Ten Years Gone By
Yes, we’re a mere few days away from 2010. I know, a lot of people will argue whether a decade ends at the 09 or the 10. But I like 2010, it’s a nice round figure so that’s when MY decade is going to end.
I’ve seen a few posts going around looking back across the past decade, but I thought I’d do something looking back across the past decade for me personally. So much has happened in this past ten years, I think it’s important to reflect upon it, and also in how I’ve changed in that decade.
The year 2000 saw me enter my late 20’s. It also saw me hit my first year of working as a librarian. I just celebrated a decade with BCCLS back in June, so this decade has had that touchstone all the way through. When I started I was hired as a casual library assistant out in the south region libraries, but almost automatically started doing temp gigs at various libraries while permanent staff were on holidays. In 2000 I started working a temp contract in the branch support team, and in 2001 was hired as a permanent, full time team member of the Library Systems team. When I first started it was all data entry, admin and gopher work. I was promoted in September 2008. Nowdays I pretty much focus on digital media, with work around AV gear, asset management and social media.
One of the biggest things in my life in the past decade has been my health, both physically and emotionally. In February 2005 I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) after 20 years of begging doctors to find out what was wrong with me. Within 12 months of that diagnosis, I was also diagnosed with clinical depression. Both diagnoses have been major influences to changes with my life. I got help for both conditions and the improvement in my quality of life is massive.
In 2003, I lost my wonderful friend and colleague Rob to cancer. I had never had someone close to me die before, and it was a huge lesson to learn. I still miss him to this day. He was a beautiful person and had a huge heart. I wish he could have stayed here with us for longer than the 49 years that he did.
In November 2003 I took my first interstate holiday, with my first flights. I went to Melbourne for a fortnight and had a fantastic time. In 2005 I went to Western Australia for a fortnight and fell in love with the western state.
I’ve had some lovely visitors here too – from other states, the US, Germany and the UK over the years, which has been wonderful.
I started blogging in September 2006, in preparation for my first overseas trip. That’s what this blog started out as (go read my archives to see my trip posts) and it created a bit of a monster. I’m a blogging fiend now!
And yes, I took my first trip overseas. 3 months (well, 77 days) in the US, with a jaunt up to Canada to see my lovely friend Ian. It was AWESOME. I met a lot of my online friends in reality for the first time, and found some absolute kindred spirits. So much that I cannot wait to go back over there to see them again.
I had a some relationships that didn’t work out, but in hindsight, I’m bloody glad they didn’t!
Last year I finally got my act together and got two more tattoos. I plan to get many more in the future.
Over all though, the biggest changes have been in how I feel about myself. I went from being highly depressed and borderline agoraphobic (other than work and home, I refused to go anywhere for years) with a rock bottom self esteem and no confidence at all, to someone who is comfortable in her own skin, happy and confident, and feeling positively adventurous. I no longer hide myself away, I shed all the toxic people in my life and live life with positivity and gusto. It’s true that your 30’s are WAY better than your 20’s. All that anxiety about what other people think, or whether or not I’m doing the right thing has gone. It’s a wonderfully liberating feeling.
So, what has seen you through the last decade? What achievements, changes and experiences really stand out for you? Share in the comments, won’t you?
Why It’s Important…
Time for another blog post on the subject of the Australian Governments plan to force all Australians under mandatory Internet Service Provider (ISP) level filtering of the internet.
I had been planning to go to a meeting tonight in Brisbane of people interested in working out how we can prevent this from happening, but unfortunately I’ve not been well today and had to come home, so I’m going to take some time to do another blog post, and I’ll catch up tomorrow with updates from the meeting and where to go from there.
Ok, let’s start by sharing a very clear, plain-language website which explains the internet censorship plans, and gives you straight-forward steps you can take to have your say on the matter:
If you click on no other links, click on that one. It is the clearest, simplest explanation I have seen so far.
Secondly, I know many people are asking why we Australians should be concerned about this policy the government are introducing. Well, here are a few reasons:
- Mandatory censorship of our internet will draw us in line with countries such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. These countries censor what their citizens can access and use on the internet. People are not allowed to read or talk to each other freely and openly on the internet.
- The government are telling us that they are doing this to protect children. However they are not only planning to filter child pornography, but also anything that has “refused classification”. This includes anything of an adult nature that you and I can consent to view and access that does not fit the somewhat narrow ACMA guidelines. This may include things like computer games (adults over 25 are the highest consumers of gaming in Australia – NOT children), legitimate adult sexual material, information on abortion, euthanasia and drug use and/or portions of interactive websites that may contain these subjects (which means YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc).
- The government are not making the list of blocked sites public. This means that you can be censored for something and not even know about it. They can just display a generic “error” message that makes no sense to the average internet user, and you would never know what was on the other side. What is to stop them from blocking anything they like? Want to speak out against the current government (or indeed, possibly even future governments) like I am here? You might find your own site blocked. That’s right – even your blog, or website can be blocked, and labelled “refused classification”
- This internet censorship will not stop child pornography. All it will do is make paedophiles more creative in how they traffic their filth. It will not protect children, it will not prevent child pornography from being traded, and will make it harder for the police and other authorities to track, find, prosecute and punish paedophiles.
As someone who works in an industry where our whole philosophy is behind serving the community with information, literacy and education, the idea of the government censoring any form of media and information is totally abhorrent to me.
We can not be living in a democratic society if our government is censoring us and keeping information from us.
The Big Bad Internet
As a bit of a follow up to my dashed out letter to my local MP that I posted last night, with regards to the Australian government’s plans to implement mandatory ISP level internet filtering, I thought I would talk a little about my experience with the internet as an “early adopter” from the mid-90’s.
One of the “reasons” being touted by the Australian government for implementing filtering is to prevent people from “accidentally” stumbling into material such as child pornography or terrorism sites. I’ve been using the internet for about 15 years now, and as part of my job, I have had to do things like look up lists of sites on filtered lists for public internet access (not to censor them, but because they are inappropriate for a public venue), I’ve had to run search engine tests on BIZARRE phrases and keywords, I’ve even had to go actively looking for sites that would be considered offensive, even illegal as part of usability testing.
And with my hand on my heart, I can tell you I have never accidentally stumbled into either child pornography or terrorist sites. Of course I’ve encountered plenty of porn sites, none of which weren’t blatantly obvious that they were porn in a search list, or by their URL. So I can say I’ve never accidentally stumbled into those either.
The thing is, people who want to publish child pornography and terrorist material know how to hide it. If every day people could stumble into it, it would be much easier for the authorities to find it and track it. They know how to protect themselves, to mask their material so that only they and those they trust and want to view it can view it. No national internet filter is going to be of any use to keeping these cretins away from everyday people because they do it themselves.
All filters like these are going to do is force this stuff underground. In countries like China and Iran where regular websites are filtered (Facebook, Twitter etc), lots of people know how to work around it and not be caught. If we put filters on all internet access for Australians, all it is going to do is push the child pornographers and nutcases to be even more cunning than they already are, waste a lot of tax payers money and turn our access to online information in this country into a joke.
What WILL help the Australian population have access to a safe online environment is the education of both children and adults in how to use the internet in a savvy and sensible manner. How to recognise high quality information and sites, and how to use their own brains to filter out the trash and the offensive stuff. We need to sink money into good quality internet access for ALL Australians so that Aussies can become the creators and curators of high quality internet content. We need to educate parents in using the internet and taking responsibility for what their children access on the internet.
We also need our tax dollars to be spent on finding and catching child pornographers, sex offenders, drug traffickers and other criminals. We need to be engaging the police at all levels with funding and resources to do their jobs and remove the evil element from our society. Not spend tax money on ineffective and censorious internet filters.
By censoring what Australians have access to, and how we use the internet, which is just another form of media as radio, television, press etc are, our government is turning our nation into an embarrassment on the world stage. It puts us in the league of China and Iran, who heavily censor the internet access of their people. We should be in the league of Finland, who recently ruled that broadband internet access is a legal right of their citizens.
It also leads me to ask just what is going to be filtered. We start with child pornography and terrorist material. Ok, those are things that we definitely want to keep out of any media. But then it covers things that are “refused classification” because they are offensive. But offensive to whom? Offensive to the government? Does this mean that if I speak out against the government in my blog, that my work becomes refused classification on the grounds that it is offensive? From the leaked ACMA blacklist, we see that sites on euthanasia, suicide, abortion, gambling and pornography are refused classification. Who is the government to tell us that we cannot access this information? I am an adult, I have read books and seen websites on all of these subjects, and yet I have never committed a crime or partaken in the activities detailed in such books and websites.
Australians have always been proud of our freedom of information and right to free speech. Censoring the internet is no different to censoring the media. We need to tell our government that this plan to implement mandatory internet filtering is not acceptable, and that we have the right to free information and speech in this country.
For an excellent opinion piece on the subject from Google’s official blog, click here. Google make some excellent points on how they already take responsibility to filter child pornography from their search results, and their concern about the broadness of “refused classification” as a level of filtering.
For more information, try the following sites:
No Clean Feed
Ok, so I just sat down and wrote a letter to my local MP. Because this is something that really matters to me. If you are concerned about the issue of censorship of the internet in Australia, and about mandatory ISP level filtering, I urge you to write to your MP yourself. You can find yours by going to the Australian Electoral Commission website and entering your postcode or suburb. We need intelligent, organised, rational action from as many Australians as possible to challenge this restrictive, backwards action from our government. I hope you can take the time to take part in this, because inaction now will only mean more restrictions and censorship in the future.
Here is my letter (written very quickly in one big rush!) to my MP:
Dear Mr Perrett,
I am writing to you as a member of your constituency in Moreton, and as someone who voted for you in November 2007. I voted Labor because the archaic attitudes of the then Howard government frightened me, and were not reflective of the kind of country I believe Australia is, nor should it be.
Today I heard the news that your government has given the green light to introduce mandatory ISP level filtering of the internet for “refused classification” level material. This is the kind of restrictive, backwards attitude towards the Australian people’s right and responsibility to access and use the media (and not just the internet) freely and openly that I would have expected from the Howard government.
I am a librarian. I work in information technology for public libraries, working very hard to ensure that our country today has access to information and education and improved literacy. Censorship and access to information is important to me as a librarian, an Australian and someone who believes in our right to freedom of information and Australians taking the personal responsibility for their use of information and the media.
I do understand that there need to be measures in place to ensure criminal activity is stopped, as well as vulnerable members of our society being protected while using all forms of media. But this should not happen through mandatory censorship of all Australians. We are not China Mr Perrett, and to me, the concern is in that “refused classification” will broaden and expand to encompass anything that the governing body does not want Australians to have access to. If a group of people gather peacefully online to show dissent and lampoon your government, does this mean that the tools/sources used can be refused classification as well? That voices of Australians are silenced?
I have always been proud to be an Australian and sang our praises as a country that has access to all media freely that other parts of the world do not – even Western cultures like the USA and Britain. Australians are generally far more versed in events, politics, world news, history and all subjects than our equivalents around the world. For any form of censorship to be placed on us mandatorily is not only offensive, but it is a global embarrassment.
Add to this that as it is, internet access in Australia is already backwards, adding mandatory filtering is only going to force the technology further behind in speed, accuracy and usability.
It is MY responsibility to use the internet and all other forms of media legally, responsibly and to take an active role in knowing what my children and children I am responsible for are using in the media. It is not the Australian governments role to intervene as though I and all other Australian citizens are incapable of taking these responsibilities ourselves. The Australian government need to be part of educating the Australian people on HOW to use media responsibly, appropriately and safely, not deciding how to do that for them.
I urge you to think carefully about what your constituents want, and our rights and responsibilities as Australian citizens. I urge you to listen and indeed join Australian people in raising their voices to say clearly that mandatory internet filtering and censorship is not acceptable.
Show that you are committed to finding reasonable, working solutions to smart media education for ALL forms of media and information without censorship of a nation of people who are proud of their freedom of information. I thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you on this matter.
Yours sincerely
WHOA CREEPY!
I was just about to go to bed, but I thought I’d look at a few more Boing Boing articles that I’d tagged to read later, when I came across a story so bizarre, and a video so shocking that I just had to share it. Originally I was going to just post it to my Tumblr page, but when I went to add it, I realised that I just HAD to write a blog post about it!
Check this baby out:
OMG!
I am still a bit freaked out by it. Can you imagine??
However, I have some commonality with this story.
Some years ago, a guy was found living in the ceiling cavity over my flat. I had a junkie prostitute living in the flat next door, and we had all kinds of weird things going on. It all came to a head on Good Friday that year, when I noticed that my hard wired smoke detector wasn’t working. I really agonised over whether or not I should call the poor overworked maintenance man to have a look at it on Good Friday, but my gut feeling told me to do so.
So I called him, and as he was at another site already, he called around a bit later to have a look, only to find the wiring ripped out of it. He called the electrician to come out and fix it immediately (it is law that landlords must repair smoke detectors immediately in Australia) and while the electrician was tinkering around with it, he noticed that he could see the sky through my ceiling.
He and the maintenance man went up into ceiling through the manhole, to find very obvious signs of a recent inhabitant. Not only was the wiring all torn out, there was food wrappers up there and there were holes in the ceiling down into the junkie prostitute’s flat, but about 40 roof tiles were ripped out too, leaving the ceiling cavity exposed to the elements.
It turned out that the junkie prostitute’s dealer boyfriend was living up there, hiding out from the police!
Thankfully there are no access openings inside my flat, or that of the fellow who lives on the other side, or we could have been dealing with the same thing as in the video. Instead the opening is in a common stairwell between two of the flats.
Needless to say, the maintenance man acted quickly by calling the landlord, blocking up the access openings with 2 inch thick plywood bolted on and repaired the roof. Eventually they were able to get rid of the junkie prostitute too.
But it was a really, really frightening discovery.
Thank God nobody was getting inside my flat like in the video above. YIKES!
In The Closet
I’ve just read this lovely post from The Catatonic Kid – Keeping Faith in the Cookie Jar.
It is quite relevant for me at the moment because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my faith and what it means to me. A few days ago there were a real rash of status updates on facebook denouncing faith, implying that people who have faith are “denying science” or haven’t made conscious, well thought decisions about their faith. It really got on my nerve, because these things are completely erroneous when it comes to my faith. I left a pretty irate status update myself, and it sparked some debate which unfortunately left me feeling even more bereft about being a person of faith in 2009.
A little background. At about 16, when I was finding my own spiritual identity, I decided that I was an atheist. I decided that I didn’t believe in God, that I couldn’t have any spiritual faith. I had thought about it a lot, and that’s how I felt. I identified as an atheist for about 10 years, despite having worked for Baptist youth groups during that time (whom I must say, adopted me as one of their own despite my opposing spiritual beliefs).
In my late 20’s, I had some kind of shift. I don’t remember exactly when or how it happened, I went through a massive depression through my 20’s and did a lot of soul searching from about 26/27 onwards trying to get myself emotionally “right”. Somewhere around my 30th birthday, I began to realise that I no longer felt that there was no God. And somewhere over those years of my early 30’s, I discovered and formed my faith, which I identify at the moment as “non-denominational Christian”. Should I find a denomination that works for me, I will tweak that description.
So let’s get a few things straight here. I do not feel the need to proselytise – in fact I personally don’t believe in it. As I used to say to the Jehovah’s Witnesses that came to my door “Would you change your religion? No? Then why expect me to change mine?” I also don’t feel the need to have anyone else believe what I do, though it is nice to find a community that does. Nor do I need to prove my faith to others.
What I do expect, nay, demand is that I be allowed to follow my faith without ridicule, discrimination or judgement. The same respect I offer to all others, I expect for myself. I do expect to be able to use Facebook or Twitter, or read a newspaper or magazine, without seeing people ripping into those who have a different belief system to theirs and implying that those with faith (whatever that faith) are stupid, ill informed, bigoted, narrow-minded or in denial.
Yes, I am quite aware that Christianity has it’s demons from the past, and those today that use it to further their own sick intentions. Those that twist the faith to their own purpose. Look at this piece that supposedly came from the Reverend Fred Nile (as you will see by my comments underneath, it makes me sick). I am aware of this, and saddened by it. But the truth is, this sort of thing is not confined only to Christianity, every faith has it’s crazies that twist the word of their religion, that use their religion to further hatred. And hey, let’s not forget that Stalin was an atheist. Nobody’s belief system gets off scott free. Well, maybe the Buddhists.
But the nutjobs and mistakes of the past do not speak for all of us. Nor do they speak for our gods, for those of us who have faith. I believe people are generally good in the majority, it’s just the unfortunately highly vocal minority that give every group a bad name. And I don’t wish to be tarred with the same brush as the likes of Fred Nile, just as I’m sure the average Muslim does not wish to be seen as holding the same attitudes and hatred as say, Osama Bin Laden, and atheists as Stalin, as a few examples.
I don’t want to feel that I have to keep my faith in the closet. I don’t want to have to hide who I am for fear of ridicule, discrimination or negative judgement. I am finding it easy to be fat and proud, but feel uncomfortable with being Christian and proud, simply because of other people’s attitudes. That is just wrong. As I said, I don’t need to proselytise or preach, just to BE. My faith is as much part of me as my intelligence, sense of humour, brown eyes, fat body and short temper. I don’t want to be shamed because of my faith. I would never treat anyone else like that. I don’t even make judgement of people of faiths that I feel uncomfortable about, such as Scientology and Mormonism, unless I have got to know them, then I judge them on their behaviour or attitudes.
What I want is to be able to say “Thank God!” without some smart-arse comment. To mention in relevant conversation that I would like to find a suitable church, without having to cautiously test the waters for the faith-friendly, at the risk of ridicule and judgement.
I don’t know how to make people think about the assumptions they make. I wish I did, because if everyone took a moment or two to think before they made assumptions and judgements about others with different beliefs to themselves, we might not have so much aggro and angst around religion.
People like me who just wish to go peacefully without shame might actually be able to do so.
Honest Scrap
Awww, I’ve been given a meme award. *blush*
The lovely ladies of The Zaftig Chicks, Bianca and Sylvia have awarded me the Honest Scrap meme.
So here’s the deal.
1) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
2) Tell those 7 people they’ve been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.
3) Share “10 Honest Things” about yourself.
So the 7 other blogs I am sharing this award with are:
All of the above are awesome lady bloggers, whom inspire, amuse and encourage me all the time. Check out their blogs, I am sure you won’t be disappointed.
Now I guess you need 10 honest things about me. Let me think…
1. I love to write. If I could, it would be my profession.
2. I have a crappy short term memory. If I don’t write things down, I won’t remember them. Actually I will, only not until a year from now.
3. I have decided I don’t want to read any more sad books or see any more sad movies. They make me feel crap.
4. I am allergic to sheep. The meat, the wool, the lanolin.
5. My tolerance for fools is getting less and less. It was never much to start with!
6. My nickname in high school was Zappa.
7. My first crush was on a school camp instructor/counsellor.
8. I was secretly engaged at 16.
9. When I was little, I used to steal the vinegar to drink. It had to be locked up.
10. I love the smell of new plastic, especially pencil cases.
So there you go. Honest Scrap meme done by me.
Operation Unite
This morning while I was getting ready for work, the hottest topic on the radio was the new Operation Unite initiative from both the Australian and New Zealand police. It was splashed across all of the major papers, in articles just like this one from the Brisbane Times.
For those of you who haven’t heard the news yet, here’s the first three paragraphs from the article:
Police around Australia and in New Zealand will take two days of co-ordinated action in a major crackdown on binge drinking and alcohol-fuelled violence.
Operation Unite, launched in Perth on Thursday by state and territory police chiefs joined by a representative of the NZ police force, will be the biggest joint police operation ever staged in Australia.
During the 48-hour blitz on December 11 and 12, extra police and special units will flood major trouble spots to discourage excessive drinking, said to be the nation’s greatest social ill.
It sounds pretty full on, doesn’t it?
I’m not entirely sure announcing a crackdown on particular dates is going to really achieve much, I’d have thought simply implementing a permanent programme to address the issue would have been the best step, but the article does say that it isn’t just a one off weekend blitz.
I know it seems terribly grumpy old woman of me, but something does need to happen to change this. I do understand that it doesn’t seem like violence and aggression is escalating to most young people under 25. It probably feels like it has always been the same way to them. But ask anyone who has a few more years behind them, and there is a palpable difference in the level of violence and aggression that is around today, compared to what it was like ten, and even 20 years ago.
And not just out on a Friday or Saturday night either. It’s there all the time. On public transport, on our roads, in our schools and workplaces, at the beach, even in public libraries! This morning I saw a guy aggressively abuse a bus driver when he didn’t have enough fare for the trip. Road rage happens all the time. Bullying is getting more violent both in schools and the workplace, with cases of people even dying because of it. People are getting beat up at the beach for a few dollars and their mobile phone. I know of cases in public libraries where customers have come to blows over internet computer bookings.
There has been a cultural shift within the past ten years that sees many people believing that aggressiveness and violence is acceptable behaviour. Not just what is reported in the media either, which I know is often played up for sensationalism, but just in my experience and the experiences of people I know.
I don’t pretend to know the answers. It’s been bandied around that parents need to be teaching children that aggression and violence is never the answer, and that they should have some respect for authority. I think that would certainly contribute, but I don’t think it’s the only answer. We need to shift the attitudes culturally. Maybe the way to do that is to hit people where it really hurts, their wallets?
Recently there was a case of a glassing at a hotel here in Brisbane where the perpetrator was identified and arrested. I have heard that the owner of the hotel may be suing the perpetrator. Maybe this is the tack we need to take. In the case of the hotelier, his venue has now got a bad reputation, his business is probably damaged and he has had the general cleanup and recovery after the event itself. He may even have to change his entire bar ware to plastic if the Queensland Government follow through with their proposal to enforce plastic “glassware” to the pubs with the worst reputation.
So why shouldn’t he sue the goon who has caused all of this? And perhaps if the said goon lost a considerable sum of money, and I’m not talking a couple of hundred dollars on a fine or a slap on the wrist probation, he might think about doing it again, and other goons might hear about it and have a second think before getting aggro and violent.
Of course, I don’t believe this is the only answer. Teaching kids about alcohol helps, it was always taboo for me, so I was nicking it from a very early age, and was a huge drinker from my teens through to late 20’s. I wish it hadn’t been such a way of rebellion for me, I regret the amount I drank in my youth. Education about drugs too for that matter, especially those drugs that encourage violent and aggressive behaviour like ice.
That, coupled with stronger penalties for those found guilty of violent, aggressive behaviour, a strong police presence on Friday and Saturday nights in public places around nightclubs and bars, as well as on public transport, where I know the level of aggression has skyrocketed, and perhaps some kind of societal campaign to highlight just what douchebags people who behave in a violent and aggressive manner are might just be what will shift the culture that is allowing this kind of behaviour.
Something has to give, because if it doesn’t, we’re going to find these crackdowns becoming curfews, lock outs and prohibition, which I think are pointless and excessively prohibitive.
Simple Pleasures
The hot water system for my flat, and that of two of my neighbours, bit the big one on Friday night. A rather spectacular death it was, water everywhere and lots of hissing and fizzing noises.
Since then, I’ve not had any hot water, with at least another 24 hours to go before it will be fixed, so cold showers have been the order of the day, or bathing from a bucket. I did manage to nip down to a friends house yesterday for a shower so I could properly wash my hair, but the lack of hot water has been a real pain in the arse.
It got me thinking about the simple pleasures in life. A hot shower and that lovely scrubbed, clean feeling afterwards is definitely one of those simple pleasures. But there are a lot of others.
- Fresh white bread with real butter on it.
- Clean sheets.
- A text message from a friend.
- Re-reading a book that you love.
- Fish and chips by the sea.
- Sending a Twoosh (a tweet that is exactly 140 characters long).
- A really good word score in a game of Scrabble.
- Pictures of cats on the internet. Especially Scottish Folds.
- Finding a pair of shoes that are not only cute, but are super comfortable.
- A good cup of coffee.
- Finding real comments on my blogs, rather than spam or trolls.
- Swimming on a stinking hot day.
- Receiving a postcard in the mail.
- Laughing until your face hurts.
These are just a few of my simple pleasures.
What are yours?
Happy Halloween
Two years ago today, I was in Colorado. On my first ever overseas trip, which was three months long with a jaunt up to Canada to see one of my oldest friends, Ian.
While in Colorado, I was experiencing my first ever Halloween. Sadly I didn’t dress up (other than to buy a top in autumn colours and a pair of skeleton earrings) but I did get to carve my first pumpkin and participate in trick or treating, by being the person who opened the door and doled out the candy to the kids.
Australians don’t really celebrate Halloween, though it’s starting to be picked up here by some people. I’m hearing that kids are trick or treating and I’ve heard word of a few Halloween parties happening around the traps tonight. But there is a lot of resistance to Halloween, in particular that it’s an “American thing” and that it’s just a way for shops to gouge more money out of us.
But I’d like to dispute that. Technically it’s really a Northern Hemisphere thing, as they celebrate it in the UK and throughout Europe in various forms (as well as through South America too in various forms.) And Halloween does not have to be expensive or about spending lots of money. One of the most fun parts about it is making your own decorations and costumes, and a lot of people make their own candy to give out as well.
All holidays are turning into “Hallmark holidays” because we Westerners tend to be lazy and just buy something, but it’s not what the holiday is about.
I can’t tell you how much fun I had. Carving a pumpkin is a huge amount of fun, even if it is gross. To be honest, it’s one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever done. On recounting the story of how I was so grossed out by scooping the innards out of a pumpkin, my friend Ian incredulously said “But you’ve had your hands in my kid’s shit! How can you have trouble with a pumpkin?” Let me tell you this. I’ll take baby shit over pumpkin guts anyday.
Yes, this is my reaction to having my arm in a pumpkin.
It is lots of fun though, and the finished product is lovely, even if it did get stolen off the porch of the house I was staying the night of Halloween. Bastards.
My first attempt at carving a pumpkin on the right.
That’s it lit up at the top of the post too.
Having all the kids come around trick or treating is lovely too. Mostly they have their parents or someone hovering around the neighbourhood with them, but the kids love getting dressed up and when you open the door and there is some little tyke there in costume, they are SO cute! I wish I’d taken photos of them all, they were adorable. Right from babies through to pre-teens.
Some people go all out and have elaborate, expensive yard decorations, but that’s not really what Halloween is about. Those people would find some other reason to decorate their yards, even if there weren’t festive reasons.
All in all I would LOVE to see it happen here in Australia. I think I may start a tradition of a Halloween party or celebration of some sort myself each year. Maybe it will catch on.
