Budding entrepreneur
Michael (right) attends a special program for advanced learners. Their project this term was to develop an understanding of small business.
The young entrepreneurs had to develop, market and sell their own products. Michael and his friend made fudge and fairyfloss, which they sold today for a profit of more than $100 at a “small business expo”.
The money goes to charity.
The Russian Ambassador
I went to a dinner tonight with the Russian Ambassador to Australia, Alexander Blokhin.
The photo doesn’t do him justice. He’s a likeable, jovial man, very intelligent and knowledgeable.
He was a deputy in the Russian parliament and was reportedly close to former President Boris Yeltsin. The current President Vladimir Putin appointed him Minister for Federation Affairs in 2000.
Mr Blokhin was the Ambassador to Belarus before being appointed to Canberra.
He is an engineer by background, and aged 57, is a very high ranking diplomat. Australia is honoured that he has been posted here.
Mr Blokhin spoke tonight about the export industry similarities between our countries and the growing bilateral trade, albeit from a low base. He said there is increasing co-operation between resources companies in the two countries.
He made some insightful comments about climate change and energy issues. I won’t repeat them here because they were off the record.
He said that President Putin is visiting Australia for the first time in September. Mr Blokhin’s presence here and President Putin’s visit signal a growing closeness in the relationship between Australia and Russia.
Giving a sperm sample
I don’t know what prompted me to think of this subject today. Probably it was a repressed memory which must have been triggered by something. Certainly it was a memory I had banished from my conscious mind.
After Michael was born in 1996 Juliet decided to have no more children. It wasn’t something I agreed with, but who am I, a mere male, to challenge someone who spent 20 hours in labor giving birth to our first child?
Being a woman though, Juliet changed her mind a couple of years later. We spent the next couple of years practicing the business without producing any dividends.
Suspecting a plumbing issue, Juliet went to see a specialist in Albury. Being a very competent and thorough gentleman he wanted to rule out all possibilities before giving his pronouncement. Read more
Mini blogs and site trials
I’ve been experimenting with a couple of new features on this web site recently. One is a different script for publishing family tree information. The program is called Retrospect and you can see it in action on my site here.
It has a very clean uncluttered layout, is easy to use and provides just the information most people want.
The other feature is to test a flatfile blog script. For the benefit of non-bloggers, WordPress and most other PHP scripts use an SQL database to store files. An alternative is to store plain text files for each article.
I came across a small program called Text Rider, which weighed in at just 92kb. It’s currently running at www.gorey.com.au/brief/. It’s just a trial run at this stage, but it may have a potential use.
I’m yet to be enthused by the mini-blog phenomenon which has given rise to sites like Twitter, Jaiku and Tumblr. I actually have a Jaiku page at http://mgorey.jaiku.com/ but I haven’t used it for quite a while (the content there is from RSS).
I can think of two obvious explanations for mini blogs taking off. One is that people are using mobile phone text messaging more than ever, and it’s easy to post content directly from a phone. The other is that people are more lazy and find it easier to communicate in short sentences (or phrases). It could also be they are not highly literate or confident in writing.
That said, there is quite a skill to communicating effectively using short articles and I’m prepared to give it a go, time permitting.
The mini blogs I don’t like tell a person’s movements, as though the world might somehow be interested that Joe is having a beer or that Susan has gone to the hairdresser. The better sites, I think, post interesting links, web discoveries, tips and snippets of news.
You don’t have to visit the other address to see what I’m posting there. The RSS link in the right sidebar will show the titles as they are published.
Disused Australian sayings
Something prompted me to think this morning about Australian sayings which are no longer in common usage.
He’s got Buckley’s hope
Owes its origins to convict William Buckley who landed with David Collins’ expedition to found a settlement on Westernport Bay in Victoria. Buckley escaped, the settlement was abandoned and he spent the next 32 years living with Aborigines until the founding of Melbourne.
The saying means that someone has very little hope. Their position is precarious but not totally forlorn. Read more
Windows Vista hardware problems
A few months ago I bought a new Dell PC with Windows Vista Home Premium installed. I now wish that I hadn’t bought the computer, or that I had bought it with XP instead.
I have had ongoing problems with hardware recognition and installing software.
Firstly, to show that I’m balanced, I will write what is good about Vista:
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Sidux Linux
I was always a fan of Kanotix. It’s a Debian-based Linux distribution which forked from the popular live distro Knoppix to offer a solid desktop system.
Somewhere along the line, I messed up an upgrade and moved away. By the time I revisited Kanotix it seemed to have lost impetus. Indeed, the last news items on the site today are from 2006.
I believe there was a split between the lead developers and one of them branched out to help create Sidux. I’ve now got Sidux installed in parallel with Windows Vista and I’m very impressed.
I had some initial glitches with screen resolution and fonts, but once they were sorted I’ve had no problems. It is a fast, attractive desktop which is easy to keep up to date.
Capricorn horoscope gives insight
I thought my Yahoo! horoscope today was fairly insightful:
As the real Capricorn that you are, you are not in the habit of talking without saying anything constructive. Sometimes some people even suspect you or accuse you of having nothing to say! When you are just being patient, they say that you are ignorant. When you are just demonstrating your tolerance, they say that you are indifferent. Today, it’s time for those people to learn the real truth about you, and understand just how much you have to say about the world.
I’ve felt the need to be more assertive and outspoken lately. I’ve learnt over the years to be circumspect and careful about what I say.
It’s not that I’m reticent or indifferent; rather I find it wiser to keep my own counsel. Silence is sometimes my way of showing respect for views I disagree with. My thoughts are always clearer on reflection.
York Hotel, Kalgoorlie
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I had a day off in lieu for working Sunday last week. Juliet and I put the twins into daycare and enjoyed lunch at the historic York Hotel in Hannan Street.
It’s a heritage building with a curious, ornate design, almost oriental on the outside. I’ll make an effort now to learn the history.
It was very quiet when we arrived at noon, with just a few blokes in the front bar. I had a beer and Juliet ordered a coffee while we perused the menu.
By Kalgoorlie standards the prices were reasonable. Specials were $14 for mains and menu items were $20 to $29. As it turned out, the servings were huge, so no complaint about the price. Read more
Talented Canadian musician
I came across a talented Canadian musician online tonight. He is very versatile, capable of playing maritime (Celtic influence), folk, jazz, rock and blues.
He will be releasing a CD soon and I look forward to obtaining a copy.
The musician is Michael Gorey.
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