Month: December 2009

Okay, so yesterday, I get a friend request on Facebook from an old friend – someone who I haven’t spoken to in probably 12 or 13 years. It came with a nice note reminding me how we knew each other (not that it was necessary – I was pretty close friends with her whole family at the time) and asking me to approve it… so of course I did.

So now I have this strange sense of apprehension about what happens next.

You see I have some skeletons in my closet. Back in my late teens and early twenties, I was, to be quite frank, an arse. Never popular at school, feeling abandoned by my parents divorce, and craving acceptance, I did some really, really dumb things. I didn’t kill anybody or anything but without getting into specifics, I did get a bit rebellious and do many things that I’m ashamed of.

And even now, getting towards my mid thirties, I still haven’t reconciled the person I am today, who is somewhat less of an arse (if not half decent) with the person I was back then.

This is not the first time it’s happened – I am friends with numerous people on Facebook who I went to high school with and even at least one girl who I was (very briefly) in love with back then. But in some kind of bizarre, ironic anti-social-networking kind of way, all these people made friend requests, which I approved, and then proceeded to sit back and wait for me to say something. And because I fear rejection, and to distance myself from the person I was back then, it was just easier to not say anything at all.

So today, I spent a few minutes exploring Facebook and discovered a few more old friends and acquaintances – who’s got married, who hasn’t, who’s had kids, who’s got fat (me), who’s got slim, you know the sort of thing. But would I put in a friend request to any of those people? Probably not – not unless they initiated it.

It’s as if there are two sections in my life, post-arse and pre-arse, and never the twain shall meet – except on Facebook.

So, I will patiently wait and see whether my old friend chooses to initiate a conversation. Deep down, I kinda hope so. Maybe it will help me realise that the past is gone and finished with and everyone has made mistakes.

Tony,

Thankyou for changing the Liberal’s position on the ETS. I feel strongly (as I’m sure you do) that there are a huge number of your constituents (including myself) who feel that this was the wrong direction for our country to take – in short, a massive waste of money for little to no tangible benefit.

The purpose of this iq option legit note is to ask that while formulating policy over the coming months, you consider another burning issue – the issue of the Labor government’s proposed mandatory internet filter.

This filter is another classic case of a well meaning but ineffectual and ultimately symbolic gesture from the Rudd government.

It will not achieve any of it’s stated aims of protecting children but at the same time will cause major cost to ISPs (who are already struggling to compete with a dominant, anti competitive incumbent monopoly telco) and will disadvantage millions of internet users in this country who are already paying higher costs for lower quality connections than many other parts of the world.

I strongly urge you to consider other, more effective means of fighting for the protection of children both on the internet and in real life, which do not impinge on the civil liberties of law abiding adults, or provide future governments with the potential ability to censor detractors.

Please, listen to the internet users of Australia. There are millions of us and we need your help to keep our internet fast and unrestricted.

Thankyou for your support.

Regards,

Me