Zebra

Farseer rereading

zebra363 — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 06:55:02 GMT

Over the last couple of months I've reread the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies, plus Fool's Assassin and Fool's Quest. I started because I wanted to experience Nighteyes again now I'm a dog owner, but quickly got wrapped up in Fitz and kept going past Nighteyes' death.

Fool's Errand could be subtitled "The Death of Nighteyes". It might be the most profound of the series so far, with Nighteyes' insistence that Fitz not try to prolong his life, and his impending death underlying everything that happens.

Fool's Assassin seemed much more interesting than when I originally read it. On my first pass, I was so impatient for the Fool to appear that I didn't appreciate the other things that occurred. This time, I was happy to read about anything concerning Fitz at all.

Fool's Quest was a little less enjoyable than I remembered, thanks to the 300+ pages at Buckkeep Castle where Fitz keeps thinking "I should go after Bee, but I'll wait a bit longer." The boredom of that is almost redeemed by Chade's praise as Fitz is about to leave: "Sharpening your knife is never a waste of time. You've finally learned that. Not an apprentice any longer, nor even a journeyman. This makes you a master."

Chade's death will be pretty wrenching for me, if it happens in the final book.

There are definitely places where the story doesn't hold together well in my opinion (like Fitz not thinking that the pale "minstrels" who were undetectable to his Wit might be the same kind of beings as the Fool, or Chade not foreseeing that his son and daughter might fall for each other if they're put together in an isolated place), but the overall result is an amazing achievement. Counting Liveships and the Rain Wild Chronicles, there are 15 books in this universe already, of which most are good to excellent. Fitz's story spans 55 years. It would be interesting to know how many authors in the whole history of mankind have accomplished something similar.

Assassin's Fate is now expected to be released in northern-hemisphere spring 2017.

The only problem with all this reading is that my body doesn't like it and I end up with a stiff neck and shoulders just as I do if I spend too much time at the computer. I admire anyone who has the discipline to only read in an ergonomically-correct position! I had a professional standards review last month and had to clean my house in preparation, since I work mostly from home and the reviewer would spend the day here. Relocating spiders alone was a long, three-step process – first I moved the big ones, then I realised there were many more medium-sized ones, and once they were all gone I saw the small ones! Tedious as it was, I had to admit that housework agrees with me physically far better than reading.

In memory of David Bowie

zebra363 — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 01:43:45 GMT

My favourite vid to a David Bowie song: Under Pressure (SPN) by way2busymom

(Can't find a current streaming version)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

zebra363 — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 08:01:46 GMT

I mostly enjoyed it while watching, but I think I'm underwhelmed. I wanted more information on how the First Order came to be, rather than just accepting that there's always a Big Bad in the galaxy, and I find the "I know there's good in him" refrain tedious. Rey must be a pretty slow learner if she waited so long for people she can probably barely remember to return. I hope Luke was doing a bit more than just hiding all those years (though I guess that's exactly what Yoda and Obi-Wan did after the defeat of the Jedi).

My favourite Star Wars relationship is Han and Chewbacca, so I was sorry to see it come to an end! On the positive side, it was nice to learn that they had many more years roaming the galaxy together after Return of the Jedi.

My single biggest complaint was that Leia embraced Rey after Han's death, not Chewie. Rey had only just met him!

I thought Rey was very well cast and it will be very interesting to learn exactly who she is. It was also interesting to learn more about Stormtroopers. The moment when Poe gave Finn his name was poignant – imagine going though life with only a number, even to your friends!

Funniest line: "The droid... stole a freighter?"

Best thing: the pop-up bread that Rey cooked in her tent.

ETA: I also thought this film made using the Force look too easy, though I have the same issue with the original. In A Phantom Menace, becoming a Jedi is a long process involving starting very young and training for years, if not decades. Luke manages it with a few personal training sessions with Obi-Wan and Yoda (I'm not clear on exactly how long he spent with Yoda). Rey can do all sorts of things with no training at all. I guess I have to handwave that Luke and Rey are exceptionally strong in the Force.

ETA2: I think I reacted more positively to BB-8 because I have a dog now, than I would have otherwise. When it rolled into position to be lifted up into Poe's fighter, I thought "That's just like Luna coming to sit next to me in Heel!"

Cesar's Rules by Cesar Millan

zebra363 — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 09:58:15 GMT

Cesar's Rules by Cesar Millan

In this book Cesar Millan (the TV "Dog Whisperer") interviews a variety of accomplished dog trainers and behaviourists, many of whom don't agree with some of his methods, to provide an overview of the various options.

Notes:

Millan distinguishes between behaviour modification (his area) and training. Of the six pit bulls he took onstage at the 2006 Emmys, only one was trained in the sense of knowing commands like sit and stay.
His formula for what dogs need is 1. Exercise, 2. Discipline (rules, boundaries and limitations) and 3. Affection, in that order. Always be a calm and assertive leader.
He defines "exercise" as a minimum of one and preferably two structured walks a day of 45 minutes or longer, with the dog by your side, plus additional running / rollerblading / biking exercise if the dog needs it to settle for the structured walks.
He recommends "No touch, no talk, no eye contact" for first meeting a dog and says not to invade a dog's space too soon – let it come to you. (I've found this super advice to give all visitors!)
The book includes an interesting timeline of landmarks in dog training. Dog Breaking: The Most Expeditious, Certain and Easy Method, Whether Great Excellence or Only Mediocrity Be Required (1865) advocates an early form of positive training and is available in full online.
Many problems can be traced to an owner picking a dog that doesn't match their energy level.
Animals do not respond positively to angry, frustrated or fearful energy.
Ian Dunbar: it is surprisingly easy and effective to eliminate undesirable behaviour with softly spoken instructive reprimands.
Bob Bailey: instead of punishment, try to modify the environment so the dog can't do the bad thing. If you do use punishment and you have to do it more than three times to stop the behaviour, you're not doing it right.
Joel Silverman on forming a relationship with a new dog: Week 1: work out what the dog likes and doesn't like, Weeks 2-3: focus on the things the dog likes, Week 4 onwards: start working at decreasing distances and increasing durations on the things the dog doesn't like.
Mark Harden (movie animal trainer): Be yourself, but be your best self. ("I know trainers that are really loud and dramatic and expressive. I'm a little, quiet guy. If I tried that, my dogs would laugh at me.")
Mark Harden: Be very specific and don't reward when part of the behaviour was something you don't want.
Ian Dunbar: basic training should be off-leash, because most people can't be trusted not to jerk on the leash. He uses food lures to encourage the dog into the right position, before phasing out the food.
Ian Dunbar: as soon as possible replace food rewards with "life rewards": games, sniffing, playing with other dogs.
Both Millan and Dunbar grew up never using a leash.
Dunbar considers a reliable off-leash distance Sit the most useful command to teach a dog. ("Once you've got that one emergency command, you can stop anything that's going on. You just say "Sit" – end of problem.") He considers a reliable recall more difficult to train.
If a trained dog doesn't sit immediately following a single command, it has to repeat the exercise until it does.
Many dogs don't really understand verbal commands, but appear to because they're reading their owner's body language. Check that your dog obeys when he can't see you (e.g. you're in the next room or have your back turned).
A dog must be trained in many different situations, because they don't generalise well. If a dog learns to sit in the kitchen, it won't necessarily understand that "sit" means the same thing anywhere else. Dunbar recommends asking your dog to do something every 25 yards on your walks, so the dog learns that commands mean the same thing everywhere.
Scent work is a useful as a game, a physical / mental challenge and as a training exercise. The Dunbars use birch bark in a small aerated container and hide it somewhere in a room.
Train your dog to respond to you at home when you sound upset or frightened, so it will respond in an emergency when you sound different to normal.
Beware of overconfidence, even if you've done a great deal of training. Dunbar says no one has ever passed his "hundred dollar test" in which the dog simply has to sit eight times in a row, but in strange situations.
Ian Dunbar: by eight weeks of age, a puppy should have been handled by at least 100 people.
Ian Dunbar: unless you are convinced that your dog is perfect, don't feed it from a bowl. Use your dog's daily ration as training rewards. Put anything that's left at the end of the day in a hollow chewtoy and freeze it to give to the dog for breakfast. Feeding from chewtoys reduces barking, hyperactivity and anxiety.
Millan's rules for walking: 1. Leave and enter the house in front of the dog, 2. Make sure the dog is calm before you open the door, 3. Walk with the dog next to or behind you, 4. Walk with your head up and shoulders back, with your arms relaxed and the leash loose, 5. Alternate between the structured walk and short breaks for the dog to pee and sniff.
Puppies come with an "invisible leash" because they are programmed to follow. A mistake that contributes to poor recall is allowing a young pup too much freedom early.
Bob Bailey: the simplest way to teach a behaviour is to "capture" it when the dog does it naturally, then reward (e.g. say "Sit" and reward as the dog sits on its own).

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

zebra363 — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 07:06:18 GMT

From reading reviews, I expected to like this book much more than I did.

I found the first half quite interesting as we got to know the world and how it worked, and the second half very boring. Too much fairly predictable action, not enough character development. An evil wood might make for a good adversary in a children's fairy tale, but it doesn't hold up very well in a novel for adults.

I wanted to know things like what it means that Kasia is now partly made of wood, other than how it affects her physical strength and ability to fight.

My favourite part was the magical process of reclaiming of Kasia from the Wood, which laid bare best friends Agnieszka's and Kasia's deepest feelings:

I saw my own face reflected in her wide glassy eyes, and my own secret jealousies, how I had wanted all her gifts, if not the price she would have to pay for them. ... I'd enjoyed a dream of being special and nursed a secret seed of envy against her, though I'd had the luxury of putting it aside whenever I chose.

I had to turn back to Kasia full of all my messy tangled thought and secret wishes, and I had to let her see them, see me, like an exposed pale squirming worm from under an overturned log. I had to see her, bare before me, and that hurt even worse: because she'd hated me too.

I wondered why Agnieszka didn't seem to know the name of her predecessor, who'd written her notes.

Part of my reaction is probably due to the fact that I just don't read many stand-alone fantasy novels and I'm not used to the format. I want a big sweeping universe with characters we follow for years, not one story that's inherently limited in scope. It was a good example of why I read fanfiction and prefer long-running TV shows to movies.

There are plenty of very good reviews for it out there, so I may be missing the point.

If any locals would like to borrow my copy, you're welcome!

China: Bashang Grasslands weekend hiking trip

zebra363 — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 03:47:51 GMT

After the Great Wall hiking trip finished, I joined a long weekend trip run by Beijing Hikers to the grasslands near the Mongolian border. It took 5 1/2 hours on a bus to get there, and 8 1/2 hours to get back to Beijing thanks to the longest traffic jam I've ever been in.

The most interesting thing about this trip was the people on it. Hiking is not a popular activity among Chinese people, so Beijing Hikers attracts mostly expats, on this occasion from Germany, England, the Netherlands, Italy, the US, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. Some had devoted years of their lives to studying Chinese to allow them to pursue their chosen career there, others worked only in English. Their jobs ranged from teacher's assistant at the British embassy school to a senior Microsoft executive who was close to retirement. Most were living there voluntarily rather than at the request of their employer. A couple in their 50s from England were on their third Chinese posting, and felt China had been a far better place to raise their children than England due to lower levels of personal crime and violence.

Being greeted as we got off the bus. Each person sipped from the bowl of strong alcohol.

Our guesthouse

The street the guesthouse was on

The walking was mostly on grassy hills, but some were so steep it was at least as hard as climbing on the Great Wall, if not more so. If there'd been more rain, my footwear choice would have made for two days of very wet, muddy feet.

Windmills in the distance

There were few fences, and the houses were all clustered together in little villages. Horses (used almost exclusively for tourists these days) were on long tether lines.

A local followed along with back-up transportation in case anyone couldn't keep up with the walking!

During our break he tied them together and let them graze. One stepped over the rope between them, something that would have caused pandemonium among most horses here.

Some of the towns we saw near Beijing were uniformly dark grey. This one had lots of colour!

Horses on the main street. They're used for tourist rides in the few warm months of the year, and turned out on the grasslands the rest of the time. Apparently most people leave the area in winter to work elsewhere, and the elderly stay inside and play cards!

A touristy shop selling milk powder snacks, the specialty of the area.

Fire lantern almost ready to be released at the guesthouse. It was a public holiday long weekend (celebrating a statesman who committed suicide in 278 BC) and many people in the town set off fireworks on the Saturday night. I'd never seen fire lanterns before, though all the Europeans were familiar with them. They looked beautiful floating gracefully into the sky, though the resulting rubbish is a problem.

Some of the better-looking outer-Beijing apartment buildings along the highway on the way home.

Traffic jam returning to Beijing on Sunday afternoon, hours outside the city. Great Wall visible in background. I was glad to spend the longest traffic delay of my life on a bus with good company, rather than driving by myself. We had some loaves of bread and a few remaining snacks. Some drivers pulled out into oncoming traffic or onto side roads and went as far as they could before relying on someone to let them back into the line, something I'd never seen before!

China: Dragons and Temeraire

zebra363 — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 13:11:12 GMT

I was conscious of China being Temeraire's country of origin and I'm sure that added some extra enjoyment to my trip.

I wish I'd started taking dragon pictures earlier, but here are two from my last day in Xi'an.

The first is in the Shaanxi History Museum and is from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 - AD 907):

This one is on a street lamppost:

According to Wikipedia, there are examples of Chinese dragons dating back to 1600BC.

A rec from some Temeraire fanfic reading I did while I was away: Sixteen by quigonejinn, a very short (900 word) story about the first harnessing of Longwings.

The final Temeraire book is apparently still being written and no release date has been set.

China: "Green Pregnant the Life"

zebra363 — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 16:02:29 GMT

Some of these are less readable than I'd like. They looked fine before uploading!

Menus were reliably amusing, if often not appetising. No "unknown fatty intestine rice noodles" for me. Our 4-star hotel in Beijing offered "Rotten Fish".

This one had us asking each other "Have you got your ticket ticket? Ticket?"

Menu on the bullet train from Beijing to Xi'an. I have no idea what the difference is between Men and Women raisins, and was not tempted to order a Milk Lump.

Saving water at Beijing train station.

Indoor swimming pool sign at a hot springs resort. A strong contender for my overall favourite.

Usually the railings do the protecting.

A message from the peacock at Xi'an's Garden Hotel. "...in night maybe you will be disturbed by my scream, hope you will never blame for it, hope you can enjoy my beauty also can put up with some turmoil of me."

I had not the least intention of pouring sewerage or hot water onto the trees.

On the Xi'an old city wall

This one from the Shaanxi History Museum in Xi'an was mostly going well until it wished me distillation.

Don't fall

Menu on my last night. Farm Powder Stains were a high note to end on.

China: Great Wall hiking

zebra363 — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 14:36:22 GMT

The Great Wall is one of those places that pictures don't adequately convey. We spent seven days hiking up to and on various parts of it, and I could happily have done much more.

The factors that made being there different to what I'd expected from pictures were 1) the steepness of many sections, 2) the fact that in some parts it goes off in many directions, often to the top of the highest peaks in the area before diving down again and then rising somewhere else, 3) different styles and types of construction, and 4) in places it now ends right next to a highway or road or in a town, then picks up again on the other side. In one village we stayed in, we walked right past part of the wall next to the main street for two days before realising what it was on the third day.

Six of the days were at quiet spots where our little group was either completely alone or there were just a few other people. One day was at Mutianyu, a very touristy, fully restored section near Beijing. We called it the "Disneyland" section. It was complete with a huge ticket office, shuttle buses to drive you from the ticket office to a shop/restaurant area, a choice of chair lifts or gondolas to take you to the top, souvenir sellers on top, and toboggans to get down! It's still a serious walk if you cover the entire open section, though, since it's stairs and more stairs.

The Mutianyu "Disneyland" section:

The gradient in the top half of this picture is steeper than the picture conveys!

Towards the end of the restored section, where the weeds were allowed to stay:

This is what it's like once the restored section runs out:

Picture of Michelle Obama on the toboggan:

This picture from our first day on the Wall perhaps does convey the steepness:

Down... and up

The steps are often narrow and broken:

Climbing up to the wall from our valley accommodation:

A less-restored section, with trees growing on top:

This is ON the wall, not next to it. A rare stretch of shade!

In a watchtower:

There are many apricot trees growing along and sometimes on the Wall, apparently descendents of trees planted to feed the original Wall workers:

It's interesting to think about how they determined just where to build it! Some estimates say a million people died in the construction.

A narrow, crumbling section:

I wore my Vibram FiveFingers 100% of the time and they performed admirably!

The constant climbing and descending made it satisfying walking. It's good hike for a group of mixed abilities, since some people can go ahead further and faster before backtracking to join the others at an agreed watchtower.

Food for thought: Great Wall marathon, half-marathon, 10km. I met someone on the grasslands hiking weekend who had just completed the 2015 half-marathon.

China

zebra363 — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 11:30:20 GMT

I've just returned from three weeks in China, my present to myself to mark the end of my most recent job.

My trip was made up of three parts:

1. A guided trip organised by a member of my Perth bushwalking club who is originally from Beijing. It included seven days of hiking on various parts of the Great Wall and four days of sightseeing in Beijing.

2. A long weekend hiking trip to the Bashang Grasslands near the Mongolian border with Beijing Hikers. Most Beijing Hikers are expats, since hiking is not a popular activity among the locals.

3. Four days by myself in Xi'an, the city closest to the Terracotta Warriors. I assumed before doing any research that it would be a relatively small place, but it's almost twice as big as Sydney!

Things I wasn't expecting:

1. Beijing is full of black BMWs and Audis and other new, expensive cars.

2. Most places didn't feel as crowded as I was prepared for. The public spaces are BIG and some streets have very good provision for bikes and walkers.

3. Many people are tall. My not-quite-5'6" wasn't at all out of the ordinary even for a woman. Looking at family groups, there appear to have been huge height gains in two generations. At one of the guesthouses we stayed in, the grandmother was about 5' and tiny, the mother was about my height, and the granddaughter was 6' and strongly built! According to this Slate article, the average Chinese 6-year-old is two inches taller than in the late 1970s thanks to better nutrition.

4. Except at the really big tourist spots like the Terracotta Warriors and the easiest-to-access parts of the Great Wall, there seemed to be very few foreign tourists. I was the only obviously foreign person in line for the National Museum next to Tiananmen Square on the day I went, and one of just three I noticed among thousands at the outdoor fountain music show on my first night in Xi'an. Domestic tourism far outweighs foreign tourism, which on reflection is hardly surprising given the population.

5. Despite that, no one paid me any undue attention at all, in either the big cities or tiny villages. I've heard other people say they were frequently asked for photos, but that didn't happen to me. Maybe you need to be blond or of a more interesting shape or size!

6. Relative to food, tea is very expensive – around 2/3rds or more the price of a main course in a restaurant. That would make it about $20 a cup in Perth! The serving staff, on one occasion they could speak English and I tried to order it, went to some pains to talk me out of doing so. "I advise you order the juice!"

7. Rice isn't served with the meal! It's served at the END of the meal, and you only eat it if you aren't yet full! I spent a lot of time thinking "I wish they'd bring out the rice" before having this explained to me.

8. I was under the impression that very sweet sauces were a Western bastardisation of Chinese food, but some of the home-style dishes we were served were extremely sweet. My favourite was eggplant and green pepper in what was basically a sugar sauce. Apparently it's an authentic northeastern dish. I looked up recipes and made it my first night home, reducing the sugar a little! A savoury dish I liked a lot was julienne-style potato in vinegar.

9. The standard of English translation is poor, even on official signs in the Olympic city of Beijing. Hundreds of freeway signs say "Don't Follow Clowsely", an error a simple spellcheck could have prevented. There's either a huge shortage of competent translators, or they just don't care very much. That said, I didn't appreciate prior to my trip quite how difficult it is to learn English from Chinese.

10. You don't put toilet paper in the public toilets! You put it in the wastepaper basket next to the toilet and hope someone takes it away soon! Also, toilet paper is generally not provided – you bring your own.

My favourite thing was all the people, especially retired people, using the parks day and night to exercise, dance, and play mahjong and cards. In the park around the Temple of Heaven, a group of maybe 60-75 year old men were doing gymnastics on parallel bars and high bars. Just around the corner from the airport hotel where I stayed on my last night, people of all ages were ballroom dancing in a big paved quadrangle to Chinese popular music. This has to be far healthier, both physically and mentally, than the way many Australians spend their evenings.

Worst thing was without doubt the air pollution. It wasn't an issue the first week, but depressingly bad by my last day – and my "depressingly bad" wasn't actually that bad by local standards (153 or "unhealthy" on this meter). Second-worst thing was the noise pollution caused by incessant honking while driving / riding. It's not the aggressive-but-infrequent Australian style of honking, but rather a constant "I'm here on your left", "I'm here on your right", "I'm moving into your lane", "Coming through!" kind of honking. Driving in Perth seemed blissfully quiet on my way home. 85kms from my mother's house to mine, and not one honk!

Airline magazine ads

zebra363 — Mon, 11 May 2015 03:12:08 GMT

Since 1 May I've been "temporarily retired" (sounds better than "out of work") and have just returned from 8 days in the South Australian outback, which involved flying to Adelaide.

The Virgin magazine on the way over included an ad for height-increasing shoes for men. The height chart behind the model showed his "before" height as 6' 1" and his "after" height as 6' 2 1/2". Somehow I doubt people who are already 6' 1" are the target market!

The Qantas magazine on the way home had a full-page ad for an upmarket gay men's introduction agency, complete with a photo of an attractive smiling couple that I've since learned are the owners. Nice to see!

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

zebra363 — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 12:38:56 GMT

I enjoyed Swancon on Friday and spent most of the rest of Easter reading or rereading books mentioned in the panels I attended.

In the "Looking Beyond the Left Hand: Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary SF" panel, someone mentioned that Le Guin had made a big mistake in using the pronoun "he" for the androgynous Gethenians.

I reread it with that in mind and came to the conclusion that the reason the book works so well for me is that it uses "he". The use of a masculine pronoun for Estraven lets me read it as a m/m love story with some extra elements, rather than as what it's actually supposed to be. If Le Guin had used "she", as she herself stated later she should have, or a gender-neutral pronoun, I'd probably only have been mildly interested. A correctly-worded exploration of gender just doesn't do it for me the way m/m does.

Genly and Estraven have to come so far in understanding each other that their eventual deep rapport is extremely satisfying. One of my biggest issues with a lot of fanfic is that the misunderstanding that forms the basis for the story is so trivial it could be resolved in a thirty-second conversation (I recently read a 276,000 word story that turned out to be founded on such a minor issue I'm still getting over what a let-down that was!). Genly and Estraven – literally aliens to each other – have real cultural reasons for not being in accord. They can't connect until Estraven realises that Genly can only understand him if he disregards "shifgrethor" and speaks plainly, and Genly lets go of his standards of masculinity.

Genly seems young and underprepared for his mission and it's surprising the Ekumen let him be their representative, unless volunteers to timejump to such distant planets are few and far between. After two years on Gethen he admits "I had not wanted to give my trust, my friendship to a man who was a woman, to a woman who was a man."

Genly tells us in the first chapter "I don't trust Estraven, whose motives are forever obscure; I don't like him." Not far into their journey on the ice, and before they're even on a first-name basis, he acknowledges that he loves him and that he doesn't know whether he made the right decision in choosing not to have sex with him. A wonderful progression!

I'm not sure his rationale for the no-sex decision stands up:

For it seemed to me, and I think to him, that it was from that sexual tension between us, admitted now and understood, but not assuaged, that the great and sudden assurance of friendship between us rose: a friendship so much needed by us both in our exile, and already so well proved in the days and nights of our bitter journey, that it might as well be called, now as later, love. But it was from the difference between us, not from the affinities and likenesses, but from difference, that the love came: and it was itself the bridge, the only bridge, across what divided us. For us to meet sexually would be for us to meet once more as aliens. We had touched, in the only way we could touch. We left it at that. I do not know if we were right.

If the love sprang from difference, why would exploring that difference further hurt it? And how could difference be "the only bridge" in the face of so much shared hardship and experience?

It's odd that we're told nothing about Genly's sexual preferences or behaviours. He doesn't react positively to either the men or women of his ship when they land on the planet: It was strange to hear a woman's voice, after so long. ... They all looked strange to me, men and women, well as I knew them. Their voices sounded strange: too deep, too shrill. They were like a troupe of great, strange animals, of two different species...

There are only 14 English-language stories on A03 for this novel and only four Genly/Estraven – a strange shortage! I'd like one that goes AU before the penultimate chapter and envisages a plausible future from that point.

Cape to Cape Track

zebra363 — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 03:01:16 GMT

Last week I walked the 135km Cape to Cape Track in the south-west of Western Australia, from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin. A most enjoyable experience, give or a take a few boring, deep sand 4WD tracks!

At the start.

The first 3km is wheelchair accessible.

Routine coastal scenery!

Major track marker. (The ocean slopes upwards to the right in many of my photos!)

The usual track markers, many of which are not in very useful places. Why you wouldn't put them at intersections instead of 100m past the intersections is beyond me, unless there used to be markers at those places and they've been knocked over / souvenired.

A rocky part of the track. The arrow shows the track marker.

Many of the beaches were very wide by Perth standards.

Abseiling spot, that looks less impressive than it was because I was also up high.

Regrowth after a 2011 fire that went all the way to the beach:

Track marker that didn't regrow:

Dog courtesy of photographer.

An overgrown section:

It's not all sand:

Redgate Beach with particularly nice ocean colours!

The forest part was less enjoyable than I expected, since it was all on 4WD tracks rather than dedicated walking tracks. These spots were highlights, but not representative of the whole.

The longest continuous beach stretch: 6.5km on a 4WD / fishing beach. Fortunately the sand wasn't as deep as in some other places. The novelty of watching vehicles drive up and down (and get bogged!) kept me entertained.

These blowholes were amazing, but none of my photos do them any justice. The waves created sounds like someone beating a giant drum and flushing a giant toilet. Many different kinds of crabs scuttled away as I walked by.

Stopping to read instructions on another beach, something I should have done more frequently. My failure to do so increased the last day from 27km to 30km!

Best wildlife encounter of the week, a monitor lizard or goanna:

At the finish! I arrived just after the lighthouse closed, so couldn't get any closer than this.

I did it the comparatively easy way where you stay in pleasant accommodation, don't have to carry a full pack and can step straight into the shower at the end of each day. Carrying a full pack in either hotter or stormy weather would turn this from a reasonably challenging walk into a much more difficult one. There isn't much shade, sometimes none at all for hours at a time, and some of the beach sections are in deeper sand than I'd ever experienced. On the other hand, navigation is generally straightforward – you can't go too far wrong to the west! It's also fun and refreshing to be able to dip your feet in the water (or swim, if you're so inclined) many times a day. Spending a week doing this makes for an ideal break!

The Giants in Perth last weekend

zebra363 — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 13:46:24 GMT

I'm running late thanks to half-year reporting season, but wanted to post about seeing Royal de Luxe company's Giants, the headline event of the Perth International Arts Festival, last weekend. The official statistics say 1.4 million people saw them, compared to a city population of 1.7 million. Not sure how they came up with the number – I went three times, so was I one person or three?

On Friday only the Little Girl giant made an appearance. I had an hour before a meeting to watch her put on her boat and driven around Langley Park. It was moderately enjoyable to walk around the park with her, but I was underwhelmed – six metres isn't that big! I enjoyed the music and the sense of it being a special occasion.

Saturday afternoon I dithered at home about whether to make another trip into the city (about 1 1/2 hours' drive) to see the 11 metre Diver. I decided I should, parked near the casino on the other side of the river, jogged the couple of kilometres to Langley Park and arrived just as hundreds of people were hurrying across the park to line Riverside Drive. I joined them and there was the Diver coming slowly towards us. Even in a seated position he was far more imposing than the Little Girl.

I had a wonderful time walking alongside as he made his journey around Langley Park. Then I got caught in a crush of people between the road and temporary fence barricades for about 40 minutes while security blocked off all means of escape as they waited for the Girl to arrive and be reunited with the Diver. I didn't mind too much as I wasn't expecting a huge event like this to be smooth sailiing and I'd already had a far better view than I'd dared hope for.

I got free just in time to see a little of the reunion from a distance:

Sunday morning I was raring to go for the finale. The crowds were far, far bigger than the day before and I wasn't early enough to get a spot to see any of the ceremony from the front, but watched from about 100 metres to the rear. Then I did what I'd done the two previous days and followed them around the park from a comfortable distance. They're big enough that you didn't need to be up close in the crowds to get a good view.

After being only moderately entertained on Friday, by Sunday I was on the verge of tears with awe and pure enjoyment. Walking the length of Langley Park and back with so many people all excited over a fantasy-themed performance / parade would rank as one of the better mornings of my entire life.

What if he wasn't friendly, and was coming to round us up?

I would fly around the world to see this again. According to Wikipedia, they go to Chicago in 2016.

Something I never expected to see on Supernatural

zebra363 — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 13:37:45 GMT

...green smoothie! A home-prepared one at that!

I enjoyed that episode so much. Dean, shattered after beating up Charlie! Charlie, so downcast after her alter ego's rampage and being beaten up by Dean! Sam, holding everyone together!

Sanity weekend away, Cape-to-Cape plans

zebra363 — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 05:44:57 GMT

At 5pm Thursday I booked a last-minute weekend away to Busselton, 2 1/2 hours south of Perth, to make up for time off I didn't get over Christmas and New Year's. 18 hours later I was on my way.

Due to the very short notice I went by myself, and ended up spending my time quite differently to the way I would have with company. Zero swimming, zero restaurants*, zero wineries, two caves**, and hours and hours of walking each day. Apparently I need peer pressure to get in the water. One of the beaches I walked past actually looked very enticing, but I was hungry at that point and prioritised finding lunch.

I didn't have much interest in Busselton and only stayed there because it was close, but absolutely loved the 1.8km long jetty. It's the perfect way to experience the ocean for someone who isn't a good swimmer and gets seasick!

Near the shore:

Near the end, looking back at the shore:

From the beach at sunset:

Having enjoyed the short sections of it I walked, I'm planning to do the full 135km Cape-to-Cape Track in the last week of March. If anyone would like to join me for a day or more, let me know! You need to be able to cover about 20km a day, including up to about 7km on soft sand depending on the tides, but with no major climbs.

Scenery samples (much more is coastal than forest):

There are snakes! I disturbed two, plus a big lizard.

I'll probably let this company move my bags and arrange accommodation so I don't have to carry a full pack: Cape-to-Cape self-guided itinerary.

* I don't mind going to restaurants by myself, but was never near one at the right time of day.
** Including the self-guided, unlit, ladders-and-crawl spaces Giants Cave, which I had all to myself in the middle of school holidays!

A couple of Yuletide recs

zebra363 — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 23:41:56 GMT

James Clavell's King Rat: Happier Than Before 8,400 words

Characters: The King and Peter Marlowe

King Rat is one of my favourite books, for the relationship between the American corporal who controlled much of the black market in Changi prison camp during WWII, and the British flight lieutentant who became his closest friend. Their parting did not invite a reunion. (Clavell was a prisoner in Changi for three years.)

Happier Than Before is set 14 years later and imagines a relatively positive future for each of them.

The title is from the WB Yeats poem "An Irish Airman Foresees his Death", which I'm putting here for my future reference:

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

If you've read the book, don't miss this story!

Hornblower litverse: On Land and At Sea 8,300 words

Relationship: Hornblower/Bush/Barbara

If you can suspend disbelief long enough to envisage Hornblower, Bush and Barbara in a threesome, this is the story for you! I managed to do that, and found it very easy to imagine Hornblower being turned on by compliments about his abilities.

"You needn't thank me," said Hornblower. "And don't call me sir." He tingled whenever Bush called him sir in bed, and that was reason enough to forbid it. It would be disastrous if he were to make any associations between standard naval formality and this.

Barbara shifted so she was at Bush's back, propping him up with her body. "Don't listen to him," she murmured in Bush's ear, still loud enough that Hornblower could hear every word clear as a bell. "He likes it when you address him with the respect that he's earned."

Bush grinned. "Don't I know it?"

Hornblower frowned and sped up his hand a little. Bush's hips jerked, and his head fell back on Barbara's shoulder, eyes slipping closed.

"Tell him," said Barbara. "Tell him he's earned it."

"Every bit of it," gasped Bush. "Every promotion, every honor, earned with sweat and blood and daring. There's not a man who's served with you who doesn't know your worth."

Hornblower shuddered, caught between shame and pleasure as his mind tried to counter-argue the compliments.

White Collar finale

zebra363 — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 03:26:50 GMT

Comments posted to mainstream reviews suggest most people realised right away that Neal faked his death, but I believed he was really dead. (In my defense, I was totally unspoiled and operating on 4 hours of sleep.) I took a big intake of breath when they uncovered his body in the hospital, and started to cry later when Peter saw visions of Neal in the office and reminisced with Mozzie about him.

That was all very sad of course, but I would have been happier with that option than what turned out to be the case. Grieving for someone you really care about is such a painful experience that I hate to think Neal deliberately put Peter through it. Mozzie also, if he wasn't in on the plan initially – I'm now not clear whether his very moving performance in the hospital was an act or not. It looked genuine.

I guess if Neal had told Peter what he was planning, Peter couldn't have let him disappear without going after him right away. Even now, isn't Peter duty-bound to do something about the missing money?

I realise Neal's options were somewhat limited given the danger he was in from the Panthers, but he chose freedom and money over his relationship with Peter, which certainly isn't the ending I would have liked to see. Rationalising by saying he was protecting Peter by making Peter believe he was dead doesn't make sense to me, since Peter is a good undercover agent and could have acted the part of a grieving friend (if he chose to do that rather than immediately hunting Neal down to recover the money!).

Neal saying "You're my best friend" to Peter should have been an emotional high and instead it struck a wrong note with me because I read it as a slap in the face to Mozzie. Season 6 highlighted just how much Mozzie depends on Neal and how much he does for him, gave us many scenes of them spending time together, and explicitly spelled out in episode 4 that Neal is Mozzie's best friend. Neal could have said to Peter "You mean so much to me" or "I love you" or something along those lines that didn't set up a harsh contrast between Neal's friend status with Mozzie and Mozzie's with Neal. What he actually said seemed a slightly mean and crude way for the show to tell us how important Peter was to Neal.

Other things:

I liked the plot. Sucking all that cash through pipes was fun, especially with the diversion of some of it to Mozzie!

Did not like AT ALL Peter getting involved undercover, after Woodford killed one of his own men. There's no way Peter or Neal could have had any certainty about Peter's safety. Peter and Neal both treated El with total disregard there.

Did not like Peter and El naming their son after Neal, though I probably wouldn't have liked them naming him something else either. Recycling a name means that name will eventually come to mean the new person more than the old person, and I don't want Peter's thoughts when he hears the name Neal to be of someone other than Neal Caffrey!

Did not like the blue icing on the cake or the blue and pink baby bibs.

During the season I've enjoyed Mozzie calling Peter "Peter" in important moments and reverting to "Suit" the rest of the time.

If I was a casual viewer rather than a Neal/Peter fan, I might have thought it was a pretty good finale. It seems to be getting good reviews and feedback on mainstream sites.

SPN mid-season finale

zebra363 — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 12:36:44 GMT

I gather this one wasn't especially well received, but I liked it. Six good ones in a row as far as I'm concerned!

Ten reasons I enjoyed 10x09:

1. It answered the question of what happened to Jimmy Novak and his family. I always give bonus points for meaningful call-backs to earlier seasons. That question has been floating around for a long time.

2. Claire saying "You want to talk to me about wrong?", and Castiel saying he knew Claire prayed to him, were genuinely moving.

3. Dean laughing so hard at the Three Stooges clip was odd (just what state of mind is he in?), but still fun to watch. How many times in 9 1/2 years have we seen him laugh like that?

4. The domestic moment with food when Sam brought Dean the toasted sandwich.

5. The Dean & Cas heart-to-heart, especially:

Dean: Cas, listen to me. Some stuff you just got to let go. The people you let down, the ones you can't save... You got to forget about them, for your own good.

Cas: Is that what you do?

Dean: It's the opposite of what I do.

6. Cas seeing easily through Dean's claim to be fine, great, and Dean dropping the pretence immediately: "If I do go darkside, you got to take me out. ... And don't let Sam get in the way, because he'll try."

7. Cas: What about you? Did you love your father?

Dean: With everything I had.

8. The image of the guy with the safety pin through his nose in the New York bar where Dean got drunk for the first time saying "Sorry, sir" to John Winchester.

9. Sam should have gone back right away to see what the problem was when Dean didn't follow him out of Randy's house, but given that he didn't:

Sam's face (bad haircut notwithstanding) when the sound of all hell breaking loose comes from the house.

10. Sam holding Dean's face as they knelt among the carnage, and the way they both looked away and down at the end.

Dean has always liked to eat, but there's so much eating in this one (the toasted sandwich at the bunker, the two hamburgers during his conversation with Castiel, something from the Wiener Hut while Sam and Castiel were waiting for Dustin) that I assume we're supposed to read into it that the Mark has positively affected his appetite or ability to enjoy things, at the same time it's making him hunger to kill.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to rewatch the Claire, Rowena or Crowley parts again, but appreciated the Castiel-Claire storyline for one viewing, and really enjoyed the (admittedly short) Sam and Dean parts. There was enough drama in the ending to hold my interest over the hiatus. For me it was more moving than Dean's death at the end of last season.

Pain is very distracting

zebra363 — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 04:30:30 GMT

I don't know people with chronic pain manage to go about daily life as well as most of them seem to.

I'm used to feeling pretty good most of the time. Right now I have an extremely painful shoulder, I think self-inflicted from too much archery practice and ironically, exercises designed to strengthen my (pathetically weak) shoulders for archery. In the two-and-a-half days that it's really been bothering me, I've:

had a minor parking lot car accident and scratched my car
not cared about the damage to my car because I'm ANGRY with it for having such uncomfortable seats that exacerbate my shoulder pain
dropped something heavy on my foot
walked into doorways
closed a drawer on my hand
lost patience with my brother-in-law's father's long-winded storytelling at an extended family function and expounded to my brother-in-law about it
become annoyed at a man on crutches in the supermarket yesterday for making a clacking noise on the hard floor while he was going about his business of buying fruit and vegetables. Fortunately I kept my feelings about that to myself.

It seems like about 85% of my brainpower is diverted to noticing how sore my shoulder is. I don't think I'm really safe to drive and I'm clearly not fit to be out in public anyway. I suppose if this was my everyday reality I'd learn to manage it?? Those of you who do live with this daily reality have my sympathy!

Counting the minutes until my physio appointment (4,020!).

SPN 200th episode

zebra363 — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 07:06:28 GMT

I deliberately stayed as unspoiled as possible and knew only that it was a musical of some kind.

From the moment the student director said "This is set before Dark Side of the Moon," I thought, "They might have nailed it!" since it showed they were aiming at serious fans who'd know what that meant, even before Marie clarified that she was talking about the amulet. (Dark Side of the Moon was more than 100 episodes ago!)

Taken as a whole and in the context of the fandom, I'd say it was pretty much a masterpiece.

Some favourite moments and comments:

Marie critically studying the name of her play "Supernatural" in lights and saying, "I mean it's close, but it needs a little more [waves hand] aaarrhh!" before a rapid-fire sequence of title cards from the show, all of which had plenty of aaarrhh!

Dean working on the Impala. That engine is shiny. I actually like Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" and was sorry it wasn't louder. The can of "Indian Head" brake fluid in the trunk must be as old or older than the car. That's a long time to keep a can of brake fluid.

"We got work to do."

Here's the first "We got work to do", for comparison (Pilot):

And the second (All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2):

Dean and Sam's absolutely dumbfounded, incredulous expressions watching the rehearsals.

The set background for "The Road So Far". What a lovely painting!

Student actors Sam and Dean holding up their FBI cards and Sam hurriedly putting his away and stopping Dean from taking his out.

Dean, watching actor Sam and Dean rehearsing: Why are they standing so close together?
Marie: ...reasons.

Dean/Cas presented in a charming, palatable way, even to this Sam/Dean fan!

The Cas, who was truly adorable.

"I'll just wait here, then."

Sam looking at Dean to get his agreement that they should tell Marie and Maeve the truth. A nice wordless conversation.

"You guys are way too old to be Sam or Dean." That didn't go down well with either of them.

Dean's delivery of "The show must go on."

Dean agreeing with Marie that there's nothing Sam can't do.

Dean saying:

"I know I have expressed some differences of opinion regarding this particular version of Supernatural. But tonight is all about Marie's vision. This is Marie's Supernatural. So I want you to get out there and I want you stand as close as she wants you to, and I want you to put as much sub into that text as you possibly can."

and

"You know, this has been educational, seeing the story from your perspective. You keep writing, Shakespeare."

They deserve a lot of credit for having a lead character express those sentiments.

The play itself. It looks great, but perhaps not so great as to be totally implausible for an amateur production. Just right, in any case.

Calliope: Supernatural has everything.

Was Dean listening to the song about how Marie's Sam sees him? "The perfect brother, a man without sin."

The man in the audience putting on his waterproof poncho after the scarecrow sent Dean flying. Sam and Dean were ineffective hunters (as they've often been in the past), but fortunately Marie saved the day.

"I don't need a symbol to remind me how I feel about my brother."

Sam: Who's that?
Maeve: Oh, that's Adam. John Winchester's other kid. He's still trapped in the Cage. In Hell. With Lucifer.

The rendition of "Carry On Wayward Son" and the close-ups of Sam and Dean's faces watching it.

"And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means I don't know."

Dean hanging the prop amulet on the Impala's rear vision mirror and exchanging a long look with Sam before driving off into the sunset. Will we ever see that amulet again?

For me it could have stopped there, and I felt like I might have missed whatever great symbolism there was in Chuck's appearance. I don't know whether all the people saying they loved the ending mean the scene before the ending, or the actual ending! If Chuck saying "Not bad" was especially meaningful to you, please fill me in. I guess it's a continuation of the theme that fan activites are not bad!

Quite an amazing accomplishment and I'm glad to have been around long enough to appreciate it!

SPN 10x4

zebra363 — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 11:47:42 GMT

Sam, Dean, the Impala and a monster case, with bonus points for the continuation of a story from a previous season!

I liked the men's reactions in the bar at the beginning. They mostly looked quite polite about their interest.

We time!!

Incredibly pretty pictures:

I'm just worried about how much it's the Mark that's driving Dean back to work, so he can kill things.

This is a lovely exchange:

Dean: Not to mention I never even said thank you. So...
Sam: You don't ever have to say that. Not to me.

Natural feet

zebra363 — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 03:14:52 GMT

The Weekend Australian ran a feature about the Pintupi Nine, believed to be the last major group of Aboriginal Australians to abandon a nomadic desert lifestyle 30 years ago.

You probably need a subscription to read the article, but what really jumped out at me was their incredibly healthy-looking feet in this picture taken the day they came into contact with modern Australia (and were given these clothes):

Look at the width of their toes, especially of the women on the right. How many women do you know whose toes are wider than the balls of their feet? Not too many, I'm guessing.

They're just like the "before" case in the diagram from my favourite "natural" podiatrist's website:

My nerve pain that was such a problem for me 18 months ago is completely gone, after switching my footwear to almost 100% Vibram FiveFingers, open flat sandals and other shoes that let the toes be as wide as possible.

Bernard Cornwell: archery and Sharpe

zebra363 — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 15:23:23 GMT

I read Bernard Cornwell's Harlequin because of the archery theme, but didn't like it much thanks to all the rape and plunder. The lead character really enjoyed those aspects of his work. I can't help but wonder whether the author and modern male readers secretly think, "That sounds fun! Those were the days!"

Even though I didn't care for the characters, the book did its job as historical fiction in bringing to life a time period – the 1340s – I knew little about, and I found the author's note at the back mind-blowing for this information:

Benjamin Franklin, no fool, reckoned the American rebels would have won their war much more swiftly had they been practised longbowmen and it is quite certain that a battalion of archers could have outshot and beaten, easily, a battalion of Wellington's veterans armed with smoothbore muskets.

I found it hard to wrap my mind around the assertion that bows and arrows could have beaten soldiers with guns more than 400 years later. I guess the pace of technological advance has sped up immeasurably in recent times!

More information from the author's notes:

One or two longbows might do damage, but thousands would destroy an army, and the English, alone in Europe, were capable of assembling those numbers. Why? The technology could not be simpler, yet still other countries did not produce archers. Part of the answer is surely the great difficulty it took to become an expert archer. It needed hours and years of practice, and the habit of such practice took hold in only some English and Welsh regions. ... For some reason or another the Middle Ages saw a popular enthusiasm for the pursuit in parts of England and Wales that led to the rise of the longbow as a mass weapon of war.

Having not enjoyed Harlequin but not wanting to be left with a bad impression of Cornwell, the creator of Sharpe, I've been revisiting Sharpe (and Harper!) in both print and film. Somehow I'd never seen the final film, Sharpe's Peril, released in 2008. I'm sure Cornwell didn't write this part, but I wish they hadn't made Sharpe beat up and very nearly kill Hakeswill's son in a rage, based only upon who his father was. "Bad blood" is a very poor argument, especially coming from someone with Sharpe's background! I'm not going to count that one as "real" Sharpe, since it wasn't directly based on Cornwell's books.

The 15 years from the first film to the last one take quite a toll on a person, even if you're Sean Bean.

Cornwell has given us so many wonderful Sharpe-Harper scenes. Here's one of my favourites, from Sharpe's Siege (book version) when Sharpe tells Killick and Docherty that he'll let them go if they give him their word they won't fight against Britain for the duration of the war.

Docherty stared in puzzlement at Sharpe. "You'll let all of us go? All the crew?"

"I said so."

"And how do we know...?"

Harper spoke in sudden Gaelic. His words were brief, harshly spoken, and a mystery to every man in the room except to himself and Docherty. The American lieutenant listened to the huge Irishman, then looked back to Sharpe with sudden, unnatural humility. "You have my word."

I can't come up with what Harper could have said that would cause Docherty to look at Sharpe not just with respect but with sudden, unnatural humility, but it must have been incredibly complimentary.