Red Dwarf – once upon a time, the ABC thought it belonged on the Sunday afternoon arts show.
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Hector the Cat
Teaching kids to cross the road safely is a matter of laying out the basic rules, and continual practice. I’d thought over the years it might be easier if the Hector The Cat song was still run on TV, as the lyrics helps make it easy to remember what to do. Happily, thanks to YouTube, ... [More]
Here’s a draft of a bulletin I’ll send out at some stage after I’ve taken over as Grand Emperor of the World and established my benevolent dictatorship. Dear owners of stupid grunty noisy cars, I hereby decree that you have three choices for your stupid grunty noisy cars: 1. You may, at your expense, have ... [More]
Came across this business. They have two branches. They have a Chadstone branch, which is actually in Hughesdale, and they have a Bentleigh branch, which I’ll grudgingly admit is technically in Bentleigh, but is actually on Patterson Road, right next to Patterson station. As I’ve noted before, Hampton East now stretches right the way to ... [More]
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Myki’s biggest problem?
This was a number 96 tram in Bourke Street on Friday afternoon: Similar scenes are seen in morning peak around much of the tram network, during the lunchtime rush in the CBD, as well as the evening peak, as well as weekends. Now imagine it with Myki: everyone touching-on and off their cards as they ... [More]
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Making your argument count
“That is right, 38 new trains, pity they are only 3 carriages long instead of 6 like our current trains. I guess that means we paid double.” — Comment on the Herald Sun web site Seriously, where do people get these ideas? It’s complete garbage. “Thirty eight X’Trapolis six-car sets will be rolled-out from late ... [More]
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Call me Bruce
My name’s really Daniel, but if you like you can call me Bruce. More fun with Google translations of a Chinese media article: … Victorian government has not yet determined when to start full operation ultra-budget Myki ticketing system, it was originally promised in 2007 and spent 130 million on the operation of the system, ... [More]
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I’m confused
Toothpaste. There’s a bewildering number of varieties in just the Colgate brand. This is what the Safeway Homeshop site lists, excluding things like Pump packs and size variations: Colgate Toothpaste 2in1 Gel Whitening Colgate Toothpaste 2in1 Liquid Gel Icy Blast Colgate Toothpaste 2in1 Max Fresh Cool Mint Colgate Toothpaste Advanced Whitening Colgate Toothpaste Baking Soda ... [More]
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Up and down like a yoyo
Back in uni, we had a Unix server which (unlike the faculty machines) was available for use by any student. Its name was yoyo, and it was invaluable back when internet access was hard to come by, and official university access was only granted to students studying IT subjects. Why “yoyo”? There was a hope ... [More]
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Why do people sometimes not revalidate?
From time to time you’ll see someone having a whinge that they got on a tram and nobody bought a ticket or validated one, and therefore they must all be freeloaders. For example these comments on the Herald Sun web site: On every tram i board, only one person out of the 30 on there ... [More]
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Cling wrap
Speaking of shopping for cheap alternatives, but preferring locally-made goods: initially I avoided buying the Aldi cling wrap because it was made in China. Then I noticed all the brands of cling wrap are now made in China, including OSO and Multix, and the one that’s in common use as the generic term, Glad Wrap. ... [More]
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)
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Twitter highlights part 3
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]
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The FKN line is stuffed again
From time to time I’ll rant on Twitter about the FKN (Frankston — it’s an official code) line being stuffed. After a few months of pretty good performance right around the rail network, the past week has seen a marked decline. Pulling together info from Connex’s Twitter feed and SMS alerts, and excluding a medical ... [More]
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Selling shoes
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]
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A day on the trains
It occured to me that a lot is going to change in public transport in the next few months. Connex is on the way out, to be replaced by MTM trading as Metro. Metcard will be phased out in favour of