New Year 2014 : Portents and Reflections

[tcpip]

New Year's Eve was spent at a evening organised by the wonderful txxxpxx which was, like all her gatherings, an opportunity to catch up with a good number of old friends and engage in animated conversation. However I suspect I may have had one or three brandy cocktails too many, as I spent most of the following day recovering. Still, taking it somewhat easier since then has provided an opportunity to reflect on the past year and prepare for the next, just as I am about to embark to Linux Conf AU, which will be my first visit to Perth since the 2005 SAGE-AU conference. As a result, I have organised two catch-up dinners at a local Nepalese diner on Sunday and the following Friday evenings, so if for some reason I've missed inviting you via FB and you wish to attend, please let me know here.

The last year was a fairly productive one, even by my own standards. Academically there was a Graduate Certificate in Adult Education, both courses with high distinctions, which dovetailed quite nicely with the nineteen training courses in high performance computing that I ran through the year. Plus there was the paper presented at the 4D Conference. There was an additional four presentations to Linux Users of Victoria, one for Software Freedom day, one to Melbourne Linux Users Group, one to the systems research group at Otago University, and a submission to the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property - all available from my main website, along with MC-ing the second Multicore World and performing similar tasks at the last Linux Conf in Canberra. From that nexus of religion, atheism, and philosophy, I gave three addresses to the Unitarians, three to The Philosophy Forum, one to the Sunday Assembly, on to St. Michael's interfaith group, one at the Humanists, and one to the Atheist Society - all available on the Lightbringers site. Politically, I wrote most of the Isocracy submission to the UN on the Repsonsibility to Protect, coauthored three other articles, and organised their three forums and the three for the Victorian Secular Lobby. For recreation, four issues of RPG Review were published, twenty new reviews were published on RPG.net, and two concert reviews on Rocknerd.

Overall, it's been a really good year; certainly caseopaya had a rough start with the car, but we have a new one and of course she's just finished a wonderful journey with friends and relatives to Europe. Our finances are somewhat better this year as well, with a debt corner turned and a overdue windfall coming in. Thankfully, our health seems to be in good working order as well. So with positive spirits the following is planned: I'm hoping to make some good headway into a M.Ed. at the University of Otago, finally submit my PhD at the University of Melbourne, and finish the Mimesis roleplaying system - the latter two being projects I've had on the backburner for far too long. I also want to ensure that the Isocracy book is published this year as that has developed quite nicely and, if work rumours are true, the training manuals that I've written will also be acquiring official publication status as well. I am also hoping to bring my Esperanto skills up to speed, and - as recently promised - make a start on Russian as well.

Comments

[iris]

You had a really productive year! It's quite impressive! I hope your next year is just as awesome.

[tcpip]

One of the positive sides of knowing next to nothing about most contemporary popular culture is that I have plenty of time for other pursuits.

[txxxpxx.livejournal.com]

I don't think you were the only one to succumb to the champagne cocktail temptation. We did manage to demolish that entire bottle of brandy amongst the rather impressive tally of drinks consumed.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

In my younger days a bottle of brandy would be what I would take to a party. Alas, my capacity seems somewhat reduced and the effects the day after most onerous.