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If there’s one thing that will get an office full of government employees out of their seats, it’s coffee.

Recently our social club organised a coffee machine so people in the building could buy cheaper coffee than the cafeteria supplied. While I applaud their reasoning for doing so (the cafeteria jacked up their prices), I can’t believe how much attention the thing has picked up.

I find myself forming strong opinions on things that aren’t really that important to me. For instance, since selling my car and riding to work more often I am in disbelief when I hear about people driving 8 minutes to work rather than riding or walking. I end up labelling them all sheep and just disregarding their opinions from then onwards. Ok so maybe it’s not that bad, but I guess you could say that it “fuels the fire”, the fire being my hatred for lazy car drivers. People that could be walking, riding, jogging, and catching public transport and usually have no good reason not to do so.

Coffee is fast becoming my newest and biggest gripe. I’ve always been in tune with my hydration. Right now as I’m typing this I know that I need more water, even though I’ve had a good 5 pints of water already today. It’s only recently that I have realised the affects that different foods and drinks have on my hydration, and how important it is for myself to be hydrated.

Up until about a month ago I used to have the occasional black coffee. I actually like the taste of it, but recently my “stand” is more important than my need to drink coffee. I’ve quit (until I go to Italy next year). There are a huge number of people in my office, and obviously worldwide that start their day with a coffee, have another coffee for morning tea, then have a coke with lunch, and later have another coffee for afternoon tea. If their body is lucky it will finally get some water with dinner! Living like this is terrible for your body, but it’s so accepted that I’m the freak for not having a coffee in the morning, and for going to the toilet every hour.

Anyway, this is my gripe and I’m sticking with it. Now do yourself a favor and drink a glass of water!

On the way to work this morning I saw a traffic cop pulling someone over, no doubt for something trivial. It reminded me of a few years ago when my friends I were all into our cars  – modifying them and drive them regularly. Nowadays I have given up on that game, since driving a nice car in Australia just makes you a target for the Police to pick on.

Police are always under scrutiny, and at the end of the day it’s not the copper that makes the rules, but those higher up. Thinking of it all from a larger sense though – their resources are unjustly skewed towards policing law abiding citizens that break petty laws. The number of people I know that have been fined or defected for driving a car too low, doing 66km/h in a 60km/h zone, even jaywalking.

I realise that this is just one big controlling force of people. Obviously you can’t just go out there in the world and start killing people because it’s “what you believe in”, but what is the harm in people having a low car? There is no danger to the public by doing this, in face modified cars are typically much safer and well maintained than your average car on the road. Keep in mind this is only an example.

Cops “walking the beat” head out and bash some drunks and get a pat on the back for protecting the public. Aren’t the drunks that they just bashed part of “the public”?

Day to day policing is merely just keeping the general public in line. It’s just like growing up as a kid. There is the majority, and then those few “geeks” or “freaks” or whatever small minority. They are given a hard time because they are different to the majority. To me, traffic cops and general duties cops are doing the same – picking on those who don’t conform to society’s perceived views as to “what is right”.

It’s my personal view that we are living in an over policed society. Common sense is overlooked, and everyone is now a target. I know how fast I can drive a car down the road – I know what is safe. I know that stealing is wrong. Murdering someone is clearly wrong. The people breaking any of these laws to the extreme, are going to break them whether the law is in place or not. If anyone should be targeted, it’s them.

I have met many well respected cops in my time, and they all say the same thing – it’s a very frustrating job. Catch the true bad guys and they walk free after passing through the legal system. After a lifetime in the police force the job role has shifted from catching the bad guys to catching those who you can actually throw the book at – honest taxpayers that are committing petty “crimes”.

You can fail when fighting organised crime. You can’t fail when tackling speeding motorists. All you do is recruit more traffic cops and your nice statistics will come flowing in!

What a crazy world we live in…