…and how pictures make a story real. If there was a Daniel FAQ, these questions would feature in it: Why are you involved in the Public Transport Users Association? What’s in it for you? And can I tell you about how late my train was this morning? Perhaps another long rambling retrospective is in order. ... [More]
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Onion debacle: the untold story
An onion. Just an onion. A brown onion. That was the request. A Friday night, dark, and cold, no car available. Had it come to this: cast out to trudge through the inky blackness, in the rain, at the mercy of Footscray’s cesspit of villains? Nah. It wasn’t that bad. I ensured my winter layers ... [More]
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Pain and suffering
Yesterday afternoon at the instigation of my mother and her partner Peter, I endured raucous Irish folk music. Now, there is a time and a place for everything. Except perhaps raucous Irish folk music. Okay, maybe over a Guiness or five with some mates on St Patrick’s Day. But when you’ve stopped by for a ... [More]
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Meme time
I give up. Enough people I know have posted this on their blogs… so now I’m giving in to peer pressure. I have bloke-ified it up a bit (and had some fun doing so), and altered some of the questions to reflect that a lot of people who don’t know me in person read this ... [More]
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Micropayments
Went out to lunch with some colleagues, to some little place off Collins Street. Honey chicken, mixed vegetables and fried rice. And an orange juice. $8.90. Gave $20 to the girl, and she came back with change totalling $19.10. Something obviously went wrong there. Gave her a $5 note back, before realising later that I ... [More]
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Geek TV
Just watched Seven Wonders of the Industrial World. Historic geek TV goes prime time. It told of The Great Eastern, Brunel’s doomed gigantic ship. It was in the style of a dramatised documentary, with interviews of the major protagonists as the story unfolded, and didn’t shy away from mentioning the horrific toll of industrial accidents ... [More]
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Neighbourhood
Just another day in the (network) neighbourhood. Thanks to Tony for the tip-off. (Tattersalls building, Dandenong Road, Caulfield/East Malvern)
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SuperScrabble
I’ve been playing Scrabble a bit. The word that got me winning the last game was “zebra”, on a triple word score. 48 points, thank you very much… I think I had been trailing before that. My sister is the demon Scrabble player from hell. Or so her reputation says. I don’t know if I’ve ... [More]
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Gaming in the 21st century
Call me an old fuddy duddy if you like, but for the most part I still like the video and computer games of olde a bit better. Though graphics and sound have leapt forward over the past couple of decades, the quality of gameplay is the subject of some debate. How playable is a game ... [More]
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Upgrading
Just upgrading to WordPress 1.2. I see the comments have vanished. This will be fixed shortly. (Well, after I’ve done the dishes.) 10:30pm. Okay seems to be working. Some of the trackbacks and other wierdo URLs aren’t working ‘cos I have to find time to fiddle the .htaccess file to cope with my old archives. ... [More]
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Bouncy bouncy
Its arrival has been much anticipated, and finally it happened yesterday. We got a trampoline. It has been a long time coming. I have been looking around for trampolines for a while now. Just one element in a wide-ranging family exercise regime. We never had one growing up, but I recall visiting our friends the ... [More]
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Red shields
Apparently this year’s Salvation Army Red Shield appeal fell short by around $2 million, with apartment block security doors and an increasingly cashless society cited as two major reasons. I think most would agree the Salvos do a good job, so if you had planned to give but couldn’t, now might be a good time ... [More]
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New Adventures in Laundry
I unpacked my sparkly (not really) new flannel sheets last night, and immediately understood why they advise you to wash them before use. It’s not the excess dye that’ll get you, it’s the Pakistani cloth factory smell that comes with them (and at no extra cost). So I carried them to the washing-machine, popped them ... [More]
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The weight / The snacks
Okay, three doonas is too much. Might keep me warm on a cold night, but I can’t damn-well move under the weight of them. The third doona is relegated to the cupboard, and I went and bought some flannelette sheets instead. Meanwhile, you know that things are getting desperate in the public education sector when ... [More]
People who wanted their supermarket transaction split-up into separate $30 bills just to take advantage of “spend $30 for 4 cents per litre off petrol” and other such deals would have to queue up again between dockets. The expression “I’ll let you go”, which is meant to sound like the person is doing you a ... [More]
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Concerto for recorder
I hate to say it, but school concerts can be just a little… boring. Even when your kid is in it. Seems to me that the teachers push the whole thing just a little bit too far, so it moves from the realm of cute (“oh, they’re playing that well-known song on their recorders!”) over ... [More]