Human Camels.

My Octogenarian American friend has again given me another insight into the connection between Humans and the animal kingdom. Again I enclose it, but this time with a comment at the end: Walter.

“Well, you sure do know how to make me do research. I just went through a bunch of stuff on the web and the most interesting thing I found, I think, was that in prehistoric times, camels were on every continent in the world EXCEPT Australia. They were imported to you between 1860 and 1907. And by the 1920's motorized vehicles took their place for transportation, so they were released. That's why you have so many wild ones. Then I read on to find out more. As usual, with my interest in people, I began to liken the camel to people.

1. They work hard unless they take a notion to balk and ignore the commands

2. Their hump is a lump of fat (I have those below my waist)

3. They need people

4. After a baby is born, it likes to be with the mother for a period of time

5. They have calluses

6. They have curly eyelashes (I failed on this one, mine are straight)

7. They have trouble when the sun is too bright, they squint their eyes

8. They groan when they get up off the ground on to their feet (I understand this one)

9. They kick

10. They hear well, but pay no attention sometimes

11. They spit

12. They have a big mouth

13. When food is scarce, they eat anything

14. Strong legs

Well, that's my research. Camels are interesting. I would love to ride one sometime. My friend rode one in Egypt, but I'll never get that far I don't think. I agree about making judgments of people who have different opinions, etc. Reminds me of the story about the blind men who discussed their opinion of the elephant they touched.”

I (Walter) have briefly ridden a Camel, for about 5 minutes, doubled up with my brother, in a ride in the Outback, sometime back in the 1960’s. Not the most comfortable ride I have ever had, but fun none the less. But like a lot of things, fun when it is done for fun, but not fun when you have to do it all the time I would imagine!

Back to the description of camels above, which, if any can you relate too? I kind of relate to Numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, and have been accused every now and then of number 12.

How do you rate yourself and are you happy with that realization? Or like me do you realize that there are still a few areas of your life you still need to work on? Over to you:

Jobs that pay the Bills

Age News paper had an article about bad jobs that paid the Bills. The article was called “When a dog of a job keeps the wolf from the door”. It then went on to list a few totally mind numbing jobs that various people all over the world do, just to pay the rent.

I won’t mention any here but the main pointy of all of them was that they were seen by the worker as pointless and mind numbing and totally unfulfilling, with the only positive being that ”But at least it pays the mortgage”

Is that how you feel about your job? Pointless, Mind-numbing and boring? Yet despite that, because it pays the bills you are reluctant to change jobs?

I can’t say that all of my job is pointless as a couple of hundred people would miss me each day if I didn’t turn up to sell them their paper and drinks etc. But there are other parts of the job that are boring if not quite mind numbing.

However it is no longer satisfying and currently all I am doing is “ Paying the Rent” while marking time.

Well that is the way I feel at the moment so today I gave my Boss one month’s notice, after which I intend to take a month’s holiday and get back into Christian Ministry. Well you now know how I feel about my job, how do you feel about yours?

Good Jobs That Pay the Bills

Despite the fact that a lot of people end up doing jobs they hate just to pay the bills, there are some good jobs out there. The thing is to find them. One way is to find what it is that you are good at and then work at it.

Australia’s most famous cook and now one of Australia’s Living National Treasures, Margaret Fulton who published her first cook book in 1968, and now at 82 recently said, “And now I have had 26 books. The marvelous thing is, I’ve had such a good life doing it. It’s lovely to find you’re good at doing something and to be paid for doing it - it’s a dream”.

She has obviously found something that she was good at, and turned it into something more than a job or a way simply to pay the bills. We may never be like her, nor perhaps as successful as her, but we should all try to find what we are good at and see if we can turn that into a way of life as well as a bill paying occupation.

For the past few years I have been happy to just have a bill-paying job, but now I am in the process of leaving that and going back to something that I am happy to do out of love for the job and not for the money.

Yes it will pay my bills, and yes it will bring me more pressure and stresses, but it is something that I want to do, rather than have to do.

How are you going? Is your job just a bill payer, or is it something you are good at and love? What is your dream job? And what are you doing to achieve it? Over to you: Walter

More On Camels.

I received a letter from America saying, “We see very few camels here. Once in a while out in the country, there will be one or two, but they belong to the people who live there and have bought them. They are not wild. We never see one just loose out in the field with no owner.” Obviously they just don’t have wild Camels over there, like we do here in Oz. A fact that I found interesting, as I know that in America’s early history, they too used Camels for transport and exploration in the desert areas and that they too were released into the wild when no longer needed. So at first you would think that they would have spread there too, but they didn’t. Why?

Different conditions that’s why! It is surprising to many, but if you overlay a scale model of the map of Australia over the map of America (without Alaska) and turn it sideways, you will be surprised to find that there is not that much difference in size really. Yet America has something near 300 million people and we have just a little over 20 million. (22 or 23, I think?)

Also although of similar size on paper, much of Australia is arid or semi arid (read desert) country. So if you take a larger desert area, you have a larger need for camels initially. I don’t know how many were let into the wild in America but I feel pretty safe in saying it was nothing near the 20,000 released here in the 1930’s. Also with the lack of people encroaching on their new domain, the Camels had very little competition from humans and with no meat eating predators larger than our Dingo (Wild dog) they had few problems or competition, hence unrestricted multiplication took place, till there is now over half a million running around the Top End of Australia. (Apparently, although I got this figure from this month’s Newspaper that info is 8 years old. According to June 20007 Reader’s Digest, the number is now one million and the camel population is doubling every 8 years!)

I don’t know how it appears to you, but the above illustration helps me to see how it seems that some people seem to handle things better than me although on the surface everything seems similar to what I am experiencing. It is not that they are per se’ better (or worse) than me! More that their circumstances are different although similar looking or sounding.

That is why we should always be careful of making judgements on how others seem to be handling things without close inspection of all the facts, from all angels. How see it you? Walter

Job That Could Lead Somewhere.

All this talk about Jobs paying the bills, reminds me of our last-born. Although she has her basic university degree in Psychology, she is a long way from the requirements she needs to work in her desired field and thus needs more courses & training. All of which cost money, which she/we no longer have. To help pay her bills and get some money for these extra courses, she was working as a Shop assistant and junior manager at basic wages for a long time. Recently she changed jobs and now has a better paying job more closely aligned to the field she wants to eventually work in. It is not the same field, but it is a foot in the door to perhaps leading to her desired field, and paying a lot better.

Instead of being the un-official manager of a $2 Variety Store, she now works at an outer Melbourne campus of one of Melbourne’s Universities. She is now, a research and teaching assistant for the Senior Lecturer of one of their Departments. Which one? I was afraid you would ask that!

I will tell you the Title, just as soon as I find where I have written it! Here it is: She now works for the head of the “Proposed Centre for Organisational Research and Psychology (CORP) in the School of Psychology, Psychiatry & Psychological Medicine”. (Try pronouncing or spelling all those words quickly!)

So you may now be wondering what we call her? Well we call her by her long-standing family title. She may have a new fancy handle, but she is still our last-born. Our Baby! So we will continue to call her by her Birth name, even though most others have long shortened that a bit.

What about you? Do you sometimes get confused when friends (or family) of long standing suddenly get new titles or jobs, and you wonder as to how you should now treat them?

At work and out in public, you probably will have to treat them with the respect and dignity their title and position requires, not to please them, but so as not to embarrass them in front of their work mates. This is what we will do, but at home, she will always be our Baby and treated accordingly. Now I will see if I can get my baby to shout her dear old Dad a cup of coffee. Bye: Walter

More on Moles.

One of the reasons I write my blogs is to share what challenges or encourages me, with others. The spin off from that, is the encouragement and further challenges I get in return from the replies (when there are some). Some of these replies end up in further blogs and so on. Such is today, when I share the response to my blog on Moles and molehills. Only this time I am going to include it with no added comment or sweetener. Can any one else add to these descriptions of moles? Walter

“Walter: Yes, we do have moles. Question...are they like people?

1. Moles have no external ears.

I know people who have external ears, but don't listen.

2. Moles have a snout that is constantly rooting around.

I know people who put their snout into other's business a lot.

3. Moles tunnel around just below the soil surface.

I know people who stay in the shallow mode a lot.

 4. Moles eat half their weight in food each day.

I know people who look like they do the same.”

Asterisk.

Recently I wrote briefly about Tintin, who was the sole creation of Herge. (Georges Remi) Today I would like to refer to that other famous Cartoon character Asterisk. Unlike Tintin who was the sole effort of Herge, Asterisk’s stories were written by one man and illustrated by another and then finally the English versions were translated by another Couple.

The writer had the story but needed the illustrator. He also needed the translators to get the right effect although his English wasn’t that bad.

Whereas Tintin was a sole creation and work of one, Asterisk was a team effort and relied on all four working together, even if they rarely did actually work together in practise.

What about you? Are you talented and/or lucky enough to be a Lone Ranger like Herge, or are you a Team player like the Asterisk Team?

If you are part of a team like the Asterisk mob, are you happy with your position, or are you jealous of the others? Are you happy with your lot and work as a team, or are you trying to pull the others down, so that you can be elevated?

When the storey writer of Asterisk died, his collaborator did write a new story and illustrated it himself, but it wasn’t the same; and although it sold, out of novelty value, it never achieved the success of any of the originals. Neither will you. You might have some initial success but it will only be fleeting and of novelty value. Better to share the glory with others, than not to have any at all through lack of adequate talent and /or support from those that have what you lack! What say you? Walter