Tru Dat.

"Nothing can make you happy [but] everything can encourage you to be happy. The world offers encouragement but fundamentally we have to choose it for ourselves. It starts with a choice."

- Robert Holden, Happiness Coach


The experts agree with me. I must be one switched on gal.

I really enjoy ShockOne.

I think that everyone on Facebook is tiring of my "I heart ShockOne" posts so I thought I'd bring it here.

They're just really good, okay.

I lean against the wind, pretent that I am weightless

Today was one of those days, when everything is bright and sparkly and new. When you feel on top of the world for no tangible reason whatsoever. I can't say that these days are a rarity for me by any means but today stood out on its own somehow.

I have that feeling again. The one where I'm standing out on a plain all by myself, embracing the fresh breeze as the storm comes in. It always means a change is happening. Sometimes this change is the subtlest shift on a profound level that no one else can notice but me. I love this. It's a personal thing that cannot quite be described.

I guess it feels a little like this:




I made someone's day today - just by being myself. Cheerful and polite, and maybe a little bit cheeky. It's nice. Also, to be stopped by someone whom you don't often interact with in real life who wants to thank you for your daily online positivity? It makes it all feel worth it. Sometimes wearing that smile may feel like a little effort for some, but treat it like getting dressed. Something you shouldn't feel comfortable leaving the house without first doing so.


Title lyrics taken from Incubus - Wish You Were Here

 

Simba, it's to die for.

It's all too easy to expect too much from people. You cannot blame the other party for this common pitfall.

The truth is, everyone is not like you. In fact, no one is like you.
I guess this is why we are taught to love the element of surprise!

Getting to know you

I'll tell you something about myself: I love people. I automatically like everyone by default and believe each person to be a potential friend. Naturally a little naive, I am always seeking out the best in people and as far as I am concerned, we are all innocent until proven guilty. I would never dislike someone for no reason, and when given righteous grounds I still struggle to move them from column A (awesome) to column B (bad)*. Sometimes this works to my detriment, sometimes I fall flat on my face. I have been kicked, hurt, and bruised in many ways, but ultimately being the kind of person that I am serves its purpose. It makes me happy.

I promise myself to never stop being nice.

*Unless of course, they have bad eyebrows.

You're pounding on a faultline. What'll it take to get through to you, precious?

You think the world is out to get you.
It's not.
Perhaps this is the actual problem -
A wounded soul, seeking attention?


Title lyrics taken from A Perfect Circle - The Outsider

Come on, let's take a look outside!

"Don't look so worried you know
There ain't no hurry
'Cause life's supposed to ebb and flow"

Shihad - Pacifier

It feels like December!

This song sounds like Summer.

It makes me crave being back at the coast on a sunny day. Beachside, then finding yourself at the bar, still covered in sand. French martinis for the heck of it and icy cold beers. Loose before the sun goes down. Surrounded by too many friends, we all just get eachother.

Delicious, beautiful life :)




I love this time of the year. December through to January, yes! I've always proclaimed that I hate Summer as girl can't handle the heat and the humidity (yet still lives in Queensland?), however I see why it's the most fun. Everyone just seems lighter, things look brighter, and I suppose the heat sends everyone a little crazy. That can generally only be a good thing right? Especially in the silly season. Hmm. I do miss home. I talk about this a lot lately. I'm thinking hard, weighing up the pros and cons. Will keep you posted.

A little more, let's make this even

It pains me that a lot of people don't know about Minus the Bear.

I am myself lucky to have found them. A self-confessed J nerd, we all know it, I pick up most of my stuff from my favourite radio station. It's no secret. But I am not fooled, I still know that at the end of the day, any type of mainstream media (yes, even Triple J) is at the mercy of the commercial machine. Because at the end of the day, it's all business.

I'm pretty sure they're actually quite a big band in the states and quite well-known in the indie scene here as far as I'm aware. Anyway, I've loved them for a few years now and this song in my opinion, is one of their best moments.

Lyrically, this song makes so much sense. Just your average give-take, push-shove relationship scenario. This song taught me the term "usury". Cheers, guys!

It's just. That good.




Title lyrics taken from Minus the Bear - Knights

Got a green light, got a green light yeah, but you're going nowhere

That lump in my throat. It's back. I always keep a smile on my face, but running up the downhill escalator quickly becomes exhausting. Or is it my scatterbrained meandering that's lending to the opposite? Do I shrug off all my chances to simply watch the world go by?

Title lyrics taken from Filter - The Best Things

It's not me, it's you

Learn not to take things personally. The way another behaves is a reflection only upon their character, not yours. Not everything is about you.

It was just like the real ones that I saw when I was younger

Yet another song I shall never, ever tire of. It still has the same effect on the 200,000,000th listen as it did the very first time I heard it.

I'm not really a lyrics kind of girl but these stand up on their own.

"It's just another model
Built with plastic and with glue
But every day I go down to the airport
And I fly away from
I fly away from you
I fly away from you."

I've felt like that a million times.
I love the way Paul Dempsey has taken childhood imagination and utilised it to escape what he's alluding to as being a difficult, adult situation. How many times have you wished you could just grow wings and fly away from reality and those who are hurting you? Or even yourself?

Ah, I just love it. Still gives me shivers.




Oh and I got so excited before when I searched for this clip on youtube to embed here and lo and behold, someone had commented regarding the exact scene where this song was used in the Aussie teen TV series, Heartbreak High. Still one of my favourite TV shows of all time and a pivotal moment for the character Ryan Scheppers. Aaahhhh... So sentimental right now. So what if I was like, 12 when that storyline was airing?


Title lyrics taken from Something For Kate - Captain [At a Million Miles an Hour]

Have a break, have a Kit-Kat

It's easy for me to beat myself up until I am black and blue for getting nowhere. I chastise myself because I feel that by my age, this just isn't good enough. I should have done more, achieved more, seen more. I should have more.

Then I take a look around at other ladies in their mid-twenties. I might still be somehow winging it with nothing to show, but others are dealing with marriages falling apart, grappling with killer careers yet feeling lost and empty, or resentful of their screaming children and absent husbands. We all appear to be in some state of disrepair.

I've realised that this is totally okay, because life is all about learning and growing. Whoever wrote the book of rules on how people should live their lives at a certain age, you might want to swing me a copy otherwise I may never believe you. Oh yeah, I didn't think that it existed!

So why are we all so hard on ourselves?

I believe when we stop comparing ourselves to others and realign only with our own personal focus we will cease to worry that we don't live up to some imaginary measure of achievement. Those who have realised this are the ones who are comfortable with themselves and their lives. And their age. This is something I aspire to.

To walk on water you've got to sink in the ice

An oldie, but a goldie. This song is an absolute classic in my book.
For me it's a very powerful song on a personal level. I still remember the day I purchased the album The General Electric. It was the day I became obsessed with Shihad, an obsession which had me in the grips of fandom for the better part of ten years. They are still up there as one of my favourite bands even though I haven't really listened to them for a while. I have an autographed copy of this album that a good friend in high school had them sign for me for my eighteenth birthday. Possibly one of the most thoughtful gifts ever!

This is another of those songs that makes me feel like me again. It somehow reminds me who I am.
When I hear this, I need to get up and jump around the room like a maniac. Even better live!

Enjoy xx

I can't help that I'm amazing!

Refreshed, re-inspired. Reignited.

BOOM!
She's back on track.
I'd almost say that little mini-melt was worth it :)

Somewhere between my beautiful working environment, heart-wrenching text messages of epic proportions, and an absolute motherload of Ferrero Rochers, I found my spark again.

My word it feels good!

Take two steps back

Word of the day: Ambivalence.
A word I've often heard or read yet never actually stopped to think about the definition. I thought that it would perhaps fall somewhere between ambiguous and malevolence. How that could make sense, I am not sure. I finally looked it up. It speaks volumes about me right now.

Song of the day: Muscles - Girls Go Crazy
It's not a fantastic song by any means really (no offence, Muscles, you are heaps of fun and you have other tracks that I really like) but I heard it on the radio this morning and it reminds me of a ridiculous night with my crew seeing Muscles that we will never forget. We still refer to it as the "Coolangatta fail night". Somehow we look upon spooning on a street corner as the sun comes up as a fond memory? That's love.

I miss my friends and I miss my old life, however I need to remind myself what has lead me to be here and why things are the way they are right now. Everything happens for a reason and this is my journey.


Title lyrics taken from Muscles - Girls Go Crazy

All I hear are these clicking sounds, as they crawl inside my head

Things are looking up on this muggy Tuesday evening. I've been unable to shake a deep blue that rocked up on the weekend but at last it seems to be packing its bags.

I haven't been feeling right for the past few weeks whilst a few inner niggles come to light. These issues aren't the problem, they are symptoms that there is a problem. And it's something that I'm finally ready to deal with.

I'm actually also really struggling with the whole impending birthday thing. Moreso than ever before. When I think about it, my stomach cramps up and I become physically ill. Oh, my heavy heart. I just remind myself to breathe, that it will be okay. Deep down I know I'm being silly but it's a dreadful feeling clinging to everything around me right now. Surely it can't be that bad. It is not that bad. Just chill, Mel. Chill.

In other news:
+ Triple J Hottest 100 voting starts soon, yes yes!
+ I am seriously craving the company of those who know me best
+ The one thing I have the greatest desire to do at the moment which I simply am unable to is to get in the car and just DRIVE! Ohhh I how I long for that.
+ Chocolate seems to squash my stress levels faster than wine these days
+ I'm finding that I look forward to doing my biology study, I wish I could muster the same enthusiasm for maths!

I'll leave you with a song that has been stuck in my head this evening. There is a snippet of lyric (that probably needs to be removed from the song in order to gain the context within which I am using it) that comes into my head when I feel as though I'm recovering from a bout of overall shittiness and beginning to feel like my perky, fabulous self again... Woohoo!

"All colours rushing back, restoring frail life"




Title lyrics taken from Armand Van Helden - Little Black Spiders

Celebrate in a huddle dancing in this rain

The kind of song that no matter what my mood I simply cannot skip once it has started. The kind of song that no matter where I am at, will fix pretty much everything. Refreshingly simple, a definite classic. The kind of song I need in my life right now.




Title lyrics taken from Blackalicious - Make You Feel That Away

The Emperor's New Clothes

Stripped of such a flattering guise, this paralyzing fear presses down heavier. Much more ominous. Like a virus that has changed shape and evolved, a whole new animal. And it's dark out in those woods.

Broken record

There is just no excuse for bad eyebrows.

Like, seriously.

Burning question that plagues me so: do people with bad eyebrows, and I mean BAD eyebrows know that they indeed have bad eyebrows? Surely they cannot realise, otherwise how do they continue about their daily life with said bad eyebrows? Yet surely they cannot be completely unaware of the situation? Hello.

Breezy

No matter how carefully constructed, it's still a house made of cards.

Plight of the single girl no. 138

Your mateship may be solid gold but I promise you that there will be harsh moments of reality when you are reminded that it just doesn't size up. You simply cannot compete against the dynamic of the non-platonic hangouts you have been nudged aside for. Some of these reminders will be more abrasive than others, however gentle the shove you've been dealt.