Monday, November 24, 2008

Creeping doom

Argh - what a night! Trying desperately to motivate myself to study for my exams, which are next week! I'm finding it hard to get going for a number of reasons.
  1. I always find it hard to start working intensely. This is because I am lazy. I know this because my PBL tutor told me so after I expressed a desire to have fewer Learning Issues. (I told her I wasn't lazy, I was efficient.)
  2. The two exams are both horrid beasts from Greek mythology. For example, the first exam will have the head of an embryologist, the body of a geneticist, and the tail of ... I'm not sure what the tail is made of. Some kind of psychiatrist, I suspect. As you read these words you tremble with fear, I can tell. The significance of this is that it encourages broad, shallow learning, which means I really don't have to bother starting study until Friday. Ha ha ha.
  3. I'm kind of fed up with sitting at this desk. It's been a tiring year, and we have an awesome holiday waiting for us.
As a result, I've been engrossed tonight in the ABC's The Howard Years. It's fascinating. A reviewer in the Sydney Morning Herald described it as like seeing the kebab you drunkenly ate half the previous night in the cold light of day and shuddering, wondering what on earth you were thinking. This made me laugh, but sadly I suspect that it's not true. Those Australian who supported Howard's actions at the time probably still believe they were right. And those Australians (like me) who could hardly believe it was really happening just sit there shaking their heads all over again.

I won't attempt to summarize the program. If you're interested, you can watch it on the ABC website I think. Or, if you want the four and a half minute version of John Howard's historic contribution, and don't mind some very harsh language - watch The Herd on youtube.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear PTR,

We wanted the chance to rate your blog against the Howard Year's criteria - ie Did we find this
Candid,
Confessional, or
Controversial.

The most amazing thing (amongst many many amazing things) in the Howard Years is the way that Peter Reith is trying to reinvent himself. I clearly remember a Darth Vader robotic ideologue, but if you look at the way he's now describing the events, he's trying to pretend that he was just Uncle Arthur. As ever, Clarke and Dawe hit the nail on the head. Check out http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2425546.htm

PTR said...

haha - thanks for the link - that's an absolute gem! The final line is pure Peter Reith from the show:

"Yeah, it was fun, really, you know. Buggered a few people's lives up, but, look, I wasn't really there. I can't remember much of this because I wasn't there. I was away. I've got a note."

I like your proposed rating criteria - I might just steal it. But I think I'd make it Creative, Candid or Controversial.