Stuck in limbo

Something my Mum pointed out to me yesterday stuck in my mind. She said that during Uni I ran around like a mad thing until I didn't burnout. I possibly came close to it, although not really at all, but I needed sometime to myself to recover.

I think she's right. I did go a little bit mad at Uni, and I was constantly running around like a madman. And it was good. But then I needed some time to not be running around like a madman. To kick back and chillout and, well, recover.

The problem I've got now is in the other direction. I'm chilled out so much I'm practically dead. It's like I've been stuck in Limbo ever since trying to find my way around. I think the problem is that I haven't really got a purpose, and haven't had one in quite a while. Always before an opportunity has landed in my lap and I've jumped on it with both hands. I'm now in the position where I'm actually going to have to find something to do, and I really don't know what it is I want to do. How on earth do people make decisions like that?

There have been some suggestions admittedly - rock climbing was one, although there are no real centres near me that I can easily get to. Tai chi has a certain appeal, as does Capoeira - although I have no idea where either of them is likely to be taught! Maybe I should stick with something much more tradional - like sorting out my finances so that I can get on with my life long term, rather than living moment to moment...

But that would take all the fun out of it wouldn't it?

Technical difficulties

As part of my effort to get to grip with this blog as a whole I've been playing around with the template a bit. Unfortunately not all of my changes have worked - there are a couple of browser issues kicking around that I'm still working on. So if it looks ugly/stupid or like something's gone wrong then that's the reason. I think the only ones left are to do with the header border/background, but let me know if you spot any others - particularly the sidebar running away and hiding!

It's very shy sometimes...

Living the dream

Every so often I think it's important to go back to your roots and relieve a childhood dream. For instance on Sunday a housemate and I went down to Sega Park. We spent half an hour shooting things lots and racing fast cars. Then we went to Burger King and had a burger.

We rounded the afternoon off by going to the cinema and watching a nice pretty action movie with lots of fun effects and explosions but without much of that annoying plot stuff so many modern films go for (or X-men 3: The Last stand as it's also known. I mean really, if ever there was a film that was trying to do too much and failing at all of it...).

Basically it was every 12/13 year olds idea of a perfect birthday party. We were in every sense living the dream. Except that we're a bit older now and the dreams kind of changed. So it's not the dream anymore.

So that made me think, well, why not? After all we constantly work towards these things, why not actually go out and enjoy them while we can. Ok, so it's not as great as it would have been when we were kids, but it's still fun! And if we're always hunting after tomorrow, or fighting for today, then surely we should spend a bit of time appreciating the past as well?

Random Drug Tests in Schools

So apparently the government is trying to make a push for random drug tests in schools. I've got to say I'm not impressed. Yes, the testing requires a parents consent, but really I can't see how this is anything less than an invasion of privacy. Not even that but it's a specific invasion of privacy in a targeted area. I mean this is basically treating children as criminals, it's only three steps from the nanny state. After all I can't think of any of my friends who have random drug tests at work, and it's not something I can ever see happening in the future. But setting up a policy of basically testing all children for drugs is ludicrous!

I'm also interested to know what happens to kids who are found to have taken them. Personally I have an issue with recreational drugs being illegal anyway. I mean they really are victimless crime. Now yes, I do understand it's not just as simple as that, and that they do need to be fully understood or else there are other worse consequences. But that's a matter of education and letting people make they're own choice.

However by enforcing random drug tests in schools you're effectively removing that choice from them, forcing the issue rather than letting people learn from their mistakes. Shouldn't this be an issue of informed and not enforced choice?