Flappers...

I haven't blogged in a fair while (3 months)...(my bad), so I decided to just blog about anything.

I recently re-watched one of my favourite films of all time: The Great Gatsby, and was reminded of my favourite literary passages of all time... incidentally from the book the movie was based on, "The Great Gatsby", by F. Scott Fitzgerald:

Only Gastby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction - Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament" - it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No - Gatsby turned out alright at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and shortwinded elations of men.

I get shivers down my spine just reading that.

Simply, epic :)

Meow.

Reality...

When you see a piece of writing titled "Reality", you tend to immediately assume that the piece of writing will be addressing the hard facts of life, that people either like to ignore completely, or religiously focus on.

Whilst it is true, that yes there are bad things in the world, that's not what this blog entry is going to be about.

Instead it's going to look at reality from a more holistic view point.

Bad things will happen. There's nothing you can do from stopping them from happening. It doesn't matter how you act as a person. The way in which you act will not stop them from happening. That's just life.

This is something people intrinsically know.

However, it doesn't mean that you have to let that fact completely taint the way in which you look at life.

By knowing that bad things will happen regardless of your own individual actions, can bring peace of mind. It just needs a different point of view.

You can't have good without knowing evil.

You can't be happy, without having experienced sadness.

You can't have a rainbow without a little rain.

If the negatives don't have to effect your happiness, don't let them.

And when they get in the way of your happiness, deal with the issue at hand, and resume noticing all the good that there is around.

And it might be a bit difficult to notice living in the middle of suburbia, where Man has concreted over everything, and anything controllable has been controlled.

But Man cannot control the laws of nature.

Man cannot concrete the sky.

You just have to look up.

For Lack Of Photo...

I Was Dancing Since I Was Twelve...

As I was walking home from uni today...Ok that's a lie.

As I was walking part of the way home from uni, to meet up with Daddy Dearest who was on his way to picking me up, I was just plodding along, listening to my iPod, when T.Rex's song "Cosmic Dancer" came on.

And all of a sudden, everything in the world was alright.

Despite the fact that it was cold.

Despite the fact that it was raining.

Everything was ok.

And in those moments, you notice details that you would normally overlook.

Dew drops hanging to the tips of leaves. The dancing patterns of ripples in a puddle as you step in it. The satisfying feeling that accompanies wearing gumboots on a rainy day, because no matter what you step in, or what spills on your gumboots, your feet remain clean and dry. And you feel as though you're being protected from the worst of the world, and can take the time to appreciate the beauty that it has to offer, that otherwise goes unnoticed.

Just peace.

I'm going to start blogging on a regular basis again, and I'll make my next blog about my trip in Japan.

I just wanted to share that one serene moment of my day, in the hope that someone who reads this, will take the time to stop and really notice the beauty of the world around them. Even for just a moment.

Sunday Morning Rain Is Falling...

Minus the falling rain...

I met up with the B1 to my B2 this morning in Bondi Junction for a coffee date, and thoroughly enjoyed myself :)

With coffee in hand, we embarked upon a sojourn around the "rich side" of Westfield.

And is it just me, or is fashion getting more and more ridiculous as the seasons change?

Leopard print jeans? Shiny, scrunched, metallic leggings? Dresses with practically everything except the very bare minimum material cut out? And if you can sew sequins on something, for Gods sake, please cover every inch of the item with them, so as to be as impractical, and irritating for the wearer, as is humanly possible.

I'm seriously waiting for a pair of metallic, scrunched, sequined & cut-out leggings to be designed, mass-produced & sold. That will be the day that I finally learn how to sew.

After our sojourn, we became peck-ish, and headed towards Salsa's for a fine Mexican feast.

I ordered the Fajita Burrito, minus the capsicum & rice, and my partner in crime ordered the Chicken & 5 Veg. Whilst the wait was fairly long, it was worth it :) Next time however, I'd probably prefer my food to still be warm when I got it.

We sat outside in the sun, and enjoyed the perfect balance of sunshine & cooling breeze, overlooking a lovely view of the beautiful city of Sydney. Our chat was equally lovely!

The car ride home was also enjoyable, as traffic was in my favour, and Nova 96.9fm played Yellow by Coldplay. The perfect accompaniment to a sunny drive on a Sunday afternoon.

All in all, it was a lovely end to a lovely weekend, and I have the weather, Nova 96.9fm & of course my wonderful B1 to thank :)

So thank-you :)

xox

Lobster Knife Fights...

It's true. Words cannot express the awesome.

Decisions...

"Decisions" is a pretty difficult topic to write about, as there isn't really any way of starting, other than just to start listing their "credentials".

They're at the core of everything.

They are the core of everything.

They can make lives.

They can break lives.

They can simplify things.

They can complicate things.

They can eventuate into nothing.

They can eventuate into everything.

Could you say that the meaning of life is to make decisions? Well, regardless of whether or not you can, decisions are extremely important in every persons life. A fact which is painfully obvious. They shape the path our lives take.

People say that there are "right decisions", and "wrong decisions". But is this in actual fact true? Yes, someone can make a wrong decision in a situation, which may reflect badly on their lives in a smaller scale of time. But if you think about it, every decision you make in your life, is the correct one. Because, if every decision you make shapes the path of your life, then right or wrong doesn't come into the equation, if you believe that everything happens for a reason.

Now that may make no sense to me in the morning the way I've written it, as I've just taken two Codral Cold & Flu night time tablets, but in a weird way I think I've outlined/demonstrated the complexities of the "decision".

But having said that, I'm not trying to undermine the importance of trying to make the best decision you can. Decisions are extremely important, and shouldn't be taken lightly. And again, on the other hand, they shouldn't make you stress yourself into the grave.

As with all things in life, a balance needs to be found.

So perhaps you could now say, the meaning of life, is to find balance...

(If that was too deep, here, have a kitten)

Dear Exams...

Dear Exams,

I just have a few things to say to you.

Please go away.

You're causing me some unpleasant side-effects that I could do without:

• Headaches
• An army of forehead pimples (thank-you fringe)
• Fatigue
• Restlessness
• Dead social life
• Utter boredom
• Apathy

However, you have enabled me to perfect the art of procrastination, and for that, I guess I should be grateful.

Yours begrudgingly, mentally exhausted uni student.

For A Friend...

This is for a friend who's feeling a bit down in the dumps at the moment.

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I know life may be a bit rough 'round the edges at the moment, but everything will work out fine.

Neighbours...

Noisy Neighbours + Study = Very Poor Concentration...

Since about 9am this morning, my neighbours have been making noise, on a fairly continual basis. It's not just normal neighbourhood noise, but constant shuffling of objects in their backyard, and heavy ones by the sounds of it.

In all honesty, it sounds like their attempting to move the Great Pyramid of Giza...

block by block...

I've tried everything I can think of to block out the sounds:

• move to a different part of the house - can still hear them
• turn on my music - can still hear them
• put my iPod into my ears - can still hear them
• use ear-plugs - can still hear them

...and now they've started hammering...

Saviour of the ink kind...

After my Geology exam today, I realised one thing:

This pen will be the style of pen that gets me through my exam.

It writes nicely.

The ink is scented.

It's from my work.

The thickness of the pen is just right.

The tip is the perfect thickness.

It is my perfect pen.

Thank-You Smiggle.

Betrayed...

So I'm pretty much feeling pretty betrayed by Geology at the moment.

Lets just say, we're not on speaking terms at the moment.

I mean, it's not like I asked much from it. Only to love me with the same passion as I loved it.

It's not as if I haven't spent the last 4 years sticking by it's side, despite the ridicule and sneering.

It's not as if I haven't often looked out of the car window on long car trips, looking along the sides of road cuttings for highways, with serene bliss.

It's not as if I haven't slowly collected little rocks and pebbles from holidays and field trips.

It's not as if I haven't restrained myself from falling asleep in Geology lectures, where many others would, with ease.

SO WHAT THE HELL GIVES, GEOLOGY?!

DOES MY LOVE MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?!

WHY MUST YOU BE SO DIFFICULT TO LOVE?!

DON'T YOU WANT TO HELP YOURSELF BE LOVED?!

Until you fix up your act, make the structural side of yourself easier to understand, and get rid of this nigh impossible intricate metamorphic bullshit, I shan't be speaking with you.

From your distressed FORMER biggest fan,

Extremely-stressed-out-and-incredibly-disgruntled-no-longer-eager Geology Student.

p.s. WHAT THE &*#$ IS A FORM LINE?!

New Sunglasses...

So these are my new sunglasses.

Not particularly interesting or exciting.

But sunnies do mean that the sun is shining once again.

If only I didn't have to stay inside and study...

Precipitation...

I'm getting really sick of all this rain.

Sick of being cold.

Sick of being wet.

Sick of being out in the cold and wet.

BUT, I do enjoy listening to the rain as I fall asleep...

What we have, is a conundrum...

By the way...

Arnott's "Mint Slice" + Taylor Kitsch = HEAVEN.

Between a rock and a hard place...

Ok, so pretty much, pub crawls are amazing fun.

Pub crawls with bar tabs are even better.

And pub crawls with bar tabs and geoscientists are as good as it gets.

BUT; pub crawls with bar tabs and geoscientists drinking "Snipers" from Kuletos Newtown, are phenomenal.

However, what's not phenomenal is looking in your wallet after said crawl, and discovering all your gold coins went into paying for pool all night...

Meow

xx

Jumar...

So this is my best friend's cat, Jumar.

Except he's not really a cat.

Sure he looks like a cat, and a pretty beautiful one at that. He sounds like a cat. Probably smells like a cat too.

But underneath all that cat-ness, he's a dog.

He is the only cat I've ever met, who enjoys having his belly rubbed, in much the same fashion you would an Alsatian. And he also fetches sticks. True, not when you throw them for him, but one day my friend and I were just inside chilling, and in trots Jumar, with a stick in his mouth.

And as a very young kitten (a few weeks old), he still had quite a character. If there was something to be investigated i.e. the contents of my bag, camera strap, my hair, my friends face, he'd be on the scene. And he did so with style, Ninja Kitty style.

Only Jumar could make the quantum leap from Ninja Kitten to Dog-Cat.

Meow

xx

Friends...

Today may have been a mammoth day at uni for me time-wise, but it made me realise the importance of friends in your life.

New and old.

There's something special about new friends. Advice you pick up. Observations of the same subject, from a slightly different point of view. Thoughts on a topic, worded slightly differently, that even though you've been told this a million times before, it all suddenly falls into place in your mind, and makes sense.

There's also something special about old friends, and the comfort they bring. No matter how stressed out of anxious you may be feeling, just experiencing that welcome comfort from these friends can make all your worries drift away from a few hours, and your mind can rest.

I was lucky enough to experience both types of friends today, and take something positive and energising from both instances.

They may or may not ever see this, but I just want to thank both for the happiness and serenity they brought into my life today.

:)

Meow

xx

Grass at Sydney University...

Wet weather thoughts...

There's something about wearing gumboots on a rainy day, that makes you want to step in every puddle you come across. I think it comes from a necessity to prove to everyone around, and yourself, that you can do so, and come out of the experience with 100% dry feet.

I usually despise rainy days, but since I bought my new gumboots, I adore them. Which leads me to believe that the only thing I didn't like about rainy days previously was the fact that my feet would invariably get wet.

But I still do not like one bit, rainy and windy days. It's an awful combination. Especially for umbrella users; because gumboots or no gumboots, if it's raining AND windy, you WILL get wet. Either due to rain approaching from all angles imaginable, and/or your umbrella being turned inside out by a sudden gust of wind.

Even though today was windy AND raining, fortunately for me, whenever it was raining, it wasn't windy enough to blow rain under my umbrella, so I returned home in a dry state.

That's all folks.

Meow.

xx

Collection...

Opened my second drawer in my desk today, only to find my collection of beer bottle caps, and felt inspired to pick out a few things around my room, which summarise me as an individual, take a picture of them, and share them here.

• Earings: I chose these because I love the colour of them, and the shape. They're a nice summary of my preferred tastes in jewelry; bright and gentle lines.
• Clam shaped pendant: I've had this item of jewelry for as long as I can remember, and is quite easily my favourite piece. I love the way light reflects gently off the glass. It also reminds me of my childhood.
• Earphones: Obviously the importance of music in my life.
• Purple glass vase: Most important aspect of this is the colour of it; purple. I love the colour purple.
• Beer caps: I enjoy to have a nice quiet beer with mates as a way to unwind. These are just a few of the beers I usually drink: Crown Lager, Corona, Pure Blonde and of course Heineken.
• Little soccer balls and rainbow coloured pencil tube: These are from my work. Pretty much everything from the store is bright and colourful, which I love.
• Silver Pendant: I bought this necklace cheaply, a few weeks ago, because I love the way light refects off the piece of glass/cubic zirconium.

• Eyeliner: Can't leave the house without it.
• Zebra memo deck: Also from my work. I bought it because I love zebra print.
• Rings: I almost always wear my frog ring, and have started wearing more rings recently. I find people's hands really interesting, so try to jazz my own up a little with rings, and a compulsory coat of nail polish.
• Friday Night Lights; Season One DVD: I absolutely love this series. It's the only program on television I like to keep up with religiously. Unfortunately in Australia, only the first season has been released on DVD, and Foxtel is really sketchy with when and where they broadcast it. It's not so much the football side of it I enjoy, but rather the complexities of the characters.
• Newspaper: I get the newspaper every day from uni, so that I can work on the crosswords, other word puzzles and the sudoku. Mainly to try and broaden my vocabulary.
• Leopard Print Headscarf: I love the colours used in this scarf. I frequently wear it.
• Amphibian: I found this little guy about a year and a half ago on the conveyor belt of a grocery store. He was just chillin' on a bunch of bananas, so I decided to bring him home and look after him. He's a Dainty Tree Frog native to Queensland, and is an absolute darling. During colder weather, he tends to jump on me, and fall asleep on my chest underneath my jumper, and is quite the photogenic little amphibian.

A life through cat eyes...

First off, props to Mr. Inspiration for giving me the idea to start a blog.

The main idea of this blog'o'mine is to have an outlet for all my thoughts, so that I can just let it all out, organise it in some way, and sift through it as I go along.

So here goes...

I'm 19, female, and studying Science at The University of Sydney, hopefully majoring in Geology, if all goes to plan. I'm studying science for two main reasons.

Reason number one: I was always good at Science at school, without too much effort.

Reason number two: Science is the study of why. And I love knowing why. I crave that knowledge.

Recently I've been diagnosed with TMJ DSyndrome, or Temporomandibular Joint Disorder. In a nutshell, it's the inflamation of the temporomandibular joint (or your Jaw joint), caused by me not using my jaw properly basically. I clench my jaw, chew gum, slide my jaw side-to-side, and put alot of pressure on this joint. So much so, that I've cause inflamation.

It's not life threatening, but can cause more problems down the road if it goes un-checked for too long, so I'm in the process of getting it fixed up now.

Why I mentioned this is because my Prothodontist sat me down, and explained the disorder in great length, and discussed the area of stress. What I found was really cool, was that just by feeling which muscles in my jaw/neck/back were sore and knotted like a pretzel (try all of them), he could deduce what sort of a person I am.

He concluded that:

• I may appear to be dealing with stress really well, but in actual fact I internalise it


• I find it difficult to say no to people


• I can give good, sound, logical advise to other people to help solve their problems, but when it comes to my own, I'm at a complete loss


• I think about things alot. Not just remembering what happened in a situation, but going further into asking the questions why? How? and what if? (Told ya I like science, didn't I)

So basically, that's me in a nutshell...all from the muscles in my jaw.

Neat-o.

I work at a stationary store aimed at children, and absolutely love it. I love the environment. Colours. Smells. Sights. Interaction. And customer assistance. There's nothing I love more about my job, than being able to help someone out. Finding a solution to their problems...stationary-ily. Sounding familiar yet?

Another reason I love my job, is the kids. I love children because they're so carefree. And I love seeing their faces light-up as they walk inside, filling the store with innocent happiness which is so hard to find in the modern world.

I also love cats. For the same reasons I love children...well, almost as I don't think scented stationary hits cats quite like it hits children...But they share that "simple pleasures" mentality of children. If you treat a cat well, it will grow to seek affection from you. Same goes for children.

I also think that cats are simply gorgeous, and have the most interesting personalities...

Once again, thank-you to Mr. Inspiration.

This may just be what I need :)

Meow

xx

p.s. I love sleeping on the grass in sunshine.