Is our society becoming more violent?

This is a question that I have been pondering for some time and I wonder how many other people are asking the same question.
My reason for asking this question of myself is that a service station that I frequent was robbed at gunpoint, not just a pistol but a ‘long arm’ rifle, about 3ft of death pointing you in the face.
Here is a photo of said armed robbery - Armed Hold Up - Thomastown

So I do a quick Google search of “Is our society becoming more violent?” and I get 1,810,000 results, worldwide and 61,800 results from Australia.

I’ve always thought that video games and parental care (or lack of it) and parental attitude has a lot to do with the violence that we are now seeing on the streets, in our homes, in our hospitals, in fact everywhere we look, there is violence, even the local shopping centre car park.

Have we become that rude and intolerant of others, that we can’t stop ourselves from threatening others when we don’t get our own way, or have we become that greedy that we refuse to work, instead robbing those that do work to support themselves?

A quick glance over the results I found, it doesn’t matter if we are talking about America, Europe Australia or even Britain, we are all concerned about the same thing. Children killing, children committing crimes that were once the domain of adults. I understand that the children are learning this behavior from somewhere and that somewhere is home, be it through parental behavior, video games, or TV, it is being learnt and needs to stop.

The articles listed below are just a miniscule fraction of what is reported and far more goes unreported.

28th Sept 2010 - 16yo charged with Murder [WA, Aust]

23rd August 2010 - Women charged after allegedly punching, burning babysitter with cigarette butt [QLD, Aust]

18th Feb 2010 - Sex beast and wife jailed for keeping woman as slave [SA, Aust]

18th Dec 2009 - Life ban for parent who 'punched' umpire [WA, Aust]

Once upon a time, if you were caught stealing something from your neighbour and your parents or the police found out, your parents would give you a swift kick up the back-side, the police a stern talking to in front of your parents.

These days – no swift kicks or informing parents or even stern talkings to by policemen, children have rights, rights to abuse those in authority, rights to do as they please, rights to ignore the law and get away with a slap on the wrist. This is also the second half of the problem, there is no personal accountability for your actions anymore.

You drink alcohol – you must be sick, you do drugs – you must be sick, you bash someone – you must be sick. You kill someone with your car – you must be sick. There is a label for everything and everything with a label. No longer do you have to use self-control – you can attach a label and get away with killing someone. Literally.

Australia and the world needs to wake up, the crime spree we are seeing at the moment is a generational problem and we need to realize that people need to be accountable for their actions and the courts of law need to toughen up and realize that the world will be a safer place if they applied the penalties as dictated by law and not just a slap on the wrist.

Your thoughts?

My favourite photos of the week

Photos taken by me for you

Almond Blossom - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100827)
This photo has NOT been cropped

Almond Blossom - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100827)
This photo has NOT been cropped

Rain - Taken with a Nokia N-97 (20100827)
This photo has NOT been cropped

Joey - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100822)

Please do NOT copy any of the photos on this blog - if you would like to use any photos, please leave a comment with contact details, Photos will be supplied without watermark and at full size. All comments are moderated and won't be shown to the public. Thank-you

Please note that no photo has been photoshopped on this blog, cropped yes, photoshopped NO!

Enjoy all of natures beauty!

Please visit Redbubble, perhaps there is something there you would like to purchase. Refer the photos below!

The Tourism industry and those in the Tourist Industry

I’ve just come back from 10 days on the road. I wasn’t surprised at the attitude of some operators, both in food outlets and accommodation and other areas associated with the tourism industry.

Some examples:-
Example 1:- End of a row of shops, not far from the main centre of activity, but far enough away that business ‘may’ be affected. A fish and chip shop, empty at 5pm in a well-known tourist town. I was going to order some dinner as we had just arrived in town. I walked in and walked straight back out. The reason? The small packets of tomato sauce and tar-tare sauce, individually priced at $0.50 EACH. The accepted cost is $0.20.
FAIL

Example 2:- A National Park, ticket fee applies, the operator could see I was having trouble walking (I had crutches) he offered to get the gates opened to allow vehicle access closer to the area we wanted to visit.
WIN

Example 3:- Caravan Park, in a tourist only town (pop. 400) The town lives for tourism and fishing. In fact 2 caravan parks and multiple B&B’s and motels and 1 hotel. Again tourists are the main income for many businesses in this town. The caravan park operator closes the office at 6pm, by comparison most operators don’t close their doors until 8pm (as many people don’t decide until near on dark to settle for the night) Operator was quite put out that we knocked on the door to get a lighter for their BBQ that wasn’t working without a gas stove lighter.
Same operator different day (most parks are keypad in/out) the operator had changed the codes and failed to notify us this was the case. We went to exit at 10pm to go fishing, only to find we couldn’t leave. We rang the park owner/manager as there was no-one in attendance at the residence, only to be verbally abused for doing so. The conversation took 15 minutes and the whole time the verbal tirade was disgusting. We are the PAYING customer and should be treated as such.
(The operator DID apologise the following morning) but it was too late for us – we won’t be returning.
FAIL

If you work or earn an income from visitors to your town, area, establishment or accommodation, you MUST be polite. I know ‘tourists’ can be painful, I know they can be demanding, but keep in mind bad word travels 10 times quicker than good.

We’ve already warned 2 people off that caravan park, and no doubt they will warn others.

I grew up in a tourist town, with my parents income derived from so-called tourists. Those tourists put food on the table and clothes on my back. You never know who will be the next ‘tourist’ through your town and they could make or break you.

Don’t think there are always others, yes there are – but they will only come once and never darken your doorstep again. Be polite and encourage return custom, people will go out of their way to re-visit old haunts just to see a smiling face.

PS – some of the people who came through my parents’ establishment, did so for 20 years and then the children came.

My Favourite Photos of the Week

Taken by me for your enjoyment
Dog - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100827) This photo has NOT been cropped

Dog - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100807) This photo has been cropped
State Forest - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100703) This photo has NOT been cropped

Sunset - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100730) This photo has NOT been cropped

Please do NOT copy any of the photos on this blog - if you would like to use any photos, please leave a comment with contact details, Photos will be supplied without watermark and at full size. All comments are moderated and won't be shown to the public. Thank-you

Please note that no photo has been photoshopped on this blog, cropped yes, photoshopped NO!

Enjoy all of natures beauty!

Please visit Redbubble, perhaps there is something there you would like to purchase. Refer the photos below!

My Favourite photos of the week

Taken by me for your enjoyment

Spiders web on the branch
Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100911)



Taken close to Whittlesea, looking south
Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100904)


Taken close to Kalkallo, looking North
Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100902)

Close to Whittlesea Looking East
Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100902)

Please do NOT copy any of the photos on this blog - if you would like to use any photos, please leave a comment with contact details, Photos will be supplied without watermark and at full size. All comments are moderated and won't be shown to the public. Thank-you

Please note that no photo has been photoshopped on this blog, cropped yes, photoshopped NO!

Enjoy all of natures beauty!

Please visit Redbubble, perhaps there is something there you would like to purchase. Refer the photos below!

Memories of Manna

Sugar from the Gods, or perhaps sugar from insects!

A summer ritual, when we were kids. Go to the pool, once the days heat had passed – go for a bike ride and collect the fallen ‘sugar’ – it was white globules of a sweet manna. Which is really a sap excretion from the Ribbon or Manna Eucalyptus Tree.

I don’t remember how I found out about, or when or even who told me. It just seemed natural. We even used to go prepared with a little white paper bag – you know the ones the lollies used to come in when for 20 cents, you’d fill the bag to over-flowing with lollies? Well we’d go and fill that ½ full maybe and get our natural sugar fix from trees located within the township I grew up.

Those trees are now gone. All of them, all the ‘good’ ones are gone. Not because of development, but because of bushfire. I just thought of it now. It hit me like a sledge hammer.

Weird. When I was back in town I used to go for a ‘browse’ occasionally. I can no longer.

Manna has been used for a life-time by the Aboriginal people of Australia, they collected it once the manna had fallen to the ground and consumed accordingly. Australian settlers were also quite fond of it and it’s rumoured that some trees could produce 40lb (20kg) of manna a day.

Manna is a sap excreted by the tree, wither naturally or with the assistance of boring insects, that would injure the tree and the sap would form. Once it was dry – it would drop to the ground, waiting for be picked up, by either human or animal.

Sugar Gliders like the sugar content, which can be as high as 15%, many other creatures also like it, including ants.

As a human child, only the pure snow-white ones where good. The slightly off-colour ones, although nothing was wrong with them, you learned they were not quite as sweet as the pure white ones.

Most pieces were the size of something slightly larger than a match head, other pieces were considerably bigger and they were like trophies.

The memories of growing up and a changing world, be it through development or advancement or natural disaster, hang onto those memories and teach your children. The old ways may seem foreign, but they are the simple ways and the simple things in life bring much pleasure.

(Unfortunately I’m unable to locate a photo for reference, but will try to source one sometime in the near future)

I tweet – it doesn’t make me a bad person

I tweet, I play with Twitter. I enjoying talking to people, I enjoy the instant news updates, local, national and international. I enjoy the one on one conversations possible via DM (private messaging) I enjoy the interaction provided by the @ (mentions) facility.

People are constantly asking me why I bother wasting my time, because that is what they see Twitter as, a waste of time. Like any social media it CAN be a time-waster, but used in the right way can be an excellent way of keeping up to date instantly with news either locally or internationally or even something as simple as a road closure or traffic accident in your local area.

I love the fact I can pop in and out of Twitter and not miss anything. If someone wants to include me in a conversation they mention you and it pops up in your time line as a mention. It could sit there for 1-2 hours, or even days and you can still follow the conversation. Not everybody has access 24/7 – not everyone wants access 24/7.

As my work involves computers, I have access almost 24/7. But that doesn’t mean that I participate 24/7.

I see Twitter as one big world-wide neighbourhood; people ask for help, people look for support. People share their good news, people share their bad.

The trick to Twitter is not to try and keep up with each and every tweet that people have broadcast, since you were last active. Just wipe everything in past, check your mentions and pop right back into the stream of tweets.

Say good morning, wander off for a coffee, and maybe go to work. Pop in later and see who has what to say. Different times of the day have different nations online. You rotate through the world depending on what time where and who’s doing what.

You don’t have to participate if you don’t want; you could be a voyeur and just watch. Or you can participate to the max and not miss one tweet or call for help. It’s completely up the user, as to how they choose to participate.

Twitter has also come to the forefront in cases of emergencies. From the Australian Bushfires to the Haiti Earthquake to the New Zealand Earthquakes, to the Natural Gas line explosion in San Bruno, California.

Hash tags have been developed, that assist the Twitter user in following topics of interest. At the time of writing this the most popular hash tags were:-
#neverforget in relation to the events of 9/11
#Clijsters in relation to the US Tennis Open
#IMORTAL TRICOLOR is a homosexual Brazilian football team. (<-- I’m not sure I want to know where this one came from.)

Why not jump in and join all the bad people and have some fun, meet some good people, both online and off (which I have done several times)

Do the Twitter thing and become a twerp and release some tweets on the world!

9/11, Sept 11 2001 – The attack on the Western World

I remember where I was, just like so many – I was watching Star Trek, it was some time between 23.00hrs-00.00hrs (AU EST). The transmission was cut to cross live to a building, with a plane approaching, you could see in the background, one building on fire and the plane approaching and just flying into the second building.

It didn’t seem real – how could the cameras be there as it is happened? How could people be describing what is going on? Why was the second building collapsing?

Just too much to comprehend, I woke my husband, he said I was mistaken, it’s too late, I must be dreaming I must have got it wrong.

I didn’t get it wrong. I didn’t sleep that night – I couldn’t sleep that night, the same as many hundreds of other people couldn’t sleep that night here in Australia. The number of people walking through a nightmare in the USA, and other parts of the world, far too numerous to even consider the numbers.

The images of people jumping from a leap that was not survivable, the images of the dust and smoke and ash, of paper being blown about like confetti. The images of people trying to flee one of the most built-up areas in the USA. The images of people emerging from the dust of the building collapse. Everyone was the same, the same shocked look, the same skin colour, the same look of disbelief.

In my minds eye I could see people on the phones in these buildings, saying their goodbyes, saying I love you.

I couldn’t think it possible that one human being or even two or more human beings were capable of destroying something so precious as another human life.

I just couldn’t understand. Many people before me have put their condolences in far better terms that I ever could and for that I say thank-you

I may live in Australia, I may not know anyone who perished in these attacks on the western world, but I felt the horror just as the next person did, just as people did in America.

9/11 wasn’t just an attack on America; it was an attack on the civilised world.

America went to war for world-wide peace, Australia and many other countries also went to war for the same cause.

I don’t like war, nor does my neighbour nor America, but I believe it was a necessary evil. An evil to stop further attacks on you, on me, on my neighbour, on your neighbour, on your family overseas, or on other countries. America and her supporters needed to show a united front on an event that could very well could have lead into WWIII.

May the world never forget 9/11 and may peace reign world-wide forever.

God bless.

**These are my personal views, I will not respond to comments, all comments will be moderated to ensure no hateful comments are left. Thank-you

My Favourite Photos of the week

Taken by me for your enjoyment

Scenery - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100808)
This photo has been cropped

Animals - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (201008013)
This photo has been cropped

Scenery - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100807)
This photo has NOT been cropped

Shed - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100808)
This photo has NOT been cropped

Please DO NOT copy any photos on this blog - without my express written permission

I (used) to baby-sit your dog

Well…….. I did until a person, told the owner that I wasn’t feeding the dog – complete and utter lies.

This dog is the sort of dog – that will eat until he vomits and makes himself very sick, so he always presents as being hungry.

I was accused of not supplying water, this is completely untrue – around the corner under the tap was another 20 litre bucket of water. Near the back door another 20 litre bucket of water. 40 litres for two dogs for a 12 hour period is more than enough and they are not known for tipping their water over. The owners only have the 1 x 20 litre bucket. But they have the benefit of being home most of the time. I didn’t have that luxury. I come in the morning and night.

I used to go every morning and every night, water, talk to and feed these two dogs.

Then I find out about being accused of not caring for these two dogs.

Fine, let someone else care for them. Someone else was found. The people looked after the dogs once, twice and the third time something happened to one of the dogs and I get the call to check out what the problem is. I pick up pretty quickly it’s a back problem and gentle walking might assist with the problem. I was ignored. The owners called. The owners asked me what I thought (again) and I told them the same thing.

They took the dog to the vet, the vet said the same thing (which I’ve been saying for 3 days now) The owner ignores all advice, 2 weeks and $1000 later, the dog is put down, the owners couldn’t be bothered following. The dog is in too much pain to do anything other than be put down. Noting that said dog is 12 years old, so not a bad run.

That leaves a dog, who will eat anything in sight, needing to be looked after. I’m pretty upset – I consider my dog to be the centre of my universe (well almost) As I told someone the house could burn down and as long as I have my dog I’ll survive. That’s what I think of my dog and any other dog as well. I can’t help it if the owners are dick-heads.

I don’t take kindly to being accused of something I didn’t do, in fact I take it very seriously – I consider it to be a slur on my name.

I let it ride, there are reasons for this.

Tonight I get the dogs’ owner knocking on my door, hat in hand wanting me to feed said dog for a 6 week period. (noting the past that I have not accepted any gifts or similar in exchange for said care) I figure the dog is more important.

I’m still upset and refused, I even told him I don’t take kindly to being accused of something that I didn’t do.

In an act of blackmail, he threatened to have the dog put down. After all he is 14 years old and he’s had a good life. Now he is more trouble that he’s worth. My God. I felt like putting the owner down.

The owner has done nothing wrong, the animal is cared for, fed, watered, allowed to sleep inside, Basically fairly spoilt, so I don’t understand these turn of events.

I am mad and I don’t like being black-mailed.

I’m in two minds – do I say yes and look after the dog or do I sit back and see what other ‘solutions’ he comes up with in the hope he doesn’t carry through with his threat?

I don’t know

My favourite photos of the week

Taken by me for your enjoyment

Who's looking at me? You're looking at me!
Seagull on the Jetty - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100829)

Bird wading - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100829)

Bird wading - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100829)

Bird wading - Taken with a Nikon D3000 (20100829)

Please DO NOT copy any photos on this blog - without my express written permission

Spider Spider on the Wall - Badge (Huntsman) Spider

This spider has been identified as a Badge Spider - as per the Musuem of Victoria Site.
Badge (Huntsman) Spider Scientific name Neosparassus diana - Scary stuff!

Last night just before the rains started falling in Victoria I saw this spider on my window.

Normally I don't pay much attention to spiders, I have a leave me alone, I'll leave you alone policy. But this was plain weird.

I first thought it was an albino Huntsmans spider, but the body shape was wrong.

Then when I photographed the underneath - it glowed.

Can you identify this spider?

An Idiot is Born Every Day to Drive on Our Roads

Sighted on the Hume Highway heading north,you may not be able to see - but the vehicles hazards have been activated, the vehicle is travelling at approx 80kph,

What's dangerous about this?

The load is not affixed to anything - it is sitting on foam padding (which you can see poking out from the rear) It is then tied to the roof THROUGH the rear doors!

The other concern was the object protruding from the roof on the passengers side. I did not hang around to become target practice, but my passenger did pull the camera out. Pity they didn't get the tie through effect. That would have proved what IDIOTS these people are.

Bring on the Darwin Award.