Annnnd....I'm back.

Well, it’s really been quite a long while since I last blogged! July, and it is already September. 3 months…! But it’s passed by really quickly, in the blink of an eye, amidst plenty of upheaval and change in my personal, professional and everything-else life. Relationships have come and gone, colleagues have come and gone, projects, work, & assignments have come (and are still coming and ain’t stopping).

By the way, the word blogging is so new, that back when this version of Word was created, it wasn’t even around yet, yet its now part of our lexicon, something even my mother now regularly spouts in her daily diatribes on politics. And she doesn’t even know how to switch on my PC. At any rate, when I type that word, in this Word software, you can see that red squiggly line underneath it, because it is un-recognized.

So, since I got in to work this morning, I have been busy with work, and finally decided to take a breather and check in on some news. 3 items immediately grabbed my attention:

The first basically revolved around an int’l student choosing to focus on his studies instead of taking his dog (with broken legs) to the vet. He was dobbed in by the real estate agent who was checking his rented unit. 2 things jumped out at me from this article. Firstly, there should be some kind of background-suitability check when 1 purchases a pet. Does the purchaser fit certain objective criteria, such as financial stability, empathy, etc. Because currently anyone who can afford it can basically walk into a shop and buy a pet, and then proceed to neglect it, mistreat it, etc. This practice has to stop. No one is protecting the pet. Should not the RSPCA look into this? Once the owner walks away, no one knows what will happen to the pet. Will it end up in the cooking pot? Being tortured to satisfy someone’s sick fantasies? We don’t know. There was a case once, in an expensive serviced apartments (very popular with students) where a dog was left behind by her owner, an int’l student, who went back to her home country for vacation, and when she returned, the dog was dead, on the floor, rotting amidst the stench and waste of excretion, faeces, etc, and there was blood and scratches on the walls and door where the dog must have tried to escape. The dumb bitch basically put enough food and water for the dog and left, totally ignorant of the fact that dogs can’t ration themselves, and would probably gorge itself silly initially and then starve to death eventually. No one should get a pet just because he or she feels like it. They have to be acutely aware of the responsibility, the requirements. When you are trying to sleep, and it is late and you have an important presentation the next day, and at 3am your dog starts whining for no reason, uncontrollably, what do you do? Things like that. The second thing that occurred to me was that the real estate agent was a bit of a long-nose, to stick her (long-noses are usually female haha come get me, you feminists) nose into others’ business. This was so typically Australian. But for once, this person had a just cause.

The second article that leapt out at me was this one about a woman who was killed while cycling along Swanston St. I must have cycled up and down this street a trillion times in my half decade there, including the exact spot where this unfortunate cyclist met her demise. Reading the description of events, it was a highly probable scenario, based on first hand experience. Certain streets in Melb, when you cycle, the cars pass by so closely that their side view mirrors are inches from your handlebars, and often, you could reach out a hand and very easily touch the sideview mirrors or shake the passing passenger’s hands if you so intended to, without any discomfort or much stretching required.

The third article was about the high rate of depression and stress among law students and law practitioners (should I say readers?). This is one of those professions where you respect the brains and mentality of the more competent practitioners, but only those of the highest morals deserve respect. I can’t say I feel much sympathy or empathy for lawyers, same way as how I feel towards investment bankers who claim to be under a lot of stress. Most people of this type basically know from day one that they want to be investment bankers and high flying corporate lawyers, all earning tonnes of cash. And they also know the pressure and stress that comes from this, and yet they chose to go into it, so it’s a case of you made your bed, now go lie on it mate. You chose that path, so don’t go grumbling, you greedy sod. Everyone knows lawyers and investment bankers make a lot of money, are under high stress, and usually do not have much aversion to subversing their moral and ethical stand in order to reel in a client. This is pretty obvious today if you look at the global financial markets’ situation, especially in the Silicon Valley of Finance, Wall Street, where Merrill Lynch is in trouble, JP Morgan as well, Bear Stearns, FM, FM, LTCM, Lehman Bros, and now AIG. And this morning I read Morgan Stanley as well. All this mess was basically triggered by greedy bankers and financiers, in their gluttony, approving loans left and right, with nary a consideration for the value of the borrowers’ collateral, financial history and ability to repay, leading to the sub prime mortgage, and the writing off of trillions of dollars. Never have trusted a banker, never will. Lawyers, how many of them really have a good heart? How many % of lawyers do pro bono cases? You have to be jaded. If you reduced the commission for the lawyers, how many of them will still fight tooth and nail for your class action suit, because they care that ‘you are now suffering due to having once worked with asbestos’?

OK, that was a good 10 minute breather. Gotta get back to work now.