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Actually wait, no that’s a stupid idea. I read today that a significant number of the population is sick of the delays in getting a leader and would prefer to go back to the polls. I have a few issues with this namely:

• Nothing particularly significant has happened in the past two or three weeks so what would be the motivation for people to change their votes? I mean to fix this situation people will need to change their votes. If there’s no major reason to change it that has come up then why the hell did the person vote that way three weeks ago? I can see no reason why I would be willing to change my vote based on the past two or three weeks. Sure, I can appreciate that some may but I seriously question their motives unless they were throwing their vote away the first time. That leads me to…
• One reason may be that it allows the people they put in invalid cards to vote properly this time. While thats all good and well, if these clowns are willing to throw their vote away do I even trust them to have a say now and why should people lose the seats they rightfully won because a few idiots have realised that the 5 to 10% seen in some electorates where no votes were cast could have made a huge difference.
• It won’t speed anything up. We’d have another few weeks to a month lead up and then another day to potentially a few more weeks yet again to wait. Sure, we might get a solid outcome straight up this time but its not addressing the fact this is a slow process. Patience is a virtue and we’ll probably have a result this week.

I could probably think of a few other reasons not to go back to the polls but I won’t bother. To me it’s far better we get a government together and at least see how things are in 12 months. If the situation is unstable they can call an early election. Fortunatly I don’t think we’ll be going back to the polls anyway so it shouldn’t be an issue, but I can’t see why people are even keen on the idea.

I don’t know about you but I can’t say I really agree with the claims that the 2010 federal election has been boring at all. To me it all started getting interested almost 12 months ago when Abott won leadership by a single vote in the three month race. Fast forward six months and you have the unprecedented steps taken by the Labor party when they decided to sack their leader, largely at the hands of the unions. Never forget the fact that only 18 months earlier he was still riding as one of the most popular prime ministers in the nations history.

Sure, the policies may not have been the most interesting but as someone that works in IT it was somewhat interesting to see that broadband was finally getting the spotlight it deserved at a federal level and still may prove to be the factor that decides which party comes to power. Yes, the campaigns were negative but tbh, when is that not the case? If any election was boring I’d argue it was the 2007 election where the Labor party is largely considered to have won purely because the people wanted a change, not because they felt strongly for their policies or felt the Coalition had done a poor job.

And for all this uncertainty of who to vote with has also come the rise of what one day could be a very powerful party in that of the Greens. It’s clear they have gained a large number of votes as a result of this election and while it was known they would hold power in the Senate, what is now of interest is they are also going to play a major role in determining the swing of power in the House of Representatives. Not that I suspect they’ll go into government any any coming decade, but to take 11.5% of the vote is certainly a large win for the party and possibly a large loss for Labor since that seems to be where they are getting the numbers from.

Anyway with probably another week to go until we know anything I really do think this has been a rather interesting election and it’s not over yet. Not everyone will agree, but I’m really enjoying watching this one fold out. Also interesting to watch Wilkie take his seat (Denison I believe) on preferences after finishing third on primary votes. If that’s not intriguing I don’t know what is. Boobs perhaps.

Things seem to be slowly improving so that’s good news I guess. I guess about this time last month I was panicking about my financial situation and then there was a death in the family which was a bit of a shock and hard to handle in a few ways and I guess it all got to me. Financially I guess I blew a bit of cash throughout the year so I’m looking to tighten that up for now. Hopefully with my next pay I’ll completely pay of my credit card with my pay and the crap I’ve sold. And yeah, I’ve sold some things on EBay and the like, a few things I would like to keep but for the most part it was just baggage, things I wasn’t using now or haven’t in years and given I live in an apartment with limited space selling some crap I don’t need is probably a good idea regardless of where my finances were. The end game here I guess is to drastically reduce my credit card limit so its never more than what I can pay off at the end of the month and hopefully save some money. That’s been a bit of an issue but I have a few holidays I’d really like to make so perhaps with an actual goal this will be easier. See how I go and I think I just need to stay proactive because most of my expenses come from me being bored and looking for toys to distract me.

As for the death, it’s kind of weird how that effects you. It wasn’t so much the fact I lost an Auntie (I have a few memories of her which I hold fond) that upset me but the realisation that not only did I not know her anywhere near as much as I would like, but going to Sydney and meeting the rellies was such a fantastic experience that upon arriving home it’s hard to deal with the fact that I don’t know any of the extended family. One relative joked when saying good bye that we’d all catch up again when either ‘someone dies or gets married’ which is actually a rather unfortunate truth. Anyway I might make an effort to get there in Jan, not only to see the family but friends in general. It’ll also be an opportunity to visit Sydney on my own time table, which I’ve never been able to do in the past.

Anyway, I guess my PMS is subsiding and I feel better about how things are currently on all accounts besides my best friend moving out but I knew this day was coming.

Australia needs more long weekends. It’s kind of stupid that this is the last one for the year and the financial year isn’t even over. People need a break and work places won’t give it so bring on a few more days. By the sounds of it in some countries they’ve had more holidays by Feb or March than we get all year. Gipped.

a) You get not one, not two but three of these in the mail in the one day:

You Have Mail

b) Your postman delivers a parcel to your workplace despite the delivery address being to your home. (ie, he remembers who you are and the instructions you gave in the past to forward mail when they couldn’t deliver a package the previous week).

c) Your room is full of boxes.

d) All of the above.