Overkill

This is going to be quite a cynical post, so please excuse me before I start. I’ve caught the train to Epping from Central for about a year and a half now, and during this time I’ve noticed something funny about Fridays. Well it’s not so much funny, but more alarming. Every Friday (perhaps that is an exaggeration) there are school kids in front of the ticket machines selling badges/bears/pens/ribbons for charity. No really, think about it - How many charities have ‘push’ days? I’d say most. How valuable are the causes? All of them are valuable. How much noise is in this space then? Too much.

I know it’s a horrible attitude, but the complete inundation of charities pushing donations via gimmicks at the station has pushed me to ignore most of them. Simply, you cannot keep up with them. That’s one half…

By the same token, every time someone enters any sort of jog/ride/ultra marathon, it’s for a cause. After signing up for a run with work in September, it automates a fundraising page for the entrant. Whilst I can understand (to an end) supporting someone to run a marathon, I find it a bit rich to sponsor someone to run 9km. It’s not that far. Even by the same token, running a marathon is a slightly selfish thing – the training required to run it necessitates quite a deal of sacrifice and selfishness. I find the same with triathlon, where most people are a bit mad anyway…

So what to make of all this? Well I think that it demonstrates a few things:
- Are charities getting the required support to drive their causes? I’d say probably not – this probably should be looked at. Obviously the Government can’t support everything, but it would be interesting to see where the key gaps are
- Do we need to look fresh new ways of engaging the public to support causes? There is a lot of noise about donating cash, but buggered if it’s easy to find ways to volunteer. Need to look at other creative ways too.
- Is there a need to combined causes? I know that sounds terrible, but perhaps one large bang is better than twenty scattered pops.

A little negative, but I thought it might pose an interesting question

Tatttttss

I’ve been writing ‘Relax’ on my arm increasingly, with view towards getting it tattooed on. Just like the post from the other day. Increasingly it’s made me think, ‘Yeah, it’s not too bad – lots of people have tats now-a-days’ BUT in the same breathe, I keep thinking, ‘Could I live with this for the rest of my life?’

It’s an interesting thought – what is important enough to actually get permanently imprinted on your body? That’s what it is – I’m always amazed at some of the things that people get, stupid things that seem super cheap.

I guess, in the process of thinking about it, it’s increasingly made me think that I don’t need to get one. I can keep on writing stuff on my arm. By the same token, I do think I need to take a risk and do things that are a bit more outrageous – but perhaps not this.

Short, random post. Sparked by looking at my wrist. Boom.

Relax...

Too long, too long in between posts. Combined with a perceived increase in general businesses, I have had a move and love in between these posts. Some funny stories are include here, so will have to pick them up.

Love. How bad am I at it?!? Whilst posing this as rhetorical, I might just answer it myself. Bad. Here goes the story…

I met two girls via what I like to think of as ‘Sergeant Peppers’ – you can guess what I mean. Was quite a positive experience initially, but both have left nearly as quickly as they came. I don’t quite understand why as it was never explicitly stated, but I do have an inkling – 2011. What a crap year it is. There really is no saving it.

The move though; well it’s been really good. I think I need to continue to get use to the new area, but I hope that it will provide me with a fresh outlook on life. How could it not – so much to do, so much to see.

I’ve been very broad in these statements, having I. I guess that I need to vent but don’t want to get into it too much; it’s too irritating.

One thing I am thinking of is getting a tattoo. Everyone has one nowadays, I’m thinking about getting this on my wrist too (obviously Chad looks better, but I want it too):

Wobblies

I remember writing a few years ago that losing the rugby quarter final in France during the World Cup was a terrible moment. I think I might have even gone so far as to say that it was the death of Australian Rugby at the time.

I think we were all amazed at the Reds victory. I thought it was excellent. I also thought that rugby was back to where it had to be here. But then, we had the Samoa test

The Wallabies on the weekend though were terrible. They were B-Grade. But you know what, I actually quite enjoyed the game. Why? Well mainly because the Samoans played such an enjoyable style of rugby to watch – hard, physical, yet flamboyant – all the things you enjoy about rugby. They played Islander rugby at its best, and just dominated. The Wallabies looked scared to go into contact; I think that didn’t have anything in attack (back line was terrible), but I guess having supported the Brumbies all year made it seem normal.

So there you go – the Wallabies did die a few years ago, so this game was not as bad as I thought.

Half Full

Everybody hurts, sometimes. I also think that everyone feels stupid, sometimes. I know that I do.

At times like that, it's important to remember that it's not that bad, there are people like this out there:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-carjacker-leaves-licence-details-20110706-1h18c.html

Whilst this is a lovely realisation, it's also a little scary - people like this are on our roads! If you're that stupid, should you still be alive? Really?

CHOP!

You know something I wrestle with – expensive haircuts. I’ve thought for a long time that they’re decadent, champagne on a beer diet sort of thing. This was mainly based on a fairly smug understanding too that my belief in my good looks (or perceived good looks) would be enough to carry off a bad haircut, so there was no need to pay excessive amounts for the chop.

That was until last week. Two things happened. Firstly, I realised that I am not as good looking as I thought I was (let’s call it heightened understanding). Secondly, I had a screamer of a haircut. Perhaps the second contributed to the first point, but really, it took a close shave (literally) to realise that you need to pay for services when you want quality outcomes. Like a decent haircut. This was not decent, in fact I’d go so far to say that if I looked at the Geneva convention there would be something against haircuts like this in there.

So I’ve settled it – whilst expensive haircuts are a little indulgent, they’re entirely necessary.

Why I've been away

Haven’t I been slack then? Yes, yes I have. Well this is the reason:




Not just Uke lessons, but a big weekend in Melbourne. Then a big week at work. Big weeks.

I promise to be better next week.