Welcome to the House of Zog

No replies to the Girl and the Sea post?

For those not playing at home, Australia is comprised of 6 autonomous states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania) bound by Federation and a number of self-governing territories under Federal oversight (including the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory).

What this means is that the territories can do what states cannot - frex, the ACT is legally alowed to sell X-rated videos while the states are not. Similarly it also means the Federal government can step in and override laws they don't like.

So now the conservative federal government, having taken massive umbridgeover the ACT's same sex civil union law, is attempting to have said law quashed. And of course, that tard Beasley is decrying this as Evil.

Which it is. But given this fucktard, prior to the last election, forced the Labor Party to side with the conservatives in passing a bill defining marriage as "one man and one woman" in a horribly ill conceived attempt to attract conservative biggoted voters, anything he says on the subject really comes across as hypocracy.

Soooo, 31 today.

Crutches: 1
Pain when mobile: Tolerable
Reaction to anti-inflamatory medication: Cramping nausea.
Hair: somewhere between not long enough and not short enough.

So I've managed to take my first steps unassisted by crutches for over 2 weeks. It resembled a zombie shuffle, horribly painful, and only lasted a little while before I had to grab the sticks again, but at least it means the end is in sight for this outbreak.

And my right foot no longer looks like an over stuffed sausage.

So, email fucked up again, and thanks to another horrible case of the runs, I'm not sitting down a whole lot because it feels like I've rubbed myself raw.

Someone's posted some interesting stuff on Youtube, including footage showing the original opening crawl for Star Wars.

Meanwhile I've encountered some fascinating (if self-embarrassing) examples about the way the brain parses words, and the possibility of a Freudian slip in an attempt at phonetic spelling. Sadly the mailing list thread wherein this happened has been killed by the moderators before I could expund upon them. Ah well, at least the mod will at least (hopefully) get to see the replies before they're consigned to the great unknown (ah, the disadvantages of operating in different time zones 8(...)

Those of you in Sydney will have heard of the tragic and firey demise of St Barnabas' Church at Broadway a couple of days ago, which according to reports seems to be quite likely a deliberate act of arson. For those unfamiliar, the church once formed one half of an unlikely two-hander with the pub across the road, the history of which was recorded in the book The Priest & The Publican.

Their double act consisted of trading slogans. The church would put up some appropriately themed passage on its street-side message board and the pub would post a sign in its window with a witty reposte. Sometimes this would happen in reverse. Whenever I used to catch the bus into the city, I'd always enjoy seeing what the current "conversation" was, and this was part of my growing up and youth.

Then, a year or so after the book was published - close to a decade ago now - the publican sold up and the pub closed down. For a while the tradition continued, but it went downhill fast and soon stopped altogether. The building's changed hands a few times since then - I think it's some sort of cafe now. But despite all that, the church continued with its pithy signage.

The fire claimed a priceless stained glass window and was so intense the 100 year+ old standstone walls will have to be completely demolished. The last time I went past the church to TAFE before the fire, the sign was written in what I think was one of the Chinese scripts. I really hope that had nothing to do with it, but it wouldn't surprise me anymore if it did.

Gah!

Stupid email interface is buggered again.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/mariolive

( As an early Mother's Day present, I took my mother to see the above mentioned theatrical experience. Basically it's an hour and half of eye candy, providing your idea of candy includes the often wacky and bizarre creations of a bunch of TAFE design students. )

( Some Deviant Art with a Doctor Who theme )

For fellow Order of the Stick fans. Words in [ ] are instances where the source material has something spelt incorrectly or omitted.

#308
Panel 3: Elan, I'm in love with you.
Panel 5: Elan, I'm in love with you. Completely in love. Love, love, love, love!
Panel 7: My dad is being held [for] ransom by an evil dictator. I'm not really in the [Thieves'] Guild anymore.
Panel 9: I cheat at solitaire. I have a tattoo you've never seen. I kissed a girl once. OK, OK, more than once!
Panel 11: Elan, it turns out I may not be exactly what you would call--

#303
Panel 11: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha *snort* ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Alternatively it could be *rotfl* as that happens in Panel 12...

#298
Panel 7: Ahhhh!

#296
Panel 3: [Because] even I'm sick of [translating] these things

#291
Panel 1: F DXAQGXD OAQ CBFR OAQI RBR PBC RLBR
I can't for the life of me get this to translate into anything that makes sense

#285
Panel 11: You can't understand me, so let me just say that you're a frigid bitch and your thighs look fat in that armor.

#284
Panel 3: What?
Panel 5: No, wait, that verdict doesn't make sense. [Laws] don't work that way.
Panel 6: I've seen enough of my thieves guild friends sent to prison to know that this should have been a conviction.
Panel 9: But... but it doesn't make any sense!
Panel 10: No! I'm not OK. This [whole] [trial] [made] NO SENSE!
Panel 11: We WERE guilty! It should have been a guilty verdict! I can understand if they wanted to reduce the sentence due to the circumstances, but it should have still been a guilty verdict.
Panel 12: Oh never mind. I don t know why i m bothering.
Panel 13: Wait- Elan, what did you just say?
Panel 14: Oh my gods Elan! That's it! Elan you re a genius!
This was a bastard to do, as it used a more complex cipher that featured components from two iterations of the alphabet

#277
Panel 16: Are we back??

#269
Panel 2: Fantastic!

#269
Panel 4: Ewww, [messy]

#264
Panel 1: Wait. Listen.
Panel 2: Back in the cells! Back! BACK!

So, life proceeds apace. I'm about half-way through getting stuff ready for the party tomorrow today. Should all be done in time.

Gout's playing up again since the weekend. Spent Monday essentially bed ridden, and today was force my self to hobble around TAFE on a pair of crutches because of an assignment due (supposedly). But it's receding - thankfully - so it'll be just the one crutch for the next couple of days (he says hopefully, because last time it was a whole frickin month).

Dark Crystal 2: The Power of the Dark Crystal is on the way.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Hopefully they'll release it around the same time as the live action The Last Unicorn