Think twice about your ballot paper.

I'm thoroughly sick of this election. I think it makes me ashamed to be Australian.

The entire campaign goes against those "traditional Aussie values" both parties love to carp on about.

People complain about how it's so horrible that there is bullying in schools. They explain that the increase in digital communication has taken it to new and sinister places. And yet, these same people will vote in one of the two major parties every election. They will vote in one of two parties that have been bombarding every media outlet with smear campaigns. There's no dignity in this. Just because it's reciprocal doesn't mean it's not bullying.

Don't reward this abysmal behaviour. Make a stand. If you really care about the kids, show them that it doesn't pay off to act this way. And if you don't care about the kids, then make a stand anyway. For yourself. Show that you want an Australia which has dignity and class.

People shouldn't be judged by how they treat their friends, but by how they treat their enemies. Anyone can be nice to someone who agrees with them.

And since I haven't seen one policy out of Gillard this entire campaign, and I think Tony Abbott has a total of four (including STOPPING THE BOATS - entirely misguided), you have so very little to lose on actual political matters.

What I have learnt from videogames:

The RPG hero can scale high walls, jump superhuman heights and is generally deadly. However, they give up when faced with a step that wouldn't faze a regular toddler.

Everybody needs good neighbours

I'm pretty sure our neighbour is trying to spy on us.

I have good reason. He tells our landlord that our house is 'lit up like a Christmas tree at all hours of the night', and has suggested "jokingly" that if we clear a little more of the shrubbery that separates our houses, he can 'keep an eye on the place'.

Furthermore, he's clearing everything on his side of the fence. It's creeping me out.

There is a gap between the shed and the courtyard lattice, which is about a metre from the edge of our property. It is now virtually clear. This is in view of my bathroom and my back door.

My bathroom windows are visually impenetrable from the outside, so it's okay, but it's the principle. (Hurrumph!)


In other news regarding my neighbourhood; Someone likes hanging up chip packets on our gate, and there are expletives in yellow chalk on the pavement. Fun.

I hope there's a more interesting story behind that: Something disembodied wrote on the pavement in yellow chalk, haunting the child as he ate his salt and vinegar chips. Really, the chips were not his, but he had claimed them from the trembling hands of the girl with the hook to her nose. The girl had a guardian spirit, and this was it. Its methods were not like those you would think. Poetic justice has no place here - only hard words in soft chalk.

If only.