Hmm

You know, I complain a lot. I don't always stop to appreciate the good things. And to be fair, the 'aughts' have not been a happy decade for me. Well...OK, probably more good things happened than bad, if I'm honest. But the bad things were so horrendous that they tend to cast a shadow over the good things.

But this morning at church the sermon basically boiled down to the fact that we need to embrace joy. We need to actively seek out joy and reasons to be joyful. That struck me. I'm usually content to wallow a bit. But I need to remember that joy is a state of mind and not really something you feel.

I think my real resolution for 2010 and indeed the next decade is to try and remember that joy and not just feel sorry for myself.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainty that just to be alive is a grand thing - Agatha Christie

Elsewhere on teh interwebs

I found this



It almost makes this year's pop music seem cool. Too bad most of the performers in the video don't have the talent that the MashUp artist clearly has in his left pinky...

Welcome to the much debated new decade

Yes, that's right, it's 2010. Seems weird to write that. People are debating about whether it is a new decade. Silly people. Surely a decade is just a period of 10 years, so really every new year could be a new decade if people had a little imagination. They're also arguing about what the decade will be called. Because apparently we have left the 'naughties' behind. I'm pretty sure the term 'naughties' is not quite as wide spread as people think, and that it only caught on in the last few years of the decade anyway. And I still hear/see people refer to exactly the same years as 'the aughts'.

So, in typical Rachel fashion, I would like to tell the media to get the freak over themselves. Not that they're going to listen to one girl typing on a blog that no one reads. But I've said it. That's something.

Also, I managed not to blog for the entirety of December. Oops. I think I wrote so much in November (50,000 words, yo) that I couldn't be bothered. But it is a new year and I will endeavour to blog.

The latter half of 2009 brought about an epic fail on my part. Yes, I said I would aim to read a book a week. No, I didn't. NaNoWriMo killed whatever chance I had of reading anything in November and by December I was basically exhausted and spent whatever time I wasn't awake sleeping. Yeah. Read that sentence back, I dare you.

But, this is a new month in a new year, and I'm going to try again. I'll start again on 'The Subtle Knife' by Philip Pullman, the sequal to 'The Northern Lights' which under no circumstances will I ever refer to as 'The Golden Compass'. It's not the title of the book and there is no compass in it whatsoever. Stupid Hollywood. Then, obviously, I'll read The Amber Spyglass. Then I'll hit up Borders and find something else to read. I also want to find the last Sally Lockhart mystery plus the follow up Jim Gordon one. But that's four books by the same author and it's probably best to not read them all at once.

What else do I resolve to do this year...well...I actually hate new years resolutions. But I am going to resolve to go a whole year without drowning another phone/assorted piece of electrical equipment. I have learned my lesson on that count, I think. Phones are like cats...they keep themselves clean and do not take kindly to being immersed in a bucket of water...I should also resolve to blog more but I think we all know that's highly unlikely. Setting unrealistic resolutions will only result in total failure.

I also resolve to tidy my room in the next couple of days. God it's a mess in here.

Over and out...

One thing to say

Oh yes.

Actually, I have more than one thing to say, because there is no way I would have done that without loads of people encouraging me, supporting me, and maybe even bullying me :p

In particular, the amazing, wonderful, fabulously awesome Sarah, who inspired me to do this with the story of her friend. I had thought I was too busy but managed to prove to myself that actually, I'm not. Busyness is a rubbish excuse for not doing what you want to do. If something matters, you can make the time. I think that participating in NaNo has proved that to me, and I'm going to try to remember that if I can find time to work full time and still write 1,667 words a day, I can find time to do a whole lot of other things that I complain I don't have time to do.

Also thanks to fellow NaNo-ers Christine and Anna Grace, buzz cheer squad members Sheri (captain), Brandon, JJ, Doug, and Carolyn, and random other encouragers, in particular Luke, because he never encourages anyone so to find him encouraging me was quite a suprise, and Amelia, because she was the first of my local friends who actually knew was NaNo was. There are all sorts of other people who made comments on my facebook statuses encouraging me, or even just clicked 'like'. Seriously, that meant a lot and I hope you read this and know that I really do appreciate you!

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a little bit of awesomeness to start your week

I found this on another blog a while ago. I have since rediscovered the song via the Glee soundtrack I mentioned on Friday.



I love this song. I can't wait to see Wicked in January. Woo! Sydney, here I come.

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Gleeeeeeeeeee!!!

In the spirit of true randomness, I would like to report that I bought the Glee soundtrack this morning. And now I am performing a move that I like to call 'chair dancing'. It is that weird sort of pretend dancing you do when you're sitting down. Well. I say 'you', but really I'm not sure if anyone but myself ever performs this particular piece of retardedness...

Gosh, the joy in this music. Even the sadder songs. It's just amazing. It makes me want to sing and dance and go CRAZY! Plus everyone singing on it has amazing voices which makes me go all melty.

Happy Friday, everyone!!!

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NaNo, NaNo!

As you may have surmised, I have entered myself in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Sure, when it says 'National' it means America, but people all over the world are doing it including a small group in Adelaide.

I decided to do it on Sunday, after Sarah pointed out to me that if her dying friend could do it, so could I.

I have since discovered that the people running this thing are kind of cool. For instance, this appeared on the front page of the website when I visited today

'There's an old folk saying that goes: Whenever you delete a sentence in your NaNoWriMo novel, a NaNoWriMo angel loses its wings and plummets, screaming, to the ground.

Where it will likely require medical attention'

Clearly, these people get me :)

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tra la la...

Sarah called me awesome. Just about tops off my day, actually. It's been one of those weird days where nothing particularly good happened, but regardless I just feel like I had a great day. It started without enough sleep. Perhaps this is my problem. Perhaps I am getting too much sleep and that is throwing off my groove.

I'm sure November will fix that...frantic typing to prove to myself that I can write 50,000 words of fiction in the space of a simple month.

I think I'm mad. But a touch of madness might just be a good thing. Might just be what I'm needing at the moment. Things are feeling rather rut-like. And I hate ruts. And I hate how I feel when I'm in a rut. Getting out of it in time for the Christmas season seems like a good idea.

Wow. This was a really random blog. But random is good...

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Nerding It Up

My friend Michelle blogs over at Nerd Nation . I studied third year anatomy with Michelle and half of my honours year as well. Well, I say 'studied'...those few months in a shared office often dissloved into bitching about faculty staff and drinking cider at the unibar whilst other people threw money off the balcony and ended up climbing onto the roof of the adjoining building. But that, I think is a story for another day. My point is that Michelle has started a science blog. She likes to research into things and educate people about them. Michelle is a nerd. As am I

I, however, channel my nerdiness into far less worthy efforts. Like the following YouTube clip



Because actually learning stuff is too much like hard work for a procrastinator like me. I prefer to enjoy other people's intelligence...

Phooey

I was going to do a photo dump of my weekend in the NT, but blogger is being a whiny little bitch and won't let me.

Grr.

I dunno. Come back in a few days and maybe I'll have gotten the stinking thing to work.

Thbbbbbt