#1: The best book you read last year

This is hard. I read a lot of good books last year, including a whole bunch entered into the Hugo Awards and books presented at various writers' festivals.

But the one that sprang to mind first was Elliot Perlman's Seven Types of Ambiguity. My friend Dan gave the book to me for my birthday, more to read as a writer than a reader. I couldn't put it down. I admired the way all the characters came through so distinctly and the utter manipulation of emotions as the point of view changed and forced me to empathise with characters I despised.

I'll give a shout-out to Alain de Botton's How Proust can change your life as the best non-fiction book I read. That man has pretty much the best job in the world: wonder about something, research it, gather some thoughts and write them down, sell lots of books and travel to writers' festivals.

As for a book that actually came out in 2010, I'd pick the Machine of Death anthology. An interesting premise, well selected stories and high quality writing meant it was all win.

I wrote a piece from the starter as a writing exercise, but it doesn't come close to what was published. I thank my friend Dina for tipping me off about the availability of the collection.

Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
Day 03 – Your favourite series
Day 04 – Favourite book of your favourite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favourite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favourite writer
Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer
Day 15 – Favourite male character
Day 16 – Favourite female character
Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favourite romance book
Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favourite book you own
Day 23 – A book you've wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.

I am pro-carbon tax

I don't mind being taxed, I just hate when the government misuse my (our) money for stupid things like Tony Abbott's salary.

Anyway, I received a forwarded email from a friend of mine this afternoon. It had obviously used the current carbon tax as its meme replicator. Generally I ignore these things (or don't read them at all because all forwarded mail gets filtered into the Trash) because they are not worth the eyeball tracks but I was compelled to 'Reply All' to this one.

Professor Ian Plimer could not have said it better!

If you've read his book you will agree, this is a good summary.

Are you sitting down?

Okay, here's the bombshell.

The volcanic eruption in Iceland, since its first spewing of volcanic ash had, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet - all of you.

Of course you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress - it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans and all animal life.

I know, it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cents light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs ...well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.

The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in just four days - yes - FOUR DAYS ONLY by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud any one time - EVERY DAY.

I don't really want to rain on your parade too much, but - not to be outdone - I should mention that when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in its entire YEARS on earth. Yes folks, Mt Pinatubo was active for over one year - think about it.

Of course I shouldn't spoil this touchy-feely tree-hugging moment and - not - mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keep happening, despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.

And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud, but, furthermore, the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years. And it happens every year.

Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you on the basis of the bogus “human-caused” climate change scenario.

Hey, isn’t it interesting how they don’t mention “Global Warming” any more, but just “Climate Change” - you know why? It’s because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bull artists got caught with their pants down.

And just keep in mind that you might yet have an Emissions Trading Scheme - that whopping new tax - imposed on you, that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer. It won’t stop any volcanoes from erupting, that’s for sure.

But hey, relax, give the world a hug and have a nice day!

======

Thanks for setting back the movement a decade, anonymous.

So anyway, I replied:

Hmm. I don't think this is the right attitude to take.

For starters, the carbon tax is not just about reducing carbon emissions. It is about a nationwide behavioural change in the way we consider our (often wasteful) consumption of energy. Forget about carbon emissions for one second and think of the energy crisis: peak oil etc. It is real. The only way we are going to get energy from *non-renewable* resources is to dig it out of the ground, whether coal, gas or uranium.

Despite a lot of Australia's wealth resting on these industries, the fact stands that it is damaging to our environment purely from a location perspective. Old growth forests and Aboriginal cultural sites are often the location of these energy deposits—sites that we will never be able to re-attain after mining. And for what? Energy that we could otherwise get from the sun, surf and wind?

While we cannot change the way nature operates (for example "who cares about rising sea levels when a tsunami could hit at any moment?") we can change our reaction to it and the way in which we control our own environment. That is why humans have survived for so long, our ability to adapt conditions to suit us. Alternative, preferably renewable, energy is one way we can adapt.

By the way, I should also mention that Prof Ian Pilmer is a geologist, not a climate scientist. I might also mention that he is a director of three mining companies so it is, of course, in his best interests to spread this kind of message.

Please think about it.

Adeline
Journalist and long-time environmental hobbyist (not lobbyist)

P.S: If you really want to know why they changed the name from 'global warming' to 'climate change', it's because the *extremes* in temperatures will get pushed both ways. While Sydney gets 43C days, London has its largest snowfall in decades.

P.P.S: Recommended reading: Tim Flannery's 'The Weather Makers', and for answers to most of your climate change questions: www.grist.org

What do you think?

Artarmon

I live in Artarmon, which is probably one of the most boring suburbs of Sydney (maybe after Croydon, which is where my boyfriend lives). The best thing about Artarmon is that because it is so boring it is also considered safe. It is also fairly affluent (although we do have a housing commission). This means property is like, a hobby.

Anyway, on my way to the station I pass a building that went from a disused yard a few months ago to a block of luxury apartments today. It amused me to find this (below), which came from the Estate Living website:



For starters, the block of apartments doesn't actually look like the artist rendering, which makes me wonder what happened to the builders' interpretation of the architect's vision.

I should also note that far from being complete in December 2010, there are still workmen completing the pavement at the front of the block in what is now late February 2011.

And I chortled at the description "just over 1 minutes walk to Artarmon village, shops and trains". By "just over" I assume they mean about 3 minutes? It is true that the block is very close to amenities, but 1 minutes' walk will only get you to the tip of the train platform on the opposite side of the train station entrance ie not much use.

And another thing: $699,000?!?!?!

Early does it

I'm not a great fan of the early rise. Which is not to say that I hate mornings - rather, I'm not keen on afternoons but the timetable of the world I live in dictates that it's not convenient to sleep from 12 to 8pm every day and live through 8pm to noon.

But waking up is hard to do. It probably takes me about an hour to properly wake up, which is why I have a routine so that I can do things on autopilot. I generally pack my bag the night before, too, as I'm likely to forget things in my dawning phase.

There are very few things for which I will wake up early. Travel is certainly one - there's nothing like an early dash to the airport (or, less glamorously, to the bus station in Armidale at 3.20am). Work I will tolerate, but only if it means I can finish something. And, it seems, art excursions.

Due to an error involving a flight back from Brisbane the night before and a one-hour time difference, I missed my name on John Baldessari's Your Name in Lights for Sydney Festival, which was at the fairly civilised time of 12:23:40am on a Sunday morning. So I submitted my name again, and a few others. The time came back 5:53am on a Saturday morning.

I decided to hand the decision to my boyfriend. I rang him: "What are you doing at 5:53 tomorrow morning?" "Um..." "Would you like to go on an excursion with me?" His answer would determine whether we would. "Okay. What is it?"

So I woke up at 4.30am, caught the first train (4.56am) from Artarmon to Town Hall and found myself staring up at the side of the Australian Museum at 5.30am, and arranged my photographic equipment. Here is the result:


Then I heard that Sydney Festival were after more names for the final weekend of the event, so I put in my family's names, hoping for a better timeslot. It came back: 2.28am Sunday morning. Sigh. There was only one option: stay out all night and catch the 3am Nightride home with all the drunks. At least it didn't involve waking up early.