Audrey Hepburn said, “If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worthwhilenesses I have been lucky enough to have had. Not the sadness, not my miscarriages or my father leaving home, but the joy of everything else. It will have been enough.” Do you think you would do the same, or do the sad times stand out in your mind?
It’s hard for me to sit here and reflect on the positive experiences I’ve had in my life, or even the past few years, because it’s always been overshadowed by the negative and sad times – I think because they’re the moments that generate a more significant emotional reaction; they’re the ones that are the hardest to deal with and the ones that take more of an emotional toll on us.
When was the last time you were completely stumped by a question, a request, or a situation you found yourself in? How did you handle it?
It’s not very often that I find myself lost for words… oh who am I kidding, I’m surrounded by fuckwits on a daily basis, the only reason I’m lost for words is because I can’t decide which swear words I want to start shouting without it seeming like an epsiode of tourettes. Continue reading →
When was the last time you experienced writer’s block? What do you think brought it about — and how did you dig your way out of it?
I often experience writer’s block, even with simple tasks such as writing daily blog posts and it frustrates me and I’m like ‘Brain, what the fuck is going on… make the words happen!’.Continue reading →
…and now I’m hooked. I love that I’ve actually started and more importantly continued writing my blog. Granted, I currently have, like 18 posts to catch up on, but fuck, man… I have no time!
2. I have followers!
I’m amazed that there’s over 130 people out there who actually read my ranty bloggy randomness. To all my followers (really, I’m more amazed that I actually HAVE followers!) – THANKYOU!!
3. It’s a challenge
Blogging has provided me an outlet to create some creative writing pieces, as I continue my writing journey, and it makes me realise a) just how much I enjoy creative writing, and b) how hard it actually is.
4. It’s practically anonymous
That’s not me
When I started my blog, I made a conscious decision not to tell everybody I know about it, because well, I wanted to keep something separate from the rest of my social media life. Granted, only a select handful of people I know, know about this blog, and I quite like that. It’s almost like exclusivity.
5. The challenge.
Trying to blog daily and work two jobs and maintain a relationship and everything else that comes with life has been a bit of a struggle. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have decided to take on two separate post-a-day challenges, but I have and I’ve stuck to it. I often find myself with quite a backlog, but then I get to a point where I can smash out ten posts on a sunday afternoon which helps me catch up… and then when I do, it’s such a sense of accomplishment!
6. Other people’s blogs
It’s been quite interesting opening my eyes to the blogging world. I still tell myself that I’m still trying to find my feet with it all, and am constantly amazed at just how many blogs and bloggers there are out there. I’m always learning more… I didn’t even know there were such things as ‘Blogger Conferences’!!
7. I’m not the only one.
I’ll never forget the moment when I started following a couple of my follwers’ blogs, only to discover that they were also full of ranty, sweary, bloggy, randomness. Sitting there like a kid on christmas morning, I realised that I’m really not the only one who is also feeling jaded and generally hating people for being a bunch of fucktards. You guys are my new best friends… that I’ve never met. *hugs*
8. The push for more creativity.
Through my blogging venture so far, I’ve realised just how much I miss writing. I know that I have a lot of shit going on in my head, and I’m the sort of person who just wants to get it all down on ‘paper’, in an attempt to try and calm my mind. As a result, I’ve discovered that there are a few different writing ventures and aspirations that I would secretly like to achieve in addition to keeping up my blog… but those things take time, and time is something I don’t seem to have much of.
9. It’s something that I can do wherever I am.
Mobile blogging is fantastic. I love being able to spend work time updating all the posts in my draft folder, then spend my time in transit between work and home and the gym etc tapping away on my phone, or sitting in a food court killing time updating my blog. Previously I was spending that time watching catch-up tv shows, but now blogging has overshadowed that.
10. GIFS!! USE ALL THE GIFS!!
Because gifs are so fucking awesome and they complete me. Gifs make everything better.
That’s impossible. I don’t have a favourite cookbook – I treasure all of my cookbooks equally. Between the two of us, we have quite a collection of cookbooks, however, now that I think about it, we don’t actually cook from them… it’s more like just a bunch of books that fill the shelves of a bookcase in the kitchen… which is actually kinda sad and so very, very wrong.
How has blogging changed your life? Tell us one thing that is different now than from before you started blogging.
When I first set out on this blogging venture, I certainly didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I had no idea what it could / would turn into, and over the past couple of months, I’ve managed to write over 220 posts, and I’ve challenged myself creatively, and I’ve also allowed myself to share personal memories.
I never imagined any of that happening. This month, I’ve really struggled to find the time to write my posts, and have a constant backlog of posts to write and publish, and this has a much greater presence, and priority, within my life.
I’ve noticed that when I don’t have an opportunity to write, I get quite frustrated, and almost restless… It’s created an obligation in my life. And when the backlog of writing increases, and that hole begins to get deeper and deeper, there’s a much stronger desire to get everything up to date. However, there are two different approaches I wish to take – one of them really wants to give each post my full attention, and write them properly; but at the same time, I want to just write them quickly, and smash them out one at a time in order to get myself back up to date… but the latter would just disappoint me, and it would require editing and re-writing further down the track (providing I can be bothered).
Ultimately, blogging has ignited this spark inside of me. This spark to write. Write about all different kinds of things, and it’s a journey that I’m looking forward to exploring further over time.
You’re 12 years old. It’s your birthday. Write for ten minutes on that memory. GO.
I really don’t remember much about my birthdays from when I was a kid – and my family never took photos to document them, the way that we take photo’s to document our lives today.
I think that for my 12th birthday, I had the day off school, (which was something I’ve always done) and spent the day sleeping in before mum and I went into town and mum took me shopping to buy some new clothes, and we went out for lunch at one of our favourite cafe’s called ‘Scribbles’.
Scribbles was this cosy little cafe that we would usually go to. It was long and narrow and had butchers paper across all the tables, and a small terracotta pot of crayons for people to use to draw all over the butchers paper… hence the name Scribbles!
So we ended up there for lunch, and my aunty ended up joining us, which was lovely. We didn’t go out for lunch very often, but when we did, it was always a great time. After lunch, we headed home, and I got to try on all my clothes.
That night, we had also planned on going out for dinner, and I remember that we got ready, and actually got a bit dressed up. Dinner was lovely, albeit a bit rushed before we went off to the local playhouse to see a show. I can’t quite recall which show we saw (because I usually saw something at the theatre on my birthday) which was great. I think it was something like Little Shop of Horrors or some other musical.
How do you feel about the first blog post you ever wrote?
Well I went back and had a re-read of my first post. Given that it’s only a couple of weeks old, it still seems like it was aaaages ago that I wrote it. If anything, I need to alter it and put in more tags. It still feels strange that I’m even writing this blog, but I think it’s something that has allowed me to focus. I tell myself everyday ‘I must write in my blog’. Or, more often than not, ‘I need to catch up with my blog’, and then subsequently do three or four posts in a row, because I didn’t get time to write them during the day, or at all.
I remember when I first made that conscious decision to actually start a blog. It was somewhat surreal. It was always something that I had thought about doing, but my problem was not knowing where to begin. This challenge has helped me because it gives me prompts to write about, and I don’t really think too much, I just start typing, and the stream of consciousness just flows through my fingers, and suddenly I’ve written several-hundred words without really noticing.
My first post is still relevant. Crazy Cat Lady and I are still spending our days speaking in gibberish, and annoying everybody else in the office. It’s her birthday next week, and I’ve got her a really cool present. Something that I’ve been meaning to get her for a while now, but keep forgetting to actually do. I’m pretty sure that she’s going to like it.
Perhaps I should look back on this first post in twelve-months time and see how I feel.
Man, imagine what my blog will be like if I keep up this daily posting for the next twelve months?! Now that would be a real challenge!!
This is actually quite difficult question for me to answer. How do you narrow 30years of characters from movies, television and books to pick just one??
What would your answer be??
I’ll have to get back to you on that….
update…
after having a chance to really think about it! I realised just how difficult this is to answer… I have so many favourite characters from so many different areas. I. Old have picked somebody like Astro Boy, because when I was a kid, Astro really was the shit. Come on, he was a robot boy who always saved the day… And he had ROCKETS FOR LEGS!!! Then I was thinking maybe along the lines of movies and I thought perhaps my fav movie character would be James Bond… But then I thought, well, it would be much easier if I did like my top 5 of each and then selected characters from each of those… All the while in the back of my head there’s a tiny voice saying “diagram! Chart! Mind map!!”. Hmmmm. Or do I do a favourite genre, like fav reality show star, or fav talk show host, or fav comedy show star? That might be easier:
Favourite tv drama character: Emily Thorn – Revenge; almost everybody from Brothers and Sisters; almost everybody from Grey’s Anatomy;
favourite tv comedy character: Edina Monsoon from Ab-Fab; Jerri Blank from Strangers With Candy; Whitney Cummings from Whitney, Max from 2 Broke Girls; almost every single character from Big Girls Blouse;
favourite tv cartoon character: Jake & Finn from Adventure Time; Stewie Griffin from Family Guy; Roger from American Dad; Linda from Bobs Burgers
favourite character from Sex and the City: Samantha.
favourite ‘Friend’: Phoebe
Favourite Real Housewife: NeNe (Atlanta)
favourite Seinfeld character: Elaine
Favourite SNL sketch: Oreana and Craig the Cheerleaders (Cheri o’teri & will ferrel) “cha-cha-boochie, cha-cha-chaboochie, ROLL CALL”
favourite game character: Lara croft – Tomb Raider; Chase McCain – Lego City
favourite comedian: Kathy griffin;
favourite talkshow: Chelsea lately
Well, those last two don’t actually count because they’re real people, I guess. As you can see, it’s hard to define a favourite character, let alone a favourite genre – and these are the ones that I just listed off the top of my head. What other areas would you like to ask me??
If you found one million dollars in the morning and had to spend it by nightfall, what would you do with the money?
Well, let’s assume that if we found it, we were responsible citizens and went to the police first, and the cops turn around and say “Well, nobody has reported it stolen, so it’s all yours to do with as you wish”… Then it would begin.
In the grand scheme of things, yes, a million dollars is a lot of money, but at the same time, doesn’t really get you very much for your money. People talk about winning lotto and how they plan on buying houses and cars and trips overseas… yeah, that’s a great idea, but then what? Did you think about what happens after you do this? Did you factor in what it would cost in upkeep for all your houses, and how much your insurance is going to be for all your Ferrari’s and Lambo’s?
Of course not. Fool.
I would be a lot more responsible with a million dollars. Growing up and not actually having money, I grew to value it a lot more than other kids did. Whilst they were all focused on getting the bestest brand new label backpacks / shoes / clothes; I on the other hand, was more concerned about whether my various fees were being paid. They were all wanting the latest Nike Air Max for sport (granted, for the sports they didn’t actually play!), whereas I chose to go without because I knew if I wanted fancy new footwear, I’d have to miss out on going to camp – and I couldn’t have both.
And camp was MUCH more satisfying than trying to keep up with the Jones’ at school.
You’d think that this appreciation and value for money would have continued into my adult life, right? Wrong. Once I moved interstate and started working and earning my own money, I still paid all my bills first, and then got to enjoy whatever was left over – whether it was a fancy dinner, or that pair of fancy shoes I’ve had my eye on for a few months, or saving for my next new electronic device (read: Playstation). Over the years though, as my income has increased, I find myself doing the complete opposite… buying first, bills later.
DISPOSABLE INCOME!! SO MANY SHINY PINK DOLLARS TO DO WITH AS I PLEASE… *ugh* Bills. Maaan, bills are such a pain! Meh, they can wait.
That became a mantra of mine for a while, before I found myself eating nothing but 2minute noodles and tinned tuna for a fortnight – wondering what the hell I’d spent all my money on… oh yeah, that’s right, paying ALL my bills, (both current and overdue), and rent, etc etc.
“I need to start a budget”, I’d tell myself. “I need to be smarter with my money. I need to SAVE”.
6 years later, nothing has really improved. well, It’s a lot better than that, but it’s got a lot of room for improvement.
Not having savings really depresses me, but at the same time, I have credit cards. The root of all evil.
Feeling a little sad? Why not shop yourself a little happy?
Feeling a bit bored at work? I wonder what’s new on Amazon.com?
iTunes credit low? Best you get a couple of iTunes cards when you’re out at lunch!
Whilst I became of the mindset that I wanted to be able to enjoy my money here and now, in this moment, others were busy putting all their savings away into loans and mortgages; bumping up their superannuation; investing in stock portfolios. Me? I was hanging out for the Tomb Raider pre-order date from EB Games, or buying tickets to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball tour… but oh my that’s a whole other story!!
And now that I’ve conveniently gotten myself well and truly sidetracked – this is my writing problem – dealing with tangets (DAMN IT – I’m doing it again!!) where was I again…?? Oh yes… that million untaxable dollars.
(and in saying that, reminds me of this. skip to the 2:53 mark…)
But yes, a million bucks. I wouldn’t go crazy with it. I’d pay out all my bills, pay off my credit cards, buy myself a nice apartment or something, and with whatever was left over, I’d donate some money to charity and put some into savings / term deposits. Given that an average apartment (well, one that I would actually like) would go for anything between $500 – 700k, it’s not much left to play with when talking about investing.
adorablyobnoxious 