Bloody Fight Club

It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

Why does one of my favourite quotes have to come from a movie with such an annoying fan base.

Take that NSW Government

I am so blowing, like a $150 on bus tickets before Janurary 1st 2009, no way am I getting caught out by the bus fare hikes this year. Last year it was like 8% increase, this year cause the government is broke, it has gotta be like over 10%.

I'll do that and they'll probably just up and change the ticketing system on me, arseholes are reading my mind.

Rewards point credit cards are only useful if for free or rich people

Serious. If you are an average person, don't get a reward points card it just doesn't pan out unless your earning over 6 figures a year and it is simple to see why...

I just got the top of the line card with reward points from work, I did this cause for some strange reason I qualify but more importantly it just became fee free for me.
The fee for my card for your average joe is a few hundred quid a year, I think that is ridiculous, in fact since I've been on government payments mostly all my life, I find it really difficult to comprehend the whole "bank fees" thing, which is odd considering the place that I work, but anyway...

Back to the card, my card gets a point for every dollar you spend, sometimes if your lucky you can buy stuff and get 3 or more points, this is probably available to you about 90% of the time if your super scrooge about it all (and oh yes, I am). To actually earn enough points to say, get a voucher at a big chain store for the amount of cash you pay in your annual fee, you have to get at least 50,000. Yes that is right, 50,000. so even if you spent all your cash at the 3 point or more stores, you'd have to dolly up at least 16.666K of cash a year. That is after tax folks, and if you want to avoid fees, you can't include rent/mortgage payments in there. 16 and a half thousand is a lot to spend in a year for your regular person, you'd have to blow on average over $300 a week (remember no rent) just to get close to that amount. It is crazy.

But you know if your in a relationship with two incomes and can do the whole additional card thing well you'll probably breeze it in. I know married couple at work that do serious damage with their points, I know some guy who reckons he has accumalated 300,000 points with his wife and kids over the last 1 and a bit, that is some serious coinage being channelled through the plastic. Does this guy not know how many over priced wine chillers he could get with those points?!?! at least like 8...

So in closing, reward points cards are bad, when I go home this Christmas, I am so going to talk my parents into a rewards free, account fee free banking world, they better believe it.

Big bad ISP law of suits

Here are some interesting articles on the eye-eye Net lawsuit:

LawFont's view.

APC Mag view.

A lot of people seem to believe this has been a decently thought out lawsuit. It will be very interesting if this case is won.

Housing

Did I mention house projects? Cause god damn this country needs some more housing!

But to do a backflip..

I don't think we are looking good for next year, considering our heavy reliance on resource exporting and countries/companies not really needing the massive amounts that these companies wear gearing up to produce/sell.

This country needs a massive deficit in the budget and it needs to be spend on infrastructure. Productivity, Health & Environment infrastructure I'd like to see it spent on. I mean massive projects too, something on the scale of the snowy mountains scheme they did way back when, but with less deaths and more long term benefits and employment.

For the record...

I think the RBA will cut rates by 50 basis points on December 2nd. I can't see them doing another super massive cut this year.

But hey, no one saw the 100 point cut last month, this country is not nearly in as bad shape as the media is making out.

BE POSITIVE PEOPLE! :D

Monday Updates

So I am at home on a Monday (don't ask). So it is time to get my bliggity blog on:

Job - This job right, all signs in my mind tell me its good. I go to work everyday and I learn something new (something I love out of a job.) The people are good, if a little narrow focused (for some of these people, their life revolves around their job, and that has to be partly because they really want it to orrrr, they really want more promotions/money), I get along with my customers, and I am starting to feel a little more comfortable with what I do day to day, things are coming along alright. However I still have this problem where I go to work every day waiting to get in trouble for something (guess that is part of the "learn something new" thing) and I also wish my hours were a teeny bit shorter, but you know, overall it isn't too bad.

Sydney - I still really enjoy living here, I don't know how I will ever adapt to moving south again. Sure Sydney is dirtier, collapsing under its own weight of corruptness, infrastructure problems and economic downturns, but you know, it has everything I want, the weather is nice and god damn some of the surrounding areas are picturesque!
Still, I think I could move to the country again, maybe north coast of NSW, I think the inner paste bogan in me still loves the idea of living healthy in a sea side town. At least now the Internet works at a reasonable pace out there, right???

Ikea - Went to Ikea Sunday, when you walk through there do you ever feel like you are part of some group of people fleeing some war torn country to a refugee camp across the border?!? Think about it, everyone is in some sorta dazed and somewhat agitated state, following the line of similarly looking people in one direction, all the while looking at the few people walking in the opposite direction like they are crazy. Small children are everywhere, oblivious to where they are or crying in confusion, people are grabbing shit they don't need, fabrics, glasses, cushions, jamming that shit on the trolley, gotta keep movin', gotta keep ahead of the pack, Don't fall behind... Then when you get to the checkout its like you've reached that UN refugee camp, people grabbing boxes full of crap, piling it onto more trolleys, waiting in massive queues to get over the border.. err, pay for their goods. People are even more testy, fights break out over queue jumpers, people cry when their items don't get scanned properly/can't pay by AMEX, it's a humanitarian crisis people.

You could totally write a descriptive short story with a twist on what I said there, I am soooo clevar.

More blog later.

Simpsons Avatar

They don't have a pasty, hairy faced, spiky haired guy with a underbite avatar. I guess I just don't belong in Simpsons land.