How To Teach Kids How To Read Debate and the Dumbing Down Of Mathematics in NSW

The state of education is going down the drain in NSW. The Government keeps creating panels and task forces to tackle the growing issue of Australia falling behind in the PISA rankings with our children's abilities declining every single year in the global rankings. The outcome after spending our precious tax money on paying these so called experts... makes me shake my head in despair. 

Kids struggling with mathematics and poor performance...their solution is to delay teaching them key concepts like multiplication. If kids are struggling with mathematics and times table, don't delay it, bring it forward, intensify the education on the areas of concern. They won't improve by merely delaying the concepts and letting the kids grow older before they are taught. If kids in other countries can learn math concepts at a young age, why can't Australian children be expected to learn the same concepts at the same age? Language isn't the barrier. It is our lack of expectations and educational support that is the barrier. 

Currently the maths curriculum has been under debate between the national curriculum authority and the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute(AMSI). AMSI(an organisation of 30 universities and government agencies) in its submission, objected to changes that delayed the teaching of key maths concept until later years. Examples of delays include delaying clock and time concept from year 1 to year 2, pushing back learning times tables and multiplication from year 3 to year 4, learning to solve linear equations in year 8 instead of year 7, removing quadratic equations from year 10 just because some of the concept has been covered in year 9. The proposed draft curriculum emphasised problem solving and inquiry based learning.

 The other issue was English and reading abilities. The outcome of these so called experts(and NSW Education Department) and their conclusion was that kids were having trouble learning how to read and because we are falling behind in English compared to our overseas counterparts, then we should focus on teaching kids more synthetic phonics and testing them on their ability to read FAKE words just to determine their phonics ability. That this suggestion was taken seriously means our seniors and 'experts' have all gone insane. There are so many REAL words to learn and test children on, and yet they need to go and create FAKE words for kids to read just in order to test their phonics ability?!! This is why I felt that I must write. 

These proponents of synthetic phonics believe students need to learn relationships between letters and sounds, which is fine because phonics is very essential to being able to decode words for reading. However the synthetic phonics proponents created a 20 fake word list(such as 'plood' and 'pove') in order to test children's phonics ability and rule out the words that kids have memorised. If they really wanted to test children whilst also teaching them, there are rarer, less frequently used but REAL English words that could be used for testing instead of using fake words and filling children's head up with irrelevant and fake words.

The whole point of learning how to read is a mix of memorising words by sight (as many words in English fail to follow the phonic sounds) and also applying phonics- this falls under the 'balanced literacy' approach which has historically been the approach taken by educators historically to date. What the proponents of synthetic phonics have failed to tackle is the question of why the historical approach is not as effective anymore. 

It's not the teaching style. It's the modern environment and how children are increasingly reading less books. They are exposed to significantly more screen time just like adults. More digital devices. Instead of kids bringing books to read in restaurants and in cars on the way to destinations, parents give their kids the mobile phone, the iPad or play movies in cars that have screens inbuilt into the car seats already.  Screen time is up significantly for children. YouTubing, Netflixing and playing digital games. It's all so portable now and easier to calm and pacify children with digital devices when they are out and about as opposed to making them read actual books.

In 2018 the NSW Department of Education offered $50 per kindergarten child for schools to buy decodable readers however many schools declined the offer. Now the NSW Department of Education is forcing these decodable readers onto schools by not giving them a choice and will buy these books and force them onto schools instead. The decodable texts were thought of as "clumsy and contrived". It would have been significantly better if schools were just given these funds to use however they wish on educational materials. 

There haven't been any long term studies or results on how effective these decodable readers are but the main beneficiaries for sure are the two publishers who will be receiving approximately $4.3million worth of government money, Little Learners and Decodable Texts Australia. Mem Fox wrote before that school books teaching kids to read were rather nonsensical and boring which is why kids didn't enjoy reading them and didn't seek out those books. I haven't seen these decodable texts but if they're anything like the learn to read PM readers that are already in classrooms, many of the stories have no story behind them, just a bunch of simple words strung together just because they meet simple letter sounds. 

According to Damon Thomas, a senior lecturer in English Education at the University of Tasmania, he believes that if children are not interested in reading then it will impact literacy and ultimately the ability to write. He is quoted, "I don't think you can talk about this without touching on the impact of digital technology, and how easy it is for children these days to do other things with their time than sit down and read a book or write a story. This is not a writing in a silo problem. This is a literacy engagement problem. NAPLAN is a bit of a warning sign, but it has far reaching consequences if we have generations coming through who potentially don't have the skills." His comment refers to NAPLAN comparison results of boys and girls in year 3 and year 9 in relation to their performance against the national minimum standard. Over the years, both sexes have deteriorated below the national minimum standard by the time they reach year 9, the boys(20.6%) even more so than the girls(9%). 

The director of strategy for reading at Multilit, Jennifer Buckingham says that boys read less frequently than girls and quantity and quality of reading correlated with writing quality. Books that children read influenced their writing ideas. She believes that kids having trouble with spelling will choose to use simpler words in their writing and that spelling impacted on accuracy, fluency and was a factor in determining the extent to which students enjoyed writing. 

According to Jenny Atkinson(chief executive of Littlescribe and founder of Co-author program), "The Thematic Review of Writing, commissioned by the NSW Education Standards Authority highlights a lack of teacher knowledge, skill and confidence in the teaching of writing as the key challenge. There are three clear problems: the overuse and misplaced use of technology, a lack of purpose and relevance for students and teachers around support for writing and a lack of skills and resources for teachers. There is an over reliance on technology for teachers to collect data to prove the delivery of what has been taught rather than what has been learnt. Students respond digitally to writing tasks. We have created a copy and paste, auto-correct and regurgitation behaviours rather than students learning how to craft original concepts and draft, edit and rewrite-by hand". 

Atkinson also writes that, "...technology is part of the problem. Drawing and writing with a pen taps all parts of the learning brain at once: visual, kinesthetics(the act of doing) and linguistics. This activate more neural pathways as all learning systems are in play. Handwriting layers new knowledge on existing muscle memory, increasing our recall and the ability to glue new concepts together. The overuse of technology has turned off a powerful learning system."

Dr Anabela Malpique from Murdoch University concluded that "handwriting fluency can be used to predict writing quality a year later". 

The quality of the students writing was determined by their ability to recognise and use distinct, appropriate writing styles when required in relation to the various subjects such as science, history, health, technology and music for example. As students learn specialised subjects, the writing used in each subject employs different terminology and words, in English, writing tends to evaluate and analyse texts whereas in other subjects it is more factual or persuasive or informative.  

These so called experts who are influential in what children learn should have higher expectations for children and not dumb down materials or delay teaching key concepts. If children overseas can learn concepts from a young age, why can't Australian children? If delivery of these concepts and teaching style were fine in the last few decades, then what is the reason for the decline? That should be the first port of call when looking for a reason. I have seen children use laptops and iPads more frequently in their 'studies' and learning program and when the parents aren't around for even a few minutes, the kids are watching YouTube and chatting away on messengers and chatting programs. You can't be distracted like that when you have books and a pen in hand with no connection to the internet. I've seen parents just watching and cruising social media while their kids are reading next to them, half distracted by the sounds.

There should be studies done instead on how digital devices have impacted and detracted from children's learning instead of just concluding that it's the teaching material that is the issue and dumbing down the materials. How is Australia going to produce cutting edge designers and inventors of the future if we dumb down materials and lower expectations on what they are to learn?

On conclusion, I am not sponsored by Reading Eggs but I highly recommend that app for teaching kids how to read. I have seen many kids use that app and can read fluently before Kindergarten even starts. Educators should look at that app. It is amazing.

Source:

The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Schools on board with phonics check' by Jordan Baker, 1-2/08/2020

The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Boys can't keep up with girls in writing results' by Jordan Baker

The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Beyond grammar, context is king' by Yaegan Doran and Sally Humphrey, 18/9/2020

The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Parents should put down phones, help solve writing crisis' by Jenny Atkinson, 16/09/2019 

The SMH, 'Teachers to ignore phonics test' by Pallavi Singhal, 18/06/2019 

The SMH, 'War over plan to change how maths is taught' by Lisa Visentin and Anna Pyrtz, 9/7/21 

SMH, 'NSW asks for revision of reading and maths' by Lisa Visentin, 20/8/21 

Writing Again and Creating New Content

Back before COVID. A trip to Japan for snowboarding. Last leg of trip in Tokyo.

 

 

Thanks to all readers who are still visiting this blog to read. I thought Google would have ranked this blog poorly due to the lack of new content and that there would be no more traffic but surprisingly, there are still hundreds of thousands of readers even with no new content in the last three to five years. Thanks Google(Alphabet, ticker GOOGL), this is why I love you and why I invest in you. You show a lot of love for content that is genuine and keep bringing it up in your search results which is why this blog still has traffic in the hundreds of thousands. 

I hope you guys are okay and I know life is tough and depressing to some extent due to the coronavirus pandemic, but I believe in our strength and our ability to overcome this pandemic and come out stronger on the other side. It's all a bit frustrating to have no deadlines and see no end to this tragedy but being constantly frustrated isn't good for our health so we all need to try and see the positives given this current state of the world.

I haven't blogged in a long time due to several factors. Life has been really busy and hectic with so many events and functions. With COVID and lock downs, all those events are pretty much all cancelled, so now I find the time and freedom to actually do other things that I haven't had time for such as writing, reading, trying out new food recipes, practicing piano and bingeing on TV shows and movies. It's strange to think that I now have freedom to do what I want when in reality the physical freedom to go anywhere and do anything has been curtailed severely due to restrictions and lock downs. Socialising is great but I'm also such a homebody at heart. I can be completely and overly entertained just being at home and will never run out of things to do while being home. Especially if I have books, computers, devices and an internet connection.

I have also been working on other e-content(unrelated to finance) and was also hoping to register a domain for personal finance blogging instead of using blogger as it will be a lot of work migrating the content out of the blogger infrastructure and having to work on all my back links and tagging. Even though I barely blogged in the past five years, I have so much content and thoughts on finance. 

The investment landscape has changed significantly over these five years. There are so many new companies, new unicorns, new green technologies, new speculative investments and derivatives(cryptocurrencies and the multitude of trading platforms, listed funds trading on the cryptocurrencies and tokens etc). 

Personal finance, finance and economics, investing and property are all still very exciting for me even though I have been immersed in this landscape and this context for over two decades now. I feel that all my investment goals have been achieved and it wasn't overnight. It was a steady process of setting goals, working towards them daily and yearly and then suddenly upon reflection, realising that I had achieved everything that I had always wanted, that the early retirement was now possible and that I could pretty much bum around and spend my life chasing the winter ski seasons or sit on a beach sipping coconut juice for the rest of my life without working and be fine. I can't tell you how exciting that was. The icing on top would be to buy a ski chalet and then I'd be completely aimless haha. 

Luckily I still enjoy working and the topic of finance is still just as fresh and intriguing to me as it was from so long ago. I still remember the feelings I had when my Mum taught me about term deposits and interest rates and returns back when I was 13 years old, when at kickboxing classes, I met a guy working at the Reserve Bank of Australia at 15 years old(thanks Dave) and he told me he was an economist and it inspired me, it introduced me to a whole new world to be passionate and obsess over. I was living in this small world until then and when he taught me about economics and spoke about his work, it broadened my horizon so much that I would count that as a turning point. Like a fish trapped in a fish bowl that has been turned out into the ocean and discovers a huge and exciting new world. It has consumed me for so long, the world of finance and economics is so intricate and endless, there are so many inter dependencies, inter related issues due to globalisation and also the advent of new products and new technologies have also meant that investing has changed significantly every single day and every single year. 

New stock apps have enabled a broader population to engage with the stock markets, new technology have enabled hedge funds and investment banks to beat the ordinary folks with their cutting edge programs able to scan through financial reports within seconds and start executing trades while the ordinary folks are still scratching their heads over the reports and trying to decide what they will do. This field of finance and economics is dynamic and that is why it will never get old and boring.

Anyway, get ready for new content coming!

When It Rains, It Pours: Weather and Hard Disk Drive Failing

You know those days, when bills upon bills just rain down, and then literally for us, when it rained, it poured.

Those end of financial year enticements have been luring us for years and now, the sum of all those parts have really come home to roost into a huge consolidated sum once those bills are all paid.

Sydney had a massive, drenching rain last weekend which resulted in three deaths and homes flooded, with some coastal houses lost to the ocean. For us, it meant a leaking roof/ceiling and a few more thousand dollars worth of impending repairs. The joys of home ownership.

After about four years of use, my Macbook started playing up and it turns out the hard disk drive was failing and lucky I had backed up everything in time before it died. Now it's a slow process of re-installing a few applications, recovering bookmarks etc. Fortunately, all files are safe and sound.

This is probably one of the most adhoc post I've ever written, so apologies for that. It shows the state of my mind, which is currently all over the place. I have my fingers in way too many pies presently.  I'm hoping that over the next two years, it will all be sorted and falling into a routine. 

It's been an incredible ride these last handful of years. 

I was on TV(briefly haha) and looks like I may be published in an industry magazine. An offer of more TV appearances but I'm not sure I want to pursue that path. That opportunity arose many years ago which I declined as well. Life is really strange. These are such random opportunities which just fell into the lap. Some try so hard and actively to pursue TV fame and opportunities but here I am, consistently declining the offers.

Financially (seeing as this is a personal finance blog!!), it's also been incredible. We reached a huge milestone a few years ago, so these last few years simply amplified that.

I will be back writing about being on the hunt for acreage and land banking versus buying a blue chip property in an established suburb. Our friends are also doing exciting things with their properties, some are demolishing and rebuilding, some are looking at $4 million houses to buy. Some have just got a foot hold into property while some are renting. It's amazing how we all pretty much started out at similar junctions in our life. 

From being friends at University, the choices that we individually made over the years is now starkly apparent and the differences between all of us diverges more dramatically every single year. Some are holding stellar careers and lifestyles. Some are still struggling. Some are living the golden life, while some are just surviving day to day. What differentiates the stellar achievers versus more ordinary achievements? I would hazard a guess and say that the stellar achievers have planned a lot more in their life for the long term horizon as opposed to short to medium term planning only. And they're type A personalities. Really great organisational skills to boot. 

So what do you want from your life? What are you doing to achieve those plans? Are you all talk and no action? Or are you talk plus action? Are you going to look back in ten years time and wish you had done something? 

20 PF Life Hacks From Melissa Browne

Melissa Browne is an accountant and author who writes really simple stuff in the paper. I would like to see her writing more gritty articles for us to read. When she writes about the meatier subjects, I do enjoy reading her work. 

She wrote about personal finance life hacks that I thought readers might find to be of interest:

1. Remove the credit cards from the wallet

2. Annually review your loan rates for the best competitive offer

3. Pay yourself first, automate it if you have weak will power

4. Put all excess funds and savings in your offset account

5. Pay for deductible expenses on your credit card so that lost receipts can be backed up with credit card statements as proof of expenditure

6. If you have credit card debts incurring interest charge, setup zero interest credit cards and roll the balances over, pay them off completely before the interest free period ends

7. Buy property in an SMSF (I think this is more applicable for the over 50s. The under 50s have uncontrollable and unpredictable expenses such as kids/education, single income households, unknown health issues etc and super is a long way off being accessible for emergencies. My friend's aunties had cancer and even when very sick and couldn't work, super was not accessible under the hardship provisions)

8. Unsubscribe from online shopping sites and remove your credit card information which reduces impulse buys

9. Try going through 30 days of no spending, coined as 'financial detox'

10. Pay down bad debts which are non-deductible

11. Cook, "more time in the kitchen means less time at the doctors, dentists and therapists"

12. Shop with a grocery list

13. Share and rent items that are not going to appreciate in value over time

14. Teach your kids about money and say no to them

15. Use the cloud for free and cheap software and applications

16. Renegotiate monthly payments and if not necessary,cancel them

17. Buy a quantity surveyor report for your investment property

18. Travel in the off season

19. Build multiple streams of income such as through shares, properties, online businesses, consulting, blogging, importing, exporting and selling products

20. Manage electricity costs such as switching off unused appliances, energy efficient light bulbs, air dry clothes (For us we use blinds, curtains, drapes to keep the room warm in Winter and block sunlight in Summer, door snakes to stop winter drafts and rugs for warmth)

Other life hacks that I can think of to add to her comprehensive list is:

1. Mulch your garden to reduce moisture evaporation and watering needs

2. Switch all your loans to interest only with offset accounts attached. Divert all rental income, dividends, salary, savings and funds into your PPOR's(main residence) offset account to minimise your non-deductible loan interest

3. Stock staples in your pantry such as tinned tomatoes, corn, beans, rice, tuna, flour etc so that you can knock up something to eat when you are ravenously hungry or tired without having to resort to take away and junk food

4. Before you buy more 'stuff', stop and think, is that just ultimately contributing to landfill and will the item contribute benefits to your life

5. Grow plants and herbs, it will inspire you to cook more often

6. Compost, it makes free fertiliser and reduces land fill

7. During council clean up collection, go for  a walk and see if you can salvage anything of use from going to landfill(do not hoard by any means =) )

8. Get income, trauma and TPD insurance, you are the asset so protect your income earning abilities!

8. Read all my other blog posts =) 

Don't Expect Results If You Don't Invest In Yourself

I am constantly surprised and baffled as to why some people just don't spend time on upgrading or improving their knowledge and skills.

Today was a classic case of people falling in the typical bell curve.

I had enrolled in a LF Forklift Licence course so that I could be licenced to drive a forklift around on my parent's farm and be covered by liability insurance in case I drive into something as a worse case scenario.

There were five of us in the class. Upon registration, we were told (and if you weren't told that, it was in the student handbook that you had to print out):

1. Print out your forklift training manuals
2. Read the training manuals beforehand a few times
3. Complete the questions in the manual
4. Complete the questions in the self assessment without looking at the manual and hand that copy into the training centre
5. Bring sufficient identification so that you can participate in the class

Today, this is what happened:

Person 1: Didn't bring sufficient ID. He lost his wallet a few weeks ago and brought in unopened utility letters and letters from the bank. (I was agog that they were not opened, as if he just grabbed them out of the letterbox). He didn't even know what type of letters they were but they didn't qualify. He didn't read the training manual beforehand and didn't complete the questions and didn't complete the self assessment that was to be handed in.

Person 2: He didn't read the training manual, didn't complete the questions, didn't complete the self assessment that was to be handed in. His written English wasn't that great according to his friends, but I'm surprised he didn't make triple the effort to learn the manual beforehand to compensate for his lack of written English skills.

Person 3: He didn't even print the training manual, let alone read it! He didn't complete the questions or the self assessment that was to be handed in. It's almost as if he just paid for the course, and then turned up on the day, ignoring everything else he was told.

Person 4: The only one on the top end of the bell curve. He not only printed two copies of the training manual, he had read the training manual beforehand so knew almost all the answers, he had completed the self assessment to be handed in and brought sufficient ID.

Person 5: Me haha! Of course I'd be at the top end of the curve ;p My practical forklift driving skills may be at the bottom end, but I did what I was able to do. I printed the manuals, I read beforehand, completed the questions, completed the self assessment, brought enough IDs and knew almost all the answers as well. Can't be too modest, right?!

Seriously though, I understand that driving a forklift can be considered a blue collar job but whether you are in a blue or a white collar job shouldn't distinguish how much effort you put into learning or obtaining skills. If any of my friends in the white collar industry (bankers, lawyers, IT consultants, programmers, accountants, dentists etc) had to obtain their forklift licence, I can say with 100% confidence that they would have followed the directions absolutely by the book.

They would have turned up on the day with 100% ID, printed off their training manuals and read it a few times, highlighted relevant points, made notes, completed all questions and if they couldn't complete the self assessment without looking at the answers, they would have studied the manual again. I can't say with confidence that they would pass the practical aspect of driving a forklift(without having practice) but I can say that they would have invested effort into achieving as much as they could to help themselves pass.

I have friends across various retail industries and professions, and I know we all fall into some section of the bell curve despite some denying that the bell curve doesn't exist. Probably for that reason, statisticians still have work and why we had to learn probability analysis.

But today, it was such a classic example of the typical bell curve that I thought I would write about it. It's been a long time since I was in such disbelief that people can turn up to a class and licence test without doing any preparation whatsoever and didn't follow any instructions or do any reading beforehand. I was just amazed.

Questions To Ask Your Car Insurer

Everyone who drives a car should have car insurance. If you can't afford car insurance, then you can't afford to drive. If you can't afford comprehensive car insurance, then at least get third party insurance.

With so many companies offering car insurance quotes online, it’s never been easier to find the right car insurance cover for your needs. Having said that, it’s still vitally important to take the time to compare apples with apples after you have a short-list of prospective insurance providers to make sure you get the best deal and you understand the fine print. So after you have your short-list, take the time to get on the phone and ask them the following questions; it may save you hundreds of dollars on your premium and potentially thousands of dollars if the very worst should happen.

Claims

First, don’t be afraid to ask them outright about their claims process. It’s important to dig into the nitty gritty here to find out how long it normally takes them to process a claim and what factors usually slow down a claim process. Plus it’s worth asking, after a claim is approved who sources the quotes and repairers (you or them) and how long it normally takes to get a vehicle back on the road.

Vehicle

If you’re into modifying your car, ask them what, if any, modifications you can make to your car. The last thing you would want to do is obtain an insurance policy for a stock standard vehicle that then becomes defunct by you naively adding mags, extractors, or other standard and non-standard modifications.

Reducing Risk

Ask your potential insurer, what difference it will make to your premium if you install anti-theft devices like car alarms and vehicle disabling technologies. Installing an alarm or anti-intrusion device prior to obtaining a policy may reduce your premium, or at the very least reduce your theft excess.

What Does Your Rating Look Like?

Another question to ask is whether an insurer is willing to transfer your existing insurance rating and no-claim bonus from your current provider. These are key factors in determining part of your total premium cost, as well as reducing your excess, so don’t be afraid to ask as it can save you money.

Be Up Front

When you’re on the phone with insurance providers you should also come clean about your driving history. Some people may be tempted to try and leave out any negative incidence in their past, but insurance providers need to know if you have had any licence suspensions, as well as any history of accidents that you may, or may not, have been the cause of. Failing to disclose your driving history may sound like a good idea if you think it will save you money on your premium, but if you have an accident and your driving history is discovered your policy will become void.

It’s worth keeping in mind that your past driving history may not have as large an impact on your premium or excess as you may think, as the type of offence and the recency of the offence are both factors they will consider. A few extra dollars out of your pocket for the premium, or a slightly larger excess commitment, are small prices to pay to ensure you are adequately covered and protected.

Gaining Traction In The Australian PF Blog Market

Due to blog traffic increasing, this has resulted in SMG gaining traction in the personal finance market in Australia. What has been happening?

I've had a few proposals from companies wanting to offer affiliate products and offering to pay commissions via affiliate product sales (so far I'm not interested). Companies wanting to pay me to publish their articles and companies wanting my blog to give them links out using particular anchor text.

I also get plenty of requests wanting free plugs, guest posting etc but so far that doesn't really interest me either.

The latest queries wishing to form some type of relationship has been from Australian based marketing firms on behalf of their clients. I don't know whether I should take the leap and venture deeper into paid territory because that may possibly influence me into publishing something that I may not morally agree with nor believe will be beneficial for readers.

Never thought I'd reach a blogging point where there would be sufficient visits to this blog to garner interest from marketing firms. It's been very interesting...

If I had started a food blog then I would have happily leaped into offers to dine and sample new cuisines without a single thought lol ...but because I write primarily about personal finance and money, I have to be more diligent and careful that I don't mislead you by promoting financial products and or sites that are detrimental to your finances.

Birthdays And More Birthdays

Tis' The Season To Be Birthdays
It's been birthday season for the past few months going into Christmas.

Haven't even had time to contemplate the Silly Season because of Birthday Season.

What have you been up to? Christmas shopping? Just to let you know in advance, this post has a little bit of everything to compensate for the weeks I haven't been prolifically blogging.

The Aussie Economy
Our Aussie economy is in a slump right now and it would be foolish of me to ignore the potentially darker economy heading our way. Maybe we're in a slump because we mutilate ourselves, economically speaking. We buy goods online from overseas and that means local retailers(one of the biggest employers in Oz) are struggling and this translates to cut labour hours and reduced income for retail employees. All this flow on effect leads to reduced consumption. It's the circle of economics 101.


Travelling and More Travelling
Mr SMG and I will be travelling again in a few short weeks to Singapore. We're actually driving south with a group of friends next weekend. So much happening. There was a looooong hiatus from blogging because we were in Europe for several weeks. I can't even disclose exactly when we'll be travelling because there are other third parties out there who know where I live. That's what happens when you post under your real name duh, *smacks forehead*.

I had good intentions of posting up some holiday snaps but it's been crazy busy even though I supposedly have almost all the time in the world. Over the last few months, I've been thanking my younger, sagacious self for looking after my older self. I could not be in my current position of relative comfort without my younger self prudently investing madly(juxtaposition intended lol).

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
Yours truly has been preoccupied with an iPhone app idea. Will that venture take off or crash and burn?

I won't even shed any tears over how my dear friend Mr Z and I could have been gazillionaires already if we had bought Apple shares back in 2006/2007. He and I could have had ten million each under our belts if we had chosen that route but when the road is forking, you never know which road to take until it's too late. Who could have foreseen the successful, phenomenal Apple product releases of the iPad and iPhones? We knew Apple's imagination and creativity was starting to ignite back then, but as you know, coulda, woulda, shoulda. Oops.

An Early Christmas Pressie For You
What can I give my readers for Christmas? Maybe a wry comment to go easy on the credit card and Christmas gifts if you think you may end up with a financial headache in January. Go through your recurring bills and find more competitive offers out there, ask for a price match and save yourselves thousands of dollars. What else hasn't been said?

New Years Eve Resolution For 2013
Okay, so I'm one month early =) Why wait?

If you've got NYE resolution from back in January, maybe reflect on those and what you've achieved?

I look back at what I posted in January 2012 about my NYE resolutions:

"a huge promise to make, a house to buy and a few travel destinations"

1. Yep; the huge promise was made
2. Nope; didn't buy the house
3. Yep; few travel destinations were travelled

Two out of three ain't bad I guess. It would have been sweet to achieve all three but I'm still happy overall about 2012 =)

Got some MAJOR plans for 2013:

1. Something massive x 2 (could I be more 007 like? lol)
2. Buy a house
3. If time+budget+life permits, go snowboarding in Canada/Colorado
(Mr SMG says this is pie in the sky and I should have omitted this one  >.<)
4. If time+budget+life permits, travel South East Asia (Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam)

5. Work on side hobbies (photo props/card designs/iPhone apps) and get them launched

What about yourself? Are you happy with 2012?

Importance Of Sleeping

There's so much to do, watch, see and read and not enough time in the day right?

You may have heard about how important sleep is right? Every now and again, I struggle to fall asleep so sleeping tips are really useful.

Rapid eye movement, commonly abbreviated to REM, is deepest during the first four hours of sleep. REM and dreaming are very important because it assists in developing memory consolidation. A person sleeping for 8 hours has more REM than one who sleeps for only 5 hours.

However, we can 'survive' on 90 minutes sleep because that is one full sleep cycle. If you can sleep for up to eight hours each night then you can get the benefits of five sleeping cycles.

There are three main categories of insomnia.

1. Transient insomnia- ranges from a few days to a few weeks. Triggered by environmental factors such as noise and temperature
2. Acute insomnia- ranges to a few weeks and can be triggered by anxiety, worries and stress
3. Chronic insomnia-lasting a few years and is dangerous because it impacts on health, safety and quality of life

According to the Women's Health magazine study on sleep, 25% of us sleep for only six hours or less each night. In 2009, one of their surveys found that 44% of Australians had insomnia in the six months period leading up to the survey.

There have been plenty of studies done on sleeping patterns and its effect on us and on lab animals. The University of Chicago conducted a study that involved keeping rats awake. It took two weeks for all of them to die. (Why are we still being cruel to animals for something like this?!).

There was a 17 year old boy in the US who stayed awake for just over 18 days and by then he was suffering a range of symptoms such as "hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech, memory and concentration lapses."#

Other health issues resulting from poor sleep or lack of sleep are diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats, inflammation issues (arthritis and bowel disesaes), anxiety, obesity, mental illnesses and depression.

If you're having difficulties getting to sleep, there are some useful techniques that can be utilised:

* Wake up at the same time in the morning so that your body will be eager to tell you to go to bed at night
* If you're having trouble falling asleep, don't lie in bed, get up and read or do something that doesn't involve watching TV and you will get sleepy again
* Try not to use sleeping pills because they reduce your confidence in your natural ability to fall asleep
* Sleep when you're tired and don't wait until you're finished doing whatever it is you wanted to do
* No TV, mobile phones or computers at least for one hour before bedtime, they both expose our brains to 'blue light' which suppresses the release of melatonin, the hormone which tells our body when to sleep
* You would rather be a little cool than too hot
* Don't worry yourself over not being able to sleep. The US National Sleep Foundation's study concluded that, "poor sleepers will often think they've been awake when in fact they've been asleep"
* If you're a worrywort, then write down all the list of things you have to do and the worries that are plaguing you before you go to bed and then it may cut down the time you spend in bed thinking about those issues

Bonne nuit...

#Womens Health, August 2010

Sadness And Happiness

I received two touching and poignant emails from one of my closest friend who has relocated to the UK for almost 5 years now. It makes me feel so sad and my heart feels so heavy. She's gutted that she couldn't visit me earlier this year and I'm gutted that she couldn't either due to complications in her life. Either way, one of the happiest and monumental events of our lives so far occured days apart.

We've been friends for such a long time. She's known me since I was young, naive and innocent as school girls wondering what the future held in store for us. She knows all my foibles, my weaknesses and strengths. If it's possible to acutely miss friendship~ it's days like today when I read her emails and wish I could hug her and support her. I miss her and I wish I could be there for her during her difficult and challenging times. But we are oceans apart.

Internet and technology bridges the gaps and the oceans but due to the time differences and daily demands of life, it is hard to keep in touch in a meaningful way that can be treasured. Our correspondences sent to each other are raw, with neither of us holding back or putting on a polite facade. Growing up is hard.

You realise that life doesn't always follow your expectations and dreams. We find love, break other people's hearts and have our own hearts broken, and then the circle is complete~ find love again. The perfect road turns out to be paved with broken stones along the way. Just have to keep going.

We are both happy in our own way and our own lives. There are challenges on both sides of the ocean and I learn to value friendship more every single year. The ones that don't stab you in the back, that don't use you, that don't revel in your misery and instead help to find solutions to your problems, the ones that don't lie to you but instead are honest. Over these years, I've had all of those type of friends. The good ones, the great ones and the bad ones.

I am also thinking of another friend too, in her difficult time right now. If I thought last year was a very tough year for me emotionally, this year has been a very tough year for some of my friends. Things we never thought we'd be vulnerable to when we were younger. Back then, we broke hearts, got our hearts broken and that was traumatic but that is nothing compared to the life events that we now face. No doubt, years into the future if we all live to old age, we'll be looking back and thinking that what we face now is nothing compared to what we face then.

Victor Dominello: Liberal MP For Ryde

Victor Dominello: Liberal MP for Ryde

On Monday night, I attended a community forum hosted by The Northern District Times for Victor Dominello.

The Hon. Victor Dominello is M.P for City of Ryde. Every single day, I drive through the congested streets of Ryde and past the huge poster of his smiling mug which you can see on the left. More often than not, I'm stuck at the Ryde Road and Victoria Road intersection directly where his office is located.

If you would like to read more about Victor Dominello, his working history as a solicitor/lawyer/partner and professed advocacy for the vulnerable members of society, you can read his inaugural speech here, here and some interesting history about his Italian life, aversion to pork meat and market gardening(farming) heritage here.

When he posted a brochure inviting people to join the 'Ask Victor Forum', I thought it would be a good opportunity to listen to what the community concerns were, understand a bit more about politics, the decision makers for local areas and while I was doing that, vent my grievances about traffic congestion, rubbish dumpers and graffiti.

I phoned Dominello's office and his staff Michael, kindly and politely jotted down my idea on how to alleviate traffic in the area. They'll even compose a letter to the Transport Minister on my behalf.
Before I go on any further, I'd like to clarify that I am neither pro Liberal nor pro Labor. My family and and I are mainly swinging voters depending on which party has the most reasonable policy. So far, the Liberal State Government appears to be doing alright. (Just get rid of Tony Abbott and have Malcolm Turnbull in place and there would be a stampede to vote Liberal at the next Federal elections).

I couldn't wait for Liberals to get into office for NSW so that Barry O'Farrell could repeal Part 3A laws as he promised in his election campaigns. (Part 3A of the EP And A. Act caused havoc across several communities such as Greendale, Silverdale, Luddenham and Ryde to name a few and I'm totally opposed to it).

Some Of The Issues Raised At The 'Ask Victor Forum'

The Northern District Times hosted the forum. It's good to have someone to anchor the forum because the forum was swamped by a rather vocal group up front concerned about the Ryde Civic Centre sell off by council. Justifiably so however it is a bit frustrating that they took up so much air time when it really is a council issue and they should be lobbying the Ryde councillors instead.

It's a shame that not all the questions were covered. One lady I spoke to attended because she wanted to know about the proposed North West Rail Link and whether associated infrastructures such as car parking facilities would be catered for. There's plenty of contradictions in our society. One gentleman was opposed to illegal boarding houses for Macquarie University students and the folks seated near him were opposed to more high density apartments being developed in the area. It's a zero-sum-game. It will be near impossible to cut back on illegal boarding house demands without having more housing development.

And if rental affordability were an issue, then illegal boarding houses would be cheaper than the ones that are legally registered. To cut illegal boarding houses and drop rental prices is to increase supply- thus build more rental property. A zero-sum-game indeed.

Issues covered:

* Ryde Civic Centre proposed rezoning and apartment development with potential to build 500 units and only 600 car parking spaces. What a disaster that would be. Throw more traffic onto an absolutely congested road. If anything, the high rises need to be built on top of Macquarie Shopping Centre, Macquarie Park and North Ryde station. High density office and apartments should be located at, on top and near the stations. Since the skyline in Rhodes has been ruined by the two new high rise atrocities, they may as well keep it consistent and keep building until Rhodes can be renamed Hong Kong Rhodes.

* Ivanhoe Social Housing Estate development taskforce - The forum threw out a rough statistics that the Salvation Army owns 10% of the Ivanhoe Social Housing Estate? Impoverished and poor members of our society will always be easy targets. An ex-bf of mine always disliked the social housing estates claiming that they were dangerous and resulted in lower socio-economic households not really attempting to improve their lot. I think he bought a townhouse in the area so he'll proably be pleased with the taskforce.

* Stance on Euthanasia - Dominello is against euthanasia, citing that there needs to be a lot of controls in place before even venturing near the topic. He refrained from saying it, but I'll put it out there- the politicians and a possibly a large group in our society may be worried that legalising euthanasia will result in some eager younger folks popping off their oldies in order to obtain their inheritance. Sounds sickening doesn't it? Money can be at the root of all evil, divorces and arguments so better being safe than sorry is probably the motive behind not legalising euthanasia.

* School Garden Projects and Solar Rebate Scheme

* National Disability Insurance Scheme (Peter Wilkins on behalf of Achieve Australia)

* Devolution Fiscal Budget Cuts

* Illegal Boarding Houses - Drafting of legislation for boarding houses to be registered

There were approximately 60 to 70 older generational attendees and I think that the younger crowds were neglecting a huge opportunity to create a direction and vision for their area.

If Liverpool Council and Penrith City Council held forum consultation sessions with local MPs similar to Ryde's electorate, then they would be more aware of what the community concerns are instead of leaving the rural community stuck with DAs from wealthy doctors and developers wanting to get wealthier by building cemeteries and crematoriums regardless of how many rural residents they have to trample on.

Dominello's staff member Michael, queried me for some feedback about the forum session. I think the forum is a great idea for the community to voice their grievances and ideas. If Ryde Council councillors attended too then it would be perfect. That way, anything that is of council concern could be addressed directly by the council and anything that is Dominello's concern can be addressed towards Victor. That would enable the forum to cover more topics instead of Dominello having to insistently state that he's not a decision maker on behalf of council. Oh, and starting promptly on time would also assist in managing more questions.

As for Dominello as Ryde's Liberal MP, he's rather affable, friendly and articulate, like all politicians. His office likes to send out a lot of letters and publications so it's impossible to forget that he's the local MP. He's giving the impression that he cares about the area a lot due to family history but that's what all politicians do. The try to evoke the warm fuzzy feelings. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to exchange more than a greeting with him since the crowd was clamouring all around him. All in all, it was an interesting forum.

Time Sucks: Game of Thrones And TV

There are so many addictive reality TV shows on right now. I've just burnt 12 hours watching Game of Thrones(G.o.T) and G.o.T has just barely gotten started (it's adapted from novels).

G.o.T is hugely addictive and better than The Hunger Games due to the witty dwarf character(Tyrion Lannister played by Peter Dinklage) who rocks out the most awesome lines ever. Anyone with a bent for mediaeval type of battles, lancing, beheadings, incest, romance gone wrong, sorcery, backstabbers, beautiful women and good looking men would enjoy G.o.T. There is possibly a bit too much gore and too many sex scenes but it's a no holds barred type of series so they really push the boundaries.

G.o.T > The Hunger Games > Twilight.

Twilight is scraping the bottom of the barrel. The first Twilight movie was acceptable(probably due to Catherine Hardwicke's directorial vision) while the later films in the chronicle are a total yawn fest with wolf boy employing the old strategy of ripping off his shirt to draw in the female audiences. Pattinson's super pasty white face gets pastier as the series plods along. Movies aside, TV is a huge time suck lately.

The Voice Australia chews up about 2-4 hours each week and Australia's Got Talent chews up another 3-4 hours weekly. Now that Masterchef is on...maybe 6 hours a week for Masterchef? That's about 11-14 hours chewed up just watching TV shows. Most of them are on the same time (damn you *shakes fist*) so thank heavens for catch up TV. Or should I be cursing catchup TV instead >.<

With those 11-14 weeknight hours, I could be trying new recipes, baking, reading, learning, studying, blogging, cleaning the house, gardening, exercising, playing sport... yes, 'could be' are the operative words...TV is burning through a lot of my weeknights. To compensate for those TV hours, I've been staying up pretty late and burning the midnight candle. I refuse to watch The Amazing Race and The Apprentice(even though I do love those shows) or else I'd be spending 20-25 hours a week watching TV. OMG.

Googler Maths Question

"dora put $144 into an investment that gave her a 12.5% return on her investment. how much money did dora have after the investment?"

I wonder if that question was somebody's school homework question...

* If you want to calculate what the 12.5% return was:
   [12.5/100 * $144] = $18

* If you want to calculate what the end amount was with $144 invested at 12.5%pa return:
   [1.125*$144] = $162

Oh well, if that was somebody's school homework then I've just answered that question for them...



Edit 04/05/12 : It was definitely somebody's school homework question... Broward County Public School in Miami Florida to be precise... got more googlers from Staten Island in NYC so maybe it was in some sort of national exam or something lol

Homeless cats

We have seven cats on the farm so there is always an excess of cat biscuits and leftover cat food around. Due to availability of cat food, stray cats are often attracted to the house and are very difficult to chase off.

Many of the stray cats are very agressive and they bite our domestic cats leaving large gashes and gouges across their face. Because of this problem, whenever we see a stray cat, we have to chase them away. I usually don't feel sorry for them because they're so agressive but this past year has seen a new skittish arrival.

We've christened him as 'Tom Number 2" because he looks very similar to Tom with his white fur and ginger splotches of colour. We've tried to chase him away thinking that he bites our tame cats however after many failed attempts, he still remains on the peripherals. He waits until our cats are fully fed and then comes skulking to polish up the leftover food.

Now we don't chase him away anymore because he's not as agressive as the other strays. Infact, he is rather timid and always looking very pitiful. I've been feeling so sorry for him these past few months. He looks really scraggly, is always hungry and today, I noticed that he has one eye that looked infected or blinded and he had a huge gash on his left cheek. My heart melted and I felt so sorry for him.

My mum and I know that he skulks in the background waiting for leftovers and to discourage him from attacking our cats, we put out excess cat food so that he can have some leftovers to eat and doesn't attack our cats simply due to hunger. Today for the first time, I looked him in his eyes and he looked back at me very pitifully from his hiding place. Two eyes of different colours. I filled a bowl with some cat biscuits for him and for the first time, he got his own dish instead of eating leftovers.

Homeless cats and homeless humans. Being homeless is a sad state to be in. I see our cats being so well fed and loved and I see Tom Number 2 being unloved, a stray that had been left to fend for himself but it appears that he hasn't acquired the agression to survive as a homeless stray. We haven't chased him away for a few months now- instead, he's been partly adopted into the family because mum and I put out extra cat food on purpose knowing that he will come and polish up the leftovers.

I know that there's been a new, large black stray in our vicinity and he doesn't look timid or afraid. He's agressive and isn't afraid of me when I try to chase him away. Makes me wonder if the black stray has fought and gouged Tom Number 2's face since they both vie for the leftovers...

HECS/HELP Student debt is now paid off

My tax return is due to be lodged very shortly so I bit the bullet and made my final lump sum payment on my HECS/HELP  student debt. Four years at uni and my total HECS debt was almost at $30k inclusive of inflation indexation. I finally got sick of my student debt and paid it off.

Oh yeah, maths wise it could of been considered foolish since my loan was indexed to inflation of 3% last year(only 1.7% the prior year) and if I get a new mortgage, then my mortgage rate will be around 7% to 8% depending on the amount that I end up borrowing. I just paid off my super cheap student loan but I don't regret it one single bit. I don't want to be one of those older folks with a student debt dangling over my head from my younger days.

Here's to a debt free existence for the time being. I am currently debt free woo hoo! (Gotta ignore my credit card balance because that gets paid in full every single month). Next year I could be looking at a mortgage of up to a few hundred thousands of dollars so I may as well enjoy my debt free status as much as possible.

It's been a mixed year so far. Lots of sad events mixed with with happy events. 2011 is now going down as the year of four weddings and four funerals. Lots of sadness against lots of happiness. Lots of grief yet lots of joy. I particularly grieve for the aunties that we have lost and have been contemplating the subject of death a lot recently. When I find myself wiping away tears again and again, my heart feeling heavy- I can't help but think of death.

The fear of death when we first know that we're going to die, the acceptance of death as the time comes near, the welcome of death when the pain becomes unbearable and then what happens? Do we die and thats it? Or do we die and our spirits roam the Earth or our favourite hang outs? Or do spirit worlds really exist and our spirit goes somewhere in the afterlife? For me, I like to think of death as finality. That there isn't any afterlife and there isn't any reincarnation. That's what I'd like for myself whenever I die. The thought of death as the end and nothing more is much more soothing than to imagine that the spirit could be out there, hungry and lost and stuck on some inescapable spiritual plane.

I don't want to end this post on a sad note so let me say that each and every event has taught me to appreciate family and friends every single day. I'm being thankful and appreciative of my wonderful family and friends and try to live each day as it comes in gratitude. I don't want to ever become a selfish, lazy nor nasty person. I want to live my life generously and kindly towards others. Lastly, on the main subject of this post, I'm so glad to have finally paid off my HECS debt - it's like a shadow in the background that I've finally banished. Well, it's getting late now so good night folks and hope you remember to tell your loved ones how much you love them every day. Our lifetimes are much too fleeting.

Sleepless nights and insomnia

It's 4am and I've given up on *trying* to fall asleep. What triggers the long nights of simply tossing and turning are the mental stress and tiredness. Physical tiredness is always a relief because the outcome is always a good solid sleep but mental tiredness and the millions of thoughts parading through the mind just before bedtime is always the trigger for sleeplessness. I keep telling myself just before bedtime to just not think about anything and keep the mind empty. If one single thought flashes across the mind, the floodgates open and it's too late.

I've read that when you can't fall asleep, just give up and do something whether that be reading(or blogging). There have been so many momentous happenings in my life and I'm also under pressure at work. We are going through huge, structural changes at work in terms of management and ownership and the uncertainty is causing not just myself but a few colleagues, successions of sleepless nights. And if not entirely sleepless, then waking up in the middle of the night and neither options are preferable.

One of my friend works at the head office of a retail company and over twenty of her colleagues were made redundant about three months ago. Recently, one of our friend in the I.T industry was also made redundant along with a few of his colleagues. Our economy is trending towards very uncertain times and although my work is secure, in terms of the future - I can't help being pragmatic and thinking that nothing is guaranteed in this lifetime. I need to be on top of revenue figures to ensure that our company doesn't suffer from any financial strife - staff are dependent on salaries to feed family and kids and we need to be profitable as we head into a tumultous economic and trading environment.

Particularly when we've been going house hunting and the budget may be seven figures. It's gonna be one heck of a mortgage! I lay awake and think about whether to delay buying until we've saved up more versus waiting too long and house prices keep inflating $100k to $200k each year and we get priced out of the market. If we buy too early and the property market is subdued and stable, then it means paying thousands of dollars in monthly interest for nothing. But the adage of buying when you can afford to is always a great adage and that's the way I'm going to jump.

There's just way too much on my mind. The recent trio of deaths and the trio of funerals all within 10 weeks of each other. It feels like someone has repeatedly wrenched my heart like a wet rag. I attended a funeral yesterday and it was such a sad, sad, occasion. I'm dreading attending a dear Aunty's funeral this Friday. Two funerals for this week. I already told my colleague that if he dies from his high blood pressure, I'm not attending his funeral because I've simply had enough of deaths and funerals for a lifetime so he had better not cark it and he then tells me about the sleeping pills that the doctor just prescribed him early this week. We're a bunch of insomniacs these day and I write that wryly.

There's so much to worry about and I'm not usually such a worrywart but these last few days feels like someone has been holding my head underwater and telling me to breath deeply. There's the recent health scare/issue for someone who I dearly love, then the four deaths this year with two funerals this week :( There's the management/ownership/structural transitioning at work and the outcome will mean a few of us shouldering a lot more responsibility and a heavier workload whichever way the penny falls, there's the future impending purchase of a house with a huge, monster mortgage.

I'm also the treasurer of a strata building of which management has recently changed their accounting system and their new reports have been useless in terms of information- I've yet to follow up on the problem and it's one of my responsibilities. There's also another strata that I'm suppose to help my friend analyse their financial report and query the excessive $200k plus ongoing deficit. I've run through the numbers and there's a million questions that I've got running through my mind in terms of poor management. Last thing my friend needs is a huge $10k plus special levy to get them into the black.

And then there's the flurry of weddings that I've attended and will be attending this weekend and the next few weekends. Maybe it's not exactly wise to be posting this all up on the net but can anyone (even future prospective employers or whoever) really criticise me for having human foibles? If writing about everything is going to help me sleep better then I'll take that anyday at this rate.

It's 4.50am now. I may as well do a flurry of writing and then do some research for work before heading into the office. It's too late to go back to bed and roll around again. Anyone who has suffered from sleepless nights know what I'm talking about - firstly you lay on your back then close your eyes, when you don't fall asleep, you roll to one side, when that doesn't work after a few minutes, you try the other side, when that doesn't work after a few minutes, you try sleeping on your belly, face down ...a few minutes or possibly hours later, you give up and try on your back again...repeat rolling routine - when that fails again, you give up and just lie there or you get up and do something useful or something not so useful such as blogging.

8 days of devastation

Sorry for not posting as frequently as most bloggers. It's hard to think that life can change so fast. One moment I'm on top of the world and the next moment, crashing back to Earth. Everything is turned upside down. Do we jinx ourselves by emphatically believing or stating something? Is the universe that cruel and perverse?!
These last 8 days have been a procession of bad news. Someone that I love and care VERY deeply for has been diagnosed with a possible leaking heart. I can't even bear the thought. My world will be empty. My heart is breaking into millions of pieces already and the future is suddenly terrifying in all its unpredictability.

In that same 8 days, someone I've worked with for several years passed away with his funeral scheduled for next week. If that didn't cap off the horrible week of news, my friend's Aunt who I have also grown to know and care deeply for is currently on a morphine drip drifting in and out of consciousness.

In all these years of not coming anywhere near the realm of deaths and funerals, suddenly I find myself confronted with three funerals and the idea of four funerals is heartbreaking. It's just all so overwhelmingly and unbearably sad. I long for the days when I used to happily state that I'd never been to a funeral and I had never known anyone that died. The days when death was merely something that happened to other people and their relatives and friends, just not mine.

When we're young, in school or university - all our friends and relatives are young. As we get older, our friends and family are older and we start meet people of all age range in the working environment. Suddenly we're not all innocent, young nor invincible any longer when death comes knocking at friends or families' door. People tell me that we will all die one day, it's only a matter of time. It doesn't make it easier to accept but it does reinforce the concept that we are all living that circle of life. We get born, grow old and will one day die.

When 2011 is done for, it won't be missed. It's singularly the worst year ever. With the deaths, my own close collision with death due to the driver who was daydreaming, it's going down as the year that won't be missed. The year that I could have lived without. May God bless their spirits wherever they may be. May AWHWMRH all rest in peace and may their spirits find happiness if there is a spirit life after death.

Social media is killing me softly

The Buggles once sang 'Video killed the radio star" in 1979 and I can now write that DVDs killed the video and the DVD was killed by downloaders and YouTube.

I'm slowly dying via social media. There's just so much around. Replying to family and friends now involve me texting/sms, phone calls, emails and facebook. Then there is this poor little ol' blog that's not getting much love from me because I'm so busy trying to live life and reply to all these other forms of communications which is just insane. Who's slowly dying trying to keep up with this inundation of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, smartphones and multiple email accounts? Technology is flying along which is awesome but then on the other hand, we are always switched on 24/7. Are you wondering why you've subscribed to a blogger who doesn't really blog? Me too.

I can't wait until a great aggregator comes along. Google Wave was supposed to knock us out with its amazingness, but sadly that didn't happen. My friend sent me an invite to the beta Google Wave and it didn't succeed because it was just four of us on Google Wave and then Google decided to pull the plug anyway.

My new resolutions in regards to social media: Reply to all personal text/sms/missed calls more promptly, reply to emails more promptly, keep more up to date with Facebook messages, post more frequently to this blog, keep on top of my computer documents/files and photos, file stuff I wish to keep and delete/dump stuff that isn't relevant, maintain my RSS feeds and delete blogs and websites that I no longer enjoy.

Spirits: Dreams of white and blue lights

I'm sorry to really stray from the topic of this blog but hopefully someone out there may beable to tell me something, sometime about the existence of spirits and lights.

I may have seen a spirit. It's hard for me to fathom whether it was a dream or it was reality. If you had asked me if I believed in ghosts and spirits, I would have said yes but that I have never personally seen one myself. I think I have finally seen one for myself. 

On Monday, someone I knew passed away early in the morning. I can't mention too much details suffice to say that I have known him for over 8 years now and I knew he had cancer and that death was a possibility but it still was a shock when it happened. He was full of life and as life was given and now taken away by whatever greater entity is out there.

This year is horrible. Earlier in the year, I attended a funeral of someone who was dear to me and those that I love. This Thursday, another funeral. It is a sad, sad year. Is it possible to have a heavy heart? Is it possible to feel sadness that beyond such that even tears does not come sometimes?

On Tuesday, I tossed and turned all night and couldn't help thinking about Monday and our loss. Closer to dawn, but not quite dawn, I may have been awake or asleep - it was hard to tell but when I dream, my dreams are usually set at someplace else in some unknown land. This dream or reality had me lying in bed in the bedroom and that's why it felt real and perhaps why it didn't feel like a dream.

I'm lying in bed (whether it was a dream or reality will never be known) and suddenly I hear footsteps that were light and yet loud enough to be heard approach the bedroom. Instead of a person, it was a large ball of blue and white light that was hazy about half a metre wide and not a perfect sphere. Just a hazy roundish light. The essence of the light had the essence of the person that I had known. I wasn't scared. I eagerly called out his name and the voice came clearly into my mind, "It's ok. I'm alright." I call out his name again and instead of answering me, the light floated towards the window accompanied with the sound of footsteps leaving the room.

Then the light and sound was gone and by then I was wide awake. Unsure whether it was a figment of my imagination or whether it was real. The footsteps were very realistic and never have I ever dreamed myself lying in bed. When I dream, I'm always elsewhere and never simply in the bedroom lying on the bed. Either way, I am reassured by what happened and I feel that he is at peace now.

Do you believe in spirits? Does this sound fantastical? It's hard to believe that something like this happened or that I dreamed it up. The memory is so sharp.

To everyone and anyone who has lost loved ones, my thoughts and prayers are with you. May this year improve and bring happier times. RIP to those that we love and have cared about and may their spirits find happiness wherever they have gone.

Sigh. Our politicians are such an embarrassment

If we weren't such a powerful nation rich in minerals, we'd be a laughing joke to other countries.

Our politicians have got large problems on their hands and yet they're being paid taxpayers' money to hurl obscenities at one another. 

People are right. Where's the focus? Woeful public transport, poor retails sales, roads are a shamble, public/private partnership infrastructures failing, long queues for hospitals and the list is endless.

Instead, we find them on front page news making "meow" and "mincing poodle" jibes at one another. Sigh. Pathetic and embarrassing.