I'm obsessed.

I’ve recently realised that I’m a girl of many obsessions. I’m not mediocre about much. When I love something, or someone, I genuinely, expressively and outwardly am consumed by it or them – this can be anything from a pair of shoes, to a website, to a certain celebrity or personality, a job, a book, a CD, a band, a boy, a place, a project, study, a cause, a friend, an occasion…the list is endless. Yep, obsessed – that would be me.

I kind of realised that I was an obsessive-type person when I clicked onto the New York Times website for the first time. I spent hours reading every article I could find – from economics, to politics, to art and opinion editorials to social columns and religion columns... that was when I was 14. I read every article in the top 10 articles, every day, for about 3 months, non-stop. Reading that for the first time, immediately concreted my future ambitions to be a journalist. Well, we all know I know have aspirations within the corporate world now – opting to be the one written about, I like to think! Regardless of my career prospects, for as long as Wall St remains the centre of the economic universe, and 5^th avenue the centre of the world for designer-label shopping, and Sex and the City re-runs continue to inspire socialite addicition to the ‘Modern Love’ section – then I’m going to be obsessed with the NYT.

I’m not ashamed of any of my obsessions, though many have expressed my concern over a couple. Yet, none of them are malicious or dangerous, so I don’t know what their problem is, frankly. Every single one makes up the person I am today. I say today, because in my world, obsession is pretty tangible – some can simply end and become ‘likes’ and others are long-lasting, and can become classified as ‘genuine interests’. Most remain interests, come to think of it. So really, I think after time, they just mould in as a part of me.

For instance, I could probably consider myself ‘obsessed’ with the following: fmylife.com, Gossip Girl, the Dow reports on my phone, concepts revolving branding and branding theory, my friends, twitter, the American economy, Disney Channel...and a few more things.

If I were to tell you what my obsessions were 18 months ago, they would be more like this: Will and Grace, justjared.buzznet.com, globalisation, Barack Obama and his quest toward US presidency, monitoring the movement of the pound to see when I can buy from TopShop, myspace, Kevin Rudd's performance reports, acoustic covers of the Rihanna song 'Umbrella' and a certain amazing-looking guy with amazing wit to match from uni (who turned out to be a bit of a jerk, might I add).

So sure, I’ve changed a little. But the general theme of these obsessions are the same – people, music, celebrities, opinion-based websites, some sort of social networking.

I suppose in hindsight, what I’m really trying to describe does not necessarily concern the concept of obsession. No, actually, I think it’s more like passion. Yes, I am proudly passionate. I can’t think of anything better to be, really.

Things that made me happy today.

I was thinking about blogging today. I was thinking about things I could write about to make me seem eccentric or alternative. Like I've got my mind in this crazy space where I don't think about conventional things.

When the best things that came to mind were expressing my love for John Lennon music and the wonders of a Caramel Macchiato, I realised that I think about fairly conventional things. Gosh Em, everybody loves 'Imagine' and caramel flavoured expresso. So, I'm not going to try and seem unconventional, because frankly, that's fairly lame.
People try too hard to be 'alternative' these days. Heck, I even had a crack at it. For 10 minutes. In my brain. Calm down, it's not like I went and got dreadlocks.

So instead of blogging about how individual I am, and showing off some photography or something (isn't that what all those indie kids are doing these days?), I'm just going to tell you about the things that made me smile today.

1. How crazy blue the sky was! If there is one thing I love THE MOST about living in Queensland, it's that iconic blue sky. Not a single cloud in sight. BLISS!
2. Taking a flyer from a promo guy who'd clearly been standing in the same spot all day with so much as a grunt or an akward avoidance from passers-by. He was so thankful that I took that damn thing, couldn't take the smile off his face! That made me smile.
3. The whistling Big Issue guy. I'ms surprised that someone hasn't given him a job, because clearly, he's a celebrity.
4. My Irish cabbie. He told me a story about how when he drove a cab up north, he was offered a part in Australia, the movie, by Baz. Just a one-liner, but imporant nonetheless. But! He knocked it back because he loves driving cabs. What a legend.
5. Zac Efron's hair. Because it JUST DOES THAT.

Peace and Love.

I don't like it when the radio makes songs crap.

Okay, so I kind of really hate it when the radio ruins a song. Like, when they think the sound isn't right for the consumers' tastes, so they change it to a "Pop Version". Seriosly, 9 times out of 10 the "Pop Version" is crap. A sped-up version of a previously great song. So, the uninitiated form an opinion solely based on something that is completely different to the actual song. It really bugs me.

For example, this is the fourth week in a row that Taylor Swift's "Love Story" has been #1 on the Australian Aria charts, having been knocked down for one week for that new Flo Rida song. Regardless, all they ever play on the radio is the pop remix, because the other version is branded as 'too country'. What?

Eh, here - I've embedded the two versions so you can judge for yourself.

This is the POP version.


And this is the MUCH BETTER album version.


They've done the same thing to Miley Cyrus' "The Climb". They've seriously butchered it.

The "Fast" mix the radios are using.


Seriously, WTF is that. It's not meant to be fast! Ugh. Just thought I'd bring it to the attention of the interwebs.

Peace and Love.

FML

"Today, I got approached by a hot young lady in a bar. After joking around for a few minutes she said "hey I love your jacket, where'd you get that?". I then proceeded to tell her that it's actually a replica of the Indiana Jones jacket. This is when she remembered that she "had to go somewhere". FML"

Sorry, I had to share this with whoever reads this. I laughed my head off when I read it. Whoever created FML (fmylife.com) is a legend. If you're not already into it, make it a habit! Reading about other people's hilarious misfortunes is the epitome of amusement.

Peace and Love.

This completely lacks originality, and it's from Wednesday.

01. Who was your last text from? Mum.

02. Where was your default picture taken? (facebook) Last year at the Gold Coast, in front of the Bus Stop outside home.

03. Your relationship status?Laughable!

04. Have you ever lost a close friend? Not lost - grown apart, perhaps. I’m not too worried about that. Respect is always there. Well, on my side it is, anyway.

05. What is your current mood? I’m feeling angsty. Like I need to have an angry teen rant. I’ve only got a year and a bit that I can use the angry teen rant card. Got to make the most of it!

06. How many siblings do you have?Just one wonderful, fantabulous, best little sister in the world!

07. Whats your brother(s)/sister(s) names? Rebecca.

08. Where do you wish you were right now? At a Killers concert in Las Vegas with friends.

09. Have a crazy side? I’d say so – but whether other people think I do is another thing.

10. Ever had a near death experience? I sat on a railing once at a shopping centre, 3 storeys up. I was 10, and perfectly balanced – but do you think my family ever fail to remind me every time we pass that railing at Oasis shopping centre in Broadbeach? No!

11. Something you do a lot? Daydream. Shop.

12. Angry at anyone? Neh. I’m chill at the moment.

13. What's stopping you from going for the person you like? The fact that he’s a young millionaire movie star, with a stunning girlfriend, living in another country. Just kidding! Damn you Zachary Efron!! In reality – probably my brain working overtime. I think about the break-up before I even think about the getting together part. Because I don’t want to lose the reasons I like them in the first place for! See – overthinking.

14. When was the last time you cried? Watching a Gossip Girl re-run. Shut up, I can hear your thoughts judging me. I’m an excitable and emotional person, that’s all.

15. Is there anyone you would do anything for? There are PLENTY. Family & best friends.

16. What you think about when you are falling asleep?Anything, everything. I sometimes read a passage of Harry Potter so I can dream about going to school at Hogwarts and being a witch. For real.

17. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Mum.

18. What is your favorite song? So hard! Float On – Modest Mouse OR When you were young – The Killers OR Naïve – The Kooks. Don’t make me choose. I love them all too much.

19. What are you doing right now? Nothing much.

20. Who do you trust right now? My family, all of my bestfriends. It’s fairly rare that I don’t trust someone. I’m a very trusting person.

21. Where did you get the shirt you are wearing? MYER.

22. Have you kissed someone in the past week? No.

23. Who is your friend that lives closest to you? My sister – in the next bedroom. She beats you all by like, a zillion. You may think I’m cheating by choosing my sister. I challenge you to find closer friends!

24. Describe your life in one word? Promising.

25. Who are you thinking of right now? Emma Reynolds. It’s her birthday today! Thinking of a present.

26. What should you be doing right now? Nothing, really. I should probably clean my room at some point.

27. What are you listening to? OMFGG – Original Music Featured on Gossip Girl.

28. Who was the last person who gave you a hug? Mummy.

29. Who was the last person who yelled at you? Mummy. Lol.

30. Do you act differently around the person you like? No, I don’t think so.

31. What is your natural hair color? Blonde.

32. Who was the last person to make you laugh? Bec.

33. Who was the last person to make you sad? I won’t say.

34. What do you hear? Music.

35. Is your hair curly or straight? Wavy – but it’s in a loose side bun so you can’t really tell.

36. Has anyone ever called you "scrumptious" before? Nope. That’s kind of weird.

37. Do you have a best friend? The best are Hayley, Bec and Jessica. But I have plenty more people I can call bestfriends, I think – I’m so so so lucky.

38. Held hands with the opposite sex in the past 3 days? Yesterday, walking down a flight of stairs – he was holding me up. Nothing to write home about. Haha!

39. Do you use smiley faces on the computer? Yes. I like the odd smiley now and then!

40. Have you ever changed clothes in a vehicle? Many times.

41. Are you happy with life right now? Sure, I’m in a good place.

42. Are you currently jealous? To say that I’m not jealous would be a lie – but not so jealous to say that it consumes me. But seriously, while Tiffanys, Chanel, Vera Wang, Prada, Givenchy and Gucci exist and I can’t afford it? - I will be jealous. Ha Ha!

43. What jewelry are you currently wearing? 4 rings, bracelet, watch and earrings – all gold today.

44. What were you doing on Friday night? Uni, MW’s 18th, hitting up The Pitt.

45. Have you ever had your heart broken? I’d say fractured, I wouldn’t say broken.

46. Have you ever broken someone's heart? The above answer probably applies to this one too.

47. Is there anybody you're really disappointed in right now? Not really, no.

48. What was the last reason you went to the doctor for? When I split my eye open at Yeppoon! Fun day that was! I had a black eye for 2 months. Remember between September and November last year how you barely saw me? Yeah – this is why. I was hiding.

49. How late did you stay up last night and why? 11.42pm – because I watched Gossip Girl, Skins, then checked and replied to my emails and read some of a book.

50. Have you ever dated someone longer than a year? No.

Peace and Love.

I have the best friends in the world.

With every week that goes by, I become more and more convinced that I have the best friends in the entire world. The best. You cannot and will not ever top them. Why? I'll give 3 good reasons.

1. They're just so smart. Never ever ever do they fail to impress and inspire me with the wonderful things they do. I swear, I have befriended young people who will change the world for the better. I am convinced that they will become the next leaders in science, law and politics - that's a very exciting thing to sit with, let me tell you.

2. They're so hilarious. Always making me laugh. ALWAYS! I will have premature smile wrinkle lines, because of them, I can guarantee it!

3. Best of all - they love me, whole heartedly, just as much as I love them. They're interested in what I do, care about how I feel, listen to me. They tell me that they love and respect me, and it's completely un-asked for, and real - I never ever feel unappreciated. I never have to question whether their friendship is genuine.

I only hope that I'm doing a good enough job as a friend to them, because by GOD do they deserve it.

Peace and Love

He's all I got.

I'll let you in on a secret. My biggest fear? That I'll end up like one of those losers with nothing better to do in life than to write my secrets on Post Cards and send them to PostSecret. I swear, some people have awful lives, but this is the ultimate of emo-ism. Writing secrets artistically on an 80c postcard is not going to make a miserable life any better. I hope I never, ever get to that stage.

Peace and Love

Hey, don't you think so and so looks hot tonight?

I don't understand straight men who feel they have the god-given right to have an opinion on women's fashion, ESPECIALLY, if they have a noticable lack in styling for themselves.

I've noticed this in a few guys I know recently - I don't know whether it's my insanely accurate radar to detect poorly-dressed, pretentious and obnoxious losers, or just the fact that I happen to surround myselves with generally opinionated folk. Neither of those options are a good proposition. Ugh. Why do I thrive so much on good conversation and hearty debate? It's not doing me any good, I swear.

But really, back to the main point - why do guys have these crazy odd weird preferences when it comes to what girls wear? It's so rude.

I'll give you an example. Girl A shows up looking stunning, wearing a charcoal grey silk dress with black lace embellishments and swarofski crystal cap sleeves. Patent Steve Madden heels, perfect simple accessorisation with sterling silver cuff, and a large dress ring, and some chandleir earrings dangle within her long blonde tendrils. She looks like she stepped right out of vogue, or nylon. But alas, the girl (girl B) she's with, wearing a halter-neck shirt made of satin material with a FRANGIPANI print - of all things - that looks as if she's just wearing a pair of boxer shorts around her neck, with a pair of denim shorts and rubber thongs; gets the compliment. The guy EVEN goes as far as to say that Girl A should take some fashion tips from Girl B and wear more colour, and a funky print.

This has happened more than once, disgustingly. This isn't a personal story, I am representing all women here. It's a generalised example, witnessed at a fairly trendy bar recently. PS. I would die to get a pair of black patent madden heels!!

But when it has happened to me, I deduce it to the fact that I don't have big enough breasts. Because anyone I'm ever compared with is showing far too much chest to be respected. Which goes to show, it doesn't matter how intelligent you are, how much you adore your wardrobe or value your shoe collection, there's always going to be some pretentious idiot around to make some lame comment.

Solution? Turn your back, walk in opposite direction, never look back.

Peace and Love.

Love, and other disasters

Love, and other disasters. It's a suiting description of myself, really, considering my own situation. As morbid as that does sound, I'm not playing the emo card here. It's simply an observation. My love life is MIA!

It seems that for as long as I sit around and wait for Prince Charming to sweep me off my feet, I'm going to be looking for things to do with my spare time.

Ugh - it's so depressing. Maybe I may have to down-grade from the whole, 'Prince Charming' standard.

Eh - at least I've got a file full of a few hundred photos of good looking male actors and musicians, just to stare at, if I get bored. Ha ha!

Peace and love.

Monday-itis

I'm sure Mondays were made to torture me. They just don't agree with me, on any level. I wake up, feel exhausted, and fail to feel anything but, all day.

The day felt really long too. Yuck.

The good part about Tuesdays is Gossip Girl. At least there is something to work towards!

I have nothing else to add - oh, except for the fact that my exam was bad. Just, so bad. Ugh. I study so hard and it barely ever pays off in the way I want it too.

Oh well.

Peace and Love.

Just a regular pre-exam Saturday.

There's a dog barking outside. It's been barking non-stop for the whole day. It's probably lonely, the poor thing. But all I really want to do is put it in some sort of sound proof/padded wall type kennel, because clearly, the dog's gone mad.

Other than that small detail, I've been studying all day. All day. Uni can be a bit of a bitch sometimes, like that. But I deal with it.

Last night was wonderful. I raced home from my lecture - well, as fast as I could because it was absolutely POURING rain on the way home. I think I did 30km/h for at least half the drive. But I did get to the movies on time - and it was so much fun! Monsters and Aliens was much better than I expected - it's perfect for all fans of Seth Rogan; he's the stand-out. I wish we could have seen it in 3D though!

We then progressed to a friend's house to play card games, chat and be psyched out by a strobe light. Other than breaking a few nails in Extreme Snap, it was awesome. I have brilliant friends - love them to death.

My exam is on Monday - I'll let you know how it goes.

Peace and Love.

A ray of sunshine!

Finally - the rain seems to have settled for a bit. I actually don't even remember it stopping last night; I'm sure it just kept on falling through the night. That's probably why I dreamt about London.

Going to see Monsters vs. Aliens later tonight with some of my best friends. I haven't seen them in a couple of weeks, so it should be rather lovely, regardless of whether the movie is cruddy or not.

I am dreading going to class tonight. I don't think it should be legal to be so incredibly boring if you're a lecturer. But I must admit - I do giggle quietly to myself when she attempts to explain something to the class. She goes 'round and 'round in circles, and falls back on what the text says. Obviously, she has no clue on what she's talking about.

Also, she always wears stripy shirts. I'll let you know if this will be the 8th striped shirt in a row.

Peace and love.

My fifth attempt at a blog

I'm going to try this again. Somehow, I always get around 4 posts into a blog and then just delete it, or leave it alone. I think it has something to do with me being a scatterbrain - I can never think of a way to put all of my thoughts in a box, concisely.

It's a problem that I'm prepared to face, because there's something about being able to express yourself to a load of people you've never met that's so liberating and wonderful. Obviously you can tell that I think it's great - this is my fifth try to start a blog.

So I think, this time around, I'm not going to blog about anything specific. That's why I named it 'Just Em' - because I'm just going to write whatever is on my mind.

So, to start things off, I'll give you a quick bio about me:
I'm from Brisbane, Australia. I'm endlessly proud of being an Australian; I adore our culture, I adore our beaches, our cities, our suburbs, our people, our crappy television programs - I'm so lucky. I'm 18 years old, graduated high school in '07 from a STATE school (for all foreigners, that's a public school) - I was pretty committed, got good grades and was school captain....I then moved on to university. I'm currently in my second year at the Queensland University of Technology, otherwise known as QUT. I'm studying Business, and love it. My best friends are my family - my sister Rebecca, and my two cousins, Hayley and Jessica. We're insanely alike, it's rather bizarre when you're meeting us in a group for the first time. I still live at home with mum and dad, and I can't imagine changing that anytime soon.
For the while, that will do in terms of personal information.

So, I guess, that this will be my first post. I'll try to keep things rather short and sweet - I'd rather leave you begging for more than just plain sick of me, right??

Peace and Love