A waste of time?According to my archives, today's post is number 400. Jakartass has a daily readership of 50+ with significantly more when Charlton is mentioned. Fewer readers seem to be interested in the goings on here in Indonesia. This may or may not be significant. Still, whoever and wherever you are, thanks for sticking with me so far.
Within the next 10 days or so I expect to receive the 20,000th hit. If you can
email me a jpeg or gif screen shot of that magic number (having 'replied' to my spam blocker), I'll send you, wherever you are - from
Algeria to New Zealand, a CD of varied and esoteric MP3 sounds which resound around my monitor as I tap away.
And now for something a bit differentWhen I'm not grafting away for another post about corruption, I usually turn for inspiration to the
J-Walk Blog and
Bifurcated Rivets. And why not? They provide a variety of links to sites with a sense of bemusement at the amusements and foibles of others, often with witty comments. Life doesn't have to be oh-so-serious, does it? So, thanks to them for the following.
The Magic Roundabout (or Traffic Circle if you're American)
This is ingenious, but would be a complete waste of time here in Jakarta where motorists don't have any lane discipline.
If Foodies were on Death Row ... A last meal? A final foray in the kitchen?
So much to eat, so little time. But there are some things we simply must make time for ... before we leave this earth.
Executioners could try dismembering a chicken.
...everyone should do this at least once in their lives. It is actually quite easy when you get the hang of it, and your supper will taste much better for your having had a hand in it, so to speak.Hung, drawn and quartered?
On a more serious note, you can see the deleted list of Texas inmates' last meals
here and if you want an analysis of the nutritional values of such meals, look
here.
Last meals on Texas' death row never were haute cuisine, but for many Web browsers, they held a morbid fascination. For years, the details of executed killers' final repasts were the most popular feature of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's official Web site. But now the menus - posted for most of the 313 killers executed since 1982 - are history, dropped from the newly redesigned Web site by an image-conscious agency stung by claims the site was tasteless and demeaning.Jakartass believes that the death penalty itself is "tasteless and demeaning".
World Carrot MuseumMore than you wanted to know.
UK Sucrologist ClubMy Auntie Babs used to keep bowls of sugar cubes around the house. They were souvenirs of her travels. We children weren't allowed to touch them. Ants, however, were less well behaved. If she were still alive, I suspect Babs would have found this club to her liking, although the annual subscription of ten pounds seems a bit steep.
Everywhere I went in the world, I looked for sugar packets, on airlines, ferries, visitor centres, clubs, pubs. It has not taken all those years to amass over 35,000 different ones as there were periods when I didn't collect many at all, but after moving house and sorting things out I found them all again and I decided I had to put them in some sort of order, really to see if any were being duplicated.
I found the best way to store, sort and display them was to use cigarette card albums with transparent leaves showing both sides of the packet without having to take them out. These leaves can be bought in 4, 6, 8 or 10 pocket sizes which accommodate most sizes of packets. On average each album holds about 500 packets.100 Top Grossing FilmsFancy that, I've only managed to acquire 40 of these on pirated DVDs and the majority are in Our Kid's collection. I'll admit to liking
Shrek 2, at no 3, and
The Incredibles at no 28 but I'm unfazed by any of the
Star Wars or
Harry Potter series. Jakartass is an independent fella, I suppose.
How to handwrite proper.With text messaging, multi-choice questionnaires and computer keyboards, one could argue that good handwriting isn't important.
Believe me, it is. I can rarely decipher notes from 'Er Indoors.
Did you feel the Earth move, darling?The great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake that generated the devastating tsunami in December was so powerful that the ground shook everywhere on the Earth's surface and weeks later the planet still trembled.God's total quality management questionnaireA fascinating read, but it's not interactive. A bit like praying, I suppose.
More BallsThe FA Cup Final last night, local time, was played on a "slimy top" which made it remarkable that for the first time since the 1912 game between Barnsley and West Bromwich Albion there weren't any goals from open play.
Manchester United wore black to mourn their takeover by
a mate of the Bush clan. MU huffed and puffed but couldn't convert their numerical advantage ~ Reyes having been sent off a couple of seconds before the end of extra time.
Arsenal's chosen six scored their penalties and all MU players but Paul Scholes scored theirs. So the Reds won. And ANTV, the channel of choice instead of TV7, rejoined their dangdut party complete with
Bintang Zero.
Joy was unrestrained here in Jakartass Towers, such is the power of
genuine Bintangs, with the news that
Luke Young, who's handsome visage closed yesterday's post, will be joining the England C squad on its summer tour of the good ol' USA.
Happy holidays, son.
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