japonica

A couple of weeks ago this was a vase of brown sticks. When I arrived home from o/s small flowers had started to grow.  it’s an arrangement in progress as every day a new bud comes out or a leaf grows.

legolas

Second Life and libraries - is there a point I am missing??

i have decided that my job is far more interesting if i just go to random conferences and seminars instead of turning up to the office.  
today’s was a whole day dedicated to web/library 2.0, held at the state library.  lots of librarians lots of networking.  etc. the most interesting presentation for me was one discussing Second Life, the [...]

sleep = good

for the first time in about a month i slept in today.  and it was so good. 
 but i didnt slack off all day. in the afternoon I called work to see what had been going down over the past 3 wks, cleared my emails (no disasters, thank f*ck) and went to a melbourne writers fest/library reader [...]

dim sum in honkers

i dropped into hong kong for lunch. it was worth it. as auntie #1 noted, the roast duck in hong kong is far better than the dry version they serve in melbourne.
auntie #2 took me shopping in the afternoon. she took me to the ultra hip with the kids Bape (pronounced ‘baypee’ and Evisu stores.  she also told [...]

skylarks over chiba

 in this most recent trip i didnt have that many insights or amazing discoveries (though that is not to say that i didnt have an excellent time). here is the exception:
hanamitsu san, the father of the japanese family i stayed with in Chiba (Tokyo) has only just started learning english. the family has a small [...]

a wedding in france

dallas (yeah I know, great name I wish it were mine) and mick hooked up at the nimes youth hostel about 6 years ago. so it was only natural that their wedding should occur at the same venue.
what i will try to put into words wont do justice to the beauty of ceremony, which was presided [...]

summer vacation almost at an end

im kind of writing randomly here because i dont want to write anything much about it when i get home this friday. dont have that much to say anyway, except that 5 countries in 19 days is fucking hard work and something that i would not recommend to anyone or attempt myself again. it has been [...]

a hipper crowd of shushers

Thanks bobo, scott and mrs martin who have sent me the  link to this NY Times article .  I’m glad that the media is beginning to recognise librarians as ‘real’ people. but at the same time, writing an article like this also highlights that fact that librarians are also classified as social misfits.  and some of us are.  but at least we [...]

exit night, enter light (summer and bogans in helsinki)

my arrival into helsinki last night coincided with the metalllica concert in the city. as such, my introduction to the inhabitants of this land as i looked through the windows of the airport bus as we passed the concert venue, were throngs of pale and pasty youth in bogan/emo attire.
but also realising that the 2006(?) winneres of [...]