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 :)

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 -

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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!)
4. 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...
5. 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...
6. 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...

Of course being life I'm sure there are lot more new things in my life... Some good others not so... but that is probably a pretty good list of the things that would be even a little bit interesting... It still feels like I have been going through a stint of change... I'm sure you know the feeling. Change is painful, it pinches and scraps like a bitch (to use the standardised slang of my peer group). Wow and now I am referencing my peer group in my blog entries... I have spent too much time in the last week doing lab reports... This weekend it will be essay writing... no matter how many times I try the excuse I'm an engineer not an arts student, I don't write essays my employer makes me take this additional course, basically a english communications subject or something, which is all about how to write letters and documents and academic essays and conduct speeches and the like.... Not fun... It is even run by the oddest instructor imaginable... but then anybody who can feel as passionately for the correct layout for an address block has to be a little odd i suppose...

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.