Nick.

I watched Order in the House late last night on the ABC. This is a show that every Australian should watch at least once. If only to see how juvenile our politicians can be.

The major topics of debate were water and climate change. I was particularly interested by the climate change debate. It’s an argument that is increasingly visible and the debate pitted Rudd (Leader of the Opposition) against Howard (Prime Minister) and Garret (Shadow Environment Minister) against Turnbull (Environment Minister).

The Opposition detailed the dire ramifications of climate change and asserted that Australia should do everything possible to combat it. The Government asserted that whatever actions we take would have negligible effect because we make an insignificant impact compared to larger countries such as China (oddly enough, they didn’t mention the United States).

Both parties arguments contain merit. The Opposition argues that we should lead by example and do whatever we can. If most countries did this, it would have a significant effect on climate change. The Government argues that whatever we do won’t make a difference to climate change, but it will affect the economy. Why should we unnecessarily sacrifice the economy?

I liken the Government’s approach to just mouthing the words (instead of singing) in a choir, or not bothering to vote in an election (because just one missing vote won’t count). Let’s just hope that other world governments don’t all feel the same…

This post has been a long time coming. Some of you may remember that late last year, we made some OneTwenty shirts so that we could all match at the Perth Massive.

I wrote about our initial failure and then our eventual success in screen printing our own shirts. A big part of our success was getting the right equipment. It was fairly easy to buy a silk screen and fabric paint, but the real key was finding somewhere in Perth that stocked photo emulsion.

Now for some quick pictures and details. We picked up most of our supplies from Jacksons Drawing Supplies in Shafto Lane. Here’s a shot of the store front in case you go looking for it:

There is a photo of their fabric printing supplies shelf in this previous post. Their paint and screens were reasonably price, but they didn’t stock photo emulsion so we had to look elsewhere.

After much driving around and talking to various print suppliers, we ended up at Sericol at 209 Railway Road in Subiaco. They’re are more of a sell-to-business store than a sell-to-the-public store, so they only have a small display shelf and all items are kept out the back somewhere. Here’s a photo of the display shelf:

I circled the photo emulsion in yellow. It’s good stuff; pre-sensitized so there is no need to mix in sensitizer before using it. The container also contains quite a lot; I don’t see us buying any more for a long, long time.

Here’s a screenshot of the building so you know what to look for while driving down Railway Road:

Note: This post probably looks like an advertisement, but we really could not find anywhere else to buy photo emulsion. There may be places online, but we didn’t have time to wait for an order to arrive!

Nationalism isn’t about unity; it’s about division. It’s about impressing a stereotyped view of the majority onto the entire population as an ideal for who they should be. Here in Australia, those that don’t fit this caricature (nearly everyone when it comes down to it) are criticised as un-Australian.

There’s only one thing that makes you an Australian:Australian citizenship. You don’t have to drink beer. You don’t have to watch cricket. You don’t have wear double pluggers. You just have to have been either born here, born to Australian parents, or naturalised after immigration. As an Australian your only obligations are to observe the law, vote in elections, and pay your taxes. You don’t need to speak with an Australian accent or share the same views as everyone else.

The concept that there are some things that are Australian and that these must be preserved reeks of prescriptive cultural superiority. Isn’t a good Australian simply a model citizen? Surely a naturalised Iraqi-born immigrant who strictly obeys all laws is a better citizen than an ocker fifth-generation larrakin who routinely commits minor crimes. Which one is more Australian? Some would argue that the larrikin is exhibiting Australian cultural characteristics, but not adhering to Australian Values.

Aspiring to possess Australian Values is misguided. We should be considering how to be good people, rather than good Aussies (with a strong monocultural bias). A “fair go” and “mateship” are qualities to aspire to, but they are better described as “justice” and “solidarity”. Unnecessarily Australianising fundamental moral concepts gives the false impression that they are unique to Australians (when they are actually universal).

I was compelled to write this post after yet another distressing Australia Day. Aside from the awfully hot weather (over 40 degrees celcius here in Perth) and my being sick at the time, I was again confronted by the abhorrent racism and xenophobia I’ve learnt to associate with Australia Day.

At Australia Day a few years ago I was on a train and saw a bunch of young men (wearing Australian flags as capes) lean over an Asian lady with two young children. One of them yelled to her face:

This is Australia Day, not fucking… China Day!

and was greated with cheering from his mates (while most other people on the train did their best to try to look away).

This year, I was walking through Perth with Heidi and a young woman prodded her boyfriend when she saw some Asian Australians celebrating Australia Day:

Haha, look at the Asians! With their Australian flags.

Many people say that this sort of behaviour is racism or xenophobia under the guise of nationalism. I assert that nationalism is necessary divisive and gives creedance to such attitudes and behaviour. What the difference really? Isn’t it really just saying we are better than others rather than saying others are not as good as us?

Pride in something you have no control over (eg. the achievement of other Australians, or the natural beauty of a country) is absurb. Linking morality and personal value to a cultural stereotype is absurd. Promoting “being Australian” as anything more than simply being a good citizen is divisive and grossly irresponsible.

I’m back from my short trip to Sydney. I was there for a brief (4 day) intense training course for a company I expect to work for. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to take photos, so I didn’t end up taking any. (That’s my excuse anyway).

On very short notice (and in my few hours of spare time), I managed to catch up with John (from ViSLAB), as well as my sister and brother. I also managed to catch up with being sick (which I haven’t done for quite a while) and I’ve still got some sort of cold/flu/cough (a lot of phelgm is involved at any rate).

Righteo… back to convalescing.

I’ll be away for a week… but I promise to return with photos. 🙂

Barack Obama has announced his intent to contest the US Presidency in 2008. Officially he is announcing his intent to form a Presidential Exploratory Commitee, but this is just the American way of saying he plans to run for President:

(Transcript also available.)

Preemptive Fox propaganda after the jump.

Continue reading “Barack Obama announces”

David just called me with this incredible news: Konami has just confirmed that Hideo Kojima will be speaking at the GO3 conference! No details are yet available on the GO3 website, but a picture and bio should appear shortly after they are received from Konami.

This is huge news for the conference and Perth as Kojima is a prominent figure in the game industry. Many western gamers probably came to know of Kojima after playing Metal Gear Solid, which was a landmark title for the original Playstation. I’m ecstatic! This is a unique opportunity for game developers (or aspiring game developers) in Australia to see Kojima speak.

Note: In related news, a preliminary schedule for the GO3 conference is now online (not yet including Kojima), and the Early Bird registration period has been extended to February 15. There is also a new Student Budget Pass available (made possible by making catering optional).

It was too much of a time commitment for me to keep writing for Aeropause, so I stopped. Shane, the editor-in-chief, is very personable and was very understanding. If anyone reading this has the time to write for a gaming blog, I’d recommend sending your details to Aeropause.

It was a great experience, but I’m not sure that I’m cut out for the blog-style reporting. I think that the most successful gaming blogs relay information on a very tight schedule. Ideally, contributors should be posting multiple times a day and offering recent news coverage with a unique angle.

Of secondary importance (at least for new blogs) is new content such as editorials and considered commentary. These establish the site as unique and can further solidify the community of readers. Unfortunately, new content takes time to write and can sometimes be lost within the tidal wave of news stories.

My favourite posts

My posts to Aeropause were generally unique content because I wasn’t really interested in news reporting. Not that I think it isn’t important! The other Aeropause writers do an excellent job reporting on up-to-the-minute news, but I chose to focus on articles. Here are a few of my favourite posts (including various comments from readers).

Generic Video Game Blog Post!

Christ, you got that blogosphere down to the smallest detail.

The Wii is Obviously Not Just A GameCube

You’re pretty much the only site covering it this way. Good on you for an original presentation

Nintendo Viral Marketing Conspiracy?

I have it on good authority that Reggie helped plan the faking of the moon landing…

The Colour of Next-Gen Gaming?

This article should be deleted, at least thats my point of view… still it is making us think a bit more about it… mmm

The Colour of (A Lot of High Profile) Next-Gen Games

i think the topic shouldnt be about the colortones of these games but rather the “setting” of the game… cliche’ “post apocolyptic” or “desolate future

My article series

I wrote two article series for Aeropause, each discussing how games are changing and where they may be headed. My first series, The Changing Face of Gaming, was fairly alarmist to jarr people into considering what is happening in the current marketplace. It was made up of three articles:

• Death of a Salesman: What happens to retailers when most games are distributed online?
• Death of a Collector: What happens to casual game collectors when old games are emulated and new games need to be patched?
• Death of the Disconnected Gamer: Is offline play really possible in future? Will stereotypes die if gaming becomes truly mainstream?

My second series, An Alternative Future, was kind of a call-to-arms for the gamers (consumers) to assert themselves in the conversation with producers that happens everytime they decide to buy a game. I wrote it almost as a response to how futile the first series felt.

• Don’t Buy Horse Armour!: Online distribution is a new market without established price points. Consumers need to assert their position to negotiate reasonable terms.
• Don’t Give Away Your Content: If they want to charge you for their content, expect something in return for your content.
• Why Do We Always Play At Your House?: Is it a good idea for gamers to be dependant on servers run by console manufacturers or game publishers? (What happened to community servers and peer-to-peer?)

I wish all the best for Aeropause. They have a great team of writers who are all true gamers. They also have a number of dedicated readers who have made my efforts feel appreciated and worthwhile! Thanks! 🙂

Share the truth is a website that aims to get An Inconvenient Truth DVDs into the hands of as many people as possible. You can either register for a free DVD to be sent to you or donate money to help send DVDs to registrants. I haven’t seen the film, so I registered for a free copy.

It seems that demand is much stronger than supply, but the project organisers reckon that this is a visibility issue. I’m not entirely sure… I’d assume that it’s simply that people are more eager to register for free DVDs rather than donate money.

I wonder why the idea is to send people new DVDs? Wouldn’t it be cheaper and produce less waste to getting people who have received DVDs to return them so they can be sent to other people? It doesn’t have to be mandatory, but I’m sure that a fair amount of people would be happy to send the DVDs back.

Found via reddit. Keep reading for a trailer for the movie.

Continue reading “Share the truth”