[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PltMz1gQBJM[/youtube]

CRRAAAZZZYYY!  I’ve seen the world glow before.  A bright moonlit night with snow all around makes for a stunning BRIGHT night.  But glowing red, orange and sometimes blood orange?  Today was a first.  Definitely a wow!

Ok so I’ve come to realize that online communities and our identities within online communities are complicated topics!!!  There’s no way we could really have a full blown conversation about it in only 200 words per pop.  But hey – it’s the effort that counts right?  :)  Thanks to the commentors (scoMan, dave, ebonyJewel and MattyMatt) for commenting!!!  It’s always great to hear others’ insight!!

And for those of you who I have no doubt WANTED to comment deep down in your heart (which is everyone else i.e MOM, TIM, ALEXIS, SCOTT and all of my other bloggy friends) thank you ALSO because life is more fun with family and bloggy friends!!!   :)  )  Oh and it’s not too late to throw in your 2 cents because I’ve decided to write my final paper in a different class on this topic.  :)

Down to bizness.

ONLINE COMMUNITIES – You and Me are a CommuniTY – part #5 – wrap up.

(btw anyone notice that I did part NUMBER 5 or part NUMBER 4? LOL I did it just to be silly.  I am fully aware, thank you, that it SHOULD be part 5 or just #5. hee hee)

I’ve decided that I am fascinated by this topic.  100%.  Our world is becoming more and more digital every day.  We move to online communities more and more every day.  Our selves, our identities, and our culture are all being impacted by this change.  And though I suppose our identities, cultures and selves always change, I think it’s important to recognize the significance of online avatars/identities and how this increase in control over image may affect our core definitions.

I took this opportunity to round up some (only 3 because most of them were dumb) quotes on self image.

1“The ”self-image” is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.” 2“Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become”

Maxwell Maltz quotes (US plastic surgeon, motivational author, and creator of the Psycho-Cybernetics, 1927-2003)

3“If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?”

Chuck Palahniuk quotes (American freelance Journalist, Satirist and Novelist. b.1961)

I suppose one interesting thing about networks and identities is they change with time.  As I meet and become connected with more people, my network grows.  As my connections meet and become connected with more people, my network grows.  As my identity is tried and tested with time, it evolves and takes stronger shape.  I don’t believe we can STOP a network or an identity.  We may take on new layers, new directions and new flavors, but the network around us and our identity (regardless of how many we choose to have) all overlap a bit with each other.  We can’t go backward – only forward.

I was pretty down on myself for not having a concrete 5 year plan.  So – I created one this past week.  And then I remembered the reason why I didn’t have one in the first place!!  lol.

Haha!  Just teasing.  It surely IS useful to have a general idea about where one would like to be in the future.  And I think it would be terrible to pick a path that leads to a terrible outcome.  The journey is often more important than the destination – but if that journey leads you to the middle of the desert, 1000 miles away from the nearest living person, with no cellphone, no food, no water and no transportation – well that journey is what I like to call a WASTE OF TIME!

or is it?

What if you had one crazy wild ride to get there?  What if in the course of your trip to the desert you found true love and had accomplished all of your life goals?  Sure you are there – in the middle of nowhere – but you’ve fulfilled your life’s purpose – you can rest in peace.  And if that’s the case, maybe it wasn’t a waste of time at all.

Sure so ok – I now have a 5 year plan.  I have goals and a bit of direction.  But the reality is that as long as I’m following my heart and the road is pleasant – I think I’m inclined to agree with Henry James.  I don’t care where I end up as long as I am making the most of what I’m given along the way.

What is the essay about?  My assignment is:  “Discuss the idea that adaptations are never as good as the original by demonstrating research of relevant references, situating arguments clearly within contemporary literature on remix culture and intertextuality.” Anyone else ever tried to do research on remixable culture or intertextuality?? (which btw those aren’t even real words.)   These are RECENT ideas.  There isn’t a whole lot of research out there.  I told my teacher I was struggling and you know what she said? “I have a hard time buying that.”  [insert look of death directed at HER.]

Want to know what I have a hard time buying? That she can’t afford to buy a razor.  And this is when I bit my tongue. My opinions on the fact that she wears shorts to class and doesn’t shave her legs aren’t helpful – though they are arguably constructive because it IS very distracting during the lectures when she plops a leg up on the table for us all to see.

Ah well … I have until tomorrow at 5:00 to turn the essay in.  I’m being docked 4% for it being late but I can’t be fussed by it.  This is the first time I’ve done this and hopefully the last.  Bonnie Lass warned me that the first late essay puts you on a dangerously slippery slope to being a poor student.  He’s probably right.  Which is why I will be EXTRA careful with the other assignments. 

See what I missed today while I was studying?  At least I got to walk down the promenade before hitting the books.

Ooh!  This picture reminds me!!  Are you a dude? (lol – I can’t believe I just wrote that question.)  ANYWAY …

If you’re a dude you should read that book. haha!  No seriously though – BFA had me look through it – it’s a great book.  It explains why women are crazy and how men can cope with it. lol. That should put this book on my Lame List but honestly I found myself agreeing with it!  haha!  BFA says the book has changed his life and I would venture to guess that it has helped countless of other men as well.  So yeah – A must read for boys of all ages.  “The Way of the Superior Man.”  I’m going to read it too even though I’m NOT a dude (thank goodness!!!) 

“Things are always different than what they might be… If you wait for them to change you’ll never do anything.”

~The Portrait of a Lady ~Henry James

Have a great day!!!

I can tell you that I never imagined that I’d turn 27 in a foreign country.  And I always imagined I’d feel much more grown up by the time I became ancient and ohsowise in my late 20s.  Shouldn’t I have a full-on, full-blown career by 27?  Shouldn’t I be living in New York City?  Ah well … Sydney’s not too shabby. 

So – what am I doing to celebrate today?  First I’m going to go to sleep (staying up past midnight every night is a terribly immature and mid 20s thing.)  And then if I’m lucky, fate will be kind and I’ll be able to snap a pic of that macho fannypack strutting man at the Junction.  Oh if only I could be so lucky …

Anywho – since I’m only a few minutes into my late 20s I don’t have anything profound to share with you yet … maybe by tonight when I’ve been ohsowise for 12+ hours I’ll have something wonderfully fantastic to share…  But so as not to disappoint – please allow me to share a profound thought and a few beautiful pictures from my Sunday morning walk:

Profound Thought – “You are what you eat – and tonight I’m passionfruit gelato.” haha!  Just teasing – how about this:

Man makes plans; God laughs.

Quite a fitting thought for me on my birthday, yes?

Can you believe this view?

Have I mentioned how much I love TAKING pictures?  Not just of myself either. 

We were out walking for 4 hours today.

Which is good because I have like 5-10 kg (10-15 lbs) to lose!!!

Speaking of weight … I decided to give up my self-consciousness for a day…

And notso rocked a bikini at the beach yesterday …

I felt super self-conscious and was relieved to get in the water – EXCEPT

It’s been awhile since I wore a bikini like that so I wasn’t prepared for the waves and …

I learned the hard way that if you’re not careful, you’ll 1-butt-cheek-flash people.

And then I learned the hard way that big waves like the ones yesterday ALSO can make you accidentally 2-butt-cheek-flash people (or “moon” – whichever you prefer)

And then I learned the hard way that these same waves can make you do the “no-bikini-bottom” flash …

And last but not least, I learned those waves ALSO make you boob-flash people.

Wow – ok – so yay for Bondi!  They got more than they bargained for yesterday.  But it’s all good.  I was on the Gay Side of the beach (yes – it’s true – there is a Gay Side and they are VERY proud if it) so even though I was flashing people left and right (on accident) no one was perving.  Haha!  Except for ME – I’ve never seen so many perfectly chiseled and hot men in one place in my life.  The Gay Side of the beach is now the side for me.

WHY?

Because most hating is a waste of energy and I don’t like to waste my energy.  It’s that simple.

But what about the rest of hating?  You know, the hating that isn’t a waste of energy?  Like the hating of inanimate objects.

Well.  I LUV that kind of hating.  For example, I hate my kitchen.  I LUV hating my kitchen and if you sat down and gave it some thought (which I absolutely do NOT recommend you do) you could almost say that I actually love my kitchen.  What?  Bear with me here.

If I didn’t have my kitchen I would be unable to hate it – which means I would be unable to love hating it – and as such I would be unable to feel love for as many things in my life.  And THAT is also simple and simply stupid.

So yeah.  I feel pretty good about this.  The world just wouldn’t be as much fun without the ability to hate inanimate objects.  It’s like Alain De Botton said in “The Consolations of Philosophy,”

We may be powerless to alter certain events, but we remain free to choose our attitude towards them, and it is in our spontaneous acceptance of necessity that we find our distinctive freedom.

I DO have control over my attitude and I’m pretty sure that loving to hate inanimate objects was exactly what he was talking about.  I have found a new freedom by accepting that although I cannot control my kitchen or the oven which I swear is the devil’s spawn – I can appreciate my talent at hating that which I cannot control and choose to LUV the emotion.  LUV makes the world go round and by LOVING the hate which I feel towards the inanimate objects that are out to get me, my hate and I are doing our parts to keep the world spinning.  I can hate AND be happy.

Today on the bus was GREAT!  I looked out the window and saw the most DELIGHTFUL scene.  It was one of those “What’s wrong with this picture?” moments.  There he was, in the middle of an empty salon (it had closed for the evening,) in the dark, standing next to a mirror, with no shirt on, beer gut exposed, blow drying his comb-over.

So guess what?  I found the following emoticon today.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!  I love the original Star Wars.  And by love I mean that I think they’re classic.

OK – so now that this post has succeeded in being absolutely POINTLESS!  I’ve decided to leave you with another fab quote from “The Consolations of Philosophy.“   Schopenhauer, a great philospher, once said:

Our greatest pleasure consists in being admired; but the admirers, even if there is every cause, are not very keen to express their admiration.  And so the happiest man is he who has managed sincerely to admire himself, no matter how.

I think I’m going to have to step up these blogs if I’m going to admire them!  HAHA!  Just kidding.  Any blog post that has a Jabba EMOTICON warrants mad props.  How could I NOT admire it? 

Ah … happy is she who delights in the simple things in life.

Yes. Yes.  Happy is me.

I haven’t forgotten about my gratitude journal.

Sunday I was grateful for my room.  After being out and about all weekend it was soooo nice to go home and relax.  YAY!  I even have a couple vases with flowers – ah – so pretty!

Monday I was grateful for the public transportation system.  Yes I hate it but without it I would have to live in a dorm … so that means I’m grateful for it! 

Today I am grateful for my flatmates.  I am invited out to fun activities with them all of the time.  This weekend is a themed dress-up party.  I can’t wait!!

So please don’t hold me to it, but I think it was about 3 weeks ago when I met up with My Flattie and we did 4 km of walking in the sand on Bondi Beach.  A couple days later, just in time for my newly painful shin splints to put a significant damper on my catwalk, I decided, in complete stupidity, to walk the 2 km from school to the train station because ya know … it’s FUN for every step to hurt.

Halfway to the station I decided it was time for a little detour.  My backpack was making me sweat (eew gross!) and my shins had begun screaming at me umm … right … moving on…

What I meant to say is a bookstore, with a golden halo hovering delightfully along the perimeter, called out my name. “Daisy! Daisy! You MUST visit me.”  Who am I to decline an offer from an angel?

And that’s when I discovered “Popular Penguins.”  And a light shone down from the heavens like “aaahhhh” and … hey listen – I told you in the last post I’m going crazy.

Ok so for real though – yo – I’m totally digging the “Popular Penguins.”  And as much as I joke about divine intervention … I do believe that life has a funny way of teaching you things. I will write more about it later but “The Consolations of Philosophy” by Alain De Botton was one of the books I bought that day at the bookstore and I have learned a LOT from it.  It’s fascinating and it is actually helping me cope with life so far away from home. I would have never discovered, read or bought the book if it were not for the joyous Popular Penguins – classic books at affordable prices.  And I would have never discovered the Popular Penguins if my brother hadn’t given me the heavy duty backpack, or if I hadn’t met up with My Flattie a few days before…

I think that’s pretty cool.

So to share with you one of the things I’ve recently learned from my new book, I present to you a quote from the great philosopher Schopenhauer:

Much would have been gained if through timely advice and instruction young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.

Oh yeah.  That’s right.