Blog

My LinkedIn Summary

/ adrunkenman / Leave a comment

LinkedIn, the professionals social network (or the job recruiters way of cheating) is something I have a somewhat mixed feeling toward. I am usually one of the first to adopt a new social network or online service, but the fact that LinkedIn seeks to deal with my career (a part of my life I am less than happy with); my relationship with it has never been like that of my friendship with Twitter, or begrudging association with Facebook.

So while I keep up with LinkedIn as much as I can, accepting connections requests, endorsing skills, following ‘influencers’ and what have you; it still kind of bugs me when I visit.

It think the main reason is the constant nudging for more information, but specifically information about your career, ambitions and so forth. it’s a bit disconcerting when you still haven’t nailed down those parts of your life. But today, after the fifth time of being asked to add a summary, I decided to give it my best go.

So here it is, my LinkedIn summary:

A summary of who I am is the strangest thing I could ever think of writing; and I like writing strange things! How am I meant to summarise something that I don’t even fully understand yet?
I’m just a regular guy. Tried to get an education early on, studied in Engineering. Later on got a maths and statistics degree. Was lucky enough to find a beautiful wife to share my life with early on, and now have an awesome son sharing the journey with us.
I like to write, and obversly to read. I enjoy solving problems, love delving into the world of mathematics, and can make Excel do almost anything I want (from creating my own metric clock, emulating a German enigma machine, and tracking my daily beer intake until it got a bit disturbing and I had to stop).
The world fascinates me. I love learning about the natural world, watching David Attenborough keep doing his work after what must be a century of narration. I enjoy reading about the past, present, and future. Hearing how humankind is developing and making the world a better place excites me.
I am a certified Lego master from back in the day (when I conferred the title upon myself), and have developed this ability to build well into adulthood so that I have now build two decks for my house, among many other handy man jobs.
But really, I don’t know if this is a summary of me, I am just someone doing their best with the time I have. I’m just a guy who likes thinking about stuff, likes doing things, and is insanely grateful to be able to live a life where I have people who love me, and put up with my crap jokes.
P.s. I know obversly isn’t a word, but I totally think it should be, and the way I would define it makes perfect sense in the context I used it.
P.p.s. I don’t care what’s going on, I won’t tuck in my shirt or wear a tie; I just don’t see the point. Oh and I wear glasses.
Bam.

Oh, and if for some reason, someone out there is actually reading this and is interested; here is the link to my LinkedIn profile.

A little something I wrote on Upgrades and Early Adoption

/ adrunkenman / Leave a comment

A while back I got a new pair of glasses after what must have been a decade with my old pair. The old pair was scratched with years’ worth of knocks and abrasions that clouded my view significantly. But like a frog boiling on a slowly heated skillet, the gradual build-up of imperfections escaped my notice until I had effectively adapted to peering through a scratched, cloudy screen.
So when I got my brand new pair of glasses I was shocked at how clear everything was; suddenly I was looking at the worlds in HD! It was like when I switched from VHS to DVD (ah, the days of physical media).
Not to mention the fact that my new glasses were significantly larger (as is apparently the fashion), so I had also transitioned from the old aspect ratio, to something more attuned to widescreen.
As these thing do, it got me thinking, and the following short piece of fiction is the result. I wondered what would happen if we started producing the ability to see with higher definition than we currently can, or even cover more of the electromagnetic spectrum.
I coupled this idea with some thoughts I had on how we deal with information, and upgrades in the modern world.
So, let me know what you think; criticise me, critique the work, give comments on how I could improve the idea, or if you like just throw some praise my way.
It’s all up to you dear reader.
Enjoy!
MM

Early Adopter

Quick thoughts on the Bali Nine Executions

/ adrunkenman / Leave a comment

The death penalty is such a ridiculous thing, proven to be ineffective time and time again.
I don’t care when people tell me that drug smugglers knew the risk, or that we should respect other nation’s laws. People don’t always act rationally, or make the best decisions when risk is involved. As for respecting other countries laws, I fail to see why we should do so when it involves killing people who pose no danger to the safety of others. We can respect other countries sovereignty; that shouldn’t stop us from saying that what they are doing is wrong.
Our government should be doing all it can to publicly decry the death penalty, wherever it is employed. The fact that it can be considered a form of justice, whether it be against drug smugglers in Indonesia, or murderers in the United States, seems to me to be a misunderstanding of what justice is, and distorts how we as a society value human life.

ANZAC Day 2015

/ adrunkenman / Leave a comment

I hate to say it, but I can’t wait till this ANZAC Day is over. Because quite frankly the media saturation and overexposure is making the day seem less significant to me, and I don’t like that. I don’t like that it is making me think less of the day than I usually do.
ANZAC Day should be about remembering the sacrifices our troop shave made in the past, not trying to assert that Gallipoli was some intrinsic part of our becoming a nation. Other countries have had events in their past that were necessary for them to have become the nation that they were; the United States for instance celebrate Independence Day as a formative event in their history. It truly did impact the nation that they became, and is an integral part of their culture.
ANZAC Day is different. Yes we can remember and celebrate the fact that our nations fighting forces were willing to make sacrifices for their country, but let’s not try and make the fact that it happened 100 years ago more important than the actual people involved. And let’s not try and say that so much of our nation’s amazing culture is tied up in this particular bit of military history. Our culture is a flowing, changing and developing thing; it wasn’t set in stone 100 years ago.
So tomorrow I will be remembering the sacrifice that my great grandfather, and many others past and present, made in service of their country, and not celebrating some faux nationalistic ideal.
There; rant complete. Does anyone else feel this way?