A rather thought-provoking article on dual citizenship that considers the (racist) response of many Australians to the plight of dual-nationality Lebanese-Australians in Lebanon. Amongst other comments, the writer asks why no one is questioning the loyalties of the late Assaf Namer, an Australian-Israeli killed in the current conflict and a dual citizen of Israel and Australia.

British fantasy author David Gemmell, a favourite of mine, has died aged 57. He wrote classics such as Legend (and the supporting Drenai saga books), the brilliant Waylander series and a number of other fine pieces of high fantasy. His talent will be sadly missed.

Jim Baen, SF editor and publisher extraordinaire, died earlier this month, aged 62. Whilst the books he edited and published have often been described as SF’s ‘light’ reading he was also responsible for the discovery of a number of new authors and the re-publishing of some SF classics. He was also one of the exponents of online publishing and the Baen’s Bar forum site is one of the most active and interesting sites for SF/Fantasy discussion. He is a great loss to the SF community and I hope in his absence that Baen’s other partners continue the vision and publish the ‘light’ but highly entertaining SF that they have so successfully niche marketed. Vale Jim Baen.

So I started writing again. Not as planned a new edition of Das Book I or a new title but rather something a little more left-field. A romance novel or possibly novella. Now I know this seems a little strange but I have always wanted to daddble in this. It seems like money for jam to me. They are dead easy to write … almost formulaic … and people buy them a lot. The library I used to work at went through them at an incredible rate.

In this endeavor I am joined by an offshore collaborator – the AE at one of the sites I write for – who is going to provide the feminine perspective. *coughs* Or something to do with boots. One or the other. It’s slightly unclear right now. We’re both writing a few hundred/thousand words and then emailing back the updated document to each other each day or so. Seems to be working alright so far.

But overall, it’s damn nice to be writing again … anything … even this. I missed having the outlet and it seems hard to write stand-alone – I need an actual project.

P.S. R and others. Stop laughing. Now. Or I’ll tickle you. And I won’t stop with Uncle. I’ll be the Man from N-UNCLE.

Still working on the PVR. Playing around with MCE still until I get some drivers that work for MythTV. MCE is a nifty little application but it’s not exactly fucking stable. It took me a bloody long time to get both dual tuners working with it. Now seems to be stable but sometimes seems not to want to record stuff for no apparent reason and when it does returns cryptic error messages (cryptically there are about 20 negatives in this sentence none of which work overly well either). Very Microsoft. Also getting some stuttering of video with all the tuners enabled. Seems to be the Dvico Dual Fusion that principally has the problem and I have just upgraded the driver to see if that fixes it.

I wouldn’t normally comment on Big Brother but the whole coverage of the recent alleged sexual assault makes me mad for two, very different reasons:

1. The footage was never broadcast on TV so complaining about the show because of the incident is not only dumb – it’s misleading (and don’t even get me started on stupid politicians complaining about Big Brother and sexuality – if it’s not being shown during an inappropriate time slot then it’s parent’s responsibility to ensure their kids don’t see stuff they aren’t comfortable with their kids seeing – parental responsibility hasn’t just gone away – yes I mean you Stephen Fielding you Family First twerp).

2. The Big Brother and Network Ten’s handling of this whole incident. The girl didn’t consent. It’s an assault. It’s not a ‘practical joke’ or a ‘prank’ or funny because the boys were ‘mucking around’. There is never ‘mucking around’ when the victim says no or refuses consent. Network Ten should have stomped on this when it occurred – intervened and kicked out the culprits immediately – and issued an immediate statement decrying the actions of the individuals involved, promising a full investigation including full cooperation with the Queensland Police and making it perfectly and totally clear that acts of sexual assault are totally unacceptable. Anything else condones this sort of behaviour. Of course, Network Ten instead does a whitewash and tries to make it all a harmless practical joke. Shameful.