May the Year of the Pig be prosperous for you all

I was going to post something about Kevin Rudd, but I’ve been eating large quantities of food all day … amongst which the strangest sight was this:

Yes, that’s a chicken. And a hairdryer. It’s all part of my cousin’s elaborate fried chicken recipe (which is actually pretty good!).

The biggest disappointment was that it was really difficult to find out about New Year celebrations around town — even Simone’s otherwise-awesome blog didn’t have anything. The Chung Wah lion dance troupe seems to have focussed on individual restaurants (see skribe’s video of crackly fun) rather than the public celebrations for which they used to close off James Street (as you might see elsewhere).

So my major discoveries after my second day at an academic conference are …

• Educational theory is much harder to understand — and uses much more complex jargon — than I’d previously thought. Constructivist pedagogy, indeed.
• Uni lecturers are worse than students when it comes to leaving rubbish in lecture theatres. They’re also worse than us at turning off or silent-erising their phones (heck, even one of the speakers today admitted his phone was on!). And yet they complain about us!
• Everyone from Sydney thinks that Perth weather is really hot, even though Sydney’s supposed to have a similar climate (and besides, it wasn’t that hot today …)
• Despite being supplied by Guild catering, the free food is awesome. Tim Tams (!), blueberry muffins, scones with jam and cream … dang it, I have to get me some more of these cushy conference jobs!