29 September, 2007

I know I don't need it but...

I like gadgets. I'm a man. We like gadgets and tools. That's how Lidl and Aldi get us to go in there in the first place. How can you NOT buy a kango hammer at those prices!?! I got a soldering iron the other day. It was €7. How could I not buy it?! I might need it one day. Actually, I did need it one day, but that was about two months ago. I resolved the problem without one. But it might happen again and this time I'm prepared.

Since my ethnic make-up dictates that I have to be informed about the weather, and offer an opening to a conversation on it at any time; (Now reread the opening two sentences of the first paragraph so I don't have to type them again. I'm lazy like that.) I have a digital clock and indoor/outdoor thermometer, also from Lidl, for just such situations. It sees more use than the soldering iron, but it's early days on that front.

Now I'm just waiting for them to start selling these babies! I'll start forming a queue now, 'cos you'd never know when you might need it - and when you do, I'm sure the first thing you'll do is go look at it and see what it says!

26 September, 2007

A New World Record

You may be unaware that a new world record for the "World's Biggest Swimsuit Shoot" was just set on Bondi Beach. Over 1000 women in bikinis.

I must admit, that being a hot blooded sexist pig of a male, it one of the photos from the shoot that got my attention, and not some attention grabbing headline. Having admired some of the artistic photos, I did a text search and was interested to find this article on it.

The article is from a respected Australian news site. The whole record itself, I guess, is an example of the Australian beach and outdoors lifestyle. It's a different outlook on things. To further reinforce this difference in outlook, the news site posted the article in the SPORTS section!

I'm still looking for their Spot the volleyball competition.

25 September, 2007

Lazy Blog Browsing

The saying is that a picture tells a thousand words, so just imagine how many words from blogs you can get through just by looking at the photos that are posted on them. You can do this by using the Play function of Blogger at play.blogger.com

It's a nice little function which basically runs a slideshow of the latest images which have been uploaded to Blogger. You can get quite a mix of things popping up. From great photos, to not so great photos, to kids drawings, to medical diagrams, to pie charts etc. If you spot something that interests you all you have to do is click on the image and you'll be taken to that blog.

Grab a coffee, put on some music, and click on play.

19 September, 2007

What could you make with....

I like to think that I can be inventive; that I can think outside the box; solve problems in different and novel ways. As a child I enjoyed making things from left over bits and bobs - or course there was never an empty washing up bottle, spool of thread or egg box to be had but that's a whole different blog. Things from craft books and television programs. Of course most of them never worked out (but if you don't have the parts what do you expect). I digress.

So what you make with the following: a bottle of detergent, a piece of wood and a rubber glove. If you have time, you can also use a vacuum cleaner - but it is optional.

Me, I haven't come up with anything. I probably could, if given enough time and if my head wasn't still trying to figure out what this guy was trying to make with them. It's like a puzzle where you have a rough idea what it should be but you just can't see how it all goes together.

I wonder if he'd seen the device in the make and do section of one the magazines?

18 September, 2007

Practice yar ABSeas

Grab a grog you lubber, and look lively.

Tis almost that most sacred of days..... arrrrr....

TLAPD!
Sail on over here arrr....

All the Wikipedia!

17 September, 2007

Mild case of death

I just read an article where a Venezuelan man, who was in a car accident, was declared dead and sent off the morgue, where he duly came to when they started performing the autopsy (as you do).

I'm sure it was a huge shock for the guy. Massive relief (I presume) for his wife, who was on the way to identify the body and finds him sitting in the hallway.

I wonder how the pathologist felt when his patient moved and started to scream?!

16 September, 2007

At last, useful technology

I just read some good news that the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has agreed a new specification for Home Network Communication Protocol over IP for Multimedia Household Appliances.
What this means is that different household appliances will be able to communicate with each other.
Loads of practical uses such as the washing machine sending a message to your television when it's finished washing the clothes.

Of course, the television will probably reply it's got nothing to do with it, and that it should contact the clothes drier or the washing line. Then they'll start talking about the game that's on the TV and nothing will get done.

14 September, 2007

How to be a good father

As a fairly new father myself, 1 year and a week to be exact, I'm familiar with the daunting confusion that can present itself when a child comes along.

In Japan, apparently, it can be even more confusing for fathers, since they're mostly never at home with kids. They're too busy working to support their family. Their partners end up doing all the raring and most of the men don't realise what's involved.

So some guy has come up with an exam to show fathers just how much is needed to be know about fatherhood. They can pay for the pleasure of answering 50 questions and then find out if they'd be a Super Dad, or not. Great idea. Might open their eyes a little I thought. Until I read that one of the questions is
Who played the father in "Kramer v's Kramer"?
Obviously movie trivial is VITAL when raring children - you don't want your kids to catch you out with a trick question.
More on this here

13 September, 2007

Progressive thinking

I recently had the idea that the state (or even just my employer) should give parents the day off for their child's birthday. A novel idea, which has been well received by anyone I've mentioned it to (which hasn't included any members of government, or my employer).

But now I read that one province in Russia, that forward thinking saviour of democracy, has gone one better. They're giving people the day to make babies! Yes, the whole day - not just an extra ten minutes at lunch.

AND. If you (or your partner) happen to give birth in 9 months time, on Russia's national day, 12th of June, you'll win a prize!

Read all about it here.

07 September, 2007

Impulse Buy

A friend of mine (lets call him Wayne) is clearing out his CD collection at the moment due to space constraints. These things happen when you get a kid, and ANOTHER arcade cabinet.

He has boxes of CDs which he's bought over the years, but due to space constraints, and the fact that he has them all ripped to his PC, he's letting them go. It wouldn't all be to my taste, but there were a few titles which tempted me. Dunno why, since I have them already as downloads. An other I just thought, "might have be nice to have it but I'll probably not listen to it". One other that I wanted, as it's an excellent live CD. So there were 4 titles I wanted - kind of.

The one I wanted, didn't have the CD in the box. He doesn't know where it is but he'll have a look. This set me back and took the gloss off my impending spending. The "might be nice...probably not listen to it" didn't look so nice now. The other two, I figured, nah, I have them downloaded already. So I didn't take any.

That's the kind of shopper I guess I am. Almost impulsive, but then I think about it. Will I actually use it? Will what I have at the moment do the job? Is it just a waste of money that I could spend on something that I really want/need. And then I change my mind.

I'm the total opposite of Wayne. He is a marketer's dream. He has to have things. And stuff. Gimmicks, fads, special collector editions - he's the man.

For example, in one the boxes, there was a CD by a band I hadn't heard of. Didn't pay much attention to it. Went through a few more CDs and found the same one again. The only difference - the second one was a collectors edition with a second CD in it.

OK, maybe he really likes them - so much so that he's now selling them off - and just wanted to have a comprehensive collection of them. A bit like his Bob Dylan collection. I think it's safe to say that he has the complete back catalogue of Dylan on CD and is now selling it. I'd say there was about 40 different Dylan CDs in the different box. Including The Best Of...

Me, I would have just just bought The Best Of... but I guess that's the type of shopper I am.