Last night, I attended the Chinese New Year Concert at Hamer Hall with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with invited guests from China (the conductor, the pianist, the pipa player). The concert consisted of Tian's "Gift", Beethoven's "Piano Concerto No. 4". Strauss II's "Der Fledermaus", Jiping's "Pipa Concerto No. 2", and Kats-Chernin's "Momentum". I was particularly impressed with the high-paced scales in the Piano Concerto and the octave and pitch range with the pipa, which is slightly greater than the guitar despite having only four strings. Afterwards, there was a small private function for VIPs (which apparently included me) that included speeches from the Governor of Victoria (and MSO patron), the Chinese Consulate-General, and the outgoing and incoming chairs of the MSO.

On a more personal level, I have also experienced the joy of two separate visitor groups from overseas over the past few days. The first was Daisy T from Maucao with her rather brilliant young son who, at the age of 15, is visiting Melbourne to organise his future university studies in psychology and, ultimately, music therapy. Quite the dedicated youngster! Daisy and I met five years ago at Zurich, as part of the MSc programme that I was taking with the University of Salford. The other visitors were Cath W., and her partner Isam A., who came over for lunch. Cath and I became friends through a mutual interest in international aid work more than twenty years ago, and we caught up once on a visit to Melbourne more than ten years ago. There was, unsurprisingly, a lot to catch up on, and it was quite the pleasure to meet Isam for the first time.

To finish up on the international triptych, I am posting this from the Melbourne Airport to board the Silver Bird to the South Island of New Zealand. The formal reason will be to attend and present at eResearch New Zealand in Christchurch. The conference will be preceded by a Software Carpentry Day at Canterbury University. Apart from fellow researchers and IT professionals at the conference, I am planning to catch up with Victoria S., who is a resident of said city. Afterward, I'll be heading northward to Wellington to catch up with Janet E. and hopefully a few Wellington friends before heading back to Melbourne. I'm rather looking forward to going back to New Zealand (Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu). Home is where the heart is, and mine is so deeply embedded in The South Island.

It appears my birthday week really did extend out the full seven days, albeit I was assisted by Kayo's birthday falling on the 25th, so I took her and Lani out to see "Raiders of the Lost Ark" accompanied by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Ever a classic pulp adventure film and the very large audience (around 5,000) cheered at the appropriate moments, e.g., when Nazis were being punched, which is, of course, an honourable and appropriate greeting. In many ways, it is quite a silly film (the French rival speaks with an English accent), but the MSO played the John Williams popular score with notable competence. It certainly looks like they've hit a winning formula here.

The following day, I hosted a modest gathering, nominally for my birthday and nominally on the theme of extra-terrestrial intelligence (a matter I have taken with seriousness and humour for many years), and a few did dress in theme. It was a carefully curated invitation list designed for people to attend at sext, vespers, or compline. It turns out I really can fit 25 people into my apartment with such an organisation. Anyway, it turns out I have amazing and talented friends (Angela's late-night operatic karaoke was something to behold) who provided excellent conversation and company all through the day, and I've been told in no uncertain terms that I must host more events.

The final event was an invitation from Liza D., to see "A Body at Work" at TheatreWorks, a performance by sex worker (stripper, masseuse plus) Frankie van Kan where she tells an autobiographical tale of her navigating the experiences and internal conflicts (queer, feminist, exhibitionist, and her desire for matrescence). There was excellent insight on the differences of clients in the different locations and, unsurprisingly, our protagonist was certainly able to perform on the stage, although it must be said if you are uncomfortable with nudity in performance, this probably isn't the show for you. If I were to give a single adjective to the story and performance, it would be "beautiful", and I took the opportunity to tell Frankie just that at the end of the show.

It seems that I have completed another orbit of the sun, an event which brings me a little bit of pride that I have not wasted my time in this life, and there are several achievements worthy of note, which I must include my work in supercomputing, my collection of degrees, and my many years of volunteer work. Completing a solar orbit also comes with a great deal of gratitude. Every year of existence, especially with the benefits of living in an advanced and developed country, is one worth being joyful for, especially with the recognition that there are plenty who have not had the opportunity to live life to the full or to a more appropriate completion. "L'ingratitude attire les reproches comme la reconnaissance attire de nouveaux bienfaits" (Marie de Rabutin-Chantal).

I do not have particularly great plans for the day itself; major celebrations have been delayed. I will mention, however, events of note in the past week that have led to this day. Yesterday, Rob M., Erica H., and I saw the classic 1964 Japanese horror anthology, "Kwaidan" which was quite brilliant. The evening prior, and sharing an almost common day-of-birth, I attended Django's party and spent a good period of time in the company of the host, Paula R., Simon S., and Adam F. It was a bit of a busy period with Adam, as I also attended his "utopian picnic" event earlier that day, and had him over for dinner the evening prior.

The dinner itself followed attendance with K and L at the "101 Women Project" rally at the State Library, the title representing the number of women killed (an increasing) in Australia last year by others (usually partners or former partners). Gendered violence is a subject I wish to write more about, especially in reference to the recent allegations concerning Neil Gaiman and the Isla Bell Charitable Fund. To refer to my first comments; there are far too many who do not have the opportunity to live life to the full - and this is but one example.

"And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.", wrote T.S. Eliot in "Little Gidding" (1942). Curiously appropriate, for the end of 2024 and the start of 2025, I had the privilege to attend two valedictory partings, one in person for my neighbour Rachel E-M. (where I spent a good part of the day in the company of Jon M) and the other for Peter Lyons back in Perth. Both events were touching, dignified, and honourable. True to her style, Rachel's was quite colourful and celebratory of a life where her chronic illness was utterly dwarfed by the enormous personality of love and wit that she carried. For Peter, his quiet charm and great intellect carried through; as one speaker observed, Peter was such a goth his life ended on Friday the 13th! I will miss both these brilliant and lovely people so much, and they will remain forever dear to my memory.

But one's own life does go on. As is appropriate for that arbitrary marker of the new year in the Western calendar, I have been engaging in a lot of projections of what comes in the year ahead. Certainly, in my workplace, this is required. My superiors want to know! And as much as can be determined, there will be trips and presentations to Aotearoa, New Zealand, for eResearchNZ and one to Brisbane for eResearchAU. Study-wise, I will be putting in a lot of effort for my doctoral studies in climatology at Euclid University, but I also have several academic papers to co-author this year, with other publications planned and in progress. Studies will also be supplemented by language classes in Chinese, Spanish, and some Portuguese as I will be taking international trips to both China (perhaps two), and then an extended trip to South America later in the year. My music project with Mel S., continues to develop on a daily basis, and a new artistic project has begun with Liza D., both of which should witness productions by the end of the year.

There is a lot more that can be said about these and other future plans or past events. But the present should not be ignored. I've had a relaxed and interesting introduction to the new year. The evening itself was spent quietly in the company of Erica H., having escaped my inner city pad as the noisy hordes descended. A gathering more to my style was hosted a few evenings later by Fiona C. at the peninsula, a "Casual Not-NYE" party, where I knew nobody but the host encountered thoughtful, considerate, and open-minded people, and found some new friends as a result. Finally, I have to mention to events at Federation Square's open-air evening cinema, which I attended with Nitul D., screenings of Nolan's mind-bending films "Inception" and "Interstellar", both very satisfying stories and performances, and with excellent scores. Both were delightful events with delightful company.

The past year has been an important one for me in terms of scholarship, in the sense of teaching and learning, both formal and informal. This does not include matters I have learned in my personal life and about myself, which, of course, one is fated to be engaging in "continuous learning". That will be the subject of a future post. For now I wish to talk about my academic life, which includes the University of Wellington, Euclide University, Duolingo, and MOOCs. I have already written about my rather extensive teaching and workshop activities at the University of Melbourne, through both Research Computing Services and the School of Computing and Information Systems, and my week at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in my review, "Another Year in Supercomputing (2024 edition)".

In the formal study, this year I completed a Master of Climate Change Science and Policy at Victoria University of Wellington. With coursework completed in the previous year, I had only the dissertation to complete, "Climate Change Impacts, Adaption, and Just Financing for Small Developing Pacific Island Countries". For the degree as a whole, I was an "A" average student, missing out on straight-A's by 2% in one unit. After completing the Master's degree, I looked for an appropriate institution to do doctoral studies. Ultimately, I ended up at Euclid University, a United Nations Treaty Organisation with an emphasis on developing countries in Africa and the Pacific. So far, I've been working through a coursework component, but with prior credit I am aiming to finish by the end of 2025 or early in 2026. Climatology is pretty much my life's project at this point, and what a time to do it; 2024 was the hottest year on record and human activity is to blame (temperatures, by natural forcings would be almost the same as they were 120 years ago).

In a less formal environment, I've continued my linguistic pursuits with Duolingo (I've been in their top 0.1% of learners for three years in succession). As previously mentioned ("Matters of Language, Culture, and Music"), this year I concentrated on Spanish, French, Esperanto, and Chinese, completing the new skill tree in the latter and bringing myself to CEFR level B1 in Spanish and A2 in Chinese. I also won the Diamond Tournament once and the Diamond League three times. In the coming year, I plan to concentrate on Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese as I have plans to travel to both China in the first half of 2025 and South America in the second half. Just for fun, I've started Japanese as well; maybe I'll visit in 2026.

Dovetailing with these linguistic studies was the completion of the Duolingo Music skill tree, participation in the Spanish language choir "Sonidos del alma" (I should join a Brazilian Portugese group as well), and the recent completion of a course in music theory derived from Augsburg University's curriculum, and have followed up on this with additional studies in electronic music. After all these decades as a popular music critic, I realised that, if not the dexterity for performance, perhaps I do have the right ear for composition (dexacuity?). It will be in the second half of 2025 when, alongside my significantly more experienced friend Mel S., the first content will see the light of day, and perhaps with other media included.

That provides a summary of scholarship in 2024 and plans for 2025. My life is one of continuous and lifelong learning, essential in a rapidly changing world, and continuous teaching to those who wish to learn. I am very fortunate in life to have a degree of income, wealth, and disposition that can sustain scholarship. Studying under conditions of an undergraduate's poverty taught me well the need for a materially simple but culturally rich lifestyle, although I do think that the relative impoverishment of our brightest minds is not socially beneficial. Scholarship in itself can bring its own pains; not the least a touch of bitterness in the realisation of the preventable harms in this world. Fortunately, there is a community of scholars: those who do not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar, those who walk away from Omelas, and where at least some virtue can be found.

I have just completed a 1200-word essay, "The Road to Damascus", which covers the extraordinary events earlier this month when the Assad regime collapsed in a matter of days. This conflict, which had run for fourteen years and with over half a million civilian deaths (mostly by the regime and its foreign backers). Standing against the criticism of those who engaged in "campism" or denied the legitimate claims for civil rights and democracy by condemning all rebels as religious terrorists, I am pleased to have been associated with those who did not deny the right of Syrians to live with peace and justice. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to meet, interview, and correspond with a number of Syrian refugees and hear their stories directly, as well as spend a period teaching (remotely, of course) at Rojava University. There are, of course, a number of uncertainties with where the country will head now, but they've certainly turned a corner.

In the safety of our own liberal democracy, one of my small roles is that of the Returning Officer for the Albert Park branch of the Labor Party. Most of the time, this is relatively straightforward, as the number of candidates usually corresponds with the number of positions. But this year, due to no other reason than sheer enthusiasm among members, we had an election! Donning my UN Election Observer t-shirt from East Timor 2002 (which I keep under wraps for such special occasions), I conducted the election by the book, especially the requirement that photo identification had to be provided. This led to some amusement as I made the demand not only to the local MP, Nina Taylor, who I have known for several years but also to the former Deputy Premier, John Thwaites, who I have known for more than twenty years. But this is the point; one must follow such rules for purposes of transparency and equality, even if there is a strong personal connection. No matter whether it is as small as a local Party election or a geopolitical issue like the government of an entire country.

Finally, I wish to draw a little bit of attention to my Darwin friend, Lara D., who has been interviewed again on the plight of renters in the Northern Territory, specifically the lack of prevention of no-fault evictions. Lara's (second) story on these matters is both on the ABC website and with a video interview as well. The comments at the end of the latter by the NT government on the need to prevent anti-social behaviour rather than address renter's rights is quite telling; have they, with their small and poisoned minds, considered the possibility that anti-social behaviour might be the result of insecure tenancy? And is the evidence for this relationship somewhat overwhelming? I admit that I can seem a little obsessive about housing matters, but having a secure roof over one's head changes lives, which is one example of Lara's situation.

Unsatisfied with taking the life of my mentor Bruce Tapper last weekend, the Scythe of Thanatos has fallen twice more in the last twenty-four hours, taking friends to sleep perpetual. The first blow was to Rachel E-C, a neighbour of joyful personality whose friendship had only been established in recent years. Although not of great health during all the time I knew her, her presence brought joy at every encounter - usually in the foyer of our shared apartment block - with a vibrant and uplifting spirit. As her partner has beautifully put it with great accuracy, "put a little bit of pink sparkle somewhere inside you [she had a particular love of said colour], and keep it there. She was unapologetically Rachel, all the time, and she was brilliant!"

The other loss, harvested but a few hours ago, was Peter Lyons. I had known Peter for over thirty years, and we had mutual interests in computing, science fiction, and gaming. A man with broad knowledge and a famous pixie-like countenance, his clever but careful mind carried a charming level of perpetual doubt as he considered propositions from all possible angles. I believe our strongest association was during my final years in Perth, many decades ago now, where we started doing a fair bit of gaming and clubbing together, sometimes seeing the light of dawn as we would discuss the finer points of ontology and cosmology - his background in physics certainly assisted this process! It must be mentioned that Bruce and Peter also thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.

It is not surprising at all that my thoughts in these circumstances have turned deeply into remembering the times I have spent with all these people. Of course, I wish that there was more time, but such wishful thinking leads to grieving, and, as we know, grief is love that has nowhere to go. Or rather, nowhere toward the person that one is thinking of. I find that I have developed an ability to give a great deal of respect to reality and see a need to redirect grief into a motivation inspired by the remembrance of our friends and loved ones who have passed. We must act in their honour, we act with their memory, in the pursuit of aesthetics and sincerity, just relations between people, and the truths of our universe. We live life to the full, waste not the precious additional time that we have been granted, and do not forget what we owe to Asclepius.

Last night I attended the annual Chinese Language and Culture award ceremony held at the Chinese Consulate. This event, held over the past several years, recognises those university students who have excelled in the namesake award and is co-organised by the consulate and the Australia-China Friendship Society, with the awards determined by the Australian Tertiary Chinese Teachers Association. Short speeches were provided by the Consul-General, Xinwen Fang, myself in the role as president of the ACFS (Vic), and Chunming Shan of the ATCTA. Each of us made reference to the importance of language to understanding culture and the importance of understanding to reach a successful relationship between people; the Consul-General quoted Wittgenstein (I wonder how many people noted that), whereas I made the point that the students were over-turning Chris Bowen's "educated guess" from five years ago that there there are only 130 Australians of non-Chinese heritage who can speak Mandarin with competence. A rather worrying statistic when one considers that China is Australia's largest trading partner (for both imports and exports) and the dependence on a good working relationship with said country for secure peace in the region. Following the awards there were song and spoken performances from tertiary and even high-school students and a dinner - the consulate does put on some rather delicious food. From the performances (they were all excellent) I must note one young woman who nervously gave a speech in Chinese and then, when the music started, completely went into her zone with the confidence of an expert and with an utterly stunning and angelic voice.

Continuing on-topic, the day previously, Duolingo dutifully informed me that I am in the top 0.1% of its learners for the third year in succession. I know I started the year with the objective of concentrating on Chinese, French, and Esperanto, which I certainly did in the first half of the year (I came first in the Diamond Tournament in early June), but it's turned out that my studies have ended up with Chinese, Spanish, and Music. My emphasis on Chinese is for obvious reasons, while my interest in Spanish has come about with the decision to participate in "Sonidos del alma", the local Spanish-language choir and a desire to visit South America in the second half of next year. This week, according to Duo, I also reached CEFR B1 in Spanish, which suggests a modest level of competence. As for Music, this relatively recent interest (as a practitioner rather than a critic) dovetails quite nicely with the choir participation. Speaking of which, I am making excellent progress in the course in music theory derived from Augsburg University curriculum, and I am certain I will complete it by the end of the year. If I start rambling on about diatonic chord progressions in minor or minor keys and the circle of fifths, you know what's happened to me. Actually, I know exactly what's happening to me; I am exploring language, culture, and music as a means of emotional regulation as I attempt to reconstruct ethics in the face of profound human cruelty.

"People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel."
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "The Brothers Karamazov"

Tonight I board the big silver bird with Lara to head to Darwin to finalise the purchase of our apartment. In the past fortnight, said co-owner has been in Melbourne, courtesy of the Territory's requirement that everything be done with pen-and-paper. The first step was getting the final signatories on the bank loan, which took three attempts as the bank made minor errors each time, which was mildly annoying. Now we head the great tropical north to get the keys and move in. In the meantime, it has meant that my dear rodent animal companions, Mayhem and Mayday, also need to have a little holiday. They have grown up so much in just a couple of months! As Mel offered, she is now the keeper of the little rascals for the coming week, where they are safely ensconced in her shower cubicle and seem to be thoroughly enjoying their temporary residence.

In work news, for the past two days, I have been buried in delivering two HPC and Bioinformatics workshops with some 64 attendees. These are similar to the standard workshops I deliver but modified to take into account the numerous applications and workflows, e.g., "Rattus Norvegicus ESTs with BLAST and Slurm". Part of the workshops includes tests which I worked with the University of Agricultural Sciences in Sweden and a workflow from Data Carpentry, modified for HPC systems, that use a long-term evolution experiment published in 2016 ("Tempo and mode of genome evolution in a 50,000-generation experiment"). The workshops will also feature in a presentation on HPC for Bioinformatics that I'm planning to give to eResearch New Zealand early next year.

As usual, my social life has been pretty full as well. In an effort to have some sort of narrative thread in this entry, I will mention an outing with Erica to the Sun Theatre in Yarraville to see the satirical speculative fiction film "The Substance" which has an excellent and comprehensive review from my old friend Andrew M, who accurately notes: ".. from a filmmaking point of view, it’s an incredibly well put together, intricately constructed, horrifically grotesque and sickening movie. There are incredible scenes, immaculate shots piled on top of each other, with no concern, with no regard for our well being whatsoever". It has thematic depth with its portrayal of the patriarchial beauty industry, its competition between generations, birthing metaphors, and whilst draws upon the body-horror of John Carpenter's "The Thing", David Cronenberg's "Videodrome", and with an over-the-top comic ending in the style of Peter Jackson's "Braindead". It is utterly grotesque and I loved it; and I certainly understand why others don't.

For the past fifteen years or so, I have been a designated (Physical) First Aid officer at multiple workplaces (VPAC, UniMelb) and in the past three years, because the world has become a little more attentive to such things, the Mental Health First Aid officer as well. In the past couple of weeks, both of these certifications required refreshing, and courtesy of the benevolence and tactical investment of my employer, I went through the requisite few days required for recertification, with both courses conducted by Real Response. I must say they do a pretty good job, providing theoretical grounding, practical discussion, immersive roleplay, and a fairly thorough exam, all whilst noting the limits of a first aid person compared to a health professional.

The Physical First Aid course covered basic emergency life support for various situations and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. One of the roleplays for that led to a bit of confusion, with an innocent bystander thinking we were performing something for Halloween. The Mental Health First Aid course covered depression and self-harming behaviour, anxiety and panic attacks, substance abuse and psychotic breakdowns. As an amusing aside, I was given the role of an office worker with contamination OCD in the immersive session, which I apparently did quite well; several people rather sincerely praised my presentation, with one person asking me later whether I had a side gig as an actor. Ha! Just decades of experience getting into character with table-top roleplaying games.

The inner sysadmin in me immediately suggests that prevention is better than managing a crisis or cure and that work and social environments ought to be designed to minimise the need of physical or mental first aid. But the need is still very real and still exists. As a result, I am a thorough believer that as many people as possible should acquire these skills. I also recognise that a particular sort of focus and level-headedness in crisis situations is also required. I can recall vividly the Dili riots of December 2002 centred around where I worked, the "Palásiu Governu". Despite the crisis all around, and eventually the appearance of dozens of heavily-armed UN peacekeepers, I found myself with a sense of calm and even provided a "live update" on Usenet as it was all happening. That experience is probably why I have continued with first aid training to this day.