The motion graphics in the this music video are amazing! Crafted by Fluorescent Hill. Wow!

These comments from Sophie Black on Crikey, in reference to an advertisement for The Age website, echo my thoughts and feelings about the site. Is it that Australian journalism still has a way to go (with the exception of John Pilger), or is it that the majority of Australian audiences have a way to go (with the exception of Crikey readers) ;)?

First time I’ve seen this and hopefully not the last:

Yesterday will be a memorable day for me in witnessing the first african-american president voted into office in the US of A. As sappy as it sounds it warms my heart and invigorates my hope for humanity.

I have to admit to being racist though, I wanted the african-american candidate to win, not because he is the better candidate but because of the symbolic meaning it has. Saying that he certainly seems to be a more than suitable man for the job. I wish him all the best in what are difficult and telling times for our planet and it’s inhabitants.

As most of my friends are aware, I read (and love) the publication The Monthly. It’s contains well researched articles and commentary on topical social and political issues and most importantly I find it’s really well written. In the June 08 issue, in the essay ‘Living in the age of noise’ by Robyn Davidson, the following prose really stood out for me as beautifully written:

The logic of bureaucracy is to grow, mycelia-like, through life’s fabric, stifling free impulse, bringing everything and everyone under it’s control. It often appears to act in the interest of ‘the public good’. Or ‘for the community’. But at the root of the bureaucratic mindset is a hatred of the individual. And it is now inescapable. Our actions leave traces in the great fungal mat – in computers, on film – so that, should it be necessary, the bureaucracy can send out a tentacle and haul us in.

We pride ourselves on being ‘free’ – free democracies in which all are allowed to choose. But really, we can only choose between a few kinds of sameness. We cannot choose to reject, to live outside of, the gargantuan administration that is modern life.

I wanted a clock radio to wake up to in the morning. Not having a TV I like listening to the radio to hear the news and feel like I’m staying in touch.

When I mentioned I was going to buy a new radio to my wife it reminded her of an old Sony world radio she had buried away in the cupboard which she dug out for me. It fitted the bill perfectly so I popped some new batteries in and sat about trying to tune it in, unfortunately to no avail. Something was not quite right but I had no idea what.

In a bid to find the problem I turned to the Sony website and searched for a user manual, but the radio was too old to have any electronic manuals online for it. So I did a general search for the model number through Yahoo! and stumbled upon some really detailed instructions on how to fix the exact problem I was having. The instructions were put together by some small repair shop in Germany and included detailed photos of how to open the radio and replace the faulty capacitors to fix the problem. Fantastic, but I didn’t have a soldering iron or know where to source new capacitors from so I did another search, this time for electronic repairers in my area. In the results I happened to find a guy who lives literally 3 streets away from me and who does small scales repairs like this. I emailed him the instructions I had found and asked him to quote on doing the repair. He said he would do it for $60 and I dropped it over to him just the other day.

You’ve gotta love the web!

Victoria and I went and saw Keating! the musical last night for our wedding anniversary. It was hilarious and I highly recommend that everyone go and see it if they get the chance. I thought it may be hard for me to follow given my age and my political awareness at the time Keating was Prime Minister but it wasn’t. There were parts I didn’t quite get but the majority of it was easy to absorb and follow; and the parts with Howard in were the highlight for me. On the maaaateship.

The band and music was just amazing, the lighting was clever and the singing and acting was just superb. We couldn’t fault it and had such a wonderful night out.