Most times when I come here to write something, I don't really feel like it. But I force myself to. Because in a country like Australia that doesn't really have a culture of intellectual thought and doesn't in any way promote the need to think (sounds simple but it's actually the least simple thing in the world), it's important to motivate yourself to think. To have these intellectual thoughts. To question, and to let your mind wander from the mundane daily thoughts to the important things. It's hard to explain what's important and what's not, because there isn't much which is universally important in the world, or even in one country. And on top of that I'm not much of a writer. But I believe the one thing that needs to happen in every culture, and in every person, is active intelligent thought. THINKING. THINK. Yearn for more, ache for ideas, knowledge is power. Get powerful. Sometimes in Australia I feel like a kid growing up in a poor household, a kid who, say, wants to learn how to play the piano. The thing is, his parents can only afford a crappy guitar, and the sheet music he gets is limited and some of the time he's wrong because he's self taught. And the other downer is that most kids in this situation would probably just give it up. He has the intent, the motivation, the inherent talent, but he lacks the resources. I want to learn more, I want to better myself, I want to be able to hold intelligent conversations just for the fun of it! But, and this is a bit odd for me, some things you can't learn from books, you can't learn from the internet, you can't self teach. You need people. You need to talk things over, you need to discuss things and open your mind, you need a good teacher. The thing is, most Australians are like the majority of kids in the example. They gave up. They don't think as much as they should, there isn't a culture of intellectual thought. There's a culture of 'oh yay we don't live in a third world country and we're nice guys, life will be good'. And it annoys the hell out of me. I sound all high and mighty on my golden throne up here don't I? The thing is, I'm not claiming to be smarter than all of them, heck I'm definitely not, far from it. But the thing that separates people like me, and people like them, is that I WANT to learn more, I have the INTENT, but lack the resources, the culture that some other places in the world have. People are so important to me for this reason. They can teach you so much, even if they're just triggering or promoting thoughts in your own head. Your mind wasn't meant to be shut off and ignorant, it wants to question things, it wants to learn. All you have to do it let it.