Before I transferred to the sophistication of the public (private) school system, I was deeply immersed in comprehensive school system.

Despite schooling with the rich and now famous, I still ran with my “boyz” from my neighbourhood, and it is fair to say that we learned to have our wits about us.

It is also fair to say then that I saw and experienced violence in many guises in my childhood, and it took less and less to shock me as I grew older.

I have spent thirty four years mastering violence. I no longer fear it. I have been taught violence and taught it to others. I have used violence to control my anger and out of frustration. I have used violence in self defence and in the defence of others.

I do not glorify violence, but there are situations where I would consider it to be a last resort.

My knowledge of violent ways does not make me a man of violence. I am in constant control of my propensity for violence. My violent knowledge does not make me a violent man.

It is with this background, that I am disappointed in the language associated with violence in Australia.

I hear the phrases from others and in the media like “I bashed him”, “He was bashed”, and “Punch on” like they are words from a child.

These are violent acts being trivialised in a child’s language.

If a person in going to impose their physical dominance over another human being, then this act should be described in its true nature.

It concerns me that by using this child-like language, the true horrors of these acts are masked.

Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH), Actual Bodily Harm (ABH), Assault and Battery, Attacked, Beaten up, these are all adult words that adequately describe the physical assault upon another human.

Even the more vulgar language associated with these acts more accurately describes it barbaric nature. To “kick the shit out of someone”, to “fuck someone up”, to “break someone’s face” to “mess someone up”: all these phrases are appropriately vulgar in nature to reflect the aggression of the act.

I believe that the trivial depiction of violence through language in Australia, makes its existence more tolerable in society.

If your Australian friend “bashed” someone, you are likely to accept that action with a lighter heart than if they “beat the living daylights” out of someone.

The power of words are often underestimated, and this is never more so demonstrated that in the language of violence in Australia.

It is recommended to keep a food diary of what is consumed and what is in the cupboards, then only buy what is required.

Commercially farmers throw away fruit and vegetables before they get to market in order to keep prices high, sometimes because they do not have enough staff to harvest in time.

Fruit and vegetables also have to pass a beauty test. Fruit is thrown away if it is not a perfect shape, and even because the plant is so heavily laden that the fruit touches the ground.

However, this is not just confined to Australia.

When I was growing up in London we use to constantly hear about food mountains, where European produce was being stored because it was not economical enough to sell, yet people elsewhere in the world went starving.

A quick search of the internet reminds us of what we waste.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/the-16320bn-food-mountain-britons-throw-away-half-of-the-food-produced-each-year-790318.html

There is of course another side to this story, in that farmers who are unable to sell their crops would go bankrupt and therefore there will be less people producing food, but as we all know that argument is not so simplistic.

There are schemes to distribute a quota of farm produced not consumed domestically of sold internationally, to charities and countries that need assistance. However the cost and politics involved in these transactions makes them unpopular within governments.

Distribution of this food in the poverty stricken countries is often mismanaged and aid often falls into the hand of those that least need it unless the processes are closely monitored by aid agencies.

However, doe this mean that we should not try?

Let us all think twice about what we buy in stores.

Let us all check our cupboards and monitor what we consume, so as not to waste produce.

Anyone would think food just grows on trees or comes out of the ground.

I do not know the direction in which the rest of the series going, but the first episode has raised some interesting thoughts on parental discipline, communal parenting, not just with me, but the wider community.

The events of the first episode sidestepped the issue of communal parenting slightly by making the communal parenting act so violent. Slapping any child across the face with the back of ones hand would be considered assault in most cultures in this day and age, and the fact that the adult had lost control of his temper was inexcusable.

However, the underline questions about different methods of parenting, and what happens when these different methods coincide within a communal parenting situation, can not be ignored.

What do you do if someone’s child is so out of control that they are threatening the safety of the other children around them?

What do you do if the parents of that child can not or will not to teach the child that their behaviour is not only antisocial but dangerous?

What did you do if the adults parental skills and their ability to cope are called into question?

Personally in the communal parenting environment depicted in the tv series, I have directed the parent to act with haste to stop their child from injuring the children around them. I would not have questioned their parenting ability, but simply pointed out the financial liability of their child hurting another, or damaging someone’s property. Parental responsibility is always a difficult subject to broach, but financial responsibility towards others is always a topic that provokes decisive action.

I have spoken to parents about the broader subject of parenting in the past. Invariably the statement always comes up that ”if you do not have kids yourself then you can not understand” or “It is different when you have your own children”. It is like a cheat that is supposed to stop me in my tracks and prevent me from having an opinion on the subject, when really it simply highlights their inability or unwillingness to discuss the subject on the part of the other party. Parents seem to use this as a ‘win all arguments’ phrase, without fully understanding my own experiences.

Teaching a child through discipline is always difficult and there have been many an article written on this subject in the past. The discipline has to be in proportion to the seriousness of the act, and not allowing your own parental frustrations to influence the severity of the punishment. For younger children punishment should also be immediate, so that they associate the punishment with the recent event, otherwise they could just think that they are being punished for no reason. As we are all aware, this is easier said than done.

Simply sweeping to topic to one side because it is a difficult topic to discuss is not the answer.

It is the sovereignty of every parent to determine how their children are disciplined and by whom.

However parenting is not just a subject that affects your immediate family, as it also affects those that interact with you and your children, and as such it is a valid topic of discussion for all those around you.

To conclude this article, I would like to expand it beyond discipline. Few parents like being told how to parent, and certainly not from someone who does not have children, but the fact the we may not have children of our own does not mean that we would make bad parents, or do not know how to parent.

It is easy to get caught up in the moment and allow the parental desire to protect your offspring cloud your judgement to look at alternatives to help the child learn and grow.

Sometimes, other people can provide a unique perspective, or just being reminded of what we were like when we were younger is advice enough.

Quick and easy… playing it on the hard level, which is pretty standard these days for gaming buffs to get real enjoyment out of thegame (or any game) it has a new power, the Mind Trick.
It makes you wonder why it took them so long to make this happen, this is the highest selling Star Wars game of all time, they had to put it in.
In my opinion if used correctly, a level 3 mind trick is a very valuable power. Depending on whether or not you learn how to use it tactically.
Few things are more satisfying than hearing Starkiller mind trick a storm tropper with “Your life is a lie,” and then see them jump off a cliff. Its good to see.

So far Force lightning has been significantly reduced in power, and in some cases, in ways that defy physics useless. However force push at level 3, or in fact even at level 2 its crazy over powered.

Once you start getting some range on force push, few stand a chance against you. In a way I like that
because Push is a light side ability from Lighting which is dark! so maybe its more balanced this way.

The game plau is still at the high level of the first game, so its really about following the story onwards as a Star Wars fan, depending on how you like the story of a game to be presented to you, you will either agree that there is nothing to be talked about here. If your not a Star Wars fan, you will enjoy the it, in that you have unleashed more of the Universe in playing this game.

This game shows what is all good about the Star Wars Universe, there are countless stories to be told about many people surrounding the main story, and the more games we get like this, the bigger Star Wars becomes.
I’m enjoying the story as a thrill ride as I collected the clues needed to unleash the truth, while others may say that there wasn’t a story at all.

Just more gameplay, in all honesty, I’m finding that the story is quite deep, as long as you didnt want everything spoon fed to you, and are willing to go the extra mile.

8 out of 10

Let me be honest, the poor reviews I read was for one reason alone, in that the game is short.. the first game was 10 hours, this one can be finished injust over 6 hours….which I think it rubbish, I played for2 hours last night and I’m still on the 2nd level?. the main reason for that is I’m playing on Hard, and you have to use a lot of Stratgy.
I played a level on Normal to see the difference, and I wiped the floor with everything without a breeze!… which is very worrying, my 8 year old son could finish the game on normal.

Apollo

At home, sitting on your throne.

And complaining so heartedly of your clicks and pains and aches to the bone.

The mal-fitting, ill-sitting skirt you used to own.

And looking down, as the rolls abound I ask: Why not take the first step?

“Because the magazines have told me I’m fat!” she shrieks, as clods of Flake drip down her cheeks.

“And it’s not my fault, it’s in my genes!” she wails, and wipes her eyes with doughnuts filled with fresh whipped cream, forward leaning on her face of layered crisps.

She moans: “It’s society, you know.”
Raising one hot-spicy bingo wing to scratch her weave, which wobbles like a blackcurrant jelly.

Click, scritch, sigh.

“You mean, you don’t find me beautiful?

The first Deus Ex features JC Denton and his part in a war that, at the time, I did not fully understand. However this game was the first game that I played where stealth and the alternative route were a feature of the game. There have been games before and others since, the Splinter Cell, and Metal Gear Solid series spring to mind but none of these captured my attention like the first Deus Ex.

Now the second game is here and it offers so much more.

The story line is fantastic and perhaps the fact that the world continues to change around me, has given me more scope to better understand the last game, and appreciate this game more.

The concepts, and philosophical principles discussed throughout the game had me pausing the game on several occasions in order to establish my own principles on certain matters.

The game is also littered with mini books which are extracts from papers and publications that allow the users to further develop knowledge of the moral questions being discussed in the game.

The game play is brilliant and the fact that you can save at any point is a simple convenience often missing in these types of games.

There are several ways that you can play the game and your choices effect how people respond to you. You can even chose to play it with stealth from the shadows, or in a Clint Eastwood walk down the middle of the street shooting at the bad guys style.

Even your weapons and augmentations will alter your choices throughout the game.

I loved playing this game but be aware that this is a long game, or at least it can be if you are achieving your objectives from the shadows.

When the credits role, just like a marvel movie, make sure you stay to the end.

Now the long wait for Knights of the Old Republic 3.

All countries that have a canton on their flag display it in the top left hand corner of their flag.

Countries such as the US and Australia traditionally fly their cantons in the top left hand corner of their flag, then when America entered the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, they were faced with the issue of how to display their flag on uniforms.

All armies in the world display their country flag on their left shoulder, except the US army which displays its flag on the right. Americans display their regiment on their left shoulder.

This means that as Americans have been fighting along side other forces, as they advance, their flag, displayed on their right shoulder, looks as if they are running away.

As opposed to changing the arm upon which they wear their flag, someone in the US army public relations department recognised this problem, and devised the idea, that when the American flag is being flown on the right hand side, it should be shown as if it is fluttering in the wind during an advance, which means that it is shown as if the flagpole is to the front of the soldier. This would place the canton in the top right hand corner with the field on the left.

The decision also now sees the US flag displayed in this manner if the flag is displayed hanging vertically.

This way of displaying the US flag on the right hand side has now become prominent throughout their society on departmental car doors and the like. It has also been displayed on tv networks and in public places, so now the American public are accustomed to seeing their own flag displayed incorrectly.

This idea breaks with all international protocols and traditions, however with the diplomatic consent other countries this new flag protocol for the US is now recognised by other countries.

Unfortunately another country which does not appear to have the wherewithal or confidence in its own flag protocols has followed the bad example of a country making up its own rules.

I was watching the news on SBS only to see the Australian flag displayed in a banner form with the canton in the top left corner.

Whereas the US flag can get away with being hung the wrong way around, the Australian flag has the British Union Flag incorporated within it and that can not be hung incorrectly.

As we are all aware the British flag is not asymmetric, and therefore can not be reversed without consequence.

The protocols behind hanging the British flag as a banner are very specific, and not subject to interpretation. It is only to rotate it clockwise by ninety degrees.

When Australia hangs its flag incorrectly as a banner, it also hangs the British flag incorrectly and this is unacceptable.

This article is a prelude to an open letter that I shall publish directed at news stations, councils and government bodies reminding them of the implications of incorrectly displaying the Australian flag and by inclusion the British flag.

Before I publish this letter I would like to hear your opinions on this issue of the flags and how their display affects your national pride.

What are your thoughts?

I am listening.

I had immense trouble migrating all my stuff from my old Treo 680 to my new Blackberry Bold, especially with syncing my contacts and calendar. Kept getting that annoying 0x80040fb3 error.

Well, after literally spending hours surfing the web, I finally found a solution. Just thought I’d share it with you all, because I know a lot of people have had trouble with this.

Situation: When syncing your Outlook with your Blackberry, the sync process stops halfway through saying “Error Encountered 0x80040FB3, Check Documentation”.

The Actual Problem: Blackberry doesn’t like the attachments in your contacts list or calendar entries (or both). What attachments? Photos (profile pictures) in your contact list, and attachments in your calendar events.

Solution: When you search error code 0x80040FB3 online, everyone will refer you to this not-so-helpful Blackberry support article [Link 1]. This will tell you to modify a few system files in your Blackberry folder to enable error logging, obtain the logs, stick them in an email, and then “send the email message to your technical support representative so that the synchronization log files can be analyzed.”

Link 1: www[dot]blackberry[dot]com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB14 818&sliceId=SAL_Public&dialogID=189220282&stateId= 1%200%20189216933

Riiiight. Not helpful. Here’s what I did instead:

Photo Removal:

Thankfully I only had a few contacts with photos so I found them on Outlook and deleted them straight. If you have lots of contacts with photos or can’t remember which contacts have photos, well things get a little trickier.

Two solutions I found online include: 1) exporting and reimporting your contacts list [Link 2]; 2) doing that whole logging thing I mentioned above, finding the finding the “corrupt” entries, deleting them, and recreating them [Link 3]. I started going through the second method here (the first one seemed kinda messy) but stopped as soon as I realized it was just the photos in my contacts that were the problem.

Link 2: www[dot]blackberryforums[dot]com/rim-software/137009-help-dm-sync-error-0x80040fb3.html#post1182052]

Link 3: forums[dot]crackberry[dot]com/f5/pearl-shows-error-code-0x80040fb3-during-synch-10653/#post191888

Calendar Event Attachment Removal:

This one I found much more tricky, and there’s a lot less advice on the Net about this one. I use Outlook 2007 to manage my calendar so the following steps apply to that version, although I imagine similar principles apply in Outlook 2003.

To find out which events have attachments:

1. Open your Calendar in Outlook.

2. Click View > Current View > Events

3. Click View > Current View > Customize Current View

4. Click Filter… > the More Choices tab > select the “Only items with:” and set it to “one or more attachments”.

5. Click OK > OK, and you should be able see the problematic events now.

When I did this, I had 150+ events with mysteriously hidden attachments that I couldn’t find. I’m guessing it’s something to do with faulty Palm – Outlook Hotsync conduits.

To remove the attachments without deleting the actual events, I found a neat VB macro someone posted on experts-exchange [Link 4]. I got desperate and signed up for the 7-day free trial to see the VB code, but everyone else’s benefit the relevant instructions are here:

Link 4: www[dot]experts-exchange[dot]com/Hardware/Handhelds_-_PDAs/Blackberry/Q_23485790.html

1. Start Outlook

2. Click Tools->Macro->Visual Basic Editor

3. If not already expanded, expand Microsoft Office Outlook Objects and click on Module1

4. Copy the code from the Code Snippet box and paste it into the right-hand pane of Outlook’s VB Editor window

5. Edit the code as needed. I included comments wherever something needs to or can change

6. Click the diskette icon on the toolbar to save the changes

7. Close the VB Editor

8. Close Outlook

9. Start Outlook

10. Select the appointments with attachements

11. Run the macro*

*You may need to fidget with your security settings here to enable macros. Try fishing around Tools > Trust Center, and reopening Outlook as the administrator.

Macro below:

Quote:

Sub RemoveAttachments()

Dim olkItem As Object, intIndex As Integer

For Each olkItem In Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection

For intIndex = olkItem.Attachments.Count To 1 Step -1

olkItem.Attachments.Item(intIndex).Delete

Next

olkItem.Save

Next

Set olkItem = Nothing

End Sub

After doing this I re-ran my blackberry sync and it sailed through smoothly (YES!). Btw, after doing all this you’ll need to put your calendar views back to normal. For that, just go back into “View > Current View > Customize Current View” and hit the reset button. Then go to “Click View > Current View > Day/Week/Month (or whatever setting you like)”.

Anyway, after all my hours of frustration I figured I would type this out to save everyone else the same trouble. Hope this helps!

Beej

If you have a blackberry, here are the quick dial settings to change the ring length. I have used this myself and it works.

Ring Length Settings:

In order to extend a mobile devices ring length open the Phone application (Press Send or select Call Log) and dial the following:

**61*<message bank number>**<ring length in seconds>#

Example: **61*101**25# (Press Send)

<message bank number> = This is the number you dial to access you providers message bank service.

<ring length in seconds> = This command will extend your ring time before diversion from 15 to 25 seconds. When you change the diversion time it should be done in blocks of 5 to a maximum of 30 (e.g 15, 20, 25 or 30).

Australian Examples:

Telstra Message Bank Users:

**61*101*11*25# (Press Send)

Telstra Memo Service Users:

**61*102*11*25# (Press Send)

OPTUS Message Bank Users:

**61*321**25# (Press Send)

Three voicemail Users:

**61*333**25# (Press Send)

Vodafone Message Bank Users:

**61*121**25# (Press Send)

Both stories were reported in the week of 22.08.10 on RT news.

Religion;

The first story is that this week, French parliament passed a law that will ban muslims from wearing a Burqa or a form of garment in public that covers their face.

This act will have very serious ramifications not just for muslims, but for all people world-wide.

France has been able to dictate what its citizens can and can not wear.

Apart for the obvious “next step, fashion police” jokes that immediately spring to mind, we also have the implications relating to the practicing of religious beliefs, and the display of religious icons in the public domain.

How far should our governments be allowed to dictate how our beliefs are displayed in public?

What are the chances that monks from the catholic church will not be asked to remove their hoods when walking from cloister to cloister? And if you think that does not affect you, what is to stop governments passing a law that prohibits you from covering or shielding your face from cctv cameras by the use of baseball caps, hoodies, or even sunglasses.

The French government have already got away with banning Burqas in all schools and colleges through the separation of religion and state laws, and now we see that they have eroded the civil liberties of its poorest and disenfranchised citizens but passing this law that panders to fear and loathing of a religion that it does not fully understand, and refuses to embrace as part of the modern day French culture.

Reloading;

The second story has me torn.

It has come to light that during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, the police went from door to door demanding and when necessarily forcefully removing the guns of the New Orleans residents.

This act left many residents that had decided to stay and defend their homes and property against looters were left defenceless.

The police only collected registered guns, so illegal firearms were still left in the hands of the law breakers and criminals, who continued to use them to rob and loot.

The New Orleans mayor said that the guns were collected in the interest of law and order…and here is where my problems begin.

I do not believe in a society that allows its citizens to wield guns and this includes the United States of America.

You only have to look at the injuries and deaths as a result of gun crime and gun accidents in the US as testimony to that fact.

I believe that the UK model is one that, on the whole, works and you only have to look at the number of gun crime statistics compared to the US, taking into consideration land mass and population to verify that fact.

In fact there was a statistic that stated that the gun crime in the US far surpassed the gun related injuries and deaths in the whole of Europe.

However….The right to bear arms is the second amendment in the American constitution.

This means that they have a legal constitutional right to legally possess firearms, as much as most of us have the right to freedom of speech.

This means that the American government arbitrarily decided to suspend the rights of its citizens in a time of crisis, thus setting a precedent for the future.

These Americans had their civil liberties eroded for the sake of “their own safety”, which should set alarm bells ringing from America to Australia.

Revoking of Rights;

And speaking of Australia, under the Howard government the Aborigines had, not only their civil liberties suspended, but their racial discrimination laws also suspended in order to implement a series of region and skin colour specific acts to “assist” the aboriginals in regulating their finances and reduce crime. Acts that included trespass on Aboriginal land and partition of welfare laws that only applies to Aboriginals and not their white counterparts in exactly the same economic demographic and regional location.

The UK is also not without sin, a few years ago there was a summit of some sort being held in Greenwich, and suddenly we were unable to congregate or peacefully demonstrate.

All too often are our civil liberties being quietly removed and we the people are letting it happen with nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders. Before long the rights and liberties that our foreparents have fought and died for will be eroded away by governments that say that it is gor our “better good”.

We the people should be the counterbalance to the ill intentions of our governments. We the people should be the ones that hold our government to account for the laws and acts that they pass in our name.

What laws effecting and taking away your civil liberties were passed today?