G'Obama!

Although it is tuesday the 4th here in the melbs, the election is TOMORROW!! I'm so freaking excited and scared. I kinda just want it to all be over, the anticipation is killing me!

So today is a public holiday here, for a horse race....yeah I said it. But tomorrow is a public holiday for me as I spend the day with my country people in a pub watching election returns!! it should be super fab and I have a gift certificate to the pub for doing so well in political trivia a few weeks ago!

I hope you all have voted will vote etc...I know I have although hopefully the election won't be close enough to count my absentee vote. How exciting is it that VA isn't even one of the most contested states (according to washington post today!) Go Big Blue!

and here folks....is my happy face!

Election 08

Three days left, well maybe four, it gets very confusing from this end of things!! But I am so freaking excited, very nervous, but extremely excited!!

I was a bit perturbed to read this earlier. It basically argues that Obama will win the election because he has recieved a lot more positive coverage in the media than McCain/Palin have. So this article says if it wasn't for the overwhelming discrepency in the coverage they've recieved the race would be closer. To that I say poo-poo!

Maybe, just maybe, McCain/Palin have recieved a lot more negative coverage because they've earned it!! The media isn't meant to be equally positive/negative about the campaigns! It's there to report on them. Now, I do agree that media should be unbiased and balanced, and ideally there wouldn't be any mention and positive and negative coverage, it would just be coverage, however, if the past eight years have taught us anything, it is that unbiased media coverage is impossible!

Back to the issue at hand, I think it is ridiculous to hold the campaigns accountable for the media's slant. I'm convinced that Obama has done more to encourage positive coverage than McCain has. He has not once landed a bellow the belt punch to either McCain or Palin, although we all know they deserved it and most of us wish he had! He really has run a good clean campaign, at least from my end, and the positive coverage only reinforces that.

As glad as I am that it's almost over, I have no idea what I'm going to do when it is! haha
read the article, what do you think?

music and censorship

What a great friday!! I went to the Xavier Rudd concert with some girlfriends and it was AMAZING!! I don't think I've ever had the privilege to see someone in such a small venue before, about 700 people! Not to mention that we were thisclose to him. No zoom on that one! I was absolutely amazing. And the great thing about small venues, as far as I'm concerned, is the artists get really into it as well. They can feel the energy and excitement from the crowd and they just feed on it. He played for 2.5 hours! I couldn't ever believe it. It's also pretty powerful that he's essentially playing in his hometown after being on tour for months and months. All and all it was probably the best $50 I ever spent!

The opener was pretty stellar as well. She's called Dallas Frasca and she's also from Victoria. She's got just the most amazing voice....you should definitely check it out! She was so powerful and had such a great vibe, I'm not sure they could have made a better pick in terms of artist energy opening for xavier.

You can't really ask for more in a concert :-)

On a very different note, it turns out the Australian government is trying to apply a filter to all Australian ISPs etc in order to moniter and control what website people in the country go to...it is of course all in the name of saving the children. But I'm sure that is the responsibilty of the parents. I don't have any children, I don't see why I should be monitored because people can't be trusted to look after their offspring. Not to mention that this filter would slow down all internet traffic by about 20-30% NO THANK YOU!

So, we went to a protest today on the steps of Parliment house to try and keep the internet censor-free...you know me, I love a good protest! It turned out to be among the most poorl organized protests I've ever been to and we decided to do something about it! So, along with about a dozen others we grabbed a beer and started brainstorming. We have committed to organizing another protest at the end of November, which gives us 4 weeks to organize...should be good. So, you are reading one of the first posts on the Melbourne Anti-Censorship Protests! If you're in melbs, please mark you calanders and make it out! This affects everyone and if we don't take a stand against censorship now where will it end?
Power to the People!

ps3...ick

ugh, I can't believe I live in a house with a playstation....I hate it I really do...yet somehow I'm captivated. Some of the games have really pretty grafics and it's amazing how long I'll watch mike play, it's like an interactive movie.

thankfully I never had such things as a child and so I'm completely incompetent and can't work the controllers at all, so I don't like to play. I get all nervous and overwhelmed when too many things start happening at once. Not that I'm complaining...I'd rather not waste my time! That said, I suppose it is important for everyone to have a way to unwind...I just don't understand how violently shooting is relaxing....to each their own I suppose

crab night!!

Wow! I suck, I mean I really suck.
The whole point of this thing was to write regularly and stay in touch and here I haven't written in almost two weeks :-(

Well, to be fair I've been hard at work :-) I'm finally beginning to see the end of my online course and am really looking forward to teaching.

This weekend was pretty rough, but we've had a lovely Sunday. Our old flatmate, Kaz, came over with some market specials! This trick to make the market extra cheap is to go right before they close. It is tricky, you obviously run the risk of them not having what you want....which is exactly what happened to Kaz! He went in for Barimundi (fish) and instead got a dozen crab for $10!! sweeeeeeet!! He'd never cooked crab before, so he called me up and asked what we were doing for dinner :)

I hadn't ever cooked crab before either, really...but I figured all those years of childhood crabfeasts were about to come in handy! So, we popped them in the steamer and I whipped up a little crab seasoning, no old bay here in oz and I'm eternally grateful to my momma (THANK YOU!) for a) steaming crab when I was a young one-I basically remembered the procedure, not that it's that hard and b) sending me a horde of spices a few months back, my crab seasoning would have been severely lacking if it wasn't for the cajun spice mix you'd sent! Needless to say dinner was delicious!!

Neither Mike nor Kaz had eaten crab, in the rough, before, which I thought was kind of sad, so I had to show them how to crack it open and get to the good stuff. Mike has seen one too many freaky alien movies, because he was a bit distrubed by the whole process and took a pass ( we also had some fish on hand just in case so he didn't go hungry). As dissapointed I was in his disinterest to try new things, that meant a few more for me :-) Kaz and I had a great time ripping into it and I'd forgotton how much fun it is to eat crab, have your lips for a little tingly from the seasoning, and wash it all down with some nice cold beer!

It was a good night, and sorely needed. It also brought back lots of memories, crab dinners, at beach week, crab and corenas with the girls, cantlers, but especially family crabnights, Dad letting the crab fight on the kitchen floor before cooking them, mom being scared the cat would get to them and me, excited for a delicious dinner...and of course sitting at the table with my daddy while he picked crab well after midnight!

I'm missing you all a bit now! lots of love!

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Elections and such...

I just watched the new Michael Moore movie, Slacker Uprising, which follows him around the USA in the lead up to the 2004 election. I couldn't help remembering where I was and what I was doing in the lead up to the election and watching this documentary left me with an overwhelming feeling of dread.

And then I realized, I'm petrified that Obama isn't going to win this election. I know lots of people think he will and many are extremely confident, but I remember that feeling, four years ago, when I knew 'W' would be out and we'd finally have an intelligent commander in chief in President Kerry, we all know how that turned out. I really can't handle another disapointment, especially because I'm not convinced that Bush has ever legitmately won an American Presidential race. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut (which I'm absolutely not!) I just couldn't fathom that America would have re-elected him and the election was so close that it just gives crediance to the theories. Of course that was then and this is now...

Now they've had four years to perfect the art of 'fixing'electronic voting machines. Great. Michael Moore and his crew and audiences were so much like me, full of hope and sure that America could be trusted to make the right decision. So excited for change.

I won't make that mistake again. For me, elections have become like new boyfriends. They're intersting, but you aren't convinced they are total boyfriend material, so you go out, have a good time, but don't get emotionally attatched. It helps that I live on the other side of the world, but I just can't let myself get emotionally attatched to the idea of President Obama...I just hope.

If you're interested in watching Slacker Uprising
I also watched Zeitgeist II today, if you have a spare few hours the zeitgeist movies are absolutely worth watching!!