A letter to my diary

Dear diary,

I think I’m in love.

The thing is, I think I’m in love… with you.

It’s crazy I’m only admitting this now. We’ve been friends for a while, so I suppose you guessed, based on how frequently I take you off the shelf, run my finger down your spine, open you, smell your pages, shudder over how beautiful you look when I cover you with my small writing in that regal violet pen. I suppose you knew for certain when I told you all my secrets, but then came back for more. Sure, there aren’t many mysteries within your pages, but you kept everything private, even the smallest things.

Somehow, when they were within your covers, my flaws seemed less horrible.

We’ve talked before about how much trouble I had letting myself make that first impression on your pages. It’s because I’ve made mistakes before. But when I opened you up, you took my words willingly and made them a part of yourself.

There have been mistakes. I had a relationship with someone like you in primary school. He was decorated with pictures of cats, but I liked his bright white pages and bold black lines. The way he could lock up made me let my guard down. He wasn’t flashy but eventually, writing on his stark pages made me realise he didn’t care, really. Secrets were housed but not embraced. And he locked everything up too tightly. Instead of absorbing my mistakes and my flaws and my bad days, he held them inside, and released them when I unlocked him, a fresh wave of anguish.

Then there was the one with silver and purple flowers and the purple pages. Mistakes were made, and you can’t use whiteout on purple pages. He sits near you on the shelf, but I can’t open him anymore. Does he tell you what I did to him? I ripped pages out with spelling mistakes and messy writing. I hurt him. He was too perfect for me.

But you are simple. Blue and yellow, held shut with a piece of elastic. Creamy white pages with pale grey lines. You are unassuming but pretty. You don’t intimidate. You accept me how I am.

It pains me to admit that sometimes I look at others. Flashier versions of you, perhaps, or fatter, or brighter or more intricate. But lately, I always resist, because you are at home and you cannot be replaced. There is no substitute.

There’s an inscription on your inside cover, indicating your purpose to hold my hopes, my dreams, my tears. You have done all that and more. My intention for you became your goal. You have lived to serve me.

And now you are close to being finished. Yes, you will be replaced (and I’ll get used to a new one eventually…) so that I can continue my stories, but what will I do with you? Will you be given away to someone in the future, to share my secrets? Will you be thrown away when I move out or move on?

I don’t know your future, but I know I am grateful for all you have done. You don’t just give my words a house, you give them a home.

Love Liz

Perfect, or just cropped that way?

 

Doesn't the pineapple I picked off my pizza
look better with a square frame!?

 Lately, I’ve become a little bit hooked on Instagram. I think there is something intrinsically addictive about it, and I’ve been thinking about why that might be.

Instagram is an app which allows users to take a photo using their smartphone and then apply filters and frames to it, before uploading it to the social network. Instagram encourages users to make their photos look better than real life, with a strong emphasis on making your photos look vintage, ‘indie’ or arty. Nowadays, there are extra apps you can use to make your Instagram photos look even better, with even more filters and stickers you can add.

Instagram is the ultimate ‘image’-manufacturing resource, which explains its popularity with ‘hipsters’. Urban Dictionary defines hipsters very aptly as ‘a subculture of men and women typically in their 20's and 30's that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter’. Isn’t that just the most fitting definition! Instagram is, however, becoming incredibly popular with the rest of the population who don’t wear rolled-up skinny jeans or ironically chunky glasses. But what makes it so popular??

Instagram operates as far more than just a photo-sharing website, instead allowing users to communicate a precise, framed, filtered and edited version of their lives to their followers. In my media subject at uni at the moment (which actually inspired this post!) we have been discussing the concept of ‘mediation’, which is how the media operates as a mediator between creator and user. So, someone who takes a photo on Instagram is a creator, then the app itself allows the user to ‘mediate’ the image to make it look even better, then everyone else sees the image.

In a recent article in Relevant magazine, Shauna Niequist discussed the ‘envy effect’ that Instagram produces. People who follow others on Instagram see their edited photos, their perfectly framed slices of life, and immediately feel envious that they don’t have the same sort of life. I know I definitely feel this way sometimes!

It’s not like looking in a magazine, because the people you follow on Instagram may actually be people you know in real life. As silly as this all sounds, this can have real problems in relationships.  Niequist quotes a conversation she had in which a friend said “I stopped following a friend on Instagram, and now that I don’t see nonstop snapshots of her perfect life, I like her better.”

As I said, I really like Instagram. It is fun to frame your life perfectly and share all the pretty things in your world. But I do see the danger as well. Niequist also touches on how we use the internet for comparison rather than connecting, and urges us to change the ways in which we use apps such as Instagram.

I’m going to be trying to stop feeling envious of the perfect lives I see on Instagram. Obviously no one has a perfect life, and I (and all of us!) need to stop comparing, stop manufacturing, stop mediating and start living. 

I'm not saying quit Instagram, but take the time to think before you post: is this really my life? Throw in a dorky photo every so often! Take stupid selfies! Skip the extra editing! Make Instagram fun again.

A Very Short History of the World by Geoffrey Blainey *GIVEAWAY!*

A very short history of the world… sounds simple enough, right? Start at the beginning, and just say everything that has ever happened really quickly. From every culture. Including before humans could write. And not missing anything or going into too much detail.

Simple? Not at all!

Geoffrey Blainey’s book A Very Short History of the World attempts to recount the complete history of human life on this planet, beginning from the move out of Africa and continuing to the present day. It is an abridged version of his A Short History of the World however, let me tell you, it is still a looooong book. And understandably! The world has a long history!

Despite its length, I found this book utterly fascinating. If you are interested in history, geography, politics, war, culture or basically any other part of human existence, then I can guarantee there will be something in this book that interests you. Highlights for me included the final four chapters, which touch on, amongst other things, the rise of the Internet, terrorism, the world wars and globalisation.

The chapter ‘Israel and the anointed one’, about the life and legacy of Jesus, was particularly interesting for me as a Bible-believing Christian. Blainey phrases things very carefully, constantly repeating things like ‘it is said that…’ or ‘his disciples believed…’, but you get the feeling that Blainey really recognises, at least to some extent, the profound significance of Jesus’ life on earth. However, Blainey does write that upon his ascent to heaven Jesus ‘would wait until the day of judgement when he would appear on earth again to punish the wicked and reward the good’. Any good evangelical Christian will correct this statement, as Jesus firmly stated that no one was good, everyone is ‘wicked’ (as Blainey puts it) and we are rewarded with eternal life through Jesus’ sacrifice, not through our own good deeds!

Nevertheless, I think this book has true merit, whether you’re a Christian or not. One single author recounting all of history is no small feat, and Blainey has definitely done a great job. I just picked up on that particular issue because I have a personal investment in it!

A Very Short History of the World has really opened my eyes to just exactly how small a part I play in the history of the world. Instead of finding this discouraging, I actually find it really exciting. The world has had such a fascinating history, and I get to be a part of it! Of course, it’s not all good, but I am astonished that humans have done such amazing things! I mean, we got from grunting to language! We figured out how to build machines and created the Internet. We have built huge structures and tiny iPods. We are creative and intelligent. Human

s are fascinating, incredible creatures, and our history attests to that fact.

Thanks to Penguin Books, I have four copies of this book to give away! If you’d like to win one, either comment on this post, write on the wall of the Facebook page for this blog or email elisabethanera@gmail.com with a sentence about your favourite part of history and why it’s your favourite! I’ll judge the best four and announce the winners on this blog and on Facebook, or I’ll email you if you enter by email.  

The pros and cons of online shopping

The boots Liz bought last week from Styletread.com.au

The Internet can be a really dangerous place. Particularly for those of us with credit/debit cards… Ever since I turned 18 last year and got my first debit card, I have loved online shopping. It’s really easy, it doesn’t make you feel as guilty about spending as when you’re in an actual shop, and EVERYONE loves getting parcels!

Of course, for all the reasons that online shopping is fun, it’s also dangerous. When you’re not actually in a shop, parting with your hard-earned money suddenly becomes a lot easier, and you find yourself spending much more much more frequently. I ordered a bunch of stuff from Typo late last year (for uni! To be organised! I promise!) and it was free shipping over $50, so I bumped my order up to get the free shipping. Normally I would NEVER spend that much at once, but with my hand on the mouse it all felt a lot less real. Of course, when I checked my bank balance later that day, it felt real!

Another thing I’ve found is that if I buy something online, the purchase doesn’t go into my ‘brain-catalogue of shopping trips’, so the next time I go shopping I think to myself “wow Liz! You’ve been so good and not been out shopping for ages, you’ve been really responsible and saved well, so you can treat yourself today. A few new books, maybe a scarf and a lipstick…” and then I get home and I remember that last week I ordered a dress from Modcloth that’s going to be arriving in the mail sometime soon.

Of course, the final dangerous thing about online shopping is that what you get might not be what you expect. This is particularly important with clothes and shoes when you can’t try them on and check sizing or style, but even ordering a notebook or some sort of household trinket can be risky when you can’t touch or see the actual thing you’re buying.

I’ve been pretty lucky so far in my online purchases, but I did once buy a dress from Modcloth (which I generally love for online shopping!) that ended up being way too big. As this site is based in America, shipping it back for a refund would have been way too expensive, so my mum got the dress and I got a box full of disappointment.

So online shopping is dangerous financially, and it’s a risk, but as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it’s also brilliantly fun and a great way to save time if you need something, or if you’re stressed and need a little instant ‘retail therapy’ without leaving your bedroom (which I do not necessarily condone…).

If you’re going to enter the world of online shopping, I’ll recommend my two favourite sites:

Modcloth.com

American-based, as I mentioned, and a little pricey for tops and bottoms, but if you’re after gorgeous, indie dresses that hardly anyone else in the country will have, seriously check them out. Shipping is fairly reasonable, particularly if you buy a few items. I have bought two dresses, a skirt and a coat from Modcloth and I love them all. One of the dresses is my absolute favourite (it’s a ‘Too Much Fun’ dress on the site, if you’re interested!) and the bright-green coat is going to get a lot of use this winter. Returns and refunds are hard, but sometimes the risk is worth it. They also have up to 20 new items every day.

StyleTread.com.au

This is an Australian-based shoe-shopping site, and offers free shipping, returns and refunds, so you can basically treat it just like shoe shopping, but a slightly more drawn-out process. I have two pairs of shoes from StyleTread, I Love Billy gladiator sandals, which were $35 on sale, and brown Therapy ankle boots, which I bought last week for $59.95 (appropriately named given that they were a stress-induced splurge that I didn’t think all that much about!). Both pairs have fitted me perfectly so far, which is surprising considering I have tiny little size 5 feet, but I bought these shoes without much worry anyway, because of the returns policy.

So final words: Maybe you're safer not to get into online shopping, because let me tell you, it is SO easy to spend way more than you intended. But at the same time, it's a lot of fun. I'm still deciding myself, but I am thinking about giving my debit card to my parents to mind...

Square eyes

Anyone who knows me will know that I am a bit of a TV fan. I get really excited by great screenwriting and I love that when you’re watching TV shoes, rather than in movies, you can follow the characters for a lot longer, and get to know them a lot better. Perhaps I should spend more time outside or with real people, yeah, but in TV world, everything is just more FUN.

So I thought I’d write a little bit about my favourite TV shows of all time, and how I came to watch them, and why I was hooked.

Sea Patrol

Sea Patrol was, to be honest, a fairly average Australian drama that ran on Channel 9 from 2007 and 2011. It wasn’t brilliant, but it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first ‘adult show’ I was allowed to watch on a regular basis. I loved the characters, and gradually converted many of my friends to watching it, so that I could talk to someone about it the day after it screened. I didn’t miss an episode, and if I couldn’t see it on the night it screened, I watched it the very next day.

Friends

Friends has always been something I’ve watched if it was on TV, but it was really only during the HSC that I started watching it heaps. I have now officially seen every episode ever made, most more than once, and I love it. I now own the entire box set. The characters are brilliant, the storylines are hilarious, and Ross and Rachel’s will-they-won’t-they is one of television’s greatest love stories. Also: BRILLIANT finale. Just amazing.

Scrubs

Scrubs is a more recent addiction, but I’ve still seen all the episodes, and I think it’s one of the greatest shows possibly ever… The acting, characters and writing are all equally brilliant, and it is just so funny. But then at other points it’s so poignant! Highly recommended, but skip Season 9 unless you want to be left feeling slightly let down. Season 8 is the perfect end.

Community

Community is probably my most recent TV discovery, but I love it. It’s just started screening on SBS 2 in Australia at 7pm, so I really think you should start watching it! My favourite season is the third, particularly the Glee and Law and Order parody episodes. But the highlight of every episode is Abed. Abed is the product of a genius writer. I am a little worried about Season 4, from what I’ve heard, but I will still watch it.

Downton Abbey

Downton is one of those shows that you love and love and love and then it rips your heart out. Season 3 and Christmas episode, I’m looking at you. That said, Downton is the only period drama I watch, and I can’t watch anything else in that genre without comparing it to Downton. Highlights include the brilliant sets and costumes and the fabulous Dowager Countess, played by Maggie Smith. I also feel like Lady Mary is a lot like me (a bit meaner than me in Season 1, but she gets better!), so that’s probably another reason I  like it.

Parenthood

I haven’t actually seen all of Parenthood, because I only started watching in Season 3 or part way through Season 2, but I’m really impressed by it. It seems very realistic, and the acting is superb. I think what makes it so realistic is that they all talk over the top of each other, and they make mistakes in what they’re saying, so it’s how humans actually talk. Clever stuff.

Finally… my all-time favourite… Gilmore Girls

Yep, it’s probably a bit dorky, but I ADORE Gilmore Girls. I’m so glad my friends introduced me to it, because it’s just exactly the sort of show I love – fantastic, character-driven plots, long seasons and long episodes, BRILLIANT writing and two strong, smart female leads. Yep, it doesn’t get much better than that. Also, I kind of am Rory… nerdy Journalism student who hates sport, loves reading and has a great relationship with her mum.

So let me know – what are your favourite shows? What should I watch next? I’ve seen Season 1 of Parks and Recreation and that seems promising, and I’ve had 30 Rock recommended to me, as well as The Office, but I’d love another serious drama (with 40-minute episodes!) if you have any suggestions! I've started The West Wing but something that takes SLIGHTLY less concentration would be great, because oh man, they speak so fast on that show.

I'd love to see the world, but...

Liz in Paris in 2012

One of the main reasons I am looking forward to starting full-time work is the opportunity to earn enough money so I can travel overseas. I've been to a couple of different islands in the Pacific, including New Caledonia and the Cook Islands, and I've been to France and England, but there are still so many places I want to see, so many cultures I want to experience and so many cities I'd love to live in.

I'd love to shop and cycle round South-East Asia, and cruise through the Caribbean. I'd kill for a month in London, holed up in cafes and bookshops and museums. Words can't even capture how much I want to go back to Paris in every season - winter was stunningly beautiful, but spring and summer and autumn must just be gorgeous. And then of course there is America - north and south! Latin American carnivals, celeb spotting in LA, the thrill of New York City at night...

I cannot WAIT for my opportunity to travel to arrive! Right now, a few days in Melbourne in mid-year break is all I can afford.

BUT! There is a 'but' to all my dreaming, and that is the fact that I am a complete and utter homebody. I love my bed, I am attached to my comfortable routine and most of all, I hate being away from the people I love. It's not homesickness, exactly, but it's the sort of "condition" that means that I go crazy without wi-fi, because I can't contact my friends, and I get stressed when the pillow I'm meant to use for sleeping is too soft.

Coupled with my, well, inherent laziness... (let's face it, I spend at least half my time on my computer and I don't play any sport!) and you get a girl who wants to travel theoretically but may not ever push herself to do so!

BUT! I really want to change this. I want to be adventurous and spontaneous, and I want to make myself a global citizen, not just a citizen of my bedroom. So I've been thinking about ways I could do this! Could I work overseas? Maybe I could try an overseas internship? There are a few offered by my university, including one in South-East Asia with Agence-France Presse which, with my French language abilities, could be really great. Or maybe I could try freelancing overseas, and be a nanny to pay the bills while I'm at it! I follow an absolutely hilarious guy on twitter, @themalenanny, who is a nanny to some really absurdly smart kids (seriously, I'm not sure how much is made up... but it's still so funny), and seems to have a really cool job - living in London, looking after fun kids and also having the opportunity to see the city!

I don't know what I will be doing, but even though I love my home, I will be getting out of here one day! There's too much to see to let my comfortable life here stop me. 

Why don't I blog more?

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Uni is crazy. It’s fun and exciting, but it’s also exhausting and sometimes scary and lonely, and it’s been taking up most of my brain space.

As a result, I have been somewhat neglecting my blogging… ok, a lot. I am frustrated with myself about this, partially because I really wanted to maintain an active online presence this year, but also because I really do love blogging!

However, I think there is another reason I have been neglecting this blog – I have been putting too much pressure on myself to write about serious or really mature things all the time. Sure, this is important, but I also love fun, girly things, like movies and music and makeup… and I think if I let myself write about those things a little more, I could actually have a much better, much more up-to-date blog.

So stay tuned for plenty more fun things, including interviews, reviews, more fun articles and, best of all, more content! Thanks for being patient with me!

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling - Book Review

I am a huge Harry Potter fan, so I approached J.K. Rowling’s first non-Harry novel with some trepidation. Though I greatly admired her talent in spinning a complex story, I was unsure of how this talent would translate to an adult novel, rather than a fantasy series.

I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. Rowling’s novel The Casual Vacancy was my first book I read after the HSC and, when I finished it, I wished I hadn’t.

The Casual Vacancy is about the town of Pagford, and the lead-up to the establishment of a new town council member after the death of the previous member. Rowling establishes at least a dozen key characters, which can make the book very confusing at times, however she also brings the skills from Harry Potter that allowed her to create an entire universe to effectively do the same thing, though on a much smaller level. Pagford’s cast of characters is well-developed, and their complex struggles and relationships revealed gradually as the book progresses.

The main strength of the novel is this characterisation. While Harry Potter was a very plot-driven series, The Casual Vacancy is absolutely character-driven, and fascinatingly so. Rowling explores not only small-town dynamics, but also the undeniable truth that all people are inherently different. No two characters are the same, from uncouth, passionate Krystal to troubled, isolated Gavin, and many others. Other strengths lie in the novel’s timely relevance – the internet is a key feature of the novel, especially social networking – and the clever divisions of the book into sections. Rowling’s characteristic third-person limited style appears as in Harry Potter, but this time she narrows in on separate characters for a section at a time, before switching. This allows for an in-depth development of each character.

The book’s main weakness is its length, and its complexity. Though in general it is a fairly easy read, it does require a lot of concentration and thinking to keep track of all the plots. However, I still highly recommend this novel and I can reassure Harry Potter fans that their idol is still a great writer, even when stripped of her boy-wizard.

My beautiful addiction?

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I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of a beauty addict.

I am subscribed to at least four different hair and makeup channels on YouTube, I’m an active member of beautyheaven.com.au (to the point of being invited to join their Trial Teams for new products) and I have two overflowing drawers of accumulated hair and beauty tools and products.

My interest originally developed, to be honest, out of procrastination. During my HSC, I watched hair and makeup tutorials as a break from studying, and although this probably wasn’t the best use of my time, it did open my eyes to the world of beauty, and just how fascinating and fun it can be. Makeup and beauty demonstrate fashion trends and cultural movements, and they are fun to try and experiment with. Plus, my newfound expertise meant that I could do my sister’s makeup for her Year 10 formal and she looked stunning, if I do say so myself J (though she always does, not only when she’s had her makeup done!)

Makeup and beauty can be seen as many different things: a way to hide your real self, a way to improve your real self, a hobby, a way of fitting in or a way of standing out. Almost all Australian teenage girls have, at some point, worn makeup and enjoyed the feeling it gives. However, some girls feel that they have to wear makeup. I could go into the media impacts here, but everyone already knows that girls struggle with how women are portrayed in the media as flawless and stunning. I’d prefer to look at the fact that some girls find that other people look down on them for being frumpy and lazy when they don’t wear makeup. This comes mostly from other girls and women, who are the ones that notice who is and isn’t wearing makeup. A flawless, well-blended face is looked at by other females and approved of, whereas a slightly red, rough complexion can be seen as a lack of caring about one’s image. Which, of course, should be a positive thing, but somehow our image-obsessed society has become convinced that if you don’t care about how you look to others, there is something socially wrong with you.

I have fallen prey to the pressure of this society, as many girls do. If I was just going to the shops, I never used to bother with makeup, but now I feel awful looking in a fitting room mirror if I haven’t put any one. I didn’t wear makeup at school (mostly because it wasn’t allowed and I was a ridiculously obsessive rule-follower) and really only started wearing it more than twice a month within the last two months. Mostly I did this because I felt, bizarrely, that people were looking down on me for not wearing it when I wasn’t. Not so much my really close friends, but acquaintances and even people I served in my retail job. I sometimes got comments like ‘you look tired’ when I wasn’t wearing makeup, and certainly no compliments when I left the house without my foundation. This is all part of the perfect-image-obsessed society we live in!

Yet at the same time, girls who are deemed to be wearing “too much makeup” or spending too much time on their faces are labelled as vain. We are stuck in an endless spiral where no one is perfect except the girl who has perfect skin or the one who has practiced her routine so much that she can be in and out of the bathroom in five minutes looking flawless and no one has to know how long she spent honing her craft.

Now I’m not sure what to do. Maybe my hobby has become more than that – maybe it’s become some sort of horrible addiction brought on by peer pressure. Because instead of feeling great while experimenting with eyeshadow shades, suddenly I don’t feel good about leaving the house without makeup.  

Yours loyally, Elisabeth.

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Today I spent nearly an hour online, signing up for loyalty cards.

As a university student, it seems I am pretty much obligated to be broke for most of this year. However, I’m not so keen on this idea, having things I need to pay for (ok, mostly WANT to pay for – I still live at home). So my solution?

ALL THE LOYALTY CARDS.

I already had Flybuys, Priceline, Cinebuzz and my personal favourite, Boost, and today I added Everyday Rewards, MyerOne, Strandbags and Dymocks. Perhaps most alarmingly, I actually found myself reading an article on the A Current Affairs website about the best loyalty cards. For shame, Liz. A Current Affair? For shame.

But I have to admit there is something sort of addictive about lovely shiny plastic cards saving you money, even if you do have to spend an exorbitant amount to actually gain any points. Free things? Yes! Things to fill the card spots in my wallet? Double yes!

So far my Boost card has been well and truly worth it – I’ve had at least 5 or 6 free Boost juices and two free ones on my birthday. And I’m liking my Cinebuzz card – free movies just for going to the movies? Yay! Can’t wait till my card upgrades to VIP status and I start earning points even more quickly!

Alarmingly, that number of free Boosts I have spent upwards of $300 on Boost over the past 3 years. And the fact that I am even eligible for VIP status says a lot about my discretionary spending habits – you have to see a lot of movies to get that. I get the feeling that though loyalty cards make you feel like you’re saving, in the end, the company gains a lot more – your choice to shop at their store rather than another, and plenty of personal information about your spending habits.

So perhaps my loyalty cards won’t save me that much money in the end, and maybe they do mean that people are using my information to fuel our consumer-driven society… but they are fun, and if they mean I can get a free juice once or twice a year, I’m a nearly broke student. So I’m keen.

The future

Last night, I found out that I got into the University of Sydney's Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications).

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Sorry about the outburst, but I am so excited!! I have wanted to study this course for nearly five years, and I was so nervous about getting in I had my eyes shut while the UAC page loaded and then jumped round the house screaming when I found out.

So FINALLY the HSC is done with! My ATAR and my marks don't even matter anymore, and I can just get on with the future! The future used to be something which really terrified me, but now I'm starting to feel a lot better about it all.

I used to be scared about losing my friends as we all went off to different universities, which I guess does still worry me, but now I'm much more convinced that we will make an effort in touch. I also used to be scared about a change in routine, but now I can't wait to make university the main way I fill my days. And I used to be scared about making my way in the difficult field of media, but now I can't wait to do internships and work experience and just get as much experience as I possibly can!

I now can't wait for the future - for uni and new friends and enriching opportunities. But I'll also still be blogging here, hopefully even more frequently and about really interesting and mature things ;) Hopefully this will be the last squeal-y post on my blog!

6 things I sometimes wonder but haven't looked up the answer

1. Do celebrities/politicians use social networks for their own private purposes? If so, do they do it under pseudonyms? I mean, can you imagine Julia Gillard using Facebook of her own accord, chatting with her friends from high school, updating her status? I think really high-profile people, when they become high-profile, might just have to sacrifice their private online identity in order to protect their privacy. On another note, imagine the contrasting status updates: Julia Gillard is facing the problems of Australia alongside John Smith is making homemade pizza for dinner. Poor John might feel a bit like his life doesn't matter so much.
   
2. Do my cats understand the concept of a 'bed'? In fact, do they understand the concept of furniture having different, specific purposes at all? I sometimes feel like, when they come into my room to wake me up in the morning, they stand there at look at me thinking 'why is she sleeping here every night? What about some variation! We sleep all over the place!' Also, I'm pretty sure they don't understand why they're allowed to stand on the desk but not the dining room table. Poor things. It must be hard to have a brain the size of a cherry tomato.
3. Why do storms almost always happen at 3.30 in the afternoon, when parents are trying to get their kids home from school? Do the clouds intentionally wait until parents are just about to leave to start their evil grumbling, just to make everything ten times harder with raincoats and umbrellas and wet school shoes everywhere?
4. Why do some colours look better together than others? Blue looks good with almost anything, but green and purple clash horribly, and so do some shades of red and pink. Why? On another note, why is it acceptable to not count denim as a colour? You wouldn't wear a bright purple shirt with bright blue pants, unless you were really daring and willing to risk looking like a clown, but when those pants are blue jeans, the problem doesn't exist!
5. Why make clocks tick? I took the batteries out of a ticking clock at a sleepover once, because I couldn't stand it. WHY WHY WHY. Perhaps once it was necessary, but NOT NOW. Now it's just irritating.
   
6. What makes us like some foods, but not others? I'm not talking about really out-there things like chilli, or overly sweet or sour foods, but why does my dad hate tuna? Why don't I like tarragon or pumpkin? What part of my brain determines what flavours I find appealing, and why?

Maybe I should look these things up instead of just wondering. Although in some ways, I sort of enjoy not knowing. It certainly helps my imagination!