lightning strikes twice

Relaxing is not easy!  It’s actually crazy hard, and I’ve found that I’m particularly bad it.

Boomerang 2005 was very relaxing.  Wategos 2008 was very relaxing.  Thailand 2008 was not relaxing.  Paris/Milan/Venice 2007 was not relaxing, but was very fun.

I would love to come up with some personal rules about how I best achieve relaxation, hopefully this post will get my mind ticking over.

This post has been sitting around forever, waiting for me to write an essay about it. But evidently I don’t feel quite strongly enough to actually do that. So, here it is: Etiquette (as opposed to manners) is a secret club, and is not self evident to clear thinkers — etiquette must be taught or observed, and even then may just be learned, and not understood. Indeed, understanding may be impossible — there are many points of etiquette that have no reasoning, just tradition.

Inspiration from Paul Graham’s list, where he says:

When I thought about what it meant to call someone a hero, it meant I’d decide what to do by asking what they’d do in the same situation.

Here are some heroes:

• Dad – on the basis of “doing what he would do”, dad is number one. I ask for his advice many times a year. Very sensible, encouraging and thorough.
• My Wife – a very hard worker, compassionate, resolute, supportive, visionary.
• Brian Goorjian – Mr Preparation. A legend in Australian coaching, and a world class basketball coach. Always makes the most of what he has, and has an astounding record.
• Richard Buckland – I couldn’t remember his name, but he was INCREDIBLY passionate, and did his absolute best to inspire a mostly disinterested bunch of first year students about computer science.  Then I remembered his first name was Richard, so I googled “Richard UNSW”, and not only is he the first few hits, but there are videos of him lecturing on YouTube… so he must be popular.
• Steve Waugh - Waugh was always my favourite Australian player way before he became captain.  Back even before he was dropped from the Test team, I admired his steely determination (the ice man) and persistence. I also liked that his teams played tough, but didn’t lose their humility.
• Jeff Mills – unwavering dedication to his musical vision.
• Derrick May – as for Jeff Mills.

Another draft with unformed ideas — time to post it, because if I haven’t written more about this by now, it’s not likely to happen! As it stands right now, travel is actually cheaper than a year ago, due to recession and competition. But this won’t last forever. Anyway, here is what I wrote in July 2008:

An article on the Sydney Morning Herald website highlights the future we will probably face — where petrol is super expensive and travel (particularly leisure travel) will need to be scaled back.  This is an idea I’ve been thinking about for a while… perhaps we will be telling our children about the golden age when overseas holidays were normal, and business travel constant.

I read this last September, still interesting:

Since it’s dark, you have to stumble around looking for a candle, hoping that all your candles aren’t made of paraffin, and wonder how you are going to light it when your butane lighter is now empty. You have water, for now, but your fridge and freezer are not working, so you start to guess how many days’ food supply you have left and how long before it spoils. You estimate that after two weeks you’ll be relying on dry goods and canned goods, and expecting that they’ll have to do, since by then the stores and restaurants will be empty and abandoned.

How to Save the World

I’ve always known that one of the unique aspects of Australia is our level of urbanisation relative to the geographic size of the country, but here are some interesting stats:

Australia has long been one of the most urbanised countries, fifth within the OECD, behind the Netherlands, Japan, Belgium and Britain. About 68 per cent of our population live in cities, according to 2006 census figures.

I read a terrible book a couple of years ago: The Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk.  It was full of trite advice that didn’t actually mean anything, the practice of which would only turn you into a self-obsessed and bitter person.  I thought I’d find other people felt the same way about it, but it seems it has rather good ratings on Amazon.

Today, I came across a person who has succinctly described all the things I loathed about this book, and on further investigation, the person behind it:

We should take advice from people who have their own life together. We should read writers who write because they have something to say, not because they are desperately craving validation and will do or say anything to get it.
As I slowly realized how badly she fails in both those areas, I went from anger to a sad, deep pity.

From Ryan Holiday

Now here is a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon: go down to Double Bay wharf and hop on the 18 foot skiff racing ferry.  For around two hours you’ll float around the harbour, get to watch some competitive racing and share a couple of drinks with your friends.  If the weather is good like it was yesterday, it’s a magic way to close out the weekend.  I know next to nothing about sailing, but still had a cracking good time.  Will definitely look to do more of that next summer.

Maybe this is what we should expect from a tournament that seems to go out of its way not to be spectator-friendly. After all, you need to have degrees in animal husbandry, medieval history, military war, horticulture and meteorology just to work out what the Super 14 team names mean. Then you have to be a master of geography to work out which names goes with which team and which city they hail from.

From Monday Maul, after two teams wore white jerseys for a match on the weekend.  I want so much to follow and enjoy Super 14, but at the same time, they’ve got massive marketing and communications issues.  I’ve complained for years (albeit, just to my friends) about how the teams are only ever referred to by their mascot names, which are essentially meaningless and contrived, and thus totally non-memorable.  Where the hell do the “Sharks”, “Cheetahs” and “Bulls” come from?  I couldn’t tell you.

by Cormac McCarthy

Just as with The Road, this novel is so compelling one is tempted to finish it one sitting.  I’d already seen the movie, which is also brilliant, but that didn’t lessen the enjoyment of this paperback.  Llewellyn Moss, the crafty veteran, Anton Chighurh, the soulless outlaw, and Sheriff Bell, the lawman of yesteryear, are the main characters.

I had a vague moment of inspiration where I thought that this was a novel about our modern age of computers, with no notion of morality (Chighurh), versus an older human driven age (Bell).  But I think that is a long bow to draw.