Wednesday, April 23, 2008

NEWS JUST IN ....

FOB United have consolidated their win from last week with a second successive triumph at Stadium 34 in Moe. The Fat Old Bastards took a 3-1 lead into the half time break, and finished with a remarkable 6-1 victory over some other team who's name slips momentarily from this star-struck reporter's mind.

Particularly impressive were the two goals awarded to the illustrious captain - particularly the one that bounced awkwardly off his knee and into the goal much to his own seeming amazement.

FOB United are definitely the team to watch this season ... if only for a giggle.


Tuesday, April 22, 2008

BOOK UPDATE

I just updated the blog and forgot to update the reading list. I finished The Shadow of the Wind - which was excellent. Thanks to Lee for the loan. It's a book that ticks pretty much all the boxes - good writing, interesting plot, well-paced. I recommend it.

I've now started on another loaner - Passionate Marriage by David Schnarch. This is a bit of a self-help book for sex and relationships.

I'm still progressively loading my books into ibookdb - I'm up to about 400 now, but I don't think I'm even half-way there yet. I wouldn't be surprised if I top 1,000 books! And there's a book sale in Morwell in a couple of weeks - how am I going to keep away?

It's surprising how many duplicates I keep finding. I've got so many unread books now that I'm really losing track and keep re-buying books that I already own.

I actually picked up another bag full of books today from dad - who, somewhat more sensibly than myself - is now scaling back his bibliophilic operation.

(Did I really forget to include this in the last post - or am I just trying to keep the numbers up to cast the illusion of a dedicated blogger).

Monday, April 21, 2008

EDDY FATHER AND DAUGHTER IN SPORTING TRIUMPHS

Last Wednesday, which some of you know may know by its other name - April 16 - began a new indoor soccer season. FOB United returned from a period of intense training to take out the first game in an absolute nailbiter. This was a game with everything. People kicked goals. Other people kicked goals. The ball was passed around a bit. Sometimes it went out the side and had to be thrown back in. And didn't the crowd roar with excitement? Didn't they? Are you sure?

"Good start to the season" is what I imagine you to be thinking right about now. Of course we won the first game last season too ... and enough said about that.


Jesamine also recommenced netball the Saturday before last - go Gems. They didn't win the first game back, but they did win the second. That's a short-term success average of 100%!

And to celebrate - I opened Photoshop for the first time in
many many long months:



I also built a playground for the kids on the weekend. Suzy bought this just before Christmas, and it's been in boxes in the garage ever since. I looked at it some time ago, and suggested to Suzy that, being designed as it was for 3-8 year olds, it may not be entirely appropriate for our somewhat more mature children. I was assured it would be fine and was, shall we say "encouraged" , to just get the bloody thing built. So, four hours later, it's fully assembled - and barely supports the weight of our kids swinging on the monkey bars, and doesn't really accomodate them within the cubby. So it'll now go into the paper to see what of the bargain retail price we can now recover.

Monday, April 14, 2008

TIME MANAGEMENT 101

This is very much an impromptu blog entry, and let me preface by admitting that I'm very easily amused.

I am a mobile worker - which means that each day I turn up to one of four offices, depending on my schedule for the day, and find an unattended workstation where I can plug in my laptop for the day.

Today I'm in an office which, like many, has a year planner attached to a pinboard above the desk. The regular occupant of this office works with someone called Jack - and Jack apparently commenced leave on January 28th.

So, what do find when I look at the calender?
Jan 28 - Jack off


Now that's what I call planning!


Thursday, April 10, 2008

TWO BIRDS - ONE STONE. YOU DO THE MATH!

Today I had what can only be described as a flash of such pure genius that I can already hear the poo-poo-ing of the confederacy.

What are the two biggest problems facing Australia today?

Okay, now think of two other problems. Here's what they are:
- an ageing population, threatening a drain on our social security;
- a huge number of houses containing asbestos.

As people renovate/demolish/inhale their houses, without proper precautions they are risking asbestosis and that other one that's even harder to spell and pronounce. And the aforementioned "proper precautions" are quite frankly a tad pricey for the more thrifty amongst us.

Now, I may not be Doctor Lung, but my scantest knowledge of asbestos related diseases suggests that they take some time to develop. Were I not so confident of my own abilities I'd confirm this on Wiki, but I'm an ideas man - leave the details to those best suited.

So, we've got unemployed old people sitting around sponging off our taxes - and so old in fact, that they'd never have time to really develop a good terminal case of asbestosis (or the other one), before they die of some other "natural" cause. I think you can already see where this is heading ...

Old people earning their pensions by working in asbestos removal.

Two birds - one stone. You do the math.

No money spent on protective clothing, annoying filtration masks, washing, etc

I think it's a definite goer. Who's with me?

Thursday, April 3, 2008

BREAKING NEWS RE: THE MYSTERIOUS H.M. BROWN

If you've read my blog, or even just glanced over at the "What am I reading?" section, you'll know something of the mysterious H.M. Brown, a manuscript of whose I'm currently reading.

Well, lo and behold, said H.M. Brown was recently shortlisted for the 2008 ABC Fiction Award - and don't be fooled by the title, for ABC in an acronym, not an indicator of the level of writing required to make the cut.

Don't believe me? Well, check out this 'ere link:
http://www.abc.net.au/corp/abcfictionaward/winner.htm

Oh, what the hell. I'll save you the trouble and paste in the text from the site:
The six shortlisted authors come from three states: three from Victoria, two from New South Wales and one from South Australia.
Honey Brown, a young mother writing at her farm in country Victoria, has been shortlisted for her manuscript Red Queen. Relationships are of great interest to her, and are often the basis of her novels and screenplays.
I did read an earlier manuscript of the Red Queen, and I loved it - though I haven't read the final version, which I'm sure is either even better - or complete bollocks.

She didn't win, but did receive some manner of high commendation or such-like, so is a good chance of getting published. I could hardly be more excited if it had happened to me!!!

On the subject of books, I finished reading The Covenant of the Flame - by David Morell.
I think expectations are everything when it comes to enjoying a book. This one definitely has got the makings of a B-grade movie - but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Were I a pretentious wanker, I'd probably call it a "guilty pleasure". But I don't feel guilty - I just happen to enjoy pulp fiction.

The book is not dissimilar to The DaVinci code, both in subject and quality of authorship. The plot centres around descendants of the Spanish Inquisitors and practitioners of "mithraism", an allegedly pre-Christian pagan religion, but with many similarities to Christianity, including the notion a a virgin birth on December 25, and similar iconography.

The religious content is significantly factually incorrect, the writing is average and the plot totally unrealistic. However, the writing is at least unobtrusive, the plot well revealed and the story well paced.

I've now moved on to The Shadow of the Wind - by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

This book is on loan from Lee, and is so far excellent.

One final exciting bit-o-news. We got our new camera today. The old camera died during our Labour Day weekend at Harrietville, so I purchase a new Canon Powershot S5 IS on ebay. I had been hoping it would arrive over Easter, but anyway, it arrived today - and with 2GB SD-card instead of the 1GB that was advertised. Should I mark down the seller for "goods not as described"?