One thing I have learned over the years is that no-one is above criticism - not even those who criticize.
For most of my life mind you, I have been very sensitive to criticism - even friendly criticism - and there was a time when I wanted to be like almost everyone else. Now however, I like being me.
Another thing I have learned about myself is that I don't have much of a skill at looking at things like books, music and TV shows objectively, where everyone at most of my schools, and my two brothers, seemed very good at it. Maybe having poor self esteem was the reason I re-acted the way I did when if I defended a song or a group, Paul or Joel would tell me I was dumb.
Of course, it's not just me. Every so often, I see a letter in a newspaper or something taking an axe to something or other. Then in a future issue, a fan of that something or other will write in to defend it. I myself used to take criticism like that very personally, but am less likely to now that I see that all my 77 contacts at Facebook seem to think like me in that respect and I bet they don't worry about what other people think. So I guess I ought not to either.
Of course, rock and roll music has been a target of some religious people since the fifties. Once I saw a book called "The Rock Report" in a Christian bookshop and I have to say it really upset me, but I think it would be less likely to do so now because now I would just be glad the author is a Christian.
But even so, books like "The Rock Report" are not without flaws. There were only two reviews of it at Amazon the last time I looked and when I read them I became glad I did not stop listening to rock music because they were both one star reviews. You can read them for yourself if you follow this link: http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Report-Uncensored-Todays-Music/dp/0914984136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268615165&sr=8-1
Mind you, the older of the two reviews has had one sentence removed. It used to end thus: "But if you're looking for a good laugh you may well find it in this volume!" I thought to myself, "I can get a good laugh by reading Garfield!"

Oh, and here's another bad review. What is more, the writer claims to be a Christian: https://unclenecro.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/book-review-the-rock-report-fletcher-a-brothers/

My Catholic faith.

As you may have guessed by now, I am a Catholic Christian. There have been times when I have considered leaving the Church due to the terrible things it has done over the years such as the crusades and the witch-hunts and the sex abuse scandals, but then I remember the Protestant Church hasn't been any better, same with the orthodox church. Besides, leaving any church would be like turning your back on your parents, no matter what terrible things they may have done.
Then there are those anti-catholic groups who want you to believe that the Catholic Church teaches un-biblical teachings. In the nearest major city to where I live there used to be a sort of lending library that had all sorts of Christian books and things. The only thing I didn't like about this place was that it was so biased against the Catholic church. Nevertheless, one day when I was there a man (I think his name was Shane) came up to me and asked what church I fellowshiped it. I swallowed hard and said I was Catholic. He gave me four DVD's and said that one of them was a real eye-opener.
Some time later I watched it and did it knock me for six! It was called "Catholicism Crisis of Faith" and as you may have guessed, it was a documentary that made out that the Catholic Church was a false gospel. You can actually watch it online if you follow this link:    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7116805989986440367
Or you can just read this transcript:   http://www.gnfc.org/transcript.html
Honestly I didn't know what to think. Although I did know that the charge of taking out the 2nd Commandment was a false one. For one thing, the Lutheran Church has the same version of the 10 Commandments as the Catholic one yet no-one accuses that Church as being false. I was wondering if maybe God wanted me to leave the Catholic Church. Then when I came across this link, I felt God meant for me to stay in the Catholic Church:  http://archive.catholic.com/thisrock/1993/9305fea1.asp
It seems the video's producers took certain quotes out of context. Sounds like a violation of the 9th (or 8th) commandment to me!
If you do choose to follow that last link, you may also like to follow this one: http://archive.catholic.com/thisrock/1993/9307ltrs.asp

From vinyl to MP3.

Not so long ago, I got myself a new record player. It's a fairly basic model, just has a USB port. I'll admit it's not the best record player in the world, but it was the best I could find that suited my needs. (In fact, I remember talking to someone at the folkie who reckoned that record players like that one are pieces of shit. I went off it a bit then, but hey! It does do what it says on the outside box.)
So far I have copied four records. The first one was Great Film Themes No. 1 by the New Hollywood Orchestra, the second was No. 2. These both came out on Music For Pleasure in 1967.
The third one was Let a Frown Be Your Umbrella by Oscar the Grouch. One of a handful of Sesame Street records in my collection. It's an Axis record that first came out in 1974. Now I have copied a various artists set called Our Kinda Country. It's a Columbia record from 1967 and has 17 songs about Australia and/or sung by Australians.
This is also one of those records where the song publisher's logos appear on the label. (The aforementioned Great Film Themes No. 2 also has them.) Whenever I copy one of those records that has more than one of these royalty stamps (I think that's what they used to call them) I like to read the track listing and see who published what. The first side of Our Kinda Country has 8 songs, each with a different publisher, that means 8 royalty stamps appear on the label of this side. Side 2 on the other hand, while containing 9 tracks, only has 7 of these logos as some publishers had the publishing rights to more than one song on the second side.
From what I have been able to figure out, these song publisher's motifs appeared on nearly every record commercially released in Australia until the end of the sixties. Since then, records made here have only born publishing credits.
I must say however, that the transfer is hard work if you haven't had much practice. Copying the records on to the USB stick is easy, but transferring them to the computer's hard drive is much harder. I think I have got them copied though, I am listening to the copy of Our Kinda Country on the computer now, and the USB stick has been removed, so it must have worked, mustn't it?     

Weddings, Parties and the like.

When I was a kid, I loved parties. They were also such great fine. Children's parties do tend to be a lot of fun, I find.
Certainly the ones I went to were terrific fun. The food was also delicious. There were great games too, like pass the parcel and musical chairs and others just like them. Those were the days.
Then something happened. I grew up.
Since then, the parties I have been to have not be very much fun. In fact, they have in some cases been no fun at all.
Oh, they are okay if they are held at the birthday person's house, but usually they are held at a restaurant or hotel or something, and there is just nothing to do at those places. They wouldn't be quite so bad if more people approached me but for the most part I am left alone and as I never have much to say, it bores me (nearly) to tears. If only they would have games or something at those parties or wedding receptions or whatever.
Another bone of contention with me is that the birthday or wedding cake takes ages to come, so that by the time it does I have had quite enough. I'll admit there is dancing at some of these events, but one can only do so much dancing.
Now there is a family reunion on my mother's side coming up. I was going to go until I found out it's at a bowling club. I am sure to have a terrible time if I go.
Therefore, I will not go to this reunion. Not unless there is a way out if I get bored. I may well be the only family member missing but I don't care, I don't want to go. Instead, I shall do my own thing. I don't know what I shall do as yet, I may go to the old time dance or catch some live entertainment in a pub or find someone I can visit. Or maybe I shall just stay home.

UPDATE: I've just been talking to my cousin. She talked me into taking my ipod and ipod dock, so it looks like I shall go after all.

Bullying

The recent news story about the school-kid who get bulled one time too many and fought back only to get suspended is the motivation behind this post.
Now I was lucky in the sense that I was not a victim of physical bullying at school - well not much anyway, but I do remember I would cop it sometimes. I told my parents and they said I should hit them back if they hit me again. So that's what I sometimes did. Mind you, my teachers would not have been pleased if they'd known because they were telling my classes never to hit anyone even if they hit us first. So in my case the teachers, whether they knew it or not were telling me to disobey my parents. It sure made a mockery out of something we had to recite in front of the flag every Monday morning at one school I went to. It ended with, "[I will] cheerfully obey my parents, teachers and the law." But you cannot cheerfully or otherwise obey your parents and teachers if your parents say one thing and your teachers say something else, can you?
My opinion is, one should at first try a non violent resistance, and if that doesn't work, then fight back. As a Christian I certainly believe in turning the other cheek, but I don't believe that Jesus was saying we can't defend ourselves by fighting back. Of course one shouldn't fight back just to get even, that's what The Lord was objecting to, if we must fight back, love our attacker all the same. After all, even bullies have problems of their own.
The sort of bullying I was subject to was verbal assault. I remember when I was in high school I wanted to be liked by my fellow classmates, but they seemed to want to hate me instead. I remember there were two girls who kept telling me to get fucked. They just didn't care how much I hated it. Even since then, I have had a massive problem with the F word, probably not helped by the fact that Mum wouldn't even let me say it when quoting people.
Fair dinkim, it would have served them right if I had hit them. I mean, one can only turn the other cheek so many times. Let's pray that God can forgive them, anyhow. 

Introduction.

Well folks, this is it, my first post on my blog. I hope you enjoy reading these and that no-one will be upset by them, because I have read horror stories about repucusions resulting from people being mentioned in a poor light on someone's blog. Rest assured that I shall try not to offend anyone.
Some of you know me well, others hardly at all, but if anyone reads this, they may find it interesting.
First off, I am the first born of three boys. My two younger brothers have the names Paul and Joel. My earliest childhood memory was probably being told not to pick my nose. LOL.
Nevertheless, the first 5 years were the best years of my life. Then we moved to Melbourne just so as my parents could make me go to the shittiest school I ever would go to. It was the headmaster's fault really; he was into force-feeding. I did not find out until my Irabina days were over that the other teachers were forced to force-feed me and the other children by the headmaster (his name was Bill by the way).
Still, Mum used to tell me I was luckier than I realized and now I see how right she was. At least I got to go on to Primary School, unlike my classmates at Irabina. I went first to Eastwood Primary School in Ringwood and then St. Edmund's Primary School in Croydon. After returning to Tyrendarra Paul and I started at Narrawong East Primary School and thanks to Facebook I have been able to regain contact with many of the other people who went there at the time, some of whom I had not heard from for years. My entire high school education took place at the Christan Community College (now Bayview College) and thanks to Facebook I have caught up with a few of the other people who were students there at the time.
I did up to Year 10 and then left because I felt I had gotten as much out of school as I possibly could. Since then I have been working on a voluntary basis at the Portland Library and I believe that I have found my calling there.
So in a nutshell, that is my life story.