Friday 27 June 2014

Living To Die or Dying To Live

"Why are we dying to live when we're all just living to die?"

I saw this quote somewhere and I felt like I'd been hit by a large spiky ball of depressing thoughts. "Why are we dying to live when we're all just living to die?" I read it then did a double-take and re-read it again. First thought: That's a smart play on words. Second thought: Omg, is it true? Are we really just living to die? Yes and no. Yes, in that we will all eventually die and it's unavoidable unless some elixir is invented that will make us immortals (long shot but you never know with the rate that technology is advancing). No, in that the whole point of us living is to LIVE! We don't live to die, we live to experience all these emotions of living and everyone has different reasons for wanting to live and that's the reason we DIE to live. I don't want to get all religious especially since not everyone is Christian and stuff but if you look up Galatians 2:15-21 in the Bible, it will really make sense. It made sense to me anyway.



On a more random note, my sister recounted an incident that made me giggle. As she was walking down a street after school, she saw a bunch of teenage girls crammed in a car with the windows rolled down, screaming "HASHTAG YOLO!!!" as they sped past. It's mildly amusing but also rather sad to see young teenage girls holding life to so little value, especially on their L-plates. It is also sad to hear them speaking in Hashtag language. Even more sad to hear them say YOLO. We are currently watching Wimbledon on TV and my sister is wildly swinging her tennis racquet in the living room in a mediocre attempt to imitate the professionals playing.

Ta ta for now,
Charmie

P.S. Since when do I end my posts like this? :O
P.P.S. I am wearing fluffy crocodile slippers.
P.P.P.S. That was a very unnecessary fact. I like unnecessary facts.

Thursday 26 June 2014

10 Things That Make Me Happy

Just in case you wanted to know...here are 10 things that make me HAPPY! (:

1. Hugs from mum
2. Best friends
3. Packing for a holiday
4. Being silly with my sister to purposely annoy our parents
5. Waking up and feeling 100% awake
6. Thinking about the things that make me happy!
7. Dancing like an idiot home alone
8. Random compliments
9. Having someone stay up with me when I'm studying late
10. Making people laugh!  :D

HAHA I'm so self-centred, here I am, telling you what I like, what books I like, what movies I like, what my whole life is like, me myself I yes that's all that matters guys ME ME ME! What are some things that make you happy?


I seriously love these 'happiness is' pictures

Sunday 22 June 2014

How To Study Effectively

You can reverse the "expectations" and "reality" half the time- I can fail badly even when I study hard!! #studyhard

Finally it's school holidays! Unfortunately for some, like me, it won't be much of a holiday with the crazy amount of work I have to get done before term 3 starts. I also tend to procrastinate at extremely high levels, in fact I believe I'm a black belt at procrastination.

From everything I've told you, it may seem like I am the last person to give study tips and you're probably right! I don't trust my own advice, so nor should you. But just for laughs why not bear with me as I unleash my wisest thoughts on the internet:


1. Make a study timetable! I've created one for my three week holiday, listing all the things I will complete each day. If I stick to it for the next 21 days I will be amazed.  

2. Have a cup of tea and some snacks beside you as you work. I find it helps to have something to munch on as I do some calculus or write about the Haber process.

3. Set some short term goals and reward yourself. For me, having a particular university in mind is too long term, I need to slowly make my way up that ladder with small goals. For example, I'll say to myself, once I finish these questions I'll eat that Mars Bar or when I've summarised all my Economics I will watch the FIFA World Cup Match Replay on TV. (these are real examples from my life)

4. Listen to your parents. They do know best, even if their chiding gets on your nerves, they mean well. I have rather pushy parents, maybe I'll appreciate it more in the future but right now I'll take their advice even if I don't like it.

5. Don't cram! It's such an obvious tip but we all do it anyway. I do it much too often and the results have never been good. The time you spend procrastinating or wondering whether or not you should do something is time wasted. You could be studying for chemistry! Why would you ever give up that option? SARCASM OVERLOAD.


If you're smart, you will realise that by posting this, I am effectively procrastinating. I would rather give sarcastic study tips then study myself. That is a fact. I will now leave you with this inspirational quote below:

I always thought this way about sports; I should look at academics and all of life like this. Study motivation. 08.23.2013








Wednesday 18 June 2014

To Swear Or Not To Swear?

Rant time!
Why do people swear? I get it when you stub your toe and you mutter a profanity under your breath. But swearing just for the fun of it? I just don't get it. Is it considered the 'cool' thing to do now? Personally, I don't find throwing around f***s and sh**s and worse around very attractive, I certainly don't swoon with admiration when people swear for no particular reason. If you swear on a regular basis and you're reading this, imagine me shaking my head at you in a very disgruntled way. For some, it has become a habit to let slip those profanities and others are just incorporating it in their language to spice things up a bit. WELL STOP. Right now. You are ruining the English language. Maybe try swearing in French or something, at least people won't know what you're saying if you do that. You might even sound exotic.

Hey, now that I think about it, isn't it weird that these swear words are just sounds? Like they're just these letters strung together that are pronounced in a certain way and somehow it has evolved into something considered offensive? How is a profanity any different to an ordinary word like apple? It really isn't. In fact, the people making a swear word offensive are the people who find it offensive in the first place... OMG breakthrough, I'm literally realising this as I type...How can we get rid of swearing all together? We must all swear, profusely, daily, 24/7 and we must use it like any other word with no significant meanings!!! Then they will become meaningless!!! You know what they say, if you can't beat them, join them! :O *mind blown face*

Tuesday 17 June 2014

The Disinhibition Effect

My rather unexciting life leads to rather unexciting posts, so I apologise in advance. You see, there are only a few things I do on a regular basis; go to school, read books, write stuff, eat (a lot) and study. That's very sad, you're saying, that's the most boring routine I've ever heard of. Well whatever. Go away. 

As I was flipping through my legal studies textbook, I encountered something quite shocking. The Disinhibition Effect. More specifically, the Online Disinhibition Effect. Now, this might be old news to you, but for me, I was like WOAH. This effect thing is me in a nutshell right now. For those of you who don't know what this is, according to Wikipedia, "The online disinhibition effect is a loosening (or complete abandonment) of social restrictions and inhibitions that would otherwise be present in normal face-to-face interaction during interactions with others on the Internet." 

I've spilled quite a chunk of my personal thoughts that I would most likely not say to someone in real life on this blog. Does anyone even read this? *shrugs* Either way, it's weird how I'm okay with sharing these thoughts on the internet and allowing people from all over the world to see my deepest darkest secrets, yet I would hesitate to say them out loud to a friend.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out why cyberbullying is so common, you feel almost invincible behind a screen, you could say anything and it seems like no one would judge you. Let's be more careful from now on, yes?


Saturday 14 June 2014

My Experience At An Anglican Church!

As part of a religion assignment, I had to visit churches of two denominations of Christianity. I usually go to a Catholic church so I decided to visit an Anglican one for the experience. My mum came with me and when we got there, everyone started talking to us in a different language. When we didn't/couldn't respond, they explained that this was an Indonesian Anglican service and I face palmed myself mentally. Never mind this, everyone from the church came up to us, shaking our hands and introducing themselves, they were the most friendly bunch of people I'd ever met! Luckily, they explained, they had a live translation system set up at the back of the church and my mum and I sat there, with headphones on as a young Indonesian woman translated the whole service for us in English.

What an experience that was, sitting through an Anglican sermon with headphones on! All the songs were in Indonesian and my mum and I politely swayed to the upbeat music as the rows of people in front of us sang their hearts out. It was endearing to watch and everyone was so nice and welcoming, I shook about 20 hands and forgot about 20 names (sorry, I'm terrible with names!). The youth there were also extremely friendly and invited me to join their youth service next time. I guess what I mean to say is, I never knew how different (and awesome!) other denominations of Christianity were until then and they made me feel so welcome and happy! Shout out to my mum for coming along for the 2 hour service, your patience is much appreciated! <3

Sad Books And The World Cup

Hi, so sorry for not posting in a while, it's a clear example of my lack of committment to things. I can't say I've been busy because all I've been doing is reading this book a friend recommended. It's called 'Me Before You' by Jojo Moyes and it's such a great book in that it addresses real issues like euthanasia and doesn't sugarcoat romance. It's so realistic, the people, the feelings, are so real and I cried like a baby at the end. You know when you're so sad that your heart actually aches? The book made my heart ache like that. It was that good. Anyway I highly recommend anyone who hasn't read it to read it ASAP. What else has been going on...WORLD CUP 2014!!! Poor Socceroos, they did put up a good fight against Chile. And Spain's shocking loss against the Netherlands was interesting.

The need for me to start reading happier books and watching happier movies is apparent.

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Do You Really Reap What You Sow?

Hey there. I had an epiphany this afternoon whilst I was drinking some tea and eating some cereal. 

For all the students out there, you know how it is at the beginning of the term, you're all pumped up and ready to make it the best year of your life. Well that's just about how I start every year,  term 1 I've got my goals set up, my outlook on the future always looks greatttt. By the end of that term, I'm like this gigantic slug, barely absorbing anymore information and just inching my way towards the school holidays. Here's the sad thing, I worked my butt off last term in preparation for my half yearlies, harder than I had ever worked (which isn't very hard hahaha) but in the end, I didn't obtain the results I wanted. It was a big let down and it kind of made me wonder, is it even worth trying sometimes? You know how sometimes you don't try in something and you end up on top of it? Or like in flappy bird when you're not even trying and you end up getting a new high score? (Deep examples, Charmie.)

Anyway so today I went home feeling quite glum (<-- cool word heheh) and I realised that just because you work hard, doesn't mean you'll definitely get the results you want. It's a bummer for sure but if you don't even try, then your chances of obtaining your ideal results would be even lower. At least now you can say, 'well yes, I've done my best and if that's what I get for doing my best then poo you all!' You can't beat yourself over for trying your best but you can certainly punish yourself for putting less effort in. Just because I'm working hard doesn't mean other people aren't, in fact, maybe their definition of working hard is greater than mine. You reap what you sow? I think it should be: you're more likely to reap something if you sow something. But that's not a bad thing! To me that just means I need to keep sowing stuff and eventually, just maybe, I'll reap some great stuff!! 

Also sorry if the title was a bit misleading. I wanted it to be really inspirational and motivational (: especially since I have a maths test tomorrow! 

Monday 9 June 2014

TFIOS- Best Movie EVER?

A Fault In Our Stars

Soo..today I watched The Fault In Our Stars. And wow, just wow. I'm still recovering from it, it's one of those movies that stick with you for the rest of day and no matter how hard you try to not think about it, it comes flooding back. Now I know this kind of contradicts my previous post but just hear me out. Firstly the cinema was overflowing with excited teenage girls (yes I was one of them). Everyone awwed at the right parts and when we were two thirds of the way through the movie there was not a dry eye in the cinema, the sounds of sniffling and even the occasional sob had become familiar to our ears. I have to admit, I cried a lot too, from the bench scene in Amsterdam to the eulogy Gus wrote for Hazel. By the time the credits rolled in I was a mess.  




Funnily enough, at the exit there was a cinema guy holding a box of tissues which was hilarious yet completely understandable. Was it amazing? HELL YES. Would I take back my previous comment about TFIOS being overrated? No, but that doesn't mean I can't think the movie was great! Also, Shailene Woodley, you are absolutely gorgeous and Ansel Elgort <3 WOWWW okay hehe ;). The point being, they made the movie incredible, even if I knew what was going to happen next, the acting was amazing, the music and everything was just asfhjdhfkssaooo! Rarely is the movie better than the book but in the case of TFIOS, this may just be true! Okay? Okay.

Stars1

Sunday 8 June 2014

Random Things I Own


Hullo again, so obviously I couldn't think of anything better to post so here are some random things I own.


3 Peas in a Pod- From left to right, Peatrice, Peatey & Peanelope
 
Derek the octopus- made by my insanely talented friend Erica!

A Babushka doll! I went through this phase where I was obsessed
with the word 'babushka'.
 
I feel like I have basically spilled my life onto the internet after posting this -_- I also feel like no one cares about what I own...so sorry I'm just really really realllllly keen on avoiding maths and chem.
Maybe I'll do another rant about stuff later.

Saturday 7 June 2014

Vivid Sydney 2014

 Vivid Sydney

 
Since this event finishes on the 9th, we decided to go to Vivid Sydney and check out the cool lights. We caught the train which was so packed I'm surprised I didn't faint. We walked from Town Hall to Darling Harbour and I took wayyyy too many photos. I tried to be professional with my photography but half of them ended up blurry and the other half had random people walking past in them soooo these are the best ones, enjoy! 


Slightly blurry picture but the Opera House was definitely
the highlight!

Wooooo piano on a building!

 
Yes, I took this through a window, please forgive me.
 
 
Trust me to take the photo on the wrong side of the object. Oh well.
 
 
 
 

Friday 6 June 2014

The Fault in Our Stars Is So Overrated


Firstly, I have not seen the movie yet and I haven't watched Divergent either (shoot me) but I still have a lot to say about TFIOS.

One word: Overrated.
I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone (possibly the rest of the population) but this book is so damn overrated. I read it to see what the hype was about and was left disappointed. At no point did I shed a single tear, even when SPOILER ALERT Augustus or whatever his name was, died. Am I a cruel human being with no soul? Probably. I just feel like the storyline was too predictable and people quoting 'it's a metaphor' have taken things too far. I understand that this may cause many die-hard fans to hate me but I'm taking the risk anyway!

 
Sidenote: I have cried watching Masterchef so maybe I'm not so heartless after all?
Also there are some pretty cute quotes in it although I don't get the 'some infinities are bigger than other infinities' one, like I thought all infinities are infinite? Unless it's a metaphor...


The Airport Incident

Warning: Extreme sarcasm and hyperbole intended.

A long time ago, (aka 6 months ago), my family had just arrived back at Sydney International Airport. We had spent our Christmas holidays in Hong Kong and arriving back home was great. Until, of course, we got to Customs. Oh, the dreaded customs, where if you don't look white, expect to be handled like a disease. Naturally, we had heaps of stuff to declare. Right away the airport staff were scrutinising us, they might as well have had written 'HI WE ARE EXTREMELY RACIST YES THAT'S US' on their foreheads with Sharpies. Now that wasn't the worst part. Once they had rudely ordered us to a bench, two snarky females with noses six miles up in the air and distasteful attitude flowing from every pore of their skin, began to rip open our luggage.

One of them ordered me to bring around the trolley and at the same time lift a piece of baggage onto the bench. When I decided to do things one at a time due to my lack of five arms, she scoffed and muttered some racist remark to her friend. WOW. Firstly, I'm sorry I can't lift a 5000 kg bag onto your 5000 metre high bench whilst pushing those awfully heavy trolleys with my remaining toe. Secondly, could you be anymore obvious of your clear disgust for the Asian race? I mean, okay, you hate us but maybe try hide that look of utter revulsion?? ANYHOOO my blood pressure had hit the roof by the time they had checked all our bags and my ability to think coherently without popping a vein had hit rock bottom. In the end, we trudged off, unscathed physically but emotionally scarred forever. Well, at least I was. I stepped off the plane singing 'Advance Australia Fair' and left the airport sobbing for the human race.

I shall leave you with this picture down below.

What To Do With My Life


So I'm nearing that stage in my life where you start to doubt everything and get scared whenever someone talks about the future. Throughout my life, school has been the one thing that has stayed constant and now, with graduation looming too close for my liking, I am starting to fear. Fearing what? Fearing change. I don't want to be finally released into the big wide world where people don't care about me or know me personally. The thought of making new friends, leaving old ones behind and just not being a kid anymore is so so scary. University- what even is that?! I remember when I first started high school and thinking, 'Wow, I won't be graduating till forever' and now it's just over a year away. No. This cannot be happening. I want to stay at school and be in this safe haven where everyone loves everyone forever. And after I leave, then what? I don't know what I want to do, what to study in uni, etc. Ew. So there. Now you know my greatest fear.