Let's live in the air - Melbourne's incredible potential plans to squeeze us all in

Engineering has reached new feats and urban planning and development has made new headway if the propsed architectural and infrastructural plans for Melbourne are to go through with success and flying colours in Melbourne's Parliament, and society in general.

The constructual feats which I speak of comprise of nothing more than the many people we see almost literally flooding into Melbourne on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis living in the air. Literally. In terms of engineering and infrastructural lingo, anyway.

I read this full-page article in The Age newspaper on Tuesday 30.3.2010. In this article, transport reporter Clay Lucas goes about explaining the potential Melbourne has that involves building - get this - more Melbourne physically on top of our existing railway lines. Wow.

Rather you pop-in than pop-up

Call me old fashioned, or call me ironic, but the web 2.0 era has seen a decline in social interaction in terms of actual physical interaction amongst younger generations.

Generation X was the first generation to experience technology as it came to the forefront of use and practicality over the past just-over-a-decade. Generations Y and Z therefore have subsequently become more and more heavily reliant on these technologies (read: computers and social media), however, having said that, technologically-savvy teens and people in their twenties is not necessarily a bad thing. No doubt the worlds of marketing, information technology, communications and socialisation will benefit greatly from having masses of people who're somewhat experts on their methods of functioning in the technological world.

WWND?

What would nature do (WWND)? Exactly.

If nature were a human, walking among us, I'm pretty sure she'd have had a heart attack, stroke or aneurysm... many times over, by now.

Knives in Melbourne - When will someone pull their finger out?

See today's little news story (click).

Yet again, Melbourne's seedy underbelly has laid down, rolled over and beared its pink and lively surface to the greater community in a shock morning episode that saw a train service delayed by 25 minutes all because of an idiotic - and I will use the term as it bears so much relevance - and his wilful use of a murderous weapon.

Was he intending on murder? Who knows? Was it a scared little show of defiance as a result of the morning's altercation? Most likely, but who knows? Uneducated children's perceived necessity to carry knives as a means of settling arguments in this case, as well as any other run-in with fellow individuals screams evidence that demands action by local, state and federal Governments in Australia to finally 'pull their finger out' and make a move against the use and carrying of knives.

There is no perfection in the 'average' world.

Perfection is an obscure ideal.

Throughout our lives we strive for, but most unfortunately never reach what the world and society demand and dub perfection.

We strive for what is perceived as perfection in the work we do, the hair we style on our heads, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the houses we live in, the suburbs we create, the cities we build and the bodies we inhabit.
(See the blog this image is from, here)

The latter is where most have run-ins with family, friends and mostly themselves that invites notions of perfection, imperfection, normality and abnormality, etc. again, in a society that demands former of the listed.

Allow me to regale you with a personal anecdote...

Killing ourselves softly - Technology's affect on the way we live and function

Gone are the days of the now archaic where pens, pencils and paper ruled the workplace. Gone are the days eyes didn't fry in the presence of numerous computer screens staring from their elevated perches down, directly into our faces. Gone are the days people leave the office still feeling human after they spent their day on their feet or moving around. Gone are the days of the athletic or predominantly physical active journalist or public relations consultant who spent their days running around an office - at least they were active - all for that perfect story that would bump them ever so slightly up the eschalons of communicative prowess.

If you haven't deduced my thought thread already, then prepare for enlightenment: the revolting state of employment I and many of us now find ourselves in involves the modern-day office - an abyss of computer technology gone crazy that renders the use of our hands as tools of writing, drawing and creation: useless. Renders our eyes mere technological receptors, susceptible to the radiation emitted from, as I mentioned before, the many screens that no doubt fill the room we sit in and no doubt have unspeakable, somewhat ghastly long-term consequences. Alas, many of us have no choice or don't care; blinded by the almighty dollar to be made.

Emotion's affect on emotion

Emotion. What an intriguing concept and in many ways, practise.

Emotion drives us. Emotion controls us and conversely, doesn’t do so. Emotion both clouds and clears our vision and mind while at the same time, never ceasing, never slowing down, and while it may take some – like me – a while to form definitive definitions of what is at a given time their particular emotion, it never ends.

Allow me to share, anecdotally, an example from recent times.

People never cease to amaze: Roads, crashes and the whole darn mess

Call me insensitive. Call me biased. Call me mean. But call me a realist.

On Thursday 25 March 2010, those of us living in Melbourne may very well remember the somewhat horrific crash at St. Kilda junction between a motorbike an a motor car. A terrifying scene on all accounts and one that I happened to be driving past - on my way to the Grand Prix - enough to see the damage that people, regardless of their intentions or capabilities are able to cause.

In a way, this thought is a follow-on from my previous post on the Melbourne Easternat riot and has forced me to make the conclusion that people, I think at time, underestimate their - as I mentioned before - capabilities.

My rough understanding of the incident is that a man in his 50s (name omitted) was involved in a  fatal collision with a car and its driver (names omitted). The details, I will leave you to analyse yourselves.

As unfortunate as these accidents are, and as often as they seem to happen, regardless of Victoria and Australia's increasingly tightening road and traffic safety laws, they still conjure two or three main thoughts in my mind: 1) how unfortunate - both for the victim and their families and friends, and 2) how stupid - on account of all parties involved, and 3) why? or how?