My TV is not dumb

Lateley I've been seeing ads on TV for "Smart TVs". It made me comment to my partner that our TV must not be smart. On reflection, I wondered what was so dumb about it? It's a perfectly good 80cm Sony television. It has a great picture. I use it to watch TV and cable, record using Foxtel IQ, watching DVDs and even movies on demand if I want. If I had one, I could plug a Playstation or Xbox or Wii or whatever into it. I can plug my iPhone into it and watch stuff I've downloaded. There's even a VCR connected but that has a video cassette stuck in it and won't turn on anymore, oh well. I have the whole collection of Northern Exposure on video tape but can't be bothered fixing up that VCR for now. The one thing I didn't mention is that my TV is CRT. And not High Definition or digital. And it weighs about 85kgs. Is this a crime?

Now, years ago when plasma first came out we were amazed. We saw the first one in our lives (a Philips I think) for sale in a department store for $33,000. Yes, I really mean $33,000. Are you serious? Around the same time, one of my students (I did a stint teaching IT at business college) was bragging that his dad bought one of those overhead projection units for $12,000 so they could project the thing onto their whole rumpus room wall. Wow! I later learned that the bulbs were only about $3,000 to replace, so that was a bargain! I wonder whether you can still buy those bulbs? Maybe on ebay, but I don't care because I don't need them.

The TV has been very good to us - must have had a gizillion hours of use over about 7 years and never missed a beat (and certainly not a pixel). I guess one of these days we'll dump the Sony and go with something smarter and well, lighter. But right now I have more internet connectivity than I need, I don't need to teach my TV to recognise my voice in order to change channels (is this possible?), I don't need to share my viewing experiences with Facebook friends, and frankly anything in 3D makes me feel queasy. For now, we'll leave the beast at rest.

The goat

This goat fell in love with me and I with it.  We were pals for a while.  It's penned up because it was on show but it wasn't a ribbon winner.  Goats like to climb, I mean they climb just about anything, including cars and boulders and little sheds.  Must be a permanent need to be an alpha goat, kind of like king of the castle.

My pal the goat

The day Earth became Mars

I was cleaning up my photo library and stumbled across these iPhone pics of the day Earth became Mars.  At least here in Sydney it did.  It was September 23, 2009 and we woke up to the usual radio alarm, ABC 702.  This station actually tells the news.  What they said was something like "The city is red this morning, like Mars".  Thoughts of HG Wells' The War of the Worlds?  Turns out a huge dust storm from inland Australia made it all the way to the eastern coast.  Wow, it was weird, and windy too.  We actually went to work in this, clothes and bags and all surfaces in the house were covered in this fine, red dust.  It was really the colour of the outback.

It was really windy too

This is the sun behind the dust.

Out the front door it was even more incredible.

This was about 7:00am, we were breathing in red dust from inland Australia!

Not a UFO but the headlights of a car

Here's the sun again, trying to get through. It looks eerie but with the wind as well it was like the apocalypse had arrived.

Prisms and spectrums

I'm at the hairdresser reading a book (one with pages made from paper).  Then this rainbow of light lands on my hand.  I loved it!  I played around with it for a while.  Prisms, spectrums? I just know it looks like a rainbow.

My own rainbow

Like the LGBT flag

Oh, and the book was A Cannibal in Manhattan by Tama Janowitz

An apple a day

Keeps the doctor away, right?  Do you think that apple that dropped on Isaac Newton's head felt like anything at all?  I was born and live in Sydney, Australia, however I was fortunate to spend quite a lot of time in Orange, NSW growing up as my closest aunt and uncle and cousins lived there.  They had a small acreage with a small orchard of big glossy crisp red Rome Beauty apples, the best apples I ever ate in my entire life.  Sadly the Rome Beauty trees are no more, however last time I was there I did eat loads of apples (Fuji & Sundowner) straight from the picking crates.

Picking Crate - Sundowners

Crispy Sundowner fresh from the tree

An apple contains pretty impressive amounts of antioxidants so should be on everyone's list of things to eat. Buying them at the grocer can be a disappointment, but then not everyone can actually go to the orchard or pick one straight off the tree. I'm just that lucky.

Anyway, the apple cold store is rather big too (and cold, like something minus zero).  My uncle Mike is over 6 feet tall and he stands here to show the scale of a small portion of one storeroom.

Cold Store is rather large, this is one of maybe 8 or so and only half full

Apart from apples they also grow cherries in Orange, and grapes (mmm, to make wine) wool and cattle, but definitely no oranges...what?

The Orchard

The house on the hill

The tractor

 And the frost on a May morning at my uncle's place

Frosty Eucalypt - that's an electric fence in the foreground to keep the horses away from the house paddock

The Orchids

Here in Sydney it's May (yeah, you knew that) and our orchids are blooming.  They are totally sensational so I thought I'd share them.

The Orchids

A burger in Honolulu

My partner and I embarked on an easy walk from our hotel in Waikiki to the famous Ala Moana Center.....mmm, we started off quite well albeit a little hungover from our previous evening of over-indulgence (think Mai-Tais, champagne etc).  Um, yes well the route we chose had very little shade (essential if suffering near dehyrdation) and it was extremely HOT. As it can be in Hawaii.  By the time we eventually arrived, sweating, thirsty and getting somewhat irritable, it had to be a search for beer and food.  Beer first, then food.

Thank god for Islands Fine Burgers and Drinks.  Quick, sit, order beer first.

What a godsend after a hungover heat stressed too long walk

Hooray! an ice-cold Kona Longboard Lager, I feel better already..

Kona Longboard Lager - cold as ice

 Food?  We had two of the above and then this for me...the Hawaiian - Pineapple, teriyaki sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, swiss & mayo - I can savour it now....my goodness, forget shopping let's get some Kirin and go back to the hotel!

The Hawaiian saved my life

Bruce

Bruce is the waggiest-tailed dog in the world.  Bruce loves his ball.  I mean Bruce LOVES his ball.  Humans have been known to enter the crawl space under the house to retrieve it - I thought that was the dog's job?  Bruce was found on the freeway and ended up on doggie death row.  Bruce now lives with us.  Bruce lucked in.

The Waggiest-tailed dog in the world