Killing babies

Michael J. fox has Parkinson's disease. He is supporting a polititian in America; Claire McCaskill who believes in the benefits of Embryonic Stem Cell research. To watch this man now makes you want to cry. His disease is really in full swing and the medication is not having the effect it used to have. To see his message go here

However, what is really depressing is that narrow-minded, christian zealots see this as slaughtering babies. Check some of the comments in the comments section at YT there.

Ok, let's suppose for one minute that there is some point to their rants. If we check the bible, it says that God breathes life into the soul as the baby is born, not when it's a single cellular organism. Regardless of this, I'm tired of others making decisions about the science of this research without first checking the facts. In the IVF programme there are hundreds of thousands of these cells that are discarded after one has been used. Can't these be put to good use? Can't the already living benefit from this, or should we just let everybody die of debilitating disease for the betterement of a stem cell. To me, that does not seem at all logical.

For the Hard of Hearing

Feel free to tell me how vain this is...



This was filmed at Shoalhaven Heads Bowling club in 2001.

If I wasn't married...

I met this character a couple of weeks ago at the Master Builder's Club. To be honest, I love her to bits and we have been friends since I can't remember when. Rosanna is probably one of the highlights of my life. She has been a friend to me and a musical colleague who I love, admire and respect and will do so until I drop dead. I hadn't seen her in years, but after her Father's passing she moved back to Wollongong from Sydney and is living with her mum for the time being. When I found out about this I wanted to see her as soon as I could. Seeing her again was like coming up for air. We both have found that we have become more politically motivated in our old age.

Not only is she a brilliant musician, but she had a great set of legs...

A room by any other name

Here we are in late October and the spa has been the centre of many a fun-filled evening sitting around sipping wine, drinking beer and chatting.

Today I'm expecting to take delivery of a pool table to put in the room as well, so I'm sitting here waiting for that to turn up. When it turns up, I will post a picture of it here.

Late Update

Boy, it really has been a long time since I posted last. Our room is finished (complete with leaks) and the spa is working wonderfully. Deb & I have had a couple of relaxing evenings lying back in bubbly comfort.

We have just come back from the snow where we enjoyed a week in the cold. As I have gammy knees, I can no longer ski which is frustrating. I have to sit in the lodge and drink beer while waiting for the family to finish up. That takes all day and I can usually end up totalled. I decided that it would be wise to stay at in the apartment and watch movies rather than drinking myself into a funky haze.

I have more to post, but this will do for the moment. The World is calling....

Spa Time

Yes, it finally arrived!

The delivery boys were unable to bring it up either side of the house and, in the end, decided that a 50 tonne crane would do the job better.

This turned up at about 1:30pm yesterday and squashed Debbie's Daffodils. The cranes specifications only allow it to move 18 metres beyond its centre of gravity, however, we needed the spa moved 22 metres. For every metre beyond its point of no return, you add around 150 kilos. I watched in fear as the crane started to tip off its counter-weight. I asked the driver if the crane would go through my house. He said "if we are unlucky, yes."


I then went to the back yard with the crane chaser and the two spa delivery guys and stood there sweating with nervousness and fear. I think that my fear was easily read by the other guys there as I started babbling incoherently about Insurance claims and the like.


Once the spa was down, I was able to breathe a little easier and then had to help the guys wheel it down the step to the covered patio area. My job was to steer it into position while the guys stood at the front and stopped it from crashing into the kitchen. Once down on the slightly sloppy, flat area, it was then my job to push from the back while the fellows guided it in through the opening where the doors will be. Once on the tiled area, they then asked me would I crawl under neat it while they held it up so I could slide a flatbed trolley underneath it. I asked if there was another option to which they said "yeah, you can lift it up". I declined that option and decided to go for the trolley-sliding. We then got it into position and I slid under once more to get the trolley out again. We shook hands and they left.



We now have a gigantic spa, but no power to it yet and so, therefore, can't enjoy it till the sparky turns powerrun poweer throughout the new room.

Why are we Waiting???

A bit of time has passed as I have been too busy to actually post anything of any worth just lately. I have been organizing quite a few things for the extension and have been waiting for the silly bitch to ring me back to confirm the delivery of our spa. I will be calling her again tomorrow.

The Story So Far

The family went to the Royal Easter Show last week. We took the kids out of school for one day. My 16 year old was ready to leave early in the afternoon and was loath to participate in any activity other than trying to hurry us up. My youngest son enjoyed himself and I avoided buying the annual latex horror mask that I always seem to buy while at the show. The one I have permanently affixed to my person is bad enough these days.

When I remember where I hid the pictures, I'll post them here.

More to Come

I know, I know....I've been slack posting (yes, I'm chastising myself!)

I will be sticking some new piccies up of the extensions in the next day or so just to satisfy myself.

I've had a nice quiet weekend. No gigs! Debbie and I had our close friends over on Saturday night and I made a Mexican night of it by cooking up Nachos, Tacos, and a Mexican Cheese and Bean dip that I love.

Tomorrow, the builders will be putting the roofing up over our big, bare area where the dog sleeps/eats/licks himself. This will make me extremely happy as the poor mutt has had nowhere to sleep under cover for a couple of weeks aside from under the eaves. In heavy rain, that's not really good protection.

In the coming weeks, I am going to start posting stuff about the game I have been playing for the last couple of years on the PC. It's called "Eve Online" and it's absolutely brilliant!

Little by Little

Well, the builders have been around today and have done a little more (see photo). Things are slowly surely getting done. The picture you see here is actually from a couple of days ago and I've been too lazy to take a picture of the current progress. There is actually a sort of roof on now and they will be back tomorrow to do a bit more. They were all scratching their heads today and I asked them what the problem was.

"We don't know how to put the roof on".

I asked them why this was so.

They said "We've never done a roof with a funny angle on it before..."

I told them that they are clever and will work it out eventually....I'm not paying for overtime.

I am approaching the first weekend I haven't had to work in about 6 months. I don't know what to do with myself, so my wife and I invited a couple of friends over for Mexican food and tequila/beer/wine tomorrow evening. Should be fun.

Disturbing

I was horrified to read this over at News dot com dot au.

For the United States Administration to deny constantly the bad new coming out of Iraq is irresponsible and, in some cases, downright evil. Bush's administration cannot be trusted. On the brighter side of this, it seems that more and more people, including the Main Stream Media, are waking up to the fact that the Bush Cartel are a pack of lying fools.

Still Waiting

Well, another day has passed and our builders have decided that they will be working on another project today....just not ours. I'm not pissed, am I?

Rehearsing a song by Regurgitator called "Everyday Formula". It's kinda old, but it's a fun song to do. I enjoy a lot of Regurgitator's stuff as it varies from one song to the next. If you've nevere heard them, you should give them a try. I urge you to visit their site just to check out the cool 'OS'

The Weekend

Well, I've been through the weekend. Played two nights out of three and been exhausted coming out the other end. On Friday night, I played at a female Touch Football presentation night. Out of a room full of people, there were only 3 males and the rest were atheletic, lithe females; it was hard to take. I would just like to point out that these women partied and drank just as hard as any bloke's footy presentation night I've been to.

Saturday evening was a little quieter, but not by much. One of the only weddings I've played at where they wanted the bridal waltz to be 'Enter Sandman' by Metallica. Needless to say, I felt like a sleep in on Sunday, but that was not forthcoming, as I had to take my son to soccer. Maybe I'll sleep tomorrow.

General Personal News

Tomorrow week I will be meeting with old work mates for a luncheon rendezvous. This is exciting for me, as I haven't seen them in quite some time and I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about. I worked 23 years for a large telecommunications company. That's a long time for an old fella. My friends worked there for quite a while as well, but nowhere nearly as long as I had. I took a voluntary redundancy and left with quite a bit of cash. Of course, most of it went to paying off debts on the house and car, but at least I can say "I own it!"

On a darker note, it has been raining here and my home renovations have stalled because of this. I hate having a mudpool in the back yard. The picture you see here is on a day of sunshine. Note the dusty, dirty area. Imagine it with a couple hundred gallons of water over it...

A Culture of Entrenched Cruelty

After following with interest the problems faced by Cornelia Rau, I was flabbergasted (yes, my gasts were Flabbered) to read this little gem in the Sydney Morning Herald

Is there any reason why this should still be happening? What the hell are DIMA doing? It is obvious that this system is not working, or in fact, it works, but has been implemented poorly. A little investigation never hurt anybody!

'A Life Revealed' - National Geographic

Watched a special on this person. Sharbat Gula is her name. She was the "Face of Afghanistan" on the cover of National Geographic 21 years ago. This special was aired in 2003, but this is the first time I have seen it. I remember seeing her picture back then and was stunned by her haunting beauty. Her eyes pierced the soul.

Now, 21 years, later, I have seen her as she is today. Her complexion somewhat weathered, her skin ruddy, but her eyes now tell the story of a life of hardship. She has survived her time in the refugee camps in Pakistan and felt that her life was easier under the rule of the Taliban when they moved, once again, to Afghanistan.

If you wish to read more about her, you can find out about her at:
National Geographic dot com

singing for my supper

Yes, that's me showing the strain. I'm a bass player. I can't work more than 4 strings. I've been playing piano since I was 6 and the bass since I was 13. I was in my first rock band when I was 14 and am still going today. That's 34 years of driving people crazy or 'entertaining' as I like to put it. Over that period of time, I've met some awesome people and rubbed shoulders with some of the best. Although, I must say that the musicians that I work with now are, to me, the best. I think that I say this mainly because they put up with me. My guitarist and drummer have worked with me now since around 1980. That's a long time to stay together. True, we have split up on the odd occasion, but we always seem to gravitate back to each other. I think it's the familiarity thing really.

Scott says hi!

Well, this is all very exciting! My first blog and I'm very nervous.

My name is Scott and I will be your host here for a countless number of years.

I intend this to be a moderate blog and hopefully I won't go on a rant unless something really gripes my cookies.

As times roll on, I will most likely post less here, but for the time being, I will try to keep this as up to date as possible.

At present, my house is going through renovations and I am finding it hard to concentrate on anything else besides that.

To describe myself, I am 48 years old, married with three children and am left-leaning politically. I am retired from the workforce spending my last few years as LAN administrator for a communications company and am now self-employed in a rock band and I also do duet work.

I have a couple of favourite blogs that I scan every day. One of them is Crooks & Liars dot com. A great site if you are frustrated also in the direction that the administration in the United States is taking currently. It's good to see that many others feel the same as I do, not all of them Americans mind you. There are many scattered throughout the world that are worried about the health of the good ol' U.S. of A.

So, this is my first posting....hmmm.....I reckon I should have put a little more into it, however, there is plenty of time for more later