Basically news reposts from my twitter, but more because i want to share my full thoughts on them:

Nine year old told he’s too good for little league, basically asked to leave

Really, is there such a thing as too good? and whatever to teaching your kids to get better at what they are doing? all these coddling of kids, which is why there are so many kids/young adults nowadays with poor work and social ethics nowadays.

Use by sticker found in food, no apologies or comping or anything else

Granted, fuck ups happened. In franchises like Applebees, they have to stick to a certain standard the franchise declares. so sometimes, they get frozen food to “abide” by the standard (this is what I understand from the industry in general, every franchise might differ a little). Most of the more general food, such as steaks or chicken would pretty much be the only things cooked fresh.

however, when you get told by consumers that they have found something alien in their food, aka NOT meant to be part of their food, especially something like paper, pests, any other foreign objects, you give them discounts. you apologize, you make new ones… etc.

it is appalling to think someone would think a customer should understand enough to pay a full price for a sub-standard food. if i wanted to see a use by date, i would have bought instant noodles, darling.

Possible language barriers leads to plane collision

When i first read this, I remembered this TV program I was constantly watching while on holidays. It’s like a discovery channel for world’s air crash scene investigations. I always found those intriguing, particularly their explanations and research behind each and every crash.

On the program, there was a similar case: the Avianca Flight 52. The story behind that air crash was how the pilots did not communicate the emergency very well when they started running low on fuel, complete with the bad weather and high traffic going into the airports, they pretty much dropped out of the sky. Ironically, the thing that saved the survivors was the fact that there was no fuel to start a fire.

now, looking at the case with Avianca 52, I was sort of expecting them to list one of the minimum requirements before flying is speaking an intelligble form of English, or whatever language is considered the common lingua franca.

this is not to insult the dead person, by the way, whom i truly felt sorry for.

The thing is, no one should be allowed to fly if they can not understand nor give easily understood instructions. While this is obviously a small scale accident, it is nonetheless a fatal accident. It could have been bigger.

Someone needs to regulate the rules.

Morphine stolen, replaced by water

Only one word: fucktards

Overseas students detained for visa non-compliance

This fell a little close to heart. Remembering how i was in breach because I didn’t fulfill the academic progress requirement, it is true that it is easy to fall out of line with the Visa requirements. There’s so many rules, and so many differing opinions on what should be done.

There is ONE migration act, but there are different “interpretations” of it. During the non-compliance interview, the decision is made by one person, and approved by their superiors. It’s like a russian roulette – if you get a good and understanding person, one who still remembers the stress of student life that is sometimes intertwined with relations and emotions, you get another chance.

I have also over stayed my visa once too, due to my own stupidity and thus forgetting to extend it. As most of you know, the Embassy on the Singapore side was less than understanding and forgiving. I was pretty much told if I don’t get a new COE, which was not necessary for a re-application, it means the school does not want me. On top of that, I was also told I am not welcomed back into Australia once I have graduated.

These obviously were not the case, as I found out when I returned.

however, i think breaching most of these rules would barely amount to a risk to the local community, unless the intention behind the breach was to, say, go out and kill someone.

Yes, the intentions behind the visas should be to study, to progress, to graduate. The ironic thing is, I have had Australian friends themselves fail their way out of universities, started up a new course elsewhere twice and eventually just working. There’s probably as many people taking twice as long to finish their degree too.

In terms of academic progress though, why should foreigners be excluded from Australia, be forced into detention centers, because they are not doing well? I don’t see locals being taken into the police station OR forced to leave the country.

In terms of working too much – hell. We are the cash cows. The local students though, carry 4 jobs. The maximum I have known an international student carry were 2. In the fairness of it all, people sometimes over-work, not intentionally, but because they are actually enjoying themselves. and if they need the extra money, sometimes the “bank” (parents) are not interested in forking it out.

that’s just barely scrapping the surface of it.

I understand though, Australia’s just trying to protect herself. oh wells.