Saints 125 defeated Carlton 85.
:-D
finished reading
3 days ago
Monday, March 31, 2008
Superhero photo challenge - out the window
Just found another photo challenge at Shutter Sisters. The theme is shooting out of a window. So here's a shot of what's out the window as reflected in Phone.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday Photo Hunt
This week's theme is "high".
Phone gets high...
High up in the tree tops...
High up in the sky...
A legal way to get high...
Phone gets high...
High up in the tree tops...
High up in the sky...
A legal way to get high...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
If six turned out to be nine, I don't mind
The difference a Phone makes...
Same shot (almost), same settings. One with Phone, one without. I just found it interesting how the focus changes completely once Phone is removed.
1. Some relationships are meant to to be kept secret.
2. The Cure at Rod Laver Arena in August '07 is the last concert I saw; it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
3. Spring should be here in about 6 months.
4. Oh no! I forgot to take the washing off the line and it's raining!
5. I've recently started photographing reflections of anything and everything.
6. Good photography never fails to make me smile.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a couple of quiet ones in front of the TV, tomorrow my plans include work and then watching the Saints win and Sunday, I want to make it to work without a hangover!
FFI
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Books
While over at Ma'n'Pa's yesterday I raided my bookshelves and grabbed And The Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave. I read this when it first came out in the late '80s and thought I'd read it again in preparation for the Conversation with Nick that Clare and I are going to in early April. I remember it being a very bleak book with a heavy emphasis on biblical allegory. Definitely not your conventional novel!
Today a customer brought in Ken Follett's World Without End. It's the sequel to Pillars of the Earth which I read years ago and loved. This appears to be set 200 years down the track after the building of the cathedral. Naturally I've snaffled this to read before it goes on the shelf. :)
Today a customer brought in Ken Follett's World Without End. It's the sequel to Pillars of the Earth which I read years ago and loved. This appears to be set 200 years down the track after the building of the cathedral. Naturally I've snaffled this to read before it goes on the shelf. :)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Antony and Cleopatra - Colleen McCullough
Finished this last night. Ever since I read The First Man in Rome I've been in awe of the research that McCullough puts into her books. She has chronicled the decline and fall of the Roman Republic from the time of Gaius Marius, through Sulla and Caesar and, finally, to Octavian/Augustus. Fascinating stuff.
Antony and Cleopatra is as much about the rise of Octavian as it is about Antony and Cleopatra.
There is nothing flattering in this portrait of two people trying desperately to hang on to power.
Antony is portrayed as a man plagued by doubt, lazy, a supreme procrastinator. He has a chronic inability to pay attention to important details and suffers from a fairly major drinking problem, which he manages to control at times but succumbs completely to when it all gets too hard. He is a man who can win battles but not the war.
Cleopatra is portrayed as a tiny, ugly woman completely consumed by her ambition to make her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, King of Kings. King of the World. That Caesarion doesn't want this and is more than happy to settle for being Pharaoh of Egypt is ignored by his mother with disastrous results.
The relationship between Antony and Cleopatra begins as one of mutual need. He needs her money to pay for his campaigns in the east. She needs his influence in Rome and is prepared to back him in order to topple Octavian and, thereby, clear the way for Caesarion.
They do, eventually, fall in love but by then it's all too late. Both end up committing suicide. The way McCullough details the declining psychological state of both Antony and Cleopatra, particularly as their respective ambitions are thwarted time and time again, is wonderfully done.
Octavian, meanwhile, slowly but surely turns Rome against Antony. He comes across as a master of propaganda, of spin. He uses Antony's relationship with Cleopatra, who he dubs the Queen of Beasts, to destroy Antony's reputation as a true Roman. He eventually meets Caesarion in Egypt and murders him on the spot. He recognises that Caesarion, the spitting image of his father, cannot be allowed to enter Rome as the people would accept him immediately as the true heir of his father (Octavian is Caesar's son by adoption only). Julius Caesar has, by this time, been raised to the status of a god. If the people of Rome were exposed to the god's son they would bestow on him the same status. Cleopatra's ambitions would be fulfilled. The emphasis, though, is that Octavian is working always for the greater good of Rome, not for his own personal power. That he attains supreme power in the end is a bonus rather than a fulfilment of desire. According to McCullough anyway.
The series spans seven, very large, books. The First Man in Rome tells the story of Gaius Marius, the outsider who revolutionised the structure of the Roman army. He does become the First Man but is never fully accepted by the Roman establishment. The Grass Crown details the rise of Cornelius Sulla to First Man status. A complete reprobate. Fortune's Favourites, Caesar's Women, Caesar and The October Horse chronicle the rise and ultimate fall of Gaius Julius Caesar from childhood to assassination. Truly one of the giants of history. Antony and Cleopatra brings the Roman Republic to an end with the rise of Octavian to the position of Rome's first emperor, Augustus.
It's a fascinating story.
Antony and Cleopatra is as much about the rise of Octavian as it is about Antony and Cleopatra.
There is nothing flattering in this portrait of two people trying desperately to hang on to power.
Antony is portrayed as a man plagued by doubt, lazy, a supreme procrastinator. He has a chronic inability to pay attention to important details and suffers from a fairly major drinking problem, which he manages to control at times but succumbs completely to when it all gets too hard. He is a man who can win battles but not the war.
Cleopatra is portrayed as a tiny, ugly woman completely consumed by her ambition to make her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, King of Kings. King of the World. That Caesarion doesn't want this and is more than happy to settle for being Pharaoh of Egypt is ignored by his mother with disastrous results.
The relationship between Antony and Cleopatra begins as one of mutual need. He needs her money to pay for his campaigns in the east. She needs his influence in Rome and is prepared to back him in order to topple Octavian and, thereby, clear the way for Caesarion.
They do, eventually, fall in love but by then it's all too late. Both end up committing suicide. The way McCullough details the declining psychological state of both Antony and Cleopatra, particularly as their respective ambitions are thwarted time and time again, is wonderfully done.
Octavian, meanwhile, slowly but surely turns Rome against Antony. He comes across as a master of propaganda, of spin. He uses Antony's relationship with Cleopatra, who he dubs the Queen of Beasts, to destroy Antony's reputation as a true Roman. He eventually meets Caesarion in Egypt and murders him on the spot. He recognises that Caesarion, the spitting image of his father, cannot be allowed to enter Rome as the people would accept him immediately as the true heir of his father (Octavian is Caesar's son by adoption only). Julius Caesar has, by this time, been raised to the status of a god. If the people of Rome were exposed to the god's son they would bestow on him the same status. Cleopatra's ambitions would be fulfilled. The emphasis, though, is that Octavian is working always for the greater good of Rome, not for his own personal power. That he attains supreme power in the end is a bonus rather than a fulfilment of desire. According to McCullough anyway.
The series spans seven, very large, books. The First Man in Rome tells the story of Gaius Marius, the outsider who revolutionised the structure of the Roman army. He does become the First Man but is never fully accepted by the Roman establishment. The Grass Crown details the rise of Cornelius Sulla to First Man status. A complete reprobate. Fortune's Favourites, Caesar's Women, Caesar and The October Horse chronicle the rise and ultimate fall of Gaius Julius Caesar from childhood to assassination. Truly one of the giants of history. Antony and Cleopatra brings the Roman Republic to an end with the rise of Octavian to the position of Rome's first emperor, Augustus.
It's a fascinating story.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Saints' first game of the season
Quarter time: Saints 27 Sydney 7
Keep it up boys!!
Half time edit: 30 points apiece. Ack!
Three quarter time : Saints 46 sydney 34.
Too close.
Full time: Saints 51 Sydney 49.
Way too close! I think I've lost my voice.
Keep it up boys!!
Half time edit: 30 points apiece. Ack!
Three quarter time : Saints 46 sydney 34.
Too close.
Full time: Saints 51 Sydney 49.
Way too close! I think I've lost my voice.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
I feel a rant coming on....
Just saw a thing on the news about a march in Melbourne. It was reported as a gathering of all religions to celebrate whatever today's about. A gathering of Christian religions. I saw no mention of any other religions. Oh man, there are several things that bother me about this.
Australians very rarely march. We are, as a rule, apathetic about everything except the hip pocket and the football. There are, obviously, the groups who demonstrate about a particular cause, usually environmental, but they're small and infrequent. There's a yearly march on April 25th to remember the war dead and the occasional union march when the government is being particularly stupid.
But, on the whole, we're a couldn't care less nation.
The last time I can remember seeing a march of a religious nature was way back in early 1960s Liverpool when I was less than 12. My nanna was in the Orange Lodge and they marched every year to celebrate something that I've now forgotten, but it was all to do with the victory of the Proddies over the Catlics. What I haven't forgotten is the prejudice. It's ingrained in me to such an extent that no amount of education or rational thought can eradicate it. I hate the Catholic church and that's a fact.
The irony of that is that I consider myself to be an educated, rational, tolerant person. I abhor racism, sexism, all the isms (except that one). I cannot stand fundamentalism of any kind. Yet, I have this ingrained prejudice that I cannot shake. Fortunately, I'm educated and old enough now not to act on it. When I was younger it was a different story.
And it stems from my upbringing in a deeply divided city. Divided along religious lines - catlic and proddy.
And I learned that divisiveness from watching people march for an idea, a religious belief.
The footage I saw from today disturbed me because it was exactly what I used to see all those years ago. Just one brand of flag, one brand of speaker, one point of view.
There is nothing more divisive. Nothing.
Because the differences are all in the detail. God, Allah, Jehovah - all the same, there's no dispute on that. It's the detail that people march, argue, fight, kill about. Pointless really. Completely pointless.
Just to elabotate the religious divide and how it can spread I've lifted this from a blog from Baghdad:
The Great Wall of Segregation...
…Which is the wall the current Iraqi government is building (with the support and guidance of the Americans). It's a wall that is intended to separate and isolate what is now considered the largest 'Sunni' area in Baghdad- let no one say the Americans are not building anything. According to plans the Iraqi puppets and Americans cooked up, it will 'protect' A'adhamiya, a residential/mercantile area that the current Iraqi government and their death squads couldn't empty of Sunnis.
The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, "Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!" And yet, it will also be difficult to get out.
The Wall is the latest effort to further break Iraqi society apart. Promoting and supporting civil war isn't enough, apparently- Iraqis have generally proven to be more tenacious and tolerant than their mullahs, ayatollahs, and Vichy leaders. It's time for America to physically divide and conquer- like Berlin before the wall came down or Palestine today. This way, they can continue chasing Sunnis out of "Shia areas" and Shia out of "Sunni areas".
I always hear the Iraqi pro-war crowd interviewed on television from foreign capitals (they can only appear on television from the safety of foreign capitals because I defy anyone to be publicly pro-war in Iraq). They refuse to believe that their religiously inclined, sectarian political parties fueled this whole Sunni/Shia conflict. They refuse to acknowledge that this situation is a direct result of the war and occupation. They go on and on about Iraq's history and how Sunnis and Shia were always in conflict and I hate that. I hate that a handful of expats who haven't been to the country in decades pretend to know more about it than people actually living there.
I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.
Australians very rarely march. We are, as a rule, apathetic about everything except the hip pocket and the football. There are, obviously, the groups who demonstrate about a particular cause, usually environmental, but they're small and infrequent. There's a yearly march on April 25th to remember the war dead and the occasional union march when the government is being particularly stupid.
But, on the whole, we're a couldn't care less nation.
The last time I can remember seeing a march of a religious nature was way back in early 1960s Liverpool when I was less than 12. My nanna was in the Orange Lodge and they marched every year to celebrate something that I've now forgotten, but it was all to do with the victory of the Proddies over the Catlics. What I haven't forgotten is the prejudice. It's ingrained in me to such an extent that no amount of education or rational thought can eradicate it. I hate the Catholic church and that's a fact.
The irony of that is that I consider myself to be an educated, rational, tolerant person. I abhor racism, sexism, all the isms (except that one). I cannot stand fundamentalism of any kind. Yet, I have this ingrained prejudice that I cannot shake. Fortunately, I'm educated and old enough now not to act on it. When I was younger it was a different story.
And it stems from my upbringing in a deeply divided city. Divided along religious lines - catlic and proddy.
And I learned that divisiveness from watching people march for an idea, a religious belief.
The footage I saw from today disturbed me because it was exactly what I used to see all those years ago. Just one brand of flag, one brand of speaker, one point of view.
There is nothing more divisive. Nothing.
Because the differences are all in the detail. God, Allah, Jehovah - all the same, there's no dispute on that. It's the detail that people march, argue, fight, kill about. Pointless really. Completely pointless.
Just to elabotate the religious divide and how it can spread I've lifted this from a blog from Baghdad:
The Great Wall of Segregation...
…Which is the wall the current Iraqi government is building (with the support and guidance of the Americans). It's a wall that is intended to separate and isolate what is now considered the largest 'Sunni' area in Baghdad- let no one say the Americans are not building anything. According to plans the Iraqi puppets and Americans cooked up, it will 'protect' A'adhamiya, a residential/mercantile area that the current Iraqi government and their death squads couldn't empty of Sunnis.
The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, "Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!" And yet, it will also be difficult to get out.
The Wall is the latest effort to further break Iraqi society apart. Promoting and supporting civil war isn't enough, apparently- Iraqis have generally proven to be more tenacious and tolerant than their mullahs, ayatollahs, and Vichy leaders. It's time for America to physically divide and conquer- like Berlin before the wall came down or Palestine today. This way, they can continue chasing Sunnis out of "Shia areas" and Shia out of "Sunni areas".
I always hear the Iraqi pro-war crowd interviewed on television from foreign capitals (they can only appear on television from the safety of foreign capitals because I defy anyone to be publicly pro-war in Iraq). They refuse to believe that their religiously inclined, sectarian political parties fueled this whole Sunni/Shia conflict. They refuse to acknowledge that this situation is a direct result of the war and occupation. They go on and on about Iraq's history and how Sunnis and Shia were always in conflict and I hate that. I hate that a handful of expats who haven't been to the country in decades pretend to know more about it than people actually living there.
I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.
So here I am...... ramblin' on
Babysitting a friend's house for the weekend. Ha, nearly didn't make it. I locked myself out of my room this morning! There are two normal doors on the inside and two double doors to the outside. I managed to lock them all! Of course, there are 45 million keys in the house and NONE of them fit the locks on my doors. Not a single one. Laurie, naturally, is away for the weekend. Old Ken had a go at breaking in but couldn't manage it. In the end I had to call the G-Man and he was able to pick one of the outside locks. So I got to Bronnie's hours late. But I'm here now - with my stuff which I'd carefully locked up behind me! Am I too young for Altzheimers? I'm beginning to think not.
Brought the geeetar with me and plan on making some noise later :) Haven't messed with it in soooo long. I'll end up with "blisters on my fingers". (Who said that at the end of which song??)
Brought the laptop too but it won't connect on Bronnie's system, different ISP I suppose. So I'm using her computer and am finding it really hard to type on a proper keyboard!
Thirteen Days is on TV later tonight. There's a fair chance I might watch it. Bronnie has one of those HUGE widescreen TVs :)
Work as usual tomorrow but Sunday is yet another family gathering. This time for Georgia who turns 15 on Monday. FIFTEEN! Gawd, she was only a child yesterday. Got 15tons of attitude too. Ah, the joys of teenagerhood.
Interesting post over at the Snapery about Barack Obama. Go read it if you haven't already. There's a link there to a speech he made about race in the USA. Very interesting. I'd vote for him on the basis of that speech I think. If I were eligible that is.
Anyway, the sun's well and truly over the yardarm so I'm off to open a bottle of something.
Happy Easter :)
Oh oh oh, I keep forgetting - on April 6th Clare and I are going to a Conversation with Nick Cave. He'll be there talking about his music and answering questions from the audience. Singing a song or two as well. There's also a photographic exhibition about the man at the Arts Centre so we're going to that first. Exciting!!
I think I might ask him about the silly facial hair!
Brought the geeetar with me and plan on making some noise later :) Haven't messed with it in soooo long. I'll end up with "blisters on my fingers". (Who said that at the end of which song??)
Brought the laptop too but it won't connect on Bronnie's system, different ISP I suppose. So I'm using her computer and am finding it really hard to type on a proper keyboard!
Thirteen Days is on TV later tonight. There's a fair chance I might watch it. Bronnie has one of those HUGE widescreen TVs :)
Work as usual tomorrow but Sunday is yet another family gathering. This time for Georgia who turns 15 on Monday. FIFTEEN! Gawd, she was only a child yesterday. Got 15tons of attitude too. Ah, the joys of teenagerhood.
Interesting post over at the Snapery about Barack Obama. Go read it if you haven't already. There's a link there to a speech he made about race in the USA. Very interesting. I'd vote for him on the basis of that speech I think. If I were eligible that is.
Anyway, the sun's well and truly over the yardarm so I'm off to open a bottle of something.
Happy Easter :)
Oh oh oh, I keep forgetting - on April 6th Clare and I are going to a Conversation with Nick Cave. He'll be there talking about his music and answering questions from the audience. Singing a song or two as well. There's also a photographic exhibition about the man at the Arts Centre so we're going to that first. Exciting!!
I think I might ask him about the silly facial hair!
Friday Fill-in
1. Travel is so exciting!
2. Strawberry fields forever.
3. Right now, anything edible sounds like it would taste delicious!
4. Why does Flickr make me feel so good?!
5. The Mona Lisa is something I've always wanted to see.
6. It's sad when the bottle is empty.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to babysitting a friend's house, tomorrow my plans include work then babysitting again and Sunday, I want to see the family at Georgia's birthday (15!!!!) dinner!
Here's the place to play
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday Thirteen
It's Thursday and I really should be doing a Thirteen. But there's not a single idea floating around the empty vessel that is my skull.
How about 13 random books sitting on the desk. You can tell me if you've read any of them and whether they're any good.
1. Trunk Music - Michael Connelly
2. Knights of the Black and White - Jack Whyte
3. The Husband - Dean Koontz.
4. Area 7 - Matthew Reilly
5. A Question of Blood - Ian Rankin
6. The Boer War - Winston Churchill
7. Moonlight Becomes You - Mary Higgins Clark
8. Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
9. The Station-Master's Daughter - Pamela Oldfield
10. Dark Hollow - John Connolly
11. Not Safe After Dark - Peter Robinson
12. Into a Dark Realm - Raymond E Feist (forget this one, sold already.)
13. Servant of the Bones - Anne Rice
T13
How about 13 random books sitting on the desk. You can tell me if you've read any of them and whether they're any good.
1. Trunk Music - Michael Connelly
2. Knights of the Black and White - Jack Whyte
3. The Husband - Dean Koontz.
4. Area 7 - Matthew Reilly
5. A Question of Blood - Ian Rankin
6. The Boer War - Winston Churchill
7. Moonlight Becomes You - Mary Higgins Clark
8. Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
9. The Station-Master's Daughter - Pamela Oldfield
10. Dark Hollow - John Connolly
11. Not Safe After Dark - Peter Robinson
12. Into a Dark Realm - Raymond E Feist (forget this one, sold already.)
13. Servant of the Bones - Anne Rice
T13
Thursday, March 20, 2008
What is it Wednesday?
Is back at The Snapery. Go play, see if you can figure it out.
Watched Children of Men on DVD last night. Not bad. I don't normally like Clive Owen all that much but he's pretty good in this. Michael Caine does an excellent job as the old hippy guy. His scenes were the best parts of the film I think :)
Actually, the best bit was when the Clive Owen character looked out of a window over Battersea power station, complete with the Pink Floyd pig flying above it, a la the Animals album.
Watched Children of Men on DVD last night. Not bad. I don't normally like Clive Owen all that much but he's pretty good in this. Michael Caine does an excellent job as the old hippy guy. His scenes were the best parts of the film I think :)
Actually, the best bit was when the Clive Owen character looked out of a window over Battersea power station, complete with the Pink Floyd pig flying above it, a la the Animals album.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Unconscious Mutterings
- Paranormal :: The truth is out there
- Alarm :: bells
- Operative :: working
- Changing :: I wish this weather was
- Framed :: picture
- Beer :: ugh!
- Referral :: medical
- Unmasked :: KISS
- Movie star :: Kevin Costner
- Handbook :: never read them
from here
Sunday, March 16, 2008
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