The Perils of Vita Activa

[tcpip]

My poor neglected LJ/DW has suffered the past several days as I have engaged in vita activa far more than this space which covers vita contemplativa. So near midnight on a Friday after a couple of wines (in vino veritas) an opportunity finally presents itself for summary and reflection, and indeed an ordering of thoughts on what is going to be a busy next several days as well. I am increasingly of the view that I am due for more holidays. But first, some rodent news. We are looking after a friend's rat, Suki. Her owner often spends time overseas so we get the care and entertainment of this cheeky creature's presence. At 2.5 years, like many female rats, she had developed a sizeable tumour, about 40g on a 340g body. Courtesy of Dr. Jack Zacks, this has been removed, with a short video of the surgery. Rodent is recovering just fine and she's just as perky as she has been in the past, despite her age.

Wednesday night went to see and review The Dead Kennedys, courtesy of The Dwarf. My review will hopefully be published on said site soon (although I notice my interview with Manchester Orchestra hasn't gone up yet either. Essentially I found the night highly positive with the Kennedys playing an excellent set, competently, and with good engagement with the audience. As a fan in my youth some thirty years ago, it was quite a buzz finally getting to see them. The Dwarf has arranged for my next review gig, The Tea Party with SuperJesus. Also on entertainment, Thursday night was Pendragon where a largely new set of player-characters engaged (and failed) in what is effectively the Lancelot-Grail cycle. The success of curing King Pellam-The Fisher King of his wound however lifts the ill-effects of the Waste Land and also ends the Enchantment of Britain. There is but one chapter to go in this epic story, the downfall of the realm. Meanwhile RPG Review 23 nears completion, and in the meantime, an Interview with Lewis Pulsipher.

Political issues are also taking some time. I have written an article on the necessity of Labor and the Greens to act, in a realpolitik sense, as if they were in a coalition rather than risk losing the upcoming state election. Apparently some people, putting aside political difference, can actually see the sense of it. Also related to the state election, tomorrow night is a meeting (FB event page) of the Victorian Secular Lobby at Trades Hall, discussing campaign strategies for this small group. Of some relevance this Sunday will be convening a meeting of The Philosophy Forum on the question of "A World Without Evil?".

Finally, I have been working through project management frameworks at work, with a simple generic template for PRINCE2 offered. Will be running another set of Linux-HPC-MPI courses next week and spent much of the past week revising content. Later in the week will be speaking at the Young Professionals CPA Discussion Group on open source software. Yes, I'm taking the open source message to accountants.

Comments

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

the necessity of Labor and the Greens to act, in a realpolitik sense, as if they were in a coalition

From what I know this would make a fair bit of practical sense, but I'm certainly no expert on Australian politics, and I'd be interested in your views as to why it's not a more widely held idea.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

There is a level of stunning and frankly irrational hatred between the Greens and Labor, in in particular the left of Labor, even though they have broad agreement in policy. Where the Greens are strong they are typically targeting formally safe-Labor inner urban seats, usually the more left-wing. Thus to many the Greens are fifth columnists to the conservatives, whereas the Greens typically engage in criticism of Labor on policy.

It really is quite a mess which is not really helped by the governing party in Australia coming from the house based on local elections with preferential voting.