So the glass is half full... half empty, what?

An old and wily journalist whose cynicism I appreciate and advise I trust told me yesterday that ignorance, confusion and trying to cover something you don't understand is the perpetual, and inevitable, state of the career journalist.

Bugger that.

The worse bit is I'm starting to think he might be right. No, actually the worst worst bit is that I'm afraid this theory might extend beyond the journalism world and to the world generally. Meaning that I think what this guy was really trying to tell me is that most people spend their lives bobbing along with their legs frantically cycling under the surface, trying to stay afloat.

Depending on your viewpoint and personality this is either incredibly uplifting (hey, we're all in together, right?) or incredibly depressing (it's not getting any better, dude). I think I fall somewhere in between. For instance, I just had a complete panic attack because I realised I have two final demand parking tickets to pay, a stack of very overdue DVDs to return and I think I may have missed my wisdom teeth appointment, which took me 3 months to get, and anyway I'm also starting to suspect HBF might have fucked my insurance, which would mean I have to wait another entire year for anything to happen.

Now it would comfort me to know other people do this sort of thing, just fuck about not paying bills until someone actually tries to break your knees with a crowbar, and to some extent I assume they probably do. But at the same time I would like to think I could grow out of this slapdash approach to personal finance and Pull My Shit Together at some point in the future. That, it appears, is unlikely.

So what to do? What to do?

Well for a start why not bugger the doom and gloom because one of life's other universal truths is that everyone likes a bit of undignified shitfighting on air. It is not enough for us to succeed, others must fail, if you see what I mean as a paraphrase Gore Vidal. So watch this video of a FOX reporter and anchor sniping at each other and feel yourself become one with the universe. (It's about 1:20 into the video). Eh, it's kind of as good a solution as anything else.