A buck a word

Its amazing what some people will do to get a couple of bucks from this nation's newspaper houses. In today's front page news, the Herald Sun all informed us of how "disgusted" the mother of the woman Wayne Carey admitted to having an affair with, an event which he apparently willingly revealed all details to in his new tell all book ironically entitled "The Truth Hurts".

Now, you're probably wondering what I think could be wrong with a mother wanting to defend her daughter. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with this whatsoever. But when I read this line from Ms Stevens' mother, all I could was laugh -

"It's just his side of the story. How can you know he is telling the truth? It's just his version of the truth''

Isn't it merely her version of the truth we are now hearing? About how innocent her daughter apparently is in this whole scandal? I'm pretty sure from the picture above, it's quite obvious she's not as innocent as mummy dearest would like to think she is.
It really gets my goat when people try to out other people by outing themselves in the exact same way. Ms Stevens' mother is an idiot for going to the tabloids. If you really want to protect your daughter, DON'T GO TELLING THE PRESS ABOUT HOW UPSET YOU ARE!!!!

But i'm not upset. I just find the whole saga incredibly funny, particularly with how much attention it has received this week. Anyway, folks, yet again I hope you have all seen just how silly this story that the news is throwing in our faces each morning. Apart from that, till next time, don't worry. Be happy!

Blade Runner

To add another dimension to my HTML project, I decided to include this critical analysis of Ridley Scott's science fiction masterpiece to backup my argument that films can reflect our dense modern world.

Blade Runner is a science fiction film that was originally made in 1982 but was later released as a director's cut in 1992 buy Ridley Scott. The director's cut was much more successful then the original release and as a result, a cult following soon ensued. In an interview with Wired magazine in 2007, Scott attributed the success of the final cut to the new technology that was used to re-edit it, making it look more spectacular and sound more spectacular. Scott also said that he made the narrative much more "real" saying that the original ending was too "silly" for the story line whereas the new version made the mesage of the whole film that bit more realistic.

The general storyline of Blade Runner runs along these lines. It's L.A, 2019. The world is in dystopia for a reason that is never explained to us. Harrison Ford plays Richard Deckard, a "blade runner", somebody who's job is to exterminate Replicants. Replicants are human-generated robots with a limited life-span who look like humans, act like humans, sound like humans and doing everything that humans can do. Except one thing: emotionalise. All Replicants were given every possible characteristic of a human but the one thing we humans can not mass produce is emotions because, as well all know, we all think and feel differently. To compensate, all the Replicants have "implanted memories", distant histories of a past that does not belong to them. The other evil thing about it all is that some of the Replicants don't even know they aren't human. The ones that do however, know it well and don't like it. The reason? Replicants were given only a 4 year life-span. And for Roy, leader of a rogue Replicant pack that Deckard is trying to destroy, is not happy about this. He then takes his evil clan down to earth (which is referred to in the movie as the "Online World") to find the people who designed them so as to make them alter their artificial D.N.A.

The film uses a great many special effects techniques to emulate this new world but Scott has been quoted a number of times as saying "it's not necessarily futuristic in the sense of the, futuristic science fiction, but actually more as a look into the future, and the future possibility". He goes on to say that the world is depicted in his film is a world in "overload", drastically affected by technology's affect on the environment, an issue which Scott obviously regards highly:

"I was always aware that this whole Earth is on overload. I've been like that for 30 years, and people used to think I was a — not exactly a depressive, but always dark about it. And I'd say, "It's not dark, mate. It's a fact. It's going to come and hit you in the head." It's right where we are right now, where we're still going, arguing in circles. There's some politicians who still seriously believe that we haven't got global warming."

Overall, Blade Runner is definitely a must see film for any film buffs, regardless of what genre you root for as it is not the form of a science fiction film which rules this movie but the issues and themes explored which make it such a good cinematic experience.

New Media of the Modern World

In investigating my current assignment, I realised that I had absolutely no idea about what my main point of focus was on about.

The person I refer to in saying this is Lev Manovich, professor and theorist of the new media art forms. Manovich is famous for his theory on the development of new media, more specifically, the importance of the computer in instigating a whole new culture of art.

New Media, as a definite explanation, is "the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies in the laster half of the 20th century". More specifically, it refers to the development of analog mediums such as TV and Film becoming "digitized" that is, having the capacity "of being manipulatable, networkable, dense, compressible, and impartial."

That's why for those of you who don't live under a rock, there has been major debates in the news over the past decade relating to the direction in which our old mediums are heading.

According to Manovich, this direction is not a negative one. Rather, it is the next logical step forward saying "the logic of old media corresponded to the logic of industrial mass society...(now) the logic of new media corresponds with the logic of the postindustrial society". This exploration into technologies function within the post-industrial society and its effect on the evolution of human culture has developed into a number of theories including technological singularity and futurology. Freakishly enough, for those of you interested, here were some predictions made by Robin Good, an independant new media publisher, about the direction in which he saw new media heading in 2005 no less.

The One Minute Post. Starting...NOW!

A lot of my posts as you will have noticed are extremely lengthy and look like they have had a lot of thought and time put towards them. The former of these two points is true but whether or not much thought has gone into them, that's up for you to decide. However, in investigating all these ideas about density and how our world has evolved into such a complicated and complex environment, I set this challenge for myself to write one post in one minute. So far so good but it really makes you think about how our world is able to accomplish anything when we run on such tight schedules.

Little Shop of Horrors

"In bid to curb alcohol-fuelled violence", Liquor Licensing director Sue Maclellan announced today that all-night bottle shops will have their hours slashed from being open 24/7 till just being allowed to continue serving customers until 11pm. As an ex-member of the hospitality industry in which my experience occurred mostly at a late-night club, I had to admit that this was rather shocking news.

I mean, think about it. How long as Australia been associated with drunken comments from politicians, louty lads mouthing off at constables on King st, or little teeny boppers getting their stomachs' pumped at the Royal every Saturday because they've had one too many alco-pops. To suddenly put in such a strict regime is well, quite frankly, revolutionaringly brilliant!

Due to my exposure to what really happens to people when they've had that little too much to drink, and being a prime example myself of somebody who enjoys the freedom of wandering down to an all-night bottle-o to pick up some booze for pre-drinks, I do believe that it's time for Australia to grow up a bit and stop being this poncy, party town where everyone just gets drunk all the time.

We are all way too focused on enjoying life but only when there's booze involved. There's the footy, the kid's graduation, celebrating your 18th birthday, spending all day at the cricket grounds. Even the old folks like to knock one back at the Bowls Club every Sunday afternoon. Our liferstyle is just way too embedded in the drinking culture and I believe that this small step will be the start to changing this sad fact about Australia.

So folks, if you're like me and want to keep your brain cells, support this movement by the Liquor licensing committee and I promise, Australia will get a whole lot better. Till then, don't worry. Be Happy!

Collaborating up a Storm.

Today's Herald Sun front page did not provide any of its readers with new or exciting information, rare for a Monday edition of a newspaper. I say this with absolute confidence that most of you would have either been watching the Storm vs. Eels game on Sunday afternoon or at least

The Art of Hypertexting - No, you don't need a mobile phone...

Semester Two at RMIT has been focused a lot on the ways in which we produce, distribute and consume media forms. In Auteurship and Narrative, we have been deconstructing films and looking at the ways in which they communicate certain ideas to us. In Broadcast Media, we have been creating TV segments for various lifestyle and current affairs shows whilst also producing radio documentaries for the hypothetical broadcast on ABC Radio National's 360 program. Finally, in Networked Media, we have been looking at the art of hypertext, the basic language of content for the web and the way in which we use this language in our everyday lives.

Hypertext is a very simple concept to understand but, as we humans like to do, many make it out to be more complicated than it actually is. The main reason for this is because hypertext documents give you CHOICES. Yes, you DON'T have to read that book from start to finish or watch a movie and have to wait for 2 hours before you can see the ending. Finally, hypertext allows you, the reader, to have an active role in the way you consume media.

The way hypertext achieves this enormous feat is in the way it links to other texts. That is basically the bottom line with hypertext. No longer is the reader held in a vice-like grip, only being able to steal away from the content for a quick tea break or a toilet trip. No, hypertext is pretty much the left-wing alternative of information access that allows you the freedom to explore data at your own will.

As mentioned, in order for this to happen, the data provided in the hypertext must be connected to other data. This occurs through the process of linking, which I explained the importance of in my previous blog a couple of weeks ago. This linking allows the reader to move back and forth from the main text inadvertently gaining more information than they would have had they been reading say a physical, text book which is fixed by an impermeable border. The linking involved with hypertext is extremely important as it not only imforms the reader in a way that books can't, but it also broadens the level of information available to the reader, something that could not happen with any normal book.

As mentioned earlier, hypertext is normally associated with complexity due to the ability of a hypertext document to provide options to a reader. Since the development of hypertext in the 1940s, many problems have begun to be associated with this process. Firstly, the ability of a writer to rightfully protect their content has become extremely difficult, with copyright becoming ever more prominent within the culture and society. This has been due to inexperienced and uneducated members of society creating their own hypertext content without following the linked data guidelines, which then leads into a copyright war. According to the Australian Copyright council, "The primary purpose of copyright is to provide an incentive for people to produce new works for the benefit of society as a whole". Eventually, without the application of proper borders and laws which hypertext attempts to dissamble, we will all end up recycling the same content over and over again.

The benefits of hypertext is that it allows the reader to also become the writer, creating their own experience of the text in the way they navigate through the data. Now, the reader has options as to how the intake certain data rather than ingesting it in a straight, linear fashion. Hypertext also encourages intertextuality which again encourages the increase in available data and the ability of the reader to access different perspectives related to the subject they are researching. Finally, hypertext allows a customized learning experienced within which the reader can cater their learning experience to their own needs, rather than attempting to conform to the rigid structure that a book or other fixed media form provides.

The expansion of hypertext across the online world has seen a great many developments into the way we access and produce content occur. Students are no longer confined to the dimly-lit interiors of their university libraries in order to find information about their latest chemistry assignments. Members of the Rotary Club can now access a variety of different perspectives on how to grow their rubarb due to the number of links available on their website to other rotary clubs. The expansion of knowledge is ever growing and whilst there are concerns over

the direction

in which it is growing, in essence, hypertext is the way of the future and should be embraced if the human race is to evolve again.

References: Gosse, H. Gunn, H. Swinkels, L. "Advantages and Disadvantages of Learning in a Hypertext Environment." Learning in a Hypertext Environment. 2002: Accessed: 04/10/2009. Available at: http://www.accesswave.ca/~hgunn/special/papers/hypertxt/advantag.html

What is Networked Media, really?

All semester, we've known that I have been studying RMIT's Networked Media course under the guidance of Seth Keen, one of the key lecturers in the Media department. However, recently, when I began researching into my Communication Histories and Technologies assignment, I realised I had absolutely no idea what Networked Media was about.

Ok, I knew the basics. That is, networked media is all about creating connections between people so that information can be shared easily and freely, much in the same way Berners-Lee intended the internet to work. However, that's about as fas as I can go. Maybe I haven't been listening in class. Maybe all those notes I made throughout the semester have been a waste of my time. Whatever the reason, I really needed to figure out what Networked Media was all about, otherwise I would fail my assignment.

So what did I find?

According to Jim Banister in Word of Mouse: The New Age of Networked Media, "Networked Media allow all points on a network to be producer, distributor, vendor, marketer or consumer, and connect to all other endpoints in an exchange or conversation". Basically, we create our own experience of the medium.

In Al Kovalick's Video systems in an IT environment : the essentials of professional networked media, "The term network...is limited to a system of digital interconnections that communicate, move, or transfer information". I'm sure you can all start to see some similarities developing now.

Finally, according to the European Commission document Networked Media of The Future "The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed through various networks like the Internet, WiFi, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a
convergent manner.".

So as you can see, according to 3 very reliable academic resources, networked media can be defined as a system whereby all types of medium can be accessed through a system of networks allowing the consumer to act not only as the consumer but also as a variety of other roles including creator, monitor and distributor. This allows the rest of the world to have the same rights to produce content as those Fat Cats at NewsCorp or Viacom, creating a more equal and free media information environment.

Well, I definitely know a lot more now than I did at the beginning of this post and hope you all learnt something too. Until next time, don't worry. Be Happy!

Project Brainstorm

Ok, so, I didn't really do too well with the whole "take home this A3 piece of paper, jot down ALL your ideas about your project, and then bring it to class on Monday". You see, I kinda got lost between the "take this A3 piece of paper home" and the "jot down all you ideas" points. Mainly because I had no ideas at this stage.

For those of you fortunate ones who do not have to complete a Networked Media Project worth 40% of your entire semester mark, here's the low-down:

Select one of the extracts below. Each is selected from the readings
provided in the dossier. You are to write a Web based essay that
addresses or responds in some manner to the extract. (Your essay
should include images and text). The finished work must contain a
bibliography. The bibliography must contain at least six academic
references. Only one of these references can be from the dossier.
The finished work will consist of multiple pages. It is expected that
some consideration would be given to hypertext design in the work.

As you can see, it's rather convoluted, espicially when you try to apply that to this extract taken from Lev Manovich's “Cinematic and Graphic: Cinegratography”:

This new cinematic aesthetics of density seems to be highly
appropriate for our age. If we are surrounded by highly dense
information surfaces, from city streets to Web pages, it is appropriate
to expect from cinema a similar logic. In similar fashion, we may think
of spatial montage as reflecting another contemporary daily
experience - working with a number of different applications on a
computer at once. If we are now used to switching our attention
rapidly from one program to another, from one set of windows and
commands to another, we may find multiple streams of audio-visual
information presented simultaneously, more satisfying than the single
stream of traditional cinema.

If your brain isn't spinning as much as mine is right now, then you're either Lec Manovich himself or Seth Keen, I believe the only two individuals who have the capacity to comprehend this statement. However, as I got into it, I realised that there were two words that kept popping out at me: cinema and density.

Now, for those of you who know me, I love the cinema. I adore my Authorship major class and movies are my number one pasttime. Which is why I chose this extract in the first place. I figured that I could use my cinema background to somehow word the essay into an exploration into the changing dynamics of cinema through ages, particularly in relation to the second word, density.

Again, for those of you who know me, I am a big advocate of bringing down the world-wide overpopulation dilemma and try and promote ways in which to combat it on numerous occasions. For me, I know that there is a link between the way the world has developed and what it can be defined as today, and the way in which cinema has developed and how it can be defined today.

Stories are more complicated with more parallel narratives or explorations into the "six degrees of separation" theory. Millions of dollars are spent on sets, costumes and actors to make the whole production bigger and better than the last great blockbuster. And in general, the films we are watching today are presenting us with ideas and themes so densely integrated into the plot of the movie that it may take us a good 2 days to figure out what it was all really about.

To get a better idea of what my train of thought was at this point, here is the mind map I did up literally 5 minutes before class:


Well ironically, as it turned out, Seth said that that was too complicated for what I was attempting to accomplish within the two weeks before the project was due but these were the main point that he said I should focus on:

As you can see, much, much easier.

He also said that I should look at linking these ideas to a film and suggested I rent out Blade Runner. So that's where i'm off to now. To get Blade Runner from the library. I hope its good because I'm really tired and I can't watch boring movies when I'm tired...I'll keep you posted.

Participation Week 11 - Final Submission

Participation Week 1
Participation Week 4

What have I done well?
When I began this course, I knew right away that I was going to need to participate fully throughout the semester in order to ensure that I completely understood all the skills and practices involved with the course. This was due mainly to my inexperience with the online media platform particularly in the realm of creating webpages and blogs.

Therefore, to ensure I achieved at a high level, I had to conduct research and investigations outside the Networked Media class to gain a fuller understanding of the concepts covered throughout the term. In relation to HTML coding and creation, I frequented many "How to create your own webpage" sites including W3Schools, HTML Dog and HTML Goodies. These sites were invaluable to my understanding of the HTML side to the course and without them, I do not believe I would have been able to have created my Project website at such a level as I did.

Further to this, I experimented frequently with the concepts and techniques involved with HTML experimentation. As with anything I come across that I do not understand in full, I find that practicing the basic processes and techniques involved with that activity to be a huge benefit to my understanding of that aspect of the course. With HTML and hypertext, I frequently practiced creating my own HTML webpages and mini-hypertext projects so as to refresh the skills I had learnt during the creation of my Project website.

I believe also that due to my inexperience with the practice of blogging, I also have succeeded. This semester, I decided that I would attempt to extend beyond the expectations of the blogging assignment by practicing blogging about subjects that were not directly related to my course. This led to the creation of my blogging website "The Optimist's Tasting Plate: A Positive Spin on Really Depressing S**t". In doing this, I believe that I learnt more about the processing of blogging than I ever could have achieved had I only blogged about subjects related to the course. Also related to my blog, I have tried to ensure that I create at least 3 to 5 blogs per week although I recently found that on some occasions, this was slightly harder to achieve than expected hence why I only have created 29 posts.

Finally, I attended all lectures and tutorials throughout the semester, bar one week, and believe that I fully contributed to class discussion and where possible, attempted to assist my fellow peers with any problems they may be experiencing whilst also endeavouring to understand the course myself.

What have I learnt to do better?
Considering that I had no previous experience with HTML or hypertexts before the beginning of this course, I believe that I have accomplished a great many things associated with this course. For instance, I have been able to create my first ever web-page from scratch, all be it with a great amount of help and anguish, but still I managed to produce quite an intricate and experimental hypertext essay using HTML coding. I also learnt how to use CSS and prefer this method of altering the look of my HTML pages than the traditional method of using tables and configuring codes.

In terms of participation, I think that I have learnt not to allow myself to fall behind in class by continously asking questions related to problems I have encountered or aspects of the course I have come across that I have not understood in full during the class. In doing this, I believe that I have been able to participate much more adequately than had I merely said that I would figure it out for myself and then found that really, I was unable to understand the concepts on my own, further causing me to fall behind. It took me a while to realise this but eventually, I learnt that all I had to do was ask for help.

What could have I done better?
If I had had my way, I would have definitely placed more emphasis on understanding the concepts and ideas behind the use of HTML and hypertext and the reason for its existence. I believe that its all well and fair to say that I am able to use the HTML codes but at the end of the day, I do not believe that I actually understand the reasons behind why they have been created that way. If I have time, I may try to research that later in my blog. I also would have liked to have created more posts for my blog as I believe this would have helped me reach a greater learning level of the process of blogging.

Facebook FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions you may have about Facebook:

1. What is Facebook?
A: Facebook's main function is to provide an avenue for naturally unfocused students to practice procrastination. According to our statistics, Facebook user numbers increase around June and November of each year which bizarrely enough, coincides with the examination timetables of most universities and schools.

Facebook also functions as a place for people who wish to stalk their friends without wanting to look too much like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. This as a result has coined the term "Facebook stalking" which involves the process of continually checking your friends Facebook pages at least 10 times in one day to note any updates to their social activities. An example of this would be with Lisa and Sarah. Lisa wanted to see if Sarah was going to be available for catching up on Thursday night this week. Instead of asking her in person or even sending a simple text message, she checked her Facebook events page to see that Sarah was already going to be attending the Toga Party that night. The next time Lisa saw Sarah was on Friday morning. When she asked Sarah how the Toga Party was, Sarah asked her how she knew about it. Unsurprisingly, Lisa received quite a weird stare from Sarah when she said that she had Facebook stalked her to find out.

2. Why does it matter whether I have one friend or 3,000?

Facebook likes to encourage people to believe they are popular based solely on the amount of people in their friendship list. By classifying their account as "In Progress" when they only have 143 friends, Facebook labels those they deem to be underdeveloped hence the expression "In Progress". Its basically a nice way of saying "You are a loser and you should get more friends, NOW!"

This phenomena has also instigated the bizarre practice of people only becoming "official" with their partners only until they have changed their Facebook relationship status. An example of this relates to Sam and Leila. Leila and Sam have been seeing eachother for a while now but when asked if they were going out, neither one could give an answer. Both said that they were unsure about what their "relationship label" i.e boyfriend/girlfriend, exclusive etc, was because Facebook had not determined it yet.

3. Why should I use Facebook?
Facebook gives people the false sense of security that they actually have a social life. By saying "I'll talk to you on FB chat" or "I'll write on your wall", we believe that we are actually having real conversations with our friends. Similarly, face-to-face gossip relays into commenting on people's statuses, photos, wall posts and various other activities that you can complete on Facebook. This allows people to believe that they are interacting with their friendship circle when the reality is, they are merely making comment on it. Finally, Facebook gets everyone on the internet at pretty much the same time on various evenings i.e 7:00pm Monday night, so that the government does not need to worry about spending money on providing youth centers or other creative outlets for them.

Considering Copyright

Ok, so it took me a while but eventually, I knew I would have to hop on the Copyright bandwagon that everyone else has so diligently blogged about during the course of this semester. To be honest, I believe that the topic of Copyright has never really interested me and hence, that is the reason why I could not be bothered to address in on my blogging site but recently, I had an experience that was similar to what one may call "a breach of copyright".

For those of you who do not know me, I love to write for film. My most prized possession is my ideas diary which I am constantly writing in, regardless of how convenient a time it is. This book is literally the most valuable thing I own and no amount of monterary value could see me torn apart from it (I realise I really shouldn't be revealing just how amazing this book is to totaly strangers on the internet who may try and steal it, but I have faith in you all that you wouldn't do that).

The reason why I brought this particular facet of my personal life into this post though is to demonstrate my annoyance at recently stumbling upon Rowan Woods' new film, Winged Creatures, starring Dakota Fanning, Forest Whittaker, Kate Beckinsale and many more. The film delves into the psyche of the human mind from a group of people who have all experienced the same type of emotional trauma, in this case, a random shooting in a Los Angeles Diner.

I was so shocked when I read the synopsis for the film that I think I very nearly fainted (which I never do by the way) and wanted to hurl my Ideas Diary out the window (I didn't don't worry. There is no point in scrounging around outside my balcony to try and find it). You see, two years ago, an idea came into my head for a feature which explored the ways in which humans react to the same tragedy, caused by a hold-up, at a diner, in Los Angeles. To make it even creepier, I worked on Rowan Woods' last production, Three Acts of Murder. Spooky ey?

Now, don't get me wrong, I am in no way insinuating that Mr Woods "stole" my idea and that this can give me ample leverage to sue him for copyright infringement. But it did beg the question:

"Is it possible to copyright a thought?"

I consulted my notes from Lecture 5 of this semester and unfortunately, realised I had already answered my own question weeks ago. According to Shaun Miller, our guest speaker for the day

"You get copyright automatically once you create the work. It does not have to be registered."

"Great!" I thought. Now it would seem that I actually have a basis for suing Rowan Woods. That was until I went on to read a bit more:

"Two criteria has to be meet
1. It has to be original
2. It has to be in a material form (written down or be in a hard copy form)

A verbal idea for example that is not written down or in a material form cannot be protected with copyright.

Bummer. Well there goes that idea.

But wait!! Didn't I say before that I HAD written my story idea down two years ago for a LA diner, hold up movie similar to Rowan Woods' Winged Creatures?
(Scrounges around room desperately trying to find book...)

*5 minutes later*

As it turns out, I DID write down my idea so now, it would seem, I can sue Mr Woods for copyright infringement. However, its when I start to research into copyright a little further that I realise that maybe that's not the best idea.

First of all, I would need to get myself a lawyer. That alone would cost me anywhere between $75 to $300 an hour! From there, I would probably spend nearly $100,000 in legal fees just to get my case to the Supreme Court.

Hmm.. maybe another time.

Well, for those of you who were like me and had never considered copyright law, I hope this post has helped. Till next time, don't worry. Be happy!

Lucky to be alive

After "picking up" The Age this morning (i.e nicking it from outside the security department at RMIT), I wasn't suprised to see that yet again, another depressing, heart-wrenching, overally emotionalised report had been placed on the front page. The story this time was about the recent sentencing of Leigh Robertson, a man who was found guilty of murdering Tracey Greensbury in April last year. According to the article, Robertson had previously committed a murder back in 1968 involving his ex-girlfriend Valerie Ethel Dunn. He had been spared the death penalty at the time because of a campaign to save another murderer at the time, Ronald Ryan. In short, had it not been for the action of Governor Sir Rohan Delacombe, "Tracey Greenbury would still be alive".

And that is where I step in.

Firstly, newspapers are not bloody fortune tellers. Who are they to say that Tracey Greensbury WOULD be alive today? They have no idea of the lifestyle she lead, the people she knew, the things she did each day. For all we know, she could have been a drug addict, crazy drunk who was going to end up either in a wheel chair thanks to the aid of a tree or overdosing in the same manner as Anna Nicole-Smith.

But I'll excuse myself purely for this experimentation. Lets give Tracey the benefit of the doubt. Lets say she was your girl-next-door, your cookies and cream, sweet as sugar, charming young girl who gave to charity and never ate chocolate after dinner. The reality is The Age still could not have predicted if she would still be alive today even if she had such a lifestyle.

People die all the time. Its a fact of life. Some die in more pleasant circumstances, like in their sleep. Some die in more distressing events, like in a car crash. And some die at the hands of others.

In the end, we can not decide the fate of somebody purely by saying what could have been. If anything, Tracey's death was a blessing in disguise for not only the women Robertson raped in 1983 but for Valerie Ethel Dunn, the original victim in this whole saga. Tracey was the straw that broke Robertson's back and there is no way now that a parole board with any sense would let this monster out in the public again.

And so my dear readers, I beg you.
Do not cry.
For Tracey's death was no lie.
Though she suffered at the hands of another,
We can safely say it saved another,
And it was this courage and bravery that was needed to set Val free.

I thought you might all like a little something different to spice up your day. Until next time, don't worry. Be Happy.