Day 3: The Struggle is Real

It may or may not surprise you to learn that the hardest part about blogging every day in April is the part where you have to blog EVERY DAY in April. Especially when my life as it stands currently is simultaneously super boring (What'd I do today? Worked! Do you want me to regale you with stories about the data validation I did all day? Probably not!) and super hectic to the point where actually writing anything seems a huge task for which I can't set aside any time. AND YET HERE WE ARE.

So, to celebrate the fact that I am going overseas again on Monday, I would like to share with you all the countries I've been to, in the order of my favourite to least favourite. Now, I love Australia as much as the next pretty-ashamed-of-our-current-political-climate-but-unable-to-escape-the-nationality-listed-on-my-passport Australian, but it's not on the list. Not because I don't care about it, but because I would probably put it at/near the bottom and then people wouldn't like me.
Also, some of these are also quite low because I haven't been there very long (heyoooo, Vatican City and Singapore) and some, like Italy, are low because while I LOVED LOVED some places in that country, others were ehhhhh. So here we go!

Mexico

USA

Norway

Switzerland

Scotland

Republic of Ireland

Spain

The Netherlands

Malaysia

Monaco

Germany

Czech Republic

Canada

Japan

England

Fiji

Northern Ireland

New Zealand

France

Italy

Vanuatu

Indonesia

Austria

Singapore

Vatican City (sorry!)

Desk tour!

So while I was WORKING VERY HARD today at work, I thought to myself, "Hey, my desk is cool. Let's blaaaaaagh pictures of it!"
That's what this is. That's all. Appreciate this insight into my soul.

Hollaaaaaa

It's BEDA time. So let's BEDA.

I mean, it is already April 2. But it's still April 1st in the US and starting BEDA on April 2nd is almost becoming a tradition here on theonlyadrienne. So is not completing BEDA, so we'll see how that goes :D

I will also be going away for 8 days, where I may or may not be able to blog but ah well. I may even write posts but not be able to post them. I mean, it's unlikely but you never know.

And so begins the long haul of having to try and think about what to write for BEDA every day. Will I frequently resort to lists, or short posts that contain nothing other than a brief acknowledgement and assurance I am alive? Will I start writing a story that I'll never even consider finishing? Will I grumble and complain about things? Will I break new ground on theonlyadrienne blog and put up delicious recipes? Will I give you recommendations on how to improve your life by reading specific books? Will blogspot become a place I fear to venture because of the shame of yet another failed BEDA?

WHO KNOWS. Certainly not me. Place all bets now to be in the running to win a fabulous prize!*

Now I will try go off and try and book a room in a small town in Japan using a poorly translated website (THANKS, Google). This is a venture bound for success!

Wish me the luckiest of luck for BEDA! I know I'll need it. You know I'll need it. The lint in my pocket knows I'll need it. Which is especially amazing given I am not currently wearing pockets! Or wearing clothes with pockets! Or wearing lint!

(*Prize to be determined and may or may not corporeally exist.)

GULP 2014

Heyyyy, cool cats.

My life is a major hot mess right now - I have a BILLION things happening and some of them are HARD and some of them are just TIME CONSUMING and some of them are GREAT.
So this year:

• I'm talking a full psych course load, so all my courses are psych courses, including a research course which is simultaneously super exciting and incapacitatingly terrifying woo yeah alright!
• I am playing basketball, which is activity, so fun! Also hard, because apparently stopping playing a sport for 3+ years means that when you come back to it you might not be as good???? It might almost be as if you haven't played for 3+ years??? Who decided on that rule?? 
• I'm (still) doing cake decorating, for three hours a week, and literally no other time ever at all because despite really enjoying it I seem incapable of actually using my acquired skillset to produce anything that isn't made as a requirement in class! I don't know if I'll continue this because man, it's fun and I am completely uncreative otherwise, but it's a long time. And I already have very few nights free, what with night classes and such.
• I'm helping develop the ANU virtual clinic which is an online mental health clinic for ANU students (and staff??). This should be totally awesome and really cool experience. I say 'should' because I don't actually really know what it involves yet, other than attending workshops (which will be catered ... but I'm definitely there for the experience).
• Working 2+ days per week haaaaaaaaaa I totally have sufficient time-management skills to handle all this!
• Probably some other stuff.
• GULP!!!!!!! The title of this post!! a.k.a. what I will spend the rest of it talking about!!!!

So late last year, ANU posted a thingy about this pilot they're running of this program. This thingy contained delightfully little information, which I was hoping was due to them intentionally withholding information so the details would be revealed post-interview/acceptance but actually seems to be due to the fact that they actually just don't know anything. Specifics - who needs 'em?

What this means though is that I can't really give you a very detailed idea of what GULP is, but here are the basics:

A group of 11 ANU students and 11 students from the University of Minnesota have been chosen to participate.

Each ANU student has been paired with a UoM student.

We work together to develop ourselves as leaders and our cultural awareness.

We fundraise for our project.

In the middle of the year, we begin developing a project for implementation in a community in Malawi, Africa, which will help address a local need.

We complete the development of this project. *fingers crossed*

We go to Malawi for 2 weeks at the start of 2015, and complete the project in that community. 

That's basically all I've got at this point.

So far this year, the ANU students have been down to the coast for a weekend, to get to know one another and start to work as a group, as well as start planning our fundraising activities. The UoM students also went away for a similar thing.

Each group also made a video to introduce ourselves to the other group! Ours can be seen here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Y13AIF1kCyOENNZU5LWWd5dFU/edit?usp=sharing

The weekend was really fun and I think we all connected really well as a group, which is awesome. And CHEESY.

Since then, we've had one informal meet-up (to discuss fundraising further) and two formal meet-ups. The formal meet-ups have a) included the UoM students and b) not been very formal (much to the displeasure of the receptionist who works at the ANU office we use for the meetings - HA!). Both of these have been really fun and a good way to see everybody all together.

As part of the program, we've had to do a couple of tests, to determine our 'strengths' and our cultural awareness. These have been ... interesting, although I don't put a lot of value into those kinds of things. While they certainly have their place, well ... I know me better than some half hour test and also none of these things are stable and also those kinds of tests are never perfect. But discussing them as a group has been good!

Oh wow this was spectacularly uninteresting for people who aren't involved and not even very funny.

SORRY. Hopefully you enjoy the video?

Eh, who cares? 

(Me. A lot.)

Kindles: Why you should have one, but you don't.

I have a Kindle. I've had one (different ones; I just got the Paperwhite for Christmas) for three years.

I love reading. I love books. I love curling up in the sun or lying in bed in various uncomfortable positions reading.

I love my Kindle.

And I am so sick of hearing stupid arguments against them.

Number one argument I always get:

"But I like the feel of books!"

Yeah? Me too. And the Kindle knows that (well, Amazon know that). It tried to emulate a book. Of course, it doesn't entirely succeed. I have a very book-like cover, which helps, but yeah, you don't turn the pages and you don't risk paper cuts and you only read on one side of the page and you don't have to struggle to hold really heavy books up above your head while you're lying in bed. I understanding that book reading is a sensory experience for many - it isn't like playing computer for an hour to fill time. It is enveloping and involves stimulation of all senses (except taste, unless you read books reeeeeally differently to me) and etc. but the Kindle doesn't detract from that experience; it offers an alternative. 

"I like the smell of books!"

This is dumb. I didn't get a Kindle and throw out all of my old books. I still have my books. I still buy books in physical form, not as an e-book. I still have many resources available to have a good long sniff if the need overwhelms me. And it frequently does. Whiff away, my friends. Maybe I should invent Eau de Old Book Smell and it can be sprayed periodically from the back of the Kindle so this can stop being an excuse. Copyright Adrienne May 2013. 

"The technology age is taking over! Man the battle stations! Fight for the paper book!"

I have shamelessly stolen a large number of ideas from Maureen Johnson, which I highly recommend reading (after this, so you think all of these ideas are MINE). She's a young adult fiction novelist; when not writing, she's generally being about 80% crazy. Give or take.

Anyway, objecting to a Kindle purely because it's new tech is like so silly. That's pretty much the defining thing of our current age: huge leaps in technology, changing the way we live. That and climate change.

"I just think ebooks suck and real books are the best, and if you read on an ebook, your experience of reading is inferior to mine." [paraphrasing]
Aside from this being a completely arbitrary and elitist argument, it's also so 100% not the point. Are people reading? Are they enjoying the reading? This is important. This matters. 'Are they reading in my preferred method?' is not a question I have any interest in addressing. Nor should you. Your experience does not have to be my experience, and how successful your experience is does not determine how successful mine will be.

I'm not trying to convince everyone to go an buy an ereader. Though I think they're great and I think people disregard them too easily, you wanna stick to paper, you still to that paper! I will, usually, be reading a paper book too! But it's like DVDs, right? It's a new thing, that built on an old thing and made some aspects easier/more interesting to use. That's not saying I think books will go the same way as VHS tapes, certainly not as fast, but man, don't diss Kindles if you don't know. Personally, I'm sick of having to defend my status as an Avid and Enthusiatic Reader to people who think the fact that I own a Kindle means I somehow don't like books as much.

Also  you get to name your Kindle. Mine is called Like a Kindle in the Wind. 

Why Boycotting the Ender's Game Movie to Express your Displeasure at OSC's Stance on Gay Marriage is Ridiculous: a rant.

To preface: Ender's Game is a sci-fi novel written by Orson Scott Card (OSC), a very well-known sci-fi and fantasy writer. Ender's Game is kind of the sci-fi book, and I would highly recommend it to everyone. It's about a boy named Ender who is sent to a space station to learn how to defend the Earth against aliens ('the buggers' - it was written in the '80s) who have previously been involved in war with Earth. Ender Wiggin is somewhat of the last hope of Earth, and as well as cool sci-fi action, there's a lot of interesting psychological elements and sweet battle scenes.
Orson Scott Card, the author, is a devout Mormon. He is a prominent supporter of the Biblical definition of marriage and therefore vehemently opposed to homosexual marriage. Some of his quotes on the subject are quite verbally aggressive, stating he will destroy any government who tries to legalise gay marriage. He is, as you might expect from a devout Mormon, also very conservative in other areas, though his stance on this issue is most prevalent at the moment, due, I assume, to our current social environment where defending traditional perceptions of marriage to the exclusion of others is a relatively socially unacceptable thing to do, and given that the Ender's Game movie is coming out this November.

Please note that by calling marriage between a man and woman 'traditional' I am not saying I think that's all marriage is. I understand that my language could lead you to believe that I am against marriage equality for homosexuals; that's not what I'm saying. It can't be argued that man/woman marriage is the current tradition.

Before I get into the rant in the title, I just want to very briefly address another issue which is actually of more concern to me, but I feel like I can't blog about without it a) going on foreverrrrr because I have so many 'pinions and b) making me upset because reasons. But in summary, I'm sick of people's entire identity and personality being determined, in the eyes of others, by one factor. Last night on tumblr, there was one of OSC's quotes about how he doesn't support gay marriage, which was met with comments about how he is a 'vile, hateful, piece of shit', amongst other things. You know what? I'd bet you good money he isn't. It's a problem exacerbated by people's need to identify the failings in everyone around them, and then determine who that person is based on that one thing. OSC is not vile and hateful because he disagrees with your stance on gay marriage. He is not a piece of shit because on this matter, your opinions are not in alignment. Stop judging people based on one facet of their identity and wake the hell up and realise that everyone is just as complex, full of contradicting emotions and messy inside as you. Personally, I'd be pissed the f*ck off if people judged my whole personality based on my views on one issue, even if I agreed with you and you decided that made me awesome. I deserve more than that. I deserve to be seen as more than just one part of myself. And so does everyone.

So re: boycotting the movie, this is seriously the stupidest response to finding out OSC's stance on this issue that I can think of, for these reasons:

• The rights have already been bought from him. While I'm sure he'll make a percentage of whatever profits there are, it's already done. It's already in the hands of someone else.
• And that's exactly what it is - this is no longer OSC's baby. It belongs to another person. OSC is involved in production, but he is not the only one. There are many other people who are helping to guide this movie.
• Which means, obviously, that OSC is not the sole, or even primary, beneficiary of the film. He is not the only person receiving money for this, and he will not be receiving the most money for this. Aside from the cast, there's the whole production team and crew, who by boycotting this film, you would be hurting a heck of a lot more than OSC. And it's not purely financial - the crew who won't get more money no matter how well the movie does are still going to be more successful if this movie is more successful. If they're crew on some bomb movie that no one goes to see, how much less work do you think they're going to get than if they were on the crew of the super box office hit of 2013.
• I challenge you to find any movie ever where there has not been at least one person on the cast or crew who was against gay marriage, or some other thing you strongly believe in. Literally every movie, I would hazard, has had SOMEONE on it who doesn't agree with you on this matter. So why is this different?

Boycotting the Ender's Game movie because you disagree with OSC is the most irrational and honestly, kinda selfish response to this issue. I just. I don't get it. It makes me angry and sad and confused. 

I want to, I do

I want to blog so much, but I've got too much uni work - dammit ANU.
Not even so much work like "I shall blog to procrastinate!" but so much work like "I have two exams next week, neither of which I have started studying for, a group presentation on Wednesday I haven't finished writing, and a group presentation in two week I haven't even really looked at so yeah, soz guys."

But in good news, this evening I saved a dog.
There's been probably 5-10 times in the last few years when I've been driving around with Ben and we've seen a dog wandering. Most of the times, the dog has been near its house, but I've still gone in and told the owner, because they should know their dog can get out.
One time, I chased a dog for like, 6 blocks because it ran way when I tried to help it and I wanted to make sure it didn't get run over.
Twice, including tonight, we've saved a dog near a busy road where the dog's house obviously wasn't nearby, and taken it to the pound. The pound have these holding cages, where you can take dogs out of hours and lock them there for the night. We always take a blanket for the puppy to snuggle into, and the pound has water for the dogs.
Tonight, we saved a little terrier. And I mean really saved. We were driving along Cooma St, in Queanbeyan, and there was a tiny dog running across the road, and two people standing on the other side. We pulled over, mostly to avoid hitting the dog but also because it looked like the two people needed a hand. I got out of the car and tried to call the dog over to me, but he (I don't actually know - I'm just guessing) was a bit frightened and ran across the road again, back to the other side. He was looking back at me, and would have come within about 20cm of being hit by a car that made no effort to slow or swerve, although the dog was so small the driver may not have seen it. Once safely (just) on the other side, the dog had a sniff at me, and was a bit suspicious because I smelled like my dog. Then something happened that freaked the puppy out, and he tried to run away. I grabbed him, knowing that if I didn't he would be too scared and go off running again. Because he was already frightened, he barked and tried to bite me, but I managed to get him in my arms and held him like a baby and he calmed down a bit. He licked my hands and my face.
I told the other people who had been trying to help that we would take him to the pound, so Ben and I and the dog got back in the car, stopped in briefly at my house to pick up a blanket, then went to the pound.
It's pretty awful at the pound. The dogs watch you helplessly as your drive away or lock them in the cage, and you don't know what's going to happen to them. But we put him in a cage with the blanket, which we made all snuggly for him, and there was a big bucket of water. He didn't drink anything while I was there though. I sat with him in the cage for a few minutes, trying to settle him down and make him feel better. He felt scared, and was shaking. He didn't really settle. We eventually had to leave though, and he stood at the door to the cage and watched us walk away with sad, bright eyes.
Then, Ben was driving home after dropping me home, and he saw a guy who looked like he was looking for something. Ben pulled over, and this guy owned the dog. When Ben mentioned we'd dropped him at the pound, the guy seemed to think that meant the dog might get put down or something, but Ben explained that the have overnight holding cages.
I haven't heard anything from the guy, though I left my phone number. But I'm happy that the dog found his owner.
And there was one time I saved a dog and got half of $20 and got to miss maths. Best day ever!

Hey, apparently I did have time for a blog.

Oh, fancy pants!

Guess who just got offered a permanent position at my work?
THIS GIRL.
Lady.
Woman.
Apparently, calling women (above a certain age, I assume) 'girl' is infantalising an therefore sexist, because we don't call men 'boys' past a certain age. Or something.
But I'll talk about THAT tomorrow, because that is a whole other kettle of fishies.
This blog title just got a lot more relevant because I just got some new pants, between titling the blog and posting. They're not fancy by ohmygod they are so comfortable.
Anyway, top stroy today is that the place I've been working at sporadically since November 2011, temping here and there in holidays and during term, doing reception and admin-y bits, has just offered me an official job with them!
I've been temping through Hays this whole time, and while that's had some awesome perks, like being able to say "I'm the best temp in Chiswick!" (and that's about all), it's also been really unstable and a bit hard to organise, because I'm meant to do everything through Hays, but have such a good relationship with where I actually do the working things that I just tell them directly.
So I have to decide if I want to be casual or permanent part-time but either way eeeeeeeeeee!
I'm probably more excited than I should be, given that it's not like I got a new job or anything - it will be exactly the same work.
The real difference is now that I will be an official employee, I won't have to pay for my own meal at the work Christmas lunch. Booyah.

Though tbh, all this pales in comparison to these freaking pants. Kmart, I take back any word I have ever uttered against you. Have all my money in exchange for a never-ending supply of these pants, and tiny pillow pet keyrings, please and thank you and goodnight.
x

I think we should all just admit it's not happening and move on.

I will try and write a bit though.
Except for right now, because it's 1am, my bffffffffff is visiting from Melbs, and I just watched the LAST episode of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries and am somewhat of an emotional wreck.
Well, only a little bit.
But today I mastered (I use that term loosely) the cup song from Pitch Perfect.
I've been able to do just the cup bit for yearsssssss, but now I can sing the song with it too.
And by "sing the song with it", I mean I can make the noises out of my mouth when they're meant to be made. They don't necessarily sound any good in any way at all.
So no, you'll probably never see any evidence of it, but just know that it prrrrrrrrobably makes me more accomplished than you.
And will drastically improve my quality of life long term.
Except for tonight, when I won't be sleeping because this goddamn song is SO STUCK IN MY HEAD.
But I'm basically Anna Kendrick, which gives me the right to be sassy and dismissive about Twilight (because I was previously very limited in my ability to do this ...) and wear excessive amounts of eyeliner, which I think we can all agree is something I have never been guilty of previously, and have them look attractive and just a touch badass.

GOODNIGHT.

Well, that was successful.

I lasted a day. A day of BEDA. After missing the first day.
My life is a constant success story.
So now we're changing things up; from this moment on, this will be known as BLoDiA. Blog Lots of Days in April. Which is objectively a terrible name but we're rolling with it because I'm already doing so appallingly.
I redesigned my blog. P. cool, huh?
I'm trying to find a new photo to replace the skulls (though I do like the skulls), but I can't find anything except many, many pictures of my face. I was considering making you a side-bar collage of my face in various locations but like, I feel like that might be bordering on obsessively self-involved and creepy?

Anyway, I was hoping to have a story to tell you. I don't.
Ah! Thank you, boyfriend!

I shall blog about my puppy.
Artemis is like, I wanna say 8 months old? She is a Kelpie, mostly, and we got her from puppy foster care. There's a picture of her a couple of posts back.
She is super playful. She would play non-stop if she could, and tries pretty hard to most of the time.
When we first got her, she liked tug-of-war but we made the mistake many puppy owners (including ourselves, with our previous puppy) have made before us: teaching her fetch.
If there's something else Arty likes to do other than fetch, I don't know about it. And neither does she.
It doesn't matter whether you're watching TV, eating breakfast, in the shower, sleeping. You are expected to throw the ball/rope/squeaky toy immediately. I have woken up with slobbery tennis balls in my bed. Sexahhhhh.
As anyone who has tried to train a puppy to fetch may have noticed, they're not particularly adept at dropping the ball. But we taught Arty that when we say "mine", she's to drop the toy or let go of the rope if we're playing tug-of-war. She's super good at this, because she is smart and lovely.
She also jumps to catch the toy. She did a full flip the other night, long ways. She's so dedicated to catching it, and so excited to play, that when you're about to throw it, her back legs quiver in excitement.
She cries when we leave. She cries and howls and barks and is so sad. It breaks my heart, to the point where often I won't go out on the weekends, if it means leaving her alone, because I can't stand to listen to her cry as I close the door behind me.
She is so happy when we come home. Her ears go flat against her head (which they do whenever she's really happy or contrite) and she jumps up on you and prances around, entirely stoked that you're home. Her prancing is hilarious.
She howls at sirens.
Her best doggy friend is Ben's dog Meg. They've got to the point now where they recognise each other's name. Like, if I say "Meg" at home and Arty hears, she'll drop her toy, look at me excitedly, then run to the front door. When we get to the door of Meg's house, Arty is so excited not just her tails wags - her whole back half wags. Then we let her off the leash and Arty runs inside and Meg spares a lick for my hand before chasing after Arty into the backyard where they'll chase each other around for hours. We can even get them to tug-of-war with each other. Also, despite both of them being girls, and both being desexed, Meg tried to hump Arty once, so that was pretty funny.
We're trying to get Arty to be a bit more cuddly, and it's working - though most people don't get to see it. Around too many people, she's just way too excited. But in the mornings and evening in particular, when she's really sleepy, you can sit with her for ages cuddling. As long as you let her lick your hands (face) while you do.
She sleeps inside.
Heaps of people seem to think Artemis is a bad name. It's not, don't worry.
That's my dog.