Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Now that ticks me off

Spam is the bane of email existence and I am pretty good at just ignoring it. But the latest spam is particularly disgusting. Someone is using the Animal Protection Society logo and info to get you to donate - to their pockets and NOT the ASPCA.

It bothers me because someone very naive soul may actually attempt to make a donation to a worthy cause. Mind you, you do have to be naive, the link is to some site that doesn't contain aspca or any near equivalent in the link.

Don't be naive about links and do donate to worthy causes.

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Visiting Rome

Visiting Rome really was amazing. So much history everywhere.

I would not want to drive around the city. The traffic is insane. Lot's of vehicles, moving quite fast and the drivers there must know the width of their vehicle to a couple of millemetres. Fortunately, you can walk or take public transport to all the important sites.

We also did one of the all-day on and off buses. Those are good for getting a feel for a place and not walking your feet off.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Our holiday

I've been posting the pics of our 2010 holiday over at flickr.com. The most surreal part was the day we visited Vatican City, the pope was holding the wed audience out in St Peter's Square.

So I have Pope in St Peter's Square pictures of the pope.

And the reason we were in Vatican city? We wanted to visit the Sistine Chapel. As it turns out, you don't go through St. Peter's at all, you go down a road for a bit and eventually end up at an entrance to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. The number of tour groups that day was large, I'd hate to be there in peak season.

Monday, August 30, 2010

They have got to be kidding

The place I work for has a new program "Swipe to Give". Costs nothing to join, present a card at a participating shop and some money from your purchase goes to the University.

Problems?

A) How much money
B) What does the University intend on doing with it?

Especially point B - why should I make more money available to the University when you aren't given the smallest clue what it's intended for. It's likely to all be swallowed by admin costs anyway.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A new version of bait and switch

After seeing the ads for Uncle Toby's rolled oats, two questions come to mind

1) is it bait and switch when someone advertises that they produce oats like only this company can and so forth. When you find the product on the shelf, it's surrounded by other oat products by the same company - pre-flavoured and no heart foundation tick of approval. With all the various oat products, it can be hard to find the genuine plain rolled oats.

2) Does anyone fall for their line about how they produce real oats. Honestly, there are several companies that sell rolled oats. You take oat grains and crush them which makes cooking easier.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Cooking: physics vs chemistry vs alchemy

Cooking physics - simple - apply heat to item to make it hotter.

Cooking chemistry - combine ingredients x y and z.  Mix in a certain way to create a batter that is different then the sum of parts.

Cooking alchemy - when ingredients combine to something vastly more than you'd expect from the simple list of ingredients.

I indulged in alchemy tonight.  I made basic bread dressing to go with a turkey breast I was cooking.  The ingredient list is really simple - onion, celery, bread (cheap white bread will do fine), a bit of seasoning and either chicken stock (which I never have on hand) or chicken bouillon cube and water and an egg.  That's it.  Somehow, they combine to make a side dish that I always love.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

What tv has taught me - part 2 Cop shows

The hero can shoot with amazing accuracy and will only ever need one shot.
The backup squad may or may not hit anything but can make do with revolvers or rifles.
The villains cannot hit anything even with sub-machine guns - unless the group includes one of the 'cannon fodder' cop groups.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

What tv has taught me - part 1 Cop shows

Cops shows teach you that in a cop's career, there are 4 particularly vunerable stages

4 - Rookie cop - first week on the job
3 - Veteran cop - last week on the job
2 - Newly married or about to be

and the single most dangerous is

1 - Cop who is expecting first child within one month.

If some cop is going to die, these will be the first to go.