Random Observations – Page 5

Madcap Adventures and Distracting Hijinx

Alas, poor schnitzels, I knew them

It’s Saturday morning and I’m sitting here listening to Chibo Matto and Regina Spektor, trying not to regret last night’s culinary adventure. This is what I ate: Actually before I start, it’s probably worth pointing out that I have this obsession with bad fast-food from places that do their best to try and replicate the fast-food experience of a McDonalds but just don’t quite get it. Show me someone’s random idea to try and revolutionize the franchise fast-food industry or a local take-away doing something odd and I’m there with a couple of bucks in my pocket and a desire to see their worst. It’s a sickness, I know, but it’s mine and I’ve come to grips with it. It’s like those people you know who are obsessed with bad movies and love them for their flaws – I’m obsessed with bad fast-food and love it despite the stomach pains and added kilograms that result. Call it a desire to

PeterMBall 28/03/2009

Works in Progress

This Post in Bullet Points

Off to the Gold Coast again today, in order to learn how to be a PhD student. One might think that after so many years I’d have worked out how by now, but one would be mistaken (said without snark – there’s been a gear-shift in the process recently, and I’m the kind of driver who grinds gears until someone points out the various ways that’s a bad idea). Finally made it to the post-office during work hours yesterday, which meant I could pick up some of the packages of awesomeness waiting for me (a copy of Couch, courtesy of Ben Francisco, and copies of both Cory Doctrow’s Overclocked and a collection of Hugo award winners courtesy of Jason Fischer – thanks to both of you, for they were awesome things to discover). Reason my thesis leaves me a funk #29: I haven’t actually finished and submitted a *new* story (as opposed to resubmitting something that’s already been out) since

PeterMBall 26/03/2009

Journal

My week

For a week now I’ve been sitting down at the computer thinking “must write a blog post soon” without ever getting around to it. I open a post, stare at it for a few seconds, then put it off until later. I can see only two ways out of this deadlock – youtube or lolcats. Thus, I choose youtube and Gilmore Girls references:

PeterMBall 25/03/2009

Journal

The Tangled Bank

A very cool open-call for a fiction anthology, put together by clarion-peep Chris Lynch: This year marks 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin, and 150 years since the publication of The Origin of Species. To mark the anniversaries, submissions are invited for The Tangled Bank, an e-anthology of speculative fiction, artwork, poetry, and comics exploring the legacy of Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution. Illuminate — or obscure — the line between the real and the fantastic. The fiction may be of any speculative genre or cross-genre; demand to be included by the quality of your submission. Artwork and poetry need not be strictly speculative in nature, but must engage with Charles Darwin or evolution. Submissions for The Tangled Bank open May 1st and close June 30th, 2009. The Tangled Bank will be published by Tangled Bank Press in late 2009, and an advance on royalties of 20 per cent will be paid to all contributors. For

PeterMBall 17/03/2009

Adventures in Lifestyle Hacking

In which I overcomplicate the notion of furniture.

Allow me to introduce you to the great redundancy in my flat: The redundancy, for the curious, comes in couch form (and possibly the desk in the lower foreground since I’ve already got two others, but the desk is awesome and thus excused from such considerations). My lounge room can seat six or seven people, yet it’s rare that I’ll ever have that many people in my place. I’m a little weird about letting people into my space at the best of times, and I’ve filled all three couches only twice in a two-year period (and that was for gaming purposes, the one exception to my I don’t invite people around weirdness). Therefore the primary purpose of having three couches is so I can do horrible things to my back while falling asleep in front of the TV – swapping between the two-seat couch and the three-seat couch on a daily basis keeps the kinks from settling in one part.

PeterMBall 16/03/2009

Journal

The things you forget

First real day of classes today, which basically meant I spent seven hours running around like a mad rabbit trying to explain things without a break. Am now thoroughly exhausted and good for nothing, but feeling that warm accomplished glow that comes from returning to work. But, oh god, I forgot exactly how tiring first year classes are. I shall do very little tonight that is not television, reading, and picking up a meal from Subway.

PeterMBall 09/03/2009

Big Thoughts

SF and Gender

There’s been a bunch of debates about Gender and SF of late, all of which seem to end up with someone defending themselves with a variation of “I filled all the spots on project X with men because I was choosing on the basis of quality, not gender.” This answer flummoxes me every time it’s trotted out; not because the people who use it are not bad people or knowing oppressors, but just because it often reveals itself as a blind-spot in the approach of someone whose work I’d otherwise respect. And, to be honest, I just don’t get how people can’t question that statement, since SF itself has often been denigrated and ignored using the same excuse. Think about that moment that all SF fans seem to share – that moment where you’re talking to someone who doesn’t read the genre, and you reveal that you do, and their response is a muted “oh” followed by a look that

PeterMBall 27/02/2009

Journal

This is my Monday

I hate it when things creep up on me, but I like having a full to-do list that I can work through. On today’s list: Get a big chunk of wordage done on the thesis draft – last week saw things start lagging behind again, and I really shouldn’t let that become a habit. Clean the flat for tomorrow’s rental inspection Go through the copyedit of my Interfictions 2 story and get that sent out. Finish writing up a crit of Angela’s story. Pick up a book they’re holding for me at Pulp Fiction (includes a bonus lunch with the Sleech) Cook at home for the first time in, what, two and a half weeks? Do a revision of a recently-rejected story that I think needs a little more polish before it goes out again. In short, I’ll be keeping busy. I’ve moved the laptop into the lounge so I can set up a second work-area and flit between computers

PeterMBall 16/02/2009

Journal

In which I am trivial and know it…

I think my office may be under some kind of curse. I say this because I’ve just lost my second office chair in the space of a few months to breakage and this one was brand new (unlike the previous chair, which was a mega-comfy seventies steel-and-vinyl job that I’m pretty sure my parents liberated from a staffroom two decades ago). I’m less than impressed with this, especially since I can’t find my receipt to go return the chair to officeworks and get a repalcement. Not that I was a fan of the new chair – I dislike office chairs at the best of times and really mourn the loss of the old-school desk-chair I had – but I kinda need something to sit on here. On the plus side, it’ll force me to work on the laptop (away from the internets) for the majority of the day since I’m officially out of chairs to sit on while at the desk.

PeterMBall 12/02/2009

Conspicuous Acts of Cultural Consumption

Not that this will surprise anyone, but…

Things Disney’s Three Musketeers film has in common with the original Dumas novel: Character names Swords Hats France Things that seem remarkably different upon re-watching the film for the first time since reading said novel: Everything else.

PeterMBall 06/02/2009

Journal

5 things about today

1) Cinnamon-flavoured breath mints are *not* candy, and inhaling an entire pack like they are will leave your mouth feeling swollen and mildly burnt for 48 hours at least. 2) I’ve broken down and started writing a short story alongside the thesis. I wasn’t going to do that, but the reasons for not doing it are kind of moot. With luck, it’ll even help since I can switch back-and-forth between story and thesis when I get stuck on things. 3) You cannot make it rain by glaring at the sky and willing it to be so, no matter how long you give it. 4) Publishing a book that has one sentence punctuated with a triple exclamation point (!!!) is a sure-fire way to ensure that I will hurl it across the room. Including more than one in the introduction is grounds for burning. Always remember, exclamation marks are the work of the devil. 5) Aueralis Awards this weekend. See you

PeterMBall 22/01/2009

Journal

You know it’s too damn hot when…

It’s been rather hot here in Brisbane, and my flat has a nasty tendency to be one of the warmest places I’ve found in the city unless the breezes’ treat me favourably (of late, they haven’t). I don’t know the exact temperatures, but I do know that I burned myself with *shampoo* when I had my shower this morning – not badly or anything, my palm just had this mild sunburn like sting all day, but still…overheated shampoo. Being scalded by the “cold” water in my taps I’ve learned to prepare for, but this is a first for the hair-care products. I can’t wait for winter.

PeterMBall 01/01/2009

Tag: Random Observations

Alas, poor schnitzels, I knew them

This Post in Bullet Points

My week

The Tangled Bank

In which I overcomplicate the notion of furniture.

The things you forget

SF and Gender

This is my Monday

In which I am trivial and know it…

Not that this will surprise anyone, but…

5 things about today

You know it’s too damn hot when…

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