It’s been a funny weekend for dreams. On Saturday night I had an interesting one involving a bunch of my friends from high school, but set in the current time, riding bikes around late at night. But by far the best of the weekend was on Friday night/Saturday morning: I was waiting at a kind ... [More]
Josh (aka the madman) was in the pub again on Friday night. Alas, I didn’t have time to join him for a quick drink. I like the reflection of the station, opposite, in this picture. Mighty handy, this phone camera.
“The only thing wrong with public transport is the public.” I’m not sure who said it, but sometimes it rings true. On my train home last night at about 9:30pm, a crazy woman started screaming at nobody in particular. Just a cry of “You f—ing murderers! Nazis!” every couple of minutes. As you do. The ... [More]
Been too damn busy to think of very much intelligent to blog about. I did post a long meandering review of my new mobile phone over at geekrant though. Oh, and I can tell you about this fabulous email I got the other week: Subject: Your Food Pyramid/Trapezoid presented at food and nutrition seminar Hello ... [More]
Tony’s posted some terrific pictures of buildings with old signs recently. Here’s one I really like, in Collins Street, near where I work. Look above the rather tackily-named House Of Cashmere, and you’ll see Newspaper House, and a terrific mosaic. The saying is from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and was popular in the days when ... [More]
Before there was this blog on danielbowen.com, it was on toxiccustard.com. And before it was a blog at all, it was an email list. And actually the email list still exists, sending out the weekly extract of this blog, as well as the Guide to Australia (when I get around to updating it) and News ... [More]
Watched some of that Planet Earth doco last night. Really wanted to see the water-wading monkeys featured in the promo. So much so that at one point I shouted at the TV in my best Jerry Macguire voice* “Show me the monkey!” But I had to do some other stuff away from the TV, so ... [More]
A grizzled old man in the supermarket queue tonight was bitching about petrol prices. “It’s criminal!” he was saying. I didn’t feel like trying to explain the concept of Peak Oil to him. Nor did I think telling him it was only going to get worse would placate him. A more informed response to the ... [More]
“Stupid people surround themselves with smart people. Smart people surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them.” — Aaron Sorkin (creator of the West Wing) I don’t know if the people who leave comments here necessarily disagree with me, but they do seem to be pretty smart. Over the past week I’ve learnt of ... [More]
The Rugby State of Origin game was last night. You can tell the tourists are in town, from the number of cars with interstate numberplates rolling unwittingly down Swanston Street Walk, and the confused questions on the tram about using the ticket machines, and getting to St Kilda Beach. Oh yeah, I just got a ... [More]
Stephen J Dubner writes on the Freakonomics blog: He [Warren Buffett] was explaining why he wanted to give so much money [US$31 billion] to a foundation that mainly tries to alleviate poverty. “A market system has not worked in terms of poor people,†Buffett said. Coming from Buffett, this statement isn’t much of a shock. ... [More]
A new era has dawned in the City of Glen Eira. New recycle bins, with bright yellow lids, have been distributed (originally with crime-scene-style “Do not use until July” tape on them), and yesterday the new recycle truck did its first fortnightly run down our street. There are three bits of good news associated with ... [More]