BlemingTheLightFantastic

so much on the backblog, and mandatory plush commentary after tonight's few blinding views, so I'll start with my book bleme from extemporanea (see previous post as to why "bleme")...

some of this is pre-composed and out-of-date - sooner, bloggier posts as soon as the tiki is upgraded, I promise ;) - posting in a rush, formatting and links may end up being corrected, and paragraphs completed

number of books I own

quite a few, certainly not as many as jessica - I'll let you know when I get round to writing that inventory system - for now I make do with a borrowing and lending sheet in excel

unevenly distributed over two cities (mostly in durban) and several apartments (hence the lending sheet)

at the ECR house & garden show I saw this brilliant storage system, like library stacks for your home!

the last books I bought

you know, I don't buy books that often; typically only when

• I can't get my hands on them any other way
• they seem essential to own
• I know I'll lend them out

and, having worked in a bookstore, when I'm browsing I know I'm just handling stock (and if I forget myself I tidy shelves)

all of which was ignored when I visited my former place of work (Adams & Co) and stepped out with the accounts manager cackling:

• Mind Wide Open (Steven Johnson)
• {forgot title} (Why One Thing Happens After Another) ({author})
• other titles I left in durban because actually I have enough to read, including a damned nice mediaeval picture book that's like an all-you-need-to-know for the SCA, which I'm beginning to rue

I downloaded Accelerando (Charles Stross) recently; for no other reason than that it's an online book with a Creative Commons license (and why mention it? because for my purposes 0 credits for a virtual book still counts)

the last book I read

Ravenous, a Poe-inspired graphic novel of Jo's; fun, but not awe-inspiring

before that, Mind Wide Open (described below) and before that, Jar of Fools (Jason Lutes), on the plane to durban, which goes to show that all I need is to be stuck in a tin can to finally get some reading done

recommended by Scott ))McCloud?(( in Reinventing Comics, and it stands up to the scrutiny he suggests (not that I'd perform a full analysis without a looming essay deadline ;) - which, while I remember, reminds me to point out that it's patently obvious that graphic novels are too real books

(Jar of Fools was the two-months-down-the-line swop for The Art of Discworld I got for my birthday from brendan, lara, linda, liz & mike - a choice so brilliant I already had it ;)

still in the middle of

• Ethics for Every Day (David Benatar)
• New York Dreams (Eric Brown)
• and when I'm done with those a whole wodge of borrowed books, some of which I'll have to turn back to page one when I start them again

five books that mean a lot

Understanding Comics (Scott McCloud?)
pretty much redefined my understanding of art and communication, let alone comix, at a tender age - companion to Maus, an exemplar of comix (I never remember which I read first) (see also: Reinventing Comics)

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
the whole damn trilogy, obviously, and while I'm breaking rules (adhering to the de facto standard, actually) let's include all incarnations in multiple media - because in terms of humor, bleakness, profundity, the banal, and technology hitting the pavement, HHGTTG is something of a cornerstone for me

(h2g2 used be a cornerstone, but, well, wikipedia happened)

so, yeah, I was kinda looking forward to the movie ;-)

Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe)
the first antiquarian book I owned (of two, the second is an irreparably water-damaged copy of Prisoner of Zelda) - pretty worthless on all counts, but carefully turning browned pages to reread The Gold Bug was a purely sensory experience

Mind Wide Open

{details about pop sci here}

the electronic book (as yet unrefined by any manufacturer)
cheating into the abstract; I can't think of a time when I didn't want a single device carrying a library of virtual books

a laptop will be a fair approximation

book you'd like to burn

none; in the short term, unworthy books don't sell, in the long term, unworthy books don't last, like Tristram Shandy

(worthy includes books that are worthwhile reminders of roads less travelled because they're dark, dingy and addle-headed; and if you don't like a tenacious survivor, write a rebuttal)

you've been pinged

there were a number of non-bloggers I considered of pinging, but in the end, that would just be pimping, and I'd have to say "you've been bl-inged", and bad puns lead to the dark side, or at least a bruising

(and there'd be questions begged of when the tiki would be upgraded, yadda yadda yadda...)

• tiki blogger: WombatBoy, purveyor of whatever you call your blog these days
• non-tiki blogger: Schpat
• open box blogger: Eden
• overseas blogger: the pinkness that man was not meant to know

you are also charged with pinging others forthwith

TheFoolLooksAtAFingerThatPointsAtTheSky

I must actually be busy, since I still owe jessica a bleme* - the only situation more dire is that my new aggregator doesn't parse my own previous post because of an em-dash

shortly, I will be very unbusy, all the way until Icon, which in some ways is awesome and in some ways not

actual blog worthy events have included:

• a 1Gb flash drive, shiny!
  • oh, and, like a birthday party which conspired to assist the delivery thereof :-D
• 25% hosting a 100% rocking party
  • rules for said party games, which (did I mention this?) rocked
  • 66.6% freaked out by Obs weirdos
• lucas' games dayHHH afternHHHHHH late time period
  • fluxx!
• photos and stuff will be uploaded, eventually, somewhere - possibly flickr since the CLAWsite? should eventually be upgraded**

the soup did not come in bite size chunks***, but my brief opinion is that blogs-as-personal-diaries have already happened - their increase in popularity is riding on the coattails of blogs as feeds for other things (application news, writing books, opinion - and InstaPundit is so off my feedroll as of today: too much, too brief, too right wing)

so anyway, the Icon tidbits I have are:

• I'm having a braai on Friday evening, I don't know what my email access is going to be like from tomorrow, so sms/phone if you need directions
• nenad recommends the age restricted module, and wrote one himself (InSpectres? adapted to d20)
• william and bronwen from durbs wrote the kiddies d20 module; and y'all know perry, who also wrote a module
• william was one of the writers of Shadowplay, a LARP which I playtested while exiled in durbs - I would recommend it more strongly if playing in it didn't clash with the braai ;)

see you all then, or after

and yeah, like everyone else I thought blemes were silly until I was pinged, so I'll get round to it, like everything else

DamTheFire

I've just spent all afternoon listening to Geoffrey Oryema's "Exile" (pretty good, but nothing beats 'Nomad') and the White Stripes' "Get Behind Me Satan", but I was in a better mood even before that

earlier in the week, I took all day to install the project I've been assigned to and watched in reality-draining terror as a progress bar went backwards

but, I've come to terms with a permanent state of existential angst (pfft, crises indeed), and it has been somewhat comforting to discover it's a condition shared by other people I respect

too much introspection, or perhaps its too little resolution, is frustrating, though - see ref. to progress bar - so I no longer feel guilty throwing myself into my minor projects and occasional distractions; although I recognise I really need to start living my ideologies rather than being delirious when I meet others that do it for me

and I should to stop reading so many blogs (pfft)

an aggregation of recent projects and minor distractions...

• posted on the work blog
  • and thereby deciding that the tiki needs an upgrade, and ada was right all along
    • (she wanted a wiki and a blog, side-by-side)
    • grit your teeth and learn Markdown, because it rocks, and Change is Good
  • and discovered personalised Google
• learnt to read (a bit more) music, despite my tutor's exasperation - I actually understand what a key is!
  • now I just need to find a decent reference to the hand of Guido - the best so far is some article on solmization and this, uh, sketchy picture
• on that note, begun bookmarking into my del.icio.us in earnest
  • still not sure as to how I want to structure my tags
  • eventually, I won't need to share links by email - I realise this requires teaching people to subscribe to feeds, but pimping gmail just isn't a challenge any more (email is so C20)
  • looking forward to Feedlounge entering beta (assuming I get a golden ticket)
    • aside: via a google search for just the right link: wtf? gender http://www.malefirst.co.uk/39732004-ent.html|biased] skinning?
• helped save Cape Town from being drained of mystical energy and/or invaded by fallen angels
  • and thereby shown that the Technocracy does have a heart, if you know where to look, have a microscope, and Reality is at stake
  • don't get me started on action resolution in that session of Illusion of Free Will
    • I whole-heartedly approve of the GMs? handing over action resolution to the players
    • but when they're doing it wrong, ya just gotta step in and take charge
  • yeah, and other LARP-y, SCAdian? and even roleplaying stuff - Flower War 2, Shire Birthday, more LARP consultancy, maybe even a character for Yancke's 7th Sea campaign, and a rumours mailing list for Brendan's UA game
• working on a project upgrade for an important client, with an immenent deadline and a project manager who cracks the whip in such a friendly way you don't notice (they call him The Master, just wait till I bring MLWM in to work)
  • which is why I'm at work today

is the the publishing phenomenon of feed aggregation recognised outside the blogosphere? (I mean the little orange boxes you see in blogs and other newsy sources) - I'll admit in some ways it's just announcement-lists-but-different, but there's also a grassroots/reputation vibe to it that I quite like

which is quite unlike the grassroots vibe of Geoffrey Oryema and the White Stripes, or, indeed, "Geoffrey Oryema and the White Stripes" :-D

forthcoming: more good news about exams, I hope, more work (more whips, more blogging), Plush (at last), a trip home (the one in Durban), Icon (and hopefully a zammow-spit braai), and regret to links not made after I hit "save"

(serendipitous article link via All Too Human, "Who said a comic strip couldn't be profound?" - well it certainly wasn't me)

NotFromAJedi

it's all about the fall and redemption of anakin skywalker, or the rise and fall of palpatine, or, according to this six-episode opinion (good trackbacks too), the revolution of the proles

not all the proles though - what do the droids get? memory-wiped!

some desparate dumpster diving in the google cache suggests that the hitchhiker's date has in fact been pushed back to July 29 (like the prominent posters and still-the-damn-teaser trailer suggested last night) - still awaiting email confir... damn I take so long to compose these things, I just got it (how can I reference the newsweek debacle now?)

is this what it felt like for serenites?

now entering the long dark teatime of the patient fan

Comment: Hitchhiker's only on the 29th? (by NotInCLAW? on 2005-05-22 00:50:58)

Heh. Shame. It's been on the UK cinema circuit since the end of April. :)

You're not missing that much, though - everything that usually happens when great books get made into movies by hollywood studios happens here. The movie has all the subtlety of an anvil. I'll get round to posting on my own blog about this sooner or later.

You're better off looking forward to Sin City. It's awesome.
N.

Comment: But how much? (by LumKa? on 2005-05-23 08:35:20)

Yes it has been on the uk circuit, but here (when it eventually gets here) you can watch it for R6 if you're with discovery and R14 if you're not. :-D

Comment: stink city (by d@vid on 2005-05-23 17:56:47)

I am indeed looking forward to SC, but it isn't as dear to me

I'm glad to finally find someone who doesn't like it, though

Comment: Well... (by OOPMan on 2005-05-24 08:25:12)

Doug's biographer didn't either...

But a whole bunch of people who worked with him did.

So I guess it's a love/hate thing :-)

HeadCase

so, I was sorely mistaken when I suggested I wouldn't need to blog until June 10, but one doesn't really expect the best birthday present ever

I knew something was up, since I had been booked weeks in advance and happened across a folder called "LARP" - oh, and shooed out of people's rooms, and graciously & guevarishly babysat by liz and brendan, and been stared or laughed at hysterically (admittedly the last is somewhat normal behaviour for my housemates ;-)) - but I wasn't really expecting not to be the first person to run a LARP in our house* - I think I'm still coming to terms with this

anyway, mondo gracias grando to katherine and "the relevants" for a very cool LARP - think herman going inside his own head, with mind fragments, freudian constructs and conga lines to boot (and deconstruction with kat afterwards)

photos should be posted sometime this week, and be prepared to endure "and then this other cool stuff" stories inbetween/overtaking movie discussions at my short notice celebration tomorrow (M&B then noveau for the 20h00-ish show - if you didn't get the email you aren't on the right mailing lists )

I don't even remember where my Castle Grayskull is anymore, anyway

in other news Adeeb tells me that Andrea Dworkin passed away, and that Lex Luthor is Superman's ancestor (Krypton... it was Earth all along)

ThingsOnMyPlate

so, now I'm a vegetarian - for rational, ethical reasons

this not being the result of a miraculous vision, I'm still considering veganism, vivisection, conscientious consumerism, and other things beginning with v, on a case-by-case basis, possibly over french toast, even if the eggs are not necessarily free-range

it's all craig d's fault, as his provocative biltong-eating while I was visiting that side of the office reminded me of some provoking essays on the topic, which I later discussed with katherine, who prompted my realisation that there was no longer an excuse to put off my decision

the upshot of which is that my growing dissatisfaction with Stuff has evaporated, along with any plans I had of ever getting round to posting a guilty rant about my lack of agency

(stamps out vestiges of angst regarding decision versus obligation, eliminating convoluted paragraph in the process, with minor nod at distractions, and yes I know that obligations and distractions are still a choice, but, dammit, angst... die... filthy beast...)

anyway, in a kind of carnivorous summary of things I meant to post at the time:

• despite seasonal CLAWs-wide reflective bitching and (I hear) a dwindling CafeNescafeCafe? presence, the Bobs I met were fun types and, future Stove-like revelations notwithstanding, are sure to be a boon
• and CLAWmarks 32 was not as imperfect as the errata-count may suggest ;)
• my housemates brought interesting friends to our housewarming, and not just the ones that overlap - thanks to lara for some preemptive agency stickling at the housewarming, not that I'm sure anyone else appreciated heinlein's atheist propaganda
• the SCA valentine's tourney featured some entertaining /themed/ fighting, but I don't plan to steward an event again until there's a handy list of things-to-remember

and that was just one weekend - all the rest is what-I-(did/couldn't do at the same time)-next (e.g. fell asleep to live christian heavy metal, so I couldn't make al's toga party), soon to be lost by my phone datebook's four week memory, or news about other people, which you can find out for yourself

(now that I've remembered I have it, I'm still figuring out my phone's camera - it's shoddy in low light)

in addition to fry's burgers, I have work to do, a krakatoa concert to miss, again, a campaign LARP whose player count finally seems to have settled reliably, a UCT project to defeat, and a low-end ibook on which to do it all! with a power cord! (now that was an agonising wait) it's like a flash drive you can type on, although working in Mac OS (9) is like visiting a not-quite-parallel world, one where they haven't discovered the right mouse button

link of the moment

they might be giants (touch and go/quarterstick records) - I'm guessing those of a cheese sandwich/green nose persuasion will enjoy their music
(other links doing the rounds to be archived and uploaded, eventually, in the meanwhile I pamphleteer the truth about zogg, the cuddly menace)

Comment: TMBG (by SynKronos? on 2005-03-04 13:07:51)

Meh, they're alright. Super poppy. They get played on RadioKoL? all the time. One of the staples, along with Cake and Richard Cheese

Comment: See! SEEEE!!! (by AndieMoore? on 2005-03-04 14:23:16)

And you try to deny that you are a hippy goth.

On a side note, ever mac I've tried (I can't remember if any where OS 9) plugging a two button mouse in results in two buttons. Ditto roller mice.

Comment: No Surprises (by DrunkLove? on 2005-03-05 02:08:45)

Somehow your vegetarianism doesnt surprise me. Next you'll be joining Greenpeace. :)

What kind of camera phone do you have?

And anything below OS X was apparently crap... :)

Comment: Never Mind (by DrunkLove? on 2005-03-05 02:22:02)

Read back through your blog and found out what the phone was, so no worries there. How did you manage to procure such a nice phone? ;) Mine is also crap in low light, but Sony Ericsson have just introduced a new 2 megapixel camera (the K750i) which looks pretty cool.

Comment: Yay to the Vegies (by FuzzyTeddy? on 2005-03-05 14:54:48)

We got another one ;-)

Comment: whales are vegetables (by d@vid on 2005-03-07 16:38:21)

well, I've decided that I deserve at least one more sushi outing; smelling bacon might prove painful but not tasting sashimi one last time would leave me emotionally hollow

I procured the phone after an encounter with a salesman, nuff said

and I think it's unfair to lump ibook users with goths, unless they dance the shiny quarter dance at mac conventions? and it's officially my sister's anyway (I'm lucky it's not pink)

ACandleInTheWind

... is cheaper than leaving the lights on

I flew home last week for my grandfather's funeral, a sudden but not entirely unexpected event; I aimed to make a congregation laugh, but was too busy choking through my speech to notice if they did

the fact that anyone got to say anything at all was thanks to some careful religious negotiations on my part ("let's have a wake! but without the beer..."), otherwise there would have been just the service predicting gloom for those who have not had their way prepared

(yeah, anyone who's had half a metaphysical discussion with me may be surprised that the rest of my family are seriously religious)

speaking of home, I spent last night in my new digs; it is fab, and I will surely convince my housemates that it has great LARP venue potential once they all know what a LARP is

my grandfather always complained when we left the lights on at the other end of the house, and now that I have to worry about a pay-as-you-go meter I'll be sure to keep it in mind - especially after spending the evening in darkness when the damn thing ran out

link of the moment

Don't Stop Belieeeeeevin' puts the White Stripes and LARPing on opposite ends of the cool spectrum!? and who the hell are Journey anyway? (Sarah Klein got a link to "5 Geek Social Fallacies" for her troubles)

shoe of the moment

where can I buy a pair of heelies? ... I don't care, I like 'em

SmokeGetsInYourEyes

the first long-term roleplaying campaign I was involved in had a couple of regular capetonians on a trip to muizenberg, skidding into the mists and another world, all because of experiments at the so-called naval base (I mean, who ever heard of a naval base on the wrong side of a mountain?)

anyway, it's obvious dylan was onto something, as yesterday's outbreak obviously targeted said base, with the world's coolest development company caught in the crossfire!

well, only in a non-euclidean sense... the flames did manage to cross the road by the time we had all the machines (and files, and headphones, my god, the headphones) packed in the cars, but by morning the office was still standing (no need to invade people's homes to continue work )

and I still haven't blogged about how cool my new phone is, but at least I have it - couldn't have taken bad snaps of yesterday's events without it ;-)

I didn't get snaps of the people with "there's a tsunami, where's my board?" mentality: golfers finishing their 18 holes, a cyclist going the wrong way - or the three white guys in the back of a bakkie (that was in rondebosch, not the inferno)

link of the moment: the official story (blatant cover-up of alternate world experiments at naval base)

phone of the moment: motorola e398 (specs, review)

InJust7Years

so all my grandmother wants is a graduation photo, probably to prove that I have actually, finally got a degree, and who can blame her?

except that I've already taken my 1 day's leave and I have it on good authority (originally Tim's?, but since then everyone whose been to a ceremony) that graduation is boring, so today Amy kindly lent me her gown and Conrad? took pictures in front of Jamie Hall

next week I'll email them to my grandparents and they can pick which one they want a print of, and hopefully by then I'll have photoshopped the sash to the correct colour; personally, I like the spur-of-the-moment one of me sitting in front of what was the CLAWroom? door

meanwhile, trying to find a four-room house/apartment/place-to-rent for next year continues very much abatedly, and the continuing lack-o-cellphone doesn't help

I've been emailed out of the blue by colin webster of the South African Wargames Union, who play historical miniatures games, as well as draughts and morabaraba, and are somehow involved with the za sports union; after meeting with tai we'll see if there're any exciting developments

link of the moment

(via Talk:Weblog) The Weekend Web: Live Journal (Mood: Agonizingly uninteresting)

OnlyInCapeTown

today, thursday, I receive an email at work...

> Cool - have a great weekend!

and it wasn't even 16h00 yet

btw, I strongly recommend the firefox 1.0 livemarks feature for linking to RSS feeds, e.g. the tiki Last changes and Last blog post feeds - not that I get time at work to read them, or check my mail, dagnabbit

Comment: That's normal (by InfernalRabbi? on 2004-11-18 17:03:12)

You really don't need to worry, if you do then you are probably working too hard.

SeeTheShrink

there are not many things I blog about, but shrunken heads are one of them

krakatoa were awesome, although I still don't know what a surf band is (Mr T mentioned a band called "Astroboy"?) - I would describe their sound as "duelling banjo" - like that bit from tarantino that they did a cover of

it was super cool to meet up with Mr T? again, see the two John Murrays in the same room (there goes that theory...) and say hi other people that came along

and of course I am krakatoa-fanboy second only to Jo? because I caught the (world's ugliest) plaster of paris shrunken head they threw out into the crowd; that thing coulda killed someone

edited: meh, still could do with an actual rewrite, oh well

Comment: there should be an obvious "comment" button. (by Wither? on 2004-11-01 08:17:05)

similar to krakatoa is "man or astroman". along with "the cramps", they're supposed to be the university band. which goes to show, i suppose.

VoynichManuscript

first presented to the world by antiquarian bookdealer wilfrid voynich, this manuscript defies decryptolisation to this very day - it contains crude but intriguing drawings and a script unlike any encountered

is it just a hoax? quite possibly, but there're enough concrete clues (e.g. frequency of letter distribution) to suggest that the continuing amateur investigation is worthwhile, and more than enough esoteric clues to encourage uninformed but complete hypotheses from the usual gang of idiots

favourite hypotheses (at the moment): chinese transliteration, madman, irrecoverable artificial language

a fair summary, with decent pictures, on the wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

join the VMs-list at if you want a taste of what the Mak Attack mailing list must be like

why bother blogging about it? (why bother blogging about anything?) because I finished the compleat history yesterday (title: the voynich manuscript authors: kennedy and churchill)

Archive

• DefyInscriptionBlog