23.11.07

Pondering: the "thoughts" of Barnaby Joyce

What kind of thoughts are we talking about here exactly Senator?



(Yes I know this is a little childish, but he said it on Lateline the other night and I couldn't let it slip by)

Asking: for your Movember support

I mentioned earlier in the month that I'm growing a moustache to raise money for Men's Health during Movember and I'd like to take the opportunity to ask for your donations/sponsorship/cash now.



As you can see, it's coming along - I look slightly more dodgy every day and I've apparently been providing no small degree of amusement to those who know me. (Which I'm fine with).

Anyways, it is a worthy cause - it focuses largely on research into mental health and prostate cancer as well as generally just encouraging men to be more involved in their well-being.

If you're in the neighbourhood, I'm happy to take money off you directly or you can just click on this button to do it online.

Movember - Sponsor Me

cheers and thanks

22.11.07

LOLing: webstuff

Len pointed me towards a LOLcats and PostSecret mashup kind of site, obviously known as lolsecretz. If you were wondering, LOLcats are the cat pictures with cute, semi-literate (because we all know cats can't spell very well in spite of their general sense of superiority) and PostSecret is a sort of public confessional.

This was a fave image from the site



Something else that I found online today was a comment about the whole Jackie Kelly Muslim pamphlet thing (which I'm loving, I might add - as soon as I heard her on the radio this morning trying to claim it was a Chaser style prank, I knew it would be a good day).

It was an observation really, that if you take the term Liberals and Nationals, you get an anagram of "Lies and no brains at all"

2 more sleeps.

21.11.07

Watching: Election videos on YouTube

These are variously funny, over the top, clever and slightly off - often all in the one. Still, I like the fact that people are able to creatively express themselves about these issues and publish it to the world - ideas-wise, this is a good time.

I found these all via the Unleashed section of the ABC website, which is a very interesting collection of rants and raves about election issues. (Check out anything by the resident Colonel Blimp-esque right wing ranter and Howard biographer David Barnett if you get the chance - unintentional comedy gold)

(Update: Barnett's latest column on Unleashed includes this pearler of a line, which I assume is unintentional -
But he doesn't need to worry about the challenge of the holders of temporary visas working in the sex industry. The Minister for Immigration Kevin Andrews, if he gets time before Saturday will root out the holders of temporary visas from the sex industry, including those working in legal brothels.


This first one has become a bit of a favourite target for parody, the video piracy message they stick on the start of all those dvds you pay good money for, only to be made to feel like a common thief.



We move into the longest string of cricket terms as sex puns I've ever seen. Throw in John and Janette getting down for some wrinkly sex and The Don and it's everything you wish you had never thought of before.



Noisy spruiker style message which runs slightly too long about our obsession with the economy and materialism. Tiny bit preachy but a strong underlying idea.

20.11.07

Writing: gags for radio



Well I said I was considering it last week and I actually pulled out the pen and had a go at writing some fake (and hopefully funny) news stories last night while I was doing the show. (Monday Sunset on 2XX, 98.3fm Canberra 4-6pm)

I'd been toying with one of the ideas during the week but the rest was pretty well made up on the spot in response to news stories on the Yahoo7 website (the only local news source that isn't blocked on the studio computer.)

Unlike last week, delivery came out fairly well, very straight down the line and hopefully a few people got a giggle or two.

I wasn't organised enough to arrange a recording but maybe next time. The stories were generally prefaced with - "turning now to Monday Sunset news"


Workplace Relations minister Joe Hockey today announced that 70% of all trade union officials are in fact evil killer robots sent back in time from the future to harvest our organs. When asked if this was just a desperate attempt to scare voters, he replied "You're one of them,aren't you - everybody run"


(In the initial, read-out version, the robots planned to "steal our kittens" but I think this reads better. I also toyed with "kill Bindi Irwin" in there as well but I thought it would need someone cuter and more universally loved.)

Greens Senator Bob Brown last night announced on Rove Live that he would turn straight for Missy Higgins. Missy Higgins announced that she was gay and she likes Bob "as a friend"


A report from the Department of Prime Miniature and Cabinet today confirmed that the government spent nearly $200 million dollars on advertising in the last financial year. Opposition spokeswoman for public administration and accountability, Penny Wong, said that the government would have benefited more from buying 200 million gags for Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer.


Labor I.T spokesman Stephen Conroy today announced that a Rudd government will censor the internet to fight cyberbullying using a sophisticated filtering system. Terms that will be automatically blocked include beep, beep, beep and earwax.


The Liberal Party has been asked to "please explain" why they are giving preferences to One Nation in a number of NSW seats in spite of a 2001 pledge to put that party last. Fresh from a weekend bonding with the Korean and Chinese communities of Bennelong, John Howard said - I'm not a racist, but...

Joe Hockey quickly interjected, asking journalists if they were aware that 70% of trade union officials are actually killer robots sent back in time from the future...


Two of the finalists of Australian Idol have backed away from claims
that the song they will release as Idol winner is... no, wait, my apologies, that's not news, that's trivia.

(Actually, in the back of my mind I'm wondering if I just unconsciously borrowed that from Newstopia)

19.11.07

Buying: a mattress



While it may appear from the title that I've bottomed out in the blogging topic stakes, this is hopefully a little more interesting than you might think.

The PC and I have had some bedding issues for a little while now - I'm a futon man, liking the firmness whereas she much prefers a softer bed. This has meant that neither of us has ever slept really well in the other's bed and well then you get the tiredness and then the crankiness and so on and so forth.

It struck me that if they can put the internet on your fridge (never quite figured out why though) then there must be a technological solution to this issue as well. (As much as a bed might be considered technology)

Working out how to search for it was the main problem - "different sided bed"? Fortunately, just trying the mattress makers directly brought up the solution - I'm not so much the corporate shill so I'm not going to name names (well not without some kind of financial inducement) but suffice to say after a little more research and a trip out to Canberra's bedding heart (for a number of reasons) - Fyshwick and a fair bit of lying down, a solution has been found.

The mattress in question comes in four firmnesses (as in the top image) and there were 3 options for what it's made off. Standard innerspring (cheaper, cooler and firmer), latex (better for allergies and more form-fitting) and this funky air-inflated thing that you can change settings on with a little individual remote control (see, there is a technological solution). So now my half is a 4 and the PC has a 2.



One of their promotional images on the website interested me on a few levels. The cat looks a lot like a very friendly cat that lives in the neighbourhood and comes to visit from time to time (we know him as the Ginger Ninja) and the other part is the questionable use of a Godfather reference in the horses head in the bed thing. (I'm sure it's meant to represent a whole horse but still... :)

Anyways, having decided to lash out on the mattress, we've also decided to supersize it to a kingsize, which means that a new base and sheets etc are also in order. Hmm, it's all starting to feel rather grown-up.