Steve Collis

2011 Silliness

2011-11-04T21:00:00.001-07:00

Silliness in 2011

It's been a year since my last post, and I've spent the year being very silly.

For instance I received this deodorant for Christmas in 2010, and have been using it ever since. Ever so gradually my amazement grew at how long it was lasting! Almost a year now!

I realised 3 days ago there was a plastic cover you have to take off first. Sorry for being smelly everyone.

It was also silly of me to watch 'Q&A' on the loo by propping up my iPad on a pile of dirty washing. And silly that when I later checked the clothes wash to make sure there were no whites in there, I neglected to make sure there were no Apple devices.

There's a fine line between silly and neglectful when you invest in a toaster specialising in crumpets and then fail to invest in the corresponding consumable.

It is non-ambiguously silly, after 35 years of experience, to optimistically attempt...

Silliness is a good description of trying to take a toy gun on a plane. THAT was a fiasco.

Still, 2011 so far has not been pure silliness. The architects of this handy office urn got it JUST RIGHT when they emerged from a 4 hour brainstorm session, trying to find the perfect title for the product that captured, on the one hand, the machine's abilities, without in any way undermining a parallel message concerning the low running costs involved:

Overall the highlight of these silly months has been one morning when I didn't just feel like I was one with the bed, but became one with the bed. Lovely, sweet, sleep.

Recursive Inside-Out Garment Nemesis!

2010-07-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

To me, life is far too complicated and challenging to spend much time figuring out clothing.

I love abstractions and philosophy. Clothing is at the bottom of my priority list.

This blog post is my confession:

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#1 Pyjamas.

I walked into Kmart, and bought the first pyjamas I saw. When I arrived home Rachel couldn't believe her eyes, rolled her eyes, and has been giving me grief ever since.

This is why:

Happy monkeys! Yay!

What's wrong with fluorescent orange PJs with happy monkeys and bananas? I'm 34 years old, I don't need to worry about fashion when asleep, do I?

I only noticed a few moments ago when I took this photograph, that the arm sleeve is badly ripped. I don't notice these things.

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#2 Shoes + Artliners

Some would say you can't go wrong with shoes. Rachel helped me buy a normal, non-monkeys-and-bananas black pair to wear at work. The problem came after many months when they became scruffy and the black faded to gray/white.

Yes I have heard of polishing, and I've even succeeded in the past. It just seems like too much effort for mere clothing.

So, genius that I am, I grabbed a permanent black marker and coloured the white bits in instead.

They haven't looked quite normal since. This is their current state - you can see the fading ink:

I'll have to polish them I suppose.

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#3 The wrong trousers.

Every now and then I have a moment where I gain new insight into my clothing-impoverishing brain.

I snuck out the back this morning in my undies to fetch my jeans from the line. There they were:

I went back inside and put them on. They wouldn't go on. I didn't understand. Had they shrunk? I kept trying to pull them on.

I said "Rachel, I think I have the wrong jeans."

Indeed, here are my real jeans:

Here are Rachel's jeans in comparison to my jeans.

It just took me more time than it ought to to figure it out, that's all.

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#4 My nemesis:

the jumper that is SUPPOSED to look inside out.

Rachel bought this for me in one of her occasional attempts to reform me. It was a mistake from the start.

The rule I have in my head is this: "I know the jumper is on properly when it looks inside out. That's what this jumper is. It's an inside-out-jumper."

This is what it looks like, by the way:

It looks inside-out right? How cool, you're saying!

But the problem is, if I turn it the other way around it looks EVEN COOLER, to my eyes, AND you can see the tag that way, which is what you're supposed to be able to see when your jumper is on inside-out, right? See where I am heading? So this way around, to me it looks inside out, and nice and smart:

(See the tag on the lower-left...? See...? It's inside-out, right? i.e. the right way to wear it?)

Add to this the fact that the jumper is relatively symmetrical on the back-to-front axis as well, and you have my nemesis. I wear it correctly about 25% of the time. The other 75% of the time, if I'm lucky, Rachel notices and says:

"Steve! You've got the inside-out jumper on inside-out!"

Obviously, I reply: "But that's they you SAID I should wear it!"

Nothing good ever comes from this conversation, as you might imagine. In the end I do what she recommends.

Adventures of Steve Collis in 2010

2010-07-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

Bits and pieces from 2010 so far.

Advertising

Let me start with advertising. I must note I grew up with dad yelling "mental midgets!" at the television screen. I am now equally narky with the media. There must be a gene for it. I can't bear turning the tellie on at all nowadays.

Anyway, exhibit A

Long overdue! My cokes have been slipping out of my hands for years! Finally, some decent tread!

Exhibit B

The Simpsons keep doing that joke. So art is imitating art, I suppose. Argh, also, while we're at it, why capitalise 'New'?

Exhibit C

This is what I found at Centrepoint Tower in Sydney. Seems you can't go up the tower without also investing in a newspaper. It is hardly free, if they add it to your ticket price, is it?

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Art

In other news, while on school camp with Year 10, we ended up camping on Cockatoo Island on Sydney Harbour. By sheer luck there was a huge art exhibition on the island at the time. The exhibition is called "Biennale" and this is its 17th year.

Exhibit a: crap art

Just some metal balls strewn across a deserted room.

I don't really mean it is crap art - I'm insulting myself for not being to access it. I guess if I could be bothered posting it here then it must mean something to me.

Exhibit b: great art

There were 9 or 10 screens in an otherwise dark warehouse. The screens often showed different footage, or were dark, or all showed the same footage... all deliberate and making up one overall film. I loved every second of it. It was by Isaac Julien and called Ten Thousand Waves.

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Real Life

In other news, I got in a car on Saturday and drove to Bourke. Bourke is a small country town on the edge of the proper Australian 'outback' where the roads become unsealed and the land becomes scrub, tending to desert.

It's a very long drive - over 800 km from Sydney, or about 10 hours drive.

It was worth it. After arriving at Bourke, I promptly drove another 30 km down a perfectly straight unsealed road heading west:

Then, I parked the car and headed off into the scrub with my guitar. Pure bliss.

The sun set, the shadows lengthened.

On the drive back to Bourke, at dusk, I shared the dusty road with various families of kangaroos, and one silly bunny rabbit. No photos, unfortunately.

There is an artificial above ground reservoir not too far from Bourke, just where the road goes from sealed to unsealed. You may be surprised to hear I am not a professional photographer, and that these shots are from my crummy mobile phone.

Anyway:

Maybe you had to be there. It was gorgeous. I shared the view with a fox.

I drove home in one go, arriving home at 9pm, smelly and sick of cars. Then I booted up the computer and played Test Drive Unlimited. Simulcra and simulation!

That's enough for now.

How to Play the Trolololololo Song

2010-04-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

Ok first here is my unplugged acoustic version of the trolololololo song:

The original is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NGSl3CldFY

A version with words (although he doesn't use words, he just sings 'lolololo' because the song was censored): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z4m4lnjxkY

My challenge to you is to record your own version of the Trololololo song. Respond to my video above with your own version of it on guitar, piano, or whatever instrument, or even just a part of it.

Submit your version as a response to my version at the top of this page.

In this quick tutorial video, below, I show you how to play it on guitar:

The chords are:

Opening riff: Dm7 C Dm7 C Dm7 C Dm7 C
Then: C Dm7 Em Dm7 C Dm7 Em Dm7 (Or to keep things simple, just play 'C')
Then: Am Em C

Then: G C

And then it repeats, moved up a semitone, over and over, returning back to G -> C for the last couple of lines of the song.

And here are the words all together: (see also: http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2010/03/trololo-lyrics.html)

UK Snow - Some Peculiar Sights

2010-01-07T01:52:00.000-08:00

Twitter has been buzzing about it, politicians have been denying it, the Americans have been invading it, the Larger Hadron Collider has been accelerating balls of it towards other balls of it, Rolf Harris has been singing about it, journalists can't shut up about it and magicians can't make it disappear. What is it?

UK SNOW! UK SNOW! UK SNOW! Heaps of the stuff, more than for 20 years.

Some strange sights

Dog sled:

Hardcore professional cyclist

(in the middle of nowhere, riding very slowly and looking very puffed.)

A forlon and depressed swimming pool. (Ever feel like this?)

Can you read the signs in the snow...?

...that's right, a boy bird was walking towards a girl bird's house to declare his love, and then chickened out and turned back home!

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Rachel and I walked to Thornbury Castle and were inspired by these snowmen:

We both started making big snow balls.

The snow man we each made tells you A LOT about our personalities.

Here is my one:

Rachel's:

Both together:

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In other news, Rachel had a sip of water from a bottle of only slightly smaller than herself.

In other news, we walked across the Severn bridge with my uncle and saw a gorgeous sunset.

In other news, I would like to announce, here at stevecollis.blogspot.com, a new invention! You fancy a boiled egg or two for breakfast, do you? But you don't have an egg cup, ay? Not a problem! Put two bits of toast on top of each other and dig two egg cups into them with a spoon. As you eat the eggs, eat your way through the toast! See below: ingenious!

My Top #6 Observations about Germany

2009-12-17T03:06:00.000-08:00

1. They sometimes have very, very small cars!

2. The German word for mobile phone is "handy". Cute...

3. They have a breakfast cereal called "shove it"!

4. Bremen is unbelievably beautiful, and I am a beautiful photographer:

City at night:

Countryside outside Bremen this morning:

Bremen train station:

Bremen traffic is amazingly quiet (press play and see what happens!):

A quaint little village we visited yesterday:

Does something strike you as a little odd about all these photos and the video?

............

GUESS WHAT!?? I've been pulling your leg, they're actually from this place: http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ the biggest minature world in the, well, world! It's in Hamburg! (Leave a comment or tweet me if I tricked you with the photos!)

5. The incredible German industrial capacity (largest exporters in the world) is pretty obvious in Hamburg:

I must say, Hamburg is the most awful, ugly city I have ever visited. There's an excuse - the original city was wiped from the face of the earth in WW2 by Britain.

6. Did I mention glühwein (yummy hot drink) and the Christmas markets?I am somewhat of a connoisseur, having seen the markets in Hamburg, Bremen and Celle. They're all the same; they must be franchises or something. I love them - I've been to one every single day, and love just watching the crowds!

Tonight we catch a midnight bus and arrive at 8am in Paris. Ciao for now!

Germany, Part 1

2009-12-14T00:45:00.001-08:00

No tome, just random bits. (We're in Germany for a few days!)

A dodgy shot of the Christmas markets that I can't shut up about on Twitter:

The markets weave in and out of alleys and wide spaces. They're packed out, & everyone is in thick coats that are constantly brushing others, like bubbles. Every 5th shop is actually selling fatty surprises... strange deep fried potato concoctions, steaks roasting on shields hung from the ceiling and rotating over an open fire, German donuts, SAUSAGES of every type and size, and so on.

Everyone is German - almost no tourists. Hilarious to see this HUGE sausage sandwiched in a tiny little bun that is nothing more than a handle.

Then I saw someone eating this:

Three little sausages, no bread at all. YES PLEASE!

Washed down with hot German wine.

Here are my Twitter updates so far:

at Sydney airport, off to Germany with @rachel_collis...24 hrs to go!6:52 PM Dec 9th from mobile web

http://twitpic.com/svlc9 - Me at the airport!6:59 PM Dec 9th from TwitPic

man near us left his luggage unattended & got told off!7:22 PM Dec 9th from mobile web

After a blissfully easy flight (notwithstanding its length - but I slept 8 out of the 21 hours) we are in Bremen!12:19 AM Dec 11th from web

Just went to the Christmas markets in Bremen! I WANT TO MOVE HERE AND LIVE HERE FOREVER!!! Deep fried camembert... you do the math!4:55 AM Dec 11th from TweetDeck

slept for 12 hours! Second day in Bremen! Agenda: sights, gluehwein, afternoon tea with old friends, then dinner with old friends!11:07 PM Dec 11th from TweetDeck

About to engage in social German for the next 6 hours or so!5:58 AM Dec 12th from TweetDeck

exhausted but can't get enough of this German language. Time out this afternoon by myself, plus maybe Christmas carol film in Bremen cinema.about 20 hours ago from TweetDeck

collapsed in bed for an hour in fetal position. Partially recharged. OK! Off to the Weihnnachtsmarkt & then a Chrissie film in German.about 19 hours ago from TweetDeck

So, doesn't look like there are any teachers in Bremen on Twitter...26 minutes ago from TweetDeck

2009-12-01T16:30:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas my brother game me "101 Cool Science Experiments" in a kind gesture invoking my childhood when I was obsessed with all things science. It's a great little book, but I think it's fair to say the authors had trouble coming up with 101 experiments.

A case in point, experiment number 66:

"Take a slice of cheese and pull on the edges. Does it tear apart? Good, now eat it."

I'm being a bit harsh, I suppose. At least the materials aren't dangerous: "You will need: pre-sliced manufactured cheese (the smooth type that comes individually wrapped in plastic."

In other news, a posh tea parlor at Hornsby shopping centre advertises itself as "Hi Tea"!! I want to reply, "o, hai!"

O, hai, tea!

Finally, we purchased a little bed for our poor cat Timo, who has been locked in the laundry for a few weeks now every night without a proper bed (he outgrew his little cat box).

This 4 minute video, for the unemployed among you who have more time than sense, shows little Timo attacking his new bed, me sneezing, and finally getting into it in a very cute scene worthy of an oscar (at the 2.30 mark if you're employed and short of time).

Amusing Incidents at Woollies

2009-10-04T22:17:00.000-07:00

Went to the shops for dinner ingredients (& duck paté).

A mum, dad and 4 year old were walking behind me in the supermarket.

I kid you not:

Kid : paahhhhh! paaaahs!

Mum : Stop whinging and whining.

Kid : 'pah' 'I want paaaahs'

Mum screams back: STOP IT NOW!

Kid stops a moment.

Kid : pahhhhhns!

I'm confused as to what this is all about, until...

Mum: You're NOT having prawns for dinner!

Kid: PAAWWWWNS!!

Not everyday you hear a 4 year old screaming for prawns. Then, to my disbelief...

Mum: OH ALRIGHT! If we get you prawns will you stop your whinging?

Kid: ...yes.

Mum: Really? You will stop all your whinging and whining?

Kid: Yes.

Mum: Ok go with your Dad and get some prawns.

Kid walks happily the other way with Dad.

The last thing I heard as they walked off, was the kid, insistent to dad:

"...I get to choose which ones."

As if on a theme, two minutes later in another aisle, another kid, older, said to his friend "Let's play handball," and off they went, there and then, with a tennis ball.

In Which Pussy Rescues Himself Without Requiring the Fire Brigade

2009-08-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

I got home and found our cat Timo stuck on the roof again! I tweeted the picture:

I love the idea of kindly fire brigade officers running around rescuing helpless & hapless kittens.

But pussy rescued himself in the end:

Technic Lego Programmable Vehicle Prototype Stage #2 (WITHOUT Mindstorms)

2009-07-26T02:19:00.000-07:00

"Mindstorms" lego contains electronics and computer chips to control functions.

But you can program a lego vehicle without any electronics except for a basic motor.

Here is Stage #2 of the prototype I'm working on - I say prototype because I think even when I've finished it I'll rebuild a better version.

My vehicle can be programmed (using a mechanical card that you feed into it) to steer left and right and move forward and backward. Stage #3 will have other functions too.

I have to laugh at how loud it sounds - I heard that noise is a sign of poor engineering! But I'm a French teacher, not an engineer! I have an ARTS degree!

In the video you'll see the vehicle in action for a minute and then an explanation and some close ups of the mechanisms.

Technic Lego Programmable Vehicle Prototype #1

2009-07-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

Proof of concept prototype for a programmable vehicle, controlled via a card which you'll be able to change/customize to change the timing of the vehicle functions.

For this prototype I just wanted to make sure I could get the card going backwards and forwards indefinitely in a loop, and still remove/place the card easily. The card hits the motor switch which puts the motor into reverse.

The two switches are connected so hitting the one resets the other. One of the switches is under tension with a hair elastic, so the motor just has to push it past its tipping point (this is a real issue because to reverse the switch you have to go via the 'off' position - my fear was the card would nudge the switch to the 'off' position and no further, thus stalling it. The hair elastic pushes the switch further, meaning there is no off position possible.

Next phase is to make it look nicer (not my strong point) add steering, forward/backwards movement, and some kind of crane device on the top. These will all be driven via the card, by other ratchet thingies (as you can see in this video along one edge of the card. The hope is I'll be able to change the movement sequences really easy by taking out the card and rearranging the ratchet thingies.

Stay tuned if this is your kind of thing! Subscribe to my youtube channel www.youtube.com/lestep! (I also post education videos to this channel, BTW). Also come say hello to me on Twitter - @steve_collis - www.twitter.com/steve_collis

A cat, a rat, and a technic lego buggy.

2009-07-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Self-explanatory. For your viewing pleasure below:

Steve (& his Cat) Sing Some Covers...

2009-04-11T01:56:00.000-07:00

Once again I've put my singing up on YouTube. YouTube is God's gift to guitar bozos like me. I take great pleasure thinking that a few people will find my videos and listen, just like I love stumbling on other Joe Bloggses (blogs? lol) who have posted their backyard performances.

The first song is 'Not Perfect', by the comedian Tim Minchin, although this song is not comedy. My cat wandered in just before I hit 'record' so I let it go, and frankly he steals the show for most of the song until he runs off (knowing our kitten, he's imagined there is a bit of fluff in the living room that needs chasing).

Our kitten came back in a while later and went to sleep on my other computer chair. So... I deliberately set the camera on him while attempting 'Edible Flowers' by The Finn Brothers. Another sweet, melancholy song, like Not Perfect. It seems to be about growing older and dying, and just the whole perspective you get when you're old enough to realise this is where life leads.

I'm much happier with the sound on these songs than my attempts over the last couple of years. I've realised I have to video from my laptop, while running the mic through my desktop, and then blending the two together in MovieMaker. It only takes a minute to synch the audio to the video.

The other thing I realised is that I can sing really softly, and get Audacity to amplify the sound, and still get a nice sound. This is a great discovery because I always strain when I sing. I am a try hard at everything in life, but when you sing, if you try hard, you inject tension, and that's when you murder a note. You have to chill to sing well, and I am not, by nature, chilled. I come to music with loud threats and a whip, and the music had better obey, or else. This is not the way to do it.

It's the Easter holidays now, and school is a couple of weeks off, so it's the perfect time to try singing without trying too hard.

No Burger Needs This Many Patties

2008-10-02T05:52:00.001-07:00

Four patties, four slices of cheese. This is absolutely real, I took this photo today. This is not a parody, this is a legitimate product from Hungry Jacks.

I have nothing to say.

'Spore', and the Borg from Star Trek

2008-09-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

After waiting for ages for it to be released, I raced to the shops on Thursday to grab a copy of 'Spore'.

Spore is the creation of Will Wright, who made SimCity and The Sims.

In a way, he is a murderer. Let me explain why: I can remember many years ago when I was in High School in the early 90s, playing SimCity for hours on end. I can remember, many years ago, when I was just back from France, playing The Sims for hours on end. And I remember just a couple of years ago playing The Sims 2 for hours and hours and hours on end.

Now this time is hardly productive is it? Let's say I live to the age of 80, and by that time have spent 500 hours on Will Wright's games. Now, I have perhaps 2 hours a day of free time. So that's 250 days he has robbed me of. That's almost a year.

Steve Collis - would have lived to 90. Life cut short by brutal murderer Will Wright.

In a way, he is my benefactor. By providing me with a mentally stimulating, relaxing passtime he has helped me flourish during stressful periods of life. (Nothing like bossing some Sims around to satiate that ancient and fundamental need to maintain the preposterous schema that we have some measure of control).

ANYWAY! Will Wright has been working on 'Spore' for years and I've been looking forward to it. I played it a bit Thursday and Friday, and A LOT today. You get to control a cell, that evolves into an animal, then into a tribe, then a civilisation, and then to space.

Talk about CONTROL! You get to design everything!

When the spaceship designer screen came up (after I'd progressed that far, which took about 10 hours), a thought hit me: I WONDER IF I COULD DESIGN A BORG CUBE AS A SHIP!!!

You know the Borg? From Star Trek? Some of the best space villains in science fiction history!

I did make a ship, and then I used the video option to take footage of me flying about in it.

It is now exactly midnight on Saturday, and I feel a mixture of annoyance at Will Wright for once again hypnotising me, and a mixture of delight that after a few hours sleep I can play it again.

In the meantime, here is my Borg video. My favourite bit is just after the one-minute mark:

A Song by Steve, A Splashed Random, Coke

2008-07-24T23:11:00.001-07:00

In this blog, you get a variety show. Oh, lucky you!

Variety Show: Act 1, a Song

First, a song. I write quite rarely nowadays but it still happens. Very tempting to comment on it but I'll let it speak for itself, and you can interpret it as you will.

Meet me here, by Steve Collis

Though the night falls, meet me here.
In the darkness, meet me here.
Surprised by every moment, always blinking in surprise,
I feel Prometheus infected me with a walking, living fire,
In the mixing of uncertainties, with changing states of decency,
The God of Ideology is not a god who I believe.

Though I stumble, meet me here.
In the darkness, meet me here.
I'm a puff of mist, here a little while,
I'm reduced to dust, save me or I die.

I navigate around this world, I'm desperate and mapless.
I feel slightly less than sympathy and slightly more than hapless.
There's a weight to my viscosity, my viciousness is virtually
The only way that's forward, but I'll still say bloody earnestly

Though the night falls, meet me here.
In the darkness, meet me here.
I'm a raging bear, you can hear me growl.
I'm a long-lost soul, I'm the milk gone sour.

In confusion, meet me here.
Though I do wrong, meet me here.
God in heaven, meet me here.

Now drifting like the sands of some Arabian deserter,
Religion is opium, and opium will hurt you.
If 'God' is just a drug to me, a blanket that will cover me,
Protect me from uncertainty, then 'God' is just idolatry.

Variety Show: Act 2, Steve Splashes a Random

Oooo now that sounds like the name of a song too: "Steve Soaks a Random".

See, I was driving to Turramurra Music this afternoon and was in the left lane to turn left and park. I was here:

Unfortunately, there was much water in the gutter, so made a huge splash. At this very moment, a random was walking by. A young women. She leapt away from my huge splash, but I think I splashed her significantly. There was another random on a bench near her. This random escaped being splashed. I desperately looked back as I turned left...
...in order to get eye contact
...in order to get absolution
...an absolution that would never come.

But the two randoms were now smiling at each other as if the whole splash was amusing.

I parked as quickly as I could, hoping to apologise but I was not quick enough. She had gone.

Here's a video I took of the crime scene on my mobile:

Variety Show: Act 3, Coke

Just annoyed that Coke also has the audacity to outrightly purvey its product as happiness. At least it is cheaper than $99.

Look, in actual fact, I myself think of coke in these terms sometimes myself. But a bit of modesty wouldn't go astray. And shame on coke and myself for poor mathematics... sug + caff = happiness not.

Variety Show: Act 4, Parents Who Give Their Children Very Silly Names

A girl from New Zealand was named "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii". Now she is 9 years old and not terribly happy about it. A judge has ordered the girl be placed in court guardianship so it can be changed. Read here.

My Crazy Dinner

2008-07-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

Right, so the other evening I put together a plate of yummy stuff. I include a photo of my meal here for the edification of anyone fortunate enough to view it.

I challenge you to leave a comment ennumerating what you believe to be the foodstuffs on my platter. There are eight of them.

I'll get you started: the round white things are, in fact, pickled onions. I love those little babies. My only frustration is they have an incredibly propensity, if not stabbed at the right angle and with the right amount of force, for rolling off the plate, off the table, to some crevice or crack somewhere. Harder to relocate this lost sheep than a guitar pick.

Happiness, Only $99

2008-06-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

I get grumpy whenever I see the spruikers at my local shopping centre selling "Happiness" for "Only $99". It puts me in a bad mood just writing about it.

They've been set up there for quite a few months now.

They're selling TREADMILLS of all things. Hardly a source of authentic, vibrant life.

They should change their slogan to "When you've spent a long day cramped indoors in the treadmill of work, come home and forget about it by getting on our mechanical treadmill!"

If they were selling orange juice, or a holiday, or a swimming pool, or a even trampoline, they could get away with it a little easier. At least the hyperbole would make some kind of sense. It would be congruent with the object.

But you can't, even figuratively, connect happiness on mechanical treadmill, no matter how poetic you're trying to be. It doesn't work. It's almost as bad as the McDonald's "Happy Meal". It only makes sense if the point of the slogan is sarcasm.

HA! It just occurred to me then, the final irony: that it's called "GoFit".

"Go"? HA HA HA!

You don't go anywhere!

No matter how hard you try, how long you walk for, you never go anywhere when
you're on a treadmill. Ok? Go. Ok? Go.

Child/Adult Psychology

2008-06-28T17:40:00.001-07:00

Look at this note to mummy from a little girl - I found it in the coffee shop at Parramatta, just near the little amphitheatre where bands play.

"Dear Mum,

You are kind, caring and you bless me with love.

I love you so much. You are my life.

You go to work for me, and I appreciate that,

BUT I WANT A GINY PIG.

Love

Claudia"

Adults are just the same, just more subtle (sometimes).

What tickles me is "and I appreciate that, but..."

Look for me at www.happysteve.com

2008-06-19T22:58:00.001-07:00

I'm going to post most new stuff over at my website www.happysteve.com. Look for me there!

This blog I will keep for experimental stuff.

More live jazz!!

2008-06-13T05:56:00.001-07:00

More live jazz!!

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My wife and friend are playing jazz in the loung

2008-06-13T05:16:00.001-07:00

My wife and friend are playing jazz in the lounge room, so i'm broadcasting it from my mob.

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Jazz music live by my friends

2008-06-13T04:36:00.001-07:00

Jazz music live by my friends

Mobile post sent by happysteve using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Mob Blog from athletics carnival

2008-06-12T19:26:00.001-07:00

I am using utterz.com to instantly blog from the shotput at my school carnival. I am sending video too and recorded audio. Want to use same technology with students for learning.

Mobile post sent by happysteve using Utterz. Replies.

blog

2008-06-12T19:17:00.001-07:00

Mobile post sent by happysteve using Utterz. Replies. mp3

blog

2008-06-12T02:27:00.001-07:00

Just a test! To see if I can podcast from my mobile.

Mobile post sent by happysteve using Utterz. Replies.

from Steve

2008-06-12T02:17:00.001-07:00

Mobile post sent by happysteve using Utterz. Replies. mp3

from Steve

2008-05-31T20:13:00.001-07:00

Mobile post sent by happysteve using Utterz. Replies. mp3