Partners In Crime.

There's no room for in it for my brain, no space in my schedule for watching, no community to drag me along with them.

And also, I've become resigned to the fact that I will never get stories about the characters that I want. That my interests are not anywhere near the interests of the majority of viewers, and because what counts is eyeballs (or reader pages, or whatever) then the characters I love - or the archetypes I want to see - are not going to appeal to most people.

It's a little demoralising, and makes it hard to write.

Not to mention the state of the world is steadily wearing on us all. Not just the AI (fuck AI) but also the world and all it's harms. All the hopeful stories I had for analogues and spin-offs of our world are presently crumbling while watching Ukraine, Gaza, the authority of the current US Administration, the right-wingers, Christian Nationalism - not to mention all the tech issues.

*sigh*

I can't remember if it was John Green or someone else (might have been Hank Green) who said during the 2020 election process that he was hesitating over starting a new book, because a 2nd Trump administration would create a very different world to one in which 45 only managed one administration. He was, as it turns out, exceedingly prescient on that front.

I'm mostly just tired. And the bed is doing my back in. Soft beds do this a lot with me. They need to be just soft enough that I can lie on them, but firm and flat - no dips in the mattress.

I want my cats. And my house. And my bed. And my space. I want to work from my office desk instead of commuting. (Okay, the commuting might be required going forward.)

I have met some excellent people while on this work trip, but also I am tired and I want to be in spaces which are mine.

So, it's been good to meet some of the colleauges I'm working with. Others…well, they're typical 'guys in tech' and, moreover 'South Asian/West Asian guys in tech', which is to say they're very insular socially, and very closed when it comes to including an East Asian female in their outings.

( people gonna peop )

--

Spent a great weekend with friends I haven't seen since their kids were much smaller. I've known B for over 20 years - since before she met her husband C (internet dating back some twenty years) - and although we've moved through very different stages of life, we're still good friends.

I gave her a draft (very drafty draft) of the novel, which I've started to fix/adjust/rewrite. Still trying to work out some of the details about the various characters, the various moving parts of the story, and where everything lands up.

We went out on both Saturday and Sunday, which is a lot for her - she has CFS and struggles with her energy levels. We went for a walk around the area on Saturday morning, and then out for dinner that night. Sunday was markets and then taking me to the station, and by the end of it, I think she was pretty exhausted and sore. At least she gets today off - she doesn't work, is on disability (FWIW). Her husband works, currently the service rep at a local mechanic's place and he's got the knowledge for it, but not the body. They've had a lot going on the last 18 months and are hoping for a stretch of quiet.

--

So the hotel is not as nice as last week's hotel in terms of the room and appointments (tile flooring all the way, no carpets, no rugs, and the layout of the room is kind of peculiar), but the location is considerably better for going out and eating and stuff.

Eh. I'll take it.

--

Tonight, I'm catching up with a friend for dinner, and hopefully another friend on Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday will be scrounge days, although someone has recommended a place in the city

--

Back home, we have a chicken ( possible graphicity )

--

Electorate next door has fallen in favour of the Independent. By 40 votes.

WHEW.

That's "automatic recount" territory, of course, but it's been very carefully scrutinised, and so the counts are unlikely to change.

But not restfulness.

Off to catch up with a friend tomorrow and the weekend, back on Sunday to a hotel in the city.

Interestingly, I and one other guy are at the hotel where most of the others were last week...the others have been moved to a high-end hotel!

Anyway. I'm just glad to not be out here after tonight. Although how I'm going to manage to pack my bag again, I really don't know.

The new members (the known ones at any rate) were sworn in today, and the Prime Minister (Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party or ALP) presented his cabinet.

Yes, we do politics just that fast around here. Elected one week, sitting the next.

There are still a handful of counts taking place, some of them are going down to the wire. And I do mean the wire. The final date for ballots to come in (from remote and distant places where Australians have cast their votes) is this Thursday, I believe.

--

The conservative party in Australia, having lost their leader after he lost his seat, have been doing the whole 're-elect a new one'. Now, in Australia, party members choose who the new leader will be, not the voters. So there's a lot of in-party factionalism and back-and-forth.
 
Our options were: far right faction white guy with history of corruption who refused to resign from his ministerial position, moderate white woman with history of corruption who did resign from her ministerial position after being found out. There were assorted minor possibilities but they were all an outside chance, compared with these two.
 
Incidentally, white corruption guy came with an indigneous deputy minister in tow - an indigenous deputy minister who is far-right wing, opposed the Indigneous Voice To Parliament, and has just jumped ship from the "country" conservative party to the "urban" conservative party, leaving the "country" conservatives without a leader...
 
This is a party that has 'a woman problem'. They don't do quotas (unlike Labor) and it shows. They stuff female candidates into marginal seats, or anywhere where they think that a woman might beat another woman.
 
(Incidentally, one of those electorates where they put a woman they thought might beat another woman? They're up by a mere 56 votes in an electorate where over 100,000 voted! HOLY WOW. It's being recounted. Poor AEC workers, what a job!

I did say some of them were going down to the wire!)
 
Anyway, they voted on who was going to lead the Aussie conservatives in the coming months (at least until someone stabs her in the back) and it's the white female moderate. Who, if you want an idea of what 'moderate' entails, once gave a speech about how Australia would amount to nothing if not for colonisation.

Yeah.
 
We can't let the Americans have all the white supremacists, I guess...

There are, of course, those who will herald the election of the first conservative party leader as a master stroke. Every conservative female politician in the country (there aren't many of them) was photographed with a big grin and a positive note about how the conservatives have changed and how they listened to Australia and, and, and...

...think I'm gonna wait and see about how the conservatives have changed. Not that I'll ever vote for them again.

Actually, speaking of 'wait and see'-ing when it comes to leaderships...someone on Threads posted a picture of a whole lettuce...