My son’s immediate reaction was “Hitler. Munich Beer Hal”

*sigh* It’s going to be a long few months.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cljy6yz1j6gt

Just found out that Steve Harley has passed on.

I’m not sure what his legacy will be, if he has one at all, because I am the generation after him.

But I saw him more than once with Dad, so for that I am grateful,.

I was out walking the dog this morning – nice and cool, bush for miles – when my playlist produced Huey Lewis and the News “Walking on a thin line”

Now, I know this is something that is (now) screamingly obvious, and I’m the last person on the planet to get it, but it’s a song about being a Vietnam Vet. Not a subject I automatically associated with TPOLHM.

So, in that spirit, what have you learned recently?

I admit – if this is nominally a seated venue, sit the f*ck down. I’m challeneged enough being a short arse. Dipshits waving their arms around just aggravate me,

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/30/1196546225/adele-fan-sit-or-stand-debate-concerts

(Don’t worry, I’ve ;eft plenty of room for @kaisfatdad and his…unique contributions)

I was wondering to me as I looked back over 22, I lived in a bit of a desert, mainly for reasons. I only bought 2 albums released in the year. There were really good albums, but still, poor effort.

I did however, add three artists who left me asking myself “for one who considers himself musicky, how did you not have them already?”, and so to this question:

Who did you discover the past year? Or rediscover who had been on the shelf for a while? Genre-agnostic and media-agnostic.

I’ve long professed to my son that I like older style country and Americana. So I’m a bit embarrassed that it was only in December that I added Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Townes Van Zandt to the collection, and now they feel like old friends.

Well, we’re back from our mini break just outside Adelaide.

There’s something very Australian about having your coffee watching the wallabies going up and down the fence reading the headline “How ‘bin chickens’ learnt to wash poisonous cane toads”.

We visited the obligatory wildlife park, where my wife, the JPL scientist, the woman who project managed Cassini, turned into a child before my eyes.

And then we went to McLaren Vale to NeverNever distillery. Chums, it’s a little piece of heaven. Set in the hills, it has a shaded patio, as well as seating on the lawn, looking out onto the rolling hills and the vines. The gins vary from good to rather fucking excellent. The gin gimlet is excellent. My new chum Fletcher- some bloke who just came up to have a yarn about distilleries in Australia – is a nice fella and enthusiastic. Sharon comes up to check up on me – she’s still nervous about me in public after The Head Thing – and hits me for making a great trans-pacific joke that only works if you know that thongs are one thing in Asutralia nad a ver different thing is the USA.

So that was nice. » Continue Reading.

Those of you who remember I got punched badly – and please, form an orderly queue – might be interested on the outcome.

After a battery of three hours of testing, I have Post Concussive Syndrome. Or mild brain damage, choose your words. The cold comfort was that despite the pretty fucking significant deficits, I remain in the upper performance areas. Great, exceopt the areas I’m suffering on are the things that used to separate me from the crowd.

My ability to take on and remember things is challenged; I can’t accurately recall stuff, either omitting things, or “intrusion inhibition reduction” – I’ll put stuff in that wasn’t there.

The memory is driven by my executive functions being fucked – that’s the technical term. Too many stressors or stimuli, and my brain is overloaded. I used to be able to read and watch tv at the same time, or clear email and participate in a meeting. Not any more. One source of input at a time. Reduce fatigue, stress, emotional distress, and…something else. I have to take things on board in a structured and meaningful way. I’m thinking of getting Sharon to write things on her body to get me » Continue Reading.

Sooooo, I got the report from my Neuropsychologist.

One of the conclusions is that excessive stimuli fuc…messes up my executive functioning, and especiually my memory. Stress, fatigue, lights – and noise.

I can listen to discordant music, but put two clashing noises near me, and there’s a strong chance I’m going to break something. And no, that is not hyperbole.

Going to the grocery store is a nightmare. Now, when I fly, I use large (old) over the earphones that use a 3.5mm jack to go into my iPad. My iPhone doesn’t take those leads.

So I’m looking for recommendations on headphones that are excellent at active noise cancellation. I’m aware that there is a correlation between price and effectiveness. Cheaper end, I might get for myself; pricey goes on the XMas list.

I’m not overly (well, just a little) interested in audiophile details. I want them to cancel the outside world, and leave me with music, sweet sweet music, in my ears.

Massive, do your thing.

Possibly of limited interest as it is rugby union, and the women’s version. But the tournament has been so good, it deserves a mention.

You know how you get jaded watching a lot of male players in a lot of sports – rugby andf football, predominantly.Trying to con the referee, trying to niggle someone into doing something stupid…rugby alos has the ill that the men right now are playing a dull, unimaginative game plan.

The women? That was an absolute joy the last few Saturdays and Sundays. They just want to play rugby, and there is very little of the stupidity in the men’s game. Sure, there’s less power, but that means they have space in which to play and run, and by and large they try to do that. England are excepted, but their rolling maul is, from a rugby perspective, incredibly sexy.

4 absolute standout teams, but even the also rans, who knew they were on to a cuffing, played hard, and ended with a smile.

The refereeing, barring two brain farts in the quarter finals, have been excellent. There was a Scot in the final – Hollie Davidson. She made a BIG decision that I know » Continue Reading.

On Monday evening, I made a rather nice Chicken Marsala. We both enjoyed it.

As is our wont, I cook, Sharon cleans up. So, all good.

Tuesday evening I hear a lot of cursing about “the drawer”. Being male, I assumed I’d done something stupid, until I heard the question “did you put the chicken in the drawer or did I?”. It turns out that brains of our outfit – and she really is – had taken the leftovers, put them in a glass container, and then…put them in the drawer where all the clean glassware goes. So, not in the fridge. She was most upset, as she had enjoyed the chicken.

I opined that it was bloody well cooked, in alcohol and it’d be fine to eat. This suggestion was not well received; disbelief might be a good way of putting it. She suggested I throw the question to the Massive, so…

Would you eat the chicken?

Has quit this mortal coil. Lung cancer related at the age of 74.

One of the funniest writers I’ve read, and one of the most skillful. I got Republican Party Reprile when I were but a lad, and I giggled like a loon when I read it. I giggled when I reread it later in life, but I appreciated the art in his writing, especially the way that he was telling his view of thr truth but masking it with witticism.

It was,, of course, a very simplified view of conservatism, and one that reflected a view of AMerica and its potential that obviously not everyone could get to. But on a certain level, there was a kernel of truth in what he wrote.

And what a life. National Lampoon, inspiring Animal House, Rolling Stone, countless books…

I’ve been sniffling for much of the day as I’ve been reading the inevitable twitter comments and tributes, as well as the longer form tributes. He seems to have been a genuinely good man, and much loved by all who came into his orbit. Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell me posted this letter he got from O’Rourke: https://twitter.com/petersagal/status/1493782319693324296s=20&t=G8qGmTw3R6tK1uOUuxqOQQ

There » Continue Reading.

In the latest Blogger Takeover, I commented that my recent find – McCulloch’s Thomas Cromwell – reignited my love of reading.

Honest to God, studying an MBA just destroyed my love of reading for the sake of reading. The ability to just bask in a book and what it’s saying, asopposed to taking notes and destroying pure enjoyment.

I’m on holidy, so I went to a bookshop. As well as replacing my lost Hilary Mantel, I got a sci-fi compilation, edited by Jerry Pournelle, about Black Holes. He may have been an arse in real life, but he knows his scifi, that’s for sure. I just spent an afternoon basking in the book, and some stellar authors.

In turn, it prompted me to start organizing my unread Kindles into a “must read” list. and to remind myself to read something just for the sake of reading for the rest of the year.

So – not your favorite book; not your best book. What are the books that maken you love reading? (Yes, comics are allowed, because I have Luke Kirby in my queue). The books in which you can lose a couple of hours quite easily – the flight from » Continue Reading.

Sharon and I have booked flights to go to Perth at the beginning of August.

Anyone been there who has great recommendations? We’ll be there two weeks, so some time in Wine Country is inevitable.

Keen followers (all onbe of you) will be aware that I moved to Australia recently. And I’m incredibly glad we did.

Alice Springs is a podunk town. Maybe 28,000 total population. Two large grocery stores. One swimming pool…the CBS is about a 6 block square. Ther nearest decent sized town is at least a day and a half’s drive away, and 2 hours by plane. But that’s Darwin, and no-one goes to the Top End, so civilization is three hours by plane. Summers are a regular 40 degree minimum heat. The crime rate is really bad, and the poverty among our Aboriginal population is just horrendous.

I love it here. Properly love it. I think it might be the best place I’ve lived. When I go out the front door, I look into the sheer face of Mt Johns, about 100 yards away. It’s an incredible mix of green, when it rains, and hard orange. Everywhere around here is harsh. The minute you get outside the town, it’s desert and scrub outback. I take water even for a 40 minute walk because if you don’t bad things can happen; but God it’s beautiful. Miles and miles and miles of Outback. » Continue Reading.

I see that the estimable @ColinH has made it to the letters page of the London Review of Books:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n18/letters

“The story is told in Colin Harper’s excellent biography of Jansch, Dazzling Stranger (2006). Harper quotes Nat Joseph, who founded Transatlantic: ‘Almost any “traditional” song that somebody does an arrangement of, somebody will have done something vaguely similar before. The difficulty appears to be one of really establishing, among hundreds of arrangers, who it was that made the arrangement “original”.’ “

I don’t know if this is an American thing only, or not.

My city has had demonstrations; I’m literally just over the rver from a curfew; I have friends living in a curfew city.

This is just…awful. It’s bad for almost everyone who isn’t white, but let me personalize for a bit.

My wife believes in America – she’s given over 20 years of service, and been to sandy countries where things go bang. She could be earning squillions more in the private sector, but she believes in service.

I am a dual citizen. It surprised me how much I took after America post-oath; at first it was just an administrative inconvenience so I could live with my wife. And then I gradually became a believer in what America could be – call it the American dream.

And I’m lucky; we live in a prosperous little city that leans very Democrat, is race friendly and LGBTQ friendly. Our police have been great while this shit storm has happened.

And not for the first time, I feel America is broken. It is a profoundly racist and misogynist country, and when I talk to my rugby players, I find: 1. Wow, » Continue Reading.

On a day to day basis, everything is going just fine.

We have a nice routine. The coffee maker goes off at 8 if we aren’t up earlier; read and do web stuff for a couple of hours before I cook brunch. Walk the dog and exercise. Shower, read, study – German for her, Spanish for me – have a glass of wine. Dinner and read.

It is somewhat idyllic. Things intersperse. I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time on USA Rugby restructuring – *drinks* – and SWMBO has been bookclubbing with her backpacking group. I’m spending more time than I thought I could on catching up on old history books.

And yet…

I suddenly realized just how desperate I am for our move to come off. We’re finding creative ways to keep going round in circles. Sharon hasn’t been to work for 7 weeks, so we don’t know what’s going on. Could be August, could be two weeks after that, could be a year. I’m telling myself that we just take each day as it comes, which is true enough, but it’s really just a day at a time until we find out what’s happening. Could be Alice; » Continue Reading.

Trying to keep my spirits high with the idea that our posting WILL come off this year, I’ve been catching up with my Australia watch list.

And i’ve realized that Aaron Pedersen is both underrated, and is also on most of my go-to Australian shows: The Jack Irish series, but even better, the Mystery Road/Goldstone series. If you haven’t seen them, I urge you to. They;re excellent, every one of them.

So, who’s your under rated go to?

A lovely gentle piece about friendship

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2020/feb/20/love-and-free-food-mel-brooks-and-carl-reiner-share-the-secrets-of-their-70-year-friendship

Non-judgemental help please!

I’m having trouble with my podcasts app and files.

I was cleaning up my Macbook Pro (running Catalina) when I saw that it appears that my podcasts are now stored on the Mac itself. Historically, I store all my music and podcasts on an external drive to save the hard drive.

The episodes now seem to be in different locations, which is bugging the hell out of me. I’m at the point of deleting all of them and resubscribing via an app that syncs across all my Apple devices (phone, iPad) and can store the library on the external hard drive. Suggestions?

In case you want to torment friends and family.

Easy it ain’t.

King William’s College General Knowledge Quiz

I am an HR professional. Not a badge many wear with pride, but I do. I know what my function does at its best, and I’m good at it.

I’m doing some contracting work right now because of life circumstances. Sharon and I move to Oz next year, to a…remote location. I am therefore in the process of looking for work with companies that support remote working*

I applied for a role recently where they had one of those cutesie online application forms. One of their questions was “What makes you unique?”

Now, I’m not good with questions like that. I am reasonably smart, and in the right situation, nimble on my intellectual feet and quick witted. In these situations, I flounder. So, knowing I had nothing to lose, and because my interview chances were slim anyway, I nonchalantly just entered “apart from my mitochondrial DNA?”

Reader, I have an interview. And part of me (only a small part) wonders if I want to work with a firm who likes my degree of snark without having met me!

So: What’s your funniest recruitment story?

*If anyone knows anyone who would hire a shit hot HR Business Partner with USA, EMEA » Continue Reading.