All posts tagged: 2012

Post #54: Giving Up Cable TV

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Living without cable has not been as difficult as I imagined it would. It’s been over a month since we pulled the plug, and I have found it liberating. There’s no more ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’, and I feel smarter for it. Since giving up our cable TV habit, we’re communicating more. We read more books, engage more in our writing and creative challenges, and fill the time with discussions whilst lounging on our rug. We listen to music, we dance (well, I do), and we jam with our new instruments. We have not gone off TV cold turkey – we still watch a few things via Netflix streaming – but there’s a more healthy balance in our life. But I do miss being able to fast forward the ads in Jeopardy. *** Welcome to the fifty-fourth post of  the Great Writing Challenge of 2012. At least three days a week until the end of the year, I will post about a topic of choice. The stipulation: it must be 250 words (or more), …

Post #53: Instagramming

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Instagram. It’s the first thing I look at each day after my alarm plucks me from my sleep. Before Twitter and email. Even before the weather forecast. I love seeing other people’s lives and feeling like I’m a part of it. Seeing how their life looks provides me with a greater understanding of them. Some of the best photography is not the physically stunning scenery, it’s the snippets of real life: watching coffee brew on a windowsill, a blooming flower, toes immersed in water. Facebook recently purchased the SF-based Instagram for a staggering $1 billion. It’s what every start-up dreams of: to have your idea fill a niche so valuable, that you cannot possibly say no to the offer. And a billion is something few people would be able to turn down. But much like any big company gobbling up a smaller start-up, I imagine Instagram’s demise to be fairly swift. So, while the app still bringing me joy, here are my top 10 instagrammers to follow: 1. sandrajuto Sandra Juto is one of all-time …

Post #52: The Wind

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In the book ‘Chocolat’ by Joanne Harris (and the movie of the same name), I saw in it something I recognised in my own life. The main character is called to pack her belongings and move on by the wind that blows through her French town . And for a while now, those winds have been again calling my name. Every 18 months or so, I feel the need to return home. This time it was almost to the day. It sneaks up on you quietly, then, if ignored, with greater rumbling and urgency. The universe is telling me to move on, but I need it to give me some time. Some of my avoidance strategies includes reorganising my workspace and apartment, and I did both yesterday. But still, I know what I have to do: I have to go home. It’s as though I am pulled by some invisible gravitational force back Down Under. I need to return home to be recharged and reenergised by the colours, the sights, the sounds, the smells. The …

Post #51: A Cultural Disconnect

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I feel like I give a lot of myself to people and I don’t feel like I am getting what I need back from them. Partly, I believe the disconnect is cultural. It is hard for me as an Australian to say directly to someone, “Hey mate, I want this [from you]”. We Australians do this dance where we try to be as explicit as possible without actually saying the words. And then we get disappointed when we don’t get what we need or want. It makes no sense, but it’s just what we do. As an Australians in business over here in the US, it can make for some pretty arresting experiences. Aussies have many more similarities with the English in the way in which we conduct our business, and that’s to be expected. But people here in the US can be so… forthright. And even after a few years, I still find it confronting. Americans, generally, come across as being more arrogant than the biggest knobs you know down the pub. But you …