Goodbye, Cobweb
I knew her for more than a decade — Hodgestar got her a year before we met. She was a beautiful, clever and graceful cat, and we will both miss her.
To Boldly Go Where Someone Has Kind Of Gone Before
When I first heard about the new Star Trek movie, I was highly sceptical. I was concerned that after the lack of enthusiasm over Voyager and the horrible failure of Enterprise (itself a reboot attempt) most of the original franchise would be considered an unprofitable dead end. I feared that a “re-imagining” would throw most of it away, dilute the high-tech space opera elements until they were barely visible, and produce a mainstream-friendly near-future BSG-alike barely recognisable as Star Trek. But I didn’t have that much emotional investment in the original series (Picard and Sisko are my captains!), and the first reviews I heard were positive, so I was cautiously optimistic when I went to see the movie tonight.
It was wonderful — I loved every moment of it. Even the time travel managed not to be obnoxious. I don’t know what a non-Trekkie would make of it, but I don’t think fans of Star Trek will be disappointed. The remake stays close to the spirit of the original — it strips away the sixties cheese, and leaves behind the best parts. The special effects are updated, but the technology is the same. The characters are recognisably the same characters. The dialogue is good. There’s something interesting happening in every scene and there is no dead weight, but the movie does not feel rushed or badly cut. There are lots of cute little references for Trek fans to pick up on, but there’s no excessive reliance on familiarity with the canon. The main plot neatly sets the stage for a remake which can go in completely unexpected directions not limited by the original canon history: it’s the same universe, but a different timeline.
On the way back in the car Hodgestar and I discussed how a remake TV series could be sustained successfully, and do interesting new things in the Star Trek universe without straying too far away to remain Star Trek. I think the answer lies in revisiting old concepts and redoing them in ways which were previously impossible because of inadequate special effects. We can now do aliens and alien worlds properly — a remake would have the opportunity to explore alien-heavy storylines and do the visuals justice. No more bumpy-foreheaded dudes in pastel pyjamas on interchangeable dusty desert lots.
I would love a new TV series, but I’ll settle for a few more movies like this.
LARPage and other news
We ran Grove of Fallen Leaves again — outside among actual trees again for the first time since the playtest. It really makes a huge difference to the atmosphere. Thanks to Akika for providing the garden and NPCing the dryad. 
We recruited four new LARPers, who were all very good, and ended up with a strong cast. All in all, it was a pretty good running, although it got a bit cold by the end and I completely forgot to take photos (I am told that other people took photos, however).
Toothpastedealer is down here from the US, and he brought me the Black Dossier (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. 2.5). It is very cool. I also have a crapload of books (without pictures); I am currently reading Hunter’s Run (which was written by Daniel Abraham, Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin — two of my favourite writers and my favourite SF editor — and therefore cannot possibly not be awesome).
Hodgestar and I are in the middle of Season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I love this show.
I think I said I would write some kind of LARP for Dragonfire. I still don’t know what it is. I am suddenly inspired to write a serious political LARP set in the D&D fantasy universe — with the assumption that alignment doesn’t exist, and that the craziest evil antics attributed to societies like the Drow and the Yuan-ti are dirty human and elven propaganda. The D&D universe is fundamentally very silly, and this is completely not what I was planning to write a LARP about earlier this year, and it is thus completely unsurprising that it’s a million times more appealing right now than my carefully planned gritty SF idea. I blame Goblins.
The Life and Times of Baby Cthulhu
Or: how not to make a large papier-mâché sculpture
I can’t remember the exact year of Baby Cthulhu’s birth, but it was probably 2002. Hodgestar and I thought that it would be neat to make a mascot for the CLAWs orientation stall. We made a frame out of thick wire, taped plastic bags to it, made a skin out of newspaper strips covered in wallpaper paste, and hurriedly painted it. And it looked something like this:
Some time later I added more volume to the head, and painted the whole thing some more. And it looked something like this:
The problem is that while the strips-and-glue papier-mâché technique is very useful in making smooth geometric shapes, it’s a bit crap when you’re trying to make a freeform sculpture. I wasn’t very happy with the results, but I didn’t have any better ideas.
Several years passed. After the CLAWroom ceased to exist and Cthulhu no longer had a home, I lugged him from flat to flat, parked him on top of cupboards, and occasionally vacuumed him and picked off peeling bits of paper. I had put so much work into him already that I didn’t have the heart to get rid of him.
Then I made a little dragon sculpture out of a commercial papier-mâché clay, and I realised what medium I should have been using in the first place. In February last year, I decided to renovate Cthulhu properly.
I made my own pulp out of shredded newspapers and wallpaper paste, and was able to use it to add a lot more volume to the sculpture. I reshaped the tentacles, moved the eyes to where an octopus actually has eyes, and created a coarse skin texture by pressing random crosshatching into the surface with a blunt knife.
Unfortunately, thick papier-mâché takes a really long time to dry, and shredding newspaper by hand is also very time-consuming. Since I left the project until the last minute (as usual), I ended up not finishing the base, and doing a rather hurried paint job. I think it was so windy that most of the spray-on lacquer blew away.
Nevertheless, I was a lot more optimistic about getting Cthulhu to look good, and I restarted the renovation at the beginning of this year. After repeatedly failing to make time to shred more newspaper, I found a cheap paper shredder, which was a real lifesaver (although I managed to jam it very thoroughly within about ten minutes of using it for the first time.)
I gave Cthulhu a bottom…
…then flipped him over and repaired the cracks…
…and left him in the sun to dry…
…before painting and varnishing him — first applying varnish with a paintbrush, and later filling in hard-to-reach places with lacquer spray.
I didn’t have time to paint and varnish the underside, but apart from that he is basically finished. This week he is once again up on campus being a fresher lure, and afterwards he’s going back on top of my cupboard, to wait patiently until the stars are right (possibly August). Now I can actually make other things out of papier-mâché; I’m thinking of weaning myself off my years-long habit slowly, perhaps by making some slightly smaller baby Cthulhus.
If you want to make your own large sculpture out of paper, I strongly recommend that you:
- Go directly to mushy papier-mâché; newspaper strips are a complete waste of time.
- Invest in a paper shredder. Seriously; just do it.
My papier-mâché recipe:
Shred newspaper. If you have a paper shredder, just cut it into strips across the grain; the strips will disintegrate easily. Put the newspaper in a bucket full of water overnight (or, if you need it more urgently, boil it on the stove in a pot you’re not planning to use for food ever again). Resist the urge to mush up the newspaper while it’s floating around in the water; it may seem easier, but you will create a suspension which is extremely difficult to drain, end up with too much water, and get glue instead of clay (if you have inadvertently made glue, add extra dry shredded newspaper to absorb the excess moisture). Remove the newspaper from the water in handfuls, squeezing out as much water as you can. In a mixing container, keep mushing up the newspaper, adding wallpaper paste and small amounts of water, until you have a mostly smooth mass which is slightly sticky and holds its shape. It should be the approximate consistency of mashed potato.
What I Did On My Holidays
This update will be communicated mostly in photographs. I apologise for the totally wrong upload order.
- We made some presents for people
- Just after Christmas I went to the Vogelgat Nature Reserve with Simon and his mom. I have a new zoom lens, and it is harder for small animals to escape me.
- We spent New Year’s Eve at the SAAO Star Party, huddling for warmth inside the telescopes on the plateau near Sutherland. It was pretty cool; we met some interesting people, and the mad crowds ran away after midnight. We slept in Matjesfontein, which is a tiny historical town with an old-school hotel and at least three distinct cats. Unfortunately we missed the historical bus tour, because the historical bus broke down and the mechanic broke down on his way to fix it.
- Stephen and Kia visited Cape Town from the UK. We went to the Rhodes Memorial and Monkey Town.
- I had a birthday party. It was fun, and lots of people dressed up. Here are Neil’s photos of the event.
- I have a lot of new books.
- I have constructed approximately a third of Cthulhu’s ass. I wish I had a paper shredder.
- We have had our balcony enclosed, and I have an indoor garden with exciting wildlife.
Locustforge!
I’m gradually sorting out my web presence. Something I’ve been meaning to do for a really long time is put all the little bits of code I write in an easily accessible public place, so that other people can use them. Hodgestar and I have set up Locustforge to be a site for our shared projects. So far it has a wiki (which still needs cleanup) and an svn repository for our code.
I intend to move all my code — which is presentable enough to be shown in public — in there. So far, I’ve added the PmWiki skin we use on our wiki, and some RSS feed filters which can be used with Liferea (and probably other readers too).
A warm fuzzy feeling
It has become relatively commonplace for poor students to club together to get a friend a really nice present that none of them can practically afford on their own. People often continue to organise presents in this way even when they are no longer poor students, because it just makes sense — especially when the gift-givers don’t know the recipient very well. Most people would rather receive one or two nice gifts (which were quietly suggested by close friends in the know) than seventeen pairs of socks and scented bath salts — and most people would rather contribute to a gift which they know the recipient will like than spend a stressful day hunting for something which is original, yet generically inoffensive, and not a duplicate of something the recipient already has.
Gift vouchers have also changed the way people give presents. You can now get someone a gift which fits their interests without knowing exactly what they have in their collection.
Not everyone is comfortable with these recent gift-giving traditions, however. Some people consider participation in shared gifts to be a social faux-pas — they may be concerned that they will be seen as cheap, or not sufficiently invested in their friends’ lives to be able to pick out the perfect gift for them by themselves. Vouchers are also seen as impersonal; not much better than slipping a hundred bucks into an envelope. It has taken me a long time to convince my parents that I really do consider book vouchers to be the best present ever.
Alternative gift-giving is likely to encounter even more resistance. See, it works like this: you donate money to a charitable organisation, which uses it to buy a useful gift for a person who really needs it. You get some kind of card which says “I gave someone a $thing on your behalf”. The present that you give to your friend is a warm fuzzy feeling.
I think the reason that this is taking a while to catch on is that not everyone considers a warm fuzzy feeling to be a real present. I can think of only two or three people off the top of my head who know about this and have said that they think it’s a neat idea. If you don’t know that someone would appreciate receiving such a gift, you probably won’t give it to them — it seems too much like getting them something that you want.
Therefore, just in time for the gift-giving season, I have made a handy icon which you can display on your blog / personal wiki / other online place of habitation if you would like to indicate your support of this idea. If you don’t like cows, or think my icon-making skills suck, please make some more icons.
I support alternative gift-giving. I have a lot of stuff, and I don’t really need more stuff. If you give something to a person in need on my behalf, you will absolutely be giving me a real present.
Here are some links to alternative gift-giving sites. I don’t have a particular preference. Feel free to donate to a completely different organisation (like TAC, or the SPCA) and make a home-brewed card.
- Heifer South Africa — give livestock to people in rural areas
- Gifts 4 Good — a wide selection of gifts
- Make Christmas Matter — a wide selection of gifts
November media review
Movies:
- Pathfinder — terrible; don’t bother. The premise is kind of cool, but the characters are cardboard and the plot is utterly predictable and spliced together from a hundred better movies. For some reason* I thought there would be an alien in this. There wasn’t.
- Sunshine — pretty awesome. I didn’t realise how much I love things-going-horribly-wrong-on-an-isolated-near-future-spaceship movies until an hour in. Marred by one moment of inexplicable character stupidity.
Comics:
- Bone — as good as it’s hyped up to be. Stupid, stupid rat creatures!
- Stickleback — I dunno, it disn’t grab me as much as Edginton and D’Israeli’s other stuff. Maybe it’ll grow on me.
- The Complete Nemesis the Warlock volumes 2 and 3 — cheesy eighties goodness. So, so cheesy.
- Historie manga — slightly gory historical manga set in ancient Greece. Once it got going, I couldn’t stop reading.
- Twin Spica manga — a young girl goes to a space academy. Slow, but entertaining.
- Planetes manga — more near-future SF. A bit difficult to get into, but that’s what I thought about Vinland Saga too, so I’ll give it more time.
* Because I was thinking of Outlander! D’oh!
Get off my side; you’re making it look stupid.
Update (April 2009): Holy crap! The IEC really did get their site updated for the elections. I almost fell off my chair. The election results are inexplicably only available as PDFs that you have to download, but hey — baby steps.
So, if you live in South Africa and have The Internet, you probably already know that the IEC website is crap. It has been crap for years. It used to be bizarrely malformed in anything that isn’t IE, and lots of people complained.
Recently the IEC dramatically improved the situation by adding a browser check to their main page, and redirecting any browsers that don’t identify themselves as IE to an apologetic note which explains that the site doesn’t work in anything except IE. Please note that they had time to add Google Chrome to the list of other browsers — but not to actually fix the damn site; something which you might think is not rocket science, or very expensive to do, especially in this age of out-of-the-box CMSes and web development frameworks.
Of course the site still works in Firefox, exactly as badly as it used to — and the browser check is trivially circumventable. All you have to do to see it in its full malformed glory is navigate to any internal page. If you’re feeling energetic, you can make your browser lie in its user agent string. Be prepared to reload frequently — not only is the site atrociously designed and basically unmaintained (how long is that <\table> going to be there?); the server is a bit dodgy.
Now, people have been complaining about this crap for years, to little effect. Nobody seems to be particularly interested in fixing the problem.
Earlier today several people I know posted links to DigitalApartheid.com, a new site created by someone who is fed up with the state of the IEC website. As much as I agree with the purported goals of the site, I am not impressed with the way it has gone about achieving them, for several reasons.
One: the site instructs visitors to email or fax a form letter complaining about the site to various employees of the IEC. Form letters are crap. Form letters say “I’m not capable of articulating an intelligent opinion about this; I’m with that guy, so I copied what he said.” I wouldn’t be surprised if they were forwarded straight to /dev/dustbin at the IEC; I know that’s what I’d do.
Two: the form letter is full of bad punctuation and grammar. Badly written complaints make you look stupid.
Three: the form letter compares the site’s exclusion of non-IE users to apartheid, and states that the writer is contemplating not voting unless the site is fixed. Here’s where we go off the deep end.
Seriously? You really think that the inconvenience that you experience at this site because of your (admirable and sensible) choice to use a browser other than IE is comparable to decades of racist government oppression?
Dude. Maybe you should get some perspective.
Most people in South Africa don’t have access to computers. The IEC website is not the only — or indeed the primary — source of information about the elections. This information is not being denied to you — if you can’t access it in your browser (and you can, really), you have the ability to get it in some other way, just like all those computerless people.
I do want the IEC to fix their site — but bombarding them with ridiculous hyperbole isn’t going to make them do it. There are plenty of intelligent things to say about standards compliance and FOSS, and why they are important. If you’re going to send a complaint, please do it in a way which doesn’t make you — and by association everyone else who uses an alternative browser — look like a raving nutjob.
The Clone Wars: A Brief Review
We went to see it on a whim, and it was surprisingly good. The voice acting is a bit dodgy in patches, but it’s not unbearable. In general, both the plot and the character interactions were better done and more interesting than in the steaming pile of crap that was the entire prequel trilogy. I actually sort of liked Anakin: he had a lot more personality than his live-action counterpart.
Amidala gets to have an adventure all by herself, and pwn bad guys with her mad senatorial skillz. There’s a new female hero and a new(ish) female villain (and they only fight each other for a couple of seconds). There are amusing (and short-lived) droid grunts. If they made a plush Baby Hutt, I’d totally get one.
If you’ve been depressed about the current state of the franchise, this should cheer you up at least a little bit.
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Buy someone a cow
Recent Tweets- Is it 'cause I is animated? http://bit.ly/Q3we1
- @firstfallen Yep. Looks like a delightful place; did not click through. D:
- Warhammer 40K will eat your children! http://bit.ly/XcigO
- Epic wank in the soccer blogosphere re: the vuvuzela. Caution: contains racist asshats. But also nice people. http://tinyurl.com/knqjsq
- A tale of two plucky teenage detectives! http://beatonna.livejournal.com/107964.html
