Wishing all my readers a very happy new year and a prosperous 2004.
Briefly, I think 2003 has been good for me and to me. I had a rough start to the year, and I feel I worked extremely hard for the majority of the year - perhaps going close to burning myself out, and causing illness. But since recovering from that rather dreadful bout of illness throughout September-October, my life is looking better than ever. I have developed new research interests, made some fabulous new friends and derived real happiness in the company of all those friends and family I care for so much. Friends, family and enterprise are surely the great joys of this life. I consider myself very privileged to be so blessed with all three. Thankyou to all my friends and family for so enriching my life. I can only hope that 2004 will be as glorious a year as 2003 turned out to be - regardless of appearances.
Besides the clear air turbulence that thwacked the side of the plane en route home (causing some passengers to look up idly from their pasta and chicken salad and white wine with mild curiosity but no sense of danger - people have *really* got used to flying) it was a rather uneventful trip back to balmy Brisbane this evening. Thanks to Liz for looking in on the place whilst I was away and to everyone in Melbourne. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to see everyone - I REALLY tried, but time just got the better of me. Next time for sure!
Finally and most importantly, thanks to Mum for putting me up and putting up with me for 9 days. Thanks Mum. You're the best. See you again in 14 weeks and 3 days! :-)
There's not really any spoilers here, but I'm going to place my analysis in the extended entry anyway because I don't want to offend anyone. Suffice to say I think I am one of only a few people who enjoyed the film, but found some scenes so reminiscent of other films it was uncanny. It's a good 3 hours though, and well worth a visit. And seeing it in Gold Class was absolutely SENSATIONAL.
I suppose I should start by saying I enjoyed it because it’s the conclusion to a well-known tale, and because it’s generally a lot of fun. I studied pure English right up to post-graduate level so Tolkien was obligatory reading somewhere back in high school. And I suppose I should also admit that I was always a bit of a purist, and found LOTR a bit tough going, and Tolkien generally somewhat derivative of the Arthurian and celtic legends. I loved The Hobbit but just found LOTR just a bit... well... twee.
I suppose I should also say that while Peter Jackson most certainly deserves an Oscar for the trilogy, Return of the King (ROTK) shouldn’t be the film that wins it for him. It probably will, but that’s beside the point. My personal favourite was actually The Two Towers (TTT), but that's probably because I like dark endings. There's nothing like a hollow victory to breath realism into a story, and nothing like a sense of humour in characters facing adversity to provide something to admire. Nobility may be attractive and virtuous. Logic, wit and a healthy sense of absurdity is far more entertaining.
I don't think I'm spoiling anything in saying the film was thoroughly entertaining and the performances were consistently good: so they ought to be – they were filmed at the same time as the preceding films. If the acting had altered it would have been more a matter of bad writing and direction than anything else. I’m also not spoiling anything I think when I say that Jackson is following Tolkien’s tradition of being derivative. I think perhaps both the author and the director both intended to “borrow” from other works with immense love. Tolkien admitted freely to using Lord of the Rings as an analogy of World War 1, and he also spoke about his use of Scandinavian and celtic mythology (not to mention Beowolf) as a reference point for many of his creations in the books. I think Peter Jackson would probably also freely admit to his use of filmic devices from a whole swag of films ranging from Star Wars (particularly The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in this film) to Terminator 2, The Incredible Shrinking Man and even The Wizard of Oz as a source for this episode. I admit to laughing out loud in the cinema when things got so reminiscent of the Battle of Hoth from Empire Strikes Back, that I ended up describing the scene as Star Wars dressed up in medieval drag.
I want to make it clear I really enjoyed the film. I did. It’s just that I enjoyed it more as a rollicking romp with a clear sense of its own hypertextuality and sexual ambivalence than because the content and structure of the film is original, thought provoking or even remotely sad. I know some people cry as a result of the film. But that's because these are the sorts of people who cry at sad bits.
ASIDE: As I see it, there are the sort of people who cry at films like Titanic (ie: they'll cry at anything, no matter how bad it is), and there are the sort of people who get teary in the cinema because they are awe-inspired. There are about a handful of films that have ever involved me enough to get me teary; Schindler’s List (during the final scenes of actors and real people making the procession up to pay tribute at Schindler’s grave), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (during the last 30 minutes), Jane Campion’s Little Women (when rose petals are strewn over Beth’s bed and dolls after her death), and a couple of other films where it’s not so much that something good/bad has happened, but that something extraordinary has touched me. It has to be something monumentally awe-inspiring to get my tear ducts working in the cinema.
I don't cry at happy bits. Others do. ROTK has lots of happy bits, a few noble bits and some bits that are just right while also bringing about an end of things. There's just nothing to move me to tears. Maybe I'm just a tough audience.
The one thing mildly spoilerish I will say is that I think a serious error in the cinematic cut of ROTK is the manner in which it leaves the character of Eowyn. She is badly done by. It's a shame because she became a bit of a favourite of mine after TTT. Oh well. We can't have it all.
So in summary - a flawed but generally wonderful conclusion to the series. And I'm looking forward to the DVD.
Have had a great Christmas Day yesterday with the family and enjoyed the still blue skies and warm temperatures up in the Victorian Dandenongs. Am off to see Return of the King today and catch up with more friends.
Am still hoping the Beagle has landed. Cross fingers folks!
And all the very best to the cricketers lining up for today's Test at the G. Should be a great match.
And finally, thanks to all those who have contacted me and sent their wishes for Christmas. I promise I will get back to you all just as soon as I can. My very best wishes to you, too.
Just checking in to note that:
(a) it's presently sunny and 22 degrees in Melbourne, heading for a top of 31°.... so I am not a rain Goddess after all; and
(b) it's been fabulous to catch up with so many people so far in Melbourne, with more to see! But I am not forgetting my Brisbane friends! You are all missed!
Most importantly, a very happy and safe Christmas to everyone, and a prosperous 2004 to one and all. May we all find happiness and fulfillment in our lives! My love to everyone.
Hi from down south where it's been raining every day virtually since the moment of my arrival. It hasn't been so cold as such as wet, but it's just worthy of a chuckle because in a way this feels like a welcome back :-)
The events so far have been fabulous - has been great to catch up with people both in Brisbane for Christmas parties and here in Melbourne. I'm looking ahead to a big day today so can't spare more time for details.
Just briefly I want to thank Liz for looking after my place whilst I'm away (and my chocolate mint - long story!), and I want to thank Mum for having me in Melbourne. I also want to wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas season, and hope you will join me for the blogging journey in 2004. (The exercise never ceases to amaze me. When you get this sort of feedback it just shows the power of the medium, and the possibilities for communication.)
Thanks and will blog again soon.
My computer at home is fine, I've had a performance review at work which also ended up being fine and I'm fine. It's just Christmas party season so I'll get back to blogging from Melbourne when I get there tomorrow.
Now back to parties!
:-)
I have a new 80G hard drive that I installed yesterday afternoon and I loaded operating system, programs etc, yesterday afternoon and evening. I have subsequently spent over 12 hours downloading and installing updates to various programs and to the operating system. Dialup sucks at times like these.
I will get to emails shortly, I promise.
Enough said really. It's not the new operating system so much as everything else. When you click on a hard drive in your My Computer folder and a program starts you have fairly serious issues. Looks like I'll be retiring a hard drive tomorrow.
Thank goodness for:
(a) a laptop;
(b) knowing how to build a PC; and
(c) good friends.
Hey guess what I'll be doing tomorrow? Can anyone guess? Anyone? Anyone? (No I will not be Ferris and I will not be having a Day Off.)
Disastrous morning. Not only is my email server buggering up but my PC at home is deciding to give me issues just for the sake of it. CMOS has forgotten what year and date it is (possibly a bad battery problem) and all my hardware devices have decided simply to go out to lunch. Have managed to restore some systems but I suspect this is going to be a long day.
Will be back to blogging late tonight if I get a chance. Thank goodness I have Kev & Stef coming for dinner and can get away to enjoy company and good food for a little while at least.
In the shadow of the MP3.com closure, the Coca Cola company are starting up a MyCokeMusic.com initiative in the UK. This seems pretty much a commercial television, sponsored program approach to content provision. Sort of. A subscription service, the MyCokeMusic system will allow people to download and play music on their PCs and MP3 players as often as they like whilst their subscription is active. This brings MyCokeMusic in direct competition with Apple iTunes, HMV and Virgin's digital music services, and while there is some rhetorical concern over intellectual property protection, no-one is ever really going to be able to stop it from happening.
In other news, IT jobs are up in Australia again. Anyone who says the e-business bubble has burst is an idiot. It's just being further integrated into the business sector.
Quick heads-up for the World Summit on the Information Society, starting tomorrow in Geneva. Not sure how useful it will be because the speakers are more political appointments than thinkers in the field, but it will be interesting to see policy-oriented outcomes of the debates.
And in the very cool department, I just had to point to the story on self-assembling polymer molecules that can act as stencils for circuits on semiconductors. This is IBM technology and is designed to cut costs on hand mapping circuits for silicon chips. Goodbye giant metal robots. Hello getting molecules to work for you :-)
I'll have more time to blog tomorrow but in the meantime I just want to make a special mention of the fabulous news that Telstra is going to uncap downloads for its broadband customers, and that the Geek five social fallacies are quite possibly the truest words for geekdom I think I have ever read.
I've just seen Kevin post to my blog.
*looks out the window to check for evidence of an impending Judgement Day*
:-) Welcome aboard babe :-)
I have an important announcement to make :-) While Joanne Jacobs is listed among the best female authored weblogs, it is not this blog that has appeared among nominations in the 2003 Weblog Awards, but that of my US colleague at joannejacobs.com. Please don't anyone else email me again to say congrats for my nomination!!! All the best anyway to Joanne!
Yes folks I'm still at work on a Friday night. The sad thing is that I'm blogging from the presentation session directly before my own. *waves to colleagues* (I'll show them this as soon as I start speaking). Right now Rob is talking about broccoli in the teeth which is odd, but it's just part of his presentation on Bloom's taxonomy. So there you go. I'll fix this post up later.
Cheers.
First of all, there will be virtually no cricket play today. If you don't believe me, have a look at the radar over Brisbane right now.
Secondly, the WIRED magazine article on privacy this week is a good read. While the focus of the article is US law, the implications for Australian law are clear: the same conditions on protection of personal privacy exist for public and government bodies here (subject to exceptions in the Privacy Act as amended, 1988-2000). In an age of mass identity theft, we could be on the verge of significant changes to privacy laws on a global basis.
Finally - from Boingboing - the cylons from the original Battlestar Galactica series (the bizarro mannequin baddies and centurion robots with the red strobe lights across the front of them), have been replaced in the remake of the series by busty blond chicks in red PVC. It's so wrong it could make you cry. As Xeni Jardin points out, it's more Battlestar Erotica these days.
It's been raining on and off all day.
At stumps the score in the cricket was (Aust.) 2/262, in spite of the fact that the rain must have turned the pitch into a quagmire.
The Lord of the Rings DVDs rock. Thanks to Kev for letting me spend 8 hours watching both FOTR and TTT :-) I so owe you.
Thanks to Callum for this link to the story about a world speed record for a Japanese magnetically levitated train. At 581 kph - or just under half the speed of sound, as Callum points out - you could get from Brisbane to Melbourne in only about half an hour's more time than it takes to fly there. Not sure whether you could really regard yourself as being safer taking this fast train than flying though!
News Limited's claims yesterday that Australia's Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, has sought to block media from getting access to documents pertaining to the financial management of the country are extremely serious indeed. News CEO, John Hartigan, used a speech to the Press Council last night primarily to urge reform of defamation laws for media in Australia, but he also accused the Treasurer of public contempt in the speech. If the Treasurer is concealing documents, this cannot otherwise be construed than as a direct attack on the freedom of the press, and an indictment of the Liberal Party "policy" of open government. Further, if financial management of this country is so seriously compromised that documents need to be hidden from public consumption, then even true believers of the Howard regime must doubt the agenda of this government.
In tech news, the blogshares concept has gone under. Seems the technical difficulties experienced outweighed any benefits.
And in local news, the wet season has come to Brisbane. The last couple of days we've had showers overnight and in the mornings, with fine but warm days. Today, for the first day of the Test at the Gabba, I doubt there'll be much play in the morning session, with torrential rain this morning hanging heavy over the river city.
I'm not sure why it's take me so long to get hold of Esther Dyson's latest article on social networks, specifically on the organisations specialising as aggregators of data, and setting up social networks through digital connectivity. Dyson (author of Release 2.0 and Release 2.1: A design for living in the digital age) is concerned about the cost-benefits of social software aggregators from Plaxo to Friendster, believing that in the end, the costs of brokering relationships via digital media will well outweigh the benefits. And that's just the legal and technological cost. On top of that, there's the reduction in the value of friendship. Measuring the popularity of people by the number of listed friends and social networks turns connections into a trophy collection, and reduces the value of actual friendships. Some very interesting ideas.
.... includes walking in to Dick Smith (electrical goods store) and staring with amused incredulity at a giant Christmas decoration for windows, and following an inquiry from a staff member asking if I needed assistance, my saying with restrained laughter in my eyes, "An inflatable Santa... that lights up when turned on... it's just so very wrong."
In my latest blog posts to my academic blog-on-blogging, I explore the differences between blogging and media in terms of political bias, and I annotate some of the links on social software that I've probably mentioned here before. Strictly for those interested only.
On an entirely different note, Christmas is upon us. I have posted my Christmas cards (they were actually ready to go a fortnight ago) and am itching to get a Christmas tree up. Only problem is that all the decent Christmas trees are really expensive. I'm actually thinking of getting a live Christmas tree this year. Anyone know where I can get one in Brisbane? But whether I go live or plastic though, I'm afraid I won't have the very cool device that Yahoo have sponsored in the New York City Herald Square Christmas tree: a wireless receiver. Anyone within cooee can take a laptop or a PDA to Herald Square for free internet access. They get their pressies early in NYC.
Odd things that happen to me: Steve Waugh bowling in my street. Yes, it happened today. Several cricketers were seen bowling to young kids in the middle of the road and traffic was being directed round back streets. Some guy on a loudspeaker annoyed me all morning while I was working. When I went downstairs to see what all the fuss was about, there was Steve playing what seemed like backyard cricket. I knew he was retiring but this was ridiculous. If it wasn't for the police, the loudspeakers and signs for some mobile phone company, I'd have sworn he'd gone off his nut.
Finally, thanks to Liz for having me to speak at the Equestrian Federation conference yesterday. Hope what I had to say was useful for your delegates.