Families of Suicide Soldiers Seek Compo

A lot of you may already have known of Dave Hayward, a friend of mine from highschool. He is at the front of the picture above, pulling faces and making everybody laugh, as he used to do at home. Dave apparently committed suicide in Perth at the beginning of last year, about a week after his Birthday. He had been AWOL from the army, a job he told everyone he loved, for nearly 2 months. His parents had not been informed of his absence. Dave had won an award for his dedication to his training. So many things will remain unexplained in this world, in my mind.

Please take a moment to read this article: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=3882

Please take a moment to question the world we live in every day, do not believe every word you hear or read, vote, be critical of beauracracy and your beliefs, breathe fresh air, live and learn. Thankyou.

"Geanealogy of Morals" (F. Nietzche)

Despite all my complaining, this really is a very interesting topic. What is good and bad, where did they originate. Before Nietzche & the utalitarians came up with a historical approach to morals, we just accepted that good thigns where always good, and bad things always bad.

Utalitarians:
Believed that Morals developed through altruistic acts - A "good" act was an act for which the actor was praised. Or, the recipient of the act recognised it as a "good" act and worthy of praise. Subsequently altruistic acts became a habit, praise was forgotten and we performed "good" acts because it "felt" good.

Nietzche:
Believed that the geanealogy of morals went beyond utility. N believed that "good" acts where decided by people who where "good." "Good" people being the aristocratic, the powerful, the noble, strong, beautiful, high-stationed and high-minded. People, in my opinion who had the arrogance & ego to think their actions where "good" and that they where "good" and "above" the rest (read the peasants, the plebes, the low-life). He also argues that our morals have changed (the revolution of slavery) and that in modern times, the plebe has overthrown the last great aristocracy (French Revolution) and that a "herd mentality" has enveloped the world (read democracy?).

N's definition of good stems partly from and finds some proof in Etymology - especialy the greek origins to the word 'Noble.' The origins of this word lie somewhat with the greek fascination with myth and demi-gods, their romantic love of love, heros, tradgedy, drama and battle. N seems to admire this 'alpha-male' hero as well, the do-or-die, the brashness, youth, destruction, spontanaeity and courage of the warrior, and he ties this into nobility.

That is not my view of Noble, or of aristocratic. Aristocrats where wealthy, they where educated, powerful and high-minded (read arrogant). I do not deny that. However I also think they where greedy, selfish, ignorant (of the serfs), pragmatic (N argues heros are not pragmatic), and deceitful.

Of course, we are both generalising, talking about a majority of aristocrats. The doubt in my mind is that I cannot see how the morals society holds dear today (or more importantly, my own morals) could be born from the aristocracy of my definition, even with the changes that democracy could and has brought.

Where are your morals from?

• Text: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MODERN/GENEAL.HTM
• Summary/Analysis: http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/genealogyofmorals/
• Friedrich Nietzche: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/

Alvin, AKA Nivla.

Big Shout out to Alvin. We met this guy in the Broken Rack Pool Hall / Bar on the long weekend and he went to the pains of explaining the rules of Grid-Iron to us! It was a big game between to geographically close teams - Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Manitoba) and the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. We also played a few games of pool and drank a few pints of Richards! Since then he has been helping us out with all sorts of stuff, including showing me how to throw a football!

Check out his page: http://www.xanga.com/nivla2

Name Tag Party!

Whats the idea behind this? Well - apparently you where supposed to wear a nametag, but we didn't know about it - so we just let them write on our arms. it was the first party organised in the residence 'party room' (Read basement)Highlight of the party: one of the biggest beer bongs I have ever seen!?

Not only did they have this beerigation system hooked up with taps and all, but they also had suck the duck - a giant duck with a hose coming out its arse and a funnel in its beak.

Rumour has it that a chap by the name of 'Frank the Tank' sucked the duck once too much and woke up in the morning with no teeth. Yep - it was a very very messy party. Thankfully I left at about 2am before it got too bad because I was still recovering from the night before!

Togga party

L to R: Claudia, Alex, Hanna & Norma

L to R: Cool african dude who can really dance, yours truly & Carrissa

The Australian take on Toga's in a foreign country. Just in case the accent is not enough. Can you actually believe people walked up to me and asked if I was from england?

So this was the Toga party - the First of the U of R's Lazy Owl - Five Fridays! I would put more pics up on FlickR Except I have already used my quota for the month! You'll just have to wait till October! More details to come on the very very social week/weekend it was just gone!

Claudie and Alex are both exchange students, Claudia from Mexico and Hanna from Belgium! Yes she likes Hoegarden! Carrissa and Norma are both locals. The African dude is obviously from Africa, but I don't think he is here on exchange. Apologies if I spelt anyones names wrong!