Daily Prompt – Breaking The Ice

The internet has recently been swept up by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Is there a cause — social, political, cultural, or other — you passionately believe in? Tell us how you got involved — or why you don’t get involved.

I’m so sick of hearing about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I hope that they start getting freezer burn from too much ice.

Daily Prompt: I Walk the Line

Have you got a code you live by? What are the principles or set of values you actively apply in your life?

I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s a ‘code’ that I live by… values is a better way to describe it.

Growing up in the country and having relatively normal and down to earth parents instilled a great deal of principles and values in me at quite a young age, which have been carried over into my adult life.

By comparison, I look at the youth of today and am completely flabbergasted as to how they are able to get away with a fraction of the stuff they get away with. Now, back in my day (god, even saying that just makes me feel like a grandpa!) if we ever did anything naughty, our parents would have no reservation in giving us a hiding – whether it was a hand, a wooden spoon or a belt. And when I was a kid, if I had friends over and they were being as naughty as I was, my parents had no reservations about giving my friends a hiding as well. And vice versa. I recall only one time was I ever at my friends house, and his mum went ballistic at both of us – she gave us both a flogging with a wooden spoon, broke the wooden spoon and sent us to his room without dinner, and took away his Sega Master System for the night.

Now, once you’re all done picking your jaws up off the ground, let me just make one thing perfectly clear – it was not a regular practice for our parents to smack us, or our friends. We knew we’d gone too far, and we knew what the punishment was for going too far, but we still did it. We knew that it was risky to push those kind of boundaries, but we got what we deserved. And my friends parents weren’t exactly going around smacking any kid that walked through their front door for a sleep-over with their child – our parents were friends, and had already discussed things like punishments etc when we were at each others houses. They would never have laid a hand on somebody else’s child without discussing it with their parents first.

Just thought I’d clear that up before somebody flips out and calls the police!! *lol*

And even then, it would only need to happen once, and guaranteed, we’d never do it again – so clearly we learnt from our mistakes!!

Growing up, I had a very strong belief that everything you do – every action you take and every decision you make has a consequence, and you can do nothing but accept those consequences – regardless of whether they are good or bad; happy or sad. I know I’ve certainly made some mistakes that I have later regretted, but I still completely own them regardless.

I was taught to always use your manners. Please. Thankyou. I beg your pardon. You’re welcome. Manners these days seems like such a foreign concept, which is quite depressing.

I was fortunate enough to a) be rather intelligent as a child; and b) have parents who realised that from a very, very early age, they didn’t need to sugar-coat anything for me. Whatever it was they wanted to tell me, they’d  make sure that they just told me – like they were talking to an adult. If I didn’t understand, they’d break it down and explain it in simpler terms that I could understand. I was the kid who was sitting there reading mum’s psychology text books at age 7 or 8, whilst she was writing her assignments as part of her degree – I didn’t need to be wrapped up in cotton wool like most kids are already expecting in todays society.

Always help others. Regardless of how, there’s something to be said for doing a good deed for somebody else. It could be as simple as cooking dinner for them, or helping them  with an essay, or washing their car / doing their laundry etc. Or it could be helping an elderly person across the road, or sharing your umbrella at the traffic lights who’s standing there in the rain getting wet. Or maybe buying a meal for a homeless person, or donating a few bags of clothes, or donating money to charity – there’s always something you can do to help somebody else. It doesn’t need to necessarily be a big grand gesture – it can be anything!!. Even something as simple as just sending them a bunch of flowers if they’re feeling down can speak volumes to somebody,

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Daily Prompt: Karma Chameleon

This just in: let’s pretend that science has proven that karma is a thing. Your words and actionswill influence what happens to you in the future. How (if at all) will you change your ways?

Let’s face it, as soon as you read the heading, this is exactly what went through your mind. It’s okay, you’re only human.

Now, raise your hand if you read the prompt and the first thing you thought of was

Again, I’m not surprised. Admittedly, I did the exact same thing. I really can’t help it due to constantly overhearing it being said, and having it said straight to my face whenever I’ve planned something… unsavoury.

Good ol’ Karma. That one theory that so many people believe in. Every now and then I find myself part of a conversation and somebody will either refer to not wanting to do X-action because they don’t want bad karma. Or on the flip side they believe that if they do something good, or do mutliple good things, then they will get a lot of good karma.

I’m a bit of a fence-sitter when it comes to this… sometimes I believe in it, and sometimes I don’t. It really just comes down to my emotional state at that precise point in time. Hmmm, it seems most things nowadays depend on my emotional state…

I think generally speaking, overall I would say that I do actually believe in karma in both good and bad forms. But then sometimes even whilst I might say I believe in karma, I’ll sit there convincing myself that it’s actually just a bunch of crap, and I’ll probably be due for a truck load of bad karma to come my way (let’s face it, if karma exists, then there’s a whole heap of bad karma with my name on it.) and so as a result, I do something positive instead in some pathetic attempt to balance it out. You know, because 6-months of bad karma is totally going to dissipate when I donate $70 to some charity that I saw on late-night television.

…although in saying that, their commercial was quite compelling and I wanted to contribute. I really should just do that more often so that I stop accruing bad karma points and start earning good karma points.

My approach to good karma vs. bad karma is the same way most people approach the gym: if I go do a cardio class / workout for an hour, then I can totally eat that box of 6 donuts / packet of biscuits without remorse.

Sidenote: if you are in fact one of those people, you need to realise that eating those donuts or that packet of biscuits actually means you’ll need to do at least 6+ classes / hours of exercise just to counterbalance all the calories you’ve ingested. 

Some people take the belief in karma quite seriously… some of them also tend to not believe in showering or not wearing footwear, and only wearing natural (tie-dyed) fibers… I on the other hand take it with a grain of salt. Does it make me want to change my behaviours? Not really. But I at least acknowledge that I need to change my behaviours – it’s just not as a direct result of believing in karma.

…It’s because I’m just a bitch.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/daily-prompt-karma-chameleon/

Daily Prompt: You’re a Winner!

You’ve just won $1 billion dollars in the local lottery. You do not have to pay tax on your winnings. How will you spend the money?

$1billion??

One of the very first things I would do is buy my mum a house.

Then I’d go on one amazing holiday.

I’d invest a truck load of cash so that I could retain a steady income purely living off the interest it accrues. It would also mean I wouldn’t have to work any more, which would be lovely.

I would also invest in creating an amazing architecturally artistic house…

…you get the drift.

I would also donate a large chunk of it to various charities, and perhaps some performing arts projects.

I actually don’t know what else I would do with it. I’d also make sure that Hulk and I are completely debt free.

Oh, and I’d buy a French Bulldog, because they are so adorable.

 

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/prompt-winner/

Dec 20: Volunteer Work

Do you do any volunteer work?  Tell us about it.

Sometimes when I get asked this question, and I answer ‘No’, I feel so terribly guilty about it, but the reality is, I don’t have time in my life to actively go and volunteer anywhere. Although, sometimes when I’m at my other job, I feel like I’m volunteering because although I get paid, I get taxed so much on it as it’s a secondary income, I almost do it for free.

I haven’t really thought too much about volunteering because I already spend plenty of money making financial donations to various organisations throughout the year – that’s my contribution instead. It’s not necessarily as good as I’d like it to be, but it’s certainly a lot more than most people do.

Dec 19: Donation

What was the last donation you made?

Just recently at work we received the name of the person we have for Kris Kringle (KK). I think, generally, there’s usually like a $10 – $20 limit on the gifts, and they’re usually something small, or a novelty gift, or if you work here, a bottle of wine.

I thought that I’d do something different this year, and rather than buy my KK something useless, I bought them something from Oxfam Unwrapped instead.

I bought a duck.

well… not THAT duck…

It was $30, and $26 of that is considered a donation to Oxfam which is then tax deductible – so it’s a win-win situation – I buy some family in Bangladesh a duck, and I get to make a charitable donation at the same time.

And well it’s Christmas, and it’s the season of giving.