Watching television with the other half, we were greeted with the following:

I was extremely happy to see this; gaming doesn’t seem to get much mainstream media attention, and see adverts for these things on TV, even if it’s Foxtel, gives me a sort of hope that gaming will be taken more seriously in this country.

Today Mr Pedlar and I made an epic journey to Port Germein to walk along Australia’s longest wooden jetty. I had never been to Port Germein, and although Paul had been once before, he had never walked the full length of it’s jetty. The jetty itself is one mile long, or 1.6 kilometres in real measurements, and was a bitch to walk along in the heat. There’s even a fucking dirt road of sorts for a while before you even hit the jetty!

One we got to the end however, the view was amazing. You could see the schools of fish swimming around in the water, and the smell was intoxicating.

Paul even got some video, which can be watched by harnessing the power of the you tubes. What it doesn’t show though, was how much of a pain it was walking back. The jetty needed a) golf carts that gave lifts back to shore, and b) a vending machine at the end of the jetty (possibly powered by solar panels).

The whole day was fun even if we copped a bit of sunburn. I loved it. To finish up, some more random photos from the day.

It’s been almost two weeks since I had relations with that milk carton (I’m taking it out to dinner for our two week anniversary), and it seems Australia Day is upon us! So from me;

Happy Justified Racism Australia Day.
Yeah, I went there,

I wish I could say I’m doing something awesome today, but I’m just working. How are you spending your day?

Stilgherrian, one of my favourite bloggers, does a lot; he writes regular articles on his blog (as well as others like Crikey) about whatever topic has peaked his interest at the time, often adding his own humorous views for further entertainment. The man also hosts a (near)weekly live show streamed over the internet where he talks about anything of interest to him that week. In both Stilgherrian communicates prolifically with his readers and viewers to get the best out of his content. But this past week, the man encountered a hurdle.

His latest project, which involves travelling to Tanzania to report on what’s happening there on behalf of ActionAid Australia (who until he announced his plan, I’d never actually heard of), and to set up a sort of training program on blogging, so that the community there can communicate with the world about themselves and their experiences. Sounds like a good idea. To accompany his written accounts, Stilgherrian has also started making video diaries of what’s going on. The aforementioned hurdle comes from this project, in which one reader on the blog (a member of ActionAid) made a comment in a post about a topless garden gnome which features in the background of the videos, named Gnaomi. He stated on behalf of the company that it offended woman’s rights and went against what ActionAid stood for, and that it had to go from the videos. Suddenly, the conversation turned from one about the adventure into Africa to connect with the poorer populations, to one of sexual exploitation.

Today, Stilgherrian made the decision to keep his complete independence and declared that Gnaomi stays. The best decision for independent journalism, of course. The full explanation and “thesis” is here, but essentially, he’s keeping it partly to state that he makes what he wants, and that he “calls it how [he] sees it”; with biting statements if the topic requires it.

To me, the idea that a comical gnome statuette in the background of a video could cause so much controversy, is nothing short of ridiculous. I hadn’t actually noticed it because I’d been busy paying attention to what the man had to say. When I did see it, I laughed; it’s meant to be funny. I can understand people worrying, but I feel they’re looking too much into it.

The whole thing was silly, but it’s a good chance for the man to assert his position as a writer independent of outside control.