Tuesday, October 30, 2007

A thousand apologies

Well. You may have noticed a lack of posts over the last few days and for that I am sorry.
I regret to inform you that my PC, after years of faithful service was tragically lost to me on October 25th 2007 at 6:04pm
It died of what i can only assume was some sort of computer aneurism and could not be revived despite mouth to air-vent resuscitation. Luckily i back up everything weekly so i was able to keep all my most essential files.
On the upside of this tragedy i finally went out and bought the laptop that i've been eying for quite some time. I am now the very happy owner of a beautiful white macbook. It's quite possibly the most exquisite machine that i have ever used and am now hooked into my universities free wireless access.

More posts later my good friends.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Apparently Celebs are just like us.

Sitting in the train this evening, minding my own business and reading my book, my eyes were drawn to the person sitting next to me. Not so much to her but to the magazine that she was reading.
It was a celebrity gossip magazine (i never saw the cover and there are so many out these days it would be futile to try to narrow it down) and there was a large heading that stated "celebrities are just like you" and it then showed half a dozen celebrities who were doing normal things such as multi-tasking, getting a cup of tea, getting a manicure and having breakfast with their children.
Honestly, before i read that magazine i thought that celebrities were gods sitting upon Olympus, strumming their harps and deciding mankind's fate against mythical creatures.
Since when have celebrities been put on a pedestal and if so....why?
I admire the work of George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and countless other celebrities who are using their star power to try to make a difference in the world. Whilst some may simply send money to charity organizations these people are putting their careers on hold to try to raise money for those in need.
However, what i don't appreciate is the celebrities that everyone is fascinated in. Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton (who seems to be replaced by Kim Kardashian, another young woman who is famous for doing absolutely nothing) are people that have been introduced to fame at such a young age that it has literally destroyed their lives before they turn 25.
Lohan is now apparently broke after spending millions of dollars on shopping and parties and has just gotten out of her second stint in rehab, Spears has lost custody of her kids after refusing to take a drug test, Hilton spent time in jail and despite claims of repent has done nothing to help the poor and Kardashian....honestly i don't even know how she benefits society other then the fact that she released a sex tape and is posing for playboy.
So once again the gossip magazines plague us with the life of people that we shouldn't care about or idolise.

As normal. The Daily Show sums up my entire point of view.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Election time is here

To all my Australian readers, i imagine you'd be aware of this already (if not then you've been living under a number of rocks with no access to any kind of media whatsoever) but we're heading to a Federal Election.
Prime Minister Howard called the election for the 24th November and it seems that both the Labor and Liberal candidates are gearing up for a dirt-slinging match. It's always entertaining and fun to watch both sides try to wear down their opposition but admittedly it does get a little repetitive.
Negative advertising has been around for years and now thanks to the genius of youtube and the rest of the internet it's now cheaper than ever to trash your opponent.
I join the chorus of many, many others who wish for a clean campaign filled with debate about policy.
I'm not, however, holding my breath.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Still nothing official....but

Pretty much the first thing i do when i wake up in the morning is check all the various major national and international newspapers. Alot happens in the 8 or so hours that you sleep and because the internet is a 24 hour party much of the websites are updated and what you read last night isn't necessarily going to be front page news anymore.
Opening up the New York Times, this was the most updated story:

Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.

You may remember that in early September I noted the attack by Israel on Syria was extraordinarily suspicious due to the silence from all sides of the equation. The Israeli's had a media blackout, the Syrians were making a very quiet protest, the Americans were keeping mum and there was absolutely no condemnation from any Arab state even Iran. Obviously not everyone is happy about a nuclear Syria (ditto with a nuclear Iran).
It seems that Israel is recovering it's deterrent powers since the war against Hezbollah last year. I imagine that this sort of story is one that i'll be reporting on for years to come.


What a great time to start a blog :-)

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Society is stuck in neutral

Last night I watched Australian Idol.
I didn't mean to, i would have avoided it if it all possible but it was all because of Channel 10.
I had tuned in to watch Law and Order: SVU because i love a good mystery and rather than that i was treated to 11 minutes of a sub-average singer trying his hardest at a consolation song as he'd just been knocked out of the competition.
My first reaction was anger, i had put academic work off for only an hour and ten minutes of that hour was Idol because the programmer had decided that it was better to run over time than to miss out on squeezing another few dollars out of advertisers by increasing the amount of commercials in the program.
My second reaction was disbelief, as the camera panned around the audience I saw that some people were crying at the fact that this young man had just been kicked off. These were people that i'm sure had never met the boy but for some reason felt drawn to the fact that he, and his awful singing voice, had just lost. But he lost in front of millions of Australians and i'm sure a number of record company executives.
It was then i realized that society had not gotten any better in the last five years, since the introduction of Big Brother, American/Australian Idol, The Apprentice and scores of other reality programs that we've seen society has not suffered nor has it benefited.
It seems that society has reached a plateau.
We can do much better but we could also do much, much worse. Take a look at a Communist, Socialist or a Military Dictatorship and you'll thank almighty God that you were born in an advanced Western civilization but on the other hand we haven't really improved our society enough to be proud of.
It seems that everyone is vying for their 15 minutes of fame regardless of the cost to their reputation, well being or mental stability.
YouTube has been inundated with thousands, upon thousands of videos of young men doing stunts which could lead them to serious physical injury, Lonelygirl15 became an internet phenomenon and a young man named Matt created a video of him dancing around the world.
Reality television has stalled society, no longer are actors and actresses attending drama school to learn the skills of the trade or script writers creating masterpieces like Schindler's List. Rather they've unleashed a torrent of imbeciles living inside a house and interacting with one another.
Please can we get back to our roots and not be obsessed with getting our faces on television.