Sorry...another e-mail forward...but I only share them because they're good. (Thanks Ryan for this one!)

Kinda makes you think about what kind of a world we are creating for children of the future...

Scott.

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Congratulations are in order if you lived as a child in the 60's, 70's or even early 80's. Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a ute on a warm day was always a special treat. Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof
lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in
the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before dinner time. No one was able to reach us all day. No mobile phones. Unthinkable.

We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soft drink but we were never overweight...we were always outside playing. We shared
one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on pay TV, video tape movies, surround sound, personal mobile phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and
knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

We played footy down the park and not everyone got picked to play. Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with disappointment..... Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat
the same grade.....Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own.

Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

Congratulations!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

OK - Time to quit procrastinating and actually write a real update on here. Here's some of the things that I've been up to recently…

- Had a telephone interview for the UNESCO Journal about the Growing up in Cities project in Frankston earlier this week. It's been ages since I've done any work with that so I was surprised to hear about it all of a sudden. Hoping to get a copy of the article in the next few days e-mailed to me.

- Did a photo shoot this morning outside the new Safer City Centre in Frankston for the article with the police and a few other people from local council. We were in the middle of taking these photos when out of the blue, Christine Nixon; the Chief Commissioner for Victoria Police walks on past, so naturally we grabbed her and managed to get her in a few shots.

- Had coffee with a mate of mine, Adam, who works at Skills Plus; a group does a range of things with young people. He's looking at doing some work on boys in education which seems really interesting. Things are still in the planning stages at the moment, so I'm looking forward to hearing more about it.

- Finalised my review of the draft Frankston Youth Strategy yesterday. Hopefully they will take some of my comments on board.

- Borrowed "Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat" the other day on video. I've been asked to co-direct this year's education faculty musical so figured I should borrow it and get some idea of what it’s all about. Really need to get organised with that and start making some arrangements…

- Bought Adobe Photoshop the other day… Just gotta learn how to use it now…

- I joined a gym ! Been a few times, just alternating between weights and cardio. I've been good so far, managed to get about 4 sessions in each week…although I wonder how long that will last once Uni heads back…

…and somewhere in between all that I also managed to have my 21st birthday. What a ripper of a night that was. (Did you know that TIG sends you this funky e-mail card thing on your birthday ??? I thought that rocked !!!)

So…long overdue…but an update never the less….

…to be continued……