Make 'em Laugh

One of my challenges involves making a random stranger laugh every week. It has now been 8 days since the 29 Before 30 challenge began, and I have outright failed in Week 1. It's not for lack of trying. I'm just not very good at it yet. It's all a bit daunting. I thought children would be a good starting point, so I began pulling faces at youngsters on the train. This didn't work. I did a dance for the little Asian lady in the sushi store. She beamed and nodded supportively, but nothing that resembled even a chuckle. I even asked a guy at the patisserie what time it was when Sean Connery went to Wimbledon, and he said he didn't know, and I said tennish, and he looked at me blankly. I was a little disheartened after all of that.

Craig, I'm hoping that after tripping on the starting line, I am allowed to average my 52 strangers out over the course of the year to give me a chance to catch up. I'm going to find a way to do better at this, I swear...

My 'good deed a week' challenge I have sort of merged with this one, but in my defence, Jacob did set me 4 challenges instead of one. However I did exchange a five dollar note for some change for a lady who needed it for the parking meter. Does that count?

A message from (one of) our sponsors

We be riding a bike fo' charity, yo!

So, in rising to the challenge of one miss Carly-le, I have just registered for the Sydney to the Gong ride bike for MS. I was initially very excited about this, but my current emotional state on this latest action is wavering somewhere around the 'so terrified I might vomit a little bit' mark.

If you're feeling generous, you can donate some money here on my fundraising page. It will give you a sense of enormous well-being! In Australia, over 20,000 people currently have MS, but this figure is increasing as diagnosis methods become more advanced. There is no cure, so hopefully my pedal power will go a tiny way towards funding the research to finding one.

Still think I'm going to vomit... oh dear.

When you say 'snow'...

Cider, then vodka, then beer, then champagne? When was that ever going to be a good idea?

Thanks are due to the charming folks from Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem for their hospitality last night, even if I did cop abuse for being boring. James dripped with disdain. "Oh I get it. You're gonna bail. Who are you? I'm going to remember you as you were back then. I don't want to hear about your stupid boring office job. I was there when you first saw snow. You were running around like an infant. It was special."

A conversation then ensued where Ben interpreted the word 'snow' to mean 'cocaine' for its entirety, when what it actually meant was 'snow'. I don't think anybody noticed. It was funny in retrospect.

Here's a picture of the original moment as proof of my innocence, Munich, 2007:

The band claimed to be slack and still thinking of a challenge, but Pat promised to get it to us before the year is out. He asked if I knew how to surf, which I don't, which makes me slightly nervous.

I didn't get a chance to meditate yesterday, unless dance-meditation counts. According to something that popped up when I typed that phrase into google: "The goal of meditation is communion with the Spirited Self, and while in our body-mind we can feel this inner Spirit enlivened while dancing, as we hold positive thoughts and caring feelings for ourselves and all." Justification enough for me.

Dance Yrself Clean

Tonight: LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip go head to head at Hordern Pavillion. Excited, much? It'll be Ben's first time seeing a band at the Hordern and the first time I've seen the band play live since the three weeks I spent on the Tour Bus of Love circa 2007. Not sure if I'll get a chance to say hi, but fingers crossed. They owe me a challenge and while James already told me they were up for it, receiving such things as postcards while on tour, are a challenge in itself. Frankly, I'll take what I can get.

Lots of other things to say, but no time to say them in, so in the meantime just enjoy this ridiculous video of James, Pat and Nancy being beaten up and abused by evil pandas. It's a bit hilarious.

Break it on down

For those who just arrived, please allow me to explain, video style.

Meditation

It is pretty much mania at work just now. Particularly today, now that my boss has gone on maternity leave, one of the guys is on leave to go skiing for a week, and the last member of my team is, well, not here. That makes me the whole academic team (I work for a university). It's been really fun. Really.

So I have taken up the first of my challenges today. According to Jacob, I am required to "meditate for a minimum of 10 minutes a day", so I decided to take a dedicated 'time out' out of working day to try and do that.

Yeah, that worked out well.

Lesson 1: Meditation is hard. What's up with that? Isn't it just sitting with your legs crossed and thinking of nothing? Climbing into the void? Swimming in the colours?

I went up to the rooftop level, empty of students, and sat on a table in the sun, eyes closed, back straight, breathing slow. The sun's warmth on my skin was a welcome visitor. I heard the vents humming. I heard the crane beeping. Then I remembered there was a camera on the roof and thought of the guys in security watching me. A siren wailed from down on the street. I wondered if my timer was working. I fiddled with my phone for a bit to check.

So. I did ok for what I figured to be around 8 minutes, but ultimately I tried and failed on Day 1. That's ok. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. I like that this is something I have to unexpectedly learn, and not just immediately be able to do.

I expect this will also come in handy when trying to switch off the notion of how I'm going to complete everything else on my list... which I will post as a separate page shortly.

Nerves...

I have been too busy to blog lately. Sorry about that. Some stuff happened and I sent the rest of the postcards and I'll scan them and post them here soon. And now it's totally my birthday. Today! Damn straight! I got some brilliant presents and ate a caramel cheesecake and all in all have been very spoiled so far. Ben and I are going out for dinner tonight, to one of the lovely little posh looking restaurants mere stumbling distance from home, and will probably consume far too much wine, which will be a great time to come home and wade through the postcards that have piled up in the Forbidden Drawer of Destiny. I will post again. Oh yes.

Milk

Remember that thing I said about milk cartons a few posts ago? Yeah.



(I know it's blurry, but the date is accurate)

FLOSS

Ben asked if there were any challenges I was expecting to receive. I had to think about it, but no, not really. He thinks somebody else will come up with his idea, because apparently it is "a bit obvious". I said that it might be obvious to him, not necessarily anyone else.

That got the brain cogs turning, and I must admit that I have a few things in mind that I'd like to receive. That doesn't mean I expect anyone to come up with them. I "stole and embellished" this idea from a friend who did a similar thing to this in London, and some of her challenges were fantastic. I don't want to list anything before I see the postcards, but I'm starting to think that I might start a list too, and anything that doesn't get hit by my magic 29 will give me some things to do after I turn 30.

Not all of them are very exciting. For some reason I got this image in my head of somebody just writing the word FLOSS in giant letters on the back of the postcard. I really need to take better care of my gums.

The random pursuit of happiness

Somebody posted a link on Facebook yesterday which was a survey that a friend of theirs had put together for their psychology degree. It was trying to gauge the effect of Facebook use on our general psychological well being. Being a sucker for a good quiz and also underwhelmed with my work situation at the moment, I took 10 minutes out of my day to fill it in. By the time I got to the end of it, I realised: this is probably the happiest I've ever been in my life. Frankly I don't think Facebook has had much to do with it, but it was a lovely realisation nevertheless. I mean, I knew I was contented, but considering how messy my emotions have known to be in the past, this is not only reassuring but inspiring - knowing I've followed my heart and head in the correct measures, and ended up here. Life is good, and beautiful, and real.

My large and vibrant circle of friends are a big part of this. Last night I had 2 separate friends sell the virtues of 2 of my other friends; each one proclaiming "how great is So-and-So! She's so wonderful!" and each time I've said "I know! Isn't she just?" and my heart is warmed. Not only because it's cute to see my friends meet and get on so well, but because it is such a direct way of reinforcing how freaking brilliant they all are. So much so, that they are instantly taken with each other. I just love it.

They treat me pretty well, too. While I am not a nervous performer, I do have hella anxiety about certain exterior things, such as "marketing" and "how I should look" (something I deal with by ignoring it completely). The fact my friends are there supporting our humble little band is amazing in itself, and we do really appreciate the after-show banter when they go on about how great we sounded or how we looked like we were having so much fun. But somebody said a strange thing to me last night. She said: "You looked exactly the way you were supposed to look." Me, in my scruffy jeans, dirty cons and lovely old scarf, not feeling beautiful in the slightest, but still apparently looking the part, and being myself.

I'm a very, very lucky person.

I know this post has nothing really to do with the project, but I just thought it would be nice to remember. These are the people who are going to lead me for the next 12 months, and I have every faith in them.

Old skool

I've got some postcard cramming to do in the next week. You may notice my 'creative flare' may decrease more as my desperation kicks in... it just happens that the next five are people from my early (and ongoing) years...

Rondalyn & Kimberly


Mum & Dad


Emma


Sister Eileen Mary


Heath


It's a good thing my parents wouldn't know the internet if it crawled into their kitchen and made itself a cup of tea, because they would be freaking out if they knew I'd posted their photo on it (even if it is circa 1982).

July.

July. Yup. I guess crunch time is coming. I used to think it wasn't really appropriate to get excited about my birthday until I saw the date on a bottle of milk. Milk only stays good for maybe a week or so. I figure a week is sufficient time to get psyched about these things. You don't want to peak too soon.

Holy crap I just looked at the calendar. The 'adventure' starts in exactly 3 weeks. I have been lazy and not done any more postcards. Well, not altogether lazy - there has been moving house and all that to contend with. And it is COLD and my little fingers can't do the fiddly cutting and gluing bits. ... Pity that's such a crap excuse.

I think I've only got 2 postcards back anyway, so it's gonna be a bit dull to start off with. Ben has been speaking to people about it and he tells me he thinks a lot of the challenges are going to be "pretty epic". This scares me a little bit. If any challengers are reading and still short of ideas, could you maybe go for something that I might actually achieve without needing hospitalisation, training or therapy? That'd be nice. Ta.