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Emporium

I got a letter from Studylink on Wednesday night saying that I got the bonded merit scholarship I applied for. It's $3000 for up to four years, including the possibility of postgraduate studies. I need to stay in the country for n out of the following n+1 years. I also need to maintain a B average, but my conjoint requires a B+ anyway (think that might have changed), so that's certainly not a biggie. But yeah, now I know where my taxes are going.

This is a screenshot from the final (bonus) stage of the excellent Miners4k, a four kilobyte Java applet(ish) game. You'll need a fairly recent version of Java to play it, but it's highly recommended.

You've got a lot more time to play around for the bonus level - you're collecting 99,999 pieces of gold compared to 2,500 or less in the other levels. As you can see, this means you have time to decorate. I started with the girders. The smiley-face cup is obviously there to increase productivity.

I'm particularly proud that every miner going down has no gold, and every one coming up has in this screenshot. A lot is to do with the one way catchements that you can see (where there's a branched tunnel backward underneath the main one). They're there because only two thirds of the miners will make it up a jump where the tunnel changes angle, and that's if it's perfectly constructed.

In the time it's taken me to write this I've gotten up to 46,000 gold. It's taken a few hours so far. I hope I win.

If you're looking for a easy way to make a bit of money, go looking for Raspberry Coke. It turns out New Zealand is the only place in the world where Raspberry coke was sold. And, since it was discontinued at the end of last year, coke fanatics overseas are looking to collect it. Wikipedia reports that bottles have sold for around US$10 on online auction sites!

The only problem is getting your hands on some. Supermarkets won't do: your best bet would be the local dairy, where the turnover isn't that high. They seem to be pretty available on the shelves, but once a store run out that's it - and hopefully people will stay unaware of this and just drink what they buy to get the scarcity up.

Google maps shows something that looks like writing on top of the Crown Hill water reservoir. Let me know what you think it is. My best guess is 'Timely Eagle'.