What's with today, today?

I have been thinking a lot about homelessness lately- working in the city it can be quite in your face- and so I thought I would share some things I've come across in the past little while... My thinking for this post started with a bit of a rant about political correctness. Triggered in turn by a comment on an internet site who created a character who was homeless and mentally ill, of perpetuating stereotypes of homeless people as having mental illnesses and being drug and/or alcohol addicts. Sadly I do not remember exactly what the person said, but it puzzled me somewhat. The first thought I had was that when I think about people being derogatory toward homeless people is the accusation of laziness and the need for hard work/a job. The second was that a large proportion of homeless people have addictions and/or mental illnesses, and the third was that in a way the remark could in a way be construed as saying that it was right to dismiss people who are mentally ill or addicted, bu...

In the last few months I have seen two romantic comedies at the cinema- 'The Proposal' and 'The Ugly Truth'. One of these is about a Canadian editor who proposes marriage to her assistant in order to be able to stay and work in America, one is about a tv producer who is forced to hire a misogynistic presenter whom she instantly dislikes in order to get ratings. One of these movies horrified me with its attitude toward women, one of them pleasantly surprised me, even if it had some cringe-worthy moments. Which is which? Spoilers ahead... 'The Proposal' starts with a self-confident editor, a terrible boss with her life (and those of her subordinates) firmly under her control, being threatened with deportation because she hasn't fulfilled her visa requirements. She then gets her overworked and overlooked assistant to pretend to be her fiance, and agree to marry her, so that she can stay. While she uses her power over him to do this, from then on he has someth...

One of the things I wanted to do when I grew up was to catalogue fairy tales. I read a few collections of fairy tales from various countries and noticed that there were notable similarities between folk tales from completely unrelated countries. I decided I would hunt down these similarities, compare them, and find out why this was. When I grew up, I found this had already been done. Well, fairy tales had been catalogued- centuries ago. There were universally acknowledged and referenced 'types', which you can refer to by number if you know the catalogue well. This was fairly discouraging. I guess I should have seen it coming, what with the collections of comparative folktales and all, but you always hope. They'd even tried to figure out why. This is where Jung's idea of the collective unconscious theory comes in. As far as I understand it, the theory states that human experience is to some extent innately shared between all humanity, without needing to be learned, and ...

I had millions of ideas to share with you all on the bus ride home, but once I got here they all went out of my mind completely. But why is it that my bus always leaves exactly as I reach the bus stop. No matter when I start running, or where the bus is when I begin, or how fast I sprint ('sprint' for a given value of 'wearing work shoes') the moment I can reach out and touch the doors is the moment that they close, and the bus drives off, not heeding my waving arms and exclamations? On another note, I have often spent time defending Gen Y against the various slights made on them, but maybe there is something in this attention span, instant gratification thing. I say this because I notice myself checking facebook compulsively for new updates, but worse still getting annoyed when there haven't been any new posters put up on the traffic light post near my bus stop for over a week. Where are the new things? I already know I can get beginner piano lessons, I need more ...

So I suppose I have given you long enough to finish that long and, if I say so myself, very long-winded blogpost that I wrote last, and now is the time to write something new. Strangely I have spent a long time wanting to write something, but now that I start all my ideas disappear like magic. Or maybe not strangely. Maybe that is just the nature of writing? So now I will do something a bit unusual and share with you a recipe that I came up with the other day. It's pretty simple, but tasty (and healthy!) Baked pears Ingredients: 2 pears Natural yoghurt Cinnamon Nutmeg Honey Thinly slice pears, place in a baking tray. Brush with honey, sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Place in preheated oven on low/moderate heat (go for 180 degrees if unsure), bake approx. 15 minutes or until starting to soften. Serve with scoop of yoghurt and a drizzle of honey. Serves 2 (vary number of pears for different amounts of people)

A friend of mine who has spent many years reviewing books recently described book reviewing on her blog as necessarily and at essence a very subjective thing, and something which should be understood as such. So when, in a slightly fangirlish moment, I went looking for AS Byatt reviews and found one that was lukewarm, I had to laugh at myself for getting angry. They were a reviewer, they were communicating their experience, not everyone likes AS Byatt, etc. The review was all about how the reviewer had disliked Byatt but liked Possession , so it was actually quite positive. But since Possession is one of my favourite books I still felt slighted. Especially by the comments. The first one was by a man who was apparently knowledgable about Victorian poetry, and he called her poetry 'inauthentic'. I didn't read the comments for long, becuase they made me upset. Becuase I thought the poetry captured something about Victorian poetry, it's allusiveness particularly. But then ...

I'm very excited because there is a new AS Byatt out! It's called The Children's Book, have justed started reading it and will report back later. In other news, something that I would recommend checking out at the moment is Triple J's Hottest 100 of all time which can be found here in list format, and on the radio over the weekend if you want to listen to them count down. The top 20 are being revealed on Sunday. Hearing the ads for this on the radio, asking listeners to vote, I was incredibly dubious of the idea. How can you create something that tries to be so definitive? Reading the list however, I am sold. Not so much because I think they have actually managed to find the hottest 100 songs of all time, but because I think the execution is pretty impressive. The concept is designed to celebrate 20 years of Triple J, playing on their annual Hottest 100 countdown. I'm relatively impressed with the range so far- there are quite a few decades represented, and we have...

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it to you personally, oh blog reader, although I'm fairly sure that I mentioned it in one of my previous blog posts, but one of my pet hates is people complaining about societal decline. Why? Because people having been complaining about societal decline in much the same terms for centuries, if not millenia. Ancient Roman writers talk about the debauchery of the present generation and the lack of respect of youngsters for their elders (and doubtless also about the increasing costs of groceries). If you would like a British example, read Bede. But people go on just the same, complaining as though they were facing entirely new phenomena. Surely society has changed? Well yes, but one of its constant features has been lamenting the current generation and their idle and disrespectful ways. Why mention this now? Well, today's xkcd really summed up my feelings (even though I do not know this 'Idiocracy').

I'm not very good at running a blog I suppose, because I have no intention to write about anything I was talking about last time. I'm sorry, but there you have it. Instead, I bring to you the pick of the internet, that I have selflessly picked out for you through hard hours of internet browsing, following random links, reading and viewing: Alice and Kev If you didn't know already, Sims 3 was released earlier this month, and this site has used it to make a compelling ongoing blog narrative, about the adventures of her Sims, a homeless girl and her father. The expanded personality features in Sims 3 make this more complex, and the amount of free will means the storyline has plenty of unexpected twists and turns. The writer has also put the story together well, with well chosen pictures and good writing, and gathered plenty of followers in the process. A warning: this story really shows the possibilities of the game and makes it look appealing, after reading it for a while you...

What a nice long weekend it was... Now back at work, thankfully it is all less hectic than last week. Last week we were organising an awards dinner for Friday night, and it was all a bit busy. But now the dinner has come and gone, I got to witness bankers dancing to 'I will Survive' (quite an experience) and I see the awards are in the paper today! Well, in a very small article, but they are there, and I was involved with them, so it is a little bit exciting. Other than that, had pretty much a perfect long weekend, I saw some family and friends, was briefly at the Jazz festival in Darling Harbour, saw the art exhibition I wanted to before it closed, and got to watch Twilight and When Harry Met Sally. When Harry Met Sally is pretty much the best movie ever. Twilight is... well... it makes a bit more sense, plot-wise, than the book? Probably? I would like to rant about the book that I'm currently reading, have also been wanting to write a post about ranting in general, but th...

Warning: This post may be less witty than the title might lead you to expect. I have lived in a city for most of my life and I love it. My particular city is Sydney, although I lived for a (very) short time in London and would love to visit New York. Sydney is the city that I know best. Cities have been around for thousands and thousands of years, but I think the concept of what is 'urban' has changed somewhat. Or maybe it would be better to put it this way: cities have changed with developments in technology, the industrial revolution, class changes and so on. The way people relate to cities has also changed. Graffiti may have been around for thousands of years, but I think maybe there is a shift since the 20th century in how people relate to the cities they live in. Or maybe not. Mainly I wanted to share some cool city related things. Psychogeography According to Guy Ernest Debord, apparently the originator of this concept, phsychogeography goes something like this: "the...

In the media and in public opinion there seems to be a perception that currently we are undergoing a rise of fundamental religion, with particular emphasis on the role of religion in politics and so on. In Christian circles, you will more likely hear that we are going through a rise in secularism (?) and militant atheism. For instance, see Richard Dawkins, and I guess the media portrayal of 'fundamentalists'. In a way I think maybe these could be flip-sides of the same coin, if you see atheists as also leaning towards fundamentalism maybe it all makes sense. Maybe one side is right and the other is wrong. Maybe it is the age old lament, 'society's not what it used to be'. Whichever, I am coming from the Christian perspective and constantly provoked by media discussion of religion and its ills, particularly when I feel it is defending Reason in an irrational manner. But that is really for another day. Today I am mostly wanting to talk about an article in the Herald a...

I wanted to write a blog post today, and I wanted to not write about the budget, but as I was reading a few articles in the SMH this morning I found it impossible to resist. But I don't want to talk about the budget, really I don't. Think of this more as a blog about journalism. Or subjectivity. Or similar. The first thing I went to this morning was an article by Ross Gittins, hoping for a good budget summary that would mean I didn't have to wade through too many specifics. Here is an extract: "Swan is worried about the size of the budget deficit and how long it will take to get the budget back under control. Hence his plans to cut back middle-class welfare by reducing superannuation perks, means testing the private health insurance rebate, and cracking down on abuse of the Medicare safety net. Not to mention hikes in the Medicare levy surcharge. The trouble with this is it's all a bit previous, as the Poms say. The recession has hardly go...

The thing is, it's Friday, it's after 5, and I'm going home. But I wanted to do this, so maybe a sketch now and more later... The Impression that I Get- Mighty, Mighty Bosstones Yellow- Coldplay I Must Belong Somewhere- Bright Eyes Man, I can't choose... More later Have a good weekend!

I liked writing that so much I'm going to do another one. Maybe I'll do daily top 5 lists. Maybe I won't. You'll just have to wait and see... I'm not including The Lord of the Rings in this list, you probably all know I love it. I didn't include the Bible in the last list either, but they both loom large. I know that a lot of people look down on fantasy, but I think that this is unfair and unwarranted. I want to make a list of books that will appeal to a range of people and maybe interest any non-fantasy readers out there. Top 5 fantasy books you should read (in no particular order): The Last Unicorn- Peter Beagle This is an amazing book, it's got everything- it's funny, it's sad, it's bittersweet and moving and the characters stay with you afterwards. Read it and we can discuss together what it means... The Wizard of Earthsea- Ursula le Guin Ursula le Guin is pretty great, and so is this trilogy (well, kind of trilogy). These are pretty sad book...

At the moment everyone on facebook is making up lists of their 5 top books etc. for different categories, in a manner reminiscent of High Fidelity , but I really feel that a top five deserves a blog post to be dealt with fully. So here are some top 5 lists of mine: Top 5 most influential books, in chronological order: -Fairytales I don't remember which book. All I know is that for the first half of kindergarten I couldn't read at all, but then somehow I started, and the first word I remember reading is "grandmother", I'm assuming this was 'Little Red Riding Hood'. That was such an exciting moment, and the start of a lifelong love of words. - The Treasures of the Snow, Patricia St. John Reading this book is the first time that I remember really thinking about what I believe and making a conscious decision that yes, I would like to count myself a follower of Jesus. So pretty important for me... -The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien This book pretty much sea...

I was reading an article today about posters which have been popping up on lampposts in Melbourne and entertaining the local populace by saying things like: "I like doing stuff but I always end up doing the same stuff again and again. I'd like to meet up with people who like doing stuff, preferably different stuff to my stuff..." And signing it 'Craig' Some think it was an ad for a classifieds website. But it turns out there was (already?) someone in New York doing the same thing and signing off 'Chris'. You can find out about it here: http://zoomdoggle.com/2009/03/honorary-doggler-chris-not-craig/ These people believe that the originals were a spoof of the website. Anyway it's pretty random and the website made me smile, so I felt I should share it. I saw an unusual poster on the corner of Enmore Rd and Stanmore Rd last night, but didn't get a chance to get a proper look. I all can really say is that it was up pretty high, and I think it involved ...

I thought this would be an appropriate way to herald in a new year of blogging: with a meme stolen from Ronni: 1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before? Got married! Graduated from university. Got a full-time job and held it down for three months. An eventful year really... 2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I'm not sure whether I made any... But this year I have. Not too sure that I'll keep it though. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No, although some people I know got pregnant. 4. Did anyone close to you die? No 5. What countries did you visit? None, I stayed in Australia the whole time. 6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? Organisational skills. A clean house. 7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 5th April- my wedding day. I hope that it remains etched in my memory because I'll have to remember it for anniversaries and so on. 8. What was...

He came down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all And His shelter was a stable And his cradle was a stall. With the poor, and mean and lowly, Lived on earth our Saviour holy. - Once in Royal David's City, C.F. Alexander Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people ... to rescue us from the hand of his enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. - Zechariah's Song. Luke 1:68, 74-75

It has come to my attention that there is trouble afoot in the world. All is not as it should be. Yet what can be done? I refer of course to the correct method of abbreviating the word 'saint'. In the course of my university degree, concentrating as I did on the Medieval period, I wrote a number of essays about or including saints. After receiving many of these essays back with numerous corrections I came to the conclusion that the abbreviation of saint was 'St' with NO full stop, which distinguishes it from 'st.' which has a full stop. The reason for this, which I may have made up in my own head, it's hard to tell, is that 'street' is shortened, and the front two letters used to form an abbreviation, while 'saint' is contracted, with the middle removed, and the first and last letters removed. So the full stop in 'st.' stands in for the missing letters, which wouldn't make sense in the case of 'saint'. This seems like a fa...