November 2007

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The Golden Age of the Iced Vovo

26 November 2007 in Politics by Stilgherrian | 12 comments

As I wait for my aircraft to board, I ponder the many, many words which have been written about Kevin Rudd’s victory. I’ve come to a conclusion. When I return to Australia in 10 days I, like so many voters, will expect a Golden Age to have been implemented. Anything less than the following is unacceptable.

  • Global warming to have ceased completely.
  • All oil usage to have ended, forever.
  • A personal solar-powered hovercraft for all Centrelink benefit recipients.
  • A free case of Coopers Ale for everyone adult male.
  • Two packets of Iced VoVo biscuits for every family with children aged 12 or younger.
  • Malcolm Turnbull installed as Leader of the Opposition, with Julie Bishop as his deputy.

What else? What else do we expect from Chairman Rudd?

Prepared for Election Night

24 November 2007 in Personal, Politics by Stilgherrian | 2 comments

Photograph of election night set-up with 2 x laptops, each with 2 screens, and a TV

The Snarky Platypus and I are well prepared for our election night data feeds! His MacBook Pro and my PowerBook, each with an extra external monitor, and a TV tuned to the ABC. Wine is also available. Stand by…

Waiting for Kirribilli House

24 November 2007 in Photography, Politics by Stilgherrian | No comments

Photograph of Craig Gill wearing a Kevin07 t-shirt at Kirribilli House

The meme on teh intertubes this week was some wag placing a for-sale ad for Kirribilli House on a real estate website. I must admit, though, I do prefer my photo of Craig Gill in his Kevin07 t-shirt (above) at Hyacinth’s open day.

Thanks to Royaltech (and many others!) for the pointer. And in case the advert vanishes, there’s a PDF version.

I’ve already committed democracy today. Now it’s your turn. Remember, vote early and vote often.

Weekly Poll: How disturbing is a “disturbing image”?

24 November 2007 in Media, Personal, Photography, Weekly Poll by Stilgherrian | 4 comments

Ah, I love the smell of democracy in the morning! But since we’ll be overloaded with election news today, I’ll avoid politics in today’s Weekly Poll. Instead, the scalping of a cat’s tail.

The other day Artemis, one of our cats, was run over by a car. Or at least the fur on her tail was, and a 20cm section was effectively scalped, exposing the flesh beneath the skin. Yummy.

I have a photo. It’s fairly gross. A TV newsreader might preface it with “Some viewers may find this image disturbing.”

Now I have no qualms about publishing good Anglo-Saxon swear words. We can hear them any day on a bus, so I reckon being coy and writing “f*ck” and “c*nt” is stupid. I mean, we all know what these words are, so adding an asterisk doesn’t change the received meaning. But I did hesitate before posting this photo.

So, should I publish it? Go to the website to vote!

Last week’s results: After a year of phoney campaigning and a long, 6-week election campaign, it looks like most voters are indeed very glad today’s election day and we can all move on.

It even works from a moving taxi!

21 November 2007 in Blogging, Internet, Personal by Stilgherrian | No comments

Taxi photo

Last night I managed to publish to the Internet while trapped in a stairwell and from a moving train. Tonight I can prove that it also works while travelling at high speed in a moving car.

It’s the same workflow as before — Nokia N80 camera phone, Bluetooth image to PowerBook, then use the phone’s data link to publish back via WordPress. But it’s still fairly clunky because it’s hard to type in a moving car in the dark, and I haven’t set up any actions in Photoshop so everything has to be done manually.

And I hate to think what this is costing me!

So, what do I do for my next challenge? Any suggestions?

The Snarky Platypus has just posted his prediction for the federal election. Something to read over dinner, and I daresay I’ll have a response in the morning.

20 November 2007 by Stilgherrian | No comments

The Stairway to Freedom!

20 November 2007 in Internet, Personal, Photography by Stilgherrian | 1 comment

Photo of stairs descending to the deserted platform at Gordon Station

As much as one stairway can symbolise imprisonment, another one at Gordon railway station (pictured) is a symbol of Freedom. It’s deserted, but I know there’ll soon be a late-night train taking me somewhere that dinner can be found. Huzzah!

Yes, I really was trapped alone in an office building, with deadlocking doors at the top and the bottom of the stairwell. One of the tenants is Westpac bank, so everything is solid. And I’d already phoned the client’s people but bounced to voicemail each time. I was looking forward to a long night on the stairs. Not.

And yes, I really did post to my website from The Stairway of Imprisonment.

My PowerBook has a battery. It talks Bluetooth to my Nokia N80 phone, and uses the phone’s 3G data link through Vodafone to teh Internetz. I used the N80′s camera to take the photo, and Bluetooth’d it back to the PowerBook for a quick and dirty bit of Photoshop. The photo transfer happened without disturbing the data link too! Impressed.

Luckily, while I was doing all that one of the client’s staff phoned back. I could take the call while still online, too. Hi, Loraine! She only lives 15 minutes of late-night driving from the office, so I was freed soon enough. And right now I’m on a train back to the City. Indeed, I’m posting this story precisely as I cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

Trapped in St Ives! Eek!

20 November 2007 in Personal, Photography by Stilgherrian | 5 comments

Trapped!

You won’t believe this! It’s 11pm and I’m currently trapped in the front stairwell of the commercial building at 186 Mona Vale Road, St Ives. Locked in because I tried leaving by the front door, instead of the usual rear exit. Except it’s deadlocked. And now I can’t get back up the stairs either, because that door has locked too!

Oh well. At least there’s carpet on the floor and three hours of laptop battery left… [sigh] How glamorous!

The Labor party a risk to the economy? Perhaps not, since eight of their front bench have degrees in economics — including Craig Emerson with a PhD — while only three Coalition ministers have the qualifications.

20 November 2007 by Stilgherrian | 1 comment

Lolcat Challenge

20 November 2007 in Blogging, Humour, Internet by Stilgherrian | 2 comments

Photograph of cat Apollo rolling on the ground

Snarky Platypus, turn away now! This is a lolcat challenge for Nick Hodge. Nick, how quickly can you turn this image into a lolcat?

(Yeah, I know this is silly. But Nick, despite working for Microsoft, is a cool guy. He even sold me my first Mac back in 1985, he’s that much of a geek. We were chatting about lolcats in Perth, and I thought a challenge would be cool.)

[Update 5.20am: Nick has already created the image, see the comments! Anyone else want to have a go?]

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