It is hard to know what is worse for Seagull supporters in ARL .. losing a 2012 semifinal, or the 2013 Grand Final .. each game was theirs to win. The Manly supporters are known as Sea Eagles, so they might never forgive me for asking. There is a lot of that going around. In the space of five minutes at 4:30 PM at Cabramatta station, near Broomfield st exit, I was assaulted twice, tonight. I don't blame daylight savings, although considering the hour and it is a long weekend just before the grand final of the ARL, feelings would be high. Neither assault was vicious like a glassing, but both leave a sour taste.
The first assault was as I left the train and waited for an elevator. There was a family waiting already, so I maneuvered to allow them first right of entry, but a large middle aged woman tried to shoulder me aside. I would have none of it, and easily slipped in and moved to the back to allow others on, which nobody else does .. even the young family crowded the entrance to be first off too. One of the reasons I like to be first on is to set the example of standing at the back. The woman was unhappy she lost her attempt to horn in, and hit my backpack and told me loudly she didn't appreciate not being able to push aside a fat man (I'm paraphrasing as she wasn't that polite). She then went to the next elevator .. and I took the steps.
At the bottom of the steps, a young man was on a bicycle. I paid him no attention, and pushed the crossing button and waited for the light to turn green. The boy stopped riding the bike and said from behind me "Do you remember me you fucking pedophile arsehole?" "No" I truthfully answered. "You taught at my fucking school you fucking pedophile bastard." "What school was that?" "Canley Vale. Don't you fucking remember me?" He spits at me, saliva landing on my pants. He is shaping to fight. I cross the street. "Aaron Herbert?" "Yeah that's me you fucking peddo what is your fat fucking name?"
I kept an eye out behind me as I walked down the street to my church for an afternoon prayer meeting. I don't know if it was Aaron. Aaron was in year 8 circa 2005 when I knew him. He had behavioural issues that were off the chart and my Head Teacher, Helen Best, was undermining me. If I sent a student to her who was misbehaving in class, she would make it worse. So I stopped referring students to her. She couldn't place Aaron in any other class, and couldn't have him in her class. So she placed Aaron in my class with strict instructions to refer him to her for any misbehaviour. Aaron got sent to her after he observed to the class that my breasts were large and I required a bra. It made Helen Giggle. But he escalated his behaviour following that referral and it became sexualised. I have never done anything to be abused by him in that way as he accosted me. He was suspended from school, sent to a specialist behavioural management unit until he could legally not go to school. I saw him again circa 2007 after he left school at the same elevator I'd been accosted at by the large woman earlier this evening. He called me a pedophile then too. So I asked Helen Best (in 2007) why it was that he would call that out to me, and she shrugged.
I was a good teacher. I deserved better than the support Helen denied me.
Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring
Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun
Now the jingle hop has begun
Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time
Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square
In the frosty air
What a bright time, it's the right time
To rock the night away
Jingle bell time is a swell time
To go glidin' in a one-horse sleigh
Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet
Jingle around the clock
Mix and a-mingle in the jinglin' feet
That's the jingle bell rock
Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bell chime in jingle bell time
Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square
In the frosty air
What a bright time, it's the right time
To rock the night away
Jingle bell time is a swell time
To go glidin' in a one-horse sleigh
Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet
Jingle around the clock
Mix and a-mingle in the jinglin' feet
That's the jingle bell
That's the jingle bell
That's the jingle...
David Daniel Ball calls himself the Conservative Voice.
I'm a teacher with three decades experience teaching math to high school kids.I also work with first graders and kids in between first grade and high school. I know the legends of why Hypatia's dad is remembered through his contribution to Math theory. And I know the legend of why followers of Godel had thought he had disproved God's existence.
I'm not a preacher, but I am a Christian who has written over 28 books all of which include some reference to my faith. Twelve blog books on world history and current affairs, detailing world events , births and marriages on each day of the year, organised by month. Twelve books on the background to and history of Bible Quotes. One Bible quote per day for a year. An intro to a science fiction series I'm planning, post apocalyptic cyber punk. An autobiography with short story collections.
I'm known in Australia for my failure as a whistleblower over the negligence death of a school boy. ...
In Tanami’s red sands where spinifex grows,
Where waterholes gleam ‘neath the sun’s golden glare,
Lived Yaparla, sweet maid, with a heart pure as snow,
Her kindness a light in the desert so bare.
Her father, a wise man, kept songs for the land,
To guard the soak’s waters where life held its sway.
But drought gripped the earth with a merciless hand,
And he sought a new spring to ease their dismay.
Deep in a gorge where the rocks hid the sky,
He found a clear pool with fish dancing free.
But a voice shook the stones with a thunderous cry,
“Who steals my sweet water without leave of me?”
Out slid the Wanyarra, half-man, half a snake,
His scales flashed like opals, his eyes cold with pain.
“For your kin’s life,” he hissed, “one price I must take—
Send Yaparla to me, or your land drinks no rain.”
The father returned, his heart heavy with woe,
And told his dear daughter the serpent’s demand.
“I’ll go,” said Yaparla, her voice soft and low,
“For my people, my country, I’ll walk that red sand.”
She came to the gorge with her digging stick strong,
Singing songs of her kin ‘neath ...
AI adapted
To adapt the story of Bambi to the Dreamtime of Warlpiri culture in the Tanami Desert, we’ll reimagine the tale with respect for Warlpiri storytelling traditions, cosmology, and the desert environment. The Dreamtime (Jukurrpa) is a sacred framework where ancestral beings shape the land, law, and life, so Bambi’s journey will reflect Warlpiri values like kinship, connection to country, and survival in harmony with nature. I’ll keep the essence of Bambi—a young creature’s growth amid loss and discovery—while grounding it in the Tanami’s ecology and Warlpiri worldview. Since Bambi is a specific narrative, I’ll translate its core themes rather than reproduce the original text verbatim, ensuring cultural sensitivity. The story will be concise yet vivid, as requested.
Bambi in the Jukurrpa of the Tanami
In the Jukurrpa, when the Tanami Desert glowed under the first stars, the ancestral beings shaped the land. From the spinifex and red sand, they formed Jampijinpa, a young red ...
Created with Grok, Pictory, And Topmediai
Content from listening to podcasters Hunley and Groubert of America's Untold Stories. They tell it better than me
Folk Song: "The Ballad of Lee Harvey Oswald"
Verse 1
Oh, Lee Harvey Oswald, a man they did frame,
The deep state and CIA, they tarnished his name.
They said he went to Mexico, a lie they did spin,
While he fought for his service, his honor within.
Chorus
Sing for Lee Oswald, innocent and bold,
Framed by the shadows, a story untold.
With courage he stood, though the truth they denied,
A patriot’s heart in a nation that lied.
Verse 2
On that dark day in Dallas, they said he shot Tippit,
Left a wallet behind, but the tale didn’t fit.
Arrested with his own in hand, the proof was right there,
But the deep state kept spinnin’ their web of despair.
Chorus
Sing for Lee Oswald, innocent and bold,
Framed by the shadows, a story untold.
With courage he stood, though the truth they denied,
A patriot’s heart in a nation that lied.
Verse 3
They trained him in Russian, sent him off to the East,
A ...
