Bad ideas
I started playing StarCraft again on the weekend. I gave it up for ages and ages because I got up to a level that was too difficult and I decided I didn’t like it anymore. Then, on the weekend, I thought it would be fun to try playing a game with J. Bad idea; he has a level of intuition with computer games that just makes it totally unfair for me to play against him (did I mention he has built a new desk for the study? Very nice). But I have started playing by myself… which is not good, since I have reports to do at the moment.
The other thing I think was a bad idea was getting a hair cut. Other people will still think it is fairly long, but I am suffering some anxiety because it just feels too short. Hopefully I will learn to cope with this.
I wanna be like Dan
OK, so it doesn’t rhyme, but it does tell you that Dan Simmonds is my latest literary hero. I read Endymion early this year, having got it second hand and not realising – because it was not made clear on the front or the back – that this was a “500 or so years in the future of [other series]” type book. It wasn’t completely necessary to have read the first – I muddled along quite well – but it would have made life a bit easier. And also not meant that as I read the first two, Hyperion and Hyperion Falling, that I had these weird deja vu things happening (which, if you know the book, is quite a funny little in-joke). Nonetheless… I read what was effectively the third book; almost cried when I finished it because it was so beautiful, because there were two before and one after to read, and because the second-hand bookshop had none of them. I got the first two at Borders a little while ago, and I just finished the second… it is magnificent… I actually don’t think they’re quite as good as the third, but maybe that’s my rose-tinted nostalgia; I’m going to read it again soon anyway, before I read the fourth and because it will make so much more sense now.
Anyway. Highly recommended. I comes under fantasy/scifi, but is not tech-heavy (a few weird concepts, but they’re not vital to understanding), and personally I don’t think the story itself is all that fantastic, in the genre sense of the word.
Algae and snails and plants (oh my)
I feel like I haven’t written about the tank in ages. I think the less light is doing good things for our alage issues, but not sure about the plants; they don’t seem overly happy, but I’m not sure whether this is a light issue or it’s the after-effects of the algae infestation. I’ll leave it a couple of days – over the weekend – and see how it looks then. I’m going to have to do some serious aquascaping I think.
Someone accused me of not writing much about Ajax recently (J then claimed I write about him more than I do about anyone else… possibly, but he is incredibly interesting). Last night, for the general delectation of a 2.5 year old, who didn’t fully appreciate it, he decided to a pull a Floating Stunt. I was suitably impressed, anyway. He was balancing on a lily pad-like leaf right at the top of the tank, and then all of a sudden… he wasn’t on the leaf any more. He was just floating around, easy as you please. Love that neutral buoyancy. Love that snail.
The tank still feels a little bare. All the fish are about the same size – I think this is the main problem. I feel we need some quite different looking fish, preferably on the larger size I think. Maybe gourami, maybe silver dollars… J wants angels, of course, but a) I am still a little traumatised and b) I haven’t really seen nice ones recently.
Play School
I cannot believe all the stuff going on about Play School and the lesbian parent-thing at the moment. How amazing to think that both Johnnies must watch it, and feel the need to comment! Personally I think it reprehensible that they would try to quash what appears to be a genuine attempt to portray Aus diversity. If they had gone Through the Window to see … say… ostrich farmers, or Kalahari bushmen who had migrated, would there be furore? I don’t think so, sunshine. They’re running an anti-gay stance because they think that’s what will get them re-elected (hmmm, am I too young to be this cynical?). And possibly because they’re ignorant, too.
U-571
My goodness. I hadn’t realised how bad submarine movies could get. I guess we have been spoiled, with Red October and K-19: The Widowmaker, but still! Largely boring action bits that don’t compensate for no character development. Disappointing… and you hardly hear boo from Bon Jovi, so even that potentially entertaining bit is squished.
Pft. Boring.
Kids’ books
I took advantage of Borders and their 3 for 2 sale yesterday. I got The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek, Possum Magic, and Animalia! Very exciting. They’re not entirely for me, of course… at least one of them will go as a present to the Nankervis clan on Wednesday since I didn’t send a present when Aidan was born (like a year ago or something). However, it is a great deal of fun to read them. And of course I also bought Avocado Baby ages ago… that was a good purchase; no one is getting that one as a present any time soon.
On a completely different note, I think I might have misplaced my Bowie CD.
Later: they forgot to take a book! I’ll have to send them one now.
Also: this is what I like; talking via comments on the blog, rather than email or some other media.
Noticeably less algae
The advantage of having highly descriptive titles in posts is that you don’t have to write as much in the body of the text.
I think I’ll leave the lights off for at least today, and then see what happens tomorrow when they go back on again.
Lights and algae
We turned the light off yesterday – well, I did, in a fit of pique and an effort to reduce our chronic algae issues (iss-ues). I’m sick of the disgusting matting effect over the gravel and the plants, and I’ve heard that this can help. So we’ll see. As yet we haven’t covered it up to hide it from the daylight; thought we’d try this first. James thinks it might be getting more light now than it used to, and that might explain why it’s there.
Class distinctions
I’ve been thinking about class distinctions and their representations.
Actually, I started by thinking about war. How is this for degrees of separation?
— Reading Tomorrow, When the War began with my Yr9 class
— Doing war poetry at the end of this semester, to get them thinking about the realities
–Someone suggested watching something like Toy Soldiers, because it’s about a school taken over by terrorists.
— Sean Astin stars in it
— Sean Astin is also Sam Gamgee
— Thinking about explaining the relationship between Sam and Frodo, because I’m sure some would see it as at least hinting at homosexuality (“It’s me, Mr Frodo, your own Sam…”).
— Deciding I would say something like “It’s a sentimental, nostalgic take on the ideal relationship between a man and his closest servant” – which, thinking about it and then remembering Biggles, is often also attributed to an officer and his batman.
— “A MAN and his servant”?!?!
That’s when I realised that that phrase completely de-sexualises, and disempowers, the lower class. Quite a realisation.
As well, of course, I’m sure that it was mostly an upper-class idealisation; I wonder if the lower class visualisation would have had the two on a more equal footing?
Willow
Not the tree, the movie. Kate come over last night for dinner and brought it with her. I hadn’t seen it in ages, so it was lots of fun. Such a young Val Kilmer! And nobody else I recognised. It must have been a great day for the dwarfish (dwarvish? and is that the PC term?) community when it was made, since they actually used real short people rather than lots of special effects (which they couldn’t anyway, since it was made in the 80s or something). We were convinced that one of the brownies was Flacco, but I don’t think he was. I might show it to my year 9s if ever I get a chance to do my fantasy unit, since I think they would be less likely to laugh at this than they might at Labyrinth (pft; no sense of style).
Randomly Yours, Alex 