Swandives

Ah, those Chaser boys - you can’t take them anywhere

Spent today in a fascinating seminar about collaborative initiatives in education. Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, gave the keynote speech and there was a lot to like about the entire day. But it was the Chaser’s Ten Questions directed at Mr Wales that really stole the show:

1. How are you enjoying Australia?
2. How do our computers compare to the ones in America?
3. Why does everyone in IT look so nerdy and yet you look like a daytime soap star?
4. Mac or PC? Do you really give a shit?
5. There are 1.7 million articles on Wikipedia. How long did it take you to write them all?
6. Craig Reucassel is a bit unhappy with the photo on his page. Could you upload, maybe, a better one for him?
7. My dog, he’s got this little scabs [? couldn't hear this] under his chin. I don’t know if you could recommend the number of the local vet?
8. Jessica Rowe and Peter Overton. Will it last?
9. Cracked pepper?
10. How do you feel about the fact that when I looked you up on Wikipedia this morning, I changed your page to say that you were a teenage drug lord from Malaysia?

It was funny because Jimmy was just about the only person who didn’t recognise Andrew Hansen so everybody cheered and applauded at the end, and poor Mr Wales thought we were all mad. I have a suspicion he thinks Aussies really are from another planet, because they also showed the classic advertisement about the rabbits in China which he didn’t get and had to have explained to him. I didn’t realise it was a cultural thing until today, although it’s fairly obvious when you think about it.
All that malarky overshadowed what was a really interesting presentation. And I found out that Wikia (the relatively new for-profit Wiki venture) has more than 12,000 articles about the Muppets! Now there’s a project after my own heart.

I notice the SMH has an article about the Chaser gag online at the moment. Boy, they’re the flavour of the month aren’t they? It’s great to see an ABC show getting that kinda attention.

Apart from being the world’s dumbest moniker evar, Web 2.0 has people buzzing around the web likes bees on speed.

Everybody’s trying to get in on the next-best Web 2.0 application, thereby proving (supposedly) that they’re hip and with it and ahead of the curve. I’ve been sucked into it all over the last few days and I have to say, I am over it. Big time. And the worse bit is how insidiously you can be taken in. So far I have:

• Finally bowed to pressure and signed up to Linked In.
• Downloaded a Firefox plugin called ScribeFire so I can supposedly cut and paste things to post here. Having used it, I can say it’s just as easy to open a new window or tab, and post that way.
• Joined in on a blogging experiment at work (I don’t have the heart to tell them that blogging is already passe). I am using a newer version of WordPress tho, which is kinda cool.
• Purposely NOT signed up for Twitter, coz I think it’s a dumb idea for people with too much time on their hands. But man, it has some serious buzz going on right now.
• Claimed this blog on Technorati.

I think that’s quite enough for now; I’m crawling back into my hole to scowl at the world.

But before I do, here are some things I am loving (no, it’s not all moan, moan, moan):

• The new Silverchair album, which is AWESOME, and more than a bit Splitenz.
• The new QOTSA album, in which Mark Lanegan from The Screaming Trees does vocals for at least one track.
• The Gretski show (aka Big Brother) is back on the tele! More on this later.

The Sydney Harbour Tunnel will become cashless on July 8.

That’s it. I’m getting an e-tag. We drove through the cross city tunnel for the first time last week (or was it the week before?). Hadn’t done it before for two reasons:

• Hadn’t needed to
• Bit scared coz didn’t have an e-tag

I’ve been yammering about an getting e-tag for a while now. So now I’ll probably do it. Although, some perverse part of me hates being forced to do so, and I’m beginning to wonder if I should just take a stance.

Incidentally, I’m also fiddling with some Firefox blogging plugin. Personally, I think it’s all a waste of time, but hey, you can’t diss it til ya try it. And it could end up like this blogging malarky, where I start off all bitter and twisted and actually find the whole process frees me up as a writer and provides a much needed outlet for venting.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Santa was very kind to me the Christmas. He bought me a PSP! Woohooin! So now I’m in the land of multimedia goodness.

I’m in sunny Perth at the moment and the weather is gorgeous. And very very hot. Perfect beach weather, although the beloved won’t go to the beach when it’s broiling so we go in the evening - I know there’s lots of grumbling about daylight saving but it really is fabulous! How can you complain about being able to go swimming at 7pm?

And the seafood! We’ve been gorging on prawns and crayfish and my new year’s resolution is a much-needed diet, but in the meantime I plan to enjoy myself!

We’re off fishing for two days from tomozza down south. I had no idea they had trout in WA, but they do. So I’m going to see if I can catch a couple.

And we’ve been hitting the post chrissy sales so I now have four more pairs of shoes than I flew over with! I kid you not.

We’ve been staying in Jollimont, minutes walk from Subiaco which I have decided is my favourite Perth suburb. It’s classy, not too snobby and a bit hip, and the houses are simply devine. All out of my price range, of course (isn’t everything!) but just really well designed. And huge too.

Speaking of houses, you hear a lot of talk about median house prices in Perth and how they’re second only to Sydney’s, but what they don’t tell you is that in many cases that median house price gets you a mini mansion. Like everything in WA, houses are, in general, BIG. I love the open spaces here - and the sky is so blue - the kind of blue I remember, but haven’t seen for a while, what with all the pollution and humidity. It’s good for my soul.

If I didn’t have a job that I loved in Sydney, I’d move here in a second. It’s not all beer and skittles - every place has its pros and cons - but it makes me happy.

Have a wonderful new year and bring on 2007!