Link Lovin' Meme

Lulu tagged me - and y'all know I can't resist being tagged.

Here are the rules:

1. Pick one of your favorite blogs leave a comment on their blog telling them about the meme, then write about how you found them, why you keep reading them, and what they blog about.

2. You pick a blog from their blogroll, YOU HAVE NEVER READ, give a small blurb about what you liked about their blog…. comment on the blog to let them know about the meme (if you have nothing nice to say PICK ANOTHER ok.. this is all about the love baby!)”

Before I get onto this, you must go and check out Lulu's site - I have met her twice now (while The Hun and I were in Japan last year, and then again last weekend in Brissy!) and she is just so lovely! She is so friendly, and always good for a chat - and willing to put up with my new-fiancee-ness (you all know I'm gonna be picking her brain). Her blog covers a lot of different things - talking about her family, fiance and wedding plans, as well as developing her writing and other projects through listing and encyclopedia-ing. You can go back and read about her time in Japan - it's very cross-cultural!

So - my step one is D'jen. As soon as I see she has an update I am there STRAIGHT AWAY. I'm pretty sure I found her when she commented on my site, but I could have this totally backwards - my memory is shot! I met her at the first group nerdfest I ever attended, one that she organised, and one that made a completely awesome night for me. Not only did she arrange everything and get people to meet, she bussed to my hotel, picked me up in the lobby, bussed with me to the meeting place and we sat and chatted for an hour whilst spying on poor ol' Adam (all wrapped up here). She is just one of the easiest people to get along with, she is totally accomodating, she is upbeat for others even when she is feeling down and she is always more than 100% fun. Although we've only met in person three times, I really do consider her a good friend of mine - although people just gravitate to her, so I'm sure I'm not alone in this statement. At the moment she is totally living it up in Japan, applying for jobs in Tokyo (to escape her loving legion of fans from all around Aus) and doing a great job of wrapping it up for all of us stuck back here at home! She also write about her work, her (now completed) study and just her everyday life - she is one of the few people who can write post about ducking down to the shops that will totally enthrall you. I'd be surprised if there are any of you here that aren't already reading her, but if you are like the only 3 in Aus, then I suggest you skip over there quick smart!

My step two is J-Money - I can't believe I hadn't come across her before! From what I've read (and what made me add her to my reader) is that she writes well , she's a great story teller and she's funny as all heck! I can't wait to catch up on the backposts and really get into it.

~Don't forget - ideas for post 600 would be Very Much Appreciated~

Qld wrapup

I can't believe it's Thursday and I didn't get another romantic proposal!

I do, however, believe that I promised to tell you about Jen's farewell.

I had a FANTASTIC time! People - if you get the chance to travel interstate to catch up with friends, then you just have to do it.

Weekend Summary:

• Gf1, Gf2 and I got no more than four hours sleep each the night before - I guess one of the things we have in common is a habit of procrastinating our packing.
  
• Saturday started at 4:30am - it was dark, but still a mild 5 degrees. Which may sound cold, but it was -2 when we were near Lake George with the windows open (Gf1 gets travel sick).
• Gf1 was accused of being a bad friend on the flight up, as she sat next to me while I cradled my head in my hands. I am not a good flier. By the end of it, I was the one looking like a bad friend - Gf1s travel sickness was kicking in, and I was casually flipping through the wedding mag we picked up at the last minute.
• The DFO was okay, but nothing too spectacular - that said, I got a pair of Oroton sunnies for $70, reduced from $200!
• We got into a cab that was sitting out the front of the DFO, and were greeted by a, ehm, friendly old cabbie. He had lived in Canberra and was full of the type of peculiar jokes that only a lonley old ex Canberran can make. This culminated in him asking for one of our numbers and Gf2 was deemed the one 'lucky' enough to hand over her name and number - he confirmed he'd meet us out the front of the hotel at 11am the next morning.
• BTW - F*CK QANTAS. Those guys canelled our 3:15 return flight and offered us only a 10:15 or 6:15 return flight with ZERO apology. They later called back to let us know there were 3 free seats on the 12:15, but seriously. I hate you guys.
• We bummed around for a while, and just as I was starting to feel left out (Gf1 and Gf2 were sharing a room and getting ready in the other end of the apartment) they surprised me with choccies and champagne!!!
• The Oaks Margaret is VERY highly recommended! Kristy met up with us there and she also gave it the thumbs up (and showed me some Tupperware I need to get my hands on!).
  
• The party itself was great! It was so good to catch up with Jen, Jey, Deb, Jac, Laura and Lee. It was also nice to meet Andy and Shun for the first time - go boy power! The food and bar service was also super fantastic and everyone had a great time. I wish everyone lived closer!!! There was a lot of drinking, a lot of squealing, a lot of catching up and a few (unsuccessful)photos with Jen's fingerstache. Somewhere along the line I bumped the settings on my camera, so most of my pics are blurry and/or dark and/or discoloured. Wah!
• Also - SECRET SPEWER - WE ALL KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!!
• PS - vegan cupcakes? NOM NOM NOM. Even though I don't know if they were the best, they were still the tastiest thing I've had in quite a while - the third piece of 'cake' I've had in just over 2.5 years.
  
• We finished early-ish (roughly midnight I think?) but that was to be expected after a full day of travel and only 4 hours sleep the night before! We figured everyone was going to party on, but I think everyone left not long after us.
• The next day we popped down the markets near where we were (for a CD and an envirobag) and then got a call from our cabbie - who was early. When we got there, he announced he would take us on a housing tour, seeing as we had time! Well. I have never been more mentally prepared to bash an old person - I was fully alert that he may be trying to kill us, driving up in the hills - it was all very suss! Luckily for him the fare turned out roughly the same as it cost us the day before to get to the airport to the DFO and then the DFO to the hotel. But still. Highly innapropriate.
• The flight back was bumpy and long. And I broke a headrest. And we were right up the back. But then, we found the car fine and we made it back home by 8pm - a great weekend had by all.
  

So there you are - a pretty awesome 40 hours. I can't wait to catch up with all you guys again!

There's new love through the door...

For something I have thought so much about, over so long, in so many different ways - I don't really know how to start.

Last Thursday was the mine and The Huns 4.5 year anniversary.

Last Thursday was the day he surprised me more than I had ever expected.

Last Thursday was the day he became my fiance.

I walked in the door, holding on to some anger from earlier in the day. He greeted me and I grunted a hello and headed straight for the shower. I flicked on the bathroom light and exhaust fan to get ready for my shower and I heard music coming from the other room - the song a few months ago I had suggested could be our wedding song one day. I flicked off the light and exhaust so I could listen.

"Did you look on the bed?" he asked, hopefully.
"No" was my gruff response.
I turned, and on my pillow was a single red rose and a gorgeous little stuffed bear.

"Thankyooou" I called as I turned around.
And he was in the doorway with a box. I look inquisitively and turned and opened it on the ironing bored.

A bottle of Brown Brothers Moscato.
Two wine glasses.
And a ring box, perfectly wrapped with a little bow.

He held me and he asked me.
And all I could respond with was tears, and 'did you wrap this yourself?' and 'can I open it?' and 'really?' and 'really?' and 'really?'.

And it wasn't until the song almost ended that I remembered I should tell him 'yes'.

It was so perfect.

And I am just so happy.

Choose your own adventure!

Do you guys want to hear about my exciting Thursday OR about Jen's farewell on the weekend?

Majority Rules!

(Also - let me know any ideas you have for #600, yeah?!)

Humbly shot dots

Okay. I'm a bad blogger. Let me try to break it down here.

• The diet blog stopped - I was enjoying it, but there's only so much talking to the wall one person can do. I was writing there everday, writing here less, stopped writing there, and didn't write here any more. It could make a comeback, so jam it in your feeder and we'll see what happens. And FYI, I haven't gained that weight back... I just haven't lost any more either!

• I've been in a bit of a funk lately. It's roughly 50% my fault, and because I shirk responsibility, I won't take any more of it than that. Knowing that I worked myself into it doesn't mean it just disapears, it just means that I came very close to breaking point, and willed myself away from that. It can be so exhausting in my head, and my manic extremes exsaberate it to no end. But all is good. I just needed some down time.

• 600 posts is drawing near. Any suggestions for how to celebrate? I know that RSS has eaten everyone's souls, but at this stage all ideas are welcome.

• I'd like to send my thoughts to the Dave Matthew Band - the amazing saxophonist LeRoi Moore passed away today. I have a bunch of live CD's and he is just so talented, and all the fans love him ("Happy Birthday LeRoi!") and I'm glad I got a chance to see him in Sydney. The DMB instrumentals can drag on when you listen through headphones, but they were fantastic live, one of my top five shows of all time.

• Gf1, Gf2 and I are leaving Canberra at 5am on Saturday to drive to Sydney to fly to Brisbane. Not only to go mental at the DFO, lounge about in an apartment and spend strange amounts of time together while ducking down to the foyer to use the loo, but because they are good friends who agreed to come with me to a farewell for someone they have not met. And may never meet again. Yup - we're off to Brissy for Jen's farewell! I'm trying to think of it as just an awesome party, because thinking of it as a farewell makes me feel sad... even though she's interstate and we only met twice! I'll do my best to bring back some yellow-faced piccies.

• Also - any Canberran's heading out to the opening of the Canberra DFO? I am SO keen for it. I was one of the 3000 to register for the opening night which is going to be crazy insane - we're so tight down here, so all the crazies will be out - but still, can't wait.
  

• Pounder went in for the snip today, and the vet also found a rotten tooth he is pulling out. Of his mouth, of course. The vet said that his teeth indicate he's actually only 2 or 3 years old, which gives him a few bonus years, and is good news for my family that is trying, unsuccessfully, to house train him. Hopefully his new subtraction will severely cut down his urination fascination, and perhaps even cut back some of the crazy.
  

• In other Pounder news, mumsy and I are attending this workshop (that Jey told us about - thanks Jey!) to try to delve into the behavioural issues. Even if it doesn't work, I think it will be great to learn what they have to teach, and uber-great to spend the Sunday morning surrounded by dogs!

• Uni - zomg. 10 weeks to go. That's 8 classes. 7 if you exclude the test next week. It's a boring unit and it's run TERRIBLY but I am that keen to finish and be graduating. I'm thinking of buying myself one of these as a graduation present - thoughts?
  

• The house hunting has cooled a little - prices are dropping, and are expected to sit roughly 5-10% in 6 - 12 months time. This may not seem like much, but we have awesome rent where we are atm, so we are in a better position to save and have a better deposit when we do find the 'perfect' place. If we get budged out, we'll look to buy. But if not, we'll stay here while we can and make some savings. Fingers crossed.

• I am SO over the olympics. The Hun has been up until 1am most nights and it is tiring being woken up when he wakes up on the couch and goes to bed!
  

• Speaking of bed - we have hit jackpot. Instead of constantly playing tug-of-war over the two doona's that only seem capable of being on one side of the bed at a time, we have put the doona's UNDER the blanket and ABOVE the sheets. INGENIOUS! You would not BELIEVE what a difference it has made. Random CAPS worth of difference!!!

• My martial arts trip for Darwin next year has been canned, but I will instead be heading up to Maroochydore. I will be heading up there this December too. Oh! And all my work travel (to Brissy, Parramatta, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth) looks to be happening in October - nerdfests ahoy!
  

• I think that's all I have for now. Please forgive my past indiscretions, I promise to make this little window of time more worth your while.

Have a great weekend everyone!

What's wrong with the world?

I read this over at Zenhabits and saved it in my reader. Then I emailed it to some friends. And now I'm posting part of it here so that you will read it too:

How to Love the World as It Is
So let’s say that you’d like to try this world-view. You’d like to love people, and the entire world, as it is, and not as you’d like it to be. How do you go about doing that?

There are six things I recommend doing:

1. Stop looking for perfection and ideals. Realize that you have an ideal in your head, and that it is probably incompatible with the world. It might be an ideal about a person, or about how things should be. The world, and people, are not perfect. Stop looking for perfection, and realize that it is already here.

2. Observe. Instead of looking at this ideal picture in your head, look at what’s really there. What is the world really like? What are people really like? The only way to know this is to observe. Listen to people. Look at the world around you. Gather data, from reality.

3. Understand. Now that you have this data, start asking questions. Why are people the way they are? Why did someone do what they did? Why does this problem really exist? Don’t stop at the first answers you come up with — dig deeper, and deeper, until you really understand something. Seek to understand before you judge, in all situations. Sometimes that will require imagination — you won’t be able to really know the root of something unless you personally investigate everything, but instead sometimes you can try to imagine what made a person the way they are, or a situation what it is.

“To understand everything is to forgive everything.” - Buddha

4. Accept. Once you’ve observed and begun to understand, accept that this is the way the world is. This is who the person is. The world isn’t going to meet any ideal — it is what it is, and while it will always change, it probably won’t change to meet your ideal. The person in question is exactly the same — they won’t meet your ideal, but are who they are. Accept this as fact.

5. Love and compassion. Once you’ve accepted things or people as they are … try to find it in your heart to love them, as they are. The way to do this is to see the good in everything and everyone, and if you’ve sought to really look and understand, you will find good in everything. When you see bad things, understand that this is because of suffering, and have compassion and seek to end that suffering.

6. Enjoy life. The world is a wonderful place once you’ve accepted it for what it is and sought to love it. People are wonderful creatures, full of life and creativity and messiness and uniqueness. Accept this, understand it, love it. And enjoy this gift we’ve been given, for it is incredible. And perfect, just as it is.

“Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.” - Buddha

I think it's a lovely little reality check - I find myself so easy getting caught up in ideals that are not even necessarily my own, and constantly comparing it all.

It doesn't do anyone any good.

Boy or Girl?

Came across this via Lifehacker - simply go to this site, click the button, and find out if your site history indicates you are male or female.

My results:

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 41%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 59%


Site Male-Female Ratio
facebook.com 0.83
gmail.com 0.9
smh.com.au 1.2
ebay.com.au 1.08
evilbeetgossip.com 1.44

Is this saying more men go to SMH, eBay and EvilBeetGossip?!

What were your results?

Shock and Awe

!!!SHOCK!!!

For those who were a little concerned at my last post - don't be distressed. Everything is fine, I had a little blip on my big radar, and decided to put my thoughts to 'good' use.

!!!AWE!!!

My 600th post is looming - blagh! If you have any, Any, ANY ideas for me, I would lurve to hear them. Heavens know what I am going to do...

Got to get through this

I will be restrained, I will show how well I can control the bigness that this has become.
And how quickly it is repaid.

Four days of thoughts, of images, of dreams and smiles.
Singing alone, hoping they can see.
This is it. This is that girl. This is the moment.

Laughs and jokes.
Empty threats.
Reaching for you hand, finding it clammy.
Push it down, push it back, cover it up.

And yet.
You didn't need to say that.
Not here and please not now.

Your eyes shift to the sides.
I try to stay to calm, to suggest a work around.
And we leave.

No, we don't need to wander.
No, I don't need to eat.
But I will. I will reach for the hot.
Find solace in keeping my hands busy and my eyes focussed.

I don't want to sit down.
I don't want to sit under the fluorescent light.
Features lit up, born bare for all to see.
I don't want to sit in the darkness.
Emptiness rising from the edges, above and below.

I don't want this to be happening, but it is.
Please don't think it is to hurt you.
And I don't think you are to hurt me.
But I know that this is not the way it should be, that this is something I need to process, that this is something that is going to escape from me.

I cannot hold on.

Focus and breathe.
Pacing back and forth.
Knowing that what I want should not happen like this.

In the dark, cold space where it started.
The tears begin before I've even turned the key.
Gasping sobs, shuddering chin, the wrinkles in my eyes no longer a favour of mine.

It rises and grows.
Heavier and deeper.
Lounder and more torn.

The lights turn to stars turn to suns.
The brightness stings to comfort the pain.
The gasping providing the air that I need, the air I need to take in and heave back out.

The air that we both breathe.
Together.

Hair cuts and Hair cats

So - the ever lovely Pounder finally got a trim this week.

We've always taken our dogs to the same place, a good feature of which was the report cards - it was always hilarious to read Elvis' report cards, tracking his devolution to his crotchety old man behavior.

Whilst they still tie the same little bows into the dogs fringes, they don't do the report cards anymore. We did hear that the crazy dog did go into a bit of a frenzy when he was in the cage, biting at his own leg. And he did it again yesterday. Interesting.

BUT - here are the gratuitous shots, courtesy of Youngest Bro:

The little jacket used to belong to Max, I think it's doing a good job of keeping him warm AND making him look like a smart little man.

Also (for Deb!) here is bossy Mr Cat harassing Youngest Bro:

*MROW!MREOOOOOW!MROW!*

Times there me some truth to your partners cleaning martyrdom...

...when 48 hours after scrubbing the shower you're still experiencing severe tightness in the backs of your legs that you've never (NEVER) felt before.

BrisVegan + Vegan = meetup

Am sitting on the couch waiting for the arrival of the ever so lovely Jac and her bf as they they are picking up some form of car-thing from Queanbeyan - Jey rightly masterminded that they'd probably be more comfy in my townhouse than in a tent in freezing Canberra, so tonight I have houseguests!

First blogmeet I've hosted - think I'll get too keen on the grog and blabber at this one too?