Blog stalking

I interview a fair few people applying for jobs at Atlassian and more often than not candidates are making reference to various things I’ve posted here on this blog. While this is still a relatively new phenomenon for me it is not at all creepy. Yet most people I talk to seem to be almost relunctant to make it known that they’ve read my blog or apologise about “blog stalking” in the same breath. It is quite okay to talk to me about anything I post here; part of the reason I do write is to encourage discussion, either amongst my colleagues or people I’ve yet to meet. I don’t post anything here that I am not comfortable for a complete stranger to read. In fact, you actually win a bonus point with me when you do show signs of having done some research on me before speaking with me. This isn’t (necessarily) because of any inflation of my ego; the fact that you care enough about the discussion to spend some time getting to know me before hand is a desirable trait. It doesn’t even really matter that much if you try to gain some crude advantage by dropping in a statement such as “Super Mario 64 is the greatest game ever made and Cream by Prince has no equal in pop music”.

In the end, I know a bit about you via your resume so I think it is only fair that you are able to know a bit about me before we meet. It tends to make the discussion smoother because there is already some degree of familiarity between the people involved as the ice is already partially broken. I think that is very much a good thing.

My uvula is bigger than yours

A week ago the surgeons finally caught up with me and extracted my tonsils. I’ve been incapacitated by tonsillitis twice this year and my doctor believed that my tonsils, due to their huge size (tonsillar hypertrophy), were likely to be obstructing my breathing while I am asleep, resulting in a mild form of sleep apnoea. It had always been amusing seeing the reactions of doctors and others upon seeing the size of my tonsils. Indeed the ENT surgeon who was responsible for the operation was amazed at how large they were. “There’s only one grade worse than those and that’s when they are touching”, he stated on first examination.

I had heard many horror stories about how excruciatingly painful, unpleasant and debilitating adult tonsillectomies were and I certainly wasn’t looking forward to the procedure on the account of these. I must say that, while the first few days after the operation have been painful and uncomfortable, it hasn’t been nearly as bad as I had imagined. Twenty-four hours after the operation I was able to eat vegetables and even slowly plough through a piece of toast. The worst part of the experience for me, and something that I hadn’t prepared myself for, was the incredible amount of swelling that resulted. In particular my uvula (that dangling stalactite at the back of the throat) had swelled to a size comparable to one of the plinths of Stonehenge. Due to the residual numbness and my ignorance I was actually trying to cough it up a few hours afterwards believing it was a blood clot or some other nasty obstruction that needed expulsion. It was particularly frustrating not being able to communicate to the nurses during a coughing fit that I thought I was choking on something that needed removal. It was hard to believe that the diminutive sliver of flesh at the back of my throat could ever grow to a size where it felt like a lump of meat resting on my tongue all the way to my teeth. Fun times!

I’m currently still at home resting; experiencing general anaethesia for the first time has shown me just how much time it takes to recover just from the drugs they give you to knock you out. I truly believe that the relative mildness of my post-operative discomfort is a direct result of the surgical skill of my doctor. If anyone reading ever needs to have a similar procedure performed I would recommend engaging the best surgeon you can find.

So all I can do now is say “So long tonsillitis!”. It has been a scourge and I can certainly do with less of those. I think a week of pain and discomfort will be absolutely worth it.

Fight the treachery

It would appear that last week Senator Helen Coonan introduced into parliament a bill aiming to grant new powers to the Australian Federal Police, allowing them to almost whimsically censor any Australian web site.

Here’s a quote from an email sent out by Dale Clapperton, chairperson of Electronic Frontiers Australia:

EFA is quite simply appalled by this Bill. It is an affront to the rule of law and will likely be used as a tool of political censorship by the police. Australia is not a police state and the police should not be the judge, jury, and executioner of Internet content.

Parliament may not sit again before the Federal election is called. This Bill is typical of the contempt with which the coalition treats the Internet and the rights of all Australians to be free of ill-conceived government censorship. Should the coalition be returned to power, this Bill is likely to become law. Remember these issues on election day.

I grow more and more unhappy with the powers that legislatures are granting authorities in the name of defending our freedoms and values. I’ve always been particularly concerned with preserving our online liberties given the immense promise of a free Internet. I don’t particularly have the time however to be as vigorous as necessary to aid in this cause directly. That’s why I am a member of EFA. I basically contribute financially so that my rights in this digital age can be defended by people with the necessary expertise and means. If you have similar concerns and interests, I urge you to consider joining the EFA or equivalent advocacy group in your country. We need organised resistance to proposals such as these, lest they continue to erode our freedoms while ostensibly defending them.