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Why is it that some people hide their light under a bushel? Every day I meet someone who for one reason or another is unable to realise their full potential. Every person that I've ever met has, after some time, exhibited a talent or ability that they could further explore or develop. Most of these people are content to be staid or remain in their current situation. Whether it be self confidence or a lifetime of being thwarted by a series of events, people or other influencing factors I'm not sure. Maybe it's just comfortable to not push. Human nature exhibits a tendency to let sleeping dogs lie for fear of the unknown, but isn't that what makes tomorrow exciting and anticipated? Not knowing what is next. Perhaps it is the attitude of the person. Remaining closed and bound up tight helps to deflect the oncoming supposed harm. Whereas, greeting the impending future, arms and eyes open, may expose us to hurt but is also the most welcoming position. Most of the time it's unlikely to be a train.    

Sunday night, afer the meal has been prepared and served, has always seemed to me to be an appropriate time for reflection. I'm not sure why. Maybe it is the juxtaposition of the old week and the new, maybe it's because I'm knackered. Whatever it is I tend to let my mind wander and let me tell you the path can be quite circuitous.

Tonight I'm wondering if being a single parent can make you selfish. Not that I haven't considered others during my normail trevails. God knows every waking moment is spent carrying out the domestic duties concerned with having two teenage boys and thinking about their needs and requirements. Despite this, or maybe because of this, I find that my thought processes have changed. Most of my decisions are based on the functional rather than the emotional. By this I mean I no longer need to weigh up my decisions and to factor someone else in. The boys are quite easy to provide for as most teenage boys are. Food, warmth and comfort pretty much cover their requirements. That may be a generalisation but it is a truism to a great extent. They do posess some scope for the esoteric but a bright light will distract them.

 I have plenty of friends and acquaintances both male and female but they are not there when I'm trying to toss up whether or not to move the lounge. So, I move the lounge and wait for someone to tell me it was better where it was. I have considered arguing with myself but I am a bit worried that it may seem odd. Then again, being considered odd is only relevant if there is someone observing you to make a value judgement. Maybe it won't seem as strange if I leave the room and re-enter with an independent opinion. Sorry, I digress.

What I'm not saying here is that I'd like a partner replacement. That's definitely out of the question in the short term. Mentally and emotionally that would be very wrong for all concerned. What I do need is perspective. I'm not sure if that is a commodity available at the local Woolies.Maybe I could buy one of those bracelets but instead of WWJD? it could be inscribed with WWSOD? (What Would Someone Else Do?). But, if the truth be told I'd probably respond with IDGAR (I Don't Give A Rats).

The late news,  the Dark Side of the Moon and an excess of red wine have lead me here. Barack Obama accepting the Democratic nomination has me worried. Not that he is the first black man to be contesting an election for the Presidency of the United States, that is a wonderful and momentus moment, but if we are to learn anything from the past it should be noted that there are some eerie similarities between him and some of the figures that have been integral to the darkest moments in U.S. and world history.   

He made his first speech as Democrat nominee on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. A coincidence that wouldn't have escaped the timings of the campaign managers in the Democrat party. He has a Kennedyesque charm and has been compared to both John F. and Robert Kennedy. Indeed, he has the endorsement of the ailing Teddy Kennedy. These may be superficial correlations but the arrest of three men on an assasination mission this week should not be disregarded.

It may be a rash generalisation but one is hard pressed to name a major public figure who represented a major political or cultural shift in the U.S. over the last 40+ years who has not met an untimely end. My fervent hope is that history doesn't repeat but reformers and those who have bucked the system haven't had much luck in the U.S. for some time now. Even those who have been held up as examples of change have usually done this as martyrs for a cause rather than elder statesmen.  

During my travels I've recently noticed a proliferation of the stickers that implore the reader to "Love it or leave it". This statement would seem to leave me with very little room to move on the subject of adoration for one's country. I can either wholly embrace everything that is integral to the makeup of my birthplace and place of residence or I can go somewhere else. My problem would then be if my new chosen country had their own version of the sticker I could forseeably spend the rest of my life arriving in a country, being annoyed by the traffic or something just as mundane, seeing a Hyundai bearing a "Love it or leave it" sticker and having to hop it again. 

My other choice is to ignore this tragically simplistic and overtly nationalistic sentiment and rally against the wrongs that I don't like about my country. Things like poverty, adequate health care only for those who can afford it, the growing trend towards supression of free speech and rise of the with us or against us approach to international relations. I may even get my own bumper stickers made exhorting people to "Love it or help fix it". Even the most well built of structures needs a maintenance program to ensure it's ongoing integrity.  

Well I'll have to leave the blog there for a few days. I'm off to Sydney for work again. Most weeks it's a couple of days. It's good to leave the cold behind even if it's for a little bit. What's not good is seeing the inside of the same motel room. I'm planning to keep an eye on the olympics though to see if something remotely interesting happens. It's about time for the demonstration sports to start. I hope they include 500 or bridge soon. Now there's a couple of pseudo sports that the common person can relate to. You can even drink whilst participating, in fact, I think it may be mandatory. It is in my house anyway. Or perhaps the good people of the IOC could be persuaded to give boat racing a turn, you know like after a game of rugby. We'd surely be able to produce a world champion or two. That should see the Australian Institute of Sport secure some funding from Tooheys and Carlton to assist our athletes in becoming world class. Although it does raise the question of what you could do after training. More training? 

OK. It would appear that some people may have got the idea that I'm not enjoying the Olympics as much as I probably should be. If you're one of those people I apologise profusely. I admit that there are a multitude of reasons to appreciate the Olympics. In no particular order they are:

Andrew O'Keefe has been missing from the telly for a week or so now. The unholy offspring of Bert Newton and Darryl Somers probably needs a rest.

The lycra manufacturing industry has seen an upturn in the weeks preceeding the event.

Noone has been murdered in Tiananmen square for nearly a fortnight.

Americans may actually consult a map to see if Tunisia is that state to the south or north of West Virginia.

I'm sorry if my apology has offended anyone. That would make it an anti-apology and the subject of another apology. I may have invented perpetual motion. Sorry.

Well, dinner's finished and only the washing up to do. Hopefully, if I leave it the underpant gnomes may get their cousins the washing up fairies to do it for me. The underpant gnomes are those helpful little fellows who pick up your undergarments from beside the bed every night and whisk them away to washing machine land. That's what my kids believe anyway.

Just watching the end of Gladiator for the fortieth time with son No.2 and the thought came to me - the Olympics needn't be so boring. All that needs to be done is throw a few tigers and a couple of blokes with something pointy into the table tennis and we could transform the game whilst increasing ratings out of sight. Imagine the player serving immediately just before a big cat leaps from screen left and latches onto his or her throat. With only a paddle to protect themselves it would always be an underdog victory should they prevail. Yes, I accept that the table tennis player coming out on top would be highly unlikely but just remember the publicity that Stephen Bradbury got when he won his gold for just remembering how to stand up. Worth a thought surely.   

Sorry for those who thought this may be a movie review. It's about my sons.No.1 son is seventeen and has two interests (three if you count food but that's a given). BMX and bow hunting. Surprisingly the bow hunting I can understand. For those of you who haven't been a seventeen year old boy, you generally have one thing on your mind. When the ambition outstrips the achievement it can manifest itself in some form of blood lust. Football, fighting or hunting. Unfortunately for many of the small furry feral animals in a radius of fifty kilometres around us in this case it is firing arrows at great velocity and generally indifferent accuracy. This has resulted in a lot of rabbits with very stylish parts in their hair.

The obsession that I'm having trouble with is the BMX. He has held a license for 6 months now and owned a car for twice that long but still insists on riding his bike(s) everywhere. When I say ride I probably should say x-up, grind, manual, fakie, roll-in, wall ride,disaster or a combination of any and all of these terms sometimes preceeded with a number e.g. 180, 360, 720. I suppose at least his circle geometry is improving. Son No.2 has fallen victim to this obsession as well. One benefit of this sport is that I can be involved as well. So far my involvement has included bandaging, stemming blood flow, helping place a patient on a spine board and two trips to casualty. One for concussion and another for a broken arm. Fun for all the family.

It's Sunday morning and I know I should be doing something more constructive like mowing the weeds but I've just flicked on the women's marathon. What's interesting is not so much the 40 odd people looking like they're slowly dying but the broadcast director's decision to continually show slow-motion footage of the process. It's quite unsettling to see the facial contortions and unflattering shots of muscle and sinew moving in all sorts of ways. Another disconcerting aspect is to watch the athletes run past Tiananmen Square. I find it perverse that the central focus of the course is the reason that the Olympics should never have been awarded to China. 

Saturday night again. It's strange to be suddenly single after 19 years. Single as in no partner but with 2 children to care for. I'm not sure what to do! I've done the washing and cleaned the kitchen but I'm not sure that qualifies as a scintillating Saturday evening. Having inherited all the domestic duties over the last 6 months some things are starting to concern me. I now notice dust. That in itself is not unusual but it leads me to think of what purpose it serves. Even the most useless things have a purpose. Spiders for example. They look after an excess of insects. Cockroaches clean up all the little bits of refuse left by humans. But dust?! What is it that's eroding at such a rate to leave microscopic bits of itself everywhere. I hope it's not me.

I purchased an iphone last week. No idea why, my previous mobile was still working fine. Perhaps I've fallen under the spell of advertising - God forbid. Anyway, since receipt of my iphone I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time and bandwidth downloading podcasts. Free ones only. They haven't got me entirely yet. I still have a problem paying for something I can't see or touch. It feels like paying for an idea or a concept. So now, every night I go to sleep with the earphones in listening to Dr. Karl or Stephen Fry delivering a monologue. Does anyone else feel that these earphones were designed to fit an orifice much smaller and far more regularly shaped than the human ear? Most mornings I wake up entangled in PVC coated copper thread feeling as though a small animal spent most of the night trying to establish a home in my hearing canals. Potential strangulation and  disfigurement aside the iphone has given me the opportunity to not have to carry out mundane day to day functions. For instance, if I see something amazing or startling I have an application that says Wooooo!. So all I have to do when I see, say a UFO, is locate the iphone, slide the unlock button, go through two menu screens, touch the application icon and press the button marked Wooooo and I'm rewarded with an audible Woooo!. Ain't technology grand!

Sorry to drone on about the Olympics but currently there's not much else of any importance happening. Politicians and newsmakers take this opportunity to lay low. I think I know what I find unsettling about all the cheering and backslapping sorrounding this event. It's the overt Nationalism. The brandishing of flags has always made me feel uncomfortable and it seems that occasions like this it becomes rampant. Flags and banners have always been symbols to rally behind during conflict and while there is competition in sport it certainly shouldn't be seen as conflict. When one athlete defeats another it is not purely because of a genetic or attitude advantage, it is primarily because the country that the victorious athlete is associated with has more resources to commit to their preparation. Sure there are exceptions but generally this is the case. I would be more proud if my country topped the list in public health care, education or the distribution of wealth but I can't imagine the TV rights to that competition would be worth much.

Now I know funny and the commencement of the race-walking has meant that things are looking up on the Olympic front. Let's put aside the argument about whether or not it's a sport or if they're actually walking or running and concentrate solely on the spectacle. It looks as though they've flung open the doors of the hip replacement ward and announced that there's a zimmer frame sale down the street. How on earth can one get into walking? It must be a case of it being a family tradition. Why don't they have race-breathing or race-taking-a -shower? I could watch this for hours. 

I had the pleasure of watching this movie for the first time a couple of nights ago. I wasn't all that familiar with the Coen brothers work prior to this but I think I'm a convert. It is probably the first movie that I've seen where I felt some empathy with the bad guy. I also found it strange that there were no typical good guys, only flawed characters. That's in the moral sense and not scripting. All in all I was glad I lost a couple of hours of my life this time. In the past Will Ferrell has had a lot to answer for.

This is my first attempt at blogging so please be gentle. I'm not quite sure why I've suddenly become interested in this pursuit and, as with most things I get enthused about, it may well not last. It may have something to do with my inability to keep up the pretense that I am interested in table tennis or handball. Is it just me or are the Olympics about 10 days too long? It wouldn't be so bad if they had occurred at another time of the year but I live in a cold climate so busying myself with some type of outdoor pursuit really isn't an option.

I'm not sure what I'll continue to blog about as this progresses but there's enough that irritates me so I may use this as a bit of a release of pent up tension. I've tried but my 17 and 13 year old sons don't really seem to get fired up about much that doesn't involve food or BMX. So there's your warning - if you don't appreciate the ranting of a dissillusioned middle aged lefty you'd better stay away. On the other hand if you are of similar ilk drop by occasionally. It might be nice to solve the world's problems.