bi-mon-sci-fi-con!

Went to Supanova at Homebush with Karen yesterday. Nerds aplenty! (of which we were two - that's not us in droid form, by the way) It was fun, though I always get really tired after wandering around at expos and conventions of any kind. Saw some gorgeous comic art, chatted to and bought a book from fantasy writer Jennifer Fallon, went to an interesting panel discussion on Spirituality in Comics, got sidetracked by all the merch at the Kings Comics stall, and heard Nicholas Brendon talk about being on Buffy and generally muck around with the audience. I took a bit of video, which I might edit and put up, but here he is in all his scruffy charm:

He did the Snoopy dance too - I wish I'd filmed that.

cranky pants

2 more things that bug me:

• when people write that something is 'completely full proof'. What do you mean, that the thing contains 100% alcohol?! IT'S FOOLPROOF, FOOL! (here's what Paul Brians has to say about the distinction - note that most people who use 'full proof' aren't doing it in a mathematical context (it has also led me on a trail to investigate mondegreens and eggcorns - even the terms for these things sound funky - and discovered that in the US there's a PBS show coming up featuring a heroine named WordGirl and I think I want to see it...(do you remember me saying I was a nerd of some sort?)))
  
• the way ABC journalist Philippa McDonald says 'pleece' instead of 'police'. Every time she does it, it makes me want to scream.
  

virtual me

well this has been done to death, really, just about everyone's in the Simpsons now...

But I must say, my South Park self looks kinda fun, don't you think?

I also have other avatars floating around the place, some in games, some just because I could do cool things making up another character.

What is it that is so compelling about creating another version of yourself, whether idealised or just for fun? We do this in fiction, in art, in music... is it a yearning to be more than we are, or different than we are?

I just always thought I'd be cool in South Park.

what to do...

Remember The Milk

I'd heard about this site (mainly from Karen, I think), but never checked it out. Now that I'm starting to think about all the things I have to do for the move, I decided to check it out today and now I'm hooked.

I'm a big fan of making lists (it doesn't always mean that the things on the list get done, but anyway), and Remember the Milk is so well designed, easy to use and just...nifty that I am now a big fan of making lists online. You can add tasks via email, separate them into various lists, export them, even plot them on a Google map (and you all know how much I love plotting things on Google maps). Also, they're a Sydney-based Australian company - I always get excited when I see something that is really cool that has come out of Australia, and better yet, my home town.

Of course, then you get the problem of whether it's a more effective use of your time to plan how you're going to use your time, or just to get on with it and do things. But I find that when I've got lots of big things happening, I'm often immobilised by all the things I have to do, and making lists helps me to sort out the tangled mess of loose ends that is my brain. And if I can integrate that with my love of technology (and Google maps), so much the better.

I am an übernerd

Helvetica

I really want to see this movie. Mark says it's okay, because it means I'm a creative nerd, which is somehow better than just a straight, garden-variety nerd, but the fact that I am rapidly developing a passion for typography - and I don't know why!!! - is a little concerning.

Nerd alert!

I love data. There, I've said it.

Actually, let me qualify that: I love data that you can do creative things with. I don't think I could quite cope with being a statistician (I think you need a basic level of maths for that), but I love seeing patterns in data and comparing lists and stuff like that. So I'm a nerd, I get it.

Today I've spent most of the day cataloguing our library at work. Before you groan in sympathy, let me just say that I have enjoyed it immensely, mainly due to the wonderful LibraryThing. If I had a barcode scanner it would be even more fun, but as it is, I've had to settle for typing in ISBNs. You can check out the partially completed AFES Library if you so desire, with rawther an interesting collection of theological books in it.

Next is to tackle my home library, which is no mean feat. But it will be nice to see what I own and how it compares to what other people own. As well as the standard 'suggester' (along the lines of "if you loved ... you'll also love ...") LibraryThing has this nifty 'unsuggester' feature. It takes a book you have read/own and tells you what you are least likely to have also read, based on the data in its vast database.

But I confounded it when I entered Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and was told I was least likely to have read The Passion of Jesus Christ by John Piper. I've read (and enjoyed) them both. In fact, most of the books I've entered (by Pratchett and Gaiman, as testers) have returned results that are mostly Christian books - if I haven't read them I'm at least familiar with them.

Not only am I a nerd, I'm an anomaly!!!