31 July 08 - 22:32Food for Thought

My friend, Anita has started an excellent food blog, called Food for Thought. Check it out.

polly - default - No comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

31 July 08 - 22:28Long time no blog

I really should blog more regularly. It has been a busy year, though, with the last few months being particularly hectic. I've got a new job (same company, and similar work with high performance compute clusters, but hopefully there will be more design work, rather than just day to day admin), but it's based at a different site, and I have a 15 minute stroll to work (when I'm not back at the old site). It also means I don't need to take PT to work, or drive my beaten up old car (which has nearly had it). I'm learning a lot more about SANs and NAS storage systems.

I probably need to take a holiday (rather than taking leave to work on election campaigns, although I'll probably help some people in their local government campaigns in November 2008) in the next couple of months. I'd like to laze around the house for a bit, and catch up on reading and DVDs, but I'd also like to travel a bit more. I've got a 2-3 year goal of going on an overseas trip. I have never left Australia, and would love to visit the UK, Finland, Germany, Greece, Rome and in particular, the US. I'd really love to visit New York.

Regarding politics, the last Democrats senators terms finished at the end of June. I was particularly sad that Lyn Allison - who I greatly admire, like and respect - didn't get elected. It has been a privilege to support her work as a Victorian senator over the last 10 years. I should blog a bit more about the party at some stage - it's tempting to blame it all on Meg Lees, but there were mistakes made on all sides over the last few years and I do think that what a lot of the commentary that I have seen has been missing is an analysis of why the party organisation failed to learn from the damage that was done in 1992 and 1993 (the Janet Powell split), and why it remained vulnerable to individual personality politics. No one individual, no matter how senior, should be able to wreck a properly functioning political party. There are lessons that need to be learned for whatever party the current Dems evolve into, as well as other minor parties who wish to avoid what happened to us. Anyway, that topic would be best left for another time (when I don't have a bad head cold).

Andrew Bartlett has continued with his blog, which is a terrific read, and it will be interesting to see if he feels less constrained on any topics, now that he is no longer a senator, although his blog has always struck me as being very direct, which is one of the reasons why it has always been worthwhile reading for anyone interested in Australian politics.

polly - default - No comments / No trackbacks - § ¶