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.

Keep it going!

After my rambling post yesterday, I mulled over a few people that weren’t included. Sure, I think that the list I put together is a pretty tight list, but it wasn’t necessarily my favourite people. Also I had to pass over some people that were pretty influential too. So here are some more:

Nirvana – was the sound track to Gen Y, and developed grunge. You could put Pearl Jam here too

Jeff Buckley – I think most people would say they like Jeff. He was my favourite artist from about 14-20, all from one album. Now I still love him, and would go as far to say that some of the songs being prepared for his second album are amongst my favourites of his (‘Witches Rave’, specifically). Some of his early stuff (‘Be your husband’ – I love how there is so much background noise, then people are just blown away by his voice) was incredible, ‘Grace’ has so many layers it’s just incredible, and most people say that his cover of ‘Hallelujah’ is one of the best covers of all time. Terrible shame that we didn’t get to hear more from him

Joy Division – I think Joy Division was really important to 1980s UK music, and they did kick off trance a bit too, but another band that was probably growing into its potential cut down by Ian Curtis’ death. New Order had some good stuff, but Joy Division was something special

Jerry Reed – Certified guitar player. Jerry is one of my all time favourite artists, Chet Atkins was his mentor and he took playing to another level. Love Jerry, Son!

Nina Simone – I think she was a really important African American artist, she wrote some amazing songs. She had the most amazing voice too, love Nina. How about this as a comparison, just for you.

Miles Davis – the King of Cool, he brought Jazz mainstream, and has stuck there ever since. ‘Kind of Blue’ has sold 4 million copies – it’s an amazing album, I’m surprised it’s not sold more. Another important African American.

Madonna – She was a big thing in her generation, I never liked her much.

The Strokes – I remember the first time I heard the Strokes. It was on Channel V, they were touring for ‘Is This It’ and played ‘Last Night’ live. I have never looked back, love them.

I could go on and on. I’ll stop.

Lists, list lists list.

Perhaps this is a repeat, perhaps not. I’ll go ahead with it anyway. And a warning, this post grew and grew and grew, so it's a bit long.

In music world (or ‘Music Land’ as I like to call it sometimes), people often pose the question - Stones or Beatles? Pfft, I know, for 99% of my life I have been all like, ‘Are you SERIOUS?!? No one can compare to the Beatles’. I think a lot of people would agree with me, but I know that some people don’t. Some people disagree. I’ve always wondered why, but I think I start to get why. The Stones are great. I’ve been listening to 40 licks a bit lately and I think that in terms of ‘top songs’ they are pretty hard hitters. ‘Miss You’ for example, probably one of the catchiest songs ever written, it doesn’t get old. Then, you have to consider that ‘Miss You’ came out in 1978, some 15 years after they released their first single. That’s pretty impressive to be making a song like that 15 years after you started, given the amount of change that the 60s saw in music and culture. By the same token, ‘Start Me Up’, which was a number one hit in 1981 on release and was bought by Microsoft in 1994 for $14M to launch Windows 95, was 18 years after they first got on the scene. That’s impressive. The Beatles were together for 10 years. Interesting point.

So I get it. Satisfaction, Brown Sugar, Sympathy for the Devil, Can’t Always Get What you Want, Paint it Black – awesome. Great band, very influential. Still though, I’m in the Beatles camp. They changed music, and given that they were together for ten years the amount of hits they produced is unrivalled. They develop pop music as we know it now, and 90% of the songs on every one of their albums are good. Hard to beat.

That takes me to the next question though, influential people. Lists. Good fun. So here are some comparisons, top 10s from a few different sources.

The Billboard Top 100: 1. Beatles 2. Madonna 3. Elton John 4. Elvis Presley 5. Stevie Wonder 6. Mariah Carey 7. Janet Jackson 8. Michael Jackson 9. Whitney Houston 10. The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stone Magazine Top 100: 1. The Beatles 2. Bob Dylan 3. Elvis Presley 4. Rolling Stones 5. Chuck Berry 6. Jimi Hendrix 7. James Brown 8. Little Richard 9. Aretha Franklin 10. Ray Charles

The VH1 all time top 100: 1. The Beatles 2. Michael Jackson 3. Led Zeppelin 4. Rolling Stones 5. Bob Dylan 6. Jimi Hendrix 7. Prince 8. Elvis Presley 9. James Brown 10. Stevie Wonder

Top 10 Country Stars of All Time (CM Time): 1. Johnny Cash 2. Hank Williams 3. Merle Haggard 4. Patsy Cline 5. Jimmy Rogers 6. Bill Munroe 7. Carter Family 8. Willie Nelson 9. Waylon Jennings 10. George Jones

Top 10 Highest Seller: 1. Beatles (600 odd million) 2. Elvis Presley 3. Michael Jackson 4. ABBA 5. Madonna 6. Led Zepplin 7. Queen 8. Elton John 9. Mariah Carey 10. Celine Dion

The Guardian Top Ten Composers: 1. Bach 2. Beethoven 3. Mozart 4. Schubert 5. Debussy 6 Stravinsky 7 Brahms 8 Verdi 9 Wagner 10 Bartók

So then, what to make of all these lists!??! Well, maybe I should make a list too - a list of my top ten musicians? Well here you go, with a reason:

10. Hank Williams
Hank was the original cowboy; he made a huge difference to music in the US, brought together Cajun with bluegrass to really found country music. Seeing it’s so big now, I think it’s important to have him on this list, plus I really like his stuff.

9. Eazy-E
I think NWA was probably the biggest and most influential early Rap group, and given Eazy-E’s place in that he should have a place here. All about places really. He had some amazing lyrics and was one of the first off-the-hook MC ‘s, and NWA were amazing...

8. Aretha Franklin
I think she was an important role model for a generation, and I think she was also the ‘mother’ of Gospel. I also felt bad that there weren’t more women on this list, and I think that probably has the best voice on this list.

7. James Brown
The Father of Funk. He really influenced a generation too – not only did he bring about soul and funk, I think that he inspired P-Funk, Bootsy then the white funk like KC that ultimately turned into disco, then disco influenced dance music and a lot of the club music that we have today. Long bow, but I’m going to draw it.

6. Motzart
I think his body of work and his continued popularity, as well as his amazing personal ability, necessitate a spot on this list. He was also a bit of a freak.

5. Johnny Cash
Johnny had a huge influence on Elvis, wrote some amazing things (‘Folsom Prison Blues’ is one of my favourite songs), and made records from 1957 (With ‘I walk the line’) through to 2002 when he was on deaths door (how about ‘Hurt’ on that album – amazing). I think he also shaped a great deal of American culture. He's had a movie made about him too, surely that's a big deal!

4. Elvis Presley
Elvis is still ‘The King’ – whilst I don’t think he was as revolutionary as some of the other people on this list, his star power probably outshone most of them (‘Elvis was so good they let him appear in movies even though he couldn’t act. They’d let him sing his lines – ‘Hey Elvis, want some Lemonade?’ ‘Leeemoonnnadde, that cool, refreshing drink…’_ oh Eddie!), and he continues to have people travel to his shrine at Gracelands. The King has left the building, but he is still the King!

3. Chuck Berry
Chuck is the pioneer of rock and roll, and could equally be claimed as one of the pioneers of breaking down the racial divide in America through his music. His music was a huge influence on the Beatles and the Stones, and was just bloody good. Amazing guitarist, great lyricist too!

2. Bob Dylan
I think folk music played a really important part in the development of America, and Dylan was the darling child of folk. As such, he would have to be an American Darling. He wrote the songs of that generation, and that generation defined so much of our present culture (via modern day America) so it would be impossible to downplay his influence. He also led the protest movement against Nam, which was again a very important shift, and will continue to play a part in the future via those songs. I also think the number of people who have taken his music and reinterpreted it (Hendrix, Guns and Roses, The Byrds just as top line examples) show how important his music in. I think ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ is one of my favourite songs of all time too – it’s just sensational.

You take a while to like Dylan, I really grew into liking him; but now I’m here it’s hard not to love him.

1.The Beatles
Hard to put them anywhere but here. They’ve sold more records, influenced more people, had their music covered by the most people (look at ‘I Am Sam’ – a whole album of amazing covers. ‘Other side of Abbey Road’ too!!!), look at how they changed pop culture, look at how they still shape current pop music. Each of the Beatles had good solo careers too (well perhaps not Ringo) that also produced some of the biggest songs of all time – ‘Imagine’, ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, ‘My Sweet Lord’ – they were amazing musicians and I doubt we will ever see the likes of this band again.

So there is my list. Some of the people I wanted to include but didn’t were Beethoven (huge classical composer), Michael Jackson (very influential in so many ways, bit of a freak too), Bob Marley (spoke for a generation and was an important activist), Earl Scruggs (Father of Bluegrass, which influenced so much) and Chet Atkins (one of the best guitar players of all time), but that wouldn’t make it a top ten but a top 15. So many more, but that’s just what I think.

So there you go! Boom!

Look what I did

I am so good with money, I buy things like this:




Still when it's back up to original spec it will be amazing

See!!!! See!!!!!

I just clicked onto the SMH (something I'm trying to do less and less, but thought I should have a look at Rugbyheaven) and saw this article on 'Bogans', written by David Nichols to promote his text (it's almost an ad isn't it).

How funny that this has come up straight after my Lucky Country Post!

Why did I miss this one?!?!

I hate picking things up late. I also hate realising that I’m ignorant too. It’s fair to say that the older you get the more you realise you don’t know, but still, when you miss out important information or texts you realise that you’re a long way behind the times.

I had a moment like this yesterday, it will continue till probably tomorrow night. I finished reading ‘Farewell my lovely’, the wonderful Raymond Chandler novel on Thursday night, so went to the book shop and got 3 more Penguins. I picked up ‘The Lucky Country’ by Donald Horne, I obviously knew the name but thought it was in the realm of ‘Shiralee’ or ‘Cloudstreet’ as an important Australian Fictional work, so hadn’t jumped on it earlier. I kept on thinking whilst I was reading the book (and I’ve read about 2/3 of it since picking it up last night, nearly sat and read the whole thing last night but was getting tired) that I wish I would have picked this up when I was 15 or 16, as everything would have made so much more sense.

Whilst written in 1964 (with several revisions subsequently), this text reflects Australian society perfectly even now. You can apply the key messages readily now, I think they really resonate:

‘Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck'

This quote is pretty widely known, and quite ironically it is often used incorrectly to imply that we are indeed rocking along. Really though, how relevant is it today?!? Carbon Tax anyone? Resource boom is putting plenty of money in the coffers, but Australians are no-where near courageous enough to have the foresight to cipher any of these funds to protect the long term future of the environment. Climate sceptics are falling by the way-side, so there is no debating that something should be done, but we do have second rate people who are too scared of business to take a stand

‘Most Australian writers seem to find it impossible to come to grips with their own people. They caricature their countrymen or idealize them for qualities most of them don’t posses’

Horne goes on to describe Australia as the first suburban nation, and talks about the difficulty of actually identifying any Australian cultural values of note. He also talks about the difficulty academics have with respecting Australia , and our unusual position between the US and the UK when looking at cultural influence.
I found this fascinating. The ugly American OS has been replaced by the ugly Australian, particularly in places like Bali and in the UK. I hate the parochial lust for booze that Australian’s OS have made synonymous with our country, and of how hard I find it to respect so many of my peers. There seems to be a lot of self loathing here, and I think it’s a really poignant statement that we have built ourselves up on nothing, really.

‘There is no real feel for Asia’

I think we’re still very ignorant of our neighbours. We may travel there more often now than what we did 40 years ago (I think all Australians wanted to travel back to the UK), but I believe that we still don’t respect our neighbours, and we don’t build the community of this region. Our immigration policy is disgraceful, we look towards Asia as merely a potential refuge for illegal detainees that we don’t want to process here. It’s terrible.

I don’t think I’ve made my points succinctly enough, Horne makes them very well. I’ll finish the book and write some more, but just wanted to jot something down now. Key take out I guess is that I wish I would have read this years ago – I would have been on the ball so much more!

The Time is Now

I don’t really have anything profound to write about at the moment. I’m sort of drifting through the day, so nothing too great to really drive my motivation.

Though I will tell a fun story. The guy next to me thinks my watch is quite hilarious. He thinks it looks silly on me. I can see why he thinks this, it is quite small on my wrist, but really I think it’s quite rad. What do you think?:



So what sort of watch should I wear? I have an expensive Swiss watch (other than my expensive Swiss Swatch) that is more manly, but do you need to run something like that? I don’t tend to wear it because I like to save it for special occasions. I also have a Polar heart rate monitor – I like to wear this as it makes me look sporty, but I don’t think it’s as cool as my swatch.

I always thought that a person’s shoes told a lot about their personality, but I think that it could be argued that their watch also says a lot about them. See how dull this story was? If I was really up with it I should have just spoken about Flavor Flav for a while, now THAT GUY knows how to tell the time!

Hey Good Looking...

Beautiful people tend to hang around with one another. Sometime they have an ugly friend, but they generally the surround themselves with other beautiful people.

I noticed this today at work of all places. All the ‘attractive’ girls were organising to go out with one another! Natural selection of the fittest? Perhaps!

Fortunately I too am surrounded by beautiful people, in fact as this photo demonstrates I’m probably the ugly one!



How good is this too - Hank Williams & Australian Crawl references! Amazing. So many musical references in one simple post

Snap Happy

You know what I really miss. Taking photos. When I bought my camera a few years ago, the criticism came that I wouldn’t use it enough. That’s probably quite fair criticism, as I’ve not used it as much as I should have.

But the issue is this – you can’t take an SLR out and about all the time with you, it’s just too big & not practical. Secondly, you really need to have interesting things to take photos of – you can’t really keep taking photos of the light in your house without it becoming a tad dull after a while.

So here is an idea – be more interesting. No, that’s what I need to do with EVERYTHING. No, what I should say is think more about taking photos, then go and do it.

DO IT!

... like a monkey with a miniature cymbal

Reoccurring themes. Themes that reoccur. I think you’d have enough of them here to last a life time, don’t you think? Yeah for sure, I’m all about it.

So themes – me over analysing things. In this instance, I was talking with a friend who’s OS about their birthday celebrations over the weekend. Full of drugs, booze, and wild times. There was some chat about financial difficulties about living over there, and there was talk about how wild it is. There was talk of tattoos, of future trips, and of how good life is, despite having just given up work because they loathed it. And more financial difficulties after run ins with debt collectors.

I thought initially about how irritating I find these discussions and their choices – I feel that they’re self destructive, that it’s all excessive and lacks any responsibility or accountability for their actions/decisions, save for perhaps a hole in the nasal passages, significant debt and some lame tattoos. I find it hard to deal with as I look for rationale behind all these actions/decisions, which is obviously hard to find – near on impossible really.

WELL I was thinking more about it more last night & this morning (wow, more thinking) and I had a very different thought. A bit of an ‘Aha’ moment. What is wrong with living to the max? Nothing really, it’s actually not a bad idea at all. Life is really so short, so you should live life to the max! I think I like to try and do that too – I like to be on the go all the time, but in a slightly different way. I should in fact respect this individual for being adventurous and living it up. But I don’t. For a clear reason…

I don’t like stupid people. Clearly there are some stupid actions here, contradictions and poor decisions, and that’s what really frustrate me. What they’re doing doesn’t interest me (i.e. the way they’re living OS) which is fine, but it’s the way they go about it that is stupid. So that is that. But still I worry.

So why do I worry? Well I can’t, based purely on my new understanding that you have to live life to the max. Life is too short to worry about other people & their decisions; you can’t change them. I still think that you need to have some understanding of the repercussions of your actions, but you should evaluate them and weigh them up in the light of the situation. If you’re naff you can’t do this, so that’s the problem.

I again feel better. I’ve over analysed an area of pervious over-analysis, which makes this ‘super-analysis’ amazing. Perhaps overdone, and it’s been done too often, but look at the outcome! Solid movements. Solid! Did this make sense? I’ve drawn a flow chart of the understanding to flesh it out simply:



Did you like the Hot Chip reference too? I did. The song's going Over and Over and Over and Over in my head now...

Back on the bus...

When I looked at my old blog (not my first blog, but my second blog, which is older than this blog, hence my old blog) I tended to write a lot about muppets on public transport. I’ve been pretty good at refraining from that recently; I guess refrain may be a product of age and wisdom. Or because I didn’t have much to whinge about.

BUT NEVER FEAR, I have two public transport issues to discuss! And one comment that’s a bit more feel good

1. Sitting on the aisle with a space next to you – This is a huge issue. If you can’t sit next to someone on public transport, you shouldn’t be allowed to be in public. Full stop. If you have a mobility issue, sit in the designated seat, if not move over. I find this monumentally annoying. One guy I regularly see on the bus is a bit of a ‘champion’ of what I refer to as the ‘Aisle DISGRACE’, so much so that he pushed in front of people to get onto the bus the other day then did an Aisle DISGRACE at the front of the bus, I wanted to punch him in the head. He might have killed me (he was a skin head of sorts, probably angling for a fight), so I didn’t, but boy did I think of it. Thought of it good.

2. Holding on – I often think this is a bit of natural selection, but I’m often amazed that people hold on poorly when on the bus. What do I mean by this? Well it’s quite simple – they hold on with the hand closest to the front of the bus. Why is this silly? Well it’s obvious – the most dramatic force, save for a side collision, is going to be braking (suddenly or otherwise), which will throw weight towards the front of the bus. If you hold on with the hand towards the back of the bus, your arm is stronger. It’s simple – most people do it, but last night on the bus home four or so people nearly went through the front window because of sudden breaking because of what I call ‘Holding on DISGRACE’. Their front hand was DISGRACEFULLY inept at trying to keep them secure, what a disgrace. Obviously if there is only frontal handles available this is another story, but I think that’s rare. DISGRACE. I’ve include quite the image to further demonstrate this.



3. The Newtown bus I was on had a lot of pretty girls on it. More than your regular Parramatta Road Service. DISGRACEFULLY attractive you could almost say, some pretty people. I will test this again tonight, I guess also in an attempt to see more pretty people on the bus again. Nice way to end this post don’t you think, sad sad HAPPY. Graceful.

I’m sure that now I’ve cracked the ‘transport gripe’ fountain open again, it might turn into quite the reoccurring theme! Watch out NSW Transport, watch out!

Gettin Up

In the most recent of my ‘productivity at work’ studies, I thought I’d make a tally of the number of times I get up from my desk each day. This is almost a health/welfare study, as it’s important to move about from your desk, but it can also demonstrate distractions (going to get a coffee or the toilet or the like) and the amount of productive work that can be jammed into the day.

So today I had one meeting, but had to go and help a few times with one of our systems. In total, I got up 11 times. 11 times – sounds excessive doesn’t it. I think it’s a lot, but in reality I had to get up 4 times for meals (to get breakfast, to put the bowl in the kitchen, to get lunch, to put the bowl in the kitchen), and then twice for meetings, so really there are only 5 other times that I got up, and they too were all reasonably understandable. So I think that’s probably pretty standard.

Just for a bit of comparison, I thought that another person here gets up a bit. I used them as the constant and tallied there ‘get ups’ as well. Guess what they came to??!?!? 6! No just kidding, they actually got up 25 times. I felt validated that I got up half as much – viva la productivity!

I also like the reference to Q Tip here. GETTIN UP!

Still burns...

I’m not sure if I’ve actually written a post about this yes, but I think I might have so I will repeat myself. Though I do have a twist.

I stopped playing rugby this year. I’ve been playing every year since I was eleven (under 12s), which makes roughly 16 seasons of football. I played for the same club for the last 9 years in a row, and after having played 100 Club Games and won 3 premierships, I thought that I might give it up. Truth be told, I’m not sure why I didn’t give it up earlier – I was never really that good, and I enjoyed it but I didn’t really love it. I think I like the image and all that jazz.

So as a consequence when people ask me if I miss playing, the answer is always no. I went down to watch the local sub-districts team play and I did think about playing for a while, for the comradely, but then I watched it for another 5 odd minutes and realised that I was happy not playing. Funnily too, I’ve not been back to watch Gordo – but I might go shortly.

Whilst I’ve definitely mellowed since playing, today I’ve been watching Sydney Uni Vs. Randwick and all my hate for Uni has come back. I don’t like Randwick, but geez I hate Uni. I think, in my retired state, I’ve mellowed a bit to some of the other clubs – I mean I like Wests a lot more now, and I don’t mind Manly or Eastwood since some blokes I know went there, but the hate for Uni will never die. Ever. I don’t know half these guys yet I loathe them!

Aren't I a grump then...

I’ve been off the last two days with gastro. These two days have been the only sick days I’ve ever taken in my working life, so it’s been a little strange to actually just sit around and get better (well I chucked a sicky back when I was at my first job, but that was only one day & the place was rubbish). Yesterday I sat at home by myself, but last night Mum came over and picked me up and brought me back to our house to chill here (and to keep an eye on me).

That brings me to the point of the story. If I were at Camperdown I would have just laid around, perhaps watched one of Tim’s DVD’s, but today I’ve actually watched two films which has been nice. I’ve been watching a bit of TV today, which has been nice. What I did just see though was Lady Gaga’s news clip for her single ‘My Life’ or the like. Well…

Last week at the Sydney Writers Festival there was a session on Pornography and it’s social impact. Naturally given it’s sensational and racy theme it was the picked up by the Herald in two separate columns (one saying how destructive it was, the second saying that it’s not that destructive and that discretion is needed). I was initially in the middle – I had thought that people should get the opportunity to watch if it they so desired, that it wasn’t that harmful and that it was just peoples bodies, so what could really be that bad. The other side of me thought that overt sexuality in all areas of our society was perhaps a tad damaging for the people are dressing and seeing themselves, and that kids were perhaps being exposed to sex and risqué body images too young. I had thought about writing about this earlier, but I wasn’t sure where I stood till now.

Lady Gaga is quite an amazing artist – very individualistic and ‘fresh’. But the film clip that she’s just put out is too much. Plus it’s bubble gum music that is aimed at teens and above, so they’re the primary viewers of that clip. I think it’s in pretty poor taste to depict masturbation, childbirth and other sexual acts in a music clip – there’s no need. I found it offensive, and I’m not that much of a prude. Just no need for it – it’s just a bloody trashy pop song.

I know it’s probably a bit of overkill, but I honestly believe that whilst the ‘fun’ aspect of sex is often portrayed, I think that the danger (STDs, unwanted children etc) is being dismissed too quickly. I’m not sure that the need for sensibility is being shown to children in the same way as the ‘fun’ is being depicted.

So there you go. I’m a prude, but seriously, shit house clip

Sydney Pride

I went to a sensational event on the weekend – the Sydney Writers Festival. I didn’t actually go to any of the free workshops, although I should have planned better and gone to a lot more, but I actually went to a session called, ‘Family Politics’ with Fatima Bhutto, Aminatta Forna, Ingrid Betancourt and Maxine McKew who facilitated the discussion.

I won’t delve too much into the topic, as I could write plenty on that, except to say that it was amazing. The point that I really wanted to make was that it was so good to see events of this calibre (of the Sydney Writers Festival) in Sydney. We don’t get enough of this sort of cultural injection, and the crowds that were there showed that people are crying out for it. It was also good to see how vibrant Walsh Bay is becoming. The Piers have really come into their own and had a real buzz about them on Saturday afternoon, was great.

So that’s my story. Short and sweet.

Really?

I don’t enjoy watching rugby that much anymore. I gave up playing at the start of this year, probably a year or two after my enthusiasm for watching Super 14 (now 15) and Test Matches started to wane. I had thought, for the majority of this time, that is was very much an evolution of interest – I couldn’t maintain my enthusiasm because I never really loved it that much, and you naturally progress to different passions. Some people don’t, some passions remain (for me, race cars are still there), but all the same it’s not a stagnate process.

Having just read this article on a ‘Waratah Community Cabinet’ I can articulate the reason behind my declined interest more articulately – this is just such a joke. It’s a game. It’s grown to be too big for its boots (good pun hey). Sure, substantial amounts of money are involved but when you SUPPORT a side you have the option to CONTINUE to support them or STOP supporting them. They don’t own SHARE in this club that necessitate a return on their investment; they pay to watch them for entertainment, so if you’re no longer being entertained then why continue.

I’m going to write a letter to the paper on this. It’s a joke.

Some sort of list

One of the girls at work just said, ‘I can tick that off my bucket list’. Bucket Lists hey, they’re all the rage at the moment. Is it because of the aging population? Maybe. Is it because we are stimulus rich beings and need to constantly have new goals and experiences? Maybe. Anyway I thought I might move ‘en-trend’ and start jotting down a few things that I would like to do. It could perhaps be the early makings of a list of some sort of desired activities/events, and I might keep adding to it and updating it for you. Yes, yes, sounds like fun.

- Live in South East Asia, North America & Europe
- Own a Austin Healey 100/6, Alfa Romeo 105 GTA, Audi Quattro, Aston Martin DB5, BMW M3, BMW 3.0 CSI, Cadillac Coupe De Ville, Datsun 240Z, Elfin Streamliner, Ferrari 355, Ford Mustang, Ford Escort BDA, Ford Sierra RS500, Ford Falcon XT, Ford Falcon Rally Sprinte, GMC 2500, Holden Torana A9X, HSV W427, Infiniti G37, Jaguar E-Type, Jaguar Mk1, Jaguar D-Type, Koenisegg CCX, Laborghini Muira, Lancia Delta Stratos, Lotus Elan, Lotus Cortina, MGA, Maserati 3200GT, Mercedez Benz C63, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8, Mini Cooper S, Morgan Plus 8, Nissan Skyline GTR, Oldsmobile Cutlass, Plymouth Cuda, Porsche 911S, Porsche 911 RSCS, Porsche 911 RSR, Porsche 911 GT3, Renault Sports Clio, Sunbeam Tiger, Triumph TR5, U.D PK9, VW R32, Westfield Clubman, Zimmer Golden Spirit (I'll find an X & Y car along the way too, surely?)
- Play pub rock in Newtown in front of an audience
- Have a Gibson ES-335
- Race a car
- Drive an F1 car (could be from any era, preferably 1960s)
- Have an article published
- Have a famous friend
- Kiss a model
- Live in Paddington
- Buy art
- Read every book on the Time Top 100 Books list
- Have a study full of books
- Listen to every album on the Rolling Stone Top 100 Albums list
- Go to a party in a mansion in Hollywood
- Go to a party on a roof top in NY
- Go to the Goodwood Revival
- Go to the Pebble Beach Concourse
- Go to the Monaco F1
- Go to Montera Historics
- Go to Phillip Island Historics
- Watch a race at Road America
- Watch a race at Spa/Monza/Le Mans
- Be an Executive at an MNE
- Drive across America
- Ride behind the Tour de France

All sounds a little greedy, but still, we can build it. When I read it too… I am very lucky, I have done a lot of rocking things already.

Well well well, if it isn't a change of tact

Well you know how I wrote about covers the other week. I also wrote that I quite like Adele. You CAN’T BELIEVE THE IRONY THEN when I say that I LOVE this cover of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ by John Legend. It’s pretty special though, has an amazing voice.

I think Adele is rocking though. This live version is pretty tops, she’s a cool cat. I read an article on her the other day which pretty much said that she was bringing class back to music after Gaga ripped its arse out, then wore it as a hat. Truer words were never spoken, or written as it may seem.

Rocket Clock

So today I did a little experiment whilst I was at work. I had my phone stopwatch next to my machine and ran it whist I was doing productive work. I got in at 8.25am and it’s now 5.16pm, I ate lunch at my desk and haven’t been away in too many meetings, but in total the amount of time came to 4 hours 18 minutes. That’s a lot of time with distractions or interruptions don’t you think? I was amazed, that is probably a pretty standard day!

So there you go – will have to see how I can improve it in the future

DSK

The arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn is quite an interesting event. I heard about this on the radio this morning, then reading the Times this morning I was blown away by the photo on the site of DSK being led out of the SVU unit in NY by NYCC (so many acronyms!) here.

My initial thought was how positive this arrest was for sexual assault victims, as it demonstrates that no matter who you are or what you do, you cannot get away with sexual assault. My second thought, that followed pretty quickly, was a degree of scepticism that this was in fact an actually claim of sexual assault, and not a conspiracy against the potential next French Socialist Presidential candidate. At the moment I’m sitting half way between the two. Having read some of the press today it would appear that DSK has a bit of a history of compromising practices and some aggressive sexual behaviour, which would support the claims, but given his profile and the heat building on his potential Presidential aspirations the story could be a lot more convoluted than what we’ve seen already.

The parallel that I drew, to an extent, was the Fraser-Kirk David Jones experience here. The treatment of the incident in Australian Media was quite poor, and further demonstrated the difficulty that sexual assault victims have when airing their attacks in public (i.e. dismissed, challenged, critiqued). I think that the coverage at present in the world media has been a lot more dignified, and I hope that it continues and maintains a more impartial perspective until the legal process has run its course.

1000 words

Aside from the protest on the Harbour Bridge this morning, all the news at the moment is about publishing pictures. Or not to publish photos. Or stopping people from publishing photos.

The first set (quite an apt name) of photos is of Pippa Middleton topless with her sister and brother in law from a few years ago. So many issues. Surely these photos have been published before in some manner (why would they have been sat on for so long), so the injunction from the Middleton’s is due only to their recent celebrity status post Royal Wedding. Whilst people are entitled to their privacy, she was obviously aware at the time that she was with a public figure and might be caught in the public glare. The real issue that I find funny is this – she is obviously comfortable enough with her appearance to sunbathe topless, so why is there such hysteria around her body? Half the population has the same bits too, so it’s not like it’s that outrageous. Hopefully this is just a continuation of the Royal Wedding honeymoon, so it will probably dry up soo. On a side note, Pippa is quite attractive, but not off-the-hook like so many people are insinuating too, don’t you think?

Secondly, the photos of Osama. The US will publish them at some point, but doesn’t it just demonstrate the scepticism that we all have now-a-days. The President can come out and say that they got him, and no one will believe him. There is such potential for retaliation that any poor choices could result in bloodshed, so I for one hope that the photos don’t get pushed out purely to satisfy the naysayers.

Thirdly, the photos of Diana. Again published in the past, but why do we need to continue to dive into this macabre event? It’s much the same as Osama – showing corpses in the mainstream press must desensitise so many people to violence and death for little or no reason. Just leave it already!

Pictures are so powerful to illicit these sort of reactions. Given the nature and orientation of these three cases it’s interesting to see how important they are to us now, and the power they have.

This is also a bit of a return to my ‘old-school’ practice of blogging about what I’ve read. I use to do this a lot and thought it a bit naff, and set about trying to write more about what I’m doing. So Ill touch on that briefly.

I’m hungover from seeing Boz, Shanksie and Josh (an old school friend) last night, before kicking on with Laugho to town, where I ran into Si from Uni. All go. Oh to be young, I do feel better than I did early MAINLY because of chilling out. Woop

GRIPE! GRIPE!!!

I’ve had a gripe with STA Transport officers for a while. This has been eased a little bit in recent times, but on the whole I still think there needs to be a bit of refinement of their role. Here are my concerns:
- Workload: Overall, I’ve probably been asked to show my ticket half a dozen times. Of the dozens of times I’ve seen these Officers, 9 out of 10 times they’ve been either outside the station, or talking amongst themselves, and not really providing any real value. Their goal is to ‘make sure you have a safe journey’, so maybe they want to make sure you leave the station safely. Certainly no value add there!
- Intimidation: They seem to like stand over tactics. I have no problem with groups of officers travelling together, in fact it’s important for their safety, but 27 guards standing over an International Student or an elderly person at the station is not really an effective way of supporting safety on the rail network is it?
- Appearance: This is a bit superficial of me – but I don’t think they present themselves that well. I’ve seen the uniform worn in various ways, and I’ve seen lots taking calls on mobiles, it’s not the sort of appearance you’d expect from Government officers. That’s really what they are – they should be held at the same level of scrutiny as Police, Firemen, National Parks and Wildlife Staff. I don’t think they’re at that level.

GRIPE! ARMCHAIR CRITIC! Yeah but what else can I write about?

...well actually

In a bit of a post script to my somewhat daft ‘motivation’ post, I think I’ve drilled down to the real issue. I’ve had a chip on my shoulder for a long time. Perhaps this is a bit of an overstatement – perhaps it could equally be described as an inherent lack of self confidence. This is not new – I’ve always been a bit insecure, but I think it stems from always looking over my shoulder at where I am and who I’m with.

Really though, in thinking about it, I am very fortunate. I just need to turn that frown upside down!

Why oh why

I know that this might sound a little weird, but I can’t put a finger on what motivates me. Some people are super motivated, by goals or by other intrinsic drivers, but I really can’t put a finger on mine. I realise this as I sit at my machine wondering why I can’t get motivated, as I have some interesting stuff to do. Here are some reasons that I’ve been thinking about:

- Limited attention span – I know that I have almost got ADD, so that could be it.
- Fatigue – I seem to be tired all the time. I had a nice, restful weekend but I’m still tired.
- Direction – I think I need things to get up and motivate me. Like the race in Mooloolaba, that was a great focus for life, but at the moment I don’t really have anything. This is quite disappointing, perhaps I just need to lock something in

So I guess there I’ve answered my own questions. Need to get some goals.

On a side note, what a dull post.

And it keeps on going...

Bit of a whinge this one. So at work a whole bunch of us are similar in age and were quite friendly, and would go out after work for bevies and the like. This was all good and well until one of the girls at work proclaimed her love to me in front of the rest of the team one night. Obviously, this was very upsetting for all involved (plus I couldn’t believe how poorly she played it – just pathetic), but it was only to get worse – it became a bit awkward at work as she didn’t really want to talk to me at all, but it has also been a bit frustrating that the team sans me continues to go out for fun and games.

I thought that this was going to probably mellow out after said girl left. It did, I felt a lot better at work, but just yesterday I’ve caught wind of the team all heading out together tonight sans me as per usual. The main issue that I have with it is that it’s around the corner from my house.

What do you think? I know that the professional/personal divide is always grey, but there was quite a stark moment when I started to be excluded from the group based on personal, not professional issues. I don’t need to be invited to social activities with work friends, but when work people are the sole invites and one is excluded then it becomes problematic. I haven’t raised this with anyone at work as I don’t want to progress with it any further, but I just can’t seem to reconcile this in my mind.

So far I’ve had three ideas. Firstly, keep ignoring it. This has been my tact up until now but I keep getting frustrated by the ongoing exclusion. Secondly, I thought about bringing it up with one of the team (Asako). I thought that this might be a bit confrontational, and that I might be a bit out of line. The third is probably seeking more advice – from some people I trust at work, then you too, you cyber space reader you.

All a bit of a storm within a tea cup? Yes probably. Ah to over analyse things like I do…

Big Couple of Days... Qualified

Big week already. So there was obviously the hilarity of the love found/lost/found/lost last Friday/Saturday night, the Royal Wedding, Osama, then May the 4th. Ill address these burning, important topics.

Love Lost
Bridget and I went to Grandma’s the other week and were talking about how unlucky we are in love. Grandma made the good point that back in her day, everyone went out dancing every night and you just met people. It was designed to meet people. Bridget goes out dancing a lot, I’m out at the pub a lot, but you don’t meet people in the same way. The answer, really, is through friends. I did indeed meet some randoms on the weekend, and they were indeed random (and their friends, on Friday night at least, were rude!), so the only answer is friends.

Or RSVP. I still think that’s the point of last result, but is it that bad? I think people are brave to put themselves out there, and they could be a little crazy, but it is a frank admission that they’re out looking for love and they don’t want to mess around. It’s a lot like classifieds I guess – if you kept on trying to sell the car through friends you’d only have so much luck, but on the net it’s bound to sell. Still, I don’t think I could bring myself to go on it – would be too much!!!

Royal Wedding
Look I just didn’t care. I always thought that I was a Monarchist, but I realised after the wedding that they’re predominantly obsolete to us these days and are in fact little more than British celebrities. Sure it was wonderful to see such a celebration of marriage and two people very much in love, but I still think that it wasn’t as important as people made it out to be.

So yeah, a rude shock to the system that I am in fact a Republican now. It’s not a disrespect for the Monarchy (looking back, this was my primary reason for being a Monarchist – that we needed to acknowledge our roots; it was probably a ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality too), but more so an acknowledgement that they’re not relevant at all to us anymore.

It did make me think about living OS though, and I must say that I’m much keener to do it now. I maintain that I would like to be with someone to do it, but I think that I would like to do it sooner rather than later. Perhaps a reiteration of the fascination with love from the point above.

Osama
Look you have to credit Obama with getting him; it was quite a triumph for the US. I was initial uneasy with how it was handled though, with people out dancing in the street, and I wasn’t sure why. I realised that this was akin to celebrations at the end of the war (but still I thought that marked the end of a war, which was a bit different) and that people were celebrating victory, but I was still upset for all the horror that has been created by this man (911, War on Terrorism) and all the lives lost. I also am more worried about retaliations. I guess it’s been the same way since the Cold War, but it’s an uneasy environment at the moment.

May the 4th
What a day. I love dates, this has to be good just because of all the Star Wars

Big couple of days

How about the Royal Wedding. Now that we've covered that, Osama.

I will need to write about both. Lots of thoughts, some interesting personal developments.

That is all

Covers

So a controversial topic – covers. I really quite like Adele at the moment (a bit daggy to admit, I know, but ‘Rollin in the Deep’ is amazing) so saw that she did a cover of ‘Black and Gold’ by Sam Sparrow. I didn’t mind this song, so downloaded it, and was blown away. She has a great voice, the guitarist that is accompanying her is very good, it just works.

With this ringing in my ear, I saw on hype that one of the most popular downloads at the moment was in fact Kate Perry doing a version of Black and Gold as well. I thought, interesting comparison to play them back to back. I also decided to download the original version as well, just to listen to them all in sequence and have a Black and Gold overdose.

Well as you can guess, my favourite remained Adele. Kate Perry’s voice is very good and she really let’s go on this version, but it’s a bit too whinny and I didn’t really enjoy it as much. Sam is a little too understated in contrast, with obviously a lot more production than the other two, so I maintained my conviction towards Adele.

So I hate myself. Why? Well I always think that covers aren’t really as good as the original. Indeed, I often feel cheated by covers if I’ve not heard the original – I always like to get back to the base. That being said, there some amazing covers going around (like ‘What Goes On’ by Sufjan, or ‘All along the Watchtower’ by Jimmy), but I always like think the original has to be the best as it has created the interest for people to make their own interpretations of the song. Some people produce amazing interpretations of the song, but it is off a great base, so the original has to be the best. This argument is obviously flawed as in a lot of cases the artist who produced the original has not necessarily written it, or produced a version that reflects how the writer intended it, but that’s my argument and that’s what I’m going to stick with.

Small world!

The last two weeks I seem to run into people left, right and centre. Everybody knows everybody, but it seems like Sydney is just a small town.

Amazing

That is all really. Feel like I've changed a lot this week after a busy one at work - feels good though.

30 Day Song Challenge - minus 29 days...

We all know how much I love lists. I also love music, this is also fairly well known. Combinations are also an old favourite, so imagine my excitement when I saw the ’30 Day Song Challenge’, where you list 30 songs that fit certain criteria. So much love, so much excitement. I'd find it too painful to do over 30 days, so here they are, all at once:

1. My favourite song
Summer Wino – Dan Kelly & the Alpha Males.
I mean this is obviously a really hard question, and something that is hard to pin down, but last month I had this same question and decided with this song. Just love it, just has depth, character, groove, fun - everything really

2. My least favourite song
Fergielicious - Fergie.
I really don’t like her stuff, and I think this is perhaps the worse of a bad bunch

3. A song that makes me happy
You’ve changed – Sia.
I remember hearing this for the first time and just loving it, then realising that she was actually saying, ‘You’ve changed… FOR THE BETTER’. How can that not make you happy. Delightful song

4. A song that makes me sad
Never tear us apart – INXS.
I heard it at a funeral and it reminds me of how sad that was every time I hear it, which makes me sad.

5. A song that reminds you of someone
Toop Toop – Cassius.
Lots of songs remind me of people, but this one jumps to mind; it’s a fun song and reminds me of a fun kid. Plus I need other songs for other sections

6. A song that reminds me of somewhere
CC (You set the fire in me) – Tom Vek
Contender for favourite song, I remember the time and place that I feel in love with it.

7. A song that reminds me of an event
Young Bride - Midlake
I remember hearing this song at a party & really liking it, finding out who it was by then downloading it. I remember that party!

8. A song that I know all the words to
A Thing For Me – Metronomy
Another favourite song, I sing along with this one every time I hear it

9. A song I can dance to
Color Coordination – Magistrates
I think I only know this song of theirs, heard it as a demo but I just love it. Really catchy and great tempo.

10. A song I fall asleep to
Spend a lifetime – Jamiroquai
It’s pretty slow so it does tend to put you to sleep. Plus it’s the end of the album, so it’s the best point to fall asleep at

11. A song from my favourite band
Dropped – Phantom Planet
Another hard one, as you have to narrow down who your favourite band is. I love Phantom Planet, and think that each of their albums are wonderful, so they can be my favourite. I think their last album was pretty catchy, this is one of the wonderful songs of it!

12. A song from a band I hate
My Lumps – Black Eyed Peas
I liked their early stuff, then hated them so much. This for me is perhaps the worse song ever right along side ‘Fergilicious’. You make the link about the common thread between the two

13. A song that is a guilty pleasure
Crazy Chick – Charlotte Church
Look she has a great voice and it’s a really catchy song. I don’t feel that guilty because it’s so good, but it is a little embarrassing

14. A song that no one would expect me to like
Fire – Joe Budden
I love this song, but I don’t think people would realise that I like gangsta rap too

15. A song that describes me
Song for the Unemployed – Andy Clockwise
I loved this as soon as I heard it. I’m not really unemployed, but I think a lot of it relates to me. I particularly like, ‘I change my tape and I change my whole perspective’ – music has a huge bearing on how I feel

16. A song I use to like but hate now
Sleepy Head – Passionpit
Yeah probably over played it

17. A song that I always hear on the radio
Crave You – Flight Facilities
Great song, simple and catchy. Great song

18. A song you wish you would hear on the radio
Telantena Zare - Alèmayèhu Eshèté
I put this Ethiopian hits CD on my computer, and a couple of my favourite songs from last year are on there. Would love to hear more of this stuff on the radio, cause not only is it good but it’s different.

19. A song from my favourite album
Burned Out – Little Barrie
I saw Little Barrie at @Newtown. Best gig I’ve ever been to, think it’s probably my favourite album (again so hard. Maybe Grace is up there too?!?)

20. A song I listen to when I’m angry
Going through Hell – The Streets
Well I don’t really have to be angry to listen to it, but it does pump me up when I’m running. Keep going!!!

21. A song I listen to when I’m happy
Safronia B – Calvin Boze
Such a happy song, it makes you even happier!

22. A song I listen to when I’m sad
Come Pick Me Up – Ryan Adams
I think this is perhaps his most unhappy song. I love his stuff so much, but it does give you the slittys. I was going to say Nobody Girl but I listen to that when I’m cranky with girls too and it cheers me up, so had to go for this one

23. A song to play at my wedding
Come Rain or Come Shine – Dinah Washington
I remember thinking this was a Bette Midler song, as I first heard it in the film ‘For the Boys’. It’s an amazing song, but Dinah Washington takes it to a whole new place. There is a live version of it that you should listen to – she has one of the most amazing voices I think I’ve ever heard

24. A song to play at my funeral
You can’t always get what you want – The Rolling Stones
So hard to not make this a big cliché. Great song, I think I’m ripping it off a bit from ‘The Big Chill’ too. Still I think it would be a nice song to be sent off to

25. A song that makes me laugh
Another Puff – Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed is one of my favourite musicians, and I laugh every time I hear a few particular lines in this song

26. A song I can play on an instrument
Down by the River – Neil Young
Whenever I pick up the guitar I invariably play this song, so it’s only right to list it here

27. A song you wish you could play
Clair de Lune
I’ve always loved this song. I wish I could play the piano, would love to be able to play the organ as well. But this is such a beautiful song I wish I could play it

28. A song that makes me feel guilty
Money (That’s what I want) – Barrett Strong
I’ve never felt guilty listening to a song, but I feel guilty being over privileged, so this probably works the best

29. A song from my childhood
Lost – the Badloves
Without question my first favourite song, and the song I loved most of my childhood (till I was about 15 and started loving Jeff Buckley). Amazing song, great band – influenced a lot of my taste in music

30. My favourite song from last year
Tighten Up – Black Keys
Black Keys was probably my favourite album of last year, and this was probably the best song off that album.

Wow – 1300 odd words of selfindulgence. Lovely.

Segue

For those of you keen for an update on the outcome of my personal challenge yesterday (the only person to most likely read this, i.e. me, will be), I did succeed. What a hero!!! So that was that.

But to another point, and that point is how to chill out. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. As mentioned yesterday, I think that I worry too much. I need just to chill out and enjoy life as it rolls. I think that yesterday provided a slight insight into how to do that – you can only really control what is in your direct sphere of influence, other than that it’s near on impossible to do anything about it. I was on FB too much looking at people, stopped doing it and was fine about life. Tick.

I know that this is a bit of a weird segue but that’s also one of the beauties of triathlon. You’re in control, it’s you competing against yourself really, which is really good for us non-competitive types. Tick

One more tick and then it’s tick tick tick BOOM.

OCD

I think I’m in a bit of a rut. I really don’t have a decent reason to be in one, but I’m in one none the less.

So in order to get out, it’s always good to set little ‘challenges’. Today’s challenge is to not go onto FB (on the computer, I wrote happy birthday to people to people from the iPhone). Now surely this seem simple, and in essence it should be. I didn’t go onto FB on my work machine for the first 5 or so months whilst I was here, but after that I feel into old habits and checked it a few times throughout the day. It’s all about habits, and checking in on everyone is just too compelling to stop doing all the time. Whilst the habit is to log in, it is motivated by a intrinsic desire to know what people are up to – a voyeuristic desire to keep tabs on everything.

There in-lies the real difficulty. It’s hard to let go of that knowledge after making it a part of your day-to-day rituals, but really, it’s not vital to my survival to check in on what people are up to all the time. You can check in from time to time and pick up the information, it’s about being less obsessed by it all. I need to chill out.

I’ve wanted to go on a few times today, but I won’t as it’s a challenge. That and I keep telling myself to chill out. So CHILL OUT. And don’t log onto FB. And chill out.

Time's a wasting...

See this is why I’m a bad blogger. I really didn’t have much on yesterday, was feeling sorry myself after the ITU triathlon on Sunday (which, by the way, I did in PB time, which made me very proud of myself…), but didn’t blog at all. Today I’ve been super busy and haven’t put anything up. Except this, which isn’t that much. Bit of a poor excuse really.

Da L BOMB

I was just thinking the other day about why I was hung up on a girl and I realised that it was all to do with dropping the ‘l’ bomb. It’s a funny word, people are so scared of it and don’t use it; some people use it all the time. I had a look at the definition, to try and understand why it was so problematic, and I think I realised what it is. I’ll try and explain, as this heightened knowledge has helped me understand why I’m so ‘CAUGHT UP’ all the time too.

The first half of the definition talks about strong affection. I often though this was the be all and end all, so naturally assumed that people were shy of showing this strong conviction. This is understandable, as you need to stand by what you’ve said, but really it shouldn’t be that problematic to highlight strong emotions. So perhaps for some this is the root of the problem, but I think it’s actually in the second half of the definition….

The second half of the definition states that love is about personal attachment. I think this is the problem. Attachment implies some degree of ownership and the need for something in return. I think it also implies a certain responsibility to the other party. I think this is the reason why people are so scared of it – people hate owning thing. Before I go off track and rant on about why I think this, I have to say that this makes me feel a lot better about being all hung up. It’s really about being overly responsible, and at times you really need to let that go, as your responsibility ceases. That or it morphs into a different type of responsibility, which probably is still love but in a different manner. So that made me feel a lot better.

I’m not sure that my heightened understanding is the true story in this post. I think what this story really shows is that I go and over-analyses things to the bullshit. Here I was still thinking about a girl and brining in definitional debates into the equation, when it was probably more sensible just to head up to the Grose or the Marly and have a party pash to move on. See the L bomb isn’t that bad at all, it’s just that you have to stop thinking everything all the bloody time!

Spinning around in circles

I’m super nostalgic (if you hadn’t already picked that from this third incarnation of the old blog thang), so I always love to delve back to things I had back in the past. I think the key things that trigger nostalgic moments for me are:
- Cars: I can always associated major events in my life to cars that were around at the time (mainly what my parents were driving)
- Photos: Going back and looking at old photos is always a good trip down memory lane
- Crushes: I seem to think of old crushes then fall back into them. Then realise that is perhaps the most daft thing ever, then fall out of the, but they’re a good insight back into that time!
- Books: I remember events by what I was reading

The major one though has and always will be music. I can go back to really obscure moments by listening to music. That’s not the reason I thought about writing this though. I thought about writing this because lately I’ve made a point going through my old CDs and listening to them, and I’d forgotten how much I loved so many of the albums. Then I started to wonder why I stopped listening to all these great records, and I realised that it is mainly because of a few factors:

1. I’m always keen to hear the next new thing. I guess everyone likes what’s new, so there’s not much harm in that, but you need to be content with what you’ve got, and Ben Kweller is pretty great
2. People ruined their reputation, in my eyes, with poor follow up albums, so I stopped listening to their good stuff. It’s sort of a case of cutting off my nose to spite my face.
3. MP3’s have sort of killed off the CD star (BAD pun)
4. You do need a change sometimes, but given the number of CDs I have, there is more than enough to change things up!

So the answer, really, is just to take stock of what you’ve got more often, yeah? Yeah!

MX litter bugs

As usual I’ve started back blogging with a flurry of ideas for posts. So here is one, not so much a story, but a thought… okay it’s a story that turns into a gripe, so off we go…

When I was on the train on the way home this evening, the guy in front of me was reading the paper. We both got off at Redfern, and as so many other people do, he got up and left the paper on the seat. This train was going through to the North Shore, so it would have picked up a lot of commuters, and it made me think that lots of people leave their papers on the train after they’ve finished, I suspect under the guise that someone might pick it up and read it later. Or perhaps they’re just littering.

I’m not sure how many people leave it there for others, and if they do this under that belief, surely there are some issues with their plan. Those people who get on at Wynyard or in town have the opportunity to pick up an MX or the paper, so leaving one there is not of much use is it? I think it’s pretty poor form – people are pretty lazy so most likely do just leave it there as litter. I don’t know how people can knowingly litter; I would feel really guilty and self-conscious if I left something behind.

Moral of the story – don’t litter! I think next time I might say something, see what happens. Now that would be a story. Then I found $50…

Round Three

Back when I first started full time work, one of my good friends (SNR) started writing a blog. I thought that this was the best thing since sliced bread; he wrote about adventures he had, things he'd read, stuff he liked - I loved it. Soon enough I copied him. Mine was not nearly as good, but I enjoyed writing on it. I wrote about things I'd done, things that I'd read (TV week), stuff I liked etc, it was pretty much a straight rip off without his brilliant literary ability.

But then it died... or was killed, should I say, by Facebook. FB took over everything, mainly because you could look at photos of ex-girlfriends and stalk future girlfriends whilst writing about adventures, things you'd read and things you liked in bite sized grabs in the status bar. So I deleted it because of Facebook. Well that and I put up a photo from a site, didn't credit it and the owner wrote me a nasty email, so it was sent packing.

After a while I realised that this was quite a silly thing to do, as it was a great window back into my past - like an online diary. Thus, I started up a new one, which was plain to say the least. I've gone back to it from time to time, but I really didn't stick to it.

Which brings me to here. I was just thinking as I was talking to a friend last night that I forget what I've been up to all the time, but I'd like not to. I also thought that I miss writing and would like to get better at it. I thought I should blog again, as it really kills two birds with one stone. Instead of going back to the old site, I thought it was time for a new beginning (and a new name). So here it is. I can't really say now for certain that I'll be 100% committed to it; I'd like to be, but we all know about famously laid plans. I think I will, but only time will tell.

So here we go. Blogger 3.0 - perhaps a little improved, but still just a bit of a rip of the original.