I remember as I was growing up, a lot of my friends had dreams and aspirations to lead lives like those of comic-book heroes. They would talk about becoming a Police officer, Fireman, Astronaut and other such things. For a little while I wanted to be a Forensic Scientist like the Flash, it was only for a little while.

While a lot of people aspire to lead lives filled with excitement and adventure, my dreams have always been somewhat less lofty, to some perhaps even boring. For the longest time, even since my early to mid teens, all I’ve wanted to be is a Dad. My dream has been to start a family and be the best father the world has ever seen. It’s not a very common thing to hear I guess, but nevertheless, this is what I dream about.

I feel that bringing up kids is probably one of the most enriching adventures one could ever set out on, and the rewards that come with the role the most fulfilling. I see so many people who have wonderful kids, and that’s what I envy. I envy the fact that they are living my dream.

Sometimes I even get a little confused when I seem these same people measuring their success against selfish persuits such as career success, when what they essential have standing right before them is the most brilliant example of their life’s accomplishments.

I think the reason why I see parenthood as such a majestic aspiration is because it ties into what I believe is the single most validating reason for any person’s existance. The ability to positively affect the lives of others arround them. What better opportunity to guide and direct another person’s life for the better than in that of your own flesh and blood.

For this reason my heroes are not comic-book characters. The ones I look up to are those people who are living my dream. People like my Mum and Dad, my friends Rob and Fiona, and inlaws Mark and Natalie. They are parents, but more importantly they are truely successful people.

Rob and Fiona recently had another little boy. It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to hold a baby in my arms, but I don’t think I remember anything feeling so right. It’s an amazing thing. It makes me feel like I know what I have been made for. I want to be a Dad.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably seen the mass devistation caused by the recent Tsunami’s that have wraught chaos and death throughout Asia and Africa (look here for stats). So many images of people losing their lives while running from these encroaching walls of death. It’s filled our TV screens, been recounted over radio waves, and displayed on our PC’s. I’ll never forget an image I saw on the news the other day; a Thai father holding the fragile body of his dead child in his arms, crying out for what one could only assume is an answer to the inevitable question…. Why?

As the days have rolled on, there has been an enormous outpouring of love and friendship that has crossed the divide of race, religion and country. I’ve only lived a relatively short amount of time, but I can’t remember any instance of international aid this monumental ever occuring. It is truely unprecedented.

Australian’s alone have donated over $800 Million, and our government has pledged $1 Billion to Indonesia alone over 40 years. Add to this that pledged by the Red Cross, the IMF, Kuwait, New Zealand, and the many European countries and it could only blow your mind how phenominal this effort has really been (look here, here, and here for a tally…notice the rankings of the US)

Throughout all this destruction and pain though, there is one tragedy that in my mind has made everything else almost pale into insignificance. It takes this much tragedy for the world to band together and help out our fellow man. Thousands die daily in 3rd world countries of malnutrition and starvation, yet it takes 100,000+ people dying almost at once before the West and our brothers stand up and take notice.

This, I believe, is truely sad.

It’s been a while, but I thought I better let you all know that in a matter of weeks I’ll be heading down to Victoria for 4 months to start Officer Training School with the Royal Australian Air Force.

I got my letter of offer a few weeks ago (along with an indication of my starting salary… approx. $50K a year), but with the hectic lifestyle we’ve been leading recently (with moving and all), it’s been hard getting a chance to get online to blog.

I hope to provide you all with update while I am away by sending blog posts to Melly for her to post to my site. This will give me the opportunity to stay in touch with you all and glean your encouragement during what I am expecting to be a difficult time.

I’m pretty excited about it all though, starting my new career, becoming an officer, and getting to do a job any boy would dream of. OTS is gonna be a challenge for sure, but one I’m more than able to step up to meet.

In other news I plan to blog more frequently. It’s my new years resolution, for lack of a better one. Keep me to my word…

And they’d want to be anonymous too. After receiving 75 Trackback pings I thought it prudent to disable trackbacks for the time being. The title’s of these trackbacks were all variants of the above subject-line. These spammers are getting more sophisticated too. Each of these trackbacks came from a different ip address. Undoubtedly done by using anonymous proxy servers or something similar.

It’s time’s like this that I am glad a use a good blogging app like MovableType. After a few minutes of tinkering, trackbacks are disabled and the offending pings removed. I’d like to see them try now.

Anyhoo, another update to come later…