There’s always something to talk about
There’s always something to talk about. Certainly far more than we can write about.
“What we need then” said our wise heads, “is a forum on The AIMN for people to talk about the things that we don’t have a current topic on”.
Which means it could be about anything you want. Any subject you choose. Anything.
We’ve called it “Your Say” and we will run a new ‘thread’ every week or so.
The AIMN Team has always been impressed with the quality of the comments our articles attract, however, we are aware that many of you have interests and opinions on a broader range of topics that we (or any media site) offers. Hence . . . have Your Say here.
Who’s going first?
24 comments
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John -
Geraldine -
Roswell -
dragonnanny -
Matters Not -
ynot ttobba -
Ricardo29 -
Pudd'nhead -
Rosemary (@RosemaryJ36) -
Kaye Lee -
Kaye Lee -
CMMC -
Pudd'nhead -
diannaart -
abbienoiraude -
Terry2 -
oldfart -
abbienoiraude -
Terry2 -
abbienoiraude -
Kaye Lee -
abbienoiraude -
DanDark -
Carol Taylor
Return to home pageElon Musk founder of PayPal & now CEO of Tesla & SpaceX recently gave a very interesting talk on the Future of energy & transport at Oxford university. See link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c1HZIQliuoA
It covers everything from climate change, carbon tax, electric cars & airplanes to terra forming Mars.
Australia needs to be up with current ideas & science but sadly we seem to be slipping far behind the cutting minds like Elon Musk.
If we want to move from mining to manufacturing we must also value science.
Hello,
I am 74 years old, and not overly computer or techno knowledgeable. I use the excuse of age, and being busy. What I dislike is that my grand children never contact me. I heard a person saying that if you are old and not a techo, then you are denying the opportunity for your family to speak with you, as they just don’t realise that you have never leapt into their world of knowledge. Made sense, so I am now off to local Computer club, to learn to use a tablet, smart phone, twitter, Skype, texting, etc. Has taken me a while to realise that I am holding them back from contacting me.
Geraldine, used to be a time when it was the duty of the younger generations to give the matriarchs a regular call. But that was a lovely tradition now lost to us.
Good luck Geraldine, I am old and my grown children rarely contact me and I have email, Facebook, Twitter and can still write and read a handwritten, or typed letter, and I have a telephone. I think you will find the Computer club a terrific experience, I love my pc and feel lost without it. I am always trying to learn something new on the pc with different programs and I love my games. Best wishes 🙂
Geraldine, it’s unlikely the youth will contact you. We make it our business to contact them, at least on a weekly basis either by computer, physical or phone contact..
Let them know you are interested in what they are doing or achieving and are a ‘resource’ that they can contact ‘whenever’ about ‘whatever’.
Had one grandson who achieved a Distinction in a recent Westpac maths competition. He wanted to know how he could do better. Spent some time looking over his shoulder making suggestions.
Now rings me when he has ‘problems’.
Not saying it will last.
Geraldine,
Your grand children can’t visit you, or you them? No phone calls?
I am also old, refuse to use Facebook, twitter, Skype and most of the other so called (anti) social programs on the net.
Tried Skype, pathetic. Facebook? I could have 75,000 friends around the world, telling me when they are going to the toilet, having a shag, or going on holidays so I can rob their house.
Went to a restaurant with friends the other week we all turned our mobiles off. A couple on the opposite table sat down, the guy immediately started tapping away at his phone, he did this all through the evening, I doubt he even spoke a word to the young lady he was with.
A wedding on the weekend, same thing most of the people tap tap tapping away, taking photos of the food for Christ’s sake, then emailing them? Boasting about their 8 and 10 megapixel cameras on smartphones that when downloaded are absolute shit…. It’s the quality of the lens not the megapixels.
Anyway that’s my rant, good luck with the local computer club.
I say good on you Geraldine. We got my mother, at 87 a kindle and at 88 an iPad. Made sure she knew how to use them, or who to call with a problem. It opened her up to email But more to the point, photos from Her chn, g/chn. Of course we had to work at it but it really enriched the last six months of her life.
My wife and I love our iPads. The first two hours of every morning we are looking at stuff, reading, commenting, sharing and continually expressing our disgust at the bastards trashing our way of life and our international reputation.
We love facebook.. We get stuff from so many sources including our favourite “don’t blame me…” Of course you get some dross, don’t open it. Sorry Ynot Tobba you sound a bit bitter and twisted.
I was going to say I’m also old but realised that while almost 70 once seemed old, not any more.
What remains for us to tell those that follow us? I am in my 82nd year on this beautiful planet and have just completed my first novel. Hope to have it up on Amazon and a few others soon. Basically I am a dunce with computers. My Project Manager IT nephew solves problems for me but is usually in too much of a hurry to impart deep knowledge of the ‘puter.
Geraldine I wish you happiness at your computer club. I know the involvement there is no replacement for the love and attention of your close relatives. I put my sixty year love into care yesterday. Alzheimer’s knows no preferences and a when a lovely artistic friend becomes a blank canvas one is prompted to look for solace with friends and relatives that care .I intend seeking mine. I try my best not to be a boring old fart and most times it works. Some of the nieces and nephews even give the impression that they are interested in me. I avoid Face Bark, Twi(s)tter and other similar medium. A chap doesn’t need his thoughts disseminated to a team of strangers. To answer my opening question I suggest we tell them that life is worth living, every day, despite storms, fires, economic upheavals and pushy ignorant politicians we will prevail. I know coz I think I know the bloke that wrote the script..
I would dearly like to open a conversation on education in our state schools. Issues such as the pros and cons on group work, the need for teachers to be supported in some discipline areas with specialists to support them (maths and the sciences spring to mind!), the value of constant testing which tends to bring teachers to teach for the test rather than encouraging children to learn, the need to employ non-teachers to take over the pseudo-parent roles being thrust on to teachers dealing with unsocialised children – the list is endless! And how to answer the endless “when am I ever going to need this” questions when we are raising children to a world where many of them will have several career changes.
Pudd’nhead,
Congrats on the book! You must be so proud.
I know the pain of Alzheimers and that tortuous decision when a loved one finally has to go into care. I feel for you. After diagnosis my mum came to live with us for six years and it taught us all many things. My children and their friends learned tolerance and became very protective of her. I learned to move past my selfish feelings of loss to getting joy from giving her pleasure when I could. We learned to stop expecting and to start giving and to avoid situations that caused her agitation. Every experience in life, good or bad, teaches us things.
To those who wish for more contact with their younger relatives, remember how busy their lives are. The young ones are enjoying themselves and experiencing new things. The older ones are on that work/pay the bills grind. It is up to us to keep in touch in a non-demanding way. Texting is a great way to do this for a short note, especially with the youngsters, or email for a longer letter. Personally, I have a family/friend ringaround every so often where I just spend the day calling everyone because I prefer to chat. Always preface your call with “Have I rung at a bad time?” so they have an out if it’s not convenient.
Matters Not,
A distinction in the Westpac maths comp is VERY hard to get – it’s a tough exam which tests their problem solving skills rather than anything they can study for. Kudos to grandson! A tip for doing better (though it’s hard to top a distinction) is to do past papers so they get the hang of how to approach the questions. They are probably available online but if not, his teacher should have access to some. My daughter got a cash prize in the same comp (came first in our whole region) – she had practiced on past papers.
My father was in Army intelligence during and for a while after WWII and he had copies of their IQ tests (find the pattern, what comes next type of stuff) which I used to do as a kid for fun. I always did very well on that type of testing from that early practice.
Abbott says being Aboriginal is a ‘lifestyle choice’ and the taxpayer can’t go on funding this cultural conceit.
Abbott is all about ‘final solutions’.
Poor Abbott, does he have any love for anything beyond his immediate family and advisers. Let’s look at the fact that we of British ancestry stole this country from its indigenous owners and refused realistic payment for any part of it. Has our beloved PM the right to tell the residue of the dispossessed where they should live. Many of those who have viable businesses in remote areas would not be there today without the goodwill and assistance of those who live in and love their outback countries. The Damoclesian sword of capitalism is now poised over the native Australians who want to stay where their ancestors thrived – do they (the indigenous) not warrant our support? If they were hostile and powerful I am certain the PM would find the means to keep them out of our cities and villages regardless of expense. His headlong rush back to Iraq is proof enough of that. I wish he and his corrosive mates would occasionally think of where they are.
I love a sun burned country
A land of sweeping plains
Of ragged mountain ranges
Of droughts and flooding rains
=
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
(Our native Aussies still love and think along the same track as Dorothea.Mackellar. It’s just that they were on it first.)
Excellent.
Right now a bit busy – today is high (personal) energy day and sunny – this means I can get a whole lotta laundry done.
Kudos to Geraldine – you will further your already vast horizons.
Cheers to all
D
When will the perpetrators of Violence and Abuse against women loose their ‘right’ to be a part of their children’s lives? How is it that a man who emotionally, psychologically, financially abuses his partner for years in front of his child, who made her live in fear for years still has the ‘right’ to continue to re traumatise both the partner and child through this misguided sense that ‘any father is better than no father’. There are so many good and wonderful men our there who will show him how to treat women, how to behave with dignity and respect and will move him away from a practise of bullying abuse and show equality is freedom.
How is it that when a woman is abused and after months and months of asking HIM to leave she finally has to pack her life up into two suitcases and walk away from home, job, car, security to garner a new life for herself and her child then has to kowtow to his demands for access and ‘rights’. She with nothing he with everything, his usual lifestyle, well paying job, home town, family the car (HER CAR), home, and furnishings and all her memories in a box at the place. She now lives in a room with few belongings and the child.
At least, the very least, she has us.
We have been told time and again about how the Abbott government “stopped the boats” and I was always intrigued about how this had been achieved without the cooperation of the Indonesian government. Well, now it seems that Indonesia has been facilitating the operation Sovereign Borders and getting no credit for doing so :
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/11/indonesia-could-release-human-tsunami-of-10000-asylum-seekers-on-australia?CMP=ema_632
It now appears, if we are to believe the Indonesian government, that they have played a significant role in stopping the flow of people to Australia, at considerable cost to themselves.
abbienoiraude,
get her to see a good lawyer, everything he has is rightly 50% hers as well as extra for the child, If he has super, go him for half of it. Tell her to be strong and take no prisoners. She is better and shown more strength of character than the bully she was with.
@oldfart
Just wrote a whole explanation.
Decided to delete.
She has a lawyer who has taken all her money.
She is now on parenting payments ( being threatened to be stopped by Morrison by the end of 2015).
She now has no job, no money, no home, no investments, and no future.
He just says; “no”. 50% is bullshit. He keeps it all because he says ‘No’. No compromise, no negotiation, nothing but what he wants.
She is broken, hurt, hopeless and in a state of survival.
There is nothing to compel him to do agree move along to a resolution. His life is as it has always been. He is a thief and a liar, a cheat and a creep.
abbienoiraude
Community Legal Centres http://www.naclc.org.au/ are not for profit, free legal aid services operating throughout Australia. Legal intervention through our courts system is the best approach, initially.
Legal aid won’t help her. Because ‘she owns a unit’. Has assets. They are no longer hers…she cannot access nor sell them. They are 1300 klms away.
abbie,
No-one is ever in the position of no future.
I absolutely am not belittling the problems your daughter is facing and I feel for her – she needs your help at the moment and than god she has you. I think for all of us there are periods in our life when we suffer injustice which can be soul-destroying. I too have had experiences with the legal system that brought me close to breakdown – it isn’t about justice, it’s either who can afford the most for lawyers or who can play the system the best – truth has little to do with it.
Help her though this survival time as she relearns her independence. I don’t mean to be trite – I know money is tight but love and shelter are what she needs right now. I wish I could offer more but having conversed with her mother for some time now, I know she will find the strength to overcome if she just has a safe haven for a while. Learning that things aren’t always fair can make us more resilient.
@KayeLee
I know you are not belittling or being trite at all.
Yes she has us. Being on DSP is very difficult to provide, but at least she has a home here with us but for a woman in her 30’s it is a personal embarrassment to her. She has been independent since she was 17. Now look.
I know she has a future. Of course she does. I was just expressing where she is at.
All in all I was trying to explain verbosely I guess, ‘why don’t you just leave’ comments re Domestic abuse.
She says; Should she have stayed until he beat her so she could have had photos to show? Torture includes lack of freedom, psyc abuse, emotional abuse and financial abuse. She became frightened. NO marriage should be one lived in fear, ever!
Thanks for all the feed back. (BTW the lawyer came highly recommended from a person who should know).
abbienoiraude, your daughter is a survivor and with your support and love and compassion, she will build her strength up and go on to have an even better life than she could have ever had with her abuser,
Women are subjugated by the law, when it comes to courts and solicitors, its who has the most money and tells a good lie,
I have kept all my solicitors bills amounting to thousands, they remind me why I am single now 🙂
What dosnt kill us makes us stronger, abuse comes in many forms and abusers will use any thing they can to keep control of their victim, they are unpredictable and even after the relationship breakdown they will still go after their victim,
It does not end when one walks out the door, I wish you and your daughter and her child all the best in the future,
and one day down the track you will be able to sit back and say, thanks to him we are stronger wiser, smarter and happier people……
Why does Tony Abbott consider that “dull and routine” is a virtue? I would consider that visionary, inspirational and with a good dose of social justice thrown in might be more appropriate. However, with Abbott, Credlin and Hockey in charge of Australia one would be satisfied for a budget which doesn’t set out to destroy equality in this country, however I don’t hold out much hope in that regard.
Having completely stuffed up the first budget, nothing except hitting the upper class “welfare” rorts will be seen as anything other than trying to make the least fortunate pay so that Abbott, Hockey and cronies can keep all the money in their own greedy paws.