Given that I apparently still look like a student and people don't realise how long I've been working, I'm somewhat nonplussed about the whole thing. Is turning 30 such a horrible thing? Truth be told, I've been looking forward to it in the vain hope that it means I will soon be treated like a functional, intelligent human being (don't worry, I'm not holding my breath).

Admittedly, I am fighting with that little part of me that has bought into society's youth obsessed crap. It's the part of me that feels wholly unaccomplished and unfulfilled - you know, as distinct from the rest of me that only feels somewhat unaccomplished and unfulfilled...

Being this far away from just about all my family and friends is also taking its toll. Honestly, the year thus far has been almost entirely made of suck. And it's beginning to get me down that I probably won't see most of the people I care about in about a month. And that feels like such a "first world problem" that I feel worse for being saddened by it. Which, again, makes me feel ridiculous (hello, never-ending cycle of guilt and self-loathing. I see you've bought some friends made by Cadbury. How I'll regret this in the morning...").

At least married life continues to be lovely...

So it's been a while since I've bothered to write anything.* Not from a lack of thought though. More a lack of will. Since I'm trying to rediscover the ability to form (vaguely) coherent sentences I'm sure I'll rant about some of the oh so pleasant experiences of the last 10 months.


* Not just here. Anywhere. I used to write all over the place. I remember sitting on a bench at 5am concocting some ridiculous fancy. But for almost a year now I haven't written anything that hasn't been work-related. The paralysing emptiness that has created has been... Interesting. You know, if you like conducting potentially painful experiments on yourself. I should have just taken a page from Walter's book and tried to create a cow that can produce chocolate milk.




For now, all I really feel like saying is:
1. Hi!
2. I'm still alive!
3. I really miss Melbourne.

Oh, and 4. What the hell is wrong with Ryan Murphy that he can take something with so much potential and turn it into the dreck it's become?

[What? Just because I've spent 3/4 of a year experiencing the joys of stress, anxiety and insomnia doesn't mean I haven't been wrapped up in my beloved pop culture. Speaking of which, has anyone else been enjoying the delightful CraigyFerg on channel 11? If you haven't, for shame! Oh, who's that at the door?]

I laughed so loudly the new neighbours are probably regretting moving here...

So the Tiger Woods Apology is currently being aired on two channels simultaneously. I will admit that my first thought was pretty much, "Whatever, you zombie-eyed freak" (seriously, those are the glassiest pair of eyes I have ever seen and it was quite disconcerting). But once I got over that, I'm left wondering why this is even being televised.

The guy cheated on his wife numerous times with numerous women. Not the wisest move, but is it something that needs to go beyond the usual tabloids?

This is not news.

This is not our business.

This certainly has nothing to do with the public interest (even it is something that some of the public may be interested in).

This has the hallmarks of a deliberate, manipulative PR stunt.

I'm not suggesting that he doesn't regret the entire debacle. But, dude, if you want to show remorse, show it to your family not the world's media. Do you really need a conference room of reporters with you when you read a prepared statement to a select group of "friends"? You don't think that makes the whole thing look a little disingenuous?

Oh, scratch that: it wasn't a conference room. Of course. This sincere, heartfelt, tearful event would take place at the TPC Sawgrass golf course, home of PGA no less, wouldn't it? But there's nothing contrived about that.

Incidentally, interesting timing for this unnecessary public display - during the World Golf Championships. Woods' statement suggested that the timing was necessary because he will be leaving "for more treatment and more therapy" tomorrow. Even if I entertain the notion that a televised apology was necessary (and I'm still not convinced), if you had enough time to prepare a statement and organise this circus, I think you had enough time to do this before the Championships began. The Match Play Championship (sponsored by the first people to drop Woods, Accenture) started on Wednesday. Why not start the week with your apologetic spectacle and allow your golfing colleagues to get on with things? At the end of all this, I'm not thinking, "Oh, that poor Tiger. He's so sorry for the damage he's caused and determined to turn over a new leaf and make a fresh start" - I can't get past, "You can wrap it any way you like, but I'm not buying what you're peddling".

This was a particularly nice touch:
I would like to thank my friends at Accenture and the players in the field this week for understanding why I'm making these remarks today.[1]

Hmmm... You know, Tiger, I'm not sure that they will. [2]



[1] http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hn3MjP34eREtO8Gtw6syMB8Rs0Jg
[2] http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=4924113

Dear Google,

When you give me the option to turn on Buzz and I say, "No", that doesn't mean, "please turn it on anyway in case I change my mind". It means, "N way in hell am I giving you any more of my personal information". Don't you have enough of it anyway?

Also: opt-out mechanisms are not the same as getting real consent. It's really quite as easy concept to grasp - why does it elude you? I'm happy to come over and explain it to you. Lord knows I've spent the last 2 years explaining privacy practices that go beyond "mere compliance" to a wide variety of people. I'm sure I could clear up any confusions you're having.

Regards,
nquisitor

Cattell's 16 Factor Key

Factor	low score	high score
Warmth	cold, selfish	supportive, comforting
Intellect	instinctive, unstable	cerebral, analytical
Emotional Stability	irritable, moody	level headed, calm
Aggressiveness	modest, docile	controlling, tough
Liveliness	somber, restrained	wild, fun loving
Dutifulness	untraditional, rebellious	conforming, traditional
Social Assertiveness	shy, withdrawn	uninhibited, bold
Sensitivity	coarse, tough	touchy, soft
Paranoia	trusting, easy going	wary, suspicious
Abstractness	practical, regular	strange, imaginative
Introversion	open, friendly	private, quiet
Anxiety	confident, self assured	fearful, self-doubting
Openmindedness	closeminded, set-in-ways	curious, exploratory
Independence	outgoing, social	loner, craves solitude
Perfectionism	disorganized, messy	orderly, thorough
Tension	relaxed, cool	stressed, unsatisfied

Or read it below:
[http://www.nypost.com/seven/08012009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/why_everything_sucks_182513.htm]

I've figured it out. I've figured it out.

What? Everything. Why everything sucks.

Here's why. In the 1950s, late '50s, early '60s, a bunch of advertising guys got together on Madison Avenue and decided to try to sell products to younger people. We should try to sell to younger people because then they will buy things their whole lives. We'll try to sell them soft drinks, or bread, or cigars -- or whatever the hell they were trying to sell them. It was just an advertising thing, they didn't mean any harm by it, just a bit of market research.

So they told the television companies, and the movie companies, and the record companies -- and everybody started targeting the youth. Because the youth was the place where you were going to be able to sell things.

What happened was, in a strange kind of quirk of fate, youth began to be celebrated by society. This was in a way that it had never been at any time in human history. What used to be celebrated was experience, and cleverness. But what became valuable was youth -- and the quality of youth was being a consumer.

I know what you're thinking, you're saying "but wait a minute, Craig, in Ancient Greece they deified youth." No they didn't. They deified beauty. Different.

What happened is youth became more important and became more important. Society started to turn on its head. Because youth has a byproduct -- inexperience. By the nature of youth you don't have any experience. It's not your fault. You're just kind of stupid.

So the deification of youth evolved, and turned into the deification of imbecility. It became fashionable to be young and to be stupid. And that grew, and that grew, and that grew, and now that's what all the kids want to be. "I just want to be young and stupid!" But you know what? That's not what you want to be. You do not want to be young and stupid.

Then what happened is that people were frightened to not be young. They started dyeing their hair, they started mutilating their faces and their bodies in order to look young. But you can't be young forever, that's against the laws of the universe.

All of these horrible trends, all these terrible movements. Nobody meant it. Nobody meant any harm. But now we're in this terrible place where we have the f#@%ing Jonas Brothers!

"Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.

The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie...

Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film."


There are some wonderful people working in that company...

David Eddings died.

 And now David Carradine's died too (source).