The Piper

This entry is fairly short this week, because there is only so much you can say about an organisation that sends correspondence home to parents with children who will be commencing school in the following new school year, asking them to establish with their offspring which gender said offspring identify with.

No, I’m not joking. These kiddies are four years old. Certainly, most of us have a good idea by age four to know what gender we actually are but how many have really given much thought to which gender they most “identify with” at that age? Not too many is my guess. Would they even understand the question at that age? Possibly not, and I can’t help wondering how many decided they identified more with something other than “boy” or “girl”? Like a puppy, or a fave fictional character? I remember Daughter identifying as Rapunzel because she had long hair and then deciding down the track that she identified more with Peter Pan, hence a penchant for green clothing and sleeping on her stomach so as not to impede the growth of the wings she just knew were going to sprout on one of those nights.

Thing is, she eventually grew out of both identities as she settled into school and this is what I believe will happen with the four year olds being asked to identify with a specific gender. They will also grow out of it, but the unfortunate thing is they will be carrying a label from a discussion they were forced into when they were four and had no idea what they were really being asked.

Which will mean what? Well, for starters it may cause the powers that be to suspect someone of pressuring the child who later tries to explain that they actually do identify most with the gender they actually are and no, not the opposite one that they indicated back when they were four and unable to really comprehend what they were being asked at the time. Then fingers will point at the parents probably and once that happens, all kinds of smelly stuff gets flung around and it ends up being just one huge stuff-up that should never have happened in the first place.

And all because some dipstick decided that asking little four year olds whether they felt more like their own gender or the opposite one was a good idea.

Seriously??!!!

What is the thing with people posting on Facebook asking me to please hit “Like” if I value them as a friend? They’re kidding me, right? These posts usually ramble on a bit and then end with something like “…if you don’t, I’ll know who my real friends are..” etc, etc. Really? I’m going to assume that those who post these things either don’t have a lot of people on their Friends list and they want to add to it, do have a lot of people on their Friends list and want to add to it, are way, way too needy or else they’re ego-tripping on all those anticipated Likes and Shares; hovering over their computers so they can count every one as it pops up.

It’s probably the latter. But seriously, why would I hit “Like” or “Share” to such a request when I have no idea who they are? They might be psychopaths, or mean to baby animals or something for all I know! And that’s the bottom line here; I Do Not Even Know Them! They probably have ended up on my newsfeed because one of my actual friends was fool enough to hit Share but as I haven’t the foggiest idea who they are, I’m not about to indicate “Yeah! Sure I like you!” by liking or sharing their request for me to do  just that so I can “prove” that I am their “real” friend. I’m not okay! I don’t even know who/what the hell you are!

But it’s a bit presumptuous if you think about it. I mean, those who post these requests are assuming they are going to get a lot of Likes I guess, but what becomes of them if they don’t? I have never posted one of these requests simply because I happen to respect my Facebook friends and feel secure enough in the knowledge that they are indeed my friends because they either sent a Friend Request to me or accepted one from me when I sent it to them and that is actually enough for me. Besides, I already know them, or have known them in the real world so I don’t need constant reassurances nor have I ever felt the desire to hover over my pages to see how many people in my virtual circle Like me!

But it’s a thing with some people and when you’ve seen enough of them they just become annoying. But there’s another one doing the rounds now. Usually accompanied by a picture of sorts, they generally have some  kind of “message” going on and this time we are all asked to Like it, put “Amen” as a comment and then post it. I don’t do them either because they bug me as much as the “If you are my real friend…” posts.

It has to be an ego thing, right? I mean, why else would people post all this nonsense? Was there too much positive reinforcement when they were growing up maybe, and they just can’t let it go? Definitely too much time on their hands, I think. Whatever, I just hope they all get over it soon because I’ve been over seeing these pop up on my newsfeed for quite a while now.

Definitely “Amen” to that.

So now the talk is to lump us with a “sugar tax” in a move towards combatting Australia’s rising obesity problem, which means we will all end up paying more for sugar and products containing sugar, I suppose, and all because an increasing number of people in this country have no self control and in their corner is some dipstick who has decided that if people are fat, it really isn’t their fault and for want of someone better to blame, it must be the Government’s fault. Well…it isn’t.

People become fat when they dismiss what they know they should be eating (and we all know what we should be eating!) in favour of stuffing themselves with the things they know they shouldn’t and they opt to eat it on a daily basis. As a result, they become fat. If, having already packed on some kilos, they continue to choose foods high in unhealthy fats and sugary content they will be on the road to becoming morbidly obese. When this happens it is actually their own fault. Ditto if their children are overweight. That is their fault too.

We all know that to maintain a healthy body we need foods high in fibre, vitamins and minerals. We also need to get off the couch! But it has become increasingly common for people to do all sorts of stupid things (drugs, alcohol, unhealthy diets) to themselves and then when their health and quality of life goes belly-up, it’s always someone or something else’s fault because it’s easier to point the finger elsewhere than it is to fess up to having done the wrong thing themselves. This is what is happening with the obesity epidemic.

People are overweight because they have become lazy. Convenience food is easier than peeling, slicing and cooking those veggies. That sticky doughnut gets the nod over a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts and why go out and do something physical when you can flop on the couch with the telly and a packet of chocolate biscuits and/or a bag of sweets instead? Because the couch is not a great option, that’s why!

But to blame the Government??! What has the Government to do with people and their bad health choices? Well nothing if you ask me! So why are some people making it a Government problem and expecting the Government to fix it? Seriously, all the government health warnings, healthy star ratings, Heart Smart ticks and healthy eating programs in the world are not going to have any impact on people who do not want to change their bad habits, so to tax the whole nation over the stupidity of those with absolutely no self control is just plain ridiculous and it’s also very unfair. I mean, most of us buy sugar because we either use it in tea and/or coffee and/or in some of our cooking. This is not to say we are all heading for morbid obesity as a result of this sort of minimal use therefore why should those of us who shop, cook and eat sensibly have to cop it?

The obesity problem sits squarely with those who refuse to reign in their unhealthy choices, and the associated problems which afflict them as a result are of their own making. Dealing with those problems is their responsibility. Not yours. Not mine and certainly not the Government’s. So why should the Government be pressured into tackling it?

And why should the rest of us be lumbered with another tax?!

 

You know, the last time I looked, the Barbie doll was a toy. A doll that little girls the world over loved playing with because she is one of the prettiest and coolest dolls around. But when it’s all said and done, still just a doll.

But a few years back, rumbles began about the possible repercussions having played with this doll may have on little girls and, before you could say “what the &%@#???” it was doing the rounds and now we are at the point where Barbie’s makers are going to change her wonderfully iconic looks to reflect a more “realistic” image to prevent little girls from becoming depressed, developing eating disorders and clocking up hours on the analyst’s couch because the dipsticks behind this move want us to believe that that’s what will happen when these little girls grow up to discover they do not look like their Barbies.

I kid you not! Some fool with way too much time on their hands appears to believe this and the tragedy is, they have managed to convince others. But you know, I cannot remember any of the kids I played with ever saying that their goal in life was to grow up to look like their Barbie dolls. Not one! And I seriously doubt this is happening today either, but with social engineering and politically correct barf so common these days, it appears that Barbie’s makers have finally bowed to the unfair pressure to change their doll’s appearance and now she will appear in all shapes and sizes to reflect “real women”. Oh puhleeze! It is just a doll for goodness sake!

But to be fair, I did the whip around several of women I know to ask them if a) they had played with Barbies, b) entertained hopes that they would resemble their dolls when they grew up, c) became distraught, depressed or sought the services of a psychiatric professional when the penny dropped that they didn’t resemble their dolls in the slightest became apparent and d) do they know of any Barbie-owning females to whom the above might apply? Their replies ranged from “Why would you even think something like that??!” to “Geez Lisa! Are you on drugs or something?!” So I explained why I was probing into their personal lives and once they got over the shock of beaurocratic lunacy run amuck, they all responded along the same lines; no, they had never dwelt on any desires to look like their Barbies or suffered psychologically or in any other way when they just developed into normal-looking human females instead of Barbie lookalikes.

Okay then, so where did all this come from? It’s a good question but the original dipstick may have been left behind in the melee that followed, when the will-mindlessly-believe-anything crowd went clamouring to hitch themselves to the bandwagon in the hope of grabbing at least some of the media attention, no matter how small. Anything for some camera/column space I guess. But at what cost? Well, the total destruction of the Barbie doll for a start. I mean, she was a real stunner with a wardrobe to match and we loved her to smithereens! There was no other doll like Barbie! Sure, there were some that tried and they made the market, but they could never really compete.

Meanwhile, my survey group remain as stunned as I am that such rubbish can be dumped on one doll. But did they have any insight on what might really be behind young girls and any image issues they may develop? Well yes, they did, and it didn’t stem from images of models or actors any more that it supposedly did from a doll, for each stated that the biggest impact came from the Schoolyard Goddesses. These being the girls on whom Mother Nature didn’t just smile but downright beamed, leaving them with hair, skin, bodies and faces that the rest of the school’s female population would  crawl backwards over broken glass to possess! There was always at least one of these goddesses in every class but usually a little group of them and they were the envy of every other girl who considered herself a bit short on perfection.

Just as a point of interest though, did any of the less blessed ever look at the goddesses and think “Wow! She looks so much like Barbie! She’s so lucky!” Nope, they didn’t, they just went home and wracked their brains over how best to emulate the goddess they most wished they looked like.

Barbie had been long forgotten.

 

Oh joy, bliss and cartwheels! I am writing this from my home office! In my knockabout gear and slippers! With a bowl of corn chips and a leftover Easter egg! Sooo Happy! No more having to snatch an hour online at the local library or an afternoon on Daughter’s computer or any of the other ways I’ve had to resort to over the last three and a bit years just to get my Internet fix! I feel like a whole new independent woman and it’s wonderful! I really mean that!

And it’s all thanks to a smart antenna, a new computer and a dongle. If I’d known it could all have been be possible when I first moved here I would have done the upgrade then but hey, we live and learn, eh? But I know now and I cannot believe the freedom and will never take modern technology for granted ever again, I swear.

Mainly, it means I can get back to running Sandpiper Editorial again full time and even more so, it means the resurrection of The Piper, my used-to-be weekly spit, until I moved to an area with some serious mobile phone and Internet issues and I so missed writing my weekly posts. But issues are sent to challenge us I guess and once I got over the shock and the hair-pulling-out stress that followed I did find a way around it (sort of) but as thankful as I am for having found that way, nothing beats being able to just pop upstairs and get online in my own time, as opposed to getting organised and out the door and driving to the next town. Like, I would have to comb my hair and get dressed to do that! Find my car keys and things! But now I can get online looking like a train wreck and it just won’t matter because…I’ve got Internet at home!!!!!

Yes I know, I’ve expressed that in various ways over the last three paragraphs and you are probably sick to death of seeing it by now but I can’t help myself. It’s the excitement and all, you know?  I mean, I am a writer, a journalist and a freelancer. It is my drug, and I have been seriously missing my fixes but hey, I’m over it now, as far as writing about it goes anyway, so you can all breathe out with a sigh of relief now.

Meanwhile, I haven’t been wasting my time. I have updated and redesigned my logo, which will appear on my website shortly and I have so many topics to write about! Lots of things that have been bugging the heck out of me and just busting to get out there in print and being that this blog is a social commentary of sorts, it is all about saying what a lot of people appear to be thinking yet hesitate to say out loud. Well I do, because some things just need to be out there and if it gets people thinking for themselves again, then well and good. So, as of today, I will be doing it all again, armed to the teeth with favourite snacks, every week, rain, hail or shine, train wreck or no. Oh my god, but I love that kind of independence.

It’s just so good to be back!

 

I hadn’t really thought much about my morning routine until the morning I discovered I was out of tea and the whole thing went south! It was definitely a wake-up anyway and in many more ways than one because that was when I realised just how much I operated on autopilot until that first morning cuppa went down and took hold and up until that point I’d never really thought about how a simple thing could have such a big impact.

But then I began to recall the horror stories of others whose AM thingy was rudely interrupted by such things as the discovery that they were out of milk or their favourite cereal or whatever. Like the co-worker who dumped his flatmate because the flatmate had a habit of using the last of the milk the night before which meant black coffee in the morning. My co-worker didn’t like black coffee and on those days it took him until lunchtime to recover from the bad start to his day. Likewise, a good friend who was an orange juice junkie first thing in the morning. She always had more than one bottle on hand but to get to the point, she also had a husband, five kids and a big sign on her fridge that read “Remember how Mummy gets if you scoff all the juice!”

So there I was in a quandary over my lack of tea. But it also started me wondering about that. Like, should it really matter? Will my life end on the spot if I don’t have that cup of tea? Could I get around it with a hot chocolate??? Turned out I could if I want to be honest and I think in the end it was a good thing because it made me start deliberately varying what I did to start my day. Look, it could have been a lot worse. My thing might have been illegal drugs or alcohol. Or orange juice. I may have been the type of personality type that gets all antsy if the routine changes (I only got a bit toey) but it did bring me around to the realisation that maybe things needed to change and I’m proud of my efforts to successfully address this. In fact I did it so well that these days I can wake up to just about anything; coffee, water, or an eggflip as a system kicker and it’s all good. I still function and I like the fact that I can be so flexible these days. Sure, tea is still my favourite but I’m not going to go into meltdown if I have to have something else instead. I can do this, you know?

But now I’m starting to give a little thought to those Peanut Butter M&Ms that live in my office. These are my favourite snack of choice when working or reading.  I have never really considered any other type of snack for those particular activities but am starting to wonder if I may have developed a dependence here without even realising it. I mean, those, and only those, are what I reach for. Well yes, they are really good and I think of the whole M&M range, these are the absolute best but do I place too much on having them to hand? On second thoughts, no I don’t. They are just my favourite snack that’s all. I could give them up any time I want!

I just don’t want to.

It’s funny the things we get used to. Like, I never thought I would come to terms with no Internet service here and yet here I am, being all indifferent. It could have something to do with the fact that I can grab an hour of online bliss via my local library but I think it’s more a case of adapting. Whether I liked it or not.

Initially I was beside myself. No mobile reception, no Internet connection and absolutely no idea when these things, which I had taken for granted for so long, would find me! It was a tad distressing. No, actually, it was hugely distressing and I briefly considered things like throwing my computer from an upstairs window, followed by my phone but declined at the last minute as it seemed a bit wasteful to trash perfectly good gadgets. I also tossed about the idea of tossing myself from the mezzanine but that would have been messy (and I abhor mess) but eventually focused all my thoughts on trawling for Telstra workers to take my growing  frustrations out on, leaving their mangled remains along the pretty verges of my local village, but would that have got someone out onto my road to put in a cable that supported ADSL? Probably not and they may have gotten all negative about the bodies and things anyway…

So I adapted. I didn’t want to but when it came to the choice of getting around it or going crackers I opted for the former and just got on with it and it has kind of worked.

But I’ve just received a second update from the National Broadband bunch assuring me that it is on the way because they’ve found an alternative site for the wireless tower, as opposed to the one a small handful of people objected to (I swear, no one laid a hand on those guys but we so wanted to!) which means Internet will finally get to us and probably this year.

I should be squealing and swinging from the rafters right? I should be hyperventilating with the excitement of the thing I have missed most since moving to this area finally getting to me, yeah? I should be over the moon with bliss? Okay, yes, one would think so and I really am! Seriously, I am being every single one of those things, but in a much quieter mode that I would have believed possible three years ago. So do you see what I mean about the “mellowing” thingy? No more drastic thoughts, no more death stalks. No more wishing I could climb through telephone lines to throttle the customer service officer on the other end who really didn’t give a rats A about my communication woes. I certainly seem to have settled down on that front.

No even a bray of evil laughter…?!

Well hi there everyone! I thought I would have been posting this just one week after my last post because I thought all my online woes were over but…I Was Wrong!

Turns out the Dongle I got works just fine, just so long as the signal entering the house via the Smart Antenna is strong enough to support an Internet connection but if it isn’t, well I’m just not going to get connected from my home office and if I knew any worse cuss words than the ones I already know I’d be screaming them from the rooftop!

On the other hand, Telstra still have our area scheduled for the  National Broadband Network (NBN) wireless tower which will apparently be in place by mid 2015 and our entire region is on Cloud 9 just thinking about it. This is what happens when you live in an area that can’t even access basic ADSL and Internet is only available through a computer in a local library and only then when it’s your turn on the computer.  You get news that means you will have 24/7 Internet at your house at last and it’s like all your Christmases, birthdays and Easter Eggs have come at once.

Seriously, the NBN can’t come soon enough for me.

And my time is almost up which means I’m going to have to end this here for now.

Oh hurry up NBN!!! (Sigh)

So here I am. Back at last via a mobile broadband dongle and hopefully this Internet connection is going to be an ongoing thing because if it isn’t, I may reconsider turfing myself from the mezzanine out of sheer frustration! I’d much prefer to take it all out on Telstra, whose lousy cables along my road rule out a phone line broadband connection, but I can’t get to them.  Whatever, so far so good.

This last 19 months have been tough on me though because I need an Internet connection to fully operate Sandpiper Editorial but as the saying goes, where there’s a will there’s a way and I found I could do quite a lot in the hour allocated to me on one of my local library’s computers. In fact, my typing speed progressed to some seriously impressive levels as I raced the clock and yes, it more or less worked for me and I truly appreciated the fact that I could get back online even if it did mean a car trip first. But the convenience of having an Internet connection at home again is simply blissful and it’s nice to be able to do a little recreational online stuff as well because the clock race is now over.

To be honest, I have to admit that I did adjust to having no Internet at home but that only happened because I took a lot of very deep breaths on a regular basis and repeatedly told myself that the lack of connection  was hardly a life or death situation and that there were much bigger problems in the world than me being forcibly offline. Many people were doing it much harder than me and so I should be thankful that my only real problem was no online connection. Like, I could still access it somewhere else even if it was only for an hour a week. On a world scale, it was merely a hiccup!

But I did miss it. I really, really did and now that I have it back I promise I will never take it for granted again. So I’ll be writing religiously again every week and will thoroughly enjoy getting back to regular work in general and will treasure my Facebook membership more than ever!

I’m ba-ack…!

Hi everyone, Just touching base. I know my blogging has become somewhat unpredictable but as I mentioned, I don’t have Internet at home at the mo. This is about to change however and I am hanging to reconnect so I can do all my stuff from my own home office!

Just goes to show that you don’t know how much you should appreciate what you have…until you no longer have it and I thought I’d go crazy without the Net in those first few months. I was ready to fling myself from the mezzanine in frustration but then I got real and just accepted that Internet was not available to my home base and that was that. End of hysterics.

But now suddenly Internet is imminent and I’m over the moon with joy, bliss and all those other up there emotions as access will allow me much more time to work, blog, email like, daily if I really want to but mainly it will allow me to get back to my weekly thingies here on my site!

Oh thank you Universe! I love you, etc, etc…