Where is the line drawn?

Does the name Laura Dekker ring a bell? If it doesn't, it will soon.
She is Dutch. She is fourteen. She plans to sail around the world solo.

Picture From http://bit.ly/bQDxoD

Sounds a bit familiar doesn't it?

I was a big big big Jessica Watson skeptic when the Australian announced she was about to embark on a solo sail around the world. I think she did an incredible job, and I was really impressed the way she handled herself, and she honestly seems like a fantastic young girl. I still don't agree she should have done it though. I still think she was to young.
A US teen also tried to sail around the world this year- and had to be rescued from the Indian Ocean.

I have no issue with these girls wanting to achieve something, setting their minds to a task and wanting to achieve it. What urks me is that all of these girls' families supported their decisions. There is support, and then there is stupidity. I'm sorry but these girls are just WAY TO YOUNG.
Dekker is FOURTEEN for crying out loud. It's just ridiculous.

At fourteen, all I wanted was to be allowed to go down the street with my friends after school. Or to go down to the shops by myself. Can't say I ever wanted to sail around the world by myself, but each to their own.
I think it's smart to have a dream, I think it's important to have a dream. But there are certain things that people need to remember- first thing that my head keeps screaming is safety.
If someone can explain to me how this is safe for a fourteen year old girl (let alone a twenty-one year old, or a forty year old) then I'll happily eat my words.

If I asked my parents if I could sail solo around the world, I'd get a laugh, a 'pull ya head in', and a 'sweetheart, you can do lot's of things. Just not this.' I love my parents.

I'm not the only one who feels this way, with this being taken to the Dutch courts. The Child Protection Council fighting against her decision (and losing... sigh). Read some more about it here.

I haven't led a 'sheltered life', my parents have always been fair and reasonable with me. And I honestly think that's why at nineteen I can call myself responsible and say I have a fairly good head on my shoulders (not to sound ridiculously stuck up or anything, which I think I seriously just failed at). So where is the line drawn? How can Dekker's parents honestly justify the decision to support their daughter on this?

Go back to school for a couple more years Dekker, then maybe look at the idea of sailing around the world solo. How about while your waiting you do normal fourteen year old stuff like stealing chocolate from the fridge and staying up past your bed time?

The worst sort of addiction. For bank accounts.

My bank account has been looking dangerously sad the last few months. And unfortunately, I have no one to blame but myself.
Actually I also blame my Aunty- because I get my spending habits and my ability to shop anytime, anywhere, from her.
I find that the problem is I buy things that I don't need and certainly don't have the money for.
I have weaknesses too, like any girl. I always need a new outfit when I go out (not generally a good thing when you happen to have five 21st's in two months), I can't go past a good bargain pair of shoes and finally cook books, whenever I go shopping (which is all the time) I treat myself to a cook book.
Treating myself for what you say? Good question, I wish I could answer it.

Until recently, I wouldn't call myself a shopping 'addict'. I'd call myself a chocoholic, a writerholic (I think I just made up a word), a procrasti-bakerholic (Ha, another one)but not a shopoholic.
Until I found myself shopping every single day of the week, and my bank screaming out in pain
So I'm taking some action of sorts- no shopping! For a week at least, that's a good start. And no buying things!
Except for food of course- I have some recipes calling my name.
Oh and except for the manicure I've already booked for next week.
Oh and except for the hotel room I'm paying for next Saturday.
Oh and except for the night out next week I'm going to have to pay for.
But apart from that, no spending.

See, I'm achieving some sort of happy medium, agreed?

The hardest bit is going to be not buying cook books! Angus and Robertson always have sales on awesome cook books! Hmph.
But I won't buy any... Until Callum wins MasterChef that is, because, well, I really want his cook book.

What sort of addictions do you guys have?

From bad, to worse, to plain awkward.

A few weeks back now, my email got hacked. Nothing major- from what I can tell it was just a virus, probably from a piece of spam I had accidently opened a few days prior. It was also my hotmail account, so (I thought…) it would have just sent it to a few friends- easy to email them again, apologize quickly and tell them not to open the previous email.
The thing about getting hacked is you never know it’s happened- unless you’re in the habit of checking through your sent items, or like me, you have a little guardian angel that sends you an email.

I was completely confused when I opened Annelise’s email and she first wrote-

‘Hahah, thanks but I think I'm all good for Viagra at the moment!.'

Um, what?

Further down she adds, ‘You were hacked?’

And it starts to make sense- horrible sense. I go to my sent items and what would you know? I’d apparently sent out two emails, about eight people receiving each one. I clicked on the first and it had been sent to a few friends, a few people from uni and my aunt. It was just a link, but I wasn’t going to be clicking on it anytime soon, like Annelise, I’m pretty right on the Viagra front.
So I wrote a quick apology, and sent it off, hoping most of them hadn’t checked their emails yet.
Annoying, frustrating and irritating, but not un-fixable.

Until, I checked the second email- And that’s where it gets awkward.

Again it was the same email, a link to a Viagra site. But the people this email was sent to were a little more amusing.
We have my grandparents, three high school teachers, three uni tutors and a website’s co-ordinator that I used to write articles for- at this point I want to go hang myself.

The issue isn’t that I was hacked- it happens to the best of us. The Viagra bit is pretty embarrassing, but again what can you do? The fact the email had no subject heading, and was just a link is annoying, but at least it wasn’t porn? No this isn’t the issue. But the email I received a few days later was definitely the issue.

Apparently the website co-ordinator (who I’m deliberately not naming, and deliberately not giving you a link to the site- because it’s just embarrassing for both of us) hadn’t checked my apology email and sent me this:

‘Hello Morgan,

Haven’t heard from you for a while but I trust all is well.

As you know, we’re a student site, so an article about Viagra isn’t something we’re looking for.

If you have any more ideas please email me again.

Regards….’

I nearly fell off my chair. I scanned my emails again hoping for another one from her saying ‘oh, just saw your other email!’

But no, nothing.

Awkward.

And damage control time- I replied with a lovely emailing, explaining the situation and explaining until I was blue in the face that I didn’t want to write about Viagra.

Note to all: Don’t open spam.

This is what happens when a political dead brain writes about politics…

How was your night last night? Did you go out for dinner, or watch a movie? Bad move. Last night’s ‘leadership spill’ was an epic political moment if I ever did witness one. I’m not going to delve too much into politics itself a) because I’m a political no-brainer and b) I don’t want to make a fool out of myself. But I am going to delve into the politics of the politics of the last 24 or so hours. Let’s break it down.

8.30pm(ish) 23 June 2010- Twitter starts

A friend tweets this. Automatically, I think about the BP oil spill. But no, I find on the skynews website there is going to be a leadership spill.
Uh oh, welcome to the world wind that is Australian politics.

9pm 23 June 2010-It becomes clear

Through newsbreaks, twitter and the Sky News website it all becomes apparent. It’s a leadership spill and basically that means Australia could have its first female PM. Just over two year ago Kevin ’07 was one of, if not the most popular PM (my brother says since Whitlam). Wow. How did it all go so wrong? How did the cool PM that went on shows like Rove go from hero to zero? That’s what happens when you try to fool your public, that’s what happens when you don’t deliver. The Australian public can be a volatile bunch.

10.20pm(ish) 23 June 2010- Rudd’s speech

Just to recap- politics aren’t my thing. But I sat up straight, listened intently and was 100% without a doubt impressed with Rudd’s speech. He was strong and determined and should have sounded like this throughout his entire term. Laurie Oakes reports that afterwards, Rudd breaks down.

Late 23 June 2010- The aftermath

Twitter’s going into melt down, new coverage is going bonkers and my hearts finally recovered. I’m confused and full of adrenaline.
What does it all mean? Check THIS out for a 2 min cheat sheet on what’s going on.

8.00am 24 June 2010- Leading up to

News coverage is bonkers (still) and everyone is discussing the possibilities. A hot topic- What’s Julia Gillard’s partner Tim going be called? Overwhelming support for ‘First Bloke’.

9am 24 June 2010- The vote begins

Or so we think…

9.24am 24 June 2010- No ballot?

Ben Fordham just revealed that a journo from The Australian has tweeted that Rudd has given Gillard the PM spot; no ballot vote. (I wonder what Barry Hall thinks?- Remember when she Gillard said "there's more chance I'll line up at full forward for the Dogs than topple Kevin Rudd")

9.34am 24 June 2010- Australia’s new PM

The federal secretary reveals Gillard was appointed PM unopposed; Wayne Swan elected Dep. PM unopposed. This means THERE WAS NO VOTE: Rudd handed it over to Gillard.



What happens now; we’ll have to wait and see. Personally, I think the Labor party have just secured the next election. Tony Abbott must be shaking in his boots.
(Julia Gillard should be having her first press conference as PM... any second... now)

An open letter to Alex Fevola

Dear Alex,

You don’t know me, but I definitely know you.
Sometimes I feel for you, I really do, because no one deserves to be in a cheating relationship, no one deserves to be lied to, and no one deserves to be humiliated in some of the ways you have been.
However, you do frustrate me to the high heavens.
People would sympathise with you a whole lot more if you didn’t go media hunting.
Glossy women’s mags (no matter how addictive the damn things are) are not a source of credibility. Dancing with the stars (could you just enlighten me as to when you became a star…?) will not help the general public forget that your (ex) husband cheated on you, sent a nude photo of Lara Bingle around and has a severe gambling problem.
You have three ridiculously cute daughters; do you think they need to see mummy and daddy on the news-stands every day?
Do you think constantly dredging up your (unfortunate) past is going to help?
No, it’s not going to.
For the sake of your daughters, your family and yourself- stay out of the media spotlight.

I look forward to not reading about you tomorrow.

Yours truly,
Morgan x

Reality TV... What has you hooked?

One of my earliest reality TV moments was from Survivor season one, and it includes a naked Richard Hatch, and yet so many years later, I find myself reality TV addicted.
I like all kinds of reality TV, everything from Survivor, to Project Runway, to Masterchef. Let me watch it from episode one and I’ll be hooked. It’s in that very first episode that I pick my favourite, and I go with them the whole way through until they’re eliminated. Then I usually crack the shits and watch the remaining episodes with somewhat of an evil glare.

So what makes reality TV so mesmerising? What makes it grab you, shake you by the shoulders, and not let you go?
Reality TV isn’t always a popular genre- anyone remember Big Brother? Even though it was successful, that caused nothing but controversy from season one. Anyone need reminding about this or this?And yet it still had its fans (admittedly I was one for the first couple of seasons).
I tend to find that people either love reality TV, or hate it. There’s no in between with such a confronting genre. And the main ‘type’ of person that dislikes the reality genre- the academics. Especially those who specialise in studying the effects these types of shows have on reality.
But why?
The media has always had a power of its audience; its influence often questioned. (Is it possible for media to actually cause this (?), people argue so).
Reality TV rose to its fame in the 2000s, and this is when audiences were at their worst and often passive. Meaning they sat there, and absorbed the information that is being fed to them. The rise of reality made audiences sit up and become active, and get involved within the program. This was by giving audiences power, the power to choose the fate of each reality contestant.
It’s difficult to argue for or against if this was a positive thing or not. You have those that argue it’s good; you’ll have those that will argue it’s not.
Is it safe to get so engrossed in a ‘reality’ show, showing ‘real’ people doing ‘real’ things in ‘real’ situations? I say this with Survivor in mind- a show that clearly doesn’t have a ‘this would happen in real life element’. In saying that though, is that safer to watch then something like Big Brother, which does have a better element of ‘real’; but because of this, could have audiences trying to copy what they see (turkey slap, anyone?). It seems much more plausible to suggest that people would copy what they see from Big Brother then Survivor- purely based on the ‘real’ element.
This is an entirely different issue though, and not the point of this post.

As I sat in a group meeting tonight, I constantly refreshed my twitter feed and followed every tweet posted with a masterchef hash tag (basically a Masterchef forum on twitter). This is because I couldn’t stand to not be watching the show, and even though I was taping it, I was biting my nails because my favourite, the one I’d picked at the start and followed the whole way through, was up for elimination.
Why I am so hooked on this reality show that I can’t even stand to miss an episode? And why Masterchef? It’s definitely not because I have a flare for cooking. My speciality is eggs on toast, but I must admit- I make them pretty damn good.
I find myself addicted to reality where other people make the decisions for me. Not to suggest I don’t watch the other types of reality, I just don’t vote.
But then why do I feel it’s outrageous when my favourite goes home?
I damn near wanted to cry when Matthew Caldicott was eliminated from Masterchef tonight. I have a few witnesses that could vouch for that too.
BUT WHY?
Do I know him? No. Can I relate to him? Not really. Does he have a ridiculously tragic story? Nope. Is he cute? Definitely. Just had to throw that last one in there, sorry.

Or why do people detest contestants? Search Joanne Masterchef in facebook and look at some of the groups that come up- they’re doozies.
I understand when people watch reality shows and relate to one of the contestants, but what basis do I have for Matt being my favourite? I don’t, I just chose him in the first episode (well actually, technically not true because it was top 24 episode) and it was decided, he was going to be my favourite.

Reality TV has a knack of drawing you in and making you completely engrossed from the get go. And once you give yourself into reality TV… there’s no turning back.
It has a power- a power that grips you about 6 times a week (ahem, Masterchef), or those select few shows that manage to grip you for one hour every week (ahem, Survivor).
They make you tweet your face off, they make set up day with your friends where you do nothing but watch YouTube clips of the shows and play the game on the Wii (that’s normal yeah?) they make you laugh, they make you cry and they make you fall in love. (Stalker love is not encouraged though).
They draw you in with emotional stories, likeable contestants and fun challenges.

I am… a reality TV tragic.
Are you? If so, what do you watch? How involved do you get? And why do you believe it has you obsessed?

Taboo- The idea of plastic surgery and young girls

The number of young girls turning to plastic surgery to enhance their looks is alarming, and honestly, quite disturbing. We live in an age where society is so transfixed on looks that every one forgets what really matters. And as ridiculously cliché as that sounds, it’s the truth and if you don’t think so, unfortunately you’re kidding yourself. Of course that’s not to say that there aren’t some really special people out there who are fighting to change this, and aren’t giving up any time soon.
The idea of plastic surgery has always been a bit taboo for me. There is a part of me that absolutely detests it. The idea of people changing their body because they don’t like the way it looks really gets on my nerves and sometimes I feel like strangling people like Heidi Montag (or Montag-Pratt, depends if you believe the latest gossip). The ‘popular’ (and I use that term VERY loosely) The Hills star has sent her body through the ringer. All because she wasn’t happy with the way she looked, and felt she needed to enhance herself if she was going to be in the public eye. Now I think she’s gorgeous before she had any work done. So why on earth did she? It was because she needed to be beautiful… duh. This sort of plastic surgery, I don’t agree with at all. I think she’s stupid, she’s going to regret it and it’s is the worst possible message you could send to any girls. And don’t get me started on the money aspect.

Before Image (http://www.honeymag.com/wp-)

After Image(http://www.layoutlocator.com/graphics/dldimg/d928cb8bc4d8422a84fbe949c6ca666d_heidi_montag-5370.jpg) Sorry for the long URL but it's being a pain and wont let me change it.

However, there is plastic surgery that I do agree with, and I can fully sympathise with the people wanting it done. Burn victims, abuse victims and other such people I can understand wanting to have something done if they’d somehow been disfigured. Then again, this is trying to get something back, not trying to have something that was never there. There are cases that warrant plastic surgery but who judges who is deserving of it and who isn’t? Well, not me, but I’m still entitled to my opinion. Which if you haven’t already gathered is that most plastic surgery is silly and most motives behind it is a personal gain for the worst.

This has been a subject widely discussed for years, but it caught my attention again in the last few days. Mainly because of 18 year-old single mother Ambah Young. She’s heading to Malaysia to have a boob job, and a tummy tuck, and, uh, a ‘designer’ vagina procedure (wow, awkward). This is because Ms Young gave birth to her daughter two years ago and has struggled to feel young again. I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. I don’t agree with it, but who am I to say that this girl isn’t seriously depressed and something needs to be done? The issue is that it is plastered across TV and in magazines that even after you have a baby, your body needs to be ‘perfect’ within a month. Thank you celebrities for fuelling this ridiculous need.
Also in today’s paper, it’s been reported that girls as young as EIGHT are going to beauty salons. And apparently there are a lot of young girls asking for a body wax. I’ll leave it at that and let you use your imagination for that one.

That’s disturbing. Where are these girls’ mothers telling them that they are beautiful in their own skin, and teaching the next generation that it’s not okay to change yourself just because other people want you to. It’s not only disturbing, but it’s downright upsetting. It breaks my heart to think that school aged children are so unhappy and depressed about their looks because some people thing they’re the Queen. Where are the people making sure that we don’t lose anymore girls because of low self esteem due to looks? Who are the people the young girls need to look up to? They are out there, they just need recognition. And they need to be seen as accessible by young girls (and boys).

Firstly, and one of my favourites, is the National Advisory Group on Body Image. This government funded initiative has the likes of Sarah Murdoch, Sports Minister Kate Ellis and journalist Mia Freedman on board. Now this is a fairly ‘big’ initiative and although it’s pretty much the best thing to happen in regards to body image in a long time, sometimes things a little smaller are best.
I’m talking local youth groups- which are amazing for promoting positive body image, and embracing the person within. These things are what is important.
I’d love to think in the near future, that people will actually take into consideration what’s on the ‘inside’ not just the physical. One step at a time hey?
Now this is where I make my plug. Lead On is a youth group that operates in a few areas around Australia. And I’m lucky enough to be involved in Lead On Ballarat. The aim is for youth to have fun, feel great and meet new people. In October Lead On Ballarat will have its first youth event- ‘Paint the Catwalk’. The event will promote positive body image, address the issue of negative thinking, celebrate individuals and promote youth. There will be a fashion show; featuring young talent, and modelled by all sorts of people from the community. There will be local bands, art work and lots of other surprises. Maybe even a celebrity or two.

Get involved- One person can make a difference.