I think the outrage over this Big Brother goo-throwing incident is pretty over the top. Still, I can understand why Mexicans were miffed. The goo-target, the Mexican flag, does represent their country, after all.

Let's just hope that the goo-throwers -- the yokels pictured here -- don't represent Australia!

Gawd help us if they do.

Back in 1983 I saw David Bowie on his Serious Moonlight tour (at the Perth Entertainment Centre). He was a veteran then, at age 37.

I always remember that concert, since it was the only one I'd ever seen. (Well, the only one of its size. I've seen the odd pub gig, of course! Oh, and I did see Rodriguez, of "Sugar Man" fame. That was a disaster -- seemed he'd binged on the "sugar" that night!) Because I remember that Bowie concert so well, it's kind of a marker for that whole time in my life.

The amazing thing is that it doesn't seem that long ago at all. But it's 23 bloody years! I'm 42 and working at the uni I was studying at in 1983. And David Bowie has just turned 60.

Yikes.

Anti-smoking zealots have demanded that puffers must give up their habit before undergoing elective surgery.

I suggest a compromise: Durrymaniacs should cease and desist -- but only during the procedure itself. Lighting up in the operating theatre is not just rude, it's dangerous. It can burn those gowns and hoods the docs and nurses wear!

Hello readers. As you'll see from the date of the last post, this blog has been fallow for yonks. But it has been consistently getting visitors. It also seems to rank pretty well in Google, perhaps because Blogger is owned by it. So, after a whole 3 years I've decided to resurrect it.

I have other Die, Fluffy Wuffy, Die! blogs going. There's the one mentioned below, at tBlog. I've got another one which is here.

So this blog has three concurrent addresses. Each will have different posts. I think they might develop their own particular themes as well. I'll see.

Just a note to say that I'm trying out a new address for a while at least. I do want my blog to be a little more interactive, and this new site enables comments. (But then, if the feedback is a tad too pugnacious, I might just wuss out and return here. So I'm leaving my options open.)

The new site is here, by the way.

Just saw a poll on the Ninemsn website. It asked, is Australia too hard on refugees? Proportion of "no" to "yes" answers? Two to one.

Interesting.

Slatts was wondering where to find these feedback for money companies. Maybe he's as skint as I am?

Anyway, best bet would be to go to this site and search the directory for places in your city or town. Don't use a keyword. Just tick the services marked "group recruitment", "group moderation", etc. You should get quite a few out of that.

For those interested in making a few bucks for buggerall effort: There are a lot of companies that specialise in "group discussions". I registered with one recently, and just scored my first gig two nights ago. Seventy smackeroonies for sitting around quacking on about soft drink. Not bad, eh? (And actually quite interesting, believe it or not.)

I'm registered with a few of these places, but I might go crazy and register with heaps. Could supplement my meagre income quite nicely, I reckon. Say one every 2 to 3 weeks, that's about 1500 hundred bucks a year.

This is just another nice aspect of capitalism. What would the comparable commie gab-fest be like? Well, you'd probably be there under the pretence of giving "free and frank" feedback about The Party's direction. Of course you'd feel anything but free or frank, probably more fearful and furtive. And the reward would be shit, too. Might just score a desiccated spud and a bent durrie, or somethin'.

Some bloke called Simon Chapman rails against celebs like Nicole Kidman, Sarah O'hare and others for puffing on durries one minute, promoting cancer awareness the next.

I think the effort is wasted, but. You're never gonna get consistent, rational behaviour from a star. Why? Because aside from being airheads, all their actions are driven by ego, and buggerall else.

Still, at least the babes he mentions aren't stupid enough to quack on about politics (well, as far as I know), like some other bimbos from Hollywood do.

Re that crap Brown-Nettle agit-prop performance of a view days back (by the way, d'ya reckon they scored a grant for it from the Australia Council?) and the ensuing kerfuffle:

I think some people have gone a little too far with the criticism. But there was no doubt that it was a truly disgraceful display. Simon Crean - bewildered 'tard that he is - managed to acquit himself reasonably well and act with a modicum of dignity in a ceremonial gathering designed mainly to re-affirm ties with our number one ally. But Bob and Kerry? Gawd. When even serial heckler Nick Bolkus is rolling his eyes in disgust at your behaviour, then you know you really have crossed the line.

He's all passion, no thought, is Bob; not just a force for nature, but a force of nature. Imagine if he ever became PM! Yikes. How scary is that? I can see him on the phone to Tony Blair: "Don't call me again ya speciesist, racist, sexist cunt... But while I've got you on the blower, tell that elitist slut Liz Windsor - or whatever her name is - that she can go an' fuck herself!"

Crikey! He'd probably try and puncture the wheels of the Pope-mobile, he would.

What's amazing is that his silly yammering has probably scored him more votes - or at least more sympathy - amongst the defectorate. The pink pixies of Kookybullshitland are now all asquitter about how locking Bob and his, er, left hand person out of Parliament House was an appalling act of censorship. Yet they were the ones being censorious, because they were trying to shout Dubya down.

The Greens' tactic is very clear: Create a highly emotive situation in which the forceful (yet civilised) exchange of arguments is eschewed for yelling your bloody lungs out! Then, when everyone's sqawking up a storm, the biggest, meanest, loudest mob wins. Finally in power, the Greens can implement their wacky anti-human, pro-plant agenda. (I'd call it hedge politics, myself.)

It's definitely a tribal, primitive way of doing things. But does that make them fascist, in the most sinister sense of the word? No. Not yet. But give them time...

Another plug: I had my home page designed for me by a talented (and patient) designer from Red Riding Web and Print Services. The website is here, if you want to have a look.

Still more cyber-anxiety. Just downloaded a free - it's always free with me, notice that? - personal firewall. No probs there, except that now I keep getting these alerts whenver I log into one of my e-mail accounts. There's a bubble that appears listing an IP address and something about "pings". I suspect some scum-sucking spammer has managed to lob some spyware into my 'puter, and it gets activated whenever I check mail or something. Or maybe it's something to do with all those e-mails for cheap Viagra and Vicodin that sit in everyone's Hotmail account. Whatever it is, it creeps me out big time.

Bob Brown is arcing up about being slandered as some kind of Nazi. Considering that he and his quackolytes are so ready to condemn Howard and Dubya as fascist (and Saddam as the victim), isn't this a case of the pot calling the kettle black... or brown, or, er, green... or something?

It must seem ironic that one of my last posts was about how I was hooked on blogging, then I wrote nothing for ages. Kathy Kinsley thought I might have been trying to give it up.

No, not in rehab. And re that: I wonder what that would be like for blog addicts ("blunkies"?). I mean, what would be the methadone equivalent? Handwritten diary entries?

Anyway, not trying to give it up. Just bloody knackered. Busy trying to earn a living and also chip away at other writing projects.

I just thought of a new word to describe the craven use of intimate associations with the famous for massive financial gain: "burrellous".

I'm feeling very inadequate today. Not only is my namesake Matt Hayden more famous and wealthy than I am, and has a more beautiful wife than I do (er, 'cause I don't have one); he is now elbowing in on my turf: writing.

Next thing I know he will have started his own blog! And if he does he's sure to rack up more hits than me. Would probably score 380 in the first hour, the bastard.

It's so weird. This browser is fine for Blogger, Yahoo, Speedymail and general browsing. But for Hotmail it's stuffed. Keeps seizing up on me!

They're weird these things. Moody, capricious - like people.

Iam glad this thing is still working. Didn't sleep all that well worrying about whether it would or not. I think I really am becoming way too dependant on my blogging - and PC for that matter.

And recently I've developed another cyber-related habit. It's what I would call "software addiction". (Hell, it's even got its own ready-made acronym: SADD. And how sad is that?) I buy those computer mags with CD freebies on them, then I rush home and, sweating and twitching with frenzied anticipation, download the programs.

Why the obsession? Maybe it's 'cause I'm such a cheap bastard, and I feel like I'm getting something for nothing. Or perhaps it's just an acute form of that fascination that blokes have with technology (you know, "boys and their toys"). Whatever it is, the habit is spinning out of control. I might need counselling soon.

And speaking of sad. That's the emotion I feel whenever I look at the old Opera icon on the desktop. It's still there, and it opens up when I click it. It says it's "finding site" and "sending request", but that's where it ends. It just can't quite connect.

Makes me think of an ageing Gidget standing on Malibu beach. The barrels are pumping, and Moondoggie and the crew are out there gettin' radical, just as they have been for the last forty odd years. Gidget really wants to join them. But she's forgotten how to, er, surf.

Have been having some 'puter trouble. Tried downloading ICQ from some CD onto my PC. But it couldn't manage it. Then my main browser (Opera) bit the dust. (Well, technically perhaps not. Maybe there's some glitch out there in cyberspace.) I think some of the ICQ files elbowed out the browser files or something. Anyway, I downloaded a Mozilla one. This seems to work fine. Thank God for that!

Touch wood everything will be okay from now on. It really freaks me out when I have tehcnical glitches. I start hyperventilating and everything.

I'm like a junkie, ferchrissakes. My whole world just starts to fall apart if I think I won't be able to blog.

Blog-addiction must already be a serious problem. Before long it will be in the DSM, I reckon.

Just signed up to this pay per-click search engine program. It's here if you wanna have a look. There's a permalink down below, too, just under the dating site banners. (By the way, I've already earned a whopping 3 bucks US from that Friendfinder one. Impressive, eh? Already well on the way to cyber-moguldom...)