cratuki

12:41 am: Urban rebuild
http://mapscroll.blogspot.com/2009/06/shrinking-of-detroit.html

Every time I read about the mess of Detroit I go misty-eyed at the possibilities. Something unfortunate about cities is that they tend to be built on good farming land. I wonder if Detroit is too? If so - then you could be a few blocks of these dollar houses, bulldoze the lot and put in market gardens. If you had a community of people doing it you could work towards building your own church/choral hall in the middle of several blocks of these. It's still urban enough that you'd expect connectivity to water, phone and power grids. There would be good hardware stores and petrol stations nearby.

The planning laws wouldn't allow all of it, but you'd expect to be able to make a proposal and get councils to back it. Alas, I think part of the reason things are so cheap is because of high crime.

"Detroit and the rest of southeastern Michigan have a continental climate which is influenced by the Great Lakes. Winters are cold with moderate snowfall with temperatures at night sometimes dropping below 10 °F (–12 °C), while summers are warm with temperatures sometimes exceeding 90 °F (32 °C). Average monthly precipitation ranges from about two to four inches (50 to 100 mm). Snowfall, which typically occurs from November to early April, ranges from 1 to 10 inches (3 to 25 cm) per month.["

09:57 pm: lolcat heaven
http://www.reddit.com/r/lolcats/

06:54 am: Waterbears *in spaaaaaaace*
Hardy critters: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/invertebrate-as.html

10:02 pm: Church porn
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/05/07/10-divinely-designed-churches/

12:38 pm: Attention gene therapists
I understand that men tend to put weight on their guts and women tend to put it on around their hips and breasts. I've forgotten where I learnt it, but that's not important. Some have speculated that it has something to do with the centre of gravity men need for hunting bears or something like that. That's not important either.

What *is* important is the entrepreneurial opportunity I've noticed on the female side. Whoever is the first to work out how to redirect the gene segment that says "put weight on my bum" so that it further contributes to the one that says "put weight on my bust" will make an absolute killing. The commercial appeal would be limitless.

10:40 am: Rachmaninov had big hands
After my Rachmaninov discovery experience last year I purchased the music to the secony symphony on a whim when I was in a music store getting Bach one day. I really wanted to play around with the first movement. When I got home.. I discovered my hands weren't large enough for the opening chord :)

This video makes fantastic fun of the situation.

07:41 pm: Unpleasant new experience
I had a jarring experience today for the first time: my HR contact in a company where I had an interview last week emailed to say that my application was unsuccessful. It was dressed up to be very polite but - there's no hiding it. Previously, every time I've made it to interview I've always either landed the job, or got a call back later to say that although I didn't have the job I'd applied for they'd created a new position for me.

This was the first interview as well - the phone screen.

I don't know what else to say. It happens to nearly everyone, but this was special to me. I have this idea that the few things in the world I'm good at have been won through work and relentlessness, and that I'm at average or much worse at everything else. However, I had built up an idea in my head that there was one thing in the world at which I had a natural and amazing talent. A place in which my background, my demeanour and my weird charisma were perfectly suited. That was job interviews. And now it's gone.

I'm unable to write about this in a way that doesn't read as me being utterly precious. Yet - this is livejournal - and if there's anywhere where spoilt-kid-style-whines have a place then it's here. :)

10:28 am: LSE Concert
I sung in my first major concert with LSE during the week.

( Concert )

As much as I enjoyed the sing, there was an aspect that was even better, and I struggle to put it into words. There wasn't much work done on publicity, and yet the place was packed. And the people who packed it were (I'm told) mostly just people from around the university who had individually decided to come along without knowing anyone in it. The venue itself reminded me of the Pitt Street church I sang in with MuscUTS in that the audience are close to the action there - but much more so. The audience were actually wrapped around the performers.

In the second half they had the LSE orchestra. I considered leaving after my bit but decided that was a stupid idea and stayed in spite of being tired. I'm glad I did. They performed a long lineup of music - http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEPublicLecturesAndEvents/events/2007/20061208t1738z001.htm. I enjoyed the Sibelius most of all which pleased me as it wasn't the most accessible. From the program notes Haydn's "London" symphony 104 is an important milestone in musical development. If anyone knows why please let me know - I was looking out for interesting patterns and nothing grabbed me. :)

( Life )

--

( Universe )

( Resolutions )

08:03 am: Abbott joins the fray
Graham Abbott's Blog: http://grahamabbott.artsblogs.com

06:18 am: Giddy London
Arrived last Friday and am still jet-lagged which is why I've been up until 4 and am posting to lj at six in the morning :) Watched The Pianist, Mulholland Drive and some interesting documentaries on evolution on the flight across. Couldn't stand the feature films - the pirate one had some entertaining scenes but I gave up on it probably half way through; I quit Borat at the rodeo/anthem scene. I completely clicked with a girl I met on the plane from Melbourne, but we parted ways at the end of the flight because she was travelling to study in the Netherlands.

I took Barchester Towers with me but didn't have a lot of energy to read it. Still - I find I'm loving it. As always his descriptions of characters are so recognisable it causes me to laugh out loud.

I don't have a good sense of place and have a poor natural feel for geography. As far as I know, when I travel all that happens is that I get in a metal box and then hoardes of underpants gnomes scoot around and change the scenery so that when I get out again I appear to be in a new place. It definitely felt like that this time. I determined to take the underground out of Heathrow and when I heard my first "mind the gap" I knew it was a good likeness. London has a tangible character to it that is not present in other cities where I've lived.

It was eerie to walk up the familiar cobbled streets to the old office to connect with my colleagues. For the first time I was jolted to wonder why I'm here. The answer is unclear. I have only a vague idea how I ended back here. The sleep before last I had a nightmare set in the last time I was working here. I had such a bad time. I was dragged through a nightmare lasting several more months than I felt I could handle. Afterwards I deleted all my notes, burnt some of the books and told myself and friends that I'd never be back to a similar setting - let alone the one! Yet here I am and - this is the really interestsing bit - at no point have I felt the need to stop and make a considered, conscious decision to weigh up whether I should be here or not, and - apart from my concern at this - I'm quite upbeat. Either I am mad or have come a long way.

My apartment is next to the graveyard where William Blake was buried. In fact - I can see his tombstone from my window. The view faces South and holds the banking district's skyline. I'm about ten minutes' walk from the office.

I have caught up with Gus for breakfast a couple of times already. On Sunday I met up with some Adelaide choristers at St Pauls and we did not very much sightseeing together. The slides at the TATE were busy and I wound up leaving them because I was tired.

Last night I went to my first rehearsal with LSE. They're going to be singing Mozart Requiem. As usual for London uni choirs it's non-audition yet the standard is (really) high.

I haven't yet done much meaningful at work - they're very painful as far as giving people their basic user accounts, email access, etc.

How do I find out whether I got an offer to get into economics at Adelaide? Does anybody have a paper around still that they'd be able to look at for me? I don't even know if I still want to do it - I figure I could just read books and get the benefit I care for. Currently making inroads on one Gus has lent me.

I have completed resolutions (3/43):
+ 'Do clothes shopping' with Lauren
+ Pack sensibly when I travel
+ Collect British Citizenship

There's also a development on the 'Improve back' item - and this parts of this tale and my decision-making will sound odd. Since August 2005 I've been attending a chiropractor in Australia to get relief for two problems which were preventing me from sleeping and hassled me throughout waking hours. My family had history with the clinic and I knew that they'd get results of a sort but attending there was very much a case of the lesser of evils because there are times where I find myself wondering whether I'm at a health facility or in a pentecostal church. Lots of pseudoscience and blatant network-marketing tactics. It may prove to have been very silly to have used a practice with these reservations. I was quite desperate in the early days. I've used the relief for the past eighteen months with the intention of sorting something out I'm comfortable with but kept putting it off - until this week. The move has pushed me to it! Yesterday I went to a new chiropractor here. I went in expressionless and presented my case history (including copious xrays) and was pleased at his utterly black response.

He claims that they'll be able to work with me to get me fixed up in the near future. This is a stark contrast from the 'wellness' angle that the Australians use to build dependence on the practice rather than getting you fit to deal with your problems and working towards for an endpoint where you are sufficiently well that you don't need to come back several times a month for the rest of your life. I'll write more on this in a couple of weeks.

02:23 pm: Oh Dear

You scored as Soprano. As a Soprano, or, more specifically, First Soprano, you are characterized by your love of drama. You are constantly seeking attention and love to be in the spotlight. Lucky for you, you seem to draw others to you, lovers and admirers alike. However, you can be anal, overbearing, and prone to hysterics. </td> Soprano 68% Bass 64% Alto 57% Mezzo 54% Tenor 54% Baritone 50% Which Vocal Range Suits Your Personality? created with QuizFarm.com

03:45 pm: My forty three things
If it kills me:
- Deploy phaes one of Songseed

Major projects:
- Get to conversational level in another language
- Read three books about economics
- Write ten essays in field of economics
- Make songseed.com self-sustaining
- Structure my business wisely
- Publish equiv. small album of me performing
- Get two hundred solid performances into Songseed archive
- Evolve datamagi into a respectable development platform
- Leave AUCS mugs at strategic points

In my stride:
- Floss (aim for twice daily, succeed at daily)
- Go to IV
- Keep home relatively organised and nice
- Sing a concert with LSE
- Make sure AUCS fresher fund happens for BIV
- Double savings
- Continue current diet regime
- Go to three quality orchestral concerts
- 'Do clothes shopping' with Lauren
- Have a nice whiteboard wherever I live

Less easy:
- Read three cool novels
- Ensure AUCS resolve AIV fresher fund
- Experience further improvements with my neck problem
- Stay on top of all accounting
- Be relaxed, sane and not washed-out
- Sing scales regularly (aim for daily, almost is success)
- Take people under my wing and help them grow
- Give great gifts
- Write something in Cocoa
- Write a simple scheme implementation
- Get into habit of making bed every day
- Create and perform a cool revue act
- Visit the rellies up North
- Collect British Citizenship
- Regularly ignore current affairs and feel good about it
- Feel like I own my time
- Pack sensibly when I travel
- Rebuild mailserver
- Expand new analysis/learning skills
- Don't fall foul of ego mindset

.. and there are three more just for me :)

03:06 pm: Article on Research Design says the secret is 'cool data'
http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2006/11/26/brian-wansink-on-research-design/
"""
BW: When I was a graduate student [at the Stanford Business School], I would jog on the school track. One day on the track I met a professor who had recently gotten tenure. He had only published three articles (maybe he had 700 in the pipeline), so his getting tenure surprised me. I asked him: What’s the secret? What was so great about those three papers? His answer was two words: “Cool data.” Ever since then I’ve tried to collect cool data. Not attitude surveys, which are really common in my area. Cool data is not always the easiest data to collect but it is data that gets buzz, that people talk about.
"""

05:19 am: Strange vivid dream
This probably extended from a combination of (1) me refreshing myself with Heinlen's _Job_ yesterday; (2) seeing _The Family Man_ a few weeks ago and (3) general geekiness. It was 2006 and I'd just been hired by my old development firm (which became defunct in 2004) as an experienced developer having never worked there before. This was my first day with them. And the world was completely changed. I'd been transported into a world where something significant had happened about the time I was born and the world had gone down different tracks. I like that metaphor. It could be that the rails were headed in the same direction and the scenery had similaries but the details were all different.

It was a very inconvenient development for me as a programmer - there was no mainstream concept of 'free unix' (*free* *unix* - that earned a look that was both 'how absurd' and 'how quaint') and most of the tools were different. Noone had heard of Microsoft. Try saying it in a non-familiar, way with the emphasis on the noun - 'micro-*soft*'. They pointed out that it was a truly lame name but liked 'Windows' a lot - this was also 'quaint'. Michael said it several times to play with the sound of it. Frank's first computer had been a much-loved Apple II but they'd long since faded and everyone had a 'cutting-edge' Archimedes on their desk. The user experience seemed a fair bit better than OS X or Windows but the systems were incredibly slow - six or seven years out of date by my standards.

In _Job_, however much things have changed, the protagonist always finds work doing dishes. After I woke up I realised that maintenance programming in C was likely to be the contemporary equivalent. Assuming I could find a decent text editor. Horrible. Horrible.

People treated me like I was mad at first, and then I started pulling trivia out about their personal histories that made them stop and take notice. That was a bit hit and miss of course. But when I'd pull things up from stale threads they'd just look at me - not as though I was crazy but rather with the feeling that what I was saying was grounded in sanity. Frank and Michael were both unmarried and for a moment I figured I could win some brownie points by connecting people with likely spouses. Then I wondered how I would find them and whether they might be otherwise engaged.

I tried explaining my new (real-world) architecture to Michael (the programmer who trained me at that company - he now lives in Melbourne) on a whiteboard. [I've tried explaining it to numerous geeks over the last few months. People are always polite but I don't think I've been successful at selling it in most cases. When I demonstrate it people tend to be a bit shocked but I haven't yet got it to a stage where I can carry it on my laptop so that doesn't generally work.] In this case, none of the pens worked properly and I couldn't present it. But then he saw where I was going and started second guessing me, and explaining it to me so that I could agree. After a bit he looked at me in the "are you serious" gaze and then scoffed - I was describing standard software development practice.

I was lost - "No! No! I invented this!". He pointed out that it was obvious - and it is - and that's part of what I'm so excited about in the work I'm doing at the moment. If you step outside the current context enough to look at the problems properly what I'm implementing is obvious yet as far as I know noone has done it before. I thanked him for his patience with constant questions as I tried to nail down the point of the split. "Are you familiar with WebObjects?" progressed towards "Who won the general election in the UK in 1979?" and in final desperation "Is there somthing akin to an encyclopedia on a global network where I can just sit down and read up on recent history?". Finally - acceptance. I politely asked him to drive me to the hospital (more out of sympathy for the fact that I knew everyone else would think me mad than because I believed it), and then woke up.

Great experience.

10:16 pm: Touching the Void
I think I wrote ages ago about a documentary I saw ages ago about an Italian maraton runner who got lost in some African race and then survived through sheer force of will. The sort of story that really makes you reconsider what's possible [1]. There was an even more incredible documentary on 7 tonight about two climbers who went through a horrible climb to get up Siula Grande (Peru) and then had to deal with one of them breaking a leg. In fact, it wasn't just broken in the standard way, he actually had the lower bone puncture the upper (which sounds far less stable to me but I don't know much about anatomy..). The broken leg guy (Joe) seemed to fall down an abyss, so his mate took off for base camp where he stayed for several days recovering from frostbite, etc. The documentary went through the Joe's unaided journey out of the chasm and then however many miles back to base camp. I have no faith in my own ability to pull through those sort of hardships. Then again I'm probably not daring enough to get myself into some of them either. Just amazing.

--
[1] .. only partly ruined by the Discovery Channel's annoying-as-hell "drip feed" format.

05:09 pm: Baah - another pop / comercial music industry disgrace
When I was nominated for FUCS president years ago I wasn't expecting it and didn't have a speech prepared. For my instant speech I got up and ranted about trying to get the high notes like 'that guy who sung "All by Myself"', ".. practicing for hours and hours every day.." in the style of the German gunman's soliloquay from The Three Amigos (just before he gets shot by Ned Nederlander). I complained of the work I'd put in and my frustration at not being able to get the sound right. And then I told of my cynicism after having heard about ... *digital audio retouching*. [1]

That was five years ago. In the time since then I have stopped singing tenor, but still give my upper range a regular workout in case I should ever be in the same room as Eric Carmen. If ever that should happen - well - then I shall challenge him to a dual and then we will know. Oh yes - then we will know once and for all.

Anyway. Weeks ago a bunch of AUCS were in Peter Kelsall's car on the way to Seven Hill for a chamber choir performance. We were doing 'ultimate' or 'desert island' romantic pieces or something and PK named Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #2 as his. This afternoon I thought I'd give it a listen, and unusually for me, I'm finding I was working very well and enjoying the music without it destroying my concentration.

Imagine my surprise when the second movement kicked in!!! The song popularly known as "All by Myself" is just a cheap ripoff of the second movement - what a crock! I hadn't looked at this before but - look at the Wikipedia entry.

Oh - look - and the label that owns his music is none other than Sony Music. Funnily enough, the original name I had in mind for my music site was www.cronymusic.com [3]. I wonder if the album attributes Rachmaninov. If not, then it would be fun to run a test case suing the label - not under copyright law - but under contract law or for misrepresentation.


--
[1] This was my entire presidential speech apart from a short plea at the end for everyone to vote for the other candidate..[2]
[2] .. which the meeting chose not to respect.
[3] I've got a better one that's also less likely to get me sued now though.

11:33 am: Article about property
Continuing my interest in economics things, I wrote a bit of an essay a couple of days about intellectual property being an anti-right rather than a right, and have been thinking about what constitutes property. Here's a good article talking about the ideas in volved in property.

01:30 pm: The survey says - good dresser!
A few months ago I was out for dinner with same mate as mentioned in previous post and we were talking about dressing up. I commented that I think it's stupid to care how you look, and I deliberately dress down because it means the people I talk to will be the sort of people worth talking to and not shallow. Not exactly a fasion god himself, he nevertheless urged me to consider a change of tactic.

So I called up my sister - who is an amazing dresser and trend setter from way back - and we "Went Shopping". And then, that night, "We Went Chucked Out Three Quarters Of Craig's Old Wardrobe".

Twelve months ago I did the survey mentioned in a recent smange post and came out as having a 'librarian' dress style. "Nice," I thought, "respectable yet not at all wanky."

( Anyway - on a whim I just did it again and - the results stun me. )

The relative bars at the bottom are the good bit. I have no idea whether I'll stick to the new dress standard.

03:22 am: BEc at Adelaide - my SATAC application is in!
I just applied to study economics at adelaide next year. And I'm excited about it! When I was considering university in year 12 I didn't have much idea what I wanted to do. Something leading towards me being a
programmer but nothin involving complicated much maths, and I wanted to avoid Adelaide because that's where most of the people from school would go. So I enrolled in a BA at Flinders with initial majors in Computer Science and English Literature.

[Years pass. Craig changes majors several times. He does a bit of economics towards the end of that time. He eventually completes the requirements for his BA by accident. Then in recent years he regret not being "well-read" in the field of economics or able to express his ideas formally.]

On Saturday a mate of mine had to go on a long drive into the country to get a witness statement for a trial he's involved in. I said I'd go along for the ride. At some point while we were talking I commented that sometimes I think it would be fun to go back to University and study economics. And I had one of
those moments where I realised that there was nothing preventing me from doing just that and that now was the time to act if I wanted to. Less than a week later - the application is in.

It's funny how life catches you like that. The reason I got excited about travelling years ago was that the company sent me to Melbourne to work on a contract at MYOB for a month. I'd just been rejected from re-enrolling at Flinders [1] and I'd broken up with my girlfriend not long before and I thought - yeah - no reason not to go and work in Melbourne for a bit. Then when I was over there I realised - I could do a lot more of that. I could even.. work overseas. Bang. I landed a new job in Adelaide before I got back from the trip, resigned straight away, and then started working out a plan to get to London. Eight months later I'm working thirty hour shifts duct-taping major banking applications together in Central London.

Anyway - I'm not in until I've got an offer - and that's far from definite. My GPA at Flinders was all over the place - two fails, a High Distinction and lots in between (everything except P2 and Conceeded Pass). But the base level for BEc at Adelaide this year seems to be 70.5 and I got 69.5 in year 12 and have a BA on top of that so I'm optimistic. Although for all I know they've completely changed the was scoring works from when I was in year 12 :) In those days it was out of 90.

I want to go to Adelaide because I like the reputation their economics department has and it's kind of romantic to think that I might soon be singing in a university choral society at a university at which I'm actually studying (!!). It's close to Synect as well, and the consensus amongst the AUCS I was
speaking to the other night was that I'll be back there in January. :)

--

[1] On the dubious grounds that I'd 'completed' the degree. The first I knew of it was when I rocked up to enroll for my seventh year. The lady behind the computer got all confused, when I went to argue the point at the Arts office they rigidly refused to let me back in. I've still not graduated and have no intention of doing so. I hope that one day I might be famous and they'll come crawling to me and beg me to graduate. Heh.

09:06 pm: Decadent seating for startups
As mentioned previously, I'm working on a 'startup' business model. I'm working from my house. Naturally, in the early days I briefly wondered what I could do to improve my seating situation, for no doomed dot com startup is complete until each participant has an Aeron Chair and all of the chairs in my house were mundane.

Shockingly, I believe I have gone one better than the Aeron Chair, *by simple good fortune*!

My grandmother's recliner chair was returned from the nursing home yesterday. During my small part in organising it I considered the need to get it here to be a hassle and distraction. Half an hour ago I thought I'd try it out to see if it was any better than the other furniture in the lounge - all of it shocking for my posture. It turns out that it is. My ibook fits comfortable on my lap. My neck is comfortable. I reclined it. Better. Then I noticed the massage options.

Half an hour later.. I'm posting to lj with a persistent, self-satisfied grin. It's a personal pleasure machine. True - it won't have sex with me - but everything else is there.