Alan Baxter's Blog en-US Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:51:42 -0800 60 Alan Baxter's Blog 144 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo_144.jpg /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/260965-slice-of-life-by-paul-haines-review Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:51:42 -0800 <![CDATA[Slice Of Life by Paul Haines – review]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/260965-slice-of-life-by-paul-haines-review Slice Of LifeI'll start by saying that I'm lucky enough to call Paul Haines a friend, so I don't want any accusations of friendly bias. Think what you like, you cynical bastards.

You may remember that I was going on about the X6 novella anthology from Coeur De Lion earlier this year. There was this post about the book and this post after I'd been to the official launch. Paul had a novella in there called Wives. It is, without a doubt, the best thing I've read this year. Buy X6 just for Wives if nothing...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 27 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/260537-irony-of-the-week-from-peter-jensen Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:17:19 -0800 <![CDATA[Irony of the week, from Peter Jensen]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/260537-irony-of-the-week-from-peter-jensen Ah, this did make me laugh. It's the belief equivalent of "my dad can beat up your dad".

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

[Sydney's Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen:] Speaking to the congregation at St Andrews Cathedral on Christmas morning, he said recent polling showed Australians were religious and still looking for an answer on the purpose of life.

"But many of the answers are superstitious, such as astrology," he said. "Superstition can never satisfy the longings of the human heart and they...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 25 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/259076-i-m-starting-a-movement Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:20:06 -0800 <![CDATA[I'm starting a movement]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/259076-i-m-starting-a-movement And no, before anyone gets smart in the comments, not a bowel movement. More a movement in response to the season (which is a kind of bowel movement in itself). Christians are always bleating on about "Put the Christ back into Christmas!" I'm sick and tired of that.

I'm starting a new movement:

Get your Christmas out of Sol Invictus!

Who's with me? It makes just as much sense as the Christians harping on.

Anyway, here's hoping that this season of manufactured madness doesn't drive you all...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 24 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/257183-avatar-3d-review Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:08:36 -0800 <![CDATA[Avatar 3D – review]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/257183-avatar-3d-review I'll discuss the general plot in this review but I'll give you a warning before there are any real spoilers.

Avatar teaserI was very dubious about this film. I really wanted it to be a great movie, but it could so easily have just been a tacky display of special effects without any substance. I try to keep faith in James Cameron, the writer/director. After all, he's given us Terminator and Terminator 2, Aliens, True Lies and Strange Days. He's also given us Titanic. It's not a spotless track record.

In...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 22 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/257184-the-contradictions-of-belief-in-australia Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:21:21 -0800 <![CDATA[The contradictions of belief in Australia]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/257184-the-contradictions-of-belief-in-australia An interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald caught my attention today. One thousand Australians were polled by Nielsen on the subject of faith. You can read the whole article from the link above, but a few things made me shake my head.

Firstly, it's worth remembering that 85% of statistics are made up on the spot. Including that one right there. You can pretty much bend any figures to suit your point of view. Another key point is that 1,000 people is a very tiny fraction of...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 27 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/255558-pretentious-spam-arsehole-of-the-week Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:30:32 -0800 <![CDATA[Pretentious spam arsehole of the week]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/255558-pretentious-spam-arsehole-of-the-week I got this spam comment today:

Well, the article is actually the best on this precious topic. I fit in with your conclusions and will thirstily look forward to your future updates. Saying thanks will not just be enough, for the great lucidity in your writing. I will at once grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates. Genuine work and much success in your business endeavors!

Can you guess what post it was on? It was this one, where I reposted the list of Aurealis Award finalists.

Seriously,...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 23 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/255144-why-the-phantom-menace-was-awful Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:13:22 -0800 <![CDATA[Why The Phantom Menace was awful]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/255144-why-the-phantom-menace-was-awful I picked this up from S F Signal and enjoyed every minute of it. Essentially it's a review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. We all know that the prequel movies took the original Star Wars trilogy, one of the best things ever committed to film, and shat repeatedly all over them, forever tarnishing something wonderful. But why exactly were those prequels so bad? Well, Lucas pissed all over his legacy by relying on CGI and completely nonsensical plots as a vehicle for selling merchandise and...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 19 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/255145-the-masters-of-double-standards-strike-again Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:15:26 -0800 <![CDATA[The masters of double standards strike again]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/255145-the-masters-of-double-standards-strike-again Those faithful believers in the best selling epic fantasy of all time, the Bible, are at it again. At what, you ask? Promoting amazing levels of hypocrisy and double standards, that's what. According to today's Sydney Morning Herald, the Catholic Church has been accused of derailing the second and third movie of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

The novels are fundamentally about the struggles of young Lyra against an institution called The Magisterium. The Magisterium is clearly...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 22 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/252816-not-all-rejections-are-all-bad Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:43:23 -0800 <![CDATA[Not all rejections are all bad]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/252816-not-all-rejections-are-all-bad More often than not when submitting stories for publication a rejection comes in the form of a standard line. It's usually something along the line of "thanks but no thanks" and that's it. It's fair enough too – having been on the other side of the fence I can sympathise with the editors. As a writer, however, it's always good to get a bit more feedback from an editor. A rejection is one thing, a rejection with a reason is better.

Today I got a rejection that makes me feel like I'm on the...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 22 ]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/251976-no-clean-feed-stop-the-isp-filter-in-australia Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:48:47 -0800 <![CDATA[No Clean Feed – stop the ISP filter in Australia]]> /author/show/917335.Alan_Baxter/blog/251976-no-clean-feed-stop-the-isp-filter-in-australia I normally try to avoid political issues on my blog here. Obviously, I'll rip into politicians, religious leaders and so on as the mood takes me, but they bring that on themselves. But I usually try to avoid getting involved in campaigns or anything like that. This blog is all about words and stories, after all.

However, this is something that I think is really important and it does carry the possibility of affecting the words and stories available to us.

Basically, the Australian government...



posted by Alan Baxter on December, 16 ]]>