The theme for my week of Monday 11 to Sunday 17 July 2022 seems to have been organising things. Not only did I produce another fun podcast, I sketched out most of my work plans for the next two months. I even made some chicken soup.
A big part of it was catching up on sleep, I think.
Another big part was re-reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) last weekend, which put me in a positive and productive mood. As I told a client, putting aside the slightly cult-like nature of the focus on “productivity” — not just by Allen but also by the endlessly annoying “life hack” people — I’ve maintained a solid GTD process in the past and it’s worked very well for me.
The time has come to get back on the horse, and so far the horse seems friendly. Wish me luck.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Celebrity Superstar Experience on the River Kwai with Mark Humphries, a fun conversation recorded in a bar on Thursday afternoon and posted on Friday.
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Photos
- The photos in the Waratah sequence 2021 now span 320 days. In the last couple of days the seed pods have started to split open. Will we finally see some seeds in coming week?
- I took a few random cityscapes around Haymarket while I was in Sydney this week.
From the Archive
Each weekday this month I’m tweeting links to things from my archives with the hashtag #StilArchive2022 and collecting them on the web. This week I’ve chosen:
- Calls to ID social media users is just another Morrison government rush job, ZDNet Australia, 11 October 2021.
- One of the videos that Chris Duckett and I made in October 2020 for ZDNet Australia, Vietnam’s cyber risks make it a mixed bag.
- Australia’s tangle of electronic surveillance laws needs unravelling, ZDNet Australia, 18 January 2021.
- Labor floats active cyber defence and a civilian cyber corps for Australia, ZDNet Australia, 30 April 2020.
- Lessons from the Censusfail omnishambles, DirectorTech, 15 September 2017. I should also add that Nigel Phair was editor of DirectorTech and I was the deputy editor. You can explore all three editions as published, and the website is archived.
Articles, Media Appearances, Videos, Corporate Largesse
None of these. You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
Recommendations
- An interesting analysis from the Lowy Institute, Wong’s own brand of diplomacy: will it work?.
- Recently I’ve been enjoying some very ranty videos about military matters by LazerPig. If you’d like to start with a long one, maybe Shut up about the F-35. If you’re prefer a briefer taste to start with, try The little piece of England that Scotland stole in a game. And for something in the middle, The Majestical Horseshit of the Horton 229: Hitler’s “”Stealth”” bomber. Yes, the duplicated quote marks are deliberate.
- “Boris Johnson is leaving office with the same dignity he brought to it: none. I’ve seen more elegant prolapses,” wrote Marina Hyde last week. Yeah, nine days old, but still worth reading.
- A different kind of video from TwoSet Violin, 10 Levels of Ordering Bubble Tea. I reckon they’ve got it down just fine.
- A Twitter thread in which my friend @oberonsghost cooks some lamb. A great recipe.
- And finally, if tomorrow morning you end up feeling rubbish, consider this Medical Journal of Australia article on Mondayitis.
The Week Ahead
I’ll just mention the two key appointments this week. The rest is just me plodding through work.
Bond on Tuesday continues this week with The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) starring Roger Moore. Find a stream and get ready at 8.30pm AEST. We press PLAY at 8.40pm.
On Saturday I’m heading down to Sydney for drinks, and I suspect I’ll end up staying the night because I also have some errands to knock off.
[Update 19 July 2022: I suspect that second one might be scrubbed, thanks to annoying cashflow and scheduling issues. We’ll see. Update 21 July 2022: Yeah this won’t happen. The weekend will be spent catching up on work, because my sleep patterns have been rubbish this week.]
Further Ahead
II’ve finally sketched out a few more events for the second half of the year.
- Opening of Parliament, Canberra, 26 July 2022. I’ll be watching online. And here’s the proposed parliament sitting calendar (PDF) for the rest of 2022.
- Personal planning weekend, 30–31 July 2022. This is for the two-day kick-off process recommended in Getting Things Done.
- Launch of The 9pm Spring Series 2022 crowdfunding campaign, 1 August 2022. Yes, the days are screaming by, and it’ll soon be time to start thinking about what I’ll be doing in spring.
- Covid-19 vaccination booster and an afternoon out in Blaxland, 2 August 2022.
- Win the Week recording, ABC Ultimo. 9 August 2022. I’ve booked for four out of the eight episodes, though I may well cancel a couple because heading to Sydney for all of these might prove a bit much.
- The 9pm Edict recording with Justin Warren, 11 August 2022. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a conversation topic for this episode, we’ll need them by midday AEST that day.
- Tech Leaders Forum 2022, Leura NSW, 20–22 August 2022. After a hiatus during the Quarantimes, this once-annual gathering for tech journalists is returning for 2022. Its purpose is for industry PR people to meet the journos who cover their clients.
- APNIC 54, Singapore and online, 13–15 September 2022. I daresay I won’t be travelling physically to Singapore, but we’ll see.
- NetThing: Australia’s Internet Community Forum, online, 27–28 October 2022 (TBC).
[Photo: The southern end of the Sydney CBD as seen looking northward from a seventh-floor window of the Great Southern Hotel, Haymarket, on 13 July 2022.]