Traumatised for the last two weeks. It's called Mac-shock. My gorgeous little G4powerbook in its nifty aluminium frame has taken a fall. It's in intensive care undergoing a full body transplant.
At church two Sundays ago, I had it set up the front to show a powerpoint presentation. Had it all cabled up to the projector. The band was in the background practising. 'Soldier of Truth' was warbling away, Tink was hitting the keyboard's and friend of Tink and Soldier, Kaz was backing vocals. "A clean cool sound that is", I thought to myself as I walked across the stage area, carefully avoiding the possum poo offerings that add that little extra something to our Sunday services.
Suddenly some hairy fool dragged his great elephant foot across the mess of cables across the stage and pulled the Mac off its lectern and hit the hard ground with an almighty crash. It was on. It was open. It was running at the time. i was that fool! *Sobs uncontrollably*
I ran across to her, and lo and behold SHE WAS STILL WORKING perfectly! Except there was a great gashed, dent buckling the frame at the front, hard drive corner. You could see the blood and guts ( or their equivalent.)
So in it went for a quote and an OK from the insurance dudes... And like a human physician, IT TAKES FOREVER to schedule elective surgery! So I sit here scrounging keyboards when I can, and realising just how over reliant I am on technology.
tomorrow, i'm off with variouis dudes from church and 'Andrew' to hear a bloke called Brian McLaren talk about how we can do church better in the 21st C. He's ggot cred. I'll let you know how it goes!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Michael Leunig's Controverial Cartoon
Noticed this article about Michael Leunig's
cartoon in the news today. Leunig is a Melbourne 'institution' so it is intruiging to see his work caught up in an international story. Leaving aside the unfiar appropriation of his work; what do you think of the sentiment of the cartoon itself? is it fair? Is the Palestinian plight a sad irony of history/ or is the cartoon plain offensive in contrasting a complex situation with the brutality of Nazi germany?
Leunig's Iranian cartoon competition entry a 'set up'
Melbourne cartoonist, Michael Leunig, says he has been the victim of a hoax involving a cartoon competition in an Iranian newspaper.
One of Iran's popular daily newspapers has started the international competition asking people to submit cartoons about the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide against the Jews in World War II. Iranian newspaper Hamshahri says it wants to test the limits of Western freedom of speech.
According to Hamshahri, they have already received several cartoons, including one from Mr Leunig.Mr Leunig says the email may have come from Australia and he is dismayed by what is a hurtful act.
"I've been set up horribly, maliciously and to me it denotes what it means to stand up against this conflict and this warlike sort of state the world is in and you know, it's difficult," he said.
Mr Leunig says he is not sure who is responsible for the hoax but the email may have come from Australia.
"It could be any number of people - there a number of columnists and bloggers who have been particularly hateful of me for quite a long time and have suggested all sorts of hateful and hateful things towards me," he said.
"The mind jumps towards all these kind of people but I must refrain from imagining anyone in particular - it could be a kid."
Melbourne newspaper The Age says the cartoon has now been removed from the website.
The terms of the competition are that anyone can email or post up to three cartoons each before May 5 on the theme of the Holocaust.
The title of the contest is "The Boundaries of Western Freedom of Speech," and the Hamshahri newspaper hopes that those European papers that printed cartoons insulting the Prophet Mohammed will also publish the winning cartoons about the Holocaust. Taken from the ABC News Online
cartoon in the news today. Leunig is a Melbourne 'institution' so it is intruiging to see his work caught up in an international story. Leaving aside the unfiar appropriation of his work; what do you think of the sentiment of the cartoon itself? is it fair? Is the Palestinian plight a sad irony of history/ or is the cartoon plain offensive in contrasting a complex situation with the brutality of Nazi germany?Leunig's Iranian cartoon competition entry a 'set up'
Melbourne cartoonist, Michael Leunig, says he has been the victim of a hoax involving a cartoon competition in an Iranian newspaper.
One of Iran's popular daily newspapers has started the international competition asking people to submit cartoons about the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide against the Jews in World War II. Iranian newspaper Hamshahri says it wants to test the limits of Western freedom of speech.
According to Hamshahri, they have already received several cartoons, including one from Mr Leunig.Mr Leunig says the email may have come from Australia and he is dismayed by what is a hurtful act.
"I've been set up horribly, maliciously and to me it denotes what it means to stand up against this conflict and this warlike sort of state the world is in and you know, it's difficult," he said.
Mr Leunig says he is not sure who is responsible for the hoax but the email may have come from Australia.
"It could be any number of people - there a number of columnists and bloggers who have been particularly hateful of me for quite a long time and have suggested all sorts of hateful and hateful things towards me," he said.
"The mind jumps towards all these kind of people but I must refrain from imagining anyone in particular - it could be a kid."
Melbourne newspaper The Age says the cartoon has now been removed from the website.
The terms of the competition are that anyone can email or post up to three cartoons each before May 5 on the theme of the Holocaust.
The title of the contest is "The Boundaries of Western Freedom of Speech," and the Hamshahri newspaper hopes that those European papers that printed cartoons insulting the Prophet Mohammed will also publish the winning cartoons about the Holocaust. Taken from the ABC News Online
Friday, February 10, 2006
Is there a God?
There is an interesting post on DBoy's site on tthe exostence of god: Check it out!
http://dboy777.blogspot.com/
http://dboy777.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Ok, so you don't think lost is a straightforward soapie, eh?
Well i found this wonderful primer on how to write your own soapie! By Jennifer Stewart Write101.com
I think LOST is right up there. what do yoy think/
What other rules would you add to Jennifer's list?
A Soapie is just like every other genre of writing - it has its conventions and key elements. A sonnet must have fourteen lines; a Shakespearean drama must have an exposition, a climax and denouement; a Three Act play must have ... well, three acts.
Here's a list of Must Haves if you're planning to write a Soapie:
Number 1
A square-jawed hero - it's absolutely essential that you make it crystal clear in your directions that the actor playing the hero must be able to show the whole gamut of emotions from A to B ( ... sorry, I pinched that line!)
He must be able to look:
a) sexy - this is done by half-closing the eyes and parting the lips
b) anguished - this is done by furrowing the brow
c) puzzled - (this is where you really test the acting abilities of your hero) - the eyes must be half-closed AND the brow must be furrowed (phew ... challenging stuff).
For academy-standard actors, those who know that less is more and that subtlety rules, learning how to twitch that little muscle that runs down the side of the jaw is well worth the effort. Then, as a writer, you simply have to give your directions thus:
Hero (hearing that lover is leaving): You're leaving? Now? (twitches muscle in jaw)
Hero (receiving news that child he thought was his is really his father's): Not mine? (twitch)
Hero (watching plane bearing his wife, mother, new lover and father off to Paris for the weekend): (twitch twitch)
Number 2
Forget the nuclear family with its 2.2 children - family relationships must be as tangled and convoluted as is humanly possible. Allow me to illustrate: Mum and Dad have two grown-up sons; Dad trades Mum in on a younger, spiffier model and has two children with her. Mum hates new wife and vows to bring ruin down upon her pretty, blonde head.
New wife ditches Dad and takes up with son number one (her step-son as it happens ...) Just before the wedding, new wife is in a plane crash and is rescued by ... wait for it ... a billionaire sultan who decides to keep her for his harem.
Hero, being a tad thick, continues to plan the wedding, apparently not realising that a wife is somewhat de rigueur for such events. When the hour of the nuptials arrives, hero decides to cut his losses and marry nearest available female who has been consoling him through recent episodes.
Wedded bliss must then be interrupted by the unexpected return of spiffy blonde. Unperturbed by the fact that she's ditched Dad and missed out on son number one, Spiffy sets her sights on a hat trick and seduces son number two.
Mum, meanwhile, has hatched a plot, with number one son's second-choice wife, to finally rid themselves of Spiffy. Plot must backfire and son number one must ditch second-choice wife and marry Spiffy. (Are you keeping up?)
Now toss in a disputed paternity for one of Spiffy and Dad's children - could it be that son number one is the father? (While Spiffy was married to Dad, she was already making it a family affair.)
Number 3
Any baby of disputed parentage must have a birthmark. It helps enormously if the birthmark can take the form of a symbol of some sort - a heart, a cross, the Golden Arches perhaps?
This birthmark has only ever been seen by the natural mother, the adopting mother and the nurse who was present at the birth but who has since left the country for an exotic location.
The baby, naturally, has been secretly adopted by a key member of the family who must be kept on tenterhooks in case someone discovers that the baby isn't really hers.
Number 4
Despite the advances made in telecommunications, and the various devices used by characters in every episode - mobile phones, telephones, hands-free phones, lap-top computers etc - it's imperative that every vital phone call goes unanswered. In fact the only person who ever hears the phone ringing on these occasions is the camera-man, and he knows exactly where the ringing is coming from.
Number 5
It goes without saying that every character must be either a Mover or a Shaker. Normal human beings do not a Soapie make.
The medical profession is always a good choice - plenty of opportunities for your hero to look anguished and puzzled here - and there's nothing like a white uniform to get the pulses racing. The Law too allows you scope for intrigue and passion. But the hands-down winning field has to be Fashion - no other background gives you quite the same scope to deck out the heroines in flash frocks or to liven up the settings with foreign locations.
Number 6
One or more medical emergencies are required, preferably occurring at a crucial point in the plot - before a court case, prior to an important meeting, when a birth is imminent. Don't feel at all inhibited here - who knows what advances medical science is going to make? Be in the vanguard of modern technology and technique.
It's quite permissible for your hero or heroine to die at the end of one episode and then to miraculously come back to life in the next (see "advances in medical science" above). In Soapies, unlike real life, death is not always permanent.
Number 7
On the subject of medical emergencies ... don't overlook the dramatic potential of amnesia. It's an undisputed law that a hit on the head will cause amnesia and a similar hit on the head (after a suitable passage of time) will cure it. The amnesia is of a special kind, it never causes the victim to forget how she did her hair or how she applied her make up, only who she is.
Number 8
Some criminal activity is, of course, essential. A stalker is good - giving ample opportunities for your heroine to be seen walking around in a flimsy negligee; a hunky cat burglar adds a little spice if he's hurt while getting away and forced to take off his shirt while the heroine (still wearing that flimsy negligee) dabs cotton wool soaked in that lotion that causes grown men to grimace, on his brow.
Best of all, however, is a kidnapping. And best of all kidnappings are the ones that nap kids! For the ultimate plot twist, have the kidnapper take the child of disputed parentage (come on now ... keep up ... remember the birthmark?) If the kidnapper happens to have connections to the nurse (remember her?) and the billionaire sultan (you must remember him) and be doing all this because ... but I don't want to give you too many ideas ...
Number 9
All your characters will be self-educated - they must be, because none of them ever goes to school, not even the little children. This is just as well, since it provides excellent training for their later lives when none of them ever actually works. They'll all spend a great deal of time organising meetings and conferences and flying around the world, but no-one ever really does anything.
Number 10
All your characters must have a fondness for talking to themselves, expressing all their innermost thoughts, deepest desires and dastardly plots - but only when the one person in the whole world they don't want to hear them is standing outside the half-opened door or under the half-opened window.
Good luck!
Well i found this wonderful primer on how to write your own soapie! By Jennifer Stewart Write101.com
I think LOST is right up there. what do yoy think/
What other rules would you add to Jennifer's list?
A Soapie is just like every other genre of writing - it has its conventions and key elements. A sonnet must have fourteen lines; a Shakespearean drama must have an exposition, a climax and denouement; a Three Act play must have ... well, three acts.
Here's a list of Must Haves if you're planning to write a Soapie:
Number 1
A square-jawed hero - it's absolutely essential that you make it crystal clear in your directions that the actor playing the hero must be able to show the whole gamut of emotions from A to B ( ... sorry, I pinched that line!)
He must be able to look:
a) sexy - this is done by half-closing the eyes and parting the lips
b) anguished - this is done by furrowing the brow
c) puzzled - (this is where you really test the acting abilities of your hero) - the eyes must be half-closed AND the brow must be furrowed (phew ... challenging stuff).
For academy-standard actors, those who know that less is more and that subtlety rules, learning how to twitch that little muscle that runs down the side of the jaw is well worth the effort. Then, as a writer, you simply have to give your directions thus:
Hero (hearing that lover is leaving): You're leaving? Now? (twitches muscle in jaw)
Hero (receiving news that child he thought was his is really his father's): Not mine? (twitch)
Hero (watching plane bearing his wife, mother, new lover and father off to Paris for the weekend): (twitch twitch)
Number 2
Forget the nuclear family with its 2.2 children - family relationships must be as tangled and convoluted as is humanly possible. Allow me to illustrate: Mum and Dad have two grown-up sons; Dad trades Mum in on a younger, spiffier model and has two children with her. Mum hates new wife and vows to bring ruin down upon her pretty, blonde head.
New wife ditches Dad and takes up with son number one (her step-son as it happens ...) Just before the wedding, new wife is in a plane crash and is rescued by ... wait for it ... a billionaire sultan who decides to keep her for his harem.
Hero, being a tad thick, continues to plan the wedding, apparently not realising that a wife is somewhat de rigueur for such events. When the hour of the nuptials arrives, hero decides to cut his losses and marry nearest available female who has been consoling him through recent episodes.
Wedded bliss must then be interrupted by the unexpected return of spiffy blonde. Unperturbed by the fact that she's ditched Dad and missed out on son number one, Spiffy sets her sights on a hat trick and seduces son number two.
Mum, meanwhile, has hatched a plot, with number one son's second-choice wife, to finally rid themselves of Spiffy. Plot must backfire and son number one must ditch second-choice wife and marry Spiffy. (Are you keeping up?)
Now toss in a disputed paternity for one of Spiffy and Dad's children - could it be that son number one is the father? (While Spiffy was married to Dad, she was already making it a family affair.)
Number 3
Any baby of disputed parentage must have a birthmark. It helps enormously if the birthmark can take the form of a symbol of some sort - a heart, a cross, the Golden Arches perhaps?
This birthmark has only ever been seen by the natural mother, the adopting mother and the nurse who was present at the birth but who has since left the country for an exotic location.
The baby, naturally, has been secretly adopted by a key member of the family who must be kept on tenterhooks in case someone discovers that the baby isn't really hers.
Number 4
Despite the advances made in telecommunications, and the various devices used by characters in every episode - mobile phones, telephones, hands-free phones, lap-top computers etc - it's imperative that every vital phone call goes unanswered. In fact the only person who ever hears the phone ringing on these occasions is the camera-man, and he knows exactly where the ringing is coming from.
Number 5
It goes without saying that every character must be either a Mover or a Shaker. Normal human beings do not a Soapie make.
The medical profession is always a good choice - plenty of opportunities for your hero to look anguished and puzzled here - and there's nothing like a white uniform to get the pulses racing. The Law too allows you scope for intrigue and passion. But the hands-down winning field has to be Fashion - no other background gives you quite the same scope to deck out the heroines in flash frocks or to liven up the settings with foreign locations.
Number 6
One or more medical emergencies are required, preferably occurring at a crucial point in the plot - before a court case, prior to an important meeting, when a birth is imminent. Don't feel at all inhibited here - who knows what advances medical science is going to make? Be in the vanguard of modern technology and technique.
It's quite permissible for your hero or heroine to die at the end of one episode and then to miraculously come back to life in the next (see "advances in medical science" above). In Soapies, unlike real life, death is not always permanent.
Number 7
On the subject of medical emergencies ... don't overlook the dramatic potential of amnesia. It's an undisputed law that a hit on the head will cause amnesia and a similar hit on the head (after a suitable passage of time) will cure it. The amnesia is of a special kind, it never causes the victim to forget how she did her hair or how she applied her make up, only who she is.
Number 8
Some criminal activity is, of course, essential. A stalker is good - giving ample opportunities for your heroine to be seen walking around in a flimsy negligee; a hunky cat burglar adds a little spice if he's hurt while getting away and forced to take off his shirt while the heroine (still wearing that flimsy negligee) dabs cotton wool soaked in that lotion that causes grown men to grimace, on his brow.
Best of all, however, is a kidnapping. And best of all kidnappings are the ones that nap kids! For the ultimate plot twist, have the kidnapper take the child of disputed parentage (come on now ... keep up ... remember the birthmark?) If the kidnapper happens to have connections to the nurse (remember her?) and the billionaire sultan (you must remember him) and be doing all this because ... but I don't want to give you too many ideas ...
Number 9
All your characters will be self-educated - they must be, because none of them ever goes to school, not even the little children. This is just as well, since it provides excellent training for their later lives when none of them ever actually works. They'll all spend a great deal of time organising meetings and conferences and flying around the world, but no-one ever really does anything.
Number 10
All your characters must have a fondness for talking to themselves, expressing all their innermost thoughts, deepest desires and dastardly plots - but only when the one person in the whole world they don't want to hear them is standing outside the half-opened door or under the half-opened window.
Good luck!
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Lost in Lost??
Is it just me, or is 'Lost' the most sophisticated con ever perpetuated on the soapie market?
It is just a soapie: there is no plot, nor resolution, each episode is manipulated to create unresolved tension which is then dispensed with in the following episode, which in turn leads nowhere.
The character linkages are boardering on the ridiculously implausible, as are the implied religious and metaphysical undertones... It feels ALMOST as if something deeply seriuos and meaningful is being played out - but it isn't.
The old flashback device is shamelessly manipulated to create the illusion of genuine significance, keeping viewers believing that the relationships mean something. It is JUST A SOAPIE!
It feels like a con perpetrated on the terminally curious!
Entertainment with no nutrious value - chinese takeaway for the mental arteries!
Go on, you lot, get stuck into me :) ...
*Shuts eyes tightly and grimaces*
*Has flashback sequence!*
It is just a soapie: there is no plot, nor resolution, each episode is manipulated to create unresolved tension which is then dispensed with in the following episode, which in turn leads nowhere.
The character linkages are boardering on the ridiculously implausible, as are the implied religious and metaphysical undertones... It feels ALMOST as if something deeply seriuos and meaningful is being played out - but it isn't.
The old flashback device is shamelessly manipulated to create the illusion of genuine significance, keeping viewers believing that the relationships mean something. It is JUST A SOAPIE!
It feels like a con perpetrated on the terminally curious!
Entertainment with no nutrious value - chinese takeaway for the mental arteries!
Go on, you lot, get stuck into me :) ...
*Shuts eyes tightly and grimaces*
*Has flashback sequence!*
Monday, February 06, 2006
Poem of the Day
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when serves,
Or lose our ventures.
(Julius Caesar IV,iii,217)
***********
What do you think? is this right? is there such a tide?
Are there Sliding Door scenarios? Critical moments on which hang our destinies?
***********
Frodo: I know what I must do, it's just that... I'm afraid to do it.
Galadriel: Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
***********
Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when serves,
Or lose our ventures.
(Julius Caesar IV,iii,217)
***********
What do you think? is this right? is there such a tide?
Are there Sliding Door scenarios? Critical moments on which hang our destinies?
***********
Frodo: I know what I must do, it's just that... I'm afraid to do it.
Galadriel: Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
***********
Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Favorite Narnia quote!
Love this reminder:
"Both the children were looking up into the Lion's face as he spoke these words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake, before.
And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well.
Next minute all three of them... came tumbling into the noise, heat, and hot smells of London."
Can anyone pick where it's from?
"Both the children were looking up into the Lion's face as he spoke these words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake, before.
And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well.
Next minute all three of them... came tumbling into the noise, heat, and hot smells of London."
Can anyone pick where it's from?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)