Again. This one takes the cake.
I’m not one for forwards
Email forwards generally sit around in my inbox unread and unforwarded on.
But I couldn’t resist this one. Given my own ebay misadventures. This guy wanted to sell his bike.
Here’s the link. And here’s the description:
“This is a max wicked sick BMX. It’s a Reliance Boomerang and it’s done heaps of maximum extreme stunts. I have mostly done stunts on this bike since forever. Once I did a boom gnarly stunt trick on it and a girl got pregnant just by watching my extremeness to the maxxxx. Some details about sickmax BMX: Comes with everything you see including: TOPS AS SUSPENSION REAR FORKS!! 2 x wheels 1 x seat I will even thrown my sick BMXing name for FREE – Wicked Styx. Has minor surface rust on handlebars and front forks (easily removed). More rust on rear forks (as shown in pics). Tyres hold air but are pretty old. Basically, it’s an old BMX, but it’s radness is still 100% in tact. Tricks I have done on this BMX: Endos – 234. Sick Wheelies – 687. Skids – 143,000. Bunny Hops – 2 (Bunny Hops are gay and my brother dared me to do them, which I did because I’m Rad to the power of Sick). Flipouts – 28. Basically if you buy this bike you will instantly become a member to every club that was ever invented, worldwide, because you will be awesome. Pick up from Richmond in Melbourne. Throw your hands in the air like you just don’t mind.”
Evolution of a Nerd
My first post on this blog highlights my ongoing descent into nerdhood. While I don’t have the bespectacled (yet), triple-chinned, past-eating figure as described here, I have taken some healthy steps in the direction of becoming a nerd.
1. Blogging. To the readers who have ‘tuned in’ (sorry I don’t know what the web equivalent is) hoping for some of Nathan’s regular rants, my apologies. You got me. Some of you might think this is an improvement but let me assure you that I have much less creativity than my much more linguistically apt other half.
2. Study. Nathan and I have embarked upon a year of “pseudo study”, in which we’re learning Greek, going through the Westminster Confession and reading Calvin’s Institutes. Nathan is also preaching once a month and I’m sure that other opportunities will present themselves throughout the year.
As for Greek I’ve found it less tiresome than I’d anticipated. I actually like it. Bring on the Greek. Some days I catch myself at work wishing I was at home studying. Point in case for nerdish behaviour.
3. Glasses. Recently I’ve found myself asking my children to write bigger in their workbooks. I’ve also been looking at the dots on the tops of the Greek letters and wondering why the author was too lazy to write them properly. I’ve been getting headaches if I study for more than half an hour. I’m pretty good with reasoning and logic so I knew it was time for a visit to the optometrist.
Thankfully the news was good. I have two relatively minor problems which weren’t real concerns, however, as they were causing me trouble studying we decided to invest in a pair of specs. I don’t want glasses and I don’t like them. Nathan assures me that he thinks I’ll look great in glasses but I’m not so sure he’s telling me the truth. We’ll wait and see.
4. I use Chrome. Google Chrome that is. I didn’t even know that using Chrome was a sign of nerdhood but apparently it is.
Despite embracing these facets of nerdhood be assured that I won’t start playing World of Warcraft, develop poor hygiene or start talking about RAM any time soon.
A much further developed species than I.
Waterworks
I hate the Greens. And the environmental lobby group. Which is a good thing – because not only does my coffee machine produce the carbon emissions of say a motorised scooter – drinking coffee is the least sustainable environmental exercise around when judged by water consumption in production. That is pre-cup production too.
From the Economist:
“A cup of coffee, for example, needs a great deal more water than that poured into the pot. According to a new book on the subject, 1,120 litres of water go into producing a single litre of the beverage, once growing the beans, packaging and so on are measured.”
Gimmicks Pay
I”ve mentioned my feelings on Hawkeye in tennis umpiring – now technology is encroaching on cricket – for good or for not-so-good who can tell… in the meantime the failure of the system in South Africa has been a nice little earner for Channel Nine.
“On the controversial video umpire front, the Herald understands the South African Broadcasting Corporation will agree to pay a seven-figure sum to purchase the hot spot and snickometer technology – as used in Australia by Channel 9 – for the remaining two Tests.”
Desktop Gaming helps you console yourself
When Desktop Gaming, a website hosting hi-res desktop ready iterations of your favourite gaming classics, was mentioned on Lifehacker demand killed their servers. They’re back online. Level 1-1 of the original Super Mario Bros is now featuring as my desktop background. I did consider this Duck Hunt image. Maybe next week.
League Cup of their own
Manchester United also took out the League Cup last night in penalties. That picture is them celebrating the winning penalty. What a night to be me. Both my teams took out semi-meaningless silverware. Man U are also seven points clear in the Premiership with a game in hand.
A Manly win
Manly won the World Club Challenge last night – the first NRL team to do so in the last five years. They’re also only the sixth team to do it in 17 years of WCC matches. Only two have been played in Australia.
Bodes well for a good season for the mighty Sea Eagles. Who are also the deservedly the bookmaker’s favourites this year.
A bunch of links – March 2, 2009
- #39;Confessions of a Facebook Social Climber#39;
- Personal branding in the age of Google
- Mystery of the Belly Button Fluff Solved by Science
- Free Album – Jaydiohead
- Facebook Photo Album Downloader
- Floorplanner Presents Your Plans in 3D [Web Apps]
Internet Guru Seth Godin has something useful to say today.
This is another link pretty much only for the benefit of my wife – who rather than playing the Sims spends her time designing floorplans using online software.
Make your child a star poople
It says a lot about the internet that this was number 3 on Reddit the day after it was posted.
It says a lot about me that I reposted it here. I couldn’t help myself. It’s not real by the way. At least not as far as I can tell.
I’m proud of you
47% of my visitors use Firefox, a further 15% use Chrome. That’s more than half not using Explorer. But I’m still going to install this plugin. If you’re one of the 28% still using Explorer do yourself a favour and get a new browser.
UPDATE: I edited the plugin to tell people to get Firefox rather than Explorer. I don’t like Explorer at all – get Firefox here.
Fly Plane
This is pretty funny. Unfortunately it didn’t work. I hate flies to an almost obsessive compulsive level.
This guy documented his attempts to get the little blighters doing something useful. Flying this:
Then he tried with bees. This could be the first time I remember sanctioning animal cruelty on this blog. I hate flies.
A bunch of links – March 1, 2009
- The Top 10 Worst Types of Fanboys
- Not so orange juice
- Mono-histories
- How To Write A Newspaper-Saving Story
- Create Rounded Corners for any HTML DIV Element
- Be Careful What You Write About Online
- Better Gmail 2 Gets Unread Message Favicon (and Cleaned Up)
- A Walkthrough and Cost Breakdown of Brewing Your Own Beer
- How To Get Google Reader Shared Items From Anyone
- Why email should be even more helpfully written than web content.
Nobody likes a fanboy. Unless you’re a fanboy fanboy.
This is mostly to convince my wife that homebrewing is a) a good idea, and b) cheaper than buying beer.
Coffee and the global financial crisis
500 billion cups of coffee are consumed globally every year. It’s big business. And you thought I’d chosen such a niche topic to keep writing about.
The coffee industry is facing problems though. The tough economic climate means people are cutting back on expensive coffee, and even drinking instant. Partly thanks to Starbucks’ new instant product. Via. Which gives me one of those involuntary shudders.
This discussion – particularly the impact of the economic climate on coffee purchasing – was the topic of a recent post from Hungry Magazine.
“VIA™ also focused me on what’s not happening at the local level. If you recall, I mentioned I just drank French pressed whole bean grocery store bought Starbucks. Up until a few months ago I was an exclusive Intelligentsia and Metropolis coffee drinker. But with the economy tugging at me and 12 oz of locally roasted beans costing $11.99 or so, I started experimenting with the $8.99 and $6.99 options available at the grocery store. I was convinced I’d probably end up where I started from, but I needed to see what was out there.”
The post drew some interesting comments from the CEO and bean buyer from Intelligentsia Coffee – arguably the pinnacle of the “specialty coffee” movement.
One of the economic problems facing the coffee industry is best expressed by these two maps. The countries producing coffee are very different to the countries buying it. Picture one represents coffee producers, picture two coffee drinkers. 
Here are the pick of the comments from Intelligentsia buyer Geoff Watts.
“Your average coffee farmer today is making less money per pound of sold coffee than his grandparents did, in real (unadjusted) dollars, despite drastically higher living costs and production costs.”
Meanwhile, the mainstream first-world consumer has held stubbornly to the idea that coffee is a cheap luxury, that the $1.00 bottomless mug is somehow a right or a deserved privilege.
It is this very attitude that will continue to ensure that the modern smallholder coffee farmer has little hope of escaping a life of extreme poverty.
Cheap coffee (and by “cheap” I mean low cost, which typically equates to low quality) is one of the many forces shackling the developing world and suppressing opportunity for advancement for a huge chunk of the planet’s population who depend on coffee to make a living.
I would argue that even downright crappy coffee ought to carry a higher price tag than it currently does, especially considering the higher production costs that most farmers face today.”