Feel the love

There's nothing quite like a bit of an upheaval to really sort the wheat from the chaff in regards to your friends.
I'm going through a couple of major changes to my life at the moment, some of which have been doing my head in, but a few kind messages of support from friends goes a long way to making it all okay.
Thanks guys. You know who you are :)

Sabbath's Theatre

Some time ago, Observer blogged about a novel she had read called Sabbath's Theatre.

With my curiosity piqued, I decided to borrow the copy through the CNG Lending Library and give it a read.

I've never read any Philip Roth before. My dad told me that he was apparently banned in Australia in the 60s or 70s for writing a book about a guy who could not stop masturbating.
After reading Sabbath's Theatre, this sounds about right.

Basically, this was the most challenging book I have ever read. Many times I put it down when it was just too hard and too wordy to read, but about halfway through the book I clicked.

Roth, like the absolutely reprehensible protagonist in the book, Mickey Sabbath, was challenging me to put the book down. He wanted me to say it was too hard and give up. So I persevered.

And in the end, it was ultimately a rewarding read. Sabbath is such an unlikeable character - everything he says or does throughout the book is intended to cause pain to the people around him.
He is a twisted old man with an obsession for sex and goes to the point of shutting out or offending pretty much everyone in his life that ever cared about him.

Roth uses the nice little stylistic trick of switching from first to third person about half way through the book, pretty much at the point in which you realise Sabvbath is slowly losing his mind.

*WARNING: spoiler ahead*

In the end though, he ends up with nothing, and while I was expecting a slightly more spectacular ending, in hindsight I thought it was pretty appropriate considering his escapades over the course of the novel.

My car hates me right now

My car and I have been through a few rough patches over the turbulent three years we've known each other.

I almost wrote it off once - but no, I had comprehensive insurance and, surprisingly, the insurance company decided to fix the car rather than junk it.

Since its resurrection some two and a half years ago, I have added a myriad of scratches, nicks, paint marks and small dents to various sections of the car body.

Then, on Monday, one of my friends reversed into my car. The worst part was I was standing there watching it happen.

I called out my friend's name once, twice, three times, then on the fourth I heard the bang.

It's such a sickening sound, isn't it?

Metal on metal, car versus car.

To my friend's credit they are in the process of organising it to be fixed and I know they feel terrible about the whole situations.

I've managed to pry open the driver's side door just enough so I can get in the car without climbing across the passenger seat.

And still, the old girl dutifully starts every day and takes me to and from work.

More loyal than a dog, I say.

Touch wood.

Soccer mad

Following a readership survey of this blog, I have calculated that roughly less than 3 per cent of my readership will care about the following blog entry.

But I don't care.

Because, you see, Manchester United have gone to the top again, winning back to back English Premier League titles in style.

That's all. I won't bore you with the details.

I'll be handing down my budget mid-week

Today is my first day as acting editor while my fearless leader is away on a self-funded jaunt.

To celebrate, I'm bringing in a raft of changes that will be applicable in the office from today.

• Triple J is the only station permitted to be played during work hours.
• All staff shall address me as Sir David.
• I will start at 11am and finish at 3pm every day. Other staff will pick up the slack during the hours I am not here.
• Certain members of staff will be charged an idiot tax - how much that tax is and when it is charged will depend on the circumstances and the level of idiocy shown. In the interests of fairness and equality, I myself am not immune from such a tax.

I'm also announcing a major reshuffle of office duties. In a bid to create a better understanding between staff members about their own separate roles, I have decided that, for the next week, sales staff shall write editorial for the paper. Journalists will be put in charge of distribution and sales assistants who man the front desk will become advertising representatives. Distribution staff will be out the front in a bid to make them a little more customer focused.

Heck, if it doesn't work, we'll just change back on Monday week when the boss returns.

Faker - Be The Twilight

Okay, so this isn't exactly a new album - it came out in February - but I've had trouble taking it out of my CD player long enough to do the review on it since I bought it.

I should put this review in a bit of context - I loved Faker's first album Addicted Romantic. It was dark and broody yet packed full of power pop rock.

So Be The Twilight was pretty much a perfect follow up.

Kicking off with the hit single This Heart Attack, the CD is pretty much the perfect Aussie pop rock album.

Are You Magnetic?, the band's latest charts offering, is a great little ditty about life and it's intricacies: "Are you magnetic?/Do you land in the right place?"

However, it's after the first two singles that the album really shines.

Killer on the Loose is laden with groovy bass and drums while the soaring melodic guitar riffs round out the track.

In general, the album shows a more mature Faker (great rock and roll cliche number one).

The Robert Smith-style twang of the lead singer's voice has been reduced a little in this latest offering - which can't be a bad thing.

There's even a slower, ballad-style song reminiscent of Crowded House (Kid, Pleas Try Harder).

But by far the standout track on the album is Dumb Mistakes - a brilliant narative on the - you guessed it - dumb mistakes we all make when falling for one another: "If we joke and we continue to talk like this/I'm scared we might be making the same dumb mistakes/I want you/and your same dumb mistakes I want/your same dumb mistakes I want."

Love it.

Four stars.

Are you kidding me?

You would think, wouldn't you, in this day and age, that if a guy walks into work with a pink business shirt on it wouldn't be such a big thing?

I went to a function surrounded by State politicans, industry representatives and the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia this morning. No one made any comments about the fact that I was wearing a pink shirt.

I get to work and my editorial colleagues say nothing.

I walk past the sales area and nothing is said.

And then I walk out the back into the - you guessed it - distribution area and Dumb and Dumber are out there.

D1: What's with the pink shirt?

D2: What pink shirt?

D1: Look at Dave.

D2: Wohoo!! Dave! What's going on here hey, who've you been hanging out with on the weekends that's making you want to wear pink?

Me: Jesus guys, I really thought we'd moved on a bit from those sort of comments in the last decade or so. Apparently not.

I walked out of the office, turned around and said: Sorry, guys my mistake. I must have given you two a bit more credit than you deserved. I won't make that sort of assumption again.

I don't think they got it.

Just so you know

I had an awesome weekend.
Caught up with some old friends, made some new ones, had a big night on Saturday followed by a lazy Sunday.
What more could you want?

I have something to confess

I'm in love. Completely and overwhelmingly. Have been since I was 15. With Jennifer Love-Hewitt.

Stop it! Stop laughing! Stop groaning and rolling your eyes!

Seriously though, ever since I saw her Oscar-worthy performance in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, my life has never quite been the same.

Now, I'm not normally one to go for the waif look. I am not a fan of scrawny girls. At all.

But for Jennifer, I'm happy to make an exception. As far as I'm concerned she fits (just) inside the healthy weight category.

And this week comes the news that young Jennifer has been voted TV's sexiest woman.

Good to see the rest of the world agrees.

But... what do you want me to do about it?

In most jobs, if people aren't getting the required job done, there's a process. Usually that involves counselling, followed by workshopping and a whole bunch of other workplace cliches.

At our paper, we are having a few distribution problems.
Heck, that's nothing new. Anyone who has ever worked at any paper can talk to you about distribution problems.

But I have come to realise our problem lies within.
You see, we are one of the only papers in the company to have our own distribution manager. Its a pretty large area so I'm sure that's what the job requires.
But this person has been in the same role all their life. Literally. They are in their 30s and they have never. held. another. job.
Let me repeat that again. In their 30s, never held another job.

I don't know what you think about that, but for me, that's just not healthy.
But it's frustrating because in today's litigious world most bosses are too frightened to fire anyone - even if they do deserve it.

Which led me to my next thought - what are this person's (workplace cliche alert) key performance indicators? Surely if the papers aren't getting delivered properly, they're not doing their job properly.
Simple, yes?

Apparently not.