Okay, so the turnout wasn’t everything I’d hoped for, but there was heaps (Australianism) of food and we all had a good time. I used the TimeLapse screensaver to capture the events in the kitchen.
I’ve made a video of the time lapse and then added music based on the criteria: must be Australian and 3 minutes and 23 seconds long (Cities by The Cat Empire fitted), it’s on vimeo and below.
So yesterday I spent most of the day reading (or rereading) articles on the use of simulation in the field of healthcare in general, it’s application to simulating emergency departments in general (e.g. my research).
Then I went to a class at the Gimbernat where we discussed negotiation and how to influence people along with a web site that works like a pyramid scheme, but isn’t.
Afterwards I had dinner with friends and planned out a work of public theatre, scene by scene.
Here are some I prepared earlier:
When I came into the department this week Pepe had found a new friend, or rather as someone put it, his avatar (named João).
On the Friday before I went to Wales for the weekend I caught up with Dan and he asked me if I was only going to Cardiff so I could say I’ve also been to Old South Wales, a joke which hadn’t even occurred to me. Now I suppose I have been to Old South Wales, a part of it at least.
I saw most of what there was to see in Cardiff over the weekend, although despite my best efforts I didn’t manage to find a copy of Y Tywysog Bach (The Little Prince in Welsh). I did take a few photos though.
I should be writing about my trip to Cardiff (of which I have photos – they’re coming I promise) and other things, but I just watched the first episode of the second season of Being Human and I think it’s probably better than the first season.
Being Human is something like Britain’s answer to the current supernatural/paranormal craze. Imagine a show about ghosts, vampires and werewolves without the standard percentage of screaming you get from American television, but in it’s place something more like, “so, you’re a vampire, he’s a werewolf and I’m a ghost? All right then, would you like a cup of tea?” and that’s pretty much where Being Human starts.
The cinematography in the second season is better, but it’s very forced. Lots of artsy looking shots which when they work look great, but a lot of the time just look like artsy shots for their own sake. Still doesn’t detract from what will hopefully be six more excellent episodes.
I got up at 03h30 this morning and headed to Gatwick airport. It doesn’t take too long, the N73 to Victoria station and then the Gatwick Express from there. Got to the airport nice and early, passed through security nice and quickly (as you tend to at five in the morning), and bought a book before grabbing a coffee and sitting down to wait for the gate allocation to come up.
I ended up with exactly the kind of book I didn’t want, something instantly involving that I’m going to have trouble putting down until I’ve finished it – Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which ironically has a more direct translation in Spanish than English). This distracted me from noticing that one by one, all the flights before mine were being marked as delayed.
I noticed this just before the status on my flight was changed, to cancelled. I had the option of being transferred to another flight later that day, but with more snow forecast and the runway not due to open for another three hours I decided to leave tomorrow on the early flight and work for another day in London. So I got back on the train to return to the office, and still made it in before anyone else.
One of the nice things about doing software development in a publishing firm is there are designers available to do the design work. It can be frustrating as well though, I often catch myself thinking that the designers could work quicker if they focused on it. Of course then they’d loose sight of the creative aspect, sometimes I’m too much a programmer.
Without trying to draw in any analogies or other references. Is there anything in the world as fragile as a snowflake?
A month or so ago I followed a few links on a couple of the blogs that I read (or have read) this year and came up with a couple of dozen more that have been added to my RSS reader. One of these is It’s Nice That which is a site dedicated to promoting work from across the creative industry, and has lead me to some fantastic stuff, including a few other additions to my RSS reader as well.
The site is content heavy, which is to say it sometimes takes up more time reading the entries than I want to distract myself with, but I always feel that if I skip anything I could be missing something great. All of December they’ve been doing a series of interviews/retrospectives with some of their difference collaborators throughout the year, asking them all to answer the same series of questions and provide an image which represents 2009 for them. I like the format, and while my answers will probably not be quite so interesting as the real ones, I thought I’d answer the questions here anyway.
The image I chose from 2009 was from the beginning of the year when I was in Australia. Mike, Soph and I went up to her Dad’s new vineyard to help pick grapes, seeing the parched country side I realised that this was now my image of Australia.
Mark out of 9 for 2009?
I’m going with a 7, it’s been a good year, but I’d say there’s room for improvement.
Best new discovery?
Knitting. Between my work and the two masters I’m doing I don’t have a lot of time for anything else, but knitting fills in the hour or so between eating dinner and going to sleep during the week, and makes me feel less guilty for watching crap TV. It’s relaxing and also makes for an endless supply of gift ideas.
Best idea?
Moving back to Gràcia. I lasted a whole 6 months in Cerdanyola, and while the short walk to and from uni was fantastic, now that I’m back living in the city I can’t believe I ever left.
What were you doing this time last year?
Showing Greta and Nat around Barcelona before attending a truly dangerous unlimited cava (the Catalan sparkling white, not the Indonesian mud syrup) party at a hostel where everyone seemed to be from Melbourne Uni.
What broke? How did you fix it?
My laptop hard drive broke again, but this year I had backups and only lost a few hours of work, as opposed to the year before when I didn’t have a backup.
What piece of work really stood out for you?
This is harder, since I’m not really a creative myself (and lots of the new work I’ve seen is from It’s Nice That anyway). However I’m going for the designs from Lia&cia, I saw them at a market for independent designers a few months back. I especially love the dog watching TV.
Favourite Book/Album/Film?
Favourite album has to be Sin Técnica by Oniric (aka Maria Rodés), I saw her play in April and fell in love (with the music too). Her Fearful Symmetry was just about everything I wanted from Audrey Niffenegger’s second novel, beautiful and strangely terrifying, I also finally read Cloud Atlas which is certainly not from this year, but great. Nothing film wise really stood out for me this year, although I saw both Where The Wild Things Are and Avatar this week, both were incredibly well crafted films in their own way.
Did you get Swine Flu?
No. I’ve been stoically convincing myself I’m too busy to be sick, it’s mostly works.
What are you going to miss about 2009 and what are you looking forward to in 2010?
I’m not sure there’s much I’ll miss about 2009 that I can’t continue to do next year. I’m really looking forward to moving and learning a new language starting from the deep end again, even if I’m not 100% certain it will be Berlin (where I tell everyone I’m going). I’ll be certain when I’ve got a visa and have the plane tickets.