Armaggedon's coming!

Owwww… what did I do to deserve this?

I’ve been tagged by altoholicmom in the latest next big thing to hit the WoW Blogsphere, the Meme, in this case started by The Game Dame.

Where were you when…
(I haven’t actually read anyone’s Meme’s yet.. book marked them for when I have time… ohh well, here we go)

OK, at this point, I need to point out that I have lost a few years of memory… I will very badly paraphrase Cheech, or was it Chong.  He was asked something like, “What did you think of the 80′s?”

His response was something along the lines of… (I did look for it, but I am strapped for time… and I could spend weeks looking through Cheech & Chong quotes)

The 80′s….
Last thing I remember was collapsing on the floor new years eve 1980.
The next thing I remember is waking up in the 90′s

Anyway, here we go.

September 11 Attacks
Breakfast, about 7am Melbourne time.

Yep, another day of work ahead.

Another breakfast the same as every other one

Made up a pot of coffee, burnt some toast. (3 pieces of wholemeal toast, with butter & honey. 2-3 cups of strong white coffee – My wife hates it)

I did one unusual thing, I turned on the TV.

Jaw drops… slowly lower into sitting position (luckily there was a chair under me), somehow manage not to drop either coffee or toast.

I sort of fall into this daze, where the same images repeat over and over again in front of me.  At some point

I realized that it wasn’t in my mind, rather the TV stations (all 4 of the commercial ones from memory – I don’t know what happened to kid’s TV that day) were playing the footage over and over again, just adding inane voice overs.

Off to work.. needless to say there was only one topic of conversation.

Return home, turn TV on, I sort of fall into this daze, where the same images repeat over and over again in front of me.  At some point I realised that it wasn’t in my mind, rather the TV stations were playing the footage over and over again, just adding inane voice overs.

I was angry about the event, as much for the needless destruction of life, as for the actions that followed.  While I am as white as a red headed Irish Catholic descendant can be, I had (have) a lot of friends of a variety of races, religions, gender orientation (blah blah blah), in fact I married someone of a different color, religion and nationality.  I don’t like any group being tarred with a broad brush.  Sure I call Yanks Septics, but I know that individuals can be beautiful; sure I call Kiwis sheep lovers, but I know some can hold affection for other mammals; and the same thing can be said for any race religion etc.  As there are extremist Muslims, there are peaceful Muslims.  As there are extremist Christians, there are peaceful Christians.  The list goes on.

Now all that said, it is easy to be objective when you are a long way from the action.  Of course the action was brought closer to home 1 year later in Indonesia when the 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002.

Nuff said.

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster January 28, 1986:

I remember it, but then it wasn’t something that really impacted me.  I probably saw it on TV while flicking stations.  I probably said “Ohh Shit”.  I probably went back to whatever I was doing.  But then the whole putting Man in space thing for me was always “ho hum”, been there done that.  It wasn’t until the movie The Dish came out that I really spent any time thinking about Space.

Hurricane Katrina August 29, 2005
OK, this one did effect me more than others.  I have been to new Orleans, and I loved it.  It was my favorite place in U.S.A. One of the things I loved about it was that it reminded me a lot of Melbourne, although the girls don’t hang of balconies here calling for beads….

So this made me sadder than many world events normally do, there was that personal touch.

Where was I at the time…? Probably passing by the TV on my way to make toast & coffee…

Australian Equivalent: Cyclone Tracy.  I went to Darwin a couple of years later, and it was still devastated.

Reagan Assassination Attempt March 30, 1981
Yeah I remember this one, I was only 14 at the time, but I remember this guy was a real cowboy, that had a monkey and many people saw him as a Monkey in cowboy clothes running one of the most powerful countries in the world.

Mmm at 14 I would have been heavily into Dungeons and Dragons and all sorts of other RPGs (or wargames as they we still classified at the time from memory).  So probably with a typical teenagers broody thought processes, I would have been wondering why John Hinckley, Jr missed the kill.

John F. Kennedy’s Assassination November 22, 1963.
A little bit before my time… not even a twinkle in anyone’s eye at that point.

But on a related story, less than a week after JFK went down, My Dad received a letter from him.

Yeah I know, sounds kind of strange, this otherwise unknown Aussie gets a letter from JFK.
You see, my Dad was the secretary of his WWII association. Dad was in the Air Warning Wireless unit (which officially didn’t exist until quite recently – and many of the ex-servicemen from his group have never met others of the same group.  Commando units, they grabbed the men as the became available and threw them behind enemy lines.. anyway, as usual, I digress)

I am sure most people know JFK’s wartime history, his boat got sunk etc… well it was a guy (or guys) from Dad’s unit that picked him up and got him back into the right hands.  So yeah.. Dad hears the news about JFK’s death, then receives a letter from him… spooky…

John Lennon’s Death December 8, 1980
Ohh that dorky guy with the funny glasses.  I remember hearing about it, I was sitting in front of the TV watching the nightly news after school, in those days when I had to sit 2 foot from the TV to see it (no reason for this, I think it is just a  kid thing).

I think at the time I was kinda happy.  John Lennon and his evil bunch of Pommy bastards had inflicted countless years of torture on me at Primary school during sing along time (I am still scarred from this, and have to change stations if a Beatles song comes on).

But then, his aura was so strong, that even this 13yo boy knew a little bit of the love in the world had just been extinguished.

Kurt Cobain’s Death April 5, 1994
Kurt who?
Naah joking.. I knew who he was, Courtney made him do it.

To be honest I was more into Australian “Thrash” than this new fangled Grunge (which was heavily influenced by the Australian “Trash” scene), bands like The Saints, Lime Spiders, Painters and Dockers.  So when he died, I went “yeah, whatever”.  Later I grew to appreciate his music more, but at that point it was… “that’s what happens to Musos…”

Where was I.. probably making toast & coffee…

Brandon Lee’s Death March 13, 1993
I can’t remember where I was, but I do recall stopping and feeling really sad.

Every time I watch The Crow, I think of his death, and continue to feel sad.

Australian Equivalent: Heath Ledger?

Man, now I feel sad.

I guess that means it’s time for me to move on, or more to the point pass this on.
The question is, who deserves it, I mean will do good things with it.

Catch Folks:

• Three Druid Noob – Surely with 3 of them someone remembers something.
• Krizzlybear – because I want to know where Wimzig was
• Blessing of Kings – because I am probably off the feed reader after yesterday afternoons screen shot.
• Jagerbombz – because it is bound to be a good read.
• Zupa – Cause I think he will just ignore me

Gnomer and Out!