Some French Cinema

Lately my local cinema has been running this years French Film Festival (they do a bunch of foreign film festivals from different countries each year). Last year I saw a recent production of The Three Musketeers. This year I saw two films.

 The first was The Stranger based on the novella of the same name by Albert Camus. Filmed in black and white, the story was a looking at what led a man to shoot another and the consequences of that action. The main character is a very unemotional type, and I saw a lot of myself in how he reacts to certain things, and I feel that if the novella had been written today he would be considered to be on the autism spectrum. The way this part of who he is and how he reacts differently to others is used against him when it comes to the trial, and I feel that this is why not only is found guilty but is sentenced to death for what most of the characters were expecting to be a light sentence at worst due to the inherent racism of the society at the time (the main character is a Frenchmen who killed a native Algerian). Due to fatigue from night shifts I did start to zone out at the end where the main character was going through a final revelation, and while listening with your eyes shut means you can usually keep up with what's going on, that isn't the case when you're relying on subtitles, so I did miss a bit of the ending and the main characters final catharsis.

The second was The Money Maker, based on the real life story of a Polish Immigrant who came to France during WWII who became a counterfeiter. Jan Bojarksi started out faking papers to help people escape the Nazis, and after the war got roped into counterfeiting by a criminal he'd worked with during the war. The criminals get caught due to sloppy security but Bojarksi escapes with some equipment and goes into operations for himself. The story then follows the next few years as Bojarski deals with family problems, the police continuing to hunt him, and the challenge of the French government introducing new notes forcing him to start from scratch each time. Bojarski feels similar to Walter White from Breaking Bad in that while he initially gets started because he wants to provide for his family, his main motivation soon becomes pride in his craft (counterfeiting vs cooking meth) and the fact that he's good at the crime, and the lack of recognition galls him. This last part drives certain poor decisions like when Bojarski after nearly getting caught sees the main detective at a bar and has a chat with him. I did like during the ending where they mentioned that decades later a Bojarski counterfeit sold for quite a bit at auction.

Of the two I preferred The Money Maker, although The Stranger has made me consider reading the book (if only to get the ending properly). 

Rump and Reading 1: Project Hail Mary

Context: I've for a while had a goal to write a post once a week that I've not been meeting. Since I've started writing notes in a journal about each book I've read, I'm going to cheat and start typing up those when I can't think of something more novel to blog about.

 Project Hail Mary is a solid scifi story. The amnesia plot device is an interesting method of revealing the back store, and as usual Weir has a reasonably solid scientific grounding for events. PHM continues Weir's standard form mainly being competency porn, with the main character solving numerous problems over the course of the story. This is Weir's style, and he writes it well, although it's definitely a specialisation.

The interactions with the alien are really good and portrays a positive first contact (no Dark Forest in Weir's universe). Rocky is well crafted and the nature of a creature for whom sound is the primary sense are handled realistically (e.g. not realising Grace can tell the planet is getting hot while they are taking the sample by seeing it start glowing). 

 Overall a small step up from The Martian, and a big improvement on Artemis, which suffered for being much more protagonist vs the consequences of their previous actions rather than the protagonist vs the situation. 

A Question of Etiquette

So after a year and a bit of dabbling in using a dating app to meet someone and having limited success (I had one first date in 2025) I'm in a slightly unprecedented situation. In January I went on two first dates, and both were with women I'd wanted to see again. 

The first we met up at a comedy show and had some drinks and dinner afterwards. It was an ok night, and I felt it was worth another to get to now her a bit better. We had been planning a second date when she experienced some health concerns which have sort of put a pause on things (a hospital visit seems a bit much for only having had one date). We'd been texting and I'd sort of thought that she was pulling back to focus on her health, but I got a text message this weekend that suggests otherwise.

Which makes me a bit awkward because after postponing the second date with woman one I had a first date with woman two. The original plan was to meet up Saturday morning for coffee at South Bank, but the coffee shop we picked turned out to be closed on Saturdays, so we strolled around South Bank and ended up getting juices from Boost juice. We chatted for an hour or so before heading our own ways. 

We haven't worked out what we'll being doing but we've tentatively scheduled a second date for next week. I'm looking forward to it, and I think I prefer her to the first woman. We've got a bit more similar interests and a more of a similar stage of life. 

So the questions of etiquette I've been grappling with are things like "when do you stop progressing other potential relationships because of where this one has got to?" and "how open are you about such things?" (the first woman was quite open that I was their second first date of the day when we met up), and so on. I'm really not sure who I can talk to about such things as most people I know in relationships are very much in long term relationships, and I also have such a built in mental image of myself as someone who isn't seeking a relationship that I have a hard time even admitting I'm doing this to other people. Recently someone at work asked who the person who kept coming into the control room to flirt with me was and I pleaded obliviousness despite having considered suggesting something after the project we're working on is completed,

Anyway, these are questions which are kind of difficult to work out a solution from first principles, not least because I don't really know what the first principles are. I've done a bit of online reading, but there's nothing definite. I've seen plenty of examples of what not to do, but that still leaves a lot of possibility space to explore.

 I was hoping typing this out might cause something to pop into my head on the matter, but it hasn't and it's late, so I'll wrap up here and commit this to the randoms of the internet, who I feel better about sharing things with than actual friends, which says a lot about me. 

2026 Week 2

I don't really have a solid idea of what I want to write today but want to get back into the habit of writing so I'm just going to list of some of the things I did this week, and maybe some thoughts will come out of it.

 The first half of the week was mainly spent with work. Day shifts on Sunday and Monday, and night shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nothing too impactful happened there, on Sunday I went the whole shift without any phone calls, which is a novelty.

Tuesday I had a PT session before my pre night shift nap. I was back with my usual trainer after having a few sessions with one of the other trainers over the Christmas/New Years period. I managed to do a bit better with my squats and bench press, and dead lifts I did a bit less weight for more reps than I had been doing. My left knee has been giving me a bit of trouble, so I've got some things to do to try and help that, but unfortunately some of those have triggered tightness in my calves/Achilles tendon which is the problem that got me going to the trainer in the first place a few years ago. More stretches and foam rolling is in order there.

Friday, while a day off, I went in to work. There's a new project that's just about completed and is going to be put into normal operation soon which means my department will be looking after it soon, so a few of us had a site visit to see how the site is set out and how it works so we'll know what to do if/when something goes wrong there. Turns out while it's being touted as a huge environmental asset, it's pretty much a normal wet weather pump station. 

Saturday I started the day with a Parkrun. I got my first time under 35 minutes for about 4 months which I'm happy with. I'd like to get back down to the low thirties. I'm 11 runs away from my 50th run and I've got the idea that it would be nice to do a sub 30 for the milestone. The markets at New Farm are still closed, so I didn't get to have my usual bacon & egg roll from the German sausage stand. 

Saturday evening I met someone for a first date. We went to a comedy show and then had dinner and a few drinks. I think it went well and I think I'll try to see her again, but there were a few awkward pauses and some differences of perspective (I view a relationship as an optional extra where I think she sees it as a need) and she was upfront I wasn't the only guy she was meeting that day. 

2025: A reflection

So another year done. Overall I think 2025 was a positive year.

Work

For three quarters of the year I was on higher duties acting as the team lead while the regular lead was on extended leave. It was a different set of challenges (managing people is a bit different to managing things) and some new lessons to learn. I think I did ok, but other people have said I did well so I’ll try to believe them. There has been a bit of adjustment back to my old role I haven’t fully done yet. I’m still prone to get distracted from the main part of the job with the bigger picture items that are the lead’s responsibility, and I leave too much of the basic tasks to the other operators in my team.

I did apply for a lead position with one of the investigative teams which would have been interesting, and a bit of a change working regular hours. However I missed out and the feedback was mostly around interview performance, which is something I’ve heard before, and I’ll admit while I made the case for why it would be good for me to get the job, I didn’t make a case as to why that would be good for the company. I did get sounded out about filling in for the person who did get the job, but passed on that as it was a rather large pay cut to do so (I find myself in a bit of a trap where any sideways move within the business will likely involve a large pay cut due to no longer doing shift work, and even a step up will likely be a reduction), and for 2026 I have plans already for that money. So for 2026 I’m not going to look at options outside the Ops Hub, and maybe in 2027 look at day shift options then.

Travel

Last year I racked up a few more kilometres than I have for some time. In addition to the usual trips to Albury for Bordercon, Melbourne for PAXAus, and Innisfail to visit family, I visited NZ for the first time. Mostly I was in Auckland, but took day trips to Rotorua and Hobbiton, and spent a few days on Great Barrier Island which is a dark sky sanctuary. This is the first time I’ve been overseas since returning to Australia in 2009, and hopefully there will be more to come.

Health

I've continued to work on my health. I've continued with the PT sessions focusing on strength, and have generally been improving. My PB for barbell squats is 91kg and I've managed 120kg for deadlifts, which is more than I would have thought myself capable of even a year ago. I've also kept up going to Parkruns, even doing my first international Parkrun while I was in New Zealand. Last year I was hoping to get my 5k time down into the low thirties, and in the middle of the year I set a PB of 31:01. After that I started trying to build up distance in prep for the Bridge to Brisbane which was a 10k run and since then my times have stayed in the mid thirties. But I'm still going regularly (yesterday was my 38th Parkrun, I should reach 50 by the middle of the year. My weight while steady for most of the year at a little over 100kg jumped up during October when I was traveling a lot and is now around 108kg. I'd like to get that back down and am trying to regain my focus on better eating.

Social

A bit better this year. I've actually hosted some games nights which has been fun. The dating app I was trying didn't really result in much, a few matches and conversations, but only one date which was pleasant but no really spark on either side. I have recently switched to a different app which has produced a higher rate of matches, so maybe picking the one I knew was used by a Star Trek actress wasn't the best choice. I also went to a few speed date events without much success, and the last one was so loud and crowded that I found it very stressful and struggled to carry on a conversation halfway through, so I probably won't try that again.

 Looking Forward

 This year will be a more laid back year. I'm not going to push my career forward (although there are one or two specific things that if they became available I'd apply for). The big thing I have planned is using my long service leave at the end of the year to travel around South America. I'm going to do some package tours in Mexico and Peru, and will finish it off with a cruise down to Antarctica. This is the big expense of the year, and pretty much all my financial surplus will go to paying for this. I'll be off work from the start of October through to the week before Christmas, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Demoted

So the title is a bit of an overstatement. I've not actually been demoted. Since May last year I'd been acting as crew lead while the actual lead took an extended period of leave. Last week he returned from his leave so I've gone back to my permanent role as an operator. Immediate impacts of this are a pay cut and a slightly different shift pattern, as well as training the team to go to the actual boss and not me with boss things.

I've mixed feelings on this matter. There's a part of me relieved and looking forward to the reduction in stress (I've got a lot more grey hair now than I did a year ago), and for a while I've been feeling a bit like I wasn't being proactive enough for the job. For a while my mental processes have felt a bit like they did when I was experiencing depression, with my mind feeling a bit separated from myself (which is a bit odd since the mind is the self). I've considered utilising the EAP to talk to someone but haven't bit the bullet yet. However, there's another part of me that knows I'm going to get bored being back in my old job and will miss the extra challenge and responsibility. 

 I've learnt and grown a lot during the time I've been acting as the crew lead. I've had to go through the process of recruiting a new team member, which I think will serve me well next time I have to apply for a new job. I was the lead on duty the night the cyclone hit earlier this year which was the first time we ever did a fully remote set up for the control room, which had its own complications. I've worked with people and departments I haven't had to before and built new relationships with people.

Generally I think I did ok, but I am aware I'm a harsher judge of my performance than others are. The person I replaced has a lot more experience than me, especially on the practical fieldwork side of things, so I knew I wouldn't be able to do everything they could, and that did weigh on me at times when those sorts of jobs came up. 

At the moment I'm sort of in a little bit of limbo. After next week I'm taking the month off on leave, and the person who was replacing me while I was acting lead has stayed on and will also cover while I'm on leave, so for the two weeks in between we have an extra person, so I haven't exactly gone back to just being an operator, I'm sort of in between not quite an operator but also not quite a lead. Maybe that'll be a bit easier when I come back from leave as I'll have to fully focus on my actual job rather than the one I'm no longer doing.

I'm not sure what my next steps will be. I'll still go for future crew lead opportunities that come up, but I'm also thinking about looking at opportunities in some of the business hours team next year. That has its own challenges in that going to a job without shift penalties is effectively taking a big pay cut. Also I'm going to take a few months off next year as for the first time I'm able to use long service leave at a job (I've had one other job where I was there long enough they needed to include long service leave in my redundancy payout but not long enough to use it to take time off). 

Troy Story

Once again I'm not making it to the monthly book club meeting so I'm putting some thoughts down on the blog instead. This months book was the Song of Achilles, a retelling of the Trojan war from the perspective of Patroclus and focuses on the relationship between him and Achilles.

The book is written as a romance, and while the story covers the key plot points of The Illiad, it's always for the purpose of progressing the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles. We see the relationship grow over the course of their short lives (even factoring in the 10 years of the Trojan war they were in their late twenties at most at the end, more likely mid twenties). The relationship does seem very one sided with Achilles being more accepting and allowing than actively pursuing, while Patroclus is the besotted desiring one. Patroclus' devotion seems to dominate his personality, to the point that the one time he finds a role for himself without Achilles it stands out greatly.

In fact, Patroclus' lack of identity separate from Achilles seems very one dimensional, and very counter to the way the novel uses a more modern lens on telling the story. Patroclus only has a few instances where he shows any motivation other then being with Achilles, and does tend to make him unmemorable as what is nominally the protagonist of the story.

While not too graphic, the book doesn't hide the physical nature of the character's relationship between chapters and definitely wouldn't get a PG rating (I think I'd still make that conclusion if it was a straight relationship). What there is isn't too titillating (is that the right word for a M/M encounter?) although maybe someone attracted to men may disagree with me.

Overall a straightforward read with ok writing, although I do prefer Stephen Fry's retelling of the Trojan saga with his tendency to get distracted by side stories and odd bits of trivia.

I Dreamt I Dwell In Marble Halls

Again I won't be able to make the monthly book club I go to so I'm writing down my thoughts on the book instead. This month the book was Piranesi by Sussana Clarke. I didn't recognise the author until I picked up the book and was reminded she was the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrrell, which I read and enjoyed a few years ago after watching the miniseries adaptation. 

Piranesi is similarly set in a world similar to our own but with some forgotten magical element that has been rediscovered. In this case this takes the form of an alternate world consisting of hallways full of statues which induces amnesia. We are first introduced to this world by one this world's only current permanent resident, for whom this is the only world they know, but we are soon given hints that this is not the case. We see his journals change from a whimsical dating scheme (e.g. The Year the Albtoss came to the South West Halls) change to a more familiar numerical 2011 as they go further back in time. We meet some of the other people who have entered this world, although only one of these is still alive. This Other knows more about the world than the main character does, and over time reveals his sus nature and his access to our world.

We follow the main character as he comes to learn more about the world, who he is, and how he came to be here, and ultimately, how he leaves the hallways for the real world. It's not a complete return as most of his original memories remain lost and he isn't able to easily slip back into the life that was once his.

The story and the world its set in is intriguing and keeps the reader interested in learning more about it, and the only thing I'm disappointed in is that there wasn't more exploration of the world itself in the story. The aesthetics of the world is inspired by the art of Giovanni Piranesi, the main character and book's namesake. Overall it's a good read that I enjoyed.

  

Party Games 2025 - The Finale - 24/24

So the last of these have all been written on election day after I've voted, and again I'm skipping Labor, the Coalition, and the Greens as they are all well enough publicised to not be as necessary. This shows again I underestimate how much time this takes.

I think this is also probably the last time I do this. One thing that I've found this time round is a frustration with the continued prolific existence of the right wing nutters. They may change names, and shuffle around a little, but they keep causing division and trying to pull us all down and back to a time that they seem to recall fondly but objectively wasn't great for all but a minority of us. This is obvious in several entries where I can only suggest not engaging for your own peace of mind.

There's also a strong sense of nothing really changing, or if it does being for the worse. Palmer keeps iterating his idiocy, the Christian right wing still seem to think freedom of religion is about how strongly you praise Jesus, anti-vaxxers still exist and want to take medicine even further back into the middle ages, and the lack of engagement better options get shows that Australians are quite comfortable not giving a damn.

I'm not sure if I'll watch the election results tonight or just wait and see what the highlights are in the morning. I'm thinking Australia will follow Canada's lead and Labor will get back in thanks to the Coalition's embrace of Trumpism back firing, but like Canada I think it will be close.

 

Party Games 2025 - Victorian Socialists - 23/TBD

Victorian Socialists are the second socialist party in the mix, and like the Socialist Alliance they appeal to my lefty sensibilities. Higher taxes on corporations and the rich, strong support for unions and employee rights, action on climate change, strong investment in public housing and public ownership of essential services all get my tick of approval. 

They won't get my vote as they only have candidates in Victoria (as per the name), but I hope they do well (but realistically expect they won't).

Previous Review

2022

Party Games 2025 - Trumpet of Patriots - 22/TBD

Trumpet of Patriots is the latest installment in the Clive Palmer political fuckery saga. This time round their main claim to fame is spam text messages that seem to make them near universally despised and is a factor in me not wearing some of my favoured yellow t-shirts during election season.

You might assume that Trumpet of Patriots is just a rebrand of Palmer's party from the last election, the United Australia Party, but that party was deregistered after the 2022 election and could not be re-registered for this election. So instead Palmer has essentially taken over and rebranded another small party formerly know as the Australian Federation Party.

Trumpet's policies remain the populist nonsense of former iterations, but leans even heavier into trying to ride Donald Trump's coat tails with things like an Australian DOGE (despite how spectacularly horrible that has been in America), although that no longer seems to be a winning strategy (well done Canada by the way).  

Policy wise their against all action on climate change (no surprise for a party lead by a mining billionaire), leaving the UN and all other international bodies (forsaking a lot of the soft power Australia has), anti-vaccine mandates, and their cost of living plan is to bring back fossil fuel power stations (even though renewables are generally cheaper these days).

Ultimately Palmer is a Trump wannabe who seems to enjoy throwing his money away in an effort to push Australia in a disastrous direction. Don't give him the satisfaction.

Previous Reviews

2022 United Australia Party

2022 Australian Federation Party 

2016 Palmer United Party

2016 Australian Country Party 

2013 Palmer United Party

2013 Country Alliance

Party Games 2025 - The Great Australia Party - 21/TBD

The Great Australia Party remains a bunch of sovereign citizen nutters. They are running for a parliament they keep trying to say isn't valid, the leader refers to himself as a senator in exile due to the fact he was expelled from the senate due to being bankrupt, and he sends letters to Trump asking him to come and fix Australia.

Policy wise they're anti-vax, overly tough on crime, absurdly naive on economics, and feel patriotism should override knowledge when it comes to education.

They're horrible. Don't torture your brain trying to make sense of their nonsense like I have.

Previous Review

2022

Party Games 2025 - Sustainable Australia Party - Universal Basic Income - 20/TBD

Sustainable Australia Party - Universal Basic Income, or Sustainable Australia Party for short, is a rare instance of a party improving a little over the years. I still think their target population is impractically low, but they've adjusted it up over the years. Despite changing their name to include Universal Basic Income, which is a concept I support, they barely make any mention of it on their website, hiding it under the welfare policy section.

Their other policies don't seem to have changed too much.

Previous Reviews

2022

2016

2013

Party Games 2025 - Socialist Alliance - 19/TBD

Socialist Alliance is the probably the most left wing party on the ballot this year, and reading their policies and going "yeah, that makes sense" is a nice change of pace from some of the other parties I've been looking at so far.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that my politics leans left, and this it's good to see a party pushing hard in that direction as far as some of the right wing nutters do in the other direction. I like that they want urgent action on climate change, investments in public transport, free education at all levels, strong worker rights, and more.

They'll be close to the top of my ballot.

Previous Reviews

2022

2016

2013

Party Games 2025 - Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party - 18/TBD

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party wants their preferred people to be able to do what they want, and everyone else ought to get out of their way. This hasn't really changed since the last election, and there policy documents don't look to have been updated since then either.

They're still opposed to measures that were taken to mitigate COVID and they indulge in climate change denialism (they say they want evidence based policy making, but fail to acknowledge the existing huge body of evidence that urgent action is required). I'm not impressed.

Past Reviews

2022

2016

2013

Party Games 2025 - Pauline Hanson's One Nation - 17/TBD

Pauline Hanson's One Nation remains a bastion of right wing conservative culture war nonsense. They still don't have much that appeals to me, given they continue to deny the reality of climate change, are anti-abortion, xenophobic, and more. The only newish policy I can see is in relation to housing costs, and their plan for that is to exempt materials from new homes from GST for 5 years, which I feel is just a gift to construction companies absent some mechanism to force them to pass on the savings, and doesn't really do anything for the two thirds of home buyers who buy an existing property.

The party's representatives have been disruptive in parliament, haven't really contributed to improving policy, and often talk up conspiracy theories, so I can't in any way recommend them.

Previous Reviews

2022

2016

2013

Party Games 2025 - LIbertarian Party - 16/TBD

The Libertarian Party continue their pursuit of their ideological purity at the expense of ordinary Australians. They are opposed to any form of government regulation, and consider government not being an appropriate solution to any problem as axiomatic. For those of us who recognise that modern day life involves a lot of areas where coordination problems exist and that money is not the sole means of working out how to weigh competing interests the is a clear need for a proactive and capable government.

The Libertarian Party describe themselves as helping people, but don't actually have any policies that seem to achieve that. They want to privatise the ABC and SBS, get rid of all company taxes and replace income tax with a flat tax, significantly cut government expenditure and sell off assets to reduce government debt.

They promote bitcoin as an alternative currency, when the last 20ish years have shown that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are not fit for purpose for use as general currency (for example, how bad does the guy who bought a pizza for 10,000 bitcoin in 2010 feel today).

Their policy for women is pure transphobia. The existence of trans people is the only thing they bring up in their section on protecting the family. They don't bring up the pay gap (which they would support as they don't think the government should interfere with private contracts), they don't have anything to support victims of domestic violence, nor any other issue impacting women.

They don't want to do anything to protect the environment and want to repeal existing regulations.

All in all, their plan is to let the rich do what they want because they don't want to hold anyone to any sort of account other than a bank account. Don't vote for them.

Previous Reviews

2022

2016

2013

Party Games 2025 - Legalise Cannabis Australia - 15/TBD

No real changes in policy in the last few years from Legalise Cannabis Australia and so no real change in my opinion of them. I agree with decriminalising marijuana, but I don't think that's a suitable foundation for a party's environmental policy, nor it's human rights policy.

 They're not terrible, but they're not really prepped enough to be ranked highly.

Previous Reviews

2022

2016

2013

Party Games 2025 - Katter's Australian Party - 14/TBD

Katter's Australian Party has one thing that sets it apart from most other parties named after a founder, which is that the party is no longer led by said founder. In this case, it's officially led by the founders son, so I'm sure Bob still has a fair bit of sway. 

KAP is very much a north Queensland focused party, and reading through their policies it reads a bit more like they haven't been updated from the last state election. The policies are a mix of cruel on crime, overfunding rural areas at the expense of urban areas, and a protectionist economic plan. They're also the only party I've come across with a specific policy on crocodiles.

I'm not opposed to ensuring that rural areas get adequate services, but you can't justify every expenditure by saying rural areas need more support and underfunding urban areas to make up for it. They'll be late middle of my ballot

Previous Reviews

2022

2016

2013

Party Games 2025 - Jacqui Lambie Network - 13/TBD

The Jacqui Lambie Network is another leader-centric party that comes from a senator who left their original party but wanted to stay in politics. This time it is Jacqui Lambie, one of the few positives to come out of Clive Palmer's political shenanigans. I don't always agree with her positions, but I appreciate the effort and care she puts into the job.

The few policies they've listed on their party page are some economic nationalism/protectionism, anti-China rhetoric, and anti-corruption efforts to get money out of politics. The first I don't agree with, the second I feel they have a point but don't like how they deal with it, and the third I can get behind.

They have a few senate candidates, but they'll probably end up between the two majors for me.

Previous Reviews

2022

2016

Party Games 2025 - Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia - 12/TBD

The Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia suffers two issues that I can see. First, they need a better web designer. Second, they fall into the trap that many single issues do, which is that they only have policies related to their main focus and don't have any indication of how they'd handle other issues which will be 95% of things dealt with in parliament.

As the name suggests, they are focused on issues affecting Indigenous Australians, and in that area I don't see anything I disagree with. 

They do have candidates for the senate in QLD, so I think they'll end up around the middle of my ballot

Previous Review

2022

The Many Iterations of Harry August

At the start of the year as a way of being a bit more social I joined a book club that was being formed on the Brisbane subreddit. It's been good experience and it has got me reading more than I have in recent years and reading some things I wouldn't normally have given a go. There's usually some good discussion and the meetings are held at a pub on the night they do cheap steaks so there's good food as well. This month I'm not going to be able to make the meeting due to working a night shift so I'm putting down some thoughts on this month's book (I've kind of wanted to do it for each book, but haven't gotten around to it).

 This month's book was The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. It was a refreshing change from the previous two months which were both rather heavy (physically and metaphorically) tomes. It is a sci-fi novel about a man who lives his life over and over again, and focuses on how he deals with a problem that affects him and his fellow Groundhog Day-ers.

The story takes a while to develop, and starts out with exploring what life looks like for someone who experiences life like this. This is a bit of a mix, and it was at this point I started trying to work out how this works in universe. Like the titular character, I take a multiversal view of how things work (the alternative being a single universe that doesn't work with how things are described). Initially I assumed that the rebirths happen straight away as there is zero perceived time between death and rebirth (although it does take a few years before memories start coming back). However I started considering how this would work with people who had short lives compared to someone who lived a longer life and this just led to paradox or complex schemes with variable speed time. In the end my working model is that upon death the GroundHog Day-ers go into a sort of limbo until the end of the current universe, then they all move to the next universe and remain in limbo until it is time for them to be born again. 

The plot resolution does build on the early set up, but also feels a bit deus ex machina.

Normally I've taken some notes of the books to record some bits that have particularly stood out for me in the previous books, but this time my notes have mostly been keeping track of Harry's various lives (they aren't presented entirely in order) and the ongoing work to have a proper model of how the Groundhog Dayism works. Also, this wasn't as literary a tome as the last two books, so the crafting of the language used was more matter of fact. 

Overall I'd give it 3-3.5 our of 5 stars,

Party Games 2025 - Health Environment Accountability Rights Transparency (HEART) - 11/TBD

Health Environment Accountability Rights Transparency (HEART) have changed their name to somthing with a better acronym than their previous name which sounded like something a cleaner does (Informed Medical Options Party or IMOP for short), but they're still antivax, anti climate change, anti-education, small government nonsense peddlers.

I'm not going to waste my time with them, and you shouldn't either. Don't vote for them. 

Previous Review

2022

Party Games 2025 - Gerard Rennick People First Party - 10/TBD

Gerard Rennick People First Party is another senator splitting from a major party to form their own party. As the name suggests, the senator in question is Gerard Rennick who was a member of the LNP until he lost preselection for the 2025 election at which point he left the party and set up his own party of which he is the president for at least the first 3 years (as per the party constitution which has some weird redactions like in half the instances where Gerard's full name is listed his middle name is redacted). 

Having split from the LNP, his policies are a mix of economic populism and scientific misunderstanding. He wants to shut down all action on climate change and put a 10% tax on all renewable energy to cover end of life site clean up, which one seems excessive for the amounts involved, and two I'd be willing to consider if it was applied all energy wholesalers regardless of how the power is generated. And saying "oh no, look how much resources goes into building a wind turbine, how detrimental to the environment that is" while completely ignoring that building a fossil fuel power plant also takes resources is just disingenuous.

On the economic side he wants to make super entirely voluntary because people retiring still need pensions, and I'm not sure how allowing people to put less into super solves that problem. He proposes allowing the first $25,000 put into super each year to be tax free, but that you can also withdraw money from your super at any time for any reason, which is a roundabout way of saying you want to increase the tax free threshold by $25k (actually by about $45k as he also wants to raise the base tax free threshold to $40,000).

He wants a people's bank and insurance company to provide affordable financial and insurance services, but seemingly expects these to run without cost to the tax payer and doesn't realise that if they want to undercut commercial providers they will likely need ongoing financial contributions from the government.

Not a lot to recommend this one other than they don't seem to indulge in some of the cruelty to minorities other similarly aligned parties do, but that's faint praise.

Party Games 2025 - Fusion - 9/TBD

The Fusion Party, or to use their more unwieldy full name FUSION | Planet Rescue | Whistleblower Protection | Innovation, is a progressive party with a reasonable mix of policies. The policies are a nice mix of progressive priorities including action on climate change, more investment in education and research, and a good balance on civil right.

 It does worry me a little that this hybrid party made by multiple small parties still can't muster enough candidates on their own. Their lead Queensland candidate is listed as a dual candidate with Democracy First, which isn't a party, but I guess is an organisation with aspirations to partyhood, as their website lists some policies. Democracy First's policies are mainly about limiting peoples ability to work in government in any role, and I really don't like the way they want to do this. They want all elected representatives and public service staff to have at least 10 years non-government experience before being able to get the role, and for public servants limit their time in service to 10 years. I really don't like this for public servants as limiting people to only 10 years in the public service means they can't build a career in public service, and also means a frequent turnover in roles that are potentially very niche and don't have large pools of candidates with suitable experience in the private sector, which means a regular loss of institutional knowledge which is one of the public service's strengths. 

This association, along with their use of AI generated art, has made me lower the Fusion Party on my list of preferences, but they'll still come ahead of the two majors.

Previous Reviews

2022

Party Games 2025 - Family First - 7/TBD

Despite having the same name as a previous party, Family First are not the same party as covered here and here. The old Family First merged with the Australian Conservatives formed by Cory Bernardi which folded a few years later, and then a few years later the current Family First was established. 

However, it looks to be a very similar beast. It has strong ties to conservative Christianity (the party director is the former director of the Australian Christian Lobby), and policies to match. They have a very narrow definition of the type of family they want to put first, and not much to appeal to people who fall outside that definition. They are transphobic, anti-abortion, and opposed to any action on climate change. 

They're running candidates everywhere and will be towards the bottom of my ballot.

Party Games 2025 - David Pocock - 6/TBD

David Pocock while nominally a party, is an independent who has set up a party just to ensure they can appear above the line on the senate ballot paper, but since I've set my standard for which parties I'll review as registered parties that actually have candidates on a ballot paper, he makes the cut. David has been a senator for the ACT for the last term of parliament, and was a bit of a surprise win due to the nature of the ACT's senate representation. He's been reasonably effective as an independent senator and policy wise I like most of what he's done, and if I was an ACT resident I'd be voting for him. 

There is a second person on the parties senate slate, but given the ACT only gets two senators, there's zero chance the second candidate gets elected as well.

Previous Reviews

2022