SOAPBOX
I'VE NEVER BEEN KNOWN NOT TO FORM AN OPINION AND WHAT'S THE POINT IN HAVING ONE IF YOU'RE NOT WILLING TO SHARE IT?
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6 THINGS I’D LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR MR.TRUMP
www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/11360949604 I was always told in polite company to steer clear of discussions about sex, religion and politics. Of all of these I can’t seem to steer completely clear of politics and now is probably not the time for me to start. On this occasion, I want to thank the US presidential (almost) candidate Donald Trump for the many things he has contributed to humanity. Here goes- Thank you, Mr Trump, for proving that we middle aged white men are such spectacular boors. After all, that’s what our detractors have been trying to tell us for such a long time now. Thank you, Mr Trump, for turning the presidency of the US into a 3 ring circus. Maybe this will teach our children that celebrity is not always just benign curiosity. Thank you, Mr Trump, for reviving…
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IT’S ALL PORK PIES…
You know the old joke: “How can you tell if a politician is lying? His lips are moving!”. We’re about to embark on three weeks of a general election campaign where a lot of lips will be moving. The last time the Irish people went to the ballot boxes to elect a new government our economy was circling the toilet bowl and about to get flushed; we were told we the people would pay billions to bail out the banks; the Celtic Tiger was fed on a steady diet of greed and subsequently died from obesity; unemployment was heading for 15%; worst of all our sons and daughters had begun to revive an old Irish tradition of emigrating to anywhere but here. At that point the voters said ‘enough’ and booted out the same old crew that…
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SUPER POWER
I came across a video promoting a private university in the US that describes itself as a university for heroes (check it out here). It’s an intriguing idea and it got me thinking about superheroes and super powers. If you were to be offered a super power what would it be? I think I’d opt for the ability to fly. As I get older (and heavier) I don’t get up much speed on foot anymore and even though I can get around in my trusty Jeep I miss the days when I could cycle or stroll at a decent lick. So I think I’d really do some good if I could take to the air. Up, up and away……
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WHY SOME OF US DON’T HAVE ONE TRUE CALLING
I came across this TED Talk and it helped me understand why I think like I do (up to a point). I always thought I had butterfly brain and despite trying to find a single lifelong burning passion I’ve flitted from one to another for practically my entire life. Pity my parents aren’t still around to hear I’m actually a Multipotentialite! See it here
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MEN AT WORK…
In an effort to work out why I bother writing this blog (yes I am struggling a bit with the apparent futility of writing a blog for my own amusement) I decided to do an in-depth piece of research of existing blogs written by men. When I finally finished Googling for “male blogs” and “men who write blogs” and “blogs for men” I began to wonder if I was the only one interested in blogging for the sake of it rather than sponsorship. Most blogs written by men relate to single subjects such as sex, gadgets, sport, sex, making money, sex and fashion. In fact, fashion blogs written for men by men are by far the most prevalent. Everything from high fashion to off-the-peg suits are covered and sometimes in a very creative way (yawn!). Maybe it…
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I’VE SEEN A SIGN
I’ll be the first to admit we all have strange pet hates that we either can’t explain or refuse to admit to because there’s no rational reason for entertaining them and I’m no exception. I freely admit I have a serious dislike for the use of the @ symbol instead of the extremely difficult to spell the word “at”” (yes that was sarcasm at it’s lowest). I know to some it might seem ‘cool’ to replace words in a sentence with something graphically more pleasing but when I received an official communication from a staff member and it was peppered with “@” and “ur” and even a “thnx”, I had to draw the line (and not just because I work in education!). It’s not that I have it in for symbols – I love the odd ampersand for…
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JUST DO IT!
It’s great when your children reach an age when you see them do things you would never pluck up the courage to do. My children are all in that category and frequently make decisions, have adventures and generally just do things that I would never have the nerve to do. Recently GUC #5 fulfilled a long-held desire to skydive. I wanted to cheer him on and murder him all at the same time. I was in complete awe of his ability to “Just Do IT!”, while at the same time I wanted to kill him for turning me into the nervous wreck that prevented me from doing anything remotely like jumping out of an aeroplane at 10,000 feet. He described the experience as the best he’s had so far (he’s 33 years old) and no doubt it was…so far.…
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EVERYONE MATTERS
Once upon a time, in the land of Hush-A-Bye, around about the wondrous days of yore, they came across a kind of box, bound up with chains and locked with locks and labelled “Kindly do not touch; it’s war.” Kendrew Lascelles (in John Denver’s album- Poems, Prayers and Promises) I intended starting this post by stating that I wished to remain unbiased when it comes to one side or another when it comes to the alarming increase in armed conflict. It was important to me that anyone reading this would understand that while I have views on each of the current conflicts – Gaza, Ukraine, Iraq, etc. – that my opinions are not represented in this post. That would have been a lie. I am completely biased in favour of negotiated peace and downright prejudiced in favour…
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TAKE THE NEXT STEP
“I dream of men who take the next step rather than worrying about the next thousand” Theodore Roosevelt. Have you ever been busily working towards something and then suddenly find yourself hesitating just before the finish line? I think if we’re honest most of us have been right at that spot on more than one occasion. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s something simple like deciding where to go on holiday or something significant like whether to move home; when it comes to taking the next step we all can stumble and sometimes fall. If I’m to be honest and on this occasion I will be, I think I have a greater difficulty with taking the next step than most people. I hesitate because my brain wants to exhaust every possible outcome of the decision I’m about…
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BORN TO STAND OUT
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out” – Dr. Seuss. Isn’t it amazing how we spend so much of our time trying to fit in and the rest of it trying to stand out? Most of us spend our formative years trying to work out what we need to do to attract cool friends and be accepted by the best groups of people. If we’re honest that desire can continue into adulthood when we try to fit in with the right people in work or even at home amongst our family and friends. Of course fitting in is a perfectly natural thing to want and in fact may even be linked to our survival instincts, but when it turns into a need to change in order to be accepted then we’ve entered into dark…
