Hello Jodan,
I'm sending this letter to you, Sam Harris and Douglas Murray, and hoping that it will reach at least one of you directly as I believe it could move all of your individual viewpoints as well as your future conversations forward. I'm sending it in the interest of possibly alerting you to at least one country, the one I grew up in, which seem to have completely evaded your research efforts and leaving you all, it would seem, agree on one, to me a very curious and strange point, that a successful and happy society without a (major) role of religion in it does not exist or have ever been tried. Sam is sure it would work, you say it did not work in Stalin's Russia case (you also add Hitler, who clearly was not an atheist and his most brutal forces had "God is with us" written right on their belt buckles which pretty much destroys the non-religious assertion), but none of you seem to be aware that it worked and is still currently working already very well.
I respect all of you greatly. I identify most with Sam's points of view at matters - perhaps unsurprisingly given the country I grew up in and the personality I am - and least with you Jordan, but that's only because of the religious part of views he seems to insist on deeply. I admire Jordan for your abilities to reason and, most of the time, reason so for clearly logical things. I admire the other two for the same reason without the need for that exception.
I've watched a great many videos featuring you 3 plus of course other very intelligent people like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and others in the past few years. The one thing that always keeps surprising me is the point where the discussion gets to the point of arguing about "how viable would a theoretical society" built basically purely on reason and no religion look like and what state it would end up in. Not even Christopher Hitchens seemed to ever have any other answers than a very good, but yet still purely theoretical arguments regarding such a society. From all of those occasions in those conversations, I am basically forced to believe that you all guys, however much-traveled and intelligent, have completely missed at least this one real-life, well-working example, which is my country - The Czech Republic. I think that if you haven't and if you then talked to a few people who grew up there at least at the time when I did - born 1973 - you would find not theoretical, but very real examples of a great many people who not only grew up completely without any religion or any stories coming from it and yet, still grew up very nice, intelligent and maybe surprisingly to you all VERY HAPPY people.
I'm not sure how many people exactly like me you would find because I really set up my life to be very happy, not even knowing how exactly stress would feel - I just maybe get hints of what it may feel like when I'm cold, which is why I have relocated to Queensland, Australia a long time ago - but you would definitely find heaps and heaps of people who are undergoing the same stresses in life as in any other western-type society with handling family, work and the other aspects of life, yet without any regard whatsoever to notions of any religion or any need to any type of any kind of comforting mythical stories.
That, of course, is not to say that many of us do not enjoy fiction books or entertaining stories in the form of books, tales, or other arts. We can enjoy it all the same with the full knowledge that those are fiction.
All the above is the result of the socialist/communist system we grew up in which not necessarily stifled but certainly did not promote any religion. It is the one thing I am grateful for to that system I grew up in, apart from a very happy childhood since nobody's parents had existential struggles. I do believe that there were efforts to eradicate the religion, many of which may probably be identified as forceful, but we've always kept our history including its buildings like castles and churches as opposed to destroying them, which would be an extreme way to get rid of something. Even clergy was tolerated and some very tiny minority of mostly the old-times people were attending services even at those times.
The actual real fact of life was, however, that we never were taught about religion apart from being a part of history, including ours. And we would still go on school trips some of which may include admiring a great cathedral purely for its architecture and art.
Strangely, even the name of the "person" who brings the presents at Chrismas (which in the Czech language is called "vanoce", which has nothing to do with Christianity - at least not obviously - I did not study its etymological roots) is "Jezisek", which, funnily and very interestingly enough I personally only realized when I was about 14 years old, means "a little Jezis = Jesus - "little" here meaning a kid, a baby). So the presents were being brought by a baby Jesus and yet, for almost all of us it was just a name, same as the west had Santa Claus or any other name you could use for a fictional character. It had NO religious meaning whatsoever to us, nor any story was attached to it at all. It was (and is for us) simply a holiday with the ritual of decorating a tree and having a very nice, extraordinary family dinner before (mostly the kids) would enjoy the present unwrapping under the tree. (Yes, our Christmas all happen on 24th Dec). We had no idea that it was originally a celebration of the winter solstice or that it was then stolen as a Christian holiday. We enjoyed it and frankly still enjoy it for the same family reasons, all the same. Actually now knowing that it has been for the past many hundreds of years appropriated by a religious cult if anything taints the experience. It probably would not if that cult was a thing simply belonging and part of the history of "less educated" times of us humans. The fact that this magical thinking still sways great sections of global citizens' everyday lives is what taints Christmas for some us Czechs. It surely does for me. I feel more at ease with it knowing that actually it is the winter solstice celebration. I would surely be more fine with it if it was just a date that someone decided to arbitrarily put on a calendar rather than thinking of it in terms of a cult that brutally killed and tortured so many innocent people in history and still thinks that magical thinking is just a fine idea.
Similar to Christmas, we in the Czech Republic also celebrate Easter (another holiday appropriated for itself by Christianity as I learned much later in my life). We also enjoy it purely for the tradition or maybe just for the fact that it is a day off work :). In Czech, a part of the tradition regarding Easter is that man create a nice looking weaved supple "sticks" from the branches of a willow tree, and in the morning we go around as many girls/women we know as possible to "hit" their behinds with it so that they stay young and supple too. I'm sure that in today's "politically correct" society many would find something very wrong with it, but the simple fact was that it ended up being a very nice and very social day for everyone. (By the way, I never knew that anybody would consider women as any lesser than men. I grew up in a society where had no reason to even suspect such a thing.) In the afternoon the girls and women had the right on the other hand to pour buckets of water over the men's' heads, even though that part was never really practiced. (At least in our parts of the Czech Republic. There are more traditional areas.) I suppose that is because it is not as convenient to run around with buckets of water around than it would be with sticks. Also, we - boys and men - would get a colorful ribbon bound to the ends of the sticks by each female we've visited and "paid off" - we don't really call it hitting or beating. It would leave the omitted girls and women feel neglected rather than happy not to get hit. I'm sure that the absolute majority of us were always as gentle as myself and my friends in performing that "stick-and-behind" ritual. I actually never wanted or was planning to do this whole thing, but I had a friend who always came on the morning of Easter Monday to my home with a couple of those "sticks" - one for himself, one for me, and basically had to talk me into joining him every single year. And it always ended up being one of the best days of the year, finishing in a mixed group having a great time (including a bit of drinking in our later teenage years). It was very nice and social and NOTHING to do with any religion or anything other than "this tradition actually turns out to be fun" and we did not need some deep explanation for it that I'm sure Jordan would try to dig out at this point. It was the same fun we can end up with when we come up with brand new social events, out of which, when they turn out fun, we often try to make a tradition of too. All that being completely atheist and secular. I really don't understand what seems to be so hard to comprehend even to Sam - not that he could not seem to be able to imagine it - clearly, he very much is - but that it actually has already been tried and is still going on successfully. Admittedly though, traditions like the Easter ones in Czech are fading as the capitalist style of life requiring most of us to work more and more puts a strain on that too, together with an overload of other modern culture distractions obviously.
In any case, my point is that what Sam is saying, what Christopher used to say and others too, is NOT a theoretically working "utopia", it IS a reality for millions in just my own country of origin and we suffer no ill effects from it!
On the contrary, despite being a tiny nation of 10 million people we have (even though thanks to globalization, corruption, and not in small part thanks to the totalitarianism of the European Union) we are loosing great industry and very clever people. We used to be (before EU) totally self-sufficient in basically everything, were exporting fighter jets, cars, atomic reactors, locomotives, food, and much more to the rest of the world, gave the world some amazing people and inventions like contact lenses, nanofibres, the lighting rod, or even small things like sugar cubes, pencils or Koh-i-Noor snaps for our jeans :) and we needed no religion or the related stories to do that. And that is the one thing I'm happy the "communist" regime gave us - true freedom from religion, freedom from bullshit stories if you pardon me. It lets us concentrate on interesting and important stuff in life instead of trying to solve mute problems like why are we here. We are, so enjoy it. I must say that without the religious ideas surrounding us that most of us don't even think about it as something to worry about. We worry about "we are here now, what can we do to live well" and some of us also "what can we do to leave my imprint on humanity". The more curious of us sure ask "how" did we get here and maybe do think about how in the great scheme of things we are totally insignificant, but I don't think it makes us unhappy. I know it does not make me unhappy for sure. I enjoy learning new things, discovering, making logical conclusions, and, apart from other things, being truthful to myself and others, which is probably why I'm also so happy in my life and have always been, which all of you I'm sure will very easily understand.
All of you guys seem to imply or straight away say that "sure, there is not a person who would not have major problems in life, who would not have "demons"" etc. Well, sure, I've encountered problems in my life. I'm solving software problems every day (I'm a software engineer) I've traveled around the world on a motorbike so I've encountered life-threatening situations, I've lost family members (fortunately for me just the ones who naturally died of old age, no tragedies so far, so yes, I've been lucky in that respect). But problems are here, to my eye, to be solved. They are a challenge, not a tragedy. They make life interesting. And demons? No, I do not have any. Things I regret? Maybe, a tiny little ones like not asking that beautiful girl on a bus for a coffee. But I've never done anything I would be ashamed of. That does not mean that I never failed of course. But I freely admit and not try to hide my failings so I have no demons. Am I really the only person in the world you think? I may be rare, but I'm sure I'm not alone.
Regardless, many, or basically I'd say almost all of my friends, much as they may have more normal everyday problems and stresses than I have (and it is not at all related to money - I'm not wealthy at all - we even still rent the place where we live), would tell you the same thing regarding the role of religion or religious stories in their lives and their decisions - NONE whatsoever.
The Czech Republic is very rich in culture too. Our country has one of the biggest concentrations of castles for example. I do not think that religion was necessary for those structures to be built for powerful people in our history. Yes, many, many churches too. Beautiful buildings. Some of them truly amazing, as some of the castles, too. And our secular society still builds and creates amazing things with no religion required for it. Just yesterday I was sent a link to a video about the biggest chandelier and at the same time, the biggest jewel ever built anywhere. (Link here if you are interested:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/AQ2udSvqx28 .) It could very well hang in a cathedral of some type. But it was built by a Czech company for a Saipan casino. Only human talent, work, and lots of money was needed to build this wonder. No religion whatsoever. So I'm pretty sure, Jordan, that you can stop worrying about losing culture if there was no religion. Sure, cassino may not be considered culture by many, but it is simply a fact of today's world that casinos are one of the areas where the money is. If you want to start to argue that we need religion as a way of extracting money from the population to build such marvels, as was historically exactly one of its functions and is one of the reasons those grand structures like great cathedrals exist, then fine. I would, like Sam, argue that it is possible to do without the pretense of magic, but at least that would be a simple point to defend. Not the only way though!! An example - and I'm sure there are also many modern ones too.. The National Theatre in Prague... It is a grandiose building with high ceilings covered with similar gold ornamentry and paintings to any cathedral you may find. It also has a huge painted curtain - a great painting of its own right. This all was built from money collected from donations of the citizens expressly towards building a national theatre, which was opened in 1881. The first idea came in 1844 at a congregation of Czech patriots. As far as I can tell no religion was involved. Certainly, none needed. And that great building is also a part of our and the world's registered cultural heritage sites.
So to summarize, the reason for this letter was to let all of you three guys know that you can stop only theorizing about a society without religion. Look at the Czech Republic especially before the Velvet Revolution (after which slowly more and more religion starts very slowly creeping in again), but where still today three-quarters of the population are completely irreligious. We are one of the safest, most educated, and happiest countries in the world. And if you look over the state ideology at any one time, where communism was making some people unhappy with restrictions on travel for example, and capitalism in its demands on sacrificing more of one's private / family time for work time, we are generally really happy people, nice to each other (without having to be threatened by hell or whatever other stupid magic idea), helping each other. And it is probably partly thanks to the LACK of any religion that we are that way. There is one less thing to partition us into opposing groups which argue about something they actually cannot even know.
Actually, that makes me think about my friends and people I know. I know and have experienced that my friends or even friends of my parents, for example, would (and in the past have) helped me when I really needed help, despite it being a great inconvenience for them. Yet, I was in similar situations when I only had a religious person to help me and they would not. It would seem to me that religious people like to listen to the stories that Jordan insists are shaping majorly their principles and behavior, rather than actually behave according to them. And then some feel great to tell you how good they are thanks to Jesus.
Ok, I think that concrete examples would be good here:
I know, that every time I go back to the Czech Republic for the summer I have offers from my friends to take me to the airport - both in Czech and in Australia (still from Czech friends interestingly enough). In both cases, it is over 100km and I do not want to inconvenience them if it is not necessary so I thank them and decline. But I know that even if I called them at three in the morning that I needed an urgent lift to the airport they would just tell me how long it would take them to pick me up.
Contrast that with this:
I've known a great person for 7 years and actually shared a house with her for 5 of those years. I consider her a very nice person and considered her a very good friend. I still visit her once a year or so when I have a chance, but thinking back on the story I'm about to tell you certainly makes me feel less worm towards her than I always thought she otherwise deserved.
So the story: I found a new life partner while again staying for the whole European summer in the Czech Republic. For reasons irrelevant to this story she could not join me permanently in Australia for the first few years of being together, so we were overcoming that problem by her periodically visiting me in Australia for 3 months, then we would not see each other for another 3, then I would go to Czech for 3 and a bit, again 3 months apart and then the cycle would repeat.
At the end of one of her stays in Australia with me, while I was still sharing the house with my friend, Jean, my partner was flying home the next day and I, shortly before that, decided I would actually fly back with her. I could not get a seat on the same flight so my flight was at 8 AM and hers the same day at 1 PM. My partner is a bit lost when traveling and she did not speak English at that time yet either, so we decided to travel the 150km to Brisbane in the evening before and arranged to stay with a friend there overnight. We were supposed to catch the second one of the only two trains that goes from that place to Brisbane daily. It was leaving around 9 PM. The nearest train station is about 8km from the place I lived in with Jean, who agreed or maybe even offered to take us to that train station, I can't remember that bit for sure. What is for sure is that once we got there it become clear that the train was not coming as the train tracks were not there and the workers currently working there under the floodlights confirmed that the trains were not operating on that track for the past 14 days and will not be going for another 14 more. I was amazed and surprised, especially after we got back home and I confirmed on the computer that the online time schedule directly on the Queensland Rail website still insists that there are no exceptions or delays and that that train is scheduled as per normal.
There was no other public transport for us to use from that place. So after another couple of hours of trying to figure out any other possibility of getting us there on time, I finally asked Jean if she would be so kind and took us to the airport (we did not want to bother the friend in Brisbane to sleep over anymore because we would arrive too late for that we felt) so that we could make our flights. Jean told us that "she would but that she promised her sister to accompany her to a church service the next morning and that if she took us she would be too sleepy for that the next day"..................
I probably don't have to say that I was a bit disappointed that someone I considered a friend and a good person would refuse to help us in a situation in which I would have no other safe viable option. I never analyzed it further beyond the disappointment. However, a couple of years later I was telling this story to a friend and he, I think very spot on, pointed out that "So she would rather go to church to listen to the preacher to tell her that she should be helping people rather than take the opportunity to actually help someone in a real need.". How is that for "Christian" values? I know my non-religious friends would not hesitate to help me in that situation as I'll give you an example of in a couple of lines.
Just to finish the story, Jean was "nice enough" to suggest that we can try hitchhiking on the highway (at 1 AM no less!!) and "kindly" offered to take us there. We had no other choice so we accepted. To start with, there were literally 2 cars in 40 minutes we stood there. Fortunately, the second car actually stopped for us, and also fortunately we survived that. I say the second "fortunately" since it was a German traveler who told us that he stopped because he needed someone to keep him awake since he has been driving at that point non-stop for 16 hours from Cairns. Needless to say that traveling in a car 20km over the highway speed limit with someone who is grossly falling to sleep is quite scary... The story still developed into having quite a few very interesting twists, but those are not relevant to this anymore.
So now a concrete matching example:
When I was 15 I was to travel by bus 150 km to my brand new high school. I was obviously gonna have to be staying at a boarding school there so I wanted to take an earlier Sunday bus to have a chance to choose my new bed. But after waiting over an hour over the scheduled time for the bus I concluded that it was not coming and I was going to have to take the late afternoon one. After returning to the bus station and waiting for that one for almost an hour again I finally figured out that it was actually a brand new holiday celebrating the two (religious - interestingly enough :)) men who managed to enforce the recognition of our language as a language recognized by the religion, based and thanks to which our writing was established. (Religion would not allow our writing if it did not recognize the language as being worthy.) It was never celebrated before as it was shortly after the Velvet Revolution so I had no idea. Anyway, the result was that there was no other bus that day and that not only I would arrive dead last to the boarding school, but I would also miss probably the important first half of the first day at the actual new school as a freshman since my dad was away somewhere at that time with our only car.
That evening, at about 10 PM, a neighbor and my parent's friend came to pick something up from my mum. He was surprised to see me still at home and so he asked how come? When we told him he said that we should have told him earlier because he would have taken me there. He also told us that he was supposed to be at work the next day at 5 or 6 AM so it was too late to drive me there now. I remember thinking that it is easy to say now if he can't prove he would have done it anyway. Three minutes later I hear him saying: "You know what, let's go, I'll take you there." It was a 3-hour drive one way!!! The Czech Republic is quite dense with towns and villages and there were at that time many quite large detours on the way, too. So this man would get home about an hour or two before having to go to work!
How big of a difference this is to a church on Sunday where you go by your own volition, you are not required to go and being able to take the highway instead of in that case basically the whole way, so that trip would have cost Jean 3 hours max!
So the person who is NOT compulsed to help me for fear of any hell or any other even slightly unpleasant result helps me for purely the good feeling that one gets from helping others by his own choice despite majorly inconveniencing himself is the one that actually helps me and the one that thinks of themselves as the chosen and the most kind people chooses to go listening about how kind they are rather than actually be. Does not that give you a pause? :)
Another example. I was renting a room in a home of another of my friends and I happened to accidentally either drop the clear plastic fridge bucket for fruits and veggies or drop something on it (I cannot remember), resulting in its cracking. The, for me absolutely obvious thing to do, despite that it was "just a crack" and the bucket was still capable of fulfilling its function (and in fact until this day I still use it in my garage to store stuff in), I went ahead and spent almost a whole day trying to find where I could buy the correct replacement and spent something like 60 bucks on it at a time I did not have much money at all. Just because it was a normal logical thing for me to do for the pure "golden rule" reason. And Jordan would maybe say "ha, see, Christian values". And I, same as Sam or Christopher or probably Douglas too, would say that that rule is very logical, self-evident, and much older than the Christianity that appropriates that too for itself. It is just logical. I did not ever need any kind of story behind it and definitely not one where I would be punished other than that others may start doing the same to me seeing me do that to others. And since I want others to be nice to me, I, quite logically and without complicated explanations that some try to fit to some ancient stories they happen to believe in, will behave nicely to them.
And now again, contrast this to a very similar situation the other way around, this time, however, the other person is a church-going Christian.
I now live in a nice big house, which we rent as I mentioned. For the past 10 years, it has been our home and we can only afford it because we are sub-letting one of its rooms directly connected to the main bathroom. And we do this because we fell in love with the house and felt immediately at home as soon as we inspected it. And we originally inspected it purely just as a point of comparison with other houses we went to see afterward because it was available for inspection first that day. Later, comparing it to the other houses, I realized we could make it affordable (same price as the others) by renting out just those two of the 4 rooms that were on the top of what we actually needed. So we did and it has been 10 years since.
We look for people who want to stay longer-terms. Last year, a guy from the Christian part of Nigeria was finishing his stay of over 2 years with us. He would go to church every Sunday without fail and was obviously a devout Christian. He was studying nursing and was working as well, earning quite good money too. In the home, we usually all fit in our big fridge together with our boarder. This one, however, said he needed more space so we bought an additional fridge for him. It was one of the smaller ones which still needs to be periodically defrosted. When we noticed that he is leaving the freezer to become overgrown with ice we told him that he will need to do that so that the fridge does not break. We asked him to do that several times over several months until the plastic hinge of the plastic freezer door broke by the ice pushing it out. It was obviously not even an accident. He would ignore that. So eventually I told him that now he, unfortunately, had to find a replacement freezer door for it because otherwise, the fridge will be consuming much more energy (and we are paying all the energy bills, the boarders have it included in a single unchanging rent amount, which is by the way cheapest in this area) and that it will freeze over faster and that the person after him will surely need the door, too. Nothing at all happened until he left.
I meant to force him to do that before I'd return his bond when he would eventually be leaving, but it happened just at a time when we were holidaying aborad and I forgot about the freezer door. So I remotely returned his full bond. Sometime after that, when he came to pick up some of his post that he still did not change the address for, I gave him the broken door and asked him if he could please finally get a replacement. It's been almost a year now and he tells me he did not find it. So I asked him obviously if he actually tried. He said he did. A couple of simple questions later it is clear that he actually did not even try but is happy to lie about it. So what exactly has the church taught him?? I know it has neither taught him for sure to be responsible for his own actions nor to be honest. Clearly. Qualities that I and all of my close friends who I grew up with, who have never been touched by religion of any kind, have.
I am not necessarily saying that these almost exactly one-to-one comparable examples are totally indicative of the difference of morals between Christians and completely irreligious people, but since it does fit pretty well with many others we see in history and also currently around us, I think it is time to stop theorizing about the necessity or even utility of religious values for modern people. I'm not disputing that religion does have utility for people who follow it, but it certainly is not the necessary or even important tool for people in general.
It seems to me that religion has a utility of a rock that you use to beat in a nail. Take the rock from me and you leave me with a hammer that actually makes much more sense, similarly to taking away the stories and threat of hell and replacing it with something that has been there all along - the genuinely nice feeling of helping someone even if I am otherwise not compelled by anything else than the great feeling and the very logical realization that I have a much better chance to be treated nicely if I treat everybody else nicely. And that I am much more likely to be helped by others if I unconditionally help them. And I may help someone who never helps me, but helps somebody else. And somebody I never helped may actually help me because he was also at some point helped or at least sees it as all so logical how this works.
Jordan, your well-researched arguments on many societal topics are great and helpful and make sense. But I must say that even though I heard a couple of ways you very interestingly matched biblical stories on some current situations or general human behavior, I also think that you are totally overcomplicating stuff in these cases and you are getting many, myself included, lost as to what you are in fact trying to do other than somehow trying to reconcile your Christian belief with current reality and as you just discussed during the talks with Douglas and Sam, smuggling the Jesus into it where really, it is not necessary at all, objectively.
I understand that it is important to many, you including, but it really is not necessary. We can very nicely do completely without it. As an exercise in reasoning it is, or can be, for sure interesting, especially for scholars like you. For us, normal people (or normal engineers like myself :)) it seems pretty pointless otherwise. And the case of the Czech Republic, I think, even takes a base from your case completely, even though I'm sure you could find connections.
As an engineer I can tell you I can map anything to anything if I put enough abstractions in between. But the simple truth is, that almost everybody in a real country that has been historically doing well, grew up a perfectly decent person, arguably in a bigger percentage more decent than the majority in much more religious countries. And we do not suffer. Again, I'd say we suffer less because we are not burdened by any traumas like worrying about ending up in hell.
Sure, in our folklore we have another tradition where St. Nicholas (we never used the "St" part, for us it was just "Mikulas") comes on 5. December together with one or more devils to our home and gives our children presents or coal if "they were not good". And yes, for most children the devils are scary and some parents use that to elicit the promise of being good "from now on", but I think that at least most parents (certainly mine) were not trying to persuade us these were real beings.
It was a (scary) theatre happening in almost everybody's homes. And as soon as you figure out those under the masks are just normal people you feel clever as a kid. And you feel like you've grown and maybe also that you outsmarted the adults who would not tell you straight away those are just people. When you are like 6, 7, or 8, you are looking forward to running outside with the Mikulases and devils despite sometimes still being scared by them if they play the role well. It is thrilling. But it never needed to be shoved down our throats as a reality and not even a story was needed.
We have folklore fairytales that feature devils punishing bad people, yes. But we do not need them to tell us what is right and what is wrong. We can figure that out for ourselves and the stories are just a nice entertainment, if done well. And yes, we can see the useful allegory in it. We would still, however, know quite naturally the difference between clear right and wrong, between hurting others and not hurting others. But we recognize the difference between entertainment and reality. We still enjoy stories all the same.
You do not need organizations that actually believe those, are exempt from paying taxes and are praying on those who cannot reason themselves out well enough or prevent themselves being reasoned in by these fantastical stories and the ability of the storyteller to manipulate. I'd say that the about 25% of people in the Czech Republic who identify themselves as somehow religious are exactly those types of people. Ones who severely lack logical thinking. I have an uncle and a stepdaughter both like that. Neither of them has very good reasoning ability and so they are hanging there to be hooked on by the use of fantastical and magical stories, despite the fact that they were not indoctrinated into it as children, which then makes it more understandable when even pretty intelligent people still have this illogical partition in their brain reserved for god.
OK, that's it. Quite a bit longer than I intended it to be, but I hope it will eventually reach at least one of you in person and maybe give you some more arsenal for good arguments. It is obvious that you are very busy people so I do not expect any reply at all, but it would be great to get something like: "Hey Marek, it reached me, thanks." so that I know that I haven't completely wasted almost the whole day today instead of fixing my server and getting back to my coding in which I'm so much behind.
Wish you all all the best.
Sincerely,
Marek Vsechovsky
Aside:
As I'm reading what I wrote after myself I realize that although not absolutely necessary to explain this, you may wonder if I'm not "telling you stories" since at one point I mention that I am a software engineer and in another talk about affordability of rent. Well, I really don't revolve my life around money. And since I very much enjoy my job and have large amounts of ideas, I'm trying to implement them running it as my own business. However, I am kind of a Wozniak without a Jobs, meaning that rather than marketing a finished product I immediately start working on the next one since I just can't wait to work on it, so I end up with no income to my business and so from time to time I have to accept a paid outside contract. Since my expertise is large and well valued, and since I am a very frugal person (if I compare myself to most other people who say they are too :) ) I only need to work for about 3 months to be able to live from that for the next two years developing my own ideas. That's why I'm still renting rather than owning. I do what I love, I spend as much time on it as I want and I live at a very nice place where I can take a 30-minute holiday jumping in the surf basically all-year-round, so I'm really happy.
It was a dark night, no moon. We’d seen a bit on the road today. A returning trip to Brisbane from Sydney on the inland highway. Less traffic and less speed cameras means two gents can move north in less time? Not really. Here’s why.
It was getting dark. At Tenterfield we turned right.
“Casino 159km” a sign by the road informs. That’s 100 miles on the Grandad Scale. Shouldn’t take much longer than 2 hours, with the hairpin turns, maybe three. We sped off into the night, through the farmland and onwards to Coolangatta for a stopover at Mum’s.
Our progress slowed not far out of town. The moonless night, the wet and lonely road, and the number of hairpin turns slowed us to a walking pace. Carefully, I followed the black road. No white lines. No streetlights. No white posts with red circles to guide my way through the remote bushland. Sandstone cliffs. Fallen trees. The wiper blades dancing helplessly against heavy rain. 159km of hairpin turns on a dark and stormy night.
“Years ago on a late night shoot somewhere in Victoria, it was frickin’ cold”
‘I suppose it would have been’ I think to myself
“Four AM, must have been minus two. The director sent me up inside this abandoned, rundown, dilapidated Sanatorium” he looks over at me. A master craftsman in the use of unusual words
“Yeah, this old hospital”, I slow the car for tight turn number 229, rain thumping the roof of the like a madman.
“There’s an old matron who still patrols the corridors.” Phil continues “she’s still running the place 100 years later”
The dark night throws yet another hairpin turn at me, visibility down to just a few metres. I guide the car into the valley.
“My job was to keep this wispy white curtain blowing through the window. Jo kept the lights on it in the dark and the other bloke kept the camera focused. All trying to get this one shot”
My concentration divided between the story and the dark road
“I went up, set up the curtain and the fan, one great big fuck off fan to blow the curtain on a still night. The curtain rod fell and up into the building I went. Again. This time I tied it on with some old wire. Falls again, up I go again. The fan falls over this time, up I go once more. This time I stayed up there. Curtain doesn’t flow right in the wind from the fan so I lean out the window to hear what the boys are saying downstairs. And maybe this is just autosuggestion. Maybe it’s the ghost story. I get pushed or overbalance. Down I go, my fingers gripping the window sill. The curtain rod falls on me. Bang. I feel myself being pushed again”
My concentration high. I’m alert now “...And?”
“And so in the end we get the shot, no more than three seconds on film”
“For that much trouble?”
“Film’s like that”
I bring the car around another hairpin turn. My nodding dogmoves and I reach into the dashboard to catch it. I also change the clock, forwards two hours. The Camry let’s me do that easily.
An hour into this leg of our journey. Three by the Camry clock. We cross a rickety old timber bridge, the planks sing and dance as we skip across. The nails flicker, polished by years of wear.
“The show was called Haunted Australia, or something along those lines. Heaps of creepy places at creepy times of the night”
“Anything else happen?”
“They took us to some old stone police station in East Sydney at some stage. Lovely spot on the harbour. Into the lower ground with a couple of Mediums or Ghost Hunters or something like that”
“And?” I enquire again
“They tell me that’s the spot where they used to flog the convicts” he turns to me, his face illuminated by the headlights reflecting off the rain “She, the ghostbuster lady, told us of the convict flogged on that spot, a piece of his soul left behind by the trauma. Blood soaks his clothes, his feet in irons, his wrists bound by rope in a frame that he now hangs from” Phil pauses “they left him there. Lifeless. Flies in the summer heat.”
After a few minutes of silence Phil remarks at the lack of other cars. “Hadn’t seen another living soul since Tenterfield.”
Silence
“Your turn” Phil encourages
I slow for another bend.
“This road reminds me of a doco I once saw on Betty and Barney Hill” Phil’s silent response indicates an explanation is required “these two were driving late at night on a lonely road back from Canada. Years ago. Into that New England area of The US. They take a long and lonely road from somewhere to somewhere else” the car slows for another turn. The rain a little easier now. “Betty spots a star that isn’t sitting still in the sky” I pause “Barney sees it too. Above and a little forward of their car” No farmhouse lights are visible “Betty thinks it’s a shooting star, Barney thinks it’s a plane making it’s way to New York” we might be in a National Park or surrounded by a cattle station. “I did fill the jerrycan, right?” Changing the subject. Phil’s attention on me and not so much on the road now. “Try to spot a shed somewhere to keep the rain out of the tank”
“The sky is clearing” pointing upwards “No moon, not even a house in the distance yet. Just darkness and one lonely star in the sky”
“Star light star bright..” Phil begins “And gone again” he looks back at me, his face illuminated by the digital clock “and the star they saw?”
“It develops into a triangular shape. Barney thumps the peddle to the metal. They shake the triangle and duck up some country lane to hide between some trees and, in the middle of the road in front of them is the flying saucer, and a gang of little green men”
I pull the car to a stop “got that brolly?” Popped the boot and grabbed the jerry can. Phil holds the umbrella over me as I fill the tank, a sprinkling of rain drifts to the ground. Just enough illumination from the interior light to see what I’m doing.
“Just imagine it, they come down here, and fill the tank for us” I pause for a moment “with antimatter“ I smile, Phil looks around, one single star visible in the sky.
“Why would there be one star in the sky? If the clouds were clearing then you’d expect the space to be filled with star dust, right?” Philip analyses the situation
“It might be a small plane” and I turn back to the tank
“Remember that time we went up in John’s plane?” Phil, thinking through the Small Plane hypotheses
“Aha”
“The barometer dropped and we had to bring the plane down, it started raining like this after that”
“And?”
“That’s not a small plane, no small plane would be in the sky, at night, in the dark and in a low pressure system”
“Little green men?” I Joke. Phil’s face is void of emotion.
The car glides along the road and we feel a second timber bridge rattle beneath us
“What do you suppose happened to the star?”
“Behind clouds I suppose” I reply
“I’m not convinced it was a star”
“Min min lights?” I suggest
Phil looks at me blank faced “maybe the spot-the-pot chopper”
The thick bushland opens up to thinly treed paddocks. The lifeless road before us. The car remains silent.
Fewer corners and hairpin bends allow the car to move smoothly. Rain beating on the windscreen.
“I put the jerry in the boot, didn’t I?” I enquire “I don’t recall putting it away”
“I don’t really know” the confidence in Phil’s voice now gone “I don’t even remember getting back in the car” he pauses for a minute “how’s the tank?”
“Just under half” thinking to myself that I wouldn’t just leave the jerry can, I must have put it away, and put in its seatbelt to stop it spilling, even though its now empty “I don’t know about the can, i really don’t remember”
“Forget the can, just keep moving” Phil’s voice soft “Coolangatta tonight”
We pass a few more kays. It might have been half an hour when we passed through a small village, slowing for the change in speed limit. No street lights, no house lights, no dogs or other travellers of the night.
“I need to stop, bit squeamish” I slow the car, open the door and look back at Phil’s illuminated by the interior light, his nose bleeding “you right there?”
“Yeah, why?” He pulls the sunshade down and looks into a little mirror, a thin line of blood beneath his nose, his beard filling with red “oh Jesus”. He opens the door, a small pizza appears on the road beneath him. Peas, carrots and yucky stuff added to his already red beard.
Out of the car, I hand a bottle of water to a big man, seated and curled in the foetal position before me. A mess on the black road between us.
“Are you right?” I enquire. And clearly he isn’t. “Water” I hand him the bottle
“It just hit me. One minute I’m fine next” he pauses “this” a moment longer and he adds “how far to Lismore?”
“I don’t know, and you’re right. Maybe we’ll stop in Lismore and get you into the casualty ward.” I pause. Maybe it’s not that bad, just a little nausea. A bleeding nose can be cause by dry weather, aspirin, a dozen causes “let’s see how you go until we get to Lismore”
Phil accelerates. He’s trying to change lanes. Other cars don’t make space for the impatient driver. He curses the other drivers with bad language. The first rays of the morning sun make give the sky fresh blue hue.
“Good morning, Sir”
“How long was I out for?” Curious as i must have been asleep since we swapped drivers when I filled up from the gerry can
“Dunno. But isn’t it nice to see the sunrise?” Phil adds animation, years of living amongst Melbourne’s Italian community “haven’t seen one in years”
I count my fingers, and count them again. The clock in the Camry reads 7:32. We left Tenterfield at 8 or so. No way is that road 11 hours, even with my two hour fiddle clock trick “Did you stop a while?”
“Nah” I can see he’s noticed the same thing. “Bruxner Hwy really does add a few hours”
submitted by http://www.stanleymatthew.com/life-as-a-food-beverage-manager Hey Matthew,
Just wanted to run you an update of where & what I've been up to so far. Try hit you up each week and keep you up with everything i'm doing.
I've been in the hospitality industry for 10 years now and if there is one thing I have learnt; it would be that the goal posts you are aiming for are like the end of a rainbow. No matter how close you think you are getting they keep finding a way to move further away.
It's easy to think then, What's the point? Why do I keep at it? Why do I put up with the unsociable hours? Why do I continue to deal with delusional customers? Why do I endure the painful conversations with difficult or emotional staff? And the list could go on and on.
I think the answer to these questions is very surprising when I truly think about it. It's not because I love alcohol and food. I mean I do love both of those things.... very much. And it’s not because I love interactions with people. I mean this one time I did an introvert/extrovert test at university and scored the highest in a class of 300 or so on the introvert scale, I was one score away from being as introverted as one person could be. So interactions with people exhaust me, especially those I have trouble relating to.
No, why I do it is because of the challenge. It's just so complete as a problem. Almost all facets of life are encompassed by this industry. Ok almost everyone could say that about their own industry and find ways of proving the statement they have made. But hear me out, let me start with where I have come from and what has bought me to where I am today.
So I moved out of home at 19, the only job I had ever had was working with dad during school holidays helping him flip houses. So when I found myself living in a shoe-box apartment in the middle of Auckland City I was stumped as to what to start doing to pay my rent. Across the road from where I lived was the Sky City Casino and they were looking for staff in a bunch of the outlets and gaming floor. As I was still 19 I was too young to work on the gaming floor, but because I was a guy I was given an interview with one of the restaurants who were looking for more men to balance out the team. This was my first dip in. Now I admit, I was a joke when I first started. I was one of "those" workers, you know the ones. The ones that call in sick all the time, ask to go home early and just have an overall lack of effort. As time went on I slowly learned the trade and got better and better, learned how to make coffees and a few basic cocktails. I also gained confidence in talking to random strangers as I asked them what they would like to drink with their buffet dinner. But at no point in this 12-month experience did I ever think that I was now a hospitality worker. It was a means to an end.
Then in 2008, I moved to the Gold Coast in Australia, quit university, ran away from debts, ex-girlfriends, and just general life struggles. At the time I thought it was a great idea and it would solve all my problems. Instead I was young, dumb and well you know the rest. I was unemployed for 3 months. In that time all I achieved was to learn how to solve a Rubix cube in less than a minute and a half. Don’t get me wrong I still pull out that trick at parties but it didn’t exactly help me eat or pay rent. Instead I bludged heavily on other people and ruined friendships because of my incompetence. I managed to find a job at a factory that lasted a month before getting fired for not showing up enough. Then along came Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise. I remember when I took this job I felt like I was getting desperate and this was my job to keep me afloat not actually start a career in. I mean, it was hospitality. People only work in hospitality while studying for their real job right?
Well 12 months went by and I found myself standing with an eventual very good friend who at the time was my big boss. My F&B Manager. He asked me if I wanted to make something of my career and take this job seriously for once. After a few days I came back and told him I was in. I was going to do whatever it took to become the best F&B Attendant at the hotel. And within 6 months I was promoted to a team leader. I spent the summer as this team leader and by the end of it the timing was perfect and I managed to land an F&B Supervisor job. My career had really started. I was now a salaried worker for the first time in my life, I had responsibility and I guess I still felt I had nothing better going for me so I would stick at it and not screw it up.
Of course I almost screwed it up a number of times. What can I say? I get bored and when I'm bored I do dumb stuff. After a couple of secondments at other properties around the country I landed the Meetings & Events Manager at Holiday Inn Brisbane. It was now 2011 and I had a 12-month contract. I had already decided with my partner at the time that at the end of the contract we would go travelling and head to London to live. So after 12 months of intense personal growth that is just what I did. I had really become an adult at this point and my career was no longer something that I did because nothing else was going to pay the bills. I was doing it because I just overcome the hardest 12 months of work in my life and I loved it. I grew leaps and bounds as a leader and enjoyed the rush. It is hard to explain but I started to feel satisfaction for overcoming all the challenges being thrown at me.
So 2012, I just finished 3 months of travelling Asia and landed in London, the next day I had a job interview for a little restaurant called Charlotte’s Place. The day after I was at a two-day trial and then I was hired as the Assistant Restaurant Manager. I was now running one of the most successful independent restaurants in London. We ended up winning Top Restaurant in London in the Good Food Guide awards while I was there.
7 months after arriving in London I had to head home due to family reasons and I found myself back at the Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise, but it was now called the Outrigger Surfers Paradise and I was the Restaurant & Bar Manager. I lasted here 9 months and although I had the worst General Manager ever, I learned so much here. I learned how to earn a pay cheque. This job was tough! I once served 700 customers for breakfast with 2 chefs and 6 wait staff, and the funny part was that I felt it was an easy day because of all the help that I had. I was used to doing 100-150 covers with one chef and one other staff member. That was my typical day. I never ran so much in a job ever. But what it taught me is efficiency and how to still offer a great customer experience with absolutely no staff. I had to think outside the box so often. I had to find ways of being prepared for everything. And I did. I was so good at it. We hardly ever had complaints at breakfast and we were getting smashed every day.
September 2013 I had had enough and I needed something else. I took on a role of Assistant Bar Manager at Palazzo Versace which lasted 6 weeks before being offered the role of Four Winds Restaurant Manager at the Crowne Plaza in Surfers Paradise, which evolved into the Assistant F&B Manager. And during these 13 or so months I learned more about leadership than ever before. My boss had a way of opening my eyes up to it and it all started to click. I started to realise why I was doing this. Why I was putting up with the unsociable hours, Why I continued to deal with delusional customers, Why I endured painful conversations with difficult or emotional staff. The concept hadn't completely formed in my head but it was starting to take shape and with success after success the picture started to become clearer and clearer.
And then December 2014, I got a transfer to Crowne Plaza Terrigal as the F&B Manager. This was it, I had reached department head level and this was kind of the pinnacle of my F&B career. Yeah I will go on to bigger roles with more revenue and more outlets and bigger teams but essentially it is all the same thing, just the stakes are higher. I am the authority on F&B in this hotel reporting directly to the General Manger and until I make the jump to a General Manager the dynamic of the role is never going to really change much from this. I will always report to the General Manager and I will from now on always be in charge of everything F&B. It’s been 16 months in this role now and I am on the verge of my next step. I have started applying for other roles and this time I am looking to Asia, specifically South East Asia.
So now I am in a position to explain my love for this industry, the challenges I face and the reason I keep asking for more, every time I think I have it all figured out and have taken my department or hotel to new heights I realise that the goal posts have picked up and run away from me. Maybe only last year did I really realise there is no perfect hotel or perfect restaurant. You can always be better, you can always improve. And that goes for everything in life. Don't just accept mediocrity.
I now wake up each morning and ask myself "What can I do today to improve on yesterday?"
Talk to you next week bro.
Stanley
submitted by So I'm about to be a senior in college and I just studied abroad in Australia. I'm already thinking of places I want to go in the summer of 2016 when I graduate college if I don't have a job offer or anything.
Places I went to when I was abroad:
Thailand: LOVED THAILAND. I wasn't a huge fan of Bangkok, but LOVED the Thai New Year Celebrations on Khao San Road. Also went to Ko Samui where I got stung by a stingray and Koh Tao which I fell in love with. I was only there for a week and on a tour, so would definitely go back. I love Thai food and the people were SO nice.
Everywhere else I backpacked and couchsurfered.
Hong Kong: HATED HONG KONG. The people were SO rude. I've been to Paris and honestly Hong Kongers were 10x worse than Parisians. I went to Starbucks at the mall once and people refused to let me even sit next to them when there were plenty of seats open. Don't get me wrong it was pretty, but the people made it un-enjoyable. Some friends at the Hostel went out one night and taxi drivers would pick up locals and drive right past the Americans.. Also thought it was too overcrowded. I ended up having to go the police station to ask for directions. I was told once, "I don't speak English" in a perfect accent. Honestly it was pretty sad given I was so excited to go. And I did go out one night and didn't find the night life very pleasant. Wasn't a fan of the specific expats I encountered either.
Macau- I LOVED MACAU. It took me a while to find my way out of the casino's and onto the Portuguese tourist attractions, but I loved the mix of Portuguese and Cantonese culture. The people were very friendly and went out of their way to help me unlike in HG. Honestly I loved every minute of Macau (besides the Casino's).
Singapore: I really liked Singapore MUCH better than HG. The people were so nice. It was way easier for me to get around with the subway. It was probably too much like America though and after a couple days I got very bored. I thought there was more to do in HG, but I liked the vibe way better here.
Buton, Indonesia: Was supposed to be a day trip from Singapore and I was there a 1-2 hours and hated it. I went back on the ferry to Singapore. The taxi drivers literally overcharged me for everything and I ran out of money. None of the locals spoke much English here so it was hard to get around given the language barrier. I was going to go to Johor Bahru in Malaysia instead, but I was told it wasn't the safest place for a Westerner to go by myself and there were bad traffic jams so didn't want to miss my flight.
Auckland, NZ: LOVED Auckland. Kiwi's were so much nicer than Aussies. They went out of their way to help me. NZ is a much more progressive country IMO. I really loved everything about Auckland especially K Road. I had more intellectual conversations with Kiwi's in one week than I did five months in Australia. Didn't venture outside of Auckland though (had some difficulties) so would love to go to the South Island one day.
In Australia, I lived an hour south of Sydney in Wollongong. So went to Sydney pretty frequently and traveled mostly in NSW. Visited Sunshine Coast but it rained my whole visit, but did end up going to Brisbane to visit Lone Pine which was cool. Brisbane looked nice. Melbourne was okay, but not really into coffee and didn't get that "city vibe" and thought people were too pretentious with the whole hating on Sydney thing.
I've only been to France in Europe when I was 17 (21 now). I hated every minute of it, but that was mostly due to a bad host family experience. Really loved going to Normandy due to the history, Versailles was amazing, and Brittany was gorgeous.
My grandpa was born in Sicily, so I've always wanted to go there and my grandmother's side is from Bari and Calabria, so if I ever went to Italy I'd be more interested in the South and Sicily (although Sardinia and French Corsica are other island I'd love to visit).
I don't really much much desire to go to South America. Brazil would be cool though. The only know a little French from college/high school (not enough to get by), I don't speak any other languages.
So I've thought mainly about going back to Southeast Asia. I love history so Vietnam would be really cool and would be interested in Siem Reap and exploring Thailand some more. Or I've also considered Eastern Europe- Prague, Budapest, & Warsaw for starters. But I have studied the Holocaust before, so would like to visit various sites in Poland. Thought about the Baltic's with that trip: Estonia looks cool and I hear it's not too far if I wanted to go to Finland. Not interested in Russia or any other homophobic/ultra-conservative country. I know Eastern Europe isn't as liberal as Western Europe minus Prague, but I hear some people wouldn't even classify it as "Eastern Europe" to begin with.
I would also obviously love to explore Western Europe: UK, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia, etc but it's pretty expensive. I will probably be on a backpackers budget. Amsterdam would be cool though given I am a women, gender, and sexuality studies major.
I'm also a theatre major, so I'm into arts. Like I've stated earlier, I like history specifically World War 2 or Vietnam stuff. Really loved going to a Canadian World War 1 park in Picardy, France though where I saw WW1 trenches. I'm not really that outdoorsy, so not into hiking mountains or camping. I do like beaches, but don't want to spend my whole vacation laying on the beach. I am not the relaxing type: I know it sounds bad haha.
I actually thought about teaching English in South Korea when I graduate, but that'd be too expensive for this trip. Iceland looks like it'd be pretty cool, but expensive.
Anyways any suggestions? Sorry for the lengthy post.
submitted by Museum of Brisbane brings our city’s vibrant art, culture and history to life through our exhibitions, workshops, tours, talks, special events and MoB Kids children’s activities. CASINO TRADING HOURS. The Star Casino Main Gaming Floor (electronic gaming) will remain open 24 hours a day until Sunday 31 January 2021. The Sports Bar will be open for service daily from 6am during this time. Table games will be available from 10am - 6am daily. Good Friday- Casino will close at 3am and reopen at midnight. Brisbane Treasury Casino Opening Hours, chaussure a roulette 41, rainbow casino cabaret, flophousepoker Brisbane Casino Trading Hours Anzac Day, slots time apple watch, play poker at marlbobo, poker tables lexington ky White Orchid PLAY FREE 100% BONUS UP TO 220€ + 100 FREESPINS Brisbane Casino Opening Hours, valley view casino santana, axa solid slot openbreken, casino near stockbridge ga We will keep guests updated as we receive further information. Read more here. Casino. The Casino is open year round for 24/7 excitement only excluding the below public holidays. Closed - Christmas Day. Closed - Good Friday from 3.00am - midnight. Closed - ANZAC DAY from 3.00am - 1.00pm. Fat Noodle. Christmas Eve. Visit Treasury Brisbane’s Casino floor to discover the ultimate gaming experience, across table and machine games. View our latest gaming promotions! Casino Skip to main content. Following the announcement by the QLD Government, the current Greater Brisbane restrictions will relax from 1.00am on Friday, 22 January 2021. The Star Brisbane main section: This casino is located in Brisbane, Queensland. The Star Brisbane features 2500 gaming machines for your enjoyment. World Casino Directory also books hotel rooms in the major casino resorts in Brisbane. You can browse our photos of The Star Brisbane or see the latest news headlines about The Star Brisbane on our site. Treasury Casino Brisbane Opening Hours £200 + 50 free spins at Vegas Hero! Your first deposit at Vegas Hero will be matched 100% up to £200 and you will also receive 50 free spins! €200-Start Playing on Thunderbolt Casino read review. Liberty Slots Casino - Welcome Bonus --Visit Casino T&C's Apply- While there are clearly Star Casino Bray Opening Hours a large number of online real money casinos to choose from, each casino Star Casino Bray Opening Hours has Star Casino Bray Opening Hours their own stable of available games. You may be looking for a casino that is heavier on the side of slots titles, in which case you will find these real money sites to your liking:
Media Man The Media Man group includes Media Man, Media Man Int, Casino News Media and Australian Sports Entertainment. Media Man is primarily a publicity, p... Two TV pieces from 1985 showing the Jupiters pre-opening training school and construction of the building. SKYCITY Casino Darwin-‘Road To Rio’ Shows during the RIO 2016 Olympics. HEINEKEN City Shapers Festivals- Sydney, Brisbane, Perth ‘Rio De Janeiro’ Samba entertainment. Shows the famed 'Saxophone Man' in 1994. HIGH LIMIT Lightning Cash Sahara Gold HUGE MAJOR JACKPOT HANDPAY ⚡️HIGH STAKES EPIC COMEBACK HANDPAY Lightning Cash High Limit slot machine, slot machine han... star city rides star city owner star city nasunog star city price star city promo star city cause of fire star city fire today star city burn star city sched... With the grand opening of our second luxury hotel tower on October 31, 2015, now Viejas has over 230 deluxe rooms and VIP suites for you to choose from. We a... Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. We know you can't always shop at a local store so here are Jonathan's 5 hacks for shopping at a big box store like Guitar Center! Click to subscribe to our c... FOLLOW WE ARE CHANGE BRISBANE: ... Burton Cummings - Opening Act Stories - Duration: ... #Copwatch Crown Casino owns the cops. CCTV footage. - Duration: 16:43.
