The BottleBlog

Having made casual reference to a new job in my last post, I was told that the job would make an interesting piece of subject matter for Someone Wicked, dealing with society on the front lines; suburban liquor store.

But I’ve gone a step further, and have created the BottleBlog, straight from my workplace to your screens. A personal view of a particular side of society with someone from particular views on it. Enjoy.

“Thank You For Choosing Transperth”. My ass.

My apologies for the lack of updates in the past months.

So recently I had the joyous experience of travelling on the Transperth rail system. Groovy. Oh the fun of the hustle and bustle of being forced into close-quarters with people going about their lives, and a few whose next steps in the path of life had damn well better involve a shower…

Travelling on public transport is a good reminder that you’re not alone in the world, but at the same time you do have that moment where you view the world with contempt and a few may even mentally use the words ‘drones’. Some people do look like they have no personality, don’t they? Which is amazingly untrue, it’s just a shame that some jobs require suits and uniforms and such. If you haven’t noticed by now, or if you’re newly exposed to my rantings, I don’t really like the forced aesthetic uniformity that so many employers look for…

So anyway I was on the train at around 9PM, and I was on the way to a friend’s house for a relaxing evening, when I received a message that I’d have to go further on the train than I originally thought. And here I was faced with a conundrum; I did not have the correct ticket required to get to my new destination. A thought flickers through my mind; ‘if I get off the train, there’ll be nobody around, no guards, barely any lighting and an hour’s wait for the next train’.

There’s not a word in earthly languages to describe my thoughts on this, so I will summarise: Fuck that.

Travelling on buses trains is a risky business as it is, especially when it comes to safety, don’t even mention reliability, comfort or punctuality… So I decide to stay on the train, for my piece of mind, safety, and for the safety of my girlfriend who was travelling with me. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but two minutes later, but who do I spy, with my twitchy left eye?

Only the illustrious lads known as Transperth Revenue Protection. Or, as they’d prefer to be called, Train “Guards”. Yes. Never around when you want them though. That’s not usually their fault, people usually only misbehave when authority figures aren’t around. That’s really a human condition issue, or if you want to make it Transperth’s fault, a bureaucracy issue; there should be enough guards to have them on every station and train to really have that image of “safety” that they like to flaunt.

Next thing I know, I’m being issued a fine. Yay. Bad enough that they doubled their minimum fines a few years ago, might I add. A fine for choosing safety over their moneygrabbing? Hmm… okay. Seeing as I am so nice I explain my predicament to the guard, who to my amazement, actually understands and responds in understandable English.* But nonetheless, I am fined and he says to go down and explain the situation to their staff and it may even get withdrawn. Yay.

So I do just that. I go down to their “customer service centre” or whatever the hell they call it, and fill out a form explaining the problem at hand the same I have here, minus the cursing, pop culture references, song lyrics and loquaciousness I use in these posts. I had to keep it short and sweet, because that’s what you’re meant to do when filling out incident reports. Also because I don’t credit their staff with overmuch intelligence, nor the company for wanting to issue them with the correct dictionaries and thesauruses required to understand my profuse verbiage.

Today I received a letter from the Public Transport Authority, letting me know that the concern for my own safety wasn’t really enough reason to withdraw the fine. Hmph. I guess without fear of assault charges they don’t really withdraw these things.**

And what are all these encounters punctuated with? “Thank you for choosing Transperth”. Like any of us would if we had half a choice in the matter. Give us another rail and bus system and you could guarantee that Transperth would lose a large amount of customers. Unless the newcomer was somehow less competent than the incumbent rail system, which I can really only see happening if they wanted to fail.

I’m starting to wonder what I’m pissed off about though. Is it just the fine, or is it the fact they’re so caught up in moneygrubbing and “revenue protecting” that they didn’t withdraw it, even if my objection to the fine is due to safety issues? What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them, on the comments section, or on Facebook.

 

For newcomers and folk who haven’t checked the “About Someone Wicked” page, we do have a Facebook Group, as well as the Wicked One himself being on Facebook. Find him as William Kaede.

* – Disclaimer – I am by no means racist, nor discriminatory against people that can’t speak English. Quite the contrary, I’ve been known to throw racists out of my workplace. I just don’t think people who can’t easily communicate with others should be put into a customer service role or any other job where they’re forced to converse with the populace, such as security or train guarding.

** – I have been fined before, but it was withdrawn for two reasons; their bus driver gave me the wrong ticket in the wrong zone, and the train guard literally grabbed me at the station when I was passing through. The thinly veiled threat of assault charge worked wonders in that case.

We Are All of Us

Each and every one of us is a walking universe; a chaotic yet orderly mass of contradiction. Everything is based upon situation, context and perception. We are all special and unique in our own ways, and some moreso than others. And while we may judge a first glance based on appearance, true understanding of a person, including ourselves, can reveal the very simplest truth is that no one human being can ever be a pure anything.

Every one of us has the potential to be, if they aren’t already, an exception to a rule. Ranging from simpler, widely-believed social stereotypes to the intricacies of subcultures, nobody can ever completely subscribe to a label or stereotype. For everyone is subject to the sensitivity of context and can never be summed up by something as simple as a word.

I’ve seen saints become sinners and the blind become seers, if only situationally. The most open-minded individual can be a closed-minded bigot in situations and their own ways. I have seen surprising insight and creativity from an illiterate person. Not only is a human being subject to contradicting themself, but also very able to contradict your perceptions and assumptions of them.

We don’t always think of other people as human. We’ve all had that moment where we wonder if we’re the only person who thinks, or feels, or knows, in the way that you do. We all think, we all feel, we are all individual universes unto themselves. We dehumanise strangers and antagonists in our life, whether by impulse or conscious arrogance. I can assure you, that no matter what someone else looks like, or how you perceive them, that they are just as human as you. Because that’s what they are.

Stereotypes, while having a basis of truth in some aspects, are made redundant by any knowledge of a person. We apply these things to strangers and people we’ve just met; judgements borne of unknowing, and defend our friends and family from them. And there have been some people who perfectly fit stereotypes at a time, they will always have a side to them that completely contradicts it.

To me, there are absolutely no absolutes, and I go one step further from saying that the world, and people in it, are not black and white but shades of grey. No, the world is the entire spectrum of every colour, and more, than the human eye can perceive. The world is as bright and varied as you choose to make it; from the black and white of a closed mind, to the entire spectrum of awareness that the truly insightful can achieve.

Each person in this world was once a one-in-millions chance to become one of the seven billion human beings living on this great blue earth of ours. We are all special and unique like everyone else; ever fluctuating messes of contradiction, hypocrisy and emotion.

And to me, these paragraphs can be summed up in a singular, solitary sentence that means so much more than words could describe, simplicity belying the truth. We are all special and unique; we are all human, just like you.

This post was inspired by This Piece of Work on DeviantArt.

Our Global Image

Every country has an international stereotype that is often over-blown exaggerations of a particular characteristic. Whether it’s the angry Italian, the snooty Frenchman, the loud American, the drunken Irishman, or the sleepy Mexican, these stereotypes are at the forefront of racism and international profiling. As for Australians… thanks to the Aussie fad of the 1980s, started by Crocodile Dundee, the Australian stereotype has pretty much been a friendly, laid back kinda dude who may or may not wrestle gigantic reptiles while drinking oversized cans of Fosters.

But in more recent times, with the advent of the global community known as the Internet, word has spread and I no longer think this is the case. With a certain ignorant bigot in an underserved position of power, preventing us from having a R18+ rating for videogames, we were the butt of jokes on the internet. Next came the Banning of Small Breasts scandal and the hilarity continued. New internet tags appeared, like “Not Safe for Australia” when referring to content with small-breasted women.

And then with the advent of the Australian Internet Filter, despite protests and campaigns dedicated to spreading the word of this injustice, Australians have shown their true colours to their countrymen and the world; apathetic ignorance. Choosing to just not care about something which affects their daily life more than they realise. The internet filter affects all of us, ranging from the most basic internet use (Facebook, Youtube, schoolwork) to the most avid of cybersurfers.

But no, the population seem to have chosen to just kind of ignore this and hopes that it goes away, in what is being proven to be the true Aussie spirit. And thanks to this pathetic example, it seems that the anti-censorship movements, myself included, have been proven right; we were the test-run. Testing the waters to see how populations react to censorship like this. Now the European Union is going to implement a mandatory filter, and are hiding behind the same guise of ‘protecting the children’ that the Australian government have.

Google, Microsoft and even President Obama himself have been highly vocal against the Rudd Government’s proposed Internet Filter. And after a few TV spots with Minister Conroy, who has repeatedly proved his incompetence, the Australian people still refuse to look into this. It’s highly disappointing. How stupid, how ignorant can a sizeable majority of a westernised country be to not understand the threat this poses? This is the worst example of censorship seen in a Western country since the rise of the Nazi Party pre-WW2.

I have this to say. A warning to the European Union. Be prepared. Just because Australia took this laying down, does not mean that your people will. Europeans, do what you can. Spread the word. This is happening here, and you’re next. Americans will be facing the same problem if a Republican makes it to the White House in2012. Internet Censorship is going to happen all over the world and when it’s over, regardless off what happens, people will look back and say; “it started in Australia. It’s their fault.”

No Chance and No Future

I’ll spare the lengthy introduction, the fancy wordplay and the extensive rant and put it to you simply; it is a very difficult task to find a job right now. There’s three particular groups of folk who employers want at the moment; kids who are under 18, experienced workers over 25, or foreigners who’ll work maximim hours for minimum wage.

I am none of the above. And that has made it virtually impossible for me to get a job where I don’t run the risk of losing my position to one of the above categories. I have more-or-less approaching the point where I am ready to buckle under and take a crap job with worse pay, if only because it’s my only alternative to joblessness.

A lot of places, specifically in the computing / IT industry, demand a minimum of three years’ experience. Experience that I can’t get because there’s no jobs available in the industry that don’t require that experience. And it’s horrendously aggravating to get a job, even at McDonalds, because I’m over 18 and thus actually have to be paid adult wages.

It’s not just affecting me. So many people out there are jobless, or being forced into terrible jobs that have no career options because of the latest trends. How are we supposed to gain experience without being given a chance? That’s all I want, and that’s all so many other people want; a chance.

Job-hunting is a painful endeavour at the best of times. I’m a certified computer repairer as well as trained in IT. Five years ago, advertising everywhere was saying that these were two avenues that would lead to long-lasting, highly paid careers. It’s gotten to the point where I put the donate button up on the website in the hope that it’ll provide additional funding for the continuance of SomeoneWicked as a registered domain as well as attending to my cost-of-living.

Australia, you keep preaching about giving people a fair go. Where’s our chance? Where’s the fair go for Australians who need work? It’s as I said. We’re not being given one. We have no chance, and without that chance, we have no future.

And So, I Give Thanks

I’d just like to take a time away from the anger, the ranting, and the fighting, and just take a minute to thank you all. If you’re reading this, this message is for you. I write for the love of writing and the passion of my arguments; there is not a point I have made that is not my own, but having readers makes it so much more worthwhile.

Someone Wicked; Watching Society Fall has been in existence for just over a year now, and began as a not-quite-humble place where I could vent my anger and rant about the perceived idiocy in the world these days. Come December 19, and I joined the Great Internet War‘s most particularly in the effort of  fighting against the Internet Filter.

I have, on many occasions, discovered that people in my community and social circles, including, but not limited to, my own mother read Watching Society Fall. And even so, given that I have met fans and readers, I salute and thank you all, the nameless, faceless people around the world who have paid my site visit over this past year.

Yes, the site has gone a recent re-design, with new features and that dead-sexy donate button on the page for your convenience, even a shiny RSS feed for those of you who use RSS. I do have a partner-in-crime; a brilliant site administrator from the United States who is sympathetic to the cause.

As of late, I have become a part of Stop the Filter and have attended an organisation meeting; the first of many. Someone Wicked is also part of the Australian Net Freedom Coalition, and I am always looking for more people or groups to come together to fight this gross injustice against Australia. The groups fighting the filter have been nothing short of amazing in their efforts.

For those of you on Facebook, there is a Watching Society Fall Facebook Group. Feel free to post on the wall, or feel free to even comment here, on the site itself. I encourage it, as well as feedback and discussion of any kind.

And so, I continue to ask all that I have ever asked; do whatever you can, even if it is just spreading the word. The filter affects all of us; so why should we accept anything less than all of us standing against it?

To the recurring readers, to the people who glance at the site every now and then, to my friends who’re willing to talk to me about being readers, and even to those who are just now seeing it for one of the first times… I cannot thank any of you enough. I’m thanking you now just as I will always thank you as Watching Society Fall continues into the future.

We Must Stand United

For too long a question has plagued my mind, and I come to you all today, with that question, and a proposal; my dream for the future of humanity. A humankind that casts away the barriers that we have rigidly enforced for centuries; the cultural walls that continue to divide us, and have done so for millennia.

Why are we not yet united?

Since the dawn of recorded history mankind has fought one another; beginning with the nomadic tribes that our ancestors were. Over time, we developed religion and the concept of territory, and we waged righteous war to protect or expand ourselves ever since.

We should not be doing this.

My vision for humanity, the future I can see now, is of humanity undivided. Every race, religion, nationality, social, ethnic and cultural group, coming together and saying simply, “I am a human being”. But those four words are stronger than they appear. In these words we accept our differences and cast the discrimination aside.

I say, revere what sets us apart. I care not if you are Christian or Catholic, black or white, Arabic, Asian, Taoist, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto, Wiccan, Norse Reconstructionist, Australian Aborigine, Islander or any other racial or religious group. I only care that you are human beings.

Revere what sets us apart- but destroy that which drives us apart. Because those who seek to confuse and kill their would-be brothers and sisters for their differences are less than humans; mere beasts that should be put down for the greater good of our species.

Could you imagine a world with a united humankind? A world were German engineering maximises the potential of Japanese innovation? Where art, beauty, sexuality and technology can be freely explored, and the human experience made all the greater? But of course this is a utopian pipe dream… but I can dream; and dreams can be made reality.

In twenty short years we went from low-flying aircraft, to having a man walk on the moon that orbits our planet. Look at the way computers have advanced in the past ten years, let alone the past thirty. Our capability for intrepid discovery and advancement can only be matched by the ambition that drives us to these things.

I say we cast away the chains and barriers that have torn us apart and we embrace our differences with a single vision and purpose for humankind, driving ever onward into the shining future that could await a humanity who accept that peace and unity is the true path.

We need to stand together as a united human race. Because none of us, will ever be as strong as all of us.

A Note To Niche Communities

This rant comes from a region fairly close to my heart. One of my ribs or something. And just as in the book, god created Eve from a rib of Adam, so do I on the internet create a rant from a metaphorical rib. Pretty poor metaphor at that.

Anyway, let’s begin.

There’s a lot of nice communities and subcultures around, and with the dawn of the internet it has become easier for them to discuss and co-ordinate, ranging from quiet hobbyists, to anime clubs, sci-fi groups and the gothic/alternative communities.  But the problem with the internet is that people forget that there are other human beings on the internet, too. Or maybe they don’t. I’m not sure how the minds of these people work.

What I am here to discuss is the pathetic in-fighting that ravages these communities regularly. Not only are most of them ostracised from regular society because of their lifestyle choices, there’s an amazing amount of cliques within the damn groups themselves; a subculture that contains all of twenty people could have upwards of three groups of people who treat each other like dirt.

Most of us, if not all of us have been privy to this kind of thing; friend drama, animosity and for lack of a better phrase, bullshit. You all know what I mean, you’ll have that one friend who has an argument or mishap with another friend and then they drift apart and suddenly one or both of them is making you choose between them. Not only is this completely unfair, it’s also entirely too common.

Niche communities should not be doing this. It’s bad enough that they’re rejected from mainstream culture, if they don’t choose to hide it, anyway. These people are the worst; if you’re not going to let your friends be themselves around other people you know, then that too, is unfair.

In-fighting and drama makes for a hostile environment that everyone can feel from the first encounter, and it often makes people feel unwelcome, out of place or even unsafe, and there’s been many a newcomer who’ve never returned due to it. I usually stick it out but even I tend to shy away from groups where I can feel that this kind of thing is happening.

So take a note, please.

• To all of you drama mongers, fuck you and grow up. You’re killing the community with your pathetic shit. And to the drama mongers that drag other people into the drama just because they choose to talk to someone you don’t like? Go die somewhere. The community sure as hell doesn’t want you and I sure as hell don’t like you.
• To the older members, be nice to the newbies. There’s a lot of older members who treat newbies like shit, and that’s gotta stop. I mean, yes there is the long and cherished tradition of hazing new members, but there’s a difference between a bit of friendly spanking and being a complete asshat.
• To people in general; stop being so abusive and bitchy. You may think it’s funny but your sense of humour isn’t always shared, nor is everyone used to it. Your poking of fun might be severe abuse to a more sensitive person.
• Forum mods: I know you have a job to do. I’m a forum moderator myself. But seriously, sometimes people in that position can be utter jerks who overuse the edit button or banhammer. Do nto be one of these people.
• In regard to genuine drama, you know, serious business, keep it out of the forums. I don’t care if you flood each other’s e-mail accounts or anything, just keep it out of the forums. Ignore the other person’s posts if you like. Just keep it private. I’m sick of it.

But you know what? It’s not all bad. Because there are the nicer folk who stay in the communities. They’re the ones who welcome newbs and ignore the drama, even after they get dragged into it. There’s not enough of these good people around. I salute each and every one of these guys. The helpers, the welcomers, the jokers, the people that give advice or just generally go out of their way to make sure that the forum or message board’s atmosphere isn’t completely terrible.

I’ll remain part of these communities because I couldn’t imagine life without a decent amount of similarly like-minded folk around me, but it comes at a cost, and the cost is dealing with fuckholes like those noted above.

Oh Just Die Already

I think this government is going to great lengths to absolutely infuriate its population. Or maybe it’s just me. Although I really don’t see how they could be offended by my letters I’ve sent to them; I wasn’t in the least abusive. Harshly critical, but I’m not going to be cuddly for the benefit of xenophobic bigots.

Anyway, I know for a fact that this isn’t only pissing me off. Let me give you a rundown of the situation. There’s a woman who destroyed two livers by means of drug addiction. I’ve heard seperate reports but the constant drug seems to be heroin and ritalin. She swore to change after her first liver transplant. Well, she didn’t. She’s now got a failing liver and is crying out for help.

My opinion? Screw her. And not in the fun way. She knew the consequences of drug addiction and faced one of the worst results once already. How many vital internal organs do you have to do before you realise that drugs aren’t good for you? So her addiction has destroyed two livers and she’s attempting to generate sympathy to raise money for another transplant.

Well it worked, somehow. Some gorramned politician decided to give her a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar loan to go towards flying to Thailand  because nobody in Australia or New Zealand will give her the transplant operation. I’d like to shake the hand of the people who rejected her from the transplant list. There are children who urgently need liver transplants, people who haven’t gotten that chance to live yet. She’s already had a second chance and she blew it.

Many people have argued against me, saying it would not be fair on her children for people to just let her die. I can see where you’re trying to come from with that argument. But the fact of the matter is that she’s an addict who’s more or less killed herself twice over already, and god knows what else she’s done when she’s on her highs. Who’s to say her children aren’t better off without her.

And now a decent amount of you will have just kind of stared in shock at your computer screen or iPhone or other internet browsing device. Well I don’t care. This woman has failed the game of life and it’s about bloody time she suffered the most extreme of consequences for her actions. There’s a reason she was rejected for another liver transplant; she doesn’t deserve it.

I mean, I’ve never touched heroin, ritalin or anything much else that’d even come close to raping my liver the way she did. She gets AU$250,000 for destroying two livers. You’d think I would have least earnt a cookie by now. You hear me, Australian Government? I WANT A COOKIE, DAMMIT.

I Hope You Can Explain Yourselves

Well… I’m pretty pissed off. I’m looking at you, everyone who said they’d come to the Saturday 20th Internet Filter Protests. The several hundreds who proclaimed they’d be there as part of the anonymous legion. “We are legion” turned into “we number less than twenty”.

The story is the same from each protest; small numbers of young adults handing out flyers. A few people expected this but I honestly expected better. I’m really fucking disappointed in the lot of you. The Perth protest numbered no more than fifteen people, with only about three or four of them being serious protestors.

I mean, I do understand that some people have a prejudice and possibly misunderstanding as far as Anonymous is concerned, and I certainly don’t endorse all of the actions of 4chan, Anonymous and /b/. But I was hoping that enough of you would do as I did and put that to the side and actually get off your asses and do what you can for this country.

But that protest will be seen as a trial run in the light of the March Sixth protests organised by Stop the Filter. The few serious people from the Perth protest have had discussions and are rethinking a lot of our strategies. March Sixth is the decisive protest day.

A lot of people are questioning the point of protesting, I know, but that’s just self-justified laxity, and it does not amuse me in the least. Campaigns like this are how we tell the Government that we know what they’re doing, and that the people they are supposed to serve, are not fucking pleased with their actions.

But the amount of complacency and apathy of the Australian populace has really gotten to me. This “she’ll be right” mentality is truly showing how deeply ingrown it is into our society. People find excuses; “she’ll be right”, or “I’ll just use a proxy”. For starters, fuck you, it won’t be alright unless the Anti-Filter Campaigns work. In which case you apathetic assholes will just say “see, I said she’ll be right”.

Proxies won’t work either, and I’ll explain why. The Australian Internet substructure is pathetic; we’re an international laughing stock. Our speeds and averages are comparable to a third-world nation. The Net Filter is going to slow it down and apparently the speed reduction is up to and including 87% slower. 87% of terrible is a worse fate than dialup. Proxies also slow connection speeds. So you’re adding two stacks of severe speed reduction onto an already terrible internet connection? That seems almost pointless. Find a better alternative to proxies, because in the real world, they won’t do a goddamn thing.

But I guess I can wait… but mark my words, if the March Sixth protests go as badly as the February 20th ones did, I won’t be happy, and neither will the people who’ve spend weeks, if not months, campaigning, preparing and doing their part to prevent this gross insult; this mockery of justice. This Internet Filter is a violation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and is the first step onto the path of fascism and totalitarian regime as predicted by so much cyberpunk fiction.

So, in short, just do what you can. Spreading the word is all I ask. I have a comment box, please use it. I want to hear what you have to say. We all need to come together as one and fight the filter. Because none of us, and I mean none of us, can do as much as all of us.