Bikes Outsell Cars … Again

January 7, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
3 Comments

BicycleFor the eighth consecutive year Australians have bought more bikes than cars. With fuel prices continuing to rise and the huge health benefits of cycling it’s hardly surprising.

We’ve been a one car family for many years now and we save a huge amount of money due to the fact that I commute by bicycle. I must admit that I get a feeling of great satisfaction every time I cycle past a petrol station, knowing that my fuel is a lot cheaper and healthier than what they’re offering.

In a story titled Bikes outsell cars for eighth straight year, News.com.au says that we’re experiencing a boom in bicycle sales.

More than 1.4 million bikes were bought around the nation in 2007, compared to just over one million new motor vehicle sales, according to figures compiled by motor vehicle sales monitoring agency VFACTS and Customs.

Climate change and a bigger focus on health are just a couple of great reasons to get out and ride. It’s time to rediscover what we’ve always known; cycling is fun.



Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading Bikes Outsell Cars … Again? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.

Be Back Soon

January 7, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
1 Comment

In my younger years I spent large chunks of my summer and various other parts of the year at Baptist Youth Camps in Serpentine, just south of Perth.

Starting as a camper, I then went on to become everything from dorm leader to cook to director to cook to pot washer and all sorts of things in between. I’ve got a lot of great memories from those early days but I haven’t been to one of those camps for around twenty years.

A couple of decades later and I’m off to camp today.

This will be the first time at camp for Emily and James. They’re both really looking forward to the coming week.

Pauline and I will take on one of the only duties I never quite managed in my earlier, single days. We’ll be ‘Camp Parents’ for a week. Our task will be to provide support for both the campers and the wonderful bunch of leaders.

I’m unlikely to have any access to the internet until we return on Saturday. Thanks to WordPress I’ve been able to publish a few posts that will appear over the next few days but I won’t be able to approve new comments, so you may find that your comments sit in the moderation queue a little longer than normal. Please don’t let that stop you from commenting.

I’ll catch you in a few days.



Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading Be Back Soon? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.

The iPod Personality Test

January 5, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
5 Comments

Self confessed ‘thirty something geek’ Riayn, isn’t quite convinced by the Sydney Morning Herald article, You show me your iPod, I’ll show you mine.

It claims that your iPod playlist tells others a lot about the kind of person you really are. I thought it just said a lot about your musical taste.

Riayn’s post The iPod – a window into the soul? questions the notion that your musical tastes define you and give an indication of the sort of person you should be dating.

So, what do you think your musical taste tells others about you?

I’ve just looked at the last ten songs that my iPod Mini played on shuffle. What do you think it says about me?

1. I Get Along Without You Very Well – Diana Krall
2. Only the Good Die Young – Billy Joel
3. What’s Happened to You – The Call
4. Easy On Your Own – Australian Crawl
5. Narrow Daylight – Diana Krall
6. Drive-In Saturday – David Bowie
7. I Don’t Care About the Past – The Senators
8. The Language of Life – Everything But The Girl
9. In The Echo Chamber – Hoodoo Gurus
10. Frozen River – Everything But The Girl

If you’ve got a music player that you can set to play randomly you might like to let me know your last ten songs.



Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading The iPod Personality Test? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.

Blogging Resources

January 5, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
Add Comment

If you’re a blogger and looking for a bit of help now and then or even want to share the knowledge you’ve gained there are a couple of new resources available.

Two new forums have recently opened. I find forums can be a great way to get a wide range of opinions on a range of issues.

For Australian bloggers there is the Aussie Bloggers Forum which started last month but is already getting quite a lot of traffic. There are some very clever people on the forums ready to give advice and help you whatever blogging platform you’re using.

Whether you’re an Aussie or not you’ve got the chance to get in on the ground floor with Community of Bloggers,  a forum that’s just kicked off. It doesn’t have a lot of members as yet but I’m sure it’ll start growing very soon. Why not drop in and sign up?



Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading Blogging Resources? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.

Honesty still alive and well

January 4, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
6 Comments

You’ve probably heard about the American guy who picked up what he thought was rubbish on a footpath because he wanted to jot down a phone number. On closer inspection, Reggie Damone found it was an envelope containing a cheque worth $US185,000 ($A212,000).

Reggie works at a McDonald’s and receives government help due to his low wage but he says he didn’t think twice about trying to cash the cheque. Instead, the 47 year old took a bus to the bank and returned the it to the niece of the person whose name was on the cheque.

She thanked him with a $50 reward. I reckon a little more than $50 would have been nice for returning such a large amount but I’m sure that Reggie appreciated it. He said that although he knew the money could pay his rent and other bills for a long time, he was never tempted to try to cash it and splurge. Reggie said he remembered his mother’s words: If you take something, you lose three times that amount – and if you do something good, something good comes back to you.

Nice to know there are still honest people in out communities.

What would you have done with the cheque? If it was your cheque would you have slipped Reggie a little more than a fifty?

I wonder if he ever did get to write down that telephone number.



Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading Honesty still alive and well? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.