Quote Of The Day

"The greatest wealth is to be rich in friends- but if possible let them be rich friends."

-Ashleigh Brilliant

Step Back Think

On October 13th, 2006 James Macready-Bryan went out into Melbourne to celebrate his 20th birthday. Like many men his age, life was good. He had just completed an International Baccalaureate and had been excepted into Monash University for Arts/Law. He was liked by many for his friendly persona and sports ability.  But that night, James' life took a sickening twist; James received one punch to the back of the head that left him with an acquired brain injury and robbed him of the ability to talk or feed himself, unable to control his own movements and made him wheelchair bound.

One punch.

Shannon McCormack. Ben Thompson. Cain Aguiar. David Hookes. Matthew McEvoy. Mark Urch. These names may not mean anything to you, or one or two may seem familiar, but you're not sure why. All of the above were king hit or received one punch that changed their lives forever. In the cases of David Hookes, Matthew McEvoy, Mark Urch, Shannon McCormack and Cain Aguiar, one punch killed them. Ben Thompson and James Macready-Bryan are in what doctors call a 'twilight state', neither here or there.

James' friends were sick and tired of opening the newspaper on a Saturday and Sunday morning and reading of a similar case to their friend. Something had to be done, and so Step Back Think was born.

Step Back Think, has two purposes: one, is ongoing support for their friend and secondly to educate young people on the dangers of alcohol fuelled violence and aggressive behaviour. The group began work with the Department of Education creating pilot programs aimed at year 9 students to make them aware of the dangers of aggressive behaviour and to simply, step back and think.

Chief police commissioner Simon Overland dropped a bomb shell of a statistic when he claimed that a 'one-punch homicide' happened in Melbourne once a month.

Step Back Think supports the Victorian Department of Justice campaign, Championship Moves, humorous videos aimed at males ages 18-25 to protect their friends from possible dangerous situations when out drinking. To view all of them, click here.

Other incentives Step Back Think have created are a website created for a venue rating system where people can leave feedback on places on whether they are prone to violence or not. Another incentive is a pre-booking system where you can avoid queses by booking into a place first, an initiative that some places already use.

The jury is out on why Melbourne is becoming more violent. Some think it's alcohol and drugs, others think it's the current generations feeling of self-importance and how-dare-you-knock-me mentality.

Either way, I, like James  Macready-Bryans friends am sick and tired of hearing of another life wasted due to one second of madness. Something has to be done, whether it's an improved police presence or tougher liquor licensing laws or education, something has to get through to these young men (and women) that aggression is not the answer to a problem. Grow some balls, and walk away.

What do you all think? Do you think this sort of program will get thorough to some people or are king hits something we'll have to get used to hearing about? Like the TAC ads do you think it will reach some people, but not all?

Why do you think Melbourne has become more violent?

For more information and to watch a video of those affected by one-punch violence click here

Quote Of The Day

"When written in Chinese the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters; one represents danger and the other represents opportunity."

-JFK

Quote Of The Day

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose."

-Dr Seuss

Quote Of The Day

"Whose bread I eat, his song I sing."

-German proverb

Two Little Words: Carbon Tax

You'd have to have been living under a rock to have not heard the grumblings and rumblings in parliament this past week about instilling a tax on carbon. But what does this all mean and why are people getting so emotional about it?

What is it?
A carbon tax is a tax on pollution; it places a fee on production, distribution or the use of fossil fuels based on how many carbons they emit. The Government then makes a price per tonne which becomes a tax on utilities such as electricity, natural gas, oil and petroleum. The aim is that a rise in price and tax on businesses and households will ease on the consumption of these utilities and therefore help protect the environment from further damage and global warming.

Australia
The Gillard government is proposing a carbon tax to begin in July 2012 and to run for three to five years before becoming a free trading emissions scheme.

How will this effect me?
Although the Gillard government have not come out and said what the set prices will be, there has been speculation by the coalition that Australian households could be paying more then $300 a year in electricity bills and an extra 6.5 cents a litre in petrol; $3 more then what we're currently paying. Greens leader Bob Brown claims that the tax will not hurt Australians hip pockets, telling channel 10: "Our job is to ensure that the average Australian household and car user is not punished by a carbon price. The idea is to make polluters pay." However, the Gillard government have said that the money from the tax will come come back as a form of compensation for low income earners and they will benefit from the tax scheme.

Why are people angry at Prime Minister Julia Gillard over this?
On the eve of the election Julia Gillard quite plainly stated: "I rule out a carbon tax." adding more fuel to the fire (pun intended) that Prime Minister Gillard is at the mercy of the Greens and Independents that helped her win the election. The tax hasn't passed through parliament yet and still may not become a tax, but people are already worried if it does pass, petrol prices and household bills will be so inflamed the cost of living will be almost unattainable. Time will tell.

Quote Of The Day

"Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don't."

-Earl Wilson

The Modern Guide To Making Your Marriage Work: Tip 1, Cheat

The below quote by now deceased actor Paul Newman is possibly the most romantic words to have ever been uttered out of a mans mouth. Newman was married to his wife, fellow actress Joanne Woodward for 52 years before his death last year. Newman was often asked questions about his relationship, perhaps from people who wanted to know his secret - how could he have been with only one person for 52 years? How, in today's day and age, where 1/3 of marriages in Australia end in divorce, did a marriage survive that long? Newman and Woodward may have been lucky, Newman summed Woodward up as being steak, but do people nowadays want some take-away in their relationship? A side of wedges instead of the healthier and safer side of salad to accompany their main meal?

Recently, their has been a spate of articles on cheating; but they have focused on women doing the cheating, more specifically married women cheating. I'm not saying that this is a startling new revelation; people have been cheating since the dawn of time, and I'm not saying that men cheating is any less offensive, but it seems just as many women as men are cheating, but they don't want to leave their marriages and in all other aspects then the bedroom, are happy.

The articles have exposed that these women don't want to leave their husbands, they often still love them, they just want that side of wedges as well. Women have always been depicted as the more sensible and caring of the species, but these articles have shone a light on a new breed of woman: they want their cake and eat it too, and they often don't care for the other woman or their husbands. According to the article that appeared in Cleo's January issue "High Infidelity", relationship expert Susan De Campo says that many women justify their affairs by blaming the wives, believing that they're filling a void in that person's life and vice versa. One woman told Cleo: "I don't really feel sorry for his partner, I don't think she gives him what he needs. But I keep it separate in my mind anyway."

For these women, their affairs are getting the fun stuff they want from a relationship, without the boring everyday stuff. These women are getting hot sex, presents and ego boosts and then going home to their husbands. But for all the ego stroking and mind blowing orgasms, it it worth the time and effort? One woman in an article in  The Age recently divulged that she had two phones; one for everyone including her husband and one for her lover, which she pulled apart and put together every time to text and ring to organise hook ups. Another woman has a special program on her computer that wipes the memory as soon as she turns it off, a rather expensive but necessary tool for her infidelity.

To these women, cheating is a way to keep themselves and their families happy; they don't want divorce and see this as a way to maintain the marriage; but is it unhealthy or could this be the way of the modern marriage? Is it downright unacceptable and these women should be burned at the stake? Or would this be acceptable if both parties knew about it and both could cheat? A new film coming out called "Hall Pass" addresses this issue when the wives and husbands give each other a hall pass (ie free pass) for one week to be with someone other then their partners. It will be interesting to see how this works; will each couple see the light and see that their partner is really the one for them, or will it wreck havoc and just point out the flaws in their marriage?

Are women better cheaters (ie smarter about it and therefor have been doing this for years without getting caught) or is it a "I deserve better then this" 2000s mentality?

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.

PS: I would like to add that I am totally biased about cheating and  I don't condone it, but I was fascinated by these women and their ability to not feel guilty.

Quote Of The Day

"Why fool around with hamburger when you can have steak at home?"

-Paul Newman

Quote Of The Day

"In the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

-Abraham Lincoln

All's Fair In Love And War? Or Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned?

I didn't want to blog about this. I wanted to ignore it and hope that it went away, but alas, it hasn't. I doubt the writers who I admire and wrote those immortal words above, ever thought about Twitter, Facebook, nude scandal photos, Federal court cases, studio apartments and disowning parents, but I find that the two quotes above fit this little scenario perfectly.

For those of you who don't live in Victoria, this story has probably not even made a ripple in your pond, but for Melbournians, it's an ongoing tidal wave.

What is now well known is that last year a young girl fell in love with an AFL footballer and when things didn't work out, she posted nude photographs of his teammates on her Facebook page and then the whole of Melbourne discovered her pain.

Their are several reasons I wanted to ignore this. One, I was undecided how I felt about the whole situation: do I feel sorry for her or the footballer? Sure, something unfortunate has happened here but is she really campaigning for women everywhere, or is she setting us back about 40 years? This post is not here to try and decide who was right and who was wrong, and two I felt the young girl in the middle of this saga is too young to fully comprehend what she's doing, but what I do want to ask is this: do you think Australia places their athletes on a pedestal? Can our footballers, no matter what code they play, do no wrong in our eyes? Boys will be boys sort of thing or are they victims of eager, unstable women?

For now, the girl is being looked after by the St Kilda football club, something that she claimed she wanted from the start: for them to acknowledge that she had been poorly treated, but should the club as a whole have to take responsibility or should the individual footballer and even the girl take responsibility for their actions?

I hope for her sake she can move on from this and come out stronger and wiser.

But what do you all think? Can situations like this be avoided in the future? Or till the end of time will we be hearing about  drunken athletes and a girl who has been taken advantage of? As always, I'm eager to hear your thoughts.

Quote Of The Day

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden where the flowers are dead."

- Oscar Wilde

Quote Of The Day

"With people, as with pies, the upper crust is often the weakest."

-P.K Shaw

Australia: An Untamed And Restless Lover

As I watch from my safe and comparatively dry state at the horror that is rising in Queensland, I send silent prayers to those who have been effected and for the safe return of those 51 people who are still missing. I shake my head and wonder, how can one state burn while another is submerged? I am constantly amazed and shocked at the diversity and ferociousness that is Australia's landscape.

In Australia, if we're not burning, we're flooding, yet to find the happy medium of just right. It seems Australia is a violent lover, prone to fits of rage and drama and forever unsettled. Below is an iconic poem by Dorothea Mackellar, written in 1907 when she was in England and homesick for Australia. The poem has been mentioned a lot in the last few days and I think it sums Australia up beautifully.

When accusations and questions fly of who was at fault, let us remember: although this is tragic and reports suggest it will take two years for the state to recover, floods and bushfires are a natural part of Australia and have always happened, and will happen again, as sad as that is.  As Australian's we must be mindful of this and just do our best to support and help those effected. Read the poem and please  leave me your thoughts on the poem and if you think the floods could have been prevented.
 
           My Country

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

By Dorothea Mackellar

Quote Of The Day

"I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap."

-Bob Hope