A new application for the iPhone and iPod touch enables me to add and edit blog posts. This here is a test
Jun 20
As presented on Saturday June 20th 2009 by me!
At Williamstown Library
International Year of Astronomy 2009
Celebrating 400 years since the Galileo first used his telescope.
Eta Carinae: Wikipedia and Hubble Image
Audio Podcasts
365 Days of Astronomy http://365daysofastronomy.org/ (short, one per day as part of IYA 2009)
Astronomy Cast http://www.astronomycast.com/ (longer, topic-based and detailed)
StarStuff http://www.abc.net.au/science/starstuff/ (ABC Radio. News based. Podcast of radio show)
Software
Stellarium (free planetarium)
Orbiter (free simulator to fly the shuttle etc)
Web Links
When is the Space Station etc visible: http://www.heavens-above.com
Astronomy related news http://www.universetoday.com/
http://museumvictoria.com.au/planetarium/ (Skynotes)
Jun 14
Found this lost gem on my hard drive this afternoon. You see back in 1998 I used to write regular AFL game previews and email them out to many football fans throughout the entire world. Now, someone on Twitter today made an apparent pop-culture reference and it got me thinking about how – during this 1998 email activity – I used to throw in obscure references too. And thanks to indexing and searching of some VERY old email archives, I found it:
From: David Sidwell <dsidwell@connexus.apana.org.au>
Subject: [AFL-Preview] Round 11X-Eudora-Signature: <Standard>
<sent 6:20pm. Thursday June 6th from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, The Universe – or certainly the centre of it>
Wow. Nearly halfway through the 1998 season already. Can you believe it ? No club has yet pulled away from the pack and clearly marked themselves as flag faves. The Doggies probably come close, but that is subjective (yeah, like there aren’t many things in footy that aren’t subjective). I guess the key would be patience
Most games this week are not that easy to pick, but allow me to gently guide you through this difficult path…
ESSENDON VS. SYDNEY – M.C.G. (NIGHT)
A big thank you to St Kilda for belting the living shoelace out of the Swans last week. Actually, let’s think about that for a tick. Maybe that should be <sarcasm> thank you </sarcasm>; as in we have to face them this week and they are going to be livid. Even the white bits of their jumpers will be red.
But, I’ve got faith the Bombers will hold off the Sydney charge. Should be a great game! If tomorrow (Friday) is a gorgeous as today – that is 20c, sunny, gentle breeze – there should be a 50,000+ crowd at the MCG tomorrow night. Sydney have a big following here in Melbun.
** Essendon by 24 points
GEELONG VS. CARLTON – M.C.G.
I think the Blues winning streak will come to a crashing end against Geelong. The Cats pulled off a bit of a surprise win last week (well -as you well know – a surprise to me at least). All this talk of who will replace D. Parkin ("next year") must be destabilising the club. The Blues aren’t without hope, but then again Al Bundy may also become President and Miranda may wander into Woodend with a dazed look on her face.
** Geelong by 34 points
HAWTHORN VS. MELBOURNE – WAVERLEY PARK
A telling game for both clubs. Melbourne have lost 2 in a row and by non-small margins too. The Hawks were desperately close against the Bombers last week, losing only by about one kick. The previous week they seemed to almost have the Swans measure at Swanland, then bang! Quicker than you could say "conspiracy theory", Plugger## took personal control and that was that. Thank your mother for the rabbits.
I think the Hawks have found that little something; those semi-mythical "1 percenters" that coaches and commentators are so fond of.
** Hawthorn by 16 points
PORT ADELAIDE VS. WEST COAST – FOOTBALL PARK (NIGHT)
This will be interesting. The West Coast are coming off two impressive wins; it appears as though the Eagle is stirring. The Port Power certainly have the respect of the footy world; particularly when on their own dung hill. Glad to see a team doing their apprenticeship.
This time they meet their masters and it’ll be us turning up our radios.
** Weagles by 21 points
FREMANTLE VS. BRISBANE LIONS – SUBIACO
4th bottom versus 2nd bottom. Freeo to further add to the misery up North.
** Fremantle by 42 points
WESTERN BULLDOGS VS. ADELAIDE – OPTUS OVAL
Western Bulldogs should have no trouble against the Spice Girls, who are still seething that Ginger isn’t around to choreograph their dainty little moves. I don’t know how she got back from Gilligans Island in the first place.
Woof! Woof! Got get ‘em doggies.
** Western Bulldogs by 40 points
NORTH MELBOURNE VS. COLLINGWOOD – M.C.G.
It’s a measure of the closeness of the season that these two teams, despite being about one-third of the ladder apart, are really only 1 win and about 2% different. A big crowd should witness a very interesting match.
This is the toss game of the week.
** North by 5 points
ST. KILDA VS. RICHMOND – WAVERLEY PARK
Ding dong old-fashioned stoush. A holiday Monday should see a virtual full house (did you see that the largest crowd of the round last week was a Waverley Park; mmm, I wonder if it is as doomed as some would have us believe?).
I think the Saints would be on cloud 10 after last weeks thrashing of Sydney. I like the Tigers a lot (as I’ve mentioned a few times, I believe I personally saved them via a donation and attending a fund-raising trivia night a few years ago with Melissa, Noel and Pottsy: so the Tigers owe me). But they need some consistency if they are going to move to that next level. A win here would help them in that objective, but I can’t see it happening.
** St Kilda by 25 points
We came about last in the trivia comp too.
–
## A few years ago, Tony "Plugger" Lockett was playing for the Swans in a match where a Sydney (rugby) radio station, to their credit, was calling their first AFL game. As the ball was kicked forward by Rooooos, the caller noticed Lockett running towards the ball and witnessed him take a great mark. The caller paused and let fly with the magnificent cry of "Plunger!!!"
Jun 14
I do like a good post-disaster tale and so when Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road was recommended to me, I reserved it at my local library. A week later and it’s here. Just started and intrigued so far. To quote Amazon:
A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece. A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there…
He, as you may know, wrote the book No Country For Old Men, itself turned into a searing and award-winning movie in 2007. The film of The Road is currently in post-production and due out around October 2009. What bodes well is that it’s directed by John Hillcoat, of the stunning and masterful The Proposition fame.
Yes I am reading two books at once. Or that’s the plan at least.
Jun 14
Back around 2000, Ian Kershaw wrote a large 2-volume biography of Hitler. Book 1 (Hubris as per above) is 912 pages. Found an ex-library, hardback version on the web for virtually nothing. Am 60 pages in already and yet Adolf is only 19 and WW1 hasn’t started yet. It’s a very well written text, with references everywhere. I ordered the second book Hitler: 1936-1945: Nemesis from Better World Books. Again a used hardback. It’s arrived and sitting on the To Read shelf. Well, when I say shelf, I mean pile.
Jun 13
<”Live” page. Will add more text and photos etc over next few days. For now just a placeholder with a bit of starter info>
Saturday 14:30. Just back from a great few days away. I’d been thinking about this trip for a while and grabbed the chance this week. It was built around a mallee-wimmera (drier W & NW part of Victoria) walk in the huge Wyperfeld National Park.
The nearest large town – with supermarkets and accommodation – appears to be Warracknabeal. So I booked in there for 2 nights as it’s too far to do the whole trip to Wyperfeld from Melbourne in one day.
Day 1 Williamstown to Warracknabeal (via Clunes and Maryborough). ~300 km
Day 2 W’beal to Wyperfeld. 100km to the start of the National Park (!). So it’s about 400 km from Melbourne. Last time I did the Wyperfeld walk it was in summer and very hot. Sand dunes (with vegetation, not bare), emus, dried up lake beds. This time it was the same, BUT much cooler – being winter – and the smaller lakes held some water. And ZERO flies, compared to summer. Only 200 km today.
Day 3 W’beal to Warrnambool, via Horsham and Hamilton. The two ‘H’ towns were the venues for two most pleasant social catch-ups, then off to Warrnambool for the night. 300km day.
Day 4. W’bool back home but via Loch Ard Gorge near Port Campbell to see the recently collapsed arch. Then Colac and Inverleigh so I could pick up the new Geelong Ring Road (aka Bypass). Google Maps – below – doesn’t seem to know about this partially opened road. Another 300km+ day.
And speaking of Maps, here it is. It also had problems trying to show the route to Wyperfeld NP, but it’s north-west of Warracknabeal via Hopetoun.
<more to come>
Jun 06
Decided to read my first ever Harry Potter book, having seen every film thus far. Given the Half Blood Prince movie is due out in July, the book of the same name was the obvious choice. And I loved it.
Even though it weighs in at 600+ pages, JKR writes so well that you hardly notice the length. As Harry gets older, so does his audience, so the tone of the book is very dark. The final trailer for the movie came out just as I finished and it too is dark.
May 25
Image-related
IrfanView http://www.irfanview.com/ + does manual/auto screen captures, and basic image editing
Picasa http://picasa.google.com.au/ image librarian, can invoke IrfanView
Gimp http://www.gimp.org/ GNU Image Manipulation Program for Photoshop-like editing
May 02
Today I spent a fun hour at an excellent chat session hosted by Wayne Hope and Robyn Butler, the creative team behind The Librarians (etc!). This was part of a local festival. It was a packed house and Robyn and Wayne brought their young daughter along. She sat quietly playing with her colouring on the side of the small stage area.
They told a few anecdotes, but it was mainly questions from the floor. Naturally I got a few in, plus had a good chat to Wayne afterwards. We share a common interest in spotting people who are bluffing, both in the workplace and outside of it.
Some of the funniest moments were when the guys got carried away and let rip with some adult language. Then the other half would go “oops” and point to their daughter. Later on the other one let rip. This time the young lady herself responded as well.
Robyn said they have just finished editing series two of The Librarians. It should be on the ABC later this year. Good stuff.
I also attended two other very good sessions:
- Andrew Rule, co-author of Underbelly (etc etc etc). He was interviewed by ABC journalist Josephine Cafagna, who also happens to live here in Williamstown. They also took questions from the floor.
- Professor Marcia Langton. Who is currently Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at Melbourne Uni. I was a few rows from the front and as she was preparing to go on, Prof Langton kept looking at me. She finally said something like “I think I know you, have we met?”. I said I wasn’t sure. I did say I had seen her on TV
[The excellent SBS series The First Australians]. We talked a bit at the end, but neither could work out if we had met.
Again as Prof Langton was preparing, a rather familiar looking lady was standing by the stage, waiting to introduce the speaker. All of a sudden the familiar lady turned to me and asked me how I was going. “Well”, said I, “and how are you, Mrs Kirner?”
Apr 21
Have done a few walks up Mt Macedon, but today was first time I did the Big One; the 19km loop. Was a great day and met 2 very nice fellow walkers, who ended up doing the same route as me. We actually – initially – went our separate ways, but then met up before the halfway point and hooked up from there.
Walk starts in the main street of the Mt Macedon village.
First bit is a walk up an ascending semi-rural road (houses etc), which suddenly ‘goes bush’ when you hit the national park. The ziz-zag climb up the mountain begins and you pop out at the memorial cross. This leg = 3.6km. Quite steep climbing
Second section is relatively level as you walk over to the Camels Hump look out. Walking along west side of the mountain. With sidetrips (i.e. trying to find a track that didn’t seem to be there) this was 5.2km. About halfway through the walk.
Third and final leg was from Camels Hump along the east side of the mount, then doing the steep, rocky descent of Mt Towong, which seems to be a spur of the much larger Mt Macedon. The track wasn’t that dangerous and we took our time. But you do need to be careful. This bit was 10.2km
I’d estimate over 5 hours, walking a fair bit of that time.
Bit of a hurry now, but will edit this later to add photos, descriptions etc.
