what?

Seen at the Auckland airport McDonald's:

Man is wearing a T-shirt advertising nutrient supplements with the slogan "If you want your body to perform don't eat shit."

Man orders, and eats, cheeseburger combo.

perhaps I screwed it up

In the past year my iBook battery life has fallen dramatically. When we got to NZ it had already eroded, but we could get about 3-4 hours on a charge. A few months ago, that was down to 2 hours. Now, the gauge tells me it has about one hour on a full charge, but when it runs down to zero the computer actually has about 15 minutes left, another new aspect to the battery problem.
I just assumed it was a case of a poor battery combined with poor battery management - we tend to charge it up at any time rather than letting it run down all the way. However, I realized there might be something else to it. We don't have a transformer so we're just letting the 220 volts of power they have everywhere else than the US flow into the battery.

The documentation says the computer can handle the voltage. But I'm not sure it has.

why?

I could never understand the amount of coverage Jon Benet got when I was back in the States.

I really can't understand the amount of coverage the confession has gotten here in Australia. I'm assuming I don't have to explain what I'm talking about. It's been the lead story in every paper and newscast here the last week or so. I can't imagine what it's been like on Fox News.

what makes a dive bar?

Over on Leaping Point I talked about finding a good dive bar in Melbourne, something I hadn't even realized I missed in New Zealand. A bar in a small city building, with dirt on the floor and tacked up decorations on the walls, with a pool table and a few old couches along with the bar stools. A bar with grit rather than seediness, a bar where the young and aimless can mix with the older working class without any thought to the matter.

It helps the atmosphere that Australia, or at least Victoria, still allows smoking in bars. You can't have a real dive bar without smoke hanging in the air.