Attack of the Australian nanny state – Part 3

Posted on 21 May 2011 by blackandblueman

Previous installments in this series:
Part 1
Part 2

As I mentioned at the end of Part 2, my plan was to write to Event Cinemas and ask if they had a policy in place that prevented individuals from buying more than one (1) ticket to films rated MA15+.

I haven’t written to them yet – but earlier this week, when my friend and I agreed to see the MA15+ fantasy comedy Your Highness, I decided to conduct an experiment.

So last Tuesday evening, several hours before the late-night session we’d planned to attend, I did the following:

  1. I entered Event Cinemas on George Street here in Sydney
  2. I joined the queue at the ticket office
  3. I looked around to see if the young man who’d served me when I’d tried to buy tickets for Paul was around, but he wasn’t
  4. I eventually moved to the head of the queue and was called by the next available ticket-seller, who was also a young man
  5. I asked for three (3) tickets to the late session of Your Highness

The young man did the following:

  1. He said “Certainly!” or “Sure!” (I’m afraid I can’t remember which)
  2. He asked whereabouts I’d like to sit in the cinema (I chose the back)
  3. He handed me three (3) tickets after I’d handed over sufficient cash to pay for them, and wished me a good night (I did the same in return)

Interesting.

An hour or so later when my friend arrived at Star Bar to join me for dinner, I presented the results of my experience and he was similarly intrigued.

What did those results mean?

  1. Has Event Cinemas recently abandoned a policy that prevented individuals from buying more than one (1) ticket to MA15+ films?
  2. Is such a policy still in place – but has there been a process failure in keeping all staff informed?
  3. Did I come across as very alpha and not to be trifled with, and so the policy was waived for my situation?

1 is not impossible but rather unlikely, and 3 is very unlikely, so I favour 2.

Whatever the reason, I now have something more to add into my eventual query to Event Cinemas.

And Your Highness was stupid good fun – especially if you’re a former role-player like me, as several moments in the film reminded me of game incidents where character decisions, dice-rolls or both went unexpectedly well or catastrophically wrong.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action, Life Challenges | 1 Comment

The Black and Blue Ghost: Introduction (to a semi-regular series)

Posted on 15 May 2011 by blackandblueman

Recently at his blog The Unambitious Male, Workshy Joe published an interesting and thought-provoking series of posts that was prompted by a reader’s request to “write about the MGTOW”.

For the unfamiliar, MGTOW is short for Men Going Their Own Way, a term used in conjunction with men’s issues and men’s rights activism. Like many terms, MGTOW has different shades of meaning to different people, but in general it refers to men who (for a variety of reasons) opt out of “traditional lifestyle” choices in the Western world – and especially choose not to get married, either again or at all (for more information, the definition of MGTOW at Urban Dictionary is a good place to start).

A term related to MGTOW is “going ghost”, hence the title of Workshy Joe’s series ‘Men Who Go Ghost’. Like MGTOW it can have different shades of meaning, but overall going ghost describes men who (for a variety of reasons) decide to very much go it alone in life, and in particular without intimate long-term relationships with women.

Both MGTOW and going ghost could also be regarded as new variants of the older terms “confirmed bachelor” or “lifelong bachelor”.

As I mentioned earlier, I found ‘Men Who Go Ghost’ very interesting and thought-provoking, but not because I now suddenly want to go my own way or go ghost.

It’s because I’ve already been living like that for most of my life.

*

At first, I was going to write one post in response to ‘Men Who Go Ghost’ – but because Workshy Joe covered lots of compelling ground in each of his posts, instead I’ve decided to write my own series of posts that will parallel his.

So, if you liked ‘Men Who Go Ghost’ (and if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend doing so), and if you’re interested in reading about this particular ghost’s story, stay tuned.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in My Story | 5 Comments

Kindle, again

Posted on 8 May 2011 by blackandblueman

(Continued from this previous entry)

It’s been just over a week since I began using my Amazon Kindle.

And already, my life has changed in several ways.

*

The first ebook I purchased and read on my Kindle was Andrew D. Blechman’s Leisureville. It was a great read – hilarious, mind-boggling, moving and thought-provoking – and a great way to begin my Kindle experience.

And maybe it was partly or wholly because of Leisureville, but as I ploughed my way through it, something that Roosh mentioned in his post about his Kindle once again came to mind – he found that he could now read faster.

I was starting to feel the same way as well.

After I finished Leisureville, I moved on to Blake Crouch’s horror novel Run, my second Kindle purchase. Alas, after a promising start Run soon disappointed me and I stopped reading it (David Moody’s Hater, which Run had reminded me of, is much more grim, intense and startling) – but despite that, it had also felt like I’d been racing through Run.

And it wasn’t only because the Kindle is easier to handle and use than a book – especially where turning pages is now replaced by clicking buttons. I also found that the screen area, which is slightly smaller than a paperback’s page, improved reading focus – less text meant greater concentration.

Interesting.

*

I eat out most nights, and when I do I often like to read at the same time.

Unfortunately, because I’m very OCD about keeping books in as immaculate condition as possible (especially brand-new ones – and I hate creased spines), sometimes I make a ridiculous ordeal of reading while eating. While one hand is lifting food or drink to my mouth, the other hand is holding a book and trying not to crease the spine, or dent the cover, or bend pages while turning them, or get the book stained if food or drink suddenly splatters, or all of the above, damn it…

With the Kindle, though, I can easily hold it up closer to my face or prop it upright against something, and just press buttons.

Propping it upright has become the preferred method, and although I usually have something else at hand for a prop I’ve been thinking of some sort of stand. There are specific Kindle stands from Amazon, but I’ve also been looking locally for ersatz solutions – and that included my first-ever visit to Sydney’s flagship Apple store, which like IKEA is somehow always crowded with people.

Even Apple accessories aren’t cheap, but even they look pretty good. I may return there.

*

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was especially amazed at how cheap Amazon ebooks are compared to books sold in local stores.

And almost every day as last week progressed, I was still finding myself amazed.

I haven’t gone on an ebook-buying spree – yet – and I still enjoy visiting local bookstores, but I’ve found that if I mentally noted the price of a new book that looked interesting and later checked for an available ebook edition on Amazon, in most cases I would save up to $20 each time if I bought the ebook.

Staggering.

By the end of the week, I’d developed a new habit when visiting bookstores – whipping out a notepad and writing down lists of titles to later investigate at Amazon and, if they were available Down Under as ebooks, add them to my wish-list.

Which keeps growing. And growing.

*

I own large paperback copies of two long novels – Jonathan Littell’s controversial historical epic The Kindly Ones and Justin Cronin’s bestselling post-apocalypse saga The Passage.

I haven’t yet read either of them, though, because of their physical size – they’re each about as thick as a telephone book.. I do most of my reading away from home, but either of them would be a bastard to lug around – and at home I do most of my reading lying down in bed, so holding them aloft or while on my side wouldn’t be very enjoyable.

The other night, though, I was looking at my copy of The Kindly Ones where it currently sits within a stack of books, and I realised how I could finally start reading it with much less hassle…

…so, sometime in the near future, The Kindly Ones and The Passage may become my first books to be replaced on the Kindle.

*

For the past year or so, I had already bought a few ebooks on my PC, and I had also downloaded a few free ebooks here and there – but they had all sat on my PC either little read or not read at all,

The other night, I moved most of these ebooks onto the Kindle, but in PDF they don’t look all that great – so I downloaded Calibre, test-converted one of the PDFs, and was very impressed.

Now I’ll finally be reading those ebooks.

*

My third purchase for the Kindle was Timothy D. Snyder’s Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, which cost less than $9.99.

Now that Calibre has opened up more possibilities, I decided to see what ebooks were available locally and how they compared in price so if I couldn’t find them on Amazon, I could perhaps buy local and convert them.

So I moseyed on over to Borders Australia online, and as a test did a search for an ebook edition of Bloodlands.

I was expecting a local ebook to cost a little more than something from Amazon…

…but $24.95 for a PDF?!?

Fuck off!

*

Next weekend, I may be staying in a hotel for two nights.

One thing I like the most about staying at hotels is that while there I do a lot of reading.

And now I can get even more done at much less expense and with much greater ease.

So now I’m hoping even more that I’ll be able to hotel it next weekend.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action, Bibliophilia, Gratitude, Happiness, Inspiration, Life is Good, Life Strategies, Reading | 3 Comments

Attack of the Australian nanny state – Part 2

Posted on 7 May 2011 by blackandblueman

(Continued from this previous entry)

Classification, the Australian Government department that looks after media classification, were as good as their word – within 20 days of my emailing them, they sent a reply.

And what they had to say was very interesting.

First, the officer who wrote to me mentioned the Classification Liaison Scheme (CLS), “a joint State, Territory and Australian Government initiative aimed at improving compliance with classification laws”. In brief, the CLS “is intended to assist retailers and distributors of publications, films (including videos and DVDs) and computer games to comply with their legal obligations under the National Classification Scheme” (for more information, go here).

Second, and most interesting of all, the officer had this to say:

“…each cinema or cinema chain can implement policies with regard to how tickets are sold and proof of age requirements.”

So perhaps a specific government law wasn’t responsible for my frustration that night – but instead, it was perhaps a policy by Event Cinemas?

Next step – I’ll write to Event Cinemas for more information.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action | 2 Comments

Kindle

Posted on 1 May 2011 by blackandblueman

Late night, Thursday, 21 April 2011.

The Australian dollar had reached $1.07 against the US dollar.

Thanks to my employer’s foresight, I’d gotten next week’s pay five days earlier than normal to avoid the banking chaos predicted for next week with the back-to-back Easter Monday and Anzac Day public holidays.

No major expenses were looming.

So I wandered over to a certain website and yet again considered a product I’d been mulling over for the previous few months.

I mulled over it yet again – and finally, I decided to take the risk because now was as good a time as any.

So, much earlier than I thought I would – “later this year” had been the vague notion for the past few months – I bought an Amazon Kindle.

*

For years I’d considered buying an ebook reader, but lately I’d been thinking about it more and more because of factors like better technology, changing life experiences and my 10-Year Plan.

All my life I’ve loved books, and along with food they’re what I purchase the most. If you were ever under threat from me – which would be very unlikely, admittedly – the best way to distract me is point and cry, “Hey, look over there – a book-sale!” and make your escape.

But although one or two books are highly portable, hundreds or thousands are not – especially if you want to de-clutter your life and live in simpler circumstances.

As well, books can take up valuable space when travelling – and if you go to great book-selling cities like Canberra or Melbourne, and especially book-junkie paradises like Clouston and Hall Booksellers in Canberra, you often return with much more luggage than when you left.

Also, books in Australia are expensive for several reasons, and there are many interesting-looking foreign titles that never reach Down Under – which of course you can still order from overseas, but often the postage and handling costs are greater than the price of the book itself.

I don’t want to rid my life completely of books – some of them are golden oldies that may never ever have ebook editions, and there are the pleasant memories that their physical presence evokes (when and where I bought them, and – with the all-time favourites – that thrilling experience of the first read). I won’t ever stop buying them – but to save money and especially space, I must buy much less of them.

*

I first saw a Kindle in late 2009, and I was impressed – although at the time, the range of titles available to Australian readers was very poor (the person who owned that Kindle often sent hers to US friends who’d purchase ebooks with it on her behalf and mail it back). That limited range back then was a major factor why I didn’t think much about getting a Kindle or any other reader at the time.

When the Borders Kobo came along, I was quite tempted by that – and also by the iPad when it arrived, although for other reasons besides using it as a reader.

By early this year, I had decided that if or when I was in the position to do so, I would like to have both an iPad (desirable, but not essential) and a Kindle (essential) – but I didn’t really see myself obtaining a Kindle until at least “later this year”.

Even despite Roosh’s interesting post last month about his Kindle – and the accompanying hilarious video – I stayed in the mind-frame of “later this year”.

But that night back on 21 April, those several factors came together and the time became now.

*

It took less than a week for the Kindle to arrive from the US, but I didn’t take it out of its box until almost three days later.

That was because of yet another frantic work period – and as well, I knew that if I started playing with the Kindle during that time, I would get even less work done.

So I waited patiently until last night, Friday night, and finally out it came.

My OCD and anal-retentive self even enjoyed the efficient and sleek packaging that the Kindle came in, and that part of me wants to hang on to it – but, no, out it will go to the recycling bin. Yes…it will.

Soon, I had the Kindle up and running, and I returned to the wishlist that I had been assembling at Amazon.

I could have gone berserk there, but I didn’t.

I restricted myself to just two purchases. One of them was Blake Crouch’s intriguing-sounding horror novel Run, the premise of which reminds of David Moody’s gripping and unnerving Hater. As a paperback here in Australia, Run could have set me back more than $20 – but via Kindle, I paid only $2.77.

The other purchase was Andrew D. Blechman’s Leisureville, which I first learned about from an amusing interview with Blechman at James Howard Kunstler’s KunstlerCast. In an Australian bookshop, the paperback version would most likely be around $30 in price, and a few weeks ago local bookseller Dymocks had the paperback available online for $21 – but via Kindle, it was only $7.41.

I’m still amazed by those savings.

*

Shortly after my purchases, I gave the Kindle its first roadtest by reading Chapter 1 of Leisureville in one of my favourite reading locations. It worked fine.

But don’t worry – after completing my toilet, I washed my hands thoroughly (as my OCD self always does) before I picked up the Kindle again.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

UPDATE: My exciting adventures as a Kindle owner continue in this instalment

Posted in Action, Bibliophilia, Happiness, Life is Good, Life Strategies, Reading | 1 Comment

Attack of the Australian nanny state – Part 1 (the first in a semi-regular series)

Posted on 23 April 2011 by blackandblueman

Since late 2004, a friend and I have gone to the movies almost every week, and mostly at the Event Cinemas complex on George Street here in Sydney. We usually go on Tuesday nights when tickets are half-price.

During the past two years, Event Cinemas has introduced allocated seating. While this does have its advantages, like being (partly) able to choose where you’d like to sit, it also has its disadvantages – especially in the following situations:

  • Patrons are mostly assigned seats close together in the one area, so you often find yourself sitting next to strangers (as to why Event Cinemas does this, perhaps it’s to make cleaning easier after each session, with most of the rubbish concentrated in one area and therefore quicker to scoop up)
  • The movie you’re seeing is in one of the smaller and older cinemas with cramped seating, so (especially in packed sessions) you’re sitting right up against strangers

To alleviate this problem, my friend and I began buying tickets for three seats, with the third seat between us for extra space and somewhere to put our food and drink (and, also for my OCD self, my moist towelettes and rubbish bag).

The three-ticket solution turned out to be a success, and we use it whenever possible.

Earlier this week, however, I encountered a situation where, in some instances, my friend and I won’t be able to use the three-ticket solution.

And it’s not because of Event Cinemas.

It’s because of the law.

*

My friend lives about an hour away by train from George Street, whereas I’m only twenty minutes away by foot. Therefore, a few hours before our agreed session, I walk on down to Event Cinemas and purchase our tickets to guarantee our seats (especially for big movies) and avoid the late-evening queue (which sometimes stretches for a few hundred metres).

After I grab our tickets, I cross George Street to a restaurant-bar where from 6pm I meet my friend for dinner, and with our tickets already bought we can relax even more until the movie starts.

So, last Tuesday just after 5pm, I went into Event Cinemas to buy three tickets for the new science-fiction comedy Paul…

…but when I tried to do so, the courteous and polite young man who served me apologised and said that, by law, he couldn’t sell those three tickets to me.

This was new. Why?

He explained that for movies like Paul that are rated MA15+, one person cannot buy more than one ticket at a time.

What?!? (I exclaimed mentally – physically, I was polite)

The young man explained that it’s to prevent someone unscrupulously buying tickets on behalf of under-15s, who would be refused service if they tried to buy them themselves (either in person or online, which has in place ID checks of some sort).

I explained that the three tickets were for myself (who clearly isn’t under 15 years of age) and my friend (who isn’t either) – but although the young man sympathised, he explained that if my friend wanted to join me to see Paul, he would have to be present right now to buy his own ticket.

Oh, for crying out loud…

I tried one last attempt to overcome this inconvenience – what if I wanted to buy three tickets just for myself?

The young man sympathised again, but held firm. He couldn’t, and wasn’t, going to sell those three tickets to me.

For fuck’s sake!

I was dumbfounded. And getting very annoyed…

…but not at the young man, who was doing his job courteously and professionally. I told him that I understood his position and thanked him.

And so I left Event Cinemas without any tickets, and as I crossed George Street to Star Bar I stayed annoyed at the powers-that-be not allowing me to make my purchase.

And that annoyance compelled me to take action.

*

About an hour later when my friend arrived at Star Bar, I was at my laptop PC and I asked him how old he was.

Next, I asked him if he was okay mentioning his age in an email I was just about to send to Classification, the Australian Government department that looks after media classification.

My friend was okay with that, and in brief I explained why – and when he returned a few minutes later after placing his dinner order, I recounted my experience in full, which I had also done in the email I’d just sent to Classification asking for more information about the law that I’d butted my head against less than an hour before.

My friend was dumbfounded like I was, and we discussed the inanities of that law and agreed that it was a bad example of nanny-statism.

*

I’m not much of a political animal. I classify myself as left-of-centre; I have opinions that I sometimes discuss; and I vote because it’s compulsory – but that’s pretty much it for me and politics.

I even support the concept of a welfare state that works well for all of its citizens.

But sometimes when it comes to censorship and classification in Australia, the law goes too far – and not only in preventing me from buying more than one cinema ticket for a MA15+ film.

One reason why a lot of Australian free-to-air television is so banal is that it operates under the principle that (to use an example presented at a panel about censorship that I attended in the early 2000s) a child could wake up at 3am in the morning, wander into the lounge room where Mum or Dad or both may be watching late-night television, and potentially see something harmful – so as a result, local free-to-air TV has to be very careful at all times about what it screens.

And then there is the ridiculous situation regarding video games in this country. Since the 1990s, video games have been rated like movies but with one glaring exception – there is no R18+ category for adult gamers 18 years and over. Why? Because despite repeated evidence like the survey a few years ago that found the average age of the Australian video gamer is 29, video games are still perceived by many to be something only for children – and so, to protect Aussie kids from potentially more harmful material, games that are rated R18+ cannot be sold in this country…

…although this has led to ludicrous and half-arsed compromises like what happened to that old shocker Grand Theft Auto III. Before GTA3 could be sold here, it had to be edited to achieve an MA15+ rating. All the carnage that made GTA3 (in)famous was left in, however, and you could even still visit prostitutes – but if you did, you could no longer see the brief scene afterwards where your car bounces up and down from the unseen action happening inside.

That silliness about video games has long irked me, but although I still follow with interest the ongoing campaign to allow R18+ games to be sold here, I’ve never become actively involved.

But now something that affected me directly has got me motivated to do something.

*

According to Classification’s website, I should receive a reply to my query within 20 days.

After that, I’ll see what I can do to take this further.

If you’re interested in following this issue, I’ll post future updates about my progress.

*

Just before 9pm on Tuesday night, my friend and I crossed George Street to take our chances getting in to Paul.

To take the edge off of our earlier disappointment, though, we decided to nix the regular session of Paul that we had originally planned to see and instead go to a Gold Class session – which even on Tuesdays is still quite pricey, but every now and then it’s worth it for the big screen, the big comfortable chairs and (if you want) food and drink delivered straight to your chair.

And fortunately, our gamble paid off – Paul was crass, gross and hilarious.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action, Anger, Life Challenges | 1 Comment

When half a metre makes a world of difference

Posted on 17 April 2011 by blackandblueman

To my regular readers, my apologies for missing last week’s post.

Unfortunately, during most of the past week and a half, I had a major bout with the black dog. It disrupted a lot of my usual routines and sometimes made me feel like doing nothing at all.

Fortunately, the worst of it now seems to be over. As always, my psychiatrist was a great help during my most recent visit a few days ago. Also, being able to work from home allowed me to rest when needed, work when I could and still meet my deadlines.

As well, during the middle of that bleak period there was a day of activity that, in the days that followed, helped to blunt the black dog’s bite.

That activity was prompted by two things – buying some items from IKEA, and having to sort out some of the clutter in my small apartment so those new items could fit in.

In fact, I had to start on the clutter first so I could have space for assembling my new stuff.

At first, digging through years of cluttered neglect was worrying, and then angering. How had I let things get this bad?!?

Finally, though, I got tired of the negativity – and although I didn’t quite yell “ENOUGH!” I did tell myself that there’s no turning back now, so just get stuck into it.

And I did.

The small hallway outside my front door became a temporary storeroom for several armloads of stuff (although I made sure not to block my neighbour’s door and access to the fire extinguisher).

I spent a long time clearing more stuff from behind, under and on top of my side-desk, and then removing dust from a lot of that stuff with moist wipes and paper towels – but because I yet again remembered my Eckhart Tolle and embraced the moment, it was actually quite a zen activity.

Fortunately, my side-desk is on castor wheels so it was easy to move it back about half a metre into now clutter-free space, and from that moment onward everything else fell into place.

I assembled my new big-arse desk chair, and despite its size I was surprised and delighted to find that not only was it the easiest desk chair I’ve built, it’s also turned out to be the most comfortable and sturdiest.

I laid down the big floormat I’d also gotten from IKEA and wheeled my new chair onto it – and when I stood back and observed my new improved workplace, which is also the centre of my home, it was very encouraging.

Even better, though, was how moving my side-desk had freed up more space between it and my main desk – so I filled part of it with most of the six towers of books that had occupied half of my main desk for the past two years. There are still three (smaller) towers left on my desk – but now I have more space to work and surf in.

I brought back in my stuff from the hallway outside and placed it within the rest of the new space between my desks, so that it was now out of the way and not taking up extra floorspace as it had before.

By then, most of the day was gone, and my body ached – but it was that pleasant ache you get from prolonged physical effort that results in success like a more organised home.

I showered, went out for dinner and came home for the last job of the day – assembling a tall floor lamp that casts light more pleasantly than my ceiling fixture.

That night, I went to bed exhausted but happy.

Over the next few days, the black dog returned – but because I now had a better and more comfortable workplace, the dog gnawed rather than bit hard.

There is still a lot more clutter to organise better – and ultimately get rid of – but another big step has been taken for my 10-Year Plan. And I’m keen to take more.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action, Anger, Depression, Happiness, Inspiration, Life Challenges, Life is Good | Leave a comment

‘Limitless’ lives

Posted on 3 April 2011 by blackandblueman

Earlier this week, I saw the new film Limitless that stars Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro and Abbie Cornish.

Adapted from the Alan Glynn novel The Dark Fields, Limitless tells the story of Eddie Morra (Cooper), a depressed and frustrated writer who begins taking a new drug called NZT-48 that enhances mental capabilities and focus. Soon, Eddie finds himself completing his previously unwritten novel in four days, playing the stock market for the first time and getting rich very quickly, and aiming for even greater heights and getting there…

…but even in the movies there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and soon Morra finds himself not only suffering sinister side-effects from NZT-48 but also attracting attention from sinister people – and as a result, his life becomes even wilder and crazier.

I liked Limitless a lot, for several reasons.

First, it was great fun. It’s an exciting thriller that’s never dull and moves at a frenetic pace. True, even within its own fantastic realm it stretches credibility at times, and thinking more about it afterwards reveals plotholes here and there, but even so Limitless is still a great thrill-ride – and for me it was also cathartic, which I will get to in a moment.

Second, Limitless is very thought-provoking. Even before I saw it, the main premise intrigued me and got me asking myself several questions. What if I was offered a drug like NZT-48? Would I take it? And if so, what would I hope to achieve from it – and could I handle both taking the drug and whatever success it provided? Adding fuel to these thoughts was this interesting discussion at Hollywood Elsewhere.

Third, as I mentioned above, seeing Limitless was very cathartic due to a recent experience at work. Up until the day I saw Limitless, I had spent the previous week putting together a major technical document that was demanding and draining – and several times when that document was driving me nuts, I fantasized about having a drug like NZT-48 to help me get it done. Fortunately, a checkpoint meeting only hours before I went to see Limitless affirmed that I was making very good progress with the document, so after that I was able to relax and enjoy my evening even more.

Finally, towards the end of Limitless, I had a major realisation.

Several times throughout the movie, and despite some of the awful situations that Eddie Morra found himself in, I often found myself marvelling at his good situations and fantasizing about having a life like that…

…and then, not long before the end, I realised that I am actually living a Limitless life.

To reiterate one of the major themes here at Black and Blue Man, thanks to my medication and therapy since mid-2007 I have been living the best years of my life. Thanks to unlearning bad emotional and mental habits, and being more willing to step (and sometimes jump) out of my comfort zone, each day I am experiencing and enjoying more about living.

And of course, things can still keep on getting better and better.

So not only did Limitless turn out to be very entertaining, but it provided an epiphany as well. It was a great night at the movies, indeed.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Happiness, Inspiration, Life is Good, My Story | Leave a comment

Life – what I think it’s good for

Posted on 27 March 2011 by blackandblueman

Recently at his blog, OneSTDV posed the following questions in his latest Saturday Audience Participation post Life: What Is It Good For?

  • Is “success” even worth it?
  • What kind of life do you aspire to – an easy one or a traditionally successful one?
  • If traditional success like a prestigious job and degree aren’t worth it, then what is?
  • In the end, what satisfies us the most – other people, success, social capital, other?

Those questions got me thinking, and here are my answers.

Is “success” even worth it?
For me, yes and no.

On one hand, I don’t regret getting a university degree and eventually getting a 9-to-5 job in a related field. Although I have some misgivings about my university years, I did get a lot out of going there, both personally and vocationally – and in turn, my career has given me more of an appreciation of what I did learn at uni, as well as a modest income that has allowed me to afford most of what I’ve wanted in life thus far.

On the other hand, though, I have had no ambitions towards becoming a manager and achieving other goals like owning my own home – which leads to my next answer.

What kind of life do you aspire to – an easy one or a traditionally successful one?
An easy one, and especially as I’ve gotten older.

Like OneSTDV says in his post, I enjoy achieving success against life’s challenges and obstacles, and in particular during the past few years it’s been very rewarding to attain new capabilities and skills in living and enjoying life.

Yet, I also want to live as simple and straight-forward as possible. This has been a long-standing goal since my early twenties, but during the past few years I’ve come to especially appreciate living in the Now and simple pleasures like being calm and relaxed, enjoying a good meal, reading a good book, seeing a good film and occasionally staying in hotels.

More money never hurts, of course, but I don’t want to pay too high a price to earn it.

If traditional success like a prestigious job and degree aren’t worth it, then what is?
In recent years, one of my most favourite non-fiction books has been Neil Strauss’s The Game, and amongst the many things I enjoyed about it was the respect that it gave me for a celebrity whom previously I’d never been a huge fan of – Tom Cruise.

In The Game, Strauss recounts the time he went to interview Cruise and how – unlike with many other celebrities he’d previously encountered – Strauss was genuinely impressed by the Hollywood star as someone who was very sure of himself and what he wanted out of life.

I especially liked one phrase that Cruise said to Strauss – “create your own reality”.

I have no ambition or desire to be as hugely successful as Tom Cruise, but “create your own reality” struck a powerful chord. I had long been of the mindset that “life is what you make it”, and especially since mid-2007 I have come to appreciate and understand that in the end, it’s all down to you.

So, getting back to OneSTDV’s question, to me success is working out what you want in life, taking steps to get there, and achieving your goals.

In the end, what satisfies us the most – other people, success, social capital, other?
For me, it’s the personal triumphs and small victories I achieve one day at a time at one hour at a time that add up to my life getting better and better.

Until next time, stay well and take care – and in the spirit of this post, here’s one of my favourite songs by the classic Aussie band Hunters and Collectors that I’ve recently rediscovered 🙂

Posted in Action, Confidence, Happiness, Hope, Inspiration, Life Challenges, Life is Good, Life Strategies | 1 Comment

One does not simply walk into the Piccadilly Motor Inn (Part Two)

Posted on 20 March 2011 by blackandblueman

Part One

I have a lot of fondness for Wollongong, but as I came in from the west I was dismayed.

Starting in the late 1980s, but especially since the major Australian recession of the early 1990s, Wollongong has suffered. It has recovered in some places, but not quite in other places – or even not at all.

To me, this is especially visible along the west-east stretch of Crown Street between the railway station and Keira Street. When I was a kid, it had been filled with lots of interesting shops and major department stores like Waltons…

…but for most of the past two decades, that stretch has always seemed stuck in a dreary and half-empty rut.

And that afternoon, it still hadn’t changed. As well, it wasn’t even 6pm, and what shops that were there were shut or closing.

About 10 minutes later, though, I came to the western entrance of the Crown Street Mall. It’s the main shopping precinct with a large open-air walkway through its centre. My spirits lifted…

…but a moment later, they fell as I saw that the Mall was almost completely deserted and the only shop still open was a 7-11.

Friday night, and the centre of the Gong was like this? A shame.

About halfway along the Mall, I turned south into Church Street and then east onto Burelli Street, which runs parallel to Crown. I was heading (or so I thought) to the Downtown Motel, another place I had found online the night I had planned this trip.

Soon, however, I realised that I had gotten my streets mixed up because as I walked along, there was no sign of the Downtown (the next day, I would discover that it was actually over on Crown).

I followed Burelli all the way to where it ended at the eastern edge of the city, near the sea – and along the way, I was saddened yet again by the uneven state of the Gong. In this part of town, the sights alternated abruptly and starkly between nice-looking modern architecture, older buildings looking the worse for wear, and large overgrown vacant lots. A description that sadly came to mind was “half-ruined”.

As I neared the end of Burelli, not far away to the south I saw the impressive-looking Chifley Hotel Wollongong – although it was perhaps too impressive for my wallet.

So when I came to the corner of Burelli and Harbour Street, I turned north instead and headed towards another place I had found the night I had planned this trip.

* * * *

Hundreds of years ago when I was a kid back in the late 1970s, on many Thursday evenings my family had visited the Wollongong Markets where the WIN Entertainment Centre now stands. I had always hated going to the Markets, though, because they were cramped, crowded and consisted mostly of boring clothes stalls.

Across Crown Street was a place that had always intrigued me, though. It was the Surfside 22 Motel, painted blue and with colour TV in its rooms (colour TV didn’t arrive in Australia until 1975, and my family didn’t own one until about 1980). Hotels and motels were exotic places to my childhood self – the only people I knew who stayed in them were characters in movies and TV shows – and from the Markets I used to look at Surfside 22 and wonder what it was like over there.

About thirty years later, I was about to find out – although Surfside 22 was now the white-and-brown City Beach Motel, on the corner of Crown and Harbour across from the WIN Entertainment Centre.

As I crossed the street, I saw that just above the southern wall of the reception office, there was the now-white number 22. I smiled.

Reception was open, and I walked right in.

The young guy behind the counter was friendly, and I asked him if (a) he please had any vacancies and (b) what were the rates, to which he replied (a) yes and (b) he could give me a room for $110 a night.

$110 was quite a leap from $77, and for a quick moment I considered whether I should just stay one night or two…

…but just as quickly, I thought Why not? and said I’ll take two nights, please.

I completed my paperwork, took my key, thanked the young guy and went back outside to head upstairs to the top floor.

As I headed along the top floor’s walkway, I quickly glanced inside the open doorway of one room to get an idea of what lay ahead. Wow, I thought – that room looked pretty big.

And a moment later, when I stepped inside my room, I said “Wow!” out loud.

My room was huge – so huge, in fact, that I estimated my studio apartment back home could fit inside it three times. I felt like I was in a penthouse suite.

And it was a very cosy penthouse suite with everything I could possibly need – including an enormous flat-screen TV, which I presumed was colour.

* * * *

About 30 minutes later, after unpacking and having a wonderful shower, I was seated at the desk next to the TV and beginning a long night of surfing on my PC.

I felt great, for several reasons.

I would be spending two nights in a very comfortable hotel room.

I had unexpectedly realised a childhood ambition.

And most of all, I had take yet another step out of my comfort zone and it had paid off very handsomely. While my childhood self would be pleased that I had accomplished something exciting, my pre-2007 adult self would be amazed and pleased that I had done something which he would never have imagined myself ever doing – walking around a city far from home and looking for a place to stay.

* * * *

The next day at lunch with my friend, I told him about my adventure the night before – and during the Piccadilly Motor Inn phase, he laughed a lot. He was familiar with the Inn – not as a former guest, but via someone he knew who’d stayed there.

Unlike me, my friend’s acquaintance had been able to get into the Inn and stay there for some time – until a relationship with a female fellow guest that began on his first night later went very wrong, and ultimately he decided he had to leave.

* * * *

I never did find out if the TV in my room was colour, but I would happily return to the City Beach Motel again so there’s always next time.

Until then, or my next post here, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action, Confidence, Happiness, Life Challenges, Life Strategies, My Story | 1 Comment