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):