A week is a long time in politics, as the saying goes, and this week it has been illustrated by a dramatic transformation of personal character which is nothing short of miraculous.

It involves Troy Buswell, who last week was deputy leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party, currently serving a term in opposition. Along with speculation about his leadership ambitions, there were news stories about his unprofessional conduct. This included things like being drunk in parliament, undoing the bra strap of a female colleague, and making sexist and inappropriate comments to another female colleague.

His dramatic transformation is summed up as follows:

Jan 11th
Troy Buswell tells media he will not be challenging for the Liberal Party leadership, as he is not ready to lead the party due to lack of maturity and experience.

Jan 17th
Troy Buswell challenges for the Liberal Party leadership, and is elected as leader by its members who think he is worthy of becoming premier of Western Australia.

This means that in just six days, Mr Buswell has somehow gained all the previously-lacking maturity and experience needed to lead his party - which could see him leading the state of Western Australian if the Liberal Party wins the next election, due within a year. To become so mature and experienced almost overnight is a truly remarkable achievement, something which would take the rest of us mere mortals many years. After all, years of experience normally takes … years!

It’s laughable, but in a way it’s also sad. In a society where the miracles of the bible are ridiculed in the media, we are expected to believe the miraculous transformation of a politician as reported in the news. Sorry, Saint Troy of the Bra Strap, I don’t know if we voters have enough faith in a politician.

News stories:
Why Troy Buswell’s leadership dream is in tatters (Jan 12)
Buswell new WA Liberal leader (Jan 17)

Some time ago I began roasting raw coffee beans in a popcorn popper. It didn’t take long for the limitations of this method to become apparent, and so I’ve progressed to an improved method using a tripod-mounted heat gun, which I hereby reveal.

I blogged about my popcorn popper roasting setup (see Confessions Of A Coffee Snob), which gave reasonable results in cool weather. However, in warmer weather the roasting process happens too quickly to allow the full flavour of the beans to develop, and the popper’s heat can’t easily be adjusted. Another method was needed, which would allow slower roasts during the long hot Perth summer.

A lot of great information on home coffee roasting is available on the CoffeeSnobs website, and Sweet Maria’s has an inspiring illustrated collection of home-made roasting devices. With ideas from these, I built the tripod-mounted heat gun and bowl roaster shown in the photo.

It’s basically just a heat gun - normally used for drying or stripping paint - pointing into a stainless steel bowl, with the beans stirred by hand with a wooden spoon. A motorised stirrer could be added … but that’s another project. The tripod mount allows the heat gun to be positioned in just the right spot, which is how the temperature in the bowl is controlled (as measured using a multimeter). Also the setup is easily moved around, and dismantled for storage.

This is a manual, hands-on and low-tech method of roasting coffee beans, but the degree of control means much more of the bean’s potential can be realised. By adjusting the height of the gun to slow the rate of temperature increase, a roast can be extended to 15-18 minutes instead of the 5 or 6 minutes it would take in a popcorn popper on a warm day. The slower roasting leads to better flavour in the cup, not to mention the satisfaction (and money savings) of doing it yourself.

It makes me wonder what else can be achieved at low cost by tinkering with household bits and pieces.

For me 2007 was a bumper year for reading, with 44 books read. Ranking the best is a subjective thing, but “top five” lists are popular with blog writers, so here are the five books most significant for me in 2007 (in no particular order):

1 - What Color Is Your Parachute? : A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard Bolles

This has been one of the best selling job-hunting and career-changing manuals for decades (updated every year), and for good reason. It’s practical and thorough, and I particularly appreciated the focus on finding meaningful work, with self-evaluation exercises to help identify what sort of work might be most suitable.

2 - It’s not carpal tunnel syndrome! : RSI theory and therapy for computer professionals by Suparna Damany

All about the often misunderstood range of conditions suffered by many who over-use computers - RSI, occupational overuse syndrome, or whatever the latest label may be. The writers have a great understanding of what is often mis-diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome, having successfully treated many in their medical practice. They clearly explain the mechanical and physiological causes, the personality types who are more prone to it, and what can be done about it.

For anyone suffering aches and pains from working with computers too intensively, it is an enlightening read. Those not yet feeling symptoms, or RSI skeptics (as I once was), may benefit from an early understanding of the risks.

3 - Surviving the Extremes : A Doctor’s Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance by Dr Kenneth Kamler

A fascinating account of the human body’s amazing ability to survive in extreme environments. I blogged about this book previously - see “Extreme Survival - A Good Read“.

4 - A Walk In The Woods : Rediscovering America On The Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

I’ve always enjoyed the humorous travel writings of Bill Bryson, and this book is a delightfully amusing account of his extensive hikes on the Appalachian Trail. It provided some of the motivation for my own much shorter hike on the Bibbulmun Track in june.

5 - Hammer of Eden by Ken Follett

Yes, I do also read fiction! I’ve been working my way through the novels of Ken Follett, who writes in genres varying from thriller to adventure and historical. In Hammer of Eden, the leader of a group of ageing hippies devises a method of triggering earthquakes to fight the threat of being evicted from their remote Californian commune. It’s a sort of crime thriller with a touch of science fiction and terrorism blended in. However you describe it, I found it an absorbing read, with many late nights the result of me being compelled to read “just one more chapter”.

Special mention also goes to the Holy Bible, which I finished reading in 2007 - for significance, it’s in a class of its own. I also read a number of course text books, but these certainly don’t deserve any special mention!