Thursday 29 June

People and Animals

Scientists used to think that elephants communicated telepathically over long distances. It was later discovered that they simply made noise at pitches too low for human hearing.

In early Australia there existed a larger species of Kangaroo that had big teeth. Scientists called it the "Fangaroo".

Friday 23 June

I am so lucky. I decided not to concentrate on a particular subject because I hadn't really studied for it or turned up much since the mid-semester break. Also I got a two on the assignment, so I thought it was a bit of a lost cause. Anyway, I just did the test and I think I did pretty OK! I'm definitely doing that thing where you study all through the semester again, except this time I'm going to continue it after the mid-semester break. Hopefully.

There's a guy at another computer in this lab talking on his mobile phone who sounds lost and tired like most people completing the semester. It's the whimpering of someone who is almost defeated. I think he'll pull through, but it's not like you go through nothing to get a degree to get a fancy job. Yes, most people from poorer families don't get the opportunity to do a degree because their home life is less likely to be stable, they're more likely to be sick or disabled (we learnt this in health) and education may not be valued in their family (got that from my Mum). It's definitely a higher class privilege. I'm just saying it's not a breeze.

The silver spoon is not put in your mouth without expectation, guilt and probably a hard work ethic. If you do not fulfill the first and the last the guilt can kick in and it can be deadly. Most of us silver spooners had parents who fought long and hard for our privileges and they're not about to see them wasted on our lack of interest. YOU WILL OWN YOUR OWN HOUSE! You will work hard all your life for whoever is the highest bidder just like they did. If you do not fulfill their dreams it is a big slap in the face to them. Do you know what I went through to pay your private school education? Did you know we did not have a flushing toilet in our house until I was fourteen? My sisters and I fought over who would clean it. Do you know what it was like growing up in a house without books? You do not, because I work forty hours a week in a job that I hate so you can have books. I have done this all your life. We live in a nice suburb. We have a TV.

On the upside what you are to achieve is not particularly specific. You may be a great athlete, a great business person, a great politician, great in any of the arts (but your efforts are frowned upon until you are great and they will take loud consolation that if it falls through you can always be a teacher). You can be an average business person. You are allowed to be a nurse, although you may not be a labourer. You may not be a dish hand. You can be a waiter for now if you are working your way up through the company. You can be a chef, you can be a nun, you can travel over to Africa to help the poor. You can be a personal trainer, a computer programmer, an architect, a doctor, an accountant, a scientist, a merchant banker. Depending on your family you may or may not break the law: you may or may not be a political dissident or a white-collar criminal.

My parents aren't so bad and they did everything they could to provide me with a solid future. The guilt's a bit hard to handle, but in this I do not feel alone. I do not feel unlucky for being born into a middle class family. It's just that sometimes I want to be a house painter. I want to have a highly satisfying job with very little responsibility that I can just not think about on the weekend. I want to come home in the afternoon after a hard day's work, have a shower, do something fun like play soccer and eat some nice dinner. I want to have a good night's sleep.

*please email if my gross generalisations are incorrect to you, I would very much like to discuss this and I do realise that I'm rambling in an over-generalising way

Tuesday 20 June

On the 6th day of June this year, true evil and photography was unleashed upon our unit.

I ran into Rom yesterday on a bus. He looked haggard. He told me about his day as a teacher. It was really interesting. He really seems to care about his students; what goes on in their lives and where they end up. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that he's a good teacher. Just about everyone I know is going to end up with some kind of career. I like that he's dedicated to his.

I really like watching people work. Not just as a sadistic form of pleasure, but it's really interesting seeing that other side of your friends' lives. Generally their work is a big part of their lives and yet you hardly ever see it. Someone who is not skilled, say, in the art of conversation, is suddenly skilled in woodwork. Someone who usually doesn't take anything seriously now takes on a lot of responsibility looking after the ill. Someone who is a brilliant academic has terrible customer service and has to wear a fluro pink t-shirt with striped yellow pants. I had a friend once who worked as a fairy. That must have been fun. Anyway, it's cool. That's all. Good day to you, sir. Good day to you.

Tuesday 13 June

A wonderful thing came of the rap that I wrote. It reminded a Christian to be more friendly and Christlike towards people he suspected were prostitutes. That made me so happy.

In other news I played soccer yesterday and it was so good. There was a lovely picnic and the people were lovely and the day was just plain, old lovely. Then Mandrew and I watched the soccer match Australia versus Japan and it kicked so much arse like it couldn't help it. Those cheating, Japanese scumbags got what was coming to them. We won 3-1. !!!!!

Ronnie and Sarah are going to Penang for a month, tomorrow. I'm very excited for them. I can't wait for the holidays. It's going to be different without them. No popping over to their house for good company. I haven't hung out with Ronnie enough lately. We've just been busy. We haven't even seen "She's the Man". Anyway, this holidays should be good. I have big plans for Stop Mad Issue 3. I have other big plans, too. They are dependent, however, on having lots of money, which may or may not happen.

I think what I'm saying here is that I should go and study.

Wednesday 7 June

So there's this guy at work, a day-shift man. I thought we were going to be buddies, but when he found out I'm bisexual he told me we couldn't be friends anymore. His reasoning went something along the lines that he's a right-wing Christian and being bisexual is, in some way he didn't specify, wrong. Just thinking about it makes me angry, but that's the way it goes.

When he told me that we couldn't be friends anymore unless I "admitted" I wasn't really bisexual, I told him that I never wanted to see him again. Today, unfortunately, he came late on purpose to talk about it and give me this email that his friend wrote about me. This email not only talked about a psychiatrist who had "cured" someone of their homosexuality and turned them into a Christian to boot, it recommended that he pray for me. It was written by someone who couldn't write "homosexual" without "these things." The thought of him praying for me pissed me off particularly. What an arse. I don't have cancer. So I'm sitting there fuming, and I'm thinking, if I ever see him again I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. In fact me and my homeboys are gonna get all up in his face and say:

I ain't ratin'
Your discriminatin'
Your inhalation, your exhalation
Wasted
Used hatin'
'Cause you're a christian and I'm satan

You haven't understood
The good
Of your saviour
Statin' Jesus
Don't want you to be
Friends with me
'Cause of my bisexuality

Yet last time
I read (or was force-fed) the gospels
They said
Something about acceptance
I could'a sworn
See, first Jesus was born
(Mary wasn't too receptive
When taught about contraceptive)
He talked a bit about corn
And other agrarian metaphors
He talked about sharin' what was yours
And he hung with whores
Which was at the core
Of his loving with equality
Living by example, solidly
He went on and on
And on and on
And on and on etc. (drum break-down)
About acceptance

So here's my point:
Next time you see me near
Your pal, the queer
Discriminate, I guess
Just don't blame it on the man in the dress

BAM! And then we'd fucking punch him and say "the higher rate of 4WD accidents; God's cure for right-wing Christians." Fuck yeah, me and my posse.

Saturday 03 June

Back by popular demand, I present to you STOP MAD Issue 1.

(It scrolls sideways.)