Just found a cool new video site 5 Min, which lists the 5 greatest sci-fi films including Alien; and the ten greatest planets from sci-fi movies. As a sci-fi junkie and Trekkie I was so happy to find Arakas from Dune and Genesis from Star Trek and Pandora from Avatar . The winner of sci-fii classic films was Bladerunner.
Interested in your views: Best Sci Fi movie ever made; best planets; best species. I love the Vulcans and the people of Arakas the best.
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Within 3 years kids will study in 3D surround-screen Hologram classes. Watching TV likewise. Our TV rooms will soon be like something out of Star Trek. Welcome to the ‘not too distant’ future of Science Faction.
YOU only have to be the parent of a child over the age of seven to know what I’m talking about: the vacant eyes so preoccupied by what’s on screen that they can’t focus on your face for more than a few seconds before being drawn back into the cyberworld.
As you talk, your little darling types or toggles. “Are you listening to me?” you ask, only to be told in a precocious tone: “Yeahhhh. I’m multitasking, Mum.”
It gets worse. By 16, girls no longer seem to have use of their tongues. “Text it to me, Mum,” quips my daughter, barely able to contain her contempt that she has to speak and breathe at the same time. I know one mother who got her daughter to the dinner table by posting the request on Facebook. It was so like social death for the girl that, like, she never failed to come to the table again. Technologies such as Twitter are alarmingly succinct. If you can’t say it in two lines, don’t bother. Luckily, I come from the dinosaur era of the telegram: “Come home (stop) Finish homework (stop) Or no mobile (stop).”
Home renos, what a pain in the butt. It’s Day Two and my nerves are already jangled. Can people answer these two questions: Why does anyone do home renovations? And how do you cope? Tell me the secret – what drugs are you on to calm you down when people don’t turn up or do something you don’t want?
AFTER a recent storm it came; dribbling down the wall, delicate as a tear drop. A trickle from my ceiling which became a stream, then a small torrent.
After a series of panicky calls, the roof expert arrived. Tiles had been damaged during the high winds, he said. Hours later he came down carrying his tools and a soggy bill. “All fixed,” he declared. But that evening, when the rain returned, I heard the dreaded drum of water splashing on the floorboards.
To my shock, the roof man refused to come back. “I checked everything. There’s nothing more I can do.” Through the night my partner and I nursed buckets, waiting for the SES emergency workers. A team arrived and workers went searching for the problem. Confused, they ended up tarping the whole roof to be safe. It was like a movie: sandbags being passed in a line and up the ladder; lots of screaming; ropes; neighbours in the street watching on. My house now looked like a ship on the high seas.
The Law is an Ass. Two stories have horrified me this week. One about a Gold Coast man who found armed intruders in his house. After confronting one, a struggle ensued and the armed bandit was shot. The home owner, a young man of 29, is now in court facing manslaughter charges and a lifetime in jail for defending himself. Story two; a convicted pedeophile in Washington is allowed child pornography in jail because of a loophole in the law. Having pleaded guilty to producing child pornography and been sentenced to 25 years jail, he has now nominated himself as his own lawyer and as such is allowed to view over 100 videos of child porn under the guise of “reviewing the evidence”
Here’s a new addition I found today in News Corp. “A PRISONER who took offence when he found a government department had incorrectly listed him as having a domestic violence conviction has won a compensation payout (of NZ$3,500) for breach of privacy and hurt feelings. The man has convictions for attacking a police officer, unlawful possession of firearms, aggravated robbery, theft, burglary and trying to escape from custody…”
And we eagerly await the court’s assessment of this one
The world has gone mad. There is no such thing as justice or even logic in things that go on. Does anyone else feel as frustrated as I do reading the morning papers?
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Newspaper’s across the US are reporting mass anxiety in LA due to traffic. The City of Los Angeles, one of the most car-dependent cities around, is raging as residents prepared for a 53-hour closure this weekend of a crucial segment of one of the most heavily trafficked north-south highways as part of a construction project. Hailed as Car-mageddon, according to reports the closure of the 16km section of Interstate 405, in the US’s second-largest city, the home of famously congested freeways and road rage, is sett to thrpw the city into chaos.
It brings to mind my stint in Los Angeles a few months ago. There are no words that can describe what it’s like to be stuck in Los Angeles traffic. We’ve all been in traffic jams, we’ve all been held up by car accidents on major freeways. But its the daily grind, the permanent, omnipresent congestion that drives people to despair. Eventually you run out of self help podcasts and end up ringing up a partner child or friend for an argument to kill the boredem and vent some hostility! And we only had to do the 5 hour return trip each day over the period of a week. But a twenty minute car trip took us almost 3 hours one way, creeping, creeping along the very highway that is being closed down. It was the same on the way home. I had a hairdressers appointment and paid hundreds of dollars in Beverly Hills to look “amazing darrrrling!” but by the time I got home to where we were staying my hair was standing on end, and frizzy from the sweat of aggrevation.
So now things are going to get worse for the next few days? Worse? All I can say to Los Angeles people is that your city is beautiful, the Canyon is awe inspiring, Your beaches delicious. But my heart goes out to you for living so much of your lives in the slow lane. I can’t imagine how The Eagles even knew a “Life In the Fast Lane” existed!
How it is that some relationships stand the test of time and others just don’t?
I RAN into an old friend the other day. It was a chance meeting. I consider this woman one of my true soul mates; someone I’ve shared so much with during the early days of my career. We have a similar sense of irony and humour, and see life through the same eyes.
We lost touch. The last time I had dinner with her was maybe two years ago. And yet the moment we sat down there was the same familiarity and comfort as if no years had gone by at all. We did the “OMG, what have you been doing?” thing for a while, and then reverted straight to the observations, laughter and social commentary that marked our friendship. I knew we would be friends to our death. Continue Reading →
As I blogged last week Telstra and Optus are debating whether to enact their censorship filters this month and try to stop what they consider “undesirable content”.
While the big boys prevaricate, here’s what we humble internet users know: you can’t stop anything by trying to censor the web. My daughter found a site last week where tweenage girls post photos of themselves in pornographic poses. The blog has gone viral among teenage boys and found its way into our home via Facebook.
There seemed to be no commercial reason for the site. No pimping. Just another look-at- me, narcissistic blog-site, indicative of a generation of self-photographing girls. An amped-up version of Facebook which is full of pouting jailbait at the best of times. As a mother and feminist, I was pretty shattered. But its existence proves my point. It’s impossible to censor the Net, especially these days. Anyone can set up a site for free.
But far more importantly, once you censor one site, where do you draw the line? Racism, sexism… and then what? Anti Government sentiment, Erotica, art? And who’s to judge — certainly not the corporate world.
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And read my full opinion in Saturday’s The Australian
We all need time out. I’m off on a small holiday. Just a few days at a health retreat trying to shave a few inches of those thighs. Where do other people go for some R & R? I know friends who go away every other weekend – they drive to the country or stay with friends by the sea. Others who have money find places to fly to for the weekend and go away often.
Me I tend to go away on (very) extended breaks, often overseas, every year. But it often occurs to me that I’m almost dead before I get there. So I’ve decided to go on a refresher, good healthy food, lots of reading and a bit of exercise. But I am curious about other people. Do you make a habit of getting away on short holidays; and what sorts of ideas can you offer the workaholics who visit me here?
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Great result!
News.com.au reports: “SALES of organic meat are on the rise as shoppers shocked by the cruel treatment of Australian cattle overseas seek out more ethical options.
One organic meat shop in the Brisbane region has recorded a 10 per cent rise in sales in the weeks since graphic footage showing the cruel treatment of Australian cattle in Indonesian slaughterhouses aired on Four Corners.
Butchers say they have been bombarded by questions about the source of their meat and how the cattle were treated before being sent to the abattoir.”
Read More on today’s News.com.au site
Also read the views of some producers on Just Grounds site
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BRACE YOURSELF WINS A $50 GIFT VOUCHER TO THE PLEASURE SPOT WHICH SPECIALISES IN ON-LINE EROTICA
I WASN’T surprised by a recent hotel industry survey that showed couples who go away are more likely to watch television than have sex.
Around 80 per cent of Australian hotel guests responded that they preferred to turn on the TV or an in-house movie instead of their partner, the online survey revealed.
It seems to me that most people in long-term relationships are more driven by a need to escape the mundane, and become part of a murder mystery or medical crisis, than have a shag.
And most people I interviewed had 1 to 3 things they’d rather be doing than having sex with their partners. I casually asked a few people who’ve been together five years or longer. Here are some of the answers:
“Eat chocolate mousse; watch House; sleep; anything; eat a home-cooked lasagne; play with the dog; watch internet porn; watch a great film; read Vanity Fair; be skiing; watch soccer; go to a great dance party; be online; have sex but with someone else.”
What are the things you find better than sex? Or how do you keep it hot & spicy?
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Read full story in today’s The Australian
