Weekly Wrap 337: No avalanche, no socks, no birdbath

The Future (as seen in San Francisco, 19 May 2013): click to embiggenMy week of Monday 7 to Sunday 13 November 2016 was remarkably unproductive. A significant podcast appeared, though, and I did a bit of thinking. Which you didn’t see.

What was the thinking about? All will become clear in the coming weeks. Or not. Much like the future of the gentleman in the photograph.

Podcasts

Articles, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse

None. However I did write a yarn for SBS TV, scheduled to appear in the following week. And I got some of that geek-for-hire work done, though I don’t really talk about that here.

[Photo: The Future (as seen in San Francisco, 19 May 2013).]

Weekly Wrap 295: Clearing the fog, another attempt

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stilgherrian/19191057743/in/photostream/My week of Monday 25 to Sunday 31 January 2016 was very different from the one experienced by most Australians.

For most Australians, it was a short week, because they’d taken Monday, joined it up with the public holiday for Australia Day on Tuesday, and made themselves an unofficial four-day long weekend.

Whether they chose to do that by requesting annual leave, or through the rather more patriotic tradition of “chucking a sickie”, would have been a matter between them and those persistent little nagging voices in the back of their heads.

Mine was arranged a little differently, for reasons described in the immediately preceding post. It was busy, and here’s what emerged.

Articles

Podcasts

None, because the planned Sunday night recording of The 9pm Edict was abandoned due to repeated software crashes. It has been re-scheduled for Tuesday night.

At one point during the week, I also announced a bold plan to record a Corrupted Nerds podcast with Leslie Nassar as well. That plan was abandoned when sanity returned.

Both podcasts are now on an official one-month hiatus while I consider their future. I’ll post my thoughts in the coming week.

Media Appearances

5at5

None. But should 5at5 ever reappear, you’ll know about it if you subscribe.

Corporate Largesse

None, but it begins in earnest in the coming week.

The Week Ahead

It’s going to be a busy one, boys and girls…

On Monday, I’ll be up early to finalise some tax documentation, then at 1030 I’ll be phoning in to Deloitte for a cybersecurity briefing. The afternoon will see me negotiating certain timelines with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), updating the clients for my various geek-for-hire projects, and having an early night.

On Tuesday, I really must do that cleaning and shopping.

On Wednesday, I’ll be catching an early train to Sydney for an appointment at the Black Dog Institute. I’ll post more about that on Tuesday morning. I’ll then return to the Blue Mountains mid-afternoon, because at 2100 AEDT I’ll be recording The 9pm Edict and streaming it live.

On Thursday, I’m writing for ZDNet, then heading back to Sydney in the afternoo for a meeting at 1745 to kick off a new geek-for-hire project. I plan to stay in Sydney overnight, should Sydney’s nosebleed accommodation prices permit.

Worked on the aforementioned geek-for-for hire projects, and everything else, will be woven around those appointments as need be.

The weekend is as yet unplanned.

Further Ahead

On 10 to 13 February, I’ll be in Melbourne for the Pause Fest. Wednesday night I’m doing a radio spot on ABC 774 Melbourne, at 1930 AEDT. I’m then on a panel on Thursday 11 at 1730 AEDT, titled “The security paradox: individual privacy vs digital driftnets”. I plan to stay in Melbourne until Saturday afternoon. If you’d like to catch up, let me know.

I hope to return to Melbourne to cover the APIdays conference on 1-2 March, but that’ll depend on me finding someone to cover my flights and accommodation. Would you like to be my sponsor?

[Update 2145 AEDT: Edited to reflect the new podcast recording time. Update 1 February 2016: Minor edits to the schedule.]

[Photo: To boldly go…. There’s a story behind this photograph.]

“To boldly go…” and the Cycle of Time

To boldly go...: click to embiggenThere’s something symbolic and, indeed, deeply personal about the image illustrating this week’s Weekly Wrap, my five-year old photograph titled To boldly go….

A small boat heads out into the fog of San Francisco Bay on 10 December 2010. Even though it’s probably just crossing the bay to Marin County, or stopping near Alcatraz Island for a spot of fishing, it looks like there’s a vast and dangerous journey ahead.

It continues to be one of my personal favourites.

I’ve used this photo before, to illustrate Weekly Wrap 267: Chaos, then embracing the change, on 19 July 2015.

But I also used it four years earlier, on 24 January 2011, to illustrate Accommodation: into the unknown. I’d had to leave Enmore with no clear plan. I was worried. The image reflected my mood.

Less than a fortnight after that post, three strong men and a truck took away all my household possessions and office furniture, and put it into storage.

I took just two suitcases of clothing and my most important tools and documents, and headed to the Blue Mountains to stay at Bunjaree Cottages for “a few weeks”. I had a month of work-related travel coming up, I said, and I’d sort out my accommodation when I got back.

Five years later, I’m still at Bunjaree Cottages.

And it’s still temporary.

Continue reading ““To boldly go…” and the Cycle of Time”

The 9pm Caltrain

Caltrain at San Jose Diridon Station: click to embiggen

The sharing economy explained in just two minutes. A Florida meth lab is a threat to dolphins. And the failure of hashtag diplomacy.

This episode of The 9pm Edict heads to the United States, at least in some strange warped sense.

There’s a story of a meth lab in a Florida hotel room, and we encounter both an episode of Hannity on Fox News and a “sharing economy guru” on the BBC.

There’s also mention of Glassholes harassing a New York restaurant, a bread line in San Jose. and a plan to reverse the California Aqueduct.

Continue reading “The 9pm Caltrain”