A pretty good Christmas haul. A brilliant (two volume) book, some DVDs, some chocolate, a groovy t-shirt, groovy CDs, and a stuff-yourself-all-afternoon Christmas lunch. I’ve got no complaints. Tonight I tried to make nachos. I think I may have given myself excess cheese poisoning. I was sitting at home, on my own in the dark, ... [More]
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Here is my bookcase
Here is my bookcase. Well, one of them, probably the most interesting one. There are others elsewhere in the house containing CDs and kids books; videos; boring geeky books and magazines. If there is one thing I regret about my book collection it’s that in early adulthood I was so addicted to TV that I ... [More]
Here’s the Christmas tree late last night, with the presents at their most impressive. Slowly, today, the pile is being depleted. I should just add that today would be a good day to spare a thought, and some cash, for those in need. Donate to Salvation Army (southeast AU) The Smith Family (AU) Red Cross/Crescent ... [More]
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Christmas Eve
Christmas means different things to different people… some mark the birth of Christ, others the solstice, for some it’s just another public holiday, for many it’s a chance to spend up big on presents, max out the credit card. I fall into the camp of using the day to get together with family, to give ... [More]
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Once-a-year chance
I have a once-a-year chance coming up. In my kitchen is a six-pack of beer of a brand that I don’t normally drink. I think someone left it after the last party. I’d rather not take it to somebody else’s party, as I’d feel duty-bound to drink it, and like I say, I normally don’t. ... [More]
I’ve been going to the same dental surgery for the last ten years or so, every 6-8 months. It should be every 6, but in practice I tend to wait until they ring me to make an appointment (what, like I’d WANT to go?), and so it usually ends up at about 8. The actual ... [More]
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Unexpected spree
I’ve got a couple of days off work… happy dance, happy dance, nyah nyah. Actually it’s not really smugworthy, given I’m going to the dentist this morning. On Sunday I unexpectedly went on a consumer electronics buying spree. First, the VCR started misbehaving. Tape playback fuzzy. Same with a couple of other tapes. Found the ... [More]
Not quite in the usual vein of Sunday photos, here is possibly the strangest self-portrait I have ever taken. It was at Altona beach this morning, and what you can’t see is the 50 gazillion flies that were zooming around my head (and indeed the heads of everybody else present at the time). Seriously, you’d ... [More]
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Blah, humbug
“Hello, Mr Bowen? … blah blah drive shaft blah blah grease boot split blah blah steering rack problem blah blah exhaust muffler leakage blah blah $560…” I won’t even tell you what the eventual total cost of that service was, suffice to say that I may not be quite as extravagant with my Christmas gift-buying ... [More]
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Random retail observations
Christmas shopping… uhh, about 50% done. A way to go. Hmm, as a last resort, I suppose I could join in the 24 hour shopping brawl at Chadstone next Thursday night. I could walk from here… quicker than driving and looking for a park, I suspect. The Information Victoria shop on Collins Street has a ... [More]
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Out-sourced
Was catching up with an old friend recently, it had been a few years since I’d seen him. He’s been slowly losing his hair since his mid-20s, whereas mine is simply going grey — genetics can be a cruel thing. When we met up, something looked different, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on ... [More]
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Proper nouns
A name is a proper noun. Under the rules of the English language, proper nouns are to be written with capital letters. Obviously this kind of rule can be ignored for stylistic reasons, such as for corporate logos. But in normal writing, such as you might find in a newspaper article, that’s a rule which ... [More]
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The bathtub of mystery
Here’s a poser for you: mysterious specks of something are appearing in the bathroom. They fall from somewhere above the bath, into the bath, around the side of the bath, and onto the window ledge up above the bath. I don’t know what they are. I don’t know where they come from. There is no ... [More]
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Here is my Christmas tree
Here is our Christmas tree, made of the finest, sturdiest green plastic. It’s not a huge Christmas tree (relatively miniscule, in fact), but it does the job. It’s more-or-less adequate for the number of gifts that will find their way under it in the next couple of weeks. Post your Christmas tree… link in the ... [More]
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How to get interviewed
Obviously this relates primarily to Australian media, and from my point of view as spokesman for a community lobby organisation in my copious spare time. This isn’t a Media Watch-style exposé, but hopefully it’s of interest to somebody out there. In general The quote Newspapers TV Radio In conclusion
Jeremy is so taken by the Knight Bus scene in Harry Potter 3 that he’s recreated it on the computer. He’s found a little applet thingy on the HP web site that plays various Lenny Henry Shrunken Head quotes periodically, and has that running while he plays Midtown Madness 2, in London, driving around a ... [More]