Ricks Rambles

Update - 23 Movember 2011

2011-11-24T18:51:00.000+10:30

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Travel Money Card

2011-02-21T09:12:00.001+10:30

Before we left for Europe I organised a CBA Travel Money Card, which is a pre-paid ‘MasterCard'. It allows you to store money in several different currencies, can be used in ATM machines, and is widely accepted as a MasterCard credit card in shops. A big selling point is that it’s easily replaced if lost or stolen, and that if it is lost or stolen then your normal bank accounts can’t be cleaned-out by the thieves.

It was the first time we’ve used a card like this. On previous overseas trips we just used credit cards and our eftpos card.

Late last year the Australian Financial Review provided a useful review of many travel money card products including the American Express one, and the Travelex cashpassport. These two, and the CBA Travel Money Card made-up our short-list. From memory, the AMEX product was rated the best for our particular needs but I had concerns about whether the AMEX product would be as widely accepted as the CBA Travel Money Card product which is used as a MasterCard.

So we chose the CBA product for our trip.

Overall, the card worked as expected. There were a couple of stores in Italy where their card reader wouldn’t accept it so we had to revert to using a credit card for payment.

‘Recharging’ the card is straight-forward if you have a secure Internet access method as you have to log-on to your CBA Netbank account then do a bPay payment to the card. Or you can do it by telephone banking. Caution though: bPay can take up to 3 days for the funds to reach the Travel Money Card from your transaction account. Ah, the bank float: using your money for their profit!

At one point we worried that a bogus transaction might have been made on the card so I called the bank’s 24/7 international Customer Service Centre number back in Australia, using a pre-paid international calling card to do so.

You can also call the Customer Service Centre to check your balance, or go to the CBA website to check on-line what your card balance is. But you want to be careful that you are using a secure Internet connection in doing the latter as your user name, password and card number are required to check the balance.

It surprised me to find out that the pre-paid phone calling card starts charging for the international call as soon as the number starts ringing, not, as I’d expect, when the call is answered. This wouldn’t normally be a problem but when the ‘24/7’ customer service centre number isn’t answered for minutes, ringing, ringing, ringing, your pre-paid calling card balance quickly gets eroded.

This was quite frustrating that my call wasn’t answered within what I thought was a reasonable amount of time. I had to hang-up and call again after minutes waiting while the service centre number rang and rang and rang and rang-out. The costs incurred while listening to the phone ring and ring grew so much that I actually had to hang-up and recharge my calling card because of the length of time waiting for the Travel Money Card people to answer the phone.

Once my call was answered the service was fine. But I imagined how terrible it would have been if my card had been stolen and I didn’t have a way of enduring the unacceptably long delay in having my call answered as the phone card would probably also have been lost in my wallet.

It happened each time I called the service centre so it wasn’t just bad luck of calling at an exceptionally busy time.

The pre-paid international calling card I used was one from eKit, provided in the document pouch for escorted tours like the ones we did with Insight Tours in central Europe, then the Trafalgar tour in Italy. It’s easy to use, easy to recharge using a credit card, but probably not the least expensive option. My advice with the calling cards is to check the contract fine print to find when the charging starts – when you call is answered, or when your call starts to ring.

Paris, December 2010, long...

2011-02-17T14:03:00.001+10:30

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Stayed at the Minerve Hotel in the Latin Quarter. Small room but everything else excellent.
Returned to Paris CDG airport to retrieve Ms16's purse lost on our Melbourne-Hong Kong Cathay Pacific flight - impressive bureaucracy to overcome!
Lunch at Restaurant le Jules Verne on the Eiffel Tower despite 'the monument is on strike'?
Excellent Henry Moore retrospective at the Musée Rodin.
Very disappointing show at The Lido.
Exciting (for an artist) fine arts supply store in Paris called 'Adam'.
Killing a few hours at Musée du Louvre while Beth shops.
TGV train to Frankfurt breaks down, return to Paris...

THE GORY DETAILS

Paris was the second stop in our 7 week long European holiday after depositing youngest daughter ('Ms16') with her French host family from Macon, where she attended school for the duration.

We've been there a few times before and love the city despite small annoyances like unwanted attention from pick-pockets on the RER trains and the Métro. In past visits we stayed at the Familia Hotel in the Latin Quarter. It's a clean, friendly family-run 2 star hotel in a great location but our rooms have always been tiny, which isn't unusual for an old Parisian 2 star hotel.

This time we thought we'd splurge a bit and try their sister hotel next door, the Minerve Hotel, a 3 star hotel, and booked on-line. It too is a clean, friendly, family-run hotel and despite everything else being excellent, the room too was very small. It was advertised as a 'double classic' room on the Internet booking form, and it turned-out to be one of the two smallest rooms on our floor. As the hotel wasn't very busy, and rooms were available, having a larger room would have been nice. We'd stay there again, but would ask for a room large enough to open two suitcases.

Paris - Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle - with snow

Paris was cold. It snowed but not enough to disrupt our plans. But cold, cold, cold! We walked fast!

There's a wife in here somewhere...

In an earlier post I explained how Ms16 lost her purse on one of our flights to France. The Cathay Pacific ground staff found the purse and forwarded it to Paris CDG airport for us to collect later. I'll spare you the gory details but have to say that although I almost never get angry when dealing with a challenge, this was an exception. Usually it's my good wife who can turn-on indignation when required, usually resulting in resolution of the problem in her favour. This time she was consoling me!

It had nothing to do with the Cathay Pacific staff as they were great once they came on duty in the airport (if there are no flights in or out of the airport by a specific carrier then their staff aren't there until a few hours before travellers would normally be expected.) But trying to get assistance from an airport information desk woman was very frustrating as we walked here there and everywhere at her instruction trying to find a certain something. We could have been on an orienteering exercise! The Paris airport should acknowledge the perseverance that we had to demonstrate by awarding us merit badges, something like, 'I got my lost luggage back from Paris CDG!!!'

Continuing the tradition that we started in Lyon of eating well we had lunch 123m above the ground at restaurant Le Jules Verne in/on? the Eiffel Tower. I booked and paid a deposit via the Internet before leaving Adelaide. The deposit would be forfeited if we didn't show-up at our appointed time. The Métro got us close to the Tower, and as we walked the short distance to it, past all the Africans selling small metal Eiffel Towers, umbrellas, and tea towels, we saw signs outside the ticket windows saying the 'monument was on strike'.

The Eiffel Tower 'on strike'? Hunh?

I thought, 'great, our one day that we can do this and the darned thing is on strike. But how does a building or structure 'go on strike'? But it wasn't a problem as the restaurant has its own private lift which was running fine. As you'd expect, the dining experience was lovely, and quite memorable. Excellent food and wine, and Beth was very impressed with the place-holding plates set on the table then elegantly removed as our lunch-laden plates were delivered.

Lunch at Le Jules Verne, Eiffel Tower. With lapel pin..

After the meal we had to inspect our respective genders' toilets, on strong recommendation from friends who had been to the Jules Verne before us. Beth found them more impressive than I did, perhaps as there's only so much that an establishment can do in dressing-up the functional aspects of a loo. What impressed me, but not Beth, was seeing the structure of the Tower up close, including the pulleys and mechanisms of the lifts. Boys's stuff.

As we left the Eiffel Tower the French mounted police made a token raid on the Africans, sending the running everywhere, until two police cornered one of them and led him away to face the charge of selling really tacky crap in Paris. I expect the others were back at their spreads selling the little towers, umbrellas and other junk within 15 minutes of the police leaving.

Before we left Adelaide I bought a small lapel pin that showed both the French and Australian flags on it. Whenever I've been to France previously my American accent was immediately noticeable and sometimes resulted in others automatically assuming I possessed the worst characteristics of American tourists. I thought by wearing this lapel pin it would indicate that I was from Australia and positively predisposed to things French. Hah! That backfired! I first wore it when we had lunch at the restaurant Paul Bocuse in Lyon and later into the meal Monsieur Bocuse walked through the restaurant stopping at each table to meet and greet the guests. Except for our table where he looked at us then walked-onto the next table. Was it because we didn't down our utensils and rise to our feet to greet him quickly enough, or was it because his 86 year old eyesight misread my lapel pin as being British! Which could be worse than being American in France!

We don't know, and after politely requesting a chance to meet the great chef he did come to our table for a Kodak moment and handshaking. But that was back in Lyon.

I'm strongly leaning to the first explanation: that the lapel pin looks British rather than Australian, because of a separate experience at our next big lunch, at Le Jules Verne, where I also wore the pin as seen in the photo above. Once seated at our table a very proper English waiter in the restaurant came to our table and greeted us, saying something like 'Ah, very good to one wearing the colours!' apparently also mistaking the wee Aussie flag for the Union Jack. After all, it largely is the Union Jack. I think the now recurring public discussion in Australia about adopting a new flag is timely. And I have forever retired my misleading lapel pin.

One day in Paris we walked to some sights that we hadn't seen before like L'Hôtel national des Invalides where Napoleon's tomb is located. I'll certainly say that the French delight in 'monumenting' their heroes. But life goes-on despite famous tombs, and cold weather. It didn't stop these gentlemen from their regular boules meeting:

Outside Les Invalides - boules

The tombs inside are amazing.

Tomb within Les Invalides

Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb - Les Invalides

We weren't allowed to take photos of the Henry Moore retrospective at the Musée Rodin but it was a good visit. The Rodin bronzes in the gardens are great to walk through but we'd done that on a previous visit. The Moore retrospective included a recreation of his studio, showing works in progress. I'd never seen some of his very large plaster works from which the bronzes were taken. How he made the sculpts for the large, lovely bronzes never occurred to me. But having made 6 small cast bronze sculptures last year for an exhibition I've now got a better appreciation for the process.

Since our last Paris visit Beth really wanted to see one of the big dancing shows like The Lido, or The Moulin Rouge. So we booked a drinks/show package one night for The Lido on recommendations from Adelaide friends. They obviously saw a different performance than we did as ours was a major disappointment. I think it was their revue called 'Bonheur' that tried to show the best of all previous revues. Sadly, it was a 100 Euro per person flop, and we were sitting in the nose-bleed area seated perpendicular to the stage, sharing our table with (a lovely) couple from Vienna or Berlin.

The Lido show designer succeeded in creating a 'kitchen sink' production that just threw everything they had at the audience: 23 sets that included a 5 metre Indian temple, an 80,000 litre water pool, and even an ice skating rink! Add to that 600 costumes. The ice skater fell down, one of the female leads couldn't sing in tune, the dancers were out of step, and there was a guy who's speciality was juggling large bobbins on a string between two sticks - a little of that goes a long way!

As we sat side-on to the show our legs started cramping, and the two middle eastern guys sitting in the booth next to us wouldn't shut-up despite multiple glares from us. The only time they did stop talking was when the topless dancers came on stage. But, we can tick 'The Lido' off our bucket list. But there was a funny comedian who added some value to the experience.

Since making the small bronzes I developed an appreciation for using nice wax-working tools, which I haven't been able to find to buy in Adelaide. Maybe the larger cities sell them, but I wasn't able to find them on the web either in Australia. So while in Paris we visited a fine arts supply store and I asked about wax-working tools, which that store didn't handle. But the first store directed me to a wonderful store called 'Adam' near the Métro Jules Joffrin station, on rue Damremont. I was like a kid in a candy store - so many beautiful tools.

Loved it! 'I saved us so much money!' (I'm learning...)

I returned to Adelaide with some fine, stainless steel tools that I hope to use once the cooler weather returns and working with wax is practical in an un-air conditioned studio/workshop.

One cold and wet day Beth determined that she had to visit certain shoe stores in Paris near the Louvre, so while she exercised shop assistants I visited a part of the Museum I hadn't been to before. The last time we were there we did the tourist thing of running-in the see the Mona Lisa, took a quick piccy, then ran-out, having 'done' the Louvre. Well, not really 'doing' the Louvre but we did see one of their most famous paintings, elbowing away the mainly Japanese visitors there that day.

So I wandered through the Cour Marly off the Louvre's Richelieu entrance where so much monumental statuary is placed. Oh wow! Wonderful carved marble works from the 16th century. I loved the spaciousness of the setting - nothing was crowded. But the French seem to do that very well - majestic use of space in public monuments.

Cour Marly in The Louvre

While in the Louvre I had to visit the men's room and just before entering it a woman walked confidently out of it, smiled at me and responded to what must have been my questioning look by indicating that yes, it is a men's room, and that I should proceed. Then another woman walked-out as well and joined her friend. Again smiling at me as she shook the water off her hands. Okay, I didn't really wonder if they both spit while at the urinal, but it did remind me that Europeans are less hung-up on normal bodily things than Aussies, and certainly much more relaxed about it all than are Americans. It wasn't uncommon for a cleaner woman to walk into the men's while guys were writing their names in the urinals. No big deal. Not there.

And despite exhausting a shoe store assistant Beth didn't add to her luggage this time.

Our last task was to wake-up early enough to leave the hotel by taxi to get to the Paris Gare de l'Est, one of the 6 big SCNF train stations in Paris, to catch our TGV train to Frankfurt then a sleeper train from Frankfurt to Vienna. It had been snowing in Paris and I worried that the taxi would have difficulties getting to the station in time, but it wasn't an issue and we arrived about an hour before we had to. When travelling Beth is very tolerant of my oft repeated 'I'd rather be early than have all the stress from a late arrival,' comment. And I think that's one of the few things I can say to her that reliably generates a 'Yes dear' response. But only while travelling.

Can Australia's population really not support a high-speed rail link between the larger capital cities? It is a great way to travel - the stations are often in the city or closer to it than the airports are; you don't have big delays in security processing; and populations are increasing, fossil fuels are decreasing, people don't indicate that they want to travel less, and trains are not as affected by adverse weather as are airplanes and airports. High speed train travel is so practical and easy. I 'loved' it when compared with commuter air travel.

Before leaving for Europe we bought Eurail passes and made some reservations for the TGV trains and sleeper trains that we knew we'd take. The passes save a lot of money, and can be very flexible in terms of when and where you travel, within some constraints.

But somehow we ended-up on a TGV train that had a fault. Our trip from Paris to Frankfurt via Karlsruhe developed a 'technical problem' that made it stop several times on the track. At first I thought it was weather related as it was snowing hard outside, but that wasn't the cause. After a few of these unexpected stops the conductor announced that due to a 'serious technical fault' (said in French - the English and German announcements didn't mention that it was a 'serious' fault, possibly because the conductor was concerned that the English and German speakers might have a heart attack on learning of the seriousness, or leap from the train in case it was to explode) our train was diverting to Reims from where we would return to Paris Gare de l'Est, leave this train, board a replacement TGV and continue our journey towards Germany.

Our sick TGV in Reims, sulking before returning to Paris.

It was on the TGV from Paris that we sat behind 'Sarah and Thomas' from Australia who had lost their luggage somewhere in the bowels of Heathrow and had packed everything in their suitcases including their Nokia phone charger. They were trying to get to Austria for a friend's birthday but the snow really disrupted their flights. So they resorted to taking the train. But I covered that in my post about Lyon. I'm over it now, I no longer need to feel smug for taking the most important things in my carry-on bag. Including my Nokia phone charger...

It took us three hours to reach Reims but only about 35 minutes to return to Paris. For some reason the train worked fine going in reverse but didn't like going forward. And sure enough, we got off our broken TGV, walked across platform 3 and boarded an exact replacement TGV train, sitting in the same seats on the new train that we had on the original. As compensation for the delay we were given bright red lunch boxes filled with, um, interesting long-life products some of which were tasty. We also received a form to complete to claim financial compensation from SCNF for the delay.

Mystery food parcel on replacement TGV from Paris.

Our replacement TGV didn't go to Karlsruhe then Frankfurt. Instead it dropped us off in Strasbourg where we had to run to catch a commuter train to Offenburg, then jump onto the German ICE (InterCity Express) to Frankfurt. We made it, but arrived very late afternoon in Frankfurt missing our city tour that we booked as we would have several hours to kill before boarding our sleeper train from Frankfurt to Vienna to join our first escorted tour, through central Europe for a week with Insight Tours.

More later, on to Vienna!

Lyon, France - December 2010, long...

2011-02-16T22:45:00.019+10:30

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Lyon was the first stop on our holiday, where we 'delivered' our youngest daughter to her French host family for a 7 week school exchange in Macon.
Learned our daughter's luggage was delayed at Paris airport on our arrival in Lyon.
Enjoyed a lovely lunch with the host family at Brasserie Georges in Lyon - a gastronomic institution specializing in offal.
Three Aussies dead tired after 36 hours of travel, but so impressed by such a lovely family hosting our daughter's visit.
Food impressions from Brasserie Georges and lunch the next day at 3 star Michelin restaurant Paul Bocuse. Yum, and Yum!
Hotel in Lyon - Grand Hotel des Terreaux in the Presqu'île, or 'peninsula' area - very comfortable; a nice stay. Later we stayed overnight at the NH Lyon Airport hotel, a modern, comfortable hotel, adjacent to the airport and the Lyon TGV train station.
A trap for newbies - check which train station you are leaving from.
How to get from one of Lyon's train stations to the other using the excellent Rhônexpress shuttle train - it has replaced the 'Navette' bus service between the two.
Two major churches visited in Lyon; one took 300 years to build, the other took 4 years to build. Spot the differences.
Beth locks herself in a restaurant toilet after sating herself on a Kebap, thrilled with her new boots Bought At A Sale!
Unexpected delight! Stumbling across the Roman museum in Lyon. Wonderful!
The Festival of Lights - oops, we missed it!
Next stop Paris...

THE GORY DETAIL

Our first stop in Europe during our 7 week holiday in December 2010 and January 2011 was in Lyon, while youngest daughter ('Ms16') participated in a French school exchange program for the 7 weeks in Macon, which is about 40 minutes away by train from Lyon.

Lyon, in the Rhône valley, is one of the gastronomic centres of France, with Macon is smack-dab in the middle of one of the country's major wine areas. That knowledge pleased me greatly! Beth and I were to stay in Lyon for three nights before traveling to Paris.

Lyon from Fouviére

We left Adelaide on 11 December, first stopping in Melbourne for additional passengers, then flying to Hong Kong where we changed Cathay Pacific planes for our flight to Paris. In Paris we collected our luggage, made our way to the Air France terminal and caught our one-hour ten-minute long flight to Lyon.

During our 36 hour long journey our daughter misplaced her purse containing all her important cards and cash that was to sustain her for the 7 weeks, but that's a separate story. Happily, it ended well. The Story of the Misplaced Purse.

In the days prior to us leaving Australia many parts of Europe were inundated by heavy snowfalls, which closed major airports for days. This resulted in a huge backlog of air travellers within Europe and people trying to get to Europe from overseas. We were lucky that the worst weather had moved-on before our arrival into Paris, so we faced no cancellations or flight delays along the way.

But there's always a challenge, isn't there? On arriving in Lyon we collected two of our three suitcases, but that of Ms16 didn't arrive. Have you had that sickening feeling caused by seeing the luggage carousel stop moving, you being the last person in that baggage claim area, and your suitcase has not appeared? Oh yeah.

We had some urgency in actually leaving the Lyon arrival hall as it's a sealed area that can't be seen into by people waiting to meet travellers. Ms16's host family was waiting for us outside the baggage claim area, so we worried that with no one else emerging from the closed baggage claim area they might think we missed the flight and leave the airport, with no easy way of us contacting them.

So Beth and Ms16 would leave the baggage area with the two bags that did arrive, and I would deal with the formalities of lodging a misplaced bag claim with Air France. Of the three of us traveling my French was probably marginally better than Ms16's at the time, but far short of Beth's linguistic skills. Seven weeks later Ms16 would leave me for dead with conversational French, as one would hope after spending that much time in a French school, where they speak French! My dear wife had studied French (and German) in university and for a while had considered a career as a translator. Don't you hate that? I do. As our French host family doesn't speak much English it made sense for Beth to meet with the host family and explain what was happening while I struggled by using my high school French that was modestly refined by working as a dishwasher in a French restaurant in Seattle. Go on, ask me to say 'cornichon'!

Being an over-prepared traveller I always, always, ALWAYS have a change of shirt, undies and socks in my carry-on bag just in case my luggage goes astray. This really annoys everyone else in the family. But I feel someone in the family has to think about what might go wrong and prepare for it. If I'd been on that plane in 'Lost' the series would have ended a lot quicker. Despite a very strong urge to say something to the effect of 'I told you so!' I had to bite my tongue and not gloat in this situation. Did Ms16 have a similar emergency change of clothes in her carry-on? In fact, did my wife? NOT!

The patient, multi-lingual Air France baggage manager explained that due to the huge backlog of air travellers, generated by the recent winter storms, many suitcases had not been sent with their owners and over time these bags were being on-shipped to their final destinations. Our flight from Paris to Lyon was supposed to carry 36 back-logged suitcases but only took 10. I wondered when I heard that how did we get lucky to own the only suitcase on the flight that didn't come with the passengers on that plane?

SIDE NOTE: We came across another example of the impact of being separated from your luggage while traveling later when Beth and I were on the TGV train from Paris to Vienna via Frankfurt. A young Aussie couple sitting in front of us, 'Sarah and Thomas,' asked to borrow a Nokia mobile phone charger as all of their luggage had been delayed in Heathrow and they were several days late for a friend's birthday in Austria. They didn't have a phone calling card and the battery on their mobile had long since died. Their Austrian friends who they were supposed to be meeting didn't know where they were or what was happening to them as they were out of contact.

You'd be proud of me; I was so good. Although I was tempted to say loudly, 'What, you packed your charger in your suitcase!? Are you serious!?' I did no such thing. They had probably heard if before, and yet another smug over-preparer saying it could have pushed them over the edge. I probably said something like, 'well, these things happen, don't they. But yes, we just happen to have a Nokia phone charger that you may borrow' [the one I always have in my CARRY-ON bag]. I TOLD YOU SO!

Once the formalities with the Air France baggage manager were done, and I left forwarding details of where my daughter would be for the next 7 weeks, I walked from the baggage area and met our daughter's host family. What absolutely lovely people; mum, two of their three daughters in-tow, dad, plus a very young daughter of a friend of theirs. Lots of very well educated French, but no English. Language. Even when I'm in perfect control of my faculties, rather than jet-lagged, brain dead and smelly from 36 hours of travelling, combined with the stress of dealing with a lost purse then a misplaced suitcase, I would have been proud in 2010 to say in French, 'This is a cat. I call myself Rick. I live in Adelaide.' Sadly, it doesn't get one very far in a foreign country with a vocabulary like that.

Before we left Adelaide we emailed our host family asking if they would be able to join us for a lunch in Lyon before we handed-over Ms16 to them. They booked lunch at the famous 'Brasserie Georges', a large, legendary restaurant in Lyon operating since 1836. Because of our delay caused by the misplaced suitcase we missed our 12:30 lunch reservation (the French would write 12H30, which I think is a very logical way of writing a time - it indicates unmistakably a time - half past noon in this case.) The maitre d' was proudly, supremely, busy and we were but mere diners come to bask in the culinary glow of this famous establishment; and the restaurant was full but turning-over quickly. So a beer at the bar killed some time until a table became free. I think maybe our French friends pleaded with him and might have said something like we were visiting Australian travel writers doing a piece on the best places to visit in Lyon, but as my French is not that good I can only guess.

There are certain dishes that Lyon is famous for and one of these is the tripe sausage, called the 'Andouillette'. It's a very big sausage, about the thickness of a cucumber or small watermelon, served at this restaurant covered with an aged mustard sauce. (This dish is serious business: read the Wikipedia entry - there is a committed club of French people who rate restaurants based entirely on the quality of their andouillette.)

Andouillette in mustard sauce - I dare you to eat it!

One of our group ordered the andouillette and politely offered small tastes to the Aussies who might not be familiar with Lyon specialty dishes. I tried it. I survived. Another of our group had what looked like a thick cut of a roast and again offered a taste to the Aussies, which I tried. I survived. I don't think I've ever had veal liver before. Probably won't again, despite it being the most tender meat that I've ever eaten. Go on, just call me boring and unadventurous when it comes to food. I will admit here for the record that I am not a keen offal eater. I've heard it before and I'll deal with it, I just don't care what I'm missing. So that's that. But I appreciated the offer to taste these Lyonnaise specialities

Lyon has a beautiful old part of the city, 'Vieux Lyon' where we stayed after fare-welling our dear jet-lagged but fed daughter. The old part is on a peninsula flanked by the Rhone river on one side, and the Saône river on the other. Both were running high from winter weather. And they very looked very cold.

Churches
Across the Saône river from the Presqu'île is the very old church, La Cathédrale Saint-Jean.

La Cathédrale Saint-Jean, built from 1165-1480

This Catholic church was built between 1165-1480. Can you imagine doing a ROI calculation today for a project like that? I'm guessing you'd almost need an act of God to get that past the investors. Sorry.

After visiting La Cathédrale Saint-Jean Beth found a boot shop With A Sale On! Stand-back.

Because our bodies were still on Adelaide time our stomachs weren't synchronized to the French dining hours, meaning that we missed the lunch hour (well, actually, 'we' shopped through the lunch hour ONLY OUT OF NECESSITY because Beth's old boots were hurting her feet. And There Was A Sale On!)

The only place in Vieux Lyon that was still serving food was a Kebap shop on Rue St Jean and that was good enough for me. The meal was inexpensive, filling, and tasty. Nothing special to report there. But my dear wife did succeed in locking herself into the toilet while I was paying the bill. I could hear a banging on a door and initially didn't think I had any personal investment in it. But it persisted, and my wife still hadn't returned. So Monsieur grudgingly went-off to rescue her. Apparently she made the mistake of turning the lock too far, or so she was told. And the French phrase book was useless - you'd think there would be an entry for 'Excuse me, sir, but my wife has locked herself in the toilet!' But no such luck.

Later we compared notes and wondered if it might be how they trap women before drugging them and selling them to an eastern European sex shop. But we moved-on quickly from that idea. Maybe there is a market for captured wives of middle-aged men. I don't know.

Atop the hill overlooking Vieux Lyon is the 'new' church, the Basilique Notre Dame de Fouviére. One wouldn't guess by looking at the two different interiors that the Basilique was built much later than the Cathédrale Saint-Jean. I'd like to joke that you can do wonderful jobs with enough paint and gold leaf, but that would be detracting from the wonderful workmanship in making the Basilique.

Basilique Notre Dame de Fouviére, built from 1872 to 1876

This 'modern' Catholic church has a lot of similarities to Sacré-Coeur in Paris. It is very impressive inside, but you'll have to go see for yourself.

Better ROI on this one.

When we came out of the Basilique Notre Dame de Fouviére it started snowing, and got very cold, which we weren't used to. A short walk 'down the hill' from the Basilique is the most amazing Museum of Roman artifacts, the Museé Gallo-Romain de Lyon-Fourvière. Quite a name, but what a treasure it was finding this place. I'll admit that we entered it mainly to escape the cold and snow, as neither one of us is especially interested in Roman ruins, but didn't this place delight us! Firstly the building architecture is stunningly powerful.


Entrance of Museé Gallo-Romain de Lyon-Fourvière

And what's inside the museum is impressive. We spent a couple hours there, more than enough time to thaw out. But a real treat was seeing the restored Roman amplitheatres outside the museum. Beth was easily talked into singing a powerful rendition of 'The Hills Are Alive' from the Sound of Music. You had to be there.

Sing girl, sing!

She sang to a most appreciative virtual audience! I thought, perhaps she just needs the right opportunity like this, after all, look what happened to fellow Scot Susan Boyle. This could be the break.

Hotels
Friends recommended staying in the Presqu'île, or 'peninsula' area, between the Saône and Rhône rivers. It provides easy walking distance to Vieux Lyon (old Lyon), which is a must-see. We consulted several resources including our Rough Guide book, TripAdvisor on the web, and travel books borrowed from our local library and stolen from friends. We were very happy staying at the three star Grand Hotel des Terreaux in the Presqu'île. It's not far from the Hôtel de Ville (which was occupied. That's a joke...) We booked a larger room, a 'Corbeille', thinking that we might appreciate the extra space after a long trip from Australia. The hotel advertises sound-proofed rooms and they certainly were - because our room was so quiet I thought for sure that no one else was in the hotel yet it was actually quite busy. The only sound I heard was from our strange bathroom sink that insisted on gurgling loudly whenever water ran through it. It was a strange drain. The hotel's website calls the facility a 'hostel' but I think that's a typo in their English translation because it certainly is a 'hotel'. Three nights at this hotel was most enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Later in our trip we had a need to stay overnight near the Lyon-Saint Exupéry TGV station (adjacent to the LYS airport) after arriving late in the evening from Milan, and the NH Lyon Airport was highly recommended. It's very new, the room we were in was very modern and comfortable and we were very happy there. The room rate was good value but I wish I'd asked how much the full breakfast cost before we ate it - it was fine but at 24 Euros each the breakfast for two cost about half of what one night's accommodation there did. There are lots of less expensive places for breakfast in the LYS airport located just across the road. But the hotel was great.

Food
We treated ourselves to lunch at the 3 star Michelin restaurant Paul Bocuse. Very expensive, very nice. Monsieur Bocuse greeted all the diners during the meal, stopping at each table to shake hands and have his photograph taken with the guests.

Planes and Trains
A trap for new train users in France is to be aware that in many French cities there are at least two train stations, the local station that is generally located very close to the heart of the city, and the TGV station that is some distance from the city. We were nearly caught-out by this while staying later in Aix-en-Provence when we arrived at the city train station for our travel to Nice, and only then read on the ticket the we were actually leaving from the TGV Aix-en-Provence station, some 17 km and 25 minutes away by taxi. And we had 45 minutes until our train left. We made it, but only just.

Another bit of advice, your TGV carriage is identified not by the number painted on the side of the car, but by the generally obscured small LED screen by the door. Check the train layout display on the TGV voie (platform) to save yourself a mad rush to the correct carriage.

In Lyon there are two main train stations, Lyon Part Dieu in the city, and Lyon-Saint Exupéry TGV station quite a way out of Lyon. Travel books like the Rough Guide say you can get between the two by taking a bus shuttle, a 'navette', between the two stations but the bus has been recently replaced with a great rail shuttle service called the Rhônexpress.

The Rhônexpress is a smart-looking red two-carriage train/tram departing every 15 minutes or so and taking a guaranteed 30 minutes or less to make the trip from the Lyon airport/Lyon-Saint Exupéry TGV station to Lyon Part Dieu, or vice versa. Before boarding you buy the tickets from a dedicated vending machine near where the Rhônexpress stops either at the airport TGV station or near the exit of the Lyon Part Dieu rail station. It cost about 13 Euros one way in January 2011. Students pay less (we found-out after buying all our tickets...)

Festival of lights
Sorry - we missed it by a day but did have a lovely view over Lyon from the illuminated ferris wheel. Maybe next year.

We both agreed that Lyon was as attractive, if not more so, than Paris. Maybe because we've been to Paris a few times before and it was our first visit to Lyon. But Lyon is well worth a visit, and allow yourself at least a few days, if you can, to get a feel for the place.

Onward to Paris...

Kudos to Cathay Pacific!

2011-02-07T17:08:00.000+10:30

Sometimes a business pleasantly surprises me by providing more than excellent service. It's easy to complain when someone doesn't provide a good service, so I think it's just as important to say something when something really good happens. Cathay Pacific certainly surprised us with exceptionally good service during our recent travels to France.

During what turned-out to be a 36 hour long journey from Adelaide to meet her French host family from Macon, our sixteen year old daughter lost her purse somewhere on our 11 December 2010 flights from Adelaide to Melbourne then Melbourne to Hong Kong. After Hong Kong we flew to Paris then Lyon, where the host family met us. Ms16 was to be their guest for seven weeks while attending a French school in Macon as part of a international school exchange program. We were escorting her through the challenges of international travel to Lyon.

Losing her purse was heart-breaking as it had her cash in Euros for her stay in France, Australian cash, her travel money card, EFTPOS card, school ids and many other treasures. All but the older school IDs were replaceable but not without a hassle. Luckily, her passport was not with the lost purse.

We were at the Hong Kong International Airport when she saw that her purse was missing, while the three of us were waiting to board our next flight from Hong Kong to Paris. We thought the purse might have been lost at Melbourne Airport's international transit lounge so tried to report the loss to the Victoria Police, who turned-out to be uncontactable from an international phone at about midnight on a weekend. How does one dial '000' from Hong Kong to reach Victoria Police from an international call? It wasn't a life-threatening event so we didn't try calling 000, but neither did we have any luck contacting a 'real' Victoria Police phone number that we could call from an international phone, as it was only attended between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm. The lesson here is to plan any future losses or non-life threatening emergencies so that they fall within that 12 hour window.

Melbourne Airport had closed-down for the night and the phone number we found through Google for them was answered by their automatic call directory service but frustratingly passed repeatedly back to the initial message. I did hear, '... to speak with an assistant press 9...' so I pressed 9 and heard again after a short delay, 'Welcome to Melbourne International Airport. For xxx press 1, for yyy press 2, to speak with an assistant press 9.' It seemed that I was caught in endless loop pressing 9! No luck there.

I was able to telephone an actual person at the Australian Federal Police but she referred me back to Victoria Police because lost property wasn't within the AFP's jurisdiction.

And we weren't sure where the purse was last seen, whether it was in Melbourne Airport, or on the Cathay flight. I thought our chances were better if the purse had been lost on the plane rather than in the airport.

So Beth and our daughter reported the lost purse to the Cathay Pacific people in the First Class Lounge, which was the first official Cathay Pacific station that they could find in the huge HKIA. The Cathay person noted the details and said they would give us an update when we reached Paris. Which we thought would be that they didn't have any luck locating the purse.

We had 13 hours to worry about the lost purse as we flew from Hong Kong to Paris. Difficult to sleep under the circumstances.

At the Paris airport arrival gate the ground staff paged us and said that the purse had been found but that we had to see someone else for further information. This was unexpectedly good news! But we still didn't know if there was anything still in the purse.

After completing immigration formalities at Paris airport we found the correct baggage services counter and we were given an inventory of the contents of her purse. Amazingly, all the contents were still inside her purse. But while we were now in Paris, the purse wasn't - it would arrive on a later flight so we would have to come back to the airport to collect it. It wasn't expected until the next day. It would have been very helpful if the purse could have been forwarded to Lyon, but that wasn't possible. It would have to be collected from the Paris airport.

The baggage services people contracted by Cathay Pacific gave us a printed sheet with reference numbers to quote when we came to collect the purse. I was to learn later how important that specific piece of paper, not simply the reference number, was to be in reclaiming the purse.

When we told the baggage services people how surprised we were that first of all the purse had been found, and then that all the contents including the cash was still there, they said that it was very unusual for them not to return lost items completely intact to their owners. The airline obviously takes a lot of pride in being able to claim that, and with good reason.

So, much relieved, we collected our baggage from the Cathay Pacific arrivals hall to make our way to a different terminal where Air France would fly us to Lyon from Paris.

So, well done Cathay Pacific! Very impressive service! Thank you!

Rick Clise

P.S. TRAVEL ESSENTIALS: a phone card to make international calls from a payphone.

P.P.S. I will write separately about the ordeal to actually retrieve the purse later, requiring us to deal with and overcome formidable French obstacles put-up by different Paris CDG airport personnel! Having dental fillings without anesthetic would have been more pleasant.

Great phone for travellers - Nokia C-100

2011-02-04T17:57:00.000+10:30

We recently traveled to Europe from Australia for 7 weeks and I didn't want to take my normal Aussie 'smart phone' in case I inadvertently ran-up enormous data charges by using my carrier's very convenient, but not cheap, Global Roaming service. Global Roaming allows you to make and receive calls and texts while using your normal phone account in a different country. Except for some reason, and dispite our carrier claiming that you could, we couldn't use Global Roaming with our Aussie phones while in New Zealand early last year. And yes, we had 'turned-on' the Global Roaming service through our carrier's website.

I had heard horror stories from friends who took an iPhone or equivalent smart phone that uses data services with them and they returned to Australia to be greeted by phone bills costing thousands of dollars.

I guess like most families we've outgrown several mobile phones and as I'm somewhat of a hoarder I don't usually throw them out - um, recycle them, I mean. Every couple of years we seem to update our phones as our mobile plan changes over. So we had a few phones lying around in different states of usability. But they were locked to our Australian carrier. It wasn't difficult to unlock most of them and it didn't cost anything to do so because they were out-of-plan. So our kids each got one of the recently superseded phones, unlocked so they could use overseas SIMs in them while they were traveling (separate to us), and I needed another phone that I could use for Beth and me while we were traveling.

I was in Officeworks for another reason and saw that they carried a few unlocked, 'purchase outright' phones for sale. Officeworks was selling this cute little unlocked Nokia phone for something like $59.

What made me buy this Nokia C-100 instead of less expensive phones was mainly because the C-100 supports two SIM cards in the phone at the same time. There are two different SIM carriers within the phone. You can't use both of the SIMs at the same time, you have to switch between them. Having two SIMs in the one phone let me keep my Aussie post-paid SIM card and use a pre-paid 'Mobicarte' from French carrier Orange for most of the calls and texts, and switch between the two through a couple of easy button clicks to 'Activate' the other SIM.

Why would I want to do this? Well, I was able to daily check for any messages sent to my Australian phone then respond using the French account as that was cheaper to do, and it became very handy when we were traveling in Italy and my Orange pre-paid Mobicarte was out of credit, but we couldn't purchase a recharge until we got back to France. (Don't get me started about trying to purchase a recharge on-line...) Using my Aussie SIM I was able send texts or make calls from that account to let the kids know we were still around. Sending texts using the Global Roaming did add significantly to my Aussie phone bill when we got home. But it was like a communications safety blanket.

Here's my very informal review of the C-100.

Likes:

It has an extremely easy-to-use calculator in the phone, lots easier than any other phone I've used. Handy when my wife couldn't remember what the AUD/EUR exchange rate meant when considering buying those wonderful shoes/bags/purses/coats/jumpers...
It has a built-in flashlight (torch) that was handy in preventing broken toes caused by crashing into furniture at night while searching for the toilet in a different hotel room every second day or so. Night time in some of those rooms was very dark!
It is very easy to switch between the two installed SIMS - there's no need to turn the phone off to activate the different SIM.
All my contacts were on the Aussie SIM, yet I could access them while using the French SIM. But I had to have the Aussie SIM activated in order to edit the contacts (like when I needed to add the international prefixes onto phone numbers that I needed to call or send texts to.)
It's very small and easy to carry around.
The battery life was excellent! Probably because I was mainly using it simply to receive and send text messages.
And come-on, looking like that, who's going to steal it? Pickpockets ran away when I flashed it at them.

Dislikes:

My major complaint about the C-100 is that the keypad is very loud, giving a substantial 'click' sound each time a key was pressed. Not a problem for me, but potentially annoying for people close by while I was texting. Or a wife trying to sleep while I'm wide awake and checking my messages (I was told it wasn't just 'potentially' annoying in this case.)
The screen is quite basic and small.
It's not a very 'fast' phone; more expensive phones operate faster but for the price I paid for this phone it is a very minor gripe.
The central 'button' inside the navigation buttons doesn't actually do anything, unlike my 'smart' Nokia. This just took some getting used to.

Well there you go, the number of 'Likes' outnumbers the 'Dislikes', so it must be a good phone.

Now I think I'm kind of hooked on a dual SIM phone when travelling. And I'd certainly recommend this little Nokia if your needs are similar to mine.

Enjoy!

Rick Clise

Great opportunity, or cynical marketing move? Closes 14 Nov!

2010-11-10T22:27:00.000+10:30

I've got my cynical hat on right now about a competition run by Boost Juice and Austereo with what I think are unachievable conditions of entry.

I love Boost Juice. My favorite would be the All Berry Bang. I don't buy one very often because they are expensive and I try, half-heartedly, to keep my middle-aged waist from expanding more than it wants to.

The last time I bought Boost Juices I was given two entry cards for the 'Boost Your Life Competition' that is being run by Boost Juice and Austereo Pty Ltd. On first glance it's a pretty cool prize for the winner: travel to Los Angeles, 6 weeks hotel accommodation in LA, keys to a 'hot convertible', participation in red carpet events and parties, cash for a new wardrobe, and seeing one of the 'world's hottest acts LIVE in New York and more'.

Wow! Sign me up! But when I read the conditions of entry and went to their website I started wondering if it was more of a cynical ploy by Austereo and Boost Juice to build their database for marketing purposes. Why would I say that? Because I can't think of many people who could actually meet all the conditions of entry. Let's look at them:

1) Entrants must be 21 years or over - okay no problem there, in most US states you can get married, enter legal contracts, die in the military defending the country all at age 18, but you can't drink until you are 21.
2) The winner must have a full Australian or International Drivers License for the car hire - that's reasonable. But as I didn't see it mentioned to the contrary in the T&Cs then I assume that the winner has to pay for petrol used in the car during the month long hire.
3) The winners must have valid Australian passports valid for 6 months beyond the proposed dates of travel - humh, what if I have Australian permanent residency but on a different country's passport, guess that rules me out.
4) Entrants have to complete the electronic visa system for entry to the United States - no problem there but a later condition does say you can't have a criminal record (not that I do!) but some entrants, well, might find this a challenge. However that's a US government condition of entry that one probably can't have a criminal record and enter the US legally.
5) The winners have to fund their own pocket money and living expenses in the US and their pay for their airport transfers - so does 'living expenses' include little things like, eating, during the 6 weeks in the US? Feeding oneself for 6 weeks in Los Angeles while staying in hotels is going to cost heaps unless the winner develops a persistent appetite for Taco Bell.
6) The winners are responsible for any tax payable on the prize, which includes airport departure and government taxes - is this like, 'the airline ticket costs nothing but taxes and charges add $653.47?
7) You need to sign-up to accept 'further information from Boost Juice Bars' - I guess I could put-up with that if I won the prize.
8) And you have to do the trip between January and March 2011 - ooh. but I might be busy then.

I was going to enter the competition but won't as I can't meet the entry requirements. You'll have to guess which one(s) though.

Actually, I'm not sure that anyone can meet the requirements. Let's look at it:

First of all, you have to be over 21 years old, so you are probably working or studying at Uni. If the former then getting 6 weeks off from your job may be a challenge. If the latter then I guess you've got the flexibility to go.

And probably more importantly, how are you going to fund the taxes, your out-of-pocket expenses, and living expenses like food, for 6 weeks while in LA? Have you been saving for just an opportunity like this? If you can take 6 weeks off to enjoy this prize because you are a student then how are you going to afford the expenses that aren't covered by the prize?

I don't know, am I being cynical thinking that this is really just a game to build a database, rather than providing a prize that can actually be accepted. Maybe the Terms and Conditions were written in a hurry without appropriate care. Maybe there were genuine good intentions used in developing the prize. If so, the execution is lacking. Maybe in looking critically at this I'm being unfair.

But I'm hoping that I'm wrong and that someone does have a great time. Promise me that you'll write if you do!

And if you hurry I'll give you the Unique Codes for the two cards. Just ask me!

'Have a nice day!'

P.S. Ooh, I just thought of something! Perhaps the promoters of this competition are really after the names and addresses for their marketing databases of Boost Juice loving, 2DAY FM listening, retirees. Because who else would have the time free and money available to do this?

Hey Big Guy, feeling invisible? Put-on some funky clothes!

2010-09-28T17:12:00.000+09:30

I was in Sydney last week for the quarterly NAVA board meeting. On Thursday, the day before the meeting, I walked to my hotel following my typical museum-hopping path starting at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay then to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in The Domain.

Like most major Australia cities Sydney has an impressive collection of larger-than-life bronze statues commemorating war heros, kings and queens and other notables. But these pieces have been there so long that they have basically become invisible to Sydneysiders. They are largely un-noticed except by the pigeons who use them as some of the only non-spiky landing places in town.

Last year a Japanese artist called Tatzu Nishi, as part of Kaldor Public Art Projects, installed an 'intervention' using the two huge bronze equestrian statues flanking the main entrance of AGNSW. It was a wonderfully enjoyable temporary work of art and I had a great laugh while enjoying it. You can read about this work, called 'War and peace and in between' at the Kaldor website: Kaldor Art Projects - Tatzu Nishi

The article on Kaldor's website says Nishi's work focuses on 'making the everyday strange' and in doing so many people noticed and 'saw' the AGNSW's bronzes for the first time. It was a wonderful introduction to them.

So while walking to the AGNSW I saw another large bronze sculpture that had been changed:

King Edward VII - Dressed for Success!

The good King was wearing a natty hat and his horse was sporting striped fabric socks! As the upcoming weekend was the Grand Final match for several Australian football competitions and codes I wondered if pranksters had dressed the statue in football attire, but quickly determined that wasn't the case as today's teams, no matter what city or suburb they represent, don't wear big feather-capped hats in play.

This is off-topic a bit but it's a good place to diverge; did you know that the orientation of a statue horse's legs is sometimes thought to indicate how its rider died? Supposedly, and Snopes.com may disagree with this, 'both legs raised mean that the rider was KILLED IN BATTLE, one leg raised means the rider died LATER of wounds caused in battle, and all four legs on the ground means the rider died of NATURAL CAUSES,' says answers.com.

King Edward VII - close up. Nice hat, dude!

So I had a closer look at fancy-pants King Edward VII and saw that this was part of Sydney's 'Art & About' program and that several statues had been dressed-up by local artists.

The Bard and his audience hadn't escaped the treatment:

Too fun, William Shakespeare ready to party!

Well done Sydney, and Sydney artists! I hope locals and visitors to Sydney will enjoy these fun works, and perhaps notice what might have been invisible until now.

Do you think we could get-up something like this in Adelaide?

NAVA - The National Association for the Visual Arts - Australia's Peak Visual Arts body

No longer a Roller Derby virgin, but not yet a whore

2010-09-28T16:10:00.001+09:30

Sunday! Adelaide! The Royal Adelaide Showgrounds! Roller derby grand final bout!

Warm-up on the track

My good wife humors my sometimes strange, odd-ball interests. I think you gotta try different things. My wife isn't so sure.

A few years ago the whole family bundled off to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre to fulfill my Fathers' Day request to see Monster Truck Madness. I'd never been to one and thought it would be fun. It was fun for about the first 20 minutes at the most, but after that we all thought for how long can we put-up with motorcycles going around and around and around a dirt track, jumping high into the air again, and again and again and again. And the attraction of utes, pickups and station wagons sporting huge tyres and bodies jacked way off the ground with absolutely no mufflers or sound reduction was just lost on us. Regulars to Monster Truck Madness brought their own ear muffs. Smart people. We made do with the free foam ear plugs that the AEC provided, provided possibly to pre-emptively nip in the bud any potential ear damage law suits.

I can't remember whether it was one of the kids, or my wife, or both, who too soon after the show started asked, repeatedly, 'can we go now?! Please?' It dawned on me that it might have been a good parenting strategy keeping the kids there - it might provide a mental inoculation for them against any future relationships with young men whose life interests are limited to cubic inches and octane ratings. Time will tell whether that's correct or not.

Now just saying, 'Monster Truck Madness', in our household has become verbal shorthand representing a tirade of concentrated abuse commenting on Dad's absurd choices of entertainment that are inflicted on the family. Saying it is always accompanied with eyebrow raising, sighs and head shakes. But hey, we did it. Never again, but we did it.

So this past weekend in Adelaide there was an event of major significance for an elite bunch of amateur female athletes - the Adelaide Roller Derby Grand Final. And yes, it was the result of yet another Fathers' Day request that attend. It was a double-header event, the first event was to determine 3rd and 4th places, and the second bout was for 1st and 2nd place in the league.

Our kids aren't dumb though. Certainly too darned smart these days. I didn't have any success in convincing them to join us for another cultural exploration this time at the Roller Derby. Although the Monster Truck Madness event happened several years ago that memory seems to have been burnt-into in their brains, so any new and out-of-the-ordinary event that Dad proposes is immediately viewed by them with suspicion and caution.

Back in the Dark Ages when I was growing-up in Seattle I sometimes saw on our black and white TV a crazy, fast-paced 'sport' where men skated around and around an oval, banked track, really crashing into each other. Sometimes skaters would be bumped off the track and over the rail. The pace of the sport, the 'rock'em - sock'em' action, the graininess of the black and white TV, it was strangely irresistable, and it was called 'Roller Derby'.

Instead of our loving kids joining us for the Roller Derby our friends, who I'll call Ron and Katherine, came meeting us at the Showgrounds. The doors were to open at 2pm and I had already bought tickets on-line, so we agreed to meet for what I expected would be a quick and efficient trip into the venue. As we walked from the carpark we did wonder if people ahead of us knew something that we didn't, as lots of them carried deckchairs with them. But I kept saying that more people were without chairs than with them so we'd be okay.

Patient crowd waiting to get in.

We turned the corner to see a long, snaking line of Roller Derby fans queuing to get into the hall. Quite a long line in fact, but they were very well-behaved and patient fans. At different points along the queue there were Derby girls on skates and in uniform - I'm not sure if 'girls' the correct term; are they called Derby 'players'? Help me out here - answering questions and guiding people to the entrance.

A Wild Hearses' skater

Kudos to all the players and how well they organised everything. They did a great job.

But in the queue there were lots more people carrying deck chairs. Humh. More about that later.

It took about 20 minutes to get inside the venue through the snaking queue. Bags were being inspected at the door to prevent booze and other prohibited items from being brought into the hall and that slowed-up the process somewhat. But it was a lovely Adelaide spring afternoon and the sun was shining so it was not unpleasant queuing outside to get into to hall.

For those not familiar with the roller derby competition in Adelaide, it isn't played on a banked track as it was on TV, but on an oval marked-out by tape on the floor.

The rules seem pretty simple and the MC explained things well: two teams compete at a time on the rink; each team has 4 skaters who are the 'blockers' and together the 8 skaters form the 'pack'. Positioned a little way behind the pack is another skater from each team, wearing a lycra cap with a white star on it over their helmet. These two are the 'jammers' and their objective is to skate through the pack and lap all the other skaters. Each skater that the jammer passes counts as a point for the jammer's team. The game consists of two 30 minutes halves but there's another clock for the the 'jam' period, which was 90 seconds long per jam for this bout. The 'jam' is when teams are able to score points. The 'Lead Jammer' can call-off the jam at any time to prevent the other team from scoring points.

While the rules seem pretty simple, they are actually very detailed. I didn't understand how the penalties worked but that didn't distract from the watching. I don't know if the Adelaide competition uses them but you can see the rules of the Womens Flat Track Derby Association at http://wftda.com. The amount of official whistles being blown during a jam seemed to rival that of netball, which is another sport that I don't fully appreciate the subtleties of. The number of times the referees blew their whistles is significant, but I don't want to spoil your experience by telling you what they mean - you'll have to see for yourself.

The chairs that lots of people were carrying... All those chairs. Once inside the hall we saw why Derby veterans were bringing their chairs. 'Cuz the hall didn't have much in the way of formal seating, that's why! There were maybe 4 small grandstands inside that seated about one tenth of the whole audience. The rest had to stand or sit on the chairs that they had brought with them.

Lots of people, notice all the brought seats...

The event was sold-out and people who didn't already have tickets were being turned away, and if you were late getting-in, as we were, it was basically standing-room only. But considering that the tickets only cost $13 then I don't think there's much room to complain about the facilities.

Inside the hall was a most wonderful collection of humans. Yes, I'll say it now and be done with it, there was a large and visible lesbian representation, there was an impressive collection of tattoo art on lots of people, but it was also quite the family event. Lots of young kids were there with their parents, no matter what orientation their family consisted of. Everyone was having a good time just being themselves. The event had broad audience appeal.

Everyone except my dear wife and Katherine. They hated it! In fact, they bailed-out before the first bout finished, heading home while Ron and I stayed-on. When asked how much she enjoyed it on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst, Katherine said it rated a '2'. But for comparison, a '1' for her was having been in a hurricane! Oh dear. Better cancel some of those season tickets.

But Ron and I thought it was great fun. You had to let the experience wash over you and just go with it. We did and we enjoyed it. We got into the spirit and were cheering loudly and shouting encouragement to the teams, and groaning at crashes and heavy body checks.

I actually 'know' one skater from the Road Town Rollers, one of the teams who were in the grand final match; I tweeted @TrickseyBeltem before going that we'd be at the match. It was a buzz to see someone I 'knew' competing in the bout and Ron and I said a quick hello to her before they started the championship match. Probably the last thing she needed while trying to concentrate on the imminent match! But I know a star!

The Road Train Rollers from their pits

But congratulations to TrickseyBeltem and the Road Town Rollers for winning against a tough Wild Hearses team for the championship. Tricksey is an impressive jammer! She blasted through the packs. (I've probably just made every Derby player ROFL at my so inappropriate words. Sorry y'all, please forgive me for I'm just a out of shape old white guy but who had a good time on Sunday.) And for the record the Mile Die Club beat the Salty Dolls for 3rd place.

Fearsome Rollers buzzing with an-tici-Pation!

What did I enjoy about the Roller Derby? Lots! The skaters took their match seriously but seemed to have a lot fun as well. When Ron and I were standing by the RTR's team area after wishing TrickseyBeltem good luck, trying not to look too much like a couple of creepy old-guy stalkers, the skaters coming off the track were sweating heavily from giving it all out there. Their 'uniforms' were imaginative and just a wee bit slutty. There was lots of torn fishnet stockings worn, and over-the-top make-up. The skater names were humorous plays on words and all innuendo but representing the toughness of the sport. It is a very physical sport and we saw some impressive crashes on the track. Except for one time everyone quickly got back to their feet following the collisions and tumbles. One skater had to be escorted off the track after a fall and might have hurt an ankle or knee so we hope she recovers quickly.

I forgot to mention that there was an excellent rock and roll band playing before, between, and after the bouts. When the track was clear of skaters a group of quite talented rock and rollers danced for us all. At the back of the exhibition hall were a number of lovingly restored hot rods on display, with polite signs requesting people not to touch or climb on the cars.

The wonderful band

The whole day was somewhat of a blast from the past and evoked nostalgic memories for me. It should have all been in black and white.

Ron and I agreed that the Roller Derby had the formula right for growing in popularity. A week ago there was an article in the Adelaide Advertiser's weekend magazine about roller derby, with several skaters in uniform on the front cover.

Would I go back to see another bout? Absolutely! It was good entertainment. But I think I would take a folding chair with me. And I do think one of my kids would actually be very good at it, but I dare not say that, do I. #kissofdeath!

Where are the books explaining Climate Change?

2010-08-15T21:36:00.000+09:30

Another ABC Radio National podcast on August 14th, The Philosopher's Zone, had guest Guy Rundle from Crikey on the show talking about 'Philosophy on the Campaign Trail.'

It was an entertaining and informative show and I did appreciate the question posed during the show asking why the scientific community had not published easy-to-read books supporting their claims of human-induced climate change.

After all, climate change skeptics like Adelaide University's Ian Plimer and UK 'eccentric climate skeptic'(1) Lord Monckton loudly promote their views that climate change is naturally occurring and not the result of human activity, despite the overwhelming consensus in the scientific community to the contrary. And Plimer and Monckton are probably making a good living from their efforts.

Either Rundle, or Philosopher's Zone host Alan Saunders, raised a point in the radio show that the lack of books explaining the causes of climate change could be as a result of many scientists not feeling a need to waste time debating people like Plimer or Monckton because to the scientists the facts are clear and support their observations. What's the old advice, 'never argue with an idiot' for fear of being mistaken for one?

But it is important to promote the fact-based evidence despite the mud-fight that it will start. (For an example, see the comments on the ABC RN The Science Show website following the 3 July 2010 interview with now deceased eminent climate scientist Stephen Schneider. The skeptics were quick and loud in their attack on Schneider's summary of 'Scientists respond to climate change'. Just as Schneider said they would!)

Some skeptics are making good money from their books, so why aren't the scientists also doing so? I'd certainly buy a clearly written, fact-based book written by someone representing the consensus of what the climate scientists have discovered.

(1) Sydney Morning Herald, 'Lord Monckton is on the fringe: Barnaby Joyce'
January 20, 2010

Do arts funding bodies reinforce elitism?

2010-08-15T20:58:00.000+09:30

On the 14 August ABC Radio National 'The Music Show' podcast 'Arts Policy and the 2010 election: Who Cares?' the musicians participating in the show explained that they wanted their music to be accessible to a broad audience.

This got me thinking about being a visual artist and being knocked-back a few times for arts grants. There's a learning curve to writing these grant applications and I've done a few now but never with success. My most recently rejected grant application effectively said that my artwork wasn't 'conceptual enough.' A fellow artist and friend who is an absolutely gifted portrait sculptor had his grant application rejected because 'the artwork is too dated' and not in demand.

There's often criticism of the visual arts for being too obtuse, too cryptic, too hard to understand, too elitist. And I wonder if that's partly to blame on the arts funding bodies who seem to reward artists working like this.

Of course the funding bodies have to manage the difficult situation of receiving more applications than can be funded, but why do they pick the artists and artworks that they do? If their objective was to make the arts more accessible rather than appealing to a small, elite audience, then couldn't they take a different approach to funding decisions?

And no, I haven't given-up hope yet of winning a grant! Have I told you about the new cryptic, obtuse, elitist series of works that I'm developing...

When the 'long tail' gets it wrong

2010-08-15T20:45:00.000+09:30

One of the benefits of having friends who are more technically literate than I am is that I can learn exciting new phrases like 'short head' and 'long tail.' But I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to believing that everything shiny and new will redefine how we do things.

For example, not long ago I was chatting with good friend Fang about social media contributions from the 'long tail', which is basically 'the great unwashed' of a population, while the 'short head' is the term used to define the small number of leaders in a population. That's a pretty woofy description so see Wikipedia for a more accurate description of 'short head' and 'long tail.' My use of 'long tail' in this context relates to social networking communications like blogging.

I wondered how we as consumers and users of information from a broad source of authors who blog, tweet and upload videos can be comfortable that the information is correct. The answer was that the long tail is self-policing and that inaccuracies are quickly found-out and corrected.

As I do, I was listening to a podcast while in my workshop progressing my current art project and an interesting segment came-up from the July 28th National Public Radio (NPR) 'Technology Podcast'. One of the segments on this podcast related to an African-American woman in Georgia named Shirley Sherrod who had been fired from her job as a State Director for the United States Department of Agriculture.

Sherrod was fired from her job because of complaints about a speech she made that appeared to include racist comments. However, what actually happened was a conservative blogger called Andrew Breitbart uploaded to YouTube an edited version of Shirley Sherrod's March 2010 speech which made her appear to be a racist when recalling her conversation with a white farmer in 1986 who faced losing his farm.

Conservative Fox News picked-up the story from Brietbart's post, and in very short time the outraged mob was calling for her resignation. The people demanding her resignation included the NAACP, and her then employer the USDA. She did resign due to the harassment she was subjected to. Once a topical or controversial issue gets promoted on the Internet, whether it is true or not, it can spread far and wide with incredible speed. A video clip of a government employee making what seems to be racist comments would have attracted a lot of attention.

When the 43 minute long unedited version of her speech was seen it was apparent that Breitbart's 2'38" version uploaded to YouTube was edited to change the context of Sherrod's speech and make her appear to be a racist. After the unedited version of the speech was made available Sherrod was cleared of the racism charges, apologies were made to her, her old job was offered back to her, and even President Obama called her about the issue.

The white farmer she spoke of from that 1986 conversation credited Sherrod for helping save his farm. At the time she worked for a public advocacy firm and gave him valuable assistance. The farmer stated that at no time did he feel Sherrod was a racist.

For more detail about this sad saga see Wikipedia.

To me this is a cautionary tale about accepting anything from the Internet at face value without applying critical review of it. Of course people who blog don't always represent the truth in their posts, and YouTube is not immune from manipulation. But recognising the truth isn't always easy.

Simply because a post, tweet or video doesn't originate from a biased, manipulative old media organisation doesn't make it pure and accurate. We can be manipulated and taken just as easily in the web 2.0 and social media worlds as we can with the old media model. The facts did emerge that Sherrod wasn't a racist but not before she faced harassment and organisational pressure that forced her to leave her job.

The importance to check facts before jumping to a conclusion still exists even today. I'm reminded of my Dad saying, 'you can't always trust what you read in the newspaper' and if he would certainly say that about information found on the Internet.

My little corner of the Great Big Internet

2010-07-25T22:56:00.000+09:30

After my initial scorn of friends who were early converts to Twitter I started using it, and wouldn't you know it, I actually enjoy doing so. In an earlier blog post I've written about my Twitter awakening so I won't repeat it here.

In my early days of using Twitter I was very precious about who I was following, but I've relaxed a bit now, and as a result I read tweets written by a variety of people. And poor souls, they suffer through mine!

Last month I watched more than my normal dose of soccer while the World Cup was being played in South Africa. An added dimension to it was keeping an eye on the Twitter #wc2010 stream while watching the game. As the game was broadcast live it was in sync with the Twitter feed. A disadvantage of living in Adelaide when most of Australia's television shows come out of Sydney or Melbourne is that we are normally on a 30 minute delay here from the east coast. So when popularly Tweeted shows like ABC TV's 'Lateline', or 'Q and A' are showing in Adelaide on the tv the related tweets are half an hour ahead of what we are seeing. It can be a great way to spoil a surprise, or it can also be a great way to look like one has ESP and impress the kids by forecasting what is about to occur on the telly.

Sometimes despite the 30 minute head start I'll throw-in a tweet or two about something I find interesting on one of those shows, knowing that someone in the eastern states might think we are a bit slow in the head here and can't process information very quickly. But we're not as slow as those folks in Western Australia! They are WAY behind us! (Haha and love to all my WA friends.)

While watching the World Cup and following the Twitter stream of #wc2010 I saw lots of different Twitter users from around the world, tweeting in their native languages. It was like being in a global village as so many different nationalities were simultaneously tweeting about the same action occurring on the soccer field.

But last week I realised that the people I normally interact with through Twitter are very much like me, (with some exceptions) generally white, middle-aged, middle-class, and mainly living in Adelaide. The Internet is global, but my world is local.

Then this week I was watching a TEDTalks video by Ethan Zuckerman 'Listening to global voices' where he discusses that very same situation: a global internet but how our involvement is generally on a local basis. It was interesting to hear him say that Nicholas Negroponte's 'Bits vs Atoms' concept may not be correct. He used the example of being able to easily buy bottles of Fiji Water (atoms) in the United States, but not being able to easily find news about Fiji (bits.)

It seems that despite the promise of the global internet and all that it brings, maybe we very much live in our own neighborhood. In real life, and in the virtual world.

I'm going to watch Zuckerman's TEDTalk again and may write more later.

Geoengineering? Don't tell anyone...

2010-06-27T21:58:00.000+09:30

ABC TV has had an interactive program/game (aka 'Alternative Reality' show) running on its website called 'Bluebird'. I tried to get into it but couldn't struggle past the first few minutes of it. It's an interactive experience that you can watch, or join and 'play' in the game.

But I was intrigued hearing about it from Natasha Mitchell, host of ABC Radio National's excellent 'All In the Mind' program, and Robyn Williams, host of another excellent ABC RN show, 'The Science Show', spoke about 'Bluebird' and Geoengineering in his May 15th show.

The concept of geoengineering is to control global warming and the results of human-induced climate change by injecting certain chemicals or compounds into the earth's atmosphere, which would shield some of the heating effects of the sun.

In light of the failure by governments around the world to come to any agreement on anything that addresses climate change then actions by individual countries, or even corporations, could become the next line of defense; one or more could take unilateral climate change remediation actions 'in the best interests...'

In the recent Science Show the scary observation was made that if geoengineering takes place it will almost certainly be done without the knowledge of us, the citizens who will experience its results. Because if geoengineering efforts were announced before enacting them, and afterwards somewhere in the world something went wrong like crop failures, floods, storms or other devastating events, then people would want to sue the pants off the people or governments who did the geoengineering.

Some scientists say that geoengineering could be done with few risks. It could be catastrophic if it was done and there was just a tiny, itty bitty, little miscalculation that made it all go wrong. I love scientists and I love science. But who goofed on something like the introduction of cane toads into Australia to cure a beetle problem. That little project didn't turn-out very well, did it?

Isn't it a bloody shame that our developed societies are so ham-strung by self-interest that any coordinated action by nations in addressing climate change seems doomed.

Small business mentality running Australia?

2010-06-06T14:38:00.000+09:30

The more I think about it the more it appears that our beloved Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has brought a small-business management style to running Australia, and it doesn't seem to be working very well.

He's broadly accused of being a micro-manager, and doesn't canvas his own ministers and cabinet on items of importance (like deciding to cancel the Emissions Trading Scheme). His delegation skills to others in his cabinet don't seem too effective, and his availability for his own ministers is reported to be pretty woeful (Minister Conroy of the ill-fated Mandatory Internet Filter policy supposedly could only grab time with the PM to share some significantly bad news for the government by getting on an airplane with Mr Rudd.)

While I admire many Labor objectives and ideals, their execution of policy seems to be very hamstrung. Perhaps some of the upcoming Labor stars could be seconded to big-business management roles where accountability, efficiency and profitability are important... Nah, dumb idea... Forget I said that.

Australia needs more than a small business manager as its elected leader.

Are our Australian major political parties trying to 'out stupid' each other?

2010-06-02T00:14:00.001+09:30

What's going on? Would somebody please tell me? 'Cuz it's not making a lot of sense to me right now.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and the Labor Party that he leads, appear to be hell-bent on self-destruction. They came into power replacing a tired Liberal government that was badly out of touch with the electorate and have squandered the trust and support of the Australian people in very short time. PM Rudd seems to be demonstrating the emotional immaturity and incapacity for task completion of a primary school student. The Labor party lurches from one disaster to another: the rushed home insulation scheme that had fatal consequences; upgrades to school without logical financial safeguards in the system; introducing a big tax on mining 'super profits' AND then declaring an 'emergency' to allow $38m of tax payer funds to be used for an advertising campaign promoting this new tax. Regular flip-flops on policy including significant ones like the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme - from the government's own CPRS White Paper Executive Summary document: 'The Australian Government believes that acting on climate change is essential' - well, maybe not really, truly essential? Breaking election commitments, and squandering the little good-will left for the Labor Party. What the heck?!

(Remind me to say something later about this 'emergency' and the Federal Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy's stupid mandatory Internet Filter plans.)

Then on the other hand we've got 'the Mad Monk' Tony Abbott as leader of the opposition. Promising to reintroduce draconian policies from the bad old days should the Liberals win the election. Threatening to cut some of the actually potentially useful Labor policies like the National Broadband Network. But wanting to introduce paid parental leave by increasing taxes on business. (Increase taxes on business? The Liberal Party?)

Kevin Rudd, leader of the party that represents Australia's 'Working Families' and whose party members rise to public service 'greatness' through the union movement factory, has a personal wealth of $56 million. While Tony Abbott, leader of the pro-business, pro-capitalism, pro-small government Liberal Party has a personal wealth of just $1.1 million. Forgive me for another what the heck?!'

It doesn't surprise me that recent voter sentiment polls show primary vote support for both the Labor and Liberal parties is diving, with the Greens being the beneficiary of the two major parties imploding on themselves. A once crazy thought, 'Vote Greens' in the lower house, is not looking that crazy anymore. Greens leader Bob Brown was wise in correcting a reporter who said 'undecided voters might vote for the Greens' when he said something to the effect that it was 'thinking voters', not undecided voters who would be voting Greens.

Liberal MP Chris Pyne and Labor Minister for Human Services Chris Bowen were actually shouting at each other during Fran Kelly's ABC Radio National Breakfast show last week. If all they are going to do is shout at each other then political debate between the two major parties is completely useless to the public. There's nothing constructive coming from these point-scoring demonstrations. Question Time in federal parliament has often been unruly and embarrassing to listen to, but unfortunately these current political 'debates' outside Parliament lack the scolding voice of the Speaker of the House who pulls in line unruly politicians with growled 'Aw-dahs!' Now our elected representatives can, and do, just shout at each other!

And we pay the salaries of these people?

Someone I follow on Twitter said that if Malcolm Turnbull returned as the leader of a Liberal Democrat party he would absolutely sweep to victory at the upcoming election. Labor appears to be incompetent in running the country, and the thought of the current Liberal party running the country scares the crap out of a lot of people. Turnbull would probably have a lot of support.

Back to 'emergencies' and the Mandatory Internet Filter: I join a lot of other people who are absolutely against Child Pornography, AND who are absolutely against the government's planned Mandatory Internet Filter, for reasons that I've written in an earlier blog post. Being against the filter does not mean that one is for the bad things that it is supposed to, but won't, stop.

Now what's got me even more steamed-up about this Internet Filter plan is how easily it will be for this government, or any future one, to declare something on the internet to be potentially damaging or dangerous to Australians and therefore move to censor it without public scrutiny or debate. And I'm not talking about how to make bombs, child pornography, or other items that are currently labeled as 'Refused Classification' material and are therefore unlawful to sell or distribute within Australia. But despite the official banning of these kinds of items they are still available and accessible. I'm worried about living with a government that feels threatened by what its citizenry writes or says, and then acts to control it by censorship.

Following the terrible 9/11 attacks many countries including the US, the UK and Australia implemented powerful anti-terrorism laws that reduced personal freedoms in the name of national security. In Australia someone could be arrested and detained for a long time without trial or charge if they were thought to be a terrorist or contemplating a terrorist action. This person arrested and locked-up would not be able to tell their family or friends what happened to them, and anyone who divulged information about the detainee would be violating this new law and would face serious penalties. Australia still has most of these anti-terrorism laws.

A country's citizens seem to be happy to quickly give-up hard won civil liberties and civil rights when they are in fear. And our government did a pretty good job scaring people enough that we allowed these laws to be passed.

So the current Labor government declares an 'emergency' because the minerals industry has the temerity to mount a concerted and well-funded advertising campaign against the Resources Super Profits Tax, so the government can spend $38 million of our funds for an advertising campaign selling us why the RSPT is a good thing for Australia and how the minerals industry is telling lots of lies.

This is an emergency? This is justification for the government to break its own guidelines about advertising? I hardly see trying to sell the proposed benefits of the RSPT to us to be as big an emergency to Australians as, say, Swine Flu was when emergency advertising expenditure was previously used. But maybe I'm just not seeing the big picture or something. Or just maybe the Labor government simply failed again in trying to sell us another policy (the RSPT this time) to the public and is in an absolute panic as it tries to post-sell another badly explained policy.

I see this government's action as another strong reason why the proposed Mandatory Internet Filter must not be implemented. They just can't be trusted to do the right thing.

And someone please tell me what are we going to do with our two major political parties in Australia as they seem to be trying to 'out stupid' each other.

Rick Clise

Mandatory Internet Filter correspondence - update 23 May

2010-05-23T17:00:00.001+09:30

On April 19th this year I wrote to every federal government Senator and Member of Parliament who represents South Australia, registering my protest about the government's proposed Internet Filter.

I also wrote to non-South Australians Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy who is responsible for this planned legislation, and Arts Minister Peter Garrett due to concern of the impact on freedom of expression that the filter creates.

This 'Cyber Safety' policy would require Australian Internet Service Providers to filter all traffic for Refused Classification material.

The noble idea behind this flawed plan is to reduce distribution of, and access to, child pornography (as one example of RC material). Sadly, it will be money wasted if the legislation goes ahead.

Feedback from the Internet community including both the organisations that provide the infrastructure and services enabling the Internet to exist, and from users who understand how the Internet works, is damning about the proposed Internet Filter. It explains why the government's proposed filter will fail and only give a false sense of security to well-intentioned people who are ignorant of how the Internet works. Even the United States government, through the voice of the current US Ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich, expressed reservations about the Australian government's Cyber Safety plan during his appearance on ABC TV's 'Q and A' program.

Here is an update after one month since I posted those letters to the Senators and Members of Parliament.

In general, the Labor Senators and MPs are toeing the government line to justify the Internet Filter, and that policy statement was quoted verbatim from in some of their responses to me.

Several of the Liberal Senators and MPs did the same but quoted the Liberal policy document about the issue explaining why the Coalition is '...yet to be convinced that mandatory filtering will be effective' and that '[t]he Coalition would like an independent audit of the trial results.'

SCORECARD /Including more recent updates from original post date/

Senator Cory Bernardi (Liberal)- responded 29 April, quoting the Liberal Party policy.

Senator Simon Birmingham (Liberal) - responded 30 April, short letter with well thought-out comments against the planned policy.

Senator Don Farrell (Labor) - responded 13 May, short letter stating the government's commitment to the policy; basically a polite 'suck it up and deal with it!' letter.

Senator Alan Ferguson - no response yet.

Senator Mary Jo Fisher - / Replied 25 June in a one-page personal response letter stating that '[T]he Coalition isn't convinced mandatory filtering can be effective or achieve what Minister Conroy says it will.' /

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (Greens) - responded 10 May, has referred my letter to Greens Senator Scott Ludlum (spokesperson for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.)

Senator Annette Hurley (Labor) - responded 30 April, has forwarded my letter to Minister Conroy (quoting portfolio responsibilities) asking that he inform her of his response to me.

Senator Anne McEwen (Labor) - responded 7 May, quoting the Federal government's policy document but with closing paragraphs saying that 174 submissions were received by the Government during the consultation period, and that my letter is being forwarded to Minister Conroy's office.

Senator Nick Minchin - no response yet.

Senator Penny Wong (Labor)- Senator Wong's office responded in an undated letter saying that my correspondence has been referred to Minister Conroy's office due to portfolio responsibilities.

Senator Dana Wortley - no response yet.

Senator Nick Xenophon /Replied mid June in a one-page letter saying he shares my concerns about the Internet Filter, and wrote 'This is why I will be opposing such legislation at a federal level.' Onya Nick! /

Mr Jamie Briggs, MP - no direct response. His office forwarded my letter to Christoper Pyne's office (as I live him Mr Pyne's electorate).

Mr Mark Butler, MP - no response yet.

Mr Nick Champion, MP - (Labor) - Mr Champion was the first to respond to my letter (27 April) but just restated the Government's policy document.

Ms Kate Ellis, MP - no response yet.

Mr Steve Georganas, MP - no response yet.

Mr Christopher Pyne, MP - (Liberal) Responded in an undated letter quoting the Liberal policy document, and acknowledging receipt of my similar letter to Mr Jamie Briggs, MP.

Mr Rowan Ramsey, MP - no response yet.

Ms Amanda Rishworth, MP - no response yet.

Mr Patrick Secker, MP - no response yet.

Dr Andrew Southcott, MP - no response yet.

Mr Tony Zappia, MP - (Labor) responded 27 April with a short personalised letter acknowledging my concern and adding that there may still be an opportunity for the Minister to take into account community views like mine as the legislation has not yet been presented to Parliament. And he is passing-on my concerns to the Minister.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, MP - no response yet. Should I have signed my letter, 'from a working family'?

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy The Minister! /Posted to me in late June a 4 page long document titled 'Cybersafety and internet service provider filtering' signed at the end but without a cover letter. One tiny excerpt from the document: 'Unfortunately, the internet can also be used inappropriately. It has provided a powerful new medium which can be used to distribute material that is not acceptable to most Australians, particularly children.' I apologise in advance to any children who may not find this blog post acceptable!

Keep up the good work concerned citizens. The Government won't change this policy unless we tell them collectively how much against it we are.

On Twitter: #nocleanfeed . The Mandatory Internet Filter is also a GetUp! active issue: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442

And whether you love or hate the Greens, Greens Senator Ludlum's recent Senate speech explaining their response to the Government's proposed legislation is well worth watching (see http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/ and search on 'Mandatory Internet Filter'. It is a very thorough, well thought-out response against the planned filter.)

Rick Clise

Aussie Internet Filter - South Australian protest letter

2010-04-29T20:39:00.000+09:30

My good friend Fang asked me to post a blog containing the letter that I recently wrote to all South Australian senators and members of parliament regarding the federal government's proposed Internet Filter.

I do not disagree that there are terrible things on the Internet (as there are elsewhere in the world) but our government's plan to 'protect' its citizens is just wrong from both a technically achievable perspective, and from a freedom of expression and freedom of access perspective.

I can't believe that the Australian government is actually considering implementing a system of censorship on Internet access that would make our country act as repressive as countries like China and Iran! If you too share concerns about this brain dead plan then do something and make your voice heard. After all, the politicians that we elected are supposed to be representing their constituents like you and me. Tell them what you think.

Feel free to copy the letter below for your own use.

There are three parts to my letter to the senators and members of parliament:

1) The master letter that I used as the merge master in Word.

2) The database of MPs, senators and ministers.

3) A copy of the blog post written by Simon Hackett, Internode's Managing Director. Simon's post was in response to Minister Stephen Conroy's sales pitch about why Australia needs this kind of censorship and how it will protect Australian children from the worst imaginable evils to be found in the cesspool called the Internet.

In response to Fang's request here is the letter minus formatting:

LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER

Dear ____,

Re: ‘Cyber Safety’ policy and why it won’t work

I am very concerned about the Australian Federal government’s proposed Internet Filter for two reasons: firstly that it won’t work; and secondly because it will censor freedom of expression and access to material via the Internet that is legal to own and possess in Australia.

Minister Conroy is very much mistaken in believing that implementing the proposed Internet Filter is going to stop the distribution of child pornography and other illegal materials. I definitely support the elimination of child pornography but the Internet Filter is not going to do it.

Attached is a copy of a recent article by Simon Hackett, Managing Director of Internode, explaining why the Internet Filter won’t work. Internode is one of South Australia’s premier Internet Service Provider and Mr Hackett writes convincingly about the folly of this plan from a technical and organisational perspective. I urge you to read the article if you haven’t already. Many others from the industry have also written about the mistake of the proposed Internet Filter.

I am also very worried about the censorship impact of this planned Internet Filter on Freedom of Expression within Australia. We don’t live in a totalitarian society like China or Iran where the government censors what its citizens can see on the Internet. This is not how I understand a democracy to function.

According to the March 2010 Arts Law publication, ‘Art + law’, a Senate Committee hearing in May 2009 found that of all the Internet sites on the Australia Communications and Media Authority’s blacklist about 32% were ‘illegal R[efused] C[lassification] child abuse material or pornography,’ but 49% of the rest of material on the blacklist related to X18+, R18+ or MA15+, which is all legal to own or possess in Australia. The majority of ACMA’s blacklisted material should not have been prohibited. The content of the blacklist is confidential and can’t be accessed by FOI laws and as a result there is no check and balance of what is censored.

For these reasons I strongly urge you to bring common sense to this debate and quash the proposed Internet Filter plans. The government makes it sound good but when it’s explored it’s actually a dangerous failure.

Yours faithfully,

[concerned citizen]

Enc.

END_LETTER END_LETTER END_LETTER END_LETTER END_LETTER END_LETTER

Here is the database of contact details:

DATABASE DATABASE DATABASE DATABASE DATABASE DATABASE

Below are the postal details for all South Australian federal Members of Parliament, Senators, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and Minister Stephen Conroy (the minister responsible for the Internet Filter proposal.) Including their postal contact and appropriate letter opening as per Parliamentary etiquette):

start
___

Senator Cory Bernardi
Level 13, 100 King William Street
Adelaide, SA 5000

Dear Senator,
____

Senator Simon Birmingham
61 Henley Beach Road
Mile End, SA 5031

Dear Senator,
____

Senator Don Farrell
Deputy Government Whip in the Senate
PO Box 6338, Halifax Street
Adelaide, SA 5000

Dear Senator,
___

Senator the Hon Alan Ferguson
Deputy President and Chairman of Committees
100 King William Street
Adelaide, SA 5000

Dear Senator,
____

Senator Mary Jo Fisher
Ground Floor, 75 Hindmarsh Square
Adelaide, SA 5000

Dear Senator,
____

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
30 Pirie Street
Adelaide SA 500

Dear Senator,
___

Senator Annette Hurley
PO Box 2068
Kent Town DC, SA 5071

Dear Senator,
___

Senator Anne McEwen
Deputy Government Whip in the Senate
PO Box 55
Torrensville Plaza, SA 5031

Dear Senator,
___

Senator the Hon Nick Minchin
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
PO Box 2141
Kent Town, SA 5071

Dear Senator,
___

Senator the Hon Penny Wong
Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water
PO Box 6237, Halifax Street
Adelaide, SA 5000

Dear Minister,
___

Senator Dana Wortley
PO Box 613
Walkerville, SA 5081

Dear Senator,
___

Senator Nick Xenophon
Level 2, 31 Ebenezer Place
Adelaide, SA 5000

Dear Senator,
___

Mr Jamie Briggs, MP
PO Box 1601
Mount Barker, SA 5251

Dear Sir,
___

The Hon Mark Butler, MP
Parliamentary Secretary for Health
PO Box 2038
Port Adelaide, SA 5015

Dear Mr Butler,
___

Mr Nick Champion, MP
PO Box 288
Smithfield SA 5114

Dear Sir,
___

The Hon Kate Ellis, MP
Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth Minister for Sport
161a Main North Road
Nailsworth, SA 5083

Dear Minister,
___

Mr Steve Georganas, MP
Shop 2, 670 ANZAC Highway
Glenelg, SA 5045

Dear Sir,
___

The Hon Christopher Pyne, MP
Manager of Opposition Business
429 Magill Road
St Morris, SA 5068

Dear Sir,
___

Mr Rowan Ramsey, MP
PO Box 296
Port Pirie, SA 5540

Dear Sir,
___

Ms Amanda Rishworth, MP
232 Main South Road
Morphett Vale, SA 5162

Dear Ms Rishworth,
___

Mr Patrick Secker, MP
Opposition Whip
37 Adelaide Road
Murray Bridge, SA 5253

Dear Sir,
___

Dr Andrew Southcott, MP
760 Marion Road
Marion, SA 5043

Dear Dr Southcott,
___

Mr Tony Zappia, MP
PO Box 775
Modbury, SA 5092

Dear Sir,
___

The Hon Kevin Rudd, MP
Prime Minister
P.O. Box 6022
Canberra, ACT 2600

Dear Prime Minister,
___

Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
P.O. Box 1067
Epping MDC, VIC 3076

Dear Minister,

___
end

END_DATABASE END_DATABASE END_DATABASE END_DATABASE END_DATABASE

Finally, here is a copy of Simon Hackett's blog post that was originally posted at http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Conroys-wrong-on-net-filtering-pd20100408-4B8U7?OpenDocument&src=is&is=IT&blog=Tech%20Central

BLOG_POST BLOG_POST BLOG_POST BLOG_POST BLOG_POST BLOG_POST

TECH CENTRAL – April 9, 2010

By Simon Hackett

Conroy's wrong on net filtering

Senator Conroy took on his critics yesterday in a blog titled ''the truth about net filtering" that defended the government's mandatory censorship policy.
I think it's important to set the record straight and look at the "truth" behind each of his assertions.

1) "We have never said ISP-level filtering alone would help fight child pornography or keep children safe online."

Unfortunately, ISP-level filtering will not help fight child pornography and it will not keep children safe online. It will have absolutely zero effect upon either aim.

The reason it will not help fight child pornography is that the online dissemination of such material occurs between adults (who will also trivially circumvent the filter using alternative protocols, proxy servers, and VPN servers).

In addition, the policy is that filtering is only to be applied when there is a complaint made. Those trading in this material are hardly likely to file a complaint about it!

Hence the presence of this filter does nothing, whatsoever, toward diminishing the abhorrent trade in illegal content.

The reason it will not keep children safe online is that children do not seek such material (hence the filter is irrelevant to them), that it does not simply 'leap out at them' by accident, and that adults who seek to interact in illegal ways with children will use vectors outside of the realm of the web page filter (such as chat rooms, social media sites, and BitTorrent file exchanges).

Fact: ISP-level mandatory filtering will do nothing, at all, toward the stated aims of fighting child pornography or keeping children safe online. It simply will not work.

2) (Regarding Restricted Classification material) "you cannot watch it on a DVD."

Alas, you can indeed watch it on a DVD. The DVD is a content carrier that can be sent via the national or international postal service from any street address in the world, without limitation.

There is also a clear irony here, given that Canberra (the source of this filtering policy) is also the primary vector for the sale and posting (on DVD) of video material that is illegal to sell in other states. Despite this fact, the postal service is not expected to open (and view) every DVD that is mailed around the country. Nor should it be.

Fact: DVD's and books containing RC material do actually exist on DVD (and similar media) in Australia today, despite existing policy banning them, and ISP-level mandatory filtering will be of zero impact in this regard.

3) "Refused Classification material is not available on Australian hosted websites."

Yes, it *is* available on Australian hosted websites. The current regime relies on public complaint and 'take down' notices to cause the removal of content from Australian hosted websites. If there is no compliant, then there is no take-down notice.

The bad people Senator Conroy believes the mandatory filtering policy will protect us from are not going to lodge a complaint about the material they disseminate. Nor is it likely that the general public will ever accidentally come across it.

Contrary to popular contention, content does not magically leap out of consumers' computers unbidden.

More importantly, the filter proposed will only apply to un-encrypted conventional web pages, despite most video content (RC or otherwise) in Australia being transported across the internet through other means – means that are not proposed to be filtered at all.

Fact: Bad stuff is out there now, and this policy won't make any difference to that situation, whatsoever.

4) "The Refused Classification Content list cannot be made public because if it was, it would simply be a catalogue to direct people to specific URLs that are Refused Classification. "

Publishing the titles of banned books and DVD's is legal and a fair and reasonable part of transparency in the operation of government. The government have argued that publishing banned URL's is different, because consumers can use the URL to look up the content itself.

But it is impossible to avoid the logical fallacy here. If the ISP filter worked, then the list of filtered URLs would be safe to publish in public – because if the filter worked, nobody could access them.

Fact: The government doesn't even believe that its own policy can work (or they'd be happy to publish the banned URL list).

5) "High traffic sites like YouTube and Facebook are not included in the policy, however, it should be noted that these sites have their own policies "

"High Traffic Sites" are precisely the places where consumers are the most likely to come across 'bad' content or 'bad' people. And yet – the more popular a site is, the less likely it is that the government will attempt to mandate filtering for that site.

Fact: The government is prepared to ignore its own stated policy goals (of mandatory filtering) anywhere that it's 'just too hard' to do so. And the places where it's 'too hard' are the very places where consumers are at the greatest risk of 'nasty things' happening.

6) "The government understands there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to cyber safety and that’s why we have a comprehensive policy covering education, law enforcement, research and technical-based solutions."

Technical filtering simply does not achieve the stated policy goals behind its intended reasons for being mandated.

There is no escaping this. This isn't a matter of rubbishing technical experts and claiming they're just not smart enough programmers. You can't make a computer program modify social behaviour and you can't stop consumers using a VPN server or a proxy server to trivially bypass filtering. The government doesn't argue against the 'trivial circumvention' argument because there is no argument against it.

Fact: Education, law enforcement and research are great things, and they can help. Technical-based solutions are trivial to circumvent and they just don't work.

The bottom line is ISP's transport information. Like the postal service, their onus is to move that information without editing it or reading every packet that moves through their transport corridors. The postal service is protected by being deemed a 'common carrier'.

This is precisely the protection that the ISP industry deserves. The use of the ISP transport layer as a convenient 'soft target' in government content policy is as lazy as it is ultimately useless.

The greatest risk in the implementation of technical 'solutions' such as this one is that parents are at risk of believing that they actually work, and absolving themselves of the responsibility that they have (and need to have) to monitor the use their children make of digital media in general (and the internet in particular).

Finally, there is an obvious question here, given all of these facts:

How is the government going to 'sell' the outcome once it been forced upon Australian society? Will they make the false claim that it actually achieved anything?

Or will they make the true statement that they've just spent a lot of money to achieve nothing at all, and that anyone's kid can type 'VPN server' into Google and bypass the filter within ten minutes? That's including the five minutes it takes to go to the fridge for a juice.

Either way, given the facts I have noted here, it is clear that mandatory URL level web page filtering actually harms society (through a false sense of security) and has no positive impact.

Take the money allocated to the technical path and distribute it across the other goals of the overall cyber safety policy of the government, and we'll all be in a better place.

END_BLOG_POST END_BLOG_POST END_BLOG_POST END_BLOG_POST END_BLOG_POST

Okay fellow concerned citizens, go for it! Here's to Internet freedom and freedom of expression!

Rick Clise

My Artful Weekend in Melbourne

2010-04-25T19:35:00.017+09:30

This weekend I delivered my small painted stainless steel sculpture to the Toorak Village Sculpture Festival where it is being exhibited at Myka at 466 Toorak Road. It is pictured on the left. The Toorak Village Sculpture Festival runs from 1 - 31 May.

While in Melbourne I visited museums that were new to me and saw some excellent exhibitions. I was curious about the Bill Viola triple-screen video work called 'Ocean without a shore' that is being exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria on St Kilda Road. I usually don't have much of the attention span needed to fully appreciate new media work, but I did find Viola's piece at the NGV fascinating for longer than normal for me.

An exception to my generally short attention span for new media work was recently seeing the French artist Sylvie Blocher's work 'What is Missing?' at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). I surprised myself as I found most of her video interviews very engaging and sometimes quite funny. But her very short piece (about 9 minutes long) featuring herself and a Chinese village woman was particularly moving for me.

Viola's work at the NGV had a clever theme that seemed to repeat, staggered between the three video screens. But despite what the blurb said I don't believe that it was all done simply by the performers walking through a wall of water; I can't see how the water running off them could morph into sand without computer generated imagery assistance. But then I'm old school when it comes to special effects.

Also, I'd never been to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) at the Federation Square until yesterday but was very impressed with what I found. It was an experience somewhat like going to the Disneyland 'Haunted Mansion' attraction where the majority of the attraction happens underground. Same with ACMI - the many galleries and theatres are below ground level. The particular thing that I wanted to see at ACMI was the Dennis Hopper exhibition. I wanted to see for myself what kind of an artist Dennis Hopper is in addition to being a brilliant actor and director. Well, I'm glad that I saw it as I still really appreciate Dennis Hopper as an actor and director! Say no more? But I do really like some of the artists that he has collected like Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Jenny Holzer. Some of them feature in my 'art heros' list from my high school days.

There's a great room at ACMI where you can lose yourself for hours, and apparently many people do: there are multiple cubicles where you can call-up and watch video work, tv shows, documentaries and all other kinds of moving image work. The very helpful attendant told me that it's particularly popular with backpackers when it's rainy outside!

Today I saw the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen, where Simryn Gill's work was featured as one of the exhibitions. Did her teachers not teach her to respect books! My Dad would be so disappointed if my art practice included tearing-up books. But Simryn does it beautifully.

The Heide Museum is a beautiful facility with a expansive sculpture garden walk. I love sculpture gardens! But what a sad story about the different artists who lived and worked at Heide under Sunday and John Reed's patronage and friendship. At the Heide I gallery, the original house and home of the Reeds, their story is spelled-out and I found it profoundly sad. Not that the Reeds were a sad story, but the artists who were there painted for me a very sad story. Maybe they lived, loved hard and died young. It nearly had me in tears.

After pulling myself together I drove to the TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville, about an hour's drive from Bulleen.

Somehow I got myself well and truly lost trying to get there despite having a 4 year old MelWays and a working GPS! Very bloody annoying. But I did get there and was glad that I persevered. At TWMA there's a featured exhibition called 'Bushfire Australia' which contains artworks relating to the many different significant bushfires that Australia has suffered. With the most recent one being the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria on February 7th. Australia's history is inexorably tied with bushfire, but it still exacts a terrible toll. By coincidence, and probably because I was late to the TWMA due to my crap navigation today, I arrived as a talk was starting in the main gallery about sustainable plants in bushfire areas. It was most informative until a woman who was wearing far too much perfume parked her plumpness next to me and then began to asphyxiate me with volatile compounds. I had to give-up and leave the talk - her chemical weapon was too powerful and gave me a headache. For me that's a precursor to nausea and as I couldn't kill her during the talk I had to move. It was so strong that I wondered if I'd need an epi-pen...Sorry, that was way over the top; I got carried away.

But you never know, I might not have been the only one so affected; we might read in tomorrow's Melbourne Age about several visitors to TarraWarra Museum of Art being hospitalised due to fumes. What a dangerous woman!

So what an artful weekend it was for me. Lots seen and enjoyed. And good news - my sniffer is just about back to normal.

Upgrading a Wordpress blog

2010-03-31T00:18:00.000+10:30

I link to a Wordpress blog from my rickclise.com website to hold a tiny bit of info relevant to my arts practice listing exhibitions, competitions and so on. It's a pretty sparse blog compared to this one. Lots of unrealised potential.

My art blog was running on version 2.0 of the Wordpress application, which was quite out of date and apparently susceptable to security issues. I needed to update the application to the current release so my web developer could revise the template and make it visually consistent with my revised website. When looking at the blog logged on as the administrator I couldn't see any evidence of hacking. But as I investigated I came across a big surprise; the hackers had been having lots of fun inside my blog!

My website hoster has a great tech support guy but I learned that it is my responsibility to maintain any 'scripts' (applications) running on my website and keep them up to date. Upgrading a Wordpress blog was supposed to be easy, in fact, the more recent releases have a one button upgrade feature. But that wasn't the case for me in going from version 2.0 to the current version 2.9.2 - this upgrade was an industrial strength process!

The Wordpress.org website has very detailed references for just about anything to do with the software. So I sat down and started to read the sections on upgrading Wordpress. But it turned-out that a very low-level technical issue had to be dealt with before I could actually upgrade the application as the character set used in my Wordpress version was different than that used in the current release. To change the Wordpress character set you have to fuss around deep inside the guts by changing the contents of the MySQL database tables where the Wordpress blog info is stored. This is real nuts and bolts stuff.

The Wordpress.org codex says, 'Up to and including WordPress Version 2.1.3, most WordPress databases were created using the latin1 character set and the latin1_swedish_ci collation. Beginning with Version 2.2, WordPress allows the user to define both the database character set and the collation in their wp-config.php file.'

Apparently I needed to convert the character set from Latin1 to UTF8. Hunh?

You'd know from my earlier posts that while I used to be technical person in a previous life that now I'm just a technology user. And I'm certainly no longer a programmer in any language and I certainly was never a database guru.

But someone had to do something and upgrade the application.

My webhoster provides powerful tools for me to manage my website and its associated applications. A standard webhost tool for managing the MySQL databases is phpMyAdmin. This is a very powerful tool but assumes that the user knows what he/she is doing.

I carefully explored inside my Wordpress MySQL database tables using phoMyAdmin and gained some confidence in doing so, perhaps, on reflection, a bit too much confidence. I found that I could browse through the different tables that make-up my Wordpress blog.

It was while I was browsing through the different tables in the database that I found the warnings about security issues with older Wordpress blogs were justified. In one table that isn't displayed in the blog there was over 400k of hacker spam. It was about 48 A4 pages of printed crap containing URLs, comments, and all sorts of junk. Whoa! How did that get there? It seemed that I was forever getting notifications of comments to my Wordpress blog requiring moderation. I thought in marking them as 'SPAM' that it was deleting them from the blog. Apparently not. They were exploiting security issues in the old Wordpress application. Lesson learned: 'Keep your software up to date!' for good reasons. And just because you don't see anything don't assume that your security hasn't been compromised.

Before I upgraded the Wordpress app I manually deleted the rows of hacker spam in the compromised table. I imagined that I was a surgeon cutting-out a cancer. It felt good.

DON'T DROP THE TABLE!

How was I to know that 'dropping' a table means deleting the table, and there's no 'undo' when you realise that 'oh shit!' moment.

I 'dropped' the whole Wordpress MySQL database before I knew what I had done and had to be rescued by my website hoster restoring a back-up of the database. I guess there's one positive to not updating the blog very frequently. Nothing gets lost, just a restore away from getting back the good oil.

After I thought about it for a while I realised that the character set used in my original version of Wordpress shouldn't be a problem as my blog entries didn't contain any foreign characters which that wouldn't display correctly in the new character set used by the current Wordpress release.

For those feeling brave enough there are some MySQL code examples that would change the character set but being able to set them up and run them looked WAY above my pay grade.

So I backed-up everything and started the upgrade procedure, which actually went very smoothly. No incorrect characters, no apparent problems. I congratulate the Wordpress.org codex contributors for excellent documentation.

So if you are running an old Wordpress blog then upgrade it. And hopefully you'll get it done a lot quicker than I did.

'Inside Tiger's Sordid Life' Who magazine, 21Dec09

2010-03-30T22:12:00.001+10:30

Well, if you are going to have an addiction I reckon the one Tiger confessed to wouldn't be the worst...

MYOB strands Business Basic 1.0 users

2010-03-23T19:55:00.000+10:30

I'm quite dumbfounded that MYOB, maker of a range of good Australia PC accounting packages, doesn't provide a data migration path for users of its Business Basics ver 1.0 to Business Basics ver 1.1! If you run Business Basics 1.0 on Windows Vista or earlier you can't officially move your company files to ver 1.1 that runs on Windows 7. MYOB's tech support group says it can't be done. And ver 1.0 doesn't run on Windows 7.

Business Basics is the entry level Australian book-keeping software that allows me to create my quarterly Business Activity Statements for the Australian Taxation Office. As the income and expenditure in running my visual arts business are pretty minimal I don't need a very sophisticated accounting package. Business Basics costs $199 (RRP). Interestingly, you won't find Business Basics on the MYOB home page - it only appears if you click on the 'Test Drive MYOB' page.

MYOB technical support told me that I can export 'most' of my data from 1.0 and 'try' importing it into 1.1. But they couldn't tell me what wouldn't be brought across doing this. Humh, that kind of comment from a technical support group doesn't inspire me with a huge amount of confidence.

Oh, but wait, MYOB does have an upgrade option for people in this situation. Yep, for only $399 (RRP) I can buy a copy of MYOB Accounting that DOES import Business Basics company files. And it has lots of additional features that I have absolutely no need for!

So it seems to me that selling Business Basics is almost a 'bait and switch' deal - they get you using it and then abandon you when Microsoft upgrades the operating system and your initial version of MYOB Business Basics no longer runs. The only fix then, after you've invested time in building-up your company file data, is to upgrade to a more expensive, more featured product.

Even companies like Microsoft and AutoDesk let you move your data to the next release. What's with these guys at MYOB?

I think it stinks! So what am I doing about it?

1) Making a bit of a stink about the situation;
2) And I'm looking around for an older laptop running Windows XP or Vista that would allow me to continue running the Business Basics ver 1.0 that meets all my needs.

Argh!

Bloody annoying SGIC! I'm just a number to you...

2010-03-22T22:10:00.000+10:30

Looking for a new car insurance policy in Australia? I was recently, but had the most frustrating experience with one of the insurance providers.

The source of my frustration is South Australian insurance company SGIC, its New South Wales counterpart NRMA, and their parent Insurance Australia Group Limited(IAG).

Without going into completely boring detail,in January this year we shopped for and then signed-up for a new automobile insurance policy with SGIC.

Unfortunately, we paid the policy fee to the wrong account number due to SGIC's telesales rep giving us the bPAY number for NRMA, not SGIC. SGIC then cancelled our original policy because they never received our payment (despite it going to their sister company NRMA). When we received the notice of cancellation we called SGIC and a different consultant told me that a refund would be organised and that we needed to pay for a new policy.

That should have set warning bells going... Silly me for believing the phone consultant!

This month, March, we finally had our initial payment refunded after multiple, frustrating calls to different SGIC/NRMA consultants over the two month period.

While each consultant was very pleasant in speaking with me, they were quite ineffective in resolving the problem. One would have thought that it was a straight-forward situation with an easy solution. Apparently not so, or did they just not care because there was no urgency in returning our overpayment?

This whole saga was so annoying that I had to let someone in management know about it. If the company really couldn't refund a payment made incorrectly to its sister company then that's something that management needed to know about.

Early this month I wrote to Andy Cornish, Chief executive Officer - Direct Insurance, at the SGIC/NRMA parent company, Insurance Australia Group Limited. From my experience in business I know that inevitably things go wrong, but what the organisation does to address those problems determines how its customer service is measured.

My letter to Mr Cornish explained the problem; where I thought things had gone wrong; some suggestions for resolving them; and how this whole experience made me feel so disillusioned with SGIC. I closed my letter with a question asking Mr Cornish what he was going to do to repair the goodwill lost in this mess.

Guess they don't really care about a customer like me as I'm still waiting for any response from Mr Cornish. This lack of response hasn't done anything to change my current feeling that I wouldn't recommend SGIC/NRMA to anyone, and it's very unlikely that we will remain SGIC clients after this car insurance policy expires.

After all, if SGIC can't organise something simple like a refund for overpayment, how is it going to handle processing a claim? Hopefully we will never have to find-out.

Once bitten...

My Twitter awakening

2010-02-21T23:00:00.000+10:30

(Warning: way more than 140 characters!)

I used to be a technology guy. I even knew people who wrote COBOL and FORTRAN programs! Now I'm simply a computer user who just wants the stuff to work. So I'm no longer an early adopter of technology - there are just too many opportunities to be frustrated by pushing the envelope.

When I worked at Microsoft the accepted way of quickly communicating to anyone inside or outside the company was by email. Email was the lifeblood of that IT company. So much so that it was sometimes necessary to remind people that, wonder of wonders, they could actually stand-up and talk to the person in the cubicle next to theirs instead of sending an email.

One of my ex-Microsoft colleagues used to contribute to a blog as well as send emails. Then he discovered Twitter and the blog dried-up and even his emails stopped - if you wanted to keep in touch with Chris you had to use Twitter. 'What's wrong with email,' I wondered. Predictably, I was a late adopter of Twitter. Probably because I'm verbose by nature and the 140 character restriction seemed too constraining. But I finally started using Twitter, sending random thoughts by SMS from my mobile phone into what seemed to be the black hole of the Twitter world. I sent them, but have no idea if anyone read them as I don't remember ever getting a response from something I tweeted by phone.

This went on for a while. I'd be welding away in the workshop on a new sculpture and suddenly think of something that I felt EVERYONE had to hear, so I'd tap the thought into my little phone and SMS it to Twitter. With a chuckle to myself, 'I'm so clever!'

Trying to do anything interesting from the Twitter website was not inspiring to me. Too austere and... I don't know... just not friendly. And excuse me, but just who are all these people crapping-on in the Public Timeline!

My dear sister Arden has jumped onto Twitter big time - she's really good at it. She left her corporate job in Seattle (not Microsoft) and she is growing her new business teaching business etiquette to staff from corporates. She regularly tweets quick tips about etiquette and info about her upcoming workshops. Check-out 'Clise Etiquette' on the web for more details.

And local pal and another fellow ex-Microsoftee Fang, now social media and IT consultant, was an early adopter of Twitter. But that was to be expected as Fang is an early adopter of any exciting new technology! He's like the Brad and Angelina of the tech world when it comes to adopting new technologies. Most impressive!

Arden and Fang would tell me about all the cool things that I should be able to do with Twitter but I didn't advance beyond just sending by SMS random thoughts to what seemed to be a big empty vacuum called Twitter. I didn't have a way of receiving tweets on my phone and when I was sitting at my computer I couldn't be bothered watching for the rare gem on Twitter to emerge from what in many cases is just so much trivia that people think others want to know about. Pul-leaze!

But then I had my Twitter 'aha!' moment which came as a result of using different applications that exposed me to a different perspective of the Twitter world: Arden sends her tweets using an application called TweetDeck. Fang uses something else but I installed TweetDeck on my PC, and a different app called 'Twitteriffic' on my hand-held device.

My magic moment happened when I was sitting at the computer one night and current affairs show 'Lateline' was on our ABC TV, and I couldn't ignore the Twitter commentary resulting from one of our boring as bat poop federal politicians being interviewed on #Lateline. I think the major thread was that of viewer frustration that the politician wouldn't/couldn't answer a very simple question.

TweetDeck on my PC was chirping away at me as tweet after tweet appeared like rapid fire commenting on the interview on Lateline. It was instantaneous commentary on a live issue. This must be it! The magic that Twitter offered that Fang had told me about - social media at its most powerful.

The penny dropped, my eyes were opened, cliches abounded... I finally understood what the attraction was. It was really cool.

So there you go. This slowpoke finally got on the bus. Still lots to learn, but I'm having fun in the process.

@rickcl

What husbands don't want to hear...

2010-02-21T20:00:00.000+10:30

Someone said that the three words a husband doesn't want to hear from his wife is, 'I've been thinking...'

My good wife has spent the day moving furniture from one room to another, requiring emptying every item of furniture that was to be moved - taking the CDs from a tall thing, moving all the glassware and cookbooks from an even taller thing resulting in every bit of shelf space covered by something - it was like at my workshop before a big clean; and taking all the paintings/prints from each wall. Move all of it from one room to the other | stand back and think about it | then move it all back to where it was. Perfectly valid process, I thought. I'm learning, after nearly 3 decades of being married, that sometimes you just have to go with the flow, no matter where it seems to be going.

It was funny though, and it reminded me of my dad telling me one of his Army basic training stories where they had to dig a hole, then move the hole to another location. A perfect analogy, I thought. And watching all the activity was exhausting!

But I'm learning: the answer to 'I've been thinking...' is, 'I can make that!' Which scares her almost as much.

What you don't want to hear at the doctors surgery

2010-02-04T11:21:00.000+10:30

I recently had a small flat wart-like thing (to be very specific) removed from my nose because it was in the sightline of my right eye and as I didn't ask for it to be there I didn't think it had as much claim to my nose as I did.

The plastic surgeon did a fine job. The procedure didn't hurt at all other than the initial sting from the local. A few tiny stitches and some tape over it all to heal-up. All seemed good.

A week later I returned to have the stitches removed by the wonderful nurse. When she removed the tape she said, 'ooh...' and made a bit of a grimace, and said she'd have to get doctor to look at it.

Doctor came in, had a look, and also said, 'ooh..' with a bit of a grimace. If a patient is looking for reassurance then this isn't what one wants to hear when the wound is being examined. This reminded me of the old Bill Cosby sketch where he talks about not wanting to hear the surgeon say 'oops' during an operation.

It seems that I pulled-through the stitches, or something, and the tape got a bit slack. So, although I wasn't able to see the wound, I suspect that it isn't as neat as the doctor hoped it would be. There was a bit of debate but they cleaned-up the wound, put another bit of tape over it, said take the tape off in a week and if I had concerns to call them back, otherwise I'd see the doctor for a follow-up appointment in a month.

I don't know... it wasn't really the experience that I was expecting having studied 'Nip Tuck' in great detail. Darned reality shows aren't what they claim to be!

Just another scar to add to my collection.

Mastered a new task! Opening the pool salt bag! (I'm so happy!)

2010-02-04T11:07:00.000+10:30

You know when someone does something that looks so easy, and then when you try it you make a complete hash of it? It was like that years ago in Melbourne when I decided that I was going to learn to windsurf. It couldn't be too hard, could it? Lots of people did it. Well, I did get to be competent enough that I could stand-up, turn the board around (both tack and gibe) and get back to shore. But it was a major lesson in humiliation. Beth still has a photo of me falling-off the board, head and upper torso in the water, bottom and legs sticking straight-up out of the water. Funny what one's partner decides to keep, isn't it?

Learning to back a car trailer was kind of the same but with the added pressure of it being a masculinity indicator - a bloke can't go to the tip and then not back the trailer to the edge of the pit to throw-in the junk. Worse would be having to unhook the trailer and manually wheel it to the edge, then reconnect to the car later. Oh! The stories that would be told over a cold brew later, 'didja see the wanker with the green trailer today? I bet his mum still wipes his bum!' Ha-ha-ha...

But I can back the trailer and I don't disgrace myself at the tip. One would hope so, as a holder of an articulated truck driver's license that theoretically enables me to drive semi-trailer, it would be pretty ugly if I couldn't. Has anyone developed a Wii or xBox game that teaches how to back a trailer? What about an iPhone app? You could change the colour of the car, decorate the practice backing area to make it look like a shopping mall carpark or something... maybe not.

Back to the present! Something I've always wanted to know how to do was to open a feed sack, or salt sack, or any large sack at all that is closed by stitching on the top. The cool way to do this is by tugging on the strings that results in a wonderfully satisfying almost uncontrollable unzipping of the bag. I've seen it done so many times, mainly in a rural setting like around horses or other animals. And it's not a gender specific knowledge - I've seen more women do it than men. Not sure what to make of that so I'll just walk away.

Why? We had to have our swimming pool resurfaced. The fibreglass gel coat died and was flaking-off making a real mess and stuffing-up the automatic pool cleaner.There were all these dirty looking black spots where things were growing under pin-hole cracks and fissures in the gel coat. A guy who came with high recommendations did what appears to be a lovely job grinding-out the old crap and recoating the pool, and we refilled it once we got a permit from SA Water.

Our pool uses a salt water chlorinator, and that needs salt water to work. At this point, perhaps until the new desalination plant goes on line in Adelaide, SA Water supplies fresh water through the pipes. We needed salt water in the pool. That meant buying 10 x 20kg bags of pool salt from our friendly pool supply shop. I don't know why pool shop people don't wear all their gold and diamonds when working in the shop. It must get really tiresome going home from the shop looking all daggy like they are 'regular folks' then dressing-up and getting on the glitter that I've paid for. They aren't fooling me - they probably make more money than plumbers do! 'Pool salt' from a pool supply shop costs a fair bit more than pool salt from the hardware shop. I can only guess that in the warehouse each special, expensive Pool Shop Pool Salt bag is kissed by 10 virgins before being sent to the pool shop.

So I had 10 bags of salt to open and I didn't want to repeat the normal process of hacking the top of the bag in frustration after trying what seemed every variation of string clipping only to find the string won't budge. Before leaving the pool shop with my very special bags of pool salt I asked the guy who tests the water samples if he knew how to open bags by unzipping the string. He shook his head and said the foreman on the cattle station he owns does it but he keeps well away from the animals so he didn't know. No one else did. Perhaps they are't as well-off as I thought; maybe they don't buy their diamonds in feed sack quantities yet.

One of my best friends is Google. It doesn't argue with me. It doesn't sit in my chair. And it's always there for me, just about. Except when Mr HP has a bad day. It took a bit of trial and error to find the right search term to get my answer but I finally did at www.motherearthnews.com which has a brief and very effective explanation about how to orient the bag, and which loop to cut, which strings to pull when, and voila the bag throws itself open at you.

So I literally get 10 out of 10 today - ten bags attempted, and ten bags successfully opened with nary a fuss nor cuss. Ah, the simple joys in life - mastering a new small task.

Will I tell the pool people about my success? You bet. Will I tell them how I did it? Not sure yet - might see if I can negotiate a deal or something. Don't tell them about motherearthnews.com, okay?

When fashion meets pop music

2010-01-07T21:00:00.000+10:30

So I was wondering why the Bloodhound Gang weren't contracted by a certain fashion company to change the lyrics on their song to '... Foxtrot.... Charlie... Uniform ... Kilo'.

Guess you had to be there.

Really annoying HP spam - argh!!!

2010-01-07T07:34:00.003+10:30

Computers are wonderful tools - they'll generally do what you tell them to do. And Hewlett-Packard is a great company with a proud history - my wife even worked for them a long time ago.

I bought a desktop PC a year ago, happens to be a HP one. It was covered with a one year warranty and it has worked well in that one year. I'm hoping that it will continue to work well for a good while yet.

It seems that HP, the manufacturer, might not feel as confident as I do about the future reliability of this PC as I keep getting a really annoying pop-up ad for an extended warranty and I can't seem to make it go away. It really needs a radio button that says, 'No, thanks, I've thought about it but I'll really just take my chances.' and go away for good.

When I click on the 'No, not interested right now' the pop-up goes away for an hour or so then comes back, just to see if I've changed my mind and seen the logic in its offer.

I even clicked on the bottom button, which was somewhat of a lie but I didn't feel bad about lying to my computer. It probably lies to me. 'Yes, I did that back-up that you requested,' with fingers crossed behind its cpu. Maybe the software is so smart that it knows that I didn't really buy an extended warranty after all, but it didn't want to embarrass me by explicitly saying that I lied.

So I guess I've got to wade through the HP organisation to find someone who can help remove this little pesky pop-up from my PC. Or should I trade it in for a different brand that just doesn't care as much as HP does?

New website coming...

2009-11-01T21:42:00.001+10:30

Yeah, watch this space for announcement of a major rewrite of www.rickclise.com. Not long now!

Ooh, I'm so excited!

Halloween in Adelaide - a bit of a fizzer...

2009-11-01T21:30:00.002+10:30

What's happened to the wonderful costumed kids who used to visit each 31st of October to trick or treat? Last night we had only 3 kids in 2 groups ring the bell. Leaving us now to eat a lot of chocolate.

What's happened to the scary ghosts, the monsters, the fairies? Have they all grown-up and gone to parties where something stronger than Freddo Frogs is consumed?

We gave it a shot though - the kids carved a wonderful 'jack-o-melon' as I was too late to buy a whole pumpkin. The idea of gluing together a few pumpkin segments from Coles didn't really excite me.

But eldest daughter celebrated Halloween in Ashland, Oregon and texted that her trip to US is now complete, having Halloween'ed in America. I knew she would love it!

Miserly computer owner...

2009-06-08T22:57:00.002+09:30

When I was a small child my parents were very strict about not wasting food, and we kids got praise for being in the 'clean plate club' after eating all of our dinner. Surprising that we aren't all obese as a result!

I think some of this 'clean plate club' mentality has carried-over into my use of technology. When I worked in the computer industry it used to frustrate me seeing all those PCs turned-on but not doing anything while their users were away from their desks, talking on the phone or whatever. Couldn't they even just look busy? Sorry, screen savers don't count. Maybe I'm a closet timeshare mainframe user, dutifully wanting to feed those valuable CPU cycles with 'real work'!

So I was thrilled to learn about SETI and other distributed computing projects that would occupy one's unused computing resources for the betterment of mankind. Actually felt good leaving the PC on (using electricity I wouldn't otherwise be using) while it checks to see if there's a pattern in a bunch of radio waves that would confirm an alien burping after a particularly large meal.

But I hate throwing-out old PCs. Surely they can be used for something useful... Why, only last year did I finally get rid of that old IBM PC XT bought as a souvenir from the kids' school.

Take the example of an old work PC that Beth bought when her employer did a technology refresh. 'Yep, buy the machine and we'll use it at home,' I said to her. So we did. Then had to add a bigger hard disk, add a sound card and a new video card. Throw-in a Firewire card for good measure. And her work forgot to include an original operating system CD and license so better buy one of those too.

Create the user accounts, upgrade the service pack and apply all the Windows patches. Install the antivirus software, update it. Install Office, apply the updates for it. Now run...

Oops, it's running too slow - seems to be paging-out to disk all the time. Youngest child, who inherited this lipstick on a pig of a PC says, 'Dad, it's too slow to use!' Crikey, what do they want?

Oh, should have checked earlier, but it only has 512MB of memory. Easy fix, RAM is cheap. right? Normally, except... for this motherboard it has to use a special kind of RAM that isn't cheap. In fact, to upgrade the RAM to something that is usable these days is going to cost about what the second hand PC did when we bought it from dear understanding wife's place of work.

Nope, I don't think so. [Major cursing session]

So off to Officeworks or somewhere like that to buy a new PC. But what to do with the old one with all these cool cards in it?

Aha, Windows 7 release candidate is now available for public testing and a few good people I know have raved about it. Apparently it works well in low configuration PCs. Were they thinking about my situation? Fingers crossed!

Inspired again!

Downloaded the Windows 7 RC software onto my New PC. Have to download and install other software on it to create an .iso DVD to actually install the new operating system on the Old PC. Humh, the Old PC has a CD-ROM drive, not a DVD drive. Don't know enough about .iso files to see if it can be split across multiple CD-ROMs. Easy fix, buy a second hand DVD drive on eBay. Did that, installed it on the old PC and it works fine.

But Windows 7 RC won't install. DVD seems to be blank in the Old PC. Fart around with the start-up routine, set 'boot from CD drive' as the first option. But it doesn't work. Problem with the DVD I created or with the PC? DVD reads okay in other PCs, and Old PC with second hand DVD drive reads other DVDs. Scratch head... Do I need to update the Old PC BIOS? Can't be bothered!

Oh, now read the system requirements for Windows 7 RC which say it needs 1 GB of RAM or more. Oops. Seem to be back at the starting point again. Bugger. Buy more RAM? Nah, don't be stupid.

Not wanting to 'waste' this PC then thought of what else could be be done with it - too big to use as a door stop, too small to be a refridgerator.... what about running a Linux distributable? Heard good things about some of them, especially the Ubuntu one. Always took pride in being able to truthfully say that I had written the 'Hello world' program in C and had compiled and linked it on a unix machine A Long Time Ago. Shouldn't be too hard to do something useful with Linux.

Thought, could use a file and printer server in the house, why not set-up Old PC as that? Installed Ubuntu server. Created a user account. Started the server and logged-on. Boring... not doing anything, yet could do everything if only I knew what to type...

Since A Long Time Ago had forgotten ALL unix commands. Accidently did log-out as the user but now time to go to bed. How to shut-down the PC running Ubuntu linux?... Quick check of the web from a different PC but can't find a 'shutdown' unix command. Too tired, just turn-off the darned PC and hope it doesn't clobber the O/S.

Next day, thought don't want to spend rest of my life retraining to be a Unix sys admin. Feel life's too short to be doing command line editing. (Call me lazy.) Blow away the server installation and install the Ubuntu desktop version. Did so and it looks great. But what am I going to do with it now? Too big to be a doorstop, too small to be a refridgerator... Can I get the kids to use it 'Hey, check-out these cool games on the PC - there's (something that looks like) Tetris!!!!'

Should have predicted their absolute and total lack of interest. Silly me.

Wondering now, anyone want a perfectly good Old PC with a new, fully upgraded install of Ubuntu? Sure that we could work-out a good deal.

[Note to self - forget good Samaritan tendencies towards elderly PCs. Just let them die gracefully.]

A small joy - podcasts and raking leaves...

2009-05-31T15:02:00.004+09:30

I catch-up on my favourite podcasts when I'm doing yardwork.

People walking by our place might wonder what's going on as I laugh to myself from some wonderful turn of phrase in News from Lake Wobegon, or they might see my head spinning from the techno world of Dave, Mike, Kent and invited guests at the Extraordinary Everyday Lives Show on The Podcast Network.

There's Amanda Smith from ABC Radio National's Artworks, and Phillip Adams shoving guests around on LNL. What short story is being read at The New Yorker's fiction podcast? Health Minutes with Dr Norman Swan, By Design, Dr Karl, Sunday Profile with Monica Attard... lots of friendly voices at ABC Radio National podcasts.

Our claret ash tree drops a LOT of leaves, so I caught-up with a LOT of podcasts recently! But what a wonderful combination - the old world physical delight of raking leaves combined with the 21st century technology of MP3 playing.

Now if only the council would come around and take away these leaves...

Such a Politically Incorrect day in Adelaide, again...

2009-04-13T19:32:00.002+09:30

I almost hate to say it, but wasn't it another absolutely beautiful day that we had in Adelaide today. Clear skies, warm weather. It just begged for us to get out of the house. But could the kids do without MSN for a few hours?

It was too inviting. We did get ourselves organised enough to spend a few hours at Semaphore Beach enjoying a family picnic while catching-up on some lazy reading. Later, enjoyed a drink and a nibble at the Palais at Semaphore listening to a band playing. I said, 'we'll go just after this song finishes.' Smarty pants daughter said, 'Dad, it's jazz, it NEVER finishes.'

But I confess that I felt guilty about it... after all, Adelaide has been so dry for so long, and we haven't had any significant rain for ages. I'm starting to expect our state government to strike a deal with a clothing maker to start churning-out Stillsuits for us all to microrecycle our sweat and urine until the new desalination plant cracks its valve open. For heavy sweaters they might be able to sell their excess water on the open market - I'd pay for some of them to come stand over my dead, brown what used to be called 'lawn' and do some dripping!

Not a bad way to spend this Easter Monday holiday. But still, come on the rain!

'Qudos' for Qantas!

2009-01-22T09:03:00.002+10:30

Our national carrier has seen a lot of bad press recently with unfortunate maintenance issues on some of its planes causing a few problems and delays for travellers.

Yesterday, while waiting for my Qantas flight back to Adelaide from Sydney I saw three off-duty Qantas flight attendants do something wonderful that made me feel good about Qantas.

Visible from the gate that we were sitting at, a large Qantas jet was being towed from a terminal gate to somewhere else, looking like it was being towed towards the runways from where we were sitting. All the doors on the towed plane were closed except for one at underside of the back of the plane. It looked like a small cargo door or maintenance hatch, and it was obviously open.

The flight attendants spotted this situation and immediately raised the alarm to the gate staff, quoting the tail number of the jet and saying that it looked like a door was open. One of them was on what seemed to be a private phone call and she quickly finished that call to raise the alarm about the plane, thinking, naturally, that if the plane was to take-off with a door or hatch open that the consequences could be terrible.

It all turned-out well though, as the gate staff reassured everyone that the plane was being towed to maintenance, not to flight.

But what impressed me was that the three flight attendants took immediate action when they saw something that didn't look right. It wasn't a case of 'that's not my job' and then ignoring it. Well done! I didn't get their names but they were waiting at Sydney gate 6 about 7:00 pm on 21 January, apparently waiting to crew flight QF487 to Melbourne.

So 'Qudos' to Qantas for its proactive and safety conscious staff!

Andy Goldsworthy's 'Spire' at The Presidio

2009-01-19T15:15:00.003+10:30

While in San Francisco my great artist friend Blazin drove us to The Presidio to see the Andy Goldsworthy sculpture, 'Spire'.

You just keep looking up, and up, and up. It never seems to end!

That's Blazin and me at the base of 'Spire'.

Viewing the US election results differently

2008-11-17T19:52:00.002+10:30

A dear relative of mine forwarded me a pretty neat URL that remaps the recent US presidential election differently - showing the election results by population rather than by state boundaries. If you look at how the different US states voted you see lots of Republican voting and may wonder how Democrat Barack Obama became President-Elect.

Have a look - it's informative.

US Electoral College elects the President - and all this time I thought it was you and me who did it...

2008-11-04T22:51:00.003+10:30

Maybe I was napping in high school when they explained how the President of the United States is elected by the electoral college votes. But as it is Extremely Topical tomorrow in The Old Country, I thought I'd see what I could learn about it now to make-up for this one little, bitty gap in my otherwise encyclopedic knowledge about the US of A. Okay, maybe not encyclopedic, but pull my finger anyway!

As you know, in Australia voting is compulsory. For the Federal election everyone votes for their local representatives from a list of different parties. Without going into tedious detail - the party with the largest number of popularly elected members forms government, and that party determines who its leader will be.

Compare that with the US system where you can, but don't have to as you voting isn't compulsory, vote directly for the President and Vice President, as I've already done by postal vote. The parties nominate their candidates for POTUS and VicePOTUS (or whatever the Secret Service call the #2 on the card) and good old Ralph Nader puts his own name down just to annoy people. BUT, and big BUT! The popular vote doesn't directly determine who actually gets elected in the US.

The electors of the Electoral College do that.

So I visited the US government website for info about this process. See National Archives and Records Administration website for info about this system.

What's interesting is the timeline in this process. Tomorrow in the US - November 4th - is the popular election where citizens vote for the President and VP, and for other elected officials. But the electoral college doesn't meet until December 15th to elect the president. So there will be a lot of media coverage tomorrow, worldwide, as the next US President and VP receive the popular votes, but the real important event doesn't happen until December 15th! And how much press does that date get?

There must be an important 'checks and balances' argument here - otherwise why have a popular vote AND an electoral college vote if the electoral college vote follows the popular vote?

Someone please tell me about this!

'Democrats for McCain'? WTF!

2008-11-04T22:40:00.002+10:30

As my dad would say,'pardon my french'!

I really had to wonder about the depths of frustration that have caused (what I suspect is a small number of) Democrats in the US to publically endorse John McCain for president. John McCain = Republican. Come-on people, that's the Other Side from Democrat-land.

All because of how 'Hilary was mistreated!'? What? She's a big girl. She didn't get the nomination by the Democrat party. So how is voting for McCain going to help make Mrs Clinton feel better about not being the Democratic candidate for President? I'm missing something here...

My friend Otis (yep, the one and the same - he talks to US) calls them, 'Democrats gone Insane!'

Grumpy radio host?

2008-11-04T22:29:00.002+10:30

Radio National on ABC Radio) keeps me company in my workshop during the day. Lots of interesting subjects, lots of interesting topics.

Tonight I laughed when Philip Adams, host of a radio show on Radio National called 'Late Night Live' where he interviews various interesting people on a variety of current affairs subjects, told his enthusiastic guest, 'Shut-up Charles'! In good nature, of course.

Dear Philip, on his 'little wireless show...' as he annoyingly calls it, was being out-talked by his guest. Not a usual situation on LNL - normally Philip gets the last word in, after all, he does have his finger on the button! Will we hear Charles again on LNL? I hope so!

(Don't tell Philip, but sometimes his guests are almost as interesting as he is...)

Watch Sarah Palin to obscurity

2008-10-11T21:09:00.001+10:30

A brief flash in the pan, me thinks... Back to hunting and eating moose in lovely AK.

Visual Arts Resale Royalty Scheme - about time!

2008-10-06T09:59:00.003+10:30

NAVA (The National Association for the Visual Arts Limited) has been working for a considerable length of time on lobbying the current and preceding Australian governments to introduce an artists resale royalty scheme. This would see artists, or the estates of deceased artists, receiving a royalty payment when their artwork is resold. With the exception of one gallery that I know of in Australia (although there may be more that I don't know about) an artist does not receive payment for sales after the initial sale of an artwork. So if an artist makes and sells a painting for $2,500 initially, and 20 years later that same painting is resold for $25,000 (or $250,000!) the artist currently receives no benefit from the increase in value of their artwork.

Peter Garrett, Minister for the Arts (amoungst other things), will introduce legislation into Parliament later this year to make the Resale Royalty Scheme law by mid 2009. You can read a fact sheet about the scheme by clicking on the hyperlink above. In a nutshell, for artworks sold for more than $1000 the new scheme will pay 5% of the sale price of the artwork to the artist, or his/her heirs for 70 years after the artist's death, for artworks that are acquired after the introduction of the new law.

As with any new legislation, there are positions both for and against it. From NAVA's perspective the legislation is watered down from the ideal. Some artists are against the legislation, saying that it will only benefit a very tiny proportion of the artist community - those whose works sell for more than $1000, and the proposed legislation won't benefit artists whose work has been acquired before the law is implemented. There aren't many artists making a living from their artwork.

And you can imagine that this legislation is fairly unpopular with the auction houses, most art galleries and many art collectors. Why, because it will reduce their profit when selling the artworks covered by this legislation. That's understandable as no one likes losing money - but hardly a valid reason for not introducing it. After all, many collectors buy art for its appreciating value, although some actually do like what they buy.

By implementing this scheme, Australia will join 49 other countries that acknowledge a resale royalty right for visual artists.

Well done NAVA!

What to wish for in these desparate times...

2008-09-28T20:09:00.002+09:30

Seeing how the economy of the United States is imploding from the consequences of the sub-prime crisis made me think that the Department of Homeland Security should be taking a good hard look at the situation as I'm guessing that it was Al-Qaeda operatives who bought those homes, counting on capitalist greed to bring the economy down. Who needs bombs when human greed can do your dirty work for you?

So I was thinking, while singing badly in the shower today, what do I want? A cheap mortgage, fast car, new pulse MIG welder, 'World peace'? Nah, and I probably best leave that last one to Miss America contestents.

Then I saw it, on the label of a tube of shampoo. It was staring me in the face; if it had been a snake it would have bit me: '7 wishes in 1 week' My question answered. I now know what I want!

I will list them for you:
less split ends
manageable
smooth
shine
nourish
strong
soft

Simple!

'Grapple Tackle' - BAD DOG!

2008-09-28T20:01:00.003+09:30

Heard something on the radio recently that made me wonder... a player in the National Rugby League got into trouble for doing a 'grapple tackle' on another player.

Not being a follower of either rugby code I don't know what a 'grapple tackle' exactly is, but I suspect that it isn't comfortable being the recipient of one. (Other rugby neophytes can click on the hyperlink for an explanation. And I was right - it doesn't look comfortable.)

But would it be worse if the offense was for a 'tackle grapple'? Probably!

NAVA - are you a member?

2008-09-14T18:32:00.002+09:30

I was recently appointed to the board of the National Association for the Visual Arts Ltd (NAVA). NAVA is Australia's peak body focusing on professional development for visual artists, and it's a key lobbying organisation to Federal government on the behalf of visual artists. Its successes are impressive.

If you are an Australian artist and not a member of NAVA you should check-out the organisation - there are significant benefits to being a NAVA member. Click on the title of this blog entry to visit the NAVA website

If you have been a member and no longer are, or have decided not to become a member, I'd be very keen to know why. What can NAVA do differently, or better, to serve its members?

Send me an email with your thoughts: rick at rickclise dot com

Funny insurance letter...

2008-09-14T18:30:00.002+09:30

My wife just received a letter about her term life insurance cover and the first line of it read, '... I am pleased you have not had to claim on your insurance over the past year.'

Not as much as we are!

Billing gripe... argh!

2008-09-07T10:42:00.003+09:30

Our mobile phone provider recently imposed a charge of $2.00 to send us a paper bill, rather than sending it by email. This gripes me! If I choose to receive email bills from them and for some reason I don't get it will they waive the bill? Do they guarantee delivery of the email bill? No. Stupid idea. Email is not infallible.

Then again, Australia Post isn't infallible, but I can't think of one instance in all the time of receiving bills by post where one has gone missing.

Another money grabbing effort by a supplier!

Grumpy old man

Thank you Barack Obama

2008-09-07T10:28:00.003+09:30

It's not often that I have a reason to thank a politician, but I want to send a big 'thankee!' to Barack Obama in the USA.

Dear wife and I relax some evenings watching TV drama series on DVD, and we've worked our ways through several different series over the past couple of years. We can tell you any number of quirky ways to die from 'Six Feet Under'; we can tell you several different ways to torture and kill bad guys who are threatening our way of life from '24'; and we were inspired by the idealised political doings of President Jed Bartlett in 'The West Wing' (ah, if only)... and the list goes on.

Most recent was 'Spooks' about the ever clever members of the British intelligence organisation MI5, whose use of brains, instead of Jack Bauer's sheer torturing and killing skills, makes it a much more interesting watch.

Finished that, what next?

Supposedly, as he hasn't returned my calls about it, Barack Obama is quoted as saying that his favourite TV show is 'The Wire' about a group of detectives from the Baltimore Police Department, and the criminals that they deal with. It is excellent watching, but you have to stick with it. I guess it's like a real police investigation where you have lot of details at the beginning of a case but it doesn't make any sense. The writers and directors of The Wire seem to have structured their storylines like that - when you watch the first episode of a series you wonder what the heck is going on, but stick with it and it makes sense.

So thank you Barack Obama. For this one small contribution to our lives. May you make more significant ones to ours, and the lives of others following November.

Abusing the 'save the planet' movement

2008-08-06T22:55:00.003+09:30

We recently received a nicely printed invitation from an organisation to be 'kind to the planet save paper' by having their client reports emailed to us rather than having them send printed copies.

Noble idea, but I happen to need printed copies of those reports to be kept as tax records. So how much is this organisation saving the planet by having ME print the documents locally, rather than them printing them and posting them to me.

I'd rather they just say, 'hey, printing reports for all of our customers takes a lot of time and resources, so how's about helping us improve our profitability by YOU printing these documents?' At least they would be telling the truth.

'Snail Mail Gets Literal'

2008-08-06T22:49:00.004+09:30

Saw a wonderful, quirky article on the fashion/technology page of Time magazine's August 4, 2008 issue. Some UK artists have attached radio frequency id tags (RFID) to the shells of what looks like garden snails, and people can send emails that are encoded onto the RFID of a snail at one end of its tank, and read later when the snail (ultimately) makes its way to the other end of the tank. Once read at that end the email is posted back on the internet.

(The information super snailway?...)

Very strange gift = Tormenting the Cat!

2008-07-22T21:17:00.003+09:30

We've had a relationship with BHP (once known back here as 'The Big Australian', and now known as BHP Billiton), for years and years and years. We've known them as shareholders enjoying the benefits of Australia's mineral boom; and when I kept a chair warm in the Microsoft Melbourne office as an enthusiastic young(ish) large account sales rep BHP was my customer and I worked with them on their global PC software standardisation project implementing Microsoft Office worldwide across the BHP world. Not everyone liked it, but you can't please everyone all the time...

Today we received the strangest item in the mail. It was an odd-shaped manila envelope from BHP Billiton that contained a laser pointer pen! It was in a neat metal box that was printed with Beijing Olympics 2008 logos. A laser pen!

(I wondered if BHP Billiton had bought a whole bunch of these items and for some odd reason now couldn't distribute them to friends and family going to Beijing. Perhaps the temptation to write 'Free Tibet' on the roof of the birds nest was too great to risk, or having 'Falun Gong' scrawled in red laser light inside the Water Cube concerned the BHP Billiton execs - wouldn't want the Chinese to stop buying our good Aussie iron ore, would we?)

There were no instructions provided with the pen, other than a tiny sticker that told how to remove the small plastic insulator in the battery compartment. It did have a small laser light warning tag on the side of it, which was the only indication that we saw that the item contained more than just a pen!

Good friend Fang has wangled himself a cool job at the Uni of Adelaide and has friends in the photonics lab where they get paid to do neat stuff with lasers, glass fibre and all kinds of things that you wouldn't let your children play with. Unrelated to this interesting gift that we received today, Fang and I were recently talking about lasers, laser pointers, and their potential for serious tissue damage. I think the government is considering banning the import of these devices as some fools keep shining them at aircraft pilots, which is not appreciated by the boys and girls in the cockpit. And an article in the newspaper recently told of a party in Russia (I think it was) where a laser light show designed to illuminate inanimate items was somehow shown on the partygoers dancing on the floor, resulting in permanent retina damage to something like 30 of them! Permanent eye damage. Read all about it!

Egads! Apparently, many of these little laser pointers coming into Australia are up to 10 times more powerful than their rating on the package. Quality control not exactly fantastic? Some of these items are pretty dangerous.

Back to the gift received from BHP Billiton - the laser pen doesn't shine the laser light from the pointy end of the pen - it comes out of the TOP of the pen! The end that is closer to your eyes when you normally hold the pen in your hand. Two little buttons on the pen - one turns on the red laser pointer, and the other turns-on a small white LED light (which for all I know could actually be the radioactive output from a small fission reactor in the end of the pen!)

Okay, don't panic, I thought. And once I got comfortable with the idea that I was holding a pen that could put my eye out, at least virtually, I thought I would see what it could do.

...Here's the part where the cat comes into the story....

Did you know how long you can keep a cat busy chasing a little red dot around the floor, up the walls and around and around in circle? From exhaustive personal experience I can tell you that it can keep a cat busy for a LONG TIME. But we were very careful to avoid any chance of eye contact with the little red dot. It's one thing to exercise the cat, and a completely different matter to blind dear puss.

Cats are fast, and they aren't used to chasing things that can outrun them. I was very impressed to see how fast our 10 year old torty could accelerate as she raced to catch-up with Super Dot zipping across the floor boards.

I wouldn't really say 'tormenting' was what we did to the cat - she could have stopped at any time. I mean, no one was forcing her to do it, were they?! But I did notice that the cat is having a very good sleep tonight.

Why did BHP Billiton send such an unexpected item as a shareholder's gift? Got me. Very strange indeed.

Who to complain to!

2008-06-30T23:33:00.002+09:30

My wife expects good service when she shops somewhere. I don't blame her. I get frustrated when I want to buy something and the stupid shop assistant can't get off the mobile to her boyfriend, 'HELLO! I have money that I want to spend in your shop...'

My wife teaches customer-facing people in business how to provide good service. So when she's had a shopping experience that is less-than-satisfying I generally hear about it in all its detail. Depending on how cheesed-off she gets with the sales assistant she'll either say, 'I could have fair slapped her!' which reflects pretty poor service. But give her a 'sorry that's not my job' sales person response to her request or question and it really, really gets her blowing steam. THEN I usually hear, 'I should write to the chairman!'

So rewind a little to that ad on TV (for what product I can't remember, but it was a memorable ad nevertheless) where a highly strung boss shouts out the window to an employee scurrying off to get something for the boss, 'NOT. HAPPY. JAN!!!!'

Well, that got me thinking about how IBM used to have a code phrase for their fulfillment department. They would run a promotion and have people call into their 1 800 number (back then) and ask to speak with 'Sally Green.' There wasn't really a Sally Green working at IBM - the name was just a code for the folks on the other side of the phone (who were probably in Sydney at that time, rather than somewhere on the subcontinent as they are now...) that the call related to a specific promo.

So if IBM can have a 'Sally' (Green) for fulfillment purposes, can't other organisations have a 'Jan' for handling customer complaints (as in 'Not happy Jan' Jan?)

Think I might be onto a winner now. I just have to get my wife on board, ready for her next foray into complaint-land... Ready the 'Jans', corporate Australia!

Bill Henson 'controversy' - uninformed loudmouths!

2008-06-01T09:02:00.005+09:30

Censorship! Restrictions on the arts! Some misguided and ill-informed people are making a lot of noise that could have long term consequences for the arts and artistic freedom in Australia, and I am not happy about it.

In this era of pedophiliac church leaders and hypocritical politicians some of our society has become just a little too zealous in their fear of anything outside their own beliefs!

You probably know that Australian photographic artist Bill Henson has been very prominent in national news in this country, for the confiscation by New South Wales Police of several of his photographs from Sydney fine art gallery Roslyn Oxley 9, in Paddington.

I haven't seen the photographs. And I suspect that most people complaining about them haven't seen the photos either and that's a problem.

Henson is an internationally famous artist. He is not a pornographer.

Someone called the police to complain that a photograph (perhaps the one on the exhibition invitation) was pornographic as it showed a nude child. The police investigated and confiscated several photographs, causing the gallery to cancel the exhibition that was to open on May 23rd.

I am not surprised, however I am very disappointed, with what are demonstrably uninformed comments by many people calling the artworks 'pornographic' and that they should be banned, and that the gallery owners and the artist should be punished. I'm not even surprised to read that Roslyn Oxley's husband said they had received several death threats because of the photos.

Have these people seen the photos? Do they know what pornography is? Do they know the difference between nudity and pornography? Most likely no in all cases.

Kevin Rudd, our newly elected Prime Minister, the great new hope for this country, called the photographs 'absolutely revolting.' His personal opinion.

A photo from the exhibition has been published in a newspaper, with the girl's eyes covered for anonymity, and her bare breasts covered for decency (nudity has its place - child nudity is not frequently shown in the national press).

The girl's pose is not different from the poses of paintings, photographs, and sculptures by the world's greatest artists. It is not pornographic.

I have been to Roslyn Oxley 9 gallery in Sydney. It is not some seedy backlane 'adult' bookshop. Roslyn Oxley 9 gallery shows fine art by Australia's most respected artists.

Just to check my facts, I queried the Merriam-Webster online dictionary for a definition of 'pornography':

"...Etymology: Greek pornographos adjective, writing about prostitutes...

1: the depiction of erotic behaviour (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement
2: material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behaviour and is intended to cause sexual excitement
3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction the pornography of violence"

From what I saw in that photo, by the above definition there is nothing pornographic about it. It is just nudity.

Perhaps the person complaining confused nudity with pornography? But they are such very different things.

On the positive, the public support of Bill Henson and the gallery has been widespread - Malcolm Turnbull, the Shadow Treasurer, has spoken in support of him and Mr Turnbull apparently owns two photographs by Henson. Prominent artists, and writers are speaking out in support of Henson and the gallery and condemning the police for their action. In this weekend's The Weekend Australian Financial Review, on page 27, there is a full page article about this issue, quoting playwright David Williamson:

'No one in their right senses would condone child pornography or the exploitation of underaged people. But there has to be a descrimination beween sordid child pornography and the sort of art that Henson creates. The two are poles apart. Anyone who can't see that is a big worry, especially if they're the leader of the country.'

To call these works pornographic is incorrect and very misleading. Those who are doing so should be ashamed.

If you feel like I do that Kevin Rudd's comments about the Bill Henson photographs are inappropriate you can write to him at: The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister, PO Box 6022, House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600.

Old Midnight Oil rocker; now Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett, might be interested in how we feel as well: The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MP, at the same address.

I write this as a parent of two teenaged daughters, as a former board member of an all girls school, and as an artist. The wellbeing of children is forefront in my mind. Henson's work is not pornography.

BabelSwarm - virtual art in Second Life

2008-05-19T16:25:00.002+09:30

On the 20 April 2008 Radio National show 'ArtWorks' the developers of BabelSwarm were interviewed, and the interview can be listened to streamed from a link to the blogspot url above (the BabelSwarm interview starts about 19:15 into the program.)

BabelSwarm was developed by three guys who won an artist in residence grant from the Australia Council to develop a virtual artwork in Second Life, with a real life interface. The real life aspect of it was shown recently at the Lismore Regional Gallery, with the virtual work on Second Life.

There was a funny aspect to the success of BabelSwarm in that the Second Life administration services thought that it was trying to take-down Second Life because of its success - it was consuming more and more computer resources at Second Life - it thought that BabelSwarm was the equivalent of a computer virus!

Here's the great quote from the developers regarding that perceived threat by Second Life's adminstration: '[BabelSwarm] couldn't tell the difference between a malicious attack and art'!

Gosh, sort of sounds like the previous federal government, doesn't it?

The BabelSwarm island is at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ACVA/119/180/295/
Clever guys!

Really annoying salesman... long rant!

2008-05-08T19:25:00.004+09:30

When was the last time you were really annoyed by someone trying to give you the hard sell? For me it was just a week ago.

As you know, I work for myself and while my work making metal sculptures is physically demanding, it doesn't improve my aerobic fitness. Perhaps I need to take-up jogging with a metal sculpture or two held overhead! And I'm looking to get some routine in my life. Give me something that I have to do each week.

So I visited a local gym, down the road from my workshop. I've driven by it many times and always said to myself that I would have to drop in sometime to have a look. When I finally did I thought I must be at a good gym because the car park was absolutely chockers and people were coming and going. It didn't feel like one of those dying gyms where there aren't any customers and the staff are pre-occupied doing their fingernails to keep from dying of boredom.

I introduced myself to the scarily fit young woman behind the counter, explained that I wanted to learn what the gym had to offer and find out costs, blah blah blah. And she asked me to fill-out a 'casual visit questionnaire' and to take a seat until one of the 'membership consultants' could talk with me. My hackles should have gone up at this point. The questionnaire requested not only the expected info like my name, contact details and so on, but also some things that you wouldn't be able to ask in a job interview in Australia like marital status, number of children... And there was a section about what level of fitness I figured I was at now, and what level I would like to be, and when would I like to be at this level. And please sign here.

I didn't sign anything. Thought all that was somewhat premature.

Then my 'membership consultant' arrived. Now this guy was NOT a good physical advertisement for the gym. Somewhat overweight, standing a bit too close to me for my comfort, tummy somewhat jutting out, shoulders back, and swaggering as he walked. BIG handshake and toothy smile. Gosh, 'friend', how long has it been?

This guy was a really annoying salesman. I've been in sales. I was good at sales. My attitude towards sales is that a good sales person is helping the customer. No '104 Power Closes' and that kind of selling. He had all the tricks, try to get the customer to say 'yes' all the time so when it came time to 'close the sale' he would have me well primed to just say yes, sign me up for that premium membership for the next 40 years PLEASE! MAKE IT HAPPEN NOW!

He walked me through all the different gym rooms, showing the very impressive equipment. Go ahead, he said, try that stairwalker. Yep, it felt like walking up stairs to me. Here we are in another room, go ahead, hop on that treadmill! No, I said, I've been on one and know what it's like. Not the response he expected. Here, try the rowing machine. VERY MACHO! No thanks, I've tried one. How about the 'recumbent bicycle' says he pointing at the upright bicycle. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the recumbent bicycles are the ones you lie back in, not sit up on, and they were just farther down the room by the wonder. Was he trying to trick me?

Stand here and perve at the lycra ladies in the (many) mirrors. Well, okay, but just for a minute, I thought.

The facilities were impressive, but I didn't play his game - I just wouldn't commit to saying that 'yes, I can see myself here as a member, enjoying these fantastic facilities.' 'I just want to have a look and find-out what it costs,' I kept saying, and I don't have all day to do it, buddy!

So finally Mr. Membership Consultant seems to get the message and walks me back to the reception area, excuses himself to get the pricing package. Did I mention that his leather belt was the same babyshit yellow colour as his cowboy boots? Back he comes with a a couple of brochures and the clipboard with my filled-in info sheet. I did tell him a few times that my work was down the road and that's why I was looking at this gym. Not, as he said back to me a couple times, because I live in the area.

Why is this so hard, I'm thinking...

Another quick try to get me to commit to how quickly I want to get back into great aerobic fitness, what level I want to be at, how wonderful I will feel with more stamina (no nasal spray here, hint hint... think about the wife's happiness) less stress, and more energy... JUST HOW MUCH IS IT!?

Okay, he reluctantly opens the 'membership options' brochure, like we are about to exchange major cash for a large quantity of rare diamonds. There's a joining fee, and there's a non-refundable admin fee, and then there's the weekly gym fee. Yep, and how much is all that? YOU MUST BE KIDDING! You have to sign-up for how long?

Hang on, he says. Leans forward to share the big secret (because I'm special, I'm sure) 'there are a few specials from last month that I might be able to extend - if you think you can decide today...' WTF! No one is deciding anything today bucko!

He didn't seem to hear me the first few times that I said that I was only just starting to look at gyms, this is the first one I've visited, and I just want to see what they have and what it costs.

No worries, but he might be able to save me money if I was interested in a non peak membership. Meaning that you can use the gym when no one else wants to. But he'd have to check with his manager first.

I had a real hard time suppressing a good laugh at that one! Crikey, I thought, did he think I was buying a car or something? It's only a bloody gym membership! So I declined his very kind offer (I am special, you know, he wouldn't offer it to just anyone off the street.) And we let his manager continue resting in the office, undisturbed from making significant decisions like this.

So finally he let me go. Was it my body language that was giving him the message that it really wasn't working for me? Did I have any other limbs that I could cross... Nope. I was fully crossed!

So, when can I call you, a couple days? he asked. No thanks, I'll call you, I said. A quick handshake and I'm out of there. And quickly, too.

Jeez, doesn't the gym management know what a turn-off that experience is? Or is more likely that if I felt like that, yet the gym is full of customers, that I would be the one out of place in that gym?

Am I going back? I don't think so... EFM is looking pretty good right now!

And the funny thing is that salespeople are the easiest people to sell to, if the person doing the selling is any good. I love good sales people! Give me a good one and I would probably buy just about anything from them. Conversely, bad sales people really, really annoy me now.

And no, let me put it on the record now - I don't want a free mobile phone with nothing to sign and no contracts. So go back to your call centre and leave me alone!

NAVA - Rick Clise board nominee

2008-04-18T19:06:00.003+09:30

A peak body for the visual arts here in Australia is called NAVA - National Association for the Visual Arts. I've been a member for a few years now and NAVA impresses me for what it achieves for visual artists in this country.

I'm so impressed with NAVA that I am standing for a (voluntary) board position as an 'Artists' Representative Nominee' from South Australia. Earlier this week I was at the inaugural opening of 'Gallery 139', Adelaide's newest contemporary art gallery. A fellow artist friend of mine at the opening said that he had voted for me for the NAVA Board, which I was thrilled to hear.

If you are a NAVA member I hope you will vote for me as well. Voting closes 24 April.

If you aren't currently a NAVA member then I strongly recommend you becoming one. It's a worthwhile investment.

Before dedicating myself to my visual arts career about five years ago, I spent a LONG time in the IT sector in Australia and worked for a number of computer companies including Apple Computer and Microsoft Australia. Excellent experience, exciting sector; do I miss the IT world? Nope, not a bit. Great people in it and I'm lucky to keep in touch with some of them wherever they are in the world now. I

During my time at Microsoft I commenced, and later completed, a Master of Business Administration degree course at Adelaide University. The course was very topical for a middle manager like myself and if I had studied it earlier it would have saved me making many of the mistakes that a new manager has to go through, sometimes at the expense of his/her team.

Also while at Microsoft I had the opportunity to be a director on two exciting boards - OptCom, an offshoot of the Crippled Childrens Association, was set-up to provide physically disabled young people with work opportunities in the IT and multimedia sector. For a while I was also Microsoft's representative on the Ngapartji board. Ngapartji was the coffee shop/web hosting business that was the initial hoster for MSN in Australia. MSN went on to become nineMSN and has been hosted by the Ngapartji offshoot Hostworks for several years now.

After serving on those two boards I was recruited to the then 'Council of Governors' at Seymour College. This was an interesting role as I was involved in several significant projects including recruiting and hiring the college's excellent principal; changing the constitution of the college and restructuring the 20+ person Council into the 9 person Board of Directors; and developing and implementing many of the Board's policy. I was also lucky to serve as the Chair of the Governance Committee, following the very good work of my predecessors.

My experiences on those three boards gives me a great background to be a NAVA director. If I am elected to the NAVA board I look forward to networking with the South Australian members, spreading the word of NAVA to potential members, and representing the needs and concerns of SA visual artists to the NAVA board and management.

Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts - Artists' Week

2008-04-17T09:34:00.002+09:30

Jeez, it's been a while now since Adelaide was overrun by Festivals and a stinker of a heat wave. I tried to get to as many sessions as possible of Artists' Week events (1-6 March 2008), all of which I went to were in the comfort of airconditioned buildings. Pity the folks attending the Writers' Week events in the stinking hot tents around the River Torrens. I think a few people had to be taken away by ambulance due to heat exhaustion.

It must be a challenge to schedule speakers for the Artists' Week events who have enough drawcard that people would want to attend the sessions, yet ensuring that what the speakers have to say is relevant to the needs of the group.

A couple of the sessions were frustrating as the artists who were panel speakers were obviously gifted in the visual arts, but public speaking was not where they were most comfortable. So while the images were great, the talks were not.

Unrelated to Artists' Week I listened to a podcast from the Artworks show on ABC Radio National. One of the artists interviewed is the British photographic artist Richard Billingham. Billingham was a 2001 Turner Prize finalist and is well known for his in-your-face photos of his strange family. 'Strange' is probably being fairly meek in my description. Do a websearch about him and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, the woman who interviewed Billingham on the Artworks show had all kinds of theories about his work and motivations for his work and so on. Poor old Billingham mumbled and uhmed and ahhed through what turned out to be a funny interview because it was so one-sided - she rabbitted on while he had little to say. He did withstand her repeated attempts to put her words his mouth. So here's an example of trying to make someone who is very accomplished in one area (photography) competent in another area (speaking about his work.) I saw simularities between the Billingham interview and a couple of the speakers at Artists' Week.

While it was good having the Artists' Week events I wondered how relevant they were to practising artists, especially for the majority of artists who haven't 'made it'. Most of the speakers I listened to either had 'made it' or were certainly on their way to doing so.

What I did enjoy was the very funny talk by the two principals of Graffiti Research Labs, Evan Roth and James Powderly. I didn't attend their 'Throwie Workshop' but happened to sit in on their talk as it was between two others that were of interest to me. I didn't think the GRL talk would be relevant to me as I'm not a graffiti or street artist. But their talk covered a wide range of topics and was a highlight of the program. It was interesting to hear them discuss copyright issues and the difference between software/intellectual property issues and hardware issues. Visit their website - http://graffitiresearchlab.com/

Another highlight was the talk by Adelaide artist Hossein Valamanesh. His work is so delicate/spiritual/calming. His talk matched his artwork.

Cheers!

'Tidiest Town' - is it really a distinction?

2008-04-15T09:09:00.004+09:30

Last week I drove to Melbourne and back to pick-up my two part sculpture 'Moved On' which had been a finalist in the 2007 Montalto Sculpture Prize at Montalto Winery on the lovely Mornington Peninsula. 'Moved On' goes to Sydney at the end of this month as a finalist in the University of Western Sydney Acquisitive Sculpture Prize. Ah, the joys of moving large artworks around the country...

Photo: Neil Williams, Moo Creative.

Anyway, on the main road between Adelaide and Melbourne there is a small roadside town that boasts of being Australia's Tidiest Town in 2002. Each time I've seen the sign I've had a quiet chuckle, wondering if the youth of the town have been terrified into not dropping anything out of their car window for fear of the village elders descending gloom and doom on them. Or have the teenagers simply left the town as there just isn't enough happening there for them?

And really, isn't 2002 far enough in the past that this small town should really just get-over having won that prize and get back to reality? Should we legislate to include a statute of limitations on how long a town can brag about having clean roads and sidewalks? Do Tidiest Towns have seagulls? Probably starved to death years ago.

So I'm chomping into a fast food burger yesterday. I don't feel particularly proud in doing so, but I guess while you can take the boy out of the US, you can't easily take the US out of the boy... And this particular fast food chain is promoting a competition to 'Pick Australia's Tidiest Town and Win one of Eight Weekends Away' [sic]. I took one of the brochures more out of curiousity than anything else. Would I really want to win a weekend away in a 2008 Tidiest Town finalist? What if I felt implored to litter while there? What if I accidently dropped a bit of chewy on the street - how many people in the town could suffer from my inattention?

I think the responsibility is just too great. I won't apply - not that I have ever won anything like this, but you just never know...

Incomplete automobiles - part two

2008-03-14T17:25:00.003+10:30

A while ago now I blogged about the number of cars on Adelaide roads that have a burnt-out brake light. Once you notice it you can't ignore how many cars are cycloptic.

More recently, an artist friend of mine here in Adelaide told me that she collects discarded hub caps found roadside. She has an impressive collection of them nailed to a wall outside her studio. So now, whenever I am driving, I have a fine knack for spotting hubcaps alongside the road. And I collect them for her. I'm actually getting pretty good at it. The other day I drive down Glynburn Road and turned left onto Magill Road to get to my workshop and I saw one on the southwestern corner. When I got to it I saw that there was another one directly across the road on the northwestern corner! Twins, I thought! Not identical, so, what, 'fraternal?'

That was my coup, finding two in one go. It'll be hard to beat.

And a couple days later I went for a swim at the Burnside Pool in Hazelwood Park and just as I pulled into the car park I saw another homeless hubcap looking for me. But by the time I got out of my car and walked over to it a father and two young boys had nicked it! That really got me riled; where's the honour these days? It was mine!

I'm getting over that disappointment though, as I saw one in my rear view mirror while driving to my engineering class at TAFE, and I tried to make a mental note of it by memorising that it was across the road from a bus stop. After my class I retraced my path and there it was, across the road from the bus stop. Don't think I'm bragging, but I'm getting pretty advanced at this as I not only recognised it after I passed it but also memorised a landmark in mirror-view.

Then today the issue of class and position came into the equation. Driving up Devereux Road in Linden Park and I saw a stray cap on my side of the road. Stopped to collect it and found that it was off a BMW! My first upmarket roadkill.

Score check: I now have 11 hubcaps for my artist friend, which I'll deliver next week. Don't tell her though, I want it to be a surprise.

And from my exhaustive research in found hubcaps I can tell you that it looks like most of them have come off their cars because they haven't been refitted to the wheel properly. Most of them have mashed, broken or bent-over plastic tabs - the ones that provide the friction fit into the wheel. So take care when replacing your hubcap after a tyre change and your hubcap will look after you faithfully. But mistreat it and it will abandon you quicksmart!

HP Inkjet cartridges - more expensive than drugs?

2008-02-08T19:18:00.000+10:30

I've got a little workhorse of a colour inkjet printer and I need to feed it ink jet cartridges now and then. The beauty of these printers is that they are so cheap to buy that they are almost given away - $99 or less in some cases. But where HP makes its money is in the consumables. While I was changing the cartridge I couldn't remember which was the empty one and which was the new one, so I weighed each on my little postal scale.

The full one weighed 51 grams, while the empty one weighed 43 grams. So for about $50 spent today on the replacement cartridge I got 8 grams of colour ink. So that works out to $6.25 per gram of ink. I would guess that HP buys a 44 gallon barrel of the stuff for not much more than that, so there's a fair bit of profit in the equation.

What do drugs cost? Should I be feeding my printer something else that is expensive and sold in very small quantities? Wouldn't that be a fun sculpture - an inkjet printer modified to be a drug user!

DISCLAIMER: If you take drugs because of what I wrote you are an idiot! And if you modify your printer to take drugs then you are an even bigger idiot - but send photos anyway.

NOTE: HP isn't the only manufacturer guilty of this, but I think at least one other manufacturer has figured-out that people are a little cynical of the prices charged for these consumables so they are now marketing lower cost ink cartridges. Good on ya!

Andy Warhol at Brisbane's GOMA

2008-01-17T22:51:00.000+10:30

If you have a chance to visit Brisbane before March 30th go see the Warhol exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art. Quite an amazing collection of his works and works about him. Well worth the visit!

Who gets top billing? Truth in Advertising?

2008-01-17T22:49:00.001+10:30

'Nuff said!

Wild Whitsunday weather

2008-01-17T22:42:00.000+10:30

How lucky were we to see a waterspout off Hamilton Island while we were there. But imagine what the people on the boat were thinking as they got closer and closer to it - does the phrase I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto sound familiar?

This one lasted a good five minutes or longer and moved from right to left over the sea. When it finally dissipated it just... disappeared.

Queensland storms

2008-01-17T22:32:00.000+10:30

We were on Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Island group just after the tropical rain storms were flooding coastal Queensland. The weather made for some amazing sunsets. We stayed in the 'Shorelines' apartments and had a wonderful view over the Edge pool and the sea beyond.

Another evening we went on the Sunset Sea Kayaking trip, which turned-out to be one of the highlights of our time on the island. A very nice group of people, a good guide, calm weather for paddling, and drinking a few flutes of sparkling wine while sitting in a raft of the boats was a wonderful way to enjoy nature.

Stealing body parts - life imitating art?

2008-01-16T18:19:00.000+10:30

We just got back from a two week long vacation in Queensland, spent at Hamilton Island and Noosa. Queensland has been pretty wet due to the tropical storms but they need the rain.

To fill-in some time out of the rain I bought a Michael Crichton book called 'Next' from a Noosa book store and started reading it while the females of the family were busy contributing to the local economy. Heard later, 'so many shops, so little time...'

One aspect of the book covers the (apparently more frequent than we would guess) practice of pilfering corpses for body parts that are then sold as implants for surgical procedures. Good creepy idea - just yucky enough to make you think twice about getting that transplant you've been considering. But that's fiction, right?

Hah! Just have a squiz at this article from nineMSN: 'US surgeon to admit plundering corpses' Turns out that a US former oral surgeon has been removing some things that he shouldn't have been doing!

Perhaps the bone grabbing oral surgeon has also read 'Next'as he has been careful to use PVC pipe when replacing stolen bones, as Crichton writes in his book you can't cremate corpses with metal (for example, pipes) in them. Nice photo on the nineMSN web article of an x-ray showing the PVC pipes within the legs.

Next thing you know you'll need a permit to buy PVC piping from the hardware store! Don't you just hate it when a few baddies ruin it for the rest of us?!

Religion, the new taboo in art?

2007-12-29T10:29:00.000+10:30

There's an interesting article in the volume 36, number 4 issue of Contemporary Visual Arts + Culture 'Broadsheet' magazine about religion in art, and it asks whether religion is replacing sex 'as the most potent taboo that can raise its ugly head in visual art.'

I think the writer Timothy Morrell might be correct - it isn't images of nudity and sex that incites today's people to riot and pronounce death threats (at the extreme), while images of what seem to be blaspheming religious icons does!

Is Subway poisoning me?

2007-12-29T09:43:00.000+10:30

Do you have bacon on your Subway sub?

A few years ago I overcame my aversion to green and yellow coloured businesses and bought a lunch from a local Subway store. Guess I was impressed enough by their TV ads celebrating the sudden finding of acres of spare skin flapping on their poster boy Jered (?) who lost so much weight by eating Subway sandwiches that I thought I would give it a try. Not bad, in fact, a lot better than I expected. I liked it.

So I've been visiting Subways now and then for the occasional healthy roll. My friends and family even eat there. In fact, my friend the Fang successfully spearheaded a local campaign to get beetroot back on the Subway menu.

Then Subway, like a lot of other fast food outlets, began to offer bacon as something you could have on your meal. They would bring the rashers out from the cold room, cook them and include them in your custom designed sub sandwich. All well and good - although the once or twice that I've tried bacon on a fast food product I've been slightly grossed-out by it being really undercooked (IMHO!)

See, coming from the USofA one thing that is drummed into the heads of kids from an early age over there is, in addition to never running with scissors and watching out for poking eyes out with sticks, is to 'NEVER EAT UNDERCOOKED PORK OR POULTRY PRODUCTS!' As you might get very sick from salmonella from undercooked poultry, and there is a nasty parasite that causes an illness called trichinosis, and this parasite is sometimes found in pork. It is destroyed by cooking to an internal temperature of at least 137 degrees (Fahrenheit, that is).

My trusty 1980 issue of 'The Joy of Cooking' by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker has a fairly detailed description on page 477 of the dangers of trichinosis and explains that pork (at least in the US as of 1980) was apparently not required by US government to be systematically, microscopically, inspected for parasites such as the ones causing trichinosis.

One of the ways to best gross-out Americans without incurring an X or R rating in public is to show someone eating raw pork products. The crafty writers of 'Desperate Housewives' knew this when a few seasons ago and they had Felicity Huffman's character Lynette Scavo eat a large quantity of raw bacon on a dare from her strange boss at the ad agency where she worked. This would make most Americans recoil in horror with thoughts of instant parasitic infection occurring from her stupid action.

I don't think that is the case here in Australia but old habits die hard, and I take scrupulous Joy of Cooking care when handling or cooking pork products.

But small relief - according to some on-line references, Australia is one country that is apparently free of the parasite causing trichinosis.

Back to Subway - a couple months ago I went back to Subway stores, seeking something healthy to fill the hole in my stomach, and I saw that they now place the container of what looks like raw bacon in the same cool area under the glass canopy with all the other meats and salads. Then I went to another store and saw the same thing. And again at another store. And they use the same gloved hands pickingup the uncooked bacon as they do picking-up other meats and salads. Mild horror rising...

At the most recent store visit I asked the young 'sandwich artist' who was making my sub about the risks of storing raw meats with cooked meats and salads, pointing to the very innocent looking bacon container that was right in there with all the other items. She (in good humor) said she 'only worked there' and didn't know, which wasn't really the answer that I was probably looking for.

So I am wondering, is Australia pork in general, and bacon specifically, safe to be stored alongside cooked meat and raw vegetables as the few stores I visited are doing, or is this a no-no in Oz as it is in the Old Country?

I do have an otherwise normal friend here who loves eating raw bacon, and he seems okay - no crippling and disfiguring symptoms, but it is early days...

Am I being paranoid?

Human forgiveness

2007-12-20T21:02:00.000+10:30

While I work away in my workshop I try to schedule my work so that I'm not doing noisy stuff like grinding, cutting or sanding between 10am and 11am weekday mornings so that I can listen to Margaret Throsby's morning interview on ABC FM.

This morning was a repeat of an earlier interview when Margaret interviewed a woman called Sunny Jacobs who had been wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Florida. Her husband at the time was also convicted and sentenced to death, and was executed before the real killer confessed and Sunny Jacobs was released from prison. But she spent 17 years inside for a crime that she didn't commit.

It was a fascinating interview for several reasons, but the real drawcard is the compassion and forgiveness of this woman. Sunny Jacobs has dedicated her life since getting out of prison to helping others. She harbours no bitterness, nor any hatred, which is admirable (and probably a lot healthier than allowing herself to spend her remaining life being bitter and twisted from the horrible experiences she suffered.)

Sunny Jacobs has written a book called 'Stolen Time' published by Doubleday.

One very small thing that she said in her interview struck a chord with me - when she was finally released from prison she walked out into the real world and found it a little intimidating that she had to make all her own decisions from that point on, while in prison everything was decided for her. She made the point that some people can't deal with the freedom outside of prison.

When I got out of the Navy in November 1979 at Richmond RAAF base in New South Wales (long story...) I felt a little overwhelmed that suddenly no one cared where I was or what I was doing! For six years the US government cared where I was and what I was doing, and I got used to that (although I also resented it at times.) But it didn't take long for me to get used to being my own master, and while I cannot compare my trivial (voluntary) experience with what Sunny Jacobs experienced being incarcerated, that feeling caused by coming out of an institutionalised life was quite eye opening for me.

I'll have to get her book - I reckon it would be a fascinating read.

Unwittingly baptised?

2007-12-10T22:30:00.000+10:30

Beth and I thought it would be a great show to see the Harlem Gospel Choir while they were in Adelaide this Sunday, so we trotted-off to the 2pm matinee at the Adelaide Festival Theatre. Boy did we get more than we expected!

Beth likes choir singing, and in the interest of marital bliss, I love it too (fingers crossed behind my back?)

I guess we should have expected it, but perhaps we were a little thick, but boy oh boy was the religion laid on thick! These good people were seriously converted, and very vocally believing!

The first half of the show was full-on. Everything was done at full speed and at full volume. This group of talented black folks from Harlem could certainly belt-out songs, and they sure as heck did so at the AFT. In the row in front of us there were two dads, and three little kids probably about 5 or 6 years old. At first the little kids got into it in a big way - swinging and little-kid-jiving in their seats to the singing and music. But shortly before the half-time interval when the choir was really belting-out their love to Jesus the poor kids all had their fingers stuffed in their ears to muffle the noise. It was one of the loudest performances that we have been too, and these folks weren't even a heavy metal band!

Perhaps we were in the minority, as a good part of the audience seemed to be loving the performance and willingly gave witness, whenever called upon by a choir member, to their love of Jesus.

And my oh my, they must feed the choir very well on tour! But I guess you need a big frame to project the voice like they did. Black, despite what you read, is not always slimming.

Not our cup of tea, but there you go. You gotta try these things, don't you? And I have to give them credit for sharing their love and belief as they did.

At halftime interval we bailed. Exhausted by the energy, deafened by the volume.

Tweeting is not blogging

2007-12-10T22:24:00.000+10:30

Seems like a lot of people are hooked on Twitter - sending updates continuously about what they are doing. What surprises me is that some of these friends are no longer blogging, saying, "I use Twitter now." But what you do is not what you think. So don't stop blogging.

My friend Fang is famous!

2007-11-25T20:31:00.001+10:30

Mike Seyfang, technology wizard, guitar virtuoso, podcast producer, sculpture assistant, and generally good guy, is famous! Yet again!

Click the link above, then scroll down

Go Fang!

I know what I'm getting for Christmas...

2007-11-25T19:32:00.000+10:30

We went shopping for my Christmas presents recently - I love fine arts books! So down to the gallery shop of the Art Gallery of South Australia where we found two excellent books - one about Chris Burden, the US artist originally known as a performance artist, and the second about Bruce Nauman, another US artist of international fame.

Why I chose these two books was because of the links to these two artists - in 1973 I read about Chris Burden and how he had a friend shoot him in the arm with a .22 rifle. 'What the @$%!' I thought! This is art? Perhaps it fits in with my earlier post about conceptual art. Anyway, I was moved to make (a very bad) silkscreen print of Chris Burden having his wound dressed after the shooting performance:

I lost track of Chris Burden and his art after that performance and from the very quick look at the book I'm getting Burden has been making some amazing physical works since then. Looking forward very much to reading that book.

Then there is Bruce Nauman. He's very, very, very famous. I don't know why. But he is. The link there is that he was a student of William T. Wiley. Nauman was also a student of one of my ceramics heroes - Robert Arneson of University of California at Davis. When I was at Garfield High School one of my very inspirational art teachers was Bill Kuhns. One of his assignments for me, when I was getting bored with the current one, was to 'design a machine to turn-off the sun.' Luckily for all of us, my design didn't work.

Bill Kuhns painted in a similar style to that of William T. Wiley, probably of the 'Funk' school of art in the 1970s. So I found a book about WTW and his paintings and as I was reading it again in preparation for my current drawing class I saw that Nauman had been one of WTW's students, then Nauman went on to gain international recognition after graduation.

I've seen some of Nauman's work in the Tate Modern in London and was a bit puzzled by it - I don't think you can quickly 'get' his work, at least some of the video works. You need to absorb them. But I was very interested in what Nauman apparently wrote or said that when he got out of art school he needed to call himself an artist, and therefore whatever he made was 'art.'

About five years ago when I had my sea change and decided to chuck-in the business career and follow my long dormant art direction, I felt very self-conscious calling myself an artist. I didn't have any art to show anyone, but I was calling myself an artist. Five years later I have a few things to show and exhibitions to crow about, and I'm still making the art.

I know one definition of art is what artists make, and the corresponding definition of artists is those who make art, but that's a fairly circular reference and if it was a Microsoft Excel formula it would be a problem. But that's art for you...

So I am very much looking forward to a good read or two over the Christmas break.

May Santa bring you all the art books that your heart desires!

Concept vs Object in art

2007-11-25T18:56:00.001+10:30

In May I had my first solo indoor sculpture exhibition at Prospect Gallery here in Adelaide. It was a great experience. My second solo sculpture exhibition will be happening in February/March next year at Art Images Gallery in Norwood.

During my Prospect Gallery exhibition I addressed a group of year 11 students one day. One of them published her review of the gallery visit and my talk in the school news. It was fascinating to me to read that this year 11 student found my small multi-part sculpture called 'dichotomy/continuum argument: concept/object dilemma' the piece of most interest - most people dismissed it quickly as pretty boring.

The student wrote that "This piece allows the viewer to consider the question posed in the title: when does the concept become the object? Or are they the same? This is a question that I have often wondered about, as art could be seen both as the initial idea as well as the finished product. There is no real line between the concept and the finished product, as the product is in essence the concept but the product is also the recognised expression of an idea. I really like this, as it shows the progression between an idea and a product; it also allows the viewer to question whether it is a concept of an object that is displayed before them."

Crikey, this student gets it!

I had a similar 'AHA!' experience when I was about the same age as this student and my parents took me from Seattle to visit (what I think was) the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Somehow, and I don't think it was particularly my parents' objective, I ended-up meeting some conceptual artists who were working or studying at UBC and they walked me around and showed me some of their artworks. This was between 1970 and 1972. Before meeting these guys my concept of art was always The Object - it was something that had physical presence - you could see it, you could touch it (not that it was always allowed), it was something real. It was the result of an idea, not the idea itself.

Then these artists showed me that it didn't have to be The Object, and I've been swaying back and forth between concept and object since that time. Part of me wants to be a conceptual artist, part of me likes making physical objects.

Where does it end? Anyone want to buy a concept?

Small Adelaide protest against KBR

2007-11-25T18:17:00.000+10:30

Earlier this week, in anticipation of the Australian Federal election, a couple of middle-aged, well dressed people staged a polite protest outside the Adelaide offices of KBR (Kellogg Brown Root) with placards stating that neither of the major parties, Liberal or Labor were really going to do anything different. I think, I didn't actually take one of their flyers but perhaps should have - not a very reliable reporter for that protest I think.

I wonder how many Adelaide folks know about KBR, a subsidary of Halliburton, and their relationships with the US government in the Iraq war efforts. And then there's Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States and former boss of Halliburton. Didn't Halliburton or KBR get awarded some significant 'no-bid' contracts with the government to supply troops or provide logistics in Iraq? 'No-bid' means that contrary to normal government policy, no competitive tendering process was undertaken before awarding the contract. The government just paid them the money!

Well KBR and Halliburton looked big to me until I read about SAIC in an article by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele in the March 2007 issue of Vanity Fair . This magazine must be such a pain in the backside for George W Bush and his pals - they pay him out constantly, but with good reason. If you aren't going to run a clean and accountable government then be prepared for the flack that will come.

Anyway, SAIC stands for Science Applications International Corporation, and it employs 44,000 people and took in $8 billion from the US government last year. The Vanity Fair article is a fascinating read about a fairly secret consultancy that provides a lot of 'expertise' to the government for the Iraq war. With 44,000 employees SAIC is bigger than three US federal government departments combined: Labor, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development.

SAIC has something like 9,000 active contracts with the US government. The Vanity fair article says that Washington can only function by paying private contractors to do a lot of the government's work - "to get some idea of the scale: contractors absorb the taxes paid by everyone in America with incomes under $100,000. In other words, more than 90% of all taxpayers might as well remit everything they owe directly to SAIC or some other contractor rather than to the IRS." Staggering!

Well, I won't rabbit-on more about what is contained in the article, but will say that the reports of conflicts of interest by SAIC were scary and incredible. How does this happen these days? Guess it comes back to government policy in allowing it to survive.

Go Vanity Fair!

My adverturous friends in Second Life

2007-11-25T17:38:00.000+10:30

My friend Fang hosts a podcast with Dave and Kent called The Extraordinary Everyday Lives Show and in listening to it I learn lots of interesting things about social networks and the other topics that the guys cover. Some of the stuff I had never heard of, but I now know what 'the long tail' is in reference to something for example; and I have a feeling for what Facebook, and MySpace are.

In fact, I actually signed-up for MySpace as there is a artist-run art gallery in town that uses MySpace to communicate with its members, but I kept getting these annoying emails saying that so and so wanted to be my friend, and thought, bugger that! I don't want to be your friend - we haven't even been introduced! Isn't it exciting that Facebook has re-jigged itself as a distribution channel for developers! Well, isn't it?

There's a good article about Facebook in the current issue of Wired magazine. But be careful of what you put in it as the FBI will be reading it, and Customs and Immigration will Google you when you arrive in the US and not let you in the land of the free and home of the brave if your Facebook profile is, let us say, a bit 'non-mainstream', and potential employers might reject you because, well, just because - or so I'm told by the ever reliable newspaper articles we read.

Dave has been in Second Life for a while, Mike couldn't be bothered installing the software for a long time, and from what I think I heard it didn't sound like Kent had much time for Second Life either. Then I learned that the guys have actually hosted a podcast recording with another Australian podcaster - GlobalGeek - from actually within Second Life. Which I have duly downloaded and listened to today.

It was a pretty interesting intro to Second Life for someone who hasn't used it yet. I checked-out the Second Life website and was amazed at the volume of (real USD) business that is transacted on Second Life. Are the guys who created Second Life clever or what! Selling a virtual environment in virtual space, but charging real dollars to do so. Wow! It sounds fascinating.

Dave took an image of one of my real life sculptures called Aim High and created a virtual version of it for his Second Life place. And the guys gave it a plug in the podcast! So here's a 'shout-out' (is that right Mike?) to y'all for doing so!

I'm a member of a sculpture-related community and created a thread about virtual art in Second Life, and got a few responses. The community is more 'real-life' focused but a few people are getting out there with virtual work. On the recommendation of another sculpture.net/community member I'm (very slowly) playing around with the free animation software called 'Blender' as a tool to build virtual artworks.

My concern is that I already spend ('waste' says my loved one) enough time on the darned computer, which isn't really family social, so what happens when I get hooked on the drug of Second Life?

And the kids say, 'we're bored, we don't have anything to do...' Hah! Get out there and bounce on that darned trampoline or something!

Rick Clise

Re-reading an old favorite - Chuck Close

2007-11-05T20:36:00.000+10:30

A long time ago I bought a book called 'Close Portraits' that was published in 1980 by Walker Art Center in Minneapolis about the art of US painter Chuck Close. I was always fascinated by the huge photorealistic portraits that Close did of photographs of his subjects. I keep coming back to the book, flipping through the catalogue of his works. When the rest of the art world was busy with abstract expressionism Close developed his own, unique style of hyperrealistic, huge paintings.

One of his paintings is titled 'Phil', first painted in 1969, and I've looked at the picture of it I don't know how many times until tonight when I read that 'Phil' is actually Philip Glass, one of my favourite composers. You either love Philip Glass's music or you hate it - nothing in between. 'Phil' is more than 2.7m tall by 2.1m wide. Wonderful scale!

I liked the book's description of Glass's music (which is taken from Robert Rosenblum's 'Notes on Sol LeWitt', Sol LeWitt, ed. Alicia Legg, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1978, p 20.) '... Glass's music is composed of what at first may seem monotonous, repetitive tones, electronically amplified in a way that nearly conceals personal style. Yet the experience becomes a kind of slow immersion in a sonic sea, where the structural anchors of the score tend to be washed away by the mounting sensuous force of the cumulative sound.' Yeah, I was about to say that!

And to think of the number of times that I have looked at the page in the book with 'Phil' on one page, and those words on the other. Maybe I only bought it for the pictures...

'Unit One' - speaking Danish - the challenge...

2007-11-02T07:59:00.000+10:30

We've been watching a wonderful TV series on SBS, Australia's multicultural station, called 'Unit One', produced in Denmark. It's about a very small group of talented, but quirky in interesting ways, police officers who travel around Denmark helping local cops solve tricky crimes.

It's good TV, a little quirky, great understated acting, good writing and direction, and best of all, spoken in a language that we have no idea of what they are saying. If it wasn't for the subtitles the show would just look like a group of (mainly) pleasant looking, caring adults burbling away in a language from outer space.

Mary from Tasmania, 'our Mary', went and fell in love with Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, married him, became a princess, procreated, AND learned to speak Danish. It's probably the last achievement that impresses me the most. What an amazing language! We were watching 'Unit One' last night and one of the characters asked what time it was. The subtitles said '7:30' but we are sure we heard the actor say, 'hello', or something like that in response to the question. Wow! Not even having learned some school French and Spanish, or failing Latin class badly, seems any use in nutting-out the Danish language.

If I was doing the subtitles I'd have a awfully hard time resisting the urge to write, 'There's something rotten in the State of Denmark' in response to a particularly heinous crime. Come to think about it, I wonder if the subtitles that we read actually have anything to do with what the dialog says...

But if you can't trust your subtitler, who can you trust?

Some new sculptures

2007-10-19T08:39:00.000+09:30

I've been playing around in my workshop and made two pairs of very different smaller sculptures. One pair is painted using two-pack industrial coatings (the yellow and black ones) while the others have a different treatment giving them almost a translucent effect - not completely masking the underlying steel of the sculptures.

Rick Clise

It took me a while...

2007-09-15T18:44:00.000+09:30

I was checking-out Adelaide painter Dianne Gall's website on the recommendation from another painter friend of mine. Very clean, elegant website. Then I explored Dianne's News site which is actually a Blogger site, and one of the links is to www.jacksonpollock.org - which seemed to load then just sat there doing nothing. Blank white screen.

'Great!' I thought, 'sucked-in expecting to actually see something on a dead artist's website...'

Then I moved my mouse and voila! Wonderful! Check it out!

Rick Clise

P.S. Thank you fellow blogger 'The Painted Sky' (see comments) for pointing-out that the jacksonpollock.org link isn't on Dianne's website - I now can't remember how I found it but the journey did start with Dianne's website. If I can retrace my steps I will document them.

Consequences of Horse Flu

2007-09-02T20:04:00.000+09:30

Australia's Spring Racing Carnival season is about to start, but most of the horse racing events have had significant restrictions placed on them because of equine flu outbreaks across the country. It is apparently very contagious and can be transmitted by people coming into contact with horses or horse areas. As a result, a number of horse races were cancelled, transporting horses from one location to another has been prohibited, people have been restricted from close contact with horses. All to protect the larger equine population.

Now I'm thinking that the national lockdown of horses and prohibition of transporting horses while they are unwell just might be a good idea if for no better reason than my own selfish reasons - some of these horses are worth so much money for either their racing ability or their stud fee earning capacity, that when they travel somewhere they are sent first class, no expenses spared. And that includes air travel. I've only flown first class once, and it was probably s a result of the airline mistaking me for someone else, but I can't imagine sitting next to a horse for however many hours it takes to fly somewhere, let alone sitting next to a horse with the flu! Have you ever seen a horse sneeze? Crikey, it sprays a massive amount of snot about! And imagine the battles over the arm rest!

So horsies, if you have a temperature or feel under the weather, Dr Rick says stay home, drink lots of liquid, and get plenty of rest, 'cuz you'll need it as soon as you are feeling better.

Rick Clise ;-)

Outdoor sculptures in new location

2007-08-31T08:22:00.000+09:30

The South Australian Living Artist (SALA) Festival ended on the 19th of this month. It was the 10th SALA and the biggest of all - over 450 events happening during its 3 weeks, and something like over 1000 artists involved across the state. I had six of my outdoor sculptures installed at The Perfumed Garden, a local nursery, but they are moving from their current location and I had to find new homes for the sculptures.

They are now located at K1 winery in Kuitpo South, about 40 minutes south of Adelaide. All are for sale.

Sculptures by Rick Clise

'Red Anemone' 2007. Painted steel.

'Espalier 1' 2007, painted and rusted steel.

'General Drawing 1A - Circle Practice' 2007. Painted steel.

'Gentle Persuasion' 2006. Painted steel.
'Invitation' 2006. Painted steel.

'P.V.T.-1' 2007. Painted steel.

K1 Winery is open on weekends 11am - 5pm for tastings.
Tynan Road, Kuitpo, South Australia.
Ph +61 8 8388 3700 Fax +61 8 8388 3564

Misplaced Tool

2007-08-31T08:04:00.000+09:30

A couple nights ago all the portable hair dryers in our household died, leaving the females in the household somewhat concerned. 'Like, how am I gunna dry my hair tomorrow?' moaned daughter 1.

(After witnessing this self-destruction of hair dryers happen in the past I would have thought that a little preventative maintenance could be in order by periodically removing the hairs and lint free of the air inlet, keeping the elements from burning-up, but I hadn't guessed that women actually enjoy buying new tools as much as guys do!)

Thought I'd see what the latest is in hand held hair dryer technology, and went to Kmart for a look around. There were dryers costing over $100, and dryers at nearly every price point downwards from there. But the one that caught my eye was a Black & Decker Hair Dryer, on clearance for $12! If there had been a Makita or Bosch or DeWalt dryer I would have looked at them as well, but that wasn't to be. And I probably would have paid a little bit more for them too.

I wondered how my purchase would be greeted back home, whether I'd be accused by my loving ones of pretending to go to Kmart when in fact I actually went to my favourite tool shop. Coming back with a Black & Decker hair dryer indeed! 'But hon, it has a two year replacement warranty!' I had at the ready if justification was required.

When I was at Kmart I thought that perhaps it was a timing thing - having a Black & Decker hair dryer out for sale during the pre-Fathers' Day shopping season? It worked for me - bang, gimme one of those orange and white boxes thanks! But shouldn't there be some cross promotion happening - a sign next to the B&D hair dryers directing shoppers to where the cordless drills are located? And for those fashion-conscious fellas out there with enough hair on their heads to justify owning a hair dryer, what about a similar sign in the tools area directing them to the special on B&D hair dryers in the other section? I think Kmart is probably missing out on some cross promotional sales here.

Guess to really provide that something extra Kmart could sell a leather buckle-on tool belt with a hair dryer holder to go next to the hammer loop and nail pouch. Some of those building sites get pretty windy, and having a quick touch-up might just keep that level of professionalism on site. Whattya think?

Rick Clise

P.S. User testing of the $12 B&D hair dryer by daughter 2 is that it is the best one she's ever used! Ta-da!

How can I prove what I know?

2007-08-08T08:32:00.000+09:30

I'm doing a part-time diploma of civil engineering over a very extended amount of time, and one of the elementary units that all students have to pass relates to being able to use the internet, a personal computer and core applications. Specifically, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer and Access.

I've been using PCs for a long time so I don't want to sit through another introductory computer course just to satisfy the curriculum requirement. Answer, apply for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) for credit in that subject.

The problem with that is that to gain credit through the RPL process one needs to provide 'evidence' of that learning. I discussed my plan to apply for RPL with one of the TAFE lecturers and told him that I had worked for Microsoft, Apple, WordPlex, HiSoft and so on in a variety of roles from technical support, network specialist, sales rep, state manager... This is unacceptable, possibly because just about anyone could claim to have been the South Australian state manager of Microsoft just to avoid sitting through that class.

The key question was 'what evidence do I have that shows I can do what that subject requires?' Humh...

Maybe I should have kept the multiple certificates of participation that I was given after each class. Apparently it is not good enough that I use a PC everyday for 'office automation' tasks, that I created and maintain my own website (and blog! that I know how to spell 'twitter', 'flickr', 'podcast' and so on. Where's the proof that I know what I'm doing?

Lucky for me that the man who had been Microsoft Australia's best manager, ralphg, kindly, and legitimately, agreed to certify that my knowledge does meet all the requirements of the subject. I had the pleasure of working in Ralph's Melbourne team for nearly two years. And I'm not just sucking up! Others would say the same without hesitation.

So, I now have independant proof that I can do what the subject expects me to learn. Including some of the most challenging tasks such as:

The computer is powered up and down correctly
Logging onto and off the systems is carried out correctly
A floppy disc is formatted
Information is retrieved from a given web site
A graph is produced in a spreadsheet from data

Whew! For a while it looked like I would have to get-out the old pencil and paper to continue this blog...

So kids, save those stupid pieces of paper that you get after attending a course because you just don't know when it will come in handy!

Rick Clise

Just want to root!

2007-08-03T19:57:00.000+09:30

Hah! Here is a joke just waiting to be said! I was reading the yellow pages while sitting on hold on the phone - amazing what you can learn from the yellow pages - and I ended-up reading about lawns.

One company here in Adelaide sells 'Santa Anna Couch', 'Tall Fescue', 'Buffalo', and, wait for it, 'Male Sterile Kikuyu'! HA HA HA! How frustrating! 'Just want to root!' get it?

Maybe I was on hold too long...

Rick Clise

Critters in the workshop

2007-08-03T19:39:00.000+09:30

It seems that a rat enjoys Doritos and Peanut M&Ms as much as I do! I thought they were safely locked-up in my filing cabinet, but somehow Ratty found his way into the filing cabinet and gnawed through some of my favourite snacks. I didn't feel like sloppy seconds so out they went.

A week or so ago I bought a second hand microwave on eBay. I was getting tired of having tins of char grilled tuna fish on dry crackers for lunch, and my mercury level is probably getting a bit high. The microwave was accurately described as having a burn mark inside but working okay. So I thought if I can't store my snacks in my filing cabinet because of Ratty's appetite, perhaps I could store them in my microwave oven when I'm not reheating last nights leftovers.

But it wasn't to be, because a fairly robust trail of ants had found something of interest inside the (closed!) microwave and were feasting away. This made me wonder, how good of a seal does this second hand microwave have, or more importantly, how good of a seal is required for the microwave. I thought of giving the ants a little burst of heat but didn't have it in me to do so. Would there be a horrible formic acid smell lingering in the microwave if I had been so cruel? Would their little bodies burst with the heat (yuck!) Would the 6 legged survivors claim that they had seen nuclear fusion in action?

I used to be an electronics technician in a previous life, but only remember enough of electricity and electronics theory to be dangerous now. But I did think that perhaps the gap distance between the door and microwave, which is obviously large enough for an ant to get through, is still small enough to prevent microwave radiation from being emitted. Someone called into Dr Karl's science show on Triple J saying that they had heard of a test for the robustness of microwave seals by putting a friend's mobile phone in the microwave, closing the door, then calling the friends phone to see if the signal was strong enough to ring the phone. And if it wasn't a really close friend you could just give it about a 15 second long burst on high to see what happened to the phone!

Lateral thought - if the ants found whatever was stuck to the roof of the microwave tasty would I as well? Unfortunately, the microwave was too small for me to get my head into so I wasn't able to do a taste test. I copped-out and wiped-out the inside, taking a respectable number of fat ants with me. I thought I'd wiped it out when I first got it to the workshop, but perhaps not.

So back to the microwave - I just stand a little farther away from it when blasting something. Not sure if Ratty will be back. There were a few random ants on patrol today but none inside the microwave.

Rick Clise

New sculpture exhibition - SALA 2007

2007-08-03T19:19:00.000+09:30

Whew! Thanks largely to the ever cheerful assistance by good friend Fang, my SALA exhibition of outdoor sculptures at The Perfumed Garden (559 Portrush Road, Glenunga, SA - between the Dan Murphy's and Liberty petrol station) is installed and looking good. SALA is the South Australian Living Artist festival, now in its 10th year.

For those of you who can't get to The Perfumed Garden during SALA (3 - 19 August), here are pictures of the sculptures on display, and for sale.

'General Drawing 1A - Circle Practice' 2007

'Gentle Persuasion' 2006

'Invitation' 2006

'P.V.T.-1' 2007

'Red Anemone' 2007

'Espalier 1' 2007

About the sculptures - I made these at my Trinity Gardens workshop. They are MIG and TIG welded, then grit blasted, and painted with two pack industrial paints (with the exception of the base of 'Espalier 1' which is rusting steel.) The two pack paints are very durable and quite UV stable, so the sculptures are well suited for placement outdoors.

So if you are in the area drop in to The Perfumed Garden for a look. And if you need any plants this is the place to go!

Rick Clise

Raspberry/microwave sparks!

2007-07-21T19:54:00.000+09:30

I thought I had posted this before, but apparently not. Not sure if this will gain as much press as the 'mentos in the diet cola' ones...

Back in late 2004 we were buying and using frozen raspberries for various culinary delights, and we found that when we tried to defrost them in the microwave that it caused sparks, arcing and burnt raspberries! It didn't happen with the other frozen products like blackberries or blueberries, just with the raspberries.

I sent an email to the company and asked if they were aware of it, and did we win the strange facts about XXX company's products award? No such luck, unfortunately.

A director of the company did email back to me and said that they tested the frozen raspberries in several different microwave machines and they all sparked. The manufacturers of the microwaves said that it could be the size and shape of the ice crystals. They were able to coax sparks from some frozen blackberries, but the raspberries always sparked.

I liked the opening sentence from the frozen raspberry supplier, 'Your email has certainly 'sparked' a reaction here...' Ha ha!

So, what is unique about the ice crystals in frozen raspberries that causes them to arc and spark in a microwave? Could this be a question for Dr Karl?

Rick Clise

P.S. Kids, don't try this at home - your parents will not be impressed with a scorched non-functioning microwave machine, and the smell of burnt raspberries in the kitchen!

Rick Clise - Sculpture exhibition Aug 3-19

2007-07-21T19:42:00.000+09:30

Hi,

For those of you in Adelaide, next month is the 10th South Australian Living Artist (SALA) festival, and I will be exhibiting and selling new metal sculptures at The Perfumed Garden. The exhibition runs from 3 - 19 August, at 559 Portrush Road, Glenunga, open 9 - 5 daily. Please come along and buy a couple!

Rick Clise - www.rickclise.com

image: 'General Drawing 1A - Circle Practice' Rick Clise 2007, painted steel.

How much do you need to know about me?

2007-07-21T19:09:00.000+09:30

I was reading the June 2007 issue of Wired magazine and found a couple articles that were interesting on their own, and more interesting when thought about together.

ONE: On page 073 is an article about Hasan Elahi, a 'Bangladeshi-born American' artist and Rutgers professor. In 2002 he was detained at the Detroit airport after arriving back in the US from the Netherlands, under suspicion by the FBI that he was 'hoarding explosives in a Florida storage unit'. He was given a lie detector test that proved he wasn't the person that the FBI was seeking, and he figured that it was his frequent air travel that raised concern with the US law enforcement folks - apparently he logs about 70,000 air miles annually attending conferences and exhibiting his art. And he figured that it would just be a matter of time before the FBI or other authorities detained him again under wrong information. He had the phone numbers of the FBI agents so he decided to call them and advise them of his flight details whenever he travelled anywhere.

As the article says, "So it dawned on him: If being candid about his flights could clear his name, why not be open about everything? 'I've discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away,'" said Elahi to writer Clive Thompson. The next step was for Elahi to start posting details about everything he does. he has a GPS device that 'reports his real-time physical location on a map. He photographs where ever he is, all his debit card transactions, and posts them on his website TrackingTransience.net . The article says that there are over 20,000 images on his website stretching back three years.

So that's the first Wired article that was of interest to me.

TWO: The second one starts on page 160 and documents a chilling situation where a hacker guessed the Mac.com password for Linkin Park lead singer Chester Charlie Bennington, and then proceeded to really mess with Bennington and his family by hacking into just about everything on-line that Bennington had anything to do with - email, eBay, PayPal, his wife's email, his ex-wife's website, his mobile phone account, Yahoo accounts, their bank accounts - basically, everything in their lives that is touched by technology. It's a good article, and I won't spoil the ending for you.

But here's a case of someone who prided himself on being accessible to his fans, the people who had bought more than 40 millions of Linkin Park's records. And someone gets into his private affairs and seriously messes-up his life and the lives of the people closest to him.

MORAL: So is the advice from these two separate articles in the June 2007 Wired magazine - control the information that the public can access about you? (And don't use easily guessed passwords!)

Rick Clise

Mike, Dave & Ray - interesting podcast!

2007-07-21T10:04:00.000+09:30

My mate Mike ('Fang'), and Dave have an interesting podcast show called The Extraordinary Everyday Lives Show, hosted on The Podcast Network. Episode #029 was a chat with South African "Roy Blumenthal. Artist, writer, producer, cartoonist, Corporate Facilitator, Coach, Creative Thinking Specialist, Performer, published poet and general self-described ‘common-or-garden creative type’."

Mike, Dave and Ray talked about a wide range of topics, some which I'll comment about later, but I thought it was interesting that Roy now leaves his 6 or 7 year old red sports car unlocked, even when parking at the airport, thinking, 'if it's going to be stolen it will be stolen whether it is locked on not.'

A couple things came to mind: would he do this if his car was brand new rather than 6 or 7 years old (before it gets that first scratch in the paint or parking lot dent)? Does faith in human nature have a 'value adjuster factor'? and secondly, Roy's faith in the general good of human kind made me think that a lot of the legislated restrictions on our collective 'freedoms' are the result of the evil/bad/inappropriate actions of the few. I tend to agree with Roy about the general good of people, although my insurance company doesn't and it encourages me to lock my car/house/whatever as their coverage doesn't exist if I don't take reasonable steps to protect my property that they insure.

I thought of being in Paris last year and travelling on the trains and Metro, and how the actions of a tiny percentage of people travelling on those systems left me with a bad impression of the whole experience - pickpockets! Completely unfair attitude towards the 99% of good people travelling with me.

On another topic, Roy's description of what he called 'industrial theatre', I think it was called, was very exciting. The idea that small groups of performers would go by truck from village to village, find-out the dominant problem facing the village, do an impromptu three minute long performance where the lead character does acts out his role and ends-up failing/dying/not succeeding (Roy put it better than I can remember). Then the play stops, and the audience is invited to interrupt a repeat performance of the play when they see the lead character doing something wrong and the audience can jump up onto the back of the truck and change the plot, resulting in a good ending. Roy described it as teaching people to look for options rather than looking for a solution. A nice idea, and apparently very empowering for the people who participated in the theatre shows. 'Giving back a voice' is how I think Roy described the outcome.

Made me think of a corporate example - Roy also talked about doing this work as a writer director of 'industrial theatre' in going into corporations with management's support, and helping the employees act-out what, for example, changing the company's mission statement might mean. Interesting comment by Roy that he warns management before the event that they might not like what they hear during the process, but if they can act on what they learn it is beneficial.

... ramble on ... How many businesses pretend that they are listening to their employees but have already made a decision about something? I think of local examples where a brainstorming session was called between management and workers to 'work through' the various options of a situation. After a few less than satisfying examples of this process happening, someone (worker) asked (management) before contributions had been solicited if the decision had already been made. And, not surprisingly, it generally had already been made. So that leaves the workers feeling that their involvement is a total waste of time - management evidently wanted the workers to sell themselves on the decision that management had already made.

I used to go to a small gym, run by a very nice woman and staffed by other women. (The clientele was both male and female in case someone thinks I was crashing a women's only gym!) Someone suggested that the gym owner put in a suggestion box, which was done and promoted to the membership. I, naturally, had LOTS of constructive suggestions about how small things could be improved to make the customer experience there even better - as it was it was a great gym. So suggestion after suggestion was stuffed into that dowdy wooden box, but never was any acknowledgement made of it. As time went on I wondered if anyone was actually reading the suggestions so in an attempt to provoke a response I started submitting more and more outrageous suggestions. Nothing inappropriate, just crazy ones. Finally, the gym owner took me aside one day and said that I was beginning to frighten the staff, and that no, they wouldn't consider doing a Pilates calendar with all the staff. So I think the staff began to feel that I was bit, creepy, when all I was trying to do was get some response to my damned suggestions. Ended-up leaving that place - it was time to move on. Next gym won't have a suggestion box, or if it does I'll submit mine in Latin.

So if you ask for field/worker/client feedback or suggestions, you better be prepared to listen to them and acknowledge them. Otherwise a good idea becomes a demoralising one. ... ramble off ...

Rick Clise

Muso to watch! Kate Miller-Heidke!

2007-07-08T22:49:00.000+09:30

We had a family outing today - spent an hour on the 'behind the scenes tour' of the Adelaide Festival Centre, which both Beth and I found interesting. Not sure how much the kids enjoyed it...

Then a quick lunch in the AFC, then listened to music. The Festival Centre puts on a free musical performance each Sunday from 2:00 - 3:30 pm. Today Kate Miller-Heidke from Brisbane, and her band, played in the piano bar at the Festival Centre.

What a great show! I'm not a muso, but the place was absolutely packed, and the audience really got into the show. I overheard one fellow listener describing Miller-Heidke as 'kinda Bjork, kinda Kate Bush, but it works when you see her in person.' I couldn't help comparing her singing with that of Ute Lemper. Wonderful voice, huge range. Apparently she was going to be an opera singer but folk/pop won-out! Lucky us.

Her songs were funny, emotional, entertaining. I told the kids, 'she had passion in her performance!'

She has released a CD, and one of her songs is getting played regularly on the radio. My feeling is that really good things are going to happen for her. She certainly deserves it with such talent!

Go Kate!

Rick Clise

How much torture is enough? TV time!

2007-06-23T19:57:00.000+09:30

Like probably a quarter of the rest of Adelaide I've been hit by a winter cold and was bedridden for most of a week. Very boring, but the good news is that one does get better from a cold. (Most of the time.)

My dear wife brought me some fresh reading material from the local library, and one gem was a copy of The New Yorker magazine (19 & 26 February - 'The Anniversary Issue'). I read 'The New Yorker' about once a year and used to puzzle about the cartoons - they were too esoteric for my simple tastes!

This issue is excellent!

Jane Mayer writes in her 'Letter from Hollywood' column this issue about the television show '24' in her article 'Whatever it Takes' , how the number of acts of fictionalised torture on TV has increased hugely; how these acts no longer show 'the bad guys' torturing 'the good guys' but more often than not it is the other way around; and how these TV shows influence the people who are in contact with people who could actually be tortured.

Beth and I used to be addicted to watching '24' and we bought several of the series on DVD to watch it. We've given-up watching it though - stupid local programming has it airing way too late for us to watch, but more importantly how many times can we watch Jack Bauer save the US of A from (yet another) nuclear or bio weapons attack, killing nearly all the bad guys he comes in contact with then walking away with nary a scratch to show for it. Perhaps, I don't know, a bit 'repetitive'?

Back to the real world. Torture is illegal. The United States Senate ratified The United Nations Convention Against Torture, declaring it illegal, specifically with 'no exceptional circumstances, whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.'

Mayer writes that the dean of the US Military Academy at West Point, Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, and three of the most experienced interrogators from the US military and FBI, flew to California to meet with the '24' creative team. Mayer wrote that they were concerned by the growing number of West Point cadets who would say to General Finnegan in his West Point 'laws of war' course, 'If torture is wrong, what about '24'?' The General continues, 'The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do.'

From what we see on '24' if you are running out of time and need some intel then it's alright to do a little torturing in the name of the bigger issue. But in the real world, apparently, physical torture doesn't actually work - one of the three experts at the meeting with the '24' team was a guy who had been an Army interrogator in Iraq. He said that people watched episodes of '24' then went on duty in the interrogation booth and did the same things that they had seen on '24'.

This former interrogator said that 'in Iraq, I never saw pain produce intelligence...' Some people, he said, 'gave confessions' but what they told was what was already known. It never opened up a stream of new information.'

Not surprisingly, the horrible attacks of 9/11 seemed to be a catalyst for the loosening of morals and legal compliance regarding the laws barring torture, as depicted on TV. Before 9/11, Mayer writes, 'fewer than four acts of torture appeared on prime-time television each year... [while] now there are more than a hundred' according to Human Rights First.

I like a good TV show. '24' has been hugely successful and it is very entertaining. But the problem is that people are confusing TV with reality. It won't change - next year there will be something even more graphic and violent. It's a tough and competitive business and people seem to expect more and more each year. My parents used to talk of a much simpler, naive world when they were growing-up. I think my childhood was pretty simple compared to what my children deal with now. What will our society be like for their kids?

People might say 'what do you expect from a bleeding heart liberal magazine like The New Yorker saying that torture isn't acceptable!' My feeling is that sometimes the government and its servants gets things wrong, and if I am somehow on the receiving end of whatever it is then I want those laws to exist and be enforced.

And if, somehow, they end-up wanting to torture me for some information vital to national security, hey, save the time, I'll tell them anything!

Rick Clise

A most amazing art exhibition

2007-06-23T19:47:00.000+09:30

When I was in high school I was amazed to read of the work by an Australian performance artist called Stelarc, who is famous for a number of things. In the 1970s Stelarc suspended his naked body off the ground by metal hooks piercing his body tied to ropes, hoisting his body off the ground for the duration of the performance.

Around the same time I heard of an American performance artist called Chris Burden who had a friend use a rifle to shoot him in the arm. I made a silkscreen print of the photo of this 'work'.

I could never imagine myself doing these kind of extreme acts in the name of art, so it fascinated me about how these guys could do so.

Until 30 June Stelarc has an exhibition of recent works at Adelaide's Experimental Art Foundation. Well worth a visit if you want to challenge yourself about 'what is art.'

One of Stelarc's most recent project was to insert a 'surgically constructed left ear' into his left arm. There is a short video documenting the process - not for the squimish.

Why? you might ask? Indeed. Art is a funny business, but Stelarc is one of the best at what he does.

Rick Clise

Shortening the collective attention span?

2007-06-09T09:31:00.000+09:30

My good friend Fang is right up there with all the latest and greatest technology inventions. If it's about to come-out in the Mac or PC world the Fang will already know about it and have about 6 different ways of using it.

He introduced me to Twitter. I don't consider myself a Luddite. I used to work in the PC world and started in a technical capacity before moving to sales and sales management, but I'm not definitely not a cutting-edge technology person. Now I'm just a PC user.

Remember when older friends of your parents would talk about their experience in computing - probably before you were born! 'Ah yes, I used to code in assembler, FORTRAN, COBOL, LISP and did some in APL and C. BASIC, nah, Business BASIC was more like it. But anyone could write in BASIC!' And you'd think they were like so, I don't know, who cares!

My technology claim to fame was being the network guru back in the introductory days of Novell Netware, JANET ('Just Another Network'), 3COM's network product (now what was it called), then learning to program in Z-80 machine code (while waiting for a BASIC interpreter, or even an assembler) for the Dick Smith kit computer , some 6502 assembler, smidgens of BASIC, and in C I got as far as being able to write, compile and run the 'Hello World' code, but that was about it.

Oops, I'm rambling, something of a right for aging folks... Probably lost most of you after the first paragraph...

Fang told me about Twitter. It's apparently the bees knees and a easy way to keep in touch with fellow twitterers by sending 'tweats' from a mobile phone, computer, or who knows what else. You basically get a real-time one or two line 'post' from the creator to whoever is in your Twitter group. Some immediate Twitter posts from the Twitter home page were:

1) Talking to Russ on the phone, while talking to Russ over the computer
2) Playing Rayman Raving Rabbids (Story Mode)
3) What'd I finish from today's to do list? One item and two others from left field. Doh.
3) trying out some new stuff in the HD DVD player for the September issue...already got reader letters and LiveSpace done! Bring on the weekend
4) 裸神ハトーコ（誰　それにしてもすごい空耳でしたヽ(´Д｀)
5) 72.44.54.138: Starting job sliceJob:fef53d3a-1616-11dc-9336-00a0d1e284a9, group group:89b30226-1615-11dc-bd00-00a0d1e284a9 (domU-12-31-37-00
6) Found a jumper that says "normal 1-2" "clear CMOS 2-3". Do I have to power it on in the "clear CMOS" setting?
7) Eddie Jun Yip Lee is George's father. Eddie's son is begging to grow facial hair, like father like son.
8) I'm so pescando here. Lol!

I don't know, what am I missing here? I think the one post I did on Twitter said 'just farted' or something equally pointless.

Fang said that he gets so much email these days that he may not actually read it - it can sit in his inbox for ages before he'll do a batch read/respond/delete of it. 'I don't have time to read email,' he may or may not have told me.

Then our eldest child tells me that the friends parties that she visits on a weekend night are usually 'boring' because people get there and very shortly after they get there if it isn't interesting they jump in their cars and head off to the next party which they hope is interesting. I'm thinking, that the interest level of a party would be the result of what the people there are putting into/bringing to it. And if they chuff-off within minutes of arriving how will it ever get interesting?

So what I'm (slowly) getting to is wondering if we are seeing a learned general reduction of the collective attention span resulting from new technoloies and easy mobility?

Rick Clise

Low down scoundrals

2007-06-09T09:27:00.000+09:30

I was talking with a fellow artist and her car had been broken-into overnight. The only thing that was stolen from the car was her disabled parking permit. When she reported it stolen she learned that it is a fairly common occurrence.

What kind of a person breaks into a car to steal a disabled parking permit? If there was a hierarchy of crimes that would be pretty low on the scale. How can people do that? It amazes me.

Rick Clise

More recycling info - desalination conspiracy?!?!? long...

2007-05-18T19:32:00.000+09:30

A funny thing happened recently... on May 3rd my letter to the editor of The Advertiser (Adelaide local daily paper) was published. The gist of my letter, which was severely edited by The Advertiser, was that water recycling is cheaper than making new water by desalination. In my letter I quoted an ABC FM radio interview by Margaret Throsby of Associate Professor Greg Leslie, who stated that Singapore industry actually prefers using recycled water because of its purity.

A day or two later someone else's letter to the editor was published, this one being much more pro-desalination and almost anti-recycling in its tone. The author claimed that the desalination process does not increase salinity as 'the process takes tonnes of salt out of the seawater and puts exactly the same salt back in. There is no change in the salinity at all.' Oops, if you've done elementary chemistry you know that if you reduce the amount of water in a container and don't reduce the suspended materials by the same amount then the concentration level increases. If you are using salt water, for example, what is left behind becomes saltier. The writer was just a leetle misleading in his statement.

And then a few days later I happened to hear a brief news item on a popular Adelaide FM radio station and it mentioned something about Singapore's use of recycled water and how it needs separate piping systems or something like that, which was intended to make listeners doubt the wisdom of using recycled water!

What struck me as interesting was that there had been no other Adelaide news about Singapore's use of recycled water that I was aware of, beyond what I had written in my letter to the editor.

Could there be big money to be made in selling a desalination plant to the South Australian government? One wonders...

FURTHER RESEARCH RESULTS...

A check of the Sydney Water website about the proposed desalination plant there says that the water returned to the sea would be about twice as salty as the normal sea water. And the temperature of the returned water would be about 2 degrees warmer than the normal sea water.

Probably not a train smash - the returned saltier water does dilute into the normal seawater. But it would have an effect on the local environment before it dilutes. Maybe like finding those 'warm spots' when you are swimming? But this one doesn't go away. Not nice if you happen to be a sponge or barnacle living where the warm brine is discharged.

South Australia already has a desalination plant operating on Kangaroo Island at Pennshaw. It cost $4m in 1999 to build, and it creates about 300,000 litres of fresh water daily. From 100 litres of water processed it makes 30 litres of fresh water.

Half of all the freshwater that Adelaide uses daily ends-up as waste water in the sewers. Industrial waste water is added to this.

According to SA Water, all of our waste water is treated to secondary level before it is either dumped back into the sea or used for crop irrigation. I don't know how much is dumped back into the sea compared with how much is used by agriculture.

The problem is this dumping the treated waste water back into the sea. We are already treating it to a secondary level to be able to return it to the sea without polluting the ocean, or to use it as irrigation water for crops in the Bolivar area north of Adelaide. What would it cost to further treat it so more waste water could be reused?

What do the golf courses in Adelaide use to keep the courses irrigated - bore water, fresh water, recycled water? I'll check further.

There is a wealth of information on the web about Singapore's recycled water projects. 'NEWater' is their branded recycled water. It is quite a success.

So it seems to me that the argument comes down to two related points - we 'waste' probably close to half the freshwater that we use daily in Adelaide by dumping it into the sewers; and as Associate Professor Leslie says, we need to get past the 'use once' mentality. Water is recyclable - SA Water says that waste water is 99.9% water, with 0.1% being generally dissolved or suspended material. It isn't difficult to rid the 99.9% water of the 0.1% waste products.

Western Australia has built a desalination plant at Kwinana, powered by a wind farm at Emu Downs. The plant is supposed to supply 17% of Perth's water supply when fully on line, or 130 megalitres per day. This plant cost $387 million.

It's commendable that the power for the Perth water plant is from a wind farm. We recently changed our electricity supplier so that we use 'green' energy like from solar, wind or hydro. What this actually means, as you can't guarantee that power from any of these green sources is actually working when you need it (you can't store electricity - it has to be made on demand) is that the energy retailer we use buys a kilowatt of electricity from a green producer for each kilowatt that we use. So despite wanting to, our current energy infrastructure still relies on fossil fueled power generation.

I wonder also what the carbon impact is in building a wind farm - surely the manufacturing processes use a lot of energy (probably fossil fuel generated for the most part). What's the 'total' life carbon impact of building a wind farm and a desalination plant?

Melbourne Water warns that building a desalination plant would have a significant impact on household water bills. Perth's Water Corporation info about the desalination plant says that if the total capital and operating cost of the plant was passed-on to consumers it would cost them about $44 per year.

Locating a desalination plant for Melbourne is another issue - apparently Port Phillip Bay, which is a huge body of water constricted by a relatively narrow opening, is too shallow to adequately disperse the brine discharge from a desalination plant, without causing environmental problems. Others think that issue can be overcome.

Interestingly, the technology used in a modern desalination plant is very similar to that used in a modern water recycling plant - reverse osmosis filtering.

Yesterday Adelaide used 197 megalitres of freshwater for the 24 hour period to 8:00 am. The daily average for May for Adelaide freshwater use is 385 megalitres. Pumping half of either of those amounts out to sea as treated waste water is, frankly, 'wasteful!'

I'm not against building a desalination plant - but why build it to make more water and then dump the waste water from it? Say we build a desalination plant like the one in Western Australia, 'creating' 130 megalitres per day. What then, pump half of what we currently use plus half of the newly desalinated water out to sea as treated waste? That's dumb!

References:
Sydney Water: http://www.sydneywater.com.au/EnsuringTheFuture/Desalination/index.cfm
SA Water: http://www.sawater.com.au/SAWater/Education/OurWastewaterSystems/
Perth desalination: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20791840-5005961,00.html
Melbourne Water: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/push-for-huge-desalination-plant/2007/04/06/1175366479355.html
Singapore's NEWater: http://www.pub.gov.sg/NEWater_files/index.html

The Coolest school visit ever!

2007-05-18T14:47:00.000+09:30

Our school had a most unique visit today when an Australian Army Blackhawk helicopter landed on the sports oval. The Blackhawk was piloted by a former student, Captain XXXX XXXX.

Captain XXXX graduated from the school a while ago, apparently went to the Australian Defence Force Academy, learned to fly fixed wing craft, then went on the qualify in the Blackhawk helicopter. He/she is a member of a very elite group.

I stood next to his/her very proud father while he/she landed the helicopter, and the father explained that as a student XXXX told the head of school that one day he/she would land a Blackhawk helicopter on the oval. And today he/she fulfilled that promise.

With Captain XXXX and his/her aircrew were several other military representatives to answer any questions about the forces. It was certainly a wonderful PR exercise by the military.

The students had a casual clothes day, and most of them had the opportunity to sit in the cargo area for photographs with their friends. Captain XXXX and his/her crew were very warmly welcomed by the staff and students.

It was a most exciting school visit. Well done Captain XXXX!

For photos of the visit see my flickr site.

NOTE: Names have been changed to protect identities.

Recycling water

2007-04-07T07:22:00.000+09:30

Think the answer to Australia's chronic water shortage is to build desalination plants? Think again - we can reclaim huge amounts of water by being smarter with our use of it and building recycling plants at a fraction of the cost.

A few days ago on ABC radio Margaret Throsby interviewed Associate Professor Greg Leslie about water recycling. If you click on the title of this blog entry it will start the Windows Media stream of the one hour long interview.

After listening to the interview I wouldn't have any hesitation about using recycled water.

There's a lot of emotion in the community about acceptance of using recycled water, with many people assuming that if something went wrong in the process instead of having clean drinkable water coming from the taps that there would chunks of someone else's turds plopping out.

Very much not the case, according the AP Leslie.

The economics of water recycling are so much better than 'making' drinkable water by desalination. He makes the point that Singapore, which is very largely dependant on Malaysia for its water supply, had done a study and budgeted for building something like 6 desalination plants to meet its water requirements. After building one desalination plant at a cost of something like one billion dollars, Singapore has met much of its clean water requirements by building recycling water treatments plants for much less cost than building desalination plants.

Recycled water can be used not only for domestic consumption but also for business and industry. The recent South Australian government water restrictions limiting for how long and when people can water their gardens and use sprinklers is somewhat of a joke. I don't know the figures, but do domestic sprinklers and garden watering tip the balance of water use in this state? I'm thinking that commercial, industrial, and agricultural users make much more of an impact on use of our water supplies. But we are doing our little bit - I figure the bucket of water collected in the shower must put, what, about 9 litres of water back into the system daily. Just think if everyone in Adelaide collected a bucket of shower over spray and dumped it onto their lawn or garden. Heck, within, I don't know, a few years, we might equal what one golf course uses in a day or two.

AP Leslie said that in Singapore industry there actually loves using recycled water as it is so clean. The silicon chip in your mobile phone takes something like 200 litres of water in the process of making the chip. Using recycled water is a great application for this industry.

A long time ago when I was in the Navy I did temporary duty on a submarine tender, operating a 'pure distilled water' plant that supplied very clean water to submarines for use in their batteries (diesel boats) or reactors (nuke boats.) In this case it was normal 'tap' water used that was forced through a serious filtration system to remove all minerals and salts. The result was water that would make you sick if you drank it as everything except 'the water' was taken out from it. I'm guessing that as that water had no salts or minerals in it that if you drank it the water in your body would give-up those salts and minerals in an effort to equalise the pure water, leaving your body depleted of those salts and minerals.

In the interview with AP Leslie he makes the point that the filtration process used in treating waste water to become recycled water is already widely used by beverage makers who need to make a consistent taste of their product. For example, a maker of beer like CUB has a product called Victoria Bitter that derives a part of its ultimate taste by the characteristics of the water used to make it. The water in Melbourne tastes different than the water in Brisbane because the mineral content varies between the two waters. So companies like CUB filter the water they use to make beer and before the water is used exact amounts of calcium, sodium and other salts and minerals are added back to make it taste exactly the same as how it would be in Melbourne, for example.

So when someone does a public display of drinking recycled water and claims that they can't tell the difference in taste between the recycled water and tap water that's why - the recycled water has been treated after filtration, disinfection and cleaning so that its mineral content matches that of the tap water. Thank heavens that the operators of Adelaide's water supply have cleaned-up our tap water to the extent that they have - back in the mid 1990's the bath tub was brown with sediment from the tap water, our water smelled nasty, and tasted very bad. Not so now. Well done Adelaide's water operators.

Even Dr Karl makes that point that all of the water we use on the planet is 'recycled' in that there is a finite amount of water in our global ecosystem and we just keep reusing it (rain falls, we collect a little of it, use it, flush it down the drain, it gets treated, then fed back into the water system: put back into a river for inland communities, or dumped to the sea for coastal communities; it evaporates into the atmosphere, comes back to us as rain or snow, and the cycle repeats.) Can we 'make' new water by combining hydrogen and oxygen? Yes, but the energy cost to do so is prohibitive.

If we build desalination plants but only 'use' the water once before returning it to the sea we are really not being smart. Apparently a number of years ago the aluminium industry realised that to be cost competitive with other packaging technologies that they had to use recycling in their manufacturing mix. It costs something like 14 times as much to make a new chunk of aluminium than it does to make the same chunk by recycling aluminium scrap. Water provide a similar story - recycling costs less.

< soapbox>
Recycling costs less. Listen to the interview, learn the facts about recycling water. We can be a lot smarter with our resources.
< /soapboax>

So, chattering politicians, what are you doing for us with water recycling projects and plans? I can only carry that bucket of shower water down to the garden so often!

Rick Clise

P.S. If you don't have Windows Media Player there is a Real Audio version of the interview is found here and details about the interview are found here.

Cool sculpture community

2007-03-15T22:13:00.000+10:30

I've recently joined the community at sculpture.net - if you are a visual artist, especially a sculptor, check it out. Great resource, very helpful people.

Rick Clise

Tough Talk - leave 'em trembling in their boots!

2007-03-15T22:03:00.000+10:30

The world's baddies must be terrified. More problems in Zimbabwe - more tough talk about how bad it is. Nutso President Mugabe must be losing sleep at night with all the, the, the BAD things that people are saying about him. How can he live with himself? Well, the way things are going over there it may just be Mugabe living by himself in not too long with all the others in the country dying from his not so benevolent policies and enforcement of them.

And now the Royal Automobile Association of South Australia (RAA) has decided to raise its squeeky little voice in shaming the profiteering oil companies by publishing a list of recommended petrol prices during the upcoming Easter holidays. I bet those oil company executives, like President 'Starve them into obedience' Mugabe, are terrified at this tough talk too.

'JUST STOP IT!' You wanna shout at them! They aren't listening but it makes you feel like you are doing something...

Rick Clise