Steve Jobs

'Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to   avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.'


'Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.'


a friend showed me the 2005 commencement speech from Stanford and these are some of the lines that really stuck with me. watch the speech here

That awkward moment..

when you have to decide if the elevator is too full, and then after you get in, 
you realise it is.

seams

i'm one of those people who is picky about clothing quality.
after spending 4 years learning about textiles and sewing techniques and the burning characteristics of every fibre you can think of, i pick my clothes carefully.
so it annoys me when i get it wrong.

my most favourite singlet ever, the best shape and fit and the most comfortable fabric, has just a bizarre cut. it's a discrepancy in the making that only my singlet has.

the bad thing is looking at it everytime i wear it i see this weird seam, that instead of going down goes slightly across and ends on a diagonal. i know it doesn't sound like much, but after 4 years of 'your mitred corners aren't flat enough' and 'i can't believe that shocking overlocking!', it really bugs me to see it everytime.

it gets worse.
because i love it and it's so comfortable, i went back to buy one with straight seams.
they don't have them anymore!
well, they do. but in the wrong fabric, a terrible synthetic one.

from now on, i will only purchase an item once it has passed my thorough sewing quality control check!

bus trips

for the first time in a
very
very
very
long time, i sat at the front of the bus.
and it made such a difference


usually i spend my bus time looking out the side of the window just looking at the same sites
this time i was watching the road and the same trip was completely different


try it sometime, add some excitement to that portion of your day

bus stops

as i am lucky enough to spend a significant amount of time commuting, i get to put in my daily amount of people-watching on busses and at bus stops.

from this very favourite pasttime, i have noticed something that renders me even more lazy*, but particularly handy when you're at my bus stop, which has a bench undercover that has no view of the street.

there is a certain step that 90% of people at the stop take, and that is either forwards to indicate a bus they want is coming and are planning to get on board, or backwards as a public show of the fact that it is not their bus.
this way, if you can't see the street, because, say, the bench you and your concrete cube are sitting on is conveniently hidden behind a large covering, just watch the other people at the stop.

albeit a tad creepy, you won't have to stand whilst waiting.


* disclaimer!
i'm a design student, which means my daily luggage could consist of anything from a large drawing board to an even larger (sometimes larger than myself) piece of box board, to a giant box full of models, to a super heavy concrete cube.
so my want need for a seat is quite justified, okay?!

phone magic!

i love that my phone decided to save certain messages onto my sim card - in random order - when i changed phones. i would have thought it saves the first 10 or however many fit onto the card, but in this case they are, really, all randomly saved.

i have a few that i'd like to share [again]

- Ok so long as you are ok. You are ok? ... DONT GOOGLE THE QUESTION MOSS.

- *in equally horrific accent* Ach! Ze bus! You are a lucky duck! unt dunkeshein for ze shtrudle!

naked laptop

my laptop is quite old so i can hardly use it without it being plugged in.
so this morning when i used my laptop as a laptop (ie without plugging it in)

i realised that
it looked naked

avenue q

and thanks to the last post, i was reminded of this truly wonderful song




because of the line

"don'cha feel all warm and cosy watching people out in the rain?

you BET!

that's schadenfreude*, people talking pleasure in your pain."



i was absolutely thrilled to go and see this wonderful musical, avenue q, when it was here in sydney last year. i've known the songs for about, i don't know, 6 years and was looking forward to the chance to see it in america sometime, so when it came here i jumped for joy!

it was absolutely hilarious and i'm sure the people i went with thought the same, especially as i was able to sing along to every single song and truly improve their experience of the whole thing *cough*

i'm an avenue q nerd!

*wikipedia it


stay tuned for more songs

rain

happy and unhappy are on two opposite sides of the spectrum.
but the rain can make one feel both feelings.

when you're in the rain, it sucks. especially if you have to walk somewhere and your feet get extremely wet and then you arrive and the bottom half of your leg is soaked and there's nothing you can do about it except wallow in soggy socks until you return home.

but when you're inside, it's a calming to hear the rain just outside your window. being tucked up in bed with a hot chocolate and wonderful book, (even if it's the bfg by roald dahl, don't mock my literary choices) is a welcoming time for the gentle monotony of water on the roof.


am i right?

amazing week

and im back from my week of wonderful



so when i first heard about the aforementioned volunteer trip, i thought it would be an awesome way to do something great and useful during my holidays

what i didn't realise was what an impact 36 young adults can make on a community, whether it be planting 400 tree saplings or beautifying a health centre or moving TEN TONNES of mulch in such a small amount of time.
i didn't realise how much fun the bus trips would be, where we danced (and sang) to justin bieber in the aisles, as well as participated in bus idol AND bonded with the best bus driver ever!
i didn't realise how much we would bond as a team and friends and i know i've made lifelong friendships
i didn't realise the withdrawal symptoms i would have, particularly not being surrounded by 35 others when trying to sleep
i didn't realise just how much i would love it.


i hope each and every one of you gets a chance to participate in something this amazing.


love love

people-watching

so i work at markets.
which means i get the lovely task of watching people for hours as they browse.

and i've learnt a couple of things..

like couples who dress the same. should not. it just shouldn't be legal.

and mums who wear the same hats as their kids look cute. really.

and men's skirts exist! like cargo pant material in skirt form!


and everyone believes you'll love their pooch as much as they do.

which makes me sound like a hypocrite cough cough cough but i promise i don't believe you'll love them like i do, i just like taking photos!


love love

holiday photos

i'm such a tourist.
i have to take photos of everything, from window displays to interestingly shaped cutlery. what i've noticed, during my years *cough* of photo-taking in crowded places, is that inevitably someone's going to look up and realise you're taking a photo. of them. even though you're not really taking it of them, they always think so. especially those big beefy guys with beautiful girlfriends.

what i'm wondering is, how are you supposed to react? what is the proper etiquette when you take a photo of a stranger because they are in the viewfinder in front of that funnily spelt sign?

i know what i do.
i just take the photo really quickly, turn the camera off and slink away. if eye contact is established i smile meekly and don't say anything. there's nothing illegal about taking photos of landmarks, it's just awkward when people are in the scene. and i'm sure i'm on photos of random strangers. it's a fact. plus, when you go out in public, other people see you. a photo is just a little more permanent reminder of your face in public..

just never pick your nose near your city's landmarks.
that's just silly.

i'll be back

please please please read that in the arny voice!

i'm not going to post for 2 ish weeks until my semester is over and all my assignments are in and done. and then i'll go crazy, coz i'll be on holidays whilst all my friends are still studying.

and i've got so much planned for the holidays

i really want to go to the movies more.
i hardly ever go. and i like movies. so i think i should go more often. i thought about this yesterday and even dreamt about going to the cinema near my place. (i have really exact dreams, but that's another story)

i'm going on an amazing volunteer trip
where we're helping restore wildlife after flood damage and helping out with rebuilding a school and many more exciting and loving things. for which i'm fundraising right now. (read - chocolate selling)

i'm going to spring clean!
yes, it shall be a hard task, and yes it's winter, but that just means even more rooibos tea with biscuits to motivate me. yum :)

clay making!
i'm going to be making a lot of jewellery to build up my collection.
if you have any ideas, let me know!!

because i live in australia, i'm going to be doing lots of snuggling and staying inside for our *cough* cold winter.

but i'll also be out, i have a few photo projects planned.

i'm going to do lots of reading on designers and architects and sustainable architecture
(see this for what i mean) and lots of bookmarking of wonderful webpages to share.

which brings me to my next point - i'm going to be blogging. a lot.
so please come back and read and comment and let me know how adored i am *cough*



and so i leave you with some jewellery and some sentimental bits.

these pretzels are the ones i baked a long time ago, and then i borrowed a friends lens and took some closer pics of them. my fav are the glazed ones - i would eat that!

it's been just over a year since i started making jewellery (because of this one) and i look back over my first cupcakes that i made. (which i coincidently threw out the other day because i used the wrong clay and they didn't bake properly. they came out warm and soft. ew.)

anyway i digress.
so pretty much, comparing the stuff i used to make with above photos and others i am so proud of how i've improved since then and am looking forward to see how i continue to learn new techniques and think of even more things to make. (that includes ideas from others, so let me know if you have any!)




and now i am off to throw myself into my work and i'll be up for air in 2ish weeks.


love love

rules of rainy day etiquette

1) when walking with umbrellas, leave ample room for others to walk past you, especially if they also have an umbrella. don't walk right next to them and get them wet when your umbrella collides with theirs.

2) make sure to avoid puddles. if you are an avid puddle fan, please wait until all others are out of the splash range before engaging in said jumping activities. don't get others wet because it's fun for you. it's not for us.

3) to continue on the puddle theme, can car drivers please avoid driving right next to the curb just to splash pedestrians. we shouldn't be soaked because we're doing out bit for the environment by not driving. don't purposefully veer to the side, we can see you doing it.


i rest my case.



on a side note: 100th post! woop!

ah retrospect.

i was listening to the radio this morning and the announcer was saying how he checked his daughter's facebook and most of the kids were online during the day on their phones.
this got me thinking - what did we do in class when i was younger? we didn't have facebook mobile or iPhones or for that matter, iPods for a while..

but what we did do


was play



snake!


and now there is a convenient online version here.

go carazy!


found image here

train motion sickness

after spending 3 and a half hours on a fast train, you get used to the subtle movements. but after spending 3 and a half hours off the train, walking around and sitting to eat lunch, and you still move?

well that's train motion sickness.
it's as if you're still on the train, and you pretty much only notice it if you're sitting down.
it's a pretty weird sensation that i have had the great pleasure of experiencing.

billy joel

anyone who can sing this is worthy of my love.





sorry for the non-official video but it won't let me embed the real one. click here for it.

what makes me happy

i know most people this motivational stuff kinda cheesy, but on the worst days, it's nice to know there are people out there who want to help you feel better.

during my last year of school, my website of choice was fmylife, where i could laugh and feel schadenfreude :)

now my website choice has changed to other things, although i still read FML sometimes.


everytime i go to this website, i find something to improve my spirits.
alex is an amazing writer, and along with his team, has created a blog full of inspirational and amazing stories.

the one i love at the moment is this article, 30 true things you need to know now.
please go and read it, because it's got some pretty amazing quotes on there. since last thursday i have a new quote on my wall -

if the map doesn't agree with the ground, the map is wrong.
- dr. gordon livingston

it doesn't necessarily connect to what alex wrote about, but i found it such a nice quote i had to stick it up on my wall.


and one day i will share my wall of love on this blog.

william

so much of me loves shakespeare. despite having thoroughly studied many plays in my short life (including the dreaded hamlet and his procrastination, which makes us alike),

i love the language he uses

and i wish we still spoke like that today

even though it would be very hard and every sentence infinitely longer. imagine the msn talk!


i try to get a dose of shakespeare in my vocabulary at least once a day, usually by saying wherefore instead of why. it's hard though, because most people don't get it and then i have to go on my spiel about liking shakespearian language and admitting to being a nerd and it gets complicated.

to uncomplicate, i propose a 'talk like shakespeare day' should be established, particularly for those nerdy counterparst among us. there's a 'use a shakespearian insult day' so i concur that my day will be quite popular.


do youse agree?


(and yes, my grammar is supposed to be ironic)

i miss fridays

last year, we began a new routine.

every friday at midday, we'd grab a guitar, sit on an empty hillside and play and sing every song we could think of.

i would sing as loudly and as badly as i could, but it was so fun!

and now i miss those days.
and i don't even have any photos to share how awesome our little spot was!