Blogcomments for THE GALLOPING SKIRT / SHOUTING AT STREET LIGHTS / BEE'S BLOG / INTELLIBLOG / JACUI BB / NEVER ON SUNDAY and others

I can't leave comments on other people's blogs (see blog below for explanation). So I am going to record my comments in a blog and post it.

Hear are the comments I have made about other people's blogs over the last little while:

The Galloping Skirt – Boo’s Field Guide To Nerds (Part 7) – well done Rebecca. A masterful and insightful conclusion to this wonderful series of blogs. I recognized all the characteristics here – the small bottles of dark beer, the monty python quotes, etc etc. I particularly liked your definition of games.

Shouting at Street Lights – Lest we forget – Michael I love Dido’s Lament. It is a favourite of mine. A million years ago when I was young and lissome I choreographed a performed a solo dance to it.

Bee’s blog – Forgetter be forgotten? – fun word play in this poem

Intelliblog – The sweetness of honey, the sting of bees – what a lovely little poem. I love its gentle humour.

Creative Journey – Wednesday again? Then Poetry it is – Jacqui, I saw this poem on PoemHunter as well (in fact I got onto that useful website because I saw you mention it on your blog). I was struck by the grand imagery and dramatic tone of this poem.

Never on Sunday – Poetry Wednesday – Clearing the path – a lovely, sparely written, bitter sweet poem, Heather. I love it where she writes “I sweep / plum petals or magnolia cones / to clear the way for heartier loves.”

Aussie lynn downunder – silent for a moment – another beautiful, reflective moment from Lyn.

Creative Journey – no one said this would be easy – and another blog about the creative process! Jacqui, I love this painting too. Of course I love the gorgeous colours but in this particular painting the composition is a very pleasing thing for me. Thanks for writing about your process so articulately.

Bakowski Poetry News – what writing poetry requires – good blog on the creative process. My Mum had a uni lecturer who used to advise write it down then get it write as a way for getting past your fear of the blank page. I have always found this to be true. I kind of applied the same idea to my choreography too – tackling blank ‘space’ like a blank page.

Intelliblog – O tempora, o mores – well written (as always) Nicholas. I want to respond but I just can’t. I actually despair over the human race and wonder if the sooner we blow ourselves up the better. We are not good for much.

Sidetracked Charley – My day in Taos – treats are good in the face of legal doings. I approve.

My so called life – Babysitting – hope the little tacker gets better soon. How in god’s name do you get pancakes to look like the cast of squarepants bob or whatever he’s called?

Never on Sunday – Christmas is nothing to write home about… - Heather, I can understand your dilemma. I suppose it’s out of the question to take yourself off somewhere for a treat or some pampering? Book yourself into a restaurant for a special lunch? Buy yourself a really special bottle of wine and curate yourself a do it yourself film festival at home? New Year’s eve / day is always a fizzler for me. I would really like a nice special celebration to welcome in the new year with family but it never seems to happen (my family’s neediness spikes at this time of year and they can bleed the joy out of the most determined merry making). I have decided that this year SCREW IT! Family can look after themselves, I’m taking myself off for a decadent lunch (even if it is on a budget). Good luck!

blog comments for AUSSIE LYNN / JACQUI BB / BAKOWSKI POETRY NEWS / INTELLIBLOG / BECKY / HEATHERBELLE and others

I can't leave comments on other people's blogs (see blog below for explanation). So I am going to record my comments in a blog and post it.

Hear are the comments I have made about other people's blogs over the last little while:

Aussie lynn downunder – silent for a moment – another beautiful, reflective moment from Lyn.

Creative Journey – no one said this would be easy – and another blog about the creative process! Jacqui, I love this painting too. Of course I love the gorgeous colours but in this particular painting the composition is a very pleasing thing for me. Thanks for writing about your process so articulately.

Bakowski Poetry News – what writing poetry requires – good blog on the creative process. My Mum had a uni lecturer who used to advise write it down then get it write as a way for getting past your fear of the blank page. I have always found this to be true. I kind of applied the same idea to my choreography too – tackling blank ‘space’ like a blank page.

Intelliblog – O tempora, o mores – well written (as always) Nicholas. I want to respond but I just can’t. I actually despair over the human race and wonder if the sooner we blow ourselves up the better. We are not good for much.

Sidetracked Charley – My day in Taos – treats are good in the face of legal doings. I approve.

My so called life – Babysitting – hope the little tacker gets better soon. How in god’s name do you get pancakes to look like the cast of squarepants bob or whatever he’s called?

Never on Sunday – Christmas is nothing to write home about… - Heather, I can understand your dilemma. I suppose it’s out of the question to take yourself off somewhere for a treat or some pampering? Book yourself into a restaurant for a special lunch? Buy yourself a really special bottle of wine and curate yourself a do it yourself film festival at home? New Year’s eve / day is always a fizzler for me. I would really like a nice special celebration to welcome in the new year with family but it never seems to happen (my family’s neediness spikes at this time of year and they can bleed the joy out of the most determined merry making). I have decided that this year SCREW IT! Family can look after themselves, I’m taking myself off for a decadent lunch (even if it is on a budget). Good luck!

Bwca – tyke tossing – jeez, b, so sorry to hear about the toilet flushing incident. Can well understand why this would be an emotive issue for you. Hope life has taken a steady turn for the better ever since.

Trying to be Ann O'Dyne – Bunker Hill is no battle – God what a glorious looking place. And I envy you being able to immerse yourself in cats for a while. House sitting?

Shouting at street lights – achingly sad – Yes, this is very sad but very, very romantic too. Actually writing a passionate letter and then throwing it into the sea is a good way to put the seal on something in your own mind, yes? It's interesting that she included a lock of hair too. As well as the romantic overtones it suggests a little pagan sacrifice to me as well.

Bee's blog – witches chant from macbeth – when I was a little kid (in primary school) I learnt this off by heart (have forgotten it now). I just loved the spooky words and I so badly wanted to be a witch when I was small.

My Love Is Like To Ice

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congeal's with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.

Edmund Spenser

PoemHunter.com sent this poem to me in their daily email bulletin. Is Poetry Wednseday still going on? If it is then you should check out Creative Journey, which is the hub of it. I have not blogged for ages - forgive me but I literally am not getting the chance to sit down in front of the net these days.

blog comments for BWCA, ANN O DYNE, SHOUTING AT STREET LIGHTS, BEE'S BLOG, JACQUI BB, MY SO CALLED LIFE, INTELLIBLOG, AUSSIE LYN

I can't leave comments on other people's blogs (see blog below for explanation). So I am going to record my comments in a blog and post it.

Hear are the comments I have made about other people's blogs over the last little while:

Bwca – tyke tossing – jeez, b, so sorry to hear about the toilet flushing incident. Can well understand why this would be an emotive issue for you. Hope life has taken a steady turn for the better ever since.

Trying to be Ann O'Dyne – Bunker Hill is no battle – God what a glorious looking place. And I envy you being able to immerse yourself in cats for a while. House sitting?

Shouting at street lights – achingly sad – Yes, this is very sad but very, very romantic too. Actually writing a passionate letter and then throwing it into the sea is a good way to put the seal on something in your own mind, yes? It's interesting that she included a lock of hair too. As well as the romantic overtones it suggests a little pagan sacrifice to me as well.

Bee's blog – witches chant from macbeth – when I was a little kid (in primary school) I learnt this off by heart (have forgotten it now). I just loved the spooky words and I so badly wanted to be a witch when I was small.

Creative Journey – Multi blog poetry wednesday – great poem Jacqui! I agree with Bee that you do have a talent for imagery. I also enjoy your taught and disciplined structuring of phrases.

My so called life – it’s November did you fall back – I love daylight saving, that extra sunlight acts like a drug. You will need extra daylight if you are doing some remodeling.

Intelliblog – art Sunday – Picasso – thanks for this blog Nicholas. Picasso doesn’t appeal to my personal tastes but this doesn’t mean that I dismiss his importance to the world of art. Sometimes it is even more important to try to understand the stuff you don’t understand or like. I think this leads to a more robust intellect and personal aesthetic.

Sidetracked Charley – Sidetracked again – But Jacqui it sounds as if you are making plenty happen. Wonder just where this sidetracked feeling is coming from. Of course, traveling, although pleasant can have a disorientating effect.

Aussie lyn downunder – feels like summer – I know just how you feel. I know we need more rain to break the drought once and for all but the warmer weather and sunnier days are so much nicer to live in. I feel more invigorated but more relaxed at the same time.

Why I am not on Blogger much

Note: this blog is exported from Blogger to Facebook and Alive not Dead but will be more relevant to those folks from Blogger who are good enough to read my blogs every now and again.

The problem: I am having problems leaving comments on other people’s blogs. What happens specifically is that I will write in the comment box and then click the submit box for the comment to be published. After I do this the comment box immediately proliferates and throws up another comment box and then another and then another. The computer screen becomes filled with what seems hundreds of these in a couple of minutes. I can’t do any thing else on the computer as any function is immediately cancelled out by yet another box appearing. The only thing I can do is lean on the off button for the computer until it turns off and then start the computer again.

This has been going on for a few months now. At first it was infrequent and seemed only to be happening to a few blogs with the ‘catchpa’ mechanism or what ever it’s called (those funny letters that appear when ever you try to submit a comment to test you out) but lately it has also happened on blogs that don’t have this.

This thing doesn’t happen every time I leave a comment but it has been increasing in frequency and now happens every 3 or so comments I try to leave. It is simply not practical for me to have to turn the computer off every few minutes.

This is not my computer’s problem. I know this because I don’t have the internet on at home and therefore don’t own a computer that I blog on. I use a variety of computers at libraries, internet cafes and sometimes (furtively) at work. This problem has happened on different computers so it must be a problem with the blog somehow.

Does anyone know what is going on? How can I fix it? Can I fix it? Does anyone know of an email address for some kind of IT support / customer service department for Blogger? I have tried looking for one but can’t find it. There are forums where you can leave an account of your problem in the hope that someone will answer and fix it there. However these forums have literally thousands of posts on them and I must admit that I am not hopeful of getting this problem read about and addressed. And on the off chance that someone does read it, that someone may be another member of the public and not someone with any authority to actually fix anything.

I will wait a little while and see if anyone can help out. But if I can’t get this problem fixed then I will have to move onto another blogging site and this I really don’t want to do. While I enjoy writing the blogs, for me half the pleasure comes from being able to read and comment on other people’s blogs and I have found that without being able to do this my own inspiration to write has dwindled to virtually nothing. If I moved to another blogging site I would be moving away from a little network of bloggers here on Blogger that I consider to be my friends and that seems to me to be a very lonely prospect. But I have to admit that right now even the idea of logging on to Blogger is creating a knot of anxiety in my stomach.

Vital lessons from the day words fell short

Vital lessons from the day words fell short

DON WATSON

The Age, September 19, 2009

''THEY leapt from mountain peak to mountain peak or far out into the lower country, lighting forests six or seven miles in advance of the main fires. Blown by wind of great force they roared as they travelled. Balls of crackling fire sped at a great pace and in advance of the fires consuming with a roaring explosive noise all that they touched. Houses of brick were seen and heard to leap into a roar of flame before the fires had reached them … Great pieces of burning bark were carried by the wind to set in raging flame regions not yet reached by the fires.''

The fires described here are not the Black Saturday fires, but the Black Friday fires of 1939. The writer is Justice Leonard Stretton, who conducted the inquiry into Black Friday. Stretton also described the environmental conditions that fuelled them: '' … the forest from the foothills to the alpine heights were tinder … dry heat and hot dry winds worked upon a land already dry to suck from it the least drop of moisture.''

When Jack Rush, QC, quoted these passages to the current royal commission, he intended to suggest to the chief of Country Fire Authority that last summer's fires were not without precedent, and to ask why the authority's warnings on February 6 ''did not prepare people for the sort of fire that could be anticipated on February 7''. ''All I can say, Mr Rush,'' said the CFA chief ''is that we did our very, very best.''

The matter, of course, has nothing to do with the efforts of CFA firefighters. It concerns CFA management and, more particularly, what managers call ''communication''. It's unlikely that Mr Rush and his colleagues are wondering if they had anything but good intentions. The task on February 7 was complex and immense. They were like Horatius holding the bridge or the little Dutch boy when he saw the hole in the dyke. But with this difference: Horatius and the boy had no management strategy. Unschooled in value-adding as he was, when he saw the Etruscans massed on the other side, Horatius resolved to hold the bridge. Upon recognising a potentially serious dyke event, the boy put his finger in the hole. To go by the royal commission transcripts, the limits of their language being the limits of their world, CFA managers did not approach the task of warning us with the same spontaneous dispatch.

One CFA manager described the business of telling the public as ''messaging''; ''communicating the likely impact''; ''to communicate the degree of the circumstance''; providing ''precise complex fire behaviour information''; ''to communicate more effectively in a timely manner not just that it is a bad day, but other factors as well.''

He spoke of his task as ''value-adding'' and ''populating the document''. He and other managers talked a good deal about ''learnings'', ''big learnings'' and even ''huge learnings''. ''Of course, the learnings from these fires'', one said, ''the scientists will come out and give us an outcome of what sort of messaging and where we can go to better inform communities …''

Commissioner Ron McLeod asked the CFA chief if it might not have been more useful to have told people what firefighters in the Yarra region had been told, ''that they were liable to face a fire that could not be stopped, that had a flame height of 35 metres''. He wondered if more ''explicit terms'' might have ''added a bit more substance'' with ''implications … for people who might in other circumstances have chosen to stay as their preferred option''.

In reply, the chief could not escape the limits of his professional idiom: ''My view … is that for those people in that environment the weather conditions were very plain to understand. We had very clearly communicated the fuel conditions. I think the bit - if you think about it in terms of the fire triangle - was we had not communicated the likely outcome …''

We presume he meant to say that the only thing they messed up was the bit about the fire. They neglected to tell people in concrete language that any fire on February 7 was likely to be one they could not fight, and might not survive. If instead of ''fire activity with potential to impact'' we had dangerous, unpredictable, deadly fires, fires like the one Stretton described, the CFA's ''messagings'' might have persuaded more people to get out of the way. If instead of ''wind events'' the experts and the authorities had said the wind will blow a tremendous gale of searing air through forests so dry they will explode into fires that no one can stop; and that the wind will very likely suddenly blow just as hard from another direction and send these firestorms into the midst of people who just minutes before had thought they were safe - or something like this - perhaps more people would have recognised the danger.

It was not that they did not do their very, very best. More likely, when it came to telling people what they had to know, their management training made their best inadequate. Telling people requires language whose meaning is plain and unmistakable. Managerial language is never this.

Here is a possible ''learning'' for managers. Take Stretton's description of Black Friday and add the word ''event'' after any mention of wind or fire, and see if it adds value. Add ''impact'', ''outcome'' and ''activity''. Is the ''messaging'' clearer? What ''learnings in terms of outcomes'' do you take from this? The same test may be usefully taken by managers in other fields.

Don Watson's new book, Bendable Learnings, will be published on October 3.

TV Programmes: Tarzan / Lone Ranger / Zorro / Black Adder etc.

TV programmes I have recently watched:

My TV antenna is broken so I don’t get the TV. Instead I can borrow out old TV programmes on DVD from my local library. Thanks to the library the programmes I have recently been watching (in lieu of the dreadful Big Brother) are:

The New Adventures of Tarzan (Volume 1) Where’s Johnny Weismuller when you need him? The dude who plays the character role in these 4 episodes is a lousy actor and sports a hair do that would not have been out of place on a band member of Duran Duran or The Human League. The plots are hilariously bad. Here is a plot summary from the DVD cover for just one of the episodes:

Madly in love with Tarzan, Queen Maya stays her hand. Suddenly, the natives notice Raglan lowering a noose through the temple’s chimney hole from above, snagging the Green Goddess and hauling it away. D’Arnot frees Tarzan from the altar, and the apeman rescues the Martling party, who were about to be thrown into a pit of alligators.

The Queen Maya in question is supposed to be Guatemalan (this is a very geographically confused production) but the actress who plays her is a tough peroxide blonde costumed like a 1940s exotic dancer. She staggers through her scene giving the impression that shagging the producers of The New Adventures of Tarzan has left her sore in places she doesn’t wan to think about.

The Lone Ranger (Volume 2) These 3 episodes lived up to expectation. The mask, the rearing white horse, the William Tell overture, the loyal Indian offsider – they were all there. A booming voice announces over the opening credits that the Lone Ranger was a “fabulous individual”. Excellent. The melodrama of the classical music soundtrack contrasts curiously but effectively with the action of the stolid western characters. I could absolutely go Tonto too.

Zorro’s Fighting Legion (Volume 1) 3 episodes from the black and white TV series. Much rushing about on horse back and nearly getting shot, nearly getting dynamited, nearly getting ambushed… but Zorro always escapes and saves the day. He has to. He is wearing the best costume.

The Black Adder – Series 4. Black Adder, Baldrick et al fetch up in the trenches of World War 1 in this series. This is brilliant comedy – hyperbolic writing, British stereotypes and perfect performances. The very last episode is very dark and unexpectedly moving, and it reminded me how great comedy can be a hair’s breadth away from tragedy at times.

Julius Caesar starring Chris Noth, Richard Walken, Richard Harris among others. Formulaic but competent telling of the life and times of the Roman emperor.

Palin on Art This is a pleasant series that features Michael Palin discussing, researching, journeying as a response to some of his favourite art. He visits the places where artists lived and the places they painted and talks to the people who knew them. Recommended for art enthusiasts.

All Aussie Adventures – Series 1 & 2. This is a popular comedy series made in recent years. It spoofs Australian travel programmes and, in particular, Australian travel programme hosts. There is a specific breed of Aussie bloke that reckons he is an alpha male who is expert in everything to do with the great outdoors. These men are to be avoided at all costs. These mock travelogues focus on the misadventures of a character called Russell Coight as he travels through the Australian outback. That Coight is an idiot is obvious to everyone except himself. In every programme he trips over tree roots, falls off gates and pinches his fingers in lids. In each episode he manages to accidentally kill a rare Australian animal, wreck someone else’s car, and alienate whoever happens to be around him at the time. The comedy is broad and, perhaps, predictable, but is well crafted and presented nevertheless. Glenn Robbins is very good as Coight – he times his pratfalls beautifully and he has the mannerisms and vocal delivery (instantly recognizable to any Aussie who has had these deadly programmes inflicted on them) down perfectly. In fact, he reminds me unerringly of a former landlord of mine. This smug bastard was an armchair expert in everything but particularly fancied himself as the adventurous outdoors type. He also was an idiot. Maybe that is why this show appeals to me.

Leunig Animated. This DVD is a collection of short animated versions of Michael Leunig’s cartoons. Leunig is an Australian cartoonist and essayist. He is extremely highly regarded and much loved. His cartoons and essays are regularly published in The Age newspaper here in Melbourne. His humour can be whimsical or caustic, and his cartoons are also often very moving. He is quite capable of commentating on topical affairs or the absurdity of human existence.

Scared Weird Little Guys – The First 15 Years. The Scared Weird Little Guys are an Australian musical comedy duo who are quite well known (at least here in Melbourne where I live). I saw them live for the first (and only) time at the Edinburgh Festival in 2001 or 2002. Until then I had only seen them occasionally and briefly on television, and hadn’t thought that much of them. I went to see their show at Edinburgh because I scored a free ticket. The show was great – it was one of the funniest and cleverest things I ended up seeing at the Festival. SWLG get their laughs from composing and performing funny songs (with the odd cover thrown in). The humour is quirky and impish. Many laughs are to be had from the lyrics, but they also generate laughs from exploiting their superb musicianship and performance technique. At the show in Edinburgh they were making people laugh through the use of key changes and instrumental arrangements in their music. They also have superb diction and use this to great comic effect.

Walking with Cavemen 4 part BBC science programme that uses special effects and heavily costumed actors to trace the evolution from upright apes to Neanderthal man. Very interesting and well crafted.

Life / Survival actually a kids’ nature programme. Beautiful photography.

Robot Chicken cult comedy series from the US. What a pity it wasn’t actually funny.

Also:

The First Eden

Kath and Kim – Series 4

Mythbusters – Ninja Special

Canada – Pilot Guides

Young Ones

Inspector Rex

We Know Where You Live

Feast Greece

1421 – The Year China Discovered the World

7 Periods with Mr Gormsby

Black Books

Billy Connolly in Dublin

Dr Who (Series 3 Volume 5).