Happy Holidays!
December 22, 2006I’ll be off the grid for the next week or so … planning on spending a few quite days with the family and a few days kicking back camping. Plenty of thinking to do over the holidays: plans for the new year (and beyond), the blog - what direction it should go? Geez, I’m giving myself a headache just thinking about it! Thanks to everyone who’s commented or emailed during the year and for reading.
Whilst I’m not celebrating xmas for any religious reasons, it still can be a holiday to celebrate a wide variety of things like family, community and love. I hope that you have a safe and happy one!
Philosophy 101
December 21, 2006I was channel surfing the idiot box the other night after getting home relatively late from a friends bday and stumbled across a fascinating doco on the design of modern housing and the relationship between housing, architecture and the relationship with the (perceived) quality of our lives. I later found out that it was part of a series called The Architecure of Happiness. A really interesting series. Reminds me of some of the things I loved studying during my undergrad years, and why I ended up with a Human Geography major.
The author/narrator Alain de Botton was also interviewed on a show that started directly after. Here’s a person that they referred to as a Philosopher — a real-life modern-day philospher. Now you don’t hear of that too often. I like the fact that Alain is such a Renaisance man … author, philospher, artist. A generalist in every sense of the word! I’ll be sure to check out his work in further depth. Any suggestions where I should start?
Many find the idea of finding wisdom from studying Philisophy in these modern times strange and bizzare. I’m fascinated by it.
Ride on
December 21, 2006I’ve entered my first organised bike ride event — Amy’s Ride — on 06-Jan-2007 at Geelong. Should be lots of fun and it’s a good cause too: which is to raise awareness of road safety and to promote an understandstanding between cyclists and drivers on our roads. I’m planning on doing the 45km curcuit ride. A sign of things to come in 2007.
If there are any other melbourne/geelong bloggers planning to ride and would like to hook up and ride together and perhaps chew the blog fat–amongst other things–while we ride, ping me before hand.
Wish me luck.
Burnt
December 18, 2006The G4 power adapter zapped me today when the wiring was exposed and burnt my thumb. I’m not impressed to say the least! And that’s not all. The replacement cost — $AUD 129.00!! Daylight robbery.
5 Things Most People Don’t Know About Me
December 13, 2006Ok, I’ll play. Tony has tagged me to join the meme of “5 Things Most People Don’t Know About Me”. I quite like this idea … it’s a good icebreaker and goes beneath the “elevator pitch” facade most people are forced to carry around to comply with social norms.
So here it is:
1. Despite having both Undergrad (BA) and Masters (MBA) degrees, technically I have never passed Year 9 of High School. I switched schools (I was in danger of being kicked out!) and started at y10 at the new school, which commenced the school year in November.
2. I was born at Walsgrave Hospital , Coventry on the 26th December - Boxing Day. I emigrated with my family at the age of 6, arriving in Australia on 20th May 1977.
3. In my mid-late teens I fronted a hard rock / metal band. We played a couple of local gigs and parties, but inevitably we all went our separate ways. I still predominantly listen to Metal — faves being Sabbath (and Ozzy), Metallica, Zepplin, Dio and some local Melbourne stuff thrown in for good measure — although my tastes have matured somewhat with age. Eclectic is probably the best description.
4. I underwent a Gastric lavage procedure after a drug overdose at the age of 5. I had raided the medicine chest and taken a whole heap of aspirin. I also convinced my little brother (who was 3 at the time) to take them too, by crushing them into water. To this day, I still vividly remember the experience!
5. I experienced my fifteen (and only) minutes of fame on TV at the tender age of 12. I was a contestant on Family Feud (Daryl Somers was host). We stayed on for a couple of nights and won a couple of dodgy prizes. I’ve never lived it down. I just hope that it never ends up on YouTube!
I’ll need to give some more thought on who to tag seeing as tough Tony would have been one of my victims and he’s already tagged Pete - so watch this space. Ping me if you’d like to volunteer.
Update: No volunteers, so here are a few people I would love to know more about (some I don’t know at all!). Apologies if you feel like you’ve just been chain-mailed!:
Martin Gleesson, Micheal Specht, Ben Barren, Tejas Patel, Michael D. Pollock
