buggery.org

Tassie is pretty. Not as cold as expected (at least, not so far), very green and unspoilt and friendly.

The trip over on the ferry was easy enough – relatively calm and the cabins are comfortable (if a little cramped). Much better than a crummy plane seat tho’.

Today, after arriving in Devonport at the crack of dawn, we spent ten hours touring through the countryside and down the east coast of the island to Hobart. Today was our only free time really on this trip so we made the most of it. We travelled through some very lovely countryside, had a great fish and chip lunch in St Helens, and laughed our head off at Tasmania’s hilarious place names (e.g. Black Charlie’s Opening, Wooly Butt, and Break-Me-Neck Hill).

The coast is picturesque with the most intense sapphire blue water. There are beautiful old buildings in most of the towns, sheep everywhere and the Freixenet National Park is just stunning. Tasmania seems to have more roadkill per kilometre than anywhere else on Earth – there were dozens of dead native animals on the road.

At the moment I’m too buggered to write much more, but I’ve put a few pictures onto Flickr, of course. Just wanted to say we’re here and so far we’re loving it.

Tomorrow the conference starts first thing in the morning, and continues to Saturday. These things are always a lot of work which leaves limited time to post or even think about anything else, but I’ll try to find the opportunity from time to time.

• How Not to Make Me Ex-Gay
  Jason Kuznicki’s pictoral rebuttal to the ex-gay movement (via harley)
  (tags: ex-gay queer glbt gay blogs)

Heading off in a few hours’ time to Hobart aboard this ship for this conference.

Everyone I have told I’m going on the ferry to Tasmania says either (a) “You’re crazy!” (if they’re from Melbourne) or (b) “That’s cool!” (if they’re not). As the body of water which separates Tasmania from the Australian mainland (Bass Strait) is renowned for its turbulence, most people would rather fly, which has the added attractions of being cheaper and faster than taking the boat. We’re doing it for the adventure.

Plus we’ll have a car to toodle around Tasmania in, which we won’t really have much time for, but there is a few hours drive between Devonport and Hobart to look forward to.

The sailing takes ten hours – we’re doing it overnight with a couple of friends. A full report, possibly with pillowfight pictures, will be posted in due course.

It’s been confirmed that Sydney will host the next Hitler Catholic Youth Day in 2008. Personally, I can hardly wait – it’s been ten years since Australia enjoyed the spectacle, glamour, and naked hypocrisy of a full-blown papal visit.

No doubt there will be opportunities to protest. No doubt I’ll be there.

I’ll have to think of some appropriate items to add to the buggery.org merchandise catalogue.

Several of the news reports are confirming that a Mel Gibson-produced “reenactment” of the crucifixion (I blogged about this a while ago) is still planned as part of the festivities. Personally, I hope this comes off – there’s nothing I enjoy more than a little public scourging.

• Library offers imam, gypsy, gay person for ‘loan’
  Local library in Sweden has nine human beings for loan, including a muslim cleric, a journalist, a gypsy and a gay man.
  (tags: glbt what-the)

• Viking ship built with 15 million ice cream sticks
  A replica Viking ship made of 15 million ice cream sticks is to be launched in Amsterdam by a former Hollywood stuntman who hopes eventually to sail it across the Atlantic (ABC).
  (tags: what-the)

• Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names
  (via antiminke, who likes “arsole”, but I prefer “cummingtonite”)
  (tags: science funny chemistry)

• Rally for gay marriage action
  MORE than 1000 gay rights activists today gathered across the nation to rally for marriage equality, marking one year since the Howard government’s changes to the Marriage Act. (Daily Terrorgraph)
  (tags: glbt same-sex-marriage civil-rights)
• Gay lobby groups go separate ways over same-sex marriage
  A year after Federal Parliament imposed a ban on same-sex marriages, the soldiers for change have turned on each other. (SMH)
  (tags: same-sex-marriage glbt civil-rights acon glrl)
• Weddings to tie the law in knots
  TWO gay couples exchanged public wedding vows in Hobart yesterday — but their unions are not legally recognised. (Hobart Mercury)
  (tags: same-sex-marriage glbt tasmania civil-rights)

I’ve installed a little bit of script-fu that enables you to browse my Flickr photo library from the photos link in the menu bar. It’s still a little rough around the edges but it works. This is a replacement for the now-obsolete gallery section of buggery.org. (The old gallery is still there, and it kind of works, but will be deleted once I move all the photos to Flickr.

• Last.fm
  Audioscrobbler and last.fm have merged, relaunched, expanded and generally taken off.
  (tags: music folksonomies web social-software streaming audio mp3 internet radio)
• They needed a research grant to prove this?
  A new study shows that if a man is told he is not “man enough”, he tends to overcompensate by acting macho. The study shows men whose masculinity is challenged are more likely to support the Iraq war, exhibit homophobia or think about buying a four-wheel-
  (tags: men science homophobia well-duh masculinity sociology gender)