I have noted over the life span that baby boys have almost a generic look to them, and when they become youths, they still do...and when they become men they begin to define their own features through experience, and then in old age they become somewhat generic looking again. The only hope for the real individual man, I think, is eventually, the damn hard, always unpaid, yet remarkably satisfying, work of eccentricity.

Poem: "Perfect". by John Fitzpatrick 26 November 2016 (written on the way to fire up the BBQ)

Poem: "Perfect". by John Fitzpatrick 26 November 2016 (written on the way to fire up the BBQ)

Time is short time is sweet
time is everyone you meet
in the world or in the earth
there's taking life or giving birth
and so you work out best you can
how best to do your perfect plan.

Sometimes the fame and glamour of mental health nursing wears a bit thin.

Home from work, 1130pm. Sitting at the 2nd hand iMac and with my second hand iPhone...both operating beautifully. They are so good second-hand, it makes me wonder why they ever bother to make them new. (Follow that Fitzpatrick-logic if you dare!). How was your day?

I Received a letter from Australia's outstanding Federal Border Force noting that they had received a package of 400 cigarettes from China addressed to our daughter and that we could get them simply by sending the government $240 in tobacco tax.

I Received a letter from Australia's outstanding Federal Border Force noting that they had received a package of 400 cigarettes from China addressed to our daughter and that we could get them simply by sending the government $240 in tobacco tax. Lovely. Thanks guys. Proud of you; I love your work.
With the move to expensive Melbourne a veritable Shining Path forward, I do need to make a decision on whether to have a home or smoke. A home would be preferable so I am going through the John Fitzpatrick process of 'Reduce/Replace' when it comes to both cigarettes... and Guinness, for that matter.
So, first is the replacing of the factory cigarettes with rolling ones...and delaying the hit, time-wise...and when it comes to the Guinness after work, it is simply a big bottle of Soda Water or Tonic Water, and then a Guinness. This seems to be pretty effective.
The inherent attraction in both factory cigarettes and indeed Guinness is the Remarkable Initial Axon-Dendrite Synapse Neurological Chemical Fizz and the Fitzpatrick Reduce/Replace Plan deals with that pretty effectively at this initial stage of The Shining Path forward.
(The Original Shining Path was a Marxist Guerrilla Group in PERU that evolved into "The FARC", as we know it today.)

On Plans for Melbourne:Yes, planning for Melbourne, quite cold there in winter I hear, and a big city...so I am thinking maybe just a black velvet onesie outfit should deal with that for work and transit and home. Probably no need to put on the full length Afghan Wolf Coat. I don't want to stand out or look odd in the crowd.

At 63 I think I can pretty well say that as a working class man, I have never been violent to a woman, a child, a pet; and even in the feisty hormone charged years, my one or two fights with other men were pretty fucking silly and no one was actually grievously hurt. We tried for awhile, but it is quite hard to do this effectively. There was indeed a moment when I could have smashed my rival's head onto a corner brick edge and do him great harm, but I didn't do that. Even enraged, I knew...why would I do that? Five minutes of man to man wrestling and punching was all I could do before I was exhausted and started to laugh. That's fucking hard work. And what were we fighting over? Some woman who was well away and safe. Ridiculous. So whilst agreeing that violence against women is obviously bad, violence against Anyone is equally obviously very bad. It always has been. It always will be. No one, especially a man, is going to radically evolve because of some notion. None ever has or can. The best you can be is non violent in all forms to all the forms of being...same as ever...and then you have good laws.