The Break Up – Movie

Some people will find it very ironic that I even watched this movie recently. It stars Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston as the couple going through the break up. Although it is pretty much another clichéd RomCom (romantic comedy), I still think it was able to point out some truths about relationship do’s and don’ts.

Generally

• Must be willing to give if you are wanting to receive – rarely is this referring to gifts
• Don’t play games in an effort to show the other what they are missing out on.
• Don’t force friends into choosing sides
• Some time apart may be necessary – to get over the shock and other things
• Don’t pick on little things and make them into big things

For The Boys

• Don’t inflame situation by arguing. Just apologise and sort it out later
• Sometimes the best mate can give dodgy advice so proceed with caution

For The Girls

• Say what you mean – anything implied is not going to be received

Of course the whole situation of this break could have been averted if the couple didn’t buy an apartment in joint names without the slightest regard for getting married first. But then, if they did get married we wouldn't have a movie.

Wake Up Sheik

So the Sheik claims to have been taken out of context, again. You know there was a time when I felt I was continually taken out of context. You what I did? I became more conscious of what I was saying. I thought a bit more before I spoke. Hopefully now it has become habitual. So if the Sheik has a brain I recommend that he use it before he speaks to anyone. Woops, it may be too late as he's already been interviewed by A Current Affair where he managed to dig himself a deeper hole in the eyes of the public.

Apologies to Soccer Fans

2005 was by far my worst year of playing footy. It was not very enjoyable indeed. Words cannot really express how bad it was. The only thing that got me through to the end of the year was my strong sense of commitment to the team.

Soon after the end of the season a rather enterprising young man offered a well-timed invitation to play Soccer for Wenty Uniting in the Churches competition. He got me when I was at my most vulnerable, depressed after the end of an ordinary season. He managed to get a few other friends to play, which made it somewhat enjoyable to be starting pre season in October for a completely new sport.

I played the full year of Soccer but never really felt like I was getting into the game. Sure I was playing ok in a pretty good team, and winning games is always more fun than losing. But I could never really get into Soccer even during the Soccer mad period, otherwise known as the FIFA World Cup.

In a way the year was very fruitful. As it made me realise how much I miss playing footy (Aussie Rules). I drove to the ground on Thursday night (26/10) and felt so excited to be starting pre-season in October. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time. Probably since I was a junior. It was also quickly evident that the club was able to turn around the misfortunes of 2005. Everyone is smiling and pleased to be there which is the way it should be.

So sorry to Soccer that I couldn’t stay, but thankyou for making me realise how much I love playing the game of Australian Rules Football.

I’m Confused (What’s New?)

In order of who/what causes most of my confusion, number 1 would have to be females. However following closely in second is Unions.

Since mid last year they have been whinging about how much wages are going to decrease under the new Work Choices Industrial Relations legislation.

Now that wages are going to increase, the Unions are whinging that it will be bad for businesses to pay for these wage increases, amongst many other grievances of course.

They can’t have it both ways!

Jenson Makes the Waves

On the morning of 24 October, I was listening to ABC 702 on the radio, not a station I usually listen to. During the news I heard that Archbishop Peter Jenson has proclaimed his stance on homosexuality ordaining homosexual ministers. It even included a little snippet of his speech at Synod. I couldn’t help but think that he made the ABC news because they felt it necessary to spark some debate from the gay rights lobby. I’m sure that Archbishop Jenson made many other pertinent comments but they weren’t news worthy. Is there a transcript somewhere?

P – Plate Nonsense

When a tragedy happens involving young people I always find it interesting when the parents of these young people come out pleading for the govt to make changes to legislation so that another tragedy may be averted. They bleat like their little darling was at no fault at all. The most recent is the car accident that left all passengers dead but the driver survived.

The parents are calling for rules like curfews and restrictions to the number of passengers allowed in a P plated vehicle. These solutions have a few major flaws. Firstly they are very difficult to police. Secondly, they discriminate against some P platers that work at nights. Most importantly, I believe, that they all cover up the core problem. The fact that it is too easy to get a driver’s license in the first place. Being able to drive on the road should be considered a privilege, not a constitutional right.

I believe that the best way to improve our driving is to have certain number of compulsory driving lessons from a professional driving school such as Trent, on a manual car. Some organizations also run 3 day courses for defensive driving skills where they test how well they break in adverse conditions.

I’m sure there will be many bleeding hearts who will proclaim how not everyone can afford to pay for that. To this I would just re-iterate that driving on the roads is a privilege. Sometimes you have to pay for a privilege. If it’s that important to you then you will make sure to do it right. At the same time you will most probably have your eyes opened to the real dangers with driving and how your skills weren’t as good as your ego told you.

If you’re not willing to pay for this privilege then the State Govt is trying so hard to make every major road (it seems) have a transit lane only for buses, and ads on TV continually tell us how much work Cityrail is doing to improve it’s services.

Might As Well Read

Now that footy season is well and truly over I don’t have much to do with my weekends. I have decided to dust off the “to read” shelf. Currently on my hit list are, in no particular order:

• The New Tolerance – Josh McDowell & Bob Holstetler
• Relationships That Work (and those that don’t) – H Norman Wright
• Women Are Always Right & Men Are Never Wrong – Joey O’Connor
• Aussie Yarns – Kel Richards
• Lost in Rooville – Ray Blackston
• Promoting the Gospel – John Dickson
• Simply Christianity – John Dickson
• Know & Tell The Gospel – John Chapman
• Pure Sex – Tony Payne & Phillip Jenson

If I get 2 done I will be most pleased.

Coaches Exodus

The Sydney Swans under Head Coach Paul Roos had three Assistant Coaches: Ross Lyon, John Longmire and Peter Jonas. Two of whom have now left. It seems that we have become a victim of our own success as all our assistants are highly sought after by other clubs.

Ross Lyon has been appointed head coach of St Kilda after previous coach, Grant Thomas, was sacked at season’s end. John Longmire was also in the race for this job but he will now stay at Sydney as it appears Paul Roos is trying to implement a bit of succession planning. Peter Jonas left to go back to his home state and become an assistant at the Adelaide Crows.

Amongst all the exodus though we have managed to pick up John Blakey who has played 330+ games and has been an Assistant coach under Leigh Matthews at the Brisbane Lions for the past 4 years.

Trade Farce

Good news folks, in a game full of bluffing that you would expect to see on the World Poker Tour, Peter Everitt was successfully traded from Hawthorn to Sydney. On Tuesday Paul Roos had offered his 2nd round draft pick, which was an advancement on his first offer. Hawthorn rejected saying that they now want our 1st and 2nd round picks. Roos wasn’t going to stand for this and decided to fly back to Sydney. I’m guessing he left some Sydney representatives down in Melbourne because with 4 minutes to go before the deadline the Hawthorn recruiting manager, Chris Pelchan, they approach the Swans ready to accept the offer made to them on Tuesday, a 2nd round draft pick.

This infuriated Roos, as he said to the Herald Sun:

"It could've been done two and a half days ago," Roos said. "It's ridiculous at four minutes to two o'clock they came in and said we'll take it.

"It (the whole trade week) is a farce."

When a club has a star player who wants out they want to get something for him so when Hawthorn had no-one else chasing Everitt’s services then they realised that the deal with the Swans was all they had.

In the end there were only 9 trades done all week, 7 of those were done on Friday. What i find funny is how fast they get their new recruits into the club's shirt for the cameras (see examples above). Trading period hasn't even been over for a day yet.

Austrian Schnitzelhaus

For my birthday I wanted to try out a new restaurant to continue my cultural crusade of food. When coming back from work one day (when I was with Sportspro) I noticed this place on Victoria Road at Gladesville and I thought I might be a good as it was something I’d never tried before. I had to bide my time thought because I spotted it many months before my birthday.

It is quite a small place but it does have a separate room for functions. The atmosphere is good and the waitresses spoke with a German accent, which ads to the authenticity. I assume they are from a German/Austrian decent but they could be putting it on for all I know.

Most of us had a schnitzel of some sort. There are many to choose from, but they are all huge, and they all tasted great. Me and Dad washed ours down with a German beer and capped it off with a slice of homemade Apple Strudel. It was almost too much apple.

So if you want to try something different then I recommend the Austrian Schnitzelhaus.

Dixie Chicks

I have previously been embarrassed to talk about this (due to an unprecedented amount of ribbing), but not anymore. I am now proud to admit that I am a Dixie Chicks fan.

What is there not to like about them. To start with they are all beautiful, but there’s more. Each of them can play an array of instruments (that’s right, not just one) as well as being able to sing fantastically and harmonise with each other.

So what if they do have a multitude of serious “Chick Anthems.” Some examples are:

• Goodbye Earl
• Ready to Run
• Cowboy Take Me Away
• Wide Open Spaces – possibly their most popular and their first major hit worldwide
• The Long Way Around – from their new album

I’d say all girls could relate to some aspect of all these songs and many others in their now quite vast catalogue.

You have to admire their song writing. They put their heart on their sleeve, as is shown with their new album, “Taking the Long Way.” My favourite song from this album is called, “Not Ready to Make Nice.” It is a provocative stab at all the controversy that happened after some remarks by lead singer, Natalie Maines. People were boycotting their music and even sending death threats. There are some real uptight Americans, must be all that junk food. They are now releasing a Documentary Movie call “Shut Up and Sing.” To be released early 2007

Our family went to see them in concert for the second time and they don’t disappoint. We sat front on to the stage on the second tier. I found myself watching the big screen sometimes even though I could easily see everyone on stage. Simply put, it was worth the money (that dad spent).

The newly renamed ACER Arena is a top venue and the music sounded great. I thought with a bigger venue wreak havoc with the sound but the technicians worked some sort of magic as only they know how.

It felt kind of awkward going with mum and dad. It’s hard to really get into anything with them there. But then again, Dad payed for the tickets, so I appreciate that.

Hawks Humbug

I know no one really cares about this but I will write anyway.

AFL Trade Week is in action this week. As the proper season finished last week this is all I have to keep me excited for the summer. There is reason to be excited, as Sydney could potentially be involved in one of the bigger trades of the week. Hawthorn’s Peter Everitt has stated that he wants to come to Sydney because the Hawks won’t offer him more than a one-year contract. Yet they want Sydney’s 2nd round draft pick and a star young player for him. This sounds very contradictory as they obviously don’t rate Everitt that highly if they wouldn’t give him a decent contract yet they want to split up the 2nd best team in the competition and take a high draft pick. What side of the planet is Hawthorn living on? They are being completely unreasonable, not only to the Swans but also to the player they supposedly rate so highly, Peter Everitt. Hawthorn should take the 3rd round pick that they were offered then go home and have a good hard look at themselves. If I had a Tool of the Week award I would give it to the whole club.

Letters to Jim Main #2

This one made it into the special souvenir premiership edition.

A Few Tips For The Vics (4/10/06)
Dear Jim,
I have enjoyed reading your fired up comments about Victorian teams having a whinge about their lack of recent success. They have no-one to blame but themselves for not looking into the future instead of on a year to year basis. It's as if they believe they have a God given right to be at the top without the effort. I therefore have a couple of suggestions for these archaic club. If they want a Victorian team to win the flag again, then they can demote themselves to the VFL, with no chance of an interstate win. But, as you said, who really cares except Victorians? If it's money they want, then maybe they could move to the Gold Coast, Western Sydney or Canberra. It will take a club with guts to make that call - just like the people who moved South Melbourne to Sydney. Such foresight! Do the Victorian administrators have what it takes?

Jim Main says: I am enormously proud of what the Swans have achieved after biting the bullet and moving to Sydney. The Kangaroos should certainly be looking elsewhere, but do they have the guts to do it? Anyway, if Victorian clubs demoted themselves to the VFL, what chances the Tassie Devils taking the flag?

Interesting Theory

I hear that Federal ALP backbencher, Craig Emerson, is suggesting that school be made compulsory for all students up until Yr 12. Might sound good in theory but obviously Mr Emerson hasn't stepped into a typical Govt school under his party's jurisdiction at a State level. There are a lot of students that just want to get out of school as soon as possible and go to work. Most go into trades of some sort, or a family business. I applaud students who make this choice as they know what they want to do and will more than likely be successful despite not being the best in the classroom. I know of one example of a student who was written off by his teachers from a young age. He left after Yr 10, got a trade and has spent the last couple of years touring the world and applying his trade. That's success to me.

I don't look as fondly on students who stay on to Yr 12 because there is nothing else to do. These same students have no aspirations of going to Uni, which I believe is the main purpose of going on to Yr 12. So why do they stay on? To a large extent, laziness. School is the easy option compared to getting a job. Another reason is that the Govt Schools will be glad to take them back. You see the number of students enrolled in a school determines the amount of funding received from the State Govt. Even though a fair chunk has no interest in achieving in school in Yrs 11 & 12. Some probably wouldn’t bother showing up to class, as was the case for the previous 4 years. But as long as the school gets the money eh?

Some Yr 10 School leavers without a trade would be better off getting a job at McDonald’s, for example, at least there they are getting a bit of money and are experiencing what it’s like to work under someone (even though that someone is probably not much older than them). They will learn that in the workplace they won’t put up with what they may have gotten away with at school. In the workplace you put a step wrong you’re out on you’re ear, Govt schools don’t have that luxury.

I suggest that Hon. Mr Craig Emerson rethink his proposal. Or perhaps go back to school.