White Australia??

Ok, over the last two days I am getting really worried about our society and where it is heading. Last night the current affairs show ACA had a guest. An associate professor in the Department of Public Law at Macquarie University, Andrew Fraser, was on to explain his views on immigration.

This all started with Andrew reading an article on how a Sudanese family had just become Australian Citizens and deciding to voice his opinion (which is not that of the University) in an email to his government representitive and the paper in question, the Sydney Morning Hearald.

This academic has said things like:

  • “an expanding black population is a sure-fire recipe for increases in crime, violence and a wide range of other social problems”
  • “these racial and ethnic conflicts are intractable”
  • “black Africans have been shown to have an average IQ of 70”

To support his first view he quotes a google search “black on white homocide”, that shows US of A crime figures. Now I am pretty sure that even if the link is good and accurate, the history of slavery and continued repression of the American black community is DIFFERENT from the history and current situation of the Sudanese (and other) immigrants in Australia. I have yet to find a link to his IQ information.

Ok now to state my view. I think this guy must be the worst academic in history. If you want to convince people you must have an argument and base that on facts! My understanding is that the research he quotes has been disproved or discredited, also no reasoning seems to exist other than we will loose our common identity.

I thought I would give this Canadian Born Academic a little history lesson. Australia was populated by Aboriginees prior to being discoverd by the Portoguese and the English. It was used as a dumping place for the worst of the criminals of England, Ireland and Scotland. After gold was discoverd, the European and Chinese people came in great numbers. Towns like Briadwood and Ballerat were build by European and Chinese people working, living and growing together. Long after this when Australia undertook it’s largest infrastructure project ever, the Snowy River Hydro plan, it was the Italians, Greeks and other displaced immigrants that made it happen.

The history, the culture the flavour of Australia is our acceptance of people, from anywhere, from any background, location, race and religion into our country. Has it been always smooth, no! Will it be always perfect no! But together Australians old and new work together and build a new identity better and stronger than the past.

Loosing Comments

For those making comments and them not appearingl, I am sorry.

My site is being floaded by spam comments at the moment, approx 100 – 200 a day, and I am loosing real comments in the clean up.

I will be installing the newest version of wordpress soon to hopefully make things easier.

edit: Ok the new version of WordPress is in and hopefully things will be easier.

London Shaken

I am currently watching the news with some horror. In London a whole world away it seems there has been a large co-ordinated terrorist attack.

Now at this point I must say one thing, the English are just so different from their mainland neighbours. They seem so calm in the face of this compared to the Russians and Spanish that have gone through similar things recently. This is the real Brittish “Stiff upper lip”.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all people in London.

Surgery Update

My wife had her surgery today, and it went well. She has been sleeping of the General today and I will get to talk to her and the doctor tomorrow.

Arrgh! Computers!

Well the other day the house’s second computer decided to stop working. The thing would not stay turned on, it would just shutdown, if you were lucky it would run for 10 minutes then stop. So I had a look and figured out the power supply was not working right. The repairs will have to wait a week or too so I have time and money to fix.

Today however my computer decided to die. Freezing within minutes of turning on! I think it is memory or CPU related, so those repairs will have to wait as well.

So in the space of days we have gone from two working computers down to none. I could not even salvage enough common parts to make any hybrid work (one is an old celeron the other an AMD, different memory everything).

So I have set up my work laptop, we have no access to our photos, email or games. Looks like a computer spend is on the cards 😥

Canberra Update

Well as you can imagine things have been a little hectic. I have started work, the kids have started school and Dani has already put her name down to help tuckshop and the P&C. Only got my broadband back yesterday, man talk about withdrawal. 😀

Work is crazy as usual, but at least I am busy. Seems like my old area is still trying to find enough work for all their people.

The kids are really liking their new schools and both seem to be making friends easily. My daughter is continuing with her Japanese and my boy just loves the new schools playground.

I have some shots of the new house etc more will be coming.

Canberra House

Made it!

Ok we have just arrived in Canberra. Very good trip, long tiring but now complete.

We are collecting the keys to the house tomorrow and our furniture arrives on Friday.

I will post up some more information after a sleep. 🙂

Frustrated

Ok now this is not about my relationship with my wife (that’s actually going very well, thank you very much), I am getting frustrated with the lack of response from parts of the company I work for.

I can’t go into details (don’t want to have to write one of those “I’ve been fired” posts), but it is enough to say I have been waiting for a decision from one management group for over 3 weeks now. This isn’t a little decision this is one that will shape the future of my career and the future plans for my whole family.

I will let you know more when I can say more.

Pentax *ist Ds Review

Ok a little while back I told you all that I had got a new camera. A very nice new digital SLR from Pentax. Now for all you out there that don’t know what SLR means I found this great definition:

An SLR or single-lens reflex is really designed for the enthusiast photographer or the person who can put up with a larger camera in return for increased accuracy and greater versatility. This type of camera has through the lens viewing with a mirror behind the lens and a pentaprism to direct the light passing through the lens to the optical finder. The mirror lifts up out of the way as a photograph is taken. As you look through the lens that takes the picture the composition can be more accurate and the lens often removes giving you a wider scope of options. The metering and focusing systems are usually more accurate too. Despite all this creativity it’s still possible to stick most SLRs on a full auto point & shoot mode so anyone could use one with ease, but don’t expect to fit one in a pocket! They are much bigger. Ephotozine

So you got it, this is not a compact camera, it won’t fit in your pocket, but it will allow you to be much more creative then a compact point and shoot camera.

Ok so this is my new Camera Pentax *ist Ds Front small (for a SLR), light and solid. This thing feels much sturdier than the Canon 300D that it competes with, but is smaller and lighter. It has a steel frame with a plastic body.

The main reason I looked at this camera was twofold.
Firstly it was cheaper than the rest, being a good $200AU cheaper than the Canon and $400 cheaper than the Nikon D70.
Secondly my three existing lenses would just work with it. Unfortunatly my old flash however is another story.

Features include:

  • 6.1 Megapixel sensor
  • 2 inch display screen
  • 11 point autofocus
  • Multi mode metering
  • SD Memory card for storage (faster and smaller than a Compact flash)
  • Multiple auto-exposure modes, including Macro, Portrait and landscape
  • Apeture and speed priority settings
  • Full manual (good for my older manual lenses) and bulb settings
  • ISO settings from 200 – 3200 with very low noise up to 800
  • Shutter speeds from 30 seconds up to 1/4000 of second

Overall it has the features required by a beginner and the flexibility for more professional work.

If you want to read a comprehensive review that I agree with hop over too Steve’s Digicams.

Here are a few shots from the Camera to show you what it can do. Remember to look at the Exif data to see the settings.

Grevilla
Black Mountain Tower
Sun, Cloud and Lake
Hibiscus
Light, Water and Ducks
Commonwealth Bridge
Motor Bike Clothing?

Busy, really busy.

Well it seems I have not had time to scratch myself over the last 4 weeks. Travelling for work, for my wifes family reunion, and having family stay for 2 weeks.

I promise I will start again soon.

Australia Day

Well another year has passed and here in Australia we are just about to celebrate our great country.

Now before you get the wrong idea, I am not a raving patriot, I don’t believe we have the greatest country in the world, I don’t think we can’t improve and I don’t think we have nothing to learn from the world.

Australia day is a great holiday and as Australians we are encouraged to celebrate by doing whatever we want. That’s right anything we want, of course there are some parades, concerts and fireworks arranged by various levels of government, but most Australians will head to the Beach, Bush or BBQ.

So tomorrow I am planning to have a short bush walk and then have a BBQ in the evening. If I really want to torture myself I might go the the free concert by the lake, depends on what my friends have planned.

Enjoy your day whatever you decide to do!

Away from home again

Ok so I am back in Canberra for a week. Getting to grips with some more work I have to do down here and as usual it looks like there is enough work to last months. After this week I should have an ongoing plan for the next 3 months at least and from that be able to schedule my time and additional trips if nessessary.

Now this morning was a little bit of a shock, it has been 35-36 degrees in Brisbane with humidity in the high 80’s and low 90’s, here it will be 23 degrees top and drizzling cold rain.

I have brought my camera with me, so expect some photos.

New Camera

Ok so as I said before I have a new camera. I have been eyeing off this model since I saw the first review back in September last year. My old camera is a Pentax K1000, a fully manual SLR, that has served me faithfully for nearly 20 years. So this Digital camera that promised to accept all (total of 3) my existing lenses, provide me with the convienence of digital and allow me to be as creative as I want.

Well I have used this for about a week now and I must say I am VERY HAPPY. The photos look great on screen and on prints, the colour and the contrast is great and the images are not too sharp. Over the next couple of weeks you can expect many photos taken with this camera. Check out my flickr gallery!

Images

Pentax *ist Ds Back

Pentax *ist Ds Front

New Camera

Ok it’s offical I am SPOILT!

Today I bought a new camera, one I have been eyeing for a while. So I am the proud new owner of a Pentax *ist Ds Digital SLR. This is a wonderful camera and I will soon figure out how to take a photo so you can all see 🙂

New Year

This year we got away from home for a few days. We went out to see Dani’s mum and stay a few days, so leaving the father in law to go and see the mother in law, sounds crazy but we needed the change.

So we towed my brothers trailer out with some furniture for my mother in law. This was the first time we have done a long trip (600km each way) towing a trailer with the 307. I was really pleased with the performance and the economy ( about 7.4 l/100kms – 50 miles per gallon).

Heading out to western Queensland gave me a chance to catch up with my boss and workplace, Romavilla Winery. I have some photos of the place being processed so I will post them up later.

I enjoy getting out of the city once in a while, however being away from an Internet connection is very trying. I miss reading the news, blogs, new photos and comics that make up my daily routine. I have been taking more photos, arty shots mostly and I will post them up once I have them processed.

Although the temperature was higher out there it is more pleasent due to the lack of humidity, a nice change from the hot and humid weather here. I am heading back to work tomorrow and I can honestly say I am not in the least bit motivated.

Well enough rambling, my family and I wish you all the best this year and hope the year provides happiness and opportunities.