Baggas' Blog

Doctor Who to boost church popularity – yet another news story about how a church is trying to tap into modern culture to boost flagging attendance among the ‘youth’ – these stories always make the church leaders seem like out of touch old fuddy duddies sitting in a room somewhere.

Interesting choice though – I haven’t seen much of the recent Dr Who (although I used to love it as a kid) but it strikes me as being one of the least spiritual/theistic sci-fi series out there. Apparently (according to the comments) Richard Dawkins will be featuring on the series soon so that says a lot. Better to use Star Wars, or Star Trek, or the new Battlestar Galactica  – which is deeply infused with religious elements, and is a brilliantly conceived and produced show.

The Long Tail – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here’s an article from Wikipedia that may look pretty boring at first glance, but if you delve into it it’s actually a fascinating look at economies of scale in the internet age. It looks at the phenomenon of the “long tail” which means that the cumulative amount of less common items ends up being greater than the aggregate of the most popular/common items. The quote from an Amazon employee illustrates the concept well : “We sold more books today that didn’t sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.”

In other words, thanks to the internet, the blogosphere, and the economics of a store like Amazon, we live in a world where we not only have more choice than ever before, but where the total effect of the choices of minorities may be greater than that of the popular majority. It’s a world where minorities and niches are becoming more important and better catered for all the time. Fascinating and thought-provoking ideas indeed.

In the past I’ve been a bit cynical regarding the increasing prevalence of Christmas lights on houses here in Australia, seeing it as another example of American commercialism (although I always appreciated Chevy Chase’s efforts in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation…) I must admit though, my attitudes are softening a little. Driving to band practice last night (for our Carols by Candlelight, this Sunday @ Warnbro – be there!) I noticed a large number of colourful brightly lit houses, and it gave me a good festive feeling. Our neighbours have some lights on their house and it does look good. I was half tempted to get some lights myself, but since we are moving shortly after Christmas decided against it – maybe next year in our new place. But being able to drive through our suburbs, and see signs of the season everywhere you look is a great thing, so no more humbug from me about that.

Last night, after having dinner out with Jen and watching the fantastic movie Mr and Mrs Smith, I came home and switched on the Live 8 telecast on TV. Unfortunately as it went through the night here I didn’t get to watch all that much of it but what I did see was great. This morning I managed to turn on just in time to see Paul McCartney belting through rocking versions of Drive My Car (with George Michael) and Helter Skelter (“the song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles” as Bono famously described it, adding “we’re stealing it back”) He then finished up with a moving version of The Long and Winding Road and a prolonged Hey Jude outro. Looks like the old fella can still rock it!

I hope to catch some of the replays and highlights to see some of the other performers, including the Pink Floyd reunion, but as Bob Geldof would say, this is about so much more than the music. Cynics might say this is a nieve attempt by ageing rock stars to push for change, but I prefer to look at it in a more positive way. This is just the biggest and most obvious example of how the momentum of public opinion is building behind the need to do something serious about world poverty and disease, especially in Africa. Geldof got it right by not making this just another charity telethon to raise money to help the poor – that would have raised millions of dollars I’m sure and done a lot of good, but for serious long term change it is only decisions by governments (such as those represented in G8) that can make much difference. These concerts were about the people raising our voices to say that we want those kind of changes to happen. I can only hope that more and more leaders will continue to follow the example of people like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and make bold decisions to change the world for the better. After a century of war and chaos, which reached it’s climax in September 2001, perhaps now we might finally see the huge technological and societal advances we have made in the last few hundred years have a positive impact on the greater world, rather than a negative one. Perhaps July 2, 2005 will be remembered as some of the first rays of dawn after the long night of the 20th and early 21st century.

For some good news coverage of Live 8 see news.com.au and google news.

This is an interesting and sobering test to do which I found on Paul Benger’s blog. Really makes one appreciate just how incredibly lucky I am.

You are in the top 0.408% richest people in the world.
There are 5,975,480,435 people poorer than you. Oh, and in case you’re interested you are the 24,519,565 richest person in the world.

If like me, doing that test makes you want to do something about the 5.9 billion people worse off than us, then here’s a few suggestions where to start

I just stumbled across these survey results [via]

What are you willing to do for $10,000,000? Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one, some to several of the following:

* Would abandon their entire family (25%)
* Would abandon their church (25%)
* Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
* Would give up their American citizenships (16%)
* Would leave their spouses (16%)
* Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
* Would kill a stranger (7%)
* Would put their children up for adoption (3%)

Most of those things are not too surprising, though it’s interesting that 25% would abandon their whole family, but only 3% would put their kids up for adoption – I guess the 25% were the single people. I’d like to think that most of those things I would not do, but there is one result that astounds me. How stupid are the 84% of people who would not give up their American citizenship for $10,000,000? That’s just crazy! Now I love my country, and am very proud to be Australian, but if someone came and offered me that amount of money to give up my Australian citizenship I’d do it in a flash. I’d still be an Australian at heart, just not tehcnically, and that doesn’t really matter when $10,000,000 is on offer. I wonder what the survey result would be if it was done here? Maybe these patriotic Americans are crazier than I thought!

I have no great dislike for big corporations, brands, and chains in general, but occaisionally it’s nice to support the little guy. The example in point is my optician, who runs a little shop in the old part of town which is always empty aside from him and his wife when I go there. I often wonder how he manages to stay afloat, yet he has been there for quite a few years now and shows no sign of disappearing. Perhaps it’s because of the great service he provides, maybe all his customers are drawn back there the way I am. He gives good advice, provides a good service and doesn’t try to sell me things I don’t really need. In fact today he actually dissuaded me from getting an extra coating on my lens that I would have quite happily paid an extra $50 for. That’s the kind of honesty that I respect in a businessman, and it’s part of the reason why I am a loyal customer. So next time you need glasses, may I heartily recommend Phillip J Stevens.

On a related subject I seem to have become a business myself today. When I started the day I was but a humble employee like always, yet by the end of the day I found that I was suddenly a ‘business entity’, “Dr Paul A Baggaley” with a whole range of complicated tax and GST issues and things to come to grips with. How I wish my good mate Matt was here – the nation’s foremost photographic accountant.

It’s funny how at times reality surpasses fantasy.
I was just watching a movie with Owen on the Disney Channel – “Honey I Blew Up The Kid”. This was a fairly harmless, mildly entertaining B-grade kids movie from 1992 starring Rick Moranis as a bumbling inventor. One of his inventions was a special helmet which had a phone built in so he could talk and still have both his hands free! Take a look at this picture of his wonderful invention from 1992 and then compare it to today’s little Bluetooth hands-free headsets and you’ll see what I mean about reality eclipsing fantasy. How many things do we take for granted now that we couldn’t have imagined in 1992? The pace of change in our world is amazing.
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Just walked out in the waiting room and the ‘Carol of the bells’ was playing on the patients’ TV. Is it just me or does November 16 seem a little too early for Christmas carols? It seems to get earlier and earlier every year. The shops are already full of Christmas decorations, holly and tinsel. I expect to see Santa there pretty soon.

Not that I’m complaining – I love Christmas. Even aside from the obvious spiritual meaning, it’s just nice to hear all that joyful music and be able to walk around the shops humming carols. I generally have a strong dislike for most antiquated hymns but for Christmas carols I’ll make an exception. Plus there’s all the great Christmas songs of the 40s and 50s as well – Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Sinatra et al. And then the classic pop songs by Bowie, Lennon, McCartney and many other (generally British) artists. I’ve got about 2 Gig worth of Christmas MP3s that I generally pump through the stereo throughout December each year – I’ll have to load them on my MP3 player so I can have non-stop Christmas cheer.

Don’t expect too much blogging from me over the next few days. I’m experiencing a bit of computer fatigue so am giving the PC a relatively wide berth (ie. only check my mail once an hour or so). In fact I’m a bit fatigued in general at the moment – kids have been awake and teething etc etc over the last week or two so a lot of interrupted sleep for both of us parents.

The rest of the week promises to be fairly busy as well unfortunately. Band practice tonight, then tomorrow evening I’m going to a training course on contraceptive implants at the local hospital, and then Friday I have a seminar with the guru of GP up at the Hyatt in Perth. Working on Saturday, and then a party to go to on Sunday. Coming into December I doubt the pace will lessen at all. There is relief in sight though… only a week and a half to go and I am on holidays for a week – nothing major planned at this stage except we have tickets to go see The Wiggles in concert!

It’s that time of the year again – September 19 is famous for two reasons
(1) It’s our wedding anniversary – 6 years this year!
(2) It’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day

This year, the pirate guys have their very own blog so ye’d better be makin sail on over thar smartly to see what’s blowin’, me hearties. Before ye can say “Pieces of Eight” ye lubbers can be speakin’ pirate-like with the best corairs in the seven seas. Yo-ho-ho! Arrrrr!

It seems to be an almost universal thing amongst hairdressers – the gift of the gab. I wonder if they have a module in Hairdressing college entitled “Small Talk 101″ or something similar. It must get pretty tiring to have to maintain an endless stream of conversation with a succesion of clients all day long. In my job I have to talk to people all day, but it’s generally pretty focussed discussion on their health problems so it usually takes care of itself.

In case you were wondering what prompted this, I had my long overdue haircut today, the last weekday of my mini holiday. The conversation ranged from the weather, my hairdresser’s cousin’s legal education and mental health problems, her best friend’s health problems, her menstrual cycle and what contraceptive pill she’s on, tax and tax deductions, and the usual “so what are you doing this weekend?” I was pretty tired out by the end of it, and all I had to do was mostly just sit there and listen – she has to keep on like this all day long (hopefully minus the gynaecological elements for the rest of her clients.) So I tip my hat off to her and other hairdressers – there’s much more to that job than just cutting, combing, and blowdrying.

“Comitology” has nothing to do within burning rocks hurtling through space (which would be “cometology” I imagine), rather it’s the study of committees, undertaken by “comitologists”. Here’s 3 definitions of a committee :

1. a collection of the unfit chosen from the unwilling by the incompetent to do the unnecessary
2. a group of people who, individually, can do nothing, but collectively can meet and decide that nothing can be done
3. a group which succeeds in getting something done when, and only when, it consists of three members, one of whom happens to be sick and another absent

Humorous but all too often true also.

Quote from Thomas Martin by Leonard Sweet in “A is for Abductive“

Yesterday morning while driving I was thinking that you know a person has been really influential when they become synonymous with their first name, to the point that you can’t use that name without thinking of that person. Jesus, Napoleon, and Elvis are the three examples which sprung to mind (all three happen to be kings of a sort), but I’m sure there are others. Plenty of historical figures have become synonymous with their surname (Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Nixon etc) but their first names are still used by many without conjuring up visions of these great leaders. Not many people call their children Elvis or Jesus anymore (although I have met people with both of these names, and instantly thought of their more famous namesake – never met a Napoleon though) Funnily enough, later that evening I was reading about how the Hebrew name Yeshua (or Joshua – ‘Jesus’ is the Greek form of this) went out of vogue with Jews after the first century A.D. and was replaced with a longer form Yehoshua, as the popularity of Christianity grew. It would be interesting to see the stats about the name Elvis.

On a semi-related topic, whilst in the shops yesterday I looked at a new novel about Napoleon – the first in a series of four. It looked like a very interesting book but from what I could see seemed to be written using the present tense, which could turn out to be quite unsettling. Anyway my list of books waiting on my shelf to be read is far too long at the moment, but I might pick that one up later in the year and have a look if I get time. Just trying to find it on Amazon so I can add it to my Amazon wishlist which is where I put things which look interesting to remind myself to check them out some time. It’s quite useful – since getting it a couple of months ago I’ve already got 5 or 6 things off it. Of course other people can also buy me things off it too (hint, hint) but that’s not really my idea behind it. It’s more as a reminder for me. I’ve also set one up for Jenni but as you can only have one wishlist per account on amazon, her’s is a wedding registry – the big day is set for September 19, 2008 so mark your diaries now (actually that’s our 10th anniversary) Funnily enough, I can’t find this book on Amazon (aside from the French edition) which is a first for me. Very odd to find something in an Australian bookshop but not on Amazon, aside from obviously local Australian content.

What do you do on a Sunday afternoon when the kids are having uncharacteristically long sleeps? Well I did a bit of reading and then ended up online doing a personality test. I found a good list of personality-test resources on the Living Room Blog and ended up doing the Enneagram + Myers Briggs Jung test
Paul’s Results

Myers-Briggs Results

INFJ – “Author”. Strong drive and enjoyment to help others. Complex personality. 1.5% of total population. Introverted (I) 60.61% Extroverted (E) 39.39% Intuitive (N) 53.13% Sensing (S) 46.88% Feeling (F) 54.29% Thinking (T) 45.71% Judging (J) 55.56% Perceiving (P) 44.44%

Enneagram Test Results

Conscious self	Overall self

Type 1 Perfectionism |||||||||||||||| 66% Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||| 43% Type 3 Image Awareness |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Type 4 Sensitivity |||||||||||||| 53% Type 5 Detachment |||||||||||||| 53% Type 6 Anxiety |||||||||| 36% Type 7 Adventurousness |||||||||||| 46% Type 8 Aggressiveness |||||||||||||| 53% Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||||||||| 73% Your Conscious-Surface type is 3w4 Your Unconscious-Overall type is 2w1

Jenni’s Results

Myers-Briggs Results

ISFJ – “Conservator”. Desires to be of service and to minister to individual needs – very loyal. 13.8% of total population. Introverted (I) 59.38% Extroverted (E) 40.63% Sensing (S) 73.33% Intuitive (N) 26.67% Feeling (F) 52.94% Thinking (T) 47.06% Judging (J) 75.76% Perceiving (P) 24.24%

Enneagram Test Results

Conscious self	Overall self

Type 1 Perfectionism |||||||||||||||| 70% Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||||| 60% Type 3 Image Awareness |||||||||| 40% Type 4 Sensitivity |||||||||||||| 53% Type 5 Detachment |||||||||||||| 56% Type 6 Anxiety |||||||||||||||| 66% Type 7 Adventurousness |||| 16% Type 8 Aggressiveness |||||| 23% Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||||||| 63% Your Conscious-Surface type is 1w9 Your Unconscious-Overall type is 2w3

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Jennifer thinks the Myers-Briggs tests are fairly accurate although she disagrees slightly with part of my results. And she’s the one with the degree in Psychology so she knows a lot more about this than I do. The Enneagram test results seem a bit harsh though, particularly mine.

Anyway there’s a whole heap more personality quizzes at Similarminds.com in addition to the list at the Living Room. That’s enough to keep you occupied for hours if you’re into that sort of thing.

One thing that bothers me a bit is when parents give their children very bizarre or stupid names. Good article today in The West Australian about some more old fashioned names may be starting to come back into vogue, however I doubt I’ll end up delivering too many kids called Herbert or Edgar. But I’d rather see one of those names than some of the unusual ones they list – like Quill, Utah, or Zepplen for boys or Ysabeau, Solitaire or Rhythm for girls – yuck! Speaking of Utah, why are there so many Australian parents naming their children after American states now, like Dakota or Montana for example (which from what I hear is a pretty flat boring state – apologies to anyone who hails from there)

This reminds me of an informal competition that was going while I was doing my obstetrics training – the “Garry” competition. Basically the premise was that no-one had delivered a baby named Garry in recent memory and the first person to do so would be the winner, and be rewarded with bottles of red wine. As a result we would often offer up the name Garry as a suggestion when prospective parents were discussing names for their children – unfortunately no-one ever took me up on the suggestion and I never won the elusive bottle of Cab Sav or whatever.

Finally, if despite all this you insist on still giving your child a weird name, why not just make one up from scratch? Like “Grast” for example – you might end up starting a trend for years to come, as this report from the ABC suggests. Interesting theory on cultural evolution.

‘Kudos’ is one of those cool words that I don’t use all that much. It’s a word that remains cool if used sparingly but can sound a bit stupid when over-used. I read a book review later where the author was going “kudos for this, kudos for that, more kudos to him” and it all sounded a bit pretentious. Anyway I got to thinking about kudos again this morning after church, where we had a drama production, which was brilliant, and which greatly deserved kudos. And then I wondered, where does this cool word come from? It almost sounds kinda Japanese – as if Kudos were a prize given to a victorious Samurai warrior in days of old. Alas the real definition is not so exciting. It’s from a Greek word meaning glory or magical glory, and is generally used to mean “Glory; fame; renown; praise” Still it’s a good word even if it’s origins aren’t as exotic as I imagined.
Kudos to the drama team at Warnbro!

A jiffy is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. Thus the saying, I will be there in a jiffy.

Only just over 2 months to go until Christmas.
We’ve been especially good this year and started doing our Christmas shopping early (partly because if our house is finished in December like we hope we won’t have much disposable income then)

Jennifer found some great Christmas cards which I’ve just ordered for her online from World Vision – not only are they nice cards but the proceeds go to a good cause. So if you need to get cards at some point, take a look.