Category: rant’n’rave

What is going on? is it a full moon or something?
In my 25 minute ride to work this morning I saw three completely stupid driving moments.

1. Riding up my own street, when a 40ish woman in a silver Camry (WOJ750) approaches a stop sign, takes a look at me – literally 5 metres away, decides I’m no threat and pulls out in front of me as she flips the bird and then tears off down the street leaving me jamming my brakes and turning sharply to avoid being hit. I’m guessing she had just dropped her child at the catholic school down the street, so it’s likely I’ll see her again. Any suggestions on how I should greet her next time?
2. Next, waiting at the Dawson Street crossing on the Upfield bike path. There’s only one car coming – a black Toyota Prado with its lights on (OK, so I should have spotted the signs then!). I see that the lights have turned yellow so I assume they’ll be stopping and turn my attention to crossing with my green light. The light turns green and I’m just about to start when I realise that instead of stopping, she’s gunned the Prado, through a now very red light, across the rail crossing and bike path at about 60km/h, shocking everyone around. All this right outside the Victoria Police Traffic Branch!
3. Strike three was on Royal Parade, waiting with quite a crowd at the Cemetery Road lights. The lights change and everyone struggles to get going in the confines of an inadequate cycle lane when a MCC utility zooms through the left slip lane to pass a bunch of cars that haven’t got moving yet. Only missed my handlebars by about 30cm and driving at about 40km/h he had no idea whether one of those cyclists might wobble out of their lane. So much for the 1800-SAFETY bumper sticker!

Three very stupid people – no damage done, but the odds are it will happen one day.

Really saddens me to see recent stories regarding new marine parks and sanctuaries lead to ill informed, populist, knee jerk responses from fellow fishermen.

Firstly: conservationists, or ‘greenies’, the word so many fishermen spit out without any clue as to the meaning. What do greenies want? In this case, they want better living conditions for fish species so that those species may prosper and their environment improve. So, what? are all these angry fishermen against that? I don’t think so… when are you all going to realise, YOU ARE ON THE SAME SIDE.

What are they thinking? The libs have effectively just effectively voted against the ETS by electing the rabid Tony Abbott as their leader. If the government goes to an election on this, all indications are that there will be about half a dozen libs left in parliament – and probably no nats!

You’d think I’d be celebrating – I’m not a Liberal supporter – but I think the saddest thing about this whole saga, ETS included, is that regardless of whether you believe in climate change, or man’s contribution to it, or any other of the sundry side-issues involved here, the bottom line is that it is not a good idea to dig stuff up and use it like there is no tomorrow. Let me put it like this:

You are standing at the edge of a desert of unknown size. You need to walk to the other side of this desert. You have enough water for some days, but there is none in the desert. Do you drink all the water on the first day? No, that would be stupid and an almost certain path to death.

So here we are, a day into the desert, at the leading edge of the future. We have no idea how far we can go, but we’re using our resources at a rate that will see us in difficulty before too long. Is that smart? No, even climate change sceptics can’t believe that is smart. Things have to change – rapidly!

And the politicians are leading us! Is that smart?

If the Liberal’s leadership stupidity leads to a federal election, lets make sure we remind the pollies of both parties know who’s really running this country.

Been an interesting few weeks. On September 4, I went in for minor knee surgery – should have been a few days of discomfort and then a few weeks of steady recovery and I’d be back, better than ever… well, that was the idea. Don’t know what went wrong, but it involved lots of swelling and pain, and a couple of unscheduled nights in hospital. In the scheme of things it’s still pretty minor stuff – even though three weeks later, I’m still on crutches, I am slowly getting better and there shouldn’t be any permanent problems. What has been interesting though, is the stuff I’ve learned on the way.

1) You get helpless real fast! When things go wrong, they go wrong quickly. One minute you’re tracking OK and the next, you’re doped up with morphine, unable to move around independently and incapable of doing anything more than watch TV. Don’t ever imagine you won’t end up there: very confronting.

2) Life on crutches is hard! Every day you walk around town you’ll see people with mobility problems. There are people on crutches, with walking sticks, in wheelchairs. It’s commonplace – so much so that I know I take it for granted that they’re doing OK, sure it’s inconvenient, but it can be done. That was until I tried to get off a tram for the first time the other day. It is a long way down when you’ve got a bung leg and only a pair of crutches to stop you! Around about then I began to appreciate just how terrifying it must be for all those people, particularly the older ones, who don’t have the greatest balance or have some other problem. Trams, stairs, crossing busy roads, doors that want to squash you, even just an uneven footpath – all these things present incredible obstacles that I never have given a thought to in my daily life. So next time you see someone with a walking stick, just make sure they don’t need a hand with anything. It might be a minute’s inconvenience for you, but nothing like what they face every minute of every day.

3) Accessibility matters. I was once surprised during a conversation with an architect who was bemoaning the cost of complying with disabled access regulations. Coming from a web development background I was familiar with the extra care that was required to ensure compliance with disability legislation. It’s much the same in concrete as it is in html… it takes a little more time, but the benefits are for all. Now that I’ve been on the other side of this, temporarily disabled, and I’ve seen just how daunting it can be when an environment is not well designed. What makes my blood boil though, is that there are still plenty of people (in my organisation and elsewhere), who commission, manage and build websites that don’t comply with accessibility legislation. The arrogance is breathtaking: as if it isn’t hard enough just getting by day to day with a disability, there are people out there who think it isn’t worth the effort to make life for these people just a little easier. I’m just going to have to take a bit more of a mongrel attitude with me when I return to work!