Whats bugging me today

Pet Hate # 978

Why oh why when I am walking down the footpath/sidewalk, if I am a single individual, do pairs of people think its ok to "push" me off the path?
Below, a diagram.
The left, is what irritates me so (I am the pink dot). Why is scenario 2 (right) so hard to accomplish? That's how I walk on paths in a pair?

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Why do girls going to school now carry nothing but handbags (and tiny ones)? I DO NOT understand this.
Where are their books? AND, even if I concede that they may have lockers AT school, where is their homework? Surely they don't all carry PDA's or something equally ridiculous to do their schoolwork on? I recall in high school everyone endeavouring to carry the smallest bags they could to school, but as we didn't have lockers, this only resulted in everyone carrying enormous ring binder folders with all their books in their arms instead of their shoulders. You demonstrated your obvious individuality by how witty, how brilliantly you sourced the cut outs and photos you decorated your folder with. So much better than Calvin & Hobbes on that folder (so childish), or Luke Perry (too "teen") no you're moody and "deep" because you have a post-modern something-or-other.
How many adults do you see doing that now? None, and there's a reason.

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Australian School Captain Graduation blunder

This Gary Rego guy sounds like a tool. He's blasting the Principal and acting Principal in his speech at a Graduation dinner, and now he's got to sit his HSC at another school. Clever idea, idiot. Listen to his speech here.

Liar liar pants on fire!

I, Dataceptionist, your faithful blogger, am a liar. There. I said it! I’m sorry!

(slightly less faithful recently sorry, been a bit busy at work)

Doing some tag maintenance recently, I found a post called Cops are Tops. It’s a recount of my first ever breath test, making my post  recently about my breath test, false! I completely forgot about it. I can’t remember WHAT I was doing in Castle Hill, at midnight, on a weeknight, but I got pulled over. Seemingly without incident, as I don’t even recall it after reading the post. Its like someone else’s story funnily…

It has reminded me however that I was going to recount another tale of Police brutality (aka a routine traffic stop) of mine.

I’ve had to go back to the high school archives for this one, and have even gone to the trouble of scanning a photo or two, so you can really feel part of the story. 

First off, some background info-

 

So way back in year 12 at school, I was  the proud owner of a VW beetle, here she is. ---->

I was devastated when it came time to sell her, but an enormous relief also (it broke down quite a lot. I often joked that I knew all the NRMA [roadside assistance] mechanics on a first name basis) . 

That said, I actually shed a tear when I watched it drive away after I sold it. *sniff*

Anyway, I did Drama as a subject for my HSC (final year high school exams for those outside Oz). One of the components of the subject was a group performance with the class of 24 split into small groups to work on a piece that, from memory, could be on anything you wanted, there were no limits. 

So one day, I was on my way to a rehearsal at one of the girls houses. I used to tear around quite a bit in my beetle, and so was ever vigilant for the police, but I was almost at my destination on this occasion, so was paying less attention than I should have been, and suddenly theres a police car stopped on the side of the road. I was in a 50 km/h zone, going 80, by the time I got to the car I would still have been going 55-60, but thankfully was turning just after the car.

So you can imagine what happened then, as I watch in my rear view mirror, he turns a little after me. The follows me for about 2-3 minutes. This doesn't sound very long, but when you're crawling along waiting for the sirens to sound, and the lights to flash, it can be an eternity.

Eventually the siren sounds, and I hasten to pull over, so I look like an innocent obliging citizen.I quickly rummage around for my handbag, so I have my license at the ready, and the window down by the time he ambles over to me. Later my mother tells me not to look so "practiced" at being pulled over LOL

I imagine he made small talk or something before asking me to step out of the car. Remember how I said I was on my way to a rehearsal? A DRESS rehearsal, I'm in costume...

I'm second on the LEFT. In the lime green. 

You can't see the rainbow knee high socks I'm wearing as well as the full makeup. 

So looking like a clown missing floppy shoes, I climb out of my, now equally as silly looking, Volkswagen so he can demonstrate to me I haven't got my "P" plate displayed correctly. 

I'm certain he saw what I was wearing through the window and decided it would be funny to haul me out of the car. My father helpfully points out later also, that he was probably checking out my tits as well. Nice Dad.

Doctor, Doctor you have to help me out! Certainly, which way did you come in?

I bet this doctor is regretting his actions, now that its gone to court....

A SELF-CONFESSED footy fanatic is appealing a landmark ruling that upheld his sacking for taking the day off work to watch AFL legend Kevin Sheedy coach his last game for Essendon.
Mr Anderson, 27, obtained a medical certificate after telling a doctor, Eric Salter, that he wanted to see Sheedy coach his last game - against the West Coast Eagles - in Perth on September 1 last year.
He was warned by Crown not to take sick leave to attend the game, but flew to Perth, later insisting he had been suffering "emotional distress" at the thought of missing the match.
Mr Anderson told The Australian last night that he was "very disappointed" by the decision and had filed an appeal. "I wouldn't have taken the day off (through sick leave) had Dr Salter not written the certificate and Dr Salter and I still think he wrote the certificate on valid grounds. The court didn't see it that way ... "it's not as if I went to the doctor and told him I had diarrhoea and then went off to the footy. I was upfront with my situation and I still got done. I lost my job."

I mean come on. This story was run on news.com.au under Australia's sickie tradition "under threat". Of course it should be under threat! It shouldn't exist! Ever since Bob Hawke famously said 'Any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up today is a bum.’ there has been almost an enshrined "right" to chuck a sickie.

Lets look at this turn of phrase for a moment.
To "chuck a sickie" - take the day off sick from work when you're perfectly healthy
Other phrases with "chuck"? To chuck a tantrum, to chuck a spaz or a wobbly. Yep, its all above board guys....

What an idiot this guy is to think that he could have this overturned going to court. Sick leave is there for a reason. Annual Leave is there for such frivolities as deciding you don't want to go to work on this particular day, you want to go to the footy instead. Can you imagine what sort of horrible precedent would have been set if the magistrate HAD overturned the termination and re-instated him?

When I was at school, there was a girl in the year below us, Nicki, that seemed to have lots of private tutoring type sessions with the Head English teacher, Mr Sinclair. There were of course whispers about something sordid going on, but no one really beleived any of it at the time, we were just high school students trying to spice up our day.
After we left school however it was revealed (on the NEWS) that they were in fact having an affair, that did start when we were watching them through the windows (ok that bit sounds creepy, but I have distinct memories of walking past classrooms with side windows and noticing them, time and time again).
This may seem like a total deviation from the above story, but go with me-

SO they ended up on A Current Affair etc, there was quite a furore at the time, I think they may have even scored a cover of SMH-which I bet she never wanted THAT to be how she became front page news.
Now I don't care much whether they got together or not, young love/old love/new love/illicit love, each to their own. One outcome of this however was that Mr Sinclair was removed from the school during our final year in a shroud of secrecy. Again with the rumours about Nicki, hotly contested by some of the girls in my year who had him as a teacher and worshipped the ground he walked on. He was quite a good teacher.
As students we asked other teachers what had happened and we were told he'd taken "Administrative leave" and was working at the Dept of Education HQ "for a while". All this while he had 2-3 Year 12 English classes he was taking, not exactly ideal conditions for your teacher to be yanked out of class.
However an extraordinary precedent was set in the aftermath of this by the Workers Compensation Commission:

...the recent decision of the Workers Compensation Commission awarding Sinclair generous benefits, you would think he was the victim.

It makes for surreal reading. The compensation arbitrator, Bruce McManamey, found that Sinclair suffered a "psychological injury" because of the way the Department of Education handled the allegation that he had developed a "close personal relationship with a student".

McManamey awarded him $28,000 in back pay to the date of his sacking last August plus $317.20 a week from January 21 this year "to date and continuing".

McManamey complained that it(Edu Dept) had "not sought to tender any of the material which formed the basis of the investigation". He said it was a difficult investigation because Nicki would not co-operate "and in fact denied the allegations".

McManamey said Sinclair was treated unreasonably because he was told only that he had "developed a close personal relationship with a student", which Sinclair found "quite confusing". "There are many relationships between teachers and students which could be described as close and personal which nonetheless are not improper conduct," McManamey wrote.

The decision to transfer Sinclair to non-teaching duties during the investigation was also "not reasonable". He "was placed in the position of not being able to assist Ms Shackle in what was for her a personally very difficult time".

A large part of the evidence tendered were emails between the lovers, which I won't share as they turn my stomach to think of Mr Sinclair as writing them. However Sinclair denied they were written by him, they have no signature and it is not an email address associated with him.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking its patently ridiculous for this to occur.

The affair has since ended, with Nicki gaining a new boyfriend and going overseas for a spell. Sinclair hasn't seen a penny of the money since as its still wrapped up in appeals, and he's not allowed to teach ever again.

I heard a rumour his wife might take him back, I don't necessarily think that would be a bad idea.

It won't happen to me.....

In Sydney's Northern Beaches, the local paper, The Manly Daily in recent times has been focused a lot on a local girl, Annabel Catt, who died from taking a version of Ecstasy. You may be familiar with the coverage when the ABC came under fire earlier this year for airing a show, Summer Heights High, with a similar storyline to Catt's death.

This has been a very emotional issue for the local community, as she was young, only 20, and it has sparked a campaign by her family to try to raise more awareness of the issue, in the same manner as Anna Wood's death did. Anna wood was only 15 when she died, and it was a wake up call to a community that was probably pretending drugs were something junkies did, not schoolgirls. Interestingly, Anna Wood's father thinks its more likely the ABC SHH program was based on his daughter.

Anna Wood would have been 27 now, the same age as my brother.

When I was in Year 8 at school, I was what, 15/16 myself? We actually went to school with the son of Bronwyn Donaghy, who wrote Anna's Story, which is a non-fiction account, posthumously written by taking accounts from her friends and family.
Mrs Donaghy came to a camp we had and spoke about her experience, 3 years earlier, in meeting the Wood family (whom she previously had no connection with) and sharing their pain in losing their daughter in such a senseless way.
The message of the talk was that drugs can kill, and "party" drugs aren't benign, you never know what's in them and the effects can be devastating.

Unfortunately behind the scenes, for 100 school kids, the message was also "what an idiot" and "as if you wouldn't call an ambulance". Everyone walked away thinking, consciously or unconsciously, It Won't Happen To Me.

This week, Annabel Catt's family are trying to raise awareness about drugs, by visiting a primary school to launch the "Keep Aussie Kids Safe" campaign being run by Life Education Australia at all primary. They feel if they share their pain with primary school children and their parents across the nation, they can help others. This is a noble action, and would be great, if it worked.

The problem with these talks, vital as they are, is that they don't really work, and this is the biggest hurdle facing drug education. The most effective lessons about drugs are learnt the hard way- through experience.

It makes me wonder whether the "It Won't Happen To Me" mentality ever goes away. Or does it simply become "It Won't Happen To Us" when we have our own children. When does it develop? I am sure that on some level, primary school age children are still thinking that with "heroes" like Ben Cousins and Andrew Johns popping pills, that if they try one, It Won't Happen To Them. And why wouldn't they?

I'm not saying teenagers are going to be exposed to drugs and they won't have any power to stop them, being the mindless idiots that they are. That's not what I'm saying at all.
But this mentality permeates society and permeates all of our thinking, without really asking for it, because Bad Things Don't Happen To Good People.
And as far as we're all concerned, since we aren't Saddam Hussein, we are all Good People.

People feel sorry for families like the Catt's and the Woods, but secretly they think something "must be wrong in that family". Maybe they don't eat at the table together, maybe their kids are latchkey kids, whatever people's measure of normal, and "right" is, they suspect when something horrendous happens, it must be something in the way the children were raised. This isn't neccessarily true, no matter how children are raised, everyone knows the phrase, Curiosity Killed the Cat. Curiosity is a natural, human reaction to new things.

Annabel Catt's friends, I can guarantee you, will still be taking drugs. Their friend is DEAD, and they'll still be out, popping pills "to deal with it". Because even though it DID happen to their friend, It still Won't Happen To Me.

Be Prepared-but for what?

Scouts world over celebrate 100 years of scouting this year. Its a big year really, 2007 is officially the year of The Lifesaver also. {nothing better to do in 1907??? Start organisations to get kids off the street and stop them using wacky tabaccy?}
There has been a tv campaign promoting Scouts this year, you know where the girl is covered in mud and says she's having time of her life?? You can watch below if you haven't seen it [ where are YOU during prime time?? ]



I myself was a Scout, well I was part of the Scouting movement in two ways.
I was a Venturer, which means you're too big for regular Scouts and you can illegally drink as long as your leader is cool, oh and you go camping and stuff too. For a longer amount of time I was a Brownie and then a Girl Guide also, which essentially means no illegal drinking and lots of serving tea for a badge and floristry. No wonder girls abandon Guides for Scouts???
Unfortunately for Scouts Australia, their big year has been besmirched by a legal battle involving a sexual deviant who was a Scout Leader for some years. The victim that took them to court has been awarded $1.2 million dollars in compensation, $500, 000 of which is to be paid by Scouts Australia.
It makes you wonder how many of them get away with it? The victim alleged that Scouts Australia had known of the problem for 11 years, doing nothing. I guess I will count myself lucky nothing untoward was happening while I was Scouting.

Best Ever

SHE-RA


HE-MAN


HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, DOLPH LUNDGREN FINAL BATTLE

Thats some pricey spandex...

Well if this isn't one of the more interesting things I've read today!

The Top most expensive Video Clips for songs.

1 . "Scream" by Janet and Michael Jackson for $7 Mil. $USD prob. I love this song. I remember this video, it was great! There was lots of Shiny Gold from what I remember, a vaguely Space sort of theme, and lots of lank Jackson hair. I can't think of why it would be so goddam expensive though!

2. "Victory" by Puff Daddy, way down from # 1 at only $2.7 Mil. I have no idea what this is. Enlighten me anyone?

3. "Heartbreaker" by Mariah Carey at $2.5 Mil. This was a pretty song, never saw the video. Any ideas people on its exorbitant cost? was she wearing a piece of $2 million dollar spandex over her crotch?

4. "What's It Gonna Be?!" by Busta Rhymes Feat Janet Jackson at $2.4 Mil. Hmm, more Janet.

5 "Larger than Life" By the Backstreet Boys at $2.1 Mil. Hehe, a very electronic song. I rather liked it, this being just before their decline about 5 years ago when we were in year 11 or 12. The video was set in space with a giant spaceship and there was lots of choreographed dancing (what am I saying-it was Backstreet Boys-of course there was) and they were wearing spacesuits. I guess for that genuine look it'd be pricey.

6. "fairyland" by Ayumi Hayasaki at an even $2 million. (yep I have no idea who that is)

6. "Bedtime Story" by Madonna also $2 mil. Now my resident expert of all things `donna, Billylou, will be able to tell us why this would have been so expensive. Is this the one that was R+ rated?

6. "Express yourself" also by Madonna also $2 Mil. I'm sure I've seen it but I can't distinguish it between all the Madonna I have in my head. I know Vogue has lots of Black and white and Marilyn Monroe looking Mads. Was it all the extras she hired?

6. "Miami" by Will Smith also $2 Mil. I don't know this song I don't think. Was this spawned from a Will Smith movie like all his other songs? I do like Will Smith though. Imagine a pumping bass beat while he belts out "do the robot" (AI-for those of you playing at home)

6. "She's a bitch" by Missy Elliott again 2 mil. Hmm...missy. Your best showing was in Lady Marmalade for Moulin Rouge. I imagine this video features lots of inappropriate wardrobe changes.

7. "Unpretty" by TLC at $1.6 Mil. *sigh* I really like this song too. I think it would have been expensive for the viedo because the background was possibly all computer imaged? They were dancing in front of psychadelic backgrounds (not in an Austin Powers sort of way but). Is that right everyone?

8. "November Rain" by Guns'N'Roses for only $1.5 mil. I love this song I love it I love it. "Do you need some time, on your own?". The guitar riffs of my childhood. *sniff* this video is a wedding thats getting ruined by rain. So by all accounts its a pretty authentic looking wedding, so I imagine that's where a chunk of the budget went. It's a very long song as well, like 7 or 9 minutes, so I guess they needed to film for that long which is all money.

8. and "Girlfriend/Boyfriend" by BLACKstreet and Janet Jackson also for the paltry sum of $1.5 mil. no idea. never seen it. And C'mon Janet! What's with the expensive film tastes!?