30day challenge: 11.

Day 11: Another pic of you and your friends.

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We’ve already done this. Let’s talk about Twitter instead.

 

It’s kind of related – I can’t believe how many awesome friends I’ve met lately because of Twitter. It flies in the face of the usual image of people with active online lives having no real life to speak of. Untrue, happily.

 

This little community really looks out for each other. When someone’s down there’s always someone ready to help them out, prop them up, distract them, whatever needs to be done to make them feel better.

 

If you happen to be in the same city there’s even a willingness to grab a cup of coffee or a beer or two and just have a nice little chinwag, IRL.

 

Twitter is what you make of it and I choose to make it the place where I find inspiration and amazing people to weave into my life.

 

I wish I had more pics of you all. I’m sure over time I’ll get you!

 

 

 

 

30day challenge: 10.

Day 10: Songs for when you’re happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad.

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Music is my therapy, my saviour, the salve for my soul,

my sanity, my safe place, my green padded room,

the electrical current to jumpstart my heart,

the life raft I cling to when everything’s dark.

 

In short, without music I would have a full-blown case of the crazies.

 

Electronica is the flavour I listen to most because it’s such a broad category. It can cover everything from rage to bliss to chill to background sound to down and dirty barefoot dancing.

 

If I’m happy anything goes. If I need to get happy I’ll probably put on some Beastie Boys (always guaranteed to get me smiling), Mr Scruff, Axwell, Kraak and Smaak or this song by D*note.

 

Sadness would be a Massive Attack, Portishead, Radiohead or similar moment – something low, slow and throbby.

 

Bored is a weird one. I don’t understand bored. I’m changing this to just chilling out, which would be when I’d stream some house, or funk, or put on some chillout. Pool beats, laidback tunes, nothing too assaulting.

 

Hyped – to get hyped it needs to be fast and phat. Lots of beat and bass sprinkled with cheeky smiles, like MSTRKRFT, Prodigy, Underworld, Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers.

 

Mad for me is similar to hyped – I need the musical equivalent of a punching bag. I need something to help me dump the rage, either through yelling at the top of my lungs or dancing like a crazyperson until I collapse. Karnivool, Birds of Tokyo, Prodigy, Pendulum.

 

This only scrapes the surface of my likes. If you want more there’s always my little musical playground at blip.fm I guess…

 

nnss nnss nnss.

30day challenge: 9.

Day 9: Something recent I’m proud of.

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Or should that be, something I’m recently proud of? Or, something I’m proud of recently? Meh.

 

Today I did something I hardly ever do – I took a sick day off work.

 

This is a big thing for me, because I usually have to be unable to walk or remain upright for any length of time before I’ll stay home.

 

This stupid cold has been nagging away at me for a couple of weeks now.  I’ve watched it phlegmatically rumble around in my chest supplying me with wheezy coughing fits, then move up into my nose supplying me with enough mucous to power a small mucous-powered village (and keep Kleenex in the biz, fo shiz), then slide down into my throat with what feels like an army of midgets redecorating the walls of my throat with their needlepoint efforts. Funtimes.

 

Yet through it all I’ve still – even if only barely – been able to function. The problem is my energy levels by the end of the day are nonexistent and I'm almost in tears at the full body aches I get by 3pm.

 

So, after yet another shithouse sleeping effort last night of only around 3 or 4 hours, I decided to listen to my poor body and keep it horizontal for a day.

 

By going to work I just prolong the time it takes for my body to repair itself. Body was starting to kick me in the arse with impatience at my continued petulance.

 

I’m proud I finally decided to listen to it and give it the time out it needed.

30day challenge: 8.

Day 8: List some short term goals for this month.

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I’m the least goal oriented person I know. One day I’ll have to see a life coach and get that in order.

 

I see all these people powering through life with their short and long term goals and wish I could be like them, but I can’t pump the care factor up enough to float me there.

 

At work my boss is always telling us to have five short term goals each month and every month I fob him off. I’m so lazy! I drift like a dandelion seed and if I bump into something I just see what comes of it.

 

Perhaps it’s a fear of failure? It also has to do with the fact that I tire of anything once it gets down to the nitty gritty. I like coming up with ideas but the follow-through makes me yawwwwn. Plus, I have zero personal discipline. I just can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do, no matter how much I yell at me. Stubborn little so and so.

 

But, for the sake of this exercise, I’ll humour you.

 

 

1. Have at least one week of sobriety.

If you know me, you’ll know how hard that’s going to be, but I’m cheating a little on this one – I already designated this week booze-free and I’m already at the halfway point. Oh yeah, I’ll be able to red texta this one for sure.

 

2. Do the 30day challenge every day.

Or at least, only ever be one day behind, and if so, do two blogs the next day. So far so good.

 

3. Read a book.

From start to finish. I have so many half-read books lying around. I think it’s about time I finished at least one of them, even though they’re all re-reads. Books are nice. Yes, I think I’ll try and get in the habit of reading in bed before I fall asleep, instead of twittering in bed.

 

4. Wash and vacuum the car.

Laaame! But seriously, it needs it. I’ll give myself a deadline of the end of the month to actually do it.

 

5. Lean one new fact a day.

Any fact at all. As random as can be. My brain seems to be losing a lot of the useless information it used to hold. I think it’s time to top it up again.

 

Well that was relatively painless. I should do it more often… if I manage to get through these first…

30day challenge: 7.

Day 7: What has had the biggest impact on my life?

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Om. Aum. The sound of the universe. The sound of the vibration in every cell of every thing. This beautiful symbol has changed my life.

 

The most major thing to happen to me occurred when I met my first serious boyfriend at the age of 17. From each relationship I’ve inherited a little of the other’s philosophy, or musical taste, or in this case, spirituality. I really believe the direction of my life took a turn for the better after meeting him.

 

I started to learn a little of the philosophies and ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism and they just seemed to make sense to me.

 

Now when someone asks me what my religion is, I say I don’t have one specific religion, I have spiritual ideas of my own made up from a few different religions. Maybe I should call it a choose-your-own-adventure religion. Pick-and-mix. But all of the ideas that resonate with me lead back to the idea of OM.

 

There’s nothing but Om. Good, bad, solid, liquid, alive, dead – it’s all just OM.

 

That’s why I wear two around my neck and one on my arm. It’s my power symbol. A nice reminder that I’m just vibration and stardust, and so is everyone and everything else.

 

 

om shanthi

30day challenge: 6.

Day 6: Your favourite superhero, and why.

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Wonder Womaaaan!

 

Oh yeah, I wanted to be Wonder Woman when I grew up. How could I not look up to a beautiful, strong brunette?

 

My youth was filled with Spiderman, He-Man, She-Ra, The Incredible Hulk, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, The Greatest American Hero, The Wonder Twins and the occasional Danger Mouse, but it was always Wonder Woman I wanted to dress up as. I wanted my own invisible plane, lasso of truth, and kickarse tiara. I wanted those legs and that perfect hair and a waist off the hook.

 

I’m actually glad I grew up when I did, right after feminism had gone through its psycho teething stage and women were starting to stride forwards, in slacks. Girl power!

30day challenge: 5.

Day 5: A picture of somewhere you’ve been.

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My favourite travel photo is from Sri Lanka in the early 90’s – also my favourite destination, but unfortunately it’s old-school and I don’t have a scanner, so you miss out on that one. Just take my word for it that it’s mighty purdy, with the sun rising through palm trees and beautiful green grass. It also holds a special place because it’s on the south-east coast of Sri Lanka, right where the tsunami hit and I’m almost certain the little village would have been levelled.

 

In its place I offer you one of my recent trips, Beijing.

 

 

China is a place I’ve never been interested in visiting, but when a free trip is handed to you it’s very hard to turn it down.

 

I rate this trip as my biggest culture shock out of all of my travels so far. I’ve done a little bit of Asia so I’m used to dirt and pollution, but China is in a class of its own. The smog is unbelievable! I felt like a pack a day smoker by the end of it. Not exactly great for taking photos either.

 

It was also the first time I had travelled somewhere without knowing at least a little of the language. There is almost no way to connect with a place when you have no idea what’s going on. It also made the task of trying to find vegequarian food to eat super difficult – I mean fun, super fun. I still feel sorry for the poor bloke in the foodcourt having to put up with my mime and sound routine trying to order noodles - “no moo. mmmooo” *shake head* “no moo. fish good!” *nod head, swim hand through the air*. Ah me.

 

 

The Forbidden City was pretty cool I guess, but I really lit up when we went to the Great Wall of China – definitely my highlight. The air was cleaner, there were actual green things growing, the wall invoked awe. Who knew bricks could be so fascinating?

 

 

Perhaps I’ll go back to China one day – there is something about Shanghai that interests me, but there are so many other places I want to go first. Travel is my life. When I think of all the places I’ve yet to see it frustrates me. I can’t watch travel shows because I end up in tears at some point – true story.

 

The world is an amazing place and I really believe you only discover who you are when you fling yourself at its far corners.