Ruby Velour

Once again, I’m not sure why I waste my time reading the so-called articles on news.com.au because I get far too angry. And that’s before I even get to the reader comments! Today’s little gem is the article about a three year old getting swooped by a magpie, who may or may not lose some/all vision in one eye as the magpie wasn’t deterred by the child’s yells. There’s been a fair bit of publicity about swooping magpies this season, and naturally there are two distinct sides as to what to do about it.

The comments on this particular article are a fine example of the two vastly different opinions. On one hand, some share my view that this is what happens every year for as long as these birds have existed and that you need to be cautious when in an area known to contain nesting magpies. After all, this only happens for just over one month a year (between late-August early-October), so it shouldn’t be such a big deal that we keep away from affected areas or at least wear appropriate headwear when passing through.

But no, the jerks all come out, declaring them to be a horrible pest who maim and kill our precious children, so they must all be culled so we can live in peace. Never mind the fact there’s only ever been reports of one kid dying from a magpie attack back in 1946 and that was from tetanus. A kid died from being hit by a car after being swooped by a magpie last year, but the magpie didn’t intend for that to happen, he just wanted to protect his territory. But nah, that’s not good enough, and won’t somebody PLEASE think of the CHILDREN??!!

Look, it sucks for anyone who’s been hurt by a magpie. Personally I’ve never been attacked and as far as I’m aware, never even been swooped. I lived in the country for the first 9 years of my life, and then on the back of a huge park next to a creek, surrounded by bushland until I was in my early 20s. I visit my mum every other week and we go on long walks in various parks and I’ve never been attacked once (I have been swooped by plovers but I was trying to spy on the cute little babies and I carried a branch above my head, so I knew what I was in for). In fact I can only think of one person ever claiming to have been hurt while being swooped and while it did draw some blood, he had no real misgivings about it because that’s what happens in Australia this time of year. FANCY THAT!

My fear is that the boon’s will all be out trying to kill poor magpie’s after this extra publicity and so hundreds of innocent birds will be tortured because one kid got a peck in the eye in Toowoomba. I was horrified when I heard about how many flying foxes were killed, tortured, mutilated and left to die because of the Hendra virus scare we had in Queensland a few months ago, just because horses can catch the virus from bat poop which affected about four humans and a dog. I dread to think how many magpies will be harmed as a result of this “bad press”.

Anyway, my comment got published (which is rare for me, my comments rarely make the cut) and fortunately most of the commenters seem to be against culling these magnificent birds as well.

It has struck me that the greatest term ever invented, “Cara Rage” has never really been used properly on my blog! Sacrilege! So from now on, my ragey, things-that-piss-me-off posts will be called CARA RAGE!

Included in things that have enraged me this week:

OXFAM COLLECTORS

I work in the CBD of Brisbane City, so I know there are always people around collecting money for various charities and organisations.  Many of them have regular hangout’s, so if I’m in a hurry I know where to avoid. I’m not a total bastard though, I do donate when I have spare change and am not feeling my usual money woes. Most of them are pretty decent and don’t harass or target you especially when it’s clear you’re in a rush.

The Oxfam ones though, oooh they drive me insane. They’re not around every day, so you have a few days or even weeks to forget about them. But then BAM, there they are, all six of them on each street corner of the intersection you need to cross, armed with compliments to disarm you and then they beg for a moment of your time to reel you in. Plus they’re all smiley and chirpy and way to pipper for a cold an overcast morning and they TARGET you from afar so you have to keep walking towards them, knowing they’re going to POUNCE.

Look, I understand that is one of the worst jobs all times (I once tried something similar when desperate in London but just couldn’t hack the rejection) but it is really fucking annoying because you either have to stop and pretend to care or else look like a total jerk and brush them off. I don’t need that while powering through the City to run errands, I already feel like a big enough twat for not buying the Big Issue from every vendor I pass so PLEASE stop ruining my day with guilt trips, Oxfam!

BRISBANE IS NOT VERY LIVABLE

So the Economist Intelligence Unit revealed this week that the most livable city in the world is Melbourne. Vancouver has topped the list for a number of years but is now #3 while Melbourne takes top place. It’s not a surprise, Melbourne is a wonderful City and if it wasn’t for my family and friends being up here, I’d move down there in a flash. Sydney is also on there at #7 while Perth and Adelaide both take out the 8th position. So where’s Brisbane? NUMBER BLOODY 21, THAT’S WHERE! Considering how the slogans for Brisbane and Queensland have always been about how livable and perfect it is up here, we’re pretty shit, if you ask me.

Brisbane, you have so much work to do to make the top 10 of that list. I don’t know what criteria these guys use to rank a city’s livability but I have a fair idea of where Brisbane let everyone down. How about the high cost of living we have up here vs the lack of entertainment available most days of the week. How about how all of our restaurants close by about 9pm so if you want to go out for a meal after 10pm, it’s greasy fast food or cheap Asian or nothing. What about the fact the Valley, our entertainment district, is a smelly, dirty hell hole by day and a drunken, noisy mess on Friday and Saturday nights? There’s plenty of bitch about, but the bottom line is, we’re still a big Country Town that isn’t coping with how many people keep moving up here from the southern states so rent is ridiculous and the average salary does not reflect our high cost of living! Well…in my case anyway.

I am very fond of Brisbane and love living here, but it needs to get its act together. The only thing we have to boast about to other states is the Worlds’s Biggest Zombie Walk (which will be official after the walk in October, just so you know)!

COLD SEASON

This is my 2nd cold of the season and I’VE HAD IT. Life is too short to spend 2-3 weeks of the year feeling like a snot monster, coughing and sneezing everywhere and being unable to function properly. I also miss having makeup on/around my nose :(

WHITE RUNNERS WITH JEANS/SUITS

I just saw a few examples of this during my walk through the City yesterday, much to my horror. Firstly, let’s be honest, you haven’t actually ever worn those shoes for their intended purpose (ie. running) before, have you ? Secondly, have you NO TASTE? I admit I occasionally wear my ugly, white walking shoes to and from work with my work clothes but it is with great shame and literally because it hurts my back to wear my usual flats for such a long distance. I actually realised how dreadful the look was after a short while though and now wear my wicked-cool Vans instead. Not as comfy, but so much better looking.

I see people wearing their graying, out-of-style runners as actual fashion staples and it makes me want to die. If you’re that obsessed with comfort, get a pair of something colourful and fashionable (like these magnificent specimens). Never, ever wear white running shoes out in public unless you are exercising!

What a sad day. A talented musician plagued with a deep sadness that prevented her from successfully fighting her battle with drugs and alcohol passed away at the tender age of 27. As Tammy said, “She sang the blues so well because she knew it so well”.

It saddens me that so many people think “Oh well, she was a drug addict, it’s no surprise really and I don’t feel bad for her”. In my opinion, people don’t choose to be come drug addicts, there is something inside them that makes them feel the need to kill themselves slowly with harmful substances. I’m sure she didn’t wake up one day and say “I am going to start doing drugs for a bit of a laugh so that it makes me extremely sick and ruins my career”. She was a tormented soul who couldn’t deal with the fame and the horrific paparazzi who hounded her ceaselessly. Her outlet was drinking and taking drugs and it eventually killed her.

She was so extremely talented and until the addictions ravaged her, she was a gorgeous young woman who had a bright future ahead of her. If only singing about her woes had been enough to get her through the dark times. I try not to look at the photos of her where she is emaciated and a shadow of her former self, because that was not who she was. Instead I look at her in happier times and listen to her music and think about what could have been had she had the strength to pull through.

There is a march happening in Brisbane tomorrow called SlutWalk which is a protest rally the came into being in retaliation to a Canadian police officer who suggested women could avoid sexual assault by not dressing like a “slut”.

I had never heard of this event before until a work mate mentioned it to me today. Her friend is keen to take part in the rally and asked her to help support the cause, but my workmate was feeling conflicted about what she thought of the event. We had a great discussion about our thoughts on what SlutWalk stands for, and even had some male perspective thrown in from another work mate.

If you’ve never heard of it, it is essentially a rally for women who have had enough of the perception that a woman deserves to get raped because of the outfit she was wearing or the way she was acting. It is also claimed they take back the world “slut” so that the meaning becomes that of someone who enjoys sex, as opposed to the negative meaning it currently has.

I have to admit, I am very conflicted about this as well. As I have said in previous posts, a woman should be able to walk down the street completely naked without fear of being raped. And if a girl wants to wear a short skirt, dance suggestively and have a party pash while extremely intoxicated, she has ever right to do so without running the risk of EVER being raped. Men should be able to handle their desires for sex, they should be able to look at a girl in skimpy clothing and not want to rape her. But I am also a realist and feel that women who can’t handle their alcohol or give off a vulnerable vibe need to be more mindful of how they’re perceived in order to lower their chances of being attacked by the kinds of people who are out there with rape on their minds.

I also absolutely abhor the word “slut”. I think it is the most repulsive word. I find it far worse thasn the C-bomb because of what it means to most people and how it gets used. To me a slut is someone (male or female) who has frequent, unprotected sex without any regard for their own well-being, let alone that of their sexual partners. But that’s not how most people think of the word nor how they use it. It’s a word used specifically for women (if ever it gets used for men, it’s always male-slut) and is used for any female who happens to enjoy having casual sex. It doesn’t matter that she uses protection or even if knows the guy/s, the fact she’s having sex with men who aren’t her boyfriend more than once in a blue moon is something to look down upon and use a foul name to describe her character.

I don’t know how they expect to reclaim the world slut, because it was never “ours” to begin with. It’s not like the word faggot (another one of my most hated words) that actually means a bundle of sticks. Nor the word “cunt” which is a slang word for vagina and in my opinion, should not be considered the worst swear word, because there’s nothing wrong with vagina’s, thank you very much! The word “slut” has negative connotations and can never be reclaimed. It didn’t once mean something nice and innocent, it’s always meant the same awful thing. I’ve never heard the word used in anything but a hateful, demeaning and misogynistic way and I don’t want it reclaimed, if ever that were possible. If I had my way the word would be wiped from everyone’s memories and never used again.

I feel they are going about this the wrong way. As my male workmate said, rapists usually aren’t targeting women for what they’re wearing, they’re targeting the vulnerable. Why would they target a girl confident enough to wear a micro mini skirt when they could go for the meek girl who’s covered up but obviously wouldn’t put up much of a fight? This perception that women who wear “slutty” outfits or stumbles around drunkenly after a big night out and then get raped were “asking for it” is not the opinion of the rapists, but of the general public. Even in this modern day and age, many people still have the old-fashioned and sexist idea that a woman is asking for sex (consensual or not) when she wears certain clothing. These ideas are hideously old fashioned but they’re also deeply ingrained in many people, so having a march called SlutWalk isn’t going to make them say “Oh, they’re right, a woman should be able to wear what she wants and not get raped for it”. More than likely they think all of the participants are being hysterical feminists or that they’re just trying to justify their wicked ways with a protest.

I appreciate what the SlutWalk is setting out to achieve, and I hope I am wrong and it does raise awareness on the matter and converts some peoples way of thinking about women who enjoy sex and/or likes to wear skimpy clothing. But I really do think there’s a good chance they’re doing just as much harm as good by drawing attention to and essentially reinforcing the negative stereotypes of promiscuous women by calling it SlutWalk and then having half the participants dressing as “sluts”. If I didn’t have plans tomorrow, I’d go on the walk and see what it’s all about, in case I am missing something that would allow me to be more enthusiastic about the event. After all, anything that encourages feminism in younger generations is a good thing, and for that I am thankful for the SlutWalk phenomenon.

For now I will leave you with an comment left on an article on the Brisbane Times which sums up my feelings about the whole thing quite well:

This reminds me of bra burning, something that still defies a reasonable explanation. This action will do little to change the minds of arrogant men and disappoints others by it being a manic over-reaction.

I would like to know what you think on this issue, and if you’ve attended one of the SlutWalks. Am I being too sensitive because I hate the word “slut” so much? Or do you agree that this could be done in a different way with an even more positive outcome?

I am sick to death of hearing about Charlie Sheen. If it’s not in the news, it’s all over my damn Facebook feed. Charlie Sheen the party animal, at it again. He does drugs, parties hard, has sex with lots of women and he’s a famous actor. I have disliked the man for a few years now and I totally blame Two and a Half Men for it. My god, that show is such utter balls, I don’t understand how so many people actually like it so much. It’s about an alcoholic douchebag, his neurotic retard of a brother and a fat turd of a kid with the worst hair cut of all times. Then I realised the character Charlie Sheen is playing isn’t so much a “character” as Charlie Sheen just being himself on the small screen. Ugh!

If I see one more status or tweet about how great it would be to go out partying with Charlie Sheen, I will scream and probably not hold back with my anti-Charlie Sheen rants. I can only imagine that if friends of mine who are smart sorts of people think he’s a top bloke, then there are lot of brain-dead dickheads out there who think he’s the best thing to have happened in the entire history of mankind.

If you think Charlie Sheen is great and think it would be great to go out partying with him, allow me to remind you of some painful truths about the man. He is addicted to drugs. He pays for escorts to party with him. He is a misogynist who is extremely violent towards the women in his life. He is in his mid-40s and acts like he’s 20. The dude gets paid obscene amounts of money to play himself on TV and then gets his stupid arse busted by going on a bender and locking a women in a closet while he smashes up the room. Now he’s in rehab and is costing the show hundreds of thousands of dollars because they’ve had to halt production. And yet those stupid TV exec wankers just keep putting up with it. Why? because morons everywhere think he’s “livin’ the dream”. Check out this little fact I found on a celebrity facts site:

“A little known fact about Charlie Sheen is, he was subpoenaed to testify in the “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss trial in 1993. Sheen testified he called on Fleiss’ call girls on a regular basis spending more than $50,000 on their services. Reportedly, Sheen was a Cocaine addict at this time.”

Wow, what a classy gent. How about the fact he “accidentally” shot his then-fiancee Kelly Preston in the arm in 1990 and has been accused of/charged with assult on all of his former girlfriends/wives. I’m not quite sure why these women willingly get into a relationship with this man, but I guess “Charlie Sheen mania” pulled the wool over their eyes til he beat it right off  ‘em again. He’s been arrested for drug use and possession and sent to rehab a bunch of times, he OD’s after injecting himself with cocaine and almost died and yet never seems to have learned a thing. But why would he, he’s “the man” and keeps getting work and never has to serve any real time.

He is not “living the dream” and he’s not “the man”. He’s seriously troubled and is only getting away with it out of sheer luck and because he’s rich and famous. If he wasn’t who he is and was poor and living on the streets like the typical drug addict, would everyone be so keen to party with him then? Do you think those addicts you see dancing to music no one else can hear are awesome party animals? Do you want to spend a wild night out with them? Of course not. Money apparently makes miserable sacks of crap more appealing. Yuck.

I’m sure I’m going to get a tonne of angry comments from boon’s who think he’s the greatest. I don’t care because I am sick of how he’s worshiped like a god when he ought to be behind bars. If a normal civilian like you or me did half of the shit he’s done, we would be in jail and looked down on by the rest of society. Do yourselves a favour and stop acting like he’s cool. You’re just condoning the actions of a violent and pathetic man who has to pay women to hang out with him and will probably die from an overdose in a hotel room at the age of 50.