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.
31 July 2007
29 July 2007
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.
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.
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.
28 July 2007
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.
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.
27 July 2007
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?
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?
26 July 2007
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.
25 July 2007
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.
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.
22 July 2007
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.
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!
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...
21 July 2007
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.
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....
20 July 2007
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'.
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.
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:
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!
18 July 2007
the letter
P2B - pretty bloody minimal. However, have some of today's letters to the editor in today's SMH.
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?
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.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 EppingWhen 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 AshfieldOn other things...
Listening to
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?
17 July 2007
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.
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.
16 July 2007
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.
15 July 2007
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?
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...
11 July 2007
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.
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:
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.
10 July 2007
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
