Monday, January 18, 2010

O my wise friends

My wise friend E has many occasions of great eloquence. One such occasion occurred after I shared with her my troubling feelings about the behaviour of certain Hamiltonians. She succinctly summarized a situation as follows:

By avoiding ethical judgments, you avoid having to think or risk disagreements.

So true.

More on Avatar

Actually those aliens on Avatar, with their overly large and emotive eyes, look particularly poxy. If I was an alien I should prefer to be something evil like a dalek.

Cultural snobbery

I think I might avoid seeing Avatar. There is no reason other than that almost everyone else will see it. This knee-jerk reaction stems back to my early childhood, when I would barrack for the arched window at Play School, only because it was the unpopular choice amongst my pre school class mates, who favoured the generic circle or square.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Footnotes

As a footnote to the last post, I had some trade last night. He said:

"You´re an intellectual, aye."

Speaking of trade, a snippet of Skype convo with J this arvo:

Me: For some reason I feel awkward and uncomfortable if I am hosting one person, but totally in my element if I am hosting a group.

J: You make that sound so sleazy.

Hamilton Pride

I am concerned that my association with the Hamilton pride organization may lead others to mistakenly believe I am proud of Hamilton.

On a related note, I recently read some tourist propaganda which wrote: "Hamilton is young," (Hamilton is one of the top retirement destinations for UK immigrants) "ambitious" (ambitious Hamiltonians left town when they turned 18) "and passionate" (Hamilton is a best mildly pleasant with a soggy edge, in atmosphere and demeanour).

A dark perversion

Onto a darker perversion - a friend of a friend was recently arrested on the south island for making sexual advances to a 13-year old. He may be charged with some similar offences also. Apparently this person has already been to jail for one such offence.

I mostly feel sad for all concerned. As to whether it would effect my friendship with the accused, well, we don't really have a friendship anyway. I was his acquaintance for a while until he started to bully me in subtle yet nasty way - I retreated immediately from the acquaintanceship. Since then, I have discovered my opinion of him has overlapped with many in the friendship circle.

Although ultimately I like to judge people by how they treat me, I am also wary of those who mistreat others - lack of respect is a behavioural pattern rarely restricted to only one behaviour.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

A New Year's Resolution

In group therapy I was taught that it is best to set achievable goals.

It was with this advice in mind that I contemplated my New Year's Resolutions for 2010. I decided to just make one, in the process greatly increasing the likelihood of success.

My New Year's Resolution for 2010 is to wear speedos for lap swimming at the local pool. New Zealand is, in general, a most speedo-phobic nation; nevertheless you do sometimes see them at the pool, less often at the beach though.

I feel I am swimming enough laps now to have earned the right for something more hydro-dynamic than a baggy pair of swim shorts.

Although part of my wanting to wear them is perverted, there's another motivation of the most innocent sensuality; why sully the logic I say. Also, at the end of the day, my decision to wear speedos is largely the problem (or benefit, to a special few) of the other patrons in the pool.

I have done two trips to the pool without being arrested for smuggling budgerigars, it looks like 2010 could be a year of great self-worth and goal-reaching, or if not at least some self-reaching.