Free Range Beer, Powerpoint, Writing, and Suitcases

Free Range Beer, Sydney Australia

Originally uploaded by freerangelibrarian

My suitcase arrived! Oh the joy of My Things. I’m still feeling vindicated that I dragged all of my presentation stuff on the plane, plus cords, adapters, etc.

Lizanne Payne pointed out this sign while we were headed to the Sydney Harbour. If you click through on the picture you’ll see more from our trip yesterday. She is a great travel partner — we are very compatible in terms of how long our legs hold out and what we find fun.

Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan has a worthy article in the Atlantic this month about the value of writing long form versus blogging. He was talking about writing from an “output” perspective, but I also believe that writing as a mental discipline (and to some extent the thinking I am doing with my presentation) .

I had this sudden moment of clarity with my talk yesterday where I realized that I was trying to wedge in too many issues and also that there was a thematic arc I had overlooked. Finding this arc was a result of the iterative writing process that remaps my brain so it is no longer thinking line by line, but is able to synthesize and see the overarching themes and metaphors in a work.

Now back to 4 hours of PowerPoint (remapping my brain as I go) and then lunch with Fiona Bradley, who works in a library across the street from this hotel, before Lizanne and I repair to the Slide Nightclub to watch the returns.