Reading: London Cycolumnist

http://londoncycling.blogspot.com

Collapsing: into a London bed

Well after 43 hours on the road (sky whatever) we are here in Londinium.

Good flight from Syd to BKK, boring as batshit one from BKK to LON - amazing the difference one of those touchscreen video on demand dealies does.

Great ride along the Grand Union Canal which covered everything from The Bill yoof gang menaces (ok, a couple of kids wearing bandannas on their faces) to decrepit industrial England to the la-ta-de-dah side of the city.

Had an amazing Indian meal in the City (the financial hub) at a price which probably matched but too tired to care and it was worth the dosh. Still a little hazy on conversions which is a good thing at the moment.

Pics to come - loving the bike and riding about this mad city - such polite drivers, it truly is a cyclists joy.

Killing: time at the airport

Killing: time at the airport
Originally uploaded by Couch media

Plane 2hrs late. Do it yourself noodles seem like a good start

Finding: an awesome looking book

Finding: an awesome looking book
Originally uploaded by Couch media

Giant spiders attacking parliament house. Maybe you can judge a book by its cover after all.

Doing:the bus stop

Doing:the bus stop
Originally uploaded by Couch media

Packed, ready and waiting

Cancelling: my GTA IV pre-order

After reading that the version of GTA IV that we'll be getting here in Australia is to be a cut-down version designed to meet the MA15 rating, I've cancelled my order.

Jerks. Why is Australia the only developed country in the world that doesn't have an R18 rating for video games. New Zealand does, the U.K does. (Huh, funnily enough, I'm just about to go to the U.K...)

Going: abroad

Funny word that - abroad.

Very 1950s English - probably rather appropriate then that this is where the PC and I are headed. (Well obviously not 1950s England, the time machine isn't back from the shop yet)

Tomorrow we:
Bus to Sydney airport - 0900
Fly to Bangkok - 1550
Hang around Bangkok airport - 3hrs
Fly to London - 0110
Arrive London - 0730

and then the insane plan begins,

we assemble our bikes at the airport and ride into London

Part of me thinks "Yay, cool, big adventure" and the other part thinks "insanity, madness, don't you know that you'll be knackered and the weather forecast is for blizzards and a top temperature of -18 degrees. (Ok, 10 degrees and light showers - but still...)

Anyway, in spite of this, I kind of like the idea. I don't know why, I just do.

Evidently we can ride most of the way along the Grand Union Canal Towpath, which is shown in this rather pretty walking tours map.



The PC and I have discussed some strategies for dealing with fights/arguments during out travel, my favourite (my idea of course) being that if we have a disagreement about something and it becomes clearly apparent that one of us was wrong, that person has to do a silly dance.

Benefits: injecting some humour into the moment and making us less likely to blindly argue about something we're not entirely sure of. (I'm sure it's not a foolproof plan but what is)

I also got a stash of lolly snakes to offer some support in the event of low-blood sugar inspired crankiness (on both sides).

It's funny the kinds of things you prepare for - probably says more about me but a lot of the arguments I've had have been while travelling.

Anyway, must press on, still got to finish boxing up the bikes and make sure they will fit in the car to get to the bus station.

Posting might get a little sporadic from here but as you can see in the last few posts, I've been experimenting with different options for quick and easy content so we'll see.

The longer term plan:

Train to Edinburgh on Saturday 12/4 (PC going to Wales this day to prepare for a cousin's wedding)
Train to Wales on Tuesday 15/4
James Bond themed wedding weekend of 19/4
Train to Paris on Tuesday 22/4
Train to (near) Bordeaux on Wed 23/4
Cycling to Paris via Perigord/Dordogne, Limoges (Nantiat), Loire Valley (this bit is a little sketchy)
Train to London Tuesday 13/5
Fly to Bangkok 17/5 1230
Arrive Bangkok 18/5 0615
Fly Sydney 18/5 0830
Arrive Sydney 18/5 2000
Bus Canberra 19/5 0915
Collapse in heap
Check 1452345 unread emails at work 20/5

Nodding: sadly

Originally uploaded by cam βizzy.

Says it all really.

Normal setting (Video 04060002.3gp)

So you can upload video to YouTube with your mobile phone but it won't automatically create a blog post of it as well like Flickr does. Flickr for teh win.

The Subby

The Subby
Originally uploaded by Couch media

Better nickname to come but isn't she sweet.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Breathing: a sigh of relief for Tanzanian Albinos

Every now and then you see a news story that you've never seen before. Like this one on the ABC news website.

Tanzania shields albinos from witchdoctors

Posted 3 hours 8 minutes ago

The President of Tanzania has announced measures designed to protect albinos from witchdoctors.

President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete says police have been ordered to hunt down the witchdoctors involved in 19 murders over the past year.

Officials say the witchdoctors have been murdering albinos to use their body parts in magic potions designed to bring people good luck.

It is estimated there are about 150,000 albinos living in Tanzania.

Pondering: the behaviourist alternative to nagging

I've had a couple of lively discussions with female friends about this since I read it - both interesting and revealing. (Ok, in the interests of full disclosure, with an ex girlfriend and the PC, my current one)

In short, Amy Sutherland has written a book (now being made into a movie with Naomi Watts - I kid you not) about her experiences in transferring the skills she learnt from animal trainers to her relationship. She noticed that nagging her partner to do things around the house generally didn't seem to be working and decided to try a new approach.

When animals are being trained and they do something right, they are offered positive feedback and when they do something wrong, their behaviour is ignored. Amy applied this principle to her husbands habit of leaving dirty clothes on the floor.

He is also an avid biker, and tends to leave a heap of stinky exercise gear on the bathroom floor. When she nagged him about the habit, he would suffer from the convenient affliction known as “spousal deafness.” She decided to take a cue from the dolphin trainers. She became more patient. He did get around to picking it up, and when he did, she thanked him.

She applied the technique to other aspects of their shared life. Instead of bugging him to shave more often, she silenced herself. When he drove too fast, she made sure her seatbelt was fastened and her lips buttoned. When he did shave, she made a point of complimenting him. When he drove slower, she expressed gratitude. “He basked in my growing appreciation” she writes. Like most animals, he tends to repeat the behaviours that prompt praise.

“It's refreshing to think simply, to boil things down to just behaviour instead of always big psychological things,” the 49-year-old says.

My ex did raise some interesting points about this, chiefly that this suggests that:

women lower your expectations
and suppress your true feelings
gee, what a great message

I have an uneasy feeling about relationships being treated as training exercises - just as I have a slight bristling when I'm doing something around the house and a woman visitor says "Gee you're well trained".

However, I recognise that things need to be done to keep a home tidy and when the man and woman have different standards of cleanliness there are bound to be tensions that arise and on both sides, if you want something done, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Interestingly, I've noticed the PC using this approach more recently and I've been pretty happy about that as I have this contrarian streak in me that really doesn't respond well to nagging. Mother issues probably :)

She told me that she's been trying it and I told her that I knew and that I appreciated it - providing a little positive reinforcement of my own I guess.

A bit like the cartoon at the top?

Enjoying: RUN DMZ

I've long felt that dance offs would be a much better way for the nations of the world to solve their differences. (Or possibly Zoolander style walk-offs)

LOLing: The Onion on Robot power

While it may look like I'm painting myself as some kind of freaky Ted "Unabomber" Kaczynski with my ongoing rants against the evils of robots, I just have to share this video from crew at The Onion which is nicely done.

Admiring: sweded Tron light-cycle race

Tron
by freres-hueon

Admiring: sweded Tron light-cycle race

Tron
by freres-hueon

LOLing: the sweded BigDog robot video

The other week I shared my concerns about the inevitable robot uprising, evidenced by the latest high tech demonstration of the BigDog Quadruped robot, which can carry around 160kg and is very nimble.

Something I forgot about though is humanity's untiring ability to mock our oppressors - fortunately this "sweded" version of the BigDog video has restored my faith.



"Sweding" a video is a term taken from Be Kind, Rewind - the latest Michel (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) Gondry film and refers to the practice of making an ultra-low budget version of popular films/tv shows.

(Funnily enough, this seems to reflect every video I made in the last 15+ years - a selection of which can be found on YouTube under the tag Brown_Couch)

Giggling: the wombat rape emergency call

This story from New Zealand about a kiwi prank caller kind of speaks for itself - I like the part about the fact that alcohol hadn't played a part that day. Uh, sure.

A Motueka man who claimed to have been left speaking Australian after being raped by a wombat has been sentenced to 75 hours' community work for his trouble.

Arthur Ross Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker, admitted in the Nelson District Court yesterday to the charge of using a phone for a fictitious purpose, after calling police with the message, 'I've been raped by a wombat'.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Chris Stringer told the court that on the afternoon of February 11 Cradock called the police communications centre, threatening to "smash the filth" if they arrived at his home that night.

When asked if he had an emergency, he replied "yes", Mr Stringer said.

On a second subsequent call to the communications centre, Cradock told police he was being raped by a wombat at his Motueka address, and sought their immediate help.

He called police again soon after, and gave his full name, saying he wanted to withdraw the complaint.

"I'll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he's pulled out,'' Cradock told the operator at the communications centre, who had no idea what he was talking about, Mr Stringer said.

"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know, I didn't hurt my bum at all,'' Cradock then told the operator.

Mr Stringer said alcohol had played a big part in Cradock's life. However, defence lawyer Michael Vesty said alcohol was not a problem that day.

Judge Richard Russell said he was not quite sure what motivated Cradock to make those statements to the police.

In sentencing, he warned Cradock not to do it again.

stuff.co.nz

Writing: a job application

The funny thing about working at a job that you really enjoy is that after a while, you don't really see the things that you do as big major tasks - it's just the stuff that you do.

My job, as an educational media designer (or whatever title I think fits this week :) generally involves a bunch of little things - usually running around helping teachers with using technology in their teaching in some way - and occasionally work on larger scale projects. (Though mainly the former)

Which is making the process I'm going through now a little tricky. (Well that and my natural modesty :)

In the process of applying for the next level up in my job (which is essentially what I do now as far as I can see), I have to respond to a bunch of selection criteria.
This pretty well means that I need to provide concrete, interesting examples of big things that I've done - however most of what I feel achieves the most tends to come in the little 10 minute tasks that are rarely worth mentioning but which take a teacher from one level of skill to another. (At least, these are the ones that I enjoy the most)

Here are some of the things I need to justify:
(and some of the smart-arsed answers that always seem to be the first thing to come to mind when asked official sounding questions)

Proven ability to lead and develop educational projects relevant to the priorities and objectives of the Institute.

Proven ability to communicate professional skills to colleagues, clients and key stakeholders.


Proven ability to represent the Institute in a professional capacity.

I have consistently resisted all urges to strip down and dance nude on the table at power meetings for the last five years

Proven team leading and project management experience within an education design, media, web development or related educational technology, or information and communications technology, environment.

Regularly pwn n00bs and lead successful group attacks in 2Fort and Dustbowl levels of Team Fortress 2 on Xbox Live.