Samuel’s Blog Year In Review: July 2005
April 6th, 2006 at 07:00am
The week that spanned across the months of June and July saw me doing work experience at the Capital Radio Network (2CC/2CA), which saw this website grind to a halt. Upon my return I mentioned that I hadn’t vanished, and did not have a Musician(s) Of The Week award.
I was still very annoyed with the stupid things that people do, and brought some rather unusual rubbish bin activity to your attention.
I soon realised that I had missed the Musician(s) Of The Week award, and gave it to The Beatles, I also offered my condolences to those affected by the London bombings.
I did some calculations involving bus tickets, and then brought you some information about Linux.Conf.Au 2006.
This was followed by the good news that John Laws would be returning to work, after recovering from a back operation, on July 27, a date which was later ammended to July 25, two weeks before his 70th birthday (more on that tomorrow).
My shipment of Ubuntu Linux CDs arrived.
Television cricket coverage became competitive and Nattie wasn’t interested in navigating strange bits of Canberra design.
I started the Samuel’s Artwork category by showing you a picture I had shown you before, this lead to me starting the Samuel In Dolgnwot series. I also announced the start of the Blog View Stats, and even started tracking Schnappi’s progress on the ARIA charts.
Somebody called “Thought & Humor” left a very long piece of comment spam, which was odd and interesting. I then proceeded to talk about a few reasons why I like Mozilla Firefox and explained the process of making patchwork art.
I explained in great detail why I think the Ginninderra Super School is a huge mistake.
The first ever online Samuel Salute was awarded to Bob Carr after his retirement, and I suggested that John Laws should be the next New South Wales premier, Carl Scully promptly dropped out of the race, but alas, Morris Iemma became the premier.
I then found a way to run Windows Update without Internet Explorer and told you about the announcement of a leap second.
The month ended with Visual Basic being described as silly string, and Schnappi becoming Casanova.
Tomorrow morning we will be looking back on August 2005.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Year In Review
40 Comments
1. mark | April 6th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Perhaps you’d like to revise that ‘salute’ now that it has become clear that Bob Carr was a cleptocrat who f****d up NSW as premier and parachuted out leaving Morris Iemma to do damage control.
2. Samuel | April 6th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
I was thinking about that whilst I wrote this Year In Review post, but whilst Bob left quite a mess, he is still, in my opinion at least, quite a gentleman.
3. John B1_B5 | April 6th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Click here for the following “salutes” – Australian, German (1933-1945) , Salvation —
http://spaces.msn.com/john33805/blog/cns!F2B226DE742C41C9!1601.entry?_c=BlogPart
4. Pandora | April 6th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Nattie looks very regal from her high wall. What personality type does she have?
5. mark | April 6th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Gentleman?!?!? Tell that to John Brogden!
6. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 1:10 am
So somebody can call Bob Carr greedy and corrupt (that’s ‘Kleptocrat’ Mark) and the comments are not closed. Interesting…
Good idea Mark, blame Carr for Brogden’s ‘naughtyness’. There is nothing gentlemen like about calling someone’s wife ‘a mail order bride’.
Mind you, groping female journalists is ok.
7. Samuel | April 7th, 2006 at 1:25 am
In Bob Carr’s case (unlike Eddie McGuire’s) there is some solid proof, that being said I do have to admit that I misread “cleptocrat” as being something completely different, and I think that Bob’s parliamentary colleagues may have something to answer for as well.
As for John Brogden’s naughtyness, I’ve put that behind me and let John work on putting his life back together.
I fear that Chuck’s sentence “Mind you, groping female journalists is ok” may be read out of context, and wish to point out that I do not endorse the groping of anyone.
8. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 1:33 am
That sentence was ironic Samuel. I would never condone the groping of anyone without their written consent or a permission slip from a parent or guardian.
I would like to see the solid proof that Bob Carr was corrupt if that it what you are endorsing. Or are you agreeing that he left a mess behind?
9. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 1:37 am
Nattie must have had a big dinner.
10. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 1:39 am
I find Sam’s post regard Bob Carr defamatory in the extreme.
I guess it depends on who you are defaming that matters.
I have a question: why is it that some mirrors make you look quite jaunty and suave and others magnify your every imperfection; even amplify them? Could it be lighting?
11. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 1:41 am
Nattie has a cape on, she should be easily able to clear that little drop, she just chooses not to.
12. Samuel | April 7th, 2006 at 1:42 am
I’m aware that the sentence was not meant to be read as written, I’m just not so sure that others will.
Bob Carr certainly left a mess behind, and it would be fair to say that certain tunnel contracts border on corruption, whether Bob Carr is directly responsible for that I don’t know, but I certainly think that either him, or people within his government(s), need to be held accountable. I also think it is important for the Iemma government to do all they can to rectify the problems, and for the public to let them do it.
13. Samuel | April 7th, 2006 at 1:45 am
No it doesn’t depend on who you are defaming, it depends on whether or not you consider something defamatory. I don’t consider what I wrote, or what anybody else has written (so far) to be defamatory. If I receive a letter from Bob Carr’s lawyers outlining reasons why he considers it to be defamatory then I might reconsider, as it may throw a new light on to it…but as it stands right now, I do not consider it defamatory.
14. Samuel | April 7th, 2006 at 1:46 am
And Pandora, I don’t understand your question? How do you define a “personality type”.
15. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 1:46 am
A word of caution Wonko. I think I am already in Samuel’s bad books for airing Eddie’s dirty laundry. Be careful with what you write as sedition laws are in full force at the moment.
I want to get back on Samuel’s good side however, piousness has been rife lately.
16. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 1:51 am
That said, Lawsie is the man for the job. I think he could get enough support to run for Premier.
17. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 2:05 am
Yes, in politics, you should most certainly be held accountable for your actions. I think the same should also apply to big business, which is arguably more powerful than government bu virtue of its influence over it.
I see a double standard that Eddie’s Thread be closed down because you considered it litigious, yet a politician’s character can be called into question based on ‘whether Bob Carr is directly responsible for that I don’t know’ — it seems a bit thin to me.
I’m no fans of politicans, but I’m even less of fan of double standards.
I know, Chuck, we’re skating on thin ice at the moment. But I guess if Sam didn’t really, at the bottom of his heart want people to read and comment on his thoughts, then he would write his blog in a diary and not on the internet. And I trust him to uphold the principals of free speech.
18. Samuel | April 7th, 2006 at 2:10 am
I don’t think I’ve run a double standard here, but I can certainly see why you think I did.
19. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 2:11 am
Group hug anyone?
20. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 2:14 am
I worked in publishing, including ACP, part of Eddie’s empire, for eight years and I know from experience that ethics, morals and fair dealings are regarded as highly as a politician might. Except that instead of votes, the media want dollars on the bottom line. And nothing, no ethical code, personal friendship or moral behaviour will stand in the way of either organisation from achieving their results.
It just seems that the sense of outrage is so much less when the person whose dealings have been called into question give away free money with an affable grin on the TV, instead of a premier, who can be conveniently blamed for every social ill under the sun with a careless wave of the hand.
Long Live the Eddie Thread. You got some blows in, Chuck, before the judges threw the match.
21. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 2:20 am
Sam, it’s a double standard if you lock threads because you don’t like what people are saying about someone, but leave another thread open because people are saying negative things about someone you personally don’t like. Neither of the threads in question carry anything even remotely litigious. It’s just that one thread has been censored, and another hasn’t.
It is your site, and you can do what you want. But I think the principle should be pointed out. As I see it anyway.
Can’t we… can’t we all just get along?
22. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 2:27 am
I will fire up the hookah.
23. Samuel | April 7th, 2006 at 2:37 am
The Eddie post was designed as a tribute to Eddie and as a record of his final moment on-air with a television show which has had a major impact on society, and set some interesting records in the history of Australian television. Some of the comments were very very close to being defamatory, and were hardly useful as part of a tribute to Eddie’s time on Millionaire, they certainly served a purpose as a record that all might not be well in Eddie’s dealings, but enough was enough.
I like Bob Carr, and despite the controversies surrounding him, I have no problem with the Samuel Salute which I awarded to him. The controversies surrounding Bob Carr have much more proof behind them than ones surrounding Eddie, and so far the comments haven’t come close to defamation.
We obviously see this differently, and I don’t expect us to reach a concencus, but I do hope that we can, as you put it Wonko, “all just get along”.
24. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 2:47 am
Excuse me for my extended absence, i had to go and turn the central heating on. The weather in Melbourne is chilly.
I don’t think Bob Carr retired because he wanted to flee a sinking ship. He retired because he wanted to pursue his passions of history, journalism and helping Macquarie Bank with it’s quest for global domination. Also he had to fly to Washington DC to interview Gore Vidal.
As for Eddie, I met him a few times while I was working for ‘The Price is Right’. (Details can be found somewhere on this blog). A pleasant bloke is Eddie, however, he did waddle up those stairs at GTV nine to his office at The Footy Show with a certain smugness. I can understand Samuel liking Eddie as Samuel lives in Canberra and does not have Eddie in his face at every turn like one does in Melbourne.
My opinions of Eddie still stand and I think Wonko has a better insight than us all into the McGuire empire and it’s shady operations. I don’t care that Eddie is successful however, my constitution does not allow me to agree with the saying ‘to cook an omelet you have to break some eggs’.
For the record, I have nothing against eggs.
Some good words of advice from Wonko Samuel. Food for thought…
25. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 2:52 am
Great to see you taking this all in the spirit of a discussion and not an argument, Sam (Chuck’s peace pipe kicking in here now).
But man, you’re backpedalling like a man on a unicycle who has accidentally pedalled into a room where his parents are having relations.
I understand you like Bob as a bloke too, and that you value fairness, as demonstrated by your gesture of writing to congratulate the principal of Campell High School for the improvement in students’ behaviour when crossing the road to the swimming pool.
But don’t you, in principle, feel that fairness should be extended to the censoring, or not, of comments surrounding Eddie and Bobbie Carr?
Eddie got a pretty good run with the Salute and all, your position salute-wise is clear, so shouldn’t voices from both sides be heard?
Back to the pipe, now…
26. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 2:52 am
Correction – it’s should be its, omlet should be omlette
Ok Samuel, next time you give a salute I will not bring the post into disrepute. Friends?
27. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 2:57 am
https://samuelgordonstewart.com/2006/01/larry-emdur-takes-the-wheel#comments
28. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 3:02 am
The Price Is Right — now THERE is a game show! Larry Emdur makes Eddie look like a sullen sack of spuds by comparison, and as far as I know, has no plans for world domination.
The Price Is Right has the perfect formula… I love how who ever comes up with the sets for the products makes the vaccuum cleaner look so exciting. I often used to wonder if it were possible to beam to the lifestyle dimension proposed by the set designers, where your heart’s desires could be sated by merely toying with the remote to a Jason Laz-E-Boy; where everyone wears resort wear while setting the table with a fabulous set of silver cutlery, and beaming young children were always amused by the educational computer games. The models… the products… the models… the lasagne… Emdur, the beatific god smiling from the Heavens, where even the worst sinner gets a tie pin and a board game.
The Price Is Right. Now THAT is a game show.
29. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 3:08 am
Plus, feeling stress and tension at guessing the prices to products you were previously unaware of, has to be the best kind of tension ever.
How much, in all fairness, would you expect to pay for a set of laminated prints of Captain Cook’s Last Message To Mankind? I don’t know… nail bite, nail bite… lock it in, Larry, just above the combination golf club set and commemorative placemats, $1,500 the lot. Oh god! The no-name brand Blackberry is nowhere NEAR as expensive as a set of good cotton sheets! You fool! Oh, the agony!
Pass me the pipe, Chuck, I feel a Salute coming on, and it’s gonna ruin my image of those clean, crisp sheets…
30. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 3:24 am
Chuck, thanks for all the memories.
31. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 3:31 am
Yes! The Price is Right. Something we can all agree on. I can tell you Wonko first hand that those sets were spruced up by myself and others. I treated them like I was a gay man with a disposable income. Against my will they were stored outside only to be covered in pidgeon poo and acid rain. But like that magic day in September, they were brought to life once a fortnight with a lick of paint, a hammer and nail, some elbow grease, a good deal of imagination and some prop pinching from the old Hey Hey shed.
Those prizes and props looked great on TV but like a Malvern mother who has recently had plastic surgery, a look up close revealed dust and crevices that would make Michael Jackson turn whiter.
I do miss the call of the audience.
32. Chuck A. Spear | April 7th, 2006 at 3:39 am
Apologies for my poor spelling and grammar. I was too excited to care.
33. John B1_B5 | April 7th, 2006 at 8:21 am
Seems somebody has opened a “Pandora’s Box” here .
34. Pandora | April 7th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Samuel, I meant ‘how would you describe Nattie’s personality?’. Is she a nervous, yapy, ice maiden, is she an affectionate, jolly lass. That kind of thing. Or Myers-Briggs type if you know it.
35. heatseeker | April 7th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Bob Car should get a big rock and drop it on his head!
36. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Not a fan, Heatseeker?
37. heatseeker | April 7th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Actually, I am a fan when it comes to teetotal vegan Labor Premiers, I’d just like to see him drop a big rock on his head for the entertainment value!
38. wonko the sane | April 7th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
Or an 825g can of pineapple slices.
I thought Bob didn’t mind a drop red waahn?
39. heatseeker | April 7th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
I think a hat of black and gold alfoil would protect him from a tin of pineapple pieces dropeed from a great height, but he would be deluding himself when it came to a big rock.
40. John B1_B5 | April 8th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
“Bob Car should get a big rock and drop it on his head ” ….. OR …..
Drop a Bowling Ball on his head !