(no subject)

I took this morning off, as promised, and saw Looper. It was as good a film as everyone told me (and a time travel film was highly appropriate for today, given the nature of the idiot doctorate) but there were certain Rules of the Looper Universe that annoyed me somewhat:

1. Women do not time travel
2. Women only use guns to defend
3. Women don't get to participate in crime except where sex and drugs are involved
4. All women are nurturing
5. All women who speak (and maybe all women) wear size ten or under in clothing. Most of them wear size ten or well under
6. Women do not talk to other women. Grunts and maybe a 'thank you' when one grabs a child from child care are, however, permissible interfeminine social discourse
7. Women are not numerous (which suggests alternate means of procreation or very large families) and have specific social roles, with the largest numbers being either on the street or in nightclubs

I want three more points, but lunch beckons. After lunch I might go to the Canberra Museum after I run my various messages.

(no subject)

I started my afternoon/evening off with a visit to the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery. Here I discovered Environa, an undead satellite town that Canberra almost had. Bits were built and it still appears in odd places like this. The bits that were actually built included a bandstand and an arch and some pillars, I believe. I see more research into this failed satellite town in my future. The way it half-reveals in Google Maps is fun. I so want an SF anthology based around this place. It would be such a very fine subject.

After CMAG, I went to find someone a birthday present and found Elizabeth instead. We found the birthday present and I found myself my (belated) Jewish NY present to myself: zebra stone. I have two nice pieces and they're sitting on my kitchen bench until I finish admiring them, when they will join my other rocks (not the ones in the brain - they don't require the presence of zebra stone).

Then we headed pubwards and were met by a bunch of other friends (over 30, which made me feel all kinds of warm and happy). It was a very nice evening. The room in the pub was dubbed "the Harry Potter Room" very early in the evening and the name stuck. Unfortunately, my photos were a bit of a mess, so here's just one, a bit dark, so that you can get the feel of Parliamentary colours (with Hansard being the book on all the shelves) and lots of wood panelling and solid furniture.