Praise

Hmm, my boss is always praising me - and that is the one thing I am probably worst at handling, praise. Have always preferred to concentrate on the flaws in me, the whole self esteem thing, and yes, I know I am good at my job, but if you like it, please smile in silence or something LOL. Goes beyond the whole aww shucks self effacing thing, into the whole shrinking myself into the size of a postage stamp when people gush too much LOL.



If you like my work so much, make me permanent - mmm, vacation and sick leave pay LOL. Xmas party season is starting woohoo, first one is for the three teams on our half floor tomorrow night - should be good - note to self, do not open up party menus at 8 ayem in the morning to make yourself hungry LOL, is going to be a good feed by the looks, as well as the usual alcohol stuff... on the big city wide party next week, bit of a shame that Melanie won't be able to attend - but at least that will add to Pauly's behaving quotient. As in won't be a Pauly gets drunk, gets mouthy instead of mouse quiet around attractive workmates kind of evening. Well, at least not attractive workmates on the floor LOL.



Don't worry guys, I will behave myself - am goodish now...



An airport screening in the US of A op ed piece by Maureen Dowd of the NYT here - it is stupid enough I feel to have to take off your belt and shoes and stuff at the airport being a guy, thank goodness I'm not a girl. And that is at airports in this part of the world, I have said before that American border officials were scary even before 9/11. And the final paragraph of the article is good I feel -



'I've never wanted to complain because I assume there are inconveniences that go along with greater security. But I would feel less creepy if I thought this were part of an effective overall strategy of protecting the country. I don't.

Iraq is draining money we should be spending protecting ourselves. Only 3 to 5 percent of containers coming into ports are checked, and only a tiny percentage of air, rail and truck cargo is inspected. Congress is turning homeland security money into another avenue of pork. Tom Ridge is still making fuzzy ads telling people to have a plan of action and referring them to his Web site, which hasn't gotten much beyond duct tape.'

Hmm, cricket is shooting itself in the foot this week - take away the focus from the stuffing the Kiwis got, but it's not a good thing to take attention away from. Zimbabwe bars half the English journalists from covering the England team's tour there, the English players get antsy, and the whole tour is in limbo as I write, likely it won't go ahead. Now, why isn't there a coalition of the willing to kick Mugabe out of power? It's not as if he is any nicer than Milosevic's Serbia for an example...



Meanwhile, the West Indies, a pale shadow of the terror of the 70s and 80s, bars sixteen of their top players because they have gotten sponsorship from a rival mobile phone company to the official West Indies sponsor. Now, if the Aussie swim team can have one swimwear sponsor and Ian Thorpe another, why is this a problem in the Windies?



And the troika this week was Australia, the strongest cricketing nation, both in personnel and finances, sacking Dennis Lillee as a coach. One of the best bowlers ever, and back in the days when players weren't playing fifteen tests a year, and they throw him on the scrap heap because of finances - ie, cutting his salary. And the other laugh about that was Cricket Australia saying that it was a 'non profit' organisation hmmph. How much poverty have you reduced guys LOL.



Not to mention the usual slanging matches about chucking, with the barely disguised racist overtones - how can Sri Lankans be good at the game LOL.



Hmm, back to the real world, although Zimbabwe comes closest in the cricketing stories - is this talk of Ukraine being on the verge of civil war just a beat up to get the cable news channels ratings up? Heard that phrase, civil war, on the local news this morning, so you know that the story must be big (three international stories at most ever on Channel 7 news) - rigged elections, protesting protesters LOL, Cold War sensibilities (Russia on one side, the West on the other), neither side backing down, and maybe a splash of Tianneman Square in there - protesters making a tent city in Kiev - but the situation is so fluid, it is changing hour to hour. The army is out of the barracks, but civil war? Watch this space.



Just saw the Melbourne 2006 ad again, stopped to hear the Canadian accent - the travel show has British Columbia - salmon fishing in the Inside Passage, god I loved Vancouver Island... and the Simpsons last night ended up singing the Canadian anthem, was a bit cringe worthy in fact, just felt very tokenism, but it IS a good anthem. Eh, who knows, I might get back there one day... as you can probably tell, the nation has a bit of a hold over me :)



Another good article on the Ukraine thing - well written, as it should be by a Ukrainian author - the clincher for me to read this was the opening line - 'At last Ukraine is a democratic country. But it's a pity we are on the brink of civil war.'



Bleah, the NHLPA is paying out lockout pay to players - the worrying thing is that they say they have enough money for at LEAST 2 years. And how many fans will they have lost by that point? And I thought I was joking when I said that HNIC would soon be Saskatoon v Moose Jaw in the WHL or something LOL. Jaromir Jagr is playing for Omsk in Siberia at the moment - the capacity of the stadium there is only 5,500 LOL. Don Cherry must be spitting, the Russian and Euro leagues are more talent filled than the North Americans LOL.



Bleah, warning if you click this link - three Mexican undercover police officers get beaten up and two burned alive in front of the television cameras - it took three hours for any other sort of police officer to turn up. One of those stories not to read if you have sensitivities - I place it in here because news has to be reported, good and horrid.



Damn, there is something about That Country - with the NHL on the blink this year, am roving through the CHL websites, and even with the QMJHL thinking on driving through the Francophone parts of the country - the Plains of Abraham etc - and the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds in the OHL, mmmm all the Greyhound terminals in the middle of nowhere on the cross country trip... can smile about it now, the whole length of time on the bus...



Okies, off to watch more Amazing Race - later peeps

Pauly