another line of no particular meaning
There are Thoughts which come >>> And Thoughts which go >>>
And so ...
Last revised: February 29, 2004.
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ARCHIVE 7 6th October 2003 to 25th December 2003 |
!! To Satunalia!!
Thursday 25th December 2003ad
The Beagle2 has landed.
That it is certain.
But it may have landed with too much force.
=============
Anyway, at this moment, with the sun's
heat
slanting into my many western windows,
the cold thin air of Mars appeals!
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Wednesday 24th December 2003ad
Mad Cow Disease is now in the USA.
Easily avoidable, however, with a simple rule.
Never feed meat derived products to cattle.
[I recall an English documentary on Mad Cow Disease, of a few years ago. In a series of interviews, the makers explained the problem to ordinary village people in India. One Priest, when he understood what had been done, exploded in shock & anger: "They feed meat to cows!!!" My own shock at discovering this, was not that far less. The madness of money obsession is often obscene.]
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Tuesday 23rd December 2003ad
My Frangipani finally expanded its leaves on sunday, but the Frangipani I planted for Helen, only followed suite today. They are side by side, yet clearly not precisely equal.
Chaos theory may explain. Or may not.
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Monday 20th December 2003ad
At ~1.30pm, at 16 McKye Street in Waverton, several Leaden Flycatchers began to call from some dense bushes, only two metres behind me. My ears were startled by this unexpected chorus. And from this short distance, I learned how loudly these tiny birds can sing. - It leaves me wondering as to exactly how they manage to project with such volume, given that they must have tiny vocal tracts!
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Sunday 20th December 2003ad
To work on sunday is considered, by some, to be a sin.
Well, I was sinful today, against my
natural instincts.
It was either sin on sunday, or hell on monday!
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Saturday 20th December 2003ad
Consider the efficiency of Parrot design. Their beak and tongue function not only like our mouth, but also are the equivalent of our hands. And their dexterity often puts ours to shame.
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Friday 19th December 2003ad
This afternoon, right at the final hour - for this day at least - I booked 22 Concerts for 2004, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It cost $697.00, for C Reserve. I feel good about this, too.
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Thursday 18th December 2003ad
This afternoon, right at the final hour - for this day at least - I booked 4 Operas for 2004, with Opera Australia. It cost $336.00, for C Reserve. I feel good about this.
==================================
In Doctor Who, the second episode of "The Chase" started with a Dalek, vertically borrowing itself out of the sand, etcetera [see yesterday].
Also, the thought did occur to me, as to what the Aridians called their planet, now Aridius, before the twin suns had moved closer and burned off the previously all covering oceans.
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Wednesday 17th December 2003ad
I continue to memorise poetry: by Shelley, Blake & me.
In a way, it convinces me that my brain continues to function. Not perfectly, it is true, but then, it never did.
==================================
In Doctor Who, the first episode of "The Chase" ended with a Dalek, vertically borrowing itself out of the sand, where the sand storm had buried it, and coughing as it did, in a most amusing way.
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Tuesday 16th December 2003ad
Parrot Philosophy: "I bite. Therefore I am."
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Monday 15th December 2003ad
Saddam Hussein captured by USA forces.
So?
How does this solve the festering mess
which is Iraq?
It will not stop the violence.
Indeed, the man may prove more a
problem for Bush & Co.
in captivity, than when he was on the run & living in holes.
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Sunday 14th December 2003ad
~7.45am. John Howard, the female Pied Currwong, whom I had not seen for a week or so, arrived for a biscuit. I had only the small water crackers, but she took one, flew up to the roof of the next door building, where a young Pied Currawong was, desperately pleading for food. I had seen John Howard in September, with a twig in her beak, looking enquiringly at forks in trees. But I have seen no nest, and presumed she had not bred. However, she clearly has; although only one chick survived, as last year.
A few minutes later, John Howard was back. I gave her another water cracker. She tried to break this up on my balcony rail, but I told her no. Then she flew to a gum tree, and made a few hits there. The creature she was trying to avoid, her child, now flew across. This caused her mother to take to wing, pursued by the pleading child. John Howard just wanted something to eat herself. - Motherhood makes her ill tempered!
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Saturday 13th December 2003ad
A continuing problem: last sunday at the Pinchgut Opera performance I bought the Pinchgut Opera's "Semele" live recording of last year. CDs 2 & 3 play on my CD player, with just some small reluctance, to give a menu & begin; but CD 1 is not recognised by the player: no menu is found. This CD does play on my portable CD player, but it jumps.
Exactly the same problem I have with the CD of J.S. Bach's "Arias Duets" - Sarah Macliver & Sally-Anne Russell, with the Orchestra Of The Antipodes - which I bought at the same time.
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Friday 12th December 2003ad
The Christmas Party - just North Sydney and Neutral Bay PDOs. It was at Blu Ginger in Blues Point Road, McMahons Point. Indian Food. The Seekh Kebab was fine, once the lemon quarter cooled enough for me to use it. The Lamb Vindaloo was perfectly edible, but it should have been somewhat hotter, and the spice mix lacked something which was used by my favourite Indian Restaurant in Crows Nest, which sadly closed a few years ago.
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Thursday 11th December 2003ad
It was undelightfully humidly hot, this afternoon. No pleasure it was. But with Sydney's weather, all things are possible, sadly.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was the second episode of Dr Who versus the Moroks, on ABC TV, at ~6.00pm to ~6.30pm. The first episode, "The Space Museum", which screened last night, I recalled in surprising detail, since I only saw it once previously, and then as a child. I have been telling friends about it for some days! The Museum itself; the Dalek on display there; the glass of water breaking in the Tardis & then reforming itself, to even getting the water back in it; the footsteps not appearing; and of course, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara & Vicki seeing themselves as preserved exhibits, in cylindrical glass display cases in the Museum. They had arrived before their time! And when they caught up with the time at the Museum: they disappeared from the display cases; their footsteps suddenly appeared in the dust; and the glass of water broke for good this time!
Tonight's episode, plus the last two to be screened next week, I recalled naught of. However, when I saw episode 2 - "The Dimensions Of Time" - I did remember the Doctor, when asked by the Morok Museum Director as to how he travelled there, thinking of a Penny Farthing Bicycle. This appeared on the monitor of the Director, which read the Doctor's thoughts.
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Wednesday 10th December 2003ad
Little I could do, through the late afternoon, but lie down and recover. Yet I took the chance to take to memory, my poem "The Command".
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Tuesday 9th December 2003ad
I have become rather obsessed with memorising poems and such. Last night I searched for things, of mine, and of others more accomplished than me, which I might wish to commit to my head. I even found one of my own poems - "Verse Composed Intracranially, Then Reduced To Ink On A Train" - which I must have memorised at some point in time, since it comes back to me so easily; as "Predestination" did.
Curious I find it, that I forgot that I used to memorise some of my poems. And while I now can recall the memorised work, I have no recollection of why I did this then.
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Monday 8th December 2003ad
It was delightfully cool, this afternoon. A pleasure it was, to be out in it. But with Sydney's weather, all things are possible.
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Sunday 7th December 2003ad
Henry Purcell: "The Fairy Queen".
Pinchgut Opera. At The City Recital Centre, Angel Place.
This work is inspired by William Shakespeare's play: "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The Pinchgut Opera uses just the two hours of Masques, but not the three hours of theatrical play, to which they are attached! This leaves "The Fairy Queen" with effectively no plot. But they are an Opera Company, not a Theatre Company, so that it fair enough. But to have any understanding of these five Masques - each of which is a celebration of a certain scene, by a combination of song and dance and theatre - you need a basic grasp of the storyline of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
The music of Purcell is wonderful, and was beautifully played by the Sirius Ensemble. The theatrical elements are there to be used, as they certainly were today. It is a good natured celebration of the culture of the English Restoration; merely a delightful end in itself. So if it leads nowhere, this matters not!
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Saturday 6th December 2003ad
Whilst lying down, this morning, attempting to recover my health, I worked William Blake's "The Fly" into my memory. It is a brilliant and incisive poem. To get such surprising profundity, hidden under a guise of utter simplicity, is truly wondrous. And for sure, the inspiration was from brushing a fly away. This simple act, which so often happens in this world, to all but everyone, needs a genuine genius to work it from a thing so transient, into an immortality!
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Friday 5th December 2003ad
I had some doubts about Nigel Kennedy before the concert tonight, but definitely not after the concert. This was at the Sydney Opera House, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Chamber Mode. The programme was almost all Vivaldi; with the first half featuring Vivaldi's Concerti for Two Violins, Michael Dauth being the other violin soloist; while the second half featured the Four Seasons. The éncore was Jimmy Hendrix's Purple Haze.
Nigel Kennedy's banter was not always to my taste, but his playing was. And it was noticeable as to the genuine regard the Orchestra members had for Kennedy.
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Thursday 4th December 2003ad
Today I got to memory Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem: "To Night". The last two verses I did today. The middle verse, I memorised on tuesday. While the first two verses I hammered into my head last month, before I began with William Blake's work.
The hiatus was due to my doubts, wondering whether "To Night" is worth it. It is a bit precious in places. However, the middle verse is a classic piece of writing, and the heart of the poem is in the right place.
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Wednesday 3rd December 2003ad
Statistics without rigour,
are just meaningless numbers.
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Tuesday 2nd December 2003ad
So the Australian Labor Party has elected Mark Latham as their Federal Parliamentary Leader. But they are supposedly working class. Perhaps the industrial fumes have affected their collective brain.
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Monday 1st December 2003ad
Today, after work, and despite the pain in my legs, I made it to Angel Place and bought my ticket for Pinchgut Opera's performance of Henry Purcell's "The Fairy Queen". It is for the matinee next sunday. It cost $75.00, for A Reserve. I am in the front row. Everything works out well, apart from my health!
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Sunday 30th November 2003ad
I wanted to go the Verbruggen Hall this afternoon, to hear the Sydney Youth Orchestra perform, including Sant Saëns' Organ Symphony. It was not really possible, for I slept for an hour & a half, until almost 2.30pm.
But later, I did put on my CD of this Symophony. Not quite the same, but it is something. And something is better than nothing. "For, as King Lear said: Nothing will come of nothing".
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Saturday 29th November 2003ad
11.25am. As I left to shop, I saw a single Pied Currawong perched on a thick insulated wire. The call was one I had not heard before.
I can render it as: "oh piou". However, the "oh" is twice as long as our normal rendering of this syllable; the whole delivered at a higher pitch; and the syllable inflected upwards. The "piou" is rendered at the same pace & pitch; but is inflected slightly downwards; and shot out somewhat. The "p" is the same as ours, but the vowel is quite different, and that is the closest I can render it.
This two syllable call, after a clear pause, was repeated again and again. It was not very loud, so it was intended specifically for an individual Pied Currawong, who the caller belived to be close by. I believ that the calling bird is my old friend "John Howard". Perhaps her mate was one called to.
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Friday 28th November 2003ad
I made it through the door of the bank, to pay the rent, with but four minutes to spare. Excessive hours at work are a persistent problem.
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Thursday 27th November 2003ad
Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
& Sydney Philharmonia Choir.
Conducted by Edo de Waart.
I came. I heard. I was enthralled!
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Wednesday 26th November 2003ad
An endless dust pours out of the air and covers all.
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Tuesday 25th November 2003ad
In the Mesozoic contintental seas, Ammonites, shelled Molluscs distantly related to Squids, were entrenched in most of those niches where we have Bony Fish. It occurs to me that there must have even more shell grit then, than we have now.
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Monday 24th November 2003ad
Yesterday afternoon, there were two appointments for me.
The Australian Chamber Orchestra, directed by Richard Tognetti. Melvyn Tan, soloist for Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 20, stroked the keyboard like some elegant, long limbed Praying Mantis. Andfor the finalé, Beethoven's 1st Symphony raced along at the pace which Beethovven himself indicated, with the use of the metronome.
Then I turned up to the Doctor Who Convention, in Ashfield, when it was all but over. However, I rejoined the Australaian Dr Who Society.
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Sunday 23rd November 2003ad
At 3.35am I awoke, turned on, quietly, the pocket radio, & from the BBC, via ABC NewsRadio, learnt that Georgian President, Eduard Shevardnadze, appears to have been overthrown by a popular people's revolt. As a typically symbolic Georgian act, they took his official chair outside and broke it. One protestor told a reporter, in fluent English: "He has been sitting in it for 30 years. Too long."
They also taunted the now absent President as "King Lear" - Georgians have a great fondness for Shakespeare's plays!
While Shevardnadze has called a State of Emergency", it seems the Police and Armed Forces, who are owed back-pay, are ignoring him. The immediate fuse for the uprising, is the opening of Parliament, following rigged elections. The long term simmering problem is the Government's rampant corruption.
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Saturday 22nd November 2003ad
This morning, I spent some time memorising William Blake's "The Tyger" and "London", from "Songs Of Experience". This was comparitively an easy effort, as they are short; & anyway, I had some of their lines to memory already, albeit this was incidental, rather than intentional.
Getting Shelley's "To A Skylark" into my head has convinced me, that there is still quite some room in there!
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Friday 21st November 2003ad
As work came to an end, there was significant pain in my ankles. However, soon I was able to ignore this, as pain in my knees developed which was even worse. It is not a perfect world.
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Thursday 20th November 2003ad
Mere mortality is the faintest shadow of eternity.
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Wednesday 19th November 2003ad
Tonight I finally watched a programme, which I videoed last sunday from SBS TV. It was about those objects in the British Museum, which were found in Great Britain. Selected experts, by consensus, had chosen a "top ten". I was just blown away, due to the craftsmanship and beauty of these objects of gold and silver and garnet.
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Tuesday 18th November 2003ad
At about 6.15pm, I turned my eyes from the television, slightly mystified as to how everything would come together in the final episode of "The Dalek Invasion Of Earth". With only fifteen minutes to tie all the threads together, and to exterminate the Master Race of the Universe from at least one Planet, namely Earth, it seemed a big ask.
As I glanced behind me, I saw Ludwig Van Budgie Bird watching the television. He was positioned as perfectly as he could be, to catch the telecast images with eye & ear. Indeed, he was in intense concentration. He must regard the television screen as a kind of window; as people do. However, the technical aspects of television broadcasting are certainly indecipherable to him, even much more than they are to most of us!
That, in this early Doctor Who, everything is in black and white must be mystifying to him. Perhaps he surmises that, through this special window, it is night.
Budgie brains are small, but they then have small bodies. However, considering how much of their grey matter is given up to the complex spacial positioning required for flight - and they are strong & versatile flyers, capable even of hovering! - plus the neuronal requirements for their eyesight and hearing, which is vastly better than ours; it is surprising that they have as much left as they do for asking complex questions of their environment, especially in communicating with those difficult creatures, called Humans.
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Monday 17th November 2003ad
Geranium! Now that I have one inside, plus one on the front balcony, I have become very aware of their strong scent. Actually, the one on the balcony was originally also inside, but I found the enclosed perfume of two of these plants too much at times.
But the sensitisation of my nose is such now, that in the outside world I often notice the wafting of Geranium oil through the air. The donor plant may be hard to find, and may prove to be quite distant.
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Sunday 16th November 2003ad
I woke early. Very early. Not a crime.
But it well should be.
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Saturday 15th November 2003ad
I finally got sick of holding off on concerts, because I may be tired or ill, or may develop a coughing fit at a quiet part of some movement.
At the Opera House, this afternoon, I
splurged $213.00.
And felt bloody good for the reckless expense!
[1] Sunday 23rd November - Australian
Chamber Orchestra
with Melvyn Tan [piano]: Mendelssohn; Mozart; Beethoven.
[2] Thursday 27th November - Sydney
Symphony Orchestra:
Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
[3] Friday 5th December - Sydney
Symphony Orchestra
Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" - Nigel Kennedy [violin];
Vivaldi's "Concerto For Two Violins" NK & Michael
Dauth.
The 9th, I wanted the saturday, but it
was sold out.
The Vivaldi, likewise, but only seats I fancied not, remained.
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Friday 14th November 2003ad
I thought Sydney is supposed to be wet. The sad thing is that it still is, by current Australian standards. Thank you Mr PM. We are affected by global warming. Indeed, we are the first victims of this rising.
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Thursday 13th November 2003ad
The difference between a Pack Horse and a Postman?
A Postman eats no grass.
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Wednesday 12th November 2003ad
As a child, I wondered how "Woden's" could become "Wednes".
I still do. And it continues to be a mystery to me and my mind.
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Tuesday 11th November 2003ad
This morning I had to memory, all of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem: "To A Skylark". It took some while, as it is 21 verses, each of 5 lines. Also, I did not attack it all a-once, but in idle moments on trains or when walking; at times that such activity suited me.
Now I have to practice bringing it forth without hesistation or slips, and saying it with the intention of the puctuation intact. But now it is to memory, this is more easily done.
For the history of this quirk, see 2nd
& 4th October, 2003.
in Occasional-Thought-Archive6.htm.
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Monday 10th November 2003ad
An anniversary. One week previously, the plumber decided not to attack my shower cubicle with a jackhammer, as the job was more extensive than originally thought. So further negotiations with the powers that be are necessary, before task is attempted.
I consoled my disappointment - I hate such things hanging over me! - by buying CDs at Fish Fine Music across the Harbour, ferrying them by ferry, naturally [in no particular order]:
[1]
Tchaikovsky - Symphony Number Four; Francesca Da Rimini.
Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio
with Vladimir Fedoseyev conducting. [$31.45].
[2]
Hector Berlioz - Harold en Italie; Romeo et Juliette; Scherzo: La
Reine Mab; Marche Hongroise; Chasse Royale at Orage; Symphonie
Fantasque.
Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal - Charles Dutoit conducting.
[Double CD - $19.95].
[3] Beethoven - 9th Symphony; Choral Fantasy; Overtures - Leonora 1; Leonora 2; Leonora 3; Fidelio. Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Kurt Masur conducting, except for the Choral Fantasy, which is London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink conducting. [Double CD - $19.95].
[4] Harp Concertos - Handel; Boïeldieu; Dittersdorf; Mozart; Gliére; Rodrigo. A wide range of Orchestras & Harpists. [Double CD - $9.95].
I can now confirm that all are splendid!
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Sunday 9th November 2003ad
A number can not be a statistic,
unless all variables are controlled.
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Saturday 8th November 2003ad
God! I would love to leap out of bed
on saturday morning,
with the weekend all spread out for my entertainment!
Once I could. Now I am doing well to
arise at all.
Taking one painful tendon or joint after the other.
And the worst thing, is that, to other
people,
I actually seem to be healthy!
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Friday 7th November 2003ad
Work for the week has ended. The weekend is laid out before me. Yet, my inertia, my exhaustion is such, that this feast remains untouched.
Well, it does tonight. I have better hopes for tomorrow.
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Thursday 6th November 2003ad
Just before 1pm, in the top end of Carr Street in Waverton, I saw the corpse of a Rainbow Lorrikeet. It was clearly dead, as a trail of black ants already lead to it, though the body was seemingly entire. I went no nearer than the footpath demanded, but from my viewpoint, there were no obvious wounds. So it probably died of illness, or old age, or accidental poisoning.
Rainbow Lorrikeets are so bursting with the utter energy of life-force. It seems completely wrong to see one dead.
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Wednesday 5th November 2003ad
Physics can be only taken on trust by the vast majority of people, for they have not the Mathematics to understand Quantum Physics or the nature of Quarks.
But equally this was true, when Isaac Newton lived and worked. And even so also, in that distant time of Aristarchus.
Indeed, I fear that while my Mathematics is probably better than that of most of the world's population; the calculations will prove beyond me, of even the ancient genius Aristarchus. If I ever find the time, I wish one day to test my mental capacity in this regard.
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Tuesday 4th November 2003ad
All Roads lead to Rome.
All Trains go to Hornsby.
The seond line makes sense, if one is at Saint Leonards Railway Station, which has only two platforms. At certain times, both the northbound and southbound trains end up at the said Hornsby, which is actually to the north. Let me call this: The Triangular Effect.
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Monday 3rd November 2003ad
Why is the Moon compassed with Insanity?
Always I find its visage a calming sight.
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Sunday 2nd November 2003ad
A Russian proverb says, that Chess is a game at which a Gnat may sip, or in which an Elephant may bathe.
Well, this Gnat got confused about what he was supposed to do, and due to the water tension of Chess Praxis, is currently drowning!
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Saturday 1st November 2003ad
I could not make the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra concert, as it was sold out a week or more ago; but at least I got to the venue at Angel Place, to collect and pay for my Dal'Abaco CD.
Excellent compositions! I can but wonder why he was all but forgotten. As Julius Caesar aptly put it; sometimes important matters hinge on mere mindless chance.
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Friday 31st October 2003ad
The Universe as Finite but Unbounded, is a concept which I can hold as an idea in my head, and understand its parameters, with no difficulty.
Infinity, on the other hand, makes absolutely no sense. When I was a child, fear of Infinity would keep me awake at night.
I was, as you may guess, a strange child. When my age in years was numbered in single digits, the Boogie Man and other such creatures of the darkness held no fear for me. Night, I knew well, was simply the Day, sans the Sun. But Infinity, could wake me from sleep, covered in the cold sweat of fear.
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Thursday 30th October 2003ad
Life is this peristent conflict,
between desire for company,
and yearning for solitude.
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Wednesday 29th October 2003ad
Sinuses are conclusive proof,
that we are not the result
of special creation.
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Tuesday 28th October 2003ad
One should never use what is in the
head,
for any purpose it is not designed for.
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Monday 27th October 2003ad
I had hoped for a useful evening, but my enthusiasm is all decayed by illness. Yet, one useful thing did occur. When my old PC froze, I had to switch it off, but it refused to restart. With some patience, I persuaded it to accept a Startup Disc. Then with it in MS-DOS mode, Scanreg quickly recovered the errant computer back to Windows98.
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Sunday 26th October 2003ad
Today, I am drowning in desperate efforts to get everything completed, but in such a muddle of rushing confusion, that time seems to pass, all but unused. At least, I did get potted those Frangipani and Geranium cuttings, which I rescued from the garden of the house due for demolition.
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Saturday 25th October 2003ad
I am listening tonight, on ABC Classic FM, to the Queensland Orchestra in concert, playing, amongst other works, Mozart's Clarinet Concerto & Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony.
The music is fine, although one thing bothers me. I am sure this is the Orchestra, which I have always known as the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. I wonder why they dropped that word. How could the word "Symphony", be regarded as an unwanted burden?
=======================================
Earlier, equally on both sides of noon, for reasons quite unknown, even to me, I went walking through Redfern & Surry Hills. Redfern is even more depressing, more window & door steel barred than I remember; boarded up stores, tiny rag-trade shops, architects, and galleries, ironically crushed together, in close compact!
And still, there is this amazing change in Pitt Street. In Redfern it is most depressing. But a few tens of metres after crossing Redfern Street and burrowing into Surry Hills, it becomes tree-lined, with large houses, mostly unbarred, and encased in delicious sprawls of greening gardens.
Then, near Central Railway Station, at the "CD Warehouse", I bought two CDs of the group Yes, namely the self named "Yes", and "Close To The Edge". The salesman said to me at the purchase: "Good choice." I kind of agree with that sentiment, albeit I do admit to some bias in this matter.
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Friday 24th October 2003ad
Everything has been minaturised in our world, including tolerance.
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Thursday 23rd October 2003ad
Doctor Who - "The Sensorites". Episode One was today. For me, it is unusual, in that I have not seen it before. We missed it as we were south on holidays, for my childhood was in the days before television repeater stations graced the Queensland countryside. So the tapes were physically sent from television studio to television studio. When we arrived in the Mary Valley, "The Sensorites" had already been shown; and when we arrived back in the Callide Valley, it had been shown there too!
On the other hand, while the tapes of the Doctor Who series, "Galaxy Four" and "The Myth Makers" are quite lost, I still have memories of them clear in my head; especially the small, idiosyncratic quirks. In the former, the "leaves" that Drahvin army privates were eating, had a sound when masticated, exactly like that of potato crisps. In the latter, Helen of Troy's estranged husband suggests to his brother, that the latter's eagerness to pursue the war with Troy had more to do with trade, than with outraged honour.
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Wednesday 22nd October 2003ad
From mid-morning to mid-afternoon, I had the 2nd Movement of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony playing in my head. This was the essential thread of course. I cannot claim it was the full orchestration. It helped me through a difficult day.
They filmed again at 39 King Street; this time in one of the units.
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Tuesday 21st October 2003ad
At 1.50pm, I was met by three surprises at 39 King Street in Waverton.
[1] On the lawn where I normally walk, was a small marquee set up, but I was able to go around it.
[2] The long expected new letterboxes had just been put in place, and there are a most excellent improvement.
[3] There was filming in progress in the foyer of the building. I could not see the actors, nor the camera, but the lighting equipment and technical staff were highly visible outside. Just as I began to deliver the mail, a voice from inside said, to all and sundry: "We're doing a take now. Complete silence please." So there I was, trying to subtly and silently put letters and magazines into excellent letterboxes, which were not, however, designed for complete silence.
I know not what was filmed. It was a silent take, sans vocalisation.
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Monday 20th October 2003ad
To suggest that God's message can be reduced, with word for word exactness, to any human language, is the extreme sacrilege.
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Sunday 19th October 2003ad
Finally I bought Wolfgang his own cage, since I was concerned that these bites on his forehead from Amadeus, apart from looking nasty, may be affecting his health. Budgies are good at disguising illness, so it is hard to tell.
When I moved him from his old to new abode, Wolfgang showed his appreciation by trying to remove the little finger on my right hand. Whilst he did not pierce the skin, I did feel it, and if his physical strength had matched his determination, I would now be a finger less than I was born with!
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Saturday 18th October 2003ad
My day has been inside, still recovering from this microbial attack on the sinuses. Whilst I slowly worked my way through chess and rest and housework and rest and that and this ... I played an inordinant number of CDs: Five Baroque, all of which were in excess of an hour in length; then a Ralph Vaughan Williams compilation, of like length; and then four Rock albums, each under an hour in length.
These last were Symphonic-Rock; rather elderly, but complex & elaborate musical adventures, which still appeal to my sensibilities. The exception was the Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks", which crept into the midst of a rather different genre. There it sat, rather uncomfortably. Poked its tongue out! Made rude noises at their claims to artistic quality. Before long, I felt obliged to put it safely out of sight; albeit not till the last song had passed, thumbing its nose at the those who released the album: "EMI ... They only did it for the fame!" - Probably the money, actually.
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Friday 17th October 2003ad
I was actually in a tavern today, in Saint Leonards. It was Mark's farewell; although he is yet to transfer to the Central Coast. This could happen any moment, or may take weeks. Mysterious mechanisms are involved. Less than an hour I was there, as a sinus infection has plagued me all this week. And but one drink: a nip of Jamieson's Whiskey. During and after this, I talked with Eric about Rock Music; in particular, that group of great longevity: "Yes".
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Thursday 16th October 2003ad
At 1.55pm, I passed under a Callistemon [Bottlebrush] tree, between 25 and 29 Crows Nest Road. The tree sprawled with red flowers, upon which feasted some four or five Rainbow Lorikeets. They were loudly calling to each in shrill imitation of a mobile phone ringing. This was not a "musical ring", but just an old fashioned "ring". I knew it was a mobile being imitated, due to the shrillness; albeit these birds seemed to have accentuated the volume to the extent, that I was glad to get up the road and away from them.
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Wednesday 15th October 2003ad
Rugby Union has that rare quality, that a World Cup result today - Fiji 19 defeated USA 18 - is an upset, not because Fiji won, but because USA got so close!.
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Tuesday 14th October 2003ad
Beyond work, late this afternoon & this evening, enthusiasm quite failed me. My knees still hurt. But more importantly, my mind just will not co-operate: I can not persuade myself to do what I want done.
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Monday 13th October 2003ad
"A time for every purpose under heaven" - ??.
Personally, I am not convinced.
I think Ian Anderson was more astute with:
"There's no time for everything"
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Sunday 12th October 2003ad
At 7.50am, my local Pied Currawong, John Howard, flew up to the second floor guttering of the next door building, with three snails in her beak. She dropped them in the gutter, next to the corner. Then she picked up one snail and drew it up through a gap at the corner, which broke the shell, allowing her to eat the flesh. She likewise dealt with the other two snails. Pied Currawongs are intelligent and inventive birds.
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Saturday 11th October 2003ad
Dance on the head of a pin?
I surely would, if only that crowd of
angels
would move over, and give me some space.
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Friday 10th October 2003ad
Once I took a strong interest in cricket, but now it is only fleeting. However, at 4.36pm, I switched on the television to check, in idle curiosity, the score in the Australia-Zimbabwe test. To my surprise, Matthew Hayden was just two runs short, of equalling Brian Lara's all time highest test innings score. So I watched, as he equalled, and passed it. Then it was the tea break. The television I switched off.
Not long after 5pm, I checked again. Two balls later, Hayden was out for 380. Merely chance all this. I lack psychic ability.
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Thursday 9th October 2003ad
Myriad forms of Palaeozoic Trilobites possessed glorious crystal eyes. We may use these biogenic calcite lenses to create photographs; so seeing our world, how they would have seen it. Thus these ancient eyes form a bridge across aeons.
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Wednesday 8th October 2003ad
Strange that a Black Hole, by the very depth of its blackness, creates intense light. Yet this light, beautiful as it may appear in our distant telescopes, is but the visual screams of disintegrating worlds.
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Tuesday 7th October 2003ad
To my surprise, interest in Doctor Who at work has receded but little. And this, even when faced with the two episode filler: "The Edge Of Destruction" & "The Brink Of Disaster". This was filmed entirely within the Tardis [Time And Relative Dimensions In Space - that is, their space-time travel machine]. An obvious cost saving there!
Eric Dabas could not make any sense of it at all. Trevor Attwood explained to him the perculiar 1960s logic involved: essentially, the "Faulticator" of the Tardis was stopping them materialising at the point of space-time, where our solar system was being formed. Landing thus would destroy both it and themselves. It did this by a series of very 1960s metaphors. Trevor thought this "Faulticator" was an excellent idea and might sort out Microsoft Windows [any version]. I concurred with this. Alan Conway liked the way that the Doctor explained the formation of the solar system, in a short monologue, which I also thought both concise and accurate.
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Monday 6th October 2003ad
Yom Kippur is a public holiday in New South Wales.
I took the oportunity to see "Travelling Birds" [nee "Bird Migration"] at the Hayden Orpheum in Cremorne. It was at noon; this time in the large cinema four; and just as wonderful the second time around.
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THE END IS NEAR
INDEED, IT IS HERE !!
©TONY SIMS, 2002 ad - Text, Formatting & Ego.
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