Paul Chippendale's Blog

The Unconscious Civilisation

2011-12-07T09:02:00.001+10:00

Saul, J. 1997, The Unconscious Civilisation has been added to the bibliography at the Minessence Values Framework Knowledge-base: http://bit.ly/uErlXk. A must read book for anyone wishing to understand what's happening to our society and, with that increased understanding, to engage in its transformation. As Saul says (p.14), "The marketplace these days is into job elimination." Isn't it about time we invented a marketplace which is into job creation? The diagram below, from the New York Times, illustrates just how hard people have worked to increase productivity (i.e. eliminate jobs). For what real benefit?

Click to Enlarge

The Evidence is Mounting, any Economy which Relies on Growth is Doomed and then, so are too We

2011-12-03T07:18:00.001+10:00

Richard Heinberg of The Guardian in an article titled, "Life after the end of economic growth" (The Guardian, 30 Nov, 2011), writes:

Stimulating growth has become job No 1 for policymakers. David Cameron insists that his nation must deregulate business and reform employment law in order to "go for growth". And at the conclusion of the recent G20 global economic summit, the US president, Barack Obama, reported that the discussions there had revolved around the question, "How do we achieve greater global growth?" Such statements raise nary an eyebrow; they are entirely expected.

Nonetheless, in recent years a few economists have advanced a contrary view. Tim Jackson in the UK, Herman Daly in the US, and Serge Latouche in France have argued that growth is not always good for the environment or for the real health of communities, and that GDP growth is impossible to sustain over the long run anyway because we live on a planet with limited natural resources. Their position has won few adherents in the mainstream. In the "real" worlds of politics and economics, questioning growth is like arguing against gasoline at a Formula One race.

But doubts about growth are no longer theoretical. We seem to have arrived at a moment when further economic expansion is hemmed in by financial as well as natural limits. As extraction industries chewed through the low-hanging fruit of the world's oil, coal, natural gas and other minerals, and turned to lower-grade and thus more expensive ores and fuels, managers of the economy tried to keep growth going by piling up debt in the mistaken belief that it is only money that makes the economy run, not energy and raw materials. Today, high oil prices are keeping a lid on commercial expansion in the older industrial nations as petroleum demand shifts to the hyperactive economies of Asia, which for now can afford steeper fuel prices. Meanwhile, we in the west seem to have maxed out government and consumer credit, and that realisation is sending financial markets into fibrillation. With energy resources and credit both stretched tight, that means more economic growth may simply not be possible in the US and Europe, regardless of our opinions about it.

If policymakers fail to recognise this and continue assuming that the current debt crisis is just another turning of the business cycle, then we may lose whatever opportunity still remains to avert a crash that could bring civilisation to its knees. Over the short run, this is scary business. Financial markets have a hair trigger, and fears about flagging growth could bring down governments and banks.

Still, over the longer term there will undoubtedly be life after growth, and it doesn't have to play out under miserable conditions. With less energy to fuel globalisation and mechanisation there should be increasing requirement for local production and manual labour. We could meet everyone's basic needs by prioritising jobs in manufacturing and agriculture while downsizing the financial industry and the military. We will also have to reduce economic inequality and corruption (as the rapidly spreading Occupy movement rightly insists).

I am so sick of politicians talking as though the economy is God. The economy has become some form of religion for governments. It's time world leaders stopped to think, reflect and re-evaluate where we've come from and where civilization should be heading. The global economy is a human construct after all, designed originally to fund the World War II effort in the UK (Marilyn Waring, Who's Counting). The economy, like all human created systems, has the values system of its founders. It's time to de-construct and re-construct the global economic system with a values system relevant to the 21st Century - a values systems which puts the well-being of all living things first.

You may have seen the two videos below before, even so, they are worth watching again.

David Suzuki's Legacy. At 74, and coming the end of his scientific and broadcasting career, Suzuki mused on the notion: "If I had one last lecture to give, what would I say?" The result is a very special talk full of humour, warmth, insight and passion. At a packed house at the Perth Convention Centre, Suzuki voiced his long-time frustration at the obsession for economic growth at the sacrifice of nature, while urging us all to strive for a sustainable future...

Prosperity Without Growth. Tim Jackson, a professor of Sustainable Development and author of the book, Prosperity Without Growth, argues it's time to re-think the very notion of growth and what it means to be genuinely prosperous...

Energy gain is the primary reason we eat!

2011-12-02T11:49:00.001+10:00

Very interesting study from Harvard: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/11/why-cooking-counts/.

Despite the fact that energy gain is the primary reason we eat, until now no one had done any significant research into this aspect of cooking and its impact on us.

The Importance of Feedback

2011-12-02T09:59:00.001+10:00

There's an old management saying, "If you don't measure it, you can't control it." These days we all know that, in reality, we can't control anything. Influence things yes, control things no. So I'm thinking this old saying needs a rework to:

"You can only influence that from which you receive feedback."

What do you think?

Complexity, the Arrow of Progress & Growth

2011-12-01T15:56:00.001+10:00

I've been working with this concept for a while, that is, ever since I read Czikszentmihalyi's book, Flow: The Psychology of Happiness. Now I've decided to add a separate page to this Blog demonstrating how to Czikszentmihalyi's ideas, and some of my own. can be applied.

New Blog Layouts

2011-12-01T15:41:00.001+10:00

Have been busy updating my blogs to take advantage of Google's new layout options. Particularly like that it is now possible to add multiple pages.

Life Tools: Life Tools Training Through Small Groups--an experiential approach

2011-04-07T09:34:00.000+10:00

Over 20 years ago, I was a senior manager who believed he had a collaborative management style—that was until I enrolled in one of Yaro’s subjects, Education as Social Work, at the University of Queensland. I still vividly recall the shock of participating in a group exercise within the class facilitated by Yaro, only to find out that my management style was anything but collaborative! I became an instant experiential learning convert. As my in-class group process experience attests, “What we believe we know may not be so at all.”

Non-experiential learning teaches you about the world, but you only understand it when you experience it. As my variation on an old adage says:

I hear, I forget;
I see, I remember;
I do, I understand;
I practise, I can.

Group-based learning adds another vital dimension to the experiential learning process: feedback from others. As a former colleague, Brian Hall, used to say, “What we know about ourselves is boring. What really matters is what other people say about us. We may not agree with them, but it’s worth at least reflecting on what they think about us—we may learn something.”

When it comes to human behaviour, learning and change are synonymous—without change there has been no learning. A word then about change: Change = Rapport + Information. One must firstly gain rapport with people before they will take on board what you are saying. To gain rapport with people you must develop the ability to see the world through their eyes. Only then will you understand why their values are important to them—they will intuitively sense you understand and respect theirvalues, and real rapport will emerge. Only then will they learn from the presenting information.

In his latest Book, Life Tools: Life Tools Training Through Small Groups--an experiential approach, Yaro passes on years of wisdom in the form of Life Tools for use in small groups. Enjoy the journey.

Food Wars of the Future

2010-11-18T06:15:00.001+10:00

With the way things are unfolding across the globe, I suspect we will be heading to an ugly situation where even in countries like Australia, there will be in sufficient food to feed everyone--this will lead to violence as people struggle to survive.

The only way to avoid this will be to de-construct the existing system of economics and reformulate one which is not reliant on numeric growth (more/bigger). The video below gives some idea of what a non growth economy may look like...

New Wisdom III

2010-07-24T08:38:00.000+10:00

I'm finally back writing & editing the latest edition of my book New Wisdom III. I've decided to publish this edition in A4 format as this is the only way I can include some of the charts which need to be included--and keep them large enough to be readable.

Anyone interested in proof reading it? Let me know if you are & I'll send you chapters as they are completed. You will be acknowledged in the book for your efforts & will receive a couple of free copies of the book as soon as it's published.

Principles to Live By Blog Updates

2010-05-11T15:39:00.000+10:00

I updated my Principles to Live By blog with the key factors which have contributed to people living to 100+

What [reality] collapse (the kind of ‘something of significance’ you mention) do you think will come first for you, and how soon are you expecting it?

2010-02-15T11:41:00.003+10:00

This was another interesting question asked of me today which got me thinking. A partial answer is below:

There are a whole range of influences that can change a person's world-view in an instant. From simply reading a book and having an "Ah-Ha" moment while reading it, to having a significant emotive event such as having someone close to you die unexpectedly and inexplicably. For more on this process please go to: http://minessence-principles.blogspot.com/search/label/world-view

If you are asking what significant emotive events have impacted on me personally, here's a record of one: http://minessence.blogspot.com/search/label/this%20could%20save%20your%20life.

There's no point dwelling on these events, they happen, learn quickly from them & get on with life. The way I believe is most effective in approaching life is summarised here: http://www.minessence.net/default.aspx?tab=2

What are the underlying values that motivate you in the work that you’ve been doing all these years?

2010-02-15T11:15:00.005+10:00

Today I was asked this interesting question. Below was my response:

My Values, Vision & Mission are at: http://www.minessence.net/default.aspx?tab=4 My whole approach is predicated on the efficacy of the conscientization process coupled with self-organizing systems (click here to see a great video demonstrating learning via technology and self-organizing systems).

I also work a lot with Multiple Intelligences as epitomised by this quote:

"Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength and idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom." [Dee W. Hock, Fast Company]. This video: [click here to see it] explains better than I ever will the problems emerging from the over emphasis on only one form of IQ.

Humans' place in the scheme of things

2010-02-15T10:05:00.013+10:00

Some thoughts came into my mind in relation to the futility of trying to effect social change on a grand scale so I decided to record them here.

No one can change another's world-view through facts. One's world-view only changes when something of significance happens in the person's life to cause them to see the world differently--that process can't be engineered, it just happens.

Yet, it is only when a person's world-view changes that their values change. And, it's only when a person's values change that they choose a different path.

If we stuff things up so humans can no longer exist on this planet--I'm sure something human-like will evolve somewhere else at some point in time--there's billions of years to play with.

Anyway, I don't know why humans are so caught up in their importance. We are just a species like the dinosaurs who have our time at the moment, no doubt some other species will have it's time when we are gone.

In fact I wonder why we look at humans as so "evolved" that we put them at the top of the "tree of evolution". After all when you think of it, animals (of which humans are the worst) are a gruesome species. We can only live through killing and devouring other life forms. In my books, most plants are a higher life form than animals (including humans who by this measure are perhaps the lowest of life-forms). Plants are solar powered, on-balance they create rather than destroy the eco-system, and they live off life forms (compost, etc.) which have died a natural death. Above all, the majority of plants don't kill other life-forms in order to keep themselves alive.

Hallelujah--I've solved it

2009-09-08T10:20:00.006+10:00

For about two years I've been trying to get a small snippet of code written to make navigation at my website simple for users, whilst at the same time, simple for me to update the site. I decided three days ago I was going to solve it once and for all.

I immersed myself in 2000 page programming manuals, did google searches on code snippets, & tried different variations of four lines of code over and over. A few minutes ago I finally came up with a code combination which works!! Yeh!

For those who are pragmatically inclined, I was "simply" trying to add "target" to a sitemap node (For some inexplicable reason Microsoft didn't include target). This is how it's done...

In the page where you have a gridview control add a template column thus:

Note the [ ] bracket around target in Eval("[target]"). That was the solution to solving this puzzle. The square bracket supplies a key, in this case "target" and retrieves its value, in this case "_blank" or nothing.

And the way to add target to the sitemap node is...
The objNode.Item("target") = "_blank" is where the "Target" property is added to the standard: ID, title, url, & description properties of Microsoft's sitemap node.

And what does all this do? It allows a page to be opened in a new window using a menu derived from the site's sitemap--it's all about mastering the complex to make life simple for website users.

Read this--it could save your life

2009-08-27T05:00:00.011+10:00

The Serious Stuff
I decided to post this personal experience on my blog as I believe reading it could save someone's life.

The story begins with the death of my brother, John, when I was 46 (he was three years younger than me)--I am now 62. John died from cancer a few years after having a melanoma removed from his leg.

From John's death on, I've made a point of having regular skin checkups to make sure that if I get a melanoma it can be removed before it starts spreading.

About 10 years ago, what appeared to be a freckle just above my wrist, seemed to me to be getting bigger. I went to the doctor and was told it was nothing to worry about. At that stage it was about 1cm across. Very, very slowly, it kept getting bigger. I kept going for my regular skin inspections at my local GP, whenever I received a reminder in the mail. Each time I was told my slowly growing (horizontally, not vertically) freckle was nothing to worry about, "it's just an old age spot"--whatever that is, I never bothered to ask.

By the time my freckle was 1.5 cm across and had got a bit darker, others started to notice it. Friends would ask, "what's that? Did you get a tattoo?" "No," I'd reply, "It's just an old age spot." Strangers would just ask, "What's that?" my reply would be the same.

As it got even bigger my wife and friends would say, "You should get that checked, it doesn't look right." To which I'd respond that I get skin checks each year and it's just an age spot. "Nothing to worry about."

A few weeks ago when I phoned to make an appointment to see my GP in response to her annual skin checkup reminder letter, I was told my regular GP was not available at a time which suited me, would I see another Doctor. "Yes," I replied.

I went for my checkup. Seeing my freckle, "how long have you had this?" the Doctor asks. "About ten years. It's just an old age spot. It's growing very slowly." The Doctor replied, "I don't like the look of it. Is it OK if I take a biopsy and have it checked." "OK," I reply. After taking the biopsy he tells me to come back in 7 days to have the single stitch out.

When I go back to get the stitch out he has the biopsy results. It's a Hutchinson's Melanotic Freckle. "What's that," I ask. The Doctor explains that it's probably not life threatening but may start to look more ugly as it could just keep growing (at this stage it's already the size of a 50 cent coin). "What's the treatment?" I now have to wait for ages while he looks it up on the Internet. "I'll have to send you to a specialist, " he replies, "as the only way to remove it is by surgery. It's too big for me to do here." I joke with him that I know an alternative way to get rid of it. I tell him how, in the early 60s, in fig season, I would help my family pick figs for the Golden Circle Cannery (sometimes as much a 3 tons a day)--they make it into fig jam. If we picked with bare hands, within about 1 hr, the white sap from the fig stems causes the tips of our fingers to bleed. Dad, an agricultural chemist, said this happened there was an enzyme in the sap which dissolved skin. Needless to say, we always picked figs with gloves on, but not before we discovered the sap was a great way of removing wharts--it magically dissolved them away. So after recounting this story to the Doctor (a bit briefer than this version), I joke that I can get rid of my freckle with fig sap. He gives me a referral to a skin specialist.

As soon as I get home I make an appointment with the specialist. I don't take the first available appointment, I have more important things to do. We agree on 18th August, 2009. On that date I duly arrive 15 mins early for my checkup. I am told I'll have to wait because the Doctor is running behind schedule. Almost two hours later I get to meet him.

I duly flash my freckle with the fancy name in front of his face as he reads the biopsy report. "I've had this for years," I say, " It's growing so slowly..." He stops me mid sentence. He explains to me that my freckle has to be removed ASAP and launches straight into a description of how he will do it. I start to protest the innocence of my poor freckle, sure it might be ugly, but it's not life threatening. Again he interrupts me, "it's an insitu melanoma," he explains, "it may not be malignant now, but when it turns malignant, and it will, you'll be dead in a few months."

Sensing that I am not grasping what he's saying, he pulls out this very thick illustrated text book. Before it even reaches the desk, I exclaim, "It's OK. I know what you are saying. I don't need to see!" My words fall on deaf ears. Stage 1 of the Melanotic Freckle/Insitu Melanoma looks like a very very small version of my freckle. Stage 2 looks dark & fiery. Stage 3 looked so gross I felt like puking--"surely the person who had that must already be dead," I thought. Then he says, "I'll book you in tomorrow to have it removed." Startled, all I can utter is,"Tomorrow!" "Yes," he reiterated, "and you should buy the Doctor who sent you here a carton of beer and tell him he's just saved your life."

Well it didn't end up that I had the Melanotic Freckle removed the next day because he was unable to book an anesthetist at such short notice. So the appointment was made for 4th September 2009. "What! I've just taken on board that it will be done tomorrow, and now I have to wait two-and-a-half weeks!"

When Susan (my wife) gets home from work, I tell her the good news. She's both shocked and pleased. Susan never liked the look of that damn spot. The next day, Susan organises to take the day of 4th September off work. I'm running a workshop starting 10th September. I'll be fine by then. I've got two-and-a-half-weeks to get everything organised. No problem.

Then the very next Monday (24 August) I get a call, "We've rescheduled you 11am Wednesday 26 August. Is that OK?" I gasp, "That's in two days? Yes that's great. See you then." I hang up the phone and literally have a panic attack. I head for somewhere to lie down for a while. When the attack is over, I compose myself and frantically SMS Susan the details so she has time to try and re-arrange her day off. About an hour later I receive an SMS from Susan confirming her changed day off has been approved.

The next day. More drama. Another phone call, "Can you make it for 7am tomorrow? You will be the first cab-off-the-rank." "Fantastic," I reply. No panic attack this time.

Well, some time between 7am and 10am yesterday, my beloved Melanotic Freckle was removed and sent off to a pathologist to begin the next chapter of this saga.

The moral of this post?

If you have a spot on your skin you don't like the look of, have it checked out.
If they say it's fine and you are still concerned, get another opinion.
If you are still uncomfortable, especially if it's growing, get someone to do a biopsy to find out what it really is.
Heed your own instincts and those of your friends and family.

Why?
Because:

If it's removed when it's small you won't end up with a 30 cm scar on your stomach where they remove the skin they use to make a 3 cm diameter patch to graft into the hole left from removing the little-become-big spot, and
It may save your life.

The Cool Stuff
For all you joggers/runners or people with medical backgrounds out there in blogger land, I want to share some cool experiences I had yesterday.

At 7am I arrive as scheduled to await my surgery. After going through the usual weigh in and checklist I change into my gown. While taking off my Rugger shorts I manage to pull the cord too far so one end only is poking out. I start to fix it but give up. I'm led to a room where the surgeon greets me. He says he'll be taking the skin to use in the graft from my leg. He asks me to lift my gown so he can show me where he's taking it from. Glancing at my legs he instantly asks, "are you a jogger?" "Yes, " I reply without asking how he figured that out. "Well we won't take skin from your leg then," he says, "It will affect your training. We'll take if from your stomach area instead." How cool is that--a Doctor who matches his surgical procedures to my life-style.
He then goes on to explain how to minimise the healing time to the wound made in harvesting the skin for the graft, he will be cutting out one long rectangular strip. Then stretching the skin, sewing it up to cover the gap. How cool, a bonus tummy tuck. Soney, if you are reading this, 'Buddha belly' is now a bit smaller.
If you are wondering how a ruler like strip of skin becomes a 3 cm diameter patch of skin to graft in where that damn spot was, just imagine making a circular patch-work quilt out of bits of the strip. I have to wait 'till Friday to see his patch-work quilt making handiwork.
I awoke at 9.30 am. After a bit of chit-chat, the recovery room Nurse left to get my clothes for me to change back into. While he was away (I think they must have given me some sodium pentathol because I couldn't seem to shut up) I was telling the theatre Sister about my accident with the cord which holds up my trousers. When the Nurse returned with my clothes the Sister immediately grabbed my shorts and tried to fix the cord. It wasn't working so she put them down, went into the operating theatre, returned with a pair of forceps, and Viola, my cord was fixed. How cool!
One week later, the pathology results are in, it was a level 2 Melanoma, & they think they got it all--which I gather means I'll be OK for at least 10 years--provided I visit the doctor for a check-up every three months to start with, then every year, and then every two years. Apparently, once you've had one melanoma you are highly likely to get another within a few years.

Postscript
Last week (10 February, 2010) it was confirmed that they did not cut out enough in the first operation. On 30 March, an extra 1mm is to be cut out all around and another nearby spot about the size of a 5 cent piece is to be removed. C'est la vie.

Update

2009-06-01T13:15:00.003+10:00

Found some pearl tapioca today so am looking forward to doing a baked tapioca in the next few days.

The vege garden is going well -- I've planted quite a few more herbs.

Susan & I are looking forward to three weeks in Sydney looking after our 1 yr old grandson. They've just purchased a new house so we're looking forward to seeing that too.

Found a whole new exciting area to study--brain plasticity--there are some great videos around explaining how it works--basically, any learning, no matter what your age, increases your neural networks--as we've always known, "use it or lose it" & "no pain no gain" there's no short cut, lots and lots of repetition is necessary to form new & lasting networks in our brain.

2009-01-08T14:33:00.005+10:00

I built this stereo amplifier for my Mum & Dad about 30yrs ago. It stopped working recently. The fault turned out to be simple. It just needed a new set of loudspeaker output sockets. It's now working as well as ever.

This is a Sansui stereo amplifier I purchased in New Guinea before I was married. That makes it 36+ years old.

A few days ago it started making a lot of noise in the left channel. The volume control had no effect on the noise, however, the treble control did affect the noise. This meant the offending component had to be between the volume control circuitry and the treble control circuitry. It turned out to be the 3.3 mf electrolytic coupling capacitor between these two stages. I replaced the capacitor and now it too is working as good as new.

Programming

2008-11-09T06:57:00.003+10:00

Well I've been working around the clock for the past week developing an online version of AVI's relationship development report. It was needed for a workshop in Dubai conducted by Jim Warner of OnCourse International.

Sprint training suffered as a result, however, I kept up my regular jogging. In fact Stephanie and I managed our longest and best jog (despite a lingering calf muscle strain from the last sprint training session -- the physio was right, you do need to keep the blood flowing through strains to heal them quickly) this year last Monday.

I've also been updating my main website adding links to some videos at the the presentations page.

Races

2008-10-27T06:21:00.002+10:00

Last Saturday, I wore my new spikes for the first time in a sprint race since injuring my hamstring a few weeks ago in training. However, the spikes made no difference to my time, 11:25 sec -- exactly the same as the previous week.

I was really pleased with how I felt & went in the 800m -- best time this year: 3:29 min -- I'll keep working to get below 3 min.

Training

2008-10-22T16:25:00.002+10:00

This morning training involved:

6 x practice starts
6 x 80m sprints with a 80%, slow, 100% pattern
1 x 300m sprint

I used my running spikes during the 60m sessions for the first time since straining my hamstring. No repeat of the previous problem.

Bingles, sunnies, & races

2008-10-20T09:31:00.002+10:00

It was an interesting week last week. On Monday night I managed to have a bingle in my car on the way to run at QE II Stadium. Fortunately my card was still drivable (just a dent in the bonnet).

As I continued on to the Stadium I realised I'd left my prescription sunglasses on the top of my car when I got out to survey the damage. There was no time to go back and look for them as would have missed my race.

Ran the 800m in 3min 30sec! That was 20sec better than a week before -- very pleased.

On the was back home I stopped where I'd had the bingle & went looking, with a flashlight, for my glasses. Found the lenses first then the frame. Bit hard to see with the flashlight, but the lenses looked OK -- which was astounding given the number of vehicles which must have run over them -- it's a very busy highway. No so lucky with fame. It really did look like many vehicles had run over it.

Next day, off to the optometrist with the frame and lenses. They were as surprised as I was that the lenses were intact. They had them fitted to a new frame within an hour. I now have a set of sunnies better than before as the lenses kept falling out of the old frame.

Next to get the car fixed. My insurance company advised me I will have to fork out $400 as that is the basic excess on my policy. My son rings around and tells me a new bonnet costs $135 and that there are plenty in stock. So I give the insurance company the flick and Jason and I have the new bonnet fitted before the end of the day (about 30 mins work).

On Saturday I had three races at QE II: 3000m, 60m and 300m. The picture below shows me running the 3000m race. I completed it in 16 min 44 sec -- 4 mins faster than a couple of weeks ago.

The picture below is the start of the 60m. My time was 11:25 sec. It was the first time I've ever run this distance in a race so have nothing to compare it with.

The last race of the day was 300m. I finished that in 60:26 sec. Again, I've never run in a race of this distance before so have nothing to compare the result with.

Value Descriptors

2008-10-11T08:07:00.002+10:00

I was up until midnight last night updating the Value Descriptors in the online database so I decided to skip sprint training which started at 7am this morning. I'll do an 8k jog thisarvo instead.

I've spent the morning re-organizing the Blogs page at www.minessence.net -- time for breakfast!!

Training

2008-10-08T11:16:00.002+10:00

This morning it was 6 X practise sprint starts, 6 X 150m, 6 X 100m, then 6 X 60m (walking back to the start before each sprint).

Tonight is a 35min jog,

800 metres

2008-10-04T12:53:00.003+10:00

Today was my first 800m race since the 70s (it was called an 880 then!). My time was 3:52. The first lap was fast but then I "died" but was still able to sprint the last 60m. With more training I believe I'm still capable of a sum 3min.

I also purchased this 1.5k discus from the Club for $2.00. Plan to have some fun with it, and get some extra exercise, at home.

Competation Starts

2008-10-01T10:54:00.003+10:00

Track competition started Saturday Sept, 20. I just went along to observe -- still nursing a hamstring strain from training two weeks before.

Rather than give up training altogether, I took up bike riding while the hamstring was repairing. My physio said it would take 10 days to heal and he was spot on.

Last Saturday Stephanie & I ran the QMA (Queensland Masters' Athletics) 3000m event at QEII. I was rather slow, my hamstring was niggling, but I was able to run the full distance.

Monday night, Stephanie & I jogged for 45mins with an 100m sprint at the end -- no sign of my hamstring playing up!

Today I re-commenced sprint training with the QMA. We did:

6 X practise starts
6 X 30m at 75% leading into 30m at 90% (total 60m)
6 X 20m at 90% leading into 30m at 90% then 20m at 89% then flat out for the remainder (total 100m)

Looking forward to the competition this Saturday -- I'll enter into the 60m sprint and perhaps the 800m.

Track training so far

2008-09-09T19:56:00.003+10:00

The first Saturday, we sprinted 30m then walked back, next 40m walked back and so on adding 10m each time until we reached 100m

The second Saturday, we:

Practised starts running only 10m after each start;
Did six by 100m sprints (walking back to the start after each one). Each sprint was started slow and accelerated to full speed by the end. This was then repeated with three by 50m sprints.

Last Saturday, we:

Relocated from QE II stadium to Queensland University's track because our track was in use for a meet.
Practised starts running only 10m after each start;
Sprinted 120m twice, 110m twice, and so on until we reached 60m. We walked back to the start & had a standing recovery after each sprint.

I wonder what we will do next Saturday.

Track Training

2008-09-09T06:54:00.003+10:00

As of three weeks ago I am back doing track training for the first time since the 1970's. My first involvement in athletics was running the cross-country at high school in 1963. I enjoyed the experience so much I've been running cross-countries, with Queensland Athletics, ever since.

The cross-country season is only in winter. In summer, because of the heat, athletes focus on track events which involve much shorter distances than cross-country races.

I had a grueling workout at the track two weeks ago. After the warm ups they said change into your spikes... I didn't have any so I decided to buy a new pair. As I still have my spikes from 1963 I took a comparison photo for a laugh:

There are two main differences between the old and new spikes: the old ones had fixed spikes 1.5cm long and were made from real leather. The new ones have removable spikes of 5mm to 7mm length and the shoes are definitely not leather -- thought they are very light.

Clear Air Turbulence!

2008-06-19T14:14:00.003+10:00

I've been flying regularly since 1963. Today leaving Brisbane bound for Sydney, we struck the worst case of clear air turbulence I've ever experienced. It was an interesting experience.

Rose of a Thousand Blooms

2008-05-30T08:43:00.004+10:00

Dad called this the "Rose of a Thousand Blooms". We always had it growing at our place and it certainly lived up to its name. Sandra was adamant a spray of this was to be placed on her coffin at her funeral. The family were in panic this week because none could be found with flowers -- only buds. Miraculously one bud opened just in time for the Tuesday service. I now have that cutting, shown here, and plan strike it and plant it in memory of Sandra.

First Grandchild

2008-05-28T19:39:00.003+10:00

This month we celebrated the birth of our first grandchild, Robert Luke Chippendale. The photo is of myself and wife Susan holding Robert for the first time.

What a Week!

2008-05-24T12:58:00.012+10:00

What are the probabilities of three people you know all dying within a week without there being any connection between each person? Perhaps this is the week I should have bought a lottery ticket. The past few days unfolded thus:

I get a call Thursday afternoon from Gisella to tell me our friend Roger (age 65 - 4 years older than me) is in hospital and not expected to live through the night. I drop everything I am doing (preparing for a workshop in Canberra) and rush over to take Gisella to see Roger. The hospital won't let us take our dog Starkey even though Roger loves Starkey. Gisella decides to take one of the balls Roger gave Starkey (they used to love playing ball together so much). When we arrive at the hospital Roger is too sick to talk to us. We are sure he knows we are there and pleased to know it. Gisella places Starkey's ball in his hand. He clutches on to it. Saturday we get word Roger has died. Wednesday Gisella has to attend an information session for a new job she is interested in and has to leave early for Roger's funeral. I can't attend because I am in Canberra running a workshop.
I call Wednesday night to find out how Roger's funeral went. Gisella informs me another person we know (aged in his thirties) had died at the weekend from an asthma attack! The funeral is set for Friday just before her job interview with the same people she had an information session with before Rogers funeral.
Friday night I arrive home from Canberra. My wife (Susan) picks me up from the Airport. The first thing she says is, "Your cousin Sandra has died." Sandra is the same age (3 days difference) as myself. I have always been very fond of Sandra. This is a real shock. At least next week I'm not running a workshop so will be able to attend Sandra's funeral.

What a week!

Creating God

2008-04-06T21:37:00.004+10:00

As I watched the science program, Human Version 2, on TV this evening, I realised it is possible to create 'God' without having even a minutest fraction of the intelligence of God. What a fascinating concept! If you are wondering what I'm on about, post a comment and ask.

New Book

2008-03-17T09:45:00.003+10:00

I'm busy writing my new book, Everyone a Leader: Celebrating Diversity Through Values. Every time I've written a book I've created it on a different technical platform.

I've decided the time is right to create this one, and subsequent books, using XML Copy Editor. I will use Ventura Publisher 10 to format/layout the book when I've finished writing it.

The advantage of writing the master text in XML is that the master XML document can be used to generate a virtually unlimited assortment of formats: eBook, hard-copy book, PDF document, XHTML (web pages) -- Ventura Publisher is designed to take XML and add the formatting in any way required.

Cross Country Season Starts

2008-03-17T09:30:00.005+10:00

Saturday 15th was the first set of races for this year's cross-country season. I elected to run in the 3k. I was pleasantly surprised to run 20 sec. faster than my expected time. It was a great day.

Trip to Tassie

2008-02-24T10:40:00.007+10:00

Mum's sister, Beryl, died recently (aged 84). I travelled to Launceston, Tasmania for the funeral. It was a sad occasion, however, it was also a time for a celebration of Beryl's life with her family. While there, I went walking and jogging with members of Beryl's family (my cousins) in a lovely gorge see photos below:

My cousin's Wayne and Cathy cooked us all marvelous meals while I was at their place. Cathy runs her own catering business. As I love cooking myself it's not surprising that we started sharing recipes. This experience has prompted me to start my own favourite recipes blog: http://paul-chippendales-favourite-recipies.blogspot.com/

Interesting two weeks!

2008-01-22T20:26:00.000+10:00

My 87 year old mum's computer's hard drive decided to pack it in. I've spent the past two weeks, in my spare time, recovering the data for her and getting a new computer/hard drive combination up and running with the data from the old drive intact.

Then would you believe, in the middle of a Skype/GoTomeeting session today, the hard drive of my laptop crashed. I do back up regularly, some of it only once a week though. I've booked the hard drive into a data recovery centre to see if they can recover anything.

In the meantime I've spent all afternoon, and a few more days to go, installing new software on my new main computer which runs Vista. Some of the old software simply won't run on vista and I found out there's no Vista driver in existence for one $3,500 colour laser printers! What do I do, scrap a perfectly good printer just because vista and it won't talk? The solution is to get one of my old computers working with XP and use it as a printer server on our network - now getting XP computers and Vista computers talking on a network is another story.

I decided to go for a jog with Stephanie, she brought her female flatmate too for the first time. We had a great jog in the forest until it was too dark to see. Now it's back to updating the new computer. Oh well, plenty of time to type into the blogs while software is installing.

Happy New Year

2008-01-07T07:24:00.001+10:00

I've finally surfaced from several week's of programming for a breather!

At last, the new web technologies exist to enable me to do what I've wanted to do on the web for years - i.e. score and produce in PDF format, all the existing AVI reports on the web so people can instantly process and print them.

I'll open the bottle of bubbly (Moet) Karynne gave me at the Learning Centre opening, when the full AVI (the Values-Based Leadership Report - all 70 pages) is available on the web.

Back on deck!

2007-12-07T06:35:00.000+10:00

I've been programming for the past few weeks - converting all the online AVI reports from HTML pages to PDF documents. I've completed all the individual ones. Now need to do the group versions. Will have a couple of days break from programming first.

Malcolm Davies Says

2007-11-21T10:29:00.000+10:00

I was talking to Malcolm Davies today & he happened to make the comment: "Honesty without sensitivity is cruelty."

I liked it so recorded it here for posterity.

Links to the Past

2007-11-20T10:04:00.001+10:00

In a previous Blog entry I mentioned I was getting our old bore working again so we did not have to rely on town water which is becoming scarce. The photo below shows a micro-jet I adapted for use with the bore. It has a 1mm hole in the centre so works with a very low water flow.

The photo below shows the micro-jet in action. The spray is produces is so fine is is barely visible. It's in use here to water where new grass seed has been planted over an area we (my son Jason & I) re-contoured last weekend.

The re-contouring was necessary as, last storm, a large amount of leaves, sticks, etc. were washed onto the patio of our "barn". We have now re-contoured the ground the "barn" (in which my office is located) so storm water runoff will flow away from the patio. The scoop below was used for the contouring. It once belonged to my grandfather. That makes it over 100years old! It would have been made in the late 1800's. Its original use was to build dams by towing it behind a draft horse. We towed it behind our tractor.

Talk about links to the past! Two days ago, I found a Brazilian cherry tree, loaded with fruit. I've picked quite a few. They have an interesting taste - both sweet and sour at the same time. As a child I well remember eating fruit off the Brazilian cherry tree in my grandfather's back yard. We didn't plant this one, so it must have grown from birds dropping a seed. Does anyone have any recipes for making anything out of Brazilian cherries?

While taking the photo of the Brazilian cherry I noticed some wild verbena in flower:

And, I mentioned last week our frangipani trees are in flower:

That's all for now.

Applying Energy Field Theory - Notes

2007-11-20T08:00:00.000+10:00

I received an email today from George Meija with the thought for the day: "The most important things in life are not things." I was reminded me of some notes, I wrote some time ago, on energy field theory and its applicable in our daily lives. So I decided to put these notes in my Blog.

Notes:

Although we know a great deal about the way fields affect the world as we perceive it, the truth is no one really knows what a field is. The closest we can come to describing what they are is to say that they are spatial structures in the fabric of space itself. (Talbot cited Wheatley 1994, p. 46)

Newton’s world of cause and effect required great effort (forces) to make things happen. Since the emergence of the quantum world, we see that it is possible to accomplish this through manipulating non-material structures – i.e. fields – which are the basic substance of the universe. (Wheatley 1994, p. 48)

One explanation of the way fields work is to consider fish in an ocean. As the water moves in synchronism with the swell, the fish all appear to move together from side to side or up and down as though connected by some invisible connector. We know that it is the water of the ocean, however, fields in space behave the same way, we cannot see them and they (unlike the water of the ocean) have no material substance, however, they link all material objects in space. “Physical reality is not only material. Fields are considered real, but they are not material” (Wheatley 1994 p. 50).

The laws of motion, in field language, are rules for flows in the ‘cosmic ocean’. The rules for transformation are telling us what reactions occur among the components in this ocean (Wilczek & Devine cited Wheatley 1994, p.51).

The Newtonian Science Organisation	The Quantum Science Organisation
"An organisation is a collection of choices looking for problems, issues and feelings looking for decision situations in which they might be aired, solutions looking for issues to which there might be an answer, and decision makers looking for work." (Cohen March & Olsen cited Wheatley 1994, p. 54)	Organisational order is generated through fields. These fields are conceptual controls – it is the ideas of a business that are controlling, not some manager with authority. One of the most powerful fields is shared meaning or the unconscious common ground within an organisation.

In the field view of organisations, clarity about values or vision is important, but it’s only half the task. Creating the field through the dissemination of those ideas is essential. The field must reach all corners of the organisation, involve everyone, and be available everywhere…we need to imagine ourselves as broadcasters, tall radio beacons of information, pulsating out messages everywhere…we must fill all the spaces with the messages we care about. If we do that, fields develop – and with them, their wondrous capacity to bring energy into form. (Wheatley 1994, pp. 55-56)

Reference List

Wheatley, M 1994, Leadership and the New Science: Learning about organization from an orderly universe, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.

Tosey, P. & Smith, P. 1999, ‘Assessing the learning organization: part 2 – exploring practical
assessment processes’, The Learning Organization: An International Journal, Vol
6, No 3, pp.107-115.

Outside my office

2007-11-14T10:20:00.000+10:00

This massive (8in across) toadstool was under a tree outside my office this morning...

Beautiful day at Park Ridge

2007-11-13T08:19:00.000+10:00

I've just finished cleaning our pool. What a beautiful day it is here. The frangipanis are just coming into bloom too.

There's a really bad drought here at present with severe water restrictions, so my younger son, Jason, and I have spent the past few weeks getting a bore we've had for years, but which hasn't bee working for the past 10, working again. We added a small pump near the house and connected it via pipes to the bore (30 metres away from the house).

I was taking a photo of the trench I just filled in between the bore and the house. It came out with an interesting effect with the light on the camera lens.

The bore is 30m (100ft) below ground level and the water is crystal clear as you can see from the pool photo. The spin off with using bore water in the pool is that we will now be swimming in mineral water - sounds healthy!

New Blogs

2007-11-11T16:19:00.000+10:00

I'm in the process of setting up new blogs - each to cater for separate activities of the minessence group - i.e. AVI (A Values Inventory) development & support, MissionControl (infrastructure website which supports the AVI), Minessence eZine, etc,

Think Tank Meeting

2007-11-10T18:32:00.000+10:00

Just finished a great virtual meeting with members of our Think Tank - meeting notes are at http://www.minessence.net/ThinkTank/ContentList.aspx?ContentTypeId=1

Chaordic Organisational Design

2007-11-10T10:11:00.000+10:00

I published Minessence eZine #31 today. The topic was Chaordic Organisational Design. We are using this process ourselves to create the Minessence Foundation and our Think tank.

New Blogger

2007-11-10T08:44:00.000+10:00

Maintaining my own blog software was too time consuming, so I've now moved over to using the software supported by google.

AdSense

2006-12-12T10:08:00.000+10:00

I'm now experimenting with Google's AdSense to bring more traffic to our site. It was easy to set up.

PayPal

2006-12-10T09:18:00.000+10:00

Since 1988 I've tried many ways of accepting payments from clients over the web. I've decided now to make PayPay the method of choice at our web. http://www.minessence.net