These are the days

The actions of our life are what we will leave behind. The impact on others and that little bit of us that we leave with those we meet. If we are lucky we get to share more with some people. But there are times that you must journey as one and make your own path.

Days go by, but I do not mourn those who have passed but for those who live and are not alive. Those who miss the opportunities of the world, the moments that pass them by.

remember those that have been part of your life and treasure those who have been close to you.

Fyi, this post has come about partly due to a film I watched today, a catch up I had with an old friend and the significance of the date.

Manly V Storm V the NRL

so i feel the need to vent my spleen again. i am still proud and passionate about the NRL and the Meloburne Storm but yet again it seems to me that they have recived the wrong end of the stick.

lets look at the facts of the case.

a bit of punch on in play, both players sent off - not a problem

the players decide to conitnue on whilst they were headed off the feild - not good for the game but fiar enough.

4 manly players run in from over 40 meteres away and SET UPON the single Melbourne player- not right

4 storm players come in and try to remove the other players from the situation - understandable.

the penalties - all of the storm players offerd level 1-2 charges. i question their being charged givne the fact that they did not actuly ENGAGE in the melay. but i accept the ruling of the NRL on this one.
the Manly players are facing charges ranging from grade 3-5. these are players who decended on mass to beat the living day lights out of an oponent and did so without hesitation. they were not there to help their team mate, if they were they woujld have tried to pull blair off instead of throwing a punch.

in the last two days the Storm and Adam Blair have made comment publicly & taking responisablity for their actions and thier part in the mele. today manly have announced they are considering an apeal and that they dont think they are responsible.

to the NRL........ i hope you stand your ground and you throw the book at manly.
to the Storm.... i am proud of you boys and you behaved honrably in my mind in this incident. i am not proud of the actions of Blair on the night but in the days since you and the club have behaved in a fashion that make me glad to support the club.

well thats me done. more coming soon but probably in a more positive light.

What to say......

i was given the most unusual request the other day. i was invited by the Assistant Region Commissioner - Cubs for Bays region to speak at the annual grey wolf recognition day. he invited me as it is traditional that they have an "inspirational" speaker. and he wanted me? sure i can talk, but most of it is nonsense. it was one of the toughest speeches i have ever had to write and also make. but i think i will share with you some of what i said. i tired to break it into nuggets to share on twitter but none of it broke down that nicely. i am going to chose to skip over the history and the nice "what i have done" and just get into the key message.

don't be afraid to ask for help
a lot of people think they should be able to do everything straight away. so many times i have been asked to do things that i didn't know i could or think i should do. and so often i took on things that were beyond my experiences. but i knew that every time i could ask for help and advice when i needed it. in scouting and in most things in life you are never left out on your own. the support is there if you decide to take it.

if you can dream it, you can probably do it
now this sounds very much like the cliche of if you can dream it you can do it. it has a small reality check attached to it. linking this idea to the support and knowledge base at your disposal it makes all kinds of things possible.

challenge your self
this was relay important. i spoke about the fact that the cubs had accept a challenge to push them selves and do their best. i encouraged them to not just do this when there was a tangible reward such as an award. the challenge should be seen as the opportunity and not to look for a larger reason to challenge them selves than they can.

be prepared to ignore the doubters
people around you will always tell you what you can and cannot do. now some times you need to listen to those people because they might control the finance, insurance or actually tell you not to do something because of safety and a genuine reason why not. BUT, some of those people will just be telling you that you cant because your too young, that your too inexperienced, the your too **INSERT WORD HERE**. those are the people to be ignored. believe in your own abilities and you will be amazed at what you can do.

have fun & make friends
i think this is the most important lesson that i passed on. i have friends all over Australia and more importantly all over the world. and these are people who i care greatly for. i keep in regular contact with them and we share our lives through keeping in touch and scouting. i have had some amazing experiences but i wouldn't keep coming back for more if it wasn't fun. so if you take one message from all this is that to go out there, make some friends and have fun.

well this was a greatly abridged and paraphrased version of my speech. it was recorded and i have no idea what it looks like. it was probably the hardest audience and i had lots of kids come and talk to me afterwards about what i said.
i hope you enjoyed this brief insight into my brain and some of what makes me tick

Richard "Gonzo" McCoy

My Future Tours

Hello All,

so i have begun to think about trips i want to make in the next few years. so i have decided to write them down. obvisouy this is all subject to employeers and funds and other nice things such as partners letting me. this covers major evnets and other activites. i hope my employers will let me do Time Off In Lieu so i can take some more time off when i want to do some of the larger trips. obvsiously for all the scouting events i now will be attending as staff.

so here we go

January 2011 - Oz Moot (DONE)
July 2011 - Queensland Theme parks (assuming they are still there and havent been blown away)
September/October 2011 - Victorian Cuboree
January 2012 - Wild Dayz - Tasmania
January 2013 - Australian Jamboree - Queensland
July/August 2013 - Candaian Jamboree (Alberta) & World Moot (Quebec)
January 2014 - WAM (Perth)
July/August 2015 - World Jamboree (Japan)

i am sure that plans might change between now and then. but the sad news is for those who were hoping that i would be coming to PJ2011, looks like the finances and stuff wont go that far. but i am planning another trip in a few years. i also want to do a trip to NZ at some stage.

there you go.

YiR & YiS

Richard "Gonzo" McCoy

you know the problem with you is..........

so i have hit my straps again. i am still being frustrated by the lack of work and my inablity to secure an interview. and i am still waiting to hear back form an interview two weeks ago. but that is merely minor issues.

good news is that i had my first date in almost 6 years the other day....... and it wasnt a disaster. but i have recently figured somthing out. because the lack of dates has not nessacarliy been by choice. its not for a lack of aksing girls out. its been for a lack of "yes".

now then...... first of all i accept the I like you too much as a friend response. i just have got tired of hearing it again and again and again and ......well you get the idea. but a line from a film comes to mind and i am going to go to the trusty IMDB for this quote

Gobber: Don't you... no, Hiccup! If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all... this.
[gestures to all of Hiccup]
Hiccup: But you just pointed to all of me! 

now for those of you who don't know the film "how to train your dragon" the reason for using the quote might seem a bit mysterous. well it turns out that being all of whom who are is not such a big deal and it just takes for people to get used to it. well the moral of the story also applies in my life. part of the reason (and this is form people i have asked) as to why they wouldnt date me, is that there is just TOO much of me. not too much ego, not too much gut, not too much personality just too much ME. because of the combination of the elements, i can only concluded that there is too much me.

so does that mean i am going to get rid of some of me? no it just means i need to wait and find some one who can handle and deal with all this me. in the mean time i am going to perserver and i might even go one some more dates and see if i can improve my hit rate.

so i am beging to feel better and i am getting more positve about my life. now its time for me to refocus, get back to doing what i do best and scaring the world with my ideas.

a blog posting with my intended future tours (yeps you read right) is coming soon. obvisouly plans change, but if i foward plan i might just be able to do all of it.

Peace out and dont do anything i wouldnt

Gonzo 

Soccer, the world farce

Good morning,

last night brought the announcemnet of the host of the 2022 world cup & the 2018 world cup. i will make a major comment here. the two nations that wond the cup, where the ones who there had been large speculation about if they had been manipulating votes. Qutar and Russia will host the soccer world cup. well here are some bomb shells for you.

the technical evaluation ranked Quatar LAST out of the candidates for the 2022 world cup. the weather is unsuitable for games to be played and there is no strong soccer population or even devloping soccer population in that country. they either pay people to go watch or they play in empty stadiums. wow how bad is that!

following the bomb shells arround the voting for the Atlanta and Salt lake city olympic bids, the IOC took a long hard look at its self and cleaned out and sorted their stuff out. the process is now more open and accoutnable. but then we have the FIFA example. the media is coming out with a new revelation every day that some one in FIFA has done somthing wrong and not above board. but they have not acted. to determin the olympics, every nation votes, which means great big block voting. but it means that a country can vote for their best intrests.
but the FIFA executive is made up of a select group of 22 who represent the world game. (for more information visit http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/bodies/exco.html) and the head of the Asian Federation is from...... Qutar! O M G, he had influental lobying power. and of the bidding nations, who was the only nation without some one on the comitte? Australia. Which region did FIFA remove the one vote from, due to corruption allegations, whilst not fully investigating all claims prior to the vote? Oceania, which was gaurnteed to support Australia.

so i say this. FIFA you need to clean out your house. open up the bidding process, acknoedge the corrupption and the things that happend in the lead up to this vote and realise that the key decsion needs to be made be the soccer nations of the world and not your select boys club. sure, it means that the process may need more infomration and things put togehter but having a group of just 22 decide who wins, means that you leave your self further open of corruption and interfernce from outside sources.

and at the setting of the sun, we will rember

ok so if you read this (if any one actuly reads what i wirte) i guess this will be a bit of a part II.

back in april i wrote of my experinces of anzac day in a foreign land. now i am back home, we had our second day for remberance, Remberance day.

well if you read my face book today it was bombarded with two peices of "poetry" from my hand.

Gonzo McCoy today at 11am i watched the clock tick over, i stood in a busy shopping center, as the last post played and watched people walk around, chat amongst them selves, and generally ignore what was happening. a few stood still, silent, quietly reflecting on what has been.

i ask... those who didn't stop and wait, have you forgotten?

 Gonzo McCoy as the world continues to turn, we pause, we reflect, we remember, not just today but every day, that there are those out there who continue to give and to serve. in peace time and in war time, we will remember them,

Lest We Forget

 

both of these postings elecited fairly strong responses from my friendship list. not so much heat on twitter, but they were still posted.

 remembrance day is the day where most of the Allies, who Australia has fought alongside, remember their fallen dead. why? well because today is the day when the First world war ended. i find it a bit sad that many people cannot find the time to turn out for the marches and services in the city and in the local communities around Anzac day or observe a simple minutes silence at 11:00 am. and i don't feel that "i was caught up in my computer" is an acceptable excuse. i actually deliberately did not go to the local service. i wanted to go and see how every day people responded to this day. i was in target at the time. some of the store hands continued on working, a few customers continued to chat on their phones, and a large number of people in the main shopping centre conitnued about their days. but the most beatiful thing is the people who just stoped. where they were, to reflect. they stood isolated as the world bustled by them. i wish i could have captured it in a photo but i am not that good a photographer, as others bustled past them, they just stood there, one man i saw almost moved to tears. cashiers were told off for trying to continue to work, and staff were told to stop and wait, just for a minute. well here is the sad bit. the majority of the people who i saw who chose not to stop and wait, were young people. there were a few who stoped and understood why they were standing still. but many continued on.

 both of my grandfathers served in WWII, my paternal grandmother was directly affected by WWI, and that gives me a personal cnnection. i spend each Anzac day giving my time to ensure that we will rember and that we will not forget.

i wonder thou.

as the number of vetrans slowly reduce, the number of people in the RSL continue to dwindle, i wonder if the day will come when only those left to rember will be those who are comitted to rembering. i will continue to be invovled and i hope to ensure that i, and if i am every lucky enough to have kids, they will also rember and i will continue to be invovled.

and here is the most controversial thing i will write here. i think alot of people (not nessacaily my friends but some of my peers) only truly appreciate anzac day becaue it is a public holiday.

 i will borrow some words here. the come from a friends mother, from face book

A veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to their country for an amount up to, and including, their life. That is beyond honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer remember that fact.

i will leave you here with some one elses words. they sum it up. its the ode, and i will memorise it one day. but please think abuot it. this is not a glorification of war. this is a call to my peers and those arround me to rember what was given so that we may have our liberties

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

untill next time

Richard "Gonzo" McCoy

  

Would FML be to harsh?

well this is going to make me sound like some bloody angsty teen. but here is the thing. the problems we have as teens some times dont go away and some times they properagte them selves in new and exciting fashions.

i guess this post is a venting of my spleen.

i have to say that i find a number of things about my life frustrating. for any of those playing at home, i have been single since March 2006, you do the math. just a few years. (it may actuly be since 2005, i dont care that much either way its a while)

well since then i have asked quite a few girls out, eihter my timing has sucked or i have miss timed it horribly.

well let me phrase some of it this way.

when the dust has settled, and it seems that your life has come crashing down arround you please rember that when its all said and done, that standing, isolated, solitary, watching, waiting, guiding & protecting, i will be there. standing strong, i will be that figure you will look for. i have remained there after all this time, and nothing can move me.

well i know that all seems a bit morbid and a bit self centered, please understand. i find me self at the core of many peoples lives, when their life falls apart, they come to me for support and help. well the problem is that this time, its me. i am watching yet annother friend go and find happyness and joy in simplicity and company. what does that mean for me in the immediate, more time by my self and more solitary. what does it mean for me in the longer term. well if it all works out it means i need to find annother person or people to fill the void left by the departuer of that figure. but in the more likley senario (sorry kids) is that when it does eventuly come to an end, quite often i am left as the person who people come to.

well to be honest i am a bit tired of being in a situation where i am the one who is always told "no, sorry, i am allready dating x" "no, sorry, i like you too much as a friend" "no, sorry, i am not intersted" & just plain and simple "no, sorry" and watching those arround me be smitten, falling for others and finding joy and happyness. i am truly happy for you and i hope you enjoy your time together, but i am allowed to be a bit tired of being on my fortress of solitude. the problem is that many have come to visit, some have even stayed for exteneded periods. but that always comes to an end.  

well thats enough angsty BS from me. i just needed to vent. i will probably actuly write somting meanigful in the next week or so and this will disapeer in to the ether. or it may just provided a insight into a person who people see as being unbreakable, the honest reality after a while even the mightyest rock will crumble.

i hope that i can find the right supports to stop it from happening to me..............

The truth is

I miss people
Saying goodbye to my friends in Aus was no stress, I knew when I would see them again. But my friends in B.C, I don’t know when I will see them in the future. And the question is how does one person have such a profound affect on so many, without doing that much.
It’s kind of made up with the “catch ups” & “reconnects” as I go along, but it’s the good byes and the fact that at least for now, I am alone on the road. I had my second broken moment as I sat on the bus and it drove out of Vancouver, just over a week ago now. I have been fine since, but I think it’s important that I articulate the feelings that I have. That I will miss many people, and it seems that many will miss me.
Life would be so much simpler as a hermit.

Keep Calm and carry on

These are the words I am greeted by every time I reach to pull out my journal to write about my experiences. These words come to me from a very nice journal which I bought for $10 and are in the form of a replica of a WWII poster from the UK. The words of war. Yet these words are just as relevant in times of peace. Every time I feel like I am going to go to pieces I just remember those words. Those five simple reassuring words that remind me that what I am doing here is not beyond me. For those who don’t read my other blog, I am trekking across the world for the next 4 months pretty much. I have jamborees and many other scouting activities that I will be participating in as I go along but those words remind me that what I am doing, whilst big and challenging is doable. They also remind me that I am more than capable of doing this trip and still maintaining my personal identity.
It the fact that I make friends and invest in my personal relationships that make things so challenging at times. I have two families. And now that I am leaving Vancouver and British Columbia, my friends who have been my family here, will no longer be here. So when things start to get tough I will speak to my family back in Aus. But until now I haven’t needed to because of the fact that I had my friends here.
Well I will continue to spend a number hours as I travel to write on musing and thoughts I have as I go. I really am not placing a limit on postings and the topic I write on. So the topics may be rather broad. Possibly about sport, about scouting, about life, religion and all kind of things. I will have a lot of thinking time and time I am able to write and as Douglas Adams said, don’t panic (and always have your towel) and I will remember a very simple message
 
Keep Calm & carry on