I love my friends and I mean I really love them. They are a reflection of who I am and what I believe. My friends are the sort of people you can count on when you need support, guidance or a kick up the bum. My friends won’t let me get away with any stupidity yet are pleasantly surprised by my silliness. My friends are the sorts of people who laugh loud and easily, but who aren’t afraid to shed a tear. My friends define me as I define them. My friends are musical, intelligent, dextrou...

I have been putting the following list together now for the last 8 months. It was supposed to be a little holiday project over the Christmas period last year but then turned into something quite different. When I started making this list, I knew I was going to have too many songs and the difficultly would be in culling it back to 20. My list started at about 60 odd songs initially and then grew some more as I thought about it. It was like pulling teeth to get the list back to the 20 you s...

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for some time. Having read and taken the time to digest the wonderful ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ and having already been inspired by a lot the ideas and philosophies contained within it, I’m only now getting around to wanting to write about some of the things I’ve digested. One set of concepts, in particular, has been circling around the dust bowl of my brain, like tumbleweeds. These are the concepts of ‘gumption’ and ‘gumption tra...

Today I turned 42 years old. The significance of this didn’t hit me until yesterday afternoon, when I was doing a little reflecting on the past twelve months. This is something I tend to do around this time of the year i.e. look back at my life since my last birthday and reflect on the things I’ve done. It is not an exercise in regrets but more like looking into a pool of time and reflecting on what I see. Oops, I strayed a bit there, but I’m sure those reading will forgive me. Lets go...

The Blue Mountains slide by my window. Great orange and blond sandstone cuttings rise up and down as I go by. In between, my view is filled with temperate eucalyptus forests, gray-greens broken by vivid wattle and banksia flowers and the deep blues of nameless waterways. I’m sitting in the crowded economy section of the XPT service going between Sydney, where I live, and my hometown of Canberra. It's the start of the Christmas holidays and every seat in the car is occupied. Next to me ...

This may be a little morbid for a Monday but I think it is interesting. Here is a hypothetical for JU: say you are able to find out, with absolute certainty, when you will be 'shuffling off this mortal coil'. Would you want to know, or would you want to continue living your life as you have done? If you do feel like answering this, I'd also be interested in knowing the whys and why nots. Following are my reasons why I'd like to know: 1. I would like to know so I can spend as much t...

I’m writing this in response to a number of pieces I’ve read here recently and to a disturbingly increasing amount of media reports about this as well. I want to know where people think personal responsibility stops and where public liability starts? I believe there are very few instances where personal responsibility should stop. The way I see it, if I trip over the crack in the sidewalk or spill a hot beverage on myself, I am the only person responsible. If I drive my car into oncom...

I work in an office. I'm sure a lot of JUsers work in offices too. My office is almost Dilbertian in its design, with narrow passage ways between cubicles designed so no matter which way I swing my chair, my knees will bang into something. Most of the workstations are surrounded by pinboard-like material and topped with glass panels, which means anyone walking past look like they are in a big fish-tank. Most choose to pin up things like the 'Hang In There' posters or pieces of inspiration...

I work in an office. I'm sure a lot of JUsers work in offices too. My office is almost Dilbertian in its design, with narrow passage ways between cubicles designed so no matter which way I swing my chair, my knees will bang into something. Most of the workstations are surrounded by pinboard-like material and topped with glass panels, which means anyone walking past look like they are in a big fish-tank. Most choose to pin up things like the 'Hang In There' posters or pieces of inspiration...