vol VII: Notes

1982

[ Sunday 14 March 1982 - Saturday 20 March 1982 ]

Sunday 14 March 1982

Monday 15 March 1982

Notebook DREAMING DB1]

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Tuesday 16 March 1982

. . . and must visit police today.

Many demands on my time, pressure to leave etc, but must really weather it all and settle down to work.

Wednesday 114 March 1982

. . . went for interesting interview with Federal police. Planned to work in Sydney.

Dream seemed to be set in largish hall/room cafeteria (eg CSIRO Uralla (nearly wrote Ulladulla)). Surrounded by gardens, wall,

[page 33]

tree lined streets (a la Wahroonga). Arranged in long tables. I was there for a meal with many people including it seems A, Dominicans, CSIRO people (Vickery, DCR Canberra etc). Much lively discussion at table. Small projection room (studio) off right and someone seemed to be planning slide show on NT/Landsat. I then went outside and did something (connected with mini) and returned without pants on, wearing only a T shirt. Not embarassed, but tried to pull it down a bit and keep close to people to prevent long distance views. Show was in progress. - nothing more.

Relates to work decision, last year at uni. Maybe indication of my experiences of life that I could capitalise on in a work situation. Fear that I would appear improperly dressed in work situation.

Thursday 18 March 1982

More church. Discussing freshly composed baptismal service with clergyman of some sort. Seemed very pleased and was going to use it, but it seemed unfinished. Overtones of songs for . . . drama group. Writing seemed very easy because I had it in my head already, but once the easy part was over I dipped out. Yesterday discussed decision to go to Sydney. Transcripts of Federal police interviews with . . . . Worked late with nn on maths assignments.

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Friday 19 March 1982

Yesterday at Taree, thence to nn's, intending to look for work in part as a means of paying debts . . . .

Spoke nn about people and metaphysics - renewed my desire to write - to express myself, think and study, without endless petty interruptions and hassles. This effort should eventually lead to sufficient financial success to pay my bills. At the moment emotional pressures (+ a week stuck in the valley) seem to have brought me to a standstill, but this must be overcome. It is also significant, in a Freudian deterministic way.

At bottom seems to be the desire to be liked which leads me to many acts of self destructive altruism. It is only by concentrating my energy that I can overcome my inevitable tendency to become disparate. A regular daily ration of reading and writing is necessary, and I must settle down to it. I seem to be able to manage

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about a month before disintegrating. Whether this is internal or external I am not sure. The problem is certianly one of concentration - so many days go by with nothing done. Much seems to stem from the environment. Hopefully in time (the winter) things will settle down and production will become steady.

Last year's work at the uni was a waste of time . . .

Rain, depression. Rising mist over the trees, solid air merging into life, the mantle of gaia, love in eternal unavoidable union. Being is and is becoming more.

Saturday 20 March 1982

Dream

1. Sitting on my verandah in the cane chair with big door open when X came in very distraught. Spoke to her very comfortingly and then felt embarassed as Y came in, and I felt she did not approve of me talking to X. Y came and sat on verandah, apparently under beach umbrella on blanket. She was fully

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clothed and then she changed into Z, naked or lightly dressed and I felt relaxed and affectionate towards her.

X when she came into the house did something to the record player and actually appeared to be in a somewhat conciliatory mood before she changed into Z.

. . .

2. Second dream brain surgery on motor car. Seemed to be working simultaneously on someone's spinal cord asnd a motor car in an environment which was a cross between an operating theatre and an open air workbench. . . . There did not seem to be a patient around, but I had three pieces of nerve (they looked like flexible twigs) out with bevelled ends. I was doing something to them which entailed knowing which was which. Thought it would not be important as long as I

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replaced them with their diameters right, so there would be the correct number of fibres to grow back together. This tree-like appearance may relate to my conversation with nn yesterday about intelligence of the Universe and plants. There seemed to be some female helping me and I was using a large knife. At one point I went into another room to urinate. Work on the car seemed to concentrate on the radiator area. I seemed to be fixing a leak in a drumlike structure lke the air cleaner of the Mercedes. Hacksawing a piece of metal in the vice . . .

. . .

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Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Abbott, Walter M, and Joseph Gallagher (translation editor), The Documents of Vatican II: in a new and definitive translation, with notes and commentaries by Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox authorities, Geoffrey Chapman 1972 Jacket: 'All 16 Documents of Vatican II are here presented in a new and readable translation. Informed comments and appraisals by Catholics and non-Catholics make this book essential reading for anyone, of whatever shade of belief, who is interested in the changing climate of today's world.'  Amazon   back

Dawkins, Richard, Climbing Mount Improbable, W. W. Norton & Company 1997 Amazon editorial review: 'How do species evolve? Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most eminent zoologists, likens the process to scaling a huge, Himalaya-size peak, the Mount Improbable of his title. An alpinist does not leap from sea level to the summit; neither does a species utterly change forms overnight, but instead follows a course of "slow, cumulative, one-step-at-a-time, non-random survival of random variants" -- a course that Charles Darwin, Dawkins's great hero, called natural selection. Illustrating his arguments with case studies from the natural world, such as the evolution of the eye and the lung, and the coevolution of certain kinds of figs and wasps, Dawkins provides a vigorous, entertaining defense of key Darwinian ideas.'  Amazon   back

Keynes, John Maynard, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Macmillan 1936-1964 The classic twentieth century economics text that revealed that there are more ways to get an economy to grow than simply balancing the books.back

Knox, Ronald, Let Dons Delight: Being Variations on a Theme in an Oxford Common Room, Sheed and Ward 1958 Jacket: When Mgr. Knox died, many of his panegyrists singled this book out as the best of its kind he ever wrote - which in this case is saying much. Certainy, he alone could have done it. To create eight sets of Simon Magus dons, from 1588 to 1938, conversing and arguing with eachother each in the very voice of his age and in terms of the topics of his day - for that you really have to know your Oxford, your dons, your history, classics and English literature.'back

Lodge, David, The Art of Fiction, Illustrated from Classic and Modern texts., Penguin Books 1992 Jacket: 'Brings to criticism the verve and humour of his own novels. DL has provided essential reading for students of literature, aspirant writers, and anyone who wishes to understand how literature works.'   Amazon   back

Stiglitz, Joseph E, Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World Economy, W. W. Norton & Company 2010 Amazon Product Description ' . . . The Great Recession, as it has come to be called, has impacted more people worldwide than any crisis since the Great Depression. Few are more qualified to comment during this turbulent time than Joseph E. Stiglitz. Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, Stiglitz is “an insanely great economist, in ways you can’t really appreciate unless you’re deep into the field” (Paul Krugman, New York Times). In Freefall, Stiglitz traces the origins of the Great Recession, eschewing easy answers and demolishing the contention that America needs more billion-dollar bailouts and free passes to those “too big to fail,” while also outlining the alternatives and revealing that even now there are choices ahead that can make a difference. The system is broken, and we can only fix it by examining the underlying theories that have led us into this new “bubble capitalism.” '  Amazon   back

Papers

Marton-Lefevre, Julia, "Biodiversity Is Our Life", Science, 327, 5970, 5 March 2010, page 1179. 'Julia Marton-Lefèvre is the director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, in recognition of life on Earth. Eight years ago, more than 190 countries agreed, through the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010. This October, the Convention will meet in Nagoya, Japan, to evaluate progress and agree on new biodiversity targets for the world. Shortly before that, the UN General Assembly will address the biodiversity crisis for the first time.'. back

Links

Angel investor - Wikipedia, Angel investor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'An angel investor or angel (also known as a business angel or informal investor) is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.' back

Rentier state - Wikipedia, Rentier state - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A rentier. . . is an individual who depends on income derived from rents, which, in turn, are defined as “a reward for ownership of all natural resources”, or the “income derived from the gift of nature.” A rentier state is a term in political science and international relations theory used to classify those states which derive all or a substantial portion of their national revenues from the rent of indigenous resources to external clients.' back