Even before the ABC switched over to the ABC1 branding to help emphasise ABC2, I had started shopping for a digital Set Top Box to get the new channels. I’ve been able to sample them through the TV tuner in the computer, but of course watching on the big screen* from the couch is always ... [More]
I nipped briefly out for a quick hot choccie with my valentine, with a wrapped box of chocolates and a card in an envelope. I returned with an unwrapped box of chocolates and a card in an envelope. They weren’t the same ones, honest. That would be a bit sad and tragic, wouldn’t it. No, ... [More]
I think one of the reasons I’m so pleased the apology is that it’s so rare for politicians to admit that they (individually or collectively) were wrong. That alone makes it a historic day. Furthermore, we’ve got a lot of reasons to be proud of our country, and it seems only right that we should ... [More]
I’m sure I wrote about this before, some time ago, but I can’t find it right now. I wasn’t there. I’m not to blame. But that doesn’t stop me expressing regret that it happened, especially if it helps to heal old wounds, and I applaud our new government in making a national apology. Sorry. … ... [More]
This year marks the 20th anniversary of my leaving high school, and the Old Boys’ Association has a reunion dinner organised which I’ll certainly be going to. I’m even thinking I might go early for the tour of the school, to see how it’s changed. (A teacher I knew at a different school is now ... [More]
Dream the other day: Dreamt we were thinking about converting the (small) spare room into a bedroom, and someone pointed out the house has a whole upstairs section that for some reason none of us had never noticed. We went up and found three more bedrooms (one tiny, with very narrow bunk beds) and a ... [More]
Many people like to whinge about the price of fuel, but Steve Fielding’s idea of cutting fuel taxes is a very bad idea — it would inevitably lead to more usage, and cutting prices is the last way you want to try and fight oil shortages. This opinion piece for ABC Online goes into more ... [More]
The van we hired on the weekend was to move my Dad to a new place. As he is getting older, he needed an upgrade. He’s very well read, and it turned out he had way more books than I expected. So a lot of the time (and load) was spent shifting heavy boxes and ... [More]
On Saturday my bro-in-law Adrian and I were headed up to Coburg in a hired van. We were just getting onto the Bolte Bridge when Adrian noticed a warning light on the dashboard. We weren’t sure what it meant, so I reached for the van owner’s manual, which said something along the lines of: 1. ... [More]
If you thought $494 million was a lot to pay for the new “Myki” smartcard public transport ticketing system, hold onto your hats… today it was revealed the actual cost is more than double that — $1 billion dollars, no less. Somehow the government are now claiming they needed to add the operating costs, which ... [More]
Stupidest commercial of the moment: that Fisher and Paykel washing machine advert with the woman continually bending down/standing up to empty washing out of a frontloading machine, and bemoaning “Surely there must be an easier way?” Pah, some adverts just make me want to throw a brick at the TV, and shout at the screen. ... [More]
At The Prince Of Wales, St Kilda, Wednesday night. Emily Ulman was okay. Support to the support. Polite clapping. Justine bemoaned that she rarely gets out to see live music, but twice recently she’d got Emily. It’s like rarely flying, then taking an overseas trip and getting the same movie twice. No matter how good ... [More]
1. It was what I needed. I’ve been surviving on a (slightly rickety) old mono laser printer for some time now. I decided to upgrade to a colour copier/scanner/printer, to get back colour printing, to clear out the aging scanner that is only just compatible with Windows XP, and to avoid having to go to ... [More]
(With apologies to Bargearse.)
I pay $73 per year to the RACV because I want someone to get me out of a scrape when I’ve locked myself out of my car or the battery is dead or whatever. It somewhat disturbs me that what’s left over from that $73 goes into lobbying for more, bigger, faster roads. I saw ... [More]
Given there are magazines for just about every topic under the sun, I suppose you can tell a lot about a person’s interests from which ones they buy. A lot of those that I buy (or subscribe to) are pretty geeky. But I don’t normally buy railway-related magazines. Many of them I find overly-gunzelly, which ... [More]