A quick one - Gender relations

I finally blog again! Man, exams are stressful! ANYWAY, back to my blog topic.

When in public, if you see two strangers, one male and one female, talking and obviously having fun together, how would you perceive their relationship? Would it be as two friends, having fun, or would you automatically jump to the conclusion that there is a lot more to their relationship - lovers, perhaps? Perhaps even engaged or married? Would it be perceived the same as two males in the same situation, or two females?

It's strange how people often, after seeing a male and a female get along really well, assume that they are a couple. I haven't really thought much about this until recently. I was at a ball, held by a students association at my university, and a good friend of mine, Kristen, from one of my classes brought some friends with her. During the night, I sat next to, and spend a fair bit of time with, a good male friend of mine. He's a great friend, but that's it. A few days after the ball, one of the people my friend Kristen brought along added me on a social networking website. When we were talking through this website, she asked me if my male friend and I were a couple. No, I had replied, and she explained that we had appeared close, and had simply assumed there was something between us.

Those little things that make or break your day.

Isn't it odd how sometimes, something so small and insignificant can make your day totally wonderful and memorable, or make it totally and utterly terrible?? It's interesting how one small thing, for example, a compliment, can change how you view everything for a day? How if someone tells you they like your hair, your outfit, or if you get a good grade on an assessment hardly worth anything towards your class as a whole, you can go from an average mood to a really happy mood. This happened to me on the weekend. Before I start, however, I don't endorse regular binge drinking, I'll put that out there now.

I had a end of year classes party held by my residential college at university on the weekend. By the end of the day, I was quiet trollied, and bumped into a friend of mine, who had lived at the college last year. Now, lately, when I've had a few too many, when I begin to sober, I have been getting moody and a bit cranky. I was in this stage when I bumped into this particular friend, stumbling around in need of water. So up to my room we went to get my friend some water. As my friend was drinking, we ended talking about the residents committee at the college. He was on the committee last year, and when I found he was leaving, I applied for his position for 2008. He was pretty happy about this, telling me I'd have a good chance of getting on to the committee. As it ended up, I didn't get voted into the position. We were discussing this, and my friend, who had sobered up considerably by this stage, looked me in the eye and sincerely said, "Brigid, you SO deserved that position on the residents committee. I was pretty bummed you didn't get it." Of all the good things that had happened at this end of year party, this is what made me the happiest. It put me from a slightly cranky state into a really, really good mood.

Has this happened to anyone? What does everyone think of this - do you think something small and insignificant can change your day for better or worse? Let me know

Melbourne's Public Transport system

I read in the Herald Sun today that Melbourne's Metropolitan Transport Forum has a AU$5billion fix to the city's transport system. FINALLY. I'm a Melbourne resident and I don't have a car, so I generally catch public transport - hey, it's better than driving. However, the problem is that Melbourne's public transport SUCKS. There's no other way of describing it. Trams aren't that bad, they're frequent, BUT they generally only service the zone one areas (which are the closer in suburbs), and only service a few zone 2 areas (outer suburbs), which is what I am, and for those areas they take FOREVER to get where you want to go. It's faster to go by train, HOWEVER, Connex can't exactly be trusted. Trains every 20 minutes, that don't go to all suburbs - that is, if your train comes, and on time (neither of which are exactly common). Melbourne may not be a huge city, but c'mon, if the government wants us to ditch the cars, be more environmentally friendly and get public transport, they should at least make public transport appealing and easy to use, not services that are either late, overcrowded (often both) or cancelled.

What the Metropolitan Transport Forum wants is trains every 10 minutes, and to more of Melbourne's suburbs. This is a pretty decent idea, considering, as I said, not all Melbourne suburbs are lucky enough to have a rail station, and this includes inner city suburbs such as Fitztroy, and some outer suburbs such as Caroline Springs and Mernda.

However, that's just the Metropolitan side of things. Originally, I'm a country girl and up until last year, when I moved to Melbourne to go to University, I had to put up with V/Line, which was worse. Trains every hour, and they're constantly late. I see no problem with having, on the shorter services (such as Ballarat, Geelong, etc) to have trains every half hour, or at least having more services at times when there's going to be more commuters (football games, Royal Melbourne Show, Grand Final Parade). My mum once dropped my brother off at our local station to go to the Grand Final Parade a few weeks back, only to find he had to get a coach into Melbourne from our local station, as the train he was supposed to get was already full. My mum was about to drive off to see the train approaching. On a day with the AFL Grand Final Parade and the Royal Melbourne Show ON THE SAME DAY, this train, which stopped all stations on our line, only had two carraiges.

THIS, my dear readers, is bullshit. Absolute bullshit. As I said, if we are expected to use public transport, to be more environmentally friendly, please make it user friendly.

Get a sense of humor.

I'll start this blog off with a link to a video, titled "Beached Whale" (commonly referred to as "Beached As Bro"). This video takes the mickey out of New Zealand accents.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA

On the youtube page that I got it from, some people took it the wrong way, and a race war has arisen between some angry New Zealanders, and some (mainly Australian) others. SERIOUSLY?!

I'm quite sure the creators of this video DID NOT mean any harm. I'm sure they didn't mean to be racist. It's obvious that they were doing it for a laugh, nothing else.

It seems, these days, that the human race has become so self-absorbed, so politically correct, that we are unable to have a laugh at our own expense. I'm sure you could laugh all you want if someone fell over, or a cartoon program depicted the stereotypical speech and mannerisms of another nationality - all in good humor, that is - then you'd see no problems. Yet, if it's you that's being laughed at, everything's wrong with it. 

Of course, this is all in context, and there are times in which you shouldn't laugh at someone's expense, there are times to be serious. However, there are times when you should laugh. There are times when you should think, "ok, that WAS funny. I may have looked a little silly, but I can understand why people are laughing"

Some people really need to get over themselves and see the funny side of life. If anything, what people need in this day and age is to have a reason to smile. It'll solve more problems than you may think.

Just a quick one...

So, today I had lunch at my university center (where there's cafes and the like), and after buying my food, I went to find a table to sit at outside the cafe. EVERY free table was littered with rubbish from whoever had sat there last - WTF?! Leaving rubbish about where there are bins nearby really gets at me. I'm no environmental activist or anything, but seriously, is it that hard to put your rubbish in the bin when it's not that far away? It won't take a minute, so it's not going to be hard to take a few moments out of your time to put the rubbish in the bin, therefore doing your bit for the environment AND you won't be pissing others off.

Parenting

Welcome to my first opinion blog!
Please note that these are my own opinions I'm stating here. I can't stress that enough. Obviously, there are a shitload of opinions and everyone's entitled to their own. I'm just stating what I think here.

So, onto the topic. Parenting. The other day, I got a lift to work and 3AW was on the radio. Sly of the Underworld (I think his real name is John Slyvester?) brought up a good point in his segment. These days, many people are being blamed for the state our young people are in. They drink, they take drugs, they stay out all night, they are violent, rude, have no respect, have unsafe sex, and aren't good in school. Now, obviously, someone's to blame here. The police, for letting them all get drunk, take drugs and not taking them home after they've been out all night. The people selling the drugs and alcohol are being blamed. The bar owners are being blamed for letting them in. The teachers are being blamed for not making them step into line. Did you notice someone's missing out of this picture? Yeah, that's right. Where are the parents in all of this?

If anyone, it's the parents who are to blame. Sure, letting your children socialise and go to partys is vital for a young person's life and upbringing. However, you should be careful. Educate your kids about drugs and alcohol. Alcohol is not a bad thing, by all means. I drink it, my 18 year old brother drinks it, my parents drink it, my extended family drink it. However, drinking it in excess, particularly at an age where your body is still developing, is not good. That statement should be an obvious thing, right? Then why are young people still doing it?

I spoke about this problem with my mum not that long ago. We both agreed that these days, parents and guardians are becoming almost scared of their own children. That is truely scary. No, I don't believe that parents should rule with the iron fist, yet I do think they should have at least some say in their childrens life. Saying to your fifteen year old, "no, I won't buy you any alcohol to bring to the party. It isn't safe" may result in you getting the cold shoulder for a while, but they'll get over it. Not everything my parents did I agreed with, yet I still have a good relationship with them. I think the problem is that parents try to be the "cool" parents who let their kids drink, go out all night and become terrors. Then they go and place blame on others, all because they're too weak to do take it on themselves. Seriously, that's not the way your kids will improve. Saying "no" to your kids will be hard at first, but it will help them in the long run.

Those who took the time to read this, thank you. Let me know what you think. Good feedback is welcome. Constructive criticism is always good. If you don't agree, let me know why.

Brigid.

First blog

So, this is my first blog. General musings about whatever comes to mind. Not going to write a full on blog now, but watch this space for my opinions (note that; opinions, nothing else) on WWE, parenting and general happenings in the world.

To introduce myself, I'm Brigid and I'm a uni student. I'd say more, but I'm scared of internet stalkers.

All for now. Later.
Brig =)