Irresistible Tendencies

Something Old, Nothing New

2010-10-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

oh.

Bad blogger....bad, bad blogger.

So...hi...again.

I woke up this morning to this message from my sister: "I awake and the mess looks as though it grew overnight!! Why do I have SO MUCH STUFF?" Oh the paradox of first world youth, smothered by the stuff we own and our sentimental attachement to it. I understand her sentiments and predicament exactly.

I really like clothes. Example: a month or so ago we had a federal election here and I now own a a dress that will forever be labelled as 'election day 2010 dress'. See, I get kinda excited about elections. I think they're very important and I think young people should get excited about them. I was really looking forward to this election (spirit only slightly dampened by the pathetic effort of both partys' throughout the campaign) and one day I was shopping and just happened across a dress that seemed to scream, or at least softly point out, "Hey. You know, I'm the kind of dress you could change your country while wearing...why don't you pick me?" It didn't take much to sway me, the dress being such a sweet talker and all, and that's how I ended up purchasing a dress to wear specifically to vote in.

I've worn the dress many other times since, and I really, really like it even when I'm not electing a prime minister, but after telling the story to a couple of friends and receiving mixed reactions I began to wonder if my attachment to clothes is a bit out of control. "You bought a dress...to vote in?" they would ask, pitying head shaking ensuing. My concern was only amplified when yesterday I decided to begin a bit of a spring clean in preparation of moving in a few weeks. And discovered that I own a phenomenal number of tshirts. Even though I don't really wear tshirts...

So, this month I'm taking part in Buy Nothing New Month, an initiative of the Salvos in Australia where people can pledge to buy nothing new throughout the whole of October. No clothes, no appliances, shoes, stationery, books, dvds. Nothing. Given that I live on a reasonably tight budget, this shouldn't stretch me too much. I've gone months before without buying anything (unemployment puts a dampener on shopping like nothing else) but it's different now. Now I'm making the choice not to purchase instead of being fiscally unable. And I think it's an important choice for me. I'm also going to continue my little spring clean and lighten my load a little bit.

You can participate in Buy Nothing New Month simply by heading to the Salvo's site and taking a look at the rules. You're allowed to buy second hand/recycled/vintage items, though I don't think I will be in aid of the de-cluttering purpose of my month. Do share if you decide to join in!
Oh. Ps. Tonight I'm going to Women of Letters where a number of my personal female icons will be. Pre-October I bought a new dress to wear to it. I'm really excited.

Artist of the Week: Abbey McCulloch

2010-06-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

It's rare for me to find art that I know I would purchase if I had the funds, mostly because I'm picky and can never make up my mind about small details. Abbey McCulloch's work, however, is an instant definite on my 'if only I had won the lottery' list.

For me they strike just the right balance between pretty and slightly sinister. Abbey is exhibiting at the HelenGory Galerie in Victoria from now until mid-July, and I wish I could get along. Check the link for many more of Abbey's striking images.

BuzzChildxx

Winning At Life and Why May Doesn't

2010-05-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

For a couple of reasons, I'm so ready to leave May behind. May is always a hard month, I think, because, for lack of a better expression, it's when shit gets real. And not only real, but often really hard, too. May is the month of the year when people start expecting to see results. After the weeks of January, in which the year is kicked off in a lazy, hazy 'the cleanup after the party' way, with a feeling your way around in a dark, unknown house kind of slowness, February comes along with zest and plans. March does march in, and within it we begin to execute these plans with zeal, for at least a week. But then things begin to get monotonous and unforseen problems crop up, due to underplanning or too enthusiastic planning or unrealistic planning or those crazy, so called "acts of god" that slam into and shatter the planning, and our plans all fall apart. We start April a little lost and bewildered and not sure where to go, so we keep working slowly in the direction we were working in the whole time, but now completely without conviction or enthusiasm. We slowly burn ourselves down to the point that we catch the inevitable "pre-winter flu" and get to take a few days off. Then comes May. When everyone who has been totally oblivious to our slow demise over the preceding months begins to demand their share of the year's profits so far. People are all of a sudden wanting to see our progress, are asking for material evidence and statistics and numbers and data that we know just aren't satisfactory. Suddenly the end of the year is looming much closer, and the shadow of those annual deadlines is seemingly expanding at a rate of knots. Doom is what you feel, doom is what you see and doom is what you hear thundering towards you from all sides. Your own impending doom.

But June comes along, after you've had your second bout of flu induced bedrest and Gilmore Girls marathons, and June is crisp and wintery and exciting. You've suddenly made it halfway through the year and suddenly you're thinking that if you made it this far, you may as well keep going, hell, you're even excited about it! You get to stop at this halfway mark, take a breather and reevaluate. That's accepted, even expected, and people think you're wise if you change your original plans now, rather than the weak, bailer they would have called you had you pulled the plug back in April. So you continue, with a fresh outlook and a tinge of excitement, although there's a sense that it's gained a bit of maturity after enduring months three, four and five. Day by day you go on and you see it out and at Christmas you tell everyone you see and celebrate with what an exciting year it was for you, how different it was from other years and how you really felt like you made progress. And you probably did. You're eager and ready for next January (well, February really) to make your new plans for the new year, because this year you're going to tackle really big things. But sometimes, just occasionally, you have a flashback, or a nightmare, or are just sense something that reminds you of that month, May, which you know is coming, when you know it will all go to shit.

But now it's the end of May, so I have a whole year before I have to get back there. And perhaps I'll be clever and avoid the May catastrophe altogether next year. I hope so.

Here's to June!

xxBuzzChildxx

Some thoughts for a Monday

2010-05-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here's what I'm thinking about on a quiet mid-morning Monday in May.

-Consequential Strangers- a term given to those strangers with whom you inevitably interact each day, is defined and explored at this thought-provoking blog. I first came across the concept in this article on Sarah Wilson's blog (which I love and adore) and it's been bouncing around in my mind since. Just think about it, the number of these strangers who pass through our lives will always far outnumber those people with whom we have close relationships, and despite our seeming lack of connection to them, they play a highly important role in the operation of our daily lives. They might provide us with our food, pass us on a morning stroll with a friendly greeting or fill up our car with fuel, and each of these little actions helps us on our way, while we in turn give our custom or our own smile. More importantly than this surface interaction, though, is the connections we can make with such people, as we are much less bound in this relationship by pre-conceived notions or judgements on our characters, as our close friends and relatives have, and so can in some ways be more open and honest; more the person we would like to be. It is possible to have such fleeting but deep interactions with these people, and that is what makes them so special.

There is this guy who works as the lollipop man at the school the little girl I nanny for attends. He's young, probably my age or younger, and sets up his crossing every morning like clockwork, arriving at 7:55, slotting in the orange flags and pulling on his vest. He stands with his stop sign every day, rain, hail or shine, helping the kids get across the road safely. Today, my little girl laughed as we walked up the footpath after crossing. "Everday," she said, "everday it's exactly the same: 'Hi! Have a good day!' he says." She was amused at his unfaltering routine. I have noticed, too, that his greetings rarely change, and when I leave the school and walk back across he says the same thing. He is so dedicated to his job, to starting the kids' day off safely and happily, and he never fails to bring a smile to my face too as I drive away. He'll never know it, but in that small way, he's changing my, and I'd guess a lot of the other adults dropping kids off before beginning their work day's, life, and only for the better.

These consequential strangers are put into our lives for a reason. We're all connected, we all have the power to change the world, and it's a worthy pursuit to be mindful of appreciating the value of those we meet everyday in all sorts of places and situations. Afterall, the more connections you make, the wider your circle of wisdom and influences becomes, and this can only be a good thing.

This reminds me of two things. First a quote from Desiderata, which has been a favourite of mine ever since I read it on a poster tacked to the roof above my dentist's chair.

"As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story."

And also the wonderful Missed Connections blog, which everyone has been raving about for the past couple of months with good reason. This one is my recent favourite:(click image for the story)

BuzzChild xx

Working Girl

2010-05-09T17:43:00.000-07:00

So, lately I've been making character cards for the play I'm working on, and making red velvet cake for my mum for Mother's day. I'm counting both as success.

A Helpful and Handy Hint

2010-05-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

Stress creates tension, often held in the neck, shoulders and jaw. Next time you accidently step on a piece of metal, how will you be able to watch for the signs of a developing tetanus infection when your neck is always stiff regardless?

STRESS LESS

Tuesday Treat

2010-04-20T01:53:00.000-07:00

Is it possible for Kirsten Dunst to get much more brilliant? I think most people have already seen this, but if not, here's a treat for you! Thanks for Rebecca of The Clothes Horse for pointing it out.

The Versus Show

2010-04-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

I've just returned home from an art event called 'The Versus Show', which gives two artists a common theme to work with and then showcases their results. This show, the fourth so far, was held at Joshua Levi Galleries and featured the work of local Brisbane photographer Kylie Fisk and Melbourne artist Laura Skerlji. The theme was Dreams and the work was lovely, as was the atmosphere with the rooms all decorated in soft baby blue floating balloons and candles and cut out birds and filled with live music and lovely wine. Here are some pictures from the artists, if you're ever in town and have the chance to check out them or one of The Versus Shows, I highly recommend you do.

Now, with my neighbours singing old Enrique Iglesias tunes over and over again, and with the promise of an exciting and packed weekend, I think it's time for bed.

YSL Manifesto

2010-03-31T19:02:00.000-07:00

I found this clip while I was doing some research for a review of Ebony Bones' album. I just like the way it's edited and that hint of showing what's going on behind the scenes, even though it's all advertising anyway. So I thought I'd share. What do you think?

right now

2010-03-21T22:05:00.000-07:00

"The young girls formed, indeed, the majority of the band, and their heads of luxuriant hair reflected in the sunshine every tone of gold, and black, and brown. Some had beautiful eyes, others a beautiful nose, others a beautiful mouth and figure: few, if any, had all."

"And as each and all of them were warmed without by the sun, so each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, at least some remote and distant hope which, though perhaps starving to nothing, still lived on, as hopes will."

"Thus they were all cheerful, and many of them merry."

Words from Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Pictures by the ever inspiring Raul Romo

sunday treats

2010-03-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

Things I'm excited about right now:

- fresh baked honey butter cookies for afternoon tea
- nachos for dinner
- starting a new job
- autumn weather being just the right temperature
- holidays next weekend
- new books to read
- new kitten to play with
- having my writing published
- getting batteries for my camera and finding something more interesting to post about on here!

What about you?

What fun!

2010-03-10T20:54:00.000-08:00

I know I'm really very behind on this, but I've only just used Polyvore for the first time, what fun! About as close to shopping as I'm going to get any time soon, I've spent quite a bit of time there today. Here are some sets I made.

Wearing for Springtime by Lauren Sherritt featuring Acne jackets

Party by Lauren Sherritt featuring Tarina Tarantino jewelry

Favourites for March

2010-03-07T03:15:00.000-08:00

Summer has ended and so has my most recent bout of work, my 'still stretching out the holidays' feeling and the newness of moving. These are the things currently fuelling my inspiration to get up, get out and start moving to where I want to go.

Both The Drifter and The Gy psy and Daydream Lily have been around for a long time, and so while each blog inspires on a daily basis, they are also excellent resources for long reading sessions. I've spent many a rainy Sunday afternoon poring over the archives of both and have followed countless links to the sites of artists, photographers and writers I would have never found without these lovely girl's help.

Having now moved out of home, I'm really getting to flex my cooking muscles and see just how far they can take me. With this has come a newfound love for food and cooking blogs and Everybody Likes Sandwiches has been a favourite from the start. Exactly as described in the header; an uncomplicated journal about food, Everybody Loves Sandwiches combines a good variety of stellar recipes with great photos (always a must for food I think) and just as great, inviting writing. Just thinking about this site makes my mouthwater. Check it out, I guarantee your tastebuds will thank you for it.

Just quickly on another food find, did everybody else know about Nigella Lawson's amazing website? With hundreds of the "domestic Goddess's" recipes freely accessible, plus more added by members and a thriving forum, it's pretty much foodie heaven.

Finally, off the web and on to the screen, I'm getting really excited about seeing A Single Man. I procured a poster for the film from somewhere, and it's been sitting folded in my room for weeks now silently stunning me. "Sometimes, awful things have their own kind of beauty"...I'm hoping the film blows me away as much as the poster does.

BuzzChildxx

Welcome Back

2010-03-01T03:57:00.000-08:00

There's no un-awkward way to return to a blog after such a distinct period of absence. So I shall just say hello and I hope you are well. I apologise for the many, many months of nothing & I hereby return to blogging.

Stay tuned.

BuzzChildxx

Lay Down Lean

2010-01-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

A very pretty film for your Thursday, an especial treat for the Zooey fans out there.

Merry Merry

2009-12-23T15:25:00.000-08:00

Three of my favourite Christmas things

Gingerbread houses

Stockings stuffed full
Fairy lights everywhere

(click on the images for source)

Merry Christmas everybody,
BuzzChildxx

Ps. the blog will be returning to regular posting soon in the new year.

It's nice to dream

2009-11-03T04:46:00.001-08:00

Soon I'm going to be living in a house which has no curtains. I'm not sure that this is ok with me, but I don't think there's much I can do about it. I'll have to check.

The first time I can remember really wanting to move out of home was when I was about thirteen years old. It was the beginning of high school and my friend and I were already making plans graduate, move to Sydney, go to NIDA and become famous. My how dreams change. As far as I know, my friend and I are both graduating from university next week, and while neither of us are heading towards becoming the famous actresses we thought we'd be seven years ago, I think things are working out well enough.

Anyway, I get to live in my little unit alone for a month before my housemate moves, and so I've been drooling over decorating ideas. Not that we have any allowance to decorate, in either money nor lease terms, but it's nice to dream.

Unfortunately I never recorded where all the images came from, but a mixture of these would probably make somewhere close to my dream house.

BuzzChild

Book Review: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

2009-10-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

When I saw the trailer for the upcoming film, I figured that I must've missed the hype about The Lovely Bones, much as I did Lolita or The Virgin Suicides. Now that I've read it though, I wonder if there was a hype, or if Peter Jackson just knows how to pick a damn good story for his films.

Written by Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones is about as beautiful, poignant, funny and heartbreaking as a book can get. The books follows the story of Susie Salmon as she watches her family and friends from heaven after she is murdered at age fourteen. Don't worry; no spoilers here, all these details come in the first sentence. What follows is a novel which seamlessly spans over a decade and follows the journeys of multiple characters with remarkable ease thanks Susie's narration.

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

This novel is captivating and meaty and will challenge your expectations and beliefs on life, death and beyond. As usual, I reckon give it a read before seeing the film, though it too looks extraordinary.

Enjoy!

BuzzChild

Long Time No Write

2009-10-18T00:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

I've missed you!!!

I swear, lamest and most lazy blogger award can land right here. It has been two months?? No lame excuses will suffice, I can only plead that I have been rather busy with uni and work and life lately.

To catch up quickly, here are a few of the things I've been doing lately which are really quite random:

Taking many, many flower photos with an amazingly brilliant but borrowed camera.

Growing spring vegetables and fruits.

Hiding from a couple of red dust storms (they were big BIG exciting news here, but very inconvenient!)

The next few weeks are going to be very exciting and hopefully only marginally stressful. I'm finishing university after three long years, crazily completing all my assignments and exams, celebrating in my class's graduation show, moving cities, beginning new jobs and starting my 'career' and hopefully getting back into this blog full time and posting about it all!

And now it's time to get back to it.

BuzzChildxx

1 Million Women

2009-08-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

It's been near impossible over the past couple of years to ignore or avoid all the talk about climate change and carbon emissions. With all the massive coverage, however, it's also been difficult for just regular people to know what they can do to help, and many of us are leaving this issue up to our politicians and scientists to sort because it seems just too difficult for us to do anything.

This is why the 1 Million Women campaign has stepped in; to cut through the confusing statistics and help the general population (so far only Australian women) to really make a difference in the fight against climate change. The aim is to enable 1 000 000 Australian women to each reduce their carbon emissions by 1 tonne over the year, thus reducing 1 million tonnes altogether. Here's what they have to say:

It's a campaign of daughters, mothers, sisters and grandmothers inspiring climate action.

Our goal is to inspire 1 million women of Australia to take practical action on climate change and cut 1 million tonnes of CO2 pollution (the main greenhouse gas causing global warming). That's 1 tonne for each of us involved.

We launched 1 Million Women 1 month ago and already over 4000 women have joined up.

Our first milestone on the way to 1 million is to get to 10,000 members as fast as we can.

We hope you will join us.

Just go to www.1millionwomen.com.au

You don't need to be an expert on climate change. We'll guide you every step of the way. On our website you will be taken to an activity centre that will show you exactly how to cut 1 tonne of CO2 pollution and you will be able to track your progress as you go along.

Great challenges are also great opportunities. They unite people. They inspire us to change our world for the better.

The site is user friendly and so are the tasks which you can pledge to reduce your emissions. I built up my 1000 tonnes of saved carbon by pledging to do small, easy things like switching off electrical appliances at the wall, not taking plastic bags in shops and recycling as much as possible. Every so often I'll go back to the site and update how I've been going with my tasks.

This campaign is putting the power to change the world into our hands, and if you're into challenging yourself and seeing results it's really kind of fun too. So, if you're an Aussie woman check it out, and if not still have a look, because there's nothing to stop you from reducing your own emissions too.

BuzzChildxx

How To: Grow Your Own Little 'bedroom garden'

2009-08-09T05:19:00.000-07:00

Materials:

Teacup (or other such small holding apparatus)
Marbles (or, novel idea, you could plant your bulbs in soil!)
Small bulbs (I used Grape Hyacinth bulbs)
Water
Slightly greenish thumb

Method:

Firstly, I should say, this was pretty much my mother's idea; she was inspired by a magazine cover she saw where there were many bulbs planted in all types of kitchenware. I happened to have this spare little teacup lying around (I'd bought it for a Mad Hatter's Tea Party Housewarming which, although sounding like tremendous fun, sadly never eventuated).

1. Put marbles in cup/container.
2. Place bulbs on top.
3. Fill with water until it's just touching the bulb bottoms.
4. Wait for roots and sprouts!

There are a few little extra tips for success. Firstly, wait for winter until planting your bulbs; you'll get shoots through the winter and then hopefully flowers all spring. Also, if any of your bulbs aren't taking root, put them in a separate container on some damp cotton wool or tissue for a couple of days and you'll soon see some forming. Thirdly, plant your bulbs quite low down in the container. Mine are sitting right up the top and the shoots have grown in all crazy directions, which would probably be guided by the teacup if they were down further.

After the planting all you have to do really is water and wait and tadaa! Your very own little bedroom garden!
Of course, it would be much more of a garden with a few more plants. For next year I'm thinking teapots, egg cups, candles holders...who knows what!

Plant up and enjoy!

BuzzChildxx

sweet saturdays

2009-08-07T23:53:00.000-07:00

I've long thought that if you aren't going to do what your supposed to be doing, you may as well do something fun instead, bonus if you're going to make other people happy. So today, when I lost all appetite for my uni study, I decided to make yo-yo biscuits.

You can never have just one colour filling.

mm delicious! This one was bound straight for my tummy!

While baking, I watched Across the Universe, a film which definitely rates in my favourites. How could I not be a fan of a Beatles musical with scenes looking like this?

This is probably the sixth or seventh time I've watched it in just over a year, and I am nowhere near sick of it yet! If you haven't already, I highly recommend you give it a watch.

I hope everyone is having a similarly lovely weekend!

BuzzChildxx

watch listen love

2009-08-04T02:59:00.000-07:00

The Roaring Twenties

2009-08-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

Today I turn twenty and officially enter the third decade of my life.

Here are ten things I plan to do in the next ten years of my life:

Live in Paris

Become a published writer

By a new, fantastic camera

Meet these people: Nick Earls, Marieke Hardy, Hamish Blake

Write for a (good) magazine

Take yoga class

Become fluent in another language

Become organised at household chores; cleaning, tidying, washing

Have a library in my own house

Have adventures

There is the delicious chocolate truffle meringue cake!!!

It really is quite amazing.

I actually have a large list of things to do today before I go to uni in the afternoon, so I'd better snap to it. It is a lovely warm day outside with a cloudless blue sky, so I think I might do my work outside.

Have a great Monday!

BuzzChildxx

sugar and spice and all things nice

2009-08-01T23:10:00.001-07:00

It has been said that all people consider their mother to be the best cook in the world. In a world of increasingly tempting packaged and pre-prepared foods, my mother bought me up on a diet of homemade baking and cooking, and for this I am immensely grateful. As I've grown older I've learned to love making and sharing food myself, particularly sweets and cakes, and have started voraciously hording cookbooks and recipes to fuel my future planned cooking extravaganzas.

Swedish photographer Therese Aldgård and prop stylist Lisa Edsälv created these amazing 'designer cupcakes' which look far too good to possibly eat, and inspire me to try my hand at more structured decoration. Check out the bright red of the Louboutin cake!

Pictures from Hint Blog

Today my mother and I have made vanilla icecream and meringue chocolate truffle cake for my family birthday dinner. Hopefully they shall be delicious!

BuzzChildxx

Shake it like a Poladroid Picture

2009-07-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Today I discovered Poladroid Project, a free downloadable program designed to turn digital photos into "polaroid-like" images with minimum fuss. Once you have the program, which for me downloaded in a matter of minutes, all you have to do is drag and drop your photos onto the camera that appears on the screen. It then spits out your polaroid version which will take time to slowy develop; white boarder, "random and realistic Polaroid-like colors " and all. You can even shake the picture on your screen and you can only do ten photos per session; the same number as a polaroid camera's cartridge.

Here are a few I prepared earlier, I'm very impressed with the results.

My friend Aleisha and I on our cruise in January.

Mickey Mouse burger at Tokyo Disneyland. My favourite!

A goat kid at a Japanese farm, he was really tiny and silky and absolutely cute.

My nineteenth birthday afternoon tea.

Me and my favourite purple tights last week.

I've always wanted a real polaroid camera, but I think this will do just fine in the meantime!

BuzzChildxx

Colour Me Beautiful

2009-07-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

After the previous post on the Holi festival of colourful goodness, the lovely Petite Esthète left a comment telling me to watch the film clip of Regina Spektor's Fidelity.

Holi inspired? I'd like to think so.

Apart from fueling my desire to coat everyone I see in multicoloured powders, I loved how obviously restrictive the rest of the film clip was in its black and white styling. It made me wonder how creative I could be if my own wardrobe/world had similar colour restrictions; if I would be pushed to the limits of sartorial creativity ala The Uniform Project, or if I would end up wearing the same outfits day in day out.

When I used to work in retail and wear the same baggy, dirty uniform every shift I dreamt of the day when I would have a job that I could wear my own clothes to. I envisioned how lovely it would be and how I would be inspired to come up with new outfits and remixes all the time. Now that I have that kind of job, however, I find I do tend to wear many of the same tried and true outfits time and again. I think it's time to shake it up a bit in the wardrobe department, and perhaps creating some boundaries is the best way to really challenge myself. I'm not sure how yet, but watch this space!

Anyway, here's what I wore today, my favourite cold winter's day outfit. I tend to somehow always make silly faces in my photos without meaning to, it looks here as though I'm thinking really hard! If you want to see more, I also post on Chictopia, you can be guaranteed to see more of my funny faces :)
Now I am off to the gym; I've been eating lots of dark chocolate, chocolate chip cookies these past few days, and big helpings of creamy pasta carbonara too, and my body is begging for some exercise!

Farewell!
BuzzChildxx

Ps. Let me know if you have any specific clothing challenges you would like to see happen and I'll endeavour to give them a go!

Holi

2009-07-05T01:20:00.000-07:00

Quite awhile ago I watched a documentary on the Holi, a Hindu festival also know as the Festival of Colours, and ever since I have desperately wanted to take part in a celebration.

The festival celebrates love and spirituality. During one part, participants throw coloured powders and water at each other, and become coated in the bright, bold colours.For more images, check out this flickr slideshow.

Though I may not get to a Holi celebration any time soon, this spring and summer I think I shall give my wardrobe a Holi theme, with lots of bright, rich colours.

BuzzChildxx

Time for Adventure

2009-07-03T00:22:00.000-07:00

This winter holiday, I'm planning many adventures.

So far I've slowly spooned through a gorgeous Italian hot chocolate at a new found cafe

Eaten the best nachos that I think I've ever had out

Walked to the circus that has set up temporary home in the city's main park; we didn't see the show, but we did see the animals!

Tiny Shetland Ponies

A friendly camel

and big, BIG cows!I wonder, what do cows do in a circus show??

Pretty apricot winter roses

A collection of windmills

and a new summery dress (we had gorgeous weather for a couple of days, it was divinely warm! Pity about the messy photo though)

One week down and two long, lovely weeks to go...I wonder what they have in store.

I hope everyone else is having fun little (or big!) adventures too :)

BuzzChildxx

Toe Toe Toe

2009-06-30T01:58:00.000-07:00

Last night, just before I was going to go to bed, I had an unfortunate accident involving my rolling wardrobe door, momentum and inertia, very bad timing and my big toe. Let's just say, I have no idea how I left my toe in front of the oncoming door, especially as I was pushing it closed myself, but the two came into contact quite hard. There was yelping and bruising and even bleeding and band-aiding and icing and all sorts of fuss and now the poor thing is all wrapped up.

This incident of toe squishage has prompted thought on a very many abstract issues over the past twenty-four hours, which I've decided to share, as I think I'm boring those around me by continuously quote odd toe-injury-spurred facts.

I've often wondered if the little toe is very slowly shrinking away and the human body is de-evolving it as it becomes apparent that it is less than necessary. I worry that one day people will be born without the undeniably cutest pair of the toes and wonder if any scientists or activists will soon form 'save the pinky toes' groups. I think they should.

On this note, if we're slowly evolving without our little toes, is it then possible that at one point humans had more than ten toes, which have since been phased out of the human genome?

As a little girl (and a big girl) I dreamed of being a beautiful ballerina with long graceful limbs and floaty, filmy tutus. That is, until I saw what happened to their toes! Still, despite horribly painful looking feet, I can't help but feel envious of delightful ballerinas with their neat buns and laced up shoes.

Toes are rather odd when you look at them for long enough. Rather odd indeed. But all legged animals have them.

Apparently, I was once told, it is impossible to walk without the big toe, because of its use in balance. Today I have been testing this theory, however, and finding that I can walk quite well without not only one big toe on the ground, but with all toes lifted off the floor and only using my feet. So. I actually think this theory is quite wrong. Although walking in heels without big toes may be quite challenging.

And finally...

Lying in bed, trying not to let my toe come in contact with any blankets but at the same time not get frozen off in the winter chill, I found myself considering last night that I should be grateful that rare, silly accidents involving toes and doors may account some of the most physically painful moments of my life. When there are other young people in the world, people my own age, who statistics state stand a high chance of being shot at, suffering malnutrition, standing on a landmine or living their whole lives in untreatable chronic pain, I think perhaps I shouldn't be too dramatic about a sore toe. Perhaps it was just a reminder to thank my lucky stars that I was born in a beautiful country, with a democratic government, parents who can care for me and friends who are always willing to help, with the option of wearing open-toed footwear instead of closed in and ready access to first aid and health care.

All Images found from Getty.

BuzzChildxx

If We Took a Holiday, Took Some Time to Celebrate

2009-06-28T22:51:00.001-07:00

There is nothing quite as glorious as long, open holiday days on which there is nothing planned but easiness and bliss. I'm just beginning my first of three weeks winter holidays after the end of the first semester of uni, and I'm slowly building up a list of delicious, fun and simple things to do to keep me occupied.

Reading

Before each holidays I visit the library, borrowing stacks of books to read. Of late, it seems that many of these books go back unread and my borrowing appetite is unfortunately more than the time I have spare. This holidays, I've gone back to pick a few that I have already once returned and a few which have been recommended, and I endeavor to read them all before the three weeks is out.

Cleaning

My bedroom always seems to turn into quite the little rubbish dump by the end of a semester; with clothes, scrunched up old readings and books tossed over all the surfaces, and so holidays always mark a time for severe tidying, dusting and vacuuming. Luckily for me, I've a good season and a half of Gilmore Girls on dvd to watch during the cleaning bonanza that I've got planned. I'm steeling myself to sort through the huge amount of stuff (clothing, shoes, books, magazines) that I have stashed away in my bedroom to make it easier to move myself and my possessions in November at the end of uni.

Exploring

I've been building up a long list of places which I want to visit for quite awhile now, and I am determined that this holidays I shall make the effort. From a little coffee shop whose television advertisements promise a most delightful looking hot chocolate to a small art gallery located somewhere downtown, I will be sure to post the results of my adventures.

Visiting

I have many friends who live away from me during the semester who it is always a lovely treat to see on the holidays. Also, given the rarity of time off during uni, it's just nice to see all of my friends and relax and unwind.

Baking

My mother recently bought me this lovely little cookbook full of miniature goodies which I can't wait to try out. First up; chocolate and caramel cheesecake!

Also, for any left wondering, I did survive my night out alone last Thursday and really didn't have to wait much more than an hour until my friend arrived. I took some very (poor) photography of the band and of us having a fine old time on the comfy couch with our pink lemonade.
I'm planning to post a lot more over these holidays as I've become quite slack of late, so look forward to winter adventures!

BuzzChildxx

How To: Go to a Gig All Alone

2009-06-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

So you've found a new favourite band who've got you jigging in your car-seat while you drive along.

You find out that they're going on a national tour, and opening in your town.

Tonight.

You frantically try to get your friends together to go and see them, but alas, nobody else can come.

What do you do?

You have two options:

A) You miss out, watch the band as they rise to world stardom and reminisce with your grandkids about how you almost went to see them...

OR

B) You go alone.

Now, you realise that Option A paints a rather lame picture, because obviously it is the more lame choice. So you gather up your courage and hotfoot it along with only yourself for company to the show, ready to have the time of your life.

This is the situation I have inexplicably found myself in today. The band Yves Klein Blue have had me foot tapping along to their tunes on the radio for a few months now, but it was only this week that I connected the dots and realised that all the songs I had been enjoying were coming from the one band and that their debut album was going to be released this week. Then I did a bit of research and found out that they were starting a national tour soon. In fact, they were starting a national tour today. In my city.

I was quick to excitedly message my friends, but alas they were all either finishing off the semester's assignments or out of town! What was I to do?!

I weighed up the options, and option A (staying at home, wistfully missing out) looked pretty unfriendly. Then, one lovely friend messaged back and said that she'd be there as soon as she finished work; she'd be an hour late, but still, company!

So, in about two hours, I'm going to head out, praying that I can still score entry, and thrash about on my own to their "danceable indie jive" until my comrade can come and join me.

Now, I'm not the most extroverted kid on the block, so it's going to take a bit of courage for me to sit there for an hour alone, so I've formulated a list of tips to hopefully help me and others who find themselves in a similar position to stay cool, calm and collected and assure myself that this really is the better of the two options.

1. Wear your favourite clothes: If you're already feeling squirmy and assuming that all eyes are on you because of your solitary circumstance, you had at least better feel like you look amazing and the easiest way to do this is to don what you think is your most smoking, striking, fabulous outfit.

2. Wear something you're comfortable in: That said, don't go wearing a mini skirt that you're going to be constantly pulling down, a top you'll want to pull up all night or a corset that's so tight that you can't breathe. You want to concentrate on having an awesome night, not find yourself in the hospital because you fell on your face wearing ridiculous heels.

3. Have fun: Enough said. Make some new friends maybe, try to meet the band, definitely take your camera to capture the moments so that you can still reminisce with your grandkids in fifty years time.

I'm going to go now and find what I'm going to wear. If the band is anywhere near as fun as they look in this picture, it's going to be a great evening!

Photo from The Range Radio

Wish me luck!

BuzzChildxx

The Day that Oliver Came to Play

2009-06-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, to escape the misty rain and fog, a little purple and brown butterfly called Oliver floated into my bedroom and landed on my bed.

I had to take him back outside as houses are no place for butterflies; with no fresh flowers or streams of water. I don't think he wanted to go back out; he was quite difficult to catch and it took me nearly an hour to find him at one stage, but he did pose for a few photos.

Having Oliver come to visit reminded me of my fascination with butterflies and bugs when I was a child. I was crazily into all sorts of six-legged creatures and dreamt of becoming an entomologist, or scientist who studies insects. Now I couldn't be more afraid and horrified by creepy crawlies, but at the time I would run about all over my backyard with a little net and bug catcher, playing with my little 'friends'.

I even had a pet butterfly for about a week. I found him sitting on our driveway one day when he was just newly hatched from his cocoon. He was absolutely perfect and new, but only had four legs. Butterflies need all six legs to balance properly while flying, so my butterfly could only walk around instead. I knew he would soon be eaten by ants, so I 'rescued' him and made a little butterfly house on my drawers. He was a Tailed Emperor and was the biggest butterfly I'd ever seen.

Tailed Emperor Butterfly. Picture from here.

I fed him with fresh flowers from the garden and a little container of water and was glad to see him eating and drinking. Then, after a couple of days when I was holding him in my hands, he took off and flew right across the room and back into his house. I was so delighted because I thought that this meant I had nursed my little butterfly so well that he had overcome his disability and was now fit for life in the wild. I planned to release him the next day, but sadly he died over the night.

At the time I think I was quite sad, but now that I think back on it, a week is a long time for a butterfly to live, and if I hadn't rescued him from the ground when I found him he would have been eaten quickly by birds or ants. I didn't have many pets as a child, just birds and fish, and I desperately wanted one that I could hold and play with, so I have very fond memories of the week that I spent with my little butterfly.

Today the sun is peeping back out from behind the clouds, so I hope Oliver is happy back outside frolicking amongst some flowers.

BuzzChildxx

Favourite Sites for June

2009-06-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

In winter, when it's cold, overcast and windy, all I want to do is sit somewhere warm with some hot chocolate or tea and spend hours looking at pretty pictures and making collages and scrapbooks, or reading books which will take me away to somewhere warmer. This June, I've been combining both by scrolling through some of my favourite sites and marvelling at their lovely images and sweet stories.

Artist Audrey Kawasaki's collection of work contains some of my favourite pieces of art. Her paintings on woodblocks are intricate, ethereal and enticing and her website is beautifully done to match.

From one inspirational site to another, Australian designer Alannah Hill's website really is the sweetest and my dream wardrobe would house many of her pieces. Her designs are always intricate and very feminine with lace, bows, buttons and headpieces. At the moment her site features this year's gorgeous winter collection and is filling me with excitement because in the next couple of weeks I plan to take a trip to Brisbane and wander into her boutique to quietly stand in awe of her beautiful clothing.

Princess Skye from The Princess Portal, has recently started her new site, The Lost Princess, and it's quite charming indeed. Full of lovely short stories and pretty pictures, it's too difficult to sum up this site in words; I suggest you take a look yourself.
BuzzChildxx

Ps. For those who were wondering, the immune booster tea worked wonders, although as I got my sense of smell back, the taste also did become that little bit stronger! An affordable price to pay for good health though, I think. I give it five stars :)

Grant Me Immunity

2009-06-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit under the weather for the past few days, not with anything serious, I've just caught the good old winter cold that's going around. I've been cheering myself up, however, with some Immune Booster tea, which I brought on Thursday.

A lovely little tea shop; Coffee, Tea or Me, opened up in my city about six months ago, and I've had to be very careful to limit my visits, otherwise I might go a little tea crazy! So as much as getting sick wasn't on my to-do list, any excuse to buy new tea is always welcome!

immune booster - a blend of organic herbs that are commonly used to boost the immune system. It contains Echinacea that facilitates healing and stimulates the immune system and rosehips that are high in vitamin C also contains rosehip, yarrow, cinnamon, calendula, orange peel, alfalfa

It's got a lovely taste and I've been having fun seeing if I can taste all the ingredients. My mum bought me the little tea set for one for Christmas, but I hadn't used it until this week because normally I get lazy and just sit the leaves in a strainer over the cup!

BuzzChildxx

Ps. If you're ever feeling ill, or in need of a boost, Coffee, Tea or Me deliver worldwide.

Jack Frost Has Come to Play

2009-06-10T16:06:00.000-07:00

It is becoming quite cold very quickly this winter. While it does get fairly chilly where I live usually, it is rare that so early on in June can you see your breath or discover your car covered in frosty ice in the morning.

Early this morning, however, I discovered that my car, Roger, was covered in a thin layer of white crystals. I quickly went outside to take some photos of the first frost of the year before hurrying back, immensely grateful that my parent's paid for good heating in our house.

I am reminded of the first time I experienced snow in Japan at the beginning of 2005. I was amazed the first morning I woke up there to open the shutters on my windows and look down to find the prettiest frost on the the roof below.

I still remember having the best fun playing in the snow with my little tour group of Australian teenagers as our Japanese guides looked on as though we were crazy. We would sink up to our waists in pure white snow, and throw it at each other's faces. We were taken to see a frozen waterfall in the mountainous regions near Nikko.
My host parents had the most amazing bath which was filled with beautiful hot water and then dyed a different colour each night! My host parents would encourage me to stay in for at least an hour after dinner, as is the Japanese custom, and I didn't take long to make the adjustement. I have often longed to return to visit that bath on long cold nights here in Toowoomba, and wonder what colour my old host mother was dyeing the water each day. It really was lovely at the end of each long day travelling. What are you winter memories?

BuzzChildxx

Would You Run Away With Me?

2009-06-09T02:53:00.000-07:00

I would very much like to run away and live here and never, ever come out.

image from the beautiful flickr of zug55 here.

Rokokoschloss was built in the early 1700's in Dornburg.

Want to come along?

BuzzChildxx

Evil Under the Sun

2009-06-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make.

Until today I had never seen or read any Agatha Christie, ever.

This may not register on anybody else's interest radar, but my grandmother was shocked, and, after witnessing the 1981 version of "Evil Under the Sun", one of the Poirot series, today, I was a little too.

Yes, it was formulaic, and no, I'm not sure I could sit every week and watch an epic two and a half hour film with the same main, undeveloping character, as my grandmother seems to do, but gosh darn I had fun trying to figure out who'd killed the skanky, evil lady and how, and laughing at the insane costumes which didn't seem to quite belong to any one era.

Unfortunately, I can't find any pictures which really give a good enough picture, but this is the cover of the DVD. On the right is the promiscuous wife who justifiably also doubles as the obligatory corpse. This outfit is typical of the character, a body suit with multi-coloured oval dots and a matching turban with smaller dots. Then to her left was the man who wanted to write her biography and was never seen not in a sailor suit of some description. Of course in the middle is old Poirot, who was quite amusing in himself. Then the corpse's arch-nemisis and, coincidentally, the owner of the hotel that everyone happened to have 'independantly' decided to holiday at and finally the young man-hunk with whom skanky deadlady was having a rather obvious affair with, in front of both their spouses.

Oh yes, the possibilities of different motives and alibies where endless and easily kept me from my rather urgent need to write my essay for over three hours. Also, corpsey and her enemy kept trying to out-do each other with their evening outfits, we couldn't decide which era it all seemed to suit, but whenever it was, it was obviously a time when large sequins were very, very in. The ladies all donned very, very large hats and the cutest little one piece bathing costumes while the men were always dappering it out in their smartly cut suits. It was the kind of film which makes me dream of becoming a costume designer.

In the end, I don't think I'm going to make it a regular hobby, but I'm fairly sure that I'll return to some Agatha Christie goodness again.

BuzzChildxx

Highlights and Lowlights

2009-06-07T01:08:00.000-07:00

The two highlights of my Saturday couldn't have been much different.

Notes on a Scandal is one of the most fantastic movies I've seen in a long time; I sat down to drink some tea when my parents put it on yesterday afternoon and before I knew it, an hour and a half had passed and the film was drawing to a close.

Here's the trailer, I definitely recommend it.

On a completely different note, my mother and I have been much excited to find the newest series of Australia's Next Top Model is being uploaded to youtube. My mother is the most unlikely fan and we get far too involved in the show's politics. Because in Australia the girls are allowed to be as young as sixteen, there have been some rather nasty cat fights and a lot of tears and tantrums and it can be hard to keep up with who's on who's side from week to week.

We picked our favourites in the first week have been barracking one-sidedly ever since.

My favourite: Claire - the blonde sitting on the left - has the most exceptional compsure and maturity for a sixteen year old. Mum's: Maddie -sitting groundlevel in the middle with the crazy beautiful blonde hair - unfortunately got eliminated a couple of weeks back.

Anyway, all this viewing has left my essay feeling a little rejected, and as there's still a good few thousand words to write, tomorrow I'll be taking my extra day off and getting down to business.

I hope you find something lovely to start the week with,

BuzzChildxx

close your eyes, make a wish that this could last forever

2009-06-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

This morning I awoke to the sounds of an early morning thunderstorm and the dark, yellow tinged light that comes when the sun rises behind heavy clouds. This weekend lasts for three days as we celebrate the Queen's Birthday in Australia and it so far has been a very relaxing one.

I only had one hour of work this Saturday; school is nearly finished for a lot of my students and so they'll take a break for the holidays, and I've spent the rest of my time off gradually writing a reflective essay for uni, watching films with my parents, cooking delicious creamy carbonara and reading Oscar Wilde. I'm slowly working my way through The Picture of Dorian Gray, however this poem, The Harlot's House, is what first attracted me to his works and is definitely one of my favourites to come back to.

We caught the tread of dancing feet,
We loitered down the moonlit street,
And stopped beneath the harlot's house.

Inside, above the din and fray,
We heard the loud musicians play
The 'Treues Liebes Herz' of Strauss.

Like strange mechanical grotesques,
Making fantastic arabesques,
The shadows raced across the blind.

We watched the ghostly dancers spin
To sound of horn and violin,
Like black leaves wheeling in the wind.

Like wire-pulled automatons,
Slim silhouetted skeletons
Went sidling through the slow quadrille,

Then took each other by the hand,
And danced a stately saraband;
Their laughter echoed thin and shrill.

Sometimes a clockwork puppet pressed
A phantom lover to her breast,
Sometimes they seemed to try to sing.

Sometimes a horrible marionette
Came out, and smoked its cigarette
Upon the steps like a live thing.

Then, turning to my love, I said,
'The dead are dancing with the dead,
The dust is whirling with the dust.'

But she--she heard the violin,
And left my side, and entered in:
Love passed into the house of lust.

Then suddenly the tune went false,
The dancers wearied of the waltz,
The shadows ceased to wheel and whirl.

And down the long and silent street,
The dawn, with silver-sandalled feet,
Crept like a frightened girl.

Today I shall go to a Tupperware/morning tea party, be visited by a friend for a hair dyeing session and continue writing my essay.

Relaxing weekends are my favourite.

BuzzChildxx

trentième heureux

2009-06-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

I think thirty posts is a fair milestone, no? I hope you do too, because this post just happens to be number thirty and I a little bit proud.

Today I shook hands with a stranger, looked them in the eye and convinced them to buy me hot chocolate without even asking. I felt bad for a crying friend and I went shopping with my mother. I sprayed ten tester cards with one perfume to put in with my clothing and make me smell pretty for free. I explained about leftover liquid pity obsession and I daydreamed. I searched in vain for the perfect red knitted beret and I made a new friend. I wished I had yoghurt and time to visit a good library.

I did a lot more, but these seemed to stand out.

I really enjoy this picture.
BuzzChildxx

You are...well...kinda lame.

2009-05-20T05:18:00.001-07:00

So I was procrastinating today.

So was @SiDawson (who can be found being thought-provoking all over twitter as well as his blog.)

While procrastinating, Simon just happened to be reading procrastination blogs. And posting up the links on twitter. And they just happened to look pretty good from where I was sitting in procrastinator's corner and so I decided on joining him in this foolish viscous cycle of time wasting.

Which is how I came across this:

"When you procrastinate you lower your self esteem and send signals back to yourself that you are a ,well, a kinda lame and indecisive person."

I now feel the need to credit that one, little, slightly too realistic and painful sentence for the delightful amount of organisation and work that I've managed to do in one night.

To think all I needed was to be called 'kinda lame' by an faceless writer.

In summary, organisation, and being slightly near to being on top of your work, feels really good.

BuzzChildxx

Ps. The whole blog can be read here.

Kiss/Jump in/the Rain

2009-05-19T04:35:00.001-07:00

Today was the wettest day where I live in nine years. Which is good, because we've been in a drought for probably even longer than that. Apart from that fact though, I had a really hard time recognising today that the rain was not an evil force coming to destroy precious moments of my life.

So I've compiled a list of things that would probably make me appreciate rain a more, which will make me hope for rain in the future.

Puddle-jumping

I cannot actually remembering ever jumping in a puddle for fun. Ever. Even as a kid, when I wasn't worried about wrecking my shoes and did not possess the forethought to not soak the hems of the pants that I'd have to wear all day, I didn't jump in puddles. I'm pretty sure if I had I would've gotten into trouble and I was pretty much a stickler for the rules as a wee one. This makes me rather sad and I feel like I've missed out on a pretty basic kid right of passage.

Next time it rains I will be jumping in a puddle; suede shoes, soggy pants, rebellion and all.

2. Kiss the Rain

Remember the Billie Myers song? Ever actually heard the Billie Myers song? I'm not sure if you would have, because I got it from my aunt, who had it on a Top 50 Summer '98 of Britain CD which she bought, appropriately, in England. I loved that song when I was younger, as in, eight years old. It seemed to hold so much passion and longing. He really seemed to really miss this girl. I mean, take a look at those lyrics.

Hello...
Can you hear me?
Am I getting through to you?

Hello...
Is it late there?
Is there laughter on the line?
Are you sure you're there alone?
'Cause I'm trying to explain
Something's wrong
You just don't sound the same

Why don't you
Why don't you
Go outside
Go outside

Kiss the rain
Whenever you need me
Kiss the rain
Whenever I'm gone too long
If your lips feel lonely and thirsty
Kiss the rain
And wait for the dawn
Keep in mind
We're under the same sky
And the night's
As empty for me as for you
If you feel
You can't wait till morning
Kiss the rain
Kiss the rain
Kiss the rain

Hello...
Do you miss me?
I hear you say you do
But not the way I'm missing you

What's new?
How's the weather?
Is it stormy where you are?
You sound so close but it feels like you're so far
Oh, would it mean anything
If you knew
What I'm left imagining
In my mind, my mind?
Would you go
Would you go
Kiss the rain

As you fall
Over me
Think of me
Think of me
Think of me
Only me
Kiss the rain
Whenever you need me
Kiss the rain
Whenever I'm gone too long
If your lips
Feel hungry and tempted
Kiss the rain
And wait for the dawn
Keep in mind
We're under the same sky
And the night's
As empty for me as for you
If you feel you can't wait till morning
Kiss the rain
Kiss the rain
Kiss the rain
Kiss the rain

(Kiss the rain)
(Kiss the rain)
(Kiss the rain)

Hello...
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Ok. So their slightly stalkerish. Whatever. I'm into that.

But you know what I'm not into? What absolutely changed my love of the song forever? The fact that Billie Myers is A GIRL. This destroyed me for awhile when I rediscovered the song, at about age 14, complete with album cover picturing FEMALE Billie. A part of my world shifted, and I can still recall the moment when I realised that the picture I had of one of my favourite songs, was in fact, completely fucked. It was a freaking woman singing that stalkerish, needy crap.

Sometimes, I still listen to the song, and pretend that Billie is a man.

Today they played Kiss the Rain at my gym, albeit an upbeat techno version in which the singer sounded very much, undeniably female. And I remembered my childhood dreams of how when I was an adult (now) someone would miss me, call me, and kiss the rain.

Billie Myers Kiss The Rain

One day, when I've met someone worthwhile of sharing lame childhood pre-fantasies with, I'm going to wait till it rains, call them, advise them that we are in fact standing under the same downpour, go outside and make out with the elements.

3. Kiss in the Rain

Not to be confused with Rain Things no. 2, this step is much less weird, as I'll get to actually get onto an actual other person, no. 3 is one of the biggest romantic gestures which I have massive reserves about.

I dislike water. I don't like being cold and I have a ridiculous circulation system which does a crap job of heating my body. So I don't deal well with it either. Add water to coldness and you get an idea of my hell; being outside in the rain.

Also, I don't know if people have noticed this over the years or not, but rain makes people ugly. Mostly. Most people don't look as good when wet, miserable, shivering and streaky. Though some can pull it off*. Am I going to believe that what could be the single most romantic gesture ever to make it's way into my life is going to do so when I'm looking really foul? I doubt it.

This aside, if a guy is willing to go for a snog session in the pouring rain (and yes, Disney says that for a proper kiss in the rain the rain must be falling, heavily) then he's probably not just in it for the looks.

Resolution no. 3: One day, I will be a part of a bonafide kiss in the rain. And it'll be awesome.

Other things to look forward to doing in the rain: working from home and not having to go out in it, buying a collection of colourful umbrellas to go with my pink panda one, collecting rain water from the sky and drinking it immediately, sleeping in to the sound of rain on a day off, baking rain food,

So yeah. Rain. It's got possibilities I guess. Which is good, as they're predicting it here until next week.

BuzzChildxx

Scent Me

2009-05-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

Today I picked a few flowers from our garden to put around the place and make it all a bit more lively. When we first moved here, my mother planted a whole garden bed in purple and white flowering plants, though as you can see, a few rogue pink ones pop up from time to time.

The large white and pink flowers in the middle are Gardenias, and at the moment they are filling my room with their lovely, sweet, heavy scent. As I sit studying I keep smelling them and it's made me think that I don't appreciate and use my sense of smell nearly enough. This week, I'm going to smell everything I can and really give my nose a workout.

Scent can be a really powerful and defining factor about many things in life. Just think about it, if a food doesn't smell good, we're likely to not go there. The same is true for people, places, objects, and just about anything really. A nasty odor makes for a lonely life.

Although, there's probably good reason to not go too psycho about scent:

"I want my erotic nose brain removed. My emegulata. The organ deep inside the nasal cavity, which processes scent, which then connects to memory; I'd like it extracted... Well let me see if I can explain this. I had a boyfriend, OK? And he smelled really, really good. Like soap and fresh laundry and vanilla. And every time I smell any of those smells, I'm reminded of my boyfriend and how happy we were before he dumped me for no good reason and I get very sad and then I get angry and before I know it I am in the throws of an all out emotional breakdown and so I was just thinking, Dr. Klein, if I could short circuit my nose somehow, I might actually have a chance of living a semi-normal life someday."

At least, if nothing else, my nose is set to have a very interesting week.

BuzzChildxx

To My Dear Friend for Whom I am About to Sacrifice My Diginity and Extremities

2009-05-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

To My Dear Friend for Whom I am About to Sacrifice My Dignity and Extremities,

First, let me say, I am very much looking forward to attending your soiree this evening and I have already purchased both costume and condiments to make the event pleasurable for you.

I do, however, have some requests which, I am quite sure, you would have by yourself fulfilled, though I thought I would just remind you. I ask you, please display appropriate gratitude for the costume which I shall don for your party. It is suitably themed to match your celebration and as such is a) quite brief and b) lacking in warmth.

As you know, your party both involves staying outdoors all night and many guests with whom I am not acquainted. However, I am most willing to risk both hypothermia and loss of self respect so as to make your special night live up to your expectations. But please, say thanks. I probably won't be the same girl after tonight for a very, very long time. I may lose my fingers, toes and ears. And I might not be able to look myself in the eye for quite awhile.

Although, as I say, I'm sure you'll recognise all of this and shall show this in an outpouring of thanks when I arrive, anyway.

Many thanks for in response to your expected gratitude,

BuzzChildxx

Tonight I'm going to my friend's 'coming out' party. Although he's been out and proud and away from the closet for some time now, it's still a big deal for him and we're all going in costume to celebrate. You probably got the costume part from the letter. I'm going as Columbia from The Rocky Horror Picture Show which I hope you've seen, who looks like this

in the film

and this

in one of the stage shows.

My costume won't be quite as sparkly unfortunately, but I'm a little bit excited nonetheless. I may in fact upload photos of the night later on.

Anyway, I wasn't actually so concerned about my costume until I demonstrated it for my mother this morning (who absolutely loves the movie) who was a little bit shocked at the brevity of....well...everything. You should know that it takes a bit to shock my mum. And then she mentioned the weather.

So now I'm a little scared. Though I'm going to still wear the outfit because I absolutely hate people who show up to themed parties out of theme. That is just lazy. And ultimate lame.

So, wish me luck, first I'm going to a show at uni, with the costume hidden under a long jacket, so that will be interesting as well.

Have a lovely evening!

BuzzChildxx

Hiding In the Corners of My Mind

2009-05-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite questions and thoughts to ponder at the moment: what would the inside of your mind look like if it was a room?

Somewhere cosy?

Some images from a movie which explores this kind of thing, The Science of Sleep. Love love Michael Gondry.

(Notice that he's blue screening himself and his girlfriend onto the television above and the records all over the ground below. It's a genius movie.)
Catherine Campbell is an exquisite artist. This is the picture on my calendar for May; very appropriate.

The Virgin Suicides, by Jefferey Eugenides, is easily one of the most beautiful books I've read and Sofia Coppola, one of my favourite directors, succeeds in translating this beauty into film. The girl's bedrooms in the film are what I would like to hope a room of my mind might look like.

BuzzChildxx

Talk Like That

2009-05-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

The classroom is full of your peers, your friends, the people you get drunk with on weekends. The lecturer is asking questions of students; testing whether anybody actually did the required readings. You did the readings. In fact you did extra reading and you hired a documentary on the subject; you love this stuff. You know the teacher's going to ask you because you know that they know that you know the answers. You know it and you're shit scared. You consider slipping out to the bathroom but don't want to draw attention to yourself. Even before the lecturer calls your name, you can feel the bright red tide of embarrassment creeping up your neck, above your collar and into your face.

I hate answering questions in class. Hate it. I always have. Especially, and weirdly, when I'm sure that I know the answers. I'm not really shy and I don't even have too many issues talking in front of large crowds, but when it comes to stating my opinion on matters that are important to me, I encounter problems. Thankfully for me, and sadly for society, everywhere I look I seem to see other people having the same issue.

One friend told me that the trouble for her was that she didn't think she could articulate her thoughts in a way that would make her sound intelligent, whereas everybody else seemed to be able to speak just fine. Another lady explained that she would regularly speak out in class but then immediately regret it and constantly replay her words in her mind, picking apart the flaws in what she'd said and how she'd said it. My sister has developed a complex system of body language and seating position so as to lessen the chances of being called upon in class.

So why are we all so afraid to speak up? Most people seem to give three reasons. They believe they aren't intelligent enough to have a right to an opinion, they don't want to be judged or they don't want to offend others.

True, it's often best to keep your mouth shut if you're not up on the subject at hand, but if you're involved in a conversation of which the subject matter is known or important to you, engaging in discussion is the best way to develop, strengthen and share your ideas and opinions.

As for being judged; so much of what we say is created through our body language and tone of voice. A completely false statement can be made utterly believable if said with conviction. If you don't feel courageous enough to say what you think; fake it till you make it.

I have always had a large issue with tactfulness and the growing lack of it. I dread offending people and, much like my friend, will continually screen things I've said, hoping that my words aren't being misconstrued as insults. When it comes to conversation, if I know my opinion will clash with somebody else's, I'll keep my mouth shut in order to keep the peace. I forget that most people enjoy a hearty conversation and that we're all capable of defending our own views and shut myself down, keeping my input to myself.

To the short end of a long story, I wanted to show you this video. Watch it and share it around. And if you can work out what the bottom of his shirt says, then extra credit points for you.

I don't want to grow up in a generation that is so caught up in self-consciousness and the need to please that we lose the art of conversation and debate.

BuzzChildxx

Reality Kill Your Fun?

2009-05-06T02:59:00.000-07:00

If Reality were a person they would be the bitter, cynical, twisted one who sat at the back of the class reminding everyone that magic can't happen. Reality's a bitch.

Today Reality came and hit me with a with a thirty-four item long to-do list. I dislike Reality, generally.

But sometimes, occasionally, Reality can be a pretty sweet thing. You may, perhaps, realise that you're really, very good at your job and that people appreciate what you're doing. You also may come home to a quiet, empty house, find that someone's left you dinner pre-cooked in the fridge, pick fresh salad leaves from your garden, put on your new favourite album and dance like a member of the Bee Gee's. Perhaps Hamish Blake will happen to be on TV tonight, and you'll realise you've had a crush on him for the past five years, making him possibly your longest romantic relationship (because we all know a relationship can be one-sided). And possibly you'll find a half-full bottle of free, expensive wine in the fridge which noone has claimed for their own, clamouring for you to drink up.

Or, if you're me, you'll encounter all these joys at once. And you'll also buy an amazing new and beautiful film for a fantastically bargain price on your break from work and somehow you'll realise that in the end, Reality isn't such a bad place to be sometimes.

Maybe, if Reality were a person, they'd actually be the shy little kid who sits in the middle of the classroom, next to the window, who doesn't speak up much but wishes the others would notice them a little more, because they think they had something pretty unique for show and tell.

Yeah. Wine makes for soppy blog posts.
Enjoy

BuzzChildxx

Ps. I've completely lost my 34 item to-do list. I have no idea where it is, but taking it as a sign to stop work and enjoy the here and now. I like my Reality.

How To: Not Become the Person Nobody Wants to Party With (or be around in general)

2009-05-05T04:37:00.001-07:00

1. Overt displays of self-interest/self-adoration. Avoid these. They are the social plague. If you are having trouble with this remember: You are the most important person in your life. Nobody else's. They've all got themselves to worry about. So shut up.

2. Don't bore other people. Simple in essence yet seemingly difficult in practice. There are warning signs to watch for that will let you know when you're company are falling into a boredom coma. If you find yourself repeatedly asking your company if you are being boring then 99% of the time you are.

3. Wash. No one wants to be asphyxiated by your mere presence. It's not a pleasant way to die.

4. Remember people's names. Again, sounds simple but difficult to implement. Try repeating people's names a couple of times during conversation when you first meet them. I'm terrible at this and it's a wonder that I've not been outcast already.

5. Don't complain. Negativity repels the optimistic, happy people that most of us generally aim to be chummy with. It also attracts other no-hopers to you who want to leech of your bad vibes. Before you know it you've been sucked in to a clique of miserable mopers watching the grass grow greener on the optimists' side. These groups are very difficult to escape.

6. Be brave. Don't be afraid to show your true colours to your friends and dance in the supermarket. Or anywhere else. They'll feel empowered by your freedom and love you for it.

7. Don't get stuck in a rut. We often get to the point in our lives where everything is compartmentalised, even people. We'll have a 'coffee friend' or a 'drinking buddy' and never will we push the boundaries of that relationship. Every so often, suggest that you do something different; go feed ducks at a lake, take a drive to your favourite look out or visit all the stores in your town that sell candy trying out all the tester plates. Shake it up.

8. Be nice. The most over-cliched and the most important step of all. Offer to help with no need of a return favour. Genuinely listen to other people and respond with enthusiasm. When someone you know does/says/wears something fantastic don't just notice it; tell them. And try to suspend your judgement of others for at least five minutes when you first meet them; give people a chance to impress you.

I am by no means perfect at any of these points. In fact, I can be remarkably terrible at all of them. We all can be. But you can only score points by trying. We all want friends, right?

It's time to get serious

2009-05-02T19:25:00.001-07:00

Ok. So I'm going to acknowledge this right here and now; I'm a fairly lame blogger. This is the second blog I've started, the first one died a short and particularly boring death, and as can be seen from the post dates, I don't do much blogging here either.

I've reached a crossroads in the road of blog-life this week and I've been trying to decide whether or not to continue writing here or to give up and let Irresistible Tendencies die altogether.

And so, hopefully to the delight of my readership (*cough* one occasional reader *cough*), I've decided to give blogging one more go. There are, however, going to be substantial reasons behind it this time; focus, time and effort will be put into the blog and I'm going to have a go at publicizing myself a little more and getting a few more readers. I'm going to pick a more clear and engaging format than writing posts about the insignificant and meagerly humorous things I do and create an overriding theme to the posts.

To challenge myself into seeing just how well and how much I want to do this, I'm going to aim to post every day for the month of May.

So wish me luck and watch this space,

BuzzChild xx

The Hallway

2009-04-20T01:44:00.001-07:00

This is my kind of art.

The Hallway from The Hallway on Vimeo.

Inspire Me

2009-04-10T22:50:00.001-07:00

I'm on holidays from university at the moment, they give us just over 2 weeks for Easter, which is much better than a lot of other people get. I'm particularly glad about the break because it gives me time to catch up on a lot of the work I've fallen behind on and start work on some of the bigger projects I have to complete for this semester.

One particular project I'm working on this fortnight is a play I'm writing during the year, which will form the last, large assessment piece of my degree. At this stage I've done a lot of reading and researching, I've cemented my idea pretty well and talked to teachers and mentors from uni and I'm pretty much ready to start writing. Which is the sticking point.

Many writers talk about the ending of a play/book/movie being the most difficult part to write. I really hope that I'm breaking the trend here, because if ending is more difficult than beginning I don't think I'll ever get finished. So, after days of procrastination (which has resulted in a very tidy bedroom and the finding of some tasty new recipes) I've formulated a list of ten things to do that will get me inspired to write.

work by candlelight - there's something special about working with pad and pen cosied up next to a swarm of glowing candles that is indusive to writing.
listen to some upbeat music and do some exercise! There's nothing worse than trying to do any kind of work while your brain isn't switched on and there's an operation gap of about ten seconds between it and your hands!
get the right environment - make sure the work space is clean and tidy (unless you crave mess whilst you work) so there's room to move. Have the things you need handy; water bottle, pens, glasses + anything else that you might like to have around while you write.
put on some socks. Warm feet = better brain activity.
read some great writing, whether on the internet, in a novel, film or play script, have a look at some of the brilliance that has been created before you.
realise that it can be up to you that such literary brilliance continues in the future
for each character that you will be writing today, find a word that they would use all the time, a specific quirk of their use of language, and then find a place to put it in your writing today
Imagine what kind of day it is in the setting you're writing; take yourself far, far away into the day and picture the weather, the temperature, the news, the surrounds, the sounds and the sights. Begin writing before you lose the place.
take the advice: just write.

and if all else fails:

have a look at your study calendar and see just how soon your first draft is due and how little time you have before it's time to show people!

Hopefully from tomorrow morning I can use my list to help me get on the way with my project.
What do you lack inspiration for? and how do you get inspired to do it?

BuzzChildxx

How To: Fix a Wall and Grow Your Own Pet

2009-04-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well. Unintentionally I fell into a bit of a DIY day today. Normally this would be pretty sweet, but at the moment I don't really have too much time to take up with little projects, sometimes though there's just nothing for it but to jump on in for some crafty time.

Lately I have been busying myself with a lot of tidying and I came across some of the most curious little knick knacks that I'd completely forgotten I owned. I am now treasuring the wee little anime plush toy figure that I found on the floor of a Tokyo train station, which I was sure for the whole journey gave me luck. I had trouble convincing my traveling partners of this as they cringed at the dirty little thing, but I kept her for the rest of the trip and am now delighted to have been reunited.

Something else I came across in my forays into the world of cleanliness was a present gifted to me for my 18th birthday by a good friend and is without a doubt one of the strangest presents I've been given. As a child I lamented often the fact that we had no pets that I could play with, cuddle and teach tricks. We did have a couple of budgies and a constant stream of goldfish, but I craved the excitement, interaction and affection of a kitten or a puppy and begged and begged until I grew too old to keep hoping and instead turned my dreams to when I'd be able to move out and finally buy my own.

Knowing this, when I turned of legal age, my friend decided that it was finally time for me to have the pet I longed for. And so when I opened my package, amongst other things I found a little packet that said "Amazing! Grow Your Own Pet!" containing a wee, little orange cat that looked like it was made of clay. I took it home, giggled at my friends genius at present buying and put it on my chest of drawers where, for the past nearly two years, I've looked at it on and off but for some reason, probably laziness, never ventured to try actually growing my little kitty. Today however, spurred on by the memory of my youthful pet longing, I opened the packet and as per instructions, dunked the little thing in a glass of water. The box tells me that my cat shall grow "60% bigger" in 72 hours. I've been documenting the progress so far and I have to say, this is an exercise in delayed gratification. After two hours my cat really hasn't grown much at all, if any. See any changes?

My cat at the beginning of soaking.

After 1 hour.

Ok, so this is after 2 hours. Disappointing, no? Although the texture of my cat has changed a bit, from hard clay looking to a seemingly fairly mushing, I see minimal growth...sigh.

Do you notice the weird, filmy slime though? That's about all the change that's occurred so far. Although I have detected an odd smell, kind of like newly opened Barbie dolls (is it weird that that has a unique, identifiable smell?). Odd.

So anyway, I'm awaiting for signs of hugeness and hopefully when I wake up tomorrow morning the cat shall be bulging out of my cup, mewing for some milk and ready to play.

On a more somber, necessity kind of DIY project note, I also had to fix a wall in my house today. In carrying a drying rack of clothing from the front room of my house (best for drying clothes because of its warmth and disuse) I carved a rather mean looking scratch in the wall of my hallway. Our house is just over four years old and my parents are very, extremely protective of each inch of it. I understand this as they put a lot of money into building their dream home, complete with white walls and a just-too-narrow-for-the-average-clothes-rack sized hallway. They, especially my father, get quite finicky about marks and dents which pronounce in an ugly way that the house is actually lived in. Luckily, most scratches and dirty marks are easily wiped off the paint on the walls. However, as I found out today, if you actually take the paint off, mistakes aren't so easily erased.

If you knew my father as I do, you would know him to become a bit irrational when it comes to damages of the household variety; this comes with the territory of the aforementioned lifetime of savings poured into dream home scheme. And so, after hearing the dreadful scraping sound of plastic and metal on wood and looking to see the 10cm long line of damage, I panicked.

Immediately I recalled stories I'd heard on some radio station long, long ago of people painting over white walls that they'd accidently hurt with whiteout. So, I rushed to my room to search through my stationary. I had no liquid whiteout, but I found some of the roll on tape stuff and figuring that that would have to do, rushed back to the wall, armed with this mighty weapon.

I soon figured out that whiteout, especially of the tape variety, was just not going to cut it. And then, after persevering and covering as much of the scratch as possible, I found out that when you try to peel whiteout of the tape kind off painted walls, the paint comes too.

Now I really started to panic. But worry not, another brilliant radio anecdote from I believe the very same radio program about fixing broken walls came to mind! I remembered hearing many people ring up the station and swear by pasting whole sheets of white paper over holes in white walls, then painting over the paper with white paint that matched the wall, while the wall owners were never the wiser. I figured that the actual holes of missing paint were quite small, so I ripped of two tiny corners of paper and stuck them to the wall. I then grabbed some of my mothers white craft paint and hastily daubed it on top with some tissue sticking the paper down.

The result is a 10cm long dent in the paint with two larger and slightly darker dents at one end, the whole thing all slightly whiter than the surrounding wall. I took some pictures of my handiwork, the first is in negative to give a good view of the mark and the second is just natural light to show the success, or not, of my attempted fixing.

I'm really not convinced that nobody will notice. I'm now torn between flat out honesty, which would mean telling my father the minute he arrived homem or complete deceitm which would include going to my grave never revealing what had happened to the wall. Unforutnately, now that I've attempted to fix the scratch, I've begun down the path of lies and I am having trouble picturing coming out to my dad about first scratching, then maiming his wall with paint.

For now I'll remain hoping against hope it never gets noticed.

Oh my, time to make dinner!

BuzzChildxx

Inspiration of Creation

2009-03-12T15:59:00.001-07:00

Whenever I begin a new project/phase/idea/job I always spend time finding something that will 'inspire' me to work harder. Sometimes I indulge in this search with a bit too much fervency and spend hours procrastinating, even when the project I'm going to start work on is something I actually really want to do. As a result I have music playlists named after plays I've studied for uni, for seperate weeks and even days, for cleaning my bedroom, for exercise and many other lists to suit any energy level and mood. I have folders of pictures from the internet and scrapbooks with cutouts and quotes. Sometimes I find I cannot begin work if I'm not wearing an appropriate outfit or in inspiring surrounds.

I've recently begun collecting again, spurred on by a new set of projects and assignments for university and the beginning of a new tertiary year.

Songs for March '09
Vibrations in Air - Josh Pyke
This song has some of the most beautiful and touching lyrics of reminsence, regret andmoving forward.
It has been a favourite for a long time, but continues to make it onto my playlists and, as other songs sometimes do, has not lost its poignancy even with regular listening.

"Thinking 'bout the times I know I should have taken photographs
Something to rely on, sharper than a memory.
'Cause chemistry dictates them, they're not coloured by emotion,
They're coloured by the shades of how things used to be.

And nothing breaks the heart much more than looking at old photographs
When you can taste the moment, and worse still, if it's passed
They're gone now to the future, but you still can't deny them,
like a song that's sung."

She and Him
Well, could the lovely Zooey Deschanel make me any more envious? I've been recently introduced to She and Him by a friend who is a large Zooey fan and already I have become a large fan the band's retro-styled songs.

Acousticy goodness
Acoustic songs always capture me with their simpleness and rawness and make a welcome change from computer altered tracks which sometimes sound so busy with layers of various instruments, vocals and effects. Two current favourites are Brother by aussie band Little Birdy and Help, I'm Alive by the Canadian outfit Metric. Both of these can be found to download for free for a limited time from the TripleJ website.

So far this is only a list of the songs, but other inspirations will no doubt pop up in future posts. What inspires you to create/work/move/get out of bed?

BuzzChild

And I solemnly pledge...

2009-01-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

After a few days of re-watching inspiring speeches, finishing off the red, white and blue inauguration party candy and hearing about thousands of Americans making their pledge to help reinvent their country, I've decided to make a few pledges of my own.

These promises are not geared so much toward helping my fellow man, but toward first helping me, the kind of resolutions that are a little too late to be for New Years, but still need to be made.

So here we go.

Number 1: Organisation

My room, as anybody who has had the "pleasure" of visiting will know, has been a rather complex mess pretty much since we moved into this house four years ago. Over the time I've cleaned, but then piles upon piles of stuff has built up again and again making for a never ending cycle of clean and tidy. This year, however, the cycle will end *cue dramatic music. I've slowly began the process of sorting, folding, cleaning and ruthlessly throwing away that will enable my bedroom and I to seem like a relatively normal shelter and inhabitant combination. I've now sorted my book case, which now contains my favourite books and plays from uni, my dvd collection and my holders of the pretty magazines I collect. I've cleaned out three wardrobe shelves which house old memorandum of childhood and travels past, my 'glory box' things; plates, trays, vases and teapots which my aunt and I have been collecting for the ever closer day when I depart from home, and then my makeup and beauty related products.

While it may not look like much at the moment, these shelves were very, very messy and I'm really quite proud of my efforts.

Along with organised room comes organised life and I've made purchase of a couple of little items to help. My favourite is the Kiki K diary my mother brought me (under strict guidance) for Christmas. It's got ample room for each day and a handy ribbon to mark your place, but the reason I love it is the beautiful design. The cover is made from cream vinyl and each page is decorated beautifully with each month a different theme. Have a squiz and be ridiculously jealous.

My other purchase for my organised year comes in the shape of a beautiful, gorgeous artwork calendar from the magazine I read frankie. Favourite artists of the magazine were chosen to each contribute an original picture every month with stunning results; here's January:

Along with my organisation, I'm decorating my room with all the pretty, quiant little things I own which inspire me. Here's a box I recently finished covering with pictures.

Number 2: Health

So I'm not unhealthy exactly. I do try to eat healthily most of the time, and I live in a household of healthy eaters so we don't have too much junk around. I'm a regular gym member, in fact I interrupted writing this post to go, and since the New Year I've been going for morning walks, the stories from which make for a post all of their own. For me, health improvement can mainly come at lunchtimes when I'm often away from home and surrounded by stores where the unhealthy options are cheaper than the healthy ones. My problems is this; I just don't like salad. I can do a bit of lettuce, some beetroot and pinapple and I'm not averse to corn and carrot but put it all together and I turn a bit green. I'm not going to force the issue with my stomach; I'm a dreadfully picky eater and I know best that it's ridiculous trying to change that most of the time, so my goal is to simply pack good wholesome lunches that I can take with me to uni and to cut out snack buying from vending machines. I swear those grumbling possesors of candy and chips aim only for my loss of money and heart attack.

Number 3: Accessorize

As you can see, I own many accessories, and this is just some of the jewelry. It's sad, however, that I never wear them. Rarely will I even put in earrings or a necklace and I'm hopeless for buying pretty bangles and belts and never putting them on. Why? I just don't know how to. Some people, I believe, have a knack for accessorizing and I am not one of them. Fear not, I'm telling myself this year, I shall learn. I've begun to not let myself leave the house without something a little extra on and I'm happy to say I've been receiving a lot of compliments. Plan accessorization goes well.

So there's my three resolutions for the coming year, which hopefully will help me acheive all the other longer term goals that are set up for the coming months. It's a big year for me and most of my friends at uni, the last year, with many big projects to finish, but it's all very exciting.

I'll promise to keep you updated on how my resolutions go, a handy way to keep myself in line, too.

Now I go off to fold my washing!

BuzzChild

Partytimes!

2009-01-19T23:59:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Guess what's cracking really early (3:30am) on Australian tv tomorrow morning?

INAUGURATION!

Guess what we're doing at my house tonight/tomorrow morning?

INAUGURATION PARTY!

That's right; with a regular bevvy* of red,white 'n' blue party food we'll be rocking the night away playing inauguration party games and making salutations to Obama** himself.

And because I'm the hostess with the mostest for the eve I've got to get preparing for the inauguration shindig to end all Bush administrations.

Fare thee well on this historic day!

BuzzChild

*I don't think this is an actual word (my dictionary says "no") but spellcheck let it through and you know...it sounds like the right kind of word.

**Spellcheck lets through bevvy but not Obama?!

Dear Person Whose Car I Nearly Hit in the Carpark at The Bottle Shop.

2009-01-19T23:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Person,

I planned to start this letter in deep and sincere apology because I nearly wiped out the front of your car in the carpark at the bottle shop this afternoon.

You came in one entrance and you were turning left and I was coming in the entrance beside you, but also turned left, therefore nearly turning on to your car. If you hadn't stopped it would have made for a large disaster for our insurance companies and my wallet. I am deeply repentant for the fright I must have given you.

Normally I would leave this letter here; with my promises of my heartfelt regret and shame at being such a foolish driver and with a large shadow of doubt looming over my confidence in my driving skills. However there was something I saw on my way out of the carpark which urges me to continue.

After buying my vodka and slow-crawling my way out of the carpark with my driving confidence shattered, I glanced at the two lanes where the near incident occured. As I looked I wondered to myself, "Why would any decent carpark designer put two in-lanes right there next to each other anyway?" It was then that I saw it; the 'do not enter sign' on one side and the 'exit' sign on the other. I looked at the lane I had entered through and saw that it was indeed the carpark entry. Then I looked at the lane you had entered through. The Exit Lane. That's right. You were in the wrong lane you dumb fucker.

I am not going to berate you on your driving skills (except for the aforementioned insult which I feel, after an afternoon of considering whether I should hand my licence back to the Transport Department and turn myself in as a terrible driver, is warranted) and I'm not going to harp on about how you nearly wrecked the front of my beloved Roger (car).

I'm merely going to hope that your ignorance on the subject of motor vehicle manouvering doesn't get you mashed under a truck one day.

Yours sincerely,

BuzzChild

Am I but all alone?

2009-01-10T15:49:00.000-08:00

I don't know how this has happened and I'm not quite sure what it all means, but I think I am the only person in the world who has formed a strictly negative opinion of wedges.*

Normally I can handle disliking current fashion trends; it makes me feel hip and totally ahead of the cool kids in so many ways. But wedges keep coming back to haunt me; they were, from my recollection of footwear fashion, in a couple of years ago, and now they just keep coming back and back and back. Research tells me the design was invented way back in the 1930's by Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo. These facts, and this hurts me to think it, lead to the belief that it may be that wedges never go out. It may be that wedges are a footwear classic.

So why can't I get into them? Sure they're the comfortable heel; safer than a stiletto, with far less pressure on the heels, and they've developed that nifty way of cheating the height of the heel by actually making the entire sole of the shoe wedged. They are the high heel shoe that always looks casual; it can be worn to the shops, beach, park, movies and all the other places where it would be inappropriate to wear full on heels but you might desire a bit of extra height. However none of this is in any way making me want to bung some on my minute pair of clodhoppers and prance around town half a foot taller than usual. I look at wedges and all I see is chunky ugliness. Let me give you some examples.

Fundamental flaws:

There is a big ugly chunk of textured material where there should've been nice open air and a sexy view of foot arch.
From the front, when standing on an appropriately sandy coloured flooring, wearer would appear as if they were levitating because of deceiving big chunk of unnecessary ugly textured woven material stuff under the toe. This would make friends and family of wearer secretly fear that they were going insane or misguidedly beginning worshiping wearer as form of floating deity.
The top parts of these shoes (the bits that aren't covered in the gross material) would've actually made much nicer, normal shoes with an appropriately coloured normal heel and wearers would not appear to be wearing hulking boxes of mat-weave strapped to their feet.

Example 2.

I have nothing to say.
Except
Why would you want to walk around all day on a big chunk of mauve rubber?? I don't understand! But somebody must, because people are buying these shoes for no less than six hundred and thirty-five dollars! American!
And I'm sorry, but those things look really painful. No heel support. At all. It'd be like constantly walking down a very steep hill. God forbid you encountered sloping ground throughout your daily travels.

These devastate me. They may be the only animal print item of clothing, footwear or accessory that I have ever been close to liking. That is, they would have been with a cute little kitten heel, or tall, sexy stiletto, but the wedge covered in the same print turns them into complete overkill. I keep looking at them and sighing tragically, wondering if somehow I could access them and doctor them, somehow removing icky wedge and inserting quaint patent black heel. But, on a winner, they don't incorporate the hideous wedge platform underneath toe style to the foul degree seen on some others.

LOOK! The designer of this shoe KNOWS how hideous a full undershoe of faux-wood material is and they've CHEATED and cut a hole in the middle! But why didn't they go the whole hog and take out that couple of centimeters between heel and toe? While they were at it they could've sliced off half an inch under the front and ended up with something that in the end resembled a semi-reasonable piece of footwear! The shoe in itself would still be rather ugly, but much, much improved. It's people recognising their mistakes, and then doing a half arsed job of fixing them like this that makes the world a crappier place. Anger!

And finally...

I asked the opinion of a good male friend before posting this, thinking that if there was anyone else out there who was appalled by the foul wedge phenomena they would probably be male. He sent me this link http://junojvana.com/blog/category/wedges/ with the accompanying note; "These are gorgeous". Fuck. The web article is titled Ridiculous Baroque Wedges Mui Mui. Please note the appropriate use of the word ridiculous. Underneath the item is written,

"These baroque wedges from Miu Miu are totally over the top. Do you have the balls to wear them?"

What? You recognise that the shoes are hideously over-decorated and appear that they should come with a statement from the manufacturer renegging resposibility for wearers' high danger of falling and incurring spinal damage, and then you dare readers to wear them? What kind of friend are you Juno Jvana? What kind of blog do you write? Blog for the sadistically cruel and manic footwear psychotics?

Plus, when I googled wedges for images these were in the top row of pictured results. Therefore the trusted friend to whom I crawled for advice put no thought into my dilemma and merely chose the first avaliable link. Lame.

On last count I owned twenty-nine pairs of shoes. This would seem excessive except for the fact that my feet haven't grown for many, many years and so most of the shoes have been collected carefully over time. I also have ridiculously small feet, meaning shoe sales are my heaven with racks and racks of discounted items nobody else could squeeze into. I've chosen each pair with love and consideration and, most importantly, I wear them all. But I do not own anything with a wedge, nor can I forsee any of this style ever gracing the ever crowded shoe compartment of my wardrobe. But, with my mother and sister both sporting fancy new wedged shoes, I concede that I may, in fact, be a mutant with zero taste, as wedges make it onto the shop shelves season after season. By expressing my views on wedges I mean not to insult you if you own any (which of course you do, because everybody in the world bar me is totally into and on top of this craze) but I'm merely trying to understand. Teach me, and perhaps I will come to love the wedge.**

And so I leave you with this question:

Wedges: Indescribably ugly or gods most beautiful footwear creation?

Let me know what you think. Especially if you're of a like-minded opinion to myself. We'll have a shoeless tea party.

BuzzChild

*We're talking about the shoes here, not the crispy, goody hotness, covered in gooey sweet chili sauce and sour cream type potatoey ones. Those I love.

**It'll never happen. They're hideous.

Rar! I'm a big scary vampire!

2009-01-05T22:52:00.000-08:00

I was going to start with
Hey Bloglings!
It seemed cheerful and slightly condescending. Which is what I'm into at the moment.

....

Let me explain. I'm creating a Theatre piece, the only directive for it is, at this stage, the quote, "Everybody is Hideous". What I'm looking for is stories. I'll be scoping some out in my hometown, but I thought I'd give the big world wide web a shout out too. Got any stories of people being hideous? Any ideas or anecdotes would be most appreciated, and I'll credit you and make you famous.*

So, onto other news, guess what I'm doing today with the fabulous Cupcakes?
We're hanging out in a cooly airconditioned mac lab at university, on our holidays, trying desperately to burn DVD's. Why? Awhile ago we had an idea to write a short film about the bittersweet prolonged encounters with the waiter at our favourite coffee shop. We were then set the task of creating a short film for an editing class we took last semester. At that point we realised that to apply for government funding in our fair country it was preferable to have entered a film in a film festival previously. And so, being big believers in killing many birds with one measely pebble, we set about making our first short film; allowing us to make the film we'd always wanted to, for assessment (meaning we could use uni resources for free) and then bung it in Tropfest, a world renowned short film festival. So far we've accomplished the first two, however today we've gotten quite a bit stuck on getting the correct formatting to enter in the festival. We've been here for five hours now, with about an hours break when we went to chat to our lecturer. And get told how to format it. And it's NOT WORKING.

We're nearing the end of our tether, getting dangerously close to the last straw, a wee bit frustrated, spitting frogs....

We're going crazy.

Wanna see?

The good thing about mac labs at universities is that they have funtimes photo software and webcams.

Oh yeah.
This is why we're alive.

We're gonna go to the gym now.

bye bye
BuzzChild and Cupcakes

*There are no guarantees in showbiz kids. I hereby forfeit all responsibility to make you famous.

Questions, questions

2009-01-04T22:35:00.000-08:00

2009. A new year, a new start, for many the chance to renew faith in their ability to stick to both old and new resolutions. I like New Year's. I really do. I like the hope everyone has for at least a couple of days each annual that things will be better, I enjoy watching the past year's events montages on TV because I am, if anything, a reminiscer at heart.

I read this BBC report asking correspondents what they were looking forward to, fearing and forseeing for 2009 and the person they most wanted to interview during the year and it seemed like such fun that I've decided to play along.

What am I looking forward to in 2009:

I graduate this year, so I get to move away from where I am, all by myself, and it's the most fucking exciting thing ever. You'll hear more about it closer to November, I can guarantee.
Obama going in, Bush going out.
Going cruising all around the South Pacific in February, the biggest holiday I've been on since I started the tertiary study and the major drain on my savings fund.
The potential of the next three hundred and sixty days for the world to get it right.

What I am fearing:

The impacts of the latest goings-on in the Gaza Strip ( I couldn't find an unbiased news report to link you to, but it's pretty much crap and children are dying)
Swooping birds. I have a thing called swobhia. Fear of swooping birds. Pretty much self explanetory. People with swobhia often seemed to get swooped more than those who run carefree under the wings of attacking winged creatures. It's not scientificly proven, but I know they can smell fear.
Graduating, moving away and fending for myself. It's fucking scary.
The potential of the next three hundred and sixty days for the world to get it wrong.

What am I forseeing:

Obama finally brining about some positive change.
China rising steadily as world superpower.
Increasing numbers of people being diagnosed with swobhia as it becomes a recognised and respected phobia.

And now for my favourite...

Who would I most like to interview:

Well, now this is a challenge. Of course, like most of the journalists asked in the article, I would love to go a few rounds with Barack Obama. However, in this would be the distinct possibility that I would lose my battle with burgeoning desire and hasten to jump his man-bones the minute I entered the door, resulting in my beginning karate chopped to a pulp by Whitehouse Security and no doubt bitch-slapped by dear Michelle, a woman who I respect not only for her impressive man-nabbing talents but also her seeming goodness at life, no matter what dress she wears.
So it's a no, Obama, though you do fight hard for my affections.

Who else?
There are a few; people who I've idolised for life - think Oprah, Nick Earls, the creators of Gilmore Girls; people who inspire - designer Allanah Hil, Josh Pyke, again Obama fits well here and Nathan Hudson, lead singer of the band Faker, simply because anybody who can dance like that is an inspiration (seriously, see them live). He's also a little bit beautiful. Here's a pic.

(He's the one in the cute little party hat. Though they're all a bit of adorable, aren't they.)

Then there's the people who I just want to say, "Why?" to. Kevin (five percent's a wee bit of a copout, don't you think, Kev?), Michael Jackson, the god-boy who used to serve at my hot chocolate hangout of choice, who promptly left halfway through this year, a fact from which my daily world-viewing has been much lacking ever since...

But I've settled, from all the possible candidates, on a lady I am regularly entertained by in many media forms, who possibly is the person I would like to be. I should mention I verge dangerously close to stalking her, and although being stalked is not something the lady-in-question altogether minds, I scare myself a little.

Here name is Marieke Hardy. There are many credits to her name, the ones that have touched me being:

she writes for the ever-wonderful Frankie magazine. Her comic interludes regularly have me laughing out loud in public places.
she co-wrote the aussie tv show Last Man Standing of which I was a great fan.
she is the author of the wonderful blog Reasons You Will Hate Me which won a Weblog award in 2008 (She has sadly stopped writing, however with four years of posts it is well worth a read)
she is an announcer on Triple J's breakfast program, a radio show that I listen to roughly five mornings a week on my commute to university.

All of the ways which Marieke has permeated my life remained unconnected until recently, and so it's all a bit Marieke-mania at the moment while I tell myself it's not fate that the four seperate women I look up to are actually the one woman, just proof that I am consistent, and that she probably won't be turning up at my house for gin and tonics, agreeing to be my mentor and or life partner.

All in all, this is her, the lady who wins the prize of being my interviewee wish for the year:

Now let's all hope that she doesn't google herself, ever again, and come across this site.
I'll blush.

Well,
that is all of my predictions, hopes and wishes for the year that is to come.
Please do play if you've any interest, this has been a very fun post.

xx
BuzzChild

Square Eyes

2009-01-03T00:49:00.000-08:00

I have a headache. It's the dull kind of pain the begins at the top front of the forehead and stretches around to the back of the skull. Of course this is all self inflicted from a lazy day beginning at around eight a.m. of television watching, which was followed by excess computer usage involving reading, typing and watching movies and including only a little driving time to the shops as a rest from the pixels for my overworked eyes. This, combined with an extreme lack of water and the decision to not wear my glasses, has caused the discomfort.

....

I could continue here on a completely self indulgent rant about how, even though my head pain is caused by my own retarded and lazy self, I deserve copious amounts of pity. However, being the first post in a blog, this might alienate all potential readers. So I'm gonna shutup. And drink some water. And stop staring at the goddam screen. Before I end up looking like this! (I already have the haircut)