I was doing some random searching online and came across an interesting article with the title:
"Evaluating bizarre-idiosyncratic thinking: a comprehensive index of positive thought disorder."
Straight away I'm thinking holy crap there's actually a disorder where people are too possitive?!
Now I can understand that there some instances whereby people need to understand the severity of certain situations in order to act appropriately and not cover things with roses... but a disorder?
I guess it makes some sense when I think about it. I mean there's got to be extremities on both ends of the scale.
There's Melencholy, which is defined by dictionary.com as "the condition of having too much black bile, considered in ancient and medieval medicine to cause gloominess and depression."
This word and understanding of it has been around since, or even before Elizabethan times as shown in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. So this is not new to us/me.
After a quick search I've found an interesting word: Agathism.
This is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "The doctrine that all things tend towards ultimate good, as distinguished from optimism, which holds that all things are now for the best."
Thinking about it closely I'd say that positivity and optimism are pretty much brother and sister in terms of their relativity to one another going by that defination.
So somehow, amoungst all that life has to throw us in terms of lows and highs we've got to keep a positive outlook so as not to develope negative thoughts which could culminate in accumulating too much black bile, but also have to be wary of being too optimistic as we could lose sight of the reality of the situation we find ourselves in be in negative or positive.
Of course, It's always better to be optimistic/positive than the other way!
Interesting...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
The year that was...
So here we all are coming to the close of 2008.
Another year gone. Another chance to come up with those inspirational New Years resolutions which last 2 mins into the New Year!
How did it all go? A year to remember, or a year to forget?
Well for me personally it was a good'n, but not one where when I'm 70 and look back I'll say '2008, one of the best years of my life'. Nonetheless one that kept me busy and had many highs in its' own right.
What did I do of note?
I released a Music Book entitled 'The Warning Collection' with 4 other friends.
This was a hugely rewarding project on many levels. The main aim for me personally was to try and get my music in front of big name people in the Pipe Band world and hope that any of it would be played by their respective band. As improbable as it is, at least I've done everything my end to ensure I've given myself the best possible chance of it happening.
I competed in Pipe Idol! in Glasgow, Scotland.
This was a massive massive honour to have done this. The only reason I actually received the invite was because my good friend Paul Hughes recommended me to his bagpipe tutor back in Scotland who ran the event. Their friendship and trust must be immense as his tutor had never heard me play a single solitary note and yet I was given the chance to compete against very high achieving young pipers from around the world. I do hold some very minor regret about my performance however. The playing was overall fine and I received many complementary comments afterwards, but, I know by my own standards it wasn't anywhere near where I've played before and given the occasion I should have risen from those previous levels again to really do myself justice. If I am given the opportunity to have one last crack at it next year as it is an under 21 yrs event, I want to walk away this time knowing I've left everything I possible can on the board. Either way, it is something I will not forget and I'm sure will mean even more as the years go by!
I played with Manawatu at the NZ National Championships.
The first vivid memory I have of Pipe Bands of any note was 1999 in Dunedin at the NZ Nationals. I have three memories in particular.
1) The primary memory which I recall is seeing the NZ Police Pipe Band. They were at their height at this stage. They were regularly competing at the World Championships; They had pretty much all the superstars from throughout NZ playing; And their shear size was the biggest band I had seen at that stage in my life!
2) The A&D Pipe Band were memorable in that they looked like nutters! This was because they all had the same hair cut and the same hair colour. Imagine, a group of 25+ people all looking identically nuts. Very memorable.
3) Finally, I remember someone telling me that day that Greg Wilson had handed over the reigns of Manawatu to a guy called Stew MacKenzie. Although I didn't know these guys from a bar of soap, everyone else seemed to and soon filled me in on who they were. Manawatu were memorable in that they won the Street March that day, which meant they had to have beaten the NZ Police superstar band!
So, from that day at my first NZ Nationals, I had formed my first impressions of Pipe Banding in New Zealand. As we all know, first impressions last!
From there Manawatu picked up their first New Zealand overall title in 2001 in Timaru. Again a memorable occasion for me as that same day I won my first title with the St. Andrews College Pipe Band in grade 3! They went on to win consecutive titles up until 2007 when they were unable to compete that year due to a untimely death within the band. As a by note, I was playing for the NZ Police at that time and we picked up the title in their absence.
Manawatu has always been the ideal fit for me. I've always enjoyed their music thoroughly and their sound has always left me with the impression that this is a 'real man's band'. The big ballsy Sinclair sound, great tunes... it ticked all the boxes for me.
Anyway, back to my comment which started this history lesson, I was able to fulfill my dream of playing with Manawatu at the 2008 NZ Nationals. I flew into NZ for my first practice the weekend before, then competed with them the following weekend. An absolutely memorable occasion. I must make special note of the bands special ability to make a new player feel welcome. From the time I arrived they were doing everything they could to make me feel like part of the team. It was most definitely noted and for this reason it makes paying for flights that much easier knowing that when you arrive you're going to thoroughly enjoy the experience every time!
These were for me the three most notable moments in my life in 2008. On comes a new year which promises many more highs that will be memorable and I look forward to them wholeheartedly.
Best wishes to those (you: note singular) who read my blog and keep drinking Gin, it's good for you. Honestly.... it is :)
Another year gone. Another chance to come up with those inspirational New Years resolutions which last 2 mins into the New Year!
How did it all go? A year to remember, or a year to forget?
Well for me personally it was a good'n, but not one where when I'm 70 and look back I'll say '2008, one of the best years of my life'. Nonetheless one that kept me busy and had many highs in its' own right.
What did I do of note?
I released a Music Book entitled 'The Warning Collection' with 4 other friends.
This was a hugely rewarding project on many levels. The main aim for me personally was to try and get my music in front of big name people in the Pipe Band world and hope that any of it would be played by their respective band. As improbable as it is, at least I've done everything my end to ensure I've given myself the best possible chance of it happening.
I competed in Pipe Idol! in Glasgow, Scotland.
This was a massive massive honour to have done this. The only reason I actually received the invite was because my good friend Paul Hughes recommended me to his bagpipe tutor back in Scotland who ran the event. Their friendship and trust must be immense as his tutor had never heard me play a single solitary note and yet I was given the chance to compete against very high achieving young pipers from around the world. I do hold some very minor regret about my performance however. The playing was overall fine and I received many complementary comments afterwards, but, I know by my own standards it wasn't anywhere near where I've played before and given the occasion I should have risen from those previous levels again to really do myself justice. If I am given the opportunity to have one last crack at it next year as it is an under 21 yrs event, I want to walk away this time knowing I've left everything I possible can on the board. Either way, it is something I will not forget and I'm sure will mean even more as the years go by!
I played with Manawatu at the NZ National Championships.
The first vivid memory I have of Pipe Bands of any note was 1999 in Dunedin at the NZ Nationals. I have three memories in particular.
1) The primary memory which I recall is seeing the NZ Police Pipe Band. They were at their height at this stage. They were regularly competing at the World Championships; They had pretty much all the superstars from throughout NZ playing; And their shear size was the biggest band I had seen at that stage in my life!
2) The A&D Pipe Band were memorable in that they looked like nutters! This was because they all had the same hair cut and the same hair colour. Imagine, a group of 25+ people all looking identically nuts. Very memorable.
3) Finally, I remember someone telling me that day that Greg Wilson had handed over the reigns of Manawatu to a guy called Stew MacKenzie. Although I didn't know these guys from a bar of soap, everyone else seemed to and soon filled me in on who they were. Manawatu were memorable in that they won the Street March that day, which meant they had to have beaten the NZ Police superstar band!
So, from that day at my first NZ Nationals, I had formed my first impressions of Pipe Banding in New Zealand. As we all know, first impressions last!
From there Manawatu picked up their first New Zealand overall title in 2001 in Timaru. Again a memorable occasion for me as that same day I won my first title with the St. Andrews College Pipe Band in grade 3! They went on to win consecutive titles up until 2007 when they were unable to compete that year due to a untimely death within the band. As a by note, I was playing for the NZ Police at that time and we picked up the title in their absence.
Manawatu has always been the ideal fit for me. I've always enjoyed their music thoroughly and their sound has always left me with the impression that this is a 'real man's band'. The big ballsy Sinclair sound, great tunes... it ticked all the boxes for me.
Anyway, back to my comment which started this history lesson, I was able to fulfill my dream of playing with Manawatu at the 2008 NZ Nationals. I flew into NZ for my first practice the weekend before, then competed with them the following weekend. An absolutely memorable occasion. I must make special note of the bands special ability to make a new player feel welcome. From the time I arrived they were doing everything they could to make me feel like part of the team. It was most definitely noted and for this reason it makes paying for flights that much easier knowing that when you arrive you're going to thoroughly enjoy the experience every time!
These were for me the three most notable moments in my life in 2008. On comes a new year which promises many more highs that will be memorable and I look forward to them wholeheartedly.
Best wishes to those (you: note singular) who read my blog and keep drinking Gin, it's good for you. Honestly.... it is :)
Friday, December 19, 2008
When you've been an ass...
I am reminded of the infamous scene in the movie 'Meet the Fockers' where Ben Stiller's character unintentionally teaches a baby the word 'Asshole'.
While it's an hilariously awkward scene when he finds out what he's done, compounded by the fact the baby continually repeats his new favourite word 'Asssssshole', the part that I'm interested in and will be discussing today is once you've been an ass and crossed the line... How do you make up for it?
There's the traditional methods of course:
1. Buy the person you've pissed off something
2. Get on your knee's and beg for forgiveness
Now while these methods will work sometimes, you never really know what you've achieved. Be it the person in question;
a) Forgives you
b) Gets over it, or the ultimate
c) All of the above
These are the typical methods of getting out of the dog house, but the game changes when you've done something a little more consistently. Knowing that it annoys them and still doing it. Now that's real dumb!
So, I guess when you've gotten yourself to this point there needs to be a combination of the traditional method and a method only used in special (albeit dumb) occasions.
The thing all men hate, despise and shy away from at any possible chance - The Emotive Method.
This is where you have to grab you're relevant kahunas (see big round things hanging between one's leg) and see if there's a reason for your consistently f***ing annoying behaviour, to put the other persons spin on it.
Where the typical man would grab a carton of piss and seek the answer at the bottom of his 24th beer, generally finding nothing but more problems, one of which is the likelihood that that person may now consider being an alcoholic because of the exciting journey he had getting to that 24th beer. The most efficient way unfortunately is sitting down and having a good hard think about what's going on in your life and trying to work out if there's a correlation between anything stressful in your life that is making your somewhat normal rational self, turn into a bit of a dick (to put a kiwi spin on it).
So here I sit, albeit in not too dissimilar conditions from my last blog. Reflecting on some poor form on my part last night.
It's not too hard however to work out why I may be acting so irrational, in that all I have to do is again look over my last blog and see that I am facing a potentially life changing decision.
Now looking over the last 6 months where this behavioural trait of mine has gotten worryingly more consistent to be called 'one off' I can also trace my discontent with having not gotten a high level education to around the same point where it became more consistent.
So I guess it's decision time. Work out what I'm going to do. Confirm it in my head. Know I have a plan and get on with living a life being a person that I'm happy being.
Now this has all been very educational stuff, if not for you, then just for me, however great as it's been, I've barely touched on the issue I began with... How do I get myself out of the dog box?
How did Ben Stiller's character Gaylord Focker get out of it? I dunno, I can't remember right now, but I'm sure it was stereotypical Hollywood style the good guy always wins.
Going on my loose assumption from Hollywood I guess the next plan of action will be - Sort my sh*t out and be a decent bastard.
While it's an hilariously awkward scene when he finds out what he's done, compounded by the fact the baby continually repeats his new favourite word 'Asssssshole', the part that I'm interested in and will be discussing today is once you've been an ass and crossed the line... How do you make up for it?
There's the traditional methods of course:
1. Buy the person you've pissed off something
2. Get on your knee's and beg for forgiveness
Now while these methods will work sometimes, you never really know what you've achieved. Be it the person in question;
a) Forgives you
b) Gets over it, or the ultimate
c) All of the above
These are the typical methods of getting out of the dog house, but the game changes when you've done something a little more consistently. Knowing that it annoys them and still doing it. Now that's real dumb!
So, I guess when you've gotten yourself to this point there needs to be a combination of the traditional method and a method only used in special (albeit dumb) occasions.
The thing all men hate, despise and shy away from at any possible chance - The Emotive Method.
This is where you have to grab you're relevant kahunas (see big round things hanging between one's leg) and see if there's a reason for your consistently f***ing annoying behaviour, to put the other persons spin on it.
Where the typical man would grab a carton of piss and seek the answer at the bottom of his 24th beer, generally finding nothing but more problems, one of which is the likelihood that that person may now consider being an alcoholic because of the exciting journey he had getting to that 24th beer. The most efficient way unfortunately is sitting down and having a good hard think about what's going on in your life and trying to work out if there's a correlation between anything stressful in your life that is making your somewhat normal rational self, turn into a bit of a dick (to put a kiwi spin on it).
So here I sit, albeit in not too dissimilar conditions from my last blog. Reflecting on some poor form on my part last night.
It's not too hard however to work out why I may be acting so irrational, in that all I have to do is again look over my last blog and see that I am facing a potentially life changing decision.
Now looking over the last 6 months where this behavioural trait of mine has gotten worryingly more consistent to be called 'one off' I can also trace my discontent with having not gotten a high level education to around the same point where it became more consistent.
So I guess it's decision time. Work out what I'm going to do. Confirm it in my head. Know I have a plan and get on with living a life being a person that I'm happy being.
Now this has all been very educational stuff, if not for you, then just for me, however great as it's been, I've barely touched on the issue I began with... How do I get myself out of the dog box?
How did Ben Stiller's character Gaylord Focker get out of it? I dunno, I can't remember right now, but I'm sure it was stereotypical Hollywood style the good guy always wins.
Going on my loose assumption from Hollywood I guess the next plan of action will be - Sort my sh*t out and be a decent bastard.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
The Big Move. No, not the tune...
So I'm sitting at the new pad... which is NOT next to the sea.
'Great Scot!' I hear you say. 'What!? What are you going to do with yourself now that you're not next to the sea... surely at the very least you're going to have to change the title of your blog!!!'
Well to all those out there (well only so far one minuscule follower of this blog) I am not going to change the title of the blog... I like it... it works... deal with it! (Libby I am speaking to you at this point).
So anyway, time to write something interesting...
As I sit here on the ledge at my new pad I'm wearing only shorts and thongs. Now don't get all excited, thongs in Australia are actually sandals, or something close to resembling Roman Sandals for those non-Southern Hemisphere people out there...
Anywhoo, as I was saying I'm wearing fuck all, sitting on my ledge at 6pm. Brilliant. Absolutely Friggin Brilliant! So who the hell would want to go to another southern hemisphere country where it's unlikely I'd be A) Wearing just a pair of shorts let alone thongs! B) It's still completely sunny with barely a cloud in the sky at 6pm in the evening!?! Madness I tell you. Yet here I am telling everyone I'm going, I'm staying, I'm going, I'm staying for 6 months then going... All in the hope of getting some degree which is going to justify to myself that I am now an educated person and thus life will be sorted!
Now trust me I can understand the benefits of getting an education as much as the next non-educated person, plus throw in a couple of highly and averagely educated persons. Thus, I'm actively searching through my options in this area!
So in summation, at 21yrs the easy option is to continue in my current job where everything ticks along fine. Money's never really an issue, great new flat, live almost in the centre of town etc etc... Or should I go home/stay, work and study part time, or the third option try and get into a Uni over here and study full time?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!!
Throw in a serious missus and massive benefits/losses (opportunity cost) of choosing to leave a country or stay... and also the fact I'm running out of time to make a decision!!
So, back to me sitting in shorts, wearing thongs and sipping on a Grolsch at 6:15pm in the sun at my new flat where the missus is happy and I have regular pay coming in.... either way, even if I don't make a massive life changing decision in time, the status quo isn't all that bad!
Till the next time...
'Great Scot!' I hear you say. 'What!? What are you going to do with yourself now that you're not next to the sea... surely at the very least you're going to have to change the title of your blog!!!'
Well to all those out there (well only so far one minuscule follower of this blog) I am not going to change the title of the blog... I like it... it works... deal with it! (Libby I am speaking to you at this point).
So anyway, time to write something interesting...
As I sit here on the ledge at my new pad I'm wearing only shorts and thongs. Now don't get all excited, thongs in Australia are actually sandals, or something close to resembling Roman Sandals for those non-Southern Hemisphere people out there...
Anywhoo, as I was saying I'm wearing fuck all, sitting on my ledge at 6pm. Brilliant. Absolutely Friggin Brilliant! So who the hell would want to go to another southern hemisphere country where it's unlikely I'd be A) Wearing just a pair of shorts let alone thongs! B) It's still completely sunny with barely a cloud in the sky at 6pm in the evening!?! Madness I tell you. Yet here I am telling everyone I'm going, I'm staying, I'm going, I'm staying for 6 months then going... All in the hope of getting some degree which is going to justify to myself that I am now an educated person and thus life will be sorted!
Now trust me I can understand the benefits of getting an education as much as the next non-educated person, plus throw in a couple of highly and averagely educated persons. Thus, I'm actively searching through my options in this area!
So in summation, at 21yrs the easy option is to continue in my current job where everything ticks along fine. Money's never really an issue, great new flat, live almost in the centre of town etc etc... Or should I go home/stay, work and study part time, or the third option try and get into a Uni over here and study full time?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!!
Throw in a serious missus and massive benefits/losses (opportunity cost) of choosing to leave a country or stay... and also the fact I'm running out of time to make a decision!!
So, back to me sitting in shorts, wearing thongs and sipping on a Grolsch at 6:15pm in the sun at my new flat where the missus is happy and I have regular pay coming in.... either way, even if I don't make a massive life changing decision in time, the status quo isn't all that bad!
Till the next time...
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