This will hurt me...

I came across this photograph of a sign while browsing through teh Internets today. I do love an image that can be terribly grusome, yet rather cute at the same time. It reminds me of an image in one of my all-time favourite ads that has been previously featured on this site. Regular commentator and all round good guy the Political Ump mentioned on the original post how the pig with the samurai spirit reminded him of the sickeningly pleasant bovine bred to willingly and happily suicide in order to feed the guests in Douglas Adams's Restaurant at the End of the Universe . He's right, and now there is a whole website dedicated to such animals, the aptly titled Suicide Food , for hundreds of grisly yet happy pictures, pop on over and have a look. [Tip of the hat to Boing Boing for alerting me to this one.]

I'm not sure who took these two today, Jen or Henry. Jen is claiming them, and Henry is keeping quiet about it, but they do have his touch of class about them. Anyway, it was taken on their belated trip to the Steenholt Ranch in the deep south of Tasmania near Geeveston , which is about sixty kilometers south of Hobart, right into the southern part of the Huon Valley . They stopped along the gorgeous Huon River to take a few snaps for me to share with the world. Now, I would never be so cruel to cast aspersions on any region of the state - because I'm just not that sort of fellow - but I have heard other, less considerate folk say that they hear the faint echo of dueling banjos each time they head down this way. Yet Henry and Jenry emerged intact from their journey, well stocked with banana passionfruit and choc-chip cookies. This tells me that what other people say about the strange goings-on amongst the reclusive, anti-one world government crowd that seem to gather in th...

I've been insulted many, many times. I've been called all the names under the sun. And I will be blunt with you all, I've called people a few nasty things myself (yes, it's true, please don't look so shocked ). But do you know what? I can honestly say that I have never, ever stooped to the depths of inhumanity, perversion and downright rudeness of the parrot in todays ad. Seriously, the fainthearted should not click on the picture and read it in all its horror, it will turn your hair grey.

Just to emphasise how flat I am feeling today, here is a photo taken just after being decked by my eighteen month old son. He so convincingly won the tussle that he turned his back on me with utter contempt the moment I hit the canvas! Neither of us displayed the ANZAC spirit today. The fact that he currently sits in the 97th percentile in height (that is, taller than all but 3% of littlies) and the 90th percentile in weight (heavier than all but 10%), is impressive, but doesn't make me feel any better about the dismal loss.

Another photograph taken during late afternoon in the city. This one is of an old flour mill that used to overlook Franklin wharf, until they built some bigger buildings in front of it (as is usually the way). A special bonus as well today, as I've managed to dig up an old cartoon of the flour mill building from 1893. I can't think of anything pithy or witty to say today though. I've missed my first ever day from work due to illness. Now it's not that I never get sick, rather I usually get sick on weekends or holidays! I think that I've managed to pick up whatever young Henry was suffering from. It's a great time to be sick, as I still haven't written the presentation that I will be making for a Conference on Monday. Oh well, we'll see how that one goes in due time!

I snapped this picture yesterday afternoon on the journey from work into town to meet Jen and Henry. The ship that you can see here is the Aurora Australis , which spends most winters in port here in Hobart. This fine vessel belongs to the Australian Antarctic Division , which bases itself in Hobart for two primary reasons: i) because of our location as ‘last stop before Antarctica’ over summer; and ii) the quality of Tasmania’s beautiful women. P & O occasionally charter the ship for other ‘bits and pieces’ work during winter. It may or may not be true that the winter penguin-harvest that provides fresh penguin meat for the tremendously popular ‘penguin nuggets’ is shipped in by P & O in this period.

I know that this has been doing the rounds over the past few days, but I just can't help myself! This was apparently snapped at a pro-Tibet rally in San Francisco: What would Leni Riefenstahl say? [With a very generous nod to Andrew Sullivan's always interesting blog, The Daily Dish .]

For those of you not here in Australia, you may have missed the 2020 Summit held over the weekend. There were many different ideas thrown around, some worthy, and some less so. Overall, I think that is was a positive exercise. Lavartus Prodeo offer a neat summary here . The one suggestion that I have been amused by is the suggestion that we should change our national anthem. We tend to have this 'discussion' every five or so years, so should not take a summit to flog this dead horse. That said, I reckon that Advance Australia Fair is a rubbish song, and I find it a bit embarrassing really with its lameness. Now PM Kevin Rudd has already knocked this one on the head , but this has not stopped the arguments spreading like wildfire . I personally have been advocating change for a long time, and now have the forum to do it! I have long argued that there already exists two quintessentially songs out there that would be perfect for Australia's next national anthem. My first ch...

I thought that today would be little more than a mundane companion piece to yesterday’s photograph . Walking through Parliament Lawns as I usually do of a weekday morning, I noted the two council workers clearing off all of the leaves that I posted yesterday. Naively, I had assumed that this would be achieved with huge rakes and good old-fashioned muscle. Alas, I was wrong. I should have known that bulky (and extremely noisy) leaf blowers are all the rage these days. They were corralling the poor frightened leaves into the centre of the park, where a truck was waiting to haul them off to oblivion. That was that (I thought), 'a slice of Hobartian life for the world to peruse at their leisure'. As noted, I thought that this was the end of the story, I would post the photo and be done, but in the act of resizing it to make it more user-friendly, I noted something odd in the background. Like David Hemmings in the classic film Blowup , there was a strange character lurking in the ba...

Today’s photo should beyond any doubt confirm that Tasmania has indeed switched into Autumn mode. This is Parliament Lawn taken this morning, shrouded in a blanket of leaves; the sun was still quite low and cast some interesting shadows through the trees. I will not lie to you, I like this time of year and don’t mind the brisk weather. Of course, I can say this that we now live in a house with great insulation and decent heating. I wasn’t really so keen when I lived in share houses. I’m sure most people have experience of an old house where you can see the sunlight outside shining in through the gaps that had opened between walls and the foundations had shifted (and feel the cold wind!). One of the great ironies of the gentrification certain suburbs here in Hobart is that the now trendy suburbs were once slums, and often the houses there were (understandably) rather shoddily built. My experience of living in Battery Point in my first year of university was that the house was not a pa...

There is a fellow whose work I have been following for a little while now, and I thought that I would point people in the direction of three great experiments he has conducted. The general thesis is to 'untoon' a cartoon; that is, convert the cartoon image into a more realistic image. What I like most is how he demonstrates the exaggerated features of cartoons when translated into 'real life'. This guy does this in his own time and for no (monetary) reward, so I thought that I'd post the links on his website rather than just put up the pictures myself. So, if you are at all interested, please click on through and have a look for yourself. The three that he has done so far are: Mario (from Super Mario Bros ); Homer Simpson (you know him); and Jessica Rabbit (from Who Framed Roger Rabbit ). He has indicated that Stewie Griffin from Family Guy is next on the list, and I for one can wait to see that one.

The fellow in today's ad (for Baby Ruth cookies) reckons that he'll do anything for cookies? That's a big call. ANYTHING ? He seems to think that maybe doing the dishes is enough, but I've got something even better. I'd say to him "Okay then, how about you try to look a little less like a pedophile?" That might be a good start, and it won't scare children away from Baby Ruth cookies!

Two for the price of one today. Today I've opted for a shot of day-to-day life for many here in Tasmania, the washing drying on the hills hoist. The background to the story is a familiar tale I'm sure: unwell toddler; vomiting; changing sheets; vomiting; changing clothes; vomiting; changing sheets again; vomiting; wiping everything down with nappies; vomiting; and so it goes! Thus, even though we have a non-vomiting, seemingly better (albeit lethargic) little bloke today, there presented before me in the cold, hard light of morning was a mountain of washing that needed to be done. Undaunted, I set about the herculean task and by the middle of the day, six loads of washing was completed! The above photo represents a mere fraction that went through our laundry. I've spared the faint hearted from images of our smalls and concentrated on the cute little Henry-related outfits. The tale of a Sunday spent washing is even more tragic, as it prevented me from presenting a far happie...

Who knew baseball had such a rich and varied tapestry of names? This guy today was apparently quite good (he's in the Hall of Fame). Even better, he had the mustache to match the name. I'm a firm believer that much of the distaste for the current Australian cricket team directly correlates with the demise of the moustache. AB, Boonie and Merv, come back!