Categories
Geek / tech

To those leaving comment spam

There appear to be some people manually leaving comment spam here. It’s written to look relevant to the post it’s on, and includes a link to one of a series of near-identical web-sites obviously set-up just to get attention from search engines, eg a “Splog.” Now hear this: If your comment leaves a URL that  ... [More]

Categories
Clothes Culture

Kold/Kulture with a capital K

Damn it was cold this morning. Before leaving for work, I made sure to find my gloves and scarf for the walk to the station through the fog. (You remember the scarf, right?) Off to the Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet tonight. Not sure how I wangled seats in row AA, but looking forward to  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne

The man I couldn’t help

He was standing by the payphone outside Bentleigh Post Office, as I checked my post box about 45 minutes ago. He might still be there now. Asking passers-by for money to make a long-distance call, regarding his father, who had passed away. Was he telling the truth? I don’t know. I told him I had  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism

Newspaper dead tree edition

I rarely read the paper in great detail, except perhaps on Saturdays when I have the time. I value the content, and I value the fact that my subscription money is helping support a competing newspaper to the top-selling Herald Sun, but I probably get more value by reading The Age’s web site than the  ... [More]

Categories
Doctor Who Film

DVD extras: How much is too much?

I got Isaac a Doctor Who DVD for his birthday which has two documentaries on it totalling almost two hours. Is that too much? I haven’t watched the docos yet, but it is a truly classic story (Genesis of the Daleks), with plenty to talk about in terms of how the story was written and  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne

The Nicholas Building

At the moment I’m reading a book about Melbourne’s architecture, told through the story of Whelan The Wrecker. The Nicholas Building (corner of Swanston St and Flinders Lane) went up in 1925. I think it’s a pretty impressive sight. It was designed by Harry Norris, who also designed the equally impressive Majorca Building around the  ... [More]

Categories
Home life

How to fix my washing machine

I’ve finally figured out how to fix the washing machine when the outlet hose gets blocked up, thus avoiding a $75 call-out fee and the inconvenience of having to arrange to be at home when the repair man goes. 1. Take clothes dryer off the top (it’s slightly lighter than it looks) and move it  ... [More]

Categories
Home life

Things I need to do tonight

Things I have to do tonight: Tidy up the damn place. Do the (non-dishwasher) dishes. Run a quick errand down the street. Done Figure out how to get that burn off the bottom of my nice Le Creuset enamel pot. (Been postponing that for about two weeks.) Go to the supermarket and get some milk,  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA

Too busy

Took the day off today, but was too busy to blog. Back tomorrow hopefully. PS. Thursday morning: Here’s why.

Categories
Food'n'drink

Quick easy dinner

My favourite cold-night dining-alone dinner is soup with toast. Perhaps one of those nice Heinz spicy lentil soups; perhaps pumpkin; perhaps tomato. Heat it up in the saucepan, chuck a slice of bread in the toaster, and eat. Exceptionally low effort, quick, yummy, warming, and healthyish.

Categories
Home life

Busy Sunday

Sometimes Sundays are lazy; I spend most of the day just sitting around the house doing nothing. Not yesterday. A series of events — some planned, some not — had me running around like a maniac. Walking a dog, driving across town, rushed buying of a birthday present and unrelated card, down to Southland not  ... [More]

Categories
Home life

The clone of my house… almost

Near where I used to live in Glen Huntly is the very first house that the now-huge AV Jennings corporation ever built. I seem to recall it’s a brick Californian Bungalow. It certainly doesn’t look like the off-the-plan McMansion-type residences they’re probably better known for building now. Neither had I thought of my house as  ... [More]

Categories
Video games Working life

Top-heavy

Bizarre thought #574: In the building where I work, there’s a security guard who is sometimes seen wandering about the place. He looks kind of top-heavy, like he’s got a lot of upper-body muscle. For some reason it reminds me of an old video game I once had back on my Commodore 64: Ultima II,  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA

It’s time to move

Up for a little light reading on why public transport is important, and what needs to be done to make it better? The government is coming out with its Transport & Liveability Statement next week, but in the mean time, the PTUA’s book from 2002 “It’s Time To Move” is now available for download as  ... [More]

Categories
Home life

Freeloaders

The rustling sound was back the other night, louder than before. I couldn’t spot anything. But around 6am this morning I heard the familiar noise of vermin doing calisthenics in the roof. And I found a tiny little beetle clinging to the wall in my room. Haven’t spotted any other insect life in quite a  ... [More]

Categories
books music

Dan Brown vs iPods

Word on the street is that if you want to see any movies, do so this weekend, because by the following weekend they’ll have all been swept away by blanket screenings of the bloody Da Vinci Code. On the train, which do you think there’s more of? Dan Brown books, or iPods? Dan Brown books  ... [More]