What would a 20 year old girl be doing at 8:30 on a Monday night?
Well if your anything like me then you are sitting in your car (you know the one that 3 hours ago was working perfectly but now won't start because you think the battery is dead but the lights and battery still work so really you have no idea :-S) in the commuters car park of the local train station waiting for your 'second family' to come and rescue you because your dad had to take your traumatized sister to her musical rehersal (first full day at work and was already running late to rehersal when the car I had parked down at the station earlier today for her to drive wouldn't start) in the mx-5 (which for those of you who don't know, only has 2 seats) and your mum is working a 24 hour shift at the hospital (so can't leave) and happens to (for once) have taken the other 5 seater car that also happens to have the jumper cables in it!!! - go figure :-P
(the view from where I perch in case you were wondering)
oh random people are so nice! A lovely lady I've never met just came over to offer me some help but it's okay help is already on the way
(notice my trademarked bare feet)
*** fast foward 15 minutes ***
My knights in shining Honda all wheel drives have arrived, and used the jumper cables taken from my mums car at the hospital to start my car.
I am sitting in my car in my street grumbling because in the 20 minutes I have been gone one of my neighbours has parked outside my house (in a spot btw that my family happens to manage to park 2 cars in whilst they barely get one) whilst also contemplating (in the dark) the fact that, in order for my cars battery to charge I should probably leave it running for at least 20 minutes, which I could do from the comfort of the house except for the rather large fact that my house keys are attached to my car key via a key ring (go figure) and so where one goes they must all go!... To be bothered or not to be bothered... That is the question :-P
OMG OMG OMG I'm sorry I totally forgot!!! my last post was suposed to be dedicated to Codie as she was tyhe first to comment! I am such a nutter and I forgot :-( hope this kinda makes up for it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah... don't think I can't hear you groaning at my pitiful attempt to be smart, witty and funny... and it hurts my friend, it hurts :'( all I ever wanted was to be loved :-(
Moving on!
So I think I may in fact be just about the last person in the world (or at least my world) to have jumped on the Love Sac bandwagon (and just in case I am not and your reading this post thinking of all things kinky - ITS NOT! here is what I mean love sac) They are just about the most comfortable thing on this Earth! Like I have been dreaming about them all week (and all of a sudden the reasons for my chronic 'singleness' become so much clearer).
No really... when a group of us found ourselves in their store in the entertainment quarter (needing some serious cheering up after having seen "Remember me" at the movies - but thats a whole other story) I plonked my butt down in one and refused to get up - seriously - like Eddy was dragging me kicking and screaming out of the store (this even after we had fought over the seats).
I want one. Nei I HAVE to have one! like yesterday! Every house/unit/entertainment area should have one! Except I have no room for one in my room :-(... so it'll just have to wait until I move out... and then I can get a whole set! :-D...
Just don't try telling that to my mum, the conversation won't get you anywhere:
D: When I get my own place I'm going to get a love sac.
Mum: But they are so expensive!
D: Not really. I mean a whole lounge suite will set you back upwards of $7000 and a love sac will only set me back one.
M: But you need the lounges too for people to sit in.
D: No I don't. They can sit in the love sac.
M: I won't.
D: Well you can have a kitchen chair.
What do you do when it’s the beginning of your final year (semester) at uni and you have about a rainforests worth of course reading, a bedroom floor that hasn’t been visible since colonization, a resume to update and a books worth of tabbed graduate jobs to research and apply for (because you have no idea what you want to do with your life you just know that you want it to be amazing)?...
Any ideas?
Well if your name is Darcy then you feed your TV show addiction and then write a blog about it… sort of.
Oh! And talking online to your friends whilst attempting to type with one hand as the other attempts to glue your laptop back together with clear nail polish (long story – well actually not so long, it gets hauled around a lot and as my legion of broken/ex point and shoot digital camera’s will attest to… I’m not exactly the most gentle of people. But don’t worry, its not as bad as it sounds… :S). I think I am actually getting better at the whole one hand thing – not ready to go full time though.
But that’s not the real point lets get down to business…
Hi my name is Darcy and I’m an addict.
An entertainment addict that is, and my newest obsession? (Don’t worry you can stop reading now, this is where I’ll probably start going a little psycho, not lock my mothers corpse in the basement and have conversations with her type of psycho but, well, you know what I mean).
It’s called “Make it or break it,” a fictional American TV series aimed at (I’m assuming) teenagers about a group of elite female gymnasts trying to make it to the Olympics. We watch as they juggle home schooling, stage parents, coaches and boys and hopefully as they ultimately succeed in their goals. Don’t worry though, I didn’t just give away the end, I have no idea what’s going to happen because I’m not finished but come on, this is America, so one of two things will happen… they will win or they will loose but make some kind of radical self-discovery that leads them “be a winner anyway”.
And yes I am allowed to be a cynic and say these kinds of things because ultimately I enjoy watching it anyway; just call it as I see it.
My point? Do I ever have one? No really, do I?
Well, if you can ignore the sometimes dubious acting and the fact that most of the girls quite obviously don’t have a gymnasts physique (once again don’t kill me, they are all gorgeous healthy girls but just don’t look like world class gymnasts).
Will you laugh if I say that the reason I like it is because it speaks to me? Well of course you will, hey I’m laughing just reading this back now :-P but its true. Not because I was ever an elite gymnast (although I’d be lying if I said that just watching all the flips and leaps doesn’t make my muscles tense and want to fly). In fact, the reasons behind my enjoyment of this series probably has something to do with the lecture readings that I’m avoiding at this very point in time, no not the avoidance but their actual content. But that’s a story for another time.
Suffice to say that the little dreamer girl in me who wants to be a superhero finds the plight of these girls and their everyday life somewhat intriguing.
Is it just me or do other people also find that they don’t really see how far they have come, how much has or hasn’t changed until they are smacked in the face with it or in my case thrown back into a similar situation as before only with a few extra years under the belt.
Before I go on and loose you completely, please, let me explain. As I think I may have mentioned before, this past week was my first week of classes for Autumn semester (okay so maybe I started writing this post last Friday, but don’t hold that against me, just keep reading and cut me some slack), a semester in which I will complete just two subjects: Corporate Reporting Issues and Managing people and organisations (the latter of which is a compulsory first year subject that I just never got around to starting…)
So I’m sitting in my Friday afternoon lecture, my notes printed, single black pen out and cardigan on (this particular lecture theatre fluctuates between freezing and Arctic even on the warmest of Sydney summer days). Meanwhile, all around me are these bubbly, chatty, young things wearing teeny tiny micro shorts, thongs (aka flip flops) and singlets (needless to say they were freezing already) with bags full of stationary.
A few interesting things happen after this:
1.I get to hear the wonderful speech that goes along the lines of “your no longer in school and your learning is up to you” whilst simultaneously being spoon-fed and toured through every letter in the subject outline.
2.Notice a familiar face in the crowd, brain immediately says “public speaking” but think, no I’ve never spoken against her – horror, brain says, “No she’s Ariel’s speaking friend” – Ahh!!! I’m in the same class as my sister’s friends!
3.Txt Ariel who replies with the text equivalent of rolling on the floor laughing whilst pointing and enjoying it all just a bit much.
4.Txt Eddy hoping for some sympathy – “OMG just realised that I am doing a first year subject. I mean I knew it but the reality just set in. They are everywhere!!! AND I JUST SAW ONE OF ARIEL’S FRIENDS!!!” “Have you had a lil too much sugar this morning” “They scare me Ed, they scare me” I take that as a yes. They’re 1st years they r scary, your superior, a 4th year Hogwarts” “lol, no. They are like a nest of ants, everywhere… you can’t see them all but you can feel them crawling all over you and hear their pincers preparing to bite!” … Needless to point out, I didn’t get the comfort I was looking for… Okay so in hindsight it was a tad melodramatic *cough cough*… I’ll claim that you just had to be there.
5.The guy next to me introduced himself - *shock* if I was in a movie you would insert a spit take here - and I quote “wow you don’t look like a 4th year”… still trying to figure out how to do this…
6.The lecture started, it ended, and I went shopping up the road (yup this is the best part of the day… :-D)
So what’s the point of all of this? Well, apart from the fact that certain ‘friends’ of mine seem to think that since I am only at uni part time this semester it is acceptable for them to pester me for blog posts to distract them from *ehem* work (Oh but I do appreciate it). But no that’s not the real point, the point is that, while I may look like a baby and be mistaken for a teen on an almost daily basis, I am most definitely NOT a first year! And that my friend is nice to know :-D
Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Darcy and I am a 20-year-old final semester university student. For the last 3 years I have been studying business with a major in accounting and a sub major in Chemistry at a well-known Sydney University. Simultaneously I have been working various jobs to support myself and save enough fund my month long trip to Europe last July.
I am intelligent, If you will allow me to say so myself, even if my recent academic results don’t always show it. I’ll admit, I don’t always apply myself to my full potential and there are no real excuses I can make for this fact.
As I said, I am in my final semester of university, final two subjects in fact, and so I find myself in the position where I am asking: what comes next? Where do I go from here?
For part if the summer break just passed I completed a summer internship at a major accounting firm. The people were nice, I appreciated the experience and I completed my work well (or so I have been told) and I was subsequently offered a graduate position starting in 2011. Here is the catch; I don’t think I want to be an accountant, even in the broadest sense of the word. Yet, everyone I know, everyone I meet keep telling me to just take the graduate job and do my CA (Chartered Accountancy qualification). They say, and I quote “the hours are long and the pay is shit and they chew you up and spit you out. But once it’s done (3 years) you will be able to get a ‘better’ job, earn a lot of money and then travel if you wish.”
But, when does it stop? Or more accurately, when does it start? My life that is, when am I allowed to start living my life? And what does a ‘better’ job mean anyway?! More money? Well that’s another whole issue all together. Maybe I have gotten a little ahead of myself here.
You see, while I do not consider my family or myself to be rich (but then who do you know who would actually admit such a thing?), I am definitely much better off than many others. My parents are still together and have provided me with a loving, stable upbringing. I have never needed to worry about the roof over my head, the bills being paid or anything of any seriousness really. I have travelled overseas on my own money twice in the last 5 years, bought myself a laptop, drive one of the family cars, have a contract for my iPhone, and am currently living what many would call a leisurely lifestyle at the family home with no rent.
I have almost everything I could possibly want, and yet I am bored by it. Actually I’m not 100% sure that bored is the right word in this instance, its just that it is a strong word that implies an element of dissatisfaction. I suppose that what I’m really trying to get at here. I’m not satisfied, all of this stuff doesn’t leave me feeling fulfilled and if I don’t feel fulfilled now then it seems to me that it would be naive to believe that more ‘stuff’ i.e. a better job with more money (and lets not forget about more responsibility and time at the office) will help the situation any.
Please dear reader, do not get the impression that I am simply a lazy gen Y’er who has been mollycoddled and spoilt her whole life, full of entitlement and her own self-importance. I am willing, more than willing in fact to do the hard work. I want to contribute to society, I want to be part of it. I want to do my part! More than my part even I just don’t see where I’m supposed to start, or, using my earlier job reference, how the jobs available to me really help people. As I said, telling me that if I take this now I will have future prospects of more money just won’t cut it. Then again, maybe I am displaying a few of the gen Y traits in that I seem to be searching for more immediate results.
I believe that what I am searching for is some kind of meaning. I don’t believe that life should begin after 5 (or 6, or 7 for that matter). I’ll admit I’m a little lost and confused, I just want something to change, I want my life to start. Am I expecting too much? Can so many people be wrong? Why do others do it? Or is this really just some sort of backlash against… what? What do I have to backlash against? My life is good but I’m in a rut, not moving forward or backward and the lights are off.
So, why do I write this? I suppose I’m asking for your help, or input of some sort. Any opinions you would like to share? Can you shed some light? Make a suggestion? (Even if it is only: grow up and move on).
(picture above best viewed in Internet explorer or Safari... don't know why but Mozilla makes the colours look dull)
Its first day back at uni for the 2010 academic year (for me anyway) so what am I doing??? Well it appears I have developed a sudden compulsion? no, more like drive, motivation, bullish single mindedness if you will to do - well just about anything that is not uni related really, but it starts with getting all of my Europe pics in order.... and I mean like NOW!
To be sure, it all started off innocently enough... "I'm bored and have run out of TV shows to watch, what can I do?" I ask myself...
1. Sort photo's and choose those to edit
2. Edit pics (making sure to save a copy as PSD and a JPEG - for importing to iPhoto you know - oh and I can't delete the original just incase I want to do it all again one day) this is all a very large task, worth of much more than one single dot point but as I cant think of ways in which I could break it up I will simply write a whole lot of nothing at the end of the sentense :-P
3. Back up all new files on external hard drives and possible dvd's depending on just how obcessive I am feeling on the day. (this is an ongoing process that should be done at least nightly, after all you - and by you I mean I - don't want to get down to the last photo on my list only to have the whole computer crash and need to repeat the process all over again.... my-oh-my i feel like sobbing at the mere thought of it!)
4. Upload photo's to Flickr so I can share them with all of you lovely people... oh yes there is more... don't for a second think you saw them all last year... I am not done with my world domination... I SHALL TAKE OVER THE WORLD! mwahahahahahahaha.... I haven't quite decided how but I'm sure bombarding my readers with images of my trip overseas is only the beginning...
5. (and most importantly) making a photo book of the tour...
Now this last one is where I'm having a lot of trouble tonight, but thats probably got a lot to do with the fact that I am in serious need of a break from photo editing. You see at first I though it would be easy! iPhoto has an option after all that allows you to create a photo-book and have it printed, all with just a few clicks of a few buttons... I could even make my own map with the places visited! (which I did)... Only one problem - you can only print 100 pages, and so far I'm thinking mine is going to be 110+ (and that's assuming there will be four photo's per page, and we all know I won't do that... some of my photo's need to be all by themselves)
Hey! No looking at me like that! Its not like I am going to force you to read the book! Its my trip and I'm only going to print a book on it once so I might as well do it the way I want! (Sorry Eddy, you don't get a choice, your copy is going to be the same as mine... so maybe I'll be printing it twice...)
Back on topic tho, I now have to find another place that offers the flexibility I want with the pages I need... I'll let you know how it goes... oh the choices!!!
Oh and to top it off, now that I'm doing a lot of reading on it I'm thinking that I probably should have converted the pics to sRGB instead of RGB colour space *oh the pressure!!!!* *sobs*
I'm going to go and crawl back into my little hidy hole now... :-(
See you all next Friday
(thats the time I have worked out that I will be finished editing all my pics... not the rest of it tho...)
although I'll probably start procrastinating again before then
