Honestly, who cares?

Published on July 17, 2009 in Useful, ideas, philosophy and psychology. 2 Comments

Just this morning, I was powerfully struck by the usefulness of the following phrase:

I don’t care enough to do anything about it.

At first glance, this may sound callous. Let me explain…

When one reads (watches, listens to) the news (especially world news), it is rare to find anything one can actually do anything about directly. Moreover, there will always be a majority of items in any batch of daily news about which one is hard-pressed to even invest much attention, enthusiasm, or emotion of any kind. We each have a limited range of things we can care deeply about, and an even more limited range of things we can actually effect.

In my experience, this leads to a kind of guilty anxiety. Take, for example, with the news that the Chinese government are crushing the Uighur in Xinjiang, essentially for being different. I must have seen several dozen articles on this recently, without ever once having sought them out. There really isn’t anything I can realistically do about it: I’m one busy Australian system administrator, and the Chinese government are notoriously impervious to foreign (or even local) opinion, sanctions, or even threats. Besides, this is one of a hundred horrible things I hear about in the world every day. Even were I Superman or head of the United Nations, I would still have to prioritise.

I feel somewhat inclined, when I read about Xinjiang for the eleventy zillionth time, to say “I don’t care”, but I don’t because it feels untrue. I do care, just not enough. That’s not a damning confession, it’s the unashamed truth: I don’t care enough to do anything about it. How much would I need to care in order to do something genuinely useful about it? In this particular case, it would need to be a lot. For starters, I would need to care enough to research the problem: What kinds of forces might move the government of China? How might I come to posess (or contribute to) such a force? Who cares? I do, but I don’t care enough to do anything about it!

The phrase isn’t just honest, it’s immensely reassuring:

  • “I don’t care enough…” – This implies that I do in fact care.
  • “…to do anything about it” – A statement of plan! When I reassess my to-do list fifteen times today, there is one more thing (the plight of the Uighur in Xinjiang) which I will not need to take into consideration.

The latter item is the most important part: The outcome of any given conversation or activity in my day is all too likely to be one or more things I need to do, or worse: one or more things I need to take into consideration when working out what to do. As such, any activity which concludes with a whole category of things I definitely won’t do is a massive win.

An inevtiable part of choosing one’s battles is choosing when not to fight. That choice must not involve guilt, rather we should celebrate it: It means more time to fight the ones we can win.

Today’s idle rambling was brought to you by a long thoughtful walk to the train, a lack of inhibitions about talking to myself in public, and the joyful return of caffiene to my life.

Bad Naming Ideas

Published on July 17, 2009 in bored. 0 Comments Tags: .

Some notes on names for children:

  • Alliterative first and last names are bad. Larry Lawler will know no school-yard peace.
  • Rhyming first and last names are worse. Gary Parry had better find an awesome nickname, and sell it hard.
  • Australian girls should not be named Dianne or Dianna, unless their parents want every social encounter in their children’s lives to begin with an exhoration to “Die!”. (“Hey Die! are you free this Saturday night?”)
  • Family planning: A boy who may be an only child should never be called “Bob”. It would be a terrible shame for “Bob” to never be anyone’s uncle.

Google Shock

Published on July 9, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

“Google Shock” denotes the state of stunned disorientation which arises when an unexpected new Killer App crops up with the likely potential to dramatically alter some aspect of one’s life. Similarity to “Culture Shock” is intentional; Google Shock is a form of temporal culture shock.

For example: Google Maps Real Estate.

Google Maps Real Estate #2

In my youth, I spent great scads of time cycling or driving about the suburbs within a few kilometers of Monash University (Clayton) clutching a thick wad of liberally annotated rental lists which I had gathered by hand from the many faintly dodgy little real-estate agencies which cater to the student-housing market in that area.

Googe Maps Real Estate #2

Now, I am in Google Shock. Once again, I find that something I just accepted as a fact of life has been expertly hoovered up into the web.

The rammifications of this are only just beginning to dawn on me…

We are all just a web comic

Published on July 4, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Well, some of us.

If you don’t like LoTR (or even recognise the acronym (SHAME!)) and/or you don’t roleplay, you may find this webcomic mildly (or less) amusing.

If you, like me, do these things compulsively, you will probably, like me, find that you’re in the freaking comic!

DM of the Rings XLVIII: Dwarven Diplomacy

Seriously, I’m only part way through it, and it’s fantastic: I LOL helplessly at least once at nearly every strip. Not only is it chock-full of disturbingly true portrayals of roleplayers (and roleplaying games) being foolish, it also features some completely marvellous hand-picked frames from the Peter Jackson LoTR movies. Who knew that there were so many smug sh*t-eating sneers, smirks and leers to be had form the core characters in those movies? So much gurning too!

References to Star Wars, Monty Python, WoW, Lovecraft and even Nethack abound. It is gloriously nerdy. And the editorial comments! OMG!

I don’t usually post just to spruik a link, but this was simply too good to pass up.

Poing

Published on May 13, 2009 in internet and review. 2 Comments

I haven’t raved about Sluggy for eons, and I’m not going to today.

Oasis versus Bunbun, at last!

Just gotta say:

Sluggy Freelance, deeply gratifying readers since 1997

Don’t Panic

Published on April 27, 2009 in politics and sarcasm. 6 Comments

A cheerful, and not-at-all anxious or paranoid post, from a Thorne who would never drink too much coffee on a Monday morning…

Don’t Google swine flu. Don’t think about Australia/NZ customs.

They're everywhere

Don’t go reading upsetting articles about the likelihood of fresh terrorism.

Don’t look too closely at current economic trends, things must be turning around.

After all, it’s not like economic downturn will have any impact on Peak Oil, or Peak Food.

If you’re reading about Global Warming, don’t read anything that talks about Tipping Points.

Worried about Civil Liberties? Don’t be, this is 2009: We all know better than to foster Police States.

…no links today, because there’s nothing to link to. Move along citizen.

Whatever you do, pay no attention to the sarcasm tag to the right. No! I told you not to do that! Stop it! Stop it at once!

Trouble has moved

Published on March 14, 2009 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments

trouble.net.au used to live at Serverpronto: a place where it had a whole very crappy PC to itself, and lots of cheap bandwidth. This had a few problems:

  • Serverpronto make no pretense at customer service. Don’t try to call them, and don’t expect the bills they charge to make any sense.
  • Serverpronto’s policies and price mean their server farms tend to harbour trouble-makers. Some of these people don’t make good neighbours to share a LAN with.
  • Serverpronto are based in Florida, which is how they make their bandwidth so cheap. I am based in Australia, conservatively some 200-odd milliseconds away.
  • Finally, being in Florida, Serverpronto like their customers to pay in US dollars. Being Australian, I like to pay for things in Australian dollars. The relationship between our dollar and theirs hasn’t been so great lately, and I prefer my budget to be predictable.

So, as of last night, Trouble has moved to a new place: It is now a ‘virtual’ server sharing a big robust physical server with six other virtual servers. The physical server is managed for me by Labyrinth, a Western Australian company who have, so far, displayed completely brilliant levels of customer service.

Along with the move, I have upgraded a bunch of things, and cleaned up a lot of semi-working crap. You’ll notice for example that the gallery is gone. If you have a Trouble account, you will also notice that the available range of admin tools (click “admin” on the main page) has been expanded somewhat.

As always, if anything here is busted, please let me know.

p.s. Yes, I know about that annoying stray grey button in the side-bar. I’m working on it. :)

What?

Published on February 26, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Quickly, this is a post about what I’m doing, and what I’m not.It largely avoid the question ‘Why?’ since that would be a long, boring self-involved blather.Thorne is:

  • Back in Melbourne.
  • Building a New Trouble, in Australia, very slowly.
  • Stressing more than is necessary about everything.
  • Following Pah’s rather nifty Slow Review of Watchmen (the comic). I would dearly like to respond to every part of it, but time and anxiety continue to conspire to render me dumb.
  • Presently waiting for a busted UDF DVD image to copy itself to disk on a clunky old server because it refuses to mount from the disc (if this means nothing to you, I envy you).

Thorne is not:

  • Going home early, or even on time tonight, again, despite coming in early with that express intent.
  • Sleeping enough.
  • Making measurable headway on personal projects like making stuff or losing wieght or getting out of debt.
  • Posting on this blog much. Sorry folks! I’ll be back here one day.

Trains, buses and automobiles

Published on December 31, 2008 in bored, lca09 and whine. 4 Comments

So here’s the problem:

Starting point: In Springvale, on Sunday afternoon.

Destination: At Linux Conf 09 in Hobart, on Monday morning.

Solution #1:V-Line Bombardier Train

  1. Travel with E to Ballarat on Sunday night (desirable; I am addicted to E).
  2. Catch the 5:33am train to Southern Cross station, in Melbourne.
  3. Catch the 7:00am Skybus to Melbourne Airport.
  4. Allow the recommended hour for domestic check-in and boarding.
  5. Catch my booked 8:25am flight to Hobart.

Win: More E + Train==comfy.
Fail: 5:33am is a deeply disturbing time of morning.

Solution #2:An airport shuttle bus

  1. Travel with E to Ballarat on Sunday night.
  2. Catch the 5:50am airport bus from Ballarat.
  3. Allow almost the recommended hour for domestic check-in and boarding.
  4. Catch my booked 8:25am flight to Hobart.

Win: More E + less steps (and less connections) + 5:50am > 5:33am
Fail: 5:50am is still less than wholesome.

Solution #3:A Taxi

  1. Stay in Springvale on Sunday afternoon.
  2. Get an expense-claim-able Taxi to the airport at about 6am.
  3. Don’t get caught in Melbourne’s unpredictable roadwork spaghetti.
  4. Hopefully allow the recommended hour for domestic check-in and boarding.
  5. Catch my booked 8:25am flight to Hobart.

Win: Invisible Win.
Fail: Less E.

What to do? In all likelihood, sleep will be the first victim. It usually is.

Boredom makes for strange blog posts…

So much for the ferry!

Published on December 23, 2008 in lca09 and work. 2 Comments

Well, now I look foolish!

The Spirit of Tasmania goes to Devonport, not Hobart, and Google Maps tells me it’s a four hour drive (or ride) from one to the other. Our bike is a 250cc single-cylinder bike, a type colloquially known as a thumper. The name is due to the vibration inherent in one quarter-litre cylinder banging up and down right under your groin… I was sore enough after a two hour ride from Springvale to Ballarat on the weekend. Four hours across the spine of Tasmania, while doubtless stunningly beautiful, does not sound butt-feasible.

So I will catch de plane, like a normal business zombie, and make use of free shuttle services wherever possible.