I started noticing recently that my mom is loving her niece more than her own daughter. I mean her niece (my cousin) went away to spain for a year (with her family) and my mom was so loving, caring and always wanted to talk to me, we’d go the the movies, shopping and well other Mother Daughter Stuff it was great. Then when her niece (my cousin) came back from spain last may she was all like “oh gemma my special girl i missed you so much!” and hugged her i didnt mind at all because i just thought it was a year i bet after a few days it’ll be fine again

. . .

But it wasn’t my own cousin started to replace me i know she’s only 13 and i admit shes a bit more mature than me but my own mother chooses her over me. At first i just thought i was insane but when i woke up in last november my mom and cousin (her niece) just came in from shopping, my mom even bought her new clothes, a ipod and a puppy honestly i’ve been asking for a puppet for i dont know long and my mom always said “i dont have the money” but yet my cousin got one just when asked. I know it sounds stupid but am i being replaced?

I actually got hurt yesterday because she stayed over.

My mother and her are downstairs watching a movie so i went down and said mom what are you doing? she was like “go back upstairs you can’t watch this” so i walked over and the box said for 13+ hello im 16 years of age, so i thought she was joking at sat down beside Gemma but she snapped she was like “Go Back Up The F**King Stairs!” so i just looked at her and felt like this tightening feeling in my gut and chest so i just walked out of the room and bak upstairs, but when i was only half way upstair she was like “gemma my little G wanna watch a horror movie now?” i nearly started to tear up. Then my mom came upstairs and shouted at me for no reason i just ignored her and nodded then she said “why can’t you just be like gemma!” thats when i lost it and snapped WHY ARE YOU PICKING HER OVER ME THEN!? WHAT DID I DO WRONG TO YOU!? she just came over and lashed me across the face, she never did that before in her life i was shocked and said just said “Because your an ungrateful little girl, you show absoutle no repsect for me! you know what? I don’t care about your life anymore your bloody 16 get a job!” then she walked out. . .What was that for? i only ignored her and yes i fought with her a few times but honestly. What happened to my old mom? the one that always cared about me? that would never even touch me in her life?……..

Also I read a part of your story, and I gotta say I love it. It’s almost 2 AM now, so I’m not going to read it entirely. I’m not really a writer, so I might be wrong, but comparing stuff is suck-ish. (sorry I’m to tired to give an example).

That is all.

The double glass doors at the front of the building were tinted black. They were massive, like the entrance to some early century monastery. I was standing outside smoking my last cigarette. I crumbled the sad empty package with it’s surgeon general warning and threw it into the garbage bin next to me. The sun was steadily going down. The wind was the quite whispers of ghosts and the growling in my stomach was a reminder that I had skipped yet another meal. Somewhere in the distance a car backfired.
What was the point of all this? I wondered.
What was I doing here? when would the Nazis running this failing enterprise, known as humanity, realize that we’re so knee deep in shit that we have no choice but to kick off a few nuclear black cats and start over.
I didn’t know it, but I was smiling then.
oh yes, I thought. We could sleep in caves until the break of dawn and travel the vast country side hunting for game. Naked six figure earning c.e.os cooperating with chauffeurs and McDonald cooks. All armed with slings and spears, united by necessity. A pure brotherhood brought upon by hunger and desperation.
I checked the time. There was nothing but a naked wrist with a pale discoloration. The crime scene chalk outline of a cheap Casio watch which now was owned, along with my TV and cd walkman, by Big Phil’s house of trade and pawn. “We’ll rape you and smile as we do it.”
I was smoking the butt now. I flicked it and went inside.

The inside of the building was fresh, well lit and almost inexplicably larger than the outside would lead you to believe. There was no security guard or secretary with rainbow colored, manicured shovels for nails. Just a man, a janitor by the looks of his faded blue jumpsuit, moping the floor. He moved nimbly about even though he appeared to be in his mid fifties.
“Excuse me..”
He looked up. His eyes were deep set and curious.
“Yes, sir.. How may I be of assistance?” He asked, smiling.
His voice was soft and calm but in it you could sense overwhelming confidence.
“See…” I started “I don’t have an appointment, but I wanted to see if I could have a minute with the man upstairs. You know, if it’s possible. If he’s not too busy.”
“Too busy?” His laughter was deep and booming. “No, no, no, of course not. Walk this way.”
The elderly man in the faded blue jumpsuit led me upstairs, into a corridor.
My stomach was still rumbling. I wanted to ask him for a cigarette but at the last second decided not to. Even if he had one he probably wouldn’t give it to me. People now and days don’t care about anyone but themselves. All over the world minds are being shut down and reconditioned to follow and consume. Men and women are incarcerated in their homes, prisoners to their lives. Our culture has raised perfect slaves. An entire race of sheep too comfortable to question, too entertained to think and too self centered to realize that ninety percent of the world is suffocating and breaking under the weight.
Finally we came to a door.
He opened it and welcomed me in.
“Go ahead and take a seat.”
The office was small. A large desk was stationed in the center. On it was an ancient type writer, a Garfield paper weight and a medium size crystal bowl filled with an assortment of colorful candies. There was a large executive chair on the driver side of the desk and an identical one for the guest.
On the walls were hundreds of pictures. Literally hundreds. Pictures of dogs. Pictures of little boys playing baseball. Of birthday parties and weddings. There were Polaroids of first days of school, of promotions, engagements, slumber parties. There were pictures of trees, flowers, stars, houses, cars, streets, and Chinese food buffets. Some were in black and white, others in crisp colorful high definition.
“Now, how can I be of assistance?”
I hadn’t noticed that the elderly man with the warm smile and the curious eyes had taken off his jumpsuit and was now sitting in a navy blue business suit across me.
“I..”
There was that smile again, “candies?” He asked. Pointing to the glass bowl and it’s colorful content.
“Uhhhh, oh..yeah, thanks.”
I grabbed a red jolly rancher and quickly put it in my mouth.
“Another one for later” he continued.
“Yes, thank you.”
So, how may I help you?
“Short staffed?”
“Excuse me?”
“never mind.” I replied.
“I have a question and I was wondering if you could help me.”
“Well, I’ll try my best.”
He was leaning forward now.
“I want to know why were here? What’s the meaning of life?”
“Ahhh”, he relaxed back into his chair. “Yes, that one is classic, indeed.”

Instant Replay in Baseball
By:Nick Montesano

It’s the bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, and there’s a man on second base. The batter hits a screaming ground ball between the first baseman and second baseman. The runner from second is running as fast as he possibly can to get to home plate before the throw from the right fielder gets there. The right fielder throws a one bouncer into the catcher’s glove, the catcher applies the tag and… “YOU’RE OUT!” Game over. Although everyone in the entire stadium and everyone watching on T.V knew that he was safe, he is out and the game is over. Now this could have been the tying run, or winning run to send a team to the playoffs. But because of the umpire’s blown call, all the season is for nothing. This problem could be fixed with the expansion of instant replay. Instant replay should be expanded to cover all questionable plays in baseball except for balls and strikes.

As other sports have become more friendly to instant replay, the calls for instant replay in some form are getting quite strong and Major League Baseball cannot fight it anymore. Certainly the NFL has had success with its instant replay and challenge rules, which no doubt plays a large role in pressuring Major League Baseball to expand the system. One play could change a game, and one game could change a season; that is why it is so urgent to expand the flawed system. Now stated in the previous paragraph, that specific scenario could diminish a team, and maybe send a team back home from the playoff journey that they have been playing all season for. “I can tell you that as a player, the No.1 thing you want is to get the call right. This is especially true in the big games.” – Paul Splittorff, who is an ex-Major League baseball player. A system that includes 2 challenges from each side, and is allowed to be used on all controversial plays that don’t include strikes and balls that are being pitched, could fix the problem that fans and General Managers have been dying to find a solution too.

The implementation of the replay system has started off as a limited manner in baseball. Major League Baseball approved use of instant replay only in the case of whether a ball is a home run or not. The review could be brought on by a question of if the ball actually went over the fence or if there is a question as to whether there has been fan interference. The expansion of instant replay would provide more accountability for umpires. It was theALDS between the Yankees and Twins with no outs in the 11th inning and the game tied 3-3, Minnesota’s Joe Mauer hit a ball down the left field line. Melky Cabrera couldn’t quite get to it and the ball bounced fair by about 4-6 inches before bounding into the Yankee Stadium stands for what would have been a ground rule double. But despite being in the correct position to make the right call,Cuzzi called it foul and sent Mauer back to the plate. Umpire Phil Cuzzi needs to be held accountable. “Accountability is something that everyone else has to have at their day job, so why not umpires too?” (Smith), a sports writer for “yahoo-sports.com”, states the ideas that accountability is also necessary for Major League Baseball umpires.

One of the main arguments against instant replay in Major League Baseball is that it will slow down an already slow game. Now the average running time of a Professional baseball game is about 2 hours and 54 minutes, that is a long time. But the instant replay factor wouldn’t add to that statistic by much at all. In the National Football League, officials usually have to look at a number of aspects to the play that was being challenged. “Did he have possession of the football?” “Did he get his feet in bounds?” “Did he cross the plane of the end-zone?” The only questions thatMLB umpires would have to decide is, “was he out or safe?” Because of the simple viewing and deciphering process, the expansion of instant replay wouldn’t add much to the slowness of the game. “You really want to take as much human error element out of it. Yes, there would be a disruption, like there is in football. But I think most players would agree it would be worth it to get the call right.”- John Cruck (ESPN.com)

Another argument has been stated by many fans, sports writers, and ex-players: “won’t instant replay ruin the tradition of baseball?” Well let me answer that question with another question, “is it really worth it not to make the needed change that will eliminate an umpire blowing a game, just because of a tradition?” I do agree that the special aspect of baseball is the umpires blowing calls, and just to see the manager on the losing end of the call run out to the umpire and kick dirt all over his shoes. But having 2 challenges for each team would eliminate those end of the game blown calls, that could make a difference between a win and a loss. Tradition s

I think Hird,Voss and Buckely would be great also , they have all won brownlows and have so much experience.

Yesterday (21 Aug) was an unfortunate example. We get unending coverage of the womens 20km walk which would have been great had we been watching Jane Saville, but we weren’t. Every so often we crossed to the men’s 10km swim where we had a medal chance sitting in the top pack the whole time. the Melissa Wu diving semi was a delayed telecast (pse tell us)…the website had the rounds published well before the telecast finished. Was it delayed to cover the Brazil/US beach volleyball ?? And then, after a fantastic effort by the women’s water polo, we only see the last two girls get their bronze medals…this would have been bitterly disappointing for the families back home. Those games that are covered in full (some basketball) suffer from ads being on for the first minute or so of quarters…it doesn’t happen with the AFL coverage. And what of some of the rowing coverage where we joined live races part way through ?

Have Channel 7 thought of split screening telecasts….if they must talk while events are on, then at least show them in a small screen simultaneously…..or show two events together.

The continual ads are an accepted evil of sponsorship requirements however here are a few thoughts for those who sponsor: saturation advertising wears thin after a short time. I won’t be changing to Commonwealth or Bendigo banks in a hurry nor going out to buy Red Rooster. I would give more credit to an organisation that allowed coverage to continue ..that is, paid for space but kept the coverage running and have it recognised as such: (flyers, under the screen scrolls, watermarks etc)

SBS has not been blessed with the big sports, but at least you get the whole thing (cyclingtim etrial, road race, water polo etc). Come on Channel 7 you can do better…the olympics is about the competition, the competitors, the drama, the tragedy…not the commentators and sideline experts.