-= b-grade cinema! =-

Us update.

darkjudicator — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 13:54:50 GMT

So, I promised an update to what was saga-riffic.

Hokay. Long story cut very very short, the Romantic Lead got sick last year. First glandular fever (mono for my American friends), then ???something??? brain related where she ended up at hospital in September after being unable to walk and losing her short-term memory. She rallied enough for us to get married. Then she ended up experiencing long-term lethargy, muscle aches, inability to concentrate, aaaaaaaaaand a whole buncha other stuff which has officially been confirmed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She's still super tired most of the time, and anything exciting, stressful, conentrate-y or physically demanding wipes her out pretty quickly (simply_starfish and hidden_relic can attest to this being pretty dramatic at times).

So this is where we're at right now. Michie is spending large chunks of her time with her parents because The Flodge is split-level, and walking up and down stairs is just way too much for her more than once a day. We're working on ways to make living at home more achievable and less taxing on her. We're seeing small improvements over a long period, and expecting that to continue. There's a couple of specialists that are giving us helpful input, and both me and the missus are seeing separate counsellors to help work through what is a fairly drastic upheaval in the course of our lives. There are some aspects of this situation that are frustrating, depressing and aggravating, and we're doing our best to mitigate the stress. But most importantly she is expected to make a complete recovery in the mid- to long-term.

Hi LJ! I've missed you.

Would you say I do, if I say I'll be, and walk this road through life with me?

darkjudicator — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:49:18 GMT

Apparently, she will! (shamelessly paraphrased from XKCD)

So. After a saga-riffic three months or so, me and kaefer got married on Sunday. The day was speectacular, Michie was absolutely breathtaking, and we couldn't have asked for a better day all around.

I'll post about the saga part later. Just wanted to share the happy news. :)

Over 'n out,
-- K.

30 Days of prompts day 4

darkjudicator — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 08:24:34 GMT

What you ate today

Wow, bad time to do this one, since I'm sick. Ummm. Cereal for breakfast, Vegemite on toast for lunch with Milo, and I'm about to scrounge something up for dinner.

eta: bacon and egg sandwich for dinner. Meal of champions.

30 days - day 1

darkjudicator — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:20:11 GMT

Stealing this from the lovely tannymonster! Because I, too, need some motivation to post more often.

Day 1 - Introduce yourself

Hi, I'm Kiah! You already know me, but I'm answering the prompt anyway. So... I'm 30 (eep!), I live in the inner west of Sydney with my beloved partner Michelle and our cat Loki. I'm currently working as a nursing assistant and studying to become a registered nurse, after many years of not having any idea what the heck I wanted to do with my life.

I'm interested in politics, science, religion (more the fascination of an outsider than any deep spiritual urges) and sociology. I love to do things I'm not necessarily brilliant at but that I get satisfaction and enjoyment from, like cooking and singing - I'm not fantastic at either but I have so much fun with them!

I love music, but I think my age is starting to show in that I'm having more trouble in finding new music that excites and interests me. I don't want to become one of those people whose entire musical world resides in one decade, so I'm always on the lookout for new things I might like.

I don't exercise or write as much as I'd like to, and I'm v. slack about maintaining my friendships. My attitude to housework varies by the day. I have a huge sweet tooth. While we're on my faults, I also enjoy the odd spot of professional wrestling. I've recently discovered the awesomeness that is roller derby, and I can see more than a few parallels between the two worlds.

I think that's about it. Not sure how else I'd introduce myself. Anything else you'd ask me in the first conversation?

Day 01 - Introduce yourself
Day 02 – Your first love
Day 03 – Your parents
Day 04 – What you ate today
Day 05 – Your definition of love
Day 06 – Your day
Day 07 – Your best friend
Day 08 – A moment
Day 09 – Your beliefs
Day 10 – What you wore today
Day 11 – Your siblings
Day 12 – What’s in your bag
Day 13 – This week
Day 14 – What you wore today
Day 15 – Your dreams
Day 16 – Your first kiss
Day 17 – Your favorite memory
Day 18 – Your favorite birthday
Day 19 – Something you regret
Day 20 – This month
Day 21 – Another moment
Day 22 – Something that upsets you
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry
Day 25 – A first
Day 26 – Your fears
Day 27 – Your favorite place
Day 28 – Something that you miss
Day 29 – Your aspirations
Day 30 – One last moment

Everything important to know in life

darkjudicator — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:22:03 GMT

Idea shamelessly stolen from Briana!

This list will be added to in future.

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Nursing:

- Palm to palm, palm to dorsum, palm to palm fingers interlaced, backs of fingers to palm, tips of fingers to palm, thumb clasped, tip of thumb, wrists.
- The funniest stories always involve bodily fluids.
- It's always better to ask for help early and be thought of as a wimp, than to ask too late when everything has already gotten on top of you.
- No matter how thorough your plan is something will come up and you'll have to wing 90% of it anyway.
- You can almost always make do with what you have if you think creatively enough about how to solve the problem.
- Don't assume - FIND OUT. (thank you Cynthia Delgado @ Liverpool for drilling that one into my head!)
- Along the same lines as the old saying about atheists and foxholes, the least superstitious people in the world will become supersitious if they work in nursing long enough. Most patients will never see it, but the reaction to remarking that it seems to be a quiet shift is usually something like this.
- A calm tone of voice and a composed demeanour go a very long way when trying to keep other people calm. You can lose it later.
- Some people will just decide they don't like you, and there's nothing much you can do but just work around it.
- Look after your back.
- The trick is not to work quickly, but to do so while appearing to be taking your time.
- A majority of people greatly underestimate their capacity for coping with crisis. Also vomit.
- Most workers are a little less busy than they think they are, but a LOT busier than clients think they are.
- Treat people with dignity and respect and they're likely to make your life a whole lot easier.
- Always know where your exits are.
- Never approach from directly in front if someone's likely to get aggressive, and stay outside of kicking distance.
- Make friends with the ancillary staff. Cleaners, porters, wardspeople, tea ladies, security, reception ... and most importantly, the ward clerks.
- When people have lost their passion for their career, remember to treat them as examples of what to avoid doing.

Friday!

darkjudicator — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:58:49 GMT

Hey movie fans, how's it going? I figure if I'm going to start posting here again on a semi-regular basis, I should commit myself to something I have to maintain weekly. So I'm going to start up with one of my old post creation schemes, the Five and Five!

Five things that made me happy this week:

1) Michie's been overseas for a week, and I've cooked dinner the whole week. With vegetables and everything (most nights). Hooray for grown-up eating and not descending into endless take-out... I predict that'll happen around week four! See, Elly? I'm not completely helpless! :P

2) Joey Junior, where have you been all my life? Don't ever leave. You have been so amazingly helpful to me in the short time we've known one another, and I think every nurse should get to know you.

3) Mario Galaxy 2 rocks my proverbial socks, hard. It's so much fun! Much more varied than the first game, and also harder. But harder in a "Man, I beat the thing, I'm awesome!" kind of way, not the "This is stupidly hard, I'm bored of losing lives on this part" way.

4) Hyperbole and a Half. How can one woman be so funny? Amazingly hilarious and captivating storytelling style, and it's worth trawling the archives for some stellar comedy. It's a bit hit and miss in places, and there's some vanity posting in the history which is tedious, but overall it's made me laugh as hard as anything I've read on the internet. Read it, love it.

5) Starcraft 2 is out! Even though I don't have a computer that can run it yet, I'm still geeking out like a fanboy and planning my future computer purchase around the recommended specs. As much as they've Activisioned it, it still looks pretty true to the spirit of the original, which is great. Unlike the abomination that is Diablo 3 so far. :/

And five things of the bad:

1) Holy crap you guys, I swear this stupid old people subject I'm doing has more reading attached to it than any three other subjects I've had so far. It's ridiculous. Perhaps it just seems like it's so much because all of the articles and readings are soooo dry and boring. *counts* No, there really is a metric shit-ton. This may be part of the reason I failed last year. :/ But I'm gonna kicks its arse this time, because I'm awesome like that.

2) There's a great quote from The West Wing about apathy towards politics, where Leo talks about elections being a choice between "the lesser of who cares" and "setting the bar so low I can barely look at it". This is pretty much how I'm feeling about the upcoming Federal election. I cannot in all conscience vote for Tony Abbott or his party, but I'm certainly completely unenthused about the other side right now. Also, the media seems to be particularly determined to shred Julia Gillard before she can even start to get her bearings as leader. The Herald has been nasty, the Oz has been caustic, and I haven't even been game to look at the Telecrap lately. How's this being portrayed in the other states?

3) Having frequent hospital work is great, for keeping up my clinical skills and for money, but damn the constant shift changes are messing with my body clock.

4) Largely due to 1) and 3) above, I feel like I've hardly had time to do anything creative. I've tried to start writing again, but it's been a bit on and off. Hopefully after this hectic weekend I should have a bit more time when my brain is actually functioning!

5) It's nearly August already?! Where the heck has this year gone?

Ahhh, she makes me laugh.

darkjudicator — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:36:47 GMT

(Our Hero is studying for a biological sciences exam tomorrow, and is currently reviewing the renal system)

Our Hero: I'm reading about diuretics.
Romantic Lead: (in a faux-perplexed tone) Why are you reading about Scientology?

South of the border, down Mexico way...

darkjudicator — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:37:44 GMT

Yes, that's right! It's that time of year again - Kiah and friends are heading down to Melbourne for the International Comedy Festival! It's gonna rock. The house we're renting this year has a plunge pool and a putting green! And we'll be taking Zone 1 trams EVERYWHERE!

You kids have a fun and safe Easter, or whatever you're doing. I intend to laugh a lot, eat chocolate 'til I feel sick, and possibly whip several people's arses at Mario Kart.

Take care y'all.

Over 'n Out,
-- K.

Partly inspired by Jeffie's gazillion fanmixes

darkjudicator — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:58:25 GMT

Hi kids, I'm working on a mix CD for nursing!

I've got 30-odd songs that could work, but I'm trying to cull it down to 20 or so so it'll fit on a CD (I'm old-fashioned like that).

So far, the definites:

Bandages - Hot Hot Heat
Drain The Blood - The Distillers
Casualty - Missy Higgins (aha, see what I did there?)
DOA - Foo Fighters
Hospital Bed - Ben Kweller
Braxton Hicks - Jebediah (for the midwifery types)
Relapse - Little Birdy
Catch My Disease - Ben Lee
Down With The Sickness - Disturbed, or possibly the Richard Cheese version
Give Me Novacaine - Green Day

And a few of the maybes, to give an idea of what I'm aiming for:
Medication - Superjesus or Garbage
Heart It Races - Architecture In Helsinki (V-TAC!)
Your Disease - Saliva
Painkiller - Judas Priest or Freestylers/Pendulum
Nausea - Beck

Any other suggestions?

Nursing has eaten my life

darkjudicator — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:16:24 GMT

So, second year nursing.

There's a lot to it. A LOT. We're getting a ton more biological science this semester (two subject's worth crammed into a single unit), a medication management course and a nursing skills unit which is highly useful but I don't think gives us enough time to pick up the skills - we're expected to get the basics at uni and get familiar with them on prac. I really truly hope I'm not catheterising anybody on my prac!

Oh, clinical placement. I'm at RPA for first semester, in the haematology department! This is good placement karma at long last! Second semester is surg at Sydney Hospital, right in the middle of the city and just around the corner from the Romantic Lead's work. And I'll get to go round the City Circle on my train trip in - no matter how long I live here, I still think the view over the Harbour from Circular Quay in the morning is awesome.

Non-uni stuff... hmm. We have four people in the Dulwich Hill house again. Me, Mich and Matt have been joined by Steph, another science nerdy type who is cute but fierce. The household dynamic is still settling down (kitty is weirded out big time) but she's cool enough.

Three and a half years for me and Michie. Whoa.

Iunno, not much else to tell, I don't think. How are you all?

Over 'n out,
-- K.

darkjudicator — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:01:07 GMT

In lieu of real content, a silly meme I yoinked from kythera!

Put your MP3 player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first is the title.

Hey everybody, I've got something to tell!

Some motherfuckers think they're born to dance,
Everybody sees me, but it's not that easy;
Went to a party last Saturday night, I didn't get laid, I got in a fight.
Your back's against the wall.

In this context there's no disrespect,
I'm loosely affected, don't seem to connect it.
She paints pictures on the wall,
I am an astro creep.

I'm going away to be alone.
With all the things you do and all the things you say...
Well it's been a long time coming, looking for the neon glow.
I saw you cry today.

Now, should you expect to see something that you hadn't seen?
I fly like paper, get high like planes.
I've been talking to myself -
Cool, calm, just like your mom.

Don't want this responsibility:
You want to chase this rabbit down a hole.
Seether is neither loose nor tight.
This is the greatest and best song in the world

... tribute.

Title: Reel Big Fish - Suckers

[The Grates - Inside Outside, The Strokes - Juicebox, Reel Big Fish - Kiss Me Deadly (technically I included the first two lines, but it's so much funnier that way!), The Gossip - Standing In the Way of Control]

[Richard Cheese - Let's Get It Started, The Superjesus - Manic, The Whitlams - Melbourne, White Zombie - More Human Than Human]

[Faker - This Heart Attack, Black Guns - Nervous Breakdown, Dallas Crane - No Through Road, Sia - Numb]

[Augie March - One Crowded Hour, MIA - Paper Planes (DUH), The Butterfly Effect - Phoenix, D12 - Purple Pills]

[MxPx - Responsibility, Karnivool - Roquefort (who names a song after smelly French cheese? srsly), Veruca Salt - Seether, Tenacious D - Tribute]

Nearly over...

darkjudicator — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:09:35 GMT

What Cara said.

Fambly!

darkjudicator — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:20:59 GMT

Stolen from Miss Kitty!

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

In other news, clinical placement is kicking my arse. But it's fun. :D

Life Snapshot meme

darkjudicator — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:44:33 GMT

Stolen from lydiere

You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their lives, and all of a sudden you think, "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the queries/statements below, erase the existing answers and put your own in their places, and then post the result in your journal. Please elaborate on the questions which would benefit from elaboration. One-word-answers seldom help anyone out.

1. Name: Kiah Westlund, no middle name

2. Age: 27 (at least until Sunday :/)

3. Location: pretty much on the border of Marrickville and Dulwich Hill, Sydney. Australia. It's kinda neat but I still miss the little townhouse of awesome in Glebe.

4. Occupation: Currently working part-time as an admin monkey for the Law Society of NSW. Looking for sommat else that will fit in around uni, which is proving kinda difficult. Ideally looking for an Assistant in Nursing position somewhere.

5. Partner: the lovely Miss kaefer, also known as Michelle, Michie, or The Crusher. My partner for nearly three years now... whoa. She still challenges me, surprises me, nakes me laugh and makes me melt. Ich habe dich liebe.

6. Children: We have two male housemates under 25. I think that counts. ;)

7. Brothers/Sisters: Two younger sisters. One's 21, has a three-year-old son and is studying accounting at TAFE while working part-time. The other is 16, and is kinda out of contact with the family. She's living with some friends and also working part-time. I think the wild-child streak runs down my mother's side.

8. Pets: As I said, two male housemates... oh, and our gorgeous and adorable, yet often annoying, domestic shorthair named Loki.

9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:

1) I've just wrapped up the first semester of a Bachelor of Nursing, in an accelerated course that crams the three-year degree into two years. Mostly by not giving us holidays over summer. It's fun, I'm enjoying using my brain and I'm good at all the theory stuff we've done. Next semester we start prac placements and real sciencey/nursey subjects, which will be good to apply my brain to. Nursing is such a portable occupation, when I'm done there's lots of options for travel or relocation!

2) The previously mentioned job hunting. Guh. Evenings and weekends are pretty much all I can fit in around next semester's timetable but all my recent experience is in admin. This means I'm looking at pretty low-level hospitality or retail night shifts, unless I strike it lucky with an AIN or pathology job with flexible hours...

3) Ummmm...

Honestly, there isn't that much else. Still tinkering with Jeffie's TF2 RPG from time to time but as most of the players seem to have bailed that might not last much longer. Damn shame, and I'm hoping it picks up again.

4) Oh, and still having TND at our place on Wednesday nights. For the uninitiated, Michie's theory is that everybody can cook at least one thing reasonably well (or can follow a recipe). So amongst our group, every week someone cooks dinner and someone else cooks dessert. Due to the widely differing skill levels and adventurousness in selecting recipes, this has led to all kinds of amusing, fantastic, and sometimes ... interesting meals. Also, once a month we have COBALT CHEF! Which involves an entree, a main and a dessert all cooked by different people, each featuring the theme ingredient. So far we've had lemon, bread, coconut, cheese, sultana and pumpkin, among others.

10. What did you go to school for? Way back in the day (longer ago than I care to admit) I made it about halfway through a Bachelor of Applied Chemistry, specialising in Forensic Science, studying at UTS. Remember, I know how to kill you and make it look like an accident. ;) I dropped that for various reasons. Since then I've done bits and pieces, but most relevant has been my TAFE certificate in pathology. I'm a fully qualified bloodsucker! Now I'm going further along that road and pursuing nursing, because I like interacting with people and I want to have a career in which I can make a difference in the world. Also, I'm not squeamish, as forensics and blood-collecting may have already indicated.

11. Parents: Merryl and John. Dad's been deceased since December 1994. Great guy, was very active in sexual health promotion back when it was still a hot issue. Mum's living in the western suburbs and currently considering her options as far as life direction goes. Both wicked smart, both strong believers in social justice and sticking up for the little guy. At the moment I think Mum's wasting a lot of potential, she's got a good brain in her head but doesn't seem interested in putting it to use anywhere.

Yay, life summaries in a nutshell!

Study study study study (nursing stuff)

darkjudicator — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:26:02 GMT

Ye gods, I'd forgotten how much work university is. I've currently dropped just about everything else in order to work on assignments. Elly, sorry for not being around online more often. Jeffie, apologies about TFEG. Everyone else, deal. :P

I'm currently elbow-deep in my essay about unintentional injury in children. Before that, it was nursing's history. Before that, an analysis of a client interview critiquing the verbal and non-verbal strategies used by the nurse. Eeeshk.

I didn't realise how much reading I'd have to do! If I can get 12 hours of reading done per week, that'll help me get out in front. Journal articles have saved my arse twice already this semester.

It's fun stuff, and I'm learning a lot - it'll be more fun when we get into practical placements, next semester - it's just been a long time since I had to use my brain properly, and I've never had to do literature reviews before. Search functions for journal databases don't quite work the same way as Googling trivia, I've discovered.

The other students seem pretty cool. I've made friends with some hardworking and bright students who are good fun to hang around with. There is a large language barrier for a lot of the participants, and I'm not entirely sure how they're going to overcome it - nursing isn't exactly a job where you want to miss nuances of what a patient is telling you.

I can't complain about the ratio of guys to girls though. ;)

Coming soon: two week delayed recap of the Melbourne Excursion of Awesomeness!

---
A lot of my friends seem to be going through rough times at the moment. Hugs and good thoughts to y'all, and don't let The Man get you down.

Over 'n Out,
-- K.

darkjudicator — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:23:09 GMT

Hi kids!

Once again, I'm off to Melbourne for the annual Comedy Festival Expedition! Twelve of us are going down to laugh ourselves silly and get up to miscellaneous mischief.

It's gonna ROCK!

Look after yourselves, kids.

Over 'n out,
-- K.

Context Gets In The Way Of A Good Quote, # 522

darkjudicator — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:46:51 GMT

A two-fer, since I haven't done this in forever

Firstly, from TF2 chat

Jeffie: the road to hell is paved with good intentions and lined with comically-posed roadkill.

Secondly, I don't think there's anything I could add to this...

Noctykate: FUCK PRUDENCE LOUDLY AND RAPACIOUSLY

Random - between last post and now

darkjudicator — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:09:56 GMT

And everybody claps 'cause everybody is pleased,
Then they all take the stage and start performin' for me...
Loving that song at the moment.

Apologies for the slab. Every time I think "I should blog that!" I end up distracted by something and never get it posted.

+ Congratulations to miss Kitty! Wishing all the best to the new family. Sure hope you weren't planning on getting any sleep. ;)
+ I was accepted into this awesome nursing course for this year! The best part is, I'll start uni a year later than Michie but I'll still graduate before her. Rawk. \m/
+ Spent Australia Day on the Harbour. In a yacht, that is. Commence your envy... now. :D It was neat but I'd rather be on Terra Firma. I still felt like I was rocking the next day.
+ NYE was spent on Mrs Macquarie's Point, watching the amazing fireworks display. Kicked arse, and our adopted Swiss exchange student loved it.
- Raine & Horne Glebe have been tards of the highest order in dealing with Mich, and I hope their flow of business reflects that.
- Cricket players can all go copulate with themselves vigorously. Seriously. I'm sick of hearing about the whole Symondsgate/Singhgate/Sledgegate/Bangate/Rollovergate/Blahblahblahgate debacle. It's sad when any sporting figures can make rugby league players look well-disciplined and reasonable in comparison, and when a so-called regulatory body can't or won't regulate its players for financial reasons.
+ West Wing addiction update: Michie's family has the entire seven seasons and we've been watching a few episodes every weeekend for... well, a while. We're now halfway through Season Six. I love this show so much, there aren't words.
+++ Melbourne Comedy Festival extravaganza is coming up in a couple of months! As with every year, it's going to be all kinds of fun. Get a dozen neat people together, go interstate and laugh yourself silly at world-class comic performances - what's not to like?
- WWE, please get your shit together and give the lapsed fans like myself something to care about again. Jeff's back, Jericho's back, and I still can't get worked up about the fact we're heading towards April. That's a sign of something seriously wrong with the product, when ECW is only barely scraping ratings above TNA.
? Knights of Cydonia took out the Triple J Hottest 100. I'm not really sure how I feel about that one... I'm obviously not keeping up with what the young people are listening to, since I expected silverchair to take the gong. Though I'm glad they didn't.

And that's me done.

Over 'n out,
-- K.

Five and five, pre-Christmas edition

darkjudicator — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:08:53 GMT

Deck the halls, baby.

Five things that made me happy recently:

1. Finding out one of my favourite people has been writing for one of my favourite TV shows! (not right now, obviously. Solidarity forever, yo.)

2. At least one US Democrat growing a set and trying to uphold the Constitution. Kudos, Senator Chris Dodd, for blocking the FISA Bill with retroactive immunity for telecoms who assisted in illegal warrantless wiretapping. And promising to do it again come January. Other Dems, take note and grow a set. And keep repeating the point, over and over.

3. MONKEY CUPCAKE!

4. Making about half a kilo of marshmallow cubes from scratch yesterday. Up until yesterday I thought they grew on bushes or something. That's what happens if you plant marshmallows, right?

5. The new Rudd Government getting its act together. That's right, boys, with wall-to-wall Labor Governments across the country you can't blame State/Federal stubbornness for the problems you face. Don't screw it up.

And five things that inspired rage:

1. Anyone in Sydney is probably expecting this from me already... Of course, the absolute fuckwittery that is the Camden anti-Mosque/anti-Muslim school outrage. This will probably earn itself a separate post in the wash-up. Here is one of the top links on the matter in Google - nice out-of-context quote represented as a "threat". The three organisations mentioned in the last paragraphs of that article, by the by, are well known white supremacist groups from outside the area. Objections on planning grounds my arse. I refuse to even link to the Stormfront forums on the subject. I'd much rather link to Fight Dem Back!

2. David Hicks is now under a Federal Government control order. For a minute I'll ignore the lack of hard evidence and the fact this man was locked up for over five years without charge, and let's assume he is actually a danger to the nation (for the sake of argument). What good will keeping him at home between 11pm and 6am do? How will having him report to a police station three times a week make him any less dangerous? Does anybody in ASIO honestly believe this man would contact any terrorist group or that any extremists would be stupid enough to contact him, knowing how much surveillance and police attention he will be subject to? It's a blatant piece of political railroading of the judicial process and it disgusts me.

3. The NSW State Labor Government: selling your state, one piece at a time.

4. It's pretty much an open secret that the invasion/occupation in Iraq has been a complete fustercluck that failed to achieve the aims of establishing stable government and an environment in which rebuilding could occur outside the Green Zone. What's getting a lot less attention is how Afghanistan is also going down the gurgler.

5. I'm currently reading The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein. Scary as hell. Milton Friedman was to economic theory what Einstein and Oppenheimer were to particle physics, the big brains behind the Big Bang - except Friedman never saw anything wrong with the real-world results of his theories.

Over 'n out,
-- K.

Election type linkage

darkjudicator — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:16:45 GMT

For anyone out there with a psephological bent, here are some links for information about tomorrow's Great Moment Of Democracy (Australian Federal Election 2007 is tomorrow, for those of you not living in the Lucky Country).

The ABC, as always, will have coverage so comprehensive it may warp space and time. No word yet on whether or not the ABC budget has the money to have Antony Green's ears pinned back. Not just dry number crunching, either - there's the excellent Club Bloggery series about the use of the intarwebs in this election build-up.

My new favourite pseph blog, Possum Pollytics, gives equal measures of analysis and sledging. Fairly obvious pro-Labor bias. Poss has only sprung up recently, but has proven himself a capable and insightful commentator.

Then there's the two old stalwarts, William Bowe at The Poll Bludger and Bryan Palmer at the OzPolitics blog. Poor William is determined to liveblog/chatroom the election even if it kills him, which is looking more likely as the technical issues present themselves. Bryan has taken away user comments (there were some wonderful shitfights there previously) but still gives us the kind of poll interpretation we can only dream of from the professional press. A lot of people swear by Mumble. Not my cup of tea, but that's a personal thing.

Then there's a lot of blogs that aren't necessarily analysis, but should be good for dissecting the results - or at least a good boisterous argument or three. The Daily Flute has ripped into various pollsters. The Stoushers have ripped into, well, everyone. As always, you can expect great discussion from the Larva Rodeo. And my recommendation for a nice skeptical look at the whole thing is the madhouse over at Club Troppo.

And just for shits and giggles, the AEC website will let you practice voting. Because apparently at the last federal election, nearly 6% of voters couldn't handle the concept of numbering boxes in order.

Vote well, Aussies. Everyone else, you might not have to look at the little creep with the oversized eyebrows after tomorrow - although the guy who looks like a dentist might not be much of an improvement looks-wise.

[ETA: here's the link to the 2007 Australian Federal Election page on Wikipedia, Infallible Source Of All Wisdom On All Things (Except Electronic Arts, the Australian Department Of Defence, And Elephants)]

Over 'n Out,
-- K.

"How can one little insulated wire bring so much happiness?"

darkjudicator — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:14:16 GMT

SWEET SWEET DIGITAL BLISS

OH GOD I MISSED YOU INTARWEBS

NEVER LEAVE AGAIN

(ps we're moved into a brand shiny new house in Dulwich Hill, pictures will be forthcoming. Perhaps fifthcoming. Housewarming will be loud and raucous, most likely debaucherous. Kiah has largely been MIA due to said move + work + general lack of organisation. Back now.)

In strange eons, even death may die

darkjudicator — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:15:21 GMT

This one's mostly for Sean.

As someone said in the Flickr comments, "... and adults for dessert!"

(h/t to repmum)

Requisition me a beat!

darkjudicator — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:21:20 GMT

Because it's the only appropriate thing to listen to when you've accepted a three-month temp assignment in a Federal Government department surrounded by career public servants who are the living embodiment of stereotypical humourless bureaucrats. :D

Don't worry, I'm not doing anything that will contribute one iota towards Honest John getting re-elected. Just entering correspondence for the Child Support Agency, which is possibly one of the most depressing jobs ever - everything is about how he's getting cash in hand payments and not declaring them, or she's lying about the kids living with her, or he's saying she's in rehab to malign her character, or she's secretly been claiming child support on the side under her maiden name through five years of marriage... it's not exactly a job that gives you faith in the future of humankind, but it pays well and keeps me from being thrown out on the streets by the Romantic Lead.

But I have lamingtons, a weekend that will most likely involve bacon and eggs for breakfast, and Nerds FC to watch tomorrow night. Life is good.

Much love, kids.
Over 'n out,
-- K.

We seem to be experiencing technical difficulties...

darkjudicator — Wed, 02 May 2007 04:10:23 GMT

... and crap like I've never seen!

Hey, there's still at least half a dozen people who haven't unfriended me for being idle, or whatever. :D

Apologies for the lack of screenings in the b-grade cinema lately. All is well, more or less, I'm not dead, and I haven't forgotten about LJ. I've just gotten ridiculously behind due to a few issues with my computer, and its refusal to work.

I've been experiencing random crashes that didn't happen in Safe Mode, so I figured it was a software issue. I just did a clean XP install, formatted and re-partitioned and whacked Windoze right on the bare metal. Installed my motherboard drivers, check, sound card drivers, check, video card drivers,

...

Bollocks.

So it appears I have a vidcard that's not worth the PCB it's printed on, since it won't bloody work the minute I load the drivers for it. Not sure how to get around this short of buying a brand new one - which isn't really worth doing seeing as I have a dodgy old configuration with an AGP slot for graphics, and the $200-odd I'd spend on a vidcard could go towards a new system instead...

Anywho. I'll pop in now and then, but until I have a fully functional computer I'm not sure how often.

Over 'n out,
-- K.

I CAN SEE! IT'S A MIRACLE!

darkjudicator — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:11:25 GMT

It figures that just after I say something like "I'm going to blog weekly from now on!", my video card would decide it didn't want to play anymore (at life, I mean) and rather unceremoniously left me computer-less. Le sigh.

BUT! Now I have shiny new NVidia graphics card goodness. Well, I say new. Actually, kinda old, seeing as my PC still uses AGP an' all... but I'm babbling. I may have also purchased something incredibly nerdy in the same afternoon, of which dragonlingwould whole-heartedly approve...

Perth rocked. I went to Big Day Out over there, stood right in front of the stage for the entire set by The Herd, got to hear Muse sounding as amazing as ever, and for the first time ever I caught TOOL live. The lovely Sharni once said she'd be happy to go without sex for the rest of her life if she could just see Tool performing live once every week. I don't think I'd go THAT far, but I'd certainly be willing to trade in a lot of things - Tool are awesome live.

We visited my grandfather while we were over on the other side of the country, and he and the Romantic Lead got along like a house on fire (flames, wreckage, sirens, people screaming... only kidding). It's always nice when the family approves.

Also, I got to meet The Maz! And catch up with Michie's friends Chris and Ben, who kept us giggling for the week we were over there. And played crazy Wii games with us. (DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)

And I'm currently piercing people's veins and sucking their blood. But only on weekends.

... when I'm attending a Pathology Collection course. All above board and legal. Honest!

I miss you guys! There's been too damn much to catch up on in the week and a half. I'll catch up with the important stuff soon, no doubt. Peace out.
-- K.