A formal Prime Minister has labelled Gillard a “total failure”.
Another formal Prime Minister said Abbott is “as mad as a cut snake”.

Hmmm.  We have two party leaders that are ‘less than capable’ to lead the country and yet we have to vote for one of them.
Don’t you reckon its going to be a tough pick comes Saturday?  What should you do?  

Hint: No one knows what you do or not do once you’re in the voting booth.  You know what I mean.  Need more hints…  Empty.  Blank.  ;-)

Personally, I think it’s a waste of time to vote.  “I have got better things to do…”

One of them will win the election and the sad truth is they will never keep their election promises.  Its amazing how politicians can get away with empty promises!

I have seen bottled water costing as much $3.50 in vending machines.  What is this world coming to?
Its actually more expensive than a litre of fuel.

Do we really need expensive bottled water in Australia?  IMHO, NO! 
We are lucky here that our tap water is safe to drink.  That’s why we call it ‘drinking water’.

Why is that when we have safe drinking water and people are still forking that much for a bottle of water?
Maybe it’s perception that tap water is not safe and it has other impurities?
If you are paranoid about heavy metals in the tap water, add a charcoal filter to your tap.  That will get rid of those nasties and still leave fluoride in the water to slow down teeth decay.  However you still have to brush your teeth though. 

I will keep my $3.50 and get water from the tap or drinking fountain.
Thanks a lot!

We are not normally that cheerful in the morning as both of us sleep in on the weekend and most of the time we are still half asleep and blur blur.
Secondly, there is no early morning basketball training for the little ones.  Yeah, she doesn’t need to get to a freezing stadium.

Jess (son #1) and Jonah (son #2) woke up earlier and prepared breakfast. 
Jonah already baked some cup cakes last night and his job this morning was a bit easier, warmed them up and voila.
Jess found a bag of Pancake Parlour flour mix in the pantry.
He made quite a few pancakes, some for his little brothers and some his mum and of course me lah…

There were no presents for mum but we are still very happy, especially the mother of the house.  This must be the happiest Mother’s Day she has had.

Now is my turn to cook for the family.  Going off to the market now to get some inspiration.  Till next time, be happy and thank you to all the great mums…

I have been on work pager duties for the last 2 weeks.  It was going smoothly (no paging) for the 1st 10 days and when I last expected it, the pager went off for the next few nights.  The pager went off at 1am, 5am and there were so many of them, I have lost counts.  I was not the only one that was affected, my easily awakened Missus has to remind me that the pager has gone off.  Sorry love.

Seeing that Mother’s Day is coming and is on Sunday 9/5/10, I will definitely buy one of the me to you bears for a lovely mother of my kids and for being so understanding when I am on call.

Lastly but not last, Happy Mother’s Day to all the great mums in the world.

It was time for dinner.   Someone suggested pizza and no one objected.  ”Bad mistake I found out later”…
Using my missus’ iPhone 3G, I searched for local pizza shops using Google map.  I got a few telephone numbers, called them but there were no answers. Then someone mentioned Dominos.  Missus downloaded an iPhone app for Dominos, picked the pizzas we wanted and 30 minutes later, the pizzas were at the doors.

Finally, I found a useful app and efficient app.  We didn’t have to leave the house. The pizzas were not that good though.  I felt sick after having a few pieces.

Here you go.  For lazy people that do not want to drive or walk to the local shops for fast food.  The iPhone is indeed useful…

More than a month has passed and Technorati has finally got the time to verify my blog.
It should be good news but bad news it is – they cannot find my token on my rss feed.
Why?
My rss feed only has the 10 most recent posts and the post that has the token was written yonks ago and thus not on the feed.

So I am again. Please verify my token asap or this post will disappear from the rss feed again.

I should also investigate how to add more than 10 posts to my rss feed, just in case it takes more than a month again for them to verify my site. hehehe

Cheers.

This is my 1st blog.  A couple of mates went camping last weekend.  Four Disco’s met at the BP outside Pakenham at about Friday 7:30pm.  Another friend Ian was due in the morning.  Got to the Thomson Dam wall at 9pm. Turned left at the intersection then right onto Trig track.  The track was moist but no problems.  Approaching the camp we were greeted by a large campfire that Paul had going for us.  Chose our tent spots and then settled down for dinner. We had a very clear night.

Saturday morning was looking to be a great day.  Breakfast then just kicked back until Ian rolled up.  As soon as Paul P(PP) and his friend got back from fishing (Raman 20  PP 1) we set of for our drive. Covered a couple of tracks that we’ve done before on our way to do two of the Deep Creek tracks. Ian had mechanical issues due to incorrectly fitted front wheel bearings. And he paid them to do it to! That was a good break as we had a BBQ for lunch. Highlight of the day was Deep Creek 1 track.
Back to camp for dinner and drink. PP set up a cocktail bar and Kee had some very nice meat cooking.

Sunday morning, all had a casual breakfast and packed up. The plan was to cover one more Deep Creek track and home via Walhalla. We took Trig track with all its switch backs out of camp. On top of the hill I had a mechanical problem. Every one assisted and I was back on the road in about an hour but in two wheel drive. Deep Creek 5 was left for next time. Stopped in the beautifully township of Walhalla for coffee. We got back on the road for home after 4pm. Some of us stopped in Moe to wash the cars while the others kept going and head home. Ian, Kee, Paul M, James and myself had a break at the Moe playground.

There are so many digital cameras on the market and new ones keep appearing quite frequently. It is so difficult to decide which one to buy.
So I have made a list of criteria before buying my next compact digital camera.

1.  Battery life.
This is the most important factor for me. I travel quite a fair bit. I need a camera to take at least a day’s worth of photos before the battery runs flat. I can carry a spare battery but I prefer not to. Unfortunately we cannot judge how long the camera will last at the camera shop. Check the web for reviews where users have left feedback on battery life and speak to friends to see if they have bought anything lately.

2.  Memory storage.
Majority are now SD/SDHC memory card. I will choose cameras which use this type of format and not the proprietary type. It will cheaper to buy and easier to locate when you need a new memory card.

3.  Megapixels.
The higher the better? Not really. Majority of photographers are casual and family snappers. Unless you are printing photos larger than A4 size, any camera with 6 megapixels is sufficient.

4.  Zoom.
Stick with optical if zooming is required. Having said that, a camera with any digital zoom is better than none. There will also be some sort of image stabilisation in modern cameras to compensate for shaky hands. For my casual snapshots, zooming is not really that important, any kind of zoom will do me.

5.  Looks and colour.
This is purely aesthetics. Everyone has a different taste. For me I will pick a bright pink camera.

6.  Cost.

Don’t think that the most expensive camera is the best camera on the market.  New and cheaper ones with new technology get released very quickly.  Get a camera you can afford without breaking the bank.  You might upgrade to a new camera in no time.

In 2008, the Australian government proposed mandatory Internet filtering for all Australians.  The filtering had been trialed at a few Internet Service Providers(ISP) and apparently was very successfully.  Yeah right, we were also lead to believe the Cane toads were safe for our habitats…
The government has to put enough spins on the success of this censorship trial just to justify how much money they have spent on this.

The filter at the ISP level is meant to block Refused Classification (RC) content.  These content include and not limited to images associated with sexual abuse or sexual violence, bestiality, detailed information about crime, violence, drug use and terrorist materials.

Besides the RC content, there is also a list of banned sites.  This list is secret and no one will know about it.  My main concern is “What should be and should not be on this list, who controls it?”

I do not have issues with blocking of certain ‘bad’ media/information to immature individuals.  I am using ‘bad’ in the very broad/general sense.  However, to have a big brother says what is good or bad is not really democratic.  Telling my sons what is right and wrong is already difficult enough .  I can understand the gigantic and impossible task the Australian government has ahead of them.  Good luck K Rudd and Conroy!

Oh no!  My head hurts just thinking about this issue.  Where is my red wine?

When viewing programs on 3D television, please note Samsung have issued some warnings and these can be located on their website.  There are a couple of funny ones. 

Should we all go out to buy one now?

Early adopters always have to pay a premium. There have been no 3D blurays announced for this year. The incredible best selling movie Avatar 3D on bluray won’t be coming until 2011.
Currently in Australia, there are no free-to-air broadcasts in 3D. Some broadcasts of the Soccer World Cup in July may be in 3D.  Whether we will have it here in Australia is another question. If you are a huge soccer fan and can confirmed 3D broadcasts here in July, it might be worth getting one then.

A few journalists have watched short animations and confirmed the 3D pictures on the consumer 3D flat screen is good but did not give them the “WOW” experience.

The kids and I went to the cinema to watch Clash of the Titans in 3D last week. The experience wasn’t that great and I would much prefer the 2D version.  I also remember watching a 3D IMAX film that caused me some nausea and dizziness.

For me, I will stick to my 2D flat panel plasma happily for now.  I will only consider buying a 3D TV when I don’t have to wear those 3D glasses and when free-to-air programs are available.

In the end, the choice is still yours. Cheers.