Thought Provoking U2 Concert

We saw a fantastic live performance last night, the U2 360 Tour. For only $40 it was the best value for money Sunday afternoon I've probably ever experienced. The sound quality and visual effects were stunning, the stage resembled an alien craft and a moving set of interlocking circular LCD screens further heightened the likeness. Watching the visual onslaught, feeling the bass and Bono's voice vibrate in every cell I wondered what the next step in live concerts could possibly be. However my thoughts were quickly diverted from such materialistic ideas when the band spoke about their collusion with Amnesty International and the recent release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Burmese Democracy Movement who has been under house arrest since her party won 59% of votes in the 1990 general election. She was told by the military jung in power that if she left the country she would be freed, she never left. It warmed me considerably to see that U2 have used their star power and influence to help this woman and her country and left me feeling pretty guilty for my own self-serving existence.

Don't get me wrong I have good intentions and a world of sympathy for the down trodden, the starving, the sick, the orphaned and the persecuted. But I've never done anything for these people. Sure I've given some cash to those annoying people that stand in the middle of the shopping centre and sometimes thought guiltily that I ought to give up some of my time to be one, but principles, and work commitments prevent me from asking for money off complete strangers. I feel if people want to donate they will, in their own time and capacity and they will feel a greater sense of contribution than when an over eager fit and frenzied youth shakes a tin in their face. So what is there to do? I want to help, I really do but when I think about the world's many intricate problems, solutions aren't so simple, who would know where to begin? In these times of global financial crisis's how are governments supposed to help when they struggle just to help themselves. And at the end of the day whose responsibility is it anyway? There is a certain logical thought process that tells me these are issues far too big for my sphere of influence but simultaneously I feel a moral calling. Is it evolution and survival of the species which tells our primitive brain to aid our bretheren? Or a maternal instinct when I see a hungry child, alone and sad, and want to nurture and protect them? Interestingly whilst reading the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice I get the sense that they likewise explore this idea of moral responsibility.

Whatever the route cause may be I thank U2 for a wonderful concert and for shaking me out of a self-centered, financially focused mind-set, at least for a night. Next year is a world of opportunity and whilst attempting to put money away for the car and mortgage I promise to try harder at becoming an active member of the global community.

Maybe reading this book will help by giving me some direction? The Global Community by Jens Bartelson.

Good Advice

I recently received a very standard forwarded email chain claiming that Bill Gates gave a speech to a group of school students which included a series of life rules. Whether or not the source is correct each point struck a chord and lame as it may be to just paste it onto my blog I feel it is worth sharing. And yes I still haven't found time to do a proper post on our Bali adventures.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. 

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault , so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now... They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. 

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
 

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one! 

True Vampires?

For at least 8 months I've been casually looking in every book store I've happened across for a copy of 'Queen of the Damned' by Anne Rice with little success -apparently Dymocks aren't into stocking books that sell-out the day they're put on the shelves- so bit the bullet and ordered one. Now reading it every day is like a guilty pleasure.

 Just prior to the whole 'Twilight' hype I'd decided it was about time that I read the first really modern Vampire chronicles, additionally a friend with impeccable judgement said they were some of the best books she'd ever read and she's not alone. 

With this in mind I bought the first two, 'Interview with a Vampire' and 'The Vampire Lestat', with high expectations. Needless to say they went beyond satisfaction. The concepts and characters were so fantastical but at the same time completely human. The stories of the vampires, the outcasts, the lost souls, searching for definition and purpose in a world of ever changing values but consistent human nature. The moral dilemas of good vs evil and right vs wrong seemed to be analysed from every angle by the narrators many varied perspectives. Lestat the fearless brat prince reminded me of many young people I've met whose actions rebel against the imagined weight of the world on their shoulders.  And Louis, the conscious killer, trying to run from his nature, don't we all attempt to escape from the parts of ourselves we dislike or don't understand? I could go on, but you get the picture that these books invoked a lot of empathetic feelings in my own constantly searching soul. Through it all I thought to myself the woman who wrote these must be incredibly interesting, through her books she must have explored the ideas and found the answers. Before writing this I thought it due diligence to do a little bit of research and looked her up.

What I found could not have shocked me any more than discovering her books were non-fiction. She described the Vampire chronicles as an outlet of her own personal search and discovery of the love of Jesus Christ! It felt like I'd just heard that the world was actually flat, not round anymore. I was convinced that from the novels the author was anything but a god-fearing Christian, they seemed to defy organised religion and the fail-safe of heaven and hell. Perhaps my interpretation will now be tinged and my enjoyment lessened.

No more research! Should have just ranted about 'Twilight' as I initially intended. I intended to say that a recent cull of facebook friends was triggered when I got sick of people waxing on about it. In my more cynical moods I find it both laughable and horrifying that so many adults have been enthralled by poorly wirtten novels aimed at young teens. Immature in its story telling and progression and character development. This fellow blogger has summed up a review of Twilight's flaws very aptly. But after reading a couple of Anne Rice's chapters I'm too pleased to whinge overly much.....now to read some more. In case it's not obvious I highly recommend you read The Vampire Chronicles ;-)

Mining tragedy

Back from my holiday and on site completing some solo work all I've been hearing on the radio today is news regarding the 29 trapped -likely dead- miners in the Pike River Coal mine in NZ. It seems a gas explosion occured on Friday due to a deadly mix of methane and carbon monoxide released from a bore hole. Full Story. The gases prevented safe rescue of the poor fellows and with a second explosion today, more powerful than the first, they're presumed dead. My heart goes out to the families.

Wandering around the bush today I thought maybe I'd revise my plans to do some underground mine work in the future. Specially because compared to a dank dark tunnel there are many beautiful things to see on the surface, and no I'm not talking solely about pretty rocks. The West Australian bush is under-rated in my opinion. Tourists and many locals see the western beaches or the far southern forests and seem to forget the stuff in between, which might I add encompasses an area bigger than most European nations. It's not pretty in an ornamental sense and hasn't a particularly breath-taking landscape but I think it's existence alone worthy of respect. This winter local farmers in the eastern Wheatbelt received a mere 100mm of rain, well less than half the average. Yet the bush is full of trees, bushes and perennials. It's a wonder that anything survives in such harsh conditions, when it can be 46ᵒC for an entire week -this from first-hand experience- yet it flourishes as best it can. This combined with the plethora of prospecting 'trash' keep me on track when my goldfish brain needs 5 minutes of distraction. Here's some photo's I snapped today to share with the blog-o-sphere, welcome to my other office;

A pile of tinnies from those not very environmentally friendly prospectors, this patch has been worked since the 1920's so could be difficult to find the culprits.

A dumped car, not very interesting I guess but by the angles on the chrome bumper I'd say she'd be a good 50 years old.

A collapsed mine shaft, just a little one, this was worked up til 1924. Probably went down a good 20m, the ol boys would have climbed down there every day and worked with pick and muscle to get their gold.

There was water in bottom of this pit only a couple of months ago, I loved the crunching sound it made when I walked over this.

Welcome to the neighbourhood!

We have a new neighbour! Having grown up in a semi-rural area the whole concept of a neighbour who shares a wall with you is very foreign and can I stretch that to exciting? I couldn't resist popping over and completing the mandatory meet and greet. At least I assume it's mandatory. Anyway our new neighbour has purchased the unit as his first home, and dare I say his well rounded frame, glasses and dear mother indicate he will be approachable and quiet? We can only hope! I feel in this day and age -yes I realise the old before my time nature of this statement ^^ - it's sad that no-one knows their neighbours. They are more than just a free security system....if enabled I plan to be a very traditional neighbour! Better start stocking up on milk, sugar and eggs!

Apologies, prattling about the new resident of Unit 3 wasn't my intent in this post but work has been hectic, what with myself, fellow geo and fieldy all forgetting to sched in resulting in the local police taking a 200km late night sojourn and my Bali holiday coming up in.....4 sleeps!! So in short below is a video which I was saving for a piece -shock horror- about my cat but I couldn't resist sharing;

When did iPhones become compulsory?

On the train today I overheard an unsettling conversation...A professional looking woman of the Baby Boomer generation was enlightening her similar demographic friends about the wonders of the iphone. She spoke of how just now on the train she had checked facebook and left a message on her daughters page as if this action is such a common necessity of everyday life that the ability of the iphone to accomplish this makes it more than a mere accessory, rather an essential tool of 21st century life.

I'm aware that most people find iphones and their ilk extremely useful but I'm not sold and I only assumed that neither were my more stubborn elders. Don't get me wrong I have a mobile phone, portable music player, external hard-drive etc. and the idea to combine the three is very efficient, there's no doubting the cleverness of today's technology. What I take issue with is the need to have these devices with us at every waking moment. Here's a cartoon that expresses my distaste for all the 'gadgets' that come with it....

So lame!
I mean honestly if I'm going somewhere I check the map beforehand, if I get lost I can ring someone or ask for directions, not terribly inconvenient. I don't need to play 'air' hockey, pinball, darts or bomber challenge on the train, I'm quite happy reading my book thank you. I could go on but I don't want to disparage those that do enjoy everything these interactive phones have to offer. In closing I am not easily bought by cheap tricks. 

My parents like good Baby Boomers aren't very good with technology and my dad has recently taken to saying that he's read scientific reports hinting that mobile phones will be the cigarettes of our century. Maybe he's watched The X-Files too often and he sees conspiracy where there is none, but I don't really believe that. All those microwaves going through your brain have to have some kind of negative effect, the levels produced by mobile phones aren't natural in the least. Is there a giant cover-up going on? But as the cartoon below quite adeptly points out, who's going to stop using them? My old housemate couldn't survive 5 min without his, we used to have great fun hiding it until we saw how distressed he got after just 20 min. And I admit, not without some guilt mind, I wouldn't throw mine away in a hurry, although meaningless as it sounds I put people on speaker phone as often as possible thinking this makes a difference.

And final food for thought here is a picture from Swiss research which apparently shows how the radiation produced by mobiles affects the brain.

Call it 3:30-itis

"The best way to enjoy your job is to imagine yourself without one"

-Oscar Wilde

I think in this instance I'd have to disagree with Wilde, I think if people took his advice they wouldn't go to work on Mondays, they'd go surfing every day and apply for the Dole. I love the outdoors nature of my job, sure you're dirty and exhausted by the end of the day but it always feels like a worthwhile expenditure of effort. However when we're not in the field I sit in an office from 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. It's terribly pathetic of me, considering I've only had this 'office-based' job for 6 months but I already can't stand the monotomy of dragging my butt all the way to Perth every morning. Imagining myself not having to do this would be like imagining chocolate makes a woman thin. It doesn't, this kind of thought process would only result in me getting fat from being un-employed and eating chocolate all day.

The word 'office' stems from the Latin word Officium which had various meanings in Ancient Rome, including "service", "(sense of) duty", "courtesy" and "ceremony". If these defintitions are supposed to apply to todays office environment I feel they're sadly lacking. My sense of duty extends to having my lunch in front of the computer screen every second day, I like to think I'm convincing my collegues that I'm efficiently working and eating but really I'm just browsing anything that takes my fancy. During lunch 'break' today I compiled a list I feel like sharing.

Things I Loathe about the Office;

1. The temperature is always sub-zero so you have to literally wear a jumper and scarf in the office then sweat through every layer of clothing as you leave the building to buy some lunch.
2. Being West Perth where secretaries look like models I can't wear comfortable, sensible converse sneakers instead I must wear womens 'court' shoes, surely designed by Chinese men they create blisters on blisters and have a habit of slipping off at the most inconvenient moments eg. as I'm jay-walking across traffic or walking in front of the bosses office.
3. There are only 6 people in our office so the near un-bearable silence sets my nerves on edge all day.
4. There are no open windows, air is circulated via a large air conditioning system which leaves your skin dry and oily simultaneously and makes me paranoid about Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) or the T-virus being released in our building.
5. My office tasks are so boring, repetitive, mundane, mind-numbing and of such little import I feel like asking my boss if they wouldn't prefer a monkey.
6. Despite the apparent silence or maybe because of it office politics is like an ongoing season of Survivor.
7. My neck and back ache from constantly vegetating in the office chair, sometimes I wonder how long I'd need to sit there before my buttock molded with the furniture?
8. The cookie jar! How it jeers at me every time I make a cup of tea and through a mighty strength of will resist sampling it's sweet contents.
9. And finally the futility of looking forward to 5pm because let's face it, tomorrow morning I have to get up and repeat the same process.

"Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

Now this sounds more like it. Sitting in an office all day feels like a fermentation process. I think of all the things I could be doing and learning, why shouldn't I read more classics and finish some art and craft. These skills are being neglected. My health is being neglected. In March this year the Sydney Morning Herald released an article that said;

"Evidence that sitting for prolonged periods of time is bad for your health is mounting. It has now been linked to premature death, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and some cancers."

Whilst an article in the UK Telegraph a couple of years ago stated;

"Workers (in the UK) spend almost 60,000 hours sitting at their office desk during their career, drink 32,000 cups of tea or coffee and make 110,000 phone calls"

Well apparently everything causes cancer these days but the others are worrying. Maybe I am just a complaining worry wart and should learn to build a bridge, at least I have a job! Now I've all those moral-crushing feelings out in the blog-o-sphere I'll endevour to stop brooding on them. Thank you blogger!

Fine and dandy...

And just what is a dandy I hear you ask? Not to be confused with rakehells and bounders of popular romantic fiction the term 'dandy' originated as a vogue word during the Napoleonic Wars and persisted through to the 20th century. A dandy was always immaculately dressed but their 'image' was more than just clothes, their wit and fine language was refined, they cultivated fashionable hobbies and rejected bourgeois (loosely wealthy classes in capitalist society eg. owners & employers) values. A dandies clothes were always freshly laundered and tailor made to fit perfectly. When composing an outfit effort was made to show as much perfectly starched linen as possible, often in the form of an elaborately knotted cravat. The dandy himself was immaculately bathed and shaved, un-powdered and un-perfumed. Maybe that's why they had to change their snug outfits so often?

The most famous British dandy was the celebrity Beau Brummell (George Byran Brummell, 1778-1840). Part of the prince regents' set it has been written that he once took 5 hours to get dressed and would often change his outfit several times a day. A lot like my 19 year old boarder. In contrast to previous fashions of powdered wigs and loose breeches Brummell introduced snugly tailored dark 'pantaloons', essentially the modern trouser which has been the mainstay of men's wear for the last 2 centuries, and cut his hair short in the Roman fashion now associated with Romantic era poets. In fact Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron) occasionally dressed the part of a dandy and his friend Count d'Orsay (Alfred Guilluame Gabriel d'Orsay) was a great dandy in the 1940's. The french King of Naples, Joachim Murat, was dubbed the 'Dandy King' because of his immaculate image.

The 'Dandy King'

Charles Baudelaire wrote that an aspiring dandy must have "no profession other than elegance. . . no other status but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons. . . . The dandy must aspire to be sublime without interruption; he must live and sleep before a mirror". So now I've bored you with these common facts do they sound familiar? Certainly the fashion plates for the 2009 and 2010 winters show a reinvention of the dandy dress (minus the cravat unfortunately) but what of the social component of the dandy image? When I'm sitting on the train trying to read my book and ignore the people crammed together during the 5pm rush I can't help but listen to conversations and there seems to me to be an increasing trend in the appreciation of wit and good language in groups of young individuals. There's a sense that 'good' conversation is the height of enjoyment for the listener and achievement for the speaker. Perhaps this is related to the recent trendiness of reading or the need to express individuality or I've gone mad from over analysing everything. All I know is that my young male ex-boarder used more hair product and devices than me, often taking more than 30 min to 'arrange' it in a loosely tousled fashion which in my opinion looked no different from when he woke up that morning and was known to come home half way through a night out to change his outfit. Maybe it is just a dress fashion and a darned good one ;-)

Uplift Me

Ok, deep breathe, here comes my very first blog message. Actually now I've started it's not so terrifying, I suppose having a hand-written journal makes me adept at writing to a figment of my imagination. This first post may seem like a mess of meandering thoughts and as I've no exact plan for the blog it will likely follow the same template but please I beg you to stay with me, if you can.

In essence I would like to share my thoughts and observations with you and gather feedback on ideas. And here is my first idea, uplifting prose.

Yesterday (being a Tuesday) I was feeling a little bit lonely and a lot bored, the silence of the office -with the exception of the numerous angry blowflies- sat like a great weight around my brain. So I decided to look for an uplifting song. Into youtube -that wondrous place- I entered "raise me up". The search engine returned Rabbit Heart (Raise me up) by Florence and the Machines. Now I know this may be old news -try as I might I don't often listen to the radio- but this song delivered exactly as titled and I feel it'll be on my music player for a very long time. In fact the whole album 'Lungs' is very uplifting.

Listening to this song got me thinking about other such songs and I had a sudden hankering to hear the Sunscreen song. Now for those who haven't heard it before, listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI

For those who have, listen to it again anyway, refresh your tired memory.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '99, if I could offer you only 1 tip for the future sunscreen would be it....."

Such a simple beginning to an essay that with its basic and heartfelt advice will put a smile on anyone's face. It was written in 1997 by a Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribute and put to music by Baz Luhrmann in 1999 -yes the very same director who brought us such movies as Romeo & Juliet, Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge-. I find it moving because I think everyone can relate to it as true and therefore good advice. Do you share this interpretation?

Another uplifting essay that most people have come across in their life journeys is Desiderata. Latin for 'Desired Things' this simple prose written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920's or attributed to the Old St Pauls Church in 1692 -which ever explanation you believe, though for the record I think it was Max- has long lived on the backs of toilet doors. I remember dismissing it as a child because I associated it with the church but as a teenager this calm advice became my mantra. For those who haven't seen it before, read:

http://www.fleurdelis.com/desidera.html

So what is it about simple inevitable truths that most people find so comforting and uplifting? Does it give relief by taking your mind of your own troubles for those brief moments? Does it give you a sense of camaraderie with the rest of the world by understanding that the advice applicable to you is also relevant to others and therefore perhaps you are not so alone or different as you think? As hard as things may seem you are not the only one enduring it? Or is it the manner in which it's presented? Neither essays give a sense of arrogance or cynicism. Max Ehrmann is quoted to have written in a diary, "I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift -- a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods". Whether it is none or all of these factors which allow the words to raise my spirits I'm not sure, perhaps you are, it is enough that today I am eternally grateful for everything I have and have had in life.

Thankyou,