30 Days...

The final day, a little trim and away she goes...

Till next year Mo!

Movember movember...

Almost there. Today I got told my mo' looks gay. Apart from my work mate giving me shit all week saying I have a caterpillar on my lip. I had managed to cut down too far so i had to level it off, now I look like some French fashion designer. All for a good cause hey. Or I might shave it off tonight!

Day 19.

MOVEMBER!

Doing my part to raise money for Prostate Cancer. They call it the 'Box car', though I have been called many names these last few weeks.

Day 12

The weight game!

In 8 weeks I have managed to drop 10 kg's. But in the last few days I've been a little piggy and I'm up to 8kg's. My quest is to drop a little more and shrink my belly all before December 20th 2010.

Can I do it?

I've got a personalised weights training program to buff up the machine a little which will hopefully in turn make my gut look smaller. But I'm also adding a shite load of cardio to that as well so let's see how long I can last and if my ideal body for the beach Christmas will work.

6 weeks and counting...

Change...

I've been out of town for the last few weeks and I keep thinking back to the time when I checked in at the Perth domestic air port. I think it has to do with the fact that I am having to deal with that again in a week and a bit.

The Qantas check in system has been updated to all electronic systems. I personally think it's a great move and when people get the hang of it, it should be so much quicker and easier. But that isn't happening at the moment.

I chose a line that had least people in it, as you do. What I neglected to check was the type of person in front of me. There were a couple of oldies. Maybe this isn't fair to them but in my defence, my Grandma uses the internet and is on top of this technology 'whohar', so I feel I can say the things I feel I must share.

The oldies in front of me were checking in. All you had to do as I'm sure you have all done before, much like a self check out at the supermarket, is scan your e-ticket print out and then your passport. They just couldn't get the hang of it. On their fourth attempt, yes 4th attempt, they neglected all international rules of 'if it doesn't work on the 3rd go, just stop'. They eventually turned around to which I quickly turned away as I knew what was coming. They still struck up a conversation with me something along the lines of, why did they have to change the system, this doesn't work, where is someone I can talk to and this was supposed to be easier.

They walked away I scanned my ticket, passport answered the questions and got my ticket and away I went. Furious these oldies were. Maybe It just comes easy to me because I was brought up with computers, or maybe it's just some of these oldies are so stubborn and wont accept change in their own age they had already given up and didn't want to try.

Needless to say the foyer was full of people waiting to check in, but the number of oldies outnumbered the competent people and the backlog began.

How do we conquer this problem? I say get off your chair (if you can) open your mind back up (cause I know you did in the 60's) bite the bullet and head down to your local library (which I know you already spend a lot of time) and get a computer lesson. You have the time and you know your gonna need it.

Otherwise Qantas, maybe put some more staff on while people get used to the new system please. Or have a person at a check in desk for those oldies that cant change.

As for the rest of us who are accepting change, the travel experience is getting better. Now all we need are people to check us in and carry out luggage.

Keep on Keeping on...

Being the New Guy

There is always a little trepidation to starting a new job, going somewhere new you really have no idea about. It's worse when you know what to do but your the new guy and everyone has to assume you know nothing.

I recently started a new job, I'm not going to mention what it is and I'm not going to divulge into details of what I do. But I've done it all before and no doubt I'll do it all again.

The annoying part is as the 'new guy' you get treated like your a little dumb. No one takes the time to ask the specifics of what you have done before or to find out if you are capable of doing the job. Now in their own right, this is a great way of avoiding having someone try and do their 'own' thing. But I just feel so helpless and useless to be honest. So I get told what to do and asked to go and help someone rather than being left to my own tasks.

It then gets to me when people start saying 'well done', or act surprised when the job was done, and with little effort. Being the New Guy sucks.

The problem with this new job is, there is a set way that has been passed down from person to person over time, tweaking it as they go for their own benefit. You would think from that someone would turn these secret processes into words on a bit of paper so all I would have to do is follow a list of things to do. Nope, easier for someone else to talk down to me.

But like any New Guy job, there comes a time when you become the secret process holder of information and can pass on your wisdom to the next New Guy.

But really people, it's hard enough being the new guy let alone having to be treated and talked to like I just came out of a womb.

Keep on keeping on...

Why are things called the things they are?

The other day I was talking about breasts. Normal conversation for a 20 something male right? Well it was with a female so I'm not too sure what that means. But we were talking about udders on cows and the teats and how similar they are to the nipple on the female breast. Which then lead to me thinking are breasts called 'tits' because they are somewhat similar to the cows teats? This observation lead to a great deal of laughter when imagining a woman with an udder. Then a disturbing image of a hot woman with a cows teat as her nipple. I mean you can milk anything with a nipple right?

I didn't feel this was necessary to blog when this happened but today I had a similar moment, not about 'tits' but about comedians.

Why are Comedians called 'comics' when a comic is a cartoon magazine. That's when I started to think about Dane Cook saving a child from a burning house by telling a joke. Not sure how it worked but that's what I was thinking.

So my question to you is why is a Comedian called a Comic? Is their super power to make poeple laugh?

Till next time...

Election Malarkey

Firstly I have to start this blog with how do you actually spell Malarkey, but also what does Malarkey mean.

Today is election day and I have to be honest my first election that I get to vote in. Okay, so I'm 26 and this is my first election, how does that work? Is that what you were asking? No... Right then. Well I want to tell you anyway so read on please. The first election I voted in I didn't really follow what was going on didn't know how the whole thing worked so I 'donkey voted'. Then for the next two elections I was out of the country. Good ol' Howard was re elected while I was in Canada, of which I had been taken off of the electoral role. The second time was 'Kevin '07', and I had no Idea what was going on at that point.

So today was the first time I took notice to make my vote count. I conveniently work in the media industry and enlisted the help of a political correspondent to assist not only me but my listeners on who and how to vote. No that any of his advice helped, I had to make a personal call at 9am and ask what the devil I should do. Thankfully Steve from Steve from 89.7fm's 'Steve's Top Tip' assisted me and I voted right. Although at this point my vote hasn't really counted. Just shows you how backwards Australia can be.

But I can't help but feel let down knowing all the effort I went to didn't make any difference, unless things make a drastic change.

I guess we wait and see.

Till then...

A good ‘frapeing’ never hurts, or does it?

My normal morning procedure as boring as it might be is to check Facebook, now to justify why I check Facebook so regularly is because I am one of those unique individuals that has more friends on Facebook that I do in life. And to justify that, I know everyone on Facebook however most of them are not here in Perth as I have lived in so many other countries. So I check it to keep up to date with my international friends and reply to any messages, much like you would email.

This morning when I checked I noticed one particular post of a friend of mine "Just won 5 grand on scratchcard! Drinks on me". At first I though okay my friend does seem the lucky one, yeah this could be true. But as I read on and note peoples posts on the post someone had said "I have it on good authority that this is a particularly lame instance of facebook rape". It made sense as I really didn't think my friend would be the one to shout drinks, he'd keep this one quiet for sure. But it got me thinking.

Facebook rape otherwise known on the street as 'frape'. It doesn't sound fun by any means but it could have the potential to be really harmful. For those of you who don't know what Facebook rape is, let me explain. And firstly I must mention it has absolutely nothing to do with rape of the sexual nature, I don't condone that behaviour at all. If we talk just about the word rape other than being grated cheese in French. It simple means violation or to be taken such as land or in this case Facebook pages being hijacked. It is also the bulb of a European plant from the mustard family, but that is for anther article.

So the way it works is you leave your Facebook page signed in and leave the computer. This then leaves endless opportunities to the violator to take control. Now while my friends was to be fare a 'lame' raping, there are other consequences of more serious rapes. I know of people where they have openly 'come out' on Facebook, had their profile picture changed, my favourite is being joined to groups you really didn't want to be apart of - these can take some time to figure out. I did some research to find out how far people have gone to rape someone and you would be surprised how many dedicated sites there are to this topic.

Though scanning the many 'frape's' most about having a small penis and now loving men, women confessing to enjoy a little too much sexual activity and an interesting one was something along the lines of thanks for a great night sorry I forgot to shave...", but there was one I came across of an instance where a, what I assume was a friend, was boasting about a great 'frape' on her friend. "I can't believe it. I gave this really hot girl free drinks all night and then she got off with some one else :(" This guy was fired from this 'frape' post.

Facebook rape is a serious matter and even though Facebook are forever under scrutiny about their security procedures there is little they can do. But if people are having to forever confirm they are not actually gay, and didn't actually get genital herpes and worse, have their boss happen to read over their post and loose a job. We as law abiding citizens have to do our part to help those innocent victims, do out part to ensure a bit of harmless fun doesn't turn out to be life altering mix up's.

So this has led me to take action, in two ways. Firstly, make every effort to always sign out and never leave my personal computer logged in, just in case. And secondly if I ever 'frape', and let's be honest I most likely will, I will endeavour to put a positive spin on it in hope it will create a new wave of 'frape'. Now what I mean by that is this... "I snuck in to the old people's home and pruned their roses." Okay a little sucky but it might encourage the Generation Yers to help out the elderly - doubt. Then I thought of this, for every 'frape' I commit I will challenge fellow 'frapers' to step up their post. "Thanks to Nicorette I have stopped smoking, why don't you try". Funnier if the person doesn't smoke.

This new wave of 'frape' can be a great way to help those who believe the 'frape' they are reading is true. Maybe it can be to help someone come off of drugs, by posting actual information about centres. But then let's be honest, there really is no fun in this new wave of 'frape'. So alternatively you can just make them really, really good posts. "How do you tell your boss, as much as you enjoy the 'late meeting's' you really can't keep it up. There is only so far you can work to get to the top". Boss wont say anything out of embarrassment and maybe a little confused and it gives some great goss around the office.