Floating Life 4/06 ~ 11/07

This blog is now an archive.

There is still plenty to explore, however.

If you want to see the latest blog posts go to my new blog.

Click to visit

Whatever the question was, hate is not the answer.

***

Do not maintain anger or hatred… Learn to look at other beings with the eyes of compassion. Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thoughts on life, books, and many things from a grumpy old man and recovering pontificator in Surry Hills, Australia. Just doing my thing…

This blog no longer has new entries, those appearing instead on New Lines from a Floating Life; so this is now an archive, dating from April 2006 and finishing with a couple of entries in December 2007 that reviewed aspects of what has been posted here through to the end of November. You are still welcome to read, as there is a lot here, and I especially commend the pages. Note that Ninglun’s Personal Papers now features some of the pages that used to be here. You will see more about that just below and there are redirections in the side bar.

PAGES contain material of a more permanent or personal nature. The search engine in the side bar now searches both the posts and the pages.

Important Update

There has been a major page reshuffle. The links below take you to the new locations.

• Family Stories — beginning with my mother’s family, this page leads to a series on family history.
  

  See especially: About the Whitfields and About the Christisons.

• Surry Hills.
• Who’s who on my blogs.
• Malcolm Gordon Gleeson 25 May 1957-01 June 2007.
• Malcolm Gleeson: the Memorial Service.
• A story I wrote some years ago: “When Snowdrifts Melt.”
• “Marie” — a poem.
• Remembering Neos — a young writers magazine I edited in the 1980s.
• My idea of a “canon”. Still on Old Lines.
• Best reads of 2005. Still on Old Lines.
• The Bard, a Rabbit, and Ninglun.
• The Da Vinci Code. Still on Old Lines.
• Asylum seekers and refugees. Still on Old Lines
• multiculturalism: diversity versus uniformity. Still on Old Lines.
• Indigenous Australians. Still on Old Lines.
• Some thoughts on the Northern Territory Intervention June 2007. Still on Old Lines.

A suite of blogs

It works like this: consider this and the other sites as a suite of blogs, or even as a single blog, even if hosted on two blog providers. Each section has its purpose, and this blog, the front page if you like, features a running view of the whole thing.

The feeds

Over there on the right you will see them lined up. The latest three entries — allowing for a slight time delay at times — in each section are listed there.

Each blog has its purpose

Floating Life

This new site is comparatively rant-free, comments excepted, and quite personal in tone. I think it will grow on you. I am quite fond of it. It is now the lead blog in the suite, the most often updated.

Ninglun’s Specials

On the URL of the old Oz Politics, Ninglun’s Personal Papers was a blog of pages only bringing together material from several other blogs in a more logical sequence. Floating Life Sans Words is now part of Ninglun’s Specials. This provides regular mainly visual posts.

English/ESL — and more

When the HSC came up in 2007 this blog outperformed all the others! It is very much a resource centre for students and teachers, but has, I hope, some content of interest to all.

Ninglun on Blogspot

This is the predecessor of my WordPress — until the Big Archive was made here and “stole” its entries, which have in turn now migrated to New Lines. It first revived in September 2007 to explore teaching and personal issues; in December 2007 it was dedicated to religious and spiritual posts in the main. Recently I mirrored all the posts up to 1 April 2008 to New Lines from a Floating Life, and will not for the time being add anything new on Blogspot. However, in July 2008 I started posting updates there for the WordPress blogs.

Using Live Writer

Where possible I compose in Windows Live Writer, sometimes off-line, sometimes on-line. It’s an excellent program, but not compatible with Journalspace — another reason for shifting Oz Politics to WordPress in 2007. Not only is Live Writer very user-friendly and intuitive, it is also able, even when off-line, to preview an entry exactly as it will appear in its template. Great stuff. Get one for your own use. This is what the interface looks like as I work:

And also Flock Browser

I now often use Flock which has, among many other things, a very workable blog writer of its own, compatible with both WordPress and Blogspot.

Why Floating Life? Why “Ninglun”?

The blog title is an allusion to a Chinese book: Shen Fu’s Six Chapters (Records) of a Floating Life, a beautiful book from 18th century China — lovingly brought into the present in Nicholas Jose’s The Red Thread. The name “Ninglun” is a Mandarin approximation of my real name (Neil); I like it because it happens to mean “peaceful discussion”. Even if my rants are at times a touch loud…

OzPolitics rated me as follows:

Surprised me just a bit…

I was a teacher for just on forty years but am now retired, aside from some casual work and/or coaching. I was until recently a teacher of English as a second language, and my English and ESL blog reflects this interest.

Where am I? Who’s who?

See also Surry Hills and Who’s who .

Technorati Profile

Closing comment. Use Contact instead. Why should I leave a hole for spammers to stick their ugly things into?