Sunday, January 22, 2006

My first day at work, Zorro and the buskers!

The Buskers in Cathedral Square, Christchurch

So I had a snazzy title, and then I went to write... and it was horrible. So I think I shall return to the most succinct of entries:

Work -> Fulfilling.
The Legend of Zorro -> (this line pre-prepared, wait for it) All the best things in life: explosions, swords, hats (yes, hats!) and capes, not to mention racing through the desert on a black stallion, jumping onto a speeding train, and spectacularly finishing off the bad guy. Am trying to express how wonderful it was without sounding like Grandma, so... About half-way through, I was already fully aware of the fact that I would have to see it at least 4 more times. Somehow, each ludicrous act seems perfectly justified, explained, nay, required - Whoop! Zorrrrrrrrrro!
World Busker's Festival -> official site
Oh yeah! This was great, absolutely great (the extent of my eloquence today :-P). *sighs* Some of the best acts in the world performing in the Garden City's beautiful Cathedral Square, the Botanic Gardens, the Arts Centre... Next year I plan on bringing up a carload of friends from Dunedin. They must come - they will love it. ^ - ^



Quiz from deviantART

-----------

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.
"He might do," Zangi-Ragozh said. "But it would be a dangerous..."
(Dark of the Sun - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro) V. v. good book.

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
Just touched the computer screen...

3.What is the last thing you watched on TV?
The Amazing Race. It's still going. It's painful.

4.Without looking, guess what time it is
8:15pm

5.Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?
8:48pm

6.With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Horrible whining!!! <-- TV

7.When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
I was walking into the house after coming home from the World Busker's Festival in Christchurch. Damn that thing was fun!

8.Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
An Adobe tutorial on how to make realistic fur here

9.What are you wearing?
Jeans and a white t-shirt which is a size too big.

10.Did you dream last night?
Yes!!! But I can't remember what about... *groan*

11. When did you last laugh?
When Mario Queen of the Circus went crowd-diving to the sound of "We Are The Champions" in Chch *laughs again thinking about it*

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A phone and varying shades of pastel paint (my Dad was feeling creative)

13. Seen anything weird lately?
Mario Queen of the Circus, an Australian Frenchman riding a bicycle no bigger than his shoe through a flaming hoop, Mulletman juggling balls atop a 9-foot unicycle, and El Gleno Grande attempting to jump tiny little jumps on his stuffed horse. (I do not exaggerate.)

14. What do you think of this quiz?
Brilliant! Means I don't have to think of subjects!

15. What is the last film you saw?
The Legend of Zorro! I love this quiz! *cheers Antonio Banderas*

16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
Zorro. And then I'd donate half my money to charity. ^ - ^

17. Tell me something about you that I don't know.
Hmmm... I'm a Leo.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Tolerance!!!

19. Do you like to dance?
Yes! I wuv it.

20. George Bush:
Save me from humanity...

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
I don't know. Possibly Arianna - but I hate thinking about stuff like that. Makes me afraid I'll jinx it.

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Beaver. (Not seriously, lol - then it would be Macintosh.)

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
I have, more often than is healthy: top picks are Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
I forgive you for not believing in me. Welcome to heaven. Would you like a cookie?

posted by Anonymous @ 6:51 PM 0 comments

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Whaling won't stay dead

I don't know what to do about this Japanese whaling thing. I don't know what to think - or rather, I know what I think, and am uncertain of its fairness. Perhaps it isn't as big a story overseas as here in NZ, just a few hundred kilometres from the controversy... But Japan has been killing minke, humpback and fin whales in the waters around Antarctica, ostensibly for 'scientific' purposes. They plan to take 935 minke whales, as well as humpback and fin. 935 minke whales! Whales!

*possible, rather sarcastic rant ahead*
Other than the instinctive, righteous disgust at seeing anything as noble and rare as these creatures slaughtered, the justification given by JARPA seems glaringly suspicious. 'Scientific purposes'. Okay...
The Japanese behind the whaling declare, in a response to enquiries, that "Our research is perfectly legal in every aspect referred to by anti-whaling opponents and scientifically necessary to ensure the best decisions can be made for sustainable resource management." Sustainable resource management. Sounds fine, even admirable. However, the Japanese are the only nation to require such large numbers of whales for these tests - over 1000 in a single year. 1 whale is a magnificent thing, a wonder steadily disappearing from the world - to kill 1000 of them? To kill humpback whales? To begin the slaughter of such harmless, awe-inspiring mammals? Both humpback and fin whales are under risk, classified as vulnerable and endangered: so why exactly are such relatively large numbers required? Could it be, that among the almost seven thousand already taken since the anti-whaling laws came into effect 18 years ago, that they are missing some special whale? Are 7000 not enough, I ask? Do whales, with their naturally long life span, change so much within a year that 1000 more are needed? Did the Japanese laboratories trying to discover means of 'sustainable resource management' miraculously misplace some critical part of every single whale they have already taken? Did they take notes so messily they feel it necessary to begin again?

Perhaps my entry is unfair... but half-way through the article I read this morning, already questioning, I came across something else.
In the 31 years before whaling was declared illegal, the number taken by the Japanese for scientific research globally was 840. Less, in 31 years, than the total for 2005 alone. After commercial whaling was banned, these numbers rose fast. Why the increase? Why, when 840 whales had been considered enough to satisfy the scientist community, did their research suddenly require the ruthless slaughter of thousands? What knowledge is so important that it cannot be gained from scanning the brains of 100 whales, but demands 1000?

I do not blame anyone but those in command. The issue of legality is a critical one, but I do not know enough to discuss it, and so must stay within the bounds of moral disagreement. Their actions, to me, send a clear message, and show a group which is disgracefully manipulating the law to reduce the already declining numbers of some of the world's most magnificent creatures.
Once these whales are gone, there will be no more. To see one sacrificed before your eyes to research in which you have no faith is harrowing, shameful... and yet those responsible have a legal shield to hide behind, and are free to ignore concerted efforts against them.

Perhaps a post like this needs a disclaimer: and so, the information cited was taken from The Press, a Christchurch newspaper. The facts may be a little out (journalists, bloggers) but the point is the same. See here for ways to help.

posted by Anonymous @ 11:08 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Stag in the land of LOTR

Image (c) Psycho Llama - photography - deviantART folio

A friend of mine took this at Deer Park Heights in Central Otago and managed to get it in a museum exhibition - she's very talented. ^ - ^

posted by Anonymous @ 7:50 PM 0 comments

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Something Found

People like to talk about themselves, I suppose. Forum threads with titles like 'All About YOU! Yes, YOU!' have instant appeal. "Oh, me? Me!" A chance to blab! (Blinding irony... just look away. *hehe*)

The thing is, other people are amazingly interesting. Not the stupid, bland small talk or empty words that occur before the ice is broken - but the things that mean something to them: the stories that have impacted on their lives, their quirks, the memories that bring a smile to their faces. To your face, as you read this. Every story they have (well maybe not every story)... or rather, the way they tell it, the views they take, the way they see the world. Listening to the perceptions of others is like living another life: it gives you the chance to widen your horizons, to embrace differences, to experience new things and appreciate them with changing eyes. That's why books are fantastic; that's why I love listening to my grandparents and hearing their stories. The lives of the elderly are full of experience - why not share it? Why not use those hard-won lessons to improve your own life? It helps humans to share their souls...

It may even help to determine why you think the way you do. What exactly is an apple to you? What does it look like? Which feelings does it conjour - which associations are awakened?
It reminds me of red red roundness, the bitter tang of skin and the sweet grainy flesh inside. It reminds me of tall bottles of apple juice in the cool of my father's fridge, of lukewarm drinks in Mum's pantry... And through Mum I remember Nana, and sunsets, and the smooth wood of our cupboard doors. I remember kids laughing in Mr Crawford's Science class when he told us that apples were plant ovaries; and I remember that even after he died I still had trouble picturing his face. I remember watching Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote tapes pilfered by the student teacher and the stifling heat of being kept inside on sunny days - not that there are many in Dunedin.

Conclusions for this are hard - how do you conclude something you didn't even intend to write? Thoughts run away with me sometimes. Anyway, I'm glad you finished this post. I'm impressed. ^ - ^

posted by Anonymous @ 7:53 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 13, 2006

Test results

Advanced Global Personality Test Results
Extraversion |||||||||| 36%
Stability |||||||||||||||||| 73%
Orderliness |||||||||||| 43%
Accommodation |||||||||||||| 56%
Interdependence |||||||||||||||| 63%
Intellectual |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Mystical |||||||||||||| 56%
Artistic |||||||||||||||| 70%
Religious |||| 16%
Hedonism |||| 16%
Materialism |||||| 30%
Narcissism |||||||||||| 50%
Adventurousness |||||||||||| 50%
Work ethic |||||||||||||| 56%
Self absorbed |||||||||||||| 56%
Conflict seeking |||||||||||| 43%
Need to dominate |||||||||| 36%
Romantic |||||||||||||| 56%
Avoidant |||||||||||| 50%
Anti-authority |||||| 30%
Wealth |||||| 30%
Dependency |||||||||||| 50%
Change averse |||||||||||||| 56%
Cautiousness |||||||||||||| 56%
Individuality |||||||||||| 43%
Sexuality |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Peter pan complex |||||||||||||| 56%
Physical security |||||||||||||||| 70%
Physical Fitness |||||||||||| 44%
Histrionic |||||| 30%
Paranoia |||||||||| 36%
Vanity |||||||||||| 43%
Hypersensitivity |||||||||||| 50%
Female cliche |||||||||||||| 56%
Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hmmmmm...

posted by Anonymous @ 11:26 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

'Down By Law' & the Crown Range

"Hey little birdy, fly away home / Your house is on fire, children are alone / Hey little birdy, fly away home / Your house is on fire, your children are alone..."
- Jockey Full of Bourbon, Tom Waits

Can't get that damned song out of my head! Ever since I heard it at the start of Down By Law it's been bouncing around my mind, that silly growling rumble of a voice impossible to dislodge. "Hey little birdy..." *exasperation*
The movie itself was interesting (most of the time), shown in black and white with Tom Waits himself, Roberto Benigni and John Lurie in the main roles as vaguely innocent prisoners who meet in a Louisiana jail, suffer each other's company for an undisclosed amount of time, and then fumble their way into an escape. Benigni was wonderful. ^ - ^ There were some moments when I almost fell asleep (especially at the beginning) but watching three men parade round a tiny cell shouting "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream" over and over was enough to make everyone watching grin rather broadly. That and Benigni practising his English on his new prison buddies: "If looks could kill, I am a-dead now." I've read some reviews which call this film a thing of beauty, and I suppose it might be, in a slow and vague kind of way (vague, not dreamy). There's no trace of anything which really marrs story-telling... no brutality, no coarseness or painfully obvious ploys. Maybe it's the deliberate obscurity which is it's attraction; that and the unobtrusive, well-trained touch that teases events into place. It never really trips, just flows along with a strange kind of off-beat grace. Down By Law is what it is... a 'neo-beat-noir-comedy' as described by director Jim Jarmusch. [Full article here] Not that I understand it.

View from the Crown Range towards Lake Hayes, near Queenstown NZ

This was Day 4 (I think) of our most fantastic trip round New Zealand. The landscape was amazing, amazing, amazing... Yes, that amazing. The panorama may give some sense of what it was like to stand there, on the side of a road which wound it's high-altitude way from Wanaka along rugged hill roads just recently sealed, through a vista bare save for tussock... But it was the size of things which hit me, and that isn't so easily conveyed. It was beautiful, almost alien despite the many times we've travelled that way: an alpine world of rock and cloud, towering juggernauts which cradle this beautiful valley like protective brothers. Queenstown is directly behind the sunlit hill on the left, the shimmering expanse of Lake Wakatipu southwards and hidden by the ridges at the back of the picture. Skippers Canyon is off to the right, Wanaka some distnace behind.

Now that low-pitched grating tune is back in my head, and I think it's time perhaps to get some sleep. (Late night is the only time the computer in this place is free.) "Hey little birdy, fly away home: your house is on fire, your children are gone..."

posted by Anonymous @ 11:31 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Return

Whoop! Blog is fixed! ;-D <-- (That's a really happy smiley face, if case it needed translating)

I've been skipping through lists on Amazon after looking up Novalis and found around 300 authors I'm dying to get to know: Dante, Aldo Busi, Whitman, Rimbaud, Mary Gentle, Goethe, Virginia Woolf... *sigh* OK, so that's not 300 but the whole list takes up a lot of room. Now, to complete my lovely flight off into intellectual fantasyland (only slightly negated by the sounds of INXS and Rooster in the background)... I found an ancient copy of Milton's poems at a second-hand bookstore in Timaru. Ah, that wonderful old-book smell... It's gorgeous, the kind of thing you just want to frame and hang on your wall, all gilded edges and embossing and coloured borders. It has the entire text of Paradise Lost and all his other works (in English, Latin and Italian) and a story of his life; much better than the copies I was looking at in modern bookstores, and about $50 cheaper! ^ - ^

Oh, more wordy stuff: have been devouring the library lately so there are a whole lot more 'books of the moment' in the sidebar. Holidays are great for lazing around, and that teenage routine of sleep till 10, stay up until midnight has a lot going for it. *winces* Hmmm, perhaps a job is needed...



I was gonna give an account of our five-night adventure through the South Island *look up* but I think it may be a little late for that... So I'll leave with a "Yay! Online again!" and I hope you had a great Xmas.

posted by Anonymous @ 11:20 PM 0 comments