Book Recommendations

Hey, if you’re into Sci-fi or Fantasy books, look at the extensive list below. If not, well, *shrug* don’t look at this extensive list.
Fantasy:
Inheritance series (Christopher Paolini)
Harry Potter series(Joanne K. Rowling)
Legend of Lancon (Caleb Robinson-cook)[For the first chapter, click a link under the title- Dragonfire-LOL preview]
Battle of Ragnarok (Caleb Robinson-cook) [For the first chapter, click a link under the title- Dragonfire-BOR preview]
Wind Singer (William Nicholson)
Dragonlance series (Various)
The Last Time (Caleb Robinson-cook) [For the prologue, click a link under the title- Dragonfire- TLT preview]
Sci-fi:
Battle of Ragnarok (Caleb Robinson-cook) [See above]
The Last Time (Caleb Robinson-cook) [See above]
Star Wars?(?)

Disappering Simpsons objects

This may seem weird and insignificant to anyone reading this, but isn’t that what rambling’s all about? Anyway, you’re the one who started reading this thing! Didn’t you? Don’t blame it on me, it was all your fault!!
Anyway, back onto the subject. If you pause a Simpsons episode, for example, the one where the two women that Ned and Homer married in Vegas hunt them down, in a single frame, a piece of clothing either changes colour, a word is not coherent with the mouth position, or, like in the one I just mentioned, something that one of the Simpsons are wearing just disappears. Like during the above Simpsons episode, when the Vegas woman that married Homer is talking to Abe, who she is married to now after being drunk, Abe’s glasses a disappear for one single frame! So if you ever see anything like this while watching the Simpsons, give me some feedback and I’ll look at it. And if you do send in some feedback relating to this rambling, you get a nifty prize… self-esteem! Now isn’t that great-diddly-ate?!

Strictly Winners

Caleb and Milana are rightly proud of their brilliant performances at the Dancesport Grand Prix in Bankstown today.
With 2 first places in Waltz/Quickstep and one in Jive (and a 4th and a 6th), these are Caleb’s first big wins in Sydney, and Milana’s first ever!
By the way – don’t forget to vote for the kid’s coach – Serghei – in Dancing With The Stars – his great performances might be rubbing off on the kids!

Hurlstone's 100 Years

Although it was difficult to hear the speeches at times, the 80s contingent ‘up the back’ at Saturday’s Hurlstone Centenary Dinner was in fine form. As I twittered from Table 41, it’s amazing how quickly a group of school friends can regress 20 years. Boy – now that I think about it – that’s half a lifetime.
Okay – big news first – there’s definitely a ‘Class of 88’ 20 year reunion planned for next year. Catering whizzkid David Allison and Construction magnate Lee Fahey have taken it upon themselves – so stay tuned. It’ll be twice the 10 year reunion.
On the night, everyone settled back into the old roles, the in-jokes remained, and the memories of the controversies and punishments were still wet to the touch. It seems that what lasts 20 years is not the grades or the awards, but the relationships and the extra-curricular.

Continue reading Hurlstone’s 100 Years

Wicked = Wicked

Hey, after re-discovering the soundtrack to the musical ‘Wicked‘ today, I realised I had neglected to post about our visit to the Apollo Theatre in London a few months back to see this brilliant show.
Good news – it’s coming to Melbourne next year. Go and see it. Seriously.
I’ll admit, I was a bit wary about the premise – based on a novel that speculates that the two witches from The Wizard Of Oz have a backstory in which they are (how do I write this without spoiling it?)… Acquainted. Sounds cheesy.
But I’m glad we made it. Actually, our journey to the theatre that night was a drama of its own – beginning in Paris’ Gare du Nord train station early that afternoon and ending with us flopping in the seats with seconds to spare that evening (thanks to a keen – and ultimately well-rewarded – London cabby).
(Side-note – it’s very kid-friendly, but some of the concepts are fairly grownup. Our lot – 8 and up – was probably as young as you’d need to be to enjoy some of the subtleties)
I think the ‘revisionist’ approach appeals to my warped sense of humour. Much like the re-tooling of Star Wars, it puts the original story in a new light, and demolishes your perceptions of a story you thought you knew really well. I like it when that happens. I think it appeals to the same part of the brain that is stimulated by episodes of MythBusters where they blow things up just for the fun of it.
If there’s one thing I need to throw into this review to make me seem keenly critical and wise in such matters, it’s that I think the musical hits its dramatic height too early. Nonetheless, it’s the music and performances of the cast that keeps it awesome from start to finish. I hope the Australian version captures it . (There were a couple of leading Australians in the cast that I hope will deign to repatriate).
In preparation, be sure to revise your Wizard of Oz – there are so many in-jokes that you will only appreciate with a fresh dose of L. Frank Baum in your veins.
There are a few songs in there I wish I’d written. I hate Steven Schwartz. His song ‘Defying Gravity’ does exactly what it says on the box.
I haven’t seen the phrase used in a review yet, so I’m going to take it: ‘Wicked’ brought the house down.
(Ha! See what I did there? Okay – as you were. Move along.)

MySpace is Someone Else's Space Now

No, that’s it. I’ve had enough. MySpace is rubbish on so many levels. It is a terribly designed, shoddily built application for bringing out the worst in everyone.
I joined a little over a year ago because a real-world group I had joined needed to find a way to communicate. I was underwhelmed with the application back then. I am still at a loss to understand how the entertainment industry flocked to this site, which was rife with server outages, bugs, errors, craptacular designs which were only made worse when the hackers started in. Then the schoolies came, then the toolies (too-old-for-schoolies). The media talked about it. Bands started getting cheap web hosting. Then, the ads came – in ever-more-overwhelming waves.
MySpace is an old idea, executed badly, which made some clever connections and got some good press somehow.

  • I mean – for the Sake of Pete – when I log into my own home page, I’m presented with incoherent babble like ‘David is in your extended network’. Great start. I’m my own BFF.
  • ‘View my friends’ status updates’, ‘You have X Friends’, ‘Change My Top Friends’, ‘Your network’ ‘Show My Friends’ – I’m getting confused – who am I? Who are you? And why can’t they decided if they’re first or second person?
  • ‘Your Network: 202,973,661’ – Wait,… what?
  • I have a ‘Ranking Score’ of ‘4’ based on ‘0’ votes?

Most people know crap when they see it. Don’t they?
Especially when they’re exposed to ‘how-it-should-be-done’ products like Facebook. (Facebook has its own problems, don’t get me wrong – but at least it’s a serious piece of web development, with at least an understanding of how a social network is supposed to operate.)
I’ve not had any negative experiences with MySpace. Nor any positive ones. That’s the point. It’s a nice place to visit, but I don’t want to live there.
I’m joining the exodus out of there. Farewell, MySpace.com/bonwag.
UPDATE: And no sooner had I posted, than this comes up on the wires:
No space for non-Optus Aussie mobile users

MySpace has blocked Australians from accessing the new mobile phone version of its site in order to protect its exclusive and probably lucrative partnership deal with Optus.

Well, if my leaving the site wasn’t a nail in the coffin, this certainly is. You can only afford this sort of crass arrogance if you have the goods to back it up. Like Google.
Seriously, I wouldn’t be planning any Christmas parties with MySpace.

More Net Naughtiness

If you’re using Instant Messaging (IM), be aware that there’s a new virus going around at the moment that takes control of a user’s computer and tries to send copies of itself automatically.
If a friend suddenly offers you an attachment to download for no apparent reason, don’t do it! Always double-check with the sender before downloading any attachments.
Always keep your virus scanner up to date, always check… yada yada yada… wash behind your ears, don’t take money from strangers.

In My Day, The Students Got The Cane For This Sort Of Thing

My, how things have changed after 100 years.  Hurlstone is once again in the news for its starring role as one of the nation’s leading exporters of psychological torment. Oops – Sorry. Allegedly.

With more Centenary celebrations only a few days away, it seems there’s still more growing up to do. If the reports are to be believed, staff have been taking bullying lessons from the kids. Things have been getting a bit Agricultural, shall we say?

Yet, only a few minutes down the railway, the kids are getting it right. Has the world gone topsy turvy?

Seriously – what’s going on over there? Hurlstone’s always prided itself on doing things a little differently – staff have never been shy about engaging in militant behaviour – heck, we produced Mark Latham –  but surely there comes a time to stop asking questions about the situation and start answering them?

Free Choice

I’ll be honest, when I saw that CHOICE had posted a review of free software, I was kinda hoping they’d be charging money for it, so I could post a blog entry about how ironic it was. As it turns out, it is a free article, and I am robbed of a pithy observation. Darn you, CHOICE!