Anything & Everything

I never want to be an adult. This is, of course, disregarding my being of legal age which definitively makes me an adult, and referring largely to succumbing to the grown-up world of Taxes and Middle-Aged Crises. And, yes, while the latter is still decades away (if at all, hopefully), the former is already a topic my parents have addressed in the recent years, making me panic just a little in terms of Things I Have To Do As A Grown-Up. While I realise that I will still have time for myself and to enjoy the things I love to do, I still dread the idea that I will possibly wake up in just a few short years with a long-term career, married, and with children, and that sort of commitment is something I'm really not prepared for. I loved being a non-adult, reaping in the perks of child discounts or mooching off my parents (admittedly, a youthful face and some sweet talk means I still do both), but there is still one particular aspect of being an adult that terrifies me, which, settin...

I love words. I like books, stories, and reading (so long as it doesn't involve a textbook or anything to do with studying), and as a child I was constantly working through several novels at a time. And yet, despite a childhood of non-stop reading there came a point sometime at the mid-teen age where it became more of an arduous task than a form of enjoyment. This I boiled down to laziness: I considered it to be a side-effect of spending so long on computers and other devices to the point where anything involving more than a few minutes' attention was no longer worth my time. I'm also quite picky when it comes to genre - I refuse most things fantasy or sci-fi because of some of the ways that the magic involved seemed unrealistic or forced. I also avoided most of the typical romance novels, finding them predictive, and though I always enjoy a good whodunnit mystery it was difficult to find one that was well-written and genuinely gripping, especially anything written for so...

Walking into breakfast yesterday, Sister#2 announced news of her discovery fact that Dreamworks, only earlier this year, reduced their workforce by 500 people by shutting down an entire studio in California, just as we had planned on watching the recently-released animated film Home . This was devastating to her: a future animator, and with Dreamworks one of the leading companies in animation, we had always enjoyed the movies and continued to anticipate the release of each one, and going so far to challenge typical Disney-goers in claiming that she enjoys Dreamworks more than Disney (in some respects) when it comes to animated films. To an extent I agree with her; while Disney movies include a mix of vivid fantasies, light-hearted entertainment and the bawl-inducing family moments it's difficult to ignore how some of the better Dreamworks films have captured magic Disney can overlook. Clearly some Dreamworks films could have used a little work - take  Peabody and Sherman . It ...

With a cold snap in the area that I live that has lasted a while already I can fairly conclude that we are well into winter, kicking out the awkward autumn weather of chilly mornings and warm afternoons. And the presence of winter can mean several things: procrastinated showers that leads to extended periods of standing under hot, running water, fluffy slippers and continuously functioning heaters... and the dreaded black puffy Kathmandu jacket. Admittedly, I'm not sure whether this is an international trend. The Kathmandu brand (available in NZ and Australia) jackets are the general go-to for any outfit.  Black however, is just a guideline. There are those who sport other colours, and of course  there are the inevitable lesser-known brand versions that manage to creep by undetected. This style of jacket is sold everywhere, though in New Zealand  it's a fashion statement that skyrocketed in popularity only a few short years ago. I have no problem with the ja...