Neglect

Poor blog.

*pat pat*

It really is a bit like having a child and then ignoring it, however ridiculous it might be to allow a little particle of cyber space to make one feel guilty.

Culling

Walked into my room today and between sneezes realised how long overdue it is for a throw everything out day.. Groan. I am a minimalist, honestly, just easily distracted especially by brightly coloured things. Its just amazing the amount, shapes and sizes of completely unnecessary things that manage to accumulate over just a few months. Especially when exams require retail therapy. So yes, three garbage bags later, things are looking up. The challenge is to keep it that way. At the end of the day, all I really need to be happy are books, stationery, a few gadgets, and maybe two pairs of beautiful shoes. A few pretty clothes. It's tough being a girl. 

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

I love psychological movies. Especially the tearing them apart and have long meaty conversations dissecting them for hours on end. The Dark Knight is also going to feature in my dreams for a possibly traumatic while, I can tell. Fiction is a slanted reflection of the real world after all, even though its not a reality common to all. Thank god, sometimes. Not everyone falls madly in love and insane serial killers are not as widespread as tv shows seem to reflect. 

How many Jokers exist out there? Frustratingly, and possibly deliberately there is no psychological assessment of this maniac - the more or less good guys, in this shades of grey movie are too busy fighting him to figure him out. He has no history and he seems to make stuff up. Abusive father? Lost love? Irrelevant?  

Thinking of burning the world on a large-ish scale, the obvious examples are the LTTE and maybe Al-Qaeda but both those have reasons. What they've done is awful, but waking up at 3am, there are rationalisations which soothe their conscience, even though it may not seem justified to others. Surely everyone has a price in a broader sense of the word: something they want, not necessarily money. So then the Joker wanted chaos? A world tearing itself violently apart satisfied some need for ugliness? For everything around him to be as scarred and freakish as he is? He's just 'a dog chasing a car', no rules, no plans, no 'end' as such just any means necessary. 

Can't think of anyone like him, yet. Can you? 

Relaxin' awhile, livin' in style, talking to a raisin who occasionally plays L.A..

Ooo it's been awhile since the last post, think I heard the blog gasping for breath, poor thing. Have been indulging in my tendency to swing to industrious extremes, mostly chocolate, sleep and cocktail related. Yum. Nothing like a few tasty sips from a beautifully shaped glass of deliciously decadent liquid to get the party started ;) Which is ridiculous really because alcohol is technically a depressant but anyhoo dimly recall being extremely happy and running around chasing people and being chased on the street. Hmm. 

It's so blooming cold! Getting out of bed or shower is just misery, unless a particularly masochistic mood happens to temporarily descend. OMG those horrible, immoral, heinous, obscene people who open windows of the bus during winter SHOULD BE HUNG. Upside down. On an ice-burg and really, I don't care to bother about logistics. Teeth *clatter* at traumatic memory. I'm a tropical animal, I am. 

Self pitying whingeing aside, it's been a great few weeks,  just a-floating in that jolly ol'  cereal bowl :D [Click here if puzzled].  Although mixed berry jam with the pieces is the best I reckon, so much fun. The producers of The Daily Show have improved the quality of my life immeasurably by finally releasing full episodes, yes!! I love love love Jon Stewart and would marry him in one two-hundredth of a love sick heartbeat. Definitely worth checking out: whenever I get depressed, watching clips of him makes me feel better about the world. It can't be too much of a crazy place if such an anti-absurd aspects of establishment show still gets airtime, albeit at 11 pm. 

Optus snapped a cable in Queensland, leaving a few hundred thousand not entirely happy mobile and internet customers Australia wide. Went into the mall to find some of the stores using the old credit card machines, which make an imprint of the lettering on the card, hehe... been a while since I've seen those! Remember being a kid, jumping up and down in excitement when the girls at Food City let me drag the handle thing across. It's interesting how disoriented and agitated people become without phones and internet, even if its just for a few hours. There were apparently people who switched telephone companies immediately and had a massive yell at the poor Optus store people. Really, a little perspective. After all, this is a country where chances are the problem will get fixed within the half day.

There's excitement in the air - uni starts in less than a week! :D Okay, I'm not a nerd, just a new leaf addict, and next Monday heralds the turn of a particularly big, especially minty new one. Doing a Psych course which is potentially ultra interesting, as well as maybe a drastic change of life direction in the offing. Weeee! Exciting but mildly scary at the same time.  

Ramblings

Escaped to warmer climates for a week, benefits of living in a large continent with sub tropical state. It's been good for the soul, hanging out, partying, disregarding space and time. Entirely guiltless lying around on a sunny deck, catching up with friends, reading all night, walking around the city all night, impromptu salsa dancing in the square, eating deliciously unhealthy amounts of ice cream for meals just because. It's important to sit back and see what's being going on. Had a nice night with a very cute boy with dimples and expressive grey green eyes that soften when he laughs. Why is it that wanting someone to notice you invariably ends up in embarrassment? Or at least what you think is embarrassment. Think it went pretty well but there will be more disappearing into the universe happening in a couple of days, which is somehow alright.

Perspective - that's what holidays are all about. Stepping back to figure out how far away you are from who you want to be, because a certain amount of deviation seems to always happen in between waking up every morning and going to sleep every night. Kinda wish there were more markers along the way. There's an episode in the third season of House where the patient develops a rather far out disease where he can read people and then mirror their core personality traits back at them. I'd really like to know what mine are, have a feeling its changed rather drastically from about two years ago.

Why seven??

Ok I'm guessing everyone knows about the new tagging thing with rules. Hehe.. there seem to be far, far less than seven degrees of separation in the SL blogosphere, thus the tags from Gutterflower, Meese, and Jane Doe.

- Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
- Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
- Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
- Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I twirl my hair when I am tired or concentrating on something, even though my hair is about three inches long right now. 

2. My digestive system has a heart - if I'm happy I get noticeably fatter and curvier without even trying, and without my weight changing at all.

3. Slightly addicted to getting haircuts. 

4. Coffee, chocolate, caffeine pills have no energy effect on me whatsoever. Once I went from reasonably awake to actually nodding off because of a mocha. 

5. Buying stationery gives me a sense of purpose.

6. I've stopped watching Winnie-the-Pooh movies because I start sobbing my eyes out. Every. Single. Time.

7. What I wear generally tends to reflects my mood quite well. Not quite sure which one comes first.

Ok now to make sure nothing nasty happens to me:

Sach, 

Lady Divine,

Java Jones

Angel

Pissu Perera

The Missing Sandwhich

Kaiser

Have fun! I'm off to pretend to study.

Maybe I don't wanna hold your hand...

After a little pondering, I've reached the conclusion that there are two types of trust. 

1 - blind faith in the other person

2 - faith in your judgement, the ability to recognise what the person is and is not capable of doing. 

I can think of only two people I'd trust in the first way, and even that is based on the fact that I believe I know them well enough to know they're solid. Gold. Personally, I think the first type on its own is delusional and asking for trouble. 

Information is power. The more you know of someone, history, the choices they've made - under stress, impulsively, when very drunk, when angry, when they just stubbornly wanted something - it all adds up to give a picture of how strong a character the person has. How far they can keep in focus what they really want, and what they have to do to get that while there are all kinds of delicious distractions along the way.

Ooo.. trust + delicious distractions in one sentence, surely this is about relationships and delectably sordid fooling around right? Partly. It's also about people relying on each other in general. With a close friend, you give your self esteem just a little bit. They are privy to information that carries with it some of your pride, your ego. They are put into situations where conflicts of interest arise and it is a prisoner's dilemma. To tell or not to tell? Whose ass to save? Will they safeguard you over their ego? 

Then there is the even more interesting question, can you trust them to recognise when you/your ego needs protecting? In the rush of wanting something, would they be able to step back and realise the cost to you? Or just rush in to get what they want, satisfy their ego and then think 'oops' a few moments too late?  

To trust someone completely because you know you cannot trust him at all, wouldn't that be ironic. 

Life and love with an emotional Pyrrhus

I love debate. Not the organised people in rows talking against the clock stuff, but the real deal the way the old philosophers did it, one on one or small groups, people actually listening to each other, bothering to figure out different points of view, large scale consumption of wine, wit and what in my head I see as a charged atmosphere of intelligent open minded people enjoying expanding their thinking. Yes, granted, some might call that a delusion of an idealist, but I've come across people who would have fit right into that room I see in my mind. 

One person, who is currently making my blood boil and imagination overflow with satisfyingly violent thoughts would've been kicked out of that room, hopefully with a spear up his ass. To be fair, I think everyone has certain blind spots in which they don't want to hear/ are not interested in the other side of the coin. When it comes to female circumcision, I don't care about the culture argument, being a female and painfully aware that with a little shift of fate I could have been born as one of the [probably conservatively] estimated 92 million girls over age 10 in Africa who have had to undergo THIS. I don't care that its tradition, its barbaric, demented and anyone involved should to be shot. In the stomach. With a single cyanide coated bullet. And left to bleed to death. While forced to watch Bold and the Beautiful. Hung, drawn and quartered is also a particular creative genius that would suffice. 

*Exhale* Anyway! Getting back to the point, there are some people who really do only see a world of their own making. It is futile to describe any other picture to them, on par with showing a dog a rainbow [Dogs are colour-blind]. 

C is a normally lovely boy with a good heart, capable of doing the sweetest things. However in an intellectual debate or a crunch time situation involving emotions, he's just a dog in his little black and white world. What frustrates me the most is that by no means is he one of the stereotyped boys who are emotionally ignorant. Oh no, on the contrary he can go on for literally hours [having been at the receiving end of these self-pitying rants, I wish that was an exaggeration] with excruciating detail into carefully thought out complex arguments as to why he has been hard done by and betrayed as he 'always' is, oh poor him that believed in and opened his vulnerable heart to cruel human kind.. etc etc ad nauseam, oh Zeus please thunderbolt me now!

On an intellectual level its fascinating to observe how it happens. Conversations with him resemble laps round a Nascar circuit, it doesn't matter about the possibilities out there, he wants to be 'right' and will take whatever it takes, including building walls and a stadium to make sure that its just not possible to go anywhere near an exciting rally track with forests and dirt roads and unexpected twists. Which is what a proper debate should be like. He will do, literally whatever it takes, including subtle self esteem manipulation to keep you going round and round in the same circle. So he's always right. Usually because logic is screwed but delivery it so forceful, its not worth the fight. A Pyrrhic victory. As a result, so many interesting ideas, potentially mind-blowing angles of thought are slammed out of his life. And even that one can say is fair enough, after all he can probably live quite happily without being willing to listen to TRY understanding why war crimes tribunals are important *cringe*. I personally cant handle that, it made me cry, but oh well.

It's when this mindset, a concretely set mind spills over into emotional situations that things get messy. When you have a rigid image of what you want from other people, when there are expectations of the way people should be that leave no room for who they actually are, and what they want from their life or how they do things, the conditions are set for cyclones to be a brewing.

Intentions or reasons behind actions suddenly have no value, unless of course they are his intentions and actions. Thats a scary world to live in, with the human element in a sense is amputated, removed with the cold, sterile slice of a self indulgent surgeon's blade and only the actual deed, the dead limb is left. Misunderstanding, mistake, accident, unintentional are now words without meaning because they involve comprehending at an emotional level the other person's actions. To be honest, that would be okay if he applied the same rules to himself, or even SAW what he was doing, but of course, no. 

One particularly reflective friend once made the observation that when someone is overly sensitive, it invariably results in insensitivity toward other people, because it is very difficult to get over being wrapped up in how you feel, and see someone else's hurt or intentions.

Sometimes, it doesn't matter that you didn't get what you wanted/expected/hoped for from the person. Sometimes, it is more important that your friend is in a shit situation, making mistakes, slipping on a learning curve and needs your support. 

SS - This post is for you. You need what you need, don't ever let someone else guilt you away from reality. Love love love. 

Sunday evening, no rain is falling

Mmmm... the lingering moments between weekend and weekday. Dusk. Love that word. Such a musky sexy sound to it. On Sundays it heralds the end of pretending. Saturday mornings whisper of lazing around and enjoying the sun indefinitely, but its merely a subconsciously yearned for delusion, steadily dispelled by Sunday evenings. Don't have an issue with Monday per se, just its position in the scheme of things that well, stinks really. 

Interesting how learning curves never quit. Just when you're comfortable having figured out one level of crazy situations, it escalates and you find yourself drowning again. Kinda exhilarating, at least its a sure thing that general chaos awaits at pretty much every step. Also, thank goodness for the wise old owls that have been there before, renewed respect for tribal systems. 

21st century kid

Woke up this morning after what must've been a traumatic night, cos all the hair on the left side of my head was sticking out horizontally. Fifteen minutes of talking to it soothingly, patting, twirling and dabbing with water proved futile so off to a strong burst of hot water it went. Another fifteen minutes later most of the it was in the biologically allocated position, a few strays popped up again later. Honestly! 

Noteworthy though, is that I first saw this situation in the reflection of the laptop screen as it was coming out of hibernation, and first instinct was to google the problem. Not reaction, instinct. Before the brain  had even begun to start processing the thought of waking up, before the blinds were opened, before feet touched the floor, the laptop was already switched on, mail had already been checked and cursor was blinking expectantly in the little google search bar.  

Ten seconds later a bleary brain still in a semi-comatose state pinged. A little half feeling that something is odd. Which is when it dawned that perhaps I have a problem. In a need to go for meetings and say my name before admitting it kind of way. This isn't normal, surely? To be so totally addicted to a computer, cute though it is, and the internet to the extent that you have to have it on all the time? And you do so in a sub-conscious state? 

So of course, I googled it :D There are tests for Internet addiction, support groups [online. haha], and blogs on the subject. A separate sub-category for those addicted to google ["The Coke of the web. Sweet, available everywhere and the first choice of the consumer"]. Basically there are addicts to everything, including job searches, rss feeds and of course blogging. Most of those are a bit over the top of course, at least some of those are tongue in cheek. Hopefully. 

What I find disturbing is the restlessness that turns up if the comp isn't on, or *GASP* the internet isn't working. Every time I've gone camping and there hasn't been phone reception for a few days, its been such a release to not be able to use it. Its partly the techie in me that tends to get overly caught up in the newest toys and programs, partly trying to keep the important long distance friendships going but this is a little insane. 

So, have decided that one extreme calls for a temporary swing to the other extreme. Which might entail switching off wireless for most of the day *gulp* and setting a timer :|. Good cause. Have to study too, shyte. So yes, looking forward to a few days of living in reality and going for walks, perhaps finding myself a cozy spot in a comfy tree and hanging out? :D Although haven't tried that in the winter before... Hmmm...

Ten happiness inducing things

Ok I was caught by Sach, first time in this little blog's life that its been tagged! Sooo.. in no particular order:

1 - Big Sunday brunch in the sun with a good book at a cosy, friendly little street cafe.

2 - The energy and possibilities of a city, particularly Melbourne

3 - Picking up the phone and hearing the voice of someone I love, especially first thing in the morning.

4 - Daydreaming

5 - Friendly dogs - labs are number one on that list.

6 - Beautiful, lyrical writing, that brings alive a feeling or a moment.

7 - Hugs - proper borderline bone crushing, I love you and never want to let you go hugs. 

8 - Laughing and getting on a natural high with friends

9 - Funky gadgets

10 - Interesting conversations with unusual people. 

Kaiser, 

Cerno,  

Ravana [though perhaps acknowledging a tag might make him mortal, oops? :D ]

Tagged! You're it! [Is that even the same game? Hmm...]

Hazy shades of cramming

Made it through mid semester assessment, vaguely alive. As usual muttering profanities at the idiotic previous self that chilled out and procrastinated, leaving things till there was no later left. 

Afterwards, I got to think about why it is that cramming works. What is it about that last minute desperation, that makes learning so much easier, more efficient and effortless compared to when you've actually got time to 'learn properly'? Honest to whatever greater being there is out there, I did try to study weekly. Economics for example, at least an hour or two was spent trying to read that textbook and giving up because it was just a collection of gibberish sentences and what looked to me like random lines all over the place, wont even get started on the equations that didn't equate to anything visible. So yes, gave up and went ahead with all the kazillion more interesting things there are to do. 

5 weeks later, roughly 6 hours before the exam, rummaged through a few boxes, dug out the book, blew away the dust, sneezed for about half a hour, etc etc usual process, and opened it fully expecting a headache. Had even carefully positioned Panadols, M&Ms and glasses of water. 2 hours later, I'm positively gliding through pages upon pages of this stuff, all of which makes perfect sense and is actually interesting!! 

How does that happen?? I timed the grief inducing chapter so lovingly mentioned earlier  - took 20 minutes[!!#$%!] to read through and everything just fell into place. Kinda like the parting of the sea, suddenly vast areas of dry land where there used to be enough water to drown in. I've heard of people mentioning being 'in the zone' which might explain it, but not entirely sure what that is exactly. 

So, with a month to go for finals, I'm sitting here trying to convince myself that exams are tomorrow. For some reason myself is laughing back at me. Sigh. Winter exams suck. What little motivation survives the procrastination gets frostbite and goes on strike. A little hypnosis would be useful right about now.

Olympic rant

 These anti-China protesters are annoying. Agreed, China does have a dodgy [to put it mildly] human rights record, they're evasive, controlling, and the poor Tibetans are being treated terribly etc etc. Yes, just before the Olympics is a good public moment to air all those issues, thumbs up for free speech!

However, to seriously suggest that entire countries should not take part is unfair on many levels, but most importantly on the athletes who've been training for literally four years with 2008 in mind. This isn't an event that happens every year, a delay of 12 months would be bad enough, 48 months is a very long time. 

The protests should have taken place seven years ago when the Olympic committee was choosing the country in 2001. Now, it is only a question of airing opinions. The violence that has surrounded the Olympic relay puts the world to shame, with people in the 'developed' countries proving to be unable to respect boundaries. Having processions I can totally understand, there are some serious human rights issues going on, but to go to the extent of disrupting the relay, requiring the flame to be put out, is really a bit much. 

The Flame has a symbolism beyond that of just the Beijing games. It doesn't belong to any one country, and is supposed to represent Olympic values, like friendship, solidarity and fair play to name a few. Seems like there isn't much of that going around. 

If you really truely feel strongly that something should be done, boycott all Chinese products, not the Olympics. The world happily exploits the ultra cheap goods that come out of China without a second  thought, but have a huge moral dilemma with China holding a sports event? Rubbish.  Hypocrites.

Old Friends

Can you imagine us years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly 

How terribly strange to be seventy - Simon and Garfunkel

There are so many horror stories of friendship turned arsenic: gruesome and bloody backstabbings, smashing of trust with blunt instruments, unauthorised sharing of top level secrets. Despite going to an all girls school, I managed to float through school observing and generally avoiding some ridiculously complicated friendship politics. The clean up squad was more my thing - once the missiles were spent, voices reduced to a raspy croaks and tear ducts exhausted, peace troops would be needed to clean up and sort out. That was quite fun, talking to both sides, investigating the situation, finding middle ground, clearing up what was invariably a small, deadly misinterpretation of words. Blimey, the energy wasted on drama!

There are a few people who fall into the park bench category for sure. Swallow and Glitch are utterly easygoing, happy go lucky, solid, up for anything [not always a good thing with me around] and total soul mates in a non-cheesy, non-astrology.com kind of way. Coaster is rather more complicated: the image of a vertigo inducing, erratic yet strangely reliable roller coaster springs to mind. While on it, there are moments of panic and illness, but being on the ground involves being lost and without a compass, even though I often disagree with his sense of direction. Yea, its complicated. Birdboy probably be there would too, but thats a situ still floating around in midair at the moment.

There are potentials that hover around, new friends, old friendships that would be missed terribly if they were to dissolve, but those are constants necessary for all to be right in the world.

Long distance close friendships are tough. I miss how easy it is to be with them, the short hand which cuts through explaining, the instinctively knowing when something is up without having to be told/tell. How we always, always end up having a good time getting ourselves into and out of crazy situations, laughing all the while. Even the shittiest day turns around. 

In a way, the worst part is not being able to share the good stuff. Dancing in the rain, rolling in the hail, funky concerts, beautiful Victorian buildings with ivy curling up its walls, impulsive drives, walking through the city and randomly stumbling across a jazz band in a courtyard, little country towns out of Enid Blyton, candy stores, stationery warehouses, chatting to interesting strangers, in a club, dancing to that song you know they'd go crazy for if they were here, even or perhaps especially, just feeling happy for no reason. 

Feeling a little friend-sick. 

Survival

So, four straight nights of alcoholic mayhem, one bone drenching rainstorm, one small teeth chattering hailstorm, and a ridiculously inadequate quantity of sleep later, my immune system is still happy and relatively strong. A little tired, but hanging in there.

Can I just say, I'm kinda impressed?!?!

One more big one to go :D

Shades of awesomeness!

Commitment phobic, independent spirit, its all a matter of perspective really. All I know is that at this moment in time, I am without a doubt thoroughly addicted to being single. The last couple of nights have been shades of awesome!! :D A heady, exhilarating mix of fun music, crazy theme parties, tequila, vodka, pineapple juice, funky friendly people and general mayhem. Total spontaneity is such an adrenaline rush. Made lots of friends! Including one particular boy *grin* who besides being cuuute, with a damn good body, also had the impressive ability to carry on a hard core politics/psychoanalysis/history conversation at the bar of a club with music blasting out of speakers a couple of feet away. I think I'm in like. So huggable, he was. Anyway, in typically me fashion I disappeared without saying goodbye so he has probably vanished into the universe, but it was nice :) To be honest the highlight of that night was just the dancing, laughing and going crazy. The theme was 'bright and tight' [dodgy, I know] but wearing wildly contrasting bright red, green and orange made the hippie in me so happy. Trust me, the net effect was not as bad as that sounds :D

Really need to work on flirting signal recognition. Its terrible the extent to which I really do not notice all this implied rubbish. Partly because I cant be bothered, partly because c'mon, Aussies are just all friendly and outgoing. Its tough to distinguish between 'hey I think you're fun' and 'hey you might potentially be really fun' [drunken hookup signals are irrelevant]. Plus if you dont know the person that opens up the entire avenue of personality - some people are just really really outgoing.

Anyway, while recovering from severe lack of sleep, overdose of chemicals and the morning after torture from cruel but sexy heels, it hit me that I dont want to give up this freedom for a very very long time. Not just in the partying aspect of life but just generally, the space to do entirely random things, whatever I want, whenever I want without having someone go all sulky on me. It applies to friends too, cant handle clingy people who need to be babysat. *shudder*.

Ok have to continue battle with sheet to turn it into a toga for tonight!

Did I mention, o week ROCKS?

Knuckling down. Kindof-ish.

The Hippie nose is not happy. Its being firmly held to the grindstone, and told it has to stay that way for the next two weeks. Sigh. I've actually never properly 'studied' for an exam in my life. Always the crazy last minute cram session where normality is abandoned, sleep is a unknown concept, massive quantities of chocolate is consumed and adrenaline keeps the system going. Good times. Fear is by far the best motivator, especially short term. Rather enjoyed the high, especially since it was a shared experience, pre exam nights full of panic stricken phone calls usually because someone couldnt find/didnt have the textbook/notes/anything related to subject. Home science was the 'didnt have anything' subject for me at local O levels. A few scraggly speciman cloths with random stitches was about all. Without exaggeration, everything written down for that paper was learnt about 3 hours in advance. I miss what a bludge those exams were!! Now its all about analysis and application of theory, which of course presupposes that in 12 days, I will know this theory to apply it.

Bummer.

Poor nose.