Last night was the National Drug & Alcohol Awards night, presented by the Australian National Council on Drugs.

As Chris was unable to attend and living large in Vic, we had some of the HSM crew in attendance to represent:

Adam (in his last week of HSM and one of the founding fathers of HSM)
Aisha (the lovely and lively social media maven for the evening)
Chris (the sharp shooting, low buying, high selling, wheel dealing hot rod)
and Me (juggling two live iPhones for the stream & juggling two puddings for dessert )

If you missed it – we’ve got a couple of recordings from the live stream online.

HERE

and

HERE

A massive congratulations to The Loft from Newcastle who took out the award for Services to Young People. They do fantastic work and we had some great chats with the guys at our table, looking forward to talking to them more in the future.

Simply being a finalist for this award is a credit to all the bloggers (and of course Chris) for all the time and interest that HSM has created. Having come from the ground up – a blog – staffed for a year by one man, with no budget, no support, and no idea where it would lead – to being nominated for a national award – in it’s second year – is amazing.

So thanks to everyone who’s supported it so far – and especially thanks to Chris for his ongoing amazingness.

Looking forward to pushing the envelope even further over the next few years!

- Benny

I watched a pretty boring movie last night…. Cold Souls – interesting concept… but a reeeeally slow movie.
It did however, touch on a really interesting story that i’d never heard before.

When Elephants are young, they are tied to a small but immovable stake, buried deep in the ground.
No matter how hard the young elephant tries – the can never break free…

After a while – they give up…
The stake will not move – it hurts my neck, etc etc – fair reasoning really.

But after a few moves – a new circus, a new town – the same elephant, now MUCH stronger and arguably more intelligent will never again struggle against the stake in the ground.

The stake is just a piece of wood, a tiny part of that elephant’s life, and ever since the elephant was old enough to go on the road the stake has been fixed only a few inches into the ground – nothing more than a reminder. Don’t move.

Now think about the reminders in your life. Anything stopping you from moving?

I think it’s about time you tested yourself again – you never know…

I thought I was done here… ?

I have my 6 months down and out – I had a blast. Learnt a lot about myself, the people around me and booze – and yet – the HSM road just continues to stretch out ahead of me. I know it’s something that’s going to be with me for a while – maybe forever.
It was a short-term change for a life-time benefit.

I know that I’m going to be involved with HSM for a long time – I’ve done it – I might do it again… who knows? I don’t think there’s a rule saying you’re only allowed one go?… Is there Chris?

Read the rest of this entry →

Benny’s Last HSM

I had prepared a nice long blog for this one…. but I thought A video might go down better
Heeelloooo Sunday Morning!

Password is – ‘hsm’

My last HSM Post from Ben Hamley on Vimeo.

Peace out! Benny

One of the biggest things I learnt while working the club scene.

Everyday is Saturday night.

^^^ Just quietly – that title is a link… you should click it… ^^^

There is always another reason to go out
There is always another crazy story just behind these doors

They’re right – it is awesome. There are some wicked parties. There are some great places to go.
But most people have stopped choosing that for themselves, and just going with the flow.

Group-think is a powerful thing.

A lot of what Jiv was talking about in Enjoy Everything – Need Nothing. got me thinking about that.

By extension, I wasn’t just thinking about the way I used to represent myself with what I drank, how much, how often, where, or with whom.

But alot of the time it came back to – who I told about it….

Which comes back to a point I made when I started my HSM.

It’s not about Alcohol. At all.

It’s about the experience, or should I say, it WAS about the experience.

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that over the course of my life – some of the funniest, most memorable things that have ever happened, have been while I was wasted. Obviously not all of them, and the reason I’m writing this is not to get all ‘high and mighty’ – this is just a reflection.

Those reference experiences, when passed on, define the kind of life I’ve been living. That’s the key. Where the value of the experience really lies.

It makes sense why things like MySpace and Facebook became so popular in the first place, a REAL TIME, Newsfeed, narrative, of everything everyone you know has ever done that was ‘worth telling someone about’. It’s like a central reference bank for social capital.

That single moment of fucking awesome hilarious inspiring goosebumpy hair-raising action that happened that time last Saturday when X happened.

X always happens.

Excuse me while I get tangential for a moment…

Our identity is constructed over a passage of time, like a story.
It’s never set, although there are some times when it goes through stages of stabilisation and others when its practically doing backflips.

Has someone ever told you what ‘the moral of the story’ was? I relate to my friends in a really similar way.

Mostly beginning towards the end of high school – some of the biggest life changes in our life occur – we graduate from a system of school that has been the majority of our lives for the previous 12 years, many more formalities are required of us, we reach a certain level of physiological maturity. AND the demands of establishing ourselves as an individual become much more salient. At least that’s the way we feel in the majority.

Naturally – the demands on our cognitive ‘think’ mind get somewhat overloaded. There’s alot to take in.

So we socialise. We start to re-define who we are, what we stand for, where we’re going – and why.

We develop our attitudes based on our experiences, the ‘normal’ within our circle of friends, and we set about creating some meaning for ourselves – by ourselves – with a little bit of bouncing off others, but in the most – by ourselves. Even the most weakwilled, social stunted folk, do this themselves.

We integrate this meaning in our lives by the casual coherence of injecting our stories into the experiences of others, to explain our actions, to rationalise our beliefs, to define ourselves.

The problem is – just think about it – when does all this socialising happen?

Alcohol has become so much apart of the life that has defined us – that we find it impossible to construct a set of worthy, life defining experiences – that don’t involve it.

Even if you’re not drunk – the process of identifying through ‘having a drink’ is still there. Which is not fundamentally a bad thing.

The problem is – when you haven’t quite established who you think you are, you continue to go back to this social process of proving it (mostly to yourself). The problems emerge when that is all you ever do. Drink to be.

Not drinking doesn’t mean you’re suddenly a fundamental religious youth group leader, it doesn’t mean you’ve got no reason to go out in the first place. It just gives you more options.

My point is.

Stop trying to satisfy the memory of your life.  Start living it.

Be happy in your life, not about your life

If I told you that everything you ever did with your friends from this point on, would involve you never being able to take a camera with you, and at the end of it all – you would instantly forget everything you did.

Would you still do the same shit?

So my HSM continues – finding new, fun, awesome shit to do.

Stuff that literally makes me so excited that my I can feel my heartbeat in my ears.

Wake boarding has been one so far. I failed at that miserably. But it was an awesome day.

Next on the agenda is to Skydive into a remote community with a selection of gormet Ice Creams – and then have a water fight.
It’s gonna take some planning…

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in. Hit me up. We’re making a documentary about it – and the more the merrier

I’m doing some thinking and I really want to know what you (everybody for that matter) think about this….

What makes growing up in Australia so unique?

What makes us Australian?

I just want one sentence… Just one…

I think freedom… opportunity… maybe that inherent “Australian-ness” just comes from the feeling that you’re among people who are indifferently understanding… neither here nor there… relaxed to the point of almost being vague…. but with a unique flare for opportunity that gives birth to some of the greatest and most successful ideas/people/businesses in the world.

I don’t know – and man, my heart goes out to the creative team that end up doing the re-brand

So… what do you think?

In one sentence…. three words even….

I’ve always been told I’m a bit slow…

I tend to get lost when I’m driving – disappearing into black-holes that appear out of nowhere…

Turning up hours later with no viable reason for where or how long I’ve been gone….

I’ve never really worried about it…

I enjoy the speed of some things… my iPhone for example (it must be love) – everything in the palm of my hand.
Instant entertainment, social connectedness, news, photos, games, emails, occasional conversations…

That is until it disappeared out of my life – stolen away like the recollection of a dream 10minutes after you’ve been awake.

I spent the weekend mourning – and then I discovered what this week was…

Slow down week…

So maybe I believe in fate after all – maybe this was the universe giving me a timeout, so much has been going on the last couple of weeks I don’t think I’ve really stopped to take it all in.

So here goes – the breath out.

This week I’ve swapped my miracle of modern hyperconnectedness for my new super fantastic Samsung E1080T.

It has a colour-screen – BONUS!

Slow down week is this week… Pick something for yourself – and slow it down. You’ll probably really enjoy it.

I for one, am quite enjoying my kick-ass polyphonic ringtones!! If you have ANY reason to call me over the next week – please do so.

– SLOW DOWN WEEK –

https://www.adbusters.org/abtv/slow_down_week.html

Slow isn’t necessarily a pace, it’s a philosophy – a way of approaching life. We can slow down simply by addressing the disconnect that makes life feel anxious, alienating and fast. Try simple things like shopping at a local farmers’ market rather than a big box store. Knowing the provenance and history of your food will change the way you experience eating. Instead of hopping in your car and heading to Starbucks, walk to an indie coffee shop. Chat with the owners, smile at a stranger and sip your latte from a mug rather than dashing off with a cardboard cup. Explore what your neighborhood has to offer and experience the simple, provincial pleasure of purchasing cheese from one store, bread from another. To slow down, we don’t have to stop moving – we just have to move in different, more meaningful ways.

“if we really look for those things we want in our life, that’s exactly what we will find.”
Lee J. Colan & David Cottrell

So it’s 1238 (well it was when I decided to start writing this anyway)

I’ve gotta be honest – I’m not used to having nothing to right now.
I’m sure its 4 years of history just niggling on the inside – telling me it’s time to get ready for the best part of the night.

I’m perfectly comfortable where I am right now. I’m lying in bed – reading, listening to a beautiful certain someone discuss matters of nothing even remotely comprehensible with mysterious invisible dream people, and thinking – about a lot of stuff. Which is probably why I’m not asleep just yet – so I’ve gotta put it down somewhere. Here looks good.

One idea that I’ve been toying with for the last few days/weeks/months is happiness.

I’ve always considered myself to be a pretty happy person – and I think that’s why I am.

I know for a fact I come across almost absent minded and childish at times – but I’d much rather stay that way then start getting heart failure over dirty dishes.

My point is – my attention is on getting the most out of my moments. I don’t usually stop and ask everyone what they think is most appropriate for me to do at this point – and I sure as hell don’t care for being told what to do.

What i’ve come to learn is something similar to the age old adage (happiness is a journey not a destination)

Happiness is focus. Happiness is knowing what matters to you – and chasing it. relentlessly – like a dog chasing a torch light around a room (kinda).

Over the last few months, I keep running into unhappy people – and not the ‘I’m in a glass cage of emotion’ type.
Just people, normal people, that once you get a little closer to, have little cracks – or bumps – in who they are, and although it doesn’t look like much on the surface, they’re always the type that you walk away from wondering “what they were actually thinking about”.

One that really stuck on me was a friend who, for no lack of their own intelligence or self-confidence, was preoccupied with avoiding something potentially negative from happening in the future – not just one thing. LOTS of things. Almost as though they had contracted some sort of butterfly effect virus. Unfortunately for her, bad stuff kept happening. Which seemed to provide proof for her behaviour.

The hard thing about happiness is – its different for everyone, and so there is ABSOFUCKINGLUTELYNOTHING out there that can prove it

So I’ve been doing a bit of reading tonight… trying to put the matter to bed for myself more than for any other reason

I want to start something – a branch on the HSM tree – a happiness manifesto.

I said I was going to find some cool shit every week to share – and that’s still true.
But I also want to find out what makes you happy because I think they fit.
Also I don’t think people pay enough attention to it – which is strange because I don’t know anyone that’s ever told me they don’t enjoy being happy.

I want to do this for one reason - I don’t have time in my life for people who don’t believe - it’s my opinion that most unhappy people got that way because they stopped believing in something.

There are only two things that really get under my skin – arrogance, and whingers.
People that are too pre-occupied with blaming something they have no control over, or trying to enforce their own control over something they should never have – usually fit both those moulds

I believe in change, I believe in universal happiness, and I believe that everyone can achieve it. So I’m going to go and try to find it. watch me.

Happiness is the first step and the last one, it can be the reason for the change and the goal, the motivation and the stepping stone.

“Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention.”

Greg Anderson

So it’s really been a while this time…

2010

The new year started alot like many others – however a slight bit less intoxicated for me, never the less, full of expectations, good times and bold resolutions.

Alot has changed in this first month – alot more than I expected.

I’ve now left Katarzyna, after 4 years of being a lighting guy for the assorted Bickle venues – I literally walked out.
That’s the line in the sand. It’s over – and I’m not particularly upset about it either. It was like a relationship of mine that crashed and burned just before the new year, and I think what I learnt from that was – if you can see the end - it exists.

So why bother putting it off?

It is a little strange, leaving what was once a huge part of the identity and the professional career I thought I was building.
It was a gradual process though, I slowly fell out of love with my job… and although I’m still passionately interested in that area, it’s interesting to see how it’s fitting into a bigger picture.
It’s got nothing at all to do with the job I’m doing now, but the direction I’m going in has some opportunities that I’m really excited about.

I’m now full-time at QUT (Queensland University of Technology) in Brisbane, working on the project management end of putting together a new program for the Bachelors of Creative Industries degree – Entertainment Industries.

It’s an incredible program and the first of its kind in Australia to offer training from Business, Creative Industries AND Law faculties in one package (TRI-FAC!!).

Before I turn this into a marketing exercise for QUT (email me on benjamin.hamley@qut.edu.au if you want more info)…. i’ll get back to my point.

What the hell am I doing here…

Hello Sunday Morning – for me anyway – was once about not drinking…

• Then it became about using that decision to go sober to shake my frame of mind into a new way of approaching challenges…
• Then it was about finding new challenges and starting to make some changes…
• Now that some of these changes are happening – I’m at another point where I constantly find myself reassessing what I’m doing – and if I’m getting what I signed up for (so to speak)

So I’ve got a new outlook – a new job – a new focus – a new love – and a new purpose – almost everything on the list of ‘things I need to feel fullfilled’ is ticked – first time in a LONG time.

So far this month – which I think we affectionately dubbed ‘HELLO SUNDAY MORNING MONTH’ I’ve:

• Jumped off a waterfall – which might sound lame to some – but in practise – AWESOME
• Learnt to surf
• Gone on a bushwalk with some good friends, and met some new ones in the process – something I’ve NEVER done before
• Taken a giant Havaiana out to practise my newfound surfing skills at Mooloolaba (with 1019 other people)

Alot of awesome stuff – that I’ve previously never had to drive to just get out and do – has just – almost without even trying – been done.
And I owe this to HSM and the amazing people that I’ve been working on it with.

So what’s left of my Hello Sunday Morning (up until the start of May this year) is going to be a little different…

If you haven’t already – read Chriso’s post on EXCELLENCE
It’s definitely something I’m aspiring to – and by doing so – I’ve started looking for it, which seems to be in my experience, a big barrier to most people achieving what it is they say their dreams are… they forget to start looking for them… dreams don’t just happen (unless your asleep). It took me a while to realise that.

So my HSM blog – is going to be less about my introspective hyperanalysis of contextually applied theories in maladapted constructs of alcohol consumption in the 18-25 demographic.

And more about – finding – doing – talking about – or just falling into – cool shit – really cool shit – shit that will make a difference in your life – or at least make you think about it differently.
If I could be so lucky – will inspire you to help it make a difference in someone else’s too.

So stay tuned for cool shit – every week – I need to say that – because I intend to make this a regular thing – and I need to feel like I’ve set it as a responsibility – no more ‘what I don’t say won’t hurt”

Some of the stuff I say hurts – sometimes it doesn’t fit. But I think that’s the point – for me anyway.

Start today – find something that matters to you – and tell us about it!!

X Benny