Voting

This weekend just past, I had to vote in the local government elections in New South Wales, Australia. Voting is compulsory here or you cop a small fine. I think it is currently $50-55.00 AU for local government elections. Many chose to pay the fine, while others cast a ‘donkey’ vote, or one that was useless deliberately. Some put down the US president as a choice, while other doodled on the ballot paper. Some others probably tried to vote correctly but did the wrong thing. Many votes were passed in as invalid.

In the local government area where I live, I can’t say that I knew much about the various candidates – with the exception of one whom I regard as a waste of space in local government. Needless to say I didn’t vote for him. I found myself simply voting along traditional lines because I knew no better.

Most candidates are viewed as clowns or worse in elections here, which is quite a shame. Serving one’s country in government should be seen as an honourable profession. However, it is not and those who actually have something useful to offer turn away from the process because of the joke that government is often perceived to be. Those who really can make a difference are choosing to avoid serving in government and that is a real shame.

FastPencil

FastPencil is said to be the easist way to write, publish and sell books. If you have an interest in books, particularly writing books, then this site might be for you. I haven’t yet used FastPencil because I currently used Scribd, however, I do intend to check FastPencil out – to see what is on offer there. It looks very interesting and useful.

http://www.fastpencil.com/

Blogging: A WordPress Alternative

I love WordPress and doubt very much that I would ever use any other platform or site. I also love Google and the many tools they offer freely in so many areas of online life and computing. As you would expect, Google also has a Blogging platform that is free to use and hosted for free.

Check out Google’s Blogger at:

https://www.blogger.com/start

New Years Resolutions

At this time of the year many people like to try and do something positive via a New Year’s Resolution or the like – perhaps more than one. So for today’s ‘one’ I have a link to offer. This is to a site called MySomeday.com.

This site is another take on social networking, this time offering the opportunity to share your desire to achieve something and to work out the means to do so. There is of course the opportunity to interact with others and to gain support as you seek to do so, as well as sharing ways of achieving your goal.

Worth a look at:

http://mysomeday.com/

The Beaches of Newcastle

It has often been said that Newcastle has some of the world’s best beaches. I wouldn’t know about that – I haven’t visited all of them.

What I do know is that having travelled around a lot of Australia, Newcastle is certainly up there with the best that Australia has to offer.

It is hard, in my view, to define just what makes the best beach. I imagine that someone who surfs would have certain criteria that differs from someone like me, who likes the natural beauty of a place more than anything else when it comes to liking a beach.

I think the beaches around the West Australia town of Esperance are simply stunning and I currently rate these as the best beaches in Australia that I have seen. There may well be better beaches, but in my opinion, those of Esperance are better than Newcastle’s beaches. But that opinion includes criteria such as seclusion, natural beauty, etc. For recreational use, access, etc, Newcastle has some brilliant beaches that the locals adore. They are certainly good for a walk along when it isn’t too hot and they aren’t too crowded.