Ao Tea Roa Bound!

Well, the time has finally come and we are off to New Zealand for a fortnight.  We fly out of Kingsford-Smith airport at Sydney on Monday morning at some ungodly hour.  (8am).  We need to be ready to check in from 6:30am.  What a drag.  We are staying at a hostel the night before so we only have a twenty minute journey to the airport rather than a plus-2-hour one from here.

We are driving around the North Island for two weeks in a hire car, staying at YHA hostels.  There hasn't been much planning done, the itinerary will be devised on the go.  We are told there's plenty of stuff to do and we'll not get a chance to see the South Island if we want to properly explore the North.

Hopefully, I can manage to get access to the net sufficiently to blog most of the journey.  In any case, just about every YHA hostel has a few internet terminals in the front foyer.  We are going to take LOTS of pictures and we have the laptop with us, so blog posts can be typed up and then just cut and pasted online while at the internet cafes.  Hopefully I can manage to get some pics up as well, as that sort of thing will look interesting.

I have a gmail address where you can contact me if need be.  It is:

bustopher.deane@gmail.com    (God help me re spam posting that here.  Ah well.)

I cannot guarantee the regularity of posts for the next couple of weeks, but I can probably guarantee an increase in the interestingness!  This is my first real overseas trip (my parents & I did a cruise to Fiji, the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and Noumea, New Caledonia back in 1979.  For that trip we didn't even need passports then.  Since I lost the opportunity for the Europe trip last year due to the ruptured oesophagus this sort of thing is well overdue and at last I can use the passport!

Tenzing fostered out

We took Tenzing up to the mother and father -in law's today.  Tenzing, of course, is our small mainly white himalayan rabbit.  We have only taken him out in the car once before, and that was only to the vet's in the same suburb.  He travels quite well, as he's quite an intelligent rabbit (as rabbits go, of course).

Tenzing is to be baby-sat for the next two weeks as guess what?  We're off on holidays to New Zealand, leaving tomorrow!  Sharon drove up and back, while I nursed Tenzing in the front seat.

Today he went very well while we were on the smooth roads.  He's a bit "clingy" generally, and likes to hug you high up on the chest.  Unfortunately it's an effort to hold him there for a great length of time, and eventually I managed to get him to sit in my lap.  One thing's for sure, he hates roundabouts.  Fair enough, too.  The drive is about an hour and a half, and he'd done very well up the freeway and the main roads, but as you get through Seaham and on to Clarence Town Road the surface quality deteriorates noticeably, and the poor thing was NOT impressed.

When we got up to the folks' place I stayed in the car with him for at least ten minutes, and he was still shaking.  I took him inside, and sat down on the lounge and eventually he stopped shaking.  Poor soul.  Perhaps we worry too much about him.  Not much we can do I suppose now until we get back.

Our thoughts are with you, Tenzing.

A Blast with Microwave

I heat up my hot water in my mug for coffee in the microwave.  I've been doing that for years.  Last year we finally got a microwave with a digital timer, rather than a knob you turn with minutes marked on it - it's far more accurate.  Gee, the old one it replaced could go either 90 seconds or 150 seconds if you'd set it for two minutes.  It was always a bit of a lottery.

Anyway, my mug takes 2:20 to heat up to the ultimate temperature.  So for ease of use, I enter 2:22 and press go.  The number of times I've keybounced on the "2" and gone to put the coffee on for 22 hrs and 22 mins is amazing.

I'm wondering why the microwave doesn't have a failsafe check in there.  After all, what on earth would you ever want to microwave for nearly an entire day and night?  What would be left of it after being subject to such a treatment?  We're talking a microwave oven here - the capacity of which would be limited to something about the size of a shoebox.  Even if it was that big I shudder to think what would become of it should it be subjected to a microwave bombardment for that long.

I've always managed to catch the error and re-enter the time so far.  Ever may that be the case, as even leaving it on for half an hour would have dire consequences.  Although mind you I'd probably be wanting my coffee before then!

Caught in the Net

Wyong Drama Group had a play reading of a Ray Cooney play "Caught in the Net" last night, and it worked out well, with ten women, four men and myself attending.  There are seven roles in the play, so we were able to pull off the show with enough bodies for the roles.

Overall, the play was well received.  It's amazing how many lies you can tell in order to cover an existing deception.  One lies to another and the grave being dug gets deeper and deeper until the final conclusion which had an interesting twist.

In all, I think it'll be a very appropriate play for the Drama Group and it is proposed as the November production.  We need to ratify it at a meeting first, so let's wait for then with fingers crossed.

Even Steven!

Last night was the AGM of Wyong Drama Group, and yes! I was elected unopposed as Treasurer.  I've done it before a few years ago so I know the work I'm letting myself in for.

Most of the other positions were filled by the incumbents.  However we had to have a vote for the two vice-presidential positions (three people were nominated), and for Committee members we had to select three out of six nominees.

What we did was distribute ballot papers with all six candidates and ask people to circle three.  After this process the ballots were tallied, and there were two winners, but there was a three way tie for the final position!

Okay, we thought, we need ONE person out of this three, so we distributed bits of paper asking members to write down one candidate on them.

We tallied the votes again, and you wouldn't read about it!  Another three way tie!!!

At this point we decided to put the three names into a hat and draw out one.  What else can we do to separate them! What an incredibly even split of opinion that was.

Tolerance and Love?

On Sunday Night, Compass on the ABC showed a riveting show called "For the Bible Tells Me So" which concerns the attitude of the Christian Church (actually quite a few Christian Churches) to homosexuality.  Obviously they know the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was on the night before!

The show is highly critical of literalist biblical interpretations.  After all in Leviticus it quite clearly states homosexuality is an "abomination" and anyone participating in it should be treated quite mercilessly indeed.  Mind you the bible also says anyone working on a Sunday should be stoned to death and a father can sell his eldest-born daughter into slavery, no worries.

As is quite clearly pointed out, the bible contains details of customs and practices WE NO LONGER ADHERE TO.  The Old Testament is OVER two thousand years old, and things change a bit due to the change in societal norms.  I would have thought this was blindingly obvious.

However, in the USA (and no doubt in all ostensibly Christian societies) there are vast numbers of people who persecute homosexuals, and one of the worst things they do is to contend that homosexuality is a lifestyle CHOICE that can be suppressed by the "victim" and you can convert people from being homosexual into heterosexual.

If homosexuality was a choice - why would anyone choose to be a member of a minority that's being persecuted, hassled, bashed and otherwise discriminated aginst in often violent and distasteful ways?  Why would anyone choose to put themselves through this willingly?

And conversions!  Huh.  There are cases of people being in heterosexual relationships for twenty years or more, and they'll give the appearance of being straight to all outsiders.  But really, they are supressing deep inner feelings which is not good for their psychological well-being at all.

Why are people frightened of homosexuals?  Might I say from the outset that I am not, but I don't feel threatened at all by them, nor do I consider that society is doomed by their existence.  What does worry me is the outward display of hatred to other Christians by Christians, in blatant defiance of Christian principles.  Universal love is one of the fundamentals espoused by Christ.  He did NOT say love everyone except homosexuals, he said love everyone.  Or have I got the whole thing wrong?

Lots of people certainly have, anyway.  There are vast numbers of extreme right-wing moralists who bay for the blood of homosexuals and would deny them all societal rights if given the chance.  Doing so seems to be quite a profitable operation. The show quoted figures of several churches turning over half a billion (US) dollars annually, based on preaching a non-tolerance of homosexuals.

And worst of all was the story of a mother, caught up in the hype of denying homosexuality, who refused to accept her daughter's position and basically disowned her, only to have her commit suicide feeling that the major cause was her mother's lack of ability to accept her.  This woman has since realised that what the church taught her was plain wrong, and had she not been so dogmatic, her daughter would now still be alive.  Problem is, it's a bit late now.  If there is an afterlife, she can apologise to her daughter.

Prejudice and discrimination is such an evil human trait.  It leads to death, war, genocide, etc, and is such a negative use of human endeavour.  I wonder why it is so innate in many members of the human race?  And why so-called preachers can use it to summon up these hostile feelings in members of their congregation.  They probably think they are doing the right thing.  If only someone with some clout could come down and explain it to them...

ACMA giveth and ACMA take away

A few months ago I had work done on our television antenna so we could get better reception on the digital set-top box (actually a PVR but the same concept applies).  It worked so well, that about a month ago I re-tuned the PVR and picked up ten new channels from Sydney!  They are 4 (a programme guide) 40 (national indigenous television), 41 (ABC News text service), 42 (announcements page), 44 (TVS Sydney Community TV), 45 (Teachers TV), 46 (Christian Channel), 47 (House of Reps), 48 (Senate) and 49 (Expo - flogging stuff).

These are currently transmitted as a trial service from a transmitter at Gore Hill in Sydney's North Shore on the above digital frequencies.  We do well to get them from Gosford, but is exactly what digital TV is about: despite a 2% signal strength, which is pretty lousy, we get an almost perfect image on the screen.  (Mind you in a storm, they drop out, but we are well out of the intended service area anyway).

I've really enjoyed seeing parliamentary transmissions other than question time, the Christian Channel sometimes has reasonable stuff, and the NITV channel is absolutely briliant.  TVS is also finally on the digital spectrum after transmitting on analogue for many years.  TVS is a community television channel run by a non-profit collective rather than a media mogul.  And there is plenty of room for these broadcasters on the ariwaves!  After all, in 1956 when television was introduced, up until only a few years ago, there were stiull exactly the same number of channels, despite a massive population increase.  In reality, there is more than enough room for a new full-blown commercial television network, but try telling that to the powers that be and the existing operators!  In the meantime I'll settle for the extra community channels.  Anything to give us more choice...

The horrible thing, though, is apart from TVS on Channel 44, all the other channels are slated to be discontinued from April 30!!!

I've only just started to enjoy the stations, and they are only going to be with us for another couple of months!  It is hard to believe!  I reckon a lot of people won't even know these services exists as they (a) won't have digital television or (b) won't have them tuned in on their set top boxes.

To register your protest (like I have) you can see the website of the Minister, Stephen Conroy or the Australian Communications and Media Authority.  As always, a WRITTEN or FAXED protest carries more weight than an email one, however feel free to email one as well, it's better than nothing.

If you want to save some typing, here's the text of the letter I sent to the Minister for you to cut and paste:

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002

Fax: 03 9650 3251

Dear Senator Conroy,

I wish to protest strongly about the planned discontinuation on April 30of the digital fortyfour services on digital television in the Sydney area.

I have just found the digital fortyfour services on the digital tuner after getting an antenna upgrade and re-tuning the set-top box. I live near Gosford on the NSW Central Coast and prior to the antenna upgrade we just didn't have enough signal to receive these new channels.

In the last couple of weeks I've really come to enjoy the services of parliamentary telecasts, the Christian channel offerings and especially the nitv services. (I am not a christian or indigenous person, but some of the programming on those channels has been exceptional).

Yesterday I was absolutely thrilled to see TVS added to the services.

But I was also horrified by the announcement of the suspension of the trial services on 30 April. Why on earth is this necessary?

Despite their existence for years, I have just started to get to like the new channels, and they are now going to be removed... At least I've been lucky. Many many people are not going to have even SEEN these services before they are discontinued. Digital TV uptake in this country is slow, and I know many non-technical people won't be re-tuning in their equipment to take advantage of the new broadcasts. They will not be protesting about the dropping of the services, because they won't even have known they existed.

Please record my strong protest about dropping digital fortyfour services, and my plea to have the services retained.

Yours sincerely,

etc, etc.