Review: "World War 2.1" by John Birmingham

WW2.1 is a well-done time-travel military SciFi story. Man, that was a lot of attributes.
The plot is basically that a multinational(primarily American, but also consisting of French, Free Indonesian, Aussie and Pommie ships) task force from 2021 sent to deal with an Islamic jihadist revolution in Indonesia is swept up by a quantum experiment and sent back to 1942 in the middle of Midway. A battle erupts between the confused past US and UN fleets, but eventually ends and they combine forces to deal with the Japs and Nazis. The plot leads on from there, drawing especially on the social differences between 1942 and 2021.

Though it does suffer the general problems of military SF(a little too boyzone adventure, perhaps not black and white but with definite black and white, then a few shades of grey, mainly close to either side), it excels in its field and has well-written action scenes and a brilliantly imagined near-future technological scene. The characters may be slightly cardboard, but a few are geniunely interesting characters. My primary complaint is that it covers too short a timescale, not letting us see the full consequences of the time travel event. I'm still giving it 7.5.
Rating: 7.5/10

The Tao of Programming

I found this quite funny.

By the way,

How many Zen Masters does it take to change a light bulb?
None. The light bulb will change itself.

Review: "Timeline" by Micheal Crichton

Timeline is another well-written work by Micheal Crichton, this time in a more traditional area of SF: Time Travel. Micheal has obviously done extensive research into the medieval age, making it seem more real than any "honorable knights and fair maidens" story. He shows extensive knowledge of the economics of the age: the importance of water-wheel mills, the reasons for villages, and the rich Church.
The book starts with the appearance of mysterious man in the Arizona desert clutching a map of a monastery that was burnt down in the 14th century, who shortly thereafter dies from a mysterious circulatory problem. It quickly switches to an archeological dig in France, where they are excavating that very monastery, with the support of the same company that employed the strange man. In a few chapters, the archeologists travel to Arizona and then to 14th century France to rescue the dig leader, who has become trapped in the 14th century. One thing that Micheal Crichton's books work at is making the start of the book and the character intros, which could be fairly boring, actually very interesting.
This book has less depth than "Prey" because of its multiple protagonists: their are three primary ones, as well as a few others who intersperse the text. The protagonists are still well-written, but their personalities are not as well grounded and deep as the protagonist from "Prey". The book still has an entertaining plot and well written action scenes, qualifying it for 8/10 stars.
Rating: 8/10

Review: "Prey" by Micheal Crichton

Prey, by Micheal Crichton, is a well-written technothriller with an interesting protagonist and a smart plot. It is about the dangers inherent in self-replicating nanotechnology (tiny robots): i.e., the "Grey Grey Goo" problem. The idea is that, if self-replicating nanobots are released into the enviroment without good safeguards, they will eventually turn all matter on the planet into other nanobots.
While not quite going that far, the book still manages to convey an idea of the seriousness of this problem. It does probably show the technology coming a little earlier than plausible, but it's a technothriller, not hard SciFi.
Micheal Crichton really succeeds at the characterization of the protagonist in this book. I felt and understood his feelings, motivations, and actions as well as if I was standing inside his head. His feelings about his wife, his kids, and his situation as a stay-at-home dad were portrayed brilliantly.
Though some of the other characters are a bit cardboardy, the well-written protagonist and the exciting action scenes manage to drive this book into the 9 stars range.
Rating: 9/10

Random Rant: US-Australia "Free" Trade Agreement

The current US-Australia "Free" Trade Agreement that will soon probably be ratified is anything but. What it is is an agreement that will give the US's subsidised industries practically total access to the Australian markets, without giving Australian industries any sort of benefit, at least for the next decade or two, by which time those Australian industries will probably be wiped out. It's a total scam that will destroy thousands of Australian jobs and lives, and will probably provide little percivable benefit to the average American. The only people who it will truly benefit is the American upper-class, who'll rake in profits from Australia.
The worst thing is the Australian Opposition is just going to accept the deal. The entire point of having multiple political parties is so that the other parties can contest the government's actions, but no, they just will accept the UnFree Trade Agreement as is. The American government would probably be willing to accept a freer agreement, if the Australian goverment was prepared to negotiate harder and not just accept what the Bush Administration gives them, which pretty much accounts to a pat on the head for Iraq.

I want Labour to oppose this deal. For that matter, I want the Coalition to oppose it as well, but that probably won't happen. All I can say is good on yer to the Green party, who have been the only real opposition to the UnFTA.

Review: Shrek 2

I went to see Shrek 2 on Thursday. Sequels aren't often the cream of the crop, but Shrek 2 managed to keep the same quality of the original one, or even improve on it. I really liked the little spoofs in the movie: the LotR spoof, the Spiderman spoof, KNIGHTS, etc. All that stuff just made the movie hilarious.
It also managed to add new characters without overloading the movie, and it didn't have to fall into the same trap that so many sequels do: going over the same storyline, but this time with bigger guns/words/peanuts/whatever. The story is interesting and the bad girl is understandable. Puss In Boots is funny, and Eddie Murphy is brillliant as Donkey.

Definitely a movie I would reccomend to anyone. The characters are likeable, the plot is interesting, and the humour is spot-on. Dreamworks has done a good job, and I have high hopes for their next CGI outing: "A Shark Tale".
 

Appearing High Status for Dummies

Feel like people have a tendency to overlook you? Always the last to get served? People think that you don't matter? Well, then maybe they think that you are lower status than them. Complete and utter crap, of course, but our perceptions shape our actions, our thoughts, and our beliefs. This is true for everyone. You are no different: perhaps you think you are, but your perceptions are merely based on a different system. Everybody has a different system. What makes one person think "That dude is cool!" makes another person think "Man, what a dork.".
Status is a very etheral and hard to grip measure of what people think of you. High status people aren't neccessarily more likeable or nice, but they are the people that other people will listen to, watch, and follow the orders and suggestions of.
However, in English speaking cultures, there are a few constants that seem to work with most people.
 
A few simple guidelines should make other people treat you with a little more respect.
-Use "thank you" instead of "please". I.E., "I'll have the black one, thanks." instead of "Please can I have the black one?" or "I'll have the black one, please.". Thanking them in advance creates the expectation that you will have the black one, or whatever, and they will generally attempt to fulfill that expectation.
-Stand up and sit up straight. Nothing looks more low status than a slouch.
-Speak slower, using pauses and spaces. Don't speak too slowly, though. By speaking slowly, you show that you don't expect to be interrupted.
-Use proper grammar and sentence structure. (in some situations, this may be a bad idea: don't go to far.) The proper use of English is associated with wealth and status. But whatever you do, don't put on an accent.
-This could be a tricky one: don't make jokes that fall flat. That will instantly put you in the low status crowd.
-NEVER use the word "like" except for its dictionary definition. People who say "like, whatever" generally appear more low status. When's the last time you heard a movie, sports or business celeberity use "like" that way?
-Dress for the role you want. It may sound superficial, but clothes are an easy way to alter other people's perception. If you want to appear smart, wear glasses. Western culture, for some strange reason, has decided that glasses-wearing people ar smarter. If you want to appear cool, . 
By the way, different groups have different ideas of what clothes mean cool. If you wear an Armani suit to a LAN party, you are going to appear like a dork.

In some situations, all these rules are actually reversed. Some groups tend to think acting low status is high status, and vice versa. I'll let you rely on your own judgement to decide when to use these rules and when not to.
You can also use these rules in reverse to appear low status: sometimes, that's just what you want.

So there you have it: a simple set of rules to follow that should make you "The Man" in any situation. So long!

Random Rant: The Patriot Act

AlternateHistory.com Discussion Board - How to get on the terrorist watchlist

Read this. Then weep. George Bush in an evil son of a gun.

Writing Camp

Finally got around to updating my blog after going on Writing Camp with John Marsden, the Australian author who wrote the "Tomorrow when the War Began" series, which I think allow westerners to feel what it is like to live in a warzone (it's about the invasion of Australia, but very accessible to UnAustrAliens). He's a good author, but this writing camp was brilliant.
The writing camp is held at his estate in rural Victoria close to Melbourne, and it holds some very old bushland and some historical buildings.

I arrived on Friday at about 10:30, and got settled in. We then had a short "get to know you" introduction, and then broke for lunch. One of the main things I liked a lot about the camp was that we had a lot of free time and still got to learn a lot, so we had about an hour of free time for lunch. We had chicken sandwiches for lunch, but with roast, recently cooked chicken rather than luncheon meat chicken(which tastes like nothing like chicken). At the next workshop, he taught us about how to "show, not tell" and I wrote the following passage to try out the methods he taught:

The poor soul in the casket had a massive cyst in his left eye. As Jack adjusted the corpse's hands, Jack brushed a scab against the side of the coffin, lifting it.
"AARGH! Gosh-darn it!" he yelled.
"Jack! Mary will hear you!" shouted Jennifer from the house.
"Aaah, you don't know a thing about the 'pox." he muttered, staring back at the corpse. The old man was to be buried in his uniform, which he had worn while fighting the British at Yorktown.

Then, we had more free time, and I went for a short bushwalk with two of the youngest kids, william and drew. After that, we had some afternoon tea, then had another workshop, in which we learnt about portraying characters, and also did some drama activities to learn about this. After the workshop, we had dinner, which was ravioli bolognase, then I played ping-pong with Drew.
We then had another workshop, which went till 9:00, and did more drama activities about advancing the plot, dialog, and portratying characters. Lots of fun. For desert, we had chocolate pudding, which was very good, then played Charades till about 11:30, and went to bed.

Woke up at 8:00 exactly, and had cereal for breakfast, and played darts with Jack. Then we had a workshop at 9:30, and did more drama activities, which were a lot of fun. The TV crew arrived at about 12:00, when we broke for lunch. For lunch, everyone else had frankfurts, but I had another chicken sandwich.
I played more darts with Jack, then we had another workshop with the TV crew filming this time. We learnt about how to distract our internal editor by writing a piece without using the letter "a". I may have use the letter "a" in the piece of writing, but one of the thing John was telling us that their is far too much fear of failing in human society, that there were no rules in writing, and it still worked to distract my "editor".
We then wrote a piece using only words of one syllable, so I wrote a piece called "Ship of Dreams".
We took a break for afternoon tea, and the ABC TV crew interviewed some people, but I was going to wait for tomorrow. Instead, I played squash with Jack, and then magnetic darts. At that point I was probably at my height of margnetic dart skills(the magnetic darts were poorly balanced and hard to throw). Throughout the next 2 days I became worse and worse at magnetic darts for some reason I do not know.
After that break, we had another workshop, in which we wrote about "interruptions to routine". All stories are interruptions to the routines of characters- if it's a normal day, you don't have a story. The story I wrote was of a mailman delivering a package like he does everyday, but today he finds a dead body in the office he's delivering a package too.
For dinner, we had stirfry, and then had Drumsticks for desert. I talked to John Marsden and the TV crew, then watched people play ping pong, played darts, and listened to Rob make a lot of jokes. That night's workshop included a lot of drama activities and not much writing. We went back up to the cabin, sat around, and played "spin the bottle truth or dare" for some reason. But, nobody ended up actually doing or saying anything truthful or daring, which was probably a relief. We went to bed at 12, and were kept awake by Drew's innapropriate sense of humour and me saying "that is wrong, Drew, really wrong.". He's 11 years old, for goodness' sake!
The next morning, we had woke up later, had cereal for breakfast, then had a workshop run by Scott Gardener, a different author who's daughter was attending the camp. He showed us how to take stories from life and turn them into "story stories". It was very helpful.
We took a break for morning tea, then had another workshop till 1:00, which was about portraying character voice and showing character personality. I wrote a monologue from the perspective of the Balrog showing that it was lazy.
Then we had lunch(meat pies = GOOD), I did an interview with the TV people (with some other kids- Drew and William"), and I played a hopeless game of darts with Jack. Combined, we maybe hit the board 3-5 times.
After lunch, we had another workshop with a lot of drama activities, which was a lot of fun, and didn't actually do any writing, but it taught us alot about creating the plot and portraying characters.
Then, we said goodbye, packed up, and headed home, which took about 2 hours.

In this camp, I not only learnt alot about writing and drama, but also learnt how to stop being afraid of humiliation and how to adjust my "status". It has taught me alot and should help me with writing for the rest of my life. I would wholeheartedly recommend the camp to anyone: great food, freedom, plenty of activities, and lots to learn. Check it out today if you live in Australia.

If you want to see all my writing from camp, comment on this blog, and I'll type it up, but right now I don't feel like it.

My Predictions for the rest 2004.

I've decided to predict what I think will happen in the next six months. In the next six months:

-Tens of thousands will die in the Sudan crisis.
-John Howard and the Coalition will be removed from government.
-George W. Bush will lose the US elections.
-A serious riot will occur in Hong Kong.
-At least one major company will go spectacularly bankrupt, or some other kind of major corporate scandal will occur.
-The Saints will win the Grand Final
-Australia will come out third in the medal tallies for Athens 2004, with America in No 2. and somebody else in No 1.
-The Wallabies will lose to New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup.
-A Terry Pratchett book will come out in November/December, in time for Christmas.
-No cool tech stuff will happen.
-The X-Prize will not be won until December or January.
---------
-We will start at least 2 DnD campaigns (finishing neither)
-I will purchase two computer games, or at least receive two computer games somehow.
-The Rec Room will be finished.
-Luis will have purchased a laptop (this may not occur until January 2005).
-I will see 5 movies.
-We will not travel to America or Europe, but probably to New Zealand.
-I will spend more time on the computer than I should.

Let's see if I'm right in six months.

Cambrino Lesson Two: Important Questions

In the last lesson, we discussed greetings and showed you a short conversation between cousins. In this lesson, I will teach you how to ask "Where is the Toilet?" and other such important questions.
First, though, you have to know yes and no: ki and zi.

Some Important Q&A

Q: Where is the men's toilet/women's toilet?
Capeti/capeta šo cera?
kah-PET-ih/ah sho KER-ah?
Toilet is where?
A: There.
Cerar.
KER-ar.
or In that direction.
Lodari faĎ.
loh-DI-ri fadh
-----
Q: Do you have an empty room?
Ceriso rönina šo anpi?
ker-IH-so roo-NI-nah sho AN-pih?
Here's a room is empty?
A: Yes/No: Ki/Zi
-----
Q: Where is a restaurant/bar/hotel?
Halanasi/përdomina/rhodomina šo cera?
hah-lan-AH-si/peer-dom-IH-na/hro-dom-IH-na sho KER-a?
A restaurant/drinkhouse/inn is where?
A: In that direction.
Lodari faĎ.
loh-DI-ri fadh
or: On (that's) street
No (lodaro) afena
noh (loh-DAH-roh) a-FEN-ah
******
Culture Intermission
In Cambrina, all streets are named after somebody... there's no "Grand Avenue" or "Long Street". So, you use the possesive form of somebodies's name (male add an -o, female add an -e) to name a street.
******

Next lesson: How much does it cost?

Other Jebei Langauges

There are other langauges than Cambrino in Jebei. Here's the phonology (sounds) for Xaalaan, a Hathan(or Xafaan) language (look at the recent Jebei map).

Consonants:
P, T, K, B, D, G, M, N, F, S, H, V, Z, W, R and L are all pronounced as in English.
Ng is prounounced as in bringer.
P', T', K', F', S', H' are prounced as if they had a "y" following them: like in Russian nyet.
Mh, Nh, and Gh are prounounced as M, N and Ng without voice, that is, without vibrating your vocal cords.
X is pronounced like H with voice, that is, with vibrating vocal cords.

Vowels
In Xaalaan, there are short vowels and long vowels. The short vowels are a, e, i, o, and u, pronounced as in pat, pet, pit, pot and put. The long vowels(aa, ee, ii, oo, uu) are pronounced differently in different dialects. In urban or younger dialects, they are pronounced as in part, peet, pie, poo and putt. In rural or older dialects, they are pronouced as the normal vowels, except you take twice as long to say them.

Random Rant: Transfer of Power! Really?

It seems like Dubya has finally actually done something he promised... turned over Iraq to the Iraqis... or has he?
Iraq’s new prime minister, Ayad Allawi, was involved in anti-Saddam terrorist(or "freedom fighter") activites that may have cost innocent Iraqis their lives. These activites were paid for and sponsored by... wait for it... the CIA. I wonder what the average Iraqi will feel about that?

On a related note, guess who Afghani "Interim"(pretty long interim, hey?) Prime Minister of Afghanistan, is a former Unocal (an american oil company) consultant. The current US ambassador to Afghanistan is also a former Unocal staffer. Small world, huh?

By the way, the Bush Government seemed perfectly willing to deal with the Taliban up to Septembe 11th, and Iraq's biological and chemical weapons program during the late 80s was provided by the US government.

Lovely world we live in, isn't it?