Benign neglect

I'm going off on a training course today, for a week. And I have an insight the the panic that a micromanager must live with every day of their life.

My wife and I delineate our tasks pretty clearly. I never learnt how to do girls hair, I don't know the intricacies of Sylvia's money management brilliance, I'm very poor at managing day to day kids activities.

Many things we manage together.

But I take care of the animals and building the fires that heat the house. As I leave on this cold morning I have built one last huge fire, delivered lots of redgum, cut lots of kindling. But they have a week on their own. And these measures won't last forever.

So I've seen it in business when a micromanager leaves for a while. They're barely holding it together while they're there, and it goes to shit when they're not. They haven't empowered their people to do it on their own.

As my mum often says "a mother is not one to lean on, but there to make leaning on unnecessary".

I suppose that's how I self justify some of my sloppiness. Benign neglect. My kids certainly are pretty self sufficient in many ways. Building fire may be one of them, now.

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Stretching the friendship with in-stream advertising

So we essentially have ads in our news feed now. "suggested posts" or whatever. One that irks me a little is where "living social" have "ready to try skydiving?".

Now I know for a fact that the skydiving deal closed with livingsocial about four weeks ago. But when I click on the link to see what's going on it forces me into a subscription routine. That's just unethical and - for sure - stretching the friendship. Both with the readers and the three businesses who gave you the deal in the first place. Cheap clicks that piss a lot of people off.


By comparison the dollar shave club with a "curiosity" image on the right - a shitty old razor - has just the right combination of edginess and intrigue. Good clicks - I bought.

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A nice window to look out of

I move in a range of different circles to earn a buck these days. I rarely get the chance to look out of a window but happened to just then. From a borrowed desk, but nice.

Euthenase the dinosaurs

Good riddance. Did some prick really ask impertinent and offensive questions of our PM? I have a dozen questions that I could've asked PM Gillard that she really should answer but none of them would've been about her private life. The jock who ran this line of questioning has been suspended. Good riddance.

Who the fuck is this Howard Sattler? In the days where substance should count, he should be out.

I think PM Gillard is bad at her job. I would like people to make that case. Howard Sattler just made noise.

In the last two years, this is the most dignified and ministerial I have seen Julia Gillard. This is bizarre. Howard Sattler has been unhelpful.

Great creative cut through on a Facebook sidebar

No surprises that Facebook have managed to find a way to get ads into your main stream, and if you're buying the cheaper space on the sidebar you really want some creative that will cut through. From time to time the very clever "Dollar Shave Club" puts a picture of a shitty looking razor blade. Now that has cut through.


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Correlation is not causation

This was on the "I fucking hate pseudoscience" page. I didn't want to lose the graphic but wanted to spare my FB friends the rant. I'm not making light of the tragedy of autism. In fact I'm probably being more respectful than Andrew Wakefield who based his bullshit, deadly vaccination scare on a handful of interviews.


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Linda Ronstadt covers the best Rolling Stones song ever

"Tumbling Dice" has to be my favourite Stones song, and the first time I heard it was off of this lady's Simple Dreams album in 1977. Both are brilliant:

The Rolling Stones go country in 1971

The Rolling Stones with a song of the best revenge being to live well, and a dish best served cold. They were pilloried for doing a straight country song, and my kids hate it. But I quite like it. 

You can send me dead flowers...and I won't forget to put roses on your grave.

Billy Joel: Vienna waits for you

This piece of poetry hit me last night. It's an older guy talking to - say - his son, recognising in his own mind that we all just get old. We won't get everything done that we want to but that shouldn't stop us trying. As he says:

Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

And what Billy Joel means by Vienna is an even more interesting story. Brilliance.



Slow down, you crazy child
you're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart, tell me
Why are you still so afraid?

Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You'd better cool it off before you burn it out
You've got so much to do and
Only so many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told..
That you can get what you want or you get old
You're gonna kick off before you even
Get halfway through
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

Slow down, you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight
Tonight,...
Too bad but it's the life you lead
you're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong, you know
You can't always see when you're right. you're right

You've got your passion, you've got your pride
but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

Slow down, you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile
it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize,..Vienna waits for you?
And you know that when the truth is told
that you can get what you want or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get half through
Why don't you realize,. Vienna waits for you
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

Education is more than just going to school or uni

A pretty radical proposition:




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