Being Mark Cohen

Fantasy Writer guy, one of those bloggers who’s humour and intelligence make for great reading, has a post up titled the Avitable Scramble. The Avitable Scrambe (as he’s named it) is described:

Okay – here’s the deal. You start with a blank mind – so to speak, and then try to belch out 13 separate thoughts in 13 minutes. It’s blogging by the seat of your pants. You pretty much have to spit out anything that comes to mind no matter how stupid because you won’t have time to wait for 13 gems!

I’m calling it the Avitable Scramble because I discovered it on the Avitable site. I have no idea who deserves proper attribution. I presume Mister Avitable will give me proper heck if he so wishes and if he even finds out about it!

So here goes… Forgive me in advance, it’s late…

1. I just listened to Mike Cannon-Brookes from Atlassian in a “podcast” recording from a breakfast hosted by Innovation Bay.  I was astonished to hear how much money they’re making, but more astonished to hear how many people they have working tech support.  Wow.
2. I’m involved in a project at the moment that has more stake-holders than developers by a factor of at least four.  There’s a need to rediscuss Metcalfe’s law and the complexity of communications systems I mumbled about on my blog a while ago.
3. My puppy is sleeping happily next to me.  That’s probably more because i have the heater on than because she likes me.  Still, it’s some company.  She’s cool.  And she plays fetch
4. I put a pergola up outside.  I need to go check if it’s leaking because the rain has been bucketing down over the last few days
5. I really need to sit down and spend more time writing emails to my family in South Africa.  I used to send them regular updates on how things were going here in Australia, but I’ve slacked off and haven’t written in ages.  I think it’s part of a broader degradation in my writing because of things like Twitter
6. I just found a guy from work on Facebook, who used to be on my team.  I found him through another mutual friend from work.  Turns out he’s also into his photography and he takes some awesome shots.  He has a whole lot up on webshots.  Wish I took as many and as good photos as him
7. (This is getting difficult around now). I have an old PC sitting here, waiting for me to recondition it and turn it into a media server.  Anybody got any tips on how to stop a PC overheating (tried vacuuming the cooling bits) and also what to do to get a remote working on it?  It has Vista on it.
8. I read about the new MacBooks today on (I think) Mashable.  Apparently the new touchpads will be glass and will support multitouch and gestures.  Anyone want to buy a soon-to-be-outdated MacBook Pro?
9. Had a great workout at boxing tonight.  We do boxing twice a week in the gym at work.  It is so cool.  stress management in the extreme.  Only the Thursday one is at lunch and so by 5:00 pm I’ve joined the Walking Dead. “Mark can you help with this?”  ”Gaaaaa.. dribble snore…”
10. Why is it that the iphone comes with only one cable?  Surely Apple could halve the complaints about the hype-marketing and the product not stacking up and battery life just by bundling an extra cable that probably costs them 30 cents?  And on that, you should read MostlyLisa’s post on the topic.  Bang on the money
11. I just realised that the only two bloggers I mentioned in this post are both Canadian – FWG and MostlyLisa. Maybe there’s something to that… Are all Canadians smart and cool?  My step-brother lives in Canada.  He’s pretty smart, and cool.  well, for a dentist.
12. I have a list of chores sitting next to my laptop.  things to fix, things to get done, bills to pay.  That’s another night they’ll have to wait because I was too busy doing the avitable scramble.  Does this one even count as a thought?  It’s more white-noise
13. I really need to make a proper study somewhere.  I’ve been using a squashy old antique folding desk since I moved into this house four years ago.  No wonder I prefer working late to bringing work home.