The Faculty is dead quiet.

The internet is slow, intermittent and generally unreliable.

Mobile phone reception is also worse than normal.

Yes, there are more demonstrations today.

30 years ago today, Iranian students stormed the American Embassy and took the staff there hostage for 444 days. I heard rumours that there would be an attempt to take the Russian Embassy today, but I doubt that will occur. (The Russians also heard the rumour and stepped up security).

About 20 minutes away is Enghelab Square. According to the Australian and Dutch news, there are thousands of people down there now, protesting. There are reports of tear gas being used. That's why my VPX isn't in today - he lives down there.

Over lunch before, my friend said "I hope noone gets killed today". I agreed, and then I realised what we'd said. It's a strange reality we're living in.

22

You know you're loved (and very privileged) when you get messages from around the world.
Jess from Australia/Cambodia

Kreig from MidWest USA

I love you all, thank you for making me feel so special today. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going home to die, because I have the flu.

My friend:

"I think I'm pretty intelligent, S is also pretty smart. You're great at providing comedic relief and that warm fuzzy feeling."

hmm. What does that mean?

..when you're having fun

On this day 12 months ago, I was standing in a garden, on a dairy farm in country Victoria watching my beautiful Auntie Julie get married.

Where does time go?

I don't really have anything to post, and that's because I haven't been doing any thinking lately.

I've been too distracted by life (again).

I need to look around, remember to put my tourist glasses back on every now and again.

When am I going to be in Iran again?

Sometimes there are hard lessons to learn.

You look at yourself, and your values. you made decisions based on those values. But what happens when you stand by someone and some of your values, knowing that by doing so, you violate other values?

How do you balance them out? Which are more important? What influences the decision? Do you rank the things you hold dear in order? Can integrity be sacrificed over loyalty? Honesty over trust?

Does your situation influence which ones you pick over others? Undoubtably.

Then what happens when you are called out on your choice? There's no defence, because at the end of the day, you did violate your own values. You did something wrong. Even if you were doing so in defence of others.

Big questions.

Eat That Frog!

I found this book today - one of two English-language books in the 10-15 bookstores I visited (the other is Great Expectations by Dickins - now's a good a time as any to start on the classics I guess!)

It's a short one, and I've read it 3 times already. I quite like the productivity genre, it usually gives me new ideas and impetus to get off my arse and get moving.

This one's got me though, it really has. It's simple, and I'm already doing some of the things, which makes me happy.

The premise is that there is an old idea: "if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long."

Therefore, you should do the hardest, most off-putting (but realistically, probably most important) task first thing, and stay at it 'til it's done.

It's simple, but I think it's worth it. Straight to the point, no fluffing about. Just get your work done. The ideas aren't new, but I like the way it's presented.