picture & youtube post.

I've been taking out my camera a lil' to take a few pictures, mostly for the benefit of tumblr. But anyway, a few are worth putting here.

1. The Apple & Walnut Scroll. Love of my life, I swear.


2. The collection of books I've hoarded & yet to read. There's 19 books in total:



3. Another Big W complaint: "I hate it when customers put their debit/credit/other card in their mouth, and then proceed to hand it to you to swipe the EFTPOS machine. I’m gonna go all Summer Roberts and say: eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww. No wonder I’ve got sick more than ever in the last four years I’ve been a checkout chick."

4. Q-Tip "The Renaissance" is my new favourite chilled R & B/"jazz rap" cd. I've been a few of A Tribe Called Quest for years, so why has it taken me ages to get into Q-Tip's solo stuff?(really on this cd as yet). Oh, and don't worry, I'm still quite attached to D'Angelo, he even features on track 11, yay!



5. Lessons in life from my Leadership in Social Work & Human Services course



Reference: Cashman, K. (2008), Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life, 2nd edn, Berrett-Koehler Publications, San Francisco…

***and by doing a google search, it seems that you too can read the chapter I read here

R.I.P pages on Facebook? Really?

What is the deal with these teenagers that create 'R.I.P _______' pages on Facebook? Having worked with a number of kids that are barely out of highschool, a number of these pages have popped up in my newsfeed. Only out of boredom, I've clicked on the link only to find that the page has gained over 200 fans in fifteen minutes. If you're bored enough to read the wall posts (I am), it just gets scarier:

"OMG! I neva new u but I think u were in my sisters year level or sumthing? this is so sad. Hope ur family is alright'.

Oh, and if you're really popular, you even have multiple R.I.P pages!!!

It kind of sickens me. I mean, I wouldn't want anyone to make a page like that for me if I died. It's completely inappropriate, and just seems, I don't know, insensitive? Is it because it's easier to log onto facebook than it is to lodge a notice with the Herald Sun? (I'm being judgemental: the demographic of people who create these pages surely don't read The Age). I don't really have an argument as for why these pages are inappropriate - there's LOTS of inappropriate pages on Facebook - but the people who create these pages seem to have forgotten that once something's on the Internet, it stays there. Forever. Another girl I'm friends on Facebook with updated her status on with 'R.I.P ___' (it was her mother) and I although I wouldn't do this myself, I wasn't offended by it. I guess it's a quick way of telling everyone you know without having to go through the pain of telling sort of friends/acquaintances that someone close to you died. So that's ok by me, except of course a number of people (family members, close friends of the person who has passed etc) would of course be told in person or at least via phone.

But people even liked this status update!!! And wrote 'omg what happened' and expected the girl to answer, over Facebook! If one of my close friend's relatives died, I would send them a text-message & then a card. Flowers & visits etc depending on how close the friend was etc. I wouldn't send them a Facebook message! If a close relative of mine died I imagine I would be so distraught I would do nothing but lie in bed listening to my iPod all day (then again I'm fairly addicted to social networking websites so I probably shouldn't speak so soon).

All that being said, I wouldn't mind if someone changed my status to 'is dead'...but given that I don't leave myself logged onto facebook anywhere, even on my personal laptop, I doubt that would happen. Actually, Facebook needs to create something for when someone DOES die on Facebook, so that their Facebook page can be deleted if/when no-one has access to their password and such. Surely it must cause pain for some people, just seeing it there.

Anyone want to write an email to Mark Zuckerberg for me? I've exhausted my complaints email abilities enough for one day :(

Good things and bad things, again.

***One of those posts where it's really just a list because I haven't got anything to write about but feel I've been neglecting the blog.

Good things:

- I finally learned how to take Screen Shots!!!! This is big news. I've only spent like two years wondering how to do this. Turns out, the snipping tool is shit and doesn't work, so the print screen button + Function is the way to go.

- MF Doom. Hell yes.

- Gabrielle on Secret Life of Us: "I think was a little bit hungover when She created men"

- Secret Life of Us making me feel nostaglic for the songs I used to love back in the day - I'm up to Season 3 at the moment, and there's this scene where the girls (Gab, George, Kel and Chloe) dance at Fu bar to Paul Mac - Just The Thing. It's such a perfect scene/song.



- Online deliveries

- New clothes = feeling HOT.

- Murphy got a haircut! My baby (my dog) has lost perhaps half his body weight in the process, but OMG he's so adorable...

Bad things:

- The fact that I relate to this post on thoughtcatalog so much. It's not cool to like thoughtcatalog (at least, it's not cool on tumblr) but every so often there's a really cool post I really like. The guy who wrote this is a genuis and, by the sounds of it, has also lost the battle against Internet addiction.

- WAITING. Hello Monash, I still exist...

- Going up 1.5 pant sizes and feeling like a failure. NO MORE MUFFINS. Cry. Whinge. Find car keys. Go buy cupcakes instead.

- Having two social outings on one night and not being able to choose.

- Pepper in food.

- My room was clean for about a week and I felt organised and motivated. That week has passed.

- Mum commenting on my facebook posts, and then everyone else being too scared to comment so they send me text messages instead (Hi Mum!!!)

thoughts on the train

As soon as I've left the house I'm automatically feeling like a wannabe hipster. Vintage floral dress - tick (but it's from the Vero Moda range off asos), denim jacket - tick (I rarely leave the house with this jacket & I've had it since I was 14), brown boots - tick, naturally (crazy, with horrible growing-out-phase highlights) wavy hair - tick. All with the exception of my Chloe sunglasses, Olivia Palermo style. I'd almost take a photo except that I don't know how to use the self-timer on my digital (read: not old-fashioned and funky) camera and I feel a bit myspace taking photo's of myself. (For the record, I ran into two fashion-forward lovelies from my work on my way home who approved of my outfit.)

Also, I am listening to CocoRosie (on the Sandringham line!) (note to dear loyal friends who read this: CocoRosie fits into the 'freak folk' genre) and I haven't been on Facebook for two hours, so clearly I am winning at life. My hair is even more of a mess due to the wind, but I score extra points because I walked the whole 1.5k's to the train station instead of driving. I've shoved a green bag in my handbag for shopping, but I forgot my keepcup. I am wearing anklet socks under my boots (you can't see them), but I am wondering, is this 'the thing' to do? I am unsure. But I can't possibly just have bare feet underneath my boots. Too uncomfortable.

six hours later: Fuck I forgot about school times. Bloody children on the train. Spent a shitload of money on clothes I could probably live without, but thank god for having new jeans that will actually fit me! One does not need four pairs, but oh well. I deserve it. Yes to bargain cord shorts that have actually got me excited for spring. FUCK YES for new Stereolab & Grizzly Bear - Friend EP. Oh and another Murakami book that I probably won't get around to reading for two years or so. Yes for cheap takeaway coffee in Degraves street. Man I've missed the city :)

Dot-pointed life update

1. Yesterday I went out for breakfast to Sugo with my parents, my sister, her partner & their two girls - aged 6 and 4 (?). Perfect blond children. The cafe/restaurant was warm, my food was cold, the coffee was nice. My mother bought along some colouring books to entertain the girls, except the girls have an iPad so this wasn't necessary. Cannot get over the fact that a six-year old knows how to use an iPad and I don't.

2. This morning I went to a yoga class. I tried a little bit harder this time, but I'm very disenchanted with the fact that the class is mostly full of middle aged-women who are sooo much better at yoga than me.

3. After a conversation with friends on a (civilised, sober) Saturday night, I felt a little bit better about my facebook addiction & realised that I'm avoiding writing job applications/getting a 'real' job. It was an epiphany moment. I feel too young to have a real job, and I "should" travel but I'm too scared. At least we all could relate so at least I'm not alone. Says my law-student friend: "All I wanna do is watch Boston Legal and eat cake."

4. Making playlists for my mother to put on her iPod is hard work. Ever since she discovered I posses music by the Beatles & really liked the sound of Kings of Convenience I've been meaning to put some stuff on her computer for her. It's the least I can do, she is my mother. So far there's lots of Kings of Convenience/Whitest Boy Alive, downtempo stuff, Nightmares on Wax & Fat-Freddy's Drop, my collection of the Bamboos (my mother is obsessed with them), and I added D'Angelo just because I can.

5. Am really not enjoying Social Policy and it's only Week 1. Always at the start of semester that I romantise university & have dreams about doing essays past midnight in my dressing gown & ugg boots with never-ending cups of herbal tea. In this dream my room is spotlessly clean and the only windows open on my computer are Microsoft Word and fifteen Adobe Acrobat journal articles. Even though it's my tenth semester at uni, this has still yet to happen. What bothers me about Social Policy is that the reading so far is very theoretically, way over my head, and very depressing. I like case studies and memoirs and inspirational lecturer/s, not theoretical bullshit that I a) can't absorb and b) seems irrelevant to current times? I think i like the idea of studying social policy more than I actually like the (core) subject.