Melbourne Cup Sweep

UPDATE: I have now registered at http://mycupsweep.com.au, which is run by the TAB, but no details are available yet ~ maybe that’s a way it can be done.

Back the horse and get drunk too.

Sorry, I no can do

With apologies to Stuart, Rox, Baldrick et al, I have made a decision that it is just not practical for A.O. to conduct a sweepstakes on the Melbourne Cup, to be run next Tuesday. The reasons are: (a) How do I collect the $10 or $20 ticket fees? (b) How do I conduct an online draw that is not only fair & above-board , but also seen to be that way? And (c) how do I distribute the winnings?

Sorry folks, but instead of giving your $20 to me, put it on THE WINNER,  which I still say will be ALCOPOP. Tally ho.

Blogs are burning

Make yourself useful, Garrett.

Twitter sucks

So let’s take the Internet back!

It seems everyone is too busy on Twitter to write on their blogs these days.

Well I’ve had enough.

I’m calling on all bloggers to unite and rid us of the pest known as Twitter.

And what better way to get the message across than in song?

To the tune of Midnight Oil’s Beds are Burning.

I give you:

Holding to say thank you …

What about GG, Tim?

… with a sausage sizzle !

I’ve just read in today’s Herald-Sun that State Minister for Water, Tourism and just about everything else, Tim Holding, is putting on a free barbecue in Bright today to say thank you to those involved in his rescue from the icy slopes of Mt Feathertop about two months ago.

Unfortunately we didn’t get an invite, even though Mr Holding’s family stayed here at GG during the ordeal and we helped shield them from the media. I’m not really upset though because, according to the report, the invitees* are the 100 volunteers who were directly involved in the search & rescue operation, and that’s fair enough. But who knows, maybe Tim will drop in with a free sausage? I’ll get the camera ready just in case.

(* Although I bet a few freeloaders from the Alpine Council turn up!)

Are we doomed?

The WordPress stats page displays the search terms people use to find this blog via search engines like Google. You get some real beauties, like today’s gem:

is the world going to end by a tsunami

Um, not around where I live, about 250 kms from the sea. Of course this raises the obvious questions:

1. Is the world going to end?

2. When?

3. How?

Talkback blogging

Open thread for: Ranting, whingeing, bitching & generally cracking the shits

Don’t blame me, it was Rox’s idea. I haven’t had an open thread post for a while and, as I’m a pedant who likes all comments to remain on topic, there might be some other issues that YOU would like to bring up.

So just go for it – choose any topic.

I’ll start off with this little gem from the Herald Sun: Conditions like Victoria experienced on Black Saturday will be classified Code Red (Catastrophic) – the highest level of danger rating – urging people in bushfire-prone areas to leave the night before, or early in the morning, of a major blaze.

Comment: FFS, how is this going to work? Half the State is “bushfire-prone”, including this area. Where are we supposed to go? Having said that, I agree that people living on the outer forested-fringes of Melbourne should definitely not be there on days like February 7th, and should have been told to just go to the beach for that day. Different logistics up this way though.  

Over to you.

Twitter stalking goes mainstream

ABC spying on PM’s Twitter for news stories – how very dare they

There have been a lot of rather precious claims made by Twitter users lately that their publicly viewable tweets should not be reproduced elsewhere (like on someone’s blog) and held up to mockery, ridicule or criticism. Some Twitterers have even said that just looking at the tweets amounts to stalking or, at the very least, an obsessive mindset. For some reason they seem to think this particular stream of the Internet should be ‘hands off’ and those not on their following list should just stay away. Yeah right, like we shouldn’t read anyone’s blog comments unless we’re registered either?

Well, it appears they have been proven wrong, unless of course they think the ABC is also engaging in cyber stalking.

Another day, another tsunami

What’s going on? We seem to be having earthquakes & tsunamis much more frequently than when I was a kid. Today it’s Vanuatu’s turn, but why is this happening so often? Is it caused by global warming? Or maybe it’s the combined weight of an over-populated world? Any ideas?

I don’t believe it

What happened to Vegemate?

Who the hell voted for this name?

Vote “Vegemate”

It’s the best of a bad bunch

The six names that Kraft has chosen for its national iSnack 2.0 renaming poll are these:

VEGEMITE CHEESYBITE
VEGEMITE CREAMYMATE
VEGEMITE SMOOTH
VEGEMITE SNACKMATE
VEGEMITE VEGEMATE
VEGEMITE VEGEMILD

Polling started at 5pm (AEST) on Friday 2 October 2009 and ends at 12 noon (AEDST) on Monday 5 October 2009. You have to complete a survey to participate in the poll but it ain’t too bad. Vote HERE. 

I voted for Vegemate because:

1. It is very close to the original Vegemite name.
2. The new product is a close “mate” of Vegemite.
3. The word “mate” is another Aussie icon.

You know it makes sense. Btw, this is NOT an endorsement of the crap new product.

Daylight Saving & WordPress

I’m testing this out to see if WordPress has adjusted the time it puts against comments made on Australian blogs after we turned our clocks forward last night. I hope I don’t have to adjust my own settings from “+10″ WordPress USA West Coast Time to “+11″ because whenever I do that it adds 1 hour to all previous comments. I won’t know the answer until I make a comment on my own post.

Note: Dave from Albury  does not need to worry about this, as he has recently changed to the El Budgeto WordPress template that does not have a timing feature – tightwad that he is. Besides, according to Dave, NSW are not doing daylight saving this year.

PS: I just noticed that WordPress saved the draft of this post at 10.55 am (I wrote it at 11.55am). It looks like I’ll have to adjust the settings thereby throwing out the time recorded against all previous comments.

UPDATE 7.41 pm AEDST: I just adjusted the settings to +11 WPress USA time and guess what? It didn’t alter the times on the previous comments! Them guys have done it.

The new VB

It’s UnAustralian

If you thought Kraft Foods branding new Vegemite as iSnack 2.0 was bad, just look what’s happened now to our biggest Aussie icon, Victoria Bitter. This is just taking things too far.

Carlton and United Breweries have cut the alcohol content of Victoria Bitter by 0.2 per cent - ostensibly to save tens of millions of dollars a year in beer tax and prevent a price rise - while promising the taste would be unchanged.

But it’s not so. According to this report in the Herald Sun , many regular VB drinkers claim there has been a definite flavour change, describing the new brew as “yuppie beer” and “having no bite”.

Port Fairy plasterer Peter Glennen describes himself as a “career drinker” of VB but now says he is “divorcing CUB for ruining it”. “It’s personal … a lot of people view beer like a religion, and you can’t mess with someone’s religion,” Mr Glennen said.

God save us.

Event of the year

10,000 bogans, rednecks & yobbos can't be wrong ~ be there!

iSnack 2.0

Update: Kraft has dumped the new name after just 4 days following public ridicule. The company says it will now run a public ‘vote’ to decide on a replacement brand. Apparently Kraft registered iSnack2.0 along with two other trade names, Snackerific and Crackertime, on July 30. I don’t think the other names are any good either. There are suggestions that the ridiculous iSnack2.0 name was a publicity stunt designed to draw attention to the product. Hmm ….

Kraft’s ‘New Vegemite’ brand is not even original

The much criticised name for 'New Vegemite' is actually plagiarised from a South African energy bar.

Earlier this year Kraft Foods released its new Vegemite, not as a replacement for the old one but as a variation. The new product is a sickly mixture of Vegemite and cream cheese and, while it spreads more easily and is less salty, it literally looks like shit. Kraft ran a huge competition to give the product a name and, for some reason, chose to announce the winner (a 27-year-old nerdy web designer from Perth) and the new name – iSnack 2.0 - while Saturday’s AFL Grand Final was in full flight. Perhaps Kraft were hoping it would slip by unnoticed, which seems to suggest they knew it would not be well received.

September 11

There is something VERY significant about today’s date … Go on, take a wild guess.

What the … bus?

It's worth a caption ... but I'm just too gobsmacked to think of one.

I came across this photo at another blog I clicked onto. The author of the other blog made no comment about it whatsoever but I think it was taken in France (judging by the building and the flag in the background). I’m really hoping this bus line will open a franchise in Australia and use it to transport Collingwood supporters.