3 Sept – #Ferguson

What is the most helpful post (or Twitter hashtag) you read in all the coverage on Ferguson?

 

I don’t use twitter so I haven’t been following this story that closely.

Living overseas, it’s interesting how this story is portrayed in international media, and from what I’ve seen, it was run as a story about an innocent teenager who was innocently gunned down and murdered by the police. The police were portraying him as a ‘thug’, as well as other ultra-conservative media outlets, whereas other media outlets were calling those people out on it and calling shenanigans as a case of racial profiling / stereotyping.

Being an ‘outsider’ to this type of story, it’s hard to form an opinion about the situation, because we’re being presented with both sides of the story. This type of issue in terms of violence between police and African-Americans doesn’t really exist in out country – well, certainly not to the extent that it does in the United States. Instead, we just have a government more concerned with turning away political refugees and asylum seekers and sending them right back to where they were fleeing from, or locking them up in refugee centres. Well done, Australia.

Given that our media is soooo heavily influenced by American media, I try to avoid it as much as possible, because it’s usually only about 3 things:
– the most recent school shooting,
– whatever couch Kim Kardashian is currently impersonating, and
– every little thing that Obama does.

Okay, so maybe it’s not that bad, but it is pretty full on. Sometimes I feel like our supposed ‘local’ news is just relaying everything that happened in America, and then it’s interrupted with tomorrow’s local weather. This is why I try to avoid the news.

In terms of US media, I’m not going to deny that the black community is regularly portrayed as the violent criminals and the police are always doing the right thing – by gunning them down. But at the same time, the US police seem to have the same reputation as the Victorian police here used to: shoot first, ask questions later. I can’t help but feel as though the US cops are a bit too trigger happy and they get a bit power hungry from wearing the uniform, that mentality of “I AM the law, so I’m completely untouchable” and so they can then pretty much do anything regardless of whether it’s using excess force to subdue a suspect, through to shooting an innocent person, they don’t care because they’re in a uniform – and that makes it okay.

However, if the guy shoots a cop, he’s up for the death penalty…

Daily Prompt: Young At Heart

What are your thoughts on aging? How will you stay young at heart as you get older?

The thought of getting older is actually something that secretly terrifies me. I find that when I start thinking about it, I get a bit obsessed about it.

I feel as though I’ve been robbed of a life of enjoyment. Life has robbed me of the opportunities to do the sort of things that you’re supposed to do in certain age groups.

For example, when I was in my late teens, all I wanted was to study dance and pursue that as a career. That didn’t happen because of a spinal injury.

In my Twenties, those are the years that you’re supposed to be travelling the world; working overseas; finding yourself etc etc etc. Well, I guess I managed to find myself. The other two – that didn’t happen. Whilst other friends of mine were off getting dance contracts on Cruise Ships, I was stuck in an office cubicle, feeling miserable and being bullied by my employer to the point of having a small nervous breakdown.

In my mid-twenties, other people were working hard and saving for house deposits – I on the other hand was too busy struggling to be able to pay my rent, buy groceries and pay my bills. I was caught up in being Miss Independent, and dealing with an absolutely clusterfuck of a relationship that pretty much destroyed me mentally and emotionally.

By the time I had reached my late twenties, I still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that I was already in my late-twenties. Thirty was rapidly approaching, and it was approaching at a speed that I just wasn’t prepared for. People were getting married and having kids, and buying cars and houses, and here I was renting a shitty apartment with Hulk, trying to determine what our future had in store for us. Everybody around us was travelling overseas – but it was constant. Somebody was just coming back from overseas, and planning their next trip. As they were coming back, other people were getting ready to leave. Sometimes it was a week here or there, or going for two / three / four weeks at a time. I couldn’t wrap my head around how these people were able to afford to do so.

Then it clicked. Money. Management. The one thing that I simply cannot do.

Now that I’m in my early thirties, I still feel lost and confused. Part of me is telling me that I should be doing responsible things like saving for a house deposit. Or saving for a trip overseas. One of my friends is over in Europe for a few weeks. Other friends of ours are in the U.S. for a few weeks. One of my co-workers has just left to go to New York for three weeks. Another co-worker is going overseas for two or three months later in the year. I just find it so depressing.

I still don’t even know what I want to be when I grow up. There’s certainly a lot that I dream about achieving, but getting it to actually happen is a completely different story. I don’t want to be one of those people who is stuck in the same job for twenty years, but I realised that I’ve already been in my job for (I think) ten years already.

If that’s the case… where was my fucking celebration cake? Probably because it’s not the sort of achievement that should be celebrated. Oh congratulations. You’ve failed at life so epically, you’ve achieved absolutely nothing, and are basically more than happy to just settle with a shitty job that doesn’t fulfill you for ten years. *slow claps* well done, loser. What a role model!!

So even though I may get older in age, I still feel young at heart. I still love my video games, in particular, LEGO ones. I love going to the movies. I love going to concerts. I’ve pretty much lost all interest in going out, simply because the ‘scene’ nowadays has totally changed.

…Oh god, I just used the terms ‘nowadays’. Just call me grandpa.

I still buy cool clothes and shoes, but at the end of the day, it’s just stuff. It’s not a house. It’s not a car. It’s not a trip overseas. I really should focus on achieving those.

…but maybe I’ll think about that after the LEGO Movie Game comes out on PS3 next week. hehehe.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/prompt-young/

Daily Prompt: The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Publish a post in the style of a favorite author/blogger or photographer.

I’ve decided to dedicate this post to one of my favourite types of blog, the (X-Number) of things we (should eat / do / watch / avoid / stop doing etc).

6 Things I Hate About TV in Australia

1. It’s mostly American.

Everything that I like to watch is primarily American, and only a very small percentage of those shows are actually shown here on our free-to-air network.

2. Geo-locators

Living in the arse-end of the world certainly makes a lot of stuff difficult. Many companies don’t ship internationally to our country – like Reebok (Why? WHY DON’T YOU WANT MY MONEY!!?), and even some major marketplaces have limited shipping options – I’m looking right at you, Amazon!!

But what really grinds my gears is that I would rather pay for a Netflix account so that I could watch everything I want to, and pay for it, rather than just download them off the interwebs. But I can’t do that, because apparently nothing exists outside the bubble of the USA’s self-importance.

3. Aussie TV is not that great.

So far the best thing that Australia has produced is probably Offspring, and the very first series of Underbelly. Yet, our biggest export is Home & Away and Neighbours. I compare them to American shows like Bold and the Beautiful etc. Ridiculous drama’s with terrible acting, incredibly predictable story lines and the season finale that always guarantees at least one cast member will die, or leave due to a bomb explosion / murder / boat sinking / car accident etc etc.

However, my favourite send up (spoof) of these shows was on a sketch show called Fast Forward. They did a regular piece of a show called Dumb Street…

4. All the good stuff is on Foxtel

Foxtel is a pay-tv / subscription service with something like 50 channels, but they don’t have the channels or programmes that I would want to watch. Well, not all of them. It is primarily all american content, but a lot of it are shows I already download.

5. Nothing runs on time.

All the shows that we have set to record at the moment eg. The Block, My Kitchen Rules etc are all set to record on our DVR, but they either start too early, or finish later than advertised. Our DVR is set to record 10mins before and 10mins after and we still manage to miss either the beginning / end of episodes. SO FRUSTRATING!! And sometimes, even if it’s set to record a show, the network sometimes airs something different. Then just to add a little more salt to my first-world-problem wound, when we go to watch it online, there’s about 3mins of advertisements between each 7-8min segment of the show which just makes you want to scream.

6. We’re so behind!

So, generally speaking, by the time a season of a show has aired in the US, that’s when we will have it premiere here in ‘Straya. Over the last couple of years, some shows have been advertised as ‘airing straight after it airs in the US’ which has made things a bit more acceptable, but I find that most of the time when that’s the case, I can already be 4 or 5 episodes ahead if I just download it off the interweb. I know it’s wrong. I know I shouldn’t do it. I’d be more than happy to pay for it, but nobody seems to want to take my money in order to do so. Why? WHY DON’T YOU WANT MY MONEY!?!?

So then I’ll find myself hunched over my laptop lining late at night looking for the latest episodes of all the shows I am currently watching…

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/daily-prompt-copies/