Situation hopeless, but not serious (and a ditty for today)

What is the meaning?

Where lies the point --?

Life is merely a game...

Ain't it amazing: you roll the dice,

Play your cards right, it can be very nice!

But,

What is the reason? 

What's it all for?

Nothing's ever the same --

All your great schemes explode into dreams:

It's chaos! But -- no one's to blame!
...Jen Downes

...I've just been having a bit of a rant on facebook. An associate posted that we need to be turning to biodegradables rather than filling the world with plastics, petrochemical derivatives ... very wise, very laudable indeed, and I shall stand up and applaud; though I also have to note that this one is so far off the "duh scale," unless you're preaching to the choir, you're highly likely to score a lot of giggle-face icons. And the next two stories I read, consecutively, effectively cut the foundations out from under any such laudable goals.

So I wrote this, in the comment field:

My brother and I were just having a discussion about how to recycle fiberglass windmill blades ... Might fiberglass fragments be bonded with tarmac, for enduring road surfaces?? Then the first things I see on Facebook ... Our government is going to clearcut more native habitat (after the fires???) and some absolute lunatic just handed out a permit for 200 wombats to be culled to convenience a farmer, who can't figure out how to drive AROUND them! Then, they're going to make the slaughter socially acceptable (!!??!!) by handing it off to the Aboriginal community ... who will STONE the animals to death, which is vile. On one hand, people like us are trying to recycle consumables; on the other hand, droves of other people can't see beyond clearcutting and slaughter! It makes you wonder if humans, en masse, will ever change. Because, if they don't, and soon...

...and therein lies the problem. Nothing people are doing or saying on an individual basis seems to move government; and unless government moves --

Well, it's all just business as usual, isn't it? The world will spin on for decades yet before the time arrives for the Big Crunch. The aged will have departed. Those like myself, who today are not quite young, not quite old, will by then be suspended in the gray "limbo" zone where old(er) folks exist while they become functionally invisible, like the older woman patronizing (or trying to) the stores and cafes of NYC. So at this moment?

No matter what happens, or who says what idiocy (and especially if he or she happens to be in politics!) it's "situation normal," because whacked-out-crazy has become our normality. To put it another way ...

"Situation hopeless, not serious."

That's a brilliant line -- and no, I didn't think of it first! The movie was made in 1965; and for those who're film or lit buffs, I can tell you that Robert Shaw developed early drafts of the screenplay from his novel, The Hiding Place.  Yes, Robert Shaw was an award-wining novelist before he was an award-winning actor --

And yes, this is the Robert Shaw I'm talking about. Quint, in Jaws. Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons. That Russian who gave 007 a real run for his money. He was also a playwright (in fact, if you're interested, there's a terrific blog post from many years ago, still on line at this time of posting). Novels like The Flag, The Man in the Glass Booth, The Sun Doctor, A Card From Morocco ... they're forgotten now; I wish they weren't! It's hard enough to find his movies these days, much less his books! And yes, in case you still don't believe me, here he is on Goodreads!

I don't know if he came up with the line, but it certainly has his quirky Irish sense of humor, and it's more relevant today than ever. Our global predicament? Yep. Situation hopeless, but not serious. Well not yet. Not for maybe another twenty years. Then ... dang.

Thought of the Day

Here's the weirdest thing. When poetry comes to me (and it doesn't very often), it's usually while I'm under the shower, washing my hair, no chance to jot it down. By the time I get out of the shower, it's usually gone. Something unique to my brain structure, I suppose.

But this silly little ditty stayed with me for long enough to get it typed, LOL ... I said poetry.  I didn't say anything about it being spiritual, romantic or meaningful...

There's a daft old saying, "Life is just a bowl of cherries" -- it became a song (Lew Brown / Ray Henderson); Judy Garland recorded it in 1956, for a start! Doris Day sang it, about ten years later. Google it: I kid you not. But forget the song. Go back to the daft old saying which inspired it...

Life is just a bowl of cherries:

Twenty bucks per kilo.

I don't know if you have the cash,

Or even how you feel; oh,

If I had the price of cherries

Every day, to munch ...

Life would be a perfect breeze.

And I'd be out to lunch.

Sorry for that. But I'd surely like to have the $140 a week. I wonder how much cherries cost, in 1956?

Happy New Camera, 2020!

After a year or more of bemoaning the fact that my Fuju HS50 has almost completely given up the ghost, well ... it was time to get a new camera. I've been researching them, looking at reviews, trying to figure out where the "sweet spot" lay, between needing something good, not having unlimited dollars to invest, and also needing to buy something that was light to carry about. So --

All things taken into consideration, I wound up with the Lumix TZ90, from Panasonic ... at at $438, it was an absolutely amazing deal. Then, there's its Leica optics, and its bells and whistles --

Ahem! Suffice to say, I'm having a lot of fun. More fun than I've had with photography for well over a year, because I knew that most of the shots I wanted to get, the HS-50 would spoil. (Almost everything had stopped working on it: light metering was off by a mile, and I'm sure its focusing system was way off too: you'd pull focus "here," with your chosen object right in the crosshairs, and it wold focus about ten degrees of arc away. Not fun. Not fun at all.)

So, in the last year or so I haven't done very much with photography; and I've missed it. The hobby gives you a reason to get out there and hike around, go the extra "nine yards" in order to come back with superb pictures. What's the point, if the camera is only going to spoil them? So --

The biggest step was making the decision to set down a great wad of cash. With that decision out of the way, the next was to work out which camera to buy ... and you really are spoiled for choice, no matter your price bracket. I think I spent about ten hours, hunting down individual cameras, reading reviews, comparing features.

And it all came down to a choice between a Canon PowerShot, and the Lumix TZ90. They are comparable; but the Lumix does a great deal more. It has those Leica optics, and a 3" touch screen display, plus a 'finder ... which the PowerShot doesn't have. The decision turned out to be the right one for me...

...I know, I demand a lot of a camera. I've used Fuji for well over ten years now -- had four of them; but the last one was surprisingly fragile, and I was honestly shocked when it started to break down in just a few years. I think I noticed the first "hmmm" moments after the second year. This time around, I've made the promise to myself, to be ultra-careful with the new Lumix, and deliberately NOT take liberties with it. Don't knock it. Don't let it hit anything.

Sooo I've just got myself a spare battery plus charger (there's another hundred bucks!), and have also ordered a camera bag, which will fit the Lumix snugly, not let it move about, and damage itself...

With any luck the camera bag will arrive before Dave and I take off for the Limestone Coast at the end of this month. If not, I'll have to MacGyver something to protect the camera on the road. I'm looking forward enormously to the trip. We haven't been to Mount Gambier in eight years. Hoping to get good weather for this one ... the last trip (our second to the Grampians), we had rotten luck with the weather for most of the time.

My other hope is that my health picks up a bit before we leave. I'm basically going one day at a time right now, and while I know I need to see a doctor and find out what's wrong ... I also know what the tests are going to be like. I'm putting them off as long as possible, because I just don't want to go there. Not ready yet. I'll know when I am. So --

There you have it! Happy New Camera, 2020! This is going to be big fun ... in fact, the fun has already begun. Pictures here were taken at Belair NP, Punchbowl Lookout, and in the back garden right here at home. Monday, if I'm up to it, I'll see if I can get to Onkaparinga Wetlands, and if the sky is blue and the sun bright, we should get some lovely pictures!

My fourth story going into print!

Am very pleased indeed to announce that my fourth story is going into print at this time, with Dim Shores Presents.

The story is Root and Branch, which also won an Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future competition last year.

I don't yet have a "buy now" link for this issue, but when I receive one, I'll return to this post to include it.

The anthology looks like being a really good read -- am looking forward to it greatly. Have been an ocean of spec-fic lately, and genuinely enjoying it. We're lucky enough to have entire shelves filled with Andromeda Spaceways, Eidolon, F&SF, and a huge assortment of other magazines, from Story Hack to Aliterate, via Lovecraftiana, Interzone, Analog and so on. And on. The indie magazines tend to have a much fresher taste and feel than the old, long-established mags, and I've been enjoying them greatly.

Also, this would be an appropriate time to mention that I've finished the novel, "The Hesperides." This piece isn't spec-fic, but an Aussie story, full of angst and humor with an ending which, I hope, will be not merely "feel good," but also surprising. For my next trick (ha!), find a publisher -- which means finding a literary agent first. The quest (roll drums, sound trumpets and set loose the dragon sentinels) has begun.