Bertrand Meyer on leprechauns:
it is healthy to question revered truthsvia The mythical Brooks law by Bertrand Meyer.
Showing posts with label Canberra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canberra. Show all posts
Thursday, June 1, 2017
leprechauns - Bertrand Meyer (Mon 29 May 2017)
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Life - Tim Winton / Richard Watts (Tue 30 May 2017)
Tim Winton on Life:
Life’s a bit hard to predict.via 'It gets harder': Tim Winton on writing by Richard Watts.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Doing - Dan Coyle / The Unmistakable Creative (Mon 04 Apr 2016)
You don’t get better by listening. You get better by doing.via Unlocking the Talent Code With Dan Coyle by The Unmistakable Creative.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Empathy - Eric Kim (Sun 26 Mar 2017)
To shoot personal street photography is to only photograph what appeals in your heart. To use your street photography as a tool to empathise with your subject. To show your own soul through the photos you shoot of others.via How to Shoot Personal Street Photography by Eric Kim.
Friday, March 24, 2017
Doing it - Addy Osmani (Mon 03 Oct 2017)
Addy Osmani on Doing it:
first do it, then do it right, then do it better.via Comments to How it feels to learn JavaScript in 2016 (Jose Aguinaga) by Addy Osmani.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
On Photography - Past, Present and Future - Joel Meyerowitz (Tue 27 Oct 2015)
Joel Meyerowitz on Photography and the Past, Present and Future :
We can never imagine the work we might make in the future – that’s part of the wonder of all art making – but when we are in the present and can look back, as I can, over 50 years of work, there seems to be a continuous path that unwinds in a way that sometimes seems inevitable.via A Full House by Joel Meyerowitz.
Saturday, October 17, 2015
On Deciding - Lisa Gorman / Annette O’Brien (Fri 16 Oct 2015)
Lisa Gorman on Deciding:
if you worry too much about your decisions, you won’t actually get anything donevia Extraordinary Routines • Lisa Gorman by Annette O’Brien.
Can be seen as a bit of a fence sitter (or a dreamer, as the photo shows me looking skywards), as I can often see (or at least consider) all the sides of a decision. Along with an inherent desire to see everyone happy (a fatal flaw I am trying to correct), it is often tough to make a decision, even when I know what I want or what is best.
Friday, July 3, 2015
On Success - kottke (Thu 02 Jul 2015)
success requires struggle, failure, and a bit of stupidity...or if you want to be nice about it, a beginner's mind
via Letters to your younger self by kottke.
Ever the Beginner in Paddling and Life. Always Learning to Fly. And you would not want it any other way.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
On Humility - Notes to Inspire (Thu 02 Jul 2015)
When we feel humiliated the best reaction is humility.
via Archive: Notes to Inspire by Notes to Inspire.
Good advice for someone who has spent his whole life feeling guilty about being alive, about his good fortune in life, to have felt the things he has felt, to have been to the places he has been, to have seen what he has seen - to have experienced life the way he has and hopes to have. Maybe these thoughts of guilt show a humility that I had not recognised in myself and that I should not feel guilty about that (guilt - it's an endless loop, you see :-)). It just might show a humbleness and a clarity of purpose on a life being well lived.
Not sure where these words came from and again they might appear a little self-indulgent for a so-called humble person. I love it when a few well crafted words, like those above by Notes to Inspire, take you on a small journey to a place you didn't even know a few minutes earlier. Thanks Notes to Inspire, I appreciate your daily emails and Words of Wisdom.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
On Appreciation - Streetshooter (Fri 26 Jun 2015)
Streetshooter on Appreciation:
do what you do for you and be pleased you have the gift of sight and the love of something in your life.
via Streets of Philedephia … A Visual Diary … Page 9 … A Chat with Mother Light by Streetshooter.
In Life as in Photography.
Friday, June 5, 2015
On Despair - I Wrote this for You / Iain S. Thomas (Mon 30 Jul 2012)
Appreciate every moment of happiness and remember it when you despair. Hold them close. And when you are happy, remember the moments of despair and think to yourself, "I told you so."
The First Day On Earth by Iain S. Thomas.
Before Tim did what he did, I'm pretty sure I did not know what Despair meant. When we left Canberra the day after we said Goodbye, we went to the place he decided to leave us. When I took this photo of myself, this is when I finally understood what Despair meant - it's written all across my face. And more importantly, I found out what it felt. A hard way to learn the meaning of a word. This is Life and we take from it what we can to make us stronger and more resilient.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Remembering Tim - Norwood Park Crematorium / Canberra (Fri 11 Mar 2005)
Today, 10 years on, we Remember Tim:
Timothy Francis Eldridge was born on Wednesday 4 December 1963 in Tamworth NSW. He became the third and youngest child of Thomas and Betty. He had an elder sister, Lynn, spelt with two n's not one as Tim persisted throughout his whole life). Lynn was two years older than Tim. Myself, Geoff being 3 years older was the eldest. His father was an electrical engineer with the Electricity Commision of NSW. The Regional Centre was based in Tamworth and from this office the electricity transmission system in northern NSW grew. The nature of his Father's work often required nights away from home. We all looked forward to Dad's return on Friday Night with a bag of mixed lollies for all.Lynn and I found as oursleves at school and this gave Tim two years at home with Mum by himself. Mum tells me now that he spent this time playing with the kids across the road. Even at this early age Tim was making friends. I seem to recall also that Tim managed to get a 1/2 day of pre-school (a first in the family). I always felt that this small period with other new kids gave Tim a nice head start when he commenced his schooling at South Tamworth Primary. He was well adjusted for the rigours of school, made friends easily (he was always going to birthday parties) and was a natural at anything he put his mind to.
He started in the top class in Kindy and there he stayed each year through his primary school days (and subsequent educational endeavours). Tim was a also a natural athlete and started playing rugby league at he age of eight, moving quickly onto soccer and then finally hockey (all in one year .. maybe this was a sign of things to come). He played representative hockey for Tamworth at the state champships every June Long Weekend. I even recall him playing under 12 hockey at Lismore when he was only 9. He was a prodigy even then. He also represented the North Western NSW primary school team in Murwullumbah where his team came back as state champions. Another little publicised sporting achievement was middle distance running and I remember him running a low 2 minute 800 meters at the Tamworth Primary Schools Athletic Carnival. A record that was not broken for many years.
The year Tim finished his primary school saw the Eldridge family move from Tamworth to Wagga for Dad's work. This was a tough time for everyone but we all adapted to new environs and our new high school in Wagga called Kooringal High. It was a new school and much smaller than the high school Lynn and I left in Tamworth. Probably 1/4 the size in students and was so new that it did not even have a sixth form in our first year there. Tim as always fitted in very quickily and he found new friends almost instantly. Many of whom are here today.
By the time Tim reached Wagga he had found the game of golf and before long he was swinging a set of clubs out at the Wagga Country Club, across the lake from where we lived. Here he spent many hours fine tuning his tee shots, fairway shots, chips and putts (or spits as his young nephew would subsequently refer, many years later). Golf was to become a life long passion and this was something which always stayed with him. It was only his 94 year old grandfather who thought something was wrong four weeks ago when he percieved Tim had lost interest in his Golf.
Tim breezed through high school and obtained excellent grades with little effort. In his final year he was nominated as perfect (whooops I meant "a prefect") and was voted school vice captain by his peers. For his HSC he studied a couple of hours each night on the floor in front of the TV. To recover from this strenous study regime, he would spend the next day playing 36 holes of golf.
With his HSC behind him Tim entered the University of Sydney and worked his way towards a Civil Engineering degree over a four year period. The first two years of his course, Tim lived at Wesley College, a residential college on the grounds of Sydney University. Here, Tim, along with some of high school buddies quickily adapted to the demanding University life style. Days at the beach, missing lectures, drinking beer, etc. He found new friends quickily and again many are here today. The nucleaus of this group were quickily dubbed the "DAMAGE BOYS" because of the drinking reputation at College Victory Dinners, formals and other ramdon gatherings.
Mid way through his second year, Tim's father Thomas passed away suddenly at the early age of 47 after a sunday afternoon hockey match. It was my job to tell Tim the news that Sunday night. I now remember his numb response to my news. "Where has he gone?" he asked. His fathers death at such a young age for all of us was a defining moment in Tim's life (probably the most defining moment up until last Saturday). It was a difficult time for Tim and the Family. Initially he seemed to cope well, but the next year saw Tim arrive home to Wagga unannounced many times during the university terms. I guess the one lesson (or theory actually I would call it a LAW) Tim would give us today from all this would be to grieve properly, seek support from Family, Friends and professionals and to address the difficult issues these tramatic events have on the fragile human soul.
Anyway, back to Uni, Tim bravely persisted and graduated with honours at the end of 1985. His brief but eventful civil engineering career started with a small but prestigous Civil Engineering Consultating companycalled Wargon, Chapman and Partners. Mr Wargon, a famous Amercican civil engineer appeared to take Tim under his wing and Tim quickily found himself designing car parks, and tall buildings. As well as doing one-off type jobs such as a structural integrity report of the Channel 9 Transmitter Antenna at the Channel 9 Compound, and preliminary designs for the now Sydney Harbour Tunnel.
Tim quickily realised that Civil Engineering was not for him (however a recent rush of activity with home decks shows there was some latent interest in at least some things civil). On the fifth redesign for an Alan Bond tower on the old Waltons site across from the Sydney Town Hall, Tim decided to move on. This gave him the chance to travel for 3 months overseas which took him to many places in Europe, England, particularly London and even India (if I recall correctly).
London was a place to which Tim would return frequently over the rest of his life, the last being July/August last year. The drawcards to London were friends and another life passion I have not yet mentioned, English Football. His favourite team during his schools days was Queens Park Rangers. Though his interested waned when their goalie Phil Parkes defected to my team West Ham in 1977 for a then world record sum of 565,000 pounds. Subsequent years and more recently Tim has been an Arsenal supporter.
On his return in the late 80's Tim persued his ambition for a new career. In this pursuit he found himself in Canberra studying part-time for a degree in Information Systems at the then Canberra College of Advanced Education and working part-time for small scientific software consulting firms. One system I remember was a flight simiulator program driven by data from aircraft black-box recorders.
On graduation from the CCAE Tim started work at Customs and then Department of Veterans Affairs for a record three years. Towards the end of this stint in DVA, Tim bought his house in Griffith, just up from Marnucka. He lived in the house briefly before deciding that a six month stint in Los Angles working on a Telon Related Inventory system was the go. On his return he decided to work in Sydney and here he had stints at NRMA and Westpac. Weekends saw Tim travelling back to his home in Canberra to catch up with friends and to play golf amongst other things. This became too tiring and before long he was back in Canberra fulltime working at the Australian Tax Office and subsequently Customs. His crowning software achievement was an ATO case-actioning tool which I believed was to be a distillation of systems and processes from the many places he had worked.
More recently, Tim returned to DVA where he ventured into web-based systems using packages such as Websphere and Tomcat.
Wherever Tim worked, he took the roles on seriously. He appeared to very much love a process and a set of rules to capture and implement. He believed rules were meant not to be broken (contrary to the majority of the population) and I always thought that he was perfect fit for the ATO. [He had a great sense of what was right and doing it right].
Another constant in Tim's life were his friends and I will always remember his 40th birthday speech where he said the party was not to celebrate his 40th, but more importantly, a chance for his family and friends to get together.
There is so much more to be said. We all have our memories of Tim and I ask you for just one moment to reflect on the good times you had with him ... and to take this forward with you through the tough times ahead.
It is now time to say goodbye to a loving son, brother, grandson, nephew, uncle, friend and colleague. We now know that Tim struggled with a delibertating and destructive illness which he held undercover for many years. I ask you to take the time to consider the strength he showed under this enormous pressure and to admire him for how he lived a relatively normal and happy life, shared with friends and family.
In the end Tim ran out "Puff" as he said and found peace from his illness the only way he knew how. Please forgive him. He asked for this.
Tim, you asked me where Dad had gone. We know that you searched for him high and low. We also now know that you have found him. The search and struggle is complete and that you have found your peace.
You will always have a special place in our hearts and memories. We will miss you.
Love .. Mum, Lynn and Geoff ..
Saturday, May 18, 2013
On Expectation and Hope - Baz Luhrmann - Good Weekend / SMH (Sat 11 May 2013))
Baz Luhrmann (*) on Expectation (*) and Hope (*):
I have no expectations (*).Only hopes (*).It was a titanic effort from fearless Baz, says DiCaprio (*) by Gary Maddox (*).
Random recollection. Baz's Mother, Barbara and her Husband, Ross, were our dancing instructors around the time following Strictly Ballroom (*). We did it for a few years and we seemed to stop shortly after Jenny was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 1996.
Jenny and I decided that we should give the Bridal Waltz, at our Wedding (*), our best effort and we engaged Barbara and Ross to choreography our waltz, and to give us a few lessons to learn and master our steps. It all went marvelously well on the big day and we surprised ourselves, along with all our Family and Friends.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Flowers - Manuka / Canberra (Nov 2002)
Some flower photos from Tim's backyard garden. The light was soft and even, and the mighty IXUS did another great job. The bokeh in macro mode is very nice for such a small and early generation digital camera. A few more photos follow ..
Thursday, December 27, 2012
2013 Auroras Senior B Selection Squad - Lotus Bay / Canberra (Fri 21 Dec - Sun 23 Dec 2012)
Note to self. A personal guide for the Campaign and beyond ..
A few photos and words from my heart following the 2013 Auroras Senior B Selection Camp in Canberra from 21-23 Dec 2012.
Congratulations to all that put themselves forward for selection for the 2013 Auroras Senior B Dragon Boat Squad which will participate at the World Dragon Boat Championships in Szeged, Hungary in late July 2013.
Putting yourself up for selection and having dreams, hopes and goals is always a risky business as they can all be dashed in a moment.
For those whose journey for this campaign ended at the selection camp, you have my admiration and respect. My heart goes out to you, but I also know that there are future opportunities and with a plan, determination and perseverance you can achieve everything you want out of paddling and life. We have a number of role models in this regard and I encourage you to follow their lead. The camp will have given you perspective and a path forward to realising all your dreams and goals. It's a decision you make and it is all in your hands.
For those successful in selection, I congratulate you and I feel your elation in the trust the coaches have given us to represent Australia as the 2013 Auroras Senior B World Championship Dragon Boat Squad.
I thank those from the 2011 Auroras Squad (*) who have come back to give it another go. Your experience will be invaluable as we all learnt so much about ourselves, the importance of teamwork and what it is to compete on the world stage against the best the world has to offer.
The competition is intense and goals are achieved through your commitment to the training programme; trust in yourself, your team mates, managers and coaches.
Having done a few campaigns now, my advice is to savior every moment of the campaign. There can be feelings of elation, disappointment and every emotion in between. That is the nature of paddling at this level and I have learnt it is how we handle and respond to these emotions, that will mould who we are and who we will become. You have to an awareness of yourself and those around you - to be emotionally strong not only for yourself, but more importantly for the team, since our sport is the true essence of team work.
There are few words that stick in my mind from all my experiences in paddling and life. They are Trust, Belief and Risk.
Trust - Trust yourselves, your team mates, your managers and coaches. Remember the first time you stood in dragon boat in the standup paddle drill at the selection camp. Serge and Blair would not have asked us to do this if they thought we could not do it. They trusted us, as we trusted them. I saw no hesitation from either side. This is the kind of trust we need to find, particularly when we are uncertain. We just need to go with it and it will happen.
Belief (*) - You have to believe in yourself, and your supporters in paddling and in life. Most importantly you have to believe in the campaign, the process, your team mates, managers and coaches. I find this quote (*) gives me perspective, understanding and strength:
If you believe, you are stronger and the light will shine on you.Risk - by getting to this point, we have all proved we are not averse to taking a risk or two. At this level, the stakes and emotions are heightened. There are risks all round as we step into the unknown to compete against the best in the world. We have control of many things and this is our focus, but there are others things which we don't, for as you see, I have learnt there is an underlying randomness to it all. This is where adaptability comes in, as we respond in a measured and considered way to the random events that are tossed our way and that which we may confront. Take nothing for granted, success is not attained easily. Often, time and persistence is required.
Finally, be prepared to let go of everything you know and to start from zero (*). It would take me a long time to learn this one and it only came to me in Busan (*) at the 2012 Asian Dragon Boat Championships in Sep 2012. Ask Paul Langley as we learnt this together in the Mixed 10's (*). I became the paddler and person I always wanted to be on that hot sunny day in Busan.
We have an amazing blend of enthusiasm, hardened experience and raw newness at this level. Focus on what you can control, trust and believe and the rest will look after itself. I feel privileged to share this experience with you and look forward to what lays ahead.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Happy Birthday Tim - Manuka / Canberra (Sat 29 Nov 2003)
It was a few days early - his Birthday was the 4 Dec - and all his Family and Friends gathered to celebrate his 40th. Bumped into Michael (he is leaning against the post with the camera) Sunday week ago and I have a photo for here shortly.
Grace and Jenny - Manuka / Canberra (Fri 28 Dec 2003)
Grace and Jenny prepare Tim's 40th Birthday Cake.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Red - Captain Cook Cres / Manuka / Canberra (Sat 05 Jan 2002)
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Ninita - Canberra (Sun 11 Jan 2004)
The colours seem to work here - one of my favourite photos. The little IXUS 100 had a great colour palette. The modern cameras have many more pixels but they just don't seem to do what the IXUS could with colour rendition.
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