Month: October 2020

Been a While

It’s been a while since I jumped on the old computer and typed up a post for this site. I’ve almost forgotten how to do it! Hopefully, this post doesn’t turn out like the one from last year, after I returned from my Christmas break. I was supposed to tell you all about the mechanics I visited over my holiday, but I got sidetracked and wrote about the best fish and chip shops in Queensland instead! How embarrassing.

I don’t really have a topic this time, although I suppose I should touch on special car maintenance, like diesel tuning, as I promised I would cover it last time. Basically, diesel tuning is when you make changes to a diesel engine to improve its performance, through many different aspects. You’ll need to go to a mechanic who is comfortable with auto electrical, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.

My favourite auto electrical shop near Toowoomba is this one with a really nice bakery next to it. The bakery has the best pies, made fresh each day. Back when I used to work at the restaurant, washing dishes, I would go there every day for lunch. I remember sitting on the bench outside, just chowing down on these delicious steak and mushroom pies. If I ever got bored of the pies (which was rare), I could go to the fish and chip shop and order something there instead.

Oh boy, I love me some fish and chips. It’s just about the best food in the world. Look, I know it’s not exactly the fanciest cuisine out there, but sometimes less is more, you know? If you don’t like lots of deep-fried food, you can always get a souvlaki or burger. There’s something for everyone, really. Even if you don’t like meat, just get some delicious chips.

Drat, I’ve done it again! Why do I always keep getting distracted when writing these things? And why do I always get distracted by fish and chips? Maybe next time I’ll be able to tell you more about auto electrical work!

The Brown Rock

I always hated the Bionic Cools. My kids loved them, of course, but I always thought they were really stupid. Especially the movies. Oh my gosh, those movies were abysmal. The animation was enough to make a grown man’s eyes bleed. The story was so weak and the characters were bland. It was all just an elaborate marketing campaign for the toys, which children would obviously fall for. I’m sad to say that my own kids were no exception. They didn’t want to collect Beanie Children, no. It was all Bionic Cools in our house.

So that’s why it kind of sucks that I’ve been turned into one of those terrible plastic toys. And of course I’m the one with the power to control rocks or something. What a lame character. He was always my least favourite.

I don’t really know what happened. One moment I was thinking about how I’d like to get kitchen renovation sometime, to increase the value of my home. Then, as I was walking across the room, I tripped on something stuck in the ground. When I composed myself and had a look at it, I saw a strange brown stone. I touched it and underwent this weird transformation. My flesh melted away and my bones turned to plastic.

What a terrible day.

And it’s not like I knew I had the power to control rocks or anything, so I accidentally destroyed my kitchen with it. Everywhere I walk, the foundations of my house spring up and crack. I may have to find a kitchen design business within Melbourne to help me fix it up. And by fixing it up, I mean building a new kitchen because this one is destroyed beyond repair, surely.

Why couldn’t I have been turned into a Lay Go character instead? Those are way better than Bionic Cools. But no, it seems I’m stuck like this. What a day.

– Rocky Reggie

Obtaining Glass

I’ve always wondered what the process is for making glass. I assume it’s nothing like in the video game Craft a Mine, where you take a bucket of sand to the tallest volcano in the land, sacrifice thirty-two goats and fight a dragon-bull. Once the dragon-bull is defeated, you may present your bucket of sand to the Volcano Goddess, who rubs it with her magical hands, drinks the sand and turns the bucket into glass in thanks. I know, it’s really weird.

I think the process in the video game Terra Area makes a lot more sense. If you want to obtain commercial glazing for your town, you have to venture out to the dungeon and slay the giant skeleton boss who has four arms and shoots lasers from his eyes. Once he’s dealt with, you have to travel deep underground and obtain an item known as the strange keystone, which holds the spirit of an ancient spectre. You bring that back to town and trade it for a glazier summoner. Once you use that, the local glazier will move into your town and you can buy glass from them.

I said that it made more sense, not that it was logical.

All these video games with glass have made me wonder what the process is like in the real world. If I wanted to make some glass balustrades for the Melbourne area, what would I do? Is it as simple as talking to a tradesman and having them install one? That seems a bit too easy. And where do they get the glass from? Do they get trucks to pick it up at the beach, then drive to a factory with all these furnaces where they turn it into glass? How do they purify it so the glass isn’t all grainy like the sand? And then how do they shape it? There isn’t much about it that makes sense to me, but then again, it’s not like I’ve done any research. Maybe one day I’ll go to a glass factory and find out what they do.

– Janet