afog 164
New years Day
The regular Friday night gaming got extended into a New Years party. Present, apart from myself, were Rob, Leece, Clara, Richard, John S, and for one game Rob's sister Ann. We played NANO Fictionary and Arkham Horror. A good but sedate night was had and we broke up soon after 00:00. Another year down. Mumble to go. Heh!
Posted on 01 January 2005 at 05:25 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 165
Mon AM 03/01
Spent yesterday lazing around with a foray for mucking about in the garden. Maureen was very diligent, getting into the below ground pool and removing a lot of the plant life that is choking it. M found some tadpoles from this season ... not in any of the ponds. Oh no, nothining so sensible. They were in a pseudo pond constructed from an esky beside the clothes line. When the below ground pool is cleaned up a bit and certified free of Leopard Danios (voracious little buggers, not comunity fish at all) we will use some to repopulate it. More gardening today including a visit to Waldeks. In between, I'm tackling the conversion of Freedom in the Galaxy to a web game.
Posted on 02 January 2005 at 07:37 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 166
Wed AM 05/01
The bike trip to Waldeks went well. I snaffled some red bunching onions and a cherry tomato for one of the raised beds and some white yarrow for ground cover around the dwarf crab apple. I came back with a 36 litre bag of sheep manure balanced on the rack behind my head. Worked well as long as I didn't stop long enough for the smell to drift forward.
Yesterday Maureen casually dropped that Judith and Joseph will be out from England next week and will be stopping with us for a few days. Eh? They were only here a few months ago ( afog 30 ). Oh well I'll have to get some of the accumulated backlog of work done.
Work on FitG continues. The Imperial setup page is over 100K but it works. Next comes the Imperial stragetic assignment page and then on to the Rebel setup.
I went googling for the foaming ant spray that worked so well against our resident terror. Along the way I discovered a charming little page about a Japanese lady's struggle with Australian ants. Anyway, diversions aside, I discovered the product that I had used was probably Baygon Ant Foam which is of course no longer available. Spit!
Posted on 04 January 2005 at 09:14 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 167
Now *there's* an incentive to keep pedalling fast if ever I heard one!
Posted on 04 January 2005 at 10:33 PM by Alicia Smith
afog 168
Thurs Noonish 06/01
Got a fair bit accomplished yesterday. Put up the wall hook M wants in the loo. Baled out a lot of the below ground pond. Cleared an incomplete electronics project from the kitchen table. And cooked lamb shanks for tea ( possibly M's second favourite food after fine chocolates ).
I've fined out the achitecture for the FitG play system. The core data items will be implemented as Perl objects using a flyweight pattern with coarse persistance and demand loading. The main process is a state machine with each state being implemented in a Perl library that is "required" at runtime if necessary. Each library has two entry points. One is to create the displayed page and the other is to process the user return. This keeps the amount of code to be pre-loaded to an absolute minimum. Fun is going to be building the AI.
Ah well ... off to see The Incredibles now. 8-)
Posted on 05 January 2005 at 10:28 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 169
The Incredibles
Well I enjoyed that. Hmmm, a redneck superhero and a claims assesor to boot. When I saw the boss at the insurance office I immediately thought "John Howard". Heh!. I especially liked the designer: Once, I designed for gods
. Yeah , what is there not to like.
Posted on 06 January 2005 at 05:17 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 170
Fri PM 07/01
Nothing happening really. I got Subversion up and working and then checked in my work to date for FitG. I can't say that it is any better than CVS except that it versions directories. I need to write a rant on the subject of version management systems. Maureen finally cleared the last of the rogue vegetation from the below ground pond. The puppy next door has a new squeeky toy which sounds a bit like a rainbow lorikeet screech. And the rainbow lorikeets are out gathering the fruit from the umbrella tree.
Posted on 07 January 2005 at 03:37 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 171
Mon AM 10/01
Still not too much happening. Swancon 2005 meeting and then JAFWA on Saturday afternoon. Visit to Jesters Pies on Sunday. Various pottering around with the Perl class generator for FitG. Maureen cleaning up the kitchen. Did a pork stir-fry last night. I use the camping stove, an MSR Simmerlight for stir-frys. It is the only thing I have that is hot enough. Yea for a gas stove when the current electric range dies. I want a Wok burner and a simmer ring. Yeah!
Purely by chance we unearthed the May 1999 edition of Scientific American during the kitchen cleanup. The cover story is "Tsunami: Predicting destruction by monster waves". This article was published about 10 months after the tsunami that destroyed some villages at Sissano in nothern P.N.G.. Predicting tsunamis from the seismic data is a black art. Assumptions have to be made about the amount of surface dispacement that occured during the quake. In all there are at least 10 descriptive parameters of which only 4 can be derived from the seismic data. Initial estimates of tsunami size are often out by a factor of 5 to 10. It is the immediate reaction of residents on costal communities that is instrumental in saving lives. In July 1993 there was a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the Sea of Japan. Within 5 minutes of the shock the Japan Meteorological Agency was issuing warnings via TV and Radio. But by then 5 to 10 meter waves were already striking the island of Okushiri. 1,600 townspeople who had fled to high ground immediately they felt the shocks survived. 239 died. In Japan 15% of 150 tsunamis in the last century were "damaging or fatal". In Indonesia the proportion is more than 50% and post disaster interviews indicated that people did not connect the earthquake with the possibility of a tsunami.
The 75% false alarm rate for Hawaii is mentioned in the article and blamed on the fact that only seismometers and tide-gauges were available to report the presence of tsunamis. The USA NOAA was about to deploy 6 ocean bottom pressure transducers in 2000-2001 which was all it could afford. Let us hope that the Australian Government doesn't decide it is all too hard in the future.
Posted on 09 January 2005 at 09:13 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 172
Wed PM 12/01
I've been frittering around cleaning and sorting stuff for the last couple of days. Nothing particularly exciting. Went to tea at Retro Bettys with Maureen, Leece, and Poss this evening. Used the bike for transport and my legs let me know afterwards. Lordy, how short a time it takes to get out of condition. Couple of interviews coming up next Monday. Yeah! Judith & Joseph due to arrive mid afternoon tomorrow.
Posted on 12 January 2005 at 08:13 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 173
Good luck with the interviews, Steveg. Fingers, knees, eyes crossed.
Posted on 12 January 2005 at 06:44 PM by Poss2003
afog 174
Fri AM 14/01
Thanks for the wishes Poss. 8-).
J & J arrived on schedule and are currently ensconced in the visitors bed. As part of the keep-em-awake-until-bedtime routine Maureen dragged out Spirited Away which seemed to go down well. Mass touristy things today and taking Joseph to gaming tonight.
Posted on 13 January 2005 at 06:56 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 175
Wed AM 19/01
Friday was up to Kings Park with Maureen, Judith, and Joseph. We walked the Botanic Gardens including the new(ish) treetop walkway and browsed around the Pioneer Women Memorial. Maureen carefully positioned herself downwind of the main fountain jets to get a cooling drench.
Saturday Joseph and I went to the RAAF Association Museum at Bull Creek and inspected the various aircraft and associated displays. After that it was on to Fremantle where we parted company and I went back to Curtin Uni to join Maureen for JAFWA.
Sunday was preparing the financial statement and then the WASFF meeting. In the evening J & J took us to the Piazza del Sol for some very nice Italian food. I had Capretto which was very nice (that is baby goat).
Monday was deliving J & J to the bus terminal and then job interviews and assorted stuff. The interviews went very well. One of the jobs is preferrable but both a good. One position means 6 months in Canberra and the other is a permanant position in Melbourne. Sigh, not much hope of any position in Perth.
Tuesday was spent recovering and trying to shake off lost sleep with some desultory programming for FitG.
Today ... I awoke really early with a substantial amount of bushfire smoke playing havoc with my nose even through the CPAP machines filters. I got up and took some anti-histamines but failed to get any more useful sleep. I guess that either the fires in the Darling Scarp have jumped the containment lines or the firebug has lit a new set. At present the smell of wood-smoke is heavy in the air and the sky is covered by smoke haze.
Posted on 18 January 2005 at 09:45 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 176
Sun AM 23/01
The air has been smokey since Wednesday from the bushfires in the Darling Scarp. Not good for people with breating problems. Not good for the animals at the Zoo. Poss reports on Kangaroo dead from stress (down-wind from a fire, unable to run).
Went to Retro Bettys with Maureen, Poss, and Leece on Wednesday evening for burgers. Thursday was pottering around and clearing up the Swancon mailing list. Friday was more of the same with a raid into Perth to get supplies from Kakulis Bros. ... mostly flours and grains for breadmaking. Saturday was finishing the mailing list, the Swancon Comittee meeting, and then JAFWA. Maureen turned up late to JAFWA as she had to borrow a car to pick up Judith & Joseph from the bus terminal. After JAFWA we took J & J to the International Airport. We didn't stay to see them off as their flight was at 2am.
Still no word on the job front. Added three more applications in progress, all in the Eastern States. That makes 7 in-progress at the moment. There is a huge range in offered salaries. Everything from $50,000 to $100,000 for very similar job descriptions and experience requirements.
Posted on 22 January 2005 at 07:40 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 177
Wed AM 26/01 Australia Day
Looks to be heading for a nice day outside. In the absence of interest in a BBQ we shall probably bike down to the sky show tonight.
Not much happening on the job front. No word from any of the positions I've had interviews for. No new interviews. One new line cast in the water. No rejections. *sigh*
Posted on 25 January 2005 at 05:50 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 178
Sat AM 29/01
Wednesday: We rode our bikes to Perth in the evening for the skyshow. First we stopped on the lawns of Russell Square in Northbridge to have a picnic tea and then we found a possy at the foot of Mount street just off the freeway bike path to watch the fireworks. Mostly it was the same-old but with more fireworks in the air at once. I suspect there is a effect where the brain becomes saturated by the spectacle and more coloured explosions don't add anything. There were a few shapes that I hadn't seen before ... a star in a circle kinda like the USAF roundel.
Thursday: Maureen was at work so I was left pottering around the house. I cooked Kirsten's Chickpea Chilli (without the chilli in deference to Maureen) and some multigrain Cinnamon scrolls. The Chilli went down well except that we forgot to put the pot in the fridge. Oh well. The cinnamon scrolls were a real hit! We have been rationing out the remainder ever since.
Friday: Not much happening. We rode into Perth in the late afternoon to get a new kickstand for M's bike and check the arrivals at Quality Comics. Then on to a bite of food at the Nagoya. Then a very pleasant ride home in the setting sun.
Today: I'm not sure what the plan is. I'll play it by ear.
Posted on 28 January 2005 at 09:41 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 179
The Phantom of the Opera
It has been about 10 years since I saw the stage play of this show. The film is different and I'm not sure it is better. For the most part the music is there as I remember but some things that looked right on the stage just look silly on film. I suspect the expectation is the thing. On stage you do not expect to see a fully detailed view of everything. The props suggest and our minds fill in the detail. With the film the whole canvas is pre-painted with no room for any abridgment. The glaring example is when the phantom is taking Christine accross the resevoir. In the original the stage is covered in mist which the boat glides through and lighted candelabras rise up through the mist. In the film they do the same thing but it just looks silly. Who replaces the candles? How come they are all brand new? How? Why?
And then there are the inevitable rewrites. This thing was a winner folks. The only re-writes it needed were to change the scenery and props to things that work on film. But noooo, we have to fiddle. All trace of any supernatural powers that the phantom has have been ruthlessly expunged from the script. Gone are the fireballs that the phantom throws at Raoul in the cemetery. Gone is any reason for the mental dominition that Christine is held in when she is abducted. And La Carlotta loses her voice because of a substituted throat spray. *sigh*. The phantom has changed beyond all recognition as well. Gone is the arcane mechanical and architectural genius who learned his trade in the East and came to Paris to build the Opera house. Welcome to the deformed gypsy boy who taught himself all these things while hiding in the cellars for the past 10 or maybe 20 years. Feh! And the motive of the phantom seems to have changed. He seems a lot more interested in possesing Christine's body rather than her voice. But that may just be my changed perceptions. And the phantoms thundered "So, it is to be war between us" has been reduced to a mumble.
The music carries this film. There is a lot of fine propwork, even the bits that don't work for me are technically well done. The voices for Raoul and the phantom seemed just a tad weak early in the film but that may have been the fact that they haven't been performing the show for several years. The opening scenes of the auction are extended through the film and work well. The transition to the cemetery, which always left me a little mystified, works far better in the film.
And now for the failures. The masquerade is dissapointing and dingy. The rooftop looks and feels like a set. And the phantom isn't horrifying. His burns look more like severe sunburn than horrible disfigurement. And the whole terror of the indian noose has been reduced to some clumsily handled hemp rope.
Go and see it for the music. Or maybe see it if you have never seen the stage show and whant to know the story.
Posted on 29 January 2005 at 07:56 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 180
Feh...it sounds a bit like it's trying to slide into Hunchback of Notre Dame...
Posted on 30 January 2005 at 07:09 AM by leece
afog 181
Leece: You mean the Disney version?
Posted on 30 January 2005 at 09:10 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 182
Ah, yes...I should've been a little more specific. :-)
Posted on 31 January 2005 at 12:26 AM by leece