dog friendly

i regret getting red gravel pebbles - hard to clean and now we have to partition that area off ,too(by the fence it is)
theyre good for security as they crunch underfoot but ive never been able to keep the dogs off it because like most dogs they like to run the perimeter of the property and check things out
ive never worried about where the dogs toilet because there is a lawn area they use but one or two ofthem like to sneak off to the gravel area and its a pain picking up their waste with pebbles attached
i reckon we should have just concreted - easier to clean

- dogz forum: Designing The Dog Friendly Garden
 

equestrian qotd

Re:Who is idiot Equestrian Commentator?

Who cares? It's horses jumping over mushrooms, dragons, cottages and bridges.

Well, I did enjoy watching the 3 day event. That is, watching the moments that swimming-centric ch. seven let us see between swimming heats
And I enjoyed Simon Marshall's commentary. (Though ideally he'd share the gig with Lucinda Green, for the yin and yang equestrian commentating dream team.)
 

unsuccessful

Character note:

Her daughter, now in her 30s, for many years unsuccessfully tried to meet (with a view to marrying) an elite footballer. The Age

(I think the parentheses got her)
 

qotd

I drove past Bogan Avenue in Sylvania Waters the other day on the way to Bunnings.

first line of a comment at Are you living in Coconuts via ABC Melb
 

qotd

Q I have been seeing this wonderful guy for seven months. I have fallen in love with him. He loves me, too, but there's one problem. Last month, I yelled out a man's name in an intimate moment - although I know no one of that name. The Sage

(I think it's more dumb than oops, but then, dumb might have been wiser)

qotd

Property expert on Channel 7 news:

"If you're not on the merry-go-round, you're going to miss the boat"

football qotd

"So maybe not playing for 12 weeks would be a reasonable point of consequential punishment, if that's the word." -Lethal

(It was all in the...delivery. The...pauses)

qotd

*Underlines. Don’t underline anything in a message (or on a Web page) that’s not a hyperlink. I always move the mouse toward it thinking it’ll take me somewhere. via

cowangie
 

morris qotd

The years 1976-82 were absolute heaven for Morris dancers in Australia *

big screen qotd

AUDIENCE QUESTION: The enduring beauty of CASABLANCA has forever changed my view of film. Have you compared the richness of the work on the big screen with that on the video recorder? It is stunning to see Bogart & Bergman full screen....
JULIUS EPSTEIN: I see very few pictures on the small screen...the full appreciation for a film has to take place on the big screen

"Howard Koch, Julius Epstein, Frank Miller Interview" May, 1995

 

also seen on the big screen

---

Comments: big screen qotd

It's a nice idea and I don't disagree with it, but it does presuppose that 1) the film is available to be seen on the big screen in the first place and 2) the available print is of adequate quality to be appreciated. Frankly I'll take my nice, clean, sharp-looking and legibly-subtitled DVD of Ugetsu monogatari over the worn out, hard to read, apparently 16mm print of the film I saw on the big screen at Cinematheque last year.
Posted by James Russell at January 15, 2006 10:13 PM

I can see your point re sharpness of DVD - funny this isn't so sharp but it's BIG.
And even within the grab bag of hired flicks, it's easy to see which *needs* the big screen, and Casablanca was one of them. Like that audience member I was quite stunned. Hadn't seen the film for years but gets better. One of my top 10.14159265 now, fwiw.
Chaplin and Keaton have been great too.
Posted by boynton at January 15, 2006 10:39 PM

Oh yeah, obviously some films absolutely require a cinema-sized screen for full effect, not to mention an audience. I love Keaton, but he goes down even better in a cinema with other people. And I think I shall always be glad I first saw "Bridge on the River Kwai" at the cinema rather than on TV.

Going purely on my own experience, I generally find I prefer films *without* large clumps of people around me. I suspect part of this comes from when I was studying film at university and was surrounded by people whose automatic response to films was to laugh at them at the least appropriate points, but part of it probably also stems from the fact that the biggest majority of the films I see (and have seen) are on the small screen by myself at home. I don't really do films as a social event (except for Mu-Meson Archives).

I must say that, having invested in a widescreen TV for Xmas, I can completely understand what they say about people not going to the cinema any more if they've got a perfectly good home theatre set-up. I don't even have that big a set (76cm), and I don't have surround sound, but I know totally what they mean. If I didn't have Celluloid Dreams to force me to keep in touch with new films at the cinema, I could probably quite comfortably live off DVD rentals.

As for "Casablanca", I should probably be embarrassed to admit I never saw it until last year. It was probably the biggest gap in my classic Hollywood knowledge. Luckily it was worth the wait.
Posted by James Russell at January 16, 2006 12:12 AM

I almost never (2 or 3 times a year) watch a film at home. I don't enjoy it. Cinema is the place for watching films.

I don't think there are many films coming out at all that can be appreciated the same on a small screen.

I suppose if you've spent thousands of $$ on a 'home theatre' then it's different.
Posted by wbb at January 16, 2006 04:16 PM

Would concur about the audience factor.
Some films definitely need it.
Have to say though - sometimes the concentration factor intensifies in this privileged mode of viewing.
Luckily we forked out zero - the projector is borrowed, the magnificent isolation is temporary.

Think I will avoid watching films on Tv now though.
Posted by boynton at January 16, 2006 04:44 PM

qotd

Merry Christmas sanity can you hold the line please

---

Comments: qotd

no doubt...
December is mixed up sometimes...
Posted by michelle at December 23, 2005 06:21 PM

It's a fun sentence in which to play swapsy with a comma, a question mark and a couple of !!
Posted by peacay at December 23, 2005 09:03 PM

A few lines to hold on to during the time when conspiracy of love invades too many hearts ...

Someone to hold you too close,
Someone to hurt you too deep,
Someone to sit in your chair,
To ruin your sleep.
Someone to need you too much,
Someone to know you too well,
Someone to pull you up short,
To put you through hell.
Someone you have to let in,
Someone whose feelings you spare,
Someone who, like it or not,
Will want you to share
A little, a lot.
Someone to crowd you with love,
Someone to force you to care,
Someone to make you come through,
Who’ll always be there,
As frightened as you
Of being alive.
Stephen Sondheim, “Being Alive” (music by Sondheim)
Posted by jozef Imrich at December 23, 2005 11:30 PM

A few lines to hold on to during the time when conspiracy of love invades too many hearts ...

Someone to hold you too close,
Someone to hurt you too deep,
Someone to sit in your chair,
To ruin your sleep.
Someone to need you too much,
Someone to know you too well,
Someone to pull you up short,
To put you through hell.
Someone you have to let in,
Someone whose feelings you spare,
Someone who, like it or not,
Will want you to share
A little, a lot.
Someone to crowd you with love,
Someone to force you to care,
Someone to make you come through,
Who’ll always be there,
As frightened as you
Of being alive.
Stephen Sondheim, “Being Alive” (music by Sondheim)
Posted by jozef Imrich at December 23, 2005 11:30 PM

Lovely Jozef, tres poignant. Hi boyn. Try as I might I think I'd have to live under a log (no internet under logs) to succesfully and blithely ignore this Christmas thang.

However, I saw things that made me smile at the beach today. An Indian family swimming fully clothed - for hours and a Jack Russell Terrier x who chased a ball with such enthusiasm that I wish I were he. After several runs he was looking a bit limpy and arthritic on one back leg, but still smiling his little head off and still keen for more. Pain? What pain? What is pain?

Posted by Link at December 24, 2005 12:18 AM

It was just one of those rhetorical questions ;)

People were losing it on Thursday but were courteous around car-parks on Friday.

Thanks Jozef - :)

Great obs again, Link.
My Lab used to do that, the jack is never that keen.
But the two used to dig in the sand for hours.
Why Doug dug, only he knew. But it was good enough for her, and she assisted him in this industrious enterprise until his legs ran out.
Posted by boynton at December 24, 2005 11:45 AM

Merry Thingo - No need for directions here:

http://media.putfile.com/Wizards-in-Winter40

http://video.insert.com/videosearch?q=christmas+lights

insert=google
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at December 24, 2005 10:39 PM

Best to you and yours Miss B.
Posted by cs at December 25, 2005 08:11 AM

Ah, sanity, so hard to find so easy to lose.

Happy holidays!
Posted by npiombino at December 26, 2005 01:45 PM

Merci fx. shall watch anon avec broadband in...some suburb...
will keep me from wandering up the ... road.

Thanks, cs. et vous.

Thanks Nick.
I managed to avoid Sanity, shopping in Sanity, in the mad rush, thankfully.
Posted by boynton at December 27, 2005 09:59 PM

world qotd

And it was a disastrous start for the World with the loss of four early wickets


(or something like that, caught as I walked through the lounge when the ABC news was on...)

---

Comments: world qotd

So atlas played cricket?

Feh. I have my ups and downs with cricket. The ashes was great but I fear my interest is waning. I think my yearly sport timeclock is out of whack.
Posted by peacay at October 9, 2005 11:32 PM

This silly series has barely registered, peacay.

The Ashes, otoh, quickly became compulsive viewing...
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2005 11:42 PM

- just heard Gideon Haigh on 774 describe it as "piped music" compared to the Opera (Ashes)
Posted by boynton at October 11, 2005 11:56 AM

ps

some follow-ups to recent posts...

As an illustration to the ballooning tune*
Indeed it was here,
but possibly this goes with the general musical drift.


A collection of Ads Featuring Croquet


Lawn Bowls QOTD:

"Lawn bowling is going to sweep the country … it’s exactly where tennis and curling were 15 years ago."
Bowls Canada

---

Comments: ps

Thanks for linking to my page on ads featuring croquet. I've got over 300 more funny croquet items to add to that page! So look out for more!
Posted by spudart at July 28, 2005 12:10 AM

Yours is already a great collection - including the "art/photography" section. I look forward to the new items.
Posted by boynton at July 28, 2005 02:23 PM

lab qotd

Twenty years hence, the Yorkshire terrier could be the most popular breed. And people will think Yorkies are tough as nails, while Labs will be dismissed as chew-happy slobs.

Top Dog: Why Americans love Labrador retrievers.

---

Comments: lab qotd

Oho! So yer not actually giving up blogging just yet? You were just doing that woman thing of fishing for complements while pretending to be all helpless and adrift. But I'm wise to yer feminine wiles, they won't fool me...oh look, you got yer fishing lure all tangled up there...here, let me help you.

Yeah labs, the Don Candy of dogs. I've seen one of 'em walk straight through a flyscreen door without apparently noticing. Whereas a Yorkie or Jack Russell would somehow talk you into opening the flyscreen and bringing the food out to them.

While a blue heeler would offer to share the food he'd found.
"I thought you locked the car?"
"I did, but it seems I left the eskie out...and I thought clipped shut?"
"Hi guys! Haven't seen you for 14 minutes! Great! You're back! Fantastic! Wanna go for a run? I left you the quiche crust!"
Posted by Nabakov at July 10, 2005 09:57 PM

no no no - just musing out loud...
(a spot of fishing does wonders for the blogging nerves though.I expect)

I'm disappointed to see Labs are the current Everydog - (jumbo dog for McMansions, apparently.)
Can believe the Flywire screen test - my dog nonchalantly put his paws through a window when he was shut out for a minute.
Bluey profile is right too - although this one holds back on the boisterous greeting. She has some cat-like characteristics I sense.

I enjoyed another stretch of borrowed labrador company recently which has convinced me of their essential lopey,dopey,happy compatability. Despite their current 'levis' status.
Posted by boynton at July 10, 2005 11:53 PM

blog qotd

Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble advises fellow bloggers to never write when "your life is in turmoil and/or you're unhappy." ...

A blogging QOTD (from '03) cited in Writing the codes on blogs via a media dragon

in the meantime

---

Comments: blog qotd

Disclaimer: not that my life is in turmoil and/or of course.

I just thought this particular prescription might kill about half the blogospherical content in one hit, or the impulse thereof anyway ;)
Posted by boynton at June 16, 2005 04:23 PM

Hell, if I followed that advice, I'd never have written a line until, probably last month.

That's why I started with political blogging- it helps to get the angst out of your system. Now that my life has a bit of serenity and order in it, I have no interest in politics whatsoever. Sport all the way for me!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at June 17, 2005 05:55 PM

What? You taken up heroin, Wicky?
Posted by Tony.T at June 17, 2005 05:57 PM

Hope the serenity continues well into the Ashes tour.

Posted by boynton at June 17, 2005 11:21 PM

Sorry to hear that Ashes are turning into public relations dust ...
Posted by Jozef Imrich at June 21, 2005 12:21 AM

testing times
Posted by boynton at June 21, 2005 12:32 PM

Just gives sports bloggers more to write about.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at June 22, 2005 07:05 PM

acd qotd

HALL'S HEELERS - Origins Of The Cattle Dog in Australia

It is variously recorded that not all the larger Smithfield dogs were suitable for working cattle . Those that came to the colony are described by Robert Kaleski as:

...a big rough-coated, square-bodied dog, with a head like a wedge, a white frill round the neck, and saddle-flap ears; he got over the ground like a native bear. Faithful enough, handy, and sensible; but he couldn't stand the heat and long trips. Besides, he bit like an alligator, and barked like a consumptive. The other faults were bad, but the last was a finisher. How could a man borrow any of his neighbours cattle with an advertisement like that...

dog qotd

Question from Bob, Professor Emeritus, State University System:
Which are smarter--labradors or college deans?

Adam Miklósi:
In my view that is a wrong type of question. In biology any type of "intelligence", "cleverness" or similar things do not exists in themselves but only with relation of the environment. So first you should define the environment in which you study them, and only then can I say (after testing) who is smarter (e.g. how would college deans hunt a bird?)

How Smart is Fido The Chronicle's on line discussion of Clever Canines
via Arts and Letters Daily

---

Comments: dog qotd

nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle van de de hoofdtelefoonerkenning van de erkenningsstem van de de stem nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle erkenning van de de stem nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle erkenning van de de stemcomputer van de de erkenningsstem van het de vrienddictee van de het dictee digitale machine van de het dicteestem van de het dicteedraak van de de overbrengerdictafoon medische van het de softwaredictee van de de dictafoonmachine phillips van de het bedrijfsdictafoon van het het dictee digitale registreertoestel van de de snaaroverbrenger van het het dicteebeheer van het het systeemdictee van de de testerkenning van de de technologiestem de baan medische overbrenger

nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle van de de hoofdtelefoonerkenning van de erkenningsstem van de de stem nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle erkenning van de de stem nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle erkenning van de de stemcomputer van de de erkenningsstem van het de vrienddictee van de het dictee digitale machine van de het dicteestem van de het dicteedraak van de de overbrengerdictafoon medische van het de softwaredictee van de de dictafoonmachine phillips van de het bedrijfsdictafoon van het het dictee digitale registreertoestel van de de snaaroverbrenger van het het dicteebeheer van het het systeemdictee van de de testerkenning van de de technologiestem de baan medische overbrenger
Posted by peacay at October 20, 2005 12:32 AM

blog qotd

Topical blog authors are Dadaists selecting readymades who yet strive to be Bauhaus craftspeople and do occasionally succeed. That is, they strive to create original content and commentary but are also content to spread a found meme that they consider important or interesting

Scott Carter “The role of the author in topical blogs” via grand text auto

---

Comments: blog qotd

'Even blog authors who insisted that their blog was for them alone still analyzed server logs or regularly tested their links for hits in major search engines.'

Ouch, outed!
Posted by Kent at April 23, 2005 04:24 AM

Yes, er... that was Blog QOT year?
or blogger's creed...

And there must be a disease Advertisers could invent here: Stat-itis, Server Log Fatigue? Technorati Cramp?
Posted by boynton at April 23, 2005 12:29 PM

Kent - I haven't done that. re Scott Carter's opinion: it has not been read by MY Twunt of the week (thanks cileo) Daniel Donahoo (se my place) who says we are all sad old losers with no life. (unlike himself in Castlemaine, emailing his pieces to various publications, to earn a living from the big city life he rejects.
Posted by Brownie at April 25, 2005 08:48 AM

I suspect one's sadness would be lessened by such heroic resistance, Brownie. Woe is me.

Blogging, even on a local scale, is too vast to generalise by some cursory flying visits. You only have to look at a few posts at "A Media Dragon" to see the range of meta (and better) discussion about blogs and blogging on offer from within and without.
Scott Carter's paper is but one example of serious analysis, if that's your bag. And that is really about the genre of Topical blogs, with the sub genre, Law blogs. I just swiped a nice quote, out of context, as is my wont, and the wont of the ww web, perhaps.

OTOH, bloggers are quite possibly highly delusional.
As is any voice daring to utter something in the dumb wilderness.

Actually , my innate and chronic sadness and non-influence received unexpected validation, (or is that invalidation?) not through google, as you do, but through meeting other bloggers in RL and discovering that they were all pretty much as you'd expect. Good company, on or offline.
I think most bloggers can manage to balance the e cup of coffee commentary and the real lattes with corporeal friends, in the city or poor old Castlemaine. (Which I know quite well as it happens)
Posted by boynton at April 25, 2005 04:23 PM

I made the remark because I know Castlemaine too, and have watched it devolve into Acland St with gum trees. as with Daylesford, soon the locals/historic occupants won't be able to afford to live there.
"highly delusional.As is any voice daring to utter something in the dumb wilderness." - the fact that it IS uttered and then RESPONDED to, means that it was not uttered into 'dumb wilderness'. Poor Mr Donahoo, possibly surrounded by people all the time, forgot for a moment that there are people who live alone, distanced from metropoli but not stupid, who get the zeitgeist by proxy through blogs. I hardly ever turn on my television set. and now I have to get to Mansfield Park thanks.(and I never thought I would ever actually use that z word back there)
Posted by Brownie at April 26, 2005 07:05 PM

I didn't want to say this at L.P. because most of the talk was 'oh but we DO have lives'. But-

Even if he (Donahoo) is right, and most bloggers are sad loner-folk, what's the problem? Turning off the internet and shutting down your blog doesn't give you friends, and doesn't take you to a cafe to discuss interesting things (as I've learnt). The few friends I have aren't interested in talking to me about things that bloggers and commenters are. And new flesh-friends aren't forthcoming for reasons totally unrelated to the blog.

I guess some people (Donahoo) don't like this new, increasingly powerful voice of all us sad folk, suddenly given volume. People communicate and (attempt to) influence in different ways - not by choice, but by necessity. Brownie because of distance; others because of shyness.
Posted by Kent at April 26, 2005 08:17 PM

Sorry if I unintentionally caused any offence there, Brownie, I was just 'talking to myself' (re "dumb"- anyway) along a stream of consciousness, laced with a bit of irony.
What I was trying to say so badly was that any utterance can seem bold, even perhaps delusional, until the medium/site is accepted as conventional.

Blogging is certainly a great medium for the isolated/shy/curious. Personally I think it's great for associative thinking. Thinking through linking.
As Mark B points out though, it's not an either/or situation. It's a pretty shaky off-line community that has to fear the virtual? As much as I like it, I don't think blogging presents much of a threat.

I agree with you about Castlemaine too.
(One side of the family goes back generations) Don't know if it's quite Acland St yet? Hope not.
Posted by boynton at April 26, 2005 10:05 PM

ogle

Update on the TV viewing choice of Sunday night.
If only a bare-chested Mr Darcy could play whiff whaff at Olympic level.

---

Comments: ogle

And if only a b... Elizabeth ...

(All in the interests of equal rights.)


Posted by Sedgwick at August 24, 2004 02:50 PM

Shutup and watch the B Volley Ball, Sedge ;)

Then again, it may well be a way to spice up the sport. "Squash" tried the same thing a while ago, didn't it?. But then, "squash" is well named for such experiments...
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2004 03:24 PM

Whiff whaff with lashings of bennetian bustle for me.
Posted by Sedgwick at August 24, 2004 03:33 PM

I recall Shakepseare playing at Wimbledon,
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/001284.html
and I think that 'Round the (Regency House) Table' could possibly be an Exhibition sport at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Marvellous Melbourne.

Alternatively at least one of the endless dance sequences in P&P XXVIII could certainly be replaced with a round of Whiff Whaff, without the whole suffering too greatly. imho.
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2004 04:25 PM

If yer like a bit of historical cheesecake, check out Hillary Swank in "The Affair Of The Necklace." Sexiest sneer since Elvis.

Kit Walken's not bad either as Caligostro if yer that way inclined.

Unfortunately, despite Swank, Walken and Pryce's game efforts, the flick itself is more paste than diamond.
Posted by Nabakov at August 24, 2004 08:46 PM

"Alternatively at least one of the endless dance sequences in P&P XXVIII could certainly be replaced with a round of Whiff Whaff, without the whole suffering too greatly. imho."

Richard Curtis was onto it with the second of his studies of cold-climate love and mating habits, "Four Weddings, A Funeral and Several Ho-hum Fcuks."

"Love is like Ping Pong, except with smaller balls."
Posted by Nabakov at August 24, 2004 08:52 PM

I....love....him
Posted by mcb at August 25, 2004 08:07 AM

May check out Kit in historical kit, but meanwhile
that's gotta be the Ping Pong QOTD.

Yep - no dots about it, mcb.
Tenth time round, he's still looking good.
Posted by boynton at August 25, 2004 12:34 PM

what - only ten?!
I'm disappointed, B.
Posted by wen at August 26, 2004 03:24 PM

Scary thing is, wen -
I have the whole series taped. (natch)

And I still wait for next week's episode. In Anticipation.
It's that old thrill of the serial format.
Posted by boynton at August 26, 2004 08:37 PM

found qotd

Pan pan situations may develop into Mayday situations

(there is always a found quote of the day glinting in the googlepile)

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Comments: found qotd

Happy Birthday To Me!
Posted by Nora at May 1, 2004 04:40 PM

http://fly.wabyn.net/FlightTraining/PSTAR/3Qs.htm#3.18
Posted by boynton at May 1, 2004 04:51 PM

A Joke never gains an enemy but often loses a friend...
Posted by Rod Kratochwill at May 6, 2004 05:51 AM

Hope I haven't lost any...
(or I might have to find some more)

A good joke is hard to find. ;)
Posted by boynton at May 6, 2004 03:15 PM