sneedleflipsock/TheBlog

I dunno. It can’t be coincidental, though, that so many of my nearest (relatives) and dearest (friends) are nerds and/or geeks. Including me, of course ;-)

Take Chris, for example. From his LinkedIn profile you’d think he’s a normal sort of engineer/project manager. But no — in his spare time, he’s building a topic map about 2009, the International Year of Astronomy. And in the ‘help’ section of said web site, he mentions that he’s watching the Star Trek series on DVD — and has included in his IYA site a list of planets visited by the USS Enterprise.

Susan isn’t quite so closely related, but she and I share a fascination for freight trains. While we’re not quite trainspotters, I don’t recommend you propose marriage to either one of us while waiting at a level crossing — you’re likely to get an answer along the lines of “Twenty-seven.” (This being the number of carriages on said train as it rumbled past our hypnotised gaze.)

“The train, the train, the wonderful train
That found visas for all aboard and now finally sits
Shining in the bush like five bob’s worth of sweets”
(Clive James, “Ghost Train to Australia“)

Recently, I relived a long-held memory of Chris. First time in ages. Remembering how he dragged me and a picnic rug into the back yard at 87 Oak Street in Tamworth. We lay on our backs and watched the stars wheel slowly in the summer sky. Chris had a small transistor radio, and we tuned into the ping-ping-ping of a passing satellite. A notable moment for a nine-year-old. Thirty-some years later, at ten to six on a cold June morning, in a driveway near Geelong, I happened to look up at the glittering heavens and spotted the International Space Station zinging its way from south to north. Pow, the memory of that Tamworth summer came galumphing back.

(I knew it was the ISS because the ludicrously multi-talented Ian Musgrave had mentioned it in his Aurora Alert email that week. Ian’s Southern Skywatch web site for amateur astronomers turned 10 this year — huzzah! In his spare time Ian hangs out at his own Astroblog, contributes to the Panda’s Thumb group blog about evolution and genetics, and, oh yes, is a full-time neuropharmacology researcher. Did I mention that several of my friends also are nerds?)

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Joss Whedon is at it again, trying to find new ways of convincing studios to give him money for pet projects. Can he get Firefly Season 2 off the ground? We can only (a) add our name to the list and (2) hope.

What’s the worst that could happen? River Tam beats up everybody!

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• Cluetrain Manifesto

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Someone had far too much fun assembling this 10-minute compilation of innuendo from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[Ronnie Barker famously observed that "The funny thing about a double entendre is that it can only mean one thing."]

And now for something completely different: RateMyTurban.com!

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Jim Culleny blogged this one at 3 Quarks Daily yesterday, and glad I am of it.

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee,–and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings’.

Late last night I felt like the first nine lines; it was not a good weekend.

After reading the poem today, I made a mental list of all the “thees” whose love has at some time or another carried me through dark times. Remembering them, I give thanks.

(I also give thanks to Jim for blogging it and to Shakespeare for writing it.)

And then I take steps — small, faltering but forwards — toward both being worthy of that love and returning it with interest.

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Bought a few books from Amazon.com today. After completing the order, I surfed through a couple of the “you might also like these” suggestions. You know, just browsing the shelves. As you do when you’re at the bookshop or library.

At the foot of one page, an unfamiliar subheading caught my eye:

A literary Wikipedia, perhaps? Reviews, commentary, bibliographic tools, information about collecting incunabula? Naturally, I clicked.

I chose the “featured articles” link, expecting this to show me a representative sample of interesting stuff. It took me to the Amapedia home page. The introductory blurb says Amapedia.com is

“a community for sharing information about the products you like the most. Amapedia is the next generation of Amazon.com’s product wiki feature…”

Sounds pretty cool. I’m a bookish kind of person; people like me tend to like participating in online communities that have something to do with the books we love.

Further down the home page are an image and a description of a USB memory stick.

Thus far, not particularly enticing. This doesn’t really scream “community.”

Let’s try clicking the “random page” link at the top of the page. Wikipedia’s “random page” link often leads me into fascinating anabranches of knowledge and ideas; Amapedia’s might do the same.

The next web page loads. It’s titled “Bible Wisdom for Modern Times.” In a somewhat dauntingly dense slab of text, the author starts by defining wisdom (as a person of the female persuasion) using quotes from the Book of Wisdom, aka the Wisdom of Solomon. Ominously, the author then promises to produce a series of books that will translate and explain wisdom-related extracts from various versions of the Bible. No thanks.

Third time lucky? Hit the “random article” link again. Jackpot! The third article is titled “Porn Jobs: How to Get Into Porn as a Porn Star and Break Into the Business In 60 Days! How to Start Your Own Adult Website.” Hmm. I don’t think there are many job openings in that industry for a portly 43-year-old bluestocking.

OK, one last try. Click.

Oh, joy. Here we have an image of a book cover: “Mastering Time Travel: Voyages Through Time. Anecdotes, Experiences, Opinions, Comments.” Scroll down the page and there’s a table of contents. From this we learn that God created the “Akashic Records.” Apparently these are stored in a “Memory disk on every astral” and the book gives instructions about how to retrieve the memory disk from a human.

I might visit Amapedia again — in a year or two, when I’ve forgotten its name and am not sure what to find via that intriguing link that appeared randomly on an Amazon page. Until then, this ‘community’ can do its own thing with nae bother from me. Sometimes the long tail is just a bit too full of rubbish.

Oh, the books I bought? They’re all available from Australian public and university libraries:

• “A Humument: a treated Victorian novel” by Tom Phillips
• “Woman’s World: a novel” by Graham Rawle
• and “Urgent 2nd Class: creating curious collage, dubious documents, and other art from ephemera” by Nick Bantock.

Two books created from collage and one about the why and how of making that kind of art.

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