Hola!

It certainly has been a while since I updated, hasn’t it? I could make excuses, like saying there’s been a lot going on in my life over the last few months. While this is true it’s not really relevant. I’ve had plenty of time to muck around on twitter and play video games, after all.

The truth is just I haven’t felt like blogging, for whatever reason.

So anyway, my life has changed quite a bit. First, I got my long-awaited STAT (Special Tertiary Admissions Test) results back. I was expecting to do well, but not to be placed in the 98.8th percentile!

So, two months later, I’m attending University. At last! I got into my first choice of course, Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, and picked Spanish as my compulsory language. So far it’s been fun. I’m getting to know people, am enjoying my tutorials, and can now count to 99 in a foreign language.

I am a little nervous right now about the workload I’ll have to deal with, but I’m sure that’s normal. Especially for first year students who have been out of school for a few years, as I have. I’m also not too keen on one of my units, but it’s just for a Semester, so that’s fine.

Overall, I’m optimistic. I’m finally where I’ve wanted to be for a very long time. Where, in truth, I should have been a great many years ago. I’m looking forward to the next stage of my life.

Anyway, I’m planning on updating this blog a lot more often from now on. Time? I’ll make the time, damn it!

Hasta luego!

Mystery creature photographed. Researchers baffled!

On the correct method of non-lethal spider disposal

Sometimes you just have to get rid of a spider. For some reason I’ve been having to do it several times a week lately. It could be the hot weather. I don’t know. All I know is that my house has been infested with spiders.

Specifically, Huntsman Spiders.

Not that spiders are bad house-guests. At least not these ones. They’re clean, generally docile unless provoked, and like to eat nasty bugs. Unfortunately they’re not very popular with house-guests of the two legged variety, and also tend to dehydrate and die if they stay indoors for too long. Thus, after having enjoyed their company for a day or two, it is proper to remove them from one’s place of residence. Killing them is unnescessary and, I feel, rather mean. Fortunately there’s a better way. You need a glass, preferably with a wide brim, and a flat piece of sturdy paper (envelopes are ideal).

Huntsman Spiders generally prefer to sit on a flat surface, such as a wall. They can hang around in trickier places such as corners or ceilings. You can try to expel them from these more difficult areas with a broom or other instrument or wait for them to find somewhere new.

When your arachnid pal is on a flat surface it should be fairly simple to slip the mouth of the glass over him. It’s best to do this slowly so that you don’t miss and the spider doesn’t panic. He is now trapped between the glass and the wall.

Then, ever so slowly, slip the piece of paper between the wall and the glass.

Holding the paper in place you can now move the spider around as you wish.

Take him outside, lay the glass on its side on the ground, and remove the paper. Come back later and retrieve the empty glass.

Congrats. You’ve just returned a friendly spider to his natural habitat.

I know it’s juvenile, but…

If you don’t know who this wacko is, or why he’s in prison, then check out his entry on wikipedia. For some big laughs follow that up with a search for him on youtube. Trust me, it’s worth your time.

Göreme

“I need a holiday”.

That’s one of the first things I thought when I awoke this morning. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot lately. It seems a bit absurd, given the fact that I haven’t worked full-time for almost two months now, but I feel… well, overworked.

I’ve considered several possible destinations. Hawaii (inspired by the strength of the Australian dollar against the American and by Allyeska’s travel blog), the Cook Islands, Christmas Island, maybe. Somewhere interesting. The last time I felt like this, I genuinely was overworked. It was February of last year, and I was exhausted after a busy Christmas season. I had money, and I could get a month off quite easily, so decided to fulfil a long-held desire of mine. I went to Turkey.

I’ve been fascinated with Turkey for many years. It’s a fascination which grew from my obsession with history. With Roman history, primarily, and the history of the Byzantine empire which emerged from it, but also with the history of the modern era. Of Gallipoli, where Turkish and Australian history would interact and set both nations on the courses they would follow into the 20th century.

I went, and I spent a month there. A fantastic month. Probably the best month of my life so far. I so and experienced so much. I wandered in the great covered bazaar of Istanbul, and stared up in amazement at the dome of the Hagia Sophia. I visited the silent battlefields of the Gallipoli peninsular and the citadel of Troy. But if any place that I visited in Turkey stuck with me it was the village of Göreme in the region of Cappadocia. This ancient place, where the early persecuted Christians built their churches and their homes into the soft sedimentary rock of the “fairy chimneys” and where people have lived ever since, is like nowhere else I’ve been. Maybe nowhere else on Earth.

Words will probably fail me if I try to describe the beauty of Göreme and why it sticks in my mind, so I won’t even try. Look at these pictures I took instead.

This is a test video.

This is a test video I shot with my new digital camcorder (which I bought at half price). The bird is a Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans), very pretty and quite common in South Eastern Australia. This one is practically domesticated.  If only I can train him to sit on my shoulder I’ll be a real pirate!

 

Thoughts on a conference I did not attend.

Hello there. Welcome back. Sorry for my absence. Between looking for a job, continuing work on a horror novel, personal stuff and general laziness, I’ve not updated my blog-thing in almost two months. Well, I’ll be changing that and will update as often as I can, beginning… NOW!

The 2009 Australian Skeptics National Convention in Brisbane (a.k.a Briskepticon) is all wrapped up and it seems as though a lot of fun was had by all. I really do wish I could have been there, but due to various factors (including cost, my ongoing search for a new job, my general dislike of the Queensland climate, and the need to attend my birthday party) I gave it a miss. Nonetheless, I was kept in the loop via various sceptical blogs including those of Kylie Sturgess and the Young Australian Skeptics, and of course by Twitter (especially, and hilariously, during one talk about the relationship of sugar to obesity which seemed to bomb with the sceptical audience).

The program included many events that I would have no doubt enjoyed and learnt from, as well as Dr Pete Griffith’s fantastic talk “Life, death, and the antivaccination cult” which I had the privilege of attending several weeks ago when he presented it in Canberra. Of course the Bent Spoon (awarded annually to “the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle“) went to Meryl Dorey, the truly repulsive leader of the cult-like Australian Vaccination Network, which has been heavily engaged in spreading lies about the efficacy and safety of vaccines. In retrospect, while many were guilty of pushing woo in the last year, there could have been no other winner.

The big announcement from Briskepticon, though, is about next years convention. To be held in Sydney, it will be called The Amazing Meeting, Australia, joining similarly named sceptical conferences in America and London. In addition to the Australian contingent (including the YAS crew, who I plan on meeting at March’s Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne), guests will include the Amazing James Randi himself, Brian Dunning, the entire lineup of The Skeptics Guide To The Universe, George Hrab, and others.

I will not make the same mistake again. I’ll be at TAM Australia next November, and I hope to see you there.

Just a word before you go…

“Can you meet me in the conference room?”

“Okay.”

We recently got the conference room back from one of the businesses which had been leasing the storefront. They’d been using it as a stockroom. It’s empty now, except for a few tables and chairs and an old fridge. We sit down at one of the tables.

“How long have you worked here, Michael?”

Three years, I tell him. Though it’s more like three and a half.

“You’ve got an excellent record. You keep the place clean. We get a lot of positive comments from the guests. You don’t take days off. You even drive in on your RDO’s when we need you. That hasn’t escaped my notice.”

“Thank you”, as if I don’t know what’s coming.

“You might be aware that it hasn’t been a great year for us…”

That’s stating the obvious, really. People are spending less and travelling less. Add to that a shocking winter, and it’s hard to see how I could possibly not be unaware that business has been poor.

“… and we’ve been getting pressure from Adelaide…”

You can probably fill in the rest of the details yourself. I did before he even completed the sentence. We chat for a while after that, shake hands, it’s all very friendly, and I leave for home.

It still seems kind of surreal. Like something that happened to someone else. What do I do now? I was already planning to quit, and even looking forward to it a little, but not until after Christmas and my being accepted by the University.

I guess I should go into the city tomorrow and register with Centrelink. Start applying for jobs as soon as possible. At least I’ll have a good reference. I still have a month of night classes and two major assignments to deal with. Maybe right now a little bit of extra study time is a blessing in disguise.

Equality, bigotry and cowardice in the ACT.

The Commonwealth is again on a collision course with the ACT Legislative Assembly over gay civil unions.

The ACT Labor Party says it will support a Greens bill to legalise civil union ceremonies in the Territory.

The legislation is almost identical to the bill it was forced to water down when the Federal Government threatened a veto.

Federal Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor says the Commonwealth has not changed its position on gay marriage.

This is how it’ll play out. The bill will pass through the Legislative assembly only to be quashed by the godsquad at the Federal level.

Just like last time, and the time before that.

At least we have someone on the inside, a progressively minded person representing the ACT at the Federal level. Surely Senator Kate Lundy will use her position to defend not only the dignity of same-sex couples, but the democratic rights of all her constituents.

ACT Labor Senator Kate Lundy yesterday ruled out crossing the floor over the issue. But she says she will try to convince her Labor colleagues to respect the Legislative Assembly’s decision.

*sigh*

Senator Lundy, how do you expect to convince your colleagues to respect the wishes of the people of the ACT when you lack the courage to do so yourself?

If you stand with the bigots you are no better than a bigot yourself.

The most damning part of this story…

ACT Liberals Senator Gary Humphries says he is willing to cross the floor again over legalising same-sex civil union ceremonies if it comes to a vote.

There goes any credibility Kate Lundy had.

In other news I’m really sick of this UCPrep course and want it to be over. Only a month to go. Then I can go to grown-up’s university.

This is my blog. There are many like it but this one is mine.

Why, hello there. Welcome to my blog-thing. If you’re reading this it’s probably by accident, or you’re a friend I’ve made on a forum or Twitter.

If not, hello again. I’m Michael. You can call me Mick if you want. Not Mike. I do not enjoy being called Mike. Or Mickey.

I really do not enjoy being called Mickey.

Anyway, this is my blog-thing. Where I will talk about stuff that interests me. Here’s a short list of things that interest me…

History.

Comics.

Science fiction movies.

Science.

Pseudoscience.

Horror.

Skepticism.

Atheism.

Politics.

Writing.

Travel.

And so on. There actually isn’t much I’m not interested in. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this makes me an interesting person, though. I’m really not.