Observations from the Eye of the Storm
I’ve finally produced and released the first pages of Issue 04 of Kamigen. It’s been an awesome journey — particularly because the process makes me focus on individual scenes as they unfold and I’m really pleased with the tale this has created.
Entitled ‘Islands’, the new issue will focus on that word in different ways. Issue 03 was called Bulawan in reference to the Kamigen spin on the El Dorado legend. Bulawan means Golden in Visayan so Bulawan City translates to “Golden city”. I set out to explore my heritage and tell a story about who I think I am and where I came from. Issue 03’s epilogue really felt like I’d finally begun to achieve that and I’m pleased to say I have so much more to give in Issue 04 and beyond.
The global Black Lives Matters movement, as well as the local equivalent, has made me think about whether I’d ever worked with an Aboriginal I.T. professional in the past twelve years and I’m disheartened to say I cannot. There are 21 million people in this country and approximately 800,000 of them are Indigenous Australians. I’ve interacted with hundreds, if not thousands, of colleagues in my field and can’t recall meeting one of Aboriginal descent.
There are many disadvantages preventing Indigenous kids from entering I.T. and I don’t exactly have many resources to call upon but I think a creative and well formulated strategy could make a difference — I just have to figure out what that is and how to do it! I have the option to create learning materials via websites, distributable PDFs and even YouTube, as well as going out and donating my time as a trainer and consultant…. No doubt even after I think of what to do I’ll have to try a few things before I figure out what works.
It’s been a fun journey being self employed via Paul Brzeski Consulting but I just don’t have the business network to win new work so I’ve decided to wrap it up for now. Open Studios is ultimately where my dream lies and I always had a plan to just slow things down on that front if I took on a full time job. I started a full time job at Lenox Hill in March and it’s been fantastic. I’ve been able to juggle my various personal and professional priorities and keep myself and everyone I report to happy.
We’ll have to move house soon due to the owners of our house deciding not to renew. It’s their loss as we’re good tenants, we have had an unfortunate number of issues with the owners and property managers so I’m looking at the bright side of this - we won’t have to deal with them ever again. After repeated trespass by the owners and breach of our basic right to privacy and enjoyment of the home — it’s actually a bit surprising we felt like we could cope with staying.
It’s been difficult getting out to ride so I need to find an indoor thing I can do that will make me sweat. A few people seem to be using exercise bikes in VR which I don’t quite want to do but I guess any cardiovascular machine in front of the TV could work. We don’t really have much room for a boxing bag so I guess that may be something to look forward to in the move as well!
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