The Mad Scorpion

30.

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WELLINGTON AIRPORT:Just as I predicted, the Wellington Airport has come back with a list of top ten ideas for a sign on the Mirimar hill after running a forum on facebook, but warns that Wellywood is indeed still in the running.
Top ideas include Lord of the Rings, or some kind of wind, sculptures, which I’m all for. The two big statues standing guard on either side of the river in Lord Of The Rings is a great idea (nerd points), or a giant weta maybe?
In theme with the Hollywood sign comes “WELLYWOOD”, the rather obvious “WELLINGTON”, and “WETAWOOD”, the latter of which I would pick over just about anything else. If we’re going to copy the City of Shallows then it may as well be something made up as opposed to just putting Wellington up there with Mosgeil… woo hoo.
So. My vote's for a giant weta or WETAWOOD.
What’s everyone else’s opinion on this? I’m interested.
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CAROL-HANNAH SHOULD HAVE WON THE FINAL OF PROJECT RUNWAY:
That’s all I have to say about that really.

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KIDS BRANDED LIKE CATTLE:
Mark Seamands, from Washington state, is on trial for branding his 2 sons, 13 and 15, and his 18 year old daughter, with the letters SK – for Seamands’ Kids.
He is charged with assaulting the sons but not the daughter because she was old enough to give consent… WTF??? She gave consent??? Yeah, but it gets worse…
The boys are testifying in DEFENCE of their father because they are proud of their brands…
OWEEE OWEEE OWEEE…
Idiot Kids sound like they belong with their white trash freak of a dad…
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MOTHERS DAY BEATING IN MEXICO:
This is just Fucked.
The mayor of the town Pentantepec, in the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico, during a Mother’s Day concert in the town of Pueblo Nuevo, PUNCHED, KICKED, AND PULLED THE HAIR OF HIS WIFE(!!!) in front of the entire TOWN last Tuesday… Talk about Inappropriate…
“I tried to help her but the Mayor threatened me,” said the Mayor of P.N. to a reporter. “He beat her hideously!”
The Bad Mayor then tried to BRIBE the reporter on scene to Not report the story – epic fail.
Later in a radio interview, Bad Mayor and his wife are both heard denying anything out of place had happened…
Gee, what a heartwarming story…
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COCAINE RING USED A PICENZE, ITALY, CONVENT AS A COVER:
Excellent. I love it when God gets mixed up with Drug Trafficking…

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SO… GOOGLE IS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SPY HUH?: Yeah, did you hear about this???
Freaky shit.
I’d tell you all about it, but it’s best to read it for yourselves…
Personally, I’m freaked out by this revelation, and WHY OH WHY is the media not on this like it’s 9/11???

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/3695625/Google-cars-gathered-home-internet-data-without-telling

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JAMES CAMERON’S AVATAR: YAAAAAAAAAAAWN.
In case you were wondering why I hadn’t jumped on this bandwagon yet, it’s because I was waiting to watch it all alone and develop my own opinion on it.
And My Opinion?
MEH.
1. Pretty, but silly too. I mean, if I wanted to live in a glow world I’d take some drugs and go to a rave in the 90’s.
2. The whole thing, not just the silly coloured Pandora, looked CGI. BADLY.
3. Gee, a big corporation trying to wipe out a tribe of natives, how imaginative and futuristic… OR, HAPPENING RIGHT NOW IN THIS DAY AND AGE AND ISN’T NEARLY SO CUTE AND PRETTY!!!
I hope James donated some of his millions to the tribes of all the depleted rainforests of the world… yeah right.
Overall?
Pretty, entertaining, and utterly forgettable. Just like Transformers 2. Yuck. .
JAMES WEBSTER AND THE BOOZE-DRINKING CULTURE:
You know, when I wrote that, I really wasn’t meaning to parody a Harry Potter title. But whatdoyaknow… I may as well go with the kids story theme…
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Once upon a time, in the last couple of weeks, there lived a young man named James Webster, who lived in Auckland. James was an utterly unremarkable, ordinary, but happy 16 year old boy who lived with his Mum and Dad, went to an all boys school, had lots of mates, and loved to play his sports – especially rugby.
Unfortunately for him, James was born in a country that had a terrible binge drinking culture. Not only this, but the drinking culture within males who played rugby seemed to be doubly so. The young males who played this aggressive and competitive sport liked to celebrate their wins, or commiserate their losses, with an equally aggressive and competitive attitude towards drinking. They drank fast. They drank loud. They drank long… well… most of them tried to drink long. You see, it was the general goal of young drinkers to drink until they passed out. Usually in a pool of their own vomit.
One Saturday night, James told his family he was off to a friends place to study. Although the words “Saturday”, “Night”, and “Study” very clearly do not belong in the same sentence together, James’ family trusted him, and off he went… to his Nana’s liquor cabinet to steal a bottle of vodka and go to an 18th birthday party.
Once there, James was turned away at the door because it was at an R.S.A. Club. Rather than ditch the alcohol and go inside, James sat in his car and proceeded to scull the most of the contents of the bottle. Straight.
A little later on, James was discovered heavily intoxicated, and was placed in the recovery position and left on the lawn to sleep it off. In the morning, however, James was discovered dead, having died from alcohol poisoning.
THE END.
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This story reminds me a lot of the 16 year old story of a friend of mine…
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KATE BROWN AND THE BOOZE DRINKING CULTURE:
Once upon a time, 16 years ago, there lived a young girl named Kate Brown.
Kate Brown lived in Masterton, and was an utterly unremarkable 16 year old young woman, but she was not at all happy, like James Webster had been.
Kate Brown didn’t live with her Mum and Dad. And the Mum and Dad she used to live with weren’t even her real Mum and Dad!
You see, Kate Brown had been abandoned by her birth mother, and was adopted by Mr and Mrs Brown. But as their daughter grew, Mr and Mrs Brown decided that parenthood just wasn’t really for them, and so when Kate was 8 years old they sent her off to boarding school.
Kate was very unhappy with this decision, and soon relations between her and her parents were at an all time low.
No longer wanting to make a scene, and finding their difficult daughter just far too much trouble to deal with in the holidays, Kate was sent into foster care two years later.
Kate found herself bouncing from family to family, most of them not very kind or loving towards her, and by 12 she had inevitably found her way to booze, drugs, and boys. These things seemed to take care of those awful feelings inside her, and so she embraced them as tight as she could.
Unfortunately, Kate Brown grew up in the same binge drinking country that James had, and even more unfortunately, nothing about the country’s attitude toward binge drinking changed in the 16 years between their deaths.
One Sunday afternoon, the last day of the school holidays before the new, and last, term for the year began, Kate and some of the people she partied with – none of whom were exactly “friends” – decided to get drunk.
Kate, in her haste to get wasted, bought herself a large bottle of whiskey and sculled the whole thing back in three gulps.
Unsurprisingly, not much later Kate was heavily intoxicated and passing out. Her friends put her in the bathtub to sleep it off, but unfortunately, Kate was never to wake up again.
THE END.
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The Moral of these stories?
It doesn’t matter where you come from, or what kind of upbringing you have, or even what era you are born in…
IF THE COUNTRY DOES NOT RADICALLY ADJUST IT’S STEADY AND PROUD BINGE DRINKING CULTURE, THEN TEENAGE ALCOHOL DEATHS ARE INEVITABLE.
Why aren’t there people in our teenage classrooms right now teaching the simple chemistry of “TOO MUCH ALCOHOL + YOUNG BLOOD = DEATH”?
I’m fairly certain I wasn’t taught anything to do with alcohol intake at school when I was a teenager, presumably because the school a. doesn’t want to touch it with a ten foot barge pole, or b. because they view that sort of thing as the parents’ responsibility.
When really?
IT IS EVERY ADULTS RESPONSIBILITY. I know quite well that James or Kate could just have easily been Me. Or quite a few of my friends too.
We were never taught about alcohol intake. And we only learnt from experience. Some of which I guess we were lucky to wake up from.
If we want the kids of today to survive tomorrow, then maybe it’s time we started looking at ourselves, and what we are teaching them just by our living.
And if it’s a case of “Don’t Do As I Do” then teach them WHY you don’t want them to do what you do. If you can do that convincingly then more power to ya, but… everyone knows Kids Do What We Do. Mostly.
At first, I was just annoyed that Kate’s death didn’t get a big song and dance like the popular, well-liked private school white boy’s death did.
Kate’s death, in fact, was given barely any fanfare whatsoever.
The principal told us all in a mass school assembly, followed quickly by a speech about how he didn’t want this bad news to affect our main purpose of studying for end of year exams, and that was that. The whole affair was over in 5 minutes.
Because Kate had Not been a star pupil, there was no song and dance for her. I remember saying at the time
“If it had been one of the First Fifteen they’d be building a gold statue in the middle of the fucking Oval.”

James Webster, in effect, has been given a metaphorical golden statue. His name is now and forever etched into public memory.

But he is not the first teenager to die from alcohol poisoning, nor will he be the last.
There was no nothing for Kate. No news stories, no mass outcry…
Fellow students were BANNED from attending her private funeral, and we were threatened with Expulsion if we did decide to go.
When we EVENTUALLY managed to convince Mrs. Brown to allow us to view Kate’s body and have our own goodbye, the principal turned it into a sick School Trip – permission slips, school uniforms, and a ride in the school Van MANDATORY.
To be honest, however, I’m glad we got even that.
It was good for us to have that goodbye with Kate, rather than nothing… Even IF she was dressed in the kind of Nightgown she really WOULD have only been seen dead in.

And for some reason I’ve never been able to understand, her Neck was… missing.

An empty and hollow flap of skin tucked in between her head and shoulders…

It was TRULY bizarre, and I’ve never seen anything like it before or since, NOR has anyone been able to offer me an explanation as to why this might have been…
But I’m sidetracking.
And you all get the drift.
This kind of teenage binge drinking death has been going on forever, and it seems to be only lately are we finally opening our eyes from the hangover and starting to think about what alcohol is doing to this country.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a drink as much as the next person, and I’ve been known to drink for days and days on end – a week straight during one Dunedin winter with my mate Dave.
But I know my limit.
NOW.
The younger generation just need to be SHOWN, not TOLD, that drinking to oblivion is Not the point…
Unfortunately for them, the generation above them is going to have to embrace this first…

I wish the teenagers of tomorrow the best, and sincerest, of Luck... .