he once escaped from a pair of handcuffs using only a plate of spaghetti.

he was the editor of his school magazine... no, wait, that was Lemmy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2uxQ6gl7vI

oh, and he used to be a cop but he was discharged for using a coworker as a battering ram during a raid.

I believe in gender equality: I call everyone "Mate", regardless of gender :D

No, I don't mean to take the gravity out of this discussion, whether by using inanity or smileys. Matter of fact, I think it's quite a serious issue. I agree with the statement that "sexism is in the eye of the beholder".

Using the example above, there have been times when I've been called out for calling a girl "mate". Some think that I shouldn't refer to girls with such a masculine form of address. This is invariably backed by a strange sort of inverse-feminist argument that truly is spectacular to behold, as someone tries to justify the equality of the sexes by telling me I shouldn't use the same term to address both men and women. Yes, I'm sure it makes more sense inside their heads. I usually counter it with "the only time I've called someone 'Miss' is because I need to use the loo" which, oddly enough, usually shuts them up.

Another interesting example is what we Australians call the 'Direct Combat Exclusion', which is a bone of contention in Defence circles. In short, women are not permitted to join direct action units, except for in support roles. For example, the SAS Regiment has no female operators, but does have female staff in the embedded 152 Signals Squadron. Quite a good number of fighting services around the world have similar practices in place. Many claim this is discrimination, to which our Department of Defence agrees wholly; the discrimination is for an extremely good reason. Public reaction to female soldiers being captured or killed is many times more vehement than for a male soldier—take for example PFC Jessica Lynch, the American who was 'held hostage' with a broken arm and leg. The media whipped her story into a right old storm (with some help from the Pentagon) and it seems public consensus about the incident varied wildly from the reported truth.

Frustratingly enough, a lot of the protest about the Direct Combat Exclusion isn't coming from actual soldiers themselves, including the female personnel: it's coming from people outside of the community, often those who have no intention of serving anyway, who think they know better than the policy-makers when it comes to women's rights. Terrific.

Oh God, it's beautiful. Definitely going on the itinerary, along with every other memorial I can find haha. Wonder if I can convince my travelling partners to hop over to the UK as we pass through... :D

In Brisbane we have Anzac Square, which hosts several large, bronze statues memorializing different groups and events from the last few wars (including a life-sized Cavalry officer and mount, some Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, Vietnam, and others) and a Shrine of Memories directly below the Eternal Flame. Dawn services are held each year for ANZAC Day, and it's one of the most emotionally moving things you can do in this little old town :D

Inside the Shrine, in one of the chambers, is a column with the crests of the three services mounted above eye-level, and a star-shaped base that contains earth from the fields of some of Australia's most defining battles, (namely Halfaya, Tobruk, Beirut, Phaleron, Suda Bay, Yokohama, Kranji, Chungkai, Kamburi, Rabaul, Bomana, Lae, Damascus, Jerusalem, El Alamein, Acroma). I go there from time to time, just to reflect and think about the past, and (yes, this is going back to the Writer's Block post from the other day) it can even help me work on new projects. Powerful stuff.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. What was I saying? Oh, right: the cenotaph with the Eternal Flame is really pretty at night. Yeah, talk about taking the long way 'round to explain something.

Wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrine_of_Remembranc...
The Eternal Flame at a Dawn Service http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200704/r139658_47892...
Photo of memorial column in shrine http://www.brisbanelivingheritage.com/_dbase_upl/...
Boer War Cavalry officer, during this year's Boer War Day http://www.bwm.org.au/images/BWD2010/Brisbane6.jp...

As we've discussed in previous blog posts and comment threads, I'm probably one of the only Australians in the room here, but I think I can speak for myself and all the other Aussies who move in Defence circles when I say that we feel honour-bound to show our open and undying support to charities like Legacy and the Returned Services League.

It's partly because we see our veterans as real father-figures, and we treat them that way too. Without them, who knows we're we'd be? Hitler would probably be onto his Fourth or Fifth Reich by now, Saddam might own the Middle East, and Kim Jong-Il would have twice as many people to treat like dogs than he does now. Buying a poppy from the old Diggers and sailors and Raffies and having a brief chat and a thanks for all they've done always puts a smile on my face. I've been known to come home with several in my bag at a time (the little plastic flowers, not the veterans).

@Ian: my sentiments exactly, sir. You took the words right out of my mouth with "it's tasteless to hijack Remembrance Day to do it". If anything, Remembrance Day (and of course ANZAC Day, over here) should be the very LAST time of the year that people air their anti-war sentiments, because it seems to be kinda redundant. The whole point of the occasion is to remember the horror and suffering of war. Of course, now I'm just preaching to the choir :D

@Prestwick: I'll have to come drop a wreath someday. I love horses too much not to :)

G'day Prestwick, good to hear from you again :) you had me worried haha.

Personally, I gotta agree with the feller above, talking of "getting out of your area". I find just going for a bus or train ride, going for a walk, what have you, will help you clear your mind. The trick (for me at least) isn't to strain to come up with something, but rather to switch off and wait for the something to come up by itself.

Case in point: I have a manuscript on the boil—which, I must add, is showing disturbing similarities to Hard Graft, so I'll have to work on not infringing any copyrights haha—but I was completely stuck for how to treat a certain character. Then, I went to a party not three nights ago, on the other side of town. On the bus over, I saw a girl with dark brown hair, which she'd tried to dye red (and wound up with an interesting purpley colour). For some unknown reason, that got the ol' grey matter pinging, as I still had this character in my mind. I get to the party, and I meet a girl who's a friend-of-a-friend, and her mannerisms and personality get the grey matter outright shouting "hey, I think I've got something". Hey presto, just like that, I'm sitting on an Esky with a beer in my hand, adding layer after layer to this character in my head. So easy, it was like cheating. Now the trick is to avoid making this character an obvious clone of Lisbeth Salander, haha.

Anyway, good to hear you had your second wind (no, not reflux). In answer to your questions; in my not-so-professional opinion, the reason we have such gaps in the creative process isn't because the brain stops working on a problem, but more that it simply shifts the problem to the backburner to work on it subconsciously. If the human brain couldn't do that, we'd be no different to computers. How many times have you tried to open an application on your computer, or watch a video, or whatever, only for the stupid thing to jam up and sit there idling while it tries to work on something you asked it to do ten minutes ago? If the human brain were like that, I'd say the mortality rates on the roads would spike something chronic right around tax time, as people would suddenly freeze up behind the wheel and have a Blue Screen of Death moment while trying to figure out their returns.

The flip side, of course, is that when the problem is solved and brought back into your conscious thoughts, that's when you have that sudden dam-bursting experience, much the same way as you did on the train, Mr Prestwick... and in my mind much the same as realising just how full one's bladder is at an extremely unfortunate moment, like when you're on-stage at an award ceremony. Oh, good times.

Baz.

oop, too late. Kathy's doomed.

heh. Alan reminds me of me... but with an English accent and a beard. so basically not like me at all.

ssshhhhhhhh, don't give him any ideas...

actually, i'm the last person who should talk about funny accents. Aussies pronounce 'brain tumor' as 'broin choomah', and whenever i try to say 'hi, how are you' it ends up sounding like 'gdaymuttayagaan'.

nooooo.... but i just watched a clip of Mad Mick the Weegie Cab driver. still laughing as i type this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63r7C-frXGA&fe...

"EH SEE EF AM IN A FIGHT, MAN, SOMETIME AH FERGET TE TEK EM OOT..."

@Albonia & @prestwickuk: I'm just glad none of them went out for a Duck... ohgodthatwasbadaughaughblugh.

— Baz.