Email to my Federal MP

The following is the text of an email I sent today (19/10/15) to Catherine King.

If you find any of it useful, please feel free to use it in writing to your MP.

Email addresses for MPs can be found on the Australian Parliament House website.

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Hon Catherine King MP
Federal Member for Ballarat
5 Lydiard Street North
Ballarat, Vic, 3050

via email

Dear Ms King,

I understand from reports in the press that your colleagues Melissa Parke and Anna Burke have put a motion on the notice paper for next Tuesday's Caucus meeting calling for further debate on the ALP's position on asylum seekers and in particular calling for an end to the inhumane concept of indefinite detention.

As a constituent of the federal district of Ballarat, I urge you to take this opportunity to listen to, and to reflect in the Caucus room, the position of a great many people in Ballarat and the surrounding region. That is, that we welcome refugees and we abhor the bigoted and racist treatment currently being dealt to asylum seekers both in Australia and especially in our overseas prisons and torture camps.

Please take the opportunity in Caucus to remind your leader, Mr Shorten, that the Australian people want to see everyone treated fairly and with respect. This especially applies to those among the asylum seekers who are even more vulnerable than most; the children, the pregnant women and those suffering mental illness (probably caused by our treatment of them in the first place).

In short, please Ms King, I ask you to participate in and to encourage among your entire party, a full and frank discussion of how best to set policy that is fair, humane and reflects the standards of behaviour that we Aussies expect.

Yours,



Jim Campbell | DipBus(Admin) | ARGB
Database Consultant
m | xxxx xxx xxx
e | xxxxx@gmail.com

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Microwave

This is for my twitter-friend @Wombat37 and all those who participate in his photo assignment game, SUNDAYPIX.

This weekend's keyword was "Wave" and so I present to you…

Microwave by Jim Campbell (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Happy Sunday, folks!

Some text you might find useful.

Following is the text that I used in my nomination of Professor Gillian Triggs for the Australian of the Year Award. The facts were gathered from various internet sites including the Australian Human Rights Commission.

You can also nominate her, although the organisation states that the award is not determined by the number of nominations it can't hurt, by using this link to the Australian of the Year site.

Professor Triggs is an outstanding Australian academic specialising in international law. She has publications World Trade Organization disputes resolution, energy and resources law, law of the sea, territorial sovereignty, jurisdiction and immunity, international criminal law, international environmental law, and human rights. She is the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission and as such she launched the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014, to "investigate the ways in which life in immigration detention affects the health, well-being and development of children."

GIF newspaper

A work in progress.

Cinemagraphs

Just a place where I can dump some animated GIFs to see how they look. You can look too if you want to!

X-ray sniper scope

Inkblot + Skull = Spooky

Going for the Harry Potter Daily Prophet look here.

Waving Grass

There's a hole in my wall, dear Kelly, dear Kelly.

Short and ugly.

Yes, yes I am. I was talking about this post though. It's basically just a way of getting more information to a Twitter-friend than fifty-odd "xx of yy" tweets ever could.

If you have a medium to large hole in a plasterboard wall, here is how to patch it.

You need some plasterboard, a sharp knife and/or a small saw, and some plaster or patching gunk. (Hold on tight, we won't be stopping for research into brand names or trademarks here.)

The plasterboard needs to be about twice the size of the hole in each direction. If the hole is 20cm x 10 cm, you need 40cm x 20cm of plasterboard.

Check around the back of the hole to make sure there are no electrical wires, either power or phone or other communications stuff. Check for water and gas pipes as well. 

Use the saw to make a regular shape out of the hole you've got. WAIT! READ THE NEXT BIT FIRST. IN FACT I'LL PUT THE NEXT BIT BEFORE THIS BIT SO YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!

Ok, now go ahead and even up the hole with your saw.

Measure the hole and mark out its size on the BACK of the patch of plasterboard. Cut through the paper on the BACK of the plasterboard, cutting well into the plaster material at the same time. Be careful not to go through the front paper though.

Continue those cuts out to the edge of the patch of plasterboard.

Peel off the plasterboard parts that are not part of the 'plug' in the centre of the patch. The idea is to leave a plug of plasterboard with a large surround of paper in front of it.

Put some patching gunk around the edges of the 'plug' and on the back of the front paper.

Stick the plug in the hole and smooth off, working from the middle outwards.

Leave to dry.

Sand the edge of the paper part of the patch. Oh yeah, you'll need some fairly fine sandpaper and a sanding block or a chunk of timber.

Paint. Ditto for "you'll need paint".

Collect and cash the bond refund. Hoist a glass to Jim.

Serendip Sanctuary.

Today I was on a different† part of the Wathaurong People's land, that of the Neerer balug. I honour them as the traditional owners of that land and respect their Elders, past and present.

I went to visit the Serendip Sanctuary with my friend and fellow photographer, Allan and his lovely wife Judy.

Partner in crime photography.

We might as well get this bit out of the way first, and then we shall never speak of it again. Deal?

Towards the end of our stroll around the park, I called out to Allan to come and see "The world's biggest echidna!" This thing was the size of a porcupine and it was just sitting in the shade in the middle of the day.

Monster echidna!

Well, I waited for it to move for a while, so I could get a clear shot of its head, but to no avail. I took the shot above and then walked on. As I walked, I kept my eye on this beast and something strange seemed to be happening to its shape!

Several steps later, all I could see was this…

Tricked!

It was just a cut-out propped in the leaf litter! Ok, when you've stopped laughing at me, we can move on and never mention it again.

Anyhoo…

All the regular crowd were there. There was Old Man Emu, who we are told can run the pants off a kangaroo.

Not running.

I'm happy to accept that as a fact since I've never seen a kangaroo wearing pants.

We didn't see any kangaroos (this is the area for the Eastern Grey Kangaroo), but there were wallabies a'plenty.

Running. Well, hopping anyway.

Being a wetlands area, there were plenty of waterfowl. There were natives like this Black Swan.

I suddenly felt like a nice cold Western Australian beer!

As well as introduced species such as this Mallard Duck.

Not the ME from NCIS. Looks nothing like Illya Kuryakin.

There were also other birds that utilise the wetlands. Not sure if these guys were fishing or just snatching a quick drink on the wing.

Houston, we have splashdown of Apoll… No, wait, he's off again.

The highlight for me was finding, albeit in an enclosure, a couple of Tawny Frogmouths. It was the right time of year to catch a glimpse of any chicks that may have hatched recently, but they are notoriously shy and their defensive strategy is to freeze like a rock and not move.

Tawny Frogmouth

Anyway, that was our visit to Serendip Sanctuary. If you would like to see more of my shots, they're over on Flickr.

Thanks for reading. Don't tell anyone about the echidna, ok? If you do, I'll call you a bustard.

With a 'u', if you please.

Good light.
Jim

†I live in Bacchus Marsh, which is still part of the Wathaurong People's land, but of the Marpeang balug.