Carols In The Park seemed to go quite well, with plenty of entertainment and a spot of good weather (although it did rain here in Reid, which isn’t far from Norwood Park). 2CC ran a simulcast of the event, with a Mike Frame outside broadcast thrown in. 2CC gave listeners the chance to ring in and wish people a merry christmas, I thought they would be run off their feet with callers, but they weren’t, and half an hour into the broadcast I became the first caller. I wished Cheryl (A nurse who lives near me and listens to 2CC) a merry christmas, to which Mike Frame announced that he has a sister named Cheryl who is a nurse, unfortunately we didn’t have time to work out if it was the same person or not.
The carols went well, 2CC took ad breaks during carol breaks, and continued to run the news on the hour. The thing that had me concerned was their plan at 9:30 when the carols were due to end, obviously they couldn’t return to Sydney programming and mess up the advertising schedule, so what to do?
9:30 came around and Mike Frame announced that they would play christmas requests until 10pm, he said goodnight, and somehow, with a combination of requested music, promos and generic ads the staff in the Mitchell studios managed to time out for the 10PM news perfectly. Well done!
Apparently Norwood Park plan on doing it all again next year, the only thing I can advise is that they schedule it for a night when free-to-air television isn’t running a different carols ceremony, as Channel 7’s screening of “Carols In The Domain” may have cost Norwood Park a few people.
Overall the event went well, and everyone at 2CC did an excellent job, hopefully the Aurora coverage went just as well. I might just take this opportunity to wish the couple who got engaged just after 6PM at Norwood Park all the best for their wedding and the future.
Carols In The Park has gotten off to a good start at Norwood Park, with the 2CC broadcast going well as well. If you want to send a Christmas message to anyone, ring 2CC on 62554444 and you will probably have the opportunity to do so, depending on timing of events and how many other calls they get.
Glenn Wheeler has just announced that he will be on-air on the afternoon of Sunday, December 25. Does this mean that 2UE will maintain a mostly normal schedule on Christmas day? If so, 2CC listeners might just get to hear George and Paul on Christmas morning…I can’t think of a better way to start Christmas! George and Paul would certainly bring a large element of fun to Christmas with their unique and zany style of presentation.
I will probably ring 2UE during the week to find out what they have in store for Christmas.
Carols In The Park is on tonight here in Canberra, from about 6PM. The venue is Norwood Park in Gungahlin, entry is free and all proceeds from sales go to charity. For those of you who can’t make it, there will be coverage on Radio 2CC and Foxtel’s Aurora channel.
Mike Frame will be running 2CC’s broadcast, and if you look carefully, you might spot some other 2CC staff in the crowd.
You can find the official guide in this week’s Chronicle, it includes the words to many christmas carols, which will (hopefully) keep the audience on the same words as each other, even if they aren’t in tune! But it is christmas, so it hardly matters if we are in tune.
UPDATE: TURNIP ALERT: Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope will be in attendance and will run the official opening, hopefully he will avoid his trademark political grandstanding and let everyone enjoy their night. Remember Jon, Aurora (Foxtel’s Christian Channel) are replaying this twice on Christmas Day, think about appropriate publicity before you speak, you will have plenty of other, and more appropriate, times for your political views.
As 2CC listeners would know, Mike Jeffreys is now on holidays for four weeks, he will return on Monday, January 9 if all goes to plan.
At this stage I am led to believe that Mike Welsh will fill in for Mike Jeffreys on the breakfast show in the coming week, and Mike Frame will fill in for Mike Welsh on the drive show. Mike Welsh is taking the week off between Christmas and New Year, I have no idea what will happen during that week or the weeks after, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear the voices of Mike Frame, Kevin Woolfe and Leigh Zaghet running various shows.
This morning a number of people rang in to wish Mike Jeffreys a merry christmas and a happy new year, I was going to, but only had 80 cents of mobile credit, and left a message for him instead (Thankyou to Kim for passing that on).
Sometimes it is hard to decide which word is appropriate for a particular circumstance, and today I found myself debating one such occurrence. You see, today I was deemed to be overqualified for my job, which upset me quite considerably, and saw me break down in tears, which is probably quite understandable considering that it came as a complete surprise. After a while (and after clearing out my desk), I left and had a coffee, which certainly helped to settle me a bit, I won’t say it cheered me up, because there really wasn’t much to be all that cheery about, but it did make me feel better.
While I was having this coffee, the radio, which is vaguely audible from where I was sitting, started to play a familiar song, which has in some ways become the song by which this day will be remembered. The song was a Rod Stewart song, namely “Sailing”. The reason I recognised this is that The Cuckoo’s Nest performed an adaption of it called “We Are Whaling”, this was a satirical view of Japan’s continued whaling in and around Australian waters. Of course, I also know the Rod Stewart song, but the tune sticks out clearly thanks to The Cuckoo’s Nest. Incidentally, John Kerr (or was it Stuart Bocking?) played Sailing in the last week.
Also while I was having my drink, I started to think about how I would describe my overqualified end of employment, was I sacked or retrenched or fired, or something else all together? The official term was “terminated”, but that is a fairly neutral word, which didn’t really express the circumstances. Sacked could work, but that is generally used for an employer’s dissatisfaction with an employee or a downsizing of the workforce, whilst that could apply, it didn’t sound right. Fired is very much a negative punishment word, and seeing as I wasn’t reprimanded or told that I had done something wrong, that certainly doesn’t fit. Retrenched is also not relevant as the job hasn’t disappeared (to the best of my knowledge). I did ponder this for a while, but didn’t really reach a conclusion.
Afterwards I went to Woden and met my bus driver friend, who I had lunch with, and spent most of the afternoon with. This was a great help, as it helped me take my mind off things, and cheered me up considerably.
This evening I went about searching for the Rod Stewart song I had heard later in the day, as I wasn’t sure of its name. Upon finding it I played it, which made me burst out in tears again. It isn’t the song which is sad, but the memories which are now associated with it. I have now discovered just how hard it is to officially leave something which seemed to be going well, and people who were very nice.
I am now likely to take a break until the new year, when I will start looking for a job again, hopefully this time I won’t be “overqualified”.
I seem to be having difficulty ending this post, so I’m going to let Rod Stewart do it, here is Rod Stewart with Sailing, the honourary song of the day.
I am sailing, I am sailing,
Home again ’cross the sea.
I am sailing, stormy waters,
To be near you, to be free.
I am flying, I am flying,
Like a bird ’cross the sky.
I am flying, passing high clouds,
To be with you, to be free.
Can you hear me, can you hear me
Thro’ the dark night, far away,
I am dying, forever crying,
To be with you, who can say.
Can you hear me, can you hear me,
Thro’ the dark night far away.
I am dying, forever crying,
To be with you, who can say.
We are sailing, we are sailing,
Home again ’cross the sea.
We are sailing stormy waters,
To be near you, to be free.
Oh lord, to be near you, to be free.
Oh my lord, to be near you, to be free.
Oh lord, to be near you, to be free.
Oh lord.
You may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in the last couple days, this was due to my year 12 graduation ceremony taking up my time.
Yesterday (Wednesday) at 10am the rehearsal for the graduation took place, this mainly consisted of working out where everyone would sit, and what the order of events would be on the night, surprisingly this took nearly an hour, after which I decided to have morning tea at a nearby cafe, the Calypso Coffee Lounge, the same cafe that I attended a few times during Linux.conf.au 2005. The staff remembered me, and I had a cappuccino and a fruit mince pie, before heading back to work. Whilst I was having my coffee, I could see the Linux.conf.au 2005 venue, and it brought back a lot of memories.
Anyway, when 5pm rolled around, I left work for the graduation ceremony at Llwellyn Hall, unfortunately the person operating the camera did not use the zoom, and the camera focused on an audience member’s head, which made me blurry and distant. I am on stage in the group of six people. If you count from the left, I am person number three. The lady further over to the left wearing yellow is College principal Sue Northmore, who was handing out the year 12 certificate folders and yearbooks. (UPDATE: Apparently Sue was not handing out the yearbooks, apparently it is something which I imagined whilst tired and writing this post.)
The ceremony went on for a while and was quite enjoyable, the college staff certainly worked very hard to make this a memorable and well run event. Afterwards, two photos of myself holding the folder and yearbook were taken in front of the building adjacent to Llewellyn Hall.
I have also managed to get some photos of the various items handed out, here you can see the program guide, the yearbook, and the certificate folder.
Next up we have photos of the certificates from the certificate folder:
Top Row: Year 12 Certificate, Certificate 2 in Information Technology (Applications), Certificate Folder, Certificate 2 in Information Technology, Certificate 1 in Information Technology.
Bottom Row: Certificate 2 in Information Technology (gained via apprencticeship), Certificate of Attainment of various aspects of Certificate 2 in Business, Certificate of Appreciation for work during Dickson College Open Night of 2005, Statement of Attainment of various aspects of Certificate 3 in Information Technology, Certificate of High Achievement in General Mathematics.
I was personally surprised by receiving two Cert 2’s In IT, it reminded me of a scene in Fawlty Towers where Basil Fawlty is assisting a couple of doctors who are checking into the hotel and he gets the impression that one of them is two doctors
Basil: How do you do doctor. Very nice to have you with us, doctor.
Dr (Mr) Abbott: Thank You.
Basil: And Mrs Abbott, how do you do.
Dr (Mr) Abbott: Dr Abbott, actually.
Basil: …I’m sorry?
Dr (Mr) Abbott: Doctor Abbott.
Dr (Mrs) Abbott: Two doctors.
Basil: (to Mr Abbott) You’re two doctors?
Dr (Mrs) Abbott: Yes.
Basil: Well, how did you become two doctors? That’s most unusual…I mean, did you take the exams twice, or…?
Dr (Mr) Abbott: No, my wife’s a doctor…
Dr (Mrs) Abbott: …I’m a doctor.
Basil: You’re a doctor too! So you’re three doctors.
Dr (Mr) Abbott: No, I’m a doctor. My wife’s another doctor.
And finally, the photo of Dickson College’s Year 12 of 2005, as seen on the inside cover page of the yearbook. You may recall that I wrote an article about the photo shoot a few weeks back.
Really, it doesn’t bother me whether or not people nominate me, nor does it really bother me if I happen to be a winner, as I really didn’t know about these awards until I was notified by a correspondent that I had been nominated. Certainly I have heard of these awards before, but only briefly, and I would have been happily oblivious to them if said correspondent hadn’t told me about them.
None the less, to those who have nominated me, thankyou, I appreciate your nomination, and regardless of what happens, it should be interesting.
For the second morning in a row, John Kerr’s show was flooded with people calling about the Sydney riots this morning. Despite the fact that he cut out most of the usual segments of his show, it still took a very long time to get through all of the callers, with most waiting on hold for about 90 minutes. I was one of the people who waited for 90 minutes, calling at 12:03 and finally talking with John just after 1:30. Anastasia sounded somewhat snowed under, which is quite understandable considering the work she must have been doing.
I think this proves that people are really quite concerned about these riots, you would have to be pretty concerned to be willing to wait on hold for 90 minutes or more in the wee hours of the morning.
There was one suggestion which seemed fairly clever in my mind, involve fire trucks and the counter terrorism people. It would take some coordination, but blasting the offenders with a powerful burst of water and then having the counter terrorism people forcing them to surrender would certainly be helpful. Of course, coordinated road spike attacks would also be good, when the powers that be know that the rioters are in a particular area they could set up barriers of road spikes, it might catch a few innocent people, but it would certainly prevent the rioters from driving away to another trouble spot.
There are plenty of good ideas (and some bad ones) floating about as to how to deal with the situation, and really, the sooner it is dealt with the better. Hopefully the talks between the opposing sides today have helped to some extent.
Generally, Gmail does a very good job of spam filtering, but one did slip through to the inbox tonight, and it is truly the most ill concieved piece of nonsense I have ever recieved.
Firstly, allow me to quote the email which was sent to me (and probably thousands of others).
Subject: Get Back To Me!
I strongly regret any inconvenience the receipt of this letter may cause you, bearing in mind the nature of it’s content coming from a person without any referral.
I am the head of the account department of a Private Bank in the Netherlands and I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you.
This involves my client,Late Van Nguyen, the 25-year-old drug trafficker from Melbourne,who was hanged in Changi Prison,Singapore on the 2nd of December, 2005. He had an investment placed under my bank’s management two years ago.
With the very strong clause on his bank account form in which a next of kin/beneficiary to his funds was not stated,it has become imperative that I present a next of kin/beneficiary to his time deposit being his account officer.
The need for an assistance becomes crucial, as a next of kin to the depositor is earnestly sought for.
I have a foolproof,legal and totally risk free means through which the fund can be released to you within a very short time after due documentation and authentication process.
The strategy is to use my position and influence as the Head of the branch and Personal Account office of the deceased to present you as a next of Kin and beneficiary to the Late Van Nguyen.
I want to assure you that I have concluded all local modalities for the successful completion of this within 10 banking days.
You should contact me on:
Tel: +31 647 146 661
email: russell8davies@netscape.net
I expect your urgent response and if in the affirmative, I shall advice you on what we need to do.
Best regards,
Russell Davies.
Normally I would not reply to spam, but on this occasion, I just had to, here is what I sent.
You my friend, are quite clearly an idiot. If you had paid ANY attention to the weeks of media attention that Van Nguyen got, you would know that he has a mother who is still alive. I get plenty of your type of scam in my email (although yours is the first to find my inbox and not the spam folder for a while), and of the few I read, yours has to be the worst thought out scam yet. Anybody who paid any attention to the Van Nguyen media coverage (it was pretty much inescapable) would know that his next of kin are alive.
Why don’t you, and the rest of your scam writing friends, go an hit yourselves over the head with large rocks.
As the Australian audience (and probably some of the international audience) are probably aware, a lot of rioting has gone on in Sydney over the last 24 hours or so, with more expected.
Plenty has already been said about these riots, including the prime minister trying to down play the racial vilification which formed part of these riots. Race and religion were undoubtedly the main reasons for these riots, but there would have been an element which would have said “Oh goody, a riot, yay”. It is hard to decide which side is worse, I suppose the bottom line is that they are all utter loonies.
The really big downside of this is that our police have to deal with it, certainly it is their job to do such things, but the people who make up our police forces decided to go into that line of work of their own free will, in an effort to help uphold the fabric of our society. Sometimes I get the distinct impression that people don’t value our police enough, so here is what I urge every good law abiding person to do:
When you see the police, give them a wave or a smile, and say hello, make them feel welcome and appreciated. Simple things like this will help the police to feel that people appreciate what they are doing, and that it is worthwhile. If we didn’t have the police, our society would be in chaos, we owe these brave men and women an awful lot, and they really deserve our support.
As for those loonies who think that abusing everyone and everything is such a great idea, just go away, we don’t need or want you here.
I understand that people aren’t going to get along with each other all the time, but these riots were completely uncalled for, and were truly reprehensible, the people involved should be ashamed of themselves.
To our many police men and women, keep up the good work, the law abiding people of this country really do appreciate all the brave hard work you do.
We are going to do this slightly differently for the next few weeks. Instead of giving the award to one artist or group, it will be an open award for everyone who has sung the feature christmas song.
This week’s award goes to everyone who has sung Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree
at the Christmas party hop.
Mistletoe hung where you can see
ev’ry couple tries to stop.
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree,
let the Christmas spirit ring.
Latter we’ll have some pumpkin pie
and we’ll do some caroling.
You will get a sentimental feeling
when you hear voices singing
“Let’s be jolly,
Deck the halls with boughs of holly.”
Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree.
Have a happy holiday.
Ev’ryone dancing merrily
in the new old fashioned way.
I had a rather odd dream last night where I was teaching people how to use a shower curtain, but not just any curtain, the shower curtain in the hotel room I was in during the tree saga last week.
I remember that I was teaching two people how to use the curtain, firstly how to pull and push the curtain, and secondly how to make sure it stayed within the bath so as to avoid wetting the floor.
