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DesDownunder

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Blog Entries posted by DesDownunder

  1. DesDownunder
    Well that was quite a good distraction setting up this blog. I have no idea what I will do with it.
    I should be writing my April Fools' story. It is nearly finished.
    It is very foolish.
    Today's word of wisdom: Buy a dish washer, or get a boyfriend who won't moan about doing the dishes.
    I have left several notes for my reincarnation to remind myself to make the dish washer a number one priority in my next life, assuming of course I come back as a human being or something similar.
  3. DesDownunder
    Nothing happened yesterday.
    The weather has changed, summer has gone and you will all be relieved no doubt, to know that I have had to put clothes on to keep warm. No more typing naked at the keyboard till November at the earliest, unless we turn the heater up way too high.
    Daylight saving ended last weekend here in Adelaide, Australia and it is dark by 6 pm. Still we may yet have a few more sunny days of warmth before our Southern Winter hits.
    The above is merely an inane entry to make sure that I can still type whilst wearing clothes.
  4. DesDownunder
    I am certain I have been suffering an URTI, an upper respiratory infection. Of course being a hypochondriac I was certain it was my dismal end until I started to feel better. Better enjoyed me feeling him too. I call him Better because he is better than me at coping with mild complaints. (I'm better at major surgical interventions.)
    So convinced was I, of my fate, I began a dismal poem about "The End."
    I may of course have to wait until I am dead to finish it as I want it to be accurate.
    I made a big batch of what I call my Lentil stew. It cost less than $10 for 14 meals.
    I deep freeze it and when ready just reheat it and do other things to it, like curry it or put it on noodles or both.
    We eat it in the dark whilst we watch a movie so we don't have to look at it.
    Now I can afford to buy next week's cheese and coffee.
  5. DesDownunder

    (35) My new story

    By DesDownunder,

    My latest story "Definitions" has just been posted at Codey's World.
    Definitions -my new story
    I hope you all enjoy reading it.
    Sometimes we forget how much effort and time goes into getting a story not only written, but also the people behind the scenes who edit and publish our stories for us wretched authors.
    I would like to thank Codey and Ben for their help and inspiration for this story.
    After you have read "Definitions" drop into the CW's homepage and have a look at all the other new stories and poems as well.
    Don't forget too, The AwesomeDude has wonderful stories and forums.
    We are so lucky to have these sites. Drop in and say "Hi", Let the author's and the site owners know you are enjoying the toils of their slaving. (Some of us even like positive criticism.)
    Most of us will reply with a big thank you.
    Okay I will stop there before I get emotional and start getting teary-eyed.

  6. DesDownunder

    (42) Exhausted

    By DesDownunder,

    I'm exhausted!
    The new computer is up and running...on Windows XP.
    I still have a number of programs to install and the hard drives need to be configured to my
    weird standards of operation.
    I must tell you of a program I happened across that I bought because I really like it.
    It is called "Priority Master 7". Basically it allows you to set priorities for the running of programs in relation to CPU usage. At least that is what I think it does.
    Left in auto mode the program boosts the current app and decreases others to idle mode.
    The overall effect is to make the computer more responsive, saving time and frustration.
    You can see the program at
    http://www.prioritymaster.com/
    A friend of mine who was disappointed with his computer has tried it too, and he is now happy.
    I have loads of work to catch up on so I will still won't be around as much as I want, but I hope to be back annoying you all soon. I have a few unfinished poems that are aching to be completed.

  7. DesDownunder
    So my blog is 50 entries old. I never would have thought it possible.
    A Poet's Idiocy
    I was never enamoured with long-winded but truncated sentences that rhymed or not.
    Poetic pretentious philosophical ponderings in abbreviated form with obscure meanings of whatever is being described is not something I generally enjoy in poetry. (There are exceptions.)
    At our local poetry reading group,
    I must confess to being somewhat bored
    With descriptions of tangled clothes on the ironing board
    By one single word after another,
    Seemingly to state the obvious bother,
    Of ironing clothes simply to impress,
    Neighbours who could not care less.
    I have always preferred the narrative notions contained in story poems.
    But to get to the nitty gritty, it is Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Tennyson, Taylor and their ilk that I liked as a student. I struggled with Homer's Odyssey and Shakespeare sounded nice but it took eons for me to comprehend the extraordinary richness in their work. Not a single word is unconnected to where he is taking his audience. Every poetic phrase is an insight into a human drama concealed in what almost seems to be infinite interpretation, yet is really just for holding the attention, for entertaining the audience. So simple. Yet by play's end we, the audience or readers, are more than when it started; it is cathartic, or at least it seems that way.
    The likes of Sophocles and Euripides reveal through the poetry of their plays, hidden psyches of the human being, masquerading as the imperfections of "The Gods" that would have to wait over 2000 years for Freud to begin our understanding of the depth of their statements and intuitions.
    The wandering minstrels of yore, told stories as they sang, as did that forerunner of the evening TV news, the "Town Crier." I wonder if they did commercials for the local traders? For example:
    "Hear ye, hear ye, The king fell off the throne today,
    And was assassinated by a masked woman,
    In pretence of being a man.
    She is described as looking a bit frumpy,
    Last seen dashing towards a village nearby.
    If thou hast any information regarding this woman,
    Please contact the Witch-hunt office at the olde butcher shop in High Street,
    Whence they will present a special on sausages all next week."

    Poetry is everywhere if you will but look and listen.
    "I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree" is the first line of Joyce Kilmer's most famous poem, "Trees".
    Yet within every poem is a distillation of an idea
    Which may grow into a story of assorted love and fear.
    The poet is more than just a writer of rhymes,
    More than a chronicler who beautifies the times,
    The poet sings of what he sees, in words,
    So we will not kill them with our swords.
    The poet will reveal what we have left,
    By sharing the poetic life he has lived.
    When thoughts and feelings demand to be heard,
    Use of any old cliche seems absurd,
    For only a poet knows how to choose a word.
    Have no fear if you do not like poetry,
    All you scribes, with your tales of love and strife
    It's already in your ev'ry story,
    As you are living the poetic life.

  8. DesDownunder
    This is totally unexpected.
    I was typing away working on special things for Codey's World (please see What's New at Codey's World from Ben) when the Muse suddenly appeared and dropped a story into my poor excuse for a head.
    So here it is my Chrissy present to you all in the form of a short story called, A Christmas Cage
    May you all feel like all your Christmases have come at once.
    Merry Christmas.

  9. DesDownunder
    Sometimes we just get carried away with a story or other kind of work, that makes us so pleased we lived long enough to read it or see it or hear it.
    So in a fit of rampant abandonment of all restraint I have taken down my treasured Avatar that means a great deal to me personally.
    My new avatar is probably a better description of me anyway. I certainly feel related to him.
    Anyway I would like to announce that I will now use my EnthMan symbol (my old avatar) as symbol of my appreciation of work that for me exemplifies quality and excellence in its field of artistic endeavour, including literature, visual and audio arts and anything else I feel like presenting it to.
    Why not make a symbol too and present it to people who have provided you with the pleasure of their talents.
    No No do not send sticky stamps of your symbol to your favourite film star,
    That is not what I mean.

    I am pleased to announce the first recipients are Cole Parker for Duck Duck Goose.
    Codey for From the Heart
    And Camy/Codey for the song Broken Heart.
    Please remember folks this is just me recognising my favourite meaningful works.
  10. DesDownunder
    Cole Parker's latest story, Dominos, caused Altimexis to go into hysterics, and me to travel back to a memory of a defining moment.
    Rather than clutter up the Forum, I have posted that memory here in my blog.
    I was 14 and the film 'Blue Denim' had just been released. Now I should explain I loved movies. Every Saturday afternoon I was permitted to go to the local cinema to see the 'Kid's Matinee' as they called it back in 1959. We had no TV in those days.
    In a fit of pubescent inquisitiveness and teenage rebellion, I had bought a pair of blue denim jeans during my school lunch hour. My parents did not know. They would never have allowed me to own such a terrible item of clothing.
    Came the following Saturday and I kissed my mum goodbye and headed off to what she thought was the 'Kid's Matinee'. Instead I caught the bus to the city and managed to buy a ticket to see the 'Adults Only' movie, 'Blue Denim.' It starred the then teenage actors Carol Lynley and Brandon De Wilde.
    The movie's plot was basically that parents' dislike of blue denim jeans was justified because Brandon wears them, and he gets Carol pregnant; much to the snickers of the cinema audience. When Brandon finds out that Carol is with child, there is much guilt on screen as the pair admit their parents' trusted them.
    For some reason that escaped me at the tender age of 14, when the audience heard that line, they burst out into near, apoplectic laughter.
    I was horrified at the insensitivity of my fellow cinema patrons. Didn't they understand how much trouble the characters were in?
    Did they think it was appropriate to laugh at someone else's misfortune? I spent the rest of the movie wondering why my fellow patrons found the situation of these two teenagers so funny.
    I was very, very, disappointed with humanity.
    As the movie continued towards its conclusion, I became aware that my own teenager perspective was naive, even immature. It dawned on me that the reason the movie was 'Adults Only' was because older people would indeed find these kid's concerns with what their parents thought of them and their sexual experience as being humorous.
    I wasn't altogether happy with them, but I at least came to see why the adults were laughing.
    I was also deeply aware that I would have liked to have offered Brandon De Wilde the opportunity of trying to get me pregnant.
    By the movies end, I had realised that the adults in the audience had a perspective of life that I was just beginning to understand.
    So it was that I read the first chapter of Cole's new story with that same kind of acceptance, of Bradley's innocence, as I had for the characters in that movie of long ago. I empathised with his predicament rather than finding it funny, even though I could see as I read it how it might be viewed as humorous. And this early experience came flooding back into my mind.
    Now I have no idea if Cole wanted us to be amused, bemused or sympathetic. My guess is he wanted all three as well as whetting our appetite for more. Altimexis' amusement and my reminiscences are legitimate responses in my opinion, and both show the extraordinary power of Cole's sublime writing.

  11. DesDownunder

    Australia Day 2009

    By DesDownunder,

    Here are my Australia Day thoughts, inspired by the ongoing debate about whether Australia should or should not drop its ties with the English monarchy and become a republic in its own right (or hopefully of the Left.) Some of the the thoughts and phrases may seem strange to those not intimate with Aussie custom.
    Becoming an Australian republic is not a simple matter of deciding to abandon the monarchy. This was one of the main reasons the public rejected the last proposal for Australia to become a republic; no one could inspire the people to believe that a republic offered anything superior to the present form of government.
    Looking at the various alternatives for self government, throughout human history and we should see that all of them are fraught with dangers of corruption and manipulation for the benefit of the few, rather than the many.
    Many republics have grown from the overthrow of a dictator or from some form of revolution against the oppression of the people.
    Post revolutionary America and France both took great pains to devise their democratic republics to guard as much as possible against control and manipulation of the people by dictators, oligarchs, and other assorted forms of tyranny. Neither have succeeded completely, but neither have they completely failed.
    The English monarchy has served its people as a democracy quite well, but is it truly fair to the Royal family for them to be thrust into their regal position at birth? It can be argued that they are well compensated, but can any amount of compensation really replace the freedom to which we all aspire.
    The simple model placed before the Australian people previously was reasonable in removing the monarchy whilst preserving the democratic model on which our government is presently constructed. Yet this was rejected by the Australian population. Why? Are they waiting for a revolution? Does that mean we are not revolting enough to want to adopt a republican model for our democracy?
    It is here that we should be drawn to discussion by our thinkers, our artists, and our indigenous people, for they can teach us about sharing.
    Australia offers more opportunity than any other place on Earth, for a people to develop a multi-cultural society which expounds harmonious relationships, not just through tolerance, but through acceptance of the differences between people, and indeed by encouraging the divergent natures of humankind's creativity in all its varieties.
    We don't have to fight a revolution here; we don't have to overthrow some despot, before we can build our republic of fairness and harmony.
    But it is also true to say that if we allow the opportunity to languish in the mimicry of even the most successful previous republics, born as they were from revolution, then we will have abandoned our Australian way of life to be an imitation of their ideals and not ours. We will have missed the opportunity to be ourselves as fair-minded Aussies, even though we come from everywhere on the Earth. We will have missed the chance to show the world that all humankind can live in peace with each other.
    But most of all we will have revolted against the chance for our own republic, a republic that could enshrine the meaning of giving the other bloke, "a fair go!"
    We don't need to have a revolution to form a Republic of harmony, acceptance and Love; we just need to give it a go.
    Happy Australia Day.
    Advance Australia Fair. This is the long version of our national anthem, watch it at your peril, I quite like it.
  12. DesDownunder
    As many of you who follow my posts...there are some of you who do follow my posts?
    Anyway as you might know, I am very interested in creativity and the boundaries that copyright imposes on artists.
    I have posted some of these links before but I wanted to bring them together as resource, because I think it is extremely relevant and important.
    These links centre around the work of Professor Lawrence Lessig and his books on freedom of expression in creativity. See his books at this site.
    Addition thoughts from a book reading by Professor Lawrence Lessig who tackles the copyright problem with original insight, can be found here.
    Also see this link for further profound and interesting discussion on creative ideas.
    I think this is very very important.
  13. DesDownunder

    Happy New What

    By DesDownunder,

    Have you ever noticed ho difficult it is to have a happy new year when the rest of the world seems to have gone stark raving mad?
    Perhaps it is just me, perhaps I have caught some dreaded mental malady that makes me think the rest of the world is bonkers when it is really me that has gone psycho in January.
    I can tell you I wasn't too happy about Uganda passing laws to execute homosexuals, and my straight friends weren't impressed that if straight people know a gay person, then they have to report them to the Ugandan authorities or face 7 years jail.
    Meanwhile back in Adelaide the government has passed a bill forcing DVD stores who rent or sell R18+ (Restricted classification by the Australian Federal Government) to display the R rated movies in a separate area from all the other DVDs. Note: R18 movies are not porn as such, we have XXX rating for porn which means they are automatically banned and can't be sold or rented to the public in any states, except in Canberra, where the politicians live when Federal parliament is in session.
    Then there is the delightful news that Ireland has passed a blasphemy law, which means if you blaspheme in Ireland you can be fined upto 25,000 Euros (approx. $35,000.)
    I can't sleep and if I do sleep I keep dreaming about straight people being jailed because they know some gays.
    Then I have a nightmare about gay penguins being executed in Uganda, or gay anything being executed anywhere, for that matter, just because they are gay. Haven't we suffered enough for these crackpot zealots thinking they can control nature? Let alone the hole Human Rights issue of being able to love whom you wish. (Consenting adults only please, and only in the designated R-rated section, no XXX stuff, thank you.)
    I am not worried about Ireland so much, the Atheist Ireland group have published a list of 25 blasphemies in the hope of getting arrested. (They are Irish, and I love them for that.)
    I woke up in sweat and almost screaming about the loss of human rights. Am I taking all this too personally, do you think?
    After all I live in Australia and I'm not going to Ireland or Iran or Uganda. It's bad enough having to leave the house and do the weekly shopping. You only have to look at a little old lady and she screams "Help." Heaven help me if I look at her pet dog.
    Well our politicians are making noises again, about a charter of human rights for Australia. The only trouble is they don't see freedom of religion, freedom of speech etc., as a Human Right. The federal Aussie politicians have however announced that from August they will filter the Internet for us. At the same time they have announced a fast cable broadband to be installed in 90% of Australian homes, presumably so we can all watch play school.
    Then there is the local hospital, that needs to be replaced, rebuilt or if the other party gets elected in March they will build a new sports stadium instead and renovate the old hospital. The city of Adelaide council can't work out why the narrowing of the naturally wide city streets has stopped people from coming into the city. Or why the high rents means that no one wants to live in the city.
    Still you don't want know all this local nonsense, why don't we all have a nice cup of coffee, and sit this year out.
    Happy New Year 2011...Yeah, Right!
  14. DesDownunder

    Happy New What?

    By DesDownunder,

    Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to have a happy new year when the rest of the world seems to have gone stark raving mad?
    Perhaps it is just me, perhaps I have caught some dreaded mental malady that makes me think the rest of the world is bonkers when it is really me that has gone psycho in January.
    I can tell you I wasn't too happy about Uganda passing laws to execute homosexuals, and my straight friends weren't impressed that if straight people know a gay person, then they have to report them to the Ugandan authorities or face 7 years jail.
    Meanwhile back in Adelaide the government has passed a bill forcing DVD stores who rent or sell R18+ (Restricted classification by the Australian Federal Government) to display the R rated movies in a separate area from all the other DVDs. Note: R18 movies are not porn as such, we have XXX rating for porn which means they are automatically banned and can't be sold or rented to the public in any states, except in Canberra, where the politicians live when Federal parliament is in session.
    Then there is the delightful news that Ireland has passed a blasphemy law, which means if you blaspheme in Ireland you can be fined upto 25,000 Euros (approx. $35,000.)
    I can't sleep and if I do sleep I keep dreaming about straight people being jailed because they know some gays.
    Then I have a nightmare about gay penguins being executed in Uganda, or gay anything being executed anywhere, for that matter, just because they are gay. Haven't we suffered enough for these crackpot zealots thinking they can control nature? Let alone the whole Human Rights issue of being able to love whom you wish. (Consenting adults only please, and only in the designated R-rated section, no XXX stuff, thank you.)
    I am not worried about Ireland so much, the Atheist Ireland group have published a list of 25 blasphemies in the hope of getting arrested. (They are Irish, and I love them for that.)
    I woke up in sweat and almost screaming about the loss of human rights. Am I taking all this too personally, do you think?
    After all I live in Australia and I'm not going to Ireland or Iran or Uganda. It's bad enough having to leave the house and do the weekly shopping. You only have to look at a little old lady and she screams "Help." Heaven help me if I look at her pet dog.
    Well our politicians are making noises again, about a charter of human rights for Australia. The only trouble is they don't see freedom of religion, freedom of speech etc., as a Human Right. The federal Aussie politicians have however announced that from August they will filter the Internet for us. At the same time they have announced a fast cable broadband to be installed in 90% of Australian homes, presumably so we can all watch play school.
    Then there is the local hospital, that needs to be replaced, rebuilt or if the other party gets elected in March they will build a new sports stadium instead and renovate the old hospital. The city of Adelaide council can't work out why the narrowing of the naturally wide city streets has stopped people from coming into the city. Or why the high rents means that no one wants to live in the city.
    Still you don't want to know all this local nonsense, why don't we all have a nice cup of coffee, and sit this year out.
    Happy New Year 2011...Yeah, Right!
  15. DesDownunder
    I thought I would quote some of my replies I post to newspaper sites and blogs, and stuff.
    Hopefully they will make sense without referencing the article, which I won't do because I do not mean this to be a reference report, just a place to list my comments that perhaps might have a general relevance to other communities or situations. A kind of pin the quote -tail, on the (blindfolded) asinine news of the day, and let it fall where it may in the readers' realm.
    .

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