Testing ...

Will this font display differently? Sometimes I would like to use a different font, so I am testing it here. And if it doesn't work, you will know because everything will look the same. And if it does work, it won't (look the same).
Some bloggers don't have to resort to editing HTML (which I just did) to get the different fonts, because it's built into their Posting template. No such luck here unfortunately, but this is a way around it. Yippee!

English observations

The other day I was sending an email in which I said I was "baffled". Then it occurred to me that "baffle" has more than one meaning - to quiet (as in "no, I won't be asking any more questions") or to puzzle (as in "yes, I will be asking many more questions").
Not so ambiguous was the small yet difficult boy on the bus tonight. When he refused to slide across to let his mother sit down, she lifted him across the seat. He protested loudly, she responded including asking him to quiet down, and he finished the exchange by calling her "you big pooh pooh". Now no-one can say that's not sending a good, clear message!

Something (else) for nothing

Coke seems to be for the "now" generation ... and they're certainly pitching some of their advertising at the tech savvy, mobile-phone crowd. They've started advertising Lime Coke on billboards in the city - and on some of the static (non-rolling) boards, they've incorporated an infrared port so you can download free phone ringtones, animated screensavers or wallpaper to your mobile. The ringtone I have is the sound of a Coke being opened and poured. Not sure how well it would work as a tone, but it's fun to play!

Giving it away

It's either fairly ineffectual (ergo the large number of discarded cans!) or they were giving the stuff away. Yes - it was the latter. Several people were handing cans of drink to anyone who wanted one, and there were plenty who did. I would have asked for one except I wasn't prepared to get off my bus (too long to wait for the next one!) - I don't know that I would have indulged though - I've heard some horror stories - not attributed to any specific product - and certainly not this one - but it was enough to make me cautious (and that usually doesn't take much!)

Soldier on

One of the tissue companies has a new Anti-Viral variety out. In its TV ad, a teacher of small children is at home unwell, and a knock at her door, when answered, reveals her class - tissues in hand. When the teacher takes them, the children follow her inside and gather around so she can read them a story. Just what you want when you're sick!
Mind you, I have a cold at the moment and on the basis of nothing but that advertising, I'd give those tissues a test drive - as long as the children weren't included.

Figures

Have you got a calculator handy? Try this. (Of course, you could try it by hand - but it will take longer!) 111,111,111 x 111,111,111. And the answer is ... cool!

Hokey

One of the "feeds" I get from Quick News (which I have yet to decide to buy) is Snopes - the Urban Legends (debunking) site. It has a page where people can send in material - which is where I found this, posted around the time of the Queen Mother's death:
What with all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person which almost went un-noticed last week.
Larry La Prise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey," died peacefully aged 83. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin.
They put his left leg in - and things just started to go downhill from there.

5 seconds of F(r)ame

Following the bombings in London, there has been a move towards more security in centres including Sydney. Options suggested vary from a smart identity card and stripping citizenship from terrorists to increased surveillance measures. When reporting such measures on the Channel 9 shows "A Current Affair'' and "Late Night News" the visuals showed CCTV security footage shot in Sydney - without the knowledge of those shown! All I can say is thank goodness I wasn't doing anything strange or wearing anything odd when I was filmed on Tuesday otherwise my 5 seconds of f(r)ame could have been embarrassing. (And imagine if one had been captured doing something like snogging someone not their partner. Some would say we live in dangerous times!)

PawSense

One of our cats loves to stand on the keyboard when I'm trying to work on the laptop. I've wondered what effects just the "right" combination of key strokes could produce - besides a non-sensical string of letters. If you don't want to find out, there's a product that detects irregular typing and brings up a screen that says "Cat-Like Typing Detected." If it is you, type "human" and you can proceed (as could your cat if it was smart enough to have worked it out, or can read!). PawSense is reportedly the work of Chris Niswander who wrote the program after cat crashed computer.

Be Prepared

It hasn't been a good week for Boy Scouts in the United States - especially as it was their national Jamboree time. The headline on one site says it all "Bush bringing encouraging words to Scout Jamboree marred by electrocutions, heat illnesses". Four adult scouts were electrocuted at the start of the event when they hit power lines when putting up a tent. A volunteer had died the previous day from an apparent heart attack. Later that week, "Scouting enthusiasts waited hours in the heat for Bush, who later canceled his appearance because of threatening storms. Scouts began collapsing from high humidity and temperatures in the high 90s. More than 300 people were treated for heat-related illnesses." That visit was cancelled, then postponed, but it was third time lucky.
Not so lucky were another group of scouts in California, undertaking a 70-mile hike who were caught out in a 10-minute thunder storm. Despite following safe procedures, lightning struck, killing the scout leader and a teen scout. One of the scout leaders said: "When I talked to the ranger, I said, 'What could we have done?' He said, 'You did everything right, it just turned out you were in the wrong place.'"

Timetables or ...

... "check, check and check again". I planned to catch the early bus to work yesterday morning so I could do some prep work for a first-up meeting. It was a good plan but one which would have worked better had I thought to check the new bus timetable - which changed at the start of the week. I had somehow decided if our usual bus hadn't changed, neither would the earlier one. Wrong. I can't even blame it on lack of a timetable - I'd printed one from the web (and gave it to Beatrice at the bus stop) and secured two from the bus information and ticket kiosk in the city (l'd asked for 5 - one each for Sooz and I, one for the office, one for Beatrice and a spare but he refused to hand them over - fear someone else might want the new timetable!). No, it was my own fault for assuming - and we all know what they say about that (something about asses, isn't it?).

Tunnel trouble?

News services last week carried the story of Federal agents shutting down an elaborate, 360-foot drug-smuggling tunnel found underneath the U.S.-Canadian border. It apparently went from a lounge room to a warehouse and had been well-built. A tape with tunnel-digging-covering-sound effects (a car repair shop) was also found.
I guess because Australia only has sea borders - being an island, and all states being part of the one country - I'd never considered the difficulties of land-based smuggling (nor sea-based - just to keep the record straight!) There's probably a limit to what you can smuggle in and out of a lounge room - as opposed to a garage.
There was no indication in the reports that anything had been smuggled, or what they thought would be smuggled - but fr that sized investment it was probably going to be good (or bad!)

Google Earth

What will those marvellous people at Google think of next? If you visit this link you'll find their newest fare - earth. It's worth a visit - so said a rather comprehensive article on it in the Connect liftout of this morning's The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Still not convinced? It uses "satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips (once again it works best in the US)". Oh ... and there's a software download involved - but it's free.
See you ... I'm off to Shanghai!

Daily Almanac July 26

1933 - Nazi Germany passed a law, requiring sterilization of idiots, schizophrenics, epileptics, or people suffering from depression, chorea, or any hereditarial weakness.
(Chorea = any of several degenerative nervous disorders characterized by spasmodic movements of the body and limbs. Def: SlovoEd 4.13 ex Paragon Software)

How much news in your news?

How do you take your news - radio, television, newspaper, net? Leaving out those who answered "not at all" - how much detail do you like in your news? I use a service called Avantgo which downloads web content onto my Palm. Most of the sites are for news (ok I also get some jokes and movie info). This is a fantastic service but for me it's not 100% reliable. So I've been trying out another way of collecting web content - XML/RSS (really simple syndication) off the net - and it's not bad except it basically doesn't provide all the news story - usually it's a precis and link to the story detail. But I really like the detail. I'm in the middle of the Quick News software trial at the moment so I have 2 weeks of free use yet I'll have to decide between number of feeds (limited with non-paid version of Avantgo) or depth of detail! (Decisions, decisions!)

Are we ready?

I worry about Sydney's level of readiness should a terrorist attack ever take place. This particular concern follows last Friday's parade for Women in Policing which closed down George Street in the CBD. I left the office just after noon to collect Sooz - I wanted to be at the Day Surgery Centre at 1.15pm to collect her. The bus ride takes 15 minutes (tops) and I figured I might have to wait for the bus - so no problem. Not a chance. If there was publicity about the Parade and road closure and alternate bus routes - I wasn't the only one who missed them! The CBD was a mess for people and transport. And - my point is - the authorities knew about this and hopefully had put some planning in place for it - so why was it such a shambles? And if this is what happens for a known event - what's going to happen if it's something more sinister (and I sincerely hope it never is!)?

Butterfly Effect

I watched "Butterfly Effect" on DVD the other afternoon and was pleasantly surprised. I had been trying to catch up with it for ages but seemed to always pick something else from the shelf. I had no idea what it was about - I'd just heard that it was fairly good - and that Demi Moore's current squeeze was in it (not sure if he was; not enough up on the Hollywood scene). It was good, even though it took a while to work out what was going on (a plus) and it seemed to have a major plot inconsistency (why didn't Jason take a more proactive role - ah, I think I see it now! - oops, no I don't! Raises more questions than it answers.)

Princess Lisa

If you're ever in the mood for a fantastic lunch and you're in the Sydney CBD, wander along to The Lobby Cafe in Castlereagh Street (near King - across the road from the MLC Centre) and introduce yourself to Lisa (pictured) and Charlotte. They're good fun - and the food, coffee, atmosphere are great. Go along, have a good time - and Lisa will (hopefully) wear the tiara - because they always treat you like royalty!

Burglar alarm

I enjoy a flick through electronics stores brochures because you never know what new and exciting things you might stumble across. But it can also pose questions like "why on earth would you have a photograph of a Dummy Home Alarm Kit - showing the unit and warning sticker emblazoned with the name of the system.' Isn't this slightly counterproductive - advertising that thusly branded alarms are fakes - and may as well carry the wording "break in here".
The other item I noticed has a DVD recorder which records up to four channels at once, making it a great candidate for security surveillance with multiple feeds. Guess this could mean the end of surveillance "tapes". How will footage be passed to police or other security forces?

Harry Potter Hard Ball

The decision has been taken that Harry Potter 6 (& The Half-Blood Prince) will not be published electronically. However, that hasn't stopped a group from putting a pirate copy on the web. There's probably a few sites from where it can be downloaded - but I wasn't about to find them yesterday when I had a quick look. I suppose there may be a better way than googling "harry potter pirate download" - which was one of the many options I tried. I did finally manage to find links to what looked like the sites, but I was a little concerned about going there fear it lead to a virus breeding ground, or be a place for contracting other computer nasties.
Besides, I'm more than happy to pay J.K.Rowling and her publishers for an electronic copy. This is how I read these days. And it's how a lot of other people read. If you check with Fictionwise, you'll find I'm a paying customer; happy to part with my money to keep writers writing (please be as kind when you see one of my works available for money - heh heh).
So why isn't Harry Potter 6 available as an ebook? I suggested to Sooz that it might be because J.K.Rowling wants people to know that other people are reading her book too! Which led me to thinking - wouldn't it be good if you could get the latest novels as an ebook either electronically or on disk at the local bookstore - and it came with a little sticker or something you could wear or pop on your electronic book reader - letting people know what you're reading! It might also be a way of converting more people to ebooks as a reading medium! Yes, there will always be people who want to read "books" - I do it if there's not an e-version available - but one day there may not be enough trees to go around - and wouldn't it be nice if we never reached that day! (Which is to say "wouldn't it be nice if we could hang on to the trees" - rather than, "wouldn't it be nice if we ourselves physcially in a living breathing sense didn't reach the day when there were no trees left" - and by "hang on to" I obviously meant "retain" rather than "swing from"). [Love that English language.]

Blogging Notes

When I am away from the computer, I have no trouble thinking of things to put on my "blog". In fact, I'm often doing something or talking with someone and think "that would be good for my blog; I must remember that" - but do I? When I sit down at the computer, does that thought come back in any way at all. No. It does not. I know I could carry around a notebook and write these things down - afterall, what is the Palm for - but I know I think "no problems, I'll remember that" but I never do. (Except for just then - my Harry Potter thought just slid back into my brain...)

Reading between the lines

It's fairly easy to come up with all sorts of ideas - given some time and different news sources!
I posit that the US is considering re introducing the draft to boost its flagging troop numbers.
Why?
An indendent consultancy, on behalf of the US Government, is compiling a database of eligible young people. This is ostensibly to ailow targetted marketing by recruiters.
The enlistment numbers in the US continue to drop - not meeting the quotas for several months - even though the quotas have been dropped.
The dangers faced by American troops in Iraq have been exaggerated, adding to the difficulty of recruiting soldiers at home, the Army general in charge of National Guard forces said recently in a Yahoo news report.
The most recent figures I've seen are more than 1700 dead and more than 17000 injured.
The Coalition of the Willing seem determined to occupy Iraq until the job is done (whatever that job might be!).
So where will the troops come from - especially if they're not signing up now with a $90,000 incentive package on offer? If they can't con them into it with big dollars - they may have to think about conscripting them!
Hopefully I'm misreading the signs!

Mobiles for kids

There's a section in the Sydney Morning Herald on a Saturday - Icon - which has the latest on technology. Yesterday it carried a small item on "Paradise Kidz Mobile Fones" - a chocolate biscuit shaped like a mobile phone. And there's a website where you can find out more about them!

Neighbours

I looked out the window of the flat this morning and noticed that the washing line was full of clothes. And in that instant I knew that even if we hadn't already met our new neighhbours, Heidi and Jean, we would know two things about them from their washing. All the adult clothes on the line were black with or without skulls, and there were teeny tiny pink baby clothes! That's right, the new neighbours, Heidi and Jean, are Goths, and they have a baby! I shudder to think what people could know about us from our washing!

Gloria!!

Well, you know when it's the beginning of the trend when a Gloria Jean's opens in the main street of your suburb. Up until now we've had cafes and restaurants and we've had a GJs in the Marrickville Metro - but you'd expect that - but never had I even countenanced that we would have a GJs in the main drag! What are they thinking? Well, obviously they're trying to catch a new demographic that we suspected was moving into the area. And, as a homeowner, you hope that people will move into the area and keepty help push the real estate values up - but we'd been hoping that would happen and Marrickville would still retain it's cosmopolitan little-bit-of-everything feel for a while yet.

Search Engines

When I was looking for a pic of the cell phone gun, I turned to my search engine of choice - Google - to see if I could find a news item on it, or a web item. I was absolutely flabbergasted when I did not get a result for this or any combinations on Google. I tried for "gun" - nothing; "rifle" nothing. Hmmm, I thought, perhaps this is a deliberate policy on their behalf. I also thought, hmmm, perhaps I shouldn't be publicising the cell phone gun - but hoped nobody who read this blog would have a use for such things anyway!
So, having decided I would include it, I went to Yahoo to see what they had anything on offer - and I had no trouble finding information there.
Even stranger is that I've just been back to Google to see if I could replicate the "no result" - and I can't. Maybe their search engines were momentarily busy searching for other people or perhaps that would better be put as searching on behalf of other people. [But wouldn't it be amazing if you were able to use a program like Google to find anyone in the world - based on their profile, likely location etc. etc. - ooops, better not give anyone too many ideas!)

More cell phone news

Bet Disney won't be putting out a version of the cell phone currently doing the rounds in some countries - they're actually guns. This is obviously a bit of a worry for law enforcement officers, and could explain why you're asked to show your cell phone at airports in the future. I was amazed to learn about them - and to find that there is also a stun gun version.

Rats! ...

Why didn't I think of that? Apparently Disney is about to start pitching a mobile phone plan in the US - targetted at families with children as young as 8. It's a great way to expand a market where other demographics must fast be approaching saturation point! I wonder if the plan will feature character phones? Will it offer surveillance features? We'll have to wait until next year to find out.

Grave concerns

Sarah Michelle Geller (she's the one standing!), possibly better known to some as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has such a phobia of real graveyards that producers had to build a fake one to film the second series (Peter Trute, Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2005). You know, I'd never for a moment questioned whether the cemetery on the show could be real. I guess I'd just assumed it was a set! Now I know it wasn't, at least for the first season, I feel slightly uneasy - and I'm not exactly sure why. It may have something to do with my own fear of graveyards- (wouldn't catch me dead in one after dark) or that somehow it's slightly distasteful to film in one as they ought to be sombre, respectful places - not quite the same as having back-flipping rowdiness and dusting of vampires as well as the whole movie-making entourage! Hopefully you're not going to get the latter without the former!

More Sudoku

I am still enjoying Sudoku even though I am sure I am not even close to pronouncing it properly! I had been playing it on Palm but that was slightly unsatisfactory - you couldn't do "pencil marks" when figuring out what numbers might work in a particular space - and it would show only the numbers that could fit in a space, rather than all 9. While this could be seen as an (unfair) advantage it made it harder for (give me no hints) me! I could only click on a box when I was positive what went there. But the great news is that there's been an update of the Sudoku for Palm program. You can now do "pencil marks" which allows you to have multiple numbers in a space while you're in the throes of your figurings - and you can opt to see all digits not just "valid digits". I feel less like a person who might inadvertently cheat now!
Of course the other thing is that there is also a Hong Kong connection - I received an email from Sooz's brother about a retired judge, Wayne Gould, there who wrote a computer program that produces Sudoku puzzles. He's just been featured in the Hong Kong Standard.

Emails

I've become accustomed to checking my email as soon as I arrive in the office and I've finally worked out why. Being a multinational, at any time of the day someone, somewhere in the world is doing our company's business. This means big-ticket items, requests, even information you've asked for can arrive overnight as well as during business hours. This isn't necessarily a fabulous advantage - the biggest, most time-consuming requests are often delivered in the wee small hours of the morning. This is why I make a bee-line to my email box in the mornings - to see what's lurking there!

A thousand words

Sooz's brother recently visited us and in his travels here did some window shopping - including taking photos of items he liked. This has come in fairly handy as he's sent some of them down by email as a shopping list! When I rocked up to the store this evening, with photos of T-shirts in hand (well, on Palm) to make the purchase on his behalf, the woman serving me mentioned I was the first person they'd in the store "shopping by photo"! It was a great way to do it - I don't know how long it would have taken to find T-s with the required pattern/s without the pics.

Birds

I don't know why some researchers don't just ask me sometimes. I was reading last week that Bristol University has carried out research to see if birds prefer to do their droppings on white or darker-coloured cars. It took Charles West and his 40 helpers to conclude that which most of us have known for a good while - birds leave droppings on vehicles. Full stop. But apparently 2000 vehicles don't lie - if you don't want to clean it as often go for a navy blue to black car - because according to bird expert Dr Derek Toomer birds do respond to colour ... and they associate the colour white with predators and "bomb" them.

Life

Before I put on the DVD to accompany my exercise bike riding this morning, I chanced upon a program called "Life". I think it's one of those ministry-type programs because they were talking about a Summer of Sermons - that wasn't exactly it, but that was what I remember. We at home could help with the ministry by donating a dollar for each day - $94. Now I'm not quite sure how that works because I thought Summer was three months, making it 93 days tops but that's another issue. I couldn't help but notice this statement scrolling across the screen during the program: The figures shown in this program are in $US. Please allow for conversion when making your offering. Again that probably isn't the exact wording, but you get the gist! Conversion indeed.

TW2

We trooped along last weekend to see Steven Spielberg's latest offering - War of The Worlds (TW2). And I have to say, it's amazing that in this one he gets to do it all - Alien, Titanic, Independence Day, Godzilla, Lost - and more.
I can't remember the original TW2 in great detail (accuracy?), but I recall it as more subtle, less violent and certainly less graphic. And I'm not sure if it was as colourful - although probably when I saw it, it would have been on black & white television (I said it had been a while!) I kept looking for parallels between TW2 and Schlinder's List -especially the use of colour. Was it intentional that the girls in both wore red - or in this instance, has it more to do with where the attackers may have come from - perhaps some place far away and red?
I'm going to have to give the original another look to see how the new one differs - and to see how the message about the invaders may have changed. Some of the reviews for the new version suggest it borrows terrorism imagery and there certainly is a shot of people running and ash - reminiscent of the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers. In this case though, the ash is ... well, you might have to refer to another movie (Soylent Green) for the answer to that one.
I'm not sure I would recommend TW2. Even though it's technically proficient and the acting is adequate, I'm not sure that it has anything new to say. The theme of America being attacked is not new - it just seems that there's different attackers - and given the number of allegorical films there have been, you think there might be already be a modicom of recognition that theirs is not an unassailable nation. But perhaps that's one of the messages here. American is not brought to its knees by the random acts of terrorists - some isolated sleeper cells; no, it can only be brought to its knees - and it's not even close to that - by hordes of destructive, shield-protected technologically-superior tripodal robot-machines which, incidentally, seem to power themselves from the blood of humans (but that's another story). And of course, it's made worse by the use of electro-magnetic-pulse technology against humanity - what chance is there if mankind can't get cars started, or use the telephone system, or keep food in the refrigerator, or can't turn the lights on?
In retrospect, I give TW2 a rating of 6 out of 10.

Reactions

What motivates people and how they react to others. This question was raised by the reaction by some in Australia to the Schapelle Corby verdict - "guilty" and a sentence of 20 years. Some want their donations to the Tsunami appeal returned; others refuse to give to the Salvation Army's Winter Appeal because the Salvos made help available to Indonesia post-Tsunami - and forget for a moment that those on the receiving end for the Appeal will be here in Australia.
All of a sudden, with that one decision, any goodwill to our Indonesian neighbours has evaporated and some younger people feel so strongly negative towards Indonesia that they are reportedly planning to boycott Bali. So much for forging stronger ties between our countries.
Is Schapelle Corby guilty? Maybe but only she knows and while revelations about baggage handlers may have supplied more than a "reasonable doubt" in most people's opinion, this wasn't the case in the court where she was being tried.

MP3 player

Comsol in Australia has released a card reader which doubles as an MP3 player. It's reasonably priced at $60 (give or take a few cents) and if you've got a spare SD or MM card lying around, it works out as a very cheap way of getting a AAA-battery powered MP3 player. Most of the MP3 players around at the cheaper end of the market seem to require recharging from a USB-port, and if you don't have a tower computer, they can be a little difficult to keep powered up - especially if you like using them. The Comsol unit works well for just simple playing. It doesn't have a on-board screen display, shuffle, or anything fancy, but you can play and skip through MP3 files on a card. I'm using mine for MP3 downloads from ABC Radio's Late Night Live and Life Matters at the moment - but I'm also thinking about using a larger card and carrying some of my favourite music too.

Post Office Ad

Saw this in an Australia Post store a few weeks back - I'm not sure what it was advertising but the thing that caught my attention was the 3rd last line which said "Put the deposit down for June and Bill's holiday" - how nice of them I thought, and then I realised that they couldn't possibly really mean that they'd done this for Sooz's parents! Pity that. But they do say it's the thought that counts, don't they?

Park Critter

We took our coffees down into Steel Park in Marrickville to have a bit of a sit in the sun and a little soak up of nature - and believe it or not we found a critter. And what a friendly little critter it was too. We had to tell it that although it was nice to visit, we couldn't stay - and we certainly couldn't let it come home with us. We're fairly sure it wouldn't have wanted to come home with us anyway - it looks well-fed and well-cared for and we figured it probably lives in one of the houses across the road from the park.

New doovers

Found a new shop the other day - Florentine - in the QVB building, in the Sydney CBD. It has wonderful things in it - like this leather-bound journal (which should work nicely as a travel journal for friends on their way to Malta!). I'm back off there this week to have a more detailed look. I have a feeling it's going to be a favourite.
Also in the picture - my new Maxwell Williams mug - of which I have two, one for work, one for home. Keeps my Milo or hot chocolate deliciously hot until the very last drop.

Now with photos ...

Looks like Blogger.com is now offering the same service as MSN - easy uploading of pics into blogs - EXCEPT IT'S MUCH BETTER. Last time I visited MSN (which also offers a blogging service), you could post pics but you could only append them at the end. It didn't give you the option of placing them with wrap-around text. Well done Blogger folk - and thanks - because I won't have to remember the HTML to post images anymore! And thanks Lizzie for the tip on this new functionality! (This is a photo from one of our office windows of a spectacular rainbow over the Sydney CBD late last week. It has been followed up by rain - lots of it - which is funny, because I thought it worked the other way ... rain - rainbow.)

More Palm

I finally decided to send my Tungsten T3 in for replacement. The plan was that once I had it back, I would be able to load my current data back onto it, and then take my time to try and work out why my Tungsten T5 crashes so often. I was sure it had to be one of the third party programs I use interfering with the Palm's operation. Of course, within 30 minutes (I'm absolutely serious and it's no exaggeration!) of the T3 being picked up by courier to be taken off to the Palm delivery point here in Australia, I found the article on the PalmInfoCenter - published that day - which said there had been a new software release for the T5 which, you guessed it, would fix all the memory and crashing issues I've been having with the T5. D'oh. So $185 later and several days I'm waiting for the T3 to come back - as good as new. Then I'll decide what to do with it.

Long fingernails

Wouldn't it be amazing to have long fingernails - I mean really long fingernails. Back in 2000, the record holder's longest nail measured 4.8 feet. HIs thumbnail was a giant coil with clear plastic tape wrapped around the root of the nail for added support. His index finger nail was 3.7 feet long and others ranged from 4 feet to 4.25 feet. This was the result of almost 50 years' effort, but he had decided he had had enough, and was going to auction them to the highest bidder and was looking for about $200k for all five nails (or so said the article on CNN.com in December 2000). I've just done a quick net search and can't see if he managed to get his asking price - or whether he's still trying to get a good night's sleep, and shielding his hand from accidenal bumps - fear the nails be damaged.
And who currently holds the record? The longest female fingernails in the world belong to Lee Redmond of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. They measure a total length of 6 m 62.94 cm (21 ft 9 in).
Also with the Guiness Book of Records: Longest Female Beard. Vivian Wheeler of Wood River, Illinois, USA grew a full beard after the death of her mother in 1990. The longest strand from the follicle to the tip of hair was measured at 27.9 cm (11 in) in 2000.

Can't remember

What was the name of the film in which Nicole Kidman has a husband who dies and comes back as a child. It was quite controversial. So, how do you go about finding out - on the web? A Google search on: Nicole Kidman reincarnation turned up:
"Birth" (2004)
Into the life of a 35 year old woman, Anna, comes a 10 year old boy, David, who is in love with her and convinced he is the reincarnation of her dead husband. Drawn to remember her past, Anna begins to question the choices she's made, much to the concern and consternation of her fiancé and her family.
What we do without the web? Although as someone was pointing out today - it is mixed with good and bad (perhaps more of the latter).

Blogging for a Palm

In the style of savekaryn.com (a virtual begging site where a woman tried - successfully - to raise $US20,000 over the net) a site has now started for someone who has set their aspirations just a little lower and he's trying to raise enough for a Palm (PDA) - at http://bloggingforapalm.blogspot.com. Hope it works for him.
UPDATE: Tried to visit there today (July 3) but it appears the page is no longer in operation. Hope he got what he came for!

Could-be assassin

Here's a hypothetical for you. A man is captured and taken hostage in Iraq. Various attempts are made to recover him but then, seemingly by accident, he is found and rescued. He is welcomed home with much fanfare and is finally taken to meet the Prime Minister. The rescued hostage assassinates the Prime Minister. The rescued hostage had staged his own capture to be able to be "presented" to the Prime Minister. How's that for a hypothetical.

Lost & Found

On the way to the bus stop last Monday morning, we noticed a heap of loose papers on the footpath. Nearby was a wallet. All together there was enough to identify the owner of the wallet, who turned out to live a couple of streets from our place. His wallet had apparently been stolen the night before - and even though he had already left for work by the time we knocked at his door at 7am - we did phone him in time to let him know his wallet was found, with cards, licence, etc before he had time to cancel them all. When we dropped the wallet back to him that evening, he handed over a wonderful bunch of flowers and a card - which had a bunch of instant lottery tickets in it. What a lovely gesture!

Buffalo Boy

The Sydney Film Festival is now over and I managed to make it to one film - courtesy of the Swissotel, one of the Festival sponsors. They had offered some complimentary tickets to our company - and luckily I was offered one. "Buffalo Boy" is a feature from Vietnam and tells the story of a young man's coming of age. I gave it an 8.

Google tips

David Pogue's blog this week talks about tips with Google - including using Google as a dictionary by typing "define:ersatz," or whatever. He suggests bookmarking the site with the full list http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html and that's just what I'm going to do ... and play! And the question is, whose idea was it to have define:callipygian as an example on the tips page?

Busy busy busy

I am busier than I would like at the moment - which is why I find that when I go to my "Memos" to retrieve the blogs I am currently working on, I get:
14/6/05 Cost of healthcare
21/6/05 Lost & Found
21/6/05 Buffalo Boy
21/6/05 Would-be Assassin
Hopefully I will find more time to write soonish.

Conversion

Apparently Tom Cruise's latest squeeze, Katie Holmes, has one thing not in common with ex's Nicole Kidman and Penelope Cruz. Katie has taken an interest in the Church of Scientology (Tom is a Scientologist) and is planning to convert to that religion. This very recent news would not have caught my attention except for that on the very same day I read that, I also came across an article in a magazine from June last year. In it, the question was posed (but not answered) as to whether Tom's previous partners not converting may have led to their break-ups with Tom. How's that for coincidence. (And yes, I was reading the magazine in a doctor's surgery!)

Storm in a D cup

The doctor has given me the all-clear following my recent lump/s scare - one a cyst, the other not a complex cyst (which could have been an issue) but a fibroadenoma aka a benign and movable and firm and not tender tumor of the breast; common in young women and caused by high levels of estrogen. (Definition courtesy of the SlovoEd dictionary on Palm.)
It was a bit of a flurry there, getting to the GP and then off for a mammogram, ultrasound and FNA (to allow them to drain the RB cyst and to biopsy the LB growth. Thank goodness it all turned out to be just a storm in a D cup. It's good that it's over and Sooz and I are thankful that that's it for the moment.
Spare a thought for all those women (and men) who haven't had such good news and/or are currently undergoing treatment. And help fund a mammogram today (and every day) by going to the BreastCancer site and clicking on the pink button. (Thanks for the reminder Deb!)

Mementoes

What mementoes do you keep? (Is that how you spell mementoes? Where's a dictionary when you need one?)
I was doing some filing yesterday and came across some old concert programs and tickets and wondered whether or not I should keep them as mementoes. And that got me to thinking about what mementoes other people keep. I've always been particular to photographs - especially since I moved to digital photography. But I also like physical, tactile mementoes. One of my favourites is a billiard cue ball - which serves to remind me that all things come to those who wait. Not that there was anything particularly brilliant about the circumstances of attaining it - a Monday morning on the way to work, and there it was sitting on the roadway (okay, it was actually in the gutter) outside the Telstra Building in Castlereagh Street. I have always liked billiard balls - they have a nice weight, and feel - and they probably remind me of something but I'm not sure what. So it sits in my middle drawer and from time to time I pick it up and play with it, and think wouldn't it be wonderful if I had another two of them - and I could juggle them (outside on grass and near nothing breakable!).

Recouping losses?

One of those loud "don't miss out on this sale" ads has just been on television. It was touting repossessed, stolen, liquidated and received items - including Harry Potter items. Per chance were any of these repossessed counterfeit items? Probably not. It doesn't make sense to take counterfeit goods off the market - and then put them back on. Although, it would be a way for the owners of the brand to recoup some of their losses - especially if people were aware they were buying non-genuine items.

Lost

There are various theories doing the rounds about the TV series "Lost" and what the secet is about these people who are trapped on a remote island following a plane crash. Also on the island is a large something (let's not brand it as a monster) which could be a dinosaur except as one of the characters said "dinosaurs don't exist" or was that "dinosaurs are extinct" - either way, we get the picture. But the identity of this thing, which attacked and killed the pilot in one of the earliest episodes - plucking him from the cockpit high in the air which suggests, together with the way the tops of trees move and it passes by in the distance, that it is quite large - well, that's not important right now.
So, back to the people and what their secret is - one of the theories that I like is the one that says that are caught in limbo - "somewhere between Heaven and Hell". If one takes a fairly literal approach to life, the universe and everything - would their being somewhere between Heaven and Hell put them right about here?

Trouble?

I had a call this morning from my mother who wanted to know how she could get a copy of a program from SBS. She was trying to track down a copy of "Insight". She had heard about it from her brother who had heard about it from his son. It had apparently featured Mum's ex-brother-in-law and she was keen to track down a copy so they could know if he was truly contesting the paternity of all five of his and Sylvia's children. This would seem strange except that two of their five children were not Ian's - as he found out when he and Sylvia divorced a few years ago.
The "Insight" program was on paternity and DNA and it featured Ian and Vicky, one of his not biological daughters. (Is there a proper term for this relationship?) I'm not sure how long the transcript will remain on the site but it discussed Vicky's dismay at finding out that Ian was not her father, especially when he had worked so hard to care for and keep the family together. She did not tell him when she first found out, rather keeping it a secret between she and her mother.
Ian is apparently seeking compensation from the biological father given that all the children were disadvantaged because he didn't contribute to his children's rearing from the start.
The thought that Ian might require paternity tests on the three oldest children was something that, in my mother's words "would blow the family apart". However, that appears to have just been a mis-report on the program. The question is whether the rumours that that is what Ian said will outweigh what he actually said.

War of the Words

If you've ever wanted a comeback when talking to cultural "know-it-alls", there's finally a website you can turn to for help. The Museum of Humour has a Talk Culture section. By clicking on the area you want - music, film, literature or even wine - you have the opportunity to generate a comment or two. The Music selection provided: The delicate tone of the ritualistic harmonies devolves into a series of intriguing but incoherent sounds. It's going to be easy to work that into a conversation!

Mummies

One of the Sydney papers the other day carried a short one-paragraph piece about someone overseas finding three generations of a family dead. They estimated the mummified bodies had been in the house (or flat?) between 2 and 10 years. How could they have been there not long and not been discovered? Did no one come to check that they hadn't been at work or school or anywhere? The article suggested that the family were part of a religious sect and they had committed suicide. Were there no other sect members that might have checked on them - or did they all do the same thing at the same time - and could they still waiting to be discovered? And how come the family had finally been found?
And was it suicide? Were all those that perished of sufficient age to take their own life? Is that the definition of suicide? Or does it require the person deciding to, making the necessary plans and arrangements, and then carrying out the act? Otherwise, is it murder?
Some years ago there was a religious sect which I think originated in the US. They were involved in a mass suicide. I can't remember the details fully but the name Jim Jones comes to mind, and that everyone drank poisoned cordial. At the time I was in my late teens and I didn't question that it was called a mass suicide. But thinking about it now, I remember there were lots of children involved - and I wonder if they made a conscious decision to take their own lives. Or if, not knowing what would happen, they drank the poisoned cordial that was offered to them by someone they loved - "here dear, drink this. Be a good girl for Mummy" - how hard must that have been for someone to do to their own child, and how sure must they have been that they were doing the "right" thing for their child.
The world can be a strange and sad place.

Grrrr (at Palm)

I continue to be DISsatisfied from time to time with my (now not so) new Palm Tungsten T5. I have just spent the last little while doing a couple of blog spots - and had exited them (but not exited the program) when the system crashed - taking them with it. Aaarrggh. I never had this problem with previous models and I am getting more than a little jack of it.

Skin

Green turbid fluid. That's how the medical report described what the doctor extracted from my cyst. I'm not sure I like the idea of having green fluid in me (is this a throwback to some alien heritage perhaps?) But it does make one wonder about what else might be lurking below the surface. As mate Trish mentioned, it's a good thing we have skin - to keep these things hidden from view! I'm not sure how far I would get in a world where people had transparent skin - which is probably another good reason we aren't imbued with x-ray vision. Yep, the world would be a different place if we had see-through skin.

Mystery solved

So after all that we did guess the identity of the RegPost item - but we had discounted it. It was our pass to the Sydney Film Festival which starts at the end of this week - actually Sooz's pass (her birthday present!). When I bought the ticket a couple of weeks ago, I was told we would need to exchange the receipt for the more familiar festival pass when it started. Well - it seems Mr TicketFeller was wrong - which is not a bad thing considering how long the exchange line could have been!

Water saving

The level in the dams supplying water to Sydney continues to drop. Level 3 water restrictions have recently been announced, and we're all being encouraged to save water where we can. Here are a couple of ideas for helping.
* If you're having a drink of water, and you don't want to finish it - don't throw the rest out - throw it into the kettle. (If you're worried about any bugs - don't be - the boiling will take care of them.)
* If you use a hot water bottle, remember you can always recycle the water - either by using it for watering plants - or by reheating it for the next time.
Thanks for the tips Liz.

Mechanic's advice

When I took the car back to the mechanic this afternoon he reminded me of a saying he has: never have your car serviced before you go on a long trip. He was prompted to say this because my car was overheating severely and he thought this had much to do with the radiator cap he replaced in last week's service. He had suggested this could cause problems - the old radiator cap was not containing pressure - thereby allowing a relative state of stasis within the cooling system. However, once the cap was replaced, the stasis was upset. A quick look under the hood showed a hose damaged, and the radiator having less than a wonderful time. I've left the car with him - and hopefully he'll be able to get a replacement/rehabilitated radiator and install it (and whatever new hoses are needed) by COB tomorrow.

Appealing to a younger crowd?

Well, we know now that things are not always as they are made out to be. On Big Brother Uncut last week there was footage of what some pundits have called "sexual assault" with one of the male housemates taking out something he would have been better off keeping in his trousers, and waving it around in an inappropriate manner in the general vicinity of one of the female housemates. There was some comment about it in the press, especially in relation to the number of younger folk who saw the broadcast. Channel TEN, the broadcasters of Big Brother, have come out saying that they wouldn't encourage youngsters to view Uncut. So why was it, in last night's Sunday Eviction show (7.30pm - 8.40pm) that the host, when talking to the newly-ousted Michael (aka the waver), made reference to the incident - without going into details - and saying that they'd discuss this controversial event in tonight's Uncut. Now, if that isn't advertising, I'm not sure what is.

Life's little mystery #xx?

In the mailbox on Friday night came news that there was a registered post item for me at the Post Office. I have not received anything by Registered Post for - well, I can't remember the last time. It might have been my new passport 5 years ago - but I don't think so. And who uses Registered Post anymore anyway? I've decided it must be either valuable (and insured as one can with RegPost) or someone wants my signature (but you could do that with Certified Post) - but the card says that I can send an agent to sign if I want to - so it can't be a legal document requiring my signature (there was a box for that on the form too). It could be good news - or bad news - although I guess it could be neutral, but if that was the case, why would somebody bother sending it RegPost - cause you have to physically go to a Post Office to send a RegPost item - not just pop it into the mailbox on the corner.
Suffice to say I am intrigued. I fronted the Marrickville South Post Office at 9am yesterday morning (some Post Offices are open on a Saturday) only to be told that it was at the other Marrickville Post Office - and of course that one's not open on a Saturday. Monday morning 9am will be the earliest I can access it - whatever it is.
Whatever it is - I have had a moment to think about something Stephen King the writer says about his stories.: he puts his characters in a "what if" position - and sees what happens from there. It's funny but I don't think we do "what if's" a lot - or maybe that's a generalisation because I know I don't. But trying to think about what this RegPost item is - all the possibilities, and how it taps directly into my fears (what if it's something bad - and how bad could it be - and surely if the Tax Department were planning to do an audit they would contact me through my accountant!) or my hopes (what if we're won a competition - they'd probably send advice by RegPost) is exciting. Just hope the real thing isn't too much of an anti-climax (and that it's not bad news!).

Early nights

Last night, we were in bed and fast approaching sleep at 7.15pm. Not that that lead to a restful and peaceful night - and that might have something to do with the aforementioned piece on Winter and the number of cats that are currently spending their nights on the bed. Funnily, they both seem to want to spend their nights on my side of the bed. Think Pretzel. That's me - can't spread out to my full 5'2" length because that would cause a cat to go flying off the bed. Can't stretch out sideways because that leads to numerous low-throated and frightening growls from the girl cat. Sooz assured me this morning though that they do move during the night - which is why she spent some of the time with foot cat's rump firmly planted in her ear. But we wouldn't be without them. Truly!

Winter

You know it's winter when both cats start sleeping on the bed. I'm glad we invested in the king-size doona when we bought the new bed - means one of the cats can be in the middle and both humans have still got enough doona to snuggle into (or wrap around themselves as I am want to do). There's nothing worse than a freezing back on a freezing night. Of course, for Cat No. 2, who prefers to sleep draped around Sooz's head, bigger pillows might have been the go.

What's the word ...

... for fear of dentists? I was supposed to have a dental appointment this afternoon, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I just couldn't do it today. I don't like dentists at the best of times, and knowing that they were going to do a major, yet non-urgent job this afternoon made it worse. The closer it got, the more anxious and upset I felt. Not sure why that was, because this morning I was sure I was fully prepared for it (I guess that kind of says it all doesn't it?). In the end, I rescheduled - and breathed a great sigh of "self preservation" relief. I just knew today wasn't the day for it - which might be in some way related to the coughing fits I've been having all day. Oddly, they have now stopped - or they had - and I've now made an appointment with the respiratory/allergy specialist, as recommended by my doctor - and maybe she can recommend someone I can see about my dentophobia - which incidentally ties as equal 3rd on the list of common adult fears - right up there with going out alone at night, and death.

Health Update

Well, Billi has had her first lot of chemotherapy and it went well - except that she threw up in the car on the 1.5 hour drive home (not the whole time though!). If you knew Billi, you would know that she would be very embarrassed by this - but hopefully she will forget before it's time for the next treatment. She's scheduled for five treatments, 10 days apart.
Her owner's treatment is going to be a bit more intensive than this. The tests have been completed and treatments discussed - and she'll be fronting up for radiotherapy every day for 6 weeks. Hopefully this will shrink her 5 cm tumour. At this stage they're not talking surgery - and the tests revealed no other growths. Phew. Thank goodness (and her partner) that she had it checked out when she did.
I can't imagine what it has been like for she and her partner coming to terms with this - especially in the days when they were waiting for the tests to be done, and then for the results of those tests to be discussed. I guess it all could have been easier if they had already finished the house they're planning to move in to at the end of this month. All of this could seem like too big an incentive to get it done - especially waiting for the prognosis which (from the first doctor's appointment) had seemed like it would be much worse.

Evacuation

Each year, as part of the office's Occupational Health and Safety requirements, we have a trial evacuation of the building (usually done a couple of floors at a time). Today was the day (actually Monday). I spent part of the bus ride in to town this morning reviewing my warden procedures - and wondering how I would have gone if the evacuation had been unannounced - the way it will be for the rest of the non-warden staff. The question of why wardens receive advance notice was raised by a friend last week - and it is a good point ... and one that has me determined to be more familiar with my warden procedures on a day-to-day basis.
The evacuation went fine - we're not timed - which is just as well because we had to descend from Level 15 to Level 6. It's amazing how you can get slightly disoriented when you walk down a few flights of stairs though - but it's good practice. Our previous evacuation was only two floors worth - and it really isn't the same.
And it's amazing how tender one's legs can be the following day! I couldn't work out this morning why my legs were a bit on the sore side - I thought it might have had something to do with the exercise bike - and then I remembered the stairs, and it made total sense.

Towel Day

Used to be that 25 May was Towel Day - as in Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (H2G2) and that a towel is a very useful thing for any intergalactic traveller to have. 'Used to be' because I didn't see one towel-carrying person (besides me in reflections in store windows) in the Sydney CBD! Hopefully there was more of a show of H2G2 support elsewhere.
But at least something came of it - in looking up the H2G2 (I get confused with the acronym) I came across the h2g2 project. According to part of the Wikipedia entry : h2g2 was founded in April 1999 as the Earth edition of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the author of the series, Douglas Adams, and his friends and colleagues at The Digital Village. "h2g2" serves as a handy abbreviation for that rather lengthy title, with the advantage that most people are able to spell it.

A touch on typing

Just when you thought they had come up with everything ... Here's the Das Keyboard - just like a regular 104 key-board, but with one little difference - there's nothing printed on the keys. Metadot Corp had a clear target market in mind when developing Das: : "A keyboard with no inscriptions on the keys was obviously only for a certain type of geek, not just normal ones, only those who are above the pack: the übergeeks." It costs $US79.95 and is available from www.daskeyboard.com. If you go to the site, note the illustration of the Windows Menu Key. My favourite though was one of the endorsements: "At first I was intrigued, but when I started using it two things happened: it was a joy to type and my colleagues looked at me like I was a superhero! I would not go back to a normal keyboard now." -- Philippe H
On the more practical side, the Das people claim that using the keyboard could help you type up to 100% faster in a few weeks. Theory is since you can't tell what the keys are by looking, you'll memorize their positions - and type faster. Wish they'd had that at school in my day when I was learning typing - we had to do with the low tech version - with a bib tied around our neck - and fastened to the top of the manual typewriter so all you looked down on was the cloth - and you couldn't see the keys. The incentive to get it right was great - cause those were the days you were working on your original with three carbons behind - and those funny little rub-out pencils that could put a hole in the paper if you weren't careful. Ah, progress!

Latest craze

Sudoku has arrived in Australia - and within moments I was addicted! Even though it appears to be a numbers puzzle - and that it should require some considerable skill in mathematics -it's really a logic puzzle. Of course it helps if you can count from 1 to 9. The pic shows a Sudoku grid - and your role as a puzzler is to complete it using numbers inclusive of 1 to 9 only once in each row, column and square. This one was billed as "easy" but I suspect that description works only if you're familiar with the Suduku "slice and dice" methodology and can work the logic. There are sites that explain in great detail how to play - and you'll find them easily with a Google or Yahoo search - or you might just want to plunge right in. It's not hard - and you know the principle - 1-9 in each row, column and square. But be warned ... Sudoku is addictive ... and when you can get the Palm/PDA or PC (not sure about Macs) version you'll notice time simply evaporates (what do you mean it's already May?)!

Bye Hannah (aka Pumpie)

In my recent post about Billi, I mentioned she was one of the nicest dogs we know. The other was Hannah who last week developed an auto immune problem which stopped her body creating platelets which clot blood. After 10 days in intensive care, where the vet staff did everything they could for her – including transfusions of live platelets from dogs owned by their staff – she was not improving. While she wasn’t in pain, she was very weak and losing a lot of blood. Last night Lyndall, with the support of her partner, and their vet, conceded the miracle they hoped for was not materializing and made the decision to let Hannah go – thus ending as Lyndall put it in her email advising Hannah's passing “the 14 year walk with my (our) mate”. She will be missed.

Fire Safety Aid

An email went around the office the other day telling about a safety device called the Evacu-8.It is a fire-retardant hood and breathing appartus which gives the user an extra 15 minutes of breathing air in case of fire that fills the room with smoke.
It's a great idea but I'm not sure how I would go using one. With a lifetime behind me of people saying not to put a plastic bag over your head - here is something which is designed to have you do just that - and secure it tightly with the provided ties. Freakier still would be breathing through your mouth - to take advantage of the charcoal filter in the apparatus. "Don't panic" would be very sound advice in this situation.
The Evacu-8 site also mentions that if you use the device, return it, and provide a testimonial letter - they'll send another free of charge. Can't get a better deal than that.

Good news and bad news

Which first? Well ... Billi's prognosis is good - it seems the specialist was able to successfully excise the four growths (there was one they hadn't previously detected in her spleen - so they've whipped that out as well) and it looks like they've gotten it early enough for the prognosis to be good. She was home the day after her surgery (seems they thought she'd be a better patient in familiar territory with familiar people around her).
News isn't so good for her owner though. Her tests revealed cancer, and for someone who thought she knew what the problem was, this was a huge shock. They're in the middle of exploratory scans etc at the moment to find out if, how far and where it may have spread. Not good. You know it's serious when the doctor can get you to see the oncology specialist who has a year's waiting list within a couple of hours.
I can't imagine what's worse - finding out about it - or waiting to find out how bad it is.

Only temporary

Thank goodness some things in life are only temporary. Sooz is currently on assignment at a pathology lab and it would be fair to say it is a pain in the neck. Literally - thanks to a lack of focus on things ergonomic. Just goes to show some companies aren't as diligent as they could be about their people - and that it doesn't take a long time for the effects of muscle misuse to set in. At least Sooz is using a copy stand now and has some stretching exercises to keep her a bit more flexed. The good news is that she's on to it early - and the assignment has only another 4 weeks to run - hopefully she'll come right fairly soon after that (helped by sitting in the dark for two weeks of the Sydney Film Festival).

Billi update

Billi is at a specialist in Brisbane. The consult today revealed a mass near her bottom - and secondaries under her spine. They're operating tomorrow and it will be major surgery - and there's a lab on site so they'll be able to do biopsies and blood tests straight away so they can do what they need to. They'll also be doing a chest x-ray to make sure her lungs are clear. She'll be in intensive care for three days post-surgery, the first 24 hours with a personal attendant. Then, all going well, after ten days she'll front up for the first of five chemotherapy sessions. Apparently chemotherapy for animals is not as disruptive as it is for humans but because Billi is not a dog who handles easily, she will need to be anaesthetised for each chemo treatment.
But we're quietly trying not to worry about her - which is only slightly easier because we have so many wonderful memories and pictures of Billi - and because they have found the problem before it started affecting her health. Usually, said the specialist, dogs don't present until they are definitely not well - and that makes treatment much harder.

Flemington Markets

We were at Flemington Markets at 6.15am last Saturday morning - ditto a whole lot of other people. It is truly a wonderful way to start the weekend - although part of me wishes that we didn't have to get up at 5am for the privilege. But it's fun to be out there with the forklifts and the barrows and the fruit and the vegetables - and did I mention there are a lot of people there as well?

Exploring

If you've got a spare moment or two, you might want to go on a little virtual explore of other people's lives and thoughts. Up the top of this blog - above the Musings title bar, you'll find the Blogger bar. On the far right is the NEXT BLOG>> button. Select that and go for a little wander and see where you end up - but be careful because you never know what you might find (I really wasn't really for the picture of placenta as I ate my raisin toast!!). I'm not sure how blogger organises it, but it seems that each time I go for the NEXT BLOG option, it always takes me somewhere else. The next one this morning was PROMINFO - which just had no text - just links from the headings of each blog item which took you to a site for Prom Dresses (oh - so that was actually headed Prom-Info). The one after that was for Options Trading Information. Now, tell me that that kind of mix isn't going to keep one's mind active!

Billi

Billi is one of the nicest dogs we know, so spare a thought for her while she's at the vet having a suspected growth checked out. Hopefully it will be a "it's nothing - get out of here" scenario - but if not, then ... well it's not going to be very nice.
Spare a thought also for one of her owners. She's due in for a "procedure" this week too. Hopefully both of them will get the all clear.

Podcasting

ABC Radio has started a podcasting trial - making some programs (or parts of them) available for download and playing on your computer or digital audio player. I'm fairly new to this myself, but with the help of a program called ipodder, it's possible to set the web addresses for programs you want to download - and to have the program automatically go off to get any updates. It's worth a look - or would that be "listen" - not just for local Australian content - but because there's a whole world of listening out!

Sydney

Gotta love it! This is Sydney - well, one street in Sydney as photographed last Monday morning, just as a heavy blanket of fog was lifting from the city. The photograph looks south, along York Street, towards Sydney Town Hall. To the left is the Queen Victoria Building - and to the right, although you can't see them here, are a bevy of electronic stores including JayCar Electronics (which recently sold me the transmitters and receivers to allow the beaming of wireless television signal throughout our flat).

Collectors items?

I noticed an ad in today's Daily Telegraph for a new $2 "instant scratchies". It's the Star Wars $100,000 and we're encouraged to COLLECT ALL 8 TICKETS IN THE SERIES. But if you're a collector, you're not going to want to scratch the prize panels are you - because that would destroy the reason you bought the collector's series in the first place! And, it seems that you'd have to scratch the games to have any chance of winning. So does this mean the "instant scratchies" people have found a way of increasing their odds of not paying out the "big one"? No scratch-scratchies?

Choices

If you were walking along and 3 fire engines came barrelling past, and pulled up a block down the street, and were soon joined by another 5 engines - would you stay to see what the commotion was about - especially if there was no obvious reason for their presence - or would you walk away as fast as you could? That was the situation Sooz and I found ourselves in the other night. Before I could even think about whipping out my camera though, Sooz was powering away and some good distance in front - and she wasn't about to slow down until we were well away from the area - and out of any possible harm's way. It's something for me to remember if it happens when Sooz isn't there to drag me away ... sometimes it's safer to "run" away.

Bits or Bytes

Stumbled across an interesting notion the other day regarding download speeds and how they are described. When I chose my wireless broadband plan it was based on a 1Mbps download rate - which is pretty fast, but not as fast as I'd thought - because it isn't 1MBps (note the change in capitals) - which would mean 1MegaByte per second; rather, it's 1MegaBit. There are 8 Mbps to 1 MBps or, in real terms the best speed I'd ever be able to achieve in downloads is 125kb a second (which I think is a pipedream because I'm sure there are a whole lot of factors besides the download speed of your provider which come into play!). However, I've reached 45kb/s yesterday - and when you're used to 3kb/s on dial-up it's blazingly fast!!

Gadget Grrl

I think I have just found a new hobby - well, a way of playing around with my existing interests. I am going to call myself "GADGET GRRL" and offer assistance to people who don't have time to read instructions for their new purchases. I can provide the "five easy steps" - or "what you really need to know". That way I can play with the latest technology without having to buy it! Now, if I can just get me an interested new i-pod owner! (That means you Lizzie!)

Wireless

No, not wireless as in radio - but wireless as in no wires broadband. I have finally decided to give it a go and have signed up with a group called Independent Service Providers (ISP for short). It took a minute to get the system up and running - after a false start which was PEBCAK - but it's working like a charm now. Just like a store bought one. It works in the office, and at home - but will it work at my morning cafe? Stay tuned.

That's service

Following on in my quest for a replacement pair of sunglass clip-ons for my current frames, I wandered into the Optical Superstore in the Sydney CBD and gave them the "story so far". Even though I explained that my health care fund had already been in contact with the frame suppliers, they said they'd give it a go anyway - and what do you know? - yes, the supplier could get another set of sunny clip-ons; they'd have to import them but they'd be in three weeks. Well, of course I ordered them there on the spot - and resolved that the next lot of frames I need would be coming from the Optical Superstore. If they give my this kind of service for frames I didn't get there - imagine what after sales service they'll give me on a pair I do!

Big Brother

Well, it's that time of year again - when they lock a group of complete strangers (and they may or may not really prove to be strange over the coming weeks) in a house at the DreamWorld theme park on Queensland's Gold Coast. I can't believe I am actually watching the starting show on television - especially as I have told myself many times over since it ended last year that I am not going to get caught up with it again. Of course, at this point, I am just saying that this has to be better than watching "Sixty Minutes".

Pieces of Art

Today we went to the Art Gallery of NSW with Annie, a mate who's out from Scotland. (Her Mum is fairly ill and Annie wants to be here rather than half way around the world.) The Archibald and Sulman have recently been judged and entrants are currently being shown. There is some amazing work on display - but I found I had really only one comment: why is it that artists who choose to do a self portrait feel they need to do it of themselves in the nude? Annie suggested it might have something to do with the outward looking nature of artists generally - their willingness to "exhibit". I guess that makes sense.
As well as the Prize exhibits, we also went for a walk through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders gallery - and there was some wonderful work in here as well. It's interesting to see the way that aboriginal art seems to have been influenced by non-aboriginal artists. The "Fruit Bats" is amazing and I'm sorry that the piece is only available as a "poster" - although it will look wonderful on the wall of my office!
I am always amazed by how many ideas are floating around "out there" and how it is that artists come to record them - through a variety of media. It's also amazing how people have different reactions to the same pieces - I guess art appreciation is based on many things - including one overheard comment "there's lots of stupid stuff here".

A great reception

When we moved into our flat last year (is it really 5 months?) we arranged the dining/living room according to how the furniture fitted. This meant we couldn't use the wall jack (with the external antenna feed) for the television. And that was okay. We were used to not brilliant reception. But today, well, today we bought a 7.5m lead so we could try the jack and see if there was an improvement. Improvement is an understatement. For the first time in years (including the time we spent at our last place) we can channel surf and get good reception on every channel without having to adjust the rabbit ears this way or that. It means there is a chance we will be able to tape programs on different channels without having to worry about the best compromise on different channels - because the rabbit ears settings were different for all channels. We are on "cloud 9" - and still getting used to it - everytime I look up at the set I am amazed at the clarity of the image. Now we just have to work out a way of making this all work without metres of lead everywhere. I think I feel some wireless technology coming on.

Community action

BP Australia has introduced Opal Petrol - a very low aromatic petrol blend which has been designed to reduce the incidence of petrol sniffing, a very real issue in remote communities. The company is working with local communities on a number of initiatives to educate & increase confidence, especially of children.

On your bike!

They say some things are like riding a bike - you don't forget - but what if you did? Would you, in your non-childhood years, approach a bicycle with a masterful gaze and be prepared to give it a go? Or would the thought of precariously balancing on two wheels as you ride along on rough bitumen, and being unsure of how to stop safely, put you off (so to speak). Purdue University USA might have something to help - bearing in mind it was developed to help with the initial bike riding learning process.
They have invented a combination tricycle and bicycle called “Shift”. The faster you go, the more bicycle it becomes, but if you lose confidence and slow down you won’t fall off, because it becomes a tricycle. The design features a single front wheel and two slim rear wheels that are initially splayed outward to stabilize and prevent the rider from toppling over. As the rider accelerates and leans forward, the rear wheels shift inward, narrowing into a single wheel surface that essentially makes it a two-wheel venture. Go on - on your bike!

Problem quotes

There are so many idiosyncrasies one has to be on the watch out for when blogging. With that last post I almost went spare trying to get the link to work. I have been trying to memorise the code for linking to another web page – to save looking it up each time – and thought I had it – but no matter what I did, it wouldn’t work. Then I realized that the “marks” looked different – and sure enough, if they’re not in a compatible format – all bets are off. (And I still don't know why the "Comments" option is still not showing!!)

Road trip

We have decided that it’s time I finally saw some of the United States of America. For a very long time I have wanted to go to Disneyland, and Universal Studios – and eat Chinese food out of a wax paper carton (ok so I can do that one here) – and just sup on the experience that is America. We have provisionally decided on a date – Sept/Oct 2006 – which will give us time to save – and decide what we want to do. Sooz wants to go back to places she has been before – and that’s one of the reasons we are planning to go in the U.S fall – because Boston is great that time of year. Our mates Lizzie and Michael may also join us for part of the trip – which would include New York and the aforementioned Boston – and there’s also been talk of a short roadtrip. Which brings me to the blog I found this morning - US Road Trip 2005. Maybe this time in 18 months ours will be there (well, not there exactly, but there.)

No cross words here

I often get promotional emails from various Palm software vendors and sometimes there's a gem in there. A short while back one of them carried an ad for a crossword puzzle program. Now I just love crosswords and other word puzzles and games - and despite what anyone may have thought - this is one of the main reasons the Daily Telegraph is my hard-copy newspaper of choice - it's puzzles, especially the one with the anagram - suit me better. The pack, from BeOcean, came with a selection of sample puzzles (310) by various compilers (because not all puzzles are created equal) - and it's possible to download others free from the net (you just need to convert them to Palm format - using the converter that came with the Palm software). For all this I paid the princely sum of $9.38 Australian. I am one very happy customer – especially since the clues, hints and solutions are all included too! The puzzles from Thinks are great - a bit quirky, but definitely manageable - and if you have the time, and the right software on your computer - you could even do them online.

And now ... the answer to OTT ...

Well, before I forget, it's time for the answer to the OTTFFSSE- sequence. Did you get it? If not, you might just want to count the number of letters now - just to make sure you got all nine. One, Two, Three, Four, F, S, S, E and finally Nine.
When I finally realised, I couldn't believe how easy it was. Paul, who put me on to it, said that a university professor had given his students this puzzle and by semester's end, they still hadn't cracked it. I can believe that, just as I can believe that when the puzzle was given to a group of first-graders, they had it solved within a day!
Hope you had fun with this.

More "selling up"

Well, I don't know where the concern I had with "up selling" last week came from - especially as I allowed myself to be "upsold" very easily on the weekend. We were at the Gold Coast, picking up our hire car and we were offered an upgrade from the 3-door economy model I had reserved - to a Saab convertible. For an extra $22 a day what could I say?
And it was fun. We managed to work out how to take the top down (no can opener involved and, truly, a masterpiece of engineering). I just wish my Ripway account could host videos but as it can't I'll just have to make do with a photo recording the occasion.

Innovations and the drawing board

The GE site has this cool feature where you can draw a picture and then share it with a friend. They can add to it or change it - and you can do some more - and then they can - etc etc. From the looks of the site, it might actually be possible to do this in real time, rather than emailing the link for the updated drawing to each other. I drew a "Bombe Alaska in a Box". A really cool thing is that when you click on the link in the email - and it goes to the site to open the drawing - it doesn't just present the finished drawing - it draws it onto the screen!
For those looking for a practical application - think noughts and crosses on the net!