Going Home May 28, 2009

In 24 hours my husband, son and I are headed off to the States for almost a month. We’re spending 10 days in Atlanta, where I lived for 7 years (my husband 5) and then to Detroit to visit my husband’s family. This should have been an exciting week, getting ready for 4 weeks vacation. But instead I have been totally freaking out about flying. I have never been a great flyer, but I think it is just getting worse the older I get. I thought if you faced your fears, they were supposed to go away. Well, we took 6 flights in about 5 weeks when we went to Europe and moved to Australia, but that didn’t solve my problem. I can tell myself that flights leave Australia and arrive in Australia every day and are fine, but that doesn’t help. I can tell myself that its safer than driving, but that doesn’t help either. To make it worse, I have no idea how Nicklas will take to the flying. He is almost walking, and he is going to want to be crawling/walking around, not sitting on mine or Mike’s lap for 13 hours. And I don’t get out of my seat unless I need to go to the bathroom…even then I hold it as long as possible!!

I’ve also just found out that a few friends who were planning on visiting from nearby cities while we were there can no longer make it for one reason or another. I am sure they have their reasons and that’s fine, but I am disappointed. Not much else to say on that.

It will be interesting to see how we feel, and whether we will be ready to come “home” or if we’ll feel like we’ve already gone home?

Angels & Demons Movie Spoilers May 16, 2009

Definitely stop reading if you DON’T want to know about the Angels & Demons MOVIE.

I was really excited about this movie coming out, and have been anticipating it for MONTHS now. Last night we went to see it. We walked into the cinema for the 6:30 movie at about 6:05. There were 2 other people in there! The cinema filled up by the time the movie started, but definitely not the outrageous crowd I had expected.

I think I’ll just outline the differences between the book and the movie, rather than review the movie and throw in the differences along the way.

The book begins with Robert Langdon being woken up by a phone call from CERN director Maxamillion Kohler. The MOVIE begins with the pope’s death and the hustle and bustle around getting ready for conclave. It then flashes to the chambers that are creating the anti-matter and a large team of scientists. Vittoria Vetra is one of them. “Silvano” is in a different chamber, and once the anti-matter is created, Vittoria makes her way down there and passes a workman along the way (who turns out to be the killer). Vittoria first finds the eyeball, then goes in and finds Silvano, dead.

Cut to Robert Langdon, swimming in the Harvard pool. A representative from the Vactican approaches him and shows him a fax from the killer, with the Illuminati brand on it.

Robert and Vittoria don’t meet until they’re both sitting in Commander Richter’s office (head of the Swiss Guard. Olivetti is more like Vatican secret service). The director of CERN is never even mentioned.

The movie has no involvement of any BBC media like there is in the book, which changes things later obviously.

The killer is shown recieving payments on a laptop, that is never mentioned in the book.

Vittoria recieves a delivery of her father’s journals which is confiscated by the swiss guard and locked away by Richter.

Robert gets locked in the archives w/ a guard (Chartrand I think), not by himself as in the book,  and the guard passes out (he’s a smoker and can’t handle the air-tight vault). Robert pushes the first book shelf into the glass which doesn’t work, then uses the guard’s gun to shoot holes in the glass, before climbing on top of another shelf and blowing the glass out with that. As soon as he starts to breathe properly and picks his head up, the electricity comes back on.

Vittoria does NOT go to the 3rd “altar of science” with them, and Robert doesn’t come face to face with the killer. The killer does kill Olivetti and a couple of other police/guards.

Robert goes to the 4th altar of science with 2 cops, and they watch the van park in the piazza. The 2 cops approach the van and are killed. The killer then drops the 4th cardinal (Baggia) in the fountain and drives off, saluting Robert as he goes. Robert jumps in and tries to get the cardinal up, but keeps losing his footing. A group of people jump in and help him, and they save the cardinal.

The cardinal tells Robert that he was being held at Castel Saint Angelo so Robert, Vittoria and a SWAT team head to the Castel thinking the caninster is there, but don’t find it so they leave. Robert and Vittoria then find the stairway up to the room the killer is in. The killer points a gun at them but tells them he has not been told to kill them, so they are spared for now, but if they follow him…he then leaves and gets into a waiting car which blows up when he starts it. Buhbye killer.

Robert and Vittoria run through the tunnel and are let out the other side by Chartrand. They tell him the camerlengo is in danger. They burst in to the papal office to find Richter pointing a gun at the camerlengo. Richter gets shot dead and as Father Simeon (asst to the cardinal in charge of conclave)  comes in, the camerlengo points at him and calls him Illuminatus so he too is shot dead.

The fifth brand of the illuminatus is  2 keys crossing each other (not the Earth Wind Fire Water sign from the book), which apparently represents St. Peter and Robert and the camerlengo realise the antimatter is on St Peter’s tomb. They all head down to the tomb, and find the anti matter. When Vittoria can’t disarm it (which she couldn’t do in the book anyway) she says to leave it there, but the camerlengo steals it and takes off. He bursts through the doors and jumps into the helicopter and goes up and up and up. Robert does NOT jump in with him.

As the helicopter is going up, they see a parachute with the camerlengo approaching the vatican. The explosion goes off before he lands and the shockwaves send the camerlengo crashing into buildings, and causes him to land among the people in the square (as opposed to up on the church as in the book).

Word spreads around conclave that the camerlengo risked his life and saved everyone. Cardinals start talking about the possibility of him being named the new pope. Robert and Vittoria are in the swiss guard office when they discover a computer that monitors the papal office and they see how things REALLY happened (very similar to the book, except its Richter who confronts the camerlengo, not Max Kohler).

The camerlengo walks into conclave and can tell the cardinals know everything, so he walks out, followed by all kinds of guards, and sets himself on fire. There is no grand reveal about the former pope being his biological father.

Cardinal Baggio is elected pope, and as a gift of thanks from the Vatican, Robert Langdon is presented with the copy of Galileo’s Diagramma to complete his work. He and Vittoria get to watch as the pope is dressed and walks out onto the balcony.

One thing I don’t understand is why they changed the Camerlengo’s name from Carlo Ventresca to Patrick McKenna. There’s also absolutely NO romantic chemistry between Robert and Vittoria.

I’ve realised while writing this that there’s probably a similar entry on wikipedia already and I didn’t need to go through all that. I’m also sure there’s things I’ve forgotten. But my brain is a bit fried trying to think about it all.

I think so, maybe. I don’t know. Yes. Definitely. May 12, 2009

My inability to pick a side and defend it is getting on my nerves today!

Our government is unveiling the new budget this afternoon, and there are several issues in there that will be a bone of contention with more than a few people in this country.

Our current leadership, the Labour Party, were elected 18 months ago, just as the whole global recession thing was starting to rear its ugly head. They have erased a surplus budget and continue to plunge us into a deficit. It is not really being in a deficit that concerns me, however. I understand the thought process behind putting a bunch of money into the economy and that resulting in a deficit, but I don’t like how they’ve done it.

Some issues that will become even more heated debates after today will be paid maternity leave, childcare and private health care.

My stance on paid maternity leave surprises me a bit. I think it is an incredibly tough issue to find a fair policy for. The government are planning a policy that allows 18 weeks paid maternity (or paternity) leave, paid at the average wage amount of $544/week. To qualify for this government-paid scheme, you have to have worked a minimum of 1 day a week for 10 months. Without reading the entire proposal, the first question that comes to my head is, “What happens after the 18 weeks?” Here’s a scenario for you:

I get a job working one day a week earning $15/hour for 8 hours (average pay for an admin role). That’s $120/week. Say I work this job for 12 months, earning $6240. During that time, I get pregnant and have my baby after being there 12 months, now the government will pay me 4.5x my weekly wage at my job, for 18 weeks for a grand total of over $9000! Then at the end of the 18 weeks, I quit my job, and go on single income family tax benefit B, earning per week what I was earning working the job. Don’t forget the $5,000 baby bonus I’m entitled to as well as family tax benefit A if my husband is earning under the threshhold! Who does this help? NOT the national budget, I can tell you that much.

Like I said, its tough to find a fair and good policy on this issue. What about getting x weeks at x % of your regular weekly pay? So 18 weeks at 80% of your regular pay? I don’t know.

I don’t know much about the child care and health care issues that will be raised with the new budget, but I know most of it is means-based. Meaning if you make over $150,000 a year you will no longer qualify for some things you qualify for now. This is where my inability to pick a side and defend it comes in. On the one hand, if you are already recieving those benefits and they get cut, I can see how that would cause you financial stress and hardship. On the other hand, that is 3x what my husband makes and I can only wish I had to manage a family budget that big! So it makes me think you SHOULD be able to afford to pay for health care and child care on that income.

I think as a general rule, most families tend to live to their budget. As the pay increases, so do your expenses.

Off topic only slightly, I think income tax should be 10% or 15% and that’s it, regardless of what you earn. If you are ambitious and want to make $200,000 a year, then you can pay $20,000 tax. If you are a slacker and make $20,000 a year, you pay $200 tax. I am sure national finance isn’t as simple as that, but I think it should be. You shouldn’t be penalised for making more money than the next person.

Anyway, as I stated, and as I proved, I can argue both sides of the coin to most of these things. It makes voting difficult.

I’m Done With Song Lyrics May 11, 2009

Yesterday was my first Mother’s Day, and we were due to meet mum, my sister & her boyfriend at a local surf club for breakfast. My first present of the day was Nicklas sleeping in until 6:45 (after waking up at 2:30 briefly), so at 6:30 when I woke up on my own accord, and not to a screaming baby, I didn’t feel so tired. Before we left for the surf club, Mike and Nicklas gave me a gorgeous heart-shaped pendant with “Nicklas 30 06 08″ inscribed on it and a coffee mug with a picture of Nicklas on it that said “Happy First Mother’s Day”. But this isn’t any ordinary coffee mug! It is actually really dark, and you can barely see what is on it…until you fill it with hot water! The colouring disappears to reveal the pic and the message. It is pretty cool!

Mother’s Day however, has given way to Monday morning, and I have been up since 3:50 am. I am hoping that Nicklas will go back to sleep in another half hour or so as we are going to Brisbane today to visit some friends and their bubs, and I don’t want to be a zombie.

Last night at 11 o’clock, we heard a car horn. One long, loud blast. Well, we wish it had only been one. One turned into about 10 long loud blasts. Turns out it was a neighbour of our’s, and another neighbour must have parked their car in the way of getting out. And this was their solution to the problem – wake the whole damn complex up. I am still pretty pissed about it, and at 4 am this morning I was *this close* to pulling the car out of the garage, parking in front of their townhouse, and blasting my horn several times, for several seconds each time. The problem is, I have too much respect for my other neighbours, who don’t desereve to be woken up a second time in 6 hours because of obnoxiousness. Perhaps I’ll leave a note on their front door, asking that next time they have a problem to please knock on the neighbour’s door. I think if they had woken Nicklas up, that respect I do have would have been out the window, and I’d have been honking my horn for the last hour and a half.

I think I might go open the doors and windows and let Nicklas scream the house down. That ought to get the neighbour’s attention.

It Makes You That Much Stronger May 6, 2009

In the past week, I learned something about my husband that was…intriguing? Maybe “baffling” is more the word I’m looking for, I don’t know.

We are not the fighting type of couple. We bicker back and forth, but in the almost 6 years we’ve been together, I think we’ve had an all-out yelling match once. And that was recently. The only other big blow up didn’t involve much yelling.

So I come to find out that if he is irritated or upset with me, he’ll play out the argument in his head, and for him that’s the end of it. He doesn’t like confrontation, and lets face it who really does? So in his mind, playing it out in his head is enough to get things off his chest. I asked, “And how do those conversations go for you?” He replied, “I always lose.”

Several of my friends have recently been having issues with their husbands/partners, and it all revolves around the men not talking about what they’re thinking/feeling. Could it be possible that every man, or most men, are like my husband? They have this inner dialogue in which they imagine what our responses will be, and then they dismiss the issue, claiming to be past it or over it? When in actual fact they’re not over it at all, they’re just letting it fester until the next time we do something to upset them?

The most telling thing for me was his response about always losing. It tells me that he figures he can’t win an argument anyway, so why bother trying? That maybe he thinks I will brush his feelings aside or make him feel like his opinions and feelings are insignificant.

I’m not sure what I’ve done to make him feel like that, given that as I already stated, we are not a fighting couple. I know at least one of his previous relationships was quite confrontational, so perhaps it has carried over from then? Either way, it turns out the arguing in his head wasn’t working so well…for him OR us. Thankfully we’ve both learned that things are better out in the open.

Now go forth and spread the word to all men!

Everything That’s Wrong With The World May 2, 2009

Do you know what REALLY pisses me off? Well, there are a lot of things, but this week, it is the uprising of a generation with a general lack of respect for their elders, for the law, or simply for other human beings.

The news headlines the other night mentioned a policeman being investigated for using a taser gun to get a driver to pull over. Do you know what they failed to mention, until the actual story was aired? The driver was a 17 YEAR OLD IN A STOLEN CAR WHO WOULDN’T PULL OVER!!!!

You know what? If you have stolen a car and refuse to pull over for police, I don’t care HOW they stop you. I don’t care if the run you off the road, taser you, or just flat out SHOOT you! And while I’m at it, if you are being abusive and threatening, and do not back down when ordered to by police, and you get tasered? YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM!

Australia may not have many incidents related to guns, but there seems to be a lot of incidents related to knives and/or beatings. You can take away guns, but you can’t take away peoples’ inability to control themselves when they get drunk or angry. And they need to be held accountable and punished to the full extent of the law.

Sunday Night aired a story about a Perth police officer who was attacked from behind while trying to break up a brawl between a father and his two sons (who were outside a pub, drunk). It is all on video. This police officer is lucky to be alive, and is most likely never going to walk properly again. And do you know a jury let the “man” who did it to him, walk free? As the presenter said, this man has been let down by the very law he swore to uphold and enforce. In court, the father involved in the brawl was portrayed to be a disabled pensioner with a heart problem. Really? He didn’t look too disabled when he was drunk and fighting with his two sons outside the pub.

I know that every once in a wihle we hear a story of a police officer who has used excessive force, or abused his/her power. But how often is that? What percentage of police officers are like that? I am willing to bet it is less than 1% of them.

I also know that again, I am generalising. I know not every member of the new generation is a menace to society. I know I am making myself sound old by complaining about “today’s kids”. I know there are people in every generation who have an inate disdain for authority.

I just feel like the world is in a downward spiral, and my faith in humanity is slipping. There’s just so many things that happen and I wonder, “What the fuck is wrong with that person?” Seriously, I think our DNA is mutating and people are getting more stupid by the generation. It really worries me.