Samuel's Blog

Samuel’s Coffee-Cup-O-Meter

Wednesday
3 x Standard Mugs (1 Point Each) = 3 Points
Total = 3 Points

Samuel

April 13th, 2006 at 01:49am

Samuel’s Coffee-Cup-O-Meter

Apoligies for the delay, I’ll continue the Year In Review posts tomorrow morning.

Tuesday
3 x Standard Mugs (1 Point Each) = 3 Points
1 x Regular Shop Coffee (1 Point Each) = 1 Point
Total = 4 Points

Samuel

April 12th, 2006 at 11:37am

Samuel’s Blog Year In Review: November 2005

November, the month leading up to the Christmas Cruise, the month where my employment status changed, and the month where page views skyrocketed due to rather unusual publicity.

The month started with me talking about how it took 20 attempts at taking a school photo until the photographer was satisfied, which was followed by Melbourne Cup fever, with me announcing that Makybe Diva would not win, showing you just how wrong I was, bringing you official TAB dividends, bringing you the complete running order, and finally reviewing the race and how it was covered in Canberra.

The website suffered a little bit of downtime, and a letter to the editor in The Chronicle agreed with my ideas for public transport in the ACT.

I then showed you a picture of the birthday card I gave to 2CC.

I had a dream about eating plates at Christmas.

2UE changed their schedule on a whim, something which 2CC managed quite well, although they did subject us to the Sydney Gardening show.

I had some dreams about fires and bicycles.

October’s Blog View Stats showed a steady increase is page views.

Dinosaurs, my high school canteen, John Mangos and Glenn Wheeler became parts of my dreams.

Then, what is probably the biggest event in the history of Samuel’s Blog occurred. I don’t think I could have ever predicted what was going to happen, or the huge increase in page views that it would bring, but the day that a commenter at The Spin Starts Here made reference to this blog as “the worst blog you’ll ever find”, and I received a Google Alert about a related matter, was the start of a very interesting and annoying chain of events. Most of it occurred on other websites, but it did bring an awful lot of people here, setting a new monthly record for visitors and page views. It also brought a lot of unhelpful comments, which forced another post about editorial policy.

Reading many of the comments left in the weeks after the link from The Spin Starts Here would show you why it was such an unusual and mildly annoying time in the history of Samuel’s Blog.

Anyway, moving on from that, I had a dream about a missing schoolbag, 2CC had some transmitter problems and Kane Bond left 2CC.

I then found out that the New Day Australia Christmas Cruise was going to be held on the same day as my Year 12 Formal…the decision was obvious, go to the Christmas Cruise. I had already paid for it, made travel bookings, and knew that it might be my only chance to meet John Kerr and some of his listeners, so I made up my mind, I was going to Sydney that day. As it turns out, I might be going to another one of John’s functions later this year, and if I knew that back then, I would still have made the same decision.

I had a scary shower, and followed it with a dream about a bicycle race.

Then the rumors of Stuart Bocking taking over New Day Australia from John Kerr started to come partially true, with Stuart replacing George on the weekend version of the show.

I decided to start a podcast, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire made another millionaire.

I then became effectively unemployed and started looking for another job, and later confirmed just how arrogant my employer had been about it all.

Canberra’s radio ratings were released.

I showed off some of my artwork.

I also showed you some photos of my main portable radio.

2CC announced that they would be at the retirement expo, and I appeared on the John Laws Morning Show.
Click here to hear my conversation with Lawsie.

This was followed by my call being part of The Best Of The John Laws Week. (Click here for the audio).

Spring in Canberra is a lovely time of the year, and a nice garden in Reid caught my attention.

The 90 minute Frasier Finale aired in Australia.

I thought about the connection between 2CA/2CC outside broadcasts, and Mike Frame said he heard me talking to Lawsie.

Dickson College had their year 12 breakfast, which was quite good, and just before it the canteen manager told me that she heard me talking to Lawsie.

After this, we were one week out from the New Day Australia Christmas Cruise, and I started publishing daily weather reports for it. The forecasts were for thunderstorms, then cloudy, and cloudy again, it got better and became mostly sunny, and stayed that way, before becoming possible thunderstorms, then just thunderstorms. More on that in the December summary.

I had a dream about whinging whiteboard owners.

Then I announced that I was leaving for the retirement expo, and then provided a report about it.

I then brought you an update on the Section 84 development.

2CC and 2CA suffered power failures, which reminded John B1_B5 of his time working at ABC transmitters.

The Spin Starts Here fiasco continued, with me agreeing to a photo with Loadedog over coffee.

ACTION sold some of their busses.

I announced my playlist for the trip to Sydney and Back between 2CC & 2UE reception areas.

I then became employed again, and the blog passed 20,000 page views in a month for the first time.

That pretty much wraps up November. December will be up for review tomorrow morning as we get closer to the birthday of Samuel’s Blog.

Samuel

4 comments April 11th, 2006 at 07:00am

Samuel’s Coffee-Cup-O-Meter

Monday
3 x Standard Mugs (1 Point Each) = 3 Points
Total = 3 Points

Samuel

April 11th, 2006 at 01:31am

Samuel’s Footy Tips: Results

My AFL tips weren’t as good as last week, but my NRL tips were…I correctly tipped 4 winners in each code, which amounted to one less winner overall.

AFL Round 2: 4/8 (50%)
NRL Round 5: 4/7 (57.14%)
Week Total: 8/15 (53.33%)

Totals:
AFL: 10/16 (62.50%)
NRL: 14/35 (40%)
Total: 24/51 (47.06%)

Samuel

April 10th, 2006 at 07:05am

Samuel’s Blog Year In Review: October 2005

October started with Nattie barking nationally, and the Blog View Stats for the previous month showing a 283% increase in the number of page views.

City Ads were up to their usual tricks, and 2CC were celebrating their 30th birthday by giving away a 1975 Kingswood, I said that I would meet Mike Frame in Erindale.

On that particular day, Mike Jeffreys had a story about a man who really does live in a fridge, and I rang in and told him about the story I wrote called “The Fridge”, and as Mike Jeffreys was also going to be making an appearance with the Kingswood at Video Ezy Erindale, I decided to print out a copy of “The Fridge” for him.

I made my way out to Erindale and took the camera with me for a photographic journey, among the highlights:
The items I took with me

You could see from Bunda Street to Ballumbir Street back then

I avoided a green bus, and caught a nice orange bus instead

Mike Frame posing with the Kingswood

John B1_B5 sitting in the Kingswood

Mike Jeffreys arrives

And Ainslie Avenue

I also documented the excessive amount of noise those horrid green busses create.

I was forced to write my first editorial policy post.

Google followed up on a suggestion of mine.

I had a long, but enjoyable, day in which I went to work, had a very long lunch, and also took copies of my photos of 2CC presenters out to 2CC.

I had a really good idea about the future of public transport.

The ACT Government started planning for the centenary of Canberra in 2013, I gave them a good suggestion for a feature attraction.

I summarised some feedback, and outlined some new comment spam protection measures.

ACT Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope released a confidential document, and got an appropriate serve from Piers Akerman.

Australia’s version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire finally gave away a million dollars.

John Kerr started talking about his Christmas Cruise, and I had a strange dream about it.

Some children are just plain obnoxious.

John Kerr (a different John Kerr) had a snake in his taxi.

I made my booking and announced my plans for the New Day Australia Christmas Cruise.

I also brought you a classic 2CC jingle and showed you the catamaran being used for the Christmas Cruise.

Mike Welsh ran the Trading Post, and a policewoman considered suing John Laws.

I won a Home Improvement DVD as part of 2CC’s birthday celebrations, Nattie visited the vet, and I had a dream where I yelled at Jon Stanhope.

2CC had their birthday, and I had a special picture for the occasion.

That was October, tomorrow morning we will take a look at November.

Samuel

10 comments April 10th, 2006 at 07:00am

Samuel’s Coffee-Cup-O-Meter

Sunday
6 x Standard Mugs (1 Point Each) = 6 Points
Total = 6 Points

Samuel

April 10th, 2006 at 01:00am

Samuel In Dolgnwot: Series 2, Episode 6

Episode six has arrived, and Samuel has gone shopping, obviously in need of supplies before he starts his gold digging. Samuel can be seen here in the Dolgnwot General Store buying many things, including 2 kilograms of coffee.

Samuel

15 comments April 9th, 2006 at 10:36pm

Samuel’s Musicians Of The Week

This week the award goes to Ben E. King (aka Ben Nelson) & The Drifters, who sung many good songs, but probably didn’t get recognition for them at the time, none the less, the feature song of the week from them is Saturday Night At The Movies.

Well Saturday night at 8 o’clock
I know where I’m gonna go
I’m gonna pick my baby up
And take her to the picture show

Everybody in the neighbourhood
Is dressing up to be there too
And we’re gonna have a ball
Just like we always do

Saturday night at the movies
Who cares what picture you see
When you’re hugging with your baby in the last row of the balcony

Well there’s technicolor and cinemascope
A cast out of Hollywood
And the popcorn from the candy stand
Makes it all seem twice as good

There’s always lots of pretty girls
With figures they don’t try to hide
But they never can compare
To the girl sittin’ by my side

Saturday night at the movies
Who cares what picture you see
When you’re hugging with your baby in the last row of the balcony

Saturday night at the movies
Who cares what picture you see
When you’re hugging with your baby in the last row of the balcony

Saturday night at the movies
Who cares what picture you see
When you’re hugging with your baby in the last row of the balcony

Saturday night at the movies
Who cares what picture you see
When you’re hugging with your baby in the last row of the balcony

Samuel

April 9th, 2006 at 06:00pm

Samuel singing the Vegemite song on 2CA’s Big Breakfast with Daniel Gibson & Lisa Herbert in 2000

Seeing as Daniel Gibson has returned to 2CA’s breakfast shift (albeit apparently temporarily), I thought it would be a good idea to dust off my recording of me singing the Vegemite song on 2CA in 2000. At that stage 2CA’s breakfast show was hosted by Daniel Gibson and Lisa Herbert.

I’ve done some research and I believe that this was recorded on Wednesday, July 12, 2000, as it was school holidays, the Western Bulldogs versed Carlton the following weekend, and the Western Bulldogs had lost the previous week.

Anyway, back to the story, 2CA’s Big Breakfast and Vegemite were running a promotion to coincide with “The Happy Little Vegemite Awards”, where it was possible to win $78,000 for your school by making a video with the theme of a happy future (and presumably Vegemite). The 2CA competition involved singing the Vegemite song, and then one of the people who did so each morning would win a Vegemite t-shirt and cap. It was close to 8:30am when I rang in to sing the Vegemite song.

Click here to hear Samuel singing the Vegemite song, and the banter surrounding it.

I had been on-air with Daniel and Lisa before, and was used to them pre-recording callers, so I had the tape in the recorder but was in the next room when it became apparent that I was going live to air, and rushed into my bedroom to start recording. Before the recording started I asked the somewhat silly question “Am I on the radio?”, the recording starts with Daniel’s answer and Lisa being amused about me recording myself on the radio.

We chatted a bit about Vegemite and how I know the Vegemite song, and then Daniel starts playing the background music (which I and just about every other contestant ignored), and I started singing the Vegemite song:

We’re happy little Vegemites
As bright as bright can be.
We all enjoy our Vegemite
For breakfast, lunch, and tea.
Our mother says we’re growing
stronger every single week.
Because we love our Vegemite.
We all adore our Vegemite…

I then managed to forget the last line of the song, and Lisa started singing which helped to jog my memory.

It puts a rose in every cheek!

After that we chat for a bit longer, and just before I’m put on hold Daniel and I discuss our favourite AFL team, the Western Bulldogs (aka Footscray). Daniel is correct that we lost the previous weekend, we were beaten by Port Adelaide 23.11 (149) to 16.10 (106). Daniel then predicted that the Bulldogs would do well against Carlton the following weekend.

Near the end of the “Big Breakfast” Daniel & Lisa announce the winner…me! Lisa accidently says that I won a TV & cap, which Daniel corrects before Lisa informs everyone about a rabbit on the loose in Davenport Street, Dickson, Daniel’s light-hearted response was rather memorable. (Listen to the recording for it).

I didn’t notice Lisa saying “TV & cap”, so when she rang me off air a few moments later I defended her, although when she checked 2CA’s audio log she found out that she did say it accidentally, not that it matters.

The reason I think that it was a Wednesday when all of this happened is that I seem to recall that Dad and I were going to pick up the prizes the next day, but then put it off to the following day due to other comittments, and we went to 2CA on a Friday, at which time Daniel gave us a tour of the studios (from memory Lisa had a meeting to attend and couldn’t be there). The interesting thing about this is that Daniel had his Bulldogs top with him for the event (I can’t remember if I did or not), and Dad is a Carlton supporter. The next day the Bulldogs beat Carlton in a very close encounter 11.9 (75) to 11.6 (72), and on Monday morning I had a chat with Daniel who said that he was thinking about Dad and I sitting at opposite ends of the lounge…me cheering and Dad crying.

Anyway, for the record, a photo of the Vegemite t-shirt and cap (I’ve only recently grown into the t-shirt).

Samuel

4 comments April 9th, 2006 at 01:48am

Samuel’s Coffee-Cup-O-Meter

Saturday
6 x Standard Mugs (1 Point Each) = 6 Points
Total = 6 Points

Samuel

April 9th, 2006 at 01:03am

Samuel’s Blog Year In Review: September 2005

I could tell you that September started off with a bang, but that would be a fib, as it actually started off with snoring, both from myself, and from the rostered air traffic controller at Canberra Airport. I did eventually wake up and write a brief Blog View Stats post, where we found out that there were 196 views of the new site’s front page in the short time that it was on the Internet in August.

I had a very nice lunch and afternoon with my bus driver friend, which included me getting a new radio, I later converted the afternoon into german and back to English using the Google Translator, with some very amusing results.

2UE moved to new studios, with a couple minor glitches, which not only caused issues for most network stations, but compounded calamities for (the now nearly defunct) 2LT. The proper technical changeover to the new studios took quite a bit of network programming away from 2CC temporarily, but Mike Frame had a good afternoon show. The new 2UE studios do look nice though.

Google decided that I’m a penguin.

Wayne Mac had a very interesting chat with the people over at 6PR.

I summarised a week in one veeeery long post, so summarised probably isn’t the right word.

City News continued their incompetence by publishing an opinion piece from a website as an “editorial” in their so called newspaper.

One of the people who lives near me decided that leaf blowers are good at cleaning houses.

I wrote my first restaurant review, for the Majura Cafe, and became very annoyed with the way government lawnmowers operate.

Google Earth is good, but I’m glad the pictures aren’t live.

I had a dream about oranges that taste like pineapples.

I found a good definition of a modern pop star.

I showed you a story I wrote called “The Fridge”.

One of my clocks gained half a second.

Channel Nine announced 50 years of television a year too early.

Sadly, Don Adams passed away.

I spent far too much time thinking about having radio live in each and every house.

The Coffee-Cup-O-Meter made a temporary return.

I wondered how immune government cars are to road rules, posted the first ever Tape Highlights Package and grumbled about tablecloth sized catalogues.

That more or less wraps up September 2005, We’ll look back on October 2005 on Monday morning (can anybody see the pattern yet…or better yet work out the reason behind the pattern?).

Samuel

April 8th, 2006 at 07:00am

Samuel’s Coffee-Cup-O-Meter

Friday
6 x Standard Mugs (1 Point Each) = 6 Points
1 x Regular Shop Coffee (1 Point Each) = 1 Point
Total = 7 Points

Samuel

3 comments April 8th, 2006 at 01:00am

Black & Gold change their label design

People who shop at Supabarn, IGA, Shoprite and some other stores would be well aware of “Black & Gold”, one of the many generic in store brands which offers products at generally lower prices than their “brand name” competition, other such generic brands are “Savings” as seen in Coles and some independent stores, “No Frills” as seen in Franklins, and “Home Brand” as seen in Woolworths.

These generic brands often cut down on costs by having very simple, and distinctive labeling, which is usually almost entirely text based. Black & Gold are currently in the process of changing their labeling from their old distinctive “yellow label with black text” design, as seen here:

To this newer design which contains a new coloured logo, a new slogan “Value you can trust”, and a picture which demonstrates the item:

It is quite possible (and probable) that Black & Gold have already made the transition to the newer labeling on all of their products and it is just taking time for the stores to sell off the old stock. I will miss the old simple label design, but the new one is a refreshing change, and gives Black & Gold a slightly more elegant appearance.

It is a good thing that they didn’t remove the yellow background from their labels, as stores would have been fielding complaints from people irate at not being able to find their favourite yellow-labeled products, and would have had to waste staff time pointing people to the new colour scheme.

Samuel

36 comments April 7th, 2006 at 03:41pm

How impartial is Media Watch?

This is the question I was left asking myself after Monday’s show, in which the following was the final story.

On the other hand we had hoped to tell you about an ongoing legal matter involving the ABC, but late today Media Watch was directed not to broadcast that story.

The director of ABC TV Kim Dalton said

“It is not appropriate for the ABC to comment on a matter before the courts in which the ABC is involved where the perception may arise that the ABC is attempting to influence the outcome of the court’s deliberation.”

Until next week – good night.

The story in question is one Media Watch covered the previous week.

The Packer family’s Bulletin magazine carried a lengthy discussion on the future of the ABC two weeks ago.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan had this to say.

“It won’t be the same ABC it is today in a year’s time – we are in for some very exciting changes.”

— The Bulletin, 21st March, 2006

And boy, she meant it. Talk about moving fast!

“Restructure of ABC Board
The Board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will be restructured …

The staff-elected Director position on the ABC Board will be abolished and legislation to give effect to this change will be introduced as early as possible.”

— Senator Coonan, Media Release – Restructure of ABC Board, 24th March, 2006

The election for a new staff director is already underway. The nominations are in. The Australian Electoral Office is gearing up.

So the government has to let that process continue. But once ABC staff have voted – the government will axe the position.

Now that’s forward planning! So where will that leave the board?

The staff elected director will go. A permanent replacement for the managing director is yet to be chosen and it’s not clear whether Chairman Donald McDonald will be re-appointed.

That leaves just four board members whose tenure is secure. Senator Coonan has promised to appoint two new board members soon. ABC staff will meet later this week to discuss the changes.

We’ll keep you posted.

Good night.

Up until now, the ABC has made Media Watch look like an independent 15 minutes of airtime, something over which management take no control over, and is free to do as it pleases, including scrutinise the ABC. With this image, surely there was no problem with Media Watch looking into the story, but instead management have come along and destroyed this image in order to prevent Media Watch from talking about the story. This also makes me wonder what Media Watch found out that management wanted to hide?

Samuel

Update (3:50PM 7/Mar/2006): It turns out that the story in question was NOT about the staff-appointed director fiasco, but instead about a woman who is suing the ABC for a breach of privacy. Whilst this still raises questions about the impartiality (or lack thereof) of Media Watch, a report in yesterday’s The Australian newspaper casts a different light on it, with host Monica Attard and executive producer Peter McEvoy threatening to quit. You can see the article on The Australian’s website by clicking here, or read on for my “archived for historical purposes” copy (naturally The Australian retain copyright over the article, and any request they may make for me to remove the article from this website will be honoured).

Media Watch resents ABC gag
Amanda Meade
April 06, 2006
MEDIA Watch host Monica Attard and her executive producer Peter McEvoy issued an ultimatum yesterday to ABC’s new director of television, Kim Dalton: stop meddling or we will quit.

The staff at Media Watch are still fuming over the removal on Monday night of a story from the program’s line-up. It is believed to be the first time management has interfered significantly in editorial decisions since the program started in 1989 with barrister Stuart Littlemore as its first host.

Attard and McEvoy believe the story was removed not for legal reasons but because it was not in the corporate interests of the public broadcaster.

After seeing the Media Watch script late on Monday, acting managing director Murray Green and Dalton further consulted legal advisers and directed the story be dropped.

The censored item was about a Melbourne woman who is suing the ABC for breach of privacy.

In two radio bulletins broadcast on the ABC in 2002, the victim of a rape was identified, which is against the law.

The victim, whose husband was convicted for the rape, is suing the ABC for breach of privacy and seeking compensation and aggravated damages.

The woman told the court after the broadcasts she felt as if the “whole world knew” she had been raped.

The national broadcaster’s media watchdog was going to make the point that a legal precedent may be set if she was successful, which could affect media reporting.

Although the story had been cleared by in-house lawyers, Green and Dalton said it may be seen by the magistrate hearing the case as the ABC exerting pressure on her.

Monday’s program reported on the internal tension.

“We had hoped to tell you about an ongoing legal matter involving the ABC, but late today Media Watch was directed not to broadcast that story,” Attard told viewers before reading out a statement provided to the program by Dalton: “It is not appropriate for the ABC to comment on the matter before the courts in which the ABC is involved where the perception may arise where the ABC is attempting to influence the outcome of the court’s deliberations.”

Sources insist, however, that the item was not a comment on the case but a simple report of the facts in the case, which were of significant interest to the media industry.

Last night sources told Media the meeting with Dalton was lengthy and constructive and no one was threatening to quit the program. However, if Dalton takes a heavy-handed approach to the program, he may find himself with a fight on his hands. Media Watch was axed by previous managing director Jonathan Shier and then reinstated by former director of television Sandra Levy. Although she was a hands-on director, Levy did not meddle, former presenter David Marr has said.

1 comment April 7th, 2006 at 12:12pm