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Monday, October 29, 2012

Girl Warning: What's Your Type?

I kindly put a 'girl warning' in the title of this post. That was for a good reason. This post is going to be a low-down of the kind of guy I tend to be attracted to. Not because I believe that a person has a single designated type. Through my time I have, at a minimum liked from afar, guys who don't comply with every one of these traits. However, these are the things I look for, whether I'm conscious of it or not at the time.

1. Christian. This is the most conscious one. As a Christian there is a requirement that any guy I date should be a Christian. I am not some kind of elitist - just practical. My life incorporates a lot of bible studies, church on Sundays, weekends away with Christian groups and all my life goals relate back to the bible. Non-Christian guys are tempting, some of them very Christian in their values systems without the associated belief system, but at the end of the day Christian makes life easier and healthier.

2. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Alright I don't tend to go in for full ice features, but somehow the guys I like tend to fit this description. Hair somewhere between blonde and that colourless brown. Eyes somewhere in the blue eye spectrum. As with most looks based preferences it isn't a conscious decision. Certainly I don't look at a guy and think 'Nope, hazel eyes, he's out'. Rather in hindsight these are just the looks I tend towards.

3. Height. Up the last year or so I wouldn't have claimed this one was a strict one. Excluding a certain guy who shall remain nameless (they are all going to remain nameless :-P) I tend to run a strict 2 inches above myself rule. Now this one is perhaps my most difficult to get around petty physical issue. I'm a 5'10" and not a slight build. I like the novelty of looking up into a guys face. I am thankfully not so tall as for this to be an unusual occurrence. Just the same, I don't like feel self-conscious as I get with most shorter guys or guys my own height. I get a little irritated by under 5'5" girls with over 6'1" guys - go find a guy your own height. (Alright I'm not THAT fussed.)

4. Aloof Personalities. This one was hard for me to explain in words. I am, without question, attracted to level-headed, aloof personalities. I'd say something like opposites attract - except it isn't even so simple. I seek personalities that reflect the part of my own personality I like. I am very scattered. Sometimes bubbly, sometimes quiet, sometimes all out insane. I like the quiet personality best - it is the safest, the steadiest. Consequently I like guys who have that personality - and what's more they do it better than I ever could. The downside is I've been freezed out by a guy or two in this aspect of his personality, you just have to accept that goes with the territory. The benefits to these personalities are the kind hearts (a potential subcategory but nevertheless a requirement) that mean you can take their words at face value. Thoughts are hidden but overarching opinions aren't. If they accept you they'll talk to you, if they don't they won't. It suits me.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Yesteryear... Double Bass and Banjos

Alright. I'm surprised I haven't brought this up before now... Then again I only have a smattering of posts to my name at this point so everything is pretty new and exciting isn't it? I am a country music kind of girl.

Country music is a funny thing to like in urban Australia. Maybe its a bit weird to like it in urban anywhere. People come for a ride in my car, my choice of radio will get a comment if I haven't had the forethought to forewarn them. I don't see what's not to love about country - but apparently even metal would be preferable to some people.

I love all the strengths of country. I have a weakness for the Pop Country of Taylor Swift (who doesn't these days) and the older ones of Faith Hill and Shania Twain. To almost contradict that I love the heavy on the fiddle and banjo end of the genre, and even an unreticent ear for heavier country rock. I'll admit mostly mainstream country. Though I deviate occasionally in favour of some Australian Folk country - John Williamson isn't the most contemporary of musical styles.

Currently, my favourite song is Wagon Wheel by the Old Crow Medicine Show. I can't claim it to be out of the ordinary - it has been very popular generally. It is certainly in the majority of 8track playlists I've listened to in recent months. It combines some of my favourite things about the stronger country music - never underestimate fiddle and double bass. It is one of the few country songs I have had full addiction to without without an intimate knowledge of the verse lyrics - this is all for the music itself and simply the vocal sound.


Fitness Goal: The Core Challenge

I have this awful feeling that the last time I spoke of fitness and dieting I came across a little bit negative. Don't confuse my dislike for extremism with a general dislike for fitness in general. Particularly now that the warmer weather of spring and summer is here I am well into my fitness. I just don't like to do it in the extreme. 

Why? For the exact reason why a bunch of fitness junkies just read that line and clicked away or at the very least scowled in my direction. There are people who's lives revolve around their fitness, their body image, their ability to do heaves and their ability to abstain from chocolate indefinitely. Not only am I not like that... I don't WANT to be like that. I am happy enough in all of those respects just the way I am. I do fitness because it makes me feel good, better about myself and all that... quietly. I don't need the ability to flaunt anything.

Right now I am really starting to get my distaste for fitness on. My best friend has gone hard core into fitness over the last little while, and to a certain extent she's brought me along for the ride. However she is starting to reach 'gym junkie' levels despite her denial of the term (as though the lack of a title changes anything about the attitude). She is starting to get that devoted tone in her voice, little to talk about but the next time she can go and worship at the whole shine of fitness. No. Just quietly. No, I am a stress bunny I refuse to touch that mystical self-hating world that is fitness in its hard core form. 

However. Pinterest is an interesting website isn't it? Wow I'm glad I only found it last week and not months ago. For all the things that I can pin though, fitness short work-outs and the like have so far been the stand out. Things I can take away and try for the good of myself.


The picture? That's the goal for my core for the next little while. Not to look like that lady - I don't much care what I look like - the work out. At the moment I can only manage the crunches, the push-ups off my knees and the various planks and bridges for about 20 seconds each. I'd like to be able to do it all, full strength, no stopping. I can just about do 15 push-ups (real ones) in a row... however not after 50 crunches just yet - a lot of work to be done all round on the abdominal front - though I'll be honest this 'core' work out hurts the hell out of my arms long before my core feels anything.

Wish me luck. Putting the goal on here means (even though no real people read this blog) I have to stick to it.

The Big 5: My Girly Girl Mannerisms

I don't like thinking about myself in those kinds of words... but I am a very girly girl. It is one of those things that sort of snuck up on me from out of somewhere when I wasn't looking. I was a tom boyish girl, not really one for Barbies, I quit ballet at 5, refused dresses, my favourite colour was blue and I hated pink. While I can't claim to have played with toy trucks I did certainly do a lot of sand pit playing and mud pie making. In some cases things changed, in others I suspect girly girl was hiding just beneath the surface.

In some ways the girly girl still hides just beneath the surface. I went away on a week-long work trip last year. There was just one other female on the trip, so we sort of became friends by default in the usual way. After three or four days she looked at me and told me that suddenly some of the things she used to think didn't fit with my personality at all made perfect sense. Apparently I do a very good job of being a 'closet' girly girl.


Heaven forbid I be a closet anything on my own blog so I am going to highlight some of my most dominant and girliest attributes. By the end of this you are unlikely to be able to see anything except my girly side. Perhaps that is how I want it - the girly bits are the stuff I want to talk about. The parts of my life I do for fun. Well lets get into it.

  1. Romance Novels. I am sure I'm not the only girl out there who reads these, though it is a pretty girly sort of a habit. However, I don't just read them. I read them by the bucket load. Most generally I read Mills and Boon, and I read the full spectrum, as old as 1961 (as old as I've ever gotten my hands on) through to the whole set of series available in the present day. I am conversant in the differences between the categories of Mills and Boon - a skill that few girls openly admit to. I will go into more detail on M&B in a seperate post (or multiple seperate posts). I do also read a lot outside of M&B, historical romance mostly, but I can count on one hand the number of non-romances I've read in the last 3 years... I can't count on one hand the number of romances I've read in the last week. Girl.
  2. A Pink Car. I own a pink Nissan Micra. It isn't the kind of car I can get male passengers into without some comment about the fact they feel their masculinity is being threatened. It is also an auto (though I did earn my license driving a manual, have no doubt) and has no boot-space to think of. I have known people to insult the random pink Micra in the car-park only to have me point out that it belongs to me. Just it case it wasn't girly enough of course it also has its name, Rosie, as a window sticker across the front windscreen. Girl, girl, girl!
  3. No taste for horror. I wouldn't watch a horror film if you paid me. Alright, I'll admit it, its because I scare ridiculously easy. I have known to be on slightly on edge after a game of Clue-do or an episode of NCIS. Not to mention I am entirely susceptible to 'scary music' you wanted me feeling trepidation? Don't worry I am. Some movies use that kind of music unnecessarily and I really hate them for it. It isn't restricted to horror films, people come up behind me, I jump sky high too. I thought of making the fact I play games into a seperate entry but really it falls under this too. I love playing Halo - but something attacks me and I have about a 50% of a girlish squeal and complete freak out. What a girl.
  4. Beauty Products. Make-up and perfume mainly. I don't have a lot of skill for the practice but that doesn't that the fun out of buying the stuff or applying it to my face in the privacy of my own home. I've already talked about my late arrival on the make-up stage. So perhaps just what attracts me to it is that it is art that doesn't require much in the way of drawing ability and it is something you can wear around, change frequently and realistically I can get new things for a few dollars... Adoration of the red lip is not for the tom boy. My biggest beauty weaknesses are fruity or fresh perfumes, brightly coloured nail polish (on my toes) and blush. Girl.
  5. Purple. My favourite colour is purple (not not pink - I don't go that far). This one is vaguely related I guess to my possession of a pink car but very much more broad. I am attracted to colour, often over function, practicality or usefulness. My laptop is pink, I wanted green but it wasn't available, my camera is purple. It helps that these days companies pander to people like me, I can have those all my things in pretty colours. However I am the kind of person who will stop, turn around and walk back just because the colour was kind of interesting. Everything I own just about is colour chosen. Also. Fun fact. I mentioned blue was my favourite colour as a child. I find I don't like it anymore - with the exception of blue jeans or navy I'd never chose to wear it.
  6. Bonus Round. I didn't include this because while a girl's passion quilting/sewing isn't really a girly girl hobby - nor is it really a hobby of mine. However in the picture I add it is all the pieces of my partially made quilt laid out on the floor. I can also knit (without much commitment I last finished something I knitted in 2009) and for fun I taught myself to darn my work socks - cool if random ability. Darning is surprising relaxing.

And just in case you don't think that list is enough to qualify as a 'girly girl'... well I'm not sure what you want from me. That is the majority of my free time - remembering that I'm an engineering major.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Painted Woman

Perhaps I should add this to my old-timey line-up. The fact that I use the title for a little glimmer of its old meaning. Not that I am saying I am promiscuous. Merely the reason behind the meaning - the term being related to the painting of faces - putting on make-up. There's probably a beauty blog out there called painted woman though I haven't personally looked it up. Well done that lady, whoever you are.


I love make-up. Statement of fact. I won't imply that it is a secret passion. I've long gotten past that point. I would happily paint my face in ways that are only deemed appropriate for a night out clubbing simply to sit around in my undies watching television. (I wouldn't actually do that though; I unfortunately live where my television is located in a communal area, undies aren't really appropriate television attire.) It is typically a sign of how much work I have to do how much make-up I have on. That is to say - if I have clownish make-up with vibrant red lips (I'm not fond of rocking the red lip under other circumstances) and detailed eyes I've probably got a major test of assignment due tomorrow.

A lot of big make-up girls it seems begin early, begin fast, begin in their mother's make-up bag. I didn't. Make-up for me was in a way thrust upon me. For reasons I can not determine my mother went out of her way when I was 15 to encourage me in the art of make-up. She organised a Mary-Kay make-up party for the express intent of tutoring me in the art of make-up and bought a full set of make-up things. (Mum herself doesn't wear the stuff with any regularity.) The same year I also got make-up sets for Christmas. An large 'bit of everything' Australis palette and a Models Prefer set of everything. Yeah... like I said I don't know where that came from in my mothers mind.

Perhaps it follows on that I took up make-up as a bit of a hobby (read hoarding addiction), years later though. Around the time I turned 18 I started to actually wear make-up when I dressed up. Then around the time I turned 20 I truly started to embrace it as an 'any-time' kind of an endeavour. It also seems like a healthier alternative to buying chocolate each time I went to the shops to window-shop. (Yes that does translate to me buying entirely too much make-up.)


I've contemplated at times doing a beauty blog before, however as you can probably tell from this blog. I am erratic, I am not great with beauty words and most significantly I lack the commitment required. However I enjoy taking photos of eye make-up, face make-up, bits and pieces of my make-up... Just because it is fun. So while I don't pretend to be a beauty blogger there may be... more than its fair share of beauty posts on this blog in the future.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Yesteryear... No More Dieting Please

How far do I have to go back in time until dieting isn't a thing? I mean whether or not  the authors recall the time accurately weight was a sign of good health for quite a long time (still is for many cultures - especially in children). Yes, food is infinitely cooler today - I don't have to hunt and gather any further than my local Woolies. Access to chocolate isn't restricted to the upper classes. I think I could live without it - too much choice to eat badly every day of my life.

I feel I need to be very up-front about my weight at this point. I can practically hear the voices of mental voices of health nuts and snotty teenage girls (and for that the remember voice of my brother) at this point implying that I am obviously fat and unwilling to do anything about it. I am overweight, I'm aware of the fact. I am 5'10" and about 93kgs. I also do weights sessions at the gym 2-4 times a week, and run/swim/spin session 3 or so times on top of that. That is a little me justifying myself to you unknown millions but mostly that's simply the facts.

I am also on a diet at the moment. Not some kind of super strict strenuous diet - I've weighed between 85 and 95 kgs since I was 12 - there's no rush. I have oatmeal for breakfast, soup/sushi/sandwiches for my other main meals and if I snack its an orange or mandarin. The diet of convenience. (My friend calls it the S diet - slop, soup, sushi and snacks.) The only thing I am specifically trying to do is break my sweet snack addiction; chocolate, chips, full strength soft drink and the like.

I don't mind it much. It doesn't phase me. I'd like to look good on my Europe trip and to be honest this is enough of a change from my previous eating habits to make the difference I am looking for. Dieting can be fun - an exercise in self-constraint. I enjoy proving to myself that I can do it.

That doesn't sound entirely in keeping with my original statement? It sounded like I was all pro-obesity, one of those 'curves' women who more has rolls? That's because I hate dieting for different reasons to why I choice to do it for myself. I have been in places with my work and with my stress and my general psychological health where to contemplate the extra effort of dieting would send me hiding under the bed. At the time I was doing significantly less exercise than I am doing now. Playing netball twice a week, 3 hours of physical training classes, running once a week. I was doing a lot more than many people.

I lived my life feeling judged. That's what I hate about dieting, about health kicks, about nutrition Nazi's; they judge everybody. If I can't judge that person for being black, or for talking with a heavy accent, why can I judge them for being fat? Oh, right, because being fat is their own silly fault. Good then I'll judge you for not knowing what I'm talking about when I talk about transistors, amplifier circuits and Hough transforms. Alright I probably would do a little bit of that. We do a little bit of judging about everybody around us - comparing them to us. Judgement is normal.

Have you ever read a weight loss website, or looked on one of those women's websites at 10 health foods you didn't know or 50 Seemingly Healthy Foods That are Bad For You? I find them so negative. You should never eat anything you like EVER again. It almost feels like that are judging me through my computer screen. Why not be positive about eating healthy or losing weight? Not just to accrue more customers to your product or to 'help the lesser humans' like you would treat a child you are teaching to enjoy reading.

I had our politically correct world - so wrapped in bubble wrap you're likely to suffocate on your own body odour. However I can live with that, at least for the time being. What I dislike is that fat people are the fall out guy a lot of the time. My work place is constantly wary of sexual harassment - they check on the women asking them how its all going. The women don't mind any of it really. I've felt really awkward in those meetings before though because I'm being asked if I feel judged or discriminated against for being a woman and I never had. But I feel judged most weeks for not being able to run 5km in under 30 minutes or do 20 push ups. Nobody cares about that I guess.