The Cassandra Complex

So maybe there's something to that bouquet magic after all... :D

I did a "character sketch" (ie photo manipulation; that's the only sort of sketch I can do!) of a character I was thinking of playing in Inkling's new Steampunk game. The concept is that she is the widow of an occult investigator; she didn't know what he was into. After he ran afoul of some supernatural beastie, she decided it was jolly well time to find out!

I was thinking of making her a psychic too - something her husband didn't know! ;)

So yesterday I fell over in the kitchen.

Our tiled areas have this lovely white tiling that looks great when it’s just been swept two seconds before, but has the disadvantages of showing up every speck of dirt and of being perilously slippery when wet. Or even damp, or the memory of damp.

As I demonstrated yesterday. Landed on my right hand side; the back of my right thigh feels like one huge bruise. It’s in the exact right position so that if I sit down on the toilet the seat runs neatly across the length of the entire pain area.

On the bright side, I was holding a steak knife and fork in my hand when I fell, so it could’ve been a hell of a lot worse.

I can see how elderly people with brittle bones can manage to shatter themselves pulling stunts like that. And given how clumsy I can be, maybe I ought to start saving for that walking frame now...

A new manip. Spent hours on it but at the same time because the basic foundation of the picture is the same as the original - which you can see here - it sort of feels more like practice than something "real" to me.

But she makes me think of Evil Willow, so it can't be all bad. ;)


On a different note, M and I finally finished watching the boxed set of the first season of Lost that we got a year or so ago (whenever it was it came out). Been very slack! It was cool though. Guess I'll have to buy season two now so I can see what happens next - I can't be bothered trying to keep up with it (or anything) on TV.

Got Warcraftin' to do, consarnit!

Speaking of which, our guild downed a new boss last Wednesday, a pissed off dragon critter called Razorgore. It was fun! :)

Don't look now, but I think the ACT Liberal party might also write headlines for the Daily Telegraph or one of its brethren.

Here are some pearlers from their website.

"Ebenezer Stanhope?"
"Stanhope Government Celebrates World Teachers' Day By Abusing Teachers"
"Stanhope Government Savages Sports Grants"
"Tharwa: Canberra's Orphan Child"
"Waiting Lists Up Again; What Are You Doing, Minister?"
"Whose Rights Are At Work - Not ACT Voters"
"Stanhope Trying to Demonize [sic] Christian Lobby on Same Sex Relationship Law"
"A Tale of Two Governments - What a Difference In Economic Management!"
"Has Grassland Earless Dragon Left Land Swap Legless?"
"Weston Creek Being Burnt Again!"

And, my absolute favourite:

"Tidings of Murder: Minister Declares Open Season On Magpies"

ZOMG!

I was trying to find out what the ACT Liberal party policy is with regards to the closure of schools in the ACT (given they closed schools in 1990 - sniffing around for the scent of hypocrisy that good ol Gary accused the Labor party of), but I have to admit, if it's there, I couldn't get past the cheesy headlines enough to find it!

My last post for this evening - I need to go and fix some food before a WoW raid in 45 minutes.

Here's my latest manip:



You can see the dA submission here.

I'd be interested in getting some feedback. I haven't had many comments yet, and no one has given me feedback on particular aspects of the picture without me having to point them out first...

Yes, I am being cryptic! :P

I got tagged by Mikey, so here goes.

1-Do you like the look and the contents of your blog?

I prefer the new layout to what I had before but the header on this template is lame. I should sit down and fix it one day.

As far as the contents go, some posts I don't mind and others are meh.

2-Does your family know about your blog?

Nope.

3-Can you tell your friends about your blog? Do you consider it a private thing?

Yeah, they know. :)

4-Do you just read the blogs of those who comment on your blog? or you try to discover new blogs?

I read the blogs of my friends, pretty much. Which isn't much work because most of them hardly ever update. :D

Oh, I also don't read LiveJournals. I've tried it but never seem to - probably because I can't browse them on my lunch break at work (firewall). So if you're a friend and I don't read your blog, that's probably why! :P

5-Did your blog positively affect (sic) your mind? Give an example.

Er. Yes. Sometimes it can be cathartic, having a bit of a rant. Eg my recent government post, or the one I put up after I had my cat put down. *sniffle*

6-What does the number of visitors to your blog mean? Do you use a traffic counter?

Not a lot, and no.

7-Did you imagine how other bloggers look like?

Most of them I know. Except Skarnz. And I've seen his WoW-toon. What do you mean he isn't a tall woman with long ears and purple hair?! :O

8-Do you think blogging has any real benefit?

Only to me. I don't think I say anything that makes any real difference to anyone else.

9-Do you think that the blogosphere is a stand alone community separated from the real world?

Not at all. If it was, people wouldn't get offended by what others write.

10-Do some political blogs scare you? Do you avoid them?

I don't read too many that are political - just Mikey's, and I tend to agree with him. But I can easily imagine that there are some out there that would scare me.

11-Do you think that criticizing your blog is useful?

I am happy to debate things that I post in my blog. And constructive criticism is always beneficial.

12-Have you ever thought about what would happen to your blog in case you died?

Not really. It would stop, I imagine. :P

13-Which blogger had the greatest impression on you?

Mikey, because of the few blogs I read he posts the most! :)

14-Which blogger do you think is the most similar to you?

I know almost all of them, so I'd have to say Capital Mum. She's a girl! 8)

15-Name a song you want to listen to?

Something with some base.

Tagged - Skarnz, Capital Mum and Cthu1hu :)

My own attempts at the six word story challenge:

She caught the bouquet. He ran.

Inspired by recent events! :P

Out of coffee?! Colleagues in danger!

Sadly this is true. I am not a morning person. My supervisor has learned not to talk to me till I've got a coffee in hand!

Feel free to post your own stories in the comments. :)

I was having a natter with Cthu1hu at lunch on one of our regular walks, and he mentioned that Wired had just published an interesting article of six word stories by various authors, including the fantabulous Joss Whedon. So I went looking for it and found it here.

In Wired's words, here's the reason for the contest: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work. So we asked sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves.

Here are my favourites from the list:

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon (my hero!)

Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
- Eileen Gunn

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
- Alan Moore (hehe, clever)

We kissed. She melted. Mop please!
- James Patrick Kelly

It’s behind you! Hurry before it
- Rockne S. O’Bannon

Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.
- Richard Powers

I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ?
- Neil Gaiman

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
- Orson Scott Card

Kirby had never eaten toes before.
- Kevin Smith

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison

Batman Sues Batsignal: Demands Trademark Royalties.
- Cory Doctorow

Bush told the truth. Hell froze.
- William Gibson

whorl. Help! I'm caught in a time
- Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel

God to Earth: “Cry more, noobs!”
- Marc Laidlaw (hahahahaha!)

Help! Trapped in a text adventure!
- Marc Laidlaw

Bang postponed. Not Big enough. Reboot.
- David Brin

Will this do (lazy writer asked)?
- Ken MacLeod

MUD avatars rebel: virtual Independence Day.
- Paul Di Filippo

There were only six words left.
- Gregory Maguire

Starlet sex scandal. Giant squid involved.
- Margaret Atwood

He read his obituary with confusion.
- Steven Meretzky

Steve ignores editor's word limit and
- Steven Meretzky

Dorothy: "Fuck it, I'll stay here."
- Steven Meretzky

(I wrote this rant yesterday, 31 October, but didn't post it till today.)

Over the last couple of days there’s been talk on the news of the government’s latest initiative: that they will be allocating an amount of $20,000 per school ($90m over three years) for chaplains. Apparently our schools have “extensive counseling arrangements”, so this money is “providing and supporting students' spiritual wellbeing and their pastoral care”.

The quotes are by Julie Bishop, the Minister for Education, from the AM transcript yesterday.

This made me cranky; talk about wasting taxpayer money on pushing a religious agenda. Bishop was full of “it's up to the school community to determine if they want the chaplaincy services and also, if they do, what sort of services do they want” style talk. Can you honestly imagine any school that wasn’t founded on the basis of religion coming to a consensus?

What’s more, while I can appreciate that kids aren’t necessarily going to want to talk to their parents about some issues in their lives, if I were a parent I’d want to know that the advice my kid had access to at school was even handed and didn’t have its own religious issues to push.

“Extensive counseling arrangements”? Not when I was at school. Maybe things are different these days – but the few calls I heard on the radio yesterday morning before I had to get out of the car made me think otherwise. I’d rather see the $20k spent on additional, more secular counseling services. Or at least give the schools the choice!

On the drive to work today I got even more cranky, because they were interviewing Tony “I was taught by magnificent, heroic nuns, and they wore the habit, but they certainly had their faces visible” Abbott.

Yes, he really said that.

On the subject of the chaplaincy program, he also said, “We think that religious faith is important. We also think that the faith of our fathers is important. It shouldn't be devalued or downgraded and we are just providing some modest assistance to schools that also think that religious faith is important and want to give their kids access to it.”

Maybe I am being less than charitable in my assumptions, but the “faith of our fathers” comment in line with the nuns comment and the rest of the interview (which was Islam bad, Christianity good) says to me that the government is expecting that, for the most part, this new “initiative” will push a Christian agenda.

After all, schools with more of a mix of faiths are unlikely to agree on what they want and therefore are unlikely to participate. So the government is unlikely to have to pay for something that isn’t the “faith of our fathers” – all the while being able to say it was the choice of the school community in question so it isn’t their fault!

Grr!

Here’s the rest of what Abbott said that boiled my blood this morning:

“I think religion has a very important role in society, but when people enter politics they do so motivated by civic values as much as by religious values. The beauty of Christian social teaching is that it's based on reason, not revelation, and that's why I think that Christians certainly have much to contribute to our political process. There never seems to have been the Islamic equivalent of the Enlightenment. Islam doesn't seem to have a well-developed concept of pluralism, and the separation of church and state. And pluralism and the separation of church and state are central to modern western society. I certainly think it's good to have people of faith in politics, but they've got to understand that in polity such as Australia, positions can only be advanced if they are based [on] reason, if they are based on arguments that are accessible to everyone, not simply arguments that are accessible only to people of a particular religious persuasion.”

GRR! (Did I say that already?)

I hate this government. I hate their religious bias; I hate their support of Guantanamo Bay and their refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol. I hate their industrial relations reforms and their crinkle-eyed leader. And I hate their control of the Senate.

Please god (any god, whoever’s listening), let them lose – or at least lose numbers – at the next election. Let the climate change issues or the interest rates or the industrial relations reforms or something show people that this government isn’t working in their best interests unless they are a rich Christian big business owner!