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.

iRead 2.0

Kraft recently decided to badge their new-style vegemite as iSnack 2.0 — so bad that they almost made Hitler cry. None of that silliness here. My funky high-tech play on words is much more sophisticated. Because “i” really do “read”. Yeah. Take that evil multinational.

Off the Rails in Phnom Penh (by Amit Gilboa) — a very interesting look into the Cambodia of 10 years ago, including the “guns, girls and ganja”. It shows how useless the UN was, how dodgy the ex-pats can be, and how fact can be stranger than fiction.

What it means to be a libertarian (by Charles Murray) — Excellent book, and a great introduction to libertarian politics. Murray could be the “new Friedman”. He builds a strong case for human freedom, and does it in a way that will influence the way people think. Now one of my favourite modern scholars.

Weekend of ideas

Well, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas is over for 2009. Thousands of people, a range of interesting speakers, some laughter, some anger and some rain.

The first talk I saw was Keysar Trad on Polygamy. He made the point that in all cultures, through all time, there has been an issue of people having multiple partners. The only options seem to be (1) building more perfect people; (2) having secret affairs; or (3) having more honest polygamous relationships. A fair point I thought. I also agree with him that men have a greater propensity to cheat than women. Keysar was arguing the standard Islam line, which allows polygamy (multiple wives) but does not allow polyandry (multiple husbands) and this is where I think there was a mistake. Both should be allowed.

Festival of Dangerous Ideas

Tomorrow (5:45pm, Sunday 4 October) I will be giving a talk at the inaugural Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FoDI), at the Sydney Opera House. My topic is that “the old should pay for themselves”, and specifically I’ll be talking about getting rid of the old-age pension and other aged care. Click on the below image for more details.

I first heard about FoDI back in May when Simon Longstaff (Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre) e-mailed me to see if the Australian Libertarian Society could nominate a controversial speaker for the newly formed Festival. After a few discussions, I ended up not only as a speaker, but also as a member of the steering committee.

The Festival is a joint effort from the Sydney Opera House and the St James Ethics Centre and will be an annual event aimed at challenging people’s everyday assumptions with “dangerous” and innovative ideas. Other talks this year include “religion poisons everything” by Christopher Hitchens, “freedom is dangerous” by Germaine Greer, “yes to child labour” by Ray Evans, “why polygamy is good” by Keysar Trad, “bring back conscription” by Admiral Barrie, “genetically enchance humans” by Julian Savulescu, “end african aid” by Dambisa Moyo and many other interesting talks.

If you have some spare time this afternoon or tomorrow, get along to the Sydney Opera House and join the discussion. Most tickets are $20 (Student price $10), with Hitchens, Greer & Moyo costing a bit more.

I’ll be going along to the “polygamy” and “yes to child labour” talks today, and the Christopher Hitchens talk tonight. Tomorrow I’ll be giving my talk, and also introducing the talk by Admiral Barrie on conscription. If I have time, I’ll also try to get along to Germaine Greer and the “genetically modify humans” talks before going to the “dangerously funny” comedy night.

I have spent much of the last week preparing for my talk, and with one day to go I’m starting to get nervous.

I don’t think I’m a bad public speaker, but neither am I a particularly good one. As I’ve said to friends, if I just started ranting at a pub and 100 people showed up, that would be fine. But if you put 100 people in a room and ask me to go in and rant, I’m nervous. My mind slows down and I have to follow my script instead of talking freely. I forget to smile. But the only solution is to just keep doing it, and hopefully over time I’ll become more confident.

Liam masturbation scandal… authorities to investigate

Shocking news has just come to light that suggests the “wanker-gate” episode may in fact by the work of one Liam Tjia, aka Maxwell Woldseth.

The incident began at 12:10pm on Friday 25 September when a suspicious e-mail was allegedly sent from the e-mail account of the teeth-clenching philanthropist Dr Joseph Clark, esquire. The e-mail read:

“Hi everyone. I just wanted you all to know- I am a complete w*nker”

Sources close to the Liberal party say that Malcolm Turnbull considered exposing the e-mail in parliament, until warned that it may indeed be a fraud, fake, fabrication and various other words starting with “f”.

Authorities at first suspected Godwin Grech as the author of the forgery, but during the course of their investigation they shifted their focus to the shadowy underworld figure known as Maxwell Woldseth. Little is known of Mr Woldseth except that he appears to be a dog, and he denies the allegation that he has been involved in drug smuggling, money laundering, male prostitution, cross-dressing or terrorist links. Asked to comment on these most recent allegations, Mr Worldseth responded by barking and then peeing on a tree.

This reporter can now reveal that Mr Woldseth is none other than the award-winning neuro-scientist, pool shark and vagabond Liam “the stud” Tjia. The exact nature of his “dog-man” existence remains unclear, though may explain his why Tjia has been seen in public licking his balls and humping people’s legs.

Mystery remains surrounding the exact meaning of the original e-mail. Is it a code calling on the rise of the dog-men for the inevitable march on parliament? Was it a case of e-mail tourette syndrome? One linguist pointed out that the acronym from the e-mail (HEIJWYATKIAACW), when translated from sanskrit, means “kill the infidels, and buy some milk on your way home”. At the moment nothing is clear, except that someone, somewhere is probably masturbating right now. Think about it.

Naive, old, pathological, narcissist, arrogant, bastard, nerd

The first night of our travels was spent in Singapore. Kristy, Joe, Ashley (+g/f) and myself met up with Phil, Anthony (+g/f) and Izzy (aka SPG). There was dinner, with normal chit-chat & drinks. Then back to Phil’s place for more drinks and a some  political debate. All quite polite and friendly I thought.

Unfortunately, I must have offended Phil. Through facebook & his blog he explained to the world that I am a naive, old, pathological, narcissist, arrogant, bastard, nerd with a bad comb-over. Ouch.

I guess Phil joins my growing online anti-fan club. Oh well. But for my own sake, I thought I’d do some honest introspection regarding the above charges…