Posts filed under 'Blog News'
samuelgordonstewart.com Exclusive:
On Friday afternoon a bus in Kippax was sealed off for two and a half hours after a suspicious substance was found spread all over the back seat. The driver of the bus, after finding the substance, contacted ACTION who advised him to close the bus and wait for help to arrive. According to reports from my sources, the “help” consisted of 1 ACTION supervisor, 2 police cars, 2 fire engines, 1 hazmat van, 1 hazchem clean up van, 2 paramedics and a police media car. It is estimated that roughly 30 people were in attendance…but what did they do? Not much, in fact, in the two and a half hours that they were there, not one person went near the mystery substance, but they did eventually decide that it wasn’t a threat and left. The driver was told to take the bus back to the depot, where it was discovered that the substance was a make-up powder.
Not only did nobody attempt to determine what the substance was in Kippax, they also left the bus driver standing around in the roped off area for fear of contamination, but never attempted to de-contaminate him. This is surely one of the strangest ways to deal with a potential chemical threat, and appears to show a lack of proper procedure for handling such matters.
Samuel
October 17th, 2005 at 07:18pm
In the last few days I have recieved some feedback from people about things they have read, heard or been in on this blog.
The people from the Majura Cafe said that they liked the review, although the person responsible for the yellathon wasn’t entirely conviced, but did give reasons for it, mainly kitchen staff who are staff by name and not nature.
I received some feedback about some of my recordings from years gone by. Apparently they are scarier than scary movies, and potentially nightmare material…the wisdom of putting such things on the internet has also been questioned. From memory there are about 26 nightmares to go…you could always ignore them if you want! Seriously though, I enjoy them, they are relics of my past and as I am currently restoring them digitally I might as well share some of it with the rest of the world.
Just so you know, up to now there have been 9 downloads of the highlights of 32 Musical People and 7 of the highlights of 2CC (which as mentioned in the post has a link with the Canberra radio station by name only).
On a slightly related note, due to utter lunatics leaving pointless spam comments there have been further changes to the comments system. When you comment for the first time you will have to wait for me to approve the comment before it appears…I don’t want to censor you, just make sure you aren’t posting rubbish. People with an approved comment will be able to comment with no delays. I don’t like having this in place, and hopefully it will only need to be temporary, I will review this in a few weeks.
Samuel
October 12th, 2005 at 06:59pm
Over at the Centenary Of Canberra website (which occurs in 2013), they are asking for ideas on what they can do to celebrate the 100 years of Canberra.
They want virtually any idea that celebrates Canberra in some way, and brings attention to Canberra, so I gave them my suggestion.
Seeing as all of our past and present chief ministers are so excited about this (and presumably being well paid to administer it), they should be the feature attraction. We could have them all stand on top of each other on top of the flagpole on City Hill, they could even stand there all day on the celebratory day, which would surely bring in the media attention. It would quickly become one of the odd stories that radio shows love.
Those crazy Canberrans have dispensed with the customary birthday cake and singing, in favour of standing on each other. The chief ministers have stood on top of each other on top of a flagpole for a whole day….I know it gets cold in Canberra, but if that’s how they plan on bringing the sun closer….
Samuel
October 8th, 2005 at 01:34am
The raft of recent unsavoury people leaving comments has prompted me to do something I didn’t want to have to do. I have made a few changes to the editorial policy of this website…the policy itself remains confidential and subject to change, but the following things should act as general guidelines.
- Whilst I continue to take no responsibility for the comments of others, I endeavour to make this website as family friendly as possible. That means that I will not tolerate nastiness for no particular reason. You are still free to criticise me, but only if you can provide sensible reasoning. In general, if your nasty comment has no relevance to the post it is attached to I reserve the right to delete it. If you feel a need to turn nasty towards me, there is a link to the contact form at the top of every page…use it. If you feel a need to be nasty towards somebody else, this isn’t the place to do it (unless that is the topic). Nastiness towards regular readers/commenters is generally off-topic.
- This is MY website, if you don’t like it, go away and read some other website…or if you aren’t capable of that, find the nearest mental asylum and ask for a padded room. That being said I have no problem with you disagreeing with something I have said, but I do have a problem with you posting comments for the sole purpose of attacking me (or others), I’ve had enough.
- Defamation is not wanted, there are plenty of other websites designed to defame people for no particular reason, this is not one of them.
- Certain people who shall remain nameless have requested that they be kept off this site, their requests were reasonable and logical, and I shall uphold their request
- And finally, as previously mentioned, this I my website, and I shall have the final word on what is, and is not acceptable, on this site. I do not guarantee that the same thing will be applicable to each and every person who comes here, as certain people are, in my view, more welcome here than others. Your ability to leave comments here is a privilege, not a right, so treat it as such.
Samuel
October 5th, 2005 at 08:56pm
I noticed a curious article in the City Ads today (I’m well aware of it’s real name being City News…but it is an advertorial-a-thon). It was regarding so called “exit interviews” where an employee who leaves a business can be interviewed by a third party to find out what problems may exist in the business they have left.
Naturally, as with all the paid articles in City Ads it contained a final paragraph with company contact details, but the reason I find this interesting is that a former City Ads employee once told me about the reasons City Ads have a high staff turnover, including an advertisers over staff mentatilty in management.
This prompts an interesting question, with such a high turnover, do City Ads use “exit Interviews”, and if so, did they get a reduction in fees for running this advertorial?
For those who are interested, it is on page 12 in the top right of the page and mirrored below for future reference.
Samuel
The Importance Of Exit Interviews
Why is it that so many strong organisations continue to lose excellent employees? Organisations are facing unbudgeted expenses of hundreds of thousands of dollars by ignoring the costs involved in employee turnover.
But how can organisations discover the real problems causing high employee turnover? Simple as it sounds, the answer is to conduct an exit interview and record, analyse and action the information that’s revealed.
Exit interviews are structured discussions, preferably conducted by a third party, designed to uncover what is happening in organisation of which management is often unaware.
The information unearthed in an exit interview – if conducted correctly – can be used to improve employee retention/reduce employee turnover, with both immediate and long-term positive effects for the company.
Drake Canberra is holding a “Keeping the Best” business lunch from 12pm-2pm on Friday, October 14th at the Crowne Plaza, Binara Street. The briefing is tailored especially for business and government, line and HR managers with employment and employee retention responsibility. Delegates will learn why people stay, why they go and how you can keep your good people through the implementation of practical retention tactics including exit interviews and regular employee surveys.
The presenter, Stephanie Dinnell is Drake International’s Employee Retention Specialist who is speaking around Australia on this topic. She is an engaging presenter and is renowned for her informative and interactive sessions.
To find out more or book your place, call Catherine O’Malley on 1300 362 262 or email drakeevents@au.drakeintl.com
October 2nd, 2005 at 09:54pm
This week the award goes to The Eagles, and the feature song is Hotel California.
On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas
Rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance
I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy, and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself
This could be Heaven or this could be Hell
Then she lit up a candle
And she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor
I thought I heard them say
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely place (background)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year
Any time of year (background)
You can find it here
You can find it here
Her mind is Tiffany twisted
She’s got the Mercedes bends
She’s got a lot of pretty, pretty boys
That she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard
Sweet summer sweat
Some dance to remember
Some dance to forget
So I called up the Captain
Please bring me my wine
He said
We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969
And still those voices are calling from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely Place
Such a lovely Place (background)
Such a lovely face
They’re livin’ it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise
What a nice surprise (background)
Bring your alibies
Mirrors on the ceiling
Pink champagne on ice
And she said
We are all just prisoners here
Of our own device
And in the master’s chambers
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can’t kill the beast
Last thing I remember
I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
Relax said the nightman
We are programed to recieve
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave
Samuel
October 2nd, 2005 at 09:21pm
Yet again the number of page views and visitors on Samuel’s Blog has risen. The page views went up astronomically from 732 in August to 2807 in September, this can partially be attributed to the record number of loony commenters. The visitors also went up, but not as severely, from 306 in August to 556 in September.
Other items of note from the September stats:
- Visitor numbers were fairly consistent each day throughout the month, although spikes in the page views can be seen on the days where lots of comments were left
- The most popular article was the Pictures Of 2UE’s new studios, possibly due to John B1_B5 mentioning it to Mike Frame on-air, or possibly because it contained a bunch of irrelevant comments.
- The most popular category was the TV/Radio/Media category.
- Google remained the most popular search engine, and some interesting localised version popped up.
- John B1_B5 once again topped the search terms, closely followed by a few version of “Kelly Underwood 3AW” and Mike Frame made it into the list for the first time.
- Internet Explorer was the most used browser this month, I did notice some spikes in IE usage during periods of heavy loony comments…Firefox, Netscape, Safari, Mozilla & Opera rounded out the list.
- Windows obviously continues to dominate the Operating System list, with Macintosh & Linux also in the list.
- Close to 95% of the readership is located in Australia.
As we have reached the end of the first full month of paid hosting, I am able to bring you some referer stats as well, the top referers were:
- http://the-riotact.com 62
- http://canofcornforyou2.blogspot.com 5
- http://technorati.com/tag/radio 5
All the details of the stats (excluding referers) by Webstat.com can be found at https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/blogstats/2005/september/
Samuel
October 1st, 2005 at 04:05pm
At the request of a person which John B1_B5 refers to as “our mutual friend” the Coffee-cup-o-meter (or coffee bean counter as they wanted it called) is now making a temporary return.
Wednesday:
6 x Standard Mug (1 point each) = 6 Points
Total = 6 Points
Samuel
September 29th, 2005 at 02:26am
Congratulations, for some reason you have just landed on a website which, over the last week or so has turned into an absolute insane-o-thon…not that I mind…I have publicly declared myself insane on numerous occasions (with tongue in cheek of course) and as the tagline for the site does say “It’s just not normal”.
If you are after a rundown of the week or so in insanity, you just need to look at the following posts (or the somewhat offtopic comments to be more precise…trust me, it’s fun):
2UE’s New Studios
Motorised Lawnmowers
Pictures Of 2UE
Google Earth
I need more coffee…
Samuel
September 23rd, 2005 at 10:14pm
I’ll admit it, things have been a bit slow here over the last week or so, which is entirely my fault and due to my lack of remembering to write anything.
I’m going to rectify that now by writing another one of my lengthy stories.
Let’s start with Monday, where I had one of my trademark alarm clock accidents, which saw me wake up at around midday. This could be considered to be a bad thing as I missed a couple classes, but I have reached the point where I have completed enough classes to receive a year 12 certificate and it therefore doesn’t really matter if I am absent to the extent that I don’t receive a grade for current classes. It would be nice to get a grade, but it isn’t overly important in the scheme of things.
Waking up around midday wasn’t exactly a bad thing though, as it allowed me to hear an ad on the radio while preparing my breakfast/lunch. This wasn’t just any ad, it was an ad for a current job vacancy at 2CC (They are looking for a breakfast panel operator) and it got me thinking about applying. My brain wasn’t quite in gear at the time, and I forgot that I had done enough to gain a year 12 certificate, and as such I decided that I wouldn’t be able to apply for the 2CC job. As time went on, I continued thinking about it, and realised that I had done enough to gain a year 12 certificate, and then decided that I should consider applying, and make appropriate enquiries at my college to ensure that I was able to get a year 12 certificate. These enquiries showed that a minor error had been made with some of my classes, and I would need to have those errors rectified, which I have arranged to have done.
By 3PM I was certain that I wanted to apply for the 2CC job, and sent an email. This email was a bit of a rambling mess, but I sent it anyway.
Tuesday rolled around, and on this occasion I was awake at the correct time. Tuesday was to be the day for a meeting between myself (in my Trainee IT Administrator role with the college), one of my co-workers, and two bosses over an incident that had occured the previous Thursday (and mentioned here on friday). The first thing I did on Tuesday after arriving at the college was to get myself a cup of coffee, as I suspected some political deviance would be handy during the meeting, and a good amount of coffee in the bloodstream would enable that to occur more freely. I enjoyed my coffee and had a class at 10am, this class is, as far as I can recall, the last time I saw my 1GB flash drive. The class usually takes place before and after recess, but due to some extra assessment activity for some students, and the teacher having to visit the dentist, the class continued through recess and then finished just after recess. One possible explanation is that I left my flash drive conected to the computer I was using by accident…I hope this is the case as I don’t know where else it might be.
At the conclusion of the class (approximately 11:15am) I went down to Dickson and had another coffee. The walk to and from Dickson was good, and in fact was quite refreshing.
Midday arrived, and I went to my maths class, which was mostly uneventful. I did, however, inform the teacher that I had a meeting to attend after lunch and would therefore not be in the continuation of the maths class after lunch.
At lunch time I went to the Majura Cafe, which is a little cafe run by the college’s hospitality students once every week or two. In my entire time at Dickson College, this was the first time I had attended the Majura Cafe, and I was mostly impressed, especially at their coffee making ability. I will have a full review soon.
At the conclusion of my lunch consumption (approx 1:30pm) I went to the arranged meeting with my co-worker which we agreed to have before the big meeting so that we could discuss what had occured and how to best explain it.
We had our meeting, and just before 2pm we went downstairs to the waiting room outside the location of the big meeting. As per the prediction I made at about 1:45, the other people involved in the meeting were ten minutes late, and it got under way at 2:10pm. The meeting did seem to be a little bit firey in some places, although the “meeting before the meeting” helped with that, as did (in my opinion) a tactical placement of an announcement by myself, of my “possible other employment”. I think it was quite clear from the meeting that they really can’t afford to lose employees, and the outcomes of the meeting (which were virtually none) really show that. My memory of the meeting indicates that there was a general change of approach by the bosses after my little announcement.
After the meeting I had another coffee before going home.
On wednesday my morning bus was late, actually, it wasn’t late, it didn’t arrive, it was the bus after it that was late…naturally this made me late for my first class, and the relief teacher was somewhat cranky about it. To be more precise, she was cranky about me being 15 minutes late for class, I explained the reasons to her, although this seemed to make her more cranky and she made an under-her-breath statement “Always the buses fault”. I was already cranky about the tardiness of my transport, and her being argumentative didn’ help things, I felt like screaming at her, but manged to contain myself to multiple mumblings.
After this class I had a couple spare hours which were used repairing my sanity.
One of the classes much later in the day was rather odd, the teacher who had been to the dentist on Tuesday had to go again, and there was a sign on the door saying that the class would take place in the library, so I went to the library and about half way through the class the teacher arrived and said we could all go home.
For some unknown reason I was tired on Thursday, and somehow managed to sleep through to 4pm, apparently while I was sleeping, utter IT chaos was taking place at the college, so sleeping and not having to deal with it was probably a good thing. None the less, I was faced with a dilemma that night, do I go to bed or not? I wasn’t feeling tired, which would be fairly obvious after 16 hours sleep and only a few hours awake, so I stayed up for the entire night, having a cup of coffee at about 1am on friday morning, and then forgetting to have any more. I decided to make a game of the situation and pretend that 4pm was 7am and then work out the time.
I arrived at my college early (which shouldn’t be a suprise) at about 8:40am (11:40pm imaginary time) and had a class. By this time I was starting to become paranoid about whether or not my job application email had reached it’s location and whether or not it was suitable, so I decided that I should send another, more formal, email after the class.
At the end of the class (10am/1am) I had two hours free, so I had a cup of coffee (which cured my partial tiredness) and then went and wrote a formalish email including a resume and sent it to the appropriate person.
After this I had another class (midday/3am), which just happened to be the same class I had (presumably) left my flash drive in. On this occasion the teacher did not need to visit the dentist, and the class proceeded as normal, however I hadn’t noticed that my flash drive was missing at this stage, and had no reason to reach for it, so it could very easily have been in that room and I wouldn’t have noticed.
By the end of that class (1pm/4am) I was feeling very hungry, so I went to civic as per usual for a Friday afternoon, ate my lunch and met my bus driver friend, who, being back at work, was once again driving his bus.
By the time I got home (approx 4pm/7am) I was starting to feel tired, and I had another coffee. Just before dinner (6pm/9am) the tiredness got the better of me and I had a little nap. I was also starting to feel the effects of hayfever. After dinner I had a shower and went to bed (8pm/11am).
The hayfever made it dificult to get a solid amount of sleep, as I was constantly waking up with a runny nose. I normally wouldn’t bring up such details, but I do on this occasion because I interpreted it in an interesting manner.
As you would probably know, when you are half asleep, a lot of things simply make sense, and your brain can be good at coming up with unusual and downright strange ideas. My brain did this exact thing, and whilst it dealt with the runny nose in the correct manner, it was thinking that letters (yes, alphabetical letters) from some newsroom were arriving and coming out of my nose. It made sense at the time, although I did eventually realise that “It’s not letters at all”.
This morning when I woke up (slightly later than expected due mostly to the breaks in my sleep by the runny nose and the fact that I needed a lot of sleep) I had breakfast and then proceeded with my day, which included my newsreading duties with Australian Independent Radio News. I was still suffering from hayfever during the day a little bit, but it does appear to have cleared up now.
Well, that pretty much sums up my week, although I may have some more specific details coming soon.
September 10th, 2005 at 09:07pm
I decided to throw one of the recent posts through the google translator from English to German to English, the results were quite entertaining.
It would appear that “Dickson College” has become “university Dickson” and Google have invented a “capucino satay” as well as roasting rice rather than frying it. It would also appear that I was doing a lot of “doing” and my bus driver friend made an “entire” during the afternoon. My bus driver friend’s involvement in the used furntiure business became “a Miteinbeziehung in the memory” and I appear to have strted eating my “dte” (Tea…I think) Anyway, I’ll let you read and enjoy this new and bizarre dialect of English.
Well apart from a small event at the school, which I commentate not on, until the expenditure is repaired, had I a pretty good day.
This mostly was because of a lunch meeting with my bus driver friend, who made an entire in the afternoon meeting.
Right after 1PM met I it outside of my university (university Dickson) and, instead of went a doing which we for the last two weeks and going to association the Dickson Tradies for the lunch doing, we completely to Tuggeranong for the lunch, which was very good. This roasted rice and chicken, which is with one cappucino satay, were very nice.
After this expired we to Queanbeyan and a furniture business used, whose I cannot remind me of names…, it of No. 117 on a road in Queanbeyan if this assistance am. My bus driver friend has a Miteinbeziehung in the memory, therefore it was good to see him for the first time and meets some interesting people at the same time.
During out there, I in that was to waive rather nice Weinlesewalkman. Z.Z. take I to two radios around with me, am one a torch/flare radio, whom I use as my loudspeaker radio, who am, which I prefer it to use, when going or sitting, in certain ranges as headphone me to a certain extent provoke, I find particularly there, prevent her my ability to hear that mine surrounds. The other radio, which I carry around with me, is newer Walkman, who has only one headphone exit, a this is useful on penalties etc., how people can be provoked by loudspeaker radios in limited areas, and a right on your ear to hold is unpleasantly and partly disorienting suitably it external noises partial blocking and my ability effectively preventing to mark the position from noises to.
These “new” radio (it is new to me), one inbuilt loudspeaker has AND headphones… is spent and suprisingly esIST in the situation to have the headphones and the loudspeakers to simultaneous, marks it also a switch, in order to turn the loudspeaker on and away. Is supposed in the situation to settle the work of the other two radios and to make a sound quality available of the better loudspeaker than that torch/flare radio.
That I do not have each possible problem with the other two radios, it formed, is very good you and their work friendly settled, but these “new” radio things more simply.
IchWAR in the term to make some photos of this radio but rejects the camera to accept perfectly good batteries and is argumentative, therefore you must only wait.
Back to the history of my daily. After the attendance to Queanbeyan, which we decided, a coffee to drink and during so back to Dickson and in particular went, Hudsons, which is possessed by the people, which tended, to be my following door neighbours. After this my bus driver friend let me fall away at home, who was probably short before 5PM.
After this went I examining the Johngesetzwebsite to see in order, if this were already the Wochen”gut of laws “segment on its place of assembly. Before I continue, I will address the continual interests of a number of people, which read this blog. I do not hear on John, whom laws show up, mean this that I am with everything on it, but I the appearance enjoy and I a very large quantity respect for John laws have and I him find to maintain. If you are with me others, I am fine with this, do not confirm I that, straight is I there not a fan of most FM music stations, a quantity of people not discussion radio and some/all the Vorfuehrer to stand can. That is not fine and I has a grasp with that, finds I it actual to renew that people unbelievably different opinions have, if it comes to the means it form my life many more interesting and the maintenance.
Back to history (again), when said I, examined I the John law place of assembly for this the Wochen”gut laws “segment, since it marked a section in it that I heard this morning and wanted to again hear, it this woman gave, who was probably drunk going on and on and on and on and on and on approximately absolutely nothing, and it was hillarious, like the notes formed Lawsie.
The principal reason, which I mention this, is the fact that I considered last week, which the people, which are responsible for maintaining the John law place of assembly, had destroyed delibearately the audio quality on the music in the document, which really my ears hurt you and hard to hear too was. I sent to John an email, who asks for an explanation, and during I never received (or at least, heard me not for appearance, when he explained it, if he did at all), which the audio quality for this week had been regulated, which pleased me immeasurably, and I had email Lawsie, it for only attachment thank it, which I had now done.
I assume that I should have a fast counting pulse of my beverages up to now today (hmmm yesterday I have this for one while written). I ate a cup of dte to my breakfast /morningtee (, I had another warning master clock accident), I drank a coffee at the lunch, a coffee to in the afternoon dte, a coffee at the dinner, a coffee this evening and another coffee this evening. The lunch and in the afternoon dte were strongly, actually thus were the house, which was not formed one, so that 5 strong coffee is, a miracle, which I did not believe tiredly…,
I feel like here sit and a continuing real writing Kauderwelsch but I become not, terminate I this here and receive something sleep…, if I can! Hmmmm, surprises me I, if the ADS on 2CC must examine this evening……. to play. Samuel
Samuel
September 7th, 2005 at 08:48pm
As I mentioned a couple hours ago, radio historian Wayne Mac appeared on Perth radio station 6PR to talk about his upcoming book on the history of Australian commercial radio.
I have recorded it and you can download it from here.
Samuel
September 5th, 2005 at 12:37am
Alrighty then, it’s time for the monthly wrap-up of the previous month’s statistics.
Of particular interest to me:
- Firefox won the month with 53.42% of the readership using it.
- The number of visitors and page views appeared to increase after the site moved to it’s current location.
- Regular Commenter John_b1_b5 was the most common search term used to get here
- Somebody who can’t spell wanted to cheat at a school assignment “simple assay about my favourite sport…”
- A bunch of people came here for Schnappi info and Kelly Underwood info
- The “Samuel Blog 2CC” searcher is still lurking in the wings (please contact me, I would love to know why you chose that search term)
- And the home page for the new site had more visitors in it’s short time online than the old site’s index page had all month, 196 to 159
You can find all of the August 2005 stats here.
Samuel
September 1st, 2005 at 08:51pm
I have now finished categorising all of the old posts that were imported from the old site. I still have to fix the formatting and images on some pages, but at least the categories work now.
Samuel
August 31st, 2005 at 07:25pm
One of the main reasons I moved to WordPress was the categories function, where I can apply a specific category (subject/topic/whatever) to a post which can make them easier to sort through. It also means that those of you who remember my promise back in April that I would index the Samuel’s LCA Live posts will be pleased to know it is now done. You can either follow the category link in the sidepanel to see those posts.
So far I have only categorised posts from April this year and before, and I am now going to bed due to the fact it is past midnight. Once I have categorised the posts I will fix the links and bring them into line with the new formatting (mainly the quotes) and then fix the images.
This is all time consuming and mildly exhausting, but ultimately it will be worth all the work I am putting in.
Samuel
August 28th, 2005 at 12:26am
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