All posts by Alistair Lattimore

About Alistair Lattimore

My name is Alistair Lattimore, I'm in my very early 30's and live on the sunny Gold Coast in Australia. I married my high school sweet heart & we've been together for longer than I can remember. Claire and I started our family in September 2008 when Hugo was born and added a gorgeous little girl named Evie in May 2010. You can find me online in the typical hangouts, Google+, Twitter & facebook. .

Measure Once, Cut Twice

Humour, Life

Have you ever heard the saying that you should measure twice and cut once, well this afternoon I measured once and cut twice.

The windscreen wiper blades on the car needed replacing, as they had started to become brittle and crack. After picking up a new pair from Super Cheap Auto, I set about removing the old ones and fitting the new pair.

Ordinarily when I replace wiper blades, I remove both windscreen wipers, cut both and then refit them. For some reason today, I removed one and replaced it; unfortunately for me – I happened to remove the shorter of the two blades first. You can surely see where this is going, when I removed the first wiper blade I stupidly cut both at the same time and of course one of the blades was about seven centimetres too short.

Moral of the story:

Always measure twice and cut once. It’s easy to measure a second time and very difficult to uncut something.

Streamed Directly From The U.S

Advertising, TV

Channel Ten are pushing new advertising bandwagon at the moment:

Streamed directly from the U.S

The television network are promoting this little catch cry for all of the new TV series they are airing at the moment, such as:

Apparently, streaming the content directly from the United States some how makes the content better. I haven’t quite got my head around how that works just yet but if and when I do, I’ll be sure to make a note of it.

I realise that it is nit picking and that the average Joe wouldn’t notice or give a damn, but for some reason I find it a little frustrating. It’s as if Channel 10 have cottoned onto this new fangdangled ‘internet’ thing and thought that combining a new cool word or phrase with their advertising would some how make it hip and happening.

The reality of it is and they say so in their own advertisement, that we’re still seeing it with a few days delay. That begs the next question, since we’re not seeing it the same day that it is airing in the United States and that it isn’t being steamed directly from the US and aired in Australia – why couldn’t they simply ship a copy of the new series the traditional way?

That’s right, I forgot – the shows are better because they are streamed directly from the U.S!

I love advertising.

Social Networking Done Right?

Internet, Websites

Since joining Facebook, I have been amazed at how well it facilitates social networking.

I’m not sure why I’m so impressed with Facebook, it is a social networking tool after all. I suppose it has to do with my constant comparison against the other monster social networking sites on the internet such as MySpace.

In the case of MySpace, I signed up to that to claim my account – I had no real intention of using it as a long term service. Even after claiming my account, I didn’t see a lot of activity on it and its cluttered and often disorganised interface annoyed me.

I signed up to Facebook for similar reasons, to claim my account but primarily to check out what all the fuss was about. Soon after signing up, I was astonished at how many people I knew in another life are popping back up – it is fantastic!

I’m not a big social networking user but if what Facebook are doing is doing social networking right; then I am beginning to appreciate just how tremendous it can be.

Cardinal Sins Of Merging Traffic

General

The Australian road rules state that when a lane ends and the traffic must merge, that the traffic in the continuing lane must yield for the merging traffic.

Despite the road rule being quite clear, it amazes me how often you see people in the continuing lane not giving way to the merging traffic. This relatively small disregard for the road rules typically results in the merging traffic slowing down dramatically or coming to a complete stop. Once that happens, it then takes even more effort for the merging traffic to actually merge as they then have to accelerate – which depending on the speed of the continuing traffic can be quite difficult.

What frustrates me even more though, is when drivers know that they are required to merge and choose to leave it to the last minute. Their impatience makes the situation worst, as you’re now in a position where you have people needing to merge and people not yielding.

If drivers know that they are required to merge, the traffic would flow far more smoothly if they merged early – before the traffic compresses. As soon as the traffic compresses, it then becomes harder to merge as their typically isn’t enough space often enough between all of the vehicles. When the continuing lane must slow down for the merging traffic, it exasperates the problem and you’re witnessing the beginnings of painful drive to work.

Moto of the story, when driving – if you’re required to merge; merge as early as you can. If you have merging traffic around you – allow them space to merge comfortably so they don’t need to slow down. The world, or at the very least commuting, will be a happier experience for your consideration on the matter.