Why Cheat?

I'm a little confused by some people. Okay, admittedly I probably am a little more ethical than some people. Like, I've never seen the point in 'Cheating' in life. I don't cheat on people, I won't cheat with people, and I certainly can't see the point in cheating in tests and businesses etc. Today, someone tried to get me onside with something - in our business course, we were given some Business Plans to look at yesterday (seems as we are making ones of our own) and two of the ppl took them home, as they didn't realise you were not supposed to. An honest mistake. Anyway, upon hearing about this, one of the other students DEMANDED that they be allowed to take one home. It was pointed out to her, that it was against the rules. We were only given the plans to look at briefly, NOT to take home. To me, it seemed obvious that the lecturer wouldn't allow it. Two wrongs don't make a right. Yes, those other two students did something wrong - but there are thirteen of us in the class. The other student kept insisting that SHE be allowed to take one home, as she claimed the other two students had been given an unfair advantage, that SHE should be allowed to have as well. After the lecturer had turned her down (and rightly I beleive), she came up to me, and asked that I get one and give it to her! HUH? Why? I don't have one, I don't want to cheat and I couldn't understand why she needed this other persons business plan. After all, two out of thirteen made an honest mistake. They hadn't tried to get an unfair advantage (and even if they had done it deliberately, it doesn't make it right for anyone else to cheat). Why couldn't she just let it rest!? It's against the rules to have them, and against the rules to take them home! We were just shown them as examples, in order to help us get a grasp of what is involved. It was just for us to browse, NOT for us to study. We already have a blueprint with what to do for our business plans. We alreayd have a manual on how to put it together. We don't actually NEED these things anyway. Upon not getting any satisfaction with me refusing to help her cheat, she then went and started on one of the other students. The funny thing is, at no time did I ever hear her say that the REST of us students should have them. It was always SHE should have one! SHE should be compensated for the other students getting an unfair advantage! We aren't even COMPETING against the other students! It's not like they squeeze us all under a bell curve and mark us from one to thirteen. We either pass the course or we don't! It's not hard! It reminds me of when I used to work as a nightfiller in a supermarket. One guy was notorious at not working. He'd dilly dally and was really slow. At the end of the night, we'd have to go and help him finish stocking his aisle. The other night fillers started to complain. They felt they should get compensated for this guys poor performance. They came to me to try to get me onside. As I said to them, 'I get paid the same regardless of what he does.' Regardless of how good or bad the other workers are. It's a management problem. If he isn't working, then he is costing the company money. Management have to make the decission. It isn't a good enough excuse for them to gang up on this guy, as their work load wasn't going to change. They weren't going to be paid more. It's the same for the lady on my course. The lecturer isn't going to allow her to cheat just because some of the other students did. The rest of the students aren't going to help her. Why should they? Why can't she play by the rules and just do the course the right way? In the end, if she does cheat, and lifts a lot of information from someone elses business plan, it won't help her, as her own business will suffer, as she won't have understood her own business. In life, it is better to do the work. Earn what you will have. Study to understand, not to get good marks. If you understand, then the good marks should follow. If you take shortcuts just to get good marks, in the end, your lack of understanding will hinder you in your endeavours. You have to accept your own limitations! Yes, it might be harder for you to do something than what it is for other people to do it. Isn't that what makes a victory all the more sweeter! If someone has natural ability and you have none, and you train harder and longer and beat them, have you not earned more? Why cheat? The rewards are short lived and just make sit harder and harder as life goes on.

How have we changed? MEME

Okay, as the person who has the blog where meme's come to die, and ones I start just remain and die here ... here is another soon to be dead MEME! How have we changed? I got this idea when reading a girls blog (can't remember her name, as it wasn't one of my normal blogs I read - I have a habit of going for wanders around blogdom some days reading twenty or thirty new blogs). Anywat! (That's my new word - Anywat!) ... Well, Anywat, I was reading this girls profile (because I am eternally curious about the people whose blogs I visit ... so any info in the profile is a kewl thing to read), and I noticed her favourite colour was purple. (Think it was Jessy's blog now that I think about it!) Which reminded me, back when I was a youngster in the early 70's, and Hippy Flowerpower was still a hot thing, I remembered all those PINK, PURPLE, and other bright coloured things with ugly clashing colours like everyone was drugged up beyond belief all the time! Like, we had pasley blue shirts with pink, purple and other colours on it. BRIGHT, EXTROVERTED, I AM HERE, TYPE CLOTHING!!! I hated it! (Being an introvert, you can understand that) Anyway, because of all that stuff, I really started to hate the pink and purple colours which always seemed to be used to clash with the other colours and stuff. It really was an ugly over colourised time to live in. Now a days, I dont' mind pink or purple. I've used some nice purple colours in someof my paintings. Some purples are really nice ... but back then I HATED IT! BLEH! I think I was too young to realise it was the colour combinations, and not the colours themselves that really didn't work. So, I thought about it ... and thought, what other things and tastes in my life have changed? Which leads me into the MEME: How have we changed? Favourite = Favourite or most liked (or least disliked) Hated = Hated or disliked (or least liked)

	FAVOURITE		HATED
SUBJECT	CHILD	ADULT	CHILD	ADULT
Colour	Red	Blue (or red or white or black)	Purple or Pink	Brown (Esp. Poo brown)
Food	Roast Potatoes	Pizza	Brussle Sprouts	Brussle Srouts
Fruit	Rambutans	Bananas	Lemon	Orange
Ice Cream	Chocolate	Mint Choc Chip	Strawberry	Caramel
Male Movie Star	John Wayne	Johnny Depp	Dr Smith from Lost in Space	Anyone who can't act
Female Movie Star	Katherine Hepburn	Audrey Hepburn	Joan Crawford	Anyone who can't act
School Subject	Art	Art	Phys Ed	Phys Ed
Band	Beatles	Pink Floyd	Black Lace	Black lace
Movie	Jaws (Maybe)	Seven Samurai	Wizard of Oz	Any Hollywood crap
Song	Maximillian Mouse	Careful with that Axe Eugene	Agadoo	Agadoo

RULES of the MEME: 1. Steal it and do it. 2. When you steal it, add another subject to the meme which the original owner must add to the meme, and you must also do. (Leave it in comments section). 3.You are not required to do subjects added to the meme after you have stolen it (other than the one you add), but you are required to do the ones added before you steal it. 4. When other's take the meme from you, they can add subjects (see rule 2) which you must add to yours. 5. Have fun. 6. No explainations are required as to why you love or hate something.

Yeah, I do write too much!

Well, I've already posted today, as well as reading and commenting on twenty odd blogs - but, I can't help myself. Mainly as I didn't blog on what I wanted to write about! hee hee Baka Dabido! Well, my fifteen to thirty readers (as I don't know exactly how many you are - maybe there are more who only visit once every week - I don't know!), here is what I was planning on posting on: Yesterday, I did my washing, and then stuck it in the dryer. I took everything from the dryer and stuck it in my washing basket. Eventually, after all the washing and drying was done (three loads) I stuck it on my bed. Then, I promptly left it there, like I do! :-) I then went back to doing everything else I do during a day. Was some good Japanese Anime on TV last night. Porco Rosso and a doco about Ghibli Studios! Anyway, I had a lot to do, so I taped them. Hope to see them later this week. (Or next week, or the week after ... or something!) :-) Decided to go to bed last night at about midnight. Got to the bedroom, and all my washing was sitting on my bed ... which included my bedsheets! No problem, that's normal operating procedure for me! Folded my washing and put it away. Was half way through it all, and noticed a WHOLE STACK WAS STILL WET!@!!!!! @#*^@*(#^@!!!! Baka Dabido! Didn't check it after getting it from the dryer! Actually, the wet stuff and got tangled in the fitted sheet and formed a big ball of wetness in the middle. Well, the wet stuff included MY BED SHEETS! @*#*^#@&*!!!!! Okay, no problem, I have plenty of bed sheets - I decided to use my favourite ones! BLACK bed sheets! (Have no idea what that means from a psychological stand point!) Anyway, I'd bought them back when one of my flatmates was trying to convince everyone I was this suicidal freak! I think she was doing that because SHE was a suicidal freak! Her and my other flatmate kept telling me I would suicide one day because, 'You listened to GRUNGE!!!! And Everyone knows that Kurt Cobain suicided, so anyone who listens to his music will do the same thing!' I always thought they just had something against grunge and Kurt! Oh well. She (the mad cow of a flatmate) used to tell other people I was suicidal and stuff - and she was always saying things to me like, 'Why don't you go kill yourself if you're that depressed?' Of course, I usually interpreted her statement to really mean that she was depressed and wanted to kill herself ... but wanted to project that onto me! (Okay, I coudl go through depressions too ... just because someone is depressed doesn't mean they are going to kill themselves! I worry about people who's first instinct is to talk about killing themselves or who think everyoe wants to kill themselves). Well, I went out one day - and I love BLACK things, like black guitars, black synthisizers, black TV sets, black furniture etc ... black clothes, and I decided I should try black bedsheets! (And my love for BLACK HAIR is like ... well ... amazingly well known amongst my friends!) As soon as I got them home, my mad cow flatmate told me that black bed sheets means I want to kill myself! (The irony of this is that people who are suicidal don't care what they want to look like and don't care about their image! They certainly wouldn't have bothered buying bed sheets!) So, she went and got other people and my other flatmate to tell me the same thing! Yes, they all graduated from the 'Idiot School of Parrot Psychology'. "She told us it was so, so we repeat it!" Oh yeah! Love that logic! And THAT sort of stuff just made me like my black bedsheets even more. (Just call me the rebel in black! Zoro of the bedsheets! The Fonzie of sleepville! The Sam Spade of Snoooze town! The Darth Vadar of the ... oh wait, he's a bad guy!) :-) Anyway, last night, I decided to stick them on my bed (seems as my light blue bright sunny non-suicidal bedsheets were still wet). Then I discovered a curious thing! ONE OF MY BLACK BEDSHEETS WAS MISSING!!!! (Hmmm, why can I see that title being used for a sitcom?) I still had the pillow slips, I still had the top sheet! BUT MY BOTTOM FITTED BLACK SHEET WAS GONEEEE!!!!! My only conclusion is some dark depressed suicidal bastard stole my black bed sheet! :-) Okay, I better not press charges, don't want their death on my conscience ... of course, maybe it was my old mad cow flatmate! The bitch! She stole my bedsheet and has probably committed sepuku on it in order to prove she was right! Only suicidal maniacs have black bedsheets! :-) Okay - so my humour is a little dark tonight. Anyway, my bedsheet is missing and I haven't used it since I left Sydney ... so maybe, some Kangaroo stole it on the Nullabour plains! Probably that one who lept in front of my car and killed itself! Bloody suicidal kangarooooos! STOP STEALING MY BEDSHEETS YOU KAMIKAZE MACROPODS!!!!! :-) Just kidding. Yeah, it must have gone missing before I left Sydney. I better replace it. My bed never looked so good as when it's dressed in black with two black pillows for Sunglasses! :-) It's the matress they should have in "Men In Black" and "The Blues Brothers"!! :-) Certainly would ahve improved bot the sequels ... but then a striped giraff in a spandex ballet tights could have improved those sequels! :-) Well, it was too late to dry the rest of my washing, so I had to wait till the morning.

-----

Another curious thing which happened today, was our business calss was joined by a new student. She was going to start a 'counselling' service for people. Towards the end of the day, she and the lecturer didn't see eye to eye on an issue. There wasn't an arguement - but neither would conceed the point - and the counsellor suddenly burst out crying and ran out of the room. I have always suspected that a lot of people become councellors, as they are unhappy themselves and wish to help others like themselves. I once heard that the largest percentage amount of suicides is amongst Psychiatrists! I feel for this woman. I'm not sure she is in the right business. I am surprised that neither she nor the lecturer could just agree to disagree - or that the councellor couldn't see that she was never going to convince him, and just let the point go. Very strange.

How Weird?

How Weird. I arrived at my blog, and the OBJECTIONABLE FLAG was up! I wonder what someone objected to! Was it the FireAngel Fan Club button? She seems to be accumulating enemies. Was it the my objection to the comentary from SlashDot? Was it something in my 'I Am That Blogger ...' Meme? If someone is going to be critical of what I am writing here, I prefer if they tell me, so that I can understand the objection. I don't have naked people on the blog. I avoid using swear words ... and I've seen plenty of blogs which have had both of those! Or is it just someone doesn't like me and wants to remove me from the blogsphere? Well, that won't happen. If I am forced to move the blog, then I am sure I can afford to host it myself (and then you'll never be able to remove me!) Anyway, if you have a problem, then please talk to me. I am a pretty friendly sort of a guy. Actually, I was wondering last night if I shoud expand on some of the points I made inth e 'I am this blogger ...' meme! Some are pretty criptic ... but then again, maybe that's the point of leaving things in point form. Wonder how many of my points raised more questions in peoples minds about me! Hmmmm, wonder what people think about me now! I tried to include me at my evilest! After all, my ex-wife claimed I have no 'dark side' - it's all exposed, so I don't hide stuff. Better to live life naked so that no one can get anything on you. I never did drugs, I was never a violent drunk, I've never beaten children or women (and don't go around starting fights with men - they usually pick on me!) Well, my Business course was interesting today. I am feeling more confident about starting this business ... hmm, wonder if that's why my blog got flagged!!! :-)

I Am That Blogger

First up - The FireAngel Fan Club button I made and stuck on my other Blog Site. I wasn't able to load it (or other pictures) here before. But now I can. Will link to the fan site. I wonder where the creator of the fan site will take it. I don't think there is much more that can be done ... or is there? :-) I was going to write a little about this: BLOG COMMENT on slashdot - mainly as the blurb at the beginning makes a lot of assumptions. I was slightly offended by the '15 minutes of fame' remark. Gees! It assumes everythong blogs to be noticed! Talk about not understanding the intricasies of the human psyche and the differences in motives in the four personality types. It sounds like it was written by a typical melancholic who thinks all bloggers are sanguines! Doesn't matter! I guess that's my shortened version - was some other assumptions I won't bother ranting about! I AM THAT BLOGGER! MEME! I might have commented before ... or it might have been in someones comments section. There has been a MEME going around called 'I am that blogger ...' which is like, out there and lots of people have done it. I can't even remember everyone - but I know Minishorts did it, and Kyels did it ... and other's. Lots. I know it's lots, as I lost count of everyone who did it! Anyway, I started to write out in Open Office my 'I am that Blogger ...' stuff, and got to four or five pages when the computer froze and I lost it. (Baka Dabido - it kept asking to auto save, and I kept cancelling! That'll teach me!) After it froze, I switched the computer off, and then wrote another page by hand in my bedroom. I was amazed at how much I had done in my life. The problem was, I could have continued for hours more. It probably could have filled a book - and that wouldn't have included me ransacking my diaries to find more things I'd forgotten. I might have to start my diaries again. My blog doesn't go into anywhere nearly as much detail as my diaries used to. I feel I am loosing a lot of my life by not continuing the diary. Actually, the diary used to take one or two hours of writing each night. Anyway, I decided that maybe it was for the best that the computer died before I could post all those things. Some were too sad (similar to my post the other night about the Teflon suit). Others, you'd wonder what I'd been doing in order to do stuff so stupid. Other's were embarrassing for other reasons. I figured if I included too much, you might even get a bit of an idea about the different threads which make up the Teflon Suit. Tonight, without going into too much detail, I'll include some of the things here. Some will be confessions (let's face it, I'm sometimes honest to the point of pain). Other things I find funny, and other things will be sad. I am the son you didn't want, as I wasn't born a girl. I am the son you used to tell everyone was gay. I am the flatmate, who knocked on your door five times calling your name. When you didn't answer, I walked in to find you with ... um ... your thing in your hand! Sorry. Oh, phone call for you! :-) I am the flatmate who, realising you had slept in again, raced into your room to get you up, only to find your ... um ... I didn't know girls could do that! Um ... sorry! :-) [Yeah, even I didn't think I could do that to a second flatemate!] I am the flatmate who arrived home from work to find you cooking in nothing more than a G-string! Um ... can't blame me for that one! I do live here! :-) I am the son you left on the streets of Sydney. I am the husband who waited all night in the thunderstorm hoping you were coming home! I am the husband you tried to insure for a million dollars, then you tried to suffercate me in my sleep. I am the System Administrator you almost worked to death. I am the flatmate you threatened to kill with a baseball bat, because you didn't like my joke. Then you told everyone it was my fault! I am the patient you prescribed medication to which made my go suicidal. (Twice!) I am the patient you claimed was faking it. I went to another Doctor up the road. He actually examined me, and I had pneunonia. I am the brother you held while I had the crap beaten out of me. I am the friend who broke you and your fiance up ... sorry. I am the friend of your fiance that you kept hitting on! Sorry, I can' t sleep with you! I am the network engineer who stood up to you and stopped thousands of people loosing all their money. My reward was unemployment. I am the fellow student who disarmed you when you pulled a knife on me. I am the brother who knocked you out, because you were lying through your teeth. I am the centreforward on the soccer team that won the Under Eight Premiership. I am the guy your wife wanted to leave you for. (I said "No!" - but you'll never know she wanted to leave, and I'll never tell you!) :-) I am the flatmate you raced in on when I was stark naked in the bathroom! Um ... you slept in again silly girl! :-) I am the flatmate you abandoned when I was vomiting blood. I am the flatmate who arrived home from work to find you topless with another guy ... don't worry, I didn't tell your BF. I am the bass player who walked out on stage with everyone chanting the bands name! It was a great buzz. I am the idiot who told you off when you had done nothing wrong. Sorry. I am the idiot who bought a car without breaks and no traction and drove it into a tree. I am the idiot who drove the same car into an embankment a week later! I am the cyclist you drove over after failing to stop at a giveway sign on. (Which was why I ended up buying a car!) I am the neighbour you blinded with rocks. I am the patient you wanted to amputate the foot off. I am the husband who explained, that kangaroo doesn't have a joey's tail hanging out it's pouch! It's a male Kangaroo! :-) I am the husband who never said a thing, when your friends husband told the story of his wife making the same kangaroo mistake! :-) I am the friend who held your hand after you were run over by a drunk driver. You were already dead. I am the friend who didn't attend your funeral, as no one had told me you'd died till months after. I am the shy guy at school who liked you, but never asked you out. Years later you died of anarexia because you thought no one liked you. I am the musician who exploded at you because you hurt my feelings. (Damn ego!) I am the comedian who walked on stage and forgot all the punch lines! How embarrassing!!! :-) I am the blogger who writes way too much and had better shut up, as I still have more and more and more I could write! :-)

Sick Last Three Days

The last three days (or is it four now?) have been very difficult for me. Not because of what I was talking about in the last post, but because I've been really sick. Actually, it started on Wednesday, or Thursday. I was getting itchiness in my nasal passsages, inner ear and throat. Often a sign that my allergies are being set off. After all, it is spring, and there is pollen in the air. I kept taking Clarinaise tablets. They were ineffective. Saturday, I developed Flu like symptoms. I had so much homework from my business course, that I decided to soldier on, still thinking it might be allergies. Sunday, I knew it was something else. Still having Flu like symptoms, it might have been a bad head cold or something. Left lung was having major problems. Possible pneunomia type thing happening. Lots of pain in the left lung. Monday, it really became REALLY bad. Flu like symptoms were joined by migraine type symptoms. Was like a bad head cold, etc with all yesterday's problems, only now I was throwing up all the time, throat was as sore as can be, my eyes were getting flashes (migraine sufferers will know what I am talking about). The only reason I know it wasn't a migraine, was the headache is what would be considred mild by migraine standards (and probably medium to bad by other sufferers). I also had some major sneezing fits, which saw me use a LOT of handkercheifs up. Dizziness, and I almost fainted a few times. [Plus the depression episode too]. My friend Kat phoned me from Sydney. (She does that often. Just phones to make sure I am okay and everything. I think everyone needs friends like Kat.) We had a big Deep and Meaningful conversation. We were talking about depressions, our ex's and all sorts of things. I mentioned that I was having major doubts about starting the business. I wasn't sure I had what it takes to do it. Kat said to me, 'David. You can do this easily.' 'Really? Why do you say that?' 'Because everyone knows you're brilliant!' WOW! I loved her choice of words. She didn't use, 'Smart', or some of the other adjectives which might surfice. She used brilliant. 'Really? Thanks.' 'David, I knew you were brilliant from the first time I met you. You'll do this easily, and you'll wonder why you ever doubted yourself.' All I could do was thank her. It's probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. Anyway, we talked other things, like when was I ever going to go back to Sydney and visit everyone. Eventually, she had to go to bed (being in Sydney), so we said goodbye and stuff. I was still feeling really sick (and did some more vomitting later on, just to make sure my brain knew it too! My brain decided to agree, 'Yes! I was really sick!') :-) I had decided Monday night, I was too sick to go to my course on Tuesday. I was definitely going to one place, and one place only. My Doctor's!!! Tuesday morning I awoke, and it wasn't as bad as it had been. I was still very tired and larthargic. My throat was red raw. I was no longer sneezing or vomiting. I wondered if the worst was over. I was in two minds. Should I go to the Doctor's? Should I go to my course? I kept flip flopping until the last minute. I decided to go to my course! On the way, I had to drop off and buy more medical surplies. I had the cold and flu medication, but was desperate for anything to calm the sore throat. The lecturer saw the strepsils and said, 'David's got a cold'. (One of the few times he has called me David. He often calls me 'Dave', which I really hate being called!) Well, I almost slept threw the first half of the day. After lunch, and more medication, I was feeling a lot better. At lunch, I was relating my reservations about starting the business to one of the guys. I told him how I had spent the weekend wondering if I really should be doing it. Then, I told him what my friend Kat had said about me being brilliant. He agreed. He also told me that from the moment he met me, he thought I had a brillint brain. WOW! I was totally flabergasted! TWICE in TWO days TWO people HAD told ME I WAS BRILLIANT!!!!!! Why is this not common knowledge in the Universe? Do I normally have this affect on people and have NEVER realised it? I know a lot of people think I am smart, or even intelligent. But BRILLIANT! WOW! It certainly made me feel good about myself. Now I live with fear it will go to my head. Anyway, I hope they are both right. I'd like to use the compliment to spur myself on to doing everything I need to do, without becoming arrogant or self righteous. (Maybe talking about it here means it has gone to my head!) Tonight, I still have a headache and some other symptoms, but I beleive (and am hoping) that I will awaken tomorrow feeling my normal 'baka bodoh Dabido self'. If I am lucky, I will be feeling totally brialliant! :-) [Health wise that is] :-)

Teflon Suit at Work

Yesterday was Fireangel day around a lot of the Malaysian Blogsphere. I suspect it is a lot of FA's friends trying to cheer her up and get her a BF. Anyway, when writing one of my more serious replies to a post at Minishorts site, I fell into one of my depressions. It is a long and confusing thing to explain - but, basically, it's part of the Teflon Suit at work. When I was a lot younger, I wrote a song about the 'Walls' people build (Little did I know, that Pink Floyds Album, 'The Wall' was exactly about the same sort of thing). Actually, the timing wasn't all that bad - 'The Wall' came out in 1978 (or was it 1979), and I wrote my song in 1982. Anyway, I hadn't seen the movie, nor heard the Pink Floyd album, because I was still a student at school, and had no money. Anyway, I was thinking along very similar lines to Roger Waters 'Wall' at the time. I've now changed my thinking a little. What used to be a 'Wall' between people (or 'Shell' according to some), is now what I consider the 'Teflon Suit'. It's more flexible than a wall. Walls are very rigid (unless in a cyclone), and have no room for movement. The 'Teflon Suit' is more complex too. Walls are made of bricks and mortar and are basically Uniform throughout - with each 'Brick' possibly representing a piece of the 'personal barrier' towards other people. The Teflon suit has more flow and is made of thousands of complex threads, which are not all Uniform. Than can be different lengths, go in different directions and even have other bits sewn onto them (like pockets and stuff). They can be taylor made for the wearer and can even make big statements in style. At the end of the day though, Teflon is a major 'Non Stick' substance. It's also used in flak jackets and stuff, so is highly durable and difficult to damage. Wearing one of these is a lot better than hiding behind a wall. Anyway, that explains where the concept comes from. Part of the concept also, is the fact that you often don't think about, nor see each and every thread in the suit. Some things can unravel into your mind at random. A lost memory which you thought was gone, and your mood can change and swing very rapidly. This is what happened while I was writing my reply to Minishorts Article. Without knowing it, my brain cascaded down the one thread, which I thought was being rather sensible. Minishorts was asking guys to make their move on FA, and I was giving (what I think were very logical reasons) as to why it is impossible for me to commit. That's when IT hit me! I've always been good in the 'Relationship' part of a BF/GF relationship. I've always been bad at the 'start' and 'end' parts. While writing the comment, my brain went back to my distant past. This will seem completely off topic to my comment and what I was thinking about. It was 1985, streets of Sydney. Cold winter's night. Probably about midnight, maybe a little before or maybe a little after. Funny thing about 'living' on the streets. You have to have a completely differnet mind set to living in a house or flat. It's a differnet world, and logic often flies out the window. I was wandering around the streets. It wasn't raining, it wasn't windy. Doorways are always a good place to sleep if you can find one where you aren't too exposed. You don't want to be seen by passing police cars or anything. Anyway, I was wandering around, and I went past one of the churches on Broadway, somewhere between the University of Technology (then NSWIT) and Sydney Uni. In the church yard was an old man. A vagrant. A drunkard. He was lying on the other side of the iron fence which was there. He was lying on the grass (what little grass there was) moaning and stuff. I could hear him breathing pretty badly. Anyway, I didn't think much of it at the time. Drunks sleeping around the place is quite normal. Just because he was in the church yard didn't make it any different to him sleeping at a bus stop, or in a doorway. Actually, Railway Square was also a place a lot of the drunks and vagrants used to sleep. Doesn't matter. Well, I was wandering around, as some nights, that's actually the best thing to do. Keep moving and keep yourself warm. Don't stop. Always look like you know where you are going so nobody stops you to find out you don't have a home. I must have gone past the church two or three times. That drunk, snoring or moaning or whatever. Sometime during that night, someone must have found him. Maybe a clergy man, or maybe just another passerby. Anyway, a police car turned up, and an ambulance ... and there he was. The drunk, placed in a black plastic body bag. Sometime, between the last time I'd past him, and when I'd come back, he had been found. I don't know if he'd been alive when he was found and died after, or if he'd died, and then been found. For all I know, someone might have found him and killed him. The fracas of someone killing him might have attracted a passerby who then phoned the police. I really don't know, as I wasn't there at the time. I'm not sure if it really matters either. At the time, I remember I felt a little sad. I can't remember how sad. When the memory came back to me last night however, it made me very sad. It made me so sad, that I literally sank into a depression which stopped me dead. I was almost in tears and I couldn't help but wonder about the incident. Why was it making me so sad now? And this is part of the Teflon Suit. I have no control over this part. Sad memories. Bad memories. Things I thought I was immune to, as I'd lived through them, or lived past them. Things which don't make much sense now, or even then. It's part of the suit which my ex-wife could never understand. I'd just sink and sink and sink into a depression which sometimes has no cause, or the cause does not make sense. It saps me of energy. It saps me of confidence. It saps me of things even my closest friends think cannot be taken from me. I am here, but that's all. I am just here! The substance that makes me, has been drained by the sadness and madness of this world. Though I do not inflict the pain or sadness that is caused onto anyone else, they know it is there. They can't explain it, nor do the understand it. It is the part of the suit, which I've always asked my GF's and friends to just accept. I get annoyed when others try to make me happy, or try to give me sympathy. I get annoyed when they try to explain it or try to use logic to break me out of my depression. Somedays, you just have to accept, that you don't know, and you can't do a thing. And that's how it was with me and that drunk who died. It made me sad that he passed away that night, but what was I to do? Maybe that's why it makes me sad. Maybe I blame myself for not checking to see if he was alright. There are good reasons why you don't check things like that when you are on the street. I won't bother explaining. Too many details. As it stands though, I just didn't know, and I just couldn't do a thing. Now it's passed into the Teflon suit as a thread. Something no one can ever relate to, nor understand in detail. A thread that will disappear into memory until the next tiem I inadvertantly come across it when least expected!

What's Dabido up to now?

As I am studying for my Cert IV in Business Management at present, I'll make this really quick. Yeah, getting my Business Plan together and a Marketing Strategy which both need to be complete by tomorrow. Marketing has to be implimented on Wednesday - I'm a little scared at the prospect, but isn't that what makes life worth while, doing something which scares you and coming out on top. No wonder I love Rollercoasters! I hope, if I ever get together with a girl sometimes in the future, that they too like rollercoasters! I mean real ones that you go on at theme parks - not the one life is made from. Life's rollercoaster is compulsory, whether you like it or not! :-) I'm not sure why, but Blogger isn't uploading my pictures. I was trying to add three to the site - One of Douglas Adams book, 'The Salmon of Doubt'. I'v ejust finished reading it today, and thought I'd stick the picture here, and write a little about it ... for those that don't know, 'The Salmon of Doubt' was published post-humously (that means after he died, not after a joke ... after a joke is post humourously). It contained the start of the book he was working on called 'The Salmon of Doubt', which is a Drik Gently detective novel. This is left to last, while the front quarter or so of the book consists of articles published and other work unpublished which were sitting around on his beloved Mac waiting to be placed in book form. It's a good read and and Hitchhiker Fans would (IMHO) love to read it. Those people not familiar with Adams writing should probably start with the book 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'. Read it before seeing the movie. They are ... um ... different. The second picture I was trying to upload, was of the book 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. That's what I'm going to start reading tomorrow. I've actualyl visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam, which is now a museum. If you are ever in Amsterdam, then definitely drop in and have a look. I probably should also have tried uploading one of my photo's from outside the house (which I took in September 2000). Oh well, no pictures today, blogger doesn't love me any more! :-) Third picture was of Everclear's album 'So much for the Afterglow', which I was about to start listening to. The other three books I am currently reading are all 'Small Business' Management or Marketing books, and as such, not really that exciting. I'm also gettign stuck into my course notes and trying to get my Business Plan and Marketing Strategy ready for implimentation! That's all for now. If I end up blogging intermitantly over the next few weeks, then you know I am studying hard. I have a Certificate to acheive. Can't have too many pieces of paper in the modern world! Might need them as toilet paper once all the trees have disappeared! :-)

Quick How To Guides (Part Five)

Quick Guide Five - How to make a totally disgusting drink, which is healthy for you. 1. Take half a cabbage, a large celery and some beetroot. NOTE: You can add other things to make it more palatable too, like fruit etc. There are good reasons why I use this combination for my totally disgustingly healthy drink. The Cabbage is one of the best things for the stomach lining. As a lot of my regular readers know, I've had stomach problems for the last twenty years. So getting a little cabbage into me, is a good thing. The beetroot is one of the best things for helping the liver. It helps fight fatty liver and also is great if you've been out on the town drinking yourself stupid. It helps reverse some of the damage done by a big binge. The celery is also good for weight loss and has other health implications. (Which is why celery tablets are also available from health stores and supermarkets etc). I'll let you look up the other health benefits of all these things. 2. Clean them. If you are like me, the last thing you want in your drink is sand or bits of insect (celery seems to come from the super market with both of these things! Yuch!) 3. Chop them up so that the cabbage and celery will fit into a juicer. Yes, we are juicing these and not blending these. I bought the juicer about seven years ago, as I was (at that stage) juicing cabbages for my stomach problems. I discovered something about cabbage juice. First, it is totally disgusting to drink on its own. Second, it has a nasty tanginess to it, that doesn't do the tongue any good. Third, no matter what you stick with it, you can never seem to make it taste any better (though the beetroot and celery seem to take the edge off it). If anything, sticking apple juice or water melon juice or other things with it, just seems to ruin whatever you stick with it. 4. Put the cabbage and celery through the juicer. 5. Chop the beetroot up so that it will fit into a blender. The reason for blending the beetroot, as opposed to juicing it, is I found I could juice a beetroot, and get very little in the way of juice from it. Someone once gave me a book which showed the equivalent amounts you need to eat in order to get the same quantities of vegetables. Juicing (or blending) helps to break the vegetable down so that the body takes it in quicker, and less is lost through not being digested. According to the book, a juiced cabbage is equivalent to something like one hundred cabbages! I have no idea how accurate the book is (or was), but the numbers certainly looked very impressive. 6. Put the beetroot through a blender. This of course leaves all the chunky bits of beetroot in the mixture. You'll find it floats on top once all the ingredients are mixed together. 7. Take the blended Beetroot and Juiced Cabbage and Celery and stick them in a jug and mix them up. Actually, the jug is also so you don't spill the juice all over the place. It's easier to do the next step. 8. Pour the contents of the jug into a bottle and add water. See, told you it was easier! :-) The water also helps make the concoction more palatable to drink. Don't try to water down cabbage juice on it's own though. I found that just made more bad tasting cabbage juice. :-) 9. Drink. Actually, when you get to this stage, you'll notice all the beetroot bits at the top of the bottle, which makes the juice hard to get out. Shake the bootle before pouring into a glass (or drinking it straight out of the bottle like I did). What I did fitted into a one and a half litre bottle (with water added to fill it to the top). I find this is easy enough to drink, without the problems of the cabbage overwhelming the flavour. My mother claimed I was going to be releasing wind all day today ... I haven't. (Yes, that is a little surprising). Cabbage has a bad reputation in that category of things. (And probably well deserved). Of course, most human wind is the cause of undigested products breaking down inthe bowels. With less cabbage undigested, there is of course less reason for it to create wind. My brother Jeff is a big advocate of beetroot. He told me that if you eat enough of it, all your waste products start to look purple. (Including your pee). I haven't found this to be the case, but, I am not living off beetroot and nothing else like he does some weeks. I'm also not that obsessed with my waste products to care what colour it is. I've been drinking about a quarter of the bottle each day. Tell me if you try this ... another good one to help the chronitc alcoholic is to have raw vegetable juice made from Purple Cabbage, Carrot, Orange, and Beetroot with 50% water added to dilute it. According to scientists this mixture restores a thing called 'glutathione' to your body, which is essential for liver regeneration. Liver function also relies on Vitamin K - this is found in green leafy vegetables, so chow down on that cabbage and bok choy! [As I've had one drink in two and a half years, you probably wonder why I am bothering ... well, I suspect some of my readers drink more than me, so hey, just helping look after your livers!] :-)

My Daily Walking Trail

You are looking at my daily walking trail. Every morning I walk for one to two hours along this trail. Lately, it's been one and a half, except this morning, when I did two. What it really shows me, is I need to mow the lawn. :-) Normally, the dogs do their business all over the path. I don't know why, but I assume it has to do with them trying to associate their smells with where I walk. Every morning, I start my walk off, by going around with a rake and playing Dog Doo Golf. Hitting the dog doo into the garden and off the track. Soon, all this grass will turn brown and start to die. Pity.

I used to read while walking. Now I listen to a tape recorder. I suspect the walking and reading simultaneously was causing me eyestrain. As you walk, your eyes have to adjust to take into account the fact that the book is bobbing up and down. The little red car you see parked next to our house, is my proton satria. Made in Malaysia. It's been all over Australia - well, not all of Australia. It easily made the trip across the Nullabour Plains until THAT kangaroo lept in front of us and WHAM! $4500 worth of damage! OUCH!~!

The dog in the foreground in Toby (or Tobias). He's a good dog. We also own his sister Elly. She is a demanding little dog who likes to yap a lot. Yap Yap Yap Yap ... hmmm, wonder if she'll ever shut up. Probably not. I suspect three years after shes gone she'll still be yapping. Anyway, if I want Toby to go for a walk with me, I just jog a bit. He likes to leap up and bite my butt! Elly never ever goes for a walk. She just sits and watches me. I think she's figured out that I just walk or run in circles. :-)

The white car in the foreground is my youngest brothers. He also owns another car which my mother uses.

Below is Toby rolling around on the grass. One of our sheds is in the background. Some of the trees are already turning brown ready for summer. Our wood shed is behind the shed you can see. Most of the wood now has termites in it. The builders didn't follow my mothers instructions. They didn't build the house in the middle of the block like she'd asked.

We suspect my father might have had something to do with that. Apparently, he went into the builders office and made changes against my mother's will. So bits of the house were changed and re-arranged to annoy her, rather than to fit the actual design she'd made. It's a pity the builders did that, as my mother was the person who was paying for it all. She had saved the deposit and everything. My father just changed things because he's an absolute d***head, and liked to annoy the rest of the family. Part of it was a control thing. He likes to pretend that he can do what he wants, and everyone else has to do what he says! No wonder no one talks to him anymore.

Steal These Buttons

Here we go with two new buttons for you to steal. Use them to link to these sites if you visit them, or add them to your own site for others to steal. First, Kyels button for her site: Then, Beerbabes button for her site: Other buttons for you to steal are in my side bar. Check them out if you need a button to link to any that I have buttons for. Cheers.

Who Are You?

Just out of curiousity, (and so I can do some market research), who comes here? I get about thirty hits per day, and about half are return visitors (which might mean that I have fifteen regular readers, and about fifteen people passing by each day). So, who are you? What do you like me blogging about? What do you hate me blogging about? Should I include more pictures? Should I write less? (Do I write too much)? Do you like the buttons on my side bar? (Have you noticed all those buttons on my sidebar?) Any other ways you believe I can improve my blog? Are you a regular reader, or just passing by? Anything else you care to mention? Cheers, Dabido

Quick How To Guides (Part Four)

Guide Four - How To Avoid Blog Block (or writers Block), or What to Blog About! I've been meaning to write this for sometime, and I guess what I just wrote (last post), is as good a reason to include this now. First let me ask, Why do some people get 'Blog Block', and other's (like myself) never have that problem? (Or won't shut up!) First of all, I think I don't run out of ideas to blog about, as I have an innate curiosity about everything. I also love THINKING about everything. It doesn't mean I know about everything nor do I have an opinion about everything (though when I tell people I don't have an opinion about something, or have to think about it more, it usually surprises them). Due to this 'curiosity' thing, I can normally think of something to write (and as a lot of you know from my long comments on other peoples sites, I can normally rattle off a long opinion or advice about most subjects at hand). So, where do I get my ideas from? That depends. Normally, I don't know. I don't think that hard about things. First thing I normally start my blogging day with, is what's happened to me during the day. It's a bit like 'Seinfeld' claiming his show was about 'nothing'. The fact is, 'nothing' in the Seinfeld sense incorporated almost 'everything'. In truth, the Seinfeld show was about a 'New York Comedian' living in his apartment and occurances centering around him and his friends. As it had a very large scope (pretending to be about nothing), it was able to go almost anywhere, provided it didn't move to far from the central characters and their lives. Like, you couldn't suddenly find the characters on Mars or back in the past ... where as Star Trek or The Twilight Zone could if they wanted to, go to those places. On our blogs though, we have a choice. We can choose to blog on a theme, or we can choose to blog on a huge range including ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. If you have chosen to blog around a theme, then you had better know your theme pretty well, and stick to that theme. If you have done this, then I would pretty much say that you probably don't need help and can research your own ideas. If you do get a block, then your best place to find ideas, is other sites/books etc based on a similar theme. Unless that theme is your life, or something so unique that only you can answer the question of what to write about. So, without further adieu, here is a quick bullet point list of things to blog about:

• Your life/day (something that happened) [Birthdays, exams, idiots on the road etc]
• Something on someone elses site (blog or not) which inspired you (but don't rely on this for inspiration. I find it is best to do this when you do find something inspirational, NOT as a means of finding inspiration)
• Latest News Event (anything from the news, whether serious, or humourous)
• Food (very popular)
• Review a book, DVD, movie, CD, song, art piece, (endless) anything really
• Write about an historic hero of yours
• Write about an historic idiot/villian/event.
• Write about something philisophical (One of my favourites)
• Write about religion (try not to offend others of other religions or even your own)
• Write about a personal opinion (You do have them you know)
• Write about a problem or quandry (this often helps people think their way through them, and often helps others who are suffering similar things - it also invites discussion which might include things you never thought about)
• Write a poem
• Write a piece of Fiction.
• Complain and whinge about idiots you encounter, or things which annoy you.
• Write about things or people who inspire you
• Write about some profound saying which you find helpful in your life
• Write about something which happened in your past.
• Write a self help guide on something (like, how to change a lightbulb without falling off the ladder, or how to avoid burping ... anything ... how to write better blogs)
• Write something you find funny (and think others might)
• Steal a joke from somewhere and draw cartoon pictures to go with it. (eg KY)
• Write about your possible future
• Write about how something in your past might have changed your future if you did it different
• Write about love (your first or latest, or lack of)
• Write about the world in general - get political, or pacifistic, or defend the downtroden, or just be a bastard/bitch about it all.
• Write about where you've been or where you'd like to go.
• Write about technology/money or anything you might include as one of your hobbies
• Write about what you'd like to do (skydive - scuba dive - climb everest - sit on the beach)
• Write about a weird dream you had (or make one up and pretend it was a dream) :-)
• Lie OR get overly honest OR confesssssss everything! (Yes, the body is in the boot of my car) :-)
• Offer an opinion on anything and ask for other opinions
• Sports (if you do them) - which team do you follow ... why ...
• Culture (your own, or others you have experienced)
• Pat someone on the back for something they've acheived (World intergender nose rubbing champion of the year?)
• Go to Yahoo! or some other site with a list of subjects and follow links down as far as you go ... whatever subject you arrive at, that's tonights topic.
• Randomly open the encyclodepia to any page, and then research that topic ... then write what you have learnt
• Write about famous people, non-famous people who you think should be famous, or famous people who shouldn't etc
• Write about brands you support and ones you don't explain why.

The list is in fact endless (well, almost). You can add some in the comments you think I should have included (this is NOT the definitive list). Anyway, maybe if you link to this post, and next time you are without inspiration, you can browse through and try to think of something. Your opinions never go away, no matter how uninspired you feel, so finding something that challenges you or the way you think should get some response. If it doesn't (or you can't find anything), as a last resort, write about why you feel you ahve blog block, or feel uninspired! Are you not well/ender the weather? Are you confused? Are you just feeling nothing you say is important anymore? Then WRITE ABOUT IT! :-)

Why do we blog?

Here is an interesting article from the 21st of September. It quotes some stats collected by AOL concerning blogging etc. So, why do we blog? What do we blog about? et hoc genus omne! Let me check if I fit in by comparing to the 'What people blog about' stats.

• Anything and Everything - YEP!
• Family - YEP!
• Friends - YEP!
• Hobbies - YEP!
• SelfEsteem/Self Help - YEP!
• Job -YEP!
• News - YEP!
• Gossip - YEP!
• School -YEP! (In my case whatever I am studying lately! I'm not actually AT SCHOOL)

Okay, I fit into all of those! What about you? Let's compare myself to 'Reasons for reading other people's blogs':

• Entertainment - YEP!
• To get a different, fresh perspective on the news - NOPE!
• I like interacting with participants through posting - YEP!
• For Gossip - YEP!
• It's the easiest way to get the latest news - YEP! (Off Slashdot in my case)
• I like the format - HUH? (What's so different to formats that websites had before?)
• To Stay Up On The Competition - Huh? What competition? I'm supposed to be competeing?

To say another one not present, I also like fresh persectives on things I like thinking about - not the news so much, but other perspectives to philosophies, life, religion etc etc. How about you? Can someone explain the 'Format' thing to me? Let's compare myself to the 'Reasons for keeping a blog':

• It serves as therapy - YEP! (It's replaced my personal diary)
• To stay in touch with family and friends - NOPE! I have to get friends now? What's wrong with hanging out with computers? :-)
• To improve my writing skills - NOPE! Definitely not. In fact, I usually write so fast on my blog, that I don't spell check nor think too hard about anything. (Same as my comments! Straight out of the brain - no re-writes, no deep thought, no polishing to make more diplomatic or savoury)
• Because my friends, family and colleagues do - NOPE! Don't know anyone who fits into that category (other than my 'friends' I've met through the internet).
• Interested in Journalism - NOPE! Not really.
• It's the latest trend - NOPE! Arrrgh~! If anything, I see this as a reason to STOP blogging!
• To stay ahead of the news or gossip trends - NOPE! Is this possible, considering that most blogs get their news/gossip etc off other sites? Just subscribe to the websites that generate this news.
• To expose political information - NOPE! I'm no Jeff Ooi. I occasionally give my opinion of political stuff, but expose it? Nope!
• Information on the web doesn't fulfill me needs - NOPE! If I can't find what I want on the www, I can normally find somewhere on the www which will sell it to me in some form. Besides, BLOGS are on the web! Ptttthhhh!
• Hope it brings fame or notoriety - NOPE! Not me! I prefer to avoid fame. Can't think of anything worse. Notoriety probably means you are deliberately antagonising others for some reason. I can do that by accident! :-) Besides, isn't notoriety just 'fame for the wrong reasons' ???

So, why do I blog. Obviously for me it isn't just the 'therapy' aspect of it all. There is the creative release, the hope that sometimes I write things which will help people, a means of self expression. Why do you blog?

Happy Birthday Suanie

Today is Suanie's birthday. Yes, she has turned sweet sixteen again ... for the tenth time. KY has some interesting pictures of her hugging her new BF ... Mr Toilet Bowl. (He gets more action than I do, so I won't laugh!) Today was also day two of my Business Management Course. Sort of scarey in many ways. Also, sort of boring in many ways. The boring part is because I've done a lot of this sort of thing when I did my Marketing Certificate. It's like a bad re-run (Thank goodness the economics part isn't repeated!) Anyway, have to get stuck into a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis tonight. The weekend is goingto be interesting. I ahve to start writing my Business Plan ... and hand half of it in on Tuesday. Thank goodness Monday is a public holiday ... though, that may not help me much. It means my opposition in the market place is not open, so I can't phone them to gather information. I hope they have some on their websites and stuff. Had a good talk for a brief moment with Sean Paul, who is going to be designing websites. Mainly talking about Linux and stuff. He likes to run Fedora Core type stuff (from Red Hat). I ran Red Hat linux from 1996 till (was it last year, or beginning of this year?) Anyway, the computer I was running it on died. As soon as I buy a new computer, this one will probably take over as the Red Hat machine, and I'll run other stuff on the new one. Very tired. I stupidly drank a coke yesterday and couldn't get to sleep last night. Then had to get up early to go tackle the Government Departments over my enrollment and starting my own business. Got in there at eight thirty am and was lucky. I was only person there, and I also got to speak to someone who knew what they were talking about. After numerous phonecalls and to other Departments/people etc etc, she figured out she was going to have to manually fix everything on the computer system herself. (The opposite of the other day). FINALLY it was fixed up. (I hope! Been here before when the whole thing falls apart and some idiot decides they know better). Anyway, means I am free to concentrate on my course for a while. Phew! (Stupid Government!) Guess I better get stuck into my homework! Funny thing, my mother said she wouldn't disturb me ... and she's done nothing BUT interupt me ... now she's eating her dinner, so I have some time to get started! Woo Hoo! So tired, so much work to do!

Start of Business Course

Well, the fun never ever ends! Today, tried to start my business course, but my usual problem with the Government Departments fighting over who's supposed to do what continued. I went in this morning, and was late for my FIRST DAY, as I was not sure I was allowed to start the course. (I was told I wasn't without it being sorted out ... only, it still isn't sorted out!) So, I was there talking to one group of people ... because another group had said it wasn't thier issue, and another group said it wasn't theres .. and a fourth group was phoned and it's not their issue, and the people I was speaking to said it wasn't their issue. So, was told to speak to the same Dept. I spoke to the other day ... only I had to go to the course ... so I went, arrived late and filled in the forms. Was pretty boring course so far. I hope it will get better. The lecturer has said he's going to fast track it for us. Normally a six month course, which gets cut down to six weeks, which we're doing in four weeks ... which we are going to try and fast track even faster. Lunch was more exciting. One of the guys has funny eyes that never look at you. He was saying how he was blind till he was four. He also suffers seizures and narcalepsy. He's the first Narcaleptic person I've ever met. He seems pretty cool too. Well, may he just impressed me because I'm a geek. He's starting a business designing webpages etc. One of the girls is really cute. There are only two, the other one is older than me. The cute girl has a partner etc, so against my principals to chase her (plus she is neither asian nor Japanese). :-) One of the guys is starting a jewelry business. He seems pretty cool too. Plus I have a German guy sitting next to me, he's starting some electrical generator business. Two guys are starting Handyman businesses. Another a mowing business, and the last guy a Masseur business. I feel like I have no idea what I am doing there. Weird! I can't wait to get into some more nitty gritty on the course and start to get things together. I took the course notes home and everything ... but I have been busy watching TV tonight. I'll read it when I get up in the morning. I'm feeling very tired tonight.

---------

Just a quick story I want to share from when I was sixteen. When I was younger (younger than sixteen), my friends younger sisters always used to like me. I don't know why. Anyway, when I was sixteen, I was riding to my friends farm (we'll call him B), with my other friend (let's call him S). As we were riding along, S was telling me how B has a sister who will be there. Me, being the silly Dabido that I was, automatically assumed it was a younger sister. I rolled my eyes and made some weird sigh which meant, 'Oh Gees!' S asked what the problem was. So I told him about how my friends younger sisters always seem to get crushes on me and won't leave me alone. I was afraid the same thing was going to happen. S laughed at me and assured me it wasn't going to happen. I kept telling him, as sure as night is day, IT WILL HAPPEN! IT ALWAYS HAPPENS! S just kept laughing. So, we got to B's place and B showed us around. As we're going around the place, a girl, older than we were walked past. S said to me, 'Hey, that's B's sister.' 'Oh!' was all I could say. She wasn't a younger sister like I thought. She was B's elder sister (and B was about a year older than I was). S asked me if I still thought she was going to develop a crush on me. I told him that it might, but I explained how I'd made the assumption that she was younger than us. A few minutes later, B's sister walked back in the courtyard with a girl I knew from school. We were standing at the other end of the courtyard from them. They stopped and they both gave each other a very passionate, 'Hey, this one wriggles like a very wriggly electric eel dancing the electric boogaloo', tongues all over the place kiss. I turned to S and said, 'Okay, it ain't gonna happen!' S laughed. B wanted to know what we were talking about. So S told him. I don't know if B ended up telling his sister, but the next time I was over B's house, his sister walked past and gave me a 'knowing' sort of a smile! Yes, even back then the world knew I was an idiot! :-) Baka Dabido! (Both of the girls had very short hair too ... why! Why! WHY! Didn't I see the signs!) :-) [The one from school was cute too!] :-)

Quick How To Guides (Part Three)

Guide Three - How to use Dabido to pick up girls (for the guys) Following on from yesterdays Quick Guide Two, today I present the other side of the coin. How my friends often used ME (yes, little ol' me), to pick up girls. Technique One: Obviously, after reading yesterdays post, you will realise, if we are at a pub / nightclub etc together, the easy thing to do is wait. Once I pluck up the courage to ask a girl onto the dance floor, dance on over and start a conversation with the girl. She will surely ditch me and go off with you. It's never failed (except that time my friends GF was on the dance floor with me). Technique Two: If I happen to be anywhere with a guitar, I often attract a crowd while I am playing it. Actually, one of my favourite things to do on my Birthday, is serenade girls. It's not part of my technique, it's just something I like to do. Sing a romantic song to a girl, and look deep into her eyes ... and hope she hasn't drunk too much! Nothing worse than them chucking up while doing that! :-) Actually, I did this on my thirty fifth birthday to a young (30 yo) Japanese girl named Momoko. As everyone said later, I made her melt. (I think we were able to unmelt her later and remold her into shape!) :-) They asked me, 'why is it, when you have such an obvious "IN" like that, that you dodn't take advantage of it?' I told them, 'She's got a BF already. An English guy named Paul.' Of course, there have been other times when my friends have taken advantage of these situations and used my romantic mood setting music to move in on girls. Seems to have 100% success rate. I don't know why. Technique Three: Back when I was with my old band (or one of my old bands), one of the things my friends would do is tell the girls they are 'with the band'. Easily confirmed when they'd scream out my name and wave to me on stage and I'd wave back! Also, 100% success rate! (Still no idea way). Technique Four: Being the friendly, trusting sort of guy I am, a lot of girls naturally trust me. So in Sydney, we'd often head off to the pub, and I'd naturally strike up a conversation with almost any one. Occassionally, I'd make friends with a group of people, or a group of girls, and my friends would take advantage of the situation. I distinctly remember one night, when I went out of my way to talk to two nice Japanese girls. One of them left (because as my friend put it, I didn't 'make a move' on her). My friend then texted me, 'I'm in. Go Home.' I almost texted back, 'Half the guys in the pub are "in" with this girl' (which was true ... I was also pretty much 'in'), but I decided not to. Mainly as I know I would stuff things up if I pursued her. So I pretended the text message was important and that I had to leave. Five minutes later, my friend was heading home with her ... um, make that two minutes later. I knew she liked me, as she later e-mailed me asking me to move to Tokyo and live with her. I declined! NON-Technique: If you like my latest GF, then don't wait till I dump them. I am usually in for the long haul and seldom break up over stupid things. I put up with a lot of crap from girls. Out of courtesy, I expect you not to hit on them either. (Though you could add Technique Five as 'Hit on any girl with Dabido'. It has a very low, almost nominal success rate though ... unless the girl is a friend, in which case, refer to yesterdays 'Quick Guide') :-) Technique Five: If you see me talking to any girl, and they seem to be my friend (not GF), then hit on them. Often, I am so busy developing a relationship with the girl and trying to figure out if I like them enough to acutally ask them out, that the girl gives up on me every asking them out. Often, I have found out that my 'female friends' did actually like me 'in that way' when we first met. Just I procrastinate over whether a BF/GF relationship will actually work with them, that their feelings change. For any girl reading this, this 'stalling/procrastinating' technique of mine is part of the Teflon Suit. Of course, in other situations, we are ONLY just friends. Yeah, hard to work out if we're friends or if I am thinking that way ... also, part of the confusing Teflon Suit. [See, I keep saying it's not easy to tear your way through it]. :-)

Quick How To Guides (Part Two)

Guide Two - How to Use Dabido to Pick Up Guys (for the Ladies): There is something about me, that makes females (in general) like me as a friend, and makes guys think they can take women from me. I don't know what it is, but no matter who I am with, there is always some guy who thinks they can take the lady away from me. In most cases, it just doesn't work. We'll get to the actual 'Method' for girls to use me to get guys at the end. Here are some examples from the past. I will start with the sad tale of my first love. Yes, it is sad, and the only person to blame for my loss, is me. [Don't cry ... was long ago.] :-) Anyway, I saw this girl at school (I was thirteen at the time), and instantly fell in love with her. (Or should we call it infactuation or something else). Anyway, at the time, I had no idea who she was. I asked one of my friends. He told me. Then I spent the entire next month asking other friends who were in some of her classes if she was single and if she would go out with me. Yes, she was single ... and her reply to, 'Would she go out with me?' was a solid, 'Who?' Yes, I was a nobody in her universe. That's not the sad part. :-) Anyway, another guy at school wanted to go out with her, and she didn't like him, as he acted as though he owned her, like some possession. A lot happened between me and him, including him and his friend threatening to pulverise me to dust (with me quaking in my boots ... literally shaking like an escaped jelly from an eating contest). I kept telling him I wasn't afraid of him, but alas, the jelly impersonation was a dead give away. After a while, the guy saw the sort of stuff I was going through to be with her and to be her BF. He turned to me one day, with me expecting him to finally make good his threat. I braced myself for the worst. He said to me he was going to withdraw from chasing her, as I obviously was deeply in love with her. (By this time, I was her BF anyway). Things weren't going too well though. She was weird. Like, she'd go lock herself in the toilets and stuff to avoid me. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know this at the time, but that was her normal behaviour towards her BF's. What happened though, was another guy started chasing her. A guy named Danny. Danny (like many others to come) thought he would just walk in and take my GF off me. Anyway, to make this story shorter, Danny kept working on me. Telling me that the reason she was locking herself in the toilet all the time, was that she didn't like me. After a while, this sort of thing started to sink into my little brain. Finally, the night of the end of year dance, I was sitting by the speakers at the front of the stage, slowly going deaf, waiting for her to come out of the toilets. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Eventually, Danny sat next to me, and he kept telling me what was happening in the girls toilets. He told me that she was trying to figure out some way to dump me! After a while, I got really upset by this. Eventually, she did emerge from the girls room. She was okay. She'd just been building her courage up to hang out with me. I didn't realise this. What ensued was me accusing her of everything that Danny had been planting in my head. (Yes, not very nice. It's was like a teenage Othello, with Danny as Iago, my GF as Desdemona, and me as Othello ... except of course, that I was white). What I discovered, was she absolutely hated Danny. Alas, my stupidity had got me into trouble. One thing she didn't need was my stupid accusations. A fight erupted, which eventuated in me getting myself dumped by her! I cried the rest of the night. I learned a lot about it all later - so I know she wasn't in the toilets trying to figure out how to dump me. She was apparently very confused by why a guy would be in love with her at all, and why I wanted to hang out all the time. Anyway, I guess there is also a lesson in not listening to gossip/propaganda etc. My fault. I don't blame the ex GF or Danny for what happened. (Though both of them were pretty weird in their own way). I am just happy that Danny was 100% unsuccessful in picking her up. As an afternote, Danny often tried for many of the GF's that I had, or girls I was chasing after. He was always unsuccessful! Somehow, it became a perosnal thing with him ... and at one time he was supposed to meet me behind the school sheds for a fight. (I think was over him hitting on one of my GF's and I was supposed to defend her honour). He chickened out. One of my friends spotted him sneaking out of school, and I ended up chasing him down the street. I was the smallest guy in school too ... can you imagine average sized Danny being chased by little me! haha! :-) Note: I am pretty much non-violent, but this was pretty funny. I wasn't the one who wanted the fight either! hee hee!

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That didn't stop the guys from trying to take girls away from me ... or even succeeding. Out at the nightclubs, I was pretty hopeless with finding GF's. My nights at disco's etc usually consisted of this:

• Spend all night getting courage to ask girl to dance. (Another Black Russian thanks)
• Finally, ask a girl to dance.
• Get up on the dance floor with the girl.
• Dance.
• Some other guy would dance over, start talking with the girl ... and off they'd go together!

DARN! It even got to the point where some of the guys actually knew me, and would wait to see which honey I brought to the dance floor. Then they'd move in and pick them up! I was so upset by what kept happening, that one of my friends and his GF decided to do something for me. My friends GF went up to the dance floor with me and danced with me. When the guys tried to pick her up, she told them, 'No way! Do you realise how good in bed this guy is?' I blushed redder than a Ferrari team uniform! It gave those guys some new respect for me. Didn't stop them picking up the girls I took up to the dance floor. They did, however, all act like I was some sort of hero when they saw me! (Much to my embarrassment). I suspect none of them had ever had a girl say that about them to anyone.

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Eventually, after many GF's, I was successful in finding a girl I thought worthy to keep. So, we got married (and later divorced). Even when I was married, guys would hit on my wife. The funny thing was, I was often there at the time. A conversation along the lines of this would occur:

• Guy: Hey, you wanna make out?
• Wife: No, I'm married.
• Guy: So, I don't care. You wanna make out?
• Wife: No, my husband is right here! (Pointing at me)
• Guy: So, I don't care.
• Me: Hey, she's said, 'No' twice already! We're married, don't you get it?
• Guy: Yeah, Okay. So, you wanna make out?

And off they'd go. Only to hit on her as soon as I went to the bathroom or something. Actually, I have a bit of a funny story before we got married too. An american guy who was a friend of my then GF and me, told me one night he was going to take my GF off me. I told him he couldn't. He kept telling me he was going to, because he thought my GF was in love with him an not me. (If you knew the guy, you'd know he thought this of all women!) Well, I told my GF about the conversation, and she thought it was weird. She thought he was one of the ugliest things on the planet (a bit uglier than a very charming slug, and less uglier than an very ugly slug). A few days later, I heard that he'd hit on her. He'd tried to convince her to leave me for him. This was of course hilariously funny for my GF and her friends. (And me too).

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Here is another example from after my divorce. One night, me and a large group of friends from my then second job went to the local pub. It was a Saturday night. One of my friends (who was also very married with three kids), was sitting on my lap (just as friends. Nothing sexual or anything ... it was a lack of chairs thing). Anyway, some guy was looking at her all night. (For a mother of three, she was still a pretty hot chick). So this guy (who must have been about twenty to twenty five), came over and started hitting on her. He was obviously very drunk. So you get the picture - I'm sitting there, she's on my lap, this guy is hitting on her! Like, SHE'S SITTING ON MY LAP DUDE! All the time, he's hitting on her, and he keeps looking at me and whispering appologies. Like, he wasn't fooling anyone! I kept telling him, 'She isn't my GF, she's my friend. Stop appologising.' But he wouldn't. He must have felt guilty. Anyway, eventually she took his phone number and stuff. (Not that I think she was going to use it ... but it did get rid of him).

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So, if you are a single girl out there, and you are having trouble picking up men, then this is the way to do it. Go to the pub with me (as friends) and you are almost sure to get picked up. [May only happen in Sydney]. It also only seems to work if people 'THINK' we are a couple. I don't know why. If it looks like we're just friends, then it doesn't work. The extra desperate amongst you, may want to just copy one of my photo's from this site. Blow the picture up to life size and stick it on the front of a dummy. (No one will notice any difference). Take it to the pub as a Dabido Doll. Tell me how it goes, I might just start marketing it! :-)

Quick How To Guides (Part One)

Guide One - How to Waste Dabido's Time: This morning, it was raining, and had been raining heavily all night. So instead of my one hour walk outside, I decided to do it inside. This took my two hours and five minutes. How did I manage to take so long to complete a one hour walk? Well, it comes down to time wasting. I don't like wasting my own time, but other people seem very adept at wasting mine. In my case, it was because my mother kept wanting to have conversations with me. Only, I was wearing a walkman and listening to a tape as I walked. My mother would keep saying things to me, and I'd have to turn the walkman off and ask her to repeat what she'd said. After having a brief discussion with her, I'd wait and see if she was going to continue. No, she had stopped talking. Good. On with the headphones and on with the play button. Then, just as I've taken one or two steps, she'd suddenly start talking to me again. Gees! Off with the play button. Off with the headphones. Then I'd have to get her to repeat it again. Mind you, none of this was important stuff either. Just random chatter my mother believed she needed to tell me. Add to this, the Governments latest effort. As you know, (If you are a regular reader) I am trying to do a Cert IV in Business as well as starting my very own small business. Last night, at four thirty, I received a phone call telling me that I wouldn't be allowed to start my course without clearance from a different Government Department (as they were unable to update it on their computer screens). Only problem, is the Government Dept. I needed to see, closed at four o'clock. So I had to wait till this morning. Down to the Government Dept. I went. I had obviously chosen the wrong time to go, as there was a large queue. My timing was even worse, as I was standing behind a lady, who smelled like a garlicy durian left out in the hot sun with horse sweat and pig fat smeared on her body. The worst thing was, the line was almost out the door, I was only just able to fit into the office. I tried to stand about two or more feet behind her, but more people kept arriving. On top of that, I noticed that a large amount of people were already waiting in the waiting room. Eventually, the line slowly moved forward. Only, this lady was waiting behind her husband. I was fortuitously not able to smell him. I figured his odour would be of a similar nature to his wife's. Only, she started to stand a few feet away form her husband, so much so, that eventually the line was in two parts; her and her husband, and the rest of us. The 'rest of us' was made up of about ten people, all trying to squeeze into the office. Maybe she was standing furthur back from him because he really did smell worse than her! I know, it's hard to believe, but the possibility was there. Eventually, they were served, and I was able to move to the very front of the line and 'the rest' were able to fit into the office. I got to see one of the people behind the counter, and they asked me to take a seat and someone would see me shortly. I looked around the waiting room, and realised that one side had all the seats taken up. The other side had some okay looking asian ladies. My radar is very good like that. Ask my friends, I've been sitting in Sydney pubs before, with my back to the door, and suddenly gone 'Asian girls' and spun around. Sure enough, a group of asian girls would be walking through the door right at that instant. I should point out, there were no windows, or mirrors to catch reflections or anything. Sometimes I just know! (My spider sense is tingling). The joke being, that if I ever get to Japan, I'll get whiplash in the first five minutes after getting off the plane. Anyway, what I didn't realise, was 'smelly lady' and her husband were sitting over this side of the room. In fact, they were sitting four seats away from each other. Obviously, they don't like each other's smell! Who can blame them? Well, I ended up walking to the back of the waiting room, and tried not to sit near either of them. I started off pretending to be reading the Government Properganda on the walls. After a while, I ran out of things to read, so I had to take a seat somewhere. I sat in one of the chairs behind and to the right of 'smelly lady'. Eventually, all the people we getting seen to. A Government official would come out and call their name, and they would disappear into a distant office / cubicle somewhere. While waiting, they called for a guy, who's last name she called 'Coran or Koran' or something (pronounced like the Islamic Holy Book). He corrected her, and said it wasn't Coran. Somehow they'd added Coran onto the end of his name. The rest of his name was correct, so he got to disappear into the back office. It got me wondering though. What if his last name was 'Koran', like the Holy Book? Would that be considered blasphemous or extra holy by Muslims? Of course, it might have been from another language, so might just sound the same, in which case, would it still be an acceptable name if the person converted to Islam? (Yes, these are the sort of crazy thoughts which go through my brain. Especially when waiting or bored). Eventually, my name was called, and I was ushered into a cubicle to talk to the Government official. They were perplexed by why I was there. Apparently, they have nothing to do with my course or business and told me so. They tried to phone the people who had phoned me! Sorry, they couldn't contact them today. Anyway, they told me, another Government Department handles this sort of thing, and they have to talk to them. Nothing to do with me. So I was sent off. So, one hour of my morning wasted in Government waiting rooms for no reason at all. Only, according to the phone call last night, if it doesn't get sorted out by Wednesday, then I won't be able to start my course. No course, means no business. No business, means WTF am I still doing in Australia!!!!? If I turn up tomorrow and find they won't let me do the course, then I really am off to the UK. (Yes, I keep threatening to do it. I keep trying to find ways to stay here ... but the Government just keeps finding ways to behave incompetently and ruin every attempt I make to stay here.)

Found!

Most of you probably don't know (as I don't think anyone reading this is from Perth), but they have been looking for a young boy (14 years old) for the last three weeks. My mother and I drove past a big police search the other week. There were television crews and everything. As I was helping out at the PCYC, I also got talking to some of the police I knew. I was of the opinion (as were some of the police) that the poor boy had been murdered. My mother however, was certain he was alive somewhere. Today, there was some good news, and some bad news. The good news is the police found him alive! Apparently, he was in such bad shape, that even the police cried when they found him. He's been taken to hospital. He was found in a house not very far from where he'd last been seen. Two men, one aged forty one and the other aged forty four have been charged with obstructing his freedom. The News haven't said any more, but you can imagine how sick the two guys must be to have taken the young boy. I won't go into details, but it is a shame that in todays society, that this sort of things still occurs. I am, of course refraining from saying much more. It is best to keep ones emotions in tact in cases like this. More details will come to light, so we will wait until we hear more officially.

Malaysian Astro! (Not Idol! Astro!)

I wonder if any of my Malaysian friends will try to enter the MALAYSIAN ASTRONAUT CONTEST. Yes, Malaysia is going to be voting to see who it can send into space. (Yes, forget Malaysian Idol ... you want to tune into Malaysian Astro) :-) Technically, they'll be goin gup wit the Russians, so they will be a Cosmonaut, not an Astronaut. (Have to get the marketing correct!) I'll let you all decide WHO from the blog sphere should be nominated as potential candidates. Actually, suggest a few names here if you like. I vote for KY ... I just figured he might like the opportunity to be first Malaysian in space. Think of the Pictures he could stick on his blog then! :-) (Move the cursor over the pic and it turns into a funny joke involving Mooning and Uranus!) :-)

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The Montreal Gazette has and interesting article about a guy who has invented a Hydrogen Generating Module for cars. What's it mean? Well, less polution, more savings for car owners and combats global warming. Let's hope it works out. I've seen many things like this bought out by the Petroleum cartel in order to keep themsevles in business. Actually, I think the first Petroleum producer to break ranks might actually be the one who will end up making the most money (and even putting a few of their competitors out of business). They really just need to think it through, and time it right, and they will leave their competitors behind. (Maybe they need to buy a car manufacturer too, to make it all come together very fast!)

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Received my acceptance for the Certificate IV in Small Business Management course today! Woo hoo! Another piece of paper to add to my resume! I am so excited! Let's face it, I love to learn new things! (Probably why I READ SO MUCH!) One of the things it says is, 'You may like to bring your own laptop computer.' That's funny, I would like to bring one ... um ... except I don't own one! Darn it! It came with a 'Language, Literacy & Numeracy Assessment Form Certificate Level IV'. Basically a small test to see what level of English and Mathematics you are at! I almost laughed at how easy it was. When I got to the end, I then read the last page - it says you don't have to do the test if you can prove you've completed year twelve or a Cert IV level in anything! Um ... why didn't they say this at the BEGINNING of the test? I can prove I completed Year Twelve, plus I ahve my Marketing and Theology Certs! That's THREE things straight off the bat, and all were sitting in a folder next to me as I did the test! That's the problem with being pro-active. You get something, you react and finish it, and find that you didn't need to! (Believe me, the letter of acceptance said I had to do the test, and the test had nothing else written on the front to say I didn't need to!) I just thought (from the letter) that it had to be done. Anyway, sometimes you turn up to these things and they tell you, you have to do the test anyway! Better safe than sorry.

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I finished 'Moab is My Washpot' the other day.

As I said previously, it is sad in parts. Not that Stephen was after the sympathy vote. He really just tells it like it is, in a humourus fashion, so that we get a good laugh along the way. Not a laugh at his expense mind you, just a laugh, to show that there is humour inmost of life's situations if we look for them. It's more a bitter sweet sort of saddness though. A remorse because of some of the things he'd done, and wasn't proud of. It's given me the hunger to seek out his other writtings (knowing that his fictional novel, 'The Thief' is partially based on his own life). The book also concentrated mainly on his 'school' days and the days shortly after that. I was a bit upset that it wasn't longer and didn't go into greater details of his life after school / University. University and Hugh Laurie are mentioned almost as a footnote at the end of the book. I wonder if he is planning another book from when he started at University, to now. I'm sure he has enough material to do this.

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I also finished reading 'Warren Buffet Wealth', by Robert P. Miles. I can sum up this book in a few lines ... or bullet points.

1. Live below your means.
2. Avoid Debt (no credit cards, loans etc)
3. Purchase VALUE companies and hold them for life.
4. Don't diversify (as it waters down your profits. If you bought the right company/shares etc, then you shoud only be benefiting from them. Diversification is a way to minimising loss from poor decisions).
5. If you can't find a VALUE company, then don't purchase anything.
6. Give back to the community/world.

I feel I must explain a VALUE company (one of the reasons for using capitals & italics to highlight it). A Value company is one which is worth more than it's shares are selling at. Anyone who has done their research will be able to find such companies. (Do a business course or an investment course which teaches how to value companies - or better yet, read some books which explain it - 'Security Analysis' by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd comes to mind). I am fortuitous in the fact that I learnt (while being left on the streets of Sydney) how to live below my means. I saved up, while working in a factory, to return to University (though I then left University, as I realised it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life). Okay, so that was a slight mistake. Actually, I plan to return and finish all my courses one day. (Yes, all six of them!) Plus, add a few others along the way. If you've read my bullet points, then I dont' think you need to read the book (but it is a good read, so grab a copy if you feel so inclined). It does give good examples to back up what it is saying. I was about to say, 'It's not for everyone' ... actually, I did write that, then I deleted it. I think good money management is for everyone. Let's face it, we all earn money, we all want to maximise it's potentials. Good money management should be taught in school while we are still young. Drummed into us. It can certainly help in the 'First World' (Rich developed countries) where most people earn enough to not only feed themselves, but to have a good life. When I was working in a factory earning $12k a year (a pitance even then), I was able to make ends meet, AND save enough to return to University for a year. Anyone in the west earning even a low wage should be able to get by, if only they learn to use their money right. In underdeveloped countries, it is more difficult. Still, it is not impossible and money management doesn't change from country to country. (Starving communities without income it is impossible to do this ... after all, you can't live below your means, if you have no means of support). That's what point six in the list is about. YOU who can earn/save and use your wealth should want to give back, as a humanitarian. I've written enough today ... I coudl go on ... and on ... but I know a lot of readers don't read the really long posts! Defeats the purpose of my writing such long posts! :-)