Movember or man-date?

So what to post about? Movember or the man-date with Havock and Lermontov?

Hmmm, decisions decisions.

Actually the man-date was full of "had to be there" moments and all the best bits have already been on twitter thanks to Havock and his snap happy iPhone.

I will reflect and say that it is always a please to catch up with Havock who is far enough removed from Blunty Havock to be very pleasant company while close enough to Blunty Havock to keep you laughing all night!

Lermontov is definitely an enigma and a fascinating one at that. Class that only good breeding can produce, an earthiness that comes from all-boys schools and the military, all nicely balanced with an intelligent self-awareness. Very enjoyable company and we were all far and away the best dressed people wherever we went.

So onto Movember. Today is the official start date, so we are all clean shaven for the kickoff! So for some photos and to see Big Bad Al's fantastic shirt go to http://magnumallstars.blogspot.com/ .

Any team members that haven't received an invite to be an author at the Magnum blog, drop me a line at naut023@gmail.com and I will send you an invite.

Movember Update

Go here now.

Magnum commands you!

http://magnumallstars.blogspot.com/

The truth is finally out there!

So as some of you already know, everyone's suspicions about me are correct and as of the 24th Dec I will officially be redundant.

It is in no way related to the GFC, it is because the business I work for has sold all its car dealerships and I my role is very dealership focussed.

Some of you may be thinking "those bastards, Naut is both talented and devilishly handsome". Well while I am both those things, I am also very comfortable with their decision and their treatment of me. 2 months is a pretty good notice period and my payout will be a very handy bunch of cash based on the NSW award which kicks the Vic awards arse! They were also very accommodating when I was facing all the recent personal dramas.

I did have a chuckle yesterday as the directors came to advise me and then had to wait over an hour for me as I was "at a meeting with a supplier". I was actually in an hour long job interview!

Anyway, at this stage my job prospects are looking good. I have had a couple of unsolicited approaches and some of the prospects look quite good. Now if I could just win the lotto ...........

Magnum P.I. wants you!

I put a bit of a call out on facebook and twitter for interested parties to join a Movember team.

I can't say I was flooded with support, but there were a couple of interested parties.

As I need very little encouragement to go off on self-indulgent adventures, I have started a Movember team called The Magnum P.I. Allstars.

So I am calling on you to join the team, if you don't want to grow a mo then donate! If you already have a mo then shave the bastard off and start again, call it spring cleaning! If you can't grow a Magnum worthy mo, fear not, I am still waiting for puberty to kick in!

I am going to donate $20 to Big Bad Al (not to him personally, just to his membership if you know what I mean) if he signs on.

So join! Donate! Whatever! Just don't disappoint Magnum, no one wants to see a disappointed Magnum.

** UPDATE **

If you want to join the team (you don't have to grow a mo to be a team member, ladies I am talking to you), go here:

http://au.movember.com/register/8295

I have no morals to call my own.

I have on a few occasions been described as having strong morals or been admired for my ability to stick to my morals.

This has always confounded me as I don't think I have any morals at all.

I see morals as a construct created by communities in order to protect both it's members and the structure of the community itself. If a community had no moral structure, it would have no sense of right or wrong and therefore no basis for the creation of laws. If a communities fundamental moral is the right of the individual to basic things like food, shelter and protection then that community is creating an environment that encourages membership and participation.

So you are probably thinking, what's that got to do with Naut having or not having morals? Well here's the answer.

I have imagined life without community, because while I enjoy people I have always been pretty self contained and never felt I needed them. My image of life without community pretty much reflected a post apocalyptic landscape where you pretty much lived in family groups (still kind of a community). While we would all like to be Mad Max for a day, it is pretty hard to buy doughnuts if there is no bakery and no matter how much fun being Mad Max is, you are still going to crave doughnuts one day.

So I choose to live within a community within the larger society, therefore I choose to accept it's morals. If I have an objection to how those morals are reflected in law, then there are paths to address that, that are intended to reach a result that reflects the majority of the community's views.

To conclude, I don't feel I have any morals at all, but as a community member I live within the moral boundaries determined by the community.

** Extra bonus special feature **

What if I was living in a country where the communities morals are dictated by a minority rather than a reflection of the majority? Simple, I would choose not to be a part of the community and so would base my actions on what I considered logical and suited me.

My foot hurts!

Been a busy few days which ending with me doing something quite out of character and sleeping from about 2pm to 6pm last Sunday. It started with the burger dinner Thursday night, then followed up with a Red Bull fuelled assignment submission Friday night and closed out with JP’s book launch Saturday arvo/night.

None of the nights were really what I would consider late nights, but I have been a bit flat lately and sleeping poorly, so I guess it all finally caught up with me Sunday arvo.

One of the things that has been leaving me a bit flat has been a distinct lack of exercise over the last 6 weeks or so. As Havock kindly pointed out over at the cheeseburger, I have hit 100kgs thanks to a complete lack of exercise and a diet that would shame even Moko’s goats. The exercise issue is due to an injury I have picked up. I was actually started to ramp things up, doing additional running outside of footy, with a mind to running this year’s Melbourne Marathon, then started to get pain from what I thought was a bruised heel. I didn’t worry much about it until during a game of footy, while sprinting to a contest, I felt something move in my heel and then a sharp, nasty pain. I had an acute case of planter fasciitis. In layman’s terms, I had a tear in the tissue that runs from my heel to the ball of my foot and makes up the arch of your foot.

This is not the first time I have had planter fasciitis. I had a mild case a few years ago, but was able to stretch it out through a couple of long, slow runs. This time there is a tear rather than a strain and it is taking forever to heal. It’s been 6 weeks and it still feels like it is going to snap every time I move quicker than a walk.

I hate not being able to run. I have been running regularly for over 10 years now and with the way I eat it is the only way to keep my weight respectable. It is also a great way to wind down. Unlike many, I don’t listen to music when I run and I try to think as little as possible (yes that is easy for me to do), it becomes almost meditative, particularly on a long run.

Hopefully I will be able to hit the road again soon, I’ve got my eye on a little run in May 2010 called the Great Ocean Road Marathon. If I can make that and run the 42.2 in under 3.30 hrs I will never need to run another marathon.

Roses are from Nantucket

I don't really get poetry.

Actually scratch that, I get it, I just don't really like it much.

I can't say I am a massive reader of poetry to make me the best judge, but I have read more than the odd 4 liner about people from Nantucket or what colour roses are.

Some battlefield poetry particularly from the first World War has a certain resonance, but all said and done I would prefer if they shared their thoughts and emotions in a simpler written format.

My dislike of poetry probably stems from my appreciation of the beauty of simplicity. To my sensibilities, something that performs it's duty completely, in the simplest way possible is inherently beautiful. Poetry seems to perform it's duty of conveying a message, using a combination of words that the author finds evokes particular emotions for them, but could be interpreted completely differently by others. If the intention is to evoke specific emotions, then poetry can be a pretty haphazard way of doing it.

I got this definition of poetry from about.com :

Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define.

I see the written word as a means to convey information and at times solicit an emotional response. If you want me to have an emotional response then tell me a simple story, don't string a bunch of fancy words together in some kind of rhythmic pattern and expect any emotional response other than frustration, after I've spent 20 minutes working out what you are on about.

Hmmm, might explain why I generally prefer photography over other forms of visual art.

Anyway, feel free to tell me just how wrong I am.