Bookwyrm's Lair

QSWFA Christmas Fair

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:50:16 GMT

I've been even worse that usual about letting everyone know about this than usual this year. Sorry, everyone! Uni and work and the whole graduating issue and our current lack of internet have been rather distracting in the past weeks.

Tomorrow is the Queensland Spinners Weavers and Fibre Artists' annual Christmas Fair!

From 9am (I can't remember if it ends at 2pm or at 4:30 - how shocking is that? ETA - it's 2pm)
Saturday 28 November
12 Payne st, Auchenflower

There will be handcrafted items for sale - knitted, crocheted, felted, woven, paper, baskets etc.

There will be craft supplies for sale - yarns, fibres etc.

There's a morning tea stall.

It's great fun, and very handy for all your Christmas present and Chrismas decoration needs.

I will probably be at the Night Owls stall all day, or else I'll be running around doing errands for everyone. If you're in the area, come say hi!

I've been horribly lax about all my QSWFA internet obligations this year. Hopefully we'll get a new website put together over the summer that will make things easier for next year - which I'll need, because I'm likely to be even busier than this year!

Let this be a lesson to all

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:14:48 GMT

Jenni just posted about bad drivers yesterday. 'Tis the season?

I was almost hit by a car this morning. 10-20cm almost. I was crossing at an intersection - running to catch my bus that was just pulling up to the stop near the light on the other side of the road. I had a green pedestrian light. I was more focused on the bus than nearby cars, but I was still paying enough attention to jump out of the way of the car that almost ploughed into me. It wasn't a car that was turning across the pedestrians, like when my brother got hit not long ago. This was a car that was supposed to stop at the red light. And it did stop, just not until it had gotten to the far side of the pedestrian crossing. The driver obviously either didn't see the red light until a bit late, or wasn't slowing down enough because she wasn't paying attention.

Why wasn't she paying attention? She was talking on her mobile phone.

She didn't see the red light, she didn't see me running towards her. She didn't see me jump back as she kept driving through where I was just about to step. She was still talking on the phone, facing forwards but staring blankly.

I don't even think she saw me stop and wave at her and try and indicate just how much she missed me by.

That's seriously dangerous driving, lady.

Also, it made me miss my bus and be late for consultation this morning. Not that any students have turned up yet (at least, not since I arrived).

Summer!

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:15:40 GMT

I'm trying to stay focused on the next week and a bit, because my biggest assignment for the year is due Friday next week. But I've been having to do some summer planning, and it's really quite distracting. It's exciting, though!

I'm going to be doing another summer research project, which is essentially continuing the stuff I'm doing in my research assistant work, but probaby doing a proper study on it. I'll be doing eight weeks instead of ten this time - I need holidays desperately!

I'll have two weeks of holidays after exams finish. If my history exam and the exam for the course I'm tutoring (I'll be marking for that) are early, then I'll have a bit of extra holiday time, too! I'm not sure yet when my RA stuff stops, but that's okay.

I'll also have the Christmas-New Year's week off. Just one week. But then I'll have two weeks of holidays before O Week for first semester next year, so that'll be three weeks off then.

I have no idea what I'm going to do during these holidays. Anything that doesn't involve going to uni, I guess! Have some serious crafty time, maybe go somewhere for a few days or a week. I don't know. But I haven't had real holidays since before first semester classes started this year. I've almost forgotten what they're like!

World Wide Spin in Public Day

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:30:29 GMT

Tomorrow is the very first World Wide Spin in Public Day!

There'll be a bunch of us out there showing the city that spinning not only still exists but is awesome. If you're in the city tomorrow, come find us at Brisbane Square, from about 10:30 probably until early or mid afternoon.

Those of you not in Brisbane, if you see people spinning in public tomorrow, go say hi!

I've done Knit in Public Day twice before, and it's good fun. We haven't yet managed to get a really large group going, mostly because we've been a lot less organised about getting the word out to the knitters/spinners of the city than we should - Sydney, for example, put together a spectacular day out for WWKIPD. But that's okay. There are a bunch of us, we spend time outdoors in beautiful Brisbane crafting and having fun, and we get plenty of strange looks and interested inquiries!

I expect WWSIPD will get more of both strange looks and interested queries, as there will be spinning wheels present. Spinning wheels fascinate people! Of course, I bet most of the questions (other than "what on earth are you doing?") will be along the lines of "how does it work?" and "is that what sleeping beauty pricked her finger on?", just like at Ekka demonstrations.

Another thing that'll make tomorrow extra fun is that not only is it WWSIPD, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day... so that makes it World Wide Spin Like a Pirate Day! Arrr!

H. G. Wells: The Human Adventure

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:30:10 GMT

'The Human Adventure' is the last essay in the book I'm studying in my history essay, An Englishman Looks at the World by H. G. Wells, published 1914.

This book has been utterly fascinating - the essays are on a wide range of topics, and Wells is a brilliant, persuasive writer. It's so interesting reading it from a historical perspective, seeing his opinions on all sorts of social and political issues, and knowing its context in terms of social and technological development, and its place in history as post-Victorian and post-Edwardian and immediately prior to WWI. There have been so many paragraphs and sentences I've wanted to share with everyone! So I've decided to post the last essay in the book here.

The full text is available on Project Gutenberg.

THE HUMAN ADVENTURE
H. G. Wells

Alone among all the living things this globe has borne, man reckons with
destiny. All other living things obey the forces that created them; and
when the mood of the power changes, submit themselves passively to
extinction Man only looks upon those forces in the face, anticipates the
exhaustion of Nature's kindliness, seeks weapons to defend himself. Last
of the children of Saturn, he escapes their general doom. He
dispossesses his begetter of all possibility of replacement, and grasps
the sceptre of the world. Before man the great and prevalent creatures
followed one another processionally to extinction; the early monsters of
the ancient seas, the clumsy amphibians struggling breathless to the
land, the reptiles, the theriomorpha and the dinosaurs, the bat-winged
reptiles of the Mesozoic forests, the colossal grotesque first mammals,
the giant sloths, the mastodons and mammoths; it is as if some idle
dreamer moulded them and broke them and cast them aside, until at last
comes man and seizes the creative wrist that would wipe him out of being
again.

There is nothing else in all the world that so turns against the powers
that have made it, unless it be man's follower fire. But fire is
witless; a little stream, a changing breeze can stop it. Man
circumvents. If fire were human it would build boats across the rivers
and outmanoeuvre the wind. It would lie in wait in sheltered places,
smouldering, husbanding its fuel until the grass was yellow and the
forests sere. But fire is a mere creature of man's; our world before his
coming knew nothing of it in any of its habitable places, never saw it
except in the lightning flash or remotely on some volcanic coronet. Man
brought it into the commerce of life, a shining, resentful slave, to
hound off the startled beasts from his sleeping-place and serve him like
a dog.

Suppose that some enduring intelligence watched through the ages the
successions of life upon this planet, marked the spreading first of this
species and then that, the conflicts, the adaptations, the
predominances, the dyings away, and conceive how it would have witnessed
this strange dramatic emergence of a rare great ape to manhood. To such
a mind the creature would have seemed at first no more than one of
several varieties of clambering frugivorous mammals, a little
distinguished by a disposition to help his clumsy walking with a stake
and reinforce his fist with a stone. The foreground of the picture would
have been filled by the rhinoceros and mammoth, the great herds of
ruminants, the sabre-toothed lion and the big bears. Then presently the
observer would have noted a peculiar increasing handiness about the
obscurer type, an unwonted intelligence growing behind its eyes. He
would have perceived a disposition in this creature no beast had shown
before, a disposition to make itself independent of the conditions of
climate and the chances of the seasons. Did shelter fail among the trees
and rocks, this curious new thing-began to make itself harbours of its
own; was food irregular, it multiplied food. It began to spread out from
its original circumstances, fitting itself to novel needs, leaving the
forests, invading the plains, following the watercourses upward and
downward, presently carrying the smoke of its fires like a banner of
conquest into wintry desolations and the high places of the earth.

The first onset of man must have been comparatively slow, the first
advances needed long ages. By small degrees it gathered pace. The stride
from the scattered savagery of the earlier stone period to the first
cities, historically a vast interval, would have seemed to that still
watcher, measuring by the standards of astronomy and the rise and
decline of races and genera and orders, a, step almost abrupt. It took,
perhaps, a thousand generations or so to make it. In that interval man
passed from an animal-like obedience to the climate and the weather and
his own instincts, from living in small family parties of a score or so
over restricted areas of indulgent country, to permanent settlements, to
the life of tribal and national communities and the beginnings of
cities. He had spread in that fragment of time over great areas of the
earth's surface, and now he was adapting himself to the Arctic circle on
the one hand and to the life of the tropics on the other; he had
invented the plough and the ship, and subjugated most of the domestic
animals; he was beginning to think of the origin of the world and the
mysteries of being. Writing had added its enduring records to oral
tradition, and he was already making roads. Another five or six hundred
generations at most bring him to ourselves. We sweep into the field of
that looker-on, the momentary incarnations of this sempiternal being,
Man. And after us there comes--

A curtain falls.

The time in which we, whose minds meet here in this writing, were born
and live and die, would be to that imagined observer a mere instant's
phase in the swarming liberation of our kind from ancient imperatives.
It would seem to him a phase of unprecedented swift change and expansion
and achievement. In this last handful of years, electricity has ceased
to be a curious toy, and now carries half mankind upon their daily
journeys, it lights our cities till they outshine the moon and stars,
and reduces to our service a score of hitherto unsuspected metals; we
clamber to the pole of our globe, scale every mountain, soar into the
air, learn how to overcome the malaria that barred our white races from
the tropics, and how to draw the sting from a hundred such agents of
death. Our old cities are being rebuilt in towering marble; great new
cities rise to vie with them. Never, it would seem, has man been so
various and busy and persistent, and there is no intimation of any check
to the expansion of his energies.

And all this continually accelerated advance has come through the
quickening and increase of man's intelligence and its reinforcement
through speech and writing. All this has come in spite of fierce
instincts that make him the most combatant and destructive of animals,
and in spite of the revenge Nature has attempted time after time for his
rebellion against her routines, in the form of strange diseases and
nearly universal pestilences. All this has come as a necessary
consequence of the first obscure gleaming of deliberate thought and
reason through the veil of his animal being. To begin with, he did not
know what he was doing. He sought his more immediate satisfaction and
safety and security. He still apprehends imperfectly the change that
comes upon him. The illusion of separation that makes animal life, that
is to say, passionate competing and breeding and dying, possible, the
blinkers Nature has put upon us that we may clash against and sharpen
one another, still darken our eyes. We live not life as yet, but in
millions of separated lives, still unaware except in rare moods of
illumination that we are more than those fellow beasts of ours who drop
off from the tree of life and perish alone. It is only in the last three
or four thousand years, and through weak and tentative methods of
expression, through clumsy cosmogonies and theologies, and with
incalculable confusion and discoloration, that the human mind has felt
its way towards its undying being in the race. Man still goes to war
against himself, prepares fleets and armies and fortresses, like a
sleep-walker who wounds himself, like some infatuated barbarian who
hacks his own limbs with a knife.

But he awakens. The nightmares of empire and racial conflict and war,
the grotesques of trade jealousy and tariffs, the primordial dream-stuff
of lewdness and jealousy and cruelty, pale before the daylight which
filters between his eyelids. In a little while we individuals will know
ourselves surely for corpuscles in his being, for thoughts that come
together out of strange wanderings into the coherence of a waking mind.
A few score generations ago all living things were in our ancestry. A
few score generations ahead, and all mankind will be in sober fact
descendants from our blood. In physical as in mental fact we separate
persons, with all our difference and individuality, are but fragments,
set apart for a little while in order that we may return to the general
life again with fresh experiences and fresh acquirements, as bees
return with pollen and nourishment to the fellowship of the hive.

And this Man, this wonderful child of old earth, who is ourselves in the
measure of our hearts and minds, does but begin his adventure now.
Through all time henceforth he does but begin his adventure. This planet
and its subjugation is but the dawn of his existence. In a little while
he will reach out to the other planets, and take that greater fire, the
sun, into his service. He will bring his solvent intelligence to bear
upon the riddles of his individual interaction, transmute jealousy and
every passion, control his own increase, select and breed for his
embodiment a continually finer and stronger and wiser race. What none of
us can think or will, save in a disconnected partiality, he will think
and will collectively. Already some of us feel our merger with that
greater life. There come moments when the thing shines out upon our
thoughts. Sometimes in the dark sleepless solitudes of night, one ceases
to be so-and-so, one ceases to bear a proper name, forgets one's
quarrels and vanities, forgives and understands one's enemies and
oneself, as one forgives and understands the quarrels of little
children, knowing oneself indeed to be a being greater than one's
personal accidents, knowing oneself for Man on his planet, flying
swiftly to unmeasured destinies through the starry stillnesses of space.

UQ Knitters

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:10:42 GMT

How did it get to be Thursday already? I meant to post this on Monday...

There's a small group of knitters meeting at UQ on Fridays at lunchtimes (12-1) at Darwin's/the biology refectory. We could really use more people, as right now there are only two regular attendees. We neither of us bite, I've just been really bad at going out and telling people about the group. So that's what I'm trying to do now. UQ students, staff, former students, anyone who feels like popping into uni for lunch and a bit of knitting, please join us if you're able! We sit at the tables outside the refec/cafe, eat our lunch, knit, and chat about whatever takes our fancy. Good fun, and very convenient if you're at uni on Fridays (and don't have classes on at that time).

If you're interested, join the group on Ravelry, or comment here with any questions or to let me know if you might come.

:)

How did I accumulate all those staff numbers?

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:46:18 GMT

As of today, I have at uni:

- 2 general accounts: 1 student, 1 staff
- 4 id numbers: 1 student, 3 staff
- 3 email addresses: 2 student, 1 staff
- 2 uni-wide computer accounts (presumably): 1 student, 1 staff
- 2 school-specific computer accounts: 1 student, 1 staff
- 1 swipe card & 1 key

Did I miss anything? Are you confused yet? I certainly am.

I spent half of today running around uni sorting out several of these accounts, the key, etc. Now that I have all the accounts and passwords, not only should I be able to do one of my two jobs at uni in a room that isn't the general school labs, but I can submit my timesheets and actually get paid. All good things. But I don't know how many times I walked across uni or went up and down the lift in GP-South.

---

A belated but enormously happy birthday to sum_pisces for yesterday! I hope you had a wonderful day, Miss Em'ly :)

Random updates

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:02:52 GMT

I saw Coraline with nupatinga on Sunday. It was fantastic. I want to see it again, but I don't know if I can find half a day free in the next two weeks.

I've had one week of tutoring so far. It was pretty good - I'm so glad I remember the course material well and have used it heaps in the four years since I took it myself. It makes it so much easier, and I was hardly nervous at all after the first ten minutes or so of my first tute last week. I can't wait until we get to SQL, though. SQL is fun.

I promised my brother I'd knit him a jumper for his birthday (November), but I'm starting to worry about whether I'll be able to, since I haven't managed to find the time to measure him, calculate how much yarn I'll need, discuss colours with him, and acquire the yarn. Once I actually have the yarn in hand it should be smooth sailing, as I intentionally chose a plain-ish pattern so it'd be quick knitting - the Cambridge jacket [Rav link] from Interweave Knits (here's someone else's so non-Ravellers to see a picture). This'll be the second jumper I've ever made.

As you may have guessed, I've been a little short on time lately. I blame this partly on uni, and partly on the combination of my brain declaring two weeks' holiday at the beginning of semester (after working all holidays - the same thing happened last semester) and being lent seasons 3 and 4 of Babylon 5. And acquiring two seasons of NCIS and one volume of Inspector Morse. But I've watched all of those now, and apparently I have to wait until I've seen Torchwood s2 before I can start watching the Doctor Who s4 several wonderful people gave me for my birthday, so my brain is getting back into uni mode now. The history assignment I had to do for Monday helped with that, too.

Last-but-not-least - my birthday was fantastic! I haven't had such a great birthday for years. Thank you so much everyone :) I've lost my camera, so I can't show you many pictures, alas. But I do have pics of the presents I received in the Australian Swappers Birthday Swap on Ravelry:

Clockwise from top left, these are from: Fiestywench, Sunrisesister, Falkonfly [Rav link], and Zephyrama.

These and other presents have been keeping me well-supplied with chocolate, and I have plenty of spinning material for the rest of the year, not to mention yarn, books, cookie recipes (I haven't tried any yet but I hope to soon), and the aforementioned Doctor Who!

Operating system updates

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:18:10 GMT

Dear Microsoft and Apple,

At the moment, I have two primary computers. One is a PC with Windows Vista, one is a MacBook with OSX. This arrangement has been working well enough for me. I've been using Windows most of my life, but Mac OS is fine too, and I'm glad I got my MacBook and now know what it's like. But that's not what I want to talk about right now.

I am very unhappy with both of your operating systems' update programs right now. I fully understand the importance of OS updates. I like to keep all my software, including the OS, up-to-date. I like things to run smoothly, I like playing with new features, I don't want to be too behind in security. But I almost never install OS updates as soon as the updater tells me they're there. I don't like to disrupt the flow of what I'm doing to wait for updates to install and the OS to restart. That just takes too long. And it can be several days before I finally allow the updates to go through, as I usually like to be around to keep an eye on how the update is going. I also like to look at what the updates are before I install them - I'm happy to make the changes, but want to know what's being changed.

This week, both my computers have had updates waiting for me. They're annoying on the Mac because they keep popping up in front of what I'm doing, and they stop the computer from being turned off until I tell it that no, I don't want it to update right now. They're annoying on Windows because it's not immediately obvious how to turn off the computer without updating, and it's not easily obvious what the updates are. It's easier to forget about the updates on Windows, but the reminders are generally more annoying on Mac.

But this morning something happened which I am not happy about at all. Apparently, Windows had had enough of me putting off the updates. I'd been using the computer for ten or fifteen minutes, just getting into what I was doing, when a Windows Update dialog popped up telling me my computer would restart and install updates in five minutes. There was a countdown. There was a 'Restart now' button. There was also a 'Remind me in...' box and a 'Postpone' button, which were both greyed out. I watched that dialog for five minutes. The 'Postpone' button never became usable. When the countdown reached zero, it began the installing and restarting.

Forcing a restart like that is not on, Microsoft. I'm annoyed enough by forcing updates by removing the ability to shut down without updating, which I remember you doing in the past, and which has happened to me on my MacBook as well. This is ten times worse.

And Apple, don't think that being annoyed with Microsoft about updates is going to make me less annoyed with you. All operating systems have good points and bad points, and I'm not particularly fond of OSX's software update system either.

I'd already planned on getting a new computer soon, which will mostly replace both the two I'm using now. I intend for it to be Linux/Windows, dual-boot. This morning has made me even more keen to have Linux as my main operating system.

Oh, I won't stop using either Mac or Windows entirely. As I said, all operating sytems have good points and bad points, and I like having three (at least) available to me. But, Microsoft and Apple, I need a break from you both.

Betsy

Open Day advertisement

Sat, 30 May 2009 00:12:15 GMT

Tomorrow is the QLD Spinners Weavers & Fibre Artists Open Day!

For those of you in Brisbane and interested in crafty stuff, come along! 9am-2pm at 12 Payne St, Auchenflower.

There will be yarn and fibre and books and equipment (new and second hand), as well as all sorts of handmade goodies for sale. And a fibre fashion parade at 11am.

I'll be in the Emporium (the big shop in the old church) most of the day, make sure you say hi if you come!

A fibre-y day

Fri, 29 May 2009 07:10:27 GMT

Oh my goodness, I'm tired.

I spent today at the Spinners stall at the Textile Arts Fair. It's a new show on at the convention centre, and I must say it was pretty fantastic. Shows like Stitches & Craft are good fun, but at this one there was no beading, no scrapbooking, just textiley goodness. Don't get me wrong, beads and paper are wonderful too, but fibre arts are where my heart is, and it's nice to have an event just focused on that.

It was amazingly busy this morning! So many people coming up and asking us about our spinning, weaving, felting etc. I spent most of the day working on my dropspindled turquoise silk cap, which is always good for demonstrations - people love to hear about and see silk. We had a little loom set up, and some wheels, and all sorts of yarns and garments around the stall.

Several people commented that it was such a friendly show - I really did notice that. Lots of people hung around and chatted with us. It was great.

What was also great was seeing some fibrey friends I don't see often, as well as seeing some I'd never before met in person! There are a few people who have fibre/yarn shops who I've become friends with throughout my crafting career, and it's always great to get a chance to say hi to them. And today I met three people I know from the various Australian boards on Ravelry but had never met in person before! What a day.

And I was very well-behaved, too. I only bought three things. One 50g pack of white alpaca/cashmere tops to spin, one 50g ball of the brand-new Morris & Sons Empire in a nice spring green laceweight, and a few buttons to go in swap presents.

What a day. I talked so much my throat got sore. If it wasn't for the tea and lollies and chocolate I don't know how I would've gotten through the day! But it really was fantastic. I'll definitely be there next year.

Next up: assignments. Two big ones for next week.

And on Sunday, there's Open Day! I'll do a proper post about that later tonight.

Reading survey

Mon, 18 May 2009 03:43:33 GMT

I've started catching up on several weeks' worth of journals and blogs, and I found this meme that aurillia did, and thought I should do it myself.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Hm. This requires a trip to my bookshelf.

Okay. The answer is Enid Blyton, unsurprisingly. I have 27 books by her (that I can easily find, there may be another couple floating around). Two of those books are three-books-in-one things, so if you count that seperately it would go up to 31. The runners up are Tamora Pierce with 23 (I've only read 20 of them, though) and David (and Leigh) Eddings with 22. However, if the question was what series do I have the most books of, it would be The Boxcar Children. I have 35 Boxcar Children books, and I'm not entirely sure how many were written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, but it won't be enough to beat Enid Blyton.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?

I have two copies of Pride and Prejudice (my whole family has a total of 6), Anne of Avonlea, and Seven Little Australians.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Nope. I'm no prescriptivist! (... most of the time)

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
... that list would be too long and embarassing to share. I have a tendency to get very caught up in plots and characters.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
Hm. Hard question. Probably either Obernewtyn, The Island of Adventure (Enid Blyton), The Boxcar Children (the first book), or any of the following L.M. Montgomery books - Anne of Green Gables, Along the Shore (selected stories from it, at least), or The Blue Castle. Oh, also Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville - I read that one over and over and over when I was eight, probably the only book that I've read all the way through multiple times in a row.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Anne of Green Gables.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Hm. I don't really know. What books have I read in the past year again?

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
See the answer to question 7. I'm not so good at comparing books anyway.

9) If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
I'm highly tempted to say Obernewtyn, but I think Ender's Game would be a better choice as it would suit more people.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Oh, I don't know. I haven't been keeping up with literature. Let's just say Terry Pratchett.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I think Ender's Game could make a fantastic movie, but it would require fantastic actors to pull off. Some of Isobelle Carmody's books - Scatterlings, The Gathering, maybe Alyzon Whitestarr. Robert J. Sawyer's books would probably make good movies. I could go on. Oh - the next fantasy epic should be To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts. I think that could be adapted into a script quite well (though it could also be quite bad, depending on the adaptation). It has magic, adventure, demons, mystery, a princess-not-so-in-distress... what more does a cinema audience want?

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Obernewtyn. It wouldn't work. There are others I know I've though would be bad as a movie, but I can't remember them at the moment.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
The Road to Mars by Eric Idle. Although, I don't think I got past the first chapter, so it isn't really fair for me to criticise it. But I do anyway.

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Hm. Well, Love in the Time of Cholera was pretty slow reading, but I'm not sure 'difficult' is the right word. But I gave up outright on Wuthering Heights because I couldn't keep the plot and characters straight.

16) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I don't know if I've read any Russian literature, actually. Haven't read much French either, but I'll still have to go with them.

17) Umberto Eco?
Read In the Name of the Rose and absolutely loved it. Haven't read any others yet.

18) Roth or Updike?
Haven't read any of either.

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Ditto.

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Hm. Well, Shakespeare is fantastic. I've never intentionally picked up any Milton, though I have come across his poems in various places. I've been meaning to read more of his stuff for a while. Chaucer is hilarious. I've only read some of the Canterbury Tales, I've been meaning to read the rest of his work for a while as well.

21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen. Haven't read any Eliot yet, though I have seen some television versions. Based on that I expect to like Eliot's books, but she'll never supplant Austen.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Literature. Classic and modern. There are also a lot of classic sci-fi books I haven't read and really need to.

23) What is your favourite novel?
What, you're asking me to choose just one? Can't do, sorry. I don't think I could even pick five or ten absolute favourites.

24) Play?
Again. I'm not as familiar with plays as with novels and short stories, though.

25) Short story?
Again. I love short stories, and there are a lot of amazing ones out there. How could I pick?

26) Work of non-fiction?
Hm. The two that come to mind are probably The Betrayal of Arthur by Sara Douglass and The Last Place on Earth (original title Scott and Amundsen) by Roland Huntford.

27) Who is your favorite writer?
I can't pick one, but I'll try to give an incomplete list of authors I love. L.M. Montgomery, Isobelle Carmody, Sherri S. Tepper, Ursula K. LeGuin, Orson Scott Card, Peter S. Beagle, Terry Pratchett, Isaac Asimov, Robin Hobb...

28) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Um. Dan Brown? I tend to forget about authors I don't read or like.

29) What is your desert island book?
If I could only take one it'd be a massive anthology. Something like Dreaming Again - huge book with lots of very varied stories by a bunch of different authors. Besides, I still haven't read most of it.

30) And ... what are you reading right now?
I'm between novels at the moment. Just finished In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Haven't decided what's up next. I ought to read more of the books I got at the Book Fair a couple weeks ago, but I feel like sci-fi and I think I've read all the sci-fi from that box already.

Wed, 13 May 2009 21:57:31 GMT

I just got a letter from Guides Queensland telling me I'm now a Qualified Youth Leader!

I sent in the forms in January, I've been rather worried about whether they got them for the last month. But it seems they did. And there was nothing wrong with the forms. And they're not withholding it because my membership expired in March and there's been a delay renewing it. And it's all good.

So now I officially am what I've essentially been for the last four years or so - a Guide Leader.

Plenty to read

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:20:16 GMT

I went to the UQ Alumni Book Fair today. I came home with 19 books. Guess how much I paid for the lot? $24.10. I'm rather happy with that. Want to see what I got?

Fiction
To Ride Pegasus by Anne McCaffrey. Anne McCaffrey is fantastic. The book has Pegasus in the title. How could I not?

Frameshift by Robert J. Sawyer. Sci-fi. I thought this was one of Sawyer's books I'd read in Canada, but now I think it's one I haven't read yet. All the better.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I've never read this. I ought to.

The Compass Rose by Ursula K. LeGuin. An anthology by Ursula LeGuin. No more reason required. I think I read this one in Canada.

Perchance to Dream edited by Damon Knight. Intriguing-looking anthology of dream-centric fantasy stories. Includes stories by H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, interestingly enough.

Momo by Michael Ende. I love The Neverending Story. I've seen the German edition of Momo often in the library, but I don't think I've ever seen an English translation. Can't wait to read it!

The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit. I really like a couple of other E. Nesbit books I have, and this one looks interesting. Blurb excerpt:
Five children find a magic carpet, able to journey though time and space, and inside it a strange edd which hatches into the Phoenix, an ancient and honourable bird who elps them have adventures which never turn out exactly as planned.

The Dark Caller by Louise Cooper. The second in a dark-ish YA fantasy trilogy I read in high school. I have the first book, but I haven't read the others since about year 8.

Great Pyramid Mystery by De Wolfe Morgan. This was a totally random find. It looked so fun that I had to get it. Blurb excerpt:
An Egyptian teenager and his friend match wits with a mysterious enemy, whose weapons include poison gases and deadly snakes!

Legends & Literature
The Saga of Asgard by Roger Lancelyn Green. I have an Arthurian book and a Robin Hood book by the same author. He's a good storyteller. And I don't know enough Norse mythology.

The Tale of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green.

The Idylls of the King by Tennyson. I love Arthurian stuff, but I've never read this. Shame on me. It has other poems in it too.

A Chaucer Reader edited by Charles W. Dunn. It's pretty much all bits and pieces from the Canterbury Tales, but it's a nicely-done book, with promising-looking glosses. And I've only read The Miller's Tale and some of the Prologue already, so reading more will be good.

Non-fiction
Lost Worlds: Scientific secrets of the ancients by Robert Charroux. An interesting-looking book on surprising science in ancient civilisations.

The Linguistic History of English by Manfred Gorlach. The development of the English language in more technical terms than I've learnt about it before. Should be very interesting.

Syntax: A generative introduction by Andrew Carnie. A linguistics textbook. Since I'm not able to do the Generative Syntax course, I hope to read about it myself at some point.

Language as a Cognitive Process: Volume 1: Syntax by Terry Winograd. Not exactly sure how to sum this one up. Looks to be kind of useful for thinking about language algorithmically.

Spoken Natural Language Dialog Systems: A practical approach by Ronnie W. Smith and D. Richard Hipp. It may be fifteen years old but chapter one is called "Achiving spoken communication with computers". Looks mostly geared at speech recognition. Should be some interesting stuff nevertheless.

Costume by James Laver and John Mansbridge. A tiny little book with neat sketches of clothing from 1000 to 1900.

As if I don't have enough things to do with my time already.

Now, the biggest question: what shall I read first? It's good timing, I've finished both the books I was in the middle of (Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the third book in the Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb), so it's time to start a new book. Hmm, so many choices...

PS. Over a quarter of the books I got were non-fiction. Wow. I'm rather proud, really. Actually, it reflects the availability at the fair - it is a university book fair after all, it's mostly non-fiction. Which is good, as I ought to have more non-fiction in my life. Not too much, of course - fiction is terribly important. But a little more non-fiction would do me good.

A crafty Easter

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:34:11 GMT

What am I spending this Easter Sunday doing? Not much. This week is mid-semester break, and I have to get started on my two big essays for the semester, so I spent yesterday doing nothing uni-related, and I intend to do the same today.

I've been working on my shawl as much as possible lately. I really want to finish it so I can block it and see what it looks like!

I'm up to row 128 or so, and at the moment there's about 640 stitches to each row - and it's only getting bigger. I have 40 or so rows to go - not exactly sure, as I've misplaced the last page of the pattern and haven't reprinted it yet. This is what it looks like now:

See why I can't wait to block it? You can only see the further-out lace with the assistance of a knee:

I also took advantage of the rainless morning (a rarity in the last week or so) to take pictures of some of the more recent additions to my fibre stash that I hadn't photographed yet:

I got this one at the Gold Coast camp a couple months ago. It's probably merino. It's not labelled - I got it from The Fibre Hut.

This is Churrobunny - a blend of churro (a type of sheep) wool and angora rabbit fluff from Ixchel. First (and so far, only) crafty thing I've ever ordered online. Isn't it pretty? Have a closeup:

And then I got a swap present! For the Spin & Weave Aus Ravelry group's March swap, which was to give your partner a type of fibre they hadn't spun before. I got a batt! It's made out of "mixed fibre" - I don't know exactly what it is, it's probably mostly random wool. For non-spinners: a batt is the result of a specific way of processing fleece, using a drum carder. I've spun plenty of wool before, but never wool that's been processed this way. The processing of fleece can make a huge difference to how it spins up. So here's my batt:

I really need to get more spinning done!

Oh - happy Easter, everyone! Hope you're all having a good long weekend :)

Update

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:00:43 GMT

The first two weeks of uni are going pretty well. It took until Tuesday afternoon to get my timetable all finalised, but things are all good now. I have no classes Mondays and Wednesdays, which is nice. It looks like my three linguistics courses will be tremendous fun, though they'll have constant work for me to do. I'm still not as clear as I'd like to be on what will happen with my year-long IT project, though.

I've been reading Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy for the last few weeks. I'm not going to say much about it now, as I've taken some time off in the middle of book 3 for I am Legend (by Richard Matheson - for bookclub, which I couldn't go to because I wasn't feeling well enough to get there :( ). Suffice it to say that I'm finding the Soldier Son books quite intriguing, though not as good as the Farseer Trilogy or The Liveship Traders.

I've been knitting and tatting a lot these last couple of weeks, too. I tatted a pendant for katrina_splat, which was fun. I got good practice in designing a pattern, and good practice in tatting small shapes, as I had to make it twice! The beads I used the first time around turned out to be dodgy, and I didn't notice until after I'd finished it. In knitting, I've been working on my circular shawl. I can't remember if I posted about having to frog it - at about 50 rows (out of 160) I had to pull it all out because I'd mis-read the pattern. But it's going again! It's big enough now that you can't really see the full thing, but here's a glimpse:

I've had a pretty good couple of weeks - settling back into uni, knitting, going to Movieworld, Katrina's dinner, and the opening of a new yarn store. I'm sorry for being so slack about posting about it :)

Hope you've all been having a good couple of weeks too!

Oh, I almost forgot! I got a postcard from the Roman Forum! Thanks, Eleanor :)

Also forgot to mention that I saw Watchmen last week. Thought about the same of it as I did of the graphic novel - really good, but... This morning I found this through metaquotes - it may amuse Watchmen fans.

Weird stuff on Brisbane's roads.

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:54:16 GMT

There was the paprika about a year and a half ago.

There was the bull last August.

In October there was a llama.

Two weeks ago there was a crocodile.

Did I miss any good ones? What do you think will be next?

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:12:11 GMT

Finalising my courses for this semester has been unbelievably complicated.

I thought I had it all figured out at the beginning of the year. Year-long IT project, Machine Learning, Morphology, and the compulsory Advaned Linguistics Research. Then next semester, I'd finish the year-long project, do my last Linguistics course (probably Generative Syntax), and my last History course (probably Modern Britain).

Then I discovered a cognitive science course called Language, Brain and Representation that's part of the Linguistics major. So I enrolled in it. I really don't want to do five subjects this semester. I'm going to be doing the year-long project, and I really need to have a job this semester, too. I figured I'd see how things went for the rest of the holidays, then decide which to drop.

After a while, it seemed probable that the cognitive science course wouldn't be offered. Enrollment never got above 5, and it said the course may be cancelled unless a minimum of 20 students enrolled. After talking with sly_cult_race, I thought I'd rather do Imperial Britain this semester than Modern Britain next semester. Imperial Britain is the time period I'm more interested in, really. But I already had five courses lined up. This should be my last year, I can't save up interesting courses until next year anymore.

Then something happened to force me out of one of the five. I wanted to do an independent study course with my summer research project supervisors during second semester. It wouldn't count, because I only have the year-long project left to do in my IT degree. I figured I'd done heaps of extra courses already, what's one more? But in looking into that, it was revealed that as a Commonwealth-supported student, they can't knowingly let me enrol in courses that don't count towards my degree. Now that I think about it, only one or two of my courses actually didn't count when I did them, and they were both Arts courses. So I shouldn't do Machine Learning. That's okay, I can do it as part of my IT Honours, next year.

Back down to four subjects! But I really wanted to do Imperial Britain, and it looked like the cog sci course wouldn't happen. So I enrolled in Imperial Britain. That leaves only two courses for semester two. That's okay.

So I was pretty certain that this semester I'd do the year-long IT project, Morphology, Advanced Linguistics Research, and Imperial Britain. Not a bad group of classes. Made for a very nice timetable, too!

And then this morning I checked my email and saw that Language, Brain and Representation is going forward as a small reading group. I want to do this course. It's perfect for the language and artificial intelligence stuff that I want to do.

I really want to do that course. I really want to do Morphology and Imperial Britain. I have to do the year-long project and Advanced Linguistics Research. This is my dilemma. I'm half inclined to be suicidal and just do them all. But that would be bad. The practical options are to do Modern instead of Imperial Britain, or to drop Morphology. I only have three more Linguistics courses to do, so I only need to do two this semester if I'm doing Generative Syntax next semester. And of all the linguistics courses I'm considering, Morphology is probably the easiest one to study by myself by reading. I think. Dropping Morphology is the logical choice. But I want to do Morphology.

Any suggestions?

Enough blue?

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 08:24:24 GMT

Yesterday afternoon Mom and I played with dyes.

I dyed 118g of wool/silk (15% silk) sliver for a fibre swap, and 68g of kid mohair to keep for myself. I'm really happy with how they turned out!

Wanna see?

I tried kettle dyeing for the first time. Kettle dyeing is when you pop the wool in a big pot full of hot water and dye, and let it sit for a while. You often get lighter and darker bits depending on which parts of the wool float to the top and whether you stir it. I intentionally let it sit still to get a variegated tone. Also, I poured some of a second, darker colour into the pot in a few different places to make it even more variegated.

The sliver, in its untidy heap. If you were wondering what wool/silk sliver is, this is it. It's fibre that's been processed so it's in one long stream, with each individual wool or silk fibre lying more or less parallel to the rest. This makes it really easy to spin, and easy to get a neat, even yarn. I braided the sliver once it was all dried in order to make it tidy and pretty.

See the shiny threads in it? That's the silk peeking out. All the shiny stuff is silk, all the fluffy stuff is merino. Close-up time!

Beautiful, fluffy merino.

But enough sheepiness, let's see the goat!

Kid mohair. This one's for me. I've done a little mohair before, but it wasn't nearly as good quality as this one. Can't wait to cloud it and see it all fluffed-up and ready to be spun! It may look small now, but that's because all the fibres are in little dense curls. When I cloud it I'll separate all those curls and all the fibres and I'll get at least a couple buckets' worth of shiny airy blueness.

The mohair deserves a close-up too. Look at the lovely shiny locks!

I think I need to play with dyeing more often.

Our meringue is girt by cream

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:00:04 GMT

I had fun yesterday :)

Dessert aside, though, we hit our internet download quota, so our connection at home is impossibly slow. I can read check email and read LJ, mostly, but I can't access some other sites. So I won't be online at home much until February. Hurray for university computers and the fact that UQ doubled student monthly download quota this year!

The tennis, the shawl, and the unicorn

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:13:40 GMT

My parents and I are sitting in the airconditioning, watching the Australian Open. I'm reading stuff in the Ravelry forums in between points, and working on my circular shawl:

(old pic - I've done about 40 more rows since then)

When the tennis is over (or when I get too tired to watch any more), I'll read a bit more of The Lady and the Unicorn by Isolde Martin (one of my Bookfest finds), which I started last night. It turned out not to actually be fantasy - I'm not too far, but I believe the 'unicorn' refers to the French crown - it's historical fiction, and characters are being exiled to France. It's reasonably accurate, and what little of the plot I've seen so far is good. My only real problem with it is that I'm sick of hearing about how much the lead male character likes the lead female. I got the idea, you can move on now. Fortunately, I can laugh at it.

The knitting calls me back now, and Jelena is down two games in the second set, so I think I'll say goodbye now. To the Aussies - hope you're all having a good long weekend :)

Meringue and books (I like that combination)

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:49:49 GMT

I'm trying to make meringue. Everyone talks about it like it's hard, so I was rather wary. But making it all seemed easy enough. An electric mixer with a whisk attachment is helpful. It really did develop 'stiff peaks'. It was all shiny and nice with the sugar mixed in. Next step: making the meringue pieces on the baking tray. Uh oh. If there's one thing I've learned tonight, it's that I cannot pipe to save my life. Clearly I need more practise. If I tried to make cupcakes, would anyone help me eat them? Mom and I really don't need to eat a batch by ourselves. Anyway, the meringues are now in the oven. Hopefully they'll taste fine. They'll just look like they were painted on the baking paper in really really thick white acrylic paint by a five year old with poor dexterity.

Meringue update: Looks weird, tastes nice. Actually, possibly a little too sweet. Next time a tad less sugar, and maybe some vanilla instead. For reference, I used something between these two recipes, with no flavouring or filling.

A&R's top 100 Books

bold the ones you've read
italicise the ones you want to read
underline the ones you own
*asterisk the ones you loved
~~strikeout~~ the ones you didn't like

1. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling*
2. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
3. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen*
4. Obernewtyn - Isobelle Carmody*
5. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
6. To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
7. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
8. Breath - Tim Winton
9. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
10. Break No Bones - Kathy Reichs
11. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
12. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
13. Magician - Raymond E. Feist
14. The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons
15. Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin
16. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
17. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
18. Cross - James Patterson
19. Persuasion - Jane Austen*
20. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte*
21. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
22. The Secret - Rhonda Byrne
23. Marley and Me - John Grogan
24. Antony and Cleopatra - Colleen McCullough
25. April Fool's Day - Bryce Courtenay
26. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
27. In My Skin - Kate Holden
~~28. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte~~
29. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
30. The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
31. Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult
32. Atonement - Ian McEwan
33. Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
34. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
35. The Pact - Jodi Picoult
36. Ice Station - Matthew Reilly
37. Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
38. Jessica - Bryce Courtenay
39. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose - Eckhart Tolle
40. The Princess Bride - William Goldman
41. Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
42. Anybody Out There? - Marian Keyes
43. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
44. Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly
45. People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
46. Six Sacred Stones - Matthew Reilly
47. The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
48. Brother Odd - Dean Koontz
49. Tully - Paullina Simons
50. Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
51. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
52. Eragon - Christopher Paolini
53. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
54. It's Not Just About the Bike - Lance Armstrong
55. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (I think I have it)
56. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
57. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
58. 1984 - George Orwell
59. A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey
60. The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
61. The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
62. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
63. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
64. The Host - Stephenie Meyer
65. Dirt Music - Tim Winton
66. Edest - Christopher Paolini
67. The Shadow of Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
68. It - Stephen King
69. World Without End - Ken Follett
70. Emma - Jane Austen
71. Temple - Matthew Reilly
72. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
73. Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
74. Scarecrow - Matthew Reilly
75. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
76. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
77. PS, I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
78. All That Remains - Patricia Cornwell
79. The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
80. Past Secrets - Cathy Kelly
81. The Persimmon Tree - Bryce Courtenay
82. The Husband - Dean Koontz
83. Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult
84. Wicked - Gregory Maguire
85. A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon
86. Always and Forever - Cathy Kelly
87. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
88. Cents and Sensibility - Maggie Alderson
89. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
90. Shifting Fog - Kate Morton
91. We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
92. Everyone Worth Knowing - Lauren Weisberger
93. Hour Game - David Baldacci
94. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
95. The Woods - Harlan Coben
96. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
97. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
98. Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis
99. Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali
100. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

Books, books, books!

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:17:19 GMT

Went to the Lifeline Bookfest (massive secondhand book sale in the convention centre) this afternoon with ittykat, katrina_splat, zenni, and sir_cumspect. For a grand total of $42 I acquired the following:

Driving Blind by Ray Bradbury
High Society by Ben Elton
The Lady and the Unicorn by Isolde Martin
Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier
Aurealis #27/28 (Australian SF&F periodical with short stories)
Stories for Girls edited by Leonard Gribble (first published 1961, titles varying from 'The Kitten's Garden' to 'Holiday with a Thief'. Also, how awesome a name is Leonard Gribble?)
Adam Bede by George Eliot (old children's edition, but appears unabridged)
Torchon Lace for Today by Jennifer Fisher
Two vintage Semco tatting pattern booklets

That's four novels, three anthologies (counting the Aurealis issue), a craft book, and two pattern booklets. Not a bad haul at all.

It's weird how days can sometimes be both busy and lazy.

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:32:52 GMT

Shortly after I woke up this morning, I was sitting on my parents' bed talking to Mom when we heard this splashing in the pool. We assumed it was a bird having a bath - we've watched kookaburras swoop down, splash, and fly away several times in the past. I went to have a look. It was a bird, and it may have intended to have a bath, but it'd obviously gone a little deeper than it meant to. There was a noisy miner flapping like crazy in the water at the edge, trying to hop out onto the ledge but obviously not able to get out of the water. It was keeping its head above water alright, but it was stuck, poor thing. It was squeaking like crazy and there were a couple other noisy miners flitting about twittering. I got one of the pool scoops, and lifted it up onto the ledge, where it proceeded to hop up into a low bush and sit there shaking itself off, while the two others came over and chattered over it. I didn't stay to watch, but it must've dried itself off enough to fly again fairly quickly, because they were all gone later. Noisy miners are such funny little birds.

Mom and I spent the middle of the day today cleaning out the kitchen. We've had ants find the cat's bowl lately, and the pantry moth situation had suddenly become dire once again, so it was time for a good clean-out of the pantry, and general clean-up of the kitchen. We found stuff in that pantry that was best before sometime in 2007, which will tell you about when we last did this. It looks amazing now! The whole kitchen isn't spotless yet, as there's a big load of dishes (mostly empty containers from the pantry) that I need to deal with, but all the rarely-seen corners have been cleaned out. Don't ask how much we had to throw away, you don't want to know. Also, next time we do this we really need to try and remember to do it the day before bin day, not the day after.

So now I'm taking a break - tatting while catching up on Ravelry forums. I've been looking at a lot of knitted lace shawls. Have I mentioned how much I love lace? I'm starting another shawl myself, but more on that later. I'm tatting a prototype for a bracelet I'm trying to design. The final bracelet will be part of a swap present. It's a good thing I'm prototyping, because it's curling just too much to be tolerated. The way this is constructed is I work along the length doing the centre and one side, then when I get to the end I turn around and work the other side. I'm turning it right now, I hope when I've done the other side it'll be less curly. I want to finish this today, so I'd best get back to it!

There was a little dog outside our lab window today

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:38:48 GMT

It was an exciting day at the lab today. We're in the Axon building at uni, and our lab (on the third floor) looks out over the alley in between Axon and Hawken. As usual, I went in through the door that doesn't face Hawken. I walked in to the lab, and the people who were already there asked me if I'd seen the people filming.

Until about 3pm, a scene from the upcoming K-9 series was being shot outside and under our window. Depending on where they were shooting and what was going on, sometimes we could see it well, and sometimes not at all. We heard them when they yelled, though. And they repeated the same thing over and over again. I only noticed three distinct scenes all day. There was the "get your hands off me!" one in the morning, then the one around the corner with the dog (we could use the door facing Hawken during that, and a bunch of people from our building were standing out there watching and talking to someone involved in it for a little bit), then the "no!" one, which they repeated many many times and filmed from at least two directions. Apparently they were there from 7am. I think the lady said it would total two and a half minutes of screen time.

It was heaps of fun, really. Every now and then we'd hear a crash, or a "no!" or "action!", and between bits and pieces of my work I went and peeked out the window.

These are the same people who borrowed all the good-looking robots from our lab. Perhaps they'll be back sometime (the lady said they wouldn't finish filming until April).