farewell to nomadic life and yay to new home & new blog

Thanks for joining me on my year of the Vandelicious. I've got a great new home on the Central Coast of NSW now, and a new blog that is slowly finding its feet at www.bethspencer.com/blog. So would love to see you over there.

Meanwhile you can also check out lots of bits of my writing at www.bethspencer.com.

love to all,
Beth

a funny kangaroo video...

this one made me laugh...
They are such great creatures.

Cat and a box... gorgeous little cartoon by "Simon's cat"

I love the way cat's love boxes....

Voting Below the Line, and Making Your Vote Count! Why Preferences Matter.

 Some years ago the Democrats put forward a bill to commit ongoing funding to educate Australians about the electoral system.Given that voting in Australia is compulsory, and a full federal election these days costs taxpayers in excess of $100million, it would seem this was a sensible idea.

The Bill was defeated by the Liberal and Labor parties joining ranks against it.

So why might an ignorant population be in the interests of the major parties?

For the same reasons, perhaps, that ‘how to vote’ cards for the major parties usually just tell you in which order to put the candidates, without giving any information about their party affiliations.

On the one hand, they would rather you believe that minor parties are irrelevant and preferences don’t matter (‘Just Vote 1’).  

On the other hand -- precisely because preferences do matter, and some pretty dirty and hypocritical backroom deals can go on in the weeks before an election -- they would rather you not know enough to even want to know.

 (“Trust us, we’re politicians!”)

The most notorious and consequential backroom preference deal in recent times, was a last minute deal in 2004 where the ALP preferenced right wing Family First over the Greens, in return for Family First preferences -- knowing that they already had Greens’ preferences. This act saw Stephen Fielding elected to the Senate, where he has had a deciding vote on a large amount of important legislation for six years, on less than 2% of the Victorian primary vote.

Most certainly, the major parties do not want you to have sufficient information to tempt you to make your own choice about where to direct your preferences by voting ‘below the line’ (for the Senate) and numbering all the boxes (on both ballots). Voting in this way takes both power and money away from them.

An ignorant electorate also means the major parties can run full page advertisements the day before an election to frighten people from giving a primary vote to an alternative party. ‘Don’t waste your vote’ is one tactic. Or ‘Don’t take the risk’ is another.

Is there a risk in putting an alternative party first and placing the party with more chance of actually winning the election, or forming government, second?

Theoretically it is possible that in exceptional and very precise circumstances your vote could assist the ‘wrong party’ (neither your first nor your second, but your last choice) to win.

What would need to happen is for more people to vote for minor party B than for major party A, so that A is knocked out of the contest first and its preferences redistributed, and what would also need to happen – and this is key -- is that A had allocated its preferences not to B (the party with a similar political flavour) but to its enemy, major party C.

Which is to say that any risk exists only in the event of dirty dealing by the major parties, not because of your democratic right to vote for an alternative. And it’s a risk they could prevent completely and in an instant by being more principled. 

Even so, the chances of this kind of upset happening are miniscule. Whereas the benefits of voting first for an alternative party are much more certain, and quite significant.

Indeed far from ‘wasting’ your vote, by putting an alternative party first you can, in a sense, double your vote’s value.

If the alternative candidate doesn’t make the count for the final showdown, the full value of your vote is automatically redistributed to your second choice. So you still get to vote to decide on which party forms the government; but you also get to send a message that the concerns, policies and approaches of the alternative party are important to you. A message that can have a powerful resonating effect throughout the next three years.

Furthermore, on a practical level, alternative parties need funding to grow, develop policy, and to have an influence. For every member elected they get a parliamentary office and an electoral officer. If they get five members, they get parliamentary party status, which provides a raft of resources, including offices in regional areas.

Even if they don’t get elected, as long as they get more than 4% of the overall primary vote, each of your votes is worth around $2 to them in public funding to put towards their campaign costs.

But, all of this only happens if you put them first. If you put them second, and put a major party first, the effect is zero. And no-one will ever know.

(An earlier version of this piece was first published in the Age Online on November 20th 2007)


Please share this with your friends via FB and twitter using the link below:

"It's not a crime to ask for help. But it is a disgrace not to even listen."

I wonder how many of the people creating refugee policy have even met any Asylum seekers?

Tony Abbott auctioned off a surfing lesson for charity a little while back, and Get Up members raised $16,000 to win the auction so they could give the prize to some young refugees, so they would have a chance to talk to Abbott in person and explain their situation. Apparently his office said they would arrange this to happen before the election, but they kept postponing setting a date. They've stopped returning Get Up's calls.

As Bartlett says here, "It's not a crime to ask for help. But it is a disgrace not to even listen."

Please watch this video and listen to this young boy.





I've found a home-base at last! Yay to Terrigal.

Hard to believe that just two weeks ago I was despairing of ever finding something that would suit me as a home base and a place to work, in a location I liked, and that I could afford. And then last week I bought my little 'relocatable' one bedroom house in a land-lease place in beautiful Terrigal on the Central Coast of NSW, just an hour and 20 minutes north of Sydney and five minutes drive to Terrigal beach.

I'll post some more info later about 'land lease' estates and why this one suits me... but for now, here is a video of my little house and surrounds, as it was 10 days ago when I bought it. Been busy since then putting my stamp on it, but will post pics of the renovations later.

Twitter and Facebook: the end of the world as we know it -- Yay!

Neil James from the Plain English Foundation has an excellent article in the Sydney Morning Herald this week on the e-revolution and why Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging (SMS etc) doesn't necessarily spell disaster for reading and writing and the sogginess or otherwise of our brains.

Indeed, according to research cited by James, one study of 15-20 year old texters found that they were actually more literate and adaptive than their non-texting peers.

Facebook and Twitter can be banal, or they can be delightful, poetic, witty, concise, and engaging - capturing tiny moments in our lives and holding them up to the gaze of our peers.

Social Media is also a brilliant networking technology, enabling information to be speedily shared among groups of people, and then critiqued and discussed.

By the way, twitter isn't just about posting what you had for breakfast or what the sky looks like as you walk down the street, as the cliche versions suggest.

One of the most powerful uses of Twitter is to tweet out the url of an article or piece of information or blog post that you find interesting, with a pithy comment full of keywords to get it to your target group. Through the mechanism of retweeting, you have a publishing mechanism that bypasses the gatekeepers and hurdles of traditional publishing.

As James suggests:

Anyone with a mobile phone and a signal can now post real-time critique, share events and reach a global audience. Once these revolutionary spaces are open, they are very hard for governments to contain and control.

If a defining feature of democracy is the ability of citizens to participate in open debate, then the new media will inevitably strengthen and diversify our public conversations rather than dumb them down.

 Now... I have to confess that I am an absolute Twitter newbie. In fact when I work out how to tweet out the link to this post, that will be my third ever tweet.  For me, Twitter is still a strange mysterious world.. But as with any social technology, I figure it is what you make of it. And you get out of it according to what you put in.

As with any part of the internet, there is the shallow end, and there is the deep end: dive in, splash around, and enjoy.

[pic watercolour ACEO by Jeri]

[And of course if you like this post or Neil James's article - please do share it with your FB friends or on Twitter etc. And comments are the lifeblood of any blog - so share your thoughts!]


Also: you can catch Neil James on a free panel on Interrogating Twitter this Thursday afternoon, 20th May 2010 at the Sydney Writers Festival.  See you there.

Footprints for Peace: June and Cassie are walking from Brisbane to Canberra!Slept overnight at Ourimbah rest stop and met up this morning with June and Cassie from Footprints for Peace, who are walking from Brisbane to Canberra! Was able to provide green tea and a fruit platter, meet some of their lovely Central Coast supporters, and join them to receive a moving Welcome to Country from Peta, standing in for her Aunty Betty. Might join them for part of a day's walk a bit further down the track. Check out their website at http://footprints.footprintsforpeace.net/australia_walk/walk_for_peace.htm . And please share this if you think your FB contacts might be interested.

Slept overnight at Ourimbah rest stop and met up this morning with June and Cassie from Footprints for Peace, who are walking from Brisbane to Canberra! 

Was able to provide green tea and a fruit platter, meet some of their lovely Central Coast supporters, and join them to receive a moving Welcome to Country from Peta, standing in for her Aunty Betty. 

Might join them for part of a day's walk a bit further down the track. 

Check out their website at http://footprints.footprintsforpeace.net/australia_walk/walk_for_peace.htm to see when they are nearby and find out how you can support them or just join in for a bit of the walk.

 And please share this if you think your contacts might be interested.

Also some more info here.

Happy May Day everyone

Happy May Day to you.

Doesn't get as much coverage as Anzac Day but still a significant day to remember those who sacrificed so much to achieve dignity for working people, and the challenge that still faces us when so much of what we eat, wear and use still comes to us from people who work under horrendous conditions.

Here's a beautiful song to get you in the mood: The Ballad of Joe Hill, sung by the wonderful Paul Robeson.

Go Go Geocaching! fun in the bush for the whole family (and dogs too)

Was involved in my first geocache hunt today, while staying with Paul and Sam at Chiltern.

The idea is that someone hides a small cache - eg a jar or box - somewhere in the bush and then posts the GPS co-ordinates on the geocaching website.

Anyone who wants to join in can take their GPS or iphone and head out to look for it.

We chose one near Chiltern and piled in the car with the dogs (Daisy and Trevor, furfriends of Noreen who was visiting also), and our Team Leader Sam guided us to a Highway Rest Stop. Here we parked the car and headed out on foot... up a hill , over an old rusty barbed wire fence, and off into the scrubby bush. After about ten minutes (of excited) walk we came to the spot indicated by the GPS, and then had to hunt around until someone found it - in this case, hidden in a hollow log.

(Here's a pic of Daisy examining the hiding spot.)

Then you sign your name in the log book and leave a trinket. And if you want you can take one left by those before you. Sam left a flower stamp, and I scored a plastic ring (which surprisingly, no one else wanted. -- Thanks to whoever left that one.) Then put it all back as you found it for the next finders.

Be warned, it can be very addictive. One of my neighbours felt that she'd become a grass widow to Geocaching mania, as her husband refused to go anywhere on the weekend that there wasn't a cache planted. Fortunately, especially with the advent of iphones, it's no longer a subculture for orienteerers but is becoming more and more popular.

You can download an app for your iphone, ipod or Blackberry - the official one is called Geocaching, which also has a trial version called Geocaching Intro, which is what we used. Or various others (11 other apps described here).

But what a great way to get the kids out from in front of their tvs and computer screens and into the bush, or to add a little extra zing to a day out visiting a winery for lunch (which was what we were up to... lovely pizza at WatchBox in Indigo Valley - yum... except I had a chicken salad they kindly made for me, as I'm pizza-challenged.)

Geocaching sounds nerdy but was actually good clean fun, and a great sense of adventure and accomplishment as you can see here as we proudly examine our find.

Websites are http://geocaching.com (which has a little video about it), or http://geocaching.com.au if you want it specifically for Australia.

And ps if you are interested in wine and winemaking, don't forget to check out my brother Brian's website http://www.shirazrepublic.com.au.

Have fun!

and please click and share if you found this useful.

15 of the best iphone and ipod apps for travellers of all kinds

in no particular order... my favourite travel apps for my iphone:

toiletmate - what a great app! locates the closest public toilets to your current position and gives you precise directions and walking and driving times on a google map.


ifirelert -- has fire alert and updates information for most Australian states.


resuscitate - from St John's Ambulance. Shows how to do CPR resuscitation and not only how to use a defibrillator but where to locate the closest one to your current position.

weatherzone - best weather forecasts and also has alerts for each area (such as flood warnings etc)





ipark - set it when you leave your car and it will guide you back to where you parked.


compass - various ones, just make sure you take the iphone out of your leather holder if there's a magnet in the flip-lid.


all-in-notes - keep a database of your favourite overnight and rest spots, walks, etc, with room for a photo, tag line, text and a voice message. Also four colours to code into different categories.


MoneyJournal - keep track of your spending. Compare spending day by day or month by month, or by category. This is a very comprehensive and good app for budgeting and keeping track of where your money goes. There are other simpler ones to keep track of expenses for work jaunts.


shoppinglist - not just for your shopping but for any kind of repetitive list, such as 'don't forget at next stop' for when you are in and out of people's houses and likely to forget bits and pieces. Can make store specific lists, and so on. Has an auto fill function so you don't have to retype frequently used items. And you can delete them from the list by a touch.


flashlight - not great, but useful to find your lock for your key in the dark, or to provide a slight glow to find things in the middle of the night without waking others.


Google maps - of course. It can give route info (map, and approximate time either walking or driving) between any two spots, including addresses from your contacts list.

Mosquito -- emits a faint buzz that apparently mimics the male mozzie, which apparently deters the pregnant female mozzies which are the ones who are seeking to suck your blood. Not sure how effective it is, but a good talking point at bbqs.


Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare (etc) - loads of free ebooks such as the unabridged Alice or the complete works of Shakespeare, for when you have to wait in a queue or for someone who is late.

iFirstAid - lots of good tips. Another one to browse in down time, but also could be useful if you had someone reading out the info to you while you were helping someone with an injury.


Metlink Melbourne - train and tram info

KittenJump - the only game I have on my iphone. Super cute and engaging. A good head cleaner.

Farewell Malcolm McLaren - thanks for stirring things up

Vale Malcolm McLaren, provocateur and cultural producer (1946-2010).

Apparently his last words were 'Free Leonard Peltier'.

Leonard Peltier is a Native American man convicted in the 1970s of killing two FBI Agents but who many consider innocent. He has been described as 'the Mandela of the Tribes'. McLaren's ex-partner, Vivienne Westwood was active in the campaign to free Peltier and has designed t-shirts with this slogan, which one of McLaren's visitors to the hospital was wearing.

His son Joe (42) said, "He had a sense of humour to the end."

McLaren is best known as the manager of the Sex Pistols; but he also created some amazing songs and video-art, such as this gorgeous Madame Butterfly:

Vivienne Westwood, fashion designer, co-owner of the punk shop SEX, and ex-partner, once said of McLaren:

'He  taught me not to be frightened, that creativity was all a question of attention to detail and working through problems one by one. There was no magic to it - just painstaking work...

'He showed me that creativity isn't a mystical process. You don't really have to have an idea. It's the way you do something that becomes the idea in the end. It's ultimately technique which generates ideas, not ideas which generate technique. The form is the idea. .. With technique you never run out of ideas. As you cut and measure and look at fabrics, ideas come and associations are suggested - ways to progress and push things further."

(from Fashion and Perversity, pp 94 & 98)

how to rescue a wet iphone or mobile/cell phone... top tip

I had a nightmare a few weeks ago about dropping my iphone into a bowl of water.. Fortunately it was just a dream and my beloved iphone is safe and warm and dry.

However if this did happen...

here's a great set of tips on this short video:


http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-rescue-wet-cell-phone-rice-207604/

Basically he says:

--take the battery out immediately

--don't push any buttons! or use it in any way

--put the phone and the separated battery into a container of uncooked white rice and leave it there for 24 hours.

Trol lol lolcat, and shocked and appalled cat (two of my favourites)

Had to share this one....



and here's the shocked and appalled cat (which is a bit of a star on Youtube):

Bush Architecture: dog kennel

Spike's home. (Corop, Victoria.)

Designed and built by my brother Geoff.

Spike with his Xmas bone (in April).

Beasts of Bourbon

Discovered lurking behind the pub at Toolleen in central Victoria.

Covering all the bases... Paul and Sam's household gods shrine

My friends Paul and Sam in Chiltern are covering all the bases just in case in their household shrine.

Hard to see them all in this photo but there's Sacred Heart of Jesus, Buddha, Ganesh, Egyptian Cats, a Chinese Dragon, Jewish Menorah, Tibetan Prayer Wheel, Hanuman the Monkey God, Masonic Regalia,  Vietnamese Shrine, Maneki Neko cats, Crucifex, Angels, Baby Jesus and Mary, Russian Orthodox Christian Saint, a marble chess set (signifying the game of life), a metronome, an Emu egg, a Samurai, and an Australian Aboriginal Bullroarer.

ps Paul has a website that shows that where the sun, moon and planets are in the zodiac each day at www.astroplot.com.

Happy birthday x 3

Eighteen years ago my friend Anita gave birth to three gorgeous little babies...

Sophie, Ellen and Adam.


They've grown into three beautifully unique and special young adults.

So with the help of the wonders of Youtube (and Nirmal Sandhu), here's wishing them a very very happy 18th Birthday, and love and blessings for the future.



On the road again.. Heading to Sydney

Just a quick update...

I made a snap decision the other night to head to Sydney for a bit.

So right now I'm having breakfast to a medly of bird and truck sounds at a rest stop just before Gunning, about 3 hrs from Sydney.

Sorry for the short notice to both Melbourne and Sydney friends.. My paws were itching violently and I just had to go.

So.. I'm still interested in a room to rent short term, or a Housemind.. But am now widening the possibilities - could be anywhere. If you hear of anything, let me know.

Xx beth
0419 580 382

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Vale: Go well, Ruby Hunter - great Australian singer songwriter.

So so sad to hear the news today that Australian singer-songwriter Ruby Hunter died last night, at aged 54. Way too young for someone so loved and so talented.



from the ABC news report:

A Ngarrindjeri woman, Hunter was born in 1955 near the banks of the Murray River in South Australia.

She was a member of the Stolen Generations, having been forcibly removed from her family at the age of eight.

Hunter met her lifelong partner and musical soul mate Archie Roach when she was 16. Both were homeless teenagers at the time.

Roach and Hunter have been described as singing/songwriting team of extraordinary spirit.

Their music took them around the world. They have sung alongside musical greats Tracy Chapman, Paul Kelly and Bob Dylan.

Hunter was the first Indigenous woman to be signed to a major record label.

In an interview with the ABC's Talking Heads in 2008, she revealed her proudest moment was when she released her first album, Thoughts Within, in 1994.

"I asked one of my brothers to name this album. He came back, I said: 'So what do you think, brother?' He said: 'Oh, you know what sister? I never knew you had those thoughts within'," she said.

In her lifetime, Hunter was nominated for two ARIA Awards - best indigenous release and best blues and roots album.

In 2004, Hunter and Roach collaborated with Paul Grabowsky and the Australian Art Orchestra to produce Ruby's Story - a musical documenting Hunter's own life and search for identity.

The production won the Deadly Award for excellence in film and theatrical score.

Go well, go gently. Thank you, Ruby, for your music and spirit.

This Littlest Van-dwelling Hobo* is looking for a temporary resting spot...

Hello my favourite invisible readers 

(friends, and friends I haven't yet met),

Just wondering if you can help...

Right now I’m looking for somewhere to pitch my hat, take out my laptop, and park my van for a bit (a few weeks or a few months).

I have decided to hang out my shingle as a ‘life coach’, using EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique - or ‘meridian tapping’ -- a cutting-edge technique which I absolutely love) and I want to knuckle down and set up a website, with lots of good content and some freebies.

So ..

if you have a spare room and wouldn't mind a house-guest for a while (I'm happy to pay some rent or contribute to bills)

.. or have a house or flat to mind (I have loads of experience and references)

or maybe a holiday house that’s vacant during the week (or know someone who does)...

please do send me a message so we can have a chat
(no obligation of course - as it would have to be 100% right for both of us).

You can email to 

beth [at] bethspencer [dot] com  

(you know what to do with that - just translate it into an email address with @ etc... gotta do this to fool the spambots)

or phone or text me on 0419 580 382.

Namaste,

x Beth

(*ps I'm not such a very little hobo - more average sized - but The Littlest Hobo - after the tv show from the 60s - is what a friend of mine has called me for many years, even before I got the van. If you remember the show, you might get what she means.... Actually, I think I might just have to post the lyrics.)


pps: and just found a youtube version of the original.

What happens when you watch too much tv as a child.. (the original Littlest Hobo)

The Littlest Hobo (for Anita) - 'Maybe Tomorrow' - lyrics by Terry Bush

There's a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road, that's where I'll always be.
Every stop I make, I make a new friend,
Can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

Down this road that never seems to end,
Where new adventure lies just around the bend.
So if you want to drive me for a while,
Just grab your hat, come travel light, that's hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow I'll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, the whole world is my home.

So if you want to join me for a while,
Just grab your hat, come travel light, that's hobo style

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

There's a world that's waiting to unfold,
A brand new tale no-one has ever told.
We've journeyed far far and know it wont be long;
We're almost there, and we've paid our fare with our hobo song.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

So if you want to join me for a while,
Just grab your hat, come travel light, that's hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll find what I call home, 
Until tomorrow, you know I'm free 

*

-written by Terry Bush and John Crossen for the 1979-1985 Littlest Hobo TV series

*

Apparently this song was written for the 1979 series. And you can hear a Spanish version here. (Unless you've got a Mac without the right plug-ins like me, in which case you will miss out.)

Love to hear from you in the comments box if you remember the series, or know what the theme song was for the 1960s series.

xbeth

Fickle fair-weather feathered friends

My new friends. Although they were a little fickle and quickly defected when a guy rolled up at the other end of the park with fish and chips.



So this is coleslaw? Mmm, ahum... Delightful.




Sorry. Salty hot chips too hard to resist. Forgive me?

J D Salinger: author of Catcher in the Rye and creator of the Glass Family, dies at age 91

Vale (go well) Jerome David Salinger, who died on Wednesday (US time) at aged 91.


I feel quite sad about this. All my books are in storage, but if feels time to read 'Seymour: An Introduction' again. Or even 'Catcher', which I haven't read in years.


I have this image of the Glass family sitting in their living room in their brownstone walkup, in deep mourning. Waiting, now that their protector has gone, for the horrible tide of publicity and the bunfest over filmrights and the unpublished works to wash up the hallway.

Thank you, for an imperfect life, and so much inspiration.

The new Mac's iPad: Where was Peggy Olsen when Apple needed her?

The new Apple iPad has just been released, which looks pretty cool and is another step towards making e-books more friendly... but what were they thinking (or not thinking) when they named it?

They definitely needed Peggy Olsen (from MadMen) in their marketing department to point out the obvious.

 Or Sam, perhaps, from Bewitched to smile apologetically at the new name suggestion and go 'We-ell..'

Or maybe they just needed to watch more (Mad) tv... (This skit is from 2007.)

If they wanted a name that instantly went viral and got blogged and tweeted about... well they got it.

Have fun reading these riffs on the iPad concept collected by Jezebel and make sure you scroll down to the even funnier comments from its readers (including comments from a few from men who don't find it funny).

And before you ask, No, you are strongly advised not to go swimming or horseback-riding while using the iPad. Gotta wait for the iTampon before doing that.

*

(if you want to share this post.. just click on one of these icons below - thanks for reading!)

and feel free to leave your comments!

Howard Zinn, radical historian and essayist, dies at age 87

The great US historian Howard Zinn died this week, at age 87.

I remember reading a piece of his on historiography when I was at Monash University in the late 1970s. This was before post-structuralist historiography was in vogue, or even heard of, and it stood out for its passion and intelligence. Zinn argued that history was like a terrain, with many ways to map the same event or moment. And which method of mapping we use depends on what we want to do, and where we want to go.

Here's one of my favourite later quotes from him:

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.  It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.  What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.  If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.  If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.  And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future.  The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." 


-- from You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train:  A  personal  history of our times (p. 208)


Thanks Howard.
Namaste.

Delicious poetry chapbooks free to download, from AhaDada Books

I love poetry chapbooks. Perfect size for a bedtime read.

AhaDada Books (great name) has a selection of free chapbooks by wonderful poets that you can download and read from their website

I just read (and recommend) "the meh of z z z z" by Pam Brown

download it and others here