Rambler

Listening to: Blue Sky Mining- Midnight Oil. Underrated follow up to the huge Diesel and Dust, this release saw the Oils move further away from their post punk origins, and try a few new things. When you listen to the earlier Oil's stuff, you can hear that Dust was quite a change in sound, and Mining went further down that road. Being the follow up to a huge success, it was a pressurised recording, and doesn't always work, but as with a lot of their work, the really good stuff isn't the singles, but buried in the album tracks.

Almost ten days since my last post. Not the longest absence (which I think is somewhere around 14 days), but enough to give me the guilts about not updating the thing. The last post incidentally confirmed a suspicion I have had for some time that I have people who read this that never comment (for various reasons, probably not least of which are my troll discouraging comment settings, which unfortunately bar casual commenters as well.

The absence is down to two things. Been busy, and trying to go to bed at sensible hours. Busy with socialising, modelling, sporting, working chillaxing etc. Noticed that even though I am not getting up to do the feed at 3am, my sleep still gets disturbed, hence the emphasis on sensible sleeping hours. Since most of my best writing is done after 10pm, naturally this is an impedance.

I also never seem to have enough time in the day to do all the things I want to do. Work, watch the news, hang out with the babe, play some sport, make some models etc etc. And those are just my hobbies (babe excepted, she is more of a vocation).

The other reason is that I haven't really had anything to blog about in the last week. Some of you might say "But you have a new child, that must provide oodles of material', and she does, but I don't want to turn this into a "my baby is the cutest/smartest/funniest" in the world blogs. She happens to be all of those things in my world, but I don't want to inflict that particular flavour on the dear reader at the moment. I am enjoying being a father, even if most of the time I feel hopelessly incompetent at it. It has its moments, and I often think back to the times a while ago when I worried about ever finding a partner, or ever being able to pass on my family name.

Being aware of the irony that I am currently blogging about not blogging, what can I blog about?

-I could rant about 'Everybody loves Raymond' replacing 'The Simpsons' at 5pm weeknights on TV3. Even if repeated ad nauseam, it is still nice to come home from work and chillax for half an hour with a favourite show, which 'Raymond' is most certainly not. It embodies everything I hate about american sitcoms. Ultra conservative (note that no character has sideburns. Small point but telling), and too guaranteed not to offend anybody. Everyones hair is perfectly styled, clothes spotless. And the kitchen is ugly ugly ugly. While it garnered numerous Emmys, I can't find anyone in my immediate circle who will admit to 'loving Raymond', hence don't understand its popularity.

-I could rant about the hating on John Key. I didn't vote for the guy either, but am over the incessant negativity about him from some quarters, some of it quite petty and childish. Constructive criticism is one thing, but unmoderated vitriol gets old, and puts people off message.

-I could rant about stupid drivers, which I have done before, and probably will again. Like the one who almost caused a pile up on the motorway on Tuesday morning in the rain. I was only doing 80 due to the heavy rain, and being tailgated by someone who obviously thought I should ignore the conditions and go faster. When I gently braked to intercept a slow line of traffic ahead, I looked up to find a mirror rapidly filling with car with nowhere to go. Still braking I moved to the right of my lane, while the fidiot moved left, missing me by about a metre. The fidiot then had the audacity to give me a toot like I had done something wrong. Fidiot.
Just like it seems practically everyone who can't see the 70 and 50 kph limit signs when driving through the constructions at Maungaraki. Honestly, I feel like the only one who bothers, since when I stick to the posted limit in these areas, I instantly generate a queue of tailgaters, combined with people zooming past me like the limit doesn't apply to them.
What is it with drivers in this country, that when temporary changes to speed limits (or less than temporary, these signs have been in situ for months) occur, they simply can't cope. Driving is treated too much as a right in this country rather than the privilege it should be.

-I could rant about txt english, and how much I hate it. I can live with it in text messaging, but anywhere else it is just annoying and lazy. Formal written english (which I think I am fairly fluent in) is almost a separate language from vernacular english anyway, but my concern is we are raising a generation of people to whom correct and competent written english is a foreign language. This was illustrated to me by a couple of high school kids who recently began posting on a forum I frequent. It's great that they are engaging in this way, but disappointing in that they demonstrably cannot type coherent english. I'm not talking about mere txt speak, I'm talking about complete incompetence, requiring several reads aloud to be understood. It's depressing that they can't even be bothered to proof read what they are writing, let alone write it correctly in the first place. I worry for these guys when it comes to writing covering letters.

-I could rant about players who feel the need to coach their teams loudly and precisely on court during the game. You're not big, you're not clever, and even your own teams want you to shut the hell up.

-On a similar note, I could rant about how I seem to have gone from really good form to not quite so good in my own game at the moment. Sometimes I feel like a really, really good player, other times like tonight I feel quite rubbish. Frustrating, as is the continual soul searching about whether team mates think I am playing well or not.

-Alternatively, I could not rant, and talk about how much I love summer. Summer is nice.

-I could not rant and talk about how cool my wife is for completing a Triathlon less than three months after having a baby.

-I could not rant and talk about how happy I am that Real Groovy survived its brush with receivership. Their new CD's may have been overpriced, their staff sometimes too cool for school, but nobody does sales bins like they do.

-Christmas is coming. I am looking forward to the break (which I will get this year, unlike last year when I was working in a stupid job), but haven't done any shopping yet. However my annual challenge to get through the season without once hearing 'Snoopy's Christmas' is going well.

Right that's enough. Now engaging the sensible bedtime option.