![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipIt is appropriate, given the French revolutionary date of July 14, that I mention that this coming Sunday at 11 am at the Kathleen Syme Centre in Carlton (and also on Zoom) that I will be presenting the Melbourne Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on "The Pursuit of Happiness". Apart from having a prominent and interesting history in the American Revolution, there has been a lot of discussion over the years of its application in terms of psychological well-being, whether one is taking a hedonistic, Epicurean, Stoic or other perspective, all of which I will address in turn, along with a return to the context of the origins of the phrase as it recursively embodied its own meaning. At times, journaling in the future tense requires one to be a combination of enticing and ambiguous in language. All will be revealed to those who attend, or see the write-up after the fact.
Much of the past few weeks at work have seen me deeply buried running a project for a major upgrade of our applications on the supercomputer. It was an extremely challenging task with close to 500 applications as a whole to install, built from their source code, according to specific versions, and the same for all their dependencies. The project finishes today and, despite what looked like a Herculean task, we managed to complete all but a handful; sometimes software just won't install in this environment, and quite often because the upstream programmers are much better at being a scientist in their domain than understanding good conventions in programming. The next fortnight will be testing, building containers for the old application collections, and writing job submission examples.
On a related matter, whilst I haven't had much opportunity for external socialisation, I have played host a few times recently. The winter phase, such as it is, gives me the opportunity to apply my skills to various European and related foods. A recent visit from former a manager from the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (Bill Y) and advisor (Norber N) included palacsinta, a Hungarian Crepes (along with a French Potage Crécy and Italian agnolotti). Norbert recalled his mother making them when he was a youngster in Vienna, which is really quite a delightful memory for one who is at least a couple of decades older than myself. Liana F., also visited for "Hungarian night" which consisted of a mushroom soup, langos (fried bread), palacsinta, and a couple of Bela Lugosi films. New friends Todd and Karen from the arts and fashion industry visited on the weekend as well with Maggie S for a rather boisterous night of Spanish and Latin American food. This weekend will include "German night". Unsurprisingly, my next entry will almost certainly include an extensive collection of recipes. After all, I'm an advocate for "open sauce".
Much of the past few weeks at work have seen me deeply buried running a project for a major upgrade of our applications on the supercomputer. It was an extremely challenging task with close to 500 applications as a whole to install, built from their source code, according to specific versions, and the same for all their dependencies. The project finishes today and, despite what looked like a Herculean task, we managed to complete all but a handful; sometimes software just won't install in this environment, and quite often because the upstream programmers are much better at being a scientist in their domain than understanding good conventions in programming. The next fortnight will be testing, building containers for the old application collections, and writing job submission examples.
On a related matter, whilst I haven't had much opportunity for external socialisation, I have played host a few times recently. The winter phase, such as it is, gives me the opportunity to apply my skills to various European and related foods. A recent visit from former a manager from the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (Bill Y) and advisor (Norber N) included palacsinta, a Hungarian Crepes (along with a French Potage Crécy and Italian agnolotti). Norbert recalled his mother making them when he was a youngster in Vienna, which is really quite a delightful memory for one who is at least a couple of decades older than myself. Liana F., also visited for "Hungarian night" which consisted of a mushroom soup, langos (fried bread), palacsinta, and a couple of Bela Lugosi films. New friends Todd and Karen from the arts and fashion industry visited on the weekend as well with Maggie S for a rather boisterous night of Spanish and Latin American food. This weekend will include "German night". Unsurprisingly, my next entry will almost certainly include an extensive collection of recipes. After all, I'm an advocate for "open sauce".
no subject
Date: 2023-07-14 08:15 am (UTC)So how to get there? The Swanston Street tram to University will take you right there, and there's paid parking next door, and some 2 hour parking in the street outside. Someone will be at the door from 10.50 onwards to let you in, or you can ring the mobile number on the sign on the door and someone will come down to let you in."
We'll be Zooming it as well at
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84142603685?pwd=eUhLeDR5K0JlT3ZncXJ1a3FUNEk2dz09
no subject
Date: 2023-07-14 02:26 pm (UTC)There is some talk about a National Happiness Product. Mostly airy-fairy, but there's something to be said for thinking about it. I think Nepal (Bhutan?) even has a Minister in charge of it. Dunno how that's working. However, let me point out that the American Declaration of Independence mentions the right to pursuit of happiness, not of having happiness. It's not so much promising to work for happiness, but as recognizing the human need.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-14 11:25 pm (UTC)Perhaps unsurprisingly, the social and liberal democratic countries of Europe (Finland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Iceland, Sweden, etc) tend to dominate the top positions.