Thursday 7 November 2013

Some of my favourite black and white images

Animals being used as part of medical therapy, 1956




Testing of new bulletproof vests, 1923



Charlie Chaplin at age 27, 1916


Hindenburg Disaster, May 6, 1937





First morning after Sweden changed from driving on the left side to driving on the right, 1967


Austrian boy receives new shoes during WWII


Hotel owner pouring acid in the pool while black people swim in it, ca. 1964


Unknown soldier in Vietnam, 1965


Advertisement for Atabrine, anti-malaria drug, in Papua, New Guinea during WWII


Disneyland Employee Cafeteria in 1961


106-year-old Armenian Woman guards home, 1990


Annette Kellerman promotes women’s right to wear a fitted one-piece bathing suit, 1907. She was arrested for indecency

View all thirty here at Bored Panda here. 

Thursday 31 October 2013

I Curse The Day You Were Born Mantra

So received some devastating news this morning.

Decided to to recite a reaffirming mantra. For some reason, this scene from Sex and The City helped to make me feel a lot better - bad things come to those who do bad unto others.



Feeling much, much, better...

Wednesday 30 October 2013

How The Notebook Cursed My Quest for Requited Love

If you went to an all girls-boarding school like I did and rewatched the 2004 ro-flick starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling countless times, you would then it seems, have an undiagnosed mental and emotional distressive (not mentioning destructive) illness similar to the one I have just diagnosed myself with.

Yesterday, I interrupted Starfish whilst she was preparing her 10am breakfast (if you're reading Ab Absurdo for the first time, NO - that is not her real name)  for a long-overdue Skype session.

"Somehow", within less than five minutes of the conversation, the typical non-disclosed agenda seemed to evolve like this.

AGENDA

Item # 1: How are you?
Item # 2: Flatterings, tidings
Item # 3: Speaking of...How is your sex/love life?

*We never got to Item # 4 before parting.

Like all good things, unpaid therapy and psychoanalysis from your ever truthful and honest friends, is priceless. Among my circle, Starfish is that one person that has herself, jumped on a plane to save me from myself or organised the other chicas who in her absence drove 250km to be with me.  I have already told her that when she's at the Pearly Gates and asking to be let in, I will personally vouch for her.

*Based on the assumption that, one of us is on the opposite side of the Gates.


Me: "I don't know why I'm like this, it's that fucking movie, the NOTEBOOK!"
Starfish: Bursts out into laughter


I have never hidden the fact nor am I embarrassed to admit that one of my favourite movies is The Notebook. In the same fashion that a hard-hitting documentary uncovering the hidden abuses and travesties of this world that deeply move and affect us, this film has greatly affected me. In more ways that only now, am I just beginning to realise.

After attempting to be as articulate about my emotions and feelings - and the decisions that led me to the moment just before, I had managed to self-diagnose myself with this "figurative" emotional/mental illness which is "unrequited love".


UNREQUITED LOVE

"When a woman sues for love, to reject and refuse is a distressing part for a man to play"- Freud


A quick Google search of unrequited love, lists a description of the illness and ways to treat and medicate from  world-leading reference sites such as Wikipedia and it's twin Wiki How which provides an insightful and irresistibly hilarious 10 step-guide, accompanied with visually compelling PICTURES! just in case you needed help. To be fair, Wikipedia also lists a few remedies.

Wikipedia: "Unrequited love or one-sided love is love that is not openly reciprocated as such. The beloved may or not be aware of the admirer's deep and strong romantic affections."

Like UN.requited love,  the Notebook is the tale about UN.finished business. Experiencing something life-changing with someone, then being hit with reality and flee-ing (in my case,  literally FLEE/FLYING).

Meeting someone else, getting engaged but then being pulled back to your first love (referred to as a mid-life crisis or regret) and then being asked with the non-forgiving question: "What do you want".


At first, confronting this question may seem easy to answer matter-of-factly, however when emotions become entangled in the web of our consciousness that connects with our heart strings and engages in the battle that is raged between realism and idealism, we quickly surrender and prefer to fall in love with the euphoria itself.

It's hard not to. All of us fall for it - it is inescapable. For someone who has always been told to make a rational decision, not an emotional one, I still get caught out, either by myself or others for failing to do so.

So here I am looking for the perfect cocktail that will help me "fall out of love".

Potential solutions offered by Starfish:
  1. Tell him!;
  2. Quote be brave, forgive yourself, toughen the fuck up unquote;
  3. Read "Eat, Pray, Love" - my original reaction "The scene of her on the bathroom floor, praying to God is almost like reading my own memoi - it's too depressingr". (Update: I downloaded the ebook today and have commenced reading).
Admittedly, The Notebook has established undefiled and incorruptable notions of what I define as true, endearing love, however I must not confuse this with requited love of a lost lost and as sustainable as my suffering has been, I honestly reflect and consider the suggestions proposed. Without pondering further,
the truth has set me free. 





Saturday 6 August 2011

Youtube Comments Worth Mentioning: August 2011


Amymccourt21 perfectly describes Anthony Followill's voice perfectly! 37 ppl agree lol!





U2 Rocks the biggest concert ever in history

After travelling five continents in two years, promoter Live Nations claims that the U2 360 Degree Tour was "the most successful concert tour of all time".

Grossing in $700 million, the Irish rock band had surpassed the US$558 million that Rolling Stones netted and also broke that original record in terms of attendance.

Totalling 110 shows, the U2 360 Tour started on June 30 in Barcelona in 2009 and ended on July 30 in Moncton, Canada this year (2011).

Live Nation's chairman of global music, Arthur Fogel said: "This tour was a brilliant success on every level and all involved should be extremely proud. U2 once again have set the standard for achievement - perhaps for all time".

After attending their 360 Tour in Brisbane, I think I may have been a part of history :)

Spowf
Below are some pics I took at the concert. Enjoy:)



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Tuesday 14 June 2011

Youtube comments worth mentioning: June 2011


Hey guys,
Just listening to my youtube channel "Happy Times" and came across this comment on the video, 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2 (Live in Milan).

It's worth mentioning.




If you believe U2 is a religion, you would understand the impact this has on the millions around the world who love and treasure U2's transcending lyrics and music.




Yours,
Spowf
P.S. U2 saved my life.

Monday 13 June 2011

Zoe Wittner Galore


WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!

I have just won a pretty hectic bid-fight on eBay. Actually, the most hectic bidding I've experienced. I had been waiting for three hours for the bidding time to get down to about three minutes - I guessed the person who who had the highest bid would've felt overconfident, as no one had outbid them in the last four hours.

But, I was watching.

As I was just about to take a screenshot of the remaining time and item to have as a new post on Ab Absurdo I realised that right before my eyes, the
bidding price had increased. With less than twenty seconds remaining, I luckily 'one-clicked' and increased by bid (not realising that the bid only increased the highest bid by 50 cents! Ohmy!

Luckily, it was sufficient - well considering there was six seconds remaining on the bid!

But alas, here is what I've won. And it cost me $16 (exc. postage and handling).

If you've bought Wittner shoes before, you'd know their heels retail starting from $149.00.

I've got the exact pair in black but just couldn't help myself. These shoes (black or tanned) are divine!

Gotta love ebay. If you have any similar stories, please share tips.

Yours,
Spowf




Presenting: Jah Boy - Hope for Tomorrow

Good morning readers,

I came across Jay Boy after reading a post by Annie Cheffers, on the RokRok Music Facebook Group last week Wednesday.





This track was made with the intention to inspire youth to believe in themselves and be all they can be.
The video was filmed and produced in the Solomon Islands by 'One Television'. Must and lyrics are by Jah Boy and the track is produced and owned by Rebelle Inc.

I don't know much about Jah Boy, but if you do, please share.

Spowf

Monday 30 May 2011

Top up online with Digicel Online Top Up!

I discovered Digicel PNG's online top up service on mother's day;) Being unable to send a mother's day gift to my mother on time, I sent her credit (to call me). Selflessness at its worst.

Digicel's online top up service is hosted by ezetop, an online and international mobile top-up provider. However, I've noticed that ezetop also its members to top-up directly from their website - with a number of obvious differences between the two services.

Unlike Digicel's online top up where the amount the person receiving the credit is receiving is automatically calculated, you have to click in order to calculate when you use ezetop.

In addition, unlike digicel's online top up, you can send a message for AUD0.33 (like I did).

Ezetop top-up amounts are:



  • AUD$4.73 (PNGK10.97);


  • AUD$9.76 (PNGK21.95);


  • AUD$18.93 (PNGK43.90); and

  • AUD$28.39 (PNGK65.85)
Notably, the exchange rates are not consistent with each top up amount today (May 30, 2011). With the rates for the $4.73 and $28.39 being the only consistent calculated at 2.319 (AUD1=PNGK2.319).


In comparison, Digicel PNG's online top up amounts are (and will get you):

  • AUD$6.58 (PNGK15.00);


  • AUD$13.16 (PNGK30.00);


  • AUD$19.75 (PNGK45.00);and


  • AUD$26.33 (PNGK60.00).

All calculatedd exchange rates for digicel online top for today (May 30, 2011) are consistent at 2.28 (AUD1=PNGK2.28).


ANZ's rates for today (May 30, 2011) are 2.3089 according to ANZ's online currency exchange calculator.


Ezetop have an app on the Apple Store, whereas Digicel don't. Which is why I am on a mission to keep asking questions as to why not.

Overall, in terms of price, Digicel Online Top Up is cheaper than ezetop.


Digicel loses points for not having an app, which may drive (as it almost did me before writing this post and working the pros and cons of each service provider) customers to the ezetop app due to its ease of use and accessibility.


Although ezetop does have an app, what's worse is that you need to sign up to be a member of ezetop - registering cannot be done on the app, you need to do so on a PC, or through a web browser of choice on your mobile phone. In addition, once you sign up on your PC, have downloaded the ezetop app for free on the Apple Store, and are a first time user, an error message appears stating that the ezetop mobile website requires you to have completed a transaction and stored your credit card on the desktop version of ezetop.com. I understand the need for the credit card details, however why complete a transaction first! I guess, as a first-time user of the app, I am all but absolutely discouraged.

For those who don't mind going to Digicel PNG's website, searching the services tab, scrolling down and clicking the Online Top Up option (or alternatively, clicking the banner that appears on the home page).

There are numerous ways to use Digicel's online top up service, personally as an overseas student (I speak to my mum mostly around 3 times a day) and a vodafone AU user, I refuse to pay $6.10 a minute. By sending my mother credit, it's hell cheaper given Digicel's PNGK.049 from 8pm to 8am everyday (no call connection fee).

So compared to $6.10 per minute (PNGK14.08) (as per vodafone au, excluding call connection fee), it only costs only 49 toea!


If, you're not an existing customer of Digicel's Online Top-Up Service, sign up online for Digicel's Online Top-Up Service here.




Monday 16 May 2011

The Offline Social Network - The Hungry Beast

Imagine if Facebook was an actual person. Like alive. This is what a conversation with 'Facebook' would be like.

This is hilarious.

Watch it!



Tuesday 10 May 2011

Aural pleasures: May 2011


Im sitting in the State Library in Brisbane and love how there are many other people with Mac's as well because they have all kindly shared their iTunes music with me.

So I have found yet another innovative source of inspiration for this post.

I have since discovered a few new songs I have never heard before (some from familiar artists such as Amy Winehouse and Habib Koite (that African sounding artist whose great music comes preloaded with any Microsoft Windows Media Player).

Check some of this music out - the links take you to youtube videos.




Friday 6 May 2011

Jokes from an iconic Papua New Guinean pioneer: Henry Kila

Was just checking out Nancy Sullivan's blog and came across a post on a fellow Yule Islander, Henry Kila who passed away early last year. He was buried on Yule Island.

He was known for being a witty one. Here are a few jokes that Nancy shares:

I remember sitting in the back of the DWU auditorium with him and Mel Togolo for one of the Australian-PNG Business council sessions this year, all of us giggling too much for our own good. Still, I couldn't move away, Henry was being too funny. When a member of the Education Department took the stage I gasped in admiration of his big soft afro. "Where's he from Henry?""

"1972".

Nancy isn't sure but believes this is the last joke she heard him tell:

Mugabe, Somare and Mandela are all tumbling to the ground after a mid-air collision. Everyone takes out their cel phone. Mandela starts dialing up St Peter to be cleared through the Pearly Gates. But the phone keeps ringing and ringing off the hook. Mugabe tries now, but he only gets a busy signal. So Somare dials a number and gets through right away. "How'd you do that? they ask. "Hey, for me," Somare says, "its only a local call.""

R.I.P.

The PNG Gov's history with price controls

Although a few of you may find certain (if not in its entirety) the notion of privatising state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Papua New Guinea in particular, then I think this paper by Timothy Curton of Australia National University (ANU) called "Privatisation Policy in Papua New Guinea" will demonstrate why the Mekere Government was adamant on a privatision policy during his term (1999-2002). However, this process was stalled when Somare came into power immediately after.

Commercial Statutory Authorities (CSAs) such as Elcom (Now PNG POWER), Air Niugini and Harbours Board throughout the lifetimes have been subject to an over-regulated market mechanism by the State.

Have a look at p.6:

The cabinet’s decision (National Executive Council 163/1983, 1–5) defining
the government’s future relations with the CSAs also laid down that they
should only undertake new investments if they earned at least the rate of return to be laid down from time to time by the minister for Finance in the
annual budget, and that if a CSA wished to undertake a non-commercial
investment for ‘social/political reasons’, it should seek a subsidy through the budget to cover any losses incurred by the investment. The minimum rate of return was announced only once in a budget, and that budget was rejected (in 1985), but the minister for Finance had in 1984 advised each CSA that an ‘appropriate’ rate of return would be in the range of 16–22 per cent already permitted to the private sector on price-controlled items (Whitworth 1993, 25). These prescribed rates of return were rarely achieved by any of the
CSAs. The average return on investment (ROI) of all four CSAs between 1985
and 1989 varied between a low of 11.1 per cent in 1985 and a high of 13.1
per cent in 1986 (World Bank 1992, 178). Those were the good years: from
1994 onwards Elcom’s operating profits were usually less than its interest
payments (partly because price controls prevented tariff increases to cover
higher costs of imported fuel after the devaluation of the kina in 1994) and
its ROI fell below 5 per cent, while the PTC’s fell to 4 per cent in 1995,
and Air Niugini incurred only losses after 1994 (World Bank 1999, 148–149).

So only if CSA's made a return of between 16-22% percent (of which none of them even achieved together), then they would be able to make new investments!

Curtin continues on p.7:


The NEC decision had directed the CSAs to prepare annual rolling forward five-year capital investment programs for approval by cabinet, and this was complied with until they were corporatized in the late 1990s. The decision further stated that legislation would be drafted enabling the CSAs to vary their prices and charges to the level needed to achieve the required rates of return, but subject to the ‘price justification’ procedures laid down in the Prices Regulation Act. The force of the cabinet’s decisions on pricing and investments was considerably weakened by this failure to grasp the nettle of freeing the CSAs from the government’s pricecontrols. As the years went by, the CSAs found it more and more difficult to gain timely
approval for price increases from the secretary of the Finance or Treasury Department, in his role as price controller, and this largely explains the CSAs’ worsening profits performance noted above. But even in the good years their overall gross margin (i.e. total revenue less
operating costs as a ratio of total revenue) was less than 20 per cent, whereas the private sector would aim for 40 per cent; and this shortfall reflected operating inefficiencies, inadequate sales relative to their large capital investments, and over-staffing.

p.8 continues:


It is evident that the response of the government in 1983 to the growing
difficulties of the CSAs in the 1970s and early 1980s was not to contemplate
privatization, which was rarely mentioned as a possibility, except by
Trebilcock(1982, 115), but to accept Floyd’s restructuring proposals by
turning them into quasi-autonomous entities free to behave as if they were private sector firms, subject however to restrictions on price setting and
staff emoluments. The implicit contradiction between Floyd’s commercialization of the CSAs and their continued public ownership was either not noticed or justified on the grounds that given equal commercial efficiency public monopolies would somehow be
more benevolent than private monopolies.

Does this sound familiar (Curtin,p.8):

Both the CSAs’ autonomy and their ability to operate as if they were privately owned began to be eroded in the 1990s, for increasingly their boards and top management became the creatures
of the current minister, and if he was removed or transferred to a new ministry,
the new incumbent soon acted to replace both board and top management (Millett 1993, 27).

Thoughts?

Friday 29 April 2011

How do you make sense of death?

Wednesday 20 April 2011

FM100 Papua New Guinea Reaching You 100%

This morning Hon. Member for Wau/Bulolo, Sam Basil MP updated his facebook status with:




So you can guess what I did next. Tried seeing if FM100 online. And Alas!

They were!



You can listen to the station live, however today there was a network error. I really hope they can fix this slight issue but other than that, well done to the team at FM 100!

Here's a pic which Mr. Basil uploaded of the interview with Mr. Hau'Ofa OBE




Tuesday 19 April 2011

Twitter plans to buy TweetDeck Inc.

Imagine - a world where you didn't need so many tabs open or to click from browser to browser finding where your Facebook page or Twitter page was?? TweetDeck is the solution!


This morning, while crossing my things to do checklist, I checked my Twitter account. Read a tweet by Mashable about how Twitter is in talks to buy TweedDeck by Chris Taylor.

I had no idea what TweedDeck was until I read further in the article that:

TweetDeck is one of the most popular third-party Twitter clients, available in desktop, iPad, iPhone and Android versions. It displays your Twitter news feed, @mentions and direct messages, along with your Facebook feeds — all on the same screen, all updating in real time. TweetDeck can also support updates from MySpace, LinkedIn and Foursquare (Taylor, 2011).

TweetDeck's wikipedia article states that:


TweetDeck is an Adobe AIR desktop application for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, Foursquare, and MySpace. Like other Twitter applications it interfaces with the Twitter API to allow users to send and receive tweets and view profiles. It is the most popular Twitter application with a 19% market share as of June 2009, following only the official Twitter.com website with 45.70% share for posting new status updates. It is compatible with several operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. An iPhone version was released on June 19, 2009 and an iPad version was released in May 2010 as well. An Android version was recently made available after a public beta period.
Users can split the program into columns which show different things, for instance tweets from friends. TweetDeck interfaces with Twitscoop, 12seconds and Stocktwits, all of which can appear in separate columns. It also allows users to split the people they follow into groups, a very useful feature to many users. The client supports URL shortening which can be done on-the-fly.


It took me less than a minute to download. If you've got Google Chrome, you can download the app from the Chrome shop for free here. Otherwise, TweetDeck is also available for iPhones, iPads, desktops and Android.

Monday 18 April 2011

Rainy weather music: Summer in the city - The Boys and Girls Club

So it rained this morning and continued (for a while). I struggled to find a song to listen to today, but remembered 'Summer in the City' by the Boys and Girls Club.

I first came across this track, Summer in the City by the Boys and Girls Club in 2007 after reading a post by Analog Giant.

The link to download the mp3 did not work so I managed to download the mp3 from iTunes and eventually created a Youtube video for the song because there wasn't one.

Taylor K. Long from www.t-sides.com provides a review of the song that really sums it up:

“Summer in the City” is the right kind of electro pop for a lazy late summer. It’s got a solid beat that’s not quite fast enough for dancing, but great for waking up in the morning or walking down the street. The vocals are a soft and tongue-heavy purr, building a picture of the typical summer romance – afternoons spent at home in bed, the kind of commitment that needs no declaration of its loyalty beyond frequent time spent together.

It’s a gracious anthem for those of us wanting to make the most of these last hopeful summer nights.

Enjoy!
Spowf



If you love it so much, you can download the track for $1.69 on iTunes here!

Saturday 16 April 2011

World Music: Zimbabwean artist Oliver Mtukudzi

I just visited my friend, Tawanda's blog, Thoughts, Experiences and Insights.
A proud Zimbabwean, his post Soundtrack to my life cont.. really made my afternoon. I am calling today a spiritual mental health day.

This song by Zimbabwean artist Oliver Mtukudzi aided that effort.



Face of a dancer from the Alotau Canoe Festival

If you remember, I wrote a post about Michael Fletcher's beautiful footage taken for North Star Cruises. I somehow, ended up on Flemming Bo Jensen's blog. Flemming is a self-described photographer, traveller, dreamer and nomad.

I found a particular post on Papua New Guinea in particular. Her images taken at the Alotau Canoe Festival of a strikingly beautiful, local, male dancer (see image on left -
Source:
www.flemingbojensen.com)

I'm seriously contemplating getting a well-known local Papua New Guinean painter, Jeffry Feeger to paint this.



John Pilger on Obama and Obama, the brand

"Real activism has little time for identity politics" - John Pilger