Beware of Coyotes

Off to the Gunner’s Crag

After an exhausting week at work I’ve been taking it easy this weekend. Annotating photos on Flickr, playing Fallout 3, avoiding any contact with the outside world, that kind of thing. I’m almost at the point where the idea of going in to the office tomorrow doesn’t fill me with a deep sense of dread, which is pretty good all things considered ;D

One thing I’ve been particularly enjoying for the last few weeks is Tom Siddell’s webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court. I stumbled into it via TV Tropes (Warning – Do not visit that site unless you have five or six hours to spare. It’s worse than Wikipedia…) and have been reading my way through. It’s pretty intriguing, essentially a prolonged mystery story about a very strange school full of robots, ghosts, gods, psychics and alchemical symbolism, but it’s very hard to pin down to any simple genre. And the art has gone from a bit shaky at the beginning to excellent quality in the present.

One of the things I find so fascinating about it is it takes some themes that I thought of many years back, and tried unsuccessfully to work up into a story, and runs with them in a way far, far better than I could ever have done. The Court thus fitted right into a hole in my brain that I’d been trying to fill for years (that may sound like I’m accusing Tom Siddell of stealing my thoughts. Firstly, no, and secondly, if he is then I’ll let him off in this instance since the result is so good).

So, Gunnerkrigg Court. Go check it out.

(Personally I suspect Jones is the Seed Bismuth, but what do I know?)

My Personal Hell, Where I Roast in my Shell

Roast in my shell?

It’s that wonderful time of year when it’s cold enough outside for the air conditioning to set itself to heat, but warm enough for the office not to be able to naturally shed the heat that builds up from four guys and six computers working in close proximity.

Result? Sauna time!

Bah!

The End of the Begining

I’ve avoided any political blogging for a bit because it’s all been up in the air since the election. To recap – we’ve ended up with a hung parliament with a bunch of Independents (and one Green) set to decide who’s going to form government. The Green and some of the Independents have already made their choices, leaving just three holdouts to decide the fate of the nation.

Well, today these three are set to reveal their choice. What’s interesting is that one of them – the, shall we say ‘somewhat eccentric’ Bob Katter – has broken ranks and announced that he’s supporting Tony Abbot and the Liberal/National Coalition a full hour before the scheduled press conference. This puts the Coalition and Labor neck and neck on 74 seats.

So, does this mean that the other two Independents are supporting Julia Gillard and Labor, and Katter’s decided he doesn’t want to be associated with them? Or that all three are supporting the Coalition and Bob Katter is just being Bob Katter and jumping the gun for his own Bob Katterish reasons?

Stay tuned…

Later: Katter has now said if the other two go for Labor, he might change his mind…

Later: Tony Windsor has come out for Labor (he likes Broadband and Renewable Energy). Labor leads 75 to 74. The Coalition cannot form government!

Later: Windsor is still talking. He’s never going to have an audience this big again and he’s milking it for all he can get…

Still Later: A work colleague is going to register “tonywindsorpleaseshutup.com”

Again Later: Finally. Now for Rob Oakshot.

Later Later Later: It’s “there can be only one”, get your pop-cultural references right!

Later Still: Oakshot’s as bad as Tony!

Later: We don’t care about your children! Tell us who’s PM!!

Laaaaaateeeeeer: C’mon!

LATER: This is worse than Who Wants to be a Millionaire

later later later later: You can equivocate later! Just give us a damn answer you fool!

Later: We want to go home tonight too!!

Later: i can has gubermint plz?

Later: Finally! Labor has 76 seats! Labor and Julia Gillard it is! Hooray! (Mind you at this point I’d be happy with a new election just to stop Oakfield talking…)

WE HAVE A GOVERNMENT!!!

Asteroid Magnets

It all makes sense!

Dinosaurs are asteroid magnets. We once had dinosaurs all over the planet – what happened? Boom! Asteroid. Go to any museum today – where we keep the dinosaur skeletons – and what do you see? Meteorites. It all makes sense!

On another subject my work colleague Bruce solved all my commitment issues this morning. Unfortunately the issues in question were merely in TortoiseSVN.

The Not So Amazing Race

My strange obsessions come to the fore

Just put a Flickr Set up about the scavenger hunt, treasure hunt, follow the clues madness thing I ran through the city a few months back. There are two photos missing at the moment (I tried to get one of them today but someone was sitting on the clue, inconsiderate so and so!), hopefully I’ll be able to get them soon.

I’m organising a new race shortly – one of the reasons I was in the CBD today was scouting out locations…

Student who electrocuted his nipples sues teacher and school for not warning him it was dangerous

Your gene pool needs a little chlorine…

The family of a teenager whose heart stopped after clamping electrical cord to his nipples is suing the school and the teacher, saying the boy suffered brain damage.

No. That’s what’s known as a pre-existing condition.

Today we all steal animals…

Machines! We are taking to the sky!

B Mashina by scary Slovenian industrial meisters Laibach is a truly epic track, redolent of all kind of weird, Reichian flying machines and apocalyptic calamities. As such I consider it extremely unlikely (no matter how much the aforelinked YouTube poster would like it to be true) that the lyrics include the phrase today we all steal animals.

It seems much more likely to me that the lines in question are today we are still, animals we are.

Of course maybe I’m wrong and the song’s really about black helicopters and cattle mutilation…

Fun Facts!

Isuzu = Suzuki

The ‘Isuzu’ truck company does not in fact exist. All ‘Isuzu’ trucks are manufactured by the Suzuki car company, but the shame of being seen driving around in a Suzuki causes truck drivers to prise off and discard the ‘K’ from their truck’s nameplate, and reposition the ‘I’ to the start of the word.

Would I lie to you?

Stitch Cloud and Cleanse Feather

Nocturnal ramblings

The phrase “Stitch Cloud and Cleanse Feather” popped into my head as I was falling asleep last night. I have absolutely no idea what it means (well, a cleanse feather could be some kind of feather that cleans things I suppose) but I like the way it sounds.

You see, now it’s quick and easy for me to blog things you’re going to get a whole mess of pointless Twitter-like entries like this…

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