Sleepless Nights

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  • Sign the No Clean Feed petition

    The Australian Government, namely Senator Stephen Conroy has given the green light for a ‘Clean Feed’ to be applied to Australian internet.

    News posts here, here and here.

    In laymens terms, this means that come next August, MANDATORY ISP filtering will occur on all internet.

    It’s not up to the Government to say what I can and can’t look at on the internet. I am an adult and so long as my activity isn’t illegal (ch*ld porn) then the Government should have NO RIGHT to filter my internet.

    It is up to me to keep my children safe on the net. Not the Government.

    See NoCleanFeed for more details and if you agree with me, sign the petition.

    SIGN PETITION AGAINST CLEAN FEED.

    As a web publisher, this scares me senseless. Officials have admitted that the filtering, while effective against the kind of sites they are wanting to filter (a blacklist, if you will. who knows what exactly they will be deeming ‘not suitable’) there are also plenty of false positives, ie: sites blocked that shouldn’t have been.

    Does that mean I could ‘accidentally’ have Sleepless Nights blocked? Or what about you. What happens if your website gets blocked?

    I don’t agree with it. It is censorship plain and simple.

    Sign the petition against it. Please.

    ***

    Feel free to copy/paste this entire post to your blog if you like. Just remember to give credit to either https://somedaywewillsleep.com OR http://veronicafoale.com

  • Fuck Teeth

    I would just like to say – Fuck teeth.

    Specifically, the two top teeth of Isaac’s, that partially broke through the surface 2 nights ago and haven’t moved anywhere since. They’re just sitting there, almost through, causing pain and angst and woe.

    So uh, fuck you evolution. I don’t like teeth. We should all just eat mush.

    Mmmmm, mush.

    ***

    I’d also like to say fuck you to my period and the period pain it leaves me with. Thanks to enough pain killers to down an ox, I’m able to move through my day semi-normally.

    It wasn’t much good this morning when the pain meds hadn’t yet kicked in and I was a ball of misery who couldn’t move, breath, or be touched without crying/moaning.

    It was bad.

    ***

    In other news:

    I haven’t really mentioned this yet, although a few people have found me already. I have another blog, a ‘writing’ blog. Slightly more professional and definitely darker. You can take a look if you like.

    Only mentioning it because I’ve got two posts up there that I wouldn’t mind you having a look at.

    One is on Tasmania, as part of Shannon’s ‘Around the world in 80 blogs’ challenge and the other is a humorous look at blogging that I’m quite happy with.

  • The state of the Midland Highway

    A lot has been said about the state of the Midland Highway and the recent roadworks at Constitution Hill. What I haven’t seen however, have been pictures of the giant mess that has been left behind by the contracted workers.

    We drove down the Midland Highway yesterday, like we do most days of the week. Only this time, I had my camera at the ready and I took photos of the mess.

    (Sorry about the quality of some of them, they were taken from a moving car.)

    Now for my Mainland and International readers, the Midland Highway is the main highway connecting the north and south of the state together. There have been a lot of deaths on the road this year and the politicians are wondering why? This is why.

    ***

    The shiny patches you can see here collect black ice in the winter. This is the start of the brand new piece of road put in in the last few months.

    Midlands Highway 001

    Something to keep firmly in mind as you drive down Constitution Hill.

    Midlands Highway 002

    On the left hand side, you can see a strip of road that is newer than the rest. This particular piece was replaced 4 times by my count and that is only what I saw being done. Every time it rained, the side of the road washed away.

    Midlands Highway 006

    A closer look at the patching that’s been done along the left hand side. The patching has been done with the ‘slick and smooth’ bitumen, making driving on this particular patch in the rain/ice a nightmare.

    Midlands Highway 007

    More patches. Remember, this is BRAND NEW road you’re looking at.

    Midlands Highway 012

    The intersection. This bit has been done and redone and then done again. It’s still patchy.

    Midlands Highway 016

    The change to extremely smooth bitumen happens on the worst possible part of the road. This corner collects black ice in winter and some days, it never defrosts entirely. A few years back, four student nurses were killed here in this exact spot. If I’d been using a wide angle lens, you probably would have been able to see the flowers placed by their family in this photo, just ahead of the truck.

    Midlands Highway 018

    Yet more patches. These ones are falling apart already.

    Midlands Highway 020

    It doesn’t take long for the patches to fall apart. You can see this happening here.

    Midlands Highway 025

    Midlands Highway 026

    Midlands Highway 033

    The intersection at Bagdad is a mess of patches. In the rain, the water sits on the road here and you have to guess at where your lines sit.

    Midlands Highway 039

    I took some more photos as we were coming home. These next few are taken while heading North along the Midland Highway.

    Brand new road? Does it look like it?

    Midlands Highway 057

    Near Kempton, the road degenerates into a mess of potholes, which the Council fixes by turning into lumps instead.

    Midlands Highway 060

    Midlands Highway 067

    Just past Kempton here.

    Midlands Highway 079

    ***

    You can’t deny that our Highway is a total mess, yet our Politicians keep doing just that. It’s not safe to drive on in good weather and when it rains or is icy, the road is positively deadly.

    A lot of people have been complaining about the Midland Highway. This is why.

  • Australian Women

    All Australian women should read this post and think about it.

    That is all from me right now.

  • The Wedding

    The wedding went very well, even though Nathan’s poor brother looked as white as a ghost waiting for his bride to arrive. When she did, she looked beautiful and 45 minutes later (with bored children running riot in our pew, but that’s all over and done with now) they were pronounced husband and wife and we all cheered.

    The cake was a huge success, with the bride declaring she wasn’t sure she wanted to share it. I know there was a fair bit left over afterwards and according to an email first thing this morning, she was planning on having cake for breakfast. I call that a success.

    I’ve gotten permission to share photos here, so I’m pleased.

    Congratulations Adam and Charlene! Nathan and I wish you every happiness!

    At the Altar

    Wedding Party

    Kissing the bride afterwards

    The cake!

    My men.