fun for the whole family! fun? i meant jobs!
Posted on 6 February 2010 | No responses
Who’s watched the original Battlestar Galactica mini-series? Do you remember that kid who was in it, the one who thankfully wasn’t kept on as the show moved into a full television series? Yeah, the one on the right here. The actor’s name is Connor Widdows and there’s something curious and coincidental about the films and shows he has appeared in. It’s something to do with this piece of trivia on his IMDB page: “Son of Casting Director Kathleen Widdows”
That’s not quite it though, one needs to dig a little deeper there in his IMDB profile to get at the real nugget of wonder in his bio – oh here it is: “Nephew of Casting Director Coreen Mayrs”
Lets take a look at Connor’s filmography! Most recently, he appeared in Smallville. It just so happens that Coreen Mayrs was the casting director for Smallville, that’s interesting. Prior to that, he appeared in John Tucker Must Die. I wonder who the casting director might have been? Oh yes, it’s Coreen Mayrs!
X-Men: The Last Stand? Connor appears, Coreen is casting director. Battlestar Galactica? Coreen and Connor! X2? Coreen and Connor! Agent Cody Banks? Coreen and Connor! Dark Angel? Freddy Got Fingered? Agent Cody Banks? Coreen and Connor!
I’m pleased to see that the trend looks set to continue with Connor’s younger sister Sarah. Thus far she’s been in The Butterfly Effect and an episode of The L Word but I’m not going to give you any prizes for guessing who was the casting director.
The wonderful nepotistic world of show-business! 
(Full credit to Ing for noticing this curiosity)
write clearly! it’s not your mission to confuse and bedazzle!
Posted on 1 February 2010 | 3 responses
There’s a bee in my bonnet. Its buzzing grows louder with every stilted email full of unnecessary jargon and poor grammar. It ricochets wildly with every corporate cliché and meaningless acronym. There’s a mud shoveling effort afoot in business writing and the waters grow murkier by the day.
Why seemingly sensible human beings will speak in plain English on the telephone then drop synergy-bombs and litter “leverages” throughout their writing baffles me. Is it to impress your audience with your in-crowd vocabulary? Through confusion, do you hope to impress and awe? I’ve always thought that effective writing means getting your point across clearly with a voice and tone that suit the situation.
Whilst I don’t claim to be a terrific writer, here are just a few things that I avoid like the plague when creating an email.
- Using an unnecessarily long word when a short one gets the same point across:
- ascertain instead of find out
- undertake instead of do or agree to
- numerous instead of many
- Replacing an easily explained concept with an undefined acronym:
- PMO instead of “our current approach” or “what we do now”
- FMO instead of “a new approach” or “what we will do in future”
- Not only using a business-wank word, but misusing it! I’ve already whinged about leveraging instead of using but damn that pisses me off.
- Liberal application of clichés:
- Best in breed
- Low-hanging fruit
- Drill down
- Cascading information
- Moving forward
- Touch base about that offline
- In this space
- The list goes on…
I’m afraid I’m fighting a losing battle. Does anyone feel like adding to my collection of writing sins?
momento – the diary i could never be arsed to keep
Posted on 25 January 2010 | No responses
I downloaded Momento about a week and a half ago now and have been trying it out. Ever bothered to keep a diary or a journal? I never have, for a few reasons – if I don’t have it on me all the time I’ll never remember to write in it and I’ve never been much good with organising books and paper anyway. Momento’s a journal app which seems like a pretty cool way to keep track of what I’ve been up to and what’s going on.
I’m quite looking forward to being able to look back on private thoughts that I would otherwise have completely forgotten. Oh yeah, it hooks into Facebook and Twitter and whatnot and pulls your status updates/tweets into the journal which is pretty nifty. It remains to be seen whether or not my regular contributions continue but I’m enjoying the novelty for now!
calvin trillin called it alright
Posted on 17 January 2010 | No responses
And here it is, your moment of Zen. Calvin Trillin on the Daily Show in 2006 comments on his prediction for the next practical joking terrorist:
wow, actual (quite realistic) nudity from airport scanners
Posted on 16 January 2010 | No responses
I did see this a number of days ago on Gizmodo but thought it was definitely worth re-sharing considering my earlier post on the matter. I’m pretty damn surprised how easy it is to turn those full body scanner images into something that looks plenty realistic (careful, the linked full-size image is NSFW):
You can either click here or on the image to see the NSFW version.
the scale of this is a little bit hard to comprehend
Posted on 15 January 2010 | No responses
Here is a recent video from TED, photographs of retreating glaciers in time-lapse. Quite astonishing.
i went on a trip to the zoo
Posted on 9 January 2010 | No responses
This is quite belated but I finally got around to uploading my photos from Taronga Zoo a few weeks back. Twas lots of fun. Here’s a link to the album and some pictures
and with that, it ground to a shuddering halt
Posted on 18 December 2009 | No responses
I found out some news yesterday! It seems that not only will it be an Aussie Christmas and New Years, but it’s also likely to be an Aussie 2010. Above is a picture of places I am likely to be found next year – note the conspicuous absence of south-east Asia.
I have mixed feelings about the whole affair to be honest. On one hand, I’ve had a certain low level of stress hanging around for the last 9 months due to the constant sensation of being unable to plan my future. So the fact I won’t be going away kind-of fixes that up. On the other hand, I’d really been looking forward to the trip and had begun to feel like even though the dates were uncertain, it’d happen eventually. Never mind!
I’m gonna take a decent kind of summer holiday, a couple of weeks off to hang around in the shimmering heat of Sydney’s El-Nino summer. Beach trips, gold coast trips, trips of enlightenment ahead. Hope you weren’t counting on being rid of me for a while 
without a doubt, worst movie I’ve ever seen
Posted on 14 December 2009 | No responses
Last night, I was surprised. Here I am, someone who’s seen “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and even “Manos: The Hands of Fate.” I thought I’d seen the worst movies of all time. But I was sorely mistaken. Last night, I watched “The Room”. It’s a truly extraordinary piece of cinema. Here’s a short snippet of dialog to help explain:
Mark: How was work today?
Johnny: Oh pretty good. We got a new client… at the bank. We make a lot of money.
Mark: What client?
Johnny: I can not tell you, its confidential.
Mark: Oh come on. Why not?
Johnny: No I can’t. Anyway, how is your sex life?
It really has to be seen to be believed though. It’s damn hard to get a hold of – let me know if you’d like to see it. The Rifftrax guys have released an accompaniment which I also bought but haven’t listened to yet. The movie really doesn’t need anything to be added for it to be hilarious.
you say it like it’s a bad thing
Posted on 19 November 2009 | No responses
A real church sign, photo taken in Arkansas. Via “Fundies Say The Darndest Things.”
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random gallery photo