you call it whinging, I call it my opinion

A rare occurance happened last night - I watched [some of] A Current Affair.

It’s no secret that ACA and Today Tonight are my two most loathed TV programs, bar none. But last night, the TV was on channel 9, and it just stayed on as I was interneting in front of it. And as the program started up I was sucked into watching the first story: it was a story where Ben Fordham went “undercover” as a hitman and they filmed a man ordering a hit on a male escort.

It was incredible to watch. Video here. [Should be on the front page for a while - titled "Special Investigation: Murder Mayor" - go the alliteration.] But it was only after they’d filmed all this, gone undercover, got all the evidence, pretended they were detectives, that they handed everything over to the police - yesterday afternoon, only a couple of hours before the show was due to go to air! My worry is, how long ago was it all filmed? No doubt they waited so long to take it to the police cos they were worried about their exlcusivity getting away from them.

They seriously acted like they were police:

• Ben Fordham loved saying he was “undercover” [I think he said it about 6 or 7 times in the one story, to camera, and then to different people that he was talking to]  But Ben Fordham has been on TV for many years - what was to stop the guy that was ordering the hit from recognising him, and potentially killing him? Cos sunglasses aren’t the world’s greatest disguise.
• And they went and found the guy who the hit was ordered on and took him to a hotel and put him in hiding. And yes, ACA’s witness protection is just as good as the police’s, no one’s gonna find him! Nup, cos I’m sure that the ACA office is very tight and no information is ever leaked from there, is it?

Incredibly stupid if you ask me.

All that evidence that they gathered is inadmissable in court anyway, I think, cos it was obtained without a warrant. I may be wrong.

But there’s a good chance that ACA did far more damage than good. Actually, I think there’s a very, very good chance they did more damage than good. Either way, that was a one off - I’m not watching ACA again.

It’s so frustrating when you can’t rely on other people to help when they had committed to something.

I began to think about organising an item at church quite a few weeks back… thinking that it would work well in our Easter services. Other musicians agreed, and I began to try and organise a time to practice. But gradually, people realised they couldn’t make it to a practice or to the service on Good Friday, and I had to give up on it.

But B kindly suggested that it would fit well with communion, and so I gave it another go… making sure I gave people more notice. From 2 weeks ago, we were going to practice this arvo, and then play it in two weeks time. But again, gradually people have dropped out until this afternoon at church I was left with just me on keys, and a guitarist - no singer, no bassist and no drummer.

To say I am unhappy is an understatement. Some gave me a bit of notice… some said they were coming 3 days ago, but then just didn’t show up this arvo. It’s so incredibly frustrating, and makes me not want to ever put any effort into trying to organise band items again.

I guess it’s a little hypocritical of me to gripe and whinge about this - I’m quite notorious for forgetting events and double booking myself (something I’ve become quite embarrassed about recently, and am making sure doesn’t happen anymore). But I guess it’s frustrating because of the effort I went to to remind people - SMS’ing them all several times to remind them (and each time getting confirmation from people saying it would be fine).

Not playing on band this week. Just gonna hang at home for a little while until I head over to Thornleigh to visit the Thornleigh Baptists tonight. 

Last night was the first night I led a service at church. Something that had been coming for quite a while…

B had mentioned it to me about 18 months ago, at which time, I wasn’t overly keen on the idea, and conveniently brushed it aside and chose to forget about it. And I thought he’d forgotten about it too. Hehe, I was wrong - he and God are crafty. And last year, God used a few different things to get me thinking about it more and more and even got me to the point where I was keen for it.

I spent a lot of last week thinking about what I would say, and how I would tie songs together, and what “God” things I should say… But then I realised that all that is pretty unimportant - I don’t need to have a speech or mini-sermon rehearsed. In fact I don’t need to say much at all aside from one or two welcome lines. And so I spent a lot of time thinking and praying about band practice and realising that my attention needed to be focused on leading that well. Kinda glad I came to that realisation, cos it was the right one.

And band practice went awesomely smoothly (thanks, God!). We powered through the songs, even worked on a fun transition (that ended up getting dumped at the last minute, but it was still cool teamwork), and still had time in the middle to practice a new song that we’re going to do with the church in a few weeks.

So for my first week leading a service, I ended up feeling very happy with how it went, and looking forward to how God’s going to use me more and more at church with music and services :)

And then it was off to level 4 at Westpoint to get some noodles (or Nandos if you so desired) and just hang out at the seat things in the middle of the piazza area like a cool gang. Yeah, we were cool.

After such a tops Sunday, it was a pity that this morning started off crap. Stupid Epping stupid road was stupid narrowed down to stupid 1 lane. Morris Iemma is a goose. I used to be a bit indifferent towards him… but I am rapidly joining the bandwagon of “get us a new premier, pronto”. Anyway, I reckon because of Epping Rd being narrowed, everyone went down other roads… namely my precious Victoria Rd. So my normal 1 hour drive into the city took 2 hours this morning. Not fun.

And then to hear on the radio that there is an early idea floating around to charge motorists for using main aterial roads during the peak times? Above and beyond the existing tolls?! What a joke! That is honestly the most insane idea that I have heard come from the NSW Government. The main reason that I think it is so insane is that our public transport system is nothing short of pathetic. It’s fine and dandy if you live within 10kms of the CBD. Lucky you. However, anyone outside that radius is subject to private bus companies who don’t operate very reliable or conveient routes, and trains that are constantly over-crowded. (Speaking of which, if I have to use a main arterial road to drive 15 minutes to the nearest train station to catch a train to the city, are you going to charge me a “congestion toll” too?)

Morris is a goose. Rant over.

correction: The “congestion toll” seems to be at the federal govt level rather than state. Which is good news I reckon. K-Rudd will sort it out. He’s a good boy.

It’s lunch time now - I’m sitting here eating some chicken pasta with sun-dried tomatoes in a white wine sauce - and the emails have subsided and I’m feeling dramatically more cheery than I did this morning. Looking forward to heading home shortly though to enjoy an evening of nothingness - just hanging out with Debbie and watching GNW. :)

There’s an article on smh that talks about the owner of the Manly Wharf Hotel banning all young people. Without going on too much a rant about not liking this at all [I will get to that in a minute], it’s actually pretty shocking for a smh article I found. I will pick smh 8 days a week over the Daily Telegraph - I like my news, not an opinion.

But this particular article just seems like it’s covered in contradictions:

“He said the hotel did not have a specific policy against people under the age of 25, as was reported in today’s The Manly Daily. Instead, bouncers were simply rejecting potential trouble-makers.”

The very next paragraph:

“He apologised for the fact that many well-behaved young people would have been excluded by the blanket ban but said he was within his right to keep the atmosphere of his hotel orderly.”

So we’ve just established that he’s said it’s not a blanket ban on young people, just keeping the trouble makers out. But then we completely contradict that by him apologising that some “well-behaved young people would have been excluded by the blanket ban.”

I’m quite confused.

Let’s now launch into the part where James gets incredibly frustrated at “young people” being pigeon holed. Again. Again again.

If this guy decided that anyone of Aboriginal decent wasn’t allowed in his hotel because of a few trouble makers, he would be up on racisim charges faster than smh could publish the article. So why is it seemingly fine to chuck all young people in a category and say treat us differently because of our age?

“Oh, but it’s just young people… they’re the ones causing all the problems in today’s society, so they’ve brought it on themselves.”

Ok, a sarcastic moment there - but it’s what I feel like some people want to say. And say it anywhere but to my face. I don’t want to hear your view point if it’s going to be filled with a solid dose of ignorance and stupidity.

Tonight was tax return evening. I was too lazy to do last year’s tax return last year, so I did that as well as this year’s return. Thankfully they’re both now done, and it’s looking like I might get some nice amounts of dosh back too.

Now I’m sitting here end-dating a bundle of contracts on a customer’s account. The contracts are all not compatible with the new pricing they’ve agreed to, and so I have to get rid of them all - it’s a long and painful process for all… but the quicker I get it done, the quicker the new pricing gets implemented, and the sooner it hits my numbers - and I desperately need this for this month.

I’m getting so sick of hearing all the whinging about free speech in the news this evening in relation to Channel Nine’s use of the “Worm” during the debate last night. There were rules put in place for the debate. Clear rules that were told to all media organisations. So Channel Nine, I’m sorry, but you don’t have any part of any leg to be standing on. I’m sure the only people who are sooking with you are the same clowns who believe everything they watch on A Current Affair.

Rant over.