Journal Entries
Swamped by user-generated content?
Posted Nov 6, 2011
I've noticed, here and there, that people are finding this journal-a-day exercise a little overwhelming - and that it's not those of us with the polar opposite of Writer's Block that are suffering.
As an exercise in generating content, NaJoPoMo is working awfully well. The catch is that the aforementioned content is bombarding unsuspecting non-participants.
I've seen two possible solutions proposed:
1. Revise the exercise so that participants post once a day to one particular thread, or
2. Set up an A-page for these journals for each participant, so only people who subscribe to the A-page get bombarded, and on their heads be it.
My problem with option 1 is that it doesn't necessarily generate any content that would be distinguishable from what we all do anyway.
I do prefer option 2 - we still get masses of content, but it's kept under control to some extent.
The drawback with option 2 is - well, what if I set up an A-page and nobody subscribed?
This probably isn't the best place for me to ask in the hope of getting a balanced sample of public opinion, seeing as the unintended victims have already unsubbed from my journal for the duration, but what do people think about this issue?
Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [53]
Latest reply: Nov 6, 2011
A journal about indecision - or maybe it isn't
Posted Nov 5, 2011
It's somewhere around 2pm on a glorious sunny Saturday afternoon and I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do about this. I've been considering going shopping for a number of hours now but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. I can't decide whether I genuinely need to buy anything or not, even after looking in the pantry and the fridge. If I do need to be all consumerist and buy some things, I can't decide which shops to go to. Most of all, I can't decide what to wear in the event that I get my act together.
Is it just me, or do other people have this sort of brain trouble on Saturdays? I mean, I've been making snap decisions all week in the office, but on Saturdays I can't even work out whether I need to buy food or not. I suppose the brain's entitled to a bit of a rest, but surely a decision about going shopping isn't over-taxing. It's not like I'm trying to bring about world peace or anything.
So after an exciting interlude in which I cleaned the kitchen, here I am again, staring at a screen because I can't decide what else to do.
Discuss this Journal entry [33]
Latest reply: Nov 5, 2011
In which Ivan gets a little nostalgic and remembers his time in Paradise
Posted Nov 4, 2011
It's Friday night and I'm at home and going nowhere. This is by choice; I could have taken up an invitation to go to the pub, but I know from bitter experience that I no longer have the stamina for a night out with that chap so I came straight home from the office. There's beer here, and music, and my choice of food, and a bed within easy reach when I want it. Once upon a time, though, I'd have been quite downcast at the thought of staying home, convinced I'd miss something truly exciting.
I am a little nostalgic for those days when I was barely an adult, I could eat anything and not put on weight, and I had the energy to spend all night in the clubs and still function the next day. It all seems so exhausting now, but back then it was second nature.
I can remember the first time I pulled an all-nighter. I was 19, I was still in Adelaide, I was living alone for the first time and I went with my new Uni friends to Adelaide's oldest gay nightclub - the Mars Bar, in Gouger St.
Naturally I don't remember all the details of the night. There was a lot of Bacardi, a fair bit of various other refreshments and some reasonably intense flirting on and off the dance floor. One of my companions was a lad I fancied like mad and I spent quite a lot of the night fancying him, until about 3am when I went off him completely because he was busily and blatantly fancying someone else. But never mind, by that stage I was more interested in the music.
I think I left Mars at about 5am; it was Summer and the sun had risen but there was still an hour and a half before the first 175 bus came along and I couldn't afford a cab. I remember roaming around Central Market for a while, watching the place come to life even while I was starting to drift off to sleep on my feet. The pirozhki stall was one of the first to open so I grabbed a couple of them, then wandered past the Polish deli to get some of their fantastic cheesecake. By then it was time to go to the bus stop in Victoria Square.
I remember getting on the bus, but not much more than that. Seemingly a minute later, but actually about half an hour later, I woke to find the bus driver looming over me, laughing.
'Where am I?'
'Last stop, mate. Paradise.'
I stumbled off the bus. Yes, it was Paradise. All the signs said so. Paradise Interchange, where the regular bus services in the north-eastern suburbs meet up with the Adelaide O-Bahn. They paved Paradise, put up a bus station, and I woke up in it.
So that was what happened the first time I woke up in Paradise. As an atheist, I'm unlikely to wake up there again. 
This taradiddle was brought to you as part of A87679886 - the Create challenge about a first time. This is three for the price of one - my first big night out, my first serious infatuation and the first time I woke to find myself in Paradise.
But is it true? 
You tell me.Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [34]
Latest reply: Nov 4, 2011
An interesting title belongs in this space.
Posted Nov 3, 2011
In the course of an entire month of journalling, some days are going to be more worthy of a write-up than others. Today was so utterly unremarkable that I'm rummaging through my memories of it, trying to find a single seed of interestingness from which to grow a journal entry, and I'm coming up with very little. I don't want to resort to recipes yet; I might need that dodge some other day.
So let's see. What happened...
I had my usual commute to the office. This passed without incident.
We had computer problems on and off all day. This is not uncommon at the moment.
My offsider did a moderately dopey thing. This is particularly normal, I'm afraid.
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth about the cleaning roster for the coffee machine. I'm not sure what the issue was, or whose fault it was, as I don't drink coffee and tuned most of the noise out. But it does serve to highlight how many of my colleagues are insufferable when not adequately caffeinated.
I went to lunch. I went to the pharmacy. I went back to the office. No, nothing worth writing about there.
After a reasonable length of time I came home. I sat down and typed this twaddle.
And now, what *really* happened..?
Sadly, I can't go into the details of what I really did all day. It was actually rather interesting in parts and extremely interesting in others, but I can't discuss it. Politics, you see.
So why am I going on with all this rubbish?
I think my point, which I hadn't identified when I started typing, is that my journal - maybe anyone's journal - is only half a record. Maybe the untold story is the interesting one. Maybe not. But it can be fun sometimes, imagining what fills the gaps between the things that are spoken about.
And it can also be fun spinning a journal out of nothing at all. 
Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [22]
Latest reply: Nov 3, 2011
In which Ivan tastes victory and white rum in equal measure
Posted Nov 2, 2011
This will be rather vague, this journal, and not only because I am, to be blunt about it, drunk. It will be vague because if I give specifics I will clearly identify both my employer and myself and I'd really rather not do that.
Let's just say that we had recently been told of a new internal policy on a certain issue, which would have greatly assisted some people in the office but which would have discriminated against others. Clearly this was not the intention, the policy was inspired by the best possible motives but the thinking behind it had not been completed.
Being a naturally bolshie type, I complained. With the moral support of others, but absolutely no visible support, I tackled senior staff on the issue, right up to the CEO. The basic issue was one of equity - one of my pet subjects. I have over the last few days had the distinct impression that I might have done something career-limiting.
Today the policy was revised. 
The official notification was almost a direct quote of all my arguments. I've also had private acknowledgement that it was my stubbornness which won the fight.
Getting a CEO to change his mind about a policy with which he was closely identified - this is the absolute high point of my career. 
Even better - although I will now benefit from the revised policy, I won't be the only one, and I won't be the first either. Before I'd even seen the official email, at least four other people had signed up to take advantage of what was now available to them.
So of course I went for a few drinkies this evening, and there's a further celebration-in-a-glass within easy reach.
The moral of the story, I suppose, is that fighting for fairness does pay off, as long as one invokes logic and equity rather than pure self-interest.
It feels good, winning.
*hic*Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [17]
Latest reply: Nov 2, 2011
Ivan the Terribly Average
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