The Politics of Drinking and Boats

Now that I’m back to ‘normal’, I managed to squeeze in a night of post-exam celebrations with a close group of friends that I haven’t managed to see (as a group, that is) in some time. We drank a lot, but oddly enough I think we were all remarkably under control.

There are certain factors that have to be taken into consideration when assessing the level of drunken behaviour.

– Was anyone physically injured?

No.

– Did anyone make a complete dick of themselves?

No.

– Did anyone ‘drunk dial’ a crush or former flame even after the rest of the sloshed brethren voiced how much better off you are without them, complementing you on what a ‘top bloke’ you are and how it’s her loss in the end?

No.

– Did anyone make a resolution or pact regarding certain life decisions while under the influence regardless of how utterly idiotic the decision might have been?

No.

– Did anyone claim to have invented something that exists now within the broader cultural milieu?

No.

– Did anyone initiate a plan to overthrow Kim Jong Il?

Unfortunately not.

There are more terms I could go on about but basically what I’m trying to get across is that this was just an awesome night with awesome friends who wanted nothing more than to just enjoy each other’s company, get wasted, eat a lot of food and play video games.

But of course, not everybody else had work at 10am the next day. I did. When I got a chance to recover, that meant sleeping for 13 hours straight. Sleeping for that amount of time can’t help but make you feel you’ve woken up in a completely different world, that somehow that gap of time you were inactive brought about an unbelievable change that will bring a fresh perspective on how you have to interact with the world. Unfortunately, this is not actually the case. You might have just missed what someone posted on any one of the multitude of social media websites or didn’t hear about the news stories of the morning that have already been long forgotten.

And now for something completely different.

After the madness of last week and a range of people recommending it to me, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch Go Back to Where You Came From, the 4-part series that aired on SBS recently. It’s nice to see reality TV being made that actually has a message that it wants to convey to its audience, rather than all these hammy talent-based, dancing-based, cooking-based or renovation-based series that drum up their own levels of inconsequential drama that is force-fed to anyone willing to partake – “Who said what about who when they were doing that? OMGDRAMA!”

I guess what I find interesting is how people responded to the show, jumping online and Tweeting all manner of outrage lobbed at certain individuals partaking in the social experiment. This is why I don’t really get involved in the Tweetiverse. I do have an account, but I don’t use it. I think I have more followers than I have Tweets. This would have been fantastic if the Tweets had something valuable to say regarding the topic of asylum seekers and refugees, but instead it just turned into a massive ‘state the obvious’ competition.

And furthermore, various right-wing newspapers bandying about the term ’emotional blackmail’ after the show had finished airing. That’s a special kind of arrogance right there. Papers that go out of their way daily to have persuasive opinionated articles and give people like Andrew Bolt a paycheck decide it’s high time they hopped on their mechanical bull of moral superiority and ride it until they’re flung off into a crowd of sympathetic, xenophobic, mass media consuming readers. Here’s an idea, compile a collection of newspaper covers from this year and then you tell me who’s manufacturing consent – a show that wants to raise awareness of an issue and open up debate and discussion, or a paper that slaps an image of a dead guy on its cover proclaiming ‘GOT HIM’.

Side note – I think that’s about as political as I’ve been so far on this blog. Considering occasionally writing political rants, but the only problem is you have to write them at the time of the actual event so that your opinion is ‘current’. It seems more and more that reasoned and informed equals less relevant.

Anyhow, I won’t go into further details regarding Go Back to Where You Came From. Check it out and make up your own mind. I think the real shame is that most of the people that have watched it already are the ones who already agree with its message.

I spent approximately three hours today negotiating the finer details of my impending road trip up the east coast of Australia. It’s turned into quite the epic journey. For the purpose of future postings on this blog, I’ll leave out exactly what details were covered. But the three hour session did mark a momentous occasion, the loss of my virginity – my Skype virginity, that is. (Get your collective minds out of the gutter!)

I had it installed during my Europe trip in 2008 and had never really actively used it. I shouldn’t need to sing the praises of the program now because I’m almost certain that most people’s cats have Skyped before I did today.

‘Til next time!

4 Replies to “The Politics of Drinking and Boats”

  1. You liar! I’ve not seen you Skype and I’m a regular Skyper! Skyping all over the place! I call shenanigans, sir! Shenanigans!

    Also, I’ve managed four posts to your one and I have less time to do them thanks to a grumpy wife.

    What’s your excuse? 😛

    1. I’ll Skype all over your face next time you’re online.

      Yes, but your grumpy wife goes to bed earlier than you, leaving you time to self-flagellate and post blog entries (I’m not sure of which order). Nice work on your blog thus far, I shall set aside some time today to catch up on it and comment.

      My excuse, sir, is that even when I’ve managed to have spare time, I’ve managed to fill it up with things like season 1 of Boardwalk Empire, The Tree of Life (New contender for the most Paul movie of all-time) and various other shenanigans like learning how to make gnocchi! I daresay there will be another update later tonight!

      Now get back to enjoying your grumpy wife and awesome holiday!

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