Some sheep in Soviet Russia want to leave the country.
“Why?” ask the officials. “What makes you want to leave?”
“The Secret Police,” explains one sheep. “They’ve had orders to bring in all elephants.”
The officials are puzzled.
“So what? You’re sheep, not elephants.”
“Try telling that to the Secret Police!”
This year has been the most formless, aimless year of my life, I must say. But finally things are starting to take some direction. Once this semester ends, I’m taking a year’s leave to simply work - hopefully at a bookstore - before taking up a different course in 2008.
Much as I like IT, I’ve decided I don’t really want to do it full-time. I have vague ideas of doing history or maybe journalism, but I don’t have to decide yet. I’ve got a whole year where I can just live day-to-day, working out what I want to do and where I want to go with my life. And I’m feeling happier than I have in ages. Yay.
Plus I’ll hopefully have more time for fanfiction and blogging. Always a plus.
I bought a set of DVDs today: the Firefly tv series, on special in JB Hi-Fi for $30AU. I don’t think that this show ever actually screened in
Australia, but apparently you can buy it here anyway, although it’s a bit hard to track down. Serenity, the movie remake of the show, is easier to find, but apparently it’s not as good. This is what tvrage.com had to say about the plot:
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In Firefly, a highly underrated science fiction/western hybrid, Joss Whedon manages to create an interesting, thrilling, and often deep, series packaged with bold statements, character depth, compelling plots and typical Whedonesque wit. Firefly is set five hundred years in the future, within a solar system controlled by the central government, The Alliance. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), who was involved in the war against The Alliance, leads the crew of his firefly-class ship, Serenity, on a journey with no destination. Always moving and trying their best to steer clear of The Alliance, Mal and his team do all that they can to survive, picking up passengers and often taking on shady jobs from even shadier people. When one of Serenity’s passengers is discovered as a fugitive running from The Alliance, things get slightly more complicated for the crew of Serenity - a crew with a dynamic that renders Firefly as a highly enjoyable series.
It won New Scientist magazine’s spot as no. 1 sci-fi series in 2005, and has achieved cult status in America. So how did I get interested in it? Well, to be honest, I got hooked on a highly amusing fanfiction piece by nonjon that happened to be a Harry Potter/Firefly crossover. The summary says:
WIP. [Firefly::Harry Potter crossover] Post Serenity. Two years have passed since the secret of the planet Miranda got broadcast across the whole ‘verse in 2518. The crew of Serenity finally hires a new pilot, but he’s a bit peculiar.
Basically, a long time ago everyone’s favorite wizard put himself into an enchanted sleep, to be broken when the wizarding world needed him. Well, he’s awake now, but… where are all the wizards? It’s a pretty good story. I think I’ll finish this post with some quotes.
<<< “It’s not like they didn’t prepare for this,” Harry argued. “They knew what they were doing when they went to sleep.” “If you say so,” Mal grinned. “I know most large groups of people magically appearing in the wee hours of the morning completely naked and passing out are usually the ones right on top of things. But it’s possible their plans may have altered on them in the last 250 years.” “We’ll see,” Harry replied with more confidence than he felt. “Harry!” Inara called from the restaurant. “Simon says your guy fell asleep on the toilet. He’s offering 100 platinum to whoever pulls the guy’s pants up.”>>>
<<<Algernon turned to Fullerton. “Is the future just really messed up?” “No,” River answered. “It’s Harry. The future doesn’t have anything to do with it.”>>>
<<<“Turns out… Harry’s crazy… even by crazy’s standards.”>>>
<<< “Just checking,” Harry replied cheekily. “And to answer your question, no, I don’t. I’ve just never liked large crowds or groups of people. I had to give a speech this one time and a friend told me it helps to picture them naked. And she was right. I was surprisingly more relaxed imagining a whole sea of bare breasts that I was talking to, rather than just people staring at me, hanging on my every word. Now it’s just a habit that when there’s enough people around, I undress them all with my eyes.” “And you’re first drawn to the large, sweaty men with hairy backs?” Simon clarified. Harry nodded while scanning through the crowd, half-heartedly hoping for any sign of a wizard or witch. “It’s kind of hard to miss them, when they’re naked.”>>>
It’s easier to be a success if you can be content with what does not make you happy, but never stop aiming for what will.
Taking risks might make your life more fun, but it also makes it much harder to fix when things go wrong.
You have two choices in life; you can try to please others, or you can try to please yourself. It is a rare person who is capable of both.
It’s amazing how many big things people will help you with if you help them with the little ones.
A little charm goes a long way.
They say that you can catch a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar. Me, I think that I can do without the flies.
Those who charm, usually want something.
Often the most interesting people to know are the ones that everyone else overlooks or shys away from.
There is little that is more useful than knowledge combined with understanding and a certain amount of ruthlessness. With those, you can eventually get just about anything.
One of the best-kept secrets to looking good is believing that you look good. Walk with confidence, refrain from fiddling with your clothing or hair after you’ve gone out into the public, and always wear a smile and keep your head up high.
Using logic might not change a person’s mind, but at least it’ll annoy the hell out of them.
There is nothing quite like accidentally setting your alarm for four in the morning. Or waking up the entire house at that hour, so that several hours later various family members ask you in patient, pained voices if you did, indeed, happen to set your alarm clock for 4am. Nothing at all.
I thought I’d make a book recommendation today. The book is “The Shockwave Rider,” by John Brunner. I don’t know if it’s in print, but it’s one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read. It was published in 1975 and is set in the first half of the 21st century. It’s astonishing how much of the vision of the future in this is accurate. True, the technology is somewhat more advanced than it is at present, and there are flashes of the ‘future that was’, alternate timeline kind of vibe that you often get in books published during the Cold War (it was, after all, a rather bleak time in many ways), but still, amazing.
How accurate is the vision of the future encapsulated? Well, one of the main character’s weapons is a computer worm, three years before one was ever implemented, and giving us a name for that type of program. The novel also borrows the psychological concept of future shock, the shortest definition of which is “too much change in too short a period of time.” Considering how many people suffer from anxiety disorders these days, it was a remarkable foresight. The story is tremendously engrossing, and builds up to a mind-blowing finish.
While in some ways this novel is typical of those published in the ‘golden age’ of sci-fi, in other ways it is quite different. The story is interesting, well-constructed, with good character development and a lot of detail. It’s also interesting to see the author’s view of a likely future, and exactly where he was accurate. Read it, man!
See wikipedia article for “The Shockwave Rider”
See wikipedia article for ‘computer worm’
See wikipedia article for “Future Shock”
See wikipedia article for the ‘golden age’ of science fiction
See wikipedia article about John Brunner
