| Daniel in Perth 26 Oct to 4 Nov |
[Sep. 28th, 2009|07:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | Chipper | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Radio...'Dirty Boulevard' - Lou Reed? | ] |
Heya crew, I'll be back in Perth from around the 26th of October to the 4th of November - I'm driving over then flying back. Hoping to hang out with everyone :) |
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| Omg |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|06:39 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | Happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Foreign Land', Eskimo Joe (in my head) | ] |
Zomg there's a huge 24hr K-Mart! I love Melbourne :) We don't do things this way back on the farm |
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| Indians really are targetted in Melbourne |
[Aug. 26th, 2009|02:42 pm] |
I'm so accustomed to cordially disbelieving 'the news' - especially sensational stories - that I'm occasionally shocked to find one founded in some sort of reality.
You may have heard the reports of Indians (as in from the subcontinent), especially Indian student, getting more than their fair share of beatings in Melbourne?
I'm currently working at homeless shelters for youth in Melbourne, and the wankers DO in fact go out and deliberately target Indians, and hassle or assault them when they come across them in the city.
Well shit, hey? |
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| [LJ2ME] Testing lj phone client :) |
[Aug. 26th, 2009|02:32 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | On a train | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | Cheery | ] |
| [ | music |
| | I was made for loving you | ] |
Test |
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| Oh the irony in this is priceless! |
[Aug. 23rd, 2009|11:57 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Back to good', Matchbox Twenty (in my head) | ] |
Report on a new law slated to come into force in Mali increasing women's rights, including removing the requirement that a woman must obey her husband (sic).
One of the people who are opposing it said:
"It's a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law - the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country - the real Muslims - are against it," she added."
Hehe, that's so funny - also the women who can't separate cause from effect too I see!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8216568.stm |
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| Utilikilt! |
[Aug. 20th, 2009|11:06 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  grumpy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Moon over Bourbon Street', Sting | ] |
I haz a Utilikilt!! It's all kinds of awesome!
...and a size too big :( Measured myself several times with a tape measure and came up with 35" (equates to 'size 33' in usual measurements); the kilt is, in fact, 35" as it claims; and yet it's about an inch too big. Pls explain??
So, I'm about to post it back and they'll post me the next size down - total cost for the exchange around AUS$95! :( And will take about 3 weeks :(
Also, it was funny when I phoned them - even though they speak English too in the US I totally had the 'gird my loins to speak to someone in a foreign country' feeling ;)
But man that kilt is awesome. Got the 'Original', it's $US$150 + US$50 postage, and totally worth it - http://www.utilikilts.com/index.php?page_id=27# |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 18th, 2009|03:38 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  angry | ] |
| [ | music |
| | none | ] |
Fer fuck's sake world, someone finding people of the same sex as them attractive and choosing to build lives with and shag them is just fkn normal and ok, ok? Stop fkn killing and prosecuting them. Dumbasses! Homophobic fucktards. |
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| Regina Spektor's new album 'Far' |
[Aug. 13th, 2009|11:27 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  drained | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Wallet', Regina Spektor | ] |
Regina is one of those singers I'm obsessed with, but it's taken me a few months to get around to listening to her new album 'Far'.
It's really superb - upbeat but complex, confronting yet inviting, with some moments of real beauty such as the choral sections in 'Human of the Year'. My current picks are 'Folding Chair' and 'The Calculation'.
The album is also to me far more balanced than 'Begin to Hope', her last album. 'Begin to Hope' had some amazing songs on it, such as 'Fidelity' and 'On the Radio', and some superb lyrics, such as in the song 'Samson' where Samson's first partner, before Delilah, sings "the stars came falling on our heads / but they're just old light, they're just old light". However, all the good songs were clustered at the front of the album, and the last 7 songs were really either B-sides or at least out of the flow of what had come before.
Anyway, it's downloading from a torrent near you :) |
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| Torchwood: Children of Earth - what did you blog? |
[Aug. 11th, 2009|02:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Feeler', Pete Murray | ] |
I finally got around to watching this - finished yesterday.
Now I know that there was lots of blogging about this on my friends list when it was first out, but I didn't read it then to avoid spoilers - can you guys pls comment with links to your posts where you've talked about it? I want to see what people thought!
Cheers xx |
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| Matt Reilly (da author) |
[Aug. 4th, 2009|08:31 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | irritated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Bill Joel, 'You may be right' | ] |
I'm pretty sure that it was Matt Reilly who was one of the guest speakers at Swan Con last year - and I liked him. This means that I was prejudiced towards liking his books, which are kinda techno-thriller types.
Just finished 'Ice Station', and am about halfway through 'Area 7'.
They are, alas, almost unreadably bad :(
I really wanted to like them! But they commit that particular sin in that all the action and even character development is just an analogue of 'screen' action. The action is described visually, not in any of the visceral, innovative ways that are the domain solely of the author.
Also, [do lj cleverness] prk would be gnawing his arm to a stump at the 'science' - my current favourite bit being where a deep sea diving bell massively implodes because of the HUGE water pressure...except that what ruptures its integrity is a dude just outside it with a harpoon gun - not in any protective gear! Also not wearing breathing apparatus as near as I can tell but that's another story.
Shame :( |
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| Nokia 'Comes with Music' service |
[Jul. 20th, 2009|07:22 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Gypsy Girl'. Lior | ] |
Nokia 'Comes with Music' service, um, comes with a number of handsets, including the 5800 which I have. It is, in fact, all it promises to be in terms of unlimited downloads from the Nokia music store, which is sufficiently huge. You can do the downloading through your computer and existing broadband connection - no special connection needed.
Experience so far: only slightly less convenient than pirating the same music in my usual torrently ways. |
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| Bit of an update on Daniel's life in Melbs |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|11:52 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home (Northcote) | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  peaceful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | da radio...sounds like Hunters and Collectors | ] |
The dot points:
-Ended up not doing the shared house thing, instead I'm renting a lovely little flat in Northcote with city views...ok, glimpses
-RMIT contract went well and has now finished. I'm doing full-time casual youth work at the moment, shifts at various times of the day and night. I'm doing the youth work thing because it is a good match for...
-Back on the PhD train :) I'm using all the minimum-quality maximum-return-for-effort tricks I learn running a business, and I'm slowly but surely pulling together the thesis. Not thinking of it as research any more, 'cos I've done all that, just as writing-up a report. Maybe full draft by the end of the year, we'll see, that's what I'm playing for
-Still blissed-out to be in Melbourne, this city rocks
-It's winter, so I'm in my usual 'down' period in terms of energy and sociability. Still happy, just things are generally much more effort
-My current creative project (I've always got one on the go) is actually my flat. I'm creating it as a work of art - more about that in a subsequent post in a bit
-I feel like I'm giving myself the space this year to do something that I've never really done before, which is just 'living' |
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| Opera Mini browser for phones |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|04:18 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Work | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Um, The Ashes in the background | ] |
Quick note for anyone using the Nokia 5800 (which I highly recommend) - get the browser Opera Mini as a supplement to the built-in browser. I've found the built-in one is often fine, but on some sites (e.g. Livejournal, gmail) it works on wireless but not on 3G whereas Opera works always. It doesn't do Flash as well as the built-in browser, though. Feel free to fire any 5800 tech support questions at me - Dan |
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| iiBorg |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|08:46 pm] |
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I'm about to sign up for iiNet naked DSL over in Melbourne - do any of you iiBorgers get any, like, advantage from signing someone up, or should I just click 'buy now' on the website? Dan :) |
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| I rule |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|05:09 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Avoca | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | jubilant | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Can you read my mind' by The Killers (I think) (in my head) | ] |
I just did an ENTIRE job application for a fairly serious Vic government job in 24 minutes beginning to end!
Including personalising resume, addressing seven selection criteria, and creating an account on their 'submit jobs' site. There was a certain amount of cut and paste action ;) But I wrote two of the criteria from scratch. All that sh*t would once have taken me 12 hours!
Damn public holidays - I was caught by the old 'it feels like Monday and this job isn't due until Tuesday' phenomenon...until 4:34pm when I suddenly realised it was Tuesday and I had 25 minutes to do the deed.
Ok, now to do something with the adrenaline. |
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| ...and the result in the referendum on accursed daylight saving in West Australia is... |
[May. 18th, 2009|09:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | home | ] |
| [ | music |
| | skunkhour 'up to our necks in it' (s&m remix) | ] |
omg I'm actually really excited about this one - I don't know the result yet, and I hate daylight saving with a passion - and I have a simple faith in the ability of West Australian voters to go "NO! We don't want change!". Which for once counts in my favour.
So, I'm firing up the website of the one WA newspaper, The West Australian - a paper so execrable it makes, um, something which is sht look not sht...and see what it says...
Hmm, doesn't seem to have a result. That's about standard. Too many syllables.
Ok, take two, let's look at the ABC site...
OMG they have a headline "NO campaign wins through to end daylight saving in WA" - honey to my ears and balm to my soul :) Apparently a little over 55% of voters voted NO.
This is, by the way, the 4th referendum on daylight saving in WA since 1975 - they've all been 'no' results, and this is the biggest so far. 1975 was 53.7% no, 1984 was 54.4% no, and 1992 (which I voted in) was 53.1% no. The WA Premier reckons that it should probably not be reconsidered for another 20 years or so. More balm to my ears.
We've just finished the 3rd year of an enforced 3 year trial of daylight saving, by the way, so you can't say it was a blind vote :) |
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| Daniel's housewarming :) Sat 16 May, 6pm onwards... |
[May. 8th, 2009|06:55 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | excited | ] |
| [ | music |
| | some Jose Gonzales song (in my head)...called 'Heartbeats' now playing ;) | ] |
I'm delighted to report that I've found a place to live :) It meets all the requirements I set out in proper manifestation style 6 months ago in Perth, including a view of the city.
So, to celebrate, I'm having a HOUSEWARMING!!
Saturday 16th May, 6pm until late
Bring a cushion to sit on (if pos) (and leave it behind if you wanna give a prezzie)
People are probably fine to drop in earlier in the arvo, but check in beforehand.
BYO whatever you want, I imagine there'll be a basic stock of food and booze around.
It's totally fine to bring offspring along, but there's no specific kid-space or whatever.
As I'm of the school of thought that says a housewarming is something you have as soon as you move in to get a good vibe about the place (rather than, say, 6 months after you move in as a demonstration of how together your place is and how grown up you are ;) there's not going to be much furniture. Consequently, it's probably best to bring a cushion to sit on, and if you'd like to make a contribution to the house then you could leave your cushion behind...
Dan xx |
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| the rhythm of research |
[May. 7th, 2009|04:17 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | RMIT | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
I occasionally muse about the rhythm of the research process. It's particularly present for me at the moment with my research assistant job at RMIT (see ** below for a quick summary of what I'm up to).
As part of this, I'm required - in the classic research assistant idiom - to produce (quickly) a report looking at all the places in the world that are doing similar things, what the state of play is, are there any effective competitors etc. and somehow summarise all of this into a 30 second grab that my professor can use to sell this project to the head of school.
So off I trawl...
I hold that green-fields research goes through a rhythm of 4 stages:
IGNORANCE
OVERWHELM
PATTERNS
SYNTHESIS
At first you know so little [IGNORANCE] about the topic that you don't even know which search terms to use. You occasionally get a random hit, and you feel nice and comfy because clearly there's not going to be much work for you to do.
Then you get the hang of the field you've walked in to, and you realise that most of the planet has spent the last 50 years apparently doing nothing except writing [OVERWHELM] about this topic. You've no idea how to separate the important stuff from the peripheral, or even to separate the field you're supposed to be researching from all the neighboring fields that use similar words. This is the Long Night of the Soul of Research. It's the ability to push through this phase that separates a researcher from...well, from something else. Probably something pejorative.
If you push through this, eventually you begin to see the same sources [PATTERNS] showing up. If you've kept good notes, that is, and maintained links etc. (i.e. done research good). You realise that 20,000 of the hits are actually all pointing back to the one conference - or even the one conference paper. You realise that most of the articles are from a particular discipline which isn't relevant to your research. Your buttocks begin to unclench a little as you realise that without knowing you've passed the hump, and it's just summarising and attitude from here on in. "Why 'attitude'?" I hear you say? Well, glad you asked...
Finally, you do a bit of root-cause analysis - you figure out who's referencing who, and who are the big names and organisations. Then [SYNTHESIS] I find it best to puff up your chest and gird your loins and do a ridiculous but invariably successful thing - you go and see the person who commissioned the research and you throw out an unsupportably broad and sketchy executive summary of the field and have a go at defending it. Don't even take along your notes. Don't worry that you've forgotten most of the names.
If you've done the preceding stages well, you'll amaze yourself with how much sense your summary makes. And they are so grateful to get some shape around the project that they don't mind if the shape is faintly reminiscent of pears. This firstly stops you from going off down the wrong path, and it also saves you from the trap of trying to get it all too detailed or too right. It will also pull out of your boss those remaining leads that they'd forgotten to mention in the first briefing. Also, it means that the report you write is far lower stakes, because you're just putting flesh what you've already sketched out. Oh, and it makes you look smokingly good at your job.
So, there you have it, the rhythm of research a la Daniel.
I've just done the 'throw out an unsupportably broad summary' thing to my boss. Went well. I look smokingly good.
** It's quite an interesting project I'm involved with - looking at how art can directly assist communities cope with and address climate change, particularly in the areas of psychological resiliance; design principles; sustainable land-use; and awareness and minimisation of resource use. [Tiki, this is what I mentioned I wanted to talk to you about the other night] |
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e_dan's journal
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