Bags
I’m now fully equipped with cloth supermarket bags, and indeed have been upgrading to the new improved green ones, which keep their shape when the checkout chick/bloke plonks them down to start packing, making everything faster than fiddling with the soft cloth ones. But my use of cloth supermarket bags has been so wildly successful that I have a little problem.
I’ve run out of plastic supermarket bags.
They have a myriad of uses… bin liners, putting lunch in, wrapping up things to put in the fridge, removal of poo from hitherto unidentified garden intruders…
Maybe I’ll have to start leaving my cloth bags at home sometimes.
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(Almost) Crapfree
I’ve listened to a lot of crap music in my time, some self-inflicted, some through no choice of my own. Loud walkmans, car radios, in shops, hold music, public spaces… it can come from anywhere.
The other night reading Kathryn’s blog I read an entry where she mentioned Bon Jovi. I left an off-the-cuff jokey comment about not being able to remember a single Bon Jovi song. But I’ve thought about this long and hard since… and I really can’t remember any of them.
Oh joyous rapture! How good is that? Bon Jovi’s music and lyrics have been entirely excised from my mind! I can only hope that I’ve got those previous braincells back, and they’re being consumed by some more useful (or at least tasteful) purpose.
(And why is it the harder I try to think of a Bon Jovi song, the more I get the Bangles singing in my brain instead?)
Now, no smartarse comments reminding me of what I’m missing, thank you.
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The chocolate smear
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from a decade of nibbling chocolate at my desk, it’s that it can be a messy business. You chomp into the bar and depending on consistency, chocolate splinters can go flying. Some might land on the desk itself, some might embed themselves into the gaps in the keyboard, and some might fall onto your clothing.
The desk is straightforward, just brush them off into the bin (or into your mouth if the desk is clean enough, you’re hungry enough, and the splinters are sizable enough to make a difference to your hunger… and there’s nobody else watching). The keyboard can do with a whack every once in awhile, which will bring tumbling onto the desk a wide variety of little bits of food and other stuff you never realised lived in your keyboard. Horrible, isn’t it. Really horrible. This is why people vaccuum their keyboards, so they don’t have to look at this kind of residue.
But clothing? Stop right there. What you don’t want to do is the reflex action — to wipe it away with your hand. Why? Because you are not a reptile, and your hand is almost certainly warm. Try and brush away chocolate in an office environment, and you almost certainly end up with a chocolate smear on your clothing instead.
My strategy, after years of trial and error, is to stand up and shake the chocolate off my clothing. No human contact, no melting onto my newly drycleaned trousers, no mess, no fuss.
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Metallica: Some kind of monster
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of their new album. But not just the usual sitting in a studio, bashing power chords kind of footage — this was a warts’n'all look at the group dynamics involved. The arguments, walk-outs, the laughs, the group therapy sessions, the bits where they tried to sack the group therapist and he resisted. Interspersed with flashbacks both personal and public, it paints a picture of successful musicians having a great deal of difficulty being successful musicians. Very funny in parts, and you don’t need to be a Metallica fan (or even overly familiar with their music) to get a lot out of it.
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Here is my prize
With many thanks to Tony and Rae for organising the competition, the barbecue and taking this photo… here is me taking the footy tipping prize, as Marita looks on (probably glad she’s shot of it, but disappointed it’s not going further away).
What have you won? Link in the Trackbacks or leave a comment.
- As usual, move your mouse over the picture for descriptions of various bits (note Firefox may abbreviate)
- Past photos in this series
- Notes on creating the image map/hot spots with text
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The survey part 2
Ron and Jeff’s lifestyle survey, part 2.
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Expressions
Some expressions I seem to have picked up but I’m not sure where they came from:
- Catch ya – Sign-off on the phone to some people, particularly when I’m in a hurry. Seems to be a contraction of “Catch ya later”
- Plugger – It was a once-off, but I still don’t know where it came from. Several years ago I called my Dad this when visiting him in hospital. Maybe it was the stress of it all, but its origins remain a mystery. (I can’t imagine why it would be related to footballer Tony “Plugger” Lockett.)
Some expressions I don’t like:
- Best – Some kind of shortened lazy version of “All the best,” I assume. Something about it just doesn’t sit right with me. It’s like it sounds insincere for some reason.
- Sure – Used as a substitute for “You’re welcome.” Ditto, seems excessively lazy and insincere. What, you can’t run to three syllables, you have to keep it to a single one? Is there a shortage or something?
- Get a life – Fair enough when it’s used in self-deprecation, but otherwise it’s gratuitous. You like something I don’t, so you need to get a life. What the hell is that supposed to mean? People who use this phrase when talking of others really need to get a life.
Some expressions from various past managers I’ve had (enough to cause a whole paradigm shift… or at least a game of Bullshit Bingo):
- Socialise – this meant discuss with colleagues
- Technical artefacts – documents, they’re documents. Ah yes, the memories, we’d go into meetings to socialise the technical artefacts…
- Down-line-load – one guy I worked with picked this up somewhere — it was his version of “download”
On an unrelated note, funniest TV advert placement seen this week:
- Ad for Tobin Brothers funeral directors, during Six Feet Under
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Sunshine
The artworks on display seem to change every few weeks. A little while ago it was words created out of bread: “GREED” for example.
This week it’s spinning black circles showing little animations through the gaps, like something from a Victorian-era side show.
And live music today. Sometimes it’s a woman with a cello. Today it’s a busker singing Billy Bragg’s “Must I Paint You A Picture” while his dog looks on lazily from his position of horizontal near-slumber. It’s not the most brilliant rendition, but at least it’s recognisable.
Up the stairs, out of the Degraves Street subway I walk, and into the sunshine.
The glorious sunshine. Was just my luck to be stuck in the office today.
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