Day of computer badness yesterday (and today too, no doubt.) New website due up today and last night as I was furiously ftp-ing, the computer died. Stayed till 8 last night, trying various work arounds, and lo, here I am again this morning.
The funny thing is, as often happens when the things I fear the most come to be, I actually feel remarkably calm about it. There isn't all that much I can do about it, really. However, once the grown ups get here I might start to panic a little more...
(La Spinstaire- i(f you read this today)- I have no work email today so I will contact you either by phone or via hotmail.)
masters Evil Pigeons Mark has some good things to say (post Nov 5) about the internet not being television and questioning this constant push for broadband. I agree with him also about short blog posts being the best. Obviously this is partly because reading on screen is quite unpleasant, but I suspect that a lot of people, like me, sneak a peak at blogs in between doing other things- when they're on the phone, on hold, when they're waiting for something else to download, when there's five minutes to go until home time etc. A short post nicely fills this gap, a long one is too time demanding.
I think that Mark is definitely on to something talking about online film needing to be something other than a massive download (although I agree that there are definitely people out there who would do this.) But this is what I was thinking about the other day- the internet merely imitating other mediums rather than exploiting its characteristics. I think that a form of online cinema will inevitably evolve, just as online narrative will evolve, but it will be in a form that capitalises on the things the web does best- linking and creating communities and acting as a catalogue of thoughts and resources.
masters Ballard Quote I originally found this quote if the Modjeska book (Timepieces) that I was reading recently, but as I have subsequently gone and purchased Crash for myself I shall quote directly from there:
"...I feel that the balance between fiction and reality has changed significantly in the past decades. Increasingly their roles are reversed. We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind- mass-merchandizing, advertising, the pre-empting of any original response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. It is now less and less necessary for the writer to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer's task is to invent reality." (p1 introduction Crash by J.G Ballard, Vintage, 1973.)
This seems to touch on blog-related themes: the author fictionalising their own lives to create a kind of narrative. (why fictionalising? Because if you are putting your diary up on the web there is the expectation that people will read it and you will construct your posts accordingly.)
masters research blogs Jenny's Internet Flaneur blog is a great example of a blog used to collect notes that are to go towards a larger piece of work. It is also interesting as it is very much her own voice (I would say) written for herself to fit her specific needs (ie writing a paper.) It makes me feel a little insecure as she is very well read and has some interesting insights to make. I would love to read the paper that is produced at the end. I'd also like to see how she goes about using the thoughts and pieces of information she has collected together on her blog in the final essay.
diary melbourne cup Public holiday today and so I am blogging from home (having only recently dicovered that we are connected to the net here). I did consider going in to work anyway as I have lots to do, but then I realised how foolish this was, so I am taking the day off, like a good Melburnian, and only feeling mildly guilty about it.
My horse in the work sweepstake is called Thong Classic. I don't hold out much hope, really.
My main aim for the day is to avoid the saggy-faced punters on their way home, men with their beer-glazed eyes and women clutching their shoes and sobbing incomprehensibly into their mobile phones. DB has the day off too. Perhaps we can escape to a nice forest somewhere.
diary summer fruit Nectarines are back at the Turkish man's shop. I've missed them. They are too hard to eat yet,and small, but it is a sign of good things to come. I bought some at lunchtime and am now trying to stop myself from eating them until they ripen up a bit.
diary Pun Of course, we all know that puns are dreadful and most try, wisely to avoid it, however tempting it may be. Yet I was very impressed by Petite's story of her recent Peru-based pun, if only it was really a once-in-a-lifetime type opportunity and she capitalised on it.
Peru, October. Petite and others on her tour are trying to distinguish the species of a distint, white, fluffy animal. A llama? someone suggests, hopefully. The group step closer to the grazing animal. No, not a llama, just a sheep. Petite, under her breath, almost unconsciously, says "That would make it a false allama, then, I guess."
Static For some reason I seem to be producing a lot of static electricity at the moment. Things that don't normally zap me are zapping me. Plastic things are zapping me. Grass... I'm at a loss to know what's brought this about. I had a haircut* last week- could this possibly be the cause?
(the image is not a literal portait of my hair. Although I quite like it.)
diary A weekend, some things A balanced weekend? In someways, yes, probably, although I did have to spend the day at work yesterday (and anyone who may doubt my true grumpiness would not have doubted it had they seen me yesterday. Caught up with Fi, visiting from Hong Kong on Friday night, which was very interesting. They are enjoying Hong Kong a lot and I am filled with desire to go over there, if for no other reason than to see the escalators that travel up the side of one of the hills. Apparently people catch these to work- such a great idea. I was intrigued to hear that there are signs up around the escalators fobidding photographs. I have subsequently spent a considerable amount of time pondering why this would be. Are they the latest in escalatorial technology and the gov't does not want the secret to get out? My current thinking is that tourists used to mill around the base of the escalators, posing for photos and hindering the flow of people on their way to work.
Then went with Petite to see Cowboy Beebop in the Japanime film festival. It was good, but I was very very tired and my concentration started to wane by the end.
Went shopping with Petite on Saturday morning. She is an amazing shopper. In and out, yes to this, no that, no lingering or pondering. I was impressed. I always buy much more stuff when I'm with her than when I'm on my own.
Did some homework. Went to see another Japanime flick on Saturday with the bookclub sisters (and one of the bookclub sister's beau.) It was called The Adolescence of Utena and it was very very strange. At the end one of the main characters turns into a car and then back again. Utena and her love interest, The Rose bride, end up rocketing along a highway, naked and entwined on a sort of high tech billie cart, happily heading towards their future. We came out of the cinema, still slightly bewildered. "What a strange ending, with them on that trolley" someone said. "Ah yes, the lesbian luge" said the bookclub beau.
Another email this morning from Sun Arrow, the panda who sits on the top of my computer.
Dear GG ( or am I to call you MCB now? I am confused)-
The movement of your blog last week led me to reflect on the conflicting emotions change stirs in me. On the one hand, I feel that I desire it, especially as I live a life of routine (and a fairly limited routine at that.) Yet this change of address, even of a virtual nature, has disturbed me. I find myself returning to the Grumpy Girl site hoping, however irrationally, that there might be something new there.
You mocked the Questioning Ant the other day when he spoke of a webpage as being a mental space. YBut I agree with him. Surely it is no less intangible than notions we hold in our mind or childhood as being a place, even though there is no way we can access it? In fact, the past in general is often thought about in terms of geography. I think the opening line of The Go Between is "The Past is a foriegn place, they do things differently there."
Even the terminology of the web references the world of maps and places- addresses, sites and.... well... I'm sure there are others.
We can still have strong emotions about the non real, the intangible, the unknown. Maybe even the strongest feelings of all are about these things.
I am glad you moved URLs. The banner ad was ugly. But I miss the old site too. Strange.
Sun Arrow.
I wrote back:
Dear Sun Arrow,
thankyou for writing again. I'm sure it sounds hollow, but I really do appreciate it when someone takes the time to let me know what they think about something I've written. Yes, I understand your mixed feelings about change- I feel it myself. I sometimes wonder if I really possess the adventuring spirit that I like to claim that I have. I miss the Grumpy Girl site too; I even miss the banner ad, believe it or not. However, I must admit that this is growing less and less each day. By the end of this week I suspect I will be completely comfortable in my new spot.
Have you found anything interesting on the web recently? I'd love to know what sort of sites a toy panda visits in the middle of the night.
sincerely, GG (let's stick to GG for a while. Too much change may catapult us both over the edge.)
