Babydoll

I had the chance to watch Sucker Punch over the weekend (only released in SA on Friday) and loved every minute of it. The movie's opening sequence has no dialogue and it captured me right from the start with it's haunting music.

The film hasn't received the greatest reviews which I don't quite understand. Perhaps it's one of those that you either love or hate. Zack Snyder, the director, also made 300, Watchmen and Legend of the Guardians - all movies I thoroughly enjoyed.

Sucker Punch is about a young woman, Babydoll, who's thrown into a mental institution by her stepfather to get her out of his way. The movie follows her attempt to escape from the asylum. What's different is that to cope with the situation she envisions all her escape plans as these elaborate fantasies. The worlds she creates and the music accompanying it had me enthralled. I will definitely buy the DVD and watch it again. I read many criticisms that the best parts of the film - the fantasies - weren't real, but that's the point, isn't it? Dreams and fantasies are by definition larger than life.

I'll leave you with a quote from the film which has stuck with me (forgive me if I don't recall it exactly):

You think you cannot do this. You can.
You think you are not strong enough. You are.
You have all the weapons you need.
Now, Fight!

Buckets

While working in Limpopo (northern province in South Africa), I had to adjust to a lot a new things. Exploration geology is very much an outdoor experience and I got used to lots of sunblock and a t-shirt tan. Driving around in a 4-by-4 bakkie (truck) also became part of my daily life.

The exploration area I worked in is part of the Bushveld and is covered in lush shrubs and trees. The farms we were drilling on were mostly game farms with high fences and lots of gates between the different farms and even within one farm. Many of farmers kept their wild game separate from the typical farm animals like cows and rotated them between the different paddocks. This meant that you could be opening and closing 10 or more gates on the way to a borehole. Deciding who's driving and who's opening gates became a very strategic decision. Claims that I was always driving on the farm with the most gates have not been verified :-).

On the one day, I was particularly deep into the one farm at the furthest borehole. The day had started well and I was almost finished logging. When I looked up from the core at some stage, I noticed the most amazing clouds moving in from the horizon. The entire day had been very hot and clear blue skies, but suddenly a whole bank of dark-grey clouds were moving closer. I took a few pictures and hoped for cooler weather. I'm used to clouds with manners. You know the kind that slowly moves in, announces it's intent of rain and allows you time to get under cover. These clouds were definitely more arrogant.

I quickly rushed to finish logging with the idea to get off the farm and unto the main gravel road as soon as possible. But when I stopped at the first gate on the way out, buckets of rain came hurtling down. I struggled to keep the gate open with the wind gusting mercilessly. I finally grabbed a huge log and dragged it in front of the gate. By the time I got back in the bakkie, I was soaked through and pools of water were in the door of the bakkie and on the floor. This process was repeated at each of the 4 gates after that. The rain was so heavy that I had trouble seeing and the dirt roads turned into moving sand sludge. I hadn't realized that not only were Limpopo clouds arrogant, but also in a hurry. When I got to the last gate before the main road, the rain was completely gone and the sun was shining. A farmer passed me by and didn't understand how the hell I was soaked when the sun was shining. I just smiled and was glad he didn't ask if I were a geologist followed by the inevitable when will stop drilling chat.

After that I learned to simply sit quietly in the bakkie and wait out the rain. Much easier on my clothes and the bakkie :-).

A Modest Destiny

Sean Howard is the creator of Squidi.net. There you will find his webcomics, new games he's designed, a blog and various other interesting things. I started reading his webcomics quite a while back and was captivated. The webcomics use pixel art which gives it quite a specific style. Very cool.

A Modest Destiny is one of his webcomics and has the longest run. It's divided into 4 sagas or chapters. It's set in a fantasy world with quite a few main characters. In the beginning the webcomic was a simple hero story (or so it seemed) and hilarious, but as the story became more intricate so did the characters.

A Modest Destiny Wallpaper

A Modest Destiny ended on a bit of a cliffhanger a few years back when the creator took a hiatus. But, and here's the best news since they cancelled Egoli (SA soap opera), it's back! Sean Howard has announced that he's finished the 4th chapter and is posting it 3 times a week. Woohoo!

Seriously, read it from the start :-).

Ash Content

Coal is different from other commodities in how varied its uses are and how non-homogenous coal seams can be. For example, gold analyses are done to determine the grade (g/t) - how many grams of gold per tonne of rock you can extract. For coal, the analyses done are so much more and goes back to the seam's original depositional environment.

Coal is classified according to rank. An increase in rank means that the coal was subjected to greater amounts of metamorphism and burial which caused an increase in the organic carbon content of the coal. In other words, the longer and the deeper the plant material was buried under sediments, the more water and gas was pressured out so that mostly carbon remained. Coal rank increases from peat, lignite, subbituminous, bituminous to anthracite. Coal in the different classes or ranks differ in their chemical and physical properties. Also, the different coal types are used in different industries such as coal gasification to create fuels, combustion for energy generation or in the metallurgical industry as coking coal.

One company's plan to promote clean coal - singing coal! :-)

The typical and basic analyses done on coal is proximate analyses. The coal is crushed in a laboratory to get a representative sample and then the various tests are done. The proximate analysis consists of ash content, volatile matter content, inherent moisture and fixed carbon content. These are all given as percentages and add up to 100%.

Ash content is what remains after all the carbon matter has combusted - the inorganic leftovers. The volatile matter are the gasses released during combustion. Inherent moisture is the water within the coal particles and the fixed carbon is the actual carbon content within the coal.

The ash and volatile matter content give a very good indication of the coal quality. For specific purposes, the ash and volatile matter will be required to fall within a specific range. Consistency in the coal is important for efficient plant operations. Ash content and volatile matter will also show you if anything has affected the coal after deposition. For example, if any igneous intrusions have gone through or nearby the coal seam, the heat from the molten rock would have burnt the coal and so removed most of it's volatile matter. This will be evident in a lower volatile matter content and higher ash content.

Coal analyses form an integral part in understanding a coal seam and ensuring it's used for the most efficient purpose. People say working in gold and platinum is difficult due to the many faults and very deep shafts - I say try building a good forecasting model for a coal deposit based on endless tables of analyses! :-)

Zot!

I love sound effects. I remember reading a Calvin & Hobbes strip where Calvin was walking around making dramatic music and other sound effects. His answer at his mother's complete exasperation: "Everyone's life should have a dramatic soundtrack." (Apologies to Bill Waterson if I haven't remembered the dialogue correctly.)

Apparently, when Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess) was first aired, many websites popped up around the sound effects. Especially the sometimes overly dramatic ones when the heroes or villains flick their heads around or jab with a sword. And everyone has some song running in the background of their mind all the time. If that's just me, please don't tell me, ignorance is bliss :-).

But, I love sound effects the most in comic form. Each author has a different way of putting in sound. Some simply use the word itself (gunshot or whatever), while others use the standard ones (thud, bump and so on). The you get those that create new ones like Megan Rose Gedris.

Gedris, YU+ME creator, also made a webcomic with the coolest title ever. Wait for it ... I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space. Or LPOS for short (Rosalarian). The title already had me in stitches and the comic got even better. The art is old-style comic books and is very well done. As the title suggests, the webcomic is about a young woman kidnapped by space pirates. It follows their adventures through the galaxy and the different characters are very funny. One of the best scenes in the comic is when they show what a gaydar really looks like - friggin hilarious! What I also love about it is the unique sound effects. Zot! is one of my favourites and is what one of the weapons sound like. Thok! is what it sounds like when you kick a guy squarely between the legs.

Webcomic by Megan Rose Gedris

Tikka tacka is what my keyboard sounds like while I'm typing this :-).

YU+ME:Dream

About 2 years ago, I was surfing on the internet and landed on this webcomic by Megan Rose Gedris. It's called Yu+Me:Dream and I was instantly hooked - I finished all the archives up until that day in a few hours straight. The story is amazing and I loved the art. The author is so creative and uses many different ways of showing the webcomic. For example, the picture below is one of the extra's she had on her site and differs from the normal style used in the webcomic.

Art by Megan Rose Gedris

Yu+Me:Dream was also the first lesbian-themed webcomic I had the pleasure of reading. It opened my eyes to the amazing amount of lesbian stories there's out on the internet. Whether it's in short stories, webcomics or poetry. Very cool. It makes up for all the garbage you sometimes get as well :-).

I definitely recommend reading Yu+Me:Dream. You can find it on Rosalarian which hosts all of Gedris's art and comics. Yu+Me has finished and it was like finishing an amazing book - very sad to see it end. But, Gedris has started something new and very different. It's titled Meaty Yogurt and is about Jackie who lives in a cursed town. I don't want to give too much away so check it out.

Xenolith

A xenolith is a rock fragment found within a larger rock which it picked up during it's formation. For example, it could be a piece of sandstone (sedimentary rock) found within a lava (igneous rock) which the lava picked up when it flowed down the volcano and then stayed there after the lava cooled. Simply put, it's something which doesn't belong.

During 2008 and 2009, South Africa had a resurgence of xenophobic violence. People were being attacked because they were from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi - not South Africans. The reasons given were that these immigrants were taking jobs and that they should go back to their own countries. They aren't welcome here. Some of the attacks resulted in deaths and many fled their homes fearing for their lives.

Surrogates is a 2009 film set in the future. Technology has allowed people to use very advanced robots as surrogates to do everything for them. These robots look exactly like normal people and so no-one ever leaves their house. The surrogates allow you to look any way you want to and to be any kind of person you want to be. What struck me about the film was the fact that because of this surrogacy, violent crimes had dropped to nil. Discrimination and intolerance was a thing of the past. Could this really happen? Would we stop hating each other if we didn't know what we looked like? If we were in a sense all the same?

Not belonging or being different has been enough reason for many people to hate others, without any further thought as to the individual's personality or basic humanity. According to National Geographic, the world population will reach 7 billion this year. Can we afford to carry on in this way? Our planet is being stretched to breaking point with regard to its natural resources. No Vulcans or supremely intelligent life is on it's way to help us or to show us a better way. We have to do it ourselves.

We all feel different. That's one of the reasons I think a lot people identify with Xavier and his X-Men - being hated because you're different. Why not embrace the differences? Hell, variety is definitely the spice of life :-).

What animal are you and why?

I have attended numerous personal growth courses through the company I work for. The ones which attempt to give you personal insight, emotional intelligence and so on. I'm still a bit sceptical as to how effective and practical these courses are, but I have learnt a few things along the way.

 

What never changes is the introduction each delegate has to do before the start of the course. The facilitator asks you to briefly give your name, job title, work area, and then what animal you identify with and why. This is meant to break the ice so that the group of strangers can get to know one another. At this course, the facilitator also mentioned that as an industrial psychologist this information tells her a lot about a person. Immediately, I was on guard. How the hell can a random pick of an animal tell her who I am? I can imagine it gives her a small look into my personality, but after that she'd place you in a box labeled lion and carry on. Unacceptable.

 

The facilitator then went round the room with some people identifying with leopards, elephants, owls and having some interesting reasons. I couldn't decide and then was suddenly hit by a flash of inspiration. I was the last person to do introductions and happily blurted out: "Dinosaur." After, the laughter had died down (and I hadn't thought it was that funny :-), I gave my reason: "They had a good run while it lasted."

 

I find that I often agonize over the past and fervently try to plan and understand the future and whatever it may bring. I miss what happens today. That's why I try to enjoy the small things in life - like that amazingly beautiful moth or a child in a store looking in awe at all the toys around him. Laugh more, enjoy now!

Valley of the Wind

Hayao Miyazaki is a well-known anime director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli. He does amazing work and I was first introduced to him when I saw Spirited Away - which was the first anime film to win an American Academy Award. I have seen almost all of his films and each one amazes me with it's intricate details, characters and unique worlds.



Nausicaä and the baby Ohm

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is the second film Miyazaki directed and was based on his manga of the same name. The film is set on post-apocalyptic Earth 1000 years after a devastating war destroyed civilization and the Earth's ecosystems. The results is a landscape covered by toxic and deadly forests with humans surviving in small pockets of habitable land. Giant insects (Ohm) and other creatures are the only ones that can live in the toxic forests. Civil war breaks out between neighbouring countries and it's up to Nausicaä, a princess from a small valley community, to stop the war from spiralling out of control and causing more destruction to a very fragile Earth.

 

The film has a strong environmental message, but what initially caught my attention was the quality of the animation. The entire world of giant insects and toxic forests was enthrallingly beautiful. What completely flabbergasted me was when I found out the year the film was made - 1984!

 

Pixar and Dreamworks do great work, but there's no need to fix something which isn't broken. Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki have stuck to a very captivating formula of animation style and storytelling which I hope will never disappear.

Un Lun Dun

China Miéville is an author I recently came across. The first book of his I read was Un Lun Dun. It follows the adventures of two young girls who discover a whole new world beneath London. UnLondon is filled with weird and strange creatures - a lot of what the true London has discarded. The girls arrive at a dangerous time when the world is threatened by Smog and they become embroiled in saving this alternate London.

 

 

I loved the whole idea of an alternate reality so close to the real one. China Miéville's writing is very engaging and I was completely drawn into Un Lun Dun. It reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, but aimed at a younger audience. One of Neil Gaiman's short stories is in a similar vein. It's about how the major cities in our world are actually asleep and that the day they decide to wake up we would all be in trouble.

 

With our expanding knowledge of the universe and the great leaps in technology, a lot of the magic has gone from our world. Writers like China Miéville and Neil Gaiman keep the magic alive and entertains the idea that there might still be some left :-).

Third Thoughts

The first time I read a book by Terry Pratchett, I didn't even finish it. I didn't like it at all - the writing was confusing with no descriptions or stuff to fill in between all the dialogue. I couldn't get a handle on it. Then, since I hated quitting a book, I reread it slowly. Terry Pratchett challenges your imagination. You need to fill in the gaps yourself and can only do so when you imagine the situation completely. I haven't looked back since and have read every single of his Discworld novels and his other stories.

The witches in Discworld are in league of their own. Their powers do not lie in spells, potions or ancient rituals like the wizards, but rather in headology and an immense supply of self-confidence and obligation to what's right. If you haven't had the pleasure, I really recommend getting a hold of Witches Abroad or Lords and Ladies which are my favourite Discworld books featuring Granny Weatherwax and her unofficial coven.

We've all heard of second sight and having first thoughts. Witches take the more logical approach. First Sight is seeing what is really there (instead of what you think you should see). Second Thoughts are thinking about how you think about things. (Reading this last sentence again very carefully will help :-). Tiffany Aching, one of the more recent additions as a Discworld witch, sometimes even have third and fourth thoughts.

I love the whole idea behind First Sight and Second Thoughts. A lot of how what we say, how we react and what we do are based on society's norms and keeping the status quo. It's so easy just to follow the normal rules of behaviour than to actually analysing your own thoughts and actions and then deciding what you truly believe. I'm not saying societal norms are wrong - just that you should think about what you're thinking before you act. Is this really who you are? Or are you just trying to fit into the correct box or label?

Granny Weatherwax was once faced with a difficult choice. She was standing in a huge cavern filled with hundreds of identical reflections of herself. To live, she had to pick the correct one. Granny Weatherwax simply looked down at herself and said "This one." That's the kind of attitude I think we all should have :-)!

Sheep in Motion

At the end of last year's winter, around August, I was doing exploration work in earnest. This was to increase our confidence in the geology surrounding the shaft area for the new underground mine. It was quite cold on some days and I learned to work standing sideways to avoid the wind.

The one borehole I logged was in a farmer's field of corn (mielies in Afrikaans). To get to the farm, you had to open a very stubborn gate made of wire and wooden poles. The catch was a piece of wood and wire under tension. If you let go of the catch at the wrong time, the wood would snap back and give you one hell of a black eye. It's friggin' hilarious for everyone but you :-). The borehole was at the edge of the field which had already been ploughed. It was covered in leftover corn stalk pieces and there were lots of sheep - mostly ewes and lambs. The sheep were grazing lazily, but were very annoying with their constant bleating. I wouldn't have minded if the bleating had some kind of harmony or rhythm, but each sheep had its own pitch and bleated randomly. I struggled at first to concentrate, but later just blocked it out.

It was a particularly hot day and every now and then a mini-twister would blow across the field. It was amazing to see this swirling mass of air, some as high as 6 metres, pick up dust and corn stalks and dance over the ground. Such a surreal experience. One of the smaller twisters ran right through a herd of sheep and they were not happy. I suddenly remembered that scene from Wizard of Oz where all the animals and people were floating past the house and couldn't stop laughing.

The best moment, however, happened almost in slow motion. An ewe to the left of me started bleating something fierce and was answered by a tiny lamb quite far away on my right. They started running towards one another and kept on bleating. It was like a scene from a movie where the mother and child are reunited after some tragic event. The sheep raced towards each other and they both stopped bleating once the ewe lovingly nudged the lamb. It was quite touching and supremely funny.

And, I disagree with the recent studies which found that extensive exposure to exploration geology can cause delusions and severe cases of outdoor fever (the opposite of cabin fever but with similar effects :-).

River of Bees

During my third year studying geology, we went to Aggeneys on a structural geology field trip. Aggeneys is a small mining town in the Northern Cape of South Africa. The area surrounding the town contains some of the richest known concentrations of copper, lead and zinc. Currently there is only one mine in operation - Anglo American's Black Mountain Mine.

We camped just outside of town in a valley nearby the study area. We were a group of 15 students with most of us living in tents for the week we were there. I was designated the alarm clock and had to wake up the camp each morning. One of my classmates later confessed that in those few seconds where I was yelling at him to get up he deeply loathed and hated me :-).

View of one of the valleys in the study area

The days were extremely hot and we were mobbed by these tiny flies (midges or in Afrikaans muggies). The area was quite large and we spent each day hiking through valleys and up mountains, mapping and taking photos and compass measurements. The objective was to figure out what rock types were present, their relative ages and the detail of any structural features such as folds or faults. The structure ended up being quite complex with a large synformal syncline being itself folded into a large antiformal syncline. The entire area is part of the Big Syncline East structural feature.

One afternoon, we were enjoying a well-deserved rest against on of the mountain slopes. We had found some shade in the overhang of a rock ledge and were watching some fellow classmates walking through the valley below us. Slowly, a buzzing noise caught our attention. Looking further up the valley, you could just make out this hazy cloud meandering over the bushes. We quickly realized it was a massive bee swarm and that our classmates were directly in it's path. We were too far away to shout any warning and could only watch.

The classmates in question were two guys relaxing in a small piece of shade provided by one of the few large trees in the area. The buzzing became louder and suddenly, they both jumped up and ran with arms wildly flapping in the air. We burst out laughing and couldn't stop! They looked as if they were ranting and raving in the middle of nowhere. Neither of them got stung - the bees simply flew over and past them.

Field trips are always memorable - even if it's only because of bad sunburn or bee stings in weird places :-).

Quarry Mapping

During my Geology honours year at Stellenbosch University, I had the opportunity to go to northern Mozambique for my honours thesis. The title of my project was Petrology and Geochemistry of the Rapale Gneiss, Mozambique. With my two supervisors, we mapped and took samples from several quarries in and around Nampula.


Google Earth image showing Mozambique

We spent about 11 days in Nampula and it was amazing. I had never done such true geological research work before and was absorbed in the process. We stayed in small camping lodges since research funding doesn't just pop out of volcanoes. The weather was extremely humid and hot and it took me a few days to adjust.

One of the first quarries we visited was within walking distance from our camp. The quarry was simply a very large outcrop of gneiss which had been excavated into steep sloping sides. We spent the morning looking at the whole area and then choose two spots about 4 m by 7 m for me to map in detail. By that time the sun was beating down and by some weird Murphy's law I was mapping in the centre of the quarry with the sun being reflected directly to me from all sides of the quarry walls. I had diligently put on sunblock and was wearing a large-brimmed hat, but I burnt right through my shirt and was lobster pink for quite a couple of days afterward. Also, I was halfway through my final mapping block when suddenly I was completed soaked. The clouds had gathered in seconds and it was pouring buckets of rain. We could do nothing but wait for it to dissipate. Within minutes it was back to searing heat and my hat was drooping over my eyes from all the rain.

The project was great. I learned the intricacies of planned and detailed field work, preparing and analysing samples, and the difference between first reporting data objectively and then drawing interpretations from it. The write-up was quite something else and I've never had so many drafts as what I had with that project.

What did help was playing Counter-Strike with my geology classmates during many an all-nighter in the computer labs :-).

Push that knot away

KT Tunstall is an British singer who writes most her stuff herself. Her latest album is Tiger Suit and one song has stuck with me. I'm not always into lyrics and usually first like a song because of the melody and rhythm. But Push that knot away makes me smile and feel so much better after a hectic day.

Extract from Push That Knot Away :

May you always, may you always walk in hope
And may your days just be a way to walk along the great high-rope
When the dark comes, when the dark comes to your door
Will you deny him, don't recognize him
He's not welcome anymore
In your life, in your life, in your life

In the forest, in the forest when you hear
Something that scares you,
Be aware that it is frightened of you too

You can push that knot away, you can push that knot away
Yes, you can push that knot away, you can push that knot away
You can push that knot away, you can push that knot away

And in the morning, in the morning when you wake
It is a doorway for you to walk through to become what you make
And just remember you have heaven in your heart
It is inside you, and it will guide you so long as you listen hard
In your life, in your life, in your life

Okami

I game across Okami while I was trawling Gamespot for other Wii games to play. I really enjoy Zelda and Gamespot has a nice little button which links you to similar games. Tadaa - Okami!

It's actually quite an old Playstation game which was re-released for Nintendo Wii. What attracted me to it was the graphics. The animation style was different to any game I had played before. The story involves many elements from Japanese folklore and culture and the graphics were done to match.

Okami Screenshot

The gameplay is similar to Zelda in the sense that you travel the world fighting monsters and solving puzzles. The key difference is in using brush techniques. You play Amaterasu, a god in wolf-form who has several powerful brush skills. Each one can be used to different effect. With the Wii remote, you control the brush strokes and paint what you need. It's a bit tricky to get the swing right all the time, but the gameplay and story has kept me riveted.

Of course, the awesomeness factor alone of playing a wolf-god who kicks ass by painting should be enough to get you playing this game :-).

Not with her clothes on

When I started with the new shaft sinking project, it took me a while to get to know everyone from the various departments and contractor firms. Usually when I'm there I'm dressed in full PPE (personal protective equipment) since I'll be going down the shaft or have just come out and am covered in cement and rock dust.

 

At one of the first meetings I attended, one of the engineers introduced himself. But, we had met previously and I mentioned that. He was a bit embarrassed and one of the managers tried to help him out by saying: "You just don't recognize her with her clothes on."

 

I immediately burst out laughing, but the two men were mortified when they realized what they had implied. I think they saw sexual harassment lawsuit flashing in front of their eyes. Since we all knew they had meant not with my PPE on and I couldn't stop laughing, they visibly relaxed. After that, the entire thing has become a running joke. I was standing chatting to the engineer during one inspection, when the manager (who was about 200 m away) leaned out of his truck and yelled: "Do you recognize her now?" Apparently the engineer still gets ribbed about the incident whenever I'm around. Also, when one of the top managers came for a visit, the entire story was repeated to everyone's delight.

 

The lesson is to keep on laughing - with or without clothes :-).

Men & Material Shaft

An underground coal mine typically has 3 shafts - a men and material shaft (or main shaft),  a decline shaft and a ventilation shaft. The main shaft is a vertical shaft and has a large cage for getting people and machinery underground. The decline shaft runs at an angle to the coal seam and contains a conveyor belt system which removes the coal from underground. The ventilation shaft is used to get air underground and circulating in the correct manner.

 

I've mentioned previously, that I'm part of a shaft sinking project for a new underground coal mine to extend the mine's coal reserves. During sinking, the shaft bottom is blasted and the rock is removed. At first, this is simply done with frontend loaders. As the shaft becomes deeper, the top is lined with concrete to keep the shaft open and stable. To make this process easier, a stage is used. The stage is a flat metal plate which fits into the shaft and is lowered with winches. This allows people to work on the sidewalls and shaft bottom as the shaft gets deeper. During the lining of the shaft with concrete, the stage keeps a metal curb, which goes right around the shaft, in place into which the concrete is then thrown.

 

 

During this process of lining the shaft, the stage is kept perfectly still to ensure that the concrete lining is straight and vertical and has the correct thickness. This means that since the stage is not being winched up and down that the only way to get to the stage is by climbing down a rung ladder from the top.

 

Part of my job includes mapping and inspecting the sidewall of the shaft to make sure no major structural features are present that could cause rock falls (such as jointing and faulting). To not interfere with the production of the shaft sinking team, I inspected the sidewalls during the lining of the concrete ring which translated into lots of ladder climbing.

 

At first, it was fine since the shaft wasn't that deep. Later, it became quite a full-body exercise. The first step is to get into the harness which you can attach to the metal ladder to keep you from falling. I had to keep quite a game face on since a lot of the older men sometimes refer to me as girlie and I didn't want to give them any more reason to think I couldn't handle my job. Climbing down the ladder is just as bad as climbing up since you have to concentrate on not looking down and not slipping. You are wearing full PPE (personal protective equipment) which is definitely not the lightest clothing. Once you reach the shaft, you need to climb out from under the ring surrounding the ladder and onto the stage. This was very daunting the first time since you can see the shaft bottom below you and it's quite a drop.

 

Climbing back up was a mission. I was determined not to let the men see I was in any way tired, but when I reached the top, I realized my mistake. My arms and legs were so wobbly and tired that I barely managed to grab the railings at the top of the ladder. My hands flailed around for a bit and my only thought was that it would be beyond stupid to fall now that I've reached the top. Luckily after a few tries I grabbed hold of the railing and pulled myself up and out. Unfortunately, my adventures had not escaped attention. The stage foreman came over and said he saw my hands wildly waving around over the top of the ladder and wondered what I was up to :-). I felt a bit better, though, when the other surveyors and foremen who came up after me were just as exhausted as I was.

 

I became quite an adrenaline junkie after that first experience. There's something to be said for hanging on to a ladder with only a small harness clip between you and a very hard fall :-).

Link - The Silent Hero

I came across The Legend of Zelda for the first time in the early 1990's when I got a Gameboy with Link's Awakening. The Gameboy wasn't colour, but rather those shades of green, but super cool at that stage. Playing Zelda was friggin' amazing! The game was quite intricate with some tricky puzzles and very interesting villains and dungeons. It was one of the first games I actually could play to the end.

Since then I've tried to get a hold of the other games in the series. Recently, I've been playing Ocarina of Time and the main reason I got the Nintendo Wii was to play Twilight Princess :-). In this latest Wii incarnation of Zelda, Link is as always the silent, strong type with very little dialogue. As the main character you play, Link is more a person of action. Twilight Princess doesn't disappoint and some of the puzzles have stumped me for a little while as well. The world and different dungeons are amazing and playing it on a big screen tv really brings everything to life.

Since some of the Zelda plots and puzzles can be quite difficult and complicated, it's one of those games which you can play at any age. And any game where you can chase chickens and blow up castles in wolf form are okay in my book :-).

Knick-knacks

Am I a total nerd for thinking of the word kobold as a title for today's blog? Too much fantasy role-playing games - although I don't think too much is possible :-).

Knick-knacks are those weird and small things that magically accumulate on your desk, bookcase and any other surface over a number of years. There will be something from some beach you visited and always a bouncy ball or two even though you know you've never picked one up. Bouncy balls are the centre of knick-knackness.

Pixar created a short film called knick knack in 1989, but it was released with Finding Nemo - one of my all-time favourite animation movies. knick knack is hilariously funny and follows the desperate attempts of a snowman trying to escape his globe. It has become a Pixar tradition to have short films before their main features. My other favourites are Presto and Lifted.
 


Presto is about the complicated relationship between a magician and his rabbit. What I love about this short film is the unique way of looking at the infamous magician's hat. Lifted lets you see what really goes on behind the scenes of a typical alien abduction. Again, a very original look at the concept. And that's what I love about Pixar - they take tried and tested ideas and make you see them differently. They have released quite a number of these shorts over the years, but each one of them will make you laugh. Get a hold of these short films!

Jam Bands

A jam band consists of women over 50 playing music on large pots after the completion of another successful round of making homemade fig, apricot or the various other types of jam. What? It's not? Well, that was my first thought when I heard the term. I wonder what their CD would be called? Sounds of the Fruity?

I came across jam bands while I was watching Matilda, the movie based on the book of the same name by Roald Dahl. There was one song in the film which really stuck with me and which was used in Ice Age as well. It's Send Me On My Way by Rusted Root. After some serious Wikipedia action, I realized that Rusted Root can be called a jam band because it almost sounds as if they just sit down and jam - no real planned melodies or songs. Alas, no actual fruit or preserves are involved which is probably good since sticky instruments are useless. Since then I've gotten hold of some of their albums and really love the music. It's down to earth rhythms and catchy percussion beats. Both The Glitch Mob and Rusted Root manage to create this intense mood and atmosphere, but with very different sounds. I definitely recommend checking out Rusted Root - great road trip music.

No fruits, vegetables or other possible jam ingredients were harmed during the making of this blog. Although, there has been a surge of public support for the release of Sounds of the Fruity :-).

Incognito

Most people have different faces. The face you put on at work, the face you wear among your acquaintances, the one you happily parade around in with your close friends, the face your family has seen grow up and the one you see in the mirror. For some people, these faces are very similar, but for others they might almost be completely different people.

When I first came out to my parents, it was a relief. I could finally tell the people I most care about that I love women and would most probably never get married to a man. Their reaction was unreservedly loving and accepting. It was actually quite a non-issue and I adore them for it. But, the rest of the world isn't always as accepting. My close friends at varsity always knew, but I don't see them often since I moved to a different province for work. I made new friends, but only recently felt I could be completely honest with them. I realize that I should trust my friends more - I just find it difficult to share feelings (I get a slight chill even just typing this :-). And this is where the different faces come in. Even thought my friends are very accepting, I sometimes feel very isolated. The lesbianess is there, but we never talk about it. Not that we should fly banners and join every LGBT support group. It just feels as if a huge part of me is someone only I know. The books I read, the shows I watch and the websites I peruse - most of them have some lesbian connotation which I don't feel like I can share freely.

The situation at work is a whole tsunami on its own - very conservative, very Christian values. On the one hand, I don't want to lie to people around me, but on the other I'm afraid it could ruin my career, on the third hand I'm angry that I'm forced to think like this - back and forth all the time. I want to have one face that everyone can see and which isn't judged by the fact I love women.

Small victories abound though. I am comfortable with who I am. I don't question myself too often and I like the person I've become. I'm living the life I want to. I have quite a couple of very close and unique friends. Life is short enough as it is - I will enjoy it! The world is my mollusc!

Extra hugs for such a serious post :-)

Hell-driver!

I am a hell-driver on my bicycle - not in the sense that I go super fast, more the fact that it sometimes feels like hell to me.

I started cycling about 3 years ago on a mountain bike. My technical skills aren't that great yet and I'm slowly trying to build them up. Part of the process was to buy a new Giant 29er at the beginning of the year. I love this bike! My dad helped me get used the initial fear of not being able to move my feet (first experience with clipless pedals) and got me used to cycling on gravel, dirt and rocks. But, here's the catch. When I start going downhill, I get this irrational fear and start braking like crazy. This means that I actually go faster up a hill than down it. This of course is a source of great amusement to my friends and family and, in one instance, to some random people along the side of the road as well.

A few weeks ago, I steeled myself and tackled a challenging off-road route for the first time. What drama! Sand, rocks, trucks roaring past me! (This could be made into a new action movie :-) I was scared out of my mind in some places, but I completed the ride. I walked downhill once, but I felt such an immense sense of accomplishment afterwards. It was an amazing feeling and reminded me why I love cycling. The scenery is great and it's good exercise and it relaxes you (or rather you feel relaxed once you're safely back home). I did the same ride again this morning. The first part went faster than I was expecting and I think even the nearby cows were embarrased by the barrage of swear words trailing behind me. But, after the initial fright, the ride was great. I could have sworn the rocks were much bigger last time, but maybe that's a sign that I'm getting better. Or that fear is impairing my vision.

I'm looking forward to the day where I can zoom downhill confidently and not have other cyclists whoosh past me and then ask if I'm all right :-).

Glitch Mob

The Glitch Mob is an American electronic group. I have never really been into this kind of music, but found myself suddenly listening to their album (Drink the Sea) non-stop. The music feels primal or tribal which is very contradictory since it's all synthetic sounds with no real discernible intruments. Their music creates this undeniable mood and I am really loving their album and other remixes.

I found out about The Glitch Mob by watching one of the coolest pieces of video editing I have ever seen. It's called The Apple Tree and was created by Khameleon808. He has a Youtube channel, but for best viewing results I would advise downloading the full video. It's freely available on the internet and Ketsuryu is one of the sites which hosts the file as well (The Apple Tree mp4). The Apple Tree uses remixes from The Glitch Mob and scenes from old, current and new movies. The movie scenes are matched to the music perfectly and creates an amazing 15 minutes of sensory overload. The Apple Tree uses some scenes from TRON to such great effect that when I finally watched the movie I was surprised not to hear any music from The Glitch Mob somewhere in the movie.

There are some amazing artists out there which I never would have come across. Thank the gods for the internet and Google! :-)

Fanfiction

The first ever fanfiction I read was about Xena and Gabrielle (from the tv series Xena: Warrior Princess). Before then, I had never even heard of fanfiction. Now I've realized it's an entire culture on its own with sub-genres, acronyms and more. And there are some really talented writers out there (and a few crappy ones as well). Hell, I even wrote a piece of fanfiction myself for Charmed (tv series about 3 sister who are witches).

Recently, I started watching Star Trek: Voyager again and started trawling the internet about the show. I came upon the funniest fanfiction and videos concerning the captain and her Borg crew member. The site is Voyager Conspiracy (www.voyager-conspiracy.co.uk) and has some very entertaining videos and stories. Another site I came across was Passion and Perfection (www.ralst.com) which hosts fanfiction for quite a number of tv shows and movies. I was impressed by the standard of writing and really found the stories enjoyable. I would definitely recommend checking out these sites if you haven't yet already.

Be warned that some of the stories can be x-rated - although I think that would be more of a plus than a negative :-).

El Cazador de la Bruja

I watched my first anime probably when I was in high school. It was the Ghost in the Shell movie and since then I've been hooked. I have watched all the Ghost in the Shell films and the two series. It's mind blowing how intricate the plot and characters are. It took a while to get used to how different anime is. I think it's because the Japanese language and culture is different in the sense that they do not say what they mean directly. Feelings and emotions are not expressed so overtly as in the more Western cultures. This might make anime seem slow or the characters unfeeling, but if you pay attention to the detail, there is so much to see.

After Ghost in the Shell, I started looking for more anime. I got onto Okazu (okazu.blogspot.com). It's a blog about the latest and coolest anime and manga. Most, but not all, have some lesbian elements known as yuri. The site is a great start into some of the most interesting and coolest anime I have seen.

El Cazador de la Bruja is Spanish for Hunter of the Witch and is the third anime series in a very slightly related series of girls-with-guns anime shows. The first is Noir (French for black) which is about an assassin who gets involved with a girl who has lost all her memories but is an excellent killer. As the show progresses, it becomes evident that there is most more that connect these two women than either of them thought. I was amazed by this show and loved every minute of it. The second series is Madlax. It also involves an agent-for-hire and a girl, both who have tragic pasts and both linked to a country at war with itself. There are gun battles, evil mafia, intrigue and some magic - need I say more. El Cazador de la Bruja concerns a mercenary who gets stuck with a girl with some very special powers. Lots of people are after them in this sort of western cowboy type anime. Very cool and enjoyable.

Another show I really loved is Red Garden. Four schoolgirls wake up one morning to realize their old life is gone and they have to fight in a battle they weren't even aware of before. The way the characters handle these new found hardships was very real and you were rooting for them throughout the show.

Anime has made me look differently at the world around me - it makes you think. The fact that most anime shows contain very hot women with big guns is of course completely irrelevant :-).