Anotherblog

Squash

I’ve played three games of squash this week now - one against Dad on Sunday, then the usual game on Tuesday night, then again on Wednesday night with Ted. The increased activity, rather than wearing me out as it ought to, has kind of pushed me into some kind of weird overdrive. The games against Ted - we played ten in total - were probably the best I’ve ever played. I was actually volleying (semi-)properly, and despite sore legs I was running better than usual, not getting as exhausted. Terrific games. Ted beat me 6-4, but he’s no longer slaughtering me. Game on!

Fork

Back into it. The plot needs more work, I’ve decided - far too many plot holes, and I’ve finally come up with ways of fixing them. So, lots of editing and writing extra chapters and transcribing stuff that never made it into the first version. This is going to be a very *complex* book, and I’m really not sure what to cut out. At the moment, cutting any of the major features would be like killing a small child - unbearable to think about. The major threads of the book all work so *well* together, reinforcing each other. It really feels like a Tim Powers kind of plot at the moment, lots of lovely connections and themes, and an underlying logic that may not be apparent, but it’s *there*.

Ahem. Anyway, I got bogged down in some research recently, and found a lovely astronomy program - Starry Night which has a free-for-15-days kind of thing, and also runs on the mac. Last night I was continally wandering outside checking out the stars against the star-map on the computer. Truly amazing. You can see the stars and planets (and planetary orbits) from the point of view of anywhere - on Earth, from the POV of distant stars, anywhere! Remarkable when you can suddenly see the lines of the planetary orbits superimposed over your normal POV. I went to bed feeling dizzy and very, very small. Why did I always find astronomy dull? This is mind-bending stuff!

Father gone. Anna still here.

Dad went home on Sunday arvo. It was a couple of good days - for one thing, dad is always keen to play any of the games that I have lying around the place, so we tried out James Earnest’s new “Diceland” game, and played a couple of games of pool and a few more of billiards, and had a “game” of squash. Characteristic of these games is an unsettling tendency of Dad to be very good at them (he’s an A-Grade squash player, for example). He excelled in diceland, despite having never played before, and despite my superior potting skills, made good use of snookering to beat me in pool (and in billiards too, but he was always good at that). I was fairly happy though, happier than I usually am when dad pummels me in a game. It was just nice having him around.

Diceland
A neat game, though doesn’t really fit into the cheapass mould at $35. You assemble twenty cardboard eight-sided dice, which each represent a character. Form your teams of characters, then take it in turns throwing and moving the dice on a cleared-out table - it’s kind of like a miniatures combat game but with dice. Cleverly done, I’d like to play more but Anna hasn’t exhibited any interest yet, and Chris, Amanda and Andrea just want to roleplay whenever we get together. Sigh…

Real Tennis
Real tennis is an actual game, quite different from tennis (or, Lawn Tennis as the Real Tennis affectionados call it) and squash, but kind of a mix of the two. Actually, it’s more like the other way around. Real Tennis came first, then tennis and squash evolved from that. There’s only about fifty courts in the world, but one of them is at MacQuarie University, so John Dalton and I decided we’d try it out. Yesterday, it was my turn to show up and John’s to make an excuse - just as well, really, it takes a full hour to explain the rules and traditions. Fascinating. I’m thinking of writing a Monastery story around it - it was invented in 1100 or so in an Italian Monastery, so it would have been quite new when the Monastery was founded.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to playing again next Monday, hopefully this time to have a proper game…

Golf
On the way back from the Uni, I remembered that there was a golf driving range quite close by, so I went up there, rented a club, and bashed a hundred balls into the air with varying degrees of success. I started rather well, and it felt good - the ball was flying hundreds of metres and there were gratifyingly few balls beyond it (there were perhaps a dozen or so people at the range). Then I got the yips, which behaved very similarly to Kevin Costner’s yips from “Tin Cup”. I had no idea what the problem was, but after whacking the ball for a while, I was starting to hit them higher and higher into the air, until they were simply being duffed straight up, and sometimes alarmingly so - I came quite close to hitting the person next to me, twice. I think I was hitting too far underneath the ball, but buggered if I could work out how to fix it… I hit the remainder of the balls in a kind of embarrased frenzy, watching the ball fly high into the sky again and again, then gave the club back and noticed that I had a *huge* blister on my left hand.

I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

Anna, Father here.

Not only did Anna arrive back yesterday morning, but also Papa arrived in the evening for a couple-of-nights visit. He’s helping prepare medical examinations for Sydney University, adding that touch of real-life-Doctor to the academic questions. Charmingly, one of his questions recreates a childhood incident involving me.

So…
Anna had a great time in la-la land (L.A.) and has adjusted back to Sydney time quickly and happily. Lovely to have her back. She was in the audience for two episodes of “Politically Incorrect” (the US program that famously rejected the idea that whatever the 11/09/01 terrorists were, they weren’t cowards), she went around Hollywood and went over the border to Mexico, but mostly relaxed.

Work
Last day of work tomorrow (again). I haven’t received a single support call so far - I have a sneaking suspicion that there has been some cancellation or that Raman didn’t mean *this* week, he meant *next* week… and I’m not good with that kind of thing, so maybe that’s the case. Anyway, I’m going in to work tomorrow, and if it’s next week that they’re referring to, then I’ll just hold the juggling lunchtime.

Anna’s coming home!

Anna arrives back at 6:00am tomorrow morning, which would be… lets see… about 4:00pm Tuesday afternoon from her jetlagged point of view. Yay!

Lazy Day

You’d think that with the kind of lazy day and weekend that I’ve just had, I wouldn’t bother posting to tell you about it, wouldn’t you? None the less, very little to report. I went over to Jon & Kate’s place last night and recorded a better voice-over for Jon’s short film “When Doctors Collide”, watched another amateur Dr Who film whose name I fortunately cannot remember because I therefore cannot slander anyone by pointing out that it was divinely dire. I mean, really, inspiredly, horrible, in a kind of Lucas way. By which I mean, just as Lucas’ badness has caused his older films to be retroactively worse that they were, so too does this amateur’s film drag down all amateur productions. I’m feeling kind of soiled by it.

Um, having ripped into this anonymous fillum, I can’t really give many specific ways in which it was so awful. There were some obvious bits. The sound was poor. The camera was jerky, and they *really should* have used a tripod when they wanted to overlay static images on the frame, eg. when they want to show a TARDIS that they haven’t actually built. Otherwise it kind of hovers there, like something stuck to the camera (which, in a way, it is). The editing was sloppy, so that there were second-gaps between lines of dialogue where there should be nothing at all. Continuity was messy. One of the actresses clearly thought that she had tremendous sex-appeal and was given lines to suit. Other actors were wildly optimistic about their abilities. Half-way through, they appear to have discovered the joys of amusing transitions.

But… well, it was ambitious. It was trying for something. The fact that it wasn’t original or interesting is beside the point - that may come later. It’s always nice to see ambition, even when the result falls wincingly short.

End of work
I finished off teaching Raman on Friday. Now I just have the support calls and a day of support next Friday, and I’m done. I already have the money, and a very nice little package it is too. If I can somehow avoid spending it all, that moves my “officially losing money” point into late September.

Juggling
I taught a bunch of people to juggle at Friday lunch time. It was fun. We had quite a large turnout, the weather turned it on, I practices clubs and five balls and pois and remembered that juggling really is fun.

Snooze
Didn’t set the alarm this morning, and woke at about 11:00am. Wandered around for a while, then suddenly got a nice burst of adrenaline remembering that I’d arranged to meet John Dalton for a game of Royal Tennis at 10:00am. Aargh! He called and forgave me, and I’ll try for a lesson tomorrow (John ended up doing a lesson - it’s rather complicated) so that we can play properly next week.

Guitar
I’ve been practicing a lot more, and Chris was quite happy with the progress - I was much relieved, as I was getting very sick of the piece I’d been practicing. It’s one of those ones that sounds boring at the pace I can do it easily, and terrific at a pace that’s slightly above what I’m capable of. But I’ve got the fingering OK now, and Chris has judged that it’s just repetition to get it to that stage now, so I can get on and learn something new. Yay! I’ve got a keen urge to learn Eric Satie’s Gymnopodie #1, which is a lovely slow melody (you may know it as the song “Drifting, Dreaming”). Something to play to Anna when she’s going to sleep.

Anna
Anna isn’t back yet. Still no word as to when she’s arriving home. I miss her.

A funny thing happened on the way to work

I was walking across Pyrmont bridge on the way to work this morning, when a woman in front of me bent down, picked something up, ran forward to a man ahead of her, and gave him the object. Obviously something he had dropped. As she turned to give it to him, I noticed that she had a rather wicked smile - then, getting closer, noticed that it was a lit cigarette butt. She walked on ahead, and he resumed walking too. And he immediately dropped it again, still lit.

I couldn’t resist. I picked up the butt and ran forward and gave it to him again - “I think you dropped this!” and kept walking. I’ve no idea whether he dropped it again, but I love to think that if he did, someone else would have picked it up and given it to him…

It sucks

That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?

No, really. It sucks.
You can’t hold “Attack of the Clones” to the same standard that you would, say, a movie with a real script and actual acting and exciting bits. It’s a Star Wars film. What did you expect?

I was bored senseless. And when I wasn’t bored, I was wincing.
Hey, look. You’ve got to get into the spirit of it. Enjoy it on its own terms. Reach your inner child.

OK, it had one good bit, close to the end.
See? There you go. I knew you could do it.

For the love of all that you worship, get very drunk before seeing this film.
I’m warning you.

Chug every time there is a chase sequence. Don’t forget to bring a case of beer.
So? Chase sequences are good. You can sell video games based on chase sequences.

Chug for every racist stereotype.
Hey, just because the fat, hook-nosed money-lending creature with an interesting accent is shown now wearing a flat black hat, doesn’t mean that he’s meant to be Jamaican.

Chug for every time it copies a successful set piece from another film.
I know for a fact that those “Fifth Element” guys would love such an extended reference to their skills. They’d love it. And the Gladiator folks will be glad for the exposure.

Chug for every time they branch another parallel storyline.
Oh, I give up. You’re just jealous.

Stupid film.
It’s your fault. Stop being so picky. Remember, it’s only a cliche if you’ve seen it dozens of times before. There are probably hundreds of people out there who have never seen a movie or television program or play or book or comic or computer game and who have no oral tradition, who will find it fresh and original. Remember: nobody likes a whinger.

Chug for every time Anakin whinges.
Shut up. [hic]

Support Day

So, I have to go in to work next Friday to support Raman in Hong Kong, and I’ve agreed to do small amounts of support throughout the rest of the week - emails and the odd phone call, in lieu of a full day’s work. Raman has promised not to make it strenuous. And that’s it - end of my work sojurne. I can spend all that lovely money on some kind of toy. Although, I just had to put my tax return in, which means that the loan is finally catching up with me, just when interest rates are set to rise.

Squash
Yesterday I played Sam, the rather good squash player who smiles an awful lot, and was appropriately trounced. Nobody else showed up - Ted had done his ankle, Roland’s knees were kaput, and the multitude of others made their multitutes of excuses. Still, I managed to beat him twice. He much prefers to toy with the opponent than go for the kill shot, even when he’s losing.

Recording
Mutter mutter. Stupid thing is still outputting ground noise, even when everything but the minidisc recorder is turned off, and most of the equipment unplugged. Bloody electronics, I’m glad I became a computer programmer.

Snooze
Four presses of the snooze button this morning. I keep going to sleep vowing to leap out of bed the moment the alarm rings, and then wake up vowing never to make such threats again, and going back to my lovely dreams. Which were very odd last night - something about a giant sapphire stalactite that I managed to break (thus discovering that it was made of sapphire). Very boys-own adventure, with a bit of creeping horror in the form of the Balrog.

Day off work

I have two days off work this week, and today is one of them. I’ve just about finished teaching Raman everything he has to know, and the remaining two days of work will be helping him get his course material together. Then, when he gives the course in a couple of weeks, I’ll be there for two days of support.

Then back to the salad days. I think I’ll start with a little Greek - we might go to Las Vegas, stay at the Waldorf, then hit Caeser’s Palace… or not.

Side order of Guilty Pleasure, hold the Pleasure…
I decided to see what John Carpenter has been up to, despite despising both Village of the Damned and especially Vampire$. But Ghosts of Mars is set on Mars, and it sounded like dumb fun. It isn’t. It’s just horribly boring. I kept finding myself drifting off, to be awoken by annoyance at another horrible plot contrivance. I tried a beer or two, but I think you really need a loutish group of savage film-cynics to really enjoy it properly.

Ghosts of Mars: Society: Matriarchal.
OK, so it did get me thinking. One of the opening titles is along the lines of “Mars. Population 600,000. Society: Matriarchal”. Oh, aye. Sounds interesting, eh? The only manefestations of this matriarchal society, however, are that the senior positions in the police/government are women. In other words, in order to make a matriarchal society, you should simply reverse the genders of those in high places, without changing the system in any fundemental way. Oh, except that in order to be promoted, one has to be a lesbian. That’s about it.

As I said, it got me thinking. What would a *real* matriarchal society be like? What would be different? And of course, there are many parameters and assumptions to settle before you can really get stuck into the question. Like, does it exist in isolation? Does it have to deal with patriarchal societies? Are we starting the society in the stone age or the modern age? For me, the most interesting case study would be for the modern age, with no outside pressures from patriarchal societies. The whole area of gender study is so fraught with cliches and assumptions that it’s interesting to see what people throw into the ring… and I’m not going to go into it here, except to say that John Carpenter’s view is probably the most boring matriarchy I can imagine.

The Gift
I also watched the DVD of “The Gift”, which was also a bit of a disappointment. Nice acting, understated direction, shame about the *yawn* script.

Recording
I’m trying to record a voice-over for Jon’s short film “When Doctors Collide” and I’m having terrible trouble with ground-noise on my equipment. Previously I’ve used the shotgun microphone, but this time I figured I’d try for the studio mike. And because the computers are so noisy, I figured I’d record in a separate room, onto a minidisc, and then transfer over to the computer separately. No deal. I’ve recorded directly onto the computer using the studio mike before, and the results were OK (except for the fan-noise of the computer) but for some reason hooking the studio mike’s amp up to the minidisc recorder - either of them - causes a horrible buzzing sound on the end result, presumably due to some kind of ground loop. But I’m no expert, I haven’t done serious electrical engineering since I graduated ten years ago.

Bugger. There goes today.

An Emotional Farewell

Friday evening saw the farewell of JP, manager of the Sydney operations of the company since it was Security Domain, way back when. He is very well liked. Largely due to his influence, the company has been a terrific place to work for the five-odd years that I’ve been there. He is responsible for the sailing day, the social clug [sic], the Friday drinks, the pool table, the ping-pong table, and a lot of the good business that we’ve done in Sydney. He looks something like an English football hooligan. He’s worked hard for the employees, got the company through very hard times, and eventually tried to buy the Sydney branch out from Baltimore before the redundencies came through (and afterwards too), but failed. He has principles. He is a typical Australian larrikin.

The farewell do was probably the most elaborate we’ve ever done. For weeks now, people having been ducking into private meetings, rehearsing things, organising. The Do was held at a floating restaurant moored in Pyrmont, though as it turned out, it was snacks and an open bar. There was a live band, who were as together and funky as I’ve ever heard - Richard A. had plucked some of his musician strings to get a group together who normally wouldn’t even consider a private function. There was a continuous running slideshow of pictures from the history of Security Domain/Zergo/Baltimore. When the funky band had finished, a Baltimore band got on stage, led by Angela and Robin (sorry everyone, these are people you don’t know, but this blog is partly for my own perusal in years to come. Speaking of which, Hi Andrew at age 40!) and sung songs modified to praise JP in elaborate and embarassing ways, and also to heap curses upon those who have managed the company badly over the years. Then, a video that had been done way back in the old security domain days - Louis walking through the office hassling people, most of whom aren’t there any more. Egad, Carlos the evil-ex-next-desk-worker looks young… and this is where people started getting emotional. Then the presentations and JP stood up and everyone got more emotional and there was *almost* an enormous group hug but sense prevailed. Anyway, the professional band came back on and everyone started dancing, and so it went until the wee hours. What a night. My voice had dropped almost an octive on Saturday morning, just from all the yelling.