Some Holiday Reading

Well, feeling a bit exposed after my last post so thought I better get back into it and deliver my final post for 2010 with Xmas and the new year fast approaching.

I thought I’d take the lazy way out and do up a list of some of the articles that have stuck with me this year. At least I thought it would be the lazy way out. Because in the end it’s taken me quite a while to track down some of them on the interweb so that I can bring them to you. And no doubt I’ve missed a few along the way, but hey, it’s been a long year and I’m sure the ones below will suffice in wrapping it all up and providing you with some ‘thinky’ holiday reading.

So firstly, it’s probably no secret that John Birmingham is one of my favourite writers and I’m regular visitor to his blog, Cheeseburger Gothic. Of the heaps of his posts I’ve got a kick out of in 2010, I’ve selected this one as it neatly summed up my feelings about the hysteria that went on during the debate about the super profits mining tax. A lot of things made me angry during the year, especially politically, but to see billionaire mining company executives trying to pass themselves off as being salt-of-the-earth working men whose only interest was for their workers really took the cake.

Sam De Brito’s blog is another that I’ve been visiting for many years now. I don’t always agree with what he has to say but thoroughly enjoy the fact he’s willing to put himself out there and ponder some very profound subject matter around society, gender and the nature of male-dom. This post in particular looked at war and some of things men as soldiers have been grappling with for centuries, and led me to reading Sebastian Junger’s latest book, War, which I also highly recommend.

One of the other things that made me angry this year was the media coverage of the Federal Election. It lacked any serious analysis of the policies being put forward by all the parties and merely concentrated on trivial matters and the politics of personality. However, reading this post from Annabel Crabb back in August shed some light on the difficulties that journalists experience during an election campaign and illustrated that not all the blame can rest entirely at the feet of our fourth estate.

As mentioned during my Top 7 Albums post, I’m a bit of a music nut and especially love delving into its history and seeing where it all began and where else it has travelled along the way. This blog article tapped into this curiosity as I’ve often wondered myself what’s to become of the music industry and what will people in 10, 20, 30 years time say when they look back at the current crop of artists. This may sound a little reverse ageist, but I just wonder who is going to be the Nirvana or Pink Floyd or The Rolling Stones to this generation. And shudder to think it might end up being The Black Eyed Peas or Lady Ga Ga or My Chemical Romance.

I discovered Grog’s Gamut after the controversy of his ‘outing’ was reported by JB. This led to me checking it out for myself and seeing what all the fuss was about, particularly as it was in the weeks leading up to the birth of Nah Seriously and I was interested and intrigued by all things blogging at the time. This post is Grog’s actual response to his outing by The Australian so thought it was an appropriate introduction despite its length, as it also raises some fascinating issues about the changing face of the media and the conflict between the old and the new.

My next entry is merely just one of many from Kathleen Noonan that I’ve enjoyed over the last 12 months. Her style of writing is always reflective and some of her subjects are often just what I need to hear after the week I’ve had over the five days before. I’ve chosen this one though as it actually lodged something in my brain and got me pulling on the runners again after a break from a calf injury. I could also relate to its ‘story’ as it reminded me how hard it is to get back into exercise after an extended break but that the rewards are great and it is always worthwhile in the end.

I first stumbled upon the blog, Dirty Laundry, 18 months ago as it had some light-hearted and amusing anecdotes about parenthood and the raising of kids, a subject matter close to my heart at the time after the birth of my son. While my occasional viewings since then have picked up the subject matter becoming a little darker and profound over the last year, I did not see this post coming at all and it has stuck with me ever since, probably because of my own childhood experiences. You certainly have to admire the courage to put it ‘out there’ and bare one's soul to all.

This was another article which nicely summed up my feelings on a particular issue. And yes, another issue that made me angry (I'm not always angry I swear!) over the course of the year. The debate in this country about refugees and asylum seekers has been confused and misunderstood for a number of years with untold falsehoods and myths being perpetuated. Articles such as this are therefore needed to state some of the facts and make clear what the reality is. Just a surprise it came from The Curious Snail. Not exactly a hotbed of objective journalism and non-sensational reporting.

My boss is a New Yorker. She’s been out here for years now but still likes to keep up-to-date on things ‘happenin’ back at home’. Consequently, this article from The New York Times came from her and again it’s one that has returned to me at times since I first read it back in July. Just as a reminder that there’s a personal story to every casualty statistic and that it’s amazing what the human spirit can come through and achieve in the face of such overwhelming odds.

And finally, this photographic essay which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. While strictly not an article as such, nor a 2010 publication, it qualifies for this list as I was only made aware of it a few months ago. It is compelling viewing with a heartbreaking and poignant story. I defy anyone to not have a lump in their throat or a tear in their eye at the end. A more moving series of photos I have not seen.

Anyway, I’ll be incognito over the holiday period so won’t be posting again for a few weeks. Have a great Xmas then everyone and see you in 2011.

Til then Nahhers,

EDM.

Life

Life really is farked sometimes. Unfair and unjust. Remorseless and pitiless.

For surely there is no God. Or he/she is a just sadistic being with an eye for the brutal and cruel.

So what has bought this on? What has happened to prompt these tidings of ill will toward the universe and its illogical ways? Well, my wife and I suffered a miscarriage last weekend. The second one this year. But this one is hurting so much more than the first.

For we were so excited about this pregnancy and we felt ready for what it would bring. The pregnancy with the first one came to us as a shock and I think both of us were a little concerned about how soon it was to be after the birth of our first child, the much loved son. In a way, we were able to console ourselves at the time that perhaps it was for the best. Perhaps it would have been all too soon. And miscarriages do happen so there was certainly no shame in us having suffered one then.

But this time is different. As I said, we were ready and so overjoyed when we found out we were pregnant again. The quest for our little family was to continue and perhaps be complete. The gap between one and two would be perfect. The birthday would stand alone on the calendar. And my wife wouldn’t have to be heavily pregnant over the hot summer months.

So plans were made for the next nine months while other plans were reassessed and expectations altered. We could do this now but maybe wait for that until later. We should start preparing for this and perhaps think about changing that. But we hadn’t just looked toward the next nine months and all that it might bring. We’d looked toward the entire rest of our lives and couldn’t help but map it all out accordingly.

Alas, come last Saturday morning while Xmas shopping with the son, my wife rang in hysterical tears and eventually managed to say that we needed to get to the hospital urgently. I bundled the son back into the car and swearing profusely I did the five minute trip home in two before running inside to pick my wife up. She was still sobbing in tears and in pain as we rolled out of the driveway bound for the emergency ward.

The rest of the details seem so useless now. The emergency doctors couldn’t confirm anything but said the ‘evidence being presented isn’t good’. The pain for my wife got to fainting-type levels and I looked on helplessly, wishing I could stop it all and remove her from this tragedy. She’s been through so much already. Surely enough was enough. The miscarriage was eventually confirmed and the decision made to undertake the procedure. The procedure to remove the ‘foetal tissue’ as the doctor said. To take away our baby.

Fark! I’m having to do deep breathes as I type this and wipe away the odd bit of tear from my eyes. It’s still so bloody raw. Will it get better? Will we ‘move on’? Isn’t that what you’re meant to do? Go on with your life and put up the façade that everything will be all right?

Wow, what a crap few months it has been. Both friends and family of ours have suffered greatly at times and I‘m again wondering about the nature of man and the nature of the universe. I look down at the newspaper and see 50 asylum seekers feared dead in a ship wreck, including babies and children. The inquest into the abduction of Daniel Morcombe. Another suicide bombing in Baghdad. The world keeps on turning and getting crazier and crazier. More unfair and unjust. More brutal and cruel.

I’m not sure if posting this is appropriate or proper but I felt a need nonetheless. I may well come to regret it and wish I’d been more circumspect. You know, suffered in silence rather than put it down in print for the world to see.

But hey, this is my blog and I’ll write what I bloody well want. I guess as a way of honouring my wife and all she was forced to endure (for a second time). And to honour our little ‘Pip’, the child of ours that will never be.

EDM.

Scattered Ashes

All right. This has been brewing all day so prepare for some profanity and choice words. No, this is not about politics or economics or the medja. It's far more serious than all that. It’s the state of the Australian cricket team and the current Ashes Test series scoreline, which is just not cricket!

One-nil going into the third test of a five test series doesn’t sound that bad. But if you’ve been following the cricket on a day-to-day basis you would actually feel that we are three down at the moment given the shellacking we’ve received.

Not sure how that is mathematically possible but I’m sure you get the drift. Because we’ve been thoroughly outplayed and to use a quaint English phrase, ‘we’ve had our pants pulled down’. Past our knees. To our ankles. And now over our feet.

Personally, I hate when commentators rant and criticise but can’t provide any possible solutions or suggestions themselves. So I’m going to take on the role of Head Selector of Australian Cricket (that Hilditch bloke has run his race) and pick my team for the next Test. Bearing in mind it’s in Perth and must be won to give ourselves any chance of bringing the Urn back home.

I will say though that I’ve erred on the side of what is likely to occur rather than who I would like to be picked (new blood needed if you ask me) as it is for this Test only and I don’t see the selectors making any major changes.

The Nah Seriously First XI for the Third Test therefore looks like this:

Shane Watson

Shaun Marsh

Ricky Ponting ©

Michael Clarke

Michael Hussey

David Hussey

Brad Haddin

Mitchell Johnson

Ryan Harris

Peter Siddle

Doug Bollinger

Now this team does have some problems I admit. Its bowling attack contains those who have failed abysmally so far and delivered only 16 wickets in two tests. Which isn’t great when you consider they would have needed to take 40 to win them. And it takes some experience out of the side in giving debuts to Marsh and D. Hussey while Harris has still only played a handful of tests thus far.

Katich would have been picked if he wasn’t injured so a big loss there in experience, fight and grit (not many cricketers would have said no to a runner in his circumstance). Ultimately I’d like to see Watson bat down the order but with The Kat out we need him to open and hopefully build on his standard practice of at least getting to 50.

The selection of Marsh might be a bit out-of-the-box but he has an average of 85 in domestic cricket this year and is coming off a hundred just last week. Not too mention he is a Sandgroper himself and would find himself right at home in Perth. Quite literally actually.

Punter stays at first drop just because there’s no-one else vaguely capable but I’d also like to see him down the order eventually as he’s lost some of the reflexes required of a No. 3. Such a move prolonged the careers of the likes of Steve Waugh and Allan Border so no face would be lost if that actually comes to fruition in the end.

M. Hussey is a no-brainer given his form and brother D. Hussy gets his chance in place of Marcus North after piling on the runs for a number of years and currently sitting second on the ‘total runs scored’ list in the Shield comp. North’s average of 30-odd just isn’t good enough and he has failed to hold his wicket at crucial times when he’s been needed the most.

Clarke only hangs on by the skin of his teeth after his fightin’ 80 in the second innings at Adelaide although that skin is getting very thin indeed by getting himself out to a part-timer in the last over of the day. Hardly screamed ‘future skipper’ that.

Bowling-wise, as I said, the names above do not fill me with much confidence at all but like the Kamikaze during the last days of the Japanese Empire, they’re the best we’ve got at the moment.

Harris definitely remains after the Adelaide debacle as he was the only one who could hold his head even vaguely high. Just praying his dodgy knee holds up though and noted that Punter didn’t bowl him at all yesterday morning so perhaps there is reason for some concern there.

Siddle and Bollinger stay in as well as I’m hoping they can’t bowl any worse again and for a bouncy and fast Perth track. But then again, that would probably suit the English bowling lineup even more. Alas, Sid Vicious and The Champers get another chance as no-one else is really banging on the selection door except for maybe Peter George (SA) and Trent Copeland (NSW) but I think they are still a little too green.

Johnson to return as well because…because…because…well, I’m not sure why actually. Maybe I’m just hoping for a miracle recovery after going ‘back to school’ this last week with his bowling coach.

No spinner selected could be controversial I know but it is Perth and should therefore be more for the fast bowlers. It’s not like we have any match-winners in that department anyway.

So, that’s my team for the Third Test in Perth. As Australians, it’s not only our right but also our duty to debate these sorts of selections so feel free to discuss and disagree in the comments section.

It may also be worth mentioning that I think the Australian cricket team is going to look mighty different in 12 months time as a youth policy will surely occur after the probable loss of the Ashes and mass retirements of senior players. Names such as Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Tim Paine and Peter George should therefore be more prominent.

Perhaps not a bad thing in the end as a ‘rebuild’ could make for some interesting cricket over the next 2-3 years and hopefully mean normally programming is resumed (us as No. 1) by the time of the next Ashes series on these shores in 2014-15.

Oh my. Can’t believe I’m having to look that far forward.

Yours in drastically changing expectations,

EDM.

Front Vs Back

We’ve had the politics of shoe throwing and the Iraq War. We’ve had bank financing and the setting of interest rates. We’ve had the issue of a republic and an Australian head of state. And now for another one – front pocket wallet holders versus back pocket wallet holders.

Yes, all the big issues here at Nah Seriously. This one has come about following one of my more boring train trips into work on Friday where I did a quick census of how many men choose to store their wallets in their front pocket and how many their back pockets.

And to answer your question, yes, it did involve the studying of certain areas which I’ll call the front lap and the back lap of some of the men around me. A process which could have easily resulted in either a punch in the nose or an offer to have a drink sometime.

But this was in the name of sociology you see. A study of the nature of man and the particular peculiarities he brings to the storage of his ‘assets’. The monetary ones I mean. And the end result? 6-3 to the front pocketeers.

I must admit to some bias though as I’m a front pocketeer myself. Always have been. Always will I reckon. For I consider the ability to sit down wherever and whenever I choose a highly valued attribute. I’m standing up, but then decide that I want to sit down. Bang, I’m sat down.

So what happens to the back pocketeer in the same circumstance? Either he must stop and take out his wallet and hold it the entire time he sits. Or he just sits and suffers the pain and indignity of having a sharp 50c piece protruding threw his pants and getting a little too close to his most precious of orifices ( Wow, never thought I’d see that phrase in print).

Yeah, I don’t get back pocketeers. Why go through all that inconvenience and uncomfortableness? Why put your back out as your body struggles to realign itself and walk correctly in a straight line?

Maybe I’m just jealous though. All that flagrant disregard for society’s norms in saying “stuff you world, I don’t mind that my bum looks bigger in this. I don’t care for a world that is so decadent and self-indulgent that one can sit down without a second thought. It reeks of hedonism. Of entitlement. Of privilege.”

Yes, that must be what the back pocketeer is saying. His wallet position is a two fingered salute to an unkind society. A real 'fark you' to the establishment and all it values.

On retrospect, maybe we need more back pocketeers in this conformist and consensus-driven world. Maybe I need to defect and take on the back pocket as my own. In the name of social anarchy and disorder and all that.

Just not with any 50c pieces though. I’m not that bloody rebellious.

EDM.

Movember Reign - The End

Well, 1 December has arrived and so it’s now time for me to hang up my mo’. It’s been a momentus trip this last month. It’s been intriguing. It’s been emotional.

Alas, not a lot has happened since my last update except for some additional growth. As I posted last time, most of the ‘action’ occurs in the first two weeks as a design is chosen and sculptured and you then live through the shame and indignity of having not much to show for your efforts. Come the end of Week 2 though its really starting to take shape and then its just the occasional shave and trim to keep it in check.

There was a period of itchiness around the Day 18-22 mark as I expected, but it wasn’t that bad really in comparison to last time. So perhaps age or fatherhood does something to the hairs other than just going gray. Maybe it’s a sign of wisdom and enlightenment? Yeah, must be that.

On the home front, the wife hasn’t been totally against the mo’ but not exactly enthused either. There have been a few rolled eyes from time to time and questions as to when it’ll be over so I’m sure she’s looking forward to it coming off (the mo I mean). Little concerned though that my son won’t recognise me when it is removed so I’m preparing myself for a day or two of rejection there. “Hey buddy, remember me? Daddy?”

So yes, not a massive amount to report today as part of my final update. Except to say I’ve certainly had fun and I’m sure everyone whose witnessed my mo’ has had as much fun as well. I will unveil the following photos though after some technical issues last time. Because as the saying goes, a picture tells a thousand words.

Day 15:




Day 30:




Sponsorship-wise, it is still possible to make a donation via this website. And as of 6pm tonight, 1 December 2010, my tally stands at $320 so a big thank you to all those who have donated and given me the No. 1 spot amongst the Mark Spitz Appreciation Society. Your support for mens health issues in particular is greatly appreciated and hopefully it can contribute in some small way to the research and education of depression and prostate cancer amongst men.

Anyway, in a final Movember announcement, myself and a few mo bros will be taking part in the Mark Spitz Invitational swim meet on Saturday to bring the month to an appropriate end. As a result, the mo’ will remain until then so if you’re lucky, you may get one final glimpse of my mo’nificent mo before Saturday afternoon.

But you’d have to be pretty lucky I reckon. Like lotto-lucky.

EDM.