Lev Lafayette's journal

Without much rush, I'm slowly reading the signs and portents for 2023 and making a start on the year. I have a degree to finish (Grad Dip Psychology) and a new one to start (Master in Climate Science), the latter of which will feed in well with my life project with Avatar Mountain Pty Ltd. The biggest item at work will be getting the mentorship training programme up and running, and a rather massive operating system upgrade to the Spartan HPC system. In my personal life, I am hoping to find a little more relationship stability to what I've experienced in the past few years, and I do have a bit of coin to find before my low-interest fixed-term mortgage runs out. I have a small mountain of leave to get through, so it is fair to expect that I will be doing a lot more travel this year. Then there are my roles with the Isocracy Network and the RPG Review Cooperative, both of which will be demanding more attention that the "holding pattern" that has been adopted in recent years.

In 2022 I lost two dear cats in my life; Mac who moved in with Erica H., and Sabre who ended up with me. It was a tragedy that they both died so close to each other and in the same condition. For some time the place felt quite empty without feline company, and whilst my visiting doves did provide some amusement it was by no means the same. However, in more recent weeks I've been fortunate to have no less than three visiting cats. The first was one Sosuke, courtesy of a short-term visit by lei_loo a few weeks back. Very well trained, Sosuke was provided just the combination of good behaviour and playfulness as we made our way through a number of episodes of "Inside Job". In the past few weeks, courtesy of caseopaya, I've been visited by two Manx cats, Fragarach and Eadric. Frag is a very playful and somewhat naughty kitten who lives to climb everything; whereas his older and chonkier cousin is much more reserved. All have quite loved watching "Dove TV". Despite the joy of having such creatures about (not to mention the health benefits), I am not sure whether I am quite up for another animal companion of my own. It is a matter to which I will have to dedicate more thought.

It appears that I have completed another orbit around the sun; my fifty-third. This year, at least, I managed to remember it. Whilst the day itself is nothing special (and to be honest, I prefer it that way), it does bring the opportunity for reflection of successes, failures, and remaining opportunities, of which there are a few in each basket. I could be simply content with my lot, but I don't feel like fading away. There is still much that I wish to do, and especially much I wish to write about; hundreds of thousands of words of text in scattered notes. Perhaps it was my upbringing with science fiction, or perhaps an even stronger interest and formal study in history (especially the history of technology), but I have this inkling that if I am to contribute anything meaningful to this world it will be after I shuttle off this mortal coil that my contributions will perhaps see the light of day, hopefully, more than a walking shadow who struts upon the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

If this seems to have taken a melancholic turn part of it is inspired by recently being in the company of the last hours of lei_loo's aged old cat, Horse. My sensitivities mean I often try to take the view of an animal's mind. Most do not have a particularly sophisticated language, nor particularly developed capacities for forward planning (the rat is an exception in both cases). But animals do feel, and they do have memories, and they do "think in pictures". The poor thing had kidney failure, a typical death sentence for such animals, and had foul-smelling mouth ulcers from which the antibiotics had so long failed to cure. For what it was worth, I forwarded the necessary money a couple of times to give it at least for more weeks of life. Doped up on buprenorphine, the creature would have felt little pain and continued to do cat-like things (still trying to sniff out mice), albeit with wobbly legs. Then the home euthanasia vet came to visit, another sedative applied, and the green-dream of pentobarbitone injected. Surrounded by housemates and friends, the cat passed quietly, its body donated for trainee vets.

A day prior I was awarded the opportunity to present a talk on The Year of the Rat at the 1st Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Melbourne, of which I have provided an linked transcript, which includes a story of a Buddhist pilgrimage from some 24 years prior, the Bramble Cay Melomys Day for extinction events, and the story of APOPO's Hero Rats, all on the second anniversary of the death of Sam Savage, author of Firmin. On my recommendation, the accompanying music was La Festin from Ratatouille and the reading was Robert Southey's God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop, a favourite rat-related poem (the real Bishop Hatto died on January 18). Having referenced the remarkable intellectual and social abilities of my favourite rodents, my conclusions were unsurprisingly advocacy for animal welfare.

There is a running myth that Australians have kangaroos hopping around their suburban streets. Largely, this isn't actually true. Except when it is. Our asylum home, a mere 6km from the city as the crow flies had this little bounder funneled down the Yarra river valley. It's not the first time in recent months the area has seen said bounding marsupials; one visited a primary school nearby at the end of last year. In other animal news there is the rather sad news that our rescue guinea pig, Zepar, shuttled off the mortal coil Tuesday night and was buried the following morning. I cannot say he was an overly friendly or clever pig, but at the very least he had several years of comfort interrupted by only the occasional terror of having his toenails trimmed.

Tuesday night was also the February main meeting of Linux Users Victoria which consisted on an excellent presentation by Andrew Robinson on the R programming language, and an amusingly clever video of Andrew Tridgell's LCA presentation on running Linux on drones. In what was a very techie Tuesday, the Raspberry Pi 2 was released and several of us made a bulk order. I now have two of said creature and am thinking of setting up a picture rotator or some home automation.

Saturday week is the annual general meeting of the Victorian Secular Lobby. We'll be giving out awards for those who helped out during the state election, and will have guest speaker, Fiona Patten, MLC who will speak on what will surely be a contentious issue for the year, "Religious Exemption to Equal Opportunity Laws". It an interesting perspective that many so-called libertarians have that is to allow institutions to have the to attack the individual's right to fair treatment in the public activities (e.g.. employment, purchasing etc). The fact that religious institutions protest a sacred right to engage in such bigotry may be irrational and distasteful, but also a matter of some power.

Work provided health-checks for staff; for someone who is physically completely out-of-shape (let's say I fall into the very overweight category), my blood pressure is fine, my pulse-rate is fine, by cholesterol levels are fine and my blood sugars are fine. Apparently I am the rare creature, the healthy fat man. Nevertheless, I am now making some effort to rectify the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle; I have taken up fencing again at the local University club. Personally I prefer half-drunken swashbuckling in rural areas (which I used to do) to the more formal rules of competition fencing, but nevertheless it is a start back into using stabby-pointy things.

Next weekend coming caseopaya are in Sydney. We'll be staying at The Centre in Randwick, attending the ANZUUA conference, seriously for me, probably more nominally for caseopaya, although some of the agenda makes me smile and shake my head; a workshop on postmodern prayer? Well, I suppose we are a broad church. Hoping to catch up with a range of Sydney-siders many of whom I haven't seen for years. We have later Friday evening free and Monday afternoon; probably the Zoo Bar (175 Oxford St, Bondi Junction on Friday), open to suggestions for Monday afternoon.

First bit of animal news is the discovery that naked mole rats don't get cancer. An entire species of male sharks are really dickheads. Finally, two sets from Cracked (who have done the transition to the Internet so much better than Mad); the truly weird weird animals, giant versions of disgusting critters and biggest assholes in the animal world. Finally local rodents, Trouble, Mischief and Calamity, celebrate their first birthday (making them about 30 in human years) with cheesecake and chocolate sauce.

Edit. Almost forgot to mention; great equinox dinner on Wednesday night at the Mooroccan Soup Bar followed by drinks at Deco, organised by _nightflower with several guests including horngirl and alchemon. Great night, and special thanks to _nightflower_ for arranging it!