Well... I probably could have fit this all into a single post but it felt like it was getting a bit long. I am going to continue what is completely my own views (though I doubt they are completely unique I mean surely somebody else watched it and thought of this? was even written with the intent) of the Invention of Lying's religion scene. In my last post I spoke of the interesting social response to the Man in The Sky being responsible for EVERYTHING that happens. Once again I must WARN that I will recount the movie when I see fit.
Now I don't remember all of the 10 things he had to say about this Man in The Sky. I remember the general gist of them though and a couple more quite specifically. The first one is what started it all. I swear that the people were less interested in the fact that after death it wasn't nothingness then they were interested in the fact that there was a MANSION for every person.
I thought this was very weird. I mean I got all of the other Christian basis. But when have we ever said that we each get a mansion? I mean that is very materialistic... very human... very earthly... Surely that is something thrown in for the materialistic humanity relevance. I mean I know we get that we get to go live with God in His house and that most of the references to heaven are well and truly extravagant and sort of give you the impression better than the most extravagant of this world.
The actual relevance of this one I can not take the credit for. But rather a Christian blog I follow posted an interesting article... Strangely enough specifically on the use of the word mansion and its biblical relevance. The blog The Sola Panel is pretty interesting and I recommend a read of the Mansions article if your interested http://solapanel.org/article/mansions_a_wordwatch/. Basically mansion was a word used explicitly in the bible... in the KJV (King James Version (the one with the thou's and shalt's and thine's)) at least. John 14:2: “In my Father's house are many mansions”(KJV).
There isn't much more to that particular story but just the fact that that... which is such a big deal in the movie... is actually stemmed from biblical text I find fascinating. The writer of Invention Of Lying knew a bit or cared enough to do a fair bit of research I must say. The other random thing is that nowhere in that blog article is there any mention of The Invention of Lying and yet it was there at quite an opportune time to cover the mansion issue for me.
Much of the rest of what I remember of his 10 things that I can remember relate to heaven and getting to heaven and I think there was one which covered the existence of a hell as well. Now the heaven one for me. The was a both a positive and a negative to it. The negative though was quite large and I can honestly say for it and it alone I was quite irritated by the scene as a whole.
He introduced the concept of sin, yes we can all agree on that one. There are bad things that people do. From here however it took a terrible down turn. Bad stuff was only terrible CRIMES by the world... you know like killing a person on purpose or rape... hitting another person in anger or... i'd say a little white lie here but I realise that is the equivalent of an oxymoron considering the context of this lie-less world...
A couple of particularly strategic audience member start testing various actions... seeing if they constitute a major badness... whether or not they could get away with it. One or two nervous people realise they want a list, need a list, of every SINGLE major bad thing so that they can avoid doing them. Afterall you can't do more than 3 things and go to heaven and get your mansion.
The three things is interesting. The fact that there are chances leaves it just open enough to get out question about the fact that you'll be sharing heaven with "BAD" people. There something people don't like. What do you mean they can do a bedside/gaol cell conversion and go to heaven? How is that fair? (those are real life question not the movie - sorry to be confusing)
In a lot of conversations I struggle against this magic world 'fair'. The fair rules are yet to work on anything in this world.... why should they work on God? Maybe when things don't seem fair its because we apply a word with a particular meaning to a series of concepts which are completely different to the word meaning. Who knows? Life's not fair. Life doesn't make sense. Might as well hope on the best band wagon going don't you think?
Back however to the negative of all of this. I HATE this part of the religion scene beyond any incrimination that perhaps Christianity is just a lie in our world same as theirs. The fact that they taken my religion and inserted a high jump bar. Admittedly it is more a low jump bar - I mean it isn't exactly hard to avoid killing 3 people in a lifetime. But in Christianity... in Jesus... It is what he has done, not anything we could do/could avoid doing. Everybody is stuffed basically and by believing (an issue which didn't ARISE in Invention of Lying - but how could it? - these people have to believe cause they can't conceive that maybe... it isnt?...) you get to heaven... There is NOTHING YOU CAN DO.
That I know to be the most essential part of my beliefs. It seperates Christianity out a little from the other religions. I mean a lot of Christians are very religious in both the good and bad forms of it. When it is just ritual without belief... is it any good at all? In Christianity you don't need to do anything. You choose to do things, show that you are thankful for the fact that Jesus bares your sin. But just because you attempt to make yours a 'light' load for Him doesn't make it any less of a load. Its like exchanging a lead balloon in for a hot air balloon... doesn't matter what kind of lead balloon you've got... it still isn't going to work so great.
Chances I agree. But I don't agree that God has a number on it. As terrible as it may seem that some 'bad' people will go to heaven and others, good people, will not. It is the way of things... AND in that I don't think the movie portrayed that particularly well at all... Reducing Christianity down to a religion where you place a foot wrong and die... That's just disgusting... What can I say though... In a movie for the general public these things will happen... It could be worse... It could be good deeds get you to heaven...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Relevant Lies? The Good and The Bad Of It
The other day I watched The Invention of Lying. I'd been looking forward to it. So much so that on discovering that for some completely bizarre reason it was not being shown at the first cinema I visited I got into my car and drove to another. It wasn't like I had anything better to do with my day. The movie in all... Well I think it is the type that would have made a good bit of literature, a theorised culture almost utopian - I mean without lying the world would be perfect right? As a movie it was quirky and interesting but not the greatest movie I've seen.
However by removing lying it gave the occasional reference to regular culture which was often intellectually funny. Now I think about it... The problem with the movie? It is based in English humour but pitched at an American audience. I think had I thought of that sooner I may have been able to appreciate it a bit better. Slapstick goes subtle... the two humour styles are quite mutually exclusive. That is an observation I made post movie rather than during so it is probably a little exaggerated never the less...
Anyhow apparently from thinking it would make a better book than a movie. The 'reinvention' of the Christian religion was quite interesting. Firstly I am against any implications that Christianity is some grand lie. For a work of fiction I do not object to religion being invented. In fact I found the writers knowledge of how Christianity gets interpreted to be quite intellectual. I can't tell whether he sits as an atheist or a Christian but any way the relational stuff between the main character and his crowd is quite an accurate response of how I feel many people actually respond to Christianity... if they don't reject it for being 'unreal' without listening.
This is a Spoiler WARNING. I am going to talk through the scene. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE INVENTION OF LYING. You may not want to read it. Not that it gives away the ending - but I mean its a chick flick is that even possible?
Ok in the movie he tells a lie about the existence of any form of afterlife to his dying mother. Which of course others overhear, news spreads and uproar at his place. He is very distressed. So he puts in a substantial amount of effort into these ten things? Yes rather like 10 commandments you could say. He even goes to the trouble of making them 'tablets' to add significance.
As far as the 10 commandments go there isn't too much similarities between them and his 10 things. Number 1 is where it is truly interesting. That there is a 'Man in the Sky', this man just created the existance of God basically. However it his next statement that I found to be one of the most interesting.
The Man in The Sky is responsible for everything that happens on earth. Or basically something to that effect. Fair enough. That is a fairly well Christian belief. I believe that God is responsible for everything that happens. Most importantly the Good and the Bad. A distinction his crowd (these purely factual humans are very curious) makes quickly. You watch as members of the crowd digest the fact that this Man in The Sky is responsible for the BAD things (nobody has asked yet about the good things). One by one hands go up.
Did he give my mum cancer? Did he cause that earthquake that killed thousands of people? Is he why my cat died last summer? The main character (can you tell i can't remember his name?) answers truthfully... well consistently within the limits of his created lie... YES. The crowd gets more and more restless. Until it is practically a riot. People out to TAKE DOWN the Man in The Sky. Regretting this God person. He after all caused all this BAD stuff to happen.
I think this is something that Christians have to confront in modern society. It is an area of huge debate. It is one of those token objections that non-Christians pull out to explain why Christianity is stupid, why God isn't right. People don't like the fact that a God, particularly the God (i mean if you have multiple you might as well throw in a bad one right?) could do bad things.
And Christians, just like the main character, have to say yes. Yes he causes that to happen. This is the kind of thing that stonewalls a Christian. People aren't willing to consider that something exhibits control of the good AND the bad. So as soon as it controls the bad, its bad, even people that basically figure there probably is a God don't like this concept. They do the crowd thing and REJECT REJECT REJECT. Unfortunate for the Christian.
This is the suffering debate. Beyond even the debate Christian to non. The whole concept of the suffering stuffs with the heads of Christians new and old alike. Coming to grips that God is the reason for it. Its hard. So explaining it to a non-Christian? Its pretty close to impossible. You have to accept so many other things to accept that He does that to and that it is for the grand scheme good if not for the momentary inconvenience (on that compare your life to the age of the universe I mean... there's no beating it) it is in your life.
Back to the movie the crowd make the critical next realisation. Some bright fellow works out that the main has said that the Man in The Sky controls everything, he never explicitly said bad. Maybe... He is responsible for the good things? The main with quite some relief (he really would like the crowd not to tear his yard apart in revolt against the Man in The Sky) says 'YES'. So then he cured my mum's cancer? He saved my daughter from being hit by that car? He helped that person in the diving accident to be recover fully? YES YES YES. Now there is something that these people managed to think about that others often don't.
Just as is our culture people let the minority bad ruin it for the majority good. How many times have you felt ripped off because somebody did this last time and got hurt so now you only get to watch it get done. That's probably something you see more of as a young person but any way you look at it. Humans are pessimists by trade. We want to get the most dreary version of something possible. The trick is to remember than everything is from God... The good, the bad... the inbetween...
However by removing lying it gave the occasional reference to regular culture which was often intellectually funny. Now I think about it... The problem with the movie? It is based in English humour but pitched at an American audience. I think had I thought of that sooner I may have been able to appreciate it a bit better. Slapstick goes subtle... the two humour styles are quite mutually exclusive. That is an observation I made post movie rather than during so it is probably a little exaggerated never the less...
Anyhow apparently from thinking it would make a better book than a movie. The 'reinvention' of the Christian religion was quite interesting. Firstly I am against any implications that Christianity is some grand lie. For a work of fiction I do not object to religion being invented. In fact I found the writers knowledge of how Christianity gets interpreted to be quite intellectual. I can't tell whether he sits as an atheist or a Christian but any way the relational stuff between the main character and his crowd is quite an accurate response of how I feel many people actually respond to Christianity... if they don't reject it for being 'unreal' without listening.
This is a Spoiler WARNING. I am going to talk through the scene. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE INVENTION OF LYING. You may not want to read it. Not that it gives away the ending - but I mean its a chick flick is that even possible?
Ok in the movie he tells a lie about the existence of any form of afterlife to his dying mother. Which of course others overhear, news spreads and uproar at his place. He is very distressed. So he puts in a substantial amount of effort into these ten things? Yes rather like 10 commandments you could say. He even goes to the trouble of making them 'tablets' to add significance.
As far as the 10 commandments go there isn't too much similarities between them and his 10 things. Number 1 is where it is truly interesting. That there is a 'Man in the Sky', this man just created the existance of God basically. However it his next statement that I found to be one of the most interesting.
The Man in The Sky is responsible for everything that happens on earth. Or basically something to that effect. Fair enough. That is a fairly well Christian belief. I believe that God is responsible for everything that happens. Most importantly the Good and the Bad. A distinction his crowd (these purely factual humans are very curious) makes quickly. You watch as members of the crowd digest the fact that this Man in The Sky is responsible for the BAD things (nobody has asked yet about the good things). One by one hands go up.
Did he give my mum cancer? Did he cause that earthquake that killed thousands of people? Is he why my cat died last summer? The main character (can you tell i can't remember his name?) answers truthfully... well consistently within the limits of his created lie... YES. The crowd gets more and more restless. Until it is practically a riot. People out to TAKE DOWN the Man in The Sky. Regretting this God person. He after all caused all this BAD stuff to happen.
I think this is something that Christians have to confront in modern society. It is an area of huge debate. It is one of those token objections that non-Christians pull out to explain why Christianity is stupid, why God isn't right. People don't like the fact that a God, particularly the God (i mean if you have multiple you might as well throw in a bad one right?) could do bad things.
And Christians, just like the main character, have to say yes. Yes he causes that to happen. This is the kind of thing that stonewalls a Christian. People aren't willing to consider that something exhibits control of the good AND the bad. So as soon as it controls the bad, its bad, even people that basically figure there probably is a God don't like this concept. They do the crowd thing and REJECT REJECT REJECT. Unfortunate for the Christian.
This is the suffering debate. Beyond even the debate Christian to non. The whole concept of the suffering stuffs with the heads of Christians new and old alike. Coming to grips that God is the reason for it. Its hard. So explaining it to a non-Christian? Its pretty close to impossible. You have to accept so many other things to accept that He does that to and that it is for the grand scheme good if not for the momentary inconvenience (on that compare your life to the age of the universe I mean... there's no beating it) it is in your life.
Back to the movie the crowd make the critical next realisation. Some bright fellow works out that the main has said that the Man in The Sky controls everything, he never explicitly said bad. Maybe... He is responsible for the good things? The main with quite some relief (he really would like the crowd not to tear his yard apart in revolt against the Man in The Sky) says 'YES'. So then he cured my mum's cancer? He saved my daughter from being hit by that car? He helped that person in the diving accident to be recover fully? YES YES YES. Now there is something that these people managed to think about that others often don't.
Just as is our culture people let the minority bad ruin it for the majority good. How many times have you felt ripped off because somebody did this last time and got hurt so now you only get to watch it get done. That's probably something you see more of as a young person but any way you look at it. Humans are pessimists by trade. We want to get the most dreary version of something possible. The trick is to remember than everything is from God... The good, the bad... the inbetween...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
One Quarter an Engineer
So I might be counting my chickens... I mean there is the possibility that I could go into my exam tomorrow and forgot EVERYTHING I ever learned... not to mention some basic mental logic... in order to fail my programming exam. It is worth 50% of the course so potentially a rock bottom fail may be rather unfortunate for me... But improbable scenarios aside. Year 1 university complete.
I call myself one quarter of an engineer but really I don't think the relationship is quite the linear. I can't think of any reason though why it would become essential to but me to work at this point. It isn't like they would suddenly enlist me in a.... major electrical disaster (as opposed to a war or something)... and require me to step up as an electrical engineer. Mind you... if you need some very basic amplification... I'm your girl :). I have operational amplifiers (known as op amps) down so well.
After thinking about it. I think university is a compounding thing. I've seen my second and third year mates. More exams, more work, HARDER work. Definitely compounding. So that makes me 1/8th an engineering... cuz it means next year i'll be 1/4 then 1/2 and THEN i'll be an engineer. Now because it is a compound thing I better not be forgetting... well apparently I have already done that. Not great considering my exam was yesterday. Ahhh well... Lets see what I can remember huh?
1. Study is a whole body experience. If you can't convince every part of you that its what you need to be doing it doesn't happen. You sit down with good intentions but your fingers creep to the mouse, your eyes lock onto facebook - or google when facebook gets dull, your body suggests the bathroom - 5 times in 15 minutes, your throat drys up and needs water, you are suddenly way more hungry than you used to be, your legs are uncomfortable you need to get up and stretch - repeatedly... and so the list goes on. So only when your whole body realises that this study is IMPORTANT is anything likely to happen.
2. Sometimes it won't compute. You've read it a thousand times. Copied out the sequence a hundred times. Written out the equations with pretty labels and every other imaginable thing you can get from your notes. You know that from question to answer it goes like THIS. And still... for some reason in your head it doesn't. In your head 2 + 2 = 4... like it should... It is like being in 1984 (the book) and Big Brother and the marvellous propaganda is saying quite explicitly 2 + 2 = 5. The propaganda says it so it must be true but your brain refuses to allow the system to work for you.
3. Rote learning is good. Whoever said science/engineering students couldn't rote learn their way through their degree? Well maybe not all of it... But certainly first year. This is the one and only solution the the problem in question 2. You don't get why it does it or understand why that particular value even needs to have a place IN the formula. You just know it does. If you right out the answers to every tute sheet you've ever been given and cross your fingers... you may even manage 100% not understand... Unlikely sure but... 1st year physics lecturers don't actually but that much effort into the exam... which leads to -
4. Exams don't change. Unless you are unfortunate enough to be in a revamped course... You know when the uni decides that the old one isn't quite right so they need to overthrow the whole course.. maybe combine it with this other one... But essentially exams don't change. Questions may alternate on a 2 year cycle or the values get adjusted but essentially... Past exam papers really are your best friend. I don't use them often but I do know they work. There have been a couple of physics exams I've survived only because exams never change and rote learning works...
5. Nobody buts in the effort they should. I dunno maybe somewhere out there there is the hard slogging uni student, I am yet to meet them. One of my friends is damn near failing and she has to see a study aid person. I've looked at that time table she was given... Nobody can study like that and remain functional... We are talking 7-10.30 6 days a week... And according to the theory that should be typical of an engineering workload... Let me tell you unless it is the 2-3 days before an exam NOBODY can do that. See point 1. if you are question why not :)...
6. Deadlines can move. Yes, yes, they shouldn't have to, nevertheless thanks to procrastination and a failure to put in the effort you need in a timely fashion sometimes they do need to. I always thought a deadline was like a brick wall or something. A year or so of uni has shown me it is much more like an elastic, you can hit it and move it a little, just be wary the elastic is liable to snap eventually. Some lecturers are more elastic than others but they all will give you an extension... generally for little more than you approaching them with a pretty please. However this is a power you should not extort because it generally just means that you procrastinate to the later date at any rate... I suggest NOT doing that.
Last, or else I'll never finish, but possibly the exact OPPOSITE of least...
7. Procrastination is evil, bad and inescapable. No matter how many good intentions you have to do your work nice and promptly and not allow any aspect of your study to fall behind you are going to. Procrastination is always more appealing than your work. And while you are procrastinating you don't care that your work isn't getting done. Unfortunately the more you procrastination the more the study/work stress hurts at the end of it. Procrastination seems harmless, seems fun... it is EVIL. I say don't procrastinate knowing full well that you, I, everybody will... Its just life really...
Uni is fun... sort of.... Learning how to learn... I used to scoff over the past year that how has my learning been improved... and suddenly i realise that it has.. studying for exams is getting more effective... So much happens without you realising it... Nothing changes until everything changes... such is life.
I call myself one quarter of an engineer but really I don't think the relationship is quite the linear. I can't think of any reason though why it would become essential to but me to work at this point. It isn't like they would suddenly enlist me in a.... major electrical disaster (as opposed to a war or something)... and require me to step up as an electrical engineer. Mind you... if you need some very basic amplification... I'm your girl :). I have operational amplifiers (known as op amps) down so well.
After thinking about it. I think university is a compounding thing. I've seen my second and third year mates. More exams, more work, HARDER work. Definitely compounding. So that makes me 1/8th an engineering... cuz it means next year i'll be 1/4 then 1/2 and THEN i'll be an engineer. Now because it is a compound thing I better not be forgetting... well apparently I have already done that. Not great considering my exam was yesterday. Ahhh well... Lets see what I can remember huh?
1. Study is a whole body experience. If you can't convince every part of you that its what you need to be doing it doesn't happen. You sit down with good intentions but your fingers creep to the mouse, your eyes lock onto facebook - or google when facebook gets dull, your body suggests the bathroom - 5 times in 15 minutes, your throat drys up and needs water, you are suddenly way more hungry than you used to be, your legs are uncomfortable you need to get up and stretch - repeatedly... and so the list goes on. So only when your whole body realises that this study is IMPORTANT is anything likely to happen.
2. Sometimes it won't compute. You've read it a thousand times. Copied out the sequence a hundred times. Written out the equations with pretty labels and every other imaginable thing you can get from your notes. You know that from question to answer it goes like THIS. And still... for some reason in your head it doesn't. In your head 2 + 2 = 4... like it should... It is like being in 1984 (the book) and Big Brother and the marvellous propaganda is saying quite explicitly 2 + 2 = 5. The propaganda says it so it must be true but your brain refuses to allow the system to work for you.
3. Rote learning is good. Whoever said science/engineering students couldn't rote learn their way through their degree? Well maybe not all of it... But certainly first year. This is the one and only solution the the problem in question 2. You don't get why it does it or understand why that particular value even needs to have a place IN the formula. You just know it does. If you right out the answers to every tute sheet you've ever been given and cross your fingers... you may even manage 100% not understand... Unlikely sure but... 1st year physics lecturers don't actually but that much effort into the exam... which leads to -
4. Exams don't change. Unless you are unfortunate enough to be in a revamped course... You know when the uni decides that the old one isn't quite right so they need to overthrow the whole course.. maybe combine it with this other one... But essentially exams don't change. Questions may alternate on a 2 year cycle or the values get adjusted but essentially... Past exam papers really are your best friend. I don't use them often but I do know they work. There have been a couple of physics exams I've survived only because exams never change and rote learning works...
5. Nobody buts in the effort they should. I dunno maybe somewhere out there there is the hard slogging uni student, I am yet to meet them. One of my friends is damn near failing and she has to see a study aid person. I've looked at that time table she was given... Nobody can study like that and remain functional... We are talking 7-10.30 6 days a week... And according to the theory that should be typical of an engineering workload... Let me tell you unless it is the 2-3 days before an exam NOBODY can do that. See point 1. if you are question why not :)...
6. Deadlines can move. Yes, yes, they shouldn't have to, nevertheless thanks to procrastination and a failure to put in the effort you need in a timely fashion sometimes they do need to. I always thought a deadline was like a brick wall or something. A year or so of uni has shown me it is much more like an elastic, you can hit it and move it a little, just be wary the elastic is liable to snap eventually. Some lecturers are more elastic than others but they all will give you an extension... generally for little more than you approaching them with a pretty please. However this is a power you should not extort because it generally just means that you procrastinate to the later date at any rate... I suggest NOT doing that.
Last, or else I'll never finish, but possibly the exact OPPOSITE of least...
7. Procrastination is evil, bad and inescapable. No matter how many good intentions you have to do your work nice and promptly and not allow any aspect of your study to fall behind you are going to. Procrastination is always more appealing than your work. And while you are procrastinating you don't care that your work isn't getting done. Unfortunately the more you procrastination the more the study/work stress hurts at the end of it. Procrastination seems harmless, seems fun... it is EVIL. I say don't procrastinate knowing full well that you, I, everybody will... Its just life really...
Uni is fun... sort of.... Learning how to learn... I used to scoff over the past year that how has my learning been improved... and suddenly i realise that it has.. studying for exams is getting more effective... So much happens without you realising it... Nothing changes until everything changes... such is life.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Communal Living: The Silent Domestic
This is definitely one for anybody who has ever lived in a communal environment. In fact anybody who has had to live with anybody besides themselves. The silent domestic comes in many forms, depending on the issue, depending on the people. They happen between couples, but perhaps they shouldn't?, they happen between friends and family and they happen between the relative strangers who happen to share any kind of space with one another.
The silent domestic is the fight you have through the little actions. It is the label staking claim on the milk in the fridge even when you live with only one or two other people. It is the refolding of the hand towel so it suits you or the rearranging on the living room so YOUR chair can actually see the tv for once.
These fights are everywhere. However it is perhaps when attempting to live communally, be it colleges or share houses, that they are at their worst. At home with family before you move on and move out these kinds of things aren't necessary. Either everybody does it the same way, after all that is where most habits come from. Or you talk/shout about it until you come to solution. People don't need to be territorial at home.
I mention that couples probably do it and shouldn't. Well really if you are getting serious enough to be living together (and I have good old-fashioned morals so read married) you need to be communicating. There are sure to be any number of niggle-y things, especially initially, but you should know each well enough before even getting to that position to know how to handle it with the other person. To me the best silent domestic in couples is the old faithful... 'which way should the toilet seat be left?'...
Here the experiences I'm speaking about are, if you haven't picked up on it, the college experiences. Well not specifically university, in fact some of my most memorable silent domestics come from my job before uni, forced to share a bunk bed type accommodation while on the job for several days at a time. Noteable me and my... roommate... didn't get along all that well... particularly by the end of it.
This is the situation I talk about. When you are living with people, not of your own choosing but because you just have to. Maybe its you've joined a share house with a friend and realised that their other friends... aren't really your sort of people. That kind of thing. The little things that they do that piss you off - in some cases into a silent rage - and yet all you do is intentionally do it back the other way, your way.
I live in a hall way type arrangement with 3 other girls. We each have a bedroom of our own but share a bathroom, toilet and laundry. Some of the most significant silent fights we've had here involve the common areas. Though I'm not going to deny one of the most popular 'silent' domestics about musical taste... Nobody really talks to anybody else but you all put your music on loud enough to drown out the 'dreadful' strains of the other persons.
We have some quirky silent domestics amongst ourselves here in the hallway. In charge of our own cleaning they include how we go about cleaning the bathroom or the toilet or even when we do the cleaning. I like to get up and get ready before I give the bathroom sink a wipe down (as is my job at the moment), one of the others prefers that to be done first. So she does it... Cool you may think, what is the problem with that? The body language if you ever saw her doing it would explain that. I have the disadvantage of not only living with these 3 girls but working with them too... If we aren't on good ground... work becomes hellish.
But my favourite silent domestic, the one that is my basis for all silent domestics, is the one we have about the washing detergent. Now we don't have any structured plan about who has to buy the washing detergent. We all know that we are good about somebody getting some in good time so we never run out. All good... never have we run out of washing detergent or fabric softener. In fact, when we start to run out we generally end up with MORE than we could ever need.
That is where the domestic comes in. This particular fight is 3 against 1. How is this a fight at all? Well the 3 like one kind of detergent and the 1 likes a completely different one. You may think the 1 would just concede, I mean after all it is just detergent, or not. It is the single longest running silent domestic in our hallway. Whose type of detergent is there first at resup time.
I am one of the 3. We occasionally all manage to buy together, and end up with a ridiculous amount of our choice. Unfortunately the 1 has managed to trump us all this time around... with 5kg of her choice! That is a long time in clothes washing.
It wasn't really until this moment that I even noticed that it WAS a fight. That it was a we HATE your detergent and I HATE yours all out brawl using only our wallets and our bought preferences. The ultimate in what I'm calling silent domestics. No words are ever spoken, nobody ever actively complains - it is only detergent - but each of us wants it to be OUR choice that we are using...
Silent domestics will always be there... Frustrating as hell to live with but funny as hell to think about as a discerning adult apart from it all...
The silent domestic is the fight you have through the little actions. It is the label staking claim on the milk in the fridge even when you live with only one or two other people. It is the refolding of the hand towel so it suits you or the rearranging on the living room so YOUR chair can actually see the tv for once.
These fights are everywhere. However it is perhaps when attempting to live communally, be it colleges or share houses, that they are at their worst. At home with family before you move on and move out these kinds of things aren't necessary. Either everybody does it the same way, after all that is where most habits come from. Or you talk/shout about it until you come to solution. People don't need to be territorial at home.
I mention that couples probably do it and shouldn't. Well really if you are getting serious enough to be living together (and I have good old-fashioned morals so read married) you need to be communicating. There are sure to be any number of niggle-y things, especially initially, but you should know each well enough before even getting to that position to know how to handle it with the other person. To me the best silent domestic in couples is the old faithful... 'which way should the toilet seat be left?'...
Here the experiences I'm speaking about are, if you haven't picked up on it, the college experiences. Well not specifically university, in fact some of my most memorable silent domestics come from my job before uni, forced to share a bunk bed type accommodation while on the job for several days at a time. Noteable me and my... roommate... didn't get along all that well... particularly by the end of it.
This is the situation I talk about. When you are living with people, not of your own choosing but because you just have to. Maybe its you've joined a share house with a friend and realised that their other friends... aren't really your sort of people. That kind of thing. The little things that they do that piss you off - in some cases into a silent rage - and yet all you do is intentionally do it back the other way, your way.
I live in a hall way type arrangement with 3 other girls. We each have a bedroom of our own but share a bathroom, toilet and laundry. Some of the most significant silent fights we've had here involve the common areas. Though I'm not going to deny one of the most popular 'silent' domestics about musical taste... Nobody really talks to anybody else but you all put your music on loud enough to drown out the 'dreadful' strains of the other persons.
We have some quirky silent domestics amongst ourselves here in the hallway. In charge of our own cleaning they include how we go about cleaning the bathroom or the toilet or even when we do the cleaning. I like to get up and get ready before I give the bathroom sink a wipe down (as is my job at the moment), one of the others prefers that to be done first. So she does it... Cool you may think, what is the problem with that? The body language if you ever saw her doing it would explain that. I have the disadvantage of not only living with these 3 girls but working with them too... If we aren't on good ground... work becomes hellish.
But my favourite silent domestic, the one that is my basis for all silent domestics, is the one we have about the washing detergent. Now we don't have any structured plan about who has to buy the washing detergent. We all know that we are good about somebody getting some in good time so we never run out. All good... never have we run out of washing detergent or fabric softener. In fact, when we start to run out we generally end up with MORE than we could ever need.
That is where the domestic comes in. This particular fight is 3 against 1. How is this a fight at all? Well the 3 like one kind of detergent and the 1 likes a completely different one. You may think the 1 would just concede, I mean after all it is just detergent, or not. It is the single longest running silent domestic in our hallway. Whose type of detergent is there first at resup time.
I am one of the 3. We occasionally all manage to buy together, and end up with a ridiculous amount of our choice. Unfortunately the 1 has managed to trump us all this time around... with 5kg of her choice! That is a long time in clothes washing.
It wasn't really until this moment that I even noticed that it WAS a fight. That it was a we HATE your detergent and I HATE yours all out brawl using only our wallets and our bought preferences. The ultimate in what I'm calling silent domestics. No words are ever spoken, nobody ever actively complains - it is only detergent - but each of us wants it to be OUR choice that we are using...
Silent domestics will always be there... Frustrating as hell to live with but funny as hell to think about as a discerning adult apart from it all...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Convincing Myself I'm Not Depressed
As I've mentioned I'm not particularly skilled with members of the opposite sex. I've also mentioned that I have a huge crush on one of the other guys in my year. I think I even mentioned the fact that even if I remain incompetent for the rest of the year, there's always next year etc. and slowly but surely I'm getting better with time. Pathetic yes but all well and good. I can go plodding along and hopefully make some progress...
Or not. Saw him yesterday, he's one of the 3 other members of my bible study group, how I have love going to bible study for the 5 minutes we get to talk before the others get in and get started. but dammit, this week... he had news... and for me it was not good news. He's leaving, not at some indiscriminate time post graduation, not even the end of the year. He's leaving, next week!!!
How do you get AROUND that? Maybe if I was good at the relationships stuff... but I'm not... I keep my feelings well and truly close to the chest. But goodness I had to work to not break down throughout the rest of the study. Yes, we literally went straight into the bible study like nothing was wrong. Admittedly he seemed a little be more sullen than usual, anxious to be leaving I suppose. Leaving this place would be like getting out of a prison. Excited about finally being free, nervous about what the real world will look like outside its protective walls. I'm as institutionalised as can be... so i never really expected any of my close friends to not be... that in itself is quite a shock...
I'm just not quite sure what to do now. By nature I crush long and hard... I'll probably make a good wife oneday if my relationship skills ever improve. My high school crush, the last super one I had, only really ended cause he stopped talking to me, and then we finished school. But this one... doesn't have the animosity in it. I don't want to have to be convincing myself not to think about him, it is painful and awkward... and my mind says completely pointless. But the saner part of my mind also says he'll be going all too soon, and there are bound to be girls from where he's from, and I'm too hopeless for anything... I just don't know... Now I feel guilty when I watch for him, feeling like I'm feeding a part of me I don't have a right to be. Such is my life right now...
Monday, October 12, 2009
About a Boy
Ok... Most of the time... I'm the most content person about about my not having any relationship experienced. I'm its unusual but not unheard of to be 18 and never had a boyfriend. In fact except for one long term and rather childish crush on one of my best friends I can definitely be termed a late bloomer. I didn't understand how girls thought of actors in movies as hot or not... Not until about grade 11...
Which isn't to say I don't get it now :) it all makes sense to me... Though from a Christian background as well as a strong faith of my own I never quite the same sex lure as many of my friends... More than happy to wait... Plus its easy to have that attitude when all the guys at school you find to be repulsively immature. To this day I don't understand the teenage ability to date half their class if they feel like it. A) you know them way too well and B) because you know them you know how immature and shallow the majority of them are. I was more than happy to keep to my one or two hopeless crushes.
Now though... I'm starting to wish I hadn't... I have zero relationship experience. ZERO. The only time a guy has every asked me to anything.. was a date to the formal - a joke... When we were in grade 10 (yes 2 years from any formal)... Who knows how that might have panned out... He was the type of guy who probably would have gone through with it... more for a laugh than anything. But he left halfway through year 12 and missed it anyways.
The only other proposition i've had? also him... The day he left school. Asked me for a kiss before he went. Unfortunately in the middle of a Chemistry class test. I didn't take him up on his offer. Tempted - a little, sceptical of his motives - a little, embarrassed for wanting to - a lot.
So that covers in 2 paragraphs all the invitations I've ever had... Now is where I point out my position at school. I was the smart girl. I was well known throughout, but simply for being smart, I'm certainly not what you would call a looker and a number of kgs overweight for the majority of my life. It doesn't bother me else I'd work harder to change it but was without a doubt an effect on that side of my life. I'm not after some stereotypical hot guy with no brain anyways so meh...
Now to the parts that detrimentally effect my personal confidence around boys. I mentioned a crush on a best friend? Four years, in fact a large part of the reason we (my best friend and I) initiated the friendship can be attributed to that (on my side at any rate), I had that crush and four years we were friends with him without too much of a hassle. He dated another of my friends for 6 months... and if that didn't have my nose a little out of joint to boot. But I never would have said.
That is the one thing I do well. Crushing on a guy in silence. That is basically what I'm doing at the moment, the reason for this rambling, and I HATE it... I'm more than over it. I got over it at high school too... and told him. In his way he didn't really make much of a response. In fact he didn't give a response at all. He never truly spoke to me again. Six weeks, or thereabouts, before the end of year 12 I lost one of my best friends - and of course the boy I'd been crushing on since I could remember... It hurt to say the least.
When I say we initiated the friendship it wasn't an easy friendship. He was enough of a loner that we had to disrupt him in the library to get anything out of him. Over the years it just became our thing. We were still in the library but he no longer (unless we did something 'terrible' and pissed him off which was only once... maybe twice lol (we got ourselves and him kicked out, for a week!)) attempted to read rather than talk to us.
But anyway... dredging all that stuff makes me feel better but only cuz I'm distracted and it doesn't hold the same levels of emotion as the predicament I'm in at the moment. I like a boy. I like a boy SOO bad. More than I have done any of the other minor crushes I've had over the last year... and more than I can ever remember liking that guy back in school. From this I've discerned that emotional growth hurts like a bitch. I can't work as effectively as I normally would - though I would say that in part that is end of year blues - which I'll save for another blog sometime :)...
So I've developed the stalker qualities... You know, if he is in your general area and you don't need to be looking at anything else you watch him. I've done the internet search even... It was funny cuz he actually did come up, for some award he won back in high school... was quite entertaining for me. I've done the depression moment cuz he doesn't have facebook. Nothing more than that but it makes me feel rather stalker-ish which depresses me further...
I just don't know where to go from here. There are only a few weeks of the year remaining when I'll have him so close... and after that, not until February when classes resume. Once of the blessings of a tiny uni campus if you can be sure you'll always see people again, whilst your here that is...
The other thing is the stalker stage can't last forever. As it is, he has started to pick up on the fact that I watch him if I see him on accident. Just tonight I noticed a figure (identifying by gate(step) more than anything) walk under our tv room (we have a outdoor walkway underneath) so I switched sides of the common room to, well honestly more to check if it was him than to specifically watch him :), and walking with a mate he turned a little back to my block window and waved at me...
and THAT is what has me freaked out... What do I do? Is that even a good sign? We are connected through the university christian group, he is even in my bible study... Is it just as a friend... But no I don't think that really explains it... WHY did he look back at the block enough to spot me at all? And even if he did... Even if it is EXACTLY what I hope it is... What do I DO?!? And that... is all I have... today there is no solution... and I doubt sleep will grant me the answer... I'm destined to flounder is curious, fear, excitement and all that other good stuff...
Which isn't to say I don't get it now :) it all makes sense to me... Though from a Christian background as well as a strong faith of my own I never quite the same sex lure as many of my friends... More than happy to wait... Plus its easy to have that attitude when all the guys at school you find to be repulsively immature. To this day I don't understand the teenage ability to date half their class if they feel like it. A) you know them way too well and B) because you know them you know how immature and shallow the majority of them are. I was more than happy to keep to my one or two hopeless crushes.
Now though... I'm starting to wish I hadn't... I have zero relationship experience. ZERO. The only time a guy has every asked me to anything.. was a date to the formal - a joke... When we were in grade 10 (yes 2 years from any formal)... Who knows how that might have panned out... He was the type of guy who probably would have gone through with it... more for a laugh than anything. But he left halfway through year 12 and missed it anyways.
The only other proposition i've had? also him... The day he left school. Asked me for a kiss before he went. Unfortunately in the middle of a Chemistry class test. I didn't take him up on his offer. Tempted - a little, sceptical of his motives - a little, embarrassed for wanting to - a lot.
So that covers in 2 paragraphs all the invitations I've ever had... Now is where I point out my position at school. I was the smart girl. I was well known throughout, but simply for being smart, I'm certainly not what you would call a looker and a number of kgs overweight for the majority of my life. It doesn't bother me else I'd work harder to change it but was without a doubt an effect on that side of my life. I'm not after some stereotypical hot guy with no brain anyways so meh...
Now to the parts that detrimentally effect my personal confidence around boys. I mentioned a crush on a best friend? Four years, in fact a large part of the reason we (my best friend and I) initiated the friendship can be attributed to that (on my side at any rate), I had that crush and four years we were friends with him without too much of a hassle. He dated another of my friends for 6 months... and if that didn't have my nose a little out of joint to boot. But I never would have said.
That is the one thing I do well. Crushing on a guy in silence. That is basically what I'm doing at the moment, the reason for this rambling, and I HATE it... I'm more than over it. I got over it at high school too... and told him. In his way he didn't really make much of a response. In fact he didn't give a response at all. He never truly spoke to me again. Six weeks, or thereabouts, before the end of year 12 I lost one of my best friends - and of course the boy I'd been crushing on since I could remember... It hurt to say the least.
When I say we initiated the friendship it wasn't an easy friendship. He was enough of a loner that we had to disrupt him in the library to get anything out of him. Over the years it just became our thing. We were still in the library but he no longer (unless we did something 'terrible' and pissed him off which was only once... maybe twice lol (we got ourselves and him kicked out, for a week!)) attempted to read rather than talk to us.
But anyway... dredging all that stuff makes me feel better but only cuz I'm distracted and it doesn't hold the same levels of emotion as the predicament I'm in at the moment. I like a boy. I like a boy SOO bad. More than I have done any of the other minor crushes I've had over the last year... and more than I can ever remember liking that guy back in school. From this I've discerned that emotional growth hurts like a bitch. I can't work as effectively as I normally would - though I would say that in part that is end of year blues - which I'll save for another blog sometime :)...
So I've developed the stalker qualities... You know, if he is in your general area and you don't need to be looking at anything else you watch him. I've done the internet search even... It was funny cuz he actually did come up, for some award he won back in high school... was quite entertaining for me. I've done the depression moment cuz he doesn't have facebook. Nothing more than that but it makes me feel rather stalker-ish which depresses me further...
I just don't know where to go from here. There are only a few weeks of the year remaining when I'll have him so close... and after that, not until February when classes resume. Once of the blessings of a tiny uni campus if you can be sure you'll always see people again, whilst your here that is...
The other thing is the stalker stage can't last forever. As it is, he has started to pick up on the fact that I watch him if I see him on accident. Just tonight I noticed a figure (identifying by gate(step) more than anything) walk under our tv room (we have a outdoor walkway underneath) so I switched sides of the common room to, well honestly more to check if it was him than to specifically watch him :), and walking with a mate he turned a little back to my block window and waved at me...
and THAT is what has me freaked out... What do I do? Is that even a good sign? We are connected through the university christian group, he is even in my bible study... Is it just as a friend... But no I don't think that really explains it... WHY did he look back at the block enough to spot me at all? And even if he did... Even if it is EXACTLY what I hope it is... What do I DO?!? And that... is all I have... today there is no solution... and I doubt sleep will grant me the answer... I'm destined to flounder is curious, fear, excitement and all that other good stuff...
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Early Mornings
I'm sure i've mentioned it before... and even if I haven't... It is a part of my work that I get up a little before 6 every week day... Fairly typical for a lot of day workers I'm sure. And on weekends I sleep in... only until about 8.30 or so but a sleep in nevertheless. Unfortunately some people don't seem to understand the concept of silent hours.
Yeah I'm sure that many people but it down to the disadvantages of communal living. But there is said to be a couple things which really should be though of. In our building we have to have our living areas, particularly the communal ones, checked for their cleanliness standard on a fairly frequent basis. So for me noise is one of the big ones. As it is we have the disadvantage of being the building closest to the dining hall/bar and all of the others have to wander past to the go to meals. The voices carry to my second story window like the people were sitting on my window ledge.
That is a little irritating... but with training you can ignore it pretty well... Though nights - like last night - when one of the resident sports teams is doing the drinking/function thing it gets a little frustrating attempting sleep. But that really isn't my issue here today... My hallmate (we don't have room mates but groups of 4 share a hall with a bathroom/toilet etc...) decided it was neccessary to SLAM her door at a little before 8.00 this morning and then the bathroom door.
Now see don't get me wrong... Normally it wouldn't be that big a deal. Slamming doors is part and parcel of the communal living thing... But add to the fact that we had one of those function nights with loud people until a little past 12 keeping me up... I don't feel very appreciative... Now I wouldn't mind so much if I thought perhaps she needed to get ready for work or something... She didn't, we all work together... Getting up throughout the week is easier for all the other girls getting up too...
My neighbour is also the most moody member of our hallway. If somebody had woken HER up with their door... We would have been hearing about it and her poor disturbed sleep for a week... Which isn't so bad now that we are used to it... but it still gets a little frustrating...
So basically I've had my rant now... and feel a little better for doing so :)... I must get on with my study.. But a note to others in communal living situations... vaccumns, music, and door slamming... when you no your neighbour is asleep or is reasonably expected to be asleep (ie the silent hours) aren't cool. It isn't some old people rule that doesn't apply to uni blocks... Some people need their sleep.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Graphic Mutterings
So I've changed my mind... I'm female, I'm entitled apparently =P. I don't take photos often... and even less frequently of people or anything interesting... I have no artistic talent and no ability but every so often I take photos of stuff... My bed, the puzzle i was colouring... my uni stuff... they just sort of sit on my camera doing nothing. Might as well stick them on here I say.
A bit of a prior warning... though I'll generally post them in clumps things like my bed or my room are pretty well the costant focus of my camera... so don't be surprised if every photo i ever post is exactly the same. I am putting them on here for my own benefit... just like everything else... and i like my photos of the nothingness if nothing else.
Welcome to my bedroom... Yes I really did sleep on the floor that night... It is the only time I've ever done it... but look at the beautifully made white bed and that is why...
This here? Is my cupboard... Not nearly as fun to photograph as my immaculate (sometimes) bed... But never the less I have done...
And this is my pinboard... and that is my room in overview... I'll be sure to have some slightly more interesting photos the next time around... This is just an introduction to... well me...
A bit of a prior warning... though I'll generally post them in clumps things like my bed or my room are pretty well the costant focus of my camera... so don't be surprised if every photo i ever post is exactly the same. I am putting them on here for my own benefit... just like everything else... and i like my photos of the nothingness if nothing else.
This here? Is my cupboard... Not nearly as fun to photograph as my immaculate (sometimes) bed... But never the less I have done...
Monday, October 5, 2009
You Can't 'Save' Daylight
Ok... So I've mentioned that I haven't had a bee in my bonnet - or anything really to talk about - in quite some time. But times change. In an unfortunately literal manner. Apparently clocks do that changing thing this past Sunday in the southern states of Australia... Daylight Savings they call it. I don't understand the concept though apparently it is very popular in the world.
According to an American friend of mine it was the idea of Benjamin Franklin. That is the guy renown for the key on a kite in a lightning storm isn't it? I know he was a brilliant mind and everything but instigating Daylight Savings makes him on my unfriendlys list right at this moment. Who designs a concept which involves the changing of time, which is basically the only constant-ish thing on the face of the planet?
Now I don't know. Is daylight savings the world over? Or is it restricted to the USA and unfortunately areas of Australia? I assume that if parts of Europe do it, they'd all have to do it. How awkward could that be? Some countries on one time, others an hour out. Actually... there must be multiple time zones cutting across Europe without the aid of DLS (as I will refer to it from now on to save myself typing out the same dreaded words too often).
I don't know anything really of Europe coming from the Eastern-Western country we are a little to far detached from such places, despite a Queen. We, of Australia, are much more closely linked with the US of A. Something many Australians quite detest even as they line up for any one of the US fast foods so they can be in home to watch any one of a gazillion US tellie - sorry television - shows. I actually have a young cousin who talking to her you could mistaken her accent for a very light American one - distinctly unAussie at any rate.
But I'm not discussing Australia, the not the 51st state of the US, but rather DLS. For anybody with the luxury of never having crossed paths with DLS before. It is the strange habit some parts of the world seem to have for adjusting their time and pretending the time is an hour later than it actually is for the entirety of the summer months. Yes that means that just the other day (the first Sunday of October) we lost an hour and they aren't going to give it back to me until sometime next year (I don't know when exactly).
Just so we have an understanding. This is not me fighting a norm I've experienced all my life. I am lucky enough to know the TRUTH about the fact that time isn't actually set up for DLS. The great state of Queensland has no DLS. Though every so often it comes up as an option. The day it gets a second go round (it has already been trialed and hated once before i am capable of memory) will be a sad day indeed. I don't really see the point of changing time just so you can have the sun later into the night. I do not need the sun up at 8 o'clock at night.
I would however appreciate the sun up at oh 6 in the morning? Is that too much to hope for? I am up before 6 for my work... and generally that translates to something outside as well. Whereas I have finished up for the day at about 5.30 and an hour and a half of sunlight is more than enough thank you very much. Perhaps a body clock gets better at coping with DLS over time. I'm not talking specifically about bedtimes or awakenings. I'm talking about that ingrained function that allows your body to analyse time of day by the height, heat or brightness of the sun.
Ok... Now rather than going back and editing which I could do... But where would the fun be in that?... Apparently using a slightly more reliable source (ie Wikipedia) I can see that DLS can actually be blamed on a New Zealander, George Hudson. Why it is we have it in Australia when it was a New Zealander =P... No more seriously I'm surprised Australians don't claim partial credit for its creation if that is the case. Probably because it isn't a hugely popular concept with many Australian. I know I am speaking for myself here but all 4 of the Queenslanders (of the 8 people I live with) have been heard to make similar complaints to my own about this ridiculous habit.
The other thing I've managed to pin down is used in Europe... and the USA almost religiously... But few other places in the world. To my left is a nifty little thing I just HAD to hijack off wikipedia. I suggest all you DLS lovers take a good solid look at this map... and all the ORANGE bits... The tried it and hated it bits. I like to think of them as the sane bits. Most notable the MAJORITY of Oz is not blue so why am I stuck with this blasted DLS stuff? Such is life.
According to an American friend of mine it was the idea of Benjamin Franklin. That is the guy renown for the key on a kite in a lightning storm isn't it? I know he was a brilliant mind and everything but instigating Daylight Savings makes him on my unfriendlys list right at this moment. Who designs a concept which involves the changing of time, which is basically the only constant-ish thing on the face of the planet?
Now I don't know. Is daylight savings the world over? Or is it restricted to the USA and unfortunately areas of Australia? I assume that if parts of Europe do it, they'd all have to do it. How awkward could that be? Some countries on one time, others an hour out. Actually... there must be multiple time zones cutting across Europe without the aid of DLS (as I will refer to it from now on to save myself typing out the same dreaded words too often).
I don't know anything really of Europe coming from the Eastern-Western country we are a little to far detached from such places, despite a Queen. We, of Australia, are much more closely linked with the US of A. Something many Australians quite detest even as they line up for any one of the US fast foods so they can be in home to watch any one of a gazillion US tellie - sorry television - shows. I actually have a young cousin who talking to her you could mistaken her accent for a very light American one - distinctly unAussie at any rate.
But I'm not discussing Australia, the not the 51st state of the US, but rather DLS. For anybody with the luxury of never having crossed paths with DLS before. It is the strange habit some parts of the world seem to have for adjusting their time and pretending the time is an hour later than it actually is for the entirety of the summer months. Yes that means that just the other day (the first Sunday of October) we lost an hour and they aren't going to give it back to me until sometime next year (I don't know when exactly).
Just so we have an understanding. This is not me fighting a norm I've experienced all my life. I am lucky enough to know the TRUTH about the fact that time isn't actually set up for DLS. The great state of Queensland has no DLS. Though every so often it comes up as an option. The day it gets a second go round (it has already been trialed and hated once before i am capable of memory) will be a sad day indeed. I don't really see the point of changing time just so you can have the sun later into the night. I do not need the sun up at 8 o'clock at night.
I would however appreciate the sun up at oh 6 in the morning? Is that too much to hope for? I am up before 6 for my work... and generally that translates to something outside as well. Whereas I have finished up for the day at about 5.30 and an hour and a half of sunlight is more than enough thank you very much. Perhaps a body clock gets better at coping with DLS over time. I'm not talking specifically about bedtimes or awakenings. I'm talking about that ingrained function that allows your body to analyse time of day by the height, heat or brightness of the sun.
Ok... Now rather than going back and editing which I could do... But where would the fun be in that?... Apparently using a slightly more reliable source (ie Wikipedia) I can see that DLS can actually be blamed on a New Zealander, George Hudson. Why it is we have it in Australia when it was a New Zealander =P... No more seriously I'm surprised Australians don't claim partial credit for its creation if that is the case. Probably because it isn't a hugely popular concept with many Australian. I know I am speaking for myself here but all 4 of the Queenslanders (of the 8 people I live with) have been heard to make similar complaints to my own about this ridiculous habit.
The other thing I've managed to pin down is used in Europe... and the USA almost religiously... But few other places in the world. To my left is a nifty little thing I just HAD to hijack off wikipedia. I suggest all you DLS lovers take a good solid look at this map... and all the ORANGE bits... The tried it and hated it bits. I like to think of them as the sane bits. Most notable the MAJORITY of Oz is not blue so why am I stuck with this blasted DLS stuff? Such is life.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Plain Ol' Boring Me
Unlike... every person on the face of this planet (with a blog at any rate) who seems to take photos or steal photos often enough to have them in all of their blog entries... I just... don't... I'm not going to lie... The only thing I've taken photos of in recent months... is my bed... Seems strange... in fact it is strange... but I was very pleased with my lime green sheets at the time... If I ever dig up my camera in the right mood I may put them up here... But photos feel... so revealing... plus i don't have nearly enough to make them a constant sort of a thing :S... such is life...
I'm not just calling myself plain and boring for having not shown photos... As I said... it is something I could easily change and yet, am not. The boring bit comes from the fact that I stayed in Canberra for the long weekend. I have a perfectly good family home in the warmth of the Queensland climate; and it's probably not RAINING there either. And yet... I am still here. In my room, everybody has returned home as is customary in our block except for the boring ones. Of which I find myself part.
I am not quite sure why I always manage to lump in with the boring bunch. I just naturally filter that way I suppose. Not given to the drinking or partying habits of my colleges nor particularly fond of the late nights they put themselves through to conduct said habits. I am not against any of it... It just doesn't work for me. I am one of those people with the misfortune to NEED the 7-8 hrs of sleep advised to all mankind. And when I break with the trend my body begs for a catch up until I do give in (generally on a Friday night).
Today... I did the good thing and took my friend to the airport a little after 8. - Some people are giving me that odd look about now that says... THERE'S your problem... you could get your full 8 hours after a night out if you just got up later. - Yeah... Doesn't work. 8 o'clock when you get up for work at 5.45am and work till 5.30pm is a sleep in. Again... Don't speak of all the people who work longer hours every day of their lives than me... They have some secret power I can only dream of possessing to not need lots of sleep.
But now I shall stopping being rather bitchy about people who have different gifts to my own :). If I'm honest with myself... needing the sleep isn't a bad thing. It isn't like I would use the time for anything constructive. Hanging about my computer desk procrastinating in some form or another no doubt. Rather like I'm doing now...
I don't know how to have interests... I used to be a part of a whole host of groups and do a couple sports. I was one of those kids with rarely a free night or weekend.. And then I left school, got a job and moved away from town... Living in an isolated spot in the middle of nowhere without the time or transport to escape regularly certainly has a halting effect on my extracurricular activities... I have more access these days... but often very little time... Something I am likely to forget while bored on a long weekend after a week of rest :)...
But as usual.. I have wasted many a word upon nothingness... I should get back to... nothing... fun fun fun :)
I'm not just calling myself plain and boring for having not shown photos... As I said... it is something I could easily change and yet, am not. The boring bit comes from the fact that I stayed in Canberra for the long weekend. I have a perfectly good family home in the warmth of the Queensland climate; and it's probably not RAINING there either. And yet... I am still here. In my room, everybody has returned home as is customary in our block except for the boring ones. Of which I find myself part.
I am not quite sure why I always manage to lump in with the boring bunch. I just naturally filter that way I suppose. Not given to the drinking or partying habits of my colleges nor particularly fond of the late nights they put themselves through to conduct said habits. I am not against any of it... It just doesn't work for me. I am one of those people with the misfortune to NEED the 7-8 hrs of sleep advised to all mankind. And when I break with the trend my body begs for a catch up until I do give in (generally on a Friday night).
Today... I did the good thing and took my friend to the airport a little after 8. - Some people are giving me that odd look about now that says... THERE'S your problem... you could get your full 8 hours after a night out if you just got up later. - Yeah... Doesn't work. 8 o'clock when you get up for work at 5.45am and work till 5.30pm is a sleep in. Again... Don't speak of all the people who work longer hours every day of their lives than me... They have some secret power I can only dream of possessing to not need lots of sleep.
But now I shall stopping being rather bitchy about people who have different gifts to my own :). If I'm honest with myself... needing the sleep isn't a bad thing. It isn't like I would use the time for anything constructive. Hanging about my computer desk procrastinating in some form or another no doubt. Rather like I'm doing now...
I don't know how to have interests... I used to be a part of a whole host of groups and do a couple sports. I was one of those kids with rarely a free night or weekend.. And then I left school, got a job and moved away from town... Living in an isolated spot in the middle of nowhere without the time or transport to escape regularly certainly has a halting effect on my extracurricular activities... I have more access these days... but often very little time... Something I am likely to forget while bored on a long weekend after a week of rest :)...
But as usual.. I have wasted many a word upon nothingness... I should get back to... nothing... fun fun fun :)
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Money and Mansions
Today I don't claim to have invented my own inspiration... We've spoken of how limited that is these days :). But I was looking a one of the many, many photo blogs of the world; and one of the few I 'follow' in a very loose sense of that word... And there was a photo of summer mansions the blogger called them... The blog is Aronaeveryday which I might link to if I was feeling slightly more technological... Now all I know of these photos is they are of Arona... and that is where my knowledge ends... I'm assuming Arona is in Europe... somewhere... but really... to an Australian many 'european' things can't be segregated into their own countries without specific knowledge... Which I'm sure some europeans would be quite scandalised by :)...
Anyway beyond discussing Europe, which is guaranteed to crop up again as I get further into the topic at any rate… Back to the topic of summer mansions… He spoke (this was one of the few photos which had a sort of explanation outside the realm of the photo subject) of the closing the summer mansions as children and grandchildren go back to school etc… As though this was your run of the mill everyday occurrence. Maybe it is… somewhere.
Of course kids go in and out of school here as much as anywhere else… I have even heard some people speak of vacation homes (generally some kind of beach house)… But to me it seems so out of this world when they talk of these mansions… It is so extravagant. It is one of those signs of ‘old money’… There was a time when old money ruled the world, royal families and nobility and the like… However these days we are much more a world of new money… Celebrities and sports greats and entrepreneurs who make greatness from nothing… And new money acts in some ways rather differently to new money…
You certainly don’t hear about old money (unless it is very young and reckless thereby overindulged by media old money heirs) very much in the news… It is occasionally spoken of in books, though in many instances even that is rather speculation of the lifestyle. In the books I read it is very VERY romanticised :)… But it is completely out of this world to any regular everyday folk like myself…
Now here is where Europe comes back into the equation. Europe does old money in ways Australians couldn’t dream of… Australia has only been a country 100 or so years… and inhabited by a european originating people less than 3 times that… I couldn’t think of quite the right way to phrase that particular development… but anyway… Europe has random structures of little importance older than my COUNTRY… So these summer mansions in many cases are probably older than Australia and the money holding a few of them (no doubt many have changed hands with rises and falls in fortunes) probably older still…
That blows my mind… There are some people in the world that are rich beyond filthy rich… Really the filthy rich are the stars who squander their wealth and what not… Though give them a hundred years… Some of the celebrities are no doubt the beginning of a new collection of old money families… Though I doubt they’ll ever be quite the same as the others… The rich way of life with their summer mansions… I mean they aren’t even summer homes… no these places are MANSIONS… no doubt with balls and dinner parties to boot… And now I am getting my wires crossed with romance fiction again…
Well… I don’t have money… I doubt I’ll ever meet anybody that does… and I don’t really mind… I live solidly in the middle class… I expect I always will… though I can never know what exactly God as in store for my life… But the very idea of old money is mind boggling. I don’t know what to do with my whole paycheck… think I’m doing great cuz I’ve managed to save up a couple grand over the past year… and i’m talking POCKET CHANGE to some people in the world… That is what astounds me… Goes to show that it doesn’t matter at all… I have more than enough without the millions…
At any rate… I have a summer home… It is my family home… I guess that is quite the same as these summer mansions actually… Come Christmas (cause being awesome christmas and summer are the same things in aus) everybody lives in our house for the holidays… My grandad, my mum, her brothers, me and my brother, my uncle’s girlfriend and kids… Everybody it is a full house indeed… Feeling the love :)… Who needs a mansion anyway… I have a perfect good piece of floor and I love it :)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Trying a New Thing
Ok... So engineering degrees are so much more painful than I ever imagined... I only changed one subject to go from my light and easy science degree to this hard core constant death elec eng course... Apparently that is all it takes... I mean Indonesian wasn't what I would call easy... For the mathematically minded it was my worst subject... I had the analytical side of things down.... Language is simply a code... you have to learn how you can but the pieces together in ways that make sense... But to speak it? yeah... not so good... Plus... there are all those little things with the code puzzle that you can't quite understand... like why can i say this... but not that? in English it would work just fine... pfft if all languages are not going to be the same they could at least follow similar rules... Thats just me wishing a could be learning languages still :( not until third year when I get some semi free electives.
Well as you can probably tell this is rather different to most of my earlier posts. My brain has imploded and I am not longer curious about anything nor do I have the time I have had in past to ponder. Well I still do at times... but it is in general entirely unproductive to the extent of there being no real topic or base. Which isn't to say it isn't interesting at times, it is always interesting to sit back and see how the most seemingly random things are connected somewhere deep inside your brain. It is a game my brain is particularly good for... for an analytical thinker my brain follows some particularly convoluted paths at times. I would probably say that it meanders. More because I love the word than for any practical purpose : P.
So this... Right here and now? Is me procrastinating bad. I'm avoiding my pre-lab report for tomorrow's lab. Notably it IS tomorrow's lab so I'll have to get into it after I've typed for a bit. I was starting to feel pretty bad for not having written on here in ages. Though it was essentially because all good things I once had to say (yes I know its a thing of perception but to me they were good) have left me. I could regale you with tales of op amps and high pass filters... about which I handed in a lab just yesterday. But I would probably be telling you wrong things... 32 pages dedicated to nothingness was basically my lab report. I actually did not complete about 50% of what was required in the lab report.. Which made for a lot of theorising and not much actual discovery of anything.
To relate back to my title briefly... When I stuck it in there I was referring to the fact that my blogging has completely changed tacks due to my lack of ponderings however I am noticing that it has, in fact, worked a large number of levels. But then with life being a dynamic on so many levels I guess this has to be the way of things doesn't it...
New Things in my life right now -
I have procrastinated for too long... I probably wont be back for a while again... Sad though it is for the nobody that will probably read this : P.
Well as you can probably tell this is rather different to most of my earlier posts. My brain has imploded and I am not longer curious about anything nor do I have the time I have had in past to ponder. Well I still do at times... but it is in general entirely unproductive to the extent of there being no real topic or base. Which isn't to say it isn't interesting at times, it is always interesting to sit back and see how the most seemingly random things are connected somewhere deep inside your brain. It is a game my brain is particularly good for... for an analytical thinker my brain follows some particularly convoluted paths at times. I would probably say that it meanders. More because I love the word than for any practical purpose : P.
So this... Right here and now? Is me procrastinating bad. I'm avoiding my pre-lab report for tomorrow's lab. Notably it IS tomorrow's lab so I'll have to get into it after I've typed for a bit. I was starting to feel pretty bad for not having written on here in ages. Though it was essentially because all good things I once had to say (yes I know its a thing of perception but to me they were good) have left me. I could regale you with tales of op amps and high pass filters... about which I handed in a lab just yesterday. But I would probably be telling you wrong things... 32 pages dedicated to nothingness was basically my lab report. I actually did not complete about 50% of what was required in the lab report.. Which made for a lot of theorising and not much actual discovery of anything.
To relate back to my title briefly... When I stuck it in there I was referring to the fact that my blogging has completely changed tacks due to my lack of ponderings however I am noticing that it has, in fact, worked a large number of levels. But then with life being a dynamic on so many levels I guess this has to be the way of things doesn't it...
New Things in my life right now -
- Blessed with a job that doesn't generally require me to work weekends I haven't enjoyed a proper weekend (due to work and not typical uni-ness) in more than a month
- A horrendous crush on one of the guys from my uni christian group - and i really HATE having to use the word crush - it is so very adolescent - but nevertheless this is pathetic enough that that is the only word appropriate
- A whole new lab report (the sequel to the terror I mentioned a little earlier and its worth an even bigger percentage of my course mark.. darn it!)
- Academic Struggle - this is where I admit to being your typical high school over achiever who didn't have to put it too much effort to achieve the marks however I also have the disposition that requires to try my arse off if i'm not achieving the top marks - that particular combination makes for a terrible stress at uni i've noticed...
- Brain block - it isn't writers block I'm not a writer.. but my brain is my best source of entertainment - and occasionally other peoples entertainment (generally unintentionally) - and it just hasn't been doing its thing as well as it usually does...
- Ebay aversion - ok a self inflicted incident where I purchased a computer completely accidentally... I was bidding for the sake of it expecting somebody else to bid over me... I was new to ebay so I guess the reality of it being real money hadn't quite sunk it... or something... maybe I have a gambling inclination which is makes it a good thing I don't do it... anyhow but apparently that was about the right price for the item cuz people stopped bidding about then too.... opps... ahhh well... every person needs 3 computers... i'll probably pass one on to my bestie or something...
I have procrastinated for too long... I probably wont be back for a while again... Sad though it is for the nobody that will probably read this : P.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
My Speech
Good Afternoon. My name is Daisy and I’m going to be speaking for the next 4 minutes about how to talk for 3 minutes. I will be covering topics and techniques as well as reasons why the ability to talk for 3 minutes is a crucial skill.
The beauty of the 3 minute speech is that it can in essence be about anything. Because of the brevity however it is essential to pick a subject without too much complexity or to choose a single component of the larger topic.
For a more formal level of speech some preparation should be involved in the topic selection process. It is important to start off with more information that could be covered in a 3 minute period to ensure that even with forgotten pieces of information the 3 minute mark is achievable. From the total selection of information you should then choose the most important pieces of information. Think of this as how you would explain your topic given 15-30 seconds. This also becomes handy later for given your speech an introduction. These are the points about your topic that you consider to be the backbone of your speech. Using it shuffle your information around into categories to cover your 15 second scenario points.
In more informal situations and when discussing things you are very familiar with it is possible to use a more fluid technique requiring less preparation. This method relies heavily upon mental agility about the topic. I personally call this method the ‘peg’ method.
Named after a primary school punishment for talking in the back row the ‘peg’ method is designed on the idea of a single point of stimulus from which the speech must flow. In the original context the student would be given an object from the teachers box of trinkets, most memorably a small white peg, and be required to talk for 2 minutes. Understandably this was not necessarily a successful affair. Unfamiliarity with the centre point of the speech often led to heavy reliance upon pauses punctuated by umm or arr as well as stilted topic development and large jumps in logic. Because of this I would not recommended this method for speeches outside of a peer level.
Another more fluid method of speech would be the story method. This as with telling a story means starting at the beginning and running through to an end point. This can be used for less argumentative styled speeches. They are less effective at emphasising any one particular point and can characterised by poor outlined introductions. They do however give your audience a good representation of the connections in your topic or the journey taken from point A to point B.
Now why would you bother to master the art of the 3 minute speech at all? Surely being able to talk for a few minutes at a time doesn’t really help you do anything much… Except procrastinate with your friends or tell somebody about the fun day you had Both of which you are perfectly capable of already without any excessive practice… However how about explaining yourself, whether it be in a good or a bad context, to a boss or superior… Given a short and direct instruction or explanation to a larger group whether they are peers or more critically subordinates. You need to be aware of you own abilities when speaking in order to give a good impression of yourself.
All of the aspects of a 3 minute speech are the same as those for a 5, 10 or even 30 minute speech only in a less complex capacity. By training yourself out of bad habits in the 3 minute time frame it becomes more easy for you to transfer your skills onto the longer speeches without committing too many faux pars. Bad habits such as resorting to umm or arr are accentuated by the length and complexity of a speech and topic. It is only by practicing on the shorter speeches that you can minimise and aim at eliminating such a tendency.
Well I have given you a brief 4 minute look in to the hows and whys of 3 minute speeches. Hopefully this will make you appreciate the reasoning behind the practice just a little bit more.
One of those delightful assessment tasks you do because you have to do… I got stuck we a pretty dodgey topic because i did my initial 3 minute speech on how to talk for three minutes (didn’t prepare perhaps the way i might have had i realised I’d be stuck with the same topic for our assessable version).
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Cutting It All Away
Thankfully the title is by no means a literal representation of my feelings. In fact it is something more often said with a great deal of pleasure than any amount of pain or sadness… For those who haven’t come across the term – popular slang where i’m from. Cut away means to no longer be doing or be required to do something… and it can be anything. Seems like a straight forward enough definition doesn’t it? I don’t know why it is a more widely used term… And yet many of my friends from home give me that… you’re doing it again… look when i use it…
Maybe there are places in the world where such a term is not needed… but I doubt it… Everybody is waiting to cut away, hoping to cut away, wishing something would be cut away even before it begins. If people could have their way I reckon nobody would do anything much at all ever if they could. Talk about the world grinding to a stop. Unfortunately as sure as the earth will not stop spinning round people can’t stop either. Not that that’s what people want anyway they’re just doing the whole greener pastures thing :). Life’s never great so somebody must being better off them me and somehow I want to be where and what they are…
But anyway in my typically distracted manner I perhaps neglected to mention WHY the topic of cut away is on the brain at the moment. Basically I found out that a computer lab had been correctly dated and is not due tomorrow but NEXT week. A very very good thing if like me you aren’t quite sure why it is your code is adding and not subtracting as directed and you would really appreciate a lab demonstrator’s help…
OK so I basically have no belief in karma but some things are easiest to explain to others with such token phrase… Basically I am blaming the tedious task my friend brought up for me on the fact that I was rejoicing in not having as much work as I thought I did this evening. Note that I didn’t even go so far as to say NO work… but then with work loads like engineering students do less work is rather like no work… Yippee!
Well… This was what I was going to do with my spare time before dinner. Unfortunately that time doesn’t exist any longer… (the big problem about stuff being cut away is that it leaves empty space for new stuff to be inserted) So I say farewell and get on with dinner… and the remaining study I still manage to have for tomorrow…
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Being a Team Player
AHHHHH!!! Sooo… Uni is suddenly SO much harder. All of a sudden it isn’t – every explained out and no lab preps and no real requirement for work outside of classes and suddenly it is – pre-labs and readings and general confusion that needs time, time and more time to be sorted out in my head. Time would be a wonderful thing… if I had any. The sad part is I know I would have time if I didn’t need to spend all of my time working at my constantly procrastination slowed pace. I’m really coming to despise the procrastination addiction. Work, work and more work doesn’t get helped by that tendency one bit.
Ok. Why is this semester SO MUCH worse than the last one? Apart from changing degree streams and thus missing some of the foundation information for one of my current classes that same class is a real believer in ‘read it’. Two text books and 10-15 pages per text book per reading isn’t much fun. Doing the readings is essential. The lecturer hasn’t got the time to get through everything in class… and yet he does have time to talk about… All forms of nothing for half an hour of the one hour lecture. Oh life is truly wonderful.
(Me choking on my workload at some point in the last week)
- - -
So… I’ve just been through some of the worst weeks of my life… This semester is shaping up to be just fantastic (how I wish there was a stock standard way to show sarcasm in print). My brain feels like it has the consistency of mush and even now I know I should be studying the day away. I’ve already had the luxury of whiling yesterday away.. far from any of my school books… Unfortunate that that doesn’t last forever and even more unfortunate that it only really has the effect of shortening my weekend from 2 days to 1…
I don’t play any of the stock standard sports at the moment. I don’t know how but it seems as though the one sporting team I thought I was a part of has kicked me out somehow… A little bit awkward but given my newfound work load probably not all that bad in the scheme of things. However I do still belong to one team. It isn’t a sport or competitive team or anything. We are a performance team – our job is basically PR for our uni or something. That’s pretty cool really it means that we have the opportunity to travel a couple of times to… well basically… to show off. It’s good fun.
I love being part of a team. I am one of those people who loves a good sense of belonging. Probably why I choose to live on at the university and most definitely why I try to be a member of a team where I can be. Some teams are definitely better than others too. The performance team? one of my better ones :). I’m an introvert but I love being in social environments none the less so I rely on other people for the actual social interactions. I’m just a watcher. However… I’m not a big fan of other watchers who I see as being better at it than I am…
One of our team leaders… the second… is a real introvert. And yet he still makes for a great leader. He is amazingly quiet and withdrawn 90% of the time and then he stands in front of everybody and speaks up and has a confidence about him that makes me rather… I suppose the word is envious. I find it frustrating because I always link being largely introverted with my generally uncomfortable and unnatural ability to lead. To watch somebody who manages to separate one from the other. It is like looking the would be if I could be… Something to work at… Makes me wish I wasn’t the fearful person I am by nature – terrified of other people’s judgement… that’s me.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Is there a Perfectionists Anonymous?…
I feel like today is as good a day as any to proof my tentative sanity is just that… tentative. However it is also a personal belief of mine that sanity… much that same as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What is it they say? Its sane to think yourself insane and many an insane person thinks themself sane. A very good thing too considering I’m positive I’m not sane much of the time. Sanity is much the same as the ‘normal’ nothing is completely normal but it some are more closely aligned to the social construct than others.
People seem to enjoy doing the extrapolation thing. Human law of averages… it isn’t necessarily the average but it looks ‘good’. Funny how all these words are interdependent too… its ‘normal’ to be ‘good’ and that means your ‘sane’ also. What that says about me, a non believer in the generalised ‘normal’ I don’t know… I think I prefer it this way though. Getting stuck in the ‘normals’ which then become confused by human desire with the current ‘perfects’ is no good for anybody. The number of health problems, unrealistic expectations and unachievable goals that come from all that… well you could say that's normal too.
Anyhow. Despite my refusal to admit to there being a wide swept normal or a truly universal perfect I myself am a perfectionist. If Monday-itis can be a recognised mental condition then perfectionist must also be. Though it hasn’t made the news in the last few years like Monday-itis has for me to be sure of anything. All I know is it leads to all kinds of personally pessimistic thought accompanied by unrealistic stress levels. So what do I do? Pick a high stress occupation but that’s another thing entirely. One thing I do have going for me is I don’t suffer from Monday-itis I suppose.
Well on to the perfectionist issue. I guess there is a lot of forms of perfectionism… each to their own and all that. No too minds are alike… a good thing because similar personalities tend to get on each others nerves. Ahhh movie facts… never the less it is true in real life to varying extents. Getting back to my perfectionism though. It is interesting how it works. Perfectionism is something even I would associate with compulsive planners and real study bunnies. A personality I admittedly went through in my younger years but have… unfortunately for my studies… grown out of.
The current day me is a world class procrastinator and a terrible planner. I was in charge of arranging an outing for all the residents of our building… not my strong point. One of those times when you don’t appreciate being volunteered by another person… if one ever appreciates being volunteered by somebody else that is. At any rate perfectionism combined with the addictive tendency to procrastinate leads to even more stress… I remember at school not being able to identify if I’d ever had a headache… let alone could remember what one felt like. These days its a good day when I don’t develop the minor stress ache.
However a lot of people look at me as just a little bit odd if not ridiculous from time to time. People accept things like the fear of heights or the fear of spiders – though regrettably occasionally with some humour at the suffers expense. For me I have the basic fear of public speaking, from there I also have a fear of telephoning people – it gets better only with people I know well. I often have to lock up myself in my room and even start a countdown to get the ball rolling when I have to ring out. I had this for a number of years thinking it was something specific about telephones that was bad… well it is and they certainly make things worse… but my problem actually arises from being forced to ask something of another person.
I have really bad people skills. Partially simply because I’m introverted by nature and find my own company more comfortable. Perfectionism however emphasises that… it makes me constantly aware of every little thing wrong with me… whether realistic or not. The need to not be like that makes me more and more uncomfortable which leads to more things wrong – and you can see the negative cycle spiral from there. It also makes me often a bad loser. Be it at games or homework questions or… just about anything else.
I can’t tell if it is the perfectionist spotting it or the sane person within but I HATE what perfectionism makes me do. As a grow older I’m getting better at it all… I can ring the people I have to to get the job done – though if there is a web form process for it I’ll take it every time. I am able to spot when things don’t need to matter to me… Unfortunately I still only have to degrees of caring stress out or ‘I don’t get a damn’. I’m still working on the ever essential middle ground there. Caring too much is possibly bad for my health but it isn’t so bad… but the caring too little is just as hazardous. So this is what I do in my spare time… analyse my own faults. Actually personality typing and typical human responses… all very interesting to me. However this is enough or I’ll never keep up on my study…
Monday, July 20, 2009
In Contact – Sort of…
Welcome back to the hell hole… I did get a talk something along those lines this morning. Just great. The only good thing about being back in this place is switching my brain back on. Well I certainly hope it turns back on or I’ll be screwed attempting to maintain my average. Attended my first classes of the semester today and I’m very glad that Mondays have gone from my worst to my best day of the week. Ease myself back into the swing of things… hopefully… as into things as you ever get in this place at any rate.
But anyway… As for a topic for me to ramble about… I’m sadly lacking. I was thinking about what it means to be ‘incommunicado’ the other day. But unfortunately I lost all train of thought before I got back to my computer… In brief (as that’s as good as I do remember the topic). That incommunicado is a situation that can be reached these days simply by switching off a mobile phone. Depending on your work based popularity it could be 5 minutes or 5 days (I fill sorry for the last group) but eventually people will fell completely unable to contact you.
It was more about the modern day dependency on technology for people tracking. And the instantaneous stress out that often takes hold if you can’t get at a hold of a person RIGHT THIS SECOND. Perhaps this is also due to an increasing tendency for people to leave stuff… of all degrees of importance… to the last minute. Its habit… because they can. The quicker you can get into contact with people some of the time, the quicker you assume you can get into contact with people all the time. Its funny how that works… its like the movie Click really… That's about the most productive thing i did yesterday – watch Click. Rather clique sort of a movie though really.
Can something like procrastination be considered to be an epidemic? Anyway they say it is something the younger generations suffer from tremendously from the habit. Short attention spans and procrastination go hand in hand. It tends to be more the attention span that people worry about… but nevertheless. Procrastination the generations increasing inability to plan in the long term or pay attention for periods of time comes from an age of instant response. People have not always expected a reply a few days before to make the arrangements so in the human generalising manner they assume people are never going to expect a few days notice… and from there it progresses.
This topic actually leads me onto something else… One of those things you notice while talking on MSN. You must remember I am a Gen Y member, 18 and proud… Constant but not personal contact with our friends is something we experienced all through high school. Texting from school to home, instant messaging once you’re at home, phone calls if you must (never my favourite thing though). A friend and I were discussing procrastination. As a note this is perhaps the best topic to discuss when attempting to procrastinate without anything really to talk about. The number of hours I have spent procrastinating and discussing the simple fact that I’m procrastinating I’m sure would be quite amazing.
Though as always we weren’t simply discussing procrastination. In fact we were discussing T.V. usage… and the fact that I personally do not have access to television during the working week very easily. Not that I don’t have a number of T.V. series on DVD to while away the time but still… So from there it lead on to the challenge that because I don’t have television i probably get a lot more done. I wish. If i locked myself in a room with nothing by my work to occupy me I would procrastinate… daydream, outright sleep, knocking my head against the wall rather than work I’m sure it wouldn’t matter. In this particular conversation, remembering I have all the distractions of my room (including 2 computers – one of those stories…), I picked up on Facebook.
Facebook is one more of those things which just allows our generation to confirm our generalisations about life. The whole constant contact thing really goes to the extreme on there. You don’t have to be on there at the same time as your friend to talk, to communicate, to ‘feel a part of their lives’ or something equally as ridiculous when you say it out loud. At the same time it also provides an outlet for procrastination. One of the things with procrastination is it is almost always worse in company – however artificial. I procrastinate on Facebook… a lot.
Ever sat on your homepage just WAITING from somebody else to say something on their Facebook page? Not even so you can reply to it… Just to read it… to ‘give you something to do’… Incapable of giving yourself something to do even though you obviously have something you should be doing… or else why procrastinate? The less you have to do the less desire you have to do anything… Or that’s how I find it when i go from work to holidays and back to work again.
This time I’ve really done it… There isn’t a much of a link between any of my ideas here… I’ve had as much thought I suppose recently but not the normal leading argument type of thinking I often have with myself. Ahh well… maybe after spending a few hours staring at a Facebook page – something I haven’t done in a few days – something will come to me. Until then.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Number Plates – Personality or Insanity
Once again I’ve been doing nothing. Though I have finally got my semester marks today. Always a sign of the beginning of the end… I like getting results… A generally scatterbrained perfectionist I don’t keep track of things like individual results and I generally belittle my own capabilities so all in all its a pleasant surprise to get results. I wouldn’t have given myself such a good mark in language (the equivalent of an a B, HA, Distinction, 6… I’ve run out of equivalent marking systems) but hey… Maybe my partner really was that bad – made me look good :). But anyway… enough of my gloating over marks with are only cool for the next… oh 4 days until next semester starts on Monday. DARN… That just keeps coming up… the end of all my freedom.
On to something I can talk about without mourning the end of the holidays any more. I couldn’t come up with anything within the confines of my mind (which IS still on holidays) to talk about but I wanted to type for a bit. Sooo… I’m going to talk about personalised plates. If there is anybody in the world who is yet to know what exactly these are. Car registration number plates – used to identify cars by people and police alike. Only personalised plates are of course not the standard ones given out with car registration but plates bought by people to display specific letter – number configurations.
I don’t happen to think there is anything wrong with the progressively more outdated style of going with the standard issue plates. Perhaps it another old hat sort of thing this being the age of dvd players with screens on the back of seats but hours in the car were often whiled away counting cars. Kids today would probably find car counting quite a boring sort of thing to do. I loved it… As I got older the game didn’t so much die as become more elaborate. Tracking cars, trucks, buses, caravans, motorbikes simultaneously on long road trips (on admittedly empty Australian rural highways) provided a challenge at any age. Try it some time.
However the number plate game… It is much more my mother’s game. The word game rather than the number game. It involves reading number plates of passing cars. Coming up with entertaining meanings for the all-caps acronyms presented by the car plates. Plates like ‘--- ILE’ become I like elephants at the easy end of the scale. Some of the more complex ones come in OXS and the like… Other Xylophone Symphonies? The true entertainment value comes in the speed of the answer. The faster a completely ridiculous answer is pulled from the nether regions of one’s brain the greater the insinuation of ones insanity :P. As a note that is NOT where the insanity of the title comes in… Just proof there is ‘insanity’ lurking at the edges of everything a person does… If it isn’t their still insane… I love a good Catch 22.
The number plate game loses its appeal with plates like JIM 89 or SOCCA. You can see exactly what they are intended to be. There can’t really be much of a hidden message to discover because they obviously aren’t acronyms. Though there is a new version of the game developed attempting to decode the more unspecific personalised plates. Plates that feel like initials or perhaps favourite things. Putting names to cars is pretty good though I still prefer the old fashion acronym game myself. Though names I’m going to admit are a soft spot of mine… I love the old classics but names of all kinds interest me.
But during the game you do more than just see a persons name. In plates like SOCCA or 10 SMUM (tennis mum) you see a little of the person’s personality. However some times I’m going to say I wonder if you really want to be sharing that with the world. Its rather like a tattoo… You keep a personal plate for a long time. Do you want to be DEVIL forever? As one of the plates many names says ‘vanity plates’ are all about showing how cool you are for being you. Or something like that. Plates are one off a kind… the kind of money 21 and F1 have gone for is simply ridiculous.
However the plate that started it all today was ‘SUE EM’. Not having any numbers its obviously not a cheap number plate. The fact that it was on a high end Volvo sedan added to the overall theme of the matter. I’m guessing the car belongs to a lawyer… But that’s just a guess :). It certainly has an initial funny about it. And there is certainly a strong hint which leaves everybody pretty certain they know you are a lawyer. Still ‘SUE EM’ is a little bit of an aggressive sort of a statement. To me I see it as a rather unprofessional sort of a statement to have plastered on your car that your clients may see. But hey that is just me.
People… naturally inclined to build up stories and rely on stereotypes… take a lot more away from a personalised plate than just the word logo. All sorts of things are decided about the person in the car… Some good and some bad and many completely without basis. What I just did up there is entirely that. I’m certainly not beyond using stereotype to fill in the blanks about people I haven’t met. The trick comes in not holding it against them when you do meet them. Or being upset by similar opinions decided in other people. Just the same in the case of the lawyer… Particularly in that profession they’d know a lot about public personas and the effect of reputation. All in all vanity plates well… there was nothing wrong with the old way of things but the vanity plates certainly spice things up and makes it easier perhaps to remember your own registration?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Doppelganger
Definitely one of the strangest words in the standard English vocabulary. Everybody knows it, knows what it means. Probably because of the conspiracy theory type nature of the meaning. Everybody wants to have an opinion on these types of things. Do we or don’t we? People have a yes or a no opinion or often most interestingly their own elaborate fabrication of the state of being. Some kind of personal experience or ‘research’ which proves… at least to them… beyond reasonable doubt that it is the state of the universe that this is so.
One of the most personally entertaining conspiracy theories I know is one of my dads creation. Literally creation, it is his elaborate position on how it is matter is created in the universe. It is completely unrealistic… well unscientific… which in the modern world position is unrealistic. However, isn’t that the fun of most conspiracy theory? Stories invented to entertain the more suspicious parts of the human brain.
Anyway Dad’s theory… Its a bit cruel to mention it without sharing it. Though I must warn that it isn’t quite as good second hand as it is with my dad’s conviction of truth behind it. We used to live in a house, a rented house, that was completely carpeted… However after we’d been living there about 2 years the owner decied to have all the carpet taken up and replaced.. with wood flooring. We went from vacuuming to oil mopping. From emptying a vacuum bag to beating the mop like a blackboard duster. The one thing that couldn’t be missed was the lint… it was constantly accumulating. People say that’s a bad thing about carpet… it accumulates dust that even the vacuum can’t clean out. Still I think I’d prefer it and I think it was better for my dad’s sanity.
The lint he found increasingly irritating. No matter how frequently you mopped the floor the dust and lint was there accumulating the the corners at an extraordinary rate. Every Sunday morning my brother mopped the floors and every Sunday afternoon it started to get dusty all over again. So after a couple of months… And the loss of a number of dads work socks through the standard washer then dryer cycle. The number one cause of sock loss in the world I’m sure. He told me he had solved the secret of the universe. Dad had determined by ‘experimental research’ of our home that matter obviously comes into the universe via lint… and one of the key creation points is our very own home. Additionally matter leaves the universe in the form of socks though dryers all over the world… As I say not as cool as when dad goes through his elaborate description of it but definitely an entertaining view of the world.
Anyway back to the namesake of my ramblings today. I did initially start this writing to talk about my own view of the doppelganger theory. Personally I’m not big on conspiracy theory… A large number of them are out there specifically attacking Christian faith and belief. However some of the more interesting ones like doppelgangers and was there ever a man on the moon. The entertaining thing about these kinds of con. theories is no matter how loyal you are to your own point of view watching or listening to propaganda for the other said is like watching a movie… suspension of belief… or disbelief depending… is a wonderful thing.
Oh dear… I do seem to be having a time of it trying to stay on topic today. Probably because I haven’t written in over a week. From doing NOTHING for the last week. I seem to be suffering from a lack of things to procrastinate from. When there isn’t work you should be doing and stuff you shouldn’t be doing because it means you aren’t doing your work you end up doing… pretty close to nothing. People call it relaxing… it is… but it is also nothing… I have wasted sooo much time with nothing to show for it. Well… there is a lot of hours of watching CSI Miami and playing gimmicky computer games I wouldn’t normally have the time of day for. Never the less brain off time is good. It is just about as addictive as procrastination. Unfortunately unlike procrastination it leads to nothingness. So as much as I am dreading going back to work, to uni, to real life it’ll be good for me.
Anyhow… Doppelgangers. I’m a believer. Not that two people are perfectly identical except in the case of twins but certainly two people can look similar enough that you need to do the double to triple take. Doppelgangers are one of the more entertaining of phenomenon. Identical twins just have to suffer after all its something they really did bring upon themselves even if it was long before they had any conscious thought or decision making skills. However for non identical people people mistaken for another person can create confusion, frustration or most importantly entertainment value. Now I am also going to say my entertaining doppelganger doesn’t only come in the physical sense.
One of the most entertaining doppelganger style situations I live with on a daily basis is my neighbour one of the two people last named ‘Jones’. Wonderful thing about the technology age… A whole new form of doppelganger now exist. She shares one, admittedly critical, piece of information with one of the other guys in our building and it causes all sorts of entertaining mix up. That are different sexs, live in different halls, do different degrees but all sorts of mix ups in mail, in paperwork, in degree requirements are constantly happening… to the entertainment of all who are not them.
Put anyway the more classic doppelganger theory. Everybody has somebody in the world that is the spitting image of them. I’m just going to point out the obvious… In most cases if you are going to have a doppelganger it is going to be a relative. But by no means always. There was a story… must be a slow news week… the other day where the news crews had come up with a doppelganger of… don’t quote me my memory might be failing me… but Tom Cruise? my celebrity knowledge isn’t great so I can’t be sure. But they took it around. The guy’s likeness so striking they managed to get all the star treatment wherever they went.
Unfortunately the trick to doppelgangers is people only want one it the other person is famous. I personally can claim doppelganger status. Incredible though it may be me and a cousin 8 years my senior are spitting image of one another… well I am of her I guess being the younger one. Its quite entertaining to think considering if I went through we have different eye colour, different noses, different body shapes… and yet. If it seems unlikely that that we could manage to confuse people. I managed to be mistaken for her at her wedding! several years ago… I’m talking 15 year old girl mistaken for a 23 year old woman in a wedding dress. Not by any old people either but by family. Admittedly the kind of family of hers that wasn’t family of mine. But it certainly goes a long way in proving a point.
You wont some more doppelgangers? The Olsen twins are perhaps the most famous doppelgangers going… or they were a few years back. The two are admittedly sisters. But sisterhood doesn’t guarantee the kind of likeness that leads to identical twin status for fraternal twins… well i think that is the term. Doppelgangers are the most fun though… All those celeb look alike pages in school year books… all in spirit of good fun.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Movies and Freedom
Well... In honour of the fact that I got the entire afternoon off... complete with permission to leave the campus!... I went to the movies. The shops on a weekday surprise me by how indifferent they are to Saturday mornings. Shouldn't people be working at 2 o'clock on a Thursday afternoon? Of course the crowd is marginally different, a lot more mothers with babies and the like. I'm out of the loop but I hope that we are currently in school holidays though given the number of teens I spotted. On a high note I didn't see any mothers with babes that were teens... though that by no means discounts the number of them likely to be around.
I'm going to admit now to being a very poor shopper. I don't even window shop that great. I just go for a walk about, up and down the various... corridors?... I'm not actually sure if you'd call the large open walkway that links together shops a corridor... never the less... I have to be in the mood to buy stuff to shop effectively and recently I've been a little low on the money side of things. By no means broke but a part of me is a very avid saver, really probably a hoarder of money. After having to touch my semi savings for the first time in a while (yes I actually have two different levels of savings account) I've gone in to conservation mode.
I'm not saying I'm unique in my month matters schemes. In fact I'm sure a lot of people do far more extreme things than I. It just entertains me that I manage to be a saver at all given my non-planner approach to such matters. I don't have any sort of formal or informal budget plan. It isn't that I'm planning money in order to save this much and have this much by this time as it is for lots of people. I just like not spending it. I need to have very wide buffers when I use my money - never know what could happen :).
But who wants to hear about my money anyway? As with so many things it is often more of a taboo topic. Anyways.. The movie I went to see, Sunshine Cleaners, was pretty good. Though I walked into a cinema of older people... Except for two younger men sitting together (I don't like the fact that society stereotypes mean that I'm not able to see that without going to 'homosexual') I was probably the only person in the room under 45 or 50. You can always seem to tell a movie by its audience to... I know for sure that had it been the Transformers 2 cinema I'd have been surrounded by a lot of guys around my own age. A lot of the guys from uni were there watching it, I saw them in the ticket line. However our crowd of middle-aged/older women, alone in many cases, hinted towards more life drama than the obvious action and sex appeal of the other movie.
That sounds about right to me :). I've never handled horror full stop and I'm not a great fan of some action movies either. Suspense does it to me. I mean I actually got a little worried at one point in the movie I was watching. I always get the awful feeling something bad is going to happen at the least encouragement. Perhaps some people are just more sceptical, or is the word gullible, than others. I am willing to admit to being gullible in the sense that no matter how unlikely something is IF I can't prove it isn't true... who knows? Not a bad thing. However the movies thing? I am overly susceptible to the music I think... Who would have thought a person completely incapable of accurately gage or responding to other peoples emotion could be the most susceptible?
Other than the movie though. I couldn't really bring myself to hang about the shops. Doing though one of my infrequently frequent loner spells. It strange just how physical a feeling it is. My brain feels almost like it has wrapped itself up in isolation. Its not that volume changes or colour grows dim but it feels just as though I've surround myself in glass or something. I become a watcher... and often not a particularly good one. I am not one for remembering what I've seen even if the thought sequence I went on was long and reasonable profound (in comparison with others).
However I did notice a few things. The number of Asians in Australia. I realise they are everywhere. They are always going to be. With one billion people in China and a colouring that is dominate enough that no others exist any longer in the Asian peoples there is going to be a lot. But I was more thinking about the ticking clock until Australia is a predominate Asian country. With our migration policy it may not be too long, though for the moment will still have UK coming in second billet of nationality populations. More than the turning in population minorities/majorities though. I was thinking about the number of people that already assume that is how it is going to be... after all Australia is in Asia, right?
Somehow the whole Australia is a CONTINENT thing gets neglected because Australia is a single country which has 21 or so million people. It basically only got those from which ever other country lets people come our way. Not a bad statement to make though given the majority of the population are from overseas or first generation Aussies. It hurts to think that no matter how long you can trace you family in Australia when people ask your origin you still have go back to the country they came from BEFORE here. Apparently Aboriginals are the only people who are native to Australia. Sometimes it amuses me to think we manage to have any patriotism at all in light of such arguments.
Back on the topic of Asia though. Australia cannot become an extension of Asia. Because it is not IN Asia. Maybe people get confused because Indonesia and the like are parts of South East Asia and they really aren't all that fair away. However I picked up the other day while studying for my Indonesian exam that Indonesia actually sits across a line, the Wallace line I think it was. That separates the flora and fauna of Asia and Australian regions. I'll even allow the use of the term Australasia because of other countries part of our region of the world that aren't Australia. (not New Zealand though we always wanted to prove a 'blood tie' of sorts to them) Flora and fauna are far better separators. Unlike people they don't (generally) go around the world attempting to thrive in areas other than their own outside the influence of humans.
The other thing I noticed was a couple with a significant height difference. It entertains me that people who are 2 feet different in height manage to appeal to each other... Sometimes it seems more often than not. I'm not sure if its the shorter wanting taller kids or the taller never wanting their kids to have to know 6'7" but so many tall men I know have very short, 5' nothing short, partners. The law of averages that keeps the height from not increasing in variation too much from generation to generation?
Just to point out I hope nobody takes this as insulting in any way, shape or form. I am not speaking through prejudice. I'm more than happy to take people as equal. But it doesn't stop stereotyping from amusing me. Some stereotypes are almost ludicrous and yet there are people conformed to them. Almost as if no longer is it base the stereotype on the people... but base the people from the sterotype :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)