My Favourite Films

5. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Ever since I was small I have been captivated by the vivacious Katharine Hepburn. My Mother and Grandmother have always instilled in me the power of her acting and her ability to question society in the days when women weren't meant to represent any sense of masculinity and strength. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) is one of my favourite Hepburn films because it too encompasses a sense of questioning in an age of racial tension in America. The film tells the story of Joanna 'Joey' Drayton (Katharine Houghton-Hepburn's real-life niece), a young woman of a liberal upper class background, who has begun a love affair with Dr. John Prentice (Sidney Poiter), a young physician.

The couple visit Joanna's home in San Francisco, where she introduces her fiance to her successful parents Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and Christina Drayton (Katharine Hepburn). John's parents also attend dinner ad are surprised to find that Joanna is white. Monsignor Ryan (Cecil Kellaway), a senior Catholic Priest friend of Matt Drayton's also attends the dinner and serves as the voice of reason and tolerance. This film is a beautiful film depicts the reaction of family and friends as they try and accept the choice made by Joanna and John. I recommend it to anyone.

4. Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) (1997)

After finding out that 2001's Vanilla Sky starring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz was a remake, I immediately had to see it. Don't get me wrong, I loved Cameron Crowe's remake of the original, but there's something magical about the original.

From a prison cell, Cesar (Eduardo Noriega), a 25-year-old in a prosthetic mask tells his story to a psychiatrist Antonion (Chete Lera). Several flashbacks reveal important events: good-looking César is attractive to women. At his birthday party, he flirts with Sofía (Penélope Cruz), the girlfriend of his best friend Pelayo (Fele Martínez). Later on, he takes her home and stays the night, although they don't sleep together. The next morning, César's obsessive ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri) pulls up outside Sofia's flat and when she spots César leaving in the morning, she offers him a ride back to her apartment to have sex. On the way there, however, she intentionally crashes the car, committing suicide, and César is horribly disfigured. Sofia can not bear this and returns to Palayo's side.


After César's disfigurement, he begins to have a series of disorienting experiences. He passes out drunk in a street and wakes to find that Sofia not loves him and his face is no longer distorted.
But as he makes love to Sofía one night, she apparently changes into Nuria. Horrified, César smothers her with a pillow, yet finds everyone else believes Nuria was indeed the woman everyone else calls Sofía.

From then on, fragments of his past begin to return to him and it becomes clear that shortly after his accident, he contacts Life Extension, a company who specialise in cryonics, to be preserved and experience lucid and lifelike virtual reality dreams. 

Returning to their headquarters, under supervision by prison officers, he discovers they specialise in cryonics with a twist: "artificial perception" or the provision of a fantasy based on the past to clients who are reborn in the future. He had committed suicide at home after sleeping drunk on the street, and was placed in cryonic suspension. His experiences from about the midpoint of the movie onward have been a dream, spliced retroactively into his actual life and replacing his true memories. At the end of the film he elects to wake up and be resurrected. Convinced his life since the drunken night in the street is simply a nightmarish vision created by Life Extension, César leaps from the roof of the company's high-rise headquarters, resolving to open his eyes once more to real life outside the cryonic fantasy.

This film really is a pleasure. It is complex, intelligent and audacious. Cameron Crowe's remake is also unforgettable. For me this film stands out because of its great soundtrack and beautiful imagery. However, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) is an unforgettable experience.

3. Once (2006)

This film really is such a gem. I first saw this film with my sister and we both fell in love, mostly with the absolutely beautiful music. We got the chance to see the films stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in Sydney and it too was the most beautiful experience.

The film tells the story of an (unnamed) male who resides in Dublin writing hauntingly beautiful songs about his break-up with his girlfriend who cheated on him. He lives with his father and makes a living fixing vacuum cleaners, and singing and playing for money on the streets of Dublin. One of these nights he meets a young (also unnamed) Czech girl who plays piano, does odd jobs and cares for her mother and young daughter.

This unlikely pair begin a friendship based on their love of music and the Girl encourages the Guy to put together a demo disc in the hope they may land a music contract in London. Over the course of a few days the Guy and Girl embark on a journey together examining their past loves, and reveal their indescribable, unique love for one another through their haunting songs.

I would recommend to anyone to listen to this soundtrack. You will definetely not regret it. The music featured in this film is the most beautiful music I have ever had the pleasure to listen to.

2. Garden State (2004)

I can't really stand Zac Braff. I don't really know why, maybe I've seen too  many Scrubs episodes, and he has released some terrible movies in the last few years. However, Garden State is certainly not one of them.

I will admit I like a film with a good soundtrack and Braff offers this to his audiences almost perfectly.


I couldn't write the plot summary anymore encompassing than this:

"Andrew Largeman shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation from the pills to see what might happen. A moderately successful TV actor living in Los Angeles, "Large" hasn't been home to the Garden State in nine years. But even with 3,000 miles between them, he's been unable to escape his domineering father Gideon and the silencing effect he's had on his son from afar. Stunned to find himself in his hometown after such a long absence, Large finds old acquaintances around every corner living quite unique lives as gravediggers, fast food knights and the panderers of pyramid schemes. Meanwhile, at home, he does his best to avoid a long-simmering but inevitable confrontation with his father. By a twist of fate, Large meets Sam, a girl who is everything he isn't. A blast of color, hope and quirks, Sam becomes a sidekick who refuses to ride in his sidecar. Her warmth and fearlessness give Large the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life". 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

 Upon initial viewing of this film I wasn't quite sure if it was as brilliant as everyone was making it out to be. To be quite frank, I didn't really get it! I viewed the film a second time, I absolutely loved it. This film is filled with such depth and intelligence

Joel Parish (surprisingly brilliantly portrayed by  Jim Carrey) is an unhappy, withdrawn man who meets Clementine (also brilliantly played by Kate Winslet) a girl who is everything he is not, a free spirit, although at times dysfuntional. They are attracted to each other immediately despite their differences

They interact as if they have never met one another before, but in actual truth the pair were former lovers who separated after two years together. After a shattering fight, Clementine, in her true reckless spirit, decided to pay for program to have her memories of Joel erased from her mind. Upon learning of this procedure, Joel also has his mind wiped immediately after Clementine. However, Joel while unconscious, has second thoughts and decides he will do whatever it takes to fight the procedure and keep the memories of Clementine.

Much of the film revolves around Joel trying to preserve his memories. Audience watch as we view their love and courtship in reverse. However, it appears that all his memories of Clementine have been erased.


The employees of the Lacuna Corporation are revealed to be more than just peripheral characters. Mary (Kirsten Dunst) had an affair with the married doctor, Dr Howard Mierzwiak, who heads the company (Tom Wilkinson). In order to keep the affair a secret, Mary has the affair erased from her memory.

Patrick (Elijah Wood), who is lonely, becomes fixated on Clementine during her own erasing procedure and uses Joel's own personal mementos to seduce her. This situation proves to have a critical effect on the films main storyline.

 Once Mary learns of the affair she had with the doctor, she steals all records and sends them to all clients. Joel and Clementine both listen to their initial erasure tape recording and realise their relationship can still exist, even if everything isn't perfect

If you haven't seen this film, please do. It is beautiful.

If the list were continue: Shaun of the Dead, The Breakfast Club, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Donnie Darko, American Beauty, Amelie, Almost Famous, To Kill a Mockingbird, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Casablanca, The Shawshank Redemption, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Green Mile, Kpax, Giant, The Shining, Empire Records and This is England.

Why businesses NEED social media...

Where are your customers?
Jacob Morgan with Chess Media Group wrote a short but sweet post in mid-March. His approach to convincing potential clients on adopting social media goes like this:

“If I told you that many of your customers and prospects interacted and communicated in the social space would you invest in having a presence there?”
“What if I told you that you would never know you made a single direct dollar off of any of those customers and prospects in the social space, but you knew that they were still there, would you still invest?”

Now step in the executive’s shoes for a moment and imagine how you would react. Would you say, “Yeah, even still, I refuse to go where my customers are.” Of course you wouldn’t and that is why this approach is effective.

There is a sense of urgency within both small and medium sized businesses, but when we look at large companies, they are publishing hugely effective social media campaigns. There’s a disconnect. Small and medium sized businesses don’t usually have PR and Marketing departments. If they do, it’s one or two employees representing each main department. With small businesses, it’s a resource issue, so many times you have executives sitting in their office justifying social media out the window. So what might motivate decision makers, within companies, to integrate social media in their departmental plans?

Executives like numbers

Show executives the potential of social media by using statistics. There was a great post over on the Social Media Club website a couple of days ago, based on the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. That post highlighted the benefits of using social media platforms:

- 72 percent of respondents said social media Increases website traffic

- Improved Search Rankings – (62%)

- New Partnerships – (59%)

- Better Sales – (48%)

- Reduction in Marketing Costs – (59% for self-employed, 58% for small businesses)

- Respondents were twice as likely to increase leads using social media

Let’s face it, executives like numbers. They see the direct affect an action has on the bottom line. Most companies went through a phase where employees went to their director or manager and pointed at social media saying, “Come on, look everyone else is doing it.”, but of course in the beginning they had no numbers to prove it. If you research communications, marketing, public relations and media for years, then follow and research social media as it evolves, you will be convinced that social media is just about the most powerful tool so far in human history. Without numbers and statistics though, arguing this case is difficult. Executives, branch directors and managers are slowly realizing the potential of online communities, likely because we now have over 7 years of wide spread usage of blogs and a handful of years of accumulated usage and sales statistics from online social networks.

Consumer Expectations – An Example

Imagine an advanced software company. There are a few employees at this startup and they are selling custom programs, and yes they have had a few repeat customers, but they find acquiring new clients to be difficult. The executive is wondering why, and the reason is quite simple. Take a look at that bullet list above because the second item highlights the issue in this example. Search rankings are important, but make no mistake about it, those metrics are tied to social media. If I hear about a really interesting product and I google the company or product name, there should be at least a handful of results pointing to their website, but alas, in this case, there is only one related link. What do you imagine a potential customer will think with these results? Maybe, “This is an advanced software company trying to sell me a computer program and it’s hard for me to find them online?

When it comes to information and research, the online world is now more important than our physical world.

Imagine this same software company, but in this next scenario, they have integrated social media into their marketing, PR, SEO and customer service strategies. How different do you think the picture is? The first page of the search results alone will be filled with network accounts and profiles of this company, and even a positive review or two on separate social networks. That is the effects of social media on business. Consumers will expect companies to be engaged in online communities.

Businesses that are not connected to these types of services will either join, or exist as a small mom and pop shop, limited to their own city. Today, that advanced software company would not be able to expand into other cities without using social media. I realize I might be preaching to the choir here on Social Media Today, so let me add some more depth below.

Learning Curve

Many online communities are guilty of deception because they seem to be user-friendly. In fact, there is a hidden learning curve. By that I don’t mean learning the buttons and the interface.

Tap into the deep functionalities of the online communities to accelerate participation and engagement with your followers/fans/friends, ultimately leading to more quality relationships and therefore more sales.

The reality is that on twitter alone, you could search “twitter tips” and you will get thousands upon thousands of blog posts that provide helpful tips. The deep functionalities of every community offers their users accelerated organic connections. You’ll notice this with Facebook, LinkedIn and all the other social sites as well. About once a month I’ll see a blog post outlining tips and tricks, stuff you didn’t know, settings that will change your experience with such and such social network.

If a company has been on Twitter for 3 years, they will inevitably have more followers than a company that just joined (more like 50 followers). The experienced company has already climbed that “deep functionalities learning curve”, so they are doing what works. Whereas the new company is still figuring out their strategy and positioning, while only sending out tweets about their service. One key point in using social media for business is to engage with clients and consumers, right? Businesses want more quality relationships and of course, increased revenue. The sooner a company starts climbing the deep functionalities learning curve, the sooner their Klout (Online reputation and engagement metric) score will be at a respectable level.

Good Social Media Consultants can provide that crucial guidance, but just be aware that there is a learning curve. If you hire the right consultant or advisor, he or she will help your find those hidden functionalities, to tap into the true potential of each social media website.

The Effects of Social Media

I realize some of you may disagree that social media is “the most powerful tool so far in human history”. If you agree with me, you might already be thinking about Tunisia, Egypt, Libya etc. Or you may be wondering why the top handful of social media websites are being valued about 50 times above their latest revenue reports. Let me go further and point out that I am certainly not alone in this perspective. One scholar at Simon Fraser University is predicting that social media might be bigger than the industrial revolution in terms of societal effects. Now, let that sink in before going to the next paragraph!

Avoiding social media and not integrating it into your multi-departmental strategies is a dangerous decision because consumers expect it and despite the deceptive nature of some of the popular social platforms, there is a learning curve to climb.

I believe some of us can see the crest of the oncoming social media wave, but like a great surfer, you might want to swim towards it to get that great reward before it’s behind us when social media has evolved into a completely different system.

(Article taken from: http://socialmediatoday.com/austenm/288998/practical-reasons-why-businesses-need-social-media).



Such an interesting article. I have been currently working with a local business on increasing their advertising in order to increase their sales and business awareness. Social media is the way of the future. Even if someone doesn't want to know about your business or any upcoming sales, their bound to see it anyway! I say this because on a daily basis I see or read many things on Facebook and Twitter that I really have no interest in learning about, but because I check my newsfeeds regularly, I see it!

The online world really is more important then our physical world!

More to come on the world of social media...

DVD Stores: Obselete

This morning I was in the Sydney Morning Herald website and began reading an article about the current position of DVD stores within our economy...

And it's looking like fewer stores are staying open due to the prevalence and importance of the World Wide Web in providing to our contemporary society the necessary movie downloads which we most definetely NEED in order to stay alive!

What the article didn't mention was the fact that most of these downloaders are downloading content illegally. This illegal content is provided by the likes of The Pirate Bay, Isohunt, BitSnoop and Torrentz, just to name a couple. The article also explored the internet as providing cheap, easy downloads. In the user comments, I saw individuals mention the popularity of Bigpond with internet movie download users.

In all honesty, most of the people I know use http://www.thepiratebay.org/. With the click of one button anything from a new release film to an old favourite are at your fingertips. It is so simple, download then burn to disc and place on your portable harddrive! Why would many people bother having to leave the house to visit a video store if it is not necessarily guaranteed that what they want is readily available. Plus, Pirate Bay works out to be FREE. I believe the 'video shop' will soon be a thing of the past.

However, the DVD industry could survive in the Australian maket if it adapts and evolves to fit the needs and wants of our society. The article also mentions that well-run independent stores are the markets that are surviving, simply because they have another ingredient that some of the major corporate stores may not have.

But, what is it?

27...Dead

I don't know what it is about me..I've always had a fascination with two things; crime and dead musicians, particularly those with the names starting with J: Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Buckley. My bookshelf houses many interesting musings from a plethora writers on the lives of these mostly 'troubled' deceased musicians.

So, it wasn't a surprise to me when my passion for dead musicians was reignited with the recent tragic death of pop sensation Amy Winehouse. What made her death even more prolific, was the fact that she now belonged to a very significant group of influential musicians,The 27 Club.

The 27 Club apparently consists of two phenomena, both fixed in the universe of popular culture. The first lists seven musicians who died at the age of 27-the man who sold his soul to the devil Robert Johnson, the misunderstood Brian Jones, the husky Janis Joplin, the guitar god Jimi Hendrix the LSD ranger Jim Morrison, the grunger Kurt Cobain and the troubled soul girl Amy Winehouse. The second is the fact that there is a 'statistical spike' for musicians who died at 27.

Here's a short list of other unlucky musicians that I didn't compile earlier:
27) Amy Winehouse - Many young people desire fame having no idea what it truly entails. Once there, they will do anything to avoid its pressures. Throw in the illness of addiction and you've got a staggering, slurring Molotov cocktail waiting to explode.

26) Les Harvey - Harvey was the co-founding guitarist for Stone The Crows and a member of the Alex Harvey Soul Band, the Blues Council, and the Scottish group Cartoone, who opened for Led Zeppelin. He was electrocuted by an ungrounded microphone.

25) Sean McCabe - Lead singer for the alternative rock band Ink And Dagger, McCabe pulled a John Bonham/Bon Scott and choked to death on his own vomit.

24) Helmut Kollen - Bassist and singer for German progressive rock band Triumvirat, Kollen died from carbon monoxide poisoning while listening to studio mixes in his car while running the engine with the garage door shut. Especially odd, since Kollen was an auto mechanic and race car driver.

23) Roger Durham - Percussionist for American R&B group Bloodstone, Durham fell off a horse.

22) Jesse Belvin - Belvin was an American R&B singer who wrote the classic tunes "Earth Angel" and "Goodnight My Love." He was killed in a head-on collision in the ironically named Hope, Arkansas.

21) Gary Thain - Bassist for the Keef Hartley Band and Uriah Heep, Thain died of a heroin overdose.

20) Richey Edwards - The rhythm guitar player for the Manic Street Preachers is said to have committed suicide, though not everyone agrees. He has been missing since 1995.

19) Malcolm Hale - Lead guitarist and trombonist for Spanky & Our Gang, whose hits included "Sunday Will Never Be The Same" and "Lazy Day," Hale died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a crappy space heater.

18) Bryan Ottoson - Guitarist for American Head Charge, Ottoson died from an accidental prescription drug overdose.

17) Mia Zappata - Singer for the Gits, Zappata was raped, beaten, and strangled to death. Her assailant was convicted and sentenced to 36 years in prison.

16) Kristen Pfaff - Pfaff became the bassist for Hole in 1993 and died from a heroin overdose in 1994.

15) Jeremy Michael Ward - The "sound technician" and "vocal operator" for the Mars Volta and the dub group De Facto, Ward died of a heroin overdose.

14) Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson - The singer, guitarist, and harmonica player for the blues band Canned Heat, Wilson sang that "Going Up The Country" song and died of a drug overdose, though the two are not linked. Many suppose it was suicide.

13) Pete de Freitas - Replacing the drum machine, de Freitas became Echo & The Bunnymen's first drummer. He died in 1989 in a motorcycle accident.

12) Jean-Michel Basquiat - A member of the noise-rock band Gray, Basquiat went on to appear in the video for Blondie's "Rapture" and to briefly date Madonna. He was also a successful modern painter who died of a heroin overdose at his art studio.

11) Pete Ham - Depressed over being screwed out of the money he earned as a member of Badfinger, guitarist Pete Ham hanged himself in 1975. His bandmate, Tom Evans, also depressed over missing money, followed suit and hanged himself in 1983.

10) Ron "Pigpen" McKernan - Keyboardist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, McKernan died of a stomach hemorrhage caused by years of heavy drinking. He had left the band the previous year.

9) Dave Alexander - The original bassist for the Stooges, Alexander died of pulmonary edema after being admitted to the hospital for pancreatitis brought on from years of drinking. Mike Watt of the Minutemen replaced him in the reformed Stooges.

8) D. Boon - A broken neck killed the singer-guitarist-songwriter for the Minutemen when the van he was sleeping in ran off the road. The band disbanded immediately.

7) Chris Bell - The guitarist for the legendary cult-pop-rock band Big Star had left the group and struggled to begin a recording career. He worked in his father's restaurant. His car struck a pole and killed him instantly.

6) Jim Morrison - Is he really dead? He was "allegedly" found dead in a bathtub in Paris. Listed cause of death was heart failure, but others have suggested otherwise.

5) Brian Jones - "Death By Misadventure," aka he drowned in a swimming pool. Others say it was a conspiracy and he was left to die in the pool.

4) Kurt Cobain - Shot by his own gun. Cobain killed himself after battling heroin addiction and not feeling it like Freddie Mercury.

3) Robert Johnson - Legendary bluesman who inspired British boys to play blues. The legend says he was poisoned by a jealous husband.

2) Janis Joplin - Said to be a heroin overdose. Joplin was also noted for downing staggering amounts of alcohol.

1) Jimi Hendrix - Hendrix choked on his own vomit while being brought to the hospital to be saved from a mix of drugs and alcohol.

There you have it! It's truly startling that many more musicians also belong on this list. The immortalisation of these musicians through the media has enabled our society to envision these often troubled and successsful musicians as they were at the peak of their careers. They are forever young; Jimi Hendrix etched in my psyche as a guitar god of the psychedelic era, Jim Morrison singing 'LA Woman' in his roaring voice, assisted by a few swigs of potent alcohol.


Following the media storm, that was the death of Amy Winehouse, I read many comments on how her death was far from the surprise of the century one comment read: Not Surprised that Amy Winehouse joined Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison the DEAD-AT-27 STUPID CLUB'.

I was saddened by her death, I really was. Such a rare talent and such a waste. I guess some people just aren't meant to die old. I really thought musician Ryan Adams summed up the way I felt about her death in its entirety:

"It makes me angry to think after years of being a punching bag in the press that it takes the death of Amy Winehouse for her life and art to be treated with any amount of respect. For every slurred line or stumble paraded in newspapers or across the interent and TV, there was a real person with real issues whose life and works were marginalized in order to exploit her sickness. What a shame".

This also applies to many other members of this 'stupid' 27 Club. RIP

Bolt: GUILTY of being an idiot!

I have been interested in the recent trial surrounding right-wing scribe Andrew Bolt and his publisher Herald & Weekly Times who yesterday were found guilty of a serious breach of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Let's face it though, in my eyes I don't have much of respect for the man who slams his right-wing agenda down the throats of the Australian public and delivers hypocrisy tenfold. He is a liar and an unprofessional journalist, but, Bolt appears to have a large following.

For many years I have been listening, learning and researching about the absolute atrocities committed against Indigneous Australian people since the time of European settlement. I have a reasonable understanding of the past actions committed against Australian Indigenous people, which has personally been recounted to me by various Indigenous elders I have met since studying Aboriginal Studies at high school. It is not only these reflections that have given me an insight into the horrible actions of the past, but various media articles, books and films. Since becoming interested in the plight of the Australian Indigenous people and the ramifications of the horrible way in which these people were and are treated, I have been reading, watching and following many Indigenous stories within the media.

So, I don't think it was much of a surprise to me to see that Andrew Bolt had been taken to court for racial offence. It appears that Pat Eatock an Indigenous campaigner, who brought the case on behalf of nine-fair skinned members of the Indigenous people, is and was the perfect woman to make history and 'compund career carnage for Australia's most popular columnist'.

What is exactly is it that Bolt wrote and had published I hear you asking? Well, one article titled: 'It's so Hip to be Black' and 'White Fellas in the Black'...need I say anymore. Bolt writes:

'Not yet convinced that for many of these fair Aborigines, the choice to be Aboriginal can be considered almost arbitrary and intensely political, given how many of their ancestors are in fact Caucasian?

Then meet Tara June Winch, who is just 26 and has written only one book, Swallow The Air, yet is already an ambassador for the Australia Council's Indigenous Literacy Project. Yes, indeed, because despite her auburn hair and charmingly freckled face, she, too, is an Aborigine, who claims her "country is Wiradjuri".

Yet her mother, who raised her in industrial Wollongong, is in fact boringly English, and her father has both Afghan and Aboriginal heritage. She could call herself English, Afghan, Aboriginal, Australian or just a take-me-as-I-am human being called Tara June Winch. Race irrelevant.
Instead, she's an official Aboriginal, and hired as such in a nation which now institutionalises even racial differences you cannot detect with a naked eye.

Larissa Behrendt has also worked as a professional Aborigine ever since leaving Harvard Law School, despite looking almost as German as her father'.

Do I hear you say idiot! I can personally say that I have met Larissa Behrendt. She attended a Reconciliation Assembly I held at my high school and spoke about what it means to identify as an Indigenous person today. I have never met anybody who is so proud to be an Indigenous woman. However, Behrendt is also proud to be of German descent too.

Bolt has clearly missed the point here and it relates to country and place. Indigenous people have a strong link to culture and country. The place or land in which their people live (there are hundreds off Indigenous languages and groups within Australia), is of great significance and importance to these people. I understand from hearing Larissa Behrendt speak, that the importance of her Indigenous culture was passed down from her mother. How can Bolt question these individuals (and many others), if he doesn't know a thing about them! Sloppy sloppy journalism! Do some research for once Andrew! I believe we need to educate the rest of the Australian public on the importance of establishing a treaty and try and move further forward towards reconciliation! Articles like this only serve to reinforce an uneducated society and deliver a stereotypical message to Australian 'lefties' that all 'right wings' are of this opinion. Well, it appears that many are now!

To sweeten the deal for me personally Bolt was found guilty of destruction of racial tolerance! Bolt's articles were also found to contain errors of fact and distortions of truth. To put it plainly though, he is a deceptive and manipulative man, pushing and pushing his own agenda. I particularly liked blogger Gohan451's description of the man in question: 'his support for our illegal wars and his opposition to social welfare programs that don't help rich people should say all thay is needed. Yet he has a following, this man who represents everything that is vicious and cruel about the Australian character'.

Wise up Australia! It's time, it really is!


*Bolts first article: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/its-so-hip-to-be-black/story-e6freal3-1225698790774
*http://gohan451.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/andrew-bolt-the-fuckheads-choice-since-1999/
*Bolts second article: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/its-so-hip-to-be-black/story-e6freal3-1225698790774 (this is pretty much the same article! Couldn't think of anything else to write that day Andrew?)

Masters and Me

It seems like this blog has taken so long to come into fruition! But finally, here we are!

My name is Ingrid and at this exact moment in time I’m feeling a little anxious, possibly even a little frightened at the concept of creating for myself a career and a life. Last December, I completed a degree in Communication and Media Studies and thought to myself, I am WAY too scared to venture into the real world and become part of a five day working ritual in which my parents and many friends have been closely following so...

HEY! Let's just do a Masters in Commerce (majoring in E Commerce) this will be fun, I can stay in part time work and enjoy the poor uni life existence in which I have been abiding by for the last three years!

I WAS WRONG, SO VERY WRONG!

I started it...Had various anxiety attacks and realised this just isn't for me! I'm a writer, not an accountant or economist and I certainly don't have much knowledge on how to create entire web pages from scratch. I will contribute to these pages, not create them!

Not only did I waste six months of my life studying, I wasted money and valuable time in which I could have been gaining an important insight and experience into my actual passions!

However, I forged valuable friendships, I learnt more about myself, my strengths and my weaknesses and the world of accounting, management and economics.

The friendships I forged in the semester I was studying for are invaluable. This is based on the very true fact that I come from a small seaside community in which multiculturalism in my eyes is virtually non-existent! Even in high school I felt I was living in a bubble, protected from the rest of society, unsure and frightened of venturing outside in other words, I was afraid of gaining a little life experience!

Since beginning study at the University of Wollongong, my bubble burst! Never before had I seen such a vast array of cultures, religions and opinions! However, the majority of my peers were Australian and as always I was the part of the MAJORITY, so generic and normal.

However, the Masters of Commerce showed me that being part of a MINORITY group is invaluable to learning about oneself and appreciating and understanding different aspects of culture and society.

When I sat down in my first lecture at the beginning of this year, I will admit I felt uneasy and even cautious of my actions. I sat in silence and hardly moved the entire lecture.

I looked around...
I looked at my hair...
I looked at my position within the crowd, smack bang in the middle…
hair...
platinum blonde!

It appeared that most of my peers were of Chinese and Taiwanese descent. I will admit it took a couple of weeks for me to even have the courage to speak to someone in my class. It was challenging and if you ask my closest friends I am far from the shy and unassuming type!

But...in the end, even though I decided to discontinue my Masters in Commerce at the end of this semester, I secured a lifetime of invaluable friendships, late night Skype dates and free accommodation upon arrival in Taiwan. I met the kindest, non-judgemental and beautiful people I have ever met in my life. I even acquired basic accounting and economic skills and was even asked to mentor students in one of the subjects!

I guess the moral of the story is that nothing is a waste. It is such a cliché, follow your passion, learn and grow! Through this blog I plan to explore my passions, pastimes and opinions! I want to do this in order to help myself understand my thoughts and the things I feel, say and do.

In the near future my fiance and I plan to move to Melbourne and attain a position within the field of communication and media. I am so terrified, but am so ready! I have to remember I'm more suited to marketing, media and communications not economics or accounting! Phew! 

Hello world, I am ready and waiting…