Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.
A fridge magnet arrived in the mail. They’re always useful for sticking things to the fridge, and this one includes emergency numbers, which if could be potentially useful if there was ever an emergency in the house and I happened to be near the fridge and in the heat of the moment had forgotten that ... [More]
Winter has arrived. The heating’s back in use, and I’ve started wearing jackets to work again, after some time of managing to avoid it. (Normally if the forecast high is at 20 degrees or higher, it’s not worth taking a jacket, since I only end up sweating on the walk from the station, and at ... [More]
I get some terrific comments on this blog. Quite a few of them, too. The database reckons over 6000, though I think there might be some suspected spams in there. Then again, there are some old comments from 2003 that haven’t been imported into WordPress yet. Here’s some followups on some recent comments, and on ... [More]
I don’t normally watch much TV, but I’ve got a few things earmarked for the coming weeks. Tony has reminded me: Life On Mars starts this Sunday night on ABC. Everything I’ve heard says it’s good. Series 3 of Doctor Who is hotly rumoured to be coming on Saturday nights at 7:30pm again, starting in ... [More]
You don’t have to be a 4WD owner to drive like a moron. Even Prius owners do it sometimes. The other contender this week was red Mercedes TLH 385, zooming down Jasper Road with at least one indicator and brake light not working, tail-gating and generally driving like a maniac on Wednesday night. Also seen ... [More]
Hello to my readers at AGL. I know they’re reading because earlier this evening someone from their customer advocacy team rang me up, saying AGL management had found the whole name change saga (Googling “AGL”, apparently) and passed it to him. He explained what had happened (old data used by a mail house). I understand, ... [More]
A couple of years ago I noted that supplies of recycled (facial) tissues were getting more scarce. But I was able to keep buying the Safe brand at Coles in Caulfield until just recently, when they stopped stocking them. Or maybe they stopped receiving them some time ago, and they’ve finally run out. Recycled toilet ... [More]
I can’t say I’m going to go quit my job (not even for six months), but it does remind me of why I do the extra-curricular stuff I do, and why I’m always on the lookout to learn new things and try and make a difference.
Yes, I had a heads-up about the story on the front page of yesterday’s Age. Yes, I went to bed early(ish) and woke up early, ready as I could be for the onslaught. No, it was not an audio problem on 3AW — I was half asleep at 6:25am when I spoke to them. “Government” ... [More]
Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and I headed over to my mum’s place with a card in hand. From what I can see, about 80% of the Mother’s Day cards out there are the excessively soppy ones that I’m not that keen on, and that she wouldn’t appreciate. That generally leaves just a few semi-jokey (and ... [More]
Isaac has reached grade 6, top of the heap at primary school. The grade 6ers get to wear special shirts and jumpers, and get School Leader status for a term. In my year of grade 6 at Ripponlea PS in 1982, I was flag monitor, with my friend Mark. On the first day, we initially ... [More]
Does everybody have a pair of emergency underpants? You know, the undies that are not actually unwearable, but are far from preferable? Not actually falling apart, but maybe the elastic’s stretched just a teensy bit too far, or they were a new brand you purchased that didn’t turn out to be as comfortable as your ... [More]
Ties are essentially useless. Purely decorative. I bought one yesterday. Nice. What I can’t quite come to terms with is men who wear bow ties for everyday business-wear. It just looks wrong. It’s like they’re trying to scream “I’m whimsical!!” (Awaiting comments from all my bow tie-wearing readers…)
David Hicks may be coming home, but Hew Griffiths has been extradited to the USA on charges of copyright infringement. He allegedly cracked software and distributed it for free — with the US-based copyright holders claiming it cost them A$60 million in lost revenue. In 2003, the US Department of Justice charged Griffiths with violating ... [More]
I got a note from my electricity provider AGL, which, unbelievably after the number of times I’ve told them, got my name wrong again. To add insult to injury, it appears that although I switched to green power just before moving in late 2005, when I moved they completely forgot about that, and I’ve been ... [More]
I try to shoehorn various activities into my day, some of which involves my public transport advocacy work. While I end up doing some of the media, the load is shared, and others do a lot of policy work which makes it pretty easy — once the policy’s been nutted out, as long as you ... [More]