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an unpleasant duty


Image by mugley
It’s federal election time in Australia again. Last time it was an easy decision to throw out a government that had been in power so long that it had gone to their heads, causing them to attack everybody with a job.

This time around, it’s not so clear-cut. We’ve got a religious reactionary fossil for an opposition leader, and a prime minister so afraid of appearing to stand for anything that she’ll happily join the fossil in dog-whistling about boat people. Pauline Hanson and John Howard would be so proud of their political children.

I can’t separate them. In a campaign full of hollow slogans ("moving forward", "real action", "yes we will", "stop the boats", etc), it’s pretty telling that the one that sums up the national mood most is "they’re all fucked".

Since neither Labor nor Liberal seem to want to take climate change seriously (both going so far as to sack leaders who believed in doing something about it), a vote for the Greens looks to be a good way of telling them that we care about it even if they don’t. And since the parliament has been poisoned for the last six years by the Labs and Libs pandering to the right-wing religious nutjobs represented by Fielding’s Family Freaks, it’s time to tell them enough is enough on that front. The civil liberty-minded minors like the Australian Sex Party and the Secular Party look like good options for a protest vote there.

So, onto how all this ties in with the photo above. One of the scariest pander-to-the-freaks policies to emerge so far is Conroy’s proposal to censor the web for all Australians. It won’t stop the material it claims to block (and Conroy’s insistence that anybody opposing it is pro-kiddie-porn is the height of insulting, dishonest arrogance), but it will lay a nice foundation for future governments wanting to restrict what Australians read. Orwell understood the power of controlling all the information flowing to and from the home, as do the governments of internet-filtering countries like China, Iran and North Korea.

So my #1 mission tomorrow is to vote below the line in the Senate, and to put Conroy and Fielding last. Yeah, below the line takes longer, but the alternative is letting the parties decide where your preferences go. Fielding got in last time on the preferences of lazy Labor voters, and this time around the Libs have done a similar deal for their above-the-line preferences to go to the Family Freaks.

It’s never been easier to research your Senate vote and direct it exactly where you want – try Below the Line for an easy drag-and-drop way of working out your Senate ticket before you go to the booth. Or if you’re in Victoria and want to put Conroy last whether you vote Labor, Liberal or otherwise, have a look at filter-conroy.org.

Good luck tomorrow.

31/12/2008 (Day 2.366) – Day 366


Image by Kaptain Kobold
So that’s another year of self-portraits completed. I have tried to do a picture that captures some of the major themes of this year’s project; I think you’ll spot most of them if you’ve been following my stream regularly. Ones I missed, or had to leave out, were Guitar Hero, the bunny ears and pets. My excuse is that it was hard enough to come up with six reasonably creative ideas today, without adding more complication; I only came up with the idea for this shot as I got into the shower this morning*. I’ll try harder next time.

Many of them relate to FGR group themes from the past year; through no real fault of my own I seem to have captured a fair few of them. Today is the last day of FGR

Last year I did a statistical survey of my pictures, so I thought I would do the same again this year. And here they are; the stats for Year 2:

Most interesting: Day 184

Least Interesting: Day 70

Most viewed picture: Day 184 (again)

Most favourited: Day 184

Most comments: Day 262 (my second most commented picture ever).

This year saw my move from the UK to Australia, so I ended up taking 365 pictures in three different countries. Up until the end of September most of them were taken in the UK (and most of those in Staines), and from the end of September they were taken in Australia (with the majority being in the Wollongong area). One picture was taken in Singapore. In terms of interesting locations I have done 365 pictures in such locations as Avebury stone-circle, on the London Eye, Aquae Sulis, Down House (Charles Darwin’s home), the bridge of HMS Ark Royal and Uluru.

The following are my geographical extremes:

Most Northerly: Godzilla in Burton.

Most Easterly: Visiting my friend Amanda in Sydney.

Most Southerly: An octopus encounter at Jamberoo.

Most Westerly: Breakfast in Devon.

The most Northerly and Westerly pictures both feature cooked breakfasts.

So what has Year 2 provided? Well, technically I think my portraits are improving all of the time, both in terms of ideas and execution (at the time of writing Year 2 pictures make up 65% of my Top 100 Interesting 365 pictures, and only 25% of my least interesting.). And yet that are taking no more time than they used to, so I must be improving somewhere. My confidence has also continued to grow; I have done pictures this year that I would never have considered doing last year. Obviously the key feature of this year’s 365 has been our move from the UK to Australia, and I hope I adequately covered both the build-up to our move, the move itself, our holiday in Northern Territory and our setting up a new home here in Wollongong. I have also continued to demonstrate my love affair with games, Lego, Godzilla and Doctor Who, and, after many hints over the last 18 months or so I finally decided to openly include my cross-dressing in my 365 photostream (although it’s more than adequately covered elsewhere). This year’s guest stars have included not only Catherine, Cei and Maya but also my parents, my brother, my work colleagues, fellow Flickry person Eve and my old school-friend Amanda. I have done tributes to Muse, Ned Kelly, Nightcrawler, The Bonzos, Harry Potter, Douglas Adams, James Stewart, Mav, Nigel Molesworth, Donald Featherstone, Indiana Jones, Charles Darwin, Nigella Lawson and Sherlock Holmes, and a few others if you care to look.

I hope you have enjoyed following my progress over the last year. Tune in tomorrow to see if I start Year 3 …

*For the record I came up with ideas for, and shot, all six pictures within about two hours. They are all self-portraits.

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

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