Another week down

Blah. Been a long week - got a bit caught up with hacking away so had some pretty late nights, and then early mornings from phone calls or visitors. Hmm.

Some friends are in town from OS next week so that should be nice, hopefully I catch up with them and their new twins. I'd been trying to call for the last few weeks - after not having seen them for about a year - and finally got through at some silly time on Saturday morning. We also tried the PS3 video phone application (alas, i upgraded my firmware in the end ...) which wasn't too bad - a bit like those old 'hello from space' videos, but a bit clearer and sometimes the framerate was very good. Audio delay was noticeable though. First time i'e used a video phone, and it's a bit weird talking to someone through a window in another lounge room (maybe all the stranger stranger for it being 8am in the morning after being up all night). Didn't know where to look.

We've just had some great weather and it's a pity it looks like they'll arrive on ANZAC day - which is typically the obvious start to winter, and it looks like this this year will be a typical year. After hibernating for a Chicago winter i'm sure the week of 25+ we just had would've been nice.

On the international traveller front it sounds like my sister has had enough of the ignorance and absurdity of the country, and sick of not being able to get decent work and is heading back from America fairly soon. She's only been away for a few years but she might get a bit of a shock to see how far down that path we have also gone. Even if she doesn't decide to stay long, I'm hoping she cleans up my 'other house' that's sat empty for a couple of years collecting dust anyway!

Speaking of ANZAC day - that's a pretty good example of how the nation has become a bit feral. How a total rout and a day meant to remember the utter stupidity of war got turned into a day of nationhood and the glorification of `fighting for ones country' i'll never know. I always thought it was about remembering the poor diggers who were mis-used as pawns in political games or by incompetent chains of command, and the 'least we forget' was about the stupidity of sending them in the first place, not the 'honour of their sacrifice' - typical right wing bullshit. Now it all seems to be about draping yourself in the flag (a flagrant violation of the honour of any nation's flag - and they didn't even fight under that flag anyway - it was all as British subjects) in a sort of quasi-national day and thinking of it as the day 'we grew up' - I can't really say if it was, but we surely have 'grown down' since if this is the thought of the common man these days.