Friday, September 26, 2003

Caption competition




"Yes, all very fine but how do I change the ringtone."

MrT 9/26/2003 01:46:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

WCR Tickets
Scanning eBay for tickets and have found ticket pairs for the final, semi and quarter for $2,000,$800 and $300 respectively. What are the chances of England making it i wonder. How much would you be prepared to pay?


MrT 9/23/2003 03:59:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Winton Outback Festival

The What's on When website tells us that this week hosts the Winton Outback Festival. It's a shame we didn't hear about this a little sooner, as I'm sure Victoria may have considered entering the Dunny Derby after all of the practise she has been putting in over the last few days after eating something suspicous last Friday (my cooking?)

24-28 September 2003 (Every two years)

Held biennially since 1973, the Winton Outback Festival brings feats of strength and just plain fun to the small town in the heart of Queensland's outback. Dozens of events dazzle, amuse and amaze over five days.

For the active there are the Outback Ironman competitions (men, women and children's events) as well as both the Australian dunny derby and the celebrity Australian dunny derby. Now, for the uninitiated, the dunny is Australian slang for the loo. It may stretch the imagination, but a "dunny derby" is where outback outdoor toilets on wheels are pulled by teams of four while the jockey sits in the normal position!

Other inimitable outback entertainment includes the True Blue Aussie sport competition, the U-beaut-Ute competition (the best looking customised car-of-the-outback, the Ute), the world crayfish derby race meeting, the Golden Casket grand parade and the Mardi Gras and outback Aussie picnic.

Add to that an Afghan bazaar (the outback's non-motorised form of transport has, for 150 years or so, been the Afghan camel), a children's festival (described as a "smorgasbord of fun and entertainment"), a Firefest spectacular and the Aussie All-Stars outback music spectacular and this is a feverish five days. There's also the Peter J Hill art show and a truckies reunion.

First settled in 1875, when it was known as Pelican Waterhole, Winton is perhaps most famous for being the site of the composition of that famous outback ditty Waltzing Matilda, written by A B (Banjo) Paterson at Dagworth Station (just outside Winton) in 1895, with its first performance said to have been at the town's North Gregory Hotel on 6 April that year. Since then Winton has recognised its place as the "home" of Australian bush poetry with its annual Bronze Swagman Award. It's also the place where Qantas was born in November 1920 and, earlier, the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party.


MrT 9/22/2003 11:09:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Coppergate II
Have been reading the Evening Press web site to catch up on some of the events in York. Was quite interested in the car sharing idea, where you register yourself and the journeys that you make regularly as a driver and potential passengers subscribe. The service get you together and you share the travel costs. There was the usual trips to work each day, but you can also search for journeys to IKEA, Castle Howard etc. I was going to register, just out of curiousity, but you have to supply an unbelievable amount of personal information. I suppose this is a bit of a security precaution, but still will probably put the majority of people off.

I also read that the recent retail redevelopment for Coppergate II has been rejected. I suppose you can't really imagine that York needs more national chain stores and car parks. In the aftermath it seems at least that there are a few more imaginative suggestions, such as paved "Castle Quarter" that would be a shared public place for festivals, open air theatre, entertainment and other historical events. This is more like it, perhaps they could take a leaf out of Sydney's book. A public place is just that, with huge amounts of free entertainment each weekend, appropriate choices of refreshments, colourful, cleen, eclectic, imaginative, family orientated and generally non-commercial. If there are trade shows and food markets, then this is policed to ensure that the goods on offer are genuinely unique and locally produced. I mean how did the original "Farmer's markets" in Parliament street turn into the ugly overflowing sprawl of stalls selling cheap toilet rolls and mobile phone covers.

MrT 9/21/2003 01:11:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Idea Stolen!
Well someone has finally done it! Evite.com offers an online invitation service ( nice name - why didn't I think of that ). Looks like they have put quite a lot of thought into it ( apart from the bit about thinking up the original idea of course - which I put a lot of thought into and they STOLE!!!!). I registered and the templates look a bit cheesy, I was going to go for the more sophisticated approach and also register a group of the venues that a user could select with an easy drop-down. And they don't charge to use the service. Still it will be interesting to see how long it lasts, and how many millions the owners make themselves. Not bitter at all.

MrT 9/18/2003 04:20:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Down the plug hole
Today's new idea was inspired by an article I read on the fact that people in the US use on average five times more water than people who live in Australia. This can partly be accounted for by the Australia law that involves compulsory installation of water saving toilets that only flush with 20% of the amount of water, presumably to be used for number 1s or very lightweight number 2s.

Anyway, I was thinking about this while letting the hot water tap run for about 30 seconds until it heated up enough to use a bowlful to clean Joseph. All that cold water gone to waste just because it was sitting in the way of the hot water. Surely, there it must be more efficient to have small amounts of constantly hot water available? If not, then perhaps each sink could have two plug holes. One of them would redirect unwanted but essentially clean cold water to a tank that could then be used for washing up, cleaning your car etc.

Blaine in a Box
Although there is no media coverage over here on David Blaine's attempt to lock himself in a box for 44 days, we are following his progress via the Internet. I liked the site that details all of the attempts to hijack his attempt, particularly.

"Day 5:
In the early hours, two teenagers and a man shine laser pens at the box. Blaine, thinking that the red lights mean he could be shot at by snipers, panics. Security guards catch the trio and they are arrested. Later in the day, the Grim Reaper from the nearby London Dungeon says a cheery hello in full costume."



MrT 9/17/2003 04:21:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Watched the Only Fools and Horses Christmas 2002 Special last night, only eight months late! There's some classic lines in there,

Del: I love that Duck a l'orange. What's that in French.
Rodney: It's Cunard.
Del: I know what you mean Bro.

I know - it's the way I tell em.

Called the tax office yesterday to ask for my money, which was quite a good feeling. They said the cheque had got "stuck in the system", I will have to remember that one the next time my tax return is late!

MrT 9/16/2003 03:53:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Another idea and a taste for wine.
After re-organizing the photo album, I thought about yet another idea. It's called the Photo tree and involves creating a website (yes another one) that allows people to upload photographs. What's so amazing and unique about that, I hear your cry. Well, the idea is to upload a photograph with you and at least one other person in it. For example, I could upload a photograph that includes myself and Victoria. Or, I could upload a photograph that includes Joseph and I. Or, I could upload a photograph that includes Lucy and I. Ok, ok, so you get the idea. Well now comes the clever part. Once I have uploaded an image that includes myself and Lucy, I can then upload another photograph that includes Lucy and another person or persons. I then use the web site to associate one photo with the other, creating the first branch of my photo tree. I carry on, uploading photographs that are related by virtue of who they contain. The only rule being that two photographs can only be connected, if they contain one common person between the two.

Eventually of course, you might run into a dead end, where you run out of photographs or people or both. Well, now comes the even cleverer part! The web site allows you to send an email to the other people in your photographs, giving them permission to make photo connections to the images you have uploaded. So, if I had a picture of me and Lucy. Lucy, could then "branch off" and upload images of her own, thereby growing the photo tree that I had started.

There could be competitions based on the number of photographs in any particular tree and perhaps also for including photographs of famous people or famous places. I think it would be really good to be able to navigate around your own photo tree and would be a good way to keep in touch with distant relatives or meet friend of friends.

We've had a really nice weekend. Yesterday, we planned to go to Manly on the ferry, but only got as far as a Wine tasting event at Circular Quay. There was around 50 Hunter Valley wines to be tried and so we did our best to work our way through them. If you ever come across McGuigans Merlot in the Supermarket, I can heartily recommend it. The wine festival is part of Sydney's Food and Wine festival that runs all the way through September. I have my eye ( or should that be my stomach ) on Noodle Night, where all of the Asian restaurants have stalls set up in the Botanic Gardens from around 5pm onwards. You can just mosey along and taste different dishes from each stall for around $6 each.

As I said, I have started to organize some of our photographs and have decided to group them into Events, People and Places. Click here to see a preview.

MrT 9/14/2003 08:01:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Brmmm

Have been getting a few more design tips from Vic, although I don't think we will ever agree on a colour scheme, what with me being colour blind - everything looks a strange shade of green.

I liked today's idea from the idea a day website:

"Design babies' prams, pushchairs and buggies with sound systems that would play back the sound effects of more exciting modes of transport while the child is being pushed. A horse riding soundtrack could replay a gentle clip-clop through slow strolls and build to a thunderous gallop on more energetic walks. Other popular soundtracks could include racing cars and spaceships."

Probably more fun for Mum and Dad than Joseph!

MrT 9/09/2003 01:19:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

Redecoration

Well, I thought it was about time I gave the site a face-lift to match our new apartment. Once we've taken a few more photographs, it will be time to give the photo album a new look as well. It's amazing how much time you can waste, if you really put your mind to it!

One of our team recently left to go and live in France, his blog is really good and gives you a good idea of the highs and lows of starting a life in Paris. To think, we could have easily been in the same position eighteen months or so ago.

Still, I think we made the right choice, it's starting to get warmer and lighter in the evenings and it's only three months till Christmas. This year has just flown by.

Watched (and recorded), England beat France in the Rugby on Sunday evening after cooking a corking Sunday dinner for Mark and Aleta. I think they are the first Yorkshire puddings I've cooked that have actually risen. It must be automatic, as soon as you become a father, God switches on the "can now cook Yorkshire Puddings properly" switch.

MrT 9/08/2003 02:15:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

Goodbye Video Tape
Recently, out Internet connection has been going up and down more often than Madonna's knickers, and so I am going to try and type this one quick and get it posted.

Not too much to report this week, apart from we got a snazzy new video recorder that records programs directly onto a hard disk rather a video tape. Once they are on tape, you can burn them to DVD! We've worked out that we only need to record around 220 movies - and we've broken even!

Still haven't found a web site that has implemented the six degrees of seperation idea, although this one came close. It allows you to put any actor or actress in and it reports back the "Bacon factor" i.e. how many films it takes to connect your choice with Kevin Bacon. I have tried a few and I can't get more than a Bacon factor of 3.

MrT 9/05/2003 01:54:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

We were treated to our first free firework display tonight. Not quite as good as the one on New Year's eve, but we got to enjoy this one from the comfort of our own balcony. I'm amazed that Joseph slept all of the way through - typical.

MrT 9/04/2003 02:38:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

Baked Beans and Clothes Pegs
I was thinking back to our after-dinner conversation at Andy's wedding. After confirming where Duncan Goodhew stopped washing his face and whether he was actually up or down financially from losing his hair during childhood, we moved on to which Guinness World Record was potentially the easiest to break.

Well, I have been doing some research at the Guinness World Record website, and confirm that there does not appear to be a record for eating the most baked beans with a cocktail stick. I'm sure I remember seeing this on television and thinking that it was definately beatable.

Still, check out the record for fastening plastic clothes pegs to your face, only 153!

MrT 9/01/2003 01:12:00 pm [+] : Feedback!