Things really have changed

This is a welcome news article this morning - one of the Federal Government's men's health ambassadors has been sacked because he refused to repudiate gay-hate views in an article he contributed to for a publication called Gender Matters.
Something tells me the guy wouldn't have lost his job under the last government.

Love Actually

I know I've blogged about this before but I watched it again the other night after the lovely Phynea bought it for me as a present.
This scene in particular is one of my favourite all time movie scenes.
If you haven't seen it yet, watch it.

Housemates

Housemates are a funny thing, aren't they?

I'm currently living with two housemates. One has practically been my best mate for the last 5 or 6 years. Luckily, we don't have any issues between the two of us so far. He works at night, I work during the day. We see each other enough, but not too much. We also enjoy hanging out with each other still. It works well.

The Third Housemate was, until recently, working on the mines up north. He would work two weeks on and one off. His one off would be spent lying on the couch, watching tv and taking drugs and not much else. It was a little annoying for him to be doing that the whole week, but since it was essentially only one week a month it wasn't such a big deal.

But last week, TTH came home for good. He is now unemployed. I don't know if any of you have ever lived with an unemployed housemate before, but if they're not studying and don't have a slightly active social life it can get a little trying at times.

He tells me his grand plans. He's going over east in January, he's doing this, he's doing that, blah, blah, blah.
I've been having trouble figuring out what annoys me more - the fact that I never get any time to myself at home anymore or the fact that he is getting away with doing what I'd love to do. Nothing. Ever.
You be the judge.

Time to say goodbye

I've had a bit of sad news recently.
My grandma (my dad's mother) has taken a turn for the worse and it looks like she won't be around much longer.
It's hard for me because she lives in Toowoomba, QLD, and I don't really have the finances to get over there and see her at the moment.
But my dad's over there, and he was with his brother and sister this weekend so the three kids got to be together one more time. His brother lives in the US so they're all spread apart a fairly large distance.

For me, I've had a pretty good run. Not only do I still have my parents around but right now, as I type this, all four of my grandparents are still alive. For a 25-year-old, that's a pretty good run really.

So Dad called me today when he went to visit Grandma in hospital. I spoke to her for what is likely to be the last time I ever will. It wasn't easy. She was very croaky and had a lot of difficulty speaking but I told her a bit about how well I was going and how my life was pretty excellent at the moment.

In true Grandma style, when I asked her how she was, she said "I'm prety good. We're managing pretty well over here." Never mind that she's quite literally on her deathbed.

While it was hard talking to her, I fully appreciate how lucky I am to a) have had all my grandparents around for so long and b) to speak to Grandma one more time and tell her how much I love her.

When I was three, I used to go over Grandma and Grandad's house when we lived in Toowoomba. I remember playing with Grandma. I would be Kermit the Frog, and I would pretend to go to work with my litle suitcase. Then all of a sudden Grandma, playing Miss Piggy, would scram "Monster!" and I would run back and kill the monster, saving Miss Piggy.
These sort of memories I will cherish forever.

Overheard in my office

English sales rep: 'Nationality' is like where you're from, right?

Aussie sales rep: Yeah, it's the country you're born in.

English sales rep: So my nationality would be English?

Me: ...

Cultural observations made over the weekend

Okay, so we're in the middle of the week already but bear with me.

Please don't grind in my direction
I went to a basketball game on the weekend to see the Perth Wildcats play. Look, I know the game itself originated from the US, but the Americanisation of the whole thing - even here in Perth - bordered on sickening. They play music over the PA during the game - you know, crap like "We Will Rock You" - and every 30 second timeout is accompanied by either dancers, hip-hop artists or cheerleaders.
And the dancers. Don't even get me started. I know cheerleading etc is an (almost) valid part of any American style sport, but at least make the cheerleaders over the age of 18. Please. I don't get offended easily, but seeing pre-pubescent girls bumping and grinding on the court in front of me was just too many types of wrong.

My Big Fat Greek Christening
I also went to a Greek Orthodox church for the first time. The lovely Phynea was in attendance as the godmother of her 8 month old niece, who was getting baptised. It was an incredibly interesting experience, especially considering I had been brought up in the Catholic Church. The basic tenets are the same, it's just there's more Greek and the services are longer. It's also a much more informal affair. I was told that it's okay to chat amongst yourselves before and during the service, and that kids running around the place is not frowned upon.
Phynea told me to expect something in the vein of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". It wasn't. But maybe that's because it wasn't a wedding.

People-watching observations from a Leederville Cafe.

I love people watching. I sometimes look at people who pass me by and wonder what their story is. They have an entire life behind them and ahead of them with which I may never come into contact. Where have they been? Where are they going? Why are they going there?

With this in mind I thought I'd share some people watching observations I made at a Leederville Cafe recently.

• The underaged indie rocker boy and girl who looked like they were on their first date. Very cute, both ordered hot chocolates and sat across the table from each other and laughed at each other's jokes. The boy was wearing skinny leg black jeans, white sneakers and had a crazy mop of blonde hair. The girl was wearing striped stockings and black clothes.
• The brisk man in the business suit who had worry lines creasing his face and looked slightly lost.
• The group of paramedics that stopped for an hour to have coffees and chat. I'm hoping nobody was dying at the time. Maybe this was their way of reducing the waiting queues at emergency departments?
• The group of four young guys who sat out the front, smoking like a group of chimneys. When they got up to leave, one of them was wearing a purple singlet, had a moustache (I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it was for Movember) and a beret. Interesting...

They did what??

The news of author Michael Crichton's death was a bit of a shock to me this morning.

I do love thriller/action fiction but the passing of this author brings a different issue to the forefront - that of movie adaptions of novels.

I was a big fan of Jurassic Park, the movie. It was great - Steven Spielberg did a top job, considering it was created in 1992 or something like that.

And so when Crichton came out with the sequel to Jurassic Park - The Lost World - I got very excited. The book was great - I loved every second of it and eagerly awaited the release of the movie.

But I was to be sorely disappointed with the movie adaption.
To this day, it stands as one of the worst book-to-screen adaptions I have ever encountered.

In the book, the scientists basically went to this island, had run-ins with a myriad of dinosaurs and then escaped with (most of) their lives.

But not in the movie. No, in the movie they just tacked a Hollywood ending onto the plot. In the movie, the scientists capture a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the island, bring it back to New York and - you guessed it - it escapes, wreaking Godzilla-style havoc throughout the city.
Shite.

Which leads me to my next question: what, dear readers, are your favourite (bad) book to movie adaptions?

An Open Letter to the soon-to-be Former President George Bush

Dear George,

First of all, fuck you.

Secondly, I'd like to thank you for your contribution to world politics. You have almost single handedly made the world a scarier place in which to live. You have shamed your entire country so that most of them cannot travel without having, as one of my fellow bloggers put it "shit hung on them." You have ruined this election for your own political party.

I hope history judges you for the dimwitted, near-sighted, power hungry war monger you are.

All the best,

Dave.

P.S. Obama rocks.