Wonx2150's Blog

New home page released

2009-07-06T18:33:00.004+10:00

I'm pleased to announce I just finished my new home page. My last one was a template I found and modified to my likings. But I was never entirely satisfied with it and felt for a long time id like to make one I made myself.

So here it is:

http://wonx2150.dragonhost.net.au/

Feedback is welcome and its not 100% finished yet. Some of the logos need a bit of work :).

Convenence going to kill us all?

2009-07-01T19:39:00.005+10:00

We are all fairly lazy these days whether we like to admit it or not. And we only seem to be getting worse. Everything seems to be geared up to make life easier despite the cost. I’ve met a lot of people who won’t turn things off as its to trouble to turn it back on. Imo they are just selfish and lazy.

We waste huge amounts of power and other resources to make our lives more convenient and to what end? Most of the population seems to be overweight and global warming approaching the tipping point if it’s not already passed. It’s fairly obvious our current lifestyles are going to kill us all.

Things like standby need to become a thing of the past. Waiting a few minutes while your computer turns on won’t kill you. Walking to the shop may even do you some good. Turning off the light when you leave the room and back on when you enter isn’t exactly hard. Sorting your recycling won’t consume all your time.

All of these things are so simple yet so many people don’t do them. They leave things on, they drive places and all because it’s convenient. It’s all well and good but if us westerners don’t change our lifestyles now voluntarily then future generations will have to whether they like it or not. Great world we are leaving for our kids.

I know I’m ranting :P just sick of lazy people who won’t do simple things that will make a difference. Like turning off the TV, light, computer, walking to the shop, bus/train station. It’s not exactly going to eat up all your day. In fact some of it might do you some good.

Here are some straight forward idea's:

Turn off the TV at the wall.
Turn off your computer when your leaving it for 30 min or more (if it takes ages to start up maybe this can help) . And turn it off at the wall over night.
Next time you need to go to the corner store walk or ride your bike. Same applies with going to the bus\train station. If you don’t already use these but could then give it some serious consideration.
Turn off lights when you’re out of the room you only need to light the rooms you’re in. Don’t worry your furniture isn’t scared of the dark.

And there is plenty more you can do. My website ELBH may offer some ideas and otherwise you could Google it. Yes it’s my turn to be lazy :P.

And at the end of the day remember that attachment to material things will leave you ultimately unhappy.

Winds of change

2009-06-10T21:49:00.004+10:00

Anyone who payed any attention to the European elections or watched the news the last few days will have heard about the abysmal performance of the UK labor party. It made me wonder may our labour party be heading down the same path. They are unlikely to get involved in the same money related scandals or that Mr Rudd’s popularity is going to plummet. Though there is a 3rd problem that hit the UK Labor party and is showing signs of hurting ours to. That is the fact they have drifted so far to the right. They have alienated many of their traditional left wing supporters by their conservative views. Right now various state Labor parties are in the process of trying to privatize things, that is traditionally a Conservative idea. The Australian labor party is no better than the UK branch it may not have renamed its self new labor though it has defiantly drifted to the right. The Recent victory of the Greens in Fremantle is a sign of this change. (http://greensmps.org.au/blog/730-report-fremantle-election).

The same happened in the UK with their labor party losing labor seats to other parties notably the BNP. I’m not pleased about the BNP's rise but it’s hardly suppressing given the mess the UK labor party is in. Although I am glad to see the UK Greens, doing better out of it to.

As the 7:30 Report suggests things are changing. Labor needs to change to or they are going to suffer the consequences. We don’t have any strong straight forward left wing parties in this country although the Greens are a serious contender. When you look past the name they are fairly central left wing. If labor continues down this path they will be fighting the Liberals for seats and the Greens and Socialist Alliance will claim all their old strong holds.

I’m well aware that Rudd’s popularity is still very high (Click here) though change is coming and labor seems to have stuck their heads in the sand. Much like they are ignores other types of change to sadly.

O well on a positive note for labor supporters out there. The National party are even more screwed. Unfortunately for them the rising sea levels won’t flow off the edge of the world.

For the record I voted for Rudd as he was clearly the lesser of two evils. Though unless labor makes some serious changes. They have lost my vote next time.

O and if you missed the EU elections and want to know what happend here is the results: BBC and Wikipedia.

Grow your own food!

2009-05-26T18:14:00.006+10:00

I’ve been thinking recently about how much money could be saved if you grow your own food. Not to mention the benefits it would have to you and the planet. The cost of transporting/storing fresh fruit and veg can’t be good. Given a lot of it probably comes from the other side of the country or world and spends weeks or months in cold storage. (So much for fresh fruit/veg)

Im not suggesting we give up on our fruit and veg. I’m only suggesting that we try to grow some more of it ourselves. Buying locally grown is also good though that’s not the point of this post).

It can be quit rewarding to know that you grew your dinner yourself. Growing your own food is nothing new. I guess it’s gone a bit out of fashion in the last 30 years. Though it’s increasingly becoming fashionable again give the high cost of food and concern about climate change. Once upon a time everyone would have grown food as we moved into towns then cities and the coming of the industrial age this began to disappear. It’s reappeared in some countries since then for example growing of food was rather important in most European countries during World War 2. Today in modern Cuba there is a big program in place to get everyone to grow food in any spare soil around the city of Havana (it may happen in others I don’t know).

I’ve recently got into this a bit myself back in January I planted some old potatoes that had started to grow in the ground and despite forgetting about them during the worst of the drought. They amazingly have done quite well.

I also planted some garlic today for much the same reason, it’s started to grow. Hopefully it will be a similar success. Growing veggies is nothing new to me as I live on a farm though I must say our veggie garden has suffered some neglect. One bed is ruled by fennel and another is covered by a branch.

You don’t need a lot of space to grow veggies as this blog shows: http://www.eightsquaremetres.com/

And here is a rather clever idea to grow potato’s http://tipnut.com/grow-potatoes/ I’ve not tried it but I’m told it would work :).

Green Google Reader feed

2009-05-25T09:45:00.003+10:00

For anyone whos intrested ive created a collection of Green blogs/sites that you can easly subscribe to all in one go. I did this using Google Reader (and this guide).

Here is a link to Subscribe if you use google reader: http://www.google.com.au/reader/bundle/user/02463715468181652455/bundle/Green

If anyone has any suggestions for me let me know and ill add them. If you dont have Google Reader create a Google (gmail) account and you can use it for free.

Recycle for the Economy.

2009-05-05T19:24:00.004+10:00

We are all aware of the benefits of Recycling and how it helps the environment. Although not many people think about its economic benefits. After all given the mess our economy is in anything we can do to boost it sounds like a good idea.

Now I’ll explain my theory:

Say I throw out a plastic bottle right now after writing this and it goes into the regular rubbish. Next that rubbish bin gets picked up by a truck this truck has 1 to 2 people operating it (2 jobs). After it this plastic bottle gets tipped into the Landfill at the local tip there isn’t anyone required to unload it and only usually 1 part time job created running this landfill. Also this costs large amounts of money to maintain. Although I can’t give you an exact figure most are in the millions. That money is just going down the drain. I’ve read quotes of landfill costing over 20 million (USD) a year.

So for my Plastic bottle to go into the local tip it’s created 3 or so jobs and cost the local government millions. May I remind you those millions come from your rates and tax's.

Now let’s say my Plastic bottle is instead recycled. The first part of this process is fairly similar. It goes into my Recycling bin then is picked up and taken to the Recycling depot (2 jobs again). Now this is where things start to change. Next the bottle is unloaded and sorted from the other recycling. Although a lot of this process is automated. This does create a few jobs as not all the sorting is done by machines. After its been sorted it would get squashed into a large cube with lots of other bottles and then it’s shipped off to a factory where it will be melted down and turned into new bottles. We shall say there was 2 jobs getting it from the Cube to the factory. Then plenty of jobs turning it back into a bottle. On the other hand this doesn’t cost the council nearly as much and it’s not a bottomless pit. This has created jobs and stimulated the local economy. In some areas (e.g. South Australia and other countries around the world where they have reverse vending machines and bottle return) then this creates even more jobs although I don’t know enough of this process to say more. The NSW governments a bit slow on the uptake also so we don’t have it here yet..

Odd given we are the "first state" I think that’s a bit of a lie we general seem to be going backwards maybe we should rename ourselves to the "last state". Although i admit we aren’t the worst on some issues so let’s call us "the state that sits somewhere in the middle, but isn’t leading the country in many if any initiatives." that would make for a good number plate.

Anyway back to the point it doesn’t take a genius to work out that by recycling my plastic bottle I’ve done more for the economy than letting it go into recycling. Although i admit half the time the bottle may get shipped off to china that’s not my fault maybe we should have privatized everything. Generally most of our normal waste is recycled here.

So next time your worrying about your job and the economy. Remember to Reduce Reuse Recycle. (The Reduce and reuse bit also apply to this as we import almost everything we use.)

Destroying Sustainable Environment

2009-04-21T17:10:00.008+10:00

Is anyone else living in or near Victoria sick of the smoke and all the lies associated with it? No I’m not talking about the bush fires they where different as they were not deliberate and everything was done to prevent them. What I’m grumbling about is the DSE's burn offs. Although let’s get one thing straight I don’t dislike the DSE and i have nothing against any of their employees they are just doing their job. Moreover, I know even some of them are a bit concerned about this. You can’t shoot the messenger after all its the Victorian government who’s to blame for all this.

Some would tell you it’s needed or beneficial yes let me guess when you where young smoking (cigarette smoking) was good for you? How on earth is it beneficial? You don’t have to be a geniuses to realize that it’s not?

Some of the arguments I’ve heard are:

1. The Aboriginals did it. Does that make it right? The Romans made people fight to the death in stadiums for entertainment. Although I don’t think it happens a lot in Italy today. Not to mention we have little proof aboriginals in this area of the country did burn off. After all there wasn’t many of them and we pretty much killed them off when we arrived. For some reason I don’t think the first settlers asked them nicely before how they managed the environment. Also look at the environment, most of Victoria was once covered in Mountain Ash before we cut them all down. They are also not in the slightest bit fire tolerant and are badly affected by fire.

2. It reduces the fire danger. No it doesn’t, I’ve seen areas that have been burnt off it doesn’t look very "reduced" in fact it just killed most of the undergrowth and half the trees (i admit that one got a bit out of control). There wasn’t less fuel there was in a way more due to all the dead timber around and grass that grew as a result. No amount of burning off and fuel reduction would have stopped the fires in Victoria earlier this year. Nothing could have stopped them.

Burning our native forests isn’t going to help them or us. It just produces lots of air pollution and speeds up global warming that dries out our climate and there for makes the fires even worst. Not to mention the damage it does to the native flora and fauna. It kills many native animals and destroys their homes. It also kills plants they aren’t designed for this and they take years to recover. What sorta world are we creating for our children?

Think of the damage it’s doing to us to? The amount of smoke in the air, it’s killing my lungs. I am getting rather sick of it and I’ve read other stories of people suffering rather badly as a result to. How’s this helping anyone? who’s it protecting in the long term the damage out ways any gains.

Is this really likely to make fires less common? Nope, it doesn’t make us any safer. It’s about as beneficial as fridge magnets to protect us against terrorism. Ah what am I on about we all know that they stop terrorism sorry my bad. Considering most of the states, fires are started by arson. Then this really won’t make a difference. If the conditions are right, it will burn fuel or no fuel.

PS: I am not attacking the DSE or their employees well maybe there bosses in Melbourne, as I am sure, they have a part in this but mostly my anger is directed at Mr. Brumby and the Victorian Government. I guess also to some extent the media for pushing this. Although I do blame the DSE for a "fuel reduction" burn a few years back that got out of control and burnt most of the Bluffs National Park. That last time I read was a Protected Environment and considered very special due to its unique plant species. Unfortunately with the drought and the fire much of this has been lots. Funny how as it wasn’t threatening any homes there was no resources committed to it at all.

For thoes that dont know. The DSE Stands for Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Changing Windows theme's

2009-04-13T20:29:00.004+10:00

Got sick of the Windows XP default themes? There is 3 of them and after you have used windows for more than a week you have probably got bored with them. This also applies to Vista it has like 2 or 3 themes doesn’t it? I miss good old windows 95/98 when you could change the colours so that they hurt everyone’s eyes :P.

Well there is two ways to change your theme's in XP/Vista. There are 10000s of themes out there to choose from and I’m sure you can find one you like. I’ve had a range of them over the year and finally settled on a nice simple clean on that seems to remind people of Linux never thought of it myself. (Here's a picture)

The way I’m going to cover involves installing a small patch that removes the protection in Windows that stops custom themes from showing up. Although if that’s to scary and you like to have more programs on your pc that slow down its boot time there are plenty of programs to also do the job (eg StyleXP).

(This guide is for Windows XP Home/Pro although i think you can do the same thing on Vista using vista (not xp) patch).

Step 1: Download UxTheme Multi-patcher: here or here. (make sure you get the theme appropriate to your service pack if you haven’t got SP3 (the latest for XP) download it here.

Step 2: Run the UxTheme patcher and follow the steps.

Step 3: It will restart but you won’t notice any real change, Until you go to your Display Property/Appearance. Although you won’t notice any change yet as I haven’t told you how to get custom theme's.

Step 4: Download the custom themes you like. Here a few sites:

If you don’t find what you’re looking for Google it and you will find plenty. Although if they distribute the theme in a .exe its possibly a virus/spyware/adware so be careful id avoid this site http://www.themexp.org/

Step 5: Download the file and extract it. It will most likely be in the form of a rar or zip file. You can open them using winrar.

Step 6: Now copy the contents of the file (or extract it) to the following folder: C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes

Step 7: Now if you have done it right when you go to the Appearance tab of Display properties your custom theme should be listed there simple select it, apply it, and off you go.

Hope this helps any problems please get in touch with me or if there’s anything I’ve missed let me know. Also sorry i cant help with Windows Vista although think it would be about the same process.

A fair trade Easter.

2009-04-12T11:48:00.006+10:00

You been doing your bit? Brought a Fair Trade Easter egg of something similar? If not well there’s always next year. I’m proud to say I have. I had a bit of trouble finding anything, in the end I settled for 2 blocks of dark orange chocolate :P Its quite nice, It's Made by Scarborough Fair. Found it in Coles (It’s a supermarket if you’re not Australian).

For those of you wondering what on earth I’m on about. Well Fare Trade is an global social movement that encourages a fair price to be paid for products. It aims to developing countries and ensures that the people producing the product are paid a fair price for their product and are not exploited by large multinational companies for example. It also is promotes sustainable practices, and ensures that workers are paid a proper wage and no child or slave labor is used. This is helping to reduce poverty in developing countries, protect the environment and improve people’s lives.

There are plenty of Fair Trade products now available in our shops. So next Easter, look for one and do your bit to help others :).

And keep in mind this isn’t confined to Easter you can buy fair trade products though out the year. I know there’s a few tea’s on the shelves at my local supermarket along with chocolate. I’m sure if you look around there’s probably more.

For Australians World Vision has produced a good chocolate guide. http://www.brbc.org.au/files/ChocolateGuide.pdf

More information can also be found on these sites:

Common misconceptions about earth hour

2009-04-11T21:43:00.007+10:00

I got the impression building up to Earth Hour and during the event that some people seemed to have the wrong idea about what it was all about. It’s a bit late, I know but I’ve had other things on my mind and this wasn’t high on my list of things to do but better late than never I thought.

I noticed using yahoo answer during the lead up to Earth Hour (fighting all the skeptics in the global warming section). That a lot of people seemed to have the wrong idea about what they were meant to do and why.

1. Turning off your light: All that your asked to do on Earth Hour is to turn off all none essential lights. This means most lights, you can watch TV and play your computer. It’s not about going zero emissions for 1 hour. After all, if everyone suddenly turned off everything it would have some nasty effects on the power grid. All that powers got to go somewhere. All we are asked to do for the event is turn off our lights for an hour :). (No Monty burns won’t throw it in a ditch)

2. It’s all pointless 1 hour won’t make a difference: Nope I know it won’t it’s not about saving power so much as razing awareness and educating people. By turning off our lights, we send a message as to how we can save power. Plenty of websites provide information including my own: http://wonx2150.dragonhost.net.au/elbh/. If people turn off their lights for earth hour then the idea is maybe they will do it other nights to and get into been general more power usage friendly. Overall, it won’t make a huge difference although it sends a message. This year more than ever was about sending a message to our leaders that we want a good outcome from this year’s climate meetings in Copenhagen, Denmark.

3. Old people will get hurt without the lights. I heard some kid raise this on YA although I don’t think he cared at all about old people he just wanted to have a go at Earth Hour and disprove global warming. In defense of this I did say NONE ESENTIAL LIGHTS. If you need to turn the light on turn the light on no need to take unnecessary risks. Alternatively, you could just use a candle. I heard a few suggestions of having romantic candle lit dinners that night. Pity my girl friend happens to be on the other side of the planet atm.

Hopefully this clears up a few things and next year we can get even more people involved. They reached their target this year I’m told. So let’s make it even bigger next year. Remember you don’t have to wait for earth hour to make changes to your life :), I’ve made them in my everyday life and I’m happy I’ve done it. I’m always striving for ways to do more.

PS: my Recycling going well we haven’t got the regular bin emptied for like 3 weeks now as 80% or more of all our rubbish can be recycled. Poor little green general waste bin been replaced by my big yellow and green one :P

Turn off your lights for Earth Hour!

2009-03-28T19:29:00.006+11:00

You doing your bit for earth hour? I myself am already sitting in the dark writing this. I just did not feel the need to turn the light on as I'm going to watch a movie soon.

By turning off your lights for earth hour you’re sending a message to our leaders and leaders of other country's that you’re serious about global warming and the future of the planet. After all we only got 1. Some people have been saying we should be turning off everything although i support this idea at the same time if everyone switched off everything it would do some damage I'm sure. After all what’s going to happen to the power if we suddenly stop using it? It’s got to go somewhere. Might punish the people who don't take part by giving them a power surge I suppose :P. Anyway, it is about turning off our lights not about turning everything off :).

So tonight at 8:30 till 9:30 were ever you are (yes local time) turn off your lights for an hour :). Lets get to 1 billion this year :D

BBC News story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7969515.stm

Click this to find out more :)

Why Chairman Rudd Why?

2009-03-20T19:25:00.005+11:00

If you live in Australia, you may have heard this. The other day the Website Wikileaks got hold of the ACAM black list and shared it to the world. So what does the ACMA do? Block Wikileaks. Yep in theory at least if you live in Australia that site is now blocked although there are ways around that.

This black list has existed for years although the thing of major concern is that the government now wants to expand it and sensor the internet as much as it can get away with. They want to expand the blacklist to include any website they don't feel is appropriate but where do you draw the line? In theory blocking illegal sites is alright but the governments going beyond that and blocking legal and illegal sites. It’s not a big leap from blocking gambling and child porn sites to censoring websites that don't tow the government line. If it goes ahead, it’s a big blow to freedom of speech. I’ve heard that there are sites from a travel agent a dentists and even the Wikipedia on that list.

Where’s it end? Suppose from their point of view its great don't like people knowing that just block it from them. Also in this post is a form you can fill out to sign the Getup Australia partition against the government’s censorship.

More info:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Wikileaks-spills-ACMA-blacklist/0,130061744,339295538,00.htm

Turning off the Aid tap.

2009-03-18T11:56:00.012+11:00

Last night I was watching Foreign Correspondent it’s an ABC (Australia) show about current affairs around the world. First they were talking about the Cholera problems in Zimbabwe then they talked to a women from Zambia her name is Dambisa Moyo and she’s written a book about why Africa doesn’t need aid in fact the aid is making the problems worse. Controversial idea I’m sure a lot of people feel we should be donating aid but I’m inclined to side with her on this one... We have been pouring aid into Africa for the last 30 or 40, years and what do we have to show for it? She says it’s not helped and actually made more problems i won’t go as far as saying that but I feel that it’s a bit of a bottomless pit. We can keep pouring money into Africa till the cows come home. It won’t help..

Think of Africa as an unemployed person. He/She very talented and has plenty to offer but has no incentives as the government keeps giving him/her money. They do not encourage Africa to change or to get a job they just keep pouring money into their bank account. Doesn’t it seem a bit familiar? We are not encouraging governments to change or industry to invest in the area we are just pouring money into Africa and hoping it will fix it.

We need a different approach. I do not think that removing Aid is the answer i think there is a place for it. However, maybe we need to look at how we give this aid. Instead of just sending over money or food why don’t we send skilled professionals? Industry. If we created a business and encourage investment in the area. Created jobs and improved agriculture then Africa could bring its self out of the mess it’s in. We would also have to deal with the social upheaval and wars but with time and work, it will all fall into place. General speaking things are improving across the continent these days.

Perhaps all these companies here in Australia that are outsourcing to India and other south east Asian countries need to consider a move to an African nation. It may upset people a little less…
A lot of the aid we donate now goes to corrupt governments anyway a small amount filters down to the people. It is time we changed.

Dambisa Moyo, Book is called, Dead Aid and you can find more information here: http://www.deadaid.org
Also on the topic of Africa, if the Catholic Church would just get with the times then the HIV/AIDS problems there would be a lot less server. It angers me to read that the popes pushing this anti Condom agenda again. BBC story on his travels: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7947460.stm

Join me in Travian

2009-03-18T09:06:00.008+11:00

Anyone looking for a way to kill some spare time? Well you could give Travian a try it is browser based a free MMORTS (that means you play it though your internet browser there is no downloads involved).
You start by creating a village and slowly building it up. Ill emphasize the slowly bit it is not a quick game. It is good if you do not have a lot of spare time as things can take hours to build. I often find my self-waiting until the next day to have enough resources to build things. Once you get strong, enough you join an alliance and fight in wars. The way to win the game is the first alliance to build a special building. Not sure how long an average game lasts but at the speed mine seems to move a year or so maybe :P.

Anyone who wants to join me my name is Wonx2150 and on server 4.
and the link is: http://www.travian.com/ and the wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travian

You do not need great internet to play I can log in and do stuff even when I’m downloading. Usually when I am my email wont load and msn can’t sign in as I use all my bandwidth I haven’t exactly got a lot on 256/64. It’s also not very hard to learn how to play it may look scary at the start but once you get the hang of it its quite easy.

Some screenshots of my little town:

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/yocal2150/TravianPictures#

Every Little Bit Helps finished

2009-03-15T20:38:00.007+11:00

I wrote earlier on about how I was creating a website about how you can do your bit for the environment. Well the sites finished. At least kind of it is the first release I am missing a few pages and never been quite happy with how it looks :).

However, o well here, it is: http://wonx2150.dragonhost.net.au/elbh/

Let me know what you think and if there is anything, I can improve.

Ode to recycling bin

2009-03-05T19:24:00.005+11:00

Since I got home in January I decided I want a recycling bin. I started off collecting up all the recyclable rubbish and making a collection thinking when the phone's fixed ill phone up and sort it out. It’s now march and I still haven’t got one.......
I started off with me going into the council office when we were in Tumburumba only to be told that the Tumet truck collects the bins there but can’t collect ours unless we pay an extra 350 or so a year for 1 bin! We can avoid that fee if we bring it into the transfer station to get it emptied. That seemed pointless we might as well just bring the stuff in bags/boxes and save 75 dollars (cost of the bin). Failing that I did a bit of research and called them asking about it. I was put in touch with someone who told me they would organize one to be sent to me by Clearway who picks up our rubbish in Jingellic at no extra cost (NO not the Tumet shire truck as we were told). That was over 2 weeks ago. I called them again today and talked to the same person who seemed to be telling me a totally different story. This time he says it will cost us 250 dollars if we want it picked up. It seems to change depending on who you ask. A different story each day.

I don’t see how they can really charge us so much when we have to take the bin to Jingellic our selves. What’s the difference of taking it to Jingellic or Tumburumba? It costs the shire the same amount to take away. So why does it matter where.
It’s defiantly a hopeless shire we live in. With very high rates and very few services they only grade our road once a year. They want us to recycle but don’t want to make it easy. Just because we live in Tumburumba shire doesn’t mean we want to drive there :P.
I have been wondering about selling all my metal rubbish (steel and aluminum cans) to a metal merchant. It wouldn’t make me much money but it would get all that our of my way.

14th March 09
Finaly got my bin its nice and shinny and filling up fast :).

A tale of stupid regulations and 10 dollar computers.

2009-03-05T13:04:00.008+11:00

Yesterday in the search for a window for my sisters art project. I found a half decent computer for 10 dollars. Although I didn’t get the power cable as by law she couldn’t sell it to me with a power cable. Although I could have in theory brought the cable as long as I didn’t intent to plug the computer in with it. (That is in theory, my theory)
Our quest started in Albury, when we went a junk/useful stuff yard, owned by Albury Demolitions or something like that. We had a look around they had plenty of Windows although mostly more modern ones. They suggested we visited someone in Wodonga in the same business and might have what we were looking for. After that we did a bit of shopping and went to Albury tip, to see if they had an area, where useful stuff could be picked up/brought. Nope no chance not only did they seem to have any initiative in place to reuse. They had a big sign saying it’s illegal to take anything from this tip. Imaging that been fined $250 or more just because you took something from a tip xD. Makes me miss tumbur tip. There was virtual no rules and no one around to enforce it. (It’s been closed and replaced by a transfer station)
So after been told at the gate it was pointless. We left and drove to Wodonga. After a bit of searching we found the other yard, we had been told about. It did happen to have a better range of windows to and we found one that was well suited for what my sister needed. He also told us about how he can’t legal let us wonder around his yard alone. The laws are so strict that he must accompany us all the time. The only way around this is if he put everything in cages. That are sealed in on every side and locked. That isn’t practical for a small business. Some of our rules are starting to go too far and all this fear of people suing you. He also told us about why he doesn’t like Albury tip. As they allow building demolition teams (and similar) to dump loads of anything in there removing any incentive to pull the building down and salvage parts. So much is wasted because they are not forced to take it apart and use most of it. People can dump truck loads of useful stuff into a hole in the ground and I can be fined for picking up a bag off the ground that blew out of there “landfill” When we were done he told us we should go check out the recycling depot shop, though as we might enjoy it.
So off we went to the recycling depot shop. It wasn’t too hard to find, it was well signposted. The main recycling depot was there where all Wodonga's and I’m guessing surrounding councils recycling is delivered and sorted. Off to the side was there shop. This is all privately run now. Anyway we pulled up and went into the shop, that is a large shed full of all kinds of useful stuff :D. Their books, furniture, videos, bikes, TV’s and lots more. It was a good collection and the best bit was it was all so cheap. I brought a cheap wooden table that I guess would normally be $50+ I got it for $15. This is also where the 10 dollar computer came in. This was something I found out the back, in a area of the shed that was officially not for sale. It wasn’t exactly obvious. They had stuck a few of red plastic polls in the way, I just thought they were for sale 2 xD. Anyway there it was a fairly new looking PC sitting there so I went and asked how much I could have it for, 10 dollars but they can’t sell it to me with the power cable. As it hadn’t been tested by a licensed election they can’t legal sell electronic goods with the power cable intact. So they have to cut them off. In this case she just pulled it out. I also found some speakers for 5 dollars.
I liked this shop so much cheap, quite nice stuff. I think it’s a great idea. After all if all this stuff goes into landfill it’s just wasted. I think this kind of thing should not only be made easier but compulsory. Pass laws about dumping stuff in the tip that forces people to sort it out. Even if it’s only to dump all the glass in one bin all the metal in another and so on. So at least it gets recycled. But I think this kind of idea is great after all we are entering into a major recession and people aren’t going to have a lot of spare cash. This way they can buy unwanted junk without paying much at all. I’m all for giving it to charity’s although in some cases they get offered to much stuff. I don’t think they would really see this as completion after all. I’ve seen plenty of perfectly good stuff go to waste so I like this idea/place a lot.
Remember everyone Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Also anyone living in this area if you need directions I can find it on Google maps for you :).

My latest creation

2009-02-25T11:48:00.004+11:00

Hey everyone :)

I'm working on a new creation at the moment. Its a website offering people advice, on how to green there lives. In more detail its a list of advice about what you can do to reduce your impact on the environment. Also including lots of extra info and links :).

http://wonx2150.dragonhost.net.au/elbh

Stay tuned for more :)

Conclusion to Land clearing story.

2009-02-13T16:39:00.003+11:00

The other day on the local news they mentioned that a farmer had been fined $408,000 for clearing an area of native swamp. He got what he deserved you cant really expect to do something like that and no one would notice. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/11/2488334.htm

It reminded me of my efforts to get land clearing in my area investigated. I succeeded and it was investigated, although it was found to have been approved and legal. That i wasn't happy about but o well its the law, I cant change it. Ive been tempted ever since to write to my MP asking them to change the law but i think it will be rather pointless. Its an improvement on some states anyway. We really need the Federal government to make laws like this.

There are more pressing issues going on at the moment anyway like the destruction of our old growth forests...

Im back, pitty my internet isnt.

2009-02-12T22:31:00.005+11:00

Well I got home on the 14th of January to a nice surprise. Our phone line was broken (no Internet or land line). Telstra Australia's former national Telco (they still own the phone lines just arnt government run any more) said they would be out to fix it, with in 3 working days. All went to plan 3 days later a man showed up and tried to fix it. He couldn't due to the nature of the fault. A lighting strike had hit it and killed the line completely with the heat on top of that the cable was dead. Well he came up to the house and apologised in person (that was nice of him :)) and said he would report it and a team would be out asap to fix it. Within 6 days. That was all well and good as we where off to Canberra for a few days as my sister needed to visit art gallery's for a school project. We returned the day after it was meant to be fixed and guess what :O, it wasn't.... So we called them up and they said very little that someone would be there the week after. So we said grrr and left it at that. Our neighbour informs us someone had been there, although obviously hadn't been able to fix it and had left again. Another week went by and the day they where due to arrive, arrived. Long behold no one showed up for the entire day, not a sign. So we called them again (them been AAPT, who is our Telco they have to report it to Telstra). Then we are told the fault was never reported. Somewhere along the line someone forgot to tell the people Telstra hire to replace lines. So this time we where sick of it and grumbled a bit more to our MP's office and the Telecommunications Ombudsman who put pressure on AAPT and Telstra to fix it. So this time Telstra did tell the people and they showed up on schedule and got to work. It ended up taking them to days but that was alright we could see the where working hard and given it was 40+ out there its alright. Then after 27 days of waiting finally the net was fixed ^___^. It was kinda relaxing in a way as with no net or phone, besides our rather expensive to use mobiles. Live was on hold :P. Although it started to get a bit tiresome after 3 weeks. I'm glad we didn't get effected by the bush fires in early February 2009 as they where at there worst a few days after it was fixed. I would not have been happy if we lost it all again or worse.

For anyone who has a similar problem and lives in Australia, here's what you should do :)

1. Become a telstra customer we where told if it was one of there customers they would have moved faster xD....

2. After 3 days if they haven't done anything you can call the Telecommunications Ombudsman. You can call him on day one but they wont be much help for 3 days at least after the fault.

3. If neither of them help you can try your MP that's always useful.

I'm glad I'm back online i never noticed how much i like to google stuff :P.

On holiday

2008-10-23T02:46:00.001+11:00

Sorry if i don't post anything else for a while I'm on holiday :).

Although i may upload some photos to my photo blog http://wonxsphotos.blogspot.com/

Update: An update on the land clearing.

2008-10-10T14:45:00.005+11:00

The other day i wrote about why, i am angered by land clearing and so on. I was also unsure of its legality. Ive done some investigations and Emailed a load of people since then.

According to NSW law its illegal if the regrowth was/is older than 1990. I'm really at a lose as to if any was or not as i was a bit young in 1990. Ive got in touch with the NSW department of Environment that will investigate it in more detail. No idea if ill ever hear anything of it again, although you never know i may get lucky. Time will tell :)

Anyone seeking more information, there is a long list of publications here: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/vegetation/publications.htm.

How much rice you donated today?

2008-10-10T10:12:00.003+11:00

Have you done your bit and donated Rice? All you have to do is answer lots of questions. You can pick from a range of subjects and of course get the questions right. For every Answer you get right you donate 20 grains of rice.

The website is http://www.freerice.com/

If any of you are thinking this maybe a joke, or none of this really goes to helping people take a look at the Wikipedia or the World Food Program.

Get Donating, 20,000 Grains to feed one Person. :) Its not hard, i donated 4100 yesterday before going mad.

In light of all thats happening why?

2008-10-08T21:06:00.005+11:00

Why are we still clearing land? Don't we have enough, haven't we done enough damage already? Why is it we have to keep cutting down our forests and releasing all that carbon into the air? Killing all those trees making all the animals that depend on them homeless? To what end? So someone can make a few more dollars? In the end unless we change no amount of money will save us.

For all those people afraid of making a few little changes. Think of the huge changes the future generations will have to make? They wont have a choice and this planet cant support 6 billion people. No we are not all going to build spaceships and escape to the red planet. Even if we do manage to set up bases on the moon. It will only be able to support what, 1% of the planets population.

I'm not normally big on doom and gloom. General compared to my family, I'm an optimist, especially here. I see a lot of people making changes more each year. People and governments been more proactive about addressing climate change.

But today's when i witnessed land clearing on a neighboring farm it kinda made me think. Is it really changing, there are so many people who don't want to see the light. Or are just to lazy/selfish to change. That can us few who want change really win? Really make a difference. This clearing wasn't that large (although large enough in my opinion), but its just a reflection of whats happening around the Australia and the World. I know in my area theirs been quiet a bit of clearing due to pine plantations. The pines have a large amount of power in the shire. As the wood mill in the shires largest town, is its major employer. The environmental damage the pines are causing to the rest of us isn't good. The shire don't careless as long as people got jobs. They strike us as useless.

Lets just hope things start to change soon or we are in for an interesting future...

--

The legality of this clearing is currently unknown to me. Although Ive written emails to various people and body's asking.

Here's some photos of the destruction: Picasa, My Photo Blog.

A few random computer related things.

2008-10-05T19:22:00.009+11:00

This post is just a collection of computer related subjects. They are not big enough to warrant there own post, but worth talking about all the same.

1. We all wish our computers would perform better. We are all sick of them been slow. For anyone running Windows XP, This guide offers a good list of tweaks, that can be used to improve the performance of Windows. http://datacreek.net/webgear/system/xptweaks.html. This all involves editing the registry that isn't RECOMMENDED for novice users, although if you think you know what your doing go nuts :). At the bottom of the guide or here. There is also a guide on what programs you can disable in the services.msc. This frees up some ram and controls what runs on your PC. (written for service pack 3)

2. Also on the Topic of improving windows performance, this program is worth trying. http://www.pcwintech.com/node/145. Unlike most memory managers it doesn't force the program to release the memory it simply clears up any unused memory. Ive been using it for a week or to and Ive found it to be good. It doesn't require you do do anything simple download it install it and forget about it :). It runs using the scheduled tasks so it isn't running all the time using ram.

3. On an unrelated topic. Ever wondered if that site you just clicked on is safe? Well this Firefox/IE addon can help you. Created by Against Intuition, Inc. the addon gives website a rating and says if it is safe or not.
FireFox users: http://www.mywot.com/en/download/ff
IE users: http://www.mywot.com/en/download/ie

You can also contribute by registering an account (yer its free) and rating websites your self. Spread your knowledge and make sure people don't stumble onto bad sites.

4. For all those Gmail users out there. This may come in handy as your own personal online storage space. http://richard.jones.name/google-hacks/gmail-filesystem/gmail-filesystem.html. The program creates a Virtual drive using your Gmail's space. You can upload files to it though your "my computer" and access them in your account in the form of an attachment. This is limited by your Gmail space and the speed of your Internet. Although most people will find it quite good for transporting documents and other small files around :).

If the link doesn't work it can be downloaded here. All you people out there with out a Gmail account they can be create for free. Click here

Hope these help you and your PC.

Time for a new Screen saver.

2008-10-02T14:16:00.003+10:00

For all of you out there who use a screen saver, maybe its time for a new one. :)

http://wwf.org.au/act/takeaction/screensaver

Dont worry we will be fine! our kids though thats another story.

2008-10-02T11:54:00.006+10:00

As we all know now the planet is in trouble and that we all need to do something to try and stop global warming. Ive been thinking lately though, its not our problem the effects in most of our life times will be limited. Its the next generation that's really going to suffer, Our kids. If we don't act to solve the problems of climate change and global warming then they will keep getting worse and worse. We will feel limited effects of it in our life times, but the next generation and the generation after that are really going to suffer because of our failures. They will look back and blame us for stuffing it all up. As the video Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip points out. See: http://wakeupfreakout.org/film/tipping.html if you don't know it, its very good and makes you really think.

Ive been lucky in general not to personally know many climate change deniers but then ill be honest i don't really know that many people. Although i do know people who just don't care of feel that theirs no point in trying to change. Why though, why shouldn't we at least try? Wouldn't it be better to have tried and failed than just not even tried? I don't mind if peoples efforts are limited or they only do small things, but what bugs me is people that wont even try. Its not the hard to make little changes. Turn off the TV, PC the lights in empty rooms. Buy low packaged food, don't waste fuel. If everyone makes little changes it will make a big differences. I think ideally we should all make as many changes as we can and as big as possible. Although failing that we can at least make little changes every little bit counts.

Think of the future generations and society as you know it. How do we want to be remembered?

Anyone not sure what to do here are some links to help you :)
http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_Green
http://www.treehugger.com/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/
http://futuremakers.com.au/
If anyone wants to recommend one Ive missed please comment or email me.

Carbon trading to help struggling farmers.

2008-10-01T10:43:00.005+10:00

As you may all have heard theirs a lot of talk about carbon trading and offset these days :). The general idea is that polluting company's buy forests/trees or rent them to offset there carbon emissions. Its apparently big and working well in the EU now been worth a lot of euros a year. The world bank says the carbon market was worth 64 billion in 2007. Its not really caught on in Australia and i must say chairman Rudd's green credentials are some times questionable although hes much better than Howard :P.

My idea is that well if every tree someone owns is worth money. Then it would be a great insensitive to farmers to plant more and also a way of helping them though these hard times. Ive seen it first time hand as my parents are farmers and its not easy. Its also gotta be bad for the economy, even if the government likes to think that agriculture makes up very small amount of our country's exports

If every large company here had to pay a tax for all its carbon produced and we could go as far as every household payed a tax on its power (its pretty cheap here, still to cheap in ways, if it cost more people would waste it less). Then all the farmers who own a tree left on there land (most around here do) can sell those trees as carbon banks. This would give farmers a new source of income put an end to logging and land clearing. As the trees would be worth more than sheep or cattle. That are both pretty worthless despite the huge prices in the shops.

My parents farm has plenty of trees on it we haven't ever cleared any of it (most of the land has been cleared in the more distant past) we have one paddock that is all wooded. Not 2 mention we have planted lots of trees all over the farm mostly with Landcare grants.

If every tree on every farm was worth money there would be a lot more money in these areas. Not to mention national parks would be nice and rich and the logging company's would be a bit redundant. That's never a bad thing they are doing a great job of destroying our future.

I'm not sure how you would value a farm or a tree although it must not be to hard as they do it with forests at the moment. I don't see that only native trees should be worth money to as our gardens full of foreign trees and the wildlife seem to happily come visiting. Especially the parrots who knock all our apples off trying to eat them.

Improving the performance of MSN

2008-09-14T14:33:00.005+10:00

I my self have endless trouble with MSN freezing and lagging and general stuffing up. I found a way to improve the speed and stability of MSN. Then i lose it........ Then i re-found it and as i haven't seen it written anywhere else here it is :).

This is not recommended for simple users though as I'm going to explain how to edit the registry and this can cause some rather nasty problems.

Proceed at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any problems i cause. Although i will try and help if i can :). Generally if you do this and it goes wrong undo it do the steps in reverse and DON'T touch anything you shouldn't.

Step 1. Go to Start and RUN and type in Regedit.
Step 2. Navigate to the following location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Step 3. Locate the following 4 entry's:

Default_Page_URL
Default_Search_URL
Search Page
Start Page

Step 4. Now open these up one after the other and change them all to about:blank
Step 5. Exit Regedit and your done :).

In the unlikely event you want the URL's back here they are:

Default_Page_URL http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&pver=6&ar=msnhome
Default_Search_URL http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&ar=iesearch
Search Page http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&ar=iesearch
Start Page http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd={SUB_PRD}&clcid={SUB_CLSID}&pver={SUB_PVER}&ar=home

These URL'S are nothing special and simply lead to no where or live.com. I'm not sure what purpose they serve apart from to slow MSN down (typical Microsoft :P). It may affect the MSN search function although Ive never used this in my life so i don't know.

Hope this helps people with problems with there MSN running slowly and freezing. Any problems you can email me on yocal2150[at]gmail(dot)com

Removing adds from MSN (WLM)

2008-09-14T13:55:00.006+10:00

This is a guide to remove ads from your MSN.

There is two ways to do this, the easy and hard way 1 (easy) 2 (hard'er)

1. The first and easy way is to go to this website and download the A-Patch program. Once downloaded follow the instructions to customize your MSN interface. This though wont work with Custom skins so see Option 2 if you use a custom skin. (a Messenger Plus feature)

2. For the more advanced users and people who like there custom skins, then this site can help you with your ad removal needs.

I know that finding a small line in a large text file can be hard, so thats why you use the "find" function. To use it go to the edit menu, then down to find. Once that is open copy in the text you need to find and press find (eg element id=atom(adbannercont) layout=filllayout() ). That will find the line you need then you can edit it acordingly.

JUST REMEMBER THOUGH to make a backup of the file before you edit it. If you don't you can cause MSN to refuse to open. So your a bit stuck with a skin that wont open and no easy way to change it. Although never fear if this does happen you can re-download the skin. Then right click on its installer and open it with winrar, winzip or similar. Next navigate to the UIFiles folder and locate the file you broke. Then simply replace the broken one with the new one and msn should open again. This wont be a problem though if you remember to back up :).

Here's the links written out in case they don't work:
A-Patch - http://apatch.org/downloads.php
Harder way - http://fourforces.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/remove-ads-in-msn-live-messenger/

For them new to Messenger Plus or MSN in general heres some links to help:
MSN 8.5 Stand alone installer - http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/02/23/download-standalone-installer-for-windows-live-messenger-85-for-xp-and-vista/
Messenger Plus - http://www.msgplus.net/

This guide is written for MSN (WLM) 8.5, although it should work with 8.0, 8.1, 9 and in theory earlyer versions also. Also the image is my msn using the skin Ev0.

Hope this helps and enjoy an ad free MSN :)

UPDATE: To remove the adds from WLM 9.0 Skins go to the skins folder and locate the 923 Style. Once you have done that scroll down to a block of text called: (its not far down may even be on your screen already)

FontStyle:rcint("msgr",20955);

ContentAlign:middleleft|endellipsis|focusrect;

}

UrlElem[ID=atom(HouseAd)][Visible=false]

{

LayoutPos:none;

}

UrlElem[ID=atom(HouseAd)][MouseWithin]

{

Cursor:hand;

}

Then change the LayoutPos: to none; This should remove the add although you will still have a box for the add and you may get a logo of the skin designer instead.

Sorry im yet to fix that one although you could replace the logo with your own pic.

Ps: A-Patch is updated to work on WLM 9 and works on an unskined version.

Why must i be so wastefull....

2008-09-11T12:15:00.003+10:00

Why must we burn 1mb files to CD's (700mb CD's) In my TAFE (collage for none Australian readers) course I'm currently doing i have to burn all my work to CD and also print it out. It strikes me as a bit over the top. After all i can just email it all in ITS A COMPUTER COURSE x3. Id use CD-RW's although i dont think ill ever get back my work let alone the folder i stuck the printed version in.

I remember back in school they used to encourage kids to burn things to CD to get them from home to the school. I always though it was stupid and avoided it. After all im not that old, USB thumb drives and email existed. I dont want to know how many CD's we throw into landfill each day but it cant be good. I dont throw out any of mine they are all slowly building up in cubboards. any failed write processes and ones that just didnt work to start with. Its true Bit torrent is a green tecknology the internet its self could be why do we need 2 print things all the time?

Ill get ride of my CD's when i can find a way to recycle them ive found the odd place although its not cheap to post a spindle full of 50 CDs to sydney or melbourn. Our local counel wont even give us a recyling bin yet (although we should in theory have one now as of last month).

I asked my tutor/teacher why i couldnt email my work in she never did answer but made a point next assigment of enfersing that it must be on CD and Printed....

Atleast there is CD recyling now and if nothing else ill let my sister make art out of them. There is some intresting coloured ones in there :P.

O well at least times are changing slowly :) pity though that its not sinking in quite fast enough.

For anyone interested in CD recycling I'm sure if you search around there maybe a place near you.

Off i go far far away

2008-09-09T20:14:00.004+10:00

My Story and thoughs on Online and Long distance Relationships.

Ive got the hang of this posting stuff now :). I don't know how regular it will be although i think it will be a lot less regular (like all my Internet related activity's). I'm off to Denmark in October to visit my Girl friend of a few years now :). We meet though the chat site Lycos the UK version. It has been great ever since, testimony to how online relationships can work so well :). For anyone who has considered it and is unsure what they are doing. I think you should give it a shot after all if it doesn't work you can always walk away. It may not seem quite right but don't be afraid of change it will be the social norm soon if it isn't already. That's the same with most things when they appear on the scene every ones like OMG that's not right, but after a while they become more tolerant and given a few years its totally normal :P. I remember when me and my Girl friend first started going out people expressed there concerns. My parents where cool with it they are both quite open minded, and her parents didn't mind either but i know there was opposition and people who just felt it wasn't right and stuff. General rule here is give it time people will come to accept it once their fears have been settled. Its natural to be afraid of things we dont understand.

After 3 years now though they have all shut up :P. We met for the first time last year when i traveled to Denmark (where shes from). This febuary she came over to visit me. We had a great time both of the times and it works well with my wish to see the world to :P. I also went to the UK to vist family (I was born there) and malaysia where my mothers sister lives. Its been great its given me an excuse and a motivation to get out there and see the world Ive wanted to for a long time but its taken a lot of work and pushing my self. This just made it easier :).

For anyone thinking about trying an online or long distance relationship you have it from me give it a go its worked great :). Ive heard plenty of other people who have good storeys to tell including a few people i have suggest try it. Anyone needs advice or help feel free to contact me I'm happy to help :)

A few tips .

You need to make time for each other, Each day if you can.
Buy a web cam if you haven't got one and a mic or cheap long distance calls.
Don't let this Internet stranger danger worry you to much. Your probably at more danger from that weirdo down the road than some guy on the other side of the world. Sadistically I'm sure you are :P
Have plans and the means to go met them if you decide to. Even if it may take you a few years as long as one of you can move that's fine.
Make sure you help to establish trust don't cheat on them or break any of the normal rules.
if theirs a problem talk about it don't just let it be and hope it goes away.
General follow the rules of real life relationships just adapt them to the distance.
Dont worry if you haven't been in a relationship before this was my 3rd and the first i actually met the person.

Once you have over come all the other obsticals you can walk into that immigration laws wall. If your lucky your both from the same country or more open countrys. Our problems have been made worse lately with Denmarks extream right wing goverments new immigration laws. Although we have ways around that. We can just live in Sweden together or Australia or UK. Im sure you can also find ways around this or its time to get political and fight for change. In our case things are looking up the EU has ruled that Denmarks laws break EU law :P Just gota hope they can force denmark to change them.

If it makes you happy do it :) Society will catch up one day :) Love should and does know no boundary's and the worlds not that large really ;)

Lowering the Voting age.

2008-09-09T14:31:00.000+10:00

I was thinking about this the other day. We granted Universal suffrage in most of the western world in the early 20th century (Wikipedia page). So now i feel its time we extended that right to a lower ages. Why shouldn't kids be allowed to vote if they want? We got plenty of adults that don't take voting that seriously so i see no harm in lowering the age to 12 or 13. I know they may not take it seriously or even want to, Like a lot of adults. How many people around the world vote for joke party's? I know my self i would if we had any here in Australia and didn't take politics more seriously. I don't think much of our local politics Ive wanted for a while to run a plant or Animal (especially a very ugly ram we have) as mayor of the shire :P

I don't see that theirs any harm in giving everyone from the age of 12 the right to vote, some of them would like to others wont bother. Much like people over 18. It would make our Society more democratic after all they are citizens of it so why don't they have a say in it? Its there future we are screwing up after all. So isn't it only fair they have there say?

I don't suppose it will totally alter the political landscape. Im sure a lot of them would simply not vote, or vote the same way as there parents. A small few who are interested in it would go out and place meaningful votes. I'm sure in some places they may all vote for joke party's but that dosnt do any harm :P.

On a subject more close to home, I cant help but feel at the same time we need to scrap this undemocratic compulsory voting... Yer what ever happened to your right not to vote? Here if you don't you get fined. Our politics needs to change, we need more grass root politics and proportional representation to give the minor party's a chance.

--

For those who stumble on this, this is my first blog and first post :). Not all my post will be about politics and Seeing as the worlds going to end tomorrow i might never post again :P. You will have to wait and see :). Also sorry for any English mistakes i was never good in English at school and my teachers where not good at teaching.