“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
- Marilyn Monroe
Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
That’s what she said…
Monday, January 25th, 2010
The first step is admitting you have a problem
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009I am a shopaholic. I am completely addicted to it and imagine it’ll be my demise eventually. I love the feeling of buying something new. Usually something I don’t need like a new dress or pair of shoes In fact it’s almost always a new dress or pair of shoes). Unfortunately for me I don’t tend to suffer from buyers remorse either, so whenever I buy something I technically couldn’t afford or don’t need or if I buy something for me when I should be buying something for someone else, I don’t get that feeling of regret afterwards that most people suffer which prevents them from doing this too often. Abd pangs of buyers remorse I do feel is usually fixed by buying something else.
Christmas time is the worst because I can control myself when not in shopping environments (ie. I don’t feel the urge to go to the shops to buy a new dress when at home, it only happens when I am at the shops and the dress is in front of me) but as I am now thrusting myself in these environments constantly, I find myself buying random things that I really do not need and not buying presents for others! It’s ridiculous! I guess I am also lucky that I am usually a spend-thrift shopper and rarely buy anything that isn’t on sale. I am also a pro at finding amazing bargains and saving a lot o money on an item that could have cost me a fortune. Though this tends to encourage me to just buy more stuff which kind of negates my good work at finding bargains in the first place :/
A lot of the time I find myself using going shopping as a means of “retail therapy” when I am sad or angry or otherwise feeling upset in some way. Even as I am wandering around the shops looking for something to waste my money on, I wonder to myself if this is going to help me, because it’s obviously not going to stop or fix whatever is making me sad/angry and so is there any point to this exercise? But the buzz I get when I buy something nice that was completely unplanned (and almost always totally unnecessary) casts those doubts aside and I feel great for a few hours.
Apparently it’s a real problem too, though I don’t think I am quite as bad as how they’re describing t on the Wikipedia page (though I am prepared to admit as an addict I may not be aware if the extent of my problem). I was never a spoiled kid so I never got a toy to shut me up during a tantrum or to make me feel better because my parents weren’t there for me growing up. I do know my mum used retail therapy to cheer herself up, so my only guess is that I learned this from her from an early age and started applying it to myself when I was old enough to buy my own things. I’m not blaming mum for it, after all there are many worse ways to cope with stress (ie. drinking, drugs, violence etc) but I really wish I knew how to defeat this!
Does anyone else suffer from Oniomania or do you now someone who does? Do you have ways to overcome your addiction to shopping or do you have ways to cope with it? I’d love to be able to go to a shopping center and walk past a sale rack and not hover around it for 20 minutes, trying to talk myself out of buying a dress that’s really cute and 50% of when I should be saving my money or am running horribly late.
Quick update on my Tokyo trip
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009TOKYO WAS AWESOME! I can’t even begin to explain how amazing our trip was and how much I love that city. I never thought I’d find somewhere I love as much as London but I think I did it!
I have so much to write about and so many photos to post but that will have to wait til I have the time to start writing about our adventures in full. So for now have a few of the highlights:
- We stayed in Shinjuku which is EPIC! It’s at least 10x the size of Brisbane City and is always busy. Or hotel was right by Kabukicho which is the red-light district, the safest/cleanest I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world.
- I shopped til I dropped (almost literally) including the shopping center 109 in Shibuya which had 8 levels of ladies fashion. It was amazing. I got my nails done there and they’re AMAZING! I can’t type very well now as a result but it’s worth it!
- Harajuku was amazing. Not quite what I expected but I loved it all the same. Awesome shops and fashion, tutu’s EVERYWHERE, more people than I have ever seen in my life, queues outside shops headed by security guards etc. Only a few cosplayers though, I was a teeny bit disappointed that it was all hype but I got some cool photos anyway.
- TOKYO DISNEYLAND! Oh man what a day! We spent ELEVEN hours there and I was unable to walk properly by the end of the day/night (still have a limp actually). It’s a lot like the original Disneyland in LA but more over-the-top and the merchandise is to DIE for! I bought so much, including 4 pairs of Minnie Mouse ears XD
- Everything is kawaii (cute). I saw roadworks barriers that were cute animal shapes for crying out loud. I bought so much kawaii stuff, even am slightly sickened by it. Pink is very popular there too, almost everything has a pink version and often a range of pink options! I was in heaven, let me tell you!
- I saw multi-leveled porn shops, multi-leveled collectible toy shops, found a digital camera that takes photos in 3D, and witnessed maid cafes in Akihabara.
- We are the best food I’ve ever had in my life and all of it was so cheap! I can never go back to an Aussie sushi train again after experiencing the real deal in Japan!
I’ll write more in depth later on. Right now I need to sleep – I got a cold on the last day which has made me feel a little bit crap as well as my bung foot from excess walking (I know, pathetic huh). So here’s a pic of me in a tea cup at Tokyo Disneyland (check out my super-kawaii tiny top hat):
What I Love About Myself
Monday, August 17th, 2009
There is a meme-type thing going around the blogs of various Aussie girls right now which I found really inspiring and really quite lovely. I found it first at Definatalie.com. People are too obsessed with perfection, myself included. It’s not something I think I could probably ever change about myself, I’m 26 years old now and learning to love myself totally despite my flaws and consider myself wonderful as I am is not something that just happens and would require a tonne of work and a lot more confidence/motivation that I could ever posses.
That doesn’t mean I can’t still love myself as much as possible anyway, right? I am not at all perfect, I am a mixture of things that make me just about as imperfect as possible (many of which are a result of my own conscious choices) but in a way that’s what makes me perfect in my own special way! So, here are the things I love about myself:
- My face. I’m not going to be all modest and lame about it, I have a pretty face and I love it very much. I like the fact my face lights up when I smile and I can do sultry so, so easily. I have amazing eyes and my lips are the best shape. My skin is very clear these days which is a very big deal for me.
- My boobs. I’m probably one of the few girls out there who loves having 10DD boobs. I thought I was a 12C for years, and after getting properly fitted I am now such a sexy-sounding size and my boobs look twice their size just by changing bra sizes!
- My tattoos. This is why differentiates me from most people. Not just the fact I have tattoos, but the fact I am a pretty, girly-girl with lots of visible tattoos that mean a lot to me (while also looking totally cool). I get tattoos to decorate my skin, not to conform to a fashion trend of to be rebellious, they’re for me and me only!
- My style. I think my style kicks arse and I defy anyone to disagree. I love pink and black so much that I wear little else. By having an almost exclusively pink and black wardrobe, I am always colour-coordinated and always manage stand out in a crowd. I haven’t met a girl yet who doesn’t love the idea of being able to wear tutu’s almost every single day like I do!
- My height. Sometimes I feel like I’m too tall, but I always remind myself how I can always see bands at gigs, how I can always reach the top shelf, how I tower above everyone when wearing heels and how being really tall means I look slimmer than I actually am! Booyeah!
- I am very open-minded about everything. There’s nothing out there that could surprise or disgust me. I eat pretty much all foods, I listen to a HUGE range of music, I think same-sex marriage is tops, I couldn’t care less what your religion is (unless you get all up in my face about atheist, anyway), I condone drinking and recreational drug use and I love porn. If you’re a narrow-minded bigot then that’s your problem, keep away from me and I won’t bother you.
- I’m super nice! Sure I like to pretend I’m all tuff and moody and too-cool-for-school but anyone who knows me for more than 10 minutes knows I’m a bucket of sunshine and rainbow unicorn poop. It’s hard for me to dislike anyone, you have to be a total douchebag for me to not like you, and a total and utter cunt for me to hate you.
I could go on with this all day. It makes me wonder why I get down on myself. Sure I could stand to lose a few kilo’s and I do have a number of faults, but the things that make me a good person far outweigh any of the negative things I can come up with. Sometimes I need to remind myself of these excellent features of mine when feeling down in the dumps, because I am a neat sorta person, really!
R.I.P Michael Jackson
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
I was a HUGE fan of Michael Jackson growing up and have always believed in him, no matter how unpopular my opinions might have been. He was an insanely talented man who did so many amazing things. Not just with music but also with being a humanitarian. I never, ever believed he was anything but a gentle soul who never got the chance to have a normal life. He was famous before he was even a teenager and it affected him for the rest of his life. A life that ended too soon. I hope he is at peace, finally, because he deserves it.
I'm shy, not a bitch!
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
I am horrendously, painfully shy. Always have been and always will. People who know me find this very hard to believe because I can very loud and even “in your face” at times. But that’s only to the people I know really well and even then it’s only an occasional thing as I can still get an attack of the “shy’s” even with people I know really well. With people I don’t know too well (ie. most of my workmates) I find it really hard to initiate conversations and in many cases, even say hello in the mornings. As a result I get accused of being a rude, stuck-up bitch all the time, which hurts because I know I’m not stuck-up or a bitch at all, it’s just really, really hard to talk to people I don’t know very well. Luckily I’ve been able to explain this to the workmates who’ve questioned me about it so no one takes being snubbed by me to heart, but there are all those times where I meet new people that I know I come across as really rude when in reality I’m terrified at the prospect at having to talk to a stranger!
I try not to let this rule my life, as many shy people tend to do. Life is too short to tremble in fear whenever someone I don’t know starts talking to me. I also have to talk to strangers on the phone all the time, it’s part of my job, so I can’t let it consume me. I do find it hard to chit-chat to my clients though as most of my co-workers do, but it apparently makes me seem very efficient so I use this to my advantage. I also hate knowing I give a bad first impression to people when I meet them for the first time which isn’t at all a true reflection of the person I really am.
So what do I do to get over this crippling shyness? To be honest, I try to suck it up for the most part. I know it’s a problem and I accept it and try to get over it to the best of my ability. I’m constantly talking to myself, reminding myself that this person doesn’t know how shy I am and therefore I don’t want them getting the wrong impression, so I do all I can to blast past the fear of talking to a stranger and be as polite as possible. I also remind myself that I don’t have anything to fear from talking to strangers – most of them are good people and it’s not like they’re going to shoot me for saying the wrong thing. The only problem with this though is that I’m usually so busy trying to pep myself up that I end up not being able to think of anything to say and so I look kind of dumb. But hey, looking a bit dumb is better than coming across as a bitch, right?
There’s nothing anyone can do if they’re excessively shy, except to just try to overcome it as much as possible and fool people into thinking you’re the aloof, mysterious type (I work this to my advantage all the time, though many people still tend to think I’m just being a stuck-up cow which kind of sucks). If someone’s first impression of you is that you’re stuck-up, hope that you’ll meet again and can prove otherwise. I have won over a lot of people by seeming rude after the first meeting but then turning out to be really quite nice after an actual conversation. And if you give the wrong impression to someone you never meet again, no sense stressing about it, instead just hope they were one of the smart few who took it as being aloof and mysterious!
Growing up is OPTIONAL!
Thursday, May 28th, 2009I was linked to this article the other day, which got me very, very angry. In fact I ranted about it for the next couple of hours to anyone who would listen. Luckily everyone who endured the rant ended up agreeing with me (and joining in on the ranting). It’s about having to grow up once you’re 25 years old. Not in the “you can’t have fun ever” way (though they’re not far off it, actually), more like a “you’re an adult now, so start acting like one”. I admit everyone around the age of 25 ought to smarten up a bit if they hope to survive in the real world, but according to the douchebag who wrote this article once you turn 25 you pretty much forfeit any of the fun stuff you did prior to turning 25.
Well I say balls to that! I am a firm believer in the saying “Growing old is inevitable. Growing up is optional“. There should not be a certain age where people have to grow up and start acting like a well-balanced, respectable adult. Some people choose to do this early in life, some choose to do it when they’re in their mid-twenties, and others don’t seem to do it at all. And it’s all good! Personally I am the latter, I haven’t “grown up” yet and I don’t plan to any time soon. I mean, I have a job, I pay rent and bills, I have responsibilities, I look out for others instead of being a selfish teenager all the time and so on. But I take great offense to this particular article implying that doing the things they listed should kick into gear by the time you’re 25 years old.
The fact is, there is no deadline for when you have to become boring.
Let’s look at this article in more detail, shell we? The first example is Remember to write thank-you notes. Unless we’re talking about a wedding, there is no need to write thank you letters. If you’re a letter-writing sort of person then fair enough, go nuts and write as many as your hand will let you, but most people aren’t and most people don’t care. One friend stated that if he got a thank you note for giving someone a present, he’d probably throw it out without even reading it. He didn’t give the gift for puncy little thank you notes, and so doesn’t expect people to give any to him.
The next one is Do not invite yourself to stay with friends when you travel anymore. Well excuse me! The reasoning is because you should have a job and can therefore get a hotel room. Well maybe I spent all my savings on the damn plane ticket and the hostel beds I used while being in places where I don’t know people. Perhaps a free stay with a friend would allow me to see something I wouldn’t have been able to afford, had I stayed in some hotel. This leads on to the next point Do not expect friends to help you move anymore which is pretty much the same thing. Moving house is expensive, getting removalists to move all your stuff when you’re only moving to the next suburb just adds an extra expense that many people can’t really afford. If your friends are too busy to help you move, then ask some other friends (and maybe think about ditching those scumbag ones who won’t lend a hand).
This one just made me really angry: Do not share the crazy dream you had last night with anyone but your mental wellness professional. If I want to tell my mates about this twisted dream I had that they were in briefly, then I will. We all know dreams aren’t as interesting to other people as they are to you, but if you want to tell people about it, then go ahead. There’s nothing childish about sharing a dream where you and your friend won a million dollars and bought a marshmallow and puppy factory and married famous rockstars.
Do as invitations ask you. OK so you’d be a totally shit friend if you took five friends to a party when the invitaion said +1 only. But that time thing is bollocks. Unless you’re having a dinner party (which is usually a very boring and lame thing to do, in my opinion) then people should be able to turn up whenever they can. Most people tend to have informal parties at their homes or out at bars so it’s not a case of having to be there on time or else miss out. The way people are these days (check out my Case of the Flake People article) you can’t set a specific start time and expect people to adhere to it. Most people can’t and won’t, and so we all suck it up because only arsehole friends care if you turn up late to a party. Your turned up, after all!
Then we have Drinking until you throw up is no longer properly a point of pride. Now, most reasonable people over the age of 19 know it’s not totally awesome to go out four nights a week and drink enought to spew everywhere every single time. But dammit, if I have a massive night out that ends in hilarity/masisve embarrassment/vomiting into someone’s front garden then I am going to recount it to my friends and have a good old laugh about it. Now I’m 26, I’m not going to suddenly stop all my binge drinking completely and start drinking fancy wines in sensible amounts, or start drinking cognac and swishing my glass around so I can smell the aroma. Fuck that! I like my big nights out like the next average, well-balanced person, and by god I will gloat about my misadventures the next day if I want to!
Then there’s Have a real trash receptacle, real Kleenex, and, if you smoke, a real ashtray and get your speakers off the floor which are some of the most boring statements I’ve ever read in my life. I use toilet paper to blow my nose all the time? That makes me immature does it? What-the-fuck-ever! I will use whatever paper-like substance I want to blow my nose, and there’s not a dman thing anyone can say to make me feel like a kid for doing so!And by the way, my speakers ARE on the floor becaue they look good there and I don’t have a proper unit to store them in – if anyone has an issue with that, they can bite me and get out of my house.
I could go into great detail on every single point this girl made, but I’ve already made myself exceptionally angry just by looking at that stupid article the few times I needed to refer to it. My point is, acting a certain way at a certain age doesn’t make you a grown up. Using a hankie, being able to walk in heels, keeping dreams to myself, learning to change a tyre, buying shelves for my speakers and taking my earphone out when talking to shopkeepers does NOT make me an adult. Being my own person and loving myself despite my flaws and bad habits does. Friend are there for you no matter what, a good friend will help you move houses or put you up for a few nights if you ask them nicely. Adhering to these dumb “guidelines” will just end up making you a boring loser and will not win you any new friends.It will probably also cause you to lose you more interesting friends too.
My bestie just summed it up nicely when I asked what he thought I should add to this blog: “They can go and suck my dick”. Very well put.
Weekly Wrap 25/05/2009
Monday, May 25th, 2009
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Given my appalling couple of weeks, I figured it’d be nice to wrap up my week – just the nice stuff that happened and have stuck in my mind.
Spending lots of time with my mum and getting stuff done / Doing a lot of exercise and feeling like a million dollars afterwards / Changing my eating habits and losing a few kg’s as a result / Seeing real-life macaws and hundreds of wild kangaroos on a unexpected bus trip home / An unplanned day off work that did me wonders / Fantastic news after a lot of bad / A bunch of flowers greeting me at work / Finding money while cleaning and having an amazing meal and seeing a film for FREE as a result / Excessive tea consumption / Silver platforms / Delicious perfume on sale / Finding amazing false lashes and nail decals for CHEAP / New Livejournal layouts that suit me far too well / Magners Cider / Singing bad pop music as loud as I can at work (without getting into trouble) / Anticipating my first ever hypnotherapy session…
This week is going to be so much better. I have a few interesting things to look forward to, like my first ever hypnotherapy sessions. I’m getting it to help my food-obsession, but I’m mostly excited about the whole idea of it, a friend got it done recently and said the experience was unbelievable, plus it worked! I’m going to something called a “Leadership Breakfast” through work on Thursday morning which sounds a little bit fancy and totally delicious. My mum got her loan approved which means she can move into her new house and not stress so much! This was what caused at least 40% of my stress lately so it’s a HUGE relief for us both.
I hope everyone else is having a good week too :)
Why I haven't posted all week
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Ahhh Bonjela gel, how I love you! In other words, I’ve had a fairly average week (tooth pulled, twisted ankle, various issues in my personal life etc) and haven’t had the time or energy to post this week. I will be posting again tonight, in case there’s anyone out there hanging out for some Ruby Velour wit and wisdom! I’ll try not to be slack like this any more!
RnB Music is not a Crime!
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
OK so what’s the deal with everyone hating on RnB music? Why is it that so many people will gloat about how diverse their tastes in music are, but then go on about how much they hate RnB. And it’s never “Oh I don’t really care for RnB very much”, it’s always “Oh man I fucking hate that rap and RnB crap!” with such vehemence and loathing! It always shocks me, because I am unashamedly a HUGE fan of RnB, hip hop and rap. This often comes as a massive shock to people because I apparently don’t look like the type of girl to like that type of music (but they’re also the people who assume I only listen to heavy metal and punk, so nuts to them). It puzzles me how people who boast about their fantastic tastes in music, but then disregard, or in most cases hatefully oppose, an entire genre of music.
So what is it about RnB, hip hop and rap that gets peoples goats? I guess the most obvious factor is the “scene”. The RnB/hip hop/rap scene is notorious for attracting thugs and wannabe gansta’s who like to dabble in drunken fist fighting or in the case of clubs in the USA – gun violence. But hang on! That’s an unfair generalisation, isn’t it? Maybe so, but in my experience it’s unfortunately justified. Mind you I have only been to RnB clubs in Brisbane and London, but they have all had the same vibe about them. All is fun while you’re dancing to Rihanna but then someone bumps into some angry dude and a fist-fight will break out in the middle of the dance floor. Not all RnB clubs are necessarily like this, I have been to some very sedate ones where there wasn’t any violence at all, but it does seem to be how it generally goes.
But is this a good enough reason to hate the whole genre? Hell no! Come on people! Every scene has something negative about it, but no one seems to notice them as readily as with the RnB/hip hop/rap scene. Every time I go out these days, there’s a fight breaking out on the dancefloor, at the bar or just outside the main entry. This ain’t RnB’s fault! It’s going on at all the clubs, bars and pubs! The fact is, people seem so scared of enjoying RnB music and going to the clubs that are frequented by homies, wiggers and wannabe gangsters! I am of the opinion that we need to start mixing things up by going to these venues and proving to people that “Hey, regular people like me can listen to this music, have a dance and not end up punching someone in the face at the end of the night”. And lets not forget you don’t have to wear excessively baggy clothes to enjoy the music (god I wish someone would tell these guys XXXXL shirts do NOT look good on anyone). If all we have left going to RnB venues are the dregs, let’s start drowning them out by having fun with what is an excellent genre of music!
Dissing a whole genre of music because of the scene and a few shitty examples circulating the in the music charts is uncool. The amount of people I know who claimed they hated RnB but then completely had an about-face turn after spending time with me and experiencing the many joys of Urban music. Sure it has some rubbish in there, but so do all other genre’s of music! Try to tell me you don’t secretly love a bit of MC Hammer, Usher, Bobby Brown, TLC, LL Cool J or Janet Jackson now and then! And let’s not forget all the obscure artists out there who fly the “Urban music” flag. It’s not all the stuff you hear on commercial radio, there’s plenty of amazing underground stuff around that would blow your mind if only you’d open it up a little!
Please note: This can also apply to other hated genres of music like country, heavy metal, ska etc. All of which are also excellent in their own ways. Be a music lover, not a hater!
(If you actually do dislike RnB, hip hop and rap because it is not a style of music you enjoy, then you should probably disregard this entire post)