Crazy Armed Aussie Biker Chick Log

It's stuff like this which make me sick.

The blogger will admit that the people in the clip are breaking the law, you can CLEARLY see they're on the wrong side of the road, yet he STILL discourages people from taking up two wheels.

No one can deny that riding is dangerous. But if you take the proper training, wear the right gear and watch out on the roads, you're less likely to get seriously injured.

That's not to say that you WON'T get seriously injured, because there is still that possibility. You can even die.

But why let that overrun your desire to do something? Skydivers run the risk, but they aren't condemned like motorcyclists are. Neither are hangliders, or surfers or horse riders. None of these people allow their fear to stop them from doing it, yet they, like motorcyclists, could die doing what they love.

I feel really weary this week.

It's nothing specific, just a general worn-down feeling. Okay, work's been busy, but it's been busy in a good way. See, we have about 9 new people to train. Some of them have absolutely no background in IT, which can make things a little difficult. They're all great, though, and doing a good job of helping us all out. They may only be taking the calls and logging jobs into the queue, but at least the calls are being logged.

The only other thing that's really been happening that's anything out of the ordinary is having two of my three grandparents in hospital. My dads mother went in with breathing difficulties. It's no surprise as she's a long-term sufferer of Emphasema. I hope they release her soon, because she absolutely HATES being in hospital. She's a fiercely independant woman, and wouldn't want any of us to worry. I worry anyway. She's the one I'm closest to.

My mums dad was released from hospital today. He'd had a blood infection. At 81, he's not doing too badly, but suffers from Dementia quite badly. That is also not surprising, because he's had a number of minor strokes over the years, and served in the rural Police force for many years. I'm looking forward to seeing him in June, over the Queen's Birthday long weekend, when he and my grandmother celebrate 60 years of marriage.

Well, it seems that they can get to be pretty damn stupid.

In the news today, it has been announced that they want to Outlaw Bikie insignias from certain groups.

The Bandidos and the Rebels have a longstanding disagreement, to put it lightly. These two groups have caused chaos not just in Sydney, but in Melbourne as well, and goodness knows where else. I call them "1%ers", based on the 1% rule.

The 1% rule is this: That in any group, there is always 1% who ruin the fun for everyone else.

So, say that the legislation goes through parliament as a success and implemented. Say the groups obey this particular piece of legislation. Then what? Suddenly you have what were a group of men (and possibly women, too) riding Harleys who, instead of standing out with their "Bandidos"/"Rebels" insignias, look just like the other 99% of Harley riders.

How exactly does this help anyone? It means that the groups are no longer immediately recognisable to the police, and suddenly there are THOUSANDS of others who could be part of the group. How are the police going to tell the 1% from the 99%? How, with a Chief Constable who hates bikers of any kind so much that he releases pictures of a crash scene without the consent of the family. If they can't even keep their own chief in line, how do they believe they can handle these gangs?

Utter stupidity on a state-wide level. And we vote these people into power.

KDE and Slaves

I honestly just can't understand this man's arguments.

Definition of the word slave according to www.dictionary.com is:

1. a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant.
2. a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person: a slave to a drug.
3. a drudge: a housekeeping slave.
4. a slave ant.
5. Photography. a subsidiary flash lamp actuated through its photoelectric cell when the principal flash lamp is discharged.
6. Machinery. a mechanism under control of and repeating the actions of a similar mechanism. Compare master (def. 19).
–verb (used without object)
7. to work like a slave; drudge.
8. to engage in the slave trade; procure, transport, or sell slaves.
–verb (used with object)
9. to connect (a machine) to a master as its slave.
10. Archaic. to enslave.

In the IT world, it is used in the context of one machine being a master, controlling the actions of other machines, or in this particular case, a process(es) being controlled by another. It has also been used to as long as I can remember to refer to an order of selection in computer hardware.

So how is that condoning slavery amongst humans?

On the blog, Tyler requests a number of answers, and poses a large number of valid, reasoning arguments to the author. All seemed to be ignored, or the point was not fully understood.

Slave is not a derogatory term. It describes a deplorable condition for a human to be in, but it is not, in and of itself, an insult. Neither are words like child, dumb, corrupt, etc.

Tyler, being kind, this is dumb bullshit. I don't know where you are from, or where you've been, but let me take you to where I'm from and been, and you say that to people there, and they'd let you know how derogatory they feel about the word. You are mentally masturbating yourself if you think referring to someone as a "slave" is not a derogatory term. Would you like to be enslaved? Stop jerking yourself off, and face the overt reality of the horrendous and illegal institution of slavery.

This particular comment from the author is a perfect example. He ignores the facts presented by Tyler (that the word in the KDE context is not offensive) and presents absolutely no valid rebuttal in return, just a "verbal" (if such a term can be used when referring to the Internet) load of personal insults worth less than the cost of his internet connection.

Geeks of the world have often been derided using that exact term; "Geek". I was one of them, and I now wear it with pride. In and of itself, it is not an offensive term. It is simply a description of a person or group of people. It is not actually offensive unless I find it so. The same is applied to many other terms people use on a regular basis. Like Tyler argued, "gay" was once used to describe a kind of carefree happiness, and is now used to describe someone of homosexual tendencies.

Slave has similarly evolved. Once, it meant only a person who was in servitude to another. It now refers to the inner workings of computers in a similar way. These workings, be they processes or hard drives, are at the mercy of other components, and thus can be termed "slaves" because it most accurately describes what they are in relation to other parts.

I sincerely wish I could see the responses of the KDE development team about this blog. It is inflammatory, has arguments which don't hold water, and generally is just Political Correctness gone mad.

Yup, I had surgery yesterday.

I got breast implants put in, and it has made a huge difference.

They're not gigantic, but bigger than I was, and it feels great to be able to look down and see breasts first, then belly. I'm looking forward to going bra shopping.

The downsides are that I can't ride a motorbike for a couple of weeks, I have to sleep on my back all night, and I hurt a fair bit. I can't shower until tomorrow, and I'm a little dubious about that. Getting to and from work will be interesting. I may have to catch a bus to the airport and walk along Pialligo Avenue and up Glenora Drive. Basically, from one side of the Airport to the other.

My arm movements are rather restricted, since my pectoral muscles ache. I can lift my arms for short periods of time, but not very long at all. That means even simple things like tying back my hair and taking photos are difficult and short-lived.

My motorbike is being taken care of by my dad for now. His girlfriend Karina bought my 250 from me because she is learning to ride soon. It's still with Dad from when he borrowed it a while back. Dad's bike busted a fork seal and is thus in for repairs with The man to go to for bike work: Rick Miller. So he'll be riding both of them for me. He always wanted to have a go on my 600, right back to when I bought it in October. Click for picture

A collegue of mine has (more than once) advised that "People are stupid".

If you need proof of this in regards to driving, you need look no farther than this, which I discovered while browsing through Netrider one day (Netrider)

...I decided to avoid the main road works on the 'straight line' route, and took another more scenic trip. There is a roundabout on this route, which cambers the wrong way anyway, and which I normally take at about 40k/h for that reason, I noticed some shiny black stuff on the road about 1/3 the way round. Rolled off throttle, stood bike up straight heading for grass/gravel verge, probably doing about 20 k/h by this stage, but not slow enough. Bike falls away under me, hit ground, slide, many expletives. go to bike, on side in gravel, turned off ignition (funny, I thought they had auto cutout), try to pick it up, and notice there's something funny with my right shoulder (I later found out it was dislocated, and stayed that way for 5 hours before they could manipulate it back in - also slight fracture of the glenoid I think). A couple of truckies helped me pick the bike up.

When the cops arrived, the took one look at the road and said 'dirfting'. We seem to have a group of brain-dead indivuals now who purposely coat roundabouts with oil - lots of oil - and then perform 'drifting' around these slippery surfaces...When they're finished, they just drive away, leaving the mess for the next unsuspecting rider/driver...

This isn't just dangerous for those of us on two wheels. The whole idea of drifting, of course, is that you slide out. If you're not expecting it (and it can be from oil, ice, diesel...), then you can be in serious trouble.

The rider was lucky that he got away with a dislocated shoulder and nothing worse.

This sort of behaviour makes me wonder how people survive. It is common knowledge that oil on a road is dangerous, and these people are doing it deliberately. I sincerely hope they are caught out and jailed BEFORE someone gets killed.

I removed one of my entries as it has caused a lot of trouble.

I owe Lex rather a large apology, and I hope that we're both mature enough that it can be set aside. For good.

For my part, I have been pig-headed (take after my dad), and generally not as good a person as I'd like to be, to sum it up rather roughly.

I stopped responding after a time because I felt it would be better to let things lie and allow all involved some time to cool off.

I hope this is the end of animosity between us.

So far with the wedding, we have organised:

The Church - minus flowers, (which I would like to do myself) the music (hoping to ask friends of the family) and the details in the service.

The Reception - the room is booked and we know what we want as decoration. That's about it for that.

The Cake - though I have to call them back to let them know I want the bottom part Chocolate and to have no marzipan.

The Car - Uncle Paul kindly agreed to drive us in his Jaguar. I'm asking the Bikers of Canberra if they'll provide an escort. (Me, a biker chick?? Never! ;-P)


That leaves a lot to do. We have a basic idea for the invitations, but have to talk to a printer to see what we can do.

I still do not believe the reasons most people give for having a 4WD in a city. Most common among them are:
- It's safer for me
- I can see better
- I go offroad on weekends

Some time ago, a WA man was killed on his motorcycle by an idiot in a 4WD who was reaching for a cigarette. She ran right over him, dragging his body for some 250m.

Sure, a 4WD is safer for it's occupants, but it is far more dangerous for those not in it. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are most at risk on the roads, and I believe we should help protect them by banning these monstrosities from city streets.

The type of 4WD I am referring to is the sort originally designed for offroading. Built high to manage in rough terrain, where height can be a big advantage.

Height and being able to see far ahead is great, but the advantage is lost in the current road environment because there are so many 4WDs out there. On my 600cc bike, I can see a long way, farther, I believe, than a lot of cars. I am high up (or so it seems), and that is voided the moment a 4WD is in front of me. Buses and trucks provide a necessary service, and I never begrudge them their size for exactly that reason. They are needed on city streets. 4WDs are not.

If people want a family car, as they often do when they buy a 4WD as they have lots of seats, they should look to the Toyota Tarago. I don't know if Toyota makes them any more, but they are a large car without the pretence of being an offroader. They don't have a high nose and are made for carrying lots of people.

I'm not sure what to think of the "I go offroad" people. I understand a hobby like that requires a vehicle like a 4WD, but it is only 2 days of every 7. 4WDs are expensive, so it would be logical to only have it as your vehicle if you do go offroad.

There is no doubt in my mind that they do not belong, even if for no other reason than risk to others.

I haven't really said anything specific, but I'm having a lot of trouble with my dad.

It goes like this:

Before mum and I moved out, dad would come home in a bad mood. He'd yell if something wasn't going his way - like the time mum had washed some of his clothes, not sure if they were dirty or not. Calissa and I would retreat to our rooms and hide until dinner time.

There would always be a collective sigh of relief if he ever went out, but a pervading sense of dread about when he'd come home again. Sometimes Calissa, our mum and I would hug each other and cry a little.

Over the last 10ish weeks, I've been sorting out my anger issues, and all of that is what started it. I never told my dad that his foul moods hurt and frightened me. I don't think I ever have, even now.

The present issue is that he has no respect for NemoHac. His attitude is that the respect must be earned. As a result, they don't really have anything to do with each other. That really hurts, and I have to tell dad this.

I even know how to, because he's said in previous conversations that he hates seeing me hurt. I think it would be a bit of a slap across the face for him to hear that his attitude towards my choice of life partner is causing me no end of grief.

But I can't say it. I could have on Saturday, but I didn't. I love my dad, despite a lot of the things that have happened over the years, and don't want to lose him. I'm so scared of all the things that could happen that I keep putting it off. I don't want to hurt him or make him angry, but I have to say something soon.

That's right, I finally got around to registering the new bike. It's a painful process to transfer a vehicle from one state to another.

First, there's the Roadworthy check, which is worth peanuts. All they check is the horn, headlights, indicators and rear/brake lights.

Then, the identity check. This one is kind of important. It just ensures that the vehicle is not stolen and so on.

THEN you can take ALL those papers (previous rego and both checks) to the Shopfront and go through (yes, you got it) more paperwork to fill in. Then you pay the stamp duty and rego, get new plates and rego sticker and you're set.

I have uploaded the photos, too.
Sonja's Photos

Things are going fairly well at the moment.

I have a new bike, for one thing. A Honda CBR600 from 1999. F-series. It goes so well I've nearly done wheelies just accelerating on more than one occasion. It's scary when that happens.
I've organised everything I need to do to transfer the registration over from New South Wales, but it won't happen until late this week. It's a long and muchly frustrating process.
It's a really shiny bike, and I promise I'll post pictures later. I haven't got any with me right now.

I've also got myself an MP3 player. A 2Gb iriver. It's worth it. I think most of the music I have on it is from the 80s. Queen, Dire Straits... and then there's the recent stuff like NIN, Nightwish, Tristania and various others. Makes for good listening.

Yesterday, Doug and I were photographed by a close friend of the family. He wanted to practice his portrait photography, and I wanted some nice photos. I'm hoping to get two printed today.

I've been saddened by a couple of recent deaths. One was the 4 day old son of a former co-worker. Xander was the younger of twins. His brother Calvin survived and is doing well.
The other was a 24 year old man I never met, but who had a large presence in the motorcycling community, especially online. Androo is missed by many people, and he seemed to touch lives simply by being himself. The circumstances behind his death have not been revealed, but the police have yet to rule out foul play. His body was found under De Burgh's bridge in Lane Cove National Park, Sydney.

My new job is pretty good. One of the ladies made some lovely muffins today, so I bought two. I got a cinnamon one and a choc-caramel one. Basically, it's a chocolate muffin with caramel creme in it. Very sweet, and as yet unfinished.
I'm frustrated that I still don't have the access I need to do stuff like profile resets when they break. Around here, it seems that profiles break all the time.
The other frustration is users who don't know the procedure for a new password. It does not read "pester the service desk about getting a new password. If they tell you that you need an email, whinge and b**ch about it.". It says "Get a co-worker to send the Service Desk an email including your name and contact number. The Service Desk address is in the Global Address List."
I don't know why these people don't know it off the top of their heads, the way we're always telling them. It's incredibly annoying.
I'm glad to be back in a place where things are structured, and I don't have to be the only one on the phones all the time.

I promise I'll try and keep this more up to date.

Okay, I found out in a meeting today after handing in my resignation that they always wanted me as a salesperson, not a technician at all. They sold the job to me as a technical one when I went for the interview those 6 months ago. It's only because of the managing director that I got to do all the tech stuff I did in the first place.

What kind of workplace hires a technician as a salesperson and a legal man as a tech? That's right. One of the techs is studying Law at University and has written legal documents for the business before, but they don't want him in that sort of role. They have him as a tech. They wanted me to do all the sales stuff. I can tell you that I've stuffed up on sales jobs twice already. I'm not cut out for it. I'm a geek and a tech, not someone who sells stuff to others.

Needless to say, I'm angry and don't want to hang around the 4 weeks I have to.

I am quite thoroughly tired of my job. I am in early every day, and currently riding to work with my right hand on the throttle, and my left hand shielding my eyes from the glaring sun. Same goes in the afternoons, too.

I'm sick to death of being the one and only person who answers the phone all day long with any kind of consistancy. Sick of being the only one left in the office when lunch rolls around. Sick of coming back after any kind of time off to find that half or less of all the emails that have arrived in my absence were dealt with.

I'm tired of never knowing what to do, and having no guidelines to follow, nothing set in stone, at least. I'm sick of telling clients that there's no one around to help and that I haven't got a clue how to help them with whatever stupid issue they have today.

I'm sick of the crappy pay (for what I'm doing) and feeling like nothing more than a bloody secretary with some IT knowledge.

I've already started applying for other positions, and hope like all heck that I get something soon.

In short....



GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

I simply can't agree with the war in Lebanon and what America and Britain are doing. Which is, to whit: Nothing.

So far, over 400 Lebanese are dead, the vast majority of these being civilians, and all of maybe 50 Israeli civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers are dead, including a Sydney man.

How can Bush and his cronies sit back and say "No, a ceasefire is not a good idea"? Since when has a ceasefire been a bad idea?? People will stop dying. That's always been a good thing, nobody can deny that.

I know I'm a non-impartial bystander, but really... Israel has shown that it is not willing to stand down and play nice with the other Arab nations, and have ignored UN Resolution 194, stating that Palestinians are allowed to return to Israel if they so choose. Lebanon has been unable (or unwilling) to comply with UN Resolution 1559, which is for the disarming of Hezbollah.

Both sides need to stop fighting (and killing innocents) and get a grip.

America needs a slap across the face to wake up to reality. Bush will not win his "War of Terror". By declaring so many organisations "terrorists" and trying to kill them, he is only fuelling the animosity and hatred of his country.

War is not the way.