Spring has arrived, and my regular walks around Perth’s Lake Monger are less comfortable. There’s more sweating, the pollen in the air requires hay fever medication and eye drops (for me at least), and the flies have begun their annoying return. It’s not all bad though, as the lake at this time of year has some treats.

One delightful sight is all the freshly hatched baby birds that start popping up at this time of year. Yesterday I found the duck in the photo taking her new chicks for a swim, which they seemed to be enjoying. The pitter patter of other tiny webbed and clawed feet should arrive soon, including the fuzzy brown balls that grow into black swans. It’s hard to imagine anyone not finding them cute.

Lake Monger in March 2007 (left) and October 2007 (right)

Another pleasant sight is the healthy rise in water levels. Back in March the lake was drier than it had been for many years, with large areas of mud, algae, and exposed lakebed. A winter of near-average rainfall, consistent enough to maintain good runoff, has filled the lake again. The surrounds are green and lush, and there’s a feeling of abundance that was hard to imagine just six months ago.

I may not enjoy the walking conditions as much in spring, but I can appreciate the lushness and baby birdlife. As the young ducks grow up during the coming dry months I’m sure they too will be grateful for the extra water in the lake this summer.

My regular readers (hello to both of you!) may have noticed I haven’t written much lately. But I can explain.

I’ve recently put career number two (information technology) behind me and embarked upon full time study for career number three (library and information services). The course is not hard yet, but switching back to full time study mode has not come easily. Absorbing new learning and juggling seven subjects at once - with homework - may have come naturally when I was young, but as a mature-age home-owner stuck for many years in the routine of work, some mental readjustment has been needed. And it’s not just my mind that’s being stretched - I’ve upped my exercise level and joined a gym too.

Consequently my internet habits, which were already modest, have been taking a back seat. I will continue blogging because I still like to write, but my regularity will probably remain low and inconsistent for a while, until being a student becomes as routine as my previous life.

The toys of the rich, such as flashy cars and yachts, are normally thought of as being good and desirable; something worth aspiring to. However owning a luxury yacht may not always be a good thing … and I’m not just saying that because I can’t afford one!

I was prompted to think this way by some of the weather we’ve been having lately here in Perth (the photo here shows Cottesloe Beach on a day not suitable for swimming). Strong cold fronts, winter gales and rough seas have produced the sort of conditions that occasionally result in boats breaking loose from their moorings and being damaged. Although I haven’t noticed any recent news reports of storm damage to yachts, it does happen, and if I had a yacht moored out in the open I think I’d be a little concerned about it in squally weather.

Then there’s the cost. According to a West Australian newspaper story (here) boat ownership in Perth has risen massively but the number of parking places for boats hasn’t, and with demand outstripping supply the fees for yacht moorings have skyrocketed. This must surely be a concern for people who bought a boat with an inheritance or a lotto win, but don’t have an ongoing high income.

When I woke in the night recently to the sound of destructive winds and heavy rain, for some unknown reason I visualised luxury yachts being tossed about and breaking loose from their moorings. At that moment I was genuinely glad that I didn’t have a yacht of my own to be worried about.

It made me think of a Bible verse found in Ecclesiastes 5:12 - “The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep“. With that thought I rolled over and fell asleep.

You may have heard it said that men can only do one thing at a time, whereas women can do several things at once (if you have, it was probably a woman that said it). Even if it’s true that doesn’t mean men are inferior. On the contrary, an article in the Wall Street Journal executive career site suggests that doing one thing at a time is more efficient.

The article, titled “Juggling Too Many Tasks Could Make You Stupid“, reports on scientific research which shows that doing several things at once - multitasking - can be less efficient than doing one task at a time, and comes with a cost. Here are some pertinent quotes from the article:

• “People who multitask are actually less efficient than those who focus on one project at a time, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The time lost switching among tasks increases with the complexity of the tasks, according to the research by Dr Meyer and others.”
• “Managing two mental tasks at once reduces the brainpower available for either task, even when these activities engage two different parts of the brain.”
• “If the tasks require the same parts of the brain, such as two assignments that both draw on language skills, it’s going to be extremely hard to succeed efficiently”
• “Chronic high-stress multitasking also is linked to short-term memory loss”
• “It doesn’t mean you can’t do several things at the same time,” says Dr Just, co-director of the university’s Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging. “But we’re kidding ourselves if we think we can do so without cost.”

I’ve often felt that I can work more effectively by doing one thing at a time, and doing it well, rather than trying to do several things at once and doing none of them well. Finding research that supports my belief is gratifying. Now if I hear a woman complaining that “men can only do one thing at a time” I’ll view it as a compliment … a sign that we men are just working more efficiently!

Some time ago I started writing about times when procrastination can be good - but I never got around to continuing with the subject. Recently my interest was renewed by reading a blog article by John Wesley, titled “14 Ways To Procrastinate Productively“. Just the sort of thing that simply must be read when you ought to be doing something else!

In describing how procrastination can be productive, he divides it into two categories. There’s Structured Procrastination, where the desire to avoid an important task can act as motivation for doing other valid tasks - like getting organised, networking, planning ahead, unresolved odds and ends, meetings, errands, getting up to date, and assisting others.

That makes sense to me; the last time I was a student and needed to study for exams, my procrastination led me to do vacuuming and other household chores as a means of avoiding studying. Necessary chores got done, which may not have happened if I’d had nothing to procrastinate about. Similarly, unblocking the gutters is a necessary task I usually put off, but given the choice between unblocking gutters or starting my tax return, I somehow find the motivation to go up a ladder and get my hands dirty.

Then there’s Unstructured Procrastination, which John Wesley describes as a way of recharging creative energy and allowing the unconscious mind to work on difficult problems. He includes examples like lunching, exercising, walking, relaxing, coming up with great ideas, and reading good books - in other words, using downtime (while procrastinating) to rest and refresh the mind. An example of someone flat out recharging his brain (at Lake Ohau, NZ) is pictured. If this means returning to the original task with renewed vigour and fresh ideas, then it could indeed be productive.

If you’ve got other more important things you should be doing but want to avoid, then you’ll probably appreciate John Perry’s Structured Procrastination website as well.

You’ve probably been told - as if it was a proven fact - that cars beyond a certain age cost more to repair and maintain. This, allegedly, makes it more economical to trade up to a new car rather than keep an older car running. When speaking to several car salesman recently (for research only) they implied I was throwing money down the drain if I didn’t replace my old car immediately. Being a curious fellow, and they being salesman, I wondered if it is really true.

In the spirit of the Mythbusters TV program, I decided to put it to the test. Since buying my car over 20 years ago, I have kept track of every dollar I have ever spent on it, and most of the numbers were already in a spreadsheet. I did some calculations, made some charts, and the result was clear.

(Continued)

The world is full of coincidences, and I found this one interesting. Two men, on opposite sides of the world, both former politicians turned lobbyists, both convicted of crimes relating to their times in politics … and both named Brian Burke.

Brian Burke One, who has his own Wikipedia article, was the Premier of Western Australia from 1983 to 1988. During that time he conducted what were to become known as some shady deals, and allegations of improper conduct led to a royal commission. In 1994 he was charged with various offences including travel expense rorts, and served seven months of a two-year prison sentence. In 1997 he was imprisoned for stealing campaign donations, but this conviction was later quashed.

Brian Burke Two, a former state senator in Wisconsin, US, was convicted of misconduct in 2005. He was sentenced to six months in prison for using taxpayer funds to pay aides to solicit cash for his state attorney general campaign, and for altering records. The gory details are in this article.

Further similarities are revealed in the image on the right (from the WisOpinion website). The text on it reads “How Brian Burke’s reckless ambition and a political system where breaking the rules became commonplace conspired to end his brilliant career”. This was written about the Wisconsin Brian Burke, but could be applied just as well to the West Australian Brian Burke. Even the expression on Burke Two’s face - that innocently pleading “Who, me? I never done it!” look - has a lot in common with pictures I’ve seen of Burke One.

Speaking of which, photos of the West Australian Burke are suspiciously absent when doing a Google image search. I wanted to include one which showed the similarities in their expressions, but I couldn’t find one, which is remarkable considering how often his face has been gracing our TV and newspapers recently. I suppose that’s one thing the Burkes don’t have in common.

My sympathy goes out to all the other Brian Burkes of this world who really haven’t done anything wrong!

I went for a walk recently at Lake Monger and was saddened to find that it’s drying up. It’s normal for Perth’s smaller lakes and wetlands to dry up over summer, but not Lake Monger - it’s one of the largest lakes in the area, and although the water levels rise and fall with the seasons I’ve never seen the levels as low as they are now.

The first photo shows the shallower western side (the wooden posts are normally under water), and the second shows what is normally a channel of water surrounding a small island. The sign advising not to enter the water looks a little out of place! While most of the lake still has water in it, much of this is alarmingly shallow - one bird I saw standing in the middle of the lake had water only up to its knees (or the part of its legs where the knees would be if it had them).

Why is it so? The lake occurs in a low-lying area where groundwater reaches the surface, and so groundwater levels affect the lake depth. A percentage of Perth’s water supply is pumped out of the ground, and this percentage has increased over the last 30 years. Combined with a doubling of the population in this period, and a decrease in rainfall, it’s not surprising that the lake level should be abnormally low. It wouldn’t have helped that last year was our driest on record.

With still another two months of warm weather to get through before the brief rainy season, Lake Monger will undoubtedly get even drier - hopefully not too dry for all the bird life that depend on it when other lakes have dried up.

Have you ever been irritated or annoyed by the culture you live in, or felt discontent with human society in general? If so, it could be a sign that you are sane and well-adjusted! That’s what is suggested by these three quotes from very diverse sources:

• “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” - Jiddu Krishnamurti, philosopher
  

• “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. … Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”- Bible, Romans 12:2 (MSG Version)

• “If you aren’t grumpy, that means you are content with the world.
  And who the *#@!* could be that!” - Bob Geldoff

The Bob Geldof quote is from the book “Grumpy Old Men“, based on the BBC TV series of the same name. When I read the book recently (a great laugh, by the way) his words reminded me of the other quote and also the Bible verse. What I liked about them is that each, in its own way, points to the same idea: that our cultures and societies are far from perfect, and that it’s not a good thing to be satisfied with this imperfection or try to fit into it.

What sort of people would we be, if we saw that the world was going down the toilet but didn’t think there was anything wrong with that?

So if you feel a bit cheesed off with the world around you, don’t feel ashamed; a little grumpiness is to be expected among thinking, discerning people in a faulty world. The trick is to not become over-critical and judgemental whingers, and to this end there are plenty of good things in the world we can choose to appreciate, if we look for them among the irritations.

Things we do can make a difference in the lives of others - but we don’t necessarily get to see, or hear or know about it. This truth is pointed out in a book I’m reading:

… we need also to unlearn the idea that our unique mission must consist of some achievement which all the world will see - and learn instead that as the stone does not always know what ripples it has caused in the pond whose surface it impacts, so neither we nor those who watch our life will always know what we have achieved by our life and by our mission. It may be that by the grace of God we helped bring about a profound change for the better in the lives of other souls around us, but it also may be that this takes place beyond our sight, or after we have gone on. And we may never know what we have accomplished, until we see him face-to-face after this life is past.

This is from the epilogue of “What Colour Is Your Parachute” by Richard Bolles, a classic book about career change and finding the right occupation. In this bit the author is talking about finding our mission in life - our purpose for being on the earth, rather than merely what job we do. He makes the point that we should not be discouraged if what we are doing does not appear to be achieving anything or helping anyone. Doing something worthwhile may not consist of any particular activity or accomplishment that others can see. We should do and be what we are made to do and be, enjoying any recognition and feedback that might come … but not depending on it.

There’s a story in the Bible (Luke 17:12-19) of Jesus healing ten lepers and sending them away; only one bothered to return and thank him. The other nine had just as much reason to be thankful, but Jesus got no feedback from them. Nothing much has changed: few people, when helped by someone, go to the efforts of thanking the person who helped them and explaining how they were helped. But lack of feedback doesn’t necessarily mean people haven’t been, or won’t (later on), be impacted by what you’ve done … like unseen ripples in a pond.

In 2000 a retired dairy farmer - Pete Ondrus of Michigan, USA - realised that the Guinness Book of World Records had no record for the fastest cow. In response he founded the Mid-Michigan Cow Racing Association and the World-Wide Cow Racing Association, with the motto “Don’t milk them, race them”. He held his first cow race that year, and it appears to be an annual event although his website has not been updated since 2004. Most people would not be surprised to find that such an event began in America, but did it?

Pete Ondrus was apparently unaware of the Compass Cup, a cow race which has taken place every year since 1974 in the town of Mt Compass in South Australia. As far as I can tell, this was probably the world’s first organised public cow racing event. It began when a 12-year-old Guernsey was called in for milking and ran full speed for the milk shed. This fired the imagination of a Rural Youth Adviser, who formed a committee and organised a cow race as a fund-raising event for the town. Its popularity grew, despite the challenges of getting any cow to go fast, and the 34th annual Compass Cup was held last weekend.

If you picture people sitting on dairy cattle and trying to make them race, and making a big community event out of it, the phrase “only in America…” may be a normal response. So for me it’s strangely satisfying to think that Australians can lead the world in this delightfully unconventional activity.

Photo credit: CompassCup.com.au

Another time when procrastination is potentially a good thing is when “warming up”. This could be when getting up in the morning and launching into the day, or when arriving at work and starting on the day’s tasks.

Some people can dive right into things - being alert and busy within minutes of waking up, or reaching their full speed and productivity within minutes of arriving at work. Others, like me, are simply not built to operate that way; we need more time to get mentally into gear, organise our thoughts, and build up to full productivity. For the latter type of people, trying to “hit the ground running” prematurely can be counterproductive, whereas we work much more effectively after a warm-up time, which others may view as procrastination. Both approaches may achieve the same end result, but in different ways.

An article at lifehack.org - Are You Just Getting Warmed Up by Tony Clark - explains the warming up type of procrastination well:

“I’m honestly not procrastinating in the traditional sense, but need some time to ramp up into my day. How do I know I’m not just slacking? Because when I jump right in, most of what I produce is crap. But if I give myself time to get warmed up - have some coffee, check some feeds, read some mail - when I do get to work, I’m way more productive. I’m also much more focused.”

He draws an analogy with warming up a car on a cold morning - scraping off the ice then leaving it to idle while the engine warms. This warm-up time improves the performance and the life of the car … and some people need this idling and warm-up time too! You just have to be careful to know whether your procrastination is the legitimate warm-up time you need to function at your best, or just slackness. We are all different, so only you can judge that.

To procrastinate - to put off till another day or time; defer; delay - is usually thought of as a bad thing. Indeed, some dictionary definitions allude to “habitual carelessness or laziness” as causes, or describe such delay as “needless”. I don’t think it’s a black and white issue. While most procrastination may be counterproductive, there are times when putting things off can be good, and I’d like to share some examples.

1. As an antidote to impulsiveness, particularly impulsive shopping.

Have you ever bought something on impulse and later regretted it? More procrastination when shopping can avoid this, as it gives an opportunity for reasoning to overcome impulsiveness. This may not matter with something like a tub of yoghurt, but with expensive items it can be very important indeed.

In my line of work I’m exposed to a lot of expensive computer gadgetry, and read magazines which heavily advertise such gadgets. I also read outdoors magazines and frequent shops which sell all the latest hiking and camping gear. Gadgets and cool gear can be tempting when shopping, so on the odd occasions when I see something that I just have to have, I deliberately procrastinate. Even if I feel that buying an item is justifiable and the price is good, I usually put it off - the higher the price the longer I’ll put it off.  After several days or weeks and some contemplation or research, if I still think that buying the item is justifiable then I’ll do it. More often than not, I’ll realise that I don’t really need the thing, or that something cheaper will do. The result: deliberate and purposeful procrastination when shopping has saved me a lot of money.

I’ll share some more examples of good procrastination  … when I get around to it!

An American researcher has found that patients hospitalised with heart failure were less likely to die during their hospital stay if they were fat! This is according to a New Scientist article yesterday, which concluded:

“Fonarow suggests that fat people may cope better with heart failure because they have more metabolic reserves to draw on when the heart isn’t pumping blood fast enough to meet the body’s needs.”

Of course, being overweight can lead to heart problems and so is best avoided. But if you already have a heart problem due to other causes (like my faulty valves) it’s nice to think that being a little overweight may not be entirely bad news.

Comet McNaught has been in the news lately, not surprisingly as it is the brightest comet to be seen in 40 years (see ABC news story and Spaceweather photo gallery). Last night I visited Perth’s City Beach to get a clear view of it, and of course some photos.

It became visible to the naked eye as soon as the sun dipped into the Indian Ocean - although at that point it was easily missed if you weren’t looking at exactly the right spot. Gradually it revealed its full glory, looking brighter as the sky darkened, but disappearing beneath the horizon before the sky was fully dark. A strong sea breeze made photography difficult: even with a tripod most of my long exposures were blurred. However I was pleased to get one reasonable photo, as shown here. It was an eight second exposure which I have not enhanced or modified in any way - it shows realistically how the comet looked to the naked eye.

I just stumbled across some statistics (source here) for the average viewing time of television, and was flabbergasted at how long people spend in front of the box per day:

Japan: 5 hrs, 1 min
USA: 4 hrs, 28 mins
Eastern Europe (inc. Russia): 3hrs, 43 mins
Western Europe (inc. Britain): 3 hrs, 35 mins
Australia: 3 hrs, 7 mins
World average: 3 hrs, 7 mins per day

Most drivers (it seems) ignore speed limits and many drive like lunatics to shave a few minutes off their travel times. People get anxious if the checkout queue is moving slowly. I spend five seconds per day collecting my navel lint and people accuse me of having too much time on my hands (see my guestbook). Yet according to the statistics these same people who get upset about trivial amounts of time being “wasted” are probably, on average, happy to spend more than three hours every day sitting in front of the television.

Being anxious about minutes, while letting hours slip away, appears to be normal.  If that is the case, not being normal may be a good thing!

There are only two rules for achieving anything:
1.  Get started
2.  Keep going

I noticed the above many years ago on the wall of someone’s office, along with other motivational slogans. It’s simplicity appealed to me, and something I just read on the Internet reminded me of it. I repeat it here because it is relevant to this time of year when people tend to make resolutions.

Lots of worthwhile goals are never achieved - like writing a novel, sorting the photo collection or sock drawer, losing weight, reading a series of books, building something, etc. One reason is procrastination - we simply never get around to starting something. Or if we do start we may not see it through to completion, due to lack of time, losing interest, unrealistic expectations, or a million other reasons.

The slogan I quoted distills some profoundly simple logic from the business of achieving goals. If we start, and keep going, we should finish … eventually (and an achievement that takes a long time is better than one never started or completed). Looking at it this way can make a large project appear more achievable. The trick is in dividing it into bite sized pieces that our self-discipline and schedules can realistically cope with.

My example is the reading of the Bible from cover to cover - something I decided I wanted to do over 20 years ago. For years I read bits and pieces but never got around to tackling the whole Bible. Eventually I started a one-year reading plan, only to abandon it because I couldn’t keep up with the reading schedule. I thought a three-year reading plan would be more achievable because the lighter reading schedule would be easier to stick to, so two years ago I began. So far, so good. One year from now I will have finished reading the whole Bible, systematically and thoroughly. All I really had to do was get started, then keep going.

This news may be of interest to people living in Perth who appreciate a good bakery - the Miami Bakehouse has opened a Perth outlet!

The original Miami Bakehouse lives on the southern edge of Mandurah, and for years has been hugely popular as an eating stop for Perth people (including me) driving to or from the south-west. Its popular because its bakery products are excellent - no other WA bakery has won more awards. They have a website but at the time of writing it is being revamped.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure (a culinary serendipity) of accidentally finding their new outlet on Canning Hwy, Melville (south side of road, just west of Stock Rd). Being a fan of good bakeries I stopped and conducted some product evaluations, and can testify to the excellence of their cajun chicken pies, turkish bread and vanilla slices. Like the Mandurah store, the new one is a bakery/cafe serving good coffee with both indoor and outdoor seating. A souvenir I bought at their Mandurah shop has the slogan “A taste worth driving for” - it is a great taste, but now the people of Perth don’t have to drive so far for it.

Are you thinking of getting a calendar for 2007? Are you an environmentally sensitive, pro-recycling person (or just a cheapskate)?

If so, you may be pleased to know that dates and days of the week for 2007 are identical to 2001. Other matching years are 1990, 1979, 1973, 1962, 1951, 1945, 1934, 1923, 1917, 1906, 1900, 1894. I found this on time and date.com, along with calendars for any year which can be customised and printed, and other useful info.

So if you have an old calendar for any of these years, it can be re-used next year, although giving one as a gift may not go down too well.

I read a number of books while on holiday in New Zealand. Most were novels for relaxation, but this one made me think - Affluenza: when too much is never enough by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. Authors’ website here.

It is written from an Australian perspective, and poses the question “if the economy has been doing so well, why are we not becoming happier?”. The authors describe how the Western world is in the grip of a consumption binge that is unique in history. We (as a society) have bigger houses, better cars, more appliances, and more money to spend — yet rates of stress, depression and obesity are rising, we are working longer hours and going further into debt. The more we have, the more deprived we may feel - despite being one of the world’s richest countries, with real incomes better than ever, 62% of Australians believe they cannot afford to buy everything they really need (thats need, not want).

The book contains a lot of well researched information on consumption, debt, overwork, waste, sickness, and how we pursue happiness. And how we don’t achieve fulfilment through spending money on things we don’t need. Serious stuff, but it is well written and an enjoyable read. It ends with discussion on ignoring advertisers, reducing consumer spending, and recapturing time for things that really matter.

I think we all know deep down that happiness doesn’t come through buying lots of stuff. Yet it was fascinating to read the results of current research which graphically illustrates this. It also validates the wise words spoken by Jesus in the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:15):

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”