Suzy McHale’s Diary: 2004
Events of note: Pastor Mitch’s true nature began to emerge (15/10 entry).
January
Thursday 1/1
3:41 p.m.: First day of the new year. Went to bed as usual last night; kept awake by the idiots letting off illegal fireworks, not to mention the official fireworks display in the city. All non-human lifeforms were no doubt terrified out of their wits. Why can’t something like a laser light show be organized instead, which would still be spectacular but nowhere near as noisy?
Thursday 8/1
Got a bit sidetracked there. One week gone, already. The NASA rover Spirit was successfully landed on Mars last weekend, and has been sending back photos, albeit of a rather boring red rocky plain. The geologist-types are all in a lather, and NASA is crowing to the world about its latest triumph. Unlike the British Beagle lander which still hasn’t been heard from since its landing (and disappearance) on Christmas Day. NASA did spend around $A1 billion on its two landers (Opportunity is due to land on Mars’s other side in a couple of weeks) in contrast to the budget ESA Mars Express mission.
My one lament is, what is Russia doing? They landed probes on Mars back in the 1960s and 70s, but now seem to be leaving this up to other nations (namely NASA and America – and China). No one in their government seems to care anymore.
An earthquake in Iraq last week killed up to 50,000 people in the ancient city of Bam. Iraq is very earthquake-prone, yet its government seems continually ill-prepared for such tragedies.
~ Ended 1:40 p.m.
Friday 30/1
At the end of the month already. Another ferocious rainstorm last night that caused flooding and damage throughout the suburbs (we weren’t too badly hit). In contrast to December, this January has been unusually cool (not that I’m complaining!). I really hate the hot weather.
NASA’s other lander, Opportunity, landed last Sunday; the Beagle has been given up for dead, though the orbiting Mars Express is working and producing photos, at least. President Bush made a big speech a couple of weeks ago launching a new American initiative to launch missions to the Moon and Mars. I really hope that doesn’t come true – I’m fed up with Americans carrying on about their pioneering spirit and so forth. They don’t have a monopoly on this! I’ve commented about this on my website, so I won’t here.
I’ve been spending a lot of time fussing with my site, so I’ve done little else! I’ve got e-mails from a couple of people saying they liked my site (no weirdoes or stalkers, yet!). It’s now around 37 pages and nearly 7 MB.
I’m bereft of the laptop as the person at the church whose it was needed it back for 3 weeks or so. I really like sitting up in bed and using it, and prefer Windows XP to 98 or Me.
~ Ended 6:59 p.m.
February
Tuesday 10/2
Another bombing in Moscow on Saturday, this time in a train carriage in the Metro, killing at least 30 commuters. In a city of 10 million people, it’s impossible to guard against such atrocities, and the terrorists know it. The Chechens were blamed as usual, though this time they have denied it. Such bombings will never achieve anything – just look at the endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A Palestinian blows himself up and several Israelis in a suicide bombing; the Israeli military retaliates with an air strike, killing several Palestinians. And on, and on. Neither side wants to give in, and people just keep dying. It is all such a waste. If enough people wanted to, the world could be changed – conflicts resolved, poverty and hunger ended, and so on. But too many profit from the way things are now. There was an article in last Saturday’s Good Weekend about the various American corporations competing over the chance for lucrative contracts to build Iraq – rather like vultures squabbling over a carcass. Never mind the several thousand Iraqis who died; it’s all about how much money the companies can make. Oh, the glories of capitalism. It’s enough to make me think that humans perhaps deserve extinction – they just keep repeating the same stupidities over and over again.
An evil person who has been around a long time is Zbigniew Brzezinski – I saw him mentioned in a couple of books. He’s been advisor to several American presidents (including the present one), and is ruthless in supporting America’s supremacy. He contributed to the Soviet Union’s defeat in Afghanistan (not to mention all the soldiers who died there) and the collapse of Communism. He really deserves to be assassinated, preferably by slow torture. (I mentioned him here as I’ll look him up on the Internet sometime – his name is one of those tongue-twisting Polish ones, and is hard to remember.)
My website is going okay, nearly 40 pages now. I find I enjoy reading about websites and HTML, and looking at the source codes of other people’s sites – something I can lose myself in.
I was looking at a website of a girl (10 years younger than me) called Livian, who is one of the so-called “cam girls” – she was mentioned in a The Age newspaper article a couple of months ago. Her website, at www.muntedmess.com, is quite good. The cam girls are a subculture who post photos of themselves online using web cameras mounted near their computers. Most are teenagers or in their 20s. I had a look at one of the linked sites, and many of the girls were in, er, various states of undress – little left to the imagination. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to literally expose themselves like that – much potential for future embarrassment (photos and video can be downloaded and stored), and the obvious danger of attracting obsessive stalker-types.
~ Ended 6:33 p.m.
Friday 13/2
Mum and Dad went to see the third part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King. Don’t know if I feel like seeing it.
Had another recurring dream last night of having to return to That Awful Place (former job). I was walking from home to work with a feeling of dread at another 5-hour shift; I didn’t want to go. I entered the store, but saw some workmates there whom I didn’t like, and decided to turn around and go home. I sneaked out hoping no one would see me, and walked back home, not wanting to ever return there.
~ Ended 5:02 p.m.
Thursday 26/2
I couldn’t resist mentioning this Spacestore ad at the Spaceref.com site: now you can buy your very own Astronaut Doll! “She comes in her official NASA blue flight suit and flight boots with NASA luggage – all packed in a cool pink clear plastic backpack. Great for traveling to and from the International Space Station or grandma’s!” A real space babe! Rather wish I could send up one to the guys on the ISS with the message “This is the closest you’ll get to a woman for 6 months!” Ha, ha. ;-)
March
Friday 12/3
Mum and Dad’s 36th anniversary today, so they went out for lunch. They went away last week up to Kyneton again.
Once again I start off a month’s entries on a despairing note, with another terrorist bombing. Around 10 bomb blasts on commuter trains around Madrid in Spain have killed at least 192 people and wounded more than 1240. It’s Europe’s worst terrorist attack since the Lockerbie bombing of a passenger jet in 1988. It isn’t yet known if it was ETA (Basque separatists) or al-Qaeda. The attack was obviously well-planned and executed to cause maximum carnage, as the bombs went off at morning rush-hour.
~ Ended 2:14 p.m.
April
Sunday 11/4
How would you like to share your home with THESE guys? The grey sheepskin-like object in the photo is in fact a European wasps’ nest which Dad found in the roof attic last week. It’s been there a year at least and there would be 30-40,000 wasps inside, all with bad attitudes. He had to call in a pest controller to poison them (you would NOT want to disturb this nest). The nest is constructed by the wasps – they chew up bits of wood into a sort of paper maché and make this elaborate structure. It’s probably about a meter or so across. The European wasp is an introduced pest here (one of many). This is one thing they don’t have to worry about on the ISS!
August
Thursday 26/8
Another dreadful terrorist incident in Russia (2 aircraft downed, up to 100 people killed). I wish someone would drop a nuclear bomb on those damn rebels – I certainly don’t have any sympathy for them.
Olympics: Aleksei Nemov (gymnastics) should have won gold!!! Or a medal, at least. The judges were totally clueless.
September
Saturday 4/9
It has been another dreadful week for terrorism in Russia (and Israel). But they should not give in to the bastards. Some letters of support at Pravda.ru Archive.org link.
October
Wednesday 13/10
Not happy because our PM was voted in AGAIN by stupid people (Federal elections last Saturday), and Australia is stuck with him and his horrid policies for ANOTHER 3 or 4 years. I have an awful feeling George W. Bush will be re-elected, also.
Friday 15/10
Rather a long time since my last entry! Another year nearly gone. Mum and Dad are away again, minding the Gang of Four until Saturday (Michele and Chris have gone to a wedding), then staying at Kyneton again until next Friday. They went to Tasmania earlier this year and stayed with Aunty Hilda and Uncle John for a week, traveling there and back on the ferry. Not much else has happened; things are the same for me.
The Church pastor, Mitch, is turning out to have problems as his predecessor, Andrew, did – though Mitch’s are related to money, namely that he is in debt because he can’t control his spending, up to several thousand dollars. He has been approaching various people and asking them for money loans (which are never repaid). I don’t think he will be here much longer. I used to like him, but have gone off him now.
In the world, a terrible year for terrorism since I last wrote, mainly in Russia. During the Olympic Games two passenger aircraft in Russia were blown up by suicide bombers in mid-air, killing just under 100. Then an even more terrible hostage siege in the town of Beslan – students and teachers were taken hostage by Chechen and other terrorists on the first day of school (1st September there), and held for several days without food or water until Special Forces stormed the building after the terrorists began shooting and one of the bombs planted in a gymnasium accidentally exploded. Nearly 400 were killed, most of them young children and teenagers. The tragedy received worldwide condemnation against the terrorists, though, predictably, there were a few know-it-all analysts who said things should have been done this way or that, and a few sympathizing with the terrorists. The 40-day mourning period is now over, and there are fears there will be reprisals.
Space news: the latest Russian Soyuz spaceship, TMA-5, launched safely yesterday with Expedition 10 and a short-term-stay Russian cosmonaut aboard (he will return with the previous Expedition).
My website is going well and continues to grow – over 80 pages now! I still get e-mails from various people and am getting better-known on the Internet (unlike in the real world). I haven’t had much inclination to write in here because I am working on my website most of the time!
~ Ended 8:22 a.m.
Sunday 31/10
Daylight Savings begins here today (*yawn*). U.S. Presidential elections on 2nd 3rd November (in case you hadn’t noticed ;-). They are just as boring as the Australian ones, but much LOUDER. It will be a mercy for the rest of the world when they are finished. I don’t much like either of the contenders.
There was an article in last week’s Time magazine (25th October) about “Russia’s Most Wanted,” Shamil Basayev, the Chechen terrorist behind the Beslan hostage siege and other atrocities. Articles like this (I don’t think much of the magazine) will only give him the notoriety and publicity he craves. A lot of people there fear him, but he is nothing but a thug, bully and a coward. Get him on his own – without his followers and sycophants – and he would turn into a snivelling coward, like all these tyrants. Remember how the once-feared Saddam Hussein was found hiding like a rat in a hole, resembling nothing but a scruffy tramp! These people only gain power because other people let them – i.e. they don’t stand up to them.
~ UTC +11