Monday Morning “Impediment to Productivity” – 20071217

Hi,

This will be the last Monday Morning “Impediment to Productivity” for 2007. We will return in the New Year probably around the 7th or the 14th. The year has really flown past.

Seeing as how this is the season for really crass commercialism I have decided to join in with a few “Last Minute Gift Ideas”.

First up, lets consider stuff. We all have tons of stuff, and if this Christmas runs true to form we are all about to get tons of new stuff. (Jools could use a new MX5 if you have one lying around)

One of my clients, the International Women’s Development Agency is promoting a great idea for you last minute shoppers (note how I casually implied that I am not a last minute shopper myself… I can see some of you rolling on the floor laughing as I type this).

The idea is that you give them some money, they give some women in a developing country stuff and you get to nominate the friend who doesn’t get the stuff but gets the warm feeling of having done good without actually doing anything. It’s like “Blame” in reverse.

Seriously though, I have worked with these people for about six years now. They are a non-profit organisation and they do make a difference for women and their communities in Asia and the Pacific.

Here is an example, $45 purchases stationery for 20 women in remote rural villages in East Timor to participate in literacy and numeracy classes. You receive an email card to send to the recipient of your gift. Low carbon foot print, the planet wins, the women win and believe it or not you win. (face it $45 wont even buy a decent Single Malt)

Confused? Go to http://iwda.com.au/catalogue and IWDA will explain it in English (rather than the gibberish I type)

OK. So you actually want to give stuff, no problem. How about music? (c’mon you knew I was going to get music in here somewhere). I have two recommendations here.

First up lets go with music with words and stuff. My Friend Ian (vilified in the odd previous post) has an album that is magic. (Disclosure: I have a credit on the album as “Devils Advocate” which means I made respectful suggestions about the mixes and stuff. My marac solo was on a track that ended up on the cutting room floor, “a marac?” I hear you ask. The budget was so tight that Ian couldn’t afford a pair of maracas. I digress). The album is called “Drifter” and you can check it out at http://www.ianbland.com.au/ or his MySpace site.
If you are in Melbourne (or Australia) and are quick, Ian can get a copy to you before Christmas.

Next let’s consider a pressie for yourself, everyone knows that Christmas is the most stressful time of year. So why not pickup a CD of relaxing music to help you through the season. I have mentioned Bill Canty before (we agreed that we weren’t going to call him My Friend Bill. it was just silly). Bill has a ripper of a CD called “Elysian Peace”, that is perfect for this purpose. As an aside he recently uploaded two takes of a new idea he is working on. The first is the idea with no tarting up, just played.

The second is after he has lavished his usual care and attention on it.

I find the way his music grows and develops truly amazing.

Anyway back to the commercial realities… er Christmas suggestions. Head over to http://billcanty.com/html/elysian.htm and have a listen to “Elysian Peace”, you know you are going to need it. Again if you are in Melbourne and quick, Bill can get a copy to you before Christmas.

Now back to some more Non Stuff bits. These people won’t send you a card but they can use our support.

Creative Commons is an organisation that provides free tools that let musicians, authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”

They are a a nonprofits organization and like all free organisations need some bucks to keep going. Got http://creativecommons.org/ and have a read of where they are coming from.

Last of the Non Stuff bits.
SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is the name for a number of organized efforts to detect Extraterrestrial life. The general approach of SETI projects is to survey the sky to detect the existence of transmissions from a civilization on a distant planet, an approach widely endorsed by the scientific community as hard science. There are a whole bunch of hassles in searching across the sky for a first transmission that could be characterized as intelligent, imagine trying to tune in 3RRR if the tuning dial was about a mile long and you didn’t know where they were on the dial. Now scale it up to looking for 3RRR by pointing an aerial at just the right place in the sky at just the right time.

Tricky huh?

They could use some money as the US government pulled their funding in 1994. Head over to http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_donate.php
And consider slipping them a few bucks.
Remember if SETI goes under how will the aliens find us?
No More Crop Circles. It’s your call.

Duggup will be taking a short break of about a week and hopefully getting a facelift for Christmas, it should be back about the 2nd or 3rd of January(ish).

So there you have a few ideas for Christmas. Thanks for reading, have a good silly season and make sure you are careful out there. Remember Single Malts and moving anywhere don’t mix.

Have a good one

thatch

{Currently listening to Acoustic Alchemy and Al DiMeola}
{Currently reading: Still working through Raymond Feist oldies, I think I’m a masochist.}
{Quick Status Check: Hell! It’s Christmas next week.}
{Crop Circle Status: It’s over for another year.
“Bother” said a rather grumpy bear.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2007/2007.html }