Cheap Therapy

Reposted from Slashdot:

If you are an Australian, please take action:

1) Call Senator Conroy’s office on 03 9650 1188. Do not be rude, do not swear, just in a very reasoned and rational voice, express your disapproval, and in a few short sentences, say why you disagree. It matters a lot.

2) Write a letter to Senator Conroy, make sure it’s between half a page to one page (no more than 400 words). Again, in a polite tone (that doesn’t have to be formal, and doesn’t have to have letterhead, etc., just your name and address) let him know why you disagree with him. His address is:
Senator Stephen Conroy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002

3) Write a letter to your local MP. It doesn’t matter what party he/she is from, Liberals will use your letter to back up their claims in Question Time, which gives publicity to the whole issue and will bring it to mainstream media’s attention. Labor members will also express their criticism, privately, to him. This specially matters if your local MP is a Minister and serves in the Cabinet. To find out who your local MP is click here

4) Write a letter to Prime Minister Rudd. Let him know that when the Australian people voted him in office last year, they didn’t know “Education Revolution” means censorship. Rudd’s address is:
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

5) Donate or become a member of Electronic Frontiers Australia . Right now the EFA is the sole organisation fighting this. They need all the help they can get.

6) Write a letter to your ISP. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Evil Telstra; on this, we’re all together. They are fighting the battle for us right now, but it would help them to know that what they are doing is a good business practice, that you expect them to fight this to the end.

Don’t just sit around and do nothing and then complain about how evil governments are. We, the citizens are the ones who allow governments to become evil, by our political apathy. Move! Take Action! Now!

If you’ve read Neal Stephenson’s “Snowcrash” you may remember YT’s airbag collar which stops her from breaking her head/neck when she comes off her skateboard. Well, it seems a Japanese company has come up with an airbag vest which inflates as the wearer falls over, aimed at the elderly market. At around $1000 it’s cheaper than a stay in hospital…

Meanwhile the US moves closer to FedWorld…

• Snot
• Random lunch with people from the fruit company
• Discover park’n'ride is cheaper and more convenient (thanks to Condi digging up our carpark!)
• Car shopping
• Coughs
• Camera shopping
• Conjunctivitis
• UniSFA 30th dinner
• YouTube rockets etc. with Puggle (and Bilby!). (Check out some freefall action in the Japanese science module Kibo). Including a good example of what happens when you can’t get to a handhold.
• Sleep deprivation

Visit nocleanfeed.com to get informed as to what you can do to stop Stephen Conroy from crippling Australia’s internet access.

Japanese toilets. Who knew?

• Software goes live. Nobody dies. Yay!
• MacGeeks at Agni. Mmm.. Curry.
• iPhone SDK amongst other things
• More busage plus walking. More weight loss.
• Lay my hands on an OLPC XO
• Finish Cory Doctorow’s Eastern Standard Tribe
• Mum’s birthday, book club.
• Music night, we have a band (of sorts :). Violin, guitar, and whatever else Bilby and Puggle pick up.
• Take Bilby shopping for the first time although she’s too tired to enjoy it.
• Bilby takes a fall She seems less fazed by it than I am.
• Jamie’s Sausages and 1kg of cherry tomatoes, followed by another mulberry pie thanks to our tree. Now if only the mango tree was as productive!
• Looking forward to the dentist on Monday

• Catching up with Syncretin, at the Belgian Beer Bar, the more airconditioned Moon and Sixpence, and at the UCC for Google Pizza.
• Wrangling finances to lower the burn rate and increase the likelihood of a loan.
• Puggle was trained in the art of break and entering. Bilby can now pretty much climb up and go down the slide under her own steam. Then go around for another slide
• The ultimatum from the GP is lower cholesterol (which probably has a high correlation with lowering weight…) or go on drugs to lower it. Apparently only 10-15% should be medicated due to hereditary factors, but about 40% of the population are actually medicated for it. Such is the modern lifestyle.
• Watched bug reports for February 29th roll in (nothing that I needed to fix personally
• Caught up with the newly engaged couple to congratulate them over champagne, and read the book.
• Roast chook
• Debating whether to run for WAMUG president again
• Trying to get everything ready for Monday, a non-UWA holiday and start of first semester.

• Pizza on Friday, Monday, Thursday. Fish and chips. This week, appointment with GP to discuss cholesterol test results
• Bucks night on Friday. Much beer and oglage.
• Shopping with Puggle on Saturday. Dug more trampoline pit. Pushed more swings for Puggle and Bilby. Bilby has really got the hang of this walking thing and can climb up the ladder and slide down!
• Wedding on Sunday with many old friends, which was lots of fun, thanks! Congrats to Adrian and Lin. Balloons!

• An extra 50 minutes of walking as a result of getting off the bus at earlier stops. Yay for exercise!
• MacGeeks dinner at Tsunami
• Sorry day, and Rudd further restoring my pride in being Australian.
• Valentines day (ignored, with apologies to greeting card, flower and chocolate companies)
• A summons to the GP as a result of the cholesterol test.
• Watching Bilby walk around the house without assistance, even carrying things when she’s asked to tidy up after Puggle
• Pushing the swing for Bilby and Puggle and friends. Need to find some way to bolt it to the ground better, they’re all getting heavier.
• Taming of the Puggle (well, more attempts thereof)
• Dinner with the workmates (anchovies, anchovy oil and caramelised onion makes a great pizza if you like anchovies).
• Crossing minor achievable tasks off the list (dug up the fig for a refund, updated car rego and parking stickers)
• Dinner with Skip

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