film it was, at least it was fun to work on.

Started working on a magazine called "Oh Really Magazine" with Max Berry and Dan O'toole. We got that pretty cranking, printed 1000 and have about 200 left, so time to gather the funds and crank out another issue. Hopefully this time we can spend some time intergrating some more hand made elements to it. Screen printed pages, try something with packaging. Get back in line with our hand made elements.

ah.... but theres the rub. Now we have a new Zine HQ. which is our gallery, a.k.a "The artery gallery and collective" but now we are to be under another name, what name that is, I'm not too sure. beat gallery, midland, middle ground, no glue, mask and brush...... the possibilities are endless. that is the rub I speak of. The gallery that could well be open in a week, still has to have a name. Like straw floating through the wind, we have to hold out our hands, and make somthing fall into it.

As it heads towards another year passing of ones day to day activities. Talkng to friend, picking up some lights from peakhurst, going to a house party where live bands are playing in the loungeroom, staring a matthew mcconaughey mouth that never closes. Things have changed, we move on, and spend our time wisely.

anyway, I still have to edit this, but Ill let the internet watch this first, see who is listening, I have a feeling this post will slip between the cracks of the interwebs, that dark space, the interether if you will.

300

2007-03-21T16:52:00.000+11:00

Well, 300 mania is starting to hit australia. I remember telling people about working on 300 and after about 2 weeks they would be like, hey what film you working on. Idiots, anyway, everyone keeps telling me about 300, jesus, I gots to find some friends that remember things longer than 2 weeks, they only remember long enough to remember they just got paid. Get drunk, and forget until next time money happens to go through those big internet pipes, along the conveyer belt superhighway (why does no one say this anymore except simon), and into their thin cards that fit in their wallet, manbag, hobo pockets.

anyways, I hope this film is good, cause I didn't work all those hours to have my name spelt wrong on imdb for nothin.

Also, why don't people say flavour instead of later, seriously.

Flavour,
-J

Singapore

2007-01-20T22:59:00.000+11:00

Made it to singapore this morning, after getting up at around 5.00am to get in a cab to the airport I was feeling okay. Okay as in, I haven't registered that I'm awake yet. After sleeping on the plane for the first time, getting weird sleeping sensations from the increasing and decreasing cabin pressure. All is well. We are staying in an area called little India and had a fantastic indian lunch from a restuarant thats been around for about 25 years, or so the indian guy sitting accross from us was saying (yes I know, pretty boring fact no.1).

After sleeping in our room for a couple of hours, again waking up with little boy sweat around my collar, damn humidity, I suddenly had a realisation of what I had just ate, or maybe a sensation. Too much curry in one day is BAD.

Anyways, besides that its just kinda raining. I'm sitting in a sickly warming room typing on a keyboard thinking I should have another glass of carlsberg and annoyed my gameboy won't charge(boring fact no.2 ).

Hope to see you guys soon,

-Jamie

Phi Phi and Phuket

2007-01-20T22:57:00.000+11:00

Well,
Since arriving at Phi Phi islands, very beautiful, I managed to fit in 7 dives in the first 3 days of being there. I was able to test out my underwater camera and it surprised the hell out of me. It managed to survive the 6 dives I took it on, go down to 30m twice. Out of about 160 photos I managed to get about, um... welll.... 10 good photos. I had this habit of taking a shot either too close, or the wrong focus, but I can't wait to delevop the roll I took snorkeling at maya bay "The Beach", didn't see our friend leo there, although there was this crazy british chick trying to convince everyone to start up the perfect island community, weird. It has been the most relaxing place so far, so relaxing the thought of typing an email to let you guys know whats happeing seemed like to much effort.
Besides the diving, I took sophie snorkeling for the first time, just off a beach at first, then 2 days later we took a boat tour of Phi phi lay (where 'the beach' is). We went to some amasing reefs, so many fish, so beautiful. On the boat, nath, an american guy from south carolina, and myself could throw tiny bits of bread around sophie and his girlfriend and fish would swarm around them. It was so much fun, hearing the girly screams.
Did lots of lying around, watched heaps a movies on the pay channels, watched some thai boxing, watched lots of the scandinavians, man, so many swedes, and im not talking about the vegetable.

Anyways, at patong beach now, on phuket, man, every guy here has a thai girl attached to them, either that, or a thai guy. Its such a weird place, think The cross on steroids, massive bars, girls, people offerring lots of shows, fire shows, dancing shows, ping pong shows, noodle shows (was intriged by this one), mouse shows (I just didn't want to think about that one). So loud, we got a backpackers room accross the road from the main strip Bang la. I think the sub woofer under the floorboards stopped around 4am. I managed to sleep like a baby for once, but soph didn't. The beache's here again, word of the email, amasing. The music choice on the other hand, really bad. I have no idea why emotional rock is a tropical soundtrack, its like everyone who runs a bar has growing pains to get through, or they put on donovan and simon and garfunkel, I can handle that a little, or a early 80's cover band doing donovan or the funkelmaster, whats the deal. The only escape is to find the sweet sweet sounds of bob marly.

Today hopefully we can find a place to stay and fly to singapore tomoz, again another early morning flight.

hope you'all's doin well.

cheers,

-jamie

New Years and bangkok

2007-01-20T22:54:00.000+11:00

Howdy all,
New Years in Honkers was great, hanging with the teale man, making BBQ, drinking Sing Tao beer till the cows come home, watching the teale speciale countdown, was such a great night. After a bit of a recovery the next day with Yum Cha, I couldn't get enough of yum cha in honkers, every place I went to had something that was excellent. Got a little bit of chef nimmo shot, thankyou Teale and P, without you I wouldn't have been able to organise such a well organise shoot ;)

After that it was off to Macau with Teale and Phil, it was great having you guys along, esspecially phil's excellent mandderin interpretation. After seeing the sights, not many to see in Macau, we headed for beer. It was such a mission, I couldn't believe that there was no bars in Centro, so we headed to casino central, walked around a casino, got lost, got kicked outa vip areas sent from one end to the other and back again and decided that going to a all you can drink for $20 bar was the go. After downing a few beers and the happy hour ran out, we soon discovered it was a strip club. funny that when the happy hour runs out the shows begin and the beers quadruple the cost. We decided to leave the place and grab some beers from the 7-11 ( the best place to buy beer everywhere it seems except australia). Ended up in a portugese style quad with a fountain and drank with the locals.

again suffering a hang over, we ended grabing a pork cutlet in a bun for breakfast, apparently famous for its pork in buns, and headed for anywhere that served some kind of coffee. Packing our bags Soph and I left adam and phil to continue to Bangkok.

Not a bad flight, we landed in bangkok greeted with "Taxi, Taxi, Taxi, where you heading, how long you been here?" Hmm after being ripped off in china we grabbed a metred taxi and head off into the city. Now this is where I found bangkok to be one big tourist town, I couldn't believe it, the whole place had that crappy vibe of dumb tourist walking around everywhere and I was there adding to it. Damn, wasn't quite sure how to take it, so we headed to Khao san road to live the travelling dream. To exist in a place completly dodgy, unlike the culture of the place, expensive beer and people wanting you to buy heaps a crap over and over no matter how many times you say no. The only thing going for it, is that its real easy to chat to other travellers, compare who has been ripped off the worse, or whos been the sickest from the local food. Unfortuantly for me the only stories I could tell were some ghost stories, oh well. Although, later back at where we were staying I scared the crap out of another traveller with ghost stories, water started streaming out of his eyes during the juciy bits. Its funny how people react to the super natural. Not to make fun of him, but it spun me out that you could affect people so much through story.

Hong Kong - Christmas

2006-12-26T20:37:00.000+11:00

Back in Hong kong again.
Man what a journey to China. The last 5 days have been a very interesting experience.
Christmas in Hong Kong was great. Tim and Ali cooked a fabulous 9 Kg turkey, thats right, a whooping 9kg tukey using a 1950's recipe called a thompsons turkey. Using eggs mustard and flour to create a coating that goes black, but onced removed is a delicious moist turkey inside. It was basted every 15 mins for 5 hours. After eating it for around 2 hours, we had only eaten one side of the breast for 4 people. I was so stuffed a had a tummy ache when I went to sleep that night. The beer, champagne (verve my favorite), white and red wine and finshing with whiskey could also have something to do with it. It was such a treat travelling and having this amazing christmas dinner, thankyou Ali and Tim.

China - Part 2

2006-12-23T21:58:00.000+11:00

Well, after my initial shock of comming to china, I have become more accepting of travelling as a minority and/or general freak show. I wonder aimlessly now not worrying about the judging eyes. Instead, I love the interaction with the people who are very nice and friendly. I am totally amazed that I was able to buy a whole new designer outfit, jumper, jacket, 2 x jeans and a tourist shirt for $110 AUD.

For brunch we went to the guangzhou restaurant for Yum cha. It was the most amazing Yum Cha I have ever had, the dim sum here is awesome. For lunch snack, I grabbed BBQ squid from the street, hmmm.... still not sure how it sits, tasted good, but sat weird like the frogs legs. Anyways, enough about the food.

I find myself totally amazed at how some of the american tourist treat people in shops here. Getting annoyed at them for not understanding what they want, so they think that yelling at them angrily will make them understand better. Its funny, cause I can see the shop keeper getting angry back and just double or triple the price. The best advice I was given was a phrase book, it is so much better to try and engage them, and surprisingly, this leads to laughter and a more friendly vibe.

Bartering is a crazy system, but when soph and I tag team together we were able to get a great price, not good but great, or greater, ah engrish.

-J

China - Guang zhou (2 hrs from Hong Kong)

2006-12-22T23:16:00.001+11:00

Crazy China,

China, weird smells, looks, lanuage, general feelings of everything. Culture shock, minority for the first time in my life. Strange food, I think I ate frog legs, just pointed to picture, I wanted something challenging, but once eaten, well, not sure how it sits. Pint of beer, oh beer oh beer, how familiar you are no matter where I am. Thinking I should be stickering, but once out, too many sounds, sights smells, people to take in. I forget I am hungrey till I take rest. Too bewildered to look where I am going, tripping, falling, tripping, bumping, knocked around and bumping into things. I am feasting my eyes to look where I am going.

bargin clothes, bargin food, universal attitudes of youth around. Laughing, have had some fun trying to communicate. Mute, mute, mute I find I have lost my voice, my mode of communica, my soul of expression that definds me. all I do now is point, point point. Look, laugh, show some scribble in a book, ah.... kind of understand, look down, around, at them, are they just as embaressed as I? Who am I if I cannot yell out to the world through lanuage.

Who are these people, why do I feel as if everyone is out to scam me. Who has tarnished their minds before I have come here? Who has given them this impression of me, they do not know me, but the colour of my skin, the colour of my money. Children walk with me holding out there hands. Beggers grip on to me and will not let me pass, shouting at me, I cannot understand, but I know they understand, I am a walking bag of gold, if they hang on to me, it will spill out, showering them in good fortune.
I know this is culture shock, and fuck anyone who thinks I am arrogant or biggoted. I just want my tongue to reach out and touch them in understanding. Alas, I am a lonely voice with the wrong characters in my voice. I want to laugh with them.

China is a weird place for me, hello guangzhou, you are now part of my life.

Just a few thoughts on china.

-Jamie

Taiwan

2006-12-20T13:29:00.000+11:00

Howdy peeps,
On monday I boarded my first overseas flight. After a shaky and very noisey take off it was all good. The service was great and the tv screens in the back of the seats were quite novel. After the first couple of hours the reality of being stuck in a metal cylinder flying through the air at 500 km/h set in. After a couple of movies, 4 beers, a bit of drawing, listening to music, and talking to the people next to us we were finally arriving in Taiwan.

It was 7pm there and we got shuttled off to a golf resort about 25mins from KCS international airport. There was no bar, no atmosphere and nothing around it for kilometers. So we went to sleep after surfing the 100 channels of asian soaps. We decided to go to taipei the next day but the resort the airline supplied us didn't do a bus to taipei and after a $50 AUS, $850 NT taxi into the city it was well worth it. The building are all tiled and it was kinda a slight ordered chaos. We managed to take the MTR, eat a bowl of wonton noodles, lined up behind a bunch of locals for a street fried dumpling (damn good pork centre). Found the shuttle bus back to the airport $125 NT dollars. When we got back to the airport our flight was cancelled, but luckily we were there quite early and we were put on a early flight. Got on the plan with a horrible meal that smelt like feet and taste like feet, but the melon dessert was awesome. After and hour and half we arrived in Hong Kong.

-J

Fly away Jamie

2006-12-15T15:26:00.000+11:00

As of monday I will be flying away to south east asia.

My travel agenda is:
A night stopover in taipei(taiwan), hongkong, china (guangzhou, shenzen), back to hongkong, macau, bangkok, phuket, phi phi island (scuba diving), singapore, wet coast malaysia up to Kuala Lupur, cameroon highlands, back to Kuala lumpur, sydney.

This is going to take me 40 days, and I'm thinking when I get a chance to get near the internet, i'll drop a post here so everyone that reads this can see what i'm getting up to. I guess thats going to be Ross and Mark, maybe.

I have been having many restless nights this week in anticipation to going overseas for the first time. Well, if I don't get to see you before I head off, farewell, I hope all my peeps out there have a great holiday season. I hope all the people going to peats ridge have an excellent time, and to the people playing, good luck.

cheers,

-Jamie

Top 2% own the world

2006-12-07T10:14:00.000+11:00

Have you ever got the feeling sometimes we are moving towards a corporate monarchy. I was reading an article on the BBC website that was based on a UN report:

The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth, according to a new study by a United Nations research institute.

The report, from the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the UN University, says that the poorer half of the world's population own barely 1% of global wealth.

The article goes on to explain briefly what it means by wealth:

What they mean by wealth in this study is what people own, less what they owe - their debts. The assets include land, buildings, animals and financial assets.

This is interesting, especially from what Ross is saying. This gives us an indication of what percentage of people can bridge the gap, from spending, to be able to own assets. With pushes from both sides, the government and the corporations to spend. No wonder wealth generation is hard for the average. I wonder what the current education is given to youth in their teens about 'the market', or even business plans.

Its funny, the older I get, the more I think that economics and politics needs to be taught as standard subjects in high school. Not as whole year subjects, but at least a term or two each year. From year 7 to 12. Just to make sure people know how to vote effectively. The difference between local and federal government. The constitution and law systems. Basic economics, market forces, economic indicators, externalities, etc. I think this would be a lot more effective than placing a chaplain at every school.

I remember a little about the politics that was taught in primary school. But that said, primary school is too early to really understand what politics is about. You are still trying to figure out the politics of the schoolyard and gender roles. When I got to high school it was elective, if was even offered.

Will education about politics and modern economic markets help close the gap? Or should we follow the american university system and make each first year student cover at least one subject in each faculty? Or is it a bigger problem with the way international markets are constructed?

One last note, whatever happen to the G8 pledge to help eradicate poverty in Africa?

Do you have a fetish for credit?

2006-12-06T22:00:00.000+11:00

Browsing the ABS web site like the nerd I am, I was looking at weekly earnings and comparing this to weekly expenditure. Around June 2004, the average (measured by the median I think) weekly earnings for a full time adult was $952.50 (or $751.90 for all employees). Household expenditure for May 2004 was $893 per week.

So, taking a (very) basic look at things, around June 2004 people were earning $952.50 per week, and assuming a one income household they spent $893 (or 94%) of this. It's no wonder that now households have two income earners.

Dissent magazine's issue 18, page 2 (an article by Kenneth Davidson) gives some more insight into spending habits. The article mentions that households spend 105% of income (that is, they spend 5% more than the earn) and that household debt to income ratios have increased from 50% to 140%!

So, we are getting ourselves into big debt. Let's now throw into the equation rising interest rates. The official rate is currently at 6.25%, and there have been 8 increases of 0.25% since May 2002.

There have been a number of articles hinting at a looming recession. Asset prices are too high and the bubble is expected to burst.

But why isn't the message getting through? People are still borrowing money for overpriced houses and using credit cards to buy crap they don't need!! People, get a grip! Stop living beyond your means!!!

So- do you have a credit card? Do you buy things you don't need? Are you one of the unfortunate who have to use the credit card because it's the only way you can afford to eat? Please give me an insight into the mind of a credit mad consumer.

Us Elections - response

2006-12-06T16:00:00.000+11:00

In response to my entry about Australian indy media, Ross Jones had to say this:

I hear your lonely call. It's so annoying when you think you've come across a good source of investigative journalism (a rare thing in Australia) only to find out it's owned by some other bigger media organisation or some group with their own political interest (no matter how big or small).

I have held the view for some time now that the only way to read good journalism is to read a book. This isn't always perfect because it's not very timely, and if it is quickly on the shelves it normally has sketchy details and ill investigated facts.

For now I will read my 3-issues-a-year Dissent magazines and various books for an alternative discussion. Please someone guide me to a good source!

China and Green GDP

2006-12-06T12:35:00.000+11:00

There is an interesting article circulating around the net I found at Webdiary. Its by Pan Yue, Deputy Director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration, about China, its economic rise and how it fares when recalculated as a green economy.

China has made the kind of economic advances in three decades that required 100 years in Western countries. But China also has suffered a century’s worth of environmental damage in 30 years. Unfortunately, unlike Western countries, we cannot afford to wait until our per capita annual GDP reaches $10,000 before tackling our environmental problems. Our experts predict that the environmental crisis will intensify to a critical stage by the time China’s per capita annual GDP reaches just $3,000

This is an interesting point, and where is china going to get money to pay for its economic clean up. I was thinking that it would either have to impliment a kind of subsidy benifit for green factories, or only giving subsidies to industry (local and foreign) if they meet a green criteria. This would help to improve new business's, but still doesn't address the "Marxist" view of industrial development mentioned by Pan Yue.

I guess this is to expand on policy made in march 2005 to use 10% renewable energy by 2020. A good start, but the push for more powers to reduce pollution needs to be addressed. Looks like the stern report has started to create waves of people listening to those whose voices have been falling on deaf ears. Pan Yue suggests:

ultimate power does rest with the government. China’s leaders need to make several concrete moves in order to move beyond rhetoric. They must give real power to environmental officials to implement existing laws and close gaping legal loopholes. This can only be done by introducing legal mechanisms to reward those who protect the environment, while making polluters pay, and by helping to unify the environmental watchdogs scattered across different sectors. Above all, a system needs to be established to monitor officials’ performance in environmental as well as in economic terms.

Which I agree with, more power needs to be put into legal and enforcement of environmental policies. I think we need more on this issue to come out of our own government.

Interesting though, even with china being one of the worlds worse offenders. Pan Yue says:

Although China has signed the Kyoto Protocol and some 50 other international environmental accords, we do little to honor them.

This makes me puzzled as to why australia has not signed Kyoto yet. The Libs should get off there environmental high horse of we can make something better than Kyoto. Even China has signed, they may not be honoring it at the moment, but it sets the stage for them to be pressured by other countries. Also, it helps deliver an international standard to be discussed and developed further. More than what one (relatively small) country can develop by itself in the way of policy, that benefits its population and business's.

Jamie Nimmo

Australia does have a grassroots after all

2006-11-22T13:53:00.000+11:00

Okay,
after ranting about how Australia really doesn't have a grassroots media I have just recently found some good news sources. Firstly, Oz Politics is finally back up, and I can once again find lots of opiniated blogs, like this one, without having to bookmark them all. I have just started reading New Matilda. It's intersting and the people on the forums there are quite passionate, articlate and scalding. I like it. Although, this creates a situation where some people will just never agree, filling a forum discussion from 1 page to 3 over symantics.

On a side note, whilst looking at the Liberal Parties website I found something interesting on their links page. A list of Think Tanks.

Think Tanks

American Enterprise Institute
Australian Politics Resource
Cato Institute
Centre for Independent Studies
Economic Strategy Institute
Libertarian Portal
Institute for International Economics
Menzies Research Centre

In a previous post Here, I was wondering why the Liberal party has been backing American polices, mostly from the Republicans. After looking at the think tank list the Libs might be getting advice from the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI. I just recently heard an interview with Joshua Muravchik from the AEI, and I can say that he was VERY republican, and very loyal to the Bush administrations polices. On the board of trustee's of the AEI you have people like Lee R. Raymond, Vice Chairman, Chairman and CEO, Retired Exxon Mobil Corporation, and William S. Stavropoulos, Chairman Emeritus, The Dow Chemical Company, and many other big american corporations and consultant groups.

I don't know much about the AEI, but I got a feeling that it could be part of the reason for the Libs shadowing the republicans.

-Jamie

Stop U.S. - Canada Immigration Now !

2006-11-15T14:02:00.000+11:00

A theoretical news report from the year 2009. Canada's population wants to stop cheap american workers from taking jobs they don't want to do. Maybe a militarized wall will do the trick.

LINK

Big Business

2006-11-14T13:32:00.001+11:00

I was just having a discussion with someone from and work and found it hard to try and penetrate the big business and greed point. I agree with his points, but its always the same points applied to a lot of different topics. Lets say the new proposed IR laws, I have taken some passages from The Australian.

new laws that allow the employers to stop paying employees if there is no work for reasons outside business control - drew criticism from the unions, who said workers could miss out on pay over Christmas.

Lawyers Phillips Fox said the move to cap the accrual of annual leave so employees only build up time off on the basis of a 38-hour week and not according to the actual time worked was a substantial win for the employers.

Now we can say that this move will make people angry. If your angry, quit your job, renegotiate your contract, or get a new job. okay, I agree.
Another possibility is that more people will quit there jobs to start small business's. Look at all the small business's. To that I think there is inconclusive information to prove it. I think technology, increase access to information, and the opening of international markets because of the internet are bigger causes for new business's than worker insecurity. We both agreed that that statement couldn't be proven, or that yes there are other forces.

I am in a niche industry, I can do just that. Quit and re-negociate my contracts somewhere else. Now what happens if I go to the next company and demand that I get paid leave when there is no work and they say no. I go to the next and again same thing. I was trying to get the point to him, that these laws create precidents.

Okay, what happens when small business gets bigger? With the new laws in place, if they are small it offers flexibility for them to survive longer. When bigger, there is no incentive not to abuse it the same as the employer before them, unless its seen to be for a cause, like fair trade coffee. Then people would be willing to morally help the product become competitive through demand. So the problem still stays, worker insecurity rises, therefore widening the gap between employers and employees. Allowing failing small business's to stay around longer, and helping bigger business get record profits with no obligation to give back to the community it pillages. Does the business world want to keep us all on the fringe, unless we become valuble, and then entice you with benefits. Now I am all for a reward system, but there are certain things that we all should have. Namely a life.

We should get to live that life outside of work. So as part of our social contract we should get weekends off, and work a resonable hour week. I work a 50 hr week, with no overtime benifits on the weekend. They are worth the same penalty rate as any other day. Now the other side of the coin is, I get paid a high rate. But after working 60, 70, 80 hr weeks, I got to the end of my tether. I would rather have a pay cut than work those stupid hours. Also I didn't get all the hours I worked back. Work needed to be done, but everyone does an extra hour or 2 to put in the effort. After realising that I wasn't getting that time approved. I started leaving on time, but when you do, you feel like you are letting the team down. This is what my industry suffers from, people all not standing up for the benefit of everyone else.

Lastly, the reason of "what are you going to do about it". I always reply, doing what im doing, firstly, to talk about it and make people aware of what is happening. By getting the opinons of the people around you on issues like this, to me, helps us understand how to better the situation. So, Howard is not getting my vote in 2007.

Where you stand

2006-11-09T15:34:00.000+11:00

I was reading some blog posts about Saddam Hussain's trial. Anyone expressing an opinion about the hipocrisy of the ruling was being lumped into the left category. I found this interesting because in the raging comments no definition was placed as to what part of "the left" everyone was in. Made me re-think the classification of the "Left" that I assumed I knew.

I turned my sights to wikipedia for some explanation as to what is "the left".

In politics, left-wing, the political left or simply the left are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of, to varying extents, socialism, green politics, anarchism, communism, social democracy, progressivism, American liberalism or social liberalism, and defined in contradistinction to its polar opposite, the right.

wiki

this is pretty general, and it seems to me that anyone challenging the administration could be "Left" but lets look at what it has to say about the right

In politics, right-wing, the political right or simply the right, are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum often associated with any of several strains of monarchism, reactionism, conservatism, the religious right, nationalism, fascism, or simply the opposite of left-wing politics.

and then goes on to say...

Some consider the political Right to include those forms of liberalism that emphasize the free market more than egalitarianism in wealth, but many free-market advocates, including most libertarians, share certain political ideologies with the left-wing and conceive of a two-dimensional political spectrum that they say more accurately portrays their political position.

wiki

So what am I left or right? I think, I would like to believe I am in the centre left. I find the definitions strange, and think that the right-wing definition needs better defining, Anyone?

-Jamie

US Elections

2006-11-09T10:24:00.000+11:00

Yesterday at work, and yes I didn't have very much to do, I was glued to CNN, DCCC (democrats congresional campaigning committee), and some political blogger site like crooks and liars (left), truth dig (Robert Sheer's centre left newsBlog), and others that made up the bloggers electorial party.

I really enjoyed the interweb atmosphere as peoples faith in electorial democracy was being executed. It seemed that Americans took their right to vote seriously and went to the booths, rather than expecting that someone else will make the right choice for them(2004 elections). Finally realising the hold the government had on the minds of Americans about september 11 and TERRORISM (insert ambiguous music like its definition). It now seems that people outside the mainstream media had realised their government was destroying their democracy, liberty, and middle class America (slowly turning into slave cast). Things that the administration like to sprinkle on their breakfast in the morning then turn into poo. Or so it seems from the outside here in Australia.

That is why I am going to give a big round of applause to the rise of indy media in America. Blog networks, podcasts and forums. If all the good journalists hadn't been fired by right wing or corporate papers, it wouldn't so darn good. Raising the bar and helping to be the best, funnyist, and informative indy news network on the planet. I tip my hat to you. As an Australian you have made my understanding of American politics, better than my understanding of Australian politics.

That said,
I would like to challenge Australian bloggers to unite and create a Indy Media and/or Blog network. Now I hear you say that we have both, but come on. I would consider myself internet savy, and yet have extreme difficulty trying to find something. There was oz politics with feeds from lots of interesting blogs, but it has dissapeared. Where has it gone, or is it the only website banned here at work? There is get up, but its not really news. Its more of a activist group, and it doesn't provide a good news service. There is crikey, but who wants to pay, oh wait, isn't it owned by News Ltd? There is the Green Left group, but who wants to listen to partisan news, I may as well just read smh.

We need a portal, a Democracy Now, or Truth Dig, or Crooks and Liars, but for Australian and international ideas/news.

anyways, just a thought, if anyone has some website skills to help me create one, then I am definitly in. Until then, myself the lonely voice screams in the woods, but will anyone hear me?

-Jamie

Is australian political policy following the US

2006-11-06T11:51:00.000+11:00

I have just been following a bit of US politics for a while now. Esspecially with such good news reporters as lefty Amy Goodman, Robert Sheer's truthdig,and various z mag bloggers and american news reports on foxtel. I can see a correlation between american voter values and politics with headlines in the news from the Australian liberal party. I starting thinking, has there been some talking between US political advisors and/or PR firms and the Liberal party? Have they hired someone, or has Howard been getting ideas about winning votes in America? Where did the idea for putting chaplains in all australian schools come from? I wouldn't think that Australia has such a big religous voting base to base "policy" on to win votes. Gay marriage, like a month or two after Bush brought it into the limelight, and how that issue has dissapeared just as quick as it did in America. Is Howard jumping onto Bush's strategy of repeat heated issues in the headlines, repeat and repeat and get your name burned into the peoples mind, then cut and run on them, move onto the next. Making Howard seem like he is concentrating on "making" policy, rather than on the back foot defending policy issues, ahem democrats and comparitive here the ALP.

If left un checked, do we want to end up with americas polarised economy, creating an economy based on wealth generation for the corporate dollar at the expense of a minimum wage of $5.15 an hour and exporting as many jobs as possible overseas. making un-checked policy from a majority government, a question, has the howard government reversed the "emergency" policy they pushed through from the cronulla riots yet, or can it just be forgotten about. How could we have allowed VSU to be implemented. I went to a rural UNI and now as a result, 90% of social events do not exist anymore. Maybe we should privatise our UNI's instead, slash it accross the whole system and become more like america's system where university's start accepting massive bribes by influencial corporate citizens through affirmative action (alumni), rather than good scores.

hmm.... I am just finding that the more I listen to whats happening in america, and americas political climate and values. I start seeing a delayed reaction here, but the problem is, Austalian's are not American's. We have different cultural and geo-political ideas. Why can't the liberal party realise that Americas political ideas are not always representative of reality? Gay republicans, War in Iraq, raising the minimum wage, public opinion is in direct oppersition to what their policies on those issues are. So why are we being forced feed american political ideas?

anyone?

Cost of economics of nature

2006-10-03T14:35:00.000+10:00

I have been capture by the idea of true cost accounting. I guess as I start to embark on this I have to get used to the idea of 'Externalities'. Defined by Wikipedia (I know its not the best source but its easy to search and is free) as:

In economics, an externality is a side effect from one activity which has consequences for another activity but is not reflected in market prices. Externalities can be either positive, when an external benefit is generated, or negative, when an external cost is generated from a market transaction.

reading a little further I came accross 'The tragedy of commons', where the common good is depleted and conflicts other companies or the common good of society, and the example used is fishing. Which is very interesting, when we over fish what is happening to the ecosystems, what will be the cost of overfishing, and what do fish add to its surrounding areas? But how many tragedy of commons happen and no companies have to pay for the depleted common.

This is a new subject for me so I will keep reading about and get back with some more info, anyone has any advice or know of a good place to read up on the subject. Drop me a comment.

-J

12 thing to remember when rotoscoping

2006-05-31T09:41:00.000+10:00

10. Remember to bring audio books in from home.
09. Remember to leave keyframes turned on.
08. Don't leave the frame update on manual.
07. Create a blog to jot down pointless thoughts that only you read.
06. Lectures on politics become really interesting, esspecially when they are long.
05. If your not into your music, you should be.
04. Headphones over $100 are essential. Koss portapros are great.
03. Save save save. Rotoshapes corrupt easy.
02. Don't leave sharp objects on your desk.
01. You have a life out side of roto

Sick Day - Why am I still at work???

2006-05-02T18:38:00.000+10:00

Today is numbing, the way an infection influences the senses and creates a mind state of numbness. My thoughts are clouded and thought processes severly slowed. I feel like I am floating in a bubble and any time I start to overthink something, I catch myself intermitintly falling asleep in front of the gigantic glowing vision transmitter. Looking around to see if anyone has noticed, headphones on, blank stare on, keystroke, click, on. At least I have my sick day hat, scarf, and jumper hoodie up, inside I get called a snowman.

At least my bundle of warmth is dilerias.

Vector Art

2005-10-24T09:54:00.000+10:00

I have been doing some vector art as well as my drawings. I like to use references of propaganda, war photos, animals, etc to create a stencil style of work. If anyone who is reading this has taken a walk to Mary St in newtown, you would see some great stencils and paste ups (paper artwork pasted), also in the IGA carpark in newtown as well. There is a great community there and its great to have community art not just advertising where the images are loaded. Here are some images of the vector work I have done.

I'm on Noise

2005-10-24T09:04:00.000+10:00

So it seems i've been published on noise with some of my drawings that I have done. Currently still studying the art of mind reading, but the problem is is what women want??? I currently work for a design post production place called Emerald City Design. In my spare time I like to draw and design, make stickers, and walk around the streets looking at fresh work. I am currently in the process of getting together a street mag to publish around sydney, and researching a new series of work based on the Fritz Lang movie metropolis.

cheers, jamie