
Just so you can keep up with the office Oscars banter when someone pipes up with "did you see what Jennifer Hudson was wearing?!?"
Yes, my blog template is stuck in the dark ages.


















"Well, to quote the great Simpsons: 'Heh-heh','' she said, invoking the gloating laugh of a bully character on The Simpsons TV series.


What is going on, hot, young Rob Lowe?“Free to good home – please take”
The sign don’t lie – that is some awful sh*t people.
Appearing on the inside of each of the 10 cubicles on this floor (that is some serious effort), this one means “I saw someone else’s poo once and almost died. So I now I feel quite comfortable imposing my germophobia onto everyone else by writing a preachy, condescending sign for each cubicle. I probably spray my disinfectant wipes with Glen-20 and have to touch the door-knob 17 times with my elbow each morning before I can let myself leave the house.”
The above also has another, doubly hidden message along the lines of “I’m a complete cretin because I like comic-sans”, but I wouldn’t expect you all to get that one straight off the bat.
Moving back to the kitchen - don't you just hate it when you can't work out what you want to do with your dirty dishes? Do you find yourself just standing around, dumb-struck and completely at a loss as to whether you want to wash your mug, or throw it violently at the nearest wall? Never fear! The anonymous nagger is here!
“You’re [sic] mother doesn’t work here – please do not place dirty dishes, cutlery, cups or glass on bench tops or in the sink. Put them in the dishwasher or simply wash and put them away”
You've probably worked it out for yourselves (now that I've given you all such a solid grounding in sign interpretation), but what the writer of this sign was really trying to say was: “I’m trying to hide my malevolent control-freakiness behind a thin veneer of humour. Whereas in reality, computers made my job redundant 5 years ago and now I have nothing useful to do except trawl the internet for 'cute' graphics of someone doing the washing-up for my poorly written signs.”
Whilst we're in the kitchen:
“Please cover your food when using the microwave.”
I actually quite like this one. It means “scientific studies have shown that nothing smells worse than 10-day old tuna mornay caked onto the microwave walls and reheated about 50 times. Also, despite what you may think, you are the only one in love with your own cooking – no one else wants to relive it every time the microwave is used.”
So there you go. All you people out there with interesting jobs - you are all now perfectly trained and ready to chuck in your current posting and enter into an office job without any fear of inadvertently failing to feel properly nagged and harangued.
Huzzah!
ZOMG!!! (or other, ironically chosen interwebs lingo, used in a “gosh darn, I’m so much cleverer than the kids” way)
They’re making a reality show about my old job!
Let me explain.
“Solitary” is a controversial show on Fox Reality that subjects participants to “intense tests and treatments”.
Solitary 2.0 subjects never meet or have interaction with any other human beings.
That’s spot-on – I only ever occasionally spoke with my ‘colleagues’, who were all complete martians anyway and would never classify as ‘humans’ in any proper scientific testing (not even at the Ponds Institute).
They will only know the voice of their omniscient friend Val. Their sarcastic taskmaster and worst nightmare, Val will again taunt the subject by ruling every action in their laboratory pods.
Well, they’ve obviously changed his name, but they’ve got the character of my old boss down perfectly.
The voice of Val controls all elements taking place in their pods including sleep, sound, temperature, and light.
It’s scaring me how accurate this is.
This reflects not just the crushing hours, but also the mind-blowing bureaucracy involved in getting the faulty air-conditioning or flickering lights fixed - three different forms, completed in triplicate, signed by three solicitors and a priest (but all on separate days and in separate cities), and submitted with a bond guaranteeing the cost of the call-out if it turns out the air-conditioning decides to work the day the repairman came.
They’re even stripped of their conventional names, which are replaced with numbers.
Right on the money again, Fox! I can’t tell you my number, but it, and not my name, featured on my work pass, computer log-in, and internal email address and people were routinely referred to by their rank (“I’m not doing this – I’m just a 3” etc).
The initial season of Solitary, which debuted June 5, 2006, received praise from viewers and critics alike, by pushing participants to their mental and physical limits with intense tests and treatments.
This show started about a week after I started my old job! Scary.
“Mental and physical limits” – they must be talking about that day, not long after I started, where I had to (literally) run between 5 different buildings, trying to broker an agreement between parties on the inclusion of a new comma in an 11-page document. Ah, public service - I really contributed to the progress of the nation that day.
So close are the details of the show to my life that I think the Fox lawyers were a bit worried that I’d open a can of opportunistic-lawsuit on their be-hinds. So it looks like they’ve changed a few details here and there, most notably how contestants leave the game.
No one is voted off, “the only way to lose is to quit”.
Of course, for me, quitting was the only way not to lose everything.
As you’ve no doubt heard, for the sole purpose of generating some work for the desperately sluggish parliamentary stationery sector, the PM has announced a swag of changes to his ministry. And, to prove himself the consummate bureaucrat, he’s gone ahead and renamed a few portfolios without actually changing the substance of his government’s underlying policy.
A bit like when Toyota tried to flog Commodores a few years back as rebadged “Lexcens”. Not fooling anyone.
For example, from the “if we don’t name it, it doesn’t exist” school of thinking, we now no longer have a federal portfolio which references multicultural affairs in its title.
“The existing Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs will become the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.”
“The existing Department of the Environment and Heritage will become the Department of The Environment and Water Resources.”

I have so many fond memories of her time as Education Minister in the mid-late ‘90s. She made great fodder for satirists and poxy-student-march slogans: ”one two three four, Mandy Vanstone hates the poor!”
I’d like to go on record here and put down my pick for the key appointment – the one that all the major newspapers will be leading with tomorrow. Yes, all those millions of Australians who rate the Arts as the issue most likely to affect their voting intentions will be thrilled to hear of the new Minister for Arts and Sport, Senator George Brandis.
"Enjoy the Arts or I’ll rip your head off."
We’re in safe hands there I think. Phew!
For all uber-nerds and second-year law students out there, it is interesting to note that Peter Reith lite Georgie started his time in the Senate as a state appointee replacing a retired Senator. Good to see the ol’ constitution getting a workout, I say. Too many sections go unused, like that “lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys” head of power. What a bludger of a head of power! I should get Today Tonight onto that.
Lastly, the showdown between Hockey and Gillard in workplace relations will certainly attract column inches. I’d like to get them both in a pit-fighting battle royale! Mexican wrestling masks for all! I’m sure there’s a reality TV show in that somewhere.
The problem for me is that whenever I hear “Joe Hockey”, I become uncontrollably nauseous.
Ahem. Let me explain (you might want to put down your snack/meal/protein shake before proceeding, mind you).
I once asked a friend who was working in Parliament House what it was like to be in the thick of Australia’s political jungle (and by that I meant during the 20 sitting weeks the plonkers are around for).
Not long after, the conversation turned to the facilities available to staff and she mentioned there was quite a nice gym and swimming pool, which staff could use any time they like.
Sounds a bit fancy, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought, and so I remarked that this sounded like a cosy deal. Her response:
“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I was really enjoying the pool but then I saw Joe Hockey in speedos and I could never go back”.
To the leftThis all very sassy and how I like to imagine I would behave if I was a tall, taut and terrifically rich popular music mega-star who was breaking up with some ‘nigga’ (which I can totally see happening some time in the near future, so it is just as well I’m studying up on how best to do so).
To the left
Everything you own in the box to the left
In the closet that's my stuff - Yes
If I bought it nigga please don't touch
And keep talking that mess, that's fine
But could you walk and talk at the same time
So go ahead and get goneIn addition, this song is bound to be a contender for my mental list of “songs I would sing if I made it into the top 12 of Australian Idol” (yet another inevitability in my life that I am determined to be prepared for).
And call up on that chick and see if she is home
Oops, I bet ya thought that I didn't know
What did you think I was putting you out for?
Cause you was untrue
Rolling her around in the car that I bought you
Baby you dropped them keys hurry up before your taxi leaves


"Let's all meet up for a big manly get together at a girly cafe where we'll talk in a manly and disparaging fashion about the girly drinks we've ordered! ORDERED I tells ya! ORDERED like man!"I mean, if you are that worried about continuously acting out your masculinity, why would you go to a café and order a latte?!
Jackie O: What was it like to be that close to the Queen?The show is
Stephanie: Breathtaking! I thought, like, my organs were going to fail or something.
“Prince Michael Sapieha’s lineage is one the oldest Royal bloodlines in Europe and were instrumental in shaping the Poland we know today.”Could they be any more non-specific?
“Consequently, the Sapieha family were granted a principality, and therefore Prince Michael holds the royal title.”Sounds a bit like a bought title to me.




Alright! Environmental destruction, community disturbance and a whole weekend of verbal assualt on women! All officially sanctioned and partially funded by tax-payers! Australia rocks!