Because people are liars.

So I'm sitting here, thinking about the 13 year old boy who was swept away by floodwaters to his death, along with his mother. And I'm trying to imagine his fear, his terror, as he tells the lone rescuer (alone among many people who are only standing by, watching) to take his little brother first. (Read original article here)

I'm wondering, what that old man felt as he watched the rope he'd tried to tie around mother and son, snap. What was he feeling as he watched them swept away? What would you feel?

Would you have been the bystander, or the helper?

I'm also sitting here, looking at that event page I created to encourage people to donate, to help people in QLD. A measly 24 (now 28 OMG...pretty stoked actually lol), including myself, among 223 friends invited, pmed and so forth.

Now, give or take, I'll say maybe 5-10 more people maybe donated and didn't click attend. But what about people who don't care enough? It doesn't matter that they don't care really, but these are some of the people who talked about their handbags and bra sizes to 'raise awareness for Breast Cancer' (yes, because we didn't know what it was. Really, we needed to work through the riddle of your status to find out). Or they changed their profile pictures to 'raise awareness for Child Abuse' (yes, because that will stop the pedos).

Would I be the rescuer? Or would I be the bystander?

It's none of my business.
I can't do anything to help.
Other people will do it so they don't need me.

We all like to think we'd help. We all like to condemn others for not helping, but really, come the time we need to step up and help someone --do we? Of course not. Very few actually do. We always wait to see if anyone will do it first. It's called the Bystander Effect --and fact is, most of us will be the Bystander.

Now, don't get me wrong, I never really go crusading. I'll help, but usually, you'll have to shoot me before I stand up and actively try and make other people do the same. Why? I hate the responsibility --but at least I admit it.

Maybe this year I just got sick of being quiet. Sick of reading through mundane statuses, sick of reading statuses like 'Red' or 'On the table' --sick of bull shit.

And yeah, I've been guilty of the same. I'm ashamed of it, and dammit, I won't do it again.

I think if you want to help, if you want to say you're a good person, then go out and be one. If you want to help with the Breast Cancer cause, donate. Take that stupid cartoon off your profile picture and volunteer for something.

Otherwise, you're just lying to yourself.

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to help, not really caring, having other things to do. Life is hectic, and you have bills, you have social events, you have work. Sometimes you just don't have anything to give at the moment.

But admit it. Don't lie yourself. If you care, you do something about it. If you don't care at the moment, don't pretend to. Next time you update your status to something stupid, ask yourself how much you're really doing.

Being a Bystander isn't what's wrong. Telling yourself you're not one, when you really are --that's wrong.

You might say that admitting it alone won't do anything. You're not correct there. If you don't admit it, you can never change --because you'll never see the need to --because in your head, you're perfect. If you can admit it, then you might change, you have the option of changing, because you know there's room for it.

My new years resolution: To stop lying to myself. Wtf are you going to do this year?

Racist Australia

Now, like alot of other Australians, when India reared its head and screamed that Australians were racist during that horrible investigation into attacks on Indian students, I stood up and said "WTF?! Australia isn't racist!"

And now, I've realized, 'no...no...actually, some Australians are so racist they should have been born 50 years ago.'

Why the change of heart?

Read here,

and here.

So who else is sick of "Foreigners are taking all our jobs" or "All Muslims are evil" or "if people want to live in Australia, they should live the 'Australian way'".

What the fuck is the 'Australian Way'? And who are these people?
I certainly haven't met any of them in real life. So thereby, they must hide or pretend to be decent, modern citizens during the day and only reveal their racist selves under the cover of night.

Rich people's poetry.

Now here's what I noticed. There is one young lady that I know of who blogs, writes, dances, sings, draws, explores and seems to be trying her very best to show off how spectacularly wonderful she is.

Now she is not alone in her amazing powers of the arts (heed sarcasm)--there are HEAPS of them out here. ('Here' being on the web and real life and 'them' being rich little kiddies who have too much time and money for their own good.)

Now here's my:
Slab of delicious red meat?
No.
Here's my beef.

For centuries, the arts have been primarily excelled at by those who have two things: Wealth and Time.

Now in my opinion, if you have wealth, you most likely have time. Far be it from me to judge (although it's actually not very far at all, in fact, I lie. I judge.) but would that we all have so much time and money --surely we'd all be spectacular at everything right?

If everyone's papa had the funds to let them travel the world writing and dancing then really, everyone could be very accomplished in both those things.

Call me bitter and jealous --for I am, and rightly so. Resentful even. I can't help but feel this injustice smack bam into my face. Nothing irritates me more than the wealthy priding themselves on their endless pursuits in perfecting their 'arts' when really, who cares? What are they doing but masturbating their (deluded) sense of social value?

So you dance well?
Great!
You can string words together?
WONDERFUL!

What?!
You've written poetry about nothing and something all at the same time and it's so wonderful that it leaves people scratching their heads because they don't really understand it, but dont want anyone to know it, so they just exclaim, "MARVELLOUS! Aren't you just marvellous?!" just so no one knows that they don't get it.

(You can't even blame them because really, most of those self-proclaimed poets aren't writing poetry at all. They're just writing in their own crazy code. No one save a highly experienced psychologist with extensive practice in psychoanalysis would be able to decode that crap.)

To be honest, if poetry was just a couple of sentences, paragraphed and obscure in meaning, then we can all be poets. See below:

A cloud, evanescence in obtuse,
bequeath a slow be-symphony

Haveth not all that can be,
A soliliquy of one's self and

in Essence,
A song of mut meanalysis.
What is a porterhouse?

Now, at least I know that the above is worse than crap. Worse actually. It's crap spewed from a diseased cow, consumed by a bogan donkey, digested in that donkey's mouldy intestine, excreted from the donkey's pimpled arse only to be consumed once again by an illiterate monkey, who is then drowned in sewerage and later consumed by a human who will then go completely insane, lose the function of his brain and then crap all over the walls. He then takes a quill formed from a feather plucked from a flea infested pigeon and dips it in the said crap to produce the above piece of ULTIMATE CRAPNESS.

Yeah, and it's still better than the shit those rich infidels spout.


Message of the day: You're not a poet, you're not a Beethoven incarnate, you can't dance like Michael Jackson (not a reference to Wongfu video on yt --that was actually pretty cool), you aren't more talented than other people --you're just lucky.

Be a decent human being and get off your high horse to help an old lady across the road once in a while. And if you can, try to help the smelly ones who are probably dying and lost, rather than the perfectly well dressed, actually only 50 yrs old, ladies who are happily crossing the roads themselves.

trying really hard to let things go...but ...MIND RAGE.

So,

Have you ever felt like

but you pretended you were:

?

Well, I'm feeling it now. Thankfully, I'm reading Phillipa Gregory's "Early Joys". One should, as Sir Robert Cecil said in that book, act on the practical, rather than on principle.

Who would it benefit if I raged at the person who offends my morals at this point? Not me. So why do it?

Still.Angry bear.

Inspiration

Burn out

So, that's it.
Faced with too many assessments all at once, my natural reaction is to give up and loaf around the house.

Have to MAN UP.




...*cries*


ps. woke up skinnier, didn't realize, ate 3 slices of pizza for breakfast. Prediction: will wake up fat tomorrow.

It's been a long time.

Really busy.
Minimal sleep.
Psych essay due in 11 days, only just found out about it now ---dammit.
Psych quiz on this friday. Studied wrong crap. Dammit.
Java h/w to do by wed night.
Readings for thurs to do...by...thurs...
Random Client Support project due monday
IT essentials quiz on monday as well...
*dies*

mannn

ps.

I checked my email today and saw this:

If you can't read it, it says "Academy_Connection_Asses"

lol