So many wankers, so little time

I OFTEN think about becoming a hermit. I didn't use to feel this way but I guess that is what living on the Gold Coast for 18 years will do to a person. 18 years...sweet Jesus, that sounds even worse when I type it. I have always been a bit anti-social as my girlfriend would attest, but I am becoming tempted to take it to the next step: I mean full blown pack up my shit, quit my job and comfortable life, throw my phone in to the bin and go live up in the mountains, on a beach or in some dark cave away from people. The whole kit and caboodle, baby.

Every day I find my overall faith in humanity being constantly questioned. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY IDIOTS? If not idiots, then wankers, bogans, pretentious try-hard posers or ignorant close-minded, intolerant tools without a brain. If you live or have lived on the Gold Coast, you especially know what I am talking about. As I said, I am sure I didn't use to be such a misanthrope. So what has changed? The answer is me; I have changed. And I regret nothing. As I get older, I find myself less capable of putting up with shit people. What is the point? Because I grew up on the Coast, I became almost unaware and immune of all of this around me. I just naturally thought everywhere was like this. IT IS NOT. When I grew up, finished high school, started thinking for myself instead of respecting all authority figures, I realised the GC is not normal and I was a wanker as well. And it wasn't entirely my fault - I was a product of the environment around me. But I changed, and I know many who have and never will. Yes, I am almost 24 and still living here. But am much happier now and just laugh at the copious amount of wankers that I am subjected to on a daily basis.

I long to move to Melbourne - a place I love with a passion that suits me to a tee - and am in the process of trying to get a job there next year. I remember being down there for the AFL grand final last year, which I was covering for the paper. I was in a bar in the city with a couple of other journo friends that I know. I couldn't believe how many easy going women would just come up to us for a chat. Now, I am very happily in a relationship and was not trying to pick up (I wouldn't even know how to!) and either were my friends, but it was quite amazing that so many women were just up for a casual conversation. Good luck trying to do that at a bar on the Gold Coast! Unless you are rich and have a BMW out the front or are willing to buy her and her equally pretentious, wanker friends shots all night just so they can brag that they "got so drunk but totally didn't have to pay for any of it!", you are shit out of luck. This didn't mean to be a huge whinge about the place I call my home. On the whole it is a beautiful place that offers a lot and I have had a lot of good memories - but what a shame it is predominately infested by rotten swine. Very GC? Fuck you!

Remember, remember the Fifth of November...

"Remember, remember the Fifth of November - the Gunpowder Treason and plot. I see of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot."

Very occasionally you come across a film that stays with you. It is kind of film you find yourself constantly thinking about for weeks and months after viewing it. This has happened less and less in recent times as a result of the amount of repetitive and generic shit Hollywood continues to churn out. But I came across a film only recently that has already skyrocketed itself into my favourite all-time films - V for Vendetta.

This film was made in 2005 and it took me until 2009 to see that. That is so like me! It was introduced to me by my girlfriend Nikki and my roommate Matt, both of whom had seen it. They both liked it and told me I would also enjoy it. I was a bit sceptical only because I am very fussy when it comes to films...and coffee. But I was spellbound - it was one of the best movies I had seen. I have not felt a way about a film since watching Fight Club for the first time.

For those who have not seen it, the movie is set in London in 20 years' time. We are told that the US is now basically a third-world country. They are still counting the cost of the Iraq war and are stuck in an intense civil war that has separated the country. Disease is widespread and they are in desperate need of medical supplies. To put it simply, they are fucked. But things are different in London, where the government controls everything. The scene is set at the start of the film when the government-appointed 'Voice of London' preaches to people on his national television show. "Did you like that? USA... Ulcered Sphincter of Ass-erica, I mean what else can you say? Here was a country that had everything, absolutely everything. And now, 20 years later, is what? The world's biggest leper colony. Why? Godlessness. Let me say that again... Godlessness. It wasn't the war they started. It wasn't the plague they created. It was Judgement. No one escapes their past. No one escapes Judgement. You think he's not up there? You think he's not watching over this country? How else can you explain it? He tested us, but we came through. We did what we had to do. Islington. Enfield. I was there, I saw it all. Immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals, terrorists. Disease-ridden degenerates. They had to go. Strength through unity. Unity through faith. I'm a God-fearing Englishman and I'm goddamn proud of it!"

The film is based around a shadowy freedom fighter known only as "V", who uses terrorist tactics to fight against the totalitarian society. The film is outstanding because, from my perspective, it is a great and timely piece of social commentary. It is also a very real warning of what could happen one day if we as a society are not careful.

It struck a chord with me because I can see this type of strict, right-wing, anti-everything government control happening one day, if it has not already occurred already. Hitler's Nazi Germany in the 1930s was an example of this kind of totalitarianism, and one could argue Bush's Nazi-like Administration employed some of the same tactics. But this film is very relevant NOW, and here is why...

In undoubtedly my favorite scene of the film, 'V' breaks into London's government-controlled television station and broadcasts a message to the people which can only be described as a spine-chilling call to arms..."Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologise for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot."

This really resonates because now, more than ever, it is becoming obvious that we have become slaves to fear. The legendary Hunter S.Thompson summed it up when he said, "We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathiser." And that was written by HST back in 2003. It is even worse today. Even more so we are afraid of being laid off, of getting swine flu, possible terrorist attacks, nuclear war breaking out...you name it. And as V for Vendetta tells us, it would not take much for some opportunistic swine to rise up and feed on that fear in the current climate. I can see it now, "I will keep you safe! All I ask in return is all your civil liberties." It is not beyond the realms...and that's why it is terrifying. We cannot let this happen.

As 'V' says during the film, "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

Back to the Future

I WAS having a discussion the other night with a couple of friends and the conversation led back to high school. I graduated in 2002 and had not thought about it for a long time. The conversation got me thinking, even though the people I was speaking to were not people I went to school with. More than anything else, it made me feel that high school is definitely the worst time of one's life. I remember being thrilled to get out of there.

Think about it. It is a terribly insecure and hormone-driven time between the ages of 13 and 18. That is why I am always very sad when I see a news report of a teenager committing suicide. You just wish you could jump in and comfort them before it is too late. I just wish I could tell them that IT DOES GET BETTER.

It is not like I hated my teenage years...far from it. I had a very good childhood and I know a lot of people who REALLY suffered during those years. This is not a whinge about my past, but more about the teenage years in general. No matter if you had a good or bad childhood, high school and the teenage years are tough.

Imagine being able to go back as the person you are now. Not the unassured, insecure, inadequate, impressionable, immature shit you were at the time, but as the person you are today. It would be so much different. Oh how it would be different. As I touched on in my first blog, you change so much between the ages of 18 and 24. Going back as the way I am now, I would have no problem. For one thing I would not have an inbuilt, automatic respect for authority that I had then. I also would not be so brainwashed when it comes to religion. I went to an Anglican school for 12 long years. I remember the first time a friend of mine questioned religion. It was in year 5 and I still remember him saying to me, "I think all this stuff about God and Christianity is crap and made up." At the time I thought he was the devil. I was a good little God-fearing private school boy who believed what they were shoving down my throat. And no, that was not a catholic priest joke. He he. It wasn't really until after I graduated and left the establishment that was my high school that I questioned religion. And today, anybody who knows me will tell you that I now despise religion and the way it has been twisted and corrupted. I was basically brainwashed for 12 years. I now see everything differently. I look back now and hate the person I was. High school is shit, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. And the people are around you are even worse. The ones that loved it and wish they were back there are the people who will never learn.

If people can get through those turbulent years relatively unscathed, the reward is usually great.

My blogging cherry has been officially popped

FOR years I have said to myself, "I am going to start a blog..tomorrow."

I don't know why it has taken so long, but there are a few reasons that spring to mind. I guess, first and foremost, there was the whole laziness factor "I write all day for a living so why should I write for fun?" A very good question - well, here is my answer. I do write for a living, but as anyone who has ever worked in a newsroom will tell you, writing for a newspaper is not writing. Unless you are writing features or something semi-interesting. This is especially the case when you are writing for a News Limited tabloid. You are conforming to a style designed to suck all creativity out of you. The main part of the job is news gathering. Once you have gathered the required information you are merely just filling in a couple of generic lines in between quotes. Fun. That is not to say I hate my job. I enjoy it, mostly. I am one of those few people who are doing exactly what they always wanted to do. It is not everyone's cup of tea, but I love AFL football. I was born in Melbourne and my earliest memory was my dad taking me to watch Collingwood at Victoria Park. I remember madly waving a Magpies flag every time the team kicked a goal. From that moment, I was hooked. And still am. I could not imagine life without AFL - it is my passion. I also love that it provides a wonderful distraction from the problems of life. For me and for everybody that follows the game. In this sense, I am blessed to writing about it.

Sure, there is a lot about the job that annoys me. Mostly the fact that I am underpaid for the amount of copy I produce compared to some in other departments who churn out just one picture story a day and yet get paid more. Recently we had redundencies in the editorial department. Having to reapply for my job was a very pleasant experience. We have eight sports writers and THREE were sacked. This is despite the fact not one news journo was sacked, even though there are 1000 of them and a lot of them fly under the radar doing basically fuck all. This has meant that the five of us left get raped up the arse. And God help us if someone is on holidays or off sick. Last week for example, I wrote a combined total of 14 stories over two days. This is after I found out that all of news got called in to tell them they must come up with three stories a day. I remember them whinging about it. Jesus H Christ on a fucking unicycle! I would kill to get away with three yarns a day! But that is going off the point. The point is that this place will give me a great opportunity to write without any rules or style restraints.

I guess there was also a large part of me that did not want to give away too much of myself on a blog. I don't know why. It is not like I am ashamed of my beliefs or opinions, but I guess I was worried about revealing too much of myself on a blog. I used to care about that, but not anymore. Fuck people and what they think - that is my motto! Looking back, I think it is because I was still finding myself. I remember being 18 back on 2003 and people would tell me - "you will change so much between now and the age of 23 or 24." As a bulletproof, TSS graduate wanker, I thought "pfft! I know everything now! I won't change at all!" Oh how I was wrong. The journey from then until now has been amazing. I have certainly found my place in the world. I know how I feel about issues, what type of person I am, the type of people I like to be around and where I want to spend the rest of my life. I will give you a hint, it is NOT the GC! It starts with M and ends with "elbourne". Oh please, Universe, let me get a job there soon!

And last but by no means least, there are a lot of things and a LOT of people that piss me off. I WANT A PLACE TO WRITE ABOUT IT! Oh how I look forward to venting. In this sense, I have been inspired by the likes of Rick and Seema - both of whom write wonderfully. If you want to read something of value, visit their blog and then stumble back here if you are in the neighbourhood. Warning - I will be very rusty at start. But hopefully after a while, my entries will be somewhat readable.

Phew, I feel better already!