flight of the bumblebees

It's incredible to think that the State Govt is planning to do away with our iconic W class trams, when we are in such short supply of rolling stock on both our tramlines and railways.

The W class vehicles are old, but serviceable, and they're a damn sight more comfortable to travel in than those ridiculous Combino vehicles that our useless privatised tram companies bought as a bargain, a decade ago. The Combinos are already creaky; they have minimal useful seating, and most seats are only accessible by people missing a leg or both feet. Worst of all, for a city that endures hot Summers: NO opening windows!

Sure the W's lack air conditioning, but at least you can open a window and get a cooling breeze through the cabin in hot weather. And their seats are wide enough for people to sit side-by-side without indecently assaulting each other in the process!

The only decent trams to come into service in Melbourne since the under-appreciated Z and A class last century are the 'Bumblebees', currently in service only on route 96... but of course, they're only on lease, and have to be returned to Europe in a year or so!

After all these years, one would think that the Govt would have learned to listen to what commuters want, but clearly, it's as out-of-touch as ever.

So here's a simple message: Save the W's, trash the Combinos and buy more Bumblebees!

back to the drawing board

Well, that was quick. Even though I told them that Dusan is dead, he got another call this evening. This time, I engaged with the caller. It was Citibank. I requested that they remove my number from their database. If they call again... I know where their office is...!

what's in a name

I know it's a bit soon for another comic post, but today, DC released the first issue of its revival of Adventure Comics, co-numbered issue #504.

Adventure features Geoff Johns-scripted stories of Superboy and the Legion of Super-heroes. I would not have bought a copy of Superboy #1, or even of Superboy and the Legion #1, with or without Geoff's scripting, but I couldn't resist buying Adventure, one of DC's oldest and most revered anthology titles, and one that I read as a kid in the 60's, as a teenager in the 70's, and as a ... grown-up kid, in the 80's!

I can still remember my disbelief when they cancelled Adventure, initially at #490, then after a short revival in digest format, at #503. Adventure was, at the time, the oldest continually-published title at DC, having started even before Action Comics and Detective Comics. It deserved better than cancellation, and I'm so glad to see it on the racks again, that I'm determined to try it out for at least the first half-dozen issues, whether or not I even enjoy it (but I hope I will!)

"dusan's dead!"

Tonight, I was pushed past a limit.

Shortly after I moved to my current address, around 3 years ago, I started receiving calls of an evening by people looking for a "Dusan Belic".

Assuming that I had inherited Dusan's old number, I would politely explain to the callers that Dusan no longer lived here. I was even polite to the people who would get me out of bed to answer the phone when they tried to contact Dusan around midnight.

Whoever Dusan was, he sure seemed to have left his number with a lot of women... although surprisingly, many of them sounded ... older than I would have expected for someone's girlfriends.

No matter how many of them I explained the situation to, Dusan's friends still kept calling him, once or twice a week, for around 8 months or so, and then, finally, the calls stopped.

For the past 2 years, Dusan had maybe 2 or 3 calls a year... until about a month ago. Suddenly, the calls started again, but this time, as often as 2 or 3 times an evening!

I might be a bit slow, but the penny had to drop eventually... these weren't friends trying to contact Dusan, these were %#$$@% telemarketers!

I changed my phone manner from polite to abrupt to blunt to downright rude.

When Dusan got a second call while I was trying to watch a movie on Monday evening, I (literally) yelled at the caller "Please stop calling this number!" before hanging up on her.

I used to feel sorry for these telemarketers... they're only trying to earn a living after all... but now, it's becoming personal. In making their living, they are constantly interrupting and disturbing me and bringing me to the phone unnecessarily, and worse, blocking my phone when I'm expecting real calls.

Tonight, the phone rang just as I sat down to late dinner. I put down my knife and fork, left the table, and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Is Dusan Belic there?"

"Dusan is DEAD! Stop calling him!!!"

.....

OMG

I know that won't stop the calls, but it gave me a modicum of satisfaction.

And I've added my number to www.donotcall.gov.au , in the hope that might work.

ugly but funny

I was reluctant to see The Ugly Truth, after hearing a few mixed reviews. But I'd been staying home and nursing a cold for a week, and was keen to get out for an excursion to the movies. There was nothing much else on at the Classic that I wanted to see last Friday night, so I decided to brace myself for the worst and go along. I was pleasantly surprised.

The film starts a little slowly, but sort of sneaks up on you, and becomes quite funny and involving as the (well, ok, predictable) storyline progresses.

The cast is pretty good, the script occasionally funny, occasionally crass, but generally entertaining, but the real highlight, which had me crying with laughter, is a gem of a scene at a business dinner in an expensive restaurant where Katherine Heigl puts on a hysterical performance when a kid finds the remote control to a garment that she shouldn't be wearing, and activates it - you have to see it to get it, but it had me choking with laughter.

I'll see this film again when the dvd is released, for that scene alone! 3 and 1/2 stars from me.

everything silver is new again

Two old favourite comics series returned today, in the new release of Doom Patrol #1 ... the title series, focussing on the original DP team, with a backup series starring the Metal Men that promises to be more faithful to the classic 1960's series than most of the other inadequate revivals have been since the original series was cancelled.

Both series have strong creative teams, so here's hoping that this book will be a success.

(Oh, and you've gotta love the 1960's DC go-go checks squeezed in at the top of the cover... that'll catch the eye of this Silver Age fanboy every time!)

still more things I hate that other people do

I was really disturbed by a conversation that I overheard at work today.

Maybe I'm naive, but I choose to believe that people that I work with are trustworthy and respectable, and hold similar values and standards to mine. Today, in no uncertain terms, I learnt otherwise.

As I tried to focus on my work this afternoon, I was distracted by a conversation between several colleagues taking place behind a partition next to me.

A senior colleague, whom I already had scant respect for anyway, was explaining to members of his team, in detail, how he cheats the public transport system.

He buys a zone 1 yearly travelcard, at a discount cost through our organisation, then uses it to travel to and from a zone 2 station. He achieves this by disembarking from inbound trains at an unstaffed inner suburban station to validate his card in the morning, or by lying to gate attendants at Parliament station if he's unable to validate in time. On the return trip, he can just walk through the gates at his station, which is generally unstaffed. Doing so saves him, and defrauds the public transport system, of hundreds of dollars a year.

One of his junior colleagues, an American who just moved to Melbourne to live and work this year, then bragged that he had been caught 3 times by inspectors on trams without a valid ticket, but had managed to avoid being fined by making up various lies. He doesn't 'see' why he should have to pay for a ticket, when the system offers him such a good chance of getting away without paying!

Cheating. Lying. Bragging about it in public.

I was stunned by the blatant and arrogant dishonesty of these people. Here are a few more pertinent facts...

• the Department of Transport, whom they are both defrauding, is a major client of our organisation;
• as taxpayers, all of us are forced to subsidise the cost of fare evasion;
• both of these people work in our organisation's purchasing branch, and are trusted to handle purchasing and payment arrangements;
• it's fairly well established that people who are prepared to cheat and commit petty larceny in one environment are going to be inclined to do so when other opportunities arise as well.

I've completely lost my faith in these people, and won't trust either of them again. I still need to determine if my outrage is based too much on personal beliefs, or whether there's cause to make a formal complaint about the issue to management.

settle somewhere else!

I've always felt sympathetic to the struggle of the Israelis to survive in a hostile environment in the Middle East, but watching the news tonight, all of those years of sympathy fell away.

The Israeli police were forcing Palestinians out of the homes that they had grown up in, to make way for Jewish settlers to move in. And they were moving in even while the owners of the homes were being physically dragged away from them!!

What a disgrace. How can Israel ever hope to live with its Arab neighbours when it pursues such arrogant and aggressive actions against innocent people? Israel has become the bully of the Mid East, and it's going to continue to pay the price for many years to come.

Those 'settlers' need to get out... now!

strange visitors

A few months ago, I ventured out onto my balcony one sunny morning to water my pot plants, and as I admired my potted palm... noticed that someone had mysteriously cropped it all over! Even more mysteriously, the chopped-off fronds were packed neatly into an empty pot in the corner of the balcony. I was sorry to see the palm looking so miserable, and curious about what sort of weird-ass bird would do that to my plant, but thought no more about it.

Weeks passed; the palm started to re-grow, and then I noticed that my fern had been similarly severely cut back one day! This time, I checked the empty pot straight away, and found the cut fern leaves... and the culprits, curled up in the pot on top of them! Not birds, but two little ring-tail possums had decided to make a home in the pot on my balcony.

I checked my new lodgers every day. Most days, they were both curled up in the pot; some days, one of them would stay over somewhere else, but the next day, they'd both be back. Then, this past Saturday, I checked the pot and it was empty, for the first time in the past 6 weeks or so. I guessed they had both decided to stay out for the day, but when I checked on Sunday morning... no-one home again! It seemed as tho my lodgers had moved on and found a new home (I hoped!).

But when I got home from work today, they were both back... looking a little shabby and damp, I reckon, but safe and sound.

I'm sure they won't stay for much longer, as the balcony is going to get too much sun and heat in the Spring and Summer, but it's nice to see them around in the meantime. I'll miss them when they move out.

things that scare the cr@p outta me

... that a narrow-minded, economic rationalist, climate-sceptic, church-going, extremist bigot weasel like Tony Abbott can come anywhere near the corridors of power in this country. That's the stuff of nightmares.

While the Federal Government looks at ways to improve our public health system, Abbott's answer is to hand it over lock, stock and barrel to the private sector... what he counter-intuitively calls 'handing it back to the people'!!

Whose people?? The right-wing rationalists who put a monetary value on every element of our lives, including our children's education and our health?? The people who will make a great health service available to all.... who can afford to pay for it??

We don't want or need the American solution to a health system. Healthcare must stay out of private hands; only through Government management can we ever hope to provide a fair and equal service for all citizens.

And while we're waiting for that day, we can only hope that Abbott and his ilk are long retired before the next change of Government.