10 A babe is born in Bethlehem - Sun 26 Dec 2010

Here's a poem I was inspired to write yesterday while roasting turkey in 38 degree heat (that's 100.4 degrees fahrenheit). Just a bit of fun :)

A babe is born in Bethlehem

Twas a cold Winter’s night 

in old Bethlehem town,

everyone was inside

and their shutters were down

When upon the main street

a small sound did arise,

a light pitter-patter

and the glow of four eyes

Walking slow, came a pair

needing somewhere to stay,

but each place that they tried

seemed to turn them away

Yet the night grew cold still,

and the air froze the two

A white mist swirled around

and a frosty breeze blew

Till upon a small inn

the tired couple did come,

the old innkeeper said

“Stay here, soon-to-be-mum”

For indeed it was true,

the female was with child

she looked at the old man,

and it seemed that she smiled.

Out into the cold barn

the pair trotted with haste,

on a bed of dry hay

the young mother was placed.

With a whimper she lay,

the male sat next to her

He gently licked her face

and then nuzzled her fur

For twas soon he’d be born,

in that Wintery fog,

a great saviour of man,

Yes! The true son of Dog.


Linked to Poetry Potluck - Celebrations and Festivities @ Jingle Poetry.

4 Word verification - Wed 22 Dec 2010

I have to say, I LOVE the word verification system on Blogger. The "Verifese" they test you with is like some sort of alien language that only the Mulder-ites can understand (or "want to believe"). 


Look at the example below - "slaporb". If that's not alien, I don't know what is! Who'd have thought that such succinct depth of meaning could be poured into a single word? Of course, as we all know, "slaporb" is a homonym and can, in fact, describe a fat, promiscuous Orc as well as being a round but gelatinous ball that sticks to walls when thrown.

While seeming to be its own distinct alien language, academics have actually found that Verifese has roots in English, and would be the stuff of dreams for the likes of Lewis Carroll and William Shakespeare, were they still above ground.


Lewis Carroll excelled in making up "nonsense" words, and in some circles, is credited with making "literary nonsense" a worldwide phenomenon (think Jabberwocky, or to a lesser extent, The Hunting of the Snark). Was Lewis Carroll, in fact, an alien? It might actually explain a lot ...


Shakespeare is said to have created over 1000 new words that he used in his writing, which quite possibly sounded like nonsense when first penned, but have now become words that you and I use everyday. Enough said here, we all know Shakespeare wasn't your average human.


In my previous post about l33t speak, I wrote about the new words that are being formed everyday online. This idea disturbed some, who recoiled in terror at what seemed to be the near apocalyptic destruction of the the English language. I wonder what the same people think of Lewis Carroll and Shakespeare?


In any case, I shall start a practice of listing some of the Verifese words that I come across while on my blogulous travels. (Yep - blogulous - just call me Louisa Carroll). My favourite for this week being "deadula". Uh huh. That's how you end up when Dracula sucks too much of your blood.


I encourage you, dear readers, to add some of the Verifese you come across when you post comments on my blog. Don't forget to add their meaning so we can all learn something new! 


Who knows? Maybe we can create our own internet meme.

8 December (Down Under) - A Haiku

A balmy breeze blows,

as the memories of youth

flash in Christmas lights.

Inspired by Sunday Scribblings (#246 - December).

2 Book Review - Lips Touch: Three Times

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lips Touch: Three Times is a book of three short stories, elegantly written by Laini Taylor and divinely illustrated by Jim Di Bartolo.

Imaginative and beautifully surreal, it would appeal to anyone who remembers the flushes and fumbles of first love. Those who still have that dreamy and romantic teenager inside them - who knows fairies are playing among flowers and demons are lurking in shadows.

The first story, Goblin Fruit, follows Kizzy, a modern teenager from an old-world family, still steeped in the superstitions of the past. Kizzy is unable to see her own unique beauty until a new boy comes to town.

Full of magic and whimsy - if Goblin Fruit was real, it wouldn’t be fruit at all, but a sweet pastry, spiced with a heady blend of cinnamon and citrus - probably not good for you, but delightfully good to eat.

In Spicy Little Curses Such as These, an old woman ventures into hell everyday to trade the souls of evildoers for the souls of children, but sometimes such trades involve a curse or two.

Enchanting and ethereal - this is one of the most original and compelling stories I have read in quite some time, and left me in awe of Taylor’s fantastical storytelling.

While Hatchling is darker than Goblin Fruit and Spicy Little Curses, once again the scenes are beautifully set and the descriptive devices used by Taylor are second-to-none.

It follows Esmé who has lived with her mother in London her whole life, not knowing the dark secrets that fuel her mother’s nightmares. When a stranger with icy blue eyes arrives, both their lives are changed forever.

Taylor has a gift for writing with such exquisite beauty and dream-like description that she could make the meanest heart break with a few words scrawled on a page. Lips Touch: Three Times is written the way all true fairy tales should be - it is both enchanting and strangely sinister, balanced between divine beauty and subtle horror.

I implore anyone with a heart to read this book, and also urge you to check out Jim Di Bartolo’s website for a glimpse of the beautiful illustrations.

View all my reviews

5 Collectables

What are video games? Are they just a frivolous waste of time? Computer programs that allow us to spend our leisure time playing instead of doing chores? Something to entertain the kids so we can have a moment's peace?


Are they art? Digital animation that is real and interactive? Do the Da Vincis and Michelangelos of today paint using codes instead of brushes?


Are they a new and important cultural development? The reflection of a modern need to escape the realities of our declining economies and deteriorating environment?


I say YES. With well over 3.6 million Australian households in possession of a game console, I'd say video games are all of the above and more. They are becoming an important part of our cultural identity - marking a certain stage in our technological evolution - and in my opinion, are worthy of historical conservation.

The University of Michigan agrees, devoting a section of their Art, Architecture and Engineering Library  to a Computer and Video Game Archive, which "houses over 2000 games and 30 different video game systems". The archive is not only a way of preserving video games and the video game experience, but it allows students to have a "hands on" approach - they can use the collection to explore topics such as censorship and (one of my personal faves) gender identity in games. You can read more about the archive (and the coolest job in the world - Video Game Librarian) here.

The University of Michigan is not the only institution taking video game culture seriously, back in 2007 the Library of Congress began an initiative to catalogue over 2000 video games that they had collected simply through the submission of developers as a part of the copyright process. (As an aside, it might also interest some readers to know the Library of Congress has "the US's largest comic book collection, over 100,000 comic book issues that have come in through copyright"). You can read more about it here, although in my research (albeit, uber brief) I haven't been able to find a more recent report on this initiative.


I'm interested to hear your thoughts on preserving video games as a historical collection - particularly any heritage buffs out there (makes eyes at Alethea) - and of course Librarians who love to game!