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Staying patient

My Firehorse horoscope on Facebook today includes: “Bureaucracy will be slower than usual, which will cause you to be in an execrable mood; but at least spare your near collaborators.”
I’m waiting for the bank to approve finance on a new housing investment loan. That seems to be a circular process which has no logical timeframe. [...]

[ More ] February 25th, 2008 | No Comments 2 views

Newspaper novels: The truth will make you fret

There aren’t many novels about newspapers. Stories involving print journalists are far fewer than those about lawyers, soldiers and police for example.
That’s a little surprising when you consider that journalists are writers. But when you think about it, we are craftsmen while novelists are artists. We ply a trade while they follow their creative spirits. [...]

[ More ] October 29th, 2007 | 1 Comment 3 views

If I ruled a country …

This is one of those five-question blog prompts. I first saw it on Synaptoman. The starting assumption is that you are the absolute ruler of a prosperous, stable country without any immediate threats, no poverty or unemployment.
That means I can answer this question safe in the knowledge I don’t need to interfere with the economy [...]

[ More ] July 23rd, 2007 | No Comments 1 views

Feed aggregators

I've tried quite a few RSS feed aggregators – software versions and web sites – but I've never stuck with any of them for more than a few days.
That's partly because I switch between Linux and Windows, home and work too regularly to build content and maintain loyalty.
I have found one though, called Gregarius, that I might persist with [...]

[ More ] December 17th, 2006 | 3 Comments 1 views

Pandora internet radio

Truly a remarkable and fascinating site is Pandora Internet Radio. It's the face of the Music Genome Project which aims to select music for individuals according to their tastes.
Register with Pandora and you will be able to create "radio stations" that play songs you like.
I was cynical at first but it really does work. I started [...]

[ More ] December 17th, 2006 | No Comments 1 views

National police certificate

I'm a member of the Hannans Rotary Club and it's now a requirement that Rotary members obtain a police clearance because we sometimes work with young people.
I think it's bureaurcracy gone made. We sponsor youth exchange programs but unless you're a host family (for which a police clearance is reasonable) we hardly have anything to [...]

[ More ] December 11th, 2006 | No Comments 2 views

New car purchase

Juliet and I bought a new Kia Rio today (pictured, except we got a green one).
We've survived since late January with only one vehicle. I let Juliet have the Suzuki on Tuesday and Thursday, and other days as needed. She either drives me to work on those days or I ride the bike.
It was getting [...]

[ More ] December 11th, 2006 | No Comments 4 views

Coincidence

Fate has delivered a couple of interesting coincidences in the past week.
Firstly, a friend I hadn't seen for more than 15 years contacted me at work. I met Carol, from Zimbabwe, at Alice Springs in 1988 and visited her in Harare and Kwe Kwe in 1990.
It turns out she has been living in Kalgoorlie for [...]

[ More ] November 18th, 2006 | No Comments 2 views

Victorian election

Political junkies will be interested in this article from The Age and will recognise the significance it holds for the seat of Morwell, which includes Traralgon where I grew up.
Several high-profile members of the Traralgon ALP branch have quit the party and one, Lisa Proctor, will stand as an independent and direct preferences to the [...]

[ More ] November 11th, 2006 | No Comments 1 views

Phone tone rage (PTR)

A Kalgoorlie Miner columnist, Kitty Prodonovich, wrote today about “phone tone rage” (PTR).
It is quite amazing how the repetitive tones from an innocent little phone can incite so much anger and frustration, but they do. And it’s not just the phone rings; you can also have different sound for message alerts and other thing. One [...]

[ More ] October 21st, 2006 | 1 Comment 2 views

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