Scribbles: Quasimodo is a little guy who seems to love his food and his life despite his blight.

I have a goldfish that most people can't stand to see because he has a black tumor of some kind on his back.
Poor little Quasimodo.
But I love this goldfish. I once came home to find him gasping at the bottom of the tank.
I thought that his time had come. The tumour had got him, but no.
As I reached in to lift him up I saw the problem.
It isn't the first time I've saved a fish's life.
He - as many fish which love to eat do - had sucked on a pebble so hard that it got stuck in his mouth.
I kid you not!

I pried the pebble from his mouth with a little lever and let him be.
He floated for an hour in a corner and his side - I had been too late.
But he was soon on his friendly, happy way.
He doesn't grow as big as the other fish.
 
Nobody believes that I saved his life of course.
But it's the second time I've conducted this operation on a fish.
 
Today he seemed to be turning somersaults as he fed off the bottom and juggled his burden.
If a pebble doesn't get Quasi I'm afraid that the tumour will.

Scribbles: Quasimodo is a little guy who seems to love his food and his life despite his blight.

I have a goldfish that most people can't stand to see because he has a black tumor of some kind on his back.
Poor little Quasimodo.
But I love this goldfish. I once came home to find him gasping at the bottom of the tank.
I thought that his time had come. The tumour had got him, but no.
As I reached in to lift him up I saw the problem.
It isn't the first time I've saved a fish's life.
He - as many fish which love to eat do - had sucked on a pebble so hard that it got stuck in his mouth.
I kid you not!

I pried the pebble from his mouth with a little lever and let him be.
He floated for an hour in a corner on his side -  had been too late? 
But he was soon on his friendly, happy way.
He doesn't grow as big as the other fish.
 
Nobody believes that I saved his life of course.
But it's the second time I've conducted this operation on a fish.
 
Today he seemed to be turning somersaults as he fed off the bottom and juggled his burden.
If a pebble doesn't get Quasi I'm afraid that the tumour will.

Scribbles: What a Dasterd!

None of these images hang on my walls.

Self portrait via computer this year. Was going to use one as my email signature. Nah!

Self-portrait circa ≈ school. 

When I hung paintings and prints I'd done at school and since 
on walls painted the colours I like ... it all matched? Perfectly.
That's why this painting has never hung on my wall.
But my point is that you'd better love yourself, just the way you are.

You are what you are.
And if you're a Dasterd ... you can't change. 
You can pretend - all your life, to all the world.
But the facts - they're lying in wait 'ou Dasterd!

Rehabilitation? Self-improvement?
Take a look at Gregory House! - Yes House has a friendly first name too ...

Go figure! But he's never, never, never friendly! He's a Dasterd!
He's proud of it. And we love it too! 
(Note "TOO" - not TWO or TO!)
You people who don't know the difference really peeve me.

If you're dasterdly - really, really dasterdly. You are going to Hell!
I know. It's spelt dastardly but I'm putting on an accent! So THhHrthrrr!
:P 
So this guy's on the radio going on about *delayed gratification*.
It's Radio National - honest, worthy, earnest ... G-F-C not S-E-X.
He said people have forgotten how to delay gratification.
Replace the word people with "consumers".
"Everything, all the time" - that's our motto.
Want a five-metre widescreen and an i-Phone? 
Whack it on plastic. What Global Financial Crisis? :D

We've not forgotten about delayed gratifcation. We refuse!
Just like our everyman Homer J. Simpson. 
Yep, Homer's to blame for the GFC.

This guy on the radio had another theory too. 
It's the media's fault.
Advertisers, marketeers, TV, journalists they make us unhappy with who we
are and so they force us to spend beyond our means... Love that line...
So I'm the dasterd! :?  (If you don't already know, I'm a journo)

The guy talking on Life Matters was Arun Abey: Co-founder now Executive Chairman
of international planning firm IPAC, head of Strategy at AXA
and a director at the Smith Family AND author of:
How Much is Enough? Money, time and happiness: a practical guide 

Scribbles: Paranoia by the seaside - now things have gone too far.

Laugh too loud in public and you see people flinch - even at the beach!
 
Honestly, I sat on a bench looking out over Moreton Bay - a place which is like home for me -
and I could feel social tension that I've never felt before in this place.
 
People were on edge. Cautious, regarding each other suspiciously.
Look at this Sunday morning:

The beach is not even crowded. See the black spot on the leaf?
Well, there's a black spot on our society.
 
If it came down to fight or flight most of the people on the beach would choose flight because they've got young ones to protect.
And they're not looking for a fight. They seem afraid to even relax and let their guard down.
A sullen family lay a picnic blanket in the shade beside us. It seemed like a typical lazy Sunday morning.
It was later than 9am. Parents anxiously controlled the level of noise they allowed their children to make - at the beach!
Even baby ducks have more freedom under the strict control of a patrolling mother duck.
 
As a kid, I spent several blissful years roaming this beach.
We'd take off from home for hours, hike up to island here with our friends - no adult supervision.
We'd squelch our way over mudflats to dinghies laying on their sides a kilometre out.
We'd cut our feet on shells under the mud and limp home bleeding but contented.
Time flew without us noticing.
 
It's not just about having freedom to roam your world - it was like blue sky thinking, independence and trust.
Yes being caught on an incoming tide is pretty frightening but sharing adventures and pushing your boundaries seems pretty important too.
We once carried our baby sisters (who insisted they must come with us) on our backs with the incoming tide lapping at our chests.
Now their children marvel at these stories.
Given such freedom we thrived in ways that children today can't fathom.
Their adventures are either on screen or carefully monitored.
They are bred to be cautious.
And who can blame parents for being paranoid I suppose.
 
But what happens when cautious, sensible kids are put into a schoolyard with children who do not have boundaries (for whatever reason)?
Kids who are so scary that teachers are not willing to call them on their behaviour.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,26016574-5003402,00.htm
These kids are pushing boundaries in much more dangerous ways than pitting themselves against nature by climbing trees and racing tides.
These kids have failed to develop compassion for the rights and worth of others - I'd call it impaired judgement. To be polite.
 
To be cool you either need money to burn on all the cool things, or you have to be a spoiler, a tough guy - even better be both privileged and tough!
That's a delightful combination.
Way too many people get hurt at teenage parties: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,26008747-3102,00.html
 
Anyone - not just teenagers - who accepts the solutions offered by video games, and movies, and shock jocks, and magazines, and reality TV needs to be set straight - and if it's not happening in the home - it needs to happen in the classroom. The system's screwed if kids learn what WTF means but they don't know what WWI means or WWF or "A stitch in time saves nine".
 
We're beyond the time of needing "nine stitches" - we need a major operation when children are dying in schoolyard brawls and people are tense on our beaches.
If teachers are afraid to call these kids on their behaviour (and they are, if you talk to teachers they are) what is society doing wrong?
Because something is dreadfully wrong!
Why aren't young people at peace?
Why?

Scribbles: Insomnia sometimes throws up some interesting ideas on graveyard radio repeats.

This lecture by Macquarie Uni Vice Chancellor Steven Schwartz is REALLY good!
Should universities have ethical goals and strive to build character not just knowledge?
He says universities have lost their moral compasses.
How society has changed .... really, really interesting.
 
Here's the Big Ideas page: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigideas/
Steven Schwartz's webpage: http://www.vc.mq.edu.au/

Scribbles: Sharing, connecting, posting. Social. Media. Mail. Whoops! Pirating.

Been emailing cute animal images to my sister's girls. Images like these Japanese squirrel things called momonga.
Got an image back today but not by email. See. Pirating, sharing, social media ... via Australia Post ... and Gmail.
Even if we couldn't scrawl or jot a line of language - we'd find a way to share.
Share a drink, share a meal, share a photo, share music, share a laugh, share a story, share gossip (unfortunately) ... who's gonna stop it?