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October 1998

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MUSICAL VARIATIONS and OLD ASTRONAUTS NEVER DIE, THEY JUST GET THEMSELVES ANOTHER ROCKET...
Friday, 30 October 1998

Nearly the end of October - the year is literally slipping away fast. This past week has been marked by a variety of musical tastes.

Although it has been out for about a month now, I finally got my copy of Mike Oldfields new album, Tubular Bells 3. I must say that I don't think it is anywhere near as bad as i first feared. I mean the name sets it that way to start with. The Mike Oldfield mailing list I am on had had quite a discussion before the release and the Premier concert in London - not all favourable. However, after listening to it a bit, I don't mind it - not his best - but far from his worst effort. Then to top it off, on the same day, I recieved another Mike Oldfield CD in the mail. This was a special production by the mailing list - a rare live recording of an Orchestral version of Hergest Ridge - nice.

Other musical tastes this week have included Weddings Parties Anything. Some what different to MO, but great Australian music none the less.

The week ended on a sad note for me though - well more a parting. Our house guest, Catherine, left yesterday evening to go back to her parents place in Dunsborough. Its been great having her around, and I shall miss her (such a bubbly personality), but it is also kinda nice to have the study/spare room back again.

Apparently, I have been in the local media a bit because of my work for the election - pictures in the paper, and a short segment of film on the news. Whenever a news item about the progress of the count was on, this same bit of film was trotted out - I must have "counted" those particular ballot papers many times!

Finally, the big news in space science is that John Glenn (Mr Right Stuff) has gone back into space - at the age of 77. This area of the globe (well, Perth anyway) became famous and hence forth known as "The City of Lights", when residents turned on their lights so he could see them from space in 1962. It will be interesting to find out if he can see them this time around - Perth is somewhat bigger than in 1962, and there will be some special help from some powerful lights. But it is nice to feel part of the whole thing - I think I'll leave the back porch light on tonight - just incase... ;^)

THE VIRTUAL PARTY
Thursday, 22 October 1998

Is it really that long since I wrote here? I suppose it must be - but where does the time go?

Since finishing up the election work (on my part anyway - it took another couple of weeks to get the final result), I have commenced term four's classes in my "real" job. Not that its been that hard - just busy.

The highlight of this recent period though has to have been the "virtual party" I attended last weekend. Not that the whole party was "virtual" - there was a real party - it's just that it was on the other side of the world! My friend Jennifer had a few friends over - some from as far away as Sweden. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be there in person, even though I did get an invite.

For those friends unable to be there, Jennifer had thoughtfully prepared a package of "goodies" to help those of us watching from afar (on her webcam, and via irc) to get in the party mood and join in. Thanks Jen! - I really enjoyed the Bagel Chips, the little bottles of rum and vodka and the "Wind Breaker" (don't ask), and the many other little party thingies in the box. The best part though was getting CuSeeMe up and running and being able to connect to see things at a slightly more realistic pace. I wish I could have actually been able to join in the great game of Twister that was going on!

Anyway - it was great seeing so many friends that up until now have just been names in irc. Maybe next year if Jennifer has another party....

Sunday afternoon was work related. Held over the weekend were the annual Work Skill Competitions and the Campus' Open Day. As our contribution to the proceedings, the Computing lecturers set up and wrote a web page on the day - taking pictures with the digital camera of the competitions as they happened. It was a lot of fun, and the semi-finished product (it needs a bit of touching up) isn't all that bad.

The next few weeks are going to be busy too - assignments are due. I realised a week ago that I wasn't going to be able to make it on one of my units - so I will withdraw and cop the failure and have another go next semester. At least that will allow me to concentrate on the other unit and get that done.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT
Friday, 9 October 1998

In case you hadn't heard - there was an election here last weekend. For me that has meant lots of work, late nights, early mornings, and going crosseyed from counting ballot papers!

I left for Esperance Friday afternoon. I had the job of "Polling Place Liason Officer". Sounds important, but it really means just a lot of running around making sure the electoral process is running smoothly in my part of the world.

I also had a particular job to do in heading off at the pass a particularly annoying party worker. He had apparently objected to how one of my polling booths was to be set up. I met him and the OIC of the booth on the Friday night, and thought I had resolved the issue by moving the booth to a larger room. However, next morning, there he was being argumentative still. I think he just liked arguing with anyone for the sake of arguing. I had another run in with him later that night as we observed vote counting at this particular polling place. Some people are just so frustratingly infuriating!

I managed to get around most of the polling places in my area. I voted at one of the tiny country ones (a place called Cascades). It is usual to use the local schools, but this place only had a school, a few houses and a wheat storage bin! I took the back road to visit more polling booths. The rest of the day held no dramas as far as my area went.

At 6pm the counting started. I was listening to the results coming in from around the country. I gotta admit at one stage I thought Labor just might do it, but as the night wore on, it was clear they weren't going to make it. But thats democracy for you. The Australian Electoral Commission has a very good virtual tallyroom site for all you budding psephologists out there. If you search very hard, you may even find the place I voted at listed (try the Division of Kalgoorlie's results).

I also had the job of transporting all the voting materials back to Kalgoorlie to be processed. The vehicle I had was stacked up very high with boxes and plastic bags and god knows what else. After picking up from some of the small towns along the highway, I finally arrived back just after 1pm on the Sunday. Then it was straight into processing the returned materials - making sure that its all there, the Certified Lists extracted and sent off for scanning, all the bundles checked in and put in there respective piles. We didn't finish until fairly late on Sunday evening.

The rest of this week has been spent in helping with the count. That means processing absent voters envelopes and extracting the ballot papers, and counting the votes. The ever present scrutineers leaning over your shoulder to see where the preferences were flowing, the eager discussion as the trends ebbed and flowed with each batch counted. This Division is still too close to call with a three way tussle in progress between the ALP candidate, the Liberal candidate and the incumbent Independent member. On the existing trends it looks like the Liberal candidate will win with most of the minor parties preferences going his way. But only a full distrubution of preferences when all ballot papers are in (it is necessary to wait until all the postals are in) will determine the matter one way or the other.

CHOICES
Thursday, 1 October 1998

Only the completely isolated and shut-off people would fail to notice that we are having an election. Mind you, the candidates and political parties seem to have done their best to ensure that the campaign has been one of the least riverting that I can remember! And yet, when I do think about it, in between worrying about the mechanics of the election and trying to get my study and the myriad of other things done, when I do think about it, the choice is actually quite frightening.

I mean, this is the last election this century. We are electing representatives that will form the government to take us into the next millenium (sounds so important doesn't it - but I suppose its really just another three year term - not a "thousand year reign".) From that point of view, as Kim Beasley said, the choices made with this election will not easily be undone if they are wrong.

On the one hand, we have a conservative government that wants tax reform. Sounds fine in general principle, and there is probably not a soul that would disagree. It's just that they are not offering any flexibility. It's a "take-it-or-leave-it" situation. Sure, there would be cuts in income tax - but there is the slug in the GST - on everything, including food. It would replace the existing wholesale sales tax on many items. But it's that GST on the food. It will really hit the less well off in our community hardest - those least able to defend themselves and to be able to afford it. To me thats morally wrong! What good are income tax cuts if you don't pay income tax - but you can't avoid the GST? And then there is the "promise" that the rate won't rise. How can anyone trust that?

Then on the other side we have the Labor Party. I like Kim Beasley. Apart from the fact that he is from Western Australia, and could very well be the first "non-Sydney-Melbourne" PM for many years (searching back through my psephological memory I think the last such PM, apart from the temproary fill ins by Deputy PM's, was probably Ben Chifley just after WW2). But there are somethings that stretch the credibility, even with my faith. "Jobs, jobs, jobs", is what he will focus on - setting a target of 5% unemployment rate in the first two terms (its currently over 8%). But with the collapsing of world economies, how is that going to be achieved? The next few years are probably not going to be very pretty for any economy, and Australia probably won't be any different.

My natural tendency is to the Labor side of politics (I have always had that idealistic side to my personality), and I will probably vote that way. Its a big ask for Beasley to win - 27 seats need to change hands, and with the complex preferential voting patterns, it isn't an simple task - especially with so many minor candidates in nearly every seat (Kalgoorlie has 9 candidates). The opinion polls are showing it as very close only a few percentage points in it between the parties in primary votes, and even closer on preferences. There may not be a final result on Saturday night - the results in many seats resting on the late arrival of postal and absentee votes, and the complex flow of preferences.

Tomorrow I drive down to Esperance to perform my electoral job of being "trouble-shooter" for Leonie. And as general transport of the electoral materials back on Sunday. It should be an interesting day, and I will probably get a chance to at least here results from the National Tally Room on the radio. But I fear that the conservatives will get back in and we will get the tax that we really don't need.

Some choice...