Aussies beat the Poms in .... Robot Dancing

Australia might not have been able to beat England in this year's Ashes Cricket tournament but, by god, the University of Melbourne can beat the University of Kent in robot dancing!  It is comforting to know that the future of the country is safe in the hands of the next generation.

Source:  ninemsn - http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/869234/aussies-break-robot-dancing-world-record

True Blood does the Rocky Horror Show

This blog post started when I woke up to Triple J this morning and Marike Hardy was telling listeners how, at the Chinese production of the musical Cats, a child did a poo in the theatre aisle and the performance had to be stopped.  Wow, do they have harsh critics in China!  Usually you just get hecklers.

Now this is pretty much my reaction to Cats as well.  That's not to say I dislike musicals - there are some I love: Singing in the Rain, Les Miserables, The Singing Dectective, Cabaret (and lots of others). 

A particular teenage obsession of mine was The Rocky Horror Show - both stage and cinema versions.  When I was in the shower this morning (my best place for thinking) I had a vision/fantasy/delusion (call it what you will) of the characters in True Blood being cast in The Rocky Horror Show.  Here are my suggestions.

For Brad and Janet - no contest really - it has to be Bill and Sookie.  We know Bill can sing and dance and I'm sure Sookie sang in the Church choir.

Dr. Frank-N-Furter - now this is a hard one.  As much as I'd like to see Eric in fishnets, I think the role would have to go to Lafayette.

Riff-Raff and Magenta - Eric is a bit left field for Riff-Raff, but I think he could make it work and Pam would be a spectacular Magenta.

Columbia - hmm - Jessica or Tara?  I going with Tara - 'cause I'm sure she can tap-dance.

Dr. Everett V. Scott - Sam (I had to give him something poor dear).

Rocky Horror - again no contest here - it just has to be Jason.

Eddie - Andy Bellefleur - he's as mad as a cut snake, so perfect for this role.

The Criminologist - Sheriff Dearborne - "it's just a jump to the left."

The Transylvanians - Jessica, Hoyt, Mike Spencer, Rosy, Jane Bodehouse.

Queen Sophie-Ann - the Director, of course.

Barbie - the Movie

Yes - Barbie is making a movie.

"The 50-year-old figurine fashionista, reputedly the biggest-selling toy of all time, will be brought to life by Universal Pictures following a deal between the studio and manufacturer Mattel, Variety reported. "Barbie is the most famous doll in history, a unique cultural icon in the world of brands," Universal Pictures chairman Marc Shmuger said. "

In a surprise casting decision Ken will be Barbie's love interest.

I can't wait. I haven't looked forward to a movie so much since The Spice Girls Movie. :-p

If they can write a vampire into the script I might go see it.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,26127398-7485,00.html

My Cousin Ötzi

This is my cousin Ötzi. He's not looking so good having spent way too much time being freeze dried.

A couple of years ago I had my Mitochondrial DNA sequenced by Oxford Ancestors Ltd. and I found out that Ötzi and I share a maternal ancestor from about 7000 years ago.

Ötzi died high on an Alpine pass between Austria and Italy over 5000 years ago. This means at the time he was alive Egyptian civilization was just beginning. His body was covered by ice and it was not found again until 1991.

Apparently my cousin was either murdered or sacrificed. If I ever find all the descendants of those responsible for his death, there will be trouble. Just sayin'.

Read more about Ötzi at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman
http://www.oetzi.com/

Find out about your ancestry at:
http://www.oxfordancestors.com/

Stranger than Fiction (2) - the Horned God?

This is really creepy and coming after that whole - horned god & sacrifice story line in True Blood, it is enough to give me nightmares. (Or it would be if my nightmares consisted of anything but frustration dreams about being late to catch a plane.)

Jack Marx, in his new book Australian Tragic, tells the true story of the Godson family.

"Moloch

While waiting at Circular Quay for a ferry to take them to Sydney's Luna Park on June 9, 1979, the Godson family are approached by a Satanic-looking figure dressed in a loincloth and wearing a mask with horns. The creature voicelessly places his hand on young Damian Godson's shoulder. Somebody snaps a photograph. It is the last photograph of the boy ever taken - hours later, Damian, his brother, Craig, and his father, John, will burn in the fire that sweeps through The Ghost Train. Nobody will ever see the horned man again. "

Source: news.com.au
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26119165-421,00.html

Queen Sophie-Ann - Workplace Psychopath

In the vampire world it seems that size matters - fang size. Going by the length of Queen Sophie-Ann's pointy teeth she is one powerful vamp.

Alan Ball has said of the Queen that “Nobody’s ever entirely happy to see her...She’s very powerful, capricious and most likely insane.”

While her behaviour is certainly eccentric, she doesn't seem insane. What she definitely is is a psychopath (I'll leave it up to medical and legal professions to decide whether psychopaths are insane or not).

Psychopaths can be described as "generally highly destructive and manipulative individuals with dark sides who have no remorse for their actions..."

"They are typically only interested in power, control, domination and subjugation, and it is believed that female psychopaths are more dangerous than males as they are more socially skillful in their manipulation."

Actually, now I think back on it all of the girl vamps in True Blood have bigger fangs than the boys. Maybe in the TB universe vampires are like birds of prey where the female is bigger and stronger than the male.

Psychopathic behaviour can include the sneaky, manipulative and bullying actions by high achievers who are loved by management. A workplace psychopath, be they a colleague or a boss can be the bane of those around them.

The effect they have on co-workers or employees can include: "Insomnia, intense self-doubt and mild depression...and in more severe cases chronic anxiety, depression, despair and even suicidal ideation..."

Sound familiar, Bill?

This description would also seem to apply to Lorena.

Poor Bill. No wonder he fell for Sookie after being the victim of those two gorgons.

Source: News.com.au, 23 Sept 2009, 'Dark sides' creating toxic workplaces By staff writers and wires. Research quote: Dr Giles Burch, The Auckland University Business School’s Department of Management.

Picture: HBO

Want to read more about Psychopaths (who wouldn't really)?

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/10/01/2701728.htm

Ummmm - bad marketing?

A co-worker popped into my office to let me know he was having a climax.

I was seriously considering lodging a sexual harassment claim when he went on to explain that "Climax" was the name of a new energy drink on the market.

Come on marketing guys! What are you - 9 years old or something?

Given how bad it apparently tastes it probably needed the puerile name.

Apocalypse Again!

A cloud of blood-red dust has blanketed South-Eastern Australia and nearly shut down Sydney. I always suspected that Luna Park was the gate to Hell (see pic). That face with its mad, wide smile and white, white teeth...

People have been saying this red sky is a sign of the Apocalypse.

Again!

I'm getting bored of this almost Apocalypse. Get over it already! The Apocalypse is like love or the Spanish Inquisition - it will come when you least expect it (or not at all) and it will have a comfy chair.

And while I'm on the subject of Apocalypses/Apocalypii??? (whatever), what is it with fantasy/horror TV shows and the Apocalypse? Didn't Buffy manage to avert the Apocalypse several times, not to mention Angel as well? The boys on Supernatural are also battling Hell in their current season. There's got to be others I've forgotten. Surely there are only so many times you can avert an Apocalypse.

Hot Scott

This is my horse Scotty (registered name Be My Hero) AKA Hot Scott.

Someone asked me (not a True Blood fan) if Hot Scott was the guy pictured in my blog title. lolololololololololol!!!!!

I wish.

The Drawers of Order...

...or should I say the order of drawers. Kitchen drawers. My mother, and no doubt her mother before her, always kept the kitchen wraps (eg aluminium foil, cling wrap etc.) in the third drawer down under the cutlery (traditionally kept in the top draw). The second drawer is usually the random kitchen utensil drawer - the one that always gets stuck. The bottom drawer is the other stuff - including paper and plastic bags, appliance manuals etc.

As the wild and crazy innovator that I am, I have my wraps in the second drawer with the utensils below that.

I would like to know from my regular readers (OK - I know there are none - humour the crazy lady) how you organise your kitchen drawers. There is probably an interesting research study in how humans transmit culture through the organisation of living spaces.

Ovenism - a New Cosmology

My brother and I walked into the kitchen and thus our Mother spake:

"Everything is in the oven"

Our eyes were opened and so Ovenism was born

The central tenent of this cosmology is that all time and space exists within the celestial oven and that we are awaiting the "end timer" which will go off and the oven door will open to reveal the "dinner".

More later....

What do cats see? (2)

After extensive research (well a quick Google trawl, actually) I have managed to answer some of my questions about how my cats might see me. There are two parts to this.
(1) The actual physical aspect of the eye which govern sight or vision; and (2) the neurological aspects that govern how vision is interpreted in the brain.

Eyes
Humans, as primates, are adapted to a diurnal, tree-dwelling, plant and fruit foraging niche which requires good colour detail and depth perception. Sight is a primate’s most important sense. Felines on the other hand are essentially nocturnal predators for whom colour vision and fine detail are not as important as the ability to detect the movement of prey in dim and changing light conditions. A cat’s senses of smell and hearing are also much more acute than those of humans.

The Brain
Humans recognise other humans primarily by sight, in particular through the recognition of an individual’s unique facial features. Studies on infants have found that facial recognition is an innate behaviour and there are specialised structures in the human brain which deal with the processing of facial recognition. Primates are essentially social animals that live in family groupings within a home territory. The recognition of members of a group as opposed to outsiders is an important adaptation for the defence of territory and the resources within it.

Felines (with the exception of lions) tend to be solitary as adults with territories defined through scent marking. It would be interesting to see if lions perceive individuals differently from other felines. Certainly anyone who has seen the video of Christian the lion greeting his two human “parents” can see that he clearly remembered and recognised them.

Conclusion
My cats can’t see me the way a human can – it is just not physically possible for them. They probably see me as a mobile object – that feeds them. That and the fact that my younger cats haven’t come into contact with a wide variety of human-shaped objects may explain their nervous behaviour with strangers and swishy pants.

References

Dr. Christianne.Schelling - Cat Health Topics: Feline Special Senses Visionhttp://www.cathealth.com/CatEyes.htmCat - 2005

Facial recognition vs object recognition
G. Lovell, Face Recognition, Tutorial Handouts, "Cognitiove Psychology" Course, University of Stirling, UK
http://www.face-rec.org/

Relative Queues of Time

You turn up on time for your Doctor appointment and wait for half-an-hour, an hour or more before you actually get to see the Doctor. You turn up late for your appointment and "oh dear" maybe the Doctor can't see you at all because you didn't wait in the correct order. (NB - not my experience - I'm just an interested observer of human behaviour.)

Panda robot 'paves way for Madonna robot'

Another top story from Agence France-Presse. Apparently these robot Pandas are "very cute and more attracted to humans". They will also be able to sing a Panda song.

Wonderful.

Additionally the Taiwanese researchers are going to develop robots that look like exact replicas of star performers that could perform in the comfort of their fans' homes.

""It could be a Madonna robot. It will be a completely different experience from just listening to audio,'' Mr Lin said."

I think I'm going to run from the room screaming. The very thought of a Madonna robot just gives me the willies.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

According to Agence France-Presse "Police yesterday found the body of a 24-year-old Yale University student stuffed in a laboratory wall." Those crazy kids! I wonder what hypothesis they were testing?

True Blood - Season 2 Finale

Well True Blood Season 2 is done and dusted and there are only 9 months to wait for the resolution of all the cliff-hangers. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Beware - Spoilers Below



HBO/Skip Bolen

That big romantic, Bill asked Sookie to marry him, but, while Sookie was having a "moment" in the Ladies, was satched away by persons? unknown before he got his answer.

For 9 months all us TB fans will be scared for Bill and sad for Sookie.

Couldn't the writers have given them even a couple of weeks happiness before the next crisis? I know Alan Ball says that watching happy couples is boring TV, but I think fans do like to see their favourite characters given an occasional even break (even if we don't actually see it on screen).

Having read the books and some of AB's hints for next season I guess our favourites will only get into more and more trouble.

Bill is already in deep trouble, and to save Bill, Sookie will get involved with the Mississippi vampires and werewolves. No doubt Eric will be his usual helpful, Machiavellian self. Poor Tara is likely to be headed from the relationship frying pan into the fire. Jason may end up meeting the Hotshot were-panthers (quite a bit earlier than in the books) and Sam will seek out his shape-shifter parents. Who knows what is in store for Lafayette, Hoyt and Jessica? Not happiness - at any rate.

You know I was about to end with "I'm glad I'm not one of Alan Ball's characters" and then I thought - my god - perhaps I am! Nahh - thankfully my life ain't nearly that interesting.

Rejected by Bees

Last Saturday was Bee swarming day apparently - although I didn't get the reminder. Bee swarms were out and about searching for a place to settle. For a frightening minute I thought they were going to make my yard home as they were having a good look around some garden furniture. I got all panicky and called a Bee remover. Luckily for the Bees and me they had moved on by morning. I'm not sure if I was relieved they were gone or pissed off that they had rejected a perfectly good bench seat. Snobs!

What do cats see (1)?

I have three cats: Bonsai AKA "Kitty"; "Shimo" AKA "Poo Man" AKA "Master of All He Surveys From on Top of the Dresser" and "Niji" AKA "Princess" AKA "Litt'l".

Bonsai

Shimo (top) and Niji (bottom)

Bonsai is my older cat and is pretty well socialised, relaxed etc. The younger two are a very shy. When my sister and family came to visit, her girls accused me of lying that the cats actually existed because they spent their entire time hiding under the bed. The girls made up a story in honour of Shimo and Niji called "Auntie Patty's Anti-Social Cats". (For the full, clever, effect of this title it must be spoken with an American accent (my sister lives in the OC, CA).

I have often wondered how cats perceive the world. I know that they don't recognise faces the way humans do. I think, perhaps, they recognise my general body outline, the sound of my voice and my smell. The younger cats, in particular, will run away even from me when I'm wearing and carrying something that breaks up my usual outline and sounds different (eg swishy pants, noisy shoes etc).

When my brother was over the other day, Shimo came in to the lounge room to see who had invaded his territory and his behaviour sparked our interest. He knew something was different about the room, but was not quite what it was. He didn't stare directly at my brother, who was sitting on the couch, as a human would do, but seemed to be staring at the area around him. My brother asked if Shimo was blind - which he definitely isn't.

I'm sure that there's research on this. I now have a project.

True Blood - Feral Peacocks Take Over Bon Temps

It is a little known fact that there is a large population of feral Peafowl (Pavo cristatus, native to the Indian sub-continent) in Louisiana, USA - particularly around the small town of Bon Temps. Unlike other Peafowl which are strictly diurnal creatures these Peacocks are primarily nocturnal and the male Lousiana Peacock is known to produce its haunting call when shifters are in danger from Meanads.

Image source Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peafowl#Behaviour

The Thumbs of Creativity

I had my own "On the Road to Damascus (actually Gundaroo)" the other day. I was driving to Sutton to see Hot Scott and listening to the BBC World Service Health Check. A guy was talking about quick ways to assess your personality type. The test was to see if a person was creative or analytical. If you clasp your hands in front of you and interlace your fingers the thumb that ends up on top shows what personality type you are. If your right thumb ends up on top you are analytical and if the left one is on top you are creative. I suppose this is linked to the whole left-brain, right-brain handedness thing.

Well I tried the test and to my amazement the left thumb was on top - I WAS CREATIVE!! Who knew? I had always thought I was more on the analytical side of things - even though I do spend a great deal of my time in meetings doodling instead of writing notes.

I tried this test with my fellow cube residents with some distressing results. Some people who had always assumed they were creative found out they were actually analytical. I think I may have inadvertently screwed up their self-image.

Spider Solitaire

Is there any point to life once 4 suits have been conquered?

True Blood - Frenzy - say what?

In Season 2 episode 11 Eric accuses Bill of feeding Sookie his blood on the "very night you met her". Hang on - wasn't it the second night he met her? The first night they met she saved Bill from the Ratrays. The second night was when the Ratrays beat Sookie almost to death and Bill saved her by giving her his blood. Was this deliberate on AB's part?

Waiting for True Blood Season 2 Finale

I am having a four-day weekend to celebrate the True Blood Season 2 finale. Saturday and Sunday will be a Season 1 marathon and Monday and Tuesday will be devoted to Season 2. There will be cheesecake (with mixed berry compote - note red theme ) and Cosmopolitans (again- red theme). Tuesday is also my Birthday and another reason not to be resident in my Cube.

Soon...

is a really stupid word. Just say it a few times.

Yes, really..

I want to write for True Blood - it would be such a cool job. Of course the probability of that happening is zero, so I'll blog instead.

I'm not sure what this blog will be about. I'll see what comes. I think there'll be something about True Blood (no prizes for guessing this is my latest obsession) and other horror/fantasy literature, movies and TV. I may talk some about my cats (3) and my horse (1). I might also bitch a bit about my soul-sucking job - well why not?

So here is my message in a bottle - read it and weep - I do.

WTF?

Well a girl can dream...

I would also like to look like Angelina Jolie - but that's never going to happen either. :-)