1904

Wind kept the frost today. By the end of the day it had turned to rain.

Michael at Bag End says he is quite happy to supply to comic buyers in Invercargill. He can hold them in the shop until they are ready to come through and collect them, or else he will have them couriered to Invercargill at a cost of $5.00 per time.

Looks like I’m putting down for two new titles, both DC. One’s WE3. I picked up the first copy from the shelf today to take home. It’s a Vertigo franchise and I don’t normally pick up Vertigo. The other is Hero, a remake of the old title Dial H for Hero. I remember seeing it as a black and white ink comic when I was at primary school. It was old then. I looked at issue 19 in the shop. I can pick up some back issues from Bag End as well.

There’s a third title as well I want to pick up. The Invaders from Marvel. I thought it was a miniseries. I found it was about some Marvel Universe characters I’m interested in (Union Jack and the Farnsworth dynasty). I was prepared to wait until it came out as a trade paperback. Looking at the previews in the shop it was talking about starting a second arc at issue 4. I don’t know if that means it’s an ongoing series. I put my name down for it. Now I’ll have to see if I can pick up the first three.

I got back from the gym to answer the telephone. My mother had phoned me again. On the first of February 1904 the singer Caruso recorded his first album and that is the answer to this week’s competition on Concert FM.

Watched my first episode of Six Feet Under tonight, the pilot for the fourth season. When Americans do black humour they can sometimes be successful. I loved it. It’s sort of picks up where CSI leaves off, except that everyone has personal issues. Then again, I’m not a fan of CSI.

A frosty toasty morning followed by a blue dome day with clear skies.

I spent the last couple of working days cataloguing newsletters from presbyteries outside of the Synod of Otago and Southland area. Now I am starting on a description of the First Church of Otago collection.

Felicity collected me from Knox College today and we went to visit Robert. She showed us her travel photos on her computer. We looked at a couple of self-published books that Felicity had by disabled people and agreed to go ahead with a taped and stapled spine on a A5 sized booklet. We had afternoon tea from the Albany Cafe in the University Link. By the time Felicity dropped us home she was racing to her next appointment. She will look into arranging for Graeme to keep coming to Opoho Church on Sundays. Apparently he is violently upset about missing going to church.

Some of my CDs are beginning to play up. I suspect that either the ‘needle’ on my CD player is beginning to act up or the CDs are scratched or dirty and I can’t see it. The four discs I have put aside as I cannot play them are:
Bach : Orchestral Suites No.s 1 and 4;
Mendelssohn: Overtures, The Hebrides, The Fair Melusina, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage;
Mozart: Symphonies Nos 40 & 41, fortunately I have picked up second copies of this disc;
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos.
I will have to look out for replacement copies of these titles.

Pentecost 13

No sign of Graeme at church today. People are beginning to ask where he is. One of our older ladies is intending to investigate at the community house. I will talk to Felicity tomorrow.

I took two writing pads with me to church to get questions from the congregation to be put to the local body candidates for the Cargill Ward. Nothing dramatic.

After church we had a lunch for the members of the music group. I took along a dish of chicken pieces that I had prepared and others provided other food. Good occasion to pig out. Preparations for a concert to raise funds for the Helena Goldie Hospital in Vanuatu are also in hand. Some of the members played around with practicing music. One member of the music group is going to the same mission conference as the archivist.

Weather improving today, and will remain so for the next couple of days. It will be cool in the mornings. That only affects me. Enough blue sky to decently uniform the king’s navy.

Joe has directed me to Palin’s Travels

Glad to be of service!

While the streets are now clear with all the snow washed away, still the clouds guard the hills and snow lingers on the hill tops.

We went to a session of Earthdawn last night. While it was slow in moving forward there were several funny incidents involving characters falling in water. Hints of dark things to come. Afterwards I left early and walked home by myself: through the university by the Water of the Leith until I crossed over the Bridge of Remembrance and walked up to Clyde Street. When I reached the rise by the gates of Arana Hall I could see that Keith had taken a more direct route and was ahead of me, crossing Lovelock Avenue. By the time I passed through the same area he was no longer in sight. Instead I walked through the upper gardens in the dark, a longer, indirect, trip.

Comics report:

Starjammers: ticking along, promise of more developments in the next issue. Average comic which I will see out to the end of the miniseries.

Supreme Power: nice use of parallel story lines.

Doctor Spectrum: Supreme Power’s first spin-off miniseries, the feel of the comic is preserved by a new creative team.

Music practice today. Turns out that we are having a potluck lunch for the music group at the Bevins. First I’ve heard of it! I’ve bought some chicken pieces and cooked them in the oven after tea while we were watching Babylon 5 dvds. The extra chicken pieces went into the freezer compartment so we can decide to have a chicken meal some day.

Keith has just had the experience of having to open the outside door consecutively for three cats. I thought the lock must have been playing up again. No, it was the whims of cats! Oh, the inhumanity! Or is that infelinity?

Delving Deeper: Archives in the Missions-Secular interface

I had tea when I got home from last night’s meeting. Later we watched several episodes of Stargates, both SG1 and Atlantis. I suppose that Dr Carson Bennett sports a Scottish flag on his jacket because he is a civilian medic whereas all the other UK personnel on the Atlantis expedition have the Union Jack. At least I assume that Scotland doesn’t have its own standing army. I don’t think the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland has devolved that far yet.

Afterwards I sat in bed and looked through my papers for assembly. Although the archivist has sent a report through for the archives, it is not in the the first batch of papers. It is likely that it will be in the second batch. I eventually went to sleep at one o’clock in the morning.

When I went to make a cup of tea after lunch I was accosted by Tunbridge Wells working on the upstairs computer. I got a five minute spiel on how society has become more uncivil. There was nothing to do except nod non-commitally.

The archivist is preparing her abstract for a conference to be held in Sydney in September. I suggested the second half of her lecture title. It is amazing what can be done with 70c buzz words, and a couple of minutes to think.

One of the candidates for position of lecturer in church history at the university visited the archives today. There is some hope that he will get the position. He delivered a copy of the thesis on mission that he had been writing and a box of roses chocolates. One of the sources for the thesis study had been the archives collection.

Went into town before tea to visit Bag End and the gym. Comics report is being held over until I’ve read them. Afterwards I took the bus to Caversham for the pre-Assembly meeting of commissioners at the Presbyterian church there.

Things to remember for assembly: Take a cushion and a drinks bottle; familiarize myself with the standing orders of assembly; check that the numbers printed on some of the sheets are correct.

A friend brought me back to Opoho. On the radio we listened to Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty, the New Zealand triathletes, win the gold and silver medals; the bronze went to Sven Rieterer of Switzerland. It is only the second time that New Zealanders have won two medals in the same event. The previous time was for show jumping (on horses – they didn’t mention the horses).

I have been accused of being community-minded!

the Olympics

Twice in the current Olympic games I have watched New Zealand play Spain, once in Women’s Hockey and once in Men’s Basketball. This means we have played one of our allies in the Axis of Nations who Like Putting Lipstick on Sheep (“It’s not exactly evil just something we like doing”). The other ally being Scotland. I am suspicious of those Spaniards. Scotland I can understand, New Zealand I can understand, but I suspect that the Spanish are only pertending to be closet sheep shaggers!

Archivist in the office today after a six day weekend. She was relieved to get out of the house.

Visited Nexus Games. It’s a start. As I suspected it is owned by a roleplayer associated with the Otago University Roleplaying Society. Stock is limited. There is room for improvement.

I visited Bag End. They were a day behind in sorting pulled comics due to the snow. I will visit them on Thursday before I go across town for a meeting in Caversham at night.

Phone call from my mother. She wanted me to send in the competition answer to Concert FM for her. Looks like our trip to Wellington won’t be until after new year. I will have to talk to my brother about it.

new years day

Not today, the title is the answer to this weeks quiz on Concert FM: What day of the year does Concert FM have its Balancing the Score programme, the 100 popular selections as voted by radio listeners?

People who are concerned about the Destiny Church marches against the Civil Union Bill in Auckland and Wellington may wish to visit the Density Church website. A parody site for Bible boxer-wearing Christians who know better. I keep on thinking Destiny Church as Density Church, of which the Density Church people would not approve, the Destiny Church is too liberal for them.

The snow is not quite over yet. More cold weather is predicted. The white layer on our lawn is pockmarked with cat trails. No yellow snow sighted yet. Yew Tree Woman has not ventured down to the archives from her house above the snowline yet.

I walked past Bag End this afternoon. It was closed. I guess that Michael is snowed in up in Wakari. The city library closed early too, the cowards! I came home to find that Joe and Keith had not gone to taichi this week. It had been called off too.

“Shall we go play in the slush?”

I went into town in the late afternoon. One of the advantages of being carless means I am not bound to stay put when the snow closes the city, although others who have tried this have ended up in hospital with broken limbs. I met one friend at the 24-hour store where she had come in for the night shift over the hill from Mosgiel in her 4WD station wagon. Despite every second shop being closed for the snow, and town closing down early in the evening, a good crowd of regulars attended the gym. On my way home I discovered that there is a new wargamers and roleplaying shop, Nexus Games near the corner of St Andrew and Great King Streets. I will make a point of visiting it when it is open.

Snow!?!

Yesterday I was admiring the blossoms on the trees as we walked down to the supermarket. I even stopped to enjoy the moment.

Tessa was scratching on the curtains in the night. I opened a window to let her out. As I lay in bed in the morning I thought I should get up and close the window because it was letting in the cold air. When I did get up I found that it had snowed overnight. Harrumph! Who ordered this?! We have had our snow. We don’t need another snowfall thank you very much.

When I got into work I found the assistant archivist talking to the archivist on the telephone. She was at home snowed in. She had been in over the weekend and now ARK was inoperable. She advised me to sort out the boxes of newsletters from Presbyteries until such time as she comes in. Which at this rate could prove to be Wednesday!

No meeting with Felicity and Robert this week either as Felicity did not want to go out in the snow. Mornington is under 5″ of snow around her house.

Other news, Parish Council has decided to organise a local body candidates meeting for Cargill Ward. As I am the convener of the Wider Works Committee, and the majority of members, I am responsible for organising it. The first thing to do is get in touch with the candidates and organise set questions for a meeting. I will poll the congregation for suggestions next week.