| Tonight on Books and Writing... |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|01:58 pm] |
Have started reading a Larry Niven collection with somewhat mixed emotions. It was part of the joblot of sci-fi books from the last two decades bequeathed me by my Wife's late Uncle, most of which I have found execrably written on several levels, even when by name authors.
Niven was however a favourite author from my prehistoric litfan days (or rather when one was "a" science fiction fan, the pathetic snobbery by the old & really boring book orientated fans which led movie and TV people to form their own way more entertaining clubs had yet to manifest itself).
I went off him in the early 90's when he smugly claimed a slice of credit for winning the Cold War (he doesn't seem to think about his share in many of today's problems )but still like the stories when his right wing views don't swamp them.
The book (N Space) contains quite a lengthy preface peopled with several authors and fan gossip, most of it concerning the lilliputian world of pre 80's fandom. It seems now astonishing that organised, let's go to the Worldon fandom was once only a few thousand people and that it was taken by them sooooo seriously, even by someone of Niven's stature, though it is a pattern that seems to repeat in every special interest group.
Be interesting to see what i think by the time i reach the end of the damned thick book, but i suspect my current viewpoint that he's a writer who can visualise bizarre alien civlisations and incredible galactic phenomena but can't see the real world further than his smug rich bastard Republican nose will not be assailed. |
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| A slice of History all your own |
[Oct. 29th, 2009|02:36 pm] |
Have nearly completed phase 2 of my VHS to DVD crossdubbing masterplan, that of putting all my Australian TV shows (mainly 60's & 70's) into the digital format. This includes vintage kid shows like Tarax Show, Magic Circle Club and Adventure Island, assorted Sci-fi series, Cop & Spy shows such as Homicide, Division 4, Hunter, Comedies like The Aunty Jack Show and its several spinoffs plus early D-generation, Soaps like the Box, N0 96 and Class of 74 and Variety like IMT with Graham Kennedy and others.
Hopefully it will be tiime better spent than Phase 1 which was the Dr Who collection, which I woundup getting most of the commercial DVD releases for as a lot of the old tapes were ropier than I thought & had more cash to spare by then. |
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| Art for Art's Sake |
[Oct. 21st, 2009|03:49 pm] |
I just took a look at the Worldcon art show rules and I can't say they seemed to be geared towards the non profit fan enthusiast
http://www.aussiecon4.org.au/index.php?page=56
I'm not sure I want to pay $55 or more to show off the big C57D, The Skylark of Space and whatever else I can squeeze on their tables, a great pity as not many other cons these days even have an art show, and I certianly can't recall one that charged for non-profit entries. Is that pretty std for the WC's? |
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| Things are looking Bright |
[Oct. 21st, 2009|12:10 pm] |
We went up to Bright for a long weekend for J's birthday. We used to go to Buxton/Marysville but the place we stayed at burned down and it would just be too depressing until they rebuild/regenerate up there.
We did see some bushfire damage on the way up, there's a solid 12km area through the Melba Hwy at Kinglake & Glenburn, with odd spots and devestated hills for 5 km on either side. The trees here have the regeneration foliage growing on their trunks for the most part so should ultimately recover, though there were some hillsides of totally dead trees. We also saw some bushfire/regen between Mansfield-Whitfield on the drive back, this would have been from the fires which gave us that terrible lingering smoke of a few years back.
The rest of the drive was through pleasent rural scenery, picturesque & clean country towns and the high country as we got closer. I'd never been to Bright before and found it remarkably like Marysville, though on a larger scale. It had the same sort of Rural & Alpine surroundings, similar historic and/or touristy buildings and trainset neatness about it.
Unfortunatly I was very tired by the drive/residual work stress and flaked out the first night, but we did a lot of walks, looking around & usual touristy stuff the next few days. I particularly liked the historic & goldfield stuff being part of the background rather than being shoved in your face Sovereign Hill style, got lots of ruin shots for the pic album and it was good seeing the snow capped Mt Hotham in the distance. We'll probably go back next year as well. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 10th, 2009|09:12 am] |
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Janet's Nan died yesterday. As mentioned in my earlier posts we had been expecting her to linger for a few months so it was a blessed release, but it's still always a shock. We're both feeling sad, the gloomy weather seems in keeping. |
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| Evolution Q & A |
[Jun. 4th, 2009|11:59 am] |
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I've recently been wondering about the evolution of Reptiles. These are believed to have evolved from Amphibians which in turn evolved from Fish, but it occured to me can that be right, as Fish & Reptiles have scales but Amphibians do not, and it seems very unlikely that scales would disappear and then make a comeback. A Fish-Reptile direct pathway seems much more likely and I've been trying to find if this sort of pretty obvious argument has come up before and been refuted or not, but Google searches only bring up dodgy creationist sites or Curiosity show level scince sites, are there any sites where you can ask someone like Doc Archer about it? Is he still in the Skeptics Kath or did they kick him out for cloning extinct animals? |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 25th, 2009|08:53 am] |
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J & I went in to see her Gran in hospital on Sat. She was always very thin and now is very emaciated, literally skin & bone but her mind is sharp as ever and was very glad to see us. She's 94, and in that half life where modern medicine prolongs you beyond your time, she wants to go but can't. |
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| Hartnell vs Hancock |
[May. 20th, 2009|01:23 pm] |
I've been reading yet another bio of British comedy great Tony Hancock and was intrigued to find that even his most popular TV shows were soundly beaten in the ratings by ITV's "The Army Game". That was a 50's service comedy with an ensemble cast headed by William Hartnell and later Bill Fraser, with Alfie Bass, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Breslaw and others.
However, through the vagaries of history Hancock is more popular than ever, a veritable comedy Elvis, while "The Army Game" gets mentioned if at all as a footnote in Dr Who books. The reason for this, apart from the inner depth and quality of HHH, is that radio series repeats and records kept the Hancock memory alive until the TV performances became available on video, free to air repeats, pay tv screenings and most recently on DVD, while poor old Bill, Bernard, Alie and co had only a few passages in TV tomes to sustain dim flickering memories. Even a comedy fiend like me has never seen it apart from a 7 min You Tube download, though "Carry on Sargeant", the first film in that famous comedy series is essentially a copy of the show.
Speaking of Carry On's, some of you may have noticed an unedifying slanging match I've got into with a longtime compatriot. Haven't seen her latest missive and not sure I'll bother to, though I understand it's something of a corker. Whatever you believe, disbelieve or even gives a rat's posterior about, there is no doubting that she has been dissing a lot of people for a long time on this site and I'm the first to give her a serve back and by God she don't like it, do she?
Perhaps now she'll consider the hurt feelings and pain she causes others with her continued snipings and learn to deal with problems by changing her life instead of continously blaming others (or not). |
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| With friends like these...... |
[May. 18th, 2009|10:34 am] |
Dear Ms Y (and anybody else in the know)
Lest anyone be perturbed, the "inappropriate comments" were just the usual smartarse banter I say here, fbook and anywhere else I happen to be. I should point out that they were said quite openly to people I've been fbook chums with for some time, have shared assorted personal confidences with and were not out of context in the general discussion by any means, though to be honest I'm surprised no one's complained before now.
Also, it strikes me as pretty rich for someone to complain about "inappropriate comments" when they devote so much time to discussing "way too much information" subjects, not to mention airing their dirty laundry in public, thier families dirty laundry in public and their friends dirty laundry (and houses come to that).
You're certianly entitled to have who you want around obviously & to kick them out if your p/o'd with them, but to invite someone but then pretend in a public forum that there's no such event and then send a cancellation notice does not speak of an open and honest approach. Indeed, it shows a great disregard for someone who's done you no harm and had been a chum for a devil of a long time, even while many others ostracised you. I've always given you the benifit of the doubt, but I'm afraid I just ran out of doubt. |
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| Back to LJ |
[May. 16th, 2009|03:29 pm] |
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My facebook doesn't seem to be working for some arcane reason, hopefully it will be sorted soon |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 16th, 2009|11:22 am] |
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Does everyone have a stuffed facebook this morning? I don't get the Homepage listing of recent posts at all |
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| Combating Depression |
[May. 4th, 2009|10:58 am] |
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I have found that doing a shoot with an international model at the top of a notable landmark is an excellent way to overcome feeling of laxness and ennui, and you get to keep the photos too. |
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| It's the end- but the moment has been prepared for.... |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|10:49 am] |
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After 25 years loyal service I have discarded the last of my Doctor Who videos (snif..), they're all digital now. Once more valuable than gold, men robbed, cheated, lied, fought and died for them, not to mention commiting acts against God and nature (though the DWAS guys probably would have done those anyway). Now however you can't give them away, so out they go, alone and unloved. Curiously my first one is still intact, and in the same condition when I got it in '84, before I actually had a VCR, maybe I should bronze it and hang it on the wall. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 23rd, 2009|12:08 pm] |
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What's up with fbook lately? LJ is just too small an audience for my increasingly inane comments! |
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| Age has wearied them |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|03:07 pm] |
Am getting towards the end of my Dr Who digitalisation process, am currently making a two pronged attack on Colin Baker by way of Davison and McCoy. In the process of doing so i am getting a potted DW history as I go and at a much faster rate than either TV transmissions or doing the Dr Who ton (watch/listen to everything in order), so I don't have the easing into new Doctors/Producers that one normally gets but doing comparisons back to back
This leads me to the conclusions that
1/ A crappy pre JNT story (esp Tom Baker ones) are way better than crappy JNT stories
2/ A lot of crappy pre JNT stories (esp Tom Baker ones) are way better than "OK" JNT stories. Shows like "Revenge of the Cybermen" or "Android Invasion", with their goofy plots filled with holes still have the other aspects which make those seasons so enjoyable. Even the much maligned pantomimey 17th season shows like "Creature from the Pit" & "Horns of Nimon" are hell of a lot of fun and far more enjoyable than most of the overated 18th season shows, with an ageing Tom Baker who looks like he's on Prozac.
3/ To be continued |
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| Electrical retailers go retro |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|03:45 pm] |
I was on the hunt for a DVD recorder to replace my current machine which has stuffed up way too early but was surprised to find what was on offer. When I last looked a bit over a years warrenty ago, there were mainly HDD + recorder machines available, with DVD recorder only standalone machines sitting sadly down the back.
Last night however there were lots of happy DVD recorder only machines and only a few HDD plus DVD's, which seems strange to me as you can't use a DVD recorder in the same way as a VHS machine as it's too unreliable, it needs the HDD in with the DVD recorder. There were also a lot of DVD players + VHS recorders for sale, which is surprising as VHS is really dodo city now, hence my major digitisation project.
I was also surprised at how expensive the machines were, usually when it's time for replacement the prices have dropped by $100 or so from my previous purchase but they were just as much as last time, probably because as Blu-Ray has tanked they haven't dropped DVD stuff prices to clear out obselete stock. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 3rd, 2009|03:53 pm] |
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I really have got out of the LJ habit, it's all facebook with me these days. For those of you who haven't converted, the main news this month was Janet going on her dog massage course for a week(the longest period of seperation ever in our marriage) then getting evacuated because of the Daylesford fire and me feeling paranoid about the whole thing |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 5th, 2009|09:58 am] |
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While searching for the work hacksaw I heard a bit of John Faine's show on the station formerly known as 3LO. He was quizzing a education ministry spokesman about a report showing school literacy standards had dropped in the last decade, despite a billion dollars poured into that particular problem. Both of them waffled on and completely failed to address any of the possible issues that could possible be involved, viz bad teaching methods being used for literacy, the recent influx of migrants not literate in their own language let alone anyone else's, poor standard of teachers, lack of dicipline in classrooms, etc etc. Is this what passes for radio debate these days? I don't like the quasi fascist 3AW announcers but Faine is about as hard as a chocolate eclair. |
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