Weekly Wrap 184: TV and radio, but no writing, alas

Here’s the key stuff that happened in my week of Monday 9 to Sunday 15 December 2013.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I’ll do some sort of more detailed post explaining the state of the world — or at least my little bit of it — once I’ve caught up on these posts.

Articles

None. This was the terribly unproductive week that I haven’t told you about yet.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

Weekly Wrap 183: Predictions, food and wine

Here’s the key stuff that happened in my week of Monday 2 to Sunday 8 December 2013.

As I mentioned last time, I’ll do some sort of more detailed post explaining the state of the world — or at least my little bit of it — once I’ve caught up on these posts.

Articles

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Tuesday I went to Verizon’s lunchtime briefing on their predicted trends for 2014 at Rockpool Bar and Grill in Sydney. There was food and wine.
  • On Wednesday I went to Symantec’s end-of-year media lunch at Gowings Bar and Grill at Sydney’s QT Hotel. There was food and wine.
  • On Wednesday afternoon I continued on to McAfee in the Park, held in the Rose Garden at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. There was food and wine. Are you detecting a pattern here? There was also a lion.
  • On Thursday I went to Websense’s lunchtime briefing on their security predictions for 2014 at Wolfies, Circular Quay. There was food and wine.

Weekly Wrap 182: Christmas begins on Sydney Harbour

My week Monday 25 November to Sunday 1 December 2013 was ages ago — so to catch up on all the missing Weekly Wrap posts, I’ll just list the basics and skip giving them photos.

Once I’ve posted all four, I’ll do some sort of more detailed post explaining the state of the world — or at least my little bit of it.

Articles

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I went to the Internet Industry Association (IIA) Nautical Policy event, which is of course code for a couple hours of eating and drinking on Sydney Harbour aboard Matilda III sponsored by Enex Testlab. Afterwards we continued on for more drinks, and I know that at least one bottle of wine was paid for by iiNet.

Weekly Wrap 181: The Productivity Fairy strikes!

Wentworth Falls in the fog: click to embiggenMy week Monday 18 to Sunday 24 November 2013 was… well, let’s just say that everything went to plan.

Podcasts

Articles

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

The Week Ahead

It’s a busy one. My writing schedule includes a feature and two columns for ZDNet Australia and a couple stories for CSO Online, plus in theory a piece for Corrupted Nerds.

On top of that, there’s the Internet Industry Association’s Nautical Policy event on Wednesday — look alright, it’s a cruise on Sydney Harbour with alcohol — and perhaps one other Christmas event too.

Wish me luck.

I plan to be in Sydney all week.

[Photo: Wentworth Falls in the fog, photographed on 19 November 2013.]

Weekly Wrap 180: Nothing happened, with arsehats

Crossing the Nepean, 12 November 2013: click to embiggenMy week Monday 11 to Sunday 17 November 2013 was completely unproductive, for reasons which shall be explained in the next five paragraphs.

At the tail end of the previous week’s trip to Canberra, I changed my medication for depression — something that I’d discussed with my doctor beforehand, of course, but there were side effects nevertheless.

My sleep patterns took several days to readjust, and during that time I was more susceptible to the depression being exacerbated by the kind of arsehat events that the universe throws at us from time to time.

One such arsehat event happened. Or didn’t happen. A key invoice didn’t get paid when it was expected to be paid. Cashflow stress ensued, and that arsehat was the straw that broke the camel’s back, turning it into a black dog. Stay with me now, OK.

My mood wasn’t exactly improved by the fact that it rained for almost the entire week. There’s a strong seasonal aspect to my depression. And that rain was just a cruel twist, given that only the week before we’d been worried about everything being incinerated in bushfires.

This is a stupid planet, and humans are a stupid, badly-designed species.

I did catch up on a lot of reading, however.

Podcasts

None.

Articles

None.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Tuesday, after I crowdsourced a few beers and ciders in Sydney because the aforementioned cashflow stress made the concept of paying for my own drinks problematic, I ended up being invited to dinner at Kobe Jones’ Wharf Teppanyaki at Sydney’s King Street Wharf, courtesy of Enex Testlab. There is evidence to suggest that I was provided with an ample sufficiency of sake.

The Week Ahead

Well it’s half finished already, innit. But it began on a positive note. The cashflow constipation was uncorked on Monday, so I could start living again.

On Tuesday I came down to Sydney to take lunch with the boss-blokes from Sophos, the British-American information security firm, and deal with a whole bunch of errands.

Wednesday was a day of resetting all the things.

Thursday — that is to say, today — I’ll be starting work on a 2000-word feature story for ZDNet Australia that has to be finished by the end of next week, as well as participating in a discussion which will Rearrange Certain Aspects of Reality. That will all become less cryptic in due course. Or not.

Friday is a day of writing, with columns for both ZDNet Australia and CSO Online, and over the weekend I’ll be writing something for Corrupted Nerds.

In fact, the next three weeks will be quite busy, because I have to generate some catch-up revenue to replace last week’s steaming pile of fail, as well as make sure there’s enough revenue coming in to cover the time of year that freelancers fear most: Christmas.

“Holidays” is a synonym for “poverty” rather than “tequila”. It’s enough to make Baby Jesus cry.

[Photo: Crossing the Nepean, 12 November 2013, a dark, moody image that seems to capture the depressing nature of the week.]

Weekly Wrap 179: A very Kaspersky Canberra, with stress

Canberra sunrise: click to embiggenMy week Monday 4 to Sunday 10 November 2013 was another busy one, but I survived.

Once more the Weekly Wrap has been hideously delayed, so it’ll just be the facts.

A key part of the week was my trip to Canberra, mainly to cover the speech by Eugene Kaspersky to the National Press Club, but also to squeeze in some meetings with other people while I was there. Kaspersky seems to have dominated my media output for the week.

Podcasts

  • Corrupted Nerds: Conversations 8, being a chat about electronic voting with Dr Vanessa Teague from the University of Melbourne. If you think e-voting is the cure for electoral fraud and mistakes, you’d better listen.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Thursday I went to the National Press Cub in Canberra to hear Eugene Kaspersky’s address. I was a guest at the Kaspersky Lab table, and they paid for my flights from Sydney. I paid for my own accommodation because the Kaspersky thing itself could have been a day trip.

[Photo: Canberra sunrise, photographed from Rydges Lakeside Canberra hotel on 7 November 2013.]