Smithology

I finished reading The Marvellous Land of Oz the other day. It’s the sequel to The Wizard of Oz and I think I enjoyed it more even it was just because I wasn’t familiar with the story. So in this book all your favourite characters are back. Well all of them except your favourites: The Lion, Dorothy and Toto don’t show up but the Scarecrow and Nick Chopper the Tin Woodman are back. Instead of Dorothy, we meet Tip, a boy who lives in the care of an aspiring witch Mombi. Tip decides it’s time to clear out when he discovers Mombi cooking up a nasty brew with which she intends to do him harm. As he sets out on his way, he soon picks up an entourage of a stick man with a pumpkin head named Jack, a wooden horse and later, the scarecrow who has been dethroned from the Emerald City by an army of girls who are sick of doing all the work and have decided to have some fun for a change. Tip meets Jin Jur, the leader of the army on his way to the city. As Tip adventures onwards with the scarecrow, we meet up with the Tin Woodman again, an unusual flying creature made from a Gump’s head and some armchairs, Glinda the good witch and a charming Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug (Thoroughly Educated). We also come across many other friends from the first book such as the field mice.

As I mentioned, I enjoyed this book more than The Wizard of Oz because the enjoyment of both of the books comes from the characterisation. Being familiar with the characters in The Wizard of Oz, I didn’t enjoy discovering them so much where as the characters in The Marvellous Land of Oz were fresh and colourful. To me the two most enjoyable characters were H. M. Woggle-Bug T. E. and Jin Jur. The scariest moment was when the party become trapped in a giant nest and have to fight off the malignant birds when they come back to roost however this book seemed much gentler than the first book with no-one being squashed by a falling house or melting to death.

I haven’t experimented with reading this book whilst listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon but if they make a movie from it, I’ll give it a try.

Next in the series is Ozma of Oz which I think I’ll polish off before I start in on Neal Stephenson’s Anathem which I received for my birthday.

Uncategorized books, wizard of oz

I’ve been meaning to wrap up my thoughts on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles now that series 2 has finished with the finale Born to Run. As I mentioned previously the show had a bit of a return to form in the last few episodes as they reintroduced a concept that they seemed to have forgotten about: action.

The other thing I liked about the finale of T:SCC compared to BSG was that they actually followed through on all the things they set up! Yes, it was predictable, they foreshadowed a lot of what would happen in the preceding episodes but still had a twist that will see a major change of the game if they get renewed for season 3.

WARNING: This post contains spoilers, read no further if you care about such nonsense

So to recap, and I am really about to totally spoil it so avert your eyes if you have doubts, in this season, we saw ex FBI agent, James Ellison team up with the undercover liquid T1000 Catherine Weaver to teach morals to The Turk which is now known as John Henry. We saw Cromartie shot to bits and then the “body” finding it’s way to Weaver’s company Zieracorp and integrated with John Henry via a cord in the back of the head. We saw the creepy yet somehow sweet friendship develop between the child-like John Henry and Savannah (the orphaned Zieracorp heiress who doesn’t know her mother has been replaced by a terminator yet we get the feeling she kind of does know on another level). We saw a side plot where Jesse and Riley came back from the future to try and break up John Connor and Cameron (his fem-bot protector terminator). We saw Sarah flip out a bit and go a bit psycho which filled a whole bunch of episodes which only incrementally advanced the plot. We saw Derek (John’s uncle from the future) trying to reconcile the John he knows as a leader with the one he knows as a kid. Very importantly, we found out that there is a faction of terminators in the future who want to preserve the human race and also that there is a faction of humans in the future who don’t like John’s alliance with these terminators (hence the Jesse and Riley mission).

Thematically, the show has stayed pretty solid. One major theme is death and how we deal with death in all it’s forms. There’s the perennial problem that the Connors are desperately aware of doomsday while everyone else carries on around then as if everything will just carry on as normal forever. It’s the problem of denial, the problem of indifference, of the meaningless superficiality with which we live our lives but also with the fleeting meaning that we find in it through our relationships and in the mundanity of everyday interaction. John Connor longs to be a normal kid just hanging out at the beach markets or skipping down to Mexico for the weekend but his life is never that simple. Sarah grapples with the terror that she might have cancer and what that will mean for those who depend on her (ie John and by extension the whole of humanity). Cameron (John’s skanky terminator um friend) grapples with suicide as she is confronted by a malfunctioning “chip” (the chip is really the core computing component that the “mind” of the terminator seems to reside in). In one episode, she quizzes a terminally ill cancer sufferer why he doesn’t take his own life, in another she plants an explosive in her head and gives John the detonator as insurance against the day she reverts to her original programming. In other episodes she struggles with her imperfection as she accidentally kills a bird when she was trying to rescue it from being stuck in the house and worries what other damage she might inadvertently cause.

There were two episodes this season which dealt with death in war, one where Derek lectures some army cadets about what it’s like to be in a battle and having to leave behind a friend’s dead body, this of course foreshadowing his own death later in the season which is sudden and without any heroic sacrifice: Death doesn’t care about meaning or fairness or letting you say good bye, especially in war.

The other recurring theme is motherhood and this is explored from two perspectives: Sarah Connor, mother of John Connor and adopted parent of a teenage terminator and Catherine Weaver, “mother” of John Henry and adopted mother of Savannah. Both struggle with conflicting roles, the role of equipping their charges for survival in the big bad world but also to show tenderness and compassion when they themselves are stretched almost to breaking point. Well actually Catherine Weaver is a robot, but the similarities between Sarah and Catherine suggest that the stresses Sarah suffers seem to turn her into a robot: cold, logical and insensitive even though she only has John’s best interests at heart. There is also the question of how to teach morals and values in a world that seems to only deal in rational materialism, devoid of God and without belief in the human soul. As John Henry says: “I think heaven has a hardware problem”.

Which brings me to the third theme which is not so strong but still comes up occasionally: religion. James Ellison our ex FBI agent is also a Bible believing Christian so of course his world is rocked to the core when he is confronted by the “demons” from the future that defy God without repercussion. Meanwhile Catherine Weaver often places the terminators in the position of God. Suggesting to John Henry that perhaps he is God and I seem to recall another time when she suggested that skynet or the terminators were God. This works if you think of the fire and brimstone God as taught in centuries gone by. I also thought it was interesting that Cromartie’s final stand was in the position of a crucifix and also taking place in a church. Is it the ultimate defilement? Are we to take away that death desecrates the holy? We don’t see much redemption (or salvation as the next movie is titled), it always seems that the clouds are dark and no sun can break through. Yet the Connors struggle on to change their fate and in this struggle, there is a kind of holiness or sacredness that is discovered within themselves and within their relationships which in my opinion is the true source of the human soul that religion tries to describe and express.

Uncategorized t:scc, tv

As promised, I produced a batch of Dalek shaped gingerbreads for a certain occasional gathering of Doctor Who enthusiasts on the weekend.
I used the Donna Hay recipie which was a bit nicer than the one I found on the internet but I probably had the oven at the wrong temperature as they turned out softer than I would have liked. The dough was also runnier to start with which made cutting the shapes a challenge.

We also took advantage of the incredibly pleasant weather at this time of year and picnicked at the Mt Cootha gardens on the weekend where we found the birds to be unusually tame (but not unexpected given how many people are in the gardens all of the time)

Click through these photos to see some others in my flickr photostream. Incidentally, the photo in the banner of this blog was taken at the Mt Cootha gardens as well.

Uncategorized family, photography, wildlife

I’ve uploaded a few photos to Flickr tonight, check them out. I quite like this one of the snail climbing the wall during our wet Easter break.

Sol, Felicity and I went down to the lake when the weather was more fine and got up close and personal with the resident pelican.

You can also see Sol’s wonderful new pose, it’s not blue steel, I think he calls it manic cheeky brat.

Oh yeah, and this is Flossy’s usual pose called shiny happy people.

ASIDE: I really need to make my blog template wider as I notice these are cropped on the right and also the new youtube width doesn’t fit!

Uncategorized fatherhood, forest lake, pelican, snail

Monday morning is not just difficult because of going to work after having a blissful weekend. It’s also because there is a disconnect between public and private life, almost as if we’re living two lives. It is not natural for us to sustain this split personality. One of the consequences of men becoming more involved in the private sphere of life or women working in the public sphere is this increased burden of living a double life. Sometimes it is refreshing to have a wider world to go about in but other times the crossing of the boundary on a Monday morning is emotionally wrenching.

I’m not sure if it’s possible but I think it would be better for our communities and individual mental health if our society could shift towards a more local view of life where we can work and live closer together. One way this can happen is through local co-working combined with greater online integration with work. A Co-working environment is one where a conveniently located office space can be rented by an individual either casually or on a lease basis. The other workers in the office are working for different companies. In the lunch room, you can mix with people who live in your suburb. Obviously this would be more natural for professionals who deal mostly with information. For tradesmen or unskilled workers, there are more opportunities to stay local depending on how the city has planned their industrial zones.

Possibly the disconnect I’m talking about is also about a mismatch between family life and office culture or even the culture of an industry. I’d be interested to know if others find that certain industries or workplaces have a kind of emotional incompatibility with family life. In my experience being a programmer, the workplace can often have a sterile feel to it with a seriousness and intensity, a lack of playfulness that can grind you down over time. This is the thing I miss most about UQ Library – our manager didn’t mind us having a bit of fun during the day but this is also about the personalities that either self select in or are selected for this kind of environment.

Uncategorized life, society, work

The Easter message is much more difficult than Christmas. At Christmas, it’s all about family and peace and babies. Easter is about death, suffering, betrayal and abuse of power followed by the happy ending which doesn’t quite do enough to make it all OK. Even though Jesus conquered death, he didn’t make all the bad things go away, the resolution is the promise that somehow it will all be made good but we don’t really see that apart from a bit of a light show later on. And Jesus never did come back to set everything right. We are left to squabble over our theological differences and argue about whether any of it ever really happened. Meanwhile the realities of death, suffering, betrayal and abuse of power continue with unbridled enthusiasm. Maybe we need to stop waiting for Jesus to come back to show us who’s side he’s on. I believe that Jesus never left us because the spirit of that which opposes violence and embraces compassion for others in equal measure lives amongst us. Easter is a time for us to find courage in the face of all these things knowing that we are not alone.

Uncategorized easter, religion

You asked for it and here it is! Episode 08 of Matt and Sol’s Favourite Things:

Music was the usual Coltrane intro and then Ben Kweller, Run. There was also a cameo by my Mum’s hands and arm. And did any of you catch the unusual gingerbread creatures we made towards the end?

Uncategorized food, matt and sols favourite things

We’ve just ended day two of the one week Super Mario Galaxy ban at our place. I’ve been amazed at the transformation of Sol’s behaviour since we’ve made him go cold turkey on this addiction. On Monday afternoon I came home and instead of hearing the award winning midi-fied orchestral Mario Galaxy soundtrack and the whoops and whees from the game, the house was pleasantly serene and Sol was busy hiding in a clothes basket so he could jump out and surprise me. It brought home to me how much the games and TV kind of repress his creative / imaginative energy. I think he expresses that energy into the game but it seemed a lot healthier to see him physically playing and imagining with real objects. Of course he plays like this at day care and kindy but I seldom get to see this side of him because when he’s home he just wants to play Wii and watch TV.

I’ve always thought all the anti-television rhetoric you hear is just luddite paranoia but now I can see first hand how TV and games do have a pacifying effect and can make someone withdrawn. Having said that, I can also see that playing the Wii and watching TV also inspires and excites Sol. So much of his play is acting out ideas and dialogue that he sees and hears on the TV. In some ways it’s great and even educational, in other ways it’s frightening to think what an influence it has on him and how easily the makers of children’s television have harnessed his attention for profit-making in the form of all the merchandise from lunch boxes to clothes to glow-in-the-dark transferable tattoos.

The resolution I’ve come to having reflected on all this is to be more strict around putting a time limit on TV watching and gaming. We all have our addictions, something that’s fun and even good for us in some doses ends up being detrimental if we have too much. For me it’s the distraction of the internet when I should be working or when I could be doing other things I never seem to get around to like banging a tune out on the guitar or writing or playing with my camera etc.

Uncategorized fatherhood

I haven’t done a Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles update for awhile and frankly there hasn’t been much to talk about on the show lately. The show’s official blog comments have been awash with angry fans complaining that the show is losing its way with ratings going down and no word of whether there will be a third season. In some ways the show has followed BSG by having more drama than action and an enmeshment of characters just as complicated as any soap opera but before I say anything else:

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS GALORE, (please sir, may I have some more?)

Usually when a main character dies in an action show, there is a glorious and meaningful slow motion sequence e.g. Boromere getting shot full of arrows at the end of Fellowship of the Ring the movie. In tonights episode, as the Connors split up to enter a house that had a rampaging terminator in it, there was a bit of a gun fight and Derek was in the wrong place at the wrong time, the terminator just walked through a doorway and shot him in the head with no fuss and kept walking without giving him a second glance. The action continued without any look back at Derek, and my reaction was “did that just happen?” but later on the Connors come back and find Derek who is just dead. No reason why he died, he didn’t achieve anything by dying (like Charlie Dixon holding off the baddies so John could escape on the boat last week) he was just unlucky and his death was portrayed to us in equal measure to the death of the baby sitter who’s name was “About to die Jones” (I knew she was going to die as her first and last line was “I’m just going to go and do some body crunches in this other room” or something like that).

Apart from being incredibly bleak, I felt this was at least in keeping with some of other ways Josh Friedman (the writer) has dealt with violence and death on the show. He once commented on the blog that if we were going to see a terminator rampage through a factory and kill everyone, then we were going to have to go to their funeral and see their families in the next episode. I think by making Derek’s death completly un-heroic, he was unraveling a little bit of the myth of redemptive violence or at least a “death of the hero” cliché.

I think it also paradoxically made his death more meaningful t the viewer, by making the death such a sudden shock, it has made me think about it all day and I’ve consequently had to come to terms with it in more of the way that the characters in the show are seen reflecting on it over the next few days. If they had made the death a heroic stand-off or whatever, I would have had a neat narrative slot to put it in and would have forgotten about it straight away: “oh they killed of Derek but he died like a hero: hooray for the glory of Derek and his big gun”. Instead I have been thinking about Derek’s role in the show and what he brought to it: his intensity, a bit of a father figure to John and an emotional link for Sarah (through their shared relationships with Kyle Reese).

I’m looking forward to the last episode which is where John gets to finally meet Catherine Weaver the mysterious fembot who is building her own skynet in the basement and claims it to be the only hope for the survival of humankind.

Uncategorized t:scc, tv

The Evil Emperor turns to Luke: “Your friends have flown right into my trap but you can save them, just surrender to your hate”. Luke: “No, I’ll never join you”. Emperor: “Very well, then witness the awesome power of this fully operational Death Star, commander fire at will!”. – Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (as I remember it which is not entirely accurate)

Sometimes as a parent, you find yourself trying to be nice and reasonable with your four year old, you talk him through the situation but he is stubborn and becomes petulant, refusing to listen (e.g. “Sol, you’ve been playing Mario Galaxy way too much, it’s time to turn it off and go outside”). He may even start yelling rudely at you. It’s time to fire the parental Death Star: Commander fire at will!.

1. Loud voice restating the required action: “SOL IT’S TIME TO TURN OFF THE WII”
2. Stern glare: bring eyebrows down, clench jaw and purse lips.
3. Action: Turning off the Wii
4. Wait for it

At this point you probably have a tantrum on your hands. I usually revert back to good cop at this stage and give him a cuddle and let him tell me how sad he is about having to stop playing however sometimes things escalate and he goes for the retaliation such as turning the Wii back on. At this stage I need to fire the Death Star again and up the anti a bit like a bit of threatening. In the PPP course (which I haven’t done but I read a little bit of their notes) they recommend a logical consequence which is related to the crime, in this case “No Wii for a week” (because this is the third Wii related fight in a week).

“You’re not my Father, I’ll never join you”. Oh well, such is the life of a parent.

Uncategorized fatherhood, star wars