ZinZam

Paper Planes

June 14, 2009

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Spend your leave wisely

August 16, 2008

Having a full time job, I get 20 paid leave days of annual a year. The days are given to you pro-rata, which means you save them up during the year a couple a month, and then can "spend" them in chunks of your choosing.

I have already spent four leave days this year, which leaves me with 16 come January 2009. I also want to spend five days in Christchurch come December, and a couple of days in New Castle, Toowoomba, and Brisbane over Christmas.

Troy and Richard have proposed we go to Melbourne for a week in January or February.

Now because I want to take all this leave in a short space of only three months, I need to plan how much leave I can take, utilising weekends and public holidays (which are aplenty in December and January) to the fullest, while still being in the places I need to be on the date I need to be there.

On that note, this is the last Christmas before we all transition into the world of full time work, and the leave dilemma faces us all. It wouldn't be so bad had I got a job in Brisbane, where my social life still lives, but the fact is the logistics to get to Brisbane is to get anything out of a visit, requires at least one day of leave to be taken.

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Acceptance, a two way street

May 24, 2006

I originally wrote the following today to be posted as a blog entry, but it got disorganised and messy towards the end. I'm going to post it anyway as a raw unpolished work because I think it still captures the essence of what I was trying to say. That is, we all have to accept eachother for who we are.

quote:

I was at uni today (like I am everyday, *pays out lazy arse arts students who complain they have to come in two days a week*), and saw a banner on a table which said "Islamic Awareness day". To be honest I'm aware that there are Islamic people, but I wasn't aware it was "Islamic Awareness day".

Then I thought, why would I need to be aware of this, isn't a good multicultural mix being unaware of our differences in socity. Then it hit me, it's their religion, it doesn't accept us. Now this brings me onto the topic of this blog post acceptance.

Where does acceptance start? In the western world we are fairly accepting, but if you take a closer look we're shockingly rejudice, this still sadly includes sexism, racism, homophobia, etc... So what's the point? Acceptance goes both ways! Thats right, I have to accept you have your views, and you have to accept I have mine. Unfortunately we are terrible at being able to do that, look at bullying in school yards.

Of course I accept you don't have to accept anything, but it would be easier if people would just accept that. So therein lies a problem, we have to accept acceptance, or accept to accept to accept.

The other problem is drawing a line of how far we go with our ability to accept, what kind of behaviour is tollerable. A good gauge is behaviour that doesn't cause due grief to other people. This would allow us to not accept anti-social behaviours such as violence and manslaughter. But if people aren't accepting, natural behaviour may cause due grief to other people. For example, if we aren't accepting of women in the workplace, because of our inability to accept this it may cause due grief to us like people used to faint when people used profanity in public.

This brings us to a new gauge, behaviour that doesn't cause due grief if the behaviour is accepted. For example, if we just accept women in the workplace, it won't cause anyone or anything grief. This is a situation where everyone is happy.

This works, because manslaughter creates grievous bodily harm. The only issue left now is violence towards animals. But if we have the model of causing grief, we can also apply it to animals. But where do we draw the line, animals for food? do we kill the cockroaches (go the maroons!), or get that can of sly spray out? These are entirely different issues, but they are something to think about nonetheless.

So in conclusion we should be more accepting of people peoples cultures and beliefs, even if they impede on our own traditions because at the core of it, we know it's the right thing to do, which when you think about it is the core belief we all have in common.

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Jo Lively

June 18, 2005

Probably the biggest living well promotion to hit Australian televisions since "Life be in" it is Jo Lively's more all round message of "Eat Well, Live Well, Play Well", something I wish I did.



Of course my generation were a bit young for life be in it, and now we're a bit old for Jo Lively's message, so I officially feel screwed. Ahh well.

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The Simpsons

May 25, 2005

Here is a small snippet from last nights episode of the simpsons. The episode is the one when the inventor shows Bart and Lisa 8 years into the future.

quote:

"Mr Smithers!, I thought you were" - Bart Simpson
"No, I'm straight, as long as I take these injections every 10 minutes" *injects* "I LOVE BOOBIES!!!" - Mr Smithers, the simpsons

This is obiviously another one of their clever political statements they often slip in. I have only just started to notice these even in older episode, and they directly relate to the current issues in the United States. This one obviously has something to do with recent US federal elections a separate vote was taken at the same time in several US states about this issue, and a warning of how far this close mindedness could end up.

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UNFIT

May 15, 2005

On my rounds of the internet today, I googled something somehow found HUMBUG, the Unix group from my university. And exploring their site they had linked to dilbert, I hadn't been to dilbert in too long a time, so I had a look. Exploring dilbert I found a new comic being 'promoted' entitled unfit.

It's essentially about a fit person having the last laugh over unhealthy Americans who think their body comes with a warranty (well was the topic of todays strip). Not the first time I've heard people ranting about those who think the human body comes with a warranty. Though I can't exactly remember where.

I myself aren't anywhere near fit, but for some reason (possible inadvertedly skipping breakfast and/or lunch serveral times a week) am underweight.

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