The Fairies At The Bottom Of The Garden…

By Admin on August 21, 2012

…, made me the critical thinker I am today.

So what is a critical thinker? Well you might know them as skeptics, but the name skeptic has been bastardised in so many ways these days, it takes less explanation to say I’m a critical thinker. But how did the fairies at the bottom of the garden make me this way, well that’s the topic of this post.

Like most young children, I dreamed of things, I wished for things, I rubbed the kettle hoping a genie would pop out, I did all those things. Sometimes my wish would come true, other times, nothing. Instead of getting frustrated or angry when it didn’t work out, I wondered why. My belief in make believe made me think. What was the cause? Why did this happen? How did this outcome come about? Let’s have a look at an example.

One of the things I wished for was to be the best hockey player ever. Now we can all tell that didn’t happen, but I can look at the situation and work out why it didn’t happen. I needed to be bigger, stronger, faster, (some would say better looking, I tend to agree, but let’s not go there), I needed experience and talent. Now I could have achieved all those things maybe, but I wanted it now. For it to have happened in an instant, there would have been a need for things to change at a molecular level. Changes to my DNA. Changes that were not humanly possible then, nor now. But it got me thinking, is there a way to make these changes happen?

My imagination lead me to understand differences between fact and fiction. It made me think about what was possible, what was plausible, and what just didn’t add up as even being logical. If I hadn’t jumped off the top of the slide dressed as Superman when I was three, I wouldn’t have known that putting on a red plastic cape out of a Show-bag doesn’t give you the ability to fly. Maybe I should have worn the yellow belt too. Of course as an adult, it is easy to look back and see just how silly this idea was, but for my small, now bruised and bloodied, brain, it was a journey of discovery.

These days I don’t consider myself a good critical thinker. I don’t understand all the rational behind debunking all the woo woo that is out there, but I can use my understanding that as a baseline, nothing is happening to then build from there to not be mislead. I don’t have all the answers, and it’s impossible for anyone to have all the answers for every possibility out there, but I know I’m not easily mislead.

If it wasn’t for those fairies at the bottom of the garden, I might be one of these people who believes things as an adult, because someone tells me it. But instead, I’m someone who is rational in my thinking and not easily amazed by rats with gold teeth selling snake oil.

So I say thank you to the fairies at the bottom of the garden, for making me who I am today, instead of just granting my wishes. Besides, I now know that even if you had given me that invisibility cloak I wanted, the shopping I planned to do with it was actually shoplifting. Thanks for getting me out of that one.

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Doors Are The Windows Of Life

By Admin on August 6, 2012

What is it with doors? Why do people fail to treat them with the respect they need?

It doesn’t matter what kind of door it is, car door, house door, even 1960’s band The Doors, when it comes to opening doors, people generally fail.

Why is it, when people open a door, and I’m primarily talking about pushing a door open, why is it they must use maximum force? “I don’t know what is on the other side of this object I am able to grope, so I must DESTROY it with all my force!”

Pity the person other other side of it, who by chance, is having a one in a million (very common) moment, as they reach their hand out to pull the door open, only to have it broken in seventeen places.

Or what about car doors? Why do people need to fling those open as fast as possible, within nanoseconds of the car coming to a stop? Are they attempting to use the door as some kind of air brake, despite the fact the car has already stopped?

I pity the cyclist who is trying to work out why despite being clad in lycra, and riding an expensive bike, they can’t ride any faster, who suddenly is faced with a very immobile object right in front of their face.

So people of the world, here is an idea for you. When it comes to doors, take it easy. When pushing a door open, do it as gently as possible, because you really don’t know what is on the other side. For people with car doors, crack the door open, so it is ajar, but not blocking anything, then pick up all the crap you are taking with you, then slowly open the door, after looking for any obstacles.

It’s pretty simple people, and you’ll be making the world a better place. If you have any trouble understanding any of this, my door is always open.

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Going For Au

By Admin on August 2, 2012

It’s August, and in the UK right now, the world is turning it’s attention to the major sporting event of Bog Snorkelling. There also happens to be a little thing call the Olympics happening at the moment there too, and I’d like to talk about this little known event today.

My attention was drawn to it when a work colleague informed me we were wasting a shitload of tax payer dollars on the Australian Institute of Sport, because our team at the Olympics is so shit, because they can only manage to get silver medals.

 

I instantly thought “What an amazing and insightful bloke this guy is”, before even I couldn’t hide the sarcasm from myself, and so I just had to point out to him how full of shit he actually was.

 

Australia really punches above it’s weight when it comes to sport, especially on the world stage. We have a very small population, only about 22.6 million people, which puts us around the size of North Korea & Yemen (24.5 million), Mozambique (23.7 Million), Taiwan (23.2 million), Syria (21.5 million), Madagascar/Angola/Ivory Coast (20.5 million) , and well below the current medal tally leaders China (1,347 million) people.

 

Australia is currently fifteenth on the medal tally with one gold, six silver and two bronze. Of the countries listed above, the next nearest is, well North Korea, with four gold and one bronze, but that is hardly comparing like for like. Apart from that, none of the other countries have even got a medal. Yep, Australia are a bunch of slackers.

 

Then there is the claim by this tool that the AIS is a complete waste of money. Yep, it completely is, when you think of it in the narrow sense, that the only thing they do is send four hundred odd people off every four years to go and fail to win gold in some country. Pity that is not the case.

 

The AIS provide a pathway for sports people from the most elite, to those just starting out. Look at any sport played in this country, and you will see some amount of AIS involvement, from improved training and coaching techniques, to better facilities for those participating. The AIS doesn’t waste millions of dollars to send a lucky few off to throw things around or run fast, they instead invest in people with potential to exceed not only on the sporting field, but in all walks of life. The AIS is not about burning money on elite people, in the hope they will go 0.0001 second faster over a given distance, that is just a small benefit of what they do, and as far as I am concerned, it is far from money wasted.

 

So the next time you want to get stuck into some athlete because they failed to win gold, think of it the other way. They didn’t fail to win gold, they managed to prove they are better than around seven billion other people on this earth, at a given sport. Not only that, but they can work harder and have the chance to be even better.

 

When it comes to the Olympics, Australia should be proud of what they bring to the table, and applaud our athletes one and all. You don’t make an Olympic team by being ok one time before the event, you do it by working hard for a lifetime. How many of those armchair shitheads out there would even make the effort to give it a go, before they opened their mouths? None I bet.

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We’re The Fresh Food Value For You

By Admin on July 30, 2012

Rant time here today.

As much as I’m an anti-smoker, they are not the direct result of my rant here, but they can in general get stuffed. No what I am complaining about is supermarkets and their bullshit double standards.

Go there to get some fresh healthy fruit, and you have to line up for three days, jump over the turtles, bang your head on some bricks, nearly save the princess before she is dragged away by a dragon, before you get to use a self serve check out, or be told that this aisle is closing, and have to line up to do it all again.

But be a smelly drug user, and you get served right away at your own special counter, and screw anyone else who has been lining up since Moses played full back for Jerusalem.

And it all comes down to money, plain and simple.

The supermarkets know that the drug users won’t line up for their hit, no, they have to get it right there, right now, at any price, so give them what they want.

This last weekend, I lined up at the supermarket, stepped up, and the checkout chick said hello, grabbed my first item, then put it down, said she would be a second, and served three smokers who wandered up after she had already begun to serve me. Go and stick that up your deli section you bastards, that’s poor form.

As far as I am concerned, treat everyone equally. Make the junkies line up like everyone else, make them go through the pain of having to deal with the poor excuse for retail, like everyone else. I’ve had enough of this crap, it’s just not on anymore. So from now on, when this happens, I’m just going to leave my shopping all over the check out, and they can sort it out. Smokers complain out their rights, well you bastards have the right to line up like the rest of us.

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7shwim163,/-$d

By Admin on July 27, 2012

So what does the title of this post mean? I’d like to know myself, because even though I wrote it, I has no idea what it says. Welcome to my world of dyslexia.

Why do I blog? Well my dyslexia plays a big part in that, because blogging helps me to practice to get words correct, to get sentence structure correct, and it helps me to find a bot of order in the minefield that is a problem for me.

It’s not a big problem, I function fairly well, and at times the mistakes I make are comical in hindsight, but it does take a lot out of me.

So what is dyslexia? Well you can google that one, but for me, the way the words appear to be, isn’t always the case, and at times the information my brain is putting out, doesn’t always match what ends up on the page.

Now this isn’t that much of an issue for me, I can read back over what I have written, and as long as it wasn’t too long again, I can usually work out what I was trying to say, and correct it. But over the years I’ve been called dumb, and stupid, and slow and all those kind of things, simply because things didn’t match in a way others see them.

Let me guess, you want an example. Well that’s really difficult for me to do, because thanks to autocorrect, and misspelt words being underlined, I pick things up rather quickly in most cases. But there are things like mixing up February and November. Yes I know the two are very different months, but I still mix and match as it suits my brain. When I write something ending in “ing” I usually write “ign” and I do the same when writing by hand. So when I write sing, it becomes sign. I also mix up the order of the “u” and the “t” in a lot of words.

When reading, I can skip whole words, paragraphs, or even half words, and then reconstruct what did stick, into an entirely different meaning. This can cause issues when I later try to link things together. It doesn’t mean I can’t learn, it just means that at times, it takes a bit for the real links to appear to me, and then it all makes sense.

Probably the biggest issue for me is phone numbers. If someone tries to give me a number quickly, I blank out after the first few numbers. If I am writing it down, there is usually a mix of letters, numbers, and squiggly lines, which makes no sense at all.

All this adds up to people thinking I have zoned out at times, when really, I’m just trying to make sense of everything in my head, and I need to focus on that. Dyslexia doesn’t mean I am dumb, it just means I see things a bit differently, and that’s not always a bad thing.

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I Got A Note

By Admin on July 21, 2012

Sorry, sick, hence no postings. But we will be back soon.

In the mean time, get your funk on with some Socks and Sandals

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Mr Rabbit Listens To His Imaginary Friends On A Boat Phone

By Admin on July 10, 2012

We awoke in the barn today, sickened by a statement made by someone who thinks he has the god given right to be Prime Minister of Australia.

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Tony Abbott, who wont be given the full honourary title reserved for parliamentarians in this country, because he is not fit for office, has made the following statement, regarding refugees who arrive in Australia by boat.

”I don’t think it’s a very Christian thing to come in by the back door rather than the front door,”

You can read the full article as reported in other media here.

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Off the bat, we are appalled that such a comment could be made, by a representative of this country. After all, it is such a sweeping statement on many levels. When in context of what is saying, and we are not going to publish more of Abbott’s comments here, he is having a broad shot at not only the refugees, but Australians too. You must wonder why he thinks pissing people off, and questioning their values, is going to win him office.

He is claiming, in what he said, that Australia is a Christian country, with Christian values something we are not. The statement wasn’t just an out and out attack on refugees, but call to arms that if you have a Christian belief, you should agree with Abbott.

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The man is delusional.

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Please Australia, we ask of you, no matter how much you hate the current government, please seriously think about the damage Abbott would cause if he was Prime Minister. A Green Cow is apolitical, and we will never tell you which way to vote. If you don’t like Julia Gillard for whatever reason, don’t be blind-sided that it means you have to support Abbott. If you don’t like the Liberals, don’t think it means you have to support Labor. If you don’t like either, don’t think it means you have to go for the Greens.

Too often the politicians in this country think they can get away with murder by alienating so many people, as though they have some kind of right to be an arsehole. The prime example of arseholeism* is Tony Abbott, who thinks he can say or do anything he wants, because it gives him something to do in the meantime, before he is automatically made Prime Minister. We must put a stop to this.

Every time Abbott opens his mouth, whether you agree with him or not, he represents Australia on the world stage as having his views. After all, Australians voted for him. At the moment his idiocy is partly contained to this country, by his party being in opposition. If he was made Prime Minister, think of the damage he would do to our worldwide reputation, and the values of society we hold so dear. Tony Abbott is not fit for public office, he is a spoilt brat, who needs to be taught a lesson.

*Not a real word I know, but the most fitting description I could think of at the time

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Do You Have A Discount Voucherings?

By Admin on July 9, 2012

Why do birds, suddenly appear?

Actually, why do service station attendants think they have the right to rip you off?

 

Ok, I was bad, but try and get that song out of your head, I’m being serious here. In fact, I’m being more than serious, I’m completely fed up with the bullshit these people try and pull, when you purchase stuff in store.

The other day, I decided to reward myself with an ice cream after work. They (not mentioning brand names, because they are all guilty of this practice), had an offer of two ice creams for one price. It wasn’t a straight out buy one get one free thing, but the second one only cost about 50 cents more than one, so I was willing to fork out the extra money, to add a few more centimetres to my already burgeoning waistline.

 

When I went to pay, they came up as the full price, and the attendant quiet happily told me that was the price. I stood my ground, he stood his ground, and only after I pointed out the sign stating the discount, did he them go an push a button in the register, and the discount price came up. He claimed that it takes a few seconds for the discount to appear on the screen. Bullshit I say, because he repeatedly told me the higher price, and it was only after he fingered the register that the discount showed up.

 

This is not the first time it has happened either, and I am beginning to think it is some way the operators are trying on, to rattle the till in their favour. Either it is a directive from management to not apply discounts automatically, in the hope of the customer not noticing, or the operator is deliberately not applying the discount, then when the customer leaves the store, the redo the sale, and pocket the difference.

 

Now it may only be a dollar here or there, and you may wonder what’s the issue with that. Well if they did that enough times over a shift, it’s a nice little earner for someone, and it’s a dishonest earning. After all, we pay more than enough for fuel in this country, and that is another matter that needs to be addressed at some point, but is far to complex to be dealt with here, when all I want is my ice creams at the advertised price.

 

So I’m wondering if this has happened to anyone else? If so, let me know, because it’s a rort that has to stop. I’m taking matters into my own hands now. I say once what the real price is, and if they refuse, I walk away. Regardless of what kind of store it is, I offer them one chance, and if they don’t like it, they can damn well get stuffed. But this does leave me with one issue…, I’m running out of places in my area to go shopping. Time to move to a new suburb I think.

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Blinded Me With Science.

By Admin on July 6, 2012

I want to tell you about someone I’m become a bit of a fan of, and it might not be the kind of person you would think of being a fan of.

Damn that sentence got long, and all I wanted to do was to not finish with the word of, but I tried three times and failed each time, so stuff it, it can stay like that.

 

Who is your favourite scientist? Yes, that’s right, who is your favourite scientist? I’m guessing it would be Julius Sumner Miller, or Bill Nye the Science Guy, Doctor Karl, or the blokes from the Curiosity Show, or maybe even Doctor Who. Well I want to throw up a new name into that mix of awesomeness, Dr Rachel Dunlop, better known as Dr Rachy.

 

I first learnt of Dr. Rachy though the Skeptics Zone podcast, and since then have discovered her on twitter, on various television and radio spots, and even seen her name mentioned in an article on The Drum. When I do see her name mentioned, it pricks up my ears as something worth reading.

 

What I like about Dr. Rachy is how well she can communicate on so many levels. She has the charisma that draws you in to learn more, and to be intrigued by what she is saying, from the mention of noms, to the most detailed science stuff, Dr. Rachy makes you want to listen. She doesn’t put herself up on a soapbox as being an almighty powerhouse of knowledge that everyone else must bow before, no, not at all. Instead she who engages you and makes you think, and shows you just how wonderful the world is, with out the bullshit that some people pedal as the truth.

 

I use to think of myself as a skeptic, but to be honest, I never really gave it much thought. After all, as much as I like science, I’m too dumb to understand it. Instead I just put things into two groups, one being “Utter bullshit, mixed with unicorn rainbow farts and woo” and the other being “Maybe possible“.

These days though, I’m much more informed, and ask a lot more questions, because I have become engaged in discovering why. Sure I’ll never win a Nobel prize for science, my only hope is to get to tighten up my fat belly and maybe be in the running for the Nobel Prize for Boobies. But thanks to Dr. Rachy, my mind has been opened up more, because I can understand what she talks about.

 

You know, I’ve never met Dr. Rachy, although I have had a couple of tweets regarding old radio shows and doughnut vans go back and forth, but I certainly am thankful for her being in my life. We need more people like Dr. Rachy in the world, because then the world will be a better place, filled with awesomeness, noms, and kickarse science.

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Do What You Do And Do It Well

By Admin on July 4, 2012

…Or don’t do it at all. That’s how the saying goes.

One of the biggest educations I ever got in life came from Eddie McGuire. Yes, that “Eddie Everywhere” guy, the president of Collingwood footy club, the on on the television and the radio.

No, don’t go away, keep reading.

Eddie runs a tight ship. He is not a control freak, although if you were only looking at one side of the picture, you may think he is at times, or even all the time. No what Eddie is, is smart operator.

When working with Eddie, you know where you stand, and he knows where he stands, and together the job gets done. It’s simple, it works, and there is nothing unknown. Before doing a show, or a function, Eddie will say “I’d like to do A, B and C, is that possible?” it’s not an order, he has an idea of how he thinks he can achieve the most reaction from an audience, to give them a memorable experience. If you say “We can’t do A, B, and C, but we can do A, D and F instead”, well Eddie goes with it.

But the onus is now on you. You have said you can do something, so it’s time for you to deliver on your word. If you stuff up behind the scenes, people are not looking at you, they are looking at the guy out the front, and that’s Eddie.

I got on the wrong side once, and it was more than enough to learn my lesson. Sure it hurt my pride a bit at the time, but he was right. It’s a simple philosophy to live by, and it works well. It’s not over complicating a matter, it’s setting a benchmark, from which everyone can work together.

The simple idea of doing what you can, as well as you can has held me well. There is no point in promising the world, and only delivering a handful of dust. It’s better to do what you can, and surprise people when you achieve more than that.

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