Captain Pla-knit (he's our hero)

This afternoon, as I was walking back from doing the banking for work, I noticed something odd about one of the statues outside Dome Cafe.

The statues are of a little girl and her mum, presumably about to cross the road.

But what is that colour?



Someone has kitted the girl statue out with some brightly knitted stockings!



Oh, a card.

Just one thing

Yesterday, when Tony Abbott was talking about cutting Billions from the Budget, I said he'd stop spending on; Infrastructure, Education and Health (not in that order).

And today we hear that the coalition wants to Axe the National Broadband Network Plan (Infrastructure), Cut More Infrastructure (frustratingly including all of the things we really wanted in WA), although admittedly, everyone is trying to win us over on Education. But you'll have to do more than that to win the votes, people. (Also, this statement 'Education spokesman Christopher Pyne said Labor's scheme had "obvious flaws".
"I have four (children), I have three that play the violin, two that do the piano and two with special needs," he said.
"You know that as a parent that you need help for a range of expenses." What about the kids who can't afford violin, piano or oh, a laptop, you peanut and don't have the same facilities at home as their wealthier peers.)

Although regarding the Education pledges, it's like, W00T Congratulations, you say you'll cut all this spending, reduce our debt only to... increase our debt by making unrealistic pledges! Yay!

Some advice regarding computer accidents (especially if it's a laptop)

If you spill liquid of any description on your computer, DO turn it off immediately, and go see a computer minded person ASAP. DON'T keep using it until it turns itself off.

If your pet gnaws a hole in your power adapter (or you've mishandled it, and managed to break open the casing or something), and said adapter starts arcing, DON'T continue to use this power adapter, and DO take it in to get looked at. Failing to do so may cause your hard drive to fail when an electrical surge travels up the charger and straight into the main logic board (and through that into the rest of your metal insides of your computer).

And finally, DO keep a backup of your data. You never know when the worst is going to happen and your computer is stolen/the hard drive dies/or any number of other things happen that cause you to lose use of your Hard Drive. But DON'T Keep your backup in the same place as your computer. Because if someone has stolen your computer/your laptop has been a victim of a lightning strike/Some disgruntled person decides to throw your laptop into the river, you don't want your only backup to have gone with it.

PS. With exception of the laptop into river, all of the above has happened to people who came into work in the past week.

PPS. Also don't use FileVault on your HDD. It will protect your data from everyone, even at the expense of the data - ie, even from you, should you need to get your data recovered.

PPPS. Take care of your stuff.

I like to watch home improvement shows

Shows like Better Homes and Gardens, Gardening Australia, The Garden Gurus; I like to see their houses, into their gardens. I think it's a great place for ideas on what to do around the house and yard. But there is one thing that really bugs me, and even more so when I see it replicated in an acquaintances garden or house, and I don't feel comfortable pointing it out.

I am talking about the honking great Buddha head on your wall/table/in the middle of your courtyard/that your fountain is spouting out of.

My sister calls this cultural appropriation. Okay, so, you're not buddhist, this isn't your way of life, but all the same you feel you have the right to pick and choose from something you find "exotic" and "unusual";
Firstly, it's disrespectful on two levels;
One, You've got Buddha as an incomplete entity, in your garden, when you've got no reason for him to be there, other than you thought it looked cool. And it must be okay because you saw it on TV/in a magazine/in the paper.

Secondly, how offended would you be if someone from another culture (and religion) took a Jesus statue and turned it into a fountain, and then suddenly everyone had them in their garden? Probably you'd feel kind of icky, and feel that it was wrong.

Forget "on two levels" doing this is just plain disrespectful.

Hugo and Death

When I was a kid, I played a lot of DOS games. In some ways, some of those games were (and are) much more entertaining that some of our current games. Games like Commander Keen, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Secret Agent, Loom, The Kings Quest series, etc. (some of these games I now play on my macbook using an emulator *heart*)

But there is one game that I loved to play but never finished. A number of titles that included Hugo's House of Horrors. Basically, you played as Hugo, the title character, and sometimes as Penelope (his wife/girlfriend/sister/friend?) his female companion. Some thing would happen, the aforementioned haunted house, crashlanding in a jungle... something. And then you would have to try and solve the mystery. It was text driven, and sometimes you had to be very specific in your wording like "pick up the matches. light the matchstick" Many hours of fun(??)

Anyway, the other thing about this game was the fact that I always got to a point where everything I did lead to the death of the character I was playing. I'd walk through a field and get killed by bees. Accidentally run afoul of cannibalistic natives and end up in the stew pot, get killed by ghosts throwing knives, something. Or I'd manage to start a step too early, and then not manage to finish the game. :/

As an adult, I've come to the conclusion that the game was basically unplayable. But it still niggles that I couldn't win it. Ever.