FriLife: Chill Day

Via Weheartit

Everyone needs a chill day. Everyone. Because there are always days when you spend the day wondering why you got out of bed, how far away Friday is or how many hours it is before you can go back to bed.

A friend of mine who gets really stressed out because of her anxiety, decided that this year she was going to allocate one afternoon every week to doing absolutely nothing (or just doing things she really wanted to do, like hours of internet). This sounded like a good idea to me, and I think being able to have a chill day or weekend is pretty important.

Things I love doing when trying to chill out:

1. There is something incredibly comforting about knee high socks for me, especially knitted ones.
2. Tea or hot chocolate, with a good book, movie, internet, writing or music
3. Shower (One of my favourite things in this universe).
4. Changing clothes. Seriously there's something good about changing into something new and cuddly and being able to feel a bit more new
5. Getting organised. Being un-organised always gives me this dirty feeling so make sure that you have a place that has a cool vibe and is clean (within reason).

Of course some people really love chilling out with their friends, but I always find that I still crave a good chill out sesh after that, so this is just what works for me.

But yay! Go for chilling out and all those other good things that come with it! Yay! *Attack of random happiness*

Thoughts On: Whiplash (Film)

OK so I just watched Whiplash. You know the one about the drummer (I'm currently watching all the Academy Award nominated movies for this year with my parents - yay for parent movie watching). 

Let me first say that I spent so much of this movie hugging a cushion and saying "oh my god Smudge, I can't even deal with this." (Smudge is my cat by the way). I think everyone else who has seen the movie is sitting there totally agreeing with me and then for everyone else, let's just say it's one of those movies which you are constantly on the edge of your seat for the entire movie (quite painful really).

So I feel as though I am not emotionally or mentally prepared to put my thought into words, so here is the lowdown.

First things is first;

WAS IT A GOOD MOVIE? Yes. I do believe it was. Although it'd be a while before I'd watch it again.

GENERAL FEELS THAT IT GAVE YOU? Tense-ness level was off the chart and it was just stressful to be watching it, but it was kind of a good thing for the movie. (Your emotions need to be prepared for the stress). It wasn't a movie that you watch when you just need an easy movie to watch and you want to be able to walk away with a good feeling and understanding everything that was in it - if you want that, don't watch this one tonight.

PARTICULAR THINGS LIKED? So I really liked the idea that the whole movie was based on, I thought that was really cool and I could kind of relate (but in a less 'I'll-play-drums-til-I-bleed' sort of way).

MOST IMPORTANT THOUGHTS? (by the way there might be spoilers - not sure how defining you are of a spoiler so don't try to murder me - you were warned)

1. Holy shit he can play drums (first thought of the movie)
2. The name of the movie was in the movie! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh (yay)
3. I want him to succeed even though it's kind of bad for him because he's so fricken self-destructive
4. Oh my god, (this was a frequent phrase said in this movie) he is bleeding all over EVERYTHING. Why does no one care why he is bleeding? No one?
5. How hard is blood to clean off a drum kit?
6. Don't ruin your drum kit, those things are expensive
7. This cannot be the end of the movie, please walk back onto the stage
8. How many drum sticks did they go through in this movie?
9. I picked the right instrument with piano - it is so much less painful

ENDING? (SPOILER ALERT!!)

OK so I'm fussy with my endings, but I thought this one ended as best they could, and I liked how the conductor guy never said (or we never know if he said) "good job" or anything.

By the way I thought that the conductor guy's character was really interesting. The fact that he was a really dis-likable character but I didn't completely hate him was really cool. I also liked that once he explained himself, I could see why he acted like such an asshole, because of what values he ranked as more important than others. Top marks to the conductor guy. (I can't actually remember his name - this is always a problem with me and movies, unless I've seen them 21 times *coughs Harry Potter, then Lord of  the Rings, almost The Hobbit.*)

Style Icon: Keira Knightley

So lately I've been raving about the future a lot. Don't worry, that isn't going to happen right now. Today isn't going to be that. Today we're talking Keira Knightley. Those of you who groan because you she's so pretty and you feel like you can't compare, or those of you who basically see her name in a movie title and watch it because you want to see her being so hot (it's not just me that thinks this, one of my completely straight friends said this the other day - it's all good you're not alone). We're stalking her style today.

Via Weheartit

For about the 3rd time I watched "Begin Again" the other day (yes this was with the friend who said she was extremely hot) and for the 3rd time I completely fell in love with her style. "Begin Again" is sort of a hipster movie (made for Toronto Film Festival) that is about musicians and music and it's a bit of a love story in there too - it's just not very corny. Seriously the songs she sings you will be singing for the rest of the day. And then wondering why you are talent-less for the rest of the week. But it's a good movie. Trust me.

Via Weheartit

 Anyway so in the movie her style is just so her character. She's all about the high-waisted (LOVE) pants paired with cropped or boxy tops (not in a slutty way) or the boyfriend jeans. It's something where her style is so simple and everything is clean, not trying to show off and it just looks amazing.

Via Weheartit

There's definitely a menswear inspired theme to her outfits, but it just is so brilliantly done. I could ramble for years. There's something about how carelessly feminine she looks paired with the male inspired look that just has me entranced.

Via Weheartit

Also a guitar is always a great accessory.

FriLife: Pressures & Happiness

I think we might as well change this to a SatLife rather than FriLife because I always seem to post on a Saturday. Anyway so I currently am being incredibly good with not procrastinating. If you're reading this now and applauding because you honestly don't know how to not procrastinate, I feel you. I don't really have the secret of how to not to procrastinate, it's just magically happening for me. (Yay for while it lasts!)

So I just went down to the local supermarket to hand in my resume I'm thinking about the future. And currently all the teachers at our school ever do is rabbit on about our HSC (those are the final exams we do in Australia and the mark you get basically decides your future, so no pressure or anything) so a the moment it's rather hard to get away from the thought of our future. 

How do I deal with this? Well between doing a sh*t load of study, saying that my band and I better make it because my future isn't going anywhere at all and contemplating what my parents would do if I dropped out of school, I generally try to run away from it. (Great plan, I know).

Now there is a point to writing this blog post. I'm not about to tell you that you should live one day at a time and #YOLO and everything. But seriously... (I'm kidding).

I'm saying that at the moment I have less time for friends, a whole lot more pressures (which I have no idea how to deal with) and a realization that for anyone's future, they kind of need money to do it. So all of  that's depressing. And not fun. And the general things that I try to avoid. Also I get very little sleep these days, so I can't concentrate to well anymore.

But through all of this I'm trying to keep happy (I feel like that's more important that ever) so I'm trying to do the things I really enjoy. I wanted to share this with you lot because I reckon there's going to be a point in your life (if there's only one point ever, then I think you're lucky) that you're stressed, or down or generally thinking bad things and I want you to be able to fall back on things that you love. Things that bring a smile to your face while doing them. And while having less time for what I love to do, I realized that I don't exactly entirely know what that is. I mean in surveys it says "interests" and about a third of a page to fill up and I'm sitting there thinking 'uh, well sleeping.*Writes this down.* I'm interested in surviving... um... Hey what am I actually interested in?'

So I want you to know what you love. And try to do it once a week. I don't care whether it's youtubers or sport. Make it something that you can do easily. And smile when you do it. Because seriously, you're going to need it.

All photos via Weheartit

Life Thinking: Future Plans

So I'm a 16 yer old, year 11 student, 7 terms (a term is 10 weeks) away from finishing high school. To be honest, I'm shitting myself. I have very little definite idea of what I'm going to do with my life (if you're anything like me, you'll be sitting there with your hand in the air saying amen over and over again). And what I do dream of is large things that are completely not mundane. I'd love to do script writing or novels (or something like that). Writing about proper things. Things that matter. Things that I don't understand and things that scare me. 
But as people tend to do, they like to advice others, and if I ever do say anything about what I'd like to do with my future (other than, "Oh I don't know") there is inevitably a sort of sigh or "oh?" (said curiously) but not a single person ever believing that I'll ever get there.

Via Weheartit

I'm a girl who comes from a family that is all doctors or lawyers and I  decided to not pick a single things to do with science this year. This was much to everyone else's surprise (and mine). Don't get me wrong, this wasn't an act of defiance or anything (I'm never quite sure how one would go through with an act of defiance, how do they work?) I just sat down and read through every single class that was offered in my school (I'm in a rural town so there wasn't a whole lot of choice - I would've loved to do philosophy) and highlighted the ones that interested me. Although I highlighted Chemistry, I didn't end up doing it because I just wanted to other things more. So I ended up following my passion of English (YAY). Still finding it weird that I never have to do a science again. Never expected that.

Via Weheartit

So this year is a bit of a wake up call to me, just showing me that I'm the one to decide on my own life, not what my friends and family expect of me. And I wanted to share this with you lot. Because they tell you that your life is your own, but seriously, it's made by the decisions you make. I've never wanted to have a mundane job (9 to 5, Monday to Friday, you know the type), it would drive me crazy. I would have to start eating the keyboard or some weird habit. (Yes I would totally be that weird chic in the office that no one goes near because they're sort of scared of her). Seriously I know  couldn't live like that. It's been said to me by my friends that they couldn't picture me in a mundane job. And I think there are plenty of people out there like me, but everyone in their life just tells them to pick the 'safe job'. What I have to say is fuck off, those would not be safe for my brain. I can deal with failing so don't tell me to aim for something lower that what I want. If I fail then I'll try again a couple of times, then go and try your safe job,  but until that time I'm gonna be happy sitting here planning on a plan that could well fail.

So when people tell me to have a back-up plan in case my future doesn't work out, well I don't have one. And I know in a way it's foolish, but this is the only shot I get a life and I suppose I just don't want to settle for anything less than something amazing. (Desperately trying not to say #YOLO here).

Via Weheartit

But in all seriousness, I think that I'm just going to have to keep on trying if I don't manage to achieve the future I want, and that all the famous people I've ever heard about have said they've failed over 50 times, so I'm just going to be prepared for that. I'm always a person who'll try as hard as they need to try. I'll make sure I can do well, but if I don't want to try particularly hard, then I won't. But this is something that I really want so I'll try fucking hard. I'm prepared, so what the rest of them have to say is pretty much irrelevant. I'm going to enjoy failing. And that's what they can tell the dreamers like us.

Music: Indie Brunch by Spotify (A playlist on Spotify).

FriLife: We're All Weird

(We're once again pretending it's Friday - wow, time travel!)

We're all weird. That's a fact that you have to accept in life. We've all grown up with that random saying that you've adopted from your parents and then you've just sort of assumed that it is part of language. (eg. my friend Gaby can't remember that a sandwich press is called a sandwich press, she calls it a 'squishy'. Ha, I love it. And I have crunkled as a word. Accept that it is a great word, sort of crumpled but different... I don't really know where it came from).

I don't know if anyone else knows about this but I have this passionate hate - no hate is too strong, let's say 'dislike' for people who do something stupid and then look at their friend and laugh and say "ha why are we so weird?" OK, so everyone does stupid things. This is a fact. Generally stupid things are funny, but when you ask "why are we so weird," it just kills whatever humour you had going. Just don't do it. If you're embarrassed, just laugh along with everyone else and shrug or something, because you are not special in the fact that you are weird.

OK, it's only a short post today. I generally listen to music as I write a post so I think I might start telling you whatever I listen to (generally it's pretty good).

Music: Indie Brunch By Spotify. (It's a playlist on Spotify, I was not sure at first, but at the moment I am loving it).

Advice : Things to know in life

1. If you don't want to talk to someone (or be spoken to) music and not making eye contact are lifesavers

2. If you look like a slut, people will treat you like a slut

3. When people ask how you are, unless you actually for certain know how that they want to know how your life is going, they don't actually give a flying potato about how you actually are.

4. If you don't want to admit something, have a good excuse in hand. (And tell people the same excuse, otherwise it's kind of pointless)

5. If you are bad at lying, don't even try

6. Don't try to fake who you are

7. Most people are confused on the question of 'who am I' as well

8. Friends change all the time

9. Do not be hooking up with your best friend (guy or girl). Yes there is a difference between boyfriend/girlfriend and friend.

10. Don't judge people on their music taste (yes, even if it is Justin Bieber)

11. Thank people for doing things for you

12. Tell people what they mean to you occasionally (even if you're bad at saying what you feel, like me - my friends generally appreciate my attempt at emotions). It makes you feel better and them as well (unless you told them you hated them, then it probably only makes you feel better)

13. Blasting the music and  dancing crazily is always a good idea (go for it, I fully support you)

14. Hugs are amazing