1. I’m turning right. You’re turning left. But I got here first and my car is bigger than yours, so I’m going to go first. 2. Sure, I can park here on this corner. Why not? 3. Sure, I can park here. Why not? Pah, pedestrians, school kids? Who cares?
The innanet connection was down this morning. It put something of a dampner on the morning’s blog/check news/check email/check blog comments activity I’ve become used to. Having had either cable or ADSL for some years now, it’s always a rude shock when this happens, a bit like getting no signal on the television. And it’s ... [More]
OK, what git stole my recycling bin? I’ve only had it four months, and it’s not like anybody would have taken it accidentally, not with the size of the street number I painted on it. Blargh.
It’s Christmas party season. But with increasing numbers of parties and bookings, some of them are creeping backwards into November. My major work function was a full month before Christmas. Apart from the usual dinners and so on, the word on the street is that lawn bowling is the new boat cruise. Perhaps the Crackerjack ... [More]
Sometimes I despair of the human race. Yesterday morning I was lazing in bed when I noted an advertising supplement that came with the newspaper, called something like Christmas Essentials — 64 pages of totally stupid gift ideas. Admittedly some of the featured items were okay, but it also included some of the most useless, ... [More]
One of the better sides of globalisation is the huge range of literature of all types is available anywhere in the western world. Amazon and their ilk have meant I can (for example) order that obscure Beowulf graphic novel my sister craves for her birthday — even if the result is that Amazon now believes ... [More]
At some point after the mouse in the garden incident and a notable increase in rodent activity around the house (twice I saw them scurrying around the laundry) I put down some rat/mouse poison a few weeks ago. What I found several days later was a huge, dead rat next to the side gate. ‘Orrible, ... [More]
As I think I mentioned once before, TV news often record a “walking shot” to use for editing purposes. They’ll get you to back away from the camera 10-20 metres, then walk past it, without looking at the camera, and hoping no huge swarm of people comes around the corner and walks in front of ... [More]
So I was waiting for a train, while reading the geek history “On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore” (which — in my humble geeky opinion — really is excellent). The station host lady looked at it, and (given its lovely hardback binding and olde booke looke when it’s out of its ... [More]
I’ve lived in my suburb just over a year now, long enough that I’m getting to know the local Bentleigh shops a bit more now, and a few of the shopkeepers know me. For instance, the drycleaner lady recognises me, though like a TV news captioner, she misspells my name, and I can’t be bothered ... [More]
Another odd dream last night: A knock at the door in the morning. Four policemen, who seemed very tall, and seemed to have been drenched in the rain outside. I wondered why four of them — it must be serious! They told me they were part of a fraud investigation, and that they couldn’t tell ... [More]
The great thing about election day is you can exercise your right to democracy, and have a sausage too. Daniel’s election day sausage tally: 2. PS. Sunday night. Result probably what most people expected. Interesting to see that the ALP misinformation worked — some people were asking Greens helpers if they were preferencing Libs. (They ... [More]
Last week I filled up my car for just over $1 per litre. It was $1.609 $1.069, and I had some freaky discount offer that gave me 6 cents off, instead of the usual 4. But just seeing the humungous tank-like 4WDs rolling around the streets, and the resistance from government to improve PT makes ... [More]
A little kid (maybe 3 or 4) had come off his scooter, in the school playground. He was sprawled on the ground, crying. Somewhere, his parent was seeing off an older sibling. I looked around, but couldn’t see an obvious candidate. Before I could see if he was okay, a bigger kid with a Grade ... [More]
What I’m pondering for this Saturday’s state election is who am I going to put last? It’s not like a Federal byelection, when every man and his dog decides to run. No, in my district there isn’t a huge assortment of weird and wacky parties, nor are there any independents. All you’ve got are ALP ... [More]
The streets were closed to traffic, the barricades went up. Yes, the Bentleigh festival was on again. But 15km away from the sausage sizzles, roaming families, showbags and Humphrey B Bear, some streets in central Melbourne were blocked-off for the third day, for the G20 meeting. Hearing about the violence in Collins Street on Saturday, ... [More]