Disordered Thoughts and Curmudgeonly Ramblings
Satan Built My Website
Deville’s Pad may be a fantastically cool venue, but their website is hellish.
Graphics optimised for a white background on black, horribly compressed maps and menus (to the point of near illegibility) and completely built in Flash so you can’t select/copy any of the text or open anything in a new tab.
It’s horrible. I don’t know what they paid for it but whatever it was they got badly ripped off.
(By the way, the design is great – it’s the implementation that’s jaw-droppingly bad).
All are the three and of the three
The document now known as The Book of Truth was discovered in southern Namibia in 2004, apparently having been deposited by a temporal wormhole of the kind now known to spontaneously occur in that region. Although the date of authorship is unknown, temporal studies have suggested that it originates from at least 4oo years in the future, and (based on isotope readings of the ink) was probably produced in east Asia.
The document is in the form of a slim booklet, hand written on coarse paper, bound with a leather cover fastened with clasps of poor quality steel. Carbon dating of the paper suggests that the document is between 100 and 150 years old. It is written in a language barely recognisable as English, displaying a heavy influence from a south Slavic language – most likely a dialect of Croatian. Translation of the text has been hindered by the fact that the metal components of the work are highly radioactive, whether this is an effect of the time-travel process, or due to environmental factors at the point of origin is currently unknown.
What translation has been possible suggests that the work is religious and philosophical in nature. Extracts from the first two chapters (which are divided into numbered verses) are presented below.
Chapter 1
1: All in creation is composed of the three, and the three are that which is Good, that which is Evil and that which is neither, and the names of the three are potos, ekos and notos.
2: In the moment of creation was made hadaz, the water of the heavens. And hadaz was formed both good and evil.
3: And hadaz did beget the stars, and the stars did beget all. The metal and stones, the air and waters, all that is living and non-living.
4: And all are the three and of the three.
5: Potos and notos shall gather together as a fly in the temple of the wise. And ekos shall weave around them a veil.
6: And the veil shall be many layered and the outmost veil shall be most highly regarded when complete.
7: And the ekos within the veil shall be where it is not, and none that knows where it is shall know where it will be, for there it is not, though it is.
8: And all that is real shall ascend.
Chapter 2
1: That which is light is strong, but that which is heavy is weak and its weakness will be shown when struck.
2: That which is the heaviest is the weakest and in its breaking is poison, but the poison may be harnessed by the wise for acts of power.
3: But the poison of the breaking shall last for a thousand years and corrupt the earth and vex the wise.
4: For it is not the power of the stars, and the power of the stars and the blending of the hadaz shall evade the very wisest.
Life After the Apocalypse with Power Armour and Demons and Tube Stations and Things
7 Mate (as Network 7 is insisting on calling it’s third channel) is promoting the series Life After People with that picture from Hellgate London.
You know, the one that curiously distorts the layout of the city to get the maximum number of devestated landmarks in?
With the game shut down and all I don’t know what the copyright status of the image is, but it seems like a strange choice. I mean the series is Life After People, not Life After the Apocalypse with Power Armour and Demons and Tube Stations and Things.
Odd.
Goodies
Two of my eBay orders arrived yesterday (well, actually they arrived earlier in the week and I was only able to pick them up yesterday) which means I now actually have some models for my force of Valhallans. Not a huge number, but it’s a start.
Let’s see, I have a Valhallan Commander (who needs assembling and painting), two Iron Legion lascannon teams (the posting on eBay said they were Valhallan, but hey, I can convert them), a Techpriest Enginseer (who needs some repairs and a decent re-paint) and two partly constructed Sentinels that I’m going to modify the crud out of.
I’ve got some other bits and pieces on order including parts for the Sentinel project, a Commisar and an Valhallan Officer. And a whole load of flock for the game table that Fabes and I constructed over the weekend. I’m also wondering if I have the patience (and money) to build some bear cavalry… mmm…. bear cavalry…..
In other news it’s 9:30 in the morning, and already 37 degrees. The temperature is not expected to drop below 20 until Thursday next week. That’s the minimum temperature I’m talking about. Oh joy.
Later…
Ah! They’ve revised the forecast! Now we’re going to be hit by Tropical Cyclone (Hurricane, Typhoon, whatever you want to call it) Bianca instead.
That sounds catastrophic, but by the time cyclones get as far south as Perth they tend to lose their puff. It’s due to hit on Sunday and will just be a slightly larger than normal storm. The good news is it’ll drag temperatures down to the much more reasonable low 30s with slightly cooler nights. Hooray!
The other history of England
There are times that I really struggle to hold my tongue.
On the train this morning I had to endure an emo guy informing one of his friends about English history. Highlights of his lecture included…
I was severely tempted to leap out of my seat and beat him around the head with a copy of Macaulay, but instead contented myself with the thought that a single kick would snap both of his skinny-jean clad legs like twigs.
In Lindsey And Leon Go To A Roller Disco (2010), the two main characters, Lindsey and Leon, go to a roller disco.
Observe the Wikipedia page for “roller disco“. Observe this…
In Lindsey And Leon Go To A Roller Disco (2010), the two main characters, Lindsey and Leon, go to a roller disco.
I so wish I could have found a reference to this on Google, but I couldn’t, so I had to remove it, damnit!
The JJJ Hottest 100 2010
Well it’s Australia Day, and I’m slaving away in the office. This sounds bad, but I actually decided to take Monday off instead and come in today and get a good slab of work done without distractions. Well, apart from the Triple J Hottest 100 anyway.
They’re up to number 88 and so far I’m not too impressed. Of course this could very well mean that all the really good songs have come in in the low numbers, which would be great, but we’ll see.
Only one song I voted for has come in so far, the Bedroom Philosopher at number 91. I’ll update the post as the results continue to trickle in…
Hmmm, according to the Wikipedia page we should all “seriously get to Jimmy’s” in Victoria Street in Brunswick, Melbourne. It also informs us that Jimmy is “a knob jockey”, although someone else thinks this is “unnecessary slander”. Fascinating…
Megan Washington at 84? I thought she’d get much higher…
Number 82. This is the music you tighten up to!…
Number 76. Ah, so that Kings of Leon song is named Radioactive. No wonder it makes me nauseous…
Ah Rosie Beaton! My long-time radio crush! Yey! 🙂
Number 74: I’ve always wondered what would happen if you put Tame Impala in a room with Leader Cheetah…
Number 71: Gypsy and the Cat have now popped up twice. No Jona Vark yet though…
Number 64: Ah! There it is. Should have got much higher if you ask me…
You know, there have been no songs yet that I really really hate? Interesting…
Number 56: Bring Night only got 56? What’s wrong with you people?!…
Ambling Alp at number 51. That takes the total-so-far of songs I voted for to 4…
Number 42: Gorillaz! Yey! (there were also at 78, just for the record)…
Number 36: Chiddy Bang! And they’re pretty much amazing!…
Number 31: Bloodbuzz Ohio by the National. So much for no songs I hate…
Did I mention that my prediction for number one is Cee Lo Green?..
Number 22: The counter-curse is “Unjellify”…
Number 15: Never thought I’d see the day that Barbara Streisand got into the Hottest 100. Well, live and learn…
Number 11:I also never thought the ABC News Theme would get a look in. Awesome!!…
Number 10: And now Boy George. Curiouser and curiouser…
Number 7: SEVEN!? Cee Lo only got number SEVEN!? Wow! Wonder what piece of crap took number one then?..
Number 5: Crowded House at five. Sort of :)…
Number 3: Ou Est Le Swimming Pool. It’s a great song, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s ranked so high due to sympathy votes…
And Number One….. Big Jet Plane by Angus and Julia Stone. Well, I certainly didn’t see that coming. But then it did win song of the year at the ARIAs, so I suppose it’s not that surprising.
OK, I’m out of here. More nuanced analysis will appear later (maybe :D)
Maybe my opinion of journalists is a bit harsh
I can’t tell if this is a case of a journalist being rather clever, or a journalist being an idiot and backing into cleverness (‘pulling a Homer’ as it were).
Yesterday there was bit of a scare in London when a police training exercise involving an entirely fictional gunman running up and down Oxford Street somehow leaked out into the Twittersphere as warnings of a real gunman running up and down Oxford Street. An article on one of the news sites I peruse (I can’t remember which one, and frankly I don’t care enough to go back and try and track it down) reported on this situation, including a comment about “the illusive gunman”.
At first I assumed that this was a typically (typical for Australian online news sites anyway) illiterate misspelling of “elusive”. But as it turns out “illusive” is that rarest of things – an English word with which I’m unfamiliar! It means “illusionary” or “imaginary”, and is hence a perfect description of the gunman in this case.
So, did the author pick the word deliberately, or simply mean “elusive” and fall backwards into brilliance? I guess we’ll never know (and they’d hardly admit it if they did :))
News Limited jumps on the bandwagon
Well, News Limited have certainly gone all out to help flood victims! They’ve created a page on their news sites where you can go to add a blue ribbon to your twitter feed to show your “support, strength and comfort” for Flood Victims. You can even go to certain stores and get your own blue ribbon to wear in real life! Fantastic!
Excuse me, but how does this actually achieve anything short of making people feel like they’re doing something without actually doing anything at all?
If News Limited actually gave a damn about flood victims they’d put the instructions for decorating your twitter feed behind a donation wall. And rather than give the ribbons away for free, they’d sell them. But no, they’d rather pander a feel good solution that makes them look like heroes without having to do any work.
If you want to help flood victims then donate money, goods or time. Changing the background on your twitter feed achieves nothing but making you look like a massive tool.
Salt that tastes of things other than salt
Right, so I assume my package arrived then 😀
