One Geek

Lay down your treasure
Lay down now brother
You don’t have time
For a jealous lover
As you enter this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart

U2

Rationality is overated.

Hmm.. Maybe I should reconsider that title. But it’s making me laugh, and reminds me of some of the humor in season 7. Today we watched the first 15 of 22 episodes of Buffy Season 7 at Lesley’s.

It was good. I’m feeling a bit tired now though. I am also left with some serious contemplative thoughts from my walk home:

Love covers a multitude of sins.

For some reason this quote really appeals to me and seems to be very true.

Mercy is important. But what about pity?

I do think that being merciful is important, and that the bible is pretty clear on it. I’d be pretty damn messed up without it.

I’m trying to decide if pity is a good thing or whether it is always just condeceding. Is pity just the co-out for those unwilling/unable to feel genuine compassion?

I have lots more to write but I might save it for a slow day at work.

Take these hands
Teach them how to carry
Take these hands, don’t make a fist, no
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth, give it a kiss

U2 Yahweh

I am writting up my support list at the moment. Are there any random people in the blogosphere who would like to be on it?

More Info:

I am going to India for a year starting in Feb of next year with TEAR Australia and I need to get some supporters. I will be setting up an IT Department in a new hospital that’s being built in the North East of India. People can support me by giving money, keeping in touch, and/or prayer. If you want more info please leave a comment and I’ll send you a copy of the support letter.

The AIDS epidemic claimed 3.1 million lives during the year, more than half a million of them children, said the report, the AIDS Epidemic Update 2005.

“The total number of people living with the human immunodeficiency virus reached its highest level, an estimated 40.3 million,” up from 37.5 million in 2003, said the report, released in New Delhi.

smh

This is pretty scary stuff. That’s a lot of lives. Heterosexual spreading has increased a lot in Australia. Almost double the number of women were infected in 2004 as 2003.

I think Australia needs to tell the US to behave in Iraq. There has been so much torture in Iraq since the US and co, including us went in. White phosphorus which is a pretty horrible weapon by all accounts, there are death squads and of course countless secret and not so secret torture camps. At least some in the US are doing something about it.

We are implicitly supporting all this as a nation by keeping our mouths shut and the troops there. We are adding legitimacy to the conduct of this war or peace keeping or whatever you call it. I’m not saying we should pull our troops out overnight, but we need to do something to stop supporting these heinous acts.

Don’t become a monster in order to defeat a monster

These are the words of wisdom U2 give on their new Vertigo DVD. I listened to it whilst at work today. It is very good. Bono also does the whole Make Poverty sales pitch before One too.. It sent shives down my spine.

This past few weeks I have been working hard on educating myself.

It’s funny how much more interesting the stuff I am learning about is then what I learnt in Uni.

I read Why Warriors Lie Down and Die the other week. This week I finally finished reading Technology and Social Inclusion by Mark Warschauer.

It’s been good reading these books. It’s confirmed my view that the world is complex, filled with interactions and that context and communication are very important things. I believe still as an engineer that there is a time and a place for simple models, but I think maybe we tend too much towards this simplified models.

Neither of these books taught me any new technologies but I think they are more important. Whilst technical implementation of systems is important and I am going to need to study lots for my work in India, the non-technical factors are critical. You can build a technically beautiful system and still have people not use it if you don’t build it for the users.

I am going to be managing people and setting up a whole new system. Pretty scary stuff at 23 years old to be doing.

Also been learning other stuff. I might blog about that another day.

There isn’t going to be an official Dosa Club this week. However there maybe an un-official one. Give me an email, a comment or a call tommorrow to find out more.

U2 are playing Sydney but on the 31 th of March at Telstra Stadium. I don’t think I can hang around two extra months for even U2.

The sacrificies I make for returning to India. This is a sad day for me.

Today marked the start of shirts off summer for me.

I went to Freshwater beach with Tom, Howie, Hannah and Jo French. It was great fun. I also stayed in the water the longest for like the first time ever at the beach. I really enjoyed being in the water. Though the highlight was definately jumping with Hannah in the water. Such fun.

I want to go to the beach lots this summer. I’m a fan.

Is anyone going to come to Dosa this Monday night?

I am happy to go if anyone actually is keen.

See Sam is going to be studying and I don’t want to turn up and eat by myself. I don’t mind doing that sometimes but I only do that in more anonymous places.

These West Indies cricket tests are turning into a real white wash. Australia have just gotten past the West Indies 1st innings score without losing a wicket. What is going on?