So I was going to run some errands in the car, and I thought hey: it’s about time I checked the oil. After all, it’s been a while, and I’m in no hurry for more credit card crippling repairs like last year, caused in part by leaking oil. So I reach under the seat to ... [More]
Had to laugh when looking through the paper today I found an advert for K-Mart. "Men’s 3/4 length pants" it said: "25% off!" Yup. Makes sense. My tea mug at work is rather less than spotless. It seems to have various ingrained stains around the inside. Evidently no amount of scrubbing with a soapy brush ... [More]
Public Transport Users Ass? Daniel, dammit, my name is DANIEL. I know I said I’d stop talking about this, but it’s too freaky not to mention. 1:15, I said I’d meet them. A couple of friendly journalists,going to a ministerial press conference, wanted to talk to me afterwards. As I walked the two blocks to ... [More]
Decorative, and safe as well: Condom flowers As the lines between new media (and I’m specifically talking about the web here) and old media start to blur, one might expect to see some of the attributes of the old starting to sneak through into the new. Like product endorsement, for example. Could this happen? Quite ... [More]
It’s about a year since, after being refused a Foxtel connection, I decided to patronisePBS-FM for a year by subscribing. Now it’s up for renewal, and I’m considering how I want to spend my minority arts budget this year. A lot has changed in the past year, and these days I find that at home ... [More]
Thank goodness The Batchelor 3 has finished. Now that was a show that I found seriously boring. I had to sit through it waiting for the Sopranos or Six Feet Under to start. And I don’t actually watch those shows when they’re on – no, I tape them and watch them later in the week. ... [More]
Yesterday another step on the long road to domesticity. Brace yourself for a shock. My friends will think it’s trick photography: me mowing the grass. Are you sufficiently braced? Okay. I did gardening. After a few subtle hints of the "Hey Daniel, did you mow the lawn yet?" type recently from various people, I finally ... [More]
The big men fly in the Grand Final. (Pic: ABC News online/Getty Images) I thought a lot about which team to support in theGrand Final. Eventually I concluded I must by default go for the Brisbane Lions, because I could not support Collingwood for the following reasons: firstly and foremost, they are Collingwood. You either ... [More]
Last night I trudged home from the station in the darkness about 7pm. As I passed a house, I heard a strange sound from the garden. Without slowing down I glanced around, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear I made out the shape of a man was standing next to the fence, and ... [More]
Yesterday an unexpected diversion at work: a fire drill. This theoretically consists of an initial "alert tone" alarm, whereupon John, our cheerful floor warden, dons his yellow hard hat and stands by the emergency intercom and awaits instructions, followed by an evacuation tone, whereupon we calmly walk to the designated fire exit, walk down the ... [More]
07:08. Mobile phone +61 4 ## ### ### turned on. Phone provider: Telstra. Owner: DANIEL BOWEN. Location: Carnegie. 07:10. Computer active from IP address 203.113.###.###. ISP: Netspace ADSL. User: DANIEL BOWEN. E-mail, web traffic. 08:27. Mobile phone detected moving: Carnegie, Ormond, Bentleigh, Moorabbin, Hampton, Brighton. Stopped for 6 minutes in Moorabbin. 08:58. Train ticket validated, ... [More]
Ate fish’n’chips / Walked to Chadstone / Tidied up / Pondered if EVIL BASTARD NEWSPAPER THIEVES are more likely to strike when one’s car is not in the driveway and one fails to go looking for the newspaper until after midday / Discovered how great drying washing on a sunny day is / Went for ... [More]