Baggas' Blog

Thought I’d better update after a few days away from the blog. We’re all still here – baby still well ensconced inside Jenni’s tummy although hopefully she’ll come some time soon. I’m cutting back my work hours a little in preparation for the birth. Basically I’m booking my mornings and then deciding on a day by day basis if I’m going to work in the afternoon. That way if Jen goes into labour and I need to take days off it only means cancelling half a day’s worth of patients. I had the whole day off on Friday though, since Jen was sick and I was exhausted after spending almost the whole night at the hospital in one of the most awful experiences of my medical and obstetric career. Sometimes this job is one of the best in the world, other times it’s one of the worst… Today is an in between day – keeping fairly well to time but a couple of patients who concern me, although I had some promising news about my patient in ICU. I’m finishing a bit earlier than usual so I can catch up on a little shopping and get the boys from school which makes the day a little less daunting too.

Great piece in The Australian about some of the key differences between Western Australia and the rest of the nation – How the west is winning. I wouldn’t agree with every single statement he makes (like retail trading for example) but overall he’s fairly spot on. Well worth a read, particularly if you hail from elsewhere and want a snapshot of the mood in this big state of ours.

Here’s a picture Luke (age 4) drew of his mum this morning

How cute is that!

Go to Google, type “find chuck norris” and hit I’m feeling lucky … if you dare!

If you’re a musician then this piece of software is almost reason enough to consider switching to a Mac. GarageBand is my new favourite piece of software. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this program can do but basically it’s a powerful multi-purpose recording studio that can be used for anything from podcasting to creating a demo CD or just jamming around. We started off with some simple vocal stuff (Jenni recording some stories onto CD for the boys to listen to) and then mucking around with the boys using various vocal effects (like echoes, monster, mouse, and chipmunk voices). Now I’ve got myself some decent quality digital/analogue interface hardware so I can connect my guitars to my MacBook Pro. Even the basic level guitar effects included are not bad. The nice thing is you can lay down your raw guitar tracks and then change the effects after so as to experiment with different sounds.

For those instruments that I don’t possess and/or can’t play myself, Garageband fills the need, with a huge range of software instruments and a nifty “musical typing” keyboard for adding piano or any other virtual instrument. Of course you can also plug in a Midi piano but I’d have to work on my keyboard skills to make much use of any of that. One of the coolest things is that there is a huge database of pre-recorded loops to jam along to or I can create a “Magic Band” in moments in a range of styles – an instant backing band! It also integrates well with other iLife software like iMovie and iTunes so any tracks I record are instantly available to download to my iPod or mobile, or to use in any video projects – watch out YouTube!

As I said I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this software can do but so far I’m having a lot of fun

Much has been said about Barack Obama’s talent for inspiring lofty rhetoric – but it’s perhaps even better when set to music. Check out this video where hip-hop artist will.i.am has used Obama’s New Hampshire speech as the basis for a new song “Yes We Can” (and no – it has nothing to do with Bob the Builder).

I bet no-one could make Hillary sound this cool. 

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: “There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.”

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”

8. I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, “fulfill the moment as the moment.” I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

~ Clyde Kilby

US deal ‘to trigger airfare price war’ | Herald Sun

This can only be good news. Apparently the US and Australian governments have finalised an “open skies” agreement which removes limits on the amount of flights and airlines on the trans-Pacific route between Australia and the USA. And hopefully increased competition and availability will drive down prices of flights in both directions. It probably won’t be for a little while (due to the impending birth of our new daughter) but I absolutely loved visiting America last year and am super keen to get back over there again. So I was very pleased when I saw this piece of news

Just thought I’d make a recommendation of one of the albums I’m currently listening to – “Raising Sand” by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Krauss is one of my favourite country singers – I just love her voice. And I’ve been a big Led Zeppelin fan for a long time – Robert Plant has one of the best rock and roll voices ever – but on this album he again demonstrates his more nuanced, sensitive side. This collaboration is simply fantastic – ranging from folk and country songs through to 60’s style rock – both singers get ample opportunity to display their talents individually and in harmony, which is just divine. It’s a quiet album, good for chilling out to, but still interesting. Not a bad track on here. Definitely one of the best albums I’ve bought in quite a while.

Coincidentally, I’m working through the Led Zeppelin back catalog at the moment. Having gotten hold of the remastered CD and HD-DVD of “The Song Remains the Same” and their new compilation “Mothership.” After just listening to their first two albums over the the last couple of days I was reminded of what an awesome band they are. This is a band where each of the four members would be a candidate for “best _ _ _ of all time status” Not only do they have the aforementioned vocals of Robert Plant and the legendary Jimmy Page on lead guitar, but the huge sounding drum work of John Bonham and the melodic bass of John Paul Jones are amazing. These latter two members of the band may not get as much attention as their colleagues but every time I listen to Led Zep I am reminded of just how great the rhythm section of this band was – that’s why they are still probably the ultimate ’super-group’ in my opinion. Looking forward to revisiting the rest of their albums over the coming weeks.

Four weeks to go now until our baby is due – hopefully less! I’m now at that point that every time my phone rings or there’s a text message the first thought that crosses my mind is that it might be Jen … sadly it’s usually someone else’s baby about to be born, not ours.

Up to now I’ve not had a strong opinion either way on this whole business of saying sorry to the “stolen generations” of aboriginals. I tend to think that if these people, who were undeniably badly treated, feel that a parliamentary apology will go some way towards healing their wounds, and if the Prime Minister wants to do it then he should do so, however I don’t necessarily think the previous prime minister was necessarily wrong to not do it when he genuinely didn’t feel it was appropriate. What I do not understand is the vehemence of some of those who are opposed to it – the shameful behaviour of some Liberal MPs and others in Parliament (mentioned in this story : Nelson backs apology amid MPs’ boycott | The Australian) really got me annoyed. I can understand people being of the opinion that such an apology is not necessary but to actively oppose it in such a strong way seems to me  to be insulting to these aboriginals and a denial of their pain. Such ugly division is unbecoming of our Parliament and our nation.

January was one of the hottest, driest months I can remember in Perth – we had so many days in the high 30s and 40s and not a skerrick of rain. Our pool got better use than it has since we’ve moved into the house.

A week into February and the change has been dramatic – wet and humid. It has not stopped raining all night (and I should know considering I was driving back and forth to the hospital all night delivering babies – got about 3 hours sleep in the end). Traffic was chaotic this morning between home and Owen’s school and work. I don’t know why but the first wet day always seems to bring out the bad drivers – had about 4  separate, unnecessary traffic jams on the way.

Power has been out here in the surgery for half the morning – not easy working in the dark with no computer – like being a doctor in the dark ages I tried to convince management that we should just close up shop and all go home (and sleep!) but sadly they were not to be persuaded. Maybe the wet conditions might keep a few of the patients away though, we’ll see.

Well it’s Wednesday here in Australia, but in the US it’s Tuesday, and not just any Tuesday, but Super Tuesday! And my web browser (and TV when I get home from work) will be locked in to CNN watching as the results come in.

On the Republican side I’m finding that John McCain is really growing on me – he seems like a fairly straightforward, genuine sort of character – and with an amazing bio to boot. For some reason I really don’t like Romney very much – just doesn’t seem to be much of a personal connection and he doesn’t inspire trust, in fact he doesn’t seem very inspirational at all (unlike all the other main candidates). Huckabee is kinda inspirational in his own folksy kind of way – also seems like a pretty nice guy, but just doesn’t seem to have that same leadership quality that McCain or Obama possess. On the Democratic side, if you’ve been reading this blog you’ll know I’m a fan of Barack Obama, so it will be interesting to see how he goes against Hillary. From what I’ve seen it looks like it’s going to be a pretty tight contest.

American politics is so much more interesting than ours. Might be time soon to dust off my old West Wing DVDs and start from the beginning. A McCain vs Obama election would have eerie similarities to the Vinick vs Santos contest in series 7. Anyway, for the time being I’d better get back to seeing some patients.

First day of school for 2008 today. Owen started grade 2, and Luke had his first ever day at kindy – both looked super cute in their uniforms as you can see in the photos (more on flickr). So now we have both our children at school with no kids full time at home… at least for a few weeks until the next one comes along…