Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 21:52 It's sad, so sad.
It's a sad sad situation...(John/Taupin 1976)
I think its a great day in any sentient being's life (and a society's) when it finally takes responsibility for cleaning up its own shit...
Friday, December 14, 2007 at 11:43 We have all heard tales of alien abductors taking people in their sleep and subjecting them to grotesque forms of torture, apparently in the name of alien science. Well, that was us. To the gecko, through the glass of its new cage at the museum, my learned colleagues and I would no doubt have looked just as absurd and just as obscene.
Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 10:13 
I have almost finished Richard Dawkins latest masterpiece - The God Delusion - and let me tell you it even gives a dyed in the wool atheist like me a run for my money. It is possibly the most devastating and sustained argument against organised religion I have ever read (not to mention the ridiculous notion of God). I was going to do a review of it here, but it will suffice instead merely to say: READ IT!
My friends among the sensible freethinking human population will wonder why it is necessary, but I think in this age of Religious Fascism we need to arm ourselves against the frenzied pseudo-intellectual attacks of ideologues and morons upon our hard-won humanist systems. (just Google "Intelligent" Design)
As for all you wingnuts out there - If you have an imaginary friend, by all means introduce them around. But please don't expect me or anybody else to actually take them seriously - after all, ours is the one and only truth and yours is patent nonsense OK?
I have to admit though, there is some pretty compelling evidence for the Flying Spaghetti Monster (see references). I also prefer the format of the FSM's commandments - known as the Eight Suggestions - which all begin with "I'd Really Rather..."
Look out for His Noodly Appendage...
Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 08:09 There are few things in life more disturbing to plan or take part in, than murder. Which is why only psychopaths are any good at it - they lack the basic empathic tools to be disturbed by it.
Saturday, November 10, 2007 at 21:24 
O my, I can hardly contain my glee. I just (accidentally) caught the beginning of the (hopefully) soon-to-be-ex-PM's address to the nation, on "The Importance of Economic Mangement" [sic] What a laugh! I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the prick has spent so fucking much on campaign advertising he can't afford any more vowels.
And is there an ironic dyslexic mocking us from up there among the Dogs? Those who (like myself) have a passing aqcuaintance with French will note that Mangement translates roughly as Eating-ly!!! That's right! The Right Honourable Right/Left reckon they've got the economy going eating-ly, and apart from the Right honorable Left/Right, who could disagree with them? (We certainly seem to be tuckin' into the oil despite it hitting US$100 a barrel this week - just a few metres of sea level rise and the economy will be going swimmingly thank you Johnny...)
Not to worry though cuz', 'coz shortly after the showbiz for ugly people came my favourite show of the mo': ABC's The Sideshow. If you haven't yet seen it then get thee hence. It's about time you got yourself properly entertained!
Friday, October 26, 2007 at 08:13 
The Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master.
by Takuan Sōhō;
translated by William Scott Wilson.
(Kodansha, 1987; softcover)
In a nutshell:
“Presumably, as a martial artist I do not fight for gain or loss, am not concerned with strength or weakness, and neither advance a step nor retreat a step.” Sort of like Zen and the art of swinging a sword I guess…
The big picture:
Written in the 17th century not long after the climax and close of Japan’s bloody feudal age, this collection of treatises can be subtle as a stiletto or blunt as two short planks, but never fails to convey the wit and deep insight of the author. What else would you expect from a man who was not only a monk, artist, poet and gardener but also the namesake and alleged inventor of a pickle made from giant radishes!
Not just a budo classic but a classic of Japanese literature, translations of The Unfettered Mind are just as likely to turn up on the shelves of wealthy businessmen as to be found in martial arts dojo. And its author is such a part of Japanese culture that he even appears in a popular manga series.
Two of the lectures within were letters to members of prominent samurai clans. They eloquently address issues of martial technique and principle, as well as the proper conduct of mind and body. The other, The Clear Sound of Jewels, concerns the nature of desire and reality, life and death:
Human consciousness and the objective world unite, sundry thoughts are born, and from these many others are born in turn. Pulled by these thoughts, this body of form is received and produced. It is not simply something strange that has rained down from heaven.
Beginning with the single thought that has no beginning, the multifarious things thus come to be. When you go and look carefully for its source, being a single thought with no beginning, you find that it has none at all. Having no origin at all, the birth of the infinite variety of things could be called a mystery.
Well then, you don’t say!
Look out for:
Friday, September 14, 2007 at 11:01 In my previous existence as an ecological field researcher for a state government agency late last century, I chanced one night upon a wee leaf-tail gecko attempting to flee from my colleagues and I, to relative safety in a crevice among the shattered rocks of its hilltop forest home. Unfortunately for it, throwing its tail did nothing to prevent my capturing it (gently of course!) in order to identify it for the purposes of our field work.
Identification using a diagnostic key confirmed our initial suspicions that it belonged in the genus Phyllurus.The distribution map accompanying the entry for P. caudiannulatus also told us that, if our tentative ID was correct, this little lizard was hundreds of miles away from any known populations of its conspecifics (a techo term meaning others of its species). We all debated the possibilities and eventually came to the conclusion that the find represented either an extension of the known geographic range of P. caudiannulatus, or a potential new species! Either way, it would have to be taken back to town for the specialists to look at.
This was pretty exciting for us, but very bad news for the gecko.
Not because of the trip so much: at the time, transport for a live specimen such as this meant a trip in a soft cloth bag inside a modified esky, in the back seat of the work Landcruiser. It would have been cool and dark and aside from the unfamiliarity of its surroundings, the smells etc., the lizard would not have been particularly uncomfortable. We were aware, however, that in all likelihood we were taking this beautiful little creature to its death.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 11:46 Duelling with O-Sensei: Grappling with the Myth of the Warrior Sage.
by Ellis Amdur.
(Edgework, 2000; softcover)
In a nutshell:
Amdur explores the ideals and pitfalls of the martial arts, particularly Japanese budo in its various forms, from the living fossils of the Koryu budo or old martial ways of Japan, to their modern descendants in the more art- or sport-like pursuits of Kendo, Iaido, Judo, Karatedo and Aikido. Exuberant and thought-provoking…
The big picture:
As an accomplished Aikidoka and a consultant in what he calls “crisis intervention” (see references), Amdur is full of insights into the application of Aikido to real-life conflict situations. He also holds menkyo (instructor) qualifications in Araki-ryu and Toda-ha Buko-ryu – two Koryu budo forms from Japan’s warring states period – all of which inform his witty and often caustic sketches of the trials and tribulations facing students of the martial arts, as well as the sometimes elusive rewards.
The book is not afraid to tackle some ornery myths (as the title suggests) nor to confront more serious ethical issues such as physical, emotional and sexual abuse in the martial arts, and the preoccupation of many dojo with force and violence. For the absolute beginner? Perhaps not. But a great read for those who dare to ask themselves, as one of our own distinguished Yuishinkai instructors recommends: “are we just a bunch of oriental fantasists?”. Answer for yourself.
Look out for:
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 13:02 OK - its been a while coming I grant you, but I have some light entertainment for once. Those who are easily offended have come to the right place: being extremely lazy I aim to do as little work at being offensive as possible. (Luckily I can rely more on native talent than hard work there!)
"Emo" - for those like myself who didn't know - is a catch-all term for (among many, many other things) a kind of youth cult which seems to be a watered down spin-off from Goth. God I detest the very word but the actual subculture itself is even more ridiculous.
If you took Punk and cut off its balls, locked it in a cupboard and made it watch reruns of Countdown, gave it hormone replacement therapy, and set it free in a HMV store, it would be lapped up by these losers, who entirely fail to commit suicide due not only to a general lack of committment but also the fact that they are using a Phillishave on their wrists instead of real cold steel. Good-old-fashioned self-inflicted suffering has gone out the window, to be replaced by a vague dissatisfaction with the amount of mass-produced teeny-bop and Playstation (or Xbox - like it makes a difference) one can fit into an empty life.
Yes ladies and grunts - Pop has eaten itself and, finding itself completely indigestible, it has thrown up all over the local McDonalds restaurant. Evanescence is not a property of Schweppes, but a pseudo-heavy refutation of the argument that art can be made by conveyor belt try-hards with tinted hair and iron-on tattoos. My Chemical Romance sounds like a Barbara Cartland expose (but with less literary merit). And who gives a shit about Taking Back Sunday? - they can fucking have it!
Back when I were young (yes I know - centuries ago), dyed hair was something likely to get you beaten to a pulp by the local jocks. Now carrying a hanky is less conformist. And wearing your skin-tight pants around your ankles does not indicate that you are too poor to afford an iron-studded belt, but your inability to handle complex objects like buckles (or knots - the old piece of rope is thus a non-viable alternative both for trouser-retention and stretching your miserable neck).
This is not to say that Goth is dead, rather it has been taken prisoner by illiterate halfwits who have never even heard of Shelley, let alone actually read his teen-bride's seminal scifi masterpiece or a single verse of his bloody poetry (this of course would require a grasp of written language). If anyone discovers its whereabouts please blow the bars and cut the razor tape - 'cause it will take some rescuing I am telling you! Robert Smith would be turning in his shallow grave, except that he got out of it years ago and went looking for a life.
Why, even the drugs these days are pathetic: no chemically enhanced incursions into the long dark night of the soul for these wimps, just designer pills which make you feel good for Christ's sake. Go and get yourself properly drug-fucked I say...
