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DesDownunder

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Blog Entries posted by DesDownunder

  1. DesDownunder
    My personal thoughts on the US election
    It doesn't really matter what I think of the election result. Of course I am pleased Obama has been elected, but my reason for being pleased is both because I think the Democrats needed to be elected to adjust the balance away from the extremes of the right, and for a more selfish reason.
    Here in Australia our own "Left" wing party was elected to power not so long ago. The Labor party is our equivalent, in political terms, of the US Democrats. It is my fervent hope that the promises of the new US Presidency, will have some deep and meaningful effect on our government for the better, because they as a left wing party have strayed too far from their own principles of compassion.
    It is true that America does have a global influence, and the world is looking to see, hoping beyond all measure, that Obama lives up to his promises. If as may be expected, he operates under a policy of inclusion rather the ones of exclusion or collusion, then we may find that the fears some have about his presidency, will prove to be unfounded.
    Provided you can set aside the fear and prejudices of bygone manipulative eras, President Obama's election whichever way you look at it, gives the world, the hope of peace, a chance for change for the better.
    The point is not that he is black, the point is, that he is a human being who has won election on the basis of that change for the better.
    I think, we all need to work together in bringing about change for the better.
  2. DesDownunder
    I have been researching background for yet another idea for a story.
    "Why bother" I hear you ask. "Just write the story and don't worry about its authenticity."
    That's all well and good if I was writing to satisfy a fantasy of my own, without regard for historical, geographic or psychological relevance. Not that any of these have to be the determining factor for the story, but they do have to at least not be violated by invalid references.
    One of the things that stands revealed is the incomplete and often corrupt histories of mankind's past. It wouldn't be impossible to write the whole history of an entire empire's rise and fall, as a foible of someone's imagination, let alone blow it up out of proportion to be an affectation on today's world civilisation.
    An interesting collusion of semi-historical figures that amounts to a world conspiracy would not be difficult to write except for the tedious evidence that such figures rarely understood the effect of their own actions in their own time, let alone the nature of their 'legacies'.
    Distortions of time and place can also lead to imaginative settings for stories that prove just a little too unbelievable.
    Psychological traits are not all that difficult to introduce to a story, but finding the archetypes, rather than just displaying a variation of a stereotype is considerably more draining and fraught with disputations of origin.
    It is this last phrase which is of most interest. If we do not understand the nature and thus its cause can we really construct a viable statement within our stories that will resonate with our readers' life experiences?
    Of course we can write situations that are believable, entertaining, even fantastical, all of which are satisfying to read as well as write.
    Yet if we want to touch on the human element of life's experiences, if we want to conceal within our story an expose of injustice, or aberrations of commonly held untruths, let alone describe the possibilities of human goodness, there seems to be not only a confounding variety of opinions, and incomplete factual records, but also an unwillingness at large, to entertain hypotheses which run counter to popular notions. The ability to reason, to observe with objectivity seems woefully absent in the presence of our social authority which demands we believe what we are told.
    Even that statement can be misconstrued by those who want to maintain the status quo rather than explore possible alternatives, whether in our stories or our lives.
    Good literature can make us think as well as entertain us.
    As for my story? Well I will just have to see if I can live up to my own expectations.
    I doubt it, but it is fun trying and that is important too.

  4. DesDownunder
    My second year high school physics teacher was a popular young man of around 23 years old. He enjoyed a joke or two and made the lessons memorable, if not fun.
    When a teacher was called to an away mission, usually a phone call, it was, in those days, customary for the class cabal to appoint one of their members to keep watch at the door for the teachers return. This permitted the rest of the class the freedom to enjoy a chalk fight, or as often happened, a competition to see who could engineer the best paper glider capable of achieving escape velocity from the classroom, if not the Earth.
    I remember one particular day, when the keeper of the watch, spied the teacher swiftly making his way back down the hallway toward the classroom which was in an uproar over the latest unmanned glider test flight. Suddenly the appointed stake out officer announced quite loudly, "Here it comes." The class rapidly resumed the quiet demeanour of angels in contemplation of the value of intelligent desire.
    Dear teacher made his entrance with a fury and flurry not seen since the last emergency fire drill. All was quiet as he surveyed the remains of a dozen or so, test flights scattered around the test pad, also known as the floor. Then he spoke,
    "Boys," he exclaimed, "Your teachers, including me, are well aware that you have nicknames for us. Indeed those of us in my profession who are not disabled by having our heads up our backsides are even amused by some of your more inventive names for us, but we really are not amused by phrases proclaiming our approach as, "Here it comes." In future, you would be best advised to reserve that phrase for your personal activities in the privacy of your bedrooms. I can assure you all that I am not an it."
    The cheers emanating from the collective young test pilots were very encouraging and the teacher laughed with the rest of us.
  5. DesDownunder
    It's fast becoming a need of mammoth proportions to stand against religions as antiquated belief systems with no redeeming features.
    Moreover, religious belief is an immature explanation for what science now reveals as fact without superstition, morality without coercion, and love without the need to appeal to, or appease a god.
    How many lives will the religious sacrifice on the altar of their ignorance?
    How many beating hearts will the priests of burden rip from the bodies of the innocent?
    And how many times must we witness insanity destroying reason, intelligence, and truth, before we understand that nurturing the love within ourselves is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the mystery of life?
  6. DesDownunder
    I found a site that I am worried about called When I Came Out.
    This site is a place inviting people to submit their story, in five sentences or less, which describes their coming out.
    Sounds good? Don't get excited. The site conditions state that they reserve the right to refuse posting a story. Okay that's fair enough.
    However they also state they will edit the story for length or grammar. It's only five sentences, how short do they want it to be?
    What really annoys me is that they claim that the stories will become their property. DAMN that, it's the story of MY coming out and if anyone is going to gain from its publication, it will be me, not them. So I am posting my five sentences in my blog, here at AwesomeDude:
    My Coming Out © 2012 by Desmond Rutherford
    When I came out, it 1960, I was 16, and the only people I came out to were my sexual partners. You see, homosexual acts were a criminal offence subject to the often imposed penalty of 2 years hard labour. We lived under threat of blackmail and discrimination in housing, and employment. I lived as two people, one for my sexuality, and one as whoever I needed to be in order to survive. Decriminalised here, in Adelaide in 1973, it still took us a lot of protesting until, in the 1980s, we were protected enough by anti-discrimination laws to come out publicly, and now there are people who (needlessly) fear, homosexuality will be made compulsory, as we head towards recognising freedom of sexual expression for everyone.
  7. DesDownunder
    It's still hot, so is the weather.
    I am devoting my time to my new forthcoming story which I just know is not going to be everyone's cup of tea or coffee or soda. I suppose I could have included beer and wine, but would anyone read my stories while drunk? Would anyone read one of my stories while sober, is probably more to the point.
    But hey, someone has to write this stuff, right?
    I have long tried to avoid writing an "Aussie" story, being more interested in the universal subjects that affects our romantic lives, or ideas of living romantically.
    Yet out of the Australian azure blue sky came a vision to allow me to explore, contemplate, attempt, both, and strike me lucky, perhaps even more.
    Anyway you can all stop brushing up your Shakespeare and start you lessons in Aussie customs and our local cultures, which we try to treat with antibiotics and sterilisation.
    You have plenty of time, as I suspect it will be a few weeks before I complete it and get it edited.
    Of course, I might finish one of the other stories I am working on first. Isn't writing fun?

  8. DesDownunder

    Aussie xmas greeting

    By DesDownunder,

    ɹǝpunuʍopsǝp ɯoɹɟ
    sɐɯʇsıɹɥɔ ʎɹɹǝɯ
    You can all thank Trab for finally being able to read what I write without standing on your heads.
    This week the car's water-pump decided to spring a leak.
    The car has proven to be a source of great amusement.
    If you hear a story of an Aussie man who took an axe to his car and chopped it up into environmentally friendly pieces, that would be me.
    Oh and the tail light fell off too.
    I think I'll get the chainsaw out.
    And please checkout Graeme's Aussie Christmas message at http://www.awesomedude.com/adboard/index.php?showtopic=2758

  9. DesDownunder

    Australia Day 2009

    By DesDownunder,

    Here are my Australia Day thoughts, inspired by the ongoing debate about whether Australia should or should not drop its ties with the English monarchy and become a republic in its own right (or hopefully of the Left.) Some of the the thoughts and phrases may seem strange to those not intimate with Aussie custom.
    Becoming an Australian republic is not a simple matter of deciding to abandon the monarchy. This was one of the main reasons the public rejected the last proposal for Australia to become a republic; no one could inspire the people to believe that a republic offered anything superior to the present form of government.
    Looking at the various alternatives for self government, throughout human history and we should see that all of them are fraught with dangers of corruption and manipulation for the benefit of the few, rather than the many.
    Many republics have grown from the overthrow of a dictator or from some form of revolution against the oppression of the people.
    Post revolutionary America and France both took great pains to devise their democratic republics to guard as much as possible against control and manipulation of the people by dictators, oligarchs, and other assorted forms of tyranny. Neither have succeeded completely, but neither have they completely failed.
    The English monarchy has served its people as a democracy quite well, but is it truly fair to the Royal family for them to be thrust into their regal position at birth? It can be argued that they are well compensated, but can any amount of compensation really replace the freedom to which we all aspire.
    The simple model placed before the Australian people previously was reasonable in removing the monarchy whilst preserving the democratic model on which our government is presently constructed. Yet this was rejected by the Australian population. Why? Are they waiting for a revolution? Does that mean we are not revolting enough to want to adopt a republican model for our democracy?
    It is here that we should be drawn to discussion by our thinkers, our artists, and our indigenous people, for they can teach us about sharing.
    Australia offers more opportunity than any other place on Earth, for a people to develop a multi-cultural society which expounds harmonious relationships, not just through tolerance, but through acceptance of the differences between people, and indeed by encouraging the divergent natures of humankind's creativity in all its varieties.
    We don't have to fight a revolution here; we don't have to overthrow some despot, before we can build our republic of fairness and harmony.
    But it is also true to say that if we allow the opportunity to languish in the mimicry of even the most successful previous republics, born as they were from revolution, then we will have abandoned our Australian way of life to be an imitation of their ideals and not ours. We will have missed the opportunity to be ourselves as fair-minded Aussies, even though we come from everywhere on the Earth. We will have missed the chance to show the world that all humankind can live in peace with each other.
    But most of all we will have revolted against the chance for our own republic, a republic that could enshrine the meaning of giving the other bloke, "a fair go!"
    We don't need to have a revolution to form a Republic of harmony, acceptance and Love; we just need to give it a go.
    Happy Australia Day.
    Advance Australia Fair. This is the long version of our national anthem, watch it at your peril, I quite like it.
  10. DesDownunder

    Blackout.

    By DesDownunder,

    So we had a storm tonight. It blew over a tree somewhere, and rain was released in a deluge that lasted long enough to dump nearly an inch of water. Lightning lit the sky somewhere over the Antarctic and evidently struck havoc on the power lines to my neighbourhood -right as I was making a post about Windows 7. The computer died and the lights went out. The room was black, cold and very, very dark.
    I couldn't see a thing. I dismissed the idea I had died in a hurry. Perhaps I should rephrase that. I dismissed in a hurry, the idea that I had died.
    Anyway I blindly felt my way around the house till I found the emergency flash-light. Well something had died, the battery. I shook the flash-light and it came to life, sort of, with a weak beam that enabled me to see my way to the phone. The phone had died too. No wait a minute, it was the wireless phone I had picked up, and I realised that it needed mains power to operate. It's handy having been an electrician, we know about these things.
    Stealthily I made my way across the kitchen into the sun room. Sun-room? You have to be joking, it was pitch black outside , the sun light had died hours ago.
    And the overcast skies were too busy crying rain upon the earth. The sun room was as dark as a Mayan tomb in 2012. I pulled back the curtain and peered outside, but all I could see were black silhouettes of trees against a dark grey sky. No lights in the house next door, no street lights, no sign of Man's conquest of the night, nothing.
    What dark and evil place is this planet in its night, without even a star for a friend.
    It was as if I was the last man on Earth. Hurriedly I scampered across the debris of the modern demolition that represented my attempt at interior design. I tried the flash-light again and a weak beam, a little stronger than before searched the room looking for the hard-wired phone, the one I bought at a sale for $5. I found it under a newspaper that was trying to imitate a shroud.
    I lifted the phone and found the dial tone working. I pushed buttons until it rang a number and then I heard the voice of my darling. Quickly I warned him of the impending doom, that 2012 had arrived early, that life as we knew it was over. "What?" he asked. He never takes me seriously unless we are ...well never mind about that, this is not one of those episodes, it has a different climax.
    I warned him that the power was gone and we would have to cuddle to keep warm when he arrived home. "What?" he asked again as if we had never done anything like that during the time we lived in the house where we could actually see each other. "Just drive home carefully," I told him, "the lights are out."
    "er...er," he stammered somewhat quizzically. "The street lights are out, and our power has died," I explained. "Can you bring the spare flash-light home with you please?"
    "Oh, okay. I understand now," he replied, "see you when I get there."
    I told him okay and hung up the phone.
    I slid open the glass door and the strangely growing strength of the the flash-light beam died as it tried to find some life in the back yard other than the deluge from the skies. I grabbed the umbrella by the door and stepped outside. I swept mine eyes across the wilderness of my back yard. So this was what it was like before we discovered fire, oil and electricity. Shadows of trees lit by the moon diffused through rain clouds. How terribly lonely, frightening...lightning lit the sky and it was easy to believe anything. Rain avoided the umbrella and ran down my cheeks, and I cried for what might have been. (Well, I didn't actually, but it sounds good.)
    I was so relieved to see his car drive into the garage, that I ran down and closed the gates. Arm in arm we walked back to the house and sat in our darkened sun room.
    "I'll make coffee," I said.
    "How?" he asked, "There's no power."
    "The gas stove still works," I explained.
    Five minutes later we were sitting romantically, sipping coffee in the dimness of our once brilliantly lit sun room. I could tell he was smiling at me, enjoying the silence of what for all we knew, was the end of times.
    And then the lights came on, the power was back on. Civilisation has returned, we live, we live!
    I rushed in and switched on the computer, Windows 7 quickly booted and Firefox sprung to life with the page I was working on, text still intact. Amazing!
    Okay so what happened to the boyfriend? I cooked his dinner and he watched a movie while I typed this up.
    So I tell you the same as I told him, don't say I don't think of you, even if it isn't the end of the world.

  12. DesDownunder

    Blown Away

    By DesDownunder,

    G'day,
    Forecasts for Adelaide include gale force winds of 100 kph (64 mph) or more, and continuing intermittently for the next week.
    It's not unusual for this time of the year but I thought I should warn y'all in case you thought we were enjoying the blow job.
  13. DesDownunder
    My dysfunctional family would have been difficult to come out to. They all died before the modern era of liberation, but the real problem would have been, when to tell them. Let's say I chose a celebration like Christmas dinner. (We don't have thanksgiving here in Australia, but we have 'turkeys' in every family)
    Anyway getting back to when to tell my family. First I would have to wait until I could get them altogether. Dad would have had to be in town which wasn't all that often, so step-father would have to substitute, if he could stop looking at himself in the mirror.
    Grandmother, mother and her sister with her second husband would all have to be in the same room which would be in the kitchen, pouring the Christmas wine.
    The big decision would be whether to tell them before they got drunk, during the meal, or before they passed out after the meal which they didn't eat because they were too busy drinking, shouting and swearing.
    At least I wouldn't have to wait until someone said grace. Maybe I could have done it after they all wished each other, "Merry Christmas."
    I'm sure they would have accepted me until they sobered up the next day. It probably wouldn't have mattered, they would never have remembered I told them.
  14. DesDownunder
    Creation: a movie review by DesDownunder
    Creation, directed by Jon Amiel and starring Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin, with cinematography by Jesse Hall, is an outstanding movie made with great attention to detail, both in the personal life of Darwin and his family, as well as insight into the times in which they lived.
    The past limitations of writing, medicine and belief, the remains of which are for some of us, barely a lifetime ago, are carefully, brutally but honestly, and sensitively visited in a way that allows us to see the potential renaissance of our own existence, and be thankful we no longer need to use quill pens and ink, or take cold showers.
    Truly, one cannot help but feel the struggle of liberation for human awareness from previous captivities, for liberation also evolves, and does so in each of us if we will but allow it to occur.
    The film does not shy away from the nature of its own premise, or the impact that Darwin's work will have on the faith systems of his time (and thus ours,) but it does so in observation rather than be argumentative . The torment is in Darwin's mind and as such we can perhaps see it more clearly because we have had the benefit of Freud's work. (I cannot guess what the reception for this film is like in cultures restricted to doctrinal education, or where text books are censored.)
    The movie is a vision in itself, complete with human relationships, and also an objectivity befitting the subject and a cinematography of great beauty, both of which are, in effect a homage to Stanley Kubrick, at least it is for me, and as such, is its own interwoven revelation of grandeur and wonder of life.
    Anti-Darwinists, and those who oppose evolution, may not find their view being expounded in Creation, but they are surely in need of being encouraged to see it, if only to discover the sheer beauty to be found in this intelligent Creation.
  15. DesDownunder
    As many of you who follow my posts...there are some of you who do follow my posts?
    Anyway as you might know, I am very interested in creativity and the boundaries that copyright imposes on artists.
    I have posted some of these links before but I wanted to bring them together as resource, because I think it is extremely relevant and important.
    These links centre around the work of Professor Lawrence Lessig and his books on freedom of expression in creativity. See his books at this site.
    Addition thoughts from a book reading by Professor Lawrence Lessig who tackles the copyright problem with original insight, can be found here.
    Also see this link for further profound and interesting discussion on creative ideas.
    I think this is very very important.
  16. DesDownunder
    So Australia has an election today (Saturday 21st August 2010) and our senate has 42 candidates.
    Our electoral system is a preferential system, so if no candidate gets 50% the vote is allocated to the next person in line on your ballot paper, or something like that. (Hey, I'm Australian and it's our patriotic duty to be apathetic.
    So I have spent all night looking up the policies of each main group of candidates and just to make sure everyone knows I am a left wing anarchist with progressive libertarian tendencies and don't like religion in my politics, I have decided to vote as follows:
    1. The Australian Sex Party.
    2. The Secular Party of Australia
    3. The Socialist Alliance
    4. The Greens.
    The other candidates won't get a shoe-in after that, but just to make sure, I have arranged all the homophobic and Christian influenced parties at the very bottom of my list, with the other right wingnut candidates.
    Of course, most probably tomorrow will bring either a Labor (=US Democrats) or a Liberal (=US Republicans) government, but as both appear to me to beholden to some religious influence and neither will have a thing to do with gay marriage, I am not too worried that my vote is wasted on encouraging the intelligent side of the force.
    If the Borg had put up a candidate we might have been better off by voting them into power, at least they "add the biological and technological distinctiveness of other species to their own" in pursuit of perfection. (-Wiki). I'm sure the Borg would appreciate a fabulously perfect gay techno party or two.
    As it is we will have to tolerate being tortured by the new Inquisition, like the rest of the planet.
    I am so looking forward to being put to the question -not!
    Next election I think I will start an Australian Cynics Party, if I haven't been burned at the stake.
  17. DesDownunder
    Well that was quite a good distraction setting up this blog. I have no idea what I will do with it.
    I should be writing my April Fools' story. It is nearly finished.
    It is very foolish.
    Today's word of wisdom: Buy a dish washer, or get a boyfriend who won't moan about doing the dishes.
    I have left several notes for my reincarnation to remind myself to make the dish washer a number one priority in my next life, assuming of course I come back as a human being or something similar.
  19. DesDownunder
    So I have sent in my contributions to the AwesomeDude Fools Call.
    Then discovered I had sent a wrong file.
    Replaced the file, then discovered several typos that evaded my detection during the numerous proofing sessions. Yikes!
    If you want to find all the errors, typos, misdemeanors, and assorted illiteracies in you story, nothing is of more assistance than posting it where the rest of the world can see it.
    Oh, the shame of it all.
    A friend of mine says he proofs by reading his work backwards???
    I find it helps if you have a sleep, then proof it by setting the viewing screen larger so the fonts seem larger.
    The trouble with proofing is that as I am also the author I keep finding little embellishments or sub-subplots to add or alter.
    So I guess the answer is to offer a prize to readers who pick up any faults or errors.
    I think I will offer to sleep with anyone pointing out errors in my work; In my case that should stop any criticism at all.
  20. DesDownunder

    Feeding Desire.

    By DesDownunder,

    Have you ever noticed the seeming preoccupation French movies have with sex and food? Every time a new French movie comes into the video store, we get heaps of questions about if there is food in it? You'll notice no one asks, "Is there sex in it?" Well it's French so of course there is sex in it, seems to be taken for granted. But it's the movies with sex and food that seem to do the best business.
    Now I don't mean to single out the French, but it does seem their movies are the most likely to comply with the sex and food content, although I do think the Italians serve up a fair amount of sex with their noodles. And of course there's the gay movie Eating Out amongst others.
    That brings me to consider the seductive attributes of the texture of many foods. I mean pasta itself is just oozing with slippery morsels writhing in freshly warmed sauces as your utensil swirls them around on the plate. Haven't you ever thought of just grabbing a handful or two of the luscious noodles and rubbing them all over your prime ribs? A kind of alimental pasta.
    For starters of course there is soup du jour, soup of the day, for you uncouth hamburger munchers. What better way to seduce a lover than with a thick cream of celery soup or even potato and leek. Hmm that sounds like a guy I knew several times.
    Anyway I thought I should pass on few culinary hints to assist you all to enjoy the art of food and sex. You see there is more to seduction over a meal than just with a bottle of good wine.
    Each item on the menu should suggest the never-ending possibilities of the debauchery to follow the main course. Think of these tempting dishes.
    Standard oysters au naturel should send the appropriate signals for starters, (If you can get him to dine au naturel, you may be able to forget dinner altogether,) followed by a main course, some of which I mention here:
    Twin Hot dogs in white sauce.
    Roast stuffed chicken or chicken vol-au-vent.
    Rump steak, or T-bones, medium rare.
    Chunky meatloaf surrounded by an array of delicate baby peas, whole miniature carrots and cauliflower smothered in cheese sauce.
    If you manage to serve a desert than you can be reasonably certain that you have either failed as a seductive cook or your dinner companion is as thick as a brick. Not to worry, a double layer cream sponge covered in caramel sauce and decorated with pink icing hearts served with flaming brandy around the edge of the plate, usually sends the right signals, provided it doesn't set the house on fire instead of him.
    Coffee with a flute of French Cognac should serve to make sure that he has to stay the night. Can't have him driving home under the influence, after all you want him under your influence, or you under his. Either way one of you should be grilled lightly until done.
    Of course if you are both so hyped up you can't sleep, you should offer a relaxing massage. Now the best massage oil is sesame oil, the same sesame oil that you used to fry the rice, very sensual and edible.
    In the morning you look at him sleeping there alongside you with only an empty bottle of sesame oil between you. He awakens, he looks at you and wants more. Damn, you've used up all the lubricants you had in the house.
    But wait there is an answer. Breakfast.
    The kitchen is a source of wonders to behold, and so you cook two big bowls of fine-ground oatmeal.
    You serve them in bed and as you do so, you accidentally spill some onto his abs. Quickly you wipe the oatmeal up with your fingers noticing how very slippery freshly cooked oatmeal is...and its warm too...
    What's for lunch? Maybe the guy next door would like to help make a banana sandwich.
    (Please observe all precautions for safe eating.)

  21. DesDownunder
    What can you do when you lose your data on your computer? Here is an answer to such a disaster which embarrassingly, befell me recently.
    I was setting up a new computer for my video store when I was overtaken by frustration, fatigue and fear that I would never finish the task.
    So to liven things up, what other excuse could I possibly have, I went to my own computer opened the windows disk manager and deleted what I thought was a left over partition from when I had the Acronis backup software on the system. I didn't like the software so I had uninstalled it. (Oh the irony of it all). What I didn't know was, that the Acronis' dedicated partition had then became part of the partition alongside it, so when I deleted it I deleted all my data as well. All my stories, unfinished manuscripts, essays, tax records, emails, etc., gone~ lost in the bottomless pit of deletion without a warning or confirmation from Windows XP. Thank you very much.
    Slowly the situation dawned on my sentience. To say I felt devastated, even suicidal at the loss of my tax records, not to mention my stories, is to grossly underestimate the trauma I felt washing over me with a trembling uncertainty of real-time terror.
    Not since my first romance broke up had I felt such destabilizing queasiness in the pit of my stomach. I sat looking at the remains of my computer, my lifeline to my ego.
    Fortunately the windows XP operating system was intact being on its own partition. I could even surf the web, though I had none of my bookmarks.
    I rang my computer guru friend who told me he would call in a few hours as he might have a program which could help. I Googled the web for undelete programs. So many choices. So many opportunities to make things worse.
    Shattered, I went to bed. It was 4am and I didn't trust myself to make sensible decisions at that hour, and I knew I had to be careful; mustn't do anything that could overwrite the files that hopefully were still on the drive.
    The following day, having found that it wasn't all a bad dream, I continued looking for undelete programs and after much thought and no sign of the computer guru friend, I decided on a program called Find and Mount, mainly because its name reminded me of my first boyfriend.
    I installed the program and it did indeed find the deleted partition, mounted it, and displayed the results as a read only drive in Windows Explorer. I copied the files to another hard drive I luckily had on hand, and then reformatted the missing partition and copied the files back again. Total restoration of 100gig of data was achieved in just a couple of hours. I cancelled the computer guru, who was happy not to have to come (a first for him) as he had to attend so many idiots that day.
    It would have taken longer to copy the files and folders as the free version of the software only transfers at 500 KB/second, so I paid the not unreasonable $US 43.95 to purchase Partition Find and Mount, which then transferred as fast as the system would allow. To say I was pleased is an understatement. I haven't been so ecstatic since the first boyfriend and I found each other and explored various mounting partitions, er I mean positions, and we didn't even display the results in any windows.
    I need hardly add that I am not associated with the Partition Find and Mount Company except as a happy customer.
    I was also happy with the first boyfriend and he didn't charge, but he decided it was necessary to help as many people as he could find and mount.
    Luckily I can't delete the fond memories I have of him.
    Partition Find and Mount is a very cool program that lets you safely try it out, even use it, if you don't mind the slower speed.
    Highly recommended, like the first boyfriend.
    PS (As for all you people who think I should do a backup, I did that too with the first boyfriend.)
  22. DesDownunder

    Finding A Good Movie

    By DesDownunder,

    Ah Winter!
    Yes I have another bout of flu like symptoms. :cough, cough:
    Oh I'm sorry did I spray my nose juice all over you when I sneezed? Let me wipe it off you with this used tissue.
    Really, I am so sick of this bug.
    Another thing I am sick of is the new video rental program we had to buy for the shop. It is preferable to the others we tried, but we still have had to work out what all these extra things are, that it does. Like, tell us how much tax we need to pay and what the cash should be, and how many customers we served. Then there are all the things we want to know but it keeps in secret places for which we have to go hunting. It's like going on a date with a coy slut who knows what you want but makes you take his clothes off.
    The customers are all very patient, which is just as well.
    "Hang on a minute, will you? I have to work out how to work the new software."
    "Oh you poor dear," says the middle aged man with two screaming kids.
    "Daddy, we found a better movie. Can we change it?"
    "Are they too late?" he asks me. Too late for what, I want to ask, abortion? As far as I am concerned the brats are too early for anything worthwhile, as they run screaming from one end of the shop to the other flipping DVD cases onto the floor as they go; and I know yet again, why I never wanted children.
    "To late to change the movie they want for this one?"
    "No, that's fine," I lie with a smile.
    I enter his membership and the DVD numbers and the program wants to know what amount of money he is tendering. I just push F10 to bypass the nonsense, and the transaction is completed. They depart, hopefully to another planet.
    Down the aisle I go to pick up the DVDs the boys knocked to the floor.
    I'm down on the floor when I sense someone is standing alongside. I look up to see a woman who obviously hasn't heard that handbags with matching gloves is a pretension from another century.
    "Are you all right?" she asks.
    "Yes, thank you, just tidying up the stock," I tell her. "Can I help you?
    "I want a movie."
    Why else would she be here? It's going to be a long day.
    "I don't remember the name, but it was very good."
    Yeah, like that is a help. "Do you remember who was in it, or what the story was about?"
    "Oh yes, it had that nice young actor in it with a girl I haven't heard of before, but I heard it was good. It's about a professor in a German university during the 1930s and how he becomes a Nazi."
    "Ah yes, I know that film," I tell her, "Now let me think...Yes Good, it's Good."
    "Yes I was told it was good," she says.
    "That's what it is called, Good," I explain.
    She changes her handbag from one gloved hand to the other. "That's what I said, I was told it was good, with that nice young actor."
    "Viggo Mortensen is his name," I tell her.
    "That's him," she says with surprise, "I really like his performances."
    Good, now we have determined who turns her on, but I don't reveal that I realise this, as it might lead to her describing what she does while watching him in his movies.
    "But what is the movie called?" she inquires,
    "Good, it's called Good," I explain.
    "Yes I told you that it was good." She is somewhat abrupt in her manner, and I realise I will have to either get pleasure from telling her that the movie is beyond the powers of her intellect, or capitulate in such a way that she will release the moths guarding the money in her handbag.
    I decide we need the money, the new software was not cheap. I take the DVD off the shelf and show her the title.
    "Oh it's called, Good," she announces to the multitude.
    "How much is that?" she asks with a voice that has only disdain for the worldly matter of money.
    So I tell her the rental fee, and sure enough she opens her handbag, no moths -they must be asleep; she reaches inside and gives me her membership card and a fifty dollar note.
    A small battle ensues with the software and I give her the change. She sweeps from the store in triumph.
    "I would have smacked her upside of the head. You are very patient," says the cute young gay guy at the counter as he puts his selection of gay movies on the counter. "Are these movies good?" he asks.
    "No sir," I tell him, "Good, just went out."
    And we both burst into laughter.
  23. DesDownunder

    First Entry

    By DesDownunder,

    Okay so now I have a blog. What do I do with it?
    I could blog on about lots of stuff but that would bore me and anyone reading it.
    I just want to see what happens for the moment so I'll post this and then get back later with something more...or less, meaningful.
  24. DesDownunder

    Happy New What

    By DesDownunder,

    Have you ever noticed ho difficult it is to have a happy new year when the rest of the world seems to have gone stark raving mad?
    Perhaps it is just me, perhaps I have caught some dreaded mental malady that makes me think the rest of the world is bonkers when it is really me that has gone psycho in January.
    I can tell you I wasn't too happy about Uganda passing laws to execute homosexuals, and my straight friends weren't impressed that if straight people know a gay person, then they have to report them to the Ugandan authorities or face 7 years jail.
    Meanwhile back in Adelaide the government has passed a bill forcing DVD stores who rent or sell R18+ (Restricted classification by the Australian Federal Government) to display the R rated movies in a separate area from all the other DVDs. Note: R18 movies are not porn as such, we have XXX rating for porn which means they are automatically banned and can't be sold or rented to the public in any states, except in Canberra, where the politicians live when Federal parliament is in session.
    Then there is the delightful news that Ireland has passed a blasphemy law, which means if you blaspheme in Ireland you can be fined upto 25,000 Euros (approx. $35,000.)
    I can't sleep and if I do sleep I keep dreaming about straight people being jailed because they know some gays.
    Then I have a nightmare about gay penguins being executed in Uganda, or gay anything being executed anywhere, for that matter, just because they are gay. Haven't we suffered enough for these crackpot zealots thinking they can control nature? Let alone the hole Human Rights issue of being able to love whom you wish. (Consenting adults only please, and only in the designated R-rated section, no XXX stuff, thank you.)
    I am not worried about Ireland so much, the Atheist Ireland group have published a list of 25 blasphemies in the hope of getting arrested. (They are Irish, and I love them for that.)
    I woke up in sweat and almost screaming about the loss of human rights. Am I taking all this too personally, do you think?
    After all I live in Australia and I'm not going to Ireland or Iran or Uganda. It's bad enough having to leave the house and do the weekly shopping. You only have to look at a little old lady and she screams "Help." Heaven help me if I look at her pet dog.
    Well our politicians are making noises again, about a charter of human rights for Australia. The only trouble is they don't see freedom of religion, freedom of speech etc., as a Human Right. The federal Aussie politicians have however announced that from August they will filter the Internet for us. At the same time they have announced a fast cable broadband to be installed in 90% of Australian homes, presumably so we can all watch play school.
    Then there is the local hospital, that needs to be replaced, rebuilt or if the other party gets elected in March they will build a new sports stadium instead and renovate the old hospital. The city of Adelaide council can't work out why the narrowing of the naturally wide city streets has stopped people from coming into the city. Or why the high rents means that no one wants to live in the city.
    Still you don't want know all this local nonsense, why don't we all have a nice cup of coffee, and sit this year out.
    Happy New Year 2011...Yeah, Right!
  25. DesDownunder

    Happy New What?

    By DesDownunder,

    Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to have a happy new year when the rest of the world seems to have gone stark raving mad?
    Perhaps it is just me, perhaps I have caught some dreaded mental malady that makes me think the rest of the world is bonkers when it is really me that has gone psycho in January.
    I can tell you I wasn't too happy about Uganda passing laws to execute homosexuals, and my straight friends weren't impressed that if straight people know a gay person, then they have to report them to the Ugandan authorities or face 7 years jail.
    Meanwhile back in Adelaide the government has passed a bill forcing DVD stores who rent or sell R18+ (Restricted classification by the Australian Federal Government) to display the R rated movies in a separate area from all the other DVDs. Note: R18 movies are not porn as such, we have XXX rating for porn which means they are automatically banned and can't be sold or rented to the public in any states, except in Canberra, where the politicians live when Federal parliament is in session.
    Then there is the delightful news that Ireland has passed a blasphemy law, which means if you blaspheme in Ireland you can be fined upto 25,000 Euros (approx. $35,000.)
    I can't sleep and if I do sleep I keep dreaming about straight people being jailed because they know some gays.
    Then I have a nightmare about gay penguins being executed in Uganda, or gay anything being executed anywhere, for that matter, just because they are gay. Haven't we suffered enough for these crackpot zealots thinking they can control nature? Let alone the whole Human Rights issue of being able to love whom you wish. (Consenting adults only please, and only in the designated R-rated section, no XXX stuff, thank you.)
    I am not worried about Ireland so much, the Atheist Ireland group have published a list of 25 blasphemies in the hope of getting arrested. (They are Irish, and I love them for that.)
    I woke up in sweat and almost screaming about the loss of human rights. Am I taking all this too personally, do you think?
    After all I live in Australia and I'm not going to Ireland or Iran or Uganda. It's bad enough having to leave the house and do the weekly shopping. You only have to look at a little old lady and she screams "Help." Heaven help me if I look at her pet dog.
    Well our politicians are making noises again, about a charter of human rights for Australia. The only trouble is they don't see freedom of religion, freedom of speech etc., as a Human Right. The federal Aussie politicians have however announced that from August they will filter the Internet for us. At the same time they have announced a fast cable broadband to be installed in 90% of Australian homes, presumably so we can all watch play school.
    Then there is the local hospital, that needs to be replaced, rebuilt or if the other party gets elected in March they will build a new sports stadium instead and renovate the old hospital. The city of Adelaide council can't work out why the narrowing of the naturally wide city streets has stopped people from coming into the city. Or why the high rents means that no one wants to live in the city.
    Still you don't want to know all this local nonsense, why don't we all have a nice cup of coffee, and sit this year out.
    Happy New Year 2011...Yeah, Right!

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