Petersham is not Xanadu. Once out of our shelter we see:

Photo 1: First plane this morning

Photo 2: Henson Park

Often ugly but the suburbs have their benefits.

I have dusted off:

1. Gowers (ed), Fowler’s Modern English Usage, 2^nd edn, OUP, 1968, and the:
2. Style Manual: for authors, editors and printers, rev. Snooks, 6^th edn, Wiley, 2002

to develop consistency in writing. It is surprising that these are still the latest editions – I had assumed that the changing English grammar and usage would have prompted updates.

Today’s Blog

While on the subject of ‘writing’, I stumbled across:

“’Ongoing targeted change outcomes’ and other crimes”, Off Air with PM’s Mark Colvin, http://blogs.abc.net.au/offair/2009/09/ongoing-targeted-change-outcomes-and-other-crimes.html.

His first theme is that he is a ‘language bore’ and I agree. Colvin then quotes George Orwell to defend his stance. He then moves on to Don Anderson’s article in The Age, “Language like this should be put to the torch”, (http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/language-like-this-should-be-put-to-the-torch-20090918-fv9x.html) which I read in SMH Spectrum, 26 September, 2009. I found Anderson’s argument too dense and lost interest half-way. We are then taken to the destruction of society because English usage is changing. And finally, we return to Orwell’s six recommendations for good writing.

This is obscure writing, partly because I couldn’t find the continuity that drew me into his thesis. One example of his implicit rejection of Orwell’s advice is:

Language was bound to be important to me, admittedly. I took a degree in English language and literature at university, and I’ve made my living by talking and writing in English for the last 35 years, so I have an interest purely as a craftsman.

Perhaps:

Language is important to me as I make a living by talking and writing English.

And the ABC and Fairfax should exercise some discipline with their url’s – these are ridiculous.

Today’s Podcasts

“Surviving without the web”, 29 September, ft.com/podcasts, http://podcast.ft.com/index.php

Living without internet access is possible but limiting, as I found in Canberra last weekend. I am always connected at home and constantly look up information. Away, I can usually connect to GMail, Google or remotely access the servers at Petersham. However, an internet connection is essential so I can understand how inefficient this person became when he didn’t connect for a week.

“The Candid Frame #80 – Nevada Wier”, 11 August, The Candid Frame: A Photography Podcast, http://thecandidframe.blogspot.com/

An informative interview with a self-taught photographer.

Made yoghurt last night. This lapsed, as we would be away last weekend and no point in leaving unused yoghurt in the fridge. A very simple recipe:

• 1.25 litres of tepid water.
• Two cups skim milk powder.
• Gently mix without frothing.
• Heat to 95^oC.
• Lower the temperature to 50^oC.
• Add three tablespoons of purchased yoghurt (I haven’t tried using my own yoghurt as a started).
• Place in the Breville yoghurt maker for 10 hours.
• Refrigerate.

Delicious. I heap it on the vegetable curry that I habitually have for lunch.

I have been puzzling on how to dispose of a compost bin with a hole in the side, along with a very large, very split, black plastic garden pot. The solution was to cut patches out of the pot and glue these over the hole using Sellys Kwik Grip Gel. Having the sixth bin means I can leave the others to process longer.

Completed another strata inspection for OPR and another scheduled for tomorrow.

Photo 1: Poinsttia on the front fence.

Today’s Media Tosh

“Unhappy little Vegemites vent their fury over iSnack2.0”, SMH, 29 September, p3.

This first appeared on yesterday’s ABC News (on-line at http://www.abc.net.au/news) but now sensibly dropped. How ridiculous! The product is the same so let this nationalism over a name-change die.

Today’s Newspaper-Useful Information

“Forget about eating out – home is where the healthy heart is”, SMH, 29 September, p3.

Trans-fat consumption in Australia is increasing while people eating-out is declining. Conclusion – restaurants are using more trans-fats. We rarely eat-out because:

1. Most venues are noisy and we cannot converse.
2. We like to know the origin of our food.

We cook with olive oil. Some curry recipes require ghee but since I heard a UK health podcast on the UK Indian community having high heart disease being attributed to ghee, this has been ditched. Health vanquished authenticity regarding curry.

Today’s Podcasts

The Health Report, “Mysterious viruses”, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/

This programme discusses relatively mysterious viruses which come and go for no reason, but when they re-appear and infect humans, up to 80% of them die. We have some of these viruses here on our doorstep. Australian mosquitoes are the door through which it will come.

Consistently informative, The Health Report is hosted by Dr Norman Swan who has investigated and publicized a number of medical frauds.

“The need for a global response to gender-based violence”, Lowy Institute Podcast, http://www.lowyinstitute.org/ (9 September)

Ms Lyn Lusi spoke about her experiences in the Democratic Republic of Congo, what we must learn from its tragic predicament and how the international community needs take responsibility for tackling the problem of gender-based violence as a tool of war.

I now have two dog-walking sessions. Penelope and Ulysses (our dogs) early, to enjoy the sunrise and then Rosie (Asher and Vivian’s Golden Retriever). She is a delightful dog so a pleasure to spend time looking after her.

Completed a strata report on a home unit in Hornsby for OPR – interesting activity.

Baked bread and harvested the first cut of the English Spinach.

Photo 1: Freshly baked loaf.

Photo 2: English Spinach - Snow Peas in the backgroun

Today’s Cartoon

Pat Oliphant - Adelaide born cartoonist.

This is more than 12-months old but still topical as Ms Palin has begun a speaking tour claiming that the Obama health initiative includes ‘Death Panels’ to nominate who of the aged will have their medical care stopped. I can’t find the source now but this cartoon was refused publication by many newspapers in Oliphant’s US syndication.

Today’s Podcasts

“The George Munster Forum ‘Sport, Sex and Journalism – What’s the Story?’” Big Ideas, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigideas/.

The forum followed the announcement of this year’s George Munster Award for Independent Journalism. The winner was the team behind ABC TV’s Four Corners program, which went to air in May of this year called ‘Code of Silence’.

It exposed the degrading treatment some rugby league players have subjected woman to. And it also raised questions as to whether enough was being done to deal with these problems.

So what did it take to get the story …and what happened afterwards. And what role has the media itself played both now and in the past in both covering up and exposing sport scandals? Do some sports reporters shirk tough stories involving sex or corruption because they are too much a part of the sporting scene or because of commercial or other interests?

Above text copied from the website.

“Telecoms in emerging markets”, The Economist, (no clear url but searchable on iTunes store). Also in “The power of mobile money” from the print edition at http://www.economist.com/.

Mobile phones are changing the method of transferring money, rapidly overtaking banks and services such as Western Union, in developing economies.

Sleet was forecast so we abandoned the planned breakfast at Floriade for a morning at Holder. We ended our Canberra visit celebrating Ken’s sixtieth birthday and enjoyed the gathering. Left at 3:00pm (temperature 8^oC) to get back to Petersham and the dogs and some warmth (15^oC).

Photo 1: Leaving Canberra

Photo 2: Almost home

Today’s Newspaper Plaudits

G. Blainey, “The romantic and the pragmatist”, The Weekend Australian Review, 26 September, 2009, pp 22-23.

Blainey writes readable reviews. This one about Paul Kelly’s, The March of Patriots, a history of the Keating-Howard years. Encouraged to get a copy and read.

A. Reimer, “All the symbols for quick gratification”, SMH Spectrum, 26 September, 2009, pp28-29.

Reimer reviews Dan Brown’s, The Lost Symbol, and his summary, “Pass the Jaffas – the master of cheap thrills has done it again in a saga packed with mystery, history and paranoia”. Sounds like a good read, as I like Brown’s writing.

Technical Note

Photos this weekend were taken with a Canon G9, which is an excellent, unobtrusive camera with a 7-44mm zoom and 12 million pixel sensor. However, when used indoors without flash, it exhibits some pixilation that obtrudes into processing the images.

Today’s Podcast

Have continued listening to The Book Show, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/ with a series of interviews with David Malouf, A.S. Byatt and Elmore Leonard. Romana is still babbling and interrupting but unable to detract from the quality of these authors’ insights.

Today we are in Canberra – Ken’s birthday tomorrow, Floriade, Beryl is showing some of her fabric collection to Canberra quilters, and to see Frances (our daughter). Bitterly cold (7^o C at midday) with occasional squalls so Floriade lost its appeal. I planned to install a wireless router for Dalma and Errol but the wireless no longer worked – tested fine yesterday in Sydney. I have no easy internet access while in Canberra so have to fallback on writing drafts and completing the fact-checking on returning home.

No photo today as I have nothing related to this Canberra visit but the Moir cartoon from yesterday’s SMH is pertinent.

Today’s Newspaper Tosh

“Apples and Blackberries turn sour”, SMH Weekend Business, 26 September 2009, p 7.

Marcus Padley is holidaying at Mooloolaba and is offended by the ”…beach twiglets with iPhones”. “Give a teenager an iPhone and they enter the “matrix” with all the other absent Facebook “friends” whose inane twitterings have become an imperative substitute for the real world’.

Facebook demographics show that only 10 per cent of Facebook users in the USA are 13 to 17 years of age. Quoting further from the Social Media Marketing Blog,

According to a report in March of 2009, Inside Facebook noted that there were more Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today. And in a separate report, they also noted that Facebook is seeing massive increases in adoption among users 35-65. In fact, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is still women over 55

http://www.scottmonty.com/2009/07/facebook-age-demographics.html#ixzz0SIl6yXKd

I think it safe to assume the same trend here and in Mooloolaba. The young favour mobile phone texting as their primary digital communication. And when writing “twitterings”, does he mean “tweets” as in Twitter? Why occupy a column with a poorly written rant? An advertisement would be more entertaining and probably more accurate.

Technical Note

The drafts are written in Word on my aging MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz, 4 GB memory, 160Gb hard drive). The  DVD player is faulty (has been replaced twice) but not an issue as I have  functioning player on my MacMini and a Windows server. The MacMini stores the music and replays through four Airport Expresses connected to amplifiers and speakers. The Windows servers (three) are being phased out as I move files across to FatCow, the Macs or external hard drives.

I have moved the photography web to FatCow and while some updating is essential it is still viewable on http://hyamsbeach.org/day/art/.

Today’s Podcast

It’s All Politics: NPR’s Weekly News Roundup. Unable to get a clear url but search iTunes to subscribe to this example of first-class reporting on US politics.

Continuing the US political theme, Slate’s Political Gabfest also connects to other daily Slate podcasts. Owned by the Washington Post, these podcasts are often hilarious and informative.

This brings one of my hates to the surface; Australian news-media podcasts. Insipid, poorly researched, boofy inarticulate presenters and embarrassing.

A Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) visiting the Banksia serrata in the front garden.

Photo 1: Rainbow Lorikeet

Uncommon visitors to the park across the street have been two Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca). The magpie family has been sharing the grazing. I admire the Ibis’s adaptability although most people I know dislike this bird for its foraging habit and unclean plumage.

The Common Indian Mynah, (Acridotheres tristis) appears to be increasing. Up to this week they were clustering on nearby roofs but in the last few days are feeding in our bushes and trees. The web site  http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/myna/index.html has information on monitoring numbers so will begin counting next week. I have seen the Red Wattlebirds (Anthochaera carnunculata) chase them out of the yard but the increasing numbers of mynahs appears to have put a stop to this territoriality.

The Wisteria and Clivias are bursting into bloom

Photo 2: Wisteria

Photo 3: Clivia

Assisted in a stock count at Promtel  for 5 hours. Another 10 hours work to complete this, which I will schedule in next week.

Today’s Podcast

The Law Report: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/

Women’s Prisons – a two-part series on Australian women prisoners and their attempts to resume a normal life after release.

Today’s Website

Alfalfa House: http://www.alfalfahouse.org/

This is our local community food co-operative where we rarely shop. We were members two decades ago and let this lapse but I rejoined this year when overtaken by a fever for natural foods. I want bulk skim milk powder, bulk bread mix, pulses, beans, linseed, detergent, etc.; the necessities of life. But the bulk bread mix comes in a vast quantity and will be weevilly in no time, the detergent is expensive and we don’t want to pay a premium for food and groceries (at our age genetic modification is not a worry).

I occasionally buy so our membership remains current to continue receiving the monthly e-mail newsletter. This has an excellent section on cooking dried beans, pasta and other commodities. If you live in Inner-Western Sydney, check them out.

Returning to a Hyams Beach theme is this Sooty Oystercatcher Haematopus fuliginosus, seen on the rocks near the house. These birds are endangered but as we paddle about the Bay, we occasionally see one.

Photo 1: Sooty Oystercatcher

After yesterday’s wind, the Azalea blooms have been blown about – that’s the end for this year. A number of the plants need re-potting or transplanting from pots and I have been waiting for the flowers to finish.

Compost

Beryl needs soil so I emptied one of the compost bins and mixed this with recycled dirt from the bamboo excavation. The compost is a mixture of kitchen scraps and soil. We keep the scraps in the kitchen in a 20-litre nappy pail and when almost full, tip this into one of the compost bins and shovel in a layer of soil. Today’s compost was ready for use and was nourishing plenty of worms. I blended this in with more reclaimed soil, filled three large garden pots and stockpiled the rest.

Photo 2:Today's compost.

The pile at the front is fresh compost and the dirt at the rear is a mix of clay, loam and gypsum. The clay is breaking down and there is a lot more usable soil than two weeks ago.  Over the year, processed compost will build up and next Spring it will be distributed around the garden.

The compost area hasn’t always been so tidy. One morning in 2005 it was almost scenic.

Photo 3: The compost area in 2005

Today’s Podcast

Health Check: World Alzheimer’s Day Special 20 Sep 09. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/science/2009/03/000000_health_check.shtml

Today’s Blog

Bonnie Trenga often writes for Grammar Girl so I looked at her blog and became absorbed in her sentence quizzes.  http://sentencesleuth.blogspot.com/

Wonderful dawn this morning as a dust storm swept in just before 06:00.

Photo 1: Petersham experiencieng its first dust storm.

After much fiddling with FatCow FileManager and FireFTP I have now activated the old Hyams Beach web site at www.hyamsbeach.org/day/HB. Will begin moving the photo archives next and then settle into some updating and editing. I have some photos on http://imackenzie.zenfolio.com/ but like WordPress for blogging, Zenfolio has its limits. Lynne Fisher of Promtel (http://www.promtel.com.au) gave me a copy of Microsoft Expression for Windows and this is a good web editing application. I can edit and update the original pages on my Windows machine and then ftp them to FatCow.

PS: If you need first-class warehousing and distribution facilities Promtel is the place.

I must declare my interest here, I am assisting Promtel in a stock-take and next week will be engaged in assembling 30,000 ‘show bags’ for the up-coming Sexpo (more on this later!).

Referring back to my tomato-processing comment on the 19 September, Margo & Jerry responded:

Thanks for the shout. Myself (and all I know) usually use fowlers or waterbath for tomatoes and tomato puree. It’s safe as tomatoes are high acid – the extra precaution is to add some citric acid  as commercial and newer tomatoes can be a bit variable in the acid level. I made tomato puree using my crockpot last year and it’s great! I’d encourage you to give it a go and use your waterbath. I opted for the canner for tomatoes last year as it uses less water and is quicker to get going for a second batch if you’re doing a lot of processing.

Will dust of the Fowlers and continue collecting 500ml jars.

The Garden

The Hippeastrums are bursting out and the plum has almost finished flowering.

Photo 2: Hippeasrum after last night's storm

Photo 3: Plum blossoms

Today’s Podcast

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/ The Philosopher’s Zone. Consistently rich information much of which I do not understand but always worth listening too.

Technical Note: Podcasts

I use iTunes to automatically download my selections, which I can subscribe to through iTunes store or through the specific website. Whenever I connect my 80Gb Classic iPod, which is now showing age problems but continues to work, it synchronise with the Mac.

Listening devices has not been resolved. I have used the iPod earbuds and several other brands but they are fragile. I have Bose® In-Ear Headphones which, “deliver lifelike sound performance for your listening pleasure”, but unfortunately continue to shed the neoprene external noise sealing earpiece. When complete, they are very good but I am forever stressed that the neoprene will drop off in the street. Clunky but excellent are the QuietComfort® 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones from Bose. I bought these when traveling and they shield the listener from external noise. Not suitable for the morning walk though so I now use these for editing music files.

Again, thwarted photographing the dawn – too early today. I am using a substitute from Hyams Beach taken in 2003. The original (16Mb) is a merge of three photos using Photoshop CS3 and prints out well on the Epson Stylus Photo R2400. The photo below is saved for the web in Photoshop and resized to 1000 pixels wide ending up 16Kb – a considerable reduction with acceptable reproduction.

Photo 1: Sunrise off Jervis Bay

Scheduled to complete a strata inspection for O’Connor’s Property Reports (www.opr.com.au) in the morning but postponed due to their illness. Interesting work researching the history of the unit and the building and preparing the report. A strata report is excellent value for money if you are buying a strata-titled property, and we have a number of friends buying:

1. The first couple saw a Unit on a Monday and exchanged contracts the following Friday with no report. Their current home is a unit with a history of concrete remediation ($300,000) and a dispute on who should maintain the illegal deck on the roof. What problems await them with the new purchase?
2. The second couple bought a report and found that there was litigation current between the builder and developer, which could end up costing our friends an unknown amount. They did not proceed.

Today’s Podcast

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/

Sadly, I cannot recommend this podcast. The quality of reporting varies between babble and interesting. The hostess, Ramona Koval, thinks with her mouth and constantly interrupts the guests. Correspondence commenting on this and the variability of guests has had a hostile reaction:

1. I am elitist,
2. I am a minority compared to the positive responses (no data supplied),
3. Ramona is one of the best broadcasters (I commend their support but not their reality).
4. They are not competing with the BBC (no idea where this came from, as my comments were free of ‘competition’. I simply opined for a better quality broadcast).
5. A poet who spouted hyperbole should not be criticized for her spoken incompetence. Why not? She uses English professionally.

Listen and decide. It is the only Australian literature review programme I know of. Then compare with:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/books/ “Book Reviews With Simon Mayo” – often chaotic, humorous and anarchic but worth a listen

http://www.nybooks.com/podcasts/ “The New York Review Of Books” recommended by my friend Ken and consistently interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/2009/03/000000_worldbookclub.shtml “World Book Club”, consistently interesting with extended questions to the authors interacting with a worldwide audience.

Technical Details

The early drafts of the blog are written in Word on a MacBook Pro (now aging) and then pasted into WordPress, which resides on a FatCow server in New Mexico. I have been seeking an alternative server since we shut down our in-house machines and FatCow was highly recommended. It has, in my short experience, been satisfactory.

My English

Those of us writing with a computer are confronted with several problems. American English dominates our on-line dictionaries and thesauri but Australian English borrows heavily from British English. I therefore spend time making sure that the Australian spelling dominates (is this Hansonistic nationalism – language has often been the catalyst for riots).

I recently had email correspondence with a number of younger people and their text was sprinkled with ‘u’ rather then ‘you’ which appears to have been spawned by texting. We are constantly warned that English is under attack from users of social networks and SMS texting but really, if the meaning is clear, what’s the problem. English has been evolving since it was invented (I heard about 800AD) and will continue to be a most interesting form of communication.  ‘U’ is two less keystrokes than ‘you’ and when texting, any word requiring fewer keystrokes I welcome.

Photo 1: Anzac Bridge and Blackwattle Bay

Intended to photograph the dawn during the morning walk but clouds interfered with that aim. I am awaiting the change to daylight saving so I can continue my dawn series on Blackwattle Bay (on my cycling route). Here is one from June this year.

Most of the day taken up learning WordPress so I can load my daily activity. Not intuitive! However, Support at FatCow has been very good. Unhappy with the format and style but will learn how to change this. Have loaded the Hyams Beach web site onto FatCow but not working yet. Tomorrow’s project.

The Sheds

We have five sheds. One (the asbestos roofed one) is the garage for Beryl’s Subaru. The extension off this is workshop and storage. One is currently storing firewood (we have open fires in the winter), another is set up as a weight’s room but neither Fergus nor I use these now. And the fifth is the Potting Shed.

Photo 2: Example of the shed roof requiring refurbishment.

Covered in ivy for years, the timber and steel have rotted. We need to weatherproof the five sheds and build good storage so we can empty the flat and rent it. I have slowly got rid of some surplus items. Sold or returned 2000 vinyl LPs (a thousand to go) and several loads to Reverse Garbage (http://www.reversegarbage.org.au) but still have 400 cartons specifically for 500x400mm framed pictures, three servers, two Singer knitting machines, wine racks and a wine cooler, bolts of fabric, etc. Will go back to eBay and see if we can get something.

I have all the timber for replacing the shed frame so must begin. Fergus is emailing his drawings.

Today’s Podcast

2009-09-20 The third era of AIDS – http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/

Australia is an important influence in the worldwide fight against AIDS. The incidence in developing countries is increasing and this ‘Third Era’ is about changing the emphasis to curbing the increase rather than providing treatment, after infection.

Today’s Website

Rather than work through The Macquarie Thesaurus (1984) I keep http://thesaurus.reference.com/ open in Firefox. One of Google’s recommendations and has proven useful.