Aussie Readers discussion
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Chat about whatever you like: the weather, good stuff, bad stuff, family or pets!
Bette wrote: "Elaine wrote: "Just have to share some awesome news with my book buddies. I just scored myself a job at Dymock's. OMG!!!! This is like my dream job. I'm sure many of you can relate. Needless to say..."Bette I absolutely would love to own a book shop. It definitely is the ultimate but for now this is the closest I'm going to get, I think. Also as sad as it is small independent book shops are a thing of the past. It would have to be a labour of love. Maybe when I retire!! There's a gorgeous little second hand bookshop where I live that would be amazing to own....if only!!!
Give a different area's libraries a go. I dunno how it is everywhere else, but the public libraries in South Australia are done on a council-by-council basis. I know of at least a couple of library systems outside my own that do stuff drastically different from mine.
Loosing 7-0 at soccer today is not very enjoyable, but coming back home resting my sore deflated body with a good read perks you up a bit. Now time for dinner Indian sounds comforting on a cold night, with my wife and a few of my team mates and there better halves.
Was out all last night, had to wake up early for the gym today, then straight to work. Now I've just got home and I should really hack away at my mountain of homework but all I want to do is sleep.
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Sounds like an enjoyable evening after a hard-working day Neil! Bad luck about the result, but have fun tonight!
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I agree with Michael, Jess:) Sleep well and the homework won't be so bad!
Brenda wrote: "★ Jess wrote: "Was out all last night, had to wake up early for the gym today, then straight to work. Now I've just got home and I should really hack away at my mountain of homework but all I want..."What year are you doing Jess or is it uni
Year 12 ew Yeah I didnt end up doing much last night. Regretting it, I have heaps to do today.
Haha I just found my bigbig History essay/assignment from Year 12 the other day. At the time I thought it was fantastic, reading it now is like how did I make so many awful mistakes and why are there commas everywhere.Actual content was still pretty good, though.
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Oh Ashleigh, that's rotten luck!! Keep your spirits up, something will come along for you:)
In my experience the best tactic is to keep annoying them until they give you a job. I threw my CV at my current job for a good year and a half before they hired me just to shut me up.
My aunt and uncle are visiting from country Victoria. Yesterday I took them over to the next beach up from me to see the whales.From June to September, we have Southern Right whales coast up and down our beach. It's known as the Whale Nursery because the females give birth to their babies here and keep them within 50 metres of the shoreline. Wonderful sight to see both mother and young whale so close to the beach.
I spend many an afternoon just sitting on the beach watching these majestic creatures move gracefully through the water. When they breach up out of the water, my heart feels like it's going to burst. It is so exhilarating.
How lovely Bette! We were in Newcastle last week, and spent an hour or so at Nobby's watching whales swim past. Always a lovely thing to do.
It really is awesome. (Using 'awesome' in normal speech - not the urban use.) The sight of them does fill you with awe.
Leonie wrote: "How lovely Bette! We were in Newcastle last week, and spent an hour or so at Nobby's watching whales swim past. Always a lovely thing to do."Nobby's is fantastic. A great whale watching place.
Bette wrote: "My aunt and uncle are visiting from country Victoria. Yesterday I took them over to the next beach up from me to see the whales.From June to September, we have Southern Right whales coast up and ..."
Lovely Bette and a fun thing to do. I'm sure your aunt and uncle loved it.
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From June to September, we have Southern Right whales coast up and ..."
How wonderful Bette, an experience of a lifetime!
I find it very soothing to watch whales and dolphins. Of course, living (for want of a better word) where I do, the only place I can do this is in a huge theme park called "Seaworld." It's prohibitively expensive, but one can buy fish and actually feed the dolphins, which my ex- used to enjoy.
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So very sad to loose such a great author. Much to young.
Brenda wrote: "Vince Flynn has lost his battle with prostate cancer. He passed away on 19th June 2013 at age 47."This is extremely sad. Is it just my subjective impression, or does there seem to be an increasing incidence of prostate cancer in younger people?
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This is extremely sad. Is it just my subjective impression, or does there seem to..."
There seems to be a lot more cancer of all sorts in young people nowadays. Terribly sad:(
Brenda wrote: "Mark wrote: "Brenda wrote: "Vince Flynn has lost his battle with prostate cancer. He passed away on 19th June 2013 at age 47."This is extremely sad. Is it just my subjective impression, or does ..."
There's a lot more awareness today and people are being advised to have tests at a younger age. Treatment can be effective when it is caught in its early stages - and often when it is advanced. But it is sad to see someone dying at the age of 47.
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This is extremely sad. Is it just my subjective impre..."
Way too young, that's for sure!
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Another great story at the moment is the elusive Edward Snowden, the US intelligence officer, whose whereabouts remained unknown (except perhaps to Wikileaks). The Russian Foreign Minister now says he "did not cross" the Russian border, although this does not rule out he was in transit and is now somewhere else. The Americans are fuming. Bound to be a book in it. It is already like something out of a spy novel.
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It was thought he was on a flight to Cuba en route to Ecuador but he was not on the plane - journalists who boarded it later found that out to their chagrin. They seek him here, they seek him there, those Yankees seek him everywhere.
(As your token Yank) I note that Snowden is now being systematically anathematized not only by the US Government (e.g., by good ol' Skull & Bones kakistocrat, Kerry), but also by the US Media -- including MSNBC (our single, ostensibly progressive media outlet). Unremitting character assassination on every front for letting Americans know that their government is engaging in unspeakably vile, revulsive and immoral behavior, and is the profoundly treasonous enemy of every one of its own citizens. Clearly, some utterly irrefusable marching orders have gone out to every member of the American media, and I consider the ones who complied also to be complicit in the treasonous conduct of this government. Snowden is about the only player in this drama who shouldn't be undergoing prosecution -- and probably at The Hague.
Ian wrote: "It was thought he was on a flight to Cuba en route to Ecuador but he was not on the plane - journalists who boarded it later found that out to their chagrin. They seek him here, they seek him there...":)
Remembering Corporal Cameron Baird, killed in active duty in Afghanistan on 22nd June 2013.Our 40th soldier killed; didn't we learn enough about un-winnable wars in Vietnam?
Bette wrote: "Remembering Corporal Cameron Baird, killed in active duty in Afghanistan on 22nd June 2013.Our 40th soldier killed; didn't we learn enough about un-winnable wars in Vietnam?"
Speaking as an American...
We learned that they're immensely profitable for miltary-industrial contractors, that we should always lie about our reasons for prosecuting them, as egregiously as possible, that they're helpful in rendering Americans (even more) amenable to unspeakably appalling, fascist police state provisions like the "Patriot Act," and that they comport the added advantage (for the sadistic, Schadenfreude-driven powers-that-be) of causing massive death and suffering.
Oh, and we also learned that they're much easier to prolong indefinitely if you eliminate the draft so that the entire burden falls on the poor, and no political resistance whatever emerges from any constituency that has the least vestige of political power.
I'd say they've been extremely educational for American leaders, actually.
As an addendem, though I don't feel personally responsible since I have relentlessly opposed this psychotic and evil war, and am 100% powerless, in any case, I would like to apologize that my appalling excuse for a civilized country has caused even a single Australian death by pressuring your government into providing a "fig-leaf' of international cover for its monstrous prosecution of useless, destructive and unwinnable wars for profit and for its internal political advantage.
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Yes - they ruined my TV viewing - I wanted to watch QI and it was replaced with their silly antics.
★ Jess wrote: "The Labor party are fkn terrible"Better anything the Labor party can dig up than Tony Abbott. Whereas Labor are sort of charmingly incompetent, I don't feel like having them in power would actively make the country worse.
Michael wrote: "We are powerless here too Mark. It seems to me that our last two governments have acted like obiedient dogs when we got asked to help in the Middle East tail wagging in all. And the ones who oppose..."Michael - Thanks for the commiseration. It's nice to speak to sane people who understand what's happening. My views on this matter aren't especially popular where I live (in Texas)!
I never said Abbott would be a good leader, but at least the Liberals have their shit together. Whilst the Labor party is generally incompetent, the Liberals at least have some clue.
The names of your parties are a trifle confusing to pathologically right-shifted Americans. If something were called the "liberal party" here, its representatives would probably be driven out of the country by deranged crowds with pitchforks and forced to seek refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy. "Labor" (which is a word it is not allowable to speak in public within 500 miles of any existing corporate enterprise when it alludes even obliquely to "unions," the few remnants of which are being systematically extirpated from the face of the Earth by the infinitely-cheap-labor party (Republicans)) is likewise confusing, because your people aren't arrested for mentioning it.We have two parties. The Hopelessly Ineffectual Seppuku-Prone Corrupt Party with Ostensibly Good Intentions that Regularly Takes Dives in Elections and Refuses to Fight for Anything but Isn't Actively in Favor of Genocidal Extermination of the Poor and Minorities. (They're called "Democrats")
And the Randian, Satanic Anti-Human Bloated Plutocratic Schadenfreude-Driven Infinitely Avaricious Party of Suck Your Blood and Put it Into My Cayman Islands Bank Account and While You're at It, Let's Highjack Women's Reproductive Systems and Revert Socially to the Ninth Century Party. (They're called "Republicans," currently dominated by the "Tea Partiers," who don't actually believe that government should exist, except to give rich people money.) The Tea Partiers, if you're interested, are the ones who hold a knife at the throat of the global economy every two months, actively rooting for total economic meltdown.
So those are our two choices. I don't know how bad Labor or Liberals are for Australia, but the names are certainly a lot more encouraging.
★ Jess wrote: "I never said Abbott would be a good leader, but at least the Liberals have their shit together. Whilst the Labor party is generally incompetent, the Liberals at least have some clue."For someone who lives in South Australia, you really think the Libs have their act together?
I'm assuming you've never used the Expressway? I've seen no evidence that the Liberals are any more on top of things than Labor, and at least the Labor leaders aren't radical right-wing nutjobs.
What's happening to Nelson Mandella?
Michael wrote: "I can just imagine how the two parties names would be confusing for Americans. Liberal here being the tradional rightees and Labour lefties. We also have independent candidates who can hold the bal..."Thank you, Michael, for the nomenclatural elucidation. If "liberals" are the Australian correlative of Republicans, and you stand any prospect of having *that* (or any righty coalition) in power for the next four years, then you should certainly do everything possible to stop it, even if it does seem a bit like Hobson's Choice. You do *not*, believe me, want to recapitulate the philogeny of the United States since the year 2000. This is hell, nor are we out of it.
Mark wrote: "Michael wrote: "I can just imagine how the two parties names would be confusing for Americans. Liberal here being the tradional rightees and Labour lefties. We also have independent candidates who ..."Oh Mark, trust us, we know what American politics are like. Before Labor got in, we were run by American politics. Our last Liberal leader had his head up Bush's arse until his face turned blue.
Ashleigh wrote: "Mandela has been in hospital for over two weeks with a lung infection Liam. So sad."
Damn, that's a bugger.
All gotta go sometime. He's had a pretty full life.
Liam wrote: "Mark wrote: "Michael wrote: "I can just imagine how the two parties names would be confusing for Americans. Liberal here being the tradional rightees and Labour lefties. We also have independent ca..."I can only say how sorry I am. Like most Americans, I am utterly disempowered politically and can manage only to rage hopelessly on internet threads. Do you know that the GINI Index of Wealth Inequality for the United States is now exactly equal to that of Rwanda, and that Republicans are engaged in a full-bore effort to make it immeasurably worse? I'm sure your "liberals" must be trying to obliterate your universal healthcare to emulate the US. Here, the social policy that addresses healthcare for the indigent is... um, "die." Actually, not even the ever-shrinking middle class can afford premiums, so the right to live is a prerogative reserved for the rich. The elderly still have some coverage through Medicare, but the Repubs are seeking desperately and energetically to eliminate it. I believe the replacement program will be ice floes.
Our Libs aren't quite as extreme as that, and I doubt if they tried to remove healthcare in any way shape or form that the public would stand for it. You don't see Australians riot very often, but I think we could do it pretty spectacularly.It's more a general malaise of awful rather than actual attempts to destroy the country.
But yeah my American friends are constantly trying to move out here :P
Gillard is from South Aussie, I think she'd fight dirty.EDIT: Oh she was raised in Mitcham/Unley area, she would DEFINITELY fight dirty :P
Liam wrote: "Our Libs aren't quite as extreme as that, and I doubt if they tried to remove healthcare in any way shape or form that the public would stand for it. You don't see Australians riot very But yeah my American friends are constantly trying to move out here :P , ... ..."Believe me, if I could, I'd do the same in a flat nanosecond. Australia, New Zealand, Norway, France, Iceland... you name it. Anyplace that's actually civilized. ABH, basically...
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Aussie Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Umberto Eco (other topics)Umberto Eco (other topics)
Harper Lee (other topics)
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Do you have time to volunteer at your local library? Maybe that would might be an 'in' into working there for you? Just an idea...