I had no idea this was happening tonight, but when I looked up and saw this smiley face I was BLOWN AWAY. Apparently, we’re seeing Venus, Jupiter and a thin three-day-old crescent moon. What the photo doesn’t show, though, is how amazingly bright all three appear against the stars in the sky. Venus and Jupiter look so bright, you’d almost think they are about to land on you. Is this Jesus looking down on me? Have I been wrong all along???
Last night at BTUB I met Michael Meloni from Somebody Think Of The Children (along with lots of other great people) and we were talking (of course) about the Australian government’s absurd plan to filter the internet.
I’ve been wondering over the last few months about what we, the Internet community, can do to alter the decision of the Rudd government on this issue. Signing petitions and writing letters to the Minister are great, but I suspect they aren’t enough to change the course he’s on. This morning I was reading Howard Zinn’s awesome “A People’s History Of The United States” and he was discussing the many strikes that occurred in the USA during the 19th century and I started wondering if a strike is one way we can get politicians to take notice of our concerns.
If the IT and Internet community in Australia went on a general strike over the issue of Internet censorship, I have no doubt that we could cause many Australian businesses and government agencies pain. A strike by the IT/Internet community would also generate a lot of press.
Then I started wondering how we’d mobilize the community. We don’t have a union or any kind of genuine organization. There are groups like AIMIA and the AIIA but I seriously doubt they would support any kind of industrial action, nor do they represent many people working in the industry.
So we need to organize and mobilize. We need to create a single focus point for action. Any ideas?
Just realized that today is the 4th anniversary of G’Day World and therefore also the 4th anniversary of podcasting in Australia. A lot has changed in four years! And I’ve been fortunate enough to produce over 350 episodes and interview some amazing people. Thank you everyone for tuning in and for the continual support and encouragement.
WTF? I rarely use my Windows Live account. Today I tried to login but couldn’t remember my user ID or my password. Tried a couple of things but they didn’t work. So I went into the “reset your password” option. They give you two options – answer some questions about your location and your “secret question” or we’ll send you an email. As I can’t remember my bloody Hotmail password, the latter option is obviously no use, so I went for the first option – however, as you can see in the screenshot, that option is actually “temporarily unavailable” because i got my password wrong on the previous screen! No shit Sherlock! What kind of morons came up with this system?
World Mental Health Day (aka “Blue Day”) is being held on my birthday. Coincidence? I think not.
My mate Efisia has written a great blog post about WMHD which includes the latest stats in Australia about depression and suicide as well as her own struggle with mental health issues. Many of us on Twitter have changed our icons to be blue to promote Blue Day.
From Fiz’ blog post:
One in five people (one in four women, one in six men) suffer from depression at some point in their lives and 62% of them don’t seek help.
If you’re the one in five, do something about it. I started seeing a shrink about 5 or 6 years ago and it did me a world of good. In fact, I think EVERYONE should see a shrink, not just people suffering from depression. We’re all a little fucked up. Just admit it, do something about it, and move on. Mmmkay?
