Category: Sydney sparks

Posted in Sydney sparks

Countdown to Halloween

Posted on by Cate

Halloween is next week. It was never a thing when I was growing up in Sydney, but now it definitely is becoming a big thing here. You can tell because the $2 shops are full of pumpkin-shaped buckets, wizard dress-up kits, bags of spiders and webs – and the price of the humble straw broom has tripled. Last year, I went trick-or-treating with some of my nieces, in the streets around their neighbourhood. It was a great community set up and people really got into it – of course, I was there just for supervisory purposes and to enforce good manners…but I did manage to sneak a jelly rat and a sugared skull or two into my pocket. Some of the residents were delighted to come out and meet the kids and admire their costumes – others must have felt compelled to join in, as they just left buckets of lollies at the very perimeter of their property, presumably so they could barricade themselves inside and not be interrupted by the neighbourhood goblins.

I’m not sure if we’re going again this year, but I really feel like I should make up for the lifetime of trick-or-treating that I’ve missed. I need to find a costume though – the danger of turning up without one is that the kids will say, “Oh, you came as a witch – good one”. And it would take a lot of sugary treats to get over that…

Jack the pumpkin (2011)
Milly the dog wasn’t keen on wearing her costume.
A monster arrived straight from tae kwon do (hence the outfit and un-monsterlike shoulder bag).
Witches and devils on the hunt. For lollies, not souls.
Some neighbours went to a huge effort. At least, I don’t think these guys are here all year.

Happy Halloween, one and all. And please feel free to share any pics or tales of your Halloween festivities!

Posted in Sparks in the wild, Sydney sparks

The First Sydney Color Run – I’m in!

Posted on by Cate

I’d never heard of the Color Run until my friend Anne asked if I’d like to join her team – when I checked it out online, I saw that it looks bizarre, crazy, colourful, fun and very very very different to a normal fun run. So, of course I’m in. They call the Color Run (American spelling – it’s really bugging me not to write ‘colour’, believe me) ‘the happiest 5k on the planet’.

According to the organisers, there are really only two simple rules: (1) you have to start the run in white shirts and (2) you have to finish the run covered in colour. I love their big picture explanation: “Runner/walkers begin the 5k at the start line like a brand new pristine coloring book. By the end, they look like they fell into a Willy Wonka… tie dyed… vat of colored goodness. We are the creators of an all new paint race phenomena!” Of course, they had me at Willy Wonka.

So, how does it work? Apparently, “each kilometer of the event is associated with a designated color: yellow, orange, pink, or blue.  As the runners/walkers reach the Kilometer COLOR RUN Zones, they are blitzed by our volunteers, sponsors, and staff with COLOR.   All products are 100% natural and safe.  You can eat the stuff if you’d like (we have tried it and don’t suggest it, it is surprisingly high in calories and leaves a chalky aftertaste).  Of course, we save the best for last, ending the race with a color extravaganza of epic proportions.”

Basically, you run 5km and every km, people jump out and shoot or throw coloured powder all over you. This is the first time the run has come to Australia, after being rolled out across the USA. The first Australian Color Run is in Melbourne in November and we get our turn in Sydney in February. I’ve registered and, by the looks of the peeps in this promo video, better make sure I don’t have any appointments for the rest of the day…Let me know if you’re in Sydney and want to join in the colourful fun!

Posted in Sparks at work, Sydney sparks

Festival of Dangerous Ideas

Posted on by Cate

I’m excited. I love a good Festival and am proud to say that in Sydney, we’ve become pretty reliable as awesome Festival-runners. I say ‘we’ using the royal plural, of course, as I do nothing more than buy some tickets from time to time and turn up to be entertained by super-talented people. So last weekend when I was at the Opera House with my mum seeing The Pearlfishers (one of my all-time favourites – sooo beautiful), I noticed a collection of newspaper-like ads for an upcoming festival. The Festival of Dangerous Ideas. It’s on at the Opera House from 28-30 September and the topics are thought-provoking, to say the least. “Have an opinion” is the request / demand of the curators, although if you don’t yet have one – am sure there will be plenty on offer for you to borrow.

Among the heavy hitting topics is The Devil is Real, featuring a Catholic priest (Fr Julian Porteous) talking about what it might mean if the Devil is real – “an active presence who moves among us every day”. Not sure if he is referring to the bus driver who sees you running down the street and drives off anyway, or the bank teller who ignores you in the queue and pretends to count a stack of envelopes and rearrange their pens, or noisy teenagers lounging around the shopping mall. But if he has suggestions on how to deal with those everyday devils, it could be worth checking out…

Then there’s the topic guaranteed to set HR professionals’ hearts a-flutter: My Workplace is a Cult. The speakers are a journalist and the Creative Director of Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney. Make of that what you will. They ask: “Are you expected to devote inordinate amounts of time and energy to your work? Do you spend more time with your work colleagues than anyone else? Has your work taken over your life?” I’m guessing that most people would nod along in agreement, so I’m intrigued to hear the proposed solutions to “set us free”.

I’ve interviewed with a few cult workplaces in my time – #1 was a firm that I’ll call Flandersen Consulting, which has since morphed into a different organisation (and perhaps that says a lot), back when I was a fresh uni graduate. They even took 50 of us from around the country (and a few from NZ) to a beachside ‘conference’ where they convinced us we were Leaders Of The Future, who should undoubtedly join their firm. To harness our combined super powers, I guess. It’s a memory that’s seared in my brain – after I asked some frank 20 year old kinda questions (I’m sure they weren’t actually that confronting) in one formal interview, the next meeting I had with them began with the very senior female interviewer picking a post-it from my file as if it were gum on her high heeled shoe and saying slowly, I understand that you have some concerns with the Andersen lifestyle. Uh huh. That was probably a sign that it wasn’t for me – well, that and two other things: every time I visited, the firm’s elevators were full of eerily similar looking Barbies and Kens in conservative navy or grey suits; and a selling point was that they often worked ’til midnight, but at 9.30pm, someone would say, “hey, let’s order pizzas”. And they would. Crazy kids.

Anyways, back to the Festival. Bono & Bob – Get Out of Africa features award-winning British comedy writer, journalist and author, Jane Bussmann. Jane claims that “mainstream media is burnt out by “Bono and Geldof’s Poverty Industry”, which deliberately painted Africa as depressing for two decades to line its own pockets.” And as far as I can see, this is the point of the Festival – to throw ideas out there for you to consider, poke you out of your comfort zone and challenge what you thought you knew to be true. All in an hour-long presentation. Sounds good to me!

There are also some delicately titled panel discussions: All Australians are Racists; Children are Not Inncoent; Abolish Private Schools; All Women Hate Each Other. And the closing event of the Festival sees the panel of experts solving all of the world’s problems in an hour. Technically, that particular show goes for 1 hour and 15 minutes, but I’m sure that doesn’t sound as cool in the title.

If you’d like to find out more about the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, you can check out the Sydney Opera House website here. They’re also on Twitter and Facebook, so you can join in the fun from wherever you are.

Posted in Sydney sparks

Some Sydney Sunshine (and a turkey)

Posted on by Cate

Looking back to Manly Beach [EverydaySparks]
Today was a lovely day in Sydney – sunny and pretty warm for the middle of winter. The clouds were hanging around but not really getting in the way of the sun. This is probably my favourite kind of weather – and it’s even better if you are lucky enough to spend time out and about soaking up the sunshine, as I was today. So, for something different for this blog, here’s my morning in  words and pictures.

Winter sun at Manly [EverydaySparks]
First, I met my lovely friend Stef at Manly beach for coffee. We went to a cosy cafe next door to the legendary Adriano Zumbo Patisserie. It’s closed on Mondays, by the way – so it’s the safest day to be in the neighbourhood if you can’t resist the famous ‘Zumbarons’ (a range of very interesting macaron flavours) or other amazing cakes. If you’re not familiar with this Sydney icon, you can check out the website here. (I especially like Mr Zumbo because he has a Willy Wonka tattoo on his arm. Uh huh.)

Ocean pool, Manly [EverydaySparks]
On the rocks [EverydaySparks]
We went for a walk around the ocean path, which was full of mums pushing their babies in sporty looking prams – what a great way to exercise, chatting to your mates while you power walk around the beach on a sunny day, pushing around 15kg (of pram and baby).

We weren’t power walking though – just normal walking – and it was such a nice day that I couldn’t resist some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream on the way back. They had no customers, so really it was more about lending my support to the struggling retail sector. And charity never tasted so delicious.

Brush Turkey taking the high road [EverydaySparks]
Shortly after I arrived home, I went out for a walk/run (I’d be lying if I said I ran the whole way) in my new hot pink shoes that make me go faster. As I was running around the bush path to Mosman Bay, I noticed something on the path ahead. For a minute, I worried that I was hallucinating (maybe due to my pre-run ice cream). Then this brush turkey jumped out of the way and scurried into the bushes.

On the road again [EverydaySparks]
I’m sure I wasn’t running that fast – maybe it was the shoes that put him off. Whatever, he politely jumped up from the path, through the bushes and back down on to the path behind me. And then went on his way to do whatever it is that a brush turkey does with his day.

And that was my Monday morning.

Posted in Sydney sparks, WWWhat?

Imagine Cup 2012: Over and out

Posted on by Cate

Students always love a blackboard. [EverydaySparks]
OK, promise this will be my last post wrapping up Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2012. I think. There is still so much I want to share from the amazing experience, but I’m a bit worried that it’ll be like one of those times when someone tells you about that dream they had last night. You know, when they’re really into it, so they go into crazy detail about every little aspect and you’re left nodding and smiling and wishing they would just SHUT UP AND LET IT GO. Because it’s never as good in the re-telling. But I’ll do my best with these last few people-highlights of the Imagine Cup worldwide finals.

Maxim (and the drone hovering behind) in full flight. [EverydaySparks]
First, to the Etzoockee team from Kazakhstan. Maxim Kulesh appeared to be their team spokesman and he was quite the salesman – captivating the crowd with his enthusiastic explanation of the team’s software design project, Archangel. According to their Imagine Cup profile, their project is, quite simply, “for changing the world and saving human lives”. Right on, boys in blue from Kazakhstan. How, you ask? With drones. Well, drones that are controlled remotely using a desktop application, to be more precise. Basically, these unmanned flexible and mobile drones can be directed to emergency situations to (a) drop medical or other urgent supplies and (b) record live footage of the crisis with an in-built camera, enabling emergency services personnel to better prepare for the disaster that awaits them. With advance warning of the state of play, the experts will be able to determine how best to access the sites, treat the victims and manage the situation. Very clever. Although, I think Maxim could have sold any idea to the crowd gathered around him – that kid is going places.

Guilherme Savio, a Doer. [EverydaySparks]
And then The Doers from Brazil – in their bright yellow hard hats to show that their project was all about teaching kids to build better cities with their game design Do More. Their message is about people joining together to do more to solve the world’s problems. Their game is a fun way to look at problems facing developing communities – players have to work out how to manage waste, construction and growing populations as they advance through the levels and build bigger cities. Once they have developed their cities, the game looks at issues such as gender equality at work and other problems facing more established communities. Yep, tackling all of these big issues in a game. It really gets you thinking and I can see how kids would be attracted to the graphics and challenge to progress through the levels, while at the same time having to consider real world issues that come with progress and development. The Doers seemed like a lot of fun and when we asked how long they had been working on their project, the answer was many months – but with a break to enjoy their summer holiday. Hats off to the lovely Guilherme Savio and the team for their work/life balance – and they came 2nd in the world in the game design for Windows/Xbox category!

A fruit ninja with his Xight eyes. [EverydaySparks]
Finally, to the Xight team from China – a great idea and a really dedicated team member who sat in the booth playing a bzillion games of Fruit Ninja WITH HIS EYES. Uh huh. You see (pun intended), Xight is an ‘eye tracking system’, which uses the captured images of human eyes to calculate the direction of users’ gazes. This technology can enable people with upper limb paralysis to control computers on their own. So clever and again, such a practical and genuinely useful application of technology.

For more info, you can check out Imagine Cup website here.

Over and out.