Hi! Welcome to the Murwillumbah Institute!

I've thought about starting a blog before a couple of times. I haven't, because I've always concluded that I'm not very bright, and haven't got anything interesting to say. I've thought, surely, with all that information out there, with all those web pages just lying around, waiting to reveal information to whoever happens to stumble across them, what the hell could In possibly add?

So, after a few years of reading other people's contributions to the collective material consciousness that is the world wide web, I've learned at least one thing.

I've learned that my fear of not being intelligent enough, of not being relevant or interesting, hasn't stopped a stack of other wankers with net access on this rock of six billion from preaching to us from cyberspace with uninformed and over-opinionated garbage.

I learned that just because I see the world from a small town in a relatively insignificant part of the planet, and may well have nothing to contribute to the development of a better world for all, I can still belt out claptrap with self-righteous fervor and write with an authority I don't deserve.

So, I set about thinking up an important-sounding name for my think-tank. I noticed that people with the ability to think like tanks liked to use the word "Institute", and when they have little of substance to offer, they name it after a city.

I thought something like "The Sydney Institute" would be a brilliant name. Unfortunately, a very clever satirist by the name of Gerard Henderson beat me to it. He satirizes a campaign against comedy by pretending to be an idiot who doesn't get jokes, and follows through by muck-raking comedians (Comedic Gold: "If Leunig’s siblings really want an invite to Leunig’s home this Christmas, perhaps they should sign-on with al-Qaeda" - I can never be that good at satire).

So, I had to think of something else. I don't live too far from Brisbane, but again, "The Brisbane Institute" has also been taken. This Institute isn't nearly as funny as Henderson's, with it's moderately left-leaning cantor. They like to do boring stuff like use facts, and write about how we might develop a better society. They use some big words here and there. I guess I need to read a bit more of their work before saying much more.

Having enjoyed a trip to Adelaide once, though not enough to ever bother going back, I was inspired to name my new think-tank "The Adelaide Institute". Who would have thought that in Australia's most liberal-minded city, a group of thick-head neo-nazi's would have thought to form an "Institute" before me? But, needless to say, if you shaved your head last night while reciting the Mein Kampf and listening to some boof-head deny the holocaust, then Adelaide has an institute for you. More appropriately however, they have a number of institutions for you.

So people of Adelaide beware - while you're all smoking pot at your swingers parties open to all races, some Ku Klux Klan wannabe's are using your fine city's name in vain.

So, I gave up searching for a another, more exotic locale. I see the world from a small town in Northern New South Wales, and I'm going to tell you all what it looks like from here!

My interests are many and varied, even if my knowledge is limited, and I'll be making it up as I go along.

Welcome!