July 2011
2 posts
Musings of an Inappropriate Woman: You are not... →
rachelhills:
I’m a bit late responding to Erica Jong’s rather controversial opinion piece in the New York Times the weekend before last. If you haven’t already read it, Jong basically argues that the younger generation (by which she mostly means women in their thirties) have “given up” on sex,…
So many of the articles in Slate, etc are written by people who’ve decided that if at...
June 2011
2 posts
Recipe: Summer Corn Salad Six Ingredients (and... →
on The Kitchn
Freedom →
on CycleStyle Australia - Stylish clothing and accessories for the urban cyclist
May 2011
4 posts
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Doctor Who According to Rory Williams:
gyzym:
Season Five: 1. Rory Williams and That Time My Girlfriend’s Imaginary Friend Turned Out to Be Real 2. Rory Williams and That Time It Was The Night Before My Wedding 3. Rory Williams and That Time It Was The Night Before My Wedding 4. Rory Williams and That Time It Was The Night Before My Wedding 5. Rory Williams and That Time It Was The Night Before My Wedding 6. Rory Williams and...
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Paul
Paul is a gentle comedy with some truly creative swearing in it, some really funny scenes, and a barrage of sci-fi references to find lurking in the details. It’s great to see Nick Frost and Simon Pegg back in action together again, although it’s a shame Edgar Wright wasn’t directing as well.
The ‘plot’ is just enough to create a movie-length chase scene, with the...
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Burke and Hare
An odd movie that probably seemed like a great idea on paper, but didn’t quite work out on the screen. It’s a black comedy based on the true-life story of Burke and Hare, two guys who killed several people so they could sell the bodies to a professor for his lectures in the new-at-the-time science of anatomy. The cast is great, the script is ok. But the humour doesn’t sit well...
April 2011
3 posts
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The Player of Games, Iain M Banks
(The cover of my edition is much nicer than this orange ugliness.)
What happens when an outsider plays a game designed to reflect life in an alien empire? Are games, like language, a reflection of our values and assumptions? This is another fun sci-fi story from Banks. No real twist, not a lot of character development, but a steady pace and lots of detail about both the Culture and the Azad way...
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett
I Shall Wear Midnight (Tiffany Aching, #4) by Terry Pratchett Definitely the Darker And Edgier book in the Tiffany Aching series. How much you feel there is an impending danger in the story probably depends on how much you associate the Cunning Man’s methods with modern-day scapegoating and prejudice in addition to old-fashioned witch burnings, and how much you feel like you’ve seen...
March 2011
10 posts
WatchPatio11 says hello ladies - Spontaneous Evolution
Why and how you should market your software to women and non-geeks. I like the Old Spice method of giving a presentation :)
1 tag
Consider Phlebas, by Iain M Banks
My first Culture novel, and the first in the series. The universe as set up is creative and wide open to future possibilities. The Idiran-Culture war makes a good backdrop for the plot, which is a straight heist/adventure even though it’s got an ending which questions the point of what the protaganist is trying to do. Drawbacks were the thin characterisation and a few detours to set-pieces...
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“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved...”
– Maurice Sendak
yes.
(via echolocate)
that’s awesome. He ate it.
(via maevele)
Links re: earthquake in Japan
Google’s Person-finder
Map of recent and ongoing earthquakes near Japan
Live stream of NHK tv
Japanese news in English
CitizenTube showing videos from people in Japan
In Focus at The Atlantic has photos
Science blogger interviews nuclear engineer (her dad) about the Fukushima situation
Scientific American discusses the safety measures for boiling-water reactors
For more information...
February 2011
3 posts
““Real women have curves” was a marketing slogan thought up to sell people...”
– Job Number One; Destroying the Paradigm, Not Shifting It
http://www.therotund.com/?p=1113 (via therotund)
Too true
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January 2011
2 posts
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Breath, Tim Winton
Not my cup of tea. This was my first Winton novel, and I enjoyed the beautiful, masterful writing. But coming-of-age stories and the macho environment of surfing in the 70s don’t appeal to me.
The twist (not really a twist, I guess, just a revelation about a character) that some reviewers dislike so much was interesting. I felt that it punched through the main character’s blithe...
1 tag
How to have a perfect holiday at home
I’d love to be jet-setting around the world every time I had a week or two off work, but my budget won’t allow for that. When I stay at home I try to follow this formula:
1/3 time spent doing useful chores. This is so you don’t get a guilt complex about the other two thirds, and actually get stuff done that’s not easily managed on weekends or after work. This holiday my...
December 2010
5 posts
1 tag
November 2010
7 posts
2 tags
The Zodiac Killer
Recently I watched David Fincher’s movie Zodiac, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo. It was pretty good, if a little slow (like most true crime stories). I was interested enough to do a little research on the case, which revealed that the book the movie is based on is really just the opinion of Robert Graysmith (played by Gyllenhaal). Graysmith has been obsessed by the...
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Marcus Westbury: time to get creative about... →
Since the beginning of 2009 Renew Newcastle has tackled the problem of Newcastle’s empty buildings directly.
We’ve launched more than 60 new creative projects and initiatives from artist-run galleries and studios, to designers and more designers, record labels, to publishers and fashion labels, craftspeople, artisans, one of Australia’s few dedicated zine stores and even a food co-op.
We’ve...
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Making Australia Happy →
In this three-part series, eight ordinary people from one of Australia’s most miserable areas embark on an extraordinary journey. Hoping to find greater fulfilment and meaning in their lives, they’ve signed up to an eight-week happiness program. They’ll work with an elite team of experts, and undergo a series of scientifically validated experiments and challenges based on positive psychology,...
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Damn You Auto Correct! - Funny iPhone Fails and... →
LOG!
I mean LOL dammit!
Derek Powazek - Twitter for Adults →
Way 2, point 4 has improved the signal/noise ratio for me on Twitter. I’m not sure why some people write the greatest little tweets themselves, but also re-tweet every piece of crap that scrolls down their following list. But turning off their RTs means that I can just see their own words, which is all I wanted in the first place. Of course, some people RT only the finest of links, so I...
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October 2010
7 posts
The GFC zombies that walk among us →
Sounds like an interesting book. I’ve wondered for a while where the evidence was for trickle-down theory and privatisation, seems like there isn’t any now that we’ve got 30 years of data from countries following these policies.
1 tag
Nigella is right
Hot, buttery, lemony linguine (sprinkled with chopped parsley) does make you feel like spring is on the way.
Co-workers who interrupt me while I’m eating to talk about work, on the other hand, make me feel like a gun-toting rage is on the way.
Happiness more than gene deep › News in Science... →
This study claims that your happiness ‘set-point’, influenced by genetics, only accounts for about 50% of your happiness. The news article reads as though this is new information, although I’d read about it quite some time ago.
Is it worrying that the study appears to have a focus on economics? If you subscribe to the idea that buying things can make you happy, maybe. If you...
“You Don’t Have to Be Pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your...”
– Erin, “A Dress a Day” (via lollaloves)
September 2010
1 post
Birth of a baby too often kills parental career →
Excellent article, commenters predictably miss the point. Guys want to be parents too, and very few people are so dedicated to their careers that they want to do 60+hrs/wk for 40 years. Employers are the ones with unrealistic expectations, not the parents.
August 2010
9 posts
hitRECord →
Joseph Gordon-Levitt sings a little song, “Nothing Big”. It is sweet.
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