Honouring your debts - A cowards way out

After being reminded of a twenty dollar bet I’ve been owing to a friend for about eight months now, and with no immediate intention of paying this money I began to think that perhaps a real man doesn’t always honour his debts as the old saying would suggest he does.

Perhaps my resilience in avoiding this payment is one of the many characteristics that actually make a true ‘man’. In fact I would go as far as saying my fox like behaviour in being able to avoid this debt should be the catalyst for a changing way in which we view men, and what it takes to be a “man”

Anybody could have easily rolled over and paid the twenty dollars when it was first owing. Only a real man would think long and hard about excuses for why he shouldn’t have to, or why he is physically unable to honour his debt though.

My arrogant, ‘glass half full’ attitude doesn’t stop at suggesting I’m the platform in which all men should now be measured against.
I’m a role model, a leader, an innovator, call it what you like, but my attitude when it comes to avoiding debts makes me all of those things plus more.

If people follow my example we will all learn that losing is not OK, nor does it have to be accepted. Being a good sport or gracious in defeat is a hollow attribute to which no one should want their name associated.

Everyone should be a winner. Like me, and other small debt avoiders.

You see, until I actually hand over the twenty dollars I haven’t technically lost the bet. At the moment it’s still a draw.

So follow my example and next time you owe a mate a small amount of money, don’t pay him.

You’re a loser once you do.

No Suggestion Box

I was recently thinking to myself about how I could write a blog on my friends after one of them bragged to me about some of their ‘achievements’ that would make for a good topic on my page.

Initially I was right on board with his suggestion. Telling the stories of those closest to me, via a metaphorical suggestion box which I cleverly nick named would be a great idea. It includes my family and friends and makes my life a lot easier if I have people telling me what to write about.

The simple logic behind this idea was flawless.
At least that's what I thought for about 15 seconds.
I quickly learnt this idea was a bad one.
So bad in fact, that I didn't need to hear more than one suggestion to realise it could be one of the worst ideas I've ever had.

The first suggestion I got would have made me some kind of pervert had I actually written about it.

I’m proud of myself for realizing this story was inappropriate. My better judgment had been clouded by alcohol that night courtesy of an open bar at the party I was at so many of the things I did that evening fall into an ethical Grey area, yet my credibility as a child friendly blogger proudly remains in tact.

I know up until now the moral of this story, or the direction in which it’s heading hasn’t been very obvious. But it’s about a lesson I learnt that night. Perhaps one I should've learnt years ago, but a lesson all the same.

It’s human nature to look for the easiest way in which something can be done. Looking for shortcuts in life is natural, but like writing a story about your friends sexual conquests, it's not always the right thing to do.
The feeling of satisfaction is greater when you work hard towards achieving something yourself, no matter how big or small it may be.

So don’t take short cuts in life.

Don’t open any metaphorical suggestion boxes either, they’re nothing but trouble.

And if you have a blog, think up your own ideas because if you're friends are anything like mine, they're scum bags with rubbish ideas!

:)

Happy Days

Ever have one of those incredible days where everything seems to be perfect? Where the only thing wrong is that as each hour ticks by you realise you're getting closer to the end, and once you go to bed the perfect day has ended.

I had one of those days today. Similar to something you'd read about in a fairytale where everyone lives happily ever after at the end.

The only differences in my story being I'm not one of three little house building pigs, or a naive hood wearing girl walking unaccompanied through a wolf inhabited forest.

That, and the fact I'm not at the end of my story yet. I've just finished off a chapter with a happy ending, there could be twists to come.

It's a bitter sweet feeling really.

Being completely satisfied with how everything in my life went today and not willing to change a thing, yet knowing in the back of my mind that when I wake up tomorrow there's a big chance that things might not be this great again for a while.

It's unpredictable and scary not knowing what comes next.

It makes me wish that instead of wasting time on this blog I'd been getting my act together with some sort of time freezing and future seeing invention so that days like today don't ever end, and if they did, I'd know when the next good one was coming along.

Good Night :)

Not all thieves are bad

I don't think there's to many things worse than being stolen from. No matter how big and important or small and replaceable something is, when it is taken from you without you knowing it's a horrible feeling.

I bring this up because last night my soccer bag was stolen from my front porch.

But to call myself a 'victim of crime' would be misleading to my growing audience of readers, which by the way approximately sits at a very respectable 7.

Anyway, a 'victim of crime' I'm certainly not.

You see, although I didn't realise my bag had been taken, when it was eventually returned to me nothing valuable was missing. And to my suprise, the bag was returned cleaner than what it had previously been.

All the chocolate wrappers, random bits of mud, and scrunched up pieces of strapping tape were now gone. And it also came back to me with a new can of deodorant inside.

Now I'm not sure exactly what happened in the case of "Brad's momentarily missing bag" or why people would steal my bag but not take the contents from within it, but I'm happy with how things have turned out and I certainly won't be dusting off my old magnifying glass and Sherlock Holmes coat to investigate this matter further.

If anything, this whole ordeal has encouraged me to leave more of my possessions at the mercy of thieves, or friendly borrowers as I have now come to nickname them, to see if the possessions I treasure most, which have become dirty overtime are returned to me cleaner than ever before.

So, to the friendly borrowers who took my bag and cleaned it out for me, before leaving it in a park for someone else to return so they didn't get all the credit for a selfless good deed, I thank you.

I only hope you've managed to borrow a computer from someone's house without them knowing so you can read how sincere I truly am when I offer you my thanks.

Your methods are questionable, but results unbelievable. So again, thank you friendly borrowers.

Second Chance Phone Call

In the last few weeks a disappointing trend has arisen which has seen me miss an unusually large amount of calls on my mobile phone.

I have an endless list of reasons for not picking up in time.
Sometimes I only have one hand free and I can’t take the phone out of my pocket because my pants are to tight, I’m in another room and I can’t hear the phone ringing until it’s too late… Or I play a daredevil game where I look at my phone ringing and see how long I can go before answering it.

Now I’m smart enough to know the third reason why I miss some phone calls is stupid, and while I’m not yet prepared to take full responsibility for missing some calls because of that game, I can admit it’s partially my fault.

But do you want to know who is also at fault?
The ‘phone caller’.
I think it’s their responsibility to give people a second chance when they’re ringing them.

Next time you dial someone’s number and they don’t pick up, wait a few seconds and call them back. We shouldn’t be given one opportunity to speak with people.
I’m sure the answered calls success rate would be huge on the second attempt because some people just need a little bit more time than others.
That doesn’t make them weak or bad people, it just means they need a second chance.

And second chances aren’t a bad thing; we all deserve them at some point, whether we’ve made a mistake and hurt someone close to us, or to be topic relevant, missed a phone call.

So let’s start giving people more second chances.. Especially when it comes to answering their mobile phones.

Let your imagination run wild

A couple nights ago, when I was watching a young kid have a pretend fight against what looked to be a gang of hundreds, and come out of this battle triumphant, I began to wonder; is there anything better than your imagination?

Although I couldn’t see the people this boy was fighting, or really tell who had started the fight it was easy to see this kid was outnumbered.
It didn’t scare him one bit though, he bravely fought against an army of men who in his mind were probably much older and stronger than him. And despite making a few violent stabbing gestures at one stage, which probably killed quite a few imaginary villains, he seemed to be innocently playing by himself and having a great time doing it.

It made me jealous. I no longer have that youthful innocence where I can get lost in my own imagination and do whatever I want.
I’m too aware of things now. If I ever imagined myself in a fight against one hundred people I wouldn’t win that fight. That kind of scenario is to perfect for me nowadays. In actual fact when I do imagine myself fighting 100 people I straight away realise I’m at a huge disadvantage so I run away.

Ten years ago, if I was the boy in that fight there probably would have been a thousand guys against me, not a girlish 100. And I wouldn’t have needed a knife to beat them either, just my lion heart and incredible ninja abilities.

So when do we lose that care free attitude where we think anything is possible? And if we can imagine it, then it can be done. As we grow older things change so subtly that we often don’t realise when they’re different.

It’s sad in a way, by the time you’re old enough to appreciate your imagination, you’re also probably too old to take full advantage of it.

Ginger Kids: Embrace or Dye

Ever since the very first red head was accidentally created many years ago, the 'ginger race' has faced an endless stream of cruel jokes and discrimination based on the colour of their hair.
Now I love a good red joke as much as the next guy, so I'm in no way campaigning for some kind of ban on these particular forms of comedic gold.
If anything, I encourage all forms of ginger mockery, as being brown haired the jokes don't affect me and I find them to be hilarious.

However, some gingers are haunted by the cruel taunts they face day in day out by the more fortunate blonde, burnette or even black haired folk living amongst us.

So to those troubled people I say shave or dye your hair.

Blend in with the rest of society as you hang out in a well shaded area, and see if your fortunes change.
You may just realise the snickering behind your back and the long stares as you walk by soon stops because you've convinced people you're not actually a ginger and you're 'one of them'.

If, on the other hand you're content with the fire on your head that god has given you, and you've learnt to embrace the red hair as being a gift, rather than a curse, then congratulations to you.
I wish you all the best, and despite any jokes that may come your way from myself, or any other people, I can assure you as far as I'm concerned it's nothing personal.
Your hair just makes me laugh.

KIT KATS: A great injustice

I've decided to use my blog as a forum for addressing some of the bigger issues in our society today. Many people who read this blog may not like what I have to say, but I feel it's my responsibility as a blogger to raise awareness on this issue.

The KIT KAT is an under rated chocolate that doesn't get the appreciation it deserves!!

So often when I'm in the supermarket I see people favouring the better packaged or heavier marketed chocolate snacks like the 'Mars Bar' and 'Snickers', while the humble KIT KAT is all but forgotten as it rots on the shelves.

The manufacturers of KIT KAT have been forced to bring out new and improved versions of the delicious original in a last gasp attempt to catch peoples attention, and while I quite fancy these new additions like the KIT KAT chunky, and welcome them into the confectionary game with open arms, as a loyal consumer of proper KIT KAT's I am disappointed at the action forced upon these manufacturers by an unappreciative chocolate eating community.

I urge people who don't yet eat KIT KATs to give them a try. I'm sure you'll be satisfied by the delicious milk chocolate and crispy wafer fingers that make up the delicious chocolate snack.
And to those of you who already enjoy the mouth-watering treat, be a little more pro-active in your love for KIT KATs by spreading tales of their greatness to your family and friends so they too, can have their eyes opened to the satisfying world of KIT KAT's.

If we all band together and eat them every day I'm sure we'd be able to show this great snack the love and appreciation it deserves..

Happy dreams are the real nightmares!

Ever have one of those incredible dreams where everything in your sleep is perfect?
Maybe you've developed some kind of super human strength and you're the world's best crime fighter, or a new found confidence with people of the opposite sex and all of a sudden you have an endless line of opportunities to meet and impress new people who think you're amazing?

And then you wake up to the bitter disappointment of what your real life actually is!

Now your real life may not actually be that disappointing, but in comparison to that of the world's greatest superhero, no matter how big the burden of keeping your identity a secret is, your life would suck.
And those dreams you're having, where your brain has you believing you're something special are just cruel.

Our first thoughts in the morning shouldn't be sad ones of the realisation we're just "average"..

The nightmare is underrated.
I want to have nightmares every night so when I wake up I can be happy with the average life I'm living.
My first thoughts in the morning shouldn't be "Dammn, I'm not actually spiderman." they should be positive ones like: "Pheww, I didn't just fall off a cliff, that was lucky".

Next time you have a nightmare where something terrible has happened to you, be grateful. The realisation that it was all 'just a dream' when you wake up will have you in a better mood for the rest of the day!!

Unconvincing Cross Dressers

How much time and effort goes into convincing people you're a lady, when you're just a man in a dress, doing your best to look pretty?

I happened to cross paths with two cross dressers yesterday and was immediately sure that no matter how long their hair was, and how pretty their dresses looked, they weren't fooling anybody.

Keeping my distance I noticed one of them looked to have the kind of stubble I could only dream of, having not yet mastered the art of facial hair growth myself, while the other one had the muscle definition in his/her calves that would bring shame to most blokes in a gym.

Waiting for the lights to change, I couldn't keep my eyes off them as I counted in my head the number of different things that made it obvious they were male, E.g Adams apple.
Then I changed perspective and began to count the number of things they had on which may also be worn by the average female. Dress, high heels, handbag, pony tail the list goes on, but it didn't have me believing for a second that I was looking at a couple of strong, facial hair growing women rather than blokes in a dress.

So how much work actually goes into transforming a male into a believable looking woman? Even if you have convinced most people you're a lady, you'd probably be a hideous looking one at that, so is it ever really worth the time and effort?