I'm still in Australia, but **** is ****ed at the moment. I was planning on going to an outdoor education centre near this town of Licola for the weekend ( I live in the state of Victoria) and the whole place was surrounded by fire. A very few tense days, but they'll pull through. And yeah, Sydney's weather is absolutely nuts, completely insane.
Our snowpacalypse that wiped out all the French toast ingredients from local grocery stores, turned out to be nice big fat flakes that didn't stick to the ground. It's still cooler than usual here though, which is fine.
The Bing weather app on my tablet say 70F and clear but its infact been overcast and drizzly all day.
It's only 50 here, which is our average for this time of year, but we're looking at a high of 40 in the next couple of days. Which works for me, that's what jackets and gloves and hats are for, but oh, the whining from the people who will think that "the cold weather needs to stay up north..." No. Go to Florida if you don't like winter. But I probably shouldn't talk, because I will ***** like hell about the heat from May until October, while going to the pool five days a week and getting a tan.
It's been unusually warm here for the past few weeks, up till yesterday. Low to mid 80's for most of January. I've only turned the heater on twice this winter.. I want the cold weather back.
We get the halfbacks. The ones that go to Florida and then realize that summer is ****ing hot down there, so they come halfway back to the North, which is here--and then they realize that hey, our summers feel like Mustafar here too, and the temperature actually drops below 60 degrees in the winter. BTW--have you been watching the Heels game today?
Haha... "French toast ingredients". That's exactly what everyone goes to buy in panic mode: bread, milk, and eggs.
Damn it.... Today the Austria people were given the choice whether to end mandatory drafting boys above the age of 17 for 6 months of military service/ 9 months of civil service in favor or going for a smaller, professional army. They voted to keep everything as it is. To make matters worse, since I kept on studying, I have yet to fulfil my service. There is no benefit from forcing people to serve, since no one is put in a purposeful position and they are given barely any money for it. We are a tiny country in the dead center of Europe. We will never be attack by anyone and even if we were, we'd be overrun in a day. Or simply welcome our invaders with open arms *cough* 20th century history *cough* This was the last straw. Austria has proven time again that it is merely a banana republic. Its people and government would rather leave everything unchanged no matter how broken it is and pride themselves on it as well. Progress? Going with the times? Making improvements? We don't even know the meaning of those words over here, apparently. Am I glad to leave this country behind me for a while.
Oh yeah, anschluss - I forgot about that. Don't other European nations still have the 6 months of military service or 9 months of civil service too? I remember lots of Germans helping out at my high school to avoid having to join the military for six months. But yeah, that really sucks, @Billy_Dee_Binks - which option do you think you'll do?
Civil service, if anything. But I run a one-man business, and if I get drafted I lose all my clients and would be forced to work for slave wages. I couldn't afford hiring a stand-in to run the show in the meantime, either. Germany already switched over to a professional army about a year or two ago. Usually Austria follows Germany's way, but I guess the idiotic masses knew better. The silly thing is that 63% of people under 30 (i.e. those affected) voted for the change. It was the +60 generation that solidified a grand majority vote to keep things as they are. Now my respect for our elderly citizens has in general diminished for good. Of the 27 European Union nations 21 have a professional military. I simply don't get these silly semantics of keeping something we no longer needed since we became part of that Union in 1995. If stupid politics hadn't been so arrogant as to letting the people decide instead of working out a solution themselves, we probably wouldn't be in this mess. Okay, rant over. P.S.: You keep out of harm's way and stay as safe as possible, Jack.
That sucks Billy. It is difficult when you've got an aging boomer population who basically all go out and vote, and a young population with good ideas where it's difficult to get everyone out to vote. Older people are usually conservative by nature - and I wonder if it's not "I had to suffer through this, so you berks will too", but more "I went through this, and I don't want my experience invalidated because today's 'crazy' generation doesn't want to go through civil service". People think the past is always better, but then most people (other than maybe SF writers ) seem to think the future will be better too. But the present is never as great as the past or the future. It's bizarre to me that there is still mandatory military service but I believe there's other countries in Europe where the same holds true. You'd think it would be the US that would require mandatory service
England for one doesn't need a standing army. It has plenty of knights like Sean Connery, Bono and Christopher Lee who can be summoned with a call to arms.
LOL, had the funniest call from somebody across the pond who told me I had a sexy accent today. <<; =b
