Watchmen, the Film?

What?!

It probably wont have these stars in it (thankfully), though the film is in production. The real casting, it seems has been much more volatile. It either going to be very good (maybe a 21% chance) or very very bad (79%) and I think the difference will be whether or not one has read the comics. I have.

Which Watchman Character are You?

You are Nite Owl. Some may consider you a recluse but deep down you're a really good guy who wants to do the right thing.

A nice Surprise

This day has been full of surprises and peculiarity.

Early today as I was getting ready to go out the Australia Post contractor arrived with a batch of packages and parcels. Now get this - Kevin had bought two Lexmark X1195 scanner/printers that were on special for $20 and gave me one!

Wow, when I finally got home late in the day (about 15 minutes before Kevin got back) we tested it and it's smooth and fast and not at all like my old Mustek 1200 thing which was slow as a wet bag and temperamental in cold weather (and had a bug under SANE). Of course it's also a colour printer, something I haven't had at home until now. May not be cheap, but I now have "reproductive capacity". I know I get upset with Kevin from time to time, but this was really nice of him.

Funny Day

I've been all over, and it's been all over me...
                                                              ...er, well not really, but that's a quote from U2's Beautiful Day, which I heard on the bus today, a favourite song of mine (as it was playing all the time when I was in Phuket).

I had to race to catch a bus this morning just as a certain goodies arrived by courier. Did a little shopping at Jesmond and walked to Wallsend Community Health Centre for this ACT group I'm going to (this is week 2 of 8). On the way I passed Jenn's old flat, and from the outside it look stripped bare. Anyway I had a 2 hour session with the group and decided to have lunch at the cafe next to the hospital (they do a good $5 coffee + damper breakfast).

Who should I meet there but one of the home care workers that used to visit Jenn. The first question she asked me was "do you know what's happened to Bobby?" Ha, well I told her how I now look after both Bobby and Ebony and she was quite relieved to hear that. Not only that, but she said that if I wanted to take Bobby to visit Jenn, she'd drive us to the nursing home and back (Jenn could pet Bobby in a wheelchair outside the home)!

Cool! I gave her my number and then just leaving saw the Sugar valley bus come down the road, and caught it immediately to Cardiff. At Cardiff I was trying to find ball bearings so that Kevin could fix the wheel on my "Super Trolley" (the one shown in this comic). The guy at the bike shop said that I'd be better served getting a whole new bit for the wheel and so I walk about 3-4 km up Mundibung Rd (with grocery trolley in tow) looking for a Ball Bearing Shop. When I got there, I found that getting a set of two would could just under 1/2 the cost of replacing the whole trolley - I knew what I'd rather do.

So I walked back to Cardiff and on the way checked at Metaland for a mesh to repair my fence, checked at an electrical warehouse for a power cable for my new scanner (it mysteriously didn't come with one, and the warehouse didn't have it) and got some brochures from a place that makes garage/shed kits (I've been lusting after a new shed for some time). And I also took some photos because I just happened to have my camera on me.

Got back to Main Rd and within 10 seconds the Sugar valley bus comes along! I caught it and then discovered that it didn't go to Glendale anyway. I still needed to do some pet food shopping so I got off at Glendale. After that I took a punt and bought Kevin and myself fish and chips and caught the next bus home with only a couple of minutes to spare!

It was all rather busy. When I got home I found that Kevin was out, but he returned only minutes after I did. It's been a funny day of making connections - either social or bus ones. I sweated a lot today, and though I still have a cough I feel a lot better. I met no less than three other people who were getting over the flu, and had weird conversations this morning about "how the world seems more dangerous as one gets older" (maybe, but safety is all an illusion).

I feel good today. I hope this lasts for a while.

U2 - Beautiful Day

Tarot Quiz

I Am

Which tarot card are you?

As infected by johanna_hypatia. Not the first tarot quiz I've done (last time I was Death!) but I found the questions on this one intriguing.

Angel Kirk

I came across this image which I drew back in 2006 just now, looking for something else.

This was of Kirk, who I met at Queer Collaborations in 2005. He had an entire wall of angel posters and he seemed like the right person to pose for the Angel of Death in my Trans Tarot Deck. I sometimes wonder what happened to Kirk.

Firefox Download Day

Have you attempted to set a World Record with no luck? Well, now is your chance to change that! Help set a Guinness World Record by downloading Firefox 3 today. And, help spread the word!

Writer's Block: How I got on LJ

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Now here's the thing - I can't remember.

I have my suspicions, but I can't be sure. The first entry I ever did was on the 8th June 2003 in the octobrianaoz journal. Now this entry is about seeing the first sequel to The Matrix, and of staying up late to research Blogs for my TAFE course.

I was studying library science at Newcastle (actually at Islington) TAFE at the time, and I think on top of everything else I raided various sections of the TAFE library. One section I went through was 741.59 or there-abouts, and found an interesting book about web comics. Another section was the low 001s which was computer and in that I found the rough guide to Blogs. That may have been where I heard of LJ. However there are two other possibilities.

I had just discovered The Matrix Explained Forums which was a hotbed of hysteria over the possible meanings of the end of the sequel (was Zion a real place or another layer in the Matrix? How come Neo could stop the hunter-killers with a wave of his hand, would Trinity have a baby in #3? - that sort of thing). It may have been that someone there had an LJ account.

I was also (and still am) on the Wombat list, and there was a cross-over between people on that list and on LJ.

Puzzling, but I won't lose any sleep over it.

Matrix Weirdness online

One of the things about the Matrix is the multiple failed attempts to expand and extend it, which when mixed with the enormous expectations of a rabid fan base, led to humoungous disappointment. However, much interesting, good, and weird stuff also came out of the Matrix.

I've just been having a look at The Matrix online. This seems to be an MMO but you have to buy a copy of the game ($19.95) first before you can play it. It was uncertain from the website if it costs money to play, but it undoubtedly does. After playing Second Life I have to say the graphics look a bit, um, dated?

At right is a screenshot from the site which shows two fashion victims having it out once and for all. The youtube video The Matrix Online 2.0 probably gives a slightly better idea of what it's all about, though I suspect that after a while things would get very repetitive. Maybe the The Matrix Online - Neo Vs Smith Parody is more like how things are. If I were to play this game, I'd want to be an agent and kick the shit out of the humans!

One of the better free merchandising spin-offs from the first film are the Matrix Comics which you can still read on-line (or buy in paper versions). These are all part of the What is the Matrix site and I find it interesting that, after five years, the site is still there.

Something I didn't expect was Matrixism - the path of the one(赤)! Yep, it's a religion based on the films. Hard to say whether is this is serious or not. The religion-wiki entry lists its religious laws as including "The abrogation of the use of the human image in advertising, the legalization of file sharing, the abrogation of pornography, the legalization of same-sex marriage, the abrogation of professional sports and the legalization of both polygyny and polyandry". Not that I'm opposed to any of that, but it seems an odd mix. In any case they have their own website for you to check out. I wonder what would happen if they met the Church of the Jedi?

And while we're on religion, that religion-wiki has some odd entries. I typed 'jedi' into the search to find the above. I didn't - instead you'll find a link to the GENTA page. Have fun working out what it's all about.

And finally, there is The Meatrix!

 

Bromleyism

It's said that there are about 500 members of Bromleyism (not to be confused with Kayleyism) world wide. I wonder why?