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