Great Job, Dick

Posted by Laura on Sunday June 28 2009 in Celebritities | 1 comment

Did you get caught up in Friday’s Twitter flutter about Jeff Goldblum faux-dying? Right in the middle of us dealing with the loss of Michael and Farrah within hours of each other?

I saw a handful of tweets about Jeff’s demise – I even RT’d one – but the real icing on the cake was Richard Wilkins paying homage to Mr Goldblum’s outstanding career on Friday morning’s Today show. Complete with video montage. You can watch how it all unfolded on YouTube – Part 1 and Part 2.

The website claiming to have the scoop on Mr Goldblum is one of those sites that generates content based on the URL. The http://jeff.goldblum.media…. was what initially gave it away to me. Looking more closely I realised the site didn’t even have a date or timestamp.

But the real give away was the quote at the bottom of the page:

“this story was dynamically generated using a generic ‘template’ and is not factual. Any reference to specific individuals has been 100% fabricated by web site visitors who have created fake stories by entering a name into a blank ‘non-specific’ template for the purpose of entertainment.“

So in the end Dickie Wilkins had that other bloke from the Today show make the apology. Can you say “cringe-worthy”?

It’s one thing for mongs like me to initially believe the fake web site, but there’s a very big lesson in this for real* journalists: DON’T TRUST TEH UNKNOWN INTERWEBS FOR NEWS SCOOPS.

*Yes, I realise some wouldn’t classify Mr Wilkins as a “real” journalist, but he’s more of a journalist than I am.

Me and my Slanket

Posted by Laura on Saturday June 27 2009 in Laura's Life | 2 comments

Also: testing my new webcam!

Obama porn

Posted by Laura on Wednesday June 24 2009 in Celebritities | 3 comments

I’m an unashamed Obama girl. I see or hear Obama on the news and I swoon.

One of my favourite places to check out Obama is the official Whitehouse Flickr Photostream:

And this week this video was released which features John Hodgman more than Obama, but the Obama bits are full of awesome:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW7OPByRGDY

And all I can say is…

*swoon*

Grumbling in the direction of Marrickville Council

Posted by Laura on Monday June 22 2009 in Inner Westie | 4 comments

I was driving down our street tonight looking for a parking spot – something that sucks as a general rule because we’ve chosen to live in a congested area of Sydney’s inner west. Tonight there are workmen blocking off empty parking spaces with witches hats. There were parking spots as far as the eye could see, but they were all blocked off by damned witches hats

Turns out they’re doing line marking. Because the kerb isn’t enough of an indicator on where to park, apparently.

I try to park in a spot anyway and get waved away by one of the overall-clad blokes and decide to suss out WTF is going on

Me: So where do I park if I actually live here?

Him: Yih, moite thir is sum spots up an’ ’round in (names street 3 blocks away)

Me: *blank stare*

Him: Yih, I fink they done a letterbox drop an’ that

Me: Well, they never made it to my letterbox

Him: Awww shoite!

Me: So this is Marrickville Council’s doing, yeah?

Him: Yih!!

Me: Well, at least I’ll know who to send the memo to if I get mugged!

We both chortled* and he continued blocking available parking spots with witches hats while I drove off to the next suburb to find somewhere to park my car.

Mental note: wear walking shoes in the morning.

* I can’t believe I actually said typed the word “chortle”. I am getting old.