Missy

Missy Higgins is drifting up the lobby stairs. I wish I was on a verandah, drinking port, listening to this and watching the moon.

London #1

It's the end of a long, weird and dreary Saturday in London. I'm sitting in the hotel bar, trying hard not to work on my slides. I don't know if I can explain exactly why today felt so strange. I think perhaps everything takes on a quirky double life when you are tired under a sky that's boiling apocalyptic grey.

So far, the trip's been good. It's energizing being with the rest of the Launchpad team again. It's the first time this year that we've all been awake at the same time, let alone in the same room. If you've never been to a sprint, it's hard to explain. The buzz is not just from meeting old friends, it's also from the feeling that now we can really get down to business.

In any case, things have been so busy that I haven't had any time to stop and think, and it's the sort of busy that's not always interesting to report. Right now, I'm going to go back to working on my slides and recuperating: the next week looms.

Truth

Via Presentation Zen.

How to write to an MP

Mary recently posted about the Government's Internet filtering proposal, exhorting readers to write a letter to the Minister and Shadow Minister responsible for this area.

I always mean well with these things, but never get around to doing anything. Since it's entirely possible that others share my predicament, I've decided to post this guide to writing to an MP.

1. Locate an envelope and a stamp. Do it now.
2. Find the address of the MP on the governments website and write it on the envelope. Although you may be tempted to stamp the envelope, you should restrain yourself.
3. Open up a word processor, a real word processor. Do not use LaTeX, LyX, reST, HTML, SGML, Docbook, Lore, MediaWiki, Emacs, Gobby, TextMate, Vim, WordPress, Twitter or Facebook. It is impossible to write a letter using any of these things. I recommend OpenOffice Word Processor.
4. Type your full name and postal address. Do not format it.
5. Type the MP's full title, name and address.
6. Address the MP formally, e.g. "Senator Conroy,".
7. Write the letter. Say what you want in the first paragraph, and support that want in the following paragraphs, conclude with a call to action. Keep it short, keep it clear, be respectful, be definite.
   
8. Conclude with a call to action. It's important that you do this.
9. "Yours sincerely, [[your real name]]"
10. Format the letter. Be conservative.
    
11. Print the letter.
12. Read over it. Read it out loud.
    
13. Make the changes you must make. Remove a little more than you can bear to remove.
14. Print the letter.
15. Sign it.
16. Fold it neatly.
17. Insert it into the envelope. Do not seal the envelope.
    
18. Double check the address.
19. Seal the envelope.
20. Stamp the envelope.
21. Walk to the nearest post box — there is one close to you — and post the letter. Do it now.

If you want to send a letter, you must follow these instructions: there is simply no other way to do it.

Keep-Alive

Things have been rather busy around here for me. I'm heading off to London for a two-week epic hacking adventure with the rest of my colleagues, and the preparation has taken up all of my free time.

Well, not quite all. I've also just purchased a new laptop and have been spending a fair bit of time getting it ready to use as a development machine. I'm quite enamoured of its light weight and rugged keyboard.

I've also been reading a fair bit:

• Economics, The Economist Group
• Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian
• The Fionovar Tapestry (again), Guy Gavriel Kay
• The Little Book of Commonsense Investing, John Bogle
  

And the occasional Gerard Manley Hopkins poem. What I really want is another vast book to lose myself in, like House of Leaves, Infinite Jest, The Brothers Karamazov or Jonathan Strange — I guess they don't grow on trees though.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Even if you don't care, this talk by Sir Ken Robinson is funny, raises some good points and is only about fifteen minutes long.

Attention

I came across this quote the other day:

"Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece."
Nadia Boulanger

I think it's one of the most true things I've heard.

It also meshes nicely with Augustine's idea that the present is attention, or at least a projection of attention. On to what, I don't know — eternity?

F is for Film

Ever wondered why Fight Club, The Fast and the Furious and Forgetting Sarah Marshall are so popular? Science may have the answer.

Getting an 'F" might no longer bear the sorry connotations of failure. A new study has just been published revealing that DVD titles starting with the letter "F" are up to seven times as popular as any other. "If this is true, Hollywood as we know it will be changed forever", says one industry observer.

Scientists conducted a survey over a wide variety of DVDs purchased by consumers, plotting the number of films purchased against the first letter of their title. Although they expected the graph to be flat, indicating that each letter was equally popular, they found that F was more popular by far. "We don't know how to explain it", lamented one researcher, "our best theory so far is that it's hard-wired into the brain".

The result has provoked a fierce reaction in the scientific community, with many criticizing the finding by blaming sloppy methods and a biased political agenda in an effort to discount the evidence. Others, however, are taking the news in stride, with Jerry Bruckheimer beginning work on a new film about three rabbits sent to colonize a new world, tentatively titled First, Fecund and Furred.

Like over-cooked steak

Just finished a massive "Weekly Review", a time of going through all my notes, papers, flagged emails, desktop icons and processing them to see what they are and what I need to do about them. It's also a time for going through my reminder lists, getting them up-to-date and making sure everything is heading a long as normal.

This time, I spent about four hours. If I actually finished my GTD refresh last weekend, it would have taken less time. I don't feel particularly cleaner or more productive yet, but there are definitely fewer loose threads. I'm also surprised by how many good ideas I've had languishing inside my head: I'm itching for a weekend or two to spend hacking and writing.

Surprised by Envy

I read Surprised by Joy the other night. Some reactions:

• We learn nothing at school. Lewis went to university knowing Greek, Latin, French, German and Italian. It sounds like he didn't learn many of the sciences, but I would happily swap my knowledge of chemistry to be able to read The Divine Comedy in the original.
• Lewis hated algebra. Score!
  
• He dreaded the postman's knock. I wonder what he would have thought of email.
  
• His "perfect day" only included about six hours of work. This work was uninterrupted (hah!), and punctuated by a leisurely lunch, a lengthy walk and tea. I wonder if he ever got away with it.
• The past in a foreign country is a foreigner country.
  

The book actually has a point, of course — I'm still mulling it over.

Blough

One day, perhaps a day far off, I would like to move to New Zealand and start my own town. I would call it Blough and I would be the Mayor of Blough.

Blough would be a special place because all eight correct pronunciations of its name would be correct. It's main trades would be poker, jazz music, wind farms and confused tourists. My favourite pronunciation would be "Blup".