Its a funny things to consider how we can create belief (*) and true understanding about how to engage, combine, perform and thrive as people and athletes. [..]
Each day we challenged ourselves to go deeper and to find new or better ways of performing.
Creating belief is about what you do daily and with out reservation for everything counts towards those peak moments, those events and collective rise to events we dare to dream about.
Daily practice and training build that belief (*) in self and the team. [..]
The rewards came from being up for the challenge and willingness to take risks, be exposed and vulnerable.
Belief (*) came from learning and we rewarded the learning of all involved.
we all start out simply focusing on what we do. Then we either become inspired or imagine and things begin to progress. The days add up along with the months and years. Our focus improves along with our capacities and skills . We advance and things become interestingly possible. Then one day or over a period of days it becomes real. I mean it all starts to hit you that you are living your dream and aspiration has become action. This is a flexion point and a phase of confidently growing and shifting into a belief. Some times it faintly begins to unfold before the big moment and yet no one wants to let themselves get caught up in getting ahead of themselves. So then it's often not until its either to late or almost beyond the moment. The door is welcoming and somehow we can still hesitate. No moment stays open forever and some times they pass with out being taken.
In every [photographer's] genesis (*) there is a point - an image - that we can look back on with the realisation that the photograph taken was a defining moment of internal creative clarity. My first image ...
... was the one above which I wrote about (*) just over three years ago (time does fly). It came from nowhere and was totally unexpected when I looked at it later on my monitor. It was at this point that I realised that photography was not only about capturing memories (*), which I have focused on a bit here lately. I learnt it could be about creating art, or at least creating something to look at and admire from out the ordinary and mundane. I love it and what photography can do a persons self worth and purpose. It has got me though some great times and more importantly some really hard times.
Memories of Jenny - The Time of Your Life (youtube)
As many of you will know, I have another obsession in my life beyond paddling - Photography.
I started out buying a small digital camera for our Dec 2000 trip to the Cook Islands to visit Jenny and Jo's Meditation teacher, Barbara, who had moved there to help setup a refuge for women . We didn’t know a thing about paddling back then.
I had bought the camera hoping I would be able to capture our memories. It was a tiny digital camera by today’s standards, 1 Mega Pixel and it cost $1600 duty free and a 64 MB compact flash memory cost more than $300.
I did not flinch and I thought it was all worth it, as my credit card was swiped at Ted’s Pitt Street Camera Store the day before we flew out. 15 years later I can tell you here that it was one of the best things I ever did.
My motivation for the camera came from that fact that Jenny had 11 tumours in her lungs and I did not really know how long we would have together. In the end we had just over 9 years of married life. Given Jenny’s condition, a miracle really ..
We were married on 30th April of that Sydney Olympic year and we honeymooned on Lord Howe Island for 10 glorious days in May 2000. Jenny had a film camera and she took many photos.
On our return flight to Sydney, I remember a conversation we had at the Departure Terminal with an older couple from Whyalla who congratulated us on our marriage. We had briefly met them at dinner at one of the small restaurants on the Island.
They told us they had been married for many years and the trip to Lord Howe Island was a way of creating another experience in life and expanding their memories. Better than [running a busy business or] sitting at home and watching the Telly, they said.
This conversation and piece of simple worldly wisdom has stuck with me and I remind myself of it constantly. It was my main motivation to buy that small expensive digital camera for our December 2000 trip to the Cook Islands.
I took many photos that trip to Cook Islands, even of the Outrigger Canoes on the shore of Muri Lagoon - we had no idea what they were – who would guess our future.
Shortly after our return, Jenny and Jo found Dragon Boating. And over the ensuing years many experiences and memories were created, dutifully captured by our cameras.
I documented the many dragon boat campaigns here and abroad, and ensuing holidays that followed each event.
In the process of this documenting I came to realise the power of photography, not only its visual power, but its ability to record our experiences and remind us of things we have done and who we were. We were doing selfies before the term was even invented. We called them “Holdouts” and I think this might be the main cause of Jo’s shoulder injury.
In those last few weeks at St George Hospital in Jun 2009, I captured the last moments of our lives together. They are the best I ever made.
After Jenny’s passing, It took me a while to pick up a camera again. I had lost my purpose and will. I was hurting and numb all at once but paddled through for a year or two – it helped a lot to be busy and in the company of friends. New experiences were created and I even smiled [for] a little [while].
Lost in the enormity of what had happened so quickly, though it was not a surprise, I found my first moments of comfort and hope, when I decided to start looking at some of the photos from our lives together. It made me cry, but it also made me smile. I was so happy that I had this archive of bits and bytes to remind me of Jenny, Joanne, myself and who we were.
It was only after Jo told me to organise my photos and my Mum said I should start making photos again, that I started to move forward. I was completely broken but I took up their advice and kept myself busy again, organising and photographing again. I am still broken but I live with it better now, it is part of me and who I will always be, but I am happy, optimistic, naïve and creating more experiences.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that we have to go out there and make our memories through the experiences we create for ourselves.
In our lives we have loss, grief and bereavement. It is a part of living. You make a choice when it knocks on your door. And we have chosen to live in the Afterglow of our loss of Jenny – to remember and honour and be guided and inspired. Accept it and live with it and make the most of it, even let it inspire and motivate you. And that is what Jo and I have done, I would like to think.
“Believe in Hope” as the graffiti’ed wall in Cleveland Street said for a few weeks in July 2015.
Believe in Hope - Cleveland Street / Chippendale (Wed 29 Jul 2015)
Seven year ago today.
We remember Jenny. She (as they all do) lives on through our memories.
Memories of Jenny - The Time of Your Life (youtube)
This is my 2000th post here at eljeiffel.
I always try to write something for the Annual Presentation of the Inspire Award. Most times it is just for me, but sometimes I share it with a few people.
So here it is, unedited from the time it was written on the evening of Fri 27 Aug 2015. I think it is a pretty good way to mark the milestone.
As many will know, I have another obsession in my life - Photography.
I started out buying a small digital camera for our Dec 2000 trip to the Cook Islands to visit Jenny and Jo's Meditation teacher, Barbara, who had moved there to help setup a refuge for women . We didn’t know a thing about paddling back then.
I had bought the camera hoping I would be able to capture our memories. It was a tiny digital camera by today’s standards, 1 Mega Pixel and it cost $1600 duty free and a 64 MB compact flash memory cost more than $300.
I did not flinch and I thought it was all worth it, as my credit card was swiped at Ted’s Camera Store the day before we flew out. 15 years later I can tell you here that it was one of the best things I ever did.
My motivation for the camera came from that fact that Jenny had 11 tumours in her lungs and I did not really know how long we would have together. In the end we had just over 9 years of married life. Given Jenny’s condition, a miracle really ..
We were married on 30th April of that Sydney Olympic year and we honeymooned on Lord Howe Island for 10 glorious days in May 2000. Jenny had a film camera and she took many photos.
On our return flight to Sydney, I remember a conversation we had at the Departure Terminal with an older couple from Whyalla who congratulated us on our marriage. We had briefly met them at dinner at one of the small restaurants on the Island.
They told us they had been married for many years and the trip to Lord Howe Island was a way of creating another experience in life and expanding their memories. Better than [running a busy business or] sitting at home and watching the Telly, they said.
This conversation and piece of simple worldly wisdom has stuck with me and I remind myself of it constantly. It was my main motivation to buy that small expensive digital camera for our December 2000 trip to the Cook Islands.
I took many photos that trip to Cook Islands, even of the Outrigger Canoes in the lagoon at Aitutaka, we had no idea what they were – who would guess our future.
Shortly after our return, Jenny and Jo found Dragon Boating. And over the ensuing years many experiences and memories were created, dutifully captured by our cameras.
I documented the many dragon boat campaigns here and abroad, and ensuing holidays that followed each event.
In the process of this documenting I came to realise the power of photography, not only its visual power, but its ability to record our experiences and remind us of things we have done and who we were. We were doing selfies before the term was even invented. We called them “Holdouts” and I think this might be the main cause of Jo’s shoulder injury.
In those last few weeks at St George Hospital in Jun 2009, I captured the last moments of our lives together. They are the best I ever made.
After Jenny’s passing, It took me a while to pick up a camera again. I had lost my purpose and will. I was hurting and numb all at once but paddled through for a year or two – it helped a lot to be busy and in the company of friends. New experiences were created and I even smiled [for] a little [while].
Lost in the enormity of what had happened so quickly, though it was not a surprise, I found my first moments of comfort and hope, when I decided to start looking at some of the photos from our lives together. It made me cry, but it also made me smile. I was so happy that I had this archive of bits and bytes to remind me of Jenny, Joanne, myself and who we were.
It was only after Jo told me to organise my photos and my Mum said I should start making photos again, that I started to move forward. I was completely broken but I took up their advice and kept myself busy again, organising and photographing again. I am still broken but I live with it better now, it is part of me and who I will always be, but I am happy, optimistic, naïve and creating more experiences.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that we have to go out there and make our memories through the experiences we create for ourselves. And this is what I love about PD’s, we are always out there doing something. This time last year we were in Bologna on our way to Ravena, this year we are heading to Hawaii in the next week and month, next year Adelaide and who knows where after that.
Finally, in our lives we have loss, grief and bereavement. It is a part of living. You make a choice when it knocks on your door. And we have chosen to live in the Afterglow of our loss of Jenny – to remember and honour and be guided and inspired. Accept it and live with it and make the most of it, even let it inspire and motivate you. And that is what Jo and I have done, I would like to think.
“Believe in Hope” as the graffiti’ed wall in Cleveland Street said for a few weeks in July 2015.
Believe in Hope - Cleveland Street / Chippendale (Wed 29 Jul 2015)
With this post it is time to let go of a lot things, including the photos of another time and life. I have shed my life here (and Facebook more recently) like a snake sheds it skin and there is nothing left but to start over again. Time to move on, but it is hard to let go .. but I will.
Trying to make a new start here (arotlt.com) with photos from this point onwards. There will be the occasional post at eljeiffel to mark the odd moment in our lives that are relevant, but for now thanks for coming along for the ride these last, almost, 7 years.
The Eiffel Tower - The first time I saw the Eiffel Tower - Paris (Wed 24 Aug 2005)
Jenny and Geoff - Paris (Thu 25 Aug 2005)
It all started with this little challenge (*) by Seth Godin (*) on the Tue 24 Feb 2009 to celebrate his 3,000th blog post:
if you'd like to celebrate this milestone (there won't be another like it for three years or so) please go ahead and start a blog. If you already have a blog, please go ahead and post something really interesting today.
A few days later I would take up the challenge and I posted my 1st blog post here at eljeiffel (*) titled Getting Started (*). Since I had been blogging (the term had not been developed back then) for the period between 1997 and 2003, I looked to my experiences back then and I started again with a small quote (*) from Gustave Eiffel about essentially function and form.
I won't go on as I think I touched on what I have learnt about myself and life, over the last 4 or so years, in my 1,000th blog post (*) back in Aug 2012. All I will say is that it has been challenging, rewarding and interesting for me, at least, and I am glad I took up Seth's challenge back on Thu 26 Feb 2009. The act of creating, editing and the resulting archive (*), seems to give me some comfort and a way to reflect on who I was, who I am and (maybe an inkling to) who I hope to be.
Geoff - A Small Statue / Sculpture of Gustave Eiffel - He designed the structural skeleton for the Statue of Liberty - Liberty Island / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Live, Work, Create. - Ramercy / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
Knew I photographed this for a reason. It seems to say what might motivate me to post here. Also makes me think of creative people such as Steve Jobs who sadly passed away from pancreatic cancer yesterday.
Like many from his generation (he was about 5.5 yearrs older than me), I have lived through and watched the development, release and have used the products from the very beginning of personal computing.
I now type this on one of his innovations, an iPad sitting on a train on my daily commute - who would ever thought that all those years ago when I was still at school. Well, Steve did and through hard work he motivated a company which was fortunate enough to be the first to convert a dream into a reality for us - the masses.
His passing has touched many, including those who were not hugh fans of the Apple worshipping and hysteria that Steve was so good at creating at product releases and conferences.
It is always sad when someone passes away so young, but this was his destiny, just as Jenny had her own destiny and for all of us for that matter.
I feel some empathy towards Steve's Family and it is all in front of them, though I don't believe that Steve's passing was unexpected. Hopefully, they had their chances to say goodbye (*).
No matter what people thought of him, he was a great innovator, leader, businessman and he was never afraid of taking a risk or failure.
Lots of online tributes have popped all over the web.
Found a commencement speech (*) Steve made back in 2005 (*) at Stanford University. The last few paragraphs are very touching and worth remembering here for me ..
You can tell he has confronted his own mortality.
Maybe this is what I would like to remember from Steve’s Speech ..
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition.
They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.
Steve Jobs, 14 Jun 2005, Stanford Commencement Speech.
I've realised this for a long time and now I have the opportunity to make something of it here at the Glebe Library. Really making some great progress with everything that Seth mentions in his post - The very same software - and I am excited about what I am creating.
A conventional coach focuses first on skills. A relationship-based coach, on the other hand, focuses first on creating a sense of belonging.
A conventional coach asks: what can I do to help them win? A relationship-based coach asks: what can I do to help us nurture connections and create a culture?
A conventional coach views his team through the lens of performance. A relationship-based coach views his team through the lens of family — which, not coincidentally, tends to make the teaching all the more effective.People work hard for a team. They work even harder for a team that truly feels like family.
via The Best Locker-Room Speech Ever, and Why it Works (*) by Daniel Coyle (*).
A great post and it is definitely worth reading. It has helped me understand how well we did in Ravenna and it is the kind of message that will help motivate me to keep paddling at the same level and intensity I have now for 10 years. Both Paul's and Gavin's talks on the last day of racing are examples of this. I will post some more from the post later.
The 3x2m photos always look great in Hyde Park. Each year I take a photo of all the photos in situ. Gradually putting them together in my picasa account and creating a collage with my favourite photo from the year's photos as the background photo - Tamara DeanThe Bride in this case, though I was undecided and put together another collage with Dean Tirkot's - Self Portrait ..
A favourite quote, from the many I've collected here over the years. I like it because it is so true in Art and Photography, but also Paddling and Life.
I am reminded of it every now and then in my own life, through my photography and paddling experiences. And today was one of those days ...
The Sun rose over the City skyline as we did our Thursday morning high intensity session in two, six person outrigger canoes. We do short interval efforts (level 4, level 4+) over repeat efforts of 8, 4, 2 and 1 minute. It's at a pace and intensity that can be maintained for these short time periods which is a bit higher than our race pace intensity (level 3) which we maintain for much longer periods.
We are pushing ourselves at Level 4 and the rhythm in the canoe is often not quite as nice as it would be at level 3 or 2. Our effort and technique is on the edge, on "the verge of failure or breaking down".
As I reflect over a 10 year paddling career, I have found that the best Training Sessions and Races have been the ones where everything is just a little out of control and uncomfortable. It's like a being on a knife edge or the edge of a precipices. It's that boundary between the known and unknown, good and bad, success and failure, and courage and fear (thanks Kayleene).
And ultimately, the fault line between our past and future (thanks for that one
Chantel).
It can be stressful and can feel like a feisty prickly relationship. A disonnance. And often questions and self-doubts rise to the surface.
When you are on the edge, you are pushing yourself to the limit of your abilities and beyond. And, with that comes the risk that you push too far and fail, or you just find that easy comfort zone and also fail through a lost effort and opportunity.
Disappointment may come with the failure, but if you reflect and abstract a learning, then you are more experienced and capable for the next effort. And often, as Trent Parke succinctly notes:
mistakes and accidents usually lead to the best discoveries.
You are learning, broadening your experiences and creating the future opportunity for "successful art", if you keep caring and trying.
I love that feeling of "being on the edge of failure". Instead of fighting it, try to find it and some comfort in the uncomfort, and in the knowledge that this is, as Spencer Lum astutely notes:
where all the good stuff happens
As Jenny said, Give it a try, step outside of your comfort zone. You might be surprised where it can take you ...
Intersection (*) (1 of 5) - Manhattan Bridge - Dumbo / Brooklyn / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
The light was magnificent under the less well known Manhattan Bridge. I stayed here a few minutes and photographed a few people as they passed the framed mural.
A little Googling (*) reveals some details of the Mural titled Intersection:
The mural was designed with site-specific ideas in mind: lines of seven colors meet corrugated vertical bars of the fence behind it. Our concept mimics and bends these lines, creating a colorful graphic symbolizing the constant movement of DUMBO. The design is an abstracted interpretation of intersecting train tracks and the familiar New York City subway map.
The use of vivid colors against the urban backdrop of grays and browns is intended to brighten the landscape and produce a visceral and emotional reaction, while referencing the cross-sections of cultures and people who view it.
From the Wikipedia page Dumbo, Brooklyn (*), Dumbo refers to:
Dumbo, an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is a neighborhood in the New York City, New York, borough of Brooklyn.
It encompasses two sections: one located between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, which connect Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, and another that continues east from the Manhattan Bridge to the Vinegar Hill area.
The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 2.
Jerry Seinfeld once referred to Dumbo on a late-night talk show appearance, joking that it stands for "Down Under Manhattan Bridge," but that New Yorkers arbitrarily added the "O" at the end because they did not want to have a neighborhood called "Dumb."
Learnt about this just now when searching for the name of the large framed Mural on the fence. Learn something everyday.
To do what you like in your work, separate from the buzz. [..]
slow down [..] If you slow down and concentrate on the kinds of images that bring you real joy you'll find a tighter bond with your own work.
Stop looking at all the sharing sites - When you turn off the outside influences and sit quietly with your own thoughts about art and photography you begin to understand the way you like to see and share art. That's valuable. Everything else is unconscious imitation.
Do a project - Consistency of vision and subject are worthwhile goals for all artists. Set yourself to the task of creating a body of consistent work. Choose a subject that you love and explore it in depth. Ignore everything else.
When you choose to do a project have a a goal - Wouldn't it be great if it changed some lives? But no matter where it ends up I will have met interesting people who've taken charge of their own lives and excelled. What fun role models. And the art will be my souvenir of my time spent with them. The prints will be part of the sharing.
Start thinking beyond the screen - [..] When you slow down and do your art try to go through the whole process of bringing an image to life before you rush out the door to fill up more memory cards and hard drives.
Really explore the images in front of you. Edit them down. Make them perfect and then print them large [..] Print them till you love them. And learn from the process of presentation. Learn what you like to see, big. The art becomes both portable and present when you pull it off the screen and onto paper. Be sure to go through the whole process so you understand in your gut what you've really created. It will slow you down [..] and focus it on doing work that makes you smile. You are the first audience.
Finally, forget the online critiques - Find people in your own town, city, region whose work you admire and approach them about forming a sharing circle. Just like a writer's group.
Having a project will move you to take chances. [..] You'll need to discipline yourself to do the [..] And you'll need to learn how to finish.
Having a goal for your work gives it extra meaning.
Sharing the work with live people standing in front of you builds real confidence in the work. Having real critiques is painful but helps engender real growth. Helping real, human, non-virtual friends succeed with their own art is part of a rewarding virtuous circle. Embrace it.
From A few ways to increase your connection to your photography (*) by Kirk Tuck (*) - Thu 23 Feb 2012.
Tim Levinson (*) talks to Bernard Zuel (*) on Empathy (*) and Struggle (*) in creating in song writing:
''Part of who I am is, I think, I can empathise (*),'' he says. ''I used to think it was the most normal thing in the world but I realise it's one of the qualities I've been left with, for better or for worse.
''In songwriting, quite often you either come from a point of view of struggle … whether that be heartbreak or circumstances. That allows you to write with conviction.
''For me, I have often seen little windows of that struggle (*) or that heartbreak and it gives me an access point I don't necessarily fully understand. I look at those little cracks of light that come through as an invitation to look into it more.''
via 'The best music is written with conviction' (*) by Bernard Zuel (*).
Cover - Sydney Looking Forward 2003 - Art and About 2003 (picasa)
Page 10 - Sydney Looking Forward 2003 - Art and About 2003 (picasa)
Sydney Looking Forward (2003)
This large format photographic exhibition, displayed along the central walkway of Hyde Park North, creates an open air gallery against the leafy backdrop of the park.
Twenty six photographic images have been selected from the over six hundred entries, to create an impressive visual experience reflecting on Sydney - its mood, vitality and environment.
After the outstanding response to last year's Sydney Looking Forward exhibition, I am delighted to curate this second exhibition in Hyde Park, which is like a natural gallery amongst the trees.
Once again, the work of both emerging and established photographers sit comfortably alongside each other, creating a vibrant portrait of Sydney as a unique and dynamic place.
Photographers were asked to portray both the physical and cultural makeup of the city in a positive way by selecting images using unusual colour and light. Images were also chosen for their uniqueness and for the way they reflected a contemporary historical moment.
Sandy Edwards, Curator Sydney Looking Forward
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Page 12 and 13 - Sydney Looking Forward 2003 - Art and About 2003 (picasa)
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suppose.jp (*) - page 51 - RETHINK: The Way you Live (*)
Amanda Talbot (*) says in Interview: Amanda Talbot - The Design Files (*):
Matching living trends with good design is no longer just about colour, function and aesthetics.
It is about creating a product, an idea, a space that can enhance our life and help us deal with what obstacles this changing world is throwing at us.
Our houses are no longer simply homes but where we work, study, socialise and shop.
We demand dwellings that celebrate the rituals of domestic life and allow for privacy and change of mood.
via Interview: Amanda Talbot (*). Some interesting thoughts to ponder. Function and form are important elements for me. I also know that one persons function is anothers disfunction - it makes the world interesting and varied.
Daniel Coyle (*) writes on creativity (*) and teamwork (*):
Creativity (*), then, is not about finding one brilliant individual, but rather about creating effective patterns of interaction between a bunch of smart individuals. About arranging the right people in the right way, and letting them get to work with as few barriers and as much focus (*) as possible.
via How to Be More Creative (Step #1: Buy This Pixar Book) (*) by Daniel Coyle (*).
This might be abstracted from the Pixar (*) experience. Same can be said about any team based activity. Thanks for the photo Ali.
The Speaker - Speakers Corner (*) / Hyde Park / London (Sun 18 Aug 2013)
His message did not speak to the throbbing crowd and there was lots of heckling. A stunningly well dressed lady, even threw a small piece of rolled up paper at him. At least no one threw their shoe at him. I felt like I was in a market place somewhere in the Middle East. It was surreal as the sunset creating an amazing backdrop to this vibrant scene. Love tha hands.
The following three quotes are about the past and future, and how we might relate them to each other (if that makes any sense). There is some good advice in all three quotes and I thought that I put them here for future reference, so that they will become part of my past :-). Here they are:
As you pursue your goals in life, that is to say your future, pursue your past. Let it be your guide. Insist on having a past and then you will have a future. Ken Burns - 2004 Commencement Yale Class Day Speech (as pdf)
With the past in mind I thought I would dig into archive.org and drag out something from my past (it might explain the where eljeiffel came from). Here it is:
Today is Indepedence Day in the USA which celebrates the 223rd birthday, being founded on 4 Jul 1776, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This also represents a time of reflection for myself with elj.com (Eiffel Liberty).
It is two years ago since I registered elj.com. The name Eiffel Liberty was easy to come up with. It represented a vision and a hope for Eiffel that somehow it might be liberated from its miserable place in the language landscape (I thought how could such a great contribution, be so categorically and overwhelmingly dismissed by the programming community). Also, Emma Lazarus's words struck a chord with me, particularly
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Just as America provided opportunity for many from other lands, I thought Eiffel could provide the same kind of opportunities for the syntactically and semantically battered from the other language landscapes :-)
Also, the name Eiffel Liberty made what a I thought was a nice connection between two famous landmarks that Gustave Eiffel had contributed to, being the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty"Eiffel undertook the challenge of creating the steel structure because of the enormous challenge it afforded him".
The 4 Jul 1997 was to be the launch date for the Eiffel Liberty Journal. However, I came down with a very bad cold (too many late nights preparing for the initial launch) and I decided to publish the launch issue of the Eiffel Liberty Journal, not from my newly acquired elj.com but from my progsoc web pages (this would remain the case for another six months).
It was fun putting together the first issue as I received cooperation from all I contacted. These included:
Victor Putz who wrote a great article titled Toymakers and tools: Why one game developer is switching to Eiffel. Victor is a game programmer by night and a helicopter pilot/instructor by day. I remember Victor making a special trip (about 30 km each way) to send me the article because of flooding in his area which made his normal internet access impossible. BTW, I have found that Victor shares and articulates (much better than I ever could) my own vision for Eiffel.
Two years on, elj.com has changed from a random journal to a daily random news update covering the Eiffel and related worlds. In many ways elj.com is really just a log of the links and resources I have stumbled across and that I might learn from (or even get a laugh from).
Eiffel certainly enjoys a wider exposure than it did back in 1997. I hope elj.com has helped in a small way. It is hard tell what impact elj.com has had as there is little feedback. However, occasionally I do get a note saying that elj.com helped someone get started with Eiffel, which seems to make it all worthwhile. I guess elj.com could have been much more effective but there is only so much time.
For a number of reasons I renamed Eiffel Liberty to elj.com Extraordinarily Large Jumble in Feb 99 (some of the reasoning behind this was that elj.com was and still is, an Extraordinarily Large Jumble of seemingly random links and more significantly there was little or no Eiffel news). Fortunately, there now appears to be more Eiffel news than I can handle/report manually and I am making efforts to address this through a more automated Eiffel news feed at elj-daily.
elj.com has amassed an incredible amount of links, quotes and resources relating to Eiffel and related worlds. The time has come for elj.com to be able to extract the information from this mass. A keyword/search facility is on the way.
I believe that for [open source] projects to thrive, information needs to readily at hand. I hope the new elj.com that you will see over the coming weeks/months (depends on how much time I get to work on this) will reflect the ability to provide this information efficiently and effectively.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support that Jenny has given me over the last few years. She has had to cope (in more ways than one) with more than anyone should reasonably have to tolerate.
Funny to read this after all these years. Shows how strongly I felt about the Eiffel programming language and method (and still do, but not just as visible). I even chose to start this blog with some posts on Eiffel - not the language, but it's inspiration, the Eiffel Tower and it's creator, Gustave Eiffel.
I had better stop here as I think I might be getting a bit nostalgic. Anyway, hoping all of this might help me find the inspiration to get a future project off the ground.
