weather forecasts

tomorrow (well today as it’s after midnite) is derby day – part of the whole melbourne cup racing event. i’m going. i’m dressing up. and i don’t want any rain like we had last year. am going to bed soon but just checked the weather. weather.com sez it will be showers all day. and i mean ALL day. accuweather says it will be cloudy but no rain. the aussie forecast is confusing as always. from the age:

Tonight (they mean friday) and Saturday. Some rain tonight and during the morning, with a few showers to follow. Northerly wind, fresh to strong overnight and during the morning, then easing and shifting southwest to southerly later in the day.

huh? some rain tonite. some rain in the morning. a few showers to follow at some point.

the worst though is that is a direct quote from the australian govts bureau of meterology. their site sez:

Saturday
Some rain during the morning, with a few showers to follow. Northerly wind,
fresh to strong during the morning, then easing and shifting southwest to
southerly later in the day.

new passports

a couple months ago, i got a new passport. i had to since my old one expired and it’s a bad idea to be in a country where you’re not a resident w/o one. and now there’s this bit of news that starting next year all usa passports will have RFID. i love the quote about 98.5% of the comments being negative but they’re going ahead anyway & their idea for how to make the passports secure. ok… i dont know much about RFID but shouldn’t this anti-skimming material be on the front AND back cover to prevent the chip being read? and what happens when your passport falls open in your bag? maybe there will be a new market out there for passport locks?

i’m glad my new pspt doesnt expire til like 2016. i’d hate to be one of the first guinea pigs with the new RFID ones.

3 years!?!

really completely random…. just realised that 3 years ago TODAY i started the blog re: coming over here to do the MBA. first post here. i’ve had my various sites before this but 3 years of pretty consistent posting is a record for me.

wilma

i had a sort of bizarre evening last nite. watched some tv, put some pix online, had pasta for dinner & acted as the weather reporter for my friends thousands of miles away.

i have friends in s. fla (east coast) where wilma was last nite. from about 8p-2a last nite we sms’d/IM’d. they have the whole hurricane shutter setup at the house & it seems like leaving didn’t even seem to be a conversation (actually, it prob was as i can hear the convo btwn them about this… ).

by about 8p (this is my time… it would have been very early in the am there… like 6a), she said they didn’t have power. by 9p, she said she could see explosions outside the door peephole. by 1030p, she said the pressure of the storm was making her ears pop. a little after 1a she said water was coming into the house under the doors.

in the meantime, i’m reloading maps from weather.com updating them on where the eye was & guessing how much longer they’d have. when i said i was about to go to sleep (the eye had passed & they were in the last bits of the storm. i had estimated an hour left as it was in miami), she said i couldn’t as i was their only weather report (didnt u guys have a radio? i thought u did?!). that was odd. now it’s tues morning here/monday early evening there. i sent her a txt this morning but haven’t heard back yet.

i dont have an ipod yet

but i definitely want a halloween costume for it when i finally buy one!!!! i think i like the vampire the best.

even with high gas prices, cheap fares to AU

you have to buy by oct 31 so you don’t have much time to think about this.

good for travel btwn nov 5 – dec 7 (nov 20-dec 7 cheapest although i’m not around nov 18-dec 1). LA to melb is $1098/1198. flying to sydney is cheaper at U$998/1098.

they are quoting $455 to fly from the east coast to LA and i know flights are expensive right now but i’m sure there’s cheaper stuff out there. check the consolidators or last minute or anywhere really.

check out the qantas deal here

being unpatriotic

here’s an interesting article at legalaffairs.com about the usa patriot act. 2 law professors (the one is also a judge) debate both sides of civil liberties & protection against evil.

currently, the exact same arguement is taking place is taking place in AU (although i don’t think the word ‘unpatriotic’ has been used here – at least not to the same extent). The same sort of laws are trying to be pushed thru parliment w/o debate. crikey gives a quick overview (the usual…. detain w/o needing a reason, don’t allow the detained any sort of lawyer, shoot to kill).

this is one of 2 legislative bits right now that are being hidden from the public & being pushed into law. (it has been leaked so you can ck it out here)the other deals with workers rights (as in taking them away). anddon’t get me started on that at the moment …

bodies

about 5 years ago i saw an exhibit in london and i think ‘bodies’ is the same. at least both seem to be preserved bodies which have had the skin removed, were posed, and sometimes sliced through. i thought it was amazing & fascinating. there was the undercurrent of scandal… it seems the bodies mainly came from china & it was very unclear as to if they were willing participants. i thought it was also funny that you could sign paperwork saying you wanted to donate your body to the exhibit when you died but you had to pay for the privledge of doing so.

anyway… i think this ‘bodies’ is the same exhibit (with a different name) and it’s headed to nyc in november (at the seaport). definitely go check it out. it’s pretty amazing.

wilco

tickets were available the other day so they’re probably all gone the other day but i urge you to check this out. it’s free, it’s great music & it’s to get people to start going downtown more (um… someone give me an update… are people not moving downtown again?).

jeff tweedy is playing 2 nites & there’s some other great music too. if i win the lotto in the next couple days i’d be over there paying insane amts for a free ticket.

aussie tv – last man standing

previously i’ve mentioned how au tv is a combination of british, american & aussie programs. except it’s more like american, british, australian in terms of the amt of programming. lately i’ve been watching an au program called ‘last man standing’. episode guide here.

it’s the story of 3 late 20/early 30 yr old melbourne boys. a friend of mine told me the other week she heard it’s not doing well and last nite i googled it to find out next week is the last episode. it’s not coming back. i think it’s a real shame. the show is HEAVILY influenced by sex in the city but from a male viewpoint. whereas sex in the city started out being heavily about sex & friendship and moved to relationships & friendship, last man standing is about mateship, sex and relationships the entire time.

there are great moments like when adam’s new fuckbuddy sneezes on his penis and proceeds to be sick in his bed. adam calls his mate bruno (who’s a nurse) to find out if he can catch any illness due to the sneeze. last nite the episode included a showdown btwn bruno, his flatmate and his new girlfriend. the girlfriend makes some changes around the flat & the flatmate considers it ‘territorial pissing’ and begins walking around naked to reclaim his territory.

i had a gut feeling i should have taped all the episodes but i didn’t.

here’s some links. email & complain that it’s been taken off the air. channel 7 is who airs it.

info, pictures & articles
article in the age
wikipedia page
the production company

i’ve noticed that shows here tend not to be renewed – unless it’s about gardening, home renovation, cops, doctors or the occasional reality show. last year before the free trade legislation was signed with the usa, there was a big bruhaha because aussie media said it would hurt the amt of aussie programming but from what i can tell they never needed legislation to do that. there doesn’t seem to be much au programming there & of what is out there, they tend to stay in the game show/home renovation/gardening area and not venture out. when a show does venture away from those genres, it doesn’t seem to stay on the air too long.