chinese rock

Anil Dash's blog is always insightful, I should visit it more often. I was struck by the reference to design in cooking. We're going to have a push on design at work as a way of stimulating some 'value-adding' (sorry, there must be a non-bureaucratic term for it, but...) in other product and service industries. BRW had an article on design last week, someone was quoted as saying the next wave of prosperity will come from right brained people. You can choose to disagree and call it a fad if you wish, but it should at least spark some reflection.

Recently we've had the Richard Florida phenomenon which induced all sorts of Councils and other organisations to start claiming that their communities were more tolerant or creative or whatever. And that as a result all sorts of marvellous, economically desirable things would transpire. Given that some of these claims came from regional areas famed for demonstrating behaviours that were precisely the opposite, it's all a bit much to get excited about.

That said, ongoing reliance on raw materials exports seems to me to just economic suicide. Similarly, and this will damn me as a troglodyte, I think we need to put much more effort into maintaining manufacturing capability in the country. It's the old self-defence argument or whatever you want to call it and I'm perfectly aware of the arguments against. I just think we need to retain a substantial ability to actually make things. Financial services, hedge funds, clever financing mechanisms that enable things to happen when there actually isn't the money to pay for it are all well and good. If the crunch comes, they'll be worthless, but the ability to make a functional cart might be like gold.

This is terrible stuff, that's all of that for now...

Back to Anil. And I also liked the story on 'pixels are the new pies' - how screen design is influencing more traditional ways of imparting information. Good stuff.

On another tangent entirely, Mrs VVB has not been well and so I was thrown onto my own resources to make me some vittles tonight. And I couldn't be bothered, so I trotted down to the local Chinese for some chicken chow mein.

This dish bears as much resemblance to good Chinese food as Corn Flakes but when I was little, a trip to the Mee Lee Wah, the then only Chinese in town, was real treat. A bit later when the old man and I would be collecting new cars from the factory in Sydney, or undertaking some other road trip, a meal at the Chinese in some country town was a must.

And I still love it, it still tastes the same, if you could term chicken chow mein a comfort food then that's what it is to me. It brings back the memories and the feelings of those childhood days, which is something I think many of us yearn for more than we care to admit.

P2B=you've seen it.

The next day....update....

"The scale of the problem is absolutely massive because there's very little manufacturing done in Australia these days.
"There's very little engineering or technical support into the process at all within Australia."

What I said... you give away the ability to do things, you bear the 'unintended' consequences. Surely the fanatics of pure comparative advantage also heard the one about the number of baskets that one should prefeably put one's eggs into?

shake it up

P2B=pretty damn minimal if the truth be known. Been practising some old songs for an upcoming party, I haven't been playing enough so my fingers are all soft and now they hurt. Got to develop some baby callouses between now and then, got to get my voice back into some state of trim, got to learn not to mess up so many simple chords.

Fortunately, by the time showtime rolls around I will be sufficiently lubricated not to care and just to let it all hang out.

The headings on the blogs are dispiriting, as are the headlines and the opinion pieces.

So it's a wonderful thing when my favourite motoring program - click on Top Gear to see the video manages to work le parkour into one of its stunts. That's just wonderful stuff - all the production crew must be awfully right-brained to come up with these insane ideas.



That's insane in a good way, I hope you realise.

The right-brained will inherit the earth you know, I read that in the Business Review Weekly (yes! really!) so can I suggest you all start using yours.



Mine's in for a grease and oil change.



There, that feels better than ranting about you-know-whom and his you-know-what, doesn't it? Don't we all want to contribute to a better world?

Here' s a photo chosen at random from the collection 'cos it's kind of unexceptional. It's the town of Stanley in Tasmania, the photo was taken from the geological outcrop known as the Nut that rises over the town. I reckon Stanley is one of the neatest, cleanest towns I've ever seen. I did see a sign claiming that it had recently won a Tidy Towns context - not surprised.

money changes everything

P2B = Medium. Would quite like to have a rant about a few things, but do I want to commit the time? If I could type more quickly, I'd get it done.

First, here are some brain-teasers that I'm sure some readers will enjoy. Found via here where, if you linger, you''ll find lots of funny stuff.

The continuing tale of the water tank. I spent lots of energy yesterday trying to wrestle the old lattice into place to re-make the fence. Kind of like getting an octopus to lie straight, I imagine. Eventually gave up and went for using a stack of old fence palings. It looks a bit dodgy but with a coat of paint and the passage of time it'll be OK. No rain yet of course.

I was most taken with this column by Canberra Times economic columnist Peter Martin. Of course I'd be taken with it, because it aligns with some of my own prejudices (I wouldn't try to characterise my prejudices as thinking). While I am forever ranting about economic rationalism and the Washington Consensus and who knows what else, it is more fundamentally the power that economics has over the rest of life that annoys me most. Not being an historian and certainly not an historian of economic thought, I imagine it's unlikely that this is a new development. Even if Bill Clinton said "it's the economy, stupid."

Treasuries of course need to safeguard public spending - we don't need to look too far afield to find examples of inappropriate spending by desperate politicians. But the whole system is distorted, the bottom line has far too much sway. So I was kind of relieved to see that Productivity Commission staff are being exposed to some ideas that might get them thinking about things in different ways. Even if, at the same time, Catallaxy reports that Tasmanian Treasury people have been bludgeoned with the 'Austrian school' that Catallaxians are always banging on about.

Note that, utterly subconsciously, I've differentiated my views about 'good' economics and economics of which I disapprove by use of language? Didn't even have to think about it. Not very helpful to mutual understanding, eh?



It wouldn't be a VVB column without a reference to our superhuman PM, would it? Somewhere today I read that Howard's introduction of the permanent campaign to Australia's body politic may be counting against him. Good. I've mentioned a couple of times that I thought purely political advertising was limited to the actual campaign period after writs have been called. Evidently not from what we've seen on the TV recently but bloody hell I wish it was. Pure political ads are lowest common denominator information - they tell you absolutely nothing but seek to get you stirred up about some potential 'enemy'.

That's a very negative thought to finish up on, so I'll just remind myself that in a couple of weeks I'll be at a party with my trusty guitar and another opportunity to make people feel good. I haven't been practising very much, certainly I haven't been keeping the older repertoire up to date but I got some very positive, unsolicited feedback during the week that my very amateurish efforts are in fact appreciated, so I'll be giving it 150%. It's a buzz, you can bet on that.

Finally, this is a semi-anonymous blog (I'm starting to think it should have been totally anonymous but will have to pay the price now for that decision). So here's a semi-anonymous photo of yer 'umble correspondent. Because it's not anonymous, I can't relate the story of dinner last night with some of our neighbours. Especially as they paid, as thanks for us looking after their place when they go away. We'd do that anyway. No, more to do with... enough. Not necessary at all.

Bonsoir, mes petits.

help me make it through the

I subscribe to a newsletter from a firm of training providers. The theme of the latest newsletter was employing older (mature age) workers. Some snippets, with comments:

"Many employers are beginning to recognise the benefits of employing mature age
people. Some have found that the push to employ younger generations has led to a greater rate of staff turnover. Mature age employees generally tend to be more
reliable, committed and dependable. They are likely to remain with an employer
longer than their younger counterparts, which ensures that the benefits of training and business and product knowledge stay with the organisation over a longer period of time. Mature age people make excellent mentors and coaches for younger staff, passing on a wealth of information and skills. They often contribute a degree of maturity that is an added advantage when dealing with both internal and external customers. Furthermore, they tend to have a strong work ethic and produce high quality work."

Translation: the reduce-costs-by-whatever-means movement of the early 90s, as economic rationalism took hold, actually has cost us longer term. All knowledge and energy does not reside in HR managers under the age of 25. Or CEOs and other executives on cushioned or protected employment arrangements. Middle managers who apparently do nothing actually kept the wheels turning. How were we to know?

"Policies, programs and legislation that determine fiscal, financial and industrial relations practices often both reflect and influence attitudes within the business and wider community. Superannuation, payroll tax and workers compensation can provide disincentives through the loss of benefits such as concessions. Negative attitudes and stereotypes about the value of mature age workers are still prevalent and need to be actively challenged in every sector. Some employers still fear that they may not see the return on their investment in training mature age workers. Some have concerns about the mental or physical capacity of mature age workers. The large number of job advertisements seeking juniors indicates a reluctance to pay higher wages and salaries for maturity and experience. Based on the evidence to support the value of mature age workers, the assumptions underlying this practice can be challenged. It many instances, it may be more beneficial to engage older workers."

Yes, economic rationalism had longer term costs. How were we to know? So many people were preaching it, the theory just seemed so...so....rational. But we senior executives know how the world works and if we actually asked our workforce they might tell us something....different. Best to leave it alone.

"Mature age workers are not a homogeneous category but present a range of different needs, preferences and priorities. While workforce participation for some is restricted due to poor health, others have boundless energy and enthusiasm and are keen to continue working. Some may feel compelled to do so due to financial commitments. Many enjoy the continuing stimulation and challenge of work as well as the social interaction with colleagues. There is growing recognition of the need for informed choice by members of this group about their employment preferences. While there is a need to support and encourage mature age workers to return to or enter the workforce, it is important that this not become coercive. All people should be given equal opportunity in employment, education and training, regardless of age. Options such as phased retirement, flexible working hours, job sharing and home-based work respond to the changing needs of older workers. Attitudes also need flexing. We need to challenge a culture that regards our older citizens as worn out, physically and mentally incapacitated, behind-the-times seniors who should sign up for bingo and bowls and pack their bags for the nursing home!"

Think for yourselves, you fuckwits. The world doesn't stop turning after your 25th birthday. And training consultants could possibly be a little bit less condescending.

Apart from that, all tickety-boo.

No political discussion or observations, it'll be a bloody 3 months or so. Nothing happening here to influence anything momentous, know what I mean?

A couple of conversations over the past 2 or 3 days have restored my faith in fundamental human nature. We just want to look after our families, friends and those we care a bit about. Help each other get through the day - and the night.

Simple really.

P2B=quite high but I couldn't express what I'd like to talk about adequately so I won't try.

style council(s)

Well I called this yesterday. And while we're on the subjects, what do you reckon Howard thought about Kennett's council amalgamations? Undemocratic? Unnecessary?

The letter to the SMH that I blogged yesterday very accurately described the effects of the recent fervour for undemocratic behaviour by governments of all stripes, and the current council amalgamation effort in Queensland certainly qualifies. However, for Howard to damn it is pretty funny: after all, he's the one who knows all about subverting democratic checks and balances.

Enough!

mirror mirror

A top letter to the ed in today's Sydney Morning Herald. Good stuff, Michael Leslie of Alstonville.

Secrecy and the deals done at the top are the biggest betrayals

Your editorial "An Australia more than just the sum of its parts" (August 4-5) makes much of the damage done to Australia by inefficient federal-state arrangements.

This is trivial compared to the change in both layers of government such that we are now ruled by elected dictatorships protected by secrecy imposed in the name of national security or, more banally, commercial-in-confidence arrangements with the rich and powerful.

Just reading the weekend paper we see the following examples: John Thorpe of the Australian Hotels Association is to visit every minister to prevent any competition to his grog and gambling palaces; Sydney is to be closed down and a ludicrous wall built to hold a conference which should be held in Canberra; the NSW Government is to sell off all Crown leases while hiding the environmental value of the land; and the bizarre case of the Tasmanian hospital takeover despite opposition from both doctors and economists.

What has happened is that parliaments have lost their sovereignty. They are now rubber stamps to an executive which operates in both state and federal spheres by transferring some public property or monopoly power to a private person or group in return for their political support. The winners don't complain and the losers either don't know they've lost anything because of the secrecy or are powerless to do anything about it.

At election time, the winners support the government and most doubters are convinced by sophisticated propaganda to vote against their own interests with the promise that they will personally benefit in some way. Both Liberal-National and Labor governments use the technique.

It's our own fault - a mixture of selfishness and gullibility has turned us into a scared, xenophobic country prepared to put up with the national security state as long as we can buy cheap electrical gadgets.

We put up with the destruction of the institutions that made Australia great: our public schools and hospitals and our telecommunication infrastructure are a shadow of the past, our public services are a mixture of propaganda offices and sales agencies. And for what benefit? The workers work ridiculous hours and neglect their children while the rich get richer.
This concentration of power in the executive is leading us to disaster.

Michael Leslie Alstonville

P2B=lazy but enthused

war pigs

P2B=medium but exercised.

Let the deep and meaningful analysis occur elsewhere. This is just to say that we think it's going to be a dirty campaign (well, on one side anyway). People who are born to rule (Hammy alert - look away! look away!!) don't take readily to being deprived of relevance. And he thinks Rudd's vain!! Fuck me, how do you spell deluded?

That said, I reckon Peter Dutton has lost them the conservative/bogan 18-29 demographic (I'm sure there is such a thing...actually, wasn't there a Young National actually on Big Brother a while ago?).

Don't overlook the influence of this person - (warning - another puke alert) - whatever the rodent may think about his party wanting him, the country needing him or his endless quest to be whatever it was he imagined himself as a youth (oh, I forgot, he actually wanted to be PM...), it'll take a B-double full of fertiliser to extract Hyacinth from the perch on the harbour.

Throwing buckets of money at superannuated National Party councillors seems downright stupid, although it does explain the joint Senate ticket in Queensland I suppose.

On the other side, it'll be either nano-scale targets (and keeping Julia out of sight while Wayne Swan learns the art of the 10 second grab, something he has yet to master) or efforts such as this which induce nausea even in partisans such as yer 'umble scribe.

On second thoughts, my response is probably classic baby boomer so can be discounted commensurately.

As if to prove that as a political strategist I'm the equal of any (male) quantity surveyor, I'd simply suggest that on interest rates, the line should simply be "he takes credit when they go down and points the finger when they go up." Evasiveness in leaders is not appreciated. Let's see what the Reserve Bank does.

I get all squirmy when elections roll around. I love the theatre and the uncertainty, but the rest is very cringe-y, as Mrs VVB puts it. As this photo from what must have been the 18 October 1980 Federal election shows, I don't take losing easily. Grown men do cry over the silliest things.

Addendum: something to cheer up all lovers of management fads.

suspicious minds

"Andrews: 'Well Jon, firstly, the suspicion I've formed on the material at the time I made my decision, was to clearly raise a suspicion in my mind.'"

Translation: I'm an underperforming idiot that couldn't trusted to carry the morning tea tray without getting something wrong.

You couldn't make up stuff like this, could you?

Not only that, but I have substantial conflicts of interest between my personal beliefs and (taxpayer-funded) 'professional" responsibilities, but that's OK because I'm on the side of truth and light. Well, maybe it's OK, but actually I'd rather not answer the question because I'm an idiot.

VVB would like to say we can hear the sound of scales falling from eyes around Australia but even if we can, natural caution suggests to wait until the results are in.

Meanwhile hope springs, as you know it does.

P2B=brief but really, really, really annoyed.

whole lotta shakin' goin' on

You know when you read something and you think, "this can't be true!" Even if you haven habitually low opinion of your fellow humans, particularly those in positions of political or commercial power - or even both - surely kidnapping slaves for the good of the empire is a step too far?


But it's the Times of London, the good old "Thunderer", surely they'd be reasonably sure of their facts before going to print?


Anyway, one to watch.

Of course I only got to that story because, as is my Sunday habit, I'd gone to see who was in the cross-hairs of Jeremy Clarkson this week. He's gone back to one of his regular targets, namely those of an environmental persuasion. If they buy this week's conveyance they'll lose their knees at the first minor parking lot bump.


It's bad to be a hater, but it's wonderful to watch a good hater in full flight.


And finally, went to get some timber to finish off the fence to artfully semi-hide the tank. Do you know, lattice is narrower nowadays than it was 30 years ago? I found this out after I'd brought 5 metres of lattice support home to discover that the groove running down the middle is narrower than in the previous support timber.

Whoda thunkit?

fixing a hole

P2B = quite a lot, to be fuelled by beer. And chips.



1) Like many, I guess, I peruse the excerpts from the various blogs on Oz Politics. I probably should get stuff by RSS feed but the couple of times I tried I couldn't get it to work.



That's an aside. Back to Oz Politics. I've noticed that the more extreme conservative blogs, but you can include some commentators at "libertarian" blogs, are always banging on about the "the left" and "leftists", often accompanied by colourful adjectives. Whereas on the other side of the 'sphere, the targets are narrower, or indeed more personal (Howard, other Ministers, Bush, etc). The adjectives tend to be just as colourful, though.



Why would this be, do you reckon? I don't have too much against conservatives as a breed (I wish Howard was more conservative in certain things, such maybe not dismantling the few checks and balances of our parliamentary system). What I do have a lot against is reactionaries (you could include "knuckle-dragging" there, as an example of a typical colourful adjective that is often applied). But I don't bang on about "the right". The adjectives I would apply to Howard refer to his behaviour: petty, vindictive, myopic. The closest to stereotyping I would get is in relation to Ruddock (fascist) and Downer (born-to rule, useless).



So, what's with the stereo? Typing, I mean?



2) Why I am not a quantity surveyor.



The water tank got installed during the week. This time I, rather than Mrs VVB, stayed home to supervise. I had some work to do, but only a couple of hours' worth. I rang after 10 to inquire about delivery, to be told it was an hour to 90 minutes off. At about 11 the installers arrived and did the bits they could, such as digging a little trench from the slab to my drainage pit. They asked did I dig it myself? Indeed I had, but I rented a small post hole auger as after 250 mm down you're into clay.



The tank arrived at 1pm, but it only took them a few minutes to hook it up.

Today I went to get some gravel for the drainage pit. I looked in the hole and thought "about half a cubic metre." I thought that I'd be able to pick it up in the heavy plastic bags that the landscape place sells, but no dice, they said, I needed a trailer. We used to have one, but as it never got even half the work it got in Canberra, we sold it years ago.

So I came home to think about it, and also to measure the hole properly, which turned out to be .3 of a cubic metre. I found a large plastic tub and an old garbage bin that totalled .2 of a cubic metre so off I went back to the shop. I figured I could make the rest of the volume up with broken bricks we have at home and bloke thought this was a good idea. The bloke cautioned me about overloading the car, particularly in relation to braking, but it was fine.

In fact the main problem with driving to and from the place was avoiding the western suburbs acreage women carefully navigating their Benzes and Bimmers wherever it is they go, in their splendidly coiffed glory on a Saturday at a steady 10-20 kph under whatever the speed limit is, peering frantically over the wheel lest a speck of dust land on the bonnet. Or they see another car, maybe an enthusiastically driven bright yellow Saab with an extra 200 kg of gravel aboard, actually travelling at the speed limit,

Except it turned out I did need .3 of a metre of gravel , so I went back the third time. I think I have now seen the look someone makes when they have to keep a straight face, but are actually rolling their eyes inwardly.


Anyway, it all looks fine and all I have to do is make a cover with some leftover timber, which I almost finished except the battery on the cordless drill didn't last so I'll have to finish it off tomorrow as well as reinstall the lattice fence that used to be there to hide the tank a bit.

The subsequent job is to make it rain.

smokie

The best letter to the editor I've seen in a long time, in today's SMH:

The Prime Minister's frantic attempts to fan flames out of his poll embers prompts an adage: where there's smoke there are mirrors.

M.F. Horton Alice Springs (NT)

Also today's cartoon from Pryor in the Canberra Times is pretty good. Very good, in fact.

Apart from that, it's just wtf? By which I mean, P2B=nil.

As a former, now unfortunately deceased, colleague of mine used to say, "Talk amongst yourselves. Smoke if you wish."

Mind you, that was a while ago.

doo doo doo looking fair go out my back door

What is it with these Kevin Rudd ads (he said, the dulcet sounds of our alternate PM attempting to be inspirational and reasonable in the background).

"The fair go has gone out the back door."

"Sick 'im Kev."

Look Kev, I don't want the whining PM and I don;t want you either. I want "the following program is chock-a-block with sex and violence, and should only be watched by the terminally disaffected."

Actually, I thought that overt political ads (ie not including WorkChoices) were limited to once writs had been issued?

As you might have guessed, P2B = nil. Got home from a work-related do at 8.30, said function did not repeat not offer alcohol, so that's a been a long day.

leaving on a jet plane

"His lawyers indicated to my department ... that he wanted to get out of Australia as soon as possible. If anything that rather heightens, rather than lessens, my suspicions."

Really, 'Minister'? How about that he's just been through an unconstitutional application of executive power? Dressed in Guantanamo orange (what signal do you think that sent him? I bet it's deliberate). He's got a new baby he hasn't seen? His lease has been torn up and he has no home here?

Don't you reckon he might quite justifiably be trying to put as much Indian Ocean between himself, his family and the wide brown land as he can?

If you genuinely believe what you said, you're a disgrace. Not that we didn't know that already. And while you're at it, what part of the Christian creed you're so devoted to supports that particular view of the world, where everybody is guilty until proven innocent, but still guilty? Nice one.

It's Andrews overboard, watch Howard let him go. That'll be a shame, it's hard to find parliamentarians as extremely socially conservative as the PM and Hyacinth, and Andrews filled the bill perfectly. Howard will be very upset. The people will be picking up on this, make no mistake. "First they came for..."

Good thing. Stew in it, you destroyer.

**I'm stumped for a musical reference title. I could use "Yours is no disgrace" again and strikethrough on "no", but that's piss poor. There are some very applicable song names with "scum" in the title but while that's how I feel, it just diminishes me too.

Update: gave it a title. And found this cartoon at the Canberra Times.

Oh, and P2B = steaming.

Second update: Channel 7 news tonight was heavy on the fact that Haneef was flown home first class (mentioned 3 or 4 times) at taxpayers' expense.

Just another cheap crack consistent with the government's agenda? Or laying it on with a trowel that at last Haneef got some recompense? I immediately jumped to the first conclusion, then the second occurred to me. Who's to know? But they really empathised the first class bit.

modern love

What a low productivity Saturday! We have done bugger all, and not even particularly stylishly at that.

There was an article in qweekend (the colour insert for the Saturday Courier Mail) the about loss of freedom to explore and learn as children. The article drew from a book call The Dangerous Book for Boys, a how-to-grow-up manual for the Xbox generation. The article attributed blame (blame! we must have some to blame! as Mrs VVB continually mocks me) to current policies that "undervalue childhood" and how all educational activities from childhood are aimed at employability. A Prue Walsh says, "When you hear politicians talking, they only talk about education as if it were some sort of sausage machine. You put the child in one end and out the other end come identical sausages that can go into the workforce and fulfil the requirements of the economy."

As much as I can identify with that statement given some parts of my work, I'm more inclined to look at the legislative environment that now operationalises (aaah... that feels better) the growing proclivity to (a) protect children, but more importantly (b) sue if anything goes wrong. My child fell over! You must pay me!

But Prue Walsh's comment about how politicians view education also strikes a chord. Once again, it's the marketisation of life. Yes, it's always been important since hunter-gatherer days to get a job. But if you define everything in life around market signals, guess what you get?

The article's conclusions about the potential effect on future generations, such as obesity and inability to do very simple things, seems pretty much spot on, though. But if we can't go back to those carefree days, do we need to be able to replicate the experience? Or do we invent something else?

And I was also most taken with this article that take some recent events in Britain (you can induce some idea from reading the article, but the examples are nothing I was aware of) that have destroyed people's confidence in public institutions, namely the BBC. Except it doesn't seem to mention the BBC very much. But losing faith in "premium phone lines", as mentioned in the article. Yes...when I talk about the marketisation of everyday life as the most pernicious effect of two decades of economic liberalism (fundamentalism more like), it's stuff like this I am talking about. I wonder whether whoever said that went home and spent any time reflecting on the ludicrousness of the statement? Not if you're in marketing, I guess.

Finally, a little personal story. An ad appeared on our office intranet the other day, someone's elderly parents were moving from the family abode after many decades, the father had been a home brewer and had a stack of tallies to get rid of which would not fit in the new unit. I put my hand up (electronically) and so last weekend I went around to collect these bottles.

All well and good , there were about five dozen, the interesting point was that most of them were full. That's the thing about home brewing - unless you have a sizable, ready supply of friends to take the stuff or are an utter alcoholic, you can't drink as much as you can brew.

He was a lovely old bloke, born and raised out the back of Broken Hill but had lived in a number of outback towns. He'd never had a brewing failure.

So I've just had one of his products. It's five years old according to the carefully printed label. Held an excellent head (more than mine do, bugger) and tastes fine.

I won't be brewing for a while, I think.

And tags! I hadn't 'got' tags, but that other Latin bloke up the road in Toowoomba gave me the drum. Except I keep forgetting to put them on each post. Dogs, age, tricks, and their mutual incompatibility.


I'm running out of photos that don't include the two offspring as adorable infants or stuff that I would prefer didn't identify me more than using my real first name already does. Don't expect it to make sense, I must listen to my own imprecations more often. Anyway, this is the Hotel St George in Algiers, it's probably got a more Arabic and less French name now. We used to go there for a meal occasionally, it was a rare oasis of stuff we understood, in a city where we really understood bugger all. Algiers was our first time overseas, what an introduction. The restaurant meals weren't anything amazing but it was a night out. The main feature was the cats - you couldn't have a meal without 3 or 4 cats rubbing your legs and hanging about waiting for a feed.

PS, just a bit later: Thinking about the marketisation of life, I heard on the TV news tonight George W Bush talking up the US economy to the punters (whatever the American equivalent of punters is). No doubt because of the recent falls in stock prices. From memory, the President said that the US economy was "large". Do you reckon that was the case before he became President? He asked Americans to "look at the economy." He said it was "flexible", and "resilient."

So do you reckon they looked at the economy? Where do you think they found it? Do you, perhaps, think that maybe Americans couldn't find "the economy" out there, but did in fact reflect on their own circumstances? And perhaps couldn't, in all cases, draw a correlation?

"Look at the economy." Sausage machines. And so on.

I rest my case.

say it isn't so

If there was any kind of justice, there'd be some Judge Dredd type of superthing rolling up to the front doors of Messrs Ruddock, Andrews, and Keelty, and dispensing a little summary justice.

Except it wouldn't be justice, it'd be vigilantism, and isn't that what they do? What we're fighting against?

Isn't it?

man of colours

Colours? As long as it's khaki. You gotta give it to him, when it comes to ideas, he's got a never ending supply of well used ones.

P2B = moderate, as long it's a well used supply of old cracks about the PM. VVB is nothing if not scrupulously even handed.

As if. And now he's going to do an 'emergency response' on public housing? Maybe he could start with the CGT tax relief on investment housing. Disclosure: Chateau VVB, via an interest in Chateau VVB and half, is a beneficiary of these laws. There's that even-handedness again folks, no wonder people vote for the buggers. By people, I of course mean other people. Just in case you were getting worried about the extent of our even-handedness.

And as for this one - South Australian cricketer Mark Cosgrove has been suspended from the National Centre of Excellence for repeated inappropriate treatment of accommodation. I can only assume it was because they treated the accommodation in a less than excellent manner. So, what's wrong with 'usual'? How about 'everyday'? Isn't that good enough?

Actually whenever I read "centre of excellence" I damn near cack myself. What the fuck does it mean? Talk about a meaningless bureaucratic concept. Some years ago my job was as desk jockey for policy on Australia's interests with respect to one of the UN specialised agencies. This agency, in common with much of the UN I have to admit, was an anachronistic liability. As part of ongoing reviews, someone made the suggestion that it could reinvent itself as a "Centre of Excellence". This was my first encounter with the concept. I thought to myself, "OK, this place is currently eleventy different kinds of useless. But just by renaming it a 'Centre of Excellence', it'll somehow miraculously come good? Stone the crows, this is just stupid."

Unfortunately, much of my working life since those days has been dealing with similar kinds of stupidity. Fortunately, they pay me quite well. Presumably for my ability to stomach stupidity.

Revised P2B = some stuff makes me highly excited.

smoke gets in your eyes

P2B = quickies only. I am (supposed to be) wrestling with impenetrable bureaucratese and preparing for a presentation tomorrow (instead of farting about with stuff like this).

Anyway, all owners of British cars will be familiar with Joseph Lucas, the Prince of Darkness.

Courtesy of offspring no 1, here's how you can quickly get the same effect.

If you've got several hours and are willing to download a massive pdf file so you can read some impenetrable bureaucratese (hint: don't bother), here is a lot more gumph on the Lucas company. The file is pages 282 to 341 of some industry report. It's a scanned version of an old document, obviously typed on a 1950s era typewriter and nowhere in it could a quick scan find a reference to what the document actually is. Although the website is British Government. So, like I said, don't bother. There's 10 seconds of your life I've stolen.

nashna lamthem

P2B, which is VVB code for "propensity to blog" = sfa. But thanks to ole' mate derf, here's a new anthem for us all. No girt by sea here.

THE NEW AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM

Australians all let us rejoice
The weekend now is near
We've worked all bloody week for this
Dear God let's get a beer.
Our desks abound in paperwork
Our hands are stained with ink
In desperate stage, we'll fly the cage
Advance to Friday drinks!!
With joyful strains, destroy our brains
Advance to Friday drinks.

alice's restaurant

P2B = enough for this to catch my attention.

From the Times of London, some memorable instances of wrongful dismissal and similar workplace shenanigans. This is why we must have AWAs, I reckon. As always, the comments are great, as indeed they are for this review of a restaurant by A A Gill. And he said, moving on a little, this one also, which neatly features a comment from Australia linked to our workplace laws. You know I just write as I go, I couldn't make up these coincidences if I tried.
AA Gill seems to share Jeremy Clarkson's ineffably Tory take on how the world works, especially a righteous disdain for (a) anything attempting to be ecologically sound and (b), the pernicious effects of a never-ending incursion of the State into people's everyday lives. This week, Clarkson observes that the legal framework is now encouraging the spread of what you might call 'local junior vigilante snitches'. After he's ranted about this for long enough, he gets to the actual motor review, which goes, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh."

You can't argue with that.

turning japanese (*)

P2B = niche applications only.

I need to introduce you good folks to the wonders of Tatsuya Ishida's Sinfest.

Go! Enjoy!

See?

(*) not really, got stuck for a music-related title...

clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right

It's like a long playing record with only one track.

I guess the poor bugger has to do his job by buoying the faithful, maybe it'd be better if he actually tried to address the issues and make a connection. As reported, this is just dross, the wrong message for the wrong market.

But hey, what do you expect?.

More: a good article from Karen Middleton in the Canberra Times today. Except I would characterise a "dead" electorate more as an electorate sick of lies and spin. No one side of politics has a mortgage on spin, but the current government certainly has wrapped up the prevarication, dissembling and dishonesty department.

real life

P2B = max!

What a turnaround from last night's enuui and introspection. Just look at these pictures.

What car is this, I hear you ask yourselves (well actually what I may be hearing is that clicking sound as people move rapidly in the direction of away, but let the rest of us plough on nonetheless).

It is in fact the actual car on which the model in this post and this one also was based. A couple of days ago one Stuart Dent, of somewhere in the UK, left a message on a recent post inquiring about my model. Seems he had been searching for a model Isis, had run across my original post and was dumbfounded, gobsmacked one might even venture, to realise that it was a model of his very own Morris Isis, rego no 150 BJO. Looking at my original post reminds me that I'd never taken fresh pictures of the model which are actually in focus. So here are some.

Seeing the pictures of Stuart's car resolves one of the disappointments I had with the model. The bonnet just seemed too short, as I recall my own car had a monstrously long bonnet to accommodate the 2639cc C series motor which distinguished the Isis from its lowly 4 cylinder cousin, the Oxford. You can see this difference in this photo, of Stuart's car alongside a Mk1 variant.

But of course the Mk2 versions had vestigal fins, making the back appear longer in proportion to the bonnet. I do notice some sort of green fungus growing on the radiator grille, though, which I will need to figure out how to fix.

Anyway, what a pristine example Stuart's car is! Stuart says it's unrestored which makes it just amazing - as a Mk2 Isis this would have been built around 1959. Because my own one was never in such good nick. I got it off the old man in October 1968 and sold it about a year later. There it is in the picture below. Do notice the racing stripes lovingly applied with electrical tape. As I was still in school I didn't have much income - I used to earn $13 a weekend at the garden centre which covered petrol and beer, but not proper racing stripes. Or paint. Or anything else.

I have no idea what I must have been thinking when the photo was taken, but the pose is very disturbing. Not to mention the floppy toweling hat, the faux-Lennon glasses and something hanging around my neck. On top of the after effects of having my brain eaten yesterday, I think it's time to crawl back into bed and slip into unconsciousness until Monday. These memories are too much to bear.

So, good people, the wonders of globalisation and the intertubes. I never even thought I'd get a model of an Isis, but at that time I only knew about mass-produced die cast models. I should have realised that somewhere in a corner of old Blighty, someone would be lovingly creating by hand models of forgotten English motoring history. So to get my model was great. For Stuart to be moseying around the nettysphere looking for Isis-related paraphernalia and run across this little blog might be expected, given the tubosphere's ubiquity in these modern times. But to find a model of his very own car? Amazing. I must let Carl and Amanda at Crossways Models know.

Afterword: in the time it took to put this post together, what with taking and uploading photos, scanning, doing other stuff, etc, there was a car accident just outside. I heard the tyre squeal, the crump and thensome other sounds. I raced outside and there was a car on its roof - seems like it had been travelling up the hill, maybe a bit fast and a car had come out of the street on the left, the first car had stopped and swerved but the second car must have just caught it and nudged it over on to the roof, an easy thing to happen when a car it not balanced on the road. There were already plenty of people on the scene so no need to intervene. It was a bit different a few years ago when a young bloke with a skinful aboard wrapped his car around the light pole alongside our driveway. I got there first but couldn't help him....

it's alright ma, i'm only bleeding

Statements of the bleeding obvious.

You look around the lead sentences in many small blogs and you get "can't be bothered blogging" or some variation. We've had it here at Chateau VVB on many occasions and it has now been formalised by the P2B (propensity to blog) quotient, just to save time typing.

Yet at the same time you (or I, anyway) get the feeling of guilt that, having established the blog, it should be maintained, fed, nurtured and allowed to grow.

It's the growing bit that gets worrying he said, starting to warm to the stream of consciousness about to...what?

You see, the growth should be in the writing - content, style, ability to entertain and/or inform. And so if the growth is not in evidence, you start to wonder....all over again.

You'd never believe, reading this little blog, that when I was 16 I wanted to become a journalist. That was even before I started drinking, surely the other main prerequisite for a successful career in journalism along with some ability with words.

Ranting about John Howard doesn't do it and - er, big admission coming up - it doesn't even make me feel good any more.

Although those lucky people who got to listen to my unsolicited comments on the 7pm ABC radio news as we drove home tonight might query that assertion.

So, how to grow? Maybe taking some more effort over the writing might help: you know, drafting it up offline and posting later. Although that might detract from the immediacy of some comments if they relate to current events. It's not a journal or magazine article, after all.

And never forget: it's not a competition. Which is just as well, as VVB doesn't seem to figure anywhere on the Oz Blogs rankings. Although looking through this list certainly confirms the nature of the blogosphere as a multitude of small communities. What is the fascination with cooking, he asks himself?

If you go back to post number one, you will see that I never set out for VVB to be a well researched exposition on anything, rather simply some personal views: opinions, in fact. I'm not a specialist in any particular field either by training or experience. No, actually I am: I'm a darn fine cog in any set of big wheels, the sort of organisation that looks like a Heath Robinson invention. Like the one below. In fact this particular one is very close to the actualite. (Picture courtesy of here).


The challenge is to turn this cogginess, coggitude if you will, into something else and that's the little journey we have been going on for the last couple of months. I thought I was making good progress until this morning,when a well credentialled amateur - well no, this person has practised professionally - burrowed into my brain and set the hares running. Talk about discomfort!

So how well do we know ourselves? Some people seem to from an early age. Maybe in many of these cases the external confidence and certitude masks the inner turmoil. Other seem to drift lazily through life and it all falls into place: not necessarily fame, wealth and power, but just whatever it is that floats their boats.

Anyway my brain has been burrowed into and now I have to assess the feedback. Am I holding onto the past? Did I simply answer the questions honestly and this person has misconstrued the responses? Does it matter a flying fig?

This is the problem with just writing stuff as it comes into your head. You get to a stage in the piece, you've said bugger all, you have in fact stolen a little bit of everybody's lives (well no, it was your choice to plough on so ya boo sucks if you have) and oliver sudden you have to make a point, the 'aha' moment, and draw it to a satisfying conclusion.

No such luck, at this or any other time. The answer is 'I don't know', or my other current favourite saying, 'the answer is always in the middle'.

Shortly afterwards....

Fuck it, you finish the shitty piece, press 'publish' and go trawling and almost immediately come up with some good stuff. Like this:

"Yeah, we make big efforts over the batter," says Rigby. "I can't stand it when you get batter which is really thick and there's a shrivelled piece of fish inside." What prompted him to get into a seemingly declining fast-food trade? "I set up Sea Cow with my brother Dan after working as an equity trader in the City," he says. Surely there was more money in his old job? "Maybe, but it was soul-destroying, watching people getting fired all the time. So I jacked it in and took some time off to travel." He found himself in Sydney, Australia. "They have great fish bars with the catch of the day spread out on ice. Simple, brilliant food with an accent on freshness. I knew this would work over here. A new spin on an old favourite - that was the idea."

I mean, does that or does that not get the mental cogs turning? Maybe not so much the reinvention of fish and chips (except "the eating of fish and chips also enables it to be appropriated in support of cosy visions of democratic solidarity" perhaps), but the - to me, anyway - more obvious one of yet another story of the arid world of big money: "soul-destroying". Ever since Bernard Salt coined the phrase I've had a theory, utterly unsubstantiated by anything except blind envy and deep prejudice, that most of the 'sea change' stories are of people who are precisely in that position: they've made a motza, have got sick of the corporate life, and have the comfort of enough moolah to follow their hearts. Cool, if you've got it. The alternative, namely living in a caravan park - well, one of the few still left - doesn't do it for me.

And the reinvention of fish and chips as a piece of Australian innovation. Who'd have guessed? Actually, this is a rattling good read, the sort you get much more frequently in Pommy papers than here (he says, returning to an old theme).

Not only, but also: justification for why I feel unsatisfied with my bloggitude...I'm an amateur. Glad we cleared that up.

Nighty-night.

red red wine

P2B - can't be bothered.

Why write a thousand words when a picture will suffice? Pryor in the Canberra Times nails the wine collection and the anguish of being the other in one frame.

Jo - more car stories soon!

the letter

P2B - pretty bloody minimal. However, have some of today's letters to the editor in today's SMH.

I begin this letter while sitting on a train stuck between Waverton and North
Sydney stations because the train ahead of us has had a power failure. At least
I have time to reflect on the various ways that there has been progressive
degradation of the system.

In the 1960s my father, a stock and station agent in Grenfell, could phone an order to Sydney before 2pm and the goods would arrive on the next morning's train. Then, the Askin government decided to reduce the service to three days a week. I seem to remember various discussions around "cheaper to transport by road" and "bloody unions". That was the beginning of the rot.

The trend continued. Successive governments have closed rail lines, counting only the short-term costs. You have to wonder about such costs as building and repairing roads to withstand the mass of heavy traffic, the cost to society from injury and death caused through truck accidents, the hidden costs such as sleep loss from B-doubles thundering through suburbs during the night, and the environmental costs from diesel burning.

So now we have excess heavy road transport, an inadequate intrastate rail service and a pathetic urban network. It seems much of this rot came from governments adhering unthinkingly to various ideological fashions, especially so-called economic rationalism and the "user pays" cant. Well, how rational is it to fail to invest in maintaining infrastructure that makes a society work?

And the news, by the way, is the user always pays, one way or another: through monetary charge or through some loss of amenity. This applies whether facilities are run by government or private enterprise.

It's time we demanded that governments stop pandering to simplistic or selfish reason and start addressing the question of facilitating a healthy, functional society. The investment and commitment needed to maintain a proper preventive maintenance program for our rail system would be a good start. We used to have one, but someone got rid of it.
Peter Thompson Killara



I am furious. Not just at Howard's continued incarceration of Haneef, but more at Rudd showing not-so-early symptoms of Beazley's "Tampa ticker".
Peter Dwyer Epping

When is federal Labor going to display some principled opposition to ill-conceived Government action (for example, the new Northern Territory laws and the Haneef visa revocation) rather than supporting everything the Government proposes "in principle"?
Beatrice Marett-Bird Ashfield

On other things...

Listening to

Solomon Burke, Nashville. Offspring no2 thinks I've gone over the to the dark side, all I can say is "c'mon you ole devil, take me down." It's great.

Tonight's picture shows you the cream of the Islamabad diplomatic community sorting out a minor protocol kerfuffle in the time-honoured way. Kind of reminds you of this, doesn't it?

blister in the sun

P2B: 2/5ths of 5/8ths of SFA.

Via Bookforum, we get "The End Times – for that is how the Apocalyptics refer to this prelude to Armageddon – have created a vigorous market of mass extinction tat..."

And I'm sure this excerpt will reel you in: "He suggests that the first President Bush invaded Panama because Manuel Noriega had incriminating photos of George W. Bush snorting cocaine and engaging in kinky sex."

And finally, "Well we're part of an international complex - the Twinkie Industrial Complex."

The last not a bad article - light on hysteria, longer on reasoned argument. Nice.

Tonight's picture is to tantalise you (well, sort of, depending on your propensity to tantalisation). It is indeed yer 'umble correspondent, some years ago. Quite some years ago, in fact. Multiple bits of equipment festoon his person, the large backpack certainly dates the video gear, as do the flares. The shadow thrown by the camera lens could be misconstrued, especially if you squint. Mind you, it'd also make a medical marvel.

if

P2B = stone mofoing zero. Have a picture.



It's the caves at Mole Creek in Tassie. The observant amongst you will note that it is devoid of both moles and a creek.

Truth in advertising...phooey.

everything is broken

P2B quotient - very very low. I look through the OzPolitics feed and it all looks very familiar. We are obsessed with what obsesses us.

So all you get is a link to today's Times, "for video, picture and analysis of David and Victoria as they arrive in the US."

And by crikey there's heaps (link provided, you'll have to trust me when I say I haven't clicked through on to any of them).

Analysis?

Analysis?

Of a bloody footballer? Tell me, the world has gone stark fucking barking crazy, has it not?

Tonight's picture is of the previous Australian Embassy in Islamabad (there is now a much more substantial building in town), taken from a Nomad aircraft that was pretty much on its side, about 1000m up. An interesting experience, to be sure. Especially with a raging hangover. And that was the pilot...

everyone's gone to the movies

I don't know how much it helps to point to the GetUp Oz in 30 seconds campaign here at chateau VVB as well as all the other places that have linked already, but it certainly is good! Australia's got Talent (tm)!

I've seen all good people

P2B quotient = high.

Today's good people include Jack Waterford, editor-in-chief at the Canberra Times. Of course the Crimes is the perfect soft-left kind of rag that a town proportionately overpopulated by public servants needs, but it does a good line in analysis, probably somewhere between the histrionics of the Murdoch rags and the increasingly Entertainment Tonight irrelevance of Fairfax.

Random thought - if the current government gets returned, there may not be any soft-left public servants left in Canberra.

It claims to "serve the National City and through it the Nation", which it sort of does although with a fair lick of local shenanigans. The PM, who chooses not to live in the Nation's Capital City, can therefore ignore it with impunity.

Anyway I reckon Waterford always writes well and this piece on the continuing train wreck that is the Occupation of Iraq is a good example. What's also interesting is this piece which, although tagged as a letter to the editor, is evidently a companion opinion piece but by whom, I don't know.

Another issue currently getting a run is housing affordability. Chateau VVB is much plagued by this because, as Ross Gittins points out, many baby boomers have ridden the real estate roller coaster all the way up while their kids can't even afford to get into the park. This is our situation exactly - much as we'd love to the spend the kids' inheritance, I don't think we could bring ourselves to do it.

Finally, I've been listening to the Drive By Truckers, bought on the advice of Anonymous Chris who has not only turned me to alt. country but has also divined the politics of Chateau VVB to a T. So the Drive By Truckers are like Springsteen on steroids, with lyrics like:

And all them politicians, they’re all lyin' sacks of shit
They say better days upon us but it’s sucking left hind tit

Go to the link and read the lyrics. All good people.

long distance runaround

It'd be really handy to know what influences the propensity to blog (which from now on, until we forget it, will be referred to as P2B). Last week the posts came quite easily, even if they weren't all that inspiring or different (Howard, cars). On the other hand, I doubt if anyone comes to chateau VVB for either inspiration or difference...

Anyway I've just not been in much of a mood to write anything over the last few days but feel this...bloody obligation.....to churn summat out. Know wot I mean?

So from my favourites list, here's a couple that I only visit occasionally, mainly because they tend to suck me in and I spend a few hours reading and following links.

I dunno who Anil Dash is apart from what he says about himself, he lives in New York and is associated with a company that provides, as a competitor to Blogger/Google, infrastructure for blogs and other similar stuff. He's got a lovely straightforward writing style, I'd love to hear him speak as I imagine he's a very clear communicator. He has a rare ability to take a subject that you may not have much interest in, and make it compelling.

Look at all the blogs and sites he contributes to. How do people make that time available? Maybe they work 24/7 (it is New York, after all). Maybe he types faster than me (in fact I'm sure he does). He probably also thinks faster, more to the point.

And this one will suck you right in if you are interested in organisations and management (sounds of footsteps heading for the virtual door). There is much to the power of narrative if it's done well: "bloody good stories well told" is the phrase I believe.

I think most organisations put a lot of effort into how they do their strategising, but nonetheless I think many of them go about it quite arse-about. A year or so ago I was involved in a little experiment (well it was experimental from my perspective, others had more confidence!) to put together a community of practice.

This ended up being very successful, just how successful I'll get an insight into in a few months' time. The guiding principle for the group was that "culture beats strategy." The number of references there indicates that the phrase isn't unique or new, but even so I'd guess that you'll find organisations will use a so-called 'strategic' approach 99 times out of 100.
The basis for the culture is the personal relationship. In the example where I was involved, we only had 20 off people so it was a doable task. Part of developing a common culture with this group involved getting them to tell their stories as well as some surprising simple exercises to get them out of their own comfort zones and thinking more deeply about each other's comfort zones, in other words understanding the issues and objectives that drove each other.

With business and university people in the same room, you can imagine that there was not a lot in common on most issues. I was hoping that we could remove from the equation the organisational impediments, particularly for the uni representatives, and just focus on what could be achieved within these people's own areas of responsibility. And believe it or not, quite a lot could be, once we got thinking about it.

That's not to say that solutions fell from the sky, but having made the breakthroughs on the personal level, there was more willingness to seek agreement rather than throw the hands in the air. On the Anecdotes site linked to earlier, I found this in the left hand sidebar. Communities of Practice, as popularised by Etienne Wenger, is another way of describing the outcomes of taking the culture beats strategy approach to group or organisational development.



Well that filled in half an hour or so that could have more usefully been devoted to the work I brought home. The fire's going, I put on a big piece of wood that had been white-anted just to get rid of it, and it's smoked the place out. Which means we have to open the windows, which lets the cold in. Very sensible.




Tonight's picture comes to you from a place where they do strategy differently. This is Torkham, on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border at the commencement of the Khyber Pass.

Negotiations with the Customs people could be exhaustive, a personal relationship would have helped, often an inducement could result in a very beneficial relationship.

you say it best when you say nothing at all

"We don't make statements unless there is sufficient reason."

John Howard, Prime Minister