Snippets from May - June 2014

 

Some people live a nothing life; the most important thing they ever do is die.

Spike Milligan, 1971. Adolf Hitler, My Part in his Downfall

6 June 2014

16 Years

16 years seems like a hell of a long time, and it's more time than 1/4 of the world's population has been alive.

Yet, the old expression "Time flies when you're having fun" can also apply, and 16 years can seem like a very short time if it's been a good 16 years.

Now, I've been married a time or two. Three times to be precise.

I first got married at age 19, to a 17-year old. The only reason marriage at that age even reared its ugly head was because the girl's father was a shithead of the highest order who refused to let his daughter sleep with a bloke unless she was married to him. The irony in him having sexually abused his daughter during her childhood did not become apparent until later, and he's the type of animal who makes me wish there really were a Hell.

That marriage unsurprisingly lasted all of two years. What would you expect when two mixed-up kids get married?

My second marriage was just a mistake, but thanks to us having shared a child - who is now a grown man and top bloke - it wasn't entirely negative.

At the time the woman who was to become my third - and last - wife moved in with me 18 years ago, my [2nd] ex made a snarky comment about "Third time lucky?" As it happens, she was right.

Since getting married, we have shared more ups and downs than most couples would ever dream possible, yet 16 years after our wedding, we're still desperately and deeply in love. It is extremely rare that we share anything remotely approaching a harsh word, and not because either of us is dominated or domineering, but because we like and respect each other.

There must be other marriages as equal, sharing and fun as ours, but I believe they're a small minority of all married couples.

Unlike most couples, we enjoy each other's company to the extent that we are able to spend 24 hours a day together, sharing thoughts and feelings. (and lots of wickedly hot sex) Most couples would never choose to spend all day together, because they fear that familiarity will breed contempt and in most cases, that is probably true.

In our case, we both feel that we'd much rather spend the time together than with people we don't have the same regard for. Quite why anyone would prefer to spend time with other people than their spouse beats the hell out of us, but that's just us, I guess.

16 years ago today, we sprung our wedding on our family. They thought they were being invited out for a nice dinner, and knew nothing of the fact that it was actually to be our wedding until the celebrant turned up and told them.

Since that day, many things have remained constant, especially one key part: no matter what the world throws at us, we face it together.

And always will.

4 June 2014

Rrrrugby!

The very first rugby I took any notice of was the 1970 tour to South Africa, when I was 11 years old. My heroes were Colin Meads and Brian Williams and I got up each game night with my dad to listen to radio commentary from SA.

Back in those far-off days, a rugby tour lasted a little over three months, comprising 26 games played at a rate of two each week. Despite the incredibly arduous task of playing at least 13 games in 13 weeks, we took a touring party of 30 players only, which was the maximum allowed by the IRB, which set fairly tough rules for touring teams.

Along with the 30 players, the All Blacks had one coach and one manager in support staff. No doctor, no water-boys, no physiotherapists, and absolutely no psychologists.

I have laughed out loud in the past when I heard that several touring teams too more support staff than players, but the ultimate was the one I heard this morning as the upcoming England tests were being discussed.

In the 1970s, we were allowed to take a maximum of 23 players for short tours - that is a tour made up of 7-12 games.

England have brought 46 players for two games.

Yes, 46 players to play 160 minutes of rugby. Along with that, they have a support crew of dozens: masseurs, physiotherapists, doctor, psychologist, baggage handlers, managers and various coaches for scrum, lineout, backs, forwards, attack, defence, and probably how to chat up the local shielas.

This is why I nowadays take no interest whatsoever in rugby.

Up until the 1990s, rugby was an amateur game, yet the players were far more professional than in the current "professional" era. They didn't need to have minders, helpers and hangers-on - they took responsibility for themselves and aside from the Keith Murdoch travesty, no trouble was ever reported.

Now, we have a bunch of cosseted poofs who wouldn't know what a real job or 40 hours work feels like. They earn shitloads of money, but have no balls or character. They are lionised by the media and supporters, but have to have their hand held when they go to the pub. They are told what to eat and could not butter toast adequately.

As I've said before, my wife made the comment in 1995, when rugby went pro, that it would spell the end of rugby as we know it, and in days where lineout jumpers have to be lifted, scrums have to be re-set 20 times and referees have to coach players as they play, there is no doubt she was correct.

Rugby has become a parody of itself, with actual play taking up only 45 minutes of an "80-minute game" and when they do play, the congestion of forwards standing in a line across the field makes for a game that looks like an average game of league, instead of the combination of chess and open warfare we used to see.

The only small light on the horizon is that the paying public are waking up to the joke that is rugby and crowds are abysmally small and shrinking.

Long may that continue - why anyone would pay to watch such an idiotic game defeats me.
 

Wisdom

29 may 2014

This is a man who knows where his towel is.

28 May 2014

Terrestrial world

thermostat lying ruined

infested by man
 

26 may 2014

Herald gets one in!

It's not often these days that NZ Herald manages to hit the nail firmly on the head.

Paul Little has done just that, with an attack on drone attacks. No surprise I'd be a fan as he covers much the same ground I have a few posts back.

Brilliant: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11261176

24 May 2014

Riddle me this:

If you have a choice between paying $2-79/kg for a product or $19.88 for a product that isn't actually as good as the cheaper one, why would you pay the extra $17/kg?

I have long wondered why cat owners are so gullible. It can't be the toxoplasmosis, because the same trait affects many dog owners, too.

Companies use advertising to suggest that your pet will love you more if you give it the expensive food. This is wrong. Cats in particular have no sense of taste and would just as soon eat the $2 food as the $19. The funny part is that the $19 one is far worse for your cat than the $2-79 biscuits, because the biscuits help keep cats' teeth healthy, which soft food does not.

You know you're winning when you can sell an inferior product for almost ten times as much as your competitors - congratulations to the marketing guru who started up the idea of individual meals for cats!
 

I just posted on Facebook!

23 May 2014

Which is a rarity for me, but it goes with the previous blog entry, so I thought I'd post it here as well:

The sky hasn't fallen, but the near-impossible has.

After taking the Greens to task for their politics since their commencement, I find myself joining them, and it's not just a case of the enemy of my enemy must be my friend.

What has happened is that we now have a government which supports the obscene abuses of human rights. The killing by drone, the GCSB, the Kim Dotcom case... the list of goverment abuses of human rights, and support for human rights abusers is the final nail in my conversion to Green.

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