WORD

Abe

I really wanted to write more things for here but I was stuck and couldn’t think of stuff to write. I then thought I should touch on a few things I was thinking about, you know, as you do, so I could write some stuff. Success it would seem, indeed hopefully a few posts for today…

On the weekend I headed up to Bathurst for the races. What always astounds me at Bathurst is the amount of complete and utter drop kicks that turn up. I really don’t understand how some of these people are still alive, they seriously seem that stupid. These people, who can barely manage a coherent sentence let alone walk in a straight line, are obviously interested in Cars and the like, so I would assume drive and have trick cars.

If these people are idiots walking around a camp site, you can only assume how they drive on public roads. I can only assume that people such as these are often the culprits of accidents and the like. It is scary that such people can get their licenses. It makes you think that no matter how well or safely you drive, there could always be an idiot around the corner to take you out. Norick Abe died in a motorcycle accident in Japan yesterday. He ran into a lorry that was doing an illegal U-Turn. Norick was a MotoGP and World Superbike race winner, and one of the most exciting races I’ve ever seen. Not many people would be handier on a bike then him, but he lost his life on a public road. Tragic.

So there you go, a rant. What else is new?

I was watching when...

... Rugby died in Australia. Four more years, four more years. Lets hope we find a front row in that time

SMH Spiral

I saw on Facebook today (now restored at work, huzzah!) a group that had recently been created named ‘The Sydney Morning Herald is no longer fit to call itself a real newspaper’. I went to have a look at it, and it made some astute observations. Here is a bit taken from the blurb:

It was once an outstanding newspaper to read on a daily basis, with thorough and objective reporting on both current affairs and local news. It used big words that we would have to look up in a dictionary from time to time.This is no longer the case and the point of this group is too encourage people not to read it nor visit its terrible gossip magazine-style website.It largely buys well written "World" articles from newspapers such as The Guardian, New York Times or LA Times and occasionally the Daily Telegraph. Though it chops them down to about 1200-2000 words because thats all an Australian reader can manage, apparently. (At least that's all its sub-editors being dicated to by moronic marketeers can) It now pursues what it perceives to be of interest to its readers, such as the hounding of individuals or the pursuit of petty scandals.
Its final crime is allowing cadet journalists to write lazy pieces such as "Facebook bans the use of the word gay" which are beneath the intelligence of a ten year old. These articles are usually printed during slow news feed days as too "up" the traffic to the website. The articles are usually pulled off the site within 3 hours and rarely, if at all make it to print.

It is hard to disagree with this. I read the SMH daily but its standards are continuing to drop. As mentioned above, the quality of the articles are dropping, and indeed the number of annoying pop ups is growing rapidly! When I had a look just then, the stories cycling through the bar on the top right were mainly linked to blogs, such as ‘Sam in the City’, that seem entirely pointless. The main story on the left was about the delivery of Hummers today and how it ironically coincided with walk to work day. Trash. Perhaps more telling is the links to the most viewed articles down the bottom. ‘Alan Jones knows election date’ is the top rated video; ‘Ask Sam Friday – Intercultural dating, is there any hope?’ is the top rated blog. The most viewed article is in relation to maternity wards, which has merit, yet the fifth most viewed article is about Ricky Ponting’s retaliation to claims from Indian cricket about something or the other.


It is sad, I guess that you just have to read from international news outlets, or perhaps the Australian.

Getting Old

Last week I chaperoned a team to the Gold Coast for the Australian University Games. This event, as most of you are no doubt aware, is little more then Schoolies for University students. The fact that it was on the Gold Coast only served to compound this. It is perhaps thus not that unusual that I left the week feeling like a ‘Toolie’, an old fart amongst much younger individuals.

I have expressed this view to a number of people who have almost universally replied, ‘Villa, you’re not really that old’. These kind words are always accepted with gratitude, but age is not always expressed in the simple passing of years since ones birth, it is a product of perception and experience. I was thus thinking through other examples of how I’ve become old and disgruntled, ill set some out below:

- Loud Music. I don’t like places where the music is too loud. I prefer small bars where you can sit and talk. Way old

- Reading. I’ve stopped listening to my iPod and begun reading instead while on public transport. Reading is fun, but when other people are listening to loud music on their iPods I get annoyed. It is distracting and silly, they’re destroying their ears

- Sensible clothing. Comfort is king.

- Going to bed early. I’ve always gone to bed early, but I really need to go to bed early now a days. I’ve even been going to bed early on Saturday nights. This is particularly terrible.

- Ironing. I enjoy ironing, but now I perform most of my domestic duties on Sunday to make sure the week is alright. Concerning.

- Being Grumpy at people. I get grumpy at people a lot more, I never got grumpy before. I find that I don’t seek to please everyone as much anymore, I hold more grudges.

So there you go. I’ve become soft. Will have to pick up my socks.

I’ve decided to write a few different posts today, will write more from now on. I miss blogging, will pick up my socks.