Are you unreasonable? I love my grandfather - in memoriam Home

 
What is it with drivers in Sydney these days? In the Good Old Days, young drivers were taught the road rules, but they also learnt about driver courtesy. These days, we have many more regulations, drivers and cars, so perhaps it's unreasonable to complain, but hey, that's what this blog is all about!

So, with that said, I repeat: what is it with drivers in Sydney these days?

• They can't turn on an indicator (or better yet, turn on the wrong indicator) light before making a turn.
• Depending on where you happen to be driving, you have a greater or lesser chance of finding massive concentrations of cretins who apppear unable to deal with the complex driving tasks required of them when two or more lanes of traffic are so unfair as to merge.
• I will not unleash a Davo's Diatrobe on people who park illegally. But, after some recent experiences with blocked lanes in Paddington, I do have a noticeable impulse to drive (then reverse back) over those people who park both contrary to clearly posted parking signs and so as to interfere with free use of the road by other drivers.
  

I haven't even started, but Life is too short as it is, and you've got the picture already, right?

So how about we do something about it?

Let's, politely of course (otherwise it won' work) teach these people how to behave on our roads. We will all be happier, and some of us will probably live longer too.

BTW, if you're sick of unsatisfying strategy games and want an online experience, check out www.tacticaonline.com

 
Kings Update:

After being forced to 3 games against the Tigers, then being forced to 3 games against the Crocs, the Kings are living true to my every prediction!

One sage's wise words to me: "Shane Heal can't live down to your opinion of him".

Well, guess again, Mr Sage!

When his side needed to lose, Hammer was there to pound his team's motivation with lacklustre performance of his own and zero motivation for his younger and more impressionable team-mates.

Result?

I say that it's hardy surprising to see Mr Stiff lose potency, and (Shake Your) Booty being able to get down but not get back up again, when Hammer is about as dangerous as a wet paper towelette in the paws of a quadraplegic gerbil with major brain damage.

Congratulations to the team for making it to the Grand Finals for the first time in franchise history.

I will devote considerable time and effort to lauding the team, if they win against Perth in 2 games. I will consider myself entirely vindicated if Hammer comes out firing for game 1, but sags for game 2, thereby ensuring the maxumum possible games played at home by the Kings.

To check out the Kings site, go to http://www.sydneykings.com.au/

- 31 March 2003 9.12 AEST

 
I follow the Sydney Kings basketball team. click here to go to the Kings' site

The Kings are nototious for getting their supporters' hopes up, only to dash them in due course, and for not making it to the Grand Finals ever. The team has been going since the 1980's - the sole team from Australia's largest city for most of that time, and they have never made it to the final round of the competition, let alone been champions!

By contrast, the West Sydney Razorbacks made it to the final round playoffs in their fourth year of existence, after being formed in the late 1990's.

Now the Kings are 5 wins from 5 games. They have won more and more convincingly, both at home and away. Their team is talented and deep enough to last the whole game. Their support team (coach and management) are ultra experienced basketball-in-the-blood types. In many ways they look like the Sydney Roosters (who it must be noted have recently won the ARL premiership).

All in all, no team seems more likely to win this year.

So now is the perfect time to get in an early diatribe against the Kings for failing once more.

They would need to win the competition several years in a row to overcome the effects that 20 years of psychological training from these losers have had on this particular Kings supporter.

- 26 October 2002 - 7.37AEST

 
Some people believe you can make Australia drought-proof.

This is so stupid that it does not warrant further comment.

- 25 October 2002 - 8.37PM AEST

 
Judgmental people can be extremely frustrating.

Like those non-working mothers who believe their working counterparts are inherently worse parental units.

When faced with this kind of frustration, typically generating by small-minded selfishness, try exercising self-control in the form of the 'hidden cut'.

By this I mean adopting a mental approach to the person based firmly on the 'in one ear, out the other' principle, but disguised so as to make the other think you are listening with rapt attention to their words of wisdom.

It may not be as instantly gratifying as a smart retort, poke in the eye, or immolation with napalm, but in the long run it always pays off. And after a while you can develop an appreciation for your own skill at delivering the 'hidden cut'.

But if your self-control should perchance fail, remember to use a smart retort, poke in the eye and immolation with napalm in that order - it's always courteous to allow people a chance to shut up, go away and survive ... and napalm DOES make an awful mess.

- 25 October 2002 - 8.27PM AEST

 
How many times have you been faced with someone who, if asked, would say "the glass is half empty"?

Don't these people realise that positive outlook is necessary?

OK, I'm not the first person who will be accused of being totally naïve, but even I can acknowledge the simple sense of seeing the glass as being half full.

Some people have a natural disposition towards being 'half-empty'.

Such people, like all of us, can look to Howard the Duck for guidance and strength in their efforts to modify their naturally 'half-empty' tendencies.

(People who don't believe they can self-modify: talk about evolution in action! Perhaps one day they'll get their own diatribe. Meanwhile, they shit me even more than the 'half-empties' - 'nuff said).

We may be trapped in a world we never made, but that doesn't mean we have to submit, and if we do submit we should have the courtesy not to drag others down with us.

- 24 October 2002 - 12.56AM AEST

 
People who say that music which uses samples is not creative, are either fools or lacking in thought.

People who say that covers are as creative as original tracks, are either fools or lacking in thought.

You can have a great cover - one that to my ear presents the composition to better effect than the original recording or performance of that composition.

You can have really bad original music.

But please stop confusing these simple concepts, or we'll all end up like those Rock era dinosaurs who bemoan computer music as being the death of creativity (in many ways computers - ie, hardware software and network connectivity - represent liberation for musicians around the planet).

Get a life, but get a brain first!

- 19 October 2002 - 1.01AM AEST