Christmas Spirit - Energy Saving style

So we did the Christmas thing last weekend and hung some lights across the front of the house.

Our neighbours across the road decided to do the same so they got a bit of festoon (you know the lamp holders with the light bulbs you loop around the veranda) and put them up. now every year they have nice 40w coloured lamps, but not this year- oh no.

This year they replaced them all with 10w Compact Flouro lamps. When we look out the windows it is now daylight across the road and halfway down the street.

Now I am all for energy saving (upto a point) but it kinda ruins the mood when it gives you retina burn.

Chicken or Egg ?? Coles knows

I got a cooked chook from Coles the other day and noticed the most bizarre label on the back of the bag. Now I've written abbout bizarre labellling on packages before, but this takes the biscuit.



May contain traces of egg due to shared equipment ? I guess one ends the neck end and the other is where the eggs come out....

Now I know it actually means that the handling equioment or production plant also handles egg products as some people are allergic to eggs but not chicken. But it made me laugh on first reading.

Being bad to make the kids be good

So its the time of the year when you can use the 'Santas watching' excuse to its maximum effect.

I came up with the best scam the other day. The wifes parents were visiting and my 5yr old was being a right stroppy little bugger.

I have a work phone - a Nokia - that can be set to announce the name of the caller that it finds in the address book. I added the mother-in-laws mobile number with the name Santa Claus.

I got the wife to call from the other room and made sure the little girl heard it announce Santa calling. I made sure to tell him how naughty the little girl was and that he will need to keep an eye on her over the next couple of weeks to see if she should get her presents.

Is that using technologyy for evil ? maybe, but she was good for the rest of the night....

Audio from my youth

So I was playing with my SqueezeBox media player today (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/wireless_music_systems/devices/881&cl=au,en) (nice short URL there, Logitech).

One of the options is to listen to ShoutCast streaming media servers anywhere in the world. So I am having a scan through what is available and the option for C-64 as a Genre comes up. Intrigued I follow it and end up on a station called Radio Paralax which features remixes of tracks that were originally produced on a Commodore 64 either as part of games or demos of the C-64s SID sound chip.

Basically they have taken the tracks and done studio remixes to them. Most are in the dance / easy trance area.

And let me tell you it was retro-nostalgia-tastic. I did a bit of googling for some of the tracks I liked and came across whole websites dedicated to the C64 remix culture and it has a massive underground following.

This is why I love the streaming media feature on the Squeezebox - you'll always find something new and different.

The best of the remixes stuff can be found at http://www.remix64.com/.

Our meal out

Last weekend we decided to go out for dinner to the local Thai place. The house was a mess, there was 4 loads of washing to sort, fold and iron and the kids took great delight in unfolding and pulling off the lounge anything you tried to tidy up or fold.

So we were out the front loading kids into strollers. Our neighbour (not the one with the bloody dogs, but the nice Indian guy on the other side) was chatting to the wife while I went back in to get socks or hat or some such crap. I come back out and find our neighbour has offered to cook us dinner !

About 10 mins later a fantastic Indian meal in take away containers is delivered by his kids, so we sit out the back and have the most fabulous meal out the back.

I've never had a neighbour cook me a meal before. It was quite a bizarre experience, but it was the best take away style meal I have had in some time !!

Had a laugh on the way to work

Drove past a building site which is going to be home for a new ABC Learning centre, only someone had scraped off the vinyl letter at the start of the second line so it now read "New Home of ABC earning".

ha ha ha
Tried to take a photo but my stupid camera phone seems to want to look at things for 4 minutes before it decides to take a picture.

New toys

So we are off on our bi-annual overseas holiday. Normally I would take a work laptop, but its a big dell D series and I really can't be arse carting throuout Europe. I am also worried about getting it lost or stollen.

I have an older Dell that I considered taking, but its still a 15" bemoth.

So I thought I'd try something different and went out and bought a 9" Acer EEE. Its rare that I get excited about a piece of technology for more than a little while anymore. This laptop has had me excited for over a week, and I just love it more each time I use it.

Its the size of a sheet of A5 paper and abbout 50mm thick. The keyboards a bit small, but its great for lying in bed blogging (no I'm not right now...)

Ahh, tecnology to improve our lifes - isn't that what it's all about ??

Even the wife loves it. Might need to get another one just for her..

Motivational Ads

Well now the olympics are on we have a new generation of TV ads to deal with - the olympic Motivational Ads, or as I have christened them the Olympi-vational.

You know the type of things - help our athletes by buying milk for $1.29 a litre, or we support the mums who support the kids that are crap at sport so one day they can be the failed people who watch their friends who were good at sport competing in the Olympics on telly.

How do we feel good about ourselves the rest of the year with out these ads?

I might have to go and eat some chinese from Red Rooster (although they are not affiliated with the games or China - it says so in small print in the ad - so I guess they are just cashing in ??)

Modern Manners

There is a guy in our office. Lets call him Dave. He always seem to have whatever cold or bug is going around and coughing. The thing that really bothers me is that he never puts his hand over his mouth when he coughs.

Even my 5yr old can do it, so why can't he. Now I don't mind the odd out in the open cough - but I'll always put my hand over my mouth when close to people, but Dave won't even do it when standing next to you.

Poos me to tears. I am blaming him for making me sick.

Real fresh Organic fruit !

So we are on this Organic thing at the moment. We have a local company that you can buy $35 boxes of mixed fruit and veg and it gets delivered to your door. Now this stuff is fresh (and certified Organic), but over the weekend we found just how fresh and free of pesticides it really is.

My 5yr old likes to go to the fruit bowl and help herself to what ever is in there. I was in the shed working on a repair when I heard a big scream. I went outside to investigate to find the Mrs with the fruit bowl covered in a tea towel. WTF I thought. Turns out a little visitor had hitched a ride on some bananas. A little green frog.

So of course I got the job of using a stick to get it out the bowl and set it free in the garden.

So if you hear of some frog plauge taking over Sydney it wasn't me....

everything will kill you (eventually)

Found this today - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7490202.stm - Tofu is now bad for you.

and apparently brocolli stops altzeimers. Last week it was chocolate or wine or something else.

Bloody hell. I'm not going to open the paper anymore as everything is either really bad or really good. Then every few months the tables are turned and its back to being really good and really bad.

We're all going to hell in a handbasket so I'll eat what I bloody like. I have a tinfoil hat to stop altzeimers - no wait didn't they say Aluminium can cause it....

life is like.....

How come the pack of lollies behind the one you just bought in the vending machine always looks like a better selection than the one you got?

Freaky things people do in their cars

So I am waiting at a set of traffic lights this morning and I look in the rear view mirror to see the chick in the car behind me using a set of Eyelash curlers. Why would you do that in rush hour traffic.
Why ?

New Camry Model

So I was driving to work this morning when I noticed a Camry parked on a foot path and half blocking a junction. Having a closer look it was a model I had never seen before - a Camry Intrigue. Oh yes as there is nothing more intriging to me that the actions of a camry driver.

I look forward to the release of the Camry No-Indicator and Camry Can't-use-mirrors models in the near future.

Irony or Karma

Well here I am in an interesting paradox. I spend my life bashing a certain brand and model of motor car and harping on about how everyone should be greener, and then what happens?

THIS !!
There is a deal in the pipeline to build Toyota Hybrids in Australia. The model chosen. Camry. Nooooooooooooooooo !

I wonder if they come with a driver education program?

Displays as sales tools

There is a 4wd shop round the corner from where I live that has a display in its window that has fascinated me for some months now, mainly due to its pathetic nature.

Its a display of LED fittings for your trailer / 4wd / boat, but the problem is that half of them have dead leds or don't work properly. What a great example of effective marketing ! (Note the red and white unit at the top left - yeah I know its a bad photo but its a stupid phone camera..)

Here is a great product that works really well in the window of a shop, so it will be great on you outdoor, full sun, all weather application.

First rule of advertising - if it doesn't work don't show it ! Or at least don't plug it in and call it an engineering sample.

Anzac Flapjack

So we had ANZAC day here recently and I though I'd do the right thing and make some ANZAC biscuits. Unfortunately I misread the recipe and used too much bicarb of soda. Now bicarb of soda (or Sodium Bicarbonate if you prefer) is used to make the biscuits rise and expand. Guess what happens if you use too much..


I present the Anzac flapjack. It was about 4mm thick and spread across the entire baking tray. Tasted OK though..

Earth Hour

So tonight is Earth Hour and we are all encouraged to turn off our lights for the hour.

Well heres a thought for you. Most Foxtel boxes draw close to 90w at all times. So if you want to really make a difference tonight turn off your pc and unplug it. And your foxtel box, although I will miss the way it warms the tv cabinet.

Driving me mad !

So I had a bit of an 'incident' with my bloved Honda CR-V a few weeks ago. The clutch basically decided to screw with the gear box and poped a linkage in the engine. I am not very car minded, so it could just be what the mechanics tell you so they can charge $1500 to fix it.

Anyway I got a loaner CR-v (Luckily not one of the new ones which are butt ugly and look like a nightmare to reverse park.)

Thing is the loaner was an automatic. Nice relaxing drive to work, but a couple of times I had the feeling that the car was not really under my control. As a Manual driver I will often change down early and use engine braking to control speed.
Can't do that in a Auto.

It is very easy to become a bad driver in a Auto. I wonder if they do Camrys in manual?? Nah, must all be autos..
(Ha ha interesting note that the spell checker wants to change Camrys to aneurysm - is that a sign?)

Oh the irony

So I had to pop down to Coles for some bread (no really...)
I was perusing the Soy and Linseed section when a couple of young things wandered past and stopped at the health and alternative stuff section which happened to be opposite the bread section.

"Oh my god they only have two types" I heard, so I turned round to see them looking at the weight loss pack things as they both stuffed their faces with take away chips.

I was so tempted to say something, but let it go...

Sounds of the suburbs

As you should have worked out by now I am a pretty tolerant person, but when something pushes my buttons I tend to snap.

This week its my neighbours dogs. A nice young couple moved in next to us about 6 months ago, but they have these two cattle dog things. During the day they will lock the dogs in the backyard while they are at work, and at night they will stick them out the back.

Problem is the dogs get bored - there is not much excitement in a 6 x 10m back yard for a couple of dogs. So they like to jump and bark. A favourite trick is to sit at the gate that goes down the side of the house (next to our bedroom) and bark at people passing in the street. Sometimes (3 -4 times a day) the two dogs will start barking at each other and then howling.

For christmas I got the wife an ultrasonic dog scarer which we use to make them shutup. Works quite well through the fence, but I don't see why I should need to do that at all hours to get some peace and quiet.

I was working late in the shed the other night and could hear one of the dogs walking up and down the fence line growling and trying to dig out under the fence. It would then also whack the fence with its tail which makes the whole fence vibrate and clatter.

Weird thing is these people never take the dogs out for a walk. I have never seen the dogs outside the house or backyard. When they moved in we had to get the fence repaired as they were worried that the dog could jump the fence (2.4m high colourbond) - apparently they had done it before. They also bricked up the little gap at the bottom of the fence.

I think its not only cruel, but if I have to spend an hour getting the baby back to sleep beacuse of those stupid dogs howling at each other one more time I am going to snap. I also now have a 4 year old who is scared of dogs as she thinks they will attack her.

Luckily Mrs neighbour is now up the duff so we will see how much she likes it when the stupid dogs wake up her kid 3 times a day..

Other option I though of was to work the dogs into a frenzy one day and call the RSPCA - but that would be cruel...

American Idle

So I was watching the US version of Idol on cable tonight. Let me tell you this - it is the most boring looking show in the world. bland bland blannnd.

At least the Australian version has some depth and layers to the lighting design. The US version has no leds or big effects lights like the local one with the High End Shotguns they had last season. They did however have some flashing neon.

For a country of so many people you would thing they could find someone with enough imagination to make it look good.

Modern communication

I work in an office and use all kinds of technologies to keep in touch - mobile, sms, skype and email.

Sometimes I'll ping people in the office a quick Skype message to ask how they are going or for a quick clarification on something.

Sometimes I use it to have a conversation that might be too awkward to have face to face. I did that this morning when I noticed a collegue who seemed a bit down, but I knew if I asked him face to face in an office he would probably just go - 'yeah I'm ok'. So I sent the message and got nothing back. So now how do I talk to him without mentioning it ?

Do we both ignore it and pretent it didn't happen, or do I wait till he goes somewhere and ambush him ? Hmmm, not really confortable with that.

Maybe I should just mind my own buisness, but as a friend I want to know if I could do anything to help. Sometimes I thing how great it would be to work in an office in the 60s where there were no faxes or emails or even phones. I could spent my day writing letters and reading mail people sent. Life must have been so much slower and more controlled instead of the constant blast of data and communications we are under now.

There was a promo on TV recently that stated that a child by the age of 8 had been exposed to more information that our great grandparents were exposed to in their entire lives. Thats a scary thought.

Starbucks on the decline

I was reading the paper the other day (well the online version) when I noticed an article about the declining fortunes of Starbucks.

In the US you can sit in a Starbucks branch and look out the windows and see another branch. Seems they have over saturated the market and are now paying the price. and the coffee is crap and over priced.

I was discussing this with a coffee conisour friend and he was telling me they roast the crap out of the beans so that even the 12 year old 'barista' behind the counter can pour a 'good' coffee.

I hate to name drop, but it reminds me of a story Britney Spears sound engineer once told me. In the US he would drink Starbucks coffee, not because it was good, but because it was consistent.

One of the things the article brought up was that places like MacDonalds are now raising their game in the coffee market and people no longer need to go to starbucks and pay a fortune for a decent cup of coffee.

I was in the airport this morning for a little domestic jaunt and noticed the massive queue at Maccas. Most of these people were getting coffees even though there are perfectly good and not to expensive coffee outlets all around them.

Its interesting to see what we consider to be the big fast food joints branching out in to other directions such as the McCafe concept or the Gloria Jeans of the world who basically copied the Starbucks model but customised it to fit with the Australian cafe culture.

I guess if nothing else Startbucks made everyone lift their game and raised the standard of cofffee in these more traditional outlets where it was only ever an add on and was mostly a drip-o-lator that had sat for too long and boiled itself into a bitter mud.

Energy Saving Part 2

Just logged in to do another post and read what I have written about that hotael room before.

Forgot to add that it also turned off the outside light in front of the room, so if you came home after a few beers it was relativly difficult to get your key into the slot.

Energy Saving at what cost ??

I am currently in Melbourne for reasons that are far to messy to go in to.
I am in a lovely hotel room in Mornington (more about the room shortly), but it has one of the wierdest setups I have ever seen.

It has one of those 'put your room key in the slot to turn the lights on' things on the wall. Cool I'm fine with that.

But I also discovered that the rocket scientists who put it in wired the Alarm Clock to the same circuit, so when you leave the room the clock goes off, and when you come back you have to reset the time and alarm time on the clock....

There are also some bollard lights in the garden that seem to be on 24/7. So they make up for all the power saved by turning the clocks in the rooms off.

Very Odd.

We can laugh about it now

While at the hardware store yesterday I noticed they had a selection of knick-knacks for sale in the little office bit. Now I love a bit of hardware, so had a quick look about. There I saw the best example of point of sale signage i had seem for some time:

Box Cutters - as featured in 9/11 - $3.50 each.

Laugh - I thought I was going to cack my pants !!

Joy of GPS 2 - the revenge

So having had a successful run with the GPS I had to go into the city with a work chum to look at some hardware.

She had a map from Whereis.com that failed to mention the right turn you have to make across the City West Link is not only illegal, but also suicidal.

So after a bit of swearing and creative driving I whipped out the GPS and punched in the address. It seems the address we were going to is in every suburb in Sydney. I though I had the right one in Liechart, but it seems not. Much embarrassment as we pull up outside some block of flats expecting a industrial unit. Quick change of direction and - boom - there we were.

So I guess the moral is if you are going to use the GPS you need to know where your going...

Joys of GPS

I was driving to work the other day with my phone in the charger thingy in the car. I though it might be fun to play my favourite game - Turn on the GPS and ignore what it tells you.

I love the way it dynamically re-works the route. I also think it would be cool if instead of telling you to turn around or take the next left it told you that you are a bad driver and don't listen to instructions.

Anyhoo, yesterday I did something weird and actually went where it told me to go. I am a creature of habit when it comes to driving to work. I have a route an ethnic friend showed me that winds through back streets. If anyone knows a short cut its a crazy Macedonian...

So puting my faith in the unit the GPS took me in another direction completely, but strangely enough I got to work 5 mins quicker. I choose to believe it is due to it still being school holidays and the league of 4WD mothers or Camry driving oldies are not out and about yet.

I took the same route this morning and it does feel quicker. I might keep going this way and see if I can shave 5 mins off my travel time.

Its sad I know, but its the little things in life that keep me going.

Crazy Microsoft Templates

I was just sitting down to write a report, so i went to see what Templates Office 2007 had that might sex it up. here are the default templates in Excel now -
Billing Statement - Makes sense for business types
Expense Report - Yup I can see a use for that one
Loan Amortization - OK if you do finance stuff
Sales Report - of course
Time Card - yeah whatever
Personal monthly Budget - lets work out how much we could buy if we got a pay rise
Blood Pressure Tracker - WTF???

I think it says a lot about the modern workplace if they have a handy dandy template to track you stress level and predict when you are going to explode or die.

More Gen Y trashing

Whilst still trauling Wikipedia I found this re Gen Ys

Business owners in Australia feel that members of Generation Y were found to be "demanding, impatient and bad at communicating," according to a 2007 survey.

The survey found that almost 70% of those surveyed found their Generation Y workers to be dissatisfying, with poor spelling and grammar and no understanding of appropriate corporate behaviors.

However, the survey also showed most employers praised the energy and charisma of their Generation Y workers.

Gen X - Generation Whatever..

Just doing some facts checking to see the dates for Gen Y and also to make sure I was actually a Gen X when I came across this great quotelet in Wikipedia -

'In France, the term Génération Bof is in use, with "bof" being a French word for "whatever," considered by some French people to be the defining Generation-X saying.'

Generation Bof ! I love it. Get that up you Gen Ys !!!

BP and the Ethanol scam

A while back BP introduced a fuel called E10 - its 10% ethanol and its always about 4c a litre cheaper. Problem is that I have never been able to buy it. Every BP I go to is out of stock. I have a feeling thats its not due to popularity, but due to them wanting to look like doing their bit, but then forcing you to buy unleaded instead. Bastards !!!!

Fuel Prices

This is one of those post i have been meaning to do for ages, but every time I sit down to do it something else happend that drives the story and expands it a little bit more.

Todays case is that oil has hit $100 per barrel. All those nice oil people thought it was best they should pass this on ASAP to us poor motorists, so fuel went up be 10c today.

When I was originally going to write about the scam of fuel prices it was just after the ACCC has handed down a reeport that said there was no obvious examples of pricing fixing or cartel activity. Its just convient that all major world events that affect the petrol price happen on a Thursday and then calm down on a Sunday. Regular as clock work.

The ironic thing was the week after the fuelk companies hiked it by 10c in the week before christmas for no apparent reason. And it wasn't even a Thursday.

Mmmm. I can see a pattern here and its not pretty. So fill up on a Monday or Tuesday, unless you are me and forget..

Everyones a winner... except when they are not

One thing I have noticed is that the US based Kids TV channels have this annoying habit of making out that no one is a looser any more and everyone is special and a winner.

Even in the website games on Disney you dont have the Wrong answer, you are told that thats a great choice, but try again.

Is that why we have the Gen Y brat 'I want it now' generation ?? Its my right etc. No its bloody not !!! Sit down and shut up. And turn that stupid freaking phone off before I ram it up your arse......

Moving on we had a dance show for my daughter before Christmas where her group was 2nd on stage. its all very cute etc, except when its 42degrees in a tin shed in bumble-f**k nowhere and the kids are running amuck. Thing is we were told to stay to the end as everyone gets a prize. Cool we thought, she'll love that.

Problem was three hours later I had to explain the Child number 1 why she didn't get anything. And I wasn't the only one. Sure for the older agegroups there were skill based prizes but for the three years olds there was nothing. Not even a token bag 'o' lollies or a $1 Well Done badge.

I met another mother the next day whose daughter is in the same class and she said the same thing - unconsolable sobbing on the car drive home.

So maybe the kids as so whipped up to thinking they are going to get everything and be winners that they can't cope when they get nothing. Or maybe its just cruel to promise and not deliver...

Spoilt little girl put in her place

I was at Westfields shopping mall in Bondi with the family on the thursay after Christmas (I don't know why I did it either.. seemed like a good idea at the time).

Anyhoo we were waiting for a lift with a bunch of other pram pushers and lazy bastards when this young girl wandered past. She looked about 19 and was dressed up in the Hollywood prima donna slut way with the big sunnys and a 'up yours' attitude. She had token emo boyfriend in tow with a selection of big keychains and saggy arsed jeans. She had a dirnk from the food coart and proceded to produce a wrapped straw for it. She then ripped the wrapper and just let it fall to the ground.

So what did I do ? I went - 'scuse me - I think you dropped your wrapper...'. She looked all embarassed as she had to bend over and pick it up in front of a gaggle of people. I could feel a smug ha-ha from all the non - Gen Ys who were waiting for the lift and though to myself its another victory for us old bastards !!!

So word up all you young Gen Ys !! We see what you do and we keep score. So you want to sprint up the corporate ladder, start by being good people and cleaning up after yourselves...

Same hours in the day as every one else....

My 4yr old has this great trick where she will just disappear for 20 minutes at a time. I found her the other day sitting on the potty with a pile of books. This is wierd I thought, but then I realised I have been know to read a book or the paper on the bog, or even surf the web or send SMSs.

Is this a sign we have become so time poor that we need to multitask our bodily functions?

The wife said to me last night that famous quote that pops up on the motivational website - we have the same number of hours in the day as Einstein or Newton did and look what they achieved. I didn't see the relevance to my not doing the dishes..

Anyhoo while on the pan this morning I thought about it more (just multitasking !) and decided those guys had time to do all that relativity and laws of motion stuff because they didn't have Foxtel, or the Web, or mobile phones and they probably had a nice shed they could lock themselves in.

We are the generation who are contactible 24/7 whether by phone or some other electronic method. And sometimes thats just not right.... If I could get a nice long period of time where I can focus on one thing I could acheive a stack of stuff. but it seems modern life isn't built to acommodate that.