Insult Sword Fighting and other fun stuff

Secret of Monkey Island promo image

The title of this post refers to the computer games I have been playing over the past few months, a hallowed series of point and click adventure games titled Monkey Island.

The first game, The Secret of Monkey Island was released way back in 1990, and its sequels came out through the 1990s, the golden age of Adventure Games.

For some reason I never played these games back then, and if I had attempted them I probably wouldn’t have finished them as they are quite hard to fathom and complicated, requiring a great deal of lateral thinking to make progress.

However, after recently  playing and enjoying A Vampyre Story, I looked around for other games produced by Lucas Arts or its personnel, and found that the Monkey Island series was highly recommended by its fans, and had a cult following.

As GOG (Good Old Games) had the games at a reasonable price I downloaded the first two games – The Secret of Monkey Island and Le Chuck’s Revenge.

They  follow the mis/adventures of the humorously named Guybrush Threepwood and are great fun to play. Production standards are high, replete with witty dialogue and likeable characters. They’re kind of irreverent and absurdist, the hero being an inept pirate roving the seas of a fictional Caribbean, generally trying to save his love Elaine from the clutches of the evil (and dead) pirate Le Chuck. Though Elaine is no faint hearted heroine, oft times saving herself before Guybrush can stuff it up.

Insult sword fighting

Perhaps Monkey Island’s most absurd in game action is insult sword fighting. Whenever Guybrush has to draw his cutlass against an opponent, victory is decided not by sword thrusts but by who can deliver the most stinging insult.. Guybrush collects an arsenal of barbs that he can use to trash-talk his enemies into surrender. (“You fight like a dairy farmer”; “How appropriate – you fight like a cow!”) There’s also insult arm wrestling and other crazy contests such as a spitting competition and a face off where the combatants must contort their faces in original ways to win.

I’m currently playing the last game in the series, Tales of Monkey Island after completing the four previous games – which along with the aforementioned, include The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape From Monkey Island. I’ve grown addicted to the world of Monkey Island and will be sorry to finish the series having thoroughly enjoyed spending my idle time in Guybrush Threepwood’s absurd version of the Caribbean Islands.

New Computer & Windows 10

Corsair  Mid Tower Case with side window

Having taken possession of my new super duper computer last Wednesday, I have been accustoming myself to Windows 10.

Much as I dreaded upgrading to Windows 10, it has not been all that stressful and is pretty much like Windows 7, except bossier.

Gratifyingly, all my beloved antique software works fine without any problems. Amazing to discover that MS Office 2003 (the last MS Office with the old interface before the ribbon interface was introduced in Office 2007)  is still operable under the latest version of Windows.

The picture above is of the mid tower case of the new computer. Tower cases have gotten groovier these days -  a far cry from the boring beige boxes of the past.  There was one at the computer shop with flashy lighting effects, but I settled on the minimalist Corsair 100R case which has a side glass panel so you can see the computer’s innards, and no doubt how dusty it will get as the years go by.

It is a fast machine that comes with bountiful USB 3 ports and runs quietly.

So overall I’m really pleased I opted for a new computer and that Windows 10 has proved (so far) not to be the gremlin I had anticipated and was easy to customise to my liking.

One good thing about Windows 10, is that Open Live Writer now has a spell checker, unavailable on Windows 7 , so hopefully I won’t be making as many inadvertent mistakes. I have yet to test that it uploads to Google, but this post will be the proof.

On other matters I have several events booked in February and March, two literary occasions – Margaret Atwood at Hamer Hall on 23 February and Neil Gaiman at the Capitol on February 25 – and three music concerts. The first of these is Patty Griffin on March 3, followed by Eilen Jewell on 19 March and Kieran Kane on 26 March. So there’s lots to look forward to in this brand new year.

Hopefully I’ll be back at the races next Saturday at Caulfield. Alas, transport disruptions mean that I will have to catch a bus to Caulfield next week as trains are not running, though the rest of the autumn racing season at Caulfield appears not to be affected, in February at least.

The 2020 All Star Mile will be run at Caulfield this year in mid March and is shaping up as the race of the Melbourne autumn season, with a plethora of classy horses nominated. 

I witnessed the inaugural running of the race last year at Flemington, won by Tassie filly Mystic Journey. She is nominated again and will probably get a start. Let’s hope the P B Lawrence Stakes curse has worn off this autumn and that she can add another win to her tally.

Apocalypse Now

The recent and ongoing bushfires raging across Australia give one a feeling of living in an end of days scenario.  Here in Melbourne today there is a haze of smoke, but otherwise I feel lucky to be in the city and not out in the bush. So far this summer in Melbourne has been fairly mild and tolerable. I suppose that might change as we move towards February which normally is the hottest month.

I can’t imagine what it would have been like in Mallacoota or Kangaroo Island and the other hot spots in the country. Bravo to the voluntary fire fighters.

With the bushfires dominating the news, my mind can’t help but think back to my childhood in the North East Victorian town of Woods Point, which was wiped out in the Black Friday fires of 13 January 1939.

The memory of those fires still lingered in the late 1950s when we lived in the town.  I used to worry every summer and fret about how I could save our animals from the flames.

We did bushfire evacuation drills at the school, marching from the school to the Morning Star mine to a shelter in one of the shafts.

Woods Point Hospital where we lived in the 1950s

The old Woods Point Hospital in 1905 before it was destroyed in the 1939 bushfire

The above black and white photo is one of several sent to me by former childhood friend Shirley who lived next door to the hospital.

Photo of me and my brothers with Shirley and her dog 1950s

Back in these modern times,  support for Windows 7 expires today. Rather than update this present five year old computer to Windows 10, I’ve opted to buy a brand new desktop, and have ordered a custom made machine from my favourite computer shop Cnet Technology in Preston.

It should be ready to pick up this week and I’m looking forward to firing it up despite it operating on Windows 10. It has all the bells and whistles – a fast CPU, lots of RAM, a sizeable (500 GB) Solid State Drive plus a second  1TB hard drive for data, a whizbang 4 GB Graphic Card, etc etc.

Thinking back over the 25 or so years since my first computer, Windows 10 will mark the seventh operating system I will have to master. Of course you can also count my iPad (OS 10) and mobile phone (new as well) with Android Version 9.

No doubt it will take me at least a day to attach the peripherals and load software. Cross fingers my old verions of MS Office and Dreamweaver MX will still work.

I’m pleasurably anticipating returning to the races in a little under a fortnight for the build up to the Autumn racing season, with the Blue Diamond Previews at Caulfield on 25 January.

There was a fine taster on the Gold Coast last Saturday with the Magic Millions race day. I even had a few bets on a couple of races and was delighted that Chris Waller trained mare Invincibella won the Fillies & Mares Magic Millions for the third consecutive time, paying $5.00 for the win.  I also invested a small sum on Conceited in the Two Year Old Classic. Though not winning, he payed $3.00 for running third.

Alligator Blood, if ever there was a future star of the turf, won the Three Year Old Guineas in fine style after much drama getting to the course. I would have placed money on him, but his odds were so short it wasn’t worth it. Hopefully we’ll get to see him in Melbourne over the Autumn Carnival.

We may be living in a dystopian world, but there are still enjoyable things to do amid the doom and gloom.

So Long to the 2010s

Bingo early December

I really can’t complain about the 2010s as I have been retired from work for  9/10ths of the decade, but globally the world is a different place to what it was in 2009.

Actually, in my humble opinion, the world changed for good on 11 September 2001 with the fall of the two towers and has been going downhill ever since.

Anyway, to see out the old year here are some of my highlights for this year.

Books

Though as usual I reread several old favourites, a number of new titles impressed me this year, notably two books by previously unknown authors – Diane Setterfield and Sarah Tolmie.

An engaging ghost story set on the river Thames, Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield gripped me from the beginning. It’s a sort of old fashioned tale that you comfortably settle into and follow delightedly to its satisfying conclusion.

The Little Animals by Canadian writer, Sarah Tolmie, is the book I loved the most this year; an unremarked gem of a novel about Dutch scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, known as the Father of Microbiology. He was a contemporary of the famous artist Johannes Vermeer who is also a character in the book. Another main character, who haunts the book and lends an otherworldly vibe to it, is the goose girl, transported from a Grimm fairy story to 17th century Delft to become a strange collaborator in van Leeuwenhoek’s scientific investigations into animacules (Little Animals). 

If like me you are weary of books banging on about modern social issues, The Little Animals is a welcome escape from these troubled times and a pleasure to read.

I also enjoyed new books by favourite authors – The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, The Secret Commonwealth by Phillip Pullman and two new books by the wonderful American writer John Crowley, And Go Like This, a book of short stories, and Reading Backwards an illuminating, exquisitely written collection of essays and reviews covering an astonishingly wide range of topics.

Alas John Crowley’s 25th Anniversary edition of Little, Big was not published this year – no surprise really. Hopefully I get to finally hold it in my hands next year after a 15 year wait.

Next year I’m pleasantly anticipating Agency by William Gibson in January,  The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel in March, a new David Mitchell novel, Utopia Avenue, in June and after a 16 year hiatus Susanna Clarke (author of the magical Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel) has a new novel titled Piranisi coming in September.

We’re not doing anything special this New Year’s Eve and will be asleep by midnight, possibly awakened by fireworks, but more likely the cat Bingo.

He’s now three years old and just as mischievous as ever, not to mention noisily vocal. But he is a beautiful looking animal and a dear little fellow most of the time.

Let’s hope summer is not too trying. A few 40C+ degree days is normal in Melbourne, and luckily the few we’ve had so far  have only lasted 24 hours with a cool change following in a timely manner and lingering for days.

The hot weather has affected the horse racing industry. Several recent race meetings have been abandoned due to the heat, which is to be commended. Hopefully when the Group 1 racing resumes in early February the weather will be kind, though that’s unlikely. We wait and see.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the new racing season as I enjoy my Saturday afternoon outings to the track. It’s also pleasurable to speculate on the emergence of new stars of the turf in the Magic Millions two year old competitions in early January at the Gold Coast.

Whilst awaiting the new racing season I’ve been playing computer games, the current one on the go being Blade Runner, a 1997 game recently rejigged for modern computers by GOG.

Despite it’s 80s retro visuals, I recently  enjoyed a very well made game called Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders.  The game is based on a real life ancient Chinese judge and investigator Di Renjie, who was also the hero of a series of novels by Robert van Gulick, quite few of which I have in my personal library.

As support for Windows 7 expires mid January, I’ll be obliged to either update my current computer to the dreaded Windows 10 or purchase a new one.  Despite this Windows 7 computer still going smoothly, I’m favouring getting a new computer for Windows 10 for several reasons. Firstly the SSD C: drive on this computer is running out of space, and secondly it being close to  five years old, the bios is pretty ancient and is probably not up to date or updateable.

I intend to buy another desktop with all the bells and whistles, ie a good graphics card, a fast CPU with lots of RAM. Hopefully my favourite old software will still work on a new machine and in Windows 10.

Windows 7 in my opinion has been the best version of Windows I’ve ever used. It’s stable, fast and problem free in the main and runs all my old beloved software programs.

This is turning into a marathon post, so I’ll end here, wishing my readers, whoever you are, a Happy 2020 and a more enlightened world.

Test Post with images - expanded

Alexander Palm in flower with lorikeets

An explanation is needed methinks.

The Alexander Palm pictured above grows at the back of the rear garden. B acquired it many years ago and it sat in a pot for at least five years before he planted it in its present situation. It grew, and grew, and grew like Jack’s beanstalk, and now towers over the back laneway.

Earlier this year it flowered for the first time, and it attracted swarms of bees initially, then the lorikeets arrived en masse.

It appears as if it will flower again next year as it has pods of some sort, which may very well be flower buds.

On the subject of plants, a strange plant self seeded in a pot and started growing. B thought it could be a sort of weed, but a few months ago, when on his daily walk he chanced upon some parkland gardeners with an identical plant. They told him it was a Kangaroo Apple.

He planted it next to the fence, and it too grew with incredible speed. From a small shrub it grew to a large bush in the space of a few weeks.

It started flowering recently –  in vibrant purple clusters.

Kangaroo Apple flower

The fruit of the Kangaroo Apple is poisonous apparently. The possums are not in the least attracted to it, which is a blessing; after all they have succeeded  in killing three plum trees and greatly limiting the fruiting of the loquat and fig trees.

Test

Yay Open Live Writer works!

The Republic of Cats–Update

Cats on bed in surprisingly close proximity

I’m obliged to clunk along with the Blogger editing client until such time as Open Live Writer is up and running, which could take some time.

There is of course a lot of grief in the Blogger community about the sudden demise of Windows Live Writer as a useful tool and I share their angst. 

I’ve been using Windows Live Writer for nine years and thought it was a really excellent piece of software, so I’m disappointed that it no longer works with Blogger, due to some Google security setting.

Therefore I appreciate the efforts of the developers to create a new open source version. Can’t wait to give it a spin.

Anyway, it’s time for a cat post.

The Republic of cats is pretty peaceful these days. Several new cats have arrived in the street, and they have had to learn the hard way where they fit into the hierarchy.

When they first arrive there’s a fair bit of hissing, howling and growling, but that diminishes over time as the feline population get used to each other and learn to share the territory.

It’s a pity mankind is unable to follow their example, judging by the state of the world these days.

Monty and Willy settled their differences a long time ago and have reached an amicable settlement where they don’t fight each other, and appear to accept each each other’s existence as a tolerable fact.

Talya doesn’t care for any of them, and faces down any neighbouring cats that stray into the yard. They’ll walk miles out their way to avoid her.  Even Willy is a wimp if he has to move past her in a doorway, though if she is too close to him he’ll stare her down until she retreats.

Fortunately she’s given up stalking him and pretty much accepts him as an uncomfortable reality, though all this stress still makes her tear her fur out, though that could just be obsessive habitual behaviour.

Grey scale study – Talya snoozing on her blanket.

When I last wrote about the cats, I’d just purchased a self warming cat bed, hoping to give demanding lap sitter Willy an alternative to my knee.

It turned out to be a good purchase, for after Talya initially commandeered the bed, it is now Willy’s domain on the front verandah and she doesn’t get a chance to sleep in it.





Willy in cat bed, happily ensconced.

There must be some kind of Murphy’s Law governing pets. They always have problems that require veterinary advice on the weekend or public holidays when their regular vet is closed.

A couple of weekends ago, Willy arrived home from wherever, acting strange. He appeared to have a problem with balancing and was also trying to dislodge something from his mouth. It is difficult to get him to cooperate in the case of prising his jaws apart to see if there is an obstruction, and dangerous, as he lashes out in distress. 

So, as it was a Saturday evening we were obliged to take him to the nearest 24 hour Vet, who fortunately could see him immediately.

At the initial consultation the vet couldn’t find anything wrong with him, but they put him in a consulting room with us and let him out of the cat carrying cage. He wasn’t in the least freaked out and cruised around the room , eventually jumping onto the examination table and settled down happily.

We had to wait while the vet saw to several other animal patients (it was quite busy) and when she came back she examined him again, which he bore pretty calmly. We were just about about to take him home, still with the problem, when the vet decided to check his mouth again, and discovered that he had a small chicken bone caught behind his teeth. She carted him off to remove it and we were happy to pay the exorbitant consultation fee ($150.00) to have the problem solved.

Goodness knows where he got the bone from, as we are very careful to dispose of chicken bones out of the cats reach, and we’ve repeatedly warned the next door neighbour to never give bones to the cats.

Other than that incident the cats have been in good health and long may they continue to thrive.

Ground Control to Major Tom

Jeff Duff Live at Caravan Music Club 11 December 2015

I spent most of this afternoon writing a post on the Jeff Duff Bowie Tribute concert, but am unable to post directly to blogger from Windows Live Writer. I only found out when I tried to upload the post.

Thanks Google and Microsoft for not letting us WLW enthusiasts know that it no longer operates in Blogger!

There is a new Live Writer being developed as Open Source software called Open Live Writer, but even though you can download it, there is a problem with it connecting to Blogger at the moment.

Hopefully this issue will be solved soon and normal transmission can resume.

I'm writing this post on Blogger's editing interface, which is terribly clunky after being used to WLW.

What Did We Do Without Them? - Continued

It’s more the question of are they worth the trouble?

It took me all last week to successfully set up my new computer, and I wonder if the stress and distraction was worth it.  The main problem was installing the printer, which being over five years of age required a Windows 7 driver. That was OK as it was easy to find on the Fuji Xerox site, but could I get the printer to install it properly? No.

After putting the printer problem in the too hard basket for most of the week, I somehow or other managed to successfully install the driver on Friday. Don’t ask me how I did it, but after detaching the printer from the computer, then reattaching it, Windows automatically found the printer driver and installed it and the printer worked.  What a relief!

In the meantime I installed my most useful software, MS Office, Dreamweaver, Cute FTP for example and even though the software in most cases is over ten years old they all work in Windows 7. Even some really ancient Windows 3.1 games work in the OS. 

The only problematic application was Dreamweaver 4, which worked, but had a major problem that could not be surmounted easily. I then remembered that I had a later version of Dreamweaver which I had purchased in 2004, so installed that and it worked fine. It is however a slightly more sophisticated program which had me on a swift learning curve  when I used it to  edit web pages today. I had grown so used to the layout of Dreamweaver 4, that I’d stuck with it through the years, so had hardly tried Dreamweaver MX 2004 as it looked different and required time to grow accustomed to the interface, so I basically stuck with the tried and true and familiar as I knew it in Dreamweaver 4. 

It’s amazing how fast you can learn when you have to. Having worked out Dreamweaver MX  today, I’ve decided that actually it isn’t that bad a program, and has some pleasing improvements that I’d  never noticed before, like retaining the formatting of Word documents copied into it and automatically inserting links.

So setting up the new computer has been unusually educational if frustrating at times.

Writing this post in the latest version of Windows Live Writer, I’m also learning something new. I don’t really think it’s as easy to use as the old 2009 Live Writer, but I’m trying to get used to it by writing this post.

As for Windows 7, it’s actually pretty similar to XP and certainly not as bossy as Vista, so I have no issues with it at all.

You will notice in the picture above that the racing form guide is sitting in front of the printer.  I was too distracted last week to preview the first of Randwick’s “Championship” meetings, which featured the Group One Sires, ATC Derby, T J Smith and the hallowed mile of the Doncaster Handicap.  They were run  on a bog track (Heavy 9) and the winners were a mix of class and specialist mudrunners.

The Sires was won by smart filly Peggy Jean,  Criterion added the Derby to his Rosehill Guineas victory, Lankan Rupee demonstrated just how brilliant he is with a stunning two length win in the T J Smith, and Sacred Falls won the Doncaster for the second year  in succession.

T’is the Season to be Jolly

Ronald Searle – St Trinian’s girls mug Santa

As a contrast to my state of health and mind at this time last year, when I was recovering from a nasty dose of the flu, this evening finds me chipper and in good spirits and looking forward to Christmas.

The image above kind of matches my rather jaundiced view of the season, after my email account has been battered by every site, on which I am on the mailing list, sending constant messages about Christmas specials. I bought all my presents ages ago, so their pleas for me to buy their goods leave me cold and unresponsive.

But to mark the occasion on my blog, I thought I would put up a seasonal crossword for my blog readers to puzzle over.

Firstly a bit of history.

Back in 1989, a drinking buddy of mine who was also a cryptic crossword enthusiast, decided that he would have a go at creating one himself. Not to be outdone, I followed suit, and from then on we both produced cryptic crosswords for several years, and distributed them to fellow crossword enthusiasts at the pub we frequented back in those days.

At first, as I didn’t have a computer until 1994, I used to hand draw the crossword pattern,  painstakingly colour the black squares with a texta pen, then type the clues on a typewriter. After that I would physically paste the typed document and crossword grid onto a fresh piece of paper and photocopy it.

After getting a computer I created my crosswords using a nifty shareware program called Crossword Compiler. Amazingly, that old shareware program still works on my current computer as I used it today to create the solution to the crossword below.

Please click on the image to enlarge it and print it out if you want to have a bash at solving it.  Most (not all) of the words relate to 13 across, the answer to which is Christmas.

I’ll put up the solution after Christmas.

With that, wishing Merry Christmas to you all.

Windows Live Writer

I am composing this blog using a new FREE program from Microsoft called Windows Live Writer. It's a doozy of a program so far, with it's WYSIWYG interface. And it's very easy to use.

So, to make the entry a little more interesting I'll talk about my latest music discovery - young British singer/songwriter, Jinder whose latest CD is called "I'm Alive".

Jinder has a marvelous voice, rather reminiscent of Ryan Adams whom Jinder readily admits is one of his influences. One song on the CD is called "Townes' Blues" a tribute to one of Jinder's musical heroes, the late, great, Townes Van Zandt. Jinder's style of songwriting borrows a lot from Townes Van Zandt. He certainly can't go wrong there, as Townes is acknowledged as one of the great songwriters of the 20th Century. Jinder's tribute to Townes cleverly borrows words and phrases from TVZ 's famous songs "Flying Shoes", "To Live is to Fly" and "No Deeper Blue" among others. Jinder's song brings back all that TVZ means to those who love his music and mourned his passing and is a TVZ type of song as well.

I first discovered Jinder on a Ryan Adams fansite messageboard where he was touting his version of one of Adams' songs, "Nuclear". Jinder's version is a wonderful slowed down version and quite distinct from the Ryan Adams original.

I've been following his career with interest since then and strongly feel that he is an artist to follow. This latest CD is a winner and a much stronger effort than his first CD "Willow Park" which showed enormous promise, but seems somewhat raw in comparison to "I'm Alive".

Anyway, I'm about to publish this page so we'll see how Windows Live Writer performs in this regard. Cross fingers and hope for the best.

Update on Live Writer

It worked very well, except for images. I had to add the image in Blogger edit mode. However, it is very handy being able to set up a blog entry at desk top level then publish.