xkcd is funny. So i say.
March 12, 2009
xkcd is funny.
If you click the cartoon har, you’ll gat a random nother one.
Yauh.
Blag on.
.
.
(Apparently this site is blocked by the education dept in nsw.
(So it must be good.)
macbook at the tip
March 3, 2009
One day i went to drop off some of my ex-boxes, and discovered the Reservoir Tip computer recycling facility. Masses of old rubbishy broken machines, and one smashed up MacBook Pro!!
i thought maybe Tim could use the parts so i surreptitiously grabbed it and drove off. Sure enough, later on that night we took it to pieces, and found the hard drive and the battery were still in working order.
Working enough to find out that somebody had left all their data on the drive. So Tim gets all the data off and then does the decent thing, contacting this person and asking if they need the backup.
Turns out this person, whose identity shall remain secret, had taken the laptop to the shop. The mechanics had said, “Can’t do anything love, it’s broken. Can’t get your data off, but don’t worry we’ll make sure noone else does either.”
What kind of computer shop doesn’t know how to get the information off a working hard drive??
The moral of this story? Don’t trust a computer shop with your data.
And don’t sit on your macbook pro.
delights of brunswick
January 21, 2009
Oh thank heavens i’m back home. G Love and Special Sauce is on the stereo, Sam’s getting fish n chips from the new place on Sydney Road .. and the massive heat wave faded away just before i arrived. Tim and Nathan are here, with beer.
Life is perfect.
Sometimes you can have enough of a foreign place and living out of a backpack. Phnom Penh is beautiful in its way, but the poverty gets to me (not as much as it affects the locals obviously), my comfort zones are stretched, the heat and dust wears me down. i needed the comfort of home.
mmmm .. off to Victoria St to get me some frozen lychees.
.
cycling good fortune
December 22, 2008
i’ve been very lucky with the bike lately.
The front gear thing was out of whack. (The derailleur.) So i took it along to Lygon Cycles, where they said .. “oh, you want a service? Well everything needs replacing, so it’ll cost you around $360.”
“But you can get a new bike for around $400.”
Ouch. Not so convenient. i start looking for new bikes, and the one i want is over $1000. Maybe i’ll budget for that.
..in the meantime.. i take the bike down to Ceres on a Saturday morning and have a go at fixing the derailleur myself. The great thing about Ceres is that if you try to mend it yourself, eventually an expert will swing by and give you advice .. or in my case, roll their eyes, take the tool and do it themselves.
But within a couple of weeks, the thing’s broken again in a different place, proving the Lygon people correct. i’m riding around in the lowest gear imaginable, my legs pumping 3 times faster than they should.
Then one day i’m riding along the Bicycle Highway (Canning St.) into the Edinburgh Gardens, and there’s a couple of people with a sign saying “Free Bike Maintenance”. What about that for good luck!
“Are you with Ceres?” i ask.
“No, just a couple of nutters,” the guy replies.
“Speak for yourself,” his partner cuts in ..
Within a few moments, he’s done an emergency procedure, told me about the best bike shop in Melbourne (under the Richmond station .. lots of second hand parts he says), and given my pedal power back to me.
i feel so much better on the roads now.
Thank you heavenly bike-mending angels !!
(So, now i’m looking for more bike stories. What about you post one on your blog, and link back here .. or leave me a comment? Where’s the worst place you’ve broken down? etc. Hello, x
Big Breakfast, Buffy and Exquisite Lamb Kofta. Joy!
August 16, 2008
So in the great tradition of “cheese sandwich” blogging .. here i am in a cafe in the city. I’ve just had the biggest and best big breakfast in the whole wide world, and i’m luxuriating in the free wireless net connection of blue point cafe, opposite the watch-house in Russell Street.
Yes, i’ve got the day off work, Tim doesn’t start his sergeant role for another couple of hours, and this is my first access to internet for non-work reasons in months.
Off we go to wander through the city and search the computer shops for gadgets. End up in a liquidator shop on Swanston St called “Arthur Daley’s Lock-up”.
Gloves for three dollars Yah!
Later that day
Tim’s gone to rehearsal, so i head across to Minotaur, to get the latest copies of Buffy Season 8, in comic book form. I can’t wait. Apparently Buffy meets Fray, the vampire slayer from the 24th century.
Last i heard, Buffy and Giles aren’t talking to each other; the tricky “Twilight” crowd are dividing Buffy from Willow, and Dawn is still a giant.
Joy and beauty in food
How lucky am i! Jude and Jody invite me over for a sumptuous lamb kofta experience, followed by dripping-down-your-front apple and strawberry strudel. Yum.
So we watch the US Dance show, and we agree that Katee and Joshua are the best. This piece, choreographed by Mia Michaels, made me gasp.
Then Jude pulls out the Will Ferrel classic, “Anchorman”. Talk about cheese!
Time to go home and devour Margaret Cho, the best comedian in the world.
Life is wonderful.
Margaret Cho – Assassin! (part one)
image and photo credits: licensed under creative commons at flickr:
Thanks very much: cowtools
football causes pain
September 22, 2007
So i had a go at playing indoor soccer. The boss got a team together, and joined us into a competition at the council. We were so bad, we lost again and again, eg 13 goals to 3.
The other teams played rough, although it was supposed to be friendly, and they had skills – which we did not. Rohan could do a fair simulation of Maradona, Maria kicked a major goal, and Nick the coach was a real player, but i could barely stay upright. Massive hand bruises thanks to falling on hard gym surface. Ouch.
Trying to drive later on, had to get Louise to operate the gear stick. Too friking painful. That’s it, i’m over sport for ever.
xo michael
(image, The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Gertrud K. at flickr, thanks)
open studio brings out the horrid buckwheat crepes
September 3, 2007
i’ve had another buckwheat experience ..
Saturday night was so great, Madame Zu Zu was in fine form, and the Open Studio crowd so much more into her than at Bar Open the week before. Dancing everywhere. Lovely vibes, happy people.
..but then i tried one of the new crepes.
i was so looking forward to it. and i tested for buckwheat reaction before diving in; but i really should have asked. i must be healthy at the moment because it took three mouthfuls to set me off. so i went home, and fortunately had a couple of Finurgen tablets left over from the time i had to go to hospital after my birthday pizza night last year ..
The tablets stop all the symptoms and allow me to sleep. Good.
but, oh boy, a couple of Finurgen tablets would knock out a horse!
The next morning i couldn’t move, i could barely talk. Tim and Sam came around, wanting to take me out to breakfast, and all i could say was “Bbbckwhhht lllst nght, ca’nnt mmmv”
.. and i’m still feeling groggy monday morning;
PS Later that month: the new sign reads Crepes (Buckwheat). Thanks.
xox, michael
(image: hi dad by tashland at flickr)
grey skies are wonderful
January 7, 2007
The melb’n city skyline is invisible again, but this time it’s great news: a light shower is passing through, bringing the cool change after five days of side-splitting heat. (Like pigs roasting on a spit, we were!)
Half an hour ago we had bright blue skies and the muggy remnants of yesterday’s tropical torment. Now there’s a veil of mist across the city, and the delightful chill of rain on trees. You know that delicious fragrance, when the rain hits greenery?
mmmmm! oh that was a light shower, fifteen seconds of intense rain, a few sporadic drops and it’s clearing again.
Okay, enough weather report, back to study. mic x.
Smoky skies again
December 29, 2006
Big shout out to the Martini-Mahers in Halifax, Nova Discotia. Hope you’re all making the best of a chilly winter, and holding on tight to loved ones and nearby cousins. Bundles of love from this side of the world, to youse all.
It is still smoky in melbourne, but we only get the smoke, while the country folk get all the fire.
Intrepid blogger, Sam Downing writes about the yellow haze. “Victoria is burning like a mofo.” (What’s a mofo?)
(Sam also writes about the recent mic=40 gig .. btw, Sam gets the prize for most cheers on arrival, best cookies, and leaving a huge Rock Festival to come to my birthday.
country on fire, but we soak up the violins on a bloody hot night
December 12, 2006
Reasons to be cheerful about living in Canada:
- no springtime hayFever in September-December!
- no shroud of smoke covering the entire city where you live so the buildings are only faintly visible (ie. your entire country is not on fire).
- no days spent inside cowering from 42 degree heat.
Seriously, i am sitting looking across the city of Melbourne, and i cannot see the city skyscrapers. A faint outline is all that remains. Can only imagine how crap life is for people living in the bush. Fires joining up all over the shop, and no water to fight them with. Ouch. Your heart goes out, dunnit!!
extraordinary loveliness
i have had the most wonderful birthday celebration, the final in a big series (a glamorous and wonderful affair at Northcote’s magnificent Open Studio.. with the very incredible Tzigas playing their gypsy jazz under the stars).
Jude and Jody-Lee surpassed themselves in cooking, hospitality and astounding generosity. I have no idea how i shall ever return such huge favours. People who missed out on these Footscray Gourmandes’ sumptuous sausage rolls, goat’s cheese tartlets, cucumber and feta wraps, as well as Annie’s lemon slices – are the unluckiest people in the world, i’m very sorry.
Among the very few things to go horribly wrong were: no Martini-Mahers, and no sister KT. Oh and Lola couldn’t make it either, despite being coincidentally in the Dandenongs that night. Many apologies, and a few unexpected absences, thanks to the 37 degree heat.
Healthy, happy, but Grumpiness Approaches
Yes the evil buckwheat monster has left my body, and i am healthy again, fresh as a light thunderstorm in sunny springtime melbourne. Phew.
Now it’s back to study time, so my Grumpy-meter will be rising. (No, no, michael, embrace the joy of learning!)
(Here’s an old halloween entry)
i have been spending far too much time online as usual, and found this astonishingly silly ‘tv’ serial: “The only thing dry about this Halloween was the Canada Dry.”
okay that’s it no more football
September 10, 2006
well i’m devastated, i had to crawl under the covers for the whole of Saturday following St Kilda’s painful display of losing the first elimination final. They had to work pretty hard at messing up all their opportunities to take control. Crikey malikey, i’m pissed now. i mean pissed in the american sense, ie pissed off. No i’m not drunk on a Sunday arvo.
powered by ODEO
My mother’s about to come around and visit. i know she’s just out of hospital, and i should visit her instead, but how can i drive over to her place now my car has a canary splattered all over the windshield? They only give you a month to get it fixed before you’re not allowed to drive any more. How am i supposed to get it fixed if i can’t drive it? Bloody hell!
This YouTube video is one i enjoyed – Life in adult community education office.
with heavy-hearted tears for the fallen saints, crap final game you guys,
regards michael
