This is a photo of the Phoenix probe about to land on Mars. Alright, to the uninitiated it might look like a small speck. But consider - we’re landing a man-made technologically advanced vehicle on the surface of another planet.
Coolness.
Just read this rather disturbing story in today’s paper. As I’ve said before, there’s art and then there’s attention seeking. I love a beautifully-painted landscape. Or a well-drawn portrait. But I’ve come to realise that a work of art can be beautifully done, yet still be ethically and morally questionable.
In my uninformed opinion, art such as this does border (if not skitter over the edge) into child pornography. I mean, if Bill Hansen was such a great artist, why didn’t he paint pictures of the children with their clothes on?
I’ve understood the concept of Ajax, but never been able to successfully implement it til’ now. Previous implementations seemed to have used an awful lot of overtly complex Javascript to do some useful things.
I’ve never had all that much respect for Microsoft’s Business division, but there’s no doubting just how good .NET is when you want to implement simple websites quickly. That being the case, I was rather interested in Microsoft’s implementation of Ajax using its Ajax Control Toolkit. These Training videos are a good guide to what the Toolkit can do.
Pretty neat, eh?
As always, I have to be judicious in where I apply these concepts. It’s not as though I need to implement Ajax-enabled controls in all the websites I’ll ever develop. But it will be useful for event-driven form-based webpages where I don’t want the page to refresh everytime the user clicks the submit button.
After reading so many political blogs, I’ve realised that perception is everything. For instance, during the Howard Government’s reign When Howard was in power we were told that we’d never had it so good. However, the facts do back up that statement - the economy was (and is) still buoyant and performing well.
A few months later, The Age is reporting about a petrol price rise. So one minute we’re told that Australians are prosperous and have plenty of money to spend. The next we’re told that petrol price rises will cause pain to Australian families.
Think about that for a minute.
It doesn’t make any sense. I used to think the job of a newspaper was to report the facts. Over the years I’ve seen a trend for newspapers to start peddling the political line depending on whomever was in power at the time. Thank god for my English Studies class during college, because being able to perceive the media’s ridiculous political spin has been a godsend.
It’s recently been revealed in The Age that ex-Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews went against the advice on his own ministry when accusing all African migrants of being criminals that couldn’t assimilate into this country. Now where have I heard that accusation before? I’m so glad that this Ultra-Conservative government has been booted from power. I realise that this was due more to Workchoices, and that a large majority of Australians would agree with ex-Minister Andrews sentiments. But as my father wisely said, “Just because a majority of people agree with it, doesn’t make it right.”.
There are African migrants in my local area too. They are well-behaved, and keep to themselves. I’ve even seen one or two of the children mixing with the local school students - which is a very encouraging sign. I do acknowledge, however, that there are genuinely serious problems with African migrants in other sections of Australia. Government-mandated racial abuse from a Federal Minister, however, doesn’t help.
I first heard about Neil Gaiman about 5 or 6 years ago. The first book of his I ever bought and read was Death: The High Cost of Living. After that I plowed through the entire Sandman collection. To this day, it is still my favourite comic. Heck, the scope is so epic I’m not sure if it even qualifies as a comic anymore!
So imagine my surprise when I heard that Neil Gaiman - the writer of huge movies like Mirrormask, Stardust and Beowulf - was coming to Tasmania. Unfortunately, it appears that many other people were just as surprised as I was and the tickets sold out within a few short days. One day before the actual event, I received a clandestine offer from the organisers to attend the event - naturally I accepted.
And here is Neil’s recap of hsi trip! And I have no idea why the car would be called Darlene either. Just a few more things to add to Neil’s recap:
Neil said that it’s the first time he’s ever read these works in public before. But what the heck, it’s Tasmania! If it doesn’t work, who’s going to know? He’d never read the Bad Fairy Godmother poem before, apparently because it contains the word “Unmannerliness”. Several times, as I vaguely recall. And from Neil’s blog, here’s the background for the poem “Before You Read”:
I’m slowly catching up with things I’ve promised people, one thing at a time. Todd Klein asked if I would do the signed Todd-lettered print after the Alan Moore one, and there was no way I could say no. Then I kept him waiting on tenterhooks until I had an idea, and then I made him tenterhook longer while I worked on it, but eventually I finished something called Before You Read This, which begins
Before you read this familiarize yourself
with the text. Note the position of the escape hatches,
the candles that will light in the event of a forced landing
to show you the way out.
Neil told us how he came up with the idea for the Graveyard Book: Many years ago, he used to live in a Spindly house with many stairs . As he couldn’t take his son (in the pram) around the house, he took him to the graveyard instead. Because he feels his talent isn’t going to get any better than it is right now, he decided to write it. If Chapter 4 is any indication, this book could be fantastic.
He also took some questions from the audience:
Why do you write so much about death?
He had been told there were only two great themes to write about: love and death. Since he was terrible at writing about love, he writes an awful lot about death.
Does his children like his books?
Sometimes. Maddy loves Coraline. Thought Anasi Boys was “weird”. Mike is 24 and works for Google in California, and has read all of them. Which is ironic because when he was 13 he thought daddy wasn’t cool for not writing Spiderman. Neil said “Wait until you’re 15, then I’ll be cool.”.
How did you feel about the success of Stardust.
Publicists lectured them about The Princess bride publicity strategy - and then proceeded to copy that strategy precisely. Told Matthew he thought this was a film that people would pull from the shelf (on video) and show their children in fifteen years(sic?), rather than a film that was important for its opening weekend.
What’s it like to collaborate with people?
Neil used to be nocturnal (which he rather liked and missed sometimes). Terry Pratchett would wake him up on his answering machine with “Wake up you lazy bastard! I’ve written another good bit!”. That’s what Good Omens was - just the two of them trying to make each other laugh. Crowley threatening pot plants might’ve been his idea but was written by Terry (sic?). When he was at the Publisher’s basement reading the “trial run”? He thought a line was funny. Terry said “I didn’t write it.”. Both of them privately thought the book might’ve been quietly writing itself.
What’s his philosophy on life?
He rather likes it! He liked music, and dancing, and food and sushi. He then wondered why he listed food and sushi as separate things)?
What’s the craziest thing you’ve been asked to autograph by a fan?
Mentioned when Jason wanted Neil to sign Maya’s book “Neil says Jason would like you to marry him.”. It might’ve been a disaster because what if there was more than one Maya in the line? “I’ve never heard of this Jason before.”. When Neil autographed Maya’s book she stammered “Thank you so much!” and was about to close the book and walk away. Neil said (playfully) “Just fucking read it!”. Maya read it. Maya looked at Jason. Jason looked at Maya. And 200 people pulled out their cameras and videos to probably put the whole thing up on youtube.
I was only allowed 3 books to sign, due to Neil having jet lag.
The autograph line doubled back on itself through the entire room. I was lucky enough to be among the first 20-30 people in the line, and got there within half-an-hour. One of the girls told another (who was shepherding the line) that Neil prefers to autograph the books directly rather than copy the post-it-notes.
Neil: This is for David?
Me: Yes, thank you. This is my first autograph signing.
Neil: And this as well?
Me: Yes thank you. (Points to Death: High Cost of Living). That was the first book of yours that I ever bought. Thank you for writing it.
Neil: You’re very welcome.
And then I walked out of the hotel, floating on cloud nine. I think there are writers, and authors, and there are people I call storytellers who have the ability to weave worlds from prose. Alan Moore has done it. I think Terry Pratchett can do it. And for one glorious evening, I was privileged and honored to hear a Master of his craft do just that. I will never forget it.
