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A few days ago I went on a semi-regular op shopping trip with Mel S. and Erica H. Between op shops we ended up visiting a little show by Cat People of Melbourne who were being hosted by Cat Napping cattery. We chatted with Gina B., who was one of the organisers, and we managed a tour of the latter but avoided the "play with kittens" option for the former because I knew there would be a good chance that I would leave with a cat (and that's a 15-20 year committment). Well, as luck would have provided, it now seems that in a couple of weeks, I'll be the temporary carer for two cats as it is. The Feline Fates have spoken, but that's for another story. After the cats and op-shops, I went to the Coburg Post Office Hotel for the "Women's Guitar Group and Friends" gig, which is pretty much of independent punk style. My main interest was seeing Carla L's band "Mutiness", who performed very well (along with the very polished "Plaster of Paris"), caught up with Paul J., and later Liana F., turned up as well.

Since then I've boarded the big silver bird and ended up in Darwin. It is an actual holiday from work, but I have still been checking in a bit because of the new starter. After an evening at a cheap motel, I have landed at Lara D., and Mia's place with the ever-delightful Cocoa rabbit. Due to some interesting repairs being conducted Lara has had the opportunity to joke that I've helped her move into the same place twice whilst living 4,000km away. Just good timing on my part, I guess. But the main reason that I am in the top end is for the National Conference of the Australia China Friendship Society, which has the sort of all-star cast that you would expect. More on that on the next entry in a few day's time.
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Almost every spare minute not at work this week has been dedicated to writing various assignments my Master's in Climate Change Science and Policy, including a major data analysis of some 400 projects in the last decade involved in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, a presentation on neoliberal political ecology and related readings on capitalist conservation markets, as well as a broad major essay on climate change since the industrial revolution. Incredibly, I have managed to complete everything. Dozens of papers and a few books later, the Romain Rolland quote (paraphrased) about pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will weighs upon my mind. Capitalist property rights have turned conservation into another path for landlord-style accumulation and the global institutional powers show very little sign of making the hard and necessary changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; which means the pessimistic IPCC scenario should be considered probable; a temperature increase of 3.3 to 5.7 degrees C from pre-industrial levels by 2100. On the other hand, staring at disaster provides motivation because nothing is more important, this really is the most important issue of our lives and only our collective will and intelligence can prevent disaster.

Amidst all this, there has been a charming mental distraction, in the form of two felines who are visiting. My old friend Liana has taken a short holiday (which has been extended by some other not-so-holiday activities) and recalled my offer to be a pet sitter. Thus I have been in the company of Lucy and Bowie, who are a little confused by the absence of a big backyard to roam in, let alone their usual human servants. Bowie has remained quite distant, but Lucy has turned into a real smooch. A few mornings ago I was awoken by an incredible crash to find that somehow one or both of them had managed to tip over a fully laden bookcase, perhaps the most impressive example of a cat testing gravity I have witnessed. I can only infer that they got on top of the bookcase and then tried to get behind it; any other physics just doesn't make sense. As Archimedes apparently said: Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world. Cats are just experimental lay physicists.
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That was a busy Saturday. Early start on Saturday with a visit to three cafes in the morning with [livejournal.com profile] caseopaya, [livejournal.com profile] ser_pounce and [livejournal.com profile] hathhalla, starting off in Krimpers and Raw Trader. These are interesting because they're located in a tiny pocket of older buildings of La Trobe Street which date back from the area was a slum and the juxtaposition between these smaller and old red clinker bricked buildings in narrow laneways between the overbearing glass and steel modern towers that surround is a strong one. After those we ventured to Cat Cafe, which is as the name implies, a coffee shop (of sorts) full of rescue cats, along with cat-related products.

After these visits our troupe made its way to the Flagstaff Gardens for a picnic lunch, and then to the State Library where there is an exhibition on Bohemian Melbourne, which included an excellent collection of early films (1910s, 1920s), some ribald works from Norman Lindsay, plenty of Tucker material, and more contemporary material from the punk and goth era. Was amused to see some very familiar shots from the early 90s in the latter section. In the evening made our way to Pause Bar for [livejournal.com profile] redcountess's fiftieth birthday celebrations with good conversation all round.

I've also enjoyed two good social gaming sessions in the past few days. The first was on Thursday night with the opening session of The Laundry Files based on the Charles Stross novels. It's effectively Call of Cthulhu meets Pythagorean number mysticism with computer science. My character is country Australian with a broad accent, red hair (named 'Bluey' of course) and a propensity to blow things up at the first sign of trouble. On Sunday afternoon played throug the fifth session of 7th Sea Freiburg, which has been entitled The Vagabond Said To The Bishop. I had some ridiculously lucky die rolls, which caused [livejournal.com profile] usekh some concern. But all went well, and once again the party imposes their will on this lawless city. On a totally different matter, Sunday was also the day that I went to see an address at the Unitarians by Pastor Berlin Guerro, a left-wing priest who was adbucted and tortured by the government.

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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath

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