Archive for July, 2007

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
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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