Thriftival 2010
I can't take credit for the name and I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not. But the idea of Thriftival came as a response to a few months of spending that has left me financially and emotionally drained. We are very lucky in that we have two decent incomes and limited outgoings, but this has meant that I have become completely spoilt and have a house full of stuff I don't value because it's stuff I haven't saved for.
Good times. If I could stop twitching long enough...
The thing that surprised me most about my trip to England was how much I actually appeared to be a normal person. I got a glimpse of what it must be like to be charming and funny and popular because I felt like I was all of those things and without even trying.
June 500 (shake baby shake)
I joined in with June 500 to get me writing, and write I did, but I haven't been very faithful in keeping it going. For those of you who don't stalk me on Twitter (and why on earth don't you?) a few of us have started a group with one aim: to write 500 words a day.
One in four and the danger of statistics...
One in four. We've all heard the statistic. A quarter of us will be personally affected by mental illness in our lifetime. Twenty five percent. This statistic was thrown out there in order to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness: if you don't have it, chances are somebody in your family will.
Falling over, flags, and footy
I love sport. Apparently sport just wants to be friends. On Sunday I fell off my roller skates and made my knee go 'pop', so my sporting life for the next few weeks will be spent in front of the telly. Which is probably how it should be. I think people who like sport can be put into one of two categories: those who like to watch sport and those who like to play sport.
Seeing Red
I'm thinking of dyeing my hair again. What, Rach is dyeing her hair? Must be Wednesday. Hair-dyeing for me generally goes hand-in-hand with mental wobbles, so it will be nice to do it whilst sane for a change. I need more red. I know it is red, well sort of red, but it's gone a lot darker than I'd like and it's time for something a little more fuck yeah!
Bloody students.
After a brief cameo down in timetabling, I'm back working with students in Domestic Liaison and Recruitment. I do the liaison part, and my specialty is external students. In case you don't know, external students are domestic students who can not, or choose not to, go to lectures and attend university like a normal person.
To be, or to be doing?
It's exam time, and it's painfully obvious that this semester has been a washout. Obviously working full-time has drastically cut my study time (or, more precisely, my procrastination time,) but I think my high-maintenance attention span switched off long before that. I showed up to my exam yesterday, and I think I did enough to pass, but I'm not even going to bother attempting tomorrow's chemistry exam.
It's time to lay off the atheists.
I’ve been an atheist for as long as I can remember. Being brought up Catholic, and attending a Catholic school in a small town, I’ve had to defend my atheism for about as long. Happily, since growing up and moving out, I’ve encountered less opposition to my non-beliefs. I married an atheist, and it would have been difficult not to; but otherwise, religion and faith rarely feature in my relationships with friends and family.
So, I've got crabs...
We love animals, but living in a rented house means that we are limited in our choice of pets. Lenny the Siamese cat came with us from the UK, then over the next couple of years we added an enormous fish tank (for goldfish) and Mr. Nigel-Murray, the Western Bearded Dragon.