L’il dawgies

We’re thinking about getting a dog for Little One, and to scare the birds away from my vegie crops. We actually object to dogs. Yes, they’re lovable and cute and fun, but I can’t justify buying so much meat in cans every week. (Even the amount of dried food seems excessive.) Dogs are expensive to run, and they cause environmental damage by pooing (although not as much as previously thought.) So we thought a little dog might be just the ticket: apparently toy dogs eat as little as a handful a day. Thing is, we don’t like the wee yappy muts. Bloke likes pugs very much, because they’re ugly and robust and ‘a big dog in a small dog’s body’, but they’re around $700 each! Even puppies cross-bred with pugs are hundreds of bucks. Out of the question. We want something short-haired, calm, small, cheap and lovable. I sure would appreciate any advice on breeds or where to get a suitable l’il dawgy.

What the …

Not you. You wouldn’t order your CDs from Amazon, because you support lokal business.

But there ain’t no lokal record shop in Moreland as far as I know. Except for the bloke a couple of doors up from Melbourne Food Ingredient Depot in Lygon Street, who sells second-hand stuff.

So if I can’t be arsed going to down to Readings or Polyester or such, I get my CDs from Amazon, or at least from their second-hand suppliers. I love how you can sample as much music as you want without having to annoy the salesperson, and without having to queue for headphones that earwaxy unwashed hobo (that guy! He’s everywhere!) just used.

But what bugs me about Amazon is the data they collect. Just as Google monitors and logs every one of your searches and will probably one day sell your profile to ASIO, Amazon interprets your movements with as much accuracy as ASIO’s famously dodgy files. [With the accurate exception when their spook wrote this about Paddy McGuinness before he became a reactionary dobber:

McGuinness is an extremely intelligent and shrewd person and is an excellent tactician. He can also be described as a professional antagonist... [regarded with suspicion] due to his dirty appearance at all times.]

Forgive the digression. What I’m trying to say is: how the heck did I just get an email from Amazon suggesting that I might like the new CDs from Sting and from van morrison? How did they peg me as such a schmuk?

Work it out. Here are my last six months’ purchases from Amazon:

• Quintette du Hot Club de France: 25 Classics 1934-1940 by
  Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli
• Revival by Gillian Welsh
• Spirit of Melanesia, Various Artists
• The Chapter in Your Life Entitled San Francisco by the Lucksmiths (yeah, I do see the crappery in ordering a Melbourne band from Amazon. And I know the Lucksmiths are naff, but I love ‘em).

How did the Amazon machine feed these into its profile software and spew out van Morrison? And Sting? (I guess there must be some kind of ghost in their machine: <IF=vocal + foreign,//THEN= Dutchish surname OR Sting >.)

It’d be insulting if it weren’t so comforting. As I wrote here, the less they know about us, the better off we all are.

Online petition to save Brunswick Baths

is here.

UPDATE: Interesting to see  Cr. John Kavanagh’s response to this petition here.

•

mmm… cakes.

Bloke on The Avenue is one of these geezers who doesn’t believe in healthy treats. Try as I might to put as much fruit, fibre and unprocessed sweetners into baked goodies, he reckons if you’re going to have a treat, go hard core industrial grade.

Moreland needs your brains

Storm over the Burbs

Please don’t go

For several years I had the strange experience of living in far north Queensland, where developers breed like cane toads, and old house demolition is an international sport.

Backyard experiment

With Hydrocell, watered twice weekly

Without Hydrocell, watered twice weekly

Bird-busters wanted

I need advice. Since planting my vegies, putting in a couple of ponds and installing a seed-feeder for the chooks, my garden has become the bird hub of Coburg. By the hundreds the little shites are eating the chook-food, the tomatoes and the figs, and making a goddam mess of the garden with their carryings-on. They’re digging up my seedlings, tossing earth out of the beds and making my vegies and fruit trees root-bare. Little One and I made an alarming Mrs Scarecrow and mantled her in the chook pen, and they laughed at me. I tried hanging Little One’s sterner-looking Bert from the shed roof, no change. Someone suggested hanging CDs from the trees: a good call, as I’ve been pondering ways to deal with Bloke on The Avenue’s Skinny Puppy albums. But I tried suspending a few CDs, and while I think they’ve had marginal effect on blackbirds and sparrows, they’ve been ignored by the doves, crows and miner birds. I also fear they’ll scare off native songbirds. Help.

Crow’s-eye view of Moreland

Ever wondered how big your neighbour’s illegal extension actually is? Now you can check it out, at Google Earth, of course. Or Google maps. Here’s the satellite aerial image of Moreland, thanks to Brickworks Collective, a site I found via Brunswick Labor.net. Scroll around and have a perv! You can zoom in using the tool on the left.

Bagging Coles Online

Greenhouse gas emissions are governments’ fault, and their problem. They’re the ones who under-regulated industry to the extent of gross negligence. (It was heartening, though, to read this report today.) But of course we can and should do our bit. Which is why I decided to embark on a greenhouse gas reduction plan. It went pear-shaped, thanks to Coles Online Shopping.

Is Moreland Council wrong to support Hicks?

Moreland Councillor Cr John Kavanagh (pictured) says the Moreland City Council is wasting ratepayers’ money by supporting the David Hicks campaign in its advertising, according to The Moreland Leader. Today’s report says:

Rally to save Coburg parklands

The Merri and Edgar’s Creek Parkland Group is holding a public rally next Tuesday 13 February, to stop the sale of public parkland in Coburg into private hands. It’s on the steps of Parliament, so those working in town could perhaps take an early lunchbreak. The MECPG says:

Protected: Why I lie to market researchers (and how you, too, can earn money messing with their heads)

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