I've just sat down to email some 20 businesses about their illiterate employees abusing my NO JUNK MAIL sticker. Contrary to popular belief, the NO JUNK MAIL sticker does, for the most part, work. Many an evening do I see all those useless catalogues poking out of my neighbours' mailboxes while collecting my addressed letters (and the odd unfortunate Cityrail notice about capital works at 7am) from mine.
Lately, however, some sneaky bastard has taken to stuffing catalogues and brochures into my mailbox, meaning that not only do I not realise that it is full of junk, it also explodes in paper when I unlock it. I can imagine scenarios where the postman can't fit legitimate letters into the box because the junk has already filled the interior. Not cool.
Hence the crusade to stop junk mail at its source - the businesses who create it. What do I hope to achieve? World Peace... well, I want them to tell their letterbox dropping companies to actually take note of the NO JUNK MAIL stickers and, surprise, surprise, stop putting junk mail into my mailbox. If I complain enough, those infernal junk mail droppers may just get the picture. In the end it'll be a win for anti-consumerism and for the environment. Fingers crossed.
29 January, 2007
19 January, 2007
The money or your life
I often wonder what the hell I'm doing as a writer. I'm not really talking about my job, although I am an educational writer by day, I'm talking about my long term prospects of being a writer. I like writing and I find writing challenging - and I think I always will. I don't think I'll ever become one of those people who will own their own business or be some kind of manager or editor. I just want to write. Unfortunately it doesn't pay very much and probably never will.
A friend and I had dinner this evening and we were talking about the money thing. She is in the media industry and we both have a lot of people around us who are in the finance industry. This can be frustrating because finance people don't seem to understand what we get out of our jobs, if not a good salary.
Okay, that's a bit stereotypical on my part so I'd better qualify that. Not all people who work in the finance industry are obsessed with money. However, many of the people we know often comment on our 'low' salaries, which, until we had compared with them, seemed quite okay to us. Our contentment came from our jobs, the disruption came from their lack of understanding that work is a package, not an annual figure.
In many ways I feel damn lucky that I started on a salary of $20K, way back when.
#1: I know how to save well and spend wisely
#2: I appreciate a decent salary when I see one
So it comes to this, people - the money or your life? Choose Life. (Thanks WHAM!)
Writing wins, every time.
A friend and I had dinner this evening and we were talking about the money thing. She is in the media industry and we both have a lot of people around us who are in the finance industry. This can be frustrating because finance people don't seem to understand what we get out of our jobs, if not a good salary.
Okay, that's a bit stereotypical on my part so I'd better qualify that. Not all people who work in the finance industry are obsessed with money. However, many of the people we know often comment on our 'low' salaries, which, until we had compared with them, seemed quite okay to us. Our contentment came from our jobs, the disruption came from their lack of understanding that work is a package, not an annual figure.
In many ways I feel damn lucky that I started on a salary of $20K, way back when.
#1: I know how to save well and spend wisely
#2: I appreciate a decent salary when I see one
So it comes to this, people - the money or your life? Choose Life. (Thanks WHAM!)
Writing wins, every time.
10 January, 2007
Jesus of Waverton
On Monday, as Old Man River and I were waiting for the train to work, we saw a television crew talking to a couple of people on the opposite (citybound) platform. We briefly speculated on the piece, assuming it must be train-related, then had a conversation about the poker game in Casino Royale.
Apparently Jesus has appeared at Waverton station..! A painted section, just underneath the platform rim, has peeled away to reveal the face of a bearded man that some people have speculated looks like Jesus. (Others say Shakespeare, Rolf Harris, Einstein...) (though I thought Shakespeare and Einstein were both famous for their moustaches and their crazy hair). What do you think?
I think it looks like Old Man River, actually. Or Monkey. Or an aviator of some description - I can sort of make out goggle-like things on his head. But what I really want to know is, who called the freakin' news crew about this trivial matter?
Anyway, 'tourism' to Waverton has not increased, thankfully. I do want to take a photo of it (the one used above is stolen from the Yahoo7 website) and archive it with my other Waverton photos. Then the hoo-ha will die out and the messiah will appear elsewhere.
06 January, 2007
Babel (film)
(Official Site)
There are four interspersed stories within Babel, each narrative starring its own protagonists and featuring its own problems. The critical moment is when Susan, an American tourist, is shot while riding a tour bus in Morocco. As the emergency unfolds, the audience realises how the separate stories become intertwined in the one incident. But there is more than one life in the balance - in turn, each story reveals its own tragedy.
Set in Morocco, the USA, Japan and Mexico, the film jumps between the four locations and the four stories within them in a non-linear way. It is done in a manner that makes for interesting viewing rather than a confusing story. Because the film is fragmented into different pieces, due to the different stories, it almost makes sense to have time jump within the film as well. The result makes the film more clever in its use of a climax for each segment, leaving the audience needing more information to complete each story.
However it is the movie's overriding theme of language that is the most interesting aspect (yes, there are subtitles for the non-English speaking parts). The highlight of this theme is the deaf-mute Japanese girl, Chieko, who is the centrepiece for the segment relayed in Japanese, sign language and body language. Chieko's predicament is her inability to communicate her desires, which frustrates her and leads her to all sorts of emotional strife, which is portrayed extremely well by the actress Rinko Kikuchi.
The biggest failing of the movie, however, is that the interconnected stories do not come full circle and fold back into each other. Instead, each has a separate, albeit satisfactory, closure. Furthermore, Chieko's story is rather tenuously connected to the others, which is a glaring weakness in the film's linking device.
The premise is an excellent one and there is nothing wrong with the stories as self-contained narratives. Alejandro González Iñárritu interweaves them well and he deserves all those nominations for Best Director awards. As for the film, I do not believe it was as good as it could have been considering its narrative foundations and an excellent cast (especially the unknowns!) so I predict that it will probably miss out on a sweep of accolades during the impending award season.
*** 1/2 - didn't reach its full potential.
There are four interspersed stories within Babel, each narrative starring its own protagonists and featuring its own problems. The critical moment is when Susan, an American tourist, is shot while riding a tour bus in Morocco. As the emergency unfolds, the audience realises how the separate stories become intertwined in the one incident. But there is more than one life in the balance - in turn, each story reveals its own tragedy.
Set in Morocco, the USA, Japan and Mexico, the film jumps between the four locations and the four stories within them in a non-linear way. It is done in a manner that makes for interesting viewing rather than a confusing story. Because the film is fragmented into different pieces, due to the different stories, it almost makes sense to have time jump within the film as well. The result makes the film more clever in its use of a climax for each segment, leaving the audience needing more information to complete each story.
However it is the movie's overriding theme of language that is the most interesting aspect (yes, there are subtitles for the non-English speaking parts). The highlight of this theme is the deaf-mute Japanese girl, Chieko, who is the centrepiece for the segment relayed in Japanese, sign language and body language. Chieko's predicament is her inability to communicate her desires, which frustrates her and leads her to all sorts of emotional strife, which is portrayed extremely well by the actress Rinko Kikuchi.
The biggest failing of the movie, however, is that the interconnected stories do not come full circle and fold back into each other. Instead, each has a separate, albeit satisfactory, closure. Furthermore, Chieko's story is rather tenuously connected to the others, which is a glaring weakness in the film's linking device.
The premise is an excellent one and there is nothing wrong with the stories as self-contained narratives. Alejandro González Iñárritu interweaves them well and he deserves all those nominations for Best Director awards. As for the film, I do not believe it was as good as it could have been considering its narrative foundations and an excellent cast (especially the unknowns!) so I predict that it will probably miss out on a sweep of accolades during the impending award season.
*** 1/2 - didn't reach its full potential.
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