A bit of my past

My parents were born the same day in 1939, my Mother in Aylesham, Kent, England and my Father in Newhaven, Edinburgh, Scotland. They met as children, relatives of my father lived in the same street as my Mother, and my Father's family would fruit pick in Kent in summer as a sort of working holiday.

They didn't like each other much. As a teen I was able to ply many of my Mother's childhood friends in Acacia Ridge (aka Little Aylesham) with drink and ask them questions. No-one knew how they came to be married (there was strong drink involved) and not one of their friends could work out why or how they stayed together. My Mother was a strange child, and to use the words of one old friend "always a bit of a space cadet".

In their teens and early 20s my Parents ran with the Teddy Boys. My father and his younger brother Mac had a reputation as hard men and had spent some time as smugglers. My uncle remained outside the law throughout most of his life mostly as a moderately successful somewhat violent petty criminal. I suspect my parents' decision to take up the opportunity to become assisted immigrants to Australia had a certain amount to do with fallout from my Father's less salubrious activities.

In Australia they lived in an assortment of cheap inner city Brisbane properties before settling down at Whynot St in West End for a couple of years. It was at this time I was born at Brisbane's Mater Hospital. A year later they bought a house block and hard a weatherboard house built on the Lettuce Farm Estate at Eight Mile Plains. They moved in, in exasperation, to an unfinished house, which took my Father some years to get around to finishing the ceilings in some rooms.

The part of Eight Mile Plains they lived in was hived off to form the core of Underwood in the 70s.

Many adventures and 14 years later they built a house on 10 acres at Eagleby. Allowing my Father to fully indulge his love for Clydesdales.

They lived there nearly 20 years before moving to a smaller house on a suburban block nearby where they lived their remaining few years.

My Mother was a professional machinist, in both the industrial and sartorial senses at various times. So much of my childhood was spent in the daily care of her Mother and Father (who had Huntingtons Disease). After Jake died, Ellen lived with my parents for most of the next 20 years, she kept my Mother from driving me nuts, and got alone well with my Father, her least annoying son-in-law. My Mother and I didn't get along, so my Grandmother was the safe sane presence in my childhood.

My Father was a horse trader, figuratively and at times literally. He was a legendary figure in the Queensland construction industry, in the 60s as The Black Pom, later working in various aspects of the concrete industry. We once picnicked on the bank of the Logan River. During the afternoon dozens of boats stopped as people recognized him, many tying up and joining us. Enough people and boats that the Police arrived to see what was happening. Walking down the street in Brisbane CBD he would have people come up and greet him, builders and businessmen, bikers and politicians, police and street thugs.

Linkies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aylesham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhaven,_Edinburgh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia%20Ridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Boy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Mile_Plains,_Queensland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwood,_Queensland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagleby,_Queensland

Shallow History

Shallow history, it is the Best Best Friend of Creation science, the Young Earth, and the absurdity that is Baby Jesus as the bizarrely anachronistic fourth wheel of the Trinity.

Understanding Histories vast sweep and then pushing the timeline back back back into prehistory and geological time makes Zombie Jesus Mad.

Patriotism

It is strange watching Patriots of other countries on TV.

In Australia, Flag Waving Patriotism is generally considered an indicator of either incipient fraud, or madness.

In some cases both.

Bullying: I will not stand by and watch

I will not stand by and watch; I will step in on behalf of the victim; I will speak up; I will inform Teachers/Management/Security/Human Resources/Police and will follow through. I will assure the victims of bullying that they are not alone in the world. Bullying exists only so long as we stand aside and let it thrive.

Repost this is you are against bullying...

Claiming to be Optus

My GF just got a call from 028661900 claiming to be Optus.

I've had a couple of calls from this number trying to get me to verify my details and offering to sell me different plans, but I've just said I'm not interested and hung up. My suspicions were raised when they called several times. I don't verify my DoB or address with anyone calling me, only if I initiate the call. I have a nasty feeling my GF may be about to be churned.

I'm googling for the number and it has been calling various mobile companies customers for the last year or so. Seems they are a phishing outfit after credit card details. The usual free Free FREE, just allow us to withdraw $1 to verify account routine. We've hung up long before that point, luckily.

Annoyingly Optus charge $3/month to block numbers.

Apparently the TSA defies G*D...

Where are the Leviticus quoters when you need them...

[...]
In 2008, TSA employees began wearing new uniforms that have a blue-gray 65/35 polyester/cotton blend duty shirt, [...] [From Wikipedia]

Leviticus 19:19: [...] Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.

Ah, there they are... On facebook

Can we afford the Carbon Tax

Australia is thrashing around in preparation for some sort of Carbon trading/tax/fairytale scheme. Gillard promised a Labor government would not push through in this term with such a scheme, but having been forced into (effectively) a coalition with the Greens and Country Independents, all bets are off.

Numbers between $600 and $1,100 per year are thrown around in the article below based on $30 or $40 a tonne Carbon Tax and the question of including Petrol. There is much talk of offset payments, but even if those are a lump sum, efficient appliance grants and a rise to the rate of Pensions, Unemployment Benefit, Youth Allowance and AustStudy, they are unlikely to maintain even the poorest Australians at their current level.

Treasury releases carbon tax estimates

Privatization of electricity supply and generation has seen prices skyrocket, despite coal being cheaper and the private companies not spending money on maintenance. Profits to share holders are high and salaries to the bloated plutocrats are, of course, obscene. So compared to the increased efficiencies of privatization, the carbon tax will have a moderate impact on electricity prices, and even at 440/tonne is unlikely to push alternative energy investment mush faster than it is currently growing. At 1/3kg/kWh (1) $30/tonne is 10c/kWh is a large increase now (40% where I am, much less in less fortunate areas) but with prices predicted to double before years end, the impact will be lessened.

Currently distribution companies charge a premium for "green" power, but don't reduce your bill if they oversell and have to dig into the coal fired system to keep your lights burning. I wonder how that little money maker will go when the carbon price/tax comes in. They also pay quite poorly for co-generated power fed back to the grid from domestic photovoltaic systems.

I can say fairly certainly that the richest 1% of the worlds population will somehow be better off and I'll be able to afford meat less often.