excellent!

i just heard on the news that sydney now has undercover folks wandering around giving out tickets for tossing cigarette butts on the ground. i hate smoking. i think it’s disgusting in every way – health of the smoker, health of those around the smoker, the environmental reasons, giving money over to evil companies, etc. it especially annoys me when people throw their cigs on the ground. and it super duper annoys me when they throw them on the ground w/o putting them out.

so in sydney, you can now be fined $60 if you throw your cig on the ground and it’s out. if you throw your cig on the ground & don’t put it out, you can be fined $200. i think that’s fucking awesome!!!!

it’s like ‘big blue marble’

i often credit the tv show ‘big blue marble’ with my interest in the internet and travel. i had several pen pals via big blue marble. here’s a new twist on the pen pal thing… fo.rtuito.us. apparently in soft launch, you enter not very many details and then get a person’s details. using the email system on their site, you can see if you could be friends or not. i’ll let u know how it goes. so far i got the site welcome message & a ‘you have a friend’ email but when i go to the site, it sez i don’t have any friends. ;(

gotta love the usa

great… just as i’m out job hunting… this news breaks: Americans abroad face higher U.S. tax bills.

for those that don’t know… we expats need to file usa income tax every year even if we don’t earn money or have any financial dealings in the states. it’s one of those benefits of being a usa citizen. (and apparently the only country in the world that requires this)

the article mentions (in passing) that the hardest hit group of expats will be military. you would think there would be a big lobbying push against this. does anyone know of expat lobbying groups?

and from the same site/paper, jeb? sounds like by 2012 i’d have to leave the country again…

i want a

new york city manhole cover!!!!

how cool!!!

also cool is the play-doh perfume from one of my favs – demeter. marshmellow & orange cream popsicle?! those sound yummy.

now here’s an idea for your nyc apt

this funky apartment would be great for nyc. although there needs to be a way to configure it for rented apartments so you can take your boxes to the next flat and still get your deposit back.

another reason this time of year sucks

and i feel v homesick. or rather, 2 ideas…

last nite it was so cold, i could SEE MY BREATH!!!!

and all the news reports of free music in nyc is coming out. alex chilton! sugar hill gang???!!!! bossa nova! mambo! cajun! talvin singh!

although.. EXCUSE ME??? edie brickell???? WTF?

google maps

at drinks last nite a friend of mine informed me he had heard google maps had finally arrived in au. previously we could get satellite images but not street level. i checked this morning & yes, sure enough, they are there. although u can’t search for a street… only for a city. hmm. hopefully that will be fixed soon.

but it made me have a look at some existing aussie mashups & map stuff and i found this: if you dig to the other side of the world, where would you end up? according to the pix, i’d end up somewhere in the middle of the atlantic not that far from virgina (or spain).

hmmm. i want a tunnel & a bullet train pronto.

for my web friends

blink is back in web 2.1.

microsoft aussie style

you can VOTE to decide what australian words you’d like microsoft to add to the australian dictionary of their office products. and no, i don’t know what all of those words mean. when i voted, g’day and sickie (as in playing hookie) were clearly the 2 top winners.

g n r

this is the sort of stuff that makes me want to grab my laptop and run to the nearest nyc bound plane.

i didn’t know axl was out & about & playing gnr songs. it’s the sort of event that wouldn’t happen here. and if he eventually does come to australia, there won’t be that energy in the room. watch the first video. see those feet go flying up in the air. HEAR that audience sing. sorry aussies, i don’t think you can measure up in that energy department.

i am beyond homesick.

watch video here

see additional video here