Voting for the Lizard.
Nov. 9th, 2001 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathpixieLiving in a democracy means that every so often we have the 'excitement' of electing a new government, be it federal, state or local. Now, come this Saturday, it's the federal election - yes, we get to vote for a Prime Minister and government to lead the country for the next four years. Whoo.
In Australia, voting is compulsory. This comes from the early days of Federation, when the population of elgible voters was so small, it was written into the Constitution that everyone was was registered to vote had to, in order to achieve a fairly and democratically elected government. And since it's so difficult to change the Constitution, it's stayed with us. Not a bad thing, in itself, depsite what my American friends say (which no small amount of horror in their voices) about it being a violation of my rights. At least whichever government we end up is truly a majority one. Ignoring that whole preferences mess, that is. ;)
So, voting. There are two 'main' parties, the Liberals (who are anything but - they're the party the Gnome belongs to) and Labour, who used to be the working man's (and woman's) party but who have become almost indistinguishable from the Liberals, which is kinda depressing. Then there's the Democrats, who have held the balance of power the last four years and who are slowly raising their profile to becoming something more than the 'pinko leftie gay' voter choice.
(Note: I've voted Democrat pretty much in every election since I enrolled to vote at 18)
Then there's the Greens, who are expanding their environment platform to include social justice issues (since the two main parties, and to a degree, the Deomocrats as well, are ignoring those in favour of sabre-rattling and the GST), One Nation (Pauline Hanson's party of bigots), several small parties like the Christian Liberals (my guess is they're on the conservative side), and various independents. A veritable smorgasboard of political choice.
Except there's not a whole lot of choice. It's a choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee as far as the two main parties go, and the Democrats will get my House of Reps vote, as always, but as always, they will have to remain in the background again. I'm voting Green for the Senate, mainly because I think environmental issues, while overshadowed by world events, are far more important than most people give them credit for. Salinity is becoming such a problem in rural Australia that there are areas looking at becoming uninhabitable in the next ten years, turning into deserts. And these are areas like the cotton growing regions of the western district in Victoria and South Australia. And fat lot of good the global economy is going to do if we're knee deep in ice-cap melt.
But it's too damn late to dive into my environment treatise. Maybe tomorrow.
***
Something that's highly pissing me off - spam. It's seriously getting out of control lately, and I ahve no idea where they're getting my Subreality addy from. Possibly one of the travel info sites I joined a while ago. It's frustrating when you get seven emails, and five of them are spam. Grr. But you know the most annoying thing? Those fake remove addies and sites. I don't know how many of the things I've entered the addy into, but half of them seem to be fake - the email bounces or the site is down. I'm still working on my filter system - Netscape doesn't make it easy - but I'm going to have to do something soon or I'll go nuts.
***
I spent this evening writing, when I wasn't cooking dinner. And I worked on something at work today too, during a contest. I'd already done all the initiation during yesterday's not guilty case. So, this is me, being creative. And getting a kick out of it. I have a project going that is proving most amusing - several online friends are providing me with character bases. Some know about it, some donn't. It'll be interesting to see if anyone notices once I get enough done to post.
The first part of any series is a mixture of fun and annoyance to write. There's the fun part of writing the characters for the first time, getting to know them, the whole 'new and shiny!' thing. But there's also the frustration of wanting to get on with the story, damnit! but you can't, since you need to establish the characters and the scenario enough for the reader to give a damn. Fan-fiction is cool like that, because your readers generally know your characters, but this project is another TCP series, and I have a whole cast of folks - plus the walk-on roles - to develop enough to get people interested. Same with the original fiction - it's much harder to get started, since I can't take the fan-fic short cut. ;)
Hmm, does anyone else analyse their writing like this? Sometimes I think those English Lit classes at uni were a mistake. Especially the one dealing with novels and films. I tend to over-analyse stuff to death.
But I'm writing again. And this is good - I haven't done much (apart from RRs and Mel's b'day fic) since September-ish.
In Australia, voting is compulsory. This comes from the early days of Federation, when the population of elgible voters was so small, it was written into the Constitution that everyone was was registered to vote had to, in order to achieve a fairly and democratically elected government. And since it's so difficult to change the Constitution, it's stayed with us. Not a bad thing, in itself, depsite what my American friends say (which no small amount of horror in their voices) about it being a violation of my rights. At least whichever government we end up is truly a majority one. Ignoring that whole preferences mess, that is. ;)
So, voting. There are two 'main' parties, the Liberals (who are anything but - they're the party the Gnome belongs to) and Labour, who used to be the working man's (and woman's) party but who have become almost indistinguishable from the Liberals, which is kinda depressing. Then there's the Democrats, who have held the balance of power the last four years and who are slowly raising their profile to becoming something more than the 'pinko leftie gay' voter choice.
(Note: I've voted Democrat pretty much in every election since I enrolled to vote at 18)
Then there's the Greens, who are expanding their environment platform to include social justice issues (since the two main parties, and to a degree, the Deomocrats as well, are ignoring those in favour of sabre-rattling and the GST), One Nation (Pauline Hanson's party of bigots), several small parties like the Christian Liberals (my guess is they're on the conservative side), and various independents. A veritable smorgasboard of political choice.
Except there's not a whole lot of choice. It's a choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee as far as the two main parties go, and the Democrats will get my House of Reps vote, as always, but as always, they will have to remain in the background again. I'm voting Green for the Senate, mainly because I think environmental issues, while overshadowed by world events, are far more important than most people give them credit for. Salinity is becoming such a problem in rural Australia that there are areas looking at becoming uninhabitable in the next ten years, turning into deserts. And these are areas like the cotton growing regions of the western district in Victoria and South Australia. And fat lot of good the global economy is going to do if we're knee deep in ice-cap melt.
But it's too damn late to dive into my environment treatise. Maybe tomorrow.
***
Something that's highly pissing me off - spam. It's seriously getting out of control lately, and I ahve no idea where they're getting my Subreality addy from. Possibly one of the travel info sites I joined a while ago. It's frustrating when you get seven emails, and five of them are spam. Grr. But you know the most annoying thing? Those fake remove addies and sites. I don't know how many of the things I've entered the addy into, but half of them seem to be fake - the email bounces or the site is down. I'm still working on my filter system - Netscape doesn't make it easy - but I'm going to have to do something soon or I'll go nuts.
***
I spent this evening writing, when I wasn't cooking dinner. And I worked on something at work today too, during a contest. I'd already done all the initiation during yesterday's not guilty case. So, this is me, being creative. And getting a kick out of it. I have a project going that is proving most amusing - several online friends are providing me with character bases. Some know about it, some donn't. It'll be interesting to see if anyone notices once I get enough done to post.
The first part of any series is a mixture of fun and annoyance to write. There's the fun part of writing the characters for the first time, getting to know them, the whole 'new and shiny!' thing. But there's also the frustration of wanting to get on with the story, damnit! but you can't, since you need to establish the characters and the scenario enough for the reader to give a damn. Fan-fiction is cool like that, because your readers generally know your characters, but this project is another TCP series, and I have a whole cast of folks - plus the walk-on roles - to develop enough to get people interested. Same with the original fiction - it's much harder to get started, since I can't take the fan-fic short cut. ;)
Hmm, does anyone else analyse their writing like this? Sometimes I think those English Lit classes at uni were a mistake. Especially the one dealing with novels and films. I tend to over-analyse stuff to death.
But I'm writing again. And this is good - I haven't done much (apart from RRs and Mel's b'day fic) since September-ish.
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A request
Date: 2001-11-08 06:24 am (UTC)<scampers off to read "Sheep" again>
Re: A request
Date: 2001-11-08 04:09 pm (UTC)It could be on the cards. Just depends. I'm still a tad Mutants-Fatigued, after writing so many stories, and I've always got this deep-seated fear that people really are bored with the whole thing. But yes, maybe. I'm getting really evil thoughts about a wedding fic for Fatimah and Adrian - maybe as a Diva birthday fic? ;) I know you asked about a Fatimah/Adrian fic once too. And I could toss in some James mook as well.