r0dman.com

Misinterpretation is hilarious at times. Yet an absolute prick at other times.

I tend to disregard a lot of things that people say. To me it’s my way of dealing with things, but to others they really take offense.

Take for instance my views on the world. In the past I’ve written about how I don’t really care too much about being cut off by a car while I’m riding my bike (so long as I’m not getting hit). I’m able to brush it off and turn it around on the driver – they are so caught up in their lives that they don’t have time to care about a human life. I see that as a really positive thing – rather than get agitated by it and let it consume my life, I’ve learned to laugh at them and their life.

I can see how it could be interpreted in a number of different ways. It could be arrogant, a bit sympathetic, or pity. Many people see me as a jerk, just out to belittle people, but in all honesty, I’m only trying to justify my life.

I feel so damn alone sometimes in my views and beliefs. Not that I mind – I’m a fairly solitary person being an introvert and all, but sometimes you just want to be able to talk with people and not have to have an opposing view. This is what has made my form my views on life, and helps me to interpret what others do or say. I guess with a lot of negativity in my life as I was growing up, it’s been a sink or swim situation. I went through the troubled little ratbag stage, and came out of it realising that if I didn’t look on the bright side of life I’d probably just end up wearing a black trench-coat listening to The Smashing Pumpkins. I very rarely misinterpret comments and turn them into a negative comment, attacking myself. I always look for positives before taking offense.

Misinterpretation of comments or words can completely change the meaning of a comment or a conversation. The medium by which the communication takes place complicates this issue even further. In person, things like tone or body language can help each party to interpret what the other party is saying. Via text or the internet we don’t have this luxury. It’s all up to the writer to be obvious and the reader to really think about it – often an impossible task.

It’s an interesting one – how does one effectively communicate to a point where there is no scope for misinterpretation? Maybe I’ll read up on that too…

My fiancee and I were at my dad’s place for dinner last week. My father has remarried and is pretty much happier now than I’ve ever seen him, although the combination of his viewpoints and his wife’s ranting make them a force to be reckoned with. These nights usually go the same way – we sit down before dinner and all catch up, have dinner and then the conversation ends up being between my father and his wife while my fiancee and I sit there and listen to them get frustrated over something trivial.

On this particular night they were whinging about one of their typical gripes… “Dole bludging scum from Elizabeth”. In their view, these dole bludgers get money to get drunk and have more kids that they don’t take care of, while the harder that my father and his wife work, the more tax they pay. A harsh view, but after working out in that side of town for quite some time now I have to agree with some of their gripes.

They get pretty aggravated while having these conversations and I usually just end up butting in with a “hey, you’re living in a nice house, eat good food, and drive new cars… life could be worse”. Getting aggro about these sorts of things is just added stress that nobody needs.

During the car ride home I was talking to my fiancee about where your viewpoint in life can be, or where you make your comparisons from. I have always found it easy to look at the bigger picture. Life is amazing when you consider that in Australia we pretty much all eat well, sleep in a warm bed and on the whole have a lot of “stuff” – compared to that of a starving child in the cold in India, I’m living like a king! In a global sense, not very many of us have something to complain about.

But really, it’s hard to make these comparisons sometimes. While I am quite a happy person because of this “bigger picture” view, sometimes you do need to compare yourself to those in your locality. For example at work, if you are working in a team of equals, comparing yourself to others is fair. If you are in an environment where you are forced to work fives times harder than everyone else in your team, and you live with it just because of starving kids elsewhere, you’ll end up becoming very frustrated and probably end up quitting or stressing out.

I think it’s important to have a healthy balance of both. Considering everything in a worldwide perspective is a great way to appreciate what you have, even if in a local perspective it’s not very much. It keeps you happy about what you already have and often negates your need for more “stuff”.

On the flip-side, while staying happy about what you already have, comparing yourself to others directly related to you keeps you in check and ensures that you’re standing up for yourself. After all – in order to live in the global world, you have to live in a demographic somewhere, regardless of what that demographic is.

I caught up with my future brother-in-law last weekend. Had a big drink with him like we always seem to do even though it’s not that often. Usually we end up talking all kinds of random on these nights, and this time was no different.

He brought up this blog, and how he wants to blog with me but didn’t know what subject would be suitable. Immediately I knew that it had to be something about consideration. You see, we are two very different people in a lot of ways, but deep down we are both willing to listen to each other and consider what the other one is saying.

You know how some people just seem to disregard what you say immediately? If you’ve read the articles on this page you’d be well aware that I’m open to a lot of different theories and facts. Finding someone that you can discuss this with is hard at times.

Every time I bring up the idea of house prices crashing in Australia to my father, he pulls the “it’s different here” line. He’s old school, and doesn’t have the mental ability to consider the fact that a lot of people could get screwed over by this bubble. Same deal with talking to my fiancee’s mum about weddings. I’m not saying “I’m right and you’re wrong”, I’m saying that “my view is this”, and yet I’m still told that I’m wrong. How can an opinion be wrong? Nice people, but very close minded, and I have trouble talking about my true thoughts with these people nowadays.

After our drunken talk last weekend though, I realised that consideration is very important in a good relationship. It’s hard to speak your true feelings to someone who will just shut you down every time. Good communication means that while you may not agree with someone’s opinion, you will try and see it their way. The more you are willing to consider a person’s view or opinions, the more you will find out about them.

So I’m at a crossroads.

I have a lot of free time.. too much probably, and in that free time I like to read websites. Alternative media, whatever you want to call it, so I actually read the news that I want to find out about, not what the papers write just to make money.

Over the past year I’ve really been into the Global Financial Crisis and the housing bubble. When I started delving deeper though, I started to see the cracks in the stories and began to read up on related conspiracy theories, to get a better idea as to what is really could be going on in the world. The problem is that now I just don’t know what to believe and what not to believe. Have these sorts of stories been around for hundreds of years, or has each generation had these sort of “scares”? Have our parents heard this sort of bleak news when they were younger and everything has worked out for them, or is this just a new thing? Do I really pay attention to this information or do I ignore it?

Ignorance is bliss no doubt, I believe that on so many levels. Finance, diet, lifestyle, and so on. I know corruption is rife worldwide, and often it’s so rife it’s actually unintentional in a lot of cases. But organised corruption on a massive scale – do I just keep on riding my bike and push it out of my head?

I’m so stoked with life on so many levels, but just so lost went it comes to what I should believe in.

I’ve finally made one decision – I’m over religion. Growing up as a kid with an atheist father and a true Catholic mum (by true Catholic, I mean one that doesn’t go to church), and being sent to a Catholic school, I had religion in my life but never forced upon me. I’ve always had the option to believe in something but the option to believe in nothing. Nowadays I see religion for the ponzi scheme that it is. Good luck to those that have found God and choose to believe though, I have no issues with it. That’s out of the way now, but there’s more to decide on.

Do I choose to believe that the New World Order plans to create a global government, and make our countries states. Is the Global Financial Crisis an engineered crash by the Global Elite? Is population control a reality? Who really attacked the twin towers?

Obviously not every conspiracy theory is true, but why are we always so quick to assume that they are false? There are a lot of truths out there once you start to look into them. What is crazy and what isn’t?

This is where I’m at.

New World Order is everywhere at the moment, just check out Google News. It’s as though something that has always been labelled as crazy is now actually happening. This video abbreviates some info into a more professional presentation.

[pro-player width='490' height='230' type='FLV']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHvTy_fVdJ8[/pro-player]

Ugh, I don’t want to be going insane. What should I believe in?

When I was a kid I was always competitive. I competed in athletics and always wanted to win. Back then I think it was just because I was given the opportunity to compete in an event, and as far as I knew, you only ever competed to come first.

Through the later school years and a year or so after leaving school, I was finding my place in life. It was hard to see mates getting handouts from their parents while I had to work my ass off to get anything, and even then I couldn’t compete in their world.

Nowadays though, I see that everything I’ve been through has taught me some serious lessons. Small lessons like appreciation for money, but more importantly knowing what is actually important to me.

Time after time back in the day, I’d be annoyed that I didn’t have something that one of my mates had, when in reality although it would be nice to have, it wasn’t really that important. (Eg. a mate gets a nice new skateboard from his parents, but I can’t afford one so I don’t get one – in reality I was never into skating anyway). Nowadays, it’s financially a lot easier for me to buy something just because the next person has bought it, in “keeping up appearances”. I used to do this, but now I’m over it – as far as I see it, it’s just another form of competition.

Buying a nicer car, renovating the house or moving to a more upmarket suburb. Even just the places that you go out to dinner. It’s fine when you’re making the choices for yourself, but it’s crazy if you’re just doing something for first place in the game of life.

I know a couple that live well outside of their means, just to try and keep up with the rest of their family. The whole family competes constantly. Houses, cars, TV’s, computers, and now children. You name it, they’ll all try and outdo each other. It’s sad really, because when they actually want to do something, they can’t afford it or don’t have the time, because they commit so much of their resources to their competitive lifestyle. They end up living someone else’s life and not the life that they truly want to live.

I had a (cross country) mountain bike race on yesterday. My first race since last year and in a higher class than before. It was a real challenge for me, but I realised a lot of things while I was racing. A fair few of them unrelated to this post (things about technique, etc) but most importantly that I wasn’t really that interested in winning. I’m more of an “I wonder how fast I am” racer. It’s a personal challenge more than anything else for me. Sometimes when it comes to sport I wonder if I should try and be more competitive, but really, why? For the kudos of other people? I just want to go out and ride, and do the best that I can. If my best is first place, great, if it’s 20th, fine. I came 7th on the weekend.

I’m happy with where I’m at. Sure, a bit of competition in sport is healthy, but to me not being too competitive in life means staying true to what you actually want, rather than living a life of competition between friends, family and colleagues. It means you can live the life that you want, not what others want you to live. I couldn’t think of a better way to live really..