EXCHANGE INTERFACE

Full moon last night. I didn't really sleep. Much UGH.

Bug problem is (mostly, probably, hopefully) dealt with. I got rid of the bug-infested food, have pestdusted all surfaces that I can find/imagine/work with, and will be verrrry careful about continuing to pest-dust in future.

At some point I really have to power-spray the walls of the porch. Tomorrow morning seems like a pretty good time, seeing as it is scheduled to hit 33C during the day. A nice swift dry. (ETA: posted this the next day - Thursday - and just did it an hour ago.)

Hockey was pretty good. We have goalies for all three teams, so that's also nice for me not to have to suit up. I can, but I don't really enjoy it - one ends up being neither of one team or another. Now, to try to get into at least Team 2...

One of my PT sessions is right before training - 6pm-7pm - we switched from lower body to upper, and although I'm a bit sore today (a little around the front shoulders into the chest, and in the traps), I think I'm okay.

I'm also going to go for short runs - go back into that couch-to-5K training, I think. I need better stamina out on the field, and the aerobic exercise helps my general state of mind as well as kicking my metabolism along.

Granted, I'll be getting about 3 hours of that aerobic exercise by the height of hockey season. It's the off-season where I struggle.

My period has apparently threatened to turn up this month as a couple of drops ("spotting" according to Clue) but has since vanished. It was due on Sunday and I even had my mooncup ready. And nix, nil, naught. Not sure what to make of that. IDK, it might turn up in a few days or something. Just when I least expect it...

It seems to me that comparing a western world COVID-ridden government health order situation to Eastern European peoples post-WWII is a little presumptuous. Like, the tyranny eastern Europe experienced in the 2nd half of last century was not even close to what people are presently experiencing under covid restrictions. Seriously, it's this mass delusion of grandeur: that they are the Imperilled Ones (swoon) with Their Hand Against Every Man's (And The World). It's wearying, frankly, and drama-llama. Sure, there's a lot of emergency legislation being passed, but there's also a health and health-system crisis in progress! Just because some people don't see it with their small minds and their narrow vision doesn't mean everything is peachy-keen for others.

Weekend by-election for four state seats: the centrists retained one seat, won another from the conservatives that's always previously been conservative, an independant is neck-and-neck with a conservative in a traditionally conservative seat, and I don't know about the last but the conservatives are said to be winning (the conservatives were said to be winning over in the independent-conservative neck-and-neck race, too).

This has BIG IMPLICATIONS if they also play out at a federal level. Admittedly, last election there were six contenders for my federal seat - conservative (incumbent), ultra-conservative racist party, centrist (major party), Greens, and two independents, and the incumbent still won handily enough, although he saw a fairly significant swing against him. I think he was over the line even before they got to 'preferences' (preferences are voters' second choice, after the first choice is ditched for not having enough votes to win).

But that was 2019. We've had bushfires, we've had a pandemic, we've had the Parliament House #MeToo moment, the AUKUS fracas, Novax-gate, and all manner of other clumsy, awkward, and terrible moments. And I know while a lot of people in my area will never vote Labor or Greens, they don't much like the conservatives' inability to do anything regarding social justice, equity, equality, racial justice, environmental action.

An Independent candidate - one with a high enough profile and some good name recognition - could get a lot of traction this year. The problem is that we don't have anyone local with a high enough profile and good name recognition, who could be seen as a member of the religious community in good standing. This area has a lot of churches and a lot of Christian schools that even irreligious people send their kids to, and a lot of rusted-on oldies and conservative middle-agers. What you want to do is present them with an option that is less conservative in some areas and also either willing to buck the party line (our current federal rep is not willing to buck the party line in any way) or not have a party line that they have to buck. An Independent candidate is probably our best bet, because We Are Not An Area That Votes Labor/Centrist, Let Alone Left Wing/Greens.

These are important distinctions in Australian politics.

Anyway, this post is entirely too big, long, and rambly. Gardening is happening. Cooking is happening. Writing is not. Neither is quilting. *sigh* I might drift back into writing and quilting more in the winter. In the meantime, I'm out here just trying to get a few more naps in.

I decided not to go up to visit the friend on the farm.

All my COVID rapid antigen tests come back negative (they're the 90% accuracy sort), but I'm still tired and exhausted and 'bronchial' (as I've been on and off for months), and I didn't want to be expending the effort of navigating a strange place and my health and the risk levels all at once.

So I called my friends at 6:30am this morning (yes, they were awake) and told them I wasn't going. I feel a little bad that it meant the guy who I was supposed to be sharing driving with would have to drive all the way up himself, but...

I've rested most of the day, laid in bed and read. The chest still isn't feeling great, although a couple of puffs of ventolin helps. Also, I'm feeling a bit overheated, although that could be because I've been cooking for the last hour.

At this point, sadly, I think that the assumption truly is going to have to be that anyone who is doing anything out in the community (even basic shopping) is likely to contract COVID.

( politics, bureacracy, what happens when you let economic conservatives have the reins )

Finally, I would like to state here and now (if I haven't already) that contracting COVID is not a moral failure. It's not "The Covid Prosperity Gospel" where you do all the right things and therefore you will never get COVID. It's risk mitigation. And although you can mitigate risk, you can reduce risk, it is really hard to entirely remove it.

Tomorrow is a public holiday, and then on Tuesday, NSW goes the way of any Republican-led US state.

Our state Premier resigned on Friday over a matter of corruption. ( state politics )

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Otherwise, here, have a bunch of links:

October 1st, Heather Cox Richardson talks about the USA a year ago

The Cross And The Machine: a story about the loss of faith and finding it again, about coming back to beginnings.

the illusion of choice in our food: Pantsuit Politics did an episode about how the supply chain is screwed, and I haven't yet listened to it and I need to. This is particularly relevant in Australia, because we are truly at the arse end of the world and everything takes ages to get here. (Hey, I've been waiting 20 years for friends to come visit me...)

Against Kids' Sports: the commodification of what should be leisure and fun. Symptom of a broader sickness in western society, but amplified in the US.

How 9/11 led to Trump.

politics and religion

Some of these are pretty old, just set down for linkage.

( back to January, the Georgia election, and the riots )

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( a little more timeless; all kinds of bits and pieces )

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Women have had a rough few weeks in Australian politics.

( TW: sexual assault, intimate partner violence, power and religion and scandal )

Evangelicalism is certainly having a reckoning right now. I just wish I could believe that Evangelicals would come out a little more shaken in their beliefs. Not likely, alas.

These next two articles are written by a woman I interact with regularly on FB: Australian, Christian, local. She's a minister in the Baptist church (conference?) of Australia (very different to the SBC) and vocal on women's issues, feminism (although she doesn't call it that), and evangelicalism (the Australian kind).

( the church and sexuality )

...anyway. That was a links dump and a half. What a week. What a week to be an Australian woman - and specifically a woman of Asian descent living in a western country.

I think the terrifying thing is that the US at least has leadership who seems to be willing to move in the direction of doing the right thing.

Australia does not, and although we seem easygoing, we are overall a very conservative culture beneath our larrikinism.

I would usually write "a plague on whoever came up with that old 90s R&B vid of the guy singing the song about counting before he 'starts all over again' and posted it EVERYWHERE to describe Nevada's ballot counting" but with COVID on the planet, it seems unwise.

BUT DAMMIT I'VE HAD THAT SONG IN MY HEAD FOR FOUR FREAKING DAYS.

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My maths/politics geek friend is still occasionally posting updates on the numbers in the states. Someone pointed out that it doesn't matter now that Biden has PA, and he replied in allcaps: IT MATTERS TO OUR TIPPING RESULTS

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I have drunk most of a can of Mountain Dew. This was probably unwise.

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A few newspaper headlines in Australia:

The West Australian: Donny Spit!

The front page of tomorrow's The West Australian. pic.twitter.com/rodWYHP3xl

— The West Australian (@westaustralian) November 8, 2020

Sydney Morning Herald: A Time To Heal

Back on the job. Here’s Monday’s front page pic.twitter.com/hA49VTtw6P

— Ben Cubby (@bencubby) November 8, 2020

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An originally-from-GA friend got narky about something one of the PSA guys said regarding most GAians not even knowing who Chuck Schumer was. Except I took it to some other Americans (because I wanted advice on whether to suggest cooling her jets and if so, how) and they said that it was more about federal vs local politics - big vs small govt - which made more sense of the first reply I saw to her, which was about who knows best for the area and the liberties of the individual.

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In other, local political news, the NSW Electoral Commission is redrawing state electoral districts: I think that the population of the area has increased so much that they're adding new districts.

We'd be in one of the new districts, which would be a mix of low-density suburban and high-density suburban with significant non-white and immigrant populations.

( local politics perhaps? )

Okay, time to work.

Today is a 'double donut day' in Melbourne, Victoria.

0 new cases.

0 deaths.

Look, lockdown isn't fun, and no, it shouldn't be permanent. But in mid-July, Melbourne was getting 700+ cases a day. They went into lockdown and now they're 0.

Everywhere else that's comparable continued to have citizens wandering around, and they're reading 15K, 25K, 40K new cases a day. Don't ask about the deaths.

"Lockdowns don't work," people insist.

They do. They get the numbers down. They limit the spread. They instil habits of care in the population.

They're not fun or enjoyable. They don't give you that self-righteous feeling of Doing Good like bestowing charity does. They're not A Statement like masking up with your Comment On The World across the front. They're lonely and isolating and difficult and frustrating.

But they do work.

Now, at least, Vic Health can start from a base of no cases, and work to trace things from there. When cases spring up - as they will do, because they're surely doing so in NSW - then they can be followed up, isolaced, traced back to the origins. It will, if nothing else, give them (and the rest of Australia) a fighting chance to live COVID-normal in the coming months - including through Christmas.

People will get sick, yes. Cases will rise, yes. Individuals will die, yes. But at least Victoria - Australia - won't be looking down the barrel of a carnage that could have been stopped if only a politician had possessed the will to make some tough decisions and hold to them through months that became a media hell for him.

Frankly, if Dan Andrews ever runs for PM, he'll have bloody good name recognition and the respect of a lot of people - both in Victoria and out of it.

Melbourne went back into hard lockdown this morning. Too many people thinking Level 3 didn't apply to them, so now it's Level 4: pretty much full lockdown - no going anywhere unelss you have a really good reason (medical, shopping, necessary work, urgent travel).

Meanwhile all the people who were screeching that the (non-conservative party) Premier of Victoria was being a wanky no-fun Lurch (literally used the word) are now yelling at him for 'failing' the state. Murdoch Media is 100% promoting this, having 100% derided him when he shut things down the first time. They've got him coming and going.

Thing is, Dan Andrews the Victorian Premier has been dealing with the crisis with grace and class. He may not have done everything perfectly (and, let's be real, with idiots out there DESPERATE to believe that everything is 'normal' not to mention the encouragement by Murdoch Media and the state conservatives to behave like it's not a problem, it was never going to be even close to perfect) but he's under a lot of pressure and he hasn't broken yet. He has no public support from anyone - not the PM (of the opposite party), not any of his fellow state premiers, not even his own party (who aren't in power anyway, and aren't terribly assuming anyway).

A politician's ass and his talking donkey are a dime a dozen these days, but a statesman in Australian politics? So much harder to find. Frankly, the last few months have proven to me that Dan Andrews is not a mere pollie, but a statesman of the kind we don't see anymore.

All the "we need political change" focus in Australia is about changing the party in power.

( this is not uncommon when talking about the problems with present governments )

JSYK.

People around here are claiming kids are 'asymptomatic' and they think it means that the little darlings don't transmit disease.

( technical terminology )

Our fearless leader is actually incapable of showing leadership in any situation.

God help us if the damned virus mutates somewhere along the way and comes up with a youth-friendly version.

We are not dead yet.

I'm in suburbia, we're not likely to burn the way towns like Mallacoota and Mogo have. We'll just swelter in the heat and turn up our aircon!

*cue a dozen angry people who can't bridge the sarchasm*

*cue another dozen angry people who need the air-con to keep from physically overheating*

I'm feeling cynical today. Apart from the news, there's an awful lot of failure to bridge the sarchasm happening and since black humour is my default when everything goes to hell, there's been a lot of back and forth.

Tomorrow will be 40C in my area. Let's be honest; my plants are probably not going to make it. I've been watering them as much as allowed, but it's seriously inadequate to the task at hand.

Anyway, have some links from the last couple of weeks.

Scientific American: This Is What Climate Change Looks Like

The Cut: Can A Woman Ever Sound Right?

Healthy Midwestern Girl: African Peanut Stew

Out Abouter: Old Man Rage Levels Rise By 3m After Thunberg Named Person Of The Year

Taste: 20 Crowd-Wowing Christmas Desserts

The Global Church Project: A List of Australian and New Zealand Women Theologians

That last one was a list posted by an Australian Baptist Minister (Baptists in Australia are not like your American Southern Baptists) by the name of Mike Frost. He's very progressive, very forward thinking, good at asking the questions that maybe more conservative bits of Australia don't like having asked. (In contrast, John Dickson is on the conservative side of the scale, and also good at asking questions and feeling a way through complicated answers.)

Anyway, I think I've been watching the FB feeds too much. It is very echo chamber-y, and I know I need to get out.

...and then I briefly surfaced and discovered America has bombed Iran...

Look, the fires may burn me to a crisp, but at least it won't be watching America beat its chest to prove it's got the biggest balls in the world...