31 October 06 - 20:55Nanowrimo time

November marks the start of National Novel Writing Month. The point of Nanowrimo is to write a 50,000 word or longer novel in 30 days (naturally enough, it doesn't have to be any good ). I have made a token attempt at it in 2003 and 2005, but have so far only managed a couple of thousand words.

polly - genre fic - two comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

25 October 06 - 21:13Scottish Water - it's not the filthy water of the English

I have previously blogged about my housemate, Daniel's wonderful birthday gift of a can of haggis. One of the ingredients was listed very specifically (along with the yummy, yummy lamb's lungs) as "scottish water", rather than just plain ordinary water.
That got a few people wondering what was special about "scottish water". Was it just water that happened to be from Scotland, or did it have some special ingredient?
Being the boring blogger that I am, I decided to send Grant's an email and ask about it:

Hello,

My housemate was given a can of Grant's Haggis for his birthday, and (as Australians who
don't really know anything about haggis) we were wondering what "scottish
water" was. We were amazed that you can get haggis in a can.

thanks and kind regards,

Polly

I actually just received a nice reply from them - which makes me feel a little guilty for being too gutless to actually try a bit of the haggis before it was fed to the cats. As punishment, I'll probably choke on the next slice of vegemite toast I eat for breakfast.

Here's their reply:

Dear Polly,

Thank you for your enquiry regarding Grant's Canned Haggis and hope that
you enjoyed our product. With regards to "Scottish Water ", I can only
describe it as water from Scotland which some may say is possibly the
best water in the country (soft water & low in minerals).

Every year on the 25th of January we celebrate the poems of Robert Burns
& the Haggis at organised Burn's Suppers.

Should you wish to find out more information there are numerous websites
available on the Internet.

You may like to read a humerous ode to the Haggis at
www.electricscotland.com/haggis.
Should you require information please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards

Angela Patton


So it turns out "scottish water" is just water from Scotland, after all. Still, at least it's the best water in the country. Scottish water must be like Melbourne water (which is the best in the world, if you believe John Thwaites), and English water must be like Adelaide water, although if I had to pick between the two, I'd eat a pie floater over a dish of canned haggis.

polly - default - five comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

23 October 06 - 14:40Rowville Rail campaign website

There is a Rowville rail campaign site. It looks good, and there are links to a fact sheet and Knox Council's 2004 feasibility study into the line. There is also a page with contact information for local politicians so you can lobby them about the line. If you live near the proposed line, it's worth contacting your local candidates, and the State Transport Minister, Peter Batchelor in the lead-up to the state election at the end of November.

polly - PT - eight comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

22 October 06 - 22:03Nepotism

My (ex)stepbrother Rick features in this music video by the Custom Kings (who I had never heard of until my brother Chris mentioned it at his birthday dinner tonight). SCA-types out there ought to appreciate it .

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18 October 06 - 12:34OSDC in Melbourne

The Open Source Developer's Conference will be held in Melbourne this year (At Monash Uni - Caulfield campus), from December 6th to December 8th. Looks interesting, although I don't know if I'll be able to go or not.

polly - IT - one comment / No trackbacks - § ¶

18 October 06 - 11:46New Smartbus service to Rowville

The new Smartbus service from Caulfield to Rowville has started (just in time for the state election). It's not a train line, but it's a lot better than nothing.

polly - PT - five comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

09 October 06 - 15:29CSIRO boasts Ig Nobel laureates in mathematics

CSIRO boasts its first ever Ig Nobel Laureates (in mathematics).

Quote: The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in mathematics was awarded to Dr Piers Barnes and Ms Nic Svenson of CSIRO for figuring out how many photographs to take of a group of people to be confident of getting at least one where no-one’s blinking.

Of course, emails about this were doing the rounds at work on Friday. The photo in the article is a classic.
More can be found on the Ig Nobel's here.
The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists is also worth checking out.

polly - science - No comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

02 October 06 - 01:16Busting for a Wii

The other day our GameCube wouldn't power up (I'd had a hard day and I wanted to play Lego Star Wars and throw Jar-Jar Binks off a cliff). So if fixing it is a bit more involved than just replacing the power supply, then I'm tempted to hold out for a couple of months and get the new Nintendo Wii. The great thing about it is that it will play the gamecube games we already have, and is able to use our old controllers.
However, the game I'm really looking forward to getting is not a console game, it's Neverwinter Nights 2. I first got hooked on these types of games when I was a kid and my brother and I played Bard's Tale and Phantasie over and over again. I even learnt hex so I could cheat at Phantasie by increasing every ability stat of my characters (I was a sad ten year old). Computer role-playing games have come a hell of a long way since those days - and not just because they now have pretty graphics and decent sound. They're constantly becoming more and more immersive, and their plots are less linear and forced. Then, of course there are the massively popular MMORPGs. How many people out there are Warcrack addicts? You can even get t-shirts!

polly - IT - No comments / No trackbacks - § ¶