Sleep in on a Sunday Morning
Jan. 7th, 2009 10:40 pmYeah, I just updated, but this is so awesome it deserves its own post.
Atheists send their own message, on 800 buses. Seems a lot of Londoners have gotten fed up with religious advertising around their city, and have decided to take up their own ads. Awesome.
But US atheists are holding their own on the awesome stakes, with ads saying 'Why believe in a god?" over a picture of a man in a Santa suit. "Just be good for goodness' sake."' However, the Aussies are not doing too well - I like their slogan best of all (Atheism: Sleep in on Sunday mornings), but permission for the ads was refused. Not cool :(
But possibly winning, or at least tying, in the awesomneess stakes, is the response from at least one church. Not fire, brimstone, and threats of damnation, but welcoming the campaign as a way to get people to discuss God.
Public debate on religion, carried out on the side of a bus. I love it.
And all this is made even more awesome because I can't even hear the words 'bus ads' without thinking of Moonlight. Ah, fandom. Ever with the odd (and amusing) associations.
Atheists send their own message, on 800 buses. Seems a lot of Londoners have gotten fed up with religious advertising around their city, and have decided to take up their own ads. Awesome.
But US atheists are holding their own on the awesome stakes, with ads saying 'Why believe in a god?" over a picture of a man in a Santa suit. "Just be good for goodness' sake."' However, the Aussies are not doing too well - I like their slogan best of all (Atheism: Sleep in on Sunday mornings), but permission for the ads was refused. Not cool :(
But possibly winning, or at least tying, in the awesomneess stakes, is the response from at least one church. Not fire, brimstone, and threats of damnation, but welcoming the campaign as a way to get people to discuss God.
Public debate on religion, carried out on the side of a bus. I love it.
And all this is made even more awesome because I can't even hear the words 'bus ads' without thinking of Moonlight. Ah, fandom. Ever with the odd (and amusing) associations.
Hmm. It appears Doctor Who fandom has broken my friends page. Vocal lot.
Slightly belated Happy Holidays to you all, and I hope everyone had a great New Years! I bring evidence of our own celebrations - yes, we could have fought the crowds to the fireworks, but this was more fun.
Over the past few weeks I've read a great many books, watched a lot of TV shows (and is anyone else watching Leverage? If not, you should be), and above all, done far too much travelling. But it's back to the grindstone tomorrow, I guess. *sigh*
Slightly belated Happy Holidays to you all, and I hope everyone had a great New Years! I bring evidence of our own celebrations - yes, we could have fought the crowds to the fireworks, but this was more fun.
Over the past few weeks I've read a great many books, watched a lot of TV shows (and is anyone else watching Leverage? If not, you should be), and above all, done far too much travelling. But it's back to the grindstone tomorrow, I guess. *sigh*
(no subject)
Sep. 15th, 2008 10:36 pmIt's so good to be back with my internet connection! *hugs internet*
Generally, I like that my job involves a reasonable amount of travel; I like going places, and the combination of plane flights and forcible separation from the internet means that I get a chance to make inroads in my depressing large to-read pile of actual, physical books. But every so often - like when you've been to 5 states in 2 weeks - it's really nice to get back home.
Still, I did make an impressive dent in my book stack. Finished all the Miles Vorkosigan books (except for the first two books about Cordelia, which I have yet to order from Amazon since it is bloody impossible to find any Miles books in Australia), and am up to the last Dresden Files book (and I think this is one of the rare series which has improved steadily as it progresses - I liked the first few well enough, but I'm loving the later ones).
Combine that with travelling across to Western Australia for the first time, actually figuring out how to use some of the functions on my fancy new camera for the requisite tourist-snaps (5 functions down, 300 to go), and attending two conferences, and I've had a reasonably productive few weeks.
Recs tomorrow, I think. Or perhaps Wednesday, since I have a dinner tomorrow night. We'll see. *yawn*
Generally, I like that my job involves a reasonable amount of travel; I like going places, and the combination of plane flights and forcible separation from the internet means that I get a chance to make inroads in my depressing large to-read pile of actual, physical books. But every so often - like when you've been to 5 states in 2 weeks - it's really nice to get back home.
Still, I did make an impressive dent in my book stack. Finished all the Miles Vorkosigan books (except for the first two books about Cordelia, which I have yet to order from Amazon since it is bloody impossible to find any Miles books in Australia), and am up to the last Dresden Files book (and I think this is one of the rare series which has improved steadily as it progresses - I liked the first few well enough, but I'm loving the later ones).
Combine that with travelling across to Western Australia for the first time, actually figuring out how to use some of the functions on my fancy new camera for the requisite tourist-snaps (5 functions down, 300 to go), and attending two conferences, and I've had a reasonably productive few weeks.
Recs tomorrow, I think. Or perhaps Wednesday, since I have a dinner tomorrow night. We'll see. *yawn*
Nothing every changes
Aug. 24th, 2008 11:52 pmI think I am forever doomed to associate Olympic closing ceremonies with studying; in 2000, I was studying for the HSC* (and ask me how bitter I am that I couldn't go to the games because of it), in 2004, I had undergrad uni assignments, and now, 2008, I am frantically cramming for postgrad exams. Funny, how some things never change.
*Higher School certificate, for non-Aussies. Massive, massive exams at the end of secondary school, which have probably cause more nervous breakdowns than all other exams in our state combined. The degree those exams are hyped is unbelievable.
*Higher School certificate, for non-Aussies. Massive, massive exams at the end of secondary school, which have probably cause more nervous breakdowns than all other exams in our state combined. The degree those exams are hyped is unbelievable.
An ill-omned name
May. 27th, 2008 09:32 pmOK, the company that decided to call their safety-and-risk management tool after a greek prophet cursed to never be believed? Not exactly the attitude I'd be looking to encourage, really. Or perhaps that's one of those pesky engineering things, expecting people to actually pay attention to the risk register? On the other hand, the name is depressingly accurate.
On a completely different note, may I remind everyone who hasn't yet voted that the LJ advisory board elections are being held right now? You can vote here, and... I can't find the links to the full list of candidate platforms (too many bloody tabs open - I love tabbed browsing, but sometimes it just enables my multi-page disorganisation!). Anyway, the platforms of the three leading 'fannish' candidates have just been reposted to to![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fandom_votes, so I'm going to be lazy and link there instead.
GO! VOTE!
And since its just been brought to my attention that the US doesn't use the preferential voting system, I suggest anyone confused takes a quick peak at this explanation.
~
On a completely different note, may I remind everyone who hasn't yet voted that the LJ advisory board elections are being held right now? You can vote here, and... I can't find the links to the full list of candidate platforms (too many bloody tabs open - I love tabbed browsing, but sometimes it just enables my multi-page disorganisation!). Anyway, the platforms of the three leading 'fannish' candidates have just been reposted to to
fandom_votes, so I'm going to be lazy and link there instead. GO! VOTE!
And since its just been brought to my attention that the US doesn't use the preferential voting system, I suggest anyone confused takes a quick peak at this explanation.
~
My current assignment is on the Anonymous vs Scientology stuff, and I've just had to include a reference to the Project Chanology Encyclopedia Dramatica page.
.... My academic essay is referencing Encylopedia dramatica. Is there an accepted academic way of writing 'reference NSFW - read at your own risk'? *head desk*
I guess it could be worse. I could have had to reference 4chan.
.... My academic essay is referencing Encylopedia dramatica. Is there an accepted academic way of writing 'reference NSFW - read at your own risk'? *head desk*
I guess it could be worse. I could have had to reference 4chan.
How I spent my evening
May. 22nd, 2008 06:57 pmDENTIST: Just relax.
ME: Know what helps me to relax? NOT HAVING POWER TOOLS STUCK IN MY MOUTH.
Ah, wisdom teeth. Incontrovertible proof against the 'theory' of Intelligent Design.
ME: Know what helps me to relax? NOT HAVING POWER TOOLS STUCK IN MY MOUTH.
Ah, wisdom teeth. Incontrovertible proof against the 'theory' of Intelligent Design.
Ugh. I'm feeling unmotivated and unsocial these days, and I'm not sure why. Just.. general apathy, or something. Which sucks, 'cause I've had three days off (yay for long weekends) and yet have achieved absolutely nothing, fannish or otherwise.
Fic-wise, I've been trying to work on the crossover, but it's tough going. The pacing is kicking my ass (at this stage I can't even figure out if I have too many plot points or too little!), the POV is causing problems, and the whole thing is in some sort of weird tension between thinky-and-charactery-fic and action-adventure-plot-fic, and I can't get the balance right.
And my laptop is overheating, so typing is burning my wrists.
Just... GAH to the whole weekend :(
No, wait. This weekend has one redeeming feature; I have discovered there exists LOLCode. This is brilliant and awesome and I would have totally have learnt to code at uni if I could have done it in LOLCat.
Fic-wise, I've been trying to work on the crossover, but it's tough going. The pacing is kicking my ass (at this stage I can't even figure out if I have too many plot points or too little!), the POV is causing problems, and the whole thing is in some sort of weird tension between thinky-and-charactery-fic and action-adventure-plot-fic, and I can't get the balance right.
And my laptop is overheating, so typing is burning my wrists.
Just... GAH to the whole weekend :(
No, wait. This weekend has one redeeming feature; I have discovered there exists LOLCode. This is brilliant and awesome and I would have totally have learnt to code at uni if I could have done it in LOLCat.
Self control - Let's count, shall we?
Jan. 11th, 2008 08:05 pmIn a bid to take my mind off this lack-of-sleep-causing heatwave (can it please be autumn now?), I went to a bookshop today. To buy one (that would be 1) book. Two bookshops and one hour or so later, I left with 7. Um... Oops?
Still, I now have the next two Temeraire books, which shall keep me occupied for at least one day this weekend. The only question is, do I start reading them now, or do I read through all the 'Why I joined OTW' week posts I have open in my browser?
Hang on... Damn you, Naomi Novik. Stop eating all my spare time!
Still, I now have the next two Temeraire books, which shall keep me occupied for at least one day this weekend. The only question is, do I start reading them now, or do I read through all the 'Why I joined OTW' week posts I have open in my browser?
Hang on... Damn you, Naomi Novik. Stop eating all my spare time!
Productivity
Jan. 5th, 2008 11:37 pmLook, Ma, I'm getting things done!
In a bid tobring order to chaos organise my bookmarks, I finally got around to getting a del.icio.us account. I only intend to use it for fic recs for the moment - I'm slowly working my way through my bookmarks, starting from the most recent. It's slow going, because I'm re-reading as I go. Purely for quality control purposes, of course :) (BTW, any experienced users out there know if they support nested tagging? I may have got a little tag-happy... )
On top of that, I rang a friend from out of town, which I've been meaning to do for weeks now, and then managed some editing on that SPN_SW crossover I was rambling about a month or so ago. It's still only about half-done (I haven't even finished the first draft *sigh*), but any progress is better than no progress, right?
Subconsciously, I'm sure all of this activity was prompted by the fact that I only have one more day of holidays left. Why must all good things come to an end?
ETA: In the course of my link-hopping, I came across CrisC on FFN. Writes Rogues-focused fic, so of course I thought immediately off all you Wedge-loving fen on my flist. (Disclaimer - I've only read one of the fics, so I won't vouch for the quality of all of them. The one I read was quite good, action-focused.)
In a bid to
On top of that, I rang a friend from out of town, which I've been meaning to do for weeks now, and then managed some editing on that SPN_SW crossover I was rambling about a month or so ago. It's still only about half-done (I haven't even finished the first draft *sigh*), but any progress is better than no progress, right?
Subconsciously, I'm sure all of this activity was prompted by the fact that I only have one more day of holidays left. Why must all good things come to an end?
ETA: In the course of my link-hopping, I came across CrisC on FFN. Writes Rogues-focused fic, so of course I thought immediately off all you Wedge-loving fen on my flist. (Disclaimer - I've only read one of the fics, so I won't vouch for the quality of all of them. The one I read was quite good, action-focused.)
Still alive. Dead on my feet, but technically alive. *yawn*
Phantom was brilliant, and Anthony Warlow was hands down the best Phantom I've seen. He had both the charisma and the voice (and the insanity) to carry the role convincingly. Christine (mental blank on her name, sorry) was fine, marred only by truly dismal directing in 'Point of No Return'.
All in all, money well spent.
As you may have been able to tell by my continued absence, things have been rather hectic, and are looking to continue so for the forseeable future. I'm lurking around a bit, but comments and entries will be sporadic.
But before I slink back into lurkerdom, I just wanted to bring Project Download to your attention, if you haven't heard of it. In order to raise money for some rather expensive surgery,redscorner's is attempting to reach 5 million downloads at megaupload in order to claim one of their rewards. All you have to do is download a .txt file here (direct link).
So click, and keep clicking, and tell your friends. (Only one download from one IP address per day is counted)
Phantom was brilliant, and Anthony Warlow was hands down the best Phantom I've seen. He had both the charisma and the voice (and the insanity) to carry the role convincingly. Christine (mental blank on her name, sorry) was fine, marred only by truly dismal directing in 'Point of No Return'.
All in all, money well spent.
As you may have been able to tell by my continued absence, things have been rather hectic, and are looking to continue so for the forseeable future. I'm lurking around a bit, but comments and entries will be sporadic.
But before I slink back into lurkerdom, I just wanted to bring Project Download to your attention, if you haven't heard of it. In order to raise money for some rather expensive surgery,
redscorner's is attempting to reach 5 million downloads at megaupload in order to claim one of their rewards. All you have to do is download a .txt file here (direct link). So click, and keep clicking, and tell your friends. (Only one download from one IP address per day is counted)
Finally, after much not-checking of the friends list, and possibly doing permanent damage to my eyesight, I have finished the photo project - everything is ordered, now I just have to wait for it all to show up.
Unfortunately, the concerted photo-effort meant that I finished Mini NaNo with a whimper rather than a bang. I met my overall word count goal, but the 'Every day' part was the bit I really wanted to make. Oh well. I have a 3/4 finished draft of my Star Wars/Supernatural crossover, which is looking to turn out to be the longest story I've ever written. Not too shabby.
And tomorrow I'm off to see Phantom in Melbourne! Fantastic *g*
Unfortunately, the concerted photo-effort meant that I finished Mini NaNo with a whimper rather than a bang. I met my overall word count goal, but the 'Every day' part was the bit I really wanted to make. Oh well. I have a 3/4 finished draft of my Star Wars/Supernatural crossover, which is looking to turn out to be the longest story I've ever written. Not too shabby.
And tomorrow I'm off to see Phantom in Melbourne! Fantastic *g*
Election Update
Nov. 24th, 2007 11:51 pmLabour has the majority in the lower house, with a massive swing. Howard is gone. And it's looking likely he's going to lose his seat - only the second time in Australian history the PM hasn't won in his electorate.
Hmm. Harry Potter as PM...
And as an added benefit for my flist, this should be the last time I spam you with election-related posts. At least for the next few years *g*
Hmm. Harry Potter as PM...
And as an added benefit for my flist, this should be the last time I spam you with election-related posts. At least for the next few years *g*
I'm Kevin Rudd - I'm here to rescue you!
Nov. 24th, 2007 12:34 pmEveryone, Aussie or not, should check out this video. As background, today is the federal election in Australia, and while three of the four commercial TV channels are providing live election coverage, channel 10 is showing... The Empire Strikes Back. (Also, Howard is the current PM, while Rudd is the leader of the opposition.)
OMG, I think I just died laughing.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to gojoin the rebellion vote.
OMG, I think I just died laughing.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go
Rambling...
Nov. 22nd, 2007 09:44 pmConferences are exhausting. But they provide excellent freebies, so I guess it evens out *g*
And, since I was there ridiculously early today due to the parking situation, I even had some time to do a little Mini Nano-ing in the morning. Which is especially good, since a combination of my rush to get the photos done in time for pre-christmas book printing, other real life commitments (haircuts yay!) and conference-induced exhaustion, I've been very slack. This weekend is not looking up either - between fulfilling my Civic Duty (Ugh, elections), professional/work development functions (2 in one weekend!) and social stuff I've already committed to, I'm not sure when I'm going to sleep, let along write or finish those photos.
On a less whining note, thanks to everyone who voted or commented on my Crossover poll (over 100 votes!) - it generated some really interesting discussion. When I get some time (Hah!) I intend to go over the poll responses and see if any interesting relationships fall out, but it's going to have to wait for a bit.
Right. Time to type up my words from this morning, and see if I met my goal.
ETA: Typing up those notes kick started a flurry of high-speed writing - 1519 words in less than an hour. Which means this is the first fic of mine to officially break the 10,000 word barrier... *gulp*
And, since I was there ridiculously early today due to the parking situation, I even had some time to do a little Mini Nano-ing in the morning. Which is especially good, since a combination of my rush to get the photos done in time for pre-christmas book printing, other real life commitments (haircuts yay!) and conference-induced exhaustion, I've been very slack. This weekend is not looking up either - between fulfilling my Civic Duty (Ugh, elections), professional/work development functions (2 in one weekend!) and social stuff I've already committed to, I'm not sure when I'm going to sleep, let along write or finish those photos.
On a less whining note, thanks to everyone who voted or commented on my Crossover poll (over 100 votes!) - it generated some really interesting discussion. When I get some time (Hah!) I intend to go over the poll responses and see if any interesting relationships fall out, but it's going to have to wait for a bit.
Right. Time to type up my words from this morning, and see if I met my goal.
ETA: Typing up those notes kick started a flurry of high-speed writing - 1519 words in less than an hour. Which means this is the first fic of mine to officially break the 10,000 word barrier... *gulp*
Looks like my Mini NaNo project might have hit a slight snag, and this time it isn't the still-rapidly-mutating plot-points. I just remember that I was supposed to put together some books of photographs from my holiday as Christmas pressies for the relo's, and that if I want to get them printed and shipped back to Australia I really need to get a move on. It's slow going, mostly because I am very picky when it comes to these types of things, and I foresee it eating up most of my spare time (which is not exactly abundant right now anyway) for the next week or so. I've been at it all day - literally since I got up until now (it's 9:30pm here), with breaks to catch up on Supernatural, of course *g* - and I'm probably not even a third of the way through.
On the other hand, this means that soon I'll be able to spam you all with the long-delayed pictures of my holiday - won't that be fun? *g*
On the other hand, this means that soon I'll be able to spam you all with the long-delayed pictures of my holiday - won't that be fun? *g*
