Bluegrass Consulting: Blueblog

Wednesday: 09 December

Well, well, well… you can’t say that no one saw it coming (Blueblog 16 Nov 2009).

Behind deposed Finance, Infrastructure, Ports and Waterways Minister, Joe Tripodi’s tears on Nov 15 just after he was dumped by the then NSW Premier Nathan Rees, was a furious, tactical and vengeful factional warlord - ready to take matters in his own hands… with a little help from fellow warrior - Eddie Obeid.

It took less than three weeks to mount the spill that cut the man (who Tripodi and Obeid installed as Premier only the year before), down and put him in the corner while 47 out of 68 Labor MP’s orderly lined up behind their faithful and stuck the knife in - much like the scene from the movie Flying High no doubt.

With Nathan gone, in swings A.B.N. - (Anyone But Nathan)… Frank Sartor, Kristina Keneally, I don’t think it really mattered - certainly not to the ALP State office. It was just simply time for Nathan to go.

Much like Tony Abbott, as the “ideological love child” of John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop, ascended to greatness as Federal Opposition Leader two days before… the “factional love child” of Tripodi and Obeid emerges as the victor in the NSW Government Party Room - All hail Premier Kristina Keneally!

What does this mean to the people of NSW?

• A Cabinet reshuffle of the reshuffle the month before… (It really is hard to keep track of who’s who in the zoo).
• I’d say a bit of money being spent on stationery reprints and office signage.
• Maybe a boom in the elocution training business, by way of lessons for the new leader, to try and smooth out that Ohioan accent and perhaps give her a bit more of a ‘dinky di’ feel that will appeal to the people?
• Some white-anting from the discarded former leader, Mr Rees?

So other than the Prime Minister being slightly annoyed (… understatement?) and a mental flash-image of watching CNN or Fox News as you tune into Channel 7, 9 or 10 each night… not a lot has really happened!

One good thing that has come out of all of this, is the fact that Kristina and Carmel now lead the first two-woman executive in the country… that is a move for equality, I guess.

However, I’m going to go out on a limb and say - I doubt that this point was at the forefront of ALP Honourable Members’ minds in casting their votes.

What are your thoughts? Comments?

Friday: 20 November

This could be a little weird to read in a blog… but I was watching an episode of ‘Californication’ the other day - and I stumbled across this fantastic quote…
For those who don’t know the show - this extract is a quote from an author speaking on a radio about his new job as a ‘blog writer’. He says:

“People… they don’t write anymore - they blog. Instead of talking, they text, no punctuation, no grammar: LOL this and LMFAO that. You know, it just seems to me it’s just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with a bunch of other stupid people in a proto-language that resembles more what cavemen used to speak than the King’s English.”

Now I have to agree. There are some people out there who think that by smashing a few thoughts or ideas on a keyboard and posting it on the web - they are indeed opening the lines of communication in a significantly more profound and diverse way the oldies of the previous generations would ever have dreamed they would be able to do.

I guess this school of thought is somewhat true. Instead of the good old telegram, telex, letter, telephone call, or chit-chat over coffee or lunch - all of which (except the telephone) take at least a marginal amount of effort, thought or forward planning to get going… - Today - we can simply text, blog, chat, tweet and status update all day to our hearts content, and we don’t even really need to think about it. I guess it also effectively gets the message (whatever it may be) out there and across for the all of your mates to see!

But - in doing this, what are we actually doing for the English language, or indeed for our refined and defined (…some more than others) interpersonal communication skills?

Another question: How long has it been since you pulled out a blank piece of paper and wrote a letter to someone, using correct language, diction, grammar and spelling? No spell-check or “fragment consider revising”?

Now, I’m not judging anyone - nor am I saying that it really matters when the last time you partook in this archaic method of communication actually was… but for many, many, many years this was the ultimate method of communication.

Even when the Fax machine was born… you still needed something written on paper in order for the ’state-of-the-art’ facsimile technology to do its bit.

If the technological means of communication today, namely email, blogging and tweeting simply enhance our ability to “traditionally” interact and communicate… I say bring it on! - It opens up the doors and multiplies the contact points one thousand fold and allows all of us to refine our command and mastering of the English language!

However, if we are indeed destroying the traditional means of interaction and communication by sitting at a desk, on a train or in a car “updating” the world through LOL, BRB, LMFAO, ROFL, and whatever other acronyms there are out there, through blogs and quirky-funny one liners, never actually having to spell a word, or for that matter know how to use that little thing you need to use when making one of those little smiling faces,  I ask you world… what is happening to the skills the ancients once mastered?

I guess more importantly I ask - do they in fact matter anymore?

Do we need to know how to write, to spell or to punctuate?

(NOTE: Any pedantic, high-school English teacher out there that notices any spelling, grammatical, punctuation or factual errors in this piece of literature - are to be reminded that this is in fact a blog… and is thus exempt from English language usage rules and regulations)

Semicolon, dash, close-parenthesis…
Nathan.

PS. If you ever get stuck understanding the new world lingo - check this out… it may help!

Monday: 25 May

Happy Monday!

Just a short post today, which I will share purely because I think it’s hillarious - and Im looking for suggestions on where I go from here!

On the weekend I gave my friend the keys to my appartment in case he wanted to hangout there while my boyfriend and I were away… 

We should have known better than to have trusted him with our keys!

We came home to see that everything was wrapped in newspaper! (except the fireplace) lol

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get these pranksters back? Im looking for suggestions that take less than 3 hours to deliver! (Yes, it took 3 people, 3 hours to do this) hehe

Drop me a comment if you have any ideas or send me a tweet on twitter - I will be sure to take photos of what ever I end up doing as prank-payback 

 

Annabey

Tuesday: 19 May

A few people have said to me over the last few months - ‘Twitter will be dead in 2 years’. My first reaction was to immediately bounce back at them and say ‘No way! It’s not going away anytime soon’. 

Mashable have recently reported the latest twitter user estimates using figures calculated by Nielsen reports, who estimates Twitter has grown an enormous 1,382% in one year (from Feb 08 to Feb 09), with a massive 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month of February alone.

Despite these huge numbers, I suppose no one knows how long this communication tool will be popular for but there is no denying how dramatic the uptake has been over the last 2 or so years and how useful this tool can be for use today! (and not just for geeks like me).

I saw this clip the other day, ‘Twitter in Real Life’ by Dan Gurewitch - he takes his twitter skills out on the street in real life, it’s very funny, check it out…

What do you think will be Twitter’s future? Will it go where ever ICQ went within 2 years? 

Annabey