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As far as bad habits go, needing TV or movies playing in the background to sleep is probably up there in Burt Reynolds' list of stupidity. Being an on and off again insomniac and refusing to succumb to the obvious means of chemical sedation, this technique, no matter how unhealthy to my REM style sleep, seems to be the only viable solution. I constantly check Google for unauthorised Fight Club meetings, or strange guerilla style productions of Fame in Queen Street Mall, just in case Brad Pitt has taken control over a mysterious alter-ego I have developed.


Last night, I decided to put on Lost In Translation, which ended up being a bad idea cause I stayed up longer than usual watching it all the way through. In essence, when Sofia Coppola wrote the screenplay for this play, I don't think she realised how many people feel like this everyday in their regular lives. The opening scene where the car tracks through modern day Tokyo with a tired, unenthused Bill Murray looking out at a unfamiliar world seems to be the illustration for my life at this point in time. Bill Murray's character explains that in the beginning life was fun, and somehow he ended up disenchanted by the lack of connection to those around him. Even though that the movie is set over a period of a week, the changes was wonderful and meaningful to both characters. The sort of moment that writers and musicians publish novels or write songs about. I remember a time in my early 20's, being naive and free-spirited, trekked up and down the east coast of Australia trying to find that purpose that everyone searches for at one point or another. The exception being that my impatience, and being exposed to old age and death at a young age, decided early not to waste too much time experimenting and dabbling. And as you all know, when life deals out the scenarios, it doesn't play all the cards fairly.


Recently I've realised something weird. I always believed that what I did as a profession was against the principals of what I was about. Entertainment, Fashion, and The Arts in general, the belly of it all is so superficial. Whilst at one point, the arts was a great distraction for the regular person. Now it has become an over-flurry of mass produced headaches that has created a generation of plastic surgery obsessed girls all wanting to be famous for doing nothing, and guys who do nothing but watch nut punching on Youtube. It was this that made me come up to my "Lost In Translation" moment at the start of the year. For something I used to think made me happy, has now made me miserable and lost. I shopped around for alternatives and ended up landing a change to sport through V8 Supercars. I still felt the spirit wasn't there though. I was happy but it wasn't real. I am not denying that I have found my purpose, and that feeling this way makes me selfish, but I can't help experiencing it nevertheless.


It scares me to think how many people feel this way. We spend all of our early years preparing for the great unknown, and then get to a point where you wonder if you were actually prepared enough. It's funny too how people look at others with rose coloured glasses on, seeing there lives as perfect and symmetrical, when in fact they are fraught with the same insecurities and issues as the next person. I've had a number of people I grew up with die over the last few years, and no-one sticks out in my mind more than my friend Rebecca. She grew up in an adopted family, which straight away threw confusion and identity issues into the mix. The time I knew her, she struggled to find any sort of purpose. She was an inventive and beautifully organised young woman, but could never shake the drugs and feeling of life being pointless. I stuck by her side till the end when most had ran for the hills, and always hoped that the fog that clouded her mind eventually cleared. The last time I saw her was on her trip down in 2008 to meet her birth mother, which was a momentous occasion for both of us as I had known her since we were 14. When she left on the train, I had a sick feeling in my stomach I wouldn't see her again. Later that year, she fell pregnant and I could in her voice tell that she had finally found purpose, and pictured her finally looking at the world and smiling. Even though her death after giving birth to Jhordan, I was happy in a way that before it happened, she had achieved some form of purpose being a mom before she died. Jhordon had been her "Scarlett Johansson".


My transition, though not being so sad and dramatic as that, happened in July of this year. I recently met this group of people who were wanting to start an online show showcasing entertainment around the country. It wasn't like I was expecting it to happen. People approach me all the time about advice. I had a guy send me a script about pre-mature ejaculation earlier today. No shit. That really happened today. But after agreeing to sit in on the first meeting a couple of hours before my life changing S.E.L meeting in Sydney, I realised this was different. Raccoon Dog. As I got to know these people, I could see that glow and enthusiasm I used to possess. Gab, Jolen, and Alex from Raccoon Dog TV ended up being my 'Scarlett Johansson' as there fun, genuine nature made me realise the reasons why I did what I did in the first place. In an OB-1 Kenobi style manner, I helped them discover that same magic I had once felt back in the day before becoming jaded. What ended up being a business opportunity turned into a great friendship and huge awakening for yours truly.


Thinking on how to sum up this blog, it brought me back to this time last year when my lower back met the front of Nissan Patrol whilst saving a toddler from getting run over, and think that they might be somewhat related. I remember sitting down after that happening, and even though I couldn't admit it then, it did affect the way I look at the world. But as the year plays out quicker than Kenny Rogers, I realise now that I can hop back in the cab and look out the window at the world and see the end of the mental crossroad. And even though directions change, I will still hear Phoenix's Too Young playing in the background.

The Mayan Calendar

It doesn't take a brilliant and sophisticated mind to see that the world at the moment is one big struggle for control. If you look at the civil unrest happening in Egypt and Libya, it shows you that regular people are rising against governments and agencies who use and abuse power. According to the Mayan calendar, the Mayans said thousands of years ago that all factions including religion that abuse power would fall, and would cease to exist (para-phrasing). If you look back in the last 30 years, back in the 70's, you would think that as an almost impossibility. But in our day in age, people of our generation have been given the greatest weapon of all, the internet.

This is interesting, because people generally don't think of the internet as a physical thing. People don't take time to think that the internet is actually man's greatest invention. Not only for information and communication purposes, but has had a massive impact on the power that once was there for corporations and governments to exploit. As an example, people are no longer influenced by product placement, mass advertising campaigns, and false or misleading press announcements. Instead, most people rely on reviews and customer reports done by other people who have owned these products. I know this because its what I do.

Egypt Revolution in 2011

So because the change of the original social structure of humanity and the introduction of social media, regular people have been given a voice, and are less influenced by what the powers to be used to force people into their direction. The situation of Egypt could have possibly been catastrophic if the threat of the internet hadn't been there. It only takes minutes for somebody to take photos or shoot videos of an inhumane situation happening and for it all to be online for millions to see. Would have Hosni Mubarak done something unheard of to his civilians if there the internet wasn't shadowing over the top of him like a nuclear weapon? And would the people in Egypt risen against him if the internet didn't exist? and if so, was the internet the main factor in this uprising, knowing that the internet was there like a security blanket to protect there welfare.

Unfortunately, because of this new found freedom of power, it has become a double edged sword. It has opened a "Pandora's Box" of people and organizations finding different ways of exploiting, "Fake Power". An interesting story recently of a gig in Cairns where I witnessed the tour manager for the Australian musical group, "The Waifs" rip into security and production personnel for not wanting to conform to the rules and regulations that are set by the government run venue because of a delusion of "Self-Importance". As everyone has the right to stand up for whatever rights they have in a situation, this one was a perfect example of an exploitation of 'Fake Power" and self delusion. As this is no longer the rocking 60's and 70's, being loud and rude to show your fake power hurts nobody but yourself and your reputation, equal to that of the band that person is managing. It was this incident that gave me the idea of this blog.

Uthman Badar's interview on ACA with Tracey Grimshaw

This is also the problem of organizations and governments who originally has power over citizens resorting to drastic measures out of fear of losing power all together. For most western countries at this present time, most governments are finding themselves with there hands tied as they deal with a pendulum shift when it comes to the use of affirmative action. For those who don't know what affirmative action is, it was an idea set forth by the JFK government about the equality and balance of when it came to race and religion. But as time progresses, organizations that are involved with dealing with the protection of race and religion issues are playing certain cards to use affirmative action policies in order to gain huge advantages over general citizens. For the non-Australian readers, another perfect example of this came from an incident that involved the Muslim community wanting to create a completely separate state in Australia.

Uthman Badar talk about Islamic states with no democracy

Phillip Defranco - One of the leaders in social media freedom

So to sum up, the funny thing about approaching this subject in a blog that I have written, is I am showing my example of being able to reach people on opinions of what I have about certain subjects using a social media format. I am not deluding myself that all people will find what I write informative, or even right. But it enables me to have discussions with people about topics without having to worry about being controlled or watched over like a child. But if you don't take the chance to include yourself in this wonderful place that social media has created, then you are really missing out. To embrace the world and to listen and talk about things that matter, whether it is digital or not, is the reason why information is the real power. Not all of us are interested in Katy Perry's arguments with Calvin Harris on Twitter.

There I was, sitting in my seat on the plane back from Cairns after 2 weeks of dazy alcohol fuel shenanigans when I spotted a person I went to school with walking to the toilet with her young daughter. Struggling to remember her name with a water bottle on my head curbing a huge headache, she recognized me and stopped on her way back to her seat. We had a brief chat about the last 10 years and what had been going on, and who we had seen. As I looked at her, I could tell the last 10 years had been a tough one. Her mum died of cancer a couple of years after high school, and had recently spent the last year tangled up in a heavy divorce with her husband. As she was telling me all this, I couldn't help but remember the last days from senior year, and how she was very excited she had been accepted into a highly sort after program at Macquarie University. She told me she pulled out after the first year to go home to look after her mum when she was going through her cancer treatments.


As she sat down in the vacant seat across from me, her weathered face saddened me greatly. Being a mother seemed to be her saving grace as her young daughter climbed all over her during our brief conversation. But regardless of seeming tired and worn out, she still had that same grin she had back in high school, which told me that all of this hadn't broken her spirit completely.

Turning 30 last year didn't bother me in the slightest. But it's moments like this that hit home when you realize its been a lifetime since the last bell rang at the end of high school. With the invention of Facebook, it has been easier to keep track of old high school friends, what they have been up to, and what type of people life has pushed them to be. For myself, nothing much has changed in the fact I still love big and glitzy. For others, certain choices have led them down a different path, and I often think they look back and say, "Where exactly did I make the decision to be where I am today?"

I often think what was going through my mum's mind, and what plans she had before falling pregnant with me. She was in Perth at the time, and made the decision to return to Newcastle to be with family, and raise me by herself. When she hit my age, I was already 10 years ago, so unlike myself and others that have had time to reflect over there 20's and the decisions we have made, my mum really didn't have that luxury. But she now has found her niche working in entertainment at one of Queensland's premier live venues.

So as I sat waiting to be picked up, I looked back over the last 10 years and realized probably 4 out the last 10 years were probably wasted. Which isn't too bad. I have achieved enough to be satisfied professionally and that from 2000 to 2010 was successful time in my life, but then I remembered what I had written as my goals back in high school, and that was to have a wife and family by the time I was 30. So I suppose the term, 'success' really has become a loose term with society dictating professional success is true success. For my friend, even though her mum passed away, and is going through a divorce, in my mind, having two kids is still considered success, regardless if she pulled out of the program she fought so hard for back in high school.

To sum up, I think that there are people out there who ride on negativity as an addiction, regardless of professional or personal success, as they see the height of there happiness was the awaiting possibilities of the future at the end of high school. I think the thing I took away from my friend on the plane was that really we have no idea what's in store after high school. But if you can still smile like you did back then, then life is really just a big laugh, or in my case, a sit-com.

The majority of my life, I have experienced my fair share of what the media classed as 'natural disasters'. When I was 9, I was in Newcastle when the famous 1989 earthquake hit, and was very aware of the panic that happened afterwards. I went back to live there in 2002, and even today, there are buildings that still carry a scar of that tragic day.

Apon moving to Cairns towards the end of 1990, the city not long after became under threat by Cyclone Joy; a Catergory 5 monster that made Cyclone Tracy look like a summer breeze. Watching the news as a child with reporters saying that thousands of body bags were being flown up from Brisbane, in preparation for the devastation, you can understand the reasons behind people's panic. Fortunately though, Cyclone Joy didn't come across the coast, and it took 16 years before Cyclone Larry decided to rip through Innisfail in 2006.

Cyclone Joy's path in December 1990

After a number of years in Far North Queensland and many close calls with cyclones and flooding, it never seemed such a big deal afterwards as the majority of people who live in FNQ are prepared and well-versed in what to do in such an emergency. This however, is not how I felt over the last week with the recent flood disaster currently in South East Queensland.

Being right on the river and my cousin in Lismore, I admit I started to worry early. Although I was on a hill, I had no idea what the outcome was going to be, mainly because I wasn't around in 1974. The next thing I did, which was probably the worst thing to do, was turn on the news. If ever I was to think that the Australian media was starting to go the way of fear-mongering US news channels like Fox News, this event was the turning point. Campbell Newman, the Brisbane mayor, was constantly on TV and radio repeating the words, "Stay calm, and in an orderly fashion, move to safer ground if possible." But in dramatic style, the media continued to make the situation worse by quoting predictions that sent people completely insane.

People were emptying shopping centres and having punch-ups for milk and bread; lining up and emptying petrol stations and driving and swerving like complete maniacs on the road. It was like watching scenes from the movie, "Cloverfield".

Sight-seeing causes gridlock today on Moggil Road

Even today, as Rome and I got stuff ready to go help out with the volunteer work in the Graceville area, sight-seers were blocking up the roads into Chelmer, preventing trucks and utes with water damaged rubbish and emergency services to get through to these vital areas. The reason I called this blog, "The Bizarre Nature Of A Natural Disaster", is because the behaviour of people has been, of course, biiizaaaree. Because of recent drought, the media and government have been complacent in reminding people that most of inner Brisbane, like Cairns, is built on swamp land, and very prone to flooding.

But in hindsight, all of these little things are overshadowed by the actual damage this has caused, especially to Toowoomba and The Lockyer Valley. And if you look at the way Australians respond in need to those, including volunteers and emergency workers, it made you happy that you don't live in places like New Orleans, or Indonesia. My thoughts go out to those who have lost everything, and hope your copy of trivial pursuit is still in tact, so you can at least keep your mindset positive.

To the media, shame on you for creating unnecessary panic. There is no positive outcome for making people completely lose there minds, as most people are smart enough to calmly get themselves to safety.

This blog is dedicated to the families who lost love ones in the floods, and hope you find peace in the future.