Scott Adams has been making up his own cuss phrases. [Warning: coarse language]

I’ve been pondering what is the most abusive but non-swearing language one can use. The kind of thing you can say if, say, a car driver cuts you off or almost mows you down in a spectacularly stupid way, but your kids are present and you don’t want to be seen actually swearing.

There’s a number of Haddock-esque terms you could use, but so far I think the one I’m happiest with (and I know will spring to mind when needed) is moron.

• Long-time readers of my blog/email list will recall Moron of the Week, which highlighted moronic car drivers.

It’s encouraging to hear community groups have been offered subsidised accomodation by Melbourne City Council. Not-for-profit organisations can gain a lot from having offices in the central business district, in much the same way that for-profit companies can gain. (PTUA makes use of a similar scheme via the Ross House Association.)

Melbourne’s CBD in gaining in popularity, with Southbank and Docklands also increasing in population. There’s the mix of easy accessibility, good environment and a critical mass of people and organisations. This last point is sometimes forgotten, but it makes it much easier to do business when just about everybody you need to talk to is a short walk or tram ride away. I reckon this is something that helps cities (and in particular city centres) be successful.

For example, here are the major players (well, those I could think of at the time) in public transport. Click on the flags to see who they are.

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They’re all in or near the CBD, with the exception of VicRoads, whose relevant offices are in Kew and Ascot Vale.

Phone calls and email can do a lot of the job, but face-to-face meetings help re-inforce relationships, and are better for some types of discussion. Being in close proximity makes this much easier.

So getting more not-for-profit groups into the CBD not only increases the vibrancy and diversity of the city, it hopefully also helps those groups a lot in their efforts to achieve their goals.

The results from the birthday extravanganza of comments, as at this morning (80 responses, in 84 comments)…

Average age: 38.21

Median age: 36

Range: 18 to 65

Wow.

Thanks to all who responded, and thanks for the birthday wishes!

And a special happy birthday also to Paul, Shaun and Graeme, who it turns out also share my birthday! (What are the odds?)

Last week a colleague who, shall we say, has form for forwarding dodgy emails, sent me one claiming Mars and the Moon would be aligned on Monday morning at 12:30am. Turns out to be a hoax. Happily I didn’t stay/get up specially to watch. Neither did anybody else, apparently (or if they are, they’re not admitting it).

But tonight’s full lunar eclipse isn’t a hoax, and from Melbourne it’s at a much more civilised time, in the early evening. I think I’ll set up the camera on a tripod and keep an eye on it with the kids through the evening.

Well, if cloud doesn’t block it.

Today I turn 37. Which I figure means I’m leaving my mid-thirties.

I have to work today, and my footy tips are descending into farce, but on the bright side, the weather has turned good (25 degrees forecast today!), and it was nice to have a few people over yesterday to celebrate (even if it means excessive tidying/cleaning beforehand, and then a little more afterwards, for instance to make sure no young relatives have left cake smeared into the floor).

Hmm, I’m curious. How old are the people that read my blog? Leave your age with your comment. Go on, I dare you.

PS. Results here.

I’ve mentioned this briefly before, but back in my uni days, my diet was pretty shocking. Often a bunch of us would go down to the corner shop (now razed and redeveloped as Yet More University Buildings). I’d chow down a $1.50 hotdog, and maybe some chips, perhaps a Big M or an OJ, and if there wasn’t another lecture imminent*, we’d retire to the back of the shop and play video games. I remember my friend Brian remarking that he played so much Tetris, he used to have dreams of falling blocks.

Those days are long since past me. I don’t know how many of those hot dogs I consumed, but it was probably more than was healthy.

Following some comments left, and as a result of the pizza place the kids and I sometimes go having an out-of-order phone on Wednesday, we decided to try Jasper’s Pizza in McKinnon. They made a good first impression, giving us bits of garlic bready pizza stuff to nibble on while we made up our minds what to order.

Then one of the guys behind the counter looked at me. I thought he was about to ask about TV (it happens; last night on the train I got buttonholed by a TravelSafe team), but instead he asked if I used to study at Monash Caulfield. “15, 20 years ago?”

“Yeah…”

“I thought I recognised your face. I used to run the corner shop!”

He said they sold up in 1994, and the Commonwealth bought the land, no doubt to commence the aforementioned razing and redeveloping.

So it seems I’m not the only one who remembers those $1.50 hot dogs.

I wonder what happened to the Tetris machine?

Oh, the pizza was delicious, by the way.

*Well, that we wanted to go to.

On Saturday I went past a little house which I bet is affordable. You could say the location was convenient for transport — near Laverton station and the freeway. To be precise, it’s wedged Castle-like in a spot between the Werribee/Geelong railway line and the M1 — in fact the house is about as close as you can get to actually being on the freeway on-ramp. I can’t imagine the amount of noise from cars, trucks and trains that they must endure at that spot, not to mention the air quality issues.

I think this is the listing: 22 High Street, Laverton, and the way they’re plugging it is with the headline “Family filled on acre” (eh?) and the text proclaiming “Located within walking distance to the train station, schools and with sensational access to the freeway” and it mentions “ample access”. Which is all true. Well, if you call living on the freeway access road, and having the freeway fifty metres from your front lawn, without even a sound barrier to muffle the noise “sensational”, that is.

I thought when I went past that it had a Sold sticker on the sign, but perhaps not. Will be watching to see how much it sells for. I wonder how good the sound-proofing is? Or maybe whoever moves in will use ear plugs and air-conditioning with a filtration system. I wish them luck.

Some pics from the last few days…

These people really really really really really like Sunkist. They bought probably about 50 x 1.25 litre bottles. (Why not buy bigger bottles?) They also bought over 100 Milo bars. Someone, somewhere is having a Sunkist and Milo Bar party. The checkout staff seemed quite bemused by it all.

What’s worse than a mobile billboard?
A mobile billboard being pulled along by a hulking great tank.
What’s worse than a mobile billboard being pulled along by a hulking great tank?
A mobile billboard being pulled along by a hulking great tank, encouraging other people to buy hulking great tanks.

A tram approaching needs a new mirror. These guys appeared to be waiting for it with the replacement mirror, to do a running repair. Good thinking.

Chatting to some of my closest friends yesterday about something or other. For what it’s worth, this is a complex issue, which is not very well handled by short soundbites on TV/radio. Feature articles deal with it better:

• Age 22/8/2007: The Squeeze Test
• Age 4/8/2007: On the wrong track