Day 214: Monday, Monday, Monday...

Day 214 (8 Jul) Monday. School day again. Nothing new here really. Breakfast, office, work, home...move on.

I'm heading into the office with the optimistic hope that I might get some research preparation done. It's the 19th century Japanese views of Australia project that I'm keen to get back to before classes start again and before I head to Tokyo, but that doesn't turn out to be the case. 

Breakfast, at 6.12am

Breakfast at 6.12am. Its oats time here in Brisbane, it's how we distinguish winter from the other seasons. I quite like them. 

The day at work consisted of lots of little admin mop-up operations and discussions about future directions of courses and programs. I probably should have stayed at home if I was going to get any work done although, as the 6.12pm pic shows...those filing draws are full of the materials I need to sort for the project. I was looking at them with some despair by that time. 

I'm also starting to tune into the Tokyo election and fortunately the Asahi Shimbun hasn't put up the paywall for election material. There is so much data to mine...it is truly a psephy heaven. Following the news on my Japanese twitter timeline is generating some interest too. 

Tokyo prepping

The Conversation's #FactCheck site, which kicked off formally today and where my piece about Kevin Rudd and the airport delays featured, seems to have been received quite well. That's good to see and nice to be a part of it. Made all of the last few days work worthwhile. 

My 19th century files,
at 6.12pm

Speaking of my local member...Kevin Rudd held a press conference at 5.00pm to announce some major changes to the way the leader of the Labor Party will be elected. Part of the vote will be given to the rank and file membership of the party, not just the parliamentary members. The Australian Democrats have had this process in place for most of their existence and as it happens, it was one of the major reforms brought about with Japan's governing party, the Liberal Democratic Party. It has not really solved the problems the reformers thought it might over there...we'll have to wait and see how it plays out here in Australia. It is a shift to a quasi-presidential approach which I don't think will work well with our ostensibly Westminster system. Let's see.