Author: admin-blog

Ah, South Park. I really like it most of the time. Have since the beginning, through the inevitable merchandising explosion, fallback and reinvention. These days though, the show’s just a bit off politically.

If it was out-and-out right wing, it’d lose its audience. It’d lose some of it going left too. As it is, they claim to not support anyone and throw their mud wildly. Last week, they had a thick “the immig’ants took our jobs” character become suddenly knowledgeable, claiming that global warming is a myth. Matt and Trey, the creators, claim in interviews that anyone who gets their opinion from a cartoon is an idiot, but they’re clearly trying to push their own opinions. That one they’ve sucked up from the Republican propaganda machine and spat out whole.

This week there was a vote between a giant douche and a turd sandwich for school mascot, a direct reference to the recent US elections. Stan becomes disillusioned with the non-choice offered and is banished for refusing to vote. Kyle is pissed off when he votes for the “wrong” side.

They’ve missed the whole point, and America’s election system helps every citizen to miss the point. A vote shouldn’t be about one President. The person doesn’t matter, or shouldn’t. It’s about the values that person stands for. Personification of the process means that one sweaty brow or one poor wardrobe choice screws up a country or maybe the whole planet for some length of time.

The presidential system means that one person, to some extent, actually wields that power, and that’s wrong. At least in Australia and the UK, the party is seen to have a fair amount of power and cabinet members each have some autonomy and responsibility.

If everyone who voted did so for a party and not for a person, there would be less apathy. Every person who says it doesn’t matter, that they’re each the same as each other, has missed the point. Look at the policies; assess who’s actually supporting people who need that support. The parties (all parties) may appear similar, but that’s because they are trying to appeal to the centre-leaning swingers. All large parties try to appeal to the widest groups; look at their under-publicised policies and decide there.

John Safran summarises well. He said: “Right wingers are basically evil, and left wingers are basically good.” By all means choose within the shades of good and evil, but their figureheads are unimportant.

I guess I write this as much for myself as for anyone else, and I have a sense that I’m preaching to the converted. Nobody else is reading. If I’m wrong, let me know. Email my name @ this site.

Just a few words. If you use these in your novel/play/etc. let me know.

“It’s a victimless crime. Or as close as is possible in today’s litigious age.”

I now have 2.5 jobs. Full time work does not yet agree with me. It will in time, but I’m just a bit shattered from five days of riding up and down the mountain in pissing rain. If I wanted rain like this, I’d have become a farmer, or never left England. Honestly, it’s been like London.

Sunny now, though, and with a fab new sofa. Mmm.

So. If I was to write something substantial, something that people could buy in a shop, what would it be about? Travel is obvious and saturated. I’ve never read the kind of book I’d want to write, but I suspect that’s because I’ve hardly looked. Instructional stuff is also a saturated market, with room for just the best few books on each topic. Plus, there’s a whole lot of work in gathering facts, updates, and pictures that doesn’t make it onto the page and into the word count.

Fiction? Well, I can’t lay claim to any fiction writing skill, but I’ve been reading some great Neal Stephenson and some OK Zadie Smith recently, and that could help. Alternatively, I could be overinfluenced and try to write about oddly miserable London lives in the 1700s. Kids books? There’s an idea I had a while ago which is staying private for now, and I’m not sure I know enough about what kids like. Plus it would need to be illustrated, which is not what I’m best at. Farming that out feels like not writing half the book. I’ll ponder a little longer, maybe hammer something out. Maybe beg in writing to our local papers. Need a part time travel writer?

Sitting here, down in the cellar with a view, I’m pretty comfortable, probably ten or more degrees cooler than the city. It’s a nasty, oppressive heat that’s visiting today, with the promise of a hot summer ahead.

From the deck we’re level with the treetops, but from here down below I see the lower reaches. If we can clear enough of the undergrowth and cut the grass on our uneven terrace, we can sit at the feet of the trees, where they seem gigantic. In a slightly stronger breeze, the loose leaves fall, adding to the building litter on our slope. There’s a calm that nobody can build for you and which shops can’t bottle.

Haze obscures the view, somewhere distant near Kenmore, and soon enough a branch will grow and obscure it further. Do we chop it off, win a battle, inevitably lose the war? I think we’ll have a go, if we can attack it at all. Does the internet have tips for chopping off branches many metres from the ground? Nobody’s commercialised the portable cutting laser yet, and my shimmying skills are poor. Tips?

Oh, forgot to say. One bonus of not yet working full time is when we’re tired and need to relax, we can just go to the beach. Today: Mooloolaba. I really like their loo, but they need a better chippy.

Things are happening, eventually, and I’ll let you know as they happen some more. First, an aside.

It’s not easy to start a new business just from a website; think of it as a brochure you didn’t have to send someone. However, for someone to read that site, they still have to find it, and the most efficient way of getting that page in their face may be to… send them a flyer. But at least that’s a cheaper print job.

Anyway, a site can do quite well. My uncle’s website: Orchard Therapies, is one I did a while ago and have revised since for maximum Google-friendliness. Happily, this site reaches a new client every week, which is great for him and makes me happy too. So it can be done!

Now, do I decide to push this whole freelance angle or just get a cushy full time job? Will let you know.

Oh, and broadband. That thing we don’t have here. Options:

– Wait for ADSL. Might not be possible.

– Wireless through cbdnet.com.au. More likely to work, good support, professional attitude.

– Wireless through techsus.com.au. Two overworked guys in Samford. A cheaper, unlimited deal.

Gah. Will, as ever, let you know.

Oh, don’t miss the Straight Out Of Brisbane festival, happening soon in the Valley. All sorts of cool stuff, including a chance to get inside the Village Twin before redevelopment and cool new media stuff plus lots more. Maybe see me in the Hacklab? Or maybe at the VT. Cool!

See Garden State when it’s released where you are. Cool film we missed in the USA but caught in preview over the weekend. Read Zach Braff’s Garden State Blog when you can. He’s a funny lad.

Finally a few things falling into place, and I’ll let you know if/when they come off. Also thinking of trying a few new ideas out, and really wanting to get back into programming. Serious-ish stuff with C using Xcode, but I’ll need some hefty sample code to kick me into gear. Either that or something fun with Flash. Thoughts? Anyway, to sleep; I’m training again tomorrow. The one downside of living in paradise is that it’s about 20 minutes further than suburbia to drive into the CBD.

(Note to self – never write a blog post in a browser window. Browsers crash, posts get lost.)

Typing happily on new iMac G5 Lozenge. Black window on the trees behind, about 200 moths hanging on the glass. One persistent one has made it inside and is making its presence occasionally felt.

This evening: sketching with an aged Graphire tablet, surfing for hours (oh unlimited dialup, how you have been missed) and enjoying the widescreenyness of it all. (Yes, Neverwinter Nights does support the odd 1440×900 resolution! I’m glad you asked!)

There’s unlikely to be broadband here until WiMax materialises out of its own vapour and becomes a product sold in Samford. It’s like current WiFi, but goes 10km, and through trees, unlike current line-of-sight wireless systems. It’s near enough that larger companies aren’t even bothering to install repeaters for today’s l-o-s solution, though smaller companies are. We’ll see how it all goes, but I suspect that the copious numbers of trees plus their inevitable growth and non-ownership by us will stuff up our chances fairly thoroughly. So we wait with dialup.

However, we can still share a dialup connection wirelessly, and the totally wireless laptop on the deck with the birds is a happy reality. Our latest simultaneous bird record is 13 king parrots and a cockatoo. No laptop then, but one camera. Photos on request.

Party soon – maybe see you here? Will let you know.

Tons of stuff this week, so bullet points it is.

We didn’t win anything in the 48 hour film contest. I’ve written something, but it’s got lots of bitching, so maybe, maybe not.

We moved in to our new house in Mt Nebo. It’s fantastic. We’ve been literally up in the clouds.

The carpet in half of the main room came up, as did the carpet gripper strips around the sides. Much, much better.

We bought a high definition TV set (Palsonic 76cm) and decoder box (DGTEC 2000A). After the initial decoder’s sound died the day after we bought it, it was replaced, and all has been good since then. We’ve seen amazing quality on crappy movies, on the ABC’s Gardening Australia, and right now we’re watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Not the full, full widescreen, and an annoying logo, and ads (nooooo!), and not the extended version, but the quality is stunning. It’s just amazing. So happy Australia went HD instead of multichannel, as I don’t trust the Australian commercial networks to create anything uncrap. But I do trust a few of them to buy nice cameras and good movies.

Today I’ve fed King Parrots from my hand, on our back deck. One sat on my hand. On our back deck. Cockatoos, lorikeets, too. A happy purchase of wild bird seed funded that.

Our crap is slowly making its way from boxes into cupboards and wardrobes. Slowly.

I’ve been unwell. Achy, headachy, tired in the bones. Feeling maybe better tonight, but I won’t make the 1am finishing time of the movie, nor would I choose to. There’s a mega-fest planned when the extended part 3 is released nearer Xmas.

We’ve got a new, comfy bed. Arrived after I felt ill, so that’s not the bed’s fault. The bed is peerless, faultless and soft.

Today was a job application. One of those long government Selection Criteria jobbies. Let’s see. At least they’ll acknowledge the application, unlike the countless seek.com.au advertisers.

I’m hot and sick now, so I’m going to bed. Alas, not even an hour into the lovely picture on the screen, but what I have seen is very much appreciated.

Watching the rage top 50 can be a painful experience. You see the same old shit that’s been peddled for so long, with a new face and some new breasts. Pretty girl warbles, looks at camera, warbles some more, costume change, dance routine, warbling, rapper raps for a verse, more warbling, fade to black. Either that, or boy band finds old beat, sings vague words, teens enthralled, mute button pressed.

Can the record industry not sell anything else? Or don’t they know, because they never tried?