"More is Never Enough"

Candy, Directed by Neil Armfield is one of my all time favorite movies. It's the kind of movie you might watch when you are feeling inspired... or when you want to be. It is so poetic and realistic and beautiful in a tragic kind of way. With a seemingly heavy focus drug addiction and the destructive path that so often follows, one could be easily misled into thinking that this simply another way of portraying the life of a heroin junkie. What I think people don't realize, is that this isn't about heroin. Heroin features in the film, yes, definitely, but the story is one of the most passionate love.  I am always mesmerized by the first 10 minutes and I find myself floating into another world where water, words and love are all that exists and I can become the centre of it all.

 If you switch on some Johnette Napolitano, sit back, close your eyes just for 2 minutes 49 seconds to listen to the wedding theme song from Candy, I promise you will be floating off into all the good day dreams in no time at all, despite whatever kind of heroin/gym/work/etc junkie you may be.

Love, glamour and celebratory champagne

This is one of the most exciting times of the year for me. Classes are almost over for the year, celebrations are starting to be planned for Christmas and the new year, and people in general seem much happier from about now until January.  I love that this is a time for being merry, glamourous, happy and loving. Spending time with family and friends, a couple of backyard BBQs, some bubbly, some chocolate coated almonds and a lovely summer dress, makes me realize that life doesn't always have to be the same old same old, all the time. You don't have to spend your WHOLE life studying. You don't need to work every day of the year. You need to grasp what little celebratory time you have, and absolutely cherish it.

I personally plan on spending most of my summer at the beach, lying around in the sun, wearing over size sunglasses,  reading classic novels and sipping anything that comes in a cocktail glass. Nothing has ever sounded so appealing.

Why you should believe your own lies.

                                                                                                                                                  Edgar Tells Lies!

Okay, possibly the most random blog I have done yet. Don't ask me how I found out about this. I have never studied psychology, cared about psychology or even been mildly interested in how my brain rationalizes thoughts and processes because... well it doesn't rationalize them.

It is called cognitive dissonance. It is one of the most explored psychological concepts around and until tonight, I had never even heard of it. Lame! Apparently, it happens when you have two thoughts simultaneously. The part where you start lying to yourself happens when you want to reduce the feeling of dissonance and you tell yourself something other than what is truthful in order to rationalize your behavior, thoughts, actions etc. 

I came to the realization after reading about this, that I do it all the time. On a daily basis. I lie to myself about the food I eat, the exercise I do, the money I spend and often how productive I am being. I lie to myself to make myself feel better and happily, it works. I am completely and utterly content being dishonest with myself. The possibility of me having made a bad decision, is just not really worth my anxiety.  So if believing your own lies makes you happier, I say go for it. Tell fibs, deceive yourself into thinking it's okay to have 2 deserts, mislead your happy little mind to make it believe that an hour of concentrating on work is absolutely adequate and that you couldn't possibly do any more and fabricate your life as much as necessary, turn it into what you want to be. It makes believing your lies completely worthwhile.

 I wonder if there have been such studies on imagination... I shall be looking into this at some point.

Creative Thievery

So lately, being so caught up in the flurry that is exam period, I have been feeling somewhat brain dead in the way of creativity, so I set out to find some inspirational ideas in the big wide world and I found this charming passage. So not only did I take Jim's advice and be inspired by everything around me, but I stole it and used it for a blog entry. Now that, is some creativity right there. 


Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that
resonates with information or fuels your imagination. 
Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings,
photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations,
architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds,
bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things
to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do
this your work (and theft) will be authentic.
Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non existent.
And don't bother concealing your thievery- celebrate
it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember
what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take
things from- it's where you take them to."
-Jim Jarmusch

27 mile high club.

The 27 Club

As a child of the 90's, I was very much aware of the culture that was associated with the music world, particularly among the genres of ruck, punk and grunge. I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of the sex, drugs and rock and roll era, which lasted from the 60's through till the early 90's where it died with the end of Nirvana. It was an era that I have always very much appreciated, as it has shaped the future of music and left a lasting legacy on the young and old.

The 27 club made this era. They poured passionate riffs and LSD inspired lyrics into the music industry, and it was received by the world in a whirlwind of appreciation. Living fast, dying young, thats what it was all about. Drugs were perhaps the most influential aspect of this lifestyle, in particular heroin.  Perhaps it was the fact that there was so much pressure in the industry, or maybe it was just the cool thing to do. Either way, that, combined with the effects of LSD made for some pretty amazing sounds that live on in popular culture today.

 The world lost Jimmi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison within a 10 month period during the early 70's, and all were aged 27.  Kurt Cobain died at the age of 27 some years later in 1994, also joining the 27 club hall of fame. 37 popular musicians have died at this age, making it a statistical abnormality. I always wonder what it is that really kills these people. Kurt Cobain for example, conspiracy theories aside, he killed himself with a gun, sure, but what was it really? Was it the pressure? Was it the fact that he just wanted to be in the 27 club? Was it drugs?  It is something we will never know for sure and maybe that just adds to the air of mystery surrounding it. Maybe it is what he wanted.

I love the fact that this is the musical culture I grew up with. I love the fact that it was all about peace, love, drugs, sex, rock and roll. I'm not saying I want to be part of that, but I am saying I love sitting back as an observer. Losing some of the most talented artists the world has ever seen, at such a young age, is heartbreakingly tragic. I also think we were lucky to have them at all. Who wants to get old, when you can be forever 27?

Eat me, I am delicious.

It is almost midweek. Everything always looks better from midweek onwards. By Wednesday the weekend is in sight and you start to lose concentration on work and focus more on what time you don't have to be up at on Saturday. Actually, 10 30 on a Tuesday night is when this really starts because screw it, Wednesday is only 1.5 hours away.

  So tonight, being a Tuesday, here I am, planning my weekend, surfing the net,  and just generally using and abusing technology, as one has come to expect from my generation, and what do I find? This little gem (See images above). Cookie cake pie. My body is screaming at me saying " It's the apocalypse!" And yet I am overcome by tasty tasty seduction. I have never wanted anything so much in my life, and I curse the cafeteria for serving me rice pudding as a desert tonight.

This baby was last seen at http://www.cakespy.com/2009/05/triple-threat-cookie-cake-pie.html and I suggest you peruse this site at your leisure.

I will always be a calorie counting gym junkie, but I would be willing to spend the rest of my life in the gym, for some love munching that is this damn delicious.

Teenage Affluenza

This is the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winning photo taken by Kevin Carter. The photograph shows a famine stricken Sudanese child trying to reach food. Behind her is a vulture waiting for her to die so it can eat her.

Starvation and lost hope

Life as a university student is difficult. I am heartbroken because I didn't have enough money to buy an iphone or an ipod touch, so I had to settle for a nano instead. This was upsetting because I can't actually fit all my music on it. I am a whole 5GB short. I often feel inadequate because my parents refuse to buy me a Louis Vitton handbag, which is the only one I really want, instead I have to settle for Country Road. 

I have enormous financial problems at the moment because while the internet is available at my university for free, I absolutely could not be without it in my college room. As a result of this, I must spend 30 dollars a month maintaining it, and even then, I have limited downloads. My phone also eats into my funds. I pay minimum, 30 dollars a month to ensure I have unlimited data text messages because all my friends live so far away. It would take me a good 30 minutes to walk to their homes if I wanted to talk to them. On that note, I often am heavily inconvenienced as I am too poverty stricken to buy a car. I do not want to be embarrassed driving it, which means I need at least ten thousand dollars to buy one. I will probably need to wait until I graduate and get a real job, which is not for another 4 years. 

Life is tragic in the Regional Areas in Australia. Young students living here are forced to live off only college food because the restaurants are just so incredibly expensive and the high end social life simply prevents most young people from having any time for a job. I am one of the lucky ones to hold a stable life guarding job at a theme park a couple of hours from Sydney, but I am only earning 17 dollars an hour. I don't make enough in a week to cover the cost of my rent. I am unable to move home because it was just so far from my university. It used to take me 50 minutes on the train, or 40 minutes driving, and often it was just impossible to get a car park anyway.

I don't know how I will get through the next four years of my life as a student. Some days, I get so upset by everything that all I want to do is come home and watch TV, only I don't have a TV in my room, and my computer screen is too small for the picture to be decent. I am seriously considering going on youth allowance because otherwise, I won't have a good social life next year, and unless I get ipod speakers for christmas, my hearing will probably start to deteriorate too since I am forced to use earphones. Life really is tragic.

Meanwhile, across the globe...

Nodira, which means 'unique' in Uzbek, is one of five children in a poor family. Every morning, after reciting her prayers, Nodira feeds the hens and goats from her wheelchair. The rest of her day is spent knitting for other people and helping her mother with the household chores.

Nodira has never been to school because it is too far from her home and inaccessible for her wheelchair. A local teacher used to come and tutor her at home and, as a result, she was able to finish third grade. After that, her parents moved to another town and the tutor's visits became more sporadic.

                       

Despite the many difficulties and frustrations that plague Nodira's life she is fortunate to be living with her family. The stigma attached to children living with disabilities, combined with the lack of wheelchair access in schools and the economic difficulties faced by many Uzbek families following the collapse of the Soviet Union, have led many parents to place children with disabilities in special institutions. In fact, of the 23,000 children in institutional care in Uzbekistan, 19,626 have disabilities.      

These days, Nodira does homework exercises at home and reads as much as she can. Still, it is unlikely that she will be able to finish her primary education, much less attend university. While missing out on an education is a great disappointment to Nodira, her greatest wish - a true friend - can still come true. Poverty Uzbekistan

( See: http://cozay.com/WORLD-POVERTY-STORIES.php)

See also...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZz6ICzpjI- A world vision video aimed to compare the lives of those who are poverty stricken and those who are, in comparison, spoilt brats.

Just keeping it real.

Rainy days are good for dreaming...

I love dreamy rainy days. Water makes the ground sparkle, there are mirror pools to reflect in, people seem busier and the noise the raindrops make as they hit my tin roof resonate throughout my room.

 Water is so shapeless. It can be whatever you want it to be. It can be your drink bottle, it can be your footprint, it can be your ice block mould on a hot summers day, cubes, or you know, the ones that come in flower shapes and such?

 It is just this amazing phenomenon that should create a sense of calm and peace with the world. It encourages growth, new life, nourishment and yet, people hate it, complain about it. They have car accidents because they don't have time to slow down, they run from place to place because getting wet would be so inconvenient. People hide inside and wallow in dreary moods because they "can't" go outside.

I sometimes walk to uni in the rain. I take my umbrella and listen to the water hitting the top. I watch it drip from the sides, I spin it around to make a feature fountain with me as it's centerpiece as I cross the bridge over the highway. I love being able to say I got caught in the rain. It's romantic, it is pretty, it is natural.

 I<3 rainy days

Excuse me sir, you're blocking my freedom

And so it becomes ironic that such conservative politicians are making such wild suggestions regarding the mandatory ISP filters.  Australia is becoming so conservative that it is apparently now necessary to regulate not just what children are accessing on the internet, but also adults too. Are we, as a whole nation, too immature to look at nasty websites? It starts out with illegal sites, such as child pornography, and ends in what? Facebook because it houses profiles of criminals and makes cyber bullying really easy? Wikipedia because it is an unregulated source of information? I mean come on, what happened to the free speech and personal choice that this country so readily boasts about to other nations?  This is Australia!
I recently wrote a letter to my federal member telling her exactly what I thought about this outrageous breach of my freedom.


I am writing to express my opposition and concern regarding the introduction of mandatory ISP filtering in response to a survey I was sent recently. I am currently studying a double degree in Law/Communications and Media (Journalism)  and as a student with a very liberal approach to life, I am offended at the idea of someone else deciding what is and isn't appropriate for me to access on the internet. I have grown up in a household where I have had unfiltered internet access from a very young age. I have no doubt, at some point in my childhood, come across content deemed inappropriate for a child's viewing, in the process of exploring the vast array of content available online, however, my parents have been careful to teach me right from wrong, and I assure you I have not been "corrupted" in any way.

 There are a number of concerns I have over the introduction of this mandatory filtering program. Firstly, while I agree that there is a lot of content available online that is not appropriate for children, I am of the opinion that money would be better spent on educating parents, and more importantly children, what is and isn't appropriate to access. The other option, is to use the money to put towards filters to give parents, who can then decide what they will/won't allow their child to access. A parent blocking certain sites from their children is one thing, the government blocking certain sites from fully functional, self sufficient adults, is another. There hardly seems to be a calling to deny adults access to this "inappropriate" content.  There can only ever be a subjective outlook on what is inappropriate to access in any case, since everyone has different ideas on what this might mean. What one person finds highly offensive, might be completely normal or even interesting/amusing to someone else. 

Secondly, we don't and can't filter everything considered inappropriate out of normal every day life, just as we cannot feasibly filter out every site that is deemed inappropriate.  We can't hide children from terrorist attacks, wars, topless sunbathers on local beaches, offensive language that is rife among school aged children ( as well as in the general public), dead animals on the side of the road or sex in movies- and this is only touching on what is really out there.  Honestly, I think often the news is worse than any website, and in this day and age, the news often exposes what is on certain websites anyway, which only boosts the viewing of those sites!

Finally, I would like to touch on the concern of freedom of personal choice. I understand that society deems certain things inappropriate collectively, however, in Australia, we boast essentially complete freedom. We advertise ourselves as an understanding, multicultural, diverse nation. People come to live here, to be free,  and yet here we are wanting to control what people access in the privacy of their homes? This is not tolerant, this is not freedom. This is control. Control that is unnecessary and insulting to the average Australian.

If you want more info, check out http://www.efa.org.au/censorship/mandatory-isp-blocking/ . Get angry.