Melbourne Metblogs » mel_janice

Another Melbourne Forum

mel_janice — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 20:09:13 +0000

W00t! It’s almost been a year since I last advertised last year’s Melbourne Forum – so there you go, they are looking at Kids in the City this year.

July 19th – A child friendly Melbourne

August 2nd – Suicide and Self-harm in the Young

August 16th – They don’t play like they used to?

August 30th – Sex, kids and advertising

September 13th- The great education debate

The Age Theatre, Lower Ground Level
Melbourne Museum Victoria, 6.30-8pm
Visit: museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum for details
Free but bookings essential 13 11 02 or http://www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/melbourneforum/

Can Melbourne become a tech capital?

mel_janice — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:13:28 +0000

The Age recently reports the Top 10 Tech Capital in the world – Melbourne and Sydney are no where near them and to be honest, I am not at all surprised. The report also kinda summarise why Sydney [or Melbourne] can yet to measure up with the Top digital cities. Here are my little two cents in reference to the report:

Huge internet bill – Personal experience: having to pay 60 bucks each month for internet is abhor and it’s like living back in time when internet is still dial-up predominant, which to a very humble international student who came from Hong Kong means living back in more than 10 years ago.

Overall SLOWWWWWWWW internet connection – it is a wonder how could 128kbps ADSL connection still exists and could be regarded as broadband service. Faster speed is still available to a limited extent however, it’s nothing compared to Japan’s widely available 100Mbps connection.

Expensive mobile subscription: Even my mobile allows GPRS, MMS, push-to-talk, etc. the huge bill again encourages me only to text and mostly make calls to people within my network.

Lack of free wifi facilities: other than Joe’s Garage in Brunswick Street, I still can’t find any other free wifi spot in Melbourne. Unless you count University which the usage is restricted to students and staff or State Library which you have to be a registered library user. And seriously, I just can’t see myself using Telstra hot-spot services available at Starbucks which could even bring an even bigger bill to my mailbox.

Interestingly, Melbourne 2030 actually addresses telecommunication under the heading of A more prosperous city. Have a look at what it says.

All negativity asides, it is observable that the telecommunication charges is improving in Melbourne and Melbourne’s digital future should remain fairly bright. But it is undeniable that we still have a lot catch-up to do when compared to the digital cities mentioned in the report.

Cash cows or community members?

mel_janice — Sun, 06 May 2007 00:09:15 +0000

99% of the tenants of those purpose-built student apartment high-rises around Melbourne University are international students. Those apartments/bedrooms/bedsets/units/studios – whatever you called them – are pathetically small and expensive. Apart from the economic damage (mainly to international students), it is depriving the opportunities of local students living close to the campus and socially dividing Melbourne.

Today’s Age has a special coverage on this matter:

Foreign students living on edge of society

Foreign students live a sadly separate life

There’s small and then there’s small, says tenant

In addition, City of Melbourne is holding a Melbourne Conversation at the Melbourne Town Hall on 10th May 2007. I strongly recommend that you attend this event as the situation is becoming more imminent, it could affect any Melburnians.

The Place of Students in Central Melbourne: Cash Cows or Community Members?
Date: 10th May 2007
Time: 6pm-8pm
Venue: Supper Room, Melbourne Town Hall, Swanston St, Melbourne
Free Entry: No Bookings necessary
Refreshments will be served at conclusion of the event

NB. By the way I am on The Age and I will be sharing in the Melbourne Conversation. I guarantee that you will absolutely be rewarded if you show up in the Melbourne Conversation – as you will see me!

Healthy Burgers in Fitzroy

mel_janice — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 00:40:59 +0000

Grill’d @ Fitzroy

Originally uploaded by Straußer.

I finally tried Grill’d today – I always walked pass it but everytime I was either a) not in mood for burger, b) too full, c) in a hurry. I was actually quite surprised that they are opened today too – in fact quite a lot of diners are opened on Brunswick Street (for limited hours), so if everything is closed in your suburb on Easter Sunday, you may want to give the inner suburbs a shot next Easter Sunday.

Anyway, I had the cheapest burger – Simply Grill’d ($7.5) which has beef, salad and mayo. I also asked for cheese for an extra 70 cents. Grill’d offered four choices of bread: traditional, traditional (combination of wholemeal and white), panini, and panini (sourdough). The beef was juicy and the right amount and combination of sauce were added to the burger. The panini was toasted perfectly. It was a very pleasant burger and I’d definitely come back for more burgers later!

Grill’d also offer chicken burgers however I was too hungry to pay attention if they have veggie burger, sorry vegetarians!

Getting rid of your caffeine addiction?

mel_janice — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:26:23 +0000

If you live in Melbourne, my advise is: don’t even bother. I have tried to curb my caffeine intake 3 times in two years. Each time I can last for a month or two, but living in an area densely populated with cafes obviously dowa not help. And coupled with my so-very weak will-power, every attempt to cut coffee out of my life was infertile.

So, here I am, plunging back to the coffee pool for the third time. And I have made some pretty good discoveries with the help of Melbourne Coffee Review!

Are you bored?

mel_janice — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:15:44 +0000

You can never be too bored in Melbourne, that is if you have a car and money, in most cases anyway. Just google Melbourne and it will give you a bunch of results categorised into ‘dining guides’, ’shopping’, ‘attractions’, ‘night life’ and ‘tours and day trips’!

The Susie O’neil Pool

mel_janice — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 03:28:51 +0000

Regardless of the significant lack of broadcasting, FINA has posted a time-lapsed/stop-motion video on how the Susie O’neil pool in Rod Laver Arena was built.

Check it out!

Finally, meet the bloggers!

mel_janice — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 02:15:20 +0000

If you have anything special to do on Sunday, drop your plans now because we have something more special for you:

Melbourne Metroblogging Meet-up
Date: 25 March 2007
Time: 12 p.m.
Venue: Joe’s Garage, 366 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

The Melbourne Metrobloggers will be having a meet-up at Joe Garage @ Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. However, this is more than just an ordinary meet-up because they will not only be getting drunk or chit-chatting or feeding themselves, but also blogging live! We are also anticipating a mysterious beta entry but you WILL have to join us to be the first ones to know what we have behind the curtain.

Do come and share your wisdom with us so that we can make this blog a better place for you to hang out.

Starbucks Coffee Break March 15th

mel_janice — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:14:13 +0000

I am not 100% sure if this falls into the blog local objective, but it seems this shall happen in Melbourne:

Next Thursday, March 15th, plan on stopping by your local Starbucks between 10am and 12 noon. During that time, Starbucks will be holding is 2nd annual Coffee Break. All company-operated and licensed Starbucks stores in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Greater China will be giving away free Tall (12-ounce) cups of coffee to anyone who drops by. Starbucks Coffee Masters clad in black aprons will be present during each of the coffee breaks to kick off the company’s spring brewing sale and to answer any questions you might have about the coffee or coffee brewing. Last year, many stores used the coffee break period to sample some of their pastries out to customers waiting in line, as well.

(Via Slashfood.)

I don’t often visit a Starbucks but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check it out for a chance of getting a cup of free coffee!

Get healthy and have fun at Sustainable Living Festival!

mel_janice — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:38:08 +0000

The sustainable living festival is always one of my most favourite annual event in Melbourne. I went there yesterday and I have had so much fun!

Here’re what you can do in there:

try iced chai and stock some in your fridge!

don’t like chai? get a cup of fair trade organic coffee

have some organic lunch and snack

get your kids to learn about recycling, sustainable living, animals, etc.

enjoy performance of band, singing group and plays

get some tips on redecorating your house in the green way

re-hydrate yourself with a free cup of water!

walk with the feetbus

A very important note: MAKE SURE YOU WEAR ENOUGH SUN SCREEN!

Venue: Federation Square.
Date: Closes today!