And as I had guessed, these are almost certainly little black cormorants,
which are apparently very common here. Yvonne tells me that
she has seen some round “our” dam (the one on the Spiteri's property to which we have almost
exclusive access). I must take a look.
I'm not overly happy with the quality of the photos that I took today of the little black cormorants.
The ones above are acceptable, but not spectacular—not surprising for equivalent focal
lengths over 2000 mm. But others are not. This one is clearly out of focus:
Can't find dimensions for 'Cormorants-3-detail.jpeg'
That's ridiculously cropped, of course, an equivalent focal length of 22,700 mm. But
there's clear chromatic
aberration to be seen. Could I improve that with a newer version of DxO PhotoLab? The one I have doesn't know the
lens, and since the correction module format has changed, I can't use the new one.
But somehow I'm left wondering whether the camera isn't lying. One thing that doesn't
appear to be happening is camera shake. Following my old 1/focal length rule, these shots
should have been taken at no lower a speed than 1/2000 s, when in fact they were taken at
1/160 s. And even the extreme crop shows no signs of shake. The image stabilization really
does seem to work.
I have had an “account” with LinkedIn for decades now. I think I must have joined round 2003, though I have no
record of that. I did find them annoying enough to leave in September 2004, only to
join again in May 2005. I can't recall the details, but I think somebody convinced me that
there was some merit in it.
Over twenty years later, I still can't see it. I get offered jobs that are completely
unrelated to my skills, along with silly things like playing games:
39 N + 29-09-2026 To Greg Lehey LinkedIn (1382) N + Someone at Capabilities Limited you may know
78 N + 29-09-2026 To Greg Lehey LinkedIn (1083) N + 1 new Member openings at Commonwealth Treasury
909 N + 30-09-2026 To Greg Lehey LinkedIn ( 413) N + FreeBSD teammates have a Zip invite waiting for you.
1269 N + 09-10-2026 To Greg Lehey LinkedIn (1043) N + Member: Coles Group hired near you
307 N + 13-10-2026 To Greg Lehey LinkedIn (1092) N + Member: CPA Australia and Randstad Australia are hiring
745 N + 14-10-2026 To Greg Lehey LinkedIn (1113) N + View Ifadir Mohamed’s post and your next steps
754 N + 14-10-2026 To Greg Lehey LinkedIn ( 412) N + Your coworker at FreeBSD already played. Just FYI
Part of the problem, of course, is that I'm not looking for work, so most of their focus
doesn't apply to me. And to read any of this stuff I have to jump through hoops. My “next
steps”? Somehow that phrase irritates me. I'll only take one step: cancel again.
Yvonne off today to VicRoads in Ballarat to finally get the Holden transferred into my name. She
arrived at 12:44, bringing the documents that she had been asked to bring—and they were
refused!
Why? Shane, the representative, decided that we had no proof of marriage. Yvonne had brought our livret de famille, possibly not
the most appropriate form of proof, but she had been told that it would be enough. And then
why do we need to prove our marriage in the first place? It's not necessary for de
facto relationships. And Yvonne had been told last week that this would be accepted.
Ah, says Shane, I don't care what she (the consultant last week) said. I
won't accept them.
Yvonne offered to translate the certificate, but Shane would have nothing of it. How do I
know it's you? Yvonne offered to show her driver license, but he wouldn't accept that
either! She got the distinct impression that he was taking delight in refusing the
application. Finally she called me and I spoke to Shane, who repeated this nonsense. It
was his decision, and his alone. I suggested that he was representing VicRoads, and that he
should act in their interests, but he was having none of it.
And he couldn't apply the concession to Yvonne's car (the Toyota), although it was currently
applied to it! He claimed that it was also applied to the Holden, in direct contradiction
to Tony's statement four months ago. Shane wouldn't accept that that was VicRoads' fault. Probably it
wasn't: my guess that it was his personal fault making a false claim. And at the slightest
suggestion of criticism he hung up! Yvonne finally left at 13:42, two hours after arriving,
having achieved nothing except high blood pressure.
There will be a formal complaint, of course, though I don't know how much good it will do.
Contact my local MP? Gradually I'm getting the impression that every VicRoads representatives sees
things his way, and it's a matter of luck whether we get a sensible person or
somebody like Shane. I should have asked to be connected to his supervisor, but as I
discovered this time last year, they're unsupervised.
Nothing for it but to come more often. After all, Yvonne is there twice a day.
This page contains (roughly) yesterday's and today's entries. I have
a horror of reverse chronological documents, so
all my diary entries are chronological. This page normally contains the last two days,
but if I fall behind it may contain more. You can find older entries in
the archive. Note that I often update a diary entry
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