Saturday, November 15, 2008
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Bam! Now the Job is Gone!
Three weeks ago I had the best redundancy that I have every had when my position in the retail environment I was working in was terminated. Brilliant! Good pay-out, excellent time with university holidays on, parents came over from Sydney and school holidays with the kids. Have the time to focus on quite a few other things, get myself together, plan for the future and look for a decent job. All good! Things are VERY interesting right now, so much going on in the world, with cycling and building a resilient and sustainable transport system here in Adelaide, particularly with oil now peaking past $145 a barrel and motorists looking at the cost of filling their stupid cars and asking the question "What are my Options?" - the bicycle is an option whose time has well and truly come!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Two months later
Even though we are near the end of May it feels that we are already well into Winter. Cold, wet and windy weekend. Such a change from only a couple of months ago when everyone seemed to by dieing in the heat. I know when it is getting colder as I feel really hungrey. Must be some thing to do with the fact that the fuel in my tank is the food in my belly.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Heat, heat, heat!!
It has now been something like 14 days straight with max daytime temperatures over 35 degrees Celsius here in Adelaide. Apparently this is now the new record for the longest run of hot days in any Australian capital since records have been kept! As you can imagine, with temperatures hovering around 38 for most of this weekend, the beach will be the place to be. This hot weather has not stopped my cycling, nor a lot of other cyclists I see out there on the road. Probably the ones that can see past the superficial media complaining about the heat and join a few more dots together. Were we not told that climate change would mean longer periods of hotter weather in this part of the world?? Or maybe it is all a coincidence? Good to believe that if your heads a bit stuck in the sand and you don't want to think about ANY issues to do with the urban environment.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
You Tube Climate Change Video
Here is one of the more interesting explanations as to why we should do something about climate change and what might happen if we choose no action over action..
thoughts from the election
Two little quotes that have been thinking about recently, especially in relation to the current political climate in Australia...
"Denial vanquishes fear"
essentially that the idea that if there is something monumentally wrong with the world that would effect your ideological world view and security that everything is ok, then perhaps it is easier to denial that there is a problem and continue the path that you are on as deviating seems much too hard and challenging. If you apply this idea to the concept of Peak Oil and the consumption society that we have built around access to cheap liquid fuels, then to deny there is a problem means you must consume more, then consumption masks the insecurity, if only for a fleeting moment.
The other little quote was
"We won't do it if you won't do it"
Thinking about strategies and leadership to counter climate change (also heard it called global heating recently - "heating" seems a little more alarmist then "warming"). Australia could have been a world leader in alternative / renewable technologies, but instead under the Howard government watch all we have seen a focus on is the short term, dig it up, ship it out, burn it overseas. No responsibility in this short term economic paradigm, just blatant profiteering. No leadership, no ideas, just "traditional" values, politics and ideas - how sad and boring! I feel sorry for the kids who have grown up during the rule of Howard, they have never known anything different, or seen leadership that saw aspiration as something other then owning your own home and filling it with consumer products. That had a government capable of asking some tough questions about what sort of country Australia is, and what sort of future do we have, especially when we live in a continent that has a fragile environment, stressed from only just over 200 years of exploitation and exploration by European interests.
Our politicians who seem to believe that if we put in place mitigation measures that might effect the potential for economic growth (eg: some form of environmental protection), and who believe that the economy and continuous economic growth is the panacea for any environmental issues, really highlight the short term thinking that seems to characterise the consumption society. What there seems little appreciation of, is that there is no economy without the environment, and the cost of action in the future to fix problems that we are creating now will be far greater and intractable then at current levels. The two dimensional thinking that sees the world in black and white, that ignores and negates possibilities outside of narrow political views needs to change. We need multidimensional thinking that is embracing and cohesive, 4-dimensions that look not only at the three dimensions of the physical world, but look to the 4th dimension of time and account for our place and sense of place in that time.
The cry of "it's the economy, stupid" should be "it's the stupid, economy".... perhaps if we stopped focusing so much on the economy, and a little more on the physical results of the economy (be they either negative or positive) then we might understand the possibilities that exist for change.
"Denial vanquishes fear"
essentially that the idea that if there is something monumentally wrong with the world that would effect your ideological world view and security that everything is ok, then perhaps it is easier to denial that there is a problem and continue the path that you are on as deviating seems much too hard and challenging. If you apply this idea to the concept of Peak Oil and the consumption society that we have built around access to cheap liquid fuels, then to deny there is a problem means you must consume more, then consumption masks the insecurity, if only for a fleeting moment.
The other little quote was
"We won't do it if you won't do it"
Thinking about strategies and leadership to counter climate change (also heard it called global heating recently - "heating" seems a little more alarmist then "warming"). Australia could have been a world leader in alternative / renewable technologies, but instead under the Howard government watch all we have seen a focus on is the short term, dig it up, ship it out, burn it overseas. No responsibility in this short term economic paradigm, just blatant profiteering. No leadership, no ideas, just "traditional" values, politics and ideas - how sad and boring! I feel sorry for the kids who have grown up during the rule of Howard, they have never known anything different, or seen leadership that saw aspiration as something other then owning your own home and filling it with consumer products. That had a government capable of asking some tough questions about what sort of country Australia is, and what sort of future do we have, especially when we live in a continent that has a fragile environment, stressed from only just over 200 years of exploitation and exploration by European interests.
Our politicians who seem to believe that if we put in place mitigation measures that might effect the potential for economic growth (eg: some form of environmental protection), and who believe that the economy and continuous economic growth is the panacea for any environmental issues, really highlight the short term thinking that seems to characterise the consumption society. What there seems little appreciation of, is that there is no economy without the environment, and the cost of action in the future to fix problems that we are creating now will be far greater and intractable then at current levels. The two dimensional thinking that sees the world in black and white, that ignores and negates possibilities outside of narrow political views needs to change. We need multidimensional thinking that is embracing and cohesive, 4-dimensions that look not only at the three dimensions of the physical world, but look to the 4th dimension of time and account for our place and sense of place in that time.
The cry of "it's the economy, stupid" should be "it's the stupid, economy".... perhaps if we stopped focusing so much on the economy, and a little more on the physical results of the economy (be they either negative or positive) then we might understand the possibilities that exist for change.
Monday, August 13, 2007
another year down
Been a bit quite with this blog... forgot the password to log on ;-) Working on heaps of projects right now, cycling heaps, looking forward to summer, at University again doing Urban and Regional Planning, trying to find a job that feeds my soul a bit more, working on a front yard garden and looking after the kids...
The personal project that I want to focus on right now is a cycling project that I think I will call The Adelaide Long Bike Project. Basically this project is going to be aimed at capturing the knowledge, and set up an owner register (owners club?) of Adelaide Long Bikes. One of the reasons to set this up is to look at a project to start manufacturing these machines in Adelaide again. I have a few contacts that seem to be interested in this, so it is now time to stop talking about it and move to doing it!
The personal project that I want to focus on right now is a cycling project that I think I will call The Adelaide Long Bike Project. Basically this project is going to be aimed at capturing the knowledge, and set up an owner register (owners club?) of Adelaide Long Bikes. One of the reasons to set this up is to look at a project to start manufacturing these machines in Adelaide again. I have a few contacts that seem to be interested in this, so it is now time to stop talking about it and move to doing it!
Saturday, July 15, 2006
and it was broken
not just dislocated but broken in two places with a bruise to make the skin crawl- back at work now, hobbling around feeling a little crippled- Saturday morning, even though it is cold am about to go out for a ride on the bicycle, nothing like a blast in the cold air to liven up the brain!!
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