tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:45:56 +0000http://simon.vandore.net/SimonBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-1483946430791589598Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:44:00 +00002008-03-18T20:45:56.044+11:00Passed about 25-30 new For Sale signs on my evening bike ride. Wow. The economy is turning VERY sharply.http://simon.vandore.net/2008/03/everybody-is-selling-their-house.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-6686115599771278667Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:46:00 +00002007-10-16T00:59:51.866+10:00Did this tough, long ride on the weekend for the third time in my life: 106km each way, bumpy roads, two good hills and 15km of dirt. Had good intentions of driving up on the Friday night and setting off early the next morning. I actually got to Hawks Nest on Saturday and set off way too late at midday for a 6 hour ride, with 6 hours' daylight left. Lots of wildlife: surprised an eagle and it http://simon.vandore.net/2007/10/cycling-hawks-nest-to-forster-return.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-272935722479984092Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:59:00 +00002007-10-06T10:58:43.487+10:00I mentioned oldschool Internet cool geeks and had to go look up another (Justin Hall) and I find he now has a company working on his idea of "Passively Multiplayer Games", as opposed to massively: www.gamelayers.com "GameLayers is to internets what lol is to cats." Awesome.http://simon.vandore.net/2007/10/what-lol-is-to-cats.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-6682430174195252937Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:56:00 +00002007-10-06T10:59:16.634+10:00These freaks are some of the original Internet cool geeks, the kind of people who were writing for Wired magazine in 1994, etc. And just about the only ones to keep going through the dotcom collapse and beyond. Now they've started their own Internet TV show. Can subscribe to RSS feed, download or watch on the web: tv.boingboing.net (not necessarily worksafe) I thought it was a good start anywayhttp://simon.vandore.net/2007/10/boingboing-tv.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-8035732868191098571Sat, 29 Sep 2007 09:54:00 +00002007-09-29T19:58:52.065+10:00How to cook kangaroo. Minimise the beef and lamb. Kangaroo is cheaper, better and better for our environment.http://simon.vandore.net/2007/09/important-lesson-for-all-australians.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-2093020711019657393Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:40:00 +00002007-09-26T15:28:50.827+10:00I'd have to post this. http://simon.vandore.net/2007/09/post-for-lin.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-116757316985762233Sun, 31 Dec 2006 13:52:00 +00002007-01-23T13:40:45.783+11:00Happy new year.http://simon.vandore.net/2007/01/happy-new-year.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-116406942014566880Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:34:00 +00002006-11-21T11:37:00.180+11:00I've got a finely tuned Yahoo!7 music radio station that plays what it thinks I will like, based on thousands of past choices. Really been enjoying it lately, so I thought I'd share.http://simon.vandore.net/2006/11/further-listening.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-113972112356628951Sun, 12 Feb 2006 05:06:00 +00002006-02-12T16:13:22.000+11:00The new picture at the top is part of one I took at Auntie Liz's 60th, at Duns Castle on the Scottish Borders. Highlight of a six-week holiday that included three weeks exploring Portugal and some time in England. The iPod to the right is a Wimpy Player skin. The unlikely inspiration was that Rhaluka had one. It seems pretty cool, but I'm still hesitant about paying the $25 for the full version.http://simon.vandore.net/2006/02/redesign-day.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-113967161919506520Sat, 11 Feb 2006 15:08:00 +00002006-02-12T15:14:12.543+11:00People should only blog when they have something to say. This is the second Internet boom; blogging is not the frontier. Anyway, I predate you all. 20th-best personal homepage in Australia 1994! BTW this Roots Manuva Rage I'm watching is the best ever, living la vida late shift. Stone Roses, Prodigy, Tears for Fears, even the Oils.http://simon.vandore.net/2006/02/2006-be-in-it.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-112821671514743230Sun, 02 Oct 2005 01:31:00 +00002005-10-02T11:31:55.153+10:00In 1999 I broke my London-Sydney flight in Singapore, postponed my onward leg for 30 days and caught a ferry to Batam, an Indonesian island where it was easy to go through customs. I caught a ferry to mainland Sumatra and a bus across to Bukittinggi (crossing the equator). I stayed for a week at Lake Maninjau, in a guest house run by a Muslim family, next to a mosque. Every morning I was woken http://simon.vandore.net/2005/10/in-1999-i-broke-my-london-sydney.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-111716251046697291Fri, 27 May 2005 02:52:00 +00002005-05-27T12:55:10.470+10:00Happy Schapelle Day. It's like Australia Day, except that you have to work. All-day specials on TV, gatherings at surf clubs, thongs and Bintang t-shirts.http://simon.vandore.net/2005/05/happy-schapelle-day.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-111499549955997699Mon, 02 May 2005 00:50:00 +00002005-05-02T11:00:02.843+10:00Well, it seems I'm not mad after all. A couple of years ago I reacted to the Rene Rivkin interview on Enough Rope by warming to Rivkin as a flawed, eccentric human being. Everyone else I knew saw it as proof of his awfulness, and that he was a bad guy. Yesterday I covered his suicide as part of my work and used a picture of his gold worry beads and cigar instead of a wild-eyed unrepresentative http://simon.vandore.net/2005/05/well-it-seems-im-not-mad-after-all.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-111318529190651698Mon, 11 Apr 2005 02:05:00 +00002005-04-11T12:18:17.340+10:00I'm going to start posting again, in short updates. The new pic at the top is from Fiji last year, had a great time. Wonder where I'll go this year? Went on two three-hour bike rides up north last week (had the week off) and felt inspired.http://simon.vandore.net/2005/04/im-going-to-start-posting-again-in.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-109677471160199320Sun, 03 Oct 2004 03:38:00 +00002004-10-03T13:38:31.603+10:00Yeah.http://simon.vandore.net/2004/10/yeah.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-106985764335515661Wed, 26 Nov 2003 14:40:00 +00002003-11-27T01:41:28.653+11:00Bugger. Now I remember why personal web sites never get updated while you do it for a living. I'm Producer - News & Current Affairs with AOL|7 -- that's right, a pipe in a brand name! -- which is Channel Seven (2nd biggest TV network in Oz) doing stuff with AOL (OMG my credibility) and AAPT (phones). And I'm happy. It's a buzz. Good stuff outside work: NoFX "The Idiots Are Taking Over" (http://simon.vandore.net/2003/11/bugger.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-106669960922517443Tue, 21 Oct 2003 01:26:00 +00002003-10-21T11:26:49.060+10:00Written a few good features since the last update. Started doing some travel writing at long last and I'll upload some tomorrow. Fun article about nearly dying while travelling :) George Dubya flies in tomorrow night amid expected protests. Wonder if anything will happen? I'm haunted by those nuclear nightmares of an 70s/80s childhood ... if I was Al Qaeda with one of those allegedly missing http://simon.vandore.net/2003/10/written-few-good-features-since-last.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-106297863280129573Sun, 07 Sep 2003 23:50:00 +00002003-09-08T09:50:32.620+10:00To do list: follow-up to a freelance photo-feature (that was fun), start on another, use car to help friends who don't have one, get the hell out of car and start cycling, apply for job in NZ, apply for job in Sydney, put Emma's stuff on the web, harrass people for stuff they haven't done for me, follow-up to a follow-up of a follow-up about some more freelancing, clean the house, go away for thehttp://simon.vandore.net/2003/09/to-do-list-follow-up-to-freelance.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-106256910059141228Wed, 03 Sep 2003 06:05:00 +00002003-09-03T16:06:49.163+10:00One of those long-lost cheques from a publisher arrived yesterday, enabling me to pay some bills, eat some food and break my DVD-hiring drought. The conditions: they must be movies I wish I'd seen, and they must fit an advertised $14 offer for two overnighters and three weeklies out at once. So last night it was The Pianist and Far From Heaven. Later this week it's The Godfather Parts I and II (http://simon.vandore.net/2003/09/one-of-those-long-lost-cheques-from.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-106256884292390963Wed, 03 Sep 2003 06:00:00 +00002003-09-03T16:00:42.733+10:00They revamped the interface and I was incommunicado. Back with a vengeance.http://simon.vandore.net/2003/09/they-revamped-interface-and-i-was.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-105675539566709613Fri, 27 Jun 2003 23:09:00 +00002003-06-28T09:09:55.690+10:00Postcards from another world. Gone now.http://simon.vandore.net/2003/06/postcards-from-another-world.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-95481364Mon, 09 Jun 2003 21:33:00 +00002003-06-10T07:35:34.000+10:00I knew something momentous had happened. This is too cool: "Sophie Monk is waiting for her suitcase in the arrivals hall at Melbourne Airport. Surrounded by fellow passengers, the willowy blonde doesn't notice the middle-aged man lurching towards her with the aid of a walking-stick. His wild hair and crumpled suit are the colour of cigarette ash and his face is as pale as milk. The distance http://simon.vandore.net/2003/06/i-knew-something-momentous-had.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-95362830Fri, 06 Jun 2003 08:36:00 +00002003-06-06T18:36:56.870+10:00Bold prediction - Kim Beazley will be Australia's next prime minister. If it's not him or Bob Brown, I'm smuggling myself to New Zealand.http://simon.vandore.net/2003/06/bold-prediction-kim-beazley-will-be.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-94932084Tue, 27 May 2003 08:55:00 +00002003-05-27T19:06:06.000+10:00Tuesday kind of looks like Thursday if you're speed-reading. Anyway, I haven't done much in the last few days. The rain came when I was ready for some sun. Today, I saw the sun outside while I was working. So I went outside and the rain came. All I have now is a monitor tan, there's not even a moon. Tonight I finally succumbed and plugged in the electric heater for the first time this year. http://simon.vandore.net/2003/05/tuesday-kind-of-looks-like-thursday-if.htmlSimontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348073.post-94725333Thu, 22 May 2003 06:42:00 +00002003-05-26T16:30:45.000+10:00This is like a Thursday blog or something. Anyway, I ended up at a wierd little blog called Evil Ninja and his comment on Star Wars Episode II made me laugh: "So if the glowering, hyperventilating and self-groping every time he talks to Amidala weren't enough to make Anakin Skywalker creepy and weird, we must always remember that he built himself a gay dad using spare parts. Nothing's wrong withhttp://simon.vandore.net/2003/05/this-is-like-thursday-blog-or.htmlSimon