Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
My week of Monday 21 to Sunday 27 January 2019 wasn’t terribly productive, but I’m blaming that on Australia’s habit of shutting down at Christmas and remaining shut all the way through to Australia Day.
Continue reading “Weekly Wrap 452: Slow summer, with a famous train”
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.
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.
None. But should 5at5 ever reappear, you’ll know about it if you subscribe.
None, but it begins in earnest in the coming week.
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.
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.]
My week of Monday 26 January to Sunday 1 February 2015 didn’t quite go to plan. Everything was still slower and more liquid than I’d wished. But such is life.
I won’t go into too many details. Some of it is on my Twitter stream, and if you really want to investigate then you can drill down into my tweets for January.
None. But that feature for ZDNet Australia was filed on Thursday as planned, and should appear on Monday or Tuesday.
There was only one edition of 5at5 again this week, on Friday once more. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all in the future. Subscribe. Just subscribe.
None, although I did get a few requests, which I turned down.
None, because I cancelled my planned trip into Sydney.
Let’s have another go at returning productivity to some semblance of normality, shall we?
Monday is mostly about catching up on blogging, administrivia and the endless communications backlog — although I’m getting better at just deleting things.
On Tuesday, I will be updating a certain ebook and, if the cashflows work, getting it online so people can buy it. On Wednesday, I’ll be writing a column for ZDNet Australia, I think.
Tuesday will be a day of more administrivia and planning. On Wednesday, I’ll be heading to Sydney for a mid-morning media briefing by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, as well as a haircut. I’ll report on same for ZDNet Australia. The briefing, not the haircut.
On Thursday, I’ll be heading to Sydney again for a lunchtime briefing by VMWare, as well as several errands. Somewhen in there I’ll knock out a column for ZDNet Australia.
Friday through Sunday is unplanned, but since there’s quite a bit to catch up on, I suspect it’ll end up being quite busy.
[Update 3 February 2015: Edited to add a second trip to Sydney, and other minor schedule changes.]
[Photo: Random wattle, photographed at Bunjaree Cottages on Australia Day, 26 January 2015.]
I haven’t had the inspiration to write something new for Australia Day this year, so I’ll just bring you this glorious video that ’Pong mentioned.
If the embedded video isn’t visible, watch it directly on YouTube.
For me previous Australia Day posts, try Happy Aussie-Ox Day from 2009, my photographic post Great Australian Dreaming 1, sing our new national anthem and my essay Are you proud of your culture? That last one has an excellent photo.
This year Australia Day coincides with Chinese New Year. It’s the start of the Year of the Ox in just a few hours — New Moon is at 1853 AEDT — which explains this giant ox in Belmore Park.
I haven’t written anything new this year. My photographic post Great Australian Dreaming 1, our silly new national anthem and my essay Are you proud of your culture? said it all last year. Unless I think of something really original later today.
Are you proud of your culture? It depends which culture you mean, I guess. Over the weekend I’ve pondered that while we all celebrated our Australian culture, and somewhere — not that I bothered participating — gay men celebrated “gay culture”. Again.
The photo (above) is from ’Pong’s photo essay on Australia Day. Classy eh?
The rest of the pics show precisely how we celebrate the Birth of Our Great Nation at the very place where the key events of 1788 took place. It’s pathetic. It’s embarrassing.
As I Twittered to ’Pong at the time, “So many people in your Oz Day photos use the flag as clothing. Fat-arsed drunks sitting on it! Nation’s flag: show respect.”