Driving

Dear fellow Drivers,

Yes, I know that today we had (as they keep reminding us) the first rain we've had in 60 odd days.

Wet roads are slippery, most of us were driving a little slower than we normally would to allow for this.

So why did you feel the need to engage your suicidal tendencies and drive unsafely and/or speed whilst the rain was pouring down? Have you forgotten how to drive in rain? Do you always drive like an idiot?

These are not rhetorical questions, please take more care. I at least want to arrive safely at my destination.

Thanks,

Julie

I've noticed a worrying trend

I love ebooks. I love the convenience, I love that they are usually a little cheaper than paperbacks (being that no trees are harmed in the production of an ebook). I really love that I can have a craving for reading some fluffy romance or stuff with cowboys in it at 2am and not have to wait for the bookstores to open the next morning to get some.

However, not everyone wants me (or you, or anyone) to buy their ebooks like good citizens of the interwebs.*

I bought my first ebooks in 2009, at HarperCollins (au and us) ebook websites. Buying directly from the publisher, getting additional epilogues from the authors I wanted to read was really awesome. I also belonged to a website called CyberRead.

About eight months ago, I got an email from CyberRead. There was something strange going on in the Publishing industry, and they'd lost the ability to sell some of their titles. Then three months later, they started sending reminders to back up my ebooks. Just before Christmas, I had two emails from Harper Collins ebooks. Despite it's popularity, HarperCollins had decided to close all their ebook websites. If you wanted to redownload, you had to do it before December 19. I forgot my one ebook on the US website, but when I remembered on December 21, it was too late. The site had been removed.

More emails have been received from CyberRead in the past few months about backing up my ebooks. Last week, I got the email I had been expecting and dreading. To back up or redownload all my ebooks NOW because CyberRead was closing sometime in the next week due to "unprecendented changes in the ebook industry". A few days ago I got another email telling me I had 24 hours to finish backing up or redownloading my ebooks as after that I would no longer be able to access their website.

I worry about this happening, because the Publishing Industry seems to be moving towards only large companies selling their ebooks. What if I don't want to buy my ebooks from the companies I buy paperbacks from? Even though they save a lot on ebooks not being physical objects, sometimes it still costs the same price for me to buy it. It's really worrying to me that two websites (one an actual publisher!) have had to shut down their ebook operations so suddenly.

I just hope that in six months or a year, when I want to buy an ebook, it won't suddenly cost more than the paper copy.







* (Also, srsly, buy your ebooks. Don't download them for free over torrent. For one thing, it's like buying a stripped book - bad and it costs people money. Like the author? That person who writes it gets nothing from you downloading it for free. The other thing is people can put nasties in your stuff you get from limewire or torrent, and then whoops, your computer is infected with viruses (which macs can't get) or spyware (that everyone can get) so yeah, don't do it.)

Never Be A...

Every time I have turned on a radio or tv today, I have been treated to Tony Abbott SHOUTING about how the Government has lied, said there would never be a carbon tax and now they are introducing one, oh how can the Australian Public ever trust them again, etc.

May I (and everyone else in the entirety of Australia) remind Mr Abbott that A little over ten years ago, we were promised that GST would never become part of Liberal Party policy?

Two days of childish Question Time where absolutely nothing got accomplished because you kept harping on about the carbon tax and saying everything would go up, without apparently doing any research or providing a viable alternative. I'm not saying it's all your fault for doing this, but you certainly didn't help.

What a remarkable and admired country we would be if our Politicians would actually manage to work together on important things. Yes, like Climate Change. And Asylum Seekers.

Othering at the Northam Meeting.

Just wanted to talk about the coverage re the 1500 people expected to be housed in a centre in Northam.

Watching the ABC, who is reporting on the town meeting.

One guy said "But what about when they jump the fence, steal my car, and rush down to Perth to hide amoung Their Kind"

Their kind? What, people? who are legally in this country - or born in this country? I understand you are upset by not being consulted (although if you were, you would probably have said you didn't want these people because they are queue jumpers and criminals), but you aren't by any chance, showcasing your racism, are you? Using othering and dehumanising terms when saying why you don't want something to happen makes me uncomfortable, because like many others, I am sometimes made to feel "other". I'm half Chinese, I don't look the "same". So when you make broad sweeping statements about asylum seekers, it really frustrates me. I have immigrants in my family tree. Mine came here legally, but when you make comments about "their kind", you kind of lump us all together, people who came through the "correct" channels, and those who had to leave immediately, and not wait for a visa. Many people have immigrants in their family. This is because a lot of people in Australia have at some point, come from another country. Or their parents or grand parents or great grandparents have.

I couldn't help but notice that except for one man hiding behind a sign that looked dark skinned, every person I could see in the shot of the crowd looked white. :( What? There aren't any PoC in Northam? Not even any Aboriginals? Or is it they wouldn't be caught dead at such a function so full of hate?

And I thought the response for the South Australian Institute being built for women and children was unpleasant.

--------

Some links about the meeting.

Local Anger Will Not Stop Detention Centre

will try to find more links later. Unfortunately, I read lots of stuff, but often forget to save them :/

never darken my doorstep

I had my name blackened and dragged through the mud by one of those customers today. The kind of person with such an immense sense of entitlement that when other people in Customer Service describe them to you, you honestly think they're joking. She was abusive, she was demanding, she called me names and was so agressive, that I actually refused to talk to her today. My manager said she would talk to her, so I took B at her word; She talked to the customer. I was being "She"'d, I was being "that girl"'d, and I, in the back with my other co-worker K, was really about to go tell the customer off if she used my name like an invective one more time. I have never wanted to smack anyone before. But I honestly did with this woman. Unpleasant is one word.

I suppose the positive of the entire unpleasant experience was, after shouting at my boss after he told her we needed to be paid, she declared that she would never set foot in our shop again. (Also, she did pay. After it was pointed to her that she would not receive her machine back until she paid, and my Boss offered to take her to court over the money.)

I don't think she appreciates how small the Apple repair community in the metro area is. I can think of no more than maybe eight, five of those are warranty centres. So, when she gets herself removed from the other 7... Well. I suppose at that point you have to send your machine away to get repaired. And pay a premium for it.

Normally I would be upset by this kind of thing, as it was uncalled for and rude and really offensive, but to be honest, this woman (and her husband!) is her own worst enemy, and I wish her upon herself.

And may I never set eyes upon her again.

I hate to talk of this

I had an unpleasant encounter this morning at work.

An ex-coworker (and believe me, if he hadn't been an ex-coworker then, he would be now) came in and said something really really rude and threatening to me for me to pass on to another female coworker.

And I just. I don't escalate confrontations. I don't believe in doing that, but if he had been one iota less whatever he was, I would have told him how unacceptable his language and behaviour towards me was.

But I didn't say anything because he was right in my face, and I was really not okay with that.

And now I have a headache and feel really small.


ETA: He called and apologised. Which makes it better but still not okay.

The results of Bullying.

Earlier this month a boy took a loaded gun to school (in Esperence) in response to being bullied. He was suspended, arrested, and police initially refused to release him on bail. He's being prosecuted, it's possible that he won't be allowed to return to school (which he might not want to do either), and it also will probably make it harder for him to change schools.

He was wrong, violence is never the answer, and this shouldn't have happened, but;

Here's a question; Why aren't we hearing about what is happening to the kids who bullied him so badly that he felt the need to bring a weapon to school to defend himself?

A lot of children are bullied, some quite severely. And speaking from experience, often the response of authority figures (including teachers) is quite often very lacking. Personally, after three years of being bullied by a boy from my Primary School, when he tried it in High School, he got whacked with Here Be Dragons (roughly a thousand pages). It was a paperback though. I'm not cruel, I didn't use the hardcover. When I took my issues (in Primary School) to my teacher, I got no help. When I went to his teacher, I was told she would turn a blind eye if I chose to retaliate.

The really annoying thing is, had I gone to our Principal, when it first started in year 5, it would have been sorted. Or if I'd told my Mum (my Mum is very awesome), I know she would have done everything to help me. But for reasons unknown, I didn't, and just took it until explosion point (I'm a bottler, I know I'm a bottler. But as I've got older, I know it's important to say what I really mean. I've learned how to say this in a tactful way, for work, but still, you need to stand up for yourself in a positive way.)

I suppose my point is; to kids who are bullied: Go talk to an authority figure you trust, who can stand up for you and be your advocate. Kids are incredibly cruel; whether because you have red hair, you happen to be a minority in your school (like I was), or just because. And to adults: It is not cool to turn a blind eye to a child who is being bullied. Kids who are bullied can turn into bullies themselves, can do things like the above story, or they could you know get help from you and sort their problems out.

Bullying is wrong.

Some advice regarding computer accidents (especially if it's a laptop)

If you spill liquid of any description on your computer, DO turn it off immediately, and go see a computer minded person ASAP. DON'T keep using it until it turns itself off.

If your pet gnaws a hole in your power adapter (or you've mishandled it, and managed to break open the casing or something), and said adapter starts arcing, DON'T continue to use this power adapter, and DO take it in to get looked at. Failing to do so may cause your hard drive to fail when an electrical surge travels up the charger and straight into the main logic board (and through that into the rest of your metal insides of your computer).

And finally, DO keep a backup of your data. You never know when the worst is going to happen and your computer is stolen/the hard drive dies/or any number of other things happen that cause you to lose use of your Hard Drive. But DON'T Keep your backup in the same place as your computer. Because if someone has stolen your computer/your laptop has been a victim of a lightning strike/Some disgruntled person decides to throw your laptop into the river, you don't want your only backup to have gone with it.

PS. With exception of the laptop into river, all of the above has happened to people who came into work in the past week.

PPS. Also don't use FileVault on your HDD. It will protect your data from everyone, even at the expense of the data - ie, even from you, should you need to get your data recovered.

PPPS. Take care of your stuff.

47 Days and Counting

I am a P Plate driver. Thankfully only two more months to go, come August and I will no longer have the green P's on my windscreens. I will be indistinguishable from every other driver on the road.

Now, I have noticed that everything targeted at P Plate drivers says we are inexperienced, we are (sometimes) unsafe, and some of us feel invincible. The onus is on us, that we aren't good drivers.

Whilst I (mostly) don't disagree with the above comment (in a general sense), I would like to introduce the idea of;

Other drivers don't help our driving.

For example, I am driving down the highway, stop at a red light, and happen to take off faster than the car next to me when the light turns green (because they were distracted, or fixing their lippy, or telling the kids off, or on the phone)

I am driving at the speed limit, everything should be fine?

Instead, veins of rage seem to go through the brain of the driver I just passed.
Like they're going "HOW DARE THIS P PLATER OVERTAKE ME????" So they will speed up, sometimes to insane speeds, and overtake on the left (which is illegal here), only to turn two hundred metres down the road. Because they couldn't stand that me in my little red underpowered car and my P Plates beat them.

This happens a lot. And some people are like, "But Julie, these people do this to everyone! It's not just to P Platers!" But we do cop a lot of flack about our driving, and at least for a number of us, it's not true. I don't deny that I don't have the same driving experience as someone who has been driving ten or twenty years (but also, I don't have the outdated driving knowledge and bad habits that someone who has been driving that long may have).

People just seem to feel this strange need to overtake a P Plater, shout abuse at a P Plater who has accidentally stalled their car at the traffic lights, and be excellent examples of road rage. And I know I am in the minority, a twenty-something P Plater. But whilst I can ignore these twits who make my driving experience really annoying, would someone who is in their teens react the same way?

So the perpetuation of road rage continues.

47 Days and Counting.

PS: If anyone reads this :P and had a different experience as a Provisional Driver, please let me know.