Just because I can # 10

Some more Mighty Morphin' sexiness. :)

Thought for the day # 10

I bent my Wookie.

Random rant

Guess my posts have been a bit empty-headed lately. Funny by my standards, but I'll let you make up your own mind on that. :)

Thought I'd wander onto a subject that gets brought up a lot by a few mates of mine - the single friend being a fifth wheel thing. I thought I'd bring it up here because a lot of people seem to suffer from this syndrome, and don't seem to get why, or know what to do about it.

It's just one of those things, that when people partner up/marry they start neglecting their mates. Often enough their family as well, but usually single mates fall last on the list of priorities. By this, I don't just mean not catching up, often. I mean not answering or returning calls, never availing any time to see them and just generally pushing them away if there is actual contact.

Now, I've spent most of my adult life in one long-term relationship or another. No shallow type am I... or at least, I have this habit of getting swept up. That aside, my point is this: my single friends always remark on how somehow I've managed to stay in touch and treat them decently, when all the people they've known for years have suddenly dropped them like hot potatoes the minute someone of the opposite sex rocks up. For the record, your single mates will understand when you say you just want to spend some time with your new squeeze - lies and miscellaneous bullshit are stupid and unnecessary... unless funny. :)

There's this interesting myth that having a partner suddenly creates all the happiness in the world, and you need nothing else but that person. I admit, I have just a touch of the romantic about me, but this notion is just silly. Here's the list of shit we really need:

Sweet sweet lovin' from said partner
Friends
Family
Intellectual pursuits
Fun
Alone time (to allow individuality to remain intact)
ICED COFFEE

No doubt there's more (and perhaps not everyone agrees about iced coffee... which means there's more for me!) but those are the basics. See how they include more than just 'partner'. What normally happens is that the single friends you had are hurt by your insensitive shunning of them (this is a negative consequence) and subsequently feel bitter toward you. By the time you realise shallow crap with other couples ('oh, we should double date with those neighbours who we don't know very well and who have nothing in common with us, but who are a cute couple just like us!') has nothing to do with what you really need, the real friends you had have pissed you off ages ago and there's no fixing it.

Now, of course, when you meet someone, you do need time with that person. Plenty of it. But the odd ten minute call won't kill you, and there's no reason you can't take your new sweetie out for the odd night with the mates. If you're gonna get married or whatever, you'll have to include each other in the lives you've already got. I've always been a bit slow to do this (though the men I've hooked up with have always been in a rush), but I've at least answered calls from my friends and caught up with them from time to time in the midst of establishing a new relationship. Value this bit of time with your friends, and use it to tell them about what's happening in your life and maybe to reminisce about the stuff you used to do and probably shouldn't be doing now you're involved with someone. It'll save a friendship from dying before you come back down to Earth and realise you shouldn't have beaten it to death.

Then there's advice for the single friends. Don't be shitty with your mate for finding someone when you can't. Don't spend all your time whining 'I can't get a date'. It will invariably drive your newly hitched friend further away than they're going on their own. Ask advice, by all means - your mate's obviously got better tricks than you do - but don't be a whiney bitch. Beyond that, try and be happy for your friend. If they see you're on their side, they'll be more inclined to have you around.

Have patience. Budding romances are crazy things and the people in them can see nothing but each other. It's normal, so just weather it out. If you invite them out, add an extra friend so you're not a party of three. It gives them room to lapse into smooching now and then, and you can talk to the other mate while they get it out of their systems. You don't have to just sit/stand there looking terribly awkward.

Then there's the longish-term relationships that lead to someone being henpecked. No good can come of letting another person rule you. By all means, be considerate, but come on - you're still an individual. I've heard all sorts about this. Many who won't go out because of kids - like you can't take them places with you. Not the pub, obviously, but to the pool or for a game of golf, or whatever. I was taught not to be little shit under those circumstances when I was a kid, so I'm sure it can be done, now.

Then there are those who must be home at X time to cook for the husband/wife. For crap's sake, these people usually work too, and the other expects them to be the unpaid home help. It's bollocks! Let the bugger make or buy their own tea once in a freakin' while! Oh, and here's a good one - a woman who (even when he's elsewhere) won't eat a sweet because her husband is on a diet. Dumbarse.

Me, I've been with my man two years. If I feel like going for a drive or visiting Mum at 2am, I give him a kiss, tell him goodnight, and I sod off. If he wants to go off with his mates on a bike ride, or to play Mech Warrior, I don't care. We generally have the decency to tell each other when we think we might be home (or if we think there's an open limit on that), or if we won't be back for tea. What more do you need? We see our mates, we get together with each other's mates, and there's peace. Why do people need to be so stupid? Life requires balance.

Christmas crap... so to speak

Merry Christmas... or it will be if you haven't been eating snowcones. And you thought the yellow ones were dodgy!

Thought for the day # 9

Holy crip, he's a crapple!

Now let's not get selfish... did you really think I'd let you kill this chorus?

Just thought I'd throw in a shameless plug for Panic! at the Disco. What gold lyrics these guys have. :)

Just because I can # 9

Talk of a lunar outpost

Ask and ye shall receive. Well, sort of. I've had a request to be a bit more observant of the news, and here it is. Frankly, domestic politics give me the shits and, owing to the depression factor and the sheer uselessness of voting and whatnot, I'm not inclined to pay them much mind. Labor's in a mess, and the Liberal party will go on f***ing up our good nation for as long as it pleases, methinks. Oh, wait, that was a rant about domestic politics...

Now, on to something more interesting. A) George W is saying he wants NASA to put people on the moon. Not just for a jiffy, but for the creation of an outpost. At least, that's the hint the article I read gave (above link will take you there, assuming the gremlins haven't screwed that up, like my e-mail link). B) There's been talk of water on Mars. Exciting stuff, eh? As they say, where there's water, there may just be life. No immediate plans to go to Mars that I can discern, though.

Of course, any lunar activity will take a while to get up and running. Current estimate of reaching the moon is 2020. I have to wonder how people got there in the first place, if it takes so much kerfuffle... Which brings me to the point that I'm growing more and more sceptical about the original lunar landing. Did it even take place? For that matter, why give us such shoddy footage when even back then there was much better technology for capturing images and sound? Could it be that shoddy footage hides bullshit better than something done properly? File that under things that make you say 'hmm'.

So, will people actually get on the moon, in 2020? If they do, what will the outpost mean for the human race? The first step toward shaking out terrestrial bonds, mayhap. One might be less inclined to fight over a little patch of land if the rest of the solar system starts being opened up to us. But wait. These things take such a terribly long time. Probably not because they need to, but because a few tight-fisted gimboids control the world and these things take lots and lots of money that the masses must scrape and beg and kiss arse to get hold of. Including NASA. And of course, space exploration is one of those things that people either embrace or drop at a whim, so funding gets granted, then taken away, then granted again, then taken away, and whatever plans exist go to hell because the fluctuating funding screws up the deadline and people get shirty when you don't meet their deadlines, thus there goes the funding again. Or something like that. Oh, how we need something more worthy than dollars to live for... I've digressed, haven't I?

Well, the point is, I'm all for space exploration. It could do all kinds of good for humanity - especially if the process could be accelerated a bit. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced we've put people on the moon, or that it'll happen according to plan (if at all) this time. It'd be great, and it'd also be great if there was life on Mars (of any kind).

As the poster says I want to believe.

Thought for the day # 8

I'm really bad at returning library books on time.

Just because I can # 8

It's a spear
And it's burnt
Don't let it near
Your arse...


Wish I could take credit, but the writers of Full Frontal came up with that little gem.

Suggestions?

I'm going to admit that even I occasionally run low on ideas (for stuff other than my Thought for the Day or Just Because I Can, that is). So here's your chance to suggest some things you'd like to see me share my opinion of, research, or just generally have a rant about. Use the comments bit or e-mail me. I don't doubt there are things you think about a lot, or have an uninformed argument about now and then - so tell me about it, and I'll add my bit.

More buggered than ever

Wow. Uni's done, and I feel like I've had no kind of break at all. It's the silly season, so I expect more work, but it's been pretty full on even considering I'm in retail. I think my boss and various managers beneath him are opportunists. It's like the minute they know you don't have somewhere else to be, you're obliged to live at work (mayhap they don't want me to have enough remaining energy to go looking for a proper job, now I'm finished Honours). Not that I mind the money - kind of need the extra dollars at this time of year. Guess I just need to vent because I'm so bloody tired.

I imagine some of my readers know what it's like to do goofy shifts. By this, I mean those shifts that can start anywhere from 9am to midnight on any given day of the week. I'm teetering on this weird line between appreciating having the extra work and money, and going postal at work because I can't get a decent sleep. Methinks they don't appreciate just how hard it is to sleep when you have no routine happening. The body gets used to sleeping either at night or in the day time - and it doesn't quickly adjust to changes between the two. I've found that getting sleep wherever I've got a bit of time just doesn't work. The effects go beyond CBF (Can't Be F***ed... you'll find more on that syndrome from the perspective of a glorified check-out chick - and a bunch of other cool stuff - if you click the link at the top of this post).

Now I'm done cracking a wobbly, I'll tell you my good news. A book I did some editing for is finally getting published. Added to this (as doesn't always happen for we humble editors), I and my colleagues actually get credit for it. How good's that? If I wasn't so f***ing tired, I'd be swinging from the light fittings in my enthusiasm... assuming they could support my weight in the first place... Well, yay for me!

Just because I can # 7

It's not sexy, but it's funny...