VolaciousNet

At the University of Sydney, they say if you haven’t started studying by the time the old Jacaranda tree in the quad breaks out into a vivid purple blossom, you are up shit creek. Every year in November, Sydney sprouts forth beautiful purple foliage all over the place, and every year for the past 7 years, I have panicked when I see them. Usually because, as they saying goes, I haven’t studied and am up shit creek. Not this year though!

Why? Because, tomorrow I graduate! Yes, I’ve taken the day off work, and I will be walking through the sandstone arch of the Great Hall for the last time as an undergraduate.

I’m so excited! Those of you who have read this blog for some time will know the agony I put myself through at uni, and my desire to walk out of that place a graduate even if it killed me. Bloody-mindedness, really. But tomorrow it’s going to happen!

Tomorrow the Johnny Blue will be cracked

So ends 11.5 years of Liberal rule under the leadership of John Howard. Australians have overwhelmingly voted for a change in government, and I can only hope that Kevin Rudd can live up to their expectations.

Like him or loathe him, one cannot deny that John Howard is a brilliant politician. Elected 4 times in a row, he managed to keep the Liberal Party going in the direction he wanted, quell party uprisings, and win elections. That is what should be expected of a party leader.
He had been attacked for many things… most Australians still do not forgive him for the dirty tricks he apparenlty played shortly before the 2001 elections, with the “children overboard” refugee boat scandal, playing on fears in order to win another election for his government. Even more Australians are furious towards him for his apparent disregard for consultation when introducing Work Choices, which he rushed through the lower and upper houses of Parliament before the public knew what had hit them.

Despite all that, he has to be commended for managing to keep the country under control in the face of ever-rising oil prices, drought and a resources boom, putting incredible upward pressure on inflation. He has lead his Party to do what he thinks was right, despite not being publicly popular. He has now paid the price for that unpopularity.

Not least, the man should be thanked for serving the country for so long, staying in office for almost 12 years because he believed it to be the best for his Party and for the nation. He was gracious in his defeat, and as he was alluding in his speech, but never publicly uttered:
“Don’t stuff it up, Kev!”

Vale, John.

___________

Whilst I have the floor here, we were watching tonight with baited breath as to what was going to happen in Bennelong, our local seat and seemingly the focus of the nation’s attention as Maxine put up a grand fight to utterly humiliate the Prime Minister. Despite the face that John has said it’s likley to go to Maxine, the polls are still close, with 77% of the vote counted, Maxine at 51% and John H at 49% (2-party preferred). Many people believe the postal vote will be strongly Liberal, so I believe it’s too early to say for Johnny. Mind you, but the time most of you read this, it will have been decided. Time will tell !

We all have them. Those days. Days where nothing seems to go right. Well, the last week I’ve certainly had my fair share of them.

Money has been a very pressing issue at the moment. Well, not so much money, as the lack of it. Hefty tax bills, suspended credit card, and much more. I’ve had to start really budgeting so I can afford the groceries. It must be that time of year… many of my friends have been in the same situation.

It hasn’t been a good week for our pets either. Shelton needed a trip to the vet, and our Bunny had managed to kick her legs so hard that she broke her own back and paralysed herself. That was a $250 vet trip I didn’t need. Today we decided to put her down… I sat in the clinic with the Bunny sitting on my lap, and she was curious and sniffing around and wanting to know what was going on.. I could quite safely leave her on the seat, after all, she wasn’t going anywhere. I sat with her as the nurse inserted the catheter and administered the anaesthetic. Not the nicest feeling in the world… I pray I never have to do it again.

Shortly after I got a panicked call from work, as I’m the lucky bugger on call this week. Drove into the office in record time, and in my haste managed to dent the Subaru on a post in the parking lot. It was at this point I sat down, lit up a cigarete, and just decided that it was just one of those days.

Is it Karma? I don’t know… I haven’t done anything particularly evil lately. Nothing out of the ordinary, in any case. Whatever it is, I’ve had to take a lot of deep breaths, and harden my emotions as I don’t know whether I want to cry or break something in a soul-cleansing outburst of rage. Both sound good at the moment, however probably not very helpful.

So… in with love, out with hate, as they always say. Tomorrow is a new day, right?

From RealEuphoria (again!)

When one realises they have bad habits, they must then have three things:

I watched a great movie a long time ago, called What The Bleep Do We Know?, a fairly well-known movie that does its best to explain human behaviour, on many different levels. It attempts to explain our habits by showing how neurological pathways and synapses are strengthened every time we follow the same thought pattern, and as such it is often very difficult to think differently, as our brain activity will always attempt to traverse the strongest networks. Thus, we have difficulty forming new thought functions as the synapses and networks we need to use are weak and the pathways are not defined. To forge “virgin” pathways, (rather than combinations of existing ones), we need to chemically alter our brain and focus electrical signals along this route. That’s the tricky bit.

Some people have incredibly self-destructive, annoying, or plain stupid behaviours… as friends we see them and try and help them cope, but much of the time we let out a big sigh and realise that’s just who they are… you’d like to slap them upside the head and knock some sense into them, but you know it probably won’t work. You know they need a big wake-up call, and the sad thing is that sometimes people need to hit rock-bottom before they can realise this or have the means to change it. You feel sorry for them, because you know they’re going to hit the wall, and it’s gunna hurt.

For the first 18 years of my life, I was conservative, racist, self-loathing, slightly homophobic and socially inept. These habits thankfully changed, but not easily. It took months of mental degradation and self-torture to get me to the point where my life wasn’t even worth a bullet. Although completely involuntarily, I had ripped up the foundations giving me a blank slate to rebuild myself. I have always thought back and regarded this period as a blessing in disguise, despite the pain.

So I’m here now, realising well in advance that I have fundamental behaviours that I know I must change, but changing life-long habits is frustrating as it’s so easy to fall back into old routines without even realising it. How can one force the brain to forge “new” pathways, wtihout resorting to anything too life-changing or drastic? Self-discipline is usually the answer to overcoming any problem… stick at it long enough, and you’ll change those habits for the better. But what happens when self-discipline and laziness is at the core of the problem you’re trying to fix? It’s like raking up water!

Down the Rabbit Hole I go…