Geek stuff

Tue 31 January 2006 5:33pm by Daniel · Filed under: Geek 

Bloglines users: the problem preventing you reading from Bloglines has been fixed. (Mea culpa, it was my fault.)

For those who asked how I did the desk animation, here’s an explanation.

Inner view

Mon 30 January 2006 6:19pm by Daniel · Filed under: PTUA, TV 

Daniel on channel 31I’ve done a lot of TV interviews on location, but never in a studio, until today. Community TV station Channel 31 did an interview for tonight’s “C News Focus” story on public transport. The interviewer guy asked a couple of curly questions, so hopefully I acquitted myself well. It airs at 10:15pm.

A few observations:

If I look uncomfortable, it’s because they asked me to put the microphone lead inside my shirt.

The interview went for 6 minutes, but they were intending it to go for 5. So it may get edited down a bit.

They put some makeup on me, but they didn’t try and hide the pimple below my mouth. I’m hoping it was out of shot most of the time.

A lot of people get pretty bad channel 31 reception. Amusingly, so does their office, with big TVs in the foyer tuned to their channel appearing very fuzzy.

PS. 11pm. Not too bad. Having watched it, the only glaring slip-up I noted is that the host made a comment about the PT system costing $1.8 billion per year, and I didn’t pick him up on it (because I didn’t have the correct figure in mind at the time). This is not the case — it’s about $500m a year. It should be cheaper (it was only about $374m a year in the 90s) but it certainly isn’t $1.8b. The higher figure appears to come from an opinion piece by a road lobbyist in The Age last week, which inflated the numbers.

The new desks

Sun 29 January 2006 9:52pm by Daniel · Filed under: Home life 

The old desk, to my utter surprise, reached $137.50 on eBay. It was bought by a guy from a few suburbs away for his daughter to use for studying. She seemed happy, he seemed happy, and I certainly was. Win-win. That’s why I like eBay.

He came to pick it up on Australia Day. I disassembled it with my newly purchased drill/driver, and in the heat, we managed to load it into, and on top of, his stationwagon. He tied it up with coaxial cable (! — he said he had way too much of it) and gingerly set off down the road.

I grabbed a beer and one of the new desks out and set it up. The second desk waited until today, when the kids helped.


[Click here if you can't see the Flash animation because it doesn't show up in your RSS aggregator.]

It all looks heaps better than before. The new desks look snazzier, and more importantly they fit the space much better.

PS. Yes, I know I need to do something about the curtains…

Margaret Preston

Fri 27 January 2006 5:27pm by Daniel · Filed under: Culture 

If you want to see the Margaret Preston exhibit at the Ian Potter Centre/National Gallery of Victoria, you’ve got until Sunday. Marita and I went on Australia Day — a good escape from the heat. Good stuff, a reminder that Preston didn’t just do floral illustrations (though they were certainly prominent) but also dabbled in portraits, Aboriginal influences, and portrayals of wartime Australia.

Tucked away in one corner, like a special feature on a DVD, is a “making of” section, showing Preston at work, and some of the source material. Good stuff.

How to look like tourists in Melbourne

Fri 27 January 2006 7:14am by Daniel · Filed under: Melbourne 

Dear sir and madam,

Welcome to our city. I could make a remark about thumbs that are sore, but that probably wouldn’t be polite. Please enjoy your stay.

Tourists in Collins Street

Australia Day

Thu 26 January 2006 7:05am by Daniel · Filed under: News and events 

Happy Australia Day.

Australian flag on tram

Yoghurtgate

Wed 25 January 2006 6:32pm by Daniel · Filed under: Food'n'drink, Working life 

Outrage in the office. A note at the scene of the crime, the fridge:

Post-It note

Further investigation revealed that in fact two victims had had their yoghurt go missing. It seems there is a serial yoghurt thief among us.

Big hair

Tue 24 January 2006 9:02pm by Daniel · Filed under: dreams 

Dream from the other night: I woke up with huge hair, sticking straight out for about 30cm in every direction from my head. I looked in the mirror and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. “How can this be?” I thought “I only had a haircut last week…”

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