Economic Crisis?

Has anyone else noticed that there are significantly more people sporting dreadlocks these days? I'm pretty sure I haven't been frequenting new watering holes or dining facilities but I have seen a lot more of these people. Is this some sort of new method to deal with the financial crisis?

Don't Panic! Uncle Rudd is giving us all some money so you can all afford a haircut.

On a different note, my condolences to everyone that has been affected by the tragic Vic bushfires.

xx.

Think. Decide. Do.

Those are the three words that I am bringing with me into 2009.

Another year has passed, once again without regrets but with numerous life lessons. I am the same, yet different...and this coming year will be more of the same.

Instead of the generic resolutions, I've decided to have "new year principles" instead. These are characteristics that I want to apply to everything I do this year. It's not about quitting anything, or starting anything new, but more about improving myself. (I guess in essence they are resolutions...but principles just sound so much more committal).

Be more focused and complete things.

This is something I have had a problem with for years. I am pretty much an 'ideas' person - not just ideas though, I even get to the point of starting things...I am just not so good at finishing them. So this year I will consciously think about starting things that I can complete. It might help me get my 'pseudo ADD' under control too!

Compliment my mental independence by being more physically independent.

This has been on the cards for a long time. My grand plans that never eventuate have caused me to move back home and not commit to anything. It is becoming more noticeable that I am very 'non-committal'...I do not think this is a good thing, and I guess principle 1. proves this very point. So I guess I'm committing to growing up physically in 2009.

Organise my time better.

Last year, on average I think I wasted about 60% of my waking hours. That's a lot of time. I cannot even justify what that time was spent doing - most of it was probably related to watching survivor or some American TV.
I have plans and things I want to learn and do and my time (when not drunk or asleep) should be spent achieving these things! Leading into...

Learn something new everyday.

I've done a lot of these 'do something new' or 'learn something new' things - but I think this is more achievable because there is bound to be "something" albeit trivial that you learn (or at least should discover) everyday. For instance, going to trivia once a week I definitely learn at least 20 new things.

So far this year the new things i've learnt - Wizard of Oz was released in 1939; A 'Gaffer' is the head electrician on a film set; Savoir-faire means having the knowledge to do things; White pudding is made from pork and a lot of fat!...and so on. It's working out well I think.

Keep in touch.

As with my previous blog post - I am going to try my darndest this year to consistently keep in touch with people...either regular catch ups for coffee; or the occasional e-mail. I will try!

So this is what is in store for 2009. We'll see how successful I am this year!

Sentimental Semantics

At some point in one's existence it becomes apparant that there are those that care about the past and reminiscing and those that dismiss those thoughts. Up until about a month ago, I would definately have been the latter.

I have been told numerous times by my parents 'why are you not interested in visiting your schools and your teachers?', most of the time I would respond with 'because they wouldn't remember me anyway'.

And that is the truth.

Honestly though, I am unsure as to whether it is more likely that I dismiss these types of memories and as such expect others to do the same. With the season of reunions in tow, it has been somewhat a pleasant suprise to feel the joy of reconnecting with people I would otherwise not be concerned with. This probably has a lot to do with why I don't have a long-term best friend, or why I am pretty slack at keeping in touch with people.

But all that is about to change. A new year on the way, and a new resolution to make more of an effort to remain friends with friends.

So apologies to those who knew me. Hello to those I'm going to befriend this year.

Freedom of Information?!

So I had a bit of a 'heated' discussion with a friend of mine who works at the ABS recently. Now, I'm not one to get really passionate about anti-govt things, but the ABS touched a sore point when I was actually curious and decided to run some queries about demographics in Sydney.

Little did I know that all the effort I spent in filling out the CENSUS forms (it takes at least 40 minutes of my time every four years) is not accessible unless I contribute a small fee! To be fair, they do have the basic data available on their website - gender, age, employment status, industry, etc - but not ENOUGH information for what I was after.

So it made me think about other market research places that actually PAY their contributors as part of the exercise. So why is it that I don't get paid to provide my information AND I need to pay to access it? Does anyone else think this is highly unfair?

MS Office functions for life

Have you ever wondered if you could utilise the Microsoft Word functions in your life what that would mean? Sometimes I think about the 'find' and 'replace' function - there are probably a few events in my life that I would like to replace with a blank. Some memories - some emotions - even some people (that 2 week boyfriend, that friend that never was)...find "anger" and replace with "laughs". How different would things be. Find "car trouble" replace with "public transport".

Then there's "cut" and "paste" function. Now sometimes I wish I thought more about what I have done in my life and if I could sequence things differently maybe I would be somewhere else. Maybe if I hadn't done my IT degree, then now I would be re-thinking it and be doing something else. Cut "Uni course", paste "extended holiday".

Then again, I have no regrets in life. It's just interesting to think that your life is made up of events and coincidences that cause a ripple effect...culminating in making you become who you are. I love who I have become and the people I have met on this journey...I hope there are more experiences and people that I will meet or reconnect with who will further shape who I am.

Cheers Everyone!

Speak or forever hold your peace

Sometimes just being in Sydney gives me great pleasure...coming across things that you have never realised existed. Today was one of those days. On a lazy Sunday afternoon where I decided to visit the art gallery to see a Monet exhibition I wandered through the Domain.
I guess it's the first time (or at least it's been awhile) since I've made this journey on a Sunday. But for those that are not aware...Sydney has it's own "Speaker's Corner", and it was these interesting characters that I came across.

Now I am totally all for free speech, and the concept of a speaker's corner is fantastic...however, it is totally de-valued when the people speaking are nutters! I spoke to some man who was convinced he had developed a way to read words despite what language you spoke. He was however convinced that this was the start of "artificial intelligence"...Is it just me or is artificial intelligence all about machine learning...and just by changing the way you write a word phonetically does not make it (the machine), or even people understand the definition of these words.

I got a bit frustrated trying to explain it to this guy, so I gave up. I am hoping that the people that come to listen to these people still think for themselves and do not take what they hear as gospel. Otherwise, we might be surrounded by people in a society whereby everyone is brainwashed.

Articulate as ...

So the interesting question to ponder today is...do you become more articulate the more you increase your vocabulary?

I think it works, but at the same time it is more choice in words which makes it a lot harder to form sentences...right?