Sometimes I don’t really want to get involved. I don’t like to try things if I have no guarantee of how they’ll turn out. I put minimal effort in, and often reap minimal results. That’s usually okay with me. I’m not known for my risk taking.

Other times, it’s important to just jump right in there, even if you’re not sure how things are going to end up. It’s frightening, and occasionally ends in a huge mess, but there’s a chance that taking that risk brings you benefits and opportunities that you would never have thought possible.

I guess it’s just a matter of whether you’re going to stick your nose in and have a look, or just throw yourself in and get on with it.

Sometimes I feel like I’m a little bit stuck.

Everything else around me is normal, and I’m even in a really familiar place where things rarely go wrong, but *one tiny thing* is just slightly off.

It might be because the coffee was a bit too cold, or the traffic took just a little bit too long, or my shoes feel like they don’t quite fit, or my desk chair settings have been changed a little, or the room temperature is too cold, or I’ve got a problem to deal with that I know nothing about.

Normally it’s that last one that does it. Currently its accounts. I feel like someone is trying to decapitate me with overdue bills that shouldn’t be overdue. I’ve been working on them for days, and I’m still only half way through at best. I know I’ll sort it out eventually, but having never done anything with accounts before, saying that I’m having a little bit of an issue would be a gross understatement.

It’s not like I’m going to die because the problem is too big - it’s just a sense of discomfort because I just don’t know how to get my head around it…

theworldwelivein:

Victoria Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
©  ღMayuღ

Japanese culture inspires and intrigues me. I find the focus on simplicity so delightful. There seems to be an inate ability to create something extraordinary with something most people would discount as ’just ordinary’. 

The Japanese seem to have mastered the making of pretty lights. If you know me at all, you’d know that ‘pretty lights’ are possibly my favourite thing, and I find myself staring with open mouth at any arrangement of light that is even vaguely nice. For example, I watched the movie Tangled recently. There’s one scene where thousands of paper lanterns are floating around a city and over a lake, and even though the scene was entirely animated I was fascinated. I even went as far as buying paper lanterns and hanging them in my room, and sometimes I just lie there looking at them for indeterminable amounts of time. The ones I like most, though, are the floating lanterns: 

My favourite ‘typically Japanese’ thing, however, would be origami. There’s something satisfying about taking a plain piece of paper and turning it into something amazing. I love random little animals, like this elephant:

Origami makes you feel like you can do something rather clever that quite a lot of other people can’t do. Although, I must admit, sometimes my ‘creations’ look like I’ve taken a piece of paper and crunched it up a bit and rolled it into a ball…

Anyway, that’s all I really wanted to say on the matter. Hopefully some of you take the opportunity to make something cool out of paper today, even if it is just a sign that says “Out of my mind, back later”.

Origami hearts. A bit of entertainment.

I was thinking earlier about how I hadn’t posted in Tumblr for a while. Or Twitter. Or Instagram. Or Google+. Or the other plethora of social networking platforms that I signed myself up for.

Do we realise how much we talk? Do we actually understand the depth of our ramblings, and how they’re so often about nothing? I mean, this post that I’m writing *right now* - what is it’s point? I’m writing a post to complain about all the posts we write. What’s more is that it will probably appear on at least three different platforms when I submit it, therefore tripling the pointlessness.

Of course, I do understand that we’re just trying to express a little piece of what we’re thinking, often in a way that makes us sound much more creative and exciting than we actually are. For example, if you’ve read many of my posts, you’ll notice that I’m a bit of an idiot that uses big words for the hell of it, but the point of my posts is to show you that I’m a bit of an idiot that uses big words for the hell of it *that thinks deeply*.

And seeing as we can’t usually show other people exactly what’s in our heads, we have to use as many words as possible to show them what we mean. Obviously, different friends would subscribe to different social networks, but we want them *all* to read about that amazing thing that happened that’s so amazing that everyone should hear *all* about it, so your experiece must be shared across as many networks as possible.

Maybe we should think about starting a Preservation of Words society, to make sure we don’t use up our daily quota of allocated words. Or so that words don’t lose their meaning from having been said too often.

I bring to your attention at this point the word “epic”. It actually means “An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.” It is often found in this context:

 “Hey man. Just went to the store and bought some popcorn for the movie later.”
“Epic.”

From my experience, in this context they’re not praising the buyer of the popcorn as a legendary hero who conquered many enemies to buy said popcorn. What they’re *actually* saying is “Oh. Cool.”

So please, be careful with your words. One day they’ll run out, and they won’t actually mean anything at all. And *then* what will our posts be about?

I’m having issues communicating.

To my extreme dismay, I recently - and very accidentally - dropped my phone into a very liquidy body of water. Water, being wet as it usually is, filled my phone and shorted out all my circuits. Now, instead of having a perfectly functioning device, my iPhone 4 is a highly temperamental and fastidiously anti-social device, and does what it feels like.

If you press the “on” button, you may or may not get a response. If you slide the “unlock me” bar, you may or may not gain entry into the phone. If you use the phone at all, it may or may not last two minutes before it reboots - this usually happens right at the end of typing a very long text, but just before you press ‘send’.

Why am I telling you this? There are several reasons. The first is that I feel the need to vent my extreme displeasure about the entire situation, and the second is that I feel unable to communicate with people as I normally would (although my phone bill may benefit from such an inabilty…) and, therefore, have the desire to speak to as many people as I possibly can at the same time - mass-readership style.

The main problem I have is my current lack of Instagram posts. I feel like I’m missing out on an onslaught of ridiculously good photos, and as soon as my phone starts working again they’ll all immediately be rubbish. This is obviously not true, as the people I follow have the decency to only post the pretty pictures, but the opportunity still remains.

So. What this really boils down to is that I’m not particularly distressed about the fact that the phone itself has issues. I’m upset because of my new-found inability to text people or look at the pretty pictures they take.

This isn’t a particularly pressing topic, and you may feel that you just wasted several minutes reading it, but hey, I’ve wasted several hours unlocking my phone, hoping that it might - for just a second - give in and show me the welcome page. At least you haven’t reached my level of depravity!

I may be about to lose a whole of street cred for saying this, but… there’s something glorious about a kitchen. I think it’s that we subconciously know that if we’re going to eat something, it’ll come from the kitchen, and it’s therefore one of the most important rooms of a house. Either that, or it smells nicer (if you cook, that is…) than most other rooms. Personally I’d say that yummy food smells coming from a kitchen are on par with clean washing smells, but then again, I’ve always been a tad odd like that.

I was flitting around through my emails the other day, and I get a regular email from frankie, in which they talk about whatever’s trending in the frankie office at the time. There was a link there for a cute little blog (the main page of which is here: http://www.sfgirlbybay.com/ ) where the writer had posted pictures of kitchens that inspired her.

I know that would sound random and pointless to many of you, but to someone that spends a fair amount of their time in a kitchen making lots of yummy things to eat, being in a nice and happy kitchen is imperative. No one feels inspired in a dingy and dark, messy and yucky kitchen.

So, I thought - for those of you who are like me and enjoy looking at such things - I would include the Kitchen Post for your enjoyment. So here it is :D http://www.sfgirlbybay.com/2011/06/16/now-were-cookin/

Happy times!

Would you really rush out for me now?