Had a good catchup with pretty much the whole old crew last night. It was weird. Like old times. I don’t think we’ve all been in the one place for a couple of years. I think the only two missing were Hamish and Roscoe. Pretty amazing we’re all still friends I suppose. Caught up on all the news. Met S’s new boy – another copper – but this one I like. He seems pretty serious too and he’s good with little T I understand so maybe this is finally the right man. Everyone had also had a big night the previous night so we finished up at about 1am at the Labour in Vain which I am fond of. And R & J are very fond of one of the young barmaids who works there – all I got from R & J was “great legs aren’t they” after we arrived. Though I must admit they were great legs. *grin*

Currently logged into the new Linux box back in Sydney setting up IMAP. It’s the next stage in my Linux server project. I am sick of trails of mail everywhere and losing things. So from now on all mail to a central server. Of course it means I’ll have to work out how to back up the server but then that’s cool. Maybe buy a cheapo 4mm tape drive – though they need a SCSI card too.

Anyways off to Japanese with Lu’s ex and new partner and the ever enjoyable Den & his lovely beau B. Mmm. Japanese.

Reading: Cyrus IMAP install docs

Listening to: Billy Bragg – Workers Playtime

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Well my friend J has shot the pooch this time. Went off the deep end again and this time ended up in remand. She went loopy and tried to stick up a supermarket with a knife. Stupid bint – and she has made me awfully angry – actually stabbed the guy twice during a struggle for the knife. So that’s it. Armed robbery at least. Which carries a maximum 25 year sentence. And add attempted murder if the DPP are feeling like being total arseholes – which is 25 to life. She’s fucked. I spoke to her mum and she pretty much given up. Which I can’t blame her for. We’ve all tried a lot over the years to make things work and they haven’t. It just breaks my heart. There is no coming back from this. No Judge is going to see reason for this. This is the big leagues. She is going to go to prison and she is going to serve serious time. Damn her for doing this to herself.

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Plumber came. Jury rigged patch. Hoping everything will be fine. Then flew to Melbourne Christmas Eve.

Christmas alright – my least favourite holiday but alright. Went to visit my grandfather in the nursing home yesterday morning. Remarkably improved – almost coherent and really on the ball. Very strange that he would get better not worse – great but weird. Then off to lunch at a restaurant which was okay. Everyone ate too much and got a little hammered. Upon arriving home all and sundry retreated to respective bedrooms to sleep it off – excepting me who sat outside with a pack of smokes and read my book.

Currently in the midst of reading Simon Schama’s History of Britain, Vol. 1. Is very good – though God knows how the bloody poms managed to create an Empire let alone govern themselves. Volume One is about 3000BC to 1603AD. It’s lots of ‘King this invaded from here and then Queen That invaded from here after King This was nice and comfortable in Essex’. The end result appears to be Ali G. And no wonder the Royal Family is fucked up – some of the people on the throne were distinctly nutjobs. Edward II (the one killed with a red hot poker up his jacksie), Richard II, Richard III – well the list goes on. All hopeless in some respect and all seemingly incredibly lucky that the whole country didn’t collapse around them in anarchy.

Have just started reading about the Black Death too. Knew a lot more about it’s effects on continental Europe than on Britain so it is an interesting part of British history. Schama posits that the reduction in population marked the end of serfdom and the emergence of the first economic power and freedom of the peasant class – including the emergence of the English ‘country gent’ – sort of a 14th and 15th Century ‘nouveau riche’ class. Though I’d like to see what effect the Plague had in Russia and why similar social changes didn’t happen there. Or perhaps they did and that was the emergence of the kulak class. Hmmm. Need to find a book I suspect.

Anyway off to visit other grandfather (distinctly against my will) today. Long drive up and back. Annoying. Cheers and ‘Bah humbug’ for the festive season.

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Waiting for the plumber… So far an hour late and no call.

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Hell of a day. We are on unmetered water so we share a water main with four other houses. Of course the common line is about 100 years old and decides to break this morning. Middle of the worst drought in Australian history and we have a few thousand litres of water gushing off down the street. And no water in the house. Eventually get the water cut off at the mains but now need to fix the pipe. It’s going to be EXPENSIVE. Plus I have to hang around a few days and wait for the repairs to be done whilst Lu goes to Melbourne. Sodding sucks. And then I’ll have to chase all of the neighbours up to pay their share of the common line which will be ridiculous trouble. And right at Christmas – my least favourite season. When it rains it pours – no pun intended.

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Doing product demos this morning. Already caught the vendor in a little bit of a shonky – the difference between Change Tasking and Change Management. But they have to come to the party and I think I am going to be able to break them over the wheel.

Odd conversation with an old friend – maybe it was because she was at work – but got a weird vibe. Something a little off. Odd. Feeling a bit crap today. Ulcers hurt. Tired and sort of a little depressed for some reason. Perhaps it’s my oddness that is effecting my comprehension of the situation. Ah well. Off to take the team out to lunch at Sumalee Thai.

Lunch was excellent. Wonderful food, lousy service as always, but big serves and pleasant meal. Off to 2 hours worth of meeting and then pub! Hooray – bloody hot and I need a beer.

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Today reading Lemming’s diary, one of the diaries I read on a regular basis, I was reminded that the 18th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster has just passed. Lemming had never heard of it before. I suppose she is only about 20 or so. It is to be expected that some things slip through the cracks – some historical events that you never hear about.

But probably more accurately she hasn’t heard of it for two reasons. The first is probably because it happened in India. CNN is lucky if it covers events in Canada let alone the developing world. Most of the mainstream US media are the same. Might have been briefly newsworthy but now it is a long ago and forgotten event. The second reason is because Union Carbide and now it’s new owner, Dow Chemical, have done such an excellent job of white washing the whole thing. Even today Dow refuses to take responsibility for the site and it’s continued contamination. So much so that they have denied any link between continuing birth defects amongst local residents and their abandoned and highly polluted site. They claim that no link can be found between the birth defects and the chemical exposure. All just an amazing coincidence I guess. But it’s no surprise from a merger of scum like Union Carbide with vermin like Dow. Dow being responsible for producing such fine products as Mustard Gas, Picric Acid and Phosgene during World War I. They assisted with the development of atomic weapons during World War II and are responsible for the development and manufacture of those obscene substances – Napalm and Agent Orange – during the Vietnam War. Such a merger could only result in an even more arrogant, deceitful and callous organisation. An organisation who would readily deny culpability for their past misdeeds.

Union Carbide referred to the incident in Bhopal as a ‘tragic industrial accident’ – the truth be told it was an industrial atrocity. An act of appallingly negligent mass murder. Not a single Union Carbide corporate officer or employee has been held accountable for the incident. Not a single one has spent a day in jail. They have consistently dodged their legal and ethical obligations. For shame. For total shame. I think the Bhopal Medical Appeal’s recent advertisement in the Guardian sums it up:

Union Carbide, may God forgive you.

Because God knows the thousands of victims and their families won’t.

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I just tried out the belief-o-matic out to find out what faith I am. The somewhat unsurprising results are below.

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (96%)
3. Liberal Quakers (83%)
4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (75%)
5. Nontheist (72%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (67%)
7. Neo-Pagan (65%)
8. New Age (49%)
9. Taoism (44%)
10. Bah

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Back in Sydney. Wedding was good. Weird in parts but good. Caught up with some old, old friends who I wish I had not lost touch with all those years ago. But I think I’m on track to catch up with them. Going to need to exchange a whole batch of phone numbers with people. Wasn’t thinking 100% straight because we had such a on the bounce, on the ball trip with having to drive for bloody hours so I didn’t take my phone or business cards or anything actually useful. So it’ll be calls to the groom to pass on details and try to get some details on some other people. But weird. Overall weird. Don’t know how I feel about it all yet. Still processing perhaps. Family is a strange thing. Both looking forward and sort of dreading next March now. Now have to think about writing something myself. So I have gotten started tonight and we’ll see how we go.

And thanks to the woman who had faith – it was merited – I didn’t get massively drunk and embarrass myself or create a scene. Were a couple of moments when I was sober at the service when the constant mention of God got too much and I flinched quite a bit but generally other than that I was able to be very well behaved.

Anyway off to bed. Have to be civilised at an early hour tomorrow. How I manage that is anyone’s guess *grin*.

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Friday again. Weeks seem to be flying by. Had a meeting this morning with some vendors. I think they had been used to dealing with the guy who has been doing the ‘IT’ sort of stuff before me and I just cut them off short. They also looked bored which annoyed me. No matter how small the customer is I always looked interested and engaged with a client. Because for the client their IT isn’t small – it is the centre of their world. Vendors are sneaky, useless bastards.

Tried to call my friend J today but she is not answering her phone. Sent an SMS. I just hope she is okay. Thinking of her a lot this week.

Venture here to see
What has gotten me
neither easy sleep
nor open speech

See the crowd stir in
its latest show and
wonder why the tickets
cost too much

Touch the lips of the
unspoken hope that
we might make some
good come of here

I will leave you with a scrap of decent poetry too. Some Blake on this slightly melancholy Friday afternoon:

Can I see anothers woe,
And not be in sorrow too.
Can I see anothers grief,
And not seek for kind relief?

– William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Speak to all and sundry next week sometime. Take care all – it’s a weekend to be careful with one’s life and emotions – too much sorrow down some roads. Indeed melancholy.