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Work Matters, EoY Recaps, Weekend
Dec. 11th, 2023 10:42 amA few weeks ago I mentioned that work had a slight restructure which was pretty sensible to facilitate future growth and better allocate duties. As a result of the restructuring, I received a little promotion last week in title and responsibilities, with further expansion planned for the coming year. It is a rather nice way to conclude the year especially following Spartan's long-delayed entry in the Top500. Apropos, work also hosted a retirement function last week for Terry B., who managed service delivery at our group and had been at the University for twenty-four years. It was an excellent little gathering and a great opportunity to catch up in person with several workmates, and another EoY event will be held for Business Services in two days.
Recaps are, of course, popular at this time of year. Duolingo's little green owl has informed me that for the second year in a row, my linguistic obsessions have landed me in the top 0.1% of that application, despite my misgivings of changes to their user-interface. It all comes just after I found myself in the monthly Diamond Tournament and ended up third - I don't need to do that again! Another site where I've spent a fair bit of time this year is Reddit; although a very long-term member (I created my account in 2010), I didn't use it until the last two years. It has the feel of the old USENET groups and tends to concentrate on communities, rather than individuals (unlike Facebook). The site gives a little recap of one's activities and in 2022 I was surprised to find myself in the top 1% of users. This year it is impossible to determine - although my "karma" has increased from 9,656 in 2022 to 65,252 in 2023 the new recap misses out on providing metrics on even on relatively easy items (e.g., karma increases, relative percentage, time spent on main subs).
In the more visceral world, a good portion of this weekend was spent in the company of Liana F., and Carla BL. Carla was unable to attend a rather beautiful concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre with piano, violin, and harp performances and gifted us the tickets. The following day we made our way over to her neck of the woods to engage in another Saturday of helping her move items from her old home to her new home and avoiding the wet weather, which always makes moving house difficult. The following day I finally put finger-to-keyboard and started composing the first draft of my research project on "Climate Impacts, Adaption and Financing for Pacific Island Developing Nations", being the final item of assessment for a master's degree on the subject. I am hoping to have that draft completed by the end of the year, revised in situ in January, and submitted in February.
Recaps are, of course, popular at this time of year. Duolingo's little green owl has informed me that for the second year in a row, my linguistic obsessions have landed me in the top 0.1% of that application, despite my misgivings of changes to their user-interface. It all comes just after I found myself in the monthly Diamond Tournament and ended up third - I don't need to do that again! Another site where I've spent a fair bit of time this year is Reddit; although a very long-term member (I created my account in 2010), I didn't use it until the last two years. It has the feel of the old USENET groups and tends to concentrate on communities, rather than individuals (unlike Facebook). The site gives a little recap of one's activities and in 2022 I was surprised to find myself in the top 1% of users. This year it is impossible to determine - although my "karma" has increased from 9,656 in 2022 to 65,252 in 2023 the new recap misses out on providing metrics on even on relatively easy items (e.g., karma increases, relative percentage, time spent on main subs).
In the more visceral world, a good portion of this weekend was spent in the company of Liana F., and Carla BL. Carla was unable to attend a rather beautiful concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre with piano, violin, and harp performances and gifted us the tickets. The following day we made our way over to her neck of the woods to engage in another Saturday of helping her move items from her old home to her new home and avoiding the wet weather, which always makes moving house difficult. The following day I finally put finger-to-keyboard and started composing the first draft of my research project on "Climate Impacts, Adaption and Financing for Pacific Island Developing Nations", being the final item of assessment for a master's degree on the subject. I am hoping to have that draft completed by the end of the year, revised in situ in January, and submitted in February.