Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.

A couple of likely lads hanging about causing trouble. Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. February 2012.

Another Thursday another (belated) Q and A stolen from Sunday Stealing. This week is apt, the The Not My Year Meme!

1. Are you in a job that you truly enjoy?
There are elements of my job that I find interesting, but on the whole, no, I am not in a job that I 'truly enjoy'.

2. If you could do any job in the world what would it be?
To be paid to simply follow my own oblique areas of interest would be nice. As fluctuating as they may be.

3. If you could be a character in a novel who would you be?
There are times that I feel like Capt. John Joseph Yossarian, but I'd much rather be First Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder.

4. When it comes to spending time with those you love, do you think it should be about quality or quantity?
A bit of both. Just being yourself is what you should be striving for.

5. Is there a job/career you wanted but realized you couldn’t possibly do for one reason or another?
I would have liked to excel in a sport: centre half back in an Essendon Premiership team or opening the bat for Tasmania (and Australia), but it really wasn't going to happen.

6. If you could live anywhere in the world or out of this world where would you live?
Somewhere nice, by the sea. Warm enough to have a dip, and close enough to have a superb Internet connection.

7. Where would you most like to visit and who with?
I would like to tour around eastern Europe with Jen and the boys. That would be fun.

8. Which skill would you like to learn?
Forbearance.

9. What made you laugh today?
Ezra's impression of Khrushchev during the 902nd Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly was very funny.

10. What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
Knocking off work and heading home.

11. What is your sign and do you believe in horoscopes etc?
Taurus. I don't put any stock in it. Cripes, it reckons that I am hard-headed and stubborn!

12. If you could change one thing about your life thus far, what would it be?
I would probably like to go back and be a little more assertive in my decision-making in the teenage years.

13. If there was one charity you could give a huge contribution to, which charity would it be and why?
The Village Enterprise Fund provide grants (as opposed to loans) directly to extremely poor individuals living in the developing world. It stands out for its clear targeting of extremely poor clients (and data collection to ensure that the targeting is working), addressing a key concern about cash grants.

14. Should smoking be legal?
It should be discouraged in every possible way. Legal? It's a bit hard to get that genie back into the bottle, unfortunately...

15. What are your views on the smoking ban in public places?
There should be more of it! If you want to continue sucking on a known carcinogen, good luck to you (although me might need to talk about the burden you're putting on our health system), but don't expect me to be happy about "your right" to pollute my or my children's air...

16. Why do you blog?
It gives one something to do with the time.

17. Do you have a favorite author?
I have many. George Orwell and Graham Greene stand out. I like many writers though, and try not to limit myself to a few.

18. Can you play any musical instruments?
I can play a few things very, very badly.

19. What would your ideal car be?
One that drove all by itself?

20. Describe yourself in one short sentence.
I fall down a lot.

21. What do you look for in a spouse/other half?
Feistiness.

22. Worst meal you’ve had?
There have been a few. I had a hamburger in the railway station in Venezia that had clearly been frozen and tossed in a microwave (bun and all). €4! I ended up tossing half of it in the bin. Thankfully the overnight sleeper to Wien had a couple of pears left in it…

23. What do you do to relax in the evening?
Surf.

The Internet, that is.

24. Do you get along with your siblings?
I don’t have a huge amount to do with my brother. Not through ill will or anything, it’s just that he lives up the other end of the state.

25. Do you have any regrets?
Of course. You can’t have lived at all if you don’t have regrets. I don’t lay awake at night with them though.

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...

But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.

Can you believe that it is time for Theme Thursday already? Today we are not talking chocolate , toddlers , mess or ignominy . No, today we're dealing with ANIMAL . Now I could have posted a picture of a possum, numbat, wombat, wallaby or any other furry killing machine that roams our fair isle, but I figure that I'd use a far more deadly creature as an example of an animal . Some people - I know them as fools - have chosen to embrace that highfalutin idea that human beans are for some ungodly reason superior to animals. Of course, what these imbeciles seem to forget is that were are simple animals ourselves ! Anyone with a baby, toddler, teenage boy or Queenslander in their household could tell you this. Look at Henry [above]. One chocolate frog in the back of the car on a sunny day and all of a sudden it's Elagabalus meets Bacchus for a quick shandy in the Serengeti and we're down on all fours carrying on like a cat in heat. Fair dinkum, anyone who chooses to ...

This will hurt me...

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