There was a librarian who swallowed a fly...

I don't know why I swallowed a fly,
Perhaps I'll die.

Ugh, it was sooooo gross.

Salute to eBay and Voyager - Weird Al style

This is one brilliant, conscientious fan's Youtube salute to all those "It's a Wrap!" auction-lovers who went through major withdrawal symptons as IaW moved warehouses for a week, and posted no new "Star Trek" costumes! Music by Weird Al Yankovic.

Bone of contention

The book about the care of Jack Russell terriers says that they are guaranteed to make the owner laugh at least once a day - and it's never been wrong.

Tonight, I was walking Jack just after dark and, on a whim, I ended up adding an extra block to the size of our regular route. We were about halfway back when I noticed him pounce on something on the ground, but I jerked his lead and thought I'd circumvented any problems.

As we were approaching the home stretch, I realised that I hadn't heard Jack panting for quite some time. I glanced down and saw Jack grinning proudly, as best he could, while holding a huge chicken drumstick bone between his jaws.

Me: "Jack, drop it. Not for Jack."

Jack: "Grrrrrr."

In a fit of giggles, I set about trying to get him to release his grip on his prize.

At least he didn't get the chance to hide it under my doona.

Perth or bust! - and back again already

Thanks to the wonders of the wonderful "Post options" command, I've been in Perth, visiting with my parents. Not having to dart off to Internet cafes to post blog entries - well, that was the intention, to back date some entries and pretend I was keeping a daily diary of events - but I'm back already. I actually thought I'd be missing for only the two weekends (plus the week between them) I was away, but catching up on all the goss is so overwhelming, I've been another week getting around to actually typing up something.


Handpainted religious artifact (above left, made in El Salvador) and purchased in New Norcia, Western Australia, plus a resin thong (or flip flop, above right) magnet from Perth.

I've been composing entries in my head all fortnight, but now I'm drawing a blank on everything I wanted to say. I'll try and elaborate during the week, but essentially: I got to remember all the good and bad things about living with one's parents again after so many years of being independent; I caught up with Adam, a long lost Star Trek pal from the 90s who, it turned out, lives only ten minutes away from my parents' place (and even still had two videotapes of mine); and I did plenty of catch-up Star trek novel and comic reading, so I owe you some reviews.

Over on TrekBBS, meanwhile, some fans are proudly announcing their intention to boycott the new movie, for a myriad of reasons. Ho hum. They are scared about the writers, about the new young cast and about any possibility the Enterprise will look different.

Hey, I heard people complain about changes made to the Enterprise, internal and external, and the SPFX, for ST:TMP, way back in 1978. Many of them changed their minds once the movie came out, and some even denied ever hating the idea of change.

But a boycott? I couldn't bear knowing there was a new Star Trek adventure out there that I hadn't seen yet. Quality just doesn't concern me in that first instance (but quality will influence how many times I go back to the cinema to see it again before the DVD comes out, just like the last ten movies.) In fact, it already drives me crazy that I haven't got back to the US for a visit since the Las Vegas Hilton opened its two Star Trek rides. New live-action footage, and I haven't seen it.

Thanks to De for noticing I was gone, and for his concern!

Sunday October 07's magic number: 93.8 - a slight rise, thanks to Mum's home cooking. Oh well, just as well I did long walks around the block every day.

Sunday October 14's magic number: 93.1 - and falling again. This is despite the fish 'n' chips on a Fremantle wharf. A highlight of my first night back home that the weight has been maintained despite having three square meals a day!

Sunday October 21's magic number: 91.3 - finally caught up to below where I'd been before I left for Perth. Hopefully it's all downhill till Christmas.

Kirk's Bastards

I accidentally came across this very funny Star Trek fan film today, "Bastards of Kirk", a very funny send up of TV's "Sixty Minutes" and "Star Trek". There are so many clever things about this parody. The costuming is often quite inspired, and the acting performances very appealing. There's some typically fannish fastidious attention to detail, and the script even acknowledges the concept of four-gendered Andorians, hinted at by Data in "The Next Generation", and extrapolated by the Pocket Books' Star Trek novels set after "Deep Space Nine".



I particularly loved: the introduction of Kirk's Andorian half-breed son, Rhan (Erick Fournier, above centre); the hilarious interview with Apollo (previously of "Who Mourns for Adonais"), for which even the interviewer dresses the part; Nurse Chapel trying out a Rand-inspired hairstyle and explaining why Spock couldn't commit to her; Spock avoiding his interview in the most logical way; and the handsome but troubled young twins from Cheron (Clint Maguire as Elbe and Erick Fournier, again, as Zokai), only one of whom has inherited his Dad's unique speech patterns.

Enjoy all six parts!


PART 1


PART 2


PART 3


PART 4


PART 5


PART 6

Well done Red Fort Films and Bright Anvil Studios! (And there's a blog of the production, written as it happened.)

Connect, Collaborate, Create

Today, I was an invited presenter at the 2007 Connected Learning Conference, held at the Novotel, Brighton-Le-Sands. The topic of my brief contribution was book raps, and how they were great examples of connecting, collaborating and creating. I can only guess that my audience included principals, teacher-librarians and computer savvy teachers.

Lots of deja vu moments. Once again, Colleen and I were venturing off for a lengthy car journey to speak at an education conference about ICT (information and communication technologies) and collaborative teaching; one of my first duties at "Scan", in 1998, had been a similar task. The Novotel is also the annual venue of Selwa Anthony's author management conferences, Succeed With Me, so the rooms, decor and even the wicked food offerings were all very familiar. (Bang goes the diet for this week.) There were also lots of well-remembered faces from my time at Ryde State Office of the NSW Department of Education and Training. Most of these people couldn't believe it had been over five years since I was working with them at Ryde, as editor of "Scan" - and neither could I!

The whole day was most rewarding - really great keynote speeches that had everyone both overwhelmed but invigorated about future possibilities in education! - and the pen souvenir I was given, as a presenter, is very cool in its Star Trek inspired plastic tube!

Lounging around

Today I went shopping for a new lounge suite. The old lounges (a three-seater with foldaway bed and a matching two-seater) have done almost eight years service here, and several years back at my old home unit. It had quite bold geometric designs on it originally and then, as the material became shabby, I bought lounge covers and the second set is just about worn out now.

When a lounge suite makes such a significant contribution to a house's decor, not to mention the significant inroads into one's savings/credit account, it can be quite daunting.

Add to that the need to complement essential existing room contents, such as; DVDs; CDs; a full-size blue mannequin dressed in Andorian ambassadorial robes; widescreen TV - that sort of everyday thing.

Add to that a Jack Russell terrier, who plays "mountain goat" on the existing furniture without fear or favour, and sheds white fur onto most materials that are within two rooms' proximity.

I settled for a made-to-order large corner suite, covered with a liquid-repelling, "ocean blue", thick, corduroy material - with recliners built-in. The foldaway bed will be hidden inside a matching coffee table, hopefully extending the life of the lounge. It also will come with two cube-shaped storage ottomans.

I'm looking forward to its arrival, but not to the many sleepy nights spent trying to watch DVDs that make meee sooooo sleeee.........

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

Hey Hoshi, translate this!

We all know that, in the original series of "Star Trek", Doctor McCoy cured his patients with a selection of rejected, exotic salt shakers, originally purchased for use in the episode, "The Man Trap". And then, in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", McCoy cured Chekov's brain with a piece of a Klingon Bird of Prey model ship.

But Hoshi Sato found a 22nd century use for toilet cleaners!


Universal translator from "Star Trek: Enterprise".


Mineral magnet toilet cleaner, in the latest "Penny Miller" catalogue
(Spring 2007) that landed on my doorstep this week. Obviously, this handy
little device was the basis for the mould of the Universal Translator, as
seen in "Star Trek: Enterprise".


Andorian Ambassador Thoris, feeling flushed
with his trusty mineral magnet toilet cleaner...,
er, Universal Translator. ("Terra Prime", ENT.)

Celebrating literacy

On Thursday, the community at the primary school where I'm teacher-librarian, enjoyed a glorious spring afternoon celebrating literacy with a multicultural reading picnic. Thematic reading picnics have become a popular tradition at our school. An initiative of our Priority Schools Program (PSP) Committee, these picnics have become an excellent way for the all of us - parents, caregivers, students and staff - to focus on the importance of improving literacy skills and attitudes to reading.

The students arrived at school in multicultural costumes, or dressed in the colours of the national flag of their family’s country of origin. During the day, I presented each class with a certificate acknowledging their participation in the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge for 2007. This year, 313 of the school’s 400 students successfully completed this state-wide Challenge, up from 209 students in 2006. (A lot of independent reading has been achieved, and the students’ confidence in reading for pleasure has soared; it is great to see such enthusiasm for books.)



After lunch, the students and their visitors gathered in the main playground for a presentation of the folk tale, “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”. Our English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher assisted a group of her students to deliver alternating segments of this familiar story in a range of home languages and English. Languages represented included Croatian, Mandarin, Korean, Shona (a language of Zimbabwe), Tongan, Hindi and Farsi (a language of Afghanistan and Iran).

A multicultural trivia competition, organised by another teacher, had also been running in the days leading up to the picnic. There was also a display of multicultural picture books from the library and book reviews written by Stage 3 students (which are soon to be published by the Penrith Star).

Picnic baskets of goodies and favourite books in hand, it was then time for buddy classes and family groups to move off to various grassed areas around the school – each location was named after a different continent – for an afternoon of shared reading. It was very exciting to see all the groups on their picnic rugs so engrossed in their books.

And, today, the Sun-Herald newspaper (page 44) featured a photograph of some of our students at the picnic and quoted me in the accompanying article:
The children's picnics were centred on the joy that came from "literacy and reading, and... the fact that you can read a book anywhere. We're always looking for informal ways to get the parents up and to get them focused on literacy."

The article was titled, "Move over, teddy, this picnic's for bookworms".


How to try to top the amazing multicultural costumes worn by the students and parents? Go intergalactic! My screen-used Tellarite ambassador's costume from "Star Trek: Enterprise" gets its (Australian) debut on home soil. The trousers came with the costume, but how about those Ugg boots, eh? My Westie contribution to the ensemble.




It was a very hot afternoon, but the two layers of costume were surprisingly tolerable. I didn't wear the third layer, of course: the official Paramount Tellarite fat-suit! In fact, I thought maybe my result for Sunday's magic number would have been much better than 93.3 (sigh!) but it has been a week of many little celebrations and indulgences, such as: the staff dinner after Tuesday night's student disco; a thank you pavlova on Wednesday; the reading picnic on Thursday; a staff dinner at King Henry's Court restaurant on the Thursday night; a staff breakfast at McDonald's on Friday morning; end-of-term drinks on the Friday afternoon; and dining out with friends on Saturday night. What's really frustrating is that I feel skinnier. Well, they say that muscle weighs more than fat - and I have been walking a lot this week...

Fighting the inevitable

Book readers are up in arms again. It seems that there's a new trend in mass market paperbacks in the USA, with a move to slightly taller, wider, thinner "prestige" paperbacks, with wider margins, bigger typeface, higher quality paper - but a slight price increase that has everyone worried that this move to a new format is being pushed solely by the desire of publishers to charge a few dollars more.

I just can't see it. Would the many publishers of the USA really plot together to make MMPB books a little bit bigger just so they can charge more money per unit? There must have been some call from the buying public for a "new format". These so-called "prestige" books - which seemingly have whiter, cleaner, thicker paper that won't yellow as easily, plus bigger type, larger cover art, or whatever - are being issued to give the customers a better reading experience. Surely?

More likely, with populations of avid book readers getting older and older, and with failing eyesight, that many people were increasing annoyed by the small size of "pocket" paperbacks. A lot of market research goes into book publishing, marketing and distribution. Many people do judge books by their covers.

I understand that some novel series are changing format in mid-stream, which for those collectors must be Really Annoying. But, if sufficient customers don't like these improved MMPBs, and fail to support them, they'll die out. Certainly in the 80s "prestige" comic books - with whiter, thicker paper - quickly doomed the acid-filled newsprint versions to start to vanish. Most customers were happy to pay a little extra to get something that improved the look of the art and wouldn't turn brittle after only a few months.

Meanwhile, I can't say I've even noticed a new size of MMPB here in Australia yet, although there must be some examples at Galaxy Bookshop, who get a lot of American imports every week. I do know that there has been a trend for many top-selling books to get a hardcover, then trade paperback, and then MMPB set of staggered releases, which again must be Really Annoying for people eagerly awaiting only the MMPB version.

Oh, and speaking of Fighting The Inevitable, I was finally able to gain access to the clever little link that enables me to Change The Dates on my blog entries. Now that I'm finally able to retro date stuff, I'm finding myself shirking my daily responsibilities for writing posts! Dammit.

Mind you, I've managed to have some early nights this week - and feeling much better for it - and Jack's even had some extra walks around the block. I just have to keep disciplining myself to write Every Day. Sigh...

Waving goodbye

(AP Photo/file)

Marcel Marceau, the amazing French mime artist, has passed away. On MIX-FM radio this morning, Sammy and Subby appropriately farewelled him with one minute's noise (more appropriate than a minute's silence, they reasoned) and played some of Marceau's greatest hits. Very cute.

I was fortunate to see the great man on stage at the (also now-departed) Regent Theatre in Sydney in about 1975. High school French excursion; dinner afterwards at "La Guillotine", if I recall correctly.

Of course, we also remember Marceau as the only character who delivers dialogue in Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie". Where would the Umbilical Brothers be if they weren't allowed to make noise during their mime acts?

Separated at birth?

This is a cool meme! My celebrity lookalikes:



Sunday's magic number: 91.4 - and still falling. It's been quite a comfortable week, especially with the students at school having their annual Peer Support parties on Friday, and everyone bringing in more food to share than one individual could ever have a hope of eating, so there was junk food galore, and I kept being offered (and accepting!) all manner of naughty treats.

A few times this week, I've questioned my decision of putting the numbers into the blog - but I guess, in the old days of just jotting the numbers in my pocket diary, there were inevitably some unsuccessful weeks where I just glossed over the fact that I'd overindulged, not to mention the weeks where I'd misplaced the little book and had to start a scrap piece of paper, carried in my wallet, until the diary turned up again. This new method is certainly working, in that I've only had one fall from grace - and that was the week when a boxful of Krispy Kreme donuts held me down and... Yeah, you get the idea. (And at least the above meme didn't come up with famously roly poly, chubby-cheeked celebrities such as Ricky May, Pavarotti, Magda Szubanski or Matt Lucas.)


Karen & Sharon in tonight's episode of "Kath & Kim"!

The Great River Walk: Stage 1

Today, I took Jack for a long walk along the Nepean River, on what is being called The Great River Walk, a combined walking and cycling track, that is being prepared in sections to provide a green zone for the people of Penrith and Emu Plains.

I understand that the ultimate aim is for this Walk to follow the Hawkesbury-Nepean River system - from the south of Goulburn to its mouth at Broken Bay, just north of Sydney! Stage 1, the Penrith to Windsor section, is the first constructed section.

Despite the super scary anti-Jack Russell-type metal grill boardwalk and bridge, the Walk is very scenic and easy to traverse. I'm sure Jack will develop his bravery and bridge skills to tackle the metal grills again next time.

You can tell it's September...

Ah! My first outdoor dining experience of the season!

Tonight I dined with friends, al fresco, at Stir Crazy noodle bar in Penrith. How delightful and relaxing to relish the combination of good (but inexpensive) food, great conversation, and perfect weather - and without being rugged up in coats, hats and scarves. We've been waiting all winter to do this!

I recommend the Hokkien egg noodles, the Malay peanut sate sauce and the beef! Yummo.

Doin' the rounds

Thursday afternoon, and I'm once again heading into the Sydney CBD after work, to "do over" my favourite haunts for books, comics, toys and so on. This particular dash around the city shops (and last week's) felt rather odd: the Mid City Center, in the Pitt Street Mall, has been totally vacated for major renovations, and that means no more HMV Megastore, no more Hobbyco (moved to the Queen Victoria Building, I believe), no more kebab shop (I used to enjoy chatting to the woman who ran this for many years, even though my recent dieting attempts meant I did not frequent it as often), no more Oporto Portuguese-style chicken - and no more (relatively new) Krispy Kreme donut kiosk! Of course, I only went to Krispy Kreme for their takeaway coffee. Ho ho.

It was a light night all round. No Star Trek stuff (although a batch of new mail order: "Star Trek: The Next Generation" action figures arrived at the front door this morning). But Galaxy Bookshop did have a Region 4 DVD set of the "Heroes" Season One and, as I've had a curiosity about this show, which has only increased with George Takei (Star Trek's Mr Sulu) joining the cast, and recurring nasty boy Zachary Quinto being announced as the future Young Spock in JJ Abrams' new "Star Trek" movie, it's become a "must have" purchase.

I started wandering back to the train station about 7.30pm, feeling strong about resisting the urge to buy any edibles more substantial than orange-flavoured Strepsils' throat lozenges. Although the diet is going well - I'm eating very little for my last meal of the day, although I'm "maintaining the engine" regularly as the day wears on - I must confess I often miss curling up in a McDonalds' to check out my purchases while I eat. Actually, I feel like I'm saving a lot of money, too; my "top up" treats tend to be apples, or rice crackers with Vegemite, whereas years ago I'd have splurged on a giant size Mars Bar, or a Crunchie.

But I'm also missing the social act of eating a normal evening meal. Very much. In the good ol' days, especially when Brisbanites, Maria and Peter, were living in Sydney, and joined me for my weekly jaunts into the city, or before that when a group of shop assistants and customers from Comic Kingdom would head off for drinks. One could munch away and talk to friends at the same time. Sometimes my pilgrimages into the city can be quite lonely, even though I see friendly faces throughout the night.

"I've seen his doodles, Jocelyn"

Congratulations to Geoffrey McSkimming, a colleague from my "Scan" days - he is still one of the assistant editors on "School Magazine" - and the prolific author of the "Cairo Jim & Jocelyn Osgood" novels for young readers. A copy of "Xylophones Above Zarundi: A Chaotic Tale of Melody", was used tonight on ABC-TV's Spicks and Specks music-themed gameshow!

Jazz musician Paul Grabowsky had to sing extracts from "Xylophones Above Zarundi" to the tunes of three different songs, one of which included the marvelously typical McSkimming quote, "I have seen his doodles, Jocelyn".

Somehow, during the ensuing hilarity, several people misheard Paul sing the line as "I've seen his doodles jostling", which only made it all the funnier when they misquoted it in their own jokes. Twice.

Thanks to Geoffrey, I once featured in one of his "School Magazine" plays ("Touchdown", Vol 87, No 10, Nov 2002, pp 341-346). The character of "Ian, the lost librarian", a Tarzan memorabilia fanatic (instead of "Star Trek", of course), appears in "Mr A at the Floor of Heaven, or, Not Quite Yeti".

"The misguided librarians are lost in the snow,
Dewey's their system, but snowy they go..."

Ian wears a spotted loincloth over his snow-pants, of course. He was joined by my real life workmates, Anne (aka "Mrs Dowling"), Wendy and Deirdre.


Art by Tohby Riddle

But I digress. It was such fun hearing Cairo Jim get some TV attention. "Spicks and Specks" continues to be a highlight on my TV viewing week.

Captain's Log: Supplemental. Ah, I see that Geoffrey was watching tonight. He made his own blog entry on the topic as the show ended!

Waxing and waning

Last week I complained that my 50-100 visitors per day blog inexplicably fell to about 30 daily hits, which is way below what it even received when I was last on vacation (and nowhere near computer access).

Today, very strangely, and with no additional publicity or potent posts whatsoever, the stats suddenly doubled! Maybe Google Images had been down, or something? I certainly get a lot of site visitors through my Flickr! pics, and these get catalogued by Google. I'm realizing now that it was the referred links from pics that were lacking on the Site Meter data.

I find it quite fascinating, which is making me yearn, even more, for the Sydney-based Webloggers' Meet-up activities. The group has been strangely quiet recently, despite having 133 members at last count, although several are meeting as a spin-off Data Miners' Meet-up group. Now, I'm guessing that the data miners would know what's likely to be affecting my blogsite - numbers are their business, I think - but since I found myself quite out of their league at the regular Meet-ups, I'm not sure the level of conversation at a wholly data miners' meeting would be less scary and/or mathematical.

I'm seriously thinking of trying to run a Hobby Bloggists' Meet-up group through the Meet-up site, since many of those at the regular Webloggers' Meet-ups do their blogging professionally, but I am also having doubts that too many hobby bloggers will be any more free to meet in the CBD for drinks than those at the Meet-ups I run for Star Trek fans or Lost fans.

Memories of the moon

Today, I had to run a video about the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969 to some six year olds. Talk about nostalgia! It really does seems like only a few years ago I was in Year 5, sitting towards the back of a school hall at Arncliffe Public School, straining to make out the moving monochrome blurs on a small television set positioned way up on the stage!

On the video today, the narrator suggested that - maybe - someone in the audience might know someone who once saw the moon landing as it happened. Yeah, like their grandparents!

Ian and the disappearing waistline

Sunday's magic number: 92.3 - I think. The bathroom scales were going wacky today. I stepped on them late last night, for a sneak preview, but then this morning they gave the same reading. Since I always lose a considerable amount overnight, I kept moving the scales around the bathroom floor, resetting them, and hopping back on and off. 92.3 was an average of the numerous attempts.

I'm noticing that I'm not even yearning Junk Food Day now, which is probably a good sign! I took Jack for a walk on Friday night to buy a kebab (yes, at the scary mozzie-zapper shop!) and I scoffed at friends' suggestions of hot fish 'n' chips 'n' battered savs, both yesterday and today. Okay, I was being very strong. It wouldn't have taken much arm twisting.

More Star Trek tie-in updates

Still working through my list of new purchases...


Homage to Vulcan - in Tokypop's second manga collection.

With the wonder of 20:20 retconning hindsight, Tokyopop's newest manga collection does a marvellous homage to all things Vulcan in "Amok Time" (TOS), "Yesteryear (TAS), "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock", the fourth season of "Star Trek: Enterprise", and the CGI-rejigged TOS episodes currently being made for the syndication market (and ultimately HD DVD), in their story, "Forging Alliances" by Paul Benjamin (art by Steven Cummings). The creators have managed to slip in visual and/or text references to Vulcan's Forge, the city of ShiKahr, the planetoid T'Kuht, the sites of several Spock rituals (perhaps all three of Koon-ut-kali-fee, Kolinahr and Fal Tor Pan?)... and more!


When le-matyas attack!

This story is more fun than a pack of le-matyas. And we get them, too.

Less exciting was the Diane Duane story, "Scaean Gate" (art by Don Hudson & Steve Buccellato). I guess I set myself up for disappointment, hoping for some participation by Harb Tanzer*, Naraht the horta or Lia Burke, but Ms Duane avoided any connections to her previous Star Trek work. The story premise was reminiscent of "Elaan of Troyius", in that a member of one planet's royal family was becoming monarch of a tenuously friendly rival planet. Complicating matters are a cute reptilian pet and lots of space battles. The art was nice and bold on this one, and a more enjoyable read because of that. At the same time, was it manga style? Not really. (And the queen's high-heeled pumps looked really out of place - anywhere in space!)

I'm in two minds about Christine Boylan's "Communications Breakdown" (art by Bettina Kurkoski). It's set post-"The Changeling", with Uhura gradually regaining her skills from the memory wipe performed by Nomad in that episode. Great premise (I was planning on using that story point myself once), and an interesting guest alien, but a few things just didn't gel, particularly the wacky little androgynous wild-haired replacement officer, Ensign Hodge, who looks like s/he fell out of an anime one day. Interestingly, the story mentions Cassandra of Earth mythology, who was also the inspiration for an unused "Star Trek: Phase II" teleplay.

Overall, Tokyopop's "Kakan ni Shinkou" is a worthy follow up to Shinsei Shinsei.

My complaint overall with the ST mangas so far: if they are going to be just like DC, Marvel or IDW ST comics, then I'd really prefer them in full colour. A few of the stories in this issue seemed to have one or two guest characters with anime-styled wild hair, but everyone else looking like they stepped out of a DC Comic. Reading the ST mangas on a train, at night, with the flu, was causing me terrible eyestrain, too. I much prefer "normal" sized comic pages for my Star Trek stories. For a b/w ST experience, I much prefer going back to the old "LA Times" post-TMP comic strips!

* An obvious person to tour Diane Duane's alien queen around was Harb Tanzer, I suppose, but then he'd be doing McCoy out of a main role, and most ST fans would want to read about McCoy over the lesser known Chief of Recreation.