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@whisht Ooh interesting! When I was younger I wasn’t in on the day ‘tripper’ joke.  but I don’t think anyone understood that for awhile- a year or two anyways   🙂

Popularity went to We can Work it Out  – -which kinda fits the Trip Home too. It was the longest song, thus far, they’d worked on…..so …that’s a link (*\*)

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sorry 12 1/2 mins  to soft touch down -that’s incredible.

 

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mare fecundititus

& I’m still on 6000km p/h in under 20 mins to slow down for first contact

wow.

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@blenkinsopthebrave

Well, that was bracing! I had a rotten headache, overdid the codeine & in holding the laptop, every few seconds it would slip as I’d fallen asleep. Until I heard those two……artistic & unique pieces. Not exquisite exactly but adding something to the firmament nonetheless. I hadn’t heard them before….I feel my learning hasn’t been quite up to scratch or fully complete.

But it’s closer now    😈

– – The elder Syzygy.

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@whisht

Believe me, I was one of the annoying people at 21 (and at 14-15) saying “LISTEN to these dudes” -Police.

I would not have used the word dudes, actually. (()-())

That’s a great chuune, imho.  “keep it up”

The Floyd’s amzing & yep egos were huge with Gilmour & d’rest.

I had a crush on Gilmour when I was very young & silly.

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OK, that happened. It’s happening to Mum too so I won’t edit it. When we do it disappears 50% of the time.

Have I broken the world wide web?

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@pedant !!

<span style=”display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,’Times New Roman’,’Bitstream Charter’,Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;”>Treat yourself to a copy of Skeptics Guide to the Universe by Steven Novella et al. The first 50 pages are spent explaining how thoroughly our brains lie to us (for example, how little of your field of vision as actually in focus). It is a terrific read and I think the paperback is out soon.</span><b></b><i></i><u></u>

WOW. MY philosophy teacher -who we did talk with about the moon landing mentioned this book. I remember this because I thought he was gonna mention The Skeptics Guide to ….something else. But there’s a podcast about that around (we’ve been listening to podcasts coz Mum & I have to make one by Thursday & we’re half way thru it. Part 1 only had one take (I was awesome!).

Also why are quotes indented? My teachers all say no-one does this anymore?

@whisht thanks for that. The Equaliser was great -we have that on DVDs somewhere.  The Hassleblad museum was good wasn’t it? Mum was saying “oh, yeah, how come there’s no viewfinder” which I thought was fairly obvious. It turns out i’m more sciency that mum or dad, in the end.

@blenkinsopthebrave Those articles are beast! Thanks. I often admit I don’t really need to be AT school coz the Forum teaches me all sorts of things that I never ever hear, there.

Young Siggers.

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@pedant

This is Syzygy the younger: thankfully your VD pops up in mum’s  inbox auto.

Absolutely great blog &, again, Mum had no idea at all that 30 seconds referred to fuel. And “contact light”  -loved the analogy. I’m going to listen to it again. We did spend, maybe 10 minutes discussing the moon landing in history -7 minutes, really with the imbeciles (them’s that teach).

Syzygy

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@whisht you mentioned theremin….

A few people might not know it’s an instrument you play by not touching it.

 

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@whisht

Glad you liked her. There are some issues with female singers which are entirely a problem I have only. SO many I can listen to and absolutely adore but a whole CD of? Nope. That’s why Vinyl was good -listen to 6 tracks, have a rest….

The other voice I like is Carol Kidd ….but another night. I want to listen to more of your choices this evening before ALL the lights go out (which is obviously better to view the stars with -particularly if you’re reaching for them while throttling into gear…)

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Spoilers for the 2 vids provided. Don’t read ahead if you haven’t watched. But watch it.

 

@pedant (I raised my hand)

Following on from not knowing things….when Laylan asked about the viewfinder, I was thinking “yeah, uhn.  Why not, then, mm?”

I love his answer. It’s not a lack of English that causes him to stumble, it’s the nature of the question.. Typically this caused an uproar in the family with young Syzygy begging to answer. And he was right. Unlike his mum. To quote a cultural icon, “d’oh.”

I think when she mentioned the photos, there was catch in her throat. It really meant something. Thank you for that. I’ll have some tea for the moon dust in my eye. Fancy having a little box of your own moon dust.
end spoiler

@whisht didn’t we miss your birthday in….March? Golly!   Also @missy it’s your birthday soon? I think. I’m terrible with these things. I hope your Spring is better than winter, at least. If it’s cold here, it must be very cold in Perth.

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by  syzygy. Reason: MASSIVE BLOCS of text. I thought the ASD were going to come knocking

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@pedant

That’s something unknown to me -the ‘odds.’ Heck a holy moly.

The book The Knowledge Illusion is similar -talks about how, in one experiment, a sampled group, when asked to draw a bicycle, left off important things. The bike didn’t need a basket or even a light but it certainly needed  -axel, bearings, brackets…

Before I read it all, I did the same drawing & made similar errors. The most basic things! So, OK, often we say “I have no clue about electricity” but the main comment is (according The Knowledge Illusion) “I can’t understand how a toilet works” when it appears more people can list toilet ‘parts’ than bicycle parts.

Can I draw the inside of an upright piano? I don’t think so 🙁

@missy

Wonderful to hear about your daughter. But I am sorry to hear about your OH and a hernia. I can’t imagine the pain of that. I really hope winter has brought some home cooking sustenance in the form of soup? Beef soup? @mudlark would have some ideas there.

And your hip, too? mum suffered with a hip replacement after falling out of bed in a Home several months ago. I really hope they gave you the good stuff for the pain?  On the other thread the Brian Eno is wonderful for meditation.

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@blenkinsopthebrave  indeed they do. Young syzygy returned to school on the 15th. I’ll check on the QLD school’s  archive, though.

I love how barely a month after the moon landing Woodstock happened. And then August 26-31 was the Isle of Wight Festival. 150 000 people there? Not sure. But around then The Stones had ‘Honky Tonk Women’ and Zager and Evans ‘In the Year 2525’ -which my parents played a lot of in the late 70s.

Not that I’m saying I’m a fan of Zager & Evans. Nice harmonies & super lyrics, a lot of the time. But they performed a lot of songs in the 60s which were upside down/miss a bar 50’s ice cream melodies using the same chords:

Chords 1; vi, iv, v.

Anywaaay, back to ya’lls memories.  @whisht

Also the little moment (maybe it was a hindsight comment) about how in terms of each astronaut, Collins you want for company, Aldrin for knowledge but Armstrong to get you home… it somehow caught something in my throat.

That’s lovely!

You mentioned Star Wars, & this period  launched (thank you. Bows for pun) Star Trek and also for @blenkinsopthebrave and @pedant  – -Callan.

One other thing. Young joined Crosby, Stills & Nash and the Newport Jazz festival featured some rock for the first time.

A lot of firsts in the months of July-August.

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@whisht gorgeous. I remember an unpleasant musician friend (we stopped the friendship a long time ago) who didn’t like the Project: not enough “head voice” which is a) wrong and b) who cares! It was something so very special for those people involved.

Now, not enough love for Lennon here. Also, we need a lady so I offer this.

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@whisht

Oh my heart….Iggy & The Starman’s. But is he Duke at this point….in his head?  I think he was also “la-la’ing” in mime. All those mean mime jokes? Bowie loved miming.  And I think Bowie would have loved the anniversary too.

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I was two during The Great Moon Walk, as Dad expressed it. He arrived here as a refugee & by the late 1960s, as a chemical & mechanical engineer, he would whisper late night stories, when I couldn’t sleep, centred on the universe & what exciting discoveries we’d  find.

He was amazed by the delicacy and inventiveness of space crafts. When I was 13 we visited the States (& Canada because we never leave @blenkinsopthebrave  & @winston out).  For Dad NASA was the most exciting part of that trip. America has to be proud of this. Unfortunately, I have very little knowledge about what was real & what was fa……….wait for it…..

Nope, not that conspiracy stuff – instead that I loved the Apollo 13 film but know little about what is truly accurate & what’s false or necessary cinematic license. On a partially cracked CD-ROM we can still see those stunning images of the moon landing with & its mysterious landscape: so quiet, foreign & unique. An astronaut, in majestic isolation, a beat away from death.

@whisht I think you’ll like Newsroom -a few eps in the first season might not be to your taste but Seasons 2 & 3 are very good (but no spoilers!)

@pedant Agreed. The Dish is a terrific film: I often read things about it being a “lovely little film.” Never sure exactly what that means.  But it’s one we rummage around for on Sunday viewing. @janetteb , you might have seen Brian Cox on the ABC with the repeat of the moon and universe docos? Watching them again is an absolute treat.

So, on that earlier note, the ……moon

G’night folks…

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@blenkinsopthebrave

Your post appeared just as mine did -with its notification. Aw, that’s wonderful! In fact, to my 13 friends on facebook – – actually real people, people I know: not exactly everyone I’ve seen face-to-face. Yet. 🙂  – I’ll post the link. A couple of very good friends wouldn’t know the origin of the poster & it’s exactly what they’d love to see. It might -or might not – restore some faith in the America that once was…..This reminds me of a lovely little series & its opening scene which we  saw at one point even if we didn’t watch the entire thing.  The Newsroom.

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@whisht @blenkinsopthebrave

I saw, on Google, James Burke, saying the BBC nearly missed the moon walk &, hinting they might walk early, convinced his own boss to keep running the film past midnight.

Glory, another thing I never knew!  The photo of Trafalgar Square where people gathered to watch it on a giant TV screen is incredible.

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@whisht the Radiohead’s beautiful -it all is. And I know where you’re coming from. Except clearly yesterday I didn’t/wasn’t. I was in the “white person, privileged position.” I figure the reason these things happen to me is because I’m in the wrong space. Also, there’s some lessons I need to learn & never do (or not yet anyway).

@blenkinsopthebrave

Well, that’s the 2nd time I’ve thought of Zimmer in 4 days.

Superman. I never saw this poster. Not ever. Where was I?

Coming from a Czech family with a brother who learned to read via comics which my parent tried to burn I wasn’t allowed any of this ‘stuff’ until our father watched Superman at the cinemas & was totally taken. Turned right around.

@pedant facepalm. I never thought of it. But I was listening to an …..erm interview, that has 1 and half minutes not many people have heard. In fact, it’s extremely hard to hear properly. Being wet ‘n’ all. 😉

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sorry @janetteb above.

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@Janette My cleaner would say “nuh DVD?Uh hah embarrassinggg'”  The example below confirms my assumption she’s a sociopath .

Certain Melbournians add vowels so that her clients are (including her example) : “mah clahnts have a powah showah hose with  a squeegee [what this is I don’t know] & they spray the water all over the glass but othaah people dahn’t look after things.”

In order to pay her (Ah dunht take cheques they are too “blenk”  -this word I’ve not yet translated but I’m fairly sure it’s not a reference to @blenkinsopthebrave) she dropped me at the nearest bank & in passing a “boutique” called The Sunday Society (if that’s not exclusive I duhnt know what is!), said:

“fah mah wealthier cluts I buy them gifts from here.” 

By this time I realised that she sometimes said “mah clut” at which point I was ready to use a different, more applicable 4 letter designation… 😈

“Here” in the above quotation – if you haven’t passed out from my tedium  – is a shop so over-rated with no-one ever browsing that I think their office is seriously shady. In the back they might sell excess stock of uzis & M16s.

After she exposed me as a woman who “doesn’t take care of things”  I actually teared up: Gaahd. I don’t think anyone has ever spoken to me like this in my own home. Being real covert I noticed something was up & asked, very politely: “are you OK, you seem on edge?”  She said “yes, yezz I am & I don’t want to talk about it, it’s personal!!”  I took that as a firm “no.”  🙂

You must all wonder how is it that one house can have all these odd things happening? 12 months ago a group of  nutters cleaning ladies left the house randomly leaving the door wide open (is this some connection to The OA, where The Five left their doors open or is it some devilish pentagrammic? ). They had already insisted there was a “dark foreboding presence & a demon in d’house” but could only clean the houses “of the saved.”

There it is people I’m what Doctor 10 has called the BEAST. Now scared by worshippers in the future with churches like New- Judasim, the Pash-pash or The Church of the Tin Vagabond.

Seriously, you can’t make this shit up!

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@blenkinsopthebrave

thank you. That is delightful. How liquid & shimmery the sound.

I’m at a loss for better words. I had a funny situation with a cleaning woman. So funny I had to have a lie down, a red wine (clean skins Mr Blenkinsop: $2 a bottle; worth $18 per 4 or $46 each) so I’m off to the pub to share my story. See if anyone thinks this woman is a shallow, shady, sham of a person.

I Luuurve Bet’s shoes. Always have & her curtain. I think S .the younger would like an escape curtain too.

“yee, hah, dih, hey, hey hey hoh, hoooo.”  What a gem!

Whoo and toot-too.

Syzygy the Elder

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Man! I edited my 6 lines (young siggers) here & then it disappeared. I’d suggest no editing of posts, for now. I know others said that was happening.

Basically I was saying 1) mum loves Eno & his Music for Elevators 2) I like Reich & mum did a discography of his work as a uni project & got the 100% mark for this. It had to have every comma, dash, full stop (or period for Americans) & she actually liked the precision of that work. I couldn’t do it myself! 3) Mum would hate me saying all that so ssh. 4) Moon landing at my school, some students think it’s a fake as there’s “no wind on the moon” rather than accepting the more obvious hypothesis which is that Americans want their flag when they’ve conquered something & they predicted no wind & so starched the flag!

Worse is that one those people is a teacher. Not my teacher & not a science teacher but @pedant says my teachers are imbeciles. The English teacher didn’t know Margaret Atwood which mum says “is a tad worrying.”

The young Syzygy.

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I know this is obvious: I love The Duke!  (Dr Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington)

To all — when America looked up to the stars & saw its potential.

May it do so again.

The Syzygyzssss’

 

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@whisht

@arbutus goodness there’s some goddam bad news with Gilberto -88 (I thought 92 -clearly bad adding up or plain optimism).

Now you dudes and dudettes will know this: deep and long, long ago (but not anymore).

Siggers,

 

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@whisht Thank you for that link & the lovely “trust in me; sssleep ssafe & ssound” with its gorgeous sibilants. And unfortunately I don’t know Darrow very well at all. So I’ll try to educate myself.

Also @arbutus where be you?

The Britten choon is quirky, Whisht, but the breathing is quite ‘exact’ & whilst the impression created is they’re all singing at once with no time to pause, they actually do because of the format of the canon. A jolly good one & sung at terrific pace which was Britten’s intent. Sleight of hand & voice, I believe.

Sygers

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@mudlark

Goodness! I apologise, I thought Buffy wasn’t to your liking (clearly I misunderstood & mixed that conversation -in my mind- with someone else. Hopefully not a conversation with myself because then we’re diving into deep waters of confusion and neural problems or merely ‘personal’ schizophrenia).

The back does sound awful and clearly you don’t give up -many people with osteo here, particularly when the humidity is over 80% for several consecutive months, feel like they have no choice. A family member has it and she feels because she’s 6′ 1″ that her height made it worse. Not a clinical opinion, however.

To work with a back brace or harness for 3 hours is frankly commendable. I really ‘got’ into soils since you showed me ‘double digging’ to the extent I used a number of soils, potting mixes included, as well as soil improvers, different fertilisers and labelled these areas with different coloured plastic straws.  I kept one area free from change &  found it most certainly would’ve benefited from my other efforts.

So the Camellia is looking very good for the first time & the gardenia isn’t dead yet. That’s all one can say! A neighbour had one -paid for and planted by an arborist – but it died. I’m sure the arborist would’ve supplied the neighbour with many instructions for fertilising etc but gardenias here, with possibly clay or muddy soil, are troublesome. What annoys me is that good potting mixes have wetting agents. But I find that this hinders the plants. I had to remove an annual from a small pot only to discover the soil was very muddy, soggy and quite black.

When I replanted I made sure to use more agro grit and plenty of perlite to bring in as much fresh air for circulation. But you’re dead right about something you mentioned earlier this year: rain water in barrels is brilliant and so much better than our tap water which smells a little, like the chlorine, that’s added to all water in the Brisbane City Council.

The verb he chose was ferio which, in the literal English translation conjures the bathetic image of someone knocking their head on a low beam or door lintel

You owe me a keyboard -or, specifically, the QWERT portion from spitting out my coffee! 🙂 Very good indeed. Could he use ‘ferivi’ if  going ‘all out’ unsubtle?

I’ve had a look, now, at more than one translation and the most recent ones are rendered poorly, imo. For example, the “glowing” or “bright on” is transl by some as “lightly” which doesn’t work at all.

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@mudlark (also I did not pick up on your “analgesia” statement & I apologise for that: I hope your back isn’t the problem again? I understand you can’t work in the garden for hours on end -at 52 I don’t because a) Crohns and b) it’s waaay too hot as per my anecdote above. But I can imagine, still, how beautiful yours must be by now) @janetteb  (cos you be Australian) and @blenkinsopthebrave (cos you be one too)

I get Buffy, for some, aint be your ‘thang’, but the “rank, arrogant, amateur” sums up my feeling, at times, about education…the conservative party’s attitude (singular apostrophe for the recent ‘winners’ -the Liberal and National Party) to low taxes, high toll road costs, health and climate change. Thus, rank, arrogant etc…..

The other day Thane performed at a State Carnival, his team won & he achieved ‘shadow’ position which is nice. But, in order to drive to the school where the ovals were (this is Brisbane Boys College with over 8 perfect fields and where costs are approximately $55K p/a, per child not including uniforms, overseas excursions, music costs & their ……soccer academy. Less said about that the better) & as we hadn’t purchased a toll tag (because we rarely drive that way) it cost a lot to drop him there at 7 am, go thru the toll again to work, then do it ALL again.

The cost you’d think, OK, might be $8 per one way? Maybe even $25 per day. The 4 day carnival, including weekdays, where we didn’t stay,  drove to work & then back again, many hours later, cost……

$420. Hahahahaha. Oh…shi*!

So, I want, occasionally, to be like Willow here: but not really because she’s very, very bad. And whilst I knew fellow-watchers said “this is so beautifully foreshadowed even in Season 3 and  4, I didn’t pick that up fully until my 3rd re-watch.”

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@mudlark

Since sublimis also means exalted, I suppose a more accurate rendering would be: the crown of my head, exalted, touches the stars.

Oh yes, that’s the closest  -I checked Liddell and Scott -for some Greek while I was at it and didn’t get too far except for yet more variations of “puro” “”incendiary” and “burn” as well as “not dusty thus without effort.”

Dead languages. Hard to carry on in secret than people thought.

Oh you are just showing off now with everything that WAS in bloom and others NOW in bloom – my one camellia was and is in bloom. Other than some pretty annuals and some star …..somethings… 🙂

G & T -sounds good but as it’s actually cold-ish (not to you lot -you’d raise a complete sweat and say “this is Winter?”) I will have tea. I fainted at the docs the other day. How embarrassing. So, honest to god, I thought, I’ll do some gardening, wander down, get a few necessary scripts and hang on it’s cold, so: T- shirt, nice cardigan, scarf and no bra. Why? no-one is going to need to see that, right?

Wrong.

After I flopped to floor, paramedics arrive and drag me into the nurses room where the Doc insists on checking my breathing. FFS I was fine. I  hadn’t had breakfast. He said “no, you, you don’t have to apologise about undergarments to me.”

Actually why was I apologetic? Not sure. Maybe because ‘the bag lady look” isn’t elegant.

Also, the principal who discussed the school’s motto was not prepared to say “oh, wow, there were two typos and one is quite funny” instead I got a short disquisition about English being “imperfect.”

But it was never about the perfection of English -it was about a) typos -hilarious and b) is Horace really copying Pindar (I think yes and no) and c) is he really being a bit snarky about how his poetics are adored by his patron Maecenas which then puts into perspective his latter double couplets.

These are Thane’s educators. Actually no, I imagine the teachers would be no-where near this and look either miserable or arrogant in the face of such a small but interesting piece of history -including their ancient history teacher who I met 9 years ago and is a lovely lady but latinising away wouldn’t happen and I suppose that’s fine. They have many other skills.

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@mudlark

Sublimi vertice are in the ablative singular masculine but it’s vertex, as you identified, that points to “the crown or the top of the head”

But allow the larks to call! I can imagine the birds tweeting and the Narcissi blooming (OK, I’m no poet). Here, it’s about 10 overnight now and 22 to 24 during sunny days -so much like your spring and summer.   Enjoy the happier parts of gardening. I’m currently talking sternly to my gardenia which without blossom, hasn’t entirely given up the ghost.

Also, I’ve had the same problem with code & edits dropping away -in this one too. Grrgh.

And thank you very much for your extremely helpful clarification.

@pedant I think Yoda would claim it’s Galactic Basic, after all.

 

 

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by  syzygy. Reason: more code. The nestines are here!

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@mudlark

Thank you, yes: ” “lofty” stars will move my way”  is in another translation I read.

I heard some years ago that Horace’s odes could have him transported to high status: “if deeds of gods are being praised, do I absent myself – I, a second Pindar.”  —-and he is being modest, deliberately, I believe.

With the lines and the so-called victory odes, there is a sense that Horace is messing with us a bit? And with the emphasis on metre would it be the Alcaic-rhythm or one applied to the Sapphics?

This is probably a slightly nutty deviation from what I asked about before but I had a vague recollection of studying this a long time ago!

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@mudlark

Quite right. Thank you. When I write: “right” I mean I had the same problem. This is son’s school motto and happily explained, a little incorrectly, except for the “dust” implying effort, by the ‘Executive Principal.’

Indeed: the motto has the errors – or the principal/assistant has typed the errors, possibly. I would hope it’s not all over the bags, books, student diaries etc.

But spade and palm could be considered similar? Under Callimachus’ rules spade and palm are ‘open’ and an ‘offering’ -or so I thought…..

Indeed, the last words are sycophantic: I was attempting to come up with a more favourable word. I failed.

@winston Believe me, it’s not easy. But as I am a tad immovable, I gave my mind over to this. It took 5 min and I was stuck!

Syzygy means a pair of similar but sometimes quite different ‘things.’ It’s the son’s urge: not that Thane16 has changed as the actual user name but he wanted something different. Except he stole it from the series The OA (second season).  I knew the meaning of it before the series, but he did not. And he liked it.

Sygers 🙂

 

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by  syzygy. Reason: masses of code appeared

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Hellooo @janetteb @mudlark @pedant and other delightful & clever people!

I have a small amount of Horace which I’m certain is Pindaric in origin.

Now, do not be concerned -it’s the Horace I’m after. I have several definitions but I’d like to know yours (if you have any Pindar encomium all the better!)

Sunt quos curriculo pulverum Olympicum
Collegisse iuvat metaque fedrvidus
Evitata rotis palaque nobilis
Terrarum dominos evehit ad deos. » Odes 1.i

Generally with Horace the last word “has it.” I THINK. In other words, when we say, “you always want the last word” the phenomenon stretches back a very long time.

Kindest,

Syzygy and son.

 

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I know it aint Christmas but I wanted some Benjamin Britten I could actually share with you. ‘This Little Babe’ is considered one of the most challenging for any children’s choir. Our nun, a delightful demon by the name of Sister Alphonsus taught it to us in 4 months. At this tempo. Which is correct. 1 min 3o seconds generally. They came in a little tardy but niiice. Applause deserved. No wonder the conductor looks slim: she burns a thousand calories every time!

Syzygy the elder.

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@craig

Yesterday after our QCS test (Qld Core Skills ) test, a man was on the stage in the hall. He spoke about how important it is before these tests (they’re about 9 hours worth in October) to get a good sleep and not worry too much. I knew I’d pretty much failed the practise test because most of it is geography, maths and science. 🙁

He’d said young men had actually killed themselves over this. Another person came up who said they’d been about to and was stopped. My mates were sniggering about this -the idea anyone should “show off about helping someone ‘not’ die.”  I was pretty pissed. To me, if you save a life , you SAVE a life. That’s the most important thing anyone can do EVER.

It doesn’t matter if someone thinks “oh you’re patting yourself on the back” by talking about it or doing it -no matter if they, unfortunately, try to do it again -you were there and you try – you never ignore them, you never shrug it off. I haven’t ever known anyone suicidal but I do know a guy who quit soccer and I just listened to him talking about how he pulled himself together and kept saying “anytime you wanna talk more, mate…” and so we do. I think we’d all agree that life comes first.

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@janetteb @mudlark  @nerys

that sounds good -I don’t know if we have it on Netflix or the ABCiview -Janette you might know too? Are you streaming it on the “ever so fast NBN?”  I mean Davie’s series.

We love Killing Eve -it dipped in the first 2 new episodes but has exploded upward since. Have you see Harrow, Janette? If you haven’t been bothered  I really wouldn’t it’s trying to be comedy slapstick with dead serious stuff and not working. Lots of people in Brisbane are talking about it but I’m not sure the actor (Gruffid) is doing as well as they think.

Oh and we saw Dr Foster and Mum was ballistic with excitement. It took about a week then she said “I got it!”

Typically I said “uhm?”

And she started babbling about Euros. Sian (who’s real name IS Sian) is in Dr Foster. A funny and odd character. I never picked it 🙁

@nerys mum said “helloo” and to everyone too.

Thane (break from tests)

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@janetteb that sounds like a good plan. I hope your boys relax a bit and realise they have a life outside of school. I do, and if I didn’t I would be in a position to get better grades but staying up till 1 am is nuts (to me) and I have no real plans to go to university the normal way. So many have different jobs across their life anyway that it’s good to be sure what you really like is what you actually do? It’s not like that for everyone, or even for most people. I hope it works out.

Thane

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@craig

Well that’s very difficult, but as your neighbour says, you really can’t save everyone. Nor can you always be in the right place to save them. And sometimes it takes a few gentle words, kind words, particularly if you happen to know the person relatively well. Or a bit.

I remember, nearly two years back at 5 am my mum being told, “Oh, get some help, will you!” -not exactly gentle words, but words anyway.

People often think academics, or doctors and specialists, would simply never do that and yet it seems academics, solicitors, musicians, barristers and GPs also take their lives quite suddenly but there are often clues that people close to them will miss. From what @pedant said people plan this very well with notes,  and reminders and bills paid (Or sometimes not which is one reason why they believe everything is hopeless).

Thane16.

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@blenkinsopthebrave  @janetteb

Thank you again for the icons -and yes, the White Australia Policy was “covered in class, Mum, only for 20 minutes, Mum.”

Great 🙁

And now we’ve a monologue by Piggy. The teacher (new & on rotation) is one of those who’s read Thane’s draft and hilariously ticked exactly ONE  box which red: “time limit met.” Except she THEN wrote “not when you take out the ridiculous stuff on Neptune, you wrote.”

Ah, so we have work to do. Anyway, this teacher has 22 “don’t do” things which are from 2018. Then, she’s written on this ticked box thingy (“Thane got no ticks” -I think it’s important we all start talking like Piggy, to be immersed in it, you reckon?)

The draft has only negative comments to the point of rage at his evident stupidity. She then has another piece of paper in Size 6 or 8 font telling students exactly how there must be 3 sections called: RECALL, ANALYSE, EVALUATE. But there’s more:

A student must have an introduction, rising action, climax and resolution. My question would be this: how do you tie in the he Recall, Analyse and Evaluate with the rising action and climax etc? Syggers was so tired last night he could barely make sense. Unfortunately he thought Piggy was the product of a private school in 1950s England -all Etonian arrogance and Ancient Greek. So, in doing the monologue, and I’m giggling at this, he wrote:

Oh, grandfather of the sea, great Neptune, let me tell you my secrets. You roll on, saying nothing, but watching always. How many lives have you seen lost? The Wicked Traitor, Jack, has stolen my glasses. I have never seen the sea before, and now all I can see IS the sea, you formidable, domineering being.

There should be some points for getting it completely wrong and for laughs, surely. I’ve no doubt teacher read this aloud to all the English teachers with much mirth. Gawd.

I’ve actually drafted myself in and written down pretty much every phrase sad Piggy ever says and I’m sure he wouldn’t know (or care about) Neptune and mighty Zeus.  He’s about order, correct?

Syggers actually wrote that: “we need order, we must impose it” to which she-teacher wrote, “what are you? For order or dictatorship?  Piggy aint no totalitarian.” There’s really no wiggle room for this teacher..

🙂

The Wise One.

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@blenkinsopthebrave

I thought it was from (cough wik…edia). Having scoured that & not finding the reference, I have the …other one saying “na na ni nar nar, you should always reference” (in that sing song voice & it’s only 8.30 am!).

Shall I sing “We are one, & we are meeehney, the lah, la, la lah la lah li lah?”

@janetteb me too -on Plibers, she’d be great but she needs more grunt. More personality. They’re all so scared to show personality that no-one votes for those who could do the most good.  Somewhat of a 12 year old’s view, but heck we’re writing a monologue for Piggy in Lord of the Flies and a D- was the drafting mark. Piggy’s only 12.

How do people put their kid thru year 12, Janette? How do you DO it? I got a terrified (actually more sleepy) call saying “where’s my money, mum, Where’s the $3?”

I had no idea how to answer that question. He then said “I’m coming home, I’ve missed the [expletive] bus.”

Then 5 mins later, “I couldn’t hear my coins jangling in my pocket. On my way.”

Great. One up for maturity!

syzygy

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@whisht

Oh now, that is VERY interesting -a double minimalist piece using contrary time sigs!

Exactly like Thane and I !

Naturally, I thought we were no longer @Thane’s but ….the other ….one…which I can’t ever spell. Actually I can’t be in the same room as the ….other one or we go all “kerblooey.”

Sygers.

 

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@janetteb I like Waleed Aly’s response to compulsory voting, actually:

In a compulsory election, it does not pay to energize your base to the exclusion of all other voters. Since elections cannot be determined by turnout, they are decided by swing voters and won in the center… That is one reason Australia’s version of the far right lacks anything like the power of its European or American counterparts. Australia has had some bad governments, but it hasn’t had any truly extreme ones and it isn’t nearly as vulnerable to demagogues.”[21]

Puro & Thane  (we’re thinking of changing our name to Syzerggyzy….well, one of ’em “syz’ers.” )

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@blenkinsopthebrave

Compulsory voting: the single most civilized thing about the Australian political system, in my opinion.

Agreed. @janetteb losing faith in this is easy, keeping the faith with it, is the harder struggle.

 

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@blenkinsopthebrave @janetteb

thank you for your responses regarding ‘icons.’

Agreed: depressing to wake up to but entirely predictable. The notion that a LNP would support and invigorate teaching and education is nonsense, isn’t it? LNP politics argue for continued & increased funding for private education and with fringe parties I’m sure they’re all thinking “if we can just remove state schooling from government oversight and corporatize it, think of the surplus, think of what else we can do…..”

I watched Shorten’s concession speech and it was ….odd. Not sure whether it was rambling drunkenness or channelling Whitlam: “my friends, my friends. now, now, my friends.”  Maybe he was looking for other phrases but his brain was “ghosting.”

Sad fucking day, that’s for sure.

Puro

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@blenkinsopthebrave @janetteb

Dear Mr Blenkinsop at the Blenkinsop manor. I love that phrase. Someone else used the phrase and mum really liked it. I haven’t been on the site in all year.  ANd I agree with what you’re daying. Mum used to say that if she had the lottery she would move to Canada or the US -but she changed from mentioning the US about 2 decades ago. Or more.

We are also watching the election coverage. Pretty dismal stuff for a Saturday night.

Thane

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@janetteb

Yes, what was meant was: as an exercise, what things “Australian” pop to mind?  You know, like vegemite (despite, yes, it aint Australian) but meat pies, pavlova, wattle tree, ANZAC biscuits..

Black Arm band for Bob Hawke or Australia in general?

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@janetteb @blenkinsopthebrave @craig @pedant @missy @winston

Paging anyone anywhere..

mate of mine is taking a last minute contract at university for 1st years where the topic is, basically, modern Australia. She’s wondering if anyone can add ideas as to what concepts or items are icons for Australia (forgive my bad gramma but it’s “Australia Votes” so my focus is as split as the Greens and the ALP on climate change).

Other than vegemite (not Australian anymore but still associated with it.

Thanking you, Puro

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@janetteb @blenkinsopthebrave

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@pedant indeed yes, this track showed his comedic quality when prior it was all “take me very seriously intensity.”

Whistle Test -know it well. Various faculties had access to whole boxes of recorded cassettes!

Time was a beast, though.

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@pedant

Well, normally I’d agree but Meatloaf is TGOAT -his inspiration only from Zeus. Karla is Hecate. Or….something.

She’s unbelievably good isn’t she?

And I think, I think, Paradise is the best rock song ever written, actually.

Closely followed, of course, by Wilde’s Kids in America…. (Seen recently in S2 of Killing Eve)

Puro

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