-
Memoro MMXXI, Praedico MMXXII
The conventional New Year marker is, of course, completely arbitrary. If anything the Solstice would be a better date as it least has some astronomical significance. Dating conventions aside, there is still value in reflection on the past twelve months and planning one's activities for the next twelve. Of course, if the past two years have taught ( Read more... ) -
The Last Days of Annus Horribilis
As the countdown to the end of 2021 approaches, I am welcoming the end of what has been an unpleasant year in many respects, whether I consider my unfortunate prescient comments at the start of the year on COVID-19 cases and deaths, or some rather challenging times in interpersonal affairs. All of these have had quite a toll on initial plans (" ( Read more... ) -
Christmas Reflections
As the end of year approaches, I have been fortunate enough to have a few visitors, starting with a day with Paula MCF who was visited from Adelaide. Paula is a very inspiring and pragmatic anarchist with a great heart and understanding of people. Raised a Unitarian, it was appropriate that a couple of days later I caught up with Florence W., from ( Read more... ) -
A Week of HPC Workshops
When I look over my activities for the past several days it was pretty much entirely HPC Workshops in one form or another, starting with an introductory session at the National Compute Infrastructure's system, Gadi (most powerful public computer in Australia) conducted by Intersect. It was the sort of material that I am very familiar with of course ( Read more... ) -
An RPG Update
With my thesis completed and undergoing revision, I have given my mind a bit of a break, in a manner of speaking. As is my wont, I have turned my attention to my hobby of roleplaying games, and have spent some hours in actual play and writing. Four scenes have been written in quick succession for my HeroQuest Glorantha game, with each of the ( Read more... ) -
Funerals, Birthdays, Art, and Thesis
It has been a strange past few days as I've experienced quite a range of emotional states, each quelled by the other and high levels of activity. The most notable was on Monday for _fustian's funeral. Appropriately held at Lonegran and Raven the event was both respectful, combining a genuine sense of grief at the loss of our dear friend yet interspersed ( Read more... ) -
Dune and FriendlyJordies
Went to see Dune last night with Charmaine and Andrew D. at Pentridge. It's pretty good and comparison with Blade Runner 2049 will be inevitable with the direction by Denis Villeneuve and the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, and it certainly comes with the same epic sense of scope, great visuals, and sound. The ABC has provided a fairly accurate spoiler- ( Read more... ) -
Farewells, Coronavirus Concerns, Aesthetic Company
Last Friday night I attended two farewells of a very differing nature. One was at The Prince Alfred as an unofficial goodbye organised by Greg S., to a few work colleagues who had found greener pastures. It was a good opportunity not only to catch up with said individuals but also everyone else nearly all of whom I hadn't seen in the previous ( Read more... ) -
Valedictions Jeremy Byrne
It was around thirty-two years ago that I first met _fustian, first through science fiction fandom, but with that additional cyberpunk twist for the time, but also with mutual interests in gaming, computing, and politics of the libertarian socialist variety. He would host some rather delightfully clever parties, rather famous for the presence of the "big ( Read more... ) -
HPC Courses, Vivaldi Concert, Secularism and Corona Protests
It is easy to forget that it's been a few days since I've posted anything, especially given that the first three of those days were delivering high performance computing training workshops. Whilst I am sure newcomers get a lot out of the first two, the third (Regular Expressions) was perhaps the most interesting to me, especially as I've reviewed ( Read more... )