ZinZam

The World is Real

April 03, 2010

It is good enough to make blanket statements, and to hold your principles and values with an iron fist. But that is not the real world.

Antitrust" wrote:

This isn't a game! In the real world, when you kill people they die - for real! And in the real world you're fucked!

And in the real world, your prejudices hurt people. It causes some to fall into depression, and yes, people do die. Some people are so deeply held in their prejudices they cause other people to die, but that's ok because it's not them.

But that isn't their principles, their values, to have people dying, so what causes this? A lot of people follow the perceived popularised values in their community in setting their values and principles that leads to them instilling other peoples values on others, not their own.

So before you say something insensitive, find your values and face the truth, in the real world, with your prejudices people die, for real. But don't forget to respect other people's values.

Step outside, take a deep fresh breath, and be yourself. If people won't accept you for who you are, your values, your personality, fuck them, and ignore them.

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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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My dad ruins christmas and that's ok

December 18, 2007

Every year Christmas erupts in this giving of material possessions that makes people unhappy. It can be for many reasons including people misunderstanding who you really are (which can hurt deep from family), or people taking it too seriously and getting completely wrapped up in gift giving without giving a moment of thought as to why. It further complicates matters when surprises are spoilt, and the dollar value of a gift comes into question, or is revealed. It is simply better to not know.

The past two years I have created a wish list in the same format, numbered 1 though x. This never works that well with #1 often being ignored, often not for cost reasons, but because someone in the family has an ideological standpoint, which hurts the most when the item is of educational value compared with other items. Yet year after year we continue to do this, to bring satisfaction and joy to the gift giver. I've pretty much given up on mindstorms, after having run it in my list for over half a decade, I still put it in my list this year. Of course being a mechatronic engineer having slogged it out at uni for the past 4 years, and probably wanting mindstorms for the 4 years prior, you would think that this award winning educational product would be an appropriate gift, more so than the largely disused Combat Flight Simulator II and joystick combo I was given one year.

So this year I have taken a different approach. I still list the dollar value at retail to aid in my parents decision making process (money makes the world go round). Mindstorms is actually several hundred dollars cheaper than the item my sister has basically bullied my parents into ensuring she recieves under the Christmas tree this year. I have created a chart instead of a list which describes the relationship between gifts. For example a game may accompany a console which may require a tv tuner to use. Let's face it, it isn't the cheapest thing on the list, but when coupled with the questions I had been asked prior to having prepared the list, I am getting a Wii, or at least the USB TV tuner I specified.

Not only is the chart different in that it specifies relationships between items, it also arranges the big ticket items by dollar value rather than preference. It also states that I don't have to get a big ticket item, pick from smaller items. The cheapest items are a bunch of albums that I wouldn't mind having. Rather than speaking of dollar value, I should be speaking about entertainment value per dollar spent. In that area music clearly wins where single songs reach hundreds of play counts over the years. It is also good as it supports artists, especially given that I specified albums. Singles don't help bands.

Some people may think that video games would rank next, but I don't have the attention span to ever finish one, and let's face it, competing for a TV to play a video game when you're at uni doesn't win appraisal, ever. Though video games are by far more social, especially with Internet gaming where you don't have to be social with your family, but can be with your friends and extended family instead. In fact a more solitary pursuit wins, Mindstorms.

The other things I listed were some star wars Lego sets, (I love Lego, and get the magazine quarterly in the mail still), and of course I listed the Canon EOS 400D again which has dropped about $400 since last Christmas, but after this year it's usefulness is limited as all the social events are pretty much over. If I do get the 400D, I'll have no excuse not to go to Q1, even if Richard or others are working that day. The last and most item was an entry level SONY HD HDD handycam (I have no use for). My sister said "could I think of anything else more expensive", and I said yes (that 40" Bravia TV I want). When I told Richard he laughed and said he could think of more expensive things as well. This comes from someone who spent $500 on a computer chassis and close to $300 on in-ear earphones. I think there is also a solid chance of getting the 400D as I have been bitching about my G7 all year (stupid consumer grade 5x7mm CCD), but in realistic terms I'll be getting the Wii. But who knows, it could amalgamate itself into a graduation gift that I've been promised, and with Vodafone mobile Internet out of the question until at least August, who knows.

I don't really care for gifts anymore, but if it makes my parents happy, I am grateful to accept. They like to make me happy, and it's one of the few things they know how to do which does so. But sometimes the only gift you can ask for is respect (which is what I have really been wanting the past couple of years over material possessions), and when they fail to deliver on that, getting upset is inevitable. Any material possession I can go and buy myself, but trust and respect from your parents can't be packed bought and sold, but it can still be given. And it is that inability to buy the gift that makes it more precious than anything I have listed on my Christmas wish list.

But there is one redeeming characteristic of Christmas, and it's not going to see the relies who you otherwise don't know exist and exists no-one else in the family to which you can relate to. It's of course the gathering of the relatives you do know exist. This year rather than falling on the weekend before Christmas, the family lunch falls on Christmas day. All my favourite family will be there, so I am looking foward to that.

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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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