blog.kangaroux.me

Have you come across the 100 Thing Challenge? Certainly a more extreme practice of minimalism. Looking at my coffee table at the moment I already have 10+ items scattered around me, not even counting the coffee table. How do you cut down on your possessions to make sure that what you do have is useful and not just lying there… doing absolutely nothing.

In a semi-attempt to live more uncluttered (not yet ready for the 100 Things Challenge), we recently got rid of:

• The TV
• The XBox 360 and games
• The Wii console, Wii fit and other games

The whole idea being that we can spend more time reading, I want and need to spend a LOT more time painting and I’ve recently taken up piano classes. My husband has 50+ books on his reading list which wasn’t getting any shorter, but we had time to relax and cuddle in front of the TV for hours. Sure, the cuddling is great, but there is certainly something to be said for intellectual stimulation and development of other skills and facets of your personality.

My piano playing has been progressing slowly. Thankfully I now have loads more time to spend on so many things, like writing another blog post.

Maybe I even have enough time to be counting how many things I can list to get rid of next. I certainly have loads of shoes I don’t wear. Donating them to someone who can use them would certainly help towards a more minimalistic inventory.

So, anybody interested in buying a tent?

I can honestly say that I’m very worried about the teenagers of today. Sure, my exposure to that specific generation is limited to my little sister, a niece of mine and some random encounters, but it’s so easy to make assumptions and generalizations

These teenagers spend hours on their mobile phones and PCs, preoccupied with instant messaging. They even get together and sit in groups, not having conversations with each other, but chatting with friends they may or may not have ever seen or met in person.

My concern is that they are limiting the development of their communication skills to the use of words only. I’ve recently been introduced to the communication model that implies the following:
The meaning conveyed in communication can be divided into the following percentages:

• 7% verbal
• 38% tonal
• 55% postural ¹

So what is the communication gap that’s developing between these tech-savvy teenagers and the older (not-dead-yet) generations?

There is also the concern regarding the degradation of their use of language and spelling. I’ve interacted with a grade 7 group of pupils and they couldn’t spell generally used English words. You can probably get away with an excuse of “But English is not my first language”. These children were born and bred English, so I can only assume that technology has made them oblivious of the need to even try and spell correctly.

My dislike of random acronyms aside, there is a place for it. The trouble is when a person allows the use of these acronyms to spill over into other contexts. Using SMS/mxit/IM abbreviations and acronyms in a grade 10 English essay is certainly not recommended but it does happen.

Should we frown upon the lack of development of generally accepted “correct” use of language, or should we embrace the idea that the use of language is evolving (or maybe devolving?)? Should children focus on developing a full spectrum of communication skills, or should we limit ourselves and strip down on things like sarcasm and replace our tonal variety with a collection of smiley faces?

You might be amazed by the inconsistency of my posts, or rather surprised that I actually remembered to write a post. I’ve been taking a bit of a breather, while my life has been whooshing past.

I’ve made a bold leap and decided to enroll for a degree in fine arts. My registration has gone through and so far, so good. The irony however is that yesterday I got a brilliant idea for a thesis for a master’s degree in engineering. I haven’t felt the desire to choose a research topic in the past two to three years and now, NOW that I’ve decided to follow my art passion… NOW I get all excited and hyperventilated at the idea of a thesis.

*sigh*

I’m not the type to make rash decisions, so I’m patiently waiting to see what life throws at me and what I’m going to take from that.

On another note, my husband recently came across this comic: Wasted Talent. I find her humour enjoyable, certainly because I can associate in quite a few ways. Here I was, thinking I was a wee bit special to be an arty engineer

Cheers to arty engineers!

This is just absolutely awesome!!! I received my mail I sent through FutureMe just now. I set it up a year ago and wrote the mail about a few things I wanted to achieve/reconsider in the 12 months to follow. I can almost remember typing it when I read it now. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

I can’t tick off all the to-do’s on the list, but it’s worth while for the few I could and also to see how I’ve changed my opinion about things in my life in just a few months.

I’m going to write my next letter to FutureMe right away!

Go have a look at the book on Amazon. This would really make a good gift *hint* *hint*

P.S.: I think I like naive little PastMe a lot!

If you like this kind of thing, I suggest you also visit PostSecret.com. In addition to the website which is updated weekly, they’ve published a few books with collections of secrets sent in, also a good gift idea *hint* *hint*

I spent another gloriously relaxing evening at art class and finished a pastel drawing. It had been quite a while since I last worked with soft pastels and it was a pleasant change from oil painting. The concept of “smudging the lines” kept creeping into my mind. Sure, there are some people who really do not suggest using smudging in any way for pencil, charcoal or pastel drawings, but it just works so well… for me…

The other link my mind directly came up with, in reference to this, is the way our more modern lifestyles are smudging the lines of roles and responsibilities that were previously so clearly defined by gender. This of course not only refers to our work environment, but to our relationships at home as well.

Work:

Being a female engineer has honestly at times been a bit challenging. The environment is not always conducive to skirt-wearing behaviour and some older generation men really do not care what your opinion may be. I had however also come across many men who have happily included me in their work environment, which is thankfully the majority of the cases. I do however still get comments like: “but you’re like one of the guys”, which may be in part because of my dress sense, but I am content with this as I have little desire to spend more money on clothes or make-up :p

Home:

I grew up with three sisters and I had in some way nominated myself to be my daddy’s little boy. I handed him his tools when he worked on the car, helped build the pigeon lofts, etc. I had enjoyed this considerably more than being forced (violently “persuaded” or faced with the threat of further torture by my oldest sister) to play dolls. I enjoyed building things and I believe this had a great impact on my idea of being self sufficient. I can look after myself, kill my own spiders (even if I do yell like a girl) and most probably pick up another back injury from not listening and moving heavy things around all by myself. When however, does my sense of independence become a hassle? When should I rather just step aside and accept help when I really actually need it?  If both people in the relationship are working full-time, who cooks the food, does the laundry, sweeps the driveway, climbs on the roof to fix things, does the gardening?

I have no moral objection with smudging the lines in my art, my work or my relationship. Even if some people do not seem to agree with me, I believe it works for me.

The question is however, how much smudging can you tolerate in the activities you’re involved in and the work you produce? A whole pastel drawing with smudging alone might be a tad bland, but add a few lines here and there and the work ends up looking much more balanced.

Ah, here that magic word creeps up: “balance”

Work hard, play hard, smudge the lines now and then!

My sister is quite a few years younger than me and she’s still in school. Obviously the poor child has a MXit addiction, but it’s a symptom of the age we’re finding ourselves in.

My mom decided to punish my sister by taking her phone away. A very cruel punishment from my sister’s point of view as this would basically cut off all social contact with her peers. I agree with my mother’s decision in this BUT

She should have then not allowed my sister to use her PC… which is online…

I find myself amazed by the generation gap that seems to keep widening as technology progresses. Will I myself someday become oblivious of changes in technology and the cultural evolutions that spring forth from that? I hope not.

Below are some easy tips on things you can do to mess up a relationship. If I missed anything, you’re welcome to add some more.

1. Say the wrong thing
2. Say the right thing at the wrong time
3. Do the wrong thing
4. Imply the wrong thing
5. Think your partner implied the wrong thing
6. Don’t listen
7. Argue semantics
8. Be petty
9. Be selfish
10. Be petty and selfish
11. Act stubborn
12. Act as if you feel indifferent
13. Do nothing
14. Be unreliable
15. Be dishonest
16. Don’t talk
17. Take decisions alone
18. Be distant and unapproachable

OK, so the easy answer is to invert the list above and things magically turn out well, right?

Hello all my faithful blog readers¹!!!

I’ve been quiet for quite a while since my last post, but I didn’t get a Visa for nothing We’ve² been to Amsterdam and Berlin and strangely enough I have returned to this African country. I considered staying in Europe, but they would probably have caught me eventually to deport me and that just doesn’t seem cool.

We took over 800 photos during our 2 week stay, which I will not be posting here, but I was entertaining myself with a little photo project whilst on my great exploration. You may be familiar with the travels of the garden gnome in the movie Amelie. I’ve done something similar by kidnapping a plush toy that normally travels in my sister’s car. This plush toy will henceforth be known as “Blommetjie”³.

The photo below is of Blommetjie at the Berliner Dom. I have to admit that it was one of the most fun parts of my trip to busy myself with finding ideal locations for my photo project

I probably need to return Blommetjie now. Bummer.

I had expected people to maybe find it strange that I was standing there, with my arm outstretched, taking photos of Blommetjie, but apparently the Europeans are used to anything.

Blommetjie at the Berliner Dom

I’m glad to be back home. It really is hard work to be a tourist. We walked around a LOT and there are so many stairs to climb. Now that normality has resumed I’m hoping to relax a bit.

This post may be one of a kind. If my seedlings are lucky, there may be follow-ups. That will however only happen if they (the seedlings) survive into adulthood. If there are no future posts on them, assume the worst has happened.

I will however remain positive and hope they thrive and no harm comes to them.

We (my husband and I) were at Kirstenbosch and we bought a “Water wise” seed pack. It’s an egg box with 6 different types of plant seeds. You get a little packet of potting mix and some plant food that you give to them if they are about 6 to 9 months old.

The tiny seeds were planted on 20 June 2008 and I watered them regularly as per the instructions. I’m not a patient person, so after reading that it may take from 1 to 3 months for the seedlings to appear, I got a bit disappointed. However, as we all find out: Time flies. Last week the first little green growths appeared above the soil. I’ve never been SO proud! So it took about 2 months for the first few to come up and I’m still waiting anxiously for the rest. I do hope some more come up as I would prefer a variety.

The pack contained at least 2 seeds of each of the following:

• Leonotis Leonurus (Commonly known as Wild Dagga) - Two seedlings so far
• Metalasia Muricata (Commonly known as Blombos) - None
• Geranium Incanum (Commonly known as Carpet Geranium) - One seedling so far
• Euryops Virgineus (Commonly known as Honey Europs) - Three seedlings so far
• Coleonema Pulchellum (Commonly known as Confetti Bush) - None
• Cotyledon Orbiculata (Commonly known as Pigs Ear) - None

Hold thumbs that the rest come up and they all make it through.