Stilgherrian – Page 17

09 March 202510 March 2025

Weekly Wrap 771: Never mind the productivity, feel the parrot

It’s a wet day in a eucalypt forest. On an old tree stump sits a pair of birds eating a handful of seed. On the left, the male bird has red head, breast, and lower undersides, with a blue band on the back of the neck between the red above and green on the back, the wings are green and each has a pale green shoulder band, the tail is green, and the rump is blue. On the right, the female has a green head and breast, a grey beak, and the pale shoulder band is small or absent

Productivity started to return during my week of Monday 3 to Sunday 9 March 2025, but not entirely. So here’s a photo of two king parrots and some links and stuff. There’s also a video of a grey butcherbird.

02 March 202509 March 2025

Weekly Wrap 770: Stress, little productivity, and a photo from two years ago

The view from the left-hand window of an airliner over the eastern beaches of Sydney. About two-thirds of the way up the view is Sydney Harbour in all its crinkly glory. Along the lower parts of the image are the beaches, with Bondi uppermost. Near the top of the image a bank of white fluffy clouds obscure the North Shore. And at the very top right, the aircraft’s wing.

Oh dear. My week of Monday 24 February to Sunday 2 March 2025 was another unproductive week, making February overall an unproductive month. Remedial action will be needed. For a start, I’m now declaring March to be part of summer.

23 February 202523 February 2025

Weekly Wrap 769: Wrangling the data ruined my mind

Seen from low down by the ground, an asphalt road runs away from the viewer up a hill, eventually turning to the left and out of sight. The sky is bright blue with a few fluffy white clouds, although little sky can be seen because either side of the road are trees and thickly-growing shrubs. In the immediate foreground, on the road, two white-painted squares are arranged diagonally, joined at their corners. In yellow paint is the number 3011.

I lost three days in the middle of my week of Monday 17 to Sunday 23 February 2025 to annoying geekery: rebuilding my whole data backup system. Always make sure your backups are in good order, Gentle Reader, with at least one copy of everything in a different physical location.

17 February 202517 February 2025

The 9pm Nostalgia for Corruption with John Birmingham

A middle-aged white man with stubble and a hat gazes into the distance. It's John Birmingham! Behind him, the cover of a book looms large. — *John Birmingham is haunted by the cover of one of his popular techno-thrillers. (Photo: Supplied)*

As the summer series grinds on we’re joined once again — well, after a gap of more than a year — by author and columnist John Birmingham.

16 February 2025

Weekly Wrap 768: The view from St Vincent’s Private Hospital was a highlight of my Sydney day

A view from the 13th floor across Darlinghurst to the north-west. On the left are the towers of the northern end of the Sydney CBD. In the middle, in the distance, one can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and on the right the view is dominated by Harry Seidler’s Horizon Apartments, a white modernist tower with an grid-based structure. The day is bright and sunny with a few fluffy white clouds.

My week of Monday 10 to Sunday 16 February 2025 was dominated by a long day trip to Sydney on Wednesday and the Cabramatta Lunar New Year Festival on Saturday. But next week will be a big podcast week.

10 February 202512 February 2025

Weekly Wrap 767: Pondering trains instead of productivity

A NSW TrainLink Xplorer three-car DMU stands at Sydney Central station. A single deck train in silver with a light blue stripe along the window line, dark blue nose with a bright yellow highlight around the front window and upper lights, and dirt all over. It’s numbered 2504. On the platform sit some cleaning products, clearly only used on the inside of the trains, and passengers sit waiting for the cleaning to be finished.

My week of Monday 3 to Sunday 9 February 2025 was relatively unproductive, but I did spend some time pondering once again what a disappointment the trains are between Sydney and Canberra. But I got plenty of planning done.