Something That Makes Me Happy - Blog Carnival

Last August, I participated in Potentially Problematic Opinions Month. Alex Neill is basically my biggest blogging inspiration, and she's really good at things, so when she tells you to write something, you probably should. Last year, she was like 'write about your controversial opinions' and not only did I enjoy it immensely, I also wrote a bunch of blogs that took little to no effort to concoct AND got a bunch of extra views (and readers maybe?). What I'm saying is, always do what Alex says.

This year, she said 'join my blog carnival it's going to be great'. So here we are - at the blog carnival.

Each week a bunch of bloggers will write to a theme, the details of which live here. The idea is basically that we'll all share and enjoy each other's blogs, encourage each other to do the thing, and maybe write some good stuff while we're at it. 

For me, I'm really aiming to write blogs that inspire my readers to do something and share it with me. You don't have to blog, but I'd love to hear about your experiences, see your photos and generally share this month with you. To facilitate this (and to make my life simple, double win), I'll probably be choosing reeeeally easy ideas for us all to get amongst.

This week's theme is "Something That Makes Me Happy" and while I could've gone with big, important things, I ended up making a bunch of muffins, and now I’m going to blog about it.

First things first (I’m the realest), I’m no food blogger. In order to be one of those I think you need a few, important things. Firstly, you need to have good food presentation skills. Next, you need a clean kitchen. Finally, you need to write your own recipes. I don’t do any of these things. In fact, I’m not even that good at cooking.

But shit man, baking makes me so damn happy.

Step 1: Put all the ingredients out in a fancy way. Step 2: Move them all again so you can actually bake.

See, this is why I'm not a food blogger.

So today I made banana choc-chip muffins. They are made of deliciousness and wholemeal flour. 

Also sugar.

I tried to pretend like this is an actually fancy, pretty process...

But in reality this is what it looks like when I'm in my happy place...

So that’s what makes me happy. What makes you happy?

If you think baking might make you happy, why not give it a go this week and share the results? I’d love to see what you guys come up with. Feel free to use one of the recipes below if you would like.

I’m not particularly adventurous; I tend to make the same things over and over. But there is a certain comfort in doing this. At the moment, I tend to cycle between making these things:

Anzac biscuits (recipe is hand-written out of my dad’s cook book, soz)

Almond meal muffins

Banana-choc wholemealmuffins (today's happiness fodder)

Banana bread and

Gluten-free bread

I ate one just before and it was amazing.

 What else is happening this week in the blog carnival???

Alex is happy about outside and sunshine.

Jessica is happy about family and travel and ancestor hate-mail.

Britt is happy about music.

Noni is happy about her life right now.

Obituary for a Dead Macbook

I never named you, even though it was cool to name laptops when I got you. I regret that in this moment, because now that I’m writing to you, I don’t have anything to call you. But you died and now I have to write you an obituary. Because that is the logical thing to do at this time, for an inanimate object.

srsly though, it is super ded

You came into my life four or so years ago. Packed in the slim, exciting boxes that macs come in. Both my housemates had macs too. Each night we’d sit in our lounge room, macs on knees, being really social and stuff.

I got you a red hard case that clipped onto you and made your little apple glow red in the darkness. I fell asleep next to that glowing apple so often it was almost a comfort. During the day, the red case made you stand out from other macbooks. I’m sure literally no one ever thought this, but I always liked the idea of being ‘the girl with the red macbook’ in cafes or in the park.

You were a chunky white beast in a red shell but I lugged you all over. You kept me sane during times of insanity. I watched Doctor Who on you, I dropped nutella on you, I listened to new music on you. I took you with me on holidays when I probably should’ve been enjoying the sights, not trying to find wi-fi.

You came with me when I moved towns, and the connection you gave me to my old life and my online life was so important when I had no friends and no job. It was just you and me, alone in the house, drinking tea (me) and downloading Avatar the Last Airbender (you).

Internet Party

Every blog I’ve ever written, I wrote on you. Except this one, and the last one. I sort of associate blogging with you, and when you left… well I won’t pretend it was the only reason the blogs dried up, but typing a blog on a different computer still doesn’t feel quite right. Even though you had started making terrifying whirring noises. Even though you would get so hot on my lap it literally burnt.

I hope you don’t see my new macbook air as a betrayal. I needed something to write on, and you were gone. And they don’t make you anymore. Also you weighed possible 10kg, no offence. I know, I know, it’s so skinny, and shiny, and fancy and I’m SORRY. You’ll always be the first, and while perhaps you’re not a superior model, I loved you, and

I’m really sorry I spilled water on you. That was dumb.

R.I.P nameless red macbook baby. See you in technology heaven (I assume I’ll get robot parts at some point and be allowed in on a technicality).

By Sir-Heartsalot (Deviant Art)

P.S In August I'm going to be doing this thing and it's pretty cool.

Be(come) Yourself

Scrolling through your own social media history is the ultimate in narcissism. The very best bits of your life, documented in a scrolling timeline for people you hardly know. For people who, were they to change their name to something hilarious on Facebook, you would likely forget. Like ‘who the fuck is SteAmboat SArah? And why does she like capital As so much?’

I’ve been on facebook since 2007. You can scroll back to a time when they used to have that graffiti thing on each page, and when you could have a ‘pet’ and you had to feed it. You can scroll back to a time when I used the word “retarded” publicly and without shame, when I thought it was ok to call people sluts. You click through another month, another life and think, ‘who is this jerk? Oh wait, it’s me.’

I read this post on tumblr the other day and it said:

there’s a lot of unspoken pressure to keep liking the things you used to like and to keep dressing the way you’ve always dressed and to never question what you believe in and basically “be yourself” has slowly morphed into “be what everyone knows you as” but trust me when i say if you just give it up and simply make decisions and take actions based purely on what would make you happy, you’ll gain a very comforting sense of self peace (floozys)

This has never been truer than on social media. Where you’ve still got people hanging around who you went to primary school with. Hell, I’ve got people on there who haven’t seen me since primary school. Do they think I’m still really sad about being flat chested? Do they think I’m still the same girl who spread gossip and drama and left a love note in a boy’s desk? There are people on my facebook who were never my real life friend to begin with. Whose wedding dresses and beach holidays and puppies look pretty nice I guess, but whom I’m never going to talk to again. What do they think of me? Do they even remember what I was like in high school? Could they even picture my face if I didn’t upload a selfie every 3.2 days?

On this blog I have a written record of thought spanning back four years or so. My first post is a kinda sexist rant about how I think my opinions about other girls’ bodies actually matter. They don’t, clearly. Sorry women. I’ve changed, so should I take it down? 

I don’t think so?

I like to see this blog as an external record of some fairly complicated internal changes. And maybe it’s important to leave it here for all to see. Or maybe it’s not. I don’t know. But I’m gonna leave my thoughts out there anyway, for better or worse.

I guess what I’m saying is it’s really hard to acknowledge when you’ve changed. And for all the wonderful things I love about social media, sometimes making a solid, written, record of an opinion can make it harder to change. So let’s embrace our past stupidities, let’s acknowledge that we got facebook before we knew how to hold reasonable conversations, let’s proudly change our opinions.

The internet is forever, but our dumb-ass opinions don’t have to be.

 

Right?

Hi, I'm Not Dead.

Once upon a time I kept a weekly blog. During this mystical, magical time, I had whole Sundays to think about ideas, to write and edit and find pictures and generally be good at things. That time has ended.

Now we live in the dark times. Since the great reckoning, blog posts have been scarce, a thing of deep memory, of myth. There are some who question whether they ever happened at all. And those people are kinda dumb, to be honest, because it’s only been a month, sheesh.

So I don’t really have the brainpower to write anything too funny or clever, but I did just want to check back in and say HI I’M NOT DEAD and PLEASE DON’T STOP LOVING ME and other various things in caps.

So… hi, I’m not dead. Please don’t stop loving me. Here is what I’ve been doing since the last blog:

Teaching. Oh god, so much teaching. Prac teaching has been an incredible experience, I’ve taught whole days, multiple grades at once, cool science stuff, lame grammar stuff, some in between history stuff… whatever. I’ve made incredible leaps and bounds in my teaching, wonderful connections with kids, and a terrarium for some reason. 

Admittedly not a very good one.

·      All the other stuff that goes with teaching. I’ve been getting up super early, and planning late into the night. I’ve been photocopying everything I can get my hands on and giving up lunch times because kids are naughty. I’ve cried (only the once), I’ve laughed, I’ve hyperventilated, and I’ve sung instructions in stupid voices so that kids actually do what I’m asking them to do. 

Oh hey, that's me.

·      ASSignments. To be honest, I know that real life teaching is going to be super stressful, but it seems to me that doing that and then NOT having to write 5000 words about how I am doing that would be really good. So yeah, bring on the end to assignments. I’ve just finished two absolutely massive ones, but I have two more absolutely massive ones to start this week. Kill me.

Ok I know this looks like colouring-in but it was actually a really difficult assignment.

·      Baking. It makes me feel better, as discussed.

·      Buying a new laptop. One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging is because I knocked a bottle of water over my old faithful girl, the macbook in a red case I’ve been carrying around with me for almost five years. She spluttered, she coughed, and she died. I think I might actually write a eulogy to that beautiful machine for the next blog post I manage to write. Because while I love my new one, I don’t think I’ll ever be the same without that old white box.

·      Working on a musical. Yeah. I know, what. Boyfriend is directing the school musical. It starts tomorrow. Mostly my job is putting microphones on students, telling them to stop talking backstage and wading through their sweat to take the mics off again. It’s a good time.

Let's play, "Guess the Musical!"

·      Sleeping. A+. Would recommend.

·      Watching Game of Thrones. Super pissed about Cersei/Jaime/ the showrunners’ general lack of faith that their audience can understand nuanced characterisations. But still enjoying it very much. Though if I see another scene with Loras flirting with literally every man in Westeros one more time I’m going to hurl a brick at HBO. He’s meant to be heartbroken, you guys fail at queer characters ok bye.

·      ??

Yeah so, that’s me. I’ve missed blogging with every fibre of my being that isn’t devoted to all those other things. But I’ve honestly been working seven days a week, every week, for some months now. And it’s not about to stop. I have my fourth and final prac starting at the end of this coming week, three assignments and an exam and THEN I’ll be done. Also I have to be backstage in a musical for the next week. Basically, what I’m saying is, I’m not dead, please don’t stop loving me, and let’s reconvene in a another couple of weeks.

Until then, blogaroos.

xx