Cash Money Records, where dreams get made

Just last night I went to the house of someone who I guess would be one of the richest people in the state. He is heavily involved in abalone diving, which produces a good number of Tassie's richest people. Anyway, some friends were housesitting, they invited us round to swim in the pool.

The house was amazing. Flat screen TVs everywhere, including the pool room. Lights, blinds, cameras, TV and sound system all controlled from the one touchscreen portable tablet. Massive bedrooms, amazing bathrooms, floor heating throughout the house, double-glazed windows, large deck overlooking the private beach (along Sandy Bay Road). A huge home theatre room with a retractable projection screen. It was mental. Fantastic, but mental. Just being there felt like being on holiday (I think it was swimming in the pool that got us there).

I was totally cool with it. Until I realised that the flatscreen TV in the laundry also had Austar on it. Yep, that would be about the eighth pay-TV licence for the house. That kinda tipped me over the edge from "this is awesome" to "this is awesome, but a bit ridiculous".

Anyway, it got me thinking. That sort of place is kind of the dream for a lot of people. It would have been a lot of fun to grow up there as a kid, if you liked swimming, watching movies, and having room to play inside. Playing hide-and-go-seek in the dark would have been great.

But probably 99.995 per cent of the earth's population never get to live like that. In terms of quality of life, I'm probably in the top 97 per cent. And I certainly don't live like that.

I would, however, like to live like that. I'm not someone who thinks being rich is inherently bad. I think it's what you do with it that counts. And living in a house where you can remote control your blinds is pretty cool.

Okay, some random links:

- A really good article about democracy in Arab countries, and how the Arab aristocracy is losing the battle against the popular vote.
- A disturbing series of portraits of child beauty pageant girls. This has weirded me out since the Jon-Benet Ramsay thing back in 1996.
- A cute photo of a dog and a kid.
- A massive gallery of Cosplay costumes from Comic Con (Cosplay is short for costume play)