Posts filed under 'Talkback Emails'
Good afternoon John,
What drives me nuts is the way some shopping centres (some Westfield's in particular), when they page someone over the intercom to go to the information desk, actually tell you which shopping centre the information desk is in (ie. the one you're standing in). Do they really think that if they page someone, that person will rush off to the information desk of a different shopping centre?
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 15th, 2007 at 02:00pm
…and generating electricity from the hot air of politicians!
In all seriousness though, most talkback presenters take a few days for me to even consider calling them…Paul took minutes. I’m very impressed with Paul Makin, he has a natural knack for news, and presents enthralling newstalk programming. It’s great to hear some good newstalk overnight on 2UE again, as it has been lacking since Stuart moved (apparently temporarily) to the 8pm-Midnight shift. He is also a good listener, and seems willing to give everyone their chance to speak their mind.
I would be very happy if Stuart Bocking were to permanently take over the 8pm-Midnight shift, which seems to suit him, and Paul Makin were to take over weekday New Day Australia. Abe can also stay on as producer as he has been doing a great job with Clive Robertson and Paul Makin.
Anyway, I chatted with Paul just after the 1am news. I provided a suggestion about introducing a secondary water network for “grey water” so that we can more easily reuse our water. Paul and I seemed to hit it off and we had a bit of a laugh…I hope Paul gets a permanent shift on 2UE. Incidentally, the recording also contains possibly the last Ken Sparks voiceover still in use on 2UE…the generic New Day Australia intro for when the host doesn’t have their own. (Unfortunately Kris McKenzie recorded 45 seconds of weather rather than 30 seconds, so he talks over the intro).
Click here to listen or download (5 minutes and 12 second, 4MB)
2UE have picked up some talent in Paul…and his sudden appointment to the 2UE ranks instead of using Clinton Maynard or any other fill-in presenters indicates to me that we must be very close to a decision on the 8pm-6am timeslots on 2UE.
Samuel
February 13th, 2007 at 01:45am
Good morning John,
You want to know how much spam we all receive? Well you asked…
In the last 30 days I have received 2495 spam emails. That's an average of just over 83 per day, or about three and a half per hour! Just to put that in context, I've averaged about 20 legitimate emails per day in the same period of time. The main reason for this inundation of spam is that most of my email addresses are listed on websites, which means the robots trawling the web for email addresses pick them up easily.
For the most part it doesn't bother me though as my email provider (Gmail) have fantastic spam filters, which learn based on what their users declare to be spam. I have probably one or two spam emails per week which I have to manually mark as spam.
I don't usually use a desktop client (Outlook, Thunderbird etc) because Gmail is web based, but everyone else in this house uses Thunderbird, which I like because it does a good job of learning which emails are spam.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 12th, 2007 at 12:30am
Good morning John,
Just on this subject of bag checks, I have the dubious honour of being the first person to ever set off the beepy alarm in the Canberra City Big W store and be bag checked. It was the first (and only) time that I've had my bag thoroughly searched for potentially stolen items, and as such I wasn't aware that the store staff weren't allowed to touch the bag. I offered them the bag and they almost jumped back in fright at the prospect of touching the bag on their opening day!
I then had to pull everything out of the bag, and eventually the suspect item emerged…an opened half-empty packet of batteries I had bought in a supermarket a few months beforehand! I was then able to go, which was a good thing as 2CC were about to call me to provide comment on the opening of the Canberra centre expansion.
I usually show my bag on the way out as a courtesy, and I tend to find that when you willingly show your bag without being asked, the staff just glance at it, but if they have to ask you to show the bag it becomes a matter of "what's under that thing…and can you take that bit out…and where did you buy that".
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 11th, 2007 at 04:30am
Good afternoon Glenn,
Just listening to your comments about attraction to "bad boys" being a case of "better the devil you know than the one you don't". Well that reminded me of my thoughts on the New South Wales election which, in my view, looks like it could be a battle between the devil you know, and the devil who couldn't possibly do any worse.
Not an attractive choice!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 10th, 2007 at 02:00pm
Good morning John,
I was looking at a map yesterday and noticed a town named "Robertson" about 20km north-west of Kiama, and by the looks of it, within the 2UE reception range. Do you think Clive knows there is a town named after him?
I suppose you remember that last weekend I told you about a strange dream I had about scientists arguing over which celery to use to stop global warming…well I had a couple other strange dreams not long after that, one involving a coal mine and a grizzly bear in south-western Canberra, and another involving an argument about the time on a clock at the ACT Legislative Assembly, them deciding that they like their clocks to be wrong, and then wanting to name one after me for complaining about it!
By the way, thank you to your friend Harold in the UK who sent me a joke by email…I'll send a copy to you John (assuming Harold hasn't already done so).
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 10th, 2007 at 12:30am
Good evening Stuart,
Just on this subject of whether or not Peter Debnam resembles Frank Spencer…well I think Mr. Debnam looks a bit like Prince Charles, especially his ears. I’m just happy that I live in Canberra and not New South Wales as I would have a hard time choosing between Morris Iemma and Peter Debnam…the only problem with living here is that I have to wait until next year to vote against Chief Turnip Stanhope!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 5th, 2007 at 11:09pm
Good morning and happy Australia Day Tim,
Just a quick note to thank you for an enjoyable summer of filling in for Lawsie. I look forward to hearing you filling in again, and seeing you on Channel Ten.
Now you go and take a well deserved break!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 26th, 2007 at 11:30am
Hi Stuart,
Just thought you might be interested in my observation of regular unleaded petrol prices in Canberra today. This morning and for most of the day they were steady on 107.9 cents per litre. During the evening peak hours I noticed they jumped in more than a few places to 111.9, and when I took the dog for a walk this evening around 7:30 they were back down to 107.9.
Am I imagining the collusion here?
Have a great Australia Day!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 25th, 2007 at 08:30pm
Good morning again Mike,
A few quick thoughts on Pru Goward's idea of piping water from Googong dam to Goulburn.
1. They have just as much right to the water as we do.
2. They're only going to use a tiny amount compared to us, especially seeing as they will only use Googong a few times per year
3. It's an election promise…el nino will most probably be breaking by the time the NSW election is over, but the pipeline would be a good investment for the future if it ever happens.
4. The more we whinge about this, the less likely we are to get help from NSW when the next drought strikes.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
January 25th, 2007 at 08:00am
Good morning John,
You had a lady call up yesterday complaining about your theme music. Well I have to say that I like both your theme music (which is also used for Clive, Clinton and whoever else fills in), and the music Stuart uses…but I absolutely hate the new voice over. I know that the previous voice over man has left 2UE, but he sounded so much more natural. I'm sure the new voice over lady is very talented, and it sounds like 2UE really rushed to get all the old voice overs replaced (they missed Antiques and Collectables thankfully), but they really need to either write scripts which suit the new lady, or find someone else.
After a week of hearing the new voice overs, I would be used to them if I could stand them, but I can't, and instead I am using the volume control to get rid of them.
But back to what the lady was talking about yesterday…I love your theme music!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 21st, 2007 at 12:00am
Good afternoon again Glenn,
I absolutely agree with you about maturity and the ages at which things are allowed.
I'm 19 now, and will be 20 in June, and as I look back on the last four years or so, I just find it amazing how immature I, and everyone around me, was, and how mature we all thought we were.
I did some absolutely stupid things when I was 16, and I can honestly say that I did some stupid things at 17, and even at 18…and I probably still do to a lesser extent and will look back in a year and identify some silly things.
I think the main problem isn't so much the ages at which we allow certain things, it is more the level of maturity, and everyone matures at a different rate…it's not as if everyone is suddenly mature at 18 or 21 or any other nominal age…I certainly didn't feel any different when I was 18 years old to when I was 17 year and 364 days old. In fact I don't think it really sunk in that I was an adult for another few months.
Ultimately I don't think people can mature until they finish secondary education as high school is such an insular environment…it's not until you are out in the workforce and/or tertiary education and you have to fend for yourself in just about every thing (even if you still do live with your parents) that you truly mature.
Unfortunately we can't easily measure maturity, which is why we set nominal ages…and as most of our laws are based on the premise of the lowest common denominator, 18 is probably a fair age for voting, smoking, driving, sex etc in my view. I think the latter two are currently permitted at an age when the majority of people aren't truly ready…some are, but very few.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 20th, 2007 at 01:30pm
Good afternoon Glenn,
I think the reason GPS navigation systems have the video display with the map on it, and not just the "turn left in 257 metres" audio messages, is that it is reassuring to see the map occasionally, and see that the GPS system does at least appear to know where it's going.
It is also helpful if you are sitting at a red light in a "foreign" city and you can quickly check where the GPS will tell you to go so that you can be sure to get into the correct lanes and also have an idea where you are going, which is much less stressful than hoping that the magic voice gives you the right directions.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 20th, 2007 at 12:30pm
Good morning John,
Wow! what a morning of nuts…I think I know where they came from too! Yesterday evening when I went for a walk with my little doggie we went past Glebe Park in Central Canberra, and spotted a group of about 10-15 people huddled in a circle, and then they started jumping around in a way which looked like they thought they were frogs.
Whilst I hope I was just seeing them out of context, I do have this strange feeling that they might be the escaped lunatics who have been entertaining you this morning.
Have a great day John.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 20th, 2007 at 03:30am
Good morning Stuart,
Just listening to the story about the construction forklift driver picking up the car after two days parked illegally and it then falling off and being declared a write-off. The question that springs to mind is "What's wrong with a tow truck?"
Admittedly it was blocking entry into the construction zone and the driver deserves what she got, but if the construction people had just asked the police to get it towed, they wouldn't now be likely to owe the insurance company hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald (see http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/smashing-car-indeed/2007/01/18/1169095908957.html ), the construction people have been moving cars with forklifts on that street for quite some time. They also name the driver as former Miss New Zealand Rachel Huljich.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 19th, 2007 at 01:00am
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