Why is it xmas anyway?
As a side not in an email to a group of friends I asked “Why do we call it xmas? It’s not crossmass, it’s christmass. What accent spawned the abbreivation xmas?” and I get a reply from the honorable Johnny G:
I believe the x comes from the greek ‘chi’ originally, which was used as an abbreviation for christ. More recently it is used by people such as myself to take out the ‘christ’ from christmas and reflect the fact that it’s more of a secular orgy of consumerism than a solemn observation of some dead guy’s birthday… sometimes you also see people write about ‘xians’ or ‘xtians’, which riles up religious folk somewhat… (you asked!)
Verified by the blogging Reverend Collins. Stick to the top paragraph. If you read too much, you’ll turn into a xtian.
Waste water, go to jail
It’s hot. Damn hot. 36 degrees, dry as buggery. We’re going into stage 3 water restrictions on the 16th Dec, which means our veggie patch will almost certainly perish. What really annoys me is that I see our neighbours watering their grass with a sprinkler system whenever they feel like it. I don’t know if they haven’t seen the ads on TV, or if they’re ignoring it and hoping nobody notices, or they’re down right stupid, but it irks me real bad. Do they think they’re above it all?
Goulbourn is in an even worse plight than us, level 5 water restrictions! That’s 150L per person per day, no outdoor use (what so ever), and certainly no use on vehicles, with fines of $220 to $2,200. My cousin was saying her friend (lovely guy apparently) washes his car in the garage so he doesn’t get caught. Maybe he just doesn’t understand the problem? It’s not about beating the system when you’re city is turning to desert.
This guy got me thinking, how long until it really is a criminal offence to waste water? How long until people are allotted 20L a day to use or trade as they please. Will there be millionaire “water moguls” who become powerful because they own water? Maybe I should invest in some really big tanks…