Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

I may not agree with why you are doing what you do, but I will always admire your courage and never begrudge you the honour you deserve.

~~ Lest we forget ~~

Further Zebra Thinkings

I have no idea what to think about the execution of the Bali Bombers.

On one hand, I hate the thought of taking a human life. To think that there could be so much more to these lives. Or the huge effect that their deaths would have on the people around them. Also, what happens if the law system was wrong? What happens if they did not really do it? I'm pretty sure there has been a few people that were hanged or electrocuted and then were cleared when DNA testing came in.

On the other hand, I have a bit of a connection with the Bali bombings. Nothing too great. I was in Kuta less than a month before the bombings. (I think it was around 2 weeks before) I went on a school trip with my mum as I was studying Indonesian at school. I got to talk with the people, go to a local market, visit the temples and spend a few nights in the wonderful hills of Ubud. The second Bali bombings took place at Jimbaran Bay - the beautiful beach where we had a very special dinner on one of our last nights. I was more traumitised by this then I was by September 11.

So sometimes I feel like the deaths of these men are warranted - they ruined that idyllic holiday island, took the lives of so many people, and ruined the tourism of Bali - the one thing the locals count on to survive.
But then, these men were people, human lives and who are we to decide that they no longer deserve to live? How can we punish their decision that others lives are worthless, by reacting in the same way???

It's times like this that I wish I did think in black and white.

round and round.....

Things that people do on buses that irritate me:

- don't give elderly or pregnant or disabled people a seat
- stand at the back doors which forces people to cram in down towards the front door - the driver then thinks the bus is full and won't let anyone else on even though there is space at the back.
- sit in the aisle seat. Then either put their bag on the window seat or stand up to let someone else sit at the window seat - Just move the fuck over!
- people who put their legs out into the aisle or sit only half in the chair. People do need to get past!
- school kids that sit in the seats and refuse to move for anyone else, whilst making a lot of noise whilst I'm trying to get a few extra minutes of sleep (this morning there was actually a whole group of school girls that stood up to let others sit down - but they then ruined the good gesture by standing at the back door)
- smell. Okay its said a lot but some people really do smell! Don't eat a lot of curry if you are not going to bathe!!!


Hmm....maybe I just get annoyed easily.

And you can take or leave it if you please....

I caught the last 15mins of that terrible* episode of M*A*S*H last night - the one where Henry Blake is going home.

What is it about M*A*S*H ? What makes a show so great that just about every time you flick the channels and it is on, you will sit down and watch it? I have yet to hear someone say that they hate/loathe M*A*S*H. (correct me if I'm wrong)

There is one quote that I always remember from M*A*S*H;

"Hawkeye: War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Father Mulcahy: How do you figure, Hawkeye?

Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?

Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.

Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander. "

For some reason this conversation has always stuck with me...."There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. " Sums it all up pretty much doesn't it?

Hmm, I think I had more that I wanted to say on all this but my brain doesn't seem to be working. Oh well, what do you think?

Great version of Suicide is painless here: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/tv/mediaplayer/default.htm?clip=rtmp://cp44823.edgefcs.net/ondemand/flash/triplej/streams/tv/drones_suicide_lav.flv&title=The

Cartoon is by Vince O'Farrell found here:
http://www.caglepost.com/cartoon/Vince+OFarrell/1593/soldiers+mother.html

*terrible as in great (but still makes me cry every time)

Hear those sleigh bells ringing...

I hate thinking about Christmas this early but I'm going on a holiday in November so it needs to be organised now.

Basically, we have decided to have the family Christmas lunch at our house this year as it is our first Christmas as a married couple. So my immediate family and my husband's - looking at around 12- 15 people.

Problems:

• our house is tiny! We have nowhere in the house that all those people can even sit together at the one time
• we do not have a backyard - well there is technically a backyard but we do not have access to it. We are working with our landlord to resolve this.
• working on the fact that we will have the backyard we have two marquee/tent thingies that we can put up - problem = backyard is mostly concrete
• we do not have enough space to store cold/hot items and only have a tiny, really old stove
• Hubby is a chef but doesn't want to spend all day preparing food and plating it (as we cannot plate it the day before due to storage issues)

I know it sounds like a lot of trouble but we would really like to do it.

Any ideas?

Where do they all belong?

Everyone has a story. Or in some cases, stories. But what happens when they are gone, and there is no one else to tell those stories??

My dad has already lived a pretty amazing life. He had travelled around the world before meeting my mum at the age of 30 and settling down and having kids. He's lived in England, Africa and New Zealand for a year at a time. I am still hearing of different jobs that he has had including an electrician, carpet layer and most recently ICEE man. He has thousands of stories to tell and, even though I sometimes get sick of hearing them, I think they should be told.

His uncle was a POW. The family didn't talk to him about it, thinking that he wouldn't want to talk about it. My father had the opportunity once or twice to discuss it with him, and now wishes he had more of a chance to do so, as he feels that his uncle needed someone to discuss it with. His was a story that definitely should have been told.

I often wonder what stories the people around me have. Walking through Martin Place I sometimes think, "where is that person going? Who are they meeting? What are they thinking?"

I like to go to airports and just people watch. And wonder. "Who are they meeting? Where are they going? Where has the person been that they are meeting?"

It's one reason that I feel sad when I see homeless people. They have stories, they have a reason (or cause) for being there. But no one will most likely ever know because they will almost always die alone. I have had an idea that I've been thinking of for ages. First of all it was just to collect stories written by ordinary people on different subjects. Eg. their experiences with love, or travelling etc. But then I thought it should be narrowed down a little, so I thought why not homeless people? They have every right to have their story told, and maybe even more so as they are unlikely to have anyone to remember them or their stories.

A saying that I often hear in the media when someone passes away is "They are survived by {wife, family etc}". I like that - I like to think that a memory of us is survived by our family and our loved ones, through our combined memories and the stories that we pass on.

** I'm not sure who this photo is originally by but I found it at http://buen-amigo.blogspot.com/2007/11/story-of-life.html **

For good times and bad times....

Why is it that with some friends you go for months, years even, without seeing each other, and then as soon as you catch up, it's like nothing has ever changed??

I grew up around the corner from one of my school friends (literally around the corner, no more than 2mins walk) and yet we hardly saw each other outside of school. Once school finished I would go 6 months without seeing her. But once we did finally meet up, it was like those months didn't exist.

There's none of that awkwardness that you sometimes have with accquaintances - you've chatted about how your job is going, yes the family is great, the weather is fantastic this time of year.... and then that awkward silence, as both participants try to think of something to say. Best of all, there is no guilt. No silent accusations..."why haven't you called me!?!" or even the subtly disguised accusations.." wow, it's been ages since we've caught up! Have you been really busy?"

Now that I've moved a couple of hours away from "home" it is even harder to catch up with friends. Recently I had lunch with a friend from school. I hadn't seen her for four years but she had spent the last year working a street away from me. Now, I know some people would be horrified to go a year without seeing their friend, especially when they are so close and it's so easy to meet up for lunch. But even when we did meet up, neither of us had an issue with it. Sure, we both missed catching up more often, but we took it as it was - a chance to gossip and chat over lunch. Nothing more nothing less.

I will be the first to admit that I don't have a lot of friends. My facebook account may say different but there are not many people that I would class as being my friend. I've finally been able to whittle it down from the ones that don't demand all of my time, and can understand if I'd rather spend a weekend bludging around the house with my husband than hitting the same club or bar every single weekend.

I feel blessed to finally have found those friends who will put up with me basically disappearing for months on end but who are still willing to meet for a chat and good food :)

Have fun :)

Zebra Thinkings

I don't think there is any true "black & white situations".
For anything I always think it is possible that there is a situation that you can't just say "This is the only thing to do...this is the only way you can think about that."

Abortion for example. I think it is awful to extinguish any life however I do think that there is some situations where it would be necessary or better to do so.

Basically, I don't think I can have any absolute values or morals. I'm more of a case-by-case person. I agree (in theory) with values such as "it's wrong to kill, lie or steal" but I don't think I could ever not make an exception.

When I was studying postmodernism in English during high school one idea that really stuck out at me. The idea of "TRUTH" and there being no real truth. I think this pretty much explains it:

"Postmodernism is a reinterpretation of what knowledge is and what counts as knowledge. According to postmodernism there is no such thing as absolute truth. ‘Reality’, rather than being something that exists independent of the language or theories anyone may use to describe it, is something constructed or made-up by society. ‘Language’ creates reality, but since language changes and word meanings vary, what is ‘real’ for one group of people may be ‘unreal’ for another. Not only is all thought merely ‘socially and historically conditioned’, but even the very ‘laws of logic’ (identity, non-contradiction and the excluded middle) are ‘Western constructs’ which must not be taken as universally valid, and certainly cannot be imposed on people of other cultures."

http://www.webtruth.org/articles/cultural-issues-26/postmodernism-35.html

There is so much more to it but that really puts it succinctly.
So how does this tie in on my view of Abortion? Basically, if everything is "made up by society" then how do we know our values and how morals are "real"??? If I don't really know if a tree is actually a tree, how can I say if it is right or wrong to take another life?!?!

Hmmm, Postmodernism is interesting. I might blog a bit more on that later.

Have fun! :)