calebbrown.id.au

As our 60 day period comes to a close now begins the process of moving to our the new place.

So with this post I'd like to say farewell to our old place. You we're a great first home away from the parents. With your off white walls and carpet. With the small bedroom that I somehow managed to fit in. You had a huge open living/dining space and a balcony which we tended to neglect, except when we needed to hang out the washing, or cook a barbecue.

But you made having friends over great, and you never got in the way when we needed to play the Wii. Your position amongst your peers meant that we had to climb a long stair case, but it meant we could leave our windows and balcony door open in summer, and if we needed to the shops were only a short walk away. And you did all this without asking for much in return.

I am slightly jealous of your new occupants. Our new place is nice, but I feel like old friends with you. It will be sad to leave.

Hmm. It will also be sad having smaller wardrobes and no internet or telephone at home for a week. But I'm sure we'll settle in soon.

Hasta la vista

With the completely uninspiring state elections, that recently took place in New South Wales, I was confronted with how difficult it is to rank the candidates when it came time to vote.

For me, there were four people on the ballot who I knew I definitely didn't want to win. But I couldn't decide how to order the ones I didn't mind winning.

The NSW voting system demands that we give at least a number one next to person we want to win. The federal system forces us to fill in every preference. But what if I don't care who wins? Why can't there be a way for me to say "I don't care who win's just as long as it isn't these candidates"?

Well following is my proposal for such a system...

I read an article titled Click here to give 'em the flick on SMH.

It's an article describing some research about how teenagers are playing out their relationships more and more online.

I found the following quote particularly sad. Despite desiring physical interaction teens still resort to a cheaper, unsatisfying, alternative online. While they now have "far greater access to networked publics" I think they also have greater access to the mall and movie theatres than I ever had when I was their age.

Boyd also observed that technology had made it far more common for relationships to be played out in cyberspace - over instant-messaging tools and MySpace - than in the real world.

"While physical interactions are deeply desired, they are typically quite rare," she said.

"Although the mall and move [sic] theater are still desired outtings [sic] for teen couples, many have far greater access to networked publics like MySpace than they do to unmediated publics."

I have a theory (one of many) that the amount of daylight during peak hour effects the severity of the traffic or the perception and tolerance for traffic by drivers.

I don't know about anyone else, but since the return from daylight savings time to normal time the traffic on the drive home has felt worse, and driving to my Spanish class tonight I found myself getting more frustrated than usual at the busyness of President Ave.

I think the amount of daylight changes the way we drive. When it is dark it is harder to judge distances and to see the road ahead of you. As a result people leave larger gaps, drive more slowly or are more likely to delay an action because it is harder to tell if it safe or not. All of these factors, I believe, lead to slower moving traffic - which, when coupled with the volume of traffic during peak hour, increase the severity of the traffic.

I also think that driving home from work in the dark changes how drivers respond to peak hour traffic. When the sun is up and you're on the way home, I reckon you feel like you've got a whole evening ahead of you to unwind, relax or work on a hobby. But when the sun is down and its dark, it feels like there's much less time. Driving home in daylight increases our tolerance to sitting in slow traffic, whereas feeling like we'll soon need to be in bed increases the feeling of urgency, making us more frustrated with traffic.

I suspect that both factors are at work, making the negative experience much greater. However I suspect our attitude adjusts slightly as we get used to the hours of sunrise and sunset.

Maybe in the future I should base the hours I start and finish work on when the sun sets, so that I'm always driving home an hour before hand, avoiding the problems darkness brings.

That or I could just work from home, or in a country town with no traffic.

New South Wales, Australia is on the cusp of one its defining moments for the next 4 years. That's right, its election time. A chance to express my democratic freedom and elect a representative from amongst my peers to represent my interests a make decisions on my behalf.

But every time the writ is issued and the rolls are closed I start to ponder who should I vote for. Oh, and not just who, but in what order (ah, the beauty of the preferential system). Should I give my first preference to the Australian Labour Party, the Liberals (who are really quite conservative), or the Christian Democratic Party? After I've figured that out, who then gets the number 2 spot?