A bit of laughter for your day

Hope you're all rugged up and staying warm today! I saw this on Sarah Wilson's blog and it made me laugh.

Practical theories: The Law of Attraction

I've been busying my time on my study break not studying, but reading blogs. It started with food blogs, then I got onto Gala Darling's brilliant site again, and a link from that onto Sarah Wilson's blog... its all happening, and I'm enjoying it.

I'm going to admit, I'm pretty skeptical about all those new-agey, The Secret-toting ideologies. I read about three pages of The Secret and thought, this is just what everyone's parents have been telling them for years about the power of positive thinking. Unless someone I know can vouch for something like that, I'm not going to believe it. So, in order to get rid of my inner skeptic, I'm going to try to work out if these theories can actually be applied to my life. Let us proceed with

The "law of attraction" hoopla

The theory: Thoughts attract like thoughts. If you think happy thoughts, happy things will happen. If you're negative, negative things happen. You get the idea.

Practicalities: We actually developed this theory when I was fifteen about one of the girls in my group, who was just really depressing and whingey and horrible. We called it a "vortex of doom", that when she was upset everyone else got sucked in to feeling upset as well. Which maybe is a different theory about associating yourself with people. I digress. Generally, I haven't had this apply to actual events, but I think tangible things.

First example: Capers. I used to work at a splendid little Italian cafe, and the exported Italian staff would cook for us. One of the baristas made risotto with capers one night, and I had no idea what they were. Then I saw them in the supermaket. Then they were in another dish I had when I went out. It was like, as soon as I had capers, they were EVERYWHERE.

The same thing happened with Vampire Weekend, although over a longer period of time. The first time I went out on the town, in May last year, one of the "eight great songs they played at Amps" (more on this later) was A-Punk by Vampire Weekend. Of course, after half a bottle of wine with dinner, I couldn't remember the song the next day. Although I did remember the other seven.

ANYWAY - I got to Reading Festival in August, and Alice dragged us to Vampire Weekend amidst protests that we didn't even know who they were. Of course, they played A-Punk, and I realised - THIS WAS THE EIGHTH GREAT SONG! Then, recovering at the house two days later with a cold, it was on the advertisment for 500 Days of Summer. And The Inbetweeners, I believe. Once I knew what the song was, it was everywhere.

I was there! I saw him in that shirt!

Verdict: The jury's still out. I'm not sure if its just that when you're positive, you see the positives in everything whereas when you're negative, you ignore other possibilities. And my Vampire Weekend capers (See what I did there?!) could just be coincidence.

What do you think, fellas? Exponents of the theory? Or think its a load of hogwash?

Reblog: Tetris Philosophy

Possibly the best thing I've read all week, and not just because it says I'm wise :D

You can find the original article at Levi's Last Word on Tumblr.

A very wise girl said to me today: (and i miss-qoute this) “I like Tetris because it all fits together” and this simple statement sparked a deep philosophical debate in my head in which our lives are a living game of Tetris.

1. The pieces falling down are the events and plans we have to do in our lives: easy pieces such as lines, mean easy tasks such as driving to the shops, hard shapes like those annoying z’s means harder activities such as…someone hitting our car on the way to shops.
2. Depending on the difficulty of the game we play depends on whether we see what is comeing up or not. e.g. on an easy level the nice little Tetris gods tell us we have a nice square comeing up, which is like a rostered shift at work, but then when on a higher difficutly the tetris gods pick fun at us, and throw in the unexpected Z’s and T’s of the reall life world…e.g. Sudden need to use mental mathmatics!!!!
3. Now we get on to the clearing of lines! (hold on to your hats kiddos this is where shit gets heavy!) Clearing lines is the goal of both tetris and life, well metaphorical lines in lifes case. When all is going well and we plan ahead or deal with the unexpected Z’s of life, somehow depsite our foolish nature we manage to clear a line. Through planning and clever thought we are able to complete the herculean tasks that we must face everyday and shove that T inbetween the I and the Square, and ultimately come out with a blank slate, A tabula rasa of every day. We have succeeded in completing our everyday tasks and come out with more room to grow and build our next adventure of our Tetris/life.
4. But life isnt so simple…oh no! We all love Tetris, Tetris would never betray us, it wants us to come out on top and always have an empty screen, WRONG! Tetris likes to fuck with us, give use shaped that wont fit in with your planning no matter how well you have planned. It gives you a line when you need a square, just when you though you couldn't go wrong with a line it happens. Shitopia! Theres gaps everywhere, unfinished lines all over the place, you life is going to hell, nothing is going right, You’ve lost an arm, you rent out Spanglish because you couldnt find Taxi Driver, and get so pissed off about wasting your time watching a film about a confused American try to pound a Spanish Nanny it emotionally cripples you and you end up abusing your boss at work, These my friends…are the times when Tetris betrays us and we just cant organise our 4 blocked friends together. These are the shit times in our life!
5. But, every so often a miracle happens. Tetris pulls out a Jesus on us and everything works out well. Everything seems more aerodynamic and streamline, shapes are fitting in which you thought they could never fit in before, AND BANG! You have tetris, 4 lines gone at once. Pure bliss, this is rare and hard to accomplish but when you pull it off, its worth it. Bonuses fly through the roof, you cant control the endorphin high you get, you cant lose now your unstopable, you just finished work half an hour early and get to go home and sneak in an extra episode of How I Met Your Mother before you have to go out. These moments, are the Tetris’ of life, and its what we live and play for!

We're online!

Things that have been happening in my absence from blogging:

- Work. Still as soul-destroying as always.
- Cleaning, cooking and generally keeping the house in order
- Clearing out my wardrobe (to make room for new purchases, natch)
- Painting and general craftiness to create THIS (click me I'm a link yay)

Its tiny (2 listings, woo) and I haven't formatted it or anything, but its a start. And I'm pretty impressed with the ship in a bottle picture as well, not bad for two solid hours of work! And people say I'm not productive. Bah.

Flying Solo

Since my parents left for their holiday on Wednesday, the following things have happened:

1. The power short-circuited
2. The seal on the freezer door broke
3. Someone (coughBoyfriendcough) backed into the letterbox and its now on an angle, and too heavy for me to shift back by myself.

Hopefully that's all that happens before they get back! I've had a very domesticated afternoon - I cleaned, did the dishes, washed clothes, and tackled the pile of ironing that I thought had been there for about a month, until I got to the bottom and went "Oh, hey, I haven't worn that since my birthday!". In April. Oops!


*domestic proof*

And now I'm making pumpkin scones. WIN.

Outfit:

Jacket: One Teaspoon
Singlet: Supre
Jeans: Just Jeans

Then, to make defrosting the freezer a more pleasant experience, this is my new friend Curtis.


Curtis is wearing Peppercorn eyes and Chilli Flake mouth.

Getting philosophical

I'm not sure its entirely philosophical, but I had a very long, very boring bus ride this afternoon to plot this out.

Last night I was watching Yes Man at Tara's. Aside from being hideously crushed by the fact that Zooey Deschanel's amazing blue coat is one of a kind, I really liked the movie and the entire philosophy of "Yeah! Lets do shit! Its going to be awesome!". I mean, quite ironic considering I was only watching it because I'd bailed on a cocktail night due to feeling like death, but nonetheless. I was a bit wary at the start because, let's be honest, the "YES" conference-thing is a bit cultish. But by the end, when he's all "It wasn't a covenant", its a bit less creepy and more life-affirming.

*lust*

So today, while I was thinking "Hot damn, that would make life a lot more interesting!", I was chilling with my trusty friend George (my iPod, for those of you not in the know) and "Vienna" by Billy Joel came on. Which has another very valid philosophical idea, that you can't do everything and essentially, slow down. Oooh, conflicting but valid viewpoints! Honestly, I think both have their moments and its a case-by-case, discretionary thing, but it was still interesting to have them both come up.

What was also interesting was walking through the city in a very ambley, "I have ninety minutes to waste before I have to catch a bus, la-la-la" way, with George, listening to Simon and Garfunkul, and people kept pushing past me. I was like DAMN, its a SUNDAY. Calm. Your. Beard. Or at least say excuse me.

Mememe!

Sorry, its wordy. But I'm an attention whore! Maybe you'll get through it all before the Ace Enders song finishes, and we'll all be happy :D

These are the rules:

1. respond and rework: answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.2. tag five other un-tagged people.

What is your current obsession?
Ace Enders

What are you wearing now?
Trusty blue skinnyish jeans, my absolute favourite piano belt, and my panda shirt. I was wearing a long black cardi but it was too hot.

Do you nap a lot?
I try to, but I always get distracted.

How's life?
Its pretty good! To quote my dear friend John: "I love life. How good is life. I could go some life right now"

What would you like to learn to do?
Transcribe music by ear, rather than have to look for chords/sheet music, speak another language, cook more stuff (like the amazing sweet potato, almond and ginger pasta I had for dinner last night... I love being taken out by Levi's family!)

What’s for dinner?
Something that isn't as good as what I had last night, sadly. Probably vege burgers.

What was the last thing you bought?

A birthday present for Dad - The Greatest Album Covers of All Time



What are you listening to right now?

Ace Enders. See: Current obsession.

What is your favorite weather?
Normally cold weather, because I get to layer up. But at the same time, I don't have any particularly warm clothes so I just like curling up in front of the heater with a hot chocolate.

What is on your bedside table?
I don't have one! I've been living out of Tara's room while mine's being decorated. Actually, there is a little table next to my bed which has a bucket on it, and thats filled with bits of paper, clothes, my yearbook, and two pillows.

What’s your style?
Clean clothes.

What is your most challenging goal right now?
Picking songs for the eisteddfod.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where do you want it to be?
London! I've never been but I've always wanted to live there.

Name the things you cannot live without.
Tea, good food, excellent company, and any one of my three piano belts.

(This is one of them)

What would you like to have in your hands right now?
One of the cupcakes that mum made on Thursday. Orange, almond and chocolate.
They're only downstairs, but I'm lazy.

What would you like to get rid of?
The clothes I never wear.

What was the last book you read?
I'm about three pages into Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger.

What languages can you speak?
English (fluently, most of the time) and a bit of Italian and an even smaller bit of French.

What language(s) do you want to be able to speak?
Italian and French.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Happy! I'm a walking cliche! :D

What's one thing you're looking forward to?
My England trip! Its only 4 months, 3 weeks and 5 days, I believe. How exciting! :D

What was the last film you watched?
Dan in Real Life. I really enjoyed it, actually.

PEOPLE WHAT I TAGGED: Libby, Sian, Jacinta and... oh God, do I even have five people on my blog? /socialfail.