The Musings of an Unemployed Mind

Just as hard to mow

2011-12-13T17:27:00.001+10:00

I wondered what a midlife crisis looks like when it happens to a woman.

A bit of cursory investigation on the interwebs came up with an article from Time Magazine from 2005. Not really what I was talking about but interesting nonetheless.

The bit I really liked is the line that says "women are natural marketers". Now that is something I can really get on board with.

Marketing can be a pretty rough gig. I used to joke with my team about getting first year marketing lecturers to start with "Everyone stand up. Now sit down anyone who is interested in making lots of money, getting constant praise, or being supported and nurtured in a job that has big budgets. Those of you still standing up ask yourself, and you handle when it all goes right and you get none of the credit and when it all goes wrong it is all your fault? If not, sit down. All of you still standing – welcome to marketing, and good luck!"

That being said, there is nothing quite like the first time you see a supersite billboard that you brainstormed, budgeted for, built into a IMC and you are getting measurable results from. That's a sight that really warms a girls heart.

Now that is the other thing I really like. Results. I am probably lucky (in more ways than one) that I was not working in the hey day of advertising in the late 50's or the mid eighties, because I am pretty mean with the budgets. I want to see OUTCOMES. Without a goal, a measureable one – all this is just pointless busy work.

Setting goals in marketing plans can be a challenge. I have found that business managers want to reach all the goals, but don't wish to expend the budget to do so. So I have been known to write goals on a corresponding sliding scale, just so they can get the picture. Conversely – trying to impress that twice as much budget will not necessarily deliver twice the goal, and that there is a minimum spend to reach any goals at all.

Makes all this marketing malarkey sound like a serious job doesn't it?

What do you guys think?

Rolling in the Deep

2011-07-02T02:08:00.002+10:00

I have been playing the nostalgia game quite alot this week, and am sure wether that is spurred on from the time of year, or listening to Adele "21", or what...

But I think I can unequivocally say I am now done with the past. No longer do I flinch, no longer do I cry or wish for things to be different.

I have so many things in my life that have proved to be more fulfilling, lasting and understanding, that I am unsure what ever was the previous obsession.

Adele sing about finding "someone like you", but now I know, I don't want some one like that. I want someone so much more, with integrity, ethics, morals - and a sense of perspective.

Luckily I am surrounded by them.

So I raise a glass to the present and the future, am thankful for the past...... but am so fucking glad its over.

so to rewrite Adele just for a moment.

but never mind, I found so much better than you.

I wish nothing but the best for you...So forget me, I beg,

You'll remember I once said, it hurts, but it's better instead....

Oh baby, it hurt but in the long run its better instead....

A.A. Gill – inside my head

2011-04-15T11:37:00.001+10:00

Please find following the AA Gill story about Dubai – on Vanity Fair.

It is like he got inside my head and told my story…

Whilst I am privileged to have spent time in Dubai – to go to university and not work – I didn't have the easiest time. Something about it always struck me as empty and desperately hollow. There weren't a lot of morals to be found – the majority of people were just out for themselves. There were very few conversations had about anything deeper than your last holiday, your next car or how much money you made on your last deal. I was lucky enough to find some people who I would truly call friends – but they (and their open minds, and generous spirits) were in the minority.

Dubai – amazing place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there (or to go back there as the case may be).

Dubai on Empty

Its skyline erupting from the desert in just two decades, Dubai is a cautionary tale about what money can't buy: a culture of its own. After gorging on the Viagra of easy credit, the emirate has the world's tallest building, the world's most expensive racetrack, and a financial crisis to match. From the Western mercenaries and Asian drones who maintain the gaudy show to 100-odd families who are impervious to any economic reality, A. A. Gill discovers that no one truly belongs in Dubai, where the legacy of oil has made everything worthless.

By A. A. Gill•

Photographs by Tom Craig

WEB EXCLUSIVE April 2011

Locals stand in front of the royal enclosure at the track.

The only way to make sense of Dubai is to never forget that it isn't real. It's a fable, a fairy tale, like The Arabian Nights. More correctly, it's a cautionary tale. Dubai is the story of the three wishes, where, as every kid knows, with the third wish you demand three more wishes. And as every genie knows, more wishes lead to more greed, more misery, more bad credit, and much, much, much more bad taste. Dubai is Las Vegas without the showgirls, the gambling, or Elvis. Dubai is a financial Disneyland without the fun. It's a holiday resort with the worst climate in the world. It boils. It's humid. And the constant wind is full of sand. The first thing you see when you arrive is the airport, with its echoing marble halls. It's big enough to be the hub of a continent. Dubai suffers from gigantism—a national inferiority complex that has to make everything bigger and biggest. This includes their financial crisis.

Outside, in the sodden heat, you pass hundreds and hundreds of regimented palm trees and you wonder who waters them and what with. The skyline, in the dusty haze, looks like the cover of a dystopian science-fiction novella. Clusters of skyscrapers lurch out at the gray desert accompanied by their moribund cranes, propped up with scaffolding, swagged in plastic sheeting. Dubai thought it was going to grow up to be the Arab Singapore—a commercial, banking, and insurance service port on the Gulf with hospitality and footballers' time-shares, an oasis of R&R for the less well endowed. But it hasn't quite worked out. The vertical streets of offices are empty. A derelict skyscraper looks exactly the same as one that's teeming with commerce. They huddle around the current tallest building in the world—a monument to small-nation penis envy. This pylon erected with the Viagra of credit is now a big, naked exclamation of Dubai's fiscal embarrassment. It was going to be called Burj Dubai, but as Dubai was unable to make their payments, they were forced to go to their Gulf neighbor, head towel in hand, to get a loan. So now it's called Burj Khalifa, after Abu Dhabi's ruler, who coughed up $10 billion to its over-extended neighbor.

Dubai has been built very fast. The plan was money. The architect was money. The designer was money and the builder was money. And if you ever wondered what money would look like if it were left to its own devices, it's Dubai.

My driver gets lost more than once. He's lived here all his life. He says he always gets lost. The roads keep changing. It's a confusion of orange traffic cones and interlocking barriers; access roads peter out into long drops to rubble and dust. Nothing actually goes anywhere. The wide lanes loop around endlessly, and then there's no place to go. No plaza or square, no center. Nowhere to hang out, nowhere to walk. Why would you walk? In this heat? You pull over and throw your keys to a valet, and get indoors as quickly as possible, generally in one of the countless shopping centers that look like the airports of lesser nations or Egyptian tombs. They echo with the slow footfalls of the security guards. In the boutiques, the glossy assistants stare at mannequins with a mutual mime of cashmere-folding despair. Dubai has been mugged by its own greed. Its consumer economy is being maintained by oil-rich families to whom depressions, booms, lottery wins, and recessions mean little. Riches and wealth are relative terms. But not ones we're related to. There is an indoor ski mountain, probably the biggest indoor ski mountain in a desert, where the Arab boys queue for suits and boots and skis. The smarter locals arrive in their own designer après-ski gear, with fur and moon boots. You walk through the doors and it's like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—the land of permanent winter. The fat boys push past carrying their snowboards toward the Tyrolean chocolate shop and Swiss fir trees and slide down the hill with a practiced arrogance. The girls slither, splay-legged, hijabs fluttering, in the manufactured snow.

Pre-race at the nearly $3 billion Meydan Racecourse, in Dubai.

No one dreamed of this. Twenty years ago, none of this was here. No Narnia. No seven-star hotels. No tallest prick buildings. Just a home of pastoralist tented families herding goats, racing camels, shooting one another. And a handful of greasy, armed empire mechanics in khaki shorts, drilling for oil. In just one life span, Dubai has gone from sitting on a rug to swiveling on a fake Eames chair 100 stories up. And not a single local has had to lift a finger to make it happen. That's not quite fair—of course they've lifted a finger; to call the waiter, berate the busboy. The money seeped out of the ground and they spent it. Pretty much all of it. You look at this place and you realize not a single thing is indigenous, not one of this culture's goods and chattels originated here. Even the goats have gone. This was a civilization that was bought wholesale. The Gulf is the proof of Carnegie's warning about wealth: "There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else." Emiratis are born retired. They waft through this city in their white dishdashas and headscarves and their obsessively tapered humorless faces. They're out of place in their own country. They have imported and built a city, a fortress of extravagance, that excludes themselves. They have become duplicitous, schizophrenic. They don't allow their own national dress in the clubs and bars that serve alcohol, the restaurants with the hungry girls sipping champagne. So they slip into Western clothes to go out.

The Gulf Arabs have become the minority in this country they wished out of the desert. They are now less than 20 percent of the total population. Among the other 80-plus percent are the white mercenary workers who come here for tax-free salaries to do managerial and entrepreneurial jobs, parasites and sycophants for cash. For them money is a driving principle and validation. They came to be young, single, greedy, and insincere. None of them are very clever. So they live lives that revolve around drink and porn sex and pool parties and barbecues with a lot of hysterical laughing and theme nights, karaoke, and slobbery, regretful coupling. In fact, as in all cases of embarrassing arrested development, these expats on the short-term make don't expect to put down roots here, have children here, or grow old here. Everyone's on a visa dependent on a job.

Then there is a third category of people: the drones. The workers. The Asians: Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, and Filipinos. Early in the morning, before the white mercenaries have negotiated their hangovers, long before the Emiratis have shouted at the maid, buses full of hard-hatted Asians pull into building sites. They have the tough, downtrodden look of Communist posters from the 30s—they are both the slaves of capital and the heroes of labor. Asians man the hotels; they run the civil service and the utilities and commercial businesses; they are the clerks and the secretaries, the lawyers, the doctors, the accountants; there isn't a single facet of this state that would function if they didn't maintain it. No one with an Emirati passport could change a fuse. Yet, the workers, who make up roughly 71 percent of the population, have precious few rights here. They can't become citizens, though some are the third generation of their family to be born here. They can be deported at any time. They have no redress. Many of the Asian laborers are owed back pay they aren't likely to get. There are reams of anecdotal stories about the abuse of guest workers. I'm told about the Pakistani shop assistant who, picking up an Arab woman's shopping bags, accidentally passed gas, got arrested, and was jailed.

Out-of-towners getting ready for the Dubai World Cup.

The Arabs live in their own ghettos, large, dull containments of big houses that are half garage behind security walls, weighed down with satellite dishes. We drive by an empty lot, and my driver tells me that this was the site of the house of the second son of a high-ranking official. Daddy had it bulldozed when his boy was caught having a Western-style rich-brats' party. There is a growing, unspoken problem with the indigenous youth here. Fat, and spoiled beyond reason, they are titanically rude. They have reportedly taken to forming slovenly gangs that have been responsible for random attacks on foreign workers and women simply for the computer-game fun of it. This is a generation of kids who expect to never seriously work—but do expect secure jobs. An Indian manager who runs hotels in Dubai told me that everybody dreads the call from some royal Arab telling them to expect a nephew who will be coming to work. The boy will demand an office, a secretary, a car, wages, deference, and an empty schedule. It's a sort of protection shakedown that you pay to do business here.

The Al Maktoums are secretive and autocratic, as most Arab despots are. The emir is always prime minister. Abu Dhabi's ruler is always president. The royal family's public exposure is universally adoring, supine, sycophantic, and breathlessly bland. There are rumors, always rumors, about disappeared princesses, abducted children, madness, and suicide. The royal family owes its power to an intricate web of family alliance, patronage, and operatic charity. It is sincerely respected.

A reveler at the Dubai World Cup, the most lavish horse race in the world. The winner walks away with a $10 million prize.

The Al Maktoums have taken to horse racing. They practically own the British and Irish bloodstock business. It's a clever and self-serving hobby. Horses are one of the very few upper-class American and European enthusiasms that are shared with Arabs. All racehorses have a little Arab in them. So the Al Maktoums can mix in the West without that stigma that the Saudis suffer from back home—the public decorum with a private, Western decadence. The simple business of betting is of course ignored with a disdainfully turned shoulder. Since Dubai's construction-based economy stumbled, the prince has obliviously opened a massive and spectacularly hideous hippodrome, the Meydan Racecourse. The biggest racetrack in the world, it cost almost $3 billion to build. It's home to the Dubai World Cup, the most expensive horse race in the world, naturally. This place couldn't have the second-most expensive horse race in the world. The winner pockets $10 million.

The track sits in a wasteland surrounded by the exhausted squirm of motorways. I walk around it and look not at the galloping horses and their bright jockeys but back up at the stands. Here in one long panorama is the Dantean vision of modern Dubai—the Arabs huddled in a glass dome, looking like creatures from a Star Trek episode in their sepulchral winding-sheet dishdashas. Next to them are the stands for Westerners, mostly British, loud and drunk, dressed in their tarty party gear. The girls, raucous and provocative, have fat thighs that wobble in tiny frocks. Cantilevered bosoms lurch. The boys, spiky and gelled, glassy-eyed and leering. In the last enclosure, the Asians, packed in with families and picnics, excited to be out of the Portakabin dormitories and the boredom and the homesickness of Internet cafés. In front of them all are the ranks of wired-up security guards, making sure the layers of this mutually dismissive society don't pollute each other. After the horses have run, Elton John will perform.

Dubai is the parable of what money makes when it has no purpose but its own multiplication and grandeur. When the culture that holds it is too frail to contain it. Dubai is a place that doesn't just know the price of everything and the value of nothing but makes everything worthless. The answer to everything in Dubai is money. In the darkness of the hot night, the motorways roar with Ferraris and Porsches and Lamborghinis; the fat boys are befuddled and stupefied by sports cars they race around on nowhere roads, going nowhere. Taxi drivers of their ambitionless, all-consuming entitlement. Shortchanged by being given everything. Cursed with money.

Inside Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort in the middle of the desert.

March – and all that entails

2011-03-24T15:52:00.001+10:00

I heard that you're settled down,
That you found a girl and you're married now,
I heard that your dreams came true,
Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you,
Old friend, why are you so shy?
Ain't like you to hold back or hide from the light,

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it,
I had hoped you'd see my face,
And that you'd be reminded that for me it isn't over,

Never mind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you, too,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"
Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead, yeah,

You know how the time flies,
Only yesterday was the time of our lives,
We were born and raised in a summer haze,
Bound by the surprise of our glory days,

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it,
I had hoped you'd see my face,
And that you'd be reminded that for me it isn't over,

Never mind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you, too,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"

Nothing compares,
No worries or cares,
Regrets and mistakes, they're memories made,
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Never mind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"

Never mind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you, too,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"
Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-iOcKaSeFo

Don’t you know that (old) white men can’t negotiate?

2011-03-04T16:47:00.001+10:00

I have spent part of the day in a 'workshop' with a group of people from across my organisation to discuss (again) a matter of importance.

So the discussion pretty much goes like this:

It's not my fault
We need more…money people time
That doesn't apply to me (or the I'm special rant)

I try not to pay too much attention to it. Because all it does is wind me up. So I think about my farm, or other things I need to do at work, or my boy or… well… you know.

The biggest issue I have is to keep my unvalidated, possibly unhelpful opinions to myself. All that really happens I that I get a very sore tongue (from biting it so hard) and a headache.

I am trying to be much more zen of philosophical about it and think in terms of moral objectivism.

Ethics and morals are supposedly interchangeable as words – in fact one is from the latin root and the other from the greek.

And of course the view we have now is one (morals) is more driven by organisations or communities – such as organised religion – and the other (ethics) is driven from a personal point of view.

So my own set of ethics and morals are currently being challenged. I am learning about moral objectivism, moral realism and the rest. So I am using my new found knowledge to remember that there is only one REAL truth and it can only be revealed through research and understanding – not just passionate opinion.

The thinking I have learnt recently that I really like is the negation of the statement "I am entitled to my own opinion". Well, the real situation is that you are NOT entitled to it. You may have an opinion – that much is true – but you are no more entitled to one any more than simply entering a race means you have won it. To be entitled to an opinion means you will have thought deeply about it, researched it, had it critiqued etc – to indicate that your position is validated and worthy.

This has really helped in these type of workshops and meetings – understanding that every individual has a moral/ethical standpoint – and may well truly believe that their standpoint is 100% true and right. However, it is impossible for every individual's views to be 100% truth – as it is impossible for more than one truth to exist. So all that remains is one truth and many opinions.

That REALLY helps me keep my mouth shut. I only ever want to be on the side of the 100% truth – and it takes a long time to get there.

On a brighter note – it is the last days of summer, the garden looks great, my dog and chooks are happy and my boy is home. Gotta be happy with that.

And it is International Women's Day on 8^th March. Embrace your inner feminist, embrace the feminist in your life and say it LOUD and PROUD.

Girls can do anything.

This is what a feminist looks like

2011-02-25T15:51:00.002+10:00

I have a very wonderful and smart and capable friend who is always doing interesting things.

Her current project is one that I am very much looking forward to being a part of – when I get organised.

It is called "The Dawn Conspiracy" – and here is some information about it. And more importantly how you can get involved.

The Dawn Conspiracy is a new initiative that will take a look Inside Australian Feminist Culture in the lead up to International Women's Day 2011 (8 March). More information about the The Dawn Conspiracy can be found at thedawnconspiracy.tumblr.com, on Twitter @dawnconspiracy or you can email us at thedawnconspiracy@gmail.com.
Of the line up of events that have been organised, we are creating a video project that showcases the voices of Australians who see feminism as an important part of Australian culture and their own lives. Much like the It Gets Better Project, we hope feminists from around the country will contribute and tell us why feminism is important to them. Our crack team of editors will create a presentation that will be screened at the Friday 4th March gala event, as well as uploaded to our YouTube channel. It would be an amazing way to show your support for this new initiative and connect with other supporters.

Sounds good? This is how you can be involved..

All you need to do is film yourself answering one or all of these questions:

1) I'm a feminist because ...
2) To me, feminism means ...
3) What would you tell your younger self about women?

Send responses to us by 1 March to be included in the public presentation on the 5th, otherwise keep them coming and they'll be uploaded to our YouTube channel.As part of the line up of events that have been organised, we are creating a video project that showcases the voices of Australians who see feminism as an important part of Australian culture and their own lives. Much like the It Gets Better Project, we hope feminists from around the country will contribute and tell us why feminism is important to them. Our crack team of editors will create a presentation that will be screen at the Friday 4^th March gala event, as well as uploaded to our YouTube Channel. It would be an amazing way to show your support for this new initiative .

Sound good? This is how you can be involved…

All you need to do is film yourself answering one or all of these questions

I am a feminist because…

To me, feminism means…
What would you tell your younger self about women?

http://www.youtube.com/user/thedawnconspiracy

So in Today's installment – I am going to write my thoughts on this – so it will be easier when I come to film them tonight.

I am a feminist because I think that it is my duty to continue to fight the good fight – and remind young women that we stand so tall because we stand on the shoulders of giants. I am a feminist so I can raise the profile of outstanding women from all walks of life and areas of the globe. I am a feminist because I truly believe girls CAN do anything.

To me feminism means highlighting the successes of women, supporting and encouraging women to reach their own version of success and to be a 'thorn in the side' of mainstream thinking that continues to reinforce old fashioned stereotypes.

I would tell my younger self to recognise her allies amongst the strong women in her life. I would tell her that amazing women come from everywhere, not just those that she sees on TV. I would tell her to accept their support and advice in good grace – because they have already fought the battle and will save her a lot of heartache. I would tell her to recognise that it is neither men nor women who are the enemy – but outdated thinking and the limits that she places on herself. And above all I would let her know that no matter the obstacles, pain or heartache, girls truly can do anything.

Alone not Lonely

2011-02-16T16:33:00.001+10:00

I am now officially a 'rig widow'

The boy has gone out to work on a work over rig – out in the Surat Basin, to see if we can't get our share of the resources boom money.

I am not in favour of it. Once upon a time, many moons ago, and a whole life past, I had a boyfriend who was away a lot. And I am not talking leave on Monday back on Thursday a lot – I am talking leave in January, see you in March a lot.

And I hated it.

So I am not really happy with the idea of it happening again. To exacerbate the situation – I am or rather we were invited to a wedding this weekend. I am so sure it is going to be such a great wedding – and heaps of fun – but now I have to go by myself. It's not just going to the wedding, it's the 10 hour drive by myself, the three nights staying in an ultra romantic bed and breakfast by myself. The filling in time before the wedding, the not having anyone to sit with – or to gossip about the other guests – or to hold my lipstick or….

Well the list goes on. Now, I know that he will be back – and that it is only for two weeks, but it doesn't help me right now. He has no phone and no internet. This doesn't help someone who has spoken to him at least twice a day for the past 4 years – and 3 times a week for the 2 years before that.

There are so many things that I now have to do myself – which just goes to prove what a great partner he is.

He has never ONCE locked the dog in the house all day. I wish I'd thanked him for that.

Freedom (I won’t let you down)

2011-01-25T17:00:00.001+10:00

On my way home to the farm on Friday afternoon – I had the MP3 player plugged into the stereo and was very merrily singing along to my fav tunes.

Then I noticed that the ones I really enjoyed had a clear theme:

They all talked about the idea of freedom. Now I have thought about freedom quite a lot – and of course it (just like power) is an illusion.

But what if we 'reframe' our idea of freedom – and make it the freedom to be the person your truly believe yourself to be. That freedom is actually the description of that moment you feel like you can truly breathe.

So then freedom can be your own house, or a drive to a favourite place, being safe in someone's arms, a paragraph in a favourite book, in that moment in a dark cool cinema before the movie starts or even just a memory.

Surely when we start saying we are searching for freedom – we are really searching for ourselves.

(that sounded more intelligent and a lot less wanky than that in my head)

This is just an idea that is being formed at the moment – so I will keep working on it.

Philosophy – Why not?

2011-01-21T15:16:00.001+10:00

I have just put my application in to commence the Graduate Certificate of Philosophy at Murdoch University.

Although it is only a Grad Cert and Murdoch probably isn't a uni necessarily associated with philosophy – I am excited about studying something that I love, by distance education, with other students who are doing it because they love it too.

Hopefully in the longer term I could transfer to a Master of Arts (Philosophy) at UQ – and should get credit for this – so it is a start.

I had a look at the courses on offer and found this one – Film and Philosophy. I am excited because it is as though someone just designed the course just for me.

Film! Philosophy! Having to watch films for uni! Commentary! I am very excited. And I get a postgrad qual to study something I love. Excellent news!

But why philosophy?

It may come from all those long hours whiled away in coffee shops – smoking Marlboro Lights (back in the day when you could still smoke in coffee shops) with a group of like minded souls, trying to make sense of the world. It may come from reading Sophies World when I was 18 – and seeing that it really answered a lot of questions for me – as well as reframing some others. It may be because I am a ardent listener of The Philosophers Zone. It may come from still needing to make sense of the world and not really believing in a divine being.

But I think it is just because I need a challenge.

What is your new years challenge?

There’s water in them thar Hills

2011-01-18T15:05:00.001+10:00

So, we went to the farm on the weekend, to see exactly what havoc the flood had played on the place.

The bridge is gone.

The flood fences are also gone.

So we had an adventure including the four wheel drive, chainsaws, the bulldozer and my new best friend "Conqueror".

We cut down tobacco bush, poisoned blackberry, and went for a dip in our very own plunge pool. And during the time that we were doing slightly foolish things, Pat McMahon didn't turn up once!

Love it.

Completely Devastated

2011-01-11T19:56:00.001+10:00

You may have heard by now that the floods that have plagued Queensland for the past 19 days reached Toowoomba.

It is really very strange - after all we are located on the top of a mountain. But the scenes are like something out of a far flung South American village, not the 2nd largest inland city in Australia.

Our house is up on a hill, but the gullies and creeks all around us were really raging torrents.

So strange.

My boy is stuck in Roma, he was out for a one day course - and it looks as though he may be stuck out there for the next 2 weeks.

And Killarney is underwater again. My lovely sister and her boy Paul are up for another clean up, and the river peaked at 7.2 metres which is higher than the 2008 floods.

And when I see the images of people on the television - and they have lost their homes, they look somehow..... smaller.

I have been reading the lovely Architecture of Happiness by Alan de Bottion.

He says that what makes a building truly beautiful (in an indivduals eyes) is that the building (and the personal belongings therein) is a reflection of that individuals true selves.

The place where the individual can be the person that they ultimately see themselves to be.

So - when you lose your home you truly do lose part of yourself. You would lose that thing, that place that truly defines who you are.

So - whilst it is true that "They are only belongings - they are replaceable", the fact that each thing you have lost each thing that has been chosen by you, to be kept and treasured, to remind your self of who you truly are, also deserves to be mourned.

You will never be the same again.

(If you have any worries about your friends and family in the Queensland Floods - please contact the flood hotline 1300 993 191)

Which way is north

2010-06-19T00:37:00.002+10:00

I have just had a conversation about choosing friends.

Some if it talked about current friends and family.

The crux is all about why you choose them and why you like them......

So - it was about moral compass.

Now - I don't have alot of friends. As in, I am supposed to be having a dinner party tomorrow night, but it was cancelled due to lack of interest.

But, the ones I do have don't have a lot in common.

Plumber, farmer, salesperson, on the dole, student, banker, chicken farm worker, small business owner, single mum, cotton farmer, CEO, academic...........

Hard to find the link.

But I thing I found it.

Moral compass.

Something about them all I know means they have set their course straight and true.

And I feel lucky.

I'm dreaming of two new websites

2010-03-17T16:34:00.003+10:00

I think that this is a very cool site for people thinking about uni.

I like the rich media, I like the interactivity, I like the informal tone.....

I like, I like I like

Wish I could just turn up at work and everyone would automatically say - Yes! That is what we want to do! You are brilliant! Have some more budget! And a promotion, and some diamonds.

But - I bet they don't.

Things not to do on International Womens Day

2010-03-08T16:15:00.002+10:00

Do not drive 1.5 hours to an appointment that is not actually on until tomorrow.

No, really. Don't do that.

And so it begins.

2010-03-03T15:47:00.002+10:00

After being pretty hesitant about the whole 'getting sign off on my proposed projects' thing - I was pleasantly surprised yesterday.

Each of my projects were green lit, and the offer of funding was made WITHOUT ME EVEN ASKING!!!

Got to be a good day when that happens.

Now I will be busily forming committees, sourcing resources etc to get it all going.

Lets' hope there is no large roadblocks!

And in case you were wondering - it is still raining here. It is pretty soggy indeed, but we do need it.

More scintillating updates when they are to hand.

In other news: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo film has been released in Australia (review). My friend KP went to see it and reckons it's brilliant. One can only hope that we will get it at the cinema here :)

I loved the book - and the series. It was recommended to me by a friend - and I am looking for another recommendation.

Ideas anyone?

Do I have to be social?

2010-02-18T16:40:00.004+10:00

I am working on a social media strategy for work at the moment.

It is seriously not easy. You know when you had to try and teach you parents about using the video player (yes - that makes me of a certain vintage) and they didn't really grasp the concept?

Even though you told them, like, a million times?

And then email came along - and you had to tell them about that a similar amount of times?

Even though you know it was going to improve their lives, and yours because you no longer had to worry so much about remembering to post anything?

And they didn't get it did they.

Well - take all that frustration and repetition, mix it together with a whole load of misunderstandings, then form that into the shape of 60 year old white men who work in an organisation that doesn't have to turn a profit - and then you are getting a picture of my board of directors.

Mind you - the b.f. didn't understand the fascination of the Internet, and the ability to get connected to people from all over the world who belong to your tribe - and now I cannot get him to turn his bloody MPG off!!

Perhaps there is hope.....

Perhaps all they need to do is try it.

Until then - we will be social whether they like it or not.

Waiting on Julia

2009-12-23T17:39:00.002+10:00

So finally on holidays.

I really never realise how boody stressful sitting in an office all day can be.

So here I am, after 5 days of not working - looking for something to do.

I know - so unlike me.

However - I did have 2 days in the hometown, with some positive results. It is always difficult to spend time with your father, probably more so now he is so ill, but after putting it off for a while (both the sister and I) we headed up to the farm.

It was showering with rain, which makes it more of a challenge, but beautiful nevertheless.

After an explanation of "the vision" (TM Patent Pending), I think we are all on the same page. *tick corporate bingo*

So- that is a good thing.

But here I am on holidays. And all I want to do is read and watch movies.

Which leads me to............................................. Where the hell is Julie/Julia project on DVD?

Well?

Anyone?

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Blogsphere

2009-10-08T12:38:00.001+10:00

Losing my political guts

2008-04-18T15:39:00.002+10:00

The Chinese consular general was here on campus yesterday.

I was walking out to go to lunch I saw him, surrounded by Chinese security guards, dressed in dark suits with dark sunglasses, and the university security guards - looking like rent a cops.

The consular limo was waiting for them - and it was a beautiful blue sky day here, in a country where actions against 'the man' will probably only have an impact on your social life - rather than say - you actually living.

I REALLY wanted to yell out - Free Tibet! or What about human rights!

but I didn't.

gees I'll never be a political dissident if I don't get more guts.

Its your Birthday

2008-02-22T16:10:00.002+10:00

Its my sisters birthday next week and we are off home to the country this weekend to get some fresh air...... (read - drink strongbows on the verandah)

I got her a tops present. But I can't tell you what it is, in case she reads this entry......

Hope you all have a great weekend - it is FINALLY going to be sunny here!

Tuss x

John Butler for PM - After Kev of course

2008-02-22T16:03:00.004+10:00

Even though it was a nightmare trying to get there.......

John went off - nice crowd shot at the end of this - it didn't really work....... soz.

Was worth it though. They (Clare Bowditch, The Waifs and John) dang from little things big things grow...... I cried.

It was tops.

And another thing.......

2008-02-07T09:24:00.000+10:00

since when did patty cakes become cupcakes?

I am not american.

Give me Patty cakes, or give me death!

Dumb Bastards

2008-02-06T12:18:00.001+10:00

Ever wondered what happens if you get busted drink driving FOUR times?

What a dickhead!

Australia Fair? Is that on the Gold Coast?

2008-01-31T14:35:00.000+10:00

We spent the Australia day holiday listening to the Triple J hottest One Hundred.

We also were invited to go out to a dam to go water skiing and other frivolity involving jet skis etc.

Now, we had spent a lovely morning listening to the J’s, eating a meat pie and some lamingtons, and waiting for the paddling pool to fill up with water (from the rainwater tank people, not town water, calm down.)

We watched the lorikeets eating the nectar from the bottle brush trees, fed the young kookaburras, who live in the Jacaranda out the back , some meat and shooed away the indian myna birds.

We discussed the implications of having Australia Day on a sat – and having all the shops open, then the holiday on the Monday, when they would be closed, rubbed in sunscreen and sang along with the radio.

Then we went out to the dam.

Now the boy who invited us is lovely, despite his upper middle class cotton farming boarding school up bringing, and we were looking forward to hanging out with him.

But he was there with a large group of people – of all ages – who did not get me AT ALL.

I mean AT ALL. Not just not a bit. Of course I was engaging in the conversations, throwing out witty one liners etc. No one laughed. (except my boyf and my mate – but that was more like sniggering)

I will give you and example:

Players in this scene…..

Girl – 19 thin quite obviously dyed blonde wearing Aust flag bikini
Boy – 22 tall well built, straight teeth, degree in Ag Science

He is – giving her shit for being a dumb blonde

Scene Begins:

Me (to her) – You should just work on the same theory as Dolly Parton

Her – whats that then?

Me – well when she was asked how she felt about being stereotyped at a dumb blonde, she replied “Well, firstly I know I’m not dumb, and secondly I know I’m not blonde….”

Beat

Her – but she is blonde

Beat

Me – Oh sweet heart, I can’t help you from here……

Yep. Now they were well meaning people, hospitable, accommodating.

But they just didn’t get it. And then I realised that now I work with people like me, and my friends and family are clever and funny – it has been awhile since I have been in a group of people who are like that.

So we only stayed for 2 hours, got back in the car, turned on the J’s had the top seven still to go, sang along, talked about what an appropriate prize for a silly contest would be (a golf umbrella and your name on the perpetual cup – kept at the CWA hall) – was horrified at the number one (muse? I mean – cheer up emo kid), and pretty much decided that if hanging out with each other is better than ok, then we are ok.

I hope waterskiing is not my calling.

Wagons Roll

2008-01-25T09:49:00.000+10:00

I have been thinking recently about lovers past and present.

It probably has something to do with the house, and the fact it now seems as though I am committing to something for the next 30 years, which is pretty close to marriage when you think about it.

Firstly you have to find one you love. Now you might get lucky like I did, and it will be the first one you see. But most likely you will have to experience between 10 and twenty before you find the right one.

Then there is the phone calls to siblings/parents/influencers, telling them all about it, moments of doubt about wether you have made the correct choice, hearing stories from all and sundry about the things that happened before you came along, convincing yourself it will be different when you are there, picking bits that you want to keep ( and those you want to change).

Then all the paperwork, and the questions, and the planning, and then, when the deal is sealed, and it is all going ahead, crapping yourself because you appear to be in for the long haul.

But I am doing with someone who I finally feel will be there with me the whole way.

In the past 10 years the lovers, good and bad, have either walked two steps ahead, or two steps behind.

And as beautiful as they all have been, they have not been the sort that I thought – you know what, I could hook my wagon to this.

Which is, after all, the reason it has taken until now to do anything remotely grown up.

Although I still love them all, and probably always will, I have decided that not only could I hitch my wagon to this one, I have moved all the stuff out of the wagon, put it on eBay, sold the wagon itself to a German backpacker, and got on board on a whole different one!

Whilst all precautions have been taken to ensure a painless exit should the wagon say, break down, fall over a cliff or start taking on extra passengers (!), I really feel like the father in “The Children of the Oregon Trail” – headed off in a new direction, into the unknown, but knowing deep down, that it is the right thing to do.

Now – as long as I can avoid dying of dysentery……

There's No Place like Home (or even Toowoomba)

2008-01-21T12:51:00.000+10:00

I'm buying a house.

I have started to talk about renovations.

I am trying to prepare myself to be very very poor - and not being able to flit off to another country when it all gets too hard.

(insert freak out here)

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

2007-09-19T13:55:00.000+10:00

I live in a regional town, and work at a regional university.

Today is international pirate day.

(just wait, this link will become clear.............................now)

There is a house that is clearly a student house at the end of the univeristy driveway, just as you turn onto the main street.

When I drove past this morning before work, they had put up a poster that said

International Talk Like a Pirate Day - 19th September

and suspended white sheets and ropes to resemble sails.

On my way back from lunch at about 1pm, they had erected a pirate ship in the front yard (that has been painted) with masts (3), and there was a boy dressed as pirate, wearing a blue Jackie Howe, with a forex in hand, next to a sign that says....................

Honk if you like Booty (argggggh!)

This is one of the best things I have seen all year, and deffo the funniest thing I have seen today.

So - as if you need an excuse - talk like a pirate!!

I want to ride on a train........

2007-09-03T17:02:00.000+10:00

I got Risky Business out on DVD during the week. It was essentially, to avoid the horrendous pap that the programmers try and pass off as mid week TV, but quite a lot of it had to do with me needing to justify my school girl crush on Tom Cruise. He is getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

Anyroad.

We watched it, and of course I had to have that moment that included the words, Hey! This was first released in 1983……..what year were you born again?

But what a fine fine film.

The idea was put across that it needs to be remade.

With Snoop Dog playing the pimp.

And Tom Cruise playing the Princeton admissions bloke. Thought about making him the dad, but it wouldn’t have worked.

I love how this film is so blasé about the erhm, ladies of the night, and the little boys who pay them.

That’s what is wrong with films these days, not enough mainstream stories about prostitutes going straight and making it good.

Protest I think, right now.

But it is great. I can highly recommend it.

And I can totally see why I had a crush on Tom Cruise before he went all Scientologist and weird. He even looks good in those white Y fronts. And we all know that not everyone could pull that off.

And here is a picture

It was a dark and erie night.....

2007-08-29T10:04:00.001+10:00

How cool is this.

And how cool was it last night.

I was very pleased to see how excited people were about it, and that it was not just us geeks.

any way,

This photo comes from the USQ observatory - and you can see more of them here

Hope you all had a chance to see it, I thought it was pretty damn tops myself.

Not so Splendid

2007-08-21T15:11:00.001+10:00

I have discovered why cameras of any sort should be banned from large festivals of the musical sort.

Especially 'dance' music

That (as my dad would say) is bloody awful.

Pure Genius

2007-08-09T16:08:00.000+10:00

Oh my god.

I knew the Guardian was fab but I have just seen the best new name E V A H!!

are you ready?

It is no longer BrisVegas or the Vegas.....

it is.................................................

BRIZZLE

(fo Shizzle)

Its here

2007-08-02T17:02:00.000+10:00

It is finally Splendour.

I am leaving th office now - and will check back in on the flip side of the weekend.

Wish me luck!

Fields Anew

2007-07-30T14:58:00.001+10:00

Well I am in the new house. And it is pretty good too I must say.

My David chose it, and just as with all the things he is choosing recently - I couldn't have done better myself.

It is very Bachelorette Pad and big enough to have rowdy dinner parties, but small enough to heat with just one gas heater.

Which is very good. It is a hop step and a jump to a very cool deli, and a bottle shop (which should make those dinner parties easier to have). It has a big lawn which I do not have to mow - which is shaded by these very large jacaranda trees from the lot over the back.

Toowoomba is a strange town - I mean strangely laid out - the houses are late 19th Century and all on half acre blocks - and then there is one great big whopping block that kind of goes right down the middle behind all the houses.

They usually have a tennis court or something on them, and really big old trees - kind of like a hidden forest.

I would have loved to lived in a big old Queenslander on one of those blocks as a child - and hidden myself away in the heat of the summer under a tree reading Enid Blyton or Ruth Parks and imagining myself to be thousands of miles away and hundreds of years ago.

So I will be able to sit by the old paling fence and pretend anyway, this summer.

How delicious!

Didn't we have a loverly time the day we moved

2007-07-25T12:44:00.000+10:00

Moving day

AGAIN.

I swear to god, I am just going to buy a campervan and be done with it.

Moving sucks something that is not very nice to suck at all.

Like the end of a vaccuum cleaner.

or a bag full of air and pepper.

or the end of a 5v battery........

No sympathy needed. I have hired a ute this time, and bought reuseable plastic containers. So next time I will be ready.

Oh dear God - next time!

We are the Angry Mob

2007-07-18T15:59:00.000+10:00

Hello Lovelies,

Nearly Splendour time.........................

I am REALLY looking forward to Kaiser Chiefs.

Their music is smart and clever and makes my life better.

Sounds like the perfect friend/lover/political representative

That sounds like a good case for genetic engineering - take one Kaiser Chiefs album, add hydrocarbons and a large energy source, then Voila!!!

Something else that made me laugh out loud but I am not sure if it improved my life was - THIS - Victoria Beckham in all her glory....................

I know I know, inane total bullshit - but hey - seeing her getting pissed with ladies that had had SO much plastic surgery they make that 'cat' lady look tame was funny as fuck.

Anyroad,

Ruby

Long Live the Kaiser Chiefs......................................

LMAO

2007-07-04T09:06:00.001+10:00

A ducks walks into a bar and asks, "Got any grapes?" The bartender, confused, tells the ducks that no, his bar doesn't serve grapes. The duck thanks him and leaves.

The next day, the duck returns and says, "Got any grapes?" Again, the bartender tells him that, no, the bar does not serve grapes, has never served grapes, and, furthermore, will never serve grapes. The duck, a little ruffled, thanks him and leaves.

The next day, the duck returns, but before he can say anything, the bartender begins to yell: ''Listen, duck! This is a bar! We do not serve fucking grapes! If you ever ask for grapes again, I will nail your stupid fucking webbed duck feet to the fucking floor!''

The duck is silent for a moment, and then asks, ''Got any nails?''

A very pissed off bartenders replies “No I do not have any fucking nails!!!!”

''Got any grapes?''

When I Grow up I want to be a Lebanese Girl

2007-06-28T11:56:00.001+10:00

As many of you may be aware, I have always wanted to be a lebanese girl when I grow up. I love the way they wear the most fabulos shoes, I love the way the carry outrageous handbangs, and talk on their mobiles constantly. I love their dyed blonde hair, they are so fabulous in every sense of the word....

but now this

"The success of the industry in Lebanon last week prompted a Lebanese bank to put up billboards across the country to announce that they would be giving loans for plastic surgery.
The billboards are posted all over the capital, even in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a hotbed of the Islamist Hezbollah movement.
First National Bank’s “Plastic Surgery Loan” can provide between 1,000 and 5,000 dollars to cover “all your plastic surgery operations,” according to the bank’s website"

Oh dear lord.

New Boobs all round!

This is a much better image and part of the reason I love them....

Style in the face of adversity

(now I know this sounds ill informed and trite, but ......)

Glasters Eat Your Heart Out

2007-06-25T16:54:00.000+10:00

Galstonbury on the weekend just gone. The Kaiser Chiefs played second headliner to THE WHO! to 177000 people ( or there abouts ) Bad Glastonbury story and a good glastonbury story

but the thing is, that we are going to Splendour, where we get to see them, and Lily Allen, and the Artic Monkeys, and The Cat Empire and the Hilltop Hoods.

And as Cool as that is, it is not quite as cool as the gumboots we have procured to wear.

They look like this.....................

I know I know.

We LOVE!

Monkey Magic Intro

2007-06-22T16:15:00.001+10:00

This is truly truly great.

How to cheer up your Friday afternoon

And of Course this too

2007-06-21T15:33:00.000+10:00

have a look at what we are doing here at uni, for our school leavers

click click click click

it could of course go terribly wrong but that is the excitement of it.

And I love youTube anyway - now I feel like it is DeGrassi Junior High for Toowoomba.

See, I told you it was cold

2007-06-21T15:29:00.000+10:00

Holy God its Cold

2007-06-20T09:11:00.000+10:00

I know its not Victorian weather but you try waking up in a big old queenslander with no heating on a day like today.......

I think I want to move to Melbourne

2007-06-15T11:06:00.000+10:00

As much as I love the Queensland weather (and I am excluding Tba from that statement), I really really want to be able to sit in a cool coffee shop/bar/pub, which is warm as warm compared to outside, browse newspapers, smoke fags (until end of June anyway) and look out across a windy street at all the cool, hip young things on their way to meet other cool hip young things and solve the problems of the world.

Here there is one quasi cool cafe, and very few cool hip young things.Clothing here in Tba town still revolves around RM Williams, Ralph Lauren and Myer. Culture and Fashion - why have you forsaken me?

In the immortal words of MSKP "I wish you would all stop mucking around and just move to Melbourne." and today I feel like doing just that.

Can you guarantee it will be warm in September?

Perhaps I should just move for the winter...................

Any road, all the blogging out there and the cool pictures make me want to move.

Maybe I need a minibreak in Brisbane.

(and horror of horrors, it is Grammar Day this weekend - god save us all)

Tba fashion for boys Tba fashion for girls

He's Gone Gone Gone (and Crying won't bring him back)

2007-05-24T08:40:00.000+10:00

Well,

as all of my getting chucked goes. sometimes I need to vent publicly to get over it.

The young boy is gorn. Thats what you get for sticking your doodle in someone else.

So me and Lily Allen are giving it a red hot go.

Enjoy one and all.

(apparently I can't put the tune in here. Curses. You know what I mean anyway)

And in News Just in.........I've got your nose

2007-05-02T15:07:00.000+10:00

On a brighter note,

If you ever need a laugh you should read the Toowoomba Chronicle it is truly entertaining.

Recently it was featured on Media Watch for its top quality journalism

You'll have to wait to see who gets featured again after the "evacuating SE Qld Towns due to lack of water" fiasco.

Love!!

Morally Reprehensible

2007-05-01T11:10:00.000+10:00

I am currently experiencing a bit of a ‘moment’ – you know what ever the diametric opposite of an epiphany is.

I got chucked – which is fine. This is not the morally reprehensible situation. The boy I was kissing is very young – and his family was not, shall we say, so happy about the situation. But nevertheless we persevered for nigh on two years.

During this time, I apparently represented the embodiment of pure evil. Now, I have yet to work out just how supporting him emotionally, physically and financially is evil. Or how apologising to all and sundry for his behaviour (generally influenced by illicit substances), or cleaning up after him, finding him a FANTASTIC job, ignoring his foibles, taking him back after drunken rages, and indiscretions could be conceived as evil but – there you have it. EVIL.

Now, during my time within that family I observed some things that could only be described as morally questionable. Relationships conducting whilst the other was still attached, character assassination, underhanded dealings, comments made regarding peoples political persuasion to the detriment of said persons social, political and career standings……………

All very interesting. But none of those behaviours did they see as being evil. Not even a little bit.

Strange.

Which leads me to the next situation.

I have since discovered that the ex boy has been sleeping with his ex girlfriend. In his sisters (my old friends) house. And not only that, the majority of my (our) friendship group knew about it, along with his family. Oh, before he chucked me.

And just decided not to tell me.

So now on two levels I am confused as to what constitutes behaviour that is morally reprehensible.

So apparently I am simply evil – but his behaviour – totally acceptable and the rest of them, well…………………

I thought I would do some research into morality. And apparently the way I have been conducting myself – you know, give out the love, understanding, compassion, turn the other cheek, lets try and make it the best we can – on a different moral level to “If we don’t tell her, it won’t matter and we won’t get in trouble. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her”.

Have a look here - Morals? What Morals!

And confusion reigns. I really don’t know who to be angry with. His behaviour is not actually that out of character, and I can accept it (morals?), but the behaviour of his family (my friend???) I do not understand. And the rest of the friendship group – I mean really what is that? (One boy actually said –“I thought he was bullshitting me and by the time I found out it was true – well I just decided not to tell you. Did not want to rock the boat.” I am fairly sure that that was a justification of his behaviour for him, and not to help me).

And so to morally reprehensible.

There are things that I do not think are morally offensive that many others would

For example

Taking A class drugs – or any drug for that matter – as long as you are not in control of a vehicle or responsible for small children. After all you are only hurting yourself.

Pornography – hey – I am not saying that all porn is made under circumstances that are conducive to give out the love – but a few dirty stories? Who is that hurting? (an I am going to include any sort of “marital aid” here as well)

Getting drunk in the middle of the day – again with the levels of responsibility and hurting only yourself.

Standing up your beliefs – as long as you have information to back it up.

Whereas things I do find reprehensible (which obviously many do not)

Lying – in any form – especially to protect yourself

Acting with complete disregard of others feelings

Cheating – pretty sure that this one needs no explanation.

Fake justification – don’t say things to make you feel better under the guise of explaining to me or trying to make me feel better.

Lying by omission (can you tell this is one that REALLY winds me up)

Expecting everyone else to carry you and look after you. Stand up for yourself.

Treating people as less than yourself – come on NO ONE is that good.

Casting dispersions on peoples abilities simply because you do not agree with their point of view/sexual orientation/ age group/ choice of shoes.

So world,

Discuss

(I am worried I am over the whole thing and may just have to go and live in a convent for non religious types and carry on my good deeds without having to actually interact with anyone. Ever. Well maybe the postman – a nun can have good shoes can’t she???)

As God is My Witness, I will never be Hungry Again

2007-03-27T16:45:00.000+10:00

When I was about 7 I saw Gone with the Wind for the first time.

They played it on 10 4 5a and me and my Grandma sat up and watched it. Her for the costumes and the memories and me to be with her.

I LOVED it. My cousin Natalie watched it too.

Then I discovered aged about 11, that my Grandfather had a copy of the book - a first Australian Edition that was handed to him, no doubt by one of his sisters.

So I read it. And LOVED it even more than the film.

But the really really weird thing was, I always wanted to be Melanie - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Wilkes.

Good Girl Melanie, with the kind love of the Slow eyed Ashley, the one everyone loved, with the one little boy Wade Hampton that everyone doted over, with no need for money, with a house full of books and music.

Always wanted to be her.

Unfortunately I am Scarlett O'Hara. Wild, willful, dark haired, brash, opinionated Scarlett. The Scarlett woman Scarlett. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlett_o%27hara

Which is, now I am so not 11, probably the best choice. But I always wanted to be Melanie.

Which is where the whole idea of the Proverbs 31 Girls frighten the absolute bejesus out of me.

Hack talk about it here - http://abc.net.au/jtv/video/default.htm?clip=hillsong

And here is a sermon given in america - .http://www.visionforumministries.org/issues/family/a_special_word_for_proverbs_31.aspx

Worrying.

Learning Learning all the Time

2007-03-27T10:08:00.000+10:00

My lovely friend Andrew is doing his last course to complete his degree. He has chosen a very cool course to do and it is going to make dinner parties and the pub so much more interesting.

The name of the course is America and the Great Powers in International Politics, through Deakin Uni...

You can find ou about the actual course http://www.deakin.edu.au/courses/search/course.php?customer_cd=D&unit_cd=AIR245&year_offered=2007& (sorry about the long link but my little link button is not working today!)

He has the choice of three questions:

1. How important are great powers in the international system? Discuss with reference to political, military and economic issues;
2. Is a unipolar international system with a single greatest power stable over the long term; or 3. Is the United Nations merely a tool of great powers such as the US? What sort of evidence should we look for in answering this question?

And I have sent him to number three - because there is LOADS of evidence to prove that the US, UK and EU are not exactly enamoured with the UN.

Can you (blogland) give us a hand in finding some more info and maybe even starring in the assignment - if you are prepared to be quoted - so Andrew can kick arse in this very cool subject?

Well............................... Can you?

Ghosts of Good Times Past

2007-03-20T09:05:00.000+10:00

Places to never go if you don't want to see anyone you ever really liked and then got fucked over by.....

1. The Spotted Cow in Toowoomba - as an aside you should never want to go here anytime, much better to just end up there so you can cast derisive glances to all and sundry, whinge and then leave - all within about 30 mins.

2. Oxford Street in London - I always managed to run into someone I knew there.... but I nearly forgive this one for the great shops ( H & M rules)

3. The Bar in the Sofitel in Melbourne.

Fuckers.

Standing on the Outside

2007-03-02T10:05:00.000+10:00

There is a Cold Chisel Tribute Album on its way.....

I just won a copy just by posting on their site.

Cool as.

And I crashed my car. Plop.

ch ch ch ch ch ch check it out......... here (and yes I know that is the Beastie Boys and not Chisel but it is cool anyway!)

Birthdays, Hottegories and Yellow

2007-02-28T15:32:00.000+10:00

It was my sisters birthday yesterday - she is very cool and very nice and helps me alot.

It is my friend Ejays birthday soon - she is also lovely and kind and helpful.

It is my bosses birthday today.

It is not, unfortunately - my birthday.

But more than birthdays I also have my lovely friend Andrews leaving event.

He has opted out of the Tba Lifestyle - in favour of Albury. For those uninitiated in either of these towns learn more at this site for Tba and this one for Albury - much of a muchness you may proclaim! This may seem true but a house in Arthur st is much much closer that one in Albury - hence the going away party.

I have been informed that our venue of choice is havign a theme night that night - and as you may have realised from Andrews appearance in the photo down there

he doesn't mind dressing up.......

but more to the point - I will miss him terribly. He was one of my customers from my short lived time as a service advisor at Holden - he was funny and cute and willing to banter with me, and I decided I wanted him as a friend. So many drunken nights and hungover afternoons later I can do nothing but wish him the best,

*sigh*

*sniff*

*reaches for conviently placed hanky to wipe away tears*

who needs that sentimental bullshit anyway?

On to the topic at hand. Kazzle Bedazzle is playing hottegories on her blog - too fun. Unfortunately my creativeness has deserted me today - so I cannot play. But be my guest (well hers actually - because it is her blog)

On the way back from Fraser Coast yesterday I was challanged with naming seven large yellow things after a grader was hampering our progress back to Tba.

So I named 7 large yellow things then it was mooted that large yellow was too limiting - so then it was just generally yellow things. Now I dont' know if you have ever noticed - but just do it now - look around for yellow things.............................................

aren't there alot!!!

And you never even noticed before!!!!!!!

Too cool

So here are some more yellow things for you to look at

Tootle Pip!

Cool, Clear, Water

2007-02-16T16:16:00.000+10:00

This is about water......

of course living in Tba we talk about water ALL the time.

and so I love this whole idea. But I have a controversial question for the world.

I believe that clean water is a basic human right. And when your man sank the first bore in 1878 he made such a huge difference to the Australian countryside and to life in general - that is not under contention but..... and I quote

"Hundreds of bores have been sunk into the GAB since the first in 1878 near Bourke in New South Wales. By 1915, there were 1500 bores and a peak flow of 2000 megalitres a day. Over the decades as more and more bores were sunk, water pressure and flow rates dropped across much of the GAB.
Much of the water that is extracted is wasted. It is estimated that up to 80 per cent of the total outflow from the GAB is wasted because of inefficient water delivery systems. Thousands of kilometres of open drains dug across properties to water animals lose water to evaporation and seepage. "

So although I love this idea and it NEEDS to be happening,

do we have a responsibility to inform of what may happen.......

can we help with this as well perhaps.

In less than 100 years we were using this precious gift to irrigate crops that are not native and could not survive without this water, to sell and export. Clean, sweet water flung out over acres and acres of land.....

What do you think?

Motivation

2007-02-16T10:19:00.000+10:00

Well as a gesture of power and solidarity I am putting this out to the world.
What is the go with other people? I am serious. Sometimes they do something that are really really quite nasty. When this happens I am usually just left sitting there scratching my head with a What the fuck just happened here? look on my face.

Case in point, I have a friend (a real one, not a pretend one) who is pretty tops and ace and cool and is, of course, one day going to change the world, or at least the way we think.

Now I am so ridiculously proud and excited about everything that she does that I tell people about her. To all the people that I know, in the same way that some people talk about their jobs, or their dogs or their cars. I talk about my friends. Because I LIKE them.Simply because I am now of an age that I don't have to put up with people I don't like. I do not call them friends. If I don't feel like you are improving my life by being in it, you are no longer in it.

This unfortunately is not actually possible at work, but I have a whole different strategy for that one. Just be nice to them. These people hate that. Give out the Love. Be understanding. Try and figure out what it is in their life that is making them so bloody mean. Maybe they lost their job, perhaps they are fighting with their lover, maybe their dad has been diagnosed, or maybe they just put their emergency knickers on this morning and they don't quite fit.
We dont' know.

So anyway back to my friendly friend. She is great, she is good, she is clever. And just like alot of people who are innovators and free thinkers, she has some people who don't like her. And that's fine. And totally normal. Me, I have a whole load of people who don't like me, and I kind of like it.

And there are those who I don't like. But heres the thing....... if I don't like them, I really don't care what they are doing, where they are living, and I certainly do not take the time to extol vitriol on them, or their opinions, or their lifestyle.

So back to Motivation

Why would you do something like that. It would not improve your life, it would not improve their life. It is truly truly odd.

I received an email from a woman at work here - something ultra glamorous about CMYK colours or prints..... but at the end of it, it said

"Be kinder than is necessary, for everyone is fighting some kind of battle"

So there you have it world..........

Why not give that a bash? GIVE OUT THE LOVE

(does that count as Zeitgiest?)

Before and After

2007-02-14T16:28:00.000+10:00

This was the beginning of the night... before the purple cans took hold....

and then this happened.....

Hmm so attractive......

Wish you were there to share it all - too too too much fun.

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso

2007-02-12T09:25:00.000+10:00

Well I went to K-Town for Loulas’ last Hurrah, (as in it’s the last show ball I have to run……hurrah!). It was magnificent. As it is always. Our gang of seven made it to the ball, spent too much money, drank too many purple cans, sang too loudly and danced too long. But had a great night……

Andrew got dragged up to participate in Paul Foxs Mr Killarney act, and got ‘rolled’ for the effort. My David flirted and played with my little friend the lovely heather – making her night. Nathan had no idea what he had got himself in for and we all got rolling rolling drunk. (Lucky Duncan was there to keep us all ‘in theme’)

There were saloon girls and cowboys, Mexicans and Indians, you gotta love it when people dress up!!!

Coby and I stayed up until the sun came up and when there was only Paul Fox and I left at 7am, we thought we might go to bed. Probably a good idea.

So another big weekend, and another big week. Bit sorry to hear about Anna Nicole Smith, but am surprised she lasted this long.

Been walking around all morning singing the new SilverChair song, walking in a straight line – sounds suspiciously like it belongs on an 80’s power ballads Album. Not sure if I like it, but it is certainly winding everyone else up.

If I can figure out how to make the link work I will put up a picture - there was professional photographer there - and it turned out very well - and you can live vicariously though tinternet.

Trawling the Internet for my Job

2007-02-01T14:46:00.000+10:00

.............has turned this up.

I was on the CQU website looking for whatever ads they are running ang I found this.

It is so similar to the way I think it is a little scary.

Check it out.

2007-01-29T16:52:00.000+10:00

In the immortal words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman - If I forget to tell you later, I had a really nice time tonight".
I think I finally get the whole Melbourne thing - I had the most tops weekend I have had in a long time.
We (Loula, Liz and Dan) wandered through Melb on a gloriously sunny Australia day, sat by the Yarra, sipped Pimms and watched the roulettes - well heard the rouletttes..... wandered back to my cousinshouse in South Yarra - Via the shops (both ways), watched a bit of telly - and then off to the party of the year.
Kazzle looked tops as always - and Just previous to meeting Toby he had arms full of beer,that is always a fabulous sight!!!! They were gracious hosts to two crazy maiden auntswho were not the only ones dressed up - which was a momentary concern when we had to go intoa bottle shop - in costume. They didn't seem to think it was as funny as we did. Oh well.
I love it when you go to a party full of really nice, cool and interesting people, some whoyou know, some who you don't. It is too too nice.
And there they were, in living colour, not just on tinternet.
Ah melbourne, the people, the shops, the art, the shops, the food, the shops......
A woman I work with reckons you have to do at least three things you have never done whenyou go on holidays so
1. Slept on a blow up bed2. Ordered a Kebab v. drunk at three in the morning on Toorak Rd (true!)3. Had Yum Cha
the list could go on.
So to all you out there in blogland that I met at the party - thank you for making it so good.........
And even better I came home with a new saying..... are you ready?
Funk On.
Oh how glorious life is.

2007-01-24T13:46:00.000+10:00

On the third day of high flying marketing exec life and my head hurts.

have just found out that working in a job that takes up all my time and any ounce of fun - ness I still posess at the end of the day sure is tiring.

I hate estate agents - am rowing with the theiving gypsy (long live romnay) bastards (and those born out of wed lock) from my last house...................

grr

but here is my good news. After being shadowed by Amanda Bloody Vanstone for all my grown up life I am incredibly pleased that she is no longer on the front bench................. so pleased

So good luck Amanda - I hope you get a new job where your boss was forced to pay HECS and your co-workers are on temporary visas.

but enough of that....

Kazzle bedazzle taught me how to do that!!!!!

and pictures too but that is still in progress. So here are some cool little things to read and learn whilst I continue to find a way to encourage people to incurr huge debts, work and study full time in order to get a degree that they will probably never use.

Tony Hawkes eat your heart out - this just proves English Boys are Mad.

and after seeing Lilly Allen on Sunrise this morning - yes sunrise! here is some dirty grity (and poppy) tunes for your day.....

Latoz

(how cool are those link things - I love!!)

2007-01-22T16:45:00.000+10:00

Am too old for house warming parties.

Can take heart that I was not the only one who could not get out of bed until 5pm on Sunday arvo.

Ick.

Good Fun though. Gald will be last one - think neighbours are glad too - 4am apparantly. I have no idea - my body and brain were separate from about 11:30 pm to 4am.

as I said already - Ick.

2007-01-18T16:16:00.000+10:00

Just Gave MySpaz another go.

Still Crap

Have some intelligent info to rub the stench of popularity contest off you.....

Idol..........................for Authors...................!

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1988577,00.html

And Germaine giving it to the great unwashed regarding wylie females and playing the game

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1991890,00.html

We Love

Just had a marketing meeting - even though I don't officially start till next week - feel so good I will be able to use the skills I spent so much time and money getting. Even if it is in marketing. Bill Hicks - who is one of my Fav comedians HATES marketers........ and come to think of it, so do most people. In the same way you hate estate agents, car salespeople and insurance loss adjusters. Oh Crap - what a lot to be lump in with.

I am not the job I do - I am not the job I do ....... breathe breathe breathe

actually a bloke named Christian de Quincy has some pretty cool things to say about that. Heard him on Radio National - and heres a link

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/summer/2006/newdimensions/20070101.htm

Maybe I am getting the hang of this.

So if you are out in the provinces - party on sat arvo - dodgy end of campbell st. Drop in and say !Hola!.

2007-01-17T16:45:00.000+10:00

Feeling like a Beta in a VHS world

I know nothing about coding - well a little bit - The English boy made a living out of it so I therefore must know something, but it is very difficult to tell the interweb to "go away and don't come back until its pinging".

It looks like I have to be able to code to get that cool list down the side that links this page to others that are cool, hip and trendy.

Otherwise, it seems as though I a) cannot take direction very well or b) should go and live under a rock and hope this whole knowledge revolution is nothing more than a fad.

Can anyone help. And no, Blogger help did not.

But on a brighter note,

having time on my hands on the front counter of the engine gearing department has meant I have been able to fully appreciate the wonder that is wikipedia. I am in love. You ask for a Lady Soverign lyric and you end up with a recommendation for the best goat curry.

Those click through links are so cool.....

back to my main point you see.

International rants on the ridiculousness of size zero - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1992062,00.html

made me laugh - but not change back to full fat coke

And top reporting from my local paper - check ou that view

http://www.warwickdailynews.com.au/localsport/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3717868&thesection=localsport&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

lets see if that works.

2007-01-16T16:45:00.000+10:00

I hate myspace.

It's cause I am old.

2007-01-15T09:06:00.000+10:00

Well, I moved house on the weekend. Again. Whilst packing up the car/van/trailer, I began counting just how many moves I have made in my life. When I got to 25 I stoppped - too frightening. I wish you could include the amount of times you have had to pack up all the crap you have with you, put it in a bag, stumble down a flight of small stairs with a throbbing hangover, arriving back at reception where all that cheap spanish beer is trying to escape from your body any way it can, whilst trying to get your passport back of the bloke at the desk whose ablity to speak english evaporated soon after you gave him 12 quid for the bed.....

That's dedication.

But all in all the move went well. So I have gone from the ridiculous to the sublime, from 1.5 rooms to enough rooms that if I leave my phone in the kitchen and I am on the front verandah, it rings out before I get there......

And I need to get some more crap. There are so many places to stash it now, it would be rude to not fill it.

They (ahhhhh the mysterious 'they') say that moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do, along with getting chucked and starting a new job - so two out of three ain't bad.

But now for the party. I have decided that they only way to celebrate a new house is to of course throw a house warming and in the spirit of parties all around the world - theme it.

One word to say - Margaritaville.

(the dulcet sounds of Jimmy Buffet wafting across the dodgy drug dealing end of Taylor St - accompanied by the noise of the blender - lovely!)

Come on down - Sat arvo. Chips and salsa - perhaps even sombreos.

2007-01-12T14:10:00.000+10:00

Curse you internet world and your attempts to keep me from being on the interweb. Bloody thing. Has just made me feel incredibly stupid, and worried as I am sure that 10 year olds can actually complete this without the trouble I have had.

Anyway.

Hello!

Though today was as good a day as any to start this. For someone who is rarely lost for words - usually misspelled - I am finding this surprisingly hard.

First to the name of this blog - it was of course designed when I was working in that magical place called "The Outback". I know some of you may have heard of it...... but that was 3 jobs ago, not including the temping.... see I told you I like leaving jobs - I think I have become addicted to the rush of the interview process - or perhaps daytime TV - either or.

Now although it still applies, not quite so relevant - although there is a dearth of decent newspapers, art, literature, theatre, conversation......................................... so maybe it does apply.

So if you've ever wondered how one ends up in a small provincial town without being born there or part of a Bronte novel, I will do my best to inform you.

Tootles

(hey this thing has spell check......... Cool!)