>They lied? Say it isn’t so

>This is probably the most incongruous thing you’ll ever see on this blog.

While getting home yesterday – or was it on the news last night? – I happened to catch snippets of some footy news. Always thrilling for me, as you can imagine, being the great AFL fan that I am…

ANYway, I distinctly remember a footballer declaring that he was a “one-man team” and would stay with X team forever. I remember this clearly because I did the internal snigger I always do when I catch a piece of classic sports talk with lovely wrong turns of phrase (my favourite remains the commentator who said that Y was like “a bull in a Chinaman’s shop”).

Today, I see this article about Lance Franklin and his vow always to stay a Hawthorn Hawk, and the quote is taken as:

“The 22-year-old Coleman medallist yesterday categorically declared he would be a Hawk for life.

‘Definitely. I’m going to stay a one-team man and never look like leaving Hawthorn ever,’ he said ahead of Hawthorn’s clash against Sydney on Saturday night. ‘I love the club.’”

Now, that’s just wrong. He didn’t say that at all. We all know what he meant when he said he was “a one-man team,” but that’s not what he said.

Oh, sports reporting. You make me doubt your integrity.

 

>2009 Junket + WTF Telstra

>I wrote about a prime junket in which I regularly partake back in Feb 2006. I didn’t attend the one in 2007 because I was on maternity leave, but I did go to the 2008 gathering at the Langham Hotel. This year, we were at the Park Hyatt. Now that I’m an oldish hand at these things, I’m enjoying them more and more. First, all of my editorial team was able to attend and we always have fun meetings. Second, we know many of the publishing staff now. Third, we scored by sitting at a table with a new and enthusiastic marketing guy, and their online submission platform person. Very useful folk to be around when we’re working out strategies for the next few years for our journal and its direction.

In the midst of the plush surrounds and super-nice food, though, it was somewhat disheartening to know about the huge drive for citation impact factors that influence the outcomes for our academic careers and at the same time hear from the publisher’s UK manager that the Thompson ISI folk (who churn out citation impact factors and suchlike) produce figures for social sciences and the humanities (SS&H) that are of little use in actually indicating impact. The current models only cover a too-short timeframe, PLUS so few SS&H publications are in the ISI system that there isn’t enough data upon which to base ‘impact’ with any integrity. So, why do it at all? Australia’s just bringing it in (admittedly not in an overt way yet – but journal-tiering is a slippery slope…), when the UK has just booted it out as an indicator. Increasingly, we’re asked to provide citation stats for our work where possible. Unless we manually record-keep our citations (with a little helping hand from Google Scholar), there isn’t an easy way to find out what these might be. The usefulness of this bibliometric stuff is constantly brought into question, but the fact that it’s currently in vogue in ARC circles means that a lot of time, money and effort will be expended on something that may well be cast aside in a few years’ time. Same as it ever was.

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And my utilities rant for the moment:

Monster house is almost finished next door. It didn’t improve on completion and, in fact, looms even larger and more ugly over our house now that its ‘outdoor entertainment villa’ is complete. We are privy to the knowledge (through some random boasting by the owner) that they also have a spa in the master bedroom and will have a giant plasma screen in the living room…colour me surprised…

Anyway, Telstra dude was out to do some work for the monster house and messed with our cables. We’ve had Foxtel for a while now (children’s channels for E. and 24/7 cooking shows for my mother). It suddenly stopped working. On investigation, we found that the Telstra guy had moved the cable and wrecked the connection. He refused to fix it, saying it was ‘frayed’ and would’ve been up for repairs anyway. He told us to call Foxtel to come out and fix it. When we pointed out that the connection was perfectly fine until he broke it, he still refused to fix it.

This kind of thing just boggles my mind. You broke it, you fix it, no? WTF, Telstra?

 

>De-irritating WordPress blogs

>Do you browse WordPress blogs (or own one)? Are you sick of the whacking great ‘snapshot’ of links that intrudes on your reading pleasure?

Well, this blogpost shows you how to be done with it!

Many thanks to JG on Memes of Production for the heads-up.

 

>Lemming behaviour and generosity +

>I saw that one of the blogs I read regularly has swapped over to WordPress and, knowing that many have shifted over there, I went to check it out for myself and ended up creating a replica of this blog there (no real entries). The posting interface for WP is much nicer than this one’s, but I think – being a creature of habit – I’m used to the quirks and format of blogger so I’ll stay put for the moment. The other one is just reserving interweb real estate…

I did the same thing on Facebook with starting up an Asian Australian Studies Research Network group. I’ve been on Fb a while now and I have yet to see the worth of those Fb groups. I just find them clunky. Some of them have novelty value, but the interface seems to depend on you going there regularly to find out what’s happening with the group. I don’t like bulletin boards for the same reason, much preferring the direct ‘news’ or interaction that a mailing list provides.

That said, since I’ve stepped down from moderating asian-australian_discuss, I’ve changed my delivery options for that list to “no email.” I find the emails from that list too distracting and, if a topic takes my fancy, I’ll want to respond straight away. This way, if I just catch up on what’s happening there every week or so, I can just pick and choose the ones that interest me most (and overlook the annoying ones). It’s such a basic thing, something I should’ve done a while ago. Feels liberating nonetheless!

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I know I go on about bookmooch a lot here. I’m not exactly sure why that is because it’s not as if I spend all my waking hours stalking and mooching books. I only drop by the site if I have to check off certain activities/receipts, or if someone’s newly recced me something and I want to see if it’s moochable. This means, perhaps, once a week; several times if I’ve just uploaded inventory and people are snaffling items. Blathering aside, I’ve always admired the way bookmooch started and what it stands for, which is why I persist with it even though it means I generally spend more on books than I did before (because of the postage/packaging costs for mailing books out; the books themselves are ‘free’). This is the case because, before, I wasn’t reading very reguarly at all, and not tapped into the habit like I am now. I much prefer now, but yes, it’s not a money-saving development for me.

Recently, John Buckman (the guy who created it from scratch) posted an entry on the bookmooch blog outlining how much it costs to run the mooching site. I found it an amazing read, and my jaw dropped when he mentions that he’s put in about $70K (US dollars, people!) to get the site to the stage it’s at now. I have self-quibbling sessions sometimes about the money I toss into ‘hobby’ endeavours that I wish someone would step up and fund properly, but my piddly expenses pale in comparison. I’ve signed up to give a little each month to help keep bookmooch non-commercial (one of the things I like about it).

As with all of my friends, I wish I had more time to read and the browsing the vistas of what’s on offer in people’s inventories is my cyber-version of loitering around 2nd-hand bookshops (which I just don’t really get to do anymore, unless I’m killing time before meetings or conferences…). I’ve seen some delicious inventories from which I’d like to mooch about a half dozen books but I stop myself from being that greedy. I usually limit myself to mooching two books at a time from people (unless they offer more because of particular author sets, etc). I’ve got more points than I know what to do with, and have twice given points to charities listed on bookmooch (once to the Australian lesbian and gay archives, and another time to the Auckland Women’s Centre Library – obviously, I was endeavouring to give ‘locally’…there aren’t many charities on this side of the pond at all).

If you are on bookmooch and haven’t friended me, let me know you’re out there. I’m easy to find. I don’t have an internet ‘handle’ to save myself…

Here endeth the sermon about bookmooch.

 

Just squatting on this address

Er, what the title said.

This isn’t my primary blog – that would be tseenster.blogspot.com

This is just gratuitous interweb real-estate nabbing…move on…

 

>Shop on Friday 13th this week!

>This sounds like a Good Thing, and is normally not the kind of thing I’d on-post.
It also doesn’t count as a blog post so will be getting to that soon…

COLES to donate profites from Friday 13 Feb to Bushfire Appeal Fund

Coles is asking customers to plan their supermarket shop for this Friday (13 Feb), to help raise badly needed funds for the victims of the Victorian bushfires.

Coles, BiLo, Pick N’Pay and Coles Online are donating this Friday’s profits from all stores nationally to the Bushfire Appeal Fund, and hope to raise between two and four million dollars.

Coles Managing Director Ian McLeod said he hoped customers would plan to do their grocery shopping this Friday.

“Our customers often have set days for their supermarket shopping, but we’re asking people to change their habits this week and to do their shopping on Friday, to support this special fundraising event,” Mr McLeod said.

“The more people who support this Friday’s fundraising, the bigger the donation we’ll be able to make.”

Mr McLeod said stores were already preparing for the day.

“There’ll be extra team members working in stores to help manage what we hope will be a very busy day. We’ve also ordered extra stock deliveries into stores.”

Coles is continuing to support ground level relief agencies, providing essentials such as food, water and toiletries. Coles today gave $30,000 to the Salvation Army and the Australian Red Cross to help provide immediate food relief to those affected by the bushfires.

[This text was taken directly from a Coles corporate press release - which can be found HERE - by me]

 

>Keep away from me, wayside…

>At least once a week, I tell myself. At least once a week…

I’m fairly sure I can maintain that kind of posting momentum for the moment, but after Bub #2 comes along, there are no guarantees. This blog never turned into a baby-blog (though it did have a moment or two), and for that I’m glad. There are many things I’ve learned and realised about myself since having E., and also negotiating having S. at home as primary carer. Some are major and change my entire outlook on life; many are petty and even involve slaying my phobia of things pink. I don’t feel that the major things need to be aired publicly. Or at all. They’re seismic shifts for me and how I think I want to live my life, but they aren’t for everyone’s consumption. As many of you regular bloggers will have seen/heard, ‘slow blogging‘ is now the thing. It’s an expected response to the kind of ‘sweatshop blogging‘ that the NY Times identified. I must admit to agreeing avidly with all the points in the slow blog manifesto. I love finding blogs that have thoughtful and lucid language, and posts that show the author put in a bit of effort. I must also admit that, for all its rushing charm and addictiveness, I have cultivated a deepening scorn for Facebook applications/games and naff status statements. I bought the whole bleeping package when I first joined up, and responded to everyone’s ‘gifts’ and even had my own (fluff)friend (RIP, Momo). Now, I ignore just about everything except what I’d classify as real communication (e.g. wall or inbox messages, sharing photos, notes and links with useful commentary). 

Moving on, as I didn’t intend this post to be meta about blogging…

I’ve completed two major research fellowship applications in the past couple of months and the time that’s involved in nutting out projects, budgets, staffing and on-costs, timelines and ‘outputs’ is staggering. It’s a whole industry within academia that I find fascinating and appalling. The process of putting in an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery application does get easier each time, if only because you know what kind of cursed realm you’re entering. Every tip at the windmill means that you learn a bit more jargon, cruise through a bit more of the application (having your track-record information up to date saves you a godawful amount of time, for e.g.). I’m thinking of putting together a grant application post for Academia 101. I can’t say that I’m that much of an expert on grants in general, though. Perhaps for fellowships?

Things in short:

• Went to a kite festival last weekend in Royal Park and was disappointed that there weren’t any humungous, over-the-top kites (like this giant dragon below). It was, however, a great day to see heaps of super-keen kids and families going crazy in the breezy sunshine and flying whatever they had from home. Next time, we’re going to bring something for E. to scamper around with. 


[Image from gddweb.org/cave.html]

• I’ve recently become Reviews Editor with Asian Studies Review (ASR) in the new thematic area of ‘Diasporic Asia’. Peter Jackson has just taken over as Editor and he’s invited J.Lo and myself on board. It’s exciting to be part of a bigger endeavour such as ASR, partly because it’s such a huge association, and also because I think that having Asian Studies in Australia move in this direction so decisively is a good thing.

 

>Breaking the drought…briefly

>Things still madhouse, mostly because I’m on leave as of next Wednesday and won’t be back in office till next year (love being able to say that).

Just had to note, though, that the AASRN just held the workshop for ECRs with Prof David Eng (UPenn) and it was a great success. It was excellent to have David here, and his social and intellectual generosity meant that he was a perfect invited scholar. Initial feedback from the postgrads who attended the workshop ranged from thrilled to more thrilled.

Things I need to blog about soon: finally visiting Gingerboy, dining coincidences at Kuni’s, and colleagues who make academia worthwhile (seriously).

 

>Shoehorning some hip…

>I’m not known for being hip. Certainly not to the people who know me well, and who’ve seen me in different flavours of bland at all times of my life (barring the occasional mystique of a vintage batik shirt, courtesy of my father’s collection [he gave up batik for polo shirts - it's a crime]). Any street/style cred I have? Chances are I’ve stolen it from my sister (who is actually very hip’n happenin’) or various savvy buddies (SS comes to mind).

Being this un-hip is probably why I’ve only just discovered these fab-o subcultural city guides and signed up to their newsletters (to maintain my mask of hip):

ThreeThousand (Melb)
FourThousand (Brissie)

I particularly like their “Eat/Drink” reviews, which are written by smartly snarky people (who all seem to live in inner-north suburbs…) who aren’t averse to fast-food or carnivorous appetites (and vego cuisine is very well represented in the reviews, of course).

There’s also a Sydney guide, and I’ll leave you wise folk to work out the addy for yourselves. I haven’t signed up to that newsletter cos, y’know, me + Sydney…

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Meanwhile, I’ve had a work crisis that has consequences for where I’ll be in a year or so (or won’t be, to be more precise). I was going to write about it here, but have thought better of it for the moment. I don’t think I should blog in anger or resentment, and while I’ve pulled back from the edge quite a lot, there’s still a simmering nippy thing that I’m sure will come out. It can come out when I have a bit more perspective, and that may not be till after July next year…! (yo, academia has terminally slow cogs)

 

>Obama – he’s the man

>Hadn’t intended to post about this but can’t help myself.

Barack Obama is the next President of the USA.

OMFG.

*flails with happy happy*

Was absolutely hoping, and am very relieved.

This is not a blog-post. More an emo-dump.

Oh well.