1 June Musings
How can it be? Wasn’t it just January? How can it already be the first of June? Where did May go? Is it just me, or is time going by faster? Or is it just a function of my own aging? [And can I write one more question and get away with it? : 
:]
Enough of that. It’s the first of June in the year 2009. We’re another month closer to leaving the ‘naughties’ behind, assuming one believes that 2010 changes the decade. I guess if you were one to believe the new millenium began on 1 January 2000, to be consistent you would have to think 2010 is the beginning of the — what? — the teenies? Now *that* will be a fun moniker to play with. Teenies, weenies, bitties, bikinis… Any more you can think of?
We are in the midst of Swine Flu madness here. 1 June marks the beginning of winter in our part of the world. (Yes, I know, the solstice isn’t until later in the month. I was once told, by an Australian mind you, that the reason we set the beginning of seasons at the first of the month in which they occur is because it’s too hard to remember the real date. It’s sort of like putting holidays on a Monday in the US, even though the real date of the event is in the middle of the week, only without getting a 3-day weekend.) Flu is a natural part of winter. This year it has become a shock! horror! what are we going to do! sort of event. I have yet to see someone wearing a mask, but suspect I will this week when I go to the city for lunch with a friend. Our state has the most cases, over 200, out of the almost 300 diagnosed nationally. Schools are closed in some areas. Doctors are running out of masks. Families are being quarantined in their homes and discovering what it’s like to live with other people again, playing games, eating together, and even having conversations. Shock! Horror!
Now the Shock!-Horror!-monger media and public officials are hedging their bets and saying that maybe this is just like normal flu, that the sky won’t fall in and maybe, just maybe, we should get a touch of it so we build immunity as it mutates, which it probably will. Maybe it wasn’t so smart to give out all those anti-viral pills which some people have reacted badly to, but that some viruses have been adapting to. Just can’t fool Mother Nature, eh? Like the Internet, viruses tweak themselves and get right around those breaks. Oh, oh! Or just like those nasty pron lovers and spammers, they find their way around or through the walls that get built. I wonder if virologists [those who study viruses] have looked at spam models for similarities? Or ditto for spamologists [those who study spam]? There must be some common model there.
Changing subject. I’m really enjoying being an ‘educator’ again, having begun the fourth week of the online course for the Computer Society’s Computer Professional Education Program http://education.acs.org.au/. I’m even reviving some ideas from my days working in Maricopa at Rio Salado and also from the Electronic Forum. It still all comes down to human communication and effort. The more you share with others in a kind way, the more they share with you. The more you put in, the more you get out. Very simple when it all boils down to it. And excuses for why an assignment is late are pretty much the same, too.
As a result of the course and other activities, my book has gone on hold. I’ve posted about 10 chapters for critiquing and stalled. I’m OK with that because I need distance from that work and a clear head to actually make the necessary changes. I think that’s called focus, something I’m a bit short of at the moment.
Enough rambling on this overcast, foggy day in outer southeast Melbourne. Must get back to marking those assignments!