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trekbec82 · 19 days ago

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As an Aussie I'm not directly impacted by the political shenanigans, and I didn't like TikTok enough to keep it for longer a than a couple of months when I tried it, so I wouldn't be all that bothered on a personal level if my own government enacted a similar ban. I do however find the news that USAmerican and Chinese people have forged such a bond absolutely delightful, because ordinary people are making better choices than their governments, and finding joy in having done so.

Correcting a Chinese kid's English homework that another American got wrong on a Chinese app named after Mao Zedong's Little Red Book as part of a mass online temper tantrum to help save TikTok was not on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are.

This might actually be the political fuck-up of the century. Our politicians are all 900 year old crypt keepers who probably turn off their computers by unplugging them from the wall. Were there a single synapse in their decrepit domes focused on something besides their next payday, they might have thought twice about challenging Millennials and Zoomers on the internet. I repeat, ON THE INTERNET. Oh to have the confidence of an octogenarian born into generational wealth.

Something I need people to understand is the "security threat" doesn't just stop at data. The mere act of normal Chinese and American citizens interacting scares the shit out of governments on both sides. I'm already seeing videos from folks here in the US talking about how shocked they were at the grocery hauls in China, and how much they could get with very little. Chinese people are watching Americans absolutely dog walk their own government and talk it for filth. People are having fun.

All rich people had to do was remember the deal. Americans are terrible people. If they had just paid folks enough to buy a house, an electric car, and a vacation once a year they'd sit in front of the TV in a docile fugue state while the wealthy shoved their boots up the ass of the global south. Now who knows what's going to happen. I just know it's a testament to how done with Mark Zuckerberg's ass people are that they're rather learn Mandarin than go back to Facebook.

I think 2025 is about to be a ride.

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Everything That Happened to Home and Away’s Alf Stewart That You Missed Because You Had to Grow Up and Get a Job

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Warning: contains Alf Stewart spoilers.

Just because you’ve lost touch with someone doesn’t mean you don’t want to know when they fall into a sinkhole. That the point of Facebook – for keeping an eye on the triumphs and misfortunes of people you once knew but now can’t be bothered to talk to. Soap characters though, aren’t on Facebook. The closest you can get to nosing on their timeline is checking out at the front covers of TV listings magazines in supermarket queues to see who’s been getting married/murdered or, commonly, both.

It’s shameful when you think about it. Soap characters are people with whom we probably spent half an hour a day (an hour even, for the Australian ones, if you did the decent thing and also caught the lunchtime airing in school holidays), five days a week, for years and years and years. Then adulthood calls and pouf! It’s sayonara Harold, goodnight Madge. Take Alf Stewart of Home and Away. Once, the man was your straw-hatted rock. And now? Did you even bother to tune in for his 60th birthday celebrations in 2005? Thought not.

Assuming that you’ve been an adult with responsibilities that have kept you away from Summer Bay for at least 10, maybe even 20 years now, here’s what Ray Meagher’s Alf’s been going through while you’ve been merrily living life without giving him a single thought. It hasn’t all been organising the surf carnival, hunting bunyips, running the annual sausage sizzle and visiting Donald Fisher in the Whitsundays you know; Alf’s had it rough. And the very least you flamin’ mongrels can do is read about the time when…

He almost died in a sinkhole

A simple trip to Summer Bay High to discuss the delinquency of Alf’s grandson Ryder ended in disaster. A massive gas explosion in 2018 opened up a sinkhole under the school, trapping Alf and his daughter Roo. Unable to move under the rubble, Alf had a heart attack and thought his time had come, so he confessed to a dreadful secret: Roo’s mother Martha, thought drowned three years before Home and Away started in 1988, was still alive!

He was an unwitting bigamist

That whole Ailsa marriage? Not legit. Alf learned in 2018 that due to her personality disorder, his first wife Martha had faked her own death by drowning, leaving him and their daughter Roo. That made his subsequent marriage to Ailsa (curly hair. Had served time for the murder of her abusive father during which she was assaulted and impregnated by a prison guard then gave the baby up for adoption, died of a heart attack in 2000, just to remind you) accidentally unlawful. Alf married his original wife Martha for a second time in 2020, the old romantic.

He almost died of a brain tumour

For a while in 2003, Alf started acting weird. Some thought he was developing Alzheimer’s like his dad (also played by Ray Meagher in this flashback to Alf’s childhood), but no, it was a brain tumour. The tumour was pressing down on the part of Alf’s brain that made Judy Nunn, who played his dead second wife Ailsa, reappear as a recurring guest star in a multiple episode run. Ghost Ailsa kept trying to lure Alf to join her on the other side, culminating in a mid-brain surgery hallucination in the form of an It’s a Wonderful Life homage in which Ailsa showed Alf what Summer Bay would be like if he’d never been born.

He negotiated his sister’s hostage release from Nigerian rebels

In 2000, Alf’s little sister Celia was spreading the word of the Lord as a busybody missionary over in Nigeria when she and her companions were kidnapped and held hostage. Who sorted it? Not an international government body, but bait shop owner and president of the surf club: Alf. Off-screen, Alf ponied up the $50k it took to get Celia out, leaving him in a sticky financial situation back at the caravan park.

Movies

The inspirational heroism of Harold from Neighbours

By Louisa Mellor

Neighbours: a sober reflection on its pop music legacy

By Jamie Andrew

He almost died in an earthquake

This was back in 1996, so you may actually have been there for this one. Summer Bay was rocked by some tectonic plate-shifting, which destroyed Alf’s general store and triggered his dicky ticker giving him one of his many heart attacks.

He (very probably) had sex with his niece

Don’t judge Alf for this one, or his niece. They weren’t to know. (That said, considering the sheer volume of secret relatives returning decades after being given up for adoption in Aussie soaps, it would be sensible for any and all acts of sexual union to be preceded by a DNA test.) When the daughter a 15-year-old Colleen had given up for adoption arrived back in the Bay in 2003, now a grown-up named Maureen, she hit it off with Alf and eventually moved in with him. When he wanted to propose marriage, she got cold feet and left town. Five years later, a dug-up time capsule revealed that Colleen was the product of an affair between Alf’s dad and her mum, making Colleen Alf’s half-sister and Maureen… his niece.

He carried the Olympic torch

Okay, this was actually pretty nice for old Alf. Initially his feelings were hurt when Summer Bay High principal Donald Fisher was selected among the local dignitaries to carry the 2000 Sydney Olympics flame, but after some shenanigans, Alf got to jog that little burner right on through the Bay too.

He went to prison for nine months (and then again for nine weeks)

Following a nasty mayoral campaign, Alf was framed for embezzling money from the surf club by his dirty tricks-playing opponent Mayor Josh, who was trying to get rich from a development project that would destroy Summer Bay. Alf was wrongly convicted in 2006 and went to prison for nine whole months before his name was cleared. (Thus allowing actor Ray Meagher to star as mechanic Bob in the stage musical of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.) Just four years later in 2010, Alf went back to prison for nine weeks after being framed for the murder of Penn Graham (which coincidentally allowed him to return to the musical for its London run).

He discovered the existence of not one but four surprise grandchildren

Literally all four of Alf’s grandkids were either kept secret from him or re-entered his life years after being given up for adoption. There are probably more out there, half a dozen wayward teens who need Alf’s steady hand and moral guidance. First there was Roo’s daughter Martha, the product of a teenage pregnancy and given up for adoption. (She briefly got viewers’ knickers in a twist by becoming a pole dancer). Then there was Bryce, the son of Alf’s estranged son Duncan, who didn’t tell Alf that Bryce existed until the kid was five years old because Alf didn’t approve of Bryce’s mother Caroline. Then came tearaway Ryder, the son of Alf’s surprise American daughter Quinn, who’d been the product of a fling he’d had with a nurse during the Vietnam War. And finally came Eric/Ric, son of Alf’s surprise wrong’un son Owen, the product of a teenage relationship Alf had with Viv “The Guv” Standish (judging by her name, a professional darts player) who’d been born in secret and given up for adoption. The Alf genes are strong.

Additional Alf events

In 1998 Alf got into trouble at the caravan park for letting a blind woman drive his car (Sidenote: Belinda Giblin, the actor who played the blind woman now plays Alf’s resurrected first/current wife Martha)

In 2000 Alf’s home was destroyed in a mud slide

In 2005 Alf turned 60 and Sally Fletcher gave a lovely speech at his birthday party

In 2009 Alf went on a shark hunt after a severed hand was found in the Bay

In 2010 Alf was traumatised by the Summer Bay Race Riot

In 2012 Alf caught Malaria helping to build a school in Thailand with Sally and Milco

In 2015 Alf suffered PTSD from fighting in the Vietnam War

In 2017 Alf heroically rescued a badly burned Marilyn from a bush fire. Bravo, sir, bravo.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Home & Away currently airs on Channel 5 in the UK.

The post Everything That Happened to Home and Away’s Alf Stewart That You Missed Because You Had to Grow Up and Get a Job appeared first on Den of Geek.

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sportymama · 5 years ago

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“The tragedy of this life is not that it ends so soon but that we wait so long to begin it.”

Packing Shenanigans

The cinnamon whiskey is hot as it’s sweetness hits my throat and coats my belly. It makes me feel good and warms me up. Although the inside of our paper-thin ultralight tent is like a sauna inside, I’ve been freezing all day. I lay back and hear the murmured whispers of other people around us. Backpackers are rolling into camp, setting up their room for the night. The wind is hard, and it’s whipping the thin material of our tent vestibules, making it hard to rest. The sun is still high. Today, thank God, was an easy hiking day. I need to sleep. Only a day prior, I had been fever-ridden, sleeping restlessly in a hostel in Puerto Natales, Chile piled four-high with sheepskins for warmth. I lay back wondering if it was smart to start this journey. It was risky. I had considered staying back in Puerto Natales and sending G on his way, but I had to give it a shot, knowing that once we started, there was no turning back. No search and rescue, no way off of the O except finishing it in its entirety. That’s the stubbornness in me.

When I had woken up this morning, the fever had broke. I still felt like death when we boarded the bus in Puerto Natales that took us to the ranger station of Torres Del Paine in Laguna Amarga. This is a two-hour trip, so I slept on the bus and prayed that this sickness would leave me. There was too much planning, logistics, and heart that had gone into this trek — one of the hardest travel plans we’ve EVER made.

We climb out of the bus with 60 other backpackers, check-in, and start our day. It’s slow, my chest incredibly congested, my nose stuffed. Even on a good, healthy day, I knew this journey would have some difficulty. I second guess my decision to start. What if I literally cannot make it? I have to! We are carrying everything we need for the next eight days on our backs, and even though we are accustomed to this and have packed light, my pack feels heavy. I am so congested. My breathing incredibly labored.

The mostly flat/rolling terrain and 13-kilometer hike was a blessing on this first day out of Laguna Amarga. I was still star-struck with the whole idea of us being in Patagonia. Pata-freaking-gonia, I kept thinking. It’s one of those trips we’ve talked about and dreamed about for years. Now I’m sick and miserable and fighting each step to get to our first camp.

As I lay back in our tiny Big Agnes tent, I think, “there’s no turning back now.”

We are at Serón.

Logistically speaking, this trip was outrageous! We didn’t want to go with a guide, a team, a mule train…you get my point, so I was left to the booking arrangements. There are three players in Patagonia; Fantastico Sur, Vertice Patagonia, and CONAF. These are the three places you will go to for booking all camps and refugios. We had decided to hike both the W and the O circuit; The “O” includes the “W” trail, with the addition of the backside, or northern section of the mountain to make it a long loop, – 130 kilometers. A max of 80 people are allowed onto the backside O a day. It’s undoubtedly a more challenging trail, and it’s also without refugios, but it’s all worth it when, as you finish climbing John Garner Pass, you get an unprecedented view of the icecap Glacier Grey.

The booking process was maddening. Very strict dates are required, and none of these agencies work together. Not to mention they ALL hold different camps and refugios on different parts of the trek, and not in order. CONAF being the government-held camps does not even open for registration until much later in the year, so as we booked Fantastico and Vertice camps in August for our February trip, we could not book CONAF until sometime around November. The spots fill quickly, so as you can imagine, by the time CONAF rolled online for reservations, the dates we had booked through the other two agencies didn’t work out into the CONAF schedule. The day we landed in Santiago, Chile, we didn’t have a full camp itinerary, and let me tell you, as you walk into each camp, they check your reservations, along with your passport and the PDI slip. If you are off by a day, you will be asked to go back.

Campsites are arranged like this:

Vertice Patagonia – Campsites: Dickson, Los Perros, Grey and Paine Grande

Fantasticosur – Campsites: Serón, Los Cuernos, El Chileano, Central and Frances

CONAF – Free Campsites: Italiano, Paso and Torres Ranger Station & Camping

After arriving in Santiago, Chile and spending a day and night we flew down to Punta Arenas and stayed at a great hostel. I was chilly as we took a walk around town, and we were amused that our weather app showed that we were in the “Antarctic Zone” as it is the southern-most city before Antarctica. We wandered down by the water; The Straight of Magellan, for a while and headed back to our hostel and to bed early as we had a bus to catch at daybreak.

Straight of Magellan

Punta Arenas

Straight of Magellan

Thankfully we had three days to spend in Puerta Natales before heading onto the O. I was incredibly sick and we still did not have our reservations for camp. After going back and forth between the offices of Vertice and Fantastico, waiting in line and jostling dates we thought we had them all together, but after further review I had missed a camp, shifting a date, and had to start all over with new dates. I was down for the count at this point, in bed, shivering with the worst flu ever. My poor NON-Spanish speaking husband had to go back to these offices with new dates. By the grace of the Holy God, he was able to “pictionary” his way through. They made some calls for him and BOOM, he came back with our itinerary…..to leave in the morning!

Seron Camp is a basic camp. It’s a grassy field with two picnic-style tables that have a tarp for wind cover. You have to cook in these designated tarp areas only at every site. I barely remember being at Seron, to be honest. I slept and went into the hut to cook dehydrated soup with our MSR stove one time. I loved hearing and seeing all of the friendly faces and different nationalities and languages of the people we would be spending the next 8-9 days alongside. Once you start the O-circuit, and because they limit the number of people on the trail, these become your leap-frogging trail friends.

The following day, we broke camp early and headed out to Dickenson Camp. The views were unbelievable, and we kept finding ourselves stopping every chance we got to take it all in! It’s a steep climb and steep downhill coming into Dickenson. Today was 19 kilometers; It’s one of the most beautiful camps on the O. Once you arrive and check-in, you can find a spot for your tent anywhere you want. We shrugged out of our packs and wandered around. We saw a fox scampering along the treeline. We set our tent so that in the morning, as we unzipped to make coffee, we would have a perfect view of the soaring mountains and glaciers. Dickenson has a great set up for cooking. A little cabin-like shelter, with electricity — also, hot showers and bathrooms and even a small area where they sell snacks. We bought Pringles and chocolate here.

After pitching our tent, we showered and laid in the hot sun, waiting to see who and when the others would roll into camp. It was at this camp that we met “the two traveling nurses” who were from the States, working at different locations in the States until they save enough for their next great adventure. They travel on their earnings for a few months, return to the US, work for a few months only to repeat the process over and over. We loved swapping stories about the places we’ve all been in common and the enjoyment of different cultures, cuisines and our unquenchable wanderlust.

We also met “One Pole and the Goodr Girls”, a group consisting of a guy and two women traveling together. One Pole lost one of his trekking poles along the first leg of the trip and came into camp with one…deeming him “One Pole” The women he was with both wore my favorite brand of athletic glasses; Goodr and have friends who work for the company, thus-The Goodr Girls.

There was also an Argentinean father and two sons, two Chilean buddies traveling together, and a pair of Aussies (a father and son) who we cooked and had dinner with at Dickenson. We’ve never laughed so hard in our lives as we did with these two and their quirky personalities. Still, some of the moments we laugh about the most from this trip come from these two.

Con’t-

Patagonia Dias Uno a Siete "The tragedy of this life is not that it ends so soon but that we wait so long to begin it."

#wordpress #Blogger #camping #Chile #dreams #everyday love #faith #hiking #humor #moon #O-circuit #Patagonia #prayer #travel

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forextutor-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Forex Blog | Free Forex Tips | Forex News

!!! CLICK HERE TO READ MORE !!! http://www.forextutor.net/forexlive-european-fx-wrap-european-manufacturing-gains-and-fillon-fights-on/

Forexlive European FX wrap: European manufacturing gains and Fillon fights on

Forex trading news and economic data headlines 1 March 2017

US MBA mortgage applications 5.8% vs -2.0% prior

Pound wobble tied to Brexit bill shenanigans

Fillon denies any wrong doing but will face judges later this month

Pound goes for a wander as cable drops a quick 40 pips

Macron puts the screws on Le Pen in French first round election Opinionway poll

Trump trumped by Fed speakers leaves the dollar looking hopeful

Fillon’s wife held for questioning – Reuters

January 2017 UK mortgage approvals 69,928 vs 68,650 exp

February 2017 UK Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI 54.6 vs 55.6 exp

February 2017 German regional CPI: NRW 2.3% vs 2.1% prior y/y

European manufacturing stops the rot in EURUSD for now

February 2016 German region CPI: Brandenburg 2.0% vs 1.7% prior y/y

February 2017 Eurozone Markit manufacturing PMI 55.4 vs 55.5 exp

February 2017 German unemployment rate 5.9% vs 5.9% exp SA

February 2017 German Markit/BME manufacturing PMI 56.8 vs 57.0 exp

February 2017 France Markit manufacturing PMI 52.2 vs 52.3 exp

February 2017 Italy Markit/ADACI manufacturing PMI 55.0 vs 53.5 exp

France’s Fillon called in to speak to judges – Livesquawk

February 2017 Swiss Markit manufacturing PMI 57.8 vs 55.6 exp

February 2017 Spain Markit manufacturing PMI 54.8 vs 55.8 exp

February 2017 German regional CPI: Saxony 2.4% vs 2.3% prior y/y

UK house prices rise in February

Economic data due 1 March 2017

Trade ideas thread – Europe/UK version! Wednesday 1 March 2017

German SPD trims Merkel’s lead in Forsa poll

Nope, no currency manipulation here. Not us, says Taiwan central bank

Trump spoke overnight in the US (addressed Congress) – recap

Goldman Sachs says RBA to begin winding back its “very” accommodative rates

US pull-out from Pacific trade deal hurts confidence, Singapore PM tells BBC

Manufacturing PMIs out from Russia and Ireland, both drop m/m

Australia data: AUD Commodity Index for February down from January

More from BOJ’s Sato: Most appropriate yield curve would be a little steeper

Adviser to Japan PM Abe says any US border tax should not violate AWTO rules

Japan finance minister Aso: Economic growth is more important than fiscal balance

The dollar was taking a breath from it’s Fed head induced gains overnight and some serenity was laying across a lot of the market.

USDJPY was sitting close to it’s highs around 113.60/65 and late in the session pushed up to the current high of 113.87. There may be some early US catching up to do from last night so the favoured direction is up as we head into the yank session.

EURUSD had been holding it’s lows around 1.0526 but couldn’t find the legs to push up meaningfully. 1.0545/50 marked the top and some late mild US strength means we’re back feeling out the lows once more. As usual, a half decent batch of reports from the European manufacturing sector couldn’t lift the euro at all and we’re still ignoring inflation, which rose in the German regions once again. The euro took the Fillion news that he was staying in the presidential race like a slap round the face and also aided this move lower.

GBPUSD take a late morning bath from 1.2360 and has just grabbed 3 pips under 1.2300 as I type. There’s some news about the government losing on a clause in the Brexit bill but the details suggest these moves are overkill. However, fading Brexit news is not something to take lightly when most of the market doesn’t understand the mechanics of this bill.

EURGBP is obviously on the flip side of this move and it’s broken above yesterday’s highs around 0.8550 by a few pips. GBPJPY is also suffering.

Elsewhere, the aussie isn’t making hay after it’s GDP numbers and is stuck around 0.7654. European stocks are shining brightly with decent gains.

Forexlive European FX wrap: European manufacturing gains and Fillon fights on Forexlive European FX wrap: European manufacturing gains and Fillon fights on http://www.forexlive.com/feed/news $inline_image

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