Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi

As part of my non-existent development of my non-existent political idealogy, I've recently been thinking of a new flag for Australia. This isn't just an idea I have, and thus I've stumbled across the apolitical organisation AusFlag.

According to AusFlag; Australia is only one of three UN nations with a defaced Union Jack for a flag, almost all polling shows majority public DISFAVOUR towards the current flag, and a majority never really selected our current flag anyway. Other useful information on the site is that Australians didn't really fight under our current flag in the major World Wars, our flag is easily confused with New Zealand's, and that Queensland's first flag really takes the prize for piss poor planning. Also a lot of flag designers like the Southern Cross, I personally think its a bit unpractical - it makes it hard for the kiddies to draw at school.

In terms of planning Ausflag's competition guidelines provide some nice rules towards planning a good flag. Tips on uncluttering, non-dating and simple colorful designs that work on reality based flags (need to move, fold, obscure, reduce and enlarge etc.)

In terms of the flags, I really like the idea, look and concept of the Reconciliation Flag (pictured on the right). I also liked the red earth, yellow sun and bounding kangaroo flag, its definitely better than the roadkill kangaroo flag (pictured on the left). This one is also nice, I wonder if the squiggly bit is a homage to the Rainbow Serpent, a core creator/guardian spirit in Australian mythology.

My other picks out of their numerous galleries are:

• Really simple
• Lock and Key
• Shooting Star
• Holey
  

What are my deisgns for a flag?
I want something simple. Lines and Circles. No Stars. No Crosses. No writing. No crests or other fancy emblems. No kangaroos. Meaningful colors. I don't want black or white, both have racial connotations.
Green - Life; Australia has a very important ecosystem with high levels of biodiversity on precarious edge. Red - the Earth; this also represents the people, "dust to dust" and all that, the land has also been very important in Australia's history and prehistory. Blue - Ocean; as our national anthem mentions, our land is girt by sea, water is a highly valuable commodity on the driest continent, and so its importance should be represented. Yellow - Sun; the sun is a very strong influence on Australian life, yellow also relates to gold.
My two basic designs are either the cross based one, or the geographically representative horizontal one (red, gold, green, blue - land, gold, rainforest, ocean). Yeah, they're shit. I did that 12:30am in 5 minutes. They also look pretty bright and African/Carribean.

Anyway, it's just idle thinking. It's good for you.

If you could recreate this nation, what would you do?

My sister's birthday is coming up

I'm stuck for a present I can get her that will be useful and appreciated while she works/lives/travels in Canada a while longer.

But I don't think a jar of pickled squirrel heads is a good idea. But, I also have a cousin who is getting married this weekend...

Not exactly for the faint hearted, Custom Creature Taxidermy has some great stuff (there is G-rated section too). It's a bit different from my last experience with award-winning taxidermy at the Stones and Bones museum my uncle works at.

Taxidermy is a cool and creepy (in a good way) artform. Let's hope hippies don't kill it off.

Some of my picks from the galleries:

• ever-practical conversation starter - The Squirrel Lamp
• bickering Squirrel Siamese Twins
• Two Headed Franken-Squirrel
• It's my Sign: A Capricorn
• A cool collection of Griffins
• A mummified Chupacabra (the goat sucker)
• like you haven't wondered what a boxing match between two skinned headless cat carcasses looked like?
• when goth cam-whores go one step to far
• it looks happy...?
• Mystery goodness: is it lucky, or not?
• stuck for a stocking filler? Look no further than Mummified Squirrel Heads by the dozen