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[darkelf9]

Morning all,

You know that the Olympics are going to be in Australia when you hear that the venue for the rowing of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics is a river that has fresh water crocs living in it. I mean how Aussie is that! The locals of course will be like, "yeah mate it's all good, the freshies won't bother ya, just don't fall out of the boat". I had a laugh when I heard where the venue for the rowing is going to be held, which would scare the shit out of other competitors from other countries. And whilst yes fresh water crocs are not as aggressive as the their salt water cousins, they can take a bite out of you. They are mainly fish eaters and have a smaller narrower snout, but still have sharp teeth. They are also not known to attack humans unlike the more aggressive salties who will even come into your tent if you camp by a river and try to pull you back in the water. There are known attacks on humans sleeping near rivers and they will also take you if you are swimming in their river. But freshies are more shy and not known to be aggressive unless you hook a fish they want.

So the annoying political campaigning stuff has started. Can't turn on the TV without some news spot about what each of the major parties are offering as a bribe for votes which is why I'm now glad that I purchased the PS5. So Mr Potato Head is offering to cut the fuel excise by half which doesn't mean that petrol prices will reduce by the same amount. The last time a govt tried this the petrol companies held on to most of extra profit and only reduced the price of petrol by half the excise reduction because govt's can't control the price we pay at the bowser. If any political party was serious about reducing petrol prices they should stop allowing petrol companies to use the Singapore price for petrol here in Australia. Singapore is not Australia so why is our petrol price linked to the price in an Asian country? That's what govt's should tackle, not the petrol excise. I remember when petrol was under $1/L. When it went above $1/L the immediate impact was that a lot of people stopped driving to work and took public transport for either all or part of their journey to work. The flow on impact was that public transport became more crowded and services needed to increase to cope for this massive increase of patronage which meant public transport fees became more expensive. Most public transport these days is privatised due to the high cost of running it so state govt's now just pay a contractor to manage the respective systems. Public transport never runs at a profit. These days if you can find petrol at between $1.60-$1.70/L you think that is a great deal. Most of the time the price is closer to $1.80/L which most people are willing to accept, but when the price goes above $2/L there is outrage. It was similar when prices went above $1/L, there was also outrage. I would prefer to have the minor long term tax cut to a 12 month temporary reduction in petrol prices.

Had the big rubbish collection on Monday which went rather quickly. They were done in about 45mins all up. Two young Kiwi guys showed up who are only doing this job till their ideal job comes along. I helped the young blokes and I think they were a bit surprised a guy over twice their age was carrying the same stuff they were. Well I had carried the stuff around to get it into the two main piles. I also lent them my adjustable trolley that converts in into a flat bed cart. One of my best buys from Bunnings. They were impressed. But for me it was about working smarter not harder. The garage inside is looking bigger now and I've got the other space in the backyard back from that second junk pile being removed. Now I just have to do another clean up in those two spots. It feels a bit like getting a haircut.

I saw a story late last week of farmers in Red states in the US complaining on the TV about losing most of their workforce due to the ICE crackdowns. Apparently 65% of farm labour in Red states are illegal immigrants, mainly from Mexico. This has been an open secret in the US for many fucking decades. These farmers pay them less than what they would have to pay an American worker to keep costs down plus they couldn't get white Americans to pick crops for those low wages. We have the same issue here with most of our labour for crop farms being from Pacific Island countries, plus backpackers who mainly pick fruit up in Qld because Aussies wouldn't do those jobs for the wages which are still higher that what you would get in the US for doing the same job. So anyway, farmers in Nebraska are now shitting themselves that they can't get workers because their illegal workforce packed up and left Nebraska for a Blue state where there is less chance of getting caught and deported. Farmers from these Red states voted for Rump as they vote Republican regardless of which dickhead the Republicans choose. I don't have any sympathy for anyone who voted for Rump now facing either financial hardship or losing their job. They knew that a vote for Rump was a vote for chaos. Well now that chaos had kicked them in the arse. I find it fucking hilarious. If these dipshits lose their farms because of what they decided on voting day then it's the shake up they needed to next time vote for their country and not for revenge. People who voted for Rump wanted revenge on other Americans and now that decision is kicking their arse.

So Rump has imposed his world wide tariffs on all countries outside the US and his table of tariffs that he proudly showed everyone is a table of bullshit. None of his percentages makes sense. For Australia to get a 10% tariff on everything is not based on fact as we don't have a tariff on US goods. We actually have a free trade agreement with the US. The US is now going after our beef which again is stupid given only 5% of our beef goes to the US and a lot of that goes to make American hamburgers so when Americans go to Macca's in the US or Mickey Dees as they call it, that hamburger is going to cost Americans more. Australian beef is far superior to American beef so why would we import an inferior product. America is attacking Australia on everything so why would we be friends with Americans. We don't import American raw beef because of Mad Cow Disease in their beef. Our biosecurity is very tight which means it keeps lots of diseases out of Australia. And just to show how dumb Americans are, included in the countries hit by reciprocal tariffs are 5 Australian territories these include: Norfolk Island which was a penal island and now a tourist spot; Christmas Island which is known for two things one is their red crabs and a detention centre; Cocos Islands which is another tourist destination. These are not countries as America has stated they are part of Australia and none of these islands do business with the US, so reciprocal tariffs on these islands is just stupid. And just when you think Americans couldn't get any dumber, they have imposed reciprocal tariffs on two other Australian territories in the Antarctic that are home to penguins and seals. Yep, America has imposed reciprocal tariffs on penguins and seals because they don't import American goods. I'll say that again, America has imposed reciprocal tariffs on penguins and seals. How fucking dumb are Americans? Well it turns out they are probably the dumbest people on the planet which is being shown by Rump and his cast of fuckwits. No this is not a comedy, this is real life in America.

Daylight savings if finally ending on Sunday. Thank fucking Christ. The mornings are now so dark that it might be 7am but it feels like the middle of the night. Down here in the south of Australia the lack of daylight in the morning is very noticeable. Not so much in northern parts like Qld. Even Sydney gets more daylight at this time of the year than we do here in Melbourne. After we go back to normal time will get about another month or so of daylight in the early morning hours before we are back in the dark again. You also know it's Winter in Melbourne when you start losing daylight at 4pm and by the time it's 5pm you are driving home from work in the dark. Then that winter chill sets at about 4:30pm each night. We are got some rain late this week and it will continue into the weekend, but I usually take weekends off from doing any tasks so will invest the time in the new video game which is not what I was expecting and whilst I will play it till the end, it won't be a keeper. I prefer a game that you can actually fight back rather than just try an avoid the enemy and your character sucks at taking a hit. So it is a trade-in game for sure.

I have been looking at the series 'Rogue Heros' and just about all the music is from Akka Dakka. I even heard Bon Scott on one of the songs who was the original lead singer. So that goes back to the 70's. So that was interesting to see a UK war series using Aussie music. Might consider buying the DVD's. I purchased the Band of Brothers DVD's years ago.

The rain arrived yesterday evening and it's still wet outside. Just brought in the bins and noticed the ground is still damp. We didn't get a lot of rain last night but expecting more this afternoon and into the weekend. Which is fine as I don't normally do any work on the weekend these days. Spent last weekend finalising the stuff for the hard rubbish collection and it was a fine weekend so the timing was good. The weather seems like it has turned away from the humidity and our temps are more reasonable mainly being in the low 20'sC. I will wait another week before packing away the fans and portable air con. Next week I'll be back in the garage to do another clean up and prep it for moving stuff out of the house to de-clutter it.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Morning all,

So the very next day after Rump announced his tariffs, the American stock market lost $3 trillion and then lost $10 trillion by the end of that week. That is a massive amount of money to lose and more than some economies of other countries. America went from liberation day to liquidation day in less than 24hrs. A lot Americans lost a lot of money in their retirement funds as all retirement fund companies put a good % of their customers funds in the stock market. So those funds lost millions. The American stock market is again in free fall today and America is on the path of recession and possibly worse. It could get as bad as the US stock market crash of 1929. Lots of Americans have already lost their jobs and more will lose their jobs because private industry will sack people rather than lose profits. Because our dollar is also tied to the US dollar, our own dollar lost another couple of cents down to 60c US which is the lowest I've seen it at. With Rump causing a massive change to the world economy, it's time for the world to leave the US dollar behind and move to the Euro as the world currency. Europe is now a far more stable economic environment than the US. The main reason the economy of all other countries are hurting right now is that the US dollar is currently the default world currency which all other currencies are judged by. This even applies to Asia and Africa, so it's not just western countries that are impacted with a weakening US dollar.

I finished the PS5 game Atomfall and my initial reaction hasn't changed. Not a game for me as it was too slow and the main character can't take a hit. Two blows and you lose all your health. Whilst it is touted as a survival game, I thought there would be more options for weapons and it would be similar to The Last of Us, but it's not. The hype around the game wasn't warranted, plus it is a rather short game for the price. So for me at the price of $89, it's not worth the price. I prefer an open world game with the option to gain strength and armour so you can take on the enemy rather than just hide and hope they don't engage. You never gain enough of anything to actually gain any strength against an enemy. I find that rather boring just waiting for stuff to happen and a character that is just as week at the start of the game as they are at the end of the game. So for me Atomfall is a trade-in game. If you are looking for action and lots of options well then Atomfall is not the game for you. If you want a game where you like just hide a lot and a story then it's possibly a game for you. Then again you probably like non-combat games. Not my thing. I purchased Kingdom Come Deliverance II on Monday but discovered that Big W was the cheapest at $89, but they don't do trade-ins. I played the original and it was interesting but I thought too short for a proper open world game. This next chapter is very involved as in there is no lack of stuff to get and the info is extensive so you have to spend time just reading things which is fine. I prefer more info than less. I forgot that it doesn't have manual saves without using a potion. So at the start it is really annoying dying every few minutes if you get in a fight. The fighting mechanic requires some time to get used to so it is challenging. It is going to be one of those marathon games where it pays to take your time and have patience. I'm also learning more about my new PS5. Didn't realise I hadn't gone through all the set up. It is fast though. The downside is doing big updates as our internet sucks so downloading takes ages. Doesn't help when the game update is essentially the same size as the game. The update was 84G which took fucking ages to download, close to 7hrs. One of those where you start it overnight and let it run till the next morning. Didn't realise the update was so big so didn't start the game till nearly 11pm on the day I bought it. Next PS5 game on my radar is Doom: The Dark Ages, out later next month.

Spent a few hours on the weekend sorting out my photos from my trip across to the other side of the bay. Posted the info from that trip previously. I learnt on my first holiday trip in my 20's to take a small note pad with me to write down the places I took photos. I couldn't remember what some of the photos were and we didn't have the internet back then either. Anyway I learnt from that first experience so I always take a pen and small note pad with me now. Might sound nerdy but it saves lots of time trying to remember where I was when showing photos to my friends and family. Even if you use google maps now, you can't rely on the pics you see. Even on this recent trip I noticed a number of the photos on google maps are over a decade old. So when I have photo for example showing a breakwater, it doesn't exist on google maps. Then you look at the photo details and see the pic on google maps is from 2010. I have the same thing when viewing my house on google maps. In the street view it still shows the old house next door that was demolished. This is one of the reasons govt organizations don't rely on google maps for govt mapping. It is just not accurate enough yet everyone relies on google maps to view and find stuff. I use Whereis rather google maps to look a street maps as it is more accurate. We still have Melways here in Vic and I still have a Melways street directory which comes in handy as a planning tool. I only use google maps to get a street view of places, but always look at the photo data.

I didn't realise it was so fucking hard to find replacement oven globes. Previously I could by the Philips brand globes in Coles and Woollies now the only brand they stock are those shit Mirabella brand globes. Sure they are cheap but also poor quality and don't last as long. I've always used the Philips brand because they are quality globes. Now the only place I can find them is in Bunnings as Mitre 10 doesn't stock them and they are snapped up quickly. I find it fucking annoying when a companies' websites says they stock an item only to find out you have to order it on-line then pick it up from the retailer which they don't tell you on the fucking website. The guy at Mitre 10 told me they have those Philips globes in the warehouse but they are not a stock item. Like why the fuck do they have it in the warehouse but then not in the store. If so then why not state is it as on-line item only. Supermarkets are going for cheap shit rather than stocking quality items. It is a pain having to go to Bunnings just for one item as they are never close. I used to go to Mitre 10 before they became more tradie focused which means they don't have the variety of stock that Bunnings has.

So the latest dumb stuff coming out of the US trade wars is that their trade person has now complained that Asia doesn't buy US rice. I mean how stupid do you have to be to not realise punishing Asian countries with tariffs because they don't buy American rice is like getting angry at Italy for not buying American pasta. Republicans are fucked in the head. Asia has been growing rice well before America as country even existed, in fact they have been growing rice in Asia for thousands of years all the way back to the BC times that's close to 4000yrs ago, so why the fuck would Asian countries want American rice? America has used it's bullying tactics previously on this rice thing when Clinton bullied Haiti by saying America would provide aid if Haiti purchased American rice which meant that locals then couldn't afford to buy rice because the cost of American rice was very expensive. The local rice growers in Haiti went broke and the poverty levels in Haiti increased due to this American intervention. It seems America now wants to do to this same thing to Asian countries. We grow rice here in Australia but I only buy rice imported from either Pakistan or India which grows the good stuff. Aussie rice might be good for puddings, but not good for curries. I like long grain rice for meals and like I said the good stuff comes from Asia. I'm not actually sure why we grow rice here in Australia given our lack of water on the continent. Like cotton, rice is a thirsty crop which is why it is grown in countries with high humidity and high rainfall. Most of the rain in Australia falls to the east of the Great Dividing Range apart from rain from tropical cyclones of course which happens north of the Tropic of Capricorn. But those places are dry for 6 months of the year. Unlike down south, the northern parts of Australia only has two seasons, the wet season and the dry season. There is no logical reason for Australia to grow cotton and rice as it doesn't suit our weather patterns. We also can buy rice cheaper from Asia than grow it ourselves. Economically it doesn't stack up. Having water for people is far people important than growing a commercial crop like cotton. Rivers are running dry to due water being diverted for commercial crops like cotton. It is not a sustainable farming practice for Australia.

The warm weather is making a come back later this week and into the weekend so not packing away the fans was a good idea. We are going back up the 30'sC on the weekend and it will stay up close to 30C into next week. Compare that to today with a morning temp of 12C and getting up to 22C. Has been a cool start to the week so you might be fooled into thinking the heat had gone, but not so. The heat always hangs around till mid April, so give it another week or so and that humidity will be gone for good as we get closer to May. The second half of April is always cooler. Some of the leaves in my garden are already turning yellow whilst the roses continue to bloom. I've had roses blooming in my garden all Summer and they are still going strong with no help from me.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[UncleWayne]

Come on Geelong lift your game we can beat the Adelaide Crows.

Well done cats 19 point winners.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Well Rump was the first to blink which shows he is just a pussy when his actions impacts him. His rich backers had a word with him to back off and his treasury dude told him that his actions are killing the American bond & stock market. And in his latest back down Rump has had to exempt smart phones from this increased tariffs on China. Poo-Bear must be laughing his arse off there in Beijing. What it does show is how all of Rump's businesses went broke. He is shit at business and his only way to do business is threaten people which is fine unless he picks on the wrong people. America thinks it is fine to bully countries with weak economies, as in poorer countries, but when America is faced with countries with strong economies this tactic of bullying doesn't work. As the EU and now China has done, the only way to really deal with Rump is stand up to him and he will back off. Rump is treating America as one of his failed businesses just like his casinos and university that went broke. If he stays in power with the arse kissing of the Congress and Senate Republicans, then America will go broke but before that happens millions more Americans will end up in poverty. The American economy did go broke in the past. The GFC which America caused by the way, was worse in America than other countries. Australia sailed thru the GFC thanks to the Labor govt of Kevin'O7 or Kevin Rudd as he is called by historians. He was given the nickname of Kevin'O7 because he won govt in 2007 plus he doesn't take prisoners. He is now in the US herding Americans. Yes he is an arsehole but he is in the right country to deal with other arseholes especially Republican arseholes.

Americans are in fantasy land if they think those jobs of the past in manufacturing are coming back. There is more chance of dinosaurs coming back. These lost American jobs were not due any politician but due to American companies sending those jobs outside of America to cut down on labour costs and increase profits for American companies. So Americans should not be mad at politicians or any political party, they need to focus their anger at large American companies like Apple and Nike for making their products outside the US in Asian countries. When I first went to the US I bought a pair of Nikes thinking they were made in the US, but nope they were made in Korea back then in the early 90's, probably made in China now. So even basic clothing was not being made in the US over 30yrs ago. This nonsense that Apple is going to bring back smart phone assembly to the US is total bullshit. As for that insane statement by that dipshit trade dude that Americans are going to be screwing in that major screw for iPhones is so fucking dumb. The fact that Apple designed a phone with a critical component only made by a single supplier in China is the real issue. Having single source contractors is fucking dangerous in these times. We all saw how that devastated economies during COVID. Seems Apple didn't learn from that experience. Besides the MAGA group aren't smart enough to get jobs in high tech industries. It would be like putting a chimp with a laptop in charge of your tech support.

What Americans fail to realise is that America like any country can fail and America will fail if it loses the faith of other countries regarding the stability of their country. If America is perceived as an unstable country, then other countries will look to do business elsewhere. We already saw the disaster of Rump's tariffs on the US bond market. OS investors were selling US bonds which is a sign of countries not having faith in the US as a trusted economic environment. The moment you have other rich countries not investing in your economy, you have major problems.

Australia doesn't do much business with America and has a free trade agreement with the US which means we don't put any additional price on US goods coming into Australia yet we have been singled out several times by Rump and his fuckwit backers including US tech companies, for additional punishment. All because we don't do much business with the US and the trade we do with the US benefits the US not us. The US gets a nett benefit out of our trade with them, yet they still bitch about us. Our focus is Asia not America because Asia is a much bigger market for us and is the fourth largest economy in the world and it is still growing whereas the US market is stagnant. India is on track to take over from China as the tech manufacturing country of the world. India also has a larger well educated population and is more western friendly but does business with everyone and is not tied to traditional western thinking of who to do business with. And that comes from a lack of respect for Asia by both western and European countries. It was only a few days ago that Just Dumb called everyone from China a peasant as a slur, boarding on racism against Chinese workers America dropped the ball when it lost focus of producing quality product which was taken up by the Japanese. Japan was producing better quality products when America was too comfortable in it's own manufacturing, thinking no country could do it better. Whilst the gurus of quality control and quality assurance were in America, the practitioners of these two disciplines were in Japan not in America, which is why Japanese goods spread around the world. So America lost the plot many decades ago and is now trying to bring back those heady days of American manufacturing which is not going to happen. What happened to American industry was caused by American companies. This is once again a self inflicted wound. The chaos in America is the fault of Americans, not some force outside the country. However Americans are too self absorbed to admit they brought this on themselves. Until they recognize that, this chaos will continue to happen even when Rump is gone. He is a product of American society and the toxic nature of American society allowed him to rise to power. Admitting you have a problem is the hardest thing to do, but until you do that you can't improve. Millions of Americans are in therapy, but none of them blame themselves for their actions. They are continually told it's not their fault, it's their environment which is at fault. Even now, Republicans don't blame themselves for what is happening in America and to their fellow Americans. If you live in a country where the people believe they are never wrong, then they will always find someone else to blame. America needs a reality check which is only just starting.

The leaves on the trees in my front yard are starting to turn colour and fall off. The trees in my front yard are not native trees so every Autumn they lose their leaves. With the leaves changing colour and falling, it's a sure sign that Winter is on the way. That coupled with the darker mornings and the loss of daylight starting at 6pm is another sign here in the south of the country that Winter is approaching. Given Melbourne is the southern capital city on the mainland we naturally get less light than all of the east coast. Obviously not counting Tassie, cause it's not on the mainland. We are also having another heatwave here in Melbourne with temps in the low 30'sC on the weekend then we had one cool day yesterday but the heat is back today and will be with us for the rest of the working week. Hopefully this will be the last of humidity in Melbourne. By next week this will hopefully turn around to cooler temps. By the end of April we usually will have temps closer to Winter temps and much cooler nights. May is when typically is it cold enough to have the heater on.

Purchased my ANZAC pin when I went to Bunnings last week. It's getting harder to find these badge sellers. The ANZAC pins used to be available in Woolies and Coles, now you have to go looking for them which is annoying. Not sure why there is this lack of visibility in local shopping areas. And yes I will be watching the ANZAC parade later this month like I do every year.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Morning all,

My last two forays into the world of gaming was met with astonishment by the younger generation, that a bloke my age actually plays video games. In one encounter the young guy thought I was buying the game for a younger member of the family, so he was surprised that the game was for me. I then told him I played video games to relive stress which again shocked him. He obviously gets stressed playing video games. So I had to explain that I used to work in high stress environments so playing video games was a way of winding down. When I bought the PS5, the young guys in the store were amazed I knew stuff about game consoles and games. I had to explain that I've been playing video games since the PS One came out. And yes it was actually called PS One, not PS1. The number style of description only started with the PS2. I still have a PS2 mainly because it has a couple of games I still have. Didn't like the PS3 that much so traded it in for my first PS4 before they brought out the higher spec version. I tried playing PC games but the keyboard set ups just pissed me off. I did however play Morrowind on PC which was my introduction to the Elder Scrolls world and I was hooked. Once Elder Scrolls came out on a game console I ditched the PC version. The only reason I still have an Xbox is due to a previous Elder Scrolls game. I also have the console version of Soul Reaver which I notice has been remastered for PS5. Since I've been playing video games on consoles I haven't gone back to games on PC. I much prefer the game console controller to a keyboard. I found these interactions with the younger generations on video games rather amusing especially when you know more than they do. There is just this perception out there in society that a bloke my age, as in their 60's, shouldn't know anything about tech including computers. It's the same view society has about Boomers, that all of us have shares and investment properties which is so far from the truth. It is also funny that the younger generations can't see their own biases in society, they only see that older generations as having biases. The younger generations fail to realise they are just as judgmental as the other generations can be. Which is why the younger generations have very little self awareness much like a toddler doesn't know the nuances of communication. What they fail to realise is that their children will judge them on their choices just like they are judging older generations.

My judgement thus far about Kingdom Come Deliverance II is that it is a slow burn. I remember playing the first game and was annoyed with the horse riding as there was too much movement of the screen. It was like being on a ship in a rough sea. At least they have fixed that in this new game. Takes a while before you can actually engage in any proper combat. Not the game for you if you want a decent combat game. You just die a lot and can't do much in the early stages apart from run away a lot. Your Stamina is a big influence in this game. When engaging in any form of combat your Stamina sucks but your opponent has endless Stamina. So unlike games like Witcher 3, where you can at least engage with enemies from the start of the game and defend yourself, Kingdom Come Deliverance II relies on you being there for the long haul before you can do anything that comes close to defending yourself. Main issue is the stamina bar which is so fucking small that if you take two swings at the enemy your stamina drains and you can't fight any more nor defend yourself. Sure I get it that you have to learn combat, but for fucks sake how weak is this Henry guy given he is the bodyguard of his Lord. How is he not tougher in a fight at the start of the game? I mean when he loses his clothes did he also lose all his fighting capability as well. How the fuck does that happen. So anyone expecting that this new game starts where the other one left off will be disappointed because you are back to the start of the original game where Henry didn't have any fighting capability. Not sure why this game penalizes you for engaging in combat. It's like they don't want you engage in combat which doesn't make sense. You also cannot top up your health whilst in combat. Don't get this. You can't move in a fight otherwise your Stamina keeps depleting so you can't dodge and if you get hit, you just have to stand still otherwise your drained Stamina means you can't fight back. Again I don't get this crap fighting mechanic. Not sure why video games try to mimic real life in these ways because in real life if you die you don't come back and that would be the end of the game, so what is the point of trying to mimic real life. It's a video game. The clue is in the description. This game would make lots of people quit playing it who don't have the patience and that's not what you want as a game designer. As you can tell I won't be keeping this game either. Unlike other open world games, Kingdom Come Deliverance II cannot compete with games like God of War, Witcher 3 or even Ghost of Tsushima in their fighting mechanics. The combat mechanics have moved on but it seems the developers of this game have not. It is rather clunky to keep people wanting more. If you just want to gather herbs and create potions and keep patting your dog and overall avoid combat then this is the game for you. But if you want a proper open world game that you can engage in proper combat then avoid this game as it's not worth the price. It relies on a lot of patience to play it all the way thru and the younger generations don't have the patience. It's another trade-in game for me. It's more of a filler till the proper open world games come out. If Witcher 4 comes out by the end of year that would be excellent, but the main game for me this year is Ghost of Yotei as a follow up to Ghost of Tsushima. I have lots of other games on the list for this year but will only know if they are keepers once I play them. This year I'm trying not be too choosing in video games to see what PS5 has to offer but they need to have a good chunk of combat involved. Not interested in fluffy games. Have played Dark Souls and have Bloodbourne as part of a previous purchase deal but they are not my thing either as it's too much the other way. I like balance not just repeating the same thing hoping for a better result. Games like God of War and Witcher 3 have that balance plus they allow a lot of free exploration which is what you want in an open world game. The fighting mechanic of Ghost of Tsushima is hard at first but at least you can learn quickly to get better at combat and finish the game.

My back pain this week meant doing anything physical outside wasn't happening. It is much better today and I can do most things again but can still feel that muscle pain if I turn a certain way. For a couple of days, putting on pants was rather painful. At least I could get into an out of bed without pain. The best solution for me was to just lay in bed. At least it wasn't as bad as the back pain I had in Jan just before my birthday which took me out of action for 3 weeks. That episode was much more painful, where just walking was a chore and very painful. I've got accustomed to the routine I need to follow to deal with these back pain episodes. Just another thing to deal with as I'm getting older. Going to the gym every week is not a solution even though all the fitness people will swear that going to the gym will remove any chance of getting back pain. They have something to sell and if you listen to them long enough, the gym junkies will tell you that you can solve all ills just by going to the gym. Total BS. As you get older you just have get used to dealing with pain. It's a fact of life. Young people just don't get it. When you get older and you go to a doctor for this issue, they will tell you that you are getting old.

Thankfully the prediction of a 7 day heatwave here in Melbourne didn't happen. They were predicting we were going to get 7 days of temps around the 30'sC mark. Whilst we only got two days at that temp on the weekend, the rest of the week has still been warm and humid. Nice days if you just want to sit by the pool or at the beach but it was warm enough to get sweaty just walking around. We are back up to 30C today but expecting some rain on Easter Sunday to kick off a few days of proper rain. At this stage the rain should be gone before ANZAC Day so the dawn service and the march should be dry but it will be thankfully cooler than this week. Wouldn't want any of the older veterans collapsing due to the heat.

I didn't buy any Easter type eggs this year. I already have lots of chocolate at home from previous purchases when things were on sale. I'll see what there is after Easter at the reduced price. I did however buy the Hot Cross Bun flavour of Kit Kat. I found it a confused flavour. It doesn't really taste too much of Hot Cross Bun and you still get some of the Kit Kat flavour, so it's not one thing or the other.

Hope the Easter weekend is good for you no matter how you choose to celebrate it. Retailers don't care how religious you are, only how much you spend.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The early voting centres opens today and I will making use of that excellent innovation tomorrow. Unlike the US we Aussies are not scared to vote prior to voting day and again unlike Americans we are not caught up in the whole bullshit that if you vote early you are an illegal voter. Republicans don't like early voting because they try to keep the voter turnout low so they can win. That's how Republicans win govt, by scaring people off from voting. If all Americans voted the Republicans would never get into govt. And again unlike the US our voting day is always on a Saturday not a weekday so nobody has to take time off work to vote. Another small but significant difference between Australia and America. Here we want people to vote and make it easy for Aussies to vote. In America they make it as difficult as possible for people to vote. In Republican states voting is especially difficult if you are non-white. They take black people of the electoral roles or pronounce them dead and reduce voting places in black neighbourhoods to stop black people from voting since most black voters do not vote Republican. They can only do this shit because America does not have a federal body that manages elections. They don't have an AEC like we do, so the voting system in the US is in the hands of the two main political parties therefore lots of opportunities for corruption, but America is too stupid to change this system to ensure there is not an opportunity for corruption. All voting in any democracy should be managed by an independent govt agency not a political party.

Whilst out doing the groceries last week I saw a well known Liberal MP at my local Woolies handing out Easter eggs and wearing a pair of bunny ears. Not sure what he was doing here given where I live is Labor territory or it was until the recent changes in the Fed electoral boundaries. For state govt elections, this is firmly a Labor electorate and has been before I started living in the neighbourhood 24yrs ago, which I didn't know at the time. Now my electorate has be rezoned to be in the control of an Independent. Not sure how that will pan out in the up coming election. This Liberal MP got booted out of his strong Liberal electorate by an Independent MP who got votes because this Liberal MP was just getting too cocky. The people voting for these new independents are small L Liberal voters. People to the centre right whereas the LNP has now gone further to the right and are taking up far right policies which people in the centre of politics hate. No Liberal candidate is going to get much traction here in my electorate and this guy is not liked anyway so he is pissing into the wind if he thinks he can win here. Normally people who vote Labor will vote either Greens or Independent if they don't want to vote for Labor. They sure as fuck are not going to vote for a Liberal dipshit. Especially one who got thrown out of his safe seat due to his own actions. Why would you give the guy another chance given his past actions.

The US tourism industry is having huge losses of revenue because tourists are boycotting the US. The entry numbers of visitors thru all major US airports has taken a nose dive. It is good to see Aussies are also avoiding America by the thousands. Which says a lot because us Aussies travel a lot. You will find Aussies in some of the most remote places on the planet. Every time I've travelled OS I've encountered an Aussie. Aussies have a very distinctive accent so you can hear an Aussie before you see one. Aussies even travel to communist countries and those governed by dictators so when Aussie are avoiding your country, you've got major problems in your country. Canadians were the first to stop visiting America and those American businesses on the border rely almost entirely on Canadian patronage. Europeans have been warned by their respective govts to not travel to the US. America as a travel destination is on the nose with most countries now. People are just avoiding America as if it has the plague. At some point Americans will wake up and realise the rest of the world doesn't want to come to America due to their toxic society. Republicans are only now starting to realise what they have done by voting for Rump, but too little too late. The Republicans in Congress and the Senate are still arse kissing Rump. These same Republicans are also too scared to face their own voters which is an act of cowardice. Americans still don't seem to understand that what happens in America impacts other countries because America has always told all other countries that they can count on America. Well that is not the case any more and no other country apart from dictatorships will ever trust America again nor trust Americans in general given what they have done by voting Rump into power and giving the rest of the world the middle finger. The EU will never trust America again. Once they re-arm as will Japan, they won't look back. The US govts of the past ensured that the EU countries would depend on the US for their defence by promising that the US would not only defend Europe but willingly paid for that defence to ensure this dependency on America. Americans seem too dumb to understand how their govt manipulates other countries to create this dependency on America. Americans just can't be trusted until they change their society and that will never happen because of their politics and over inflated opinion of themselves. America is not the greatest country on the planet, but possibly the most toxic democracy on the planet. Even the UK with it's revolving door of Prime Ministers is a far better place to live and at least you can trust the UK to not sell it's allies down the river like America is doing. Of course I reckon Australia is a better place to live. Our politics is quite boring and we like it that way. We reject any from of US politics in this country and have told the US to fuck off with their attempts at interference in our politics and our country. Aussies don't have an issue to tell any country to fuck off.

Now I'm not sure what the Canadian Govt is thinking in initially banning Vegemite from that cafe in Toronto given that Vegemite is sold in Canadian grocery stores in Toronto. The Canadian Govt claims the Vitamin B in Vegemite goes against it's health and safety code. Your body naturally produces Vitamin B and if you don't get Vitamin B into your body it can lead to serious organ failure. I think the Canadians have been so pissed off with America that they needed to vent on something so they chose Vegemite which is actually more healthy than a lot of other spreads you can get. The salty taste puts people off but it is a staple spread in Australia. Aussies have eaten Vegemite for a hundred years. We even give it to toddlers. It is totally safe. It was first sold in stores right here in Melbourne in 1923 developed by Cyril Callister. So you can see why this ban against Vegemite in Canada is rather funny to us Aussies. We aren't pissed about it, we just find it funny.

Sad to hear that Pope Francis passed away overnight. He wasn't looking well at his appearance for Easter but his body was just too weak to cope with any other type of medical issue such as a stroke then a heart attack. Still at 88yrs old he outlasted a lot of other people and you could say he had a good innings at bat. If I get to his age I will be rather happy, especially for a man. He was a reformer but as always he came up against the Catholic Church protection racket that serves those cardinals in power rather than the faithful. The Catholic Church and all it's riches would not be recognized by Jesus if he came back and much like he did to those who were making money in the temple from the faithful, the would demolish the current Catholic Church structure and reform it to be a church for the faithful not one that only serves those who are in leadership roles in the church. One of the reasons people have walked away from the two main Christian religions.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[Hmm72]

Afternoon all,

The early voting centres opens today and I will making use of that excellent innovation tomorrow. Unlike the US we Aussies are not scared to vote prior to voting day and again unlike Americans we are not caught up in the whole bullshit that if you vote early you are an illegal voter. Republicans don't like early voting because they try to keep the voter turnout low so they can win. That's how Republicans win govt, by scaring people off from voting. If all Americans voted the Republicans would never get into govt. And again unlike the US our voting day is always on a Saturday not a weekday so nobody has to take time off work to vote. Another small but significant difference between Australia and America. Here we want people to vote and make it easy for Aussies to vote. In America they make it as difficult as possible for people to vote. In Republican states voting is especially difficult if you are non-white. They take black people of the electoral roles or pronounce them dead and reduce voting places in black neighbourhoods to stop black people from voting since most black voters do not vote Republican. They can only do this shit because America does not have a federal body that manages elections. They don't have an AEC like we do, so the voting system in the US is in the hands of the two main political parties therefore lots of opportunities for corruption, but America is too stupid to change this system to ensure there is not an opportunity for corruption. All voting in any democracy should be managed by an independent govt agency not a political party.

Whilst out doing the groceries last week I saw a well known Liberal MP at my local Woolies handing out Easter eggs and wearing a pair of bunny ears. Not sure what he was doing here given where I live is Labor territory or it was until the recent changes in the Fed electoral boundaries. For state govt elections, this is firmly a Labor electorate and has been before I started living in the neighbourhood 24yrs ago, which I didn't know at the time. Now my electorate has be rezoned to be in the control of an Independent. Not sure how that will pan out in the up coming election. This Liberal MP got booted out of his strong Liberal electorate by an Independent MP who got votes because this Liberal MP was just getting too cocky. The people voting for these new independents are small L Liberal voters. People to the centre right whereas the LNP has now gone further to the right and are taking up far right policies which people in the centre of politics hate. No Liberal candidate is going to get much traction here in my electorate and this guy is not liked anyway so he is pissing into the wind if he thinks he can win here. Normally people who vote Labor will vote either Greens or Independent if they don't want to vote for Labor. They sure as fuck are not going to vote for a Liberal dipshit. Especially one who got thrown out of his safe seat due to his own actions. Why would you give the guy another chance given his past actions.

The US tourism industry is having huge losses of revenue because tourists are boycotting the US. The entry numbers of visitors thru all major US airports has taken a nose dive. It is good to see Aussies are also avoiding America by the thousands. Which says a lot because us Aussies travel a lot. You will find Aussies in some of the most remote places on the planet. Every time I've travelled OS I've encountered an Aussie. Aussies have a very distinctive accent so you can hear an Aussie before you see one. Aussies even travel to communist countries and those governed by dictators so when Aussie are avoiding your country, you've got major problems in your country. Canadians were the first to stop visiting America and those American businesses on the border rely almost entirely on Canadian patronage. Europeans have been warned by their respective govts to not travel to the US. America as a travel destination is on the nose with most countries now. People are just avoiding America as if it has the plague. At some point Americans will wake up and realise the rest of the world doesn't want to come to America due to their toxic society. Republicans are only now starting to realise what they have done by voting for Rump, but too little too late. The Republicans in Congress and the Senate are still arse kissing Rump. These same Republicans are also too scared to face their own voters which is an act of cowardice. Americans still don't seem to understand that what happens in America impacts other countries because America has always told all other countries that they can count on America. Well that is not the case any more and no other country apart from dictatorships will ever trust America again nor trust Americans in general given what they have done by voting Rump into power and giving the rest of the world the middle finger. The EU will never trust America again. Once they re-arm as will Japan, they won't look back. The US govts of the past ensured that the EU countries would depend on the US for their defence by promising that the US would not only defend Europe but willingly paid for that defence to ensure this dependency on America. Americans seem too dumb to understand how their govt manipulates other countries to create this dependency on America. Americans just can't be trusted until they change their society and that will never happen because of their politics and over inflated opinion of themselves. America is not the greatest country on the planet, but possibly the most toxic democracy on the planet. Even the UK with it's revolving door of Prime Ministers is a far better place to live and at least you can trust the UK to not sell it's allies down the river like America is doing. Of course I reckon Australia is a better place to live. Our politics is quite boring and we like it that way. We reject any from of US politics in this country and have told the US to fuck off with their attempts at interference in our politics and our country. Aussies don't have an issue to tell any country to fuck off.

Now I'm not sure what the Canadian Govt is thinking in initially banning Vegemite from that cafe in Toronto given that Vegemite is sold in Canadian grocery stores in Toronto. The Canadian Govt claims the Vitamin B in Vegemite goes against it's health and safety code. Your body naturally produces Vitamin B and if you don't get Vitamin B into your body it can lead to serious organ failure. I think the Canadians have been so pissed off with America that they needed to vent on something so they chose Vegemite which is actually more healthy than a lot of other spreads you can get. The salty taste puts people off but it is a staple spread in Australia. Aussies have eaten Vegemite for a hundred years. We even give it to toddlers. It is totally safe. It was first sold in stores right here in Melbourne in 1923 developed by Cyril Callister. So you can see why this ban against Vegemite in Canada is rather funny to us Aussies. We aren't pissed about it, we just find it funny.

Sad to hear that Pope Francis passed away overnight. He wasn't looking well at his appearance for Easter but his body was just too weak to cope with any other type of medical issue such as a stroke then a heart attack. Still at 88yrs old he outlasted a lot of other people and you could say he had a good innings at bat. If I get to his age I will be rather happy, especially for a man. He was a reformer but as always he came up against the Catholic Church protection racket that serves those cardinals in power rather than the faithful. The Catholic Church and all it's riches would not be recognized by Jesus if he came back and much like he did to those who were making money in the temple from the faithful, the would demolish the current Catholic Church structure and reform it to be a church for the faithful not one that only serves those who are in leadership roles in the church. One of the reasons people have walked away from the two main Christian religions.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

are Fckin serious??? Get a life dim wit

 

[darkelf9]

are Fckin serious??? Get a life dim wit

which bit? Am I serious, well it's my opinion. If you can't articulate yours, then I'm not sure who is the true dim wit.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

It's ANZAC Day here in Australia. A time to remember those who served in WWI and the subsequent wars. For those outside of Australia not familiar with what ANZAC means, there a couple of good videos on Youtube that you can checkout. It stands for Australian and New Zealand Corps established in WWI at which time the Aussies and Kiwis were part of the British forces and frankly not treated well by the British but these troops from Australia and New Zealand proved their valour and so the ANZAC spirit was born and the legend of the Aussie Digger began. Digger from the from the fact that WWI was trench warfare. And if anyone has seen the videos from the current war in Ukraine would of seen trenches still being used even this modern era of warfare.

There was a lot of rain predicted for today here in Melbourne but thankfully it hasn't arrived for all those attending the dawn service and also those at the ANZAC Day march down Swantson St then along St. Kilda Road towards the Shrine of Remembrance and ending adjacent to the Botanic Gardens. We call the Shrine of Rememberance as just The Shrine. It was funded by donations from the general public as the govt of the day didn't want to build it so the locals in Melbourne went fuck it we'll pay for it. Ask anyone in Melbourne where The Shrine is and they will be able to tell you. Entrance to the Shrine is free and these days the entrance is at ground level around to the left of the steps. Which is good for those who can't walk up the steps. There is a viewing platform right at the top of The Shrine which gives you a good view back up to the city centre. The only way to get there is via steps to the top. We used to go every ANZAC Day to watch the march when I was a kid. Both my parents served in the military in WWII. My father in the Navy and my mum in the Army. Like many my dad was under age when he joined the Navy. For those at home watching the ANZAC Day march there is also the ANZAC Day ceremony from Gallipoli in Turkey and Villers-Bretonneux in France. Both have significance for Aussies. The French have not forgotten the bravery of Aussie troops in retaking their town from the Germans. The Germans took it in March of 1918 the Aussies took it back in April. For a country with a smaller population, the Aussie military punches well above it's weight.

Of course it wouldn't be Australia if we didn't include a catch up with mates at the local pub and then go to the footy on ANZAC Day which is again to honour those who served in WWI. It is tradition that the two AFL teams, Essendon and Collingwood play on ANZAC Day at the MCG. Both teams are local Melbourne teams and they are suburbs of Melbourne. Players from both teams served in WWI and after these troops came back to Australia they went back to playing footy against each other. There were fighting a common enemy one moment then were on opposite sides when playing footy. The NFL in the US has a similar round of their footy to pay respect to those who served and serving in their military. On a day where we honour those who have served in the military, the one thing that all veterans have in common is respect for other veterans, so whilst the current US Govt doesn't respect it's allies nor their military forces the same is not true of the US military towards the military forces of America's traditional allies.

I did the early voting thing on Wednesday and the early voting polling place I went to was very busy. I got that timing wrong as normally I don't have to wait, just walk in vote and walk out. It seems lots of people took this week off because of the bookended public holidays. If I went next week they would of all been at work. I even had to park further down the road and hike back to the polling place. I met a friendly puppy on the way. Some of the increase in people was possibly due the rezoning of the electorate. The polling place had smashed together voters from three electorates into one polling place. So we all had to wait a bit longer to vote but the line moved rather quickly. I'm glad to of got that task out the way. Seems lots of people have already made up their minds and once again the LNP have missed a trick with not coming out with costings for their new defence expenditure. They really are in disarray. They have put in one Lib candidate who has posted lots of social media claiming to be a renter however it turns out she has a $20million trust fund and owns two properties one of which is OS but she claims to be just a struggling renter. She is also the daughter of a former Premier of Victoria which is how she got the gig. I mean did the Lib's not think the media would not find out all this stuff? Now this candidate is back peddling saying journalists have it in for her. I would not be surprised if people on social media turn on her and makes her life hell considering she has lied to all her followers. It was just one massive con job. The LNP were just not prepared for this election.

If anyone was under the illusion that America isn't now a semi-fascist country, you only have to look at the defiance of the US govt towards the recent rulings of the US Supreme Court in their unanimous judgement to bring back that US resident from the El Salvador prison. It is quite rare for all the judges on the US Supreme Court to agree on anything. If the US govt is not going to obey the law then why should anyone else. It is now known that 90% of the people that ICE has snatched up and sent to the El Salvador prison are not gang members, they are just illegal immigrants who have not been convicted of any crimes in the US apart from being illegal immigrants. These Gestapo tactics currently being used by the US Govt is what you would expect from a dictatorship which is what America has now become. The only reason I say semi-fascist is that in the US right now you can be put in jail without any charge nor evidence that you committed a crime. The "due process" that Americans keep talking about currently doesn't apply to illegal immigrants but it's only a matter of time before "due process" doesn't apply to US citizens. US residents are already being deported without any access to a lawyer. America will become a fully fascist country when the US govt starts killing protesters in the streets. America is a long way from that right now, but the Republicans in the Congress and Senate are allowing this fascism to spread throughout America. Rump has boasted he intends to send US citizens next to the same El Salvador prison system, again without any trial nor charge, just making people disappear. When you hear the words "making people disappear" you think about the Assad regime in the M.E. or the Saudi's or Russia or a place in South America. You don't expect this in America. Pol Pot used to make people disappear but he just killed them after torturing them and those were mainly teachers and doctors. Republicans resort to violence when they can't get their own way. They were boasting of killing Dems after the election. What is also obvious is that the US Govt is scouring social media to see who is speaking out against Rump and these people are going on a list for either criminal charges or to be deported if they are not US citizens. When the US govt tries to deport Native Americans, they will try to deport anyone. Free speech is dead in the US unless you praise their new king. America is not a country people from other countries should want to visit let alone live in. In the words of a fellow Aussie..."she's fucked mate" or " I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire". Either works in relation to the US. The rest of the world is laughing at America and Rump's supporters continue to show that they are some of the stupidest people on the planet.

The US govt is now sending threatening letters to their citizens to self-deport. They are threatening US residents and citizens with deportation even if they are born in the US. Homeland Security in the US is now run by a bunch of amateurs who can't even bother to do their jobs in investigating cases. So what is obviously happening is that anyone connected to an immigration case is being caught up in threatening spam based on their name. The added stupidity is that these threatening emails are being sent from the department of Homeland Security to immigration lawyers which shows the people sending these emails have not done their due diligence. It's amateur hour in Homeland Security in the US. Also the person running this govt department seems to be trying to build up her modelling portfolio rather than running the department she is supposedly in charge of. She claims to be a gun user yet doesn't know how to handle a weapon. May be she is only used to shooting her pets and find it's difficult to handle guns outside that situation. She is yet another example of the current US Govt being run by a cast of clowns as they sure as shit didn't get their jobs on merit.

Still playing the PS5 game Kingdom Come Deliverance II and my opinion of the game hasn't changed. It has got easier but it takes a long time to get to the point where you can actually do any form of proper combat which is annoying. Apparently the major bad guy from the first game will reappear but thus far it seems a long way off. I don't rage quit on video games so I'll play it out but as I mentioned previously it will be another trade-in game. At least there is lots of content in this game that can justify the price.

Lots of rain predicted for Melbourne for the weekend and for most of next week, but well it is Melbourne so who knows what the weather will be in 3 days time. With my back issues of last week and having to just rest up, I finally got around to sorting out my photos from the trip across the bay that I did late last month. Will endeavour to post some of these photos in future posts.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

It's a wet day timetable here in Melbourne today which is forecast to be the worst day for rain this week but we can do with the rain as it has been rather dry for most of this year. The Summer storms that normally happen didn't amount to much. Some more rain predicted for tomorrow but not much and it will be dry again by Thursday. Was going to get out in the garden yesterday but the hit and miss nature of the predicted rain meant I stayed inside. Didn't want to half finish the tasks in the front garden. It would of looked rather odd if I only trimmed half of the hedge in front. Will see what Thursday brings to get those tasks done. The front lawn now has a carpet of leaves that have fallen off the tree in front of the patio. I usually leave that tree alone as it is give lovely shade during on those hot sunny days during Summer and helps to keep the front of the house cool on those warm days. But with me selling up this year, I will be giving that tree a large hair cut to show off more of the house. Also have some cutting back to do in the driveway. Most of the work outside next month now is going to be in the driveway.

So the Pope have been buried his way and by having this resting place away from the usual elite site, he had the final say in giving the middle finger to the institution of the church he led. The rich and famous were not allowed at this final burial ceremony. This alternative site of his coffin will take tourists away from the traditional burial site under St Peter's Basilica. Whomever the Catholic Church elects as the next pope, they will have a hard act to follow, so the question is will the Catholic Church continue to move towards the people or revert back to be a self serving mechanism and turn more people away from it. I'm not a Catholic and it has been a long time since I've been to church apart from the family funerals in the last few years.

Another week in America and more fascist behaviour by the US Govt. They have gone from deporting people who have not committed any crime, to cancelling hundreds of visas of foreign students to now arresting judges who have not committed any crime but only for following the judicial process. There are now so may cases of unlawful detentions the latest of which is the deportation of a 2yr old. Yep the US Govt is now deporting babies as criminals. Anyone in the US who was not born there but are US citizens are now fearful of leaving the US as they might be allowed back in. Immigration attorneys are warning people they might not get back into the country if they leave on holiday. You also have scientists not coming to the US for conferences. One Russian born scientist has been detained by ICE on charges of not declaring substances she had with her which were scientific samples from a field trip. It just so happens she works for Harvard University. No coincidence there. I mean how stupid does the US Govt think people are. I'm not talking about Republicans here. They are still dumb as dog shit. As far as these Republicans are concerned anyone who is not born in America is the enemy and they are illegal immigrants even if they are US residents or US citizens or tourists. The only group of people who are not concerned about what is going on in the US are white people born in the US. They think they are safe and are not that concerned about what is happening to others in the US. Being a foreigner in the US is now as dangerous as being a frog in a blender. More countries are giving travel warnings to their citizens about travelling to America. Which is nuts but that is what America has become. It is a country to avoid and certainly not a country to visit either on holiday or for a business trip. America reminds me of that movie 'Escape from LA' where they just walled in LA and let it become a lawless area. They need to wall-in America with massive warning signs. 'Enter at your own risk'.

I finished the last of the hot cross buns this afternoon. No doubt they will still be on sale for another couple of weeks, but they have had a good run considering you could buy hot cross buns from Jan this year so people have had 4 months of being able to buy them in the supermarket. Now that we have had ANZAC Day we are already getting ads for Mother's Day next month. So we have another two weeks of ads to come. Both of my parents have now passed away so Mother's Day and Father's Day doesn't hold much significance for me. It's more about my parents' birthdays and Christmas.

The last few days of the election stuff. Like others who have already voted, I've turned off anything to do with the election until election day on Saturday. The momentum seems to be with Labor but you never know as the polls have not been right for the last couple of elections. So whilst Labor seems to be ahead in all the polls, it might be closer than people think because more people are moving to Independents which leaves less of the pool for the two major parties. Mr Potato Head is also in danger of losing his seat as he only has a 2% lead. The Lib's lost a lot of seats at the last Fed election so there is a lot of ground to make up for the Lib's. It has now been revealed that Mr Potato Head did not declare that he is still part owner of several childcare businesses. His wife is the other owner which he did declare but he hasn't declared that he is the other owner of these businesses and has been even when he was in govt as part of the previous LNP govt. He will be quizzed about this after this election is over.

Was watching the news on the TV this afternoon and saw that Carney won the Canadian election. Counting is still going to see how many seats they will get. The other guy who thought he could not lose by supporting Rump, soon found that he on the losing side. Just like everyone who supports Rump they end up getting burned. Little Marco is seeing his political career go down the toilet by not pushing back against Rump. Any ambition he might have had for a tilt at the Presidency in the future has now been flushed down the toilet. Rump is poison to anyone who supports him and that includes politicians in other countries. The Lib's have tried Rump style tactics here and it hasn't worked.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Morning all,

I mentioned previously that I would post some of the pics from my trip across the bay at the end of March. Not sure what the limit is on pics for individual posts on Lit so I'll post these pics on several posts. If anyone is planning to visit the places I'm mentioning, just be aware of the road works around the West Gate Bridge which is the main way of getting to these places from the Melbourne CBD. These road works could easily add an extra 20-30 mins to your trip and will be ongoing for most of this year. They should be completed at the end of this year but who knows. So you have been warned.

The first set of pics is from Barwon Heads which is south of Geelong. Normally it's takes about 90mins from the Melbourne CBD to get there. Once you get to Geelong then head south. Barwon Heads is right on the coast of Victoria which faces Bass Strait known for shipwrecks, so whilst the scenery might look inviting it is dangerous. And just like our wildlife can kill you, so can our coastline here in the south. The stretch of the coast from Barwon Heads back to the bay is well known for shipwrecks.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

So the big news out of Australia this week is the massive win for the Labor party led by Albo and the resounding thumping of the Liberal party everywhere around the country in all states. People rejected the Rump style policies which the Lib's thought was a good idea. The Lib's thought following Rump in sacking thousands of public servants, stopping work from home, and saying that Aussies will have to feel some pain in the short term if the Lib's were elected. Everyone has seen how these three themes have played out in the US and Aussies went "fuck no". The other factor against the Lib's was that they took voters in the cities for granted and focused on the outer seats on the border of regional areas. The Lib's lost in all the major cities in every state. They got wiped out in Tassie and lost all their seats. The Lib's in Tassie are as extinct as the Tassie Tiger. The Lib's also lost all their seats in the urban locations in their heartland of Queensland and who won these seats for Labor, it was women candidates. Women have firmly rejected the Lib's. When the Lib's went after work from home jobs in the public service they sent a signal that they would do the same for all jobs in private industry as well. Most of those jobs are filled by women. Labor took seats off the Greens in the city seats in Brisbane. Regional Qld will always be a mix of Lib's and Nat's but a majority of the seats in Queensland are in the city. The Lib's do not do well with women and that was another factor in Labor's win. Albo was underestimated and now he is has had a historic win for Labor. His numbers for Labor on the % of the vote is higher than Hawke which says something. Albo also has bucked the trend of winning back to back elections. Hasn't happened in 20yrs here in Australia. No matter how you look at it Labor gave the Lib's a thumping and yet the Lib's still can't seem to blame themselves for not connecting with the voting public. Labor will have double the number of seats of the Lib's in the House of Reps. It could go as high as 95 compared to the low 40's for the Lib's. On those numbers the Lib's won't win the next election. So just like Canada, Australia has firmly rejected the American style politics and the fact the leader of the Lib's was not liked even by the people in his own electorate. Mr Potato Head is the first opposition leader to lose his seat in an election. Which shows how bad the Lib's did in this election. You can now fit the entire Liberal party MPs on one bus and still have a few seats spare.

Sky News was having a meltdown as they were watching this thumping of the Lib's. Their tiny brains couldn't comprehend what they were watching. The racists and Neo-Nazi's have lost their political vehicle as they were big supporters of the Liberal party and some Liberal MP's attended their rallies and allowed Neo-Nazi's to attend Liberal party rallies both at the Federal and State level. The majority right wing newspapers here in Australia tried to play down Labor's huge win. Some didn't even run the story but focused on the Lib's which shows how biased our newspapers are against Labor or any party that is not Liberal. The Liberal party enjoys massive support from newspapers and even TV stations here in Australia which are all owned by rich white guys, which is why younger generations don't buy newspapers nor look at main stream TV and commercial stations are struggling to find funds.

Rump claims as part of his 100 days in office that he has made new trade deals with 200 countries as a result of his tariffs. Funny thing though, there are only 195 countries on the planet. Russia was the only country Rump did not hit with tariffs so that leaves 194 countries. Australia, Canada and New Zealand are three which don't have any new trade deals with the US. So that's now down to 191 countries who could have made new trade deals. Australia in fact has a free trade agreement with the US so there are no tariffs on US goods coming into Australia but America imposed a 10% tariff on all Aussie goods imported into the US, again even though Australia has a free trade agreement so there hasn't been a new deal with Australia. The US Govt refuses to talk to our govt about it. So in these few examples there hasn't been any new trade deals done therefore who are these 200 countries Rump has quoted? May be the penguins and seals finally agreed to talk to the US Govt about tariffs on fish given that's the only thing they have to trade. Not sure how they found a translator that talks penguin, may be he is a Batman fan. As usual Rump is talking shit to a gullible Republican audience and they believe any bullshit he says. You can bet your basic Republican can't even name a dozen countries. They would also have trouble naming all 50 states in the US. So once again the US is talking bullshit and it is all aimed at a domestic audience who are too dumb to know any different. You can't even excuse these Republicans by calling them bogans. Bogans are fucking smarter.

Speaking of dumb Republicans, the new AG in the US Govt gives credence to what a dumb blond is as does the US Press Secretary. These are two dumb blond women who should know better but continue to talk shit. Both of them graduated university with degrees and one is a fucking lawyer so they are "educated" women, allegedly. The Press Secretary has already been given the name of Press Secretary Barbie cause she is totally clueless and can't answer any real questions. Her only response is to tough questions is to personally attack the respective reporter asking her the question. Pam Blondi's latest blond statement is regarding her claim that in the first 100 days of the Rump presidency they have prevented 119 million overdoses from fentanyl. So if we do the maths, not math, that means the US govt has prevented 1.19 million overdoses per day. Given how bad the US health system is, how the fuck did they save 1.19 million people per day from overdosing and then kept it up for 100 days. Whether you are doing American math or proper maths, you can see how this claim is total and utter bullshit, but as I've said previously Republicans are rather dumb so there are Republicans who will not only believe this bullshit but they will repeat it on their social media accounts without question. And therefore social media will once again be awash with Americans saying dumb shit. Also how does the US Govt know how may drug users there are in the US? It's not like drug pushers are filling in tax returns of how many units they sold in a given tax year. America is now a country run by clowns and they say stuff that can only be believed in the US, whilst the rest of the world continues to laugh at America for their ongoing stupidity. Rump even claims that the current US economy down turn is due to Biden even though Rump was handed a strong US economy that he is now tanking. He also has the worst approval rating for any President in 80 yrs. How bad do you have to be as President that you roll back the clock to WWII.

The bromeliads are continuing to bloom in my front rock garden and unlike other flowering plants, their flowers come up thru the middle of the plant. Which is also how they capture water. You have to water down the middle tubing of the plant and not around it. They are quite hardy plants and multiply naturally. Don't know which variety I have in the rock garden as I didn't plant them but they have thrived. The only thing to watch out for is their spikey edges. Need gloves to touch them when cutting them back. I give them a wide birth also when walking past or if I'm working in that part of the rock garden.

Received the car rego renewal which has only gone up by $30. But just like anything else the cost to register the car has gone up. These costs don't come down. Costs in general don't come down. About 60% of the rego costs goes to the TAC but the actual registration fee for the car is only about 35% of the total cost. Then there is the insurance duty to make up the rest of the cost. So you can imagine how much money the TAC is getting in funding by all the vehicles on the road. If you're a teenager or in your 20's you might be able to get a cheap second hand car, but it's the cost of the car rego and insurance as an ongoing costs that is a financial burden. I had to buy an old second hand car for my first car, yes even back then a young person couldn't afford a decent car also. Cars where cheaper but the wages were also lower. People who speak about the cost of living now tend to forget they are earning far more than people their own ages were being paid 30-40yrs ago. My first income as a trainee was $14k back in 1981. I had no choice but to live at home and certainly couldn't afford a car. I did however become an expert at public transport timetables for all the modes of transport we have here in Melbourne.

Have opened the red wine due to the cooler temps late last week. Still have some beer left but that's probably the last lot I will buy. I usually start on the wine with the onset of Winter. I have been watching some of the road cycling races from Europe but not yet had a cheese and wine night while watching these races. Usually wait till the major races start. The Giro later this week so will have to buy some cheese to go with the wine and crackers. I'm not a wine snob but also living in Australia our wines are excellent so you don't need to spend a lot to get a decent wine in Australia.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Part 2 of the pics from trip across the bay

Ocean Grove used to be a place where people from Melbourne would have a holiday home but now it has become a very expensive place to live and most homes are beyond the reach of people who could afford a humble holiday home and like most coastal places in regional Victoria house prices basically doubled due to COVID. So if you have a holiday home in places like Ocean Grove you would not sell it now cause you couldn't afford to buy another one in that area. You are basically paying for the view which whilst beautiful, is it really worth several million dollars. I think not.

A happy Mother's Day to all the mothers for this Sunday.

 

[marriedpervs]

Afternoon all,

Part 2 of the pics from trip across the bay

Ocean Grove used to be a place where people from Melbourne would have a holiday home but now it has become a very expensive place to live and most homes are beyond the reach of people who could afford a humble holiday home and like most coastal places in regional Victoria house prices basically doubled due to COVID. So if you have a holiday home in places like Ocean Grove you would not sell it now cause you couldn't afford to buy another one in that area. You are basically paying for the view which whilst beautiful, is it really worth several million dollars. I think not.

A happy Mother's Day to all the mothers for this Sunday.

Are you from the Peninsula, DarkElf?

 

[darkelf9]

Are you from the Peninsula, DarkElf?

No but I've spent lots of time travelling around the bay over many years. I'm not far from the bay so I know most of the spots around it. Spent my birthday last year down at Sorrento for lunch overlooking the bay. Was not well for my birthday this year so the pics from this trip were a delayed birthday trip. Haven't been to these places in decades and saw a number of changes, but the scenery doesn't change. Still beautiful. They haven't spoilt it thank goodness and whilst the cost of houses in these places have gone up, there hasn't been any over development.

 

[marriedpervs]

No but I've spent lots of time travelling around the bay over many years. I'm not far from the bay so I know most of the spots around it. Spent my birthday last year down at Sorrento for lunch overlooking the bay. Was not well for my birthday this year so the pics from this trip were a delayed birthday trip. Haven't been to these places in decades and saw a number of changes, but the scenery doesn't change. Still beautiful. They haven't spoilt it thank goodness and whilst the cost of houses in these places have gone up, there hasn't been any over development.

Alas development is inevitable, and the current rate of immigration will see lovely spots within cooee of the city being developed with medium density housing. I just hope they retain the beauty of the coastal fringes for all to enjoy for many years to come.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

With the new month comes the further loss of daylight hours. Now losing daylight by 5pm here in Melbourne and it's lights on by 5:30pm. It's dark about 15 mins later. Winter is only a few weeks away now. By mid Winter here in Melbourne we lose the light by 4pm and it's dark by 4:30pm. So you are driving to work with the car lights on and the same coming home. We also got our first taste of Winter here in Melbourne by the end of last week and into the weekend with morning temps in single digits, which has continued this week. Might have to fire up the heater tonight. So far I haven't been tempted even though the temps at night are in the single digits. Making use of the spare doona in place of using the heater for a few hours. No women in the house otherwise the heater would on from the morning. Day time temps are still in the low 20's so not quite at Winter day time temps yet, but that is coming this weekend with our first 15C day on Saturday, so more of a typical footy day temp. After all footy is supposed to be a Winter sport even though it seems to start and end in the warmer temps these days with the extra teams in the comp. Since the humidity has finally left Melbourne, I've packed away the fans and the portable air con. Won't need those again till I sell up and move out. Don't intend to be here for the proper Summer. Still relatively dry in Melbourne. Unlike Sydney and Brisbane which seems to be getting most of the rain on this side of the country.

Labor has taken another scalp in the form of the leader of the Greens. Nobody saw this coming. Labor was hoping to get back the seats they lost to the Greens in Brisbane but to knock off the head of the Greens was an unexpected bonus for them. Also Jackie down there in Tassie has lost some support. It seems anyone who sided with Mr Potato Head to vote against Labor policies is now paying the price. You wouldn't think the Greens would vote against new housing but they did and that guy in the Greens that led that charge has also lost his seat. It is fine to challenge the incumbent govt, but when you go against the public as well, the voting public will make you pay. The Greens need to get back to their main policy which is to champion climate change and environment reforms. They have wondered off their path. The Feds need to also get back to building what we now call social housing. Was called commission housing in my day. Just a new name to make it sound less working class. Leave the high end housing to private industry. If the govt is serious about building social housing then they need to re-establish govt agencies that used to build housing. Set it up for 20yrs, recruit workers with permanent jobs and good super options and just get on with it. Paying private industry to build these houses will be slow and very expensive. We used to have a proper apprenticeship scheme for govt workers right thru to having a career in govt jobs building stuff. That needs to come back in some form to ensure govts continue to provide govt infrastructure for the general public but also to keep costs down going into the future. Just continuing to use private industry will continue to cost more and they will only take on jobs where they can make a profit, whereas govt services are cost neutral as in they are not allowed to make a profit at the expense of the tax payer which is not what is going on now. The tax payer it being taken for a ride by private industry and politicians act as if it's their money to spend to boost their next election campaign. We need all govt's around the country to work for us, not their own political profit. The latest failure of private industry providing services is in child care. The shocking cases of babies and toddlers being abused by day care centres that are taking govt money to make a profit not look after these vulnerable babies and toddlers. The regulators are once again useless in this industry. There should be annual reviews by regulators who know their jobs which also should have oversight by a govt agency with zero tolerance for abuse of the rules. The entire childcare industry needs a clean out with proper govt oversight on it. Auditing these places properly can be done by state govts. Another govt function which has been left to private industry to sort out which the Fed's just throw money at and zero care factor.

Coffee prices have gone back up again. Did the grocery shopping last week and saw that the coffee I buy has now gone up again to COVID type prices which is a rip off. No reason for this price rise. I've been buying coffee whenever it has been on special regardless of whether I need it or not. So I have a stock pile of coffee, but I'm always on the lookout for coffee specials. The price of petrol has also gone up again, no doubt for the Mother's Day weekend. Funny how the petrol companies just happen to raise prices before public holidays and celebrations. I'm sure it's a total coincidence.

With the new Pope being an American it should be interesting when he tackles with Rump. As a Cardinal he has already had a go at Just Dumb for his comments, so I'm guessing he is not a fan of Rump nor the current US govt. The new Pope also speaks several languages as he is from a Spanish and French heritage. Plus he speaks Italian and Latin so he is not your typical American. I'm sure Rump will claim this as a victory for him and that he influenced this choice. The Catholic Church doesn't bend the knee, in fact they expect world leaders to bend the knee to them so Rump will find this new Pope a challenge. Pope Francis had no time for Rump and this new Pope is part of the new Cardinals chosen by Pope Francis. It will be interesting to see how the new Pope plays Rump and the US govt in general.

Rump has blinked first with China. He keeps trying to play the tough guy but then backs down when put in a corner, all of his own making. These massive tariffs are due to Rump now he is trying to claim he has fixed the chaos, which he caused. The man is a moron and he thinks other people are stupid. Tanking the stock market was also to make his rich mates richer by buying stock when it went down. Rump and his family did the same thing. He made millions from that little stunt.

The Lib's have a new leader although there wasn't much to choose from and it's the same team under Mr Potato Head. How do they expect to win back voters with just recycling the previous bunch of idiots responsible for the massive loss of Lib seats. Also their new leader whilst a woman, a first for the Lib's, she did change her first name to add in the extra 's'. Sounds like a cry for attention. Not sure if you're a Lib leader that you change your name to have 'ss' in your first name. Given the Lib's are supported by the far right and Neo-Nazi's, it's not the smartest choice of a leader with any type of comparison to the SS. She will be a filler for the real leader of the Lib's when they have another shot at forming govt which won't be for another two elections. Labor has a massive lead. Their current numbers are 92 and still counting. They needed 76 to form govt. The Lib's needed to win back 19 seats from both Labor and the Independents. All the other major political parties lost seats to Labor. Albo has a bigger majority than Rump. He must be jealous of that given that the Republicans only have a handful majority in the Congress. Ablo's win is bigger than Rump's.

Decided it was time to get the hairs cut. Tried a new barber, this time in my local Westfield. It only cost me $25 which is half of what I've paid the last couple of times. I used to have a regular barber but she closed up shop so I've been trying different barbers. As per usual I like to do a couple of things on the same trip out so I got a pair of new slippers from Big W which is just a couple of stores away from the barber shop. In conversation with the young barber he was surprised I was single with no kids. Apparently a bloke my age should have kids. Also that I shouldn't have long hair. I've always had long hair even in my youth. Used to have long curly hair. Never was one for a short hair cut. It's only in my later years that I've flirted with a shorter hair style. When I let it grow out I tend to look like a homeless guy since I also now have the beard. Now I look more like a bushranger with the shorter hair cut the thick beard. My beard reminds of the hair I used have on my head. Just letting it go naturally. Saves on shampoo as well. So well since I was at my local Westfield well I had to buy some cakes and on the way out to car park there was some hot jam doughnuts so got them as well. Well I didn't want the cakes to feel lonely. Takes me back to those hot jam doughnut vans at train stations when I was working in the suburbs and doing night school at uni. Especially on those cold Winter days. Getting on the train with a bag of hot jam doughnuts. Not many left by the time I got to Flinders St. Station.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Alas development is inevitable, and the current rate of immigration will see lovely spots within cooee of the city being developed with medium density housing. I just hope they retain the beauty of the coastal fringes for all to enjoy for many years to come.

Yep higher density housing is inevitable in our inner city areas. I've seen my little street transformed to have more multi-dwelling properties which has caused car parking issues. There is even a few multi-storey apartment buildings in the wider area as well. None of that was here 20yrs ago. The outer suburbs are still spacious though, but the younger generations don't want to live there. The social media vlogs tell young people they need to be close to the inner city with cool cafes. Previously it was larger houses that were the go with cheaper land further out. Seems nobody is willing to travel to work these days. They all want to live within walking or biking distance from their work cause they saw it on social media, rather than live where they can afford to live which these days is further out. Those inner city suburbs used to be working class and shunned by the wealthy, now it's the reverse.

 

[darkelf9]

Part 3 of the pics from the trip across the bay. Last part of the pics from this trip.

Point Lonsdale is more famous for it's lighthouse which is not part of the town. So to get to it you need to find and follow the right road. As with the other places mentioned in the previous parts, the waters around Point Lonsdale are dangerous. The jetty shown in one of the pics has signs everywhere warning of the high waves and the deep water. Even on a calm day the waves are high. The jetty is very popular with amateur anglers so most weekends you will find people fishing off that jetty. It is a popular place so if you go there during peak tourist season you might not get a car park. Point Lonsdale is a short drive from Ocean Grove so the round trip back to the CBD will cost you about 2hrs driving time but most people who travel from Melbourne make it a day trip. If you don't want to hire a car to get to these places you can get on a day tour. If you are visiting family or friends in Melbourne these places are an easy day trip and on all sealed roads so you can get there with a normal car.

 

[marriedpervs]

Part 3 of the pics from the trip across the bay. Last part of the pics from this trip.

Point Lonsdale is more famous for it's lighthouse which is not part of the town. So to get to it you need to find and follow the right road. As with the other places mentioned in the previous parts, the waters around Point Lonsdale are dangerous. The jetty shown in one of the pics has signs everywhere warning of the high waves and the deep water. Even on a calm day the waves are high. The jetty is very popular with amateur anglers so most weekends you will find people fishing off that jetty. It is a popular place so if you go there during peak tourist season you might not get a car park. Point Lonsdale is a short drive from Ocean Grove so the round trip back to the CBD will cost you about 2hrs driving time but most people who travel from Melbourne make it a day trip. If you don't want to hire a car to get to these places you can get on a day tour. If you are visiting family or friends in Melbourne these places are an easy day trip and on all sealed roads so you can get there with a normal car.

I love seeing people fishing in the piers. Sometimes over my way I just wander down and sit for ages watching them enjoy themselves. It's amazing how fisher-people (is that the term these days?) can enjoy their hobby whether they actually catch fish or not.

 

[darkelf9]

I love seeing people fishing in the piers. Sometimes over my way I just wander down and sit for ages watching them enjoy themselves. It's amazing how fisher-people (is that the term these days?) can enjoy their hobby whether they actually catch fish or not.

Yep those that are into recreational fishing love it, plus it is big business these days and they have their own lobby group because of the money it generates. Have a couple of family members who are really into their fishing.

At the top of that jetty in the pic at Point Lonsdale they have a proper fish cleaning table plus lots of bolted on holders for the fishing poles. So the local council takes it seriously and obvious this jetty is a favourite fishing spot. Plus the water in that area is very deep so ideal. I also saw a number of people fishing off the pier when I went to Portarlington on the same day.

 

[darkelf9]

Evening all,

Purchased the new Doom: The Dark Ages as my third PS5 game for this year. Played all the previous Doom games, so I was always going to buy this latest one. It is a bit different but thank fuck there isn't any stamina bar. The combat is proper stuff but that is what you expect from a Doom game. There is hidden stuff to find as well. It's not all bang crash game play, but is good. Only purchased the game late last week but even on the first night of play, it made me want to play the game again. One thing I have noticed with these new games on PS5 is the need to do massive downloads to update the game even though you have the disc. Same thing happened with Kingdom Come Deliverance II. Not sure if this is the new way of loading a game from disc but it just means with our slow internet that you have to wait a long time before you can start the game. Each download has been over 80G which again due to our slow internet in Australia it could be 5-7hrs before you can start the game. Previously you could load the game from disc then just update it on-line for a short period. I'm still playing Kingdom Come Deliverance II and trying not to get more pissed off with the game. Some of the side quests are just not work it. So right now I just want to get thru to the end of the game to see where the story goes. I usually have two games on the go at any one time, so I'm playing Doom when I get pissed off with Kingdom Come Deliverance II which I can't wait to finish.

The empty lot across the street has had activity on it over the last week. Was a parade of various large diggers preparing the lot for the new foundations. Now the guys that lay all the pipe work into the foundations are on site. This activity takes a while depending on how many dwellings are on site. This site is going to have another duplex of twin town houses. From what I've seen it looks like double storey which is all the go these days. Those type of dwellings sell for about $1.2million in my area but the sellers always want more. Next will come the concreters. Seen lots of this in my street for I'm very familiar with the stages of construction for these dwellings. Personally I wouldn't want to own one.

Well Rump is getting a new $400 million 747 from Qatar as a gift, but at the same time he has told American kids that they only get two dolls for Christmas. It seems Rump believes Santa is a Muslim. Not the first bribe Rump has accepted. The Saudi's have been bribing Rump for decades which is a well know fact. Rump just pretends he doesn't know. The plane from Qatar might be free but the refit will cost the American tax payer close to $1billion which will take a few years. Then to decommission it for civilian use will probably take close to another $1billion. Then the plane goes to Rump. Mean time Americans are losing their jobs due to the new govt, veterans are losing their healthcare and benefits and everyone will pay more for everything given most things are coming from China and that includes the basics like socks, shoes, t-shirts, toothpaste, etc.

Had my first cheese and wine night while watching the Giro. OK it wasn't Italian cheese but then again the wine wasn't Italian either. I mean Australia has some of the best wines in the world so why would I buy OS wines. Had to buy some more cheese which is from Denmark. Mainly bought it cause it was on special. I'm not a cheese snob, so I don't care where it is from. The only cheese I can't stand is the blue cheese stuff. Don't like the taste of it. A couple of more weeks of the Giro to go so a couple of more chances for a cheese and wine night. I really liked Italy when I travelled thru there. I preferred the northern parts. Florence was my city. Didn't like Rome that much. Florence just seemed more easy going, plus the amazing architecture and the leather goods. Bought a nice pair of leather gloves from there with my initials in gold leaf and it was cheap.

Having our first real taste of Winter in Melbourne since the weekend. We got a good amount of rain on Saturday. It was soaking rain which started in the early hours of Sat morning. Was still watching the Giro when I heard the rain on the roof and it basically continued all day. It was one of those Winter days where the best place to be was inside with hot drink and a good book, looking outside as the rain swept thru. Or in my case a hot coffee and playing a video game with a doona over me. Was very toasty. The Japanese Maple has got more colour on it now with the cooler temps. Most of the tree is now showing a burnt orange on the leaves. They will start falling off in the next few weeks to join the other carpet of fallen leaves on the front lawn. I still have roses blooming in my garden both in the front and the backyards. The rose creeper just keeps blooming in the cold weather. Still having roses blooming so close to Winter is unusual. People keep asking me what I do to get these blooms. I keep telling them I don't do anything. I don't think they believe me.

Spent a couple of hours outside today doing my lumberjack impression. Even survived several trips up a ladder. Whilst it was our coldest night last night with temps down to only a couple of degrees, when I was in the sun it was warmer. Didn't get out till midday due to the colder weather and certainly by 3pm I felt the chill of the day come back. Still deciding if I want to call in the tree trimmers for the trees in the driveway. I don't have the tools to get to the higher branches.

Well the big news today is the break up of the Lib's and Nat's which there was some talk about prior to the election. Albo has taken yet another win by forcing the break up the coalition. No doubt this is a power move from the Nat's to get more out of their partnership with the Lib's. If either the Lib's or Nat's want to get back into govt they have no choice but to merge again as individually they don't have the numbers to win an election on their own. The Lib's need the Nat's to form a future govt. So what does this mean for any type of opposition to the current Labor govt? It means there isn't any opposition. Labor can play one party off against the other one. Obviously the Nat's see Sussan Ley as a weak leader for the Lib's. Either way this is another big win for Ablo. He is on track to be the greatest PM, based on how much damage he has done to the other political parties. The Greens are diminished as are now the Lib's and the Nat's. He has killed them all off in one election win.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Angelo, as a good Greek Aussie boy, has given the middle finger to the English Press by Tottenham winning the Eurpoa League Cup. That sports reporter that called him a clown as the coach of the team, now seems more like the clown. I know as a Greek Aussie guy he would have more precise words for him. I went to school with Greek and Italian kids so I know they are no shrinking violets. Plus Melbourne has the largest Greek population outside of Greece. So you can bet the Greeks will seek out this sports reporter and he will be in for some shit on-line. Anyway, Angelo keeps showing his experience and winning ways. He is now the most successful Aussie coach of a soccer team. Given also his team had lots of injuries at the start of their season, he pulled off a massive win.

Rump is still going after his political rivals by his people in charge of the DOJ pressing charges against Democratic politicians at the State and Federal level. The judges keep throwing out these cases as just nonsense charges. Rump is not only going after the press but also entertainment organizations and he wants personal bribes from them to not go after them in court. Freedom of speech is once again being attacked in the US. The Republicans, and I also mean those who vote Republican, don't want freedom of speech for anyone that doesn't agree with them. Rump is doing this thru the courts by lawsuits as that is always the way he has attacked anyone who disagrees with him even if he loses, after which he doesn't pay up. He still owes over $500 million in previous lawsuits that he lost and he still hasn't paid up. His latest attack on the South African President is yet another instance of American racism and basic bullying of a leader of another country. Rump has shown in the past he is a racist so he has no respect for any black leader of a country. Giving White South Africans a fast track into America and claiming they are fleeing genocide is just so laughable. These people are not even farmers, they are just South Africans who wanted a free ride. Lets not forget it was the white South Africans who imposed Apatite on the black population of South Africa. White people in South Africa still own most of the land. White South Africans were free to kill black people in South Africa very much like white Americans were allowed to do in their history. That shit still goes on in America. So this latest dog and pony show from Rump shows once again how racist America has become since Rump took power. Any leader of another country would be wary of attending the White House. Leaders of most countries are not making a bee line for the White House given how badly these encounters have gone if you are not on the Rump's side. There are Republican voters who truly believe that America is only for white people. These are the same people who believe Jesus was white and that he spoke American English. Which is such wild shit, that it can only occur in America that people believe that nonsense and are that stupid. Another reason why people outside of America believe Americans are just dumb people. America has become more dumb thanks to Republican voters which is why Rump switched from Democrat to Republican. In his own words he believes Republican voters are the dumbest people on the planet. They will believe anything and are easy to manipulate. He was right.

Played most of more of Doom: The Dark Ages and I'm getting God of War vibes from it, especially in the later chapters of the game. The scenery also reminds me of God of War in the huge scale of each environment. The puzzle solving is similar to God of War but instead of using an axe you use the shield. The combat is spot on and yes do can die a lot but it is doable and the upgrades to health and the shield are hard fought. The hits are massive and satisfying. Similar again to God of War and you have to engage to win. No sneaking around or ambushing your enemy. So if you liked playing God of War, you will like this latest iteration of Doom. I'll need to play the game again now that I understand how to get around each level. The problem solving tasks which are optional do make you think and most are not that obvious but the more you play a game like this, the easier it gets to find and solve these puzzles. Whilst there is a story that links each of the chapters, it fades into the background as the main focus of the game is the battles in each chapter and the loot you need to tick off in each chapter. The key to the game is to upgrade your gear at each opportunity as you will need those upgrade to deal with the demons as they only get tougher as the chapters progress. But like all enemies even the toughest have their weaknesses, you just might have to die several times to figure them out. As I said it reminds me of God of War so for this new Doom game is a keeper. Will see how the other games I have on the list pan out. I also need to upgrade the PS5 hard drive. Waiting for the tech FY sales to start.

Got a notification that my internet plan is going up again. It seems that NBN is increasing costs again which ISP's have no choice but to pass on. The whole sale price keeps going up. The NBN is a separate private company to the ISP's similar in a way that the company that manages the power poles and wires is separate to the power utility companies. So costs just keep going up as these separate entities put up their costs and you can't negotiate with them so it doesn't matter which utility company you decide to go with they are all subject to the same price pressures. There was a time where Telstra known as Telecom managed both the infrastructure and the billing so it kept costs down. With the privatisation of these infrastructures as separate entities costs can only keep going up and you as the consumer have no rights to contest these costs. Both NBN Co. and United Energy are not answerable to the general public. They can do as they wish and are only answerable to the govt of the day which means they can set their own price to make a profit. The customer is not the public, it's the govt of the day. So whilst you might think you are getting a deal with whatever utility company you go with, you are still getting screwed.

Not sure what Rump is hoping to achieve in going after Harvard Uni given it is America's richest uni and also the oldest with alumni who are both rich and powerful people. Lots of judges, high profile lawyers and politicians who are part of that Harvard alumni. They are worth billions and have much more money than Rump does and also are much smarter than anyone the Republicans have to go against them. Now part of the reason Rump is going after Harvard is because they rejected his son as being too stupid to get into Harvard. Rump tried to bribe Harvard and they still said No to his son getting a spot, so this once again is Rump taking revenge, but this time it's because his offspring has been deemed not smart enough to get into an ivy league uni. Caught up in all this are foreign students from Harvard who have been threatened with deportation which also includes Aussie students who are in the various years of study. Yet another example of why travelling to the US to work or study is a bad idea as they can kick you out just for being a foreigner. America is not the place to be if you are not from there, nor if you live there but are not born there. An Aussie woman was travelling back to the US go visit her American husband and she stopped, arrested then deported. Her husband is an American citizen and it gets better, he is currently serving in the US military. That's how the US govt thanks veterans for their service by deporting their wives.

We have had a good bit of rain come thru Melbourne in the past few days. We got some of that rain that swept thru Qld and NSW which is unusual. The eastern part of Vic got most of it which is some 3hrs to the east of Melbourne. We got just the edge of that in Melbourne on the weekend, but now we are getting rain from the south west which is where we normally get our rain from. So we have been hit with two different rain systems. Expectation is that this rain will with us for the rest of the week which is good for the garden. We need it.

With the cooler weather I decided to do some more cooking from scratch, this time making my version of what our family called patties. Usually made with dough and a mince meat filling then deep fried, but I can't be bothered with making the dough so I do it with store bought pastry and just bung it in the oven. I mean it is puff pastry so lots of butter rather than deep frying so not sure about the calorie comparison but a lot less work, plus I don't have to worry about getting rid of the oil afterwards. One batch makes about 24 individual pastry parcels so enough for a few meals during the week. Next on the list is my take on sausage rolls. More comfort food but with the colder weather that's what you need. Dropped buying any more salads due to the colder days now. I have a food steamer that I bought to steam vegies, but I only steam dim sims in it. I think I steamed vegies in it once then found out I could steam dim sims in it so gave the vegies the arse. It's now mainly a steamer for dim sims or dumplings. Dim sims are also low in calories, and well they do have cabbage in them somewhere so I guess that counts as a steamed vegie dish.

Was on Youtube and saw a new Aussie song about our election called 'Good on ya Australia'. It's about 2 weeks old now which is hundreds of years on social media. Anything that's a day old is considered old news. That's just the world the younger generations live in. But anyway I thought this was funny and encourage others to give it a listen.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The Lib's and Nat's finally kissed and made up which was always going to happen. The power play by the Nat's only showed that the LNP has learned nothing from the election. Whilst there is yet another flood in regional parts of NSW and Qld the Lib's and Nat's are having a political spat over power plays. Not the image you want to portray as political parties that need go gain support. So not only is nuclear back as part of their policies, they have removed women from their front bench. Two reasons why they lost votes as the recent election. Nobody wants nuclear as we already had this debate in Australia and it was rejected as an option. The removal of women from the Lib's front bench shows women are not welcome in the Lib party. It will only turn off more women from wanting to join the Lib's. Both are dumb decisions by the Lib's who are already facing two election cycles in opposition due to the huge majority that Labor now has which is about double the number of Lib's will have in the House of Rep's. Not the moves you want if you want to ever be in govt within the next 10yrs.

Onto my second play thru of Doom:The Dark Ages. Playing around with settings and realised that I could of made my first play thru a bit better and die less. Does help on the second time around that you know how the combat works early on in the game. Have picked up some tips on combat I missed the first time thru. Also liking the music that goes along with the combat. It's heavy metal with a driving drum beat to it. You know that you're in a battle when this music starts. With the second play thru I'm seeing if there is any difference to the first time thru the chapters. Might even find some more secrets I missed the first time. The similarities between this game and God of War is more evident on this second play thru as I'm noticing more of these similarities. But unlike God of War where it pays to upgrade armour, with Doom it has always been about the weapons as there are no armour changes only to your health and overall armour health which you can't buy but have to battle for. There is lots of melee so it pays to upgrade your melee weapons as soon as you can. The demons come to you so you can't sit back and just use the weapons. Taking more snapshots of the game on this second play thru. The scenery is huge and very scenic but for me the scenery from God of War is better and best of all is Witcher 3. Overall this latest version of Doom delivers in an excellent game and you don't need to recap the story if you don't play it for a while as each chapter is it's own mini story with a beginning and end. Then again with Doom it's never about the story it's all about the combat.

Onto my next round of medical stuff. Just to shut up the GP I took the flu shot. It's free for me so it didn't cost me anything to have it. Then I got urgent phone calls when I got back home to call the GP. Turns out that he gave me the flu shot for people over 65 which has a little more medication in it. I'm not 65 yet but once you're into your 60's, people just tend to blur all the years together. Didn't know there was a difference for the adult dose. Now he is onto me to get the COVID jab as well but they didn't have any. I only went to him for another script and got yet another blood test to do. I don't have an issue with needles so not a problem for me. With June starting this week it's onto the next set of bi-annual blood tests and then another specialist appointment. Lost count of how many blood tests I've had in the last few years. Every medical expert you encounter wants a blood test. Thankfully they have reduced to just the two a year. Will have to find a new GP when I sell up and move down the coast. Just one more thing I have add to the long list of things to do after I sell up.

The cold weather has set in although I've only used the heater a couple of times. The warmth of the day is gone now by 4pm and the reduction of daylight is much more noticeable. Had some rain but not much. We were supposed to get rain all of last week here in Melbourne but that didn't happen. I managed to get stuff done between the rain events so timed that well. No work in the garden last week since the green bin was full. Now empty again. My rose creeper in the backyard is still blooming with new roses even in this cold weather. So much for roses only being a Spring flower. I'm not doing anything to encourage these new rose blooms, apart from keeping the foliage at the base of this creeper at a higher level to act as a form of mulch to keep moisture in. I don't even feed or water this rose creeper. I'm just surprised that new roses are appearing each week given we have had lows of 3-4C and even some frost.

So Rump has a new nickname. Now they call him TACO Man which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. There is also a song on Youtube about hit. Too funny and the best part is it is really pissing him off and his supporters. There is truth to this new nickname though. He talks tough but then backs down. He has given up on Gaza as he can't control Netanyahu and he is now yelling at Poo-tin cause he can't control that guy either. He had to blink with China because they had cut the products flowing into the US. Ships were turning up to the US half full due to Rump's tariffs. Wall Street has also been on his arse about the tanking of the US stock market. Now even Elon has turned against him but that is normal because whoever gets close to Rump and thinks he has their backs, always gets burned and usually ends up in jail. Rump's latest hike in tariffs this time on steel will only mean anything that contains steel will increase in price. The US needs to import steel to feed it's manufacturing sector, so whilst the steel workers might be cheering in one part of the US, in other parts of the US this new hike in steel tariffs will cost jobs so for the small increase in steel jobs a larger amount of people will be sacked to make steel workers happy. Which will lead to a nett loss in US jobs not more jobs.

The fallout of Rump's little stunt against the President of South Africa keeps coming up. So not only was he being a racist to the President of South Africa, the supposed mass graves of white South Africans he showed was actually from a story of a mass grave in the DR of Congo. Totally different country. We know that Americans are geographically challenged at the best of times and millions of Americans believe Africa is a country, so not surprising that Rump can't distinguish one African country from another one. All the people in that mass grave were black people, not white South Africans. Also that video of the memorial showing all those white crosses he claimed to be of white South Africans killed was in fact a memorial of all killings, mostly black people, to highlight the violence and crime in South Africa. Again most of those crosses were for black people who have been killed and also most of the deaths on farms owned by white people in South Africa are black people not white people. Rump initially said that memorial was a mass grave which he was told by Elon who posted that lie previously on X. And also lets not forget that most of the land in South Africa is still owned by white people not black people even though a vast majority of the population of that country are black not white. Now the trusted sources Rump claimed at the time for all this info was in fact Elon, who is a white South African, and the other trusted source is a member of the KKK. It's not surprising that Rump would listen to a member of the KKK since his dad would eagerly attend KKK rallies and knew lots of the leaders of the local KKK branch, so the Rump family has had a long association with the KKK. Elon fled South Africa because he didn't like the fact that black people were in charge and also he overstayed his visa when he was a student in the US, which if he did that today in the current US govt regime, would of seen him deported as a foreigner. Funny how Elon now wants to claim he is American and doesn't want to raise the fact he was born outside the US, so even by Rump's new standard for who is allowed to stay in America, Elon doesn't qualify since he wasn't born in the US nor were his parents so he would be a prime candidate for deportation. I thought this story of Rump being a racist in the Oval Office had done it's time. Seems the press in the respective African countries which were featured in that stunt have not forgotten it. What you had in the Oval Office was a white racist lecturing a black man from South Africa on racial genocide which is such a white person thing to do. It seems it's only genocide if white people are killed which is a very white person view of the world. Same thing happened here in Australia when a white person was killed in the early settlers era, only the numbers of white people killed were recorded. The hundreds of black people killed in retaliation was never mentioned. It's a typical white person thing to do regardless of which part of the world these killings occur. It's only murder if a white person dies. A disease is only a disease if it kills white people.

Had my last cheese and wine night while watching the second last stage of the Giro. Was an amazing win by Yates who wasn't on anyone's radar to take the Pink jersey. It was a total surprise for the other two teams battling for the overall race win. And the Aussie who took that stage win was also a surprise. Yates might just be the oldest winner of the Giro. Will have to buy some more cheese before the start of Le Tour. Already have the wine.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

With my anti-virus is about to expire and the fact that Win 10 is also about to expire, means I'll need to update to Win 11 this month which I'm not looking forward to as I don't know what software I will lose nor what I'll have to recover. Then to get back all the software drivers that I lose every time I update Windows to a new OS version. Could stay on Win 10 but without the regular updates it's not a smart move to stay with the an outdated OS which I'm sure private companies will stick with then bitch about how they got hacked.

It has been a wet day timetable here in Melbourne today but we need the rain and we have had rain since Sat so that has been good. Another wet day forecast tomorrow so another inside day for me. I didn't even realize that today is a public holiday. They don't mean much to me these days, apart from the major ones. We also got a chilly taste of Winter on the weekend with temps at 12C, so we are now into typical Winter temps here in Melbourne which is 14-15C with those chilly southerly winds. People from other states get caught off guard by how cold it gets in Melbourne in the Winter because we don't have that humidity you get in Sydney or Adelaide or even in southern Qld.

So the latest amateur hour action by Rump's cast of clowns is a report on childhood health which JFK Jr is using to make new laws for childhood healthcare. It turns out not only is this report fake it also quotes scientists who don't exit and those that were quoted who are real life scientists, didn't write any of those papers attributed to them. This report looks more like a teenagers book report that they got Chat GPT to right at the last minute because their report was due in class the next day. This is the US govt doing this dumb shit and they expect everyone else to believe their bullshit. Did they not think that journalists would find out the content in that report is fake? Journalists actually called all those scientists that do exist that were quoted in that report and the response was not only did they not publish those papers, they didn't even know that they were referenced in that MAHA report which shows this report was written by AI. We know Americans can't spell nor do grammar well and that was reflected in this MAHA report which is filled with spelling and grammar errors. Nobody proof read this report obviously. What kind of fuckwits are running the US govt? You can't make this shit up. It once again makes a mockery of not only the US govt but America as a country. They are only 5 months into this new Rump regime and with every passing week America becomes dumber.

In our own politics here in Australia the fallout from Labor's win has seen another political defection this time from the Greens to Labor. In Tassie the Lib's stabbed their own leader in the back by voting with the Labor opposition to get rid of him. The Lib's are in power in Tassie and are now facing another election. The Premier has said he will call an early election since his own party has voted against him. That's about as crazy as it gets in Australia. None of the crazy shit that is going on in the US.

The new head of FEMA in the US stated he didn't know America has a hurricane season. I'm not American and even I know that, you just have to watch the news or see this on social media. We have cyclone season here in Australia, we also have a bush fire season as does the US. So for the head of the US disaster agency not to know that America has a hurricane season shows the level of stupidity that continues to embed itself in the US govt. This bozo was hand picked by Rump so it's not surprising he isn't qualified for the job. None of Rump's appointees got there by merit, it's about who can secure their lips to Rump's arse which is large so there is lots of room for others to arse kiss Rump. The mad ravings of Senator Ernst telling Republicans at her town hall when asked about cuts to medical insurance told them they were all going to die, then in yet another brain fart posted a rather unhinged video sarcasticingly apologizing to those people and then mentioning the tooth fairy all the while filming in a cemetery. Where the fuck does the Republican party find these crazy women? Now we learn that Elon was on Ketamine for the entire time he was in charge of DOGE. They use that drug as a horse tranquillizer. The guy was not only taking Ketamine but also ecstasy on a daily basis whilst at the same time cutting thousands of jobs in the US govt and also killing off aid to millions of people in other countries. The last time Rump was in office, his staff were doing Cocaine at the White House out in the open all thanks to Don Jr who was leading that snow parade. It seems the only way republicans can be in govt is by being high on drugs. That would help to explain some of the crazy shit coming out of the White House. And just when you thought the stupidity couldn't be more stupid the new Deputy Director of the FBI hand picked by Rump went on Fox to complain he had to sit in an office with four walls for 8hrs a day whilst being paid a good salary. The week before the guy was a pod caster who spent most of his day at the gym. The guy basically complained about having a proper job. That guy is the Deputy Director of the FBI which is now a joke spy agency. They have two guys in charge who couldn't find their arse if they used both hands.

With the attack by Ukraine on those Russian bombers and also the attack on that bridge that Russia built to link Crimea with Russia, it's clear that Ukraine does not trust the current US govt since Rump is an ally of Poo-tin and has shown that he is against Ukraine. These attacks by Ukraine were in the planning well before that infamous White House meeting. Says a lot that Ukraine didn't have the confidence to share this info with the US prior to these attacks. Normally intelligence sharing with the US is a given, but not now. Not only has Poo-tin underestimated Zelensky, so has Rump when he said Zelensky didn't have any cards to play. Clearly don't play cards with Zelensky. He has made a fool of Poo-tin and now Rump as well. Ukraine continue so show that you don't need a large Defence budget to attack a military force and whilst this secret attack on Russia was small scale it was a test to see if the methods used would work. Ukraine even used the Russian phone and internet network against them which is fucking smart. With all the money and might the US military has, they could never pull off such a secret attack on Russia. The US govt pushing the EU to spend more on their Defence budget will only lessen US influence in Europe. America might regret what they are wishing for. Once the EU weeds itself off their reliance on the US, the US will be sidelined in military actions taken by the EU countries. The only thing the EU will need is access to US spy satellites but if the EU is smart they will spend some of that money on their own spy satellites. Given that Elon is now threatening to pull out of support for the US Space Agency, he might be willing to help the EU to set up their own spy satellites. Elon has shown he doesn't owe his loyalty to any country only to making money. The lover's tiff between Elon and Rump could end up hurting the US beyond its borders. Elon has already stated he will fund candidates to go against Republicans up for re-election at the next primaries next year if they vote for Rump's new spending bill. All the chaos in the US has reduced the value of the US dollar which has increased our Aussie dollar, so if the US dollar devalues a bit further our dollar will only get stronger which means our buying power in trade will increase. Also good for our tourist dollars.

Rump's new travel bans on countries that have no impact on the US is rather laughable. Equatorial Guinea is one of those countries. Americans don't have a clue if that is even a country. Rump might as well impose a travel ban on penguins. He did impose tariffs on penguins so he can't tell the difference between people and penguins, why would he have a clue where these countries are. The reason he imposed these travel bans was that attack in Boulder, Colorado. The guy they arrested for that attack is an Egyptian, yet Egypt is not on the list of banned countries so the reason given for these travel bans has nothing to do with this attack in Colorado. It is just more random shit that Rump does. Republicans are clueless to world affairs so for millions of Americans they will just cheer on this ban without any understanding of who these countries are nor where they are and what relation they have with the US. They just believe any shit they hear from Rump. America continues to wear the Dunce Cap with pride.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.