Hey everyone, welcome back to Short Story Sunday. It’s been a while since I’ve done one, but here we are. Hope you enjoy.

The Maze

Detective Carter Henry had been on the job for twelve years now. It had been a long stint, but it was completely worth it. The countless cases he had solved, the lives he had saved, the families he had brought closure to, & all the people he had met along the way. It all made the job worth doing. The Detective still remembered the day he had been promoted to this very special position. He had been a regular cop for five years before he had been recognized as one of the best, & had subsequently been handed a detective’s badge with his name & face on it. The detective job had always been his dream. As a kid on the streets, he had played games with his friends, many a day pretending to be a skilled detective. And now here he was, twelve years in & still going strong. Mind you, it did take a slight toll on his mentality at times. There would be late nights & early mornings, days where he was downing coffees just to keep himself awake. And then there were the cases.

Some of the cases Detective Henry had worked were light, & there wasn’t too much in them. They were relatively clean & simple. But then there were the ones which were harsh, confronting, something else entirely, a world apart from the others. There had been some really brutal ones. Crime scenes from hell. Places soaked in the blood of innocent victims. Although there had been a few cases where the victims weren’t always innocent, but they were few in number. The thing about being a detective was that you had to be ready to face absolutely anything. You had to mentally prepare yourself. You had to have garnered complete control over your emotions. It was absolutely essential. However, for Detective Henry, one who had capably centred his emotional & mental state, there had been a few cases that were simply too much. The crazed lunatics who had created these crime scenes had gone way overboard. It seemed as if these criminal had absolutely lost their minds. Yet they were still found, prosecuted, & locked up thanks to the Detective. Because whilst the job wasn’t always pretty, it had to be done.

Of all the cases the Detective had seen, nothing could have prepared him for the one he had just been assigned. He had been through a lot in his life, & seen a multitude of crime scenes, some similar in nature, some different. But this one was exquisitely unique. It was something that only a delusional mastermind could accomplish. The Detective was out on a fifty acre block of land. Now on any other day, he may have found a nice big house, maybe some animals living out in the remainder of the land, or maybe even a community building, or a theme park, or anything other than what he was looking at right now. In front of the Detective was a giant maze. Cut from deep green hedges which were at least seven metres tall, and spanning at least three quarters of the block of land, it was like nothing he had ever seen before. This was allegedly something which needed to be investigated due to its unnatural & mysterious nature. And there he was, standing at the entrance. There was only one way to investigate, & that was to enter the maze. And so into the depths he stepped.

The Detective followed the maze around for about three minutes before he came to an intersection. He chose to veer right. After continuing on for another two minutes, he noticed something different about the small leaves on the hedge to his right. Their colour was dissimilar to the rest of the maze, or at least what he had walked through so far. They were a deep red. He took a closer look, reaching out & lightly touching this part of the hedge. He rubbed some of the leaves between his forefinger & thumb, attempting to determine if they had a different texture. As he pulled his hand away, he looked down, & noticed a section of the ground he was standing on was also a deep red in colour. He knelt down, reached inside his coat & pulled out a torch. Shining the torch into the hedge, he began to notice something inside it. He decided to reach in, just to check if something was indeed hidden inside the leafy walls of this maze. He could feel something soft in the hedge. He got a grip on it & pulled it out. As soon as the Detective saw what it was, he immediately dropped it. His eyes had widened, his jaw dropped. He felt feint. He thought he could pass out at any moment. This was pure evil.

What the Detective had seen was truly horrendous. Whoever had done this had been completely corrupted by all forms of evil. He knew he had to call this in right away. He had to get a team out here. A search team, a forensics team, the whole nine yards. This was not something which could just be done by one experienced Detective. It was so much bigger than that. For what this humble Detective had just seen, what he had just physically held, was the work of nightmares, something he would never wish upon any other human being. It was worse than being in a horror film. This practically was one. The Detective, going against all his better instincts, glimpsed down once more just to be certain this was real, that what he saw was actually there. And sure enough, there it was, a severed human head.

When the teams he had requested had arrived, the Detective had remained on the scene for a while, searching with them, combing the maze for anything hidden within it. After a few hours, he had decided it was best for him to go home & attempt to rebuild the wall that had just come crashing down in his mind. As the search went on, it was found that there were human body parts scattered throughout the maze. Many were hidden, some were left out in the open for anyone who walked through to see. It took a few weeks to search the entire maze, & after multiple searches were carried out, it was found that the remains of at least 42 people had been scattered all over this real-life nightmare. Detective Henry was astounded. He was genuinely appalled, disgusted at what was such a vicious crime, something which had never been seen anywhere in the world. But he knew that he had a duty, no matter how hard it was, to find whoever had done this, for the sake of those who had known these people. He had to close this case so that he could get justice for them. It wasn’t going to be easy, & it wasn’t going to be pretty, but it had to be done. No matter what.

That’s it. Hope you enjoyed it!

JJ

Hey everyone, welcome back to Flashback Friday. Another week of news, another wrap. Let’s get to it.

As always, I’ll start with the political landscape. And in a big week in Parliament, we saw the new PM Scott Morrison progress steadily through his first sitting week of Parliament this week. The LNP talked policy all week, and showed that there may yet be some hope for this government to continue in the future. But the Labor Party made sure to continue to pull the government back to issues such as Peter Dutton’s eligibility and au pair decisions, as well as the reasoning as to why Malcolm Turnbull was rolled. Turnbull himself tweeted out this week suggesting that Peter Dutton be referred to the high court over his eligibility, something which he voted against when a motion was put to the parliament a few weeks ago. And in other Parliamentary news, Dave Sharma has been selected to be the Liberal candidate for the Wentworth by election which will be held on the 20th of October. It comes after a week in which the bullying card was once again played by women in the party, including former Deputy Leader Julie Bishop. Additionally, the Greens made a shocking attempt to have the reading of the Lord’s Prayer at the commencement of Senate sittings ousted this week, a motion which failed easily. The Greens really need to have a good think about what they’re doing, because it’s not working, and we aren’t going to be fooled by it. As always, an interesting week in the Parliament.

In some other news, this week saw a nine year old Queensland school girl by the name of Harper Nielsen attempt to make a political statement. The young student refused to stand for the Australian National Anthem at her school assembly this week, citing that the anthem was not inclusive of Indigenous Australians. She was told by the school that she could go and sit outside while the Anthem was played, however she refused, because she just had to make a point. It is quite obvious that this is most likely coming from her parents’ influence, however her father has stated to the media that it was her idea. The school gave her a lunchtime detention for her refusal, and asked her to write an apology. They have also threatened expulsion. Since this occurred, 2GB host Alan Jones, former Labor leader Mark Latham, and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson have all criticised the young girl for doing what she did. Hanson in particular pointed out that Indigenous Australians have embraced the National Anthem, citing examples such as Cathy Freeman and Warren Mundine. Now while I won’t personally comment on this just yet, I will be touching on this in a future article. But what I will say for the sake of this is that young children shouldn’t be attempting to make political statements like this due to parent influence.

In sports news this week, and the US open has concluded with an uproar. Novak Djokovic claimed another title in straight sets in the men’s final against Juan Martin Del Potro, however it was the women’s final that really stole the show, with Serena Williams copping three code violations from the umpire and ultimately losing the match to her opponent Naomi Osaka. Williams claimed it was because she was a woman that he was penalised, practically using sexism as reasoning. And the feminist movement once again showed themselves when Sun Herald cartoonist Mark Knight was heavily criticised for his cartoon of Williams, Osaka and the chair umpire at the final. He was accused of being sexist and racist by many individuals, for the majority women. J.K. Rowling even tweeted about the cartoon, once again slamming Knight for sexism. And then there was The Project host Waleed Aly, who said there were reasons for the cartoon being labelled as sexist and racist, reasoning that was so utterly ridiculous. All in all, the cartoon was an accurate depiction of the scenario, and was not at all racist or sexist. Don’t let the feminists fool you.

And in technology news, Apple has unveiled three new phones plus a new watch at this week’s Apple event in the US. The new phones, the iPhone Xs, Xs Max, and XR are the tech giants’ biggest phones yet, and will feature a dual sim, meaning that you will be able to maintain two phone numbers on the one phone. The Apple Watch Series 4 also has features some new breakthrough technology, with the capability for electrocardiographs (ECG), allowing you to take an ECG by simply touching your finger to a specific part of the watch. It has been approved by the FDA, and will be able to detect any irregularities or underlying heart conditions you may have, as well as any signs of stroke. The new devices will be released over the next couple of months.

And that’s it for another week of news. Join me in the upcoming week for another Short Story Sunday, Part 2 of the Exposé Series, another Flashback Friday, and maybe a few more articles in between. Have a good one!

JJ

Hey everyone, welcome back to Flashback Friday. As always, let’s get right into it.

First to political news, and this week saw the beginning of a Senate inquiry into the au pair decisions of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. The Senate heard from AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, who had made requests from the Minister on multiple occasions. Dutton still denies that he had any personal relationships with those who made requests, and stands by the decisions he has made. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has this week visited Indonesia and met with President Joko Widodo to sign off on a free trade agreement put together in the Turnbull era. He has also given a speech at the Menzies centre, showing his values and giving the people of Australia an idea as to what he stands for. It was a fantastic speech, and things may finally be starting to look up for the government a little.

Meanwhile, over in the US, President Donald Trump has become discontent after an op ed allegedly written by a member of his staff appeared in a newspaper. The piece detailed how Trump was not necessarily doing a great job as President, and has Trump fuming. Members of the President’s own staff are turning on him, and it has become a mess. There has also been fresh speculation that Trump could be impeached, news that comes after the article which suggested members of Trump’s own administration were working to undermine the President, potentially destroying his Presidency. This has ultimately put Trump on the hunt to find out which senior official wrote the piece and who may be attempting to undermine him as President. It’s really one big mess.

To some sports news now, and this week saw the rise to fame of Australian tennis player John Millman, after he managed to win his match in the US Open against 2nd seed Roger Federer to progress to the Quarter Finals for the first time. He won the match against he World No. 2 in four sets, after fighting back from being almost two sets down. The amusing thing was that his parents weren’t even watching, but that didn’t phase them, and they were still very proud of him. He went on to play Novak Djokovic in the next round and was unfortunately knocked out of the tournament in straight sets in a match that saw both players feeling the heat. Good to see an Australian playing well though.

And finally to some entertainment news, and it was announced that legendary actor Burt Reynolds has passed away this morning after suffering a heart attack. The actor had starred in over 200 films, and really left his mark on the acting world. Our hearts and thoughts are with his family and friends at this time. Additionally in entertainment news, today saw the release of the second season of one of Netflix’s Marvel series, Iron Fist. The series follows the release of the second season of Jessica Jones and the second season of Luke Cage earlier this year. It is available to watch on Netflix now, with all ten episodes being released simultaneously. So if you’re a Marvel fan, go check it out.

And that’s it for this week. As always keep watch for more coming soon. I actually have an article in the works at the moment which should be out sometime next week, so get ready for it. Have a good one!

JJ

Hey everyone, seeing as it was Father’s Day today, and it’s been a bit busy, as well as that I haven’t been able to think of any story ideas for today, I’m postponing Short Story Sunday for this week. There may be an extra one to make up for the lack of Short Story today at some point in the future. Thanks for continuing to follow the blog, I’ll be back with more this week. Have a good one.

JJ

Hey everyone, welcome back to everyone’s favourite Friday segment, where we look back on the news of the week. Let’s get right into it.

Starting with news on the political landscape, and it was an interesting first week in office for new Prime Minister Scott Morrison, with his Cabinet announcement taking place on Sunday afternoon. There were quite a few changes made, most notably Angus Taylor being given the Energy portfolio, and a new Education Minister in Dan Tehan, who happens to be a Christian very much like Scott Morrison. There were also non-Cabinet jobs offered to former leaders of the LNP, with Barnaby Joyce being given a role as special envoy for the drought, and Tony Abbott being offered the role of special envoy for Indigenous Affairs, a job which after much consideration he has accepted. Meanwhile Matthias Cormann has retained his job as Finance Minister and Leader of the Government in the Senate, Greg Hunt has kept the Health portfolio, and, despite the challenges and chaos, Peter Dutton has taken back the role of Minister for Home Affairs. Meanwhile, Julie Bishop has declined the offer to continue as Minister for Foreign Affairs, opting to sit on the backbench, with the role being handed to Marise Payne, who Bishop recommended for the job. The Cabinet has since been sworn in, and are already working in their portfolios.

Meanwhile in other news out of Canberra, and Liberal MP Julia Banks, the member for Chisholm, has announced this week that she will not be contesting the next election, citing bullying and intimidation, particularly in the events which took place last week, as her reason for leaving Parliament. Banks won the seat of Chisholm in the 2016 election, after it was held by Labor for 16 years. She supported Malcolm Turnbull in the leadership debacle last week, and wanted to see him continue as Prime Minister. She has claimed that there were three members of the Liberal Party who bullied and intimidated her, however they have not been named. In addition to this, Scott Morrison, a Christian man, has this week had his Christian faith mocked and criticised by many, including a despicable and appalling segment on the ABC Comedy television show the Tonightly with Tom Ballard. The show has already been cancelled and is seeing out its last season, however they decided to do a segment this week which just mocked and made a joke out of the new Prime Minister’s faith. It’s just shocking to see how politicians of the Christian faith have been criticised and practically persecuted for their faith. Education Minister Dan Tehan, also a Christian, has had comments made on his faith, and it’s truly appalling. It has also been announced this week that former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will resign from Parliament today, with a by election to be held in the seat of Wentworth, which is expected to occur on Saturday the 6th of October. And also in politics, Peter Dutton has come under fire once again this week, after he allowed two more au pairs to stay in Australia despite their visas expiring. He had already allowed one to stay back in 2015, and this week allowed a French au pair to stay in Australia despite his department strongly recommending not to. And today, it came to light that he has now allowed an Italian au pair to remain in Australia, reigniting the so-entitled scandal, and leaving many wondering, what is the go with the au pairs? There will most likely be more on this in the coming weeks.

In sports news now, and star Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt will make his debut for the Central Coast Mariners in their trial match against a local Central Coast club tonight, after working hard in training over the last couple of weeks. He will most likely come of the bench at some point in tonight’s match, more likely towards the end of the match. Bolt has impressed in his training sessions with the team, receiving praise from Head Coach Mike Mulvey. It will be an exciting event which will more than likely attract a good crowd, and Bolt will be looking to make a good impression on his debut.

And in a bit of other news, this week saw the tragic passing of US Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain, who had been fighting brain cancer for just over a year. The well-respected Senator had served his country in a variety of ways for many decades, both in the US Navy and as a politician. He ran as the Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 US General election, however did not win the position of US President, with the position going instead to Democrat Barack Obama. The Senator continued on however, and played a significant role in the US Senate up until December last year. He passed away surrounded by his family on Saturday August 25th at the age of 81. Our hearts and thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.

And that’s it for another Flashback Friday. I’ll be back with more in the coming weeks, so be sure to keep an eye out for more posts. Have a good one!

JJ