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Opinionated Ranter - The Adventures of Being Awesome...

 
I am but a man trying to live the dream. This is how I see the world...

Opinionated Ranter - March 2008

A Guide to Recognising Your Awesomeness

Like any true iconic, heroic and revered legend will tell you, there is a degree of humility and humbleness required of a great man in order to gain the respect of a populus. Arrogance is rarely tolerated but for a few who can actually back-up their diatribe tyrades through an astounding physical display of dominance in their arena. The fine line between confidence and egotism is certainly a bridge that should be walked, a necessary tool in the arsenal of "the awesome", but one should be wary not to stray too far from the river of whence thee came. Supreme acts of overconfidence and shitblokitism will not go unpunished, the bridge can be easily burned and retribution can be swift. If you remember these simple rules that have been passed down from one awesome bloke to another, you cannot go wrong...


1) People hate hearing how good you are. Always remember to talk yourself down, never blow your own trumpet. First, it is nigh on physically impossible unless you've mastered the art of yoga and secondly it looks really uncool. How do you get people to hear about your awesome awe-inspiring acts I hear you say? Well, this is a challenge that even the "made" awesome still have to overcome on a daily basis. This is the path you've chosen, your cross to bare, therefore you must never let your guard down. Awesomeness will always be expected of you amongst your peers and you will always need to be one step ahead. One cannot solely rely on the acts that preceed him, pushing the moral, ethical and social boundaries of decency is the life we choose. No one said being awesome was easy.
This leads me to the next point...

2) There is never a bad time for Awesome. Some social commentators still believe certain public and private arenas are what they like to call, sacred. It is a dying romantic view of the Jane Austen loving, polo playing elite who know which orifice they can insert their tea and scones. Take international cricket as a prime example. These same people who refer to the sport as 'a gentleman's game' have constantly overlooked the racial vilification and vile sledging that has existed since that phrase was coined. Pushing the boundaries and finding an edge over your opponent is what keeps the greatest at the top. So when an act of awesome is staged in a library for example, go one better, why not try a church, mosque, or during Parliamentary question time?


3) Never doubt your awesomeness. Would Luke Skywalker have ever defeated Darth Vader if he believed he wasn't so awesome like his father? What of Ralph Macchio's success in The Karate Kid, not to mention the sequel? If you are having a spate of questionable antics that just won't register on the awesome scale, keep on truckin. Everyone goes through a dry spell in more ways than one. Just remember that your one true awesome-inspiring act is just around the corner. In the mean time do not hang your head in shame and hide from the masses, in fact do the exact opposite. Show them that you have in fact failed and are happy to embrace your mortality. Even better still, try and convince them that your recent misappropriations are actually supreme acts of awesome, on a level way ahead of themselves and the likes of which no human has seen before. If this does not convince them, never forget that time heals all wounds.

Like the title suggests, this is but a guide to kick-start your awesomeness in the right direction. There are no right or wrongs, generally the wrongs are right, when it comes to leading a life of awesome. It is recommended that like anything posted on the internet, these 'directions' should be taken with maybe a bit more than a pinch of salt.
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There's a GYM on Every Corner...

So the conversations around watercoolers in faceless offices, in staid buildings, would have us believe that there is an impending epidemic upon us. Something so large that it challenges man's continued existence on earth. Not too large however, that it cannot be measured in stones, kilos or pounds, but still quite rotund all the same. The 'Obesity Epidemic' has hit Australian shores, leaving all fifty U.S. states in its wake, taking no prisoners and leaving an aftermath so devastating it makes Hurricane Katrina look like Little Red Riding Hood (confused about that analogy, yeah me too).

We are led to believe, or we all in fact lead its belief, that "fat" is an inherently lazy disorder bestowed upon the couch-potato. Its place here on earth is constantly questioned, for electric blankets, air-conditioners and the aptly named 'fat bats' have given its insulating qualities a redundant existence. The porty are ostracised everyday on our streets, with pound-predjudices increasing in number all the time. Shows such as the patronizing 'Biggest Loser' parade the big-boned around like Catholics in the Colosseum. Their fate awaits judgement from those at home, ironically sitting on their couches in their glass houses. One can always take comfort in the misfortunes of another, as we are lulled into a false sense of security from the grand treadmill-infested and pretentiously-pulleyed work-out places that we attend. Like the hedonist who goes to church every Sunday, only to continue leading a life of sin, his judgement awaits.

The GYM (Gentlemen Yearning Matriarch) acts as a beacon for the insecure. The house construct and nature of its setting, gives the "gym-junky" their fix of 'home.' The gym evokes a sense of nostalgia amongst users, evident in their obsession with the smell of a home-cooked meal (in this case body odor and urea), which keeps them coming back time and time again for Mum's cooking (a few more reps on the bench press). Transporting the junky to another time and place, the gym can fill a certain void that an individual may have. The power of this establishment comes from the people who frequent it, often quoted as saying that nothing is ever as good as your first lat-pulldown. Anything else is just an attempt to relive that first experience.

So as gyms are erected all over the country do we ever stop and think, is this just a virulently vain attempt by image consultancies to make money? A new marketing frontier for firms to conquer? Well I say, like several popular social movements before it, 'gymism' is just another fad, faze and expendable progression that is in vogue now, but like the 80s, it will give us more cringes than Darryl Somers.

Fat is the new black. For the fat can be lost, but an arsehole will always smell of shit!
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Closet Thespianism

When is it too early for one to engage in some theatrical pursuits? Admitting to your mates that you'll spend your Saturday night at a production of say, Macbeth, is a difficult and unsavoury task not to be taken lightly. Trying to skirt around the issue just won't do. Convincing the boys that you'd rather be immersed in some art and culture over lager and stout, is bound to make them laugh, and then shout.

The theatrical pursuit is not unlike the forbidden fruit. Men have always had a fascination with what goes on between "thespians" behind/between the curtains. Their acts are met with an enthusiastic and appreciative audience in many a social situation. However openly admitting to engaging in weekend-long stage benders is sometimes frowned upon.

Don't think for a second that your 'awesomeness' cannot be tainted by participating in the arts. It's a cruel world out there. Darwin's theory of natural selection can be applied to this argument. It doesn't take a ventriloquist to figure out that only the strongest artist, the best at their chosen craft, are the ones who stick around. The likes of Dylan, Brando, De Niro and Sting should be noted. But what of the others? The ones we never hear of, discarded in a manner resembling that of the Royal Family's treatment of their kin who display evident side-effects from centuries of inbredtivity. Sure a few slip through the cracks (Peter Andre, Dolf Lundgren and The Backstreet Boys), but their reign is brief and their art is short-lived. It is quickly forgotten, and their names become objects lost in obscurity.

Only the strong will survive, therefore the big-balled shall inherit the earth! So if there is an inner thespian lurking within, let it be known- release the stigma! Buck the trends and social fads that govern our daily lives. It is lateral thinking and ideas outside the box that win six-grand on the pokies on a Saturday night after a few long-necks and too many jager-bombs. So be yourself, that's what's really cool. "Friends, Romans, countrymen," is it but not just another way of being awesome?
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