the big ideas

Sometimes I feel tempted to take out a subscription to Adbusters as it can take ages to arrive in the newsagent sometimes, and it can be also hard to find sometimes. Nevermind. Got my hands on the current issue this week and it's a good one. Good to see a classic quote from T.S. Eliot:

Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Just found the McGunns website, with more details surrounding the Gunns writ against the Wilderness Society (for those who are following this disturbing case).

the tea bar in Seattle

Just been enjoying reading the goings-on of the Living Room tea bar in Seattle. A place for fresh infusions of tea, art, music and the spirit.

cms summer conference

Just recently back from operating audio for the Church Missionary Society's 2005 summer conference. All the audio production went pretty much to plan. I had to put up with a grumbling Soundcraft audio console that seemed to have noise that came from the power supply. Irritating! The dbx DDP processor seemed to do a good job and I had it on compression and de-essing duties for the duration of the six-day event. The Driverack 260 was trusty as ever. Love the Driveware thing too! My Powerbook recorded all the sessions in Toast's Spin Doctor application, although it did seem to freeze when the recordings went much over an hour. The information wasn't lost, but it required waiting several hours for the computer to stabilise. Curious.
On the final evening we had a gig from Melbourne group Dry White Toast, which seemed to do down a treat. I felt I was able to pull an ok sound from the faithful ART300As, JBL powered subs and a room like a big tin shed. I'm just listening to the recording now and I reckon I could have been a bit more generous with the digital reverb.

Jonathan and Bob on video had some grief with a Panasonic vision mixer that seemed to drop out on the audio inputs for no apparent reason.The video side of things was all very impressive though.

On the spiritual side of things - the `evangelical brand' is not one I feel overly comfortable in, but I got to have some good conversations with people, including Andrew Newmarch from World Vision and Peter Angelovski from the Ridley College bookshop. I bought a copy of Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy.

more comp stuff

Well, they seem to be talking so far (thanks to the wonders of FTP). I haven't got onto printer sharing yet.



I got a combo drive for the Powerbook from Ebay. It doesn't quite have the same coutoured faceplate as the original DVD drive but seems to work ok.

happy new year

Back in Melbourne after a week down in Hobart. Went for a hike to the Snowy Range for some great scenery and plenty of sun.
Finally got around to seeing The Barbarian Invasions. Quite an extraordinary film from Denys Arcand.