Archive for January, 2002
BUSTED! I went to bed
BUSTED! I went to bed early last night and assumed that Australia had lost the cricket against the Kiwis. At the time they were 6/90 and needed 246 to win. Last night in my entry I commented on Australia’s loss (although it hadn’t happened yet). Shit! At least I know I could get a job with CNN, CBS, ABC(usa) or the Melbourne Herald Sun. I do solemnly promise never to indulge in blogular speculation ever, ever again. Thanks for pointing it out to all your readers too Graham…dobber. 
The burdens of being a centepede. Not a bad blog actually.
Tonight I decided to call a few good friends that I left behind about 6 years ago when I buggered off to Europe. Even though I have been back for a few years I have neglected speaking to these people for too long now. So I racked up a fortune this evening calling all parts of South Eastern Queensland finding out that not much has changed at all.
Danny’s disappeared…Karl’s still making artificial limbs…Gavin’s making boats and has two kids even though at the age of 18 he declared himself to be anti-sex…Darren’s living in Nambour…Jason’s moved out to Blackbutt…Paul has finally left his Dad’s place. Tamara has 3 kids…Kirsten works as a radiologist…blah, blah, blah.
I’ve been feeling a little down this week but chatting to people that I spent most of my late teens and early twenties with has brightened me up a tad. I might do this more often. Being separated by a couple of thousand kilometres can be good in a strange way.
Do you fell like breaking out of your normal blog reading pattern? Well here’s the ideal tool. Blogrolling. I know weblogs.com and all the other webrings have a good collection, but this seems to have more variety (around 5300 so far).
Number of people in Washington, D.C. who were murdered by anthrax poisoning between September 11 and November 9…
2
Number of people murdered by other means in the same city during the same period …
53
Number of U.S. residents who died of anthrax between October 1 and November 1…
4
Approximate number of U.S. residents who died, during the same month, as a result of having smoked cigarettes…
33,000
World Watch Magazine
January/February 2002
What’s that saying? Truth, lies and statistics…
The old hacks get beaten
The old hacks get beaten again. The ego has to be deflated every now and again I suppose.
Tough times ahead? I’ve never seen as many people crying in the Melbourne CBD as I have today. The poor souls were mostly young women and being comforted by colleagues/boyfriends. It seems a few people have been given ‘notice’ as a late Chrismas present. It makes you wonder once you see it 4 or 5 times in a day. Hmmmm…
I must get my use of the apostrophe in order.
Here’s some very interesting and shall we say, unique design proposals for the now vacant World Trade Center area in NYC (via eastwest).
This article from NewScientist.com (an article written as if looking back over the 21st century) is a little frightening. It’s worth a read though.
Finally, from the above mentioned website, comes a strange story. Gamers are getting seriously serious.
While just about everyone else
While just about everyone else I know is at the Big Day Out here in Melbourne, I am in the middle of my Big Day In.
At the moment the late afternoon session is well underway and Moler are playing on the trusty 10 year old CD player.
I’m a bit over the ‘festival’ thing but I’m glad I attended the Big Day Out on the Gold Coast from ‘94 until ‘96 until I went overseas. The European festivals spoilt me rotten. Roskilde in Denmark, Glastonbury and the Phoenix/a> festivals in the UK were mind blowing for awide eyed Aussie boy.
These days I prefer the intimacy and smokiness of small band rooms, tiny stages and the good old fashioned raw power of a pub gig. Next year I might make a return to the Big Day Out for the sound of 200000 odd watts of sonic power oozing into the air in the inner-north-west suburbs of Melbourne. You can’t really beat outdoor gigs.
At times I dabble in a bit of politics in this blog but I’m quickly becoming very frustrated commenting on local and world events. This is partly because I have a serious lean to the left and anything I say is completely biased. Also I am absolutely fed up with mis-information. Australia’s current federal government is particularly accomplished at this. Also, when I read stories like this I cringe. Killing people in their hospital beds IS intolerable. There can be no excuses for murder…on either side.
It only gets worse. Now
It only gets worse. Now journalists are being ‘detained.’. Somehow i think I feel that the tide may be turning as far as public opinion goes. John Howard’s concentration camps won’t be around much longer, I’m hoping anyway. Also if you need any evidence of the attitude the government has toward Woomera, just take a look at their proposals for a nuclear waste dump. Out of site, out of mind.
Pat Rafter…Australian of the Year. Isn’t it lovely that our Australian of the year lives on a Caribbean island for tax purposes.
Woops. Today is supposed to internet-free day. OK that’s it. I’m off to dance around in the park, hand daisies out to strangers and smash my PC into tiny pieces. EVIL EVIL internet!
Australia Day ‘eh! I suppose
Australia Day ‘eh! I suppose we have to thank the Brits for arriving just before the French. That’s what we should be celebrating as far as I’m concerned. A guy I played cricket with today has just recieved his permanent residency. He had a double-bunger today. When he told me of his success with his residency application I shook his hand and said "happy Australia Day Shah." You could see that he thought about it for a moment as he smiled and then said thank you. He also added that his home nation of India had it’s national day today. The celebration of Independence from Britain in 1947. I wish I could utter the same words (happy Aust. Day) to a few more deserving immigrants.
Aussies get whooped again. Trust the New Zealanders to ruin the Australian cricketers’ day.
‘My days as a white
‘My days as a white man.‘ I wish I could watch this. Will someone tape it in the UK and send it to me?
Lukelog mentioned the big gumboot.
Lukelog mentioned the big gumboot. I often wonder why the obsession with ‘big’ ornaments. OK, I’m not stupid. I know WHY they people do it but it’s just a very old fashioned way of doing it. I mean, the Big Pineapple, Big Cow, Big Banana, and I think there still may be a Big Lawnmower on the old Bruce Highway in Landsborough (1 hour north of Brisbane). The list goes on - the Big Prawn, the Big Bottle, Big Golfball…..for crying out loud!
May I present to you the best collection of links to BIG THINGS I have ever found.
I would’ve hated to pay $40 to see the game of cricket that was played at the SCG tonight. Why can’t Australia keep losing? I like seeing members of the sporting elite being brought down to earth with a ‘kathummp.’
The world comes to Afghanistan’s aid. Japan, AU$1 billion over next 2 years. The USA AU$600 million. The UK, AU$560 million. Pakistan, AU$40 million per year for 5 years. Australia $17 million. The search for an emblem to replace the Union Jack on Australia’s flag is over. A pair of clenched arse cheeks would seem appropriate.
Phew! I’m glad that weekend
Phew! I’m glad that weekend is over. I slept for 14 hours last night. For some reason I forgot to sleep over the weekend (probably the excitement of winning an important cricket game). I won’t do that again because I tend to get a little bit hopeless without some rest. Falling over things, putting ice-cream in the microwave instead of the freezer etc. Argh!
Why can’t Ruddock sew HIS fucking mouth shut? I’d like to sew up a few other openings of his - and somehow I’m guessing I wouldn’t be alone in wishing this.
Poor Shauny is having a
Poor Shauny is having a canine crisis. I had my own several months back so I can identify with her predicament. One of the benefits of owning your own home (my numbers will come up one day) is not having to put up with landlords who are anal about every little aspect of a tenant’s life. What’s the deal with pets? Sure, having a pet in an apartment/unit may be stretching the friendship, but having a pet in a house that has a backyard of some description is a different matter. Still, tenancy laws stick like shit to a car seat cover (or is it a blanket…I can’t remember) and are usually pro-lessor. There’s nothing you can do short of getting Mike Munro to do alittle ditty on A Current Affair. He’s probably to busy para-sailing on the Ivory Coast at the moment to worry about a good story.
Popular culture inspires me to kill
Well then, here it is!
Well then, here it is! The horse’s mouth version 9. This CSS layout caper is pretty cool but very awkward at first. One wrong measurement, one pixel too much padding and everything is out of whack. Let me know of any problems you find. I only tested it in IE5-6 and Netscape 6.2. Yeah - I’ll whack up a snazzy title image sooner or later and also find something ridiculous to put in the space on the right hand side. I just want to see this fucking code work. My eyes are square, my temper worn and my head is tired.
Hang on! What the fuck is happening. The wowsers are coming out of their boxes again I cannot believe that in 2002 there are still people who think like that. Read the link to find out about how a Norfolk Island MP (a territory of Australia) is defending a new law that bans people with HIV or hepatitis from immigrating to the island.
Shauny on mattresses - "Imagine the assortment of stains they’d have." No thanks Shauny but thanks for the mental image. Those poor delivery men.
My trial with CSS layout
My trial with CSS layout didn’t last very long. The design looked good in IE5 but not in Netscape 6.2. Back to the drawing board. The weird thing was that when I looked at my blog from my local file, it was fine. The same page downloaded from my host looked fucked. Dunno what’s going on there!
Not happy Jan! Today was
Not happy Jan! Today was a particularly trying day at work. There’s no real point in whinging about it though. We all have those days where you’d like to plunge a soldering iron into the retina of somebody-or-other.
I won’t have much time to stew tonight though because I have discovered the joys of <table>-free layout. I have seen quite a few blogs doing it lately. VM was the latest, also waferbaby and patrick j. burke. Seeing as most of my site hasn’t even been created yet (even though the links have been sitting there for 8 months) I might as well go down the road of XHTML compliance and correct CSS. I’m sure there are many hours of fun in store for me. If your thinking about doing it yourself, there are plenty of good ideas at The Layout Reservoir.
Which Kevin Smith male character are you? I fucking-well hate these tests, but I couldn’t resist this one (via shuddle).
Here it is. The new blog page. It took about an hour to knock up courtesy of the aformentioned link. Not bad at all.