Same principle

This one principle applies to exercise, housework and study: Just Do It.

How to rebuke.

I love that "first world problems" thing going around. It's perfect. It's a genuine rebuke when you are getting the irrits about something trivial, like a $5 rent increase,* cos you remember that some people don't have houses. and it's also funny. I told it to a slight friend of might on the weekend, when she said she was having a knee operation soon, which is not nice at all, but the injury is from an international ski trip. Probably insensitive of me. Pain isn't nice. But, skiing in Europe. How first world can you get. Still shouldn't have said it. Whats more funny is to apply it to random things. Anna and I saw an Ibis that had been run over on the road. I said "first world problems" without thinking. Heh. Being dead isn't a FWP. I just like to mock Ibises.

I hope my overuse of this meme will make me more like Michael Scott.



*Ross Gittins wrote recently that when people are complaining about cost of living, they don't have real problems. Losing your job is a real problem, expensive cinema food is not a real problem.

Some is better than none

Sometimes, I set myself some lofty aspirations e.g. I'm going to do an intense hour of exercise or I'm going to study for six hours today. But your day doesn't always go to plan. So what do you do? Throw in the towel?

No, I remind myself that "some is better than none". So thirty minutes of gentle to moderate exercise is better than none. Two hours of study is better than none.

Then I remind myself, some days I can achieve my lofty aspirations and other days I can't. And that's okay.

As Geoff Huegill said in a recent Good Weekend,

To be your best, keep it simple. You can't be excellent every single day, but you can go out there and be the best you can be at that moment.

So on the days I am tired, I remind myself "some is better than none", and that I will have days when I can do more. On the days I have energy, I crank it to the max.

Halfway day post.

Sometimes, you just have to wait for the week to be over. Moods will swing back up, looming events will be past, perceptions will change. You just have to wait.

Oh look! Shan Dong chicken :) and it's better already.

The Paradox of Work for a Creative Person.

I hoped to do some more outlining on Karen's comic on the weekend. I got no drawing at all done, but instead read a library book: The Coming First World Debt Crisis (all about how a global economy built on debt is immoral and unsustainable—published 2006, just before the GFC credit crunch, so quite prophetic also).

Which just goes to show that whatever you do for your job is "work", and anything else is a pleasant distraction.

Old dog. New tricks.

If one describes oneself as an old dog unable to learn new tricks, don't be fooled. Don't underestimate such a person. That person's bag of tricks may be impressive enough.

Vicarious Valentine.

It is impossible to avoid noticing V Day. I always fantasise a little bit about receiving a big bunch of flowers, or something poetic from an anonymous admirer*, or anything of a Valentiney nature… nothing ever happens.

So since there is no fun to be had with a real Valentine, "we shall have to be philosophers, Mary," and make our own blog fun!

Here is some sensible advice you girls might like to remember:

"It is face powder to catch them, and baking powder to keep them."

So simple! Things were perhaps much easier in the 50s.

Stay tuned for more!

*although I have spent this year spurning the poems and tributes of an unwanted weirdo admirer, so if I did receive something anonymous I would be cross and suspicious.

Pace of change: never been slower.

On the radio today I heard something surprising: we think we live in a super-fast changing world, but we don't really. 50 or 100 years ago, technological changes were happening which had huge effects on how people lived and the possibilities of their world. The telegraph enabled near instant international communication, which was previously restricted by physical transport speed. Radio technology. Also the car. Air travel. Production line manufacturing. Plastic. etc etc etc. This stuff really changed people's lives. We think the world is changing quickly because a new and improved ipod is released every 3 months. That's not life-changing. The personal computer, maybe digital technology, and definitely the internet, are the significant tech life-changers in my lifetime.

Share the love, share the calories

There are lots of yummy foods that not so health-ful for you, especially when consumed in more than moderate amounts e.g. hot chips, desserts, anything containing pig fat etc.

This is where my philosophy in eating unhealthy food comes in: share the love, share the calories.

When you want to dig into a bowl of ice-cream, munch your way through a packet of chips, or gorge yourself on chocolate, the best way to eat it is to share the food with as many people as you can. You still get to eat the food, but by now sharing it, you are now eating a modest portion (hopefully!), you are spreading the love by engaging others in the eating and you are also sharing the calories!

(I have to admit, I feel a wee bit less Australian using the term "calories" as opposed to "kilojoules")