#300: Whiteout Fu
I am deeply absent-minded. In order to function, I have a complicated system of reminders.
My phone has alarms that go off when I need to prepare to go to work, and if there’s something obscure I’m scared I may forget. I also write on my hand a LOT (which is why I very frequently wake up with backwards writing across my cheek).
But most importantly, there is my diary. My basic system is that a single line cross-out means “This is no longer happening, but I may need it for records or decision-making at a later date”. A complete scribble means “This activity/task is done. Use what little mental space you have for other things.” The capital letters here and there indicate that I will see or have seen various students/employers – I keep those letters relatively pristine (and copies elsewhere in the diary) in case there’s a pay dispute.
Altogether, this is what a typical week looks like:
When the gibbering mass of pen marks gets to be too much, I attack it with whiteout. The relief of seeing a suddenly-blank page once more is profound.
How do you remember things?
#299: Steampunk Research
In January I decided to write a steampunk series. This was daunting, because I’m no historian. I decided to remedy my ignorance (to a very minor extent) by reading twenty nonfiction books (and of course spending time on wikipedia and elsewhere). I also took another look at the TV series “Worst Jobs in History”, visited the National Museum, and went horseriding – as well as reading several novels of the time (especially Marcus Clark’s “For the term of his natural life”), and every modern steampunk novel I could get my hands on.
Here for your convenience are my short reviews of the twenty books I read.
These are the top three, in my opinion.
1. “Victorian London” by Liza Picard (including colour illustrations).
If you’re going to read one book before writing steampunk, this is the one you want (and, as a bonus, it’s often hilarious). The first chapter is on smells. Need I say more?
2. “Who invented what when?” by David Ellyard.
This was brief and coherant enough that even I (a bit of a luddite myself) felt that I understood everything. It includes era-defining inventions such as the steam engine and life-changing inventions like toothbrushes. If you want to have an idea of where technology was at and how people lived, this is where you should start. The thing that makes it especially brilliant is that it’s in chronological order, so you can choose where to stop.
The other technology books I read were “History’s Worst Inventions” by Eric Chaline (which was very good, with a little more depth), “Technology in Australia 1788-1988” (which was intensely dry – I only read selected sections), “The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A story of steam” by William Rosen (which was good, but rather above the heads of non-engineers, and often focused on patent law rather than the more fictionally interesting bits of steam tech).
I also read “The Aeronauts” for balloon info, which was the single most entertaining book on this list – when I write about my own balloon ride I’ll add some quotes for all of you! Oh, and “Sail and Steam” by John Falconer, which I should have read with a dictionary in my other hand (do YOU know the different between a clipper, a cutter, and a tall ship?) but the stunning pictures were well worth it.
3. “Black Kettle and Full Moon” by Geoffrey Blainey.
Blainey is a very well-known Australian historian (I wasn’t able to get “Triumph of the Nomads”, which is a huge shame), and this book is all about everyday Australian lives – so of course it’s gold for writers.
The other books that were very good for everyday detail were “Australian Lives” by Michael Bosworth, “Colonial Ladies” (lots of brilliant and entertaining letter and diary fragments) by Maggie Weidenhofer, and “Slices of Time: Australian Family Life in 1838” by Joan M. Kenny.
For general Australian history I skimmed through “The Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia of Australian History” (wikipedia was way more useful for getting a grounding in things) and “A History of Victoria” by Blainey (good, but not as relevant as the other one). I also read “The Gold Rushes” by John and Jennifer Barwick (a children’s book, which suited me fine).
For bushranging I read “Australian Bushrangers” by Bill Wannan, and “Australian Bushrangers” (yes, same title) by George Boxall. Both were fascinating – especially tales of bushranging chivalry – but they were also sometimes horrifying to read (especially the second one) because of the nature of crimes committed by certain bushrangers.
For better knowledge of the convict system, I read “Commonwealth of Thieves: The Sydney Experiment” (too historically early for steampunk, but a surprisingly gripping read. . . for a little while, despite all the odds, the two cultures had a chance to actually get on), “Death or Liberty” by Tony Moore (all about transported political prisoners. . . absolutely fascinating, and something Australians should be so proud of – the influence of those rebels is still felt in some of our best cultural attributes), and “A Long Way Home” by Mike Walker (a semifictional account of the convict Mary Bryant – packed with vivid detail and real-life desperate adventure – again, too early but still extremely useful).
Last but definitely not least, I read “Savage or Civilised” by Penny Russell (an examination of early Australian manners). Fascinating, and so relevant to steampunk attitudes! I’ll never think about handshakes the same way again.
So there you have it! Some of the best books for prospective steampunk authors to read, especially if you’re writing Australian steampunk (I know I’m not the only one!)
S#32: Break from technology
Steff Metal is one of those mad fools who thinks that “Real Life” has some kind of benefit beyond that bestowed by the sweet sweet glow of computer and TV screens. Based on her list suggestion, I have now completed (over a period of many months) seven days without TV and internet.
Conclusion: Never, ever again.
To celebrate my newly rediscovered love of all things square and glowing, here is a present for you, Mr Internet.
S#8: Ich Bin Ein Stern
My mission of awesomeness was to sneak into a friend’s house and stick glow in the dark stars to their ceiling – an idea I LOVE except that the vast majority of my friends are renting.
So instead I gave (and “installed”) glow in the dark stars to the angelic-looking daughters of one of my friends. The whole family was tremendously excited, and it was a lot of fun. I’ll be thinking of them this evening as they lie in bed, desperately staying awake until the stars start to shine. (I’ll also be thinking of their mother, who is likely to experience an equally exciting evening.)
During the afternoon, CJ and I played “Pirate’s Cove” with the mum while the girls slept. The elder daughter (who is almost five) emerged after a while, and was permitted to watch us play.
“Mum,” she said. “Mum! You’re gonna win. You’re gonna win and I’m gonna love you forEVER!”
With a certain amount of interest, we asked what happened if her mum didn’t win.
The girl thought hard, and then made her pronouncement: “I’ll still love her. . . for a couple of days.”
Hmm.
For the next 24 hours I will be *gasp* offline as I endure the final 24 hours of my “week” without technology (the most difficult of Steff Metal’s 101 awesomenesses). See you tomorrow at 3pm sharp, Internet. I’ll miss you.
#298: Vodka Rainbow
Shiny, shiny colours. I can’t resist them. Particularly when they’re as high in sugar as Snookie is high on. . . life.
So I had the idea of drinking a RAINBOW OF VODKA. Since my job is to be awesome, I then did it.
Here’s the rainbow I chose (based purely on colour):
I decided to explore my rainbow in as many sensory ways as possible.
First, sight. It’s a tough call, but I think the purple is the prettiest. Or at least, the most freakishly unnatural. I was struck by inspiration and mixed red and blue to see if I could make purple myself. It turned black. That didn’t bode well. . .
Second, smell. The red (raspberry) smells like raspberry lollies, but more artificial (yes, really). The passionfruit and pine lime smelled like juice. The blueberry smelled like the smell really was, most definitely, a number pasted to a vat of harmful chemicals. The surprise winner was purple (a flavour they call “Pom pom”, since it doesn’t resemble any fruit, even in passing), which smelled of flowers and vanilla. Strange but true.
Finally, taste. The raspberry and blueberry were so desperately chemical I wondered why I thought this was a good idea (probably I was, as always, using alcohol as a poor substitute for chocolate. It happens). The pom pom tasted surprisingly good – sharp and unidentifiable at first, but I swear it had a sweet vanilla aftertaste. The passionfruit was a complementary flavour with nothing to complement. And the winner was pine lime, which was the closest to juice out of all five. (The combined raspberry and blueberry tasted like it looked – a black day for chemicals and colour.)
CJ helped me out in continuing the experiment, but we didn’t discover anything else. The notion that five vodka cruisers at once was a bad plan doesn’t count as a discovery.
Still, the hope-laden memory of all the pretty colours in a row is one I’m happy to keep.
#297: Random Sauce
Here’s how you play:
1. Flip a coin. Heads – you go to the Asian food aisle of your local supermarket. Tails – you go to the Pasta and sauce aisle.
2. Close your eyes, take twelve steps forward (or the same number as your age in years), and grab an item off the shelf (bonus points if the supermarket is crowded).
3. If it’s some kind of sauce, you win. Buy the other ingredients and go home. If it’s not a sauce, go to the other aisle (Asian if you’re in Pasta; Pasta if you’re in Asian) and try again. Continue until you get sauce (or thrown out by security).
4. Cook and eat your new best friend.
5. Report back on success/failure/arrest.
My conclusion: Yummy, but not enough sauce (or, sidebar, any hint of vegies – my bad). Next time I’ll double the sauce. Also, a question for Mr Internet – is there a difference between pork tenderloin and stir-fry pork?
#296: Pirate’s Cove
No, I was not kidnapped by pirates*. I was given a board game for my birthday. I approached it with caution. My parents are board game tragics. so as a result the only board games I like are Settlers of Catan, Carcasonne, another I can’t remember – and now this.
It’s beautifully done in 3D:
What you see there is my friend engaged in a fierce dice battle in order to win fame points (the aim of the game). Other than the pretty pieces, and the opportunity to call innocent landlubbers scurvy dogs and/or wenches, the best part of the game is that you are very rarely left waiting for anyone. The “bank” is “Treasure Island”, located in the middle of the board, where everyone can reach it. The fights are fun to watch, and the treasure situation is so ever-changing that a good player is constantly adjusting their strategy.
Best of all, the game is designed so you are guaranteed a fateful fight in the final round – clever work by the designers.
*sadly, or fortunately? You decide.
S#89: Dinner and a movie
“Dinner and a movie” is basically my favourite date. For today’s awesomeness, I had to go by myself. Luckily, I’m a cheap date, and could take myself to the ANU Film Group to see “Fair Game”.
First, dinner. The Iron Chef in Mawson is as liberal as I am with sweetness and crispy oil. Also, they give you free honey sesame peanuts when you dine in.
I had boneless lemon chicken. It was a beautiful combination of crispy, sauce-laced skin and sweetly ordinary moist chicken. Much nom. On a Wednesday evening – the night before public service payday – it was fairly quiet, and the service was lightning fast (you can tell, because my peanuts are still there).
Happily sated, I went and saw an equally excellent movie. “Fair Game” (starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn) is definitely an intellectual movie.
It’s about the CIA investigations into the possibility of nuclear weapons being produced in Iraq in the early 2000s. More importantly, it’s about how the overwhelming findings of the analysts (ie that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq) were ignored, and the USA government lied to its citizens and invaded a country that was no threat to their safety. It’s also about a CIA agent’s husband who wrote the truth (he’d been hired as an analyst himself, and had discovered that Iraq almost certainly had no uranium whatsoever) and threw it into the mainstream media. Finally, it’s about how the government then exposed his wife as a CIA agent, putting all her active projects in jeopardy including the innocent Iraqi scientists she had contacted in order to get the information that the government had ignored.
The story is incredibly compelling and the acting is top-notch. I recommend the film to anyone who doesn’t require movies to be silly. My one criticism is that the preview implied that most of the story was about the CIA agent Valerie Palmer’s personal life. Actually it was a more well-developed story of the entire conspiracy to invade Iraq (focusing on her personal investigations). Her personal life is vital, however, and was what made the movie great.
Conclusion: I’m okay company for a date, but I’d prefer eating and seeing movies with friends and/or CJ.
#295: Bubble Cat!
CJ and I, while attempting to play with Ana, inadvertently discovered a new and improved method for tormenting her.
Observe:
To be perfectly honest, we tried the older cat first. When a bubble popped against her paw, she freaked out and fled.
Fun for the whole family!
Felicity Banks 