Melbourne Metblogs » Darren

Who’d be living at Parkville?

Darren — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:25:21 +0000

A group of friends who conducted door-to-door interviews with folks living in Parkville early this year received generally positive responses relating to the security of the area. Most residents, however, complained about the lack of services and the relative boredom of not having any form of entertainment in the area, ‘lest you trek/hike/drive/ride/hitch-a-ride down towards the busier suburbs.

The Age, today, painted a fresh new outlook for Parkville. According to a RACV analysis of police statistics and census numbers, Parkville came in at the Burglary Chart tops with a burglary rate of one in every 15 homes.

So, considering the calmness (boredom) and the activity (burglary), who would be wanting to live at Parkville? Something has to be wrong - current residents, feel free to correct me.

See The Age article here.

"wtf… fog."

Darren — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:17:17 +0000

That was the message I got over MSN on Sunday evening. I was out the entire day though, and did notice the rather apparent foggy-ness, so I quickly dismissed my friend with a “been there, seen it” gesture.

Until I looked out my window.

And realised all I could see… was… wait - I could not actually see anything.

On the right was the junction of Swanston Street and Queensberry Street. I swore there are buildings on the sides and somewhere up the front.

Melbourne - racist?

Darren — Sun, 25 May 2008 03:58:48 +0000

Riding past a park in the trashier side of Port Melbourne this weekend with a friend, we pass a group of kids playing with some adults. A kid around five yells out, ‘Hello, hobboe!’

The adults just stare. They do not look too apologetic, which hints that they are part of the problem here - probably thinking, ‘More foreigners… they’ll go by; who cares?’ (Very mildly - I give them much benefit of the doubt here.) Unfortunately, this one happens to be a Metblogs author about to publicly disgrace you.

I do not think racism is a major issue in Melbourne. The Indian community seem to disagree, of course.

Recent communication with the media from the community describe Australia as a generally racist country. The Federation of Indian Students of Australia (FISA) made a statement earlier this month expressing their concern that ‘racist attacks were increasing’.

The Indian press now even places particular focus on Melbourne’s racist attitude, suggesting Melbourne to be the epicentre of Australia’s racism and warning students that it is no longer safe.

Gautum Gupta, from FISA, also offered a more rational analysis to The Age, and described the recent development of racism the result of the discomfort with an influx of Indians into the country, shifting the gaze away from the Chinese and on to the Indians.

Not everyone agrees that the recent incidences are racial, however, and the recent attacks involving Indian students can also be accounted to being race-neutral. The Australian Federation of International Students (AFIS), for example, accounts the attacks to bad timing and advises international students to take stronger safety precautions. Students are encouraged to seek AFIS for help shall they face difficulties during their stay in Australia.

AFIS is also organising a free event titled, ‘m²s² - Money, Migration, Safety, Study‘ on June 1st 2008, to address the most pressing issues facing current and fresh international students. The event will feature seminars from the Victorian Police, Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Victorian Tenancy Union amongst other presenters, and is heavily supported by the City of Melbourne.

A great effort has been committed to recognise Melbourne’s increasing professional immigrant workforce and international student market.

No, I personally believe that Melbourne is not entirely racist. Tiny pockets of unfriendly people do exist (eg. trashy Port Melbourne family), but as a whole, we are generally doing very well - albeit milking our foreign students for all their worth.

To that particular family, I say: Up yours, bogans.

Victorian Police Showband at Federation Square

Darren — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:25:05 +0000

Our men and women in blue doing jazz and swing.

The audience was spectacularly few, considering the band was actually pretty good. Either the cold weather, the plain fact that the performance was set in the peculiar-est hours of the late afternoon (I was there at 4.30pm), or the lack of promotion must explain for the twenty-odd present.

Say that again?: Tight weapon-control laws in Australia?

Darren — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:58:58 +0000

Just a quick quip (and maybe an edit later) before I head off to work - what is up with the gun activity of late?

Did ’someone’ not mention that, in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootout, gun-control legislation in Australia were strict, and so prevents similar incidents in our colleges?

South Melbourne this Morning: Man dies in shoot-out with police (The Age)

Chain mail education: Money-saving at the petrol stations

Darren — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:22:49 +0000

So, the petrol prices has been skyrocketing and you are finding your funds vaporising (pun-intended) from your bank account. Have a read of this e-mail that just dropped in this morning (validity up to reader’s discretion):

Do not pump [a] full tank of petrol. Many of us are [un]aware that the petrol kiosk pump has a return pipe-line. When the petrol tank (in the car) reaches full level, there is a mechanism to trigger off the pump latch and at the same time a return-valve is opened (at the top of the pump station) to allow excess petrol to flow back into the pump. [Yet] the petrol has already pass[ed] through the meter, meaning you are donating the petrol back to [the station].
Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperature is still cool. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground; and the colder the ground, the denser the gasoline. When it gets warmer gasoline expands, so if you’re filling up in the afternoon or in the evening, what should be a gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and temperature of the fuel (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products) are significant. Every truckload that we load is temperature-compensated so that the indicated gallonage is actually the amount pumped. A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for businesses, but service stations don’t have temperature compensation at their pumps.
If a tanker truck is filling the station’s tank at the time you want to buy gas, do not fill up; most likely dirt and sludge in the tank is being stirred up when gas is being delivered, and you might be transferring that dirt from the bottom of their tank into your car’s tank.
Fill up when your gas tank is half-full (or half-empty), because the more gas you have in your tank the less air there is and gasoline evaporates rapidly, especially when it’s warm. (Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating ‘roof’ membrane to act as a barrier between the gas and the atmosphere, thereby minimi[s]ing evaporation).
If you look at the trigger you’ll see that it has three delivery settings: slow, medium and high. When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting. You should be pumping at the slow setting, thereby minimi[s]ing vapors created while you are pumping. Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a return path for vapor recovery from gas that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the high setting, the agitated gasoline contains more vapor, which is being sucked back into the underground tank, so you’re getting less gas for your money.
When the pump shuts off, do not keep trying to add more gas. A friend who owns a gas station says that by doing this, you are actually giving the next customer a $1.00 worth of gas. The gas you pump stays in the hose and never makes it to your tank.

Moving more people everyday

Darren — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:17:30 +0000

Following Adrock’s post on Melbourne’s railway overhauls, I caught the the new Connex advertisement on TV one evening and it rocks my socks. Of course, everyone still hates Connex anyway.

It’s a great PR campaign for a network that is constantly failing, though - just blame the city that is growing exponentially.

Imagine if tomorrow you had to move a city,
Take nurses to hospitals, school kids to schools,
Futures analysts to, well… wherever it is futures analysts go.

Imagine getting all these people,
Hundreds and thousands of them to where they needed to be.
That’s what Connex does everyday.

It’s a big job, and as Melbourne grows it’s getting bigger.
Which is why we’re making changes to the network,
Adding more carriages, more staff and more services.
You can see our new plan at connexmelbourne.com.au

Connex - We’re moving more people everyday.

And the score that plays throughout the advertisement reminds me of the theme from Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Though, when the tractor in the advertisement stopped at the intersection (when everyone turned to stare in awe at the speeding Connex train), I was half-expecting a semi-trailer to come running into it and turn it into an advertisement for safe driving.

See the advertisement on Connex’s site here: http://www.connexmelbourne.com.au/index.php?id=204

What are you doing there, mate?

Darren — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:04:27 +0000

Heading home in Carlton this evening, I spotted a caucasian man, in his late thirties with a short, stout build, fitted into a dark coloured jumper and a black beanie (looking so classically burglar-ish), fiddling about with a bicycle parked next to a sign post. After handling the heavy chain for abit and studying the lock, (discounting the fact that I was practically staring at him) he figured it would be too much trouble cutting the lock, and walked off.

Very dodgy.

What would you have done?

On being blown/swept away

Darren — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:33:46 +0000

Coastal winds and waves are frightening things. Just two days back, two students were swept into the waters of Phillip Island before they could probably mentally register the image of a crashing wave rushing towards them. It was an fatal moment - they did not make it back to shore alive.

Many (myself included), take for granted our feet being grounded to earth. However it is not too hard to fanthom being knocked off the ground by gale-force winds. Bicyclists will know - how often have you felt your bicycle lift off the ground or lose its balance when a huge gust of wind hits you from the side? That said, severe wind warnings broadcast by the weather stations, are critical elements in preventing accidents and tragedies. Read them; heed them. They might just save your life:

Avoid being close to the coast

Avoid coast water and surf

Slow down while driving over highways, especially in small, lightweight cars

Do NOT use an umbrella - while they cannot lift you, they cause very bad collateral damage

The Age article: Sightseers washed off Phillip Island rocks

Moomba Waterfest 2008

Darren — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:17:59 +0000

The Moomba Festival is possibly my favourite major event in this half of the year. Parades, a carnival, a fireshow and massive crowds make their way around the Yarra River for a weekend of colour and sound. And it all begins today.

Here’s the (condensed) line-up:

Waterfest Fireshow
Saturday, 8 March - Monday, 10 March
9.30pm every night

Moomba Parade
Monday, 10 March from 11am to noon
Along Swanston Street from Little Bourke Street to Princess Bridge, ending in the St Kilda Road.

Moomba@Docklands
Sunday, 9 March 2008 from noon to 5pm
Waterfront City and Victoria Harbour

Waterfest Carnival
Friday, 7 March from 4pm to 11pm
Saturday, 8 March from 11am to 11pm
Sunday, 9 March from 11am to 11pm
Monday, 10 March from 11am to 9pm
Birrarung Marr & Alexandra Gardens

Moomba Masters Waterskiing
Friday, 7 March from 8am – 9pm
Saturday, 8 March from 8am to 8:30pm
Sunday, 9 March from 11am to 8:30pm
Monday, 10 March from 7:30am to 8:30pm
Yarra River

Starlight Cinema
Happy Feet (G): Friday, 7 March at 8.30pm
Night at the Museum (PG): Saturday, 8 March at 8.30pm
Yarra Bank, Birrarung Marr

There is a huge list of other stuff going on - it is not even convenient to have everything listed here. Have a look at the That’s Melbourne Moomba Waterfest 2008 site for the calendar of events.

More information about the history of the Moomba Waterfest can be found in the City of Melbourne - Moomba Waterfest page.
If you are the type who turns to Wikipedia for all of Life’s Questions, you can find the Moomba article here.