I find it interesting that email netiquette was first discussed and honed in times of dodgy ‘net connections and other distant memories, and as such some of its tenets have rightly faded from use. This is a more current version I guess – especially since it mentions Twitter (:

I see no mention of BCC, but still consider it important. Others have written plenty about it, so I’ll just let Google do the talking: http://www.google.com.au/search?q=bcc+netiquette

Riding with Elise and towing Eleanor was a new experience, and one I’d like to repeat – especially now that I know we can ride 50km in a day. I reckon NSW, Vic or perhaps Europe would provide good options – weather can be good, towns and interesting places much closer together than WA.

Sadly, as we passed through the city we were struck by a couple of punctures – one on my road bike which also unveiled a cracked tyre, and one in the trailer. I had no spares for the trailer, and didn’t even know what tubes it took. Luckily we broke down less than 100m from Runners World, who suggested I try the new Royal BMX shop (well, open for a year) around the corner. Success! The trailer’s wheels are identically sized to BMX wheels! The guy there was very quick to help me out, and even quickly trued a trailer wheel on the spot, no charge.

A new tyre for me, a couple of tubes for the trailer, and off we went. No further great events to report, except a successful day of riding! One week until GWABR; who knows if we’ll be ready.

It’s not a life changing sacrifice, but an intentional move to make space for important things. I’ve never really participated in the Lenten season before, so it’s a timid first step. I’m not often quick to make decisions even about trivial items such as a dinner menu, but this makes eminent sense right now.

Are you giving up something for Lent?

Recently, however, I’ve started to reconcile the clash between that nature and what seems to be a general inability to finish things. Not surprisingly, the clash causes quite some frustration and even feeling hunted by those outstanding tasks. The first step to dealing with this was to step back and realise that there’s a world of reasons why I might not get some project complete fast enough. Busyness, procrastination (here’s a good article), other priorities, lack of motivation…

This is helpful, but on its own ends up sounding like a bunch of excuses. Step up to round two: It doesn’t matter what I achieve. I have a slightly different take on Devdutt Pattanaik’s talk about infinity and so forth, in that my life is but one of six billion currently and lots more through history; plus my earthly life is but a speck in eternity. So, what does matter? People.

If there’s a moment I can spend with my daughter and I happen to be content to do so, then heck yes I’ll spend it with her. If there are dirty dishes and there isn’t anything else I particularly feel like doing[1], then I’ll wash them to deter any houseflies or ants which really annoy my wife. I haven’t yet gone further than my wife and daughter with this approach, but I guess it might happen.

Right now I could finish mounting that kitchen blind, tidy up some toys, or even do some extra work to make tomorrow’s system outage run more smoothly. Instead, I’m going to play some Civ 5, guilt free.

[1] No I don’t aim to become some sort of martyr. It’s not helpful, and I’m not made of martyr material anyway.

Well in hindsight it was, but at the time we were hungry and tired, bub was getting a bit grumpy, and it was on of the first 30+ days for the year so everything seemed pretty hard. We had also planned to host that night, but the roast was still in the fridge well after peak hour. We canceled, and still haven’t called them back – sorry Anne & Mau!

We left the car parked at a public library overnight, then went back on the Friday morning and after calling ahead, staggered it over to a nearby mechanic who said they were very busy and it’d have to wait a while. The next thing I knew, we had a very reasonable quote with some uncertainties due to the car’s age, and two days later the split hoses were replaced for less than quoted, and by some side effect, the car starts better than before!

So, without further ado, I’ll happily recommend Frank Dal Autos in Maylands if you happen to be looking for a mechanic. My wife’s hunch on which local to choose turned out well too – she likes businessmen who put their name on the company.

Of course, if I cycled to work more often we wouldn’t need the old car, but I’m pretty well reconciled to not quite having the motivation or priorities required to make that happen.

My daughter is an incredible, wonderful blessing. My wife is an even more amazingly good mother than I could have estimated. I am content, joyful. I think others’ wellbeing needs to be a big focus for me. So do I take this change (cryptic, no details yet)? Maybe.

I feel like a novice, but at least now I have some idea of what I don’t know. Better, there are gardeners in my circle of friends and family who can help me learn along the road. Granted, most of them have a different agenda for gardening, but so what? There’s also at least two rewarding points to being a novice: I am able to recognise how much people around me know; and every little bit I learn (and relearn after forgetting) is an exciting discovery.

I’ve even discovered there are gardeners that know how to use computers! Yeah I know, gobsmacked, who woulda thunk it? So I guess I’m not all that special in being a computer guy who attempts to garden. Some of those peeps who are more interesting and reliable bloggers than me, who garden:

• Aussie Green Thumb
• Aussie Organic Gardening
• Growing Strawberry Tips
• Backyard Gardening Tips

My dwarf peas sprouted a few weeks ago; I’ve got one double-fist-sized pumpkin defying the rain and mildew; and the loquat tree is laden with blossoms ready for what I suspect will be another September fruit-fest. I may be a novice, but I’m having some success. Gardening does seem to have a very rewarding learning curve.

I don’t know how best to decide what to pay attention to, and sadly I only have enough attention span and time available for so many topics at so much depth and breadth. So much information is available that I flit from topic to topic with Twitter, blog posts, snippits of other web reading, and the occasional book. This yields an attention-deficit mode of intake, and I need to change it. I’m all for being a generalist, but one can only spread the butter so thin (thanks Bilbo) before you really do approach knowing nothing about everything. Two options seem to surface:

• Pick a small few topics and invest properly in them, ditching all else
• Read more books, since they actually stay on topic for a while

Maybe the latter (hmm, put down the laptop earlier and go read in bed) plus part of the former without doing too much extreme ditching. I’ve left out talking with friends, and that can be very rewarding with some people. With others it’s all smalltalk though, which is fine in itself but off-topic here.

Sometimes I am reminded that my existence is as God’s creation, and there my highest goals lie. Everything else follows that and, thankfully, follows it very well. Galations 5:22-23 describes this well: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” No law, and no thing to which I aspire.

I think I suffer from my fair share of white man fix the world syndrome, so with that perspective there probably is no success to be gained, or if there is, it will be a long time in coming. To be sure, these people want to and do make progress, but sometimes it’s two steps forward one step back, sometimes one step back three steps back. Hanging my hat on fixing them would be a journey of frustration.

On the other hand, if spending time with these people is less about fixing them and more learning a bit of what their lives are like, that changes things dramatically. It means those occasional Friday nights are no longer a portal into which I step, leaving my life behind, and then returning to my life once more on Saturday morning. It means I stop and think about those people just a little bit, and how very comfortable is the rest of my life.

What’s actually sparked this thought is that I give a damn about human trafficking, but I’ve never known anyone who would be so foolish or under resourced as to get drawn into it. I think that some of the people I’ve on the street van might actually be vulnerable enough that they could get sucked up into that sort of mess. There’s a new film on the issue out at the moment, playing at Queensgate Fremantle, plus the website has suggestions on what to do about it. They reckon there are more slaves right now than at any point in history – man that sucks.