Hazel doesn’t know about Santa Claus, or Father Christmas. She talks about “Santa Christmas”.
The other day: “I can see in the dark because I have gloomy eyes.”
A few days later, with the widest eyes and the happiest smile, holding Where Is The Green Sheep, she said: “I read this all by myself.”
She can only read a few words right now, so she’s remembered the book rather than read it, but the joy behind the smile was a thing of wonder.
This Telstra Wholesale page lists the telephone exchanges to receive upgrades. At Mt Nebo (MNBO) we’re about to get a software upgrade. Apparently it won’t be bringing ADSL2+, but it’s going to remove the default shaping (slowing down) that 8Mbps plan users (like me) have been subject to. The what now?
Even though I have been paying quite a bit extra for an “up to 8Mbit” plan that’s usually around 2.5Mbit, it’s been the crappy shaping setup at the exchange that’s been slowing me down, not my line, proximity to exchange, or anything else.
First reaction? How in hell can they get away with selling (or on-selling) a service they know will be crippled? Advertising up to 8Mbit when this exchange hasn’t been offering any more than 2.5Mbit to anyone is just wrong.
Second reaction? So, my internet could get 3x faster next week? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?
Final Cut Pro has an awesome feature, iChat Theater, which lets you share your Viewer or Canvas (whatever was last selected) to a remote iChat buddy. It’s fantastic for remote editing with a client. But it only works Mac to Mac. Alternatives? Skype has built-in screen sharing, but it doesn’t want to work for me; I think it’s because I’m on a camera-less Mac Pro.
Solution! Grab CamTwist, as described in How To Use Your Canon DSLR As A Webcam. Set up the software with “Desktop+” to output the FCP Canvas as a webcam. Now you don’t even need to use Skype’s screen sharing, because that area of your screen becomes a webcam. It just saved me many rounds of tiny revisions with a remote (Sydney) director on a piece I’m editing.
Isn’t it nice when technology really helps? Now, if only I could get ADSL2+ here…
Looking at a computer-rendered diagram of a family home with a family, Hazel said it was “Andy’s house. From Toy Story.” (Because they looked like the computer-generated people that Pixar make and she loves.)
Hazel just made a “computer” from a shallow box with things glued in it (the keyboard) and a blank box lid (the screen) plus an old mouse. Then she put a ball in front of the “screen” and said “there’s a ball on the screen”, practiced typing, and so on.
Some bad times in this recent holiday overseas (just back) give me pause. I would not, at this time, recommend travelling with a small child for four weeks. Some of the moments have been wonderful, as always, but the general feeling that remains is still a dull pain. Anyway:
They Might Be Giants’s Here Come the 123s! has a song called “Triops has three eyes”, which repeats that phrase quite a few times. (She usually prefers their more recent Here Comes Science, and it makes me so proud each time she listens intently to “Meet the Elements” or “I am a Paleontologist” that I can’t say. Anyway.)
She also loves Toy Story 1 and 2, which we have, and she watches, on the iPad. Remember the claw aliens from Toy Story? Three eyes. While we watched Toy Story 3 (amazing) on the plane home, I leaned over to her to explain that we were looking at the claw aliens.
She says: “No, they’re triops.”
I really hope Jucy works out for these two: Cindy Nelson & Francesca Gasteen at TIFF 2010. Mostly because they’re great and they deserve it, but a little because they starred together in Five, a film I directed and edited a few years ago in the 48 Film Project. All the dialogue was ad-libbed; they were terrific. The sad part was having to cut almost all of Francesca’s part to get it into the five-minute time limit. If you find me in person, ask to see the extended cut with Francesca’s part reinstated.
It’s been raining all night, but it should still be a good day. If you’re wondering what to do with your Sunday, come along to the Mountain Festival today.
It’s been a while between Hazelwatches, so here’s a brief update. Recently it’s been terrific to see Hazel learning, responding to what we’ve been saying and starting to behave a little better. Still, she gets frustrated like all young kids do. When she did today, she did a little jumpy, twisty dance, and said:
“This is my unhappy dance.”
You probably don’t need me to tell you how to vote, and if this is the case, feel free to stop reading now. If, however, you’re still undecided, or you’ve never voted before, sure, go ahead. (For overseas readers, our “Liberal” party is the right-wing, conservative party.)
The Australian system of voting, as in Britain, does not directly elect the Prime Minister. For the House of Representatives, we elect our local candidates, and they, in turn, elect the Prime Minister. (Any party can choose whoever it wants as the leader, even after the people have voted, as the people didn’t directly choose that leader. That’s not to say that it will be popular, which is why it’s not common.) In the Senate, normally only half of them are up for election when we vote; they have a double-length term compared to the House of Reps. Also, voting for the Senate is proportional. Here, you contribute to your state’s senators rather than a more local representative.
Who to vote for? Well, since two parties are far more popular than the others, you’ll have to choose which one of these you like more than the other. You can vote for a smaller party that probably won’t get elected in its own right, and when it’s clear they don’t have the numbers to win, their votes will be reapportioned according to how you filled out your preferences. So, as most seats eventually go to Labor or Liberal, it’s really important to pick one or the other. The parties do distribute “how to vote” cards near election booths, but you don’t have to follow them.
It’s unlikely that one of the two major parties will offer policies you completely agree with, so you’ll have to pick the closest match to your own beliefs and values. Sometimes, neither offer what you’re looking for. It’s very possible that legislation that makes it through the House of Representatives will be knocked back or watered down in the Senate, if there’s no common majority across both houses. This happened in the last term of government, with Labor’s carbon emissions trading scheme voted down by the Liberals and the Greens. After trying for months to get the legislation through, they eventually gave up, leaving Labor looking like they hadn’t delivered what they’d promised.
In the future, it would be great to see many smaller parties become more powerful, leading to more negotiation between parties that have to share power. It’s unlikely to see this in the House of Reps any time soon, but it’s routine in the Senate. Ifyou want to encourage it ASAP, the Greens are probably the next-best-placed party, and could hold the balance of power in the next parliament.
Recommendations? I’m voting left, Labor in the House of Reps at least. Why?
1. Better broadband policies. There’s nothing wrong with investment, with money spent in Australia on a future-proof fibre network. Initially sold as 100Mb and now as 1Gb (10x faster), that’s possible because fibre is able to run as fast as the equipment at either end — unlike the copper network we have now. We simply can’t go fast enough with our current network, and the market won’t build fibre to the house as it’s too expensive outside the inner suburbs. Our current broadband network is slow and inequitable and will not be fixed by the market. Abbott is on record as thinking broadband is “for sending an email”, completely missing the point of what a fibre network could do for business and consumers alike.
2. Good things this government did. They said sorry. They signed Kyoto. They used stimulus spending to help Australia avoid a world-wide recession. And people want to chuck them out?
3. The Liberal coalition is exploiting racism and xenophobia by repeating “stop the boats”. Refugees arriving by boat weren’t even on the radar until the election was called and it’s suddenly a key election promise. The amount this country spends on “processing” refugees overseas before letting them into the country is almost completely wasted; the vast majority are genuine refugees. Besides, boat arrivals so far this year amount to less than three days’ worth of ordinary migration. The term “boat people” is degoratory, and popular because of a red-headed ex-politician whose name I won’t mention. There is not a vast army arriving by boat.
I could go on, but that’s plenty. Don’t vote for the Liberal party if you want fast internet or care about the environment. (Yes, the internet filter is a bad idea, but it’s very unlikely to pass the Senate, and on balance, faster internet is the more important initiative.)