Dear World ...

At 17.

2005-05-25T00:05:00.000+10:00

In Palestine, Chechnya, Congo (Republic of, and Democratic Republic of), Iraq, Uganda, Columbia, Rwanda, Nepal, Iran, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Algeria, and others I may have been in an armed militia, or opposition force for the last few years.

In other countries, I could be forced to work to support my family, earning less than a dollar a day, no future.

I wrote that a year or so ago, a few days after I'd turned 17. Nothing's changed for the people living in those countries.

Will it ever?

Coulda, woulda, shoulda

2005-03-13T12:13:00.000+11:00

Some absolute legend gave me some really good advice re. School today.
They said: "you just need to put in an effort now...... school will be over soon then we can't change the fact we didn't do any work. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
Love you heaps the person who said that..... it's like the best advice :)

Very Long Time..... no hear

2005-02-19T17:29:00.000+11:00

Oh here we go....again....
I am so scared... my head is spinning....
(Courtesy of Pete Murray, "Bail Me Out").

Week 4, Term 2 of year 12.
240 something days unitl the Higher School Certificate.

I think it is finally hitting home exactely what the HSC is all about..... and exactely what I have to sign myself away to.

And its fucken scarey.

I love life at the moment...... I am happy..... I have the bestest friend ever by my side..... a group of people constantly around me who constantly make me laugh and enjoy life......parents and family who care so much it annoys me..... a school I passionately adore...... teachers who are like friends and who never stop receiving praise if anyone makes the mistake of asking what I think....... an environment which is one of the best in the world...... a shire full of crazy, random, yet entertaining and loveable characters.... and generally a lifestyle I love.

It feels like the world is at my feet.
And I don't want to give that feeling up. Even for 200 and whatever days.
I don't want to go back into that year 10 state of life being a chore.... and being completely burnt-out.
I'm scared that I'll end up like that again. I'm in denial that in 8 or so months, I will be at the school I have come to love, sitting near the people I have come to adore, with teachers standing outside, who have become more like friends and who I have the upmost respect for..... sitting an exam for the last time.

God dammit, why do they have the HSC in yr 12 at the peak of everyone's newfound independence and.... dare I say it.... empowerment in life?

Is it some kind of sadistic application of Darwinism? Whack everyone in the pressure cooker and see who comes out at the end? Survival of the fittest?
Another appropriate analogy could be drawn to a paper shredder.

Perhaps the HSC, as our equivalent of a "coming of age", rite of passage, is somewhat of a experience leading to the further empowerment of our innocent inexperienced souls....?

Maybe it does have positive outcomes as well.

Hopefully everyone will come out of it as more all/well roundeded individuals ready to face the world. We can only hope.

And I damn well hope I am not one of grains of rice that gets stuck to the bottom of the rice cooker..... while the rest is being rolled up into sushi.

Mmm.....sushi. I can't wait for that last piece. Pity I will be choking on it for 8 months until I can swallow it.

Until then it's going to be a long and hard battle.
I hope I win.

Anyway..... what was that Hamlet?

2004-08-08T23:02:00.000+10:00

Time: 2302 AEST
Current Activities: Blogging, Eating chocolate & other high sugar substances, listening to U2
Intended Activity: Completion of Assesment Task

For some reason I've only found the time to blog now, when I don't have it.

[forces mouse to assignment related window]

Changing my Mind.

2004-07-23T00:15:00.000+10:00

A year or two ago, I thought Michael Moore was a cynical, short sighted, 'typical' American. I'd never read any of his books, nor seen any of his movies or tv shows, but found myself disliking him for the way in which he expressed his views. I shared a lot of these views but found Moore rude, offensive and unintelligent, yet wasn't sure how I'd come to feel this way. My only exposure to him had been through the media and what I had heard from friends who had read his books (One of my friends was obsessed with him, and I suppose, due to this my opinion of him had been jaded from the start). Despite not watching Commercial News without a grain of cynicism, and firmly believing that my mind was to be made up for myself, I found myself disliking a person without having ever given them any opportunity to prove themselves otherwise.
I decided then, that in order to continue holding the opinion of him that I did, I really needed to have some basis - to, at least, have read one of his books. I reserved the book, and was put onto a list of around 30 for one of the local library's 3 copies. As time wore on I gradually progressed along the list, and my School Certificate Assesments approached. I forgot about the reservation, and didn't think about my decision until earlier this year, when a copy of the book "Stupid White Men" happened to be leant to me, along with a number of other books, by a family friend.
Reading through his work, I found a much more compassionate person than that which the media, or my own scepticism would have me believe. Moore was witty, intelligent, and passionate, and looked at a wide number of issues concerning current American policy with a matter-of-fact, yet funny style.
I spent 2 hours tonight watching "Bowling for Columbine". I was left feeling powerless, a common response after learning more about situations which seem so complex, and hopeless.
At a time where attacks on Moores new documentary "Fahrenheit 911" continuing from those on the right, I feel a reminder of what they are supposedly fighting for is in order. Freedom & Democracy.
Mr. Moore makes documentary's based on his opinion, and is therefore not restricted by the constraints of objectivity self imposed by many in the documentary making field.

"Fight for freedom", yet attack free speech.

Australia’s Treatment of Asylum Seekers - The Catholic Response. [cont.]

2004-07-19T20:24:00.000+10:00

146 Children, 142 Women, 65 Men.

Positions taken by the Australian Government after their 2001 election campaign prevented any attempt being made to save the lives of these people after the sinking of the Siev X, in international waters off Christmas Island, in late October of that year.

Crossing the waters between Indonesia and Christmas Island in search of a better life is an action taken by asylum seekers despite its dangers. In recent years, our country has made it harder for these people to achieve happiness, and has denied people not reaching the Australian mainland the right to seek asylum.

Those asylum seekers who have reached Australian Territories have experienced public hostility and are treated like criminals. These people are locked up, and isolated. The situation inside Australia’s Detention Centres is miserable. With many experiencing psychological problems caused by the physical separation from the freedom they sought & the uncertainty of waiting for a decision on your future, your life in someone else’s hands.

For those eventually granted refugee status, life is often difficult, as there are limited support systems, and large cultural and language barriers which often need to be addressed. Failings in the government’s welfare system such as this pose difficulties to many migrants in their initial adjustment to Australia.

The Catholic Church teaches that asylum seekers deserve to be treated with respect and compassion. It works to assist refugees and migrants in the community and in detention centres and advocates the plights of refugees migrant and within the church and in the wider community.

The wellbeing of those in detention centres is of great to concern to the Catholic Church, the violation of human dignity and punishment of innocent people are seen as offences against God’s people. By keeping children in detention the church claims the government is denying them the right to proper development in an environment suitable to growth as human beings.

Various church groups make visits to detention centres providing the people in the centres with outside support and regular contact, something which can keep people going, and inspire hope in an otherwise devastated and hopeless view of Australia.

Migrant and Refugee Offices throughout the states, along with institutes and organisations like the St. Vincent de Paul society provide support to refugees and migrants by assisting them in easing the transition into Australian society.

The actions taken in response to the issue are based on the principles of love for one another, and the sanctity of human life. These principles, along with stories from the Old and New Testaments, form the basis of Catholic doctrine relating to migration and refugees.
The stories of the Good Samaritan, the crossing of the Red Sea, and Jesus’ commandment to love one another as I have loved you, convey a message of compassion towards everyone, especially those who are fleeing persecution, and in spite of religion or race, the 2nd Vatican council builds on this calling on Catholics to be a “neighbour” to immigrants.

Jesus was himself born away from his home and forced into exile, and when he returned to Israel, he spent much of his life moving through towns and villages relying on the hospitality of those he met on his way. The welcoming of strangers was a characteristic of the early church, which provided and relied on this hospitality.

The people our government has locked up are not terrorists or “queue jumpers” they are human beings searching for a way to lead a better life, and a happier future, we have a responsibility to protect their right to live the gift of life.

“I was a stranger and you made me welcome” Mt 25:35

From Faiza

2004-07-18T18:18:00.000+10:00

I found nothing more beautiful than this poem, written by an American writer, thus making it a popular, folk song, at the time of World War 1…but I see it a poem that fits all wars…. Alfred Brian (1915), by the title: I Didn't Raise My Son To Become A Soldier… Ten million soldiers went to war, They might never come back. Ten million mothers' hearts are sure to break For sons who died in vain… I heard a mother, her head bowed in sadness, In her years of loneliness, Muttering through her tears: I didn't raise my son to be a soldier, I raised him to be my pride and joy, Who would dare put a gun on his shoulder, To kill another mothers' beloved son?

Australia’s Treatment of Asylum Seekers - The Catholic Response.

2004-06-28T22:12:00.000+10:00

2004-06-11T20:25:00.000+10:00

boat-people.org

BloggerBot: Photo One - "We are all 'Boat People'."

Homophobe Howard.

2004-06-06T20:49:00.000+10:00

Our beloved leader, His Honorable Prime Ministership, the virtuous and just, Mr. John Howard, attacked ABC children's program "Play School" today. Addressing outcry from certain factions of the Australian public, Johnny said "This is an example of the ABC running an agenda in a children's program,". After having sat through the Rumsfeld - Rice propaganda workshopping program early this week, he quickly took up the opportunity to show off his new polarizing skills.

"If people want to debate that issue, do it on a program like Lateline, but not on Play School." he decreed, adding later, that this was to allow him to continue to watch his favourite program in total ignorance of any non-nuclear family situations.

The Soldier Who Wouldn’t Fight

2004-06-02T19:28:00.000+10:00

We now return you to your regular programming.

“Anyone would have inhibitions about taking someone’s life, but there are a variety of ways that we’re indoctrinated and desensitised. The esprit de corps, the sense of pride they instil in us and each other, sometimes it seems like some sort of monastic brotherhood or cult. You learn unwavering devotion to each other. When we’re fighting it’s not for the cause or country. It’s for each other, for the person to your right and your left.

“That was the hardest thing, leaving my friends, people from my unit, having them go without me, dedicated, hard working people whose values are being exploited by the US government.” Jeremy Hinzman left his unit when it was sent to Iraq, having spent two years applying for conscientious objector status. He applied before his unit was sent to Afghanistan, requesting a transfer to a non-combat role. It was deliberately mishandled, the authorities claiming they had never received it but later giving the papers back to him in a package with a further application and advice to drop the matter.

One of two US soldiers who left the army and applied for political asylum in Canada on the grounds of refusal of his conscientious objector status, Jeremy now has a support base around the world, with his website, jeremyhinzman.net, having received ver 30,000 visits since it's launch in march.

In a recent post by british activist, Wildfire Jo, his time in the Military was described as training in the "dehumanisation of the people in future warzones". Jo quoted Jeremy as having said “It’s easy to get one person to shoot another. In the first week we shoot at black circles, learn how to aim, how to breathe, and the next week there are shoulders added and then torsos and then they become pop up targets, but all the time they’re targets, not people, and shooting them is a reflex."

"Recruitment starts in high school with glossy brochures, recruiters like car salesman cold calling to lists of students without a ticket into university, he explained, with an underclass maintained for precisely that purpose. Someone asked about the draft. The draft hasn’t been active since the Vietnam war but young men are still required to register for it. Failing to register with the Selective Service System means ineligibility for federal student aid , federal job training or civil service employment from the post office to the parks service and in some states you can’t get into state colleges."

I remember watching a documentry made shortly after September 11th 2001 about three "working class" americans, who'd signed up for duty in the Army. It followed there progress through basic training, and ended with two heading to Iraq and one going AWOL.

Searching for a foothold in this chaos...that is life....

2004-06-02T01:02:00.000+10:00

I don't know whether I'm Benita or Benji anymore than you do.... quite frankly.
I'm B to my cousin, Beni to my penpal/epal/Sarah, Bernie to Hannah, ernieB to Greg, Bonto (etc) to Anne and Christina, Gonzo to Christina, Ben to Anne, Corinne and Christina, Benji to nearly everyone at school, Benj to Maya, Benjita to Michelle and Benita to everyone else.......talk about multiple identities.

I was actually enjoying that post about your childhood............no it doesn't tell the world/me about you, however I didn't know that so called "trivial" stuff about you. No, you can't live your life in "trivia"....that *would* be painful......but everyone needs a healthy dose.

Don't be "lost" because you don't know where your headed. Seriously James, you have the wisdom/knowledge to get where you want and be happy....even if it is only running the local chip shop down the road.... you academicness or supposed "geekness" is only one of your assets.

Life is a learning process. Im 16....but i think I've had a bit of a taste of what is to come...and learnt some very valuable lessons *cough* Hurlstone *cough*. I am glad at where I am in my life at this current second. Sure I wish I was more knowledgeable and smart.......could be like those "school captain" types who I hold in so much regard.......public speaking.....academicness..... confidence......charisma...... charm........even if it is sometimes synthetic.....i wish i could do it. But I think/hope everything is gonna be okay. All I really want in life at the moment is to be happy, doing stuff that I love, with the people I love around me. Perhaps I'm not cut out to be that hotshot policy analyst for the UN....or whatever.....and yeah.....I know it's gonna hurt......and I know it's gonna cut if I can, but don't, get where I think I want to be.......my UAI will be the first test.......but not the last.

Moving on......
my gross over generalisations exhibited plenty-o-time in say.....the last term....are rash, irrational and plain stupid. Maybe they have a starting point.......potential........but maybe that's all....they shouldn't be strung out, like a basket of wet underwear, for everyone to see

That's the thing about blogs. You write things, in one state of mind, with a particular thought in mind/ point of view.....and then in the morning its....warped and distorted....shaped into something it wasn't meant to be.....in the cold light of day its stupid...........your mind, your soul, your passion vanishes from the screen. Words convey empty meanings. They convey different meanings. For me there is a horrible ridge between mind and matter, so to speak. You, or I, can't express concepts, thoughts, feelings, fleeting random sensations, into print without losing the passion/idea/thought behind them.
Something I honestly wish, in Benita's little secluded island from reality floating around in her head, is that there was some way to actually understand what people mean/think/feel. The only relation/link I have to make is in the book "Obernewtyn" by Isobelle Carmody, the main character has the ability to "farseek" (meaning she can talk/communicate inside another person's head and exchange thoughts, not just words with them).

Blogs are my dumping ground for emotional baggage....and fragments of my life.....like a journal. I want to be able to say what I think, feel, know and not necessesarily have to face it again. Baggage has a terrible tendency to have your name marked all over it.

It's been good blogging with you James, really it has......I hope you understood most of my half constructed thoughts/words.......I think that's why it has been good blogging with you....because I think you did.

Fighting off all nostalgia I might encounter, I'm not sure if i'll be able to put a detached "me" into my thoughts on this blog. Don't get me wrong politics, world affairs and the world around me is my life, and I always want to be attached somehow to that side of me, but, and I've never actually thought/ described myself like this.....but I have got a "spirtual" and "emotional" (for some reason those words don't sit well in my vocabulary) side to myself....that interestingly enough wants to be expressed.....I suppose it's that whole human thing of yearning for something else in life/ the hunger for comfort in something/one that "knows you".....the hunger not to be alone in this world of chaos.
Sarah Mclachlan as my inspiration in the background.......

So I am sorry for having "conflicting" roles in regard to my thoughts and them being expressed, hell no-one is a mind reader. I guess we didn't know what tangent this blog would take.......have we now hit the crossroads?

Funny......blogging....or one might say....self expression has taken up such a big part of my life. And I think its a good thing.

Should I read this back over to see if it will make sense, is fit for public consumption?......should I put a disclaimer on it? make it invisible (it's just not the same then...)?.......will i regret writing this in the morning? how will it look in the morning? will people look me in the eye the same?

Benji, B, Ben, Beni, Bernie.....Benita........ These are my ramblings. Taken out of context (ie today at 2:32am) they will be abused and misused. Trust me on that one.
Hopefully I will have the courage to leave this post visible on here.
To the World........
From Benita.............with love.....

*grimaces as she hits PUBLISH POST*

2004-05-29T01:35:00.000+10:00

I started writing the previous post quite a while ago, and so it's all over the place. It starts telling story about me, which is unrelated to the original point, and then stops after I realized I was talking about something completely different.

Basically, I'm not our partying, not because I am an "academic" stuck-up private school snob who studies continuously and who's closest friend is a computer, I don't think anyone can be all of those at once (I am though, in the many ways different people see me), but because I both choose to learn about stuff all the time (knowledge addict [but not a statistics freak]), and am too much of a control freak to get off my face.

I'm the only person, perhaps besides Benita, and some people who may not "know" me well who actually know me, with the last two probably having the best picture.

2004-05-28T22:50:00.000+10:00

its a friday night y arnt u out partying?

said Benita's sister when she saw I was logged onto MSN Messenger tonight. Or maybe it's Benji's sister, I'm not sure anymore.

I'd just finished reading her (Ben ji/ita 's) comment on Noushi, and so ... well it kind of reinforced the doubts I've had over the last few years about just what I'm doing with my life.

My first memories are of the time I spent as a little kid, playing with my next-door neighbour, Alison. We used to play in her cubby house, which was built across a bridge spanning a 3 metre drop from a retaining wall behind their house, dress-ups inside, "Mums and Dads", board games, and with dolls. Yep I had a doll, His (it was definitely male) name was Jack, I think. We had baths together, my hair had girly things put it in it, and I was always over at their house. We moved two suburbs away when I started school, and the friendship, whilst still there becomes more remote each year.

My Brother arrived when I was two, and from what my parents have told me, I was pretty tolerant of him, just ignoring him (and others in general) when they took my toys, and the like. We started going to playgroup when I was a bit older and for the first time I met people other than relatives or neighbours.

When Ali went to pre-school, I had a lot more time by myself, and my parents thought it might be time to send me to pre-school, to be around children my own age (Ali is 5 months older than me, and was therefore a year above me in the school system). I hated it. For the first week I cried every morning when my parents dropped me off, and I hid under the building in a sand-pit area with toy blocks, alone. My parents decided I wasn't ready and I spent the rest of the year at home with mum. The following year it was back off to pre-school, this year time with much more success. I was a quiet kid, and still am relatively quite now.

Throughout my early years of school, I didn't have a specific group of friends, I'm not sure anyone does, but rather, everyone gets along with everyone else. As the years progressed I continued to stay friends with everyone, and my time was spent with large groups of people. In year 5, with the introduction of 3 multi-age year 5 / year 6 classes, I was seperated from most of the people I had chosen to stay with (I was later to find out I had been moved to allow for a teacher to have a class with only one "trouble maker" whilst my original class had none), and my considered friends slowly focused in to a smaller number of people.

The people I had settled in with however, had not as much in common with me as they did with each other.

The following year, the boundaries set by our class allocations were gone, but I found myself, staying with some of the people I had been around the year before. Whilst being clumped up into groups of friends, I continued to mingle with the rest of the year. Year 6 was strange in that it seemed that the group as a whole became closer as our time at primary school drew to an end, with everyone being more accepting and open to each other throughout that year, with year wide soccer games, or games of tip not uncommon.

I was unique in that in the midst of the chaos which occurs on a primary school playground I once found the time to calculate the energy used for some activity using Einsteins E = mc ^2 written in the dirt near the cricket nets. I was a library monitor but played soccer at lunch with the others, was only in trouble twice my entire school life, and never had a detention.

I've always been a person who asks "Why?", not so much out loud, but in my mind, which resulted in me continuously thinking about the reasons behind peoples actions, and words, and about everything in general. This probably magnified in year 5 where I talked less than others in many conversations.

Over the holidays between Primary school and High School I began to listen to the BBC World Service late at night, after stumbling across it being rebroadcast on the radio (ABC NewsRadio - 630 AM). This led to my mind opening up to a much wider world, and I took a much greater interest in what was happening in the world . I picked up on High School quickly, despite not having any older siblings, and took to the 6 period day well, with results being maintained at a high level throughout 7 - 10. My english was pretty average in years 7 & 8 but a good teacher in the later helped me to improve to the stage where I was able to do Advanced English in the school certificate.

blah blah blah

None of this really says anything about me though. I think what I'm trying to say is that despite thinking and working and being nice to everyone, I have no real direction.

Warning - Random Thoughts Follow.

What am I doing and What is it that I want to achieve by doing so?

Why did I write this blog?

I don't go out on friday nights, but I'm not a slave to school or a workaholic and I haven't studied in a shamefully long time.

I know a bit about computers - so am I a "geek"
I get good marks (or used to) - so am I a "spock" / "nerd" / "stuck-up prick"
etc. etc. etc.

I don't know who or what I am or want.

edited 1:40 AM 29.05.2004

2004-05-26T23:56:00.000+10:00

The smell of popcorn from the local cinema's drifted over the road as I walked to the old station masters cottage where the drinks are stored at work. I was reminded of childhood trips, though there weren't many, and of more recent visits to the movies, with family and friends. A warm nostalgic feeling swept over me, and I opened the bolted door with a smile on my face.

Walking into the darkened storeroom, smelling the petrol from the gardening equipment kept on a shelf near the door, my smile faded, and I was reminded of the events which were occuring at that very moment, at different places around the world.

I felt sick and depressed.

Children starving while their mother makes your next pair of Nike$, rhetoric rhetoric rhetoric.

It's true, and It get's to me.

2004-05-12T20:26:00.000+10:00

Prisoners standing naked, and blind, dogs growling viciously, apprehension as to where the next blow is going to come from, and when. Footage of Iraqi's being forced into sexual positions, of an American having his head severed, of parts of Israeli bodies being paraded, of wounded combatants being tracked down and killed in cold blood.

I haven't seen much of the pictures, or footage (of either sides atrocities). I haven't wanted to. The reactions though have been explosive. And I expect a large reaction to the latest story, the beheading of Nick Berg. No doubt this'll be on the front of the sydney tabloid, the Daily Telegraph, tomorrow morning.

hello world.... ;)

2004-05-11T23:06:00.000+10:00

This new blogger format is horrible!! It makes me think I'm using a PC *shudders*.

The internet is weird lately.
I suppose I haven't been on lately (finally got my mac setup in my room). Salam Pax hasn't blogged in ages either. Ihath changed her layout.

In Iraq America and their allies are toturing Iraqis. In Townsville Australian officers are torturing kittens (doused 5 in petrol and set alight, dragged another along behind a motor bike and ran over with 4wd). The Federal Budget got released tonight. More wedges.
The Sydney Morning Herald should be a good read tomorrow.

Oh the state of the world-
And we're studying Shakespear's Othello in english *rolls eyes*!!

My cousin is going on exchange for 1 year next year to France or somewhere, I think that would be really fun- maybe I'll do something next year and do the HSC in 2006.
I have to go to bed....rambling to much.

2004-05-09T00:29:00.000+10:00

Here's a nice addition to my last post: http://www.ihath.com/2004_05_02_ctznofwrld_archive.html

P.S

2004-05-08T01:09:00.000+10:00

I will get my other gmail account AFTER they finish beta testing. mwhaha

From Faiza

2004-05-06T23:28:00.000+10:00

When I used to live in Amman my boys were young, and I needed someone to help me raising them. I hired a Sri-Lankan maid like most people there do.
When she arrived my boys gathered around her. She sat in her room having lunch. The boys were spying on her and say in childish amazement: mama, she is eating. Mama, she doesn't know how to use the spoon.
I laughed and said: yes, she is poor and from a poor country. She has a family and children and had to leave them to come and serve you because she wants to send them her salary so they could live a good life like all other people.
I cried all night in the first days after her arrival. I felt guilty. My boys have 2 mothers now while her kids have no mother now. How will they sleep? How will they spend their nights? Crying and missing her?
My neighbor laughed at me and said: don't worry about that?.They are poor,
they are not like us. Not like our families or children.
I wished I could punch her in the face and shut her up.
Is this arrogance and despising other people a culture Man acquired or is it a hereditary thing?
I think it's the latter. But the poisonous and stupid media make people know each other less and less. It separates them instead of bringing them together. It builds barriers instead of bridges. Why???

2004-05-03T16:22:00.000+10:00

Torfeida's got a much better post about the recent train problems over on his blog. He's even included pictures.

My thing was from the SMH, should've attributed. Got to get out of the house more, been to lazy to put effort into anything lately, schoolwork and blogging included.

Almost forgot.

2004-05-03T03:42:00.000+10:00

[signs back into blogger]
Benita. Over on ebay they are auctioning off gmail invites.
They're going for approx. US$70 each.

Blogger only gives you one per profile so I don't know how you're going to get those other adresses.

Dear World (And Benita),

2004-05-03T03:02:00.000+10:00

It's 3 AM and I've just finished:

sending a match report for my mum's netball club (for which she plays and is press secretary (my sisters all play for the club too) ) off to the local newspaper,

tracking down a site I visited earlier this week (randompixel) (I found it),

and reading a few blogs, articles & lot's of different websites [looks at history] : Syd Mob - Sydney Based Flashmob, 1000 Journals, BookCrossing, & RandomPixel.

It seems that I have a fascination with these kinds of projects / ideas.

I am off to bed.
'night.

Train Failures

2004-05-02T19:04:00.000+10:00

Tens of thousands of Sydney commuters were delayed or stranded today when most services ground to a halt after the rail network's communication system failed.

Crowds choked platforms with passengers left to endure lengthy delays, even after RailCorp said it had fixed the problem.

......

At the height of the problem, only 20 per cent of services were running, he said.

-SMH

From Sydney with love.

2004-04-27T15:52:00.000+10:00

I've had a pretty good holiday. Saw most of the people I wanted to. It's funny, I spent most of the time in the Blue Mountains and kept thinking of hippyville as my "home", whereas in hippyville I think of the Mountains as my "home". I guess I will have to let go of the Mountains *sniff sniff*.
One day. Something else I do all the time (i'm not sure if iv'e mentioned this before) is when I'm at school with my school friends I go "well my friends did that" referring to my mountain friends, then with my mountain friends I go "well my friends did this" referring to my school friends and either side go OHHH SOOOO we're not your friends?!! So now I have to insert mountain or school before the "friends" part.

The city hasn't changed. Still the lovely smell of pollutants, the 440 buses, the horrible transit police & bus drivers, late trains, nice food, night life, traffic jams and impending terrorist attacks (speaking of those, my aunty, my friend and I had a nice little discussion on possible places on the "hitlist" - we thought the water reserves is one (lucky I'm on rainwater), and whether or not national icons were a target).
My flight leaves at 6:30. Until next time Sydney,
Adious!

P.S there was a funny ad on the bus the other day, it was behind the driver and said "earn while you learn" i.e trying to get people to apply to be bus drivers. I thought that summed up city bus drivers quite nicely, earning while they're learning. Not sure if they should be advertising that though ;)