Just a Thought

Ok, so this has been on my mind for a couple of days now. But I keep on wondering what civilisation 4000 years from now will think of us (apart from being extremely bigoted about everything). Or, more specifically, about our popular culture and the stories we're going to leave behind for them. 

I mean, we have myths from the bible and the ancients about things that supposedly happened. What if they were merely just tales of fiction told to pass the time and set up morals for the youth of the time? And the myths we know today are just the most popular and pervasive of those stories?

What if in 4000 years they look back at our popular culture and view them as myths that we think happened in the distant or near past? What will they take from it? What will our myths be to those people?

That we looked to an alien who could move faster than bullet to save the world? That ordinary the rich donned masks and capes to fight crime and also save the world? That there were mutants among us and that some of them were less than friendly? That teenage girls were called upon to fight against the supernatural? That an archeologist played a key part in defeating the Nazis in WWII? That young children wandered around unsupervised and fought against each other with monsters that could be stored in balls? That young witches and wizards travelled to boarding school in trains?

And what if contact with aliens hasn't been made yet in 4000 years time? What will they make of Star Wars and Star Trek? That they're proof that in ancient times aliens had visited Earth and even taken humans into space with them?

Actually, even if contact has been made by then (and it probably will have by that point) the myths spawned from Star Wars and Trek would still be pretty interesting. 

How will those people 4000 years from now see us and what will they think our myths are?

And then there's our fairy tales. Will they make it into our mythology, and if so, which tales will be woven into the myths? Any of them that have been watered down into a Disney movie are sure to survive the 4000 years. But the rest? Will they be forgotten like so many other of our stories, or will they, over time, meld together and form a completely different story that people 4000 years from now will believe we told to each other?

Will those myths 4000 years in the future even be recognisable as stories from now?  

The Job Seekers Journal #1

Yesterday I finally had my phone interview with Centrelink. It went well enough. Even if she couldn't book me in with my employment agent thingy. 

One thing that couldn't be met. Not my fault though so it was overlooked with a passing comment that I may want to ask about that at the face to face interview ... quite frankly, I found that shocking. I thought even computer glitches were the fault of Centrelink customers (if I did have that kind of power, I doubt I'd be worrying about getting welfare payments). 

But at least I was able to book a face to face appointment. Based on the phone interview waiting list, I was very concerned that there'd be another three weeks before the first available slot. I was wrong (thankfully). The first available was today (even the woman conducting yesterday's interview seemed surprised). 

Naturally I snagged the latest available time today, so then I had time to gather everything I'd need to bring with me, while still getting the whole damn thing done and over with. 

Went in to the interview today with everything I was told that I had to bring with me. Spent all morning getting it together, too. Well, ok. Maybe not all morning. But it was still a good couple of hours spent getting everything. 

It was a complete waste of time. 

When I went in, a door wench greeted me and asked for my customer reference number, which I recited and then I was talking to someone, going over everything that was discussed on the phone yesterday and signing off on it. We also reset my online services password because I had some doubt about remembering it. FYI, that also required my customer reference number which I was again able to give off the top of my head. 

That was it. 

Apparently knowing my reference number off by heart is enough to prove that I am who I say I am, that I have been looking for work since being made redundant and that I am indeed poor and need welfare money (which is really depressing). All that time I spent getting everything together this morning was wasted! I could've been doing something far more productive or just sleeping in and enjoying being all warm in bed. 

I was reminded that I have to report next week and that I have the employment agency appointment and sent on my merry way. There was nothing about a job seeker diary or about how many jobs I should be applying for (if I even have to at all). It's like I'm receiving free welfare money without any of the obligations, and job hunting is just for my own benefit ... even if after a month of looking I'm a little down on the whole process. 

Oh, and there was also a moment of pure terror in the office: halfway through the interview she excused herself and disappeared for several minutes. When I say disappeared, I mean I could see her across the room talking. Then I watched her and someone else go into a conference room and talk. It was a heart stopping moment and I expected her to return and tell me to go away, there was nothing Centrelink was going to do for me today. 

Massive sigh of relief when that never happened. 

And now I'm just looking for work for my own entertainment, and also so that, you know, I have real money again and can afford to buy things I want. But at least I don't have to apply for so many jobs a week or even keep track of them (which is the worst part of the Newstart Allowance). No obligations, YEAH! 

It's an Election Year, So I Thought I'd Get On the Political Bandwagon With This Little Rant

I think I'm going to have to pay more attention to politics this election year. I'm sickened by the stunt that the Gillard government pulled excising the mainland from the migration zone. 

The act itself hasn't got me too upset ... I mean, it's a very despot government move, and is itself sickening. But Australia is a desert nation. We really can't afford to let too many people in. Otherwise we're going to be facing some serious water shortages (even more serious than it is now) in the near future. And then nobody but the ridiculously rich will win. 

It's how the government went around excising the mainland that's really gotten to me. They've been desperate to stop the boats for years now, but they couldn't just excise the mainland without massive public outrage and a drop in the polls (and in an election year, that could be disastrous). So instead they let a boatful of refugees make it all the way to the mainland. 

The navy has been doing too good a job of stopping the boats before they reach the mainland these last few years. That boat was allowed so that everyone could get all outraged that the refugees were allowed to remain here and enjoy some sembelance of basic rights instead of being shipped off to a processing centre (again, how very despot government like do the processing centres sound?). 

It created the perfect opportunity for the government to excise the mainland, and effectively stop the boats (because we all know the refugees will remain in the processing centres for years before being shipped back to their home countries), and there's very little public outrage (or a whole lot less than there could've been), because the memory of that boat landing on the mainland is still fresh in everyone's memory. 

The government used those refugees to strip away any basic rights of future refugees, and I just don't think that I can bring myself to vote for a government willing to steep so low. So I'm going to have to pay close attention this year, and see which party the local candidates are giving their votes to. 

But the problem is, it's a two party system at the end of the day, and neither party is looking particularly good. 

Things that Trouble Me When I Should be Sleeping

How did the town in north Central Victoria known as Yea get its name?

It's obviously a town that sprung up out of necessity to the farmers and possibly miners (I don't know much about the history of the area). But did it reach a point when those in charge were like, "Right, this place is no longer a place for passing travellers to spend the night. It's a town now, and we need to give it a name, yea or nay?"

A chorus of "Yea!" from everyone.

"Right, what should we call it then?"

No response.

"Right, well, tomorrow we'll come up with a name for the new town, yea or nay?"

"Yea!"

And because no one could come up with a name someone decided to just name the town Yea in honour of the fact that they always said "Yea!" to naming the town "tomorrow" ... which, if that's the case Victoria could've had a town called Tomorrow instead of Yea.

Either that, or they were smoking something funky and thought that naming a town Yea would be extremely hilarious and made it official before they sobered up.

War pt 2

The young woman pressed her back against the wall and watched the procession of soldiers march by. The last four of whom were carrying two extremely bloodied and mangled bodies. All of them kep glancing over their shoulders at something behind them. Wishing it was night instead of mid afternoon, she slipped away from the street, looking for somewhere to hide. The siren with the robotic voice announcing that a code red curfew was no in place was still sounding over the speakers throughout the town. She didn't have long to find somewhere to hide before the streets were filled with watchful soldiers. It would be very bad if she was caught breaking curfew. The soldiers were already extremely annoyed with her because of her views about the Faeries. They were looking for there chance to send her off to the front lines.

With no other options, she climbed up a nearby tree. From there she was able to pull herself onto a garage roof. Hopefully the soldiers on patrol would only have dogs trained to pick up the scent of Faeries and not people. She also hoped that no one had seen her climbing the tree. If they had, they would be sure to inform the soldiers about her. She was certain that there wouldn't be any aircraft flying around: the few that were still serviceable were on the front lines. But she still felt exposed on the roof of the garage, and decided that it would be better if she kept moving towards the edge of town through the backyards.

She crept over to the far edge of the roof, taking care to keep as low as possible and then froze. Over the nearby hills was a massive black cloud, almost completely covering the whole horizon sky. As she stared at it, trying figure out what it could be and what it meant, a loud buzzing sound suddenly filled the air. It took her a second to realise that the code red siren had stopped, and had most likely been covering the buzzing sound until that point. She still didn't know what could be making the sound, although she was fairly certain that it was coming from the cloud.

Apparently the soldiers patrolling the street had no idea where it was coming from. She could hear them shouting to each other has they looked for the source of the buzzing. Starting to feel uneasy about breaking curfew and what she planned on doing, she considered telling them about the cloud. But that would mean revealing herself to them, which would undoubtedly end with her being sent to the front lines. She'd heard stories from some of the front line veterans: the front lines were filled with constant fear and horror, and it was unheard of for someone to leave them uninjured or killed. Only serious injuries that left a person completely unable to fight anymore meant leaving the front lines ... unless of course, that person was killed instead of just injured.

The front lines were a place to avoid. And that wasn't done by revealing to soldiers that you're breaking curfew.

She lay down flat on her stomach, her eyes never leaving the large buzzing cloud. She absent mindedly swatted away a couple of flies. A moment later, she stifled a scream and quickly rolled onto her back frantically brushing away a large spider, sending it flying through the air. More flies settled on her and half a dozen wasps hovered menacingly nearby. She sat up and looked around and saw the air was thick with insects.

It suddenly dawned on her what the cloud consisted of and why it was buzzing.
She wondered what kind of damage a massive swarm of insects could inflict. They can drive a person insane, she reflected humourlessly as she constantly swatted away the insects, some of which bit or stung. She could hear the frustrated shouts from the soldiers as they were also attacked by the insects. Not wanting to find out first hand just what kind of damage a massive swarm if insects could cause to a person, she darted across the garage roof and jumped down onto the bin against the fence.

Still batting away the insects, and feeling lumps rising where she'd been bitten or stung, she darted out onto the street, and saw the soldiers weren't fairing much better than her. A couple of the sniffer dogs with them were straining at their leashes and pawing at the faces, already being driven mad by the insect swarm. One of the soldiers looked up and saw her. He shouted out in surprise and annoyance.

"There's even more of them coming! There's a massive swarm!" She shouted. She spotted a house with a bright yellow sign a little bit further down the street and immediately started to run towards it. She didn't bother to see if the soldiers followed her or not. She really didn't care either way. Although things would probably be easier for her if they didn't.

She skidded to a halt at the front door of the house. The air was now so thick with insects, it was impossible to see more than a few meters in any direction. The ground was starting to crawl with the flightless bugs. She kicked them off her feet and tried opening the door, and cried out in desperation when she discovered that it was locked. Who locked their door these doors? No one bothered locking their doors ever since the army set up the training base in town. There just wasn't any need. Plus if there was an air raid, people needed to be able to get into the houses with the bunkers.

She was suddenly hauled backwards and thrown into the hands of a waiting soldier. He gripped both her arms tightly, while they both squinted through the insects as another kicked open the heavy door. Over the sound of the insects, she heard a dog whimpering.

The door burst open, and everyone rushed inside. The door was slammed shut behind them. There was about ten of them as well as two sniffer dogs. The soldier who had held her outside still kept a tight grip on her arm inside. Everyone was covered in lumps from the insect bites and stings. There was a frenzy of movement as everyone frantically shook off any insects on them, and then stamped on them to make sure the bugs were dead.

"This door won't keep'em out for long, sir." A soldier observed, looking closely at the door. Everyone else took a closer look at the door and saw that it had been damaged when it had been kicked open. There was a long crack running down it, and a couple of insects were already starting to slip through it.

"We should be safe in the bunker.
Simpson, you, Walters, Avery and Greene take the girl and the dogs to the bunker. The rest of you search the house for anyone else."

There was a chorus of "Yes, Sir!", and she was ushered to the back of the house where there was a steel trap door in the floor. This was opened and Simpson and another soldier climbed down the steel ladder, before she was sent down after them. The dogs were lowered down afterwards, followed by a middle aged man who looked like he was a new recruit. The fourth soldier perched on the top rung of the ladder and kept a lookout for the others.

She slouched over and sat in a corner with her back against the wall, staring sullenly at the soldiers in the bunker with her. Everyone crept scratching at their bites and stings, while the two dogs whimpered in another corner. There was suddenly a scream followed by a heavy thud.

"Avery?" Simpson called out to the soldier keeping lookout.

"Don't know." Avery climbed back out of the door and disappeared from everyone's view. Simpson slowly climbed the ladder and peered around. There was another scream and Simpson dropped back into the bunker with a shout. A second later, Avery scrambled down the ladder, only pausing to close the door after her. Both she and Simpson looked terrified.

"What is it?"

There was a metallic clang as something struck the steel trap door repeatedly. The dogs howled and everyone backed as far away as they could from the ladder. The soldiers nervously drew their guns and aimed at the door.

The metallic clanging continued followed by the sound of metal being torn apart, the sound caused everyone to wince and cover their ears. A deep growl came through what remained of the steel door, causing the dogs to howl even louder.

With a final wrench, the door was town away from the floor and a massive pair of glowing red eyes glared down at them.

War pt1

The air raid sirens sounded again. They were meant to indicate that everyone was supposed to take cover in the nearest bunker. But since they had sounded at least once a day for the last two months without any kind of destruction following, most people ignored them and went about their business as usual. Most people now believed that they were safe and that the war front wouldn't reach their little town. After all, the war had been raging for almost two years and no one had seen any of it except what filtered through to them in the sparse news reports.

But they were still constantly reminded that there was a fierce battle raging across the country by the constant fuel, power and food rations, not to mention that the army had set up a base on the outskirts of town to train the constant stream of new recruits, all of whom were getting younger or more elderly each day. Everyone had at least one family member serving in the army, many of whom hadn't been heard from since they were sent to the front line.

The sirens lasted for fifteen minutes, and then everything went silent again. This happened so frequently even the soldiers had stopped reacting whenever the sirens sounded. But this time, when the sirens had finished wailing, something was different. It was a subtle difference. It was the silence. It was a different kind of silence today, and only those with extra keen hearing were able to pick up on it. But they just shrugged it off as paranoia.
So it came as a massive surprise to everyone when an extremely old woman strode up to a soldier and tore a huge chunk from the side if his neck with her teeth. The soldier screamed in agony and futilely tried to stop the flow of blood pouring from the wound. The old woman hissed and bit his arm. The soldier would've screamed as she tore part of his arm away, but he was already dead.

Civilians screamed and scrambled to get away from the creature, while soldiers rushed forward, their weapons aimed at her. The creature turned and faced the soldiers, baring her blood stained pointy yellow teeth as she hissed again. She crouched down, ready to attack. The soldiers consisted of new recruits still being trained and veterans who had seen too much action in the war. All of them were terrified of the creature and fired wildly at her.

The creature shuddered with the impact of the bullets, and dark blood oozed from the wounds. She stumbled backwards and fell over the body of her victim. The shouts of a commanding officer could be heard over the gunfire but no one could make out what she was shouting.

Gradually the soldiers stopped firing and looked apprehensively at the prone body of the creature. One of the bolder recruits cautiously crept towards her.

"Sanders, fall back!" The commanding officer shouted in alarm, hurrying forward to pull him back. But she was too late. With a shriek of rage, the creature threw herself from the ground at Sanders, who screamed in agonised terror before his throat was torn out.

The creature looked up at the soldiers through slitted eyes, Sanders' blood dripping off her face, and hissed something in articulate at them before turning and running away from them with inhuman speed.

"What she say?" A heavily scarred one eyes veteran asked the group at large.

"Something about losing, I think." A recruit answered uncertainly. "My Faerie isn't all that crash hot. But I'm certain she said something about losing."

"Does anyone speak fluent Faerie?" The commanding officer demanded.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Shit! I hope somebody caught this on camera."

Most of the recruits looked sheepishly down at their feet. None of them had thought of bringing their cameras with them when they had left the base. But all of the veterans responded that they had.

"Good. All of you back to base now. Those of you idiots who don't have your cameras I want you to report to Thompson in full gear." She pulled out a small transistor radio from her belt. "This is Major Fielding. There's been an attack in town. I'm declaring a code red curfew be enforced immediately."

"What is that?" A recruit pointed towards the nearby hills. Everyone else looked in the direction he was pointing. It took a couple of minutes before they were able to see the faint black cloud that was rapidly growing darker and larger. As they stared at the growing cloud, sirens, slightly different to the air raid siren, started to sound all around them.

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL. A CODE RED CURFEW IS NOW IN PLACE. EVERYONE IS IMMEDIATELY GO INSIDE AND STAY INSIDE UNTIL FURTHER ADVISED." A deep robotic voice intoned over the siren.

All across town, everyone hurried into the nearest buildings. They all knew that code red meant that they weren't even allowed to go home. They just had to get inside or face a military tribunal for civil disobedience, which often ended with the culprit being forced to join the army before being sent off to the front lines. It was better to our up with a small amount of discomfort for a short time than facing the tribunal.

"Back to base, everyone!" Major Fielding barked.

The soldiers fell into formation and marched back to base on the other side of town. Many of them, including Major Fielding, kept stealing uneasy glances back at the still rapidly growing cloud behind them. They passed more soldiers hurrying to position themselves around town to keep look out for anyone breaking curfew and any foes. Although no one expected to face any Faeries. They still believed themselves to be safe in the relatively sleepy town.

The Man Who Didn't Take Over the World

Many years ago in a town north-west of Melbourne on the way to the ski resorts there lived a man with aspirations to take over the world. It had been his dream ever since he was a boy. All through school he kept his head down and studied hard. He graduated high school Dux of his class and had his pick of universities.

He attended Melbourne University and threw himself into his business course. He knew that only the rich and powerful had any influence in the world and figured that he would slowly work his way up to their level of wealth and power, all the while expanding his corporation across Australia and the rest of the world. He knew that taking over the world would be an extremely slow process and that he would likely be an old man when he succeeded. But he believed that by that point he would’ve worked out a formula that would keep him alive forever, he was an avid comic book reader and took most of his inspiration from them.

He graduated university, once again the Dux and also engaged to a woman who had also been studying the same course as him. She shared his dreams of world domination and came from a wealthy family. They both started working for her father, both excelling at their jobs.

One night, the night he planned on proposing to her, she was hit by a car and killed instantly. He was devastated by her death. Before leaving the scene of the accident, he pulled a few hairs from her head and sealed them in an airtight bag. He planned on cloning her and pretending that she had never died. Her father had a laboratory in one of his buildings. However, her father refused to let him to clone her. They argued fiercely over it until he killed her father in the heat of the moment.

Realising what he had just done, he drove over to the laboratory and stole the equipment he would need to clone his beloved back to life again before driving back to his home town north west of Melbourne. There he settled down in a large house on the edge of town and opened up a fish and chip shop.

By day he ran the fish and chip shop, getting to know everyone once again. By night he worked in the laboratory he had set up in his house, trying to clone his beloved back to life. It took him years and many failures before he was able to do this. But once he was able to figure out how to get the clones to form human shape instead of the hideous misshapen blobs they originally took he knew he was very close to seeing his beloved again. It still took him a few years to get the process right so that the clone didn’t immediately die as soon as he removed it from the test tube.

The first clone to survive being removed from the test tube was a disappointment to him. It had all of his beloved’s memories, including being hit by the car, but it or she felt nothing for him. In fact, she screamed at him and tried to leave his house, wanting to go to her family in Melbourne. He subdued the clone and put her back in the test tube in suspended animation. He knew that he should kill and dispose of her, but she looked just like his beloved and he couldn’t bring himself to kill her.

This happened with each resulting clone he made. Try as he might, he couldn’t replicate the feelings the original had had for him. His house was now filled with clone filled test tubes of his beloved. Until one night when the latest clone became violent when he tried to restrain her and return her to the tube. She viciously turned on him, and ended up sending him staggering backwards against one of the tubes. She lunched at him, swinging his work stool at his head.

He ducked the stool and scrambled to get away from the clone. The stool smashed the glass of the tube, and the liquid holding the clone within in suspended animation gushed onto the floor. The latest clone threw herself at him with a wild scream, and they both tumbled to the ground, both desperately fighting for their lives. In the process, they smashed another tube.

The two newly released clones joined the fight, and within moments the three of them had throttled the life out of the man. Together, the three of them explored the house paying little attention to their exact replicas in the tubes. In master bedroom they found a scrap book containing clippings of their father’s death. Wordlessly, they agreed that there was nothing for them in Melbourne and that there was nothing to be gained for them by releasing the rest of the clones. They burned the house down, and then set out into the world, each going her own way.

Years later, the first of the three clones returned to the town. Several months later, the second clone returned as well. Almost exactly a year after the first clone, the third clone also returned to the town. Despite themselves, they were drawn to the place. They also regretted burning down the man’s house with all of the clones and cloning equipment inside of it. They all got jobs at the local supermarket, and spent all of their free time trying to figure out a way to continue the man’s work and clone themselves so that, once again, there would be an army of clones.