Sam Wilson's Journal » Canberra

‘Behind the Lines’ podcast, only 2,976 days late

Sam Wilson — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 06:11:42 +0000

I was digging through some old files, and found an episode of Behind the Lines, a political radio programme from the Canberra station 2XXFM, hosted by Theo Coulthard. It’s from 2004. I think at the time I was meant to do something with it, so I’ve uploaded it to the Internet Archive: 2XXFM_Behind_the_Lines_2004-08-13.

The Food Co-op has a new domain name

Sam Wilson — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:31:59 +0000

The ~~ANU Food Co-operative~~ is now called the Food Co-op Shop, and (thanks to a pint bottle of Little Creatures Pale, and an hour or so of shuffling files around and fiddling with databases when I got home from work this evening) can now be found online at www.foodco-opshop.com.au.

Long live the Coop!!

Hurrah!

Urban Adventure in Rotterdam

Sam Wilson — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:34:53 +0000

Urban Adventure in Rotterdam

Not that I’m bored today at work or anything, as you can see: not posting for a month, then here I am warbling on about urban exploration! But then I would really rather be out charting the course of a drain, or sketching the rust scars on a strange unknowable lump of concrete, then sitting here at my desk being a good little IBM sysadmin.

Which I’m not, by the way. I’m not a very good sysadmin: I get annoyed, and wish there were more scope in I.T. for letting things get old and ignored. But there isn’t. You can’t just leave a programme and expect it to develop some mysterious patina (which word, incidentally, means only that green of copper, and Age in general; strictly speaking, of course) that will evoke some imagined, fictional, past time. They just don’t change. They’re boring.

Reading the above website, and I wish now to have

time;
a camera;
my website hosted on an old box under the stairs;
a city with more scope for UE; and
the appropriate bag.

Oddly enough.

Young Greens meeting

Sam Wilson — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:42:44 +0000

The second Young Greens meeting will be on the 20th. See the new YG blog for more.

I Don’t Go In Cars

Sam Wilson — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 03:49:16 +0000

I’m writing a more in-depth article on this topic at the moment, and I’ll post it soon, but for now I just want to mention a couple of things.

The team that I am part of at IBM looks after servers that are spread over two different data-centres, one just across the road from us, and one about ten kilometers away. Sometimes, we have to actually go into these places (to do what, I’m not sure, I’m still learning Korn shell scripting), and I know that one of these days they’re going to ask me to drive with them up to the far-away data-centre. I will, of course, refuse.

I do not go in cars. It’s pretty simple, really. But what a headache it can cause some people: they just don’t get it, ‘why would anyone be so stubborn about something like this?’ they ask. And I don’t really have a ready answer. I don’t really want to try and nut it out now…

Cars make cities horrible places to live. I look around — no, I don’t even have to look, the noise is there, at all times, invading everything — and see roads, and cars, and driveways, and hectare upon hectare of urban space that is designed with one thing in mind: the motorcar. But I believe in beauty. I will not take part in something so vast and utterly, destructively, completely ugly!

Sticking everyone in their own little transport box is wrong. It has lead, more than anything much else, to selfishness and greed, because it takes away an immediacy of inter-dependence between people. We still need each other, but we don’t know it, and we don’t know each other. What a total disaster! How has it come about that people walk down the street that they live in, and avoid eye contact with their neighbour?! It has come about because people drive cars.

There lots more that I could say on this subject, and I’m sure I will by and by, but I want to go for a walk. It’s a lovely sunny day here, the first day of Spring, and I’m going to get away from the silly computer.

The ANU Food Co-op party

Sam Wilson — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:58:05 +0000

Come and help us celebrate! See the Co-op’s wiki for more.

Cycle Against the Nuclear Cycle

Sam Wilson — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:30:15 +0000

From the CANC3 people:

Bring your bike to Canberra, for the ride toward a nuclear free future.

The Cycle Against the Nuclear Cycle (CANC3) campaign
are arriving in Canberra. They have cycled 2,500 km from Rockhampton, Queensland to spread the message that Australian communities don’t support the nuclear industry.

You are invited to ride with them into Canberra over 2 days.

Saturday 1st September

1pm: meet at the Post Office, Moore St Civic to join the bike ride to ARANDA

3pm: Arrive at Banjalong Cres Park, ARANDA

Food, Bike-fix
CANC3 update
Soap box

Sunday 2nd September

10am: group ride into Canberra

12 noon: Parliament House lawns

Meet by bicycle and encircle Parliament House to send the message of renewables not reactors. Pack you picnic for an afternoon of

stalls
speakers
music

There will be a prize for the best dressed anti-nuclear cycle!

For more information call 0420 669 724 or email nonukescanberra@gmail.com

Homeward Bound

Sam Wilson — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 07:09:22 +0000

Every evening as I head home on the intertown, the view west from the bridge reminds me of all that I love most about Canberra. The sun setting behind Black Mountain, with the ANU tucked in amongst the trees and the lake there, all still and calm, and I wonder what more I could ask for. It’s a pretty unique place, this, and sometimes I forget it, and forget too to notice that lovely feeling of order and belonging that I used to get (quite often) in my first year here; it’s still there, sometimes.

What could be better than a quiet beer at University House, or a food co-op meeting with chapatti and dahl?

Sigh… and still I want to rub my feet in the sand at south beach…

Dave Robertson at the Front

Sam Wilson — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:18:20 +0000

Dave Robertson has a gig at the Front in Lyneham.

Ignore the caterpillars, get back to work.

Sam Wilson — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:27:57 +0000

I have just returned from my customary post-lunch walk around the lake. It’s lovely, strolling through the hundred meters of bush that lies between the shore and the highway — I’m not being ironic, it really is lovely. I went across the bridge (the one over the weir) and turned south, along a vehicle track, and sat upon some mossy granite boulders up from the water. So lovely looking at the grass next to me tickling my cheek in the breeze; so horrid, when I raised my eyes to the skyline to see that dastardly rotten square box called Bunnings! I’m beginning to think that’s the way to find beauty these days: observe the minute, and cherish it, and ignore completely the massive, ugly, human constructions.