New Friends and Old, Reunions and the Social Stuff

Recently I have made a lot of new friends and acquaintances which is thoroughly unlike me.  I don't generally do social, and am mostly happy with the status quo.  It is a strange thing to me though that many of my new friends feel like old friends and many of my old friends seem like strangers to me now.

Confused I am!

It is kind of funny actually that this week I have been twice asked (on consecutive days by unrelated people) if I was going to go to my 25th high school reunion.  I went to my tenth under protest and at my twentieth I walked out about 40 minutes into it because it was an atrocious display of mature people trying to act like they were in high school again.  One of the people that asked was keen to go (he has not been to a reunion yet) and the other felt like me (she saw the antics of the one before).  I was not overly fond of my high school years but most of my old friends fall into this category (high school friends) and I struggle to understand the appeal.

Where as with the new friends that I have made it feels cool just to hang around and talk.  My old friends purport that they are "too busy" or make a mountain out of a molehill of another task just so they don't have to do anything.  Newer friends all have similar tastes and interests to me.  Computer games, board games, Doctor Who, RPG's Monty Python, Music.  Whatever it is we actually connect on these levels and I am finding myself much more drawn to these people now.  It is also these people that notice when I am feeling low and offer a positive comment or a friendly ear whereas others simply live in their own world and ignore these other issues.

I really do feel at times that I am socially inept.  I have limitations and I know it.  I do not do well in large gatherings of people.  I struggle to know what responses are needed when and where but when I am with people that I connect with it all becomes a lot more easier.  I have even been to several "parties" recently and not made too much of an idiot out of myself!

I know I am rambling here.  I am not exactly sure what my point is, or even if there is a point.  All I know is this stuff has been playing on my mind.  I am normally a pretty private guy but I (obviously from this blog) have been wanting to share more recently and I feel I would be more comfortable doing that with my newer friends as I already know what the responses would be from my older friends.  Anyhow, that is the view from my window today!

Back in the heart of Uni

I am now on week 4 of my university semester.  I am struggling and I admit it.  I am actually getting the feeling that it is the study that is bringing me down these days.

I have been doing a one year course part time so i can be qualified at what I already do for a living.  Yup, that is right, I need to get a piece of paper so I can continue to do the job I have more than capably been doing for the past four years.

I get annoyed and then depressed when I do these courses that are in essence teaching me to suck eggs.  Why am I annoyed at them?  Well it has a lot to do with narcissism and I am not talking about my own.  First semester, and now this one, I have been told that I MUST purchase the text to the course so I organise this.  The text also happens to be written by the lecturer so no favouritism there and I have not even opened the book.  Passed the course.  Never looked at it.  How does this happen?

And then there is the pure idiocy of what they are trying to teach me.  They literally teach me 40 escalating ways to express your concern at behaviour.  number 1, ignore it.  Number two, look at them and let them know you have noticed the inappropriate behaviour and then look away.  And the dribble goes on.

I just need to vent.  I am sorry but this effort in creating red tape is actually working to drive me away from my current job (if you have not guessed, I am a teacher) than encouraging me to work harder.  I understand the intent but with the quality of the course I seriously wonder at why they need me to get it.  I have done harder in house vocational courses than this uni degree.

Rant over.  I apologise.  It is just the view from my window is looking particularly bleak today.

Sliding Doors

I am not much of a romantic comedy type of guy.  I prefer horror and action for the main stable of my movie watching but there are two movies I make an exception for.  One of those is because it speaks to me in a major way and the other, just because I find it hell funny.  The hell funny one is Notting Hill and most of this is largely due to Spike (Rhys Iffans).  The one that speaks to me is Sliding Doors.

My favorite rom-com (Image from imdb.com) 

Now, if you have not seen Sliding Doors this post is likely to go over the top of you so I will attempt a synopsis in a few short sentences.  The movie follows the relationship meltdown of Gwyneth Paltrow's character with her cheating boyfriend.  In the movie though it shows two stories in parallel, one where she catches the cheating early and separates very early in the piece and the other where (due to a sliding door on a train) she arrives late and misses catching him in the act.  In other words this movie is really a movie about alternate realities based on choice and chance.

I like this movie because I feel that this is how life works.  I am not sure that I subscribe to the infinite possibility theory where an alternate Universe is spawned every time a choice is made but I do feel that there are crucial moments in life that could have changed everything.  For example, my brother's death that I talk about here could have just as easily left him alive if he were in a slightly different position, or he could have been hit and not killed (in fact a Doctor said that it was 50-50 that he survived but had he survived he would have been a quadriplegic and possibly in a vegetative state).  In each of these scenario's my life would have been drastically different.

But it is not only the bad that I think about, I also am thankful for some of the sliding doors that have lead me to things that I enjoy in my life too.  Friends I have met through serendipitous means and the relationships I have had have all been wonderful things.  Just the fact that I am born and live in a Country like Australia is a complete joy when you look at the suffering that occurs in many other places of the world.

I am not a big believer in fate, and the Sliding Doors movie kind of makes a fated turn at the end which I am not overly fond of.  It is a true Hollywood ending in that regard.  But on the whole that movie represents my views on life as a path or a (my hated word) journey.  I am an atheist and the ideas presented by the Sliding Doors movie subscribes enough to the chaos of life and the randomness of paths that we take but also gives meaning to it.

I hope this gives you all a bit more insight to what the view from Knights' window looks like today!

Quality Focus

I am reminded time and again about a problem that spans nearly all industries these days every time I go to my local Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Both my daughters work there and of the take-away places available I quite like a KFC zinger burger every now and again.  Being a family of five means we have a reasonably lengthy order and because my wife and eldest daughter are a bit fussy with the contents of their meals there is some (minor) custom alterations.  Yet nearly every time we go (always through the drive through) they get the order wrong.

Do you know why this is the case?  Well, it is because with the drive through they have a measure which they want managers to achieve.  If they process cars in under a certain average time or something similar then they achieve an Obsessed ranking which is seen as good.  Speed is good in drive through and the number of complaint calls they get from people when they get home and find they don't have what they ordered does not play any part in it at all.  Screw the quality and go fast is what this says to the workers.  Throw it in the box and throw it out the window.

Now this is not a criticism of KFC's practice as it is standard business practice these days.  Every business wants to achieve time efficiency because it means less handling and less cost.  Time truly is money when it comes to product.  Also in the push to reduce cost the pursuit of quality has also been thrown out the window.  From the mid to late eighties we have been buying product that is reducing in quality but increasing in cost.

How long should a device or product last for?  Well, until a month or so after its warranty runs out.  A warranty is really the business saying to you that they are gambling it will last without defects to that point under regular use but not beyond that point.  They do not pluck these figures out of the air, they test for them.  I have a friend who has had 4 microwaves while I am still using the one my mother got when I was around 8.  That is right, I have a 32 year old microwave and it still goes strong.

Things are not made to last and this is a major problem.  It is not that we do not have the technology to make things last it is just that companies have decided that we would rather just upgrade than fix.  For example, I purchased a large TV and it broke after warranty ran out.  To buy the small part that needed fixing on the TV and have it fitted was going to cost more than the TV did initially.  I do not like living in this disposable way.  I would much rather have durable products and keep someone employed in repair work than buy something new!

Enough to drive me insane...

Then there are the companies that set a date for release and stick to it even if the product does not work.  I am going to talk about the computer game industry here because quite honestly they are bandits.  They release games that they know are not functioning correctly and we are meant to play the poor version until they can patch the problems that should not have been there to start with.  Patching has become a norm but I lived in the days when games came out and they worked like they were meant to.  Now companies just do not care one bit.  I really feel violated when I anticipate a game for a long time and then on release day you become incredibly deflated when the game is crap.  I teach game design to 16 and 17 year old kids and they think I am just grumpy.  "Wait until they patch it." I hear a lot in the classroom and they just take this for granted.

What ever happened to the motto "If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well."  I think this has changed these days to "If a job is worth doing then the consumer will pay for the same job more than once."  Hang the quality?  Sorry, not the way that I work and it may be the reason that I have always held the principles of doing a good job once so it never needs doing again.  I am a strong believer in a quality job.  If you expect me to do a quick job or a quick fix I will not likely take the job.  I will only give 100% and I teach my students to do the same.

So, there we have it, moan over.  What can we do about it?  Probably nothing.  Why has it happened?  Pursuit of capitalism, so we the majority can fund the minority to become even richer while we struggle with the lessening of quality around us.  Such is the view from my window.

John Cleese and I

On the weekend I went to "A Night With John Cleese".  He sat on a stage and talked about his life, where he came from, who his family was and how Python and other great collaborations came about.  It was an excellent night.  I really enjoyed seeing his skill in manipulating an audience and talking about some personal material.  He talked about the death of his mother and father.  Graham Chapman and David Frost's death as well as his progression from school right through to falling into writing and acting.

I lucked into a great seat about 8 rows back, had a
clear view of him all night!

I have my humour set heavily in the British side of comedy.  Irony, sarcasm, dry humour that is full of silliness.  In fact, I realised during the concert that my humour is not only influenced heavily by Python, it practically is Python humour.  It is then no wonder that I have idolised these old skits and movies to this very day.  If you asked me my favourite comedy movie it would invariably wander from Holy Grail or The Meaning of Life largely dependent on my mood at the time.  If you asked me which skits I liked the best it would probably be The Secret Policeman's Other Ball although Little Britain comes a close second.

I have also been a great fan of the Goodies and I always thought that they kind of grew out of the Python craze.  I was amazed to find out on the night that both Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie were both all tightly involved with the group largely before they became Python!  John Cleese showed us the Fish Dance skit which the Monty Python crew voted their most silly skit of all time and I recognised the Goodies quite clearly in it.

My son, Ethan, is also hanging on to the same style of humour.  While he is not into Python as yet (he is a bit young) he is deeply enamoured by the Goodies and much darker humour.  This makes me very happy.  In fact, my whole trip to see John Cleese has made me a lot happier too.  It has gotten me in touch with my inner self again, when I was a lot happier in general.  It made me realise again that life is for living and laughing just as much as it is for working, bill paying and the intrusion of the darker things in life.

So, there you have it.  To the readers of this blog, try to work out what style of humour really works for you and visit it often.  Do not let a chance to catch up with a laugh or two ever as it is just as important to you as it is to those around you to see you laugh and have a good time!  Thanks for reading!

Election Time

So it is election time in our little wilderness state of Tasmania, Australia.  In little under a month the goodly Tasmanian's will be called to enter little booths with pencil and paper to commit our state to another 3-4 years of governing from one of the political parties.  I am a little depressed about this coming election as there is no-one that I clearly want to vote for.

40 Year old me!  I see a wrinkle!

This past 4 years has been governed by an alliance of two minority parties who largely have conflicting goals.  The Premier of the state is the  a  complete nonce who likes to have a photo op rather than have something important to say.  In the past 4 years our finances have been flushed down the toilet and she has the gall to say to the opposition that they can't make promises because there is no money.

But the opposition is just as poor a choice.  Here is a guy who I am fairly certain thinks he already has things won.  He pays too much attention to the polls me thinks.  he has made promises of payments to various sectors but all politicians do that.  Besides, I really don't think that anybody really gets the real issues here in our state anymore.

Finally, there is a new party on the scene.  they don't really say much about anything unless it is derogatory to the other parties.  They say "Hey vote for us because we haven't caused any damage, not like X party" and I think that is largely because they have not made it in to government yet.

I am fairly certain that when I go to vote I will still be as confused then as I am now.  Not one of the parties want to speak about the real issues.  Escalating depression and suicide rates.  Increased mental illness, alcoholism, drug and gambling problems.  Jobs going overseas at the rate of the thousands.  Laws that allow the rich to get richer, the middle to just scrape by and the poor to be forgotten.

We are facing our worst challenges everywhere in Tasmania on a social level but not a single party wants to speak about this.  What they want to do is talk about money and where they can put it for a short term boost in employment or revenue.  This is part of the problem but none of the parties have a holistic view when you need it.  In fact, I cannot think that any party in operation is working for the good of the people any more.  They are simply working for the good of their party.

Everything is about money.  The focus on every minute detail is ridiculously revolving around the planet of the dollar when in reality the money is a symptom of deeper issues.  Ask yourself, do you know your neighbour?  Have you done anything for someone recently and expected, nay WANTED nothing in return.  Why do we turn our back on people in need on our own streets and yet sponsor people in need in other countries.  Look to what you can do to improve the lot of life of people in your community.  Prove to them that you want to help them and that you can be reliable and open.  If we all acted in this way and took a moment away from our own needs and wants, this State of Tasmania (and the world) would be a much better place.

Well, that is what I have been thinking about any way and this is the view from my window after all!  Have a good week everyone.

The Downgrading of Society

So, enough about my personal issues.  I put up the last posts so you can understand me and see where I am coming from and why I am a depressed so and so.  But that is not necessarily what I wanted this blog to be about.  This blog is more about my opinion on certain things in life and what I think we need to do as a society to pick things up and return to a better style of living.  This post I have been dying to do actually and I think it is an important thing to speak out about.

Globalisation.  The internet has pushed the world into a period of never before seen access to other countries.  Even in the early 1990's when the World Wide Web was yet to show its face the other side of the world was what you heard about in the news, and then only when something major had.  But the internet has now created an environment where I spend a good deal of my time discussing things in a live environment with people on the other side of the world.  This is a great thing but there are things that globalisation has destroyed in our society.

Act local, think global

It is a mantra that has become a catch phrase in Tasmania, especially with politicians and it is partially this mantra that has led to the loss of skills and manufacturing in this country as well as the growing financial problems that it seems almost everyone faces.  It started with a thing call de-regulation as the Liberal Federal government called for open trade in the interests of globalisation.  Prior to this the government invested money into industries so that they could be competitive in a global environment.  When this happened it seemed like a great thing.  But at what cost.

This is very pertinent to me at the moment because in the past week a massive chain hardware store known as Bunnings opened here in Burnie, the local city about twenty minutes away from home and everyone thinks this is one of the best things ever.  Except me.  Bunnings is a store that is owned by a company called Wesfarmers.  Wesfarmers also controls Coles Pty Ltd, one of the two largest chain supermarkets in Australia.  Bunnings stores follow the same style of approach as a supermarket but with hardware.  So why would I not be excited?  Let me use Bunnings as an example of how globalisation is ruining our communities but it is not just Bunnings.  It is Spotlight for crafts, all sorts of new car dealerships like China's Great Wall model and the like.

Think of a local hardware.  Your local hardware of ten to twenty years ago.  In all likelihoood the hardware may have been a franchise but it would be a franchise owned and run by a local community member.  Of course it might actually be a completely independent hardware store.  You walked in to the hardware and if you were a little handy it is likely that they would recognise you.  Over time it may even be one of those places that your children get a go at their first job because the guy/girl that ran the store is part of the community and he/she wants to be connected to the community and help it grow.  The prices may be a little more than the big city hardware BUT they don't have the community the same size as the big cities so they have to mark the prices up a little 

Then imagine you hear your local council approves a massive development for one of the largest supermarket giants to put in place a hardware store that prides itself on being the cheapest they can.  They can be cheap because they have the financial clout behind them to buy containers and containers of stock up front.  They can cater to people who look only at cost by buying inferior quality stock from countries where the labour force demands little in the way of pay and conditions.  They can also buy the higher quality stock but know on the whole that the highest sellers will be those that are the cheapest goods.  The proprietor of the local hardware has good reason to be fearful.  You see, they only have a small quantity of poor quality products from inferior producers and they do not sell much of them.  They don't because they give good advice and point people to the products that sell the best.

They look to the other stores of the same company that opened and they see that their own bottom line was hurt at the same time.  They can no longer afford to put little Jimmy through his first job because their profits are reducing all of the time as they try to bring back their customers.  Even the local store opening of the chain store that is two hours travel away it hurts them.  As time begins to tick down fewer and fewer people come through the door and it is all they can do to keep the doors open until three months prior to the opening of the new store.  Then they cross their fingers and hope that they get employed in the new superstore.

So, what is going wrong?  De-regulation has not only allowed free trade with companies that can under sell us because they have nowhere near the overheads that we do in an over-governed society but it has also allowed the sleeping giants like our monopolised supermarkets to start to create monopolies in other industries.  The people that will serve in these stores will have guidance based on the business model of a supermarket as opposed to the skilled testimony of the local store owner who checked the devices before selling them.

This happened in Burnie.  I look at the newspaper and it is all about the celebration of the new store opening.  It closed five local hardware stores and Burnie itself had NO hardware store for over three months.  Now I look at photos of people walking out holding cheap products made in under-developed countries.  I sat at a birthday party and heard them let off what must have been at least $25000 worth of fireworks celebrating this.

Australia is losing its manufacturing industries at an alarming rate because we cannot compete with other countries labour costs and under developed working conditions.  We have come from a position where everything is over regulated and all that Australia has done is taken away the regulation of trade restrictions but now work on modernising our working environment is ignored.

These conditions are not sustainable.  I can see the effects of these problems on a daily basis.  It does not only hurt us at the hip pocket but also as a community.  These stores will argue that they put money back into their community and they do.  But that money is at a superficial level.  The executives of these companies behind the scene is where a lot of the money really ends up, and you can guarantee that these peopl do not live in the community.  Unlike the people that they have displaced, who still live in these communities.

But who is to blame?  Is it the companies?  Is it the government?  No, it is the community.  the world revolves around money now and this is why globally countries are finding themselves in difficulty.  Their economies are beginning to collapse. It truly is looking like a dystopian future if we do not work out these issues.  I do everything I can to buy locally and support stores that are not yet pawns for bigger companies.  I implore you to do the same.  Until we as a community start to reject these stores they will continue to destroy local economies and lives.  

I so want to write a lot more on this issue but I hope that I have gotten my point of view through.  I hope that many of you can see the same thing as I am and that enough of us eventually start to act on this knowledge.  To restore a community, we must first become one.