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I sent an email out to a few folk when I wrote my review of An Inconvenient Truth a few weeks ago and I noticed a significant spike in the number of visits to this website. So it seems that you lot like to be reminded that there's something interesting going on, rather than having to remember to come and check it out yourself. And the whole RSS thing doesn't seem to have caught on with the majority of readers, so as an alternative I am now offering you the ability to receive an email every time I update the site.

All you have to do is type your email address into the form on the left-hand side of this web page (underneath the very egotistical "About me" section which I'm thinking of removing). A pop-up window will appear asking you to enter some text (to prevent spammers) so make sure you have pop-ups enabled in your browser. You will then be sent an email which will provide you with a link you have to click on to verify your email address and that's it. You don't have to register any other details.

Of course, RSS is still an option for those who have a number of websites they like to keep up with. Here's a reminder of what it's all about. If you want to leave comments you'll have to visit the site, but I'd encourage you to pop by from time to time anyway to see if anything new is happening - or if you just want to link to my photo albums. Speaking of comments, I'd love to hear what you have to say about the website and give me any tips for making it better. I'm thinking of a new design pretty soon too so I can make use of this whole tagging thing, oops I mean labels (gotta get the Google terminology right).

Love is in the mail (so long as you're not a Pom)

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Living in the Ice-box

How come I'm living in a gorgeously warm climate yet I feel like taking finger-less gloves and a fleece to work every day?

You know what it is? I was sitting in a meeting this morning with a Scottish lady, two English blokes and an Aussie and we were all having a good old whinge about how bloody freezing it is in the wonderful cheese-grater building in which I sit at a 'puter all day pretending to work. And I thought, this is bloody crazy. I'm sure we didn't move to the other side of the world to develop Raynaud's disease and a penchant for herbal teas and hot chocolate. I envisaged coming to work every day in floaty summer dresses and flip-flops, not packing a bag full of jumpers.

This is the best time of year on The Sunshine Coast. The weather is warm and sunny and we're all just starting to hang up our winter coats and dust off our bikinis and sandals and yet here I am rubbing my hands and my arms, cursing the fact that I forgot my cardigan today. Don't get me wrong, in the dead of summer I'm very grateful for a little air-conditioning as sometimes it gets a little like a Turkish steam room outside but the fact of the matter is that after sweating like a Biggest Loser contestant on the way to work I then have to pull out a scarf, fleece and blanket to be remotely comfortable once I get here. We're told it's because of the books. Part of the library is on the second floor of this building and one year all the books went mouldy due to the humidity. But really, there has to be some kind of air-con setting between "mouldy books" and "frost-bitten employees".

So, here we are at the start of summer in Australia.... I'd better dig out my gloves and woolly socks.

Peter Andre and Jordan duet - really badly

Peter Andre and Katie Price's duet has to be heard to be believed.

Image from www.news.com.au

Recently I've been introducing you to some up and coming bands with some great music that I whole-heartedly recommend you check out (see previous posts Chemists hit 18 and Chemists in unearthed competition).

Well, today is a little different. I'm coming atcha with some altogether awful music. Peter Andre and his wife Katie Price, A.K.A Jordan have recorded their own cute lil' version of A Whole New World, which apparently they sang together at their wedding. This is so bad it's good. It's highly entertaining, although perhaps not in the manner with which Peter and Katie had hoped: it's bloody hilarious. I had tears running down my cheeks listening to it and it's certainly brightened up my morning.

Check it out at News.com Whole new world of warbling and be warned, they're threatening to release a Christmas album. What are they thinking? They say love is blind but clearly in this case it is as deaf as a post.

(Apologies to The Chemists for mentioning them and this aural assault in the same post.)

Update (23/10/06): Looks like the Andre-Price legal team have had the link to the MP3 removed from the news.com website. Never fear, YouTube (all $1.65 billion-worth of it) is here:



Update (31/10/06): Wow! These legal eagles are good! The YouTube video has gone now too. I did just find an MP3 on my desktop which I obviously downloaded whilst doing my research but for the sake of avoiding unwanted attention from the lawyers I might just leave this post as is. The fact that all of these videos and recordings have been removed speaks volumes by itself. Thankfully, less painful volumes than the actual recording.

Sunrise solar panel petition update

Australian Channel Seven's Sunrise show reaches 55,000 signatures on their online petition against the government's decision to phase out solar panel rebates in 2007.

I am still amazed at the effect the morning TV show, Sunrise (and others) can have on the collective consciousness of the nation. When I signed their solar panel rebate petition two weeks ago (see http://linsdownunder.blogspot.com/2006/10/sign-solar-panel-rebate-petition.html) approximately 3000 people had signed up. Since then Sunrise have relentlessly promoted their Cool the Globe campaign which, incidentally is a crazy name for a climate change awareness campaign. If people think we can actually cool the globe then they're going to be a little disappointed. All we can really hope to do is prevent it from over-heating as much as we can.

This morning they excitedly announced that they had hit the 49,000 mark. We were discussing this in the office when my colleague, Linda decided to sign the petition. After submission of the form she was redirected to the last page of the petition to view her name upon it. Between the form being submitted and the page displaying in her browser approximately 10 others had also signed the petition so her name actually appeared towards the top of the page rather than last on the list. Not only that but, following the hype on TV this morning, they now had over 55,000 signatures. That's 6,000 signatures in three or four hours!! A few minutes later, Linda's signature was about 5 pages from the end of the petition. In the time it has taken me to write this post, which is about an hour and a half as I've been doing it at work whilst waiting for things to load on my computer, another 1,000 signatures have been collected and they are now not far off the 57,000 mark.

Imagine the difference that could be made if these 57,000 people began making small changes to their lives, such as replacing tungsten light globes with fluroescent bulbs, turning the hot water tap down in the shower rather than the cold water tap up, switching lights off when leaving the room, participating in clean energy programs, walking or cycling short distances instead of always taking the car, participating in carbon neutralisation schemes and so much more.

I really feel a change is about to happen and it's a great feeling.

The Chemists hit 18 on Triple J indie chart

Further to my previous post regarding The Chemists entering the Triple J Unearthed competition, I have since received news that they have entered the Unearthed indie chart at number 18, which is fantastic. Pete passed on a big thanks:

Thanks heaps everyone so far who has checked out our tunes on the Triple J unearthed competition at www.triplejunearthed.com/thechemists

We have made it to number 18 on the indie charts already, which means you guys have played our tunes heaps and downloaded them too! Huge pats on the back are in order. But you can't stop now! Remember, the more times we're played, the more likely we are to get unearthed, so if you can, click the link above and keep playing our tunes as often as possible. We could win with your help!

Don't be afraid to register (enter email and username) to rate and review our tunes. All the reviews so far are really positive and it's very humbling to read them. It means a lot to us that you guys are taking the time out to support us.

So, on Pete's behalf I would like to thank any LinsDownUnder readers that checked out The Chemists offerings and helped elevate them to this position. Hopefully they'll make it into the overall chart soon. They've uploaded a new song since my last post so check it out.

Pete has also entered as a solo act under the name of Thingo (A.K.A musicalencounters) and I have to say this is definitely worth giving a listen to. I'm struggling to describe the music but it's really different to The Chemists. It's less grungy and more dancey. Even if you didn't like The Chemists I'd recommend giving this a listen. There are great beats, awesome bass and some fiddly finger work on the guitar. Go Pete!

Coolum Kite Festival 2006 and windsurfing

The Gist: Nice weather, minging weather, confused cat, juggling, Coolum Kite Festival - very impressive and well organised. Went windsurfing again for the first time in ages - yay!! Spent a week writing this post. The gist is fast becoming more like a list of tags than an executive summary really, isn't it? I've decided to place the entire gist in bold, rather than just the title - what do you think?

This post is so out of date it's not funny. Well, actually it is quite funny as it's completely incorrect so I'm going to have to rewrite it. I was talking about how minging the weather is after a perfect weekend. Well, we've had another perfect weekend but I wouldn't say the weather is minging today and the building isn't whistling like it was last Monday.


The main point of the post now is to say that I've put a few random photos of the Coolum Kite Festival from last weekend online: Coolum Kite Festival Photos

Last Saturday evening I headed up to Coolum with Scott and Lucie to check out the kite festival and had a fantastic time. I was really impressed with the level of organisation and the quality of the entertainment. From shuttle buses from the main car-park a couple of kilometres away, through a multitude of food options, down to spectacular air displays and great music, I take my hat off to the organisers and sponsors. Highlights were:

• once again seeing local band Oka perform, although they were on a bit early and we were wandering around exploring and watching kites at that stage;
  
• a RAAF Roulette fly-over doing crazy upside-down stunts and vertical falls;
  
• night-time sky-divers who looked like shooting stars when they jumped from the plane and then let off bright pink flares when their 'chutes opened. They looked like magical pink fairies floating to the ground although I can't imagine the parachutists would be too thrilled to hear themselves described as such;
  
• fantastic salsa band, Hot Mambo, accompanied by fireworks which had us all boogie-ing away in the sand, which is quite a challenge.
  

Check out some of the photos from last year at http://www.coolumkitefestival.com/framesets/frame17.html

In other news, I actually got to go windsurfing again this weekend, for the first time in months and Lucie took some fab photos. Here's one:


I challenged myself by attempting a bit of small open ocean swell but I didn't really like it that much. Bit bumpy, you see.

And that's about that really. I did have a lot more written but it's kind of irrelevant now.

OK! Hands up who's wondering about the confused cat and juggling mentioned in the gist.

The Chemists in Triple J's Unearthed competition

A friend of mine, Pete (on the left in the above photo), is in a band called The Chemists. I've heard some of their stuff and they're pretty good. Well now they've been entered into the Triple J Unearthed competition. Triple J is Australia's top non-commercial youth radio station. It's a healthy mix of alternative pop, if there is such a thing.

According to Pete,

If you would like to listen to some of our featured songs please go to www.triplejunearthed.com/thechemists and click on our tunes to have a listen. Each time songs are listened to or downloaded we go higher in the charts. So if ya wanna, play the tunes to your hearts content, or even more! We are late entrants so we need your support to get us up those already incredibly stacked charts. Guaranteed good listening to other Aussie talent. I'm really surprised at the standard and quantity.

I highly recommend checking out some of the tracks they have on there. I'm listening to Man From Japan at the moment and it rocks!

Pete also suggests listening to the following bands:
www.triplejunearthed.com/theaprilmaze
www.triplejunearthed.com/stereowoo

Ride to work... walk to work

Apparently Wednesday was Ride to Work Day and today is Walk to Work Day, a fact that seems to have gone unnoticed by the University of the Sunshine Coast where I work. This is surprising considering they have a research centre for Healthy Activities and Sports Exercise (CHASE), which runs a Healthy Lifestyle Program for students and staff, providing a small number of activities and facilities, such as a walking group, yoga, pilates, weights, karate.

I wondered whether this oversight was to do with the layout, and therefore attitude of the Sunshine Coast, which is very much a car society. The Sunshine Coast is like a city that is growing from the outside in. There is no one CBD as such, and many of the residential areas are semi-rural or just miles away from the urban business districts. The large employers are the councils and the university. The university itself is "out in the sticks" although a small commercial district is beginning to grow not too far away. Public transport is better than nothing - I catch the bus to work most days but I live in a fairly developed and central area. Some colleagues of mine have to leave the office by 5pm in order to catch the last bus home, which isn't much of an incentive to use public transport, and cycling and walking are almost out of the question to all but the exceptionally fit (and crazy) due to the distances involved.

Map of the Sunshine Coast and its many urban centres from www.qldtravel.com.au

With this in mind I emailed CHASE to find out why they weren't doing more to promote these campaigns, and to suggest that next year they follow the lead of Noosa Council, whose Travel Smart initiative provided a free breakfast for those employees taking part. Apparently CHASE weren't even aware of these campaigns.

I have to admit that I didn't ride or walk on either of these days but I cycle every Tuesday anyway and this morning I got off the bus a stop early. However, Toby cycled 45km (28 miles) from our house in Buddina to his office in Tewantin yesterday, proving that it can be done if you really want to. He also car-pools quite regularly, which just shows that we can change our habits to travel more efficiently if we put our minds to it. It just requires a bit of thought, preparation and cooperation.

Speaking of commerative days, my colleague Linda declared today to be Chiton Day. Chitons are intertidal zone molluscs. This is the kind of stuff you inadvertantly learn when you work at a university.

A chiton in its natural intertidal habitat from www.wikipedia.com

Sign the solar panel rebate petition

Wow! This Al Gore movie is really ramping things up in the climate change arena. Sunrise (Australian Channel 7's morning TV show) have stuck their teeth in with regular reports on climate change and practical advice on what we can all do to help combat it. And now, in response to the government's plan to phase out the already reduced solar panel rebate, they have set up an online petition to keep the rebate. If you're interested in signing the petition (please do) then head to http://sunrisefamily.com.au/current/petition/index.php. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any useful information relating to climate change here or on the rest of the Sunrise website... but sign the petition anyway.