Took off my jacket @ Newtown station because the night air, though chilly, was warm enough for only a single ‘jumper/cardigan.’

Train gets in, I get on, and immediately have to put the jacket back on. Geez the train is freezing.

But let’s just blame the State Government Owned, and Operated Railroad operators for the continuing incompetence. Or, better yet, let’s blame the lackey worker who has to put in double-shifts and isn’t allowed to question the efficiency of the network. After all, the current government (State) has only had 10+ years running the show, they haven’t yet completely put their buddies into all posts in the organisation.

The previous government really screwed things up when they sacked all those incompetent managers and replaced everyone. 10 years is about minimum to get our buddies back into the system and totally screw the populace.

Democracy, the NSW freedom to ‘game’ the system so you can legally screw people!

With the right amount of money, what is the ‘real’ difference between democracy and dictatorship?

My sister-in-law suffered sadly for beauty on Saturday, then spent Sunday coiled up in front of the television keeping warm (supposedly) or was that not going to church so she could watch movies.

It seems a sad maxim of the ‘civilised society’ that so many link their self-worth to their exterior outlook, or just as sadly the number of brand things dangling.

Too sady, too true.

I had hoped that that Sonny Bill William’s saga would have died away by now, but I guess it just wanted to have as many people push across their own agenda items. Sonny Bill Williams (SBW) is an incredible high profile athlete who played Rugby League in Sydney for the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs. My son’s team.

In short, SBW left in July for France, breaking an existing player contract (with lot’s of money) to go to France for even more money. The bigger story is more complicated, otherwise the ditched club and industry (CB Bulldogs, Australia’s National Rugby League) wouldn’t be spending heaps of money on lawyers to try and prevent SBW from playing in France.

Apart from the legal jurisdictional, sovereignty land mines with this law suite, you have to wonder how real this effort is in suing someone to come back and play for you.  How is that to work? Supposedly SBW will be forced to come back and play with the CBB, and he is supposedly going to run on the park every week-end putting in his best because he has been shown the LOVE by his club.

Breaking Contract.

I’ve heard some flawed commentators (former players) going on and on about how vile this whole thing of breaking his contract. All while forgetting their own high profile, press covered, contractual fights where he and his employer reneged on a number of contractual details.

Contracts are for the benefit of the guy/gal with the biggest stick. Unfortunately for the NRL, SBW spewed in their face and put himself a distance away where he hopes the NRL’s big stick can’t touch him.

You really have to watch “The Legend of Johnny Lingo” to get a Pacific view of what contract negotiations should be, as opposed to the bastardised system it is now. It shouldn’t just be a Pacific view.

Differences

If you are running a Million/Billion dollar organisation, such as the the NRL or Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and are dependent on Pacific Islanders as part of your product, then I think it behoves you as a business to get a better understanding of your product.

If in Australia and you manage such a corporation and you’ve never been to a Kava Party, or a Hangi, a Pacific Wedding, or a Funeral, never seen at least “The Laughing Samoans,” or “Sione’s Wedding,” or God forbid you’ve never seen “The Legend of Johnny Lingo,” please don’t even assert that you have any idea about your Pacific bread.

If you’ve not gone to church with a Pacific Islander, you’re never going to understand the social binding integration of Pasifika.

Recent high-profile (huge money spinner) moves by ‘Isileli Folau at the Melbourne Storm moving to Brisbane, as well as Digby Ioane moving from the Western Australia Force back to Brisbane should have rung bells in the hallowed halls.

Islanders aren’t whites, they’re not blacks, they’re not like your other products. They’re loyalties and frames of reference are different.

In New Zealand the whole Islander thing was forced on the white culture by the gangs, and has evolved into a deeper cohesion between the different cultures. Of course, people being forcibly moved from their land may some day display anti-social behaviour and in retrospect you’ve got to consider the Maori and Samoan response have been quite civilised. In Australia, minor cultures are easily subverted and/or ignored.

Move On

The SBW saga highlights a number of shortcomings in the existing entertainment industry using athletes.

Either the industries learn from it and deal with it in a constructive manner or things are going to get from worse to worse.

The Pacific Islander issue needs to be reviewed and dealt with, that’s one way forward. This has always been a problem brushed under the table in Rugby League and increasing in Rugby Union.

The day didn’t start off to well when I made that mad dash for the train, to realise I’m on a different schedule today, don’t go straight to the city, get to the coffee house first.

In some forgotten point during the age of cavemen clubbing each other on the head to make a point, some social nazi decided that it was critical for the organisation of the community that new members be introduced through stages of ‘conditioning’ into the norms of the society. In the 20th century, the induction process is variously called by the Greek Fraternities as “hazing.”

It may even be illegal in some quarters, but who is going to get in the way of social unity, and progress ?

Mr. Dave put me through Nullcube’s rigorous induction process, with the simple line.

How do you feel about walking into town?

Scum bag!!

We had our pow-wow session early Monday morning before heading into town for some real work (i.e. non-administration stuff.) “How do you feel about walking into town?” I shoulda clobbered him on the spot then.

Mr. Dave cut a quick march ‘clip’ for us from our Newtown HQ (ha ha ha, HQ is the fanciful term for where our base toilets are located 8-) and off we went. Ho K, he’s decided that we don’t need to grab a cab and then comes up with a fanciful reason for why getting a cab into town wasn’t a good idea today (the 2nd opportunity where I shoulda just clobbered him.)

He’s doing good, ‘cause he’s into this walking thing and makes the farcical attempt to get to the gymn every now and then. Mind you, I haven’t done a long walk like this for a long long time, like 1999!

The distance we’re walking here is probably akin to walking from Tofoa into town, which isn’t a bad walk, unless you have some hee bee jebee fitness fanatic pushing the pace, and you hit Broadway (less than half way to our destination) and everything’s on an incline (the wrong way.) Google Maps estimates the distance at 3 miles.

Joel Spolsky reminds us of a business idea that comes other of the former Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC.) The discussion could be summarised as:

Administration is about keeping the lights on, not telling other people what they should do.

If you want to propose something, you own it, your tender it and get it out. Have the courage of your convictions, and take responsibility for your mouth.

Wouldn’t that be an ideal world?

Obviously, either the advice was not completely understood by DEC management, or it is not in itself sufficient for success (otherwise DEC the pioneer computer systems integrator, would not have been swallowed up by a PC box mover Compaq Computer Systems to be later swallowed again by HP.)

Every once in a while, being in the computer industry (and now more specifically in the “Security” business) you finally come across something that your family and friends can relate to.

I mean, how many people outside of IT really care much about IT, so long as their TV and toaster works (because the Internet might work, but for some reason there’s always problems with the home connection.) And, from here we know that even fewer people have any clue what IT Security people are about, or even care?

You really want to read the full story by Jennifer Jabbusch, a teaser is below but you want to read it from the beginning. Security is a real-life issue.

Grande Theft Auto …

He now has no car and no phone. So, ironically enough, he then had to approach a stranger and politely ask for the use of their cell to phone home and let the group know he was bamboozled. A few tears were shed, but his wife assured him it would be fine and he shouldn’t be scared. (No, I’m not making that up).

If you read the full article,

The moral of the story…  There are two. 1) Involve someone with a ‘security mindset’ and 2) Your security is only as strong as your people. A sweet damsel in distress… social engineering at it’s finest…

A wonderful (though said) example of real life ‘scams’ that can impact any of us (and how often do your parents, or kids open the door without a worry these days?)

But more importantly, be careful out there that something like this story doesn’t happen to you or your friends (not the hairdresser part of the story, the parking part, hoiiiii)

Ma’ata Ngalo’afe wasn’t the first to get up this morning, I think she was the last, but she made sure everyone knew when she was up, and made sure to remind everyone

Dad, do you know what day it is?

I’m six years old today

We didn’t have anything too flash for her today, but O4 did get her a little cake so she can blow it out at home. We got her something just a little bit bigger and she blew it out at school (the teacher’s got the cake while the kids got little cup-cakes that was easier to manage for everyone.)

Happy Birthday dear, and may you continue to be your wonderful, effervescent, fakahela, self.

When I was at South Strathfield High School, there was one school I hated playing in the Rugby League pool we were in for one of those high school tournaments, Enmore High School.

Back in the day, the boys that they bred at Enmore (I think they were predominantly of Greek or Italian heritage) were just seriously rough. It wasn’t so much a fear of what they were doing to me, but my little bro’s on the team (including me) were just getting a hammering. 

If I recall correctly, we played against Enmore in one League game and another Union game. The boys were rough, and they could do the ‘dirty’ without flinching.

Saturday night and O4 made some salad for an eat that ended up being at the Enmore Catholic Parish(?) off Princess Highway. You don’t mess with the Tongans at Enmore Parish either.

Eating at Tonga events generally works in at least 3 sets. With Sunday’s context, the meal was a buffet so the 1st set was for the invited guests to get up and get some stuffing, the 2nd set is when those who were involved with preparing the food (including the boys outside) come to the table and get their feed. The 3rd set is supposed to be at the very end of the program when everyone has had their fill and the cleaning up process involves people taking food for their own consumption, on their own time, at their own homes.

Well, with Enmore there’s not the standard pause between Set 2 and Set 3, so if you’re new to the gathering, watch out or you might get trampled by the horde as they scramble for the table.

A great feast was had by all, who knows how many dishes were on the table but you can be assured there wasn’t anything left on the table after the 3rd Set was in motion.

Remember, beware the Enmore mob (and I thought Petersham was bad to the bone 8-)

Bankstown to Newtown via Strathfield Week-Days (PM)

Newtown to Bankstown via Townhall Week-Days (PM)

Newtown to Bankstown via Strathfield Week-Days (PM)

We made it to the game again, now we've really got to call 'Ofa a rabid NSW Waratah fan.

We were the noisy duo in row BB, right behind and in front of some rabid South African fans who were competing sadly against us, but losing it badly even before half time.

We got of to a loser of a start with the game, by standing at the wrong bus-stop ? What's with that ? After half-an-hour of seeing no bus around, 'Ofa had the smarts to get us to walk to another bus-stop to see the rest of the rabid fans queuing for the busses

We can sometimes get ahead of ourselves, as techno-geebs. The solutions people generally want rarely needs new flashing lights with special coolant, our priorities should be solving problems, not installing new technologies.

Re: [OT] Pursuing Management to adopt OpenBSD

Chris wrote:

> I been trying (rather unsuccessfully) to convince various clients and
> employers to adopt OpenBSD. Most people, I find, are resistant to
> change and would not use anything they are not familiar with. Others
> would say that if I leave the job, it would be hard to find people who
> can use (or even heard of) OpenBSD and in some places Management never
> heard of OpenBSD and have very little clue as to how good or bad it is
> compared to Linux/ Solaris and Windows thus they will just knock off
> the proposal in 2 seconds.
>
> Is there any way I could convince these people to make the move to
> OpenBSD? Suggestions, tips and tricks along with real life examples
> would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Ma'ata Ngalo'afe decided she was going to do some colouring/drawing and came up with this display.

She found some passport photos we had around the office and decided that it's rightful place was decorating her drawing.

Rather creative I thought.

But what is the deeper meaning of this photo?

Well, yesterday was Mother's Day for a number of different places around the world and Tonga along with them all.

Tonga's Mother's Day kinda follows along like most places (? I think to myself) but it also a special time for me to remember my own Mother who passed away 2 years ago.

On this day, someone turns up to church with some white flowers for the mothers. Worn by some as pendants, and this year the Ma'ufanga Sunday School made up little packages for their teachers and other mothers.

Due to this month having a lot of long Sunday programs, the monthly Eucharist of the FWC was held this Sunday and it in itself reveals a number of things about life in Tonga.

Remembering Mum.

Of course I have other 'mothers' and will continue to have them, but Ma'ata Ngalo'afe Taufa (for whom my daughter takes her name) was an especially special person, so much so that many in the broader Tongan community also saw this uniqueness in her.

A thought that came to me days before this Mother's Day was our last visit with her to the Emergency Ward. As her cancer had nearly completed wasted away her internals, one of the symptoms was just a straight lack of blood flowing through her system to keep the arteries and veins 'vital.'

We'd spent the week with her throwing up her food on a regular basis, and even with antacid stuff it came to a point where she wasn't able to take food of any quantity. My mother had a strong will to live, to work, so she would ask for food knowing that she would throw up. Never complaining that she was dying, while only mentioning that she can't eat anymore because of the pain in her throat.

In this past week the stuff she was throwing up started to be more brownish (which was apparently blood.)

Obviously, we needed to get a drip on her and get some 'stuff' into her intravenously. Unfortunately, as her blood circulation had decreased, so were her veins harder to pierce for the drip. On that first night the Doctor tried in vain/vein three or four times before she decided she'd call in a specialist. We waited around for an hour or two before he was available (apparently someone who does a lot of blood stuff) he still had to try three times to find a vein that would take.

Mother had to stay in intensive care because the beds were full in the ward that she needed to go to. The next day they needed to take another vein because the first line had dried above or some technical term for no longer any good. My brother and I were there, and she'd been taken to another room for the work, we waited around for a while and one of the nurses said we could go in if we'd like. So we walk in and two doctors were still at it poking my mother to get a drip feed.

I can't remember whether they were successful or whether they finally decided to get a nurse or specialist to try. What I do remember is that my mother was quite annoyed with the two doctors, but the only comment she made was.

Pehee 'enaua ko ha fu'u papa au.
Do they think I'm a piece of wood, without feelings?

It seemed that with the continuous time they must have poked her like a pin cushion either in desperation or well beyond their depth of talent.

Two things came to mind.

The strength of my mother to bear all this inconvenience with a smile that was as much a show of appreciation to the medical staff as strength for her family. The hallmarks of an extraordinary person.

Patch Adamesque - Treating the symptom instead of the patient.

Taking the Eucharist

The Sakalameniti/Eucharist is pretty big at the Free Wesleyan Church (FWC,) or at least the 'trappings' of the eucharist are fairly big at the FWC. Quite a few people deck/dress slightly better or are more concerned with the fittings on these days. (At least some of the kids sure looked like they had collections left from the Fakame.)

Whilst standing from outside with my son, who as per norm, banished outside for making too many too loud noises in church.

I saw the church that pretends to prepare people for the next life, and yet we still treat each other different in the current life. There is a definite/definitive social strata in most 'Christian' churches and privileges are according to where you and your like stand within this social hierarchy.

Weird isn't it? I mean, when we all supposedly get to heaven or hell (depending on your bent) there are only two defined stratas that we know of. God/Satan and their helpers occupy one strata in that world, and then everyone else is of equal rank in the next strata. In the now, BETWEEN heaven and hell the church leadership is hell bent on treating us differently depended very largely on your ability to socially/financially benefit the church.

That doesn't seem right ?

So, Sisitoutai (son) and I finally get back inside and its time for dad to walk the aisles and get his eucharist.

I'm kneeling there waiting for the bread, grab it, wait for the 'agreed' signal. Swallow, wait for the grape-juice, grab it, wait for the 'agreed' signal. Swallow it.

Being the synic, I'm thinking how much of this formalism/ritual actually means anything spiritual to anybody?

If we play lip service to the very religions we profess, what hope is there for reform ?

Anna & 'Ilavalu Fililava had the church over for a pool party to celebrate their daughter's (Kalesita) 1st Birthday.

You know how you can't really stop a mob of Tongans when there's food around ?

There was a little bit of Samoan, Ozzie Ozzie Ozziee flavouring added since Anna is Samoan (and strangely enough so are her parents and sisters etc.)

There's a pool in there somewhere as part of the photos.

But seriously, we're going to put on some seriously large weight if we keep this up. It is a wonder that all these islander ladies are so 'slim' ?

More rumour-milling, i.e. information from phone calls back home.

Some of the dead were children.

There were apparently children as part of the dead found after the fires and there is fear that more dead may be discovered. Information from Tonga is that some of the dead discovered after firemen were able to investigate the aftermaths of the blazes, were children.

According to hearsay, the parents' of the deceased realised the children were missing but went looking quietly until news was announced of the deaths.

There are fears that more deaths will be discovered during the days clearing work.

New Powers of Investigation

Finding the looting, rioting quite inappropriate (to mildly put it) there has apparently been legislation in progress to give unprecedented powers of investigations to route out the produce of theft involved with the evening. What does that mean, apparently kuo tu'utu'uni 'e Tupou V 'e hakule 'a Tonga or something like that ke ma'u mai 'a e ni'ihi kuo nau kaiha mo fai kovi pehee ni.

This is an interesting turn as almost anything that government does against the hard-liners will be scrutinised by international do-goobers (tm) for crimes against humanity(?) Instead of going the route of declaring Marshall Law with all it's baggage, the King and Government seem to be taking a tight-rope walk between getting the country back in order and appeasing people who aren't even stake-holders in the problem.

Unlikely as it may seem ...

No, there is going to be no Zune in our household, not least being that it is not available in Tonga, or in Australia. 

But we got the colour scheme fair close enough. So, look at the photos dad would use the Black ('cause he's a little grubby kinda) mum looks like she's picking up the White One (tm) and Aunty has the inside track on the Brown One (tm)

Somewhere in this, it seems Ma'ata is neither getting Zune, nor an iPod since her colours of choice are currently not available (exceptly as possible a mobile phone?)

Considering the amount of time we're spending watching Hindi music videos, we're sure dreading the time the kid's toys get to be as expensive as dad's toys.

Hey,

QueenEma sent through some images of the NYC gathering to give tribute to our late King, so I've gone ahead and put them up for those worried about our brethren in the Big Apple.

There seems to have been a bit of family get togethe there, and the question had been asked whether that's a restaurant at the back ?