Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The very cranky bear

NSS Lion, Zebra, Moose and Bear

Today, our whole school participated in the annual ALIA National Simultaneous Storytime with a reading of Nick Bland's "The very cranky bear".

NSS Sheep and Bear

The hearing support unit used a Youtube presentation in Auslan. It was so well done that, after I'd read the book to the Stage 1 group who'd used the school library as their venue today, we decided to play the Auslan performance as well.

NSS National Simultaneous Storytime 2012

NSS IWB presentation

NSS Auslan presentation

National Simultaneous Storytime is an eagerly-anticipated annual event!

NSS Ian and puppets

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Unexpected Honor

Either I missed something, or nobody on TrekBBS had mentioned that there is an original short story, derived from the "Star Trek Online" game events and characters, in Titan's recent "Star Trek Magazine", no 40, Summer 2012.

Va'kel Shon
Captain Va'kel Shon.

Author Christine Thompson continues storylines from "Star Trek Online" and features the handover of the Enterprise captaincy from Data (IDW's "Countdown" comic mini-series), now in his professor role from "All Good Things..." episode of "The Next Generation", to the Andorian, Shon, for the launch of the Enterprise-F. Also clarified is the fate of the B-4 ("Nemesis").

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Seeing double? Spooky!

Kaskits and Spook'ems
A set now complete! For those who've been following my Kooky Spooky adventure over the last year or so, here is my customized Mama Kaskit "Kooky Spooky" (far left) meeting... the real thing: a recent eBay "Buy it now" find. She arrived this morning.
To the right is a little guy I've renamed Little Formaldehyde, with customized death rattle (both concepts mooted by Patti Peticolas in her notes). He is meeting a pristine Baby Spook'em, complete with mint condition "Help" sign, thanks to the same eBay seller. (On the back, the sign reads "Boo!")
Looks like I'll have to add at least one more slide to my Photo Peach slideshow!
I was recently asked why I avoided bidding on packaged Mama Kaskits.
Toys should be free of their cardboard and plastic sarcophaguses! If I'd bought a Mama Kaskit mint-in-mint-box, I'd have had to remove her, to join her family, no matter the huge amount paid. I used to keep lots of my toys' boxes (from the 80s, 90s and 00s - we never thought to do that in 1969), but I've simply run out of room for all that packaging - and the stored boxes were getting putrid with dust in my garage under the house.
Also, many MIMB Kooky Spookys have "melt marks" where hands and noses have had 40+ years have been in contact with 1969-vintage acetate windows.

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Nice hat!

Sequel cap
The sequel to JJ Abrams' 2009 "Star Trek" movie, preparing to wrap principal photography in Los Angeles?

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Cruelty to colourblind teacher-librarians!

Speedminton Fun Speeder

Part of Term 2's pupil-free day was learning to play Speedminton. I could barely see the orange colour of the so-called "Fun Speeder" (shuttlecock), and it was even worse when it was on the grass!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Fat free forever - again (sigh!)

Tee hee. Nine kilograms in fifteen weeks. Not the kind of numbers they get in "The Biggest Loser", so woulda been voted off by now, but slow, steady progress.

This is my third - no, fourth - serious go at the diet plan known as "Fat Free Forever" (book by Diane Barker, now Wilson). I have a success letter in the second edition of her book. I sometimes joke that I should write my own version of this book, called "Fat Free for Five Years", since that's about how long it takes to fall off the wagon - and you always end up putting on even more weight that has to come off.

Of course, it also gets worse with age as your metabolism keeps slowing down. First time on this diet plan (early 1990s) I went from 90 kg to 78 kg from one Christmas till the Easter, and it was so easy. Next two times, in about 2005 and 2007, I went from over 101 kg down to about 82 kg. This time I've had to start from a record-high of 105 kg. I really can't afford for there to be a "next time". This time has to be the one that holds. No more "yo-yo" dieting.

The key to Diane's diet is to treat your body like a car. You never wait till your car runs out of fuel, you keep it topped up. So... huge, sensible breakfast, sensible morning tea, medium-sized sensible lunch, sensible afternoon tea, small sensible dinner. No starchy carbohydrates (bread, cereal, pasta, potato, rice) after 3pm in the afternoon. Walking every day. Celebrate with a Junk Food Day meal once a week and, in fact, your body loses weight after that junk food because you've shocked it and your faster metabolism works extra hard to get rid of what you just put in!

If you think about it, it's exactly how we ate as skinny kids in the 1960s. If we were really, really good we got takeaway fish & chips on a Friday night, or a rare dessert on a Sunday after the baked dinner, or a bag of sweets when grandma visited. There were only about six Kentucky Fried Chicken stores (now KFC to hide the "Fried" bit) and one McDonald's to cause us to nag for junk food. Sigh. Life used to be soooo easy.

Sunday, April 01, 2012

What's cookin'?

What's cooking?

Any idea what's bubbling away on my cooktop? I'm dyeing two customised puppets!

Giraffe/dog composite & spare tiger puppets
And this becomes...

Bat & Panther
... this!

Yes, they are a pair of customized puppets, now dried in the washing machine spin-drier. The completed bat has wings cut from brown felt and the new eyes are flat beads in a pink plastic, Supaglued over the original black giraffe eyes. 50 cents for a packet containing lots (of future replacement eyes?) I love bargain shops!

The panther's eyes are some teardrop-shaped yellow plastic "jewels", originally bought for a different project. The only reason for turning a tiger into a panther was to give the bat a dunking buddy, and use up the leftover dye.

Cat & Frog
These two new additions (above) look rather sedate after the cooking pot episode!

Friday, March 30, 2012

SLA NSW Awards Celebration, 2012

SLA NSW Awards Celebration

Ian McLean, Stacey Taylor, guest speaker Maurice Saxby, Paul Macdonald and Alinda Sheerman at the School Libraries Association, NSW Awards at The Children's Bookshop, Beecroft, tonight. Paul is the proprietor of the shop... and so much more! He was receiving the inaugural Maurice Saxby Award.

Ian McLean

The John H Lee Memorial Award is for a teacher-librarian who demonstrates "excellence in leadership in innovative and collaborative teaching practice through the integration of learning technologies". Presented to yours truly. Many thanks to Linda Gibson-Langford who nominated me! This is a joint award presented by SLA NSW and Charles Sturt University. Ashley Freeman presented me with the award.

SLA NSW Awards Celebration

Uncle Al Cameron, Ian McLean, Aunty Pat Cameron and my special guest, Janette Mercer, who was my inspirational primary school teacher-librarian at Arncliffe Public School in the 1960s.

Maurice Saxby

Maurice Saxby is sharing a poem, chosen at random, from a well-loved book he received at age five. Captivating! (Even the bear was mesmerised.) Maurice described that magic moment where a child is immersed in reading and suddenly gets a cold chill at the back of the neck. CS Lewis called this unique sensation "Surprise by joy."

SLA NSW Awards Celebration

Teacher-librarian Jenny Scheffers (Caddies Creek Public School), Ian McLean and the School Libraries & Information Literacy Unit's Colleen Foley at The Children's Bookshop. Book rappers extraordinaire!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Packed to the Rafters!

Rafters house
And a leafy Concord street packed with filming gear!

Rafters van
Who ya gonna call? Dave Rafter!

Carbo's car
Carbo's orange Charger returns to the studio.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Ten's News at Five

Ten's News at 5

Angela Bishop's showbiz report on last night's "Number 96" 40th anniversary celebration went to air today. Spotto Ian McLean, Vivienne Garrett (Rose Goldofus-Meyers) and Martin Harris (Mark Eastwood).

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Celebrating the night Australian TV lost its virginity

Number 96 onscreen again, 40 years later
Forty years ago today, Australian TV lost its innocence.

Tonight, at the Star Bar in Sydney's CBD, we were there to celebrate!

Number 96 40th anniversary with Vivienne Garrett
With Vivienne Garrett (aka as Rose Goldolfus-Meyers)

Number 96 40th anniversary with Andrew Mercado
With TV historian and friend Andrew Mercado, who is holding a framed photo
of Ron "Herb" Shand, Mate-of-the-Month in the Kings Cross Whisper.

Number 96 DVD banner

Friday, February 10, 2012

Lime flavoured aftermath

Pool green

And so... I made a wish for lime flavour this morning. The aftermath of last night's flash flooding in Penrith continues.

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Please add 20 minutes swimming time...

Station lake

10.00pm: Route home blocked by a thigh-high lake at Penrith Railway Station. Please add 20 minutes swimming time to the length of your usual journey.

Fallen tree

10.20pm: Alternate route blocked by massive, fallen pine tree. Please add 20 more minutes climbing time to your journey.

Fallen tree 2

Footpath totally obscured by greenery for two house-lengths.

Fallen tree 3

Still passing the fallen pine tree. Never realised that particular one was so tall. The air smells like Christmas.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Tin Tin and Jack in Penrith

Red Rooster Jack

Doing the rounds of Facebook last week was this parody cover mock-up of a "Tin Tin" comic:

Tin Tin in Penrith

While the scene is almost-instantly recognised as The 'Riff for all manner of iconic reasons, there still seemed to be something missing. It occurred to me today: the image needed a few inappropriate palm trees!

Red Rooster 3

Red Rooster 2

Red Rooster

Red Rooster 4

As you can see, the Red Rooster takeaway food store, depicted in the joke cover, is a more generic Red Rooster, but most of the elements were visible today. Minus the colourful human riff raff.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Star Blecch from MAD TV

Cool! Continuing MAD's tradition of satirising all the Trek films, only animated! This is the MAD parody of JJ Abrams' 2009 version of "Star Trek". Thanks Youtube, and Robert Bruns for the heads-up.


Star Blecch

Monday, January 16, 2012

Sunny side up!

Egghead - Vincent Price

Egghead is in da house!

Eggs-actly! Eggs-ellent! My favourite "Batman" villain has always been Egghead. He was original to the 1960s television series, played by the irrepressible Vincent Price.

When I started reading the "Batman" comics, though, I was disappointed to realise that neither Egghead nor King Tut (Victor Buono) - both "arch villains" (alongside the Riddler, the Joker, Catwoman and the Penguin) in the TV series - had never appeared in the comics. There was a teasing mention of both, once, in "When is a Door: The Secret Origin of the Riddler...?", in a "Secret Origins Special" (#1, DC Comics, 1989), but nothing else:

Secret Origins Special #1
Secret Origins Special #1

Recently, while trawling eBay for interesting stuff I didn't yet own, I happened upon a reference to comic appearances by Egghead and King Tut. I think I'd heard about the Tut trilogy of issues before (in "Batman Confidential" #16-18), but it was essentially a reinterpretation of the character. It had recently been collected in graphic novel omnibus form, "King Tut's Tomb" (2010). But...

Egghead
Egghead features in Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16

... how come I'd managed to overlook a story called "Egg Hunt!, or, The Evil of Egg-Head!" in "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" #16 (2010), in which Batman and Wonder Woman team up to face off against the punning Egghead (above) and the bizarre, Humpty Dumpty-like, Y'ggphu Soggoth, Last Spawn of the Elder Gods.

I shall now Eggs-it, stage right, to read my new mail order purchase from Mile High Comics. It just arrived this morning!

Batman comics