TV, movies, music, that kind of thing
It’s all easy in primary school. You send the money in, you get a box of goodies. There’s few textbooks, and almost all are kept at and owned by the school. It gets more complicated and expensive in secondary school. So here’s the scenario: Two kids, two years apart. The school has a secondhand book ... [More]
Yesterday’s great website discovery: nearmap.com, which shows high resolution (and recent) satellite pictures of Melbourne and other places — a leapfrog over anything currently on Google Maps. And I discovered that Ormond station has its official three-letter code, OMD, written on the top of it. How odd; I wonder why? View it at nearmap.com Alas, ... [More]
See here’s the thing, Mr Facebook. Just because someone I know on your fine service has managed to resist the temptation to add 300 “friends” (most of whom in reality he barely knows) who can bombard him with requests to play Mafia Wars and Farmville and endless pointless quizzes, doesn’t mean you can rope me ... [More]
Back when I worked at Hattams (mid 80s to early 90s), we stocked Levi’s jeans, primarily the 555 “red tabs”, but also the 517 “boot cut”. The numbers were Levi’s product codes. The first digit 5 signified they were for adult men’s — my recollection is that the “student” (kids/young men up to a size ... [More]
When you throw two random words together, the likelihood of someone coming up with the same combination is, I think, fairly low. A great way to think up a dot com name, I reckon. Which is why I did a double-take when I saw this: (Originally here, but now only visible in the Google cache.) ... [More]
You may think you’ve seen some cool stuff today, but I’ll wager you haven’t seen yourself in Matrix-style “bullet time“. It’s part of the new “Screen Worlds” exhibit at ACMI at Federation Square. Pretty damn cool huh?
Red Dwarf – once upon a time, the ABC thought it belonged on the Sunday afternoon arts show.
From last Saturday’s Herald Sun Weekend section: It was sent when we were passing through Kangaroo Flat on the way to Bendigo the other week. (Thanks for spotting it, onegirlinmelb)
Here, in the interests of data preservation, is the third instalment of my best Twitter posts. July 2008 What’s this? From the man who brought you Myki (Peter Batchelor) comes a new coal-fired power station, the day before Garnaut reports?! 10:09 AM Jul 2nd, 2008 from web Umbrella self-destructed, top flew off. At least the ... [More]
So, those very nice but badly sized Ecco shoes I bought a couple of months ago… I’m finally selling them on eBay: I bought these shoes recently. I wore them a couple of times and then realised I’d made a huge mistake: I had got the wrong size. Could I return them to the shop? ... [More]
Tintin and friends landed on the moon in 1952, some 17 years before Apollo 11 got there. While writing the story, Herge and his team researched what the moon would look like on the surface, and as anybody who’s read the book would know, it’s uncannily accurate. After Apollo 11 made it to the Moon, ... [More]
The Jackson Jive The controversy over this skit, which involved five men blacking up (and one “whiting” up) to portray the Jackson 5, rages on. I don’t think it’s as simple as some are making out. Those offended (especially the Americans and Brits) should bear in mind that “blackface” has no history in Australia, and ... [More]
When we tuned into the first Hey Hey special last Wednesday, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It’s been ten years since the show ended, which seems like a long time, but most of the regulars from back then are still around. I first watched Hey Hey when I was a kid, when it ... [More]
I’m not going to claim I’m a currency expert, but I think Channel 10 put the decimal point in the wrong place, as I’m pretty sure an Australian Dollar is worth more than US 8 cents.
The Example, by Tom Taylor and Colin Wilson (published by Gestalt Books), might be the first graphic novel to be set entirely within the confines of Flinders Street Station. It’s a short but thought-provoking read, combining a most-of-Western-world issue — paranoia over terrorism — with a more decidedly local Melbourne issue: the trains. Speaking of ... [More]
One of the fun things with the Wii is creating your “Mii” — that is, an avatar used in some of the games. While the kids got busy creating some favourite fictional characters, my avatar looks like me. Here’s mine, seen in Wii Sports Resort, playing table tennis. Guitar Hero doesn’t use the standard, cartoon-like ... [More]