Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Dave's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, April 26th, 2020
2:42 pm	Introductory This message is going to be kept at the top of my journal as a quick introductory message in case anyone casually browses over to this journal and is wondering what makes the writer tick. Firstly... I read quite a lot of web comics, and have been having a bit of a hunt around for live journals or RSS feeds which look likely to give notice of updates to the comics I'm keeping track of. So, if you write a web comic and find this journal has added you as a friend or joined your community, that's why. If you don't want weird people from obscure foreign countries reading your journal or community, please let me know and I will cease and desist from doing so forthwith. The nature of this journal is mainly for communication with friends. About two thirds of the posts are public, and tend to be reviews of the popular culture I enjoy: web comics, science fiction TV, rock music (with a particular interest in `eighties post-punk and "indie" music, especially that recorded in New Zealand). I have more obscure interests, as well, which I discuss rather less often: cartography, werewolves, philately and "odd stuff" in general. I tend to keep most of my older archived posts, and anything dealing with work or personal matters, under "friends lock"; if you wish to read them, please comment here. Everything here is just my opinion, and is offered free of charge and is worth precisely what is paid for it. There are no insights into the fundamental nature of the universe contained herein. Any reader is welcome to: (1) Ask me anything you like about one of my user icons. (2) Ask me anything you like about one of my interests. (3) Ask me any question you want to ask, and I will give it the answer it deserves and post it as a reply to the question. Pleased to meet you. Hope you enjoy your stay. Current Mood: busy Current Music: Tim Finn - "Songline" (Read 9 |Write)
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
10:51 pm	Web comics Contained herein is a set of bookmarks to the web comics I'm keeping track of, kept open mainly so that I can read web comics if I'm ever anywhere that has a decent internet connection. (My home internet connection is almost dead; in fact, if I disappear from the internet for an extended length of time, it is because I have kicked my current provider to the kerb and haven't arranged a new one yet). I've linked a lot of the names not only to the comic itself but to my review of the comic; as I tend to keep my archives friends-locked, some of them may no longer be viewable without logging in. To anyone interested in reading them: please let me know if you want to be added. Recommendations of web comics I haven't already added to the list are always welcome. But please note that the reason some well known comics aren't on these lists is that they don't really appeal to me. ( Background ) ( The stuff I hope to be looking at. Feel free to add any further recommendations you can think of ) Current Mood: busy Current Music: Verlaines - "Dippy's Last Trip" (Read 3 |Write)
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
7:22 pm	GRRRRRRRR F'n leg's been playing up again... ever since the serious frosts started a couple of weekends back. Wasn't so bad until this morning, when I actually had to take it in to the doctor. Who has put me back on the Diclofenac. The timing is... not good; I'm probably going to be doing some urban mountaineering next weekend (f'n whoever it was who built Dunedin built it vertical, not horizontal...) And to add insult to injury the doc didn't think my bright idea (hire my knee out to the Met Service as a frost predictor) was all that good as far as ideas go... * * * Reading through the blogs this evening, Russell Brown finally mentions the Terminals' new CD. Possibly the first mention of it I've seen on any serious New Zealand blog. Unfortunately it's also in the context of a bit of a grouch about how hard it was to find (Real Groovy wasn't able to get him a copy - which is quite surprising; I'm not surprised my local record shop wasn't able to find the newly re-released Touch, but surely a major national chain would have better luck?) I suppose I was just exceptionally fortunate when I picked up my copy of the awesomeness that is Last Days of the Sun at Records Records in Dunedin. Current Mood: pissed off (Read 1 |Write)
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
11:15 am	A Sunday thought Was going through my email folders and found a note to myself I hadn't done anything with yet. From memory, this was first mentioned on Matinee Idle some time around the start of the year; but it still amuses me so it might amuse a few other people. Apparently... Britney Spears is an anagram of... Presbyterians. Current Mood: surreal (Read 1 |Write)
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
7:31 pm	Email problem solved, maybe Finally got my email problem solved... I think. Emails are currently being sent and received reasonably well. There's a few emails I've been expecting that haven't arrived, but there's a good chance they haven't actually been sent yet, which I suppose would absolve my computer of a lot of the responsibility. It turned out the problem was... AVG Anti Virus, which was misbehaving quite badly; it was holding up the emails before they went out. It's apparently been Told To Behave and so far has been doing so. But there's another problem now. I'm getting messages telling me that my version of AVG isn't going to be updated past the end of the month. So I thought I'd try downloading the latest version... ... no such luck. It's a 40+ MB file. On my connection there's simply no way I can download something that huge. So, does anyone know about a reputable virus checker that isn't flabbier than a bad Microsoft program? Because I'd really rather not have to give up on virus scanning in three weeks' time. Current Mood: pissed off Current Music: Blam Blam Blam - "Blue Belmonts" (Read 5 |Write)
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
9:43 pm	You know you've lived in Southland most of your life when... ... you see a poster with the words "LENS VIEW" prominently displayed, and start wondering which Len they're talking about and where he could see his view from, before realising that, if the local photographic society is involved, that isn't quite what they mean... Current Mood: amused Current Music: Pin Group - "Columbia" (Write)
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
9:11 pm	A couple that slipped through the cracks I wrote last night's post in a bit too much of a hurry, so apart from all its other problems I also managed to miss out a couple of comics. Kaspall is one of the good ones. ( We're obsessed with how strange the offworlders are, but what interests me is how strange they AREN'T ) Current Mood: busy Current Music: Big Country - "Girl with the Grey Eyes" (Write)
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
11:28 pm	"What if I left my memory in the future and I have to catch up to it?" The main event in this batch of comics is most probably Freak Angels. ( And this is what I thought about it. Plus a few others. ) Current Mood: busy Current Music: Big Country - "Just A Shadow" (Read 2 |Write)
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
1:55 pm	Icon meme, again Another set of icon explanations in answer to this meme. ( My answers ) Current Mood: busy Current Music: Tim Finn - "What You've Done" (Read 3 |Write)
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
7:19 pm	Buttons I have this brilliant idea. I haven't been to a science fiction (or anything involving fandom, really) convention since some time last century. There's been a few tempting ones recently, but nothing on this island; and if I'm going to start flying places, I may as well fly somewhere a damn sight more interesting than Auckland. As it stands, I've got at least two friends from at least two widely disparate fandoms going to a convention somewhere in America (possibly somewhere near Texas) some time soon. It's a shame I don't have enough time to get a replacement passport organised (my current one having expired some time last century). But the cost of getting there is likely to make the marginal cost of me getting to meet some of my friends very high. And considering that most people reading this will know by now how highly I think of my friends on the Internet, that means the cost is bloody high. But I think I've got it all figured out now. I'm going to fund it by selling buttons. These buttons are going to say something like "Please don't clobber me". That would be fairly self explanatory. I'd wander up to random convention-goers, give them the trademarked Short-Sighted-Dave-Peer-At-Their-Lapel, and if I don't see one of my buttons (or, if I'm feeling malevolent, even if I do), I'd give them a huge, hearty slap on the back. Hopefully, at the time, they won't be eating or drinking anything, or talking into a cellphone, or doing much at all, really. Those buttons I'd sell to the people at the convention for, say, ten bucks each. Cheap at the price, when you take into account the possible embarrassment that would be caused otherwise. I have no idea how many people go to American conventions, but the New Zealand convention I went to had a total attendance of about 200 (at a generous estimate). That would make something like $2000, less production costs. Might be enough for a bargain basement ticket, at least one way. Then all I'd need to do would be out-stay my welcome (hey, it's something I'm good at doing) and I'd be on a flight home before I could say "Que?". To fund the convention itself, I could possibly hire myself out to one or more of my friends that will be there, to basically just LOOM behind them. It's amazing how you can LOOM when you're 6'2", about 275 pounds and wearing something shapeless enough that nobody will notice that your muscle, such as it is, is very well hidden under all your insulation.* Of course, if any drunken (or not-so-drunken) young idiot thought he'd be a "hero" and try groping any of my friends, any buttons said young idiot would be wearing would be rendered null and void. And they wouldn't just get the slap on the back: they'd get a full-scale hiding. * Think "penguin". Or "whale". On a bad day there's nothing between me and Antarctica but a couple of thousand miles of wind. Current Mood: satirical Current Music: Tall Dwarfs - "Gone To The Worms" (Read 3 |Write)
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
5:35 pm	A few things One of the comedians at work finally thought of a name for my "religion" (or, more accurately, lack of). After explaining that I didn't consider myself an atheist because I didn't even have enough faith (or care enough about the concept) to be that definite about the subject, It Was Decided that I was an "Apathist". I am so putting that on my census form in 2011... * * * Reasons to hate Diamond #74,391: I have finally got around to organising my last couple of years' worth of comics and the news is... not good. Particularly during the second half of last year, Diamond were regularly shorting my shop; about three quarters of the comics I've been buying - even the Marvel and DC ones - are missing one or more issues. And the state of the independent ones is dire. I'll try to get a few quick commentaries done in the next couple of months, but don't expect much... * * * It shows that I pay more attention to music than to comics. A few days ago I saw a mention that a Terry Moore was writing (or drawing?) something. My first thoughts were: "didn't he used to play bass guitar for Bored Games and The Chills back in the `eighties?". After a few seconds I remembered that I had seen the name of a different Terry Moore in relation to comics and Stuff, but it did get me wondering for a couple of minutes. * * * The eagle eyed may notice that my "current music" thing implies that I have finally located my long-lost copy of Floodland. That is correct. It's amazing the things you find while rummaging around in all possible places for possible stashes of missing comics... * * * I'm now thinking I really ought to have stolen a friend's LOLdritch icon for this post... Current Mood: busy Current Music: Sisters of Mercy - "Dominion / Mother Russia" (Read 1 |Write)
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
10:46 am	"Listener" scores own-goal, ensures public attention is called to its misbehaviour I've always been sceptical of global warming, for one very simple reason: My part of the globe isn't getting any warmer. Unfortunately there's very little in the way of rational scepticism in the whole global warming debate; most views are either "Oh no, we're all going to die unless we give up anything vaguely reminiscent of civilisation and all go back up into the trees" or "Global warming is all an evil pinko-commie-lesbian-Frenchie-Muslim-Jewish-government con and anyone who believes in it should be shot". (New Zealand has its own example of the latter: the Climate Science Coalition. Despite its name, it does not appear to contain any climate scientists; the closest it ever had to scientific credibility was when its numbers included the (now late) Augie Auer: auto-cue reader, meteorologist and a good communicator. However, it is (or was, at least when it first came to prominence) headed by architect and failed town planner Owen McShane, and its numbers also include failed human being Roger Dewhurst (caution: link contains offensive material.)) The international global-warming-denier movement managed to get themselves in the news on the local blogsphere (or is it blogosphere? I can never remember) over the last week over an article I first read about here: that a columnist for the Listener (a not particularly glossy magazine that was, when I was young, bought by practically all families who owned a television set due to its having a monopoly on the advance publication of television programme schedules) had been sacked after various global-warming-denier groups demanded his removal for having a written outlining their close ties to businesses with a major interest in shutting down debate about global warming. Then, as I first noticed here on Poneke (a media weblog, the authorship of which is a secret closely guarded from... anyone who has been living in a cave for the last ten years or so, or has never ventured onto the nz.* newsgroups), the Listener had got onto its lawyers, and instructed them to send the blog a nastygram; this resulted in the article as it is now visible here. Which, even for the Listener, is spectacularly stupid: there is nothing so certain to get a subject repeated all over the internet than to try to suppress it. But the best comment on the whole debacle is from Tim Lambert here on Deltoid: When you use lawyers to suppress people's views it kind of undercuts your claims that you didn't suppress Hansford's views. Current Mood: cold (Read 9 |Write)
Monday, April 14th, 2008
9:02 pm	Things That Look Like A Vacuum Cleaner This is what happens when Doctor Who nuts get rid of old junk... Current Mood: amused Current Music: Tim Finn - "Incognito in California" (Write)
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
10:07 pm	So much for "foundations shall be excavated down to solid bearing"... Definite shades of The Little Yellow Digger here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/southlandtimes/4474021a6011.html ( Text save under the cut ) Current Mood: amused Current Music: Human Instinct - "I Want To Be Loved By You My Friend" (Read 3 |Write)
Monday, April 7th, 2008
9:06 pm	Stuff Winter has begun to bite. Hate it when that happens. * * * Observed while out visiting a week or so back: Craig Charles (Lister from Red Dwarf) is now a mainstay on... Coronation Street. How hath the mighty fallen... * * * Observed on the Internet after a tip-off from smillaraaq: Possibly the most bizarre cross-over fan fiction I've read in a long, long time. Spoilers for the second season of Torchwood (which I haven't had the chance to watch yet, myself, but have given up worrying about spoilers for as TVNZ seems determined not to actually show the series, but just to lock it up so Prime can't get the rights to show it). * * * And we're still voting for Operation Homefront over at Vote4Cause. Currently we're well within sight of the leading team. So come on and join the party. Bring some friends. Current Mood: cold Current Music: Split Enz - "Semi Detached" (Write)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
11:04 am	Vote early and vote often Well, as you might have read here a few weeks back, a group of us have been visiting http://www.vote4cause.org/ regularly and voting for our favourite charities. Currently we are voting for a charity called Operation Homefront, which supports the partners and children of American servicemen overseas. Why am I, as a Damned Foreigner, supporting the Americans? Well, for a start, I have a considerable number of friends living in America, including a large proportion of my friends list here on LJ. And the American soldiers serving overseas are people who signed up to defend these friends of mine. Indeed, a couple of my on-line friends are actually serving; one at home, and one overseas. And, from some of the reports I've been seeing, the American government sure aren't helping them! (I have definite Opinions about the current American administration, but they aren't at all fit for polite company so you probably don't want to hear them!) Now, the way this site works, is that every five minutes you can vote for the charity of your choice. Sometimes it gives you a captcha to fill out to prove that you aren't a robot. Apart from that five minute limit, you can vote as many or as few times as you like, and vote for as many or as few charities as you like. At the end of each week-long voting period, the charity which has the most votes is declared the winner and the site then runs a pledge drive to raise funds for its work. This week's voting period is going to end in about three and a bit days - they generally end early on Wednesday evenings, New Zealand time. So, if you want to give us a hand, come here and vote for our cause. Meet some awesome people. And also myself. (There's a chat-box/shout-box type arrangement on each charity's voting page). Current Mood: busy (Read 10 |Write)
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
11:36 pm	Web comic update I've been doing a bit of web comic reading over the last few weeks, but most of them are the sort of interesting-but-not-compulsive-reading that have me interested in continuing reading, but are impossible to write any decent sort of a review about. ( Just some brief comments, then ) Current Mood: busy Current Music: Split Enz - "Carried Away" (Read 3 |Write)
3:16 pm	Invercargill City Council redefines "epic fail" You couldn't make this stuff up and be believable. Except by the ICC... http://www.stuff.co.nz/southlandtimes/4461991a6011.html ( Text save under the cut ) Current Mood: amused (Read 1 |Write)
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
9:22 pm	Our icons, let us show them to one another This meme is pinched from silver_677: 1. Reply to this post, and I will pick four of your icons. 2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose. 3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts. 4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee. Whoo~! I await with interest a translation of item 4 (particularly the last few words) into intelligible English. But here are my comments on the icons Silver picked. ( Little pictures ) Current Mood: busy Current Music: The Gordons - "Spik and span" (Read 13 |Write)
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
1:26 pm	Son of Return of the Time-wasting Quiz This one pinched from quietdarkness while her back was turned. ( Here I come to save the day ) ... I can't say I'm really all that surprised that one of my favourite web comics has been cast as a supervillain, considering how much time I've lost to web comics over the last 18 months or so... ... I'm a bit more worried that while I was filling this out I started getting ideas for personality and back-story of the character. This might mean that my long-departed muse might be back for another round of insanity. Eeeeeeek. Current Mood: surreal (Read 4 |Write)