Our TV gives horoscopes

Our TV, a cheery pre-digital TEA CT-M6812, gives horoscopes on demand. This isn’t an interpretation or a gag. It really does this.

Y’see, the other day one of the lights was flashing for no apparent reason, so I dug out the manual and looked over it to see if I could find out why. No luck for the light, but I did discover this whole section of the manual: SUPER FUNCTIONS.

Our TV has a CALENDAR (“lookup days and years very conveniently”) and a NOTEBOOK (“store information such as phone numbers”) and even a GAME FUNCTION (“this TV has a built in game for your enjoyment during leisure time”). Best of all though is the BIOLOGICAL CLOCK.

This function can make you know about the low tide, high tide and critical stage of your intellect, emotion and force at a certain day so as to live harmony with the rhythms of environment.

So I tried it of course. You put in your birthday, and then your target day (e.g. today), and it shows bar graphs for Intellect, Emotion and Force. If it’s a good day, these are riding high! If it’s a bad day, they’re down low. Sometimes one is much higher or lower than the others. You can page through the days, and watch the ups and downs of the week ahead.

I just wanted to share that. How unusual, a TV that tells you how to live your life!*

* LOOK I MADE AN IRONY

Getting Ready: Checking

But human nature being what it is, as the earthquake recedes from memory, our impetus to add those things will fade away. I’m going to use this blog and its small but attentive readership as a motivation tool, by declaring: in three weeks, our disaster survival kit will be fully stocked up. (6 Sept)

A bunch of people put their names down, and no doubt others thought “yeah, I’ll do that”.
Now, two weeks have gone by, and in NZ the earthquake remains on the front page. Have you done what you intended to do? One week to go in that original plan…

(Encouragement by example: lostperdita has)

As before, comments are encouraged – tell everyone how you’re going. Collective action beats solo action. All the info you need is here: NZ getting ready website

Keeling Linky

Keeling over, that is. Still busy. BUT NOT TOO BUSY FOR LINKY

Video about goin’ climbing in Wgtn. Haven’t watched it, too busy, but its W-town so if you’re local you probably know some of the people in it. Maybe even the guy in the screencap right here.

Tough Love from Chunky Farmer on Vimeo.

Fun with Google 1: Google Scribe completes famous quotes

Fun with Google 2: Google Patent reveals patents by famous people. Check out Eddie Van Halen’s rocking self-portrait.

Classically-trained voice teacher evaluates the style and technique of five heavy metal vocalists. (This is an example of that rare subspecies of linky that will be catnip to both Sokky and Jet Simian.)

Via the Knifeman, Joyce Carol Oates short story right there for the reading (I haven’t yet but Joyce Carol Oates that’s why)

Have I ever linked to You Are Not So Smart before? Great blog that points out all the ways we get stuff wrong. Fun, insightful, and important, because man, so many problems caused by not realizing you might be wrong about something.

From Jack, more Star Wars culture – Darth Vader the cathedral gargoyle

The New York magazine article that was the basis for Saturday Night Fever: Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night. Written in the new journalism style, this appears impossibly mannered now, and I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear the writer made it all up.

And finally… this totally made my working day yesterday. A relaxation-tape version of Snoop’s (decidedly not safe for work) Gin & Juice. Love it.

This is Kaibosh

My friends George and Robyn have been hard at work the last few years on starting a charity. I think it’s pretty amazing. They are behind Kaibosh, and what they do is collect surplus food from retailers (so it doesn’t get chucked into landfill) and deliver it to charities working with people who could do with a bonus meal.

That’s pretty much the whole deal – there is leftover food at place A, and hungry peeps at place B, so they make the connection. Simple premise, but (as always) a complex mission in the real world.

George sez:

We wrangled a few friends to become members of our board of trustees and have spent the last 18-months trying to raise funding to increase the scale of our efforts. Our main support has come from Wellington City Council and the Lotteries Commission. With their help we’ve leased an office on Holland Street and hired a part-time Operations Manager. We’re now able to step up our operations (to date we only pick up food from Simply Paris and Wishbone) and hopefully expand our volunteer base (currently sits at six non-trustees).

That is how you walk the walk in this world. I give this whole enterprise one mighty double-rainbow-all-the-way thumbs up. Kaibosh is having a launch party at their HQ tonight at 6pm – come along if you’re in W-town, and eat some of the food, which is of course donated from local businesses.

Kaibosh website
Kaibosh on Facebook

State of Play

Man, I’m looking forward to when that baby gets born so I can finally catch up on some sleep!

No, wait.

Still in the depths of a sustained busy like there has not been since I cleverly arranged to finish my Masters thesis in the weeks leading up to my wedding. Achieved the rare trifecta of working Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Unsurprise: this has severely hindered progress on Day One in the novel vs. baby race. But I am not downhearted. When I get through these weeks I might be able to put some proper time in and make up the deficit. It’s about how much I want it done, innit?

Timely link: Chuck Wendig on how to be a writer. (Thanks to the people who took a look at the opening pages of D1, by the way. Comments v. helpful.)

Right. Back to work.

Unserious Linky

Not much serious stuff this week. Lotsa random stuff. It’s all out of the folder, haven’t had time to go looking about lately…

An unlicensed Xbox Twin Peaks homage/rip-off

Kevin Spacey does impressions. Smug comes off the guy in waves, but he is good at this.

Retrospace: blog of the 70s. So many great photos.

SFX mag presents a script for Firefly/Serenity in 5 minutes.

The Andy Rooney Game: “Remove everything but the first and last sentences from Andy Rooney’s segment on 60 Minutes. Then post that onto YouTube.”

This is how you do web-series self-promotion on a tiny tiny budget. Those smart kids at The Guild created another music video:
<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&#038;from=sp&#038;fg=shareEmbed&#038;vid=8cb424dc-cbdb-40be-90c5-8fb450462d2f" target="_new" title="Season 4 - Music Video - "Game On"">Video: Season 4 &#8211; Music Video &#8211; &#8220;Game On&#8221;</a>
(Here’s the last one: Do you want to date my avatar)

This totally plays to Western stereotypes of Japan rather than enhancing cultural understanding, but nonetheless, 6 Japanese subcultures that are insane even in Japan

This is relevant to my interests. Art made out of licorice.

And finally… HAL 9000 sings “Hot in Here”

Per Capita

In New Zealand classrooms, every morning we stand up, face the flag, put our hands on our hearts and say together: “New Zealand is the best country in the world, per capita.” Those two little words, per capita, are a crucial part of our national self-esteem and self-image, and saying “per capita” is as true-blue New Zealand as asking overseas visitors how much they like our country.

So I want to pay homage to the Tall Blacks, knocked out of the eight-finals stage of the FIBA World Championships for the second time in a row, in a torrid defeat to an equally determined and much bigger Russian side. I’ll do this in the traditional way, by citing population statistics and saying “didn’t we do well, per capita”.

Russia: 141 million.
New Zealand: 4 million
Didn’t we do well, per capita!

And congrats to unbeaten Lithuania (3 million), knocking out China (1.3 billion). Er.

In all seriousness, it’s been a fun World Champs to watch and thumbs up to the Tall Blacks for doing a great job. Next time I run into one of youse fullas in the street I’ll raise my eyebrows at you in hearty appreciation.

(Population count source: wikipedia)

Piranha 3D (USA 2010)

Things that were 3D in this movie:
* Fish
* Cave
* Gore
* Vomit
* “Naked underwater skank ballet” – Nathan Rabin, AVClub
* Eli Roth

I had a great time. Directorially? The suspense wasn’t ratcheted up nearly as high as it could have gone. But on the other hand, the violence was perfectly judged – you saw things that caught you by surprise and made you shout, but were still silly enough that you laughed. The nudity was also perfectly judged – you saw things that caught you by surprise and made you shout, but were still silly enough that you laughed.

Several dimensions better than Avatar. Best seen with a crowd.

Getting Ready

Perhaps you heard: there was a great big earthquake in Christchurch. A reminder that NZ is basically a big faultline with Lord of the Rings scenery on it. And, as Jack has noted, it’s a reminder that in NZ the disaster survival kit is an everyday common-sensical thing, rather than a sign of extreme right-wing anti-government paranoia.

I’ll expect that disaster survival kits were hauled out and checked across the country this past weekend. We certainly checked out ours, and yes there are a few bits and pieces we could add to it.

But human nature being what it is, as the earthquake recedes from memory, our impetus to add those things will fade away. I’m going to use this blog and its small but attentive readership as a motivation tool, by declaring: in three weeks, our disaster survival kit will be fully stocked up.

Have you checked yours, and found it wanting if so? I invite you to add your name in the comments making a similar pledge. I’ll check up on you and on myself in advance of the three-week deadline. Don’t run the risk of waking up to a local disaster next year and kicking yourself for letting it slide now.

Read up on what you need here: NZ getting ready website

Tall Blacks Linky

Watchin’ the Tall Blacks vs France at FIBA World Champs in the other window. NZ playing its best game of the tournament so far. I love (LOVE) watching random guys from the NZ basketball league taking NBA players to the hole. But I will not spoil the game for ppl who record it to watch later. So only cryptic comments from now on.

This week’s Star Wars linky: sleek, funny character redesigns

Pero Cameron! The maestro!

Check out David Tennant in the Roddy McDowall role in the Fright Night remake. DT fangirls will find new, strange ways to squee.

(from bekitty) Virtual Choir: created by distributing sheet music and a video of the guy conducting.

Half-time. Tall Blacks playing well.

(from Lyndon) Hipster Dinosaurs – it’s the chosen medium that makes this perfect

Disney Princesses give Advice for Young Girls. “The key to love is to tolerate everything.”

Animaniacs tribute – with interviews with the animators etc. Haven’t actually watched this but it has enormous good buzz. Animaniacs was great comedy.

Abercrombie! As commentator guy says, he can really go upstairs!

Hearing a random song in 1990 vs. in 2010. Everyday example shows huge change in knowledge infrastructure for human species. IS IGNORANT ROCKIN’ OUT GONE FOR GOOD?

The Map Realm: fictional road maps by a guy who really loves maps. Maps are fascinating objects.

From Rach B back a ways: amazing, lovely bookshelfery

Here’s a treat: the death trap page from Treasure Hunters University, which appears to be a site by a guy who’s all about going into Mexico and looking for ancient treasures in deathtrapped tombs, for realsies.

3/4 time. This is a great game to watch.

And finally, something simple and cute and a little bit brainwormy… Spike the cockatiel sings tequila