There are two events that I count as the most significant historical events in my life. One is the bringing down of the Berlin Wall and the other is Man walking on the Moon. If I had to rank them, there is no doubt that Man walking on the Moon in July 1969 is the one I would rank highest.
In 1969, I was in Year 6 and like so many school age children I was captivated by the voyage of Apollo 11, in fact the whole space program.
I have a basic rule for my blog. I won’t post or comment on politics. I learnt with one tweet very early in that this was a very bad idea and I continue to confine my tweets and posts to things non-political.
This post is to say thank you to all of those paid or unpaid who are working tirelessly to save property and life during this bushfire season.
I have seen firsthand the damage that these fires can do. I am not posting photos because I didn’t take any as we went to visit my sister and her partner at their hills property for a belated Christmas celebration. Her house only exists care of the brave efforts of their neighbours. To them, I say a special thank you.
As the bushfire crisis continues we seem so pre-occupied with political point-scoring. Until so recently, as a country when disasters hit we banded together and got on with it and let the politicians deal with it at some point in the future.
In my lifetime there have been many such occasions, Cyclone Tracey, Ash Wednesday Bushfires, Floods and more Bushfires. Until recently it was how can we help? Now its who can we blame?
I’m sad.
As 2019 closed I often wondered what songs I’d listened to most as I have sat at my desk “chugging away” on my PhD. Spotify dutifully obliges each December with a listing of what I have listened to the most on that platform. I haven’t only listened on Spotify as I like the Stingray platform that comes with our PayTV subscription, particularly they 70s Chanel. I also listen to some vinyl, so it’s not a complete picture but it will be pretty close.
My year’s listening was dominated by 70s music and Springsteen’s Western Stars.
It wasn’t a surprise that the songs from Western Star dominated. I have blogged previously on how much I like this album, so I won’t spend a lot of time writing about it again, except to say that it is definitely my album of the year with Tuscon Train my current favourite from the album.
From there it was largely 1970s music. Continue reading
As I was working on the last section of my Research Methodology chapter which at the time of writing stands at an absurd and definitely to be edited 63 pages before appendices, a childhood favourite came up on the Spotify playlist – Puff the Magic Dragon.
My parents loved Peter, Paul and Mary and as kids, their music was regularly playing on the family radiogram. There aren’t a lot of music artists that I have in common with my now late parents but Peter, Paul and Mary was one of them.
Continue readingThis year’s Doctoral Colloquium (a posh word for an academic conference or seminar) for post grad students provided me an opportunity to peer once again down the rabbit hole.
A requirement for attendance is the preparation of a short paper which each post grad student is required to present and receive feedback on.
My short paper was an excerpt from Chaspter Three of my thesis – Research Methodology . I used the paper to get feedback on how I was approaching my research. Specifically my research method.
My paper glossed over my research paradigm because every time I start to think about the research paradigm I quickly descend down a rabbit hole.
Continue reading