Are You Sure?

Ever heard the song "Are You Sure?" by Willie Nelson? It goes a little something like this:

Oh, look around you

Look down the bar from you

The lonely faces that you see

Are you sure that this is where you want to be?

These are your friends

But are they real friends

Do they love you the same as me

Are you sure that this is where you want to be?

It just about sums up where I was at a few days ago. At the Tav the previous Friday afternoon I just wasn't feeling happy. Even at Cindy's party I just wasn't there. I was going through the motions, not really enjoying life, and not sure as to which direction I was headed. Was Environmental Biology really for me?... I was stupid to question it!

On Tuesday night the students of Vertebrate Animals 202 (me included) went out to Harry Waring Marsupial Reserve, just south of Perth, to study some of the native wildlife. It was ten and a half hours of searching for reptiles, catching birds, and trapping, tagging and releasing marsupials. For me, it was ten and a half hours of pure enjoyment. 

It was probably about 12am and five degrees when it happened. I was walking though thick bushland with my close mate Kenny, having just captured, tagged and released a female bandicoot carrying two tiny pink babies in it's pouch.  I had been out in the wilderness for nine and a half hours, yet I didn't feel tired, nor cold. I felt so at home, so comfortable doing what I was doing. It was at that moment when I realised that this was what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life. This was exactly where I wanted to be.

It's a feisty possum!

And a Bandicoot!

Me with "Edward" the Bobtail (Named after the Vampire).

They spend about 20 minutes just trying to uncurl this stubborn Echidna!

The Ashes

I wait nervously. Today begins the five most important days of this year. If we can win, if we can take home that little earn like we so deserve, that we all so desire, then life will be so, so sweet...

 But if we fail, heartbreak awaits, devastation is too feeble a word to describe how I will be feeling come the days after. Alas, I will eventually get over it. But memories of 2005 still haunt me as I walk down dark halls, my heart is still heavy as I dream of dispair and depletion, tears still well up in my eyes as I recall Andrew Flintoff consoling Brett Lee at Edgbaston, I still close my eyes when I see Michael Vaughan hold up that little urn at The Oval, as red and white showers of confetti rain down upon the Old Enemy's celebration. I still wish that those 25 days could be written out of history...

If we let the Ashes slip from our grasp once more, then memories of 2009 will eventually do the same. Winning the Ashes is everything.

Lost Wallets, Pretty Bus Drivers and Cloning?

About 5 years ago, I wrote a feature article for english about cloning. I thought it was fascinating, creating exact same copies of a living thing without needing both a mother and father being sexually involved. Little did I know, that 5 years later I would actually be cloning for myself. 

Ok, so I wasn't exactly extracting an egg from a female sheep, and taking DNA from a second sheep and putting that DNA into the gamete of the first sheep, then putting the now fertile egg back into the female sheep and hey presto! A clone is created. I was however, cloning plasmid DNA using E. coli cultures!

Well, at least I think I was... unfortunately, you can't actually see Cloning happening in a test tube...

Today's cloning coincidence was not the only queer thing to happen to me today. First of all, I had left my wallet at my father's house, so with no concession card, I had to pay full fare for the bus. Four bloody dollars fifty, just to get to uni. 

Secondly, the bus driver that took me from the train station to uni was, to my utter surprise, extremely pretty. In fact, she was absolutely gorgeous. She was young, and blonde, and it made me sad... a pretty girl like her driving busses around all day. Oh well, if that's makes her happy, then I'm happy too!

Unfortunately after uni I had to go all the way out to the 'burbs, or as we sometimes say, "whoop whoop", to pick up my wallet from my dad's. As if that wasn't bad enough, on the way back from Bibra Lake, I just happened to get on the "school special". This was the bus that went to Winthrop Baptist College to take the school children home. As usual, the bloody teenagers were rowdy and annoying, and the girl that sat next to me conveniently used me as a chair. 

What are you gunna do?

The selfishness of sportsmen and women.

Today, Luke Pomerbach (West Australian and Australian Cricketer) has been charged by Police for drink driving and being involved in a hit and run incident in City Beach last night. He has subsequently been dumped by the Western Australian Cricket Association for his actions. 

There are plenty of young boys and girls out there, including myself, who would give almost anything to play cricket for Australia. And so the selfishness of the likes of Pomersbach, an elite sportsman, to go out and do something like that completely and utterly infuriates me.

In my opinion, Luke Pomersbach is one of the luckiest 15-20 people in WA, as he gets to represent his state at the top level playing cricket. I, just like hundreds of other boys and girls around the state, would absolutely love to be in his place, and be able to play even just one game for Western Australia. Pomersbach obviously doesn't get the fact that he is a role model to many young children, and so why he would be so utterly stupid to continually go out and wreck his career really alludes me.

One word screams at me when thinking about the previously discussed: selfish. Why play for WA if you are not going to take playing cricket seriously? And why put yourself in a position, if you are not going to take your sport seriously, to prevent other young players from coming into the side who actually want to, and would give up the world to be in your place ? Selfish. 

Pomersbach is not the only sportsman or women to be selfish about their position though. Andrew Symonds, Australian Cricketer springs to mind. He continually broke the team rules and hence was axed for drinking, not once, not twice, but three times. Selfish. 

Another one is Adam Gilchrist. No, the old WA favourite, Gilly did not stupidly break the simple team rules or involve himself in anything like that. But, as I read in his autobiography True Colours, Gilchrist, on multiple occasions throughout his career, cried himself to sleep because, when the game got tough, he hated playing cricket for Australia. Sorry, Gilly, but no sympathy here from me mate. If you are going to stop enjoying cricket and let the game get to you like that, then move over and let someone who would really appreciate it have a go. 

There are, and have been, too many law breaking, drug taking or just down right selfish sports men or women throughout history to name. It's too late for most them anyway. But to all future sporting stars, playing any sport at the top level, this is my message to you: No matter what happens, no matter how tough life gets or how much pressure there is on you to perform, no matter how much you get paid or how far away from home you must be, please make sure you enjoy every single minute you of it, because remember, there are millions, if not billions of people on this planet who would give anything, anything, to be in your position. 

Happy 100th Lost!

Here's a nice passage to help celebrate, if not somewhat belated, the 100th episode of Lost, the most influential show in recent television history.

"There aren't many TV shows that manage to hit - and pass - the 100-episode mark, but then again, there aren't any TV shows like Lost. Beyond the story, the characters, and the various time-slots it occupies all over the world, Lost has fast become a word that once said, invokes lively, enthusiastic, and territorial debate, but most of all - it simply gets a reaction. It doesn't matter whether you're a passionate fan, a casual viewer or just someone who never really got into the show - you're bound to have an opinion. And that's one of the greatest things about Lost - it's power to strike some kind of chord with everyone" - Official Lost Magazine