Archive for July, 2007

A few good signs

July 30, 2007
By alan
A few good signs

On the subject of entertaining signs… what, you weren’t talking about that? Surely it’s always a subject worthy of discussion. Here are some prime candidates to showcase the personality types of people that like signage: The Bully The Depressive The Smart Arse The Nerd
Read more »

Posted in Amusing, Signs | 2 Comments »

Talking of truth in advertising

July 30, 2007
By alan
Talking of truth in advertising

With reference to the previous post here on The Word, Debbie in England sent me this yesterday. You have to respect the plain honesty for saying just what they mean: If it’s a bit hard to read, let me clarify: Your number 2 business Is our number 1 business Starting with an attempted catchphrase...
Read more »

Posted in Amusing, Marketing, Signs | No Comments »

Engender customer confidence

July 29, 2007
By alan
Engender customer confidence

I was with a friend in a Sydney suburb this weekend. I won’t name the suburb – let’s just say it was north of the Bridge. As we were walking along I saw what I first took to be an abandoned, ramshackle house about three days from demolition. Then I saw this sign on...
Read more »

Posted in Amusing, Signs | No Comments »

Satan-worshipping cults

July 24, 2007
By alan
Satan-worshipping cults

The Word Quote of the Week this week goes to Ahmad Reza Radan, Tehran’s police chief. It seems that police in Tehran are cracking down on women who “dress like models” and men that have “Western-style haircuts and clothing”. All of this is in an effort to “increase security in society” for the Islamic...
Read more »

Posted in Amusing, Quote, Religion | No Comments »

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

July 23, 2007
By alan
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

DON’T WORRY – NO SPOILERS HERE On Saturday I went to K-Mart. The Book was sold out. Dymocks next, and they were sold out too. So I went to Borders and there was a queue like it was a music festival with only one portaloo. Sod this, I thought to myself, it’s only a...
Read more »

Posted in Books, Writing | No Comments »

Addendum to my previous post

July 20, 2007
By alan

By night I’m a mild mannered author. By day I’m a Personal Trainer and Martial Artist. Today I was talking with some PT clients about this whole Harry Potter phenomenon. They went to see the movie the same night that I did and we started chatting about it. They haven’t read any of the...
Read more »

Posted in Movies | 3 Comments »

Egad, another Harry Potter post

July 20, 2007
By alan
Egad, another Harry Potter post

Well, I went and saw The Order of the Phoenix today. It’s been getting a lot of press about not measuring up to the previous movies. I’m not so sure that this is a fair position to take. The director has changed and it’s the shortest movie made from the longest book, so it...
Read more »

Posted in Movies | 2 Comments »

Speculation gone awry

July 17, 2007
By alan

One of the biggest dangers in writing speculative fiction, especially science fiction, is speculating poorly. For example, according to Space 1999, there should have been a fully functioning moonbase in operation eight years ago. Of course, with a well told yarn most readers are very forgiving towards writers. That’s a good thing, because writing...
Read more »

Posted in Writing | 1 Comment »

The answer really is 42

July 11, 2007
By alan
The answer really is 42

As if we needed any further proof that Douglas Adams was a bloody genius. If you haven’t read his fantastic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, turn off your computer this instant, get down the bookshop and start reading. For the humans among you, you’ll remember that the mighty supercomputer Deep Thought pondered for...
Read more »

Posted in Cool, News | No Comments »

Do you really want to save Harry?

July 10, 2007
By alan

Yes, it’s all about Harry Potter this month. That annoyingly efficient, and extremely marketable, boy wizard is causing all kinds of stirs. The latest movie is just about to open here and the latest, and supposedly last, book is due out on the 21st. But is it the end? J K Rowling has already...
Read more »

Posted in Books, Writing | 4 Comments »

The Word

Words and stories fascinate me. Our world is built on language and storytelling. Without stories, we are nothing.



This is The Word - a place to learn more about me, my stories and the words of others. Click the links along the top for all kinds of stuff, search the sidebars for loads of other stuff, click on book covers for reviews and previews, enjoy the blog and don't be shy to share your words, in comments or send me an email to alan [at]alanbaxteronline[dot]com

STALK ME

Facebook

Twitter

MySpace

Goodreads

Amazon

Posterous

Search The Word

Subscribe

feedburner Receive an email whenever The Word is updated. Enter your email address:

National Archive

This website is archived by the National Library of Australia's Web Archive

Pandora