Friendly fire

If you're ever in a position of military command and you start hearing people talk about "fragging", it's time to watch your back. The term was coined during the Vietnam War when American troops were killing their own commanders so often, a verb was required. Of course, it could also have had something to do with the weapon of choice in these attacks - the hard-to-trace fragmentation grenade. Fragging can be the killing of any superior to the murder of a soldier's direct commander to avoid combat.
The good news is that times change - and fragging apparently hasn't been a common issue since the American's invaded Iraq and Afghanistan with only one soldier charged with killing his commanding officer. And the reason for this dramatic downturn? Officials suggest it's to do with that today's modern military is made up of volunteers rather than conscripts.
But fear not - fragging still lives ... It's used as a replacement term for "killing" in video games - suggesting that it's actually not killing at all - virtually.

I'll call you back

Imagine your phone rings and it's the people from the local Lotteries office with the news that you've won $1 million. Would be nice wouldn't it - and perhaps a little surprising when you tell them you'll have to ring them back because you're in a meeting. When I read this story in today's The Daily Telegraph - it happened to a Sydney father of three yesterday - I couldn't help but think of my brother who's often in business meetings, and hoping he would have the same luck one day. It would be nice to have a millionaire in the family.

Green dream

It's funny how the common vernacular can change from time to time. It used to be that a "green dream" was a way of sayiny a humane farewell to ailing pets - but now it's front page headlines - as in "Rudd's Green Dream" - an election-time vision for a future filled with renewable energy. It's certainly out there.

Fun with pumpkins

I loved "Wired", if only for the wonderful surprises it gives us from time to time. Halloween is fast approaching and what would it be without pumpkins. Have a look at these from last year: Foxtales or Deathstar (it's well worth the clicks).

Bear facts

Sarah Wallmer, a wildlife volunteer, now has something concrete to show for her efforts - four puncture marks on her buttocks after being bitten by a bear. Sarah was running with dog at the time and even though she was making lots of noise - to "announce her presence" to neighbouring wildlife, it's believed that the prevailing wind may have obscured her voice - making her appearance to the bear and her cub somewhat unexpected. And they don't call them "wild" for nothing. When the bear charged her, she dropped the dog's leash and turned her back to it - hence the stabbing pain in her buttocks. The bear roared and left.

A matter of principle

Our enlightened HR Manager organises for us to go to Business Breakfasts run by Network Central. Today's guest was investigative journalist and (now) author Jana Wendt. She was wonderful and engaging - both while speaking to the group, and then personally as she autographed copies of her book - a complimentary copy for each attendee was included in the cost of the event.
She spoke briefly of her time as a television reporter and some memorable (not necessarily happily) moments - like receiving an invitation (which she refused) to be privately entertained by Libyan leader Gadafi, even when a female aide ("and this was difficult" she acknowledged) said she would lose her job if unable to convince Jana to comply. Or the sound of film being torn from a camera because PLO's Arafat did not like the content of an interview with him. But her message this morning was truly about the people who she had interviewed for "A Matter of Principle" - and how she had birthed the book in a darkened room "by the glow of the computer monitor" over a 10-month "gestation". The book is a collection of interviews including Charlotte Rampling, Shane Gould, Frank Gehry and David Malouf. As the author would no doubt invite you … please enjoy.

White light

Did you know that white lights contracts the pupils for half and hour, and makes it difficult to see anything in the dark. That's why white light is #1 unwelcome visitor at Deerlick, one of three astronomy villages in the US - places where amateur stargazers can go to escape the light skies of suburbia. Homes have dim red outdoor lights, and windows have to be lined with light-blocking materials to prevent light escaping; and even flash lights have red bulbs. Seem like something you'd be interested in? Well, you may already have missed your chance with Deerlick where star lovers have already bought up big. There were 17 plots on offer 2 years ago - but not any more. But the good news is that even if you can't buy into Deerlick, you can go to the 10-acre hilltop obsevation field adjoining the village to gaze at the stars. But as you drive in to town, it might be best if you remember to turn off your high beams, in fact turn your head lights off all together - go with your parking lights

Penvy

I try not to but sometimes you just can't help but fall victim to that old evil - pen envy. The stationery store near the office (which I visit only occasionally - the office not the store) is having a sale of Lamy pens - my pen of choice. It's over 14 months since I lost my favourite 3-in-1 Lamy in the US and I'm fairly sure it's gone for good - so it's no wonder that I found myself tempted by similar, marked-down, models today. But I resisted. Okay then, the real reason I didn't walk out of the store with one is that I couldn't choose which of the four I wanted. Alas, I will be passing that way again tomorrow and I fear "opportunity + penvy = purchase".

What if

... you had booked return airfares to Christchurch (New Zealand) 5 months ago, were due to go in 5 days, and still hadn't done anything about booking accommodation, car etc. This reason for this inactivity was probably lack of inspiration rather than lack of time. Finally though, you get to talking with people and you decide that you'll spend first and last nights in Christchurch and the rest of the time based in Queenstown. But where to find accommodation easily? Well, the obvious answer is "the internet". But where to start? Which is why it's good to speak with as many people as you can until finally the magic words pop out ... wotif. Now I've heard of wotif and I know other people have used it effectively - but up until the time M mentioned it yesterday (and not just because she's a shareholder) I hadn't given it a thought. But yes, it does operate in New Zealand, and yes, we have now booked all our accommodation. It was an easy and excellent experience made much simpler by the advanced search capabilities on site (our main requirements: a kitchen and broadband access) and the ability to shortlist interesting properties for review and discussion. (Stay tuned for photographs of grey skies and rain - which is the current forecast for our visit.)

Lights up

Is it just me or is Christmas coming earlier each year? It's still October but that hasn't stopped Gold Coast computer repair-person Wayne Turner and his wife from spending the last month hard at work putting up their 2.5m Santa, 12 reindeer, and a guitar-playing snowman. And they haven't finished yet - which is why it's a good thing that there's still more than 3 weeks to go before entries close for the area's Christmas Light-Up competition. The Turners will have to wait until 2 December to find out if they're amongst this year's prizewinners - and a little longer (bus tours of the Christmas lights start Dec 7) until they know how much money their display, and people's generosity, have raised for the Gold Coast Hospital's children's ward.

Here we go again

"Summer time madness back from tomorrow" proclaimed The Gold Coast Bulletin today, and I couldn't agree more. It's daylight savings time (DST) again and for the next 3 weeks I'll be struggling with DST jetlag as my bodyclock and conscious mind struggle to come to terms with a time zone where clocks are pushed forward an hour for a reason I am yet to fully embrace. In fact, I'd be happier to embrace it if they had the equivalent of DST all-year-round, but I don't think that's going to happen. (Note to self: remember to manipulate ALL time pieces in the house this time - and change the batteries in the smoke alarm.)

Toby

I was surprised to hear an ad on the radio today for pre-paid funeral services. That wasn't the surprising part - no, that was that it was an interview with a child - Toby I think his name was. He's the son of the funeral director and he's doing the ad because "by the time you need us you could be dealing with me''. The tag, of course, is that it's a family business. So we know what young Toby answers when he's asked what he's going to be when he grows up - and we can only guess the look on people's face when this youngster cheerily says "I'm going to be an undertaker". It seems a little odd saying that - but people have been expected to go into the family business for years!

SMS

I am visiting provincial Queensland at the moment and am amazed by some of the content in The Chronicle, the local newspaper. It relates to a common addition to a lot of papers now - the ability to send in short comments (previously "Letters to the Editor") via SMS - so folk are making their point in 160 characters or less. Leaving aside for the moment that the rules of grammar and spelling do not matter in this forum (although some of us find it part of the challenge to keep both of these as critical elements of ANY communication - even, or especially, short ones) the published messages are refreshingly articulate. Take the one about current electioneering (aka pork barrelling) and the observation that, as a farmer, the local sitting member should well known that you can't fatten a pig on market day!

Birds of a feather

It seems that lots of people we know have taken to raising chickens (although I am sorely tempted to write "chickins", not sure why). These are Jo's chickens - actually it's one of the chickens and a broom, the bottom bit of a piece of gym equipment, and some of the brick wall - but you get the idea. At one point during the morning, she discovered both chickens in the back shed, busy watching themselves in a mirror.
While I resisted picking them up and cuddling them when there were tiny - and certainly wouldn't do it now - I did have a little nurse of one of the guinea pigs that Jo's daughter received for her birthday recently. The condition of them entering the premises was that there be no babies, ever, so both the guinea pigs had to be female - which is why Jo couldn't really complain when one of them gave birth to two babies a couple of days coming to live with them. Unfortunately, neither of the babies survived.

In transit to visit my parents, I stayed overnight with an old school friend. And believe it or not, there was occasion, thanks to Julie Bishop, Federal Education Minister, to give a rousing rendition of our old school song ...From the bush and beach and town itself, we come to gather on the hill ... The news of the day had carried an item about Ms Bishop arriving at Southport State High School to announce a new $1.something million Home Economics (?) block, only to find the School and its principal were not expecting her. When she was told that no-one had told them she was coming she asked the principal "who didn't tell you I was coming?" ... d'oh, how would he know if no-one told him? But, back to my overnight stay. Younger daughter Rach may have had something to do with the choice of manchester. I was impressed with the bedspread, because it has a different duo of horses on either side. I was also sharing the room with the Barbies - or were they Bratz?

Early morning call

Working on a global project brings me into contact with colleagues around the world - and we are often called upon to do group teleconferences that start quite early in the morning. A colleague had an early morning meeting scheduled the other day and then another longish meeting with me starting half an hour later. When we wrapped it up just over an hour after that, her mid-morning, I asked her what she was going to do next. "Get up" she told me. As the first meeting had been so early, she had taken it, and my meeting, from home. I'm still not sure whether she was serious or not but I certainly enjoyed the laugh with her. (And I'm certainly wondering about a similar strategy for my early meetings!)

Providing an education

One of the news feeds I read in the mornings (when I make time) is Yahoo US News. Here are two items from this morning:
Loopholes hide some misconduct records: More than 300 California educators had their teaching licences revoked or suspended because of sex-related offenses from 2001 through 2005.
And the other:
Sexual misconduct plagues US schools. The young teacher hung his head, avoiding eye contact. Yes, he had touched a fifth-grader's breast during recess. "I guess it was just lust of the flesh" he told his boss.
The next item may then come as little surprise - but there is no suggestion here of cause and effect, although the case could be made for finding out "why":
2nd-grader suspended for drawing of gun. A second-grader's drawing of a stick figure shooting a gun earned him a one-day school suspension.

"Lucky" Dube

South African Reggae star Lucky Dube turned out to be not so lucky when he was fatally shot in a suspected car-jacking in Johannesburg last week. In the past year, historian David Rattray, singer Taliep Peterrsen and opera singer Deon van der Walt have been killed in what have been called "similar attacks". Gratefully, I was unaware of this before/during my recent visit to South Africa but there were 19,000 murders there last year. I was aware that it was not safe to walk the streets - and certainly not to go into Cape Town's city centre after lunchtime on Saturday. When I jokingly asking a colleague where he kept his gun (following our use of an "air lock", one at a time, to enter the bank) he told me that he had handed it in a couple of years ago when new laws had been introduced. It would have made it too difficult to keep it, he told me. But it seems that no everyone reacted the same way. According to the Emergency Response doctor I sat next to on the plane on the way back to Australia, there are over 2,000 gun shot wounds in emergency departments in Johannesburg each year - and if you are preparing for a medical tour of duty in Iraq, you'll be sent either to Johannesburg or Washington DC because of the gun-trauma injuries you'll witness there. Washington DC? Yes, apparently there is a quite active gang scene there.

Perception

I have been lamenting the lack of time at work at my desk and that my "Inbox" is not empty. But that all changed this morning when I logged on to find I had reached 200 unread emails. There's something about a nice round figure that can put a person at ease (well, this one anyway).

FW: Tip

I subscribe to various newsletters about time management, for around the house, and in the office (although these two seem to have blurred a little since I started telecommuting).
I was reminded last week that a tip that works for one person may not necessarily work for another - or if it does, it's not for the same reason/s.
"Feeling rushed in the morning? Iron what you plan to wear tomorrow, the evening before. That will buy you at least 10 minutes extra time to get ready for your day."  Fair enough. But what they don't mention is that it will also save you multiple trips back home to check whether you've left the iron on in your rush to: decide what clothese you're going to iron, put the ironing board up, turn the iron on, wait for it to heat up, have your breakfast, iron the clothes, turn the iron off, let the iron cool down, put the iron away, make sure all the powerpoints are off, and lock the door after you ... oh, better check, was the iron cool enough to put away, is it near anything flammable, did I turn the power off ... then, did I turn the light off the last time I went back, did I lock the door properly (did I hear it snick) ... You get the idea.