Assumptions

Today, I got sorta “roped in” to buy this product whereby I realised that I really have to learn how to just walk on by people. However, I was having a bit of a down day so I think I was a bit more open to whatever people were selling me (to some extent…).

So here I was, walking around Shoppo after letting a sales lady at Mecca Cosmetica sell me a Stila concealer after asking if they stocked Benefit (which I only heard from YesStyle and wanted to try). Don’t get me wrong though, I think Stila is probably cheaper than Benefit (EDIT…It’s not cheaper…oh well) and well, I was willing to try it. Lady was also pretty nice. I like places that have good customer service (e.g. saying Hi to you when you walk into the store as opposed to ignoring you completely even if you are standing in front of them and have been walking in the store for around 10 minutes *coughGSTARcough*)

Anyway, I ended up taking a pamphlet from someone (reminder to self: never take pamphlets). Now, when it’s a good day, I can usually ignore people (e.g. ignoring ALL the people trying to give me flyers on how to “vote” for the State Election), but on certain days, I take pamphlets and I get myself stuck with the most longwinded people who are pretty much INTENT on selling you something or getting you to join something. I think this also ONLY ever happens when I’m by myself (though once, I got stopped by someone trying to get me to join some group. They asked if I was still studying and I said I was in my last year and they said “sorry, we’re looking for people over 21, but remember us etc etc”. I was/am actually 21 but I didn’t feel the need to correct them).

Anyway, so I took a pamphlet from this guy selling some organic honey peel thing. He demonstrates how it works on my skin etc and you know, sells the product to me. He asks me what I do, I say pharmacy. The guy keeps asking me questions like “do you use any products to clean your face” I say “yes, cetaphil”. Which I actually do. I love cetaphil. Works great for my dry skin, gets a bit oily though sometimes with the moisturiser, but I still love it.

Anyway, I guess, when people start spurting stuff about how chemicals are bad for you etc, well, I can’t help but think that natural things, just because they are natural, doesn’t mean it’s good for you either. I mean, botox is natural. Botox, if you get just a bit too much can paralyse you and there you go, off to your death. So yes, I’m always a bit skeptical with the “organic” and “natural” products.

Okay, I guess the main point is in my post is that the sales person sorta kept making assumptions about me. He asked “are you busy or are you a lazy person” (okay I think that’s what he said because I couldn’t understand part of the time due to his very thick accent) and I said “lazy”. And he was suprised…because I’m female and I guess most women say “busy”. Also I think he assumed I used hand lotion. I rarely use it, even though I like to use it sometimes.

And the part that sorta annoyed me was the bit when trying to get him off my back about the product was when I asked him what ingredients are in the product. He told me but he also said that I probably never look at that stuff when I go buy my cetaphil etc from priceline. Um, dude. Seriously…I look at the ingredients. I look at the ingredients and granted, I may not know what some of them do, but I have enough knowledge to determine what I want and what I don’t want to have in my product. Geez, ever since I was stuck having to learn about what half those ingredients do in my pharmacy degree, I started to look at ingredients to see if I could recognise them and determine what they are used for.

And saying that your product wont interact with chemicals because it’s natural is just stupid. I mean, grapefruit juice is natural and it has the ability to interact with medications. Vit K is natural and it can also interact with meds. -_-”

Well, nevertheless, I ended up buying the organic honey peel only because it looked sorta interesting and sorta like the laniege product (I think…) which acts as an exfoliator by removing dead skin cells without any beads. I’ll see how it goes.

lasts…and firsts…

Lasts…here is me dedicating my lasts for this year…

- last day of uni

- last undergrad exams (hopefully)

- last lecture

- last online quiz

- last time I drive with red Ps

- last gig with my jazz band

- last time I’d probably play in Medleys

- last holidays ever

- last muck-up day

and to the firsts…

- first of many rejections job wise

- first massive faith/dependency/crying out/holding on/praying/clinging onto/grappling/strengthening/testing/waiting/wondering period

- first day on green Ps

- first trip to europe

- first jager shot (he was right, it was disgusting)

- first medleys

- first 20/20 for a group assignment

- first year in my current job

- first glimpse of the numerous possibilities I have in my life and in my future…

with every last comes a new first, cycling us through this journey called life.

Well, it’s definately been a long time…

I just feel like writing a bit now.

The year is almost over. I’ve almost finished. I should be studying for a quiz (which for some reason is held on the last day of semester? the last day of uni ever…) but I am writing to get it off my chest so I can concentrate on studying because i’ve been distracted for the whole day.

You know what really annoys me? Cyber-bullying/haters/trolls etc. Basically, people who write spiteful/hateful comments online and hide behind the anonymity of the internet. People who see a picture or video of someone and goes

- “you’re so ugly, i dont know why people even watch you”

- “you have no talent, people who follow you are deluded fools”

- “you are so fake, it makes me want to vomit”

etc.

It makes me pretty angry actually when I see this done. When others who have the same point of view as me reply, the usual reply is:

- We have a freedom of speech retard.

- It’s their fault, they did it to themselves by going on youtube/facebook/twitter

- You must be her/him under a fake name, get the heck out of here

I dunno, i just get really pissed off. Sure you might have freedom of speech, but to say that about someone who you don’t even know, annoys me. They are people too. Just because they are in the limelight for some reason doesn’t mean that they did it to themselves. It doesn’t mean that they deserve the comments said about them.

People don’t realise the consequences of their words/actions on the internet. Sure, some people are pretty good when it comes to ignoring these comments, other people not so. You never know what someone might do about what you say.

Really…it gives me little hope for this world sometimes. People say that they want “world peace”. Is it really possible with humans though? Is it possible when we spend so much of our time bringing others down, to what avail? To make ourselves feel better? When people relish in the hate that they stir, when they believe that they are invincible and can’t wait to see someone fall.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for constructive criticism and healthy debate. I’m not for insulting/trashing/uncalled for comments that aren’t really going to help someone.

And don’t get me wrong either. In no way am I perfect. No one is. Even I’m not sheltered from this and no doubt, there have been many times when my opinion of someone is based on the 10 second interaction that they have with me.

I guess my point is that I wish that people would be more aware of what they write on the internet and at least have an understanding of what their words can do to people.

Hmm…not the most happy post, but hey, hopefully in time people will learn…

101 Update #10

Things I’m doing:

• I’m currently still trying to take showers that are less than 4 minutes long.
  
• I’m also currently still trying to finish of my cross stitching
• Am going to have to clean my room before I leave
• I’m also trying to get rid of things such as my: old mobile, watch, lanyard thing, diary, overhead slides.
• I also watched Children of Men and Avatar, both of which are in the IMDB top 250

Things I’ve completed:

#5. Learn how to make 5 desserts.

I have learnt how to make: Blueberry and White chocolate tart, Banana honey and cinnamon muffins, truffles, mars bar mudcake and cheesecake.

#22. Go to a ballet

I went to watch one of my youth girls dance in a ballet concert. It was pretty good. I am amazed at how they can dance on their toes for so long!

#42. Take a photo everyday for 31 days

I took photos for the month of november. They are available on my fb to see. I actually missed out on 2 days so i just made up for them by taking some photos in december.

#46. Fill up money box with spare change

I managed to fill up most of my money box with spare change by not using coins and only notes when I got to buy stuff. Managed to save quite a lot. Around $100 in 2 months. Pretty good hey.

#47. Take all my spare change to the bank

I went to the bank and yeah, deposited the money I had saved. Managed to save $137.55. Was quite suprised to be honest.

Harm minimisation

Throughout the past couple of years in Uni, I feel as if I have developed some passion as it were, or some great urge, to be a part of the harm minimisation/reduction practice. Most people would have no idea what I’m talking about, but basically, it involves reducing/minimising harm in relation to drug users. Things like needle exchange programs, opioid replacement therapies etc.

I know that it is a controversial practice, such as giving clean and sterile syringes to injecting drug users. I guess, as a future health professional, as a human being, even as a Christian, I personally have the opinion that, instead of the “zero tolerance” approach, we need to approach it in a more humane way.

I am not a drug user (as in illegal drug user) or have a drug addiction so I obviously dont have first hand experience as to what it’s like to be one. However, I think I know enough to realise that if you have a zero tolerance approach, sometimes it’s just like putting it under the carpet. Ignoring the real problem. Sure, if you take away drugs, they wont have access to it, but they will substitute it with something else. If you lock them up for using it, they’ll still find a way to get drugs and use them. Now, I’m not saying that we should legalise illegal drugs. There are reasons for them being illegal and if they were legal, they would be heavily restricted. For example, I know that some people are given amphetamines for ADHD and there are a whole lot of processes you need to undergo before your doctor can prescribe it and stuff. So yeah…it’s heavily restricted and for medicinal purposes only.

Basically, where I stand on this issue (pro-harm minimisation) is where most people do not tread. I understand people’s concerns such as:

• it will encourage them to take more drugs (well really, they will take drugs no matter what, so we might as well give them a clean syringe so they dont share and get HIV or something. Plus, by doing so, we can also provide them with more information and we can be there if they want information about ceasing or stopping their drug use)
• there will be swarms of drug users in our area (even if there are, they are also human beings and not a form of mutated alien species. It is understandable that people are concerned for their wellbeing, but I doubt many injecting drug users will go and jab you with a syringe. They are more likely to use it on themselves than on other people)
• they will leave dirty syringes on the ground and we’ll step on them (first of all, those who provide needle exchange programs usually would provide a way for drug users to dispose of their syringes usually in the form of a container or something)

Anyway, I guess in the future I would really like to work in this area and be able to help those who are marginalised from our society for having an addiction to drugs. In my eyes, it’s no worse than being addicted to nicotine and alcohol. Strange isn’t it…people don’t think twice about nicotine replacement therapy, but they get all hot and bothered about opioid replacement therapy. People don’t think twice about getting drunk and for some people, it’s almost cool to get drunk, but if they see someone on heroin or marijuana, they start to voice how horrible and sick that is and state that they should be locked up or something. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it wont harm you nor does it mean that it’s okay to go out and take excessive amounts of it. Alcohol can do a lot more damage than people realise, but I guess I’ll write about that another day.

101 Update #9

Finally, at last, I will update.

Things I’m doing:

• I am over halfway through Final Fantasy 8. I never thought I’d get so far in a game, but I’m really enjoying it. Plus, my bf keeps teaching me how to do new things like junctioning my GFs (GFs does NOT stand for girlfriends in this context btw) and stuff.
  
• I started doing my challenge of taking a photo each day. That’s going well…
• I’m really wanting to buy a camera. I have my sights on the Canon Powershot SX120 (I think that’s the model) and I really want to bring it with me to Europe.
• I have decided that I will not be able to fulfil a couple of challenges like going to the US (going to Europe instead) but that’s okay. As long as I challenge myself a bit and enjoy it too, it’s all good.
• Oh yes, I am planning on buying Birkenstocks in Germany because they will be cheaper there…hopefully
• I have been filling up my money box with coins. I have managed to save $76 thus far. Yay.
  
• Also made a mix CD for my friend Grace which features a lot of music from Studio Ghibli films as well as fantasy computer games.
• Did a couple of unselfish things: I let someone off the bus before me. I also gave my spring roll to my nephew when he refused to take my dad’s one because it had sauce on it, whereas mine didnt. It might not seem like an unselfish thing, but I was REALLY hungry and annoyed because I couldn’t get any finger food at that time because my other cousins abandoned me and I had to look after my grandma. I wasnt annoyed at having to look after my grandma, it was just the whole hunger thing and seeing food in front of me, but not being able to grab any because I had to hold onto my grandma so she wouldn’t topple over and i couldn’t take my plate out with one hand…
• I also watched Up which is on the top 250 movies on IMDB
• I went to watch/participate in the Pops concert. We played at BMW edge and it’s a nice venue
• I read Habbakuk. It was fitting for the time that I read it.
  

Things I’ve completed:

#6. Learn how to make 5 asian style meals.

I have now learnt how to make 5 asian style meals. I have made: Congee, sushi, onigiri, tamagoyaki (sp?) and a sushi burger. I also learnt how to make this japanese dish where it’s just rice in green tea (tastes surprisingly good) and also panfried onigiri thing…yeah. I really like japanese food. It’s soooo nice!!

#7. Get my Ps.

Well I got my Ps finally. I was a bit (well…more than a bit) nervous when I was driving around with my instructor a couple of hours before the test, but during the test I felt a lot more comfortable. I could be due to the fact that my testor was talking the whole time with my instructor and only stopped to give me directions…before talking again. I’m glad I got them, now I just have to get used to driving by myself.

#72. Buy flowers for someone else

I bought flowers for my mum for her birthday. They were nice flowers too. I cant remember what they were though.

#83. Buy an alarm clock

I finally bought one. It is from smiggle and it also has a stopwatch and a temperature thing. It is awesome.

Skin care/Make-up post (for lack of a better title)

Just writing a post of skin care/make-up stuff that I have just so I can remember what I’ve tried and whether or not I found it good so I dont end up buying it again if I thought it was dodgy…

Skin Care

Fruit Garden Hand Lotion by TheFaceShop – This is a really nice hand lotion because it’s thin and it absorbs into the skin really fast. This is great if you dont want to be walking around with greasy hands for 5 minutes, waiting for the hand cream/lotion to dry. Also smells nice too. Mine is Chamomile and Lilac. TheFaceShop store is in Melbourne Central.

Sunscreen Creme by Nutrimetics – This is a nice sunscreen. It’s thin and easy to apply and it also has a moisturiser in it too to moisturise your skin when you put on the sunscreen. It’s also a broadspectrum sunscreen so it blocks out UV-A and UV-B and it’s SPF 30+ so that’s good enough. Definately one of my favourite sunscreens. Doesn’t make me feel as sticky as other sunscreens.

Lucas’ Papaw Ointment - This is really good if you have dry lips. It’s made of fermented papaw and you can use it for so many things. I use it for dry lips, dry skin on my face, rashes and so on. Only bad thing is, it turns to liquid if you leave it in a warm room or something and I find that a bit annoying. Also, no SPF so I can’t use it in summer when I’m outside.

Shea Butter (for lips) by L’Occitane – So, I’m not sure if this really is supposed to be for your lips, but since it’s in a 8ml tub, I just assumed it was. I mean, i’m not going to be able to use that for my body if I wanted it to last at least for one day. In winter, it’s really hard to use because the butter is pretty much solid and you have to use a lot of energy to warm it up in order to get some on your fingers to then apply onto your lips. However, in the warmer months, it’s easier to apply and it’s not too bad. So good in spring/summer, bad in autumn/winter.

Caregloss & Shine by Nivea – I only bought this because my lips were really dry and I had no lip balm on me. It’s alright. A bit sticky and stuff. I dont like the tube though because the top bit split after a few months so I have lip gloss coming out from 2 places and it’s a bit gross. Yeah, probably won’t buy this again.

Chapstick Strawberry Lipbalm – I only bought this because one of the girls at my pharmacy told me it was on sale (2 for 1) and it has SPF 15.  I got a strawberry one because it looked better than the others. I’ve used it a bit and it’s easy to apply and it smells alright too. Also, according to the packaging, they have 12 moisturisers…yeah, they just dont list them do they? I’ll use it, but I should have gone with my standard SPF one by bonne bell instead. Oh well.

Bonne Bell Lip Balm (comes in light blue tube…can’t remember the name) – This is a great lip balm. It’s easy to apply, it has SPF, it’s moisturising. I should have bought that instead of chapstick, though chapstick does the job too. I’m just used to my Bonne Bell one.

Make Up

Maybelline Define-A-Lash Volume Mascara - This is a good mascara. It’s not the best, but it’s certainly not horrible either. I’m not sure if it really adds volume to my lashes, but to be honest, I dont even know what that means. I just chose it because I dont need lengthening and I dont really need curling either, so I just got volume mascara. It doesnt clump much and it goes on smoothly. Takes a while to dry though which is a bit annoying for me because if i sneeze right after I put on my mascara, I get black dots around the bottom of my eyes. Sigh. It works alright so I’m not complaining too much about it.

I’ll do another one later…I own quite a bit of make-up and skin products, I’m just tired and I can’t remember the names of all of them. Should definately sleep soon.

Mis-interpreting Lyrics

Has this ever happened to you? When you hear a song you either mishear lyrics or you misinterpret them…

I was just listening to the song Evacuate the Dancefloor and it’s a pretty catchy song, except near the end I was just envisaging some girl going onto the dancefloor and because of her unusual dance moves, everyone was evacuating the dancefloor. Now, i’m pretty sure this isn’t what the song is about (I think it’s about evacuating the dancefloor so the girl can dance and show off perhaps?).

Now, when i listened to that song that has the lyrics “Applebottom jeans, boots with the fur, the whole club was looking at her”. When i hear that song, my mind goes instantly to “pho” whenever I hear that line. Not sure why…maybe when i heard it once i was craving pho and now it’s just stuck.

Then there’s the song that goes something like “she moves her body like a cyclone”. Yeah, i think it’s supposed to mean that she moves her hips a lot (not sure…i think that’s what my guy friends were trying to explain to me), but i was just thinking of someone who really did look as if she was dancing like a cyclone and causing destruction everywhere she went…hmmm

Anyway, I’ll update my 101 things after exams. Been taking a photo each day since the start of Nov. Unfortunately they have all been of things in my room because I’ve been at home studying these past few days.

Significant songs…

I’ve been a bit melancholy lately and I just started listening to Yellowcard (YC) again after a long time. I love this band. I love most of their songs and their sound and I like the fact that they dont always sing about girls, breakups etc. They sing about war, about bandmates leaving etc.

One song that has gotten me through a lot of stuff is “Empty Apartment”. This song got me through a pretty hard time when I had a bit of a falling out with someone. This song was actually written when one of their band memebers left the group.

“Only One” will probably always remind me of Untitled, the band I was in in high school. It’s actually a breakup song contrary to what it sounds like (a love song). The song is actualy quite beautiful, though the music has a bit of a sad feel to it. I guess it’s different because it’s not an angry breakup song, it’s bittersweet in a sense. I guess you get the feeling that he doesn’t want to break up with her, but feels he needs to.

“Ocean Avenue” and “Gifts and Curses” were the first songs i ever heard from YC and just from these 2 songs, I got into the band. Both songs have a soft spot in my heart. Heehee. Plus, Gifts and Curses was written for the Spiderman 2 soundtrack and it’s quite nice.

“Shadows and Regrets” I think was just a song that I really like from YC. I like the instrumentation of it.

those were just some of the songs that i’ve enjoyed by YC. There are many more songs that i enjoy by them. I hope that they continue as a band though they are on a hiatus at the moment. I know they aren’t that popular in Australia, but no matter. They are just a band i admire and to me, they have matured a lot as a band. It’s amazing just listening to their albums and noticing how they have evolved musically.

Rant again

So I guess I am ranting a bit again. Maybe I just need to get it out of my system and focus on study. Basically, I’m annoyed at the attitude and behaviour of someone and have been for quite some time. I did something a bit stupid and they got angry, called me names and later, I did apologise for what I did, with explanation for why I did do it, with someone else present. Then, as I believe we both have fault in the matter (not what I did, but reasons behind it), suggested a compromise to alter both our actions and this certain someone decides to reject the compromise, tell me the bad points they see in my personality, almost yell at me and basically tell me my apology “sounds forced”.

Maybe my apology sounds forced, I will agree, but try apologising in a calm manner when you’re trying not to yell at the person. Would that person rather I yelled my apology at her? Fair enough, maybe I shouldn’t have apologised if I felt like yelling at her, unfortunately, everytime I see her, I want to yell at her. Sadly enough, I was on the verge of yelling at the end of the conversation with her so I had to leave the room.

Also, I had to walk out of the room because I was shaking with annoyance/anger/frustration. I owned up to what I did, I apologised. You can accept it or not accept it. Even though you are older, it doesn’t mean that you are blameless in the whole thing issue. You do not have to act like it is solely my fault, that what I’m saying is based on imagination (because I had proof that what you said was not entirely correct), threaten me, tell me in front of another person that i have no respect for anyone and only think of myself. I think I acknowledged that both of us had to respect each other, b/c my opinion was we both had to work on it, not just myself, only to get eaten into and have my suggestion thrown out the window. I find it hard to respect someone, especially someone older, whose mindset is that everything must happen MY way and if it doesn’t you are stupid and I am always the victim. Also, I think everyone is self-centered to some extent, but while you may be telling me that I am self-centred, you are not blameless either. What about your “This is MY thing, I will have power over how I use it and I will NOT listen to anything you say”. Also, you jumping to conclusions as to why I do things instead of asking me. (apparantly I did 2 things, one which i knew of and knew that I shouldn’t have done, one which I did to save energy but somehow it affected her as well, but she thought I did the second thing to spite her).

Well, that person has a dodgy attitude I guess. Unfortunately I have had to concede to her will because she doesn’t believe in compromise. If I criticize her or ask her to change something she does, I get yelled at. Also, I noticed that she didn’t apologise for swearing at me or insulting me, so I’m a bit annoyed at that. At least I acknowledged that my behaviour was not right, but I don’t see you saying anything about your behaviour. Your behaviour is not right either, yet, I cant tell you that because I have been told that I can’t, and even if I did, you will just yell at me.

I will definately need God to help me deal with this person. I dont mean it as asking God to smite her down, I need God to help me to not yell at her when I see her and to understand that nothing much can be done about her personality and character as she is probably so set in her ways that if anyone dares question it, she will blow… and to not judge and I guess to change my heart. This is going to take a long time.