Good Karma, Bad Karma. The cut.

The dull bewildered stare of one of the Jinx team greeted us at the Clock Pub on Friday. The Razor Gang had just been through and job cuts had run deep in this small close knit company. The planned cuts by senior management had been so well hidden even the PA’s didn’t know. This Jinx was trying to come to terms with the loss of her last remaining team member. Her red eyes and puffy nose spoke volumes.

 

This Jinx was a manager of a small team of customer service workers. She was good at handling a team, listened to both team and customers, helped her staff and made their days interesting with different fun foods and activities. She encouraged all her team to look beyond Customer Service as a long term career. She had taken the time to get to know her team and wanted only the best for them, she liked all her team members. This Jinx had also had a few nasty falls breaking a leg at one stage and had broken up with her long term boyfriend. On the ledger bad karma was out weighing good karma but this Jinx continued on and hoped she would turn that corner. She remained up beat which amazed a few in the Jinx Crew.

 

Then the company decided to integrate customer service into one State. This Jinx saw six years of above average customer service evaporate before her eyes. All the good things she had done had counted for zero, or so she felt. Four team members were shown the door, no chance for places n the company. It hurt this Jinx and had her up late at night wondering about their futures. The axe stopped at her job and she was moved to a new position, one that scared her and pushed her into a totally different direction. This decision by the company to retain her services should have perked her up but instead she fell into a deep well of unhappiness. The struggles by her former team to find jobs made her ever unhappier, life was kicking her in the guts at ever turn.

 

This radical change made her moody and had her questioning herself and her decisions. She felt unloved and wondered aloud frequently why she had ever bothered to be nice to people if she was just going to cop it in the guts. She in essence felt betrayed. All the good deeds for staff and customers over the years and it had meant nothing.

 

Then on Friday the Razor Gang returned to remove the last member of this Jinx team. Again Jinx had no idea that the axe was about to fall. This Jinx had been making plans with her last team member and plans were looking good. Yet the axe still fell.

 

Now this Jinx realizes that while she did good and these things have saved her once more from the axe, as they say karma can be a bitch, this Jinx now has survival guilt. She sat there muttering “no good deed goes unpunished.” It was a few drinks in before she rose and left. She had talked and talked and it was felt within the group she has finally turned that corner.

 

Karma has been watching out for her, giving her the job is wanted, something hard and challenging with a nice paycheck. The boyfriend was a total prick and had to go. All her former team were employed or traveling the globe and were in good health. It was agreed been nice costs nothing, caring will always leave you open for pain and heartbreak but its life’s way of telling you you’re living. You have to expierence the bad karma to know when the good karma has fallen into your lap.  

Democracy is wasted in America.

At long last the end is near, come November no more stupid and non researched TV coverage of the Presidential Election filled with two second sound bites loaded with bias reporting from both Republican and Democratic leaning Networks. This travesty of democracy will be over for another four years. Americans reporting on American politics has to be some of the worst television naval gazing a foreigner can have served up daily, no wonder America is ridiculed as having no attention span. If it hasn’t the faintish whiff of scandal or the potential to be blown out of proportion by a desk thudding TV jock sporting an American flag pin in his lapel. This pin appears to give the wearer the right to anoint with the furrowing of his brow or waggle of his finger who is a true American and who is un-American. It reminds many of the Night of the Long Knives, differences will not be tolerated, especially if your not male, white, middle class and Christian.  

Topic’s concerning Healthcare, Education and Iraq are shuffled off to the side so people can dissect what Michele Obama said or in reality what Fox News “thinks” she means which would appear at every turn to be un-American or incredibly is compared to a terrorist because she pumps fists with her husband. Has American gone mad or worse racism is now disguised as political commentary, are American voters outraged? Are TV channels flooded with complaints? No, the silence is overwhelming.

Both potential First Ladies are looked over like meat, made to perform on TV and try to present their husbands as normal Americans.

Please!

All American Politicians are now either lawyers, millionaires or both. There is no “average” politicians left on Capitol Hill. The lawyers took over years ago and the Media are too lazy to report it and the voters to lazy to look deeper into the education of their elected heads.

Where have the hard questions gone? Why are there powder puff reports about where McCain or Barrack are, who their visiting that day with a voice over from the reporter or what their wives or kids are doing on some lifestyle channel. If some reporting is attempted it is without fail about their sex lives. Does anyone care who these guys slept with? We all know sex sells but please draw the line somewhere. If the sex act doesn’t have anything to do with the character of the person or national policy just let it go. It does no one any favours, it just belittles politics’ and takes the voters attention away for the key matters at hand.

Yet that would appear to be the desired result by the Media. They do the lazy stuff and wait for someone somewhere else to do the leg work. American TV is so deeply rooted in the concept of “Sex Sells” it has invaded every corner of the media from kids shows to politics. The act of “reporting” has vanished. Reporters are now Entertainment reporters, no holded bars reporting are dead, long live E News and all it’s many clones.  

Everyday I thank God I don’t live in America. What a long winded, boring and huge waste of taxpayers’ money this race has become. Lobbyists and special interest groups appear to run the campaigns now on both sides of the landscape. The average voter barley has a look in.

You would think Americans would fight back and try and reclaim their birthright. It would make sense if Americans bothered to vote. That’s the rub to the rest of the world. Americans aren’t just lazy about their weight, their education, they can’t be bothered to vote either.

42%

Last Election about 42% of Americans got out of their houses and walked down to their local hall to do their civic duty.How long does it take to vote in the most powerful person in the world. Ten minutes? Twenty minutes? The average American is asked by their country to vote every fours years and ever that minor request is seen as a total waste of time by many. It is a strange contradiction, on one hand Americans love their country, its history and their rights, the right to choose. Yet they do nothing. How is doing nothing choosing?

One has to wonder what the Foundering Fathers; the Soldiers of the Civil War would think to know that within 150 years voting is seen as a hassle, that the politicians are all the same saying the same hackney non informative blah to people everyday on every Network. What happened to the Politicians, the Voters, the whole damn system. What happened to you America? When did the dream of democracy, fair and transparent government die in the hearts and minds of the common Joe?

For a country so inward looking one would think that voting would be seen as a task that every American would look forward to doing, a chance for every man’s voice to be heard. Yet the looming fear of another four years of Republican rule becomes clearer every day. The reason is simple. The pin below was been sold at a Republican Convention.

 

That pin is so totally wrong on so many levels, yet the reporting of this has barely been reported at all. It all makes sense. Americans just don’t care about America anymore and the rest of the world has to suffer through their poor choices.

Remember 42% of Americans will vote in 2008. The greatest Democracy in the World is failing. The question has to be asked why would Iraq want Democracy if America has things so wrong.

 

Apple Store Opens in Sydney and is that Matt Stone in the queue?

Who doesn’t like a queue? The chance to stand in a group waiting for something totally awesome to open. The anticipation, the chance to talk to fellow devotee’s. Yet like so many human concepts, there are queues that make total sense and everyone wants to be in it and others that make little sense at all.

How the Jinx Crew fondly remembers the queue to see the new Star Wars films. The geeks in their Darth Vader outfits, the light sabers duels in the cinema isles, the blue slave girls in their barely there outfits. Oh good times, that queue made total sense. Other movie goers had fun with the crowd and everyone went home wishing Phantom Menace was a better film and hoped against hope George Lucas won’t screw things up farther by continuing to use Jar Jar Binks.

Yet a queue for a computer store? Man, this queue is making allot of geeks look bad. It’s a store. It offers the same product as the team around the corner at Next Byte. The Jinx Crew as they rounded the corner of King Street to walk down George Street came to a dead stop in their tracks and snorted their laughter. We had all read about it in the Sunday papers but didn’t want to believe it. As reported there are geeks and nerds who roam the wilderness waiting for the call, waiting for another Apple Stores to open and then fly in, sit on their asses for days on end in little blue deck chairs, waiting to receive a free t-shirt. Then return once more they return to the natural beauty of the wilderness. 

We counted fifteen proud souls sitting in their deck chairs waiting for the Apple Store to open. Some sat heads down staring at the soft light from their computer screens. We were all sure they were eagerly blogging about their experiences of sitting on a major road in Winter. Riveting stuff I’m sure. The Jinx crew noted how pedestrians scooted out to the end of the pavement as they walked by to stare firstly at the queue then the store, this caused of frowns from the pedestrians. The Jinx Crew wondered if the pedestrians thought the queue would start singing hymns to Steve Jobs or trying to convert them to the Apple way of life. That would be better than sitting on your ass all day, surely?

Later after the Jinx Crew had finished their boxing classes we walked back down to George Street, the queue had gotten longer and had started to snake back down King Street, the security guards were watching the queue very closely. It appeared a major shindig was going on inside. Groups of people wandered the store with glasses of champagne in hand. The queue outside looked a little dejected. No Champagne the true Apple fan.

If the Jinx Crew has advice for Apple Store Opener Devotee’s it this. 

 

• Get a cool name for your group. Anything that has geek or nerd should not ever be considered. Appleheads, Evil Empire Fighters, you get the idea.
• Matching outfits may offer you better understanding from the passing parade of bewildered pedestrians. Beige pants and backpacks should not be considered.
• If reality TV shows have taught us anything singing and dancing will give you street cred. Seriously think about dancing maybe Spike Jonze style to Praise You.
• Elect a President or create a hierarchy that TV crews can talk to, that way you control how the world see you, instead of weird sitted devotee’s with nothing else to do.
• Get someone famous in the queue.

 

As the Jinx Crew left we were convinced that Matt Stone of South Park fame was sitting in the queue. True or not we’re not sure. But if Matt Stone was there, dammit we should have joined the queue as well. Finally please note the Jinx Crew loves Apple produces and we use them every day. Long live Apple!

 

Canberra: Dodgeyville

“Once more into the breech dear friends once more“, good old King Henry V had a way with words even if Shakespeare was supplying them. So it was we returned to Hell’s most boring pit of all. Canberra. This time the weather was fine, the Sun shone down and oddly the street were devoid of life. Lessons learnt: Zombies don’t like nice winter days.

The Jinx crew drove around and around and around and realized without the aid of a GPS unit we would have been lost very quickly. Jinx did admit she secretly enjoys hearing the GPS say “recalculating” if only in the hope of one day hearing “For fuck sake just follow my directions!” that will come booming out of the GPS unit one day.

It was while we had stopped at an old shopping centre for some late afternoon lunch Jinx’s eyes lit upon these truly dodgy signs.

   

Somewhere in Italy a small village perished when this sign went up. “Specialita” WTF??!! 

On the other side of the Food Court was this sign.

The Jinx crew wondered how often someone from Mecca’s head office looks at this sign and thinks about bringing the lawyers in.

So the ever changing vista that is Canberra reveals a new level of crappyness and it was with a true sense of relief we exited Canberra and this time we only counted five dead roo’s on the side of the road.

So who’s going to pay for this mess?

As reported in Sunday’s local papers Clover Moore the Mayor of Sydney had set a 5 p.m. deadline on Friday the 13th for a payment for the use of Hyde Park during World Youth Day. Clover checked and checked her account over the weekend and was very disappointed to discover the missing $150,000 had failed to come through from the Catholic Church.

So Clover pulled out the big guns and has basically told the good folk over at Saint Mary’s to find somewhere else to sell their bobble headed B16 and JC dolls and postcards with B16 on a surfboard wondering to himself “Where the hell are the brakes on this thing.” The reply from the Catholic Church was to claim the Iemma Government was footing the bill. Which Jinx is sure has come as a bit of a shock to a number of New South Walemen who aren’t Catholic and two since when does a elected Government start picking up the bill for religious events?

The money the Sydney Council is asking for is the re turfiing and general maintenance for Hyde Park which will act as a focal point for a number of events for the 250,000 pilgrims. It is also a chance for the the crew over at Saint Mary’s to make some cold hard cash selling! selling! selling! t-shirts, hoodies, caps and Lord knows what else. The Jinx crew is eagerly awaiting to see what type of highly questionable religious icons will be on sale. Will there be a Jesus with his heart on fire now available as a key ring or a weeping statue of Mary now available in 15cms and 25 cms? The bad taste items are truly endless.

At this stage no farther information has been forth coming about the payment, at this stage Jinx would be asking if it’s possible to get a credit card imprint from God just to smooth a few ruffled feathers. The Jinx’s crew MUST have a few dodgy World Youth Day items to purchase or we’ll just be praying all the time and eating dodgy sausages in between prays. The crew needs poorly printed and made t-shirts telling everyone how much we are enjoying own “eternal” lives or caps with WYD08 in terrible orange and purple combinations that will make anyone with epilepsy fall to the ground in a fit. If we don’t have that why bother going at all? We must have the dodgy merchandise stalls in Hyde Park so Catholic Church hurry up and pay the bill. We’re sure you have a few dollars laying around in the Vatican Bank you could use.   

The Pope, Jesus, a sausage sizzle and a packet of Tim Tams.

Its hard to imagine Jesus standing on the mount offering Tim Tams to the massed crowds but come World Youth Day no cost is been spared. Orders for sausages, onions, bread, tim tams and soft drinks have been dipatched, tonnes and tonnes of food will be made for the many events located around Sydney. Again it’s a little difficult to imagine Jesus chowing down on a pork filled sausage or the look on his face when the tomato sauce runs down his arms and leaves a huge red stain on his flowing white linens. I wonder which one of the Apostles would have pointed out the stain? James? Thomas? or would Mary have tried to get that stain out on the spot. 

Oddly enough there has been no mention of alcohol at any of these events. Again Jesus liked a drink, everyone remembers the water into wine party, the last supper had wine even if the event was a little bit of a downer with the whole crucifixion thing hinted at. Yet it appears the young folk won’t have a chance to booze it up on the name of Christ. Where’s the fun in that?

                                                         Tim Tam.

Don’t get Jinx wrong, she loves Tim Tams BUT  Tim Tams are not beer or spirits. Jinx loves Tim Tam Slamming as much as the next person, after two Slams your looking to Irish or Jamaican up the coffee in some hugely doses or that afternoon just drags on…. Eating non alcoholic handfuls of Tim Tams won’t make everyone within ten feet of you, your instant best friend forever and make you hug them often and repeatedly and it doesn’t matter how many sausages you have in a limp piece of white bread with under cooked onions on top with too much mustard and too little tomato sauce about to slide off onto your new pair of shoes you got at that super cool store that never ever carries your size for half the retail price will it make that guy from England look any hotter or allow you to ignore his BO issues.

In reality Jinx’s wondered what the overseas pilgrims will think when shown the only thing we in Australia thought to bring to the Papal shindig were some dodgy sausages. Will questions be asked about salads, like where are they and do Australians know what fruit and vegetables look like, will the pilgrims ask if the sausages have roo in them or worst ask if they can eat something not swimming in fat and blood. There will be many awkward moments Jinx’s feared for the person manning the BBQ with tongs in hand wearing the apron “Jesus is my Co pilot”. But if there’s alcohol all that could be avoided, pissed pilgrims will be delighted to get something fat and dripping with a question mark over the type of meat in it. It’s all part of the experience, a right of passage as it were.  

If the organizers really want people to experience some “eternal” joy during the World Youth Day Events they better get some booze ordered or Jinx thought maybe I could go down there with some alcohol pops and make some serious money selling them out of the back of my van. Jinx wondered what would Jesus do?

World Youth Day stimulates the sex industry.

As reported by news.com.au on the 3rd of June by Sean Plumbeck.

• World Youth Day tourism expected to boost sex trade
• Sex industry revenue ‘to grow by 8pc in next year’
• Brothels express doubt over WYD’s effect on trade

 

“THE sex industry is expected to be blessed with an increase in customers thanks to the most unlikely of sources – World Youth Day.

A report by Industry analysts IBISWorld predicted the 2008-09 financial year would see strong growth for brothels, strip clubs and prostitutes, primarily on the back of a marked increase in tourism levels to Sydney as a result of the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day. ”

Nice work B16, the report then goes on to suggest it won’t be the clergy or pilgrims who will be visiting the ladies in red but all the flunkies who follow the Pope around. That would suggest that B16’s entourage needs to be looked. Will B16 hug it out or punch it out with his crew?

It was heartwarming to hear that some strip clubs will keep a special table available for his Holiness if he feels the need to see but not touch some of Sydney’s fallen ladies. Jinx wondered if the Pope-mobile could fit into a Sydney strip club, that would stop any interaction at all. 

Cowards, their role in own lives.

What makes a person a coward?

Is it a passing phase, is it that one moment they fail to act or is it something that remains as a active part of their life like a facial tick? History is filled with cowards and how they have impacted on individuals and nations. Yet when it happens to you suddenly you see life differently. Everything that person has ever done or said changes in your mind.

Cowards are not restricted to men or adults. The old saying you discover who your friends are in a crisis holds very true. The act of cowardice is always disappointing especially if you don’t see it coming. You react to a situation, you stand your ground whether it’s a physical fight or verbal triad. You look for support from others and you find it. But when the dust has settled you look around at the faces and realize a key person is missing. Yet worst is to come, when you ask why they didn’t come to your defend and their answer to you is silence.

Cowardice is the first word that comes to mind. All the times you helped them, supported them or loved them comes to nothing. It’s easy to brew over this forever but instead you have to use their weakness to make yourself stronger. Sometimes it means been stronger physically but mostly it means not allowing people to use you as a door mat. It’s a hard process but if you do have a coward in your life either confront them and pull them up on their behavior or dump them and get on with your life because you will regret the time you spent with them as cowards are never the sum of their parts. 

Canberra:Just get the hell outta there.

Canberra, the drove down was cold, misty and windy. The conversation had been free flowing then Canberra came into view and we were reminded as we sped pass another roo carcass on the side of the road why Canberra will never appear in the “top ten cities to visit before you die list“. For anyone. Ever. Until the end of time itself.

Canberra is bland. It’s building appear to have all been drawn by the same architect who wore the same dull grey cardigan to work everyday of his life who’s idea of exciting and ground breaking was having more than four windows per room, the materials used for the buildings are from the same dull grey quarry and concrete factory where grey was the new black year after year.

As a visitor to Canberra if you were remove Parliament House from the mix of places or buildings to see suddenly your list is very short. Even the National Buildings like the Art Gallery and National Library have great gardens but the buildings are dull. What went wrong? Why is the place so dull.

One short answer is families, unlike the other capitals Canberra hasn’t had a single family dominate it through wealth or talent. There has been no individual want to build something big bold and ballsy to remind the public how wonderful an individual or family are. Sydney and Melbourne have many buildings today still that dominate the skyline years after the family star has fallen. Instead Canberra is little more than a staging area for a transit population and their architecture or lack there of is appalling.

As we drove to the airport it was surreal, there sat the airport surrounded by paddocks filled with horses, cows and literally hundreds of roo’s both dead and alive. Then, like they had just dropped out of the air was a Brand Depot building with a mega huge and empty car park, next to that more buildings in different stages of completion surrounded by piles of mud. Then more paddocks with the same mix of brown horse grey sheep and brown roo’s. If someone were to suggest the work of aliens and we as simple folk who don’t understand their plans I would buy that idea any day. Were there any house to see any population close by that need this? If I remove the hut and old shed, then the answer is no. The location in relation to population makes no sense.

Nestled next to the airport was something we thought we would never see a Business Park with colour on the buildings, statues, gardens. It was incredible, yet as we walked around like so many places in Canberra it lacked a soul a feeling of community. it was odd, all the elements of something different, exciting were there yet the place lacked soul. The Brindabella Business Park could be a bold new step but time will tell. As we passed a group of dull eyed government workers leaving their buildings it should be noted nearly all wore black, grey or white. the palette of colour available to government workers must be very poor.

The only other thing we know for sure are why some people are willing to move to Canberra, too many known to Jinx move to get away for it all and not in a good and healthily way. Too many friends have moved to Canberra to escape bad relationships, debt or the chance to make big dollars and too frequently the movers have failed to factor in costs and how much of their soul they would have to sell to the Devil to get ahead. 

Then once their down in Canberra the calls start. The theme is always the same, come down to Canberra stay for the weekend, see my house, check out my new freaky girlfriend, I’m a pig hunter on the weekends come and join me. The answer is always the same from Jinx “Mate you live in CANBERRA! CANBERRA” then the list of reasons why Jinx just doesn’t want to go down there. Soon the words dull, boring and lame are the only words used by Jinx throughout the whole conversation.

The saddest group are the ones who move to Canberra to make the mega dollars. Soon seeing the Sun, the Moon or humans not working for the same company as them is rare. Emails are rarely answered, calls go unanswered. It’s like they have joined a cult. Then sixteen months later like a ghost they arrive on your doorstep, white, 10 kilo’s lighter with no idea how much time has passed. For them time stopped. Thankfully they never go back to Canberra and learn their lesson. Canberra is like a vampire.

There was one bright moment while in Canberra and that was a suburb’s name. Jinx has a list of her all time favorite suburban names they are: Wood Rising, Rooty Hill and Moo Ball. While traveling along one of Canberra’s boring and dull main roads her eyes lit upon a suburb name that has shot to the top of the list. Swingers Hill. There are so many jokes you can have. 

Yet the advise remains the same to all people who are thinking of going to Canberra.

                                                        Just get the hell outta of there.