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This Week: 20 Years, Happily Unmarried

April 27, 2013 in Fashion, Marriage, Relationships, Wedding

This week my partner R and I celebrated 20 years of being happily unmarried. Anniversaries for the unmarried are always difficult to define. R and I have actually known each other for 21 years, so our “anniversary” is an arbitrary date. For us, it’s the 25th April 1993. That’s the day we went on our first “date”. That was the day we stopped being two people who worked in the same office and took our first steps towards becoming “a couple”. It’s also an easy date to remember, being ANZAC Day and all… There are other anniversaries of course – the day we first [...]

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Do You Live In The Past, Present, Or Future

April 24, 2013 in Mental Health, People, Self

OK – here’s some pop-psychology from Dr JJ*. (I’m like Dr Google, only hairier.) Do you live in the past, present, or future… or somewhere else? I think we all live in each of those places, but some more than others. It’s like one of those “magic quadrant” diagrams where you can plot your location on the existential landscape of your mind. This is what I mean: I tend to live in the future more than the past, and live more within my imagination than reality. I call myself a Dreamer. My partner R lives more in the past than [...]

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Why I Stopped Following The Following

April 22, 2013 in Film & TV

I love me some good TV, and I love me some quality drama, especially if there’s some good actoring in it. So I was looking forward to the new Kevin Bacon drama, The Following. For those of you who don’t know the show, the series follows a former FBI agent (Bacon) who finds himself in the middle of a network of serial killers, created by a  diabolical master-serial killer who uses his charisma and the Internet to create the network. I don’t mind a bit of TV serial killer either. I love Dexter and other shows in the serial killer [...]

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Fiction: Mrs Keaton’s Microwave

April 18, 2013 in Fiction, Technology

Somewhere in the near future: Suburbia It wasn’t unusual for Mrs Keaton to be awoken by the sound of her children’s voices, but this morning they sounded shrill and panicked. “Mummy, Mummy, the microwave is gone.” “And the Fridge.” “And the TV.” Mrs Keaton rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What do you mean they’re gone?” “Mummy, they’re all gone. Someone’s taken them,” her eldest daughter told her with a seriousness that scared her. Mrs Keaton was suddenly very very awake. She rushed from the bedroom, pulling her robe on as she ran into the lounge room. Sure enough, the [...]

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Dumped! End Game

April 17, 2013 in Dating, Fiction, Friendship, Humour, Marriage, Wedding

It was a few hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve, and Blake and Carla were sitting together on the floor of Blake’s apartment  Blake looked for all the world like one of the homeless people he had given Carla’s clothes to. Carla held a hanky to her nose, trying not to gag. “Give up?” asked Blake? “No. – But, my God Blake, you really stink!!” They both laughed. “You know,” said Carla, “I’ve tried and tried to think of something really bad to get you to dump me, and I just can’t think of anything anymore. It’s like I don’t want you to dump [...]

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New Media Is Not A Battle Of The Sexes

April 15, 2013 in Gender, Society

Recently I’ve had some people make some strange and unexpected comments about blogging and new media. When I mention that I blog and write articles for websites, some people have said things like, but isn’t that something women do? This really took me by surprise. When did blogging become a gender role? Why should blogging even be assigned a gender role in the first place? One of the major themes of feminism is the dismantling of artificial gender roles so that women and men have the freedom to be whatever they want to be. No one should be excluded from a group or profession because [...]

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I Am Going Bald

April 12, 2013 in Body Image, Gender, Hair

Well, it’s no use denying it anymore… I am going bald. Truth be told, my hair has been receding for the past 15 years or so, but recently it’s crossed the line from “receding” to “balding”. I guess I’m lucky. I’ve avoided baldness until my late-40s – some guys go bald in their 20s! I’ve had a good run, but it’s time to admit defeat. I am turning into a googie-egg. Look, I’m not going to pretend that I’m happy about going bald. I’ve always been a little vain about my hair… I’ve always enjoyed playing with it. Long and [...]

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Dumped! The 12 Days Of Christmas

April 10, 2013 in Dating, Friendship

The weekend before Christmas, Carla moved in with Blake. His place was slightly bigger, and she thought it would be easier to win the Game by being thrown out of Blake’s place, not the other way around. If Blake realised this, he didn’t show it. He had his own strategy. He stopped shaving, he stopped bathing, and he stopped changing his clothes. He went for long runs in the warm December afternoons, and he ate anything with garlic in it. Carla fought back by being as messy as possible in Blake’s normally pristine apartment. The bathroom became filled with half-used cosmetics, [...]

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Tony Abbott: My Five Stages Of Grief

April 8, 2013 in Current Affairs, Humour, Politics

OK – let’s face it. Barring something unexpected, it’s almost certain that Tony Abbott will become the next Prime Minister of Australia. Some of you might be pleased with this, and I’m happy for you, but I can’t share your joy. I don’t always vote Labor, but I’ve never voted Liberal and nothing about Tony Abbott or the policies of the Coalition makes me want to change this. So, where does that leave me? I’m guessing you’ve all heard of the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. Well, I’m feeling that way about Tony Abbott. Denial It will be OK. Gillard [...]

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I’m Not Unpopular. I’m Inpopular!

April 4, 2013 in Friendship, People, Relationships, Self, Society

All my life, I’ve suffered from being inpopular… no, that’s not a typo… I didn’t mean unpopular… I meant inpopular. What is inpopular? Well, think of the difference between being famous or infamous… or the difference between visible or invisible even. Or flammable or inflammable. What is the difference between flammable or inflammable anyway? I seem to have gone off topic for a moment… So, back to inpopular. It’s a word I’ve made up for people like me who are generally well-liked, but never seem to be able to cross the popularity event-horizon. What is the popularity event-horizon? It’s an invisible line in the sand [...]

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