Sexcapades (part 1)

Before you start worrying, this is not a comment on any of my recent personal activities. Though I will warn you, in all seriousness, that the content may offend some readers.

People seem to love talking about sex, and particularly their sexual experiences, on Public Transport (PT, as it's known in Melbourne). That is, the conversations occur on PT, not the actual...well,anyway. Well, that might be a huge generalisation, but on one particular day I had the dubious honour of hearing 2 conversations. One was on a train, the other a tram. Here's the vibe of the first conversation:
Bunch of guys (around 18 years old) sitting on train, just generally being loud, taking over the carriage and making people feel uncomfortable. Well, actually, I guess it's hard to tell because people make such an effort to not react or make eye-contact.

One guy was boasting about just how drunk a girl was who he had sex with. She couldn't even stand up, didn't even know that she didn't have her clothes on. Of course, he actually wanted to get with her friend, but he took the ugly, fat (she probably actually wasn't at all)one and apparently, she was a good shag. The other guys were agreeing and laughing.

My response involved many emotions; though, of course, I was busy making an effort not to react or make eye-contact. Why is that? Maybe we believe that they can smell fear. What I'm more worried about is that I'll tell them what I think of them.

Anyway, my first reaction was that he was making it up. This may or may not be true.
I was angry at the flippant way in which this guy was talking about his 'encounter'.
I was upset about the emotional damage that could have been done to that girl, and how unfair it was to talk about her in that way.
I was revolted by the fact that this guy was boasting in front of complete strangers.
I was disheartened by the fact that there are so many guys around who do not value and treat women respectfully and lovingly; and that there are so many women who let, and sometimes want, these things to happen.

The strange thing is, I can relate...

Administration rules!

Now I say this as someone who has never done full-time administrative work- but, administration rules! I love the sense of achievement. "What?!" I hear you say. Well, as someone who does a lot of work with people (which one might call qualitative) it is good to do some quantatative tasks.

For any of you out there who work lots with people, take my advice and do something you can measure definitively- just to keep you going. I just photocopied, stapled and folded 100 conference booklets. I have no regrets about anything I could have done better, or that I should have spent more time on it. I did it- end of story.

Maybe this difference between people work (that is, understanding how they work, interacting, encouraging, supporting, and lots more) and administration (mail-outs, typing, folding etc.)is the short-term vs long-term reward. My feeling is that we need both to keep going. But, ultimately, (which makes sense given that it is last) long-term reward is more important...