Dear Brisbane 04,
Today is my first day back at work after 4 months and already it feels worse than ‘Groundhog Day’. Right now my glass of water smells more like vodka. So far I’ve held it for an hour and I feel lighter. If I’m holding it by this time tomorrow you better call me an ambulance.
Somedays I feel like a pidgeon. Today I felt like a clay target.
I paid someone $20 so I wouldn’t have to see them again. I kept the receipt.
Birthdays have never been good for me. When I was born I realized that on day 2 I had doubled my age! On day 3 I had tripled my age! I soon realized that if this keeps up by the time I’m 2 years old I’ll be 90!
Tomorrow I go back to work and hope to have an awesome day,…. but somehow I think I’ve made other plans!
I’ll answer the rest by Friday.
Cheers,
Gatsby!

Hi Ridi,
Great idea (be it pizza, a weeks free rent, etc). I think though the best replies will be from tennants more so from landlords (although I realise some landlords may have the rental evidence to prove me wrong). All the time I’ve rented privacy from pesty landlords, rude landlords, absent landlords were things that are the most annoying. Incentives never were an option but would be a welcome one. Particularly for tennants who see their rental as a ‘home’ more than ‘a place they rent’.
Cheers,
Gatsby.

Hi Anubis,
I’ve just finished reading ‘The Damage Done’ by Warren Fellows. Now I don’t want to get into the ethical/morality of someone who was caught and imprisoned for trying to smuggle heroin (ie the lives destroyed by heroin) out of Thailand, however it was an incredible book to read and what he had to endure. The point I want to raise is what you mentioned about education. The worst prison he ended serving time in was ‘Bang Kwang.’ Here prisoners used heroin fairly freely with the guards to a point, which ironically was the very reason why most westerners were sent there in the first place! My point however is on education. Somewhere in the book Fellows talks about how at school anti drug campaigns (and I remember this too when I was at school) focused solely on how the use of drugs (ie heroin) was always associated with a picture and description of how ugly you will look and how your life will fall apart with addiction/withdrawal, etc. Fellows talks about if only education would mention how you will actually first feel ‘fantastic’ before this stage, then perhaps young people may take heed and understand the whole message. I guess if you are constantly told how bad you will feel and when/if you try that very thing and feel great then automatically the message may lose credibility to an adolescent. When he started using heroin to cope with years of bashings, torture and death all around him on a daily basis it was an escape for him in that environment to cope with the reality of life in this existence.
I’m not condoning or condeming what he said. I just thought it was a poignant statement (and an incredible book for anyone who is interested in reading it).
Cheers,
Gatsby.

Komari,
The Kalahari Bushmen in Southern Africa originally used Basenji’s for hunting. They often carried them around their necks until they were ready to pick up the scent of their prey. They don’t bark but let out an amazing yodle and are capable of climbing trees.
Cheers,
Gatsby.
PS. I’m kind of fond of them too!

I’ve got a Staffy named Harry and I’m getting an English Pointer in a month and I’m going to call her Krishna (no joke). I had a Retriever before I had Harry named ‘Stay’. That name just confused the hell out of him! ‘Come here Stay.’ ‘Stay, Come here!’ ‘I said come here Stay!!’
Cheers,
Gatsby.

If anyone has seen the doco on ‘Waco’ where the FBI entered the David Koresch compound after filling it with gas then used Bradley tanks to shoot fire into the compound to burn it down. The FBI’s logic was that ‘after’ killing children as a result was to ‘save’ the children from child molestation. The children who survived were interviewed and none of them said that they were molested. After viewing the doco I thought well, gee! If ‘child molestation’ really is your concern then how come we don’t see Bradley tanks knocking down ‘Catholic Churches?????’
PS. I’m sorry if anyone reading this is Catholic.
…..I’m not sorry if you’re offended. I’m just sorry that you’re Catholics! It’s gotta be one of the most ludicrous beliefs! I love watching the Pope bouncing around in his Pope mobile. Just seeing the Pope bouncing around in his all terrain Pope mobile. ‘BOY, THERE’S FAITH IN ACTION!’. Only the true spokes person for God would need 3 feet of bullet proof plexi glass, don’t you think?
Cheers,
Gatsby!

Hi Gill,
Fine with me.
Cheers,
Gatsby!

Hi Bear,
Sorry to hear about your health crisis. I hope things improve as one’s health is one’s greatest asset.
Kind regards,
Gatsby.

Hi Bwendan,
In 1986 when I was at RMIT, Bob Hawke introduced a new HECS scheme as a ‘one off’ payment of just $250 a year. Almost 20 years later, the costs are incredible. If you are to study medicine or law the costs are even higher. We are now going down the American path where parents who have a child start saving for ‘College’. The ironic thing is that if you pay the full amount for one’s chosen course ‘upfront’ then you are entitled to a discount (used to be 15%?). So students with rich parents were able to pay for there son/daughter, where as the poor couldn’t afford to pay thousands of dollars up front and were therefore denied the discount. I put myself through Uni twice struggling to pay for just being at Uni/shared renting etc. I put myself through Uni by working in factories during all the student holidays. If you can pay it off in advance or in installments then that’s what I would opt for. You can’t beat the system. I don’t know what the current income threshold is once your working before you start paying it back, but I know the threshold to start paying got lower and lower. Ironically I was at the news agent today flipping through a wealth creation mag (go to a newsagent and look through the investing magazines section, I can’t remember the name of the magazine). The magazine had a special article on HECS. If I find the magazine tomorrow I’ll pm/post the magazine’s name.
Kind regards,
Gatsby.
(PS. In terms of ‘avoiding to pay it off’ don’t bother. When I returned once from being overseas for 2 years. Customs stamped my passport. Four weeks later I got a letter from the Dept of Education, Employment and Traing with a ‘huge’ HECS bill!)

Hi Ricksta,
I read in today’s ‘Age’ that the current minimum wage is $462 (ish?). My point is that it doesn’t matter. I believe that it’s better to ‘work to learn’ than it is to ‘work for money’. If this is your passion, the money will follow. You cannot put a dollar value on life.
Best of luck,
Gatsby!
PS. I also believe that it’s better not to work – PERIOD! (However, it’s not paying divid ends for me at the moment! lol)