Two Interesting Videos About Australia Day

Here's a couple of videos from YouTube about the current trend in patriotic flag-waving yobbo culture -

"How Australian Is Australia Day?"

(I like the photo of a Face-lifted Bert Newton at 5:02)


"To The Australia Day Hypocrite"

So Sick of Passwords and Pass Codes

In our highly regulated and technologically advanced society, we can't function without access to online this and that, telephone banking, work-based computer networks and internet access, ATMs, Social Security and everything else. And with each of these we are required to think of 'a 6 to 8 digit security passcode consisting of both upper and lower case characters, one of which must be a numeral and !@#$%^&*()_+ symbols are not allowed'...

Easy...just have the same passcode for everything...Wrong!! Some services allow you to keep the same password indefinitely. Others require you to change the password every 10 weeks or so. The new password is often not allowed to be the same as any of you previous 5 passwords and so it goes...

I returned to my place of work after two and a half years leave. Before I left we could set our own passwords with the help of the school's network administrator. Now we have to do it through a centralised administrator via telephone - fortunately, not a call centre in Mumbay - and not only do we require a pass code to access the school network, we require a second completely different code to then access the internet from the school network. Needless to say, I've had my account disabled within a week owing to a lapse in memory.

Phoned my banking institute today to change the address on my account. The telephone robot, the one that asks you for answers and then apologises when it doesn't catch what you said because you started talking during a pause which you thought was your cue to speak but in fact was just the robot taking a breath before continuing to give further instructions about pressing hash, well, it asked me for my passcode. What pass code? The only option was to hold and I would be transfered to the next available customer service officer. Great! At least I can avoid the pass code problem and he (or she) can access my account for me if I simply give my full name, address and date of birth and ..."I also need your Telephone Banking Pass Code" !!!!

Long story short, customer sevice officer couldn't access my account - name, address and date of birth are no longer adequate security details - and advised me to go and visit my nearest branch.

Actually I did have a pass code set up for this particular institution when I first tried phoning them immediately after arriving home in Oz. Being security conscious, I didn't write it down. Well, I think I did but I put the paper I wrote it on somewhere no one would find it...and now I forget where it is.

So how do I get around this problem of endless pass codes? Simple...write them down with a clear indication of which institution they're for. Kind of defeats the purpose. I could try writing the pass codes in a different code...

Victorian Bush Fires

An amazing gallery of photos from the Victorian bush fires.

Coming Home

I'd only been away two and a half years but every day since I've been back something pops up that presents me with a touch of confusion or bewilderment. There were some fairly stand-out changes like a few added lanes on the highway to work which I had to quickly work out, and a helluva lot of new construction work all over the place and I wondered how a place could feel so foreign after only such a relatively short absence. I guess the fact that I never came back for a holiday during that time, nor really kept up with much of the news helped contribute.

The first day back in OZ was kind of strange. All the way down to my parents' home at Tweed Heads I just couldn't seem to come to terms with the fact that I was home for good more or less. I really wanted it to simply be a short holiday and then we'd be on our way back to Jakarta in a couple of weeks. What a downer when, every five minutes, I reminded myself that no, we were home for good. Still, it was good to see the family again, and eat yummy Estonian food (my sister's blog). Having no sleep on the flight also contributed to my bleary-eyed downer that day.

Went for a stroll around Tweed Heads shopping mall on the second day. Had the strangest feeling. The sea air was very clean and fresh, much more so than the Jakarta sea air and I think it was causing me to have a touch of happy-gas-type experience. For some reason I found it hard to walk in a straight line and when I went to the bank to exchange some US$ and Rupiah I found myself talking with a big grin on my face. I realised I'd been walking around with a smile I couldn't stop. Nothing to complain about, but strange nonetheless - a downer with a grin.

Which brought me to my first reintroduction to the "Indonesia - Australia Tensions" or whatever it is I was hoping would have abated in the time I was away. For some reason, the bank was unable to exchange my Rupiah money. The teller couldn't bring the exchange rate up on the computer. She went to ask her supervisor and came back to inform me that they could exchange my US dollars, but they aren't able to exchange Rupiah "because of the current political situation"!!?? Huh?? What political situation? Had I missed something?

"Really?" I asked, with the happy gas grin. "Thank you". I walked away a little richer having changed my US money which looks really boring compared to the super-dooper way out colours of Australian money...well it looked really colourful, but it could have been the happy gas effect again, or just the fact that I hadn't seen such colourful money for a long time.

Took our three and half year old daughter to the beach. She had been to the beach on one occasion immediately prior to leaving for Jakarta, but she was only one and a bit then so had no recollection of what a beach is. Tentatively she inched her way over the sand, not really knowing what to make of it, in the same manner that she didn't know what to make of the thick, soft green lawn at my parents' house, and eventually we made it down to the water. Long story short, she loved it and didn't want to go home.

On that note, just the other day, she came across dandelion in the grass and let out a shriek of excitement, the likes of which I'd never heard her give, when she discovered the the little fluffy bits fly away at the slightest touch. She was happy in Jakarta, but she's been so much happier here.

...to be continued...

Civilisation At Last

It's been just over a month since we touched down on home soil and it has taken this long to get reconnected to the internet. Ironic, but now I finally feel reconnected to civilisation. Even trying to keep connected via iPhone just doesn't seem to cut the mustard.

So, more posts coming.