Blogging is starting to be taken seriously by product promoters. Some time back I posted (rather bitterly I admit) about the exhorbitant price of a TV theme mobile jingle I bought. Someone at the TV listing company that had linked to it (not the actual jingle company who got the money) saw that post, tracked ... [More]
I had a sudden moment of philosophical mortgage angst yesterday morning on the train. Reading the paper I found myself pondering if I was doing the right thing, signing up to borrow ARGH thousand dollars, to spend the next 25 years paying it off. Working for The Man, money goes in, money goes out… is ... [More]
Petrol prices are hitting record levels, something that’s been predicted for some time by the Peak Oil people. On Sunday I took the kids across town to visit their grandad’s/my dad’s place, for his 74th birthday. With my last petrol fill-up costing over $60 (thankfully it’s only about fortnightly), my public transport travel already paid ... [More]
I dreamt I was the coach for the local junior football team. Instead of playing on a conventional oval, it was a kind of L-shaped ground, like two ovals stuck together, possibly reflecting a park nearby to the house I just bought. There was a game going, but only about half a dozen kids playing ... [More]
Thank you Harry Potter and JK Rowling, for knocking bloody Dan Brown off the top of the best seller list at last. On another topic, read a very interesting article on how to prolong your life. The 13-point plan at the bottom of the second page is particularly interesting. Now, where in this house might ... [More]
Perhaps the biggest challenge I am facing with the prospect of a new house is avoiding clutter. For 2 years now I’ve got away with having packed boxes of junk lying chaotically around the house, thanks to the excuse that where I live now was just temporary until I bought somewhere. Come October, I’ll no ... [More]
Rae’s post about the amusing email Away message reminded me of the screensaver I wrote years ago. It was intended to run on office computers, and one of the animations included a random message: I’m not here right now because I’m… out experiencing life. doing a nude team-building workshop. at a job interview with an ... [More]
Last Saturday night was Trish & Leanne’s Multiple Sclerosis fundraiser trivia night, and we all piled into a packed hall somewhere in Balwyn. (The whole NE suburbs are a bit of a blank spot for me.) Great fun had by all, I reckon. Lessons I learnt for future trivia nights: We had smart people, but ... [More]
I just bought one. It’s walking distance to a zone 1 station and a great shopping strip (supermarket, library, coffee shops). There’s ways to improve it, but it’s really lovely and very liveable even as-is. It’s art-deco style, 1930-ish. Two words: central heating / dish washer. Argh wait, is that four words? It’s on a ... [More]
Ah, the joys of working from home. Last night 9pm deployment, then conference call until (yawn) 1am as things on a related system went a little askew. This morning, more of the same. Monitoring systems on one screen, blogging on another, listening to conference call on speakerphone/mute. If things calm down a bit later, maybe ... [More]
From the people that brought you The Goodies and classic Doctor Who in chalk, here’s the new Doctor Who at Southbank: (Thanks to Tim for the tip-off) On this occasion, the artists were present and busy at work, touching up their older drawings:
Here is my wine cellar collection. It sits up in the cupboard. My wine purchasing strategy is as follows: Buy the ones with the interesting looking labels (‘cos I know stuff-all about wine) Because I don’t consume them at a rate of knots, I buy bottles of moderately cheapish wine, keep it for a few ... [More]