things i've been doing lately

Sooooo, how is everyone? I'm busy and happy-ish. Why? Let's see...

1. Compu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-computer games.

My computer died. I think I mentioned it, yeah? Turned out to be the old ticker, but one heart transplant later it's like a new toy again. In fact the new heart is stronger and the comp's working better than before. Loving it! I also bought me a 2GB flash drive which is proving handy for my new studies...but I'll get to that later.

2. Yep, buh-bye now! :)

Helping people out is a nice thing to do, but sometimes it backfires and you end up with a freeloading sponge in your house. I'm down about $800 in unpaid board and really, really tired of living with someone whose contribution to the household consists mostly of doing his own dishes. The sad thing is that I took him in to help him out (he was my friend's daughter's boyfriend at the time and seemed like a nice enough kid) and though I don't want to become that cynical kind of person who thinks the whole world sucks, this has seriously put me off helping anyone ever again. Bit of an exaggeration of course, but I certainly won't be offering anyone a place to stay anytime soon. He will be gone in a couple of days and I have a homestay student moving in. Can't wait. Be nice to think I'll get the money one day, but I'm not holding my breath.

3. Oi! That's mine!

Remember last year when I won a 42-inch plasma screen TV? A few weeks ago we were burgled and it's gone, gone, gone. Nothing from the police so far. I'm pissed off for sure, but handling it a lot better than if I'd paid for it myself. We actually know who stole it ~ a junkie stranger that the soon-to-be-ex-boarder met through work and let into the house one night when he turned up uninvited, and yes, I'm aware he technically is to blame and should replace the TV, but that isn't going to happen so why stress over it? ~ but because he wandered unaccompanied around our house a few days earlier, we can't prove that any fingerprints they found were from the burglary. We know it was him because the S-T-B-E-B saw him at the local shops wearing his (stolen) shoes and hat.

4. Colour me studious.

This year I signed up for a Graduate Diploma in Professional Writing. I'm really enjoying it. My subjects are Freelance Writing and Introduction to Editing, next semester FW2 and Advanced Editing. Next year I'll study Screenwriting and Writing for Young People and probably take on a screenwriting project. The best thing so far is the constant demand to write. We have major assignments of course, but we also do in-class exercises each week. One big assignment is to write an 800 word piece and read it in class, then answer questions. Two people do that each week, so we have a chance each week to hear and analyse two pieces of writing, which is so interesting. This expectation that we will write each and every week has been great, because I was starting to feel like a fraud to my own goals ~ a writer who never wrote anything. I never seemed to get any ideas. Now I feel like I have a lot to write about.

In fact, I submitted three pieces ~ two poems and a creative non-fiction piece ~ to be considered for an anthology that's published each year of creative writing from students at my university. They get a lot more submissions than they publish, so there has to be some merit to the piece if it's accepted. There's one poem that I think is better than the other two pieces and that's the one I'm hoping will make it in. Anything else is just gravy. I'd post it, but I think that technically counts as publishing and it can't be considered if it's been published. I'll let you know what happens.

5. Making friends and not particularly influencing people.

One nice aspect of doing grad studies is that the class doesn't average out at nineteen years old. Most of the class are around my age or a little younger and I've made some friends. Given that these same people will be in my classes for two years, that's a real bonus. Plus they're even friends who write and are into the Arts. I mean good Lord, next time I want to go to a poetry slam or an improv night, I may actually not need to coax someone into 'trying something new'.

parental responsibility and the internet

Our new Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has pledged to provide porn-free internet feeds to schools and homes. He wants the Communications and Media Authority to draw up a blacklist of unsuitable websites, which internet service providers will then be required to block to their customers unless they specifically request an uncensored feed.

I think this is a great idea for schools and a very bad idea for households. At school one teacher may be in charge of 40 students at one time. They cannot be expected to watch every student all the time in a computer class, yet the school does have a legal responsibility to control what information children are exposed to in school. The same way that a book of pornography should never make it's way into a school library, so too, a school needs to make some realistic attempt to filter the internet content to which students have access. I also think that limited access to computer labs means that there is less time for children to be using the net unsupervised or for those who know how to hack through filters.

Households are a different matter. It is a parent's responsibility to know and control (certainly within their own home) what their children read and view. They might use filtering programs themselves, but shouldn't be relying on them. It is also their responsibility to teach their children about internet predators the same way that they teach them stranger danger before they let them walk to school on their own. Internet dangers are a reality of our life and the government can't solve all our woes. In fact, I agree with this morning's Sydney Morning Herald editorial that trying to filter out all objectionable material will simply give parents a false sense of security that their parental responsibilities to ensure that their children are not viewing objectionable material on the net have been taken over by a body with the power to ensure that nothing gets through.

The problem with a blacklist is that websites are easily created to replace those on it, creating a constant battle to keep the list accurately updated. Also while the most objectionable material might be blocked, such a filter lets through a lot of other kinds of pornograghy (eg showing acts that are legal between consenting adults in this country, suggestive online dating advertisements, and other content not suitable for children. Parents relying on government blocking (or net nanny programs for that matter) are just fooling themselves. They would be much better off following more practical rules for children's net usage, such as keeping the internet connection in a public area of the house (computers in child's own room don't have to be connected to the net) and monitoring kids' email (thinking particularly of young kids here). I heard about a guy who unplugs and hides the modem every night so that his teenagers can't access the net during the night. He knows it makes him look untrusting and over-protective, but he doesn't care, because he's more focused on the way the internet is being used by people who view teenagers as prey, and he understands that teenagers often think they are more world-savvy than they actually are.

Given that the internet industry has suggested it would take the average tech-savvy young person about two minutes to get around the system Senator Conroy is proposing (the net filter distributed by the Communications and Media Authority last year was defeated by a sixteen year old (Tom Wood, pictured) in about half an hour), I don't think giving parents a false free pass to ignore their children's net usage is realistic or kind to the children in question. Better to spend the money on increased Australian Federal Police resources to pursue child-porn rings and on educating parents about home-based filters and activity monitors.