jo1967

Charlotte and I are going to Melbourne.  In two weeks time.  I've told her about the cake shops along Acland Street in St Kilda so that's one entry on our To-Do list.  I've promised her a high tea if she can prove to me that she knows how to sit up nicely at the table and not pick her teeth with the knife... (I've done such a good job raising the young'uns).

We're flying down on Virgin so only taking one checked bag 'cos you have to pay extra for them, but flying back on Qantas who include the cost of a checked bag for each seat.  Troy reminded me that we could take down an extra bag to put things in on the way back.  It's not just me, is it?  This is him not only giving me permission to spend money while down there, but actually ENCOURAGING it, right???  Hehehehe, he may regret opening his mouth!  There will be books to be bought and crafty things to look at!

“You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.

And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

And you’ll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly.

Amen."

- Aaron Freeman

I have a baby computer, a netbook, which is pretty good for all the stuff I want to do on it.  Lately, it has been running at speeds that would frustrate a dial-up user in 1989 so I decided to do some dusting...

Turns out, the preinstalled Microsoft Works doesn't play nicely with Microsoft Office, but if you get rid of Works, suddenly I'm back into the 21st century, speed-wise.  Who knew?  Huh?

Now I'm going through my list of installed and start-up programmes with a jealous eye, considering which one will be next for the chop, a bit like Darth Vader...or a human resources manager!!!!

Fandom: The Next Generation

It all started for us when our six-year-old daughter Raeli announced that Star Wars was for boys.  It terrifies me how that school playground of hers seems to be a hive of binary gender policing, as the kids develop an overly elaborate, crowd-sourced set of rules for boys and girls.  I’m not just talking about pink for girls and dump trucks for boys - every colour, shape, activity and interest seems to be pinned down, analysed and tagged with ‘girl thing’ or ‘boy thing.’
Naturally, I spend much of my time in a frustrated huff, deprogramming whatever the latest weird gender theory is.

This time, it was my honey’s turn.  Determined to prove to Raeli that Star Wars was awesome for everyone, he got hold of the original movie and sat down to watch it with her.  I’ll admit I was skeptical as to whether she’d yawn through it, but she quietly took it in and the next day after school asked if she could watch it again.  It was a success!
 For weeks afterwards she asked questions about Obi Wan, and Luke, and Leia.

On a roll, my honey tried her on Empire Strikes Back - he is thoroughly invested in the idea that this is the best film of the trilogy, and in particular wanted to not spoil her for the ending.  He had spoiled himself as a child by reading the novelisation first, and was really keen that Raeli get to experience what he had missed out on...

Yep.  He wanted it too much, and Raeli didn’t come to the party.
Empire scored a resounding ‘meh.’

And yet, and yet... yesterday, she built a lightsaber out of Mega Bloks.

I’ve had rather more luck with her on the matter of Doctor Who, to the point where she identifies any good-sized cardboard box as a possible Pandorica, draws chalk cracks on the pavement, and plays K9 (and his feline equivalent, K-ten) games in the playground with her friends - boys and girls alike.  She has also played Astro Boy games in the playground, sometimes with girls who have never seen the show!  I also take great pleasure in her Wonder Woman obsession.  There’s something utterly delicious about passing one’s geekitude on to our children - and seeing them form their own games and reactions to the show through role playing, fan art and (my personal favourite) mashups!

I knew, when my daughter earnestly explained to me that she was pretty sure that Obi-Wan Kenobi regenerated just like the Doctor, that the future of fandom was in safe hands.

Tansy Rayner Roberts is the author of Power and Majesty (Creature Court Book One) and The Shattered City (Creature Court Book Two, April 2011) with Reign of Beasts (Creature Court Book Three, coming in November 2011) hot on its tail. Her short story collection Love and Romanpunk will be published as part of the Twelfth Planet Press “Twelve Planets” series in May.

This post comes to you as part of Tansy’s Mighty Slapdash Blog Tour, and comes with a cookie fragment of new release The Shattered City:

You know how they say you shouldn't tell people you're pregnant until past the three month mark???  Well, you should never tell people you are studying until past the census date for the semester, either *groan*.

Turns out, I'm NOT studying this semester.  Because I heard about this course late, I could only enrol in a single subject as part of what they call 'professional development'.  Didn't find out until yesterday that professional development courses are not eligible for the government assistance on paying tuition fees and I would have to pay the full $1770 up front. 

Never...gonna...happen...!!! 

If I were enrolled as part of the Graduate Certificate programme, I would have been eligible for government loans that would enable me to defer my tuition almost indefinately.  Don't let anybody tell you that higher education is only for the wealthy in Australia, yes you still have to pay for books, course materials, etc, and it all has to be paid for eventually, but the government does provide a great deal of assistance to those who want to study.  And the paying for it bit doesn't start until you have qualified and are actually working, makes sense really...

So anyway, because this course doesn't have a semester two intake, my options are to either leave it until next year, or enrol in the Masters programme which DOES have a semester two intake.  Haven't looked at the coursework for that yet, but have to admit it would be nice!

Can't win them all.  At least this way I can psych myself up to the study more...I was a little bit falling in the deep end doing it this way.

ETA:  JUST BEEN LOOKING AT THE MASTERS PROGRAMME - ALL SEMESTER TWO SUBJECTS REQUIRE SEMESTER ONE SUBJECTS AS PREREQUISITES.  LOOKS LIKE IT WILL BE NEXT YEAR FOR ME!!!!

Signed up to do a Graduate Certificate in Editing and Publishing.  Part-time, externally via University of Southern Queensland.  Why am I doing this to myself????  My brain doesn't work anymore, why would I ask it to do something like this???

Okay, got that out of my system *grin*.  I think I'm going to like this course, that is if I can work my way around the paperwork issues I've already encountered and I've only been enrolled for a week.  This is why I have had dramas studying in the past - the coursework is fine, it's dealing with universities that drive me demented.

I'm going...  Booked my hotel room.  Will buy membership next pay.  Gotta keep an eye on the specials with Virgin Blue to get a good price on airfares.  Will be flying direct though, last time I went to Sydney and caught a bus to Canberra, but I don't think I want to do that again.  Particularly not with Charlotte *shudder*.

Check it out, the website is up and running now.

Late last year I went on a bit of a book buying splurge.  I went to WorldCon - bought books!  Visited Pulp Fiction in the City - bought books!  Happened to walk past my local A&R with nothing better to do for 10 minutes - bought books!

When you have a house as messy as mine, and you don't have book cases (I know...just wrong *shudder*), when you buy a pile of new books, sometimes they get overlooked.  The kids use them to support lego train track creations, the husband picks them up and piles them away "for neatness"...

I JUST FOUND A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES BY CHARLES DE LINT THAT I BOUGHT LAST YEAR AND HAVEN'T READ YET!!!!!!!!!!!!

The spine is smooooooth and unblemished, the pages crisp and only slightly cobwebbed from sitting under a desk for three months!  Best of all?  Troy is taking the kids out for the day while I "do some sorting out" in the house *cackles with glee*.

Honest, I WILL finish finding the loungeroom!  Really I will.......

*blissful sigh*
 

Discovered that there is a lego workshop five minutes away from our house.  It's only new, so it's not like I haven't been paying attention or anything.  They have a shop at the front - slightly overpriced - where you can get lots of bits not generally available at the department stores, and a fantastic display and workroom at the back.  $15 for two and a half hours of lego play and you can leave the kids there and go away for a coffee!  BEST.  MORNING.  EVER.......  The kids thought it was the best thing they've done all holidays (not that they've had much to compare it to) and I got to go have coffee with my friend Megan.  Of course, now they can't stop talking about which kits they want to buy and how, for the low, low price of (insert exhorbitant price here) we can buy this truly awesome kit....

It was worth every penny!

School starts in 90 hours, 30 minutes...