I'm not the type to spend hours and hours reading other peoples blogs and I hardly ever find a blog that I completely fall in love with. But I stumbled on this one by accident.
http://emilyaclark.blogspot.com.au/
She's an interior designer who started off just decorating her own home, and now she runs her own business. I love her style and her creativity is absolutely inspiring. She has an amazing collection of photos of her work and I cannot wait until I own my own home so I can spend hours and hours decorating, painting and re-decorating the house!
Another great blog is:
http://www.lisaroy.ca/
I found her through Emily Clark's blog. She had an amazing idea of framing her designer bags and hanging them up on the way. I, too, hate to throw away gorgeous bags like that, and I love the idea that you can display not just your purchases, but the amazing packaging it came in.
This is a just a short post. Enjoy!
<3 S
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Oversharing.
Twitter. Facebook. YouTube.Various blog sites, blogger, wordpress, tumblr. Websites, apps, free, easy to access from basically anywhere with an internet connection.
I think we tend to share just a little too much.
And before you start attacking me and accusing me of being a hypocrite, don't worry, I do see the irony. A blogger talking about oversharing to a bunch of random strangers in an online diary? Guilty.
I was thinking about how explosive the internet has become over the last decade or so. Remember the 90's when personal thoughts, opinions and issues all remained personal. Remember those little notebooks decorated with stickers and tags of I (heart) Backstreet Boys? I remember how all I wanted was a diary that I could write in, that had its own lock and key. Now we all know who's dating who, what everybody ate for lunch and who pissed them off most for that day.
I've always been a late comer to every party, particularly the technology party. I only discovered the full capacity of YouTube in the last year or so. Up until then, YouTube was used for watching the latest music videos and cute baby videos. I am probably still the only person in the entire (first) world who does not own an Android or iPhone (but I do have an iPod touch and so I don't have constant internet access wherever I am. I'll be honest, it's probably a good thing, at least for all those people who are friends with me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter, otherwise I'd be bombarding your timelines with complaints about the weather, or how that creepy old man keeps staring at me.
The older generation are constantly complaining about the curse of technology and I happen to think they're right. I tend to use Facebook or text messages to talk to friends and B, and so when I do end up seeing them in person, I don't have any stories to tell anymore. I had a friend who went overseas for a month, travelling and experiencing the world, and when he came back, I immediately set a date for us to meet up so I could hear all his stories about his travels but come the day, we sat there, not knowing what to say because I had seen it all on Facebook, where he went, what he did, so there was nothing left to discuss.
SO anyways, the point of this? I don't really know. I just wanted to share my opinion on the strange habit of oversharing.
Done.
I think we tend to share just a little too much.
And before you start attacking me and accusing me of being a hypocrite, don't worry, I do see the irony. A blogger talking about oversharing to a bunch of random strangers in an online diary? Guilty.
I was thinking about how explosive the internet has become over the last decade or so. Remember the 90's when personal thoughts, opinions and issues all remained personal. Remember those little notebooks decorated with stickers and tags of I (heart) Backstreet Boys? I remember how all I wanted was a diary that I could write in, that had its own lock and key. Now we all know who's dating who, what everybody ate for lunch and who pissed them off most for that day.
I've always been a late comer to every party, particularly the technology party. I only discovered the full capacity of YouTube in the last year or so. Up until then, YouTube was used for watching the latest music videos and cute baby videos. I am probably still the only person in the entire (first) world who does not own an Android or iPhone (but I do have an iPod touch and so I don't have constant internet access wherever I am. I'll be honest, it's probably a good thing, at least for all those people who are friends with me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter, otherwise I'd be bombarding your timelines with complaints about the weather, or how that creepy old man keeps staring at me.
The older generation are constantly complaining about the curse of technology and I happen to think they're right. I tend to use Facebook or text messages to talk to friends and B, and so when I do end up seeing them in person, I don't have any stories to tell anymore. I had a friend who went overseas for a month, travelling and experiencing the world, and when he came back, I immediately set a date for us to meet up so I could hear all his stories about his travels but come the day, we sat there, not knowing what to say because I had seen it all on Facebook, where he went, what he did, so there was nothing left to discuss.
SO anyways, the point of this? I don't really know. I just wanted to share my opinion on the strange habit of oversharing.
Done.
Monday, March 19, 2012
For a reason.
I wrote a long post awhile ago which will be quite similar to this one.
This last year or so, I felt like I grew up a lot. I screwed up a lot but I learnt a lot. And for the past year, whenever people asked me about what I was studying and what I planned to do once I graduated, I tried to be very vague and nonchalant about it. Usually I'd mumble something along the lines of "just seeing how it all goes." But after a little research, a few quick discussions and a point in the right direction, I feel like I've found balance and as I realised what this meant, I felt this calm wash over me. I tried to be cool and calm about the future, trying to show everyone that I was relaxed enough to just roll with the punches, but in all honesty, I was lying to myself and trying to hide the truth from everyone else: I didn't know what to do with my life and it scared the hell out of me.
I sat outside today, waiting for class to begin and I began to think about this new career path I found. I stumbled upon it a few months ago, but after discussing it with my parents, and a very derogative put down by my dad, I decided to let it go. But recently a found a new spark of interest for it and I started to look into it again and I really feel like its the right thing for me.
I think about my life after high school. And in high school, I knew who I was, what I was good at, what I was bad at. But then uni came along and I felt confused and I didn't know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. During year 11, I had went to a mini-psych lecture at USyd, and I loved it, but I knew it wasn't a practical subject so I never did it. I chose to do Medical Science at USyd instead, because it was more practical and fairly flexible for someone who had no clue about what she wanted to do. HSC marks were released and unfortunately I didn't score enough to get into MedSci and ended up doing Bachelor of Science at USyd. I then dedicated my first year of uni to studying hard to get into MedSci, but again I didn't score enough points. At this point, I abandoned that idea and settled into studying pharmacology for the remainder of my degree. For each semester, we're required to do a certain number of subjects to fill out the hours needed to graduate. In the second semester of my second year, I needed one more subject to fill and since I failed microbiology in first year, I was missing the pre-requisite for most subjects, so I decided to do first year psych to fill up my credits. I ended up loving it, and decided to do the entire 3 year psych course within my degree. Since I did second sem first, I had to go back the next year and do first sem, which I actually ended up hating. It was boring and drawn out. But I persisted, knowing that 3rd year psych would be worth it. This was the point where I was torn, I loved psych but I was not good enough to do honours, and without honours you can't have a real career in psych. I was still doing pharmacology, still for practical purposes, but I hated it. I continued with psych and now I'm doing a mixture of 3rd year and 2nd year psych subjects. In one of my 3rd year subjects, we had a lecturer who was a counsellor and was brought in to teach us a more practical application of the things we were learning in class. I loved his stories and I loved how he was able to help out this people simply by talking to them. (As a side note: I've always been the type of person who wanted a career in helping people, and naturally being a doctor was the way to go but again low grades and a low tolerance for blood and guts kept me from doing that). So basically, I went back to researching counselling degrees, post-grad studies all of that. I made a few calls, even talked to the lecturer about it and I feel like its the right thing for me. At least for now. I'm glad I have a goal again and something to work for and to look forward to.
And now, and today, when looking back at these three years, I wished I hadn't wasted them stuck in a degree I don't want in a uni I don't like. I wish I knew four years ago what I had wanted, I could've had my job by now. But then I look back and I didn't know what I wanted when I was 18. And I needed to go through those years here, to finally know that this is where I wanted to be. I needed to fail those subjects and back me into that corner of psych, the corner that I thought was dark and useless. I've found a door in that dark corner, and its slowly lead me here. I know if I did first year psych the other way around, I wouldn't have the passion for it that I have now. I wouldn't have continued on with it and I wouldn't have been sitting in that third year lecture with the ex-counsellor lecturer with his stories and knowledge, experience and his anecdotes. And even the things in my personal life, the problems and issues I have with myself and with my relationships all pushed me to study harder and pay more attention in class, and in a way I see myself counselling because I feel like I can't help the people in my life, and most of all, I can't counsel myself. So all these things, the timing, the experience, the knowledge, my personal life and this sudden urge I had to find something more in my life and allowed me to find and accept and want this.
I didn't write this to brag how great my life is. Because I didn't, and its not. I wrote it because its important. A reminder to myself that no matter how bad things get, there's a reason for it, and its good. Just be patient. Just keep pushing and fighting and persisting. And a way of showing (hopefully) everyone else that things get better. There is a reason for why bad things happen, why I never got into the Med Sci degree, why I failed those subjects, why I got stuck doing 2nd sem psych instead of the first... Its all for a reason.
<3 S
This last year or so, I felt like I grew up a lot. I screwed up a lot but I learnt a lot. And for the past year, whenever people asked me about what I was studying and what I planned to do once I graduated, I tried to be very vague and nonchalant about it. Usually I'd mumble something along the lines of "just seeing how it all goes." But after a little research, a few quick discussions and a point in the right direction, I feel like I've found balance and as I realised what this meant, I felt this calm wash over me. I tried to be cool and calm about the future, trying to show everyone that I was relaxed enough to just roll with the punches, but in all honesty, I was lying to myself and trying to hide the truth from everyone else: I didn't know what to do with my life and it scared the hell out of me.
I sat outside today, waiting for class to begin and I began to think about this new career path I found. I stumbled upon it a few months ago, but after discussing it with my parents, and a very derogative put down by my dad, I decided to let it go. But recently a found a new spark of interest for it and I started to look into it again and I really feel like its the right thing for me.
I think about my life after high school. And in high school, I knew who I was, what I was good at, what I was bad at. But then uni came along and I felt confused and I didn't know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. During year 11, I had went to a mini-psych lecture at USyd, and I loved it, but I knew it wasn't a practical subject so I never did it. I chose to do Medical Science at USyd instead, because it was more practical and fairly flexible for someone who had no clue about what she wanted to do. HSC marks were released and unfortunately I didn't score enough to get into MedSci and ended up doing Bachelor of Science at USyd. I then dedicated my first year of uni to studying hard to get into MedSci, but again I didn't score enough points. At this point, I abandoned that idea and settled into studying pharmacology for the remainder of my degree. For each semester, we're required to do a certain number of subjects to fill out the hours needed to graduate. In the second semester of my second year, I needed one more subject to fill and since I failed microbiology in first year, I was missing the pre-requisite for most subjects, so I decided to do first year psych to fill up my credits. I ended up loving it, and decided to do the entire 3 year psych course within my degree. Since I did second sem first, I had to go back the next year and do first sem, which I actually ended up hating. It was boring and drawn out. But I persisted, knowing that 3rd year psych would be worth it. This was the point where I was torn, I loved psych but I was not good enough to do honours, and without honours you can't have a real career in psych. I was still doing pharmacology, still for practical purposes, but I hated it. I continued with psych and now I'm doing a mixture of 3rd year and 2nd year psych subjects. In one of my 3rd year subjects, we had a lecturer who was a counsellor and was brought in to teach us a more practical application of the things we were learning in class. I loved his stories and I loved how he was able to help out this people simply by talking to them. (As a side note: I've always been the type of person who wanted a career in helping people, and naturally being a doctor was the way to go but again low grades and a low tolerance for blood and guts kept me from doing that). So basically, I went back to researching counselling degrees, post-grad studies all of that. I made a few calls, even talked to the lecturer about it and I feel like its the right thing for me. At least for now. I'm glad I have a goal again and something to work for and to look forward to.
And now, and today, when looking back at these three years, I wished I hadn't wasted them stuck in a degree I don't want in a uni I don't like. I wish I knew four years ago what I had wanted, I could've had my job by now. But then I look back and I didn't know what I wanted when I was 18. And I needed to go through those years here, to finally know that this is where I wanted to be. I needed to fail those subjects and back me into that corner of psych, the corner that I thought was dark and useless. I've found a door in that dark corner, and its slowly lead me here. I know if I did first year psych the other way around, I wouldn't have the passion for it that I have now. I wouldn't have continued on with it and I wouldn't have been sitting in that third year lecture with the ex-counsellor lecturer with his stories and knowledge, experience and his anecdotes. And even the things in my personal life, the problems and issues I have with myself and with my relationships all pushed me to study harder and pay more attention in class, and in a way I see myself counselling because I feel like I can't help the people in my life, and most of all, I can't counsel myself. So all these things, the timing, the experience, the knowledge, my personal life and this sudden urge I had to find something more in my life and allowed me to find and accept and want this.
I didn't write this to brag how great my life is. Because I didn't, and its not. I wrote it because its important. A reminder to myself that no matter how bad things get, there's a reason for it, and its good. Just be patient. Just keep pushing and fighting and persisting. And a way of showing (hopefully) everyone else that things get better. There is a reason for why bad things happen, why I never got into the Med Sci degree, why I failed those subjects, why I got stuck doing 2nd sem psych instead of the first... Its all for a reason.
<3 S
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Another reno? Yes.
I've been feeling a little unbalanced lately. Well, actually, a lot unbalanced. A LOT.
So I'm going to try this online diary/online blogging thing again in the hopes that it will be somehow cathartic for me. (I hope that's how you're meant to use that word... Fancy, right?)
I have a new layout and its nice and all that, most of them are, but I've spent the last hour going through pages and pages of blog templates, and none of them seem to fit me. I love the elaborate artistic ones, but as I'm not the artistic type, I feel like a fraud using them. I tried looking for something romantic, but seeing as I'm not a huge girly-girl, it didn't seem appropriate either. The colourful ones are bright and fun but yet again not me. And this sort of leads me to where my mind's been at the past couple of weeks. I have no definition of myself. I'm a mess. So, I settled with this one.
So I'm going to try this online diary/online blogging thing again in the hopes that it will be somehow cathartic for me. (I hope that's how you're meant to use that word... Fancy, right?)
I have a new layout and its nice and all that, most of them are, but I've spent the last hour going through pages and pages of blog templates, and none of them seem to fit me. I love the elaborate artistic ones, but as I'm not the artistic type, I feel like a fraud using them. I tried looking for something romantic, but seeing as I'm not a huge girly-girl, it didn't seem appropriate either. The colourful ones are bright and fun but yet again not me. And this sort of leads me to where my mind's been at the past couple of weeks. I have no definition of myself. I'm a mess. So, I settled with this one.