New Pet, New Blog Post, Yeah Yeah...

This Christmas I bought Trish a canary, to replace a canary she had a few years ago which died of old age.  She'd been pretty sad about it so I thought this year was enough time to be over it, and found a little canary for her, not a gold one but a green and black little guy, and a cage for it. While I was at Panton Pets with my sister, I spotted a little black and white bunny that seemed quite playful and clever, and I was hugely amused by it.

My sister told Trish about it later, plans were made, and at Christmas I was told that I had a gift that couldn't be delivered until it's weepy eye had been cleared up...  So on Boxing Day, Trish and I were out tracking down materials to make a hutch, and the next two days were spent building the combination hutch/run.  Not a moment too soon, because on Sunday, Peta Rabbit was ready to pick up.

Today marks the first full day for it to call this place home, and of course the temperature is on the way up, a dangerous time for hutch buns.  But Pet has her combi in a very cool spot in the yard, and besides, she spent more time indoors running mad laps and kicking up her heels.  I took a series of videos, not very good because I'm using a still camera in video mode, and stitched together a short movie, also not really great because A) I have NFI what I'm doing with video editing and B) I did this on a hot day, constantly distracted by more antics by the animals.  Bear with it though, it's mildly amusing.

When I put the little rabbit down in front of Ghostie there, I had to cut the last bit of the video for the sake of his dignity - when Peta bobbed her head down, Ghostie jumped backwards and ran off.  Would never do to show that kind of thing publicly...  %)

Suffice to say, today has been a lot of amusement, and I hope the next few days don't get too hot for a fluffy little bunny - I'll be sitting the worst heat out in the bus and might allow the two animals to run around in there with me, Ghostie is very well housetrained and Peta has shown herself to be a neat tidy little thing, using the same spot in her run for a toilet, so a tray with some of that sand in it should keep her neat as well.  And the bus is pretty cool with the A/C on.


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OMGWTFFSM (go on - you WANT to know!)

Just saw this in a "year in review" article and don't know how the obvious OMGWTFFSM? reference escaped me at the time.

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(de)Press here for the best religious experience

And therein lies the key to why meditation and nirvana are spiritual concepts.  If you can find a way to depress the "S-spot" then you experience much more of a feeling of spirituality.  Since the S-spot defines your identity and sense of self, the more you strive to remove your sense of self, the more you will depress activity in the right parietal lobe, and the more intense will be your spiritual high.

Only problem is - if you are too successful at suppressing the RPL, who will be there to experience the mystical feelings?

But it certainly does put all the religious principles of selflessness and meditation in a whole new light now, doesn't it?


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NoFilter NoFilter NoFilter NoFilter NoFilter NoFilter!

THIS is why we DO NOT WANT Internet filtering in Australia.  Mr Conroy and Mr Rudd, please take note!

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Blog Roll Broke Roll Bah Humbug!

Blogrolling has been broken for so long now that I' just about given up hope.  But the announcement has given me a bit of hope, and made me stay from switching to another BR site just yet.  I have about a dozen blogs I either wanted to add and have by now forgotten or have added as bookmarks so I will be able to find them again once the drought lifts.

As you might see if you checked my blogroll in the days before Blogrolling crashed, I do tend to keep the list updated and add new worthwhile blogs as I come across them.  I was in fact about to split my blogrolls into categories when BR went down bigtime.

I figured I could set up a BR each for technology, cooking, greenovation, and general chat, and then put the relevant one on each of the blogs I keep running.  And yep - I manage to keep four main blogs on four very different topics going, generally managing to post between 2 and 50 articles a week between them.  If you haven't checked out the other blogs, take a look in the sidebar, they're all mentioned there.  You never know, you might find something of interest in there, heaven knows it's a broad enough range of topics...

Keep your fingers crossed that Blogrolling.com comes back up with a minimum of fuss and bother, I'd HATE to lose all that research and reading.  And in case I don't get your traffic again between now and the new year:

Wishing you and all close to you a

Joyous Christmas

and a prosperous

New Year!

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Bush served some good purpose to the economy before he left.

Noting the spike in sales, Serkan Turk, Baydan’s general manager, said, “Mr. Bush served some good purpose to the economy before he left.” 

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The Marketing Rules They All Ignored.

I'm just going to let my late father paraphrase "The Influence Of Arousal" section of this book review - and I suggest the author and the reviewer take note and next time, opt for the much more simple homily: A standing prick knows no conscience.

BTW I love the site and I really do love this particular book's summary - many of these principles are used by companies and sales people, but generally, no one company/salesman/product ever seems able to go to market while honouring all these principles.  Imagine if some smart company got hold of this book and actually did everything by the book - what a force to be reckoned with they'd be!

There are some pretty commonsense observations in  that book, things which people knew, 150 years ago.  If you appeal to a person's sense of honour and honesty, you get more out of them than if you appeal to their rationality.  If you treat people fairly, they will reward you with loyalty.

Problem with current products (especially companies wanting to appear green and/or internet-savvy) is that they try and blur the lines between economic and social standards, between free and perceived as free.  With so much dishonesty being displayed, is it any wonder consumers got ripped off to the tune of the Mortgage Market Crash the USA has just experienced and however much it cost?

Ironic to my mind is the fact that one of the least honest sectors had been the auto segment - and now they're reduced to bankruptcy.  I can only see the collapse of the current auto industry only as a damn good thing.  The Age Of The Automobile is dead, and collapsing the huge corporations makes room for new players in the field, smaller and more ecologically-friendly (it's to be hoped) vehicle manufacturers, hopefully wiping away the huge car showroom culture as well.

And if people continue to get such dishonesty and poor return from banks, who were another major contributor to the crash, then perhaps The Age Of The Shylocks will also be over and smaller more human style financial organisations will take their place.

We can but hope that the current economic situation will backlash all over the people who caused it...

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The Australian Has Shit Headlines

WTF?  The Australian needs to hire someone other than a fucking monkey to compose headlines.  This is the most disgusting piece of don't give a fuck writing I've ever seen...  I know Kazakhstani bloggers that write better.  Shame shame shame...  (Apologies to Derryn Hinch...)

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Speed Bumps That Don't.

Just back from a flying visit to Perth so my sis could do her christmas shopping, bought myself a cheap toaster oven so I don't have to endure the weird noises and stinks the electric stove oven makes.  Should be making mini pizzas or something else to test the new acquisition out but instead I'm watching a re-run of Rush and nibbling on snacks.

Go to this article on Treehugger and go on - have a good laugh at the picture, I did.  But the story underneath the picture tells how many GREAT ideas are coming out of the woodwork, in an effort to save precious ounces of fuel and kilos of emissions.

As anyone that reads my TEdADYNE Systems and Zencookbook support blogs knows, I'm all for anything to keep speeds reasonable and fuel and pollution levels low.  I even had a few suggestions, such as putting what by now are extremely simple traffic speed and volume detecting cameras at every intersection controlled by traffic lights and penalise anyone who approaches lights at too high a speed by changing the lights to stop them, and evening out traffic flows by intelligently adjusting light cycles depending on the amount of traffic in each direction.

If each little baby step like this is adopted and taken up, then we can and will be able to undo some of the damage we've been causing, one baby step at a time...

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Invisible Pranks

I think this would work in Perth - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_15G4Y11dY

Maybe even this - but I couldn't keep a straight face... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrwrQoRxzxo.

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Validate

Nice video, courtesy of Wolfie's World

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My Own Personal Bailout

I too have made a long and tearful plea for a billion-dollar bailout to the Government.  After all, literally dozens of people depend on me for their livelihood, and they will all feel the pinch if I go down the tubes.  Right here, is an example of that - how will you feel, having to read someone else's dribble, if I go belly-up?

The very wheels of industry might fall off, via some unimaginable butterfly effect.  I mean - my landlord and his property manager each stand to lose, so does Amcom (bless their hearts for trying hard to keep up with my Internet needs) and *cough*elstra for supplying my phone line, then of course there's electricity suppliers and shire rates and water rates and my newspaper delivery.

Then there's Woolworths and Coles and IGA and Gull Petroleum and Shell and Caltex and BP.  McDonalds and Burger King aka Hungry Jacks will take a small hit from my insolvency.  And all those specialty grocers and markets I support.  Who are they going to get their .037% of their income from if I tank it?

Sadly, the government turned me down after they took one look at my history of spending money unwisely, making wrong business decisions, exploiting my workforce, contributing to world pollution.  No, wait - that *was* the automakers...

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