Soccer World Cup so far

New Zealand played solidly I understand. Our team, the All Whites, played a defensive game and was not cracked by better teams. We retired with our honour intact. Indeed between that and the enthusiasm for the Wellington Phoenixes, soccer is beginning to look shiney again in this country. I like this, this is good. I understand soccer better than any intermidable variation of rugby which our country adores. In my younger years I walked the sidelines many a Saturday supporting a church club side, which is still playing in Invercargill. Go Knox!

Indeed I understand that when Australia got knocked out before we did the Australians were trumpeting New Zealand’s ranking as a triumph for Australasia. That kind of trans-Tasman solidarity doesn’t happen very often.

In our division Paraguay and Slovakia went through.

I’m watching the bloggosphere as other fans report on the play. The United States have been knocked out now. Germany has trumped England. Mexico has gone down to Argentina. I don’t know if I should tell my Mexican friend that I was secretly supporting the Argentines. That side has made some unreported statements in support of the Mothers of the Plaza. In my opinion that’s speaking truth to power. Apparently there is still a lost generation of stolen children who have not come light in that country. Who says sports and politics don’t mix!

Local Conlang Writing Month

Local Conlang Writing Month begins in July. Apparently last year it was in October just before National Novel Writing Month in November. The challenge is to produce a piece of creative writing in an imaginary language of your own creation. I was thinking of using the eclectic language that I have been designing for the last couple of years. This is not ready for use. It lacks documentation of the grammar and a whole lot of background. I have been allowing Brithenig to lie fallow in the interregnum. It has good documentation, now mirrored at http://www.steen.fr.net while Griffler Enterprises is down, and with over 2 000 words has a good lexicon to play with.

I realised that two plot seeds that I was toying with could come together to create a fun exercise.

• Ill Peleirin in the Brithenig language alternative universe, ill Bethisad, is the equivalent of Doctor Who, the time-travelling stranger who interferes in time and space, and other people’s lives. The name means the Stranger, or the Pilgrim.
• An alternative history seed where instead of dying to a cancerous tumour in her stomach Queen Mary gives birth to a monstrous child, who is going to grow up to hold power in the kingdom and do bad things

I can see how these two threads can plot together and I can picture the opening scenes in my head. It’s ambitious and I may not finish it, but it will be fun to aspire to. It’s also mid-winter for me and a time of year when I don’t want to be sitting still for long trying to keep my study warm, especially with an elderly cat demanding attention. (Way to go in the choice of months, guys!) And I have to think in Brithenig again, which should be interesting.

A week and a half to go before I type pixel to screen.

Normality

I commented on Facebook that I had a couple of weekends coming up that were approaching normality. Southern Dave challenged me to describe this normality that I speak of.

A normal Saturday is one where I get up between eight and nine in the morning, have a shower and breakfast, observe devotions, and then go to the supermarket to do my weekly shopping trip. After that I have a couple of hours before lunch to do household tasks or get on the computer and browse, and read the TV Guide to see if there is anything that I want to watch on tv for the next week. I hope to hear from friends in the afternoon that there will be a role-playing session on which will take up my time until evening. (It didn’t happen today) After I return home I make tea and then look for another divertissement until bedtime. Something will turn up.

Yes, my life is rather mundane. I plan to keep it that way for a while to come.

Four Saturdays ago I went with a group from Friend-Link to the Orakanui Bird Sanctuary. We didn’t see much because the weather closed in, extremely heavy mist. It was worth it for a first visit.

The Saturday after that I had a home invasion as three adults and two children visited me from Invercargill and Christchurch. Southern Dave was here for the Regent Theatre 24 Hour Book Sale; and a family visited me from Christchurch because one of their clan was involved in the University Capping that day.

Then the opera Amida played at the Rialto the next Saturday so I had to be away early if I wanted to see it. It was part of the New York Metropolitan Opera in High Definition Season for 2009-2010. Tor.com did a review of it on their blog. It was fun.

Then I went friends’ Civil Union on the last Saturday, an event to took out the entire day.

That’s what happens to me when events gang up on me. Next Saturday I have a 50th birthday party to go to for the intellectually handicapped client I sit with in church.

We can’t all be Mozarts, some of us have to be Salieris

I caught my second episode of SGU. I missed the second episode, even the repeat playing.

I step out of the room for a couple of seconds and something happens

It happened during Kaitangata Twitch when I was out of the room.

But onto this week’s Doctor:

Whatever Happened To?

I’m having a I’m-here-and-I’m-not-being-sat-upon-by-a-cat moment I should write up about the U choose 40 countdown from last Saturday. There should be a word for being sat upon by a cat moments.

This week’s theme was ‘Whatever Happened To?’. It was better than the week before which was Compilations and simply ghastly. There are a lot of artists being churned out by the music industry who seem to me to be trying to make a name for themselves before they retired to become studio musicians. Every second song seems to be ‘X ft Y’ as if they can’t produce decent music by themselves. After two and a half hours they played Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen as #1 (deserved choice). My choice of Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush did not appear. I have now seen the unabridged version of Telephone by Lady Gaga and Beyonce and don’t need to see it again. I admit I would like to see the truck chase edited into Stylo by Gorillaz but that’s just how my mind works.

Anyway some thoughts on the Whatever Happened To? Countdown.

Sunday night television

Quote of the evening: “I don’t send notes, I send lawyers,” Sebastian Cardwell Kaitangata Twitch.

Second was the widow of George Harrison on Monty Python: Almost the Truth (Lawyer’s Cut) describing her late husband’s funding of The Life of Brian as a “Leap of Faith”.

Two quotes (more like thoughts) from QI: How does the food know what part of the tongue to taste on? (Turns out it doesn’t need to as our taste glands are spread all over the tongue) and Disabled Access is a Dalek Conspiracy.

As for Doctor Who: