Hey furry friends get your freak on and tell your boss that Casual Fridays are out and Loud Fridays are in once every year as you’re showing your support for the deaf and hearing-impaired children.

I’m in the midst of persuading my office manager to get everyone at work to turn out looking like a clown, lose a multi-million dollar deal and piss off major clients but who gives a stuff when all the adorable kids out there have a buttress of strength and support to fall on to.

Jokes aside, deafness is a disability that’s close to my heart for family reasons so sign up for the participation kit from their official website, throw on something you’ve not won since Halloween circa 1990 and raise funds for all participating foundations.

And now he sacks the both of them. Its all over the news. Ted Baillieu had his liberal party sacked two staff who dared write a blog against him. I can’t even read it because one needs to be invited. The crime committed is not letting the public have a read!

Liberal? My foot!

News Links
Herald Sun’s “Traitors sacked over Baillieu mud”

Blog site in offence “He who stands for nothing“

I’ve always enjoyed a little bit of decadence in my lifestyle, and being a member of Sensual Ball satisfies that little bit of egotism in me. Granted, I don’t partake in any of the sexual cruises or swinging parties that dot their itinerary. But it’s always interesting to find out what the other side of the fence has in stall for the ‘unfortunate’ ones.

Several weeks ago I received an email from Sensual Ball alerting me to the casting of Australia’s version of Temptation Island. I had a good laugh upon looking at the application forms (both singles and couples). I thought they’re really thorough and professional. Well, when you’re messing around with the lives and relationships of people who’re committed to each other, you leave no stone unturned.

Here’re some of the questions:

1) Can you imagine being unfaithful to your partner under any circumstances?

2) Why are members of the opposite sex attracted to you?

3) Why are you a great partner?

Just for chuckles I submitted my application form (for singles). Every reality show needs the obligatory Asian who gets voted out within the first two weeks.

Check it out guys and send in your applications. Who knows you might just end up on TV with me :O

NOTE: Sensual Ball website is not safe for work.

EDIT: Argh I just found out that the deadline for applications falls on the 27th. What a pity.

Click for Enlarged Picture

It’s always easy to win an argument with a Sydneysider over whose city reigns supreme but is it going to our heads? Apparently so, according to this map recently posted on Strange Maps. Victoria has expanded into every state including making Tasmania, a big football field. While I doubt we have the world’s tallest buildings or the most millionaires, I can probably agree on world’s biggest wombat, world’s biggest kangaroo and certainly the world’s hungriest rabbits. The rabbit infestation doesn’t seem to be a problem as it appears we have sent all the rabbits to NSW.

Strangemaps: Victoria Victorious Over Rest Of Australia

On a side note for map lovers, I have finally checked out Mapland, a store in Little Bourke street dedicated to maps. They are the oldest map shop in Australia; founded in 1870. The store is chock full of maps from around the world and is staffed by extremely knowledgeable and helpful people.

Mapland

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Strange Maps, Mapland

Should we or should we not vote for Melbourne on the first Monopoly’s Global board game? Right now we have a chance to vote for countries to be added onto a global monopoly boardgame. The Age has an article stating that Melbourne has only received 1% of the vote so far. The article also suggested that Melbournians should not vote to be included. On the other hand, I think Herald Sun is supporting the vote because this week they have the Herald Sun Monopoly Competition.

So, if you want to vote for Melbourne, get on the website!

Today heralds the celebration of Australia Day. There are plenty of events happening around Victoria, starting with the fireworks tonight and it goes through the entire long weekend, ending with the “Great Australian Duck Race” on the Yarra River.

I don’t think anything describes Australia more than the traditional long weekend. And nothing describes the attitude of Australians better than a rubber duck race! An event that benefits the Australian Lifesavers!

Stuck at work without access to a tv? MyP2P has links to live streams of sports including the Australian Open. All you have to do is install one of the streaming applications such as SOPCast, then just click on the appropriate link on MyP2P. The quality is quite good depending on the speed and reliability of your connection. Best part is that it is free.

As for my offline life, I’m planning on getting a ground pass to Melbourne Park for Friday. Anyone have any recommendations or tips for seeing the tennis?

MyP2P
Beginners Guide to MyP2P streaming video
Live Australian Open Streams

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, Australian Open, Tennis, MyP2P

There are many ways to start a new year. Drinking to oblivion, kissing a love one, watching television or all the news programs showing how people celebrate New Year around the world. And there’s the New Year resolutions. But I propose that we can all have a good beginning by giving.

Find a charity you trust and donate time or money. It could be to the Salvation Army, the Royal Children Hospital or to Care Australia.

Care Australia has a unique gift section where you can buy a gift that is useful to a family or a community overseas. It can be a blackboard for a school, a birthing kit, build a classroom or even the gift of a sheep. Now that’s an idea, isn’t it? Baa! Baa!

In a year that is predicted to give us raising interest rates and a potential recession, we need to remember the less fortunate.

I never understood Yarra Tram’s tramTracker service. tramTracker is a service in which you send an SMS with your tram stop number and in return you receive real time information on the arrival of the next tram. The problem is that if you are at the tram stop then it doesn’t matter if the tram is coming in 2 or 10 minutes.

Now it appears they have put this service online for everyone to use. Type in your Tracker Stop ID which you can lookup on the site, then select the tram number. The arrival times of the next three trams are displayed. Seems like a great service and will be great on those cold winter days. Now if only they had this on the very unpredictable buses.

Yarra Trams [via Whirlpool]

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Yarra Trams, Australia, tramTracker

3 more weeks to Christmas and I have yet to do any of my shopping. Hunting out gifts is not a matter of walking into a shop and picking up the first item that catches my fancy. I need to look, to feel, to consider, and of course, to hunt out the bargains.

Normally, I love my junk mail around this time of the year. Tons and tons of paper, wasted to the environmental cause, just to entice people to buy. Not this year. I have a new tool, Lasoo. I can search through catalogues from my area as well as search for items and do price comparisons. Now, isn’t that just handy for a lazy person like me?