July Winds Down

After just being back for one night, Michael went to Wollongong this weekend for a frisbee tournament. I spent the weekend catching up with a few friends, eating lots of cheese and crackers, and facetiming family. Nothing wrong with a not-particularly-eventful weekend.

Take Me

Last night we watched the movie, Take Me, which is produced by the Duplass brothers, who I kind of love. It's a strange comedy about a guy who runs a fake kidnapping business. It's fake kidnapping in that people hire him to have the experience, and he's not actually kidnapping anyone without their consent. The main character is not always great at his job, and he takes a job that goes a little haywire. There is one scene where a character is trying to swallow a car key, like one of the big black ones, and I could not stop laughing. Anyway, if you're looking for a random comedy to watch on Netflix Take Me is different than the other stuff out there, and it's quirky and fun. 

Take us to your Leader.

Today, I have been ruminating about leadership. One of my favorite "leaders" of all time is Tenzin Gyatso, aka HH the Dalai Lama.

Let me preface this by saying that I am not a practicing Buddhist, nor am I an expert on him or his teachings. I have read one of his books, some excerpts, and watched a few TV interviews with him. I have also been to the town where he currently lives in India, but he wasn't there at the time. 

HH is my favorite leader because he exudes joy, wisdom, and love. He inspires and builds other people up. Despite having much to feel sad or angry about in his life, he chooses to preach non-violence and peace. He is humble and can laugh at himself. His lifestyle is simple, far from lavish. He shows us that strength doesn't mean just being the biggest or loudest person; strength is mental. He uses his "fame" to spread positive messages around the world. And, he spreads his message of love without telling anyone else what they should believe on any particular issue. He doesn't care if you're a Buddhist or not, he just wants you to be kind to each other. 

That's it. It would be hard for anyone to assert he has any ulterior motives, aside from still wanting his home country to be considered a sovereign state. 

I have been annoyed lately at the lack of leadership I have seen lately in the US government. There are people that hold titles, but a lot of those people don't seem to act like leaders, at least not in the same way that HH acts like a leader. Maybe the Dalai Lama floats your boat, or maybe he doesn't. It's fair to assume that you, reader, don't share my ideals. I'm cool with that. But my purpose in writing about leadership tonight is to implore you to think about the qualities you believe a good leader should possess. And, if the people we consider leaders aren't showing those qualities, maybe we need to start looking at new/different people.

I just decided something new I'm going to do. Every time I hear about a "leader" saying or doing something that shows the antithesis of leadership, I'm going to read something (even if only a short excerpt) written by someone who acts like a real leader, and spend my time thinking about that instead.

Taking Our Time

Another weekend has come and almost gone. It was made complete with some delicious Korean BBQ with friends, and some biking/birding/brunch in Centennial Park. 

We have been delinquent in calling our families regularly lately. When you live 14 hours away, there's just such a short window during the weekend that is a good time for everyone, and when we miss it, most other times we can call are usually a pain for either us or our parents. You'd think we'd be better at it, having lived hear 3 1/2 years now, but we're not. Anyway, sorry, moms and dads. We will call soon.

This week, Michael will be working in Melbourne, and I will be holding down the fort here and working at my practically regular school in Auburn. I've been working with the same 1st grade class last week and this week while the teacher is just away travelling for fun, and actually right now two 1st grade teachers are away for a few weeks (out of 5). When I taught in the states, if a teacher wanted two weeks off during the school year, it usually meant someone was having a baby, sick, or dying/dead. I used to think it was kind of weird when I first got here, that they let teachers just take so much leave in the middle of the school year. I thought it disrupted the continuity of the kids' learning. And, while it's nice for the person on leave, everyone else has to pick up the slack. I've come to really appreciate the fact that employers generally let their employees take their leave without guilt. There's just kind of an acceptance that when it's your turn, you get to enjoy yourself. When it's not your turn, you just pick up the slack because that's what other people do for you. In the end, the kids end up learning what they need to learn anyway, and one or two weeks doesn't make that big of a difference in the general scheme of things. Since I have one of the "pick up the slack" jobs, it ends up being good for me because I get blocks of consistent work. I think part of the understanding in giving large chunks of time off is that it takes so long to travel anywhere from our island in the Pacific, and literally almost everyone has at least some family that lives in another country on another continent. So, most bosses want to be able to take a few weeks just like their employees, and they understand.

Time to soak up the last of the weekend before we hit the ground running again!

Professionals

The week has flown by, between work and meeting up with friends. A few who moved away are back in town briefly, so it's nice to see them and catch up - more of that's to come later in the weekend.

Friday night has involved eating homemade mac n'cheese and re-watching Leon: The Professional. It had been a while, but it's really such a great and unique movie. Jean Reno is so awkwardly loveable, and Natalie Portman was an incredible actress when she was only 12. It kind of makes me want to get a new potted plant. 

Random story: apparently during the filming of the movie, an actual robber was running from the scene of his crime, right onto the set. He mistook the actors for real police, thought he was surrounded, and gave himself up. I've heard this story from more than one website, but I have yet to verify the validity. It's a great concept regardless.

Baby Driver

Last night we saw Baby Driver with some friends, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I usually don't like car chase movies all that much, not to mention I just thought the title sounded ridiculous. It doesn't pass the Bechdel test, which is a strike against it - in fact there isn't even one scene where two women have any dialogue together at all. Despite all that, it was still a fun movie, and the soundtrack meshing with tinnitus and background noises was clever (you have to see it to understand what I mean). The movie could win an award for sound mixing, and how often do I say that? I also found the ending somewhat unique for a heist movie - usually one of two things happens at the end of those, and they somehow found a third thing. 

There are just some actors who generally pick good projects to work on, and Flea is one of them. So, if he or Kevin Spacey is in something, I'm probably going to like it. They almost make up for the lack of substantive female characters... almost. 

Rosie

This kid is my new hero. We now live in a world where when my Rosie, our little robot vacuum, gives out confusing warning messages, I go on the internet and find a video of a child explaining to me how to fix it, Yes, a random child decided to post this video just because he felt like it and thought it would be helpful for other people, and it actually was. It was posted in 2013. I'm sure he'll own his own tech startup in no time.

Glorious

Every winter in Australia, we find ourselves almost surprised at how cold we feel. In actuality, we have experienced much colder weather during winters in the states. I'm snow bunny - love to be out all bundled up, ice skating or skiing. The reason we are always blindsided in July in Sydney is because 80% of the year the weather is like paradise, and then all of a sudden we realize how poorly insulated all buildings are, and try to make do with a puttering space heater and piling on the blankets. This is our first winter in our new place, and it doesn't really get any direct sunlight in winter, whereas our old pace at last got direct sunlight in the morning. It also didn't help that during our European summer jaunt, on the coast of France there was a high of 100 degrees a few days, so coming back to where it's in the 40's at night was a shock.

Having the heated blanket on the bed has been wonderful, and I finally decided to get a newer, better heater. Cooking and running the dryer help heat the place up a little bit too. Anyway, it's been a quiet week just watching a lot of blast from the past 90's movies.

I will leave you with my favorite thing lately. I am obsessed with this music video. It's impossible not to smile while watching it.

Zedtown

This weekend, we participated in Zedtown with a group of friends. The good things about it? It was immersive and fun and something different to do with friends on a Saturday night. We learned that we will probably die relatively quickly when the apocalypse goes down; I survived about an hour and a half and Michael survived about two hours long. But, having gone through such a simulation, maybe we now know enough to live a little longer. 

Being athletic people who play self-officiated a team sport, I've come to realize we have more body awareness (of ourselves and in relation to others) in physical activities than the general population. This also means we are adequately socialized and have a regular outlet for our competitiveness and aggression. I mention this, because Zedtown was a reminder that many people do not possess these qualities and abilities. It was mostly fun, but there were a few moments that weren't as fun because there were a few people that got a little too into the scenario and didn't know how to scale themselves back when doing a physical activity with other people they didn't know. What should have just been a simple "tag" turned into more aggressive charging. Nobody got hurt or anything, but it just made the the whole thing less enjoyable. On the frisbee field, I can trust that my teammates and opponents will do whatever they can to avoid physical contact, even if there is the occasional accidental bump. At Zedtown, I could not be so confident. The first rule of the game is, "Don't be a jerk", but some people don't quite know what that means in practice. 

There were also a few minor issues with the app they used to help run the game and the way they set up the missions; if they improved those the game would have been more cohesive and fun. They even had a live, improvised station you could play through the app, and they could make announcements and help move the story along. I think they could have used this a little better to give teams information so there wasn't so much confusion at the beginning. 

In the end, we were glad to try the whole thing, but I don't need to do it again. It was cool to have the run of an Olympic stadium and surrounding area at night with our friends. 

The night culminated in the zombies winning - there were over 1000 at the end. Three people made it to the "evac zone" by luck - these individuals happened to be hiding out near where it appeared. All three faction bases fell to the undead, and the evac zone was quickly descended upon by hundreds of zombies, rendering it completely unaccessible, and the remaining survivors were devoured. Sometimes evil wins.

Spoiler Alert: Manchester by the Sea Sucks

I just watched Manchester by the Sea, and I don't understand why it has a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. There was nothing enjoyable or particularly moving or good about the film. It was boring. There didn't seem to be any deeper meaning other than that grief sucks. The lack of chronology at the beginning didn't make the storytelling more interesting in any way, it was just more confusing. The characters didn't go through any interesting changes or do anything noteworthy. If you haven't already seen it, save those two hours of your life and do something else. Taking a two hour nap will benefit you more than seeing that movie.

Knick Knacks and Blood Pressure

A friend or ours has recently accepted a job in Alice Springs. She has a quick turnaround time and she needs to get rid of almost all of her stuff in one week. So, what better way than to have a party? We definitely came home last night with more than we planned on taking, but it's all decent stuff. For example, now I have a new (used) ski/snowboarding jacket. It's one of those things I would have acquired eventually, but it's not a high priority when you live in Australia. We also picked up some kitchen stuff, a laundry hanging device, and a random metal bird statue. We have a friend who will temporarily be living in Sydney just for the summer, and he was able to score a few items too. It's nice when, in the comings and goings of friends and acquaintances, stuff can get passed around. There is less money spent, less items go to waste, and it's just all around more convenient for everybody.

In addition to all scoring new household items, we all had our blood pressure tested because our friend is a doctor and had a blood pressure testing machine just lying around. I think that's the first time I ever did that on a Saturday night. 

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