Hi and welcome back!
Thanks to a revived interest in taking my writing much more seriously, and a generous encouragement from a colleague, I decided to revive 'Tim's New World' instead of scrapping it and starting again.
It's been a fairly active but not too-busy time since my last post in late March. One major highlight has to be going to see the latest Cirque Du Soleil performance in Canberra: Varekai! was an intense, colourful and really exciting performance. A seat very close to the stage meant seeing the detail in costumes and also having to crane my neck and lean backwards to see the aerial stunts directly above me. I continued to work at the same museum in Canberra, kept going along to book group meetings, 'pulled the plug' on a plan to travel to Australia's famously wild Kimberleys region (delayed it for next year to allow for more saving), had a quiet but enjoyable birthday celebration in June and of course kept reading. It was great to have the main city library opened again after months of repairs because of a freak hailstorm in February.
In July and August so far l've also joined some on-line forums, learnt a little more about potentials for really interesting and useful blog content and did some house-sitting. Now it's time start some new social activities outside my work life.
One of the basic changes to the blog is the template: it was time for a new look as part of the reviving process. This template you can see now is called 'Scribe'. It's one of the choices from the Blogger menu, and can be customised a bit, so I'll try a few variations. Another plan is to get a digital camera soon and start compiling an on-line gallery. A trip to the Blue Mountains next month should provide plenty of images to start with. There's also work to be done on ensuring the Comments facility section is easier to use for on-line conversations. After all, that's supposed to be one of the attractions of blogs! :)
Cheers,
Tim
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Hugh and Seth - witty and generous blog gurus
Learning to make a blog worth looking at: the search for great teachers goes on...
Hi
During the past week I've been looking for experienced and creative bloggers who can explain the essentials and some interesting extras in ways that are readable as well of giving practical help. Two blogger-gurus that stand out are Hugh MacLeod and Seth Godin. There's already a link to Hugh's 'gapingvoid' blog on my blog and links to Seth's blogs will show up shortly.
In the blog photos they both post, Hugh looks like a serious academic but is lighter in print, and Seth's shaved head give him a classic 'guru' look but his smile is just a little bit impish. :)
Hugh is a London-based blogger and marketing consultant who writes pithy comments about marketing, blogging in general, blogging-plus-marketing, blogging-as-marketing and new ways of understanding What the Customer Wants in the Virtual Age. He is also a cartoonist, which makes his blog into a very appealing source of edgy humour. He's pretty generous with them too - as long as you just use them for your own blog you can install his widget for free, to get a regular supply of his spiky style of punchlines. 'The Hughtrain' is one of his major theme-driven blog 'columns' for getting across his messages. Examples of his 'day job' work make it clear he's very good at teaching and doing.
Seth is an American 'netrepeneur' - (as I understand the term) an entrepeneur specialising in Internet technologies. This guy has been and is incredibly active as a founder and developer of extremely successful Net-based companies and products and also vastly knowledgeable about how to get along in the Virtual Age. Seth loves to write e-books as a way of communicating his ideas and knowledge -some he has given away for free, including Who's There? Seth Godin's Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web. Thanks, Seth! Other titles sell by 100 000s on Amazon. Like Hugh, Seth uses an edgy kind of humour and there's a hint of what some might think is impatience with people who don't catch on quickly. My best suggestion is: don't let it get to you and remember that if he was genuinely impatient he's hardly be spending very valuable time writing 'how to' e-books for beginners and giving them out for free. This guy has a genuine unlimited kid-on-their-birthday kind of enthusiasm for what he writes about and it shows! He keeps creating an impressive variety of amount of blog content and like Hugh is happy to share a lot of it at no cost to bloggers. Hugh gets a mention in Seth's work and vice versa.
Hi
During the past week I've been looking for experienced and creative bloggers who can explain the essentials and some interesting extras in ways that are readable as well of giving practical help. Two blogger-gurus that stand out are Hugh MacLeod and Seth Godin. There's already a link to Hugh's 'gapingvoid' blog on my blog and links to Seth's blogs will show up shortly.
In the blog photos they both post, Hugh looks like a serious academic but is lighter in print, and Seth's shaved head give him a classic 'guru' look but his smile is just a little bit impish. :)
Hugh is a London-based blogger and marketing consultant who writes pithy comments about marketing, blogging in general, blogging-plus-marketing, blogging-as-marketing and new ways of understanding What the Customer Wants in the Virtual Age. He is also a cartoonist, which makes his blog into a very appealing source of edgy humour. He's pretty generous with them too - as long as you just use them for your own blog you can install his widget for free, to get a regular supply of his spiky style of punchlines. 'The Hughtrain' is one of his major theme-driven blog 'columns' for getting across his messages. Examples of his 'day job' work make it clear he's very good at teaching and doing.
Seth is an American 'netrepeneur' - (as I understand the term) an entrepeneur specialising in Internet technologies. This guy has been and is incredibly active as a founder and developer of extremely successful Net-based companies and products and also vastly knowledgeable about how to get along in the Virtual Age. Seth loves to write e-books as a way of communicating his ideas and knowledge -some he has given away for free, including Who's There? Seth Godin's Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web. Thanks, Seth! Other titles sell by 100 000s on Amazon. Like Hugh, Seth uses an edgy kind of humour and there's a hint of what some might think is impatience with people who don't catch on quickly. My best suggestion is: don't let it get to you and remember that if he was genuinely impatient he's hardly be spending very valuable time writing 'how to' e-books for beginners and giving them out for free. This guy has a genuine unlimited kid-on-their-birthday kind of enthusiasm for what he writes about and it shows! He keeps creating an impressive variety of amount of blog content and like Hugh is happy to share a lot of it at no cost to bloggers. Hugh gets a mention in Seth's work and vice versa.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
New season of tv series 'The Chaser's War on Everything'
Hooray! Thank you, ABC! The new season of 'The Chaser's War on Everything' has started on this evening, and the team is really sharp. All the skits were worth a mention, and even the intro-with-audience was entertaining, but for now I'll offer my highlights:
- the prize-winning Free Hugs guy from YouTube, followed by The Chaser's own attempt to mimic the style
- NSW Liberal Party leader Peter Debnam and those budgie-smugglers [also known as Speedos] he insists on wearing, paired with one of the team trying same stunt
- mock epitaph for Naomi Robson's star spot as glamorous current affairs anchor, sung piteously to Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind' and slyly inter-cut with brief soundbites of Naomi in action
- how being seen with a baby wrapped in a blanket can miraculously protect you from official inquiries and unwanted publicity
- the Chaser's own efforts to do a bit of word-of-mouth advertising for the show, by bribing taxi drivers to talk up the show to unsuspecting passengers
- how borrowing the car of fast-driving prominent human rights lawyer Marcus Einfeld can save you (applies to Sydney region only) from being fined for just about every traffic violation in the book, and even from robbing a petrol station.
I'm already looking forward to next week's episode. ABC, 9pm Wednesdays*.
* and if the Chaser team reads this: this first one is for free, since you came back to ABC; the next one costs the $50, just like the cabbies. . :)
- the prize-winning Free Hugs guy from YouTube, followed by The Chaser's own attempt to mimic the style
- NSW Liberal Party leader Peter Debnam and those budgie-smugglers [also known as Speedos] he insists on wearing, paired with one of the team trying same stunt
- mock epitaph for Naomi Robson's star spot as glamorous current affairs anchor, sung piteously to Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind' and slyly inter-cut with brief soundbites of Naomi in action
- how being seen with a baby wrapped in a blanket can miraculously protect you from official inquiries and unwanted publicity
- the Chaser's own efforts to do a bit of word-of-mouth advertising for the show, by bribing taxi drivers to talk up the show to unsuspecting passengers
- how borrowing the car of fast-driving prominent human rights lawyer Marcus Einfeld can save you (applies to Sydney region only) from being fined for just about every traffic violation in the book, and even from robbing a petrol station.
I'm already looking forward to next week's episode. ABC, 9pm Wednesdays*.
* and if the Chaser team reads this: this first one is for free, since you came back to ABC; the next one costs the $50, just like the cabbies. . :)
Monday, March 26, 2007
Comments on new movie: 'The Lives of Others'
Comments on new movie: 'The Lives of Others' [2006]
dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Note: as this movie has only just been released in Australia, I'm not going to do a traditional type of review covering the whole story, but instead give comments on various features that most strongly interested or appealed to me.
My strongest impression of this film is the atmosphere it creates in the very first minutes: intense suspicion and fear. This is sustained right through the film, in various ways: not only by officers of the state security police known by its short name of Stasi, and by high-ranking political officials, but also by the civilians under surveillance. Throughout the story you can see that the constant presence of fear and suspicion and the widely-assumed knowledge the Stasi could be spying on you but not the certainty it was at any given moment, has different damaging effects on different characters. The precision and range of the note-taking, written reports and recording system used to kepe track of an entire population is vividly depicted. So much of the intimidaiotn is done by looks, gestures, casual comments, veiled threats and very little or nothing is directly managed by show of guns or snarling dogs. A quick through-the-lens tour of underground interrogation rooms and the snarling tone of officer Captain Gerd Wisler checking on an inquisitive tenant does more than enough to show how the police operate so effectively and are able to ruthlessly survey so many.
The dramatic content of the movie is based on a small group of characters: a few key Stasi officers, a high-ranking minister and some leading players in the East German theatre world who are constantly under threat of censorship and employment bans. They become increasingly bitter about the system and with each other. Georg Dreyman is a popular and 'loyal'
playwright, his mentor and close friend is an older director who has a famous past but apparently no real hope of a future. Dreyman's lover, Christa-Maria, is a talented and charismatic singer and artist with a secret life of her own. But it is the Stasi officer Gerd Wisler (noted above) who makes the first main appearance: he is the classic zipped-up soulless servant of the state machinery, capable of total ruthlessness on a daily basis and extremely efficient. He works hard to be feared as a cunning and tireless interrogator. Wisler's boss, Grubitz, is a long-time colleague and friend from police college days. Grubitz has a causal and even friendly superficial manner, but can also willingly wreck people and quickly distance himself from disgraced colleagues.
The drama really starts when Wisler is given a special surveillance assignment after teaching a class of aspiring students at the police college. After a night at the theatre, where Dreyman is directing a play, Grubitz has a chat with a high-ranking minister. He then authorises Wisler to start keeping a close watch on the playwright and find out if he really is still loyal or has some secret projects that could become security issues. Wisler's work on 'the operation' is what draws the viewer further into the story, and the reactions and experience of those being spied on show just how damaging life in the regime can be. In various ways they all become trapped in lies and ruses. No one can or will trust the motives of a neighbour behind a door. They start to hate themselves and sometimes even each other. Creativity falters and willpower wilts. Wisler and his junior colleague grimly maintain their lonely work. Sadness seeps into every thin apartment wall.
As the months and years grind on, a couple of supporting characters become angrier and more resourceful: that gives Dreyman some new hope of writing an important documentary piece that is not a play and must be smuggled to the West at all costs. Meanwhile, Grubitz and the minister become impatient with the lack of any significant new findings and mounting staff cost of the 24-hour surveillance. The danger increases, the stakes are raised and Wisler is made to feel the pressure on his own career and at possible cost of his friendship with Grubitz. This combination of streses has some strange effects on him: while wearing headphones and typing detailed reports as he listens in and occasionally exercises his ingenuity by setting traps, he hears music and comments that get past his professionally-trained instincts and thought patterns. At an advanced stage of surveillance, he finds he can no longer trust his original assumptions about the rightness or even ulitmate use of what he is doing. A very unexpected decision at a key stage in the operation shows that there is in fact some sort of human being behind the dress uniform he prefers for interrogations and the drab tracksuit he uses to travel to and from secret operations.
There is a brief period covering the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and what happens to the various main characters following that historical event. It also gives a fascinating glimpse of the sheer extent of highly personal archival material that becomes available to the citizens of the former GDR. The director and screenwriter resist the temptation to present affecting re-union scenes and instead offer different and quiter types of brighter moments.
Yes, there are flashes of humour, intense romance and short-lived celebration scenes, especially Dreyman's birthday party early in the story and much later celebrations about what was smuggled past the border... But these scenes also serve to highlight the daily dreariness, unknowable police actions, personal crises, slippery ideologies and ever-present fear. On screen, 'The Lives of Others' is a profound 'human interest' story made all the more powerful and fascinating by being directly based on a very real regime that still operated in unnervingly recent history.
dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Note: as this movie has only just been released in Australia, I'm not going to do a traditional type of review covering the whole story, but instead give comments on various features that most strongly interested or appealed to me.
My strongest impression of this film is the atmosphere it creates in the very first minutes: intense suspicion and fear. This is sustained right through the film, in various ways: not only by officers of the state security police known by its short name of Stasi, and by high-ranking political officials, but also by the civilians under surveillance. Throughout the story you can see that the constant presence of fear and suspicion and the widely-assumed knowledge the Stasi could be spying on you but not the certainty it was at any given moment, has different damaging effects on different characters. The precision and range of the note-taking, written reports and recording system used to kepe track of an entire population is vividly depicted. So much of the intimidaiotn is done by looks, gestures, casual comments, veiled threats and very little or nothing is directly managed by show of guns or snarling dogs. A quick through-the-lens tour of underground interrogation rooms and the snarling tone of officer Captain Gerd Wisler checking on an inquisitive tenant does more than enough to show how the police operate so effectively and are able to ruthlessly survey so many.
The dramatic content of the movie is based on a small group of characters: a few key Stasi officers, a high-ranking minister and some leading players in the East German theatre world who are constantly under threat of censorship and employment bans. They become increasingly bitter about the system and with each other. Georg Dreyman is a popular and 'loyal'
playwright, his mentor and close friend is an older director who has a famous past but apparently no real hope of a future. Dreyman's lover, Christa-Maria, is a talented and charismatic singer and artist with a secret life of her own. But it is the Stasi officer Gerd Wisler (noted above) who makes the first main appearance: he is the classic zipped-up soulless servant of the state machinery, capable of total ruthlessness on a daily basis and extremely efficient. He works hard to be feared as a cunning and tireless interrogator. Wisler's boss, Grubitz, is a long-time colleague and friend from police college days. Grubitz has a causal and even friendly superficial manner, but can also willingly wreck people and quickly distance himself from disgraced colleagues.
The drama really starts when Wisler is given a special surveillance assignment after teaching a class of aspiring students at the police college. After a night at the theatre, where Dreyman is directing a play, Grubitz has a chat with a high-ranking minister. He then authorises Wisler to start keeping a close watch on the playwright and find out if he really is still loyal or has some secret projects that could become security issues. Wisler's work on 'the operation' is what draws the viewer further into the story, and the reactions and experience of those being spied on show just how damaging life in the regime can be. In various ways they all become trapped in lies and ruses. No one can or will trust the motives of a neighbour behind a door. They start to hate themselves and sometimes even each other. Creativity falters and willpower wilts. Wisler and his junior colleague grimly maintain their lonely work. Sadness seeps into every thin apartment wall.
As the months and years grind on, a couple of supporting characters become angrier and more resourceful: that gives Dreyman some new hope of writing an important documentary piece that is not a play and must be smuggled to the West at all costs. Meanwhile, Grubitz and the minister become impatient with the lack of any significant new findings and mounting staff cost of the 24-hour surveillance. The danger increases, the stakes are raised and Wisler is made to feel the pressure on his own career and at possible cost of his friendship with Grubitz. This combination of streses has some strange effects on him: while wearing headphones and typing detailed reports as he listens in and occasionally exercises his ingenuity by setting traps, he hears music and comments that get past his professionally-trained instincts and thought patterns. At an advanced stage of surveillance, he finds he can no longer trust his original assumptions about the rightness or even ulitmate use of what he is doing. A very unexpected decision at a key stage in the operation shows that there is in fact some sort of human being behind the dress uniform he prefers for interrogations and the drab tracksuit he uses to travel to and from secret operations.
There is a brief period covering the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and what happens to the various main characters following that historical event. It also gives a fascinating glimpse of the sheer extent of highly personal archival material that becomes available to the citizens of the former GDR. The director and screenwriter resist the temptation to present affecting re-union scenes and instead offer different and quiter types of brighter moments.
Yes, there are flashes of humour, intense romance and short-lived celebration scenes, especially Dreyman's birthday party early in the story and much later celebrations about what was smuggled past the border... But these scenes also serve to highlight the daily dreariness, unknowable police actions, personal crises, slippery ideologies and ever-present fear. On screen, 'The Lives of Others' is a profound 'human interest' story made all the more powerful and fascinating by being directly based on a very real regime that still operated in unnervingly recent history.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
End of Extras series; the avatar
1. 'Extras' series: I thought the last episode of Ricky Gervais's 'Extras' was well done as a finale, with an extra guest star or two who were completely full of themselves, Andy finally makes his agent see the 'writing is on the wall' after pathetic performance and an icky scene in the office, and of course another sick kid gets the "do I really have to be nice to them too?" treatment. Andy can be every bit as socially inept as MrBean.
Didn't expect to see De Niro show up in this series -Gervais must be really building up some serious appeal now. Entertaining cameo, with the agent finally managing a Big Catch, the meeting set up in the famous Dorchester Hotel and Bob looking at his watch then becoming fascinated with the agent's tacky novelty pen... I wonder if the new success will turn Andy into another miserable egotistical specimen? Probably. His friend Maggie was a sort of vague, guileless and very indiscreet version of Jiminy Cricket, set against Andy's delusions of achievement and tendency to patronise people -the BAFTA Awards Night episode was priceless.
2. Avatar for blog: Small but significant technical breakthrough in blog content: the avatar I'd put together over a couple of sessions had saved OK but then proved very difficult for the browser in 'Add a Picture' feature to find among other files. Tonight it eventually exported from original avatar site to my blog and ended up in right spot on the 'front page'. I'll quit while I'm winning. :)
Didn't expect to see De Niro show up in this series -Gervais must be really building up some serious appeal now. Entertaining cameo, with the agent finally managing a Big Catch, the meeting set up in the famous Dorchester Hotel and Bob looking at his watch then becoming fascinated with the agent's tacky novelty pen... I wonder if the new success will turn Andy into another miserable egotistical specimen? Probably. His friend Maggie was a sort of vague, guileless and very indiscreet version of Jiminy Cricket, set against Andy's delusions of achievement and tendency to patronise people -the BAFTA Awards Night episode was priceless.
2. Avatar for blog: Small but significant technical breakthrough in blog content: the avatar I'd put together over a couple of sessions had saved OK but then proved very difficult for the browser in 'Add a Picture' feature to find among other files. Tonight it eventually exported from original avatar site to my blog and ended up in right spot on the 'front page'. I'll quit while I'm winning. :)
Saturday, March 17, 2007
'Around the World in 80 Treasures' -tonight's episode
This evening's episode of 'Around the World in 80 Treasures' focussed on the Silk Road/Route and various major cities on it, including: Damascus, the ruins of Persepolis and the Azerbaijan city of Baku. The harsh landscapes, secular and religious architecture and the psychedelically-bright colours in the markets were all feasts for the tv viewer's eyes.
Although the presenter's voice still grates a bit and I wish he'd get rid of that twee little hat he wears (it makes perfect sense on Jacques Tati's character "Mon Oncle" but on a doco presenter it's just...no), I'll agree that he does cover some fascinating places and narrates with real excitement. I'd prefer Michael Palin any day, but if he can't do it then I suppose Dan Cruikshank's travels are better than not seeing the wonders at all.
Although the presenter's voice still grates a bit and I wish he'd get rid of that twee little hat he wears (it makes perfect sense on Jacques Tati's character "Mon Oncle" but on a doco presenter it's just...no), I'll agree that he does cover some fascinating places and narrates with real excitement. I'd prefer Michael Palin any day, but if he can't do it then I suppose Dan Cruikshank's travels are better than not seeing the wonders at all.
Friday, March 16, 2007
After training day; long weekend
The main big thing at work today, after the Time Management course yesterday, was a major clean-up of my entire desk area. And that included a bristled brush, paper towel and detergent -all borrowed from tea room. Doesn't look exciting in print, I admit, but this was a real put-it-into-action kind of activity after a lot of theory in the course. As I work in a collection area of a museum, it's all too easy for lots of stuff to keep steadily building up on trolleys, shelves, etc.
Hooray! Long weekend coming up in my home city, as there's an annual public holiday to mark anniversary of the city's founding. I've planned some out-and-about activities for Saturday and Monday afternoon; Sunday needs to be mainly a 'do things at home' day. That could definitely include learning a new blogging trick or two. :) Last night I tried getting an avatar together and onto my blog, but ran into technical problems with the site and late at night just became fed up with multiple error/"please refresh" messages.
Good night and good blogging. :)
Hooray! Long weekend coming up in my home city, as there's an annual public holiday to mark anniversary of the city's founding. I've planned some out-and-about activities for Saturday and Monday afternoon; Sunday needs to be mainly a 'do things at home' day. That could definitely include learning a new blogging trick or two. :) Last night I tried getting an avatar together and onto my blog, but ran into technical problems with the site and late at night just became fed up with multiple error/"please refresh" messages.
Good night and good blogging. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)