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The sincerest form of flattery

2009-10-14T18:45:01Z

A few years ago, BBC Two's Top Gear showed this on their programme: http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/tiny-apeel

About a year later, CBS Sunday Morning brought us this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp6JalC5yH0

Hmmm...

samblob @ 2009-09-24T21:48:00

2009-09-25T03:00:11Z

Today I received this form with my newspaper:

I wrote the following on the back of the form (along with my address and my signature) and shall send it back to them as such:

2L with the Gleaner!

O______O;;;;

2009-09-10T03:07:04Z

http://comments.deviantart.com/5/27120093/1196677802

"What really bothers me about the media is that they still talk about Michael Jackson, but they've forgotten about Billy Mays. I think Billy Mays contributed a lot more to the world. His infomercials influenced me to write."

I am too tired to comment on this right now, but I want to remember to comment on it when I am not tired, so this is just a reminder.

I am reminded of a statement, reportedly made by a British policeman, that Princess Diana was so much greater than Winston Churchill...

42

2009-09-06T03:45:24Z

I'm not sure whether it's closure or catharsis or what have you, but I shall now give the answers to all the unanswered questions to all the quizzes I have posted here.

http://samblob.livejournal.com/89811.html

1. Post a list of up to 20 10 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/etc. that you've had an interest in at some time in your life.
2. Have your f-list guess your favorite character from each item.

1. Code Lyoko - Yumi, the responsible one, the strong one, and yet still vulnerable.
2. Azumanga Daioh Sakaki, as stated by alexiel_rieth.
3. Ronin (action movie) - Vincent, easygoing, loyal, and nothing if not pragmatic.
4. Star Trek - The Next Generation Worf, an alien in an alien society, no matter where he is. His ways are a bit too Klingon for the Federation and a lot too Federation for the Klingon. Ironically, he seems to have found kindred spirits on the Enterprise in the form of Data, with similar problems fitting in, and LaForge, who, literally and figuratively, sees the universe a bit differently from everyone else.
5. CSI - Crime Scene Investigation - Katherine Willow. She has all the classic stereotype reasons to be an Alexis Colby/Angela Channing-style *bitch*, but she isn't. She is, however, tough enough to handle almost anything anyone can through at her. Whether she would kill to save her daughter, as she said she would in the airline murder episode, is moot. She *has* killed to save Grissom, and Grissom doesn't mean nearly as much to her as her daughter does.
6. The Muppet Show - erm, I'm not sure I remember the answer to this one, but I think it's Statler and Waldorf.
7. The Magnificent Seven - I *do not* remember the answer to this one. I just know it's not Harry or Calvera, and I don't think it's Chico or Lee either... It's probably the old man.
8. Family Ties - Alex P. Keaton, the ultimate teen rebel. The only way to rebel against the Counterculture is to be as Establishment as one possibly can, and one doesn't get more Establishment than Alex Keaton.
9. The Adventures of Asterix the Gaul - erm... either Asterix or Getafix; I don't remember which.
10. Animaniacs - Rita, the cat. She does have some loyalty to Runt despite him being a dog and being stupid. She also knows that Runt will kill her if he ever finds out the truth about her being a cat. (Yes, it is obvious that she's a cat. However: [a] a cat would never free a dog, [b] Rita freed Runt, so [c] Rita is not a cat. It's just simple logic to Runt.)

http://samblob.livejournal.com/88180.html

1. Pick 15 of your favourite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions.

1. "Don't you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards. You think I am brave because I carry a gun; well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there's nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery. That's why I never even started anything like that... that's why I never will. " - Bernardo O'Reilly (played by Charles Bronson) from The Magnificent Seven

2. "Either you're part of the problem or you're part of the solution ...or you're just part of the landscape." - Sam (played by Robert deNiro) from Ronin

3. "Grim, grisly, or gruesome, you marry Griswold!" - King Roderick (don't know who played him... ^^; ) from The Court Jester

4. "He was the man who was shot at the Hotel Daniels. You sent us to guard the wrong man, Mr. Chalmers." Lt. Frank Bullitt (played by Steve McQueen) in Bullitt

5. "Hell of a thing to put on your passport, Occupation 'Mel Gibson's bottom.' " William Thacker (played by Hugh Grant) in Notting Hill

6. from The Secret of NIMH as stated by alexiel_rieth

7. "I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it. - The Man With No Name (played by Clint Eastwood) in Fistful of Dollars

8. "If you ever get hungry, our garden back home is full of snails. We tried everything to get rid of them. We never thought of a Frenchman! " - Hank McKenna (don't know who played him) in The Man Who Knew Too Much (the one from the '50s with James Stewart and Doris Day)

9. "I'll tell you what, why don't I steal the diamond, leave that old glove or whatever it is behind, and you and I can split the insurance." - Sir Charles Litton (played by David Niven) in The Pink Panther (the original one, from the '60s)

10. "I'll tell you why. For the same reason that there is a liquor store on almost every corner in the black community. Why? They want us to kill ourselves." - Furious Styles (played by Laurence Fishburne) in Boyz 'n the Hood

11. "Sit tight and listen keenly while I play for you another brand-new musical biscuit from the Hilton's empire. This a brand-new song they call ~~(name of song deleted)~~ 'The Harder They Come', by the man called Ivan!" - DJ Numero Uno (played by Don Topping, a DJ who called himself "El Numero Uno"...) in The Harder They Come

12. "Stay out of it. Leave us alone. Just forget the whole thing. Cause, if you don't, if you try to move in on us, the telephones are going to start ringing again and this time the bells are going to be heard all over the world. That's the message." - Barbara (played by Lee Remick) in Telefon

13. Spirited Away as stated by alexiel_rieth

14. "When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher's knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross!" - Detective Inspector Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) in Dirty Harry

15. "You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it's all about." Michael (played by Robert deNiro) in The Deer Hunter

http://samblob.livejournal.com/79377.html

I'll just say who they are:
2: Peter Tosh (lyrics from "Equal Rights")
3: The Stylistics (lyrics from "I'm Stone in Love with You")
4: David Rudder (lyrics from "1990")
5: Deep Purple (lyrics from "Highway Star")
6: Chuck Berry (lyrics from "Maybelline")
7. Cream (lyrics from "I Feel Free")
8. Neil Diamond (lyrics from "I Am... I Said")
9. Burning Spear (lyrics from "Marcus Garvey")
12. Steel Pulse (lyrics from "Earth Crisis")
15. Tears For Fears (lyrics from "Everybody Wants To Rule The World")
16. The Eagles (lyrics from "New Kid In Town")
17. The Chi-Lites (lyrics from "(For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People")
19. Third World (lyrics from "1865 (96° In The Shade)")

Ah, memories.

2009-07-25T23:51:04Z

This afternoon, as I was trying to clear my room a little more, I came across some correspondence from early 2003 that I really want to keep. It is a reminder as to part of the reason why Jamaica will not prosper, and it is a reminder as to why I have written off the existence of a particular individual.

The acting department head at the time, whom I shall call Mr. R. had circulated a copy of the minutes of the latest department meeting, which had been taken by another member of staff, whom I shall call Ms. W. Upon reading through the minutes, I replied to Mr. R. and Ms. W. with ten queries.Three or four of these queries were related to grammar, three were related to the contents of the minutes being at odds with my recollection, two or three were related to general paragraph structure and formatting, and one was related to the specific format of the minutes.

The reply from Ms. W. was as follows, verbatim but for the deletion of my name:

Mr. (my name):

I am not a professional Secretary, but rather an aspiring Engineer therefore it is no coincidence that my secretarial skills are not well developed. You on the other hand seem quite knowledgeable about this area so it might be a good idea for you to assume the duties of the Recording Secretary at subsequent meetings especially since your work load is not sufficient to keep you busy.

So here is this "aspiring Engineer" who has no interest in keeping the record straight, has no interest in proper presentation, and responds to valid, objective correction with insultive insinuations. The ethic of "anything worth doing is worth doing well" is lost on most of Jamaica, and very specifically so on Miss W.

For the record, I "seem quite knowledgeable about this area" because I had been the technical secretary on a committee whose minutes were part of a record reviewed by a government ministry, that had to give precise records, and that, quite often, did not have a recording secretary on hand. It was therefore often put unto me to write the minutes for those meetings in order to keep the record straight. and, as such, I gave it my all. I wonder what Miss W., the "aspiring Engineer" would have done in those circumstances?

With all respect I had for that individual completely evaporated, I replied as follows:

Ms. W:

I take it, therefore, that you do not aspire to know English, as most of the suggestions have to do with the proper use of our official language. Good luck with your continued ignorance.

Ms. W. left the organization within a year, if I remember correctly. Good riddance. I hope she eventually finds herself unemployable and starves to death.

samblob @ 2009-07-24T18:00:00

2009-07-24T23:49:47Z

So I wandered back here for old time's sake, and looked at the first twenty journal entries on my "friends" page. By far the most of them are from roll_soul and all but one of the rest are from alovelyhaunting, both of whom have explicitly stated that they want nothing further to do with me. So it goes.

The one that was from neither of these was from rayof_sunshine. She hasn't yet chased me away, but the acquaintance is dormant right now and it would probably be best if I have something of interest to say before I try to revive it.

However, just because someone finds me to be repugnant doesn't mean I can't steal a meme from him or (as in this instance) her, so here goes...

Stolen from roll_soul:

Rules:
1. Write down every letter of your name.
2. Then type a song that pops up in your mind in each letter of your name as the first letter.
~~3. Count the letters of your name, and tag people you know in that number.~~

S - Sunday Morning Coming Down - Kris Kristofferson
A - A Most Peculiar Man - Simon & Garfunkel
M - Memory - Barbra Streisand
B - Born on the Bayou - Creedence Clearwater Revival
L - Legalize It - Peter Tosh
O - Over There - George M. Cohan
B - Be - Neil Diamond

Lost, on a painted sky
Where the clouds are hung to the poet's eye,
You may find him, if you may find him;
There, on a distant shore,
Through the winds of dreams, through an open door,
You may know him, if you may...

...Be as a page that aches for words which speaks on a theme that is timeless
While the sun god will make for your day,
Sing as a song in search of a voice that is silent
And the one God will make for your way.

And we dance to a whispered voice
Overheard by the soul, undertook by the heart
And you may know it, if you may know it.
While the sand would become the stone
Which begat the spark turned to living bone;
Holy, holy, sanctus, sanctus.

Be as a page that aches for words which speaks on a theme that is timeless
While the sun god will make for your day,
Sing as a song in search of a voice that is silent
And the one God will make for your way.

Termites gone from the house; next is to replace the fascia and the ceiling bed. And to finish rearranging my room so that everything will fit in it again.

Jamaica Public Disservice Company strikes again!

2009-06-29T02:59:53Z

I woke up early this morning, ate breakfast, watched Hot Rod TV and Gearz on SPEED Channel, and then went back to bed.

I woke up again at about 8:50 am to find my radio's clock flashing at 08:22 am, indicating that power had gone. While I was setting the clock, the power went again. I called the power company and heard that there was scheduled maintenance going on and that power would be back at 5 pm. Oh, joy.

I did some shopping, ate some food, went for a drive to the airport, and had a nap. I woke up at about half past four and stayed in bed waiting for the power until about 5:45 pm when I called the power company again. I then heard that there were delays and the power would come back at 7 pm.

I called them again at 7:30 pm to hear that they were wrapping up and power would come back at 7:45 pm.

I called them again at 8:15 pm to hear that it would come back at 8:30 pm.

Amazingly enough, power came back at 8:30 pm... and went again at 9:00 pm.

Power came back again at about 9:45 pm, hopefully for good, although I cannot be certain.

Postscript: Power went again at about 10:10 pm, came back at about 10:20 pm

Jamaica Public Disservice Company Limited is a gigantic rass.

Beware the stupid and industrious!

2009-04-19T05:05:03Z

Quote of the day

A Wikipedia editor named MalcolmMcDonald reminded me of this quote, and I had to search long and hard to find it, and who said it:

"I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Most often two of these qualities come together. The officers who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Those who are stupid and lazy make up around 90% of every army in the world, and they can be used for routine work. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!" - Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, apparently quoted in On the German Art of War: Truppenführung, Lynne Rienner, 2001, edited and translated by Bruce Condell and David T. Zabecki

Variations of this quote have been attributed, without supporting citations, to Erich von Manstein and to Alfred Graf von Schlieffen.

I wish there was a way for Wikipedia to follow Herr von Hammerstein-Equord's advice and remove MalcolmMcDonald immediately.

Sarcasm or ignorance? Or maybe something else?

http://lanemotormuseum.org/collection/motorcycles/303-kamasura-250-vrx-1987

No, your eyes do not deceive you. The Kamasura 250 VRX, described in the text as having "refined and elegant styling" and "generous performance combined with flexibility" is, in fact, a motorized bicycle. The text probably came directly from the sales brochures.

What page 111 of The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle tells me about the Kamasura VRX-250, however, is: "It is only of interest for the sales technique used in the U.S. to unload them onto the unsuspecting public. By mail, people were asked to become test riders to help evaluate a new motorcycle. A free motorcycle was promised for just $367 in freight charges; the 'revolutionary new motorcycle' that arrived was a motorized bicycle worth around $150."

I am not sure why the Lane Motor Museum displays their Kamasura 250 VRX with the sales hype as the text instead of explaining what happened. Maybe they figure a picture is worth a thousand words and they expect us to get the joke. Or maybe they're just stupid. Or maybe they think we are.

TransTel television shows

2009-03-21T03:16:54Z

Back in the 70s when I was a child, JBC Television, at the time the only television station in Jamaica, used to put on programmes by a West German television production company called TransTel. I used to watch about all of them. Probably the most heavily watched of them was the football (i.e. soccer) programme Telematch, but the others included the science programme 01, the fashion programme Eva 2000, and... I don't remember the others... ^^;

A different kind of propelling pencil

2009-03-07T15:35:03Z

When I use the term "propelling pencil", most readers will probably think of a mechanical pencil, a mechanized tube into which one puts leads of a specific diameter, often 0.5 mm or 0.7 mm and on which a button on the top or the side of the pencil is pushed to extend the lead. I first used pencils like this at university and I have never looked back since. They are wonderful writing and drawing implements in my opinion.

However, I first encountered the term "propelling pencil", and the object so identified, in primary school (grades 1 - 6). This is also a tube that holds leads, but the principle is different. In this case the lead is about the same diameter as in a regular wood-encased pencil, but is short, pre-sharpened, and held in a plastic jacket to form a cartridge. The tube is full of these cartridges. When the point of the cartridge is used up, the cartridge is taken out of the front of the pencil and pushed into the back of the pencil. This action pushes forward the next cartridge, which is then ready for use. The process is repeated until all the cartridges are used up, at which point another pencil is bought.

The first cartridge in this propelling pencil is used up. It is time to replace it with the next cartridge, which is behind it in the tube.

Old, worn out cartridge from propelling pencil. This will be pushed into the back to push the new cartridge out the front.

The old cartridge is going to be pushed into the back of the pencil in order to push the new cartridge out.

Propelling pencil with the old cartridge partially in the back. As a result, the new cartridge is partially out.

Propelling pencil after the old cartridge has been pushed in the back pushing the new cartridge fully out. The pencil is again ready for use

I tried to find information about this kind of pencil online, and I have found that the most prominent sites about pencils, including sites about mechanical pencils, do not mention this kind of pencil. I am writing this journal entry mainly to inform these sites about the existence of this kind of pencil, even if only in their trivia sections.

Unfortunately, I cannot put this information on Wikipedia, as it would violate their "no original research" guideline. They also do not accept sites selling the product as sources, so this site selling them would probably also be unacceptable as a source. It is the first site I have seen that shows what I'm talking about here. It is described there as "non-sharpening pencil, plastic pencil, propelling pencil". What is not described there is the operation of the pencil, which I have described above.

I don't think I'll buy another after this one is finished, but it's been a nice bit of nostalgia. It also works rather well, as can be seen (roughly) in the sketch shown below:

All photos and drawings (c) the author.

The pride and the pain

2009-03-04T02:01:36Z

Thursday: I paid for the van and got a cover note for it. I was told it needed ball joints.

Friday: I had the van's registration transferred to me and handed in the old title for transfer into my name.

Saturday: I took my mother up to visit her brother. The visit was appreciated by all. So was the van.

Sunday: Did nothing that involved the van.

Monday: I drove the van to work and took it to a valuator at lunch time to get a more formal assessment than the one I got on Thursday. After lunch, I called the Suzuki dealer and was told that he ball joints were part of the control arms. I drove to the dealer after work to buy the control arms. I came home in horrible traffic, stopping along the way to fill the tank, as I did not think I had enough petrol to get me home in that traffic. Less than a mile away from home, the car began behaving very strangely. First gear, which had been quite all right up until then, was suddenly very tall, and I could not move away from a standstill smoothly without a lot of clutch. By the time I got home, there was the strong smell of burning rubber.

Tuesday (today):
I left home very early to get to the mechanic without much traffic, to avoid the trouble I had yesterday. First and second still felt suspiciously like third and fourth. the garage wasn't open yet, so I parked outside, locked the van up, and walked to work, slightly less than a mile away. I informed my colleagues that I might be late, did some work, and then walked back to the van, drove it into the garage, and left the instructions, including to check the transmission for problems.

Shortly after I got back to work (early) and was settling in, I got a call from the garage to say that I needed more parts. I walked back to the garage, took the van, drove to an ATM to pay on the credit card for the parts I bought yesterday, drove to the dealer to buy the other parts they needed, and drove back to the garage with the parts. During this drive, the transmission problem was still evident, and the burning rubber smell was evident when I got back to the garage. I walked back to work.

At 4:30 pm, when my work day ends, I called the garage and was told that the car would be ready in a half-hour. I called home to tell them I was going for the car and I walked to the garage, taking a detour to an ATM to pay off the parts I bought today in case the garage bill would have been close to my limit.

The bill from the garage was huge, but not as much as the combined cost of the parts I had bought at the dealer. However, when I left the garage, the transmission, which had been serviced but not repaired, was just as bad as before. By the time I got home, it took me an eternity to go up the short incline from the road to my gate. My sister came in behind me and saw the ordeal. I must have got the real first eventually, but it took a long, long time.

I am going to take the van to the dealer to have the gearbox fixed... at the end of the month. I have gone as far as my budget will allow. I will get the documents and the validation to the insurance broker and have them set up the policy, and then I will have the van parked for a month.

The definitive Joe Bar comic

2009-03-01T03:27:06Z

While looking for Joe Bar Team pictures, I came across the definitive Joe Bar Team comic. I decided to display it here.

All three links can be found at http://membres.lycos.fr/pkpbyronn/joebarteam/ , but here they are, displayed for the reader's convenience:

That's service for you!

2009-02-05T23:04:29Z

The browsers on my desktop stopped working last Friday, so I switched over to the laptop and gave out the desktop the next day.

The techs finished repairing the desktop yesterday.

When I set it up and started it... the browsers didn't work.

The life and death of J. G. Parry Thomas

2009-01-15T01:30:25Z

I present to you the tragic story of a young man whose employers' actions led him to an addiction that cost him his employment and, ultimately, his life.

The young man's name was John Godfrey Parry Thomas who, by the end of the First World War, became Chief Engineer of English bus and lorry manufacturer Leyland. He had also served on several government advisory boards during the war.

In 1917, Parry Thomas and his assistant Reid Railton were given the task of designing a cost-no-object luxury car. Thomas, fully aware of the development of the internal combustion engine during the war, set to work to create an engineering masterpiece.

In 1920 the Leyland Eight was introduced at the International Motor Exhibition in Olympia, London. It was a massive sensation, dubbed the "Lion of Olympia". Unlike with the Rover Eight, the number did not refer to RAC taxable horsepower, but to the number of cylinders in the car's engine. The Leyland Eight had a 7.0 L straight-eight engine with an overhead camshaft and hemispheric heads. It had power brakes boosted by engine vacuum and an automatic chassis lubrication system powered by the movement of the rear suspension. As such, it was one of the most advanced automobiles of its day, with specifications comparable to the Duesenberg Model A and exceeding those of the Hispano-Suiza H6B. (The less said about the Rolls-Royce 40/50, which had earned the title "The World's Best Car" long before the war, the better.)

Cars capable of high speeds need to be tested at high speeds, and Parry Thomas tested the Eight at Brooklands. Brooklands was England's speed headquarters before the Second World War. Automobile manufacturers and daredevils alike had garages there to develop fast cars for fun, profit, and experience. Bus and lorry manufacturers and engineers have no need for Brooklands, so Parry Thomas had been safe from the speed bug while his employers stayed in that line. But the Eight was capable of one hundred miles per hour, and the only safe place in England to test cars at that speed was Brooklands.

While at Brooklands, testing the Eight, J. G. Parry Thomas became a speed demon.

After developing the Eight at Brooklands, Parry Thomas demonstrated it there at the Easter Monday Meeting in 1922. His car was a short wheelbase Eight stripped to bare essentials and was as sensational there as the Eight had been at Olympia in 1920.

In 1922, Leyland decided to end their experiment in luxury car manufacture. They had built about eighteen chassis, and some of these had not sold. While Leyland had no further need of Brooklands, Parry Thomas was quite well established there and, when given the choice between remaining Leyland's Chief Engineer and remaining at Brooklands, he chose to remain at Brooklands. His severance from Leyland included several complete Eight chassis and all the spares he needed. For the rest of his life he lived in a bungalow near his garage inside the Brooklands track.

Living on income from his patents and from servicing cars at Brooklands, Parry Thomas continued to race his Leyland Eight there, developing it beyond anything Leyland had made available to the public.

Eventually, however, his need for speed led him to the ultimate level, the Land Speed Record.

In 1924, older and wealthier speed demon Count Louis Zborowski died in an accident at Monza. His estate included a Higham special with a twenty-seven litre Liberty V-12 engine. Parry Thomas bought this special from Zborowski's estate and called it "Babs". Neither the chassis nor the engine was the latest and greatest, but Parry Thomas figured he had the skill, experience, and innovation to make Babs run with the best of the best.

After much development at Brooklands, Parry Thomas took Babs to the Pendine Sands in his native Wales in October 1925, where they made no runs because the weather was bad. In March 1926 Henry Segrave set a record of 152.30 mph (245.1 km/h) over the flying kilometer at Pendine in his Sunbeam-powered special.

The next month, Parry Thomas and Babs returned to Pendine with financial assistance from sponsor Shell. On 27 April 1926, Parry Thomas piloted Babs to a new flying kilometer record of 169.29 mph (272.45 km/h) and a new flying mile record of 168.07 mph (270.48 km/h), breaking Malcolm Campbell's flying mile record of 1925.

Parry Thomas's records of 27 April 1926 lasted one day; he broke them the next. His new flying kilometer record was 171.01 mph (275.21 km/h) while his new flying mile record was 170.62 mph (274.59 km/h).

While 1926's attempt brought Parry Thomas glory, his attempt to recapture the record from Malcolm Campbell at Pendine in March 1927 brought him to his doom. Babs used chain drive to its rear wheels, and the right side chain let go and flew forward, mangling Parry Thomas as he leaned to the right of the car to see where he was going. Parry Thomas was killed instantly.

Sources:
http://www.parry-thomas.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record

World's Best Job! I don't qualify... :(

2009-01-13T12:28:33Z

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090113/od_afp/lifestyleaustraliatourismoffbeat_20090113032028

According to this article, the selected person can earn Aus$150,000 (US$105,000) in six months by:

* Being flown to Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
* Strolling the white sands
* snorkelling the reef
* taking care of "a few minor tasks", and
* reporting to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.

Qualifications - Applicant must be:

* a good swimmer,
* an excellent communicator
* able to speak and write English
* willing to talk to the media about what they're doing
* someone who loves sea, the sun, and the outdoors

Apart from the salary, the successful applicant gets:

* Free return flight from their home to Hamilton Island
* Free lodging in a three-bedroom beach home complete with plunge pool and golf buggy

Unfortunately, while I am a fairly good communicator and I speak and write English well (if I do say so myself... ^^; ), I can't swim, I don't like media exposure, I burn fairly easily, and, for someone who is going to be a spokesperson for Australian tourism, I'm not good-looking. A pity, because six months alone on an island sounds liks something I would try...

Interested? Apply at http://www.islandreefjob.com/en/ before 22 February. (The URL doesn't work right now... a portent of things to come? ^^; )

samblob @ 2009-01-12T18:14:00

2009-01-12T23:34:31Z

I was on vacation from the 2nd to the 6th.

I got the flu on the 6th.

On the night of the 6th, shortly after midnight, I woke up, drank some water, and went back to bed. As I was settling back down to sleep, my bed broke down.

So there I was, with the flu, disassembling my bed in the middle of the night. I put most of it out of the way , put the spring on the floor, put the mattress back on the spring, and eventually got back on the mattress and went to sleep.

I woke up late on the morning of the 7th (naturally) and left home without eating breakfast. I rode to Subway in Liguanea to eat breakfast there. They claim to open at seven o'clock but, at 07h20, there was a worker there outside waiting for the supervisor. The worker was still there at 07h38, when I gave up and left.

I went to the Esso station in Half-Way-Tree and got two hot dogs and a cappucino. I then went to York Pharmacy to get some Panadol Multi Symptom Non Drowsy tablets. York Pharmacy did not have any Panadol Multi Symptom tablets of any kind. They then asked if I wanted Cetamol Multi Symptom tablets, and I said yes, so they looked for that and told me they didn't have any of those either.

The only good news thus far was that my lateness landed me in the path of a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. I just hope I didn't infect her with the flu!

I arrived late for work. Even so, I left for about ten minutes to go to a pharmacy across the street to try and get some multi symptom tablets. That pharmacy opened about three or four minutes late, but they did have multi symptom tablets, and non-drowsy ones at that! Finally some success!

The day was horrible, to the extent that the next morning was spent at the doctor. I arrived at the medical centre at 09h25, gratified to see that it opened at 09h30. The medical lab there was actually open when I got there, but I was told that the doctor didn't arrive until ten o'clock. While I waited, I called a joiner, who asked me to call him back. The doctor arrived at the expected time. I was put on a three day course of antibiotics, Panadiene tablets, and a cough syrup. I got these at a pharmacy, I got some lunch at a cafe (where I called the joiner again), I got myself home and I went straight to mattress.

Friday was back to work, better, but still not good. I did not leave my house all weekend.

I was much better today, but I don't think I'm over this yet. I have not remembered to call the joiner again. I will try to remember again in the morning.

Writer's Block: Shops Gone By

2009-01-12T23:13:52Z

Woolworths shut its doors in the U.K. last week, sending many into a frenzy of nostalgia and bargain shopping. What now-closed store or chain do you wish was still open?

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Shakey's Pizza. I want a sub sandwich and an order of Mojos.

Highlights of 2008

2009-01-01T00:50:23Z

March: Car crash; no more car.

May: Bought brand new motor scooter.

July: Had an accident with the scooter, damaged shoulder, had to wear an arm brace.

August: Wore arm brace for most of the month, relieved of it at the end of the month.

September: Started riding the scooter again at the end of the month.

October: Sent to Mexico for a meeting.

I am still carless at the end of the year.

Fortunately, I was carless when the oil prices were at their peak.

Lewis Hamilton became the youngest ever Formula One World Driver's Champion this year. The previous youngest F1 champion was Fernando Alonso. Alonso had also been the youngest driver to win a F1 championship race, but he lost that record this year to Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Toro Rosso at the Italian Grand Prix. I love seeing Alonso being taken out of the record books. :)

Interestingly enough, before Vettel won in the STR at Italy, the last time an Italian-made Formula One car that wasn't a Ferrari won a championship race was fifty-one years earlier at the 1957 German Grand Prix. It was a Maserati 250F driven spectacularly by Juan Manuel Fangio in his last F1 racing victory. I have just realized that Fangio was not the oldest driver ever to win a F1 championship race and never was. Luigi Fagioli was 53 when he and Fangio won the 1951 French Grand Prix (drivers were allowed to share cars in those early days of F1). Fagioli was the only person born in the 19th century to win a F1 championship race.

With the New Year will start an uncertain new era. The world economy is in turmoil. General Motors, once the largest corporation in the world, is standing shakily, depending on government help to survive. This, oddly enough, is despite GM making money everywhere except in the United States. Buick sold more cars in China than it did in the US (not sure about right now, though...), Opel, Vauxhall, and Holden are thriving in their respective markets... what is GM doing right in Europe, Asia, and Australia that they are not doing in North America?

Before Dubya, there was Nixon. Nixon resigned halfway through his second term and was replaced by Gerald Ford, who was then voted out of office and replaced by James "Jimmy" Carter. Everyone had high hopes for Carter and saw him as a new beginning after the Johnson/Nixon-style duplicity. Carter, however, was a tragic failure whose ineptitude in foreign affairs exploded into the Second Gas Crisis and a massive recession in 1979-1980. I sincerely hope that history is not repeating itself and that Obama is not the next Carter.

samblob @ 2008-12-27T20:53:00

2008-12-28T02:03:51Z

Contact with most of those I knew from TVTome/LF has faded away, but between yesterday and today my contact with the founder of LF has burned out.

I often don't know when to stop when ribbing people, and I went rather too far into obnoxiousness in a thread about Minesweeper. Not completely as a result of that, but also because of the general drifting apart, I am no longer considered a friend.

I still consider LF to be an amazing feat, however.

C'est la vie.

No shopping

2008-12-24T23:21:02Z

It is after 6PM on Christmas Eve and I have bought only three gifts for my immediate family so far. One has already got it and the other two have theirs in the mail. I haven't bought anything for the folks I live with yet, namely my mother and my sister. I haven't got anything for my other sister in Jamaica and her husband either.

So, you would suspect that I am getting ready to hit the shops for some last minute shopping then.

You would be wrong.

I cannot think of anything that could possibly induce me to enter that massive crush of so-called humanity at the shopping plaza, especially in the dazed, half-asleep state in which I now find myself after trying to get some rest before going. Actually, I can think of one thing, but it would not be advisable to state what it is in an open forum.

Then there is the thought of getting back with the gifts. There would be just about nowhere for me to park my scooter, so I would have to walk back home. Right. I would be relieved of my gifts and my money by a knife-wielding miscreant within one hundred meters of the plaza.

I will do my Christmas shopping on the weekend.

Writer's Block: Long Nights, Short Poems

2008-12-22T05:15:41Z

It's the winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere, summer solstice in the Southern hemisphere, and Haiku Day in the U.S. Does that inspire you to write a three-line poem with five syllables in the first and last lines and seven in the middle line?

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No.

Blah

2008-12-19T00:34:11Z

Flu now and stomach illness last week and no shopping done yet and tons of things to do at work... blah...

There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning,
They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever...

...and I tried to find out what that meant and I found this: http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/verdal.html

Sore throat and runny nose coming back now...

Writer's Block: Under the Same Sign

2008-12-18T19:36:37Z

Today is chockfull of celebrity birthdays—Brad Pitt, Keith Richards, Christina Aguilera, and more. What celebrities do you share your birthday with? Do you find any similarities between you and those who share your birthday?

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I have the same birthday as:

- Huey P. Newton, co-founder and Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
- Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns running back, movie actor, and social activist.
- Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls basketball player.
- Paris Hilton, heiress to the Hilton hotel chain
- Hal Holbrook, actor.
- Rene Russo, model and actress.
- Lou Diamond Phillips, actor.
- Denise Richards, model and actress (same year, too)
- Billie Joe Armstrong, singer and musician with the band Green Day
- Taylor Hawkins, drummer with the band Foo Fighters

The Experience is dead

2008-11-13T01:53:19Z

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/61861061

Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, died today.

Considering that guitarist Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 and bassist Noel Redding died in 2003, this means that the entire Jimi Hendrix Experience is now dead.

And I continue to burn the midnight lamp alone.

Marcus Garvey was no prophet!

2008-11-13T01:46:07Z

"White men who have struggled for and built up their countries and their own civilizations are not disposed to hand them over to the Negro or any other race without let or hindrance. It would be unreasonable to expect this. Hence any vain assumption on the part of the Negro to imagine that he will one day be President of the Nation, Governor of the State or Mayor of the City in the countries of white men, is like waiting on the devil and his angels to take up their residence in the Realm on High and direct the affairs of Paradise"

- Marcus Mosiah Garvey, from "The Negro's Greatest Enemy" in Current History, September 1923

A copy of the article: http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/sample01.asp

The article has been printed as a booklet under the title I, Marcus Garvey by CMC Printing. No address for CMC Printing was given in the booklet.