Parental Censorship – An uphill battle

For those of you who can remember, we were prevented from being exposed to media violence with all its extremes and graphic gory details, and, inappropriate behaviour by the use of a good old fashioned parental censorship technique called, turning off the television.

In the case of contempt, being sent to our bedroom to read a book or play with our toys, with no way of escaping to another world via the net, finally resolving the situation for our parents.

Well, hasn’t that changed! Sending children to their bedrooms now is akin to sending them to Disneyland, with all the mod cons of today at their disposal. Heaven knows what they get up to when away from parents prying protective eyes.

To cater for situations like this, some parents have even resorted to spy software to secretly record every detail of what their children do on the computer to keep tabs on them and the people they meet online.

Parental censorship is made even more complicated with the advent of live reporting from war zones on television, YouTube and LiveLeak to name just a few, all too real shoot’em up computer games, murders with their subsequent body dissections on shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, computers in nearly every home and access to the net via cell phones.

With so many avenues to the dark side of life what hope do impressionable minds, both young and old, have from being desensitized to the things that should make us weep and or cringe in horror.

Exposing young minds to acts of inhumanity, foul language and sex before their time, also leads them into thinking all of this is quite the norm and acceptable which has far reaching consequences, not only for them but for their children when the time comes.

The legacy we leave our children is founded on our good character, good conduct, constant vigilance, the right teachings and a whole lot of patience and common sense, all of which starts from the time they are born up until they slip from our grasp when we take our last breath.

Having seen for myself what can happen to a human being, all I can say is, that no one should be unnecessarily exposed to life’s sad extremes if they want to remain completely sane and untouched by human indifference. As for me, U2’s words, “I’m not broke but you can see the cracks” describe me very well.

Yes, I’m all for parental censorship, up until the time our children are old enough to understand and know the difference between right and wrong, and, to put what they have learnt into practice; with us as parents always in the background ready to give a guiding hand and to help out when things go wrong.

So what do you have to say for parental censorship? What have been your successes and failures?

To be continued…

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Skin Cancer Nose No Boundaries: Part II

This is an update to my article titled “Skin Cancer Nose No Boundaries” that I posted on the 28th January, 2009. It entails the diagnosis of two basal cell carcinomas on my nose, subsequent treatments and then finally, Mohs Surgery.

To bring you up to speed, on the 12 January 2009 I had a bilobed flap repair to my nose immediately after the removal of a recurrent nodular Basal Cell Carcinoma.

After a number of requests to show how my nose looks after ten months of healing, I now present you with my new nose with a before and after view.

I am eternally grateful to “The Skin & Cancer Foundation Australia” (SCFA) located at Westmead, New South Wales, Australia for saving my nose.

Their practice, which I was referred to by my local skin cancer specialist, is affiliated with the University of Sydney, the University of NSW, St Vincent's Hospital, Westmead Hospital and the New Children's Hospital and are a specialised medical organisation dedicated to providing high quality services in the areas of dermatology and dermatopathology.

Links:

1. Skin Cancer Nose No Boundaries
2. The Skin & Cancer Foundation Australia

To be continued…

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Family First

Children, where would we be without them, I ask you? For better or for worse, for richer or poorer, they will always come first in our lives.

It seems like only yesterday that our three possums were running around in nappies, and the next minute, having children of their own.

Well, one of them that is, and who would have thought the middle of the three, and the smallest of the bunch, would beat his brothers to the punch!

A big thank you to - Matt & Kristin Olson - Dream Designs Online & Janeywan

Mind you, it’s taken him almost thirty years and heaven knows how long it will take the other two! They may well be in their late thirties or even forties before they start to replicate, if at all!

Bearing in mind what my grandmother used to say, “Different strokes for different folks. Usually up and down!” why is it that some couples start having children early in life, or, leave it until later on in life, or, decide not to have children at all? It can’t be all about money, can it?

For us, having started our family with next to nothing just a few short years out of high school, we may, touch wood, live long enough to see our great grandchildren or even, great great-grandchildren if luck continues to be on our side.

To be continued…

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Windows Live Writer - Learn to republish without losing comments

This is a simple step by step, unheard of until now, Windows Live Writer solution to republishing a post to your blog without losing comments.

After a member of the Windows Live Writer team contacted me via email stating this functionality wasn’t available yet, I set about coming up with my own solution for my Blogger Blog problems. To my surprise and delight, it didn’t take all that long.

A word of note: All testing was done on my test blog, so please be advised to do the same thing in order to make sure this solution works for you.

Please, click on the images to view the enlarged snapshots of the whole process.

Step 1: Select post	Step 2: Retrieve post & update

Selecting a post to retrieve is as simple as clicking on the post title, as seen in the “Step 1” and “Step 2” enlarged images. After the post appears make all necessary amendments.

Tip 1: Don't save local draft	Tip 2: Pick a date

The tip here is NOT to utilise the “Save local draft” function as seen in the “Tip 1” enlarged image, as in my testing this will remove your comments if used. The “Save local draft” function is used to save your work prior to publishing.

The other tip is to select a post date, as seen in the “Tip 2” enlarged image. Making it the same as your original posting doesn’t seem to make a difference when it comes to keeping or losing your comments.

Step 3: Republish	Step 4: Post

Once you have made your amendments, select “Publish to blog” as seen in the “Step 3” enlarged image or click on the “Publish” button at the top of the page under the name “File”. Just be careful not to click on “Publish” before you are finished as I did while making this post. Sorry Guys!

The final step as seen in the “Step 4” enlarged image is where Windows Live Writer republishes your post. With all my testing to date, I have managed to save my comments.

Again, just a reminder, DO NOT utilise the “Save local draft” function as you will lose your comments and we don’t want that, do we?

To Max, thank you for the inspiration to write this, as no one would have seen the “Skippy the Bush Kangaroo” YouTube video if you hadn’t mentioned that it wasn’t working.

Useful link:

Windows Live Writer Download Page

To be continued…

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Do you remember Skippy the Bush Kangaroo?

After recent gobsmacking news you can’t blame me for reminiscing about the things I got up to when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper.

One of my favourite pass times as a kid, besides giving grief to my younger sister, was getting stuck into a bread roll filled with nothing more than Smith’s Potato Chips and a very good splash of tomato sauce in front of our black and white television watching “Skippy the Bush Kangaroo”.

Amazing enough, several days ago a documentary on the making of this Australian TV series "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" popped up on the television. The series ran from 1966 to 1968 with the support of James Packer’s grandfather, the late Sir Frank Packer, who was one of Australia’s first media moguls.

This YouTube video may jog your memory – Google Reader’s etc click here

What I didn’t know until the doco showed up was that the series was taken up worldwide, with the only exception being Sweden. Apparently the powers to be didn't want their ankle biters watching it because Skippy may have given them “a misleading impression of an animal’s abilities”.

You see, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo could talk, just like Flipper. Not that I could understand them of course, as it all sounded like gobbledygook to me, but at least I could play a mean gum leaf just like Garry Pankhurst who played the young boy, Sonny Hammond in the series.

Mister Ed, the talking horse, however was an entirely different matter as he spoke the Queen’s English with an American accent! 

Now that you have read one of my “from the womb to the tomb” stories, what more can I ask of you? Well here goes, ”Do you remember Skippy the Bush Kangaroo?”

To be continued…

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