tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-259076322024-03-07T19:50:42.747+11:00Total Bern Out!This blog defies description. It doesn't mean too. I have spoken to it and it has said it will try to be more meaningful, but I think it was just telling me what I wanted to hear.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-82158041960139530752019-11-08T13:26:00.001+11:002019-11-08T13:26:49.017+11:00Mind bendingGreetings on a surprisingly cool November morning.
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I've recently been thinking about the rise of mistrust in science. There are a couple of obvious examples: climate change denial and the anti-vaccination movement. I'm not going to discuss these particular issues but I am interested in how they have precipitated a challenge to the authority of the scientific method and research in general.
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I trust the scientific method - it makes sense to me. It is self-correcting, which means it is tolerant of mistakes. Mistakes are a very human trait. Whether a mistake is the result of malice, self-interest, carelessness or simple misinterpretation, a theory that is falsely substantiated will ultimately be exposed and corrected.
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What science does not promise is certainty. We have varying levels of confidence ranging from "maybe this is how it is" to "you can bet your life on it". We wouldn't build an aeroplane if the theory of gravity was in the former category. But just as importantly, we cannot always wait for a theory to reach the "bet your life on it" before we act.
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I don't think this will surprise anyone. Most people understand that nothing is perfect so we do the best with what we have. But more and more, this seemingly sensible approach is being challenged. We all know the frustration of being told that something is bad for us only to be told that it is actually good for us a few years later, but it seems very shortsighted to wait for a 100% guarantee that a particular cancer medicine will cure your cancer.<br />
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The problem occurs when we use extremely rare examples to drive our thinking and ignore the staggeringly huge number of examples where the correct advice has been given. This is the basis of the Cherry picking argument, which ignores the preponderance of evidence in favour of evidence that supports the desired position. Like denying global warming because today is the coldest day for the start of November in many decades. Studies have shown that people who are generally uncertain about global warming are more likely to believe it is true on hot days and less likely on cold days. It's almost like they are ignoring the word "global".<br />
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Now here is the mind-bending part.<br />
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If I have a right to my opinion, do you have a right to try to change it? Put another way, what gives someone the "right" to challenge another, if they have a "right" to decide for themselves?<br />
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While the previous paragraph might sound interesting, it is basically rubbish. First, while you do have a legally enforceable right to an opinion, no one has the right to their own facts. An opinion cannot extend to clearly logical fallacies like 1 + 1 = 3, but apparently, it can extend to the denial of expertise.<br />
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This is a critical shift in the public psyche. We are no longer surprised when thousands of experts are ignored because someone claiming to be an expert presents precisely the evidence desired by vested interests. <br />
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It is not unreasonable to raise the question about expertise. Every major scientific breakthrough in history has flown in the face of thousands of experts. But as Carl Sagan stated, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". Each of those claims that did have to rise above the wisdom of the day met this demanding condition.<br />
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Could it not be, therefore, that such extraordinary evidence is on the side of the climate deniers and anti-vaxers? Perhaps they are the experts making extraordinary claims, and to dub them "self-proclaimed experts" is denying them the same opportunity to rise above the wisdom of today.<br />
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Nope.<br />
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They do not have extraordinary evidence. They willfully misinterpret, cherry-pick or outright deny the existing evidence. This is not science, and they have no place in the scientific discourse.<br />
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It would be great if we had the time to thoroughly test all the claims, retest all the evidence collected so far, and calmly walk the sceptics through the evidence. It would be great if we could be 100% sure of all scientific claims. But we can't, and time is not on our side.<br />
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And yet, their voices are loud. Too many people want to be told that the alarm bells of science can be safely ignored.<br />
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They ignore the warnings to their peril, and we tolerate their ignorance to our own peril.<br />
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Thought for the Day: It really is surprising cold today.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-66482267245199584882019-11-05T13:37:00.001+11:002019-11-05T13:37:36.848+11:00How embarrassmentOk, so here is a little additional blog post that I thought I should share while I think of it.<br />
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A few years ago, Peter Jackson, the acclaimed film director, announced that he was making "The Lord of the Rings". I watched and enjoyed these films a great deal.<br />
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DW and I watched each of the films in the cinema, and then bought the extended-release DVDs, and watched ALL the extra features and the movies again with the audio commentaries. We watched it a lot. We even mastered the Trivial Pursuit version.<br />
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I tell you this so that you will appreciate just how excited we were to hear that Peter Jackson's company was making "The Hobbit", the precursor to "The Lord of the Rings" and one of my favourite books as a child.<br />
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My excitement might have been slightly more than DWs. It was slightly diminished when I heard that Guilermo del Toro was attached to direct instead of Peter. I did enjoy "Pan's Labyrinth", directed by Guilermo, but it seemed like they were messing with a proven team. So, it was with piqued interest that I signed in to an Internet chat at 5am on a cold Sunday morning 11 years ago to partake in a Q&A with Peter and Guilermo.<br />
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They had been collecting questions over the previous weeks and would aim to answer the top 20. I hadn't submitted any questions but I was definitely keen to get the scoop. Also, they did say that they would try to take extra questions if there was time. I figured I might get lucky and think of a particularly good question that they found so intriguing and insightful that they couldn't resist.<br />
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The sign-in process was a little odd, and I found myself in a chat room that appeared to be empty - no messages, no other participants, nothing. The title of the room was correct, but I was concerned that I hadn't signed in properly so I posted the message, "Are we starting?"<br />
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The message didn't appear, so I started to think that I should sign out and back in, when all of a sudden, names started popping up in the attendee list. Stuff was happening. I was in the right place.<br />
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Sure enough, a few minutes later, the name I had been waiting for appeared. Peter Jackson.<br />
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Guilermo de Toro was there as well. Peter posted the first message to kick things off. Apparently, it was rainy in NZ and cloudy in London. The host of the chat, called "WetaHost" posted the first of the 20 initial questions, about the use of physical locations vs digital locations. Both Peter and Guilermo explained their preference for physical where possible, and I was already starting to think about what my question would be. There was a text field on the side of the chat screen where you could pose questions that they moderators would select from. A tricky task given the number of people posting questions.<br />
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Then it happened.<br />
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I asked my question. My one and only question.<br />
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Not the cleverly crafted question that I had been drafting on a notepad beside the computer. Not even some stupid fanboy question. So, what question did I ask?<br />
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<b>bmeade: </b>Are we starting?<br />
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Yep, my question that I posted to test if I was in the right place spat itself out into the chat room 20 minutes later and landed in front of millions of fans desperately hoping to get to ask their own cleverly crafted or stupid fanboy question.<br />
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It sat there for a couple of seconds. I couldn't believe it. For a moment I thought it might just be a caching problem with my chat window, until Peter answered it.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;">Peter Jackson:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> Hi bmead - we are underway, great for you to join us!</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #143148; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
My heart sank. Then Guilermo chimed in...<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;">Guilermo del Toro:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> We are,. Welcome</span></span><br />
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I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get to ask any more questions. I was right. I'm also pretty sure that was the largest number of people swearing at me in unison in my life.<br />
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I got to ask one question of Peter Jackson and Guilermo del Toro, and it was "Are we starting?"<br />
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To their credit, they were both very polite.<br />
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And of course, the Internet doesn't forget. While several versions of this chat transcript are available, most have trimmed out the stupid questions, but a couple of complete versions exist.<br />
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And just in case you don't believe me, here is one such link: <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Jackson-Del-Toro-Chat-Up-Hobbit-With-Fans-8938.html">https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Jackson-Del-Toro-Chat-Up-Hobbit-With-Fans-8938.html</a><br />
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It's been 11 years, but I am starting to recover. I won't say I see the funny side yet, but there is hope.<br />
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Thought for the Day:<br />
I really did have a great question planned<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-86403756407415952682019-11-05T08:37:00.001+11:002019-11-05T08:37:48.394+11:00Values and authenticityGood morning, world. I hope it is sunny wherever you are, unless it is night, or you are hoping for rain.
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<br>I am participating in a discussion at work where we are hoping to drive the business side of the University with Values that are shared and committed to by all staff. This sort of activity is often embraced by management but causes eyes to roll among the staff. I'm definitely in the Management camp these days - mostly because of my extensive experience and because I can't be trusted with the systems we operate.
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<br>It is very easy to argue that these sorts of activities actually get in the way of the work, but seem from another point of view, one that has to take in the horizon as well as the day to day, these activities promote sustainability.
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<br>I was pretty sceptical when the process started, and I may have put some of my colleagues offside by disagreeing with the general sentiments. Most of the others in the review team were very happy with the process, but I felt that we needed to challenge the status quo. In my opinion, of the values we currently operate by are valid, they will still be so at the end of the process.
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<br>I don't believe in starting from scratch every time, or that our current values were fundamentally wrong. On the contrary, I think they were pretty good and I actively embraced them. But during this very process I was introduced to the concept of core vs aspirational values. I reflected on these ideas and what they meant for the current values. I realised that we had only expressed one core values, but the other two were aspirational.
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<br>This doesn't have to be a problem. It is perfectly ok to choose this - the key is that we actually make that choice.
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<br>My biggest concern is that core values need to be understood and shared. Aspirational values are great as a guide, but not achieving them is not a disaster. You can always keep trying. Core values are those that you actually live by. I think we actually have good core values but we are not sure of our is ok to express them. For example, we need to save the Uni money so that it can support more teaching and research.
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<br>This means we can't always provide the very best services, but we can provide the best service we can afford. And that is ok. Value for money is a necessary evil when it comes to research and education. Actually value for money is just a necessary evil, full stop.
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<br>So once again I will optimistically join in the conversation because I believe that, shared values are indeed the best way to ensure the sustainability of the University and produce the best graduates and research outcomes possible.
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<br>Now, don't I sound like a manager?
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<br>Thought for the day:
<br>Working on Melbourne Cup Day sucks (I know, profound, right?)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-40486471513093415332019-10-31T08:11:00.001+11:002019-10-31T13:24:25.287+11:00HalloweenWelcome to this All Hallows Eve.
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I don't know much about the origin of Halloween, but my awareness has come from a steady diet of American TV. It seems like fun but there is probably a serious downside. Is it really a good idea for kids to ask strangers for treats? Better minds than mine are pondering this problem.
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Speaking of better minds, I'm trying to decide what to do with mine. I mean, now that I have bettered it, not that it is generally better than others. Since finishing the PhD, I've taken some time to take stock. Obviously, the changes that have occurred this year have forced a deeper introspection than I might have otherwise committed to, but that is ok. Maybe it is even better.
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So, after many months of navel-gazing, I have decided that I need to change the world. Let me be clear, the world is changing whether I want it to or not. My intention here is to guide that change. That probably seems a bit arrogant, to which I respond, "Have you met me?"
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I know I probably can't change the world, but I'm pretty sure I won't if I don't try.
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I think that most people believe that they can't change the world or compete with those larger-than-life figures that dominate the international news. There is also the problem that we don't all agree as to what changes we need.
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I don't know either, but I think I have some good ideas. I think the first thing we need to change is our resistance to change. We all find a way of tolerating our circumstances unless the impact is sudden. My evidence for this assertion is that the people in my street wouldn't tolerate the conditions present in a poorer suburb if they were suddenly thrust into it. But over time, a suburb can become poor, and the people there adjust slowly. So, some of those intolerable aspects become tolerable given time.
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Obviously, this isn't always the case, and there are many exceptions. But that is not the point.
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Reading back over this, I can see how it might seem that I am contradicting myself. I propose accepting change and then I say we already do this, as long as it is slow. What I mean is that when charge comes on is slowly, we don't think of it as change, so we have accepted changes that we shouldn't have because we don't want to change quickly, even if it is for the better.<br />
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So, why should someone accept my perspective of what is better? Again, "Have you met me?"<br />
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Actually, now that I think about it, most people believe that things could be better, at least for themselves. The problem may be that we tend to focus on the way change could be worse, and evolution has molded us to believe that worse is more likely than better. Ever said, "If it ain't broke...?"<br />
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But it is broke, and it can be fixed.<br />
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"How?" you might ask.<br />
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First we need the will, then we need the action, and finally, we need perseverance.<br />
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Thought for the day:<br />
I want an 8k screen. It may be the key to my happiness. That is all.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-5368951951668541052018-08-20T10:47:00.002+10:002018-08-20T10:47:32.775+10:00For posterity...Ok, so this blog entry is more for me than you, so feel free to skip over the boring bits. To make it easier, I'll make the non-boring bits <span style="color: red;"><b>red</b></span>.<br />
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So the purpose of today's entry is to tell the story of my PhD.<br />
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It all started long ago (2009), in a room much like this one. Actually, it might have been this one, or that one (you can't see me pointing).<br />
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A friend of mine, I think I'll call her Shally Smolderazzo to protect her identity, contacted me to let me know about an online astronomy course that was at Masters level and run out of Swinburne. I'd been interested in astronomy for some time, and had even purchased my own 6" Newtonian telescope. So I decided to look up Swinburne Astronomy Online.<br />
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Sure enough, it was possible to get a Masters degree (by coursework) entirely online. I had two Bachelors degrees through the University of Melbourne, and I now worked at the University, but it is always good to have a higher degree if you want to work at a university. So after discussing it with DW, I signed up for the first of 12 units required for the Masters (2010).<br />
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I was not a good student when I was at Uni previously. I was easily distracted and lacked commitment. I scraped though my degrees, but I did the bare minimum. I had decided being a student was not for me. Fast forward some 15 years, and I was ready to get back to study. I was eager, I was focussed, I was older and wiser.<br />
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My first unit was fantastic. Not only did I learn a lot of basic astronomy, I started learning how to actually do research. I dived into the work and engaged with the online community, a bunch of like-minded people with the same fascination with astronomy that I had. We were all paying for this course, so everyone was invested, and that makes for a lively class. While I never met any of my classmates in person, it was great to connect, albeit briefly, with people like me.<br />
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I received a high distinction for that first unit, and the second unit as well. For my third and fourth unit, I just missed out on high distinctions, but I wasn't too worried about the marks anyway. I was enjoying the study and I was happy to plod along doing the work.<br />
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And then I met Chris, who would eventually become my principal research supervisor. He came to Melbourne University to discuss our Tiled Display Wall, called an Optiportal. We named ours OziPortal. Chis was a researcher at Swinburne and was interested in setting something similar up at Swinburne. He mentioned that he an I had met some years earlier, but I still don't remember it.<br />
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Chris recognised my name as one of the Swinburne Astronomy Online students, and asked me how I was enjoying the course. We chatted about it for a while, and he mentioned that the work I was doing with the Tiled Display Wall at Melbourne Uni could be the basis for a research project in the Masters course. To complete the Masters program, each student has to complete a research unit. Chris offered to act as supervisor for my research unit, if I wanted him to do so. After some discussion, Chris suggested that it was probably worth more than just a unit in the coursework program, and that maybe I should consider converting to a research degree.<br />
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Meanwhile, a former colleague from Melbourne Uni, Leon, was now IT Director at Swinburne. I ran into him at a conference, and discussed this with him. He agreed with Chris, that a research degree was probably a better option, and he agreed to support my application.<br />
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At that time, I had completed the first four units of the coursework program, and was able to withdraw from the program with a Graduate Certificate in Astronomy, and at the same time enrol in the Masters by Research. We had discussed whether a Masters or PhD was the better option, and Chris advised that we should start with the Masters, and convert to PhD if we decided that there was enough in it.<br />
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It actually took nearly 8 months to get my enrolment through, due in part to my poor results from my undergraduate days, and also in part to the somewhat flawed processes at Swinburne. I also had two supervisors from Melbourne Uni, Richard and Steven (2012).<br />
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However, finally I was a student again, or to be politically correct, a graduate researcher. I started work on my first paper with Chris, which was for a conference called PacificVis. It was soundly rejected. It wasn't because it was bad, it was just poorly targeted. So we rewrote it for a local conference and it was accepted. It was a collaboration with all my supervisors and some colleagues. It was a position paper, meaning it described the state of the art, and didn't contain any original research, but it was still pretty exciting to present my first peer-reviewed work at a conference (THETA 2013).<br />
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But it was time to get my hands dirty with some real research. Chris and I designed an experiment to test the notion that Tiled Display Walls were actually needed, that people did actually perform better using these expensive displays when compared with standard displays. This was the reason many universities were building them at that time, so we wanted to find a way to confirm or deny that hypothesis. We tested many people, astronomers and non-astronomers and published the results in PASA (Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia), a well respected journal in astronomy (2014).<br />
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This was the first real feather in my cap. I had been through a thorough peer-review process for an impact-rated journal, and this would be the centre-piece of my thesis. During the writing of the paper, I had my confirmation of candidature and presented my early results to the astro community at Swinburne. The review panel were very enthusiastic, and suggested I consider converting the research to a PhD. I thanked them for the advice, but had decided that while I did want to do a PhD eventually, I wanted it to be more astronomy related than technology driven. I remember them clearly saying it could have more astronomy in it, but I still declined politely.<br />
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So as soon as the paper was published, I started work on the Masters thesis, with the literature review the next major piece of work. I read many papers, summarised them and put together what I thought was a pretty decent lit review. Chris thought it was excellent, and he said it was better than most PhD lit reviews he had read. He also asked me to advise on an astronomy observing campaign called <i>Deeper, Wider, Faster</i> (DWF) that was underway and needed some visualisation guidance. After meeting with the principal investigators of that project, Jeff and Igor, and on the back of Chris' comments about my lit review. I started thinking that maybe I should convert to a PhD.<br />
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Apparently I had left it two late to convert, as I was actually nearing the submission stage for the Masters, but Chris decided to push for the conversion, and secured the support of the review panel after I wrote a substantial conversion plan. Swinburne HDR umm'd and ahh'd for a bit and then agreed. I was now a PhD candidate (2015).<br />
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Three opportunities for papers arose almost simultaneously. The first was the DWF campaign, which I started work on with Jeff and Igor. The second was another conference, where I presented a summarised and slightly extended version of my journal paper (THETA 2015). And the third was a program set up by Amazon Web Services (AWS) to investigate the use of AWS to support SKA research. Chris and I submitted a proposal to look at the potential of GPU-enabled remote desktops, which would allow the SKA data to be computed on in situ in the data centres, rather than downloaded to local desktops. We were successful with the grant, but it was very slow to get the prototype desktop working.<br />
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Meanwhile, at the end of the 2015, the first DWF campaign ran, just before Christmas. It was hot in the room despite the air conditioner, because we had around 15 astronomers, and 20 or so computers, with 24 high-res displays and two HD projectors all working at the same time. I remember when the first on-sky session was just about to start and the TDW I was responsible for operating froze. Jeff had organised for a documentary crew to record the event, and I had put up an amazing image on the display to impress them. They were taking photos just as the first telescopes where about to come on-sky, when I noticed that my head node had stopped responding. My heart stopped.<br />
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But, as luck would have it, something went wrong with the processing pipeline, which meant that the images capture by the primary remote observatory could not be processed by the local computers, which meant I had no new content to display. So while everyone crowded around the processing team, and ignoring me, I desperately tried to fix my TDW without anyone knowing.<br />
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I rebooted the head node, which I knew would not disrupt the display on the TDW, so it would still be showing the great big nebula I'd put up earlier. People were still taking selfies in front of it. But the head node didn't come back up properly. It wouldn't reboot. Now I was stuck. But a stroke of inspiration hit me. Maybe I could use a cloud node.<br />
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I had cloud resources set up for the AWS project, so I created a new virtual machine (VM) in about 2 minutes and started installing the software I needed. This took maybe 10 minutes to complete, and then I configured the new VM head node to act as the head node of the TDW. Now this new machine had a different address to previous head node, so the TDW nodes needed to be told about it. So I had to reboot them and let them connect to the new head node. I remote logged in to each one and changed the details so they would look at the new head node and then rebooted them all with a remote boot command. The TDW shutdown and restarted as I held my breath. Everyone looked around when that happened because the room suddenly go darker when the displays turned off briefly. Jeff asked me what was happening and I said it just needed a reboot. He nodded and went back to focussing on the pipeline problems.<br />
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One by one, the TDW nodes came up and connected to the new head node. Slightly less than 20 minutes had passed when the pipeline processing team fixed their problem and everyone returned to their positions in front of the TDW, ready for the images to inspect. Each run was 20 minutes, and we had lost the first one, but the processing pipeline team were ready for the second one. As soon as the data hit, the pipeline kicked into action and images came pouring in. And the were directed to the new VM, not that anyone new it was new, or a VM. I simply gave the team a new IP address to send to.<br />
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And bang.<br />
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The first image popped up on the TDW, right were it was supposed to. Then the second, then the third, and so on. Astronomers were rushing in to look at them, eager to find some speck of significance. The room was abuzz, people calling out, and rushing from image to image. I finally exhaled, eight minutes later. People assumed I was seating so much because it was hot. No one knew, until they were reviewing the paper about to be submitted, what had happened on day one of the DWF campaign.<br />
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The start of 2016 saw the development of the second journal paper of my research. However, there were 15 authors on that paper, with 5 principal authors. It took months to get it ready, and in fact, the second DWF run which took place in the middle of 2016 had occurred before I was ready to submit. I didn't include that run in my paper and submitted it as it was. At the same time, I submitted a short paper (5 pages) to the Astronomical Data and Simulation Software Conference in Italy, which was accepted. Not only that, I was lucky enough for the conference to cover the costs of the conference and accommodation, and work covered the flights. So I was able to present my work at an international conference. As it happened, my journal paper was rejected two days after I delivered the conference paper in Italy. I also delivered my mid-candidature review around this time.<br />
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The rejection wasn't too bad, it was simply calling for major revisions. In fact, the simple revision was to include the second run in the results. These revisions, which took until early 2017 to complete, were accepted in the second attempt, again to PASA.<br />
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So now my attention returned to the AWS project. AWS weren't able to help me get the prototype desktop working, but some very clever people at my work were able, so I now had a prototype. Chris and I again designed an experiment to test how well a remote desktop with GPU acceleration could work for astronomers. This paper produced some excellent results, and Chris was eager to publish it in a Tier 1 journal, namely the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. He acknowledged that the likelihood of acceptance was low, but tried anyway. And the reviewers at the MNRAS suggested that we try another journal. So we aimed at the journal Astronomy and Computing, which was the most suitable journal anyway. And they accepted, though with a strange review result. One reviewer loved the paper, but the other reviewer accused us of wilful bias in experiment design, poor writing and deliberately misconstruing the results. Fortunately the journal editor did not agree with this review and completely rejected it. We did have some minor amendments to complete the paper, which were completed in early 2018.<br />
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So now I had three journal papers and three conference papers under my belt, which is pretty respectable for a PhD thesis. I decided to work part-time in March of 2018 and spend the rest of the time working on my thesis. For six weeks of hard writing, and corrections, I hammered out a 260+ page, 101 thousand word thesis. I had a good process, with me writing a chapter, sending to Chris for review, then updating and sending to Rich and Steve for review. Steve didn't send any comments back, but Rich was prompt and thorough. We ploughed through it and on the 13th of April (a Friday no less), I went up to Swinburne to submit.<br />
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I had printed out the thesis, but apparently that requirement had been dropped, though not removed from the Swinburne website. But they accepted my printed copy anyway. I headed home, giddy with relief, to a welcoming family. We all went to lunch.<br />
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Eight weeks passed and I had heard nothing. So I contacted Chris, who contact Swinburne, who contacted the reviews, who contacted Swinburne, who contacted Chris who contacted me. That took another week. So exactly nine weeks after submission, almost to the minute, I received the news that my thesis had been accepted, pending minor revisions. I took the rest of the day off work.<br />
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My elation was short lived, because despite the positive result, I still had work to do. So I buckled down again and started working on the revisions. A week later I met again with Chris to finalise the changes required. I thought we would knock them over that day, but alas, it was not to be. So I took another couple of days, bouncing changes back and forth with Chris, until the following Wednesday, when he decided he was satisfied with the changes, and submitted the final thesis on my behalf. <br />
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So I waited to hear from Swinburne HDR. I was pretty impatient and on the Friday I rang them to find out what the process was. I was informed that the thesis amendments would be reviewed by the HDR sub-committee the following Wednesday, and I would probably find out the results before the end of the following week. At least I now had a timeline.<br />
<br />
On Wednesay, the 4th of July, I received my Letter of Award, stating that my PhD thesis had been accepted by Swinburne HDR, and I was now able to call myself Doctor. I was pretty bloody jubilent, let me tell you. <br />
<br />
However, it was a conditional acceptance, meaning there were several additional forms that needed to be submitted to actually complete. I had a look at the list, and was sure I had submitted them. In fact, my supervisor had submitted them, but apparently, they were expecting them from me, so they ignored the ones from him. Only they didn't tell me that. I emailed them asking if there was anything missing, and included the documents again. They finally agreed that they had everything, and sent me a Statement of Completion.<br />
<br />
Now I was done. Or so I thought. The final step is the actual graduation, which I would be invited to via an email. I thought I had missed the cut off for August and would have to wait until December. However, DW asked me to check the requirements, and I spotted a link on the page called "My graduation". I clicked on it, and it prompted me for my username and password. I logged in and was greeted with the message, "Congratulations! You are enrolled to graduate on August 22nd!"<br />
<br />
Don't get me wrong, this was a great outcome, but it took me by surprise. Anyway, as I write this, it is the 20th of August. In two days I will graduate and finally my PhD will be behind me.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>And that is the story of how I got my PhD</b></span>.<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: I'm pretty satisfied with level of academic achievement. For now.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-7427586089846424152018-07-25T16:42:00.001+10:002018-07-25T16:42:39.918+10:00The doctor is inIt has been many moons since I last posted to this blog. In fact, it has been many moons since I wrote anything significant other than my thesis or for work.<br />
<br />
That's right, I have written my thesis. Not only written it, but submitted it, had it accepted and have finally completed my PhD. I am now officially not that sort of doctor. What sort of doctor am I, I hear you ask? I am the sort that you would call if your ultra high resolution tiled display wall powered by a GPU-enabled virtual hosted cloud-based desktop computer wasn't working. I wouldn't be able to fix it, because I'm not that sort of doctor either. But I could tell you what you should have considered before you bought it, and I'd probably be right.<br />
<br />
So now I lurk around conversations at parties waiting for my area of expertise to come up, so I can jump in and show off. It hasn't happened yet, but soon...<br />
<br />
Having focussed myself on the big research questions for the last few years, I now find that I have to find something new to keep myself from annoying DW. Yes, DW still hasn't left me for an actual that sort of doctor, though now when she jokingly tells people she is married to a doctor, there is a tiny little tear in her eye.<br />
<br />
So I am turning back to my old tunes. Literally, in the case of my guitar playing, and figuratively, in the case of my writing. Over the last few years I have been jotting down all my ideas. I've stopped telling them to DW because I've been able to <strike>bore</strike> regale her with juicy details about my research. But all those ideas have still been happening, and now I have to dive back in and pick one. That is the trouble of course, choosing just one.<br />
<br />
And then there are all the jobs around the house, but they've been around for ages, so I'm sure they can wait a few more years...<br />
<br />
...apparently they can't wait a few more years, or even a few more minutes. So I'm off to do some jobs around the house.<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought of the day: Happy wife, whatever it takes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-45128745131153903902012-03-30T14:57:00.002+11:002012-03-30T15:00:04.037+11:00Ever so slightly offensive<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">STEEELLLLLLAAAA!!!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pardon me. Just trying to get my groove back (and mix up some pop culture references to keep 'em fresh). </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Okey dokey. DW and I have been watching Stephen Fry's Planet Word, not to be confused with the Futurama episode "Planet Fry? Word.". The most recent episode focused on swearing and how it is used in languages. The thing I found fascinating was that swearing actually serves a purpose in language. Surprisingly, it is the very taboo nature of offensive words that makes them useful. Our brain learns these words and then learns to inhibit them, so as to meet the accepted norms of society. However, when we step beyond this inhibition, these words can be used to great comedic effect, but also to actually increase the amount of pain we can tolerate. This makes swearing during child birth or hitting yourself with a hammer quite acceptable. It also recognizes the humorous or dramatic effect of swearing in entertainment. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">However, the program also pointed out that it is the inhibited nature of these words that makes them useful, and when they become commonplace, they lose this effect. For example, someone who swears all the time doesn't receive the same benefit when experiencing pain. Fuck no. And it's benefit as an entertainment device comes from its unexpected use, where our brain is surprised by the breach of protocol.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So the moral of the story is this. We will never stamp out swearing, but it is well worth the effort to personally avoid it. The more you do so, the more effective it will be when you really need it. And we shouldn't be ashamed of actually using it in those cases. No more "pardon my French", but rather "whew! I needed that!". </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ciao!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thought for the Day: The far king can't </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-25738508524226643232012-03-28T08:48:00.002+11:002012-03-28T10:12:14.504+11:00Happy Anniversary,DW!We made it. 14 years today!<br />
<br />
Well, I finally gave DW the present I have been holding on to for many months now. I've been building it up so much that I panicked and apologized for it before I gave it to her. I was worried that she wouldn't like it as much as I did but she would be too polite to tell me. That still may be true.<br />
<br />
So what was this brilliant idea, you may ask? I scanned one of the better photos from our wedding (our photographer was terrible) and had it reproduced in 3D form inside one of those glass block displays. I think it looks cool, but my reason for giving it to DW goes a little deeper than that. Photos are great because they record a moment of some importance, and in the case of a wedding, that can be of great importance. But I guess in the back of my mind, I know how easy it is to manipulate those images. What once represented a form of some permanence seems a little less so now. Not that it necessarily matters, as I know that the photos of our wedding are accurate and a true representation of the day. But to me, the very nature of the glass block display means it cannot be undone. I suppose it could be added to, and as it is the product of an easily modified photo, it is just as subject to manipulation, but in my mind, it feels more permanent. It feels like it has captured the moment in a way that goes beyond the photo that was used to generate it.<br />
<br />
Why does this matter? For the same reason that we bother taking photos in the first place. The journey that DW and I started 14 years ago was one of hope. We each believed we had found the right person for us, but how could we be sure? If I had been completely sure, then I wouldn't have been taking a risk. Committing to someone for the rest of your life is most definitely taking a risk. If I had been completely sure, then the is no way I could have become more sure with every passing year. If our relationship had been perfect at the start, then it would never have improved, but it has done, and in so many ways.<br />
<br />
So the two people represented in the glass block display are a reminder of the chance we both took on each other. That is a fixed point at the start of our marriage and it cannot be changed (let's not be too literal with the metaphor, ok). The fact that the glass block display carries so much meaning therefore, is a testament to the courage and determination we have shown to each other. Love is the seed from which the relationship grows, but it is the effort we make that keeps it alive, that keeps it from breaking under the pressures of external forces.<br />
<br />
It may not be easy and it's not always fun, but I have never doubted its worth and I'm pretty sure DW agrees with me. It's one of the few things we agree on.<br />
<br />
So, happy anniversary my love. Be careful with the glass block. It's fragile (I mean that literally, not figuratively - if you do break it I can always order another one - our marriage is like a rock, but that doesn't look as pretty in the display cabinet).<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: Blackberry jam is the best!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-70022305412406835322012-03-27T09:51:00.003+11:002012-03-27T09:59:00.842+11:00It's the thought that counts...<div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Here we go again.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This morning a dragged my butt out of bed at 6am and went for a run. I haven't been for a run for years. Why this morning? No idea. Why run? Still no idea. I hate exercise. People say you can develop a habit in 21 days, but I have tested this theory and found it is either wrong or doesn't apply to me. I tried exercising for 30 days in a row but it still wasn't a habit. Two days of sleeping in and I was hooked. I tried studying on the train rather than sleeping, every day for a month. The habit I formed was falling asleep with my head dangling over my iPad. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But I still need to live a long and healthy life if I want to celebrate 100 years of marriage to DW so whether it becomes a habit or not, I still have to exercise. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On Sunday DW, Princess, Little Man and I went to the local food and wine festival. It's an event that I look forward to every year, and I was excited that two of my sisters also decided to come along. I'm not sure if they enjoyed themselves or not but I did for the most part. Princess and Little Man made things quite difficult, constantly asking to buy food or pointless little toys. It does make for a long day, and both DW and I were absolutely exhausted by the end. Still, I'll look forward to the one next year and hope that the kids can behave a bit better. Maybe next year I'll get my butt into gear and submit a photo for the comp. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tomorrow marks the 14year anniversary for DW and I. I bought a present for her three months ago and it's been so hard to keep from giving it to her early. I'm quite proud of it, not because I made it but because I thought of it. I have no doubt she thinks she knows what it is, but she doesn't like to guess what presents I get for her. She hates it when I try to guess what she gets me. In fact, it took lots of control to avoid trying to guess what she bought for my birthday - I have spoiled many a surprise it the past that way. To be fair to her, the presents she bought for my birthday were quite a surprise and even if I had been guessing, I doubt I would have come up with meteorites and a star! </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I don't have a great track record of buying presents for DW. I have tried to surprise her many times in the past, and most of those times she was very surprised, but not in a good way. Apparently a really dumb present can be just as surprising as getting her something she actually wants. So I have developed a new system. I now ask her what she wants. Or she goes out and buys something before I can and then thanks me for it. It's really a system we have co-developed. You may think the surprise element would be lost, but it hasn't been, just transferred to me. I'm often surprised by what I have bought for her. The new system, which we have dubbed "a better idea", does reduce re-gifting and embarrassed apologies on my part, and disappointed looks on DW's part.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anyway, tomorrow I step out on a limb again with a present that DW has no idea about, and she is scared, I can tell you. I'll let you know how it goes. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ciao!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thought for the Day: I wonder if social networking and the Internet might one day result in humanity becoming a super organism like ant colonies. </span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-39205836432418044482012-03-23T15:44:00.002+11:002012-03-23T15:50:10.280+11:00No pain! No pain!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 20px;"> </span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Good morning, World. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'm not a big fan of breakfast radio but my wife loves waking up to the chatter of Red Simons (not sure of the spelling there). I like waking up to quiet. I'd prefer not to have an alarm, but there's not much choice in that. But as soon as my alarm has woken me, I turn it off. Then it is quiet again. I like the quiet. But I like DW more so I put up with the radio. At least when I start back into my exercise regime, I will be getting up before her again, so I can enjoy the quiet for a little while at least.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Speaking of exercise, this morning Red was chatting to someone in his 60s who is taking part in a triathlon. Now I can see the appeal of being able to say, "yeah, I'm a triathlete, I do triathlons". However, I cannot see the appeal of actually doing a triathlon. We specifically built cars so we didn't have to run 42 kilometers or cycle 180 kilometers. Its no coincidence that Henry Ford lived precisely 42 kilometers from his favorite bar and after being told he'd better run home or his wife would kill him, he was heard to say, "You know what we need..."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A triathlon also involves swimming some equally ridiculous distance. This is what boats are for people. Even ancient cultures had boats. And before they had boats, they had preboats. And before they had preboats, all the land was joined together so they could walk everywhere. One of the earliest recorded writings of mankind is scratched on a cave wall depicting a saber-toothed tiger chasing villagers, and one of them saying to another, "You know what we need..?". </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It is unclear whether he meant a boat or a car, but we are confident he didn't mean sneakers. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anyway, Red pointed out the absurdity of a 60+ doing a triathlon, though I'm not sure the caller agreed. I pointed out to DW that I'm only 40 and even I know better. After laughing at me for saying "only 40", DW made the comment that I had better not take up triathlon, because she wasn't putting up with another obsession. I guess I'm lucky she is letting me keep the ones I have. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Having said that, I will probably get back into my regular exercise soon. I just don't wanna.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Photography continues to be a passion of mine, and I have even shot another wedding, this time for my cousin. The shoot itself went surprisingly well, partly because I had a new lens, called a super zoom. It's a Tamron 18-270mm, for those interested. The best thing about it is the fact that I didn't have to use two cameras with different lens to cover the range of shots I want to do. Just zooming in and out as I liked made the whole process almost painless, but nothing is ever perfect. Still, it's now my go-to lens. The problem with shooting a wedding is that afterward you have to wade through 3000+ photos to find what worked and what didn't. Fortunately a fair number worked, but now I have to process the images, which is slow and tedious and I just don't wanna.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anyway, I have another meeting tomorrow to see about shooting another wedding for another cousin. As I have for the previous weddings, I usually charge the price of a new lens, and there is a pretty Tamron 10-24mm that I like the look of...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anyway, time to go.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ciao!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thought for the Day: Small things come in small packages. Big things come in big packages. Deal with it.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-45496609942032755342012-03-22T09:06:00.001+11:002012-03-22T09:27:16.712+11:00Again, seriously?<div></div><div>A blog, a blog! My kingdom for a blog!</div><div><br />
</div><div>I haven't read Richard the Third, but I'm sure he would have said something similar. Or not.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I bet you all thought I had abandoned this blog for good. As you can see, I have not. In fact, I have been remarkably busy this last year, just not writing blogs. However, I have begun to think that I need this outlet almost as much as you (ok, maybe not). You see, I have been focussing on technical writing for work and research writing for study. I have been neglecting my artistic writing (don't laugh) and I think I need it more than I realized. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I have recently turned 40 and I think any change in the first digit of your age should prompt one to consider where they are in their lives. That seemed like such an effort I decided to see where everyone else is in their lives. I'm nothing if not judgmental. It turns out that most people around me are pretty settled with their lot, and for the most part, quite happy. And those that aren't probably don't want me talking about them here so stop being nosy.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Ok, so evaluating my own life seems like such a mid-life crisis sort of thing to do, and I can't afford a Ferrari yet, so it seems clear to me that at least from a maturity perspective, I haven't reached the middle of my life. Some have said I haven't reached my teens, you know, based on my maturity. If I were a monkey, I could throw poo at them, which is frowned on if you are not a monkey.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Anyway, DW and I have decided to celebrate our 100th wedding anniversary, which is some way off still, but these things need lots of planning. Where to have it, who to invite, what sort of foods, and of course, the necessity to actually live that long. Fortunately, by my calculation, I will hit middle age when I'm around 70. Those of you who are quick with math will have worked out that I expect to live until I'm 140, but the centenary wedding anniversary will happen when I am 126, however I should point out that it will be a big party, and there will be lots of slow moving old people, so I am expecting it to run for around 10 years, with an extra few years to actually get my siblings to stop talking and leave.</div><div><br />
</div><div>On an entirely separate note, writing this blog is keeping me awake on the train, and after several embarrassing incidents recently, I have decided I should probably stay awake on the train, and indeed, in all public places, especially small, important meetings. You see, turning 40 has made me realize something - at some point, people are going to expect me to grow up. Boy, are they going to be disappointed.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Ciao!</div><div><br />
</div><div>Thought for the Day: When all is lost, you needn't worry because presumably that has also been lost,</div><div><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-size: 20px;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-52622941599247350462011-05-08T14:43:00.000+10:002011-05-08T14:43:57.554+10:00It's moment like these...Greetings and Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there, especially the inimitable DW.<br />
<br />
Easter was a couple of weeks ago and the usual build up of excitement permeated the house. Little Man was much more into it this year, egged on (so to speak) by Princess. I am quite certain that neither of them really appreciate the actual reason we celebrate Easter but at least Princess can recite some stuff she learned during CRE at school. I'd like to share one thing that happened during this Easter period with the two kids.<br />
<br />
We visited DW's parents for Easter, as we usually do. After the Easter Egg hunt and the consumption of too many of the discovered chocolate eggs, we headed off to mass at the local church. Princess has been doing religion classes for a while now and has a bit of an idea of what goes on during mass, but Little Man can be a bit of a terror. Because of this DW and I tag team to try to alternatively entertain him and minimize the disruption he is causing during the service. Anyway, this particular Easter Mass, they ceremony involved giving each and every person a lighted candle (more like a taper but you get the idea). To make matters even more frightening, the kids were to go up to the alter to light their candle from the big Pascal candle, and then share their flame with the rest of the congregation.<br />
<br />
To say I was apprehensive is to understate the panic I was feeling. I felt like someone on the deck of the Titanic being told that a little bit of water never hurt anyone. But against my better judgment, I sent the little guy forth with his candle like a monkey holding Harry Potter's wand. And boy, was he keen. Church no longer seemed boring - someone was actually going to let him play with fire! He didn't need asking twice.<br />
<br />
Well, he was gone and my only hope as Princess stepped past me was to whisper, "look after Little Man." She nodded and disappeared into the throng of bustling children. Neither of our kids are particularly tall so they were out of sight in seconds.<br />
<br />
Kids started emerging from the throng with their little candles lit, carefully trying to keep that flame alight, most often having to return for a second attempt. I still couldn't see Princess or Little Man yet but there wasn't any screaming or sudden burst of flames, so that was something. After what seemed like nearly two minutes but was actually only a bit over a minute and a half, the crowd of children dispersed and there, like something on one of those ridiculously cute Christmas cards, were Princess and Little Man, standing together in front of the Pascal Candle with their little candles lit, holding hands.<br />
<br />
Little Man was both excited and scared, but he was clearly happy to have his big sister there to look after him. Princess was confident and careful, and also proud as punch to be looking after her little brother. Its very hard to describe just how that moment made me feel. I didn't have a camera with me and I wouldn't have had time to catch the shot unless I had the camera up and ready. But in this case, I don't need a camera. The image of my two beautiful children sharing a moment together, both supporting each other without an ounce of self-serving, is something that has etched itself in my mind. Even if that image fades, the knowledge that it existed, even if only for that moment...<br />
<br />
When I say I can't describe how it made, and still makes, me feel, I mean it. All the words I could use would be like describing the most beautiful place on Earth with only map coordinates. All I can say is that I hope every person gets to experience a moment like that once in their life. I am extremely fortunate. I get moments like that, perhaps not always as perfect, more than just occasionally. No matter how crazy the kids make me, its moments like these that make me feel like the luckiest person on the planet.<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: The future may be inevitable, but don't worry, it doesn't start until tomorrow.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-73071834086868409362011-04-07T13:37:00.000+10:002011-04-07T13:37:36.265+10:00Not sure what to call this oneGood morning!<br />
<br />
My recent lack of blogging has nothing to do with me not having anything to blog about. The fact is I have simply been too busy to spend much time in front of the computer for anything other than work or study. So, a quick catch up is in order.<br />
<br />
Well, not long after my birthday, DW and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary, which I'll have you know is the "lace" anniversary, or "lingerie" in more modern times. Unfortunately, DW was quite sick for the few days leading up to the big day (I took leave and everything) and just as sick after. In fact, she said to me on the morning of our anniversary, "Happy Annibleeaaugh!" but I knew what she meant.<br />
<br />
Anyway, because both kids are at school now, I figured we could have a nice quite day, just the two of us enjoying each others company as we have for much of the last 13 years. After I got both the kids dressed, fed, packed and delivered to school, it turned out to be much quieter than I expected, the child-free silence punctuated only by the occasional "*cough* *sneeze* *sniff* *blow* *hhhhuuuurrrrraaaakkkkk*".<br />
<br />
Anywho, I still cooked a beautiful dinner and DW told me she believed it probably tasted wonderful, but she couldn't really taste or smell anything, other than mucus. Who doesn't want to hear that about a meal they cooked? In case you are wondering, I am aware that the anniversary was harder on DW than it was on me.<br />
<br />
Still, celebrating an anniversary is far less important than having a marriage that is worth celebrating, and after 13 years it would seem that DW and I still find ourselves very much in love and thoroughly enjoying married life. In fact, the weekend just past saw my parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, and DW's parents recently celebrated their 40th, so I guess it runs in the family.<br />
<br />
Obviously marriage is not going to work out in every case. While it is important to try to find the right person, it is also important to be prepared to admit your mistakes. In my (what's the opposite of humble?) opinion, marriage takes effort, but if it works, it can be a truly wonderful experience. As I've heard somewhere, "It is not only finding the right person, it is being the right person." Well, I've always been confident that I am the right person, and it looks like I was bang on the money about DW too.<br />
<br />
So here's to the next 87 years (our marriage certificate expires after 100 years, with an option to renew for another 100 - its in the fine print). Here's to not getting sick of each other and DW still laughing at my jokes (if dementia sets in for her before me, we should be ok). And as long as DW doesn't find my other blog, here's to a continuing happy marriage.<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: Always read the fine print. Or not.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-62659091997443497382011-03-30T12:33:00.000+11:002011-03-30T12:33:36.664+11:0013 for the Third TimeTop o' th' mornin' to yeh!<br />
<br />
St Patrick's Day has come and gone with little ceremony at my house. It would seem that if one doesn't drink much any more, there really doesn't seem to be a satisfactory way of actually celebrating the day. I supposed we could have had a stew for dinner, but we opted for something... greener. Chow Mein. Apparently it is one of my all time favourite meals, and I can see why, it was delicious. DW was a little surprised that I'd forgotten it was my favourite. I don't think my mind was working properly at the time. My boss asked me what I'd done for the past two weeks and I couldn't think of anything. I think he took my blank stare as a demonstration. I have actually been quite busy but the harder I tried to think, the harder it was to think.<br />
<br />
I have decided that this is symptomatic of my recent 39th birthday - or as the title to this blog suggests - my third 13th birthday. I had decided to take the day off work, as well as the following day, which led into the weekend, so four days off. It sounded like a good idea. The kids had other plans. I expressed my birthday wish to them to have a bit of a sleep in. They informed me at 5:30am that they had decided to give me something else. Apparently they decided to pre-enact World War III (yes, I said pre-enact). They were at each other from the get go. I got dragged into the fray when Little Man decided I mustn't really like him because I didn't get him a present for my birthday.<br />
<br />
However, after we dropped them both at school, we found ourselves sitting down for a quiet cup of tea. It occurred to me that we hadn't been alone in the house without either kid since Amy was born, but for one day when both kids stayed at their grandparents a couple of years ago. It was bliss.<br />
<br />
We decided that a movie was in order and off we went to watch "The Kings Speech", though I admit I was somewhat reluctant. I don't like to work on my birthday and I also don't like to think, so I was not really in the mood for a thought-provoking movie, but timing-wise there wasn't really anything else to go and see. I wanted something mindless with helicopters and explosions and cheesey one-liners. Where is Michael Bay when you need him? (OMG - did I just write that?) Anyway, I absolutely loved this movie. It was performed flawlessly, crafted exquisitely and written with such a gentle understatement that it really is a brilliant film. It turns out Michael Bay was exactly where I needed him. I was expecting the film to be good. I just wasn't expecting it to touch me in quite the way it did. What an excellent birthday present that turned out to be.<br />
<br />
For reasons I won't go into, I've been delayed in publishing this post, so I'll finish now and get started on being late for the next one.<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: An optimist might say a crisis is an opportunity in disguise. A pessimist would point out that at least opportunity knocks.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-21847481702806395492011-03-04T13:44:00.000+11:002011-03-04T13:44:15.476+11:00The Joys of Wedding PhotographyGreetings!<br />
<br />
Last Saturday my brother-in-law was married. It was a festive day and much fun was had by all - or at least by most: Little Man wasn't hugely impressed until the dancing started. The bride was nervous but she is generally pretty laid back. The groom was pretty nervous but he is also laid back. The in-laws and out-laws, best man and best woman, the celebrant and the invited guests were all a bit nervous but mostly pretty laid back. I was the official photographer, so I was very nervous and not at all laid back.<br />
<br />
I was asked to take on this role because my brother-in-law and his (now) wife had seen the results of my first foray into wedding photography at another brother-in-law's wedding. For that first one, I read lots of books and websites about how to be a wedding photographer, I ignored the recurring suggestion of those books and websites to never, under ANY circumstances, become a wedding photographer and plowed straight in. I have a barely decent Digital SLR (I say barely decent because DW wouldn't want me to call it crap) which is an excellent device to learn digital photography with but not at all up to scratch for an official wedding photography to shoot with. Luckily, my brother, who is learning digital photography, has exactly the same model, and isn't silly enough to try to shoot a wedding with it.<br />
<br />
When it comes down to it, wedding photography is just like any other high pressure photography where you only have one shot at capturing the most important day of two other people's lives or risk sending them into a vicious spiral of blame and doubt and ultimately divorce. So its important to have a sense of humour. In cases like mine, it's also important to lock that sense of humour away and behave like a person. It is also important to take off the lens cap, but with a DLSR, that one turns out to be fairly easy to remember.<br />
<br />
Using my own DLSR and my brothers equally wonderful DSLR, I set off to capture the perfect wedding. As I learned during my first attempt, even if the wedding is perfect, you still might not get the perfect photo. As it happens, not many weddings are perfect and even if they are, not many photographers are perfect. However, despite my relative naivety, I managed to capture that first wedding rather well. The problem with that was it put extra pressure on my second and most recent effort to be of equal standing.<br />
<br />
Using the same kit, I tried valiantly not to let the pressure overwhelm me, not to let my inexperience underwhelm me and to remember to take the lens cap off. And looking at the final photos, I can safely say I now know what it is to be whelmed. To start with the photos aren't black - check lens cap removal. The photos aren't complete rubbish - check... don't take complete rubbish photos. The photos generally flatter the bride and make the groom look like Yosemite Sam - check, though the groom helped a lot on this one. The photos should include all the guests - check, though I don't really know for sure, but with 1500 photos if I didn't get everyone then I must have gotten someone twice.<br />
<br />
So what of the 1500 photos I did end up with. Any perfect, shot of a lifetime images - not as such. Any brilliant capturing the essence of the moment shots - not really, though it was a drab day and there are plenty drab shots so one might argue I have captured the essence of the day. Do the photos cover the events of the day - yes they do, mostly. I managed to get a photo of nearly every event of note during the day - even the ones no one told me were about to happen, such as the bride and groom walking in to the reception. I must confess I also missed the bride's arrival at the gardens but the circumstances where beyond my control. However, overall my coverage was pretty good.<br />
<br />
I joke about the lens cap but I did make a mistake that falls into a similar category. I forgot to ask the groom to remove his sunglasses during the formal photo shoot. I honestly don't know why I didn't think of it. I have plenty of shots during the ceremony of him without the shades. I have plenty of shots after without the shades. But all the formal shots make the bride look beautiful and the groom look like a cross between a big, black-eyed bug and Yosemite Sam. D'Oh! Now if they go and get divorced it will be all my fault! Unless they get divorced before they see the photos - but it would be wrong to wish that.<br />
<br />
After the wedding, everyone relaxes - except the photographer, especially one who blames his tools. I am now in the process of checking all the photos, fixing blemishes, improving colour saturation, tweaking brightness and contrast, and blaming my tools. It will take some time but eventually I hope to have enough decent photos to fill a photobook, or at least a photo frame. Can you tell I'm not really looking forward to it?<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: Rejected Slogan:- "Do you know anyone who needs a wedding photographer? I could use the practice."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-7864877302781490682011-02-22T09:43:00.000+11:002011-02-22T09:43:49.926+11:00Let's get the band back together!Whad up, Homies?<br />
<br />
You heard me. We are getting the band back together!<br />
<br />
Let me explain. Many, many years ago my brothers and I started a band. I played guitar, my oldest brother played keyboard and did lead vocals. My next oldest brother played drums and/or bass and also did lead and backing vocals. My younger brothers played lead guitar and drums and sang backing vocals. Did I mention I played guitar? I'm not the best singer in the world and according to DW that will only change if I am the last person in the world. My brothers acknowledged my desire to sing by providing me with a microphone, and acknowledged my ability to sing by not plugging it in. I wasn't exactly the backbone of the band. Like they say, "its more important to have fun than to be good," which became my motto.<br />
<br />
Well, despite my lack of actual talent, as a whole we were generally pretty rubbish but we had a lot of fun. At one point we decided to try to get serious and try to lift the overall tone. This resulted in each of us being replaced by actual musicians until it seemed wrong to call it "our" band, as none of us were in it. So the dust settled, mostly on the guitar case under my bed. I decided then I would get some guitar lessons so that if we ever got the band back together I would be ready to do my bit. I considered getting singing lessons but DW suggested that should focus my efforts on something I had a chance of being good at.<br />
<br />
That was over twenty years ago and the call has gone out, "Let's get the band back together!" Obviously I haven't had a single lesson in that time, but I did make a few phone calls and decided formal lessons were not for me. I played guitar at our last family Christmas gathering and was keenly reminded how useful guitar lessons would have been. <br />
<br />
It might sound like I am a complete hack when it comes to the ol' six strings, but to be fair, I was just as bad with four (I tried playing bass for a while - the theory that limiting the strings might limit the damage. This was a logical consequence of my playing a twelve string guitar once. I've even tried playing just on the one string, which technical cannot be out of tune with itself - and yet...). There is one song that DW does like me to play. Its very quiet and she likes me to be a fair way off but she always comes back in the room after I've finished and says it was lovely. She also says that its good for couples to support each others' creative needs and that support can be just as valid from a distance. It's like she doesn't want me anywhere near her wool when she is knitting and I can show my support by sitting in another room.<br />
<br />
Anyway, twenty years or so after our band disbanded, we are going to have another crack. Not at stardom, as we are under no illusions that we will be any good, but rather, just a chance to get together and have some fun, because at the very least, we a very good at that. In fact, in the past, all of our songs ended in fits of laughter that usually lasted longer than the songs themselves. But to our credit, no matter how badly we butchered a song, we always struck up and had a go at another one. After we stopped laughing that is.<br />
<br />
However, we are now older and, well wiser may not be quite right, but we are older. And I hear you can now get sheet music for songs so we may try that. I also expect that we won't play as loud so it will be less of a competition to be heard. And I may get some lessons. Who knows, I may have improved - you know, sometimes having some time away from a problem can help you see the solution more clearly. Perhaps music is like that. I know that you can't just put an instrument down and pick it up twenty years later and hope to be just as good - though that may be true in my case. I like to think of the last twenty years of listening to music as research so I think I've learned a thing or two. Surely one of those songs will have stuck. Anyway, I'm now ready to put it into practice. But first I've been putting off getting the guitar out from under the bed because it is covered in dust and you know how bad my hayfever is. I'll let you know how our first rehearsal goes.<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: A timely disclaimer can save your life<br />
<br />
<i>Disclaimer: DW is actually wonderfully supportive of my music and loves to hear me play. She doesn't like me to ruin it by singing.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-81981959024696689662011-02-17T13:25:00.001+11:002011-02-17T13:29:04.860+11:00Welcome to 2011!Yep, I'm back.<br />
<br />
After reading back over my sister's blog of her family's recent travels, I decided to put pen to paper, put pen and paper away, put keys to keyboard and restart my blog. Much like the current trend of calling movie remakes "reboots", I shall be rebooting this blog and you can already see the major changes. Yes, I've added the title field. I could have done it long ago, I know, but I didn't because I wanted to save it for something special. Then I realized that was stupid and turned it on a few minutes ago.<br />
<br />
I still have thoughts so I will be continuing my "Thought for the Day" but I make no guarantees that they will make any more sense than my previous thoughts. In fact, it is highly unlikely as they will be coming from the same head and out through the same fingers, but I do have a new keyboard so we'll just see.<br />
<br />
I have not found much time for writing of any sort over the last year or so but I hope to make amends for that. I've been asked to write a technology review blog for work and that also inspired me to get back to some of my own writing.<br />
<br />
So, on to my opinion of the world at the moment. At the moment the sky is blue - well, blue-ish as my window is rather dirty. I should mention that I'm in an office on the third floor and my window is sealed shut so I take no responsibility for the state of my window. Yet it does affect how I see the world. At least the sky isn't grey-ish with streaks of dirt like it was yesterday.<br />
<br />
Politicians are still jerks, but then so is everyone else. Footballers have recently taken offense at being told that they aren't necessarily the best role models in the world, to which they replied "Go *$%# yourself, you $%@#%ing $%@#$!!". Ben Elton's new show "Live from Planet Earth" is apparently deader than its title but no-one is game to tell Ben so it's on again tonight, and George Negus has promised to tell us more about less.<br />
<br />
There are some TV shows which I think could find new life if they combined with other shows. For instance, perhaps we could combine "Masterchef" with "The Biggest Loser", and produce "The Biggest Masterchef". I'd watch "NCIS: Summer Bay". We could put Eddie Maguire and the "Hot Seat" in "The Cube" and have him try to guess the lyrics from popular songs of the Baby Boomer, Generation X and Gen-Y eras. How about "Good New Specks" where Adam, Myf and Allan attempt to beat Paul, Mikey and Claire at "Wipe Out"? Every week.<br />
<br />
So I think I'll leave it there before someone gets hurt and look out my streaky window again at the streaky sky. Maybe next time I'll give a Princess and Little Man update.<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: I don't <i>HAVE</i> to explain myself, but I probably shouldn't rule it out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-78091349464289965232010-08-17T12:09:00.000+10:002010-08-17T12:09:59.703+10:00Schnitzel!<br />
<br />
(Thank you to all those who said "Bless you!")<br />
<br />
After reminiscing about the imaginary friends of Princess and Little Man, I thought I'd check to see if they actually remembered them. If you remember, Princess had Baxibax and Batasha, and Little Man had Baby Dinosaur. Princess claimed to remember Batasha, but she called her Natasha. I remember quite clearly having a conversation with Princess about the pronunciation of the name when she was little(r) and it was definitely Batasha with a "B". She also said she vaguely remembered Baxibax was the boy, which I also corrected, as I also remember having that conversation as well. It turns out that in my stolid inflexibility, I assumed that imaginary friends are like ordinary friends that typically don't change names or gender, but apparently they can if they want to.<br />
<br />
However, the real revelation came from Little Man.<br />
<br />
Me: Hey buddy, do you remember your imaginary friend Baby Dinosaur?<br />
LM: (exasperated tone)Dad! Of course I do.<br />
Me: Whatever happened to him?<br />
LM: He's dead.<br />
<br />
So there you have it. Some imaginary friends can evolve and make lifestyle choices and others quite literally expire.<br />
<br />
Try as I might, I do not remember having such a friend myself. As DW pointed out, as I had six sisters and five brothers growing up, I probably imagined some of them were my friends. I'm very pleased to say that is still the case as all my brothers and sisters are still alive and well.<br />
<br />
However, I do remember having a very active imagination. I enjoyed replaying scenes from movies and TV shows that I liked, usually with a far superior ending. I would also make up entire worlds and jump about in the shed, hurling myself into the fray, this way and that. In retrospect, I probably should have explained to someone what I was doing as the muttering to myself and flopping about like a tortured animal may have been misleading. I think my parents just hoped I would grow out of it. Or move out. Either way. Eventually I discovered two very important things. First, other people may have their own independent existence when I'm not thinking about them (jury is still out on this one) and second, most people did not behave the way I did. In fact it made them uncomfortable. So I sort of grew up and started behaving the way most people did so they wouldn't be uncomfortable. Now that unreserved wild child only comes out when I'm completely alone or snoozing on the train.<br />
<br />
I bring this up as I think Little Man has similar characteristics. When watching an exciting TV show, he will pace back and forth, growling softly, occasionally jumping from couch to couch and levitating. DW is concerned about this behaviour but I have told her not to worry. Its all part of being a boy possessed by an over active imagination, and possibly a demon. Kids are funny.<br />
<br />
Ciao!<br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: Unfortunately, no matter what we do, someone is going to win the next election.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-29014766948171416132010-08-03T10:19:00.001+10:002010-08-03T10:21:14.472+10:00Good morning, World!<br />
<br />
DW and I were watching TV last night and the subject of imaginary friends came up. Both Princess and Little Man had had their own imaginary friends but it took us a while to remember what their names were. In the interest of posterity, I can now reveal the names. For Princess, it was not just one imaginary friend, but two, named Baxibax and Batasha. I’m not completely sure of the spelling but just sound it out and you will get the idea. These two were the subject of much play and proxy requests, where it was made clear by Princess that it wasn’t her who wanted the extra lollies, but Baxibax and Batasha.<br />
<br />
Little Man on the other hand had a friend called Baby Dinosaur, who was something of a troublemaker. Many things were knocked over, stood on and broken by this tiny transparent terror. And he was always hungry. Whenever Little Man was told he had eaten enough junk food, he would calmly inform us that Baby Dinosaur wanted some as well and if he didn’t get it, there was no telling what next would be knocked over, stood on and broken.<br />
<br />
However, as is usually the case, as new friends are made, the invisible ones fade into distant memory. I’m not sure either of the kids even remembers their imaginary friends, but that is the way of things, I suppose. Apparently stuffed toys are not so easily forgotten and both kids’ beds are covered in myriad of these. I have suggested that perhaps some other kids might like to look after a few of them for a while or perhaps forever, but based on the response, I don’t think the kids are willing to give up their stuffed friends just yet.<br />
<br />
While I think of it I should mention something Little Man said to DW the other day. To provide a context, his granddad sometimes calls him a “whacker” when he does something particularly strange. DW sometimes calls him a “nutbag” for the same reason. He has decided to combine these two names and announced at Kinder the other day that he is actually a “Nut Whacker”. I think it would make an excellent wrestling persona that would strike fear into the hearts of his opponents, so I’m encouraging it.<br />
<br />
Ciao! <br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: (to the Batman theme) Na nanan na na nana na na na na Nut WHACKER!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-11419275496409681992010-07-30T08:40:00.000+10:002010-07-30T08:40:07.602+10:00And we’re back!<br />
<br />
Well, some amazing and exciting things have been happening at work but that’s enough about that. The current TV phenomena “MasterChef” has made me think back to my first foray into cooking.<br />
<br />
Once upon a time, around 5 BC (before children), I decided that I would like to become a better cook. I’m not sure why; it could have been the shock guests displayed when I invited them for dinner; it could have been something else, but probably the shock. Anyway, I began with various recipe bases and experimented with sauces and condiments and even tried some sticky glazes. Even I have to admit that first meal was a bit much. I think the balance was out but DW (who was DG at the time) suggested it should have had some sort of protein. And typically the bases aren’t for mixing.<br />
<br />
So it was back to the drawing board. My new rule was one packet mix at a time. I had always thought a good chef can “feel” their way through a recipe and it was time to acknowledge that I was not a good chef. So I read the instructions on the packet. I bought the ingredients it suggested (DG later told me that those ingredients should be considered necessary in my case). I read the instructions again. And again. I found I knew most of the words but the sentences themselves didn’t really stick in my head. So I read just the first instruction again and really concentrated on that. Once the oven was on at the required temperature for the required time, I read the second instruction. Apparently I was completely unable to keep the essence of the step in my head. Eventually I managed to put the onion in a pan only to have to remove it a few seconds later to chop the bloody thing. I had discovered another important fact about recipes. Preparation time doesn’t include the preparation of the individual ingredients.<br />
<br />
So I finally managed to pour the recipe base mixed with water and tomato paste into the screaming hot pan where my beef strips were beginning to blacken and my chopped onions had gone from soft and golden to dark and crunchy. I probably should have used hot water in the mix because as soon as the cold liquid hit the pan it pretty much exploded. I thought I had done something wrong. I was right, but it turned out that it wasn’t the wrongest thing I had done. It was explained to me after that frozen beef chunks should be defrosted before cooking and not just broken apart and tossed in the pan. In my defense, I quite reasonably expected that putting frozen meat in a hot pan would defrost it but there are complications to that method. Anyway, after finally getting the meal to simmer nicely, I went on to step 3.<br />
<br />
The potatoes were a comparatively easy step. They just needed to be peeled and boiled for long enough as to become soft and mashable. I figured that I could just boil and boil and boil them but it turns out that after a while they sort of come apart and a lot of the actual potato mass seems to dissolve in the water. After draining the... well it sort of looked like soup now... there was not a whole lot of potato left. I managed to bulk it out a bit with grated cheese, milk and butter and a small hand full of plain flour but even with a lot of salt it tasted more like Deb mixed with butter and cheese. It didn’t taste too bad but the texture was a little challenging.<br />
<br />
Anyway, after that debacle, I decided to be a little more conservative with the carrots and broccoli and DG said that was the most successful part of the meal. They were slightly warm and extremely crunchy, which is just how I like them, though I think DG was being nice.<br />
<br />
So finally I “plated up” and put all of the parts of the meal on the plate. I also learned another important lesson that day. No matter how badly you stuff up the mashed potato, it is still better to serve it hot, or at the very least, warm. The meat mixture was kind of lumpy and had small pockets of dry unmixed recipe base, which I think added the occasional little surprising burst of flavour in an otherwise very tomatoey flavoured sauce. The onions had all but disintegrated entirely but still managed to add a sort of smokey chalk flavour but unfortunately the meat itself wasn’t very good. We were able to eat the outside of the hard little lumps but the very centres were, amazingly, still quite bloody and cold. I should point out that they weren’t frozen at the centre but that was a small victory.<br />
<br />
Also, I learned that on many of these recipe bases there are two recipes; the basic one and a more elaborate version that apparently requires the oven for some part of it. My 20 min (+ 5 min preparation time) meal had taken nearly an hour and a half and was an unmitigated disaster, and the oven had been on the whole time. We had ice cream for dessert. I like to microwave mine.<br />
<br />
In the end DG still became DW so it can’t have been too bad. Mind you, I didn’t pop the question after that meal – I didn’t want to risk getting a sympathy “yes”. In fact I waited a few more years, just to be sure. And after some assistance from DW...or as she tells it; her cooking by proxy...I have actually improved somewhat from those first tentative steps into the world of cooking. In fact, some might say I am now an exceptional cook, if you take into account where I started. So if you are lucky enough to get an invitation to a meal cooked by yours truly, don’t be put off by the above story. That was years ago. I guarantee it will be a meal to remember. And we have the local pizza place on speed dial.<br />
<br />
Ciao! <br />
<br />
Thought for the Day: Cook from the heart. If you can cook, that is. Otherwise stick to the bloody recipe.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-13205939917429667252010-07-27T15:53:00.001+10:002010-07-27T15:53:31.276+10:00<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cbmeade%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cbmeade%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cbmeade%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520092929 1073786111 9 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> </style> <p class="MsoNormal">Guten tag!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I have recently discovered that my evil toe may not actually be evil after all.<span style=""> </span>At least, that is what the evil little piggie wants me to believe.<span style=""> </span>It would have me believe that the actual culprit, "so-called", is an affliction called Restless Legs Syndrome.<span style=""> </span>Now I admit that I do have many of the symptoms of RLS, but I have always attributed them to my diabolical digit.<span style=""> </span>However, my doctor feels firstly: that my tyrannical toe is not the spawn of the devil, and secondly: chopping the f*#$@%g thing off (my words) would not actually solve the problem.<span style=""> </span>That said, my main reason for not severing my tiny nemesis is not that it would likely hurt like hell, but rather an unreasonable fear (or is it) that the little fiend would actually grow back, bigger and badder than ever.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So I'm humouring my doctor and I am taking this Restless Legs Syndrome, "so-called", seriously. I have been told that my incessant pacing and twitching may be alleviated by the addition of magnesium, calcium and iron in my diet.<span style=""> </span>It was not without some irony that I found myself surrounded by short, oddly muscled men in a health supplement store buying my new "fix".<span style=""> </span>Apparently these stores are where you can buy muscles when you have trouble growing them yourself.<span style=""> </span>I also noted the expensive clothes store on one side of this shop and a sports store on the other.<span style=""> </span>All they need now is a medical clinic that dispenses Viagra and they could rename this section "Self-Esteem Lane".</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, enough about my legs, for now.<span style=""> </span>I'll let you know if the vitamin supplements or the holy water have any effect.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I was lucky enough to get home in time to watch Princess do her second swimming lesson with her new squad.<span style=""> </span>Far from her previous lessons which involved fairly simple tasks and introductory stuff, these lessons are considerably more serious and a lot more intense.<span style=""> </span>The thing that impressed me most was the enthusiasm Princess has for the sport.<span style=""> </span>She quite literally hurls herself into the pool.<span style=""> </span>By that I mean she was doing the diving lesson when I arrived and her technique is...developing. Even the instructor covered her face with her hands in dismay when she saw how hard Princess hit the water on her stomach.<span style=""> </span>She does manage to get further than anyone else but hasn't quite got the idea of keeping her head down and sliding into the water.<span style=""> </span>For a little body she can make quite a big splash.<span style=""> </span>However, despite the reddening of her legs from the impacts, she didn't hesitate to get back up on the blocks time and again to repeat her mistake.<span style=""> </span>She did complain that her tummy felt a bit sore after.<span style=""> </span>That would be the eight successive belly flops I suspect.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Little Man is into his last term of Kinder and while he does enjoy it, he is finding it and life in general pretty tiring.<span style=""> </span>Of course, the fact that he goes at it like a bull at a gate is part of the reason but still... He had his haircut yesterday after Kinder and DW was recounting his displeasure at not being given his usual downtime.<span style=""> </span>He growled at the hairdresser and her laughing hysterically did little to quell his anger.<span style=""> </span>Luckily by the time I got home, he had calmed down after being able to play computer games without having to share with his older sister, who was off at swimming practice at the time.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, time to go.<span style=""> </span>More tomorrow (maybe?).</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Ciao!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Thought for the Day: Blanketty blank blanking blanker (trains late again)</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-30461894948823189452010-03-15T13:40:00.000+11:002010-03-15T13:40:27.767+11:00Wow! Took a few minutes to brush away the virtual cobwebs from this site but apparently I now feel ready to jump back on the blogging bandwagon.<br />
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A lot of exciting this have happened since I last blogged but I can't remember most of them so I'll just skip ahead.<br />
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Astronomy has been a hobby of mine for the past few years and in February this year, I decided to up the ante and formalize my astronomical endeavors. (Blogger doesn't like Australian English spelling and I don't like squiggly red lines so I bow the imperialist might of the increasingly inaccurately named American "English"). As I work full time, or more accurately, am required to be at work full time, I had to choose a part time course and a friend recommended a Masters of Science (Astronomy) through Swinburne University, so I enrolled. As I haven't studied for over twenty years (my first two degrees finished 14 years ago) I have decided to take it slowly and really focus on whatever it is I'm studying. So far so good.<br />
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Ok, so what about everyone else? Well, DW's passing interest in knitting hasn't passed and is now bordering on a medical condition. She has decided to do her bit for the planet by knitting everyone a shawl. If you haven't received yours yet, don't worry, it's coming. In the meantime, you can borrow one of mine. She also likes making her own greeting cards, which usually accompany the shawls. She is also planning on knitting me a jumper, or possibly 365 jumpers, based on the number of patterns she has asked me to consider. I have drawn the line at knitted bathers.<br />
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Princess has continued to become a proficient reader and simply loves going to school. She also enjoys maths and has a very inquiring mind, which I think she gets from me. DW has pointed out that I probably should have kept using it myself, because she is witty like that.<br />
Princess has started to show signs of growing out of "little kid" things and moving on to "pre-teen" things, like makeup and Taylor Swift. Is it just me or does Taylor look like she was shot in the face by Homer Simpson's makeup gun? Actually, a quick check has shown that I'm thinking of someone else, but I can't work out who. Taylor's makeup looks like she did it herself.<br />
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Little Man is fast becoming a misnomer. I wonder if anyone has ever had a teacher named Miss Nomer? Or even better, Miss Anne Thrope. But back to Little Man and his big head. I should add that it is not only his head that is big - he is proportionally big. It's just that I notice his head mostly because it is at the top, and further from the ground than it seems it should be. His head is big enough to be in four-year-old kinder this year and he is enjoying it immensely. He now has a 3 hour stint on Mondays, a 3.5 hour stint on Tuesdays, and a 5.5 hour stint on Wednesday, after which he tends to stint a bit as well. This means that DW now gets a bit more time to herself, after nearly 8 years. She tends to use the time to knit.<br />
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Ok, well, that's my lunch break over so the rest will have to wait until tomorr... let's just say next time.<br />
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Ciao!<br />
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Thought for the Day: I feel old when I get Facebook messages calling me "Uncle Bern", so I respond with "In ya face! brprbrprbrprbrpr!"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-80832738415607729862009-10-14T15:01:00.001+11:002009-10-14T15:49:38.671+11:00Knock Knock!<br />
<br />
Who's there?<br />
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Oh, sorry. You've probably heard that one.<br />
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Time to have an opinion. Where's my gauntlet?<br />
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Is TV bad for kids? Of course it is. It destroys a child's ability to communicate and think for themselves. They either waste away to nothing or turn into something bloated and disgusting. They all become mass murdering, chip eating, sugar loving, misogynistic, anti-social brats. And it's all because of TV.<br />
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Or is it? In case it's not obvious, I don't actually think TV is bad for kids.<br />
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There has been a recommendation made recently that children under two be banned from watching TV and those under four be only allowed one hour a day. The impetus for this move is to combat obesity in our society, which I wholeheartedly agree needs some combating. The reports I have read also suggest that communication skills are significantly reduced and that eye movement may be retarded.<br />
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One simple solution would be to make very large widescreen TV's that are voice controlled and powered by treadmill mandatory.<br />
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I think that research would find that if a child would sit and read books for several hours a day that the very same conditions mentioned above would likely develop. The effort of turning pages notwithstanding (some of those cardboard pages are pretty thick after all), books are no more interactive than TV. I suppose the act of actually lifting the chosen book off the shelf may be slightly harder than pressing the button on a remote.<br />
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Ok, so what about eye movement? Do the eyes get a better work out scanning through lines of text or watching TV? Before we answer that, let's ask if it is actually relevant. After all, kids books are mostly pictures and while they don't move like they do on TV, they are typically smaller than a TV screen. So the range of movement can't be considered greater. But wait, you might say. The kid stares at an unmoving TV screen for hours and a child normally looks at numerous books in the same period of time, forcing their eyes to move far more than when watching TV. I would argue that the contention here is not a comparison of time spent engaged in this particular activity, but rather the specific nature of the act itself, that is, the looking at a book versus the watching of TV and the movement of the eye to cover the information. We will get to the time spent shortly. I think most people would agree that a book is actually not bigger than a TV and the eye can traverse the display space equally effectively for both.<br />
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But the time issue is significant, however, maybe not for the above reason. In all the literature I have read, none has suggested that books are better than TV because for every unit of time, your eyes get a better workout with books than with TV. The studies do address the time concerns, but they all focus on the macro movement of the whole body. So while there may be a gut instinct to defend books as a better experience for eye movement, there doesn't seem to be any actual scientific data being offered to support that idea.<br />
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Before we jump on the main issue, let's look at the other idea of verbal skills. We are encouraged to read to our kids and speak to them normally, no baby talk, so that they develop a mature, natural way of speaking. Hearing lots of spoken words is the only way a baby can begin to develop speech. Books are full of cool pictures and (to a baby or toddler) otherwise meaningless words. Those words only gain meaning when read aloud to the child. The story comes to life and the significance of those strange markings on the page start to creep into a child's mind.<br />
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I am a great believer in reading aloud to your children and I have been doing it for Princess and Little Man since before they were born. Ok, I read Harry Potter for DW while she was pregnant with Princess, then known as Bob. But I also believe it is a valuable thing for the kids to have access to the books themselves. This allows them to go through the book at their own pace, to explore the pictures carefully and to try to retell the story as they remember it. It also has resulted in the ultimate destruction of some "overly loved" books but that is probably worth it to foster the joy of reading.<br />
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But...and you knew there was a but coming... I don't think a child learns anything about speech when they are sitting quietly on their own, not hearing the words being read and not trying to say the words themselves. That is not to say that such time is not valuable, but how does it help speech? More often than not the child will soon tire of that activity and find something else to do, all the while learning valuable skills but unless they are hearing words spoken or trying to speak themselves, they are not practicing that particular skill.<br />
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Does TV help? Most of kids TV consists of people or characters talking or singing, sometimes themselves and other times with the help of a narrator, but there is always lots of words involved. Most programming targeting young children have specific educational goals, such as learning colours, shapes, words and numbers and even morals. Some even include other languages. Many encourage the children to participate, asking them questions and giving them time to come up with an answer and pretending it is an interactive medium. Whatever you may personally feel about TV, I think you would have to agree that it presents a wide variety of speech learning opportunities for a child.<br />
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So on to the next objection. TV may have lots of words and talking but that is not as good as sitting with your child and reading a book, or talking to them about what they are doing and so on. That is absolutely correct and also completely irrelevant. I am certainly not contesting the value of spending personal time with you child, whether it is reading a book, drawing a picture, baking muffins OR watching TV. The more one-on-one time you can spend with your kids the better. But this argument is about comparing the solitary act of watching TV with the solitary act of reading a book for a preliterate child.<br />
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So just how much one-one-one time can you spend with your child? Each parent will have their own answer for that but when it comes down to it, you simply have to let them have some time to themselves, and not just for your own sanity. A child needs time away from the stimulation of discussions with a parent to integrate the information. They may play with blocks and they may look at a book, or heaven forbid, watch TV. Invariably we all need some mental downtime to let our "subconscious" play with the ideas we have just been exposed to. Kids are no different. I should point out that kids certainly do need time away from TV for the same reason, but that is a long way from saying they should not be allowed any time in front of the TV in the first place.<br />
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And now for the biggie. Kids are fat. Ok, not all kids are fat, but most of them are, so the generalization is fair. Only is it? Well, to be quite honest, it really is fair. A generalization is a description which fits the majority of the subjects. In this case, the majority of kids are overweight. That is not to say that your kids or my kids are overweight, just that for every kid that isn't overweight, they are more kids that are.<br />
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My kids are not fat. They are active and vibrant and very, very healthy. They also watch more TV than the new recommendations allow. Actually, they watch more TV than the old recommendations allow. They probably watch too much TV, but I certainly couldn't use their weight as an indicator of that. Actually, there is only my unfounded belief that they watch too much TV. I have no actual evidence of that at all.<br />
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Kids need to be active and my kids are like humming birds. But back to the argument in question, how is TV any less physically active than sitting reading a book? It is certainly less active than bouncing on the trampoline or riding the scooters, but the question here is about reading. I'm sure you can agree that in this context, TV and reading use up about the same calories and develop the same gross motor skills, which is to say, none at all.<br />
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And here is some more fuel for the fire. Fat kids aren't really the problem. The problem is they grow up to be fat adults, so perhaps the ban should not be on kids, but on adults. I don't see that ever happening, or ANY political party brave enough to even suggest it.<br />
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Basically, our kids need to eat healthy foods MOST of the time, get plenty of exercise and gain as much experience of the world they safely can, be that with a parent, playing sports and with friends, reading and yes, even TV. No-one would ever dare to suggest that books should be banned - that would be akin to blasphemy! But the lack of actual evidence and the emotive arguments make TV an easy target. The problem with the suggested ban is not that it is unenforceable, but rather that it will not achieve what it sets out to, and that is help children be healthy and grow into healthy adults. And to make matters worse, it WILL succeed in making excellent, loving and dedicated parents feel guilty when they turn on the TV while they have their morning coffee, just for a moments peace. And God help anyone with more than one kid.<br />
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Ciao!<br />
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Thought for the Day: Say everything with conviction, especially your retractions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-79181914138157674762009-09-15T12:34:00.001+10:002009-09-15T12:34:58.745+10:00Hey, Hey it's... what day is it?<br /><br />It's time to put pen to paper, shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone and get some finger tappin', mind melting, fog inducing, thought reporting blog-style.<br /><br />Ok, before I forget, I should mention some of the wonderful kid-isms that seem to pop out at regular intervals at my house. Firstly, Little Man is going through an "angry" age. Everything seems to annoy him, though he can be extremely happy at other times. I don't think he is manic depressive or anything scary but at four, I'm told kids go through a difficult age. Actually, saying kids are going through a difficult age is a load of crap. They are difficult period. They start out being difficult and then get steadily more difficult until they have kids of their own. It would be more useful to describe an age or phase using some scale - DW and I currently use the Richter scale, other families might be different.<br /><br />Anyway, the other day I was cooking dinner and Little Man objected to what I was cooking, or possibly the idea that the Earth is round - who knows. The thing is he declared his hatred for me, as he so often does these days:<br /><br />Little Man: I HATE you!<br />Me: But I'm cooking you dinner.<br />Little Man: Fine! Then I love you and I hate Mum!<br /><br />I should note that DW had nothing to do with this exchange whatsoever. <br /><br />On to Princess, who is embracing the skill of reading with great gusto. However, a few nights back she had finished the age-appropriate readers and had come home with a book of her choosing. It was called "Cockatiels" and was in fact an in-depth reference book regarding the breeding and care of various types of cockatiels. Now while Princess can read very well for her age, this book was chock full of bird-breeding-related jargon and nearly every second word was one she had not come across before in her reading travels. In fact, many were new to me as well. So after a few pages of reading what might as well have been in another language, I suggested that the book was a little over her head.<br /><br />The next day, when it was time to do her reader I asked her if she had remembered to get a simpler book, unlike her book about cockatiels. She assured she had by saying her new book was not at all the same - it was about bees.<br /><br />She couldn't understand what I thought was so funny.<br /><br /><br />Ciao!<br /><br />Thought for the Day: Even if they do smell funny, it's not something people expect to hear. Don't expect a "thank you". Honesty is its own reward.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907632.post-47084507485186739052009-05-13T08:49:00.002+10:002009-05-13T09:41:33.659+10:00Good morning.<br /><br />I know that sounds rather more formal than is typical but I don't want to alarm you.<br /><br />I believe Little Man has been abducted and replaced by a short, angry psychopath called Lightning McQueen...asaurus.<br /><br />Seriously, either that or the kid has gone nuts. In all fairness, the creators of the replicant have done a great job. It looks just like Little Man and sounds just like Little Man. But a couple of things are amiss. For example, he now talks more than Princess and hasn't taken a breath for twenty three days straight. The best Princess was ever able to manage was eighteen hours and she was in peak form.<br /><br />The Little Man we knew would give hugs and kisses and say "I love you Daddy" all the time, but the new one kicks, punches, bites and screams blue murder when the ads come on TV. He's even worse when something REALLY annoys him. He's a menace!<br /><br />I am calmly told by those who are more calm than I, that I should calm myself and try to maintain a calming atmosphere for Little Man so that he too might calm down. My response is below:<br /><br />For your information<br />Until now I have been<br />Calm and I do<br />Know exactly how to cope with this<br /><br />Ordeal.<br />From now on, please keep your<br />Foughts to yourself.<br /><br />Or words to that effect. A measured response if ever there was one, I think you'll agree. I should mention that very occasionally the real Little Man pops back and gives hugs and cuddles and says "I Love You" and makes DW and I feel less like the parents of an angry velociraptor. We treasure those brief moments and use them to steel ourselves for the maelstrom that is Little Man Unleashed. <br /><br />In case anyone is wondering about the Lightning McQueen reference earlier, Little Man has been obsessed with the hero of the Cars movie for ages. He is also obsessed with dinosaurs, hence the "...asaurus" addition. He alternates between flying his cars around the room, blasting everything in sight, ala Angry Blue Lightning McQueen (cf. Cars dream sequence) or roaring and leaping about like a dinosaur. He chops and changes which dinosaur he is at any given moment, depending on which one he thinks would inflict the most damage in a particular scenario. He really commits to the role as well.<br /><br />It is not just during play that he is completely crazy. He deliberately rejects any suggestion of Princess' when it comes to deciding what to watch on TV. The only food he admits to liking is noodles and screams his replicant head off (ok, it doesn't come off but it does seem to turn further than it should be able to) whenever something else is served. He still eats whatever is put in front of him eventually, and will occasionally admit to liking it, but its still not noodles, dammit!<br /><br />It is DW's considered opinion that the behaviour is not that of a changeling, but rather a result of Little Man giving up his day sleep before he is really ready to. I have applied the principle of Occam's Razor to her argument and decided that it is more likely he is a short, angry psychopath replicant, rather than just being overtired. I mean, how else can you explain the inhuman strength and super spit?<br /><br />I don't remember Princess going through a similar phase. DW offers two explanations for this supposed lapse. Firstly, Princess did go through the same phase and I am simply repressing the memory. Secondly, and seemingly at odds with the first, Princess is a girl and girls are different to boys and go through different phases. It was unwise to suggest she should just pick one and stick to it.<br /><br />To her credit, DW is the one who bears the brunt of dealing with the replicant-freaky-monster destructo-boy. The fact that he still lives is a testament to her self-control. Thank God he hasn't touched her knitting.<br /><br />Now if I reach my mind out to the most extraordinary possibilities I must concede that it is possible that the horrible little punk monster is actually our beloved son, Little Man. I admit it may be, however unlikely, that he is going through a phase and it is exacerbated by him being overtired. Maybe. But I doubt it.<br /><br />I'll keep you posted.<br /><br />Ciao!<br /><br />Thought for the Day: Never rush doing up your fly.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0