Friday I'm in love

The girl who I was dating when the above Cure song was released hated it. Its not my favourite Cure song I admit, but clearly we weren't meant to be. I'm only using it because it is Friday and as this is a multi headed post (Hydric? Hydratic?), no title will cover all bases. Although I have been listening to some Cure today.

ANZAC redux

Good summary of discussion of ANZAC day, and protest actions here (including me. Thanks Morgue, I think. I am in some very interesting company!), ranging from lucid to loony.

While I love the internet as a vehicle for free speech, I also love that I don't have to agree with it all.

I had a look at some of the protest viewpoints, but haven't changed my view of their protest. A lot of the arguments are only tenable within the context of certain agendas. I don't think attending a dawn service is in any way glorifying war or otherwise militaristic. I would argue the opposite. I don't buy the encouraging nationalism argument either. There is a myth making element to proceedings which I don't agree with, and I'd argue a lot of veterans wouldn't agree with if asked (all of the veterans I have met are very ordinary people who were involved in extraordinary circumstances, and will often express that). I don't like the extensive repetition of two stanzas of "The Fallen", particularly the "stauch to the end" and "fell with their faces to the foe" references, which I don't think are entirely honest, unless in some participatory metaphor sense (one of my dead cousins was shot by a sniper while returning from choir practice. Not especially heroic. It's a nice piece of prose though).

I find it slightly offensive that some commentators seem to think they know what my thoughts or my motivations are in supporting ANZAC day, and then adopt an air of intellectual superiority in decrying them. I am not going to quote specifics here, it is a general feeling I have after a few hours of rant perusal (I also feel that as a happily married, gainfully employed, mortgage paying middle class white male I am perceived as the enemy by some, and most things are my fault. But that is entirely an aside).

That's about as much political commentary as I am prepared to have on this blog. Others do it much better than I do, and I am not going to host the ranters and haters on my comments pages. I also don't fall into either the left or the right camps as I understand them, so don't have a particularly suitable codified viewpoint. I view things issue by issue. I don't have an agenda. I don't have time. I respect those who can find the time to totally define their view and promulgate it, but I am too busy getting on with my day to day life. Call me selfish or ignorant, but that is the way it is.

Wall 1, OB 0

Out of sheer frustration at a predicament I found myself in at work last night, which was not of my own making, I kicked a wall with my steelcap shod foot, hard. I think I sprained my ankle slightly, or at least bruised something, because there is ache and pain where there previously was not. Also wondering if I might have a slight anger management issue. I tend to lash out at inanimate unbreakable objects when really wound up.

Driving

The above is a mental conversation I often have when driving to work in the morning. The road north is very tempting sometimes.

To decompress after a difficult week or two at work, I used my post evening shift day off today to go for a drive. I left a lot later than I intended to, after being at work until 3am this morning. I like long drives. They clear my head, particularly on on the roads less travelled that I like to explore, meaning I have to switch off more and more of my cognitive brain to concentrate on being safe. I like driving, and think I am good at it (bearing in mind it is a known that drivers tend to overestimate their abilities). I am a very defensive driver, having firsthand experience of the results of aggressive habits.

I can also listen to good music. Today I listened the new Kings of Leon (sorry 2trees! No-one is the king of you!), the newish Twilight Singers, and a new comp I made, which was originally intended for the southern sojourn (Take note Rich and Stretch, I had you in mind when I originally compiled it), but was delayed because I couldn't find my A-ha CD, which had been misplaced when moving houses. The track list changed a little in the ensuing month until I figured out where the A-ha CD was, but not very much.

Tracks

1. Sweetness-Jimmy Eat World

2.Watching the wheels-John Lennon

3.Inside Track-Headless Chickens

4.Worlds Apart-Bruce Springsteen

5.System Virtue (radio edit)-Emma Paki

6.Growing on me-The Darkness

7.Lovesong-The Cure

8.Undone-Stellar

9.Carry on-Motorace

10.Burst-Breathe

11.The Sun Always Shines on T.V.- A-ha. Is it me or does the instrumental on this sound like house music, or at least what I think is House?. I am not an expert on dance and electronica but this song predates it by a few years.

12.Swimming in your Ocean-Crash Test Dummies

13.Long long way to go-Phil Collins

14.Close to me (closet re-mix)-The Cure

15.Twilite Kid-The Twilight Singers

16.Edge of Nowhere-Hunters and Collectors

17.I'm on Fire-Bruce Springsteen
18.Boys of Summer-Don Henley

I dropped in to the museum at Ohakea one last time before it gets closed, future uncertain, and briefly visited Palmy. I explored an old haunt at Raumati Beach as well.