Butterfly outside my window before the rains came.
Teardrops - 涙 from Lisa Yallamas on Vimeo.
Japanese composer Masaya Misono (雅也御園) describes his composition Teardrops as New Age Ambient Piano Music - I call it gorgeous.
I like the atmosphere of the song: 曲の空気感が好きですね。
I discovered Misono on SoundCloud:
Gerry Harvey really didn't have much reason to party at the party at the Tedder Avenue flood appeal concert last Friday - Harvey Norman has taken a big hit in the floods also with about a dozen stores flooded, including Toowoomba, Ipswich, Fortitude Valley.
Still Harvey Norman and Myer kicked $750,000 into the concert fund-raiser kitty for the Premier's Flood Appeal.
I've discovered that the Harvey Norman claims department has processed more than 11,000 claims since Friday.
Makes me wonder how Harvey Norman will cope with the double whammy of recovering and meeting community demand.
Before the floods, Gerry Harvey was kicking up dirt about off-shore online shopping outlets stealing domestic retail business - which was suffering significantly, he said.
Do you think flood victims will do their shopping online to replace their damaged goods now - because there are bound to be way more than 11,000 customers who don't have warranties to claim on Harvey Norman isn't there?
The assignment: sell Easter holidays in Queensland.
QTIC boss Daniel Gschwind turns to Facebook and Twitter to save Queensland's tourism industry from an onslaught of bad international publicity.
Daniel Gschwind's (@ThatTourismGuy) people have rung around 600 Queensland tourism businesses which all report a downturn of between 20 and 100 percent.
So the QTIC have created a "proof of life" campaign on Facebook with a page called Take a Queensland Holiday
The sun is shining in Brisbane's Scenic Rim, Fraser Island, the Whitsundays, the Gold Coast, Mackay, the Great Barrier Reef and other destinations but rooms, cottages, swimming pools, boats, planes and bars are empty.
Small businesses which survived a lean Christmas off their savings from fat years now battle against all the international publicity of the Queensland floods.
(Picture: Today's weather)
"The impression that all this publicity gives is that 75 percent of Queensland is flooded so what are overseas visitors to make of this?" Mr Gschwind said.
"It's very consistent response around the state. Very few operators have taken any damage, there are some, but all of them report cancellations and a lack of business."
Scenic Rim tourism operator, the owner of Lilydale Host Farm Pam Hardgrave, rang around her region and found businesses which normally take thousands of dollars a month took only $100 to $200 over Christmas.
Bookings are being cancelled even as the Sunshine State turns on the sun in places unaffected by the floods, says Mrs Hardgrave, who has donated to the flood appeal and is offering SES workers free stays.
"All tourism operators have not been making any money for the past six to 12 months because people haven't had money to spend.
"We normally have an 80 percent occupancy rate but it's between 20-30 percent occupancy over Christmas.
"We have contacted guests who have visited us 20 or 30 times and they've been hit by the floods now."
Queensland flood waters never touched Brisbane's scenic rim, The Whitsundays, Fraser Island, the Gold Coast and many other holiday destinations but tourism operators are struggling to keep their heads above water.
Mr Gschwind, a member of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, opened a Twitter account today (Monday, Jan 17) to get the word out to the world: don't cancel your Easter holidays, come to Queensland.
"We don't want to see a second wave of cancelations go over the industry," Mr Gschwind said.
He's encouraging all tourism operators to post "proof of life" photos on the Take a Queensland Holiday Facebook page.
December 27, 2012.
November 25, 2012:
Murray Darling's Tumblr: Leap the Great Unknown
October 29, 2012
October 22, 2012
Gone back to the first drafts. Some of it is ok. Some giggles have been lost in drafts.
I made a few watercolours and photographed them to try to depict light waves - three years ago. Found while rummaging - a sleeping dragon. _ Lisa.
September 17, 2012
September 12, 2012. Update on Evolution Flunkies From Kapoot.
I started designing the website and realised an important thing about the nature of this book - it's a bible for a digital project and as such needs to be split into specific sections.
It's hard wrapping my mind around the scope of this thing.
The chapters have been halved and then cut down to between 200 and 500 words. Hilarious considering I've spent so much time developing all these backstories.
There are two blogs and story pages - so far.
@Janitor_Luck has a blog. This is his first post. In honour of Leadbeater's Possum - Victoria's State Emblem which is on the brink of extiction.
So I know I keep pushing back the publication date but I want it to be right.
Here's a taste. - Lisa.
Trip it up, trip it down, trip the others, take them down. Music is a very elemental thing. It drowns out the screams…
Did I say screams? Sorry.
This is your final boarding call… This is your Whorl.
You are here, on the Earth. Basically, the planet is a particle cloud in deep space – just like almost everything else, including skeletal remains.
Rip it up, rip it down, Yeah-Yeah! Shake it! Ah-ha! Ta-ra-ra b-OO-M-sey-Eh! Unhinged in The Whorl. Whoo-hoo!
Here’s a tip if you happen to meet a creature from deep space: Scream! No, but seriously. I tell you this in all genuine honesty.
We are one and the same – unfortunate circumstances force me to admit this. You and I need each other to survive evolution.
There’s more deep space in you than there is water – and you are 80 percent water.
Since 80 percent is more than half, how exactly can there be more deep space than water? Easy. Deep space connects everything.
There’s deep space in water too! Am I right? Don’t stress dopey.
This is a little more advanced than Lego, or even nanobots, so don’t you worry if you don’t get it. It may not matter soon anyway. Ha!
Extinction is part of evolution. So relax. Breathe while you can.
The true inhabitants of deep space are a little more special than you. Ne’er been seen by the naked eye. But deep space connects all Whorls.
Welcome to my Whorl! The Whorl of the Great UnKnown, Kapoot.
Animation: Click through the images rapidly.
August 14: Dr Charles Lineweaver's Stanhope Oration
The Australian Science Teachers Association's 2012 conference
Cool factoids about the Big Bang, Black Holes and Aliens
July 16, 2012:
I started working on the Evolution Flunkies website two weeks ago. Adapting the book for online takes a little tweaking but I will post some updates soon. _ Lisa.
February 21, 2012:
I have a cover for my book. I hope to finalize the manuscript by the end of March.
And, if things go well, I may even have a prototype website up.
I've changed the name of the book. It is amazing how this creative process of building multiple assets at the same time feeds upon itself. I can't wait to introduce the world to The Evolution Flunkies.
In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. - David Ogilvy
"You cannot go on forever stealing what you need without regard to those who come after. The physical qualities of a planet are written into its economic and political record."Please note the reference to "economic" i.e. business"We have the record in front of us and our course is obvious." _ Frank Herbert wrote in Dune , a novel which is considered to be the greatest science fiction book ever written.
Media reports advise people in North Queensland facing Cyclone Yasi to go to the smallest room in the house.
I can imagine that children listening will interpret this as the toilet and may panic if the whole family doesn't crowd into what is colloquially known as "the smallest room in the house".
Here's what the Emergency advice says:
Yasi is worse than Cyclone Mahina which left fish in trees.
Here's a video on Mahina I did from the State Library artefacts for Headstart a few years ago.
Premier Anna Bligh's good luck dragon.
It doesn't matter what portfolio Premier Anna Bligh has held over the years, whether its Disability or Education or ... no, not so sure about infrastructure ...
But she's always impressed people as a capable performer on top of the facts and issues able to reel off comments off the top of her head - her staff actually admire her.
Now as Premier she now has the opportunity to show that Australians are capable of planning to provide infrastructure that caters for future growth - and not just for growth, let's make it sustainable, ecologically-friendly, well thought out. Pray. Pray. Pray.
First the flood devastation and now Cyclone Yasi - who knows what's next!
But it sure is focusing attention on our leaders - and they all seem to have stepped up and done their 41 pirouettes en pointe before their captive audiences.
With all the leaders rubbing shoulders with The People maybe we can expect better government - everyone seems to have forgotten the shocking hung parliament.
What an age we live in! Perhaps we will see a dragon next.
The ancient Greeks believed that when a person is under intense pressure the soul leaves the body and literally stands beside itself.
I think that we live in a world where the souls actually put a little distance between themself and themself - just to be safe.
On the eve of Cyclone Yasi while north Queensland was bracing for impact, some people were worried about the price of bananas.
Just like Cyclone Larry a few years back, Yasi flattened Australia's biggest crop.
And you know I'm struggling to keep all of this in perspective too because I'm sick of listening to all the news about disasters - it feels like the dominoes are falling around me and I can't stop the chain reaction.
I don't know if the ancient Greeks were right. They say that you should cultivate the ability to objectively observe the world and your ramblings through the world: i.e. stand outside yourself and watch.
Years ago I did a course called The Centre Within at the Relaxation Centre which talked about examining other points of view when dealing with stressful situations, rather than just reacting to events.
People go on and on and on about the importance of resilience - how do you teach resilience? Researchers build careers on how to build resilience and they are still talking about it.
Well, resilience is the opposite of "churn". Last week I was doing some data entry work - the annual update of an email mailing list of thousands of email addresses.
It was weird to see how people swung between Optus and Telstra.
And how many email accounts people have and how many times they change their email addresses - these are small business doing this and virtually engaging in suicidal behaviour.
I suspect that people may be the only animals on earth who demonstrate this "churn" behaviour - it makes people and businesses vulnerable doesn't it?
Watch any nature documentary and there's a predictability, a continuity of behaviour - unless there's an evolutionary change.
Evolution. The ability to adapt is the key to survival - that's a great theory but exactly how many species are extinct, hey?
Maybe teachers can use Spike TV in the classroom to demonstrate resilience - you get hit from all sides but you have to learn where the obstacles are to avoid them.
I wrote a series of feature articles for the Courier-Mail year ago when they announced the six Queensland Greats - Great Queenslanders who were all high achievers.
I asked all of them one question: What's the secret of success? The answer is resilience.
They said they just kept getting back up when ever life knocked them down - resilience is enduring the put-downs, the bad luck, the prejudice, the loss, the grief, the feeling of being beside yourself.
But to me it's summed up in one word. Steadfast.
That's the motto of Mansfield State High School - it's something that stuck in my heart when I wanted to give up when something I really wanted was just out of reach. Doesn't mean I got it.
And I'm going to make an utterly ridiculous suggestion here but how can we think that animals don't have souls?
If they weren't wired together body and soul then they could not survive - even those silly banana birds stand beside the body of their friend who's squashed on the side of the road.
It was instinct that brought people together en masse in the Great Floods Clean Up - social instinct. What a great collection of souls that was!
Fall down seven times. Stand up eight. _ Japanese proverb.
There's this bloke I met who commutes from the NSW Central Coast to Parramatta five days a week.
He sat on the floor of the train I caught from Sydney to Woy Woy on Friday night at 7.38pm.
I asked him why he travels four hours by train and bus from the Central Coast (where he grew up) to Sydney's western outskirts for a job.
For one, he likes where he lives. For two, he likes his job.
He had 68 people turning up on Monday (that's today) for job training.
He works for a job agency training unemployed people.
And on Sydney's western outskirts you will find at least 71 different nationalities - people from all over the world trying to make a new life in Australia.
He loves the interaction.
This bloke was unemployed for 18 months - it was the worst time of his life. But this agency trained him and also paid for a new set of teeth for him.
So he travels to this job that he loves for four hours every day - he loves his job. He's not concerned about missing a TV program.
******* ******* *******
So there's this other bloke I met this morning on a flight home to Brisbane - he took my bag down from the overhead locker for me just to be nice.
He was on his way to Roma to work as a locum doctor - he's a doctor from Syria. He migrated to Australia five years ago to escape the Middle East havoc.
He flies into Charleville and other little rural towns which need doctors to work for a week and then flies home to Sydney.
The tone in his voice when he spoke of how beautiful his homeland of Syria is told me how much he must miss it.
He had a photo of his son on his iPhone. And he asked me whether I could recommend any Australian books to read in simple English.
He would like to improve his English by reading books by Australians. So I recommended Seven Little Australians by Ethyl Turner and Cloud Street by Tim Winton.
I suspect his reading may be better than a lot of Australian-born people who take no interest in literature apart from Who Magazine or Zoo Weekly.
******* ******* *******
So glad to know it is still possible to have a civil conversation with a stranger in this country - how else do you build understanding?
Nice change from the regular suspects who seem to lurk behind shop counters and office desks who think they are too good to talk to you - maybe they plan to sell their story to Who or Zoo, eh?
******* ******* *******
As the sun went down and the moon came up over the Harvest Feast on Churchill Island the guest of honour was soon to be toasted - only the lamb was roasted on this occasion for 30 hours and it was delicious. David Williamson was the head of the Australian Writers' Guild for 13 years - the longest serving president ever.
I turned on my FlipVideo camera to take a very wobbly picture when it became evident that the award presentation to Australia's most successful playwright was indeed a special celebration - though I know from conversations the following day that quite a few conference goers didn't actually know much about him.
I knew his plays having interviewed him for Dead White Males in his Sydney home and then for Heretic in the Sydney Opera House at a time a David Williamson play meant a box office bonanza and every state theatre company wanted to stage his premieres.
I've taken some comic license with a kind of laugh track commentary here which I hope will not offend anyone. It's only a 2-hour edit on iMovie.
The AWG's current president, Tim Pye, presented him with a trophy.
The inscription on his trophy reads:
David Williamson AO
A luminary of Australian stage and screen and champion of writers.
Australian Writers’ Guild 17 February 2011
David Williamson: