Stand on Zanzibar

By John Brunner

It is so rare that I actually give up on a book that I can only recall one other instance since we returned from the UK in '99 and that was a work of fact rather than fiction. I don't think its ever happened before with a science fiction novel, but as they say, never say never.

After the first few chapters I'd already had enough of Brunner's style of writing which is so utterly disjointed, so filled with stop and start bytes as to be incurably annoying. If I hadn't already read 'Sheep look up', no doubt I would have pushed on for several hundred pages (and this book is 646 pages long), before I finally gave up, but having read that utterly depressing book I have a good idea as to what is in store for me reading this one... and so I have called a halt after just the first few pages. Life is too short to fill it with misery of this nature and so if any one wants this 'sci fi classic' then feel to speak up and claim it and I shall gladly send it to you in the post if needs be for it shall not grace my shelves.
1/5

The Safeguard of the Sea.

A Naval History of Britain. 660 - 1649.

By N.A. M. Rodgers.

For any one interested in the subject, this is a really good book. Apart from the general topic it also looks at a number of historical events, such as the 1066 invasion from the naval perspective and seeks to shed light on certain details which may be obscured by the general perception.

Mostly though, its just a good hard look at what it cost for the various kings and queens within the dates 660 - 1649 to maintain a naval force. The book starts in generalized terms and with scant data and gets progressively more detailed (and more boring) as it makes its way into more charted waters. By the time it reaches the reign of Elizabeth I and her successors, it has become bogged down in details and the last hundred pages were very hard to chew through.

Fortunately for me, though just shy of 700 pages, this book is one third appendices so it finished just about the time I was getting ready to chew my leg off in desperation.

3/5

Ghost in the Shell 2 'Innocence'

This DVD arrived the other day from bucket in the states as return for a favour I did her a few weeks back and I watched it alone after Mette went to bed because I knew she wouldn't like it.

The first 'Ghost in the Shell' was released in 1995 by director Mamoru Oshii. It featured amazing visuals, an interesting story and ground breaking animation. I have it on a very poor video recording from about '98 and I've long wished it on DVD, its probably my favourite animated film ever ...after 'Akira'. It is without a doubt the most inspiring cartoon I have ever seen with relationship to the ambience of urban decay though. In the middle of 'Ghost in the Shell' is a circa 6 minute long segment with nothing but music and contemplative visuals of a futuristic Japanese city which thumbs its nose at anything Disney, or any one else ever managed.

And now comes a sequel. The story continues on a new angle since the main character of the first film is no longer present but stays with the main theme of the 'ghost story' which revolves around the differences, or lack there of, between human and artificial intelligence as the former gradually assimilates the latter, and vice versa. The animation is fairly standard Japanese manga style and the whole, on the whole, works very well.

So, the attention to detail is still present, in fact this film is so overwhelmingly full of details it easily out strips the original, but the urban ambience is missing. There is also a lot more violence in this film, which the first managed to underplay quite effectively. Here there is a sense of going one step further but this left me feeling slightly impatient. The sudden bursts of gun fire which characterized the first film have here been replaced by long drawn out machine gun fire and an over all sense of aggression. This is mostly due to the nature of the story which in this film lends itself more to violence than the first, but the casualty of all this gun play is the surreal, dream like ambience of the first film.

Still, its a fantastic, well drawn, animation and certainly a film I shall watch many times. Its far better than anything I could ever produce (except in my dreams) and well worth watching if you are interested in real science fiction in animated form. Thanks Betka.

Now I have to buy the first one on DVD!

Model building

In between looking after Freja, playing EVE and translating for my friend Malene, I've also found the time to put together a few bits n pieces in the shape of a new model building. As usual I've kept it as generic as possible, and although its meant to be a store/warehouse, it could be used as either a block house or even a small town hall type thing...

I'm making this building as an extension to my early medieval village project, but firstly, I'm also making it in case we need it this Thursday when we are set to fight a table top skirmish battle in Oleg's Sheev'dra campaign. Though it may not be needed at all for this game, the excuse to make the model was too good to pass up. The pyramid roof is a bit unusual. Originally I had intended the roof to be a normal variant, but at the last moment I changed my mind and went for the pyramid since this would give the model a more martial appearance (though only a fool would put a thatched roof on a defensive position). Also, though I've not yet measured it, its possible the pyramid roof could sit on top of my Norman tower model.

en glædigt nyhed!

Allison fødte i går, ved kejser snit, en sund og rask pige på 4.2kg. Mette og jeg passede på Stoffer imens, som var en engle hele aften. Meget nemt! Vi regner med at se den ny i weekenden så skal jeg tage et billede eller to.

Yet another baby brought into the world! Last night, our friend Allison gave birth to a healthy baby girl, weighing in at a good 4.2kg I believe (just a little less than Freja). So far there is no name for the little one and Mette and I are waiting with interest to see what Allison and Christian decide upon.

37

Thank you to every one who wished me congratulations and sent me e mails and such. Alas I am unable to reply to them since my internet connection is still down and I am still unable to send e-mails. Currently I have a connection established and the hardware is in place, but XP won't let me install the connection software... so maybe tomorrow I can get some help, but until then...

Freja: 15 months old.

Today, when I entered the day care centre, Pip saw me across two rooms and immedetely held up both hands and smiled. I crossed over to where she was sitting and picked her up and she gave me a big hug and one of her funny little kisses (she closes her mouth and smiles when she 'kisses') ...which we refer to as 'musz'.

"Can I have some musz?" gets you a big snot bubble kiss right across the mouth.

One of the staff at the centre was at hand and she told me that Freja had had a wonderful day today and I could well believe it for Freja, as usual, was still eating thirty five minuts after lunch time officially began. It seems my daughter is a very slow eater for she is at the table every time I come to pick her up...

Mette bought Pip some golden boots the other day and my parents bought her a purple out doors jump suit (looks like a space suit), so Freja looks a tripped out space girl these days. When I carry her home, the wind blows in her hair and her eyes are on everything. She points at every one we pass by and waves even if they are not looking at us. She is a happy little girl and I hope she stays that way for ever... heh! or at least until 13...

sick Snoos--->

Freja & a moif world update

Mette has just left for København, for to see Camilla's son Hampus, who I am glad to say, has left his incubator and is taking nutrients onboard in a steady manner. They say it will be a while before he puts on enough weight to be in the clear as yet, but all the indications are the little guy is going to be okay.

So the Snoos and I are alone for the rest of today and the first half of the morrow and its the first night of her entire life that Freja has not had her mother at her beck and call... so this is going to be 'interesting'. I anticipate a night of wails and screams and much frustration. Maybe I'll just stay awake all night and play EVE? *Giggles*

Freja is doing well these days. She's been at day care for a week and a half now and has seemingly settled right in. Mette takes her in in the mornings, before she goes to class (she's on a computer course, learning various graphics software) and I pick her up at around 14:30, which is about half an hour after the kids have had their lunch... though usually Freja is still at the table when I arrive. She is a slow and easily distracted diner. Mette reports that when Freja arrives, those children who can speak, all shout out "Hello Freja", which does my heart no end of good to hear since the truth is, I am at home all the time these days and could easily take care of the Snoos it it were simply a matter of money and the reason why we have put Freja into day care is for the interaction with other children. And this seems to have paid off no end. Freja appears to be thriving in the company of her peers and we've both noticed she is more lively as a result. She is also more apt to whine and demand things now, but we were expecting this, so, like the sudden viral onslaught that has afflicted her (and me) its no big surprise... though it is a (literal) pain in the arse.

So its 13:26, saturday, 11th November, 2006. Freja is asleep and EVE is mining quietly in the background and in four days time I will reach 37 years. Odd. In the later, morbid days of my teenage years I never thought I'd make it past thirty (I was almost certain that I'd have killed myself before then) whilst back in the dawn of history, when I became 'self aware' at the age of seven, thirty seemed like an eternity away (but looking in the opposite direction I find that seventy four does not seem all that far away). I remember counting the years forward one day and discovering that I'd be thirty in the year 2000 and back in 1977, the year 2000 had a certain glamour about it. To a budding sci fi enthusiast, it was the future! I was over joyed to realise that I'd be an adult in the time of space travel and flying cars and I remember thinking to myself that I was going to be an astronaut!

A few years later I realised that there weren't going to be any flying cars or space ships. That I was going to miss them all... of course, in those days I didn't know about EVE.... =)

If your thinking that I never grew up, then you are correct. I've never moved away from that moment in time when I was seven years old and I realised I was going to die. Everything I see today is measured and weighed up by the perspective of that seven year old boy. I know this is true because I spent hours talking to a shrink and she basically told me I live in a state of a perpetual fear of death... which I don't mind, so long as I don't die any time soon!

...and then Freja woke up crying and wailing. Thanks to Pingu though we were soon happy again =)

So, anyway, its my birthday in four days time and before I wrap this post up, I'd like to say thank you to whom ever sent me 'rue de casacades' by Yann Tiersen. I suspect I know who it is (a certain sleepy some one I suspect) but of course I can't be certain since there was no name on the invoice.

The Da Vinci Code

So I finally got to see what the fuss was about... and I don't see what the fuss is all about. I guess one has to be of a particular religious nature in order to be offended by this story.

I found it to be quite interesting for the most part, though the story relied on a few contradictions and convenient coincidences. The acting was very good and the cinematography and art direction were excellent. I'm not a big fan of Ron Howard's films, but I think he did an excellent job with this one.

The premise of the story itself was fairly straight forward and I saw the twist coming long before it was revealed, in that respect, this story is nothing special and I guess Dan Brown's notoriety is more due to his books popularity than to his skill as a story teller. I was entertained nonetheless and that is all I really require from art. I am not interested in being 'challenged' (for what end?) so this film, despite its few flaws was highly enjoyable.

It was also nice to see so many good actors as well, though I'm starting to grow weary of seeing McKellan pop up every where.

V for Vendetta

The less said about this film, the better, but it annoyed me so much that I must vent a little here. I had read mixed reviews of the film prior to seeing it, and I found it tediously contrived, unoriginal and virtually hysterical in its political bias. We watched it last night and I was hard pressed to stay the course.

Few films have given me such a feeling of boring inevitability as this one did but if anything good can be said about this sad work of art, then it is that it is a perfect representation of the current left wing zeitgeist. All the fear and hysteria that is currently being displayed by the left is bared here. The anti American sentiments, the notion that the west is doomed, fear of 'right wing oppression', all are given time and dwelt upon with the sort of attention one might otherwise associatiate with mental illness. Terrorism, in the form of resistance is justified and even glorified and the movie ends with Britains Houses of Parliament, sometimes known as the 'Mother of Democracy', being blown up as a symbol of oppression and rebirth.

If this were just a fantasy, the telling of a morality tale for example, then it would be of mediocre nature, but it is not such a fantasy. This film is so obviously a comment on the current political climate that it cannot be regarded as anything but a prediction, by its makers, of what is to come as a result of what is.

As such, it is a farce. The notion that western democracy is at fault, or flawed, that we are all heading into a state of religious and sexual persecution is so paranoid as to be ridiculous, and highly annoying. The use of nazi iconography, coupled togther with Christianity was especially crude and so blatent as to be ridiculous. Naturally, the only representative of the Christian faith actually shown in the film was a foul mouthed pervert who had once sanctioned an Auschwitz-style chemical weapons laboratory. All the victims were artists, homosexuals, Muslims or other 'non conformists', as they were termed. All the people who do not 'fit in'.

I was reminded of George Galloway's recent speech to his faithful followers, when he nicked the famous, 'They came for the homosexuals and I stood by and did nothing' quote. Its a great sound byte and it certainly creates an ambience with a willing audience, but alas, it has nothing to do with reality when you don't actually live in an oppressive society. Galloway, like the Wachowski brothers, ought to try living in such a state and experience what its really like instead of trying to peddle the notion that western democratic society is becoming an oppressive conservative society simply because they don't like certain aspects of it.

A lewd dream

I was healthy and in Århus. For some reason I was employed as a salvage worker, finding old cars and acquiring them for scrap or parts. I'd look up their location on a screen and then go and find them.
-

The next car was an abandoned Mercedes on Nørre Allé (400 m from where we live). I got into it, but it was malfunctioning badly and kept driving all over the place. Suddenly my friend Oleg was in the back and we were down in the harbour. Oleg was telling me what to do over my shoulder and I was desperately trying to keep the car from driving onto the sea. Finally I managed to pull the car over and I jumped out.
-

I was in a brothel for some reason or other when I was told I had won a competetion and I could have any of the girls. The brothel was actually my friends Rico & Mikkel's old apartment and had a sort of 1930's decor. The walls were dark red with a murky Victorian floral pattern and the rooms were lit by green glass chandeliers. There was a big fat woman running the place but she was hazy and in the background. Only one girl stood out so I went with her.
-


As we lay together on a bed, all sorts of strange people kept coming in to get things fom the room. One old white haired guy was dressed in laquered leather boots and a bodice and he retreived a shot gun from a closet, another was a grey faced whore with missing teeth who leered at us from the door.
The girl I was with was quiet and patient. Her hair was dark and curly and smelled freshly washed. Her lips were soft and delicate. There was then a delicious period of physical intimacy, the details of which I shall omit for the sake of modesty...
-

As always with my erotic dreams, she quickly became Mette and I soon awoke with the usual feeling of loss that follows when I have such dreams. I don't know why it is, but when ever I have such dreams the girls are never real people and they never speak. They always also appear to be variations of Mette. Its as if my mind is unable to conceive of other women.
-

As I lay there contemplating this feeling, the Snoos stomped in, climbed on the bed and gave me a big wet snot-bubble kiss... Reality was back with a bang.
-

Sick Snoos

Freja is sick again. This time it appears to be nothing more serious than a slight rash on her face... a few angry red spots. She is developing so fast that I was almost worried it might be acne setting in already, but Mette reckons its something she's picked up at day care. Well, thats to be expected I guess ...expected and dreaded. Childrens institutions are breeding grounds for such things, and I usually catch them all.

-

In the meanwhile, the news from Copenhagen is encouraging. Camilla's son Hampus, who was born last week, 2 months premature, is still alive and although he has had to have various tubes inserted, his chances are said to be good. Yesterday Mette made him a 'badger'.

-

I've spent the last few days in some discomfort as well. My health, never anything award winning these last many years, has taken a nose dive in recent weeks with various pains in my groin, stomach and now chest. I put most of these down to a lack of exersize, but this doesn't make me any the less optimistic. The problems are slowly but surely mounting up and its looking like surgury may be the only choice left.

Bummer.

-

In the mean time I have been entertaining myself with EVE online and painting a few figures, but although these are interesting by themselves, they are a part of the problem since these are actvities that mean a lot of sitting about... I really need to go swimming again.

-

Freja

I dag var så Freja's første dag i vuggestue. Mette afleveret hende i morges og jeg hentede hende ved middags tiden. Alt gik godt og Freja syntes det var sjovt, det sagde de i hvert fald da jeg hentede hende, og hun så temmelig glad ud. Bag efter brugt vi resten af eftermiddag på at sov en lur og der efter leje dyr.
Det bliver interessant at se hvordan hun bliver på virket af længer tids samvære med andre børn.

Jeg har det lidt mærkeligt for tiden, ud over denne irriterende smert i skridet, er det nu også nyheden fra København.

Camilla (Mette's veninde) har fået en dreng, men han er to måneder for tidligt og vejer ikke mere end 900 gram. Stakkels Camilla har det ikke særlig godt og vi håber hun snart får vished omkring hendes søn. En som er født så tidligt er udsat for alt muligt risiko og det må være forfærdeligt skrammende.


Today was Freja's first day in day care. She only spent 3 hours there, but it was a success. She enjoyed herself and didn't kick up a fuss. Afterwards she spent the rest of the day with me, playing games and pretending to be various animals.

Her development is happening so fast that I can hardly keep up. This afternoon, after she'd been let down fromthe dinner table, I put on some tunes and Snoos started dancing, arms crossed, 'MTV hip hop style', then she noticed a packet of Chocolate biscuits on my desk and pointed at them, shouting "Meh meh!". At first I wasn't sure what she was pointing at, or rather I did, but couldn't believe it. So I handed her the packet whch was unopened and she started fumbling at it. Mette said, she was trying to open it. She understood what the biscuits were and was not happy until she had half a digestive in her hand.

Since Mette doesn't buy chocolate biscuits, and I've never given her one, I am at a loss as to how Freja knew what they were.

Artist of the Month: Oscar Chichoni

I first discovered Chichoni on the cover of Heavy Metal about fifteen years and, believe me or not, it was the textures he'd created that first drew my eye... okay, maybe they were the second thing, but either way, although he has a cute sense of humour (and a fondness for curvacious breasts, of which I can't complain) Chichoni's style of painting, which I still can't figure out, makes for beautiful metallic surfaces. All worn, gritty and rusty. They're like nothing I've ever seen before. 'Jackson Pollack like corrosion', or maybe they are painted with flecks of rust...?


How ever he does it, Chichoni's style has its own strange iconographic language as well, with constant references to outlandish technology, machine imps and the inevitable semi nude females. Robot like creatures feature heavily and the whole is painted in the same heavy textured style. This appeals to me as well and I wish he'd get more chances to work on this. I bet he could do some great work if given half a chance.