Here’s the latest Matt and Sol’s Favourite Things in which we sit in the tree house and talk about Super Mario Galaxy and Sol’s upcoming birthday. We recorded this a week or two ago and we already have another one in the pipeline so stay tuned.
Music is John Coltrane’s Favourite Things and They Might Be Giants Birdhouse in Your Soul.
Today is Ada Lovelace Day as explained on The Memes of Production and I would like to participate to such a worthy cause but apart from Ada Lovelace (as made famous to all sci-fi geeks in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s Difference Engine) I can’t think of anyone apart from my grade 11 and 12 maths teacher Mrs Harris. However I think her story (told from my perspective) is illustrative of the challenges faced by women in science and engineering.
Mrs Harris had long brown hair, wore big chunky brown leather sandals and long floral dresses. She was gentle in the classroom which meant that her classes tended to be out of control. I was amazed that she was still teaching after one term at our school. The boys ridiculed her both in and out of the classroom, making fun of her unshaven legs and armpits and parodying her imagined hippy lifestyle.
Of course I was sitting up the front doing my best to get my head around eigenvectors and matrix transformations and I decided then that I wasn’t going to join in the bullying. I think there were just a handful of students that might have kept Mrs Harris at that school and made it worth it for her.
When she formed the gardening group, I joined up and we spent a lunchtime each week in the greenhouse propagating native trees to be planted in the school grounds. I remember one time a student came to the group announcing that the janitor was cutting down our trees. We rushed to the scene to find stumps sticking out of the ground where our trees had once been. Mrs Harris and the big burly male janitor had a stand-off that got pretty heated and we were worried about how Mrs Harris was holding the garden pick that she had happened to be carrying but she made the janitor apologise to us. (A friend remarked later that he thought she was going to pick a fight – har har har)
My involvement in the garden group paid off in the end because Mrs Harris recomended me when one of her friends needed some cheap labour at her native plant nursery. That first job was welcome pocket money which I wasted on Mars Bars, Coca Cola and guitar parts.
I realise Mrs Harris is not exactly a ground-breaker. There are plenty of women maths and science teachers in the world and much of what she faced was as much because she was bit of a hippy than because of her gender. It does show that at least back then, women were expected to remain in some pretty narrow cultural spaces in the workplace. There were male teachers at our school who wore big beards and sandals too (it was North Queensland which has its share of tree huggers) but they didn’t receive half as much derision. I remember asking myself why didn’t she just change the way she dressed and shave and do what she needed to do to fit in? But she didn’t compromise one thing during her time at my school and she knew when to pick a fight and when to leave the swine to their muck.
Hi and welcome to my live blog of tonights election. We’ve plugged the digital tuner into Steph’s laptop because Sol is hogging the TV to play Wii. Flossy is watching Australia’s Funniest Home Videos – it’s content is about right for a nine month old. The coverage hasn’t actually started yet of course. I’m off to give Flossy a bath.
We voted down at the school at about 4pm. I accepted all the how to vote cards (LNP had two bases to make sure they didn’t miss anyone) and got through straight away – no lining up at that time of day. Sol wanted to know where the boat was (“it’s vote not boat”).
Nine News says LNP and Labour neck and neck and will be focussing on whether Pauline makes a come back.
I’m tracking the #qldelection tag on twitter. Courier Mail has reported fake how to vote cards
Nine News starting, audio grab of Pauline still doing the “I don’t like it”. Need to put Flossy to bed now while Nine shows various politicians voting.
And I’m back, she stayed asleep yay!
Steph can’t get through to order a Pizza but we have leftover Thai anyway. It looks like #qldelection09 is a better tag to follow. Now Steph has gotten through but ordered from the shop that has the carpark from hell: why do people feel the need to cruise their big hot cars in such a small car-park? That and the people-movers taking ten years to reverse out.
Back with Pizza and I survived – luckily the huge group of skanky teenagers were hanging around outside the bottleshop (drinking highly taxed alcopops?) and not near the Pizza place.
Antony Green: It’s a swing but not a massive swing
Kerry O’Brien: So what do you make of it
Antony Green: It’s a swing but not a massive swing
Kerry O’Brien: And how do you see it shaping up
Antony Green: It’s a swing but not a massive swing
Thanks for the link Noiseboy
News Update: Latest death in Afghanistan becomes more real when they release details such as that his wife was expecting their first child. Also someone thinks they have found Charles Kingsford Smith’s plane. Flossy is awake again with fart attack and Sol needs to go for a bath.
Twitter: benzoenator: haha! antony green: “I think the government is back”. i wonder if he would have said that if he knew that he was still live..
Had to go and bath Sol, put him to bed and put Flossy back to sleep. While I was gone, most media outlets have called a Labour win. Pauline almost certainly not won (Beaudesert staying LNP). Interest now is in Ronan Lee, the Indooroopilly member who defected from Labour to Greens. The LNP member is ahead at the moment but Lee has won a record number of Greens votes.
Happy to see Anastasia has kept Inala (our electorate).
Feeling overwhelmed trying to keep up with all the twitter streams, blogs and telly. Antony Green has just mentioned the twittering of the election and asks whether we have something better to do? Sorry to be talking about you Antony! John Gunders just linked to a live tally on Twtter, not being that familiar with all the electorates issues, I’ll refrain from parroting the analysis I’m hearing on radio (Flossy likes to listen to 612 ABC while she goes to sleep).
ABC is interviewing the losers – always more interesting than the winners in my opinion. Supporters all cheer in that heartbroken way and leader puts a brave face on it.
Ooh goody, the chamber distribution diagrams (recalling all the Chaser rip-offs: The Family first where the chamber turns into a pentacostal worship service and the Peter Garret one where one of the red figures is rocking out).
Annastacia has p0wned Inala with 72%. Steph has met her and says she’s an excellent member. She has a lot to gloat about like how she personally helps people find housing and generally gets involved personally with helping individual people. She is a powerful speaker and can say a lot without rambling on and can reach a diverse group of people. Enjoys her work like handing out the school badges at the local school.
Having a quick surf through the other stations to check out their graphics – might be more exciting than ABCs. Channel 9 is dark backgrounds and dark suits like a funeral. Channel 7 is Vicar of Dibley: “Men’s bottoms are not good – they are so ugly!”. Right. Channel 10 is some movie or other – didn’t recognise it. Damn – I was looking forward to ridiculing the Channel 7 coverage.
Twitter appears to have died. Typical!
Barnaby Joyce having a teary about how Green preferences always go to Labour. Derr.
Lawrence Springborg giving rather boring monotone concession speech. Congrats to Anna Bligh, thanks to the team etc… The real winner is cricket. Wish he’d say: “And I’d like to thank my smokin’ hot wife”. Wow, he just made a comment about being an absent dad and claims that father absenteeism is a problem throughout the state! Ends on a note of hope in the swing to LNP. But wait, there’s more: it wasn’t meant to be for tenth time. Will he run again? My days are numbered and it’s up to the party. I accept that it is time to move on and let someone else take the leadership. Will he stay on in parliament: yes. Boring question from journo – already covered it wasn’t meant to be for eleventh time. Blah Blah boring question about future of LNP blah blah of course it’s going to keep going! Something about youth vote: nah it’s about health. Apparently Labour did telemarketing to change people’s opinions! Ooh now he’s getting fired up. Oops must watch that schadenfreude.
Woohoo! Here comes Anna the first elected female premier in Australia. She was the education minister (like Laura Rosylyn on BSG eh?) then she was the treasurer and took over from Blockrocking Beattie when he resigned. After being mobbed by the crowd, she took the stand. The smile is just about jumping off her face! Paraphrasing speech (may be grossly less than accurate): Step up x 3, clear mandate x 100. Props to Lawrence Springborg for getting LNP together. Good democracy needs good opposition (but not too good). Thanks to the supporters yada yada, better, stronger, stuff we’ve done etc… Secure the dental health huh? Going to work even harder than before (how is this possible?). Thanks to the team. Thanks mum, husband (who is slightly shorter than me) and kids looking after me. Today I start my new job … mandate x 1000. Queensland is the real winner you can count on me (giggle).
(Still Anna answering questions now): This is a big leap for a supposedly backwards state to elect a woman. New cabinet. Hungry for the job. Not an easy ride. Thoughts of losing only made her try harder. Queensland is big and she really had to put her skates on to get around the whole state. She knew she was going to win at 6:50pm no 7:20pm. We need to face down the financial crisis. Elvis style “thankyouvrymuchgnight”.
And with that, I’ll leave the vultures to pick over the remaining seats and sledge each other over the desk. Looks like Ronan lost Indro. Oh but Anna has just sat down for an informal chat with Auntie’s favourite red-head (smile is still out of control – reminds me of when you catch up with a friend who has just fallen in love which I suppose is about how happy she must be). Let’s see if she has anything more substantial to say (since her speech was not much to talk about).
Oil spill was a nightmare. New cabinet: no real clues just they will be fitter, healthier, happier, more productive.
Ok I’m over it now. Thanks for reading and commenting kids!
When we were house hunting a few years back, it was the height of the property boom in Queensland. Prices had been stable for about six months and we had saved up a deposit but then we noticed the market seemed to be moving again so we rushed to buy before it all went up by another 100k. I was not too keen on Forest Lake but it was the only affordable suburb for us that suited the commute to both of our workplaces and I found a house that had a big overgrown yard (the way I like it) so we ended up out here.
I knew there was a bit of stigma around Forest Lake, I had thought it would be a bunch of tiny alottments with identical houses packed together like the opening scenes of Edward Scissorhands. Driving out here, we found the place to be green and, well, “foresty”.
But nothing prepared me for the reaction we would get from so many friends and strangers when we say we live in Forest Lake. It’s not the kind of suburb that people have no opinion on. I often get “way out there?” or “why did you buy there?” (with that downward emphasis on the “there”) and other times people express that the fences are too high or that it’s full of MacMansions. Forest Lake has it’s share of grandiose housing but the majority of houses here are single story and three bedrooms. I agree that every house has a six foot fence around it but then I hear people complain about their neighbours or never talk to their neighbours in other suburbs so why is it considered such a big deal here? Also Forest Lake is not as far out of town as some suburbs on the North side or The Gap. So it takes twenty minutes (forty in peak hour) to get home from the city – a relatively long drive for Brisbane but considered a good time for other cities.
The most annoying slur is that Forest Lake is a dormitory suburb: “everyone leaves for work during the day”. WTF? Can you tell me a suburb where most of the people are sitting at home all day? We know for a fact that there are a lot of retirees and stay-at-home mums in Forest Lake, just go to the shopping centre during the day, it’s full of people. Likewise there are always people going for a stroll on the paths between houses and taking their kids to the park.
Forest Lake does have a high crime rate due to it’s proximity to Inala. Is this the thing that everyone’s trying to talk around but not wanting to directly say?
Maybe it is the values of Forest Lake. People here are obsessed with getting ahead and having the good life. What? None of this makes sense – why is Forest Lake singled out as the suburb that represents these values?
I think the stigma lies in all of the things I mentioned but also in something I’ve been reading about on some friends’ blog The Memes of Production which is the idea of authenticity.
I think authenticity is what most people are trying to get at when they have a go at me about Forest Lake. Forest Lake was created by Delfin ex-nihilo as the theologians would say: from nothing. The lake was carved out of a little creek, the land divided up according to Delfin’s plan. The streets, the lights, the gardens on the round-abouts, the landcaping, the shopping centre, the schools, the sports centre, all were orchestrated by Delfin. This has meant that people view the suburb as artificial and owned by Delfin. When you go to live there, you lose your identity and live the life that Delfin planned for you to live there. I think this is what’s at the heart of the Forest Lake stigma.
Delfin has almost finished developing it’s next big “artificial” suburb out at Springfield Lakes. It seems like they’ve managed to avoid the stigma that Forest Lake has, I’m not sure what they did differently but I suspect it’s they way they’ve marketed without using their name as much.
Watchmen has been out in the theatres for awhile now so I hope you’ve all been to see it. I’ve read reviews that say it can only be understood by fans of the comic but I was able to follow it and I’ve never read the comic so I wouldn’t worry about that. I was a bit worried going in that the violence was going to be of the type that is a kind of pornography for some people and yeah I guess it was in parts but it is used to underscore the story and there is a lot of dialogue between the action scenes so that the movie can actually tell a story rather than just be a series of CGI spectacles inter-spliced with gags, sex and clumsy plot-explaining like so many other action-adventure movies.
Spoilers follow probably.
My take on Watchmen is that it’s the story of how people respond to a flawed world. Or to put it less politely, how people respond to the really fucked up things that human beings do to each other every day.
The first person we meet is The Comedian – as the story unfolds we see him in flashbacks engaged in crimes worse than most of the criminals that he fights. The Comedian embraces Nihilsm and Anomie (I had to look those up), seeing the world, his own life and the life of others as a meaningless cosmic joke. His response is bitter anger, hedonism and senseless violence.
Rorschach / Walter Kovacs our narrator also responds with consuming rage and vengeance. Like The Comedian, he doesn’t believe he can change anything but instead resolves to get as much retribution as he can against those whom he judges.
Rorschach takes us on a tour as the story gets started to introduce us to the cast.
First he visits the Night Owl / Dan Dreiber who has run away from his heroic past. He knows all the crimes happening outside but buries his head in the sand, afraid to act, impotent and disempowered.
Silk Spectre / Laurie Juspeczyk like Night Owl is not too happy to see Rorschach. She is an optimist, putting her faith in the work of others, John / Dr Manhattan, Adrian / Ozymandias and the government. In a way she is also in denial, unable to admit that things might not be as in control as she would like.
Meanwhile Dr Manhattan/ Jonathan Osterman is lost in a state of detachment. The more hurt he is by those around him, the more he retreats and seeks to deconstruct all things around him into their component parts, thus disarming them. He uses the scale of the universe and time to try and minimise the experience of the present which he still seems to be anchored in even if his perception of it is radically non-human.
Finally Ozymandus / Adrian Veidt, the smartest man in the world uses his intellect to control and manipulate. He plans to make a difference but is utterly devoid of faith in the ability of humanity to find peace. Instead he cynically uses the collective psychology of humanity to forge a peace born of necessity and common hatred instead of through learning and understanding.
There is a gestalt to all these characters in the story as they touch each others lives bringing little transformations: Rorschach finds friendship in Dan, Dan finds hope in Laurie, Laurie finds the strength to face her past with John and John finds compassion with the help of Laurie. Adrian is brought down from his throne as his peers find philosophical flaws in his solution and I’m not sure that he learns anything except maybe that he is not as smart as he thinks he is.
And I suppose the movie asks us which of these characters are you? I’m assuming most of you are not psychotic killers which leaves Dan, Laurie, John and Adrian. How do you respond to the inhumanity of man towards man (or woman towards woman or man towards woman or woman towards man)? Disempowerment, hoping someone else will fix it, detachment or seeking control?
All in all, Watchmen was a thought provoking film set within a blow-your-socks-off fantasy action adventure with excellent special effects and a kick-arse soundtrack.
EDITED: got the names right.
Has flickr always had a limit on the number of photos you can have on the site? I’ve noticed recently that I’m limited to 200 photos (as well as the monthly upload limit). I’m sure that never used to be the case. I had a pro account last year so it wasn’t a problem but I don’t use the site that much so I let it lapse. I like flickr’s ajaxy interface but with this limitation, I’m wondering if there are other free photo sharing sites that are more permanent? I’ll probably just upload images into my blog posts from now on since Wordpress seems to handle the resizing stuff itself now. My hosting arrangement here gives me plenty of storage and I doubt my photos will be so popular as to cause my bandwidth to go over the limit. So if you find dead images in this blog when reading through the incredibly engaging archives, it’s probably because they were hosted on flickr.
I was reminded today of some time I spent in India whilst working my first engineering job. The reminder came as I was cruising along Ridge St up the back of Greenslopes doing about 60 when I see some men of Indian ethnicity walking across the road. As there were no cars behind me, I assumed they would stop on the white line and then go behind me but as I got closer, I realised they were going to keep walking right in front of my car. As I slammed the brakes, they thankfully realised that I wasn’t going to stop in time and jumped back out of the way. “Fuck a duck” thought I as I breathed a sigh of relief and gingerly continued on my way (as you can see, my self talk is heavily influenced by the high-brow language of engineers and I face a long uphill battle trying to curb my language around the impressionable 4yrold)
So all this reminded me of the way to cross a road in India. In the towns in India, (at least in Bharuch where I was hanging out) the traffic is usually pretty constant without breaks between cars. 
Furthermore, the concept of pedestrian crossings hasn’t taken off so the only way to cross the road is just to walk very slowly out into the stream of cars and most of the time, the cars will veer around you (usually the cars are doing between 20 and 40 kph). It’s kind of like parting the red sea and the whole time I was there, I was convinced I was going to die every time we had to do it.
Sometimes we got the policeman to stop the traffic for us. That was funny too. In peak hour, a policeman would stand at the intersection outside our hotel and blow his whistle and gesticulate while cars drove on the wrong side of the road, made illegal turns across traffic and generally caused mayhem. We used to really feel sorry for that poor cop who did occasionally manage to get a car to stop so he could write a ticket.
Pictures here are of a family on a moped (that’s a boy, his dad and mum with the baby) and a bus seen doing about 100kph with a guy hanging out of the door (maybe he didn’t pay for his ticket)
[caption id=”attachment_227” align=”alignnone” width=”300” caption=”Crowded bus with passenger hanging out of the door”]
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