I know it's been a long time since I've talked about it, but don't worry - it's still happening! Hehehe.

I haven't updated my wedding blog for 3 months, and only just remembered to do this today. You can see the latest update here: http://weddingplans.wordpress.com/
(Bookmark the site or subscribe to the RSS feed if you haven't done so already.)

Enjoy.

With all the crazy stuff happening in America today, I have a feeling that we're going to see some very interesting, scary and sad times in the near few years.

• It's heading more and more towards a 'police state', where the jackbooted actions of the police stomp all over the rights of the people.
  
  
• The political craziness that's coming to the fore has suggestion of armed conflict between Republicans and Democrats, due to prominent Republican commentators claiming that since Democrats are against the war on terror then they must be for terrorists, and are therefore terrorists themselves. Some are calling for attacks, arrests and even executions of vocal Democrats and anti-war campaigners.
  
  
• The Republican campaign for the Commander-in-Chief being the only man for the job to fight terrorism is leading to Republicans wanting to vote for the removal of elections and have the President as Dictator-in-Chief.
  
  What's wrong with these people that they want to vote for the removal of all their freedoms? They want to vote on putting a dictator into power?
  
  
• The US has become one of the most censored countries in the entire world, where any news that has evidence of Bush doing something wrong is simply not shown in US newspapers or on US television.
  
  A case in point was a year or two ago, where evidence arose of Bush and Blair planning the Iraq war before 2003... this was a major scandal and reported all throughout the world. Except in the US.
  
  
• The latest idiocy to come out of America is their attempt to re-write the Geneva Convention so that they can't be accused of war crimes. Apparently there was a complication to this, as there was a clause in the Constitution that prevented them from changing the Geneva Convention. But there isn't any such clause preventing them from
  changing the War Crimes Act.
  
  There's no brushing over of this idiocy - the Bush Administration wants to change the rules so that they can't be accused of War Crimes, and they want it to be retrospective, so that they can't be accused of War Crimes in the past. What is it that Americans don't seem to understand about this. THEY PLAN ON COMMITTING, OR HAVE KNOWINGLY COMMITTED CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!
  

When you have Republicans calling for the death of Democrats, and the police doing whatever they like with impunity, and idiots wanting to vote for their President to become dictator, and the leadership wanting to change the rules so they can't be accused of war crimes, then you have a situation. A serious situation. And one which can only lead to serious consequences.

The world banded together to act against the totalitarian and fascist actions of Adolf Hitler in the early 1940's.

What will we see in the next few years, I wonder.

I was recent talking to someone who considers themselves to be a pagan and a witch. Very interesting person. They asked me at one point what my talent was. At first I was confused, so I asked them for some clarification. They said their own talent was being able to read auras, and they had a sensitivity to other people's energy. I thought about it for a moment, and then I knew what my talent was.

I see people for who they really are. I see the truth behind the facade that they present to the world.

Everyone has a different 'face' that they put on for different people and situations. Most people's faces are there to hide their true selves from those they're interacting with.

I understand the fears and insecurities that people have, and how they're driven to wear the faces that they think protect them. When I'm talking to someone about something meaningful, that grabs my attention, I'm looking past their face and into their soul. Most of them find it unnerving, and I don't blame them. I don't do this all the time, of course. That'd be too draining. I only do it with those I find highly interesting and intriguing, and who I want to understand more than I currently do.

They don't like someone getting too close to them, knowing who they really are. How would you feel if someone could see past your disguise, and see all those things you'd rather no one knew?

However, everyone has a talent of some kind, even if they're not fully aware of what it might be. Even you have a talent. Maybe you have a talent for reading people, for understanding them. Maybe you have a talent for making people laugh, or you can inspire them to do great things. Maybe you have some psychic ability that you use to help others with.

Whatever your talent is, it often has something to do with helping others.

So what's your talent? I'd be interested in knowing.

It turns out that my application for the Solutions Design Specialist role at work was the ONLY application received, even though it was advertised both internally and externally.

Seems like an interesting sign to me... to be the ONLY applicant for a role that I would love to have, and which would be ideal for me.

I'll continue providing updates as more becomes known.

Regardless of my political thoughts on the matter, 9/11 was a tragedy. On this 5th anniversary of the event, I refer back to a post I made at the time (quoted below). As we all remember and send our prayers to all those who were affected one way or another, my own memories return to the day. I'll talk more about it below the quote from the day it happened.

(Please note that for us in New Zealand, it happened on 9/12, as we're about 17 hours ahead of the US. And today, which is 9/11 in NZ, is still only 9/10 in the US. Damn timezones...)

Along with America and the rest of the world, I'm in shock, and have been for the entire day. What a sad and horrifying day this been...

Terrorists have co-ordinated the hijacking of 4 planes and have destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York, along with a plane impacting into the Pentagon. Another plane was possibly aimed at Camp David, but crashed before it reached there. Thousands of people dead.

I've never been as shocked about something as I have been about this. It's like a heavy feeling in my stomach, and I've been in a dazed mood all day.

My condolences and sympathy to the people over there in New York and Washington.

My memory of that day was that there were a lot of people who didn't have perspective. I was working as a helpdesk analyst, and while the TV was going in the background so we could all keep up to date with events, I was taking phone calls from people who had computer or software problems. The common theme of helpdesks is:

"My computer doesn't work! My software has an error! It's urgent! You've got to fix it now!"

But when these people are calling you and talking about how their lives are going to hell because Word crashed on them and they lost an hour's worth of documentation that they were too stupid to save, and they're demanding you get it back for them.... or their computer doesn't work because they're too stupid to to realise they've accidentally nudged the cable out, and instead of wanting to follow your instructions to plug it back in, they demand that you send an engineer around to fix their computer because they need it working urgently....

I had a hard time keeping my cool. As I'm watching people jumping out of the burning WTC buildings and falling hundreds of feet to their deaths, I was disgusted with these idiots who call the helpdesk because they can't handle their own stupid mistakes. Their own petty lives and small brains and self-centred attitudes....

"Get some perspective!" I wanted to scream at them. "People are dying by the thousands in New York, and you're fucking crying about a crashed Word program!"

That's what I wanted to scream at them. But instead, I helped them with their problem, while watching the tragedy on TV... all the while hating these self-centred retards that I was employed to help. People who can't help themselves, and cry to others when they need help. They disgusted me.

That's my memory of today, five years ago.

Working across telecommunications and IT, it will be your responsibility to design and develop ground breaking managed service solutions for a number of large corporate clients.

Does that sound interesting to you? Well, it does to me... I found out today from a colleague that the role is available. They thought I'd be great for it, and wanted me to submit my CV. I did some research, thought about it, and decided that I will. I'll do that tomorrow.

Throw the cards, let them fall where they may, and we'll see what happens as a result.

I love designing solutions and then handing them over to others to make the solution work. I'm good at it too, but I haven't had a chance to throw myself into it. This might be a good opportunity that'll lead me in a new direction.

(Something I wrote on 4th November 2004, which I thought I'd repost...)

I'm depressed that George Bush won the US election.

I'm depressed that he won not only the popular vote, but also the electoral vote.

I'm depressed that the people of America, in their stupidity and ignorance, voted for a man who says they'll be safer with him.

I'm depressed that they were safe until he came into power. All the problems of American 'internal security' began with him.

I'm depressed that the Republicans now control the Senate, the House, and the Presidency, because now they don't need to appease the Democracts - they can simply do what they like.

I'm depressed that the past 4 years of lies, manipulation, death and destruction are only going to get worse.

I'm depressed that the majority of Americans have proved to the entire world how stupid they are. (Unfortunately, Bush got all the southern and central states, where all the redneck loonies are. They're the ones who are pro-religious, pro-war, and anti-same sex relationships. They're living in the past, rather than wanting to move into the future.)

I'm depressed that Democracy has died in favour of the stupid who support the loss of their freedom.

This is what right-wing is about - the weak and stupid following the idiots who take away their freedom.

This bullshit about how the world is a dangerous place is fear-mongering. It wasn't dangerous until Bush started making it dangerous. And now it's dangerous only for those who support America.

Terrorism as we know it began many years ago, as a means of combating unwanted American intervention in various countries. The people who resented unjust American influence are the ones who became America's terrorists, but freedom fighters within their country. They fight for the freedom of their country against the oppression of America.

The more America stuck its nose in, the more these people felt they had to fight. If America withdrew, and just let these people deal with their problems themselves, with guidance instead of oppression, then there wouldn't be terrorist actions against Americans.

It's really quite simple, but rednecks and liberals just don't get it.

I'm depressed because we have at least another 4 years of seeing the world become even more dangerous.

A friend of mine recently suggested to me that they don't care what America does, because it doesn't affect them. I asked them how much they pay for their petrol these days. I asked them what considerations do they place on travel these days. I asked them if it really is true that what America does doesn't affect them.

It affects all of us, and it's not positive.

I'm depressed because I see a shitstorm coming, and it's a shitstorm that the right wing 'death beasts', as they like to call themselves (eg. pro death?), support. In their attempt to give control over their lives to idiots like Bush, they support even more reductions in freedom.

We are free only when we can do what we want to do, as long as what we do does not harm ourselves or anyone else.

Their idea of freedom is to live in a small metal box that someone has told them is a good idea, to protect themselves from something that someone has said endangers them, but because they're told that they are free inside this box, they're happy.

They're idiots, and weak. I feel sorry for them, because they live in a world of self-delusion and ignorance.

I'm depressed because the world has become a little darker.

George Carlin knows who...

People climb great mountains and go to great lengths to visit the wise man, so that he can help them with his amazing advice. He either points out to them something they already knew, or tells them that they already know the answer, and they go away marvelling at how wise he is.

The truth of the matter is that the wise man lives a life of common sense and perceptive simplicity, whereas most people live a life of denial, pretending that the truth is something they can ignore, while they get on with a life of illusion, hoping that eventually their lives will get better without them actually doing anything.

Unfortunately, not only are all the answers to our questions already known by people, but they also have to be acted upon by them for those answers to be of value.

What's the point of having the answer if you never use it in your life?