On losing

I watched the NRLgame last night between the Bulldogs and Dragons. It was quite a good game to watch, it ebbed and flowed nicely, but in the end the Dragons (who probably should have had the game sown up at halftime) just held on - with a try disallowed on full-time to the Bulldogs which would have reversed the result. It was interesting comparing the players reaction on the field with that of the Chelsea players at the end of their Champions League semi final (I can't imagine keeping my composure to the same degree as the Bulldog player).

The bizzare decision last night (since declared incorrect), reinforces the thought to me that we don't need video referees. We can just leave those on the ground to make the call, and live with the human element of sport, that people can make mistakes.

Perhaps its not suprising that the most common reason given for losing on the weekend is "it was the ref / umpire's fault". I know, I've used it, or screamed at the television. For this reason it was refreshing to see that the Bulldogs player just said he was baffled by the call and didn't go into a tirade like Drogba after Chelsea's loss. It recalled to my mind the oft made comment of players being heroes-come-role models. Kids often model themsevles on, or seek to imitate their heroes. They may not call them role models but there certainly is a degree of influence. It seems to me that a role-model is something you are made by someone else, not something you can chose to, or chose not to be. For this reason outbursts like Drogba and Ballack's during Chesleas loss (regardless of whether they are justifiably agreived) are to be dealt with harshly. Because who would want to umpire junior football and be subjected to that sort of disrespect from the kids (and perhaps the parents). And without umpires at this level, we don't really have a game.

I want it all ... and I want it now

"Fast food. Express post. Movies on demand. Overnight success. Twitter. Instant replay. Instant messaging. Instant gratification! Want to frustrate an Australian? Make them wait for something. Want to drive them insane? Make them wait without mobile coverage so they can't text or email or tweet."

[Read the rest over here].

Newsprint...

So, one of the things I was thinking about over the Christmas break (hard to believe that is now five months ago) was trying to spend time reading more. Recently I've spendind time reading a collection of articles by Matt Price (Top Price). Matt Price's column was one of the highlights of the Australian. Unfortunately not all of them are available online (See here). Sadly he passed away in November 2007, the column covered a range of ground from the fortunes of his beloved AFL team (the Fremantle Dockers), to music and the political life in Canberra. Its a great book, because theres articles about everything...  one which reasonated with me was about Matt Price's love of the physical CDs (as opposed to a small mental device with 10,000 or so songs, and were random means going to the shelf, and picking up 5 CDs). It really would have been interesting hearing Matt's take on Rudd as PM.


A few other Australian columinsts I like. I really enjoy reading is Richard Glover in the SMH. Again, Glover writes about a range of topics, and the one this weekend was about the 'guilt industry'.  Another classic was this one about his listeners who would call back to correct his grammar.


On the sports pages Richard Hinds and Peter Fitzsimons are often great reading, and I enjoyed both on Saturday. Hinds writing about the war of the football codes for love in Western Sydney. Fitzsimons wrote about the ANZAC Day AFL clash between Essendon and Collingwood (thankfully won by the Bombers - there's some of a sports fans apparently irrational hatred).

Thank You Susan

I'm sure many, many people have seen Susan Boyle's perfromance. I really liked this video on YouTube. Watching reactions of individuals in a crowd, is almost as exicting as watching the game. There are more reactions to Susan Boyle's performance at this site.

Clutter...

So, there are a few people looking forward to the new digital age, so their houses filled with clutter can be ordered. By ordered the meaning is remove the books and CDs off your shelves, Tim Bray was quoted in this piece as "feeling crowded by the media artifacts", and longing for the day when "the chief furnishings would be a few well-loved faces and voices". There's something in this comment which resonates with me, and perhaps
explains why I'm not so keen on movement to the e-books. 

[The assumption that a] book remains a book when its words are transferred from printed pages to a screen. A change in form is always, as well, a change in content. That is unavoidable, as history tells us over and over again. One reads an electronic book differently than one reads a printed book - just as one reads a printed book differently than one reads a scribal book and one reads a scribal book differently than one reads a scroll and one reads a scroll differently than one reads a clay tablet.

I know that I won't find it easy to experience the same escapism in reading a book from an electronic device than I do as I read a book curled up in bed. As it is I read online information differently to how I read the printed page. My mind wanders a little too easily when I'm reading a piece online. (Here's another piece about the changing way we read and write)

..the final edition

I found  this piece very interesting reading, its in praise of the obituary (as a form of writing).

...obituaries aren't interesting because of what they say about death. They're interesting because of the funny and pathetic way they purport to deal with the unfathomable. Obituaries are little fairytales we tell ourselves, while imagining our own lives as one day complete enough to write about. An obituary, any obituary, transforms lives into stories, with interesting characters, a cohesive plot, and most importantly, a good ending. This is what we've got as humans — not the ability to understand or be at one with death, but the ability to generate lots of stupid crap to fill in the empty space of the unknown. Obituaries can do that as much as anything, and maybe we can think of them both in the Franklinian and Aristotelian sense: They might not complete life nor make it eternal, but they can make us feel better about living in the constant and terrifying presence of death.

Lest we forget

While we were watching the Dawn service from Gaollopli a few things struck me. The first was the difference between the Kiwi's and Aussies who attend the service, as the camera panned across the crowd the Australian's were quite easy to pick, and perhaps flowing from that I wondered about the difference in how the ANZAC legacy is seen in New Zealand and Australia. I think if I recall correctly the message when Howard spoke was about patriotism and nationalism while yesterday the theme was more around the links forged between the Turks, Kiwi's and Australians.

I've been working my way through Top Price, which is a collection of articles written by the late Matt Price (a journalist from the The Australian, who passed away in 2007). One of the pieces was a included a story about General Gerard Muirhead-Gould, who ordered that Japanese be creamated with full military honours, and in explaining why he came up with the following:

I have been criticized for having accorded these men military honours at their cremation, such honours as we hope may be accorded to our own comrades who have died in enemy hands; but, I ask you, should we not accord full honours to such brave men as these? It must take courage of the very highest order to go out in a thing like that steel coffin. . . . Theirs was a courage which is not the property or the tradition or the heritage of any one nation. It is the courage shared by the brave men of our own countries as well as of the enemy and, however horrible war and its results may be, it is courage which is recognized and universally admired. These men were patriots of the highest order. How many of us are really prepared to make one thousandth of the sacrifices that these men made?

 This afternoon I enjoyed reading this piece in which Alexander McCall-Smith writes about his characters and books, and readers reactions to the characters lives.

Classical Music...

I was thinking about the virtual-chatter about Susan Boyle (and Paul Potts) on Britain's Got Talent. The songs which generated the response were the classical songs Nessun dorma and I Dream A Dream. The goose-bumps I got when I heard Potts sing it (and Time to Say Goodbye) were similar to the goosebumps I get when I hear that song. I don't know if someone singing any current "chart-topping hits" such as "So What", "Sweet About Me", or a U2 song would get the same reaction.There's just something magical about those songs.

I Dreamed a Dream ...

Just saw this clip from the Britain's Got Talent show on YouTube. All I can say is wow~!  Go on, watch it, you won't be disappointed. Its as much the song choice, as song performance, its like she's singing her story.

Susan Boyle - Britian's Got Talent

Update: I liked this piece:, The Dream She Dreamed: Cheers for a Voice to Silence the Cynics

The World As 100

I quite liked these pictures which display the information in quite a clear, helpful way.  For more of these pictures, and details visit the website here.

the religious in politics

I often wonder about the role of the religious in politics, and with the election of Obama in the US, some now see the influence as good as gone - as detailed in an article in the Washington Post. It seems to me that there are lessons we can learn too from this here.

The article comments that the heart of Christianity is the family unit, the home, and it is in and through these units the church influences society, and not in the "shrill and nagging manner" we often seem to do.

I also like this quote that if we do want to see influence in our culture and society, then we should start following the commands of Jesus and people will be so amazed that they will be attracted to Him".

Ancient Art..

Really liked this piece by Phillip Adams in the Australian today, about perserving art and ancient artifacts, and a suggestion so that they could be seen by a maximum number of people and well preserved. A snippet below.

Let the Cairo Museum, the Uffizi and others rent their spare treasures to the world’s museums. Egypt, for example, has multiples of major pieces and no room to display them. And make it a condition that rented works are given necessary restoration by the host museum. The world shares its history and heritage. Everyone – except the looters and the profiteers – wins.

~~~

National Folk Festival...

We headed down to Canberra for the Easter weekend to spend some time with Fi's parents, and on our agenda yesterday was to go spend the evening at the National Folk Festival. I guess though I do listen to some music which would be classified by i-tunes as folk, it was a great experience to hear some folk music live - including Eric Bogle and John Munro of 'And the Band Played Waltzing Malitda' fame, that I was not really familar with.

There was something in Bogles's lyrics which is getting harder and harder to find in contemporary music. Bogle's songs are more than just protest songs, they are social commentries. Of the songs we heard last night, one was about the colour of dreams (touching on MLK, Nelson Mandela), one was around the obscene amount of money our government seems to spend on sport, another on the casualties of war coming home The ones which really struck me - one was a call and response song around the death of an elderly women, who lay in her home for a year unnoticed, and "And the Band Played.." really reasonated with me, even though I've probably heard it before.

On top of the lyrics, the harmonies of John and Eric's voices and guitars was wonderful too. It wasn't all serious though, there was great banter between Eric and John, and they played a song reminding us that the greatest endangered speices - is the male.

I know I've said this before, and I know that there's more protest songs out that that I can recall, but these  songs were powerful statements, and I can't think of many bands to let their music talk in the same way as folk-singers such as Eric. I know that both Gen-Y and Gen-X are not as apathetic as they're are often made out to be, and perhaps they protest in a different sort of way.

While we were there last night we also saw the April Vietch Band - a Canadian group out to Austalia for the first time, and one of the highlights of their performace was watching their fidller / tap-dancer duel with the drummer, and then play the fiddle while tap-dancing... very great entertaining stuff. Was well worth the trip.

Of these things we are witnesses

For the record, April is Genocide Prevention Month. Genocide Prevention Month is organised by the Genocide Prevention Project. The stated aim is to build the public will to call on the international community to take action when indicators signal possible onset of mass-scale atrocity crimes.

More U2 Wordles

I recently posted a Wordle of U2's latest CD. This site here has 'wordles' of
all of their albums. Quite enjoyed having a look at it.

Myspace ... myDanger

Herald columnist, Miranda Devine adds her voice to those asking questions about how the internet, and the virtual community are transforming how people think. Devine quotes Mubarak Ali who believes that by 2012 internet addiction will be "classified as a mental disorder in Australia, akin to gambling addiction, only more widespread".

It may be true that we are changing, but it seems to me that there are both positive and negative effects from these changes. Perhaps a point which is often lost in articles such as these is, does anyone really substitute real friendship, with a virtual friendships? For example its true to say that a growing number of people are building real friendships from an "online connection".

The other point made in Devine's piece is around the lack of empathy in today's teenagers, but sadly, there's nothing new in her account of a traffic accident "where onlookers were said to have watched, laughed, chatted and taken photographs, ignoring the pleas for help from one man as he died, treating the scene as if it were entertainment." Stories of onlookers failing to assist in these situations is not new and perhaps could be put down to the bystander effect.

Literary Matchplay..

I was quite intrigued by this website - tournament of books - bringing the theatre of sport to as library near you - 16 of the best titles from 2008 compete in the tournament - literary critics judge which title deserves to win the ties through to
the final.

Working out judging criteria, is perhaps no more subjective than gymnastic and dancing (for example), but people may resent adding the sporting-contest to literary prize. As for me, it just seems like a bit of fun.

g-ball ....

I caught this via Google Australia this morning - apparently Google has come up with a new technology and created the gBall - more information is available here.

In other exciting news this morning was the development that Shane Warne was being flown to South Africa to join the Australia Cricket team. He is said to be thrilled to have received the SOS from Ricky Ponting. [I heard it via NOVA].

~~
Update: Pranksters out in force today... [via The Age]. And here [SMH]. Apparently the Guardian was going to the birds. [Tweet Tweet]. Anyone get any other ones?

The Daily Me

I'm quite a fan of Nicholas Kristof, and really liked his op-ed talking about how we read the newspaper - how when we go online we often act as 'our own editor, our own gatekeeper. We select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about', and conversely we don't read much that we don't agree with.

Its easy to do too, as with my Google Reader, I can bring all of my favourite columnists to one place and just read them. I also liked his solution: no not the Tax breaks for liberals who watch Bill O’Reilly or conservatives who watch Keith Olbermann? ;-) But rather, "the struggle on our own to work out intellectually with sparring partners whose views we deplore".  Sounds like good advice to act on, to try to learn from people we disagree with.

Updated - here's another linik to his blog on the op-ed above.. interesting to look through the comments..

Mothers of invention

So recently England's Women Cricket team beat New Zealand in the final of the world cup, something which their men have failed to do in nine attempts. I enjoyed reading this article which looked at 11 occasions "where the women beat the men to the tape". For example Belinda Clark's double hundred is still the only double-century in International One Day Cricket.

A New Page

This article more or less explains how I feel at the start of each footy season. Here's a quote:

For many fans this is their favourite time of the year. The culmination of months of anticipation. When the umpire holds the ball up for the first bounce the excitement is intense. “I love that moment”, one fan told me, “it feels like anything could happen, anything is possible, and the collective energy is great, far greater than the sum of the parts”. [...] For the next five months - hopefully six - our lives will be governed by the comforting weekly cycle of our club battling 15 others for the right to hold the premiership cup aloft. But this will be no easy time. For Aussie Rules footy frequently drives fans to the edge. To the edge of sanity. To the edge of reason. To what often feels like the edge of life. It produces great suffering and joy, and an almost insatiable hunger for more. It’s evident in the roar of the crowd, the thunders of triumph, the cries of distress, and the howls of frustration. In the continual cycle of pleas, curses and cheers. In the bodies that ride the game with the players, fists clenching, legs trembling, guts churning, eyes that sometimes long to look away but cannot. And it’s the return of this gripping drama - with all its glory and heartbreak - that we gather to celebrate yet again at grounds around the country.

Influences..

I enjoyed reading this post by [What's with today?], and while my Facebook page has the Album's which have lived in my CD player, I thought that I would list the 5 books which have been my favourites or the most influential to me. I excluded the Bible because it is the light by which I see everything else.

1] Knowing God [J.I. Packer]
It is a great book about the character of God, there is a lot in it, but its well worth the read.

2] The Little Prince [Antoine de Saint-Exupery]
One of the books I reread every so often, I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but I just love the story.

3] Les Miserables [Victor Hugo]
I encountered the story, in the musical before I read the book - but I deeply love the characters and the them of mercy and redemption which run throughout the book.

4] Ender's Game [Orson Scott Card]
I really love the series, and can just reread it.

5] The Sum of All Fears [Tom Clancy]
While its not a book I can read every year (It a book I can just pick up, and read) When i read it I thought it was almost too plausible.. Though if I want to pick a book that was trashed by Hollywood, this would be one of the first I'd pick.

T+19 Years

So, today, my family celebrates 19 years in Australia. We moved here when Dad got a job at ANSTO in March of 1990. It is hard to believe it has been nineteen years since we left New Zealand. I must say though, that I do support New Zealand in all sporting matters  :-)

Goodbye to Childish Things..

Quite an interesting read [listen], the article did not really go in the direction I expected. But the question I was left with, before I thought about the content of the article was, can you really say Lord of the Rings is a 'childish thing'?.

"Let me say, from the experience of years, that I'm not sure this is good for us. Real people — maybe you've heard this — are slightly more difficult to handle than imaginary people. Even more than Balrogs; and Balrogs, as everybody knows, are a pain. I'm raising children now — a challenge, by the way, on which J.R.R. Tolkien sheds no light at all — and I see them drawn to the flickering, dimly lit holes leading from our house to the other worlds — the TVs and movies and computer games — and I can understand the almost overwhelming urge to crawl through. But I also wonder if, like me, when they grow up and have to say farewell to childish things, they'll have nothing real to let go of."

He makes an interesting point about real people (and by extension issues) are harder to deal with in real life, than the online-game prepares you for. Maybe there is scope for research into the skills people learn from an online-community - because in some ways games like these are akin to team sports.

I also wonder if the new generation of books made for the e-readers will be enabled with multiple tangents defined by the interests of, or interaction with the reader. Maybe they will be harder to write, but possible rewarding in a different way.

As for me, and my reading habits though, I have to admit, I'm old fashioned and definitely prefer the paperback.

Gender in Religion

The article here, outlined some interesting gender differences in religious behaviour.

Most striking among the findings are that women are far more apt to believe with absolute certainty in a God or universal spirit, as well as to believe that this supreme being is a personal one. More American women than men are affiliated with a religion. Two-thirds of women say religion is a very important factor in their lives, as opposed to roughly half of men — percentages that are about the same for those who say they pray on a daily basis. Forty-four percent of women attend weekly religious services, as opposed to just a third of men.

The article goes on to make a point about leadership, and these above numbers don't translate in being leadership or 'advancement'. Thought this was interesting reading but I wasn't really sure what to make of the conclusions. [Links: Article, Findings]

*Did anyone else know that March is Women's History Month in the US, and does Australia have one too?

On the World Cup...

Here's a couple of pieces about the Women's World Cup which finished this week. To fill in the gaps, NZ lost to England in the final.

Here's two differing takes on the media coverage. Dominic Lawson - whose point could be summed up as, don't ask me to watch it,. Lawson wrote his article in response to the Minister for Sport [Andy Burnham] who argued that Women's sport is treated more or less as a sideshow and this needing to change.

I have to admit, my sympathy lies more with Burnham. There was a great deal of theatre throughout the cup (and I did enjoy the bits of it I heard).

No Line - Wordle

[via U2 Sermons]

I have to admit that this is a great picture of what No Line is about.

"hug the spaces in between"

I read a fascinating article today about how society deals with death (by Johann Hari - The Independent), detailing how we insulate ourselves and are weaker for it. The article quoted from Being Dead (a 1999 novel by Jim Crace), were one of the characters upon identifying family senselessly killed the daughter says - "There is no remedy for death – or birth – except to hug the spaces in between. Live loud. Live wide. Live tall.",  which reminded me of the counterpoint in the hope provided by Christ - because in Him, we know the one who conquered death; who makes how we spend this space meaningful. Once we understand our life is eternal, rather than wasting our life, we are challenged to spend it wisely, because we are accountable to our Maker.

Glimpses..

:: breaking up with technology.
A new diagnosis coming your way - e-fatigue.

:: how we write about young people (from the UK, but I'm sure its true of Australia too). The quote below is scary, because perception can become reality.

The vast majority of stories about teenage boys centred on crime and drugs. Sport and entertainment barely got a look-in and, even more depressingly, when they did, the majority of the coverage was neutral or negative. [Horowitz]

 

On the Horizon

Given that I've had U2's new CD playing for a while my impressions have settled and I thought I'd post my thoughts. I have to admit, that after hearing the lead off single, I was not so optimistic or enthusiastic about the album. I shared these thoughts with the sales assistant, who slightly improved my mood by saying it wasn't all that bad, and sometimes people want to tear down bands like U2.

Onto the album, overall, I think No Line On the Horizon is a reaction away from 'How to Dismantle', and 'All that...' in the same way that All that was a reaction away from Pop. The album is perhaps a little bit more uneven than most, one of the highlights being Bono's character sketches in White as Snow and Cedars of Lebanon, while perhaps equally disappointing was Bono's impersonation of the Office IT guy as he earnestly implores us to "restart and reboot ourselves'

Even after two weeks or so, I have to admit that I don't get "Get On Your Boots" (perhaps Vertigo II), perhaps a fun, joyous piece, but its filler on the album. The tracks that stood out on my first listen are Crazy Tonight (the worst bit of the song is the title), White as Snow, Cedars of Lebanon. In spite of its lyrics I do have a soft spot of for Unknown Caller (reminiscent of Walk On). I do look forward to hearing the translation of some of these songs as they begin their tour in June.

All in all, I would say its growing on me but not their best. For me, Pop, Achtung Baby and The Unforgettable Fire have held that title. 

~~~

I really found this post interesting, made up of lyrics from the album, in the order they appear. [h/t U2 Sermons]. Also from U2 sermons, was this post about contradictory comments about the album (and No-Line does seem to have created more diverse responses than other U2 albums).

Christianity in the UK

Given a few events in the UK, including the suspension of a nurse who offered to pray with her patient and the disciplining of a foster mother because one of her children converted from Islam, the Guardian posed the question whether Christian's are being persecuted in the UK this week - these three responses were published. I found it interesting the pieces and the comments which could be summed up as:

No, its the Christians who are discriminating, Probably, but we should all be more tolerant, and perhaps the one I've got the most sympathy for, No, given what's happening in other places around the world.

32 Songs... in 8 minutes..

I loved this youtube clip..

Friday fun ..

Loved this story about Edgar Mueller's 3D art on the NineMSN website this afternoon.His drawings look so real. There are more photos here.

Panic-book

Here's a great piece about the hysteria around facebook and social-networking sites. [Mark Vernon, The Guardian].

 "So, as long as people seek to live, not merely log-on, the panic over social networking sites would seem to be just that, a panic."

Update: Here's a link to a BBC article on the risks of being online.

And another one, about politicians and Facebook. [also from the Guardian, UK]. I do wonder how many of our MP's are online...

"Most MPs don't seem to want connectivity with their electorate, avoiding useful channels such as Facebook, or even email."

"I give up on the movies.. I'd much rather TV"

Zoe Williams [from The Guardian] wrote an interesting piece on why she is giving up on movies because even
"a half-hour episode of The Simpson's has more reference, emotional complexity and political texture than probably the last decade of Eastwood's career. Nobody needs a lecture on how good The Wire is, or how hard you have to concentrate to watch The West Wing". Not only that but "even the worst of big-hitting US telly - Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Sex and the City - has a maturity, a degree of courage, an iconoclasm, that equivalently mainstream [American] cinema would balk at."

I thought that this was an interesting point, I have felt that some TV shows often deal with issues more deeply and effectively than movies. For example I found The X Files and Simpsons' episodes on TV were richer and tighter than the movies.

Lists...

For some strange reason I've always liked listing things.. and courtesy of NPR here are 10 possible reasons why:

1. Lists bring order to chaos. "People are attracted to lists because we live in an era of overstimulation, especially in terms of information," says David Wallechinsky, a co-author of the fabulous Book of Lists, first published in 1977 and followed by subsequent editions. "And lists help us in organizing what is otherwise overwhelming."


2. Lists help us remember things — at the hardware store, for the vacation trip, Christmas presents. The One Planet Education Network, or OPEN, is a global online education content provider that counts Harvard and Columbia universities as clients. OPEN also swears by lists. "Checklists help you remember what you have done and what you have to do," the curriculum reminds the students.

3. Most lists are finite. They don't usually go on and on. And if they do, you can skip to the bottom of the list. The Internet Movie Database, for instance, lists its "bottom 100 movies as voted by users." The winner — er, loser — is Zaat, a 1975 sci-fi fiasco.

4. Lists can be meaningful. The Steven Spielberg classic Schindler's List is based on the true story of a German businessman who used a list of names to save more than 1,000 Jews from the concentration camps. It is ranked eighth on the American Film Institute's 2007 list of 100 top American films of the past 100 years.

5. Lists can be as long or as short as necessary. Jamie Frater, a New Zealand opera singer, maintains a list-keeping site called The List Universe. Recent posts include "20 Great Quotes from Ronald Reagan" and "Top 10 Codes You Aren't Meant to Know." A list, Frater says, should be "as long as is necessary. Some lists need be only a few lines an item, others a few paragraphs. I seldom write more than one
paragraph, but occasionally the need arises to do so." Frater adds, "This question is a bit like asking an artist: 'When is the painting finished?' It is when it is."

6. Making lists can help make you famous. Notable list makers include Thomas Jefferson, Peter Mark Roget, Martha Stewart and Benjamin Franklin. "A methodical and wry man," wrote Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson in Time magazine, "Franklin loved making lists. He made lists of rules for his tradesmen's club, of synonyms for being drunk, of maxims for matrimonial happiness and of reasons to choose an older woman as a mistress. Most famously, as a young man, he made a list of
personal virtues that he determined should define his life."


7. The word "list" can be tracked back to William Shakespeare, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In Hamlet, the Bard refers to "a list of landlesse resolutes."


8. Lists relieve stress and focus the mind. "Lists," sociologist Scott Schaffer told The Oregonian newspaper, "really get to the heart of what it is we need to do to get through another day on this planet."


9. Lists can force people to say revealing things. In his 25 Random Things roster, former California Gov. Jerry Brown reveals that his favorite cereal is ... Flax Plus Multibran.

10. Lists can keep us from procrastinating. We put this one off until the end. Making a list enables us to get our heads around really big tasks — and helps us tackle the work one aspect at a time. But a list is only useful if it reveals a truth, solves a problem or leads to action. Making a list, for instance, does not necessarily help procrastinators. As DePaul University psychologist Joseph Ferrari told Psychology Today in 2008, people don't put off work they must do because they lack list-making skills. And, in turn, making a list does not get the job done.

On happiness in the e-world

So evidence that perhaps blogging does make us happier..

The researchers found support for deeper self-disclosure from bloggers resulting in a range of better social connections. These included things such as a sense of greater social integration, which is how connected we feel to society and our own community of friends and others; an increase in social bonding (our tightly knit, intimate relationships); and social bridging — increasing our connectedness with people who might be from outside of our typical social network.  [Read more here]

 But, then again points made in the comments valuable too - is there, and does there need to be, a control group of non-bloggers. The comment I made with the piece yesterday holds true here too - blogging will imapct some negatively, and some positively, why do we need to extraplolate to the whole population and think about casuality. Even though its perhaps makes the article more fun.

~~~

And in other news .. apparently its now 3 days to there is a line on the Horizon, and sadly, the U2 Conference has been postponed :-(

Oscars

So the Academy Awards are over for another year. Saw this piece 'Critics and the Crowd', which I think gets paraded out every year, that the films that win oscars are usually not the highest grossing films [US], unless its the catergories of sound editing or special effects. Looking at the winners this year, I think its held true again. (Heath Ledger may be an exception).

e-friendship..

I really enjoyed reading this article about social-networking sites and their impact on our health. I did find it hard to take the article too seriously given the tone it began with - "is an x as good as a kiss", its quite an assumption to say that trading messages doesn't equate a thriving social life". I have little doubt that there is capital in trading emails, and being a part of an online community. I do tend to agree that with the internet, we can communicate with more people, over greater distances, more often, but at the same time we get into trouble when we attribute
a universally positive or negative value to these conversations.

[.. happy birthday ... ]

I enjoyed this article about how Facebook impacted celebration of birthdays:

Birthdays used to be a measure of intimacy. Who remembered yours? Whose did you remember? The club was small, typically limited to family members, two high school pals, four college friends, two co-workers and one person you broke up with a long time ago.

The author goes on to remind us that -

Facebook is a giant non-stop birthday party. Every day, it reminds its members which of their "friends" are about to mark another year, which means that Facebook members are now likely to get more "Happy birthdays" in a single birthday than they've gotten in all their past years combined.

Facebook isn't the only prompt though ... how many people get automatic messages from mailing lists they are on, saying "Happy Birthday" or have an intranet which tells people at work. I guess there's perhaps something in this, but at the same time I do find it nice that people remember (and tell wish me a happy birthday via sms, email, card, or facebook message).

A book meme ...

It must have been ages ago now but Ali tagged me in a book meme. I did think about posting it, but then I thought about the books sitting on my table, I haven't really been a novel person recently, even though the last book I read was a novel. So my take on the meme, is to write about the books without including titles. The first was about a minister who perhaps fell from grace, the one before that about why many people are leaving church; but not faith..

In terms of what next, I have Boneheffer's Ethics; the former governor of HK's book about where 'we' are heading now; and memo to the new US President about the challenges the US (and perhaps us) will face. Then there's a book about refugees from an African war. I guess this is a start on my hope for 2009, to read more.

about I love you ...

 I read this fascinating piece about the cultural differences between Americans and Japanese (my cousin tells me that Koreans are similar).

The article begins with the surprise the author had he found out a Japanese man had never told his wife that he loved her. Apparently hallmark-sentimentality is not common in Japan.

I wondered if there's something we can learn from that - that love is more than words, its an action.

25 Random things...

No, I'm not succumbing and writing my very own list of 25 Random things. Rather I'm going to post a few random articles about "25 Random things". The first, is a direct reply, to the request to list 25 things.

I enjoyed this reminder, that while there are 25 things in each list, there is not necessarily much about it which is random, the 25 things we chose to say gives us a chance to paint our online persona a little more the way we want. And for those who are trying to work out 25 things to write, this article gives a few helpful pointers - such as recount a dramatic moment, like having your heart broken or getting arrested, but withhold details, forcing readers to ask for them in your "comments'' section. In case you didn't know, comments equate to status on Facebook even more than number of friends; and make one up. 

Here is another piece, reminding me that there's really nothing new about the 25 things list, as these quizzes have been doing the e-rounds for years, and this is article is another response to the 25 things I [don't] want to know about you...

World's top 10 scariest airports

Interesting reading this (the pictures and descriptions are also amazing). I have to admit I didn't initially think I would have landed at any of the airports on the list - but no I have flown into and out of JFK (and on reflection, perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised.

Who'd be an Ump...

Summer = discussions about the errors of umpires. According to this piece in the Herald today, the big argument is that you can't have a fair contest with umpires who make errors. I might have said this before, but I think that errors are part of sport. Its a human pursuit, the errors balance out. Little wonder some of the players aren't so keen on technology.

And on a different note here's a article about the power of sport. (touching on the story of Jelena Dokic and the South Africa Cricket team).There's another piece taking a different spin on the Jelena Dokic story, would Australians have embrace the Jelena so much if she came back as a Serbian or American.

++

On the tennis, rarely do you get to see two class acts (on and off the court) both on top of the game - hats of to Nadal he played a five-hour semi-final, and then the four hour final against Federer. It was amazing to watch.

On the Cricket,, New Zealand are exceptionally good at turning victory to defeat, and last night was almost a perfect example.

U2 Conference - The Hype and The Feedback

So, I wrote last year some time about a conference being held this year about U2, their music, and their influence. The draft schedule of papers has been published here. The accepted papers cover a range of fascinating topics from the evolving performance of Bullet the Blue Sky live, including U2 in liturgy, and Bono's social activism and finding Jesus in the music of U2. Sound like a  fascinating conference and I'm looking forward to reading more about the conference - hopefully some papers, and keynote addresses will be made available online once the conference is finished.

The Swell Season - Sydney Opera House [Jan 29, 2009]

Last night, we went and saw Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (The Swell Season) perform at the Sydney Opera House. (Glen is the lead singer of the Irish band The Frames), and with Marketa released an album, and starred in the wonderful film 'Once'. I was stunned when I first heard their CD during 2006, and its lovely seeing them being recognised (playing three sell-outs shows in the Opera House). There was such a connection between Glen, Marketa and the audience, created through their personality and the honestly within their songs; songs which resonating as shared experiences. Glen was quite talkative throughout the night engaging with the crowd; he seemed generally delighted (if a touch nervous) about playing the Opera House Concert Hall (fulfilling a 'dream" he had when the Frames were last in Australia during 2007). Glen comes across as a larrikan - promoting healthy disrespect for the venue (asking us to stand, and kick the seat in front of us); and a self-deprecating sense of humour

Even though I had heard a few of their shows from last year, there was still a few surprises - the Frames "God Bless Mom", Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat", and "because they were in Australia" a classic AC/DC song 'give me a bullet to bit on'. One of my favourite songs by The Frames 'Fitzcarraldo' sounds great with the addition of Marketa's piano part. I really loved Colm Mac Con Iomaire's piece "The Court of
the New Town" off his wonderful CD - The Hare's Corner.

My best recollection of the set list is (I think I've got all the songs, if not the right order):
Say it to me now // Lies // This Low // God Bless Mom // The Moon // I Have Loved You Wrong // When Your Minds Made Up // Falling Slowly // Famous Blue Raincoat // Leave // Astral Weeks // Low Rising //  Happiness // Once /// The Hill // If You Want Me // The Court of the New Town // Fitzcarraldo // Broken-hearted-hoover-fixer-sucker-guy // give me a bullet to bite on // You Ain't Going Nowhere ///

It was a really awesome show, and the crowd gave them three [well-deserved] standing ovations. There are murmurs of a new album coming out later in the year (given the few new songs they played), but I recommend a wait-and-see approach.

Get on your boots

So, the new U2 song has arrived.  

First impressions: "What?" .  It remains a little bit hard to make sense of the lyrics (even for Bono).  
Music: it seems a little bit edgier than U2 are normally, evolution more than revolution. The question remains, is this the typical or atypical track for the album.

Listen for yourself at U2's website.. the new album is out during March.

Optmism and Obama

I've been meaning to take some time to write about the inauguration last week. You didn't have to look to far for articles warning us to not get too invested in Obama, because he will dissappoint us, warning to us to let go of the idealism, and hope we have invested in him. Rather than responding to him with yes we can, we should respond with not in your life.  It goes without saying that yes, Obama is not the messiah, and he will fail, but at the same time, I can't help but feel that the hope and engagement in the political debate is a good thing.

While i was thinking about this, I saw a great piece by Richard Glover in the Sydney Morning Herald over the Australia Day weekend, which made the point that emotion matters. Pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and likewise hope and optimism are important emotions too, hope plays a role in change. Its hope that drives many to make resolutions at the end of each year, in this sense hope is energising, and enables us to begin.  Realism doesn't have the same motivating force (though perhaps it serves a function in tempering hope).

Obama might make a difference, perhaps, because many are inspired and will work with the administration towards change, change will be a tough road, but each journey begins with one step.

~~~

And on a slightly different tact - it was interesting to read a few comments from people (including the Australian of the Year) suggesting a debate around when Australia Day should be held.  A debate that gave people opportunities to discuss the meaning and significance of the day. Even, if we keep Australia Day as the 26th, perhaps we can find ways to make the day more culturally sensitive.

Inauguration Prayer (Rick Warren)

"Almighty God, our Father:

Everything we see, and everything we can't see, exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory. History is your story.

The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one". And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.

Now today we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States.

We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where a son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.

Give to our new president, Barack Obama,
the wisdom to lead us with humility,
the courage to lead us with integrity,
the compassion to lead us with generosity.

Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.

Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans--united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.

When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you--forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone--forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve--forgive us.

And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes—even when we differ. Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all.

May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.

And may we never forget that one day, all nations--and all people--will stand accountable before you.

We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.

I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, 'Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen."

[Text via: Between Two Worlds]

~~~~

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NKJV)

[new] line on the horizon..

Perhaps old news  now.. but here's part of the announcement via U2.com.

"Get On Your Boots, the first single from U2’s new album No Line On The Horizon, will be released as a digital download on February 15th with a physical format to follow on February 16 through Mercury/Universal.

Produced by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, sessions for No Line On The Horizon began in Fez, Morocco, and continued at the band’s Dublin studio, New York’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and London's Olympic Studios ... the album will be released on March 2nd (March 3rd in the US)."

~~~~

The Frames - New Partner [via MoshCam]

~~~

I love this song, by the Frames (and this version, features Aussie singer Holly Throsby).

A Literary Meme.

[via - Talking to Myself]

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog. The premise of this exercise is that the (American) National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.

~~~~

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee.
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare. (I have read a few of the Sonnets, and would like to read more...)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald.
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams.
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens.
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ( is this excluding The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe?)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen.
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis.
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown.
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding.
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan. (Seen the movie, but haven't read the book..)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen.
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens.
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy.
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (I've read some of his books, but not this one...)
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville.
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker.
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett.
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce.
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray.
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens.
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton.
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. (On my shelf to read..)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams. (I've seen the film, but haven't read the book...)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare.  (A lesser known play, not included with the complete works..?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo.

-- I tag ... those who notice ... and want to do this.

Some Quotations..

I found a book of quotes from Winston Churchill, and there were a few which really stood out, and one I hesitate in sharing..

:: Golf is an ineffectual attempt to direct an uncontrollable sphere into an inaccessible hole with instruments ill adapted to the purpose.


:: It would be a great reform in politics if wisdom could be made to spread as easily and rapidly as folly

:: If we open a quarrel between the past and the present we shall find we have lost the present.

And the one I hesitated to share (because perhaps because it made me want to read more about Churchill, and hits too close to home ;-) )


:: It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations...the quotations engraved on the mind give you good thoughts. They make you anxious to read the authors to look for more

Bad times Bigger Crowds..

Was reading an article in the New York Times, about how "since September, pastors [across the US] say they have seen such a burst of new interest that they find themselves contending with powerful conflicting emotions — deep empathy and quiet excitement — as they re-encounter an old piece of religious lore:Bad times are good for evangelical churches". The result of this, was that over the Christmas period the lessons from the pulpit were about the theological meaning of the financial crisis (or as I read on the sign of a local church in Sydney - God's Answer to the Financial Crisis - from 2 Cor 8-9). 

And one of the more interesting points in the article was how some Church historians believe "the big Christian revivals of the 19th century were touched off by economic panics. [In] "Praying for Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Religiosity in the United States", David Beckworth, an assistant professor of economics at Texas State University, looked at long-established trend lines showing the growth of evangelical congregations and the decline of mainline churches and found a more telling detail: During each recession cycle between 1968 and 2004, the rate of growth in evangelical churches jumped by 50 percent. By comparison, mainline Protestant churches continued their decline during recessions, though a bit more slowly."

There's something in the fact that when times are tough people look for God; and in prosperity people perhaps turn away. Something for our churches to be mindful of I guess, thinking about how we can serve our community in the current financial crisis (and beyond).

2008 - Review

Here's another review of 2008 (from Johann Hari), focusing on what we misjudged during 2008- I totally agree about Palin and the Olympics being overrated. .

New Year's Day...

All is quiet on New Year's Day
A world in white gets underway
I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year's Day
On New Year's Day

I will be with you again
I will be with you again

Under a blood red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few
The newspapers says, says
Say it's true it's true...

And we can break through
Though torn in two
We can be one

I... I will begin again
I... I will begin again

Oh... maybe the time is right
Oh... maybe tonight

I will be with you again
I will be with you again

And so we are told this is the golden age
And gold is the reason for the wars we wage
Though I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes

On New Year's Day
On New Year's Day
On New Year's Day

:: Some music for Today, courtesy of  U2..  

Hope?

I was thinking about how to sum up 2008 this morning the word I thought of was hope. 

Beginning with Kevin Rudd apologising to the Aboriginals. I'm not really getting into the politics of the decision, but there was a feeling that there might be a fresh start and a new page. I put Obama in the same boat too. The manner in which he engaged people in politcial debate was great to see. Palin too, whether you agree with her politics, also engaged some American's. Obama's calmness as he spoke about the economic crisis and spoke to the American people was great it see. He seemed like a natural leader as he spoke about Race, and Fatherhood. and I will be very interested to follow His presidency. (On another angle see this editorial in the Australian yesterday).

I enjoyed this look over what happenned through 2008. 

2009, well it will be an interesting year, there are a few changes in the air at church, with the number of services, changes in staff, and we are also working towards our new building, (which from the plans at least looks great).  Its going to be a great ride, and I have confident that through these events God is refining us, and teaching us to be sufficient on Him alone.

Drawn From Still Waters Top 5, 2008.

So its time to let the dust settle on 2008; and list my favourite CDs for the year. A couple of unlucky contenders which missed out were: Laura Marling (Alas I Cannot Swim) Martha Wainwright (I Know You're Married But I Have Feelings Too), and Coldplay's Viva La Vida.

:: 5 Colm Mac Con Iomaire (The Hare's Corner)
Colm is the fiddler from the great Irish band The Frames. Instrumental CD's can be a bore, but this one really works, and the interplay between instruments works so well

:: 4 Jon Foreman (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer - EPs)
Another singer-songwriter whose songs are beautiful constructed, and reflect spiritual truths from the various seasons of our lives.

:: 3 Sigur Ros (with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly)
One of the more accessible albums from this great group. When I saw the band perform live earlier this year the accessibility of the band was highlighted by the increasing interaction between the band and the crowd.

:: 2 Conor Oberst (Conor Oberst)
The self-titled album was the first album for sometime which he did without his band Bright Eyes, I love the vivid pictures he paints with his song-lyrics in contrast to the great fun numbers like I Don't Wanna Die in a Hospital.

:: 1 Andrew Osenga - Letters to the Editor II
I really enjoy the honest and meaningful lyrics, and the style of music he performs. The Letters project is an EP involving collaborations with fans. I'm looking to hearing more from him during 2009 (Hopefully).

~~~

And on the horizon, for 2009, I'm hoping to hear more news of a Radiohead tour, and I am slowly getting more excited about seeing Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in January. In terms of new albums -- confirmation of a new U2 album brings excitement, but not sure what other excitement 2009 will bring.

A British perspective...

So, the dust has barely settled on the second cricket test, and already there's one piece claiming its the worse year in Australian Sporting history... (which is to my mind quite a funny, but massive overstatement, there's been a number a great Australian achievements throughout 2008). Anyway have a read and make up your own mind. As for me, the article is another reason why, come the Ashes, I won't be cheering for England.

Assorts..

:: Religion, apparently promotes self control.

:: The NFL could teach Congress something about accountability

:: Santa Claus, paves the way for people to believe in God.

More on Responsibilities..

Earlier this month I wrote a little about responsibilities, and last week there was a piece in the Australian making the same point:

The Aussie whinge has been around forever but is it getting worse and it is a symptom of something bigger. Modern Australians live in a cultural bubble. They have lost the art of self-reliance and think the Government has magically to fix things when they're overseas [...] Australians appear overwhelmingly inclined to take less responsibility: for our children, our old people, ourselves. We are our own chief responsibility, not that of the Government. Now we hear a great deal about the ultimate nanny state illusion. a new charter of rights, but nothing about a charter of responsibilities.

We live in the most blessed country on earth and we have inherited a great tradition. As free-born, relatively rich, English-speaking Australians, we have every right anyone has wanted in the history of the world. Our political life and society are the culmination of the benevolent vision of the great 19th-century English social reformers and of the colonial founding fathers. Australians don't need any more rights, especially phony ones. It is about time we cultivated a few responsibilities.

~~~~

On the Cricket..

I have to admit, one of the funniest things about seeing Australia loses a Cricket Series is the amount (and tone) of ink that gets spilled about it. Its about the same when the All Blacks lose a Rugby test.

Here's a few links (all from CricInfo) about the Australian's series loss yesterday:

:: Its not funny anymore
:: Angry Aussie Media.


Perhaps its not that the tests were lost, but the positions from which they were lost (not many teams will successfully chase over 400, in the fourth innings); and not many have put together a partnership of over 150 runs for the 9th wicket. 

But the selectors do have questions to answer, why was Symonds picked if he could not bowl, and there are major questions about Ricky Ponting's captaincy (the defensive decisions he made on the third morning, when he should have gone for the jugular).

Anyway, none of this takes anything away from South Africa, who played great Cricket, and deserve the series win, and I think the mantle of the best team (for 2008 at least).

Christmas Reading..

Was catching up on some reading over the break, and this one Be Very Afraid, But not of Santa" was interesting (if a little sad) reading, a few stories shared in the article:

:: A Santa (AUS) sacked for having said "Ho, ho, ho" to the children waiting before him. - the reason "According to the store, he should have said "Ha, ha, ha" but he was a Bad Santa. "Ho, ho, ho" might be perceived as being derogatory to women, it was strongly argued. A ho is African-American vernacular for a prostitute, or at least a woman of loose morals, so you can't say it any more. Ha, ha, ha.

:: Another (US) Santa Claus was sacked because the children kept pointing out that he had extremely large breasts.


:: Another (UK) Santa Claus was sacked this year for having invited an elderly woman to sit on his lap.

"I do not know what the elderly woman was doing in the queue for the grotto but, of course, it is her right to queue up to meet Santa and get a present, just as it is your right and my right, the right of all people of whatever creed, colour, class or age. But you shouldn't have to put up with an outrage such as being invited to sit on Santa's lap, so Santa was sacked. A statement from Selfridges read: "We do not promote or proactively seek lap-sitting." Read that quote again and try to imagine the sort of person who wrote it: "Promote or proactively seek lap-sitting." 

:: And the funninest one  - "a boy was not allowed to attend his school's Christmas party because his parents had insisted, ever since he joined the school, that he should not be required to attend lessons in religious education. The school presumably thought they were being scrupulous in abiding by the parents' wishes but apparently not. The boy's mum, was incandescent at the cruelty inflicted on her poor son. Christmas parties, she said, "have got absolutely nothing to do with Jesus".

In seriousness the article concludes --

"But it is our fear of pedophilia, or fear of litigation provoked by the intimation of pedophilia (which is, when it comes down to it, much the same thing), that is the most corrosive and damaging. One of the most telling and important political contributions of 2008 came from an old semi-reformed radical Marxist, Frank Furedi, now a professor of sociology, who delivered an attack on the strange and ambivalent manner in which we view children these days. "We cannot organise the world around the default position that we are all pedophiles," Furedi lamented in a magazine interview. He talked, too, about the other side of the coin, the control children seem to have over parents these days. Furedi called it "reverse socialisation", the kids being told to tell their parents to eat healthier food, or recycle their rubbish properly, or not to smoke in the home. And much of it can be dragged back to what Furedi called the pre-political authority of parents disciplining, or failing to discipline, their kids. They do not have an idea any more of right or wrong, he suggested.

Well, indeed; but whose fault is that? Place it alongside all the stuff I mentioned above and it would seem to be the logical consequence of an agenda driven by the liberal middle-class Left over the past 30 years, in which the common denominator is the yearning for an artificial world that is entirely risk-free. Certainly there must be no risk to life or limb, even if that risk is vanishingly small. No risk, either, that anyone could possibly be offended by anything, no matter how barking mad you would have to be to take offence. No risk that anyone's sensibilities (religious or otherwise) might be offended, no matter how thin their skins may have become over the years. It is an aspiration towards a pretend world, a confection every bit as make-believe as Santa's grotto."

And following on another piece about singing Christmas Carols.

Links..

A couple of  interesting articles .. about the power of celebrities to draw attention to mental health issues, and another one about the "fun and games" associated with finalising the new issue of the DSM.

I also foudn this one interesting.. "while liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates". [Kristof, NYT]

Who throws a shoe - II

Here's a link to other forms of insults from around the world.. [via the NYT]

Notes from 2008

Always intrigued in end-of-year lists, heres American radio station NPR's top 10 as voted by the listeners:

10. Sigur Rós: Album: Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
09. Coldplay: Album: Viva la Vida
08. My Morning Jacket Album: Evil Urges
07. Flight of the Conchords Album: Flight of the Conchords
06. MGMT Album: Oracular Spectacular [Bonus Features]
05. Death Cab for Cutie Album: Narrow Stairs
04. TV on the Radio Album: Dear Science
03. Bon Iver Album: For Emma, Forever Ago
02. Vampire Weekend Album: Vampire Weekend
01. Fleet Foxes Album: Fleet Foxes [Bonus Tracks]
+++

Good Weekend..

I was going to title this post 'Links'; but I don't remember being able to find the articles  from the Good weekend on the SMH's website. But a couple of interesting reads, the first was about the authors resolution to buy any new books, and rather read the books she already owns. Thought that's a good resolution for me, to stop buying new books at least for the first half of the year - there's a lot of interesting ones to have a look at.

The other piece was 'Joy to the World'; the regular Christmas season article about money and happiness.The soundbyte of the article is that the key to feeling good; is to give and keep giving. Another few quote that hit me were, when 'God died, the GDP took over and economists became the new priests, and the second one from a Holocasut surivvor - Hermann Gruenwald - 'I have come to realise that during inhumane times, helping others makes as feel human again'.

Sporting Newsreel '08

It is great to have finished work for the year -and its been nice over this weekend to spend some time settled in listening to ABC describe Australia play South Africa in the first test. Especially great seeing as its been more competitive than the Kiwi's. Today has been quite a test for Ponting as a captain (I still favour the Aussies though). 

On the radio, they were talking about the highlights of the year, I was trying to think about what happenend - I recalled Manly winning the NRL, and Hawthorn the AFL; on top of that 2008 saw the Beijing Games, and the European Soccer Championships (won by Spain).

My highlights:

:: New Zealand stunning the Aussies and winning the Rugby League World Cup;

:: Mithcam's dive to win the Gold medal in the Mens 10m Platform Diving competition, with his last dive

:: Usain Bolt wins the 100m and 200m

:: Michael Phelps winning 8 gold-medals.

Popular music

Perhaps its a sign that I'm now a bit into my third-decade that the radio captures more of my attention, earlier this week they had a fascinating story about Andre Rieu and Classical music. Its in some ways the same argument that has been made about modern adaptions of Shakespeare (how they perhaps make people seek to explore more). The question they were asking was how many people who would go to Andre's shows in Australia would go and listen to the Philharmonic Orchestra (or equivalent), not really a debate about his music per se.

I don't think Andre is a new phenomena as The Three Tenors / The Ten Tenors / Bond and Ill Divo are examples of musicians that have tried to bridge the 'genre-gap'. I'm not convinced that Andre will drive people to hear the 'local' orchestra, as its him they are going to see, rather than the music ~and perhaps this is why people look down on Andre ~ because its about him; more than the music.

Anyway just some random thoughts; and I one thing I would like to do in the new year is visit the opera house to hear an orchestra rather than contemporary music, as I've done previously.

:: Post-script: Related to this is the furor that the British reality TV show [X-Factor] has caused with recording a version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. With the writer of this article asking --

what is it that makes Burke's (the X Factor contestant) version inauthentic and Buckley's authentic? And why be so depressed over the X Factor version, when the song has been exposed to mainstream audiences via its use on both The OC and Shrek soundtracks? Should we be happy that he song has been exposed to new audiences.

As the article says, Buckley's sales are going up in the vain hope that it will displace the version by Burke. (Driven by facebook groups).

'Honestly ... who throws a shoe'

Yesterday morning, there was footage of an Iraqi journalist throwing not one - but both his shoes .. at President Bush, during a press conference. Today - the footage has circumnavigated the globe, and transformed into a game, be incorporated with footage of the three stooges; the Austin Powers film - to name a few. (Have a look at this article here).

Links... Loneliness and Childhood..

UNICEF recently released a report the state of children in the world, and a read a piece in the Guardian asked who is the best placed to bring up children.. And how now in developed countries the "majority of parents in the developed world are farming out the care of their children to paid workers. At the same time, neuroscientific research shows - surprise, surprise - that the architecture of the brain is formed largely through the interactions of the early years; love, it turns out, is as important for intellectual as for emotional development." Its interesting looking at how this is changed, and what it means.

Also from the UK, a few pieces about loneliness and the state of solitude. An interesting one about a teacher who was sacked for saying Santa Claus doesn't exist. While I am sure that its not the wisest thing to do in a class-room, I doubt making the same claim about Jesus Christ would have the same result.

Conversational Reading

Saw a couple of interesting pieces in the Australian this weekend -- Bob Carr writes about the case for cheaper books. Or why its beyond comprehension that parallel importing isn't being done for books - in his words "lower prices mean more sales, and more sales means more books in Australian homes". (no link)

There also was a review of an interesting book called the Art of Conversation, which argues that the great irony of the communication age is that we are forgetting how to communicate with each other. The money quote for me is that while how we communicate has changed; the nature of the communication hasn't really changed - I'm sure that in this age, people are writing the beautiful love emails, or having deep conversations on messenger, or facebook. It doesn't sound as romantic to me, but for those involved the experience would be different.

40 Inspirational Speeches from Hollywood...

This is great ..

Shame on you. This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're going to let it be the worst. And I guarantee a week won't go by in your life you won't regret walking out, letting them get the best of you. Well, I'm not going home. We've come too far! And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause. A day may come when the courage of men fails... but it is not THIS day. The line must be drawn HERE. This far, no further! I'm not saying it's going to be easy. You're going to work harder than you ever worked before. But that's fine, we'll just get tougher with it! If a person grits his teeth and shows real determination, failure is not an option. That's how winning is done! Believe me when I say we can break this army here, and win just one for the Gipper. But I say to you what every warrior has known since the beginning of time: you've got to get mad. I mean plum mad dog mean. If you would be free men, then you must fight to fulfill that promise! Let us cut out their living guts one inch at a time, and they will know what we can do! Let no man forget how menacing we are. We are lions! You're like a big bear, man! This is YOUR time! Seize the day, never surrender, victory or death... that's the Chicago Way! Who's with me? Clap! Clap! Don't let Tink die! Clap! Alright! Let's fly! And gentlemen in England now abed shall know my name is the Lord when I tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our Independence Day! ::

More on the declaration

:: Matthew Jones from the Guardian writes about Article 18, which protects the right to practice whatever religion we choose. There is another interesting piece about the prevention of Genocide.

:: Jimmy Carter on Obama's Human Rights Opportunity

:: The BBC marks the 60th Anniversary.

60th Anniversary of Human Rights

Today the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 60. The declaration codifies what 'the society regards as the basic rights of 'being human'. I am sure we will see more talk about a Bill of Rights for Australia today (see here). The full text of the Declaration is available here.

I would like to see talk of our rights match with talk of our responsibilities - what we are accountable for; rather than what we are entitled too.

"Fair-use" in music...

Joe Satriani has lodged a claim in court that coldplay's song viva la vida 'uses substantial portions of his song If I Could Fly'. If you watch this video you can almost imagine the crowd's response during a joint performance (and Satriani come up at of the stage) - even if it had been modified to maximise the effect.I've always wondered if two people can "come-up-with" the same idea (read chord progression) at the same time. Interestingly enough its the second plagarism claim against Coldplay over Vida la Vida - have all three songs borrowed from somewhere else...

Red Pens and bubble wrap

I read with interest a piece about a new kit that was being handed around to schools in Queensland, and how to work with the children inclassroom - some of the points the kits made was that teachers should stop using "aggressive" red pens; as red is considered too confrontational, and teachers should leave wrong answers blank, as marking it wrong would have hurt the child's confidence. (more about this kit, and self esteem in education is here).

There's something flawed about wrapping kids in cotton wool, and making life rosey, and painless. I learned more from the comments on essay's which needed work; than that ones which were marked highly. We can't equip students to succeed if we don't allow them to fail.

Some Musical Fun ..

Via a U2 mailing list -- The Wiggles do U2

:: Corrected Link

Australian of the Year

So, I am not sure who the other nominations are, but I think Glen McGrath would be close to a 'safe' bet for Australian of the Year. Glen McGrath, AM was announced as the award recipient for New South Wales, and therefore a nominee for the national award -- we'll see though.

2008 -- Musically Speaking

Was thinking a little about the music this year. It's been a quieter year for me ... here's the CD's I've bought (released in 2008) this year:

Laura Marling (Alas I Cannot Swim), Conor Oberst (Conor Oberst), Martha Wainwright (I Know You're Married But I Have Feelings Too), Colm Mac Con Iomaire (The Hare's Corner), Lara Goudie (Out of the Depths), Sigur Ros (with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly), Andrew Osenga - Letters to the Editor II, Jon Foreman (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer - EPs).

And as per usual, live CD's are ineligible for my end-of-year-list - if they were, The Swell Season would be shoe-ins. (thanks to Played Last Night.Com, the site from which The Swell make recordings of their concerts available). The one omission which will be on the list is Coldplay's Viva La Vida, though I will try and buy that soon.

I am also moderately keen to listen to the most recent CDs from R.E.M., Tim Finn, Belle and Sebastian and the Fleet Foxes (though I'm not sure what they will be like). I'm also keen to hear R.E.M.'s re-issued Murmur (with a concert from 1983).

Coffee and Community...

A few bits and pieces I saw this week...

:: This article complete with abstract coffee art is great..

:: On Twitter, and knowing//sharing..

:: Here's a dictionary to decipher Facebook status updates.

Grammys -- In Rainbows

I was intrigued to look through the Grammy Nominations today -- while everyone might be talking about Coldplay's seven; I was quite taken by fact that Radiohead (In Rainbows) got five. Radiohead were nominated in the below categories (and Nigel Godrich was nominated in the Producer of the Year category):

:: Album Of The Year
:: Best Alternative Music Album
:: Best Rock Song (for House of Cards)
:: Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals (for House of Cards)
:: Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package

Will be interesting to see how they go.