Bronwyn Rideout

K, now I owe four.

Day One: Ten things you want to do some day.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself
Day Three: Eight qualities you think are awesome in other people.
Day Four: Seven (semi)interesting things you've pondered or thought about recently.
Day Five: Six things you are glad you did.
Day Six: Five books/movies/tv series/etc that you'd recommend
Day Seven: Four silly quirks
Day Eight: Three pet peeves
Day Nine: Two things for which you're proud of yourself.
Day Ten: One secret plan.


Day Four: Seven (semi)interesting things you've pondered or thought about recently.
1. Retirement: How I am going to save for it?
2. How much money do I bring in on my till compared to my coworkers?
3. Where is my flying car?
4. Does money affect how one perceives the cost of food?
5. I can sleep in an unmade bed. What does that say about me?
6. Why does my boss ask such ridiculous questions during work?
7. If there any way I can make stove-top Mac and Cheese that tastes like Kraft Dinner?

Day Five: Six things you are glad you did.
1. Moved to New Zealand
2. Studied Classics
3. Worked at Wicosuta
4. Not view my Dad's body before cremation
5. Quit the Postgrad Committee
6. Not pursure a PhD.

Day Six: Five books/movies/tv series/etc that you'd recommend
1. Fringe. The first season was pretty daring in my book and while it has an air of "Our science is different", they keep flying the freak flag, unlike Eureka. I like to see it as an FBI that has been changed by the x-files but just doesn't want to touch Mulder or aliens with a ten-foot pole.
2. X-Files. I watched the complete series a couple of years ago. It was worth it, especially for the early 90s fashion and video quality. When I was younger, the mytharc didn't play too well to me as I was more into the monster of the week crap. On second viewing, the alien storyline was way more compelling.
3. Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Klosterman. If only for the list of questions to ask your future partner.
4. The Up Series. Utterly depressing and everyone is still alive, even bloody Apted. I'm hoping 56 Up (to be released in a year or two) will make up for the whinginess that was 49 Up (ugh, they went on and on about how it was like reality television and invasive. I doubt they could've made up more cliche complaints if they tried)
5. Six Feet Under/Carnivale. I do read books. Lots of them. I'm more of a non-fiction girl but rarely do I find a book that meets my expectations. The biography I reading about the Mitford sisters may change that but I've only started. However, I do get a lot of enjoyment out of moving pictures and I'm still meeting people who have never seen Six Feet Under or Carnivale. The former is a well-known critical darling that mixes the mildly macabre with the exceedingly mundane. It might help to read Jessica Mitford's "The American Way fo Death". The latter is complex, freakish, and stylish series that mixes the biblical with the esoteric as guided by the Tarot deck. And it is set in a Depression Era carnival. Have fun.

Day Seven: Four silly quirks
1. When it comes to dinner, I eat by category I guess. As in, I eat all the veggies, then all the meat etc. not in any particular order though. It pissed off my mom to no end. She would tell me that people would think I was mentally ill if they saw me eat like that.
2. I must have internet time in the morning.
3. I brush my teeth after breakfast. Again, mom wanted me to brush before breakfast and after breakfast, so this may not seem like a silly quirk to the rest of the world.
4. I cluck my tongue when I'm bored.

I owe my reader/s two today since I went out to Chinese Lunar New Year Festivities yesterday and was bowled by how HDTV really fucks up any movie made without HDTV in mind.

Day One: Ten things you want to do some day.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself.
Day Three: Eight qualities you think are awesome in other people.
Day Four: Seven (semi)interesting things you've pondered or thought about recently.
Day Five: Six things you are glad you did.
Day Six: Five books/movies/tv series/etc that you'd recommend
Day Seven: Four silly quirks
Day Eight: Three pet peeves
Day Nine: Two things for which you're proud of yourself.
Day Ten: One secret plan.

1. I'm tall. It has been a defining characteristic. People ask me to reach things on high shelves. It also makes it hard to find decent tshirts and dresses.

2. I get unnerved when having to walk long distances on a bridge or pedestrian overpass. There is a sheltered overpass that connects the bus station to the AUT campus that  is several metres above the busy Auckland motorway. Totally safe, even with the cracks in the concrete floor. Nevertheless, I hated walking across it and could understand why there were emergency phones on either end of the over pass and in the middle. I'm sure freak outs are not uncommon.

3. I would rather spend money on expensive food than on expensive clothes.

4. I could give up wearing pants/jeans entirely. I look better in skirts.

5. Making and being a close friend is still hard. I'm not very good at keeping in touch.

6. I worry that if/when I go back to school, I will be too old when I graduate to be considered malleable. The flavour of the month is accounting and depending on immigration, I could be between 30 and 32 when I graduate. 

7. If I wasn't allergic, I could be a cat person. However, a dog that requires exercise and activity is a much better choice for my general well being in the long run.

8. When I was fundraising, my favourite time was around Halloween. Not much in terms of decoration but the stillness, the leaves, the huge houses, the smell of fall, the crispness. It was good meditation time. I miss October/Fall/Halloween.

9. I'm not worried about rising chocolate prices. I prefer caramel.


Day Three: Eight qualities you think are awesome in other people.

1. Wit

2. Intelligence/Trivia Smarts

3. Leadership/Crowd Control

4. Fearlessness

5. Longevity of Friendships

6. Creativity/Artistic capability

7. Not wishy-washy/Opinionated

8. Storytelling

This has been shamelessly stolen off of uncut_diamond . I know no one is posting but I'm sure quite a few are still watching.

Day One: Ten things you want to do some day.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself.
Day Three: Eight qualities you think are awesome in other people.
Day Four: Seven (semi)interesting things you've pondered or thought about recently.
Day Five: Six things you are glad you did.
Day Six: Five books/movies/tv series/etc that you'd recommend
Day Seven: Four silly quirks
Day Eight: Three pet peeves
Day Nine: Two things for which you're proud of yourself.
Day Ten: One secret plan.


1. Spend a month in Massachusetts. I love that state. I want to revisit Boston and Salem and see Edward Gorey's house on Cape Cod.
2. Visit New Orleans.
3. Another travel one: Go back to Florida and revisit Disney et al as an adult.
4. I want to go back to school and once I have enjoyed a month's worth of wages, I will start saving because being an immigrant in immigration limbo sucks.
5. I had a roommate during my second stay in Toronto who was a trained weaver and did, in my mind, pretty well at it. I want to learn how to use a loom. It isn't like I am lacking wool in NZ, just the legal means of obtaining large quantities for free on very short notice.
6. I want to expand my candy-making skills. Treacle-mels, toffee, and fudge only get one so far.
7. Find a couple of charities and make decent monthly donations.  So far, I am thinking Doctors Without Borders as my international aid charity but I have no idea about what local/national charity to support.
8. Start drawing again.
9. Do a pub crawl along Hadrian's Wall.
10. Get a dog

( Introduction )

So this is me doing my annual attempt at futility.

I'm pariticipating in therealljidol  competition again this year.

At most, I will make it to three weeks. I'm just trying to get in the habit of writting more.

I have a love-hate relationship with photography. When it comes to my life between the periods of birth to kindergarten, I know that I have always been chubby and my hair is impossible to manage consistently. Photos are like that. Any moment you think there is a possibility to become someone else, to throw away self-fulfilling prophecies, you are reminded that your core being was capture for posterity.

 

I guess I feel that photography provides a more brutal snapshot of how we actually look to the world. Certainly, a picture is only a fleeting millisecond in time but it is nevertheless a moment that did happen. That stupid look on your face did exist and will exist again.

 

 Mirrors, on the other hand, are complacent to our egos. Willing accomplices to the lies we want to tell ourselves, giving weight to our empty reassurances that, yes, that yellow eye shadow looks awesome on you. That, absolutely, you have an amazing smile.

 

Mirrors are the theory. We study, and we do study and rehearse our expressions and personas to the point of pain. Photography however is the proof that as long as we are lifelong students, there are pop quizzes that we perpetually fail. Especially when we don’t know that we are being tested.

 

The least we can do is to make the most of ever test we face. You don’t necessarily need to smile to pass or even look your best. Tests are like that. Sometimes you can pass an exam with a stomach full of vinegar, your rattiest PJS, and your head at the emptiest that it has ever been.  

I'm taking a second BYE for idol. I just received my VISA on tuesday and have been running ragged over the past week trying to tie up loose ends. Work has been hectic and exhausting to the point that I cannot even drag myself to post that I want to use my BYE. So Thanks and apologies to the contest master Gary for doing what he does.

I'm finishing my canvassing work on Wednesday night and on friday morning heading back to the Ottawa Valley to stay with my mother for a couple of weeks before returning to NZ on November 25. Yeah, things are going down quickly.

However, that also means lots of downtime for writing. I'm committing myself to actually trying out Nanowrimo. Every other year I have been bogged down with essays, exams, and or a thesis.

( Every day, I'm paid to introduce myself. )

I'm doing LJ Idol for the second time.
ommunity.livejournal.com/therealljidol/256751.html

NIN are playing AUCKLAND in FEB.

I'm sooooooooo going.