Technology

Technology has made our lives better in so many ways. For one, it keeps us entertained. Keeping people entertained is one hell of a good thing sometimes. Especially when you are somewhere like a restaurant and need to keep the kids entertained so they do not, as the phrase goes, "run a muck". Before I go on, can I just point out how weird "run a muck" sounds. I mean, it seems as though someone is actually managing a muck. I have no idea how that one came about but anyway, moving on. So yeah, in my life keeping people entertained so they do not get bored is a big plus and all these new technological advances in devices and applications makes life so much easier for us and for them.

Source: http://www.apple.com/au/support/ipodtouch/

Before any of these technologies came about people, especially children, would just get bored. Even if they bought a book they would still get bored. Let's face it, for children, books are only interesting for a little while and soon they just become boring and the child moves on. When the Nintendo DS came around this all changed. Suddenly the kids were bringing their portable game consoles and playing through games that would keep them entertained for the whole time. However, they soon became bored of playing alone so then came the multi-player. Not just any multi-player, wireless multi-player. Yeah, I went there. This would keep them entertained for even longer as all they would want to do is beat each other and just keep playing until they had 'won'. Soon though the DS was left uncharged and forgotten so when they came to play it there was nothing to play for it was flat. Even if they got passed this hurdle they began to get bored. Then Apple came out with the 'new' iPod Touch which kept people entertained for hours with the number of new applications coming out daily growing exponentially. Yeah, we just finished the exponential and logarithm chapter in Methods. Finally the kids remained entertained for a long time as once they got bored of a game, they would simply move onto the next one. If they ever ran out of new games to play they would just download a new one. Luckily these are still working today and it makes our lives heaps easier. Without them they would get bored and basically "run a muck". Technology, you have done wonders in our lives.

Technology helps in more ways than one, see you tomorrow!

Disposable Income

Hooray! Finally, another one of the posts with pictures typed on a Laptop. Of course this means more content as a phone takes longer to type so let's get on with the blog! You know those people who always seem to be going out and spending unnecessary amounts of money on unnecessary things? Think about that for a while because chances are you do. These are the people who do not bother trying to find the cheapest option and just go with the first thing they see. People like these also seem to be going out every second day and spending copious amounts of money doing unnecessary things or just simply going out too much as though they have a bottomless wallet or a money tree. That would be really good wouldn't it, a money tree? Instead of oxygen it would produce inflation and money would end up losing its worth but whatever. Back on topic, these people are also the ones constantly complaining they have no money or they just don't say anything at all. My Mum likes to call this "disposable income" as in money that people just spend instead of saving. If only we all had a little "disposable income" around the place.

Image Source: http://www.prisonbreakfreak.com/?p=3926

You see these people all around you whenever you go. These are the people who go to the cinemas and buy value-packs or a large popcorn per person. Sometimes these people have big families too and you wonder how they can still support themselves while still spending money on such wasteful things that will not last very long. Over the Holidays my Mother, Grandmother, Aunt and I went to Gold Class at Village Cinemas to see The Great Gatsby. We do not go to Gold Class very often so when we do it is like a special occasion, well it is. The thing was there were families and mothers with little children also at Gold Class to go see Monsters University. What is the point of going to Gold Class with such little children (who will not be able to even fully comprehend and use the abilities of Gold Class) to see a movie in Gold Class which they could just as easily have seen in the normal theatres and spent even less money even if they brought heaps of junk from the candy bar. The kids are not even going to remember it and even I never went to Gold Class until I was in Year 8. It just goes to show how many families have enough Disposable Income to be able to afford such outings. We also went to the Enchanted Maze Garden at Arthur's Seat (it's a Mountain, not an actual seat) which is not very cheap to get into yet families were still going in and even paying another extra $30 on top of that to do the tree-climbing activities. It was not even a good day. Then on our way out, which is through the lolly shop/cafe, there were families who had brought $5 boxes of chips per child and a cup of lollies $4.50 per child which would have cost them heaps. Even one between two still would have been costly. It just really amazes me how much people spend on things instead of saving up by spending a little bit less on the unnecessary items. That's my rant for the day as I would rather not let this blog be one of the ones where your age has to be confirmed before you can enter.

Saving for the unexpected costs is the best thing to do, see you tomorrow!

Spoilt

We all know someone who is spoilt rotten. We all have that one person around us who gets what ever it is that they want. We can easily tell who the spoilt people are as they are the ones who always have to have their way. They are the ones who feel they are the only correct ones. They think they are better than everyone and do not hesitate to let you know. I am not saying that all people who are spoilt are terrible people, just most of them. Some people are very spoilt and never let you forget it.

Image Source:

http://crusader.blog.co.uk/2011/09/22/spoilt-brats-disorder-treatment-goes-on-sale-11898364/

Spoilt people can often be spoilt brats. When things do not go their way it can get nasty and tantrums can ensue. It may sound like I am talking about kids but trust me, I have witnessed tantrums from people in their forties. It is safe to say that our dog, Sandy, is a very spoilt dog. I mean very spoilt. He gets presents for his Birthday (which he shares with my brother), Easter and Christmas! Our pet before him was lucky to get a present a year. So yeah, Sandy is very spoiled. Sometimes he can also be a bit of a princess which can get really annoying. It is especially hard to say goodnight to my own mother now because whenever I get anywhere near her Sandy gets all protective in the way of jumping all over her and licking her. Seriously, he has big issues and part of that must be due to how much he is spoilt. I admit, sometimes I can get a bit jealous of him but then I move on, and become jealous again. So sometimes spoilt people can be nice but sometimes they can also be very annoying. If only we did not spoil ourselves and those around us in these days, maybe our world would be different.

Image Source: http://www.tithing.com/blog/the-church-is-a-spoiled-brat/

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Vandalism

What do we really stand to gain through vandalism? What could possible justify the thoughtless destruction that vandals cause every day? When was the last time you went on a train and looked through a window with no marks on it whatsoever? When was the last time you went into the city and did not see any graffiti? Vandalism costs millions to the government every year and whose money does the Government use to pay for this? The taxpayers' of course! Imagine how much more money could be spent on education and health if vandalism was not a factor. Imagine the better resources our great country could have. It is the selfish minority that ruin it for the innocent majority, as it usually is.

Image Source: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/metro%20trains?before=21

Vandalism comes in many different forms all of which destroy the natural beauty of the resources around us. Imagine a red-brick wall, just a plain one. Imagine all the possibilities. It could become a mural, a public noticeboard or even something displaying community spirit. Now imagine this plain brick wall tarnished with the filth that is graffiti. Imagine all the possibilities now lost due to one selfish act of vandalism. Now imagine a simple playground for children. A playground always full of families out for a fun time of swings, slides and climbing. Imagine the social skills the children would develop when playing with other children their age. Now imagine during the night such a community hub was violated with the impurity of foul language an infant should never know, or the lick of flames burning away the innocence of the children who once enjoyed this place. Vandalism is diverse but has the same affect, it is violating and repugnant. It steals the innocence of youth and destroys the spirit of a community. Vandalism is really one selfish, disgusting act.

Image Source: http://www.niagarathisweek.com/print/187411

Vandalism tears communities apart and can have devastating affects on everyone in it. Imagine all the trains put out of service due to vandalism. Imagine all the playgrounds ruined by the selfish acts of the few. Imagine the innocence of millions of children been ripped away from them as they are forced to face the harsh realities of life too soon. Imagine members of the community turning against each other and priceless community gems lost in fires or covered in graffiti. Imagine a world where one could walk down one city block without seeing any graffiti. It's hard to imagine such a world isn't it? It shouldn't be so hard but it is because of the vandalism in the community. So next time you think of vandalism also think of who really feels the full affect of such an act. Vandalism is perverse and should never occur.

Image Source: 

http://local.stv.tv/coatbridge/news/204013-signalling-problem-due-to-vandalism-disrupts-train-services/

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Internet Censorship is Wrong

Imagine a world where sites like YouTube and Facebook did not exist. A world where one could not share their thoughts through the click of a mouse, or the touch of a button. This is a world where everything online is censored and the only way to share what you’re really thinking is through word of mouth. We should not be controlling what is posted online. If we do what are we really losing? Culture? Social networks? Jobs?

We live in an age where the online world has become part of our global culture and ingrained into our everyday lives. We can see our culture everyday online; YouTube is a prime example. There are over half a billion channels on YouTube with over 70 hours of video uploaded every minute and it is available in over 60 languages. All the users and videos from all over the world create a vibrant global culture online. The censoring of this site and those like it would mean censoring of the global culture.

What democratic country censors a culture? Such an abhorrent act seems impossible of the western world yet if we were to regulate what people post online this would become a reality. We would lose our global culture due to the possibility of causing offence or alienation. Our Internet would be reduced to something devoid of entertainment. The internet would be the laughing stock of the modern world and our global culture would be lost forever. What do we really stand to lose when we control what is posted online?

The beginning of the control of what is posted online marks the end of Social Networks as we know them.  Sites like Facebook and Twitter would cease to exist. The sheer task of censoring the billion monthly active users on Facebook would mean it would take days for a post to actually go out to friends. People are not going to wait days to tell people what is happening right now. They will begin to stop using these sites and the companies like Facebook and Twitter will not be able to keep up with running costs and will have to shut down. Thousands of jobs would be lost for what?

What do we really stand to gain through controlling what is posted online? Is this insignificant gain important enough to cost thousands their jobs? Can we really bare the guilt associated with mass job loss just to protect our feelings? Thousands of people will have to go home one night and have to explain to their families why they will be no longer working. Thousands of families will struggle to make ends meet. Thousands of relationships will be put under stress, hundreds doomed to end. These jobs not only include the companies like Twitter and Facebook but also the local petrol station and café which rely on the workers coming in for breaks or to refill their cars on the way home from work. What about the local shopping centre that will lose customers? What about the children who will grow up in strained families where tension is always waiting around the corner? How will they cope when their families can no longer afford to pay for their school, hobbies or interests? How is a five or eight year old going to understand why they cannot have what their friends have and the concepts of unemployment? Controlling what is posted online will lead to pointless loss of jobs and will cause an emotional ripple effect.

The censoring of what is posted online will become one of the modern tragedies of our time. If we let this happen what do we stand to lose? Our global culture is surely doomed for extinction and the internet would be set to become the laughing stock of our generation. Then there are the social media networks that would no longer exist and the jobs they caused becoming redundant. Our entire economy would suffer just to protect our fragile feelings. Thousands of families will stand to lose so much more than their feelings if we begin to monitor what is posted online. We should not monitor what is posted online because we stand to lose so much more than hurt feelings if we do.

Image Source: http://www.israeltrade.org.au/israel-eyes-next-generation-internet/

The above was my speech for an oral presentation on the prompt "should we be allowed to post whatever we want online?" I presented this speech yesterday in English. 

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Mothers

Mothers are very important to us and they brought us to life (and at times threaten to take us out of it [joking]). Mothers are there for us and always try to do what they see as being the best for us. Mothers know their children and always see them as their young ones (even when they've grown up and it gets weird). Mothers are very caring and protecting and we would be lost without them.

Mothers are there for us when we need them and always try to do what they see as being the best for us even when we may be reluctant to accept their input. Mothers can sometimes be overbearing but this is only because they want what is best for us. When we're in trouble or when we're feeling down the person we can generally count on is our mothers. Through their maternal instincts we have grown into who we are today. Our mothers also try to push us in the direction they see as right. Sometimes they can push too hard and sometimes we fall off this path they have set out for us and we forget who is really there for us, our parents. Our mothers know what is best for us and always try to help us in fulfilling their dreams for us.

Our mothers know us and can always pick us out of a crowd. They have a maternal instinct for their children and are very protective of us. Sometimes our mothers can be overbearing but this is only because they care (even though this can be hard to understand at times). All through our lives our mothers care for us and when we leave they still feel protective of us. This protection of us can be annoying when we get older (not to mention embarrassing) and can sometimes make us feel younger than we are. Our mothers can also stop us from doing things we really want to do because they see the danger and sometimes this can really ruin our moods but in the end we come back to our mothers who welcome us back with open arms. Mothers are very caring and have a very protective maternal instinct which can be annoying at times but we must always remember that they love us and we love them. Happy Mothers Day!

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Friends and Family

So we all know how important friends and family are but I don't think we actually realise how important they are in many factors of our lives. They help us in many ways, and we need both friends and family because there are some things you would only confide in friends rather than family and vice versa. They create a stable support network that we need to be our best.

Our friends are important to us as they give us a respite from the monotonous life of home. They provide us with a connection to the outside world and an understanding of how others act and react. They are our life line to a world outside our own where people live different lives. They are also fun to muck around with and just enjoy life with. There are things you do with friends which you would not even think of doing with family. I mean, who talks about daily life with family? Who talks to their family about the latest gossip around school or even school work itself? There are also things you talk to friends about, like troubles you are having, that may not seem appropriate to discuss with family, such as feelings and crushes and other usual stuff going through a post-pubescent teenager. Even older people have friends to turn to with stories of relationships and friendships that are inappropriate to divulge to parents who may not see the funny side. Therefore friends are very important in the wellbeing of individuals.

Our friends are important to our wellbeing but so is family. Family is there for you when you need them and will support you in your endeavours and have been there for you since birth. They mould you into the adult you will become and, as I have said in a previous post, irresponsible parents lead to irresponsible children and the opposite can also be said. Responsible parents heighten the chance of them producing a responsible child as they have been brought up learning from example. They have also been taught about consequences and the results of their actions. They are also important to us as they are the ones who put up with all of our annoying habits and at the end of the day still love us. Plus they listen to our problems and help us resolve them. They are always there when we need them and though we don't like admitting it, we love them. Plus, our older siblings make mistakes before us so we know not to make them. SCORE for the younger siblings!

So in the end it is clear that Family and Friends is very important to us. Also, I want to apologise because I know it is technically the 12th of April (even though blogger will say it is still the 11th) but I started writing this on the 11th so there will be another post tonight for the 12th April.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Irresponsible Parents and Annoying Children

So there are many irresponsible parents out there who have exceedingly annoying children because they don't take care of their children and don't care what they do or because they have no control. Needless to say these kids become little terrors and take little care of those around them. We all have had at least one experience with kids like these where the parents couldn't care any less.

One such incident occurred to me once in a Library where I was having a Maths Methods tutor session and there was this group of kids (who couldn't have been older than 7) who were just running around making a lot of noise. They were playing hide and seek in the LIBRARY! Where were their parents? Who knows, in the end one of the Library Staff told them to stop or they would have to leave with their parents. Did the kids care? Of course not, why should they? They can do what they want because they're having fun and be damned with everyone else. In the end the Library Staff called security (I was surprised, I mean, who has security in a Library?) and they found the parents and escorted them all out, hooray! Finally I could study for the SAC. I felt like clapping.

Another incident that occurs quite often is annoying, loud, children at the movies who spoil such a great work. I mean, I was watching Johnny English: Reborn (I know, very sophisticated) and these kids started screaming because their drink didn't have enough ice (First World Problems) and their parents didn't buy them any popcorn. I felt sorry for the mother who was there because she was getting some deadly stares. If looks could kill. Eventually someone complained and a steward (or whatever they call them) came and escorted them out of the cinema, this actually got a clap. This is annoying and happens so often.

So I guess there are some really annoying children out there with parents who try to maintain control but cannot. Then there are the parents, as in the Library incident, who couldn't care less about what their children do. There are many other places where children throw tantrums all the time with either parents who don't care or parents who have no control. If you want you could share your stories below.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow.