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.
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I am not a morning person
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]
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Mother’s Day moving
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]
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Grade 6
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]
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Emergency undies
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…)
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Is Griffiths the new Hicks?
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]
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Carbon emissions and billing
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]
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A week in advocacy
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]
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Do Not Call!
So the Australian Do Not Call register launched yesterday (only for the web site to fall over under the demand). It sounds good in theory. But I’m pondering if I (with a silent line that virtually nobody ever calls except people I know) should bother joining. Apart from the fact that the registration expires after ... [More]
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What is this stuff?
I’ve been doing so little driving that it had been a full month since I’d bought petrol. But that came to an end the other night, when the fuel gauge was finally getting very close to the big E. So I pulled into the nearest service station, a Shell. Despite what they’ve been up to ... [More]
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Just Gerald, oops, Gerard
No more laughing. The Comedy Festival has come to an end. Yesterday they were taking down the big Box Office sign with the Leunig characters on it off the side of the Town Hall. Just before it finished on Sunday, a bunch of us braved the Waiters (seemed to have bounced back from previous bad ... [More]
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Typing speed
I used to be such a fast typist. From memory, in uni I could top 80 wpm. I seem to be slowing down, or at least, my accuracy has dropped. I’m not sure if it’s due to a. getting old b. the crap keyboard I have at work, which periodically seems to ignore what I ... [More]
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The perfect Sunday?
In the morning it rained, rained, then rained some more. Garden nicely soaked, and even the bits of the back lawn that have been bare are (touch wood) starting to grow back. It conveniently stopped just before 11, when I had to go out. The kids and I strolled down to the shops, bought fruit ... [More]
Some great quotes from Lorraine Sommerfield in The Hamilton Spectator, Canada, on walking: “I watch people drive their children to every sport imaginable, to make sure they’re getting enough exercise. We’re idiots.” “Start walking to the gym — or perhaps instead of the gym.” “I don’t need to run out and buy a hybrid car ... [More]
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Household finances
It’s ANZAC Day, and time to pause and reflect on the sacrifices made by our forebears. Hardly the time to be thinking about money. But due to a set of circumstances last week that saw my bank balance drained to close to zero — something that hasn’t happened in quite some time — I have ... [More]