calebbrown.id.au

New Year's Resolutions tend to be given a rough treatment by society. The popular expectation is that no one will succeed at anything they label a new year's resolution. However despite knowing this people continue to set resolutions. I suspect the idea of self improvement is so desirable it leads people to make resolutions. But it seems the idea of self improvement is desirable only until the point of first failure, after which we try to ignore our lonely goal while it follows us around, nagging loudly, until we give it another chance at the next New Year celebration.

People really need to learn to factor failure into their resolution setting, and make the end of the year the deadline - not the 2nd of January.

I read an article titled Click here to give 'em the flick on SMH.

It's an article describing some research about how teenagers are playing out their relationships more and more online.

I found the following quote particularly sad. Despite desiring physical interaction teens still resort to a cheaper, unsatisfying, alternative online. While they now have "far greater access to networked publics" I think they also have greater access to the mall and movie theatres than I ever had when I was their age.

Boyd also observed that technology had made it far more common for relationships to be played out in cyberspace - over instant-messaging tools and MySpace - than in the real world.

"While physical interactions are deeply desired, they are typically quite rare," she said.

"Although the mall and move [sic] theater are still desired outtings [sic] for teen couples, many have far greater access to networked publics like MySpace than they do to unmediated publics."

New South Wales, Australia is on the cusp of one its defining moments for the next 4 years. That's right, its election time. A chance to express my democratic freedom and elect a representative from amongst my peers to represent my interests a make decisions on my behalf.

But every time the writ is issued and the rolls are closed I start to ponder who should I vote for. Oh, and not just who, but in what order (ah, the beauty of the preferential system). Should I give my first preference to the Australian Labour Party, the Liberals (who are really quite conservative), or the Christian Democratic Party? After I've figured that out, who then gets the number 2 spot?

If you ever want to really clean/pack your room I recommend getting some trusted friends to help. Not only does it get done much much faster, but having people who aren't emotionally invested in your stuff means that you will finally chuck out that really scrappy toy you've had lying around in your room for 13 years.

For me the experience was quite surreal. I basically stood in the middle of the room with Sophie, James and Glenda going through all my stuff, catching anything they tried to throw out that I thought I should keep, or that could be sold in a garage sale.

During the whole thing there were two strong emotions I felt. Firstly I was worried that in their enthusiasm to get my stuff sorted they'd chuck something that I wanted to keep.

This is from an article today on SMH:

Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, of Lakemba, had planned to attack the Australian electricity supply system, likely causing widespread death and destruction.

Without knowing exactly what this guy specifically planned on doing, I find it difficult to see how an attack on the Australian electricity system would likely cause 'widespread death and destruction'.

Firstly hospitals have backup generators so no deaths there. A power plant blowing up might kill the staff and destroy the station, but thats not exactly widespread.

This is my third and final post on the internet and relationships. See part 1 and part 2.

Kylie brought to my attention another negative aspect the internet plays in our relationships. While the internet makes it hard to have meaningful positive relationships with people (i.e. relationships where you are friendly towards each other) it makes negative relationships much easier (i.e. relationships that are about hurting the other). It is much easier to tear someone down, insult them or humiliate them over the internet.