Have you ever felt like bad things keep happening to you? You know, you pour the morning coffee and as you try to get your little splash of milk in it comes out in clumps of gross stuff rather than the expected merry stream of white happiness. And then you stub your toe on that stupid favorite chair of yours. And then Netflix has dropped Matlock just as you were about to finish season seven without even warning you.
I know, right, the worst things! Just the worst.
Well, tell that to Rodney Cocks. He’ll feel your pain. He’s also a big Matlock fan. Probably. I mean, who isn’t?
Cocks is an Australian man, and if his name didn’t already tell you this, he’s kind of a manly, badass type of fellow. You don’t mess with Rodney.
Mr. Cocks graduated with a law degree while serving part time in the infantry of the Australian army. He eventually became, according to Wikipedia, “an admitted lawyer in the state of South Wales”. In certain places, admitting you’re a lawyer will earn you a lot of sniping jokes about your colleagues in the bottom of the ocean, a sneer or two, and requests for free legal advice for suckers who’ve just had second thoughts about that $7000 vacuum cleaner they bought over the phone the other day. On 29% interest. With $92 on their bank account.
Rodney Cocks, naturally posing next to an exploded thing.
But I digress. Heavily. I’ll get to the milk in a minute.
Mr. Cocks is perhaps best known for having survived two massive terrorist bombings within a relatively short time. First, in Bali, Indonesia, where more than 200 people died in a massive explosion in 2002. Rodney was among the injured, but survived and helped other injured victims and performed trauma aid on the scene. Just ten months later he was at work in the UN headquarters in Baghdad when it exploded, killing fifteen. Once again, Cocks shrugged off the explosion jumped to the aid of others.
Now that’s bad luck. Although I suppose hanging out in Baghdad will increase the risk of explosions by some amount. Also, it’s hot there so milk will go bad really quickly.
Cocks was named among the eight finalists for the Australian of the Year Award in 2005, and unsuccessfully ran for office two years after that. He has since authored four books and works as an expert on international affairs, and as the man you can’t blow up.
wow, rodney is really cock-sure and confident.
Fine qualities in a man, I’m sure you’ll agree!
absolutely
Cocksure is one of my favorite adjectives ever, but I haven’t been using it much lately. Thanks for reminding me of this word!
my pleasure –
I played the “guess the author” game and thought this had to be either Arto or Kerbey, but I guessed Kerbey!
What is it about Australians and physical danger?
There’s a game show in here somewhere…but I’ll be damned if I can find it.
Australians love danger. Just look at wombats. Frightening.
That sounds like a really fun game! People let me know a bit too much about the posting schedule for me to play the game faithfully, but it seems like a lot of fun! I’d love to play that game someday!
Absent the foreknowledge, it would be easy to do with that embedded poll thing! But, generally it’s not that much of a challenge. I mean, if it’s food it’s probably Liz, plus she has her unique style (which I am tempted to call Elizabethan). Amb is . . . well, everyone gets that 1/4 of the way into the first sentence. Fannie and Mark definitely have their distinctive styles. The challenge is usually trying to guess if it’s you or Arto, but this is the first time I thought Arto was Kerbey, probably because they have a very similar sense of humor. That Kerbey. Just a wild card. Nothing we can do about it.
I guessed me, too! 😉 I prefer Hardman to the contrary.
Oh, honey, don’t we all.
Hahaha! I can just see the two of you having that conversation 🙂
I’d prefer someone to be a Yarn-man than a Hard-man. But both are awesome. And Hard Man was a Mega Man villain. Which ups his points. Even if he looked like a metal barrel http://static.squarespace.com/static/5227cd84e4b02515a5badc7f/52c0c762e4b0bfa850b2af2d/52c0c847e4b0816e9a8d759f/1388365896364/3-hard_front.jpg
Yarn man would be a fun Mega Man character!
Excellent steam of consciousness ponderings there, sir. Megaman for the win.
Not going to lie, unfortunate name aside this guy is pretty cool.
Absolutely. And what a name!
If he’s already dubbed with double testosterone names, he really should just go by Rod and make it a threesome. Or a tri-testosterone monikor. Whatever it’s called. Arto, how can we honestly be adults here and not overlook the obvious? A man you can’t blow? Up? Come on. It’s impossible to behave.
You just can’t blow (up) Cocks. It’s the way it is.
Can we talk about those fantastic two opening sentences? My morning coffee routine shall forevermore be associated with merry white streams of happiness, and I’m never going to make it to work on time again.
Haha, let’s! You know, punctuality is overrated anyway. Particularly at work. How do they expect you to be on time when there’s a pumpkin spice peppermint lactose free soy free milky stream of happiness beverage to be made!
File this under “Questions of the Ages, by Arto”
you have fruit in your avatar, Arto! Love it. Great (and completely insane) name, but even more fun just to read as you ramble. Sorry about the milk–definitely a bummer. And you probably needed it to make your pancakes.