The storm before the calm

I have one month left… one month to finish my work projects (an article on labour markets and a paper on private charity), move out of my place and find storage space for my stuff, unravel my Sydney commitments, finalise HCP 2009 work, see everything I want to see in sunny Sydney, do my tax returns, catch up with the Sydney people, fit my life back into a backpack, book flights to Brisbane and Malaysia, re-arrange my finances so I can live without a job, get a Chinese visa and enroll in a Chinese university for next year.

Phew.

And then I’m free. Sorta. In mid-December I’ll move back up to Qld for a month for Christmas, New Years and beach-time, and then in mid-January I’ll fly to Malaysia with Kristy. We then have about a month to get to China and get settled before the start of the university semester. At the moment I’m thinking of heading to Hainan because that’s the warmest weather in the Chinese winter. They call it the “Hawaii of the Orient”, which I’m sure is a gross exaggeration. Apparently it’s the only place in China you can go scuba diving, though I’ve heard lots of bad reports about the quality of the underwater life and visibility.

** Segue alert **

Speaking of scuba diving, tomorrow (Sunday 22 November) I will be driving Kristy two hours down to Port Kembla so she can go deep diving and wreck diving and finish her advanced open water course. Jeez I’m nice. Then I’ll spend a relaxing day at the beach, walking around town and reading “The Myth of the Rational Voter” and “The Selfish Gene”.

I’m not going to dive in Sydney, though hopefully I can do some diving while in Malaysia or Thailand early next year. But I did finally get to go sailing in Sydney harbour on Friday night. The RAN Sailing Association run a twilight race on Friday evenings and I helped out as crew on the “Sophia”. Well… I say crew… but really I was just ballast. Sailing has a language of its own, and if you don’t practice you easily forget. So I was re-learning the ropes. It was great to be back on the water and Sydney really does have a beautiful harbour. Hopefully I’ll be invited back some other Friday to get a bit more sailing practice in before I leave.

Hung up on politics

So I was sitting in Parnell’s backyard, as she was selling off her dad’s book collection, chatting with Eugene. The conversation turned to prostitute nuns when Eugene interpreted “Hainan” (where I want to live in China next year) with “hire nun”. Somehow, from this, I was accused of having ADD because I always talk about libertarian politics. Strange.

I think I have a pretty diversified set of interests, but it is true that when I’m in Australia I do talk about politics. Most people are “rationally ignorant” about politics. Learning about political philosophy and political games takes time and energy, but most people are smart enough to know that their vote doesn’t matter. And so democracy is controlled by people who have no clue what they’re talking about. Bummer.

Day five — feeling weak; dizzy; disorientated

Day five — and the battle continues. Today the devil tempted me again, this time with meatlover pizza, KFC and a bacon & egg roll while walking the main street in Randwick. Yesterday (Wed 18/11) the devil came in the form of Kristy and tempted me with ham. On Tuesday the devil disguised himself as a dinner party hosted by Shell (talking about biofuels) on the 42nd floor of the Chifley tower — with oysters, salmon, shrimps & succulent steak. And on Monday (16/11) the my workmates were doing satan’s bidding by arranging a pub dinner, were I was surrounded by steaks & burgers.

I’m feeling weak; dizzy; disorientated. I’m having visions of bacon rashers, or fried chicken, floating in front of me. Kristy looks like a hamburger. I’ve taken to wandering the streets, unshaved and bedraggled, mumbling to myself. Or hiding in the corner of a room swaying back and forwards chanting “tofu, tofu, tofu”.

But the battle goes on. I started my “week without meat” on Sunday (15/11), along with a general detox that includes alcohol, cigarettes, illegal drugs, caffeine, taurine and junk food. I’d like some wine or a coffee… but it’s hard to get upset about missing those things when I’m being deprived of meat. Now I know how Gandhi felt when he fasted for three weeks.

Early christmas

Kristy & I have swapped christmas presents early.

Kristy got me a shirt that says “Australia, harden the fuck up”. Amen to that. The entire western world is becoming so soft that we’re afraid of living. And she also got me Bryan Caplan’s book “The Myth of the Rational Voter”. As one of the booksellers said to me when I asked for the book “does anybody actually believe that myth?” Indeed. Democracy doesn’t work. But neither does anything else (except freedom, and that’s not popular these days).

And I got Kristy a session of fine art nude photography. Hey… don’t look at me like that, she’s the one who wanted it. We booked the session while we were at Sexpo (29/10 – 1/11). Hey… don’t look at me like that, we were there to work. Seriously. The LDP had a stand at Sexpo trying to get more members, and Kristy and I went in to volunteer for a while.

Anyway… the photo session was today. Interesting. To start with I was enforcing a “not totally naked” rule, but that didn’t last. I also had a “not including me” rule, but that too was broken. Though… being the conservative, timid, shy guy that I am, I kept my pants on. There were chains. And ropes. And high-heels. Lots of nice photos, but the best part was seeing Kristy grinning when she saw a photo she liked.

And after all that — we only get to keep one photo. Unless we are willing to pay $200 for each extra photo. Ouch. There were some stylish and impressive shots, but for that price I could buy my own camera, take a few thousand shots, and surely one of them would work out OK.

Post vacuum

Sometimes, when I don’t update this blog, it means that my life is too boring to report. Other times, it means my life is so interesting I don’t have time for blogging. Or maybe it just means that I couldn’t find a computer. But the latest enemy of the blog is facebook.

Instead of writing a few hundred words about my latest adventures and thoughts, I write two sentences on facebook and leave it at that. With political blogging, instead of writing a considered article on the ALS blog, I put up a post with a short comment on ALS facebook, which then goes straight to ALS twitter.

So to make up for the post vacuum, I’ve decided to blog a summary of my recent facebook activity since my last blog post (27/10). This will be a particularly silly post for people who only read my blog from my facebook page… but that’s their fault for facebook stalking me.

11,323 (+5)

Yum. As I write this I’m eating my birthday cake. Last Wednesday (21 October) Kristy slaved away in the kitchen for hours, burning the chocolate and being laughed at by Ben, and the outcome was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing toped with chocolate covered strawberries. I’m sure it’s healthy.

Kristy was fattening me up to celebrate my 11,323rd day on earth. Otherwise known as 31 years. Or just “old”.

The day before she took me out to dinner at KFC. And then made me pay. Then on the Thursday (my 31st B’day, 22 October) she gave me old-person nappies. Evil girlfriend. If I also mention the other presents & taking me to an awesome Jazz-Sushi restaurant on the Friday then she’ll look nicer… so I won’t do that.

On my birthday evening I went out to dinner with a few friends — Parnell, Stephen, Eugene, Luke, Jason, Lucy & Luke2. Thanks guys. Luke and I tried out a “herbal ecstasy” which worked quite well (and only $30 for 3), and left us awake at early hours talking crap.

I’ve been a bit annoyed with myself lately. During the work-week I spend too long in the office, and on the weekends I spend too much time indoors getting fat. I’ve been looking forward to summer & the beach… but the weather isn’t playing along. We did go for a walk to Randwick on Saturday (watched “An Education” & had pizza), and went to Bondi beach on Sunday evening (walking around & asian food), and hopefully I’ll remember to get out more as it heats up.

One competing priority is alcohol. On Thursday night I was drinking with the “usual suspects” at Kings Cross… on Saturday night I went to a house party & the Rege with Kristy’s friends… on Monday night I was drinking again with some old traveling friends who were in town for the night. Not sure how to mix a party lifestyle with a desire to get healthy, save money, work hard and wake up early… but I’ll have another chance to practice the compromise this w/e… with four mini-parties already planned, as well as Sexpo.

Me & motorbikes

Was riding my motorbike (blue Honda VFR750) through an intersection the other day and nearly got taken out by a car turning through my lane. It wasn’t really his fault as he didn’t have a clear sight of me until the last second. Freaked me out though. People joke about motorbike riders being “temporary Australians”. Well, sure… but that’s true for everybody.

I think the fun is worth the extra risk. But there is a risk.

My first bike accident was on my first bike, a Yamaha 200 trail bike that I got when the family moved to the farm (1995, age 16). But everybody stacks it riding around a farm; no big deal.

My first serious accident was the most dangerous. I had just upgraded from my blue Mini Deluxe (my first car) to a red Honda CB250 (my first road bike) in 3rd year uni (1998, age 19). Some friends and I had just finished some version of indoor sports… it was a three-sport comp that alternated between indoor netball, volleyball & soccer… and I was pulling out of the driveway. I checked right, then left, then pulled out and was hit on the right by a car that had just come around the corner.

Drugs, uni & getting pierced

No, not that sort of drug story. Last week (Thursday 8/10/09) I went along to a presentation by Norm Stamper from the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Go join. The CIS doesn’t normally do these sorts of issues, so it was good to see them making an exception in this case. Norm made all the usual arguments for drug legalisation, and there was general agreement. As Milton Friedman said, drug prohibition (like conscription) is an idea so obviously bad that it is easy to win the argument… the problem is actually getting people to listen to the argument.

No, I’m not going back to uni. At least, not yet. But last week I had a bit of fun marking the presentations of business Masters students. Michael Peters lectures in business law and was short two markers, so he invited Kristy & I to help out… along with some other lawyers, the head of toastmasters and ex-politician Cheryl Kernot. It was interesting enough.

Afterwards we went out for dinner and had a rambling discussion about Greek-Turkish relations (Michael is Greek, and has worked as a lobbyist against Turkey entering the EU), political bias and how Michael once wrote a book with John Howard. On Friday at the Quadrant book launch I asked Howard if he remembered Michael Peters, and he said “no”. And that, boys and girls, is the problem with name-dropping.

As for getting pierced… yes I did. Three weeks ago (26/09/09) I finally got my left nipple and the top of my left ear pierced, as I had been planning for months. A brief dash of pain, then a few days of awkwardness, and then some shinny new toys.

Friday night misdemeanors

Oops. Another drinking misdemeanor on the record. Well, two actually.

Friday evening (16/10/09) I went along to the Quadrant book launch for Frank Devine’s collection of essays called “older and wiser”. I never knew Frank, but I often enjoyed his writing. He did write once about the LDP and our policy of voluntary voting (a cause he also believed in).

There was a good turn-out for the book launch, with Keith Windshuttle, John Howard and Miranda Devine all saying a few words. I ran into some of the “usual suspects” (Parnell, Eugene, Stephen) and swapped a few words with some people I had been wanting to meet (Tom Switzer, Des Moore) before escaping for dinner with the usual suspects + 1.

Trust people

I am not on welfare, and I don’t believe in government income redistribution… so according to the research done by American Professor Arthur Brooks, I should be more likely to give to charity, give more to charity, do more volunteering, be more honest, help the homeless, give blood and more willing to help friends & family.

Perhaps.

At the beginning of this year I lent $8000 to my then housemate, who I hadn’t known for long. He was in financial trouble while waiting for his house to be re-financed. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to lend him the money. Some people at work (especially the lefties) thought I was mad, and were sure that I would never see the money again. I tried to argue the importance of community and personally helping people who need help, but they just dismissed those silly ideas as idealistic nonsense.

Perhaps.

But I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt, and err on the side of helping people who don’t deserve it, rather than assuming the worst of people and not helping a friend in trouble. This means I will be disappointed by humans sometimes… but I prefer to be occasionally disappointed rather than permanently bitter and distrustful.

It turns out this time that I was right to help my housemate, and while it took him a while to get back on his feet and repay the loan, he eventually did.

Of course, these stories don’t always have a happy ending. But often they do. And it is nice when they work out because they justify my faith in humanity. Generally speaking, humans are able to coordinate voluntarily and deal with the problems we face.The power of community is often under-estimated and under-valued, especially by those who want to replace voluntary community with government programs. Not only are voluntary communities generally more effective and efficient, but they are food for the soul.