In a moment my world changed and I was on my way to Sydney. Here is the story…
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below 🙂
Sydney and Working on The Wolverine
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Author Archives: Ian
Storify of my Berlin 2012 Trip
It’s been a long time coming.
I’ve finally finished the summary of all of the content to tell the story of my time in Berlin in 2012. I thought Storify was the best way to bring everything together in one place to tell the story of what my 10 weeks there was all about.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below 🙂
43 Years since I was Awe Struck with Apollo 11 Lunar Landing
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It’s a memory that never fades.
I was only a kid in 1969, 43 years ago when I sat in front of our shiny, piano finished 3 in 1 National stereogram to watch the first landing on the moon with Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin and Michael Collins. I didn’t have to go to school that day and why would I with such an event in the happening.
I was transfixed for the half-dozen hours it took for Neil and Buzz to walk on the moon and return. What a day! One that is still my most important memory of my childhood.
Alan Watts on Nothingness
Sometimes I hear something that just rings true.
Alan Watts on nothingness by dreaming in the void blog
I think that this sits very nicely with what I’ve mentioned previously about Illusions by Richard Bach
Thank You Steve Jobs
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I may well not be here but for Steve and Apple
Yes, that may sound like a big statement that Apple and in particular the personality of Steve Jobs and the way that it was embedded into the very DNA of Apple could have that much of an affect on me but I think it’s correct.
Just some of the Apple products that brought me here
I first became aware of personal computers in about 1980, then missed an opportunity to us a Fairlight CMI in 1983 only to eventually buy an IBM clone 286 in 1992. All of them, as enticing as they were, couldn’t capture me. It was really simple! I’m not a geek and all the things that geeks love, (you know the beauty of code and getting under the hood of the computers), never appealed to me. I just wanted something that did the things that I wanted it to do. Unfortunately up until the advent of podcasting I hadn’t found that “thing”, that enamored me.
Once I found podcasting the next thing was to engage with it and learn. If it hadn’t been for Apple products guided by Steve and the knock on innovations of their computers that they brought to all of us I don’t think I would have been able to get over the initial steep learning curve and understand the technology enough to be able to become a podcaster.
Brisbane Floods 2011
Preparing for the flood – 12 January 2011
It’s been a huge few days since we first started to realise that it looked like Brisbane would be hit by another of the cyclical floods that happen every 30 to 40 years.
Brisbane is at the end of the Brisbane River, a long, slow moving, meandering brown waterway that drains much of the country from the Great Dividing Range to the west and into the north. As noted by John Oxley as the first explorer in 1823 when he sailed upstream to where Brisbane now sits, the river has no watershed to keep the flow constant but relies on rainfall from it’s catchment. This inevitability leads to periods of low flow where the river becomes a tidal stream washing upstream on the high tide and downstream on the low tide, much like we’ve had for the last 20 years of drought. He noted from the rotting vegetation high on Spring Hill and Kangaroo Point that this natural choke between these high points must cause massive floods during high rainfall.
Water Creeping Up My Street
John Oxley is basically correct and it seem that the cycle of this flood is based on the La Nina oceanic temperature phenomena where the water temperature warms causing greater precipitation, including cyclones which can impact on Brisbane as happened in the 1974 flood. This cycle has lead to minor and more occasional major floods in 1865, 1893, 1931, 1974 and now 2011.
I remember well, as a 14 year old in Toowoomba, watching the black and white television images of the massive destruction and flooding that was the Brisbane flood of 1974, wondering what it would be like to experience that event, and yes even wondering of how exciting it might be to be involved – Now I know.
On Monday the 10 January 2011 a slow moving trough had settled over the catchment of the Brisbane River dumping rain on the already soaked area that had seen an unusually high rainfall. The long ten year drought had well and truly broken and now the dams were fall and spilling, a vast change from when there was but 25% in them just a few years ago. How good was it to now not to be on water restrictions and able to use water freely but this was getting ridiculous now, with rain soaked ground causing each new drop to run off filling the flood mitigation percentages of the dams and swelling the streams.
Then the unthinkable happened, something that no one has ever heard or seen before. My home town of Toowoomba high on the range at 340m above sea level, sat in a place where the dense moist air rose, chilled and dumped it’s contents on the escarpment and on Toowoomba itself. It was as if God had emptied a bucket on the town, filling the creeks, flash flooding the shops, sweeping away everything in it’s path including cars, shipping containers and people. Sadly two people died when they were trapped in their vehicles by this surging wall of water. This is what they had to deal with in the Toowoomba Flood
Then it got worse…
The water that was dumped on Toowoomba flows west to the Darling Downs causing flooding in many smaller towns, some for the second time in a fortnight but what happened to the east was of biblical proportions of horror. Continue reading
Film Production, Incompotence or Cunning?
I think I’m now unemployable
I recently finished on another film. This one was actually a television series called Terra Nova . The first four episodes are approved to go ahead and if successful they’ll continue to produce an entire series. It’s a sci-fi about a dystopian future that is dangerous to live in so they transport (time travel) some people to the past. Basically it’s cars, guns and dinosaurs. Plenty of action but no real substance and I think it’ll probably be a success for many reasons. One of them is the production that I saw happening and what I’ve continued to realise from my previous post about the addiction of work.
As usual the standard of work that we were all doing was outstanding. I mean everyone, all the technicians on the ground and what they were managing to achieve says a great deal about the professionalism and expertise of the person on the shop floor who puts all the stuff together for the shoot crew to work with. It’s the reason that the work is of such a high standard that I find it interesting that dispute the difficulties, the job still gets done and the production gets what it wants.
Different to as it appears
Now my caveat – I only know my one little section in the art department and I don’t have the big picture so this is just from one of the grunts in the trenches. The reason such great things are done is:
- Excellent high base skills
- Dedication and pride to producing quality
- Love of working in a creative industry
- Desire to be called onto the next project
- Camaraderie and working as a team
- Relatively high income and matching standard of living
At first glance these all seem motivating and good attributes but there is a dark side.
I’m still not sure which way to feel about this and it seems that it may be becoming the standard these days within the industry as the Australian dollar strengthens and production moves away from our shores to cheaper countries but either production companies are incompetent or shrewd, in the way they manage their workforce.
Instead of planning an appropriate timeline and budget, the standard seems to be to have no time, no money but expect outstanding work as would normally be expected with proper preparation, planning and funding.
What has happened of late is we have a third of the prep time and no money to set up workshops or buy materials but production wants all the whiz-bangery that they can think of – So… “Go and make it happen, Oh, and if you have any gear at home you want to bring in feel free as you’ll need it to do your job but we won’t reimburse you as it’s what you need, thanks very much.”
The workshops are makeshift without the proper infrastructure to work efficiently and safely and no preparation or stocking of the most basic materials to create things from. Often the sheds are poorly ventilated, lit and without the necessary equipment but it’s still expected that the work is performed by the deadlines. On this production I saw some of the worst working connotations that I’ve ever seen in all my time in the industry with people performing tasks that will shorten their lives due to dust and chemicals, maybe not today or even this year but it’s accumulative and these technicians were working 12 and 16 hour days for weeks at a time. Reports of people falling asleep driving home were mentioned to me. Production wouldn’t care if someone died (and in productions overseas they have), it would just be that’s a tragic accident but the show must go on, now back to work and keep cracking the whip. The whole project is driven by the accountants with no regard for the greater cost.
The real question is “Why do the workers in the film industry put up with it?”
It’s the same list as above but instead of looking at those points as positive attributes they are actually the shackles that bind people to the production company as wage slaves. Continue reading
Society Fast – The Experiment Continues
Its been a long time now, as a matter of fact it’s been 16 months since I decided on an experiment, just for one week.
Back in a previous post I mentioned that I wanted to try something, to see how it might go, just for the hell of it. To just opt out somewhat from the expectations of society. I called it a society fast, to not buy into the things that society says that you have to do.
Well that week back in March of last year went okay and my world didn’t end. I still did what needed to be done when things needed to be done and I was able to do whatever I wanted to do as I felt inspired. So I kept doing it, the society fast. Doing what I wanted to do as I wanted to do it.
Hanging with Friends in Buenos Aires
And guess what? I haven’t stopped. I haven’t found the need or desire to buy back into what society says that I’m supposed to do. What am I talking about I hear you say?
I’m taking about how our Western Society says that we have to do certain things, like relationships, work, income, career, worry and stress about tomorrow and how it’s going to be when I’m old and I don’t have enough money in my retirement fund, how at my time of life I should be in this certain type of lifestyle, all of that sort of thing.
That’s why I started the society fast to have a break for just one week away from that and see what would happen and I haven’t stopped. That was 16 months ago and it has been some of the best times of my life because I’m living in the moment and just doing what is right for now and it keeps working.
Now before you think I have it easy, that’s not my point. In the last 16 months I have worked for income in an employed situation for only 6 weeks and earned $12,000. I’ve additionally done a little audio and video recording and editing work and earned another couple of thousand dollars but that is all. I have been leaning on my credit card and I’m slowly going backwards at about $1000/mth but I’m fine with that. I live a very lean life and I have everything I need and desire little more.
For a long time I was looking for something to put my attention to, some strong focus and direction that society says that you have to have to be a member of this society. That was causing me grief and one of the reason for starting this society fast, to have some chill time away from that stress. Continue reading
It all Started With Bill.
I’ve been very quiet these many months here on Your Story. I’ve been busy putting a few things in place, starting a new podcast and site. I have been a little bit head down getting everything done so to speak.
For two years I had wanted to sit and talk to with my uncle, Bill Kath. Recently I finally got around to recording a series of conversations with him and published them on his own site to share his Life Story with my family and anyone who may come along from the greater community.
This inspired me to start a new podcast to help explain how the average person can now record, edit and publish an audio Life Story, then share that story with family and the world if they choose.
My other podcast Your Story is a personal passion and I would love, one day to travel a lot more and record stories from around the world. For three years now I have been learning and developing the skills needed to converse and produce audio while slowly going backwards financially. With Create Your Life Story I hope to create a podcast to allow me to develop an income that will give me the ability to continue to produce Your Story while helping others to gain some of the amazing benefits that I have seen from sharing personal Life Stories.
The premise of Create Your Life Story is simple. There are people who want to capture the Life Story of someone they know or there are people who wish to record their own personal Life Story. These stories are interesting initially for family but also for the greater community, if only they can be recorded and made available, before they are lost, as has happened for all of human history.
I now have the knowledge from producing Your Story and several other versions of audio Life Stories to share with anyone who is interested in learning how easy and available it is for them to do the same.
It’s very early days but I have already produced a considerable amount of content to share that will give a lot of people a good start. I have even produced a free e-Book to help you get started.
Please come over to Create Your Life Story and if you know of anyone who may be interested in learning to record and share a life story, either their own or someone else’s, please share this information.
50 Years.
50 Years I’ve been here now.
First Birthday
50 years, 18,250 days, the same number of mornings and evenings the same number of nights asleep bar a dozen or so all-nighters. 5o years of experiences good and tough.
Yes, I would say tough but I wouldn’t say bad, although there have been some challanging times. Like when I was out of sync in my last year at school because I couldn’t do my precious wood work. That was the time to leave, just before and fortunatly as I got my apprenticeship. Or the frustration of dealing with the end of my marriage and the subsequent crash and burn that came from that. These times were tough but I wouldn’t say bad, not real bad, like some people have, some people don’t have tough lives, they have real bad lives. My life has been just challenging, requiring me to, well, suck it up and get on with it. And sometimes I’ve had the help of some wonderful people to help me through. To all of you… thanks.
So far it’s been a good life anyway I look at it. I have very good health both mental and physical and I’ve managed to do some interesting, even wonderful things. The highlights would have to be doing my apprenticeship, skydiving, building a house, my marriage to Gail, my daughter Sabina, the many wonderful relationships that I have had, the skills that I’ve gained, working on the Matrix 2&3 films, my podcast and associated travels and learnings and in recent years, the joy of tango.
If you asked me to reflect on the tough times, I’m genuinelly, mentally challenged to remember. I can remember the events but there is no emotion connected to them. I don’t feel as distressed from them that I felt at the time. It must just be my psychology but I seem to remember the good, with a joy that is hard to express and the bad times seem to fade away like a dream in the morning. Continue reading