Kang vs Kodos

It doesn't really matter who we vote for tomorrow.
Call me overly cynical but do you see sunshine and rainbows if the Coalition is elected? Everything isn't going to become affordable all of a sudden, the boats (the biggest non-issue I've ever seen in an election campaign) aren't just going to stop and the economy isn't going to boom and interest rates aren't going to suddenly drop.
Same goes if the Government is re-elected.
Politicians are all the same - the party's self interest comes first, the people come last. That's why they get hundreds of thousands in pensions when they retire or are booted from parliament and everyone else gets pittance.
Any politician who says that it wrong should speak up and donate their pension to public works or reducing national debt or something else useful.
I bet you none of them do, though.
So in this election it's pretty much like the Simpsons episode where Kang and Kodos take over the bodies of Clinton and Dole and run for president. It doesn't matter who you vote for, you're screwed either way.

LFT

Suffered a bad case of low frustration tolerance today.
Grrrrrr.
Sometimes, just sometimes, I'd like it if people could do things, simple things, for themselves. It's not so much being asked to help, that's always good, but gee some tasks are just so easy to work out for yourself. People can be lazy, or ignorant I guess.
Still, makes you want to punch a wall or two at times.

Ups and downs

Things have been a bit mixed of late.
I'm sure it is in large part due to the reduction I've undertaken in the medication department.
I certainly don't like it. I don't like feeling flat a lot of the time.
It takes me back a few years to when things were pretty awful and I really don't want to go back there either.
Being more positive is good in theory and I do try it, I guess I'm not as persistent as I need to be.
The best way to describe how things are overall is that when I feel like that, flat and not necessarily entirely happy, I'm an easy target.
Little things that you brush off I notice, whether it is an internal feeling or a reaction to an external event, something a friend says or just a random event.
I will admit I've taken a hit or two this week. As to what it was I think it's best to just leave it at that. Confessing to thinking things I shouldn't (just about disappointments really) aren't going to get me anywhere.
I just hope this acknowledgement is a start towards getting over this speed bump that is starting to look more like a crest.

Go and jump

I'm getting tired of the anti-jumps racing people getting such a big run in the media, particularly on TV shows that don't understand racing.
Despite their vocality, these activists are very much in the minority yet because they are so loud they are getting far too much air time from everyone concerned.
Sure, I am naturally pro jumps racing.
The people who think it is cruel are being ignorant of the fact that this form of racing is saving horse's lives, not costing them.
Unfortunately, and I don't want to be negative, like most things in the world these days the minority will probably get its way. I sincerely hope it doesn't but if you scream for long enough someone is going to listen.

The 3D rip-off

Being cheap Tuesday I thought I'd head off for a movie after work.
I'd decided on Alice In Wonderland in 3D and when I went to get the ticket I was confronted with 'that's 20 dollars''.
20 bucks! Movies are supposed to be half that price on a Tuesday.
Upon registering my disgust at the ticket price I was told that 3D movies don't come under the cheap Tuesday banner.
Now that might be fair enough if they didn't already charge you extra for seeing a 3D film.
So instead of 10 bucks for the movie and 2 bucks for the 3D glasses (or so I thought) the cost was going to be the usual 17 for the movie, 2 for 3D plus and extra dollar for the glasses.
The only 3D films I've seen have not charged the 3D surcharge and just 2 bucks for glasses.
I decided in protest I wouldn't go today because it's ridiculous that they are already charging extra for the 3D movie so why can't the ticket price come down for cheap Tuesday?

Lights, camera, imagination!

I'm annoyed at the lack of imagination shown by film makers these days.
In reading through the latest Empire magazine I noted rumoured or confirmed reports that there could be a remake of Jaws, Fast and the Furious 5 (I do own all four so far but, come on), a Bourne prequel, Avatar 2, Mission Impossible 4. I could go on.
Seriously, where is the originality?
Now I know the reason we are getting so many sequels and remakes. It's because they are almost guaranteed to make money. And that is really all that matters to the studios.
But how many inane comedies, alleged romantic comedies and send-ups can we stand? How many more times must we watch the same predictable films?
Thankfully, if you look hard enough, there are some gems out there with an actual story to tell.
Over the last few years my top films each year have been the likes of Lars And The Real Girl, Reign Over Me, Brokeback Mountain, Into The Wild and Up In The Air is the front runner in 2010.
Personally, I'd rather be challenged by a well acted drama or laugh along with a deftly scripted comedy than all the trash we're getting.
Sure, I'll eat up the Hollywood blockbusters and I'm into the Twilight series (I'll be there when Eclipse opens in a few months). I am aware of some hypocrisy on my part but at least I'm aware of it. That doesn't mean I can't decry it.
Over the coming weeks I'd like to see movies such as Brothers, A Single Man and The Blind Side and hopefully I will get around to it.

The Hurt Locker

I've got to start with this, I can't wait until the end - I'll be very disappointed if The Hurt Locker wins Best Picture at the Oscars.

It's not that it isn't a good movie - it is a good one - but it's just not 'Best Picture' good in my opinion.

Having said that I'm not sure Avatar is worthy of the gong either and I wonder if this is the one that has been picked to prevent the over-hyped film from winning the award (much like Crash in Brokeback Mountain's year).

That rant aside, The Hurt Locker is an interesting look into the lives and minds of men sent to war in Iraq.

After a cameo from Guy Pearce at the start we focus on Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner). On the surface he is a cavalier bomb defuser who seems unaffected by the trauma of going to war and the fact that he's risking his life every day.

His team members JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) are acutely aware of the dangers involved, particularly Eldridge who is suffering severe emotional strain and wants to give in more than once.

This is a war film but above all else it is a film about human emotions, how we deal with extreme situations and the different ways we deal with them.

The two standouts are Renner and Geraghty. They have very polarised takes on their jobs with James not really affected by war, in fact he's hooked on it, until faced with a tragedy that is a little personal while Eldridge falls apart a number of times but dusts himself off when he's called on.

I must admit The Hurt Locker was a bit slow to begin but once the characters were given time to develop it really picked up. There are a number of disturbing scenes and a number of very powerful scenes and there is a level of tension at times though not a consistent one.

I am not a film maker, certainly not a director, so I don't want to knock anyone's achievement in making the film but I don't see what is so exceptional about this that warrants the hype (again, I say the same about Avatar aside from the groundbreaking effects and use of 3D - the story was very pedestrian) for both director and the overall film.

If that sounds negative towards the movie I don't mean it - I'm merely pointing out that, away from all the hype there is a good film in there with some excellent performances. But's that's all it is, a good film, a 7.5 out of 10 for me.

It's not a film you can say you 'enjoyed' but it is worthwhile, though I don't need to see it again.

The decade the music died

I've been trying to come up with the number of CDs I bought last year and I can think of a total of seven.
They are Mariah Carey's Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel, John Mayer's Battle Studies, Rascal Flatts' Unstoppable, The Script's self-titled album and U2's No Line On The Horizon. Plus two CDs by Ryan Adams that were released in 2001 and 2004.
Probably as recently as five years ago I'd buy maybe 20 CD's a year but I think it's a reflection of the lack of really great music around these days that I haven't bought much at all.
I have got the odd free one from work here and there and there has been the occasional surprise but on the whole, unless it is a new CD from an artist I already like and have a collection of, music has entered a new decade for the worst.
I'm convinced that the 2000s, the Noughties as some call them, was the decade the music died.
We've been over run by dance and hip-hop crap which all sounds the same, nonsensical lyrics and forgettable songs.
When I look at the top 50 singles, which I used to do on a regular basis, I see few songs that I like and quite a lot that I've never heard of (and when the artist has dollar signs or exclamation marks in their name that doesn't attract me to listen).
The sad thing is that some of the better music I have heard lately has been country music and that's scary because I've spent more than half my life declaring I hate it so either I'm getting old and soft or country is getting better (therefore pop/rock is getting worse).
So far in 2010 I'm looking forward to getting the new Lifehouse album Smoke & Mirrors which comes out in March. And Mariah is releasing a remix album of her last CD and given its pedestrian nature (aside from a few crackers) I don't hold out much hope for it.
By the way, I'm not saying there hasn't been great music in the 2000s because there has been a heap of it. I'm arguing that in the last few years the quality has dropped off alarmingly and if it wasn't for Pink, who continues to surprise me, pop/rock music would hardly get a look in.

Aussie, Aussie, Bangladesh???

This morning I was browsing in the shopping centre and a bunch of Australia Day clothes were on display.
Since I didn't have anything that patriotic I had a bit of a look and was considering buying a shirt. As I was checking the sizes the tag on the shirt caught my attention. There was a rather disproportionately large 'Made in Bangladesh' notation on the tag.
Once I saw that I immediately dismissed any thought of buying a shirt or anything else from that range. I find it quite offensive that a store expects us to buy Australia Day clothing that was so brazenly not made in Australia.
They didn't even try to hide it. So much for patriotism!

Raising the bar

While flicking channels during dinner I couldn't help but keep an eye on the Oz top 50 countdown that was happening on one of the music channels.
The impact of Michael Jackson is still being felt. At one stage there, in the low 20s, he had four out of five songs that were played while I was watching. The likes of Bad, You Are Not Alone, Heal The World and Beat It - all these songs ranging in age from 27 years to 14 years.
I wonder, actually I hope moreso, whether these songs regaining popularity will lead to the bar being raised for music these days.
We have far too many artists taking the easy way with cheekily vulgar songs or so called R&B, too many of the likes of Lily Allen, Lady Gaga, heck they all seem the same to me.
There used to be a time that I'd almost religiously watch the music video shows on the weekend and I'd like the large majority of songs. Now I look at the charts and can count the number of songs I like with my two hands - with the exception of the last couple of weeks with the Jackson influence.
I used to buy a CD a week almost. Now I might buy one a month, or maybe average 1.5 a month.
I hate it how some artists feel they need to copy the trashy, unappealing young girls, I fear that the new Mariah Carey CD will continue the trend of her having a few good songs and a heap of throwaway songs. I read that they were trying to create a greatest hits CD with new songs and while that is a high bar to set maybe they should first look at her hit list - great songs that didn't need sex to sell them. She should be paying more attention to singers like Pink and realising you don't need to undress to have attitude. Great songs speak for themselves.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

To the surprise of everyone, Transformers was a massive hit and rightly so because it absolutely rocked.
Sadly, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen comes in a disappointing second as someone forgot to hire an editor to keep the film flowing.
While the original film was fast paced, tongue in cheek and packed with action its sequel is high on the action but low on the editing and as a result we have an overly long movie that lags far too often.
It is also childish in its humour, largely, as opposed to laughing at itself.
Now that I've said that you'll think I hated the film. I didn't hate it, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I expected and it definitely didn't live up to the hype.
Like the first film, the best thing going for it is its lead Shia LeBeouf as Sam Witwicky. His presence is what holds it together and what helps it later in the movie when he finally becomes the human focus. Megan Fox provides the eye candy and, sadly for her, she is reduced to just that as she is stuffed into short shorts and tank tops and asked to do a lot of running. Yeah we were all drooling, and that's what they were going for, but geez.
I thought the sidekick Leo had potential but he turned into a wimpy, blubbering mess midway through and that wasn't funny. His focus on his groin was pretty amusing though.
Of course, being Transformers, the story revolves around the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons and the writers went ahead an confused us right from the start by introducing the character called The Fallen and not explaining him nearly enough. Some of the new robots are either annoying (the twins) or just plain weird.
We're taken from prehistoric times when he landed on earth to him holed up near death on some outer planet waiting for the energy source he needs to be found. Hello? We need continuity people.
When things did get going it was great action and even though it did wind up pretty quickly (as opposed to taking forever to get going) there was some redemption. But at 150 minutes they were pushing it.
Hopefully when Transformers 3 comes around they can produce something slick like the original and not rushed like this second outing. My advice, lower your expectations. It gets a 7 out of 10 - the original got an 8.5 from me.

Pain in the neck

If you don't mind, I'd like to feel a bit sorry for myself at the moment.
Since I woke up this morning my neck has been very sore and it is really getting to me. I must have turned sharply during the night or something, because yesterday it was seemingly fine.
I have an appointment with the chiropractor for tomorrow afternoon and that will no doubt help out but I am just getting impatient - I want the problem fixed and gone.
It's like that with all my problems. A lot of the time I just want them to be gone instead of having deal with them.
Ever feel like that?
The neck thing has been building up over time, not helped by my poor posture (which is a lot tougher to correct than it sounds because habits are terribly hard to break), and general impatience.
I have to say it isn't as bad, I'm not getting serious headaches, but it's just the area where the neck and the top of the spine (if that makes sense) meets that is playing up. I have done a few stretches, should be doing them more.
It seems something comes up just when I'm on an even keel. I'm pretty much fine aside from that, I feel like I need to lose a few kilos (but that's another long and complicated problem). I',m getting a check up at the end of the week (have to have the blood test tomorrow as well) that should confirm that belief.
It's just a pain in the neck, literally, that's getting me this way.

Deflated

I don't know whether I am doing this to myself but the situation at work has me feeling quite deflated.
On the one hand I should be happy and grateful that I have a job, given the current conditions, and one that I enjoy. But I'm starting to believe I'm being told one thing by the boss while he does the opposite.
I was told recently that I'm relied upon because of my knowledge of the field we work in, knowledge that no-one else in the team has. Yet I'm not allowed proper input into the content and direction of things.
I was told a while back that I would be able to take on a higher role one day. Yet whenever I try to take steps towards that I'm knocked back.
It's hard to know whether I can trust what I'm being told anymore. There's a chance I could get asked to go back to my previous job in he near future but that's something I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for yet.

Office politics

Last week the boss called me over for a chat and took me by surprise.
A colleague had complained to the boss that I was being rude to him and I really didn't know what to say. Can you imagine me being rude to anyone in a professional setting, or even in general?
It started with a question - ``do you have any issues at the moment?''
``Nothing major'', was my reply.
I was then told that the guy who sits next to me had complained that I'd been rude to him for a couple of weeks. Well, I said that I hadn't. Though I said at times I didn't want to talk to the guy or was reluctant to pass on information that I had that he could know if he bothered to put in a bit of effort. Basically on that front I didn't want him to benefit from the time I put in (now to be clear we are talking about horse tipping and form and it is a matter of doing your own work there).
I was then forced to tell the boss that the guy had been baiting me at work, trying to get me to say things so that he could complain about me. Childish, or what!
Anyway, as much as I didn't want to bring that up just yet I had to and fortunately the boss said that he had noticed. So that appears to have stopped for the time being.
It left me pretty royally peeved about the situation and I didn't say an awful lot to the guy for a while and really only talk to him if I have to.
I realise in a work situation you can't give people the silent treatment for long and am going to have to push past it. It's hard though, I reckon I could go to the passive-aggressive Olympics if there was one.
This behaviour is not foreign to this guy, who seems to think he can control our workforce for his own gain and has pushed people out of their jobs in the past. I ain't moving and I think he realises that fact. What he doesn't realise I'd suggest is that I want his job/role and the boss knows it (I said as much about nine months ago).
The thing is, this guy expects people to respect him but he doesn't realise that respect is something that is earned, it doesn't come as a given.

Keep Lucas or end One Tree now

As far as big risks go, dropping the lead character of a series is pretty huge. For One Tree Hill the likelihood that Chad Michael Murray (Lucas) is not going to be a part of season seven is not only a huge risk it is a stupid one.

The show's premise is about two half-brothers and from day one Lucas (pictured) has been the central character. I don't see the logic in ruining what has been an excellent series by extending the show's run without its lead and one of its other major leads in Hilarie Burton (Peyton).

Why? This is a really dumb move.

What any fan of a TV series wants is for their show to go out with dignity if it can't go out with a bang. They got it right with Friends, continuity through 10 seasons with cast and they came up with an ending that makes everyone happy.

One Tree Hill has had five central characters - Lucas, Nathan, Peyton, Brooke and Haley - since the start and the show can not lose any of them and hope to keep people interested. Imagine Friends if Ross and Rachel weren't in it. That's what we are talking about here.

I can't believe Mark Schwahn would even consider letting Lucas go.

In every snippet I've seen of him talking about the show on the DVDs it's obvious that he loves it, it's his baby so to speak, and I fail to see why he could consider this. If Chad wants to come back for season 7 then let him.

Otherwise, end the show at six seasons and let it be remembered as a great show that was smart, funny, dramatic and always interesting.

Attitude adjustment

It occurred to me today that I probably haven't been that pleasant to be around, especially at work, for the last little while.
I shouldn't arrive at the office an immediately feel the frustration and impatience hit me before I sit down. There's a bit of a back story that I won't go into but if you've been reading between the lines over the last week you'd have an idea.
I don't think there is anything I enjoy more than my job. That's pretty sad, really, but true. How bad can it be when you get paid to talk about, watch and interact with what basically is your hobby unless you turn into the Comic Book Guy?
So why the bad attitude? In one respect it is borne out of the frustration that one or two of my coworkers are stifling our progress when what I want to do is make what we produce the best it can possibly be. Sure, everyone does that at work right? Not mine.
We have a culture of fearing changes of any kind and, as someone who wants to continue to develop not only the quality of what I write about but the overall quality, it seems whenever change from the routine is suggested it is pretty quickly dismissed because `that's not what we do every week'.
Today, anyway, I kind of packed everything in and refused (privately) to make any effort above minimum required, which I have to say is pretty darn easy. Yep, I went against everything I just wrote about with regards to quality and offered no suggestion on original material.
I know I need to change my attitude towards all this. I don't like being closed off and unresponsive unless it is some passive-aggressive thing I have going (I strangely relish those times now and then). Exacerbating the problem has been a few battles with personal issues and fears and when I get caught up in that world I can be hard to communicate with.
Any wonder I'm single. That's another subject. I will try harder tomorrow to adjust my outlook.

Promises, promises

Before the end of last year I reprimanded myself for not helping myself out enough in 2008.
What that meant, if you didn't get it, was that I spent too much time worrying about things I have no control over and that had a negative effect on me.
We're half way through February and I wonder if I have learned my lesson. Everything was going great early on and a couple of weeks ago I hit a speed bump (metaphorically) and it's like I flew back in time about nine months or so.
Almost. I am better equipped to handle these situations in a lot of ways but still react to them in the same old self-destructive manner.
It's funny, sort of. Some people are afraid of the dark, or alleyways at night. What scares me the most are internal things not so much external things. Uncertainty, the past, almost fear itself. Most are borderline irrational. They aren't baseless but for anyone wanting to actually have a life they are counter productive to say the least.
Good example. I hadn't jumped on the scales for a while until a few weeks ago and I noticed I had put on 3-4kg. Now I feel like I can't try and lose that because I became afraid of losing weight for other reasons a while back.
So I'm left feeling uncomfortable about the extra kilos and uncomfortable about shedding them. Talk about rock and a hard place. That's how my twisted mind can work.
Instead of working with myself and continuing the awesome progress I had been making I've gone back to over analyzing and this causes mild stress, moodiness and restlessness. I know I can win this but, man, it is a battle.
How do you win when you are fighting against yourself?

Continuity

One of the strange things about me is that I hate it when there is no continuity with things I collect.
For example, today I bought the new CD by The Fray. Now normally I would just grab it and head straight to the counter. I saw the packaging and it wasn't the standard CD pack like the billions of others in the world. It was some kind of thin packaging and I thought twice about buying it.
More than twice actually. I went to four other stores in the shopping centre to see if they had the traditional CD pack. They didn't so I reluctantly bought it. I'm now going to try and cut up the cardboard and fashion it into the normal CD style.
It's the same thing when they released Wall-E on DVD. The packaging was not the usual DVD style so I'd have every other Pixar movie in the traditional style and one that is different. Anyway I found a copy of it in the normal style and quickly nabbed it. So that crisis was averted. A similar thing happened with season 5 or 6 of the Simpsons when they decided to put the DVDs in a character head pack not the standard box. It caused such an uproar on the net that Fox now release both a head pack and a box version when they release a season. So they should.
Don't these companies know that the essence of collecting things is continuity? I know I'm not the only one who has this quirk, and it really gets to me when they do this.

Underappreciated

Do you ever feel like you're falling over yourself to help someone or make their life easier and they don't notice?
Perhaps that description is a slight exaggeration but it doesn't seem too far from the truth. To me anyway. I guess I'm feeling a little taken for granted at the moment.
There's a lot deeper basis for the situation that is hard to explain.
I always had an issue with myself in that I take things too seriously and that clashes a bit with my predicament. Yep, those in question seem to be able to live with less commitment and thus things don't hit as hard.

OK, cut the crap. One of my better mates lives life very much on the easy side, they rarely tie themselves down and just cruise at their own pace. I envy that quite a lot. There seems to be less stress involved there, from an outsider's point of view.
The trouble is they don't realise there are other people who don't share their desert island way of life. Again I say I envy that outlook but it gets hard to deal with.

I can get a bit on the self involved side at times but I do try very hard to put my friends first. This, hence this post, at times either goes un-noticed or unappreciated. I know my own expectations can get in the way. You know what, they aren't even expectations. More idealisms. My idea of how things should be seems to vastly differ and that causes friction sometimes.
But how can it be a bad thing to consider others first and openly care for others? I just can't work that out.

A letter of disgust

I need to get this off my chest, I don't for a second think anyone related to commercial television networks will read it but I will feel better having said it.

Dear network TV,
I feel it is right for me to point out, as a consumer, that the treatment of viewers by all commercial networks in Australia is appalling. Any program that doesn't make a million viewers in its first two weeks seemingly gets dropped regardless of the following it may have. Nothing gets a chance to be built up. As a result I don't watch commercial programs other than the news and repeats of Friends and The Simpsons. My other viewing consists of the programs you hype, and some you ditched, by other means (i.e. imported DVDs, the internet). While this may not concern you I should point out that revenue for commercial television comes from advertising. I am not seeing the advertisements your clients are placing so their money is wasted, on me anyway. And I know I am not the only one who watches their favourite shows in this way. To channel nine, you guys wouldn't know a great show if it hit you in the face. Passing on Chuck was a bonehead idea, it's the most interesting, funny and entertaining show in years. Now Fox 8 gets a belated go. I'm just glad it was recommended to me, now I'm into season two and it is just getting better. So perhaps it might be an idea to treat your viewers with some respect and consideration. Instant success is very rare, real success must be built over time. So thanks to technology and globalisation I get to see what I want to see without being treated like someone who doesn't matter.
Sincerely,
Ray.

Now I do feel somewhat better. It's just good to have a rant now and then. In some way I envy the USA, as it is large enough to sustain the shows that we here get little access to. Great example is One Tree Hill, half way through season 6 in the States, didn't make it half way through season 1 here. Thank God for DVD.