Aussies! Check in here!

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The good news is that the hostages in Gaza who are still alive have been handed back. Noting that not all those taken by Hamas were from Israel. Hamas still can't find all the remains of those hostages that are deceased yet promised to return them, so they are already not complying with the ceasefire deal. Netanyahu is just waiting for an excuse to go again, noting that the IDF has only pulled back but remain in Gaza. Which Netanyahu got as a compromise from Rump. The 20 point peace deal that Rump claims he came up with is actually the same deal that Biden put to Netanyahu which was rejected. Rump didn't want any part of that deal because the Democrats came up with it and the Arab states were on board with that original deal put forward by Biden. Rump and the Republicans just assume people have forgotten about the original deal that Biden's people came up with. Now they are claiming it was their idea. Lets be clear, the only reason Rump put the pressure on Netanyahu is because Israel attacked Qatar and the Arab states told Rump if he wants to continue to do business with them then he needs to bring Netanyahu to heel. This has nothing to do with Rump caring about the hostages or the Palestinians, he only cares about his own business interests in the Middle East. Kushner was sent by Rump to these Arab states to ensure Rump's business interests were safe. Israel for their part didn't release those prisoners considered dangerous to their families but deported them to other countries sympathetic to Hamas. Rump claims he has brought about peace, but Hamas and Israel are a long way from peace. Nobody should be fooled into thinking this is over. Until all the deceased hostages are returned to Israel, this cease fire is tenuous. Rump has moved on already and he has a very short attention span anyway so as far as he is considered he has dealt with the issue. Republicans will not stand for any money nor troops being sent to Gaza.

Went to my normal Chinese takeaway last week and got a free bag of prawn crackers. I had just paid nearly $600 in bills as they all came at once this month, so getting a free bag of prawn crackers that cost $3 is not a big deal, but it was a surprise. I usually get a takeaway once a week when I do the grocery shopping. When I was working long hours I used to frequent the takeaway places more often after work mainly because I was getting home late an not in the mood to wait to cook something. I have my usual takeaway places so they all know me as a semi-regular customer. I like variety so it depends on where I am and what I'm in the mood for as to which takeaway place I go to and I sometimes get freebies from these places, but this was the first time I got anything free from this Chinese takeaway place.

The Spring flowers are in full bloom now in my gardens in the front and back of the house. The flowers in the driveway are showing their red and pink flowers. More blooms to come in the driveway as Spring progresses. Some of those flowering plants like the warmer temps. The rose creeper in the backyard is back in bloom again and with the northerly winds the scent of those Pink Lady roses was wafting down the driveway. They are a beautiful rose but deadly in that the branches have very large and sharp thorns. I've ripped clothing and cut my self on them in the past and even when wearing gloves the thorns can penetrate the gloves if I grab them the wrong way. It is a very hardy plant that doesn't need much attention once established. I cut it back severely last year and has thrived with no help from me. I don't even water it, I just leave the grass a little higher at the bottom of it to keep in any moisture. It's not the type of rose you can cut as the stems are quite short, but you can put them in a bowl with some water.

The current Labor govt commissioned the Royal Commission into Robodebt which was an election promise when they won govt in 2022. Since then the findings were provided to the govt, they have not as yet followed thru with any prosecutions of the six people mentioned in that document for criminal prosecution. The names of these six people has remained a secret. Albo won't release the names and hasn't made any mention if his govt is pursuing these criminal charges. For those nearly 500,000 Aussies impacted by Robodebt, they won't get closure until these six people are charged with the crimes they committed and face court. You would think that Albo would be pushing for this as part of any re-election for Labor. Otherwise the faith people had in Labor will wane at the next election. The press are not asking questions about this matter either, so they are not pushing it. So once again it will be up to be the general public to push for this.

Continuing with the journey in playing Ghost of Yotei and I'm getting vibes of Red Dead Redemption II, the second part of that game when John's story kicks in. Even the music on the guitar feels like that with the wide expanse of scenery shown thru the mailbox screen. The armour is a mixture of new and ones found in Ghost of Tsushima but with different designs given the character is a mercenary not a samurai. Also not sure how the game chooses how many armour types get on the loadout. I can change the armour but not the quantity on the loadout. It just seems to increase when I get to specific parts of the game. The combat hits and all other interactions come with a solid thump on the controller which is different to the Ghost of Tsushima. I continue to see some similarities between the two games especially in the combat trees but there is more in Ghost of Yotei. Keeping a tag on enemies doesn't seem to be an option as it was in Ghost of Tsushima, at least I haven't found that skill yet if it is there. Also unlike Ghost of Tsushima, this new game relies on you choosing the right weapon for the right opponent. Get it wrong and you lose major health and makes the combat that bit harder. This will be a keeper game for me. It will need a second play thru to fully understand it. Have found one puzzle I can't work out yet but that's part of the challenge. As with all open world games, gathering stuff always pays off. Even if you don't know what you can use it for just collect it when you find it. Ghost of Yotei has actual money which the previous game didn't have. It's still interesting though that you can raid someone's home without any issues. It would be considered stealing in other open world games.

What may come as a shock to most Americans is the crackdown on sovereign citizens here in Australia with cops raiding 70 properties to takeaway the firearms from sovereign citizens as a potential threat. That shooting which resulted in two cops being killed by a sovereign citizen sparked off this action by the cops. Didn't make big news here in Australia, but if this happened in the USA the far right and Fox News would be bleating about people's rights. So obviously the cops have a database on those people here in Australia who identify as sovereign citizens and since these people believe the laws of Australia don't apply to them, therefore they can't use those laws to fight the removal of their guns. If you choose not to live by the laws of any country you can't then use those laws to appeal your case. Owning a gun in Australia is not a right, you have to prove why you should own one and then continue to comply with any safety checks on those guns that the cops regularly conduct. The other incident with that 60yr old guy with a rifle taking random pot shots at people was brought under control. Thankfully the guy was a bad shot as it's not easy to hit a moving target, especially at night. As to the motives of this 60yr old that is not known. He wasn't a terrorist, just a guy with a gun who is pissed off about something.

Have a friend who just celebrated her 65th birthday with a holiday trip OS. Once you turn 50yrs old society wants you to celebrate your birthday every 5yrs as a major milestone just to check that you are still alive. It's as if they are saying, "So you're still alive after the last five years. Better celebrate it now cause you might not get another 5 years in. You know previously people didn't live past 50 years old." Not everyone has the cash for major celebrations every 5yrs and your kids don't want you to spend too much as they are more worried about their inheritance unless you are paying for them go on holiday with you. Things are too expensive but not if someone else pays in which case there is encouragement to go for the most expensive accommodation.

Got a scam email about my aged pension which I found hilarious given I'm too young to qualify for the aged pension in Australia. The pension age is now 67yrs old and I'm several years from that. These scammers are not too bright as they used a private gmail address to send me this scam email. Plus MyGov will rarely contact you and if they do they will send you an email to log on, not provide a link. Most Aussie companies do this now, rather have a link in the email. It also pays to look at the email address of the sender before responding to any odd out of the blue email. Text messages are harder to distinguish, but still people need to check if the communication seems out of the blue. I used to get scam emails for my phone bill which was a very good copy of the standard text but they fucked up in the client number and the sender's email address, but their English has got a lot better. They are getting insider info from here in Australia.

Tested out the back today with doing the mowing of the nature strip. My back was starting to ache but I finished the task, so I'm not fully recovered yet from my back injury. Will take a little while longer before I fully recover. At least I can do basic things without pain.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The mobile phone network we have in Australia is proving to be unreliable when you need it the most. When we lost our dedicated phone land lines in favour of the NBN, we were told we needed a mobile phone in case the power went out and we needed to make emergency calls. So at it's basic, the reason to have mobile is for safety and backup. Now it seems with the failure yet again of OPTUS on the emergency phone calls, the back up to the mobile is the landline which the govt got rid of as we were all told the mobile phone network was much efficient. Seems the only thing the mobile network is efficient at is not working if you life was under threat. Telstra don't get of lightly either. They have had their failings of their mobile network. OPTUS made over $8billion in the last FY yet paid no corporate tax because their Singapore owners were able to claim losses in other countries. So OPTUS was ok with making billions in earnings and paying no tax yet have said nothing about their failure their role in the 000 emergency issue. Fixing the issue has not been a high priority for their parent company in Singapore who are trying to sell off OPTUS to shed any blame on them. The OS call centre that handled these emergency call issues tried to fix them rather admit there was an issue. Nobody from OPTUS actually got in touch with the Australian govt but only sent an email to an old email account. As far as OPTUS was concerned they had done their bit just by sending an email without any follow up or even direct contact with dare I say it, an actual fucking phone call given they are in the telecommunication business. So they were too busy to make an actual phone call to the govt? WTF. OPTUS continues to remain rather silent on the issue, so their lawyers are obviously working on putting the blame back on the users and the govt. They have already said people don't know how to use the 000 system, which is again such bullshit. I'll be keeping my landline. Yep I still have a landline. Nobody has come to my place to remove the old landline connection. I still have the old phone jack in the house and the wiring in the roof space. I'm sure those people who had the phone on the wall still have that hole in the tile where the wall phone used to sit with the phone jack connection in the wall. Apparently you have to pay to have all that removed.

The anniversary of the Balibo 5 brings back unresolved issues for the families who lost their loved ones in what is widely known as a cover up of the deaths of those 5 journalists, a couple of which were Australians. The Indonesian govt has never told the truth about those deaths, as they claim these journalists were killed by accident even though the house they were staying in was clearly painted with the Aussie flag and the locals knew all these guys were foreign journalists and photo crew. The Indonesian military at the time didn't want any reporting of them killing unarmed local Timorese people. At the time it was called Timor now called Timor Leste and Australia played a major role in them becoming an independent country. However our govt has never pushed the issue of getting the truth because of the economic and military ties with Indonesia. The Indonesian military are well known for their killing of unarmed civilians. The did it in Timor Leste, and PNG and are still oppressing the people of West Papua. They are not used to a military firing back. When they fired on Aussie troops and the Aussies fired back as part of a border dispute, the Indonesians very quickly gave up. It turned out they had old maps and had crossed over the border without knowing it. They can't fight against a well trained military, only civilian militia or unarmed civilians. The Balibo 5 killings is still raw for those families as they have never got the truth and won't be able to move on until they do.

Saw a video of Hegseth trying to do chin ups and he was struggling to even pull himself up let alone get above the bar. He had to kick like a little kid to do even one chin up. The guy has no upper body strength but boasted about how super fit he is compared to those fat Generals he sees walking around the Pentagon. He also proudly calls himself The Secretary of War. Seems the only war he is having is with gym equipment. When people started making fun of those overweight National Guards being deployed into yet another Democratic state, he replaced these troops, but they would get work as bouncers. They were two big boys, both looked like they were over 6ft tall and built like brick shithouses. Not guys you would want to mess with, but they were considered "too fat" for Hegseth given his speech about fat soldiers. Plus these guys have facial hair, which Hegseth also doesn't like. In his latest fuck up, he tried to make it mandatory for all journalists to sign up to his new doctrine of controlling the media and if they didn't sign it these reporters would not be allowed into the Pentagon. Well none of the major news networks and media signed up and in fact neither did Fox News which is the Republican mouth peace. So when your own media outlet tells you to fuck off, you fucked up. What it continues to show is how incompetent and unqualified Hegseth actually is for his job. All the Pentagon reporters promptly handed in their passes and walked out.

Well they say things come in threes. I had to change both tap spindles in the first shower. I initially thought the threads just needed cleaning, but nope both were fucked and had seized up. I had a couple of spares so got that job done. A day later I discovered that the cold water tap spindle in the kitchen was leaking which meant the O ring had gone so I put in new O rings only to discover these spindles uses two O rings not a single O ring as you get in the more modern tap spindles. Changing O rings doesn't always work so will see how things go, if they don't work well it's a trip to Bunnings to buy new ones, then you have the challenge of getting the exact same ones with the right spindle length. Also trying to get the exact size of O rings to match the spindles is not always an easy hunt. Got that job done then a couple of days later discovered one of the tap handles in the bathroom basin had damage on it, so I need to replace those now as you can't buy just one, so I'm off to Bunnings again. Whilst this damage is cosmetic, over time it will invite more issues. Had those handles for a long time and they could come in use for something else. I've turned into one of those old blokes that keeps old spares just in case, which has come in handy over the years. I also have a collection of odd screws in a what was a box for cotton buds. They have come in handy in this old house as you can't just buy a couple of these screws. Problem with an old house is fitting in new stuff. If I got a plumber in to do these tasks I would of been out of pocket several hundred dollars. By being able to do these handyman tasks around the house, I've have saved thousands overs the years. Getting your house painted for example is bloody expensive these days.

So the Lib's are attacking Melbourne again because of our Labor state govt. This time the Lib's are calling Melbourne the crime capital of Australia. Previously they said people in Melbourne couldn't go out at night due to all those African gangs roaming the streets, which was total bullshit started by the state Lib's here in Victoria. Knife crime is an issue all over Australia but there is more of it in the big cities and most it comes from young people who know they won't see any jail time and will out on bail the very next day. It is a growing issue all over the country but the Lib's are more focused on trying to make political points against Labor govts around the country yet don't want to talk about the crime in their own Lib state govts in NSW and Qld. The NSW Premier couldn't help himself in having a go at Melbourne by making fun of a woman being stabbed here in Melbourne on her way to work in the early morning. The latest attack on Melbourne by the Liberal party came from Canberra and now the state Liberal govts are using the same political attacks on Melbourne. What all these politicians need to do is come up with workable solutions to youth crime rather than just taking cheap shots at the other party. The courts are too lenient on young offenders and the cops are fed up to the point they just don't pursue some crimes such as burglary or home invasions being done by young people. The kids know that if an adult defends themselves by retaliation, it's the adult that gets charged not them. That father who chased a couple of youths who broke into his home, got the young kid he caught to call the cops on the kid's own mobile. Since the cops can't keep people safe in their own homes, it's up to the home owners to defend themselves.

So the Young Republicans which are supposed to be a feeder group to actual Republican politicians have come out from under their white sheets. They praised Hitler, said a bunch of racist stuff then wondered if anyone would call them out on this dumbshit and tried to put the spin on it by saying they were taken out of context as if that justifies what they said. Then they said well they are young and just didn't know any better and didn't realise what they said would be taken as offensive. These so called "young" people were all in their 30's and 40's who said this dumb shit and they were all white guys who by the look of them can't get a fuck, which is probably their main issue. So that is the future of the Republican party, a political party that praises Hitler and wants the US to back in time where "colored" people didn't have any rights. Young Republicans are now handing out American flags with a swastika embedded in the stripes of the flag. This was defended by Republicans in Congress. Fuckwits.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Morning all,

On my second play thru of Ghost of Yotei on PS5. There was a nod to Ghost of Tsushima but he wasn't named apart from being credited as the original Ghost or Shinobi as they call it. Now that I have some more knowledge of the game, I'm doing things differently to get to the various weapons and throwables quicker. The start of the combat in the game hasn't got any easier, you still die a lot cause you can't do all the moves. Simple stuff like dodging is basically not possible until you find your first alter, which was the same in the previous game. Takes a while to get to all the weapons so it requires you to revisit areas to take advantage of these as the story progresses. Managed to complete all the puzzles bar one, but couldn't find a way to get to it. Might have to look this up on the internet. Most of the game is intuitive so not much by way of taking notes. Now taking notes for games I'm keeping. No matter which level of difficulty you play this game on, it's still a challenge which is good. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima you get a longer life bar which you will need as the story progresses, but you get less what they call Spirit and the hits you get loses more life. You have to keep killing to recover health and you really need those throwable weapons in combat and with the different types of weapons you have to use, combat in this game is more complex so if you don't have good hand and eye co-ordination you will struggle with this game. Also like the previous Ghost game climbing is a big feature in the game so if you don't like heights then this is not the game for you. You also realise the white markings that show the climbing routes are actually bird shit on all those grip points. The game designers have a sense of humour. Overall it's a very good game and the story and the characters are done well in that you get invested in the characters. The only issue I had was to find a proper combat set of armour. They all have enough weaknesses that you will still die long into the game. Would of liked more slots for charms to help with the complex combat as you can't choose all your strongest charms, so have to sacrifice something. The positive change is that you can upgrade from minor to major charms. Changing armour in combat is at least an option. Not all games give you that option, whereas in this game it is necessary if you want to survive. Still don't understand how the number of armour sets increases apart from getting to certain stages in the game. Some you get by meeting new people others you get by defeating enemy via a bounty. It's not obvious when this increase in amour loadouts happens. Ghost of Yotei, is one of those games that has things to explore you might not of found the first time thru. It's definitely worth a second play thru even you don't keep the game. The next PS5 game on my list to purchase is out later this week. Seems these releases are always on a Thursday.

We've had a week of lots of rain and a few thunderstorms over a few days but the main issue on a few days was the heavy wind which caused down trees and power outages in various parts of Victoria. Nothing happened at my place but things did rattle. My timing to get those trees trimmed that are in the driveway was a good one. Did some more tree trimming in the front rock garden as the warmer weather has encouraged other trees to go nuts. The rose creeper in the backyard now needs another trim because of the warmer weather we had these past couple of weeks. I don't want to buy a new frame for it since I'm not staying. Waiting for some of those roses to fade before I give it a haircut.

Decided I'm due for another haircut as I'm getting close to that homeless guy look, need to trim the beard as well. I've warn my hair long for most of my life but with getting older, losing hair, plus the beard now, the longer hair makes me look like a old homeless guy. So I go from that look to the bushranger look but with less hair on top. For those who don't know what I mean by the bushranger look, well..."google it mate" as an Aussie politician once said.

Apparently there is lots of talk about Tim Tams costing more here than in other countries. Well the answer is simple, buy Tim Tams when they are on special which they often are. I've only bought Tim Tams when they are on sale. I don't really eat them myself but mainly to send OS. So rather than complain about the price of Tim Tams just be smart and buy them when they are on sale and buy a couple of packets. You can get Tim Tams in double packets. I sent a double pack to a friend in Canada and she was very happy.

The 'No Kings' rallies in the US were in all 50 states and the Republicans were losing their tiny minds about this. Apparently there were going to be lots of Marxists and crazy people, but in the end there was lots of white people and others in animal costumes dancing and others singing a Woodie Guthrie folk song. Wow that is fucking radical. The Republican response was Rump posting an AI video of him shitting on Americans practicing their democratic right to protest. Even people in Republican states protested against Rump. Rump keeps acting like a dictator with his latest action to demolish the East Wing of the White House without telling anyone. He also doesn't have a building permit to do what he has done. He lied to everyone when he said he wouldn't touch the existing building which has now gone and with it American history. Rump has done to that East Wing what he is doing the American democracy. It's a visual representation of how America has changed. His new ballroom will be larger than the White House itself. Took a long time to build the White House, doesn't take long to demolish it. Just needs an apathetic citizenship which is how America has got itself in this mess and the damage will live on well past Rump is gone. Nobody now trusts America which is why all America's so called allies are now making plans to live without American support.

Albo's meeting with Rump went better than people thought it would go. Rump was muted and was joking and why wouldn't he when Australia is gifting the US over $360 billion with no guarantee of subs, plus Australia is spending several more billion to upgrade and build new submarine facilities for American subs to use in the short term. Even UK nuclear subs will take advantage of these new facilities all with Aussie taxpayer dollars. What does Australia get for all these billions, well we don't actually know. Only a promise from the US for nuclear subs in a couple of decades. The Republicans don't want to give us these nuclear subs even though we are paying for them. They just want to keep the money as protection money but no promise America will come to Australia's aid in time of conflict.

The Aussie women's cricket team are unbeatable in their world cup competition. The Aussie netball team also dominated the NZ netball team. You wouldn't know it but there is international cricket happening in Australia but it's only available on pay TV. It's doesn't get much air time because these pay for view services don't allow images to be shown. You get a few seconds of viewing on the news but that's about it. The people who miss out big time are the kids unless their parents pay for a streaming service. More and more sport is put behind pay walls so only those who can afford it get to see it.

The Melbourne Cup is on next week which is always on the first Tues in Nov. If you live in Melbourne you get the public holiday but not if you are in regional Victoria, so it's not a state wide public holiday. Most people take the Monday off as well. For those industries that have rostered days off, they will put a rostered day on the Monday. This has only happened because people would take a sickie on the Monday or apply for leave. Some people take the entire week off due to the other horse races that happen in that week. Melbourne Cup is on the Tues, then Thurs is Oaks Day otherwise known as Ladies Day, then the Sat is the people's day. People who don't normally gamble on the horse races will bet in that week. The Melbourne Cup is known as the race that stops the nation, mainly because people will take time out during their work day to watch the race. Most offices and other work areas have Melbourne Cup sweeps usually run by the social club or the person who runs the tea club in the office. In my family like most Aussie families my dad would take everyone's bet and walk down to the local TAB to put on the bet only for that race. I usually won. I would bet some of my pocket money. It's the one day in the year when betting was allowed for us kids. It's an Aussie tradition. Of course you would spend your winnings on lollies.

Got my latest house insurance which has gone up by an extra $300 but the insured value has gone up by $40k. So building costs have obviously gone up again. Not sure what has caused the increase in building costs but everything got more expensive after COVID. There are also some Aussie homes that are uninsurable for fires and flood or the cost is just so high that people don't ensure their houses. When insurance companies put the cost of insurance up to $20-40k, then they are telling you they don't want to ensure your house.

It's too funny that ICE in the US is having trouble recruiting because their new recruits can't pass the physical. Seems these new recruits just thought they would be given guns to legally shoot so called illegals. Apparently a quarter of those who apply for these jobs seem to think that breathing is all the fitness they needed. Even if you join the cops you need to pass a physical fitness test. Given how overweight a lot of Americans are, it's not much of a stretch to believe they can't pass a fitness test. The abuses by ICE continue to happen totally unchecked.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

It's a public holiday in Melbourne today due to the Melbourne Cup. Only those of us who live in the Melbourne city boundary including all the suburbs, get this public holiday. So for those who live just outside this boundary don't get the public holiday. It is one of those unique public holidays that doesn't apply to the entire state. The heavy rain we had yesterday has reduced to just normal rain. It has been raining in Melbourne since Sunday evening and hasn't stopped. I did my eye test yesterday at my local Westfield and there were kids everywhere, so the schools obviously had the day off. Didn't need new specs so I got some cakes and tried a new takeaway place in the food court which was very good value. Have passed that one previously so thought I would try them and I will go back on my next visit, whenever that will be. With the crowds at the shopping centre it was like Christmas shopping time. The retailers must have done good business. The food court was packed with people. I even had to line up which I never do.

Purchased a new video game, Outerworlds 2, late last week. Played the first one and thought it was a weird game but interesting. It was a smaller game so not much interest once you had played it. This new one is thus far more interesting. Not sure how big this new game actually is. The creatures so far look the same but this game is harder from what I remember from the original. Still early days in the game but so far it has kept my interest. Will see if I do another play thru. There is another game I have on my list but will see how this one goes. Outerworlds is not quite Fallout nor Bio Shock but has the feel of both. Bio Shock is a darker game with lots of crazies but very enjoyable. This new Outerworlds game has it's own groups of people who on the surface seem nuts with corporates running the respective colonies. It's what happens when private industry becomes the govt so back stabbing, murder and the demand of ultimate loyalty is part of society. Any disloyalty is not tolerated leading to either death or retraining to be a loyal employee. So very much like private industry which are dictatorships wrapped in the facade of democracy. What it does do is that you can't feel sympathy for any one faction so it's easier to do your own thing.

The Victorian Govt has signed the first treaty of a state govt with indigenous peoples. It passed the upper house late last week and whilst the state of Victoria is made up of various indigenous nations, they all now have their own council to make representation to the state govt. Treaty is one thing our indigenous peoples were never given because the British didn't want to admit they existed after they declared Australia was void of people even though Cook met indigenous people when he arrived and if it wasn't for them, those British people in the first colony would of all died. Yet the British govt said these indigenous people didn't exist. Funny how white people just make shit up. I guess nothing has changed.

The cost of sending a letter has gone up by another 20 cents to $1.70. We used to get notifications of these price rises but now you just have to search on the Australia Post website before you post anything. The only reason I found out was that I had to send something by mail. I'm also noticing that any mail I receive is taking longer given the reduced postage delivery which varies each week. So one week you get three delivery days the next week you get two, so that isn't even consistent because of the every second day delivery system which also counts Saturdays even though we don't get mail on a weekend. It's a dumb way of counting. Mail should be consistent each week with three delivery days.

Microsoft has been caught out ripping off Aussie customers with their Office 365 software packages. What I find annoying is that software companies put you on auto-opt in schemes without telling you. The first time you know is when you see the charge on your credit card. When I upgraded to Win 11, Microsoft puts Office 365, Cloud, etc are on the auto list and you have to choose to not sign up. Most people just click on the 'next' button so get auto signed up. You have to make the effort to read everything and make the decision to not opt-in. I haven't used Office since I left the workforce. I found a free open source software package that does the same job as Office. Even some large private companies use these free open source software packages because an Office license is expensive. Now Microsoft has to revert people back to the previous package and refund their money for the difference.

It seems ironic that Barnaby keeps talking about slicing salami, given his party is the anti-immigrant party. If it wasn't for immigrants he wouldn't have the salami he keeps slicing. Barnaby makes the news because he makes noise and that is what makes the news. He is a clusterfuck but keeps winning his seat because people who vote for him like the fact he is out there. He also will say anything to have people vote for him. He is a fake farmer who wears a costume to fool people into thinking he is one of them and well we do have our own stupid people here in Australia who get fooled. Barnaby only cares about himself. He put himself up as a family man who cares about family values and at the same time he was cheating on his wife by fucking his staffer who is now his second wife. She is now entitled to his very good govt pension.

Halloween in my street is not a bid deal. There are a lot more families in my street now, but not many houses participate including mine. I've never been a big Halloween fan because it is an import from America. They have been celebrating Halloween or All Hallows Eve as the British call it, in England for 600 yrs, so it was not invented by the Americans as much as they would like to claim it. They did commercialise it but they didn't invent it. In my street, with the kids from surrounding streets going to the various houses, the noise level went up but that was also due to all the dogs in the street going off at all the strangers in the street. Then the younger kids would scream which would set off the other dogs. It was an hour of dogs barking, kids screaming and just noise. As for it being for the kids well that's just something parents say who want to shame other people in to participating. The parents deny it's about them but it is. For those houses who don't participate, these same parents gossip about them in a negative way. It's all about the peer pressure driven by a few mothers in the respect streets. The kids get lots of holidays and also lots of chances to dress up during the year. We don't need Halloween which again was started by retailers in the US to sell sweets which has grown to now be about retail in general. If you were a conspiracy theorists you would say the retailers are in league with the dentists, as both generate business from the day. As a kid, the big day for me for sweets was the Royal Melbourne Show and the show bags. I would go for the ones with the most sweets and other stuff you could eat like chips and frozen ice blocks. I would combine all that stuff into one bag and I had sweets and food for months. Halloween was never a big thing for me as a kid.

Rump continues to show he is quite a sensitive. Any criticism of him he takes personally which is not a good trait in any politician. He doesn't have a thick skin, but does have the skin of a dead person who hasn't been preserved. He didn't like that photo of himself on the front cover of Time magazine, nor did he like that advert put out by that Canadian province. Rump continues to show other govts can get to him. His meeting with Poo-Bear showed his is a pussy. China got everything they wanted and America had to back down. The only people hurt by Rump's actions against China has been the American people. China holds the upper hand and has no issue in just stopping imports from America. Rump is not a good negotiator and only knows one way which is to threaten people and countries. Now he wants to invade Nigeria on some Christian crusade. Since when has Rump cared about black people, given he is a racist? There has to be a business concern he as in Nigeria. He has threatened to invade Venezuela and change the govt, then he threatened another govt with sanctions if they didn't elect the right wing party. These are not the actions of someone who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Also he wants to build an arch to himself that looks very much the one Hitler wanted to build. Even the eagle on top of Rump's arch looks similar to the Nazi party eagle which they stole from the Roman Empire's eagle. And just to prove Rump is a dictator, he is the only one talking about running for a third term. His new ballroom won't be ready till his current term is up so he has no intention of leaving office. The Republicans are already changing laws to give them more seats in Republican states and removing Democratic seats. So this is all moving America to become a dictatorship by the time Rump's current term is up to stop any further elections and Rump has all the law agencies on his side plus he has the Supreme Court on his side. It is all set up for America to become a dictatorship with Rump as their new king and his family to rule the USA into the future and Americans will let this happen. By the time Americans figure out what is actually going on, it will be too late.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Republicans are using the govt shut down to stop the Epstein files from being released by not confirming the nomination of that Democrat who won her seat. In previous shut downs in Rump's first term, Republicans confirmed several new Republican appointees. So they have done this in the past but not now because they are scared of what the Epstein files say about Rump. Seems that Johnston, a man who claims to be a Christian, is protecting sex predators including his own King. There are women in the Republican party who are part of this cover up. These women are protecting men who sexually abused girls, so where is their sister solidarity. If women are going to defend sex predators then how are things going to change by having women in charge? So those women in the Republican party helping to protect these sex predators are no different to the men who are protecting these same sex predators. The USA claims to be a Christian country, but it is very far from the true teachings of Jesus, it has more similarity to Sodom and Gomorrah and we know what happened to that place.

The National Party has dumped nett zero and finally the mask has fallen off. Now they just have to admit they are a racist party as well. When the LNP was in govt, Littleproud was all for renewable energy, now he says climate change is not real. So was he lying before or is he lying now. You knew where this was going when they nominated Canavan to conduct a report on nett zero. It was a case of going to the conclusion then making the discussion paper meet the pre-determined goal. So for those who vote for the National Party and believe climate change is not a thing, they should not ask the govt for help when their farms are hit with floods or fire. People who don't believe climate change is real and caused by humans, belong with the flat earth crazies. We are all paying for climate change thru our house insurance costs. Floods and fires in one part of Australia impacts the costs of house insurance all over the country as these insurance companies want to recoup their costs of paying out, it's just that simple. What people in the regions need to realise, it's the people in the cities who hold the power of what happens in the country. If a political party can't win urban voters, they don't have any chance of winning govt. Again its that simple. Doesn't mean people can't vote for these other parties but they will remain fringe political parties with no real power to make changes. The Liberal and National parties are on the verge of being fringe political parties that will never be elected back into govt. It is political suicide to think you can run on an anti-climate change agenda. The younger generations now make up a higher majority of the voting public and they will not vote for a political party that doesn't listen to them. The Liberals and Nationals are tone deaf to the younger generations.

So with Halloween done, now we are being harangued with yet another American thing, Black Friday which is about the sales after Thanksgiving which again has fuck to do with Australia. It's a just an excuse for retailers to put out fake sales just prior to the Christmas sales. More and more of these sales are fake in that they aren't actual discounts. Retailers falsely inflate prices then wait for a sales period to bring the price down to what it should be. They are still making money at those sale prices. The two big supermarkets do this all the time. It's just a way for them to separate you and your money giving you the illusion of saving money.

ASIO has come out now and clearly stated that 3 main foreign govts are sending their agents to assassinate Aussies here in Australia. We know that these three countries are China, Russia and Iran. The Chinese govt has been sending their agents to Australia for several decades to stop Aussies of Chinese heritage speaking out against the Chinese govt. There is also video of Chinese agents attacking Aussies with Chinese heritage on Aussie streets then catching a flight back to China. These agents come here either on diplomatic passports or as tourists to commit these crimes in Australia. ASIO and the AFP know all this already. The Chinese govt has also bribed some local councils and councilors to favour Chinese developers and get their people voted onto councils here in Australia. This again is well known. It wasn't that long ago that the Chinese govt would send Chinese uni students to Australia to spy for them on local organizations. This is probably still happening. The Russians are not so subtle. The just send their agents to other countries to kill people. The Iranian govt is following the lead of the Chinese govt by getting locals here in Australia to carry out crimes. There are clear links between Aussie criminals and the Iranian govt. So the warnings from ASIO is not just an over the top reaction. We need to be aware that the govt's of other countries are actively trying to disrupt Australian society and curtail our freedom of speech against these countries.

The Republicans got an arse kicking at the latest elections in the US. Rump stated he would cut the funding to these states if they elected these Democrats. Rump is scared that he is losing his influence on the US public. The wins by these Democrats were huge which the polls got wrong. The prediction was they would win by only a couple of % points, but their wins were in double digits. Some are saying this is only the start of the backlash against Rump. There are more of these elections to come next year and the Republicans who back Rump are looking down the barrel of losing their seats when it's their turn for an election. If this trend continues not only could the Republicans lose the House but also the Senate in next year's mid term elections. In which case Rump will be up for yet another impeachment and he won't have the numbers.

This week marks 50yrs since the infamous actions by the then Governor General Kerr sacked the then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. For his part Frazer and the Liberal opposition had blocked supply which kicked all this off. Kerr wanted to make history and asked Fraser if he wanted to be Prime Minister to which Fraser eagerly agreed so they came up with a plan to sack Whitlam. Later in life Gough forgave Fraser because he blamed Kerr who had the power. Fraser sitting in opposition didn't have any power. Kerr for his part had to flee Australia and went to England to seek protection from the British govt. The voting public were really pissed off that Kerr had sacked Whitlam and he became part of Australian folk law. Fraser won the next election and faded whereas Whitlam became a hero. I remember seeing all this play out on the TV. I was in my early years of high school. Because Fraser had blocked supply the govt was running out of money to pay public servants and interest rates at the time had gone up to 18% so people were finding it tough to pay their mortgages. Fraser wanted to have an election even though Labor was in office less than 12 months. If an election was held rather than Gough being sacked by Kerr, Whitlam would of probably lost that election because of the high interest rates and the lack of money in the system. Whitlam would not of been celebrated as he was. Kerr became the most hated man in Australia.

It's Remembrance Day today where we pay tribute to the end of WWI which has become a day to pay tribute to the end of all wars. I usually buy a poppy to support veterans, but this year I did something different and purchased a slouch hat badge with a poppy on it. The slouch hat is usually linked to ANZAC Day. My grandfather fought in WWI and he survived without any major issues. Like most men who signed up to go to war in those days, he was young and probably like most men, not ready for what the were walking into. 60,000 Aussies lost their lives in WWI. Which is a lot of people given Australia's population at the time was just under 5 million people, less than the population of Melbourne. Whilst millions of Americans believe they were the only country to fight in WWI and win, all Commonwealth countries honour those of their respective countries who fought and those who died in WWI. Here in Melbourne, The Shrine of Remembrance or The Shrine as we locals call it, has an opening on one side of the ceiling that lets a ray of sunlight to pass over a large metal tablet at the exact time of the end of WWI which is the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. To mimic this, visitors to The Shrine are shown a simulation using a spot light that traces the path of the ray of sunlight takes across that metal tablet. If anyone is coming to Melbourne then a visit to The Shrine is a must do even if you don't know anything about the military. The newer entrance is at ground level around to the left as you face The Shrine. It used to be up the steps, but the newer entrance is much more people friendly. Entrance to The Shrine is free and you get a guided tour every hour. Especially a good place to take the kids to learn about our military history and the sacrifices Aussies made to ensure we still have a democracy, which we take for granted these days.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

So I've been playing Outerworlds 2 for a couple of weeks now and I'm in two minds of whether it's worth another play thru. A number of the side quests are not worth doing for the rewards you get. Some require multiple stages yet there is no clue as to where stuff is. I found that just exploring without side quests gets you better gear faster. The scaling up of health is also hit and miss. You can't do much about it and the skill tree takes a long time before you get anything approaching something decent to work with. You just die a lot in this game sometimes just because you don't have enough health or because your gear sucks. Thankfully you don't have to repeat many areas if you die. Just keep saving even though it has autosave, but you can't adjust that either. At times I've found it a tedious game just wandering around lost most of the time. There isn't a compass on the HUD so there is a lot of stopping to bring up the map option. Most of the time you don't have any clue which direction you are travelling and the maps don't have any terrain scaling so you can see objectives but can't get to them in any logically way. You can at least carry lots of weapons and there isn't a weight limit. You need lots of different weapons to choose from because of their effectiveness against respective enemies. The weapon slots are very annoying as they keep disappearing depending on what armour you are wearing and you have to keep changing weapons to suit. As with some other games you can't mix and match armour and only have two options of head and full body armour which means you can never choose your most effective armour to battle all enemies. Unlike a game like Elder Scrolls were you can mix and match all armour on the body to come up with the best combo. Like Ghost of Yotei you have to have several armour suits to fight the right enemy whether it be humans, creatures or mechanical so you are constantly changing armour if you don't want to die, which again you do a lot in this game. I'm most of the way thru the game and if you explore it's one of those games that takes a long time to get anywhere and with the restricted terrain you just have to walk a long way as the fast travel spots are rather sparse. There is lots of just nothing when you are exploring so it can get boring just wandering around not really knowing where the fuck you are going for most of the time. So this not a keeper for me, but I wanted to play it to see how it compared to the original and whilst it seems to have more content, it still doesn't grab me as a game I want to keep.

Looks like the Aussie F1 driver Piastri is another victim of a European team playing favourites. It seems a bit odd that his car was suddenly not reliable after him winning lots of races. Talk around the F1 garages is that Norris is being given priority by the British team because he is a British driver so Piastri's car is not being tuned to the same conditions and not getting first pick of the parts. Not the first time this has happened to an Aussie F1 driver. Same thing happened to Webber. European teams favour their own drivers so it's very hard for an Aussie to get the support from these teams. It's not that our drivers are not good enough, they are thought of as outsiders and therefore should not be in the sport. F1 is a European sport and the Europeans don't like outsiders beating their own drivers. If we compare F1 to our touring car drivers, our guys are better than Nascar or anything the Europeans have. Motorsport is as Aussie as meat pies. The Europeans will always favour their own drivers which is discrimination but that is how the Europeans like it. Most of their drivers wouldn't make it in our local competition. Bathurst would make them shit themselves.

The Lib's have followed the Nat's down the rabbit hole of denying that climate change is real. They were never believers because they have been big into coal for many decades. The second mask has now fallen and the LNP's true nature is out in the open for all to see. They continue to cater to the Boomers who now don't have the numbers to vote in a govt. This power now lies with the children of Boomers and their grand kids. The kids that are currently in years 10-12 of high school will be voting at the next election. They will not be voting for the LNP because of their now anti-climate change stance which is just political suicide for any political party. It is a gift to Labor for the next couple of elections and Albo count break the record for the longest serving PM. Labor has another decade in power as it stands today and possibly the next 4 elections given our election cycle is every 3yrs. Lets also remember that is was the Fed govts of the day that built all this infrastructure for utilities. Private industry didn't build any of it but it was handed over by the govt agencies that managed all these utilities. In fact here in Victoria if you look closely at the street covers for the electricity grid you will still see the SEC logo which was the govt run electricity provider. The coal fired power stations were built by the govt not private industry. The SEC used to manage both the electricity supply as well the street poles and wires. Under privatisation that was split up. The poles and wires companies have a sole monopoly on this infrastructure. You can't choose a cheaper option. The only part of your electricity bill you can change is your use. The supply portion of your electricity bill is passed on from prices charged by the companies who control the poles and wires. They are similar to water companies. You don't get a choice of water companies. It depends on where you live. AGL as it's known now was the old SEC which is why AGL is the largest power company in Victoria and controls most of the market. Nuclear is just a talking point for the LNP to avoid admitting that renewable energy is the way ahead. Nobody wants nuclear plants in their area and nobody wants a nuclear waste dump in their communities which is always some remote country town. The cost of installing nuclear power plants is outlandish and those new small nuclear reactors don't work. Some countries like Germany are now getting rid of nuclear because of the environmental damage.

Rump's two recent peace deals have failed. Thailand and Cambodia are back attacking each other again. Rump was there to claim he brought peace to that conflict even though America had fuck all to do with these two countries striking a deal to end hostilities. Same as with the recent conflict between India and Pakistan which has flared up again with the recent bombings in both countries. Each are accusing the other of working with a terrorist group. So that peace deal Rump claimed was his idea has also fallen apart. Both India and Pakistan said Rump and America had no influence in their peace deal and pushed back that Rump was involved at all. Both countries essentially said Rump lied about that. So if Rump claims he was the reason these conflicts were stopped, it shows he is shit at negotiating any deal. He needs to read that book he didn't write but claimed he did. Yet another lie from Rump. Rump doesn't read, let alone a book.

Due to the loses to the Democrats in recent local US elections, Rump has now removed all tariffs on food imports. Due to the high price of beef from closer countries to the US, America has become more reliant on Aussie beef because our tariff has been at 10% which is the lowest Rump imposed on all other countries America gets it's beef from. He will claim he is bringing down the high food prices which he has caused with all his tariffs. Rump has caused the high cost of the basics in the US and the people are pushing back on his bullshit claims. The release of the Epstein files is another thing Rump is running scared from and the American people want all the Epstein files to be released. But rather than do that, Rump has told his Blondi woman, who he thinks is still his personal lawyer, to launch an investigation into only Democrats who knew Epstein but none of his rich mates who have donated to Rump and no potential Republicans including politicians and judges. This is the act of dictator, to use the law agencies and courts to punish his political rivals. This is what happens in countries run by a dictatorship. Americans are apathetic towards these actions as they believe all politicians are basically corrupt, but they voted for a criminal and were happy for a criminal to become President.

Well those who vote Democrat in the US must be wondering what the fuck all the shut down was about when their politicians caved in on their stance to stop higher costs of people's health care premiums. So what was the point of taking that stance if they kowtowed to Rump. Democrats need to get rid of their old people and bring the fight to Republicans thru their younger politicians. Republicans don't give a shit about their own people who have been hurt by Rump's tariffs so why would they care about people's health care costs. Democrats continue to play by a set a rules that don't exist in American politics. Every time Democrats turn the other cheek, Rump kicks them in the balls and they still don't get it. The Democrats need to give people something to vote for.

The Ashes starts on Friday this week in Perth which I'll be watching. With the time zones changes between Perth and Melbourne being now 3hrs with daylight savings, I can do some work in the morning and sit on the couch in the afternoon and watch the cricket into the evening.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The Lib's here in Victoria are a basket case and now they have knifed their latest leader in the back. That's three leaders in less than 12 months. Not a political party that have got their shit together. To top it off they have elected a newbie as they don't see a way they can win the next state election to be held next year. The current Vic state govt has a massive lead on numbers from the last two elections so Labor would be expected to lose some of that big number of seats.

Thankfully that pain in the arse expansion of the underground rail system is over. It caused so much chaos over several years which started all the way back in 2017 and it seemed it would never end. It was supposed to take 5yrs to complete but here we at the end of Nov 2025 and it's due to open at the end of next week. But it wouldn't be Melbourne without some new road project and the endless fucking road works which has cost the state budget a lot of money and caused the state debt to balloon, most of which was the new underground stations which also include new above ground access areas which has meant road changes to traffic. It was done to future proof the rail network with the increase in the population that was forecast to get to 8 million people in the coming decade. Also due to more apartments in the CBD area of the city, the sewerage in various parts of the city had to be upgraded which yet meant even more road works. The replacement of the street railway crossings is continuing although there isn't as much chaos on the rail system as there has been in the last couple of years. So things are calming down. Even the new West Gate road works chaos is coming to and end. There is a new way to get across to the other side of the bay. I'm used to the old way so just have to be more vigilant to make sure I get on the correct lanes. I don't drive across the West Gate too often and during the new West Gate tunnel works they kept changing the lanes so that was a pain in the butt.

Australia has deferred to Turkey or Tukiye as they now want to call themselves. Similar to Timor now being called Timor Leste or Burma being now called Myanmar, yet their precious gems are still called Burmese gems. Old people are just going to get confused and be told off by the younger generation who don't know their history. Albo did a bit of a dance step to give Turkiye the next COP. Australia getting the chair for the next COP is a major coup which elevated Australia's position in COP. Also there is the saving of the $2 Billion it was going to cost Australia and the Pacific Island nations also get a higher profile at the next COP. At the next budget the Fed's will find a way pay for the future COP to be held here in Australia.

Got the car serviced last week and got the car back rather quickly. Must have been a slow day for them. Whilst my car is over 20yrs old it's still in good nick and rarely has issues apart from getting older. It sits under the carport most of the week these days. The service cost went up by $15 but also needed to get a wheel balance which goes for about $150 these days but I got a discount as a previous customer, but you can bet even the discount price makes them a profit, so the term "discount" is relative.

So Rump is still Poo-tin's bitch with the US taking Russia's plan to Ukraine to force Zelenskyy to bend to Russia's will. The plan the US is pushing is just madness which includes Ukraine to give up all the land Russia now occupies and other land which Russia does not currently occupy, plus to reduce Ukraine's military and they have to give up their missiles and not have any foreign troops in Ukraine, which means Ukraine will not be allowed to join the EU. No mention of Russia returning all those kids they kidnapped from Ukraine that are still in Russia. By putting out this long Russian wish list, I'd say Americans are the dumbest fucking people on the planet. This so called US plan is Russia's plan for the next war after this one is concluded. It will soften up Ukraine for Russia to take over the rest of the country which is what Poo-tin has wanted from the start but he didn't think Ukraine would fight back, nor did he think the EU would support Ukraine given Rump has threatened to stop weapons to the EU. It was Rumps first term which gave Poo-tin the idea that America would not stop him. You would never think that America would be Russia's rent boy, then again Poo-tin has been fucking Rump in the arse from Rump's first term and Rump likes it. He is a fan boy of tough men and will do anything for them to like him. Rump is infatuated with powerful men and once again Rump is backing Russia and stating they will not support Ukraine against Russia as if Ukraine was the aggressor.

Rump's threat is kill Democrats for them just reminding the US military that they should not follow any unlawful order given to them by Rump. No political leader in a democracy would get away with saying that their political opponents should be hanged. They would have to resign their leadership, but not in America. It's called free speech in that fucked up so called democracy. Only in a dictatorship can the leader of that country get away with saying his/her political rivals should be killed. Whilst Rump might be immune to any prosecution under US law, which is just a fucked up principle, the US military members are not immune to prosecution if they follow an unlawful order. The military is required to follow the US constitution not the desire of the President. They swear an oath to US Constitution not the President and that includes all public servants which includes that Blondi woman and all those civilians appointed by Rump. The fuck up by that Blondi woman in going after Comey could see her disbarred. They made up a fake indictment to prosecute Comey, used a lawyer with no court experience to be the lead prosecutor who couldn't even file the correct paperwork. The Republican party is a fucking clown show, led by a criminal, confirmed rapist and sex pest. Now he is leading America into a recession so things for Americans are going to get even tougher with the US dollar going further down the S bend. America is a fucking joke at this point in his history. It betrays it's allies, brings confirmed Nazi's into the tent and is now doing the bidding of Russia. It is a fucked country run by dangerous amateurs.

The Aussie cricketers pulled their arses out of the fire and are falling over laughing at England fumbling their path to winning the first test. I didn't get to see day 2 as I was visiting with family and thought I'd get Sunday to watch day 3 of the test match. I watched day 1 and thought well the Aussies will have to battle hard to save the test. I got home on the Saturday and caught the last 10 mins of second day of the test match to watch the winning runs being hit by the Aussies. Boland came good in the second innings and Starc was the match winner. Head played one of his blinders and known for taking apart any bowling attack. Putting him in as opener was not something the England team was ready for, so an amazing tactic by the Aussies. Archer did fuck all in the second innings for England and played the wrong line as did Woods and they got smashed all over the ground. It was a humiliating loss by England given they were on track to win the game, but they got too cocky and paid the price. They aren't going to find the ground in Brisbane as easy to bowl on as Perth, which has gone to more a bowlers pitch which leads to short games. At no point did that pitch calm down and was probably a couple of days away from being a proper test match pitch. But it was an amazing win by the Aussies which now puts England back on their heels with a lot to prove.

Finished my play thru of Outerworlds 2 and won't be doing another play thru. As I progressed to the last parts of the game it just got annoying, mainly because you level out at level 30 and can't increase your skills as you can't earn any more XP, yet to access certain closed areas you need a higher skill level of certain skills. So unless you pick the correct skills early in the game you can't access these locked areas you encounter later in the game which makes no fucking sense. Fallout did this in one of those games but it was corrected in a later game as it was a major complaint. I can see the same issue with players of Outerworlds 2. The choices you make thru the game all turns to shit by the end of the game so you might as well kill everything and piss off all the factions because you die in the end and the world goes back to chaos as if you were never there. None of your tactical choices makes any difference by the end of the game. When doing side quests for the respective factions, in the end means nothing and with levelling out early there is no point in doing any more side quests as it doesn't lead to further XP so you can't increase your skills yet you encounter more enemies and tougher enemies. A flaw in the game which will turn off players wanting to play it again. In a game like Fallout your choices actually makes a difference later in the game, but not in Outerworlds 2. The ending was the final nail in the coffin to make me not want to play the game again. The combat is good and the graphics are good and the weapons choices are very good, but story lines leaves you feeling like what is the point of the game as you aren't even remembered for your actions. I'm onto the next game this week and trading in Outerworlds 2. The other game has reduced in price. So far I remain overall unimpressed with PS5 games. I've been playing console games since PS One, so PS5 games make me want to go back to PS4. That might change next year with better games on offer hopefully.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Onto the next PS5 game 'Hell is Us' which is a different type of game in that there is no map nor any quests. The price of the game came down by $20 and with my trade-in of $25, I got the game for 50% off the ticket price. The game itself is not an open world game and the areas push you down pre-determined paths, but without a map you just round around a lot relying on your memory. Since there are no actual quests you need a note pad to jot down possible quest items. Because there is not a quest list you have to try and remember which conversations might lead to quests. The rewards for quests are not immediate. You have to travel to a particular area to get your reward so there is a lot of backwards and forwards travel via the APC. There isn't any fast travel from point to point within areas so there is a lot of dead time just running around and you need to revisit areas. The travel in the APC is always a cut scene and that can tend to get old. It is a game which requires patience an I can see the younger generation who have short attention spans and want immediate rewards, not liking this game, plus with the lack of fast travel is can get boring which is not what you want in a game. You want to engage the player at all times. The graphics are well done but it is a dark game so you don't get to see all that detail because it is so dark. The other annoying thing is that the character cannot jump nor climb so you end up in a lot areas where you can see the objective but can't get up there unless you find the right path which means a lot more of just running around going down blind paths. As with all these type of games it pays to upgrade you weapons and gear as soon as possible, but unlike other games you can't upgrade you gear as their isn't any armour just the weapons and the only way to find these is just by wandering around. And again you have to go to a specific person to upgrade your weapons so yet another trip in at APC and yet another cut scene which could of done better with just a fast travel option. Seems bad game design. The lack of a quest list and no fast travel are a couple of reasons I won't be keeping this game and might not do another play thru due to the endless just running around aimlessly not knowing where you are going because of no map. You also need to take notes as you go. I've taken notes for other games like Elder Scrolls and Red Dead but that was mainly for treasure spots not quests. It is an interesting game with a solid story and lots of puzzles. There aren't any throwing weapons and you can only engage with the white creatures in combat but not the humans as they cannot hurt you even if you try to engage the other humans in combat which is odd. You are essentially a creature hunter only. When I first saw the game with the title 'Hell is US' it wouldn't take much to change that to 'Hell is the US', given what is going on in the US with the white mindless creatures being the republicans which feed off the violence in society which is why these white creatures are in the game. They have been called out via a time loop, which again is what is happening in the US with Rump as the time loop trying to bring back an America that used to exist where white people ruled everything in society and only white people got to vote and were counted as Americans. The Republicans want to bring that back where only white people are counted as American citizens which is why the Republicans are doomed to fail.

Lots of rain in Melbourne this past week which really started mid week. The previous weekend started off warm then a storm came thru on the Sat night which went into the Sunday. Then the heat came back with temps in the high 20's. I had to break out the fans again. Since mid last week it has been raining in Melbourne which continued in the weekend and also into the start of this week. Have a friend from interstate visiting Melbourne this week so I'm playing tourist guide for a few days. She is loving Melbourne seeing all the stuff she is missing out living in another state. Even though we have had lots of rain, for a tourist it has been good in that the rain has mainly happened at night. It's going to warm up in Melbourne for the rest of this week with 29C tomorrow and 33C on Thursday which is a long way from the chilly start to the week of 12-15C. It's a typical Spring type temp range but not usually something that happens in Dec. The massive swings in temps usually settles down by the end of Nov.

To celebrate the new underground train stations here in Melbourne the state govt has declared free travel on weekends which started on Sunday and it goes till Feb 1 next year. So if anyone is coming to Melbourne over the Summer/Christmas holidays then travel on all public transport on those weekends will be free for you. You don't need to be a local to take advantage of this free travel. We have free weekend travel for Seniors on weekends all year round and going all the way back to the when we had paper tickets, you would get free weekend travel on all of the PT if you purchased a weekly or monthly ticket. So free PT is nothing new to Melbourne. The state Lib party likes to talk about the state Labor govt having a massive debt due to the underground station project, but it was the former Fed Lib govt that removed $3 billion from that budget when they were in govt so the Vic govt had to fund it from Vic tax payers. Not the first time Vic tax payers had to self fund govt projects. Both the Morrison and Dutton Fed govts had an issue with Danny Boy when he was in charge here in Vic so they punished Vic's for having a Labor govt and denied funding to Victoria. Slomo did that during COVID when he refused to providing funding to Vic's during those early days of COVID. He only agreed to provide assistance when he saw those long lines of people in front of Centrelink offices and realised the Lib govt was losing votes. Mr Potato Head when he was in govt once again refused funding to Vic because we had a Labor govt, they not only called Danny Boy a Nazi but also lied about African gangs making streets unsafe in Melbourne which was total bullshit but they repeated these lies in Fed Parliament live on TV. So I find it laughable when the current Victorian Lib party talks about the budget deficit when it was their Fed Lib party that refused funding to Vic for most of their 9 yrs in office. Yet at the same time they gave NSW under Gladys everything she wanted including more COVID vaccines under secret deals. No wonder Vic's gave the Fed Lib party an arse kicking at the Fed election to increase Albo's numbers. The new underground stations aren't going to be of use to me as my train line doesn't benefit from the underground stations. I might try the new underground stations but will have to change trains. I remember when the first underground stations were built in Melbourne. Queen Liz even came to Melbourne to open it back in 1981. I was across the road at the RMIT at the time and we looked out the window to see Queen Liz arrive for the opening. That was the same year I started in the work force.

Albo got married and in a private ceremony mainly because he was told it was not safe for him to have a wedding in the open which is a sad state of affairs in Australia when the Prime Minister of Australia could be targeted at his own wedding by the right of politics and those protesters who are prone to violence. The higher level of security required would of been criticized by the right of politics and the mainly right wing media we have in Australia. The wedding was paid for by the couple which again had to be emphasized in news reports, why? We have always had people struggling to pay bills, but it gets more air time because it's the middle class complaining. When working class people were the saying the same thing over several decades, it never made the news and the middle class couldn't give a fuck.

The AFL season has officially ended with the women's grand final and a dominant performance by the Roos, North Melbourne. Brisbane was supposed to put on a better performance but the Roos have been the dominant team all season and they are now back to back AFLW champions which is rare in this modern era of AFL. It used to be that teams would dominate a decade like the Hawks did, but with the change in selections rules where the teams that finish towards the bottom on the ladder one year get the first picks of the better players the next year. So where having a large budget would mean your team got the best players, now the budget of a team is not the main factor to getting new players. It is a much more even AFL comp. The next cricket test kicks off on Thursday from Brisbane and it is a day night game which the English don't play so the Aussies would be favoured to win this one plus England doesn't do well in Brisbane and rarely wins. The last time England won at Brisbane was back in 1986 and prior to that it was even further back in 1933 so the poms don't do well at the Gabba.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Things are so bad in America that the raccoons are now breaking into liquor stores and getting drunk just to cope with their lives in Rump's America. Keep in mind raccoons search in rubbish bins for food and in some parts of the US they are still hunted for food. Not sure if that is strictly legal these days, but what happens in the swamps and mountains in the US pretty much stays there. Next the raccoons will be breaking into the White House to get some of Don Jr's white powder to get high as well as drunk. Still things could be worse, as least they aren't on boats being blown up in international waters by the US military. Any fast boat is now considered a drug boat by the US.

Melania does not like doing Christmas decorations. Her latest video is like a death march thru the halls of the White House flanked by Christmas trees she didn't have anything to do with. It was like some dream sequence for a funeral add and she attempted to touch one of the Christmas balls on a tree but doesn't quite make contact. Then again she comes from a country that if you can't eat it, then it's a waste of money.

This last week in Melbourne we went thru the entire gamit of temps. It started off cool in the low teens and lots of rain, then it went up to 34C in a couple of days then the cool change kicked and we were back to rain on the weekend. The saying we have in Melbourne is that if you don't like the weather just wait a while and it will change to something you do like. Had a friend visiting from Canada years ago and he couldn't get over how quickly the weather can change in Melbourne. That is mainly due to the winds that flow thru Melbourne. It is rarely still in Melbourne. Usually happens in the middle of Summer when the humidity really kicks in. But when the cool change comes thru you might of been in shorts during the day but then back in winter clothes when that cold wind blows thru. The good thing about Melbourne even in the Summer is that it doesn't stay very hot for long, usually for about 3 days in a row then it cools down and when that cool change comes thru, you'll be out of the shorts and back on with the trakkie daks and shut the doors. By the weekend the rain came back and I was back to the warmer clothes.

Been watching a bit of Youtube and keep seeing Americans posting stuff calling Australian shopping centres "the mall". I've been to the US and know what they call a "mall" is what we call a shopping centre. So for any Americans or Canadians coming to Australia make sure you get the terminology right otherwise if you ask an Aussie to direct you to a "mall", they will direct you to a street that is closed off to traffic which is what we call a mall. We take after the British term for a street closed to traffic. Here in Melbourne in the CBD, Bourke St Mall is the place you will directed to if you say "mall". There is a tram that runs thru it mainly because the tram was there before the mall was created. I'm old enough to remember when it was just a normal street. I was in my early 20's when it was opened as a mall and the controversy about closing the street to passing traffic for the traders in that part of Bourke St. Same was said about Swanston Street when it was closed off to thru traffic apart from the tram. Since the side walks have been widened to accommodate the newer tram platforms it now attracts more people just walking down from the town hall which has increased foot traffic for all the traders along Swanston St. Good Asian food further up Swanston St near China Town. So if you are coming to Melbourne for the Summer check out Swanston St. Whilst you can take the free tram up Swanston St, I would suggest you walk up the street which will take you past Bourke St Mall and up to the State Library then check out Melbourne Central on the opposite side of the street to the State Library. A quick walk in to the State Library to check out the beautiful dome ceiling and you can take the lift up to the balconies, but you will need to line up for the lift or take the stairs. Don't forget to take advantage of the free tram zone in the CBD, better than walking everywhere.

Had to laugh at the FIFA draw video of Rump getting a fake medal from an arse kissing head of FIFA. So from one corrupt body to a corrupt US President, which is why they like each other. It was so funny to see how happy Rump was to get his fake medal, like a kid showing off his participation medal for coming last. FIFA has to make a fake peace medal to bribe Rump into allowing the World Cup in the US, however the tournament is not entirely in the US as it's being spread over the US, Mexico and Canada which are two countries Rump has had issues with and went on rants against these countries. Rump keeps thinking he is tough, but countries know how to get around Rump, just appeal to his ego and his greed. He is a puppy dog if countries do that which shows how easy it is deal with the US which is now much weaker under Rump. The soccer World Cup will be a shit show in the US next year and it will be all about Rump and he will expect a lot of praise and will expect another medal or bribe at the end the World Cup.

If anyone was in doubt whether or not the US is a racist country, just watch Rump and his arse kissing white people in the White House Oval Office when he is talking about people from Somalia and that American Somalian politician. Not only does he racially abuse her but also further abuse because she is a woman, then goes on a tangent about people from Somalia. Not the first time a US president has made racist comments about people from Africa. Reagan did something similar when discussing Africa with Nixon, but that was in private not out in the public. But it does show that the Republican party has been a racist political party for many decades and probably all the way back to when it was founded. Under Rump the racism in the US has become more overt and now quite acceptable on American TV once again and of course it's all over social media in the US but again is being justified by influencers on social media. The irony of this is American white women want the features of black women such as more curves, larger bums, breasts and plumper lips and darker skin, yet these same white women don't want black and brown people in the US, but they want BBC. White people these days live in their own world of irony and define themselves on what they at not. They are the hole in the doughnut or bagel.

The poms were out played by the Aussies in the second test in Brisbane. The English can't seem to play to the conditions and can't read the game and know when to play conventionally and when to be aggressive. Archer which was supposed to be the big threat but seems to be a spoilt kid. He didn't want to chase the ball and was told several times to go get the ball. He is also easily put off his game. If things don't go his way he sulks and doesn't want to play any more and can't bowl more than 6 overs with any venom. He is 30yrs old and should be at the prime of his life as a fast bowler which is between 28 to 32 yrs old, but he hardly plays any test cricket. Yes he is fast but he wouldn't get a spot in the Aussie team with his lack of effort and poor attitude in the field. The English cricket team has been out played in these first two test matches and that is without the other three key Aussie players in Cummins, Lyon and Hazlewood. Cummings and Lyon will be back for the test in Adelaide and you would expect Lyon to stay for the rest of the series given that Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney pitches all take spin. Not looking good for the poms. They must win in Adelaide to have any hope.

The day/night test match using the pink ball doesn't work in Brisbane as the humidity continues in to the night which is not conducive to swing bowling at night. It didn't swing for either team at night and after 3 days it became a dead pitch so the ball didn't do shit apart from hitting a crack and moving away. So there is no point playing a day/night test if their isn't any dew on the ground which requires hot days and cool nights which is when the ball swings at night which is what happens in Adelaide at night. So if the ACA is going to persist with a day/night test match it needs to go back to Adelaide. The only reason they moved it to Brisbane is because of the larger seating capacity, so money over the game was the reason.

That South African Nazi that got kicked out of Australia was hassled by local reporters when he landed back in South Africa and was worried about death threats. Well don't show up in Australia at the front of a Nazi group parading in front of a parliament building. I mean how fucking stupid are you to go to another country and do that thinking nobody will see you. Obviously he isn't well known in South Africa as a Nazi otherwise he wouldn't of got the visa to Australia in the first place. So now all of South Africa knows he is a Nazi and they have seen his family as well. His wife knew all about his involvement with Nazi's so she can't claim she didn't know. His extended family is going to get some grief over this as well back in South Africa, then again he is Afrikaans so it kinda explains why he became a Nazi. They still haven't lived down the Apatite thing. The Afrikaans implemented it in South Africa and killed a lot of black of people. They would of still been banned from world sport if they still had it.

Barnaby has now officially said he is joining One Nation but gets a free ride for the next couple of years as he doesn't need to give up his position in Parliament. So he gets paid his high salary by the Aussie tax payer for doing fuck all. Nice work if you can get it. Not sure how he fits in a burka. Pauline might need to one be custom fitted. Although you would know it was Barnaby with his fake farmer's hat on top of it.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.