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Reasons why the green jumping spider is cool:

1. Its scientific name is Mopsus mormon. How can you not love a name like that?

2. If KISS were spiders, this is what they'd look like. (Not that I'm a KISS fan, but as spiders they'd be kinda neat.)

3. Its jump is powered not by leg muscles but by hydraulics - its little spider heart squeezes blood into the legs and makes them go sproing! Hardly ever into your hair or anything.

We cashed in some reward points from Rey's work and spent the weekend at a winery in Macedon, just near Hanging Rock with the rest of the usual Gang of Six. On the way we walked up to the summit of Hanging Rock (and all of us came back, too!) Very pretty, not too strenuous a trip, and lots of nifty rocks to be seen stacked on top of one another in improbable-looking positions.

The winery itself was pretty and the food was excellent. I tasted a few wines in the area but wasn't enthralled by anything (I'm mostly a dessert wine person, and they weren't in evidence). We didn't really do anything tremendously exciting, but we got to hang out with friends without the usual frantic schedule of our trips southwards.

Oh, and on the Saturday night [livejournal.com profile] silverblue hooked up to the winery's wireless connection and we got into a long-range squicking contest with [livejournal.com profile] naudiz. (I recommend not Googling 'Octopus Girl Takoko' from work, BTW.) The night before, we watched Mrs Henderson Presents, a very enjoyable film based on a real person who was considerate enough to live a life suited to being acted out by Judi Dench. Bob Hoskins was also very good; I hadn't seen much of him in the last few years, but this film certainly redressed that (so to speak).

Sunday was very windy and we got to the airport early, which was just as well. Our flight had been cancelled and they bumped us onto an earlier one, which after delays on the ground and then holding in the air got us to Sydney at almost exactly the time our original flight was meant to anyway.

Exercise since last update: 12km. Total: 385km/231mi. Past Weather Hills, heading for Weathertop, Sam reciting poetry. Yes, have been bloody slack this last month, but between tree-dismemberment and walking, have been getting a bit of exercise besides the treadmill, so it's not quite as bad as it looks. I think.
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After more unsuccessful jobhunting, I was cheered up by rediscovering this one by Clive James:

The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered )
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This is why I read [livejournal.com profile] bad_rpers_suck:

Alex is an adventerous girl, and she is a great thief, known as 'The Bandit of the North".When she was 5, her father, the old Bandit Of The North, also known as Xial Fear, told her stories about all of the acts of thievery he did.She loved to hear those stories, and ever since she dreamed of being the next Bandit Of The North.She started to take bandit classes, and as the years passed, she grew better, faster,and stronger. But one day when she was ten, she was walking home, when she senced something bad happened. She ran home, only to find her house demolished, and her parents killed. From then on, she promised herself that she would take and protect the title of the Bandit of the North.

Had a neat dream yesterday. Back in my parents' back yard in Canberra for some reason, and the dream declared that I had a rocket launcher. A dinky little one-handed Nerf sort of thing, that I had to feed with dinky little foam 'rockets'.

And when I fired it, there would be an impressive WHOOSH and they would fly about a hundred feet and explode with a lot more WHUMP than usually associated with Nerf weaponry. From there on the dream just cycled through "I probably shouldn't play with this/but it's fun/well, just one more go/WHOOSH-WHUMP!" over and over until I woke up. Not quite as fun as the flying dreams, but pretty awesome.

Exercise today: 12 km. (In 40 minutes, not too shabby - and that includes getting-off-to-thump-the-TV time.) Total: 324km/194mi: camped in eastern Midgewater Marshes, watching Gandalf at Weathertop from afar.
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Was playing Battle for Middle-Earth 2 last night, and having problems - it kept freezing when trying to load battles.

After some experimentation, determined that it only happened when I tried to start a battle involving a specific one of my three Gondor heroes; battles with Aragorn or Theoden still loaded fine. I'd had an odd auto-resolve combat result with him earlier (his army was listed as 'eliminated', but then awarded victory anyway), so I'm guessing some important file relating to him was damaged.

That's right, Boromir got corrupted.

(Exercise since last update: 27km. Sick for a bit, then slack while fretting over job stuff, but got in a bit here and there. Total: 312km/187mi, still in Midgewater Marshes.)
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"The lessons of Katrina are important," Bush said. "We've learned a lot here at the federal level. We're much more ready this time than we were the last time."

"Let's, first of all, pray there's no hurricanes," Bush said. "That would be, like, step one."


I'm sure there's an element of selective quoting there. But reading the rest of the Wired article leaves me with the distinct impression that aside from Bush's much-vaunted relationship with the Almighty, there's not much reason why last year's disasters couldn't happen again this year.

(Although from what I hear, New Orleans is still in a bad enough way that there just isn't as much left to break this time around.)

Exercise: 11km last night (in about the first three-quarters of House, so better time than last week). Total: 222km/133mi: on Great East Road, just short of Bree.

QotD

Apr. 27th, 2006 12:26 pm
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Via [livejournal.com profile] sclerotic_rings, this gem:

"...in retrospect, it's probably a bad idea to use an art museum for any kind of all-you-can-drink event."

Exercise: 10km last night (one episode of House is nicely time for this). Total: 211km/127mi: crossed into Cardolan, heading for Great East Road.
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...how often do 'highly trained' soldier accidentally shoot themselves in the head while cleaning a firearm? I mean, even experts can screw up, but I'm not convinced it ought to be the leading theory this time.

Draped in an Australian flag and with his beret laid on his chest, he died as his comrades said the Lord's Prayer.

I hope this is just a poorly-constructed sentence, and not really meant to imply that they draped the flag over the poor beggar before he was even dead.

Speaking of such things, Anzac Day tomorrow.

And since I'll forget it if I leave it any longer: exercise since last update = 10km, total 201km/121mi. Escaped from Barrow-Wights, heading back to Great East Road.
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Via Mediawatch, transcript of '9 AM with David and Kim', discussing the recent UK drug trial disaster:

David Reyne: Some of these guys were given a placebo.

Dr. David Ritchie: Correct

David Reyne: I don’t really understand what a placebo is, but it seems to have, to have saved them! And wouldn’t it make sense that every time a trial like this takes place, that there’s a placebo on hand.


*sigh*

Exercise yesterday: 10km. Total 191km/115mi. Captured by Barrow-wights.
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Saw the special edition of Alien3 the other night. I hadn't realised there was a special edition; usually that seems to be reserved for more successful films. But evidently there is. IIRC, the Aliens SE was basically just a matter of extending the story already in the theatrical version, but this one diverged quite substantially from the theatrical version in a couple of places.

I wasn't one of the people who hated the original release. It certainly didn't live up to Aliens - that's a pretty hard act to follow - but taken on its own, it was a reasonable piece of work. I doubt the SE will convert anybody who didn't enjoy the original (they still kill off Newt and Hicks, and the CGI's not great), but I know there are some Paul McGann fans out there and I will say that his character has a considerably more important part in this version than he did in the original.

Also re-watched Evil Dead 2, whose characters pick up several prizes for Dumbest Possible Thing To Do In A Horror Movie (which, let's face it, is half the fun of watching). Yeah, I'm talking about the bit with the tape player.

Exercise: 13km. Total 181km/109mi; still wandering around the Barrow-Downs.
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Via [livejournal.com profile] elynne: heavy metal and curling. Why did I never think of that? (I'd throw in a pithy "oh, yeah, because it makes NO SENSE!", but last night I was talking to [livejournal.com profile] shadow_5tails about a Secretary/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen crossover, so I don't think I get to use this answer.)

Exercise this weekend: 10 km. Total: 168km/101mi = past a rainy day at Tom Bombadil's place and now wandering somewhere on the Barrow-Downs. Incidentally, that was one of the creepiest parts of the entire book for me.

Edit: Also, somebody out there has WAY TOO MUCH LEGO.
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Gave Dog-Or the last of his antibiotics yesterday, so no more "catch the dog and force horrible tablets down his throat". I'm happy about this, and presumably he is too. The wound is healing, slowly but surely, and he gets his stitches out on Wednesday. Will probably leave the cone on a while longer, though, because we *know* he'll want to scritch the hell out of it as soon as possible.

It's my father's 60th next month. Not sure what to get him. Not that he demands a big fuss over presents - he's pretty easy-going that way - but I'm fond of my father and I'd like to get him something nice. Half of me is saying "maybe a cookbook for bachelors" and the other half is saying "let him enjoy his birthday without reminding him about that bit". Talked to my brother - he's well and cheerful, so that's all good.

Still feeling tired and sore of late. Partly not getting to bed at sensible hours, partly a stiff spot right at the base of my skull causing headaches (chiropractor has tried twice so far to dislodge that, no luck as yet). Managed to get in a short stint on the exercise bike last night; total exercise since last update 20 km, which would be more impressive if it wasn't spread over 3 weeks, which is exactly the same thing I said 3 weeks ago. Total 158km/95mi leaves me neatly at Old Man Willow, day 4. No wonder I feel sleepy. Did at least get a reasonable amount done around the house this weekend, smote the front garden with the whipper-snipper and drove legions of tiny skinks before me. (This is a good thing; I'm v. fond of skinks and am glad they have the sense to run.)

Odd dreams last night - I'd recently sent a fairly important letter to an old old friend, and in the dream somebody was telling me she'd died. Fortunately, I'm usually at least a semi-lucid dreamer; I don't get to shape my dreams exactly as I want them, but I was able to wrench it away from "she died" to "somebody claims she's died, but they might be wrong, and besides this is a dream so it's not reliable anyway". Rey says I was talking in my sleep, but it doesn't sound like it was the same dream; apparently I was pestering her for tech support.

Oh, and the latest spam: "We cure any desease!" The contents offer me a choice between 'Viagra generic soft' (sic!), 'Cialis generic soft', 'Levitra', and 'Viagra and Cialis'. Forget hydrogen peroxide, we have a new cure for HIV and cancer!

Oh, and Dennis Mize, who sculpted minis for Ral Partha, Reaper, and various others, died aged 49. I don't think I had any of his human figures (mostly too cheesecakey for my tastes), but I'm pretty sure I've painted a couple of his monsters, and I rather like these fellows.
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Via Daily Illuminator: What are the lessons of MMORPGs today?

You never, ever, ever change jobs. If you want to, you probably need to die.

Many, if not all, wild creatures are highly aggressive and will attack on sight.

Killing is the only real way to gain people’s admiration.

Well, you can make stuff too, but you won’t earn the same kind of admiration.

In fact, there are only two kinds of admiration in the world, and they can be quantified.

There is always a demand for couriers and assassins.

There are gods, and they are capricious, and have way way more than ten commandments. Nobody knows how many because everyone clicked past them.


Exercise since last update: 20 km (12 miles), which would be more impressive if it wasn't spread over nearly 3 weeks. Have been annoyingly sore in my exercising bits lately for no very good reason. (Also, somewhat apathetic this last week due to a couple of annoyances at work. Total 138km/83mi puts me somewhere in the Old Forest; another 12 miles to go before Old Man Willow.
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The other night, a section of our back fence fell down in high winds. [livejournal.com profile] reynardo discovered this when Dog-Or showed up at our front door at 2:30 am (behind our yard is a lane that leads back to the street). In the morning we shut him inside and fixed the fence. When we let him back into the yard, he ran straight for the spot, looking back at us as if to say "There was a MAGIC DOOR here! You gotta believe me!" You probably had to be there, but it was tremendously cute.

Exercised to The Ninth Gate last night. (Yeah, I've been slack this last week, but I did get the mowing done. 20 km yesterday, 5 the other day, total 118 km/71 mi puts me just past the Buckleberry Ferry.) It was a reasonable movie, and Johnny Depp put in a solid performance, but nothing spectacular.

The bit I had the most trouble with was the book abuse. The number of people who smoked while examining a valuable 300-year-old book, even blithely dropping ash on it, had me wincing. I almost wept when Depp's character - who is supposed to be an expert on old books - squooshed said book into a hotel photocopier. I don't care if it is an evil book written by Lucifer himself, you just don't do that. (Granted, he had a pretty good reason for making copies at that point... but given the nature of his errand, it would've made far more sense to do it on specialised equipment before setting out.)

Edit: I want some of this stuff. Yes I do. But the company doesn't ship outside the USA :-(

Edit the second: But these guys do. Hmm....

Miscellany

Jan. 25th, 2006 12:07 pm
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From [livejournal.com profile] sclerotic_rings, all the graph, grid, and hex patterns you could want. Also, an interesting NY Times article on Photoshopping in scientific publications.

Mental Commit Robot For Psychological Enrichment. Not available in Norway.

Achieved my first KoL Ascension on Monday, as an Accordion Thief. Now playing as a Pastamancer.

Exercise yesterday: 10 km/6 miles. (Have been slack the last week, due to heat and feeling like a big tired wuss.) Total 75 km/46 miles, which gets me to the end of Day 2, past elves and second Black Rider appearance, hobbits camped at Woody End. Tell you what, the travel scenes go past a lot faster in the book than they do when you're pedalling through them.

[livejournal.com profile] da_norvegicus got some new Lego the other day and I have to say, I'm sorry to see what's become of the line in recent years. When I was a kid, I'd buy a Lego set* and assemble it into the thing on the box... and then after an hour or two I'd take it apart and make it into something completely different. A house turned into a yacht, then a truck, a spaceship, a castle... that flexibility was what made Lego cool.

None of this newfangled rubbish. )
*with my hard-earned cash after trudging through the snow and selling kidneys, not like the soft kids of today oh no.
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It takes real talent to make a video-game adaptation disastrous enough to stand out from the crowd, but BloodRayne seems to have managed it.

The fact that it's yet another VG adaptation directed by Uwe Boll is an obvious strike against it. The fact that Boll hired real prostitutes for one scene because they were cheaper than actors doesn't inspire confidence, either.

But all that rather pales into insignificance against a computer error that resulted in making and distributing prints for 7,400 cinemas instead of the film's target of 1900 - the extra prints look like costing about $27 million, more than the entire $25m production budget.

And in the end, only half of the 1900 cinemas who were supposed to get the prints are actually showing it; it pulled in just $1.2 million in its first weekend.

[livejournal.com profile] cleolinda points at this since-deleted Wikipedia entry which claims that the industry's nickname for Uwe's production company is "Bialystock and Boll". It's beginning to look pretty plausible... Edit: See also this piece on the same subject.

(And looking at IMDB, he appears to be set to make a Hunter: the Reckoning adaptation, too. I can hear the WoD fans whimpering from here...)

Exercise yesterday: 20 km, plus 5 km the other day, = total 65 km/40 miles. Past first Black Rider, hobbits currently singing, one more mile until second Black Rider and first appearance of elves. RotK is a good exercise movie; I picked up Heat, which should be a good replacement, although I think pedalling through the entire 260 minutes in one session might be a bad idea.
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Ganked from [livejournal.com profile] okuninushii: Walk to Rivendell.

I'm tempted to start counting my exercise-machine scores on this. And every time I take a plane flight, I'm going to add Giant Eagle Mileage to my score like Gandalf, Frodo and Sam did.

(Let the exercise thing slip a bit over the last month-and-a-bit due to RL distractions, but have been getting back into it this week. Maybe keeping a long-term tally will help me stay on it... we'll see.)

Edit: Day 1: 24 km/15 miles on the elliptical. Puts me slightly past Stock Road. Entertainment: Disc 1 of RotK, so am simultaneously ahead of & behind the hobbits. Could certainly have pushed it to 18 miles to match them, but do not have a Black Rider behind me. Also, committing self to keeping pace with the book would get me in a lot of trouble come this part of the storyline.

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