Horses and Courses

Historically, weekends are supposed to be times of rest (unless you're the founding director of Jewish Services Limited and you're busy pressing traffic light buttons on the Sabbath) but the last weekend I had was far busier than I planned - the Metro Screen Documentary Making (Intensive) course I found myself on was rather interesting.  The more I think about the "prize" awarded to the second place winners of Stinkwater 24! 2008 the less I feel they should be lauded for their dodgy marketing ploy.  A prize should be a prize and not a debt in disguise.  How can an institution "give" away a voucher for the use of their services when the majority of those services are far less than the value of the prize given?  Yes, $200 is $200 but when that prize can only be redeemed by spending an extra $200 it seems to me that there's something fishy going on.  And don't even get me started on Fitness First's slimy marketing schemes (if you are the winner of a draw in which 10,000 people entered do you really think you should be paying for anything when redeeming that prize?  A more substantive rant will be sure to follow on that ethically bankrupt organisation (which I would presume can be extended to the entire fitness industry - but hey, if you feel the need to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in order to get off your fat arse and do some exercise, please, go ahead).  In any event, the course had its good points - teacher was a bit of a wanker but no more than any of the other tutors I've had over the years - and we did get a pretty intensive crash course in the use of equipment and some pointers on interview techniques (very useful considering that all of my interviews were done nigh on two years ago).  Was a little uneasy at the fact that the treatment we studied, "Speed City", seemed to be very similar in scope and nature to "Shooting The Messenger" or "Bikeanomics' (name still undecided) - still, interesting enough.  And eight years is plenty of time in between documentaries on the same subject (got to get it out before that SBS guy finishes his ... doubtful, but labours of love often are).  A bunch of movies, a rugby game and a few sessions of other activities broke it all out.  Also, it's nice when your boss isn't in.