New Year's Resolutions

I spent yesterday being entirely hedonistic and unashamedly kept on my festive season ‘ignorance is bliss” path by lounging in the pool with beers and ciders with Maddie, Steph, Rina and Ellie. We had a beautiful lunch and lots of fruit salad and late in the afternoon Rina asked us what our new year’s resolutions were. Usually I don’t bother with them because I’m slack or they’re just too fickle, things like “lose weight” or “read more”. This year though I felt a little more inclined to actually document something, not so much as inspiration but more so as a guilty list to actually keep me on track. So far it’s been a month of “yeah yeah next year is really when I tackle this whole ‘life’ thing head on” and low and behold next year is now 2 days away.

SKIP TO THE END: These are my new years resolutions in no particular order.
1. Get match fit and join a football team: I’ve wanted to do this since high school but I’ve always been to scared/unwell to actually join. This year I have no excuse because Monday night netball has reignited my fire for team sports and I’m insanely jealous of the Bye-Curious boys who get to play twice every week. I’m 99% sure the damned Ross River Virus has gone away and I’m still going to the gym a few times a week so yeah…no excuse. Subi FC let’s do this.
2. Get a job: der.
3. Learn more about football: I realised recently I know FA about the sport I love in a technical sense, and I’m sick of only being able to talk about last weekend’s round. I also want to be able to back myself up when I talk about soccer so there’s only one way to do that. Learn more. I started up a fantasy football team so I have to pay attention to other teams and players and be a bit more analytical.
4. Save money: I don’t do it at all. I need to start.

That’s pretty much it. I don’t want to set myself anything unreasonable because really and truly the whole job thing is the most important and that needs to be the focus now.

On a very exciting note I applied for my dream job on Tuesday! It’s a digital media officer with the Dockers and I’m absolutely desperate to get it. There are a few other jobs with the Dockers that I’m going to apply for as well which is exciting!

Zealous Chang

Things I did today instead of staying on task:
Saw my housemate’s band play their first gig. They didn’t play their #1 hit “Sex Dat Poosay” but they were good nonetheless. Scrappy, but good. Unfortunately the MC for the open night mic ragged on them for “not having any words in their songs” but he gave out bulk candy canes and I won a lollipop filled with more lollipops for knowing 5 songs by Crowded House (I’ll be adding that to the old resume). My other housemate (who is the first housemate’s girlfriend) and I attempted to rig the votes so they’d win, but I just got a text with the alarming news it didn’t work. Oh well. Next time.

Had a late breakfast at Elixir. If you’re friends with me you’ll know my utter obsession with this cafe. I got taken there for the first time in about July by some friends and since then I worry to think how much money I’ve actually spent on coffee/BLTs. I’d say on a good week I get at least 5 coffees and maybe two meals there. On a bad week it’d be much more than that. The BLT is insane. All the nice people who work there know my name and order. They’re shutting down for 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year and I’m actually unsure of how I’m going to cope.

Said goodbye to my 2 best buds. After a week that’s gone far too quickly they were off back to the Gold Coast today. I really like having them around because even though they rag on me without relent, it’s nice being around people who allow my constant quoting. I’m sad to see them go, but happy because they’ve got a sick new house to move into and Loz will have missed Pablo (her pug) like all hell.

Things I did today managing to stay on task:
Added my lecturer to my resume. Well done Sophie, a whole sentence!
Went on SEEK. Well it was last night actually, but it still counts. There’s a business journalist position that’s advertised and even though I know absolutely nothing about business they want someone with tertiary education in EITHER business or journalism. I can nail one of those criteria, and quite frankly how hard can a whole facet of life that I have no experience or interest in really be to learn about right?

Bali

Then there's tomorrow...

Day Two

So it’s good to hit the ground running right?

Here’s excuse number one coming at ya! I have 2 very close friends staying with me at the moment, they’re visiting from Queensland and I haven’t done very much in terms of job seeking since they’ve been here. I sent my application off for a journalist/copywriter position at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry literally minutes before I went to pick them up from the airport on Wednesday night and I put in my “application” for a different position at my current job (that was fairly soul destroying) yesterday but other than that....yeah not much.

Today instead of doing more writing or applying for jobs I went shopping for clothes that will make me look good when I go for all the interviews for these jobs that I’m not applying for. I got a good shirt thought so don’t worry about it. I also neglected emailing the chap from the ABC whose email address I received from my wonderful lecturer. He reads the news at the ABC and he was nice enough to bother asking around at the ABC for me and I’m throwing that back in his face by not doing anything about it!

Even writing this little admission has made me feel really guilty so I’m leaving it here for tonight. I’m going to add my lecturers as references to my resume and sending the email to the chap from the ABC. I’ll also go on SEEK again I promise.

On a more positive note I’ve been catching up on the LPHP podcasts. There are a lot of dick jokes but I think it’s kinda funny.

Time to Re-emerge from the Mire

This blog never had a “point” so I’m wrenching one out of this foul mood I’ve created for myself.

It’s only a month since I finished uni and although that doesn’t sound like much time in the grand scheme of things, it’s long enough for me to burrow down into a nice pit of self-pity and sulk.

I studied journalism and broadcasting at uni and for the last 18 months I’ve been entirely focused on obtaining a cadetship with The West Australian Newspaper. I’m passionate about print journalism and my ambition was (is Sophie, is!) to be a court reporter. I threw myself into my work for the last year particularly and I did everything I thought I should to get myself a spot as a cadet journalist for 2012. I worked hard at uni, I stayed employed for the newspaper in the call centre for their classifieds, I did placement with them and had work published in the newspaper. Everything seemed right on track. I got through to the final round of interviews and everyone around me told me they thought I was a shoe-in. It all seemed like I was in the right place at the right time. But then I didn’t get it. Instead of taking the usual 4-6 cadets they had in previous years, they only took 2. And I wasn’t 1 of the 2.

It wasn’t until I actually got the news that I realised how much I’d invested in getting the cadetship. Of course in the year leading up I just took the ‘positive reaffirmation’ path and told people that that's what was I was expecting to do next year. If they asked what my back up plan was I told them I would take some time to “re-assess my options”. Well the “re-assessing” has started and it SUCKS.

I went to Bali as an end of uni celebration with a friend last week and we both spent the 5 days whinging about how hard we’d worked for nothing (admittedly my whinging was more constant and self-pitying than his was). He narrowly missed out on a graduate position as well so we fed each other’s moods. By the end of the week we realised there was only so many times you could say “it’s all for the best” or “something good will turn up” before you stop believing it.

I decided to allow myself a little bit of time to feel sorry for myself. I gave myself a week. That should’ve been enough time for me to be as upset as people were allowing me to be and I thought things would look a bit brighter at the end of the week. Well it’s been 3 weeks now and I’m still sulking. I’ve also stopped writing. Usually writing is the one constant activity that keeps me both happy and busy. When I was at uni most of my work was writing so I was able to genuinely enjoy my study. The “days off” I gave myself after I finished uni to have a rest and re-coup have now turned to weeks and my sulking has kept any sort of inspiration at bay- actually that’s a lie as well. I haven’t even needed inspiration because I haven’t even bothered to try. But I’m reaching the end of my tether with all of this.

I’m decidedly unsure of what lies ahead of me in terms of work/future study/next week but what I am sure of is I don’t want to feel like I do anymore. I have to do something about it. I’ve felt myself slipping away in the last few weeks. Not in an over-the-top ‘the world is coming to an end way’ but more in a ‘I can’t laugh or smile at anything and everything is boring and lame and I’m becoming an unbearable human-being’ kind of way. I’m incredibly unpleasant to be around at the moment and quite frankly I’m sick of myself (I can’t even imagine what the people who’ve put up with my mood lately must be thinking).

So this little blog that I’ve been tinkering away on for the past few years is now changing direction. Instead of being my dumping ground for erroneous writing and articles, it’s now my online promise and my public declaration that I’m going to at least try and make the most of what was given to me. I was born with a brain and I put that brain to (somewhat) good use and got a degree. I refuse to be one of those graduates who wallow around and end up in some job they didn’t even want and could have gotten without a degree anyway. But I’m pretty sure I can’t do it alone. I need other people to be my positive reaffirmation now. So I’m asking a favour. Come with me as I start actually ‘re-assessing my options’ and try and figure what happens next in the life of an arts graduate.

Wilkie's Wishlist

If AFL fans didn’t know who Andrew Wilkie was in May of this year, they will definitely know who he is before May next year. May is the deadline Wilkie has given the Gillard Government to pass his pokie reform laws if they want to ensure his support. As one of the 3 independent senators who have helped Labor form government his support is crucial in ensuring they maintain power and Wilkie has used this position to push his pokie reform laws to national attention.

But what does this have to do with AFL fans? Well quite a lot actually.
If the reforms are passed the revenue lost from pokie machines owned by football clubs in Victoria alone stands to be at an estimated $30 million. It’s no wonder Eddie McGuire has labelled the reforms a “footy tax”.

Yet when you actually consider the reality of what gambling can do to an individual, a family or a community perhaps Wilkie’s reforms are the stimulus Australia needs to consider the relationship between gambling and sport.

It is exceptionally difficult to not to emotionalise an issue which has so much capacity to ruin lives.

Latha Raman is the head of the Gambling Help Team at Centrecare and works closely with problem gamblers to help them overcome their addictions and offers support when they need it most.

The programs that Centrecare offer to help problem gamblers are all voluntary so gamblers need to actively seek out their services themselves, but Ms Raman says that the accessibility to gambling which sports like AFL now offer is worrying.

“Having such a close relationship between gambling and sport is fairly concerning. In this modern age it is worrying that anyone watching an AFL game, children included, can be exposed to methods of gambling without even being aware of it”.

The methods Ms Raman refers to are features like internet betting or apps on smartphones which now allow you to put real time bets on a game you’re watching at the push of a button.

In the wake of the pokie reform debate Andrew Demetriou, the CEO of the AFL, has said the AFL wants to help “raise awareness around problem gambling and actually tackle that issue, not put our clubs in jeopardy.” But what, if anything, does that mean for football teams at lower levels?

Darren Davis, the WAFL and High Performance Competition Manager for the West Australian Football Commission, has suggested that gambling, in the WAFL at least, is only dealt with on a player or official level to ensure these individuals do not participate in gambling on WAFL games.

“The ‘official’ anti-gambling line is that if you’re associated with a club as a player or an official there is an absolute blanket ban. All players and coaches are made aware of the WAFL Anti-Gambling and and Corruption Policy and we take it very seriously” he said.

“We’re yet to have an instance in the WAFL where a player or official has been found guilty of breaching this policy, but we have very few resources to actually monitor this.”

The sheer reality of how close the relationship between gambling and Australian Rules football has become was demonstrated this year when Collingwood player Heath Shaw was suspended for placing bets on a game he was directly involved with and Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell was fined $10,000 but not suspended for bets his family members made.

If even players who are made aware of the Respect and Responsibility programs like the ones in place in the AFL and the WAFL are still tempted to place bets, how easy must it be for people who are not involved to see putting some money on a game as part and parcel of the footy experience?

Ms Raman from Centrecare says that the AFL needs to be more responsible for ‘normalising’ gambling and exposing individuals who might be at risk of problem gambling to easy access to gambling.

“Having such easy access to gambling on the AFL and announcing the odds of football games during a broadcast is almost giving people permission to gamble on games. The problem is where do we take that permission? How far do we take it? It’s so easy now to use and abuse gambling thanks to the internet and smart phones. I don’t think it’s good for young people or perhaps people who might just be inclined towards problem gambling to be exposed to gambling in such a comfortable and familiar environment.”

The sad fact of the matter is exposure to gambling during an AFL broadcast has become a part of the experience. Odds are announced in the lead up to the match and during the match. Mr Davis recognises the serious impact that a player or official involved in a game they’re playing in can have on the sport’s integrity, but is also resigned to the fact that ultimately gambling has become a corporate enterprise.

“If a player or official is found to be guilty, then they’re guilty and they are reprimanded, but in terms of the WAFL accepting money from a betting agency for advertising etc we’d be foolish not to. If we were approached by let’s say TAB or someone like that who said ‘we’ll give you a million dollars to call your league the TAB Sportsbet League’ then we’d be stupid not to.”

Ultimately it appears that the AFL and Australian Rules football in general has found itself in a position where it now accepts gambling as part of the football experience. People willingly surrender their money to place bets on football games and it’s likely they will continue to do so. The question is raised though of who is actually responsible for protecting those vulnerable to problem gambling?

Senator Wilkie is trying to make everyone accountable for problem gamblers by setting rules and regulations for how much people can spend on the pokies. Only time will tell if betting on the Aussie Rules will ever come under such scrutiny.

That Face

All Things Must Pass





A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me who my favourite Beatle was. The answer is, and always has been, George Harrison. My friend scoffed at me and asked me to tell him why. The simple answer is because he wrote Here Comes the Sun which is my favourite song of all time. But the long, and unexplainable, answer is because for some reason, George Harrison makes me feel safe.

I went to see George Harrison: Living in the Material World this afternoon/evening with my dad. The Martin Scorsese documentary about “The Quiet Beatle” is something I have been looking forward to for a very long time because I haven’t revisited my love for George in a long time. That’s not to say my love for George, and The Beatles, has faded in any way, but instead I have been discovering other musical and artistic inspirations for a while. The Beatles were my first musical love, and as young girls do, I picked one of them as my favourite. Paul seemed a bit too goody-two-shoes for the 12 year old me to chose, John frightened me with his bombastic-ness and Ringo was the narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine so it couldn’t be him! That left George- the quiet one, the one whose eyes always seemed so serious in the photographs in the Beatle books I acquired during my adolescence, the one whose smile made me know what laughing was supposed to look like.

As I grew up with the Beatles (with my best friend along for the ride) George’s musical offering to the group was always my favourite. As a ‘grown-up’ I can recognise my fear of John Lennon and his music as a lack of understanding. Even now there is a slight hesitance when I think about him, but I know as I get older the more I will want to understand and the more I want to appreciate. Paul’s music is and was lovely. But I think he’s a fairly straight-forward embodiment of the word lovely. I appreciate him for what he is, but I never felt like there was anything to ‘discover’ in his music. And as for poor Ringo, well, he’s Ringo isn’t he? But with George there was always a story underneath the music and the lyrics, and I wanted to know the story so desperately.

Scorsese’s film helped me understand certain aspects of George’s life that I only had a vague consciousness of. I’m particularly happy about is the excitement I now have of diving into Eric Clapton’s music- something I have never had any desire to do before. The film helped me remember all those moments of hearing songs like “Isn’t It a Pity” for the first time. When you feel like the blood is dripping out of your very body with every strum of the guitar you hear and every word physically hits you and by the end of the song you’re utterly exhausted. And the beauty of the fact that with an artist like George, there’s not just one song like that- it’s almost all of them.

It’s hard to pinpoint the specific reason(s) why I feel this way about a person I will never meet. And I know I’m not the first person to feel this way about an artist/musician/poet/etc but sitting in that dark theatre listening to George Harrison’s music up ridiculously loud and watching his beautiful smiling face made my heart sing.

Reaction

I still read the Letters to the Editor when I read the paper. There, I admitted it. It gives me some sort of sick pleasure reading the thoughts of people in my community who take the time to write in. The ‘sick’ part comes from the fact that a good 9 times out of 10 the thoughts expressed are so infuriatingly unconsidered and uninformed that I feel myself physically powered by the rage they fill me with.

Today’s Letters though did not feel me with the rage that they usually do- instead an exasperated sadness spread when I read the ‘I Disagree’ section.

Cohen Watson, who is the associate pastor of the Bassendean Church of Christ, wrote in with a wholly unsurprisingly ‘I don’t agree with gay marriage’ rant titled “Its Time Has Not Come”. Usually this type of material would fill me with spite, but today it just made me sad. Sad because Mr Watson still genuinely believes the negative stereotypes which my generation have grown up KNOWING are incorrect.

Mr Watson says “I’m also not convinced that it is loving to re-educate our children to accept same-sex relationships as normal and healthy when we know there are health risks associated with same-sex lifestyles, especially for men.”
Seriously?

I could throw about words like bigot, hateful, ignorant, but quite frankly I’m exhausted by them too. Hatred, in this case, I don’t feel should be met with hatred.

In my small amount of religious learning at my Anglican school, the greatest message I learnt was that God loves me and God will forgive me if I do the wrong thing but I live with love in my heart. I feel the need to highlight the irony that someone who should be preaching love and forgiveness is taking the time to write something so hateful and unforgiving. I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but opinion should at the very least be based on fact. Mr Watson’s opinion is not based on fact.

My greatest issue with the fact that gay marriage is still a ‘debate’ is the fact that really and truly it has no impact on anyone besides those who are being denied something I take for granted. I have no desire to get married because for me, right now, it’s not a possibility. I am not in love with someone who wants to spend the rest of their life with me. I will reconsider this if and when I do happen to fall in love with such an individual, but for me, on an entirely personal level I don’t see the point of marriage…for me. That’s not to say I don’t see the point for other people. I realise that for many people marriage is something inevitable and desirable.

I’m cynical of marriage in a ‘love’ sense (child of divorced parents, who would have guessed?!?!) but in a practical, financial sense it seems like a logical decision two people could come to if they imagine they’re going to be with their partner forever. Marriage should therefore be made available to anyone who wants to make that financial commitment to someone. CIVIL UNIONS I hear people cry- well no, I’m sorry. Marriage is still the symbolic gesture of love and commitment that I may not want/understand, but I appreciate that someone else might want to explore. And power to them.

The time for me to wed has not come Mr Watson, but for others, gay people included, it may have. Who, therefore, are you or I to say that it hasn’t?

The New School

I got published in The West today. I'm doing a placement there one day a week through uni and yesterday I went off to cover the 'road-testing' of this year's show bags for the Perth Royal Show. I interviewed some kids, got some quotes from the Premier and the Commerce Minister and hey-presto, today there was my article in all it's glory, page 16. Bam.

I got a massive kick this morning, stealing the paper from my friend in my favourite cafe to race to the page my article was on (which was listed on the front page! Show bags are a big deal) and grinned hugely as I showed him. I'd already rung my mum and dad last night to tell them to read the paper and my pride grew and grew as the picture of my by-line I loaded to Facebook got more and more "likes".

I'd consider myself fairly old school I suppose in my approach to how I want to go about becoming a journalist. I'm finishing my degree, I'm applying for cadetships and I'm happy working my way up from the bottom. My heart lies in print journalism and I'm still passionate about print news and the institution that is 'the newspaper'. But I'm not naive enough to realise that I am very much in the minority when it comes these attitudes among my peers.

I read a lot of blogs from around Perth and sometimes a little further off, but the ones from Perth often get me quite frustrated. Not because of the content or anything like that, but because its dawning on me that blogging has become such an important information-sharing tool for my peers. People get their information from blogs, social networking sites, all that garbage that has become part and parcel of the Gen-Y online existence. My frustration doesn't stem from the fact that people use these avenues to get information, it stems from the fact that I'm absolutely terrible at using these avenues myself.

I call myself a journalist (albeit an unpaid, unqualified and dangerously unemployed one) and yes I have a blog, yes I have Twitter/Facebook/Google+ and yes I know how to put together a news piece, but I'm beginning to wonder if I might be getting left behind, even as a member of Gen-Y, in the fast-paced world of information sharing.

Generally speaking, I think for a journo who still wants to report the news I don't know that blogs are going to take over from institutions like the BBC or AAP or any large news organisation. It costs money to report the news and although blogging is free, one person or one blog can't tell it all. Blogs are specific and tailored and that's why people like them, which is another reason my blog frustrates me because there's no theme. It's the ramblings of an idiot! Well maybe not an idiot, but you catch my drift.

Unfortunately its now late at night and the class I have tomorrow morning is particularly nasty so I'll leave this here. Expect more though. This, I fear, is a Pandora's box I've just opened.

Story To Come

Dowerin Field Day

J.L.H. Communist Babushka

Claremont Vs Peel Thunder Sat 28th Aug

Claremont clawed their way to the top of the ladder with a 92-point demolition of Peel Thunder at Claremont Oval today and sets the Tigers up strongly heading into the finals.

A shaky start from both teams saw some silly errors, with turnovers in both attacking 50s rampant. Claremont dominated possession early and although it waned slightly towards the middle of the quarter, their accuracy in front of goal gifted them a 10 point lead at quarter time with the score finishing on 4.1(25) for Claremont against Peel 2.3(15).

Peel’s second quarter was littered with wasted opportunities as they struggled to shake free in their attacking half. Strong positioning on field from Claremont defenders and mid-fielders left Peel struggling when the ball entered their attacking 50 and they were kept to a mere three goals for the quarter with score going into half time favouring Claremont 10.3(63) to Peel 5.5(35).

Reliable Claremont midfielder Kane Mitchell kicked-off a strong third term for Claremont however silly mistakes were still being made by both sides. Three out-on-the-fulls were chalked up in the third alone term and Peel gave away two 50 metre penalties within the first 20 minutes of the term. A slick passage of play through the centre field from Alroy Gilligan rounded out the quarter with Claremont leading 14.6(90) to Peel 7.8(50).

Claremont consolidated their authority in the final term kicking a massive 11 majors. A dynamic defensive display from ex-Eagle Beau Wilkes in the back-half, along with Brett Jones kept Peel’s major scores to just three for the term and gave Claremont a decisive victory with a final score 25.10 (160) over Peel 10.8 (68).

Mitchell, who has played a major role in many of Claremont’s victories this season, said after the game that Claremont’s win was indicative of their ability to outrun other teams.

“We always play pretty tight games and we’re an endurance based team. We’re very hard running so we’re able to finish out games strong,” he said.

“Peel are a young side so they get tired faster and we just grind games down to outrun the opposition and that’s what we did today.”

Mitchell also said that today’s win had strengthened the team’s conviction to finish on top and to follow that up with a grand final appearance.

“Going into the final we’ve got one game left against East Perth who can’t make the finals now so they’re playing for pride, so we’re just trying to keep the momentum up and trying to keep winning,” he said.

“I think we’ve got as good a chance as anyone to make the final. We haven’t beaten West Perth all year and we’ve got them in the first round of finals so that’s going to be a big one.”

“I’m confident we can make the finals, but not arrogant. We have hard work to do but I feel confident about it.”

A little bit of a warning...

It’s Saturday night, 2 young men have hopped in a cab and are on their way to Northbridge. One (let’s call him Johnny) is an absolute piss-tank and is going to smash Jaeger bombs all night until he can’t walk straight, the other (his name is David), is going to have a couple of drinks but he’s more interested in buying a stick off his friend and heading home early to smoke a few cones and watch Space Jam.

4 hours later our 2 friends leave the bar. Johnny is absolutely written off, he’s been kicked out of the bar for yelling at the bar staff and on his way out he tries to hit a bouncer but he’s too drunk to make contact. David walks behind, wishing his friend didn’t get this drunk every weekend but he doesn’t mind too much because he’s bought his pot and he’s going to meet his other friends at their house to watch movies and eat Doritos. Johnny wants a kebab first so they line up; get their kebabs and then move outside to look for a cab. As they move outside David tries to slide his wallet into his pocket but it slips and drops onto the concrete, open. He panics as his bag of weed is inside and has fallen onto the ground. He quickly stoops down to pick it up but as he does a shadow falls across him, he looks up and there stand two police officers looking smugly at both the boys.

Johnny cops a move on notice and gets sheepishly in a cab. David on the other hand gets a court summons and has to phone his mum explaining that he’s been charged with drug possession.

This is not a lament on why cannabis should be legalised, or at the very least decriminalised, in Western Australia. This is a warming to the young people, my peers, who may not be aware of the seriousness of the new cannabis laws in WA.

Think about 10 grams of something. Imagine it, there in your hand. Now imagine 10 grams of cannabis in your hand. Doesn’t seem like much. You could probably roll a few joints with ten grams. Not a big deal right? Well actually it is a big deal. It’s now enough of a deal to send you to jail for 2 years or to face a $2000 fine.

On August 1 2011 the new cannabis laws in WA came into effect. They reduced the amount of cannabis found on a person to a mere 10 grams in order for them to be charged and to face penalties of 2 years imprisonment or a $2000 fine. 100 grams on a person is now enough to be considered a quantity to supply or sell which could result in 2 years imprisonment or a $20,000 fine. It is also now against the law to display or sell any smoking paraphernalia in shows, i.e. - you can’t buy bongs in shops anymore.

The new laws have also introduced an alternative to going to court if you’re caught with cannabis with the Cannabis Intervention Requirement (CIR). A CIR can be issued to someone who’s found with LESS than 10 grams (let’s hope the WA police force carry around a set of weights with them) or who is found with a smoking implement which has detectable traces of cannabis in it.

If the police officer who has apprehended you should so decide they can issue you with a CIR which requires you to book and attend a Cannabis Intervention Session (CIS) within 28 days of the CIR being issued. A CIS is basically a counselling session. An adult can be issued one CIR and then if they’re caught again they have to go to court, and young person between 14 and 17 can have 2 before they’re due in court. A police officer is not obliged to issue a CIR however, it is completely at their discretion whether they issue one or not.

Now it would be easy at this point to begin an uppity uni student rant on the “realities” that smoking pot does less damage to a person than drinking alcohol, no violent crimes are ever committed by people who are high on cannabis, yet alcohol is the reason for a considerable amount of the patrons visiting Charlie Gairdner’s on a Saturday night, but I don’t want to go down that path. Not because I don’t think that path is valid, but because the stark reality of the situation in WA is that these laws are real. These laws affect everyone in WA and these laws can now have a serious affect on you, should you choose to carry cannabis.

Bravery and Bravado in a Bye-Curious Belting*

They say you can’t get too much of a good thing but Thursday night newcomers Bye-Curious FC nearly let their great communicating get the better of them in their impressive 8-6 victory over Men Without Hats.

Coming off a dubious record of 2 wins (by forfeit), 2 draws and 2 losses, their strong line up promised an interesting encounter and the talk early from the boys in white was encouraging. A solo effort on the right wing from Simon Ley ended in an early goal for Bye-Curious, almost to the surprise of his ecstatic teammates. The strong start only got stronger with Bye-Curious attacking hard and dominating possession. An unlucky miss from Jack Quirk in the 3^rd minute was the first obvious blunder from Bye-Curious but the all-rounder backed his mistake with stoic defending and an excellent pass from the wing that lead to another shot on goal, this time by forward Nick White. Quirk redeemed himself further with a scrambling save as goalkeeper at the 4 minute mark and White’s strength up-forward was impressive. Similarly impressive was the second goal which came at 5 minutes from Matt Carmody who backed up his efforts with some strong defending in the wing.

Unfortunately the strong start had faltered by the mid-way point of the first half. While Bye-Curious’ attacking up forward was impressive, they lacked speed in their defence when possession was turned over. Men Without Hats always had at least one player, if not two, depending who was on court, dedicated specifically to defending, while Bye-Curious stuck to the rotating system which in some ways worked, but often left gaping holes in their defence. This led to a Men Without Hats goal at 7 minutes but the ever-enthusiastic Bye-Curious did not let it overwhelm them and some excellent defending from James Bowman followed by a clever pass set up another Carmody goal in the 9^th minute.

The dominating display of possession dipped slightly at this point and so began an onslaught from Men Without Hats but it was matched with strength from the current goal keeper Magnus Newman who defended the shots on target with style. The 10 minute mark however saw another questionable phase in Bye-Curious’ play with the talk on court from the players, and indeed the sidelines, getting out of hand. They were penalised with another goal from Men Without Hats after a series of misreads but again, their mistakes were quickly mopped up and some good court positioning from Quirk allowed him to net another goal. An unlucky fumble by Ley in the goals allowed a final goal for Men Without Hats in the 1^st half but overall the display from the Bye-Curious boys was strong up-forward and they were looking good to dominate the second half.

Loud direction from his team mates led to a clever pass from Ley which set up a strong goal at the feet of White at the 30 second mark of the second half. Men Without Hats stepped up a notch at this point and outclassed Bye-Curious with their control in defence. Even though they too had a rotating structure with their players, their discipline with 2 dedicated players who hung back served them well and meant the forward presses, specifically from White and Ley, were not able to be capitalised upon. An unfortunate fumble in goal allowed Men Without Hats another score which ended up being the sign that Bye-Curious needed with their defensive pressure getting much stronger after the goal. A clever call from Quirk on the sideline, pleading with his players to man-up on the defence was enough for the Bye-Curious boys to take note and a more dedicated effort was made to guard the forward press. A strong pass from left wing by Newman set up a particularly tasty White goal which breathed life back into the Bye-Curious side.

Indoor soccer is a particularly fast game and control of the ball is difficult to manage, however at the halfway mark of the 2^nd term wayward passing was still leaving something to be desired from both teams. Tom White was unlucky to have a particularly nasty goal slip by him but his efforts in the backline were enough for redemption. A solid goal from White (Nick) at the 10 minute mark helped Bye-Curious regain control of the match and a minute later Quirk was unlucky not to net another one after a courageous effort in intercepting the ball on the right wing.

Buoyed by their lead and impressive displays in defence from Bowman and Newman, Bye-Curious almost let their confidence run away with them and some sloppy errors allowed for Men Without Hats to dominate possession for the final few minutes but the backline did their job well. A final Bye-Curious goal from Newman after a strong tackle cemented the deserved win. Bye-Curious’ cohesion when they man-up in defence makes for exciting football and if not for a slight drop in concentration , the last Men Without Hats goal wouldn’t have happened. Overall it was a strong performance from all the Bye-Curious Thursday boys and the convincing win sets them up nicely for the rest of the season.

*Disclaimer:

Apologies to Men Without Hats for the unbelievable amount of bias in this match review.

Bye-Curious for the flag!

For Mr Diamond

“I live on the other side of the cemetery” she said to her new friend in the cafe. He’d just asked her if she lived around the area and that was the best way she could describe it to him. He was intrigued.

“You live on the other side of the cemetery? That’s beautiful” he said, taking off his glasses so he could look in her eyes properly. She set down her coffee and smiled at him. She hadn’t really meant anything by it but there was something quite interesting about her sentence. When she considered it again she thought it sounded like the name of a Smiths song, or maybe a line from a quaint English period drama. She kept her eyes steady as he looked at her, taking in her features properly. She hadn’t felt anyone looking at her as closely as he was in a long time. Not in a threatening or lecherous way, more in a curious and considerate way. He was looking at the way her mouth turned up at one side when she got self-conscious, at the way she tucked the hair behind her ears even when it wasn’t falling across her face.

“It would be better for me if I were brave enough to walk through the cemetery to come to the cafe, but I’m too scared so it takes me about 20 minutes longer than it should” she admitted.

“Why are you too scared?” he queried.

“Well, it’s a cemetery, I’m scared of ghosts and cemeteries are where ghosts live. Or at least where they get started” she said, blushing as she felt his eyes consider her again.

She wasn’t used to people looking at her properly. She never bothered looking if they were, truth be told, but just always just presumed they weren’t, so when she watched him looking at her it was strange to her that she should enjoy it. She smiled at him.

“It’s not every day you get a grown up woman admit that she’s afraid of ghosts” he said, picking up his cup again and taking another sip.

“Well there’s your first problem right there, I’m no grown up woman. I’m just a girl who has been alive for long than other young girls” she blurted out.

He waited a few seconds before responding. She’d looked away very quickly after she’d spoken. She looked out the window onto the car park. The cars lined up next to one another changed very quickly in this area. A red station wagon was pulling into the spot left by the black shiny four-wheel drive which had just pulled away, carrying with it the bejewelled soccer mother with her skinny latte.

She tried to distract herself from the fact she knew he was watching her again with looking at the number-plate of the new car. It was an Albany licence plate; she knew that from the capital A before the numbers, not too old, probably a few years....she had to look back. He was looking at her again in that same inquisitive and soft way. She shrugged, took a deep breath and then decided to really look at him properly.

His grey shirt looked worn but well-lived in, like he’d pulled it out of the bottom of his suitcase that morning, which when she thought about it, he probably had. He seemed like one of those people who truly lived ‘day-to-day’, like every morning was another adventure, but not an adventure that you had to be dressed up for. But that wasn’t to say that he wasn’t distinguished. His brown hair flopped in his eyes, peppered with grey which she thought made him look a tiny bit older than he should. He could only be late 30’s at the oldest but the way he held himself suggested more than just years had passed under his nose. His arms looked strong and his sleeves pushed up above his elbows hinted at a line of light coloured hair which came down his forearms. He wore a silver watch on his right hand, which she noted was strange because he was right handed. He reached into his pocket and she presumed he would be reaching for another cigarette, but this time he pulled out a pencil.

She hated how people like this, people she knew next to nothing about. How could they be so much cooler than she could ever hope to be? But this person wasn’t aware of his cool. He just seemed interested in her. She was scared to ask him if she could take out her notepad and jot some ideas down, not because she thought he would be offended, rather she didn’t want to ruin the running time of their conversation. Although it had been fairly stilted and so far it had basically just been her answering his questions she didn’t want him to think her mind was elsewhere.

“Why do you like coming here?” he asked.

“Well you’ve had the coffee, it’s the best in town!” she said smiling.

“Yes, but surely a good coffee is not worth walking past somewhere that frightens you. There must be another reason for coming to this particular cafe”.

There absolutely was, but she wasn’t going to tell him about it. The reason walked around the corner at that very moment and before she could have time to hide her blush, her new friend had seen it and seen her eyes dart down to her lap.

“Well that answers my question nicely” he said, watching the reason walk behind the counter and place the cups he’d picked up one by one into the washing machine.

She sighed; it felt all the more pathetic now someone else was in on it. She’d been coming back to the cafe, not just for the amazing coffee, for at least a month now, three or four times a week, just to catch a glimpse of the reason. She was invisible to the reason though. She had no doubt that he was a lot of girl’s reason for coming to this particular, irritatingly located cafe.

“Its nothing” she said, looking intensely at the sugar granules she was pushing around her saucer.

“Well he doesn’t look like nothing” he said smiling, watching her shift uncomfortably in her seat.

“Why don’t you talk to him?”

“Because it would be a waste of his time, my time and the air I breathe to do that. What am I going to say? Hi, sorry you won’t have noticed but I come in a lot to stare at you? Yeah great first line. I’m happy in my own comfortable denial thanks.”

“That’s not good enough. What’s the point of coming in all week and torturing yourself?”

“It’s not torture. It would be torture if I ever thought something was possible, but it’s not. This is just the cheap thrill of being near someone that lovely. I don’t need to speak to him..."

He got up before she could finish her sentence and went to order another round of coffees. She felt a pang of nervousness when he pointed directly at their table when he spoke to the boy at the counter. As she watched him, the reason passed by the till and for the first time their eyes met. She managed a slight smile as he looked at her. Her new friend walked back to the table with a big grin on his face.

“The guy at the counter asked for your name. Apparently you’re in here all the time and one of the boys who works here has a thing for you.”

The reason took off his apron behind the counter and picked up his wallet and phone, done for the day. He said goodbye to the barista, the boy at the counter and walked around the side to leave. She watched him do his end-of-shift routine and wondered where he was heading to next. As he passed their table he seemed to pause ever so slightly. She only noticed because she was watching his shoes and saw the perfect pattern of their step go out of time. He turned towards their table and it wasn’t until she heard his voice say her name that she looked up and into his eyes again.

What came first, the Riot or the BlackBerry?

It was announced yesterday that the Liberal Democrats will not support David Cameron’s proposal to shut down social networking sites during times of unrest. The Liberal Democrats are currently part of the coalition government of the UK so their lack of support will make it difficult for Cameron and the Conservative party to pass any legislation or take decisive action should they choose to do so if last week's type of behaviour is repeated.

Deemed the ‘BlackBerry Riots’ in some of the British media, last week’s unrest has prompted significant political debate regarding the reasons behind the riots and how to prosecute those responsible.

For Generation Y this is ‘our riot’ in that it began and spread by Twitter, Facebook and on the BBM Messenger feature that operates on the BlackBerry Smartphone. All of my peers can identitfy, and most likely use, at least one of these forms of communication. We are all savvy to how easy these tools are to use and most of us are comfortable with the speed they allow information to spread. The speed at which rioters got involved, in real time, was not particularly shocking for Generation Y because we’re used to it. What we’re not used to is having these tools taken away from us.

There are currently powers which do exist in the UK, and indeed other countries, that allow the government to order the blocking of traffic and the shutting down of internet networks. This did occur during the unrest in Egypt earlier in the year and was particularly crippling for those trying to get their information out. Therein though lays the quandary about who is more negatively effected when a network is shut down- those trying to instigate the problem or those trying to escape from or report on the problem. It’s your classic ‘chicken-and-the-egg’ dilemma.

Arguably once a problem has become big enough to necessitate shutting down a network it will have gone beyond the internet- the unrest will have spread to the very visible streets. The question is then do you risk the safety of innocent individuals by disallowing them access to the tools that could help them escape harm's way by shutting down the networks they could be trying to use to get information out or do you let communication flow?

Panic on the streets of London.....

Unfortunately for anyone who has spent time in the UK in the last few years this round of riots will come as no surprise. Terrible yes, alarming yes, but unexpected? No, sadly not. It is becoming ever more apparent that rioting and violence has become a quintessentially British exercise for its citizens dealing with malcontent.

When I first visited England in 2004 I was a doe-eyed 15-year-old finally visiting the land of my father’s family, The Beatles, punk music, football and all the other wonderful things that have come from the UK that I’d looked forward to experiencing and relishing in. The country I’d dreamed about delivered upon my expectations and some and I came home planning my escape to the UK for as soon as school/money/mum and dad would allow.

Circumstances allowed me to visit again in 2006 and this time I had my father with me, showing me more about the country I’d fallen in love with from afar. We spent weeks together wandering around the streets of London and I finally began understanding so much more about the music that had been written about this wonderful town. Only something was still puzzling me, something that only dawned on me when I got home in early 2007 and re-watched the Julien Temple documentary The Filth and the Fury about the birth of the Sex Pistols. As I watched the birth of the punk music unfold before me on screen I began to realise that all the anger that I saw on the faces of those young men I hadn’t seen on anyone’s face while I was in the UK.

As Temple, Johnny Rotten and the rest of the Pistols explained, the band was formed in a period of serious unrest in England in the late 1970s. Britain was going through a tumultuous phase in its history - coal mines closed, strikes were common place and the working class felt an immense sense of dissatisfaction with the government. The Sex Pistols, and indeed the whole punk movement, was the artistic explosion that came from the rage bubbling up in the working class British psyche. In this case art was created from unrest, but looking back at post-war Britain that is not always the case when tensions boil over.

When I arrived in London for a third time in late 2010 I was met with an entirely different city. Something had changed in the people and in the feeling around the place. A lot has changed for the UK in the last few years, as it has the whole world. The Pound is weaker globally, Britain is facing some of the harshest cuts in public spending in decades and I found that the people of London had lost the sense of pride in their city that I had lapped up in my previous visits. The place I was living was also starkly different to the places I had previously stayed. When we walked around Walthamstow when we first arrived I was very displeased with my father. Gone were the nice neat houses of Lewisham and Brockley around South London, replaced with endless shop fronts with languages I didn’t understand selling things I didn’t recognise, messy townhouses and ugly pubs. But I as I explored Walthamstow more it felt more like home and I started to like it. Sure it was at the END of the Victoria line, sure no-one was really smiling and sure there was NOTHING to do around town but it was a suburb I now felt comfortable in.

Boredom soon encouraged me to branch out to neighbouring suburbs to visit a new friend. He lived in Hackney and I realised that it wasn’t too far away from me and after a few tries the trip between Hackney and Walthamstow felt like second nature. Hackney was nicer than Walthamstow but it still had that dingy North London feel to it. But again, the more time I spent there the more it grew on me. It was with horror then on Tuesday that I watched the streets and shops I had walked along only months before burn. I knew things were bad in these places, but never had I imagined it would turn this bad.

Britons love a riot- it’s almost become a caricature, the “lets ‘av it” mentality, bursting with bravado looking for a muppet to flog. Looking back at the periods since the wars there has been a recurring theme in Britain. A quiet anger has been brewing and every once in a while it pops its head up again to remind the government, police or whoever the protesters are angry at, that it is still simmering away. Political disenfranchisement is often a good excuse for people to protest, and in some cases a peaceful protest can actually effect change. But politically protests are highly emotional and emotion can have an awful effect on a mob.

Anger is a dangerous emotion at the best of times, but when you fuel anger with the anger of other people around you there are rarely peaceful solutions. What is concerning about these latest riots is the fact that an emotional reaction to an event lead to a night of violence which lead to an excuse for others to take their own violence out onto the streets. The catalyst for the rioting is clear, yet misbehaviour is the only clear reason for the nights that followed.

Political dissatisfaction is not the only thing that Britons have rioted over in recent decades however. Football riots were a huge problem for the British Government in the 1970s and 1980s and had a nasty flow on effect in the rise in street violence. Although it was not the first time deaths had occurred due to football riots, the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 was enough of a tragedy for the British Government to take notice and for legislation to be passed to try to stop hooliganism. The Football Spectators Act 1989 was designed to target offenders specifically at football matches in England and Wales and although it has had amendments it is still active legislation. Walk into any pub in England and you’re likely to see signs which say something along the lines of “no football colours”. As an avid football fan I understand the passion and emotion which football brings out in fans but loving my team does not make want to me go out and smash up Manchester United or Millwall fans. My question then is whether or not football rioting was a bi-product of passion, or something more deeply set.

Clasford Stirling is a youth worker in Tottenham who spoke to the ABC’s Lateline program on Wednesday night. He told Tony Jones that he was not surprised by the riots in his suburb. He explained that tensions had been boiling up between young people in Tottenham and local police and that although it “wasn’t the right way” the riots were just a way for the young people in his area to have their voices heard.

I feel so sad for a country that I still love so dearly that this sort of thing should be happening. At a time where Londoners should be looking forward to the Olympics next year, they are being forced to watch the city they love burn. Although the unrest is spreading, there was at least some reprieve amongst the anger. The images that came out on Wednesday of people on the streets of Croydon out with brooms, sweeping up the mess and helping one another was just as powerful as the images of a city in flames. Perhaps not as shocking, and perhaps dare I say it, less expected, but none-the-less inspiring. I don’t condone violence in any form, I truly believe that the privilege of being an evolved species is that we have the ability to communicate rationally with one another and violence is an irrational behaviour.

Road Tripping

The appeal of a long drive to a destination which promises rest and relaxation resonates so strongly with me that nearly every uni break I have to get in a car and drive somewhere. Last year it was all about heading down to Denmark and Albany, two of my favourite places in WA. I was in great company and both times I came back and felt so refreshed and energised. One of the best things about getting away to places by car though is the inevitable road-tripping playlists that come about.

When I was a little girl I used to look forward to getting the cassette-tape Dad would make with all the songs on it for our holidays. He’d always go to such an effort, each song carefully considered, the cassette box had its own home-made cover which would have the year, season and our destination blaring from the front. It was like my own little trophy and when we got home I got to keep the cassette as a reminder of our great trip.

Now of course the cassette-tape has been replaced with the iPod but I still go to a bit of an effort to make a road-trip playlist. Over the summer my ‘road-trip’ got blown out to international proportions, but the playlists were still there. I still put on my “New York Baby” playlist sometimes and smile smugly to myself. Music has, for me and my family and friends anyway, always been such an important part of the travelling experience. It has that ability to take you back to places and memories that no-one else will ever quite remember and you will never quite be able to put your finger on or experience again. For example, every time I listen to Fingers of Love by Crowded House I am sitting in long grass in Augusta looking out across the harbour and I can hear my Mum calling me in for dinner.

Last month on our drive up to Hervey Bay, which is about 5 hours north of the Gold Coast, I got to share a road-trip with my best friend and her Dad, who for all arguments sake is like an uncle to me. We started off listening to the usuals, but then got to sharing songs with one another that we thought the others might like. I showed my friend’s dad The Black Keys because he’s a blues man, he and my friend tried again (for the one millionth time) to get me to appreciate the beauty (?) of Steely Dan and then me and my friend insisted on punishing him with The Beatles. On the way home a few days later we got to talking about the perfect Australian road-trip playlists and I decided to collate my own, albeit youTube assisted online road-trip playlist. Of course I won’t fill up 5 hours of your time, but just go with it for a little while. Imagine you've packed your bags, the car's full of fuel.....

Heading out of Perth on the Kwinana Fwy. Paul Kelly MUST feature on every Australian road-trip. It's an unwritten law.

Crowded House-has to be done. The trees and fields of the south of Perth just fit with the Finn Brothers.

Put this Hoodoo Gurus classic on after your halfway stop. It'll get you ready for the road again.

Dad would be proud of me for this one. The Australian road is full of characters. I can imagine Peter Garrett driving a caravan like this one.

This track should be saved for if you're running late to your destination and the stars are coming out, or for when you've settled in, lit the fire and you're going outside to admire the beauty. Majesty.

Astroblog: Animated Southern Cross

And finally....the destination

I know they're not Australian so this is cheating but it's still good.

Totally biased, totally Australo-scentric and totally "Top 100 Aussie Driving Songs" but I love it.

Back To It I Suppose

The concept of the media will change now. A prediction which in and of itself is rather superfluous as the media has proved itself to be an ever-evolving and constantly changing entity. Something has happened in the last two weeks however which has brought the seemingly unstoppable forward motion of the new media to a grinding halt and could bring about the first serious step towards regulating an industry which was, and possibly still is, spiraling out of control.

The modern media consumer is, generally speaking, fairly savvy about what information they are being fed- or rather, what information they are choosing to be fed. Most media consumers choose to read or watch the news from the sources they know and to a lesser extent trust; because really and truly, do any modern media consumers wholeheartedly trust their media sources? People are likely to consume media from sources which are consistent with their attitudes and beliefs and so it is difficult to pick holes in the media you consume every day. But after years of scandals within the media being exposed and the actions of the media being scrutinised by competitors and watchdogs, the modern consumer usually has at least some awareness of where their news is coming from and the agenda behind the source. This has lead to a degradation of the notion of the journalist though. The journalist is now no longer a truth-seeker, the journalist is just another employee of a company who is getting paid to write a certain way and certain things. But perhaps the News of the World scandal is just big enough and just awful enough to be the giant wake-up call the media needs.

No journalist should need to lie to get a story, no journalist should need to steal information or documents to get a story and no journalist should ever deliberately break the law for a story. I am not so naive as to believe that these practises do not occur but that does not make them acceptable and it certainly does not set the right example for those wishing to mend the cracks in the trust that media consumers have with the media and with journalists.

I am very young and exceptionally humble in my hopes and expectations of my career in the media, but I thought I would be graduating into the ‘real world’ at a time when the Murdoch empire showed no signs of slowing and looked to be pushing the consumption of media to its ugliest form. I feared for my ideals of integrity as so often I am often met with "I hate journalists" when divulging my plans for the future and feared that one day the seemingly cut-throat nature of journalism would get the better of me. I worried because I had hoped that no matter the money, no matter the prestige and no matter the easy-way-out, I would never work for a person like Rupert Murdoch or in an environment where true journalism is not encouraged. Tonight though, I watched that tyrant look like nothing more than a confused old man. What worried me was the sympathy I felt for him. Sympathy that quickly melted after careful consideration of the very real and very dangerous situation his company and its subsidiaries has afforded itself. Yes Murdoch, today is your humblest day. But what does this mean for the media and the steps that now need to be taken towards regulation and accountability for the actions of those who have disgraced themselves? I simply don’t know. But what I do know is people are angry now. Angrier than they’ve ever been that this situation has been allowed to mutate and become so ingrained that people have stopped asking questions because they feel there is nothing they can do to change it.

The “chicken and the egg” question for media students is “does the media reflect the community” or “does the media shape the community”. Ultimately it comes down to each media outlet and their audience. No media source can please everyone and you would be a fool to expect to do so. But not pleasing everyone should never come at a cost to integrity. News Corp’s integrity has been shattered and the irony of the timing is almost too sweet. Murdoch’s grasp on the control of the British media was tantalisingly close and yet now here we are, a mere few days later and what seemed so daunting and ominous now seems feeble and obsolete. Murdoch did not want to please everyone, but I cannot accept that someone so out of touch with his media outlets, someone who only called an editor of a newspaper he owned once a month, could genuinely be encouraging of reflection. Murdoch is a shaper, not a reflector. I do not know what will happen to the media now this has unfolded and continues to unfold. I can only hope for the best and strive to join a media where integrity is at the forefront of each journalist, editor, owner and reader’s mind.

Gold Coast, Hervey Bay, Home