You Can't Coach That

Sunday, July 29, 2007

My most devoted reader, Comedy Plus, included me on a seriously long link love list. While I never know whether to participate its seems that it is a popular thing to do at the moment with Google page ranks being updated soon. I am therefore doing my bit to help out and will see what it does for me in page rank terms. Thanks Comedy+ for including me. Here are the “rules” for anyone wanting to also join in:

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra link back.

2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.

3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.

4. Add at least 1 new blog that you KNOW is using the DO FOLLOW plugin to the list in the “My Adds” section. (Add no more than 5!) Let the people you’ve added know, so that they can keep the list going! I would like to add (but place no expectations on):

Goldcoaster
Cruftbucket

Originals:

A Great Pleasure
Little world of thoughts
Renisphere
mott’s island
Kev’s Walkabout
iBubbs woof
Down Memory Lanes
Woof & Arf
Lovely Mummy
Bubba Stuff
Mommibee
Moments in My Life
Rambling Moo
All about Zara & Zaria
Hip n cool momma
Random Thoughts of a Blur Mommy
Mylittleanelqianyi
Bits & Pieces
De’moments
chinneeq
Giddy Tiger
Huei Rabbit
Rinnah
Simple America
Niceheart
Ethel
Sanna
The Queer Chef
Shoshana
Leah
gina>
Haze
Ghee
Neng aka Sirena
Angelo
Juaka The Border aka Juana of Femjo
Tina
Keep the Faith
jsonvlog
Suncoast Scribe
Blogging Kenneth
My 2 Centavos Worth
Manila Mom
3 Dogs, 3 Pigs and A Family
Cafe Romanza
Earn Global
Credit Ability
Macuha
Flee the Cube
MomReviews.net
Fellow Eskimo
Pajama Mommy
Amanita.net
WebStyle
Meredith’s Weight Loss Blog
Pink Blog
Tricia’s Musings
Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot
Midlife Musings
Utterly Geek
Whatever I Feel Like
My Dandelion Patch
Surviving NJ
GeekySpeaky
Simple Kind Of Life
3DayMom
BuyMeBlog
The Hockey Dad
Mariuca
This is a Miracle
Revellian
d bImBo
Secret of Mind
Rightly Epitomised
Random Magus
Disjointed Intelligence
WalksFarWoman
FeedGet
The Process of a Miracle
The Tall Poppy
Man About the House
One Man’s Travel Blog
Wits End
Walks For Woman
A Modern Goddess Online
Bev’s Bits
A Nice Place in the Sun
Twisted Sister
Writers Reviews
NoDirect(not:NoDirection)
Comedy Plus
Just a Girl In Short Shorts Talking About Whatever
Expecting Executive...And Miles To Go Before We Sleep...
You Can’t Coach That
Untwisted Vortex

Everyone has odd socks in their drawers. It is often assumed that the washing machine is somehow responsible for a sock going missing. But what if the washing machine is actually producing an extra sock instead of losing one? A machine conspiracy to mess with our minds?

“You can’t coach that”

You are the first one I talk to in the morning and the first to provide comfort after a hard day at work. Once your Italian temperament was tamed you fitted into the daily coaching schedule with ease.

It has been difficult of late to watch as you struggle to breath and strive to maintain your high standards of performance.

But time moves on and nothing is forever. I just can’t rely on you in pressure situations anymore. You will be missed but not forgotten.

I really love my espresso machine.

“You can’t coach that”

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Ed Bott writes for Zdnet about all things Microsoft and while he appears to be an avid Windows user he generally writes in a thoughtful manner and is not afraid to highlight problems with his operating system of choice.

I have just finished reading entry number 17 in his Vista Hands On series where he discusses a fix to a Windows Vista resource problem. A couple of things in the article caught my attention.

First, he has a fix for the issue that involves editing the registry. He includes a suitable warning about the dangers of editing the registry manually and the potential havoc it can wreak on a the unsuspecting novice. It worries me when I see problems that require a manual change to the register to fix them. Many users are not equipped to make such changes.

Second, he notes that this issue is not a new one:

The problem, as it turns out, is as old as the Windows NT family. I’ve found references to this issue that date back to the mid-1990s and Windows NT 3.1 and 3.5. The fix for Vista, just as for those much older versions of Windows, involves editing a key in the Windows Registry.

A problem in the shiny new Vista that has been around since the mid 1990’s? One would think that a brand new operating system would inherit such problems. Maybe it’s not as “new” as we are told.

“You can’t coach that”

1973, half past September. It’s Saturday morning and a 7 year old boy awakes to the possibilities of a new day. Breakfast is eaten, early morning cartoons are watched and old clothes put on. The Creek beckons.

The boy’s mother kisses him on the head, says “have fun” and watches from the kitchen window as he crosses the road to The Creek. Hector the Safety Cat has taught him well as he looks both ways before crossing.

The Creek meanders through the suburb of West Chermside and is the boy’s playground. It’s been the playground for local children for years. Each generation believes that they are the first to discover its mysteries, explorers of uncharted territory. It has a name now and probably had one then but it was unknown and unnecessary. It is waist deep in places and ankle deep in others and seems as wide as the Brisbane River.

The boy carries an assortment of buckets and containers, a home made fishing net on a stick and a small spade. His bare feet know the way along the well worn tracks through the waist high grass and lantana.

The morning drifts by with the flowing water. The boy’s bucket slowly fills with guppies and sword tails. There are penny turtles in The Creek but the boy has never been able to catch one. There are eels too but the boy is not sure he wants to catch one of those. A plan is hatched to build a dam across The Creek at a shallow place to help in the search for an elusive turtle. Dad’s help might be needed, he’s good at building stuff like that.

The boy’s stomach tells him it’s lunch time. He counts the fish in the bucket, pleased with his morning’s work. He sets off along the path back to the street and home. It’s a different path than the one taken earlier, everyone knows this is the “out track”.

Home and hungry, the boy strips off his muddy clothes. There is white skin in the shape of shorts and t-shirt, the rest is black with mud. He shivers as Dad turns on the hose. He is already thinking of the afternoon. A hill, a home made go-kart ....

“You can’t coach that”

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I have been reading about dog training and dog psychology lately (who’d have thought there was such a thing as dog psychology?). The key message I have taken from this reading is that training a dog is more about modifying the behaviour of the human than that of the dog. The human must recognise why a dog behaves in a certain way and react accordingly.

While this has been useful for me as a relatively new dog owner, I am starting to see some benefits in this way of thinking when it comes to training 2 legged animals.

All too often I see people trying to impose their will on others when they want something done or want someone to behave in a certain way. Parents do this to their children, teachers do this to their students. We often don’t consider that our own behaviour and attitudes have an influence on others and the way they behave and act. Also, an often overlooked factor influencing actions and behaviours is the impact of person’s surroundings and environment.

If people spent as much time reflecting on their own actions and attitudes as they did trying to directly change those of others, the minefield of human relationships might be a little easier to navigate. We often do not stop to think about why someone is acting in a certain way. This should be the first step in bring about a change, be it for a four legged animal or two.

“You can’t coach that”

If on the off chance you have tried sending an email using the contact link at the top of the page I sincerely apologize for apparently ignoring you. I thought I had configured my blog control panel to use the correct email for this link but apparently not - hence the title of this post.

I am hoping to post more frequently for a while having seen off the black dog that has been hanging around too often lately.

“You can’t coach that”

ps Thanks to the following folks who have stuck around and left comments during July even though I have been missing in action a bit lately

• Comedy plus - my most loyal reader and the funniest blog out there
• Micki from ”My Reaview Mirror - an excellent outlook on life
• Goldcoaster - always something thoughtful to say and lives in Paradise
• RT Cunningham - A prolific writer at Untwisted Vortex, generous blogger, his intelligence is obvious in what he writes
• Joh Blogs - the best blog name out there, a fellow teacher and good guy
• Jacer - the internet safety advisor - safety on the net for children, nothing more important
• Patrick Hawke - another Aussie blogger
• Xerendipity over at writinerary
• The Brown Baron - does a regular open comments post that I have been meaning to join in on
• Jim - a fellow forty something
• Lorna the webgrrl
• Jer at nyquil.org

Sunday, July 22, 2007

I have been reading Pat Hayes’ blog on and off for quite some time. I know I’m being lazy here but I just had to post this photo. Read it carefully.

Click for large image

“You can’t coach that”

There have been frequent news stories in my local print and electronic media lately about the shortage of qualified staff to operate CT scanning and other diagnostic medical equipment. Patients are being put at risk as they are forced to wait for scans to detect cancer which then delays commencement of their treatment.

A high profile footballer tears a hamstring during a Friday night game. Worried fans are given the bad news with their Saturday morning coffee after an overnight CT or MRI scan.

There is something not right here.

“You can’t coach that"Our

Saturday, July 21, 2007

You just have to give this a go. Simpsonize a photo. You need to take care that the photo is composed with plenty of contrast between the face and the background.

Here are the princesses after getting the Simpsons treatment.

“You can’t coach that”

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Here are some light hearted thoughts to follow my last rather depressing post. They were sent to me under the heading of “stupid questions” but I think they are actually worth wondering about. Hum along if you have heard them before.

1. Why is there a light in the fridge but not in the freezer?
2. Why does mineral water that has trickled through mountains for centuries have a use by date?
3. Why do toasters always have a setting on them which no-one ever uses because it burns your toast to a horrible black crisp no one would eat?
4. Who was the first person to look at a cow and say “I think i’ll squeeze these dangly things here and drink what comes out”?
5. What do people in China call their good plates?
6. If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
7. If a man is walking in a forest and no women is there to hear him is he still wrong?
8. Why is it that when someone tells you that there’s billions of stars in the universe, you believe them. But if they tell you there’s wet paint somewhere you have to touch it to see if they are telling the truth?
9. Did you ever notice that if you blow in a dogs face it goes mad, yet when you take him on a car ride he sticks his head straight out the window?

“You can’t coach that”

The captain of the Australian Rugby League football team is struck down by a season ending knee injury. The fortunes of his club the Brisbane Broncos are likely to suffer in the second half of the season as they strive to defend the premiership they won last season.

A former club mate of the Australian captain and a former junior international representative for New Zealand takes his own life three weeks short of his 22nd birthday. Team mates describe him as the life of the party and say there was no indication of what was to come.

Kind of puts life and its troubles into perspective doesn’t it.

I applaud my local newspaper for running a two page story on this today (one of the only times I have appreciated much of what is written in the popular press lately).

Suicide claims more lives every year in Australia than road accidents. Governments spend millions of dollars on high profile initiatives to combat the road toll. In fact, as I write this I am watching a TV ad on the subject with the slogan “Enough is Enough”. This is a relatively safe problem to take on. After all if the road toll does not fall (and it won’t given the ever-increasing numbers of cars on the road) it can be blamed on motorists who fail to heed the much publicized warnings.

Mental health is a much more challenging problem to deal with. It is as neglected as the rest of our crumbling health system. I can recall several “road safety initiatives” being announced in the past year or so. I don’t recall similar initiatives in the area of mental health.

Suicide kills more Australians every year than road accidents. Males outnumber females in this statistic by 4 to 1. We need to take care of each other.

“You can’t coach that”

Monday, July 09, 2007

So apparently there was a concert to save the world. Dozens of international artists promoting themselves doing their bit to help end global warming. What a great idea, after all, there is no longer any poverty in Africa, famine has all but been eliminated and third world debt is a thing of the past. What’s that? We still have all those things? But didn’t we have world wide concerts to fight those things as well?

Raising awareness of a problem may be the first step in helping to fix that problem and it might make everyone feel good about themselves to say they support an issue and to show that support but the bottom line is that more is needed to actually “make a difference”. The bottom line when it comes to climate change is the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.

The modern, industrialized countries of the world can no doubt do more to minimize their use of fossil fuels. Car engines are becoming cleaner, coal fired power stations are likewise becoming cleaner. People can be encouraged to catch public transport instead of driving their cars to work.

In my opinion these measures, and others like them, will not be enough. Any savings made in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the raising of awareness through the efforts of rock stars and former Vice-Presidents will be more than offset by the emergence of the new industrial powers of China and India. Let me offer an example to support this. The Indian city of Mumbai relies heavily on its rail network to move millions of people around the city every day. This rail network is struggling to cope with the ever increasing numbers of passengers. Trains are filled to over-flowing and the network has reached its capacity. The city’s answer to this dilemma is to build massive roads to encourage enable more people to use cars to navigate the city. I don’t raise this example to be critical of this strategy and I don’t think anyone in a motor vehicle dominated society can be critical of such a move. It does raise serious questions about the future as this scenario is repeated in other developing areas.

The question therefore is what can be done and where does the responsibility rest. The answer is obviously the development of alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. Without these viable alternatives the steps being taken to encourage people to minimize fossil fuel usage are doomed to failure. The responsibility rests primarily with wealthy industrialized countries. This work will be expensive but the potential rewards are also huge. Unfortunately there is so much wealth and power tied into the oil and coal industries that the required level of investment in alternative energy sources is just not taking place.

Here are some specific ideas to get things started:

• Donate all the funds raised from several “save the world” type events to research into sustainable energy
• Scrap all space exploration until viable alternatives to fossil fuels are developed and channel the money saved into that research
• Offer free, nothing to pay, university places to young people in areas that study and develop alternative energy sources
• Once the best alternative energy strategies are developed, offer substantial tax breaks to companies that bring them to market and compete directly with the major players in the oil industry - electric car anyone?

There is already enough encouraging work being done in the area of wind turbines for homes, electric cars, and even wave-powered turbines to suggest that there is a future without fossil fuels. We just need to get there sooner rather than later. 

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Do you have a number of pet hates? Mine mainly relate to incorrect use of language by people who should know better, those in the media industries. A few examples are as follows:

There were less people at the restaurant.

With the worldwide overweight problem, it would be better if there were in fact ‘less’ of each person but it would be more correct to say fewer.

My team scored a higher amount of points than your team.

Surely all points are the same size no matter what number of points you have scored.

Older men often have trouble with their prostrate gland.

While the gland is important in activities carried out in a ‘prostrate’ position, most experts know it as the prostate gland.

I am sure there are plenty of more examples. Can’t think of any more at present.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Could this be the ultimate dream job?

The performance appraisal process might be a bit brutal.

Read more at durex.com.au

[originally seen at The Courier Mail]

“You can’t coach that”