Golf – Accepting professional mediocrity in a hobby/sport

I had the occasion to be at the Australian PGA Open in Coolum, Australia on the weekend of the 26^th November. The Final days play, the top 72 golfers in pairs for the prize money.

It was rubbish.

What is it with amateur golfer spectator? They are all accepting of mediocrity and average ability.

Hit a ball into the trees, and they nod sagely, with a sigh, then the golf hacker hits the ball out of the trees on the course again and they nod sagely, clap politely and call “good shot”. It’s nonsense. It was a rubbish shot.

Of course there is skill in hitting a golf ball, the draw, the fade, the back spin, and there is a definite knack to putting. But seriously hitting a ball a hundred yards to a green and finishing 20-30 yards from the hole isn’t a good shot. It just isn’t.

Of course some holes are challenging, but hey you’re a professional. I don’t expect you to lay up and two putt, that’s what a weekend hacker would do.

Golf is a sport that has strict requirements regarding equipment. As a result, expanding the market generates great demand for the necessary gear. It’s a bizarre sport wherein the price of your kit defines you among your peers.

And the money!  For the tournament that I was at the Total Prize Money was : AUD $1.5 million, the First Prize was AUD $270,000. Every one of the top 72 players gets a prize. It’s like a social club meat raffle! I notice that for the tournament I was at the only direct golfing related company that was a sponsor was Srixon, some of the others were Coca-cola, the local government, Emirates (who seem to sponsor everything everywhere), the hotel where the course was at, the TV channel and VW Automobiles.

There is a end of year tournament referred to as the “race to Dubai”.  “The Race to Dubai on The 2011 European Tour International Schedule will feature 52 tournaments in 29 different destinations. The third edition of the Dubai World Championship in 2011 will again carry a prize fund of $7,500,000  to be divided between the leading 15 players at the conclusion of the season.

Essence of this is: play at the tournaments with higher prize money and climb the earnings list. It’s not like every tournament is equal, some have much more prize money and attract different players, some are quite poor.

Anyway the leader list on the “race to Dubai” is brought up at the rear by Jack Doherty who’s tour earnings from 4 tournaments amount to Euros 891. 115^th place is Markus Brier 25 tournaments with Euro 258,513. Leading with 12 tournaments and Euro 3.8 millions is Luke Donald

There are players with 34 tournaments played for less than Euro 100K winnings, that’s not a living that’s surely is a hobby

Like I said a bit of nonsense.

I’d do most things - #3

You'd know from earlier posts that I'm not a big fan of tattoo, or ink, or whatever you want to dress it up as.

Today then the press carries this;

"Megan Fox has "outgrown" her tattoo.

The 25-year-old actress had a tattoo of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe inked onto her right arm when she was a teenager. Nearly a decade later, Megan is finding the action regrettable.

She simply is no longer impressed by the artwork.

"You outgrow things that you love when you were a child. I got it when I was 18 and now I'm 25 and it just doesn't make sense anymore."

Removing the tattoo is an arduous process for the star. Megan will undergo numerous treatments to lift the ink from her skin.

"[The removal process] is a hundred times worse than the tattoo itself," she revealed. "I've only done one [session] so I probably have three or four left."

From another news source though

Megan Fox is removing her Marilyn Monroe tattoo because it has "negative energy".

The 25-year-old actress has an inking of the late screen icon's face etched on the inside of her right arm but she is in the process of having it lasered off because she no longer wants an association to Marilyn - who died in August 1962 aged 36 from a suspected drugs overdose.

She told Italian magazine Amica: "I'm removing it. It is a negative character, as she suffered from personality disorders and was bipolar. I do not want to attract this kind of negative energy in my life."

The tattoo of the Some Like It Hot star is not the first change to her body that Megan has been left unhappy with.

The Jonah Hex star - who is married to actor Brian Austin Green - also got rid of a belly-button piercing when she was 20.

She said: "I did it when I was 16 because I was a fan of Britney Spears. The only time I tried to imitate someone else.

It's interesting that it's only been a few years for her to realise that what you think is a good idea is in fact rubbish. but you can't be old and wise without being young and stupid. Even to the point of the belly button piercing.

Interesting though that she does not see herself as a role model or taking any position that would not encourage others to follow her banality, then again I'm kind of sucked into thinking that having made a movie that somehow they transcend the normal, when in fact they are dumber than a blunt axe.

So there you go kids, dont do the tattoo!

Quackery of the first degree

I use twitter a bit, and was followed by a chiropractor, which made me smile a crooked smile.  Lots of "might" and "may" but actually it's just wriggle your back and talk quietly if you read the rest of the blurb. IT's out-and-out quackery to claim that a back "manipulation" can sure ear-ache and prevent flu, it's nonsense of the first order. The bit that made me smile most though is this naked claim

"I laughed in reply and informed them that New Zealand is behind the rest of the world when it comes to sports performance and chiropractic", in that we still allow it unfettered and unmonitored and unqualified application with grandiose claims and benefits just on hearsay and anecdote.

There is also the matter of manipulation of children's spines -

 

This from their website "Dr B's  unique gentle approach and her caring manner enables her to work with children effectively and efficiently.

Clinical experience and extensive research has shown that a wide range of childhood symptoms may respond favourably to chiropractic treatment.

These symptoms  include migraines, gastric reflux, recurrent ear and chest infections, hyperactivity, bed wetting, fatigue, recurrent throat infections, arm and leg pain, headaches, asthma, poor co-ordination, sleeping problems, irritability, colic, back pain, stomach ache, visual problems, digestive disorders, scoliosis and poor posture.

B has also assisted many new mothers during  pregnancy and child birth."

Righty then, no mention of any clinical studies on the website, and a couple of testimonials about not getting flu anymore.  And worse it's available in NZ on ACC which is a disgrace.

I'll end by saying that as a grown adult,  if I want to spend my money on snake-oil and because I think it's work, and  therefore then must work, then more fool me. If my back stops hurting that isn't evidence, or claim for efficacy.

An Unnamed Economics professor, at an unnamed school, on Socialism

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.




2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.




3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.




4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!




5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Trying Teen Times - the grown up one- Part the Second

My son has had an epiphany, his moment of realisation, that bit as a teenager when you have a stream of consciousness, the outpouring of everything that you think you've done wrong, in life, in love, with friends, decisions, money, everything.

It's been a while coming.

To recap, #1 Son left school with some A levels, but decided that work was a better option than further study, he's been a poor student, in the sense of application, he's bright as anyone I know, but comes  with low self esteem, and was often bullied. He managed a year of work hard work 5am to 2pm, and then decided to go to University. We worked hard with him to get him to choose a course that was the right one, and he made his choices, signed up all the forms and went on his merry way. A few months in he had angst about if it was the right thing, and recently decided that it really wasn't him and he's dropping out.

So follows  is his long missive about how he feels, and it makes me sad, and I feel helpless about how to help.  I can give him money, which will ease some burden and I can tell him that he's in a place that everyone has been in - give or take, same or different - at one point or another. I can't pay his debt for him, well I can but that wouldn't solve anything. So I have a Son without a job and with dreams, and no plan.

 

I think I've found my problem. I currently have a combination of a few things wrong up there in the head.

I have so many things I want to do. I want to learn how to use 3DS Max competently for Modelling and Animation. I want to learn how to design levels with the Source SDK and the UDK. I want to finish my Warhammer models my Dad got me, simply so I can say they are done. I want to pull out the dremel tool and make a necklace for my Godmother because I know she likes handmade things for Christmas presents and I haven't given her one for a few years now. I have a sketched out design for a laptop stand to have on my knees so I can actually use the comfy chair without burning my knees off.

I just cant decide what to do first because I'll miss out on the opportunity to do the other thing, so I retreat into videogames and the SA forums. Simply so I can put them down and  forget about them for the rest of the day because the Tribes: Ascend thread has 30 more posts and the PYF Macros thread has 3 days worth of content that I'll find momentarily distracting. At this point my laptop is and appears to be a lifeline keeping me from actually realising fully, the impact that I've had on myself through taking a break from Uni, working for a year and being a steadily shittier worker as I became more and more dissilusioned with 5am starts and not knowing when I was going home, signing up for 3pm WoW raids that I'd just get home in time for if I left within the hour of my contracted time didnt help there. More than once I was called out at work for rushing through my last duties and getting grumpy that it wasn't finishing. I have a sneaking suspicion that those actions have fucked up all hopes for using that year as a reference for future work. It really doesnt help that in the last two years I've put hours that number in the thousands into Video Games, merely because that was what let me not care. I want to stop but I keep justifying it as my entertainment, when in reality its just an escape.

I've also figured out that I have a very hard time actually putting what I want to do in words. For example I just tried to make a list of what I want to do in the next year... and I was stumped, even though there is so many things I want to do. I can bullshit my way through a Semester 1 Geography paper. I got 79% on a Essay test I didnt even know was happening, just by turning up and writing. Not even a shred of study because I was sick the day it was announced. And yet I'm so undecided on what I actually want to do I cant make a full list of everything.

Me going to university hasn't helped much in terms of where I am in life.. I'm now more than 10,000 dollars in debt and nothing to show for it except my word that I've gone to university. This has the knock on effect of not having a job when I desperately need one so that I can afford things like Credit for my phone, Fuel for my car and being able to enjoy a night out with my friends. Things that I became accustomed too as I was pulling in 500 dollars a week after tax. Money which I've squandered on being a greedy, selfish person. The entire 8000 dollars that I had from that job is gone merely because I just couldnt control my spending. I feel incredibly rude, almost evil when Sam offers to give me petrol and insists she pays for meals, even though she knows I cant afford if after buying 30 dollars in Petrol and 25 dollars in Bus tickets  merely to get to uni, on top of me buying bottles of cokes simply because I was and still am addicted to the caffiene that I get from it.  Add to this the breakfast I'd buy more than occasionally at uni because I couldnt eat when I woke up, so I'd go to uni and get hungry when i got there, meaning I'd buy food instead of my family noticing that I'd be taking more with me.

The problem with all that is that I've gained far too much weight. In fact I'm at the point where I'm too scared to weigh myself. Knowing how heavy I am this point just wouldnt do me any good. Sam keeps assuring me its okay but I really am not happy with how I look and feel about myself, how my clothes have gotten tighter throughout the year, and how shirts that once fit me are now too tiny to put on. I'm disgusted when I see myself in the mirror these days. If I keep on eating the way I do I'll keel over before I'm 50. I'm pretty damn sure of it. Problem is, I don't know how to stop. I keep telling myself, as my so used its almost broken eftpos card goes through the machine "Next week Cameron".

That's not to say that university is a bad thing. I've made more friends in the 2/3'ds of the year that I was there than all the bullying filled, incredibly low self esteem years that marked my Schooling, Where I retreated into the Libraries, and ending up making better friends with the librarians than most of my classmates that I knew in more than pasing. It's a good feeling, to be able to have a conversation with people your age that doesn't eventually dissolve in me wanting to quit school and fuck off into the wilderness. That feeling was quite rare in High School. It's much better now.

My other current problem is trying to learn something myself through the internet.
On my PC before I reformatted it there was. (Some pirated, some student versions. Not as if I was gonna drop thousands of dollars to learn something.)
-Photoshop
-Vegas 10
-3DS max
-Maya
-Mudbox
-Audacity
-FL Studio
-GIMP
-PLDX Movie Tool.
And I hardly knew how to use any of them because I gave up when someone wasn't there to hold my hand. I know that I describe myself to employers as a "Quick Learner" But looking at this it seems like its mostly bullshit.

My curent goal is to learn 3DS Max and get a job at Weta Workshop. However for all I know I'm going to decide that I want to be a fucking Marketing Expert or a Creative designer. I know my mind craves work that lets me think and express myself. It just doesn't have the attention span to decide what it fucking wants to do and stick to it. This is going to take some more thinking. If I had spare money for Petrol I'd just drive somewhere and try and write about it. But then again, no spare money.           

When Sci-Fi loses the plot - Terra Nova

I've been watching a couple of 'new' programs. "Person of interest" and "Terra Nova"

Terra Nova - an ordinary family from 2149 when the planet is dying who are transported back 85 million years to prehistoric Earth where they join Terra Nova, a colony of humans with a second chance to build a civilization. Yes indeed it's the Flintstones.

Couple of issues with this series, no really, and they are not of the "living with Dinosaurs" type.

• The time travel device "the ring" allows travel back into an alternate past, so that things that happen can't have any effect on the future. There is a "renegade" band of people who seem to be able to communicate with the current Earth. It's not clear how they are doing this, or indeed why.


• The ring deposits people in the middle of nowhere, and they have to march, under an armed escort, to the main camp. They have vehicles, but no it's a march. No reason is given why one is so far from the other, or why, given that Terra Nova is a new hope for Earth that more resources haven't been given to establishing a better, safer, community.


• Terra Nova appears to be under the sole command of an army commander. No council of elders, no quorum, a sole charge position of establishing a new civilisation. And this appears to be going badly because there is a breakaway group of renegades.


• The plot is centered on a group of new arrivals, a migration as they are referred to, and these are referred to as a number, they have issues with "sixers", it's not clear what number of migration the new members are, but the timeline is a bit fuzzy about how long it takes to get from "current" Earth to "Old Earth"

My favourite plot disaster though is the one about the mysterious runes that are carved into some "forbidden zone" rocks. They had to invent a dinosaur to establish why it's a forbidden zone, and of course the "kids" have discovered these runes and are keeping quiet about them, to the point to visiting them regularly and making hooch. Adults though - oblivious! Not however the Commander, and I'd be confident quite a few of his "troops"

It's also full of all the clichés you can imagine, teen angst, parental angst, moral angst, and is almost devoid of any plot. It's already descended into "monster of the week" with all new dinosaurs being discovered.

So a bit unsatisfactory and shallow on many levels and in many places. It's like watching a train wreck, you know it's coming and it's bad enough to want to keep watching so you can affirm your own sense of superiority in seeing the holes that they've created.

Trying Teen Times - the grown up one

Eldest is suffering from boy. Being a boy. Being aimless, feckless and without any clear idea. It is a boy thing. I get that it's a boy thing and somewhere you find your own level, your own pace, and it all comes right. Mostly, in pdubyahworld anyway.

Eldest did a year of work, and the decided that University was a better bet, and that Geography and Philosophy would be his thing. I guess he wanted to both sit an ponder on a hill, and ponder about life and hill. Who knows.

Anyway a year on and that's not what we wanted to do at all. So we had the "chat". He was blabbing on about this and that and came up with the trusted "I don't have a plan"

I waved my arms around a bit, in the way that you do, and see in movies, and explained in a pained and hushed voice "Did you think that This house, the car I drive, the two children I have and the job that I've been in for 12 years was my plan?" I continued "That my son is not a plan it's actually a bit of a nightmare"

He's promised to see out university and get a real job. Although his idea of a job appears to want to be an "animator" which I hope is cartoons and not Dr.Frankenstein type stuff.

Commercial Ventures and the Public purse - #5 - Canterbury University Seeks Bailout As Intake Falls

Canterbury University is pleading for at least another $150 million from the Government as it faces losing almost 20,000 students and $346m in revenue in the next eight years. Based on a report they've prepared along with Deloitte which  forecasts a cumulative drop in fulltime equivalent students of 19,400 from this year to 2019 and a reduction in revenue over that time of $346m

A 65-page document detailing the business case for support asks the Government for $130m in operating support, $25m for capital costs and a  yet-to-be-determined sum for building remediation not covered by insurance, but the amount could be between $20m and $70m.

The February earthquake caused it to lose hundreds of domestic and international students -  About 15,500 fulltime equivalent students are enrolled at the university.

It already has 1200 fewer domestic students and 420 international students  than 2010. Of those about 800 were first-year students and 80 per cent of them would have continued to a second year of study. More than 25 per cent of the first-year student intake either discontinued or  did not complete their enrolment this year.

Here's the thing - the university is therefore  asking for $1,000 per student to prevent it's decline in standards, 1,600 less students is extrapolated over 8 years to be 20,000 students. Somehow. As a concession the university will shed around 300 jobs over 3 years from the 3,000 staff it currently has, that's 3-4% a year over 3 years.

Each Student, using the figures provided, generate income to the University of $18,200 each, per student, and they have staff to student ratio of 1-5

"In exchange for the government money, the university was proposing to make  savings of $134m, double its borrowings to $100m, and reduce its capital  expenditure by $20m to $45m annually from next year to 2019. The savings would include a 3 to 4 per cent reduction in staff numbers for each of the next three years. The university has about 3000 staff."

The university has a good reputation and it has a strong balance sheet with about $90m in the bank. It's not up against any wall and it's not sinking into oblivion.

So - change the name from ABC university to ABC corporation - and you'll see why this isn't really something that I would be in favour of. The user pays education system that we're all familiar with appears to not want to cut it's cloth to suit, but wants to have a Rolls Royce facility. I can't imagine a scenario where a corporation with the same staffing ratio's would be able to go cap in had to the Govt and ask for a bail-out. (Of course I ignore finance and insurance companies, of course!)

Am I in favour of reducing the scope of the offering to suit the amount of revenue, you bet I am. Should the taxpayer fund what is essentially a corporation into maintaining what is an impossible scenario - even they recognise some truths " The university had started many initiatives to attract students, including  increasing recreational areas on site. It was also spending millions of dollars
on additional scholarships. Vice-Chancellor Rod Carr was visiting several countries to get the message  across to potential international students that the university was fully open
and safe after the earthquakes "

So spend a few more millions, after all in for 346million in for the lot! I'm confident the world will not end for the University, I'm sure that student X overseas does not want to come to a city of rubble to live, in over-priced short availability accommodation, unless of course they're on a scholarship, but that's not generating income is it, that's filling seats to tick a box to maintain existing funding for the public purse.

Do I think that there are too many staff? what do you think, in a normal corporation I would imagine that a ratio of 1-10 managers to staff is more normal, it's possibly even more.

I'm therefore a little perplexed by the timing, the amount they are asking for, the reasons given, and the blind way in which it ignores some truths about their plight and situation.

via Canterbury University Seeks Bailout As Intake Falls... | Stuff.co.nz.

On the home front.

I'm struggling with understanding what's going on around me in terms of what my partner is thinking, or her motivation. She'll blame me of course for being difficult and awkward, and "getting the hump", but it seems that unless we're singing to the tune of her drum then "we" don't want to do it.

Specifically tonight was "what's exciting that we should watch on tv" to which I suggested a drama series, and that got me a "huff" and from there it really went downhill. Her counter suggestion was "master chef"

I don't get it and I feel I should be.