Kate Kane

I love reading - I'm a fan of lots of different genres in many formats from novels and short stories to webcomics and graphic novels. But, the classic comic book will always have a special place in my reading list. I keep up with a few current titles, but I'd like to focus on one in particular - Kate Kane as the new Batwoman.

Batwoman has been around for quite some time, but never really featured in her own right. She was originally introduced as a love interest for Batman to dispel any hint of homosexuality in the comic book during the 1950s. This becomes superbly ironic with the re-introduction of Batwoman in the form of Kate Kane - a Jewish lesbian.

Kate Kane first appeared in the series 52 in 2006 taking care of Gotham in Batman's absence. After that she becomes the lead in Detective Comics from issue 854 to 863. This story arc was then published as Batwoman: Elegy.

I love the art in Batwoman. The story is amazing and doesn't disappoint. It's also quite current, especially in light of the Don't Ask Don't Tell controversies and repeals happening now in America. In Elegy, Kate herself leaves the military because she doesn't agree with the DADT policy. This comic could easily have turned into a major lesbian political battle, but it doesn't become a preaching soap box. And I think that's how it should be - the issues are addressed, but Kate Kane's sexuality isn't what defines her. Just as heterosexuality is handled in other comics.

And of course, the devoted geek in me is loving the amazing story and action and pure awesomeness! Can't wait for Kate Kane's own comic!

Jackalope

I've mentioned Pixar's amazing short films before, but wanted to highlight another one. Boundin' was the short film shown before The Incredibles in 2003.

It's about a poor sheep who is shorn and becomes very despondent. He becomes the laughing stock of the valley and can't show off his dance moves anymore. Along comes a jackalope (check Google images, real animal!). This jackalope teaches the sheep a new way of bounding to lift his spirits. After that, the sheep doesn't care about losing his wool and just keeps bounding.

This is a very cute (and somewhat corny) story with a very true life lesson. Dory in Finding Nemo has a similar outlook - just keep swimming. Sometimes you're hit with utterly catastrophic events in your life - someone close to you dies, people hate you for simply being you, or whatever else - all you can do is keep going. And hopefully one day it all comes right again.

Hey, I know life isn't all rainbows and candy canes. Not everything just turns out for the best. Not everything simply gets better with time. But, I want to believe in a world where it does :-).

And who doesn't love a happy message given by cute furry animals set to catchy music!

Jabberwocky

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son,
the jaws that bite and claws that scratch
Beware the jubjub bird
and shun the frumious bandersnatch."

This poem is from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The poem is famous for being one of the greatest nonsense verses (in itself contradictory I thought) in the English language and was written in 1872. I love the story of Alice and her journey through Wonderland.

When the latest Alice in Wonderland film with Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska came out, I actually thought it was based on a series of books I had just finished reading by Frank Beddor. But, the film was loosely based on the original by Carroll. Don't get me wrong - I love the film. The creatures such as the Jabberwocky and the Bandersnatch were amazing and the colours of Wonderland beautiful. I found the music especially haunting and still listen to the soundtrack often.

The Looking Glass Wars is the first book in Beddor's trilogy about Alyss and Wonderland. In this story, Wonderland is real and Alyss actually only came to our world to hide. She is in fact a princess and her aunt is after her throne. When she came into our world, no-one would listen to her except the local reverend, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll's real name). She told him everything about Wonderland and thought he understood. Alyss was completely betrayed when he turned it into a silly fairy tale book. As the years went by, Alyss grew up into Alice and left her childhood fantasies behind her. Until one day, when a loyal soldier came to take her back.

I truly enjoy it when classic fairy tales are re-interpreted and re-imagined. Wouldn't it be amazing if all our stories and fairy tales were actual historical accounts of other worlds and places :-)?

If I Ran the Zoo

I love stories and firmly believe that ages given for books are only vague guidelines. If it's a good story, no matter if it's in the toddler section, I will read it. This is how I came across Dr. Seuss. I had seen his books in the library when I was very young and knew of them, but only became a real fan a few years ago.

Dr. Seuss is the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, and American born in 1904. He ended up publishing 44 children's books which have reprinted numerous times and made into various television and film adaptations. His stories are known for their very colourful and fantastical illustrations of wonderful worlds and creatures. The stories always rhyme and he often uses his own words to make the rhyme work.

If I Ran the Zoo is about a young man who's not impressed by the zoo in his town. He imagines what kind of exotic animals he would have if he ran the zoo. As the story progresses, the boy's imagination gets wilder with each new animal he adds. I love this story simply because the child's imagination has no bounds - I would definitely go to the McGrew Zoo.

Dr. Seuss' stories are timeless - hopefully they will in print forever. I wouldn't want anyone, from this world or any other universe, to miss experiencing his books. Reading them out aloud should be one of life's mandatory pleasures :-).

Gaggle of Dykes

There has always been a bit of a battle between geology and the production teams at a mine. The mining guys are mostly engineers and they want a full proof answer right now that will apply to the rest of the mining area as well. Geology isn't fortune-telling. We have a certain amount of boreholes (i.e. data points) which gives us an indication of the expected geology, but there will be some local variations. This leads to some very funny meetings and a bit of friction between geologists and engineers. 

Simplified geology showing horizontal sedimentary rock layers intruded by green dolerite.

Many geological terms are a bit strange to engineers. They only want to know if geology will affect production rates and how the bonus might then also be affected. The typical engineer doesn't care that it's an igneous intrusion and should be called a dolerite sill. To most miners any hard rock between him and his coal is a dyke.

This can cause a lot of frustration for a mine geologist. As a scientist, you want to be as accurate as possible when describing any geological feature. In meetings however, you easily lose the production guys if you mention too many detailed geological terms. It has become a bit of an inside joke among geologists at how far we can push this. We could be mentioning a gaggle of dykes or massive dolerite splays (all of which are completely incorrect and illogical) and no-one would pay attention or care. Does it stop mining? Yes? Then fix it! That's the more typical response :-).

The opposite to this is that some people get attached to a new geological term that they heard you say months ago and know everything is called a stringer of whatever. And since you're typically the lone geologists among tens of mining engineers, your voice does get drowned out a bit. Most of the time you try and be as accurate as possible and as simple as possible. Sandstone in the coal seam = hard rock in the coal, will use more picks on mining machine. Micaceous minerals in sandstone in floor of coal seam = soft floor, when wet machine will slip and cut into floor.

What many mining engineers love to do is blame geology. If their sections are not performing - somehow geology is responsible. This means that you develop quite a thick skin and you deliver your opinions with conviction. You are the geologist - your say on the rocks are final.

I must admit that not all mining engineers and production teams are like what I've mentioned above. Mostly it becomes more of playful teasing between the departments. I work very well with my production and engineering teams. They rib me for not working shifts underground and not seeing how thick the stone was becoming months ahead of time. I tease them with the fact that I can and often will change my mind - they have no such luxury :-).

Illogical

I was visiting a friend a few days ago and ended up playing games with her 8-year-old daughter. First we tried Monopoly, but I was too lazy to count money. Then the young girl suggested Snakes and Ladders. I hadn't played Snakes and Ladders in ages and thought why not. But, my gaming partner had her own set of rules which I only realized as she was beating me quite convincingly.

According to her new rules, if a ladder was in your block, no matter if it isn't the start of the ladder, you can climb it. I completely agreed, but then argued that logically the same should apply to the snakes. If a snake is more than halfway into your block, same as with the ladder, you should go down. The little girl laughed at me! She said that didn't make any sense. You can climb up unto a ladder next to you, but a snake can only swallow you with its mouth. It can't open its body and suck you in like that!

I burst out laughing. This girl's common sense had beaten my logic. We carried on with these rules until she had beaten me three times. Then I distracted her with candy. Or did she distract me? I can't recall :-).

This reminded me of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Most things work on common sense in Discworld. You can see the horizon is a straight line so the world must and is flat. I sometimes wonder which is better - common sense or pure logic :-D.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Once in a while you walk into a video store not knowing exactly what you want to rent. You scan through the rows upon rows of DVDs and then some cover catches your eye. You've never heard of the movie, but the blurb looks interesting and on a whim you rent it. This is how I came across Happy-Go-Lucky.

I've found that many books and films can be put into one of two categories. The first is your typical story with a build-up, climax and then conclusion - the whole story is about getting to that climax. The other is a journey kind of story where it's not so much about some huge dramatic occurrence but rather a slice of life - you see a piece of the characters' lives.

Happy-Go-Lucky falls into the second category. It's about a primary-school teacher and how she views the world. She's always cheerful and optimistic. That doesn't mean that bad things don't happen to her, she just handles it in her own way. And she's not naive about the sometimes cruel realities in life either. The film covers her relationships with her family and friends, her class and with her driving instructor. I really loved the film. The dialogue is witty and I found myself wishing I could meet Poppy the school teacher.

This film opened my eyes to how much we control our own environment. People always say be optimistic - you'll live longer. But to actually have that mindset and truly live it is something else. I hope to someday reach that happy-go-lucky state. Either by car or plane :-).

On a side note, the lead is superbly played by Sally Hawkins who also featured in two BBC adaptions of Sarah Waters novels, Tipping the Velvet (minor role) and Fingersmith (main character).

House of Suns

I've just finished reading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. My mind is still reeling. I have read some of his other books, but I've forgotten the immense scale of his novels.

House of Suns is set millions of years in the future. It concerns the House of Flowers also known as the Gentian Line. Abigail Gentian created 999 clones of herself and so established the Gentian Line. These 1000 scatterlings (which one being the original no-one knows) had one mission - to explore the furthest reaches of space. The scatterlings went on circuits around the galaxy and met up after each circuit to share their memories and experiences. At the time of the story, the scatterlings had been around for almost 6 million years. And this is where my mind starts to boggle.

As the scatterlings travel through space visiting planets, they very often meet different civilizations when they travel the same route on the next circuit. Their time scale is in thousands and hundreds of thousands of years due to the huge distances in space that needs to be covered. Civilizations die out and races evolve. I immediately thought of us. Homo sapiens originated about 200 000 years ago. Recorded history is thought to have started 4000 years BC, only 6000 years ago. In House of Suns the scatterlings have been around longer than the Earth!

I then wondered if we shouldn't be more concerned about the longevity of our human existence. If we want to extend beyond mere thousands of years, we need to seriously reconsidering our way of life. This is the only planet in this solar system which can sustain us. Do all the wars and other inter-racial/religious/method of egg boiling issues really matter?

But, getting back to the book. Purslane and Campion are two Gentian scatterlings who picked up a guest along their journey. As they travel to their reunion with the rest of the Gentian Line, secrets are revealed which they didn't even know existed.

Gripping novel! Everything time I read Alastair Reynolds, I'm reminded why I love his science fiction so much.

Granites

During my third year studying geology, we went on a field trip along the West Coast to investigate the Cape Granite Suite. This meant we drove up the Cape coast in mini-buses filled with camping equipment and food for a weekend. We stopped at various beaches where the different granite outcrops were visible. One such place was Tietiesbaai.

From Encounter South Africa

The men in our class found this exceptionally funny - tieties means breasts in Afrikaans. And the hills behind the beach does lend themselves to that description. The field trip itself was very interesting. We stopped at 5 different beaches to discuss the granite outcrops. Our lecturer would ask us to describe and take photographs of the granites. As we went along, a picture of the Cape Granite Suite began to form.

The Cape Granite Suite is a result of plate tectonics - two continental plates collided causing the deeper crust to melt and form magma. This magma intruded into the shallow crust and crystallized as the different granite types of the Cape Granite Suite. From our field observations and discussions, we had to report the 3 phases of this orogenic event as evidenced by the S-, I- and A-type granites.

I love this kind of geology. Here we are strolling along beaches and the rocks are telling us a story hundreds of millions of years old on such a huge scale. It makes you look at the world around you much more closely :-).

Fingersmith

Shortly after coming out to my parents, I started looking for anything vaguely lesbian. Be it books, films or music. I Google'd and Wiki'd and came across lists of best of books, films and so on. One of these was Fingersmith.

Fingersmith is a novel written by Sarah Waters and is her third book. It was preceded by Tipping the Velvet and Affinity and followed by The Night Watch and The Little Stranger. It's set in the Victorian era and is sort of a mix between a romance and a crime novel. Very good twists and turns. As the novel progresses, you also find yourself rooting for the one character, hating the other and then this gets turned around as the plot unfolds. Amazing writing.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tipping the Velvet and The Night Watch as well. Three of her books have been made into BBC serials and I highly recommend them. They remain quite true to the books and are superbly acted.

Frown Face

Something happened this morning and I can't decide how I feel about it or what my reaction should be - hence the frown on my face the whole day.

From my blogger name, LaughingLee, you might have deduced that I'm generally a happy person. My first reaction to almost everything is laughter. It helps me cope and it's way more fun than either crying or getting angry or smashing someone's car window in. Although the latter can be very therapeutic, or so I'm told. I'm constantly laughing and loud in a conversation. My friends say I'm not overbearing, but I'm not sure if it's because they really mean it or they don't want to poke the crazy always grinning bear :-).

I was having breakfast with a friend in one of our regular haunts this morning. It's a family restaurant with kids running around, but it wasn't very full. At the most 15 people were there at any given time. We had chosen a booth in the corner and spent about an hour and a half chatting about work and life and whatever else came to mind. At one stage, a waiter came to us and asked that we keep it down. Apparently I was laughing too loudly and it was bothering the other customers. I was dumbstruck. I didn't know what to say and simply nodded at the very nervous looking waitress.

I didn't know whether to be insulted or complimented or to feel sad for people that don't like the sound of laughter. We weren't making noise. We weren't drunk and nasty and a nuisance. We were friends enjoying each other's company. My other thought was that maybe some of the other customers were jealous. Maybe that had had a rough week and had nothing to laugh about.

Geez! What kind of world or community do we live in where people laughing counts as noise? We are inundated with images of violence and war over the news and other media. Wouldn't more happy sounds be welcome?

In any case, I had a great morning and I hope the complaining customer's mood improved. Maybe they went to the doctor and had that painful stick up their ass removed? One can only wish :-).

Echo

I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan. He's responsible for giving us Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. If you're not aware of this guy or any of the above-mentioned tv shows, please take a peek from under that rock you live and Wiki it. You will not regret it :-).

Dollhouse is the latest television show from Whedon and ran from Feb 2009 until Jan 2010. It's about a fictitious (hopefully ;-) organization which runs an underground operation of actives. Actives are people who have signed their life away to this organization for five years. Their minds are scrubbed clean of any personality or memories which are stored away on a hard drive. The actives are then used by the Dollhouse as clients require it. Need a negotiator? Not a problem. The Dollhouse can create an entire personality and put it inside any of it's actives to create exactly what you need. These actives are not pretending - they are who they've been programmed to be.

The show focuses on one active in particular - Echo. She and some of the other actives slowly become self-aware even in their scrubbed doll-state. This begs quite a few questions - does the soul exist? Can you be you without any memories or personality? What's your essence? Nature versus nurture and so on. The show touches on this without becoming too much of a philosophy lecture :-).

The technology that was created to program minds is also quite scary. I immediately thought of splitting the atom - amazing science, but used for war. And that's what usually happens with any new scientific breakthrough. We use it selfishly to gain the most power. Something similar happens in Dollhouse as well.

Awesome show - hot women kicking ass as different people each week - what more do you want :-D?

Evey Hammond

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

This is said by V in the movie V for Vendetta released in 2006. It's based on a graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The story is set in a futuristic world where America has been ravaged by plague and war and the United Kingdom is ruled by an ultra conservative and totalitarian government. V for Vendetta focuses on Evey Hammond who by chance meets up with V. V has a drastic plan to change things and Evey gets swept along and finds her own truth as well.

The film struck a chord with me in the way which anything or anyone different - such as different religious views or sexual orientation - is seen as disgusting, immoral and corrupt. The people have given up all of their human rights to this high chancellor in government. It goes as far as that all their calls are monitored and censor boards have made many books, songs and films illegal. The police can grab anyone in the night, torture them and make them disappear. What was scary was how easily this change had happened - how easily people had accepted this as the norm.

I love how the film explores these political and human rights concepts. And how a single idea or symbol can be so powerful and can bring about so much change.

Local elections are coming up in South Africa. I never thought I would be advocating this, but use your vote. It's one of our most important rights and one we often take for granted without even thinking.

Of course, the fact the V kicks ass accompanied by classical music only made the film so much more awesome :-).

Driving Skills

During my first year as an exploration geologist, I was working in Limpopo (northern province of South Africa). As I've mentioned before, I had a 4-by-4 bakkie (truck) which I travelled with daily in the Bushveld. My driving skills have improved since then, but I had a few near-misses in the beginning.

Tracks left by my driving skills a day later

It was early one morning and I was using one of the main dirt roads between farms to get to the area where we were drilling. It had been raining heavily the previous night and day and the road was very muddy and clayey. As I was driving, I could feel the bakkie weave left and right over the road, but I could manage it. Farmers were zipping past me of course, but I didn't want to radio my manager to let him know I had flipped the company vehicle and kept a nice tortoise speed.

Suddenly, the bakkie began sliding with it's nose to left. I tried to bring it back, but didn't want to pull the steering wheel too hard and end up spinning. I saw a tree coming closer and gently lifted my foot from the petrol. The bakkie continued sliding off the road, but very slowly. When I came to a stop, I was horizontally across the road and thankfully had stopped before hitting any farm fences. I really did not want an irate grey-bearded man yelling at me for letting his cows get loose :-).

A bakkie stopped with a man and his small son. He asked if I (girlie) was all right. I laughed and replied everything's fine - I just needed to reverse and get back on the road. Luckily, the bakkie stopped nearby some giraffes. They were quite close to the fence and if I hadn't slowed down I would have missed them between the bushes.

Yay for advanced driving skills!

Debut of Pink Girlfest

This weekend was the first Pink Girlfest. It was a women-only festival which took place over Saturday and Sunday in Volksrust, Mpumalanga. Activities included self-defence and mountain biking workshops as well as a gardening and DIY workshop by Tanya Visser (well-known in SA). There were also bands playing like Margaret's Daughter and Cortina Whiplash. One of the highlights was Karen Zoid on Saturday evening.

Since this was the first Pink Girlfest, a few minor teething problems were encountered. The horse-riding was more of a pony affair and due to bad weather the paragliding had be cancelled. The marketing could also have been a bit better - I and many others I chatted to only found out about the event about 1 or 2 weeks back. The venue also had be changed at the last minute because of some very ignorant townsfolk who protested when they found out their town would be overrun by lesbians. Sigh.

I've been a fan of Karen Zoid for some time and love her music. She's quite the legend in the South African music industry and is such an awesome artist. Her music moves from rock to poetry effortlessly. Karen Zoid has an amazing presence on stage and is hilarious with the anecdotes and thoughts she shares. She very aptly described the festival as Oppipoppi (on the doll) in reference to Oppikoppi (on the hill) a well-established annual music festival. Hopefully the name sticks :-).

A huge thank you and congratulations to Kerry Knowles and Judith Nel, the event organizers. They did an excellent job the first-time around and managed all the minor hiccups very well. I look forward to next year's Pink Girlfest.

Long live Oppipoppi!

Catching Fire

The Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy of the same name. Suzanne Collins wrote the series with Catching Fire being the second book and Mockingjay the final. The story is scary in that it feels like it can happen in the real world as well.

The first book was published in 2008, but I only came across the series end of last year while I was roaming through a bookstore in Sydney. When I got back home I immediately got hold of all 3 books and started reading.

The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a central government rules over 12 districts. The president not only has an iron fist but also keeps everyone in check with The Hunger Games. Participants are randomly selected from each district and then made to fight each other in a greatly popular and highly publicized game. There can be only one survivor and they win food and prestige for their district. The poor are exploited since they can enter their name for the selection process more than once in exchange for extra food.

The main character is Katniss Everdeen who volunteers to take her sister's place in the games. The books follow her through the games and it's consequences.

When I first read the blurb for the books, I was reminded of Battle Royale, a Japanese book (also adapted into a manga and movie). In this story, a group of students is forced to fight each other to the death on an island. This is meant to keep the population in check since the class of participants are chosen randomly and at any time during the year. The Hunger Games trilogy takes a slightly different route, but with great effect. How the characters handle the situation is so real that I had to take a break from the books every now and then.

What made it so more real is that reality shows such as Survivor and Big Brother are a step below The Hunger Games. The amount of publicity and television coverage the games garner is tremendous. What also struck me is the fact that many people only saw the games as something on television - that children were being killed wasn't real to them. Like a puppet theater arranged by the government. Very scary.

The books are planned to be made into a film, but I'm not sure if a movie can truly capture the trilogy. My imagination went wild thanks to the great writing. I hope the film can do The Hunger Games justice.

Coraline

Coraline is a novel written by Neil Gaiman and isn't like other fairy tales. You have a girl going into another world and tempted by an evil witch, but there's so much more to Coraline. The novel was published in 2002, and I read the graphic novel based on the book.


Coraline book cover (2002)

Coraline, the title character, gets involved with this evil witch and then has to defend herself and her family from the consequences of her actions. The story includes two aging actresses, a cat who can move between worlds and a mouse circus. Need I say more :-).

A film based on the book was released in 2009 and used stop-motion 3D techniques. The film did change some things from the book, but brought Coraline's world to life with amazing effects. The colours and the music is brilliantly done and recreates Neil Gaiman's world perfectly (I thought so at least).

I love this kind of narrative - the off-beat, alternative fairy tale. Taking true and tested story stereotypes and turning them on their heads.