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Reflections and Portents
The end of year leads to a time of reflection of the past and portents of the future. The past year was certainly one of some modest achievements, the most significant being completing four courses and thus my Masters of Business Administration (Technology Management) and being on the Dean's List for said degree, and the settlement for our secret baseretirement home in Ravensbourne. In terms of the many and varied organisations I am party to, I can say it was a fairly good first year for the Isocracy Network (especially with the formation of a second brancg), and for the Victorian Secular Lobby and most of all Linux Users of Victoria, which saw the formation of two regional chapters and hosting a great Software Freedom Day along with the usual Beginner's Workshops and Main meetings. On related topics there were also papers at the New Zealand eResearch Symposium and Humanity+. It is impossible not to mention the eleventh-hour attempt to stop the "Malaysia Solution" (the dispute is still ongoing) and attendance at the ALP National Conference.
On aesthetic matters there was three issues of RPG Review (a late double issue is due) and associated reviews on RPG.net. There is also three reviews on Rocknerd, specifically Hawkwind, Leftfield and Gary Numand and Severed Heads. In matters of religion and philosophy, I gave several address at the Melbourne Unitarian Church, (Wikileaks, Non-Violent Direct Action, Carbon Tax, The Future of Unitarian-Universalism, Humanitarian Intervention, The Fermi Paradox), no less than seven presentations to the Philosophy Forum, one to the Existentialist Society and one to the Atheist Society. I also started Seminary Studies completing essays on Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism along with reviews on Felder and Plato - all available on one page of links.
Much of the plans for 2012 is already made out in advance; I've enrolled in a GradCert in Project Management (with a 50% credit) and will be seeking PRINCE2 certification, as work wants me to move in that direction. I've moved into an accelerated program for Seminary, which means I'll complete the two year course by mid-year. There is also the matter of a certain doctorate that will be completed this year as well. Ditto for the Mimesis Role Playing System, which I've had on the backburner for quite a few years as well. Finally, I have every intention of learning Esperanto this year; something I've wanted to do for a while, and it's about time I did so. In all honesty, that should do for 2012. I bet there will be more however. There always is.
On aesthetic matters there was three issues of RPG Review (a late double issue is due) and associated reviews on RPG.net. There is also three reviews on Rocknerd, specifically Hawkwind, Leftfield and Gary Numand and Severed Heads. In matters of religion and philosophy, I gave several address at the Melbourne Unitarian Church, (Wikileaks, Non-Violent Direct Action, Carbon Tax, The Future of Unitarian-Universalism, Humanitarian Intervention, The Fermi Paradox), no less than seven presentations to the Philosophy Forum, one to the Existentialist Society and one to the Atheist Society. I also started Seminary Studies completing essays on Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism along with reviews on Felder and Plato - all available on one page of links.
Much of the plans for 2012 is already made out in advance; I've enrolled in a GradCert in Project Management (with a 50% credit) and will be seeking PRINCE2 certification, as work wants me to move in that direction. I've moved into an accelerated program for Seminary, which means I'll complete the two year course by mid-year. There is also the matter of a certain doctorate that will be completed this year as well. Ditto for the Mimesis Role Playing System, which I've had on the backburner for quite a few years as well. Finally, I have every intention of learning Esperanto this year; something I've wanted to do for a while, and it's about time I did so. In all honesty, that should do for 2012. I bet there will be more however. There always is.
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Multe plaĉas al mi ke vi intencas lerni Esperanton !
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With difficulty! I am pretty thorough in avoiding many of the temptations of popular culture and consider myself reasonably good at combining interests. I am also quite good at creating "to do" lists and being harsh on myself when I don't complete everything on them.
Australia is much more intellectual than I ever realized.
Well.. maybe. Australia is gradually becoming more educated, but "intellectuals" are still largely treated with disdain. We don't have a particularly sophisticated public sphere.