Discworld!
I've been a big fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series for many years now. I have decided to read them all again, and have already read through all of the City Watch series in order. The full list and my progress is below the fold!
Posts for June 2006
Guess The Picture: A Foul Orifice
Guess what is in this picture:
It's a foul orifice, that you wouldn't want to be anywhere near. Still unsure?
Have a look at the whole, uncensored, picture.
Pope II: Pope Harder
Recently, the new pope, Benedict XVI, came to Poland.
By all accounts, he and the real pope John Paul II were good friends. Cardinal Ratzinger had been to Poland on previous occasions as part of JP's entourage.
Poland is also one of the larger single-nationality Catholic groups in the world, and an important part of the Roman Catholic Church in general.
Unfortunately, while he has been practicing quite a bit, his Polish is not yet up to the standard required for the types of profound and meaningful speeches expected of a pope, and so his speeches are written down phonetically so he can read the sounds from the page and sound like he's speaking Polish.
At one point not long after his arrival, just after beginning a speech in Polish, a gust of wind blew up and swept his pages away!
He looked around to see his aides madly chasing after the papers as they swirled around and around, and realised he would have no assistance soon.
He wondered what to do .. His speech was meant to be a greeting to the faithful, an inspiration for them, and a reminder that while their pope was gone, their church was still with them.
He considered switching to Italian, the church's own language, and one in which he himself is quite proficient. But a foreign language would serve only to alienate this audience of thousands, yearning to hear their new Holy Father speaking in their beloved tongue...
Then it came to him. Appeared in his head as thought sent by The Almighty Himself. A Polish phrase he had been taught in his childhood, which he remembered with crystal clarity. At last, something to give these people! Something in their own language, without even a scrap of paper, to show them how much he loved them!
And so, with a huge smile on his face, he looked at the crowd, and with perfect pronunciation, said to them,
"Uwaga uwaga! Obrońcy Gdańska, poddajcie się!"
And then...
Skiffy
The articles on Pointless Waste of Time are usually funny, and yet at the same time can make some good points. I was just reading a recent article "The Top Ten Sci-Fi Films That Never Existed". There's an interesting bit there about Alien 3 and why that went to shit. Of particular interest is a link to an Alien 3 screenplay by William Gibson - I've only just started reading it, but I assume it's not made up, it may look legit at the start and turn into a gay porno half way through like a good Slashdot troll.
Anyway, go and read it all for yourself - it's fun.