Liebster Award
The Goat Track to Freedom has been nominated for a Liebster Award by Vincent from Life is Frightening. Thanks, Vinny! The Liebster Award is a peer-nomination scheme that gives bloggers the opportunity to recommend other blogs they like.
Should they accept the nomination, bloggers are required (not a popular word on The Goat Track to Freedom, with its connotations of authority and domination) to share 11 random facts about themselves, answer 11 questions posed by their nominator, and then ask 11 questions of the bloggers they nominate. Given that I've only posted one article so far, I'm taking this as a proxy "About Me" section, and also as an opportunity to live up to some of the goals of The Goat Track to Freedom; creating connections between people and linking to other valuable resources that provide a similar perspective. It's also an opportunity to write something a bit more lighthearted than what would usually appear on this site.
11 Random Facts
1. I often ponder the deeper meaning of signs. For example, signs that say “Please put litter in the bin” create a paradox, because as soon as it’s in the bin, it ceases to be litter. I’ve considered emailing Stephen Hawking about this.
2. When I see road signs that say “Slow Point, 20kms/hr”, I point at them really slowly. If you actually try and point at 20kms/hr, it’s actually quite fast for pointing, so I usually aim for between 3 and 5 kms/hr.
3. I took a picture of a digital clock at 11:11am on the 11th of November, 2011. It reminds me of Asch’s famous line length study.
4. Everyone in my phone contact list is designated by a ridiculous nickname. Almost none of them know this.
5. I was born in Hong Kong, but despite appearances, I’m not actually Chinese.
6. I’m kinda scared of objects with irregular patterns of closely-spaced holes... I mean, how gross is this?
7. The capital of France is Paris.
8. I speak French, which means I know that many French terms adopted into English sound far less romantic when translated. For example, “pot pourri” literally means “rotten pot”, “crème brûlée” is French for “burnt cream”, and “cul-de-sac” means “arse of bag”.
9. When I go to conferences, it often strikes me that there’s a disproportionate number of cul-de-sacs in academia, particularly at the level of Professor.
10. One of my favourite things in life is immersing myself in a crowd (e.g., at a protest or sporting event), and feeling the collective buzz of being surrounded by your fellow men and women. When Australia beat Uruguay on penalties in 2005 to qualify for the World Cup, I felt that collective buzz so strongly that I hugged about 15-20 random sweaty men. I hope each of them cherishes each of those moments of love as much as I do, even if it’s only the pungent aroma of their pheromones that keeps the memories alive.
11. Related to random fact 10, I discovered just the other day (at the Australia vs. Oman match in Sydney) why you should always book tickets to sporting events at the same time as your friends. If you don’t, not only will you not be sitting with your friends, but the Ticketek staff – no doubt laughing from their corporate boxes above (boo hierarchy!) – will turn you into a social pariah by allocating you a seat literally all alone (see diagram below). Imagine the sea of humanity around you, that collective buzz of the crowd, so near, yet so far... Imagine the loneliness as the Mexican wave passes around you but not through you... Imagine the stigma as everyone cheers and you sit awkwardly clapping, silently crying, desperately wanting to connect as the first goal goes in, but always only having that cold, hard plastic you’re sitting on to comfort you. Always book tickets at the same time as your friends.
11 Questions and my Answers
1. What’s one thing that makes your life less shit?
Those signs in dog parks that say “pick up after your dog”... I think they make everyone’s life/shoes less shit.
2. If you could choose one person in the world to make a guest post on your blog, who would it be, and why?
Definitely Noam Chomsky, because then everyone could see how much he steals his ideas from me. Also, I think he might have a few other marginally interesting insights into world affairs.
3. If you weren’t blogging about what you blog about now, what would you be blogging about instead?
Probably the deeper meaning of signs. I have long wanted to do a feature article on the diversity of wet floor sign designs.
4. I’m good thanks – how are you?
Pretty good, but I could go a goat curry, with a side of freedom.
5. What do you most like about keeping a blog?
The incredible fame.
6. What’s the most annoying thing about blogging?
The paparazzi camped in my front courtyard.
7. What’s the most annoying thing about you?
How photogenic I am in gossip magazines... at least that’s what Kristen Stewart said when I asked her that question in bed last night.
8. Which band would you choose to write the soundtrack to your blog?
One Direction, because all goat tracks lead in one direction: towards freedom.
9. What is the capital of Madagascar? (this one is going to be very easy for the BBC blog)
Antananananananarivo... I never remember how many “na’s” there are and where to stop... like banananananananana.
10. If your blog were to make a significant change to the world, what would that change be?
Ideally, I would like my blog to lead to the complete collapse of the current system, to be replaced by a utopia characterised by complete liberty, peace, love, compassion, and the flourishing of art, science and culture. Failing that, I’d be happy if there were a 0.0001% increase in people saying “hey look, there’s a goat track!”
11. Life is frightening – what frightens you most?
I find this stylised depiction of what happens to your baby if you install his/her baby seat over the airbag quite frightening... The materialisation of that giant boomerang between the red (presumably blood-soaked?) baby and the airbag seems particularly concerning.
And to end on a more serious note, I find the degree to which our society endorses and promotes hierarchy and domination quite frightening.
My nominations
-The Only Adrienne - for being my Honours student... but also for being pretty funny (the pressure's on).
-Rethinking the Job Culture - for helping us rethink the job culture, and ask the question "why work?"
My questions for them
1. Will you join the coming revolution?
2. How do you feel about objects with irregular patterns of closely-spaced holes?
3. Who is your favourite philosopher and why?
4. Why do you blog?
5. What do you hate most about blogging?
6. How much is that doggy in the window?
7. What random but interesting fact about the world have you learnt since the beginning of 2015?
8. Who or what inspired you to start a blog?
9. What’s the best pun you’ve ever come up with?
10. What issue do you think most urgently needs to be addressed in the world today?
11. Do you think freedom will necessarily lead to chaos? Why or why not?
And that's all folks! Don't worry, the next article (on Education, coming very soon) will be far more serious.